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By New Times
Scotland's Chvrches Won't Be Pinned Down
By Derek Askey
Kicking Up a Punk Rock Ruckus with OFF!
By Mark Deming
By Serene Dominic
Neutral Milk Hotel Returns to Finish What It Started
By Jason Keil
Bucket List: 100 Things to Do in Phoenix Before You Die
By Robrt L. Pela and Amy Silverman
Glendale's Black Bottom Lighters Are Cleared for Takeoff
By Jeff Moses
Museum Wants Your "Tempe Sound" Artifacts
By Serene Dominic
There's certainly no shortage of sex in pop music. Hyperactive adolescents who, once upon a time, had to squint to make sense of a scrambled Playboy Channel can now find fulfillment from the first 30 seconds of a Nelly video. What they can't get, though, is the technique.
Enter Chicago Soul, an all-killer cross-section of randy Northwestern soul circa 1968. Ribald guitar lines tug restlessly at the songs' edges, and expressive solos turn entries like Phil Upchurch's "The Way I Feel" into well-warmed come-ons. It may be natural to expect randy riffing from Howlin' Wolf's glandular masterpiece "Evil," but to find such long licks at the center of an Etta James song ("You Got It") is like having a video store rent you Sinderella by accident. Chicago Soul grinds devilishly forward, driven by this feeling of uncorked sexuality, and even a mournful number like the Soul Stirrers' majestic "Why Am I Treated So Bad" sounds like it's being cooed into the ear of a partner during the course of a very particular kind of badness. Chicago Soul's horny horns and heated howling breed more raw lust than a colony of MTV Beach Houses.


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April 24 2014 Latest news:
Paul Geater
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Mental health staff in Suffolk have linked up with other agencies in an attempt to deal with the predicted growth in demand for services in the years ahead.
The Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust has now based its main office in Endeavour House – the headquarters of the county council in Ipswich – in a move which is both symbolic and practical.
Trust chairman Gary Page said: "This is far more than a symbolic gesture, although that is important, because we are working together with the county council all the time."
One area that is expected to see a major increase in demand is dementia care – and Mr Page said it was vital to work with the county's social services staff on caring for those who suffered from this condition.
He said: "We are expecting to see a major increase in the number of cases of this condition in future years as the population gets older and this part of the country has an increasing number of older people.
"However it is not normally best for those suffering from this condition to be put in hospital as used to be the case. There will always be a need for some hospital places, but most people suffering from dementia are better treated in the community – often in their own home with support from health and care staff."
Although the Trust operates across Norfolk and Suffolk, there are differences between how it operates in the two counties.
Mr Page said: "In Norfolk we deal with five commissioning groups, in Suffolk there are two – and while much of the work is the same there are differences between the two.
"For instance in much of Norfolk we deal with clients facing drug problems – in Suffolk that is not part of our contract."
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subset: commoncrawl


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Review: iPhone Google Maps lags Android version
BLOOMSBURG, Pa. (AP) — Every time my husband and I drive the 677 miles from New York to my parents' house in Michigan, we dread the long stretch of Interstate 80 through the hills of rural Pennsylvania. It's beautiful, but lonely, without a lot of places to stop.
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Review: iPhone Google Maps lags Android version
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Peter Schambil wrote on February 13, 2008 report
Thanks for all the useful information and opinions on all about jazz.
This particular article seems to suffer from a formatting problem (at least using firefox). I'd need to put about six screens side by side if I wanted to read the text without sliding the window sideways for every line. I don't have six screens, so I didn't read the article. A pity, really.


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Please enter your travel dates.
Aparthotel in Paphos near Tombs of the Kings
Situated near the sea, this aparthotel is close to Tombs of the Kings, Paphos Lighthouse, and Paphos Archaeological Park. Also nearby are Paphos Harbour and Mitropolis of Paphos.
Property Features
In addition to a restaurant, Tasmaria features an outdoor pool. Other amenities include a poolside bar and a bar/lounge.
Room Amenities
In addition to kitchenettes, guestrooms feature refrigerators along with direct-dial phones and private bathrooms.Information missing or incorrect? Tell us!
Hotel Amenities
- General
The aparthotel offers a restaurant. Guests can unwind with a drink at one of the aparthotel's bars, which include a poolside bar and a bar/lounge. High-speed wireless Internet access is complimentary. This Paphos aparthotel also offers an outdoor pool, a library, and a terrace. Wedding services and currency exchange can be provided. Complimentary parking is available on site.
- 24-hour front desk
- Total number of rooms - 53
- Number of floors - 2
- Bar/lounge
- Currency exchange
- Free Wi-Fi
- Beach/pool umbrellas
- Library
- Free parking
- Garden
- Terrace
- Poolside bar
- Luggage storage
- Restaurant
- Pool sun loungers
- Shopping on site
- Number of buildings/towers - 6
- Swimming pool - outdoor
- Wedding services
- Internet
Available in some public areas: Free Wi-Fi
- Parking
Free parking
- Room Amenities
- Direct-dial phone
- Kitchenette
- Refrigerator
- Daily housekeeping
- Private bathroom
- Hair dryer (on request)
- Rollaway/extra beds available
- Connecting / adjoining rooms available
- Cribs/infant beds (complimentary)
- Dining
Onsite dining venue - This restaurant specializes in Mediterranean cuisine and serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
- Recreation
The recreational activities listed below are available either on site or nearby; fees may apply.
- Swimming on site
- Accessibility
To make requests for specific accessibility needs, complete the "Special or Accessibility Requests" section of "Trip Preferences" when you book your hotel.
- Accessible path of travel
Policies & Fees
- Check-in
Check-in time starts at 2 PM
- Check-out
Check-out time is noon
- Payment types
Accepted at this hotel: American Express, MasterCard, Visa
- General
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on hotel policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card or cash deposit are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
- Fees
- The following fees and deposits are charged by the property at time of service, check-in, or check-out.
The above list may not be comprehensive. Fees and deposits may not include tax and are subject to change.
- Air conditioning fee: EUR 8.00 per night
- In-room safe fee: EUR 1.50 per day
- Additional Details
The property has connecting/adjoining rooms, which are subject to availability and can be requested by contacting the property using the number on the booking confirmation. No pets and no service animals are allowed at this property.
National Rating
- Details
B-Class (Cyprus Tourist Board)
The national rating is awarded by the appropriate national/regional authority. For further information, please contact your local branch of the relevant tourist board.


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a traveler from Travelocity.com
on January 7, 2008
I have stayed twice. Both times I found the room clean and the bed confortable. It is a little dark inside and worn but for diving and the location in the center of town it could not be better. Not a resort but a place to rest confortably for the next day. I will return.Contrary to other reviews my room was located in the interior portion of the hotel so very quiet and the staff was friendly and helpful.
©Travelocity.com LP 2000-2009


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Tim Kazurinksy and George Wendt Star in Northlight Theatre's THE ODD COUPLE, 11/2-12/9
Northlight Theatre, under the direction of Artistic Director BJ Jones and Executive Director Timothy J. Evans, continues its 2012-2013 season with Neil Simon's The Odd Couple, featuring legendary comic actors Tim Kazurinsky and George Wendt, directed by Artistic Director BJ Jones. The comedy will play at Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie Blvd in Skokie, from November 2-December 9, 2012. The Press Opening is Friday, November 9, at 7:30 pm.
George Wendt and Tim Kazurinsky star as famously mismatched roommates Oscar and Felix. When recently-failed marriages lead them into sharing an apartment, Felix's finicky habits and Oscar's slovenly ways make for a disastrous yet side-splittingly funny combination in this beloved comedy by Neil Simon.
BJ Jones comments, "It is a real thrill to have old friends and colleagues George Wendt and Tim Kazurinsky at Northlight working together on Neil Simon's classic The Odd Couple. My history with George and Tim goes back decades and their own particular chemistry is a national joy."
Legendary comic actors Tim Kazurinsky (Felix) and George Wendt (Oscar) are joined by fellow Second City alumnus Bruce Jarchow (Roy), William Dick (Vinnie), Molly Glynn (Cecily), Marc Grapey (Murray the Cop), Katherine Keberlein (Gwen) and Phil Ridarelli (Speed).
Tim Kazurinsky (Felix Ungar) In his Northlight debut, Tim couldn't be happier being teamed up with his 1978 Second City castmates George Wendt and Bruce Jarchow. Other stage credits include: Sexual Perversity Among the Buffalo, Another Fine Pickle, Freud Slipped Here, and I Remember Dada (Second City); The Bicycle Men (Lakeshore Theatre); and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Chicago Shakespeare). TV credits include: Saturday Night Live 1981-84 (NBC), Big City Comedy (NBC), Dinner at Eight (TCM), The Princess and the Pea (Faerie Tale Theatre), According to Jim (ABC), Still Standing (CBS), Early Edition (CBS), Married With Children (FOX), Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO). Film credits include: My Bodyguard, Continental Divide, Neighbors, About Last Night..., Somewhere In Time, The Cherokee Kid, Shakes the Clown, I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With, and Police Academy II, III, & IV. Screenwriting credits include: About Last Night…, For Keeps, The Cherokee Kid, and Strange Relations.
George Wendt (Oscar Madison) is returning to Northlight after his appearance in the 2002 world premiere Rounding Third. Other theatre credits include: Elf–The Musical, Hairspray and Art (Broadway); Re-Animator: The Musical (Steve Allen Theater, LA); Minsky's (Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum, LA); and Twelve Angry Men (National Tour). He worked with the Second City comedy troupe from 1974-1980 and is best known for his role as Norm Peterson on the hit television series Cheers (1982-1993). Other television credits include: Frasier, Spin City, Hot in Cleveland, Harry's Law, Becker, The Larry Sanders Show, among many others.


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The Class 3A girls basketball landscape got quite a makeover in the offseason.
Gone is defending champion Burlington, which moved up to Class 4A Division II when the Kansas State High School Activities Association released its classifications in early October.
Also gone is perennial contender Hillsboro, which is now in Class 2A after three straight third-place showings at the 3A state tournament.
One thing hasn't changed, however. At least not for the Class 3A teams in the Mid-East League.
For them, getting to Hutchinson has always been tough and will be again this year.
"Traditionally this area of the state has been loaded with good girls basketball teams — 1A, 2A, 3A and 4A," said Riley County coach Harold Oliver, whose team begins the season ranked No. 1 in Class 3A. "Night in, night out it's a difficult, difficult deal. It's tough to just get through league play and most of the time it's the case where we see league teams in sub-state and that's just as tough as well."
With Burlington and Hillsboro gone and last year's runner-up Garden Plain graduating a big part of its squad and gaining a new coach in Kody Kasselman, Class 3A looks to be there for the taking.
Clearly, the road to the title will still be tough. Cimarron returns a bulk of its squad that went 22-1 last year. State participants Holcomb, Caney Valley and Russell all have key players back for another state run.
And Hesston, which went 20-3 in 4A last year, drops to 3A with a loaded squad that could very well be a favorite for the title.
But that competition won't be anything Riley County or the other Mid-East League teams that appear capable of contending — Silver Lake, St. Marys and Wabaunsee — don't see on a regular basis.
"I have a feeling our sub-state is going to be pretty nasty," said St. Marys coach Randy Wild, whose team also returns five starters from last year. "It's always been really tough with our league and then you could add Marysville, which has one of the most athletic teams coming back as well.
"But if you can get there, I think it looks really good for a Mid-East League to do well and stick around for the weekend."
The success of Wild's Bears will largely depend on how junior guard Clare Thomas returns from her second knee injury in three years, suffered over the summer. The standout averaged 23 points per game last year, but will miss at least the pre-Christmas part of St. Marys' schedule and perhaps a few game in early January as well.
When she does return, she'll join a squad that returns four other junior starters that cut their teeth as sophomores a year ago, going 13-8.
"Once she gets healthy, our team should be miles ahead of where we would be if she never got hurt," Wild said. "They played the second half of the summer without her, and they'll play five to seven games without her this year. It's really going to help the rest of the girls. By the end of the year, we should be a very strong team."
Riley County, meanwhile, is coming off a state appearance last year that ended in the first round with a loss to Garden Plain. The Falcons were 17-6 overall, winning 12 straight before the state-tourney loss.
The schedule is once again loaded, starting with the season-opening Hays Shootout, but with all five starters back, led by Katelyn Thomson and twin sisters Makayla and Madison Vargo, the Falcons appear loaded for a run at the program's fourth state title.
"Between our league play and the two tournaments we're in, there are no breaks in the schedule, that's for sure," said Oliver, whose team also competes in the ultra-tough Hillsboro Trojan Classic in late January. "It's definitely true that there are some traditional powers that are in different classifications. But there's always good teams and always high competition no matter what class you are in."
Silver Lake was the 2012 Class 3A state champion and fell to Riley County in the sub-state finals last year. The Eagles graduated three-time All-3A pick Mackenzie Freeman but return three starters and have several players that helped the volleyball team to the 3A title in the fall.
Wabaunsee also could be a sleeper, returning virtually its entire squad from last year's 8-13 team and moves up from 2A.
Team 2012-13 record
1. Wichita Collegiate 15-8
2. Hesston 20-3
3. Humboldt 25-1
4. Beloit 21-3
5. Eureka 18-5
Others — Douglass 10-12, Holcomb 18-5, Nemaha Valley 24-2, Osage City 16-7, Sacred Heart 15-9, Silver Lake 21-4, Wellsville 14-7, Wichita Independent 18-6.
Team 2012-13 record
1. Riley County 17-6
2. Hesston 20-3
3. Cimarron 22-1
4. Garden Plain 24-2
5. Caney Valley 20-2
Others — Cheney 12-10, Cherryvale 17-6, Council Grove 15-7, Holcomb 19-5, Marysville 14-8, Nemaha Valley 14-9, Sabetha 17-7, Silver Lake 17-6, St. Marys 13-8, SW Heights 11-10.
WICHITA COLLEGIATE (Ark Valley Chisholm Trail) posted a 15-8 record last season and returns seven lettermen. Senior Landon Root (6-3) averaged six points and five rebounds last season while senior Brodey Dick (6-3) averaged five points and four rebounds. The Spartans have five players who lettered last season as freshmen. "On paper we look young, and if you want to just consider the academic school year, we are," Collegiate coach Mitch Fiegel said. "But we are wise beyond our grade. This is a basketball group overall, they like to play and they have a lot of court time already established."
HESSTON (Central Kansas) went 20-3 last season and returns four starters who averaged in double figures. Junior Grant Raleigh (6-1) averaged 14.1 points last season while senior Wyatt McKinney (6-6) averaged 12 points and 7.8 rebounds, senior Ryan Schadler (5-11) 11.8 points and junior Tyler McCartney (6-2) 11.6 points.
HUMBOLDT (Tri-Valley) was the 3A state runner-up last season, dropping a 74-55 decision to Scott City in the championship game after winning 25 straight games. The Cubs will have to replace six seniors off last year's team and will build around returning senior starter Hunter Murrow (6-0), who averaged seven points a year ago.
BELOIT (NCAA) went 21-3 last season and advanced to the 3A state tournament before dropping a 52-50 decision to Silver Lake in the first round. The Trojans will have to replace All-Stater Austin Budke but return senior starters Payton Vetter (6-2) and Sam Pahls (6-4). Vetter averaged 14.9 points last season and received All-3A honorable mention.
EUREKA (Tri-Valley) went 18-5 last season and returns its top seven players. Junior Colton Pitko (5-11) averaged 14 points and three assists last season while senior Wes Moots (6-5) averaged 10 points and eight rebounds, senior Logan Hayes (6-3) averaged nine points and seven rebounds and junior Dalton Lyon (5-11) averged eight points, 3.6 rebounds and 3.5 assists.
DOUGLASS (Central Plains) is coming off of a 10-12 season but the Bulldogs return five players with starting experience including senior standouts Cody Holthaus and Chase Banister. Holthaus (6-5) averaged 18.7 points and 7.6 rebounds last seaon while Banister averged 17 points and 3.8 assists. Banister and Holthaus both received All-3A honorable mention last season.
HOLCOMB (GWAC) posted an 18-5 record last season and lost in the sub-state finals to eventual state champion Scott City for the third straight season. Holcomb will build around 6-3 returning senior starter Heath Tucker. Tucker averaged eight points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists last season.
NEMAHA VALLEY (Big Seven) finished runner-up in 2011-12 and third in 3A last season and posted a 24-2 record. The Raiders return six lettermen from that team, including senior two-year lettermen Caleb Meyer (6-4) and Justice McKernan. "We should have good athleticism and length,'' Nemaha Valley coach Jon Thomas said. "We should be solid on the defensive end and (have) good balance on the offensive end of the floor.''
OSAGE CITY (Flint Hills) is coming off a 16-7 season and returns five players with starting experience. Senior Darren Sprull (6-4) averaged 12 points and five rebounds last season while sophomore Duncan Fort (6-5) averaged 12 points and seven rebounds and sophomore Ryan Haskins (5-9) averaged 12 points and three assists.
SACRED HEART (NCAA) returns four starters from a 15-9 team that dropped a 41-37 decision to runnerup Humboldt in the first round of the 3A state tournament. Senior Tate Richards (5-10) averaged 11.2 points last season while junior Brooks Brown (6-1) averaged 7.5 points.
SILVER LAKE (Mid-East) posted a 21-4 record and finished fourth in 3A last season. The Eagles will have to replace six seniors off of that team, but will build around returning senior starters Trent Smith (6-1) and Brendan Vega (6-2). Smith earned All-3A honorable mention last season.
WELLSVILLE (Pioneer) posted a 14-7 record last season and returns four starters. Carter Mann, a 6-4 senior, averaged 15.7 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals last season while senior Shamus Kearney (6-1) averaged 11.4 points and junior Cole Silsby (6-0) averaged 10 points and five assists.
WICHITA INDEPENDENT (Central Plains) went 18-6 last season and set a school record for victories for the second straight season. Senior Michael Key (6-5) averaged 6.5 points and 6.2 rebounds last season
HESSTON (Central Kansas) is back in 3A and very well could be the team to beat for the title this season. The Swathers were 20-3 last year, missing out on the state tournament with a sub-state finals loss to defending champion McPherson for the second straight year. Eight players are back and the duo of Caylee (11.2 ppg) and Cami Richardson (9.1 ppg) will be a handful for opposing teams.
It was a bittersweet season for CIMARRON (Hi-Plains) a year ago as the Bluejays won their first 22 games, but were knocked off in the sub-state finals by Holcomb to finish the season 22-1. Four starters that earned all-league honors of some kind return with sophomore Morgan Ediger a third-team All-3A pick and senior Ashtynn Burns a first-team all-leaguer. The loss of budding center Eva Koopman, who moved, will hurt, but the Bluejays have plenty of pieces to get back to state.
GARDEN PLAIN (Central Plains) couldn't quite finish what it started last year, falling to Burlington 52-42 in the state championship game to wind up runner-up and with a 24-2 mark. Standout guard Alli Heimerman is gone and so are three other starters leaving junior Noelle Dooley (7.8 ppg) as the lone returner. The Owls have won at least 17 games the past five seasons and if first-year coach Kody Kasselman, an assistant last year who takes over for Sarah McCormick, can fill the holes the Owls should once again be a contender.
CANEY VALLEY (Tri-Valley) qualified for state for the second straight year, but for the second straight year saw the trip to Hutchinson end prematurely with a first-round loss. In order to make it three in a row, the Bullpups will have to replace do-it-all guard Bethany Barlow, a second-team All-3A pick. However, senior Makenzie Vining (14 ppg, 10.2 rpg) and junior Desiree Nelson (14 ppg) are strong pieces to build around and could get help from freshman twins Kolbi and Kyndal McIntosh.
Back in 3A, CHENEY (Central Plains) returns four starters from last year's 12-10 team. Taylor Denney (10.2 ppg) looks to help the Cardinals extend their streak of winning seasons to 25 straight and return to the state tourney after a two-year absence.
CHERRYVALE (Tri-Valley) has seen league rival Caney keep it out of the state tourney two straight years and would love to reverse that fortune this year. Four senior starters led by all-leaguer Jasi Adkison are back and a strong freshman class could push the Chargers over the top.
State qualifiers the past two years, HOLCOMB (Great West Activities) is still looking to get past the first round, falling to Burlington in 2012 and Hillsboro last year. Graduation claimed first-team All-3A guard Katie Pfeifer and two other starters, but three returning players averaged at least 8.7 ppg, led by Haley Heydman (9.6 ppg). The Longhorns will run and shoot and added a state champion in transfer Emalee Ratliff, who helped Smith Center win the 2A title last year.
Averaging less than four losses per season in Barry Mellen's 28 years as coach, SOUTHWESTERN HEIGHTS (Hi-Plains) had to feel a bit odd about last year's 11-10 mark — its most losses since the only losing season under Mellen in 1995-96. This is Mellen's last go-round and the Mustangs would like nothing more to send him out on top. Returning seniors Nayelly LaPoint (12.2 ppg) and Jackie Loya (11.0 ppg) could give him that chance, particularly if some young players can step in around them.


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The problem with 'Stand Your Ground'February 23, 2014 at 10:37 pm | Posted in Disinformation, Fairness, Judicial Misjudgment | 6 Comments
Tags: ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, Facebook, George Zimmerman, gun control, guns, Jordan Davis, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Dunn, Sierra Club, Stand Your Ground, Trayvon Martin
'Stand your ground' laws have figured in two recent cases in which young unarmed black men were shot and killed.
George Zimmerman killed Travon Martin, and Michael Dunn killed Jordan Davis.
In both cases, the killer's excuse was that he thought that the young black man had a gun.
The problem with 'stand your ground' laws is that it is too easy to claim that you feared that the person you shot had a weapon, and was about to use it on you.
You can claim this even if it wasn't true. You can make up your fear after the fact.
No one can ever disprove your claim, because it rests only on what you say you believed at the time. Your claim need not depend upon on any externally confirmable matter of fact.
This is one of the most easily-abused legal ideas of all time.
One of the leading pushers of 'stand your ground' laws is ALEC. Besides promoting 'stand your ground' laws, ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council) acts as a mouthpiece for those who see short-term financial gains in delaying recognition of human-caused global warming. According to the Sierra Club, Mark Zuckerberg recently had Facebook join ALEC, because he wants its support for some of his own agendas. (The Sierra Club is urging everyone to sign a petition asking Mark Zuckerberg to withdraw Facebook from that unscrupulous organization.)
Although it is obvious, it bears repeating: neither of the unjustified killings that were cited above would have occurred if the killer hadn't happened to have a gun handy.
If you wish to comment on this post but do not see a box where you can submit a comment, that is because WordPress includes the mechanism for commenting only on the page for the individual posting, never on the page that shows all of the recent postings. So click here, scroll to the bottom of the post, and submit your comment.
What is Art?February 13, 2014 at 5:29 pm | Posted in Brain and mind | Leave a comment
Tags: advertising, advocacy, architecture, Art, artist, beauty, Brain, ceremony, comic book, dance, design, drawing, entertainment, erotica, fantasy, fashion, fiction, graphic novel, literature, mental mirroring, mind, music, non-fiction, painting, rhetoric, ritual, sculpture, sports, urban design, web design
Art is anything that is contrived to elicit strong sensations in ourselves or in others.
What makes a deliberately created something into art, is that it is evocative.
That means that it resonates with something in the viewer's or hearer's brain, like a wine glass resonating to the sound of a violin, or a window of a house resonantly vibrating – buzzing – to the sound of a motor.
Anything that tries to play, like a musical instrument, the nervous systems of those who are exposed to it, is art.
That includes painting, sculpture, architecture, dance, acting, literature, and rhetoric (in its classical, general, not-necessarily-pejorative meaning): speeches, persuasive writing, informative writing, advertising, and even demogoguery.
But each brain is different – different experiences, different wiring- so what is evoked is different.
To some extent the impact of a work of art is measured not by what is evoked in each person, but by how many respond, and how strongly.
Here is a list of artistic activities. Many of them are not usually thought of as being artistic. Some give pleasure, others are deliberately unpleasant. Some are evil. But in each case you should easily be able to identify the presence of the defining characteristic of art, namely, the deliberate attempt to play the brains of the audience as if those brains were musical instruments. In some cases the intended audience is just the artist. The redundancies in the list are there to better make a point.
- Humor, including stand-up comedy and informal jokes
- Circus acts
- Performing astounding feats for films or for on-line videos (attempts to impress or amuse, or to do both at the same time)
- Thoughtful photography
- Music, drawing and painting, sculpture, dance
(includes feats of art that are designed to impress as well as to please or inform: items featured on the Twisted Sifter, Cirque de Soleil)
- Fiction and expository non-fiction (written, or acted, or cartooned)
- Comic books, graphic novels, cartoon films
- Textbooks, instructional materials, user's manuals,
- Web interfaces, other digital interfaces (such as those to an operating system or a programming language)
- All rhetoric in the classical non-pejorative sense: speech or other media that are designed to persuade
- Religious tales (Abraham and Isaac, David and Goliath, the birth, life and crucifixion of Jesus, Mohammed on a flying horse)
- Political claims, both true and false
- Demagoguery
- Advertising
- The deliberate giving of sexual or other sensual pleasure (to one's self or to another), e.g., sensual massage, masturbation, erotica, sexual fantasies
- Its opposite: the deliberate imposition of pain, e.g., torture
- Fantasies, daydreams (but not involuntary dreams)
- Dressing for effect, couture, make-up
- Planning and hosting a party or other event
- Interior design and decoration, architecture, landscape design
- The design, crafting and wearing of costumes, dressing up (including for Halloween), jewelry
- Sports, including gladiatorial sports (boxing, wrestling, mixed martial arts)
- Ceremonies, rituals
- Public punishment (including executions)
- All entertainment
- The shock-and-awe component of terrorist acts (another type of attempt to impress)
- Intimidation, bullying
Clearly, we are an artistic species.
Clearly, not all art is benign.
All art is manipulative, even when the person being manipulated is the artist/daydreamer/fantasist.
Not all art has humans as its intended audience. Art for pets and other non-human animals: pleasant environments for pets (wheels and tunnels and hiding places in a cage for hamsters), the design and operation of of zoos, …
In the future, not all art will have biologically evolved beings as its sole intended audience. There will even be art and entertainment for autonomous robots.
Any deliberate attempt to strum the strings of a brain as if they were the strings of a musical instrument is art. The brain may be the artist's own, or someone else's, or both. The brain may be biological or artificial (designed).
But not all such attempts attain their goal.
If an attempt does attain its goal, it is good as art, whether or not it is also good ethically and morally.
All art requires the artist to mentally mirror the minds in the intended audience.
For such an attempt to resonate with the brains of a wide audience, the 'musician' and the audience must share a culture, or mental mechanisms (e.g., adult humans affecting human babies or animals, or animals affecting animals), or the musician must at least be familiar with how the members of the target population respond.
Some non-contrived stimuli elicit the same sensations as art: sunsets, scenery, a flower, a baby, a puppy or a kitten. They elicit the same stimuli as art, because they share parts of the same processing paths in the brain.
Because we live at a stage of evolution when we are familiar with the concepts of an artist and of art, those sensations may also make us feel to that the evocative stimuli were created by an artist.
To a being who had not been exposed to the concept of an artist, the same stimuli might be just as evocative, without suggesting that they were due to an artist.
If you wish to comment on this post but do not see a box where you can submit a comment, that is because WordPress includes the mechanism for commenting only on the page for the individual posting, never on the page that shows all of the recent postings. So click here, scroll to the bottom of the post, and submit your comment.
Mental Mirroring and MothersJanuary 23, 2014 at 5:00 pm | Posted in Brain and mind | 1 Comment
Tags: baby, eLife, empathy, Evolution, father, Human, infant, Intelligence, Meeri Kim, mental mirroring, mother, parent, Peggy Mason, pup, puppy, Washington Post
Several posts on this blog have pointed out how our ability to mentally mirror the feelings and thoughts of others might have developed, and might then have blossomed to give us our values, heightened sense of fairness and kindness, and our sophisticated intelligence, including our science, our fondness for narrative, and a proclivity for religion – that is, most of the the features that we regard as making us human.
Those posts are here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. One post also constitutes an example of a human who is mentally mirroring a squirrel!
Those posts pointed out that other types of animals also mirror to some extent the minds of other members of their own species, and also members of other species. For example, dogs that are able to sense the moods and plans of humans have, on average, thrived better than those who didn't, and were therefore more likely to have puppies that would themselves grow up to have puppies.
Humans anthopomorphize inanimate natural phenomena, by applying to them the mental mechanisms that originally developed for mentally mirroring humans and other animals: the mirroring of inanimate natural phenomena produced science as well as superstition. But dogs, too, mentally mirror an inanimate phenomenon as if it were animate, as when a dog cringes and wimpers at the sound of thunder.
A new study has now given us more specific information about the initial development of mental mirroring. The study was published in a free online journal, eLife (see here and here), and its results are described by Meeri Kim in an article in the Washington Post.
The study's main result is that rats – and therefore presumably also some other kinds of mammals – empathize with and therefore help only rats that look like the types of rats that they previously lived with.
The aspect that is of greatest relevance here was pointed out by Peggy Mason, one of the authors, in a comment to Meeri Kim: "Helping and empathy are evolutionary advantages," Mason said. "If Mom doesn't know how her pups feel, the pups die — and that's not going to work evolutionarily." (In that statement, the pups were rat pups, but the statement is true in general.) Kim goes on to observe that "In social animals, including humans, empathy starts with the mother-child bond but develops to include a peer network.".
This would apply to all species of mammals, some species of birds, and apparently, in the past, even to some species of dinosaurs.
Although the article in the Washington Post doesn't say so, the same should be true for fathers, in those species where the fathers stay around to help feed, protect and possibly eventually teach the young.
Empathy requires mental mirroring. It is quite likely that active parenting was responsible for a huge increase in our ancestor's skills in mental mirroring, thereby opening the way for the advanced capabilities that were listed at the beginning of this post.
It would be very informative to see the results of experimental studies of the comparative mirroring skills of mothers and fathers in species where one or both raise the young. A plausible hypothesis is that, on average, mothers are more skilled at mental mirroring than are fathers, and that, on average, mirroring skills are better in species that raise their young through several stages of development than in species that merely feed and protect the very young, and, finally, that on average, empathy and sympathy are stronger in the species and in the sexes that are more proficient at mental mirroring.
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Proselytise Chief Justice Roberts, and thy Neighbor?January 21, 2014 at 2:33 pm | Posted in Privacy, Uncategorized | Leave a comment
Tags: abortion, Anthony M. Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, Chief Justice, Clarence Thomas, Elena Kagan, free speech, freedom of speech, John G. Roberts, John Roberts, Justices of the Supreme Court, McCullen v. Coakley, Privacy, Robert Barnes, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen G. Breyer, Supreme Court, Washington Post
According to a recent article by Robert Barnes in the Washington Post, the Supreme Court is presently deciding the size of the buffer zone around abortion clinics. At issue is whether a person entering an abortion clinic can choose to avoid hearing the arguments of protesters, and not be forced to have a discussion with them, by staying within a wide-enough buffer zone.
More broadly, the issue is about the tensions between freedom of speech and privacy, including the right to choose not to engage in a discussion – the right not to be subjected to another's attempt to persuade.
The Justices of the Supreme Court should remember that the existence and size of the buffer zone that results from their decision in this case will, by logic, apply also to the Supreme Court itself, as well as to the Justices' own homes, and to their persons, when shopping or traveling or strolling. If the buffer is thin, anyone will be able to approach Justice John Roberts, or any of the other Justices, when the Justice seeks to return or to leave home, or any time and place when the Justice is outside home, to convince the Justice of the errors in his or her judgement, or of the rightness or wrongness of either side in any case that is before the Court.
The outcome of the decision will also apply to all lower Federal courts, and to the dwelling places and sojourns of their judges, as well as to the workplaces, dwelling places and sojourns of all Federal civil servants, regardless of whether their work is classified or not, and to those of all members of Congress. They will apply also to every house of worship in the land, and to the NRA, and to the Koch brothers.
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Squirrels Teething?December 22, 2013 at 10:42 pm | Posted in Brain and mind | 1 Comment
Tags: animal behavior, baby, mammal, squirrel, teething
In the late Spring, freshly bitten-off young branches rain down from the trees.
In the late Fall, it happens again, but less intensely.
Squirrels are the obvious culprit. But the chewed-off branches show no sign of having been eaten, even partially.
Why do the squirrels do it? Why the frenzied activity?
Here is a guess.
In the Spring and Fall, new litters of baby squirrels are born. By the late Spring and Fall, the new squirrels are developing rapidly.
When a human baby's teeth start to develop and push out through the gums, the baby teethes. The baby gnaws on anything handy, to try to quell the soreness of its gums.
Are the baby squirrels teething?
You can help answer this question. If your home or your office has a window that looks at the branches of trees, see whether only the young squirrels are gnawing off the branches.
Comment to this post, to say what you have noticed.
Also, do squirrels ever gnaw the young branches of an evergreen when a deciduous tree is available? We have never found a gnawed-off evergreen branch, but all the trees near our house are deciduous. Maybe the young branches of an evergreen taste too bitter, so that a deciduous tree will be preferred over an evergreen wherever both are available.
It is easy to imagine a baby fish or alligator being born with tiny teeth. The fish and the alligator do not depend on milk direct from their mother's body. But a baby mammal must be born toothless. Otherwise its mother would not allow it to drink from her.
In fact, the age when teeth first develop probably marks the age at which babies in the wild stop drinking their mother's milk.
But these are mere guesses. I have no knowledge on those topics. If you know more, please comment.
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The State Department and the Afghan InterpretersNovember 21, 2013 at 12:25 pm | Posted in Abuse of Office, Conceited, Fairness, Judicial Misjudgment | Leave a comment
Tags: Afghanistan, Chuck Hagel, Commander in Chief, Department of Defense, House of Representatives, Pentagon, President Obama, Secretary of Defense, Senate, State Department, U.S. Congress, Washington Post
Afghani's who served as interpreters for US forces in Afghanistan knowingly exposed themselves to risk by doing so. They now face dramatically increased risk as the US presence winds down. The Taliban have a long-established record of making examples of those who have cooperated with US forces.
After all, the Taliban have assassinated Afghanis who have cooperated with outside humanitarian groups, or even with the Afghani government. They will surely attack those who helped US forces.
Realizing the danger to themselves and their families, some Afghan interpreters have applied for visas to the US.
The State Department has denied visas to most, even though the visas have already been allocated by the US Congress. According to articles (here, here, here, and here) in the Washington Post, "the State Department says there is no serious threat against [the interpreters'] lives."
This should remind you of the judges in civil courts who refuse to grant restraining orders, pooh-poohing the fears of those who are begging for protection from a spouse or ex-boyfriend. Those judges are the enablers of the events you later read about when the newspaper reports the murder of the person who asked for the restraining order. The judges are never the ones who suffer for their bad judgement.
In exactly the same way, the State Department employees whose magical source of infallible knowledge tells them that "there is no serious threat" are not the ones who will pay the price of being wrong.
Denying these visas is both cruel and unjust, and extremely harmful to US efforts in all future conflicts.
These brave interpreters accepted a huge risk in helping us. Their help saved many US lives, and were essential to anything we achieved over there. We owe them gratitude and protection. If we do not shield them, no one will be foolish enough to help us in any similar situation.
Chuck Hagel, as the Secretary of Defense, would be well advised to urge the State Department to reverse the decisions made by its incompetent employees.
President Obama, as Commander in Chief, should issue an Executive Order establishing a policy to admit those who have exposed themselves to local hostility by helping us.
Congressional committees in both the Senate and the House should ask the State Department why it has taken actions that are completely contrary to US interests, to fairness, and to the expressed desires of Congress.
The State Department should identify the incompetent employees who are making decisions that are so unjust and so contrary to US interest, and revisit their decisions. Those employees should be moved them to more suitable positions, where they will have no discretion over matters like these.
Decisions on this matter need to be made by people who have hearts and brains. Those currently making the decisions have neither.
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Consciousness and AttentionOctober 28, 2013 at 7:41 pm | Posted in Brain and mind | 1 Comment
Tags: animal, attention, Brain, compassion, consciousness, cruelty, distraction, dreaming, dreams, ethics, Evolution, feeling, fMRI, functional magnetic resonance imaging, joy, kindness, meditation, mental, neuroimaging, pain, pleasure, Rebecca Saxe, sadness, sensation, Single-photon Emission Computed Tomography, SPECT
The previous post suggested a framework for thinking about the phenomenon of consciousness. The same framework can suggest measurements to test hypotheses about the mechanisms of consciousness, and tell us the values of the parameters in those mechanisms.
The suggested framework asserts that consciousness is closely related to attention. Specifically, consciousness occurs when a multitude of processors in the brain are all paying attention to the same set of inputs to the brain. Typically, some of those inputs are the result of the processing of signals from sensory nerves by smaller numbers of pre-processors; the pre-processing is therefore unconscious. (For example, in vision, one of the pre-processors identifies edges.) Other inputs are signals from the brain itself about other signals from the brain itself. These meta-signals are called 'thoughts'. Depending upon the identities and number of processors that are paying attention to a thought, it will or will not be a conscious thought. The special feature of consciousness is that the relevant multitude of processors are all paying attention to all of the momentary subjects of consciousness at the same time.
We do not yet know the identities and number of the processors whose simultaneous attention is needed for making a signal a subject of conscious attention. We don't even know whether the relevant processors are always the same, or vary with the subjects of consciousness. Techniques that image the location of increased activity in the brain could test the suggested framework, and if it proves useful, they could identify the relevant processors.
Some of the needed data may already be available, and just need to be re-analyzed to answer these new questions.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) shows which regions of the brain receive increased blood flow when a person receives a particular stimulus. (Many interesting fMRI scans can be viewed here , but most of the pictures of fMRI reached via that URL are copyrighted, and so cannot be re-used. )
Daniel G. Amen has developed a large collection of single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scans of brains of people performing mental tasks. Regardless of what you think of the utility of these images for diagnosing ADD and related conditions, this collection could be a treasure trove for scientific research on the locations of increased brain activity during various mental tasks. Each measurement takes roughly 10 minutes, so the technique may not be able to capture what happens while the brain shifts its attention from one subject to another. Also the spatial resolution of SPECT is not as good as that of fMRI. But the large size of the database makes the SPECT data a potentially valuable supplement to other kinds of data.
Rebecca Saxe, at MIT, has developed techniques for non-invasively localizing the changing distribution of activity in the human brain when a person is shown stimuli and then responds to questions. The techniques were developed and then applied to provide data on the scientifically, socially and legally important topic of how we infer what other people are thinking. Her techniques would also be useful for providing data on attention. A non-technical video presentation of her work can be viewed by visiting http://scicolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov/GSFCWeb_Fall2012.html , then clicking on the line "Nov. 2 Rebecca Saxe Massachusetts Institute of Technology How We Think about Other People's Thoughts V", and then clicking on the 'V' (for 'video') at the far right.
A new technique, multi-photon microscopy, is being developed to nondestructively image in 3D the top millimeter or so of the living brain, with much better spatial resolution than the other techniques, but without being able to image as deep as the other techniques. (See. for example, Ke Wang, Nicholas G. Gorton, Chris Xu, "Going Deep: Brain Imaging with Multi-Photon Microscopy", Optics and Photonics News, volume 24, number 11, pp.32-39, November 2013.)
Typical questions about consciousness that might be answered by techniques that image the changing pattern of activity in the brain are:
- When conscious attention is trained on more than one subject, are the signals about the ever-changing status of those diverse subjects multiplexed onto a single serial communications channel? Or do they travel via parallel communication channels? Which processor receives the information? If the information arrives multiplexed onto a serial communication channel, how is it de-multiplexed and distributed amongst the processors that can do something with the information on a particular subject?
- Since conscious attention can be trained on more than one subject, there must be special processors in the brain that decide (1) when a new subject should be admitted to conscious attention ("That car has suddenly come very close to us!"), (2) whether a current subject of conscious attention must be relegated to unconscious attention to make room for the new subject, or simply because it no longer merits conscious attention, and (3) when a subject of conscious attention suddenly merits undivided attention. Where are those special processors? What auxiliary signals do they use in arriving at their decisions? What neural pathways are activated to carry the current information about a particular subject into conscious attention, or to transfer that information to a processor that receives only unconscious attention?
- Meditation (more accurately, of mindfulness) seems to have many benefits. Why? Is it restorative for the brain to not have to divide its attention amongst multiple subjects for a while? Is the relief due to the temporary suspension of the metabolic and processing burdens needed for managing and monitoring more than one subject of conscious attention?
- You are talking with someone, but become momentarily distracted by your own thoughts, and don't consciously hear something that was said. You soon realize that you missed something important, but you are reluctant to admit that you hadn't paid attention. If you recognize the problem soon enough, sometimes you can recall what you hadn't consciously heard. How does your brain identify the relevant unconscious processor, and bring its contents into conscious attention?
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What is Consciousness?October 20, 2013 at 8:54 pm | Posted in Brain and mind | 2 Comments
Tags: animal, Brain, compassion, consciousness, cruelty, dreaming, dreams, ethics, Evolution, feeling, joy, kindness, mental, pain, pleasure, sadness, sensation
Imagine placing your hands near the sensor of an automatic faucet, or getting up from a self-flushing toilet, or approaching at night a building whose front light is turned on and off by a motion sensor.
The faucet turns on, the toilet flushes, the building's front light turns on.
In each case, a signal was sent from a sensor to an operating device. But the recipient of the signal operated automatically, without being conscious of the signal, nor of its own response. It detected the signal, but did not feel it. It did not tingle, or wince, or become happy or sad. It sensed the signal, but had no sensation – a seemingly paradoxical statement that is actually meaningful and accurate, because of the vagueness of human language. (The vagueness is often useful and efficient, but that is another story.) It was aware of the signal in a limited sense, but was not aware of the signal in the vivid way that a person would be aware of a pin prick, for example.
Now imagine that you are pricked by a pin. The signal from nerves in your skin travels to your brain. One result is an automatic reflex: you draw back, unless you consciously over-rule that reflex. But another result is your vivid awareness of the pin prick. You feel it. It produces a sensation, at nearly the same time as your reflex. You are conscious of it.
Conscious awareness seems to activate many of your brain systems at the same time: emotions, your model of how the world works, memories, your expectations of what happens next. Apparently, a message was broadcast to a large part of your brain. That seems to be what is distinctive about conscious sensation, or a conscious thought (viewed as a signal from within your own brain). It is likely that conscious awareness of something is synonymous with "all or most of brain knows about it, and is paying attention to it".
That is a testable hypothesis. Brain imaging, such as functional MRI (fMRI) could test it.
If conscious awareness of something is indeed synonymous with "all or most of brain knows about it, and is paying attention to it", that would explain why we can be aware of – conscious of – only a limited number of items at the same time. Any one conscious item requires the attention of much of the brain. Each item occupies many resources, and there are only a limited number of them available.
That the limiting number of items is roughly seven for most individuals is an accident of our evolved wet-ware. We can handle more simultaneous factors by building artificial intelligent systems.
If this view of the nature of consciousness is correct, then consciousness has a cultural analog. In a family, a business, a village, a nation, a scientific or other cultural community, the analog of an object of conscious awareness is anything that becomes part of the general culture of that group of people.
It is clarifying to consider the sensations of pain and of pleasure. What does it mean to feel pain or pleasure?
Among the sensations, pain and pleasure were probably the first to evolve. These two sensations are the most helpful ones for helping an individual to survive long enough to produce descendents. Darwin noted the evolutionary utility of experiencing pleasure from satisfying hunger, and the evolutionary utility of the unpleasantness of feeling hunger. (See p.64 of The Autobiography of Charles Darwin and Selected Letters, edited by Frances Darwin, reprinted 1958 by Dover Publications.)
To be useful, pain or pleasure must activate most or all of the systems in the brain to avoid something or some situation, or to seek more of it. We must react and act in manifold ways to avoid the threat or to seek the reward. An ever-varying mix of the systems in our brain must work in a coordinated fashion. So the signals that elicit the sensations of pain and of pleasure must be broadcast to much of the brain.
This is unlike the distribution of most of the signals from the nerves to the brain. Most signals affect only a few systems in the brain. It is not a coincidence that they also do not register in our consciousness: they are not felt by us, they do not produce sensations.
There is an evolutionary benefit to widely broadcasting to the brain only certain types of signals. Signals about things to avoid and things to seek are among them. So are any signals that require a versatile, coordinated response by many systems in the brain.
There is an evolutionary benefit to not widely broadcasting any signals that do not require a versatile, coordinated response by many systems in the brain.
Our brains seem to interpret any widely broadcast signal as a sensation, as a feeling, and as consciously perceived.
There was a clear evolutionary advantage to developing neurochemical mechanisms that activate, respectively, a general avoidance of a thing or situation, or a general seeking for more of it, that is, for developing mechanisms for feeling pain and pleasure, that is, for experiencing them consciously.
[By the way, the mechanisms that produce an urge for avoidance seem to be distinct from those that urge us to seek a situation, because some stimuli can elicit both urges at the same time. Examples are hot peppers, strong drink, a horror movie, thrill seeking. ('Strong drink' is oddly named, since it for the weak.)]
The other sensations probably evolved as outgrowths of those two fundamental sensations. So the neurochemical mechanisms that produce the sensations of pain and of pleasure are the root of basic consciousness.
If a sensation is tagged by a location on the body, we feel pain or pleasure that we associate with a finger, or with our tongue, a tooth, our genitals, our gut.
Once the mechanisms for basic consciousness are available, higher consciousness can evolve or be built in, by adding mechanisms for the mental mirroring of other individual animals (and of artificial intelligences, if needed), then of groups of them, and, eventually, also of inanimate objects, as explained in an earlier post. Before a biologically evolved or built species develops mechanisms for mirroring, its abilities increase by relatively small steps. But once it has developed mechanisms for mirroring, the increases in its capabilities can compound, and, like compound interest, grow exponentially.
Great versatility is conferred by activating many systems in the brain, that then act together in coordinated ways that adapt to the changing incoming signals. . Obtaining that evolutionary advantage required developing felt sensations (feelings), and, more generally, consciousness. Feelings motivate action by assigning values to outcomes: avoid => bad, seek => good. After much extension (caused by the development of mental mirroring) of the scope of application of sensations and consciousness, the development of values as felt motivators led to our sense of right and wrong, of good and evil, of morality, of fairness, and hence of justice, and enlarged our emotional lives.
Two comments about consciousness:
1 – The concepts of cruelty and of kindness pertain to our actions toward the members of any species whose individuals feel, experiencing pain and pleasure. The species can be biological, or it can be artificial. Plants do not feel. It seems certain that paramecia and amoeba do not feel. But the frantic wriggling of a worm suggests that it feels pain, and is not merely manifesting a reflex. If so, it has basic consciousness, despite not having much of a brain. As for the scurrying cockroach, the spider, the spider's prey, we do not know yet. More certainly, pain seems to be felt by the wriggling fish impaled by a hook in its mouth, or with its body grasped by the bill of a heron. We need to invent a way to tell, because feeling pain and/or pleasure confers moral status, as vegetarians know.
2 – There is an common confusion about consciousness. We are often said to be unconscious while we sleep. That may be true during non-REM sleep, but it is not true during a dream. A dream amounts to being conscious – aware – of certain internal signals, and to attempting to make sense of those signals, while not being conscious of most, or all, of the signals from our environment.
See also these posts: here, and here.
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John Boehner's PrioritiesOctober 15, 2013 at 8:46 pm | Posted in Abuse of Office, Disinformation, Dysfunctional Politics, Fairness | 1 Comment
Tags: debt limit, dysfunctional government, Federal government shut down, John Boehner, Ohio, partisan, Republican, Speaker of the House, U.S. House of Representatives, unfair
The Speaker of the House of Representatives determines which bills are brought to a vote.
The Speaker is therefore supposed to serve the entire House, not just his own party.
In that respect, the Speaker's responsibility is like that of the President: to act in the interest of the whole country.
John Boehner does not so act.
The present crisis would have been averted if Boehner had brought to vote a bill that had substantial support, and which would have resolved the present stalemate in a prudent, pragmatic fashion.
He refused to do, and lied about his reason. He claimed that the bill didn't have enough votes to pass, while knowing knew full well that the Democrats together with 18 to 21 Republicans were willing to vote for the bill, and would have been enough to assure the bill's passage.
He carefully did not state his real reasons:
(1) Despite serving the country's interest, that manner of passage would have emphasized the Democrats constructive role, and also the fissure between the doctrinaire wing of the Republicans and the pragmatic (and more patriotic) Republicans, who wanted the government be useful,
(2) Boehner's own vow – not sanctioned by the Constitution, nor by any principle of useful government – to not bring to a vote any bill that would not pass by Republican votes alone,
(3) bringing those bills to a vote would aggravate the pee party, which might challenge him in the next Republican primaries.
His choices reveal his priorities.
Boehner's priorities are, starting with his highest:
1. John Boehner's political future.
2. The Republican Party.
3. The United States.
John Boehner doesn't have a statesmanlike bone in his body.
At the next election, remember: Ohio and the United States would both be better off without him.
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Archive for December 2010 | Monthly archive page
With the new year a few days away, people begin to prepare by making resolutions and setting new goals. Basically, wiping the slate clean to start a new. But in the wedding industry, the start of a new year means a whole lot of 2011 wedding dates and preparation for the 2011 wedding season. Apparently, the U.S. Postal Service […]
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My Favorite Flower Trends of 2010
As we wrap up another year, I can't help but look back on some of my personal favorite flower trends of 2010. I hope to see them again in 2011, but with the new year comes new trends, so we'll just have to wait and see. Anyway, here's my top five. 1. Texture This year […]
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Tis the season
From all of us at Blooms By The Box,


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Man found dead in Northwest Baltimore alley identified
Police: Barnes was shot in head
A man found dead in Northwest Baltimore last week has been identified.
Officials with the Baltimore Police Department say 21-year-old Devante Barnes died of a gunshot wound to the head.
Officers were called to the 4500 block of Fernhill Avenue in the West Arlington community just before noon Thursday, where they found Barnes in an alley. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Barnes' death is classified as a homicide. Officials say he was a resident of Rosalind Avenue in Baltimore.


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South Korea's industrial output fell for a third straight month in March as carmakers struggled in the face of a weaker yen, which benefits their Japanese rivals, official data showed.
Production in the mining, manufacturing, gas and electricity industries dropped 2.6 percent from February and was down 3.0 percent from a year earlier, state-run Statistics Korea said.
Output had already fallen 0.9 percent month-on-month in February following a 1.2 percent contraction in January, according to revised figures.
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Earlier this month, the central bank lowered its growth forecast for this year to 2.6 percent, just three months after slashing it from 3.2 percent to 2.8 percent.


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maybe we're all already superheros but our powers are really shitty like the power to tie your shoes really fast or to never burn an omelette
i have no idea if that's more comforting or depressing
My power is to always find a parking spot next to the entry.
We are all superheroes in a way
My power is to always know which tupperware will have the exact size to store the leftovers.
And also to always win at society games and video games, except when there's a prize to win.
This comic is terrible and so are my life choices. You have my permission to scold me.
(via attackonarchive)
The leave of absence is due to his hand injury, which has progressed to musician's dystonia/muscle spasms. Yukki was previously not performing live, but has decided to stop all activity with the band to focus on recovery. There will be a final send-off concert for him at the end of March.


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This deal is expired!
The deal below has expired, but no worries. You can still check out available coupons and "follow" the store to receive alerts for future offers.
Kohl's | 2-Day Baby Sale + Extra 20% Off + Additional 20% Off!
at kohls.com
Kohl's 2-Day Baby Sale (Online & In-Stores)
Free shipping on orders of $75 or more
Also checkout:
All sales stacks with 20% Off using coupon code: MAYFLOWERS
Deal or No Deal?
(1) thoughts from other users ...
Time to shop for baby showers:)
EzzyLovesToSave posted May 13, 2013


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0 Sims Road Mount Barker SA 5251
Contact Agent
- Residential Land
Annabelle Greenslade
- 0409 325 823
- 0409 325 823
First National Real Estate - Pope Nitschke (RLA 193520)
29 Gawler StreetMount Barker, SA 5251
Open for Inspection Times
No inspections are currently scheduled.
Contact the agent to arrange an appointment.
0 Sims Road Mount Barker
Buy Now Before Prices Go Up - No Time Limit to Build!
From here to Adelaide is just 30 minutes. But the lifestyle youre enjoying is a million miles way. Clean air, open spaces, peace and quite, and a closeness to nature. Where clocks tick just a little slower.
These unique surroundings positively encourage a more relaxed family lifestyle with all the advantages that come with it. Less pace. Less pressure. More time for whats important.
You're hidden away in the Hills on the edge of Mount Barker in a relatively small land development called The Grove.
For sale are allotments ranging in size from 616sqm to a massive 1312sqm.
Stage 1 sold Stages 2, 3 and 4 available.
For more information visit: www.nu-urban.com.au or telephone Annabelle Greenslade on 0409 325 823.
ROSSDALE HOME & LAND PACKAGES ALSO AVAILABLE: please view the image gallery for details on Home & Land packages.
For further information please contact Andrew McKinnon 0439 900 395
All packages can be tailored to suit your individual needs.
Property No. 2727452
Page Visits: 16,817
- General Features
- Property Type:Residential Land
- Crossover:none
Floorplans & Interactive Tours
Details not provided
Thinking of living in mount barker?
Explore the prices, people and lifestyle that's on offer.
The price of a property that falls in the middle of a total number of s sold over a period of time, based on listings over the preceding 12 months.
Data supplied by RP Data
This information has been obtained by RP Data and is subject to the following copyright:
RP Data Notice/Disclaimer
© 2014 Copyright RP Data Ltd, Local, State, Commonwealth Govt. All rights reserved. No reproduction, distribution, or transmission of the copyrighted materials at this site is permitted. The information provided is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
South Australia Notice/Disclaimer
© 2014 Copyright in this information belongs to the South Australian Government and the South Australian Government does not accept any responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the information.


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Car Forums / Kia / Kia Forte
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Kia Forte 5-door
that's unsual as my local dealer here in Ontario,Canada is expected his first shipment in the next 2-3 weeks. So I guess your local dealer didn't place any orders when they started production in early August. Read on another forum that he has already seen an SX model at his dealership in Edmonton, Alberta.
Take everything you hear from a dealer with a large grain of salt. I've been told several times by dealers that a new model wouldn't be in for months and ooualah, they mysteriously appeared in a few weeks. They don't like to see people wait for a future car when they have present cars to sell them.
Early I was not aware of how the rear cargo area seats function, so this is the correct set up as shown in this EX Canadian model.
the headrest from the rear back cushion have to be removed but they have storeage slots in the base cushion to hold them in place.
as you can see it gives you a nice flat cargo area with no wasted space.
you pull the base cushion forward slightly then up and it hinges forward to the position you see behind the front seats; the headrests are removed off the back rest cushion and inserted into two rod slots for the two outer headrest, the centre one actually fits into two loops on the centre part of the base cushion; then drop the back rest cushion into the area where the base cushion was previously located. Does that make sense?
Sorry I didn't think to take measurements.
Tks. Yeah, that makes sense. I couldn't figure out if the cushion that was raised up against the front seats was the seat bottom or back. Works very similar on my SUV. I have to take the headrests out and just throw on the floor of the backseat. This is a little more thoughtful way of providing for storage of the headrest while you have it configured for hauling something.
arumage Posts: 922I got the chance to test drive a Forte5 a couple of days ago. It was a 2.0L EX automatic with moonroof.
The 2.0L engine seemed more than up to the task for me. It was plenty eager to downshift when necessary. The brakes were a little touchy for my tastes, but it's nothing I couldn't get used to. It seemed sporty enough to get by, and the ride was comfortable.
The interior was nicely put together, although it might be a little bit on the boring side. It seemed to have more room and as much cargo space as my 1999 Camry despite the fact that the Forte5 is well over a foot shorter in length. I'd forgo the moonroof for myself because I thought it cut into head room.
Since pricing isn't on Kia's website yet. This particular model was $19,300 with destination. Take the sunroof off, and you're left with $18,550 for an EX automatic. That's about $900 more than the 2010 EX automatic sedan. I'd say it's worth it for the extra two gears on the transmission, and inclusion of 16" allow wheels
Kirstie@Edmunds Posts: 10,677A reporter is interested in talking with a recent and first-time owner of a Kia. If you are interested in commenting on your experience, please reply to firstname.lastname@example.com no later than noon on November 10, 2010, and include your city and state of residence, the model year of your vehicle.
Need help navigating? firstname.lastname@example.com - or send a private message by clicking on my name.
netranger4 Posts: 149Saw my first Forte5 at my local dealer. It was an SX, red, automatic. Checked out what I could, but didn't drive it. Weather was turning bad and I had other things to do. Cargo space with seats up was better than expected. Fit and finish looked good. Not equipped with sunroof. Six speed automatic should improve mileage and acceleration.
The sticker was 20K. Perhaps the EX will be priced somewhat more afforably. This car resembles the Cee'd which is popular in Europe. There should be a market for this size hatchback. Am still awaiting the new Optima which hopefully will be here shortly.


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Here are old black and white photos of transport of Wales in the 19th century
denoting something of high quality, something from the past or characteristic of the best period
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Transport of Wales in The 19th Century
Labels: automobiles, life
3 comments:
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The Cantina Sofa and Coffee Table Set makes a stunning addition to any outdoor area! The comfortable seat and durable construction will be with you for many years to come!
Make your own back yard your newest and favorite retreat destination with the Cantina Sofa and Coffee Table Set! What better way to show your unique style than with this sturdy and inviting outdoor furniture set?


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Internet search provider Mamma.com (formerly Nasdaq: MAMA) found a way to temporarily wreck its stock price recently without offering up a single gloomy financial number.
Earlier this month, the company decided that a name change to Copernic, Inc. and a new ticker (Nasdaq: CNIC) might be a good way to create a little buzz. It certainly created a buzz... the wrong kind. Shares dropped from around $4 to about $2.90 on the news. The company now has a new "corporate image" and web site ( http://www.copernic.com/corporate/ ), but if Mamma.com isn't a cult stock, then I don't know what is.
Spooking Investors
The reason is for the sudden drop is fairly simple. Shareholders in micro-cap stocks invest in companies they know are full hype and promise, and they hate it when they walk in one day and find the stock has changed like this.
The truth is that most investors do not follow these names every single hour of a day, and it spooks smaller investors when they see a name and a ticker change. It's similar to when investors can't find a Nasdaq ticker because the four-letter ticker has added an "E" or a "D".
Most people figure out pretty quickly that the company hasn't gone bust, but that first scared reaction is often an issue. Not that long ago investors saw implosions every few days at the end of the tech-bubble.
While this would scare many investors, and while the Copernic's history of "alliances" and "contracts" is more subject than financial substance, nothing has really changed here. The company still has the same deals in place and is still the same basic company compared to last week. Its various "Mamma units" are still in there. It would seem the company was simply trying to give itself a more grown-up appearance. It's hard to blame the company for wanting to make that change.
The Known Negatives
The officers that resigned in January 2007 have also been a known event for some time. The SEC inquiry and investigation from 2004 and the settlement-pending class action suit are also known events.
The company is also very subject to changes or loss of its large contracts, and it is never known what the financial term of any real contract is. The Nasdaq confirms the financial data: it is a very volatile stock with a $0.86 to $8.60 trading range over the last 52-weeks, and it is a true micro-cap, worth $38.2 million.
There are some interesting figures from the financials given last month: It has more than 175 publishers or advertisers to use, 93% of revenue comes from search, and the company has changed accounting standards in Canada. Revenue is still quite small at $2.642 million last quarter. And four major customers account for more than 10% each, for a total of 61%. In the quarter, it posted a loss of $1.38 million from operations.
Ultimately, Good or Bad?
At first glance, it is easy to worry that the wheels are coming off the cart. But, it now appears the company is trying to move away from quite a silly name. It is going to take some time, and the company is highly at risk with any single contract.
It will probably never grow into an online powerhouse such as Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) or Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) AOL. However, if history is any judge, it probably won't be too much longer before the company starts making new contract announcements (or expanded existing contracts).
Looking to cook up a market-stomping stock portfolio? Check out our FREE report "7 Ingredients to Market Beating Stocks" and get started right now!


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Eminem – My Name (feat. Xzibit & Nate Dogg) lyrics
This ain't beef man
I don't know what the fuck to call it
But no beef
Whattup X?
I float like big spirit in this bitch I'm ghostly
Rush me, cause you ain't gonna live to roast me
I'd have my motherfuckin ass kicked by Moby
if I let some bitch in the Can like 'Bis cop over me
to do war, and try to bring my crew back down
I'll never stoop, to that level, to do that now
I got a new cat, this time I'm pullin two gats out
With bullets, I finally got somethin to shoot at now
Let's see who got they city on lock
Let's see who got the better aim with the glock
Let's see who come out on top
Let's see who REALLY want they name in the streets
Let's see who wanna die the same time as me
and make ends meet
Now was I, blessed with a gift, or cursed with a curse?
I follow, hearse after hearse, with verse after verse
And I'll be damned if I let Billy dance Dupri
Or anybody swing an axe at my family tree, so now
[Nate Dogg]
I love it when you niggaz be talkin, sayin my name
Seems like your mouth is not connected to your brain
Two-zero-zero-three, and shit, it ain't the same
Better have a strap my nigga, simple and plain
Put your nuts on the table, my nigga let's play the game
Heard you so long, you be up to get the pain
I don't wanna hear what you meant, do not explain
Right before you lay in your coffin, dont say my name
Why do you hate me? (Hate me) I came from nothin
Blood sweat and tears, you did not create me
How can you doubt me? (Doubt me) You don't know shit about me
There'd be no West coast without me
And now you tryin to a
Lyrics taken from http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/e/eminem/my_name_feat_xzibit_nate_dogg_lyrics.html


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Plaintiff's response to defendant's preliminary objections; brief in support of plaintiff's response to preliminary objections - case has to do with a slip and fall in a parking lot wherein black ice was involved; and the opposing counsel is requesting a change in venue from Philadelphia County to Delaware County.
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47292 Van Dyke Ave, Shelby Township, MI | Directions 4831742.642542 -83.032997
Mon - Fri, 11am - 9pm; Sat, noon - 10pm; Sun, closed
Now Tip Thai – This place is now under new ownership. The Tom Kha soup was so good. I also tried all the noodle soups since I'm a big soup person. They had a lot of flavor, not just hot broth, very good. The noodle dishes are great too, my fav is the Pad See Ew.
Just need to update info. The cooks have changed. The food is not good like it was with the original Tip Thai cook. I don't recommend this place in the same way I would have before.
worst thai food – I have eaten at many many Thai restaurants and this has to be the worst. The food was terrible tasting;, bean sprouts were old and discolored. Carrots were limp and dark around the edges. . Brown sauce was like soy sauce and water just poured over everything. Almost all rice, with only two half-inch pieces of broccoli in a dish that was supposed to have a LOT of veggies.Way Overpriced. Restaurant was dirty- sofa
in the lobby area was filthy and smelled like child's urine and had a bed pillow on it with an ink pen scribbles all over it. Yuk. I will never go there again.
Editorial Review by Citysearch Editors – Thai restaurant serves fried rice, red curry, pad thai, spring rolls and fried ice cream with Thai tea refreshments.
A hidden Gem – My wife and I eat there twice a week and everyone we dine there with loves it. Just the best around.
Best Thai Food Ever ^-^ ! – I would reccommend this Thai Restaurant to everyone!
The owners (and employees!) are by far some of the nicest people you could ever meet! The atmosphere and service are friendly and inviting. Both the carryout and dine-in are veryyy delicious. Simply put- Fah Thai Cuisine can't be beat!
hidden sushi spot – Fah Thai is a little hard to find. But, worth the visit. We enjoyed both a traditional thai dish and sushi. The sushi was exceptionally good for the price.
Great Thai Food !!! A++++ – I really recommended Shrimp Pad Thai and Thai Fried Rice. My family really enjoyed. My husband always there for the chicken red curry. Awesome!!!
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2014 February 10
Fit To Be Tied
Fit To Be Tied
WHAT: Elena Votsi Ribbon Ring
WHY: LoveGold's Elena Votsi is a Greek jewelry designer, that also happens to have designed the Olympic Gold medals for the Athens games in 2004. If that's not impressive enough for you, check out her traditional jewelry work like this 18-karat gold and diamond ribbon ring. That wins her, her own gold medal in our book.
AVAILABLE: $18,000. ElenaVotsi.com.


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Andalusia: Places to Explore
- Overview
- Itineraries
- Places to Explore
- Sights
- Restaurants
- Hotels
- Entertainment
- Shopping
- Travel Tips
- Features
- Fodor's Choice
- Deals
- Spanish Phrases
Sanlúcar de Barrameda
This fishing town has a crumbling charm and is best known for its langostinos (jumbo shrimp) and manzanilla, an exceptionally dry sherry, though it's also known because Columbus sailed from this harbor on his third voyage to the Americas, in 1498, and 20 years later Ferdinand Magellan began his circumnavigation of the globe from here. The most popular restaurants are in the Bajo de Guía neighborhood, on the banks of the Guadalquivir. Here, too, is a visitor center for Doñana National Park (open daily 9–7 in winter and 9–8 in summer).
Sanlúcar de Barrameda at a Glance
Elsewhere in Andalusia
- Alcalá la Real
- The Alpujarras
- Aracena
- Arcos de la Frontera
- Baeza
- Cádiz
- Carmona
- Cazorla
- Córdoba
- Doñana National Park
- Fuente Vaqueros
- Granada
- Guadix
- Itálica
- Jaén
- 80 Degrees: Fodor's Helps You Find Your Best Beach Vacation Spots
- Fodor's Go List 2014: Where we are going in 2014
- World Cup Fever: Start planning your trip to Brazil!
- Fodor's 100 Hotel Awards: Check out the winners of 2013
- Weekend Getaways: Fodor's Recommends the Best Weekend Escapes in the US
- Great American Vacation: Find Your Next U.S. Trip with Fodor's


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Randy Thompson is out to prove that a collaborative design-build process will significantly reduce costs and boost ROI to green up the country's building stock.
Architect Tom Hootman wants to take net-zero energy to the next level.
Manny Barrera oversees the nation's first real-world application of a smart grid at Mesa del Sol in Albuquerque, foreshadowing and refining how it will change energy distribution.
The Fort Worth-area builder has made a career out of building green and relies on energy modeling to help push the envelope of housing performance.
Today's environmental product declarations have their roots in Pliny Fisk's forward-thinking approach.
Applying architecture to production-level net-zero-energy prefab building modules may help revive the industry.
Proponents of mechanical technologies and passive solutions to comfort and performance spar in a session at the 20th Congress for the New Urbanism.
New technologies and delivery systems may hold the key to finding a global foothold for factory-built housing.
Total domestic PV capacity is on an exponential trajectory through 2016.
In addition to its own efforts to accelerate green building adoption and reduce its carbon footprint, Webcor Builders is looking downstream at its suppliers to follow suit.
Copyright ©
2014 Hanley Wood Media, Inc. All rights reserved.


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Visually impaired persons / persons with limited mobility
The Paris Opera facilitates access to its theatres for persons with reduced mobility or those who are visually impaired The Service des Relations avec le Public (Public Relations Service) devotes a special welcome to you: contact them (at least 15 days before the performance) by telephone +33 1 40 01 18 50, Monday to Thursday from 10:00am to 1:00pm and from 2:00pm to 5:00pm, or send an email to firstname.lastname@example.com .
Visually impaired persons
Certain productions are available in audio-description, in collaboration with the Association Accès Culture (Access Culture Association), by means of a special headset which provides a running commentary as the performance proceeds. In addition, guide-dogs are allowed into the theatres.
A reduction of 30% is granted to visually impaired people as well as to their guide.
Productions of the 2013/2014 season available in audio description, and prices:
DONIZETTI : 29th September (2:30pm), 1st October (7:30pm), 4th October (7:30pm)
2nd category: €81 (instead of €115)
3rd category: €63 (instead of €90)
4th category: €49 (instead of €70)
BELLINI : 26th April (7:30pm), 30th April (19h30), 8th May (7:30pm)
2nd category: €81 (instead of €115)
3rd category: €63 (instead of €90)
4th category: €49 (instead of €70)
PUCCINI : 29th June (7:30pm), 2nd July (7:30pm), 4th July (7:30pm)
2nd category: €95 (instead of €135)
3rd category: €81 (instead of €115)
4th category: €63 (instead of €90)
Persons with limited mobility
Thanks to the adapted seating layout at the Palais Garnier and the Opera Bastille, a quota of places is reserved for persons in wheelchairs. Prior reservation is obligatory at +33 1 40 01 18 50.
People in wheelchairs, as well as their companions, receive a 30% discount on all productions in categories 1, 2 and 4 at the Palais Garnier and categories 2, 3, 4 and 5 at the Opera Bastille.
At the Palais Garnier, wheelchair access is via the box office (at the corner of rue Scribe and rue Auber).


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Outdoor Shops in the Midlands
We're on the hunt…
… for friendly, knowledgable Outdoor Shops in the Midlands selling or hiring equipment and clothing for different adventure sports. So to keep you entertained in the meantime, here's something you might not know – The Cotswolds is the largest Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in England and Wales.
Anyway back to business.
We're looking for different types of Outdoor Shops in the Midlands
From paddlers through to cyclists and walkers, we've got stacks of people looking for places to buy and hire kit in this area. So if you would be interested in working with us and you run an Outdoor Shop in the Midlands, why not head to our Promotions Page to find out more about being featured on Adventure Eyes.


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2009 Porsche Cayenne GTS
Vehicle Specs
- Engine:4.8l V8
- Transmission:Auto
- Body Style:Wagon
- Trim:Black leather and alcantara
- Colour:Black (solid black)
This Porsche Cayenne is the GTS model, which is different from the other cayennes as it coming out standard with many features that are otherwise options.
The easiest way to pick the difference out on the road is the side windows, which come standard with black trim on the GTS (rather than silver on all the other Cayenne models) plus the body styling with side skirts, large rear roof spolier, turbo front, rear underbumper apron, flared wheel arches and what you are unable to see is the extra power.
The suspension is lowered 85mm permently, so even in the five air bag suspension settings the vehicle always remains low.
22 inch wheels, with adaptors spacing the wheels out exactly flush with the guards giving a wider stance.
Sport exhausts baffles are modified so the sports note is loud and constant.
Rear 'Cayenne GTS' badge is blacked out.


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My husband and I stayed there while in Helsinki during our honeymoon, we had a flat opposite hotel Helka, very central locations in most of their flats, very clean and well furnished. Most apartments I believe they have a washing machine, microwave, telly and wi fi. Beds and bedding are very clean and comfy and towels are included with the... More
- Reservation Options:
- TripAdvisor is proud to partner with Booking.com and Priceline so you can book your Citykoti Apartments reservations with confidence. We help millions of travelers each month to find the perfect hotel for both vacation and business trips, always with the best discounts and special offers.


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Focus and relaxation the mental wings of multi-dimensional
Focus and relaxation
The word focus according to web dictionary is defined as: the state or quality of having or producing clear visual definition, to put it in a simple statement is where your attention is.
Usually there is… Continue reading
Inspirational Quotes
This gallery contains 474 photos.
Enjoy the collection of beautiful inspiration quotes that will motivate you and keep you going
The Fall Of Man
Eternity signifies the absence of origins but the origin doesn't imply the beginning of something rather the truer state of existence. If a human soul if eternal then the fundamental nature of human have no beginning.
An alternative view… Continue reading
What is the Universal Language?
What is the Universal Language
To be able to ponder this question we first need to understand what is language? It is a verbal, symbolic/sign or written method of communication within a certain community.
With that being said universal or… Continue reading
Seven Days Cleansing Challenge
Life can be demanding sometimes which results in lack of balance and harmony within ourselves, Our minds gets scattered everywhere with destructive and overload of information, some useful some not useful. We find ourselves stuck in a routine of unproductive… Continue reading
Elements of Growth – The Character of Excellence
Growth is the life force that fuels all life. When you think about life and growth are one and the same, you can't have one without the other.In human knowledge every life form undergoes through the process of birth, growth,… Continue reading


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Written by Pee Wee King, Redd Stewart, and Chilton PriceRecorded by Patsy Cline February 12 1962
"You Belong to Me" is a pop music ballad from the 1950s. The singer reminds his/her lover that, whatever exotic locales and sights he/she experiences, "you belong to me." It is credited to three writers: Pee Wee King, Chilton Price, and Redd Stewart. Price wrote most of the song, and ceded equal credit to the other two in exchange for their work in promoting it. King and Stewart did rearrange the song because it was written as a war song during World War II and changed the title to "You Belong To Me" along with arranging the music.Wikipedia
A Special Song Dedicated To Lt/Col Edward Osman USAF (Ret)In Memory of His Loving Wife Betty Florence OsmanApril 10 1921 - February 20 2002Please visit a magnificent page on Lt/Col Osman byWebmaster T. D. Barnes
SongYou Belong To Me©Patsy Cline
Lyrics and songs are property and copyright of their respective authors, artists and labels.Lyrics and songs provided for educational purposes only.Please support the artists by purchasing related recordings and merchandise.