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by Richard McKinstry
Printed and manuscript advertisements have existed ever since craftsmen, storekeepers, and other business people realized that is was advantageous to promote themselves and their merchandise. In the world of eighteenth-century artisans, a furniture maker would paste a rudimentary label on one of his tables or chests to show the public the kind of work they could expect from him. Broadening the range of promotions further, a craftsman regularly placed advertisements in newspapers or city directories, noting his address, detailing his products, and frequently including illustrations. Sometimes these ads were also circulated on their own. Likewise, a general store proprietor would distribute small-scale ads to announce the arrival of new products or to proclaim special sales. By associating his name with his product or place of business in an advertisement, the craftsman and businessman hoped to enhance their reputations, and they at least implied to buyers that they would stand behind their work and goods.
Air transport labels
by Daniel Kusrow
Air transport labels are more popularly known as airline baggage labels, stickers, or tags and can include airline freight labels and poster stamps. These small graphic works of art have been used to advertise the services of the world's airlines since the beginning of commercial aviation in the immediate post World War I years. Early airline baggage labels in the 1920's and 1930's provided spaces to write in passenger details, similar to labels issued by shipping lines and railroads, but more often the labels featured solely strong graphic poster images. The issuance of these labels by the airlines reached its zenith during the inter-war era.
Following World War II, commercial air travel became more democratic, and the labels that had bedecked the luggage of wealthy travelers as badges of prestige, began a decline in popularity. Baggage tags became more utilitarian devices to ensure the proper identification and routing of the mushrooming amount of airline passenger baggage. In the last 30 years, baggage labels have continued to be issued by the airlines but primarily for special marketing purposes, such as the start of new routes or the addition of new aircraft types to airlines' fleets.
The collecting of air transport labels dates back to around 1930 when those interested in aerophilately acquired labels to add color to their flight cover collections. Several catalogs were issued in the mid 1930's, and a specialized collecting society (Aeronautica & Air Label Collectors Club) was established in 1941. In the mid-1970s, the club began issuing updated catalogs that it continues to do to the present.
For some airlines the only piece of ephemera that survives for them are their baggage labels. One can trace the history of many of the well-known, established airlines by making a survey of the labels they have issued over the years.
Bank checks
Definition needed
Baseball cards
by Richard McKinstry
Tobacco companies first issued baseball cards during the 1880s to promote cigarette sales. These cards found a welcome audience among adults who followed America's emerging national pastime. Today's baby boom generation became acquainted with baseball cards not because of tobacco advertising, but because they chewed bubble gum, and bubble gum came packaged with cards. Children, and probably some adults as well, eagerly looked forward to adding to their ever-growing card collections by trading duplicates with their friends. From year to year baseball cards changed in appearance, but they always offered portraits of players at bat, in the field, or on the mound along with their statistics. Modern cards are not confined to major league players as minor league teams and special leagues also issue sets of baseball cards.
Bill heads
by Richard McKinstry
Billheads contain vignettes that illustrate products associated with a business and sometimes fairly wordy descriptions of a concern's activities. Often, the vignettes provide clues on what a business thought about itself. For instance, a manufacturer from the 1870s told customers that it was busy, prosperous, and successful by depicting its building's chimney billowing smoke into the sky, railroad cars being loaded with countless shipments of its products, and people bustling around its factory building. As America expanded economically during the Gilded Age, this message was not uncommon. In addition, when products are shown, vignettes provide clues about the design of goods being made and sold. Besides serving as an bill, these pieces of ephemera often did double duty as stationery. As a result, businesses were able to advertise to prospective customers through letter writing and complete their sales by using the same kind of sheet of paper as an invoice.
by Patrick Sweeney
Ink blotters are an interesting historical ephemera category that were once in universal use but have now virtually disappeared. Not only would typical 2012 teenagers not recognize a blotter, they could scarcely imagine a world that depended on messy liquid ink instead of ballpoint pens.
While they could be purchased as a stationery items, blotters were mostly distributed as advertisements of products and services of every description. The advertisements appeared on the normally smooth top side of blotters while the plain absorbent side helped dry the wet ink on a check or an envelope. Up until ballpoint pens became reliable and inexpensive in the 1950s, countless quantities of blotters were distributed over desks, sales and service counters like banks and post offices where they were stacked free for the taking.
The attached samples can only hint at the range of blotter advertising, produced both for national distribution and as well blotters with local dealer or retailer imprints. Like today's teenagers' disbelief at the story of yesterday's blotters, imagine a 1940's adult learning that a give-away Kelloggs cereal blotter was selling today on Ebay for over $400!
Definition needed.
by Lois R. Densky-Wolff
For answers to your questions about bookmarks send an email to Lois Densky-Wolff
A. W. Coysh in his work Collecting Bookmarkers, a history of English bookmarks, states:
The need for some device to mark the place in a book was recognized at an early date. Without bookmarkers, finely bound volumes were at risk. To lay a book face down with pages open might cause injury to its spine, and the crease on a page that had the corner turned down remained as a lasting reproach. With the rise of printing in the fifteenth century, books were published in limited numbers and were quite valuable. The need to protect these precious commodities was evident. One of earliest references to the use of bookmarks was in 1584 when the Queen's Printer, Christopher Barker, presented Queen Elizabeth I with a fringed silk bookmark.
Common bookmarks in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were narrow silk ribbons bound into the book at the top of the spine and extended below the lower edge of the page. The first detachable bookmarks began appearing in the 1850's. Most nineteenth century bookmarks were intended for use in Bibles and prayer books, and were made from silk or embroidered fabrics. Not until the 1880's, did paper and other materials become more common.
The great period of bookmark design and the use of luxuriant materials were during the Victorian and Edwardian eras. The idea that a bookmark be used to keep one's place and protect one's book caught on, and bookmarks have been produced in a variety of materials ever since.
A.W. Coysh divides the history of bookmarks into four main periods: Ribbon, 1850-1880, Victorian Advertising, 1880-1901, Pre-World War I, 1901-1914, Publicity and Greetings, 1914-Present.
Another way to categorize bookmarks has been promoted by Joan Huegel, editor of Bookmark Collector; the only newsletter published in the United States devoted to bookmarks. Huegel identifies thirteen categories, which classifies old and new bookmarks as: Advertising, Commemorative, Foreign, Government, Handmade, Libraries, National Organizations & Chains, Novelty, Other Materials, Publishers & Booksellers, Religious, Silk, Woven & Ribbon, and Souvenir.
Bookmarks and pagemarkers are made from a variety of material including paper, celluloid, silver, gold, pewter, wood, brass, copper, ivory, aluminum, chrome, tin, plastic, leather, Fiberglas, ribbon, and silk.
Victorian and Edwardian paper and celluloid bookmarks were a favorite medium for publicizing goods and services, and as publicity for non-profit organizations. Booksellers, publishers, stationers, insurance companies, and manufacturers were quick to utilize the medium. Products such as soap, pianos, stoves, furniture, perfumes, patent medicines, shoes, clothes, tobacco, and foodstuffs were all promoted on bookmarks. The travel and entertainment industries also publicized their services using bookmarks. Highly colorful and decorative, often given away free, they were distributed by the thousands from Victorian and later merchants to their customers. The upsurge in the use of chromolithography, developed in the mid-nineteenth century, was a boon in the creation and marketing of these small works of the printer's art.
Advertising bookmarks were often produced as sets or series, usually produced in groups of four, six, or eight. They were offered as a give-away or product premium with proof of purchase. Soap makers, perfumeries, insurance companies, and food and furniture manufacturers all produced bookmark sets.
Celluloid, the forerunner of plastic, was first introduced into the United States in 1869 as a cheap substitute for ivory. Products made from celluloid were inexpensive to purchase, and popular with the public. Like paper, celluloid bookmarks advertised products, services, and events, and were also inexpensively marketed for sale. Many celluloid bookmarks were die-cut, as were paper-advertising bookmarks.
Pagemarkers are another name for bookmarks; typically referring to those made of metal with pierced blades and manufactured in England. These markers were crafted in novel shapes and often had ornate handles many bearing the monograms of their owners. During the Victorian era, publishers commonly bound books with the pages uncut. Book buyers had to slit their own pages, and it did not take long for combination bookmark-page cutters to appear on the market.
Some of these bookmarks were made of heavy paper but were not very effective. Bookmark-page cutters, or pagemarkers, began appearing in other materials such as tortoise shell, wood, sterling silver, gold, brass, copper, and ivory. In addition to slitting book pages, they were used as letter openers. When book pages no longer needed to be individually sliced, separate letter openers were manufactured that were distinguishable from pagemarkers.Bibliography
Coysh, A.W. Collecting Bookmarkers. New York: Drake, 1974.
Coysh, A.W. and R.K. Henrywood. Bookmarkers. Buckinghamshire, Great Britain: Shire Publications, 1994.
Evans, Sally. Bookmarkers: an Independent View. Published for the 43rd Edinburgh Fringe Festival by Old Grindles Bookshop, Edinburgh, undated.
Godden, G.A. Stevengraphs and Other Victorian Silk Pictures. London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1971.
Hechtlinger, Adelaide and Wilbur Cross. The Complete Book of Paper Antiques. New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1972.
Huegel, Joan L. "Antique Bookmarks," Paper Collectors' Marketplace, 11:7, July 1993: 20+.
Huegel, Joan L. "Collectors Put Bookmarks in Their Place," Antiques & Auction News, 27:18, May 3, 1996: 1-2.
Jonker, Abraham. The Bookmarkers of the Scottish Widows Fund. Torquay, Great Britain: Neopardy, 1981.
McClinton, Katharine Morrison. "Stevengraph Bookmarkers," Antiques & Collecting, 91 (1), January 1987: 51-54.
Makespeace, Chris E. Ephemera: a Book on its Collections, Conservation, and Use. n.p. Gower, 1985.
The Picture of Health: Images of Medicine and Pharmacy From the William H. Helfand Collection. Commentaries by William H. Helfand. Essays by Patricia Eckert Boyer, Judith Wechsler, and Maurice Rickards. [Philadelphia]: Philadelphia Museum of Art, Distributed by the University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992.
Quale, Eric. The Collector's Book of Books. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1971.
Rickards, Maurice. Collecting Printed Ephemera. New York: Abbeville, 1988.
Rivera, Betty. "Bookmarks (Collecting Now)," Country Living, 19 (1), January 1996:43+.
Roberts, F.X. "Bookmarks: Silent Sentinels," Wilson Library Bulletin, December 1993: 40-42.
Staff, Frank. The Valentine & Its Origin. New York: Praeger, 1969.
Stevens, Norman D. A Guide to Collecting Librariana. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1986.
Tharp, Mel. "Marking the Page: Bookmarks," Treasure Chest, January 1995: 10-11.
by Richard McKinstry
The bookplate, sometimes referred to as an ex-libris, denotes the ownership of books, and they are customarily glued onto the inside of a book's front cover. Many early bookplates featured a family crest, but in more recent times, they have included just about any illustrative design that strikes the fancy of a book owner; thus, in addition to indicating ownership, they reveal something about the individual they stand for. Like printed books themselves, the earliest bookplates originated in Germany in the fifteenth century. Over the years they have been made using such techniques as etching; copper, wood, and steel engraving; lithography and chromolithography; and just about any other printing process that allows for the duplication of a single image. Surprisingly perhaps, there were more than 1,000 different bookplates used in America before 1800, the earliest likely belonging to Steven Day, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, printer, and dating from 1642.
by Richard McKinstry
Broadsides are pieces of paper printed on one side, and they were issued to convey messages. Usually published without illustrations or downplaying them in favor of text and vignettes, broadsides were customarily posted in prominent locations for as many people as possible to see. They promoted sales of countless forms of merchandise, announced the arrival of new products, proclaimed when meetings would take place, reminded their readers of current events, and served a host of other purposes. Broadsides were an inexpensive way to reach a wide audience and were a major instrument for communicating before the development of mass media. Truly ephemeral in nature, broadsides were mostly intended for immediate use and then discarded.
Definition needed
Business cards
by Patrick Sweeney
Vintage business cards provide a look back into the commerce of yesterday. Business people have been exchanging basic information via printed cards long before there were zip codes and telephone numbers, let alone e-mail addresses. Here are some samples of the many perspectives that make makes vintage business cards particularly interesting collectibles.
Vintage business cards are reasonably available, comparatively inexpensive, and offer wide opportunity for commercial, social and geographical research.
Definition needed.
Cameo stamps
by Thomas Beckman
Cameo stamps are an early form of trademarks or logotypes, produced between 1850 and 1880 for use by merchants, manufacturers, service providers, and institutions. Called "stamps" originally, these corporate identity emblems were nicknamed "cameos" by modern collectors due to the embossing present on many examples. Simultaneously embossed and color printed from brass dies, cameo stamps are most often found on envelopes, billheads, business cards, and as advertisements in city directories and related publications.
Blue is six or seven times more popular than green or red, the next most frequent colors. Imagery usually features a manufacturer's or merchant's products, machinery, or building, but text-only examples are also common. All cameo stamps are tightly bordered, often with cartouche-like frames. About forty percent of cameo stamps are signed by their diesinkers, the most prolific being William Eaves of New York and the McClement Brothers and Thomas B. Calvert of Philadelphia. They, and dozens of others, made cameo stamps for customers in all parts of the country, as well as Canada, which had several cameo stamp diesinkers of its own.
Illustrations in this article are from the extensive cameo collection of Jose L. Rodriguez, who can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.
by Richard McKinstry
If it were not for chromolithography many items that we consider ephemeral would not exist. Trade cards, die cuts or scraps, bookplates, calendars, greeting cards, prints, sheet music, rewards of merit, and other forms of paper ephemera were all produced using the chromolithographic process. The first chromo in the United States, a portrait of Rev. F.W.P. Greenwood, came from William Sharp's printing shop in Boston in 1840. By the mid-1860s, New York had become the center of chromolithography, and ten years later most of the larger cities in the U.S. had printers who could produce chromolithographs. The most successful chromolithographer of the nineteenth century was Louis Prang. His company found a receptive audience during the Civil War when the public demanded depictions of battle scenes. Afterward, Prang published a wide variety of chromos, showing birds and butterflies as well as fine art reproductions from the works of noted artists of the day.
Cigar box labels and brands
by Orlando Arteaga
By the middle of the 19th Century the big cigar manufacturers devised to place printed labels on the outside of their containers and a paper band around each cigar to improve the presentation of their products and to protect themselves against counterfeits. The cigar industry was already a highly productive one so they decided to hire the best lithographers who, using advanced printing techniques, made elegant cigar box labels and bands. This got the attention not only of customers but also of people with artistic sensibility who began soon collecting these beautiful objects considered as true art work. The first society of cigar bands collectors of the world was the International Cigar Band Society, founded in the United States in 1934, and one of the first worldwide known collectors was Louis Rubin, a New Yorker, who collected more than 100,000 cigar bands by 1957. Before dying he asked that his collection be conserved in one of the museums of the city.
Images below provided by Ron Schieber
NOTE TO SELF: Add images here once reduced in size. Check inbox.
Clipper ship cards
by Bruce Roberts
Clipper ship cards are cards that were issued by dispatch lines to advertise specific voyages of clipper ships from one port (usually New York or Boston) to another (usually San Francisco). They were distributed primarily during the late 1850s and early 1860s. Many people quite naturally associate clipper ship cards with the frenzy of the California gold rush, but in fact most clipper ship cards were produced during the decline, not ascent, of the clipper ship industry. Most clipper cards were printed in full color, on coated stock, and represent some of the finest early American color advertising artwork.
Definition needed.
Greeting cards
Definition needed.
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Definition needed.
by Richard McKinstry
One of the first labels used in association with a domestic product was the linen label. Produced beginning in the 1840s, they represent some of the finest American embossing and printing in gold and silver of the period. Other labels that got an early start in the United States were affixed to liquor bottles. Before labels were used, liquor bottles had been distinctively shaped to identify their contents: gin came in square bottles and brandy bottles were round, for example. Manufacturers began to use labels when they realized that they could identify their products better by using them. In addition, they came up with informative and colorful labels for advertising reasons. Canning labels, orange crate labels, and cigar labels, among others, are also highly prized by today's collectors.
Definition needed.
Luggage tags
by Patrick Sweeney
As interesting ephemera, hotel luggage labels are a mix of contradictions. For example,a cluster of hotel labels on the scuffed leather suitcase in the photo is today's almost universal graphic symbol of travel. Yet, new luggage labels simply don't exist. Try asking for one at the front desk of the next hotel you visit.
And while hotel luggage labels pasted on a trunk or suitcase might be the commonly accepted format, the labels desired by collectors and ephemerists are unused, pristine specimens that were never attached to luggage. Presumably, the early traveler got one label for the suitcase and another one for the scrapbook. It's the ones from the scrapbooks that collectors prize.
The golden era of hotel luggage labels ranged from about 1875 to the 1950s. Hotels designed and printed them to promote their establishments. Travelers gathered and pasted them as honor badges of their wide-ranging experience. As labels grew in favor, hotels tried to outdo each other with ever-larger labels and elaborate designs. Labels started to disappear as soft sided luggage came into favor and chains replaced individually owned and managed venues.
Hotel luggage labels make for interesting history. For example, consider the composite image of various Bristol Hotel labels. As Victorian-era travelers grew more discerning, individual venues needed to convey a quality image to promote themselves. The many worldwide Bristol hotels of the golden age of travel were unaffiliated as the different independent establishment assumed the name Bristol to attract new customers.
Vintage hotel luggage labels are widely available. However, new collectors need to be careful choosing their supply sources as reproductions and newly-printed labels are commonly promoted, often by inexperienced dealers.
by Richard McKinstry
Philadelphia printers Benjamin Franklin and Andrew Bradford vied to issue America's pioneer magazine. Through a bit of stealth, Bradford won out with his American Magazine, or a Monthly View of the Political State of the British Colonies, the first issue of which was published just three days before Franklin's General Magazine in 1741. The periodical press in the United States developed from this time, but not along a straight line, for it would be impossible to name a typical American magazine. There probably have been as many as there are personal interests and professions. Pulp magazines have existed alongside scholarly quarterlies, National Geographic Magazine is on the store shelf near the New Yorker, and as we enter a new millennium, Reader's Digest and Playboy survive, appealing to two very different audiences. Historian James P. Wood concluded, "the magazine today is not essentially different from the magazine in 1741. The magazine is, as it has been, a vehicle for communication among people, a medium for the transmission of facts, ideas, and fancies."
by Richard McKinstry
Maps tell us how to get from point A to point B or give us details about what a particular landscape or cityscape looks like. Because of changes in road systems and alterations in the natural and manmade environment, they can be out of date in a relatively short time; thus, they are truly ephemeral in nature. Maps exist for a variety of purposes: to show us roads and railroads, to reveal the most recent finds as the result of exploration, to help sailors navigate the oceans and seas, to record construction details for insurance purposes, to help stage battles in war, to chart geological and mining details, to record the progress of immigration, and the list goes on. Small illustrative vignettes often appear on maps, and sometimes maps are wholly pictorial, such as the ones produced by Charles Magnus. Today's collectors value maps for their artistic merit, as well as for what they can tell us about the physical development of America.
by Henry Voigt
Menus first began to appear in the late 1830s with the early arrival of hotels and restaurants and the growing popularity of service à la russe, where dishes were served in courses rather than put out on the table all at once. They were developed to fill the need of letting diners know what to expect whether ordering a la carte or simply looking over the set menu for a banquet.
Menus provide historical and cultural information about the manners, mores, and food habits of a given time and place. They originate from a wide variety of venues, ranging from restaurants and hotels to various private organizations, ships, trains, and military units. Some are beautifully crafted by leading stationers to celebrate a special event. Others merely illustrate the routines of everyday life. In either case, menus are designed to be pleasing.
As with other forms of ephemera, menus are one of the minor documents that we commonly use that are meant to be useful for only a short period of time. Even though they are occasionally saved for some personal reason, perhaps as a souvenir from a special event, they are frequently discarded by subsequent generations for whom they have no value or special meaning. As a result, old menus tend to be scarce. One aspect of their appeal lies within the notion of their improbable survival.
by Richard McKinstry
The most common title for an American newspaper published between 1704 and 1820 was Gazette, chosen by various printers 488 times. Close behind was Advertiser, used 440 times and reflecting the importance of people who paid the local printer for newspaper ads. Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish a newspaper from a magazine; however, many observers agree that a newspaper has a characteristic format, contains current news, is published more frequently than magazines, includes advertisements, and covers local events. Early American newspapers were both general in nature and targeted to a specific audience such as individuals engaged in mercantile trade. Because they were printed on better quality rag-based paper, newspapers issued before the Civil War are far more likely to survive today. Newspapers are invaluable for their immediacy, recording history as it happened.
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Paper dolls
by Richard McKinstry
Genealogical research reveals that the ancestor of today's paper dolls were pantins, first popular in France during the mid-1700s. Pantins were cardboard human figures whose limbs came detached, later to be fastened to the torso with string. Children and adults would then make them dance or otherwise perform. Louis XV banned them, according to his edict, because he was afraid that women, "under the lively influence of this continual jumping, were in danger of bringing children into the world with twisted limbs like the pantins." In time, paper dolls developed as a way for children to amuse themselves and for grownups to discover what the current fashion trends were. Many were handmade; others came from commercial printers. During America's Gilded Age, paper doll production markedly increased, and such firms as McLoughlin Brothers, Dennison Manufacturing Company, and F.A. Stokes Company created countless paper doll figures. In the late twentieth century, paper dolls were customarily made to portray public figures, especially movie and television stars and other people in public life.
Definition needed.
by Richard McKinstry
Building on earlier scientific advances, photography as we know it today progressed from the 1830s when, according to Journal des Artistes, Frenchman Louis Daguerre, was successful in creating an "image produced by the camera obscura, so that a portrait, a landscape or view of any kind, projected upon this plate by the ordinary camera obscura, leaves its impress there in light and shade." Thanks to photography, today we have images of former leaders from various eras, public figures of all kinds, the natural and built environment of years past, historical events, our families, and scores of other subjects. We collect photographs for what they show, for the messages they convey, and for their artistry. In America, we identify photography with such luminaries as Matthew Brady, George Eastman, Alfred Stieglitz, Dorothea Lange, Margaret Bourke-White, and many others. We prize their work alongside anonymous photographers who have all contributed to the evolution of this important form of communication.
by Richard McKinstry
Postcards seem to be everywhere, and from their advent in the mid-1800s they have been prized by collectors. Who among us has not seen nineteenth and twentieth century scrapbooks filled with them. Some are comical in nature, others portray historical figures, some were issued for advertising purposes, others are important because they commemorate a special event. Valentines and New Year's greetings are postcards, too. Picture postcards owed their early artistry to the popular print, and as chromolithography and printing technology developed, they became more intricate and colorful. The best postcards of a century and more ago were produced in Germany and England, and notable artists, including the Czech Alphonse Mucha and American Charles Dana Gibson, found success as postcard designers.
Poster stamps
by Richard McKinstry
Poster stamps are just what their name suggests: posters in the form of postage stamps. Small, colorful, appealing to all, the first poster stamps to appear are generally credited to printers from Germany who called them reklame marken. In the United States, businesses first benefited from poster stamps, using them for advertising purposes. They were distributed by the thousands, cost little, and reached a wide audience easily. Subsequently, they were used to promote expositions, sporting events, charities, and other activities of public interest. By 1915, Americans were avid collectors, leading to the publication of The Poster Stamp Bulletin in Yonkers, New York. During World War II, civil organizations used poster stamps for patriotic purposes. Prominent artists lent their talents to designing poster stamps, including Edward Penfield and Maxfield Parrish, who both worked for the Funk & Wagnalls Company, and Rockwell Kent, who designed a poster stamp to commemorate the centennial of the state of Arkansas.
by Richard McKinstry
While words are predominant on broadsides, pictures are supreme on posters. Whoever coined the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words" may not have been thinking of posters, but he or she still provided an apt description of them. Posters were found in antiquity when individuals in Pompeii and other cities and towns used them for such purposes as announcing combat by gladiators and local electioneering. When movable type was invented, posters began to be produced in quantity, and after chromolithography was invented, they were truly appreciated as fine art. As with many printed items, posters in the United States developed in tandem with two events, the burgeoning economy of post-Civil War times, which required vehicles for advertising, and the evolution of printing processes. Over the years posters have been used for propaganda purposes and have included many now famous depictions during wartime. In the United States, James Montgomery Flagg's work came to the fore during World War I.
View the article The Poster Wave Reaches America's Shores
by Richard McKinstryPrograms, whether they are for concerts, plays, baseball games, or other events, are used for the occasion and then routinely discarded. Thankfully, many spectators and audience members retained them as keepsakes over the years, and we now have them to enjoy as collectors. Programs from years past tell us who the stars of sport were, who played what part when, and what music was in vogue at any particular moment. Since they customarily featured advertisements, programs also offer a glimpse into popular products of the day, their prices, and how retailers promoted their sale. An afternoon or evening's entertainment that first featured a meal would undoubtedly contain a menu as part of its program. Menus provoke thought about the kinds of food that was considered appropriate for the function, as well as change in diet over the years.
Rewards of merit
by Patricia Fenn & Alfred P. Malpa
"Rewards of merit, tokens of a pupil's progress and a teacher's esteem, have been an enduring aspect of American education for more than three hundred years. Most were small pieces of paper--printed or hand written documents which were the bearers of a potent message. A child went to school, did well, and was praised by the teacher. "Merit," "approbation," and "esteem"--these were the words which appear on countless of these certificates. The phrasing varies, but it was the message behind the words which mattered to 18th and 19th century children and their parents. Whether given for a month's, a week's, a day's, or even a single lesson's scholarly accomplishments, these small documents were valued highly, and retained proudly. That is why we can examine so many of them today." This description was taken from the Introduction of the book Rewards of Merit, written by Patricia Fenn & Alfred P. Malpa, and published by The Ephemera Society of America.
Seed company ads
by Pat Laffin
What better way to spend a sunny spring afternoon at the turn of the century, when all the morning chores had been completed, than to sit on the veranda and leaf through a multitude of seed catalogues? It was not uncommon to find four- or five-color plates of some species of flowering plant in each publication. Some of the most colorful and profusely illustrated lithographs appear in the catalogues such as John Lewis Childs of Floral Park, New York and Wm. Henry Maule of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Most of the larger seed companies did their own printing, while smaller companies employed others to do this work.
All seed companies did not sell seed packets, which were introduced by the Shakers. Many companies shipped seed in bulk or only sold plants and bulbs. For collectors, there are some companies that have beautiful 150-page catalogues, yet have no seed packets; while others have scores of packets, yet the catalogues (if any) are lacking in illustration and information. Jerome B. Rice, having a variety of beautiful packets, did not publish catalogues; while John Lewis Childs, with his catalogues containing numerous chromolithographed plates, did not print a large amount of packets. What few Childs' packets remain, tend to be plain, with no illustrations. The same is true for Wm. Henry Maule's company.
Aside from catalogues and packets, collectors can find an array of other advertising items, including yet not limited to posters, broadsides, displays, tradecards, postcards, blotters, billheads, advertising envelopes and booklets, and of course, the boxes with those fabulous interior labels that were designed to be given away after the packets were sold. Many schools gave these boxes to children for fund raising, to sell the packets, and keep thereafter. Others were used for counter-top sales in general stores.
NOTE TO SELF: Make slideshow of seed packets
by M. Stephen Miller
The Shakers--or the United Society of Believers--are a celibate, Christian society which has been living communally in America for some two hundred and twenty years. By the early nineteenth century they were living in eighteen relatively self-sufficient villages in New England, New York, Ohio, and Kentucky. Almost from the beginning, the Shakers developed industries to help support their communities; garden seeds in individual packages being the first of these. Soon the raising and processing of medicinal herbs became a major enterprise followed by the production of brooms and brushes, chairs and stools, dairy products, storage boxes, preserved foods, women's cloaks, and "fancy goods"--usually sewing items. Each of these industries required ephemera to support it--both in packaging and advertising. The seed industry, for example, needed small paper envelopes, boxes with labels to display them, receipts, billheads, invoices, catalogs, and broadsides for accounting and promotional purposes. In the 1860s, at just the New Lebanon, NY, community, as an example, more than two and a half million seed envelopes were printed. Today only a few hundred of these survive. The Shakers are a singular phenomenon in American culture; the longest lived of the many communitarian groups which once dotted the landscape. For anyone interested in their history, ephemera--even the minute fraction which has survived--provides a unique window through which to study their economic life. In most instances the products themselves have long since vanished and the ledgers, journals, and shop records are incomplete. Ephemera, alone, is the most tangible remnant of the various and invaluable Shaker industries.
Sheet music
by Richard McKinstry
Pictorial sheet music covers were uncommon until the mid-nineteenth century when three things happened: popular music grew to attract a wider audience, largely through the proliferation of music halls; lithography was invented and perfected; and there was an upsurge in the appreciation of typography. By the time the Victorian Age was in full swing, the sheet music of the day contained skillfully produced and attractive illustrations. Today, it is possible to study and appreciate any time period in American history by looking at a piece of illustrated sheet music. Music is reflective of its era, and illustrations mirror the time they were created. Compare, for example, a piece of sheet music for a tune by Stephen Foster with another by Scott Joplin. And, contrast the illustration depicting Little Red Riding Hood for "Little Red Riding Hood Galop," ca. 1870, with the one used for "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody" popularized by the Ziegfeld Follies in 1919.
Definition needed.
Stocks and Bonds
Old stocks and bonds represent a near-limitless opportunity for collectors and hobbyists. Perhaps unique among ephemera categories, interest in old financial documents even carries its own special name. The term Scripophily emerged from a 1978 naming contest conducted by the Financial Times of London.
Here are some of the reasons for the broad appeal of vintage stocks and bonds to collectors:
Fine Graphics
Better bonds and stock certificates are true works of art. Careful design, typography, and engraved vignettes all combine to produce documents that can be framed and enjoyed strictly from the standpoint of their visual appeal. Also, because of the fine paper stock and the printing processes used to make them, most pieces of financial ephemera remain in very good physical condition long after their creation.
Interesting Companies, Industries and Locations
Stocks and bonds are living history. Collectors can track the origins and development of railroads, mining ventures and corporations of every description.
Notable Industrial Figures
A diligent search - along with considerable cost - will turn up bonds and stock certificates signed by famous people during the early years of financing their businesses. Hobbyists seek out documents carrying the signatures of such industrialists as Henry Ford, John D Rockefeller, Walt Disney and Thomas Edison.
Wide Availability
While the rare and valued items can be quite expensive, there is a huge supply of fine financial ephemera available for very modest prices . Bulk lots of 19th century stocks and bonds can be easily obtained for prices in the range of a dollar or two each.
There is a wealth of online information and resources available including organizations, books, and websites. Simply start your search with "Scripophily" and get carried into an interesting universe.
Definition needed.
Definition needed.
Trade cards
by Ben Crane
Trade cards evolved from cards of the late 1700s used by tradesmen to advertise their services. Although examples from the early 1800s exist, it was not until the spread of color lithography in the 1870s that trade cards became plentiful. By the 1880s, trade cards had become a major way of advertising America's goods and services, and a trip to the store usually brought back some of these attractive, brightly colored cards to be pasted into a scrapbook. The popularity of trade cards peaked around 1890, and then almost completely faded by the early 1900s when other forms of advertising in color, such as magazines, became more cost effective. Although trade card collecting began over 100 years ago, today's strong interest in trade cards began relatively recently. Trade cards that were bought for ten cents thirty years ago frequently bring ten dollars or more in today's market--and some have even sold for over a thousand dollars.
Be sure to view the online exhibitions Dolls as Advertising Gimmicks and Japanesque Trade Cards.
Trade catalogs
by Richard McKinstry
In his Guide to American Trade Catalogs, Lawrence Romaine discusses the usefulness of trade catalogs to researchers who were trying to understand our country's past: "Manuscript material and printed reports are indispensable, " he wrote, "but the catalogs that actually sold the nation the inventions and improvements are the backbone of business history." In addition, individuals interested in the appearance and cost of household goods of years past, architectural details, old hand tools, antique medical instruments, agricultural implements, the development of printing technology, and a host of other topics would do well to collect and study trade catalogs. Although they were originally intended as a short-lived merchandising tool, trade catalogs are now an important source of delight and information about the life of our forebears. Common forms are the mail-order catalog, catalogs that offered premiums to their readers, specialized catalogs geared to specific events like world's fairs, and catalogs issued "for the trade only."
by Richard McKinstry
We identify St. Nicholas with Christmas, St. Patrick is recognized by all who are or who would like to be Irish, and we are forever grateful to St. Valentine for being the patron saint of lovers. To celebrate St. Valentine's day our colonial ancestors made their own valentine cards, complete with illustrations and original verses. Early valentines were done in watercolor or pen and ink; they often included cutouts; and rebuses, acrostics, and other kinds of puzzles were commonplace. Absent envelopes, these valentines were folded, sealed with wax, and often hand delivered. As printing developed and as America's postal system matured, valentines became an accepted way to convey one's love. During the late nineteenth century companies headed by McLoughlin Brothers, Louis Prang, Charles Magnus, and others owed much of their prominence and success to their production of valentine cards. To learn more, read "Valentines — The Language of Love" by Nancy Rosin
NOTE TO SELF: Fix formating on linked article
Victorian Scraps
By strict definition, a die cut paper item simply means that the finished shape was stamped out of a printed sheet using a steel-rule die. The process is much like a cookie-cutter that makes shaped cookies out of a sheet of dough. Some ephemera items found in die cut shapes include greeting cards and trade cards.
But what hobbyists usually intend when referring to a "die cut" is a particular category of ephemera that was originally called "scrap"; the "die cut" adjective was added in recent years.
Victorian-era scrap were colorful small paper figures including people, flowers, animals, plants. ships and almost anything else you could imagine. Scrap became popular at about the time stone lithography color printing came into vogue in the 19th century. Scrap rarely carried advertising and were typically purchased at stationary and gift retailers. Continuing the interesting word development, what we today call a "scrapbook" originated in Victorian times when people pasted their scrap in plain paper books for safekeeping and easy viewing.
Another interesting characteristic of Victorian era scrap is that it came on sheets that combined a group of related individual scrap items. The buyer or user needed to tear apart the individual scrap items for mounting in their books. Today, original sheets of un-separated scrap are quite rare and prized by collectors. See image of minstrel band musicians in a vintage sheet of un-separated scrap.
For many examples of die cut scrap, here are Google image links for Victorian Scrap and Victorian Scrapbooks.
Watch papers
by Richard McKinstry
Watch papers are small printed round paper inserts that were placed in pocket watches to protect their inner workings from dust. They were printed on one side with the names and addresses of the watchmaker or fixer, and a manufacturing or repair date was often handwritten on the paper. Some bore intricate illustrations, often showing allegorical figures and even timepieces. Despite their importance as a practical complement to watches and examples of printing art, a modern Webster's dictionary slights them, proclaiming that a watch paper is "an old-fashioned ornament for the inside of a watchcase made of paper fancifully cut or printed."
Images and text below provided by Ron Schieber
Size of the watch papers shown is approximately 2 inches in diameter. Papers/Labels are hand dated about 50% of the time and are often found with considerable ageing and wear. I have yet to see one with a printer's I.D. The first pocket watches originated in 16th Century Tudor England. The first reliable time piece for ocean navigation was developed for Queen Anne in the 1700s by John Harrison. At that time pocket watches were a prestigious item, and at one time in America they were taxed by some state governments. Fourteen carat solid gold was taxed at a higher rate. The first wristwatch was developed by Patek Philippe in the 19th Century (1868). Wristwatches were considered a ladies item until World War I, when soldiers began using them. For more clock, pocket and wrist watch information check Wikipedia.


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BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) – Serbia's ruling conservatives said June 19 if Prime Minister-designate Ana Brnabic doesn't get enough votes to be confirmed by parliament as the first openly gay person to head the country's government, an early general election will be held.
Brnabic, nominated last week by Serbian Present Aleksandar Vucic, could also become the conservative nation's first female prime minister if she's selected. But some of Vucic's coalition partners said they will vote against her because of her sexual orientation.

subset: commoncrawl


text: Our blog has been dormant for too long and there are peace issues we want to bring to the table. We hope you will join us in commenting on peace issues of interest to you. With the recent events in Syria and the elementary school shooting in Connecticut, we felt it was important to open the dialog about the ways in which peacemaking can impact acts of violence. We also want to alert you to the Camino de Santiago "Walk for Peace" that is being organized for September of 2013. We're still in the planning stages, so watch for more details in January, 2013. We'll invite you to join us from whatever part of the world you're from.


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Paperback Writer sung in Italian is my choice for today, so if you have never heard the Beatles singing in Italian before now is your chance.
It has been raining here this morning which after a sunny week is a bit of a disappointment as it is my Birthday today. It has brightened up a little so if the rain holds off we plan to to go and see San Pellegrino in Fiore (Flower Festival in Viterbo) later this afternoon and then out for a meal this evening to celebrate.
I hope you are all enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend.
More links to Sunday Songs in the blogsphere can be found by visiting


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2019 Calendar
Will be posted when events are scheduled — please check back.
Past Years' Events:
2017 Calendar
Group Wellness Retreats
The beautiful, high-desert wilderness of the Apache Springs Ranch, located deep within the Coronado National Forest, makes it a natural choice for the hosting of Group Wellness Retreats. A typical day might start with yoga overlooking the canyon or in the old adobe barn, followed by a nutritious breakfast before embarking on a mountain hike or canyon exploration, a meditative walk in the "Man in the Maze" labyrinth (a native style originally designed by the Tohono O'odham people), a trail ride on horseback, some instruction on the ancient skill of fire-making while enjoying an outdoor meal overlooking the canyon, ending with a reflective soak in the hot tub with friends while looking at a full night sky that reveals so much more in the undisturbed darkness of the wilderness. The luxurious accommodations will provide you with the peaceful sleep you need to begin the next morning refreshed and eager for more discovery. After a few days of being immersed in this wilderness setting, nature's drumbeat will have established its' rhythm deep within your body and will return with you to home, refreshed and ready to help you tackle your daily challenges.
Medicine for the people: The Power and Magic of Being Yourself
March 3-5, 2017 at Apache Springs Ranch
An Equus Retreat with Koelle Simpson and Bridgette Boudreau
During major life changes we've found that learning from nature itself, most especially horses, always helps us to reconnect to a deeper sense of our own truth.
Due to their high level of sensitivity, horses are kind, honest, and gentle teachers that are acutely aware of our internal emotional states. They can offer us a safe environment to consciously reconnect with our suppressed needs, our genuine emotions, and the patterns we bring to our relationships. Bridgette and I are joining together with a team of very wise horses for a chance to be in community, play, laugh and support you as you embrace the next chapter of your own journey.
This retreat is an opportunity to discover and integrate what life is asking of you. It's an opportunity to take the practical steps needed restore your sense of well-being in the midst of uncertainty.
Retreat Schedule:
- Friday, March 3rd – from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm – Introduction & Dinner
- Saturday, March 4th – from 8:30 am to 7:00 pm – Reconnecting with Your True Nature Workshop Activities
- Sunday, March 5th – from 8:30am to 7:00pm – Being Yourself in Community Workshop Activities
A Single Sign-Up Fee is $2,000
SPECIAL PRICING! Sign-Up with a friend and receive a ($250 discount each) – each of you pay $1750 Book through Koelle Institute for Equus Coaching
What's Included:
- The option for transportation to and from Apache Springs Ranch should you choose to lodge with us onsite
- All meals starting with the arrival dinner on Friday night and concluding with the departure breakfast on Monday morning.
- All workshop activities on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
What's not included:
- Your airfare
- Your lodging at Apache Springs or a nearby hotel option.
Where to fly into: Tucson International Airport
Lodging Onsite:
Apache Springs Ranch Lodging rates: $160 – $320 per night and can include transportation to and from the ranch. Lodging & transportation is not included in the workshop fee. Please email email@example.com to reserve lodging and transportation to and from the ranch.
For more details and to book this workshop, go to Koelle Institute for Equus Coaching
2016 Calendar
Group Wellness Retreats
Click on month to view archived events.
Natural Horsemanship Weekend Clinics with Australia's Carlos Tabernaberri
Apache Springs Ranch welcomes Carlos Tabernaberri, Australia's horse gentler, trainer, and author of Through the Eyes of the Horse, for a series of 3-Day Weekend Retreats in March 2016.
The venue is a magnificient 160 acre private ranch located in Arizona's Coronado National Forest, less than an hour south of the Tucson International Airport.
Carlos will offer his teachings, and horse wisdom on these weekends:
- Fri morning, March 4 to Sun afternoon, March 6, 2016
- Fri morning March 11 to Sun afternoon, March 13, 2016
- Fri morning March 18 to Sun afternoon, March 20, 2016
The registration cost for you and your horse to attend each 3 day clinic is $600 (includes hay and board). The cost to audit the course is $50/day, or $100 for all 3 days.
We are available to provide you with additional information on the cost of accommodation options, horse rental, meal plans, and general info about Apache Springs Ranch.
Become an Extraordinary Leader, Rider, and Partner…Through The Eyes of the Horse with Carlos Tabernaberri.
If you want to experience a horsemanship clinic with a difference, this is it. There's plenty of information and just as much saddle (and bareback) time.
A clinic with Carlos covers topics such as horse psychology; body language; trust and unity; partnership; developing awareness, feel, balance and self-carriage; bitless riding and much more. Clinic participants are also invited to put forward their own areas of interest or concern, such as trailer loading, bucking, rearing, handling feet or fear of riding that we address in the clinic context.
Regardless of whether you are new to horses or experienced, whether you currently own a horse or not, these clinics emphasise the importance of understanding between you and your horse in order to form a lifelong partnership based on trust and non-violence.
Horsemanship clinic participant numbers are limited to ensure maximum benefit for all, but fence sitters are always welcome and actively included. Be sure to book early to guarantee a place! Private lessons will also be offered.
Carlos' website: www.whisperingacres.com.au Clinic brochure (PDF): Natural Horsemanship Clinics Article: Award-Winning Horse Listener and "Wonder from Down Under" Carlos Tabernaberri… Article: Meet Melbourne's horse listener
Experience a retreat at Apache Springs Ranch:
Immerse yourself in the high-desert wilderness while also enjoying the true comfort of traditional Southern Arizonan accommodations through a retreat at Apache Springs. Take advantage of this extraordinary opportunity to learn from Carlos Tabernaberri here in March 2016!
Horses available:
If you cannot bring your horse and would like to participate in this exceptional clinic with Carlos, there are horses available through AZ Horseback. Please contact Ron Izzo of AZ Horseback Experience and he will guide you in choosing the best horse for you to ride in this workshop.
www.horsebackexperience.com. 520-455-5696. Email: email@example.com.
Please Note ~ You must be an Intermediate* or Advanced** rider for this option and the horse fee is $100/day. Registration and deposit to be completed by February 15, 2016, in order for AZ Horseback to provide a horse for you for any of the 3 weekends in March.
*Intermediate – The intermediate rider has taken lessons or trained under a mentor for a while, rides in a specific discipline (or has experience in several disciplines) and may compete. He or she has ridden several different types of horses and can independently manage a horse's care. Their seat is secure, they do not apply unintentional aids to the horse when they lose balance or become unseated. They know how to rise or post to the trot and ask for and obtain a specific lead or change in lead. They are capable of riding a less experienced horse and helping in that horse's training. They are able to train/compete at a more advanced level with a trainer's assistance. The intermediate rider is knowledgeable about different horse breeds and disciplines. He or she knows basic horse conformation and can detect lameness issues.
**Advanced – Advanced riders have ridden most of their lives and have worked with a trainer/mentor for several years or had several years with intense riding instruction. They have competed successfully at recognized shows in their discipline. They are able to ride most horses including working with young/green horses without assistance. They know advanced manoeuvres in their preferred riding discipline and can positively affect the horse they are riding at all times. The advanced rider is able to teach lessons to beginners, break and train horses and teach a horse advanced manoeuvres. The advanced rider knows horse breeds and conformation well and is able to detect unsoundness vs. blemishes in a horse.
The Nature of Spirit Retreat with Jaime Myers
Dates: April 28, 29, 30, and May 1, 2016
The Nature of Spirit Retreat is a magical experience that will leave you rejuvenated, inspired and with an expanded experience of freedom, choice and connection.
Led by Jaime Myers, Founder of Shine Life Design, the Nature of Spirit Retreat is for women who want to explore, learn, grow and lead their best, most fulfilling life. It's for open hearted women who are turned on by the extraordinary and stand for others' greatness as well as their own.
April 28, 29, 30 and May 1, 2016 ~ Limited to 16
Check in begins Thursday at 4:00pm and concludes on Sunday at 1:00 pm. Our first session will start Thursday at 5:30pm and will lead into dinner.
A convenient shuttle to Apache Springs Ranch from the Tucson International Airport will be provided at 4:00pm Thursday and will leave the ranch at 1:30pm Sunday to return to the airport.
Tuition (from $1950 depending on room choice) includes:
- 3 Night Accommodations at the newly renovated Apache Springs Ranch recently featured in Phoenix Home and Garden Magazine. The ranch has a rich history and is located in Sonoita, AZ (45 min outside Tucson).
- Heathy & Nourishing Organic Meals and Snacks.
- Group Sessions with Jaime Myers to deepen your connection to your intuition and shift from struggle, fear and questioning to ease, freedom and momentum.
- A balance of conceptual and experiential learning with plenty of time to relax, hike, read, journal and enjoy the ranch.
- Painting and Creative Art Sessions to music in the newly restored barn, overlooking the awe-inspiring canyon. These sessions with artist, Laurie Eastwood will reignite play and bring you from your head to your heart.
- Fireside Conversation and Nature Walk with Apache Elder, Juan Villarreal. His presence, words and wisdom bring a connection to nature in new and profound ways.
- Shamanic Drumming with Dream Healer, Corinn. A healing meditative drum journey for clarification of your path and connection to spirit.
- An opportunity to spend time with the beautiful horses on the ranch.
- Evenings under the stars with wine and soul filling conversation.
More details about the Nature of Spirit Retreat, as well as registration are at:
Wild at Heart
Equine and Nature Based Coaching Retreat with TJ & Elizabeth
September 29 through October 2, 2016
'Wild at Heart' is a retreat for women who through the magic of coaching (with horses and humans!) want to…
- Tap into their inner strength and wisdom and discover how to live with more freedom
- Move beyond the 'daily grind', reconnect with themselves and find more peace and clarity
- Gain more insight into how they are 'showing up in the world' and get support in areas that where they feel stuck or confused
- Discover joyful, empowering strategies that can be applied to everyday life
More details are here: Full Flight Life Coaching: Wild at Heart


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If you think anyone can go and join a terrorist organization, you are wrong. You are as wrong as I was when I was worried about a friend who proved to be an admirer of militancy and guerrilla warfare. In his college days, he was a friend to a Mujahid in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. I never took his crave to go and fight a battle, seriously but his Mujahid friend did. And he never let him get close to his organization, weapons or anything 'militant' he had. Years after, the same old crazy guy spotted his Jihadi friend somewhere in the Middle East and tried to contact him. I was worried about him and maybe I have mentioned my worry somewhere in some article. I was worried that he may fall prey to ISIL or some other terrorist organization but after reading this research, I am a bit relieved.
This research; "The recruiter's dilemma: Signalling and rebel recruitment tactics" by Thomas Hegghammer of Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) published in 2012 in the Journal of Peace Research, made me understand that my 'once friend' has very little chances to succeed in joining a terrorist organization. How do terrorists recruit? Thomas Hegghammer in order to answer this, say; we know much about the profiles and pathways of recruits, but little about the strategies and tactics of recruiters. He presents an analytical framework that conceptualizes recruitment as a trust game between recruiter and recruit. He argues that the central logic shaping recruiter tactics is the search for cost-discriminating signs of trustworthiness, that is, signs that are too costly for mimics to fake, but affordable for the genuinely trustworthy recruit.
He argues; Terrorist recruiters face a primary trust dilemma in the uncertainty over the quality of recruits. They need people who are trust worthy, which means a combination of at least three qualities: willingness to fight, loyalty and vigilance. But according to different jihadi manuals, there must be some more qualities in a recruit. For example, the so-called Manchester Manual listed 14 desirable qualities in a prospective member: Islam, ideological commitment, maturity, willingness to sacrifice, obedience, ability to keep secrets and conceal information, good health, patience, tranquillity, intelligence, prudence, truthfulness, ability to observe and ability to conceal oneself. Another manual, entitled A Course in the Art of Recruitment (al-Qa'idi, 2008), advised recruiters to choose old friends or relatives who are not particularly religious and to avoid very pious people and certain types of professionals.
But these qualities, he says, cannot easily be seen but the signs in a terrorist recruit are notable. Recruiters observe, identify and evaluate these signs before probing and induction.
Researcher applies the framework to the case of 'al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula' (QAP), and finds that QAP's recruiters didn't pay attention to a recruit's tribal origin or social class. But they paid great attention to ethnicity. In 260's sample, there were no South Asians and only 12 non-Saudi Arabs. South Asians and non-Saudi Arabs, who together make up about a quarter of residents in Saudi Arabia, are thus underrepresented. He argues, that, it is fair to assume, then, that QAP did not trust non-Arabs and were less likely to trust non-Saudi Arabs than Saudis. Asian, African or Western features would thus have been a strong negative cue, while very dark- or light-skinned Arab features would have been a moderately negative one.
These preferences probably had both a rational and an irrational component. It would be easier to check the background of a Saudi than a foreigner and easier to communicate with anArab than a non-Arab. The low income and status of Asians in Saudi Arabia would have made them more susceptible to bribes and vulnerable to blackmail. At the same time, prejudice toward Asians and Africans is very widespread in the Kingdom, and the international jihadi movement has historically been characterized by a certain Arab chauvinism.
Apparently this seems true about Taliban's where majority is from tribal Afghanistan or Pakistan and speaks Pushto (correct me, if am wrong) but recruiters have used different methods to recruit new terrorist. Al-Qaeda preferred veteran jihadists who had been on the battleground in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia or somewhere else, whereas Taliban has depended on Madrassa students as well. Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has recruited terrorists from all over the world but surprisingly even they did not rely on the internet for the recruitment.
Writer is pursuing his MPhil at Iqra University Islamabad and blogs at Kashmirica.wordpress.com go say hello @imrankhushaal


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Only one resort can bring you dining options to delight every palate. Atlantis features 21 restaurants and 19 bars and lounges offering everything from fine dining to quick-and-easy favorites. Grab a quick bite pool side, indulge in creative, Bahamian dishes, endless buffets, beach front dinners or enjoy family-style meals. Dining reservations are required for all fine dining and à la carte options.
Enjoying the exquisite creations of a world-class chef is one of life's great pleasures.
Island life was made for casual meals in stunning locations.
Guests on-the-go have a variety of options for lunch, snacks, or a light dinner.
Soak up the sun and atmosphere while enjoying meals alfresco with friends and family.
Soak up the sounds of a live DJ at Atlantis' hot spots, the perfect places to savor a single-malt scotch or share an intimate nightcap.


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http://www.cbc.ca/ – Sep 08, 2016 – The Canadian Press
'Do we teach young people from a very young age to talk about suicide, to talk about mental health?'
A new study suggests that one in five Canadian teens has seriously considered attempting suicide in the previous year.
The survey by Kids Help Phone found that 22 per cent of more than 1,300 respondents thought about taking their own life. Almost half of them had also formulated a plan. Continue reading
Brittany Hoell
Mental illness is exactly what it says it is: an illness. Yet too often, others openly trivialize people suffering from these illness. The stigma that exists for individuals suffering from mental illness is often one of the worst aspects of having these diseases.
In fact, according to the United States surgeon general, stigma is the biggest barrier to mental health care. There are many reasons for this, but a huge factor is that stigma is not always intentional. Well-meaning friends can often be the worst offenders. Continue reading
KUALA LUMPUR: Society must discard its stigma against people with mental health problems because such an attitude only makes it more difficult for these people to come forward for treatment, said an expert.
Dr Uma Visvalingam, a consultant psychiatrist at Putrajaya Hospital, said there was prejudice against them because most people had misconceptions about their condition.
"They do not really understand the difference between mental illness and mental health problems. The two conditions have different medical approaches. Continue reading
By Mike Davies, Peterborough Examiner
Drew Merrett has thrown his support behind charity runs before but the Merrett Home Hardware Run For Mental Health is one really dear to his heart.
Merrett Home Hardware is the title sponsor for the downtown run Sept. 10 with presenting sponsor Bell Let's Talk. It will feature a 10K run, 5K run and a 2.5K family and children's walk/run. Details were unveiled during a press conference Thursday at Runner's Life. Continue reading
These too-often-believed myths can be harmful to you and your loved ones. Find out the facts from experts and women so you can help fight stigma and stay well.
When Annie Powell, 35, was in the midst of a 72-hour manic episode in February 2013, she felt like Superwoman: productive and energetic. "I went to the gym for a 5:30 a.m. class, worked all day, came home and went to the gym again with my family. Then, I stayed up all night and organized my office, worked more, cleaned the house and did laundry," says Annie.
Once the two-plus days ended, however, she crashed and fell into a deep depression. "I sat in the basement and stared at the wall for hours," says Annie. Continue reading
I am a neurotic Jewish mother living in New York City with my two children, ages five and eight. It's a familiar story here in the Big Apple. Where my story starts to diverge, however, is with my mental health. Unlike many of my fellow mothers, I am not just neurotic—I live with a panic disorder, PTSD, depression, and ADHD. On paper this looks overwhelming (no pun intended). But like so many of us living with mental illness, my diagnoses don't define me, nor are they immediately apparent. Upon meeting me, it's unlikely you'd feel something was particularly "wrong" with me. I come across as quirky, funny, and maybe a little anxious. But I certainly don't look like the stereotypes we see in pop culture—you know, like the cast of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? (Thanks for that, Jack Nicholson.) Continue reading
A recent poll suggests Canada still has not made enough strides on mental illness.
The new data collected by the Women's College Hospital in Toronto shows 40% of Canadians have experienced depression or anxiety but have not sought medical help.
Women's College Department of Medicine, Dr. Valerie Taylor believes the stigma surrounding the issue is still at the forefront. Continue reading
By Reece Alvarez
Mass killings such as the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings are happening with greater frequency, but is mental illness to blame as much as the media portrays it to be? A new study argues no.
On the heels of the mass murder in Orlando, Florida, the worst mass shooting in the history of the United States, it may come as no surprise that a new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has found a disturbing trend among leading media outlets: associating mental illness with violence, despite the fact that it plays a role in less than five percent of violent acts committed in the U.S. Continue reading
What should we do when our children start killing themselves?
What do we say? What do we do?
Parents, the public, friends, media and mental health professionals have to wrestle with that question after the cluster of suicides and suicide attempts by teenagers in Woodstock.
It was simple to answer the question only 10 years ago. Continue reading
New data shows 40 per cent of Canadians say they've experienced feelings of anxiety or depression — but haven't sought medical help.
The numbers come from a survey of more than 1,500 Canadian adults by Women's College Hospital and Shoppers Drug Mart.
The results offer a striking look at the level of stigma and shame still surrounding mental illness with 42 per cent of respondents saying they would be embarrassed to admit if they did have a mental health issue. Continue reading


text: Digital UK Politicians Are Taking Over Twitter [INFOGRAPHIC] By Lauren Dugan|October 26, 2011 Share By Lauren Dugan|October 26, 2011 Share Yatterbox is a new website that aggregates the tweets, status updates, RSS feeds and more of politicians around the world, so you can see what they're up to on social media. And in a new infographic looking at the data gathered by Yatterbox thus far, it looks like UK politicians are pretty tweet-obsessed. The infographic "UK Politicians as Seen by Yatterbox" took at look at just under 30,000 social media posts from all UK politicians with a social presence, and Twitter came away the big winner. Of these 30,000 posts, a massive 91 percent appeared on Twitter. Next came RSS with 5.3 percent, Facebook with 2.4 percent and Flickr with 1.3 percent. The majority of UK politicians signed up for Twitter between 2009 and 2010, although signups continue to accumulate. And just what are these tweeting politicians talking about? According to the word cloud in the infographic, the most popular topics are "media", "health", "social", "service" and "national". Sounds like political jargon to me, although it would be interesting to compare this word cloud to the word cloud from politicians from other countries. You can check out the infographic below for more information on how UK politicians are using Twitter, including a list of the top 10 most followed politicians, and which accounts influence your representatives more than others: Share http://adweek.it/2kM68Og copy Adweek Adweek


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A Refreshing Modern Coffee Table by Afiddesign
If you are looking for a coffee table that will simply hold up your coffee, you can find that anywhere. If you want a smooth and stylish centerpiece more likely to receive a positive compliment than your best cup of "joe", then the t2 from Afiddesign is a likely choice. The modern molded wood structure will draw attention in several finishes including Ash, Maple, Oak, Black Walnut, or Black stain. The Modern Coffee Table appears to float and takes on a variety of shapes depending on you vantage point, and hosts a nice storage space within its 3 or 4 leg version. Afiddesigns has a really clean contemporary furniture line with a light and minimal scale and I must says is most refreshing.
900 x 900 x 300 (4-sided option)
700 x 700 x 300 (3-sided option)


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One of the reasons families travel is exposure to different cultures, and nowhere is the divide more apparent between what we are used to and what we will experience than in two roads through Lancaster, PA. Route 30, the usual road through the area, is crammed with chain stores and strip malls.
The bucolic Old Philadelphia Pike, which more or less parallels Route 30, has traffic slowdowns when a horse and buggy pulls onto the road, or a cow wanders over from a nearby farm.
The escapee cow actually happened when I took my daughters, Sela, 17, and Nora, 12, and their cousin, Zoe, 10, on Aaron & Jessica's Buggy Ride. They were already having trouble digesting that the Amish not only don't go in cars, they don't have – gasp – Internet access. No cell phones, no Netflix, no iPods.
They do have semmingly incongruous websites, but the girls didn't pick up on that.
Our buggy ride included a farm tour, where we watched the cows getting milked and Nora got sprayed with cow poop. The girls were already squeamish about the horse poop that emanated continuously from 'our' horse, so the cow was just one more reminder that we were not in New York any more.
Of course, you can take a horse and carriage ride through Central Park, but your tour guide will be wearing a top hat and tails, not the traditional modest clothes favored by the Amish. And you won't follow this up with a meal at Plain & Fancy Farm Restaurant.
Plain & Fancy features an Amish Farm Feast with unlimited platters of meat, not the most obvious choice for a family of vegetarians. But the appetizers of potato salad, Chow Chow, (pickled vegetables) tomato salad, and rolls, almost filled us up; sides of mashed potatoes, dried sweet corn, green beans and noodles gave us more than enough to eat, even if heavy on the carbs. And then there was dessert: vanilla ice cream with apple or shoo-fly (molasses) pie.
Zoe, a carnivore, was in pig – and beef and chicken- heaven. She was served a platter of chicken, a chicken potpie, sausage and roast beef. Lest we feel guilty that we couldn't finish this cornucopia, our server told us that leftovers are fed to the animals.
By the way, the feast was $9.95 for kids ages 4-12. $18.95 for adults. Iced tea, lemonade, coffee and tea are included; an excellent local micro-brewed beer, from Lancaster Brewing Company, was only $3.
We stayed in the Lancaster Marriott at Penn Square, which has modern amenities – Wi-Fi in rooms, a beautiful heated indoor pool, valet parking, (for cars, not horses) all right across the street from Central Market, where you can pick up an excellent breakfast or the fixings for a picnic lunch. The indoor market, the country's oldest farmers' market, is open Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
The hotel's luxurious bedding – pillow top mattresses, high thread count linens and down comforters, practically guarantees a good night's sleep. The Marriott is part of the 'Nickelodeon Your Stay' promotion, where kids get a free activity pack with SpongeBob SquarePants goodies and a special turndown service (through December 26, 2010).
You could check it all out on your smartphone – as long as you are not Amish.


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"Do you think of yourself as a beef producer or a grass producer?" a representative from DuPont asked a group of ranchers during his presentation at the Nebraska Cattlemen's Classic. "If you don't grow grass, you can't grow beef."
Craig Alford, a range, pasture and invasives portfolio manager with DuPont, gave a presentation on pasture management during the Nebraska Feedlot and Veterinary Day, which was held for the first-time ever during the Classic.
Alford said every rancher should have a goal to develop more grass for their operation.
"If you have more grass, you can run more cattle, have more hay to cut, and less feed to purchase," Alford said. "You will also have higher weaning weights on your calves, and an overall, more efficient operation."
To read the entire article, link here.


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From Chicago, Illinois, USA:
I am considering adopting a child whose father (early 20's) has type 1 diabetes. What is the likelihood that the child will develop diabetes? Does the percentage change whether the child is male or female? Are there any tests that can be performed on an unborn child to determine if the child has diabetes? If not, at what age can a child be tested?
The risk of a child developing diabetes inherited from a diabetic father is around 6%, not terribly likely. It seems from recent statistics that this risk is preferentially transmitted towards his female offspring. There are no test so far on an unborn child. A genetic test can be performed at birth to assess his/her susceptibility while autoantibodies can be tested better after one year of age (and repeated yearly) to detect the very beginning of the autoimmune process. And you must remember, we still don't have any magic bullet to be ready to use for intervention when the antibodies are detected.
Original posting 4 Jul 1999
Posted to Genetics and Heredity and Research: Causes and Prevention
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Last Updated: (none)
This Internet site provides information of a general nature and is designed for educational purposes only. If you have any concerns about your own health or the health of your child, you should always consult with a physician or other health care professional.
This site is published by T-1 Today, Inc. (d/b/a Children with Diabetes), a 501c3 not-for-profit organization, which is responsible for its contents. Our mission is to provide education and support to families living with type 1 diabetes.
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Sun staff photos can be ordered by visiting our SmugMug site.
LOWELL -- For over seven decades the best amateur boxers in New England have ventured to Lowell to cut their teeth, as well as bloody their noses, on the sweet science.
Boxing greats Rocky Marciano, Marvin Hagler, Micky Ward and John Ruiz first put up their dukes and began banging their way to top of their respective weight classes at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium.
Now the next generation of unheralded baby boomers are prepared to step into the ring and begin pounding out a path to boxing glory.
The 72 annual Central New England/Greater Lowell Golden Gloves Tournament will get underway at the Auditorium Friday at 7:30 p.m.
This tournament has become a fixture on the Mill City's sports calendar, producing memories of thrilling victories and agonizing defeats that have withstood the test of time.
Sun staff photos can be ordered by visiting our SmugMug site.
"I'm excited to get things going," said Bob Russo, Executive Director of the New England Golden Gloves. "It's such a great tradition. It's great to see these kids just starting out and following them as they advance in the tournament and ultimately move on in the sport.
"New England has produced some great boxers in the past. Some all-time greats, Marciano and Hagler, and of course Micky Ward, got their start in the Gloves. You can feel the tradition of the Gloves as soon as you enter the Auditorium on a fight night. It's a great sporting tradition in Lowell. It's as much a winter sports tradition in these parts as skiing or skating."
Male and female Open and Novice Division boxers will compete for Central/Greater Lowell titles, with the winners advancing to fight for regional crowns.
The New England Novice Championships will be held at the Auditorium on Feb. 8 and 15. The New England Open Tournament of Champions will be held at the Auditorium Feb. 21 and 22. The male Open Division champions will represent the region at the National Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions in Omaha, Nebraska beginning May 14.
Season tickets for all nine Central/Greater Lowell Gloves shows start at $75.00 (general admission). Call the Auditorium box office at 866-722-8881 for details.
Individual tickets are also available at the door, starting at $13.00. Students with an ID can get in for $7.00.
"I think it's the best tournament around," said long-time Golden Gloves Director of Contestants Arthur Ramalho. "You won't find a better boxing event. The only thing I'd like to see is more fans in attendance. In the old days the Auditorium was always sold out. I think we're going to give fans some real good fights this year. I know they're going to like what they see and keep coming back."
Ramalho runs the West End Gym in Lowell. The West End will feature plenty of competitors in the Open and Novice Divisions.
"We have a pretty good team," said Ramalho. "We have a lot of tough Open fighters and we have some good looking Novice fighters. You never know how they're going to do, but I know they're in great shape. They're training hard."
Among the Novice boxers Ramalho has high hopes for are Reggie Celestin, 20, of Lawrence and Scott Nardella, 18, of Lowell. Celestin and Nardella each plan on fighting at 141-pounds.
Celestin, who has one amateur bout under his belt, is scheduled to fight James Quealy of Dorchester Friday.
"I'm excited," said Celestin. "I know it's a pretty cool tournament. It's crazy to think I'll be boxing in an event with the tradition of the Golden Gloves. I'm not very familiar with the Gloves, but I know it's big. Come Friday, I'll be familiar with it firsthand.
"I'm sure I'll be a little nervous. Everybody gets nervous, but once you take that first hit the nerves go away. That first punch bangs the nerves right out of you and you know it's time to fight."
Nardella will be making his amateur boxing debut at an upcoming Golden Gloves show.
"This is hopefully the start of my boxing career," said Nardella. "I'm trying to get my name out there and make something out of boxing. I've been training and working hard. Now the Gloves are here and it's time to fight.
"It's a great accomplishment and honor to fight in the Golden Gloves. I'm ready. I just have to keep calm and focus on my trainers. Pay attention to what's going on inside the ring and not what's going on outside the ring. I can focus on what's going on outside the ring when I'm celebrating my 'W.'"
Friday's card is scheduled to consist of 16 Novice Division bouts.
"We have plenty of contestants," said Russo. "We're never hurting for contestants. People keep say boxing is slowing down, but it's not. Not in this area. Golden Gloves boxing is a happening in Lowell."
Follow Carmine Frongillo on Twitter @cwfrongi


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Chuck Stewart's photography provided by Fireball Entertainment Group, courtesy of Chuck Stewart Photographs of John Coltrane, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
People have gone to Texas for many reasons. In the past, people went because they were running from something, such as Johnny Law or Jerry Influenza, while others went to get rich by digging in the ground for valuable commodities, such as oil and Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders. As for me, I came to Texas for a much less noble reason, which was to try to be a writer.
The sun rises over the mountains. A young girl wakes up and pads to the kitchen, where a pot of coffee has been left alone to brew. A plane passes close overhead. Out on the deck, a frayed hammock swings in the breeze.
The voices of Norma Navarrete and Ana Laura Rojas personified the sadness of Jennifer Curtis's violin as she arpeggiated the loss of human movement through her chord progressions. Impervious to any border, the music rose above the murmurings of conversations, the crush of the waves, the silence of the steel.
Armando Alvarez's photographs have been published several times in the Oxford American, and we love following his work on Instagram, where he posts portraits of overflowing trash cans, hazy Houston landscapes, strangely beautiful still lifes of junk food, and much more. Most recently, we printed his image of an old truck surrounded by fog in our Texas music issue.
Certain sections of our border wall have become bi-national art spaces. Politicians plaster campaign posters; immigrants inscribe their names, home villages, and dates of crossing. Muralists and graffiti artists layer image upon image.
On Texas, old newspapers, race music, and two black lives that shaped the history of civil rights.
C. F. Richardson was self-avowedly "militant." He used the word and lived it. On his draft card he identifies his race as Ethiopian. For a while he was employed as a printer, then as a night-watchman at a white newspaper. Through a connection he got himself hired as an editor at the black-Baptist Western Star, moving from there to the Houston Observer, where he started to write and make his name.
On Texas, old newspapers, race music, and two black lives that shaped the history of civil rights
In 1891, C. N. Love noticed how much money other state's newspapers were making on his labor and connections. He started the Navasota Echo, one of the first black papers in Texas, "the cheapest and best colored paper published west of the Mississippi," he boasted, calling it a publication "devoted to the interests of the people in general and the negro in particular."
An interview with Amanda Shires.
I was trying to be on my own in Lubbock, playing my own songs, but I guess people didn't see me like that. It was my fault, because I had to pay my rent, so I was still taking sideperson work, which kept me from being known as just that. I had written some songs with Thrift Store, but it was never an idea that I could do it on my own, solo, until Billy Joe told me to. He even said, "There's no loyalty in side work. This week, fiddle is cool, but next week, it might be a dobro, and then where will you be?"
By early summer, Houston is so muggy that all the edges blur. Temperatures slink into the low 90s and stay there. In certain neighborhoods, the smell of weed lingers, lending the air a permanent tang. Slabs, creeping slowly down the street, broadcast a sound indigenous to the city, a sluggish hazy rhythm that couldn't have been born in any other town.


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Sylmar (Veterans Park)
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Course Details
Course Reviews
I just started to play this course over the last year. It's a good course with a good amount of tough holes. Not much grass but since its apart from the rest of park there are no crowds.
My unle told me about how this coarse used to be all overgrown and not a friendly coarse but now it's improved and alot cleaner. Great coarse. Reasonably priced at $2. Best pro shop i've seen. All holes are great for begginers and pros. Very clean coarse. Theres alot of trees but their fun to maneuver through. Definitely gets a 5.
Probably the best choice for LA area golf, La Mirada is up there too.
Nice course design, some technical some long
Lots of variety in basket placements keeps it fresh
Nice up and down variety in holes
Very hot and dusty in summer
Sometimes big groups slow play down
$2 green fee - but pretty reasonable to keep it in shape
Sylmar is great fun. Well kept pay-to-play with a pro shop on site. Hills and Eucalyptus and sequential Red, White and Blue targets. Local boys got the contract with the County to operate the course and they have done well with the redesign. It deserves a 3.5 rating - but the PDGA site only allows either a 3 or a 4 vote. Going with 3 as the current rating is a bit high for this fine course.
This might be the best course in Los Angeles. The upkeep, the layout, the tees, the multiple pin placements and the constant pin placement switching, leaves this course different every week . The boys at Sylmar and constantly looking for harder pin placements, as each new tournament comes to town, and have put in a lot labor into the course this year. Although when in long position, it may be a little intimidating at a glance, but because the layout is very spacious (looks more open than it really is), it still a great place for beginners (best times are usually after tourneys, when they move many pins to the shortest position). The $2 fee is well worth it (especially if you've seen all the work put in), the pro shop is always helpful and with plenty of everything you need, and the people/locals always seem to be friendly. My only real drawback to the course is that some locals tend to move through the course at a very slow pace, and in large groups and don't let you play through unless you ask. Overall though, it's well worth the visit, $2 and any slow moving locals you might have to put up with. You have to play this course if you're a beginner or consider yourself good enough to go pro… you'll thank me.
This is one of my Favorite courses in southern Ca.!!! The course is pay to play but well worth it.(2$ for all day) It's well maintained year around. The Proshop is always full of great products (discs, bags, shirts, baskets, drinks and snacks) The staff is always friendly and willing to help.
The course can be fairly easy in the short positions and super tough in the long positions. They mix them up for the most part really well and I always enjoy playing out there and feel satisfied afterwards. I only get to play on the weekends for the most part and the downside for me is that sometimes some of the locals will play in semi big to huge groups and don't let smaller two-some or three-somes play through(but not always the case) witch can be discouraging but not a deal breaker at all.. This is a must play for intermedate to pro discgolfers and beginners can play here too.
Good course. Well kept pay-to-play with multiple pin positions, good elevation and some length. Well stocked pro shop. Dusty and hot in the summer. Cool Red, White and Blue sequence on the basket colors.
This course has made significant strides over the years. Multiple basket locations for each tee changed frequently. Much of the stickers and weeds have been cleared away. This is a challenging course with lots of trees and plenty of distance. I began playing disc golf close to when it was invented at Oak Grove, and Sylmar is one of my favorites and most challenging.
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NASA's SOHO telescope has just captured the last few moments of a comet as it smashed into the Sun. The Comet SWAN, presently officially known as C/2012 E2 (SWAN), can be clearly seen plunging into the Sun. SOHO's LASCO C2 and C3 camera took the photos, which were then stitched up to form a High-Definition video.
The point to note is that SWAN did not actually crash into the Sun. There was no contact – it vaporized much before that. The nearest distance calculated turns out to be 350,000 km away from the Solar surface, but probably, the comet was gone much before that.
Here is a stunning photo snapped by the LASCO C2 camera, which clearly shows the SWAN comet before its demise.
SWAN was a bright comet. Comet scientists were quite enthusiastic about it. Its doom was predicted by many and so SOHO knew exactly what to look for – and found it. Take a look at this spectacular video, all in 1080p goodness!
Please note that the ensuing solar flare seen in the video occurring diametrically opposite to the SWAN comet's trajectory is just a coincidence. The two events occur hours apart and the solar flare is completely uncorrelated to the cometary demise. No comet is big enough to cause that big a disturbance on the Sun's surface.
Enjoy the carnage.


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Redwood Regional Park, California, Photos.
Mostly flowers and fauna (butterflies, mainly) seen while hiking and running in Redwood Regional Park in the Oakland Hills east of Oakland, CA. Photos of special interest at top of first page. Use search box, upper right, to search by color, scientific or common name, or family. Flowers arranged and updated per Jepson Manual 2. Enjoy. Bob Sikora Although native to California, Nemophila maculata, 2 of the Clarkias and the Large Flowered Linanthus have not been reported in nature in Alameda Co. They were introduced in the spring of 2010. rs 9/4/10 Please see the very end of this gallery for an important park development.Read More


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Canon Pixma iP4300
Canon Pixma iP4300
The Pixma iP4300 is fast, its print quality is good, and it has some nice features. Though it does suffer from a few design shortcomings, we recommend it highly.
The Pixma iP4300 set records in all of our speed tests, blasting through ten pages of text at a rate of 11.9 pages per minute. Graphics and photos also printed at a fast pace.
Its print quality showed the advantages of its five-ink design, which uses cyan, magenta, yellow, black, and pigment-black cartridges. The last of these inks helped produce black and mostly precise text output. Photos looked bright and natural on glossy paper, but on plain paper the same images looked a bit grainy and had some banding. Grayscale photos appeared a little rough, and diagonal or curved lines seemed slightly jagged.
The Pixma iP4300 has automatic duplexing (allowing for two-sided printing)--a great bonus for a photo printer at this price. It comes with two 150-sheet input trays, one vertical and one flat-mounted underneath. To designate which tray to use, you press a slim button on the front control panel; next to it, a lighted diagram confirms your choice. The supplied output tray can hold 75 pages.
This printer combines useful features and solid performance, but the design seems intended for sharp-eyed people only. Controls are labeled with small, unintuitive icons that do not clearly indicate their functions. Markings for the PictBridge port and the flat-mounted input tray are in almost the same color as the surrounding plastic, which makes them hard to read.
Though printed and HTML-based documentation for this printer is generally good, the Easy Setup Instructions poster doesn't always make things easy. It assumes that you know what and where all the parts are (for a detailed explanation, you must consult the HTML-based guide). An illustration of how to adjust the paper size in the tray mounted beneath the printer fails to explain how all the sliders work--and they're tricky.
Canon throws in some useful bundled software. Easy-PhotoPrint and PhotoRecord let you edit, organize, and print digital photos. Easy-WebPrint helps you format and print Web content so it doesn't run off the page.
The Pixma iP4300 has it all: speed, impressive output quality, and a good price.
Melissa Riofrio
Canon Pixma iP4300
The Pixma iP4300 combines speed and impressive overall output quality with a very appealing price.
- Prints both text and photos well
- Automatic duplexing
- Control panel elements are small
- Confusing setup documentation


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first ever webpage
Oh my goodness... as if you didn't have enough to read without me adding another blog.
BUT I have just produced my first ever webpage... yes, that's right. My VERY OWN webpage!
Not that it's anything great (it reads like this "This is my first homepage. I am learning what to do I've never done anything like this before") and I have no idea how to upload it to the internet so you can view the marvel, but there it is, on my computer screen. A marvel indeed!
Check out this address for details: http://www.w3schools.com/web/web_html.asp
It's teaching me everthing I need to know.


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Pilates Oblique Series on the SUP
We cover three great SUP Pilates exercises to really work your obliques and help develop your core balance to a new level.
You've probably already noticed the integrative involvement of the oblique muscles during the traditional sweeping motion of Stand Up Paddle Boarding. The oblique muscles are part of the abdominals and cross diagonally along the side of your torso from the rib cage to the pubic bone. These muscles are responsible for side bending and twisting of the waist. Strengthening the obliques protects the back, improves posture, and slims the waist.
Oblique exercises are an integral part of Pilates training being that the goal is to create balance in musculature throughout the core. Below are some Pilates exercises that can be done with the added instability challenge of the stand up paddle board.
Lie on your side in a straight body line with one hand supporting your head and the other hand propped in front of you on the board for balance. Engage the obliques to raise up both legs from the paddle board. Maintain balance on the bottom hip while kicking the legs from front to back in an alternating fashion. Complete 12 kicks with each leg on each side.
Lie on your side in a straight body line with one arm resting straight under your head and the other hand propped in front of you on the board for balance. Engage the obliques to raise up both the upper body and the lower body from the paddle board into a side arch position. Hold briefly and then return to the board. Repeat 6 times on each side.
Side plank with leg raise
Position yourself sideways on the board in a straight body line with the bottom arm supporting you in a perpendicular placement and the top arm near the other wrist for initial balance. Once you have reached a point of stability, raise the top arm towards the sky and hold for 20 seconds. For an additional challenge, maintain the side plank position while raising and lowering the top leg 6 times. Repeat on each side.
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