text:
Pak Army has again proved that it is among the best armed forces in the world.
It has made a world record by deploying tanks on the highest elevation level of 12,000 feet above sea level. This is the feat that has remained unaccomplished otherwise.
The deployment has come as part of the Pak Army's strategy in the war against the terrorists. The step has been undertaken by the armored regiment of Pakistan Armored Corps.
The tanks made their way to Brekh Muhammad Kandao Pass, a part of the Koh-e-Safed, which is 3,176 meters above the sea level and is opposite to Torra Bora mountains of Afghanistan's Nangarhar province.
The deployment of tanks at such a high level is an attempt to ensure the nation's safety.
Via: Trending
You did not mention the costs involved. Why don't we make peace with neibours?
Impossible. We will eat grass but never ever make peace.
Ask this Question to Neighbours my dear….
Brother its a problem of Mentality. Agr hum Middle of the Arctic bhe move kar jain tou wahan bhe koi na koi Dushman create kar lain gy. Although our neighbors bhe doodh k dhuly nahi hain pr hum bhe koi Farishty nahi rhy kabhi.
Beaconhouse mentality.
We do want peace but
(i) Can you please mention one area that Pakistan has occupied against the will of the residents?
(ii) Can you please mention any area forcefully occupied by Pakistan where we torture and even kill the innocent residents?
Brother hum ne aaj tk Social Studies parhi hai jis main Sab Acha hai aur Zindabad ki Girdaan hai. Kabhi 65 War py International Researchers ki Research Parh lejiye ga. Kargil k bary main bhe suna ho ga aap ne. Uss se bhe pehly 48 main Kashmir main ghusy thy hum.
I know k hamary neighbors bht achy nahi hain jb moqa mila unho ne faida uthaya hai but baat yeh bhe hai k hum bhe peechy nahi rahy kabhi.
Dear brother! As you can see I did not even mention any of events you pointed to. That is an entirely separate topic and I would have commented about it if it were point of interest here. I can say with confidence that if Pakistan military power were not at the point where it is, although I agree it costs quite much, our fate would have been no different than our Kashmiri brothers and sisters. The proof is unrpovoked shelling at border every other day, injuring and even killing innocent Pakistani citizens. We may not be good as a nation, we may not be very good at making peace with our PEACE LOVING neighbor, we may be spending too much on military equipment, let me ask you this. Does any of this make the miserable lives of Kashmiri Muslims any less important? Kashmir is and has always been a Muslim majority, even before partition. The people there were, and have always been, denied their right to choose what they want for themselves even if it is a separate country. And while many of us will jump in and point out so many faults in Pakistan, it's people, it's politicians, it's military, it's a fact that if it were not for Pakistan's support for Kashmir, people there would have met fate no different than Rohingiya.
I agree with you on almost all the things you mention brother. Question yeh hai k kya sirf Kashmiri he hain jin py hamary paroos main Zulm ho raha hai? Uighur muslims ko kyn bhol jaty hain aap? Aap k sb se achy friend ne almost 1 million Uighur muslims ko internment camps main bnd kar rkha hai. Muslims ko chorain Islam py sakht tareen pabandiyan hain Rozy nahi rakh skty namaz nahi parh skty aur aap k Prime minister IK kehty hain k hamain nahi maloom Uighur muslims k barey main hum bas yeh janty hain k China hamara Friend hai. Tou baat agr Muslims brothers ki hai aur hum itna dard e dil rakhty hain tou hamain sirf Kashmiri's ki fikar nahi honi chahiye balkeh humain aur hamari Military Establishment ko Uighur muslims k barey main bhe awaz uthani chahiye. Sirf Kashmir ki baat karna baqi muslims ko nazar andaz karna kis qisim ki hamdardi hai ?
India media hamary barey main batata hai k hum daily shelling kary hain log marty hain aur hamara media unhain bura dikhata hai. Aap mujhy batain k iss sb main siwaey dono taraf ki Armies k kisy faida pohanch rha hai? Every year defence budget increase ho jata hai kis ka faida hota hai iss sb main ? Countries ka tou bilkul bhe nahi hota. Apni Apni awam ki nazar main dosry ko Jin bana k rakhna hai tabhi karobar chata rahy ga.
Tayyip erdogan k Turky ne apni Strong army establishment ko Peechy hata k itni taraqqi ki hai. Unn ka model hum kyn nahi follow kar skty? Kya Turkey k km enemies hain area mai ? Kya woh khatam ho gaey ?
Yaham military industrial complex chal rhy hain bhai aur dono taraf ki awam k zehno main dar baitha diya gya hai. Well hum subcontinent waly Turkey k literacy rate se bhe boht pechy hain hum kahan smjhain gy yeh sb batain. Decades chahiyen aisi soch paida hony main.
Is betuki harkat py Dunya taliyan nahi baja rhi hans rhi hai k Tank upper pohncha diya. Quickly Move nahi kar skta Easy Target rahy ga kisi bhe Missile / Weapon ka yeh kis qisim ki Tactics hain kesi soch hai yeh. Hum ne China se mill kr Home Made JF17 Thunder bana liya hai Kabhi research kar lejiye ga k Uss Jet main hamari kya chezain / zehen / soch use hui hai.
Beaconhouse mentality
I don't why these burger take part in the discussion even they don't have idea of all the things related to politics or country…
Because they have not joined the military elite and are not enjoying at the moment. Military elite does not men military as a whole.
Its not to be proud moment. Its ashamed that we have taken this battle everywhere and nowhere is peaceful. We would not make peace untill we are free from interventions(my friend said so). Pak Fouj Zindabad (Qasmien yeh mien keh rha hon).
We need to think more responsibly and more maturely about our economy and our budget. Can we afford things like this, are they necessary, when we have severe irrigation problems, agriculture issues, education, infrastructure, etc.
Military have a fix budget they will take that money even if they have to use force. They don't care whether normal people are dying of hunger
Do you cares Normal People???
Beaconhouse mentality.!
Comment section is almost full of economic suggestions hahaha
@Zeshan I am happy that our people are realizing that what is actually required for the progress of Pakistan. Wars don't build nations. Infrastructure, education and economy do.
@Zeshan I am happy that our people are realizing that what is actually required for the progress of Pakistan. Wars don't build nations. Infrastructure, education and economy do.
Nothing to be happy about it. This tank is deployed in KP against our own people. The world is laighing at us. They are progressing economically and we are happy waging wars inside Pakistan. People living in FATA are our own people. They need economic progress not wars.
Kindly stop these dramas. Work hard, take education, be tolerant and fight against poverty and ignorance.
Our real enemy is hunger, lack of education and development, inquality and the division between the rich and poor. We should wage war against the injustice and should try hard to make our country economically better. The countries with strong economies are running the world. We should do the same.
Taliban are Khwarij according to the definitions in Ahadith. And Khawarij are not our people. They have to be crushed with force according to Ahadith. Read about Khawarij first.
Stupid people here should know its there to have peace in the first place. People have forgotten the situation 5 years ago
Tanks are usually designed for mobile warfare where the opposition is also armored and is an offensive weapon. I do not see that tank doing penetration work here. It seems that it will simply fall off the cliff if it goes forward to Afghanistan to punish the bad guys there.
Jinko Jalna hai Jale : But Pak Army Ne Jo Kiya Wo Sahi Kiya Bus
Phir yunhi inkay gulam banay rehna. There is a term for it actually. Its called Stockholm Syndrome. Look for it on Google…
Abdul Wahab sharam karo, kiyoon military kay ghulam banay ho, Open mind kee tarah Hindustan, Israel, aur america kay ghulam bano na — warna hum tum say kuttee rahein gay!
Ghareeb awam ka paisa hai, urai jaao jawanoo….
India don't want peace
stop blaming yourself
Taliban are Khwarij according to the definitions in Ahadith. And Khawarij are not our people. They have to be crushed with force according to Ahadith. Read about Khawarij first ….
aap is hadith ki baat kar rahay hain?
"There will come a people from the east who recite the Quran but it will not go beyond their throats. They will pass through the religion just as an arrow pierces its target and they will not return to it just as the arrow does not return to the bow."
Bhai jan, east main to Pakistan bhi aata hy? why are you saying ky sirf Taliban hi Khwarij hain..
Ap bohot sada bannay ki koshish kar rahay hain. Khawarij k baray main hendreds ahadeeth hain. Google 'ahadeeth about khawarij' or signs of khawarij'
Enemy of Pakistan=Liberal Mentality (landay k angraiz)
English bolnay
hair color karwanay
Jeans phenanay
Burger khana
Or English sunanay
Say ap log angraiz nehi ban pao gay (kio k landay k angraiz genuine nehi ho saktay ) or na hum log mutasir ho gay… To apnay level pe a jao shabash
yani ky aap ky low level py aa jao. bhai… koi angraiz nae banan chahta.. bus aap ka level uper karna chahty hain.. takay aap yeh ghulami ki soch sy bahir niklain aur khud ka aur apnay bachaoun ky future ka kuch sochain. Ager angraizi bolna aur angraizi labas pehanany wala Pakistan ka dushman hy to Quaid say bara koi Pakistan ka dushman nae ho sakta. I hope you get the point.
I love the way libtards twist the discussion.
Wearing western clothes weas never an issue, seeling your soul to west was — which happens when you have a deep sense of inferiority complex.
Fauj kee ghulamee qabeool naheen. Laikin angraiz kay tulway chat-tay moon mein chalay naheen atay tum logon kay!
Shame on you hypocrites!
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text:
Of glasses & sour grapes: What to do with life's lemons
Wednesday, May 02, 2018
The first time I suspected there was a problem was in junior secondary school.
(Destiny's Child was topping the charts at the time for 'No, No, No, No, No')
It was the awards season in school, usually organised individually by the trio of the Drama, Music and Press Club at the end of third term exams, to confer social awards on the outgoing SS3 class.
(You could call it our own Oscars. Or Headies)
It was the same songs the members of each club performed. So everyone looked out for creative steps which would take the rave till the next awards Season.
For members of performing clubs, you had access to backstage seats, and so could watch the performances from there.
The rest of the students had to hustle to get seats by coming on time, and praying your seniors did not bully the chairs away.
Along with my friends, we planned to be at the Assembly Hall very early, to get seats in front.
But you know how man proposes, and God disposes. It was as though the rest of the school slept in the Assembly Hall overnight.
(Like those folks who sleep at the fuel-stations during fuel scarcity)
By the time we got there, the hall was packed full already, and we were forced to embrace our fate in standing at the back that day.
Soon enough, the day's show began. The performances were not so clear, but I figured it was the poor lighting, and the distance from the stage that we stood.
Almost halfway through the performances, the hall suddenly erupted in frenzied applause at some move done by the students miming to Brandy and Monica's "the Boy is Mine".
How could they have seen it? The performers were still blurred.
My friend beside me was also clapping and shouting in frenzied excitement.
Oh well... I started clapping too. It must be good if everyone was clapping. But I could not actually see the cause of so much excitement.
For me, it was blurred out.
I remember subsequently receiving complaints from one or two people that they passed right beside me, and I did not acknowledge them wave.
I suspected that I had a mischievous, anti-people doppelganger. Because I had no recollection of seeing anyone wave.
But it was Mathematics class that made me realise the dire situation I was in. It was one of those class tests where x=y/210: find Pie.
While I was not a Maths guru, I knew enough to not be labelled an actual iti boribo.
Which was why my "odo" that day shocked me. Upon asking the teacher for my script, he showed me that I had gotten the calculation correct. However, I had just substituted the wrong figures, using '3' instead of the 8 written on the board.
That was when I knew for sure that there was a problem.
I told Mummy as soon as I got back home, and she took me to her ophthalmologist, who conducted an eye test on me, and gave me the ugliest glasses I had ever seen in my life.
Just like that, I was initiated into Team "Four-eyes".
There were a number of reasons I did not like my glasses. First was that I could not jump up and down like others, without risking my glasses falling off, and getting smashed.
And I lost count of how many times I sat on my glasses without knowing, having to make the pitiful walk of shame to Mum for a new pair of glasses.
I also blamed a huge part of my teenage awkwardness on my glasses, believing that I may have had a huge shot being an "It girl" in my adolescence, if not for the bottles I had to don.
But the greatest reason I did not like glasses was the presumptuous burden of automatic "intelligence" that wearing glasses bestows on you.
So that when someone in the room asks a very serious question like "who can confirm the veracity that ornathological species of identical plumage appropriately congregate to the nearest proximity?", expectant eyes in the room would naturally turn to you for your wise answer.
*rolls eyes*
As I grew older, I learnt to carry my glasses around, only putting it on in class, or when I had to study.
But the practice of law does not exactly come with a user's manual and an accompanying warning of side-effects, such that constantly being glued to the small print of countless law reports and staring into a computer for three-quarters of a day guaranteed that my eyes required glasses for the most part of the day.
Against my will, I was banished to being an unwilling nerd.
Until I stumbled on the magic of contact lenses.
I discovered that with my prescription and proper hygiene, I could comfortably wear contact lenses for the most part of the day. This was particularly helpful for workout sessions and social events.
I learnt to play around lenses colours, often alternating between grey and amethyst. I binged on contact lenses.
But this was nothing compared to when the craze for spidey-glasses and cat-eye frames took over the four-eyed world.
Finally... glasses became woke!
I got different types of frames, often changing it up with my mood.
The blue one became for presentations and high-level meetings. The black for court and the office. The flowery one was for when I felt 'playful'. And for the weekends.
(There was also the plain pair I called "home glasses")
In between, I alternated with my contacts lenses. Life as a four-eyed human was finally dapper. 😊
Recently, I found myself facing a new kind of dilemma. I now have the opportunity for corrective surgery to erase the need for corrective lenses.
But I have become attached to the 'nerdy' look. I miss my glasses already, and have refused to face the looming reality that I may have to part from my seeing aid.
How did I get here?
By taking the 'negative' card life dealt me in short-sightedness, spicing it up, and turning it into a personal advantage.
What was hitherto defective sight is now an avenue for exploring fashion trends... and I have often found my glasses being an awesome ice-breaker in a room full of strangers.
This is how I now seek to deal with most other facets of life: taking that thing which should ordinarily represent some sort of sour-grapes, beautifying it, and rocking it through life.
There are the things we will be able to change, for which we ask the Universe for the strength and ability to change our circumstances entirely.
But for the lemons we cannot avoid life hurling at us, we could mope through life, stuck on the sourness of our circumstances.
Or... we could pick each lemon, make a massive lemon-pie, and throw a huge party.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Summoner Sovereign Book 1 Chapter 302
Volume 1: Summoner Chapter 302 302: Two Headed Dragon
"What have you done?" Henry Porter sagged to his knees, almost mired in despair. He gazed up at the ascending two-headed dragon, almost suffocated by the crimson bloodl.u.s.t that it emanated. Around him, mercenaries were choking and staggering from the sheer presence of the monster.
"Our Lord!" Liu crowed, spreading both hands as far out as he could. Tears were streaming down his face. "Finally! For us to be blessed to witness your descent into our mundane world…! Come! Sate your hunger on this blasted world! Visit your wrath upon the pitiful souls who fester and corrupt this world with their naïve ideals of peace! Drown this world in blood!"
"Blood for the Blood God!" the disciples of the Blood Slaughter Sect chorused in unison. I swear, that phrase was getting irritating by now.
The two-headed dragon glanced down upon Liu with both pairs of eyes, disdain evident in those crimson pupils. For a second, Liu held its gaze, his expression rapturous.
And then he was gone. He and all of his disciples.
The two-headed dragon almost paid the puny humans no heed. Raising a claw, it stomped on Liu and the entire Blood Slaughter Sect, squashing them into nothingness. Their screams of shock and agony at the sudden betrayal were abruptly cut off, whisked away by the howling wind of madness and murder that swept around the hovering dragon.
A chill ran down my spine and I shuddered when a single line surfaced within my memory.
The Blood God cares not from where the blood flows, as long as it continues to flow.
It seems that even his most devout followers were not immune to his murderous whims.
"Are you kidding me?!"
"That dragon killed the people who summoned him?"
"What's going on? Infighting? A falling out?"
A murmur ran through the gathered merecenaries as they attempted to decipher what they had just witnessed. Despite the earlier shock and awe the two-headed dragon imposed upon them, they were slowly recovering and regaining their senses. As expected of the best mercenaries that the Federation had to offer.
"Don't let your guard down," Brent warned. "If that thing has no hesitation in killing the people who summoned him for no reason, then it definitely has no qualms squashing us."
As if to puncuate the mercenary captain's sentence, the two-headed dragon dragged itself out of the abyss with a roar and swung its claw at us. We quickly dove out of the way, watching in horror as its massive paw raked three gigantic gouges in the earth, creating a ravine.
"How are we supposed to fight that thing?!" one of the mercenaries shrieked as he crashed heavily into a tree.
"Use your magic!" Redfield hollered as he flung an immense fireball at the emerging dragon. "You are combat mages, aren't you? So stop whining and start fighting! We can't let that thing manifest fully in our world, or we're doomed!"
While the mercenaries struggled to put together an improvised combat plan on the spot and execute it, Porter hurried over to me, accompanied by his granddaughter.
"Richard, you seem to know the most about this 'Blood God.' Do you know its weakness? How to defeat it?"
As if I would conveniently know any such thing! Maybe in another story, the monster would happen to have some sort of weakness that we could conveniently exploit, but reality was never that easy. Most likely we would have to do this the hard way.
"Well…the stories that I have read…" I paused, taking care to emphasize that I was talking about fiction here, and not reality. "…say that the only way to defeat such a Greater Daemon is through force. Destroying his physical body in this reality will banish him back to the Warp…uh, I mean back to his original dimension."
"So how do we destroy him?" Lilith demanded impatiently. "Look at the size of that thing! How many spells do we have to cast before we can finally wear him down to banish him back to his original dimension?!"
"If you can buy me time, I'll be able to nuke him to oblivion…never mind send him back to his dimension, I'll probably destroy him." I had already begun casting the summoning spell for Draco ever since the two-headed dragon had first shown up, but I still needed some more time.
"We'll be counting on you then," Brent called out. He vaulted over the gigantic claws and landed upon it. Running along the length of the dragon's arm, he drew tremendous amounts of mana into his staff. "Bankai!"
"At least change the name, oi!" I shouted after him. He ignored me, obviously.
"Tie Quan Duan Feng!"
Ducking as the dragon swatted at him, he spun around in midair to punch the offending limb. Despite being so tiny in the greater scale of things, his attack sent the dragon staggering backward. While the two heads snarled and turned to dart toward the evading mercenary captain, presumably to swallow him whole.
"Oh no, you don't!"
Redfield launched a powerful fire spell that detonated against one of the dragon's heads and sent it snapping back. Twirling his spear, he swung it as he descended upon the other head and uneashed a similarly devastating torrent of flames that engulfed the serpentine head.
He was forced to alter his trajectory in midair and hurl himself away when the two-headed dragon swiped at him. He landed on the dragon's claw, and then sprang away before the dragon could throw him off. Landing several dozen meters away, he managed to skid to a stop before crashing into a tree or something.
Lilith and the others had also stepped forward now, pelting the two-headed dragon with spells and mana bullets. The mercenaries, in particular, were uleashing volleys of mana beams and projectiles at the dragon, but for all their efforts, they might as well be tossing pebbles into the ocean. The two-headed dragon reared up with a snarl, ignoring their insignificant attacks and focused on Brent, Redfield and the other officers. And Lilith.
Her Hellfire Bear was lumbering forward, but despite its large size, it was still dwarfed by the two-headed dragon that was ten times its size. Fortunately, by now Lilith was able to summon Kagutsuchi. The white whale-like dragon manifested within an inferno and released a storm of superheated plasma at the two-headed dragon, searing its crimson scales and eliciting an enraged howl.
"Richard!" Brent snapped at me breathlessly as he crashed almost clumsily on the ground, but somehow managed to land on all fours. "We'll buy you the time you need to cast that nuke spell of yours!"
"You mean the two-headed dragon isn't going to patiently and politely wait for us to finish talking and strategizing in front of it before attacking?" I asked sarcastically as I watched the others fling their elemental spells at it. For a moment Brent gaped at me.
"What the f.u.c.k are you smoking? Why the hell would it do that?"
"How would I know? You should ask the author of some isekai light novel about cheat powers, or the director of its anime adaptation. The characters literally spent almost five minutes talking about plans and strategies, deciding who gets to fight the dragon, who stays to watch (though I have no idea why the heroine even bothered, especially when she did absolutely nothing), while the dragon patiently and politely waits for them to finish."
Brent stared at me for a second, and then he shook his head.
"That's f.u.c.k.i.e.d up and totally unrealistic. It sounds like the typical wish fulfillment type of story where the writer gives his protagonist every overpowered ability imaginable, and didn't think things through when crafting the plot."
Unfortunately, he didn't have any more time to waste on this nonsense, because the two-headed dragon chose that moment to unleash a torrent of flames from both of its mouths and incinerate the entire section of the swamp where the mercenaries were taking cover. The professional paramilitary soldiers instantly scattered and avoided a fiery death, especially when Brent swooped in underneath both of the dragons' heads and delivered a crushing blow.
"Hurricane Fist!" he shouted as he unleashed a devastating blast of explosive energy that rammed into the two-headed dragon's chest and sent it toppling over. Above, Kagutsuchi unleashed another set of superheated flames capable of melting metal, the immense inferno roiling over the sprawled two-headed dragon and scorching its scales.
The Blood God's tail whipped forward to swat Kagutsuchi away, but the kami of fire nimbly dodged the powerful strike that leveled trees and crushed them into splinters amidst the damp marsh. Spreading out its wings, Kagutuschi vomited another gout of superheated flames that washed over one of the dragon's heads.
Snarling in pain, the head shrank back from the inferno before spitting a retaliation of its own.
Kagutsuchi veered off to the right, avoiding the concentrated beam of fury that lanced through the swamp and left a smoldering trail in the swamp, the bog waters vaporized into boiling steam and glowing magma that hissed in what remained of the terrain.
I summoned my most powerful Constellation spirit and had him slam into the two-headed dragon, knocking it over. The two titanic beasts wrestled, with the two-headed dragon pinning the much smaller dragon underneath and beginning to obliterate him. However, Draco's jaws glowed and he fired Eltanin at pointblank range, the dual beams of black mana ramming into the two-headed dragon and bodily throwing it off him.
"Everyone, please retreat. I'm very close to nuking that bastard now, and I don't want to accidentally get all of you guys caught up in the explosion."
The rank-and-file mercenary soldiers, in particular, glanced at each other, and nodded. They knew that the ones who would suffer the most if they get caught up in the pseudo nuclear explosion would be them.
"Gotcha." Brent landed somewhere nearby, his feet leaving furrows in the already fragile earth. Spinning around, he issued an order. "Retreat! Everyone, fall back! Get to the hovercrafts and prepare for emergency evacuation!"
"Yes, sir!"
As I expected, nobody hesitated to obey his command. Only an idiot would hang around and wait to get nuked. The two-headed dragon probably didn't know what was coming, so it could be excused, but the Silver Wolves mercenaries were certainly aware of my reputation as the summoner of mass destruction.
"Make sure you don't nuke yourself," Redfield told me, placing a hand on my shoulder before he joined the rest of the fleeing mercenaries.
"Lilith!" Principal Porter was talking to his granddaughter, who had yet to budge. Even now, Kagutsuchi was joining Draco in distracting the two-headed dragon, the two powerful summoned beasts darting around the bigger monster like boxers in a ring, and delivering jabs and punches here and there in the forms of bites, slashes and spells. "What are you waiting for? Hurry!"
"Sorry, Grandpa, but I'll be staying. Richard can't handle that monster on his own. Besides…I have Kagutsuchi." She smiled as she gestured toward her most powerful spirit familiar. "Once Richard launches his nuke spell, I'll just jump on and fly the hell out of here."
"Are you serious?" I complained. "What's the point of you being here? You're just going to stand to one side uselessly and watch the whole battle. It makes no difference to the plot whether you're here or not, except to add some drama when the best heroine is dying and sees you and suddenly realizes that she can't win against you in terms of capturing the main character's heart…"
"Oh, stuff it!" Lilith snapped. "Don't confuse me for some useless heroine from a badly written light novel whose purpose is solely to be the damsel in distress and await the main character's rescue for her even though she is supposed to be a quad magician capable of wielding four different elements! I mean, seriously, when her spells didn't have any effect, what did she do? Fall to her knees helplessly and wait for the monster to kill her while going off on this longwinded dialogue about how she knows her childhood friend will arrive in time to save her…instead of actually taking her own initiative to run away or evade such a slow attack that takes minutes to execute! I'm not some damsel in distress needing some self-insert protagonist to rescue!"
"I can't argue against that," I muttered. While I wouldn't hesitate to help Lilith if she was in trouble, I was confident that she was more than capable of taking care of herself. She didn't need me to baby her just like all the other flat, one-dimensional heroines whose sole purpose of existence was to be added to the protagonist's harem after he saved them, so as to assuage the male writer's masculine ego. Sometimes I found that misogynistic, and I wasn't even some social justice warrior arguing for women's rights or insisting that all modern stories should be "woke" or whatever. It was just that the characterization was so blatant that even neutrals like me were turned off by it.
While the soldiers evacuated, Lilith and I charged ahead. The blond fire mage vaulted and landed on top of Kagutsuchi, riding the kami of fire and more easily directing it to launch several fire spells in succession. As for me, I drew both Bai Ri and Hei Yue, whlle running about and blasting off several black and white spells from my two swords.
Not that it would have any effect. Taking a deep breath, I summoned the chibi version of Green Dragon to spring a storm of razor-sharp petals at the bellowing two-headed dragon. It was still too distracted by Draco raking one of its heads with claws to pay any attention to me, but I was abl to leave a series of ragged, bloody wounds upon its limbs and belly.
Its tail whipped out and I flipped myself over it to land safely on the opposite side. Twisting around, I channeled chibi White Tiger's mana into Bai Ri and unleashed a tremendous lightning bolt that seared through the two-headed dragon's legs.
"You know…I'm pretty surprised by the way you're fighting. Why aren't you just charging in recklessly and punching the dragon with your bare hands? You have Ba Qi and physical reinforcement spells, don't you?"
"Aren't you mixing me up with a flat protagonist with so-called cheat powers from a badly written light novel?!" I demanded as I ducked under one of the massive claws. Draco then barreled into the two-headed dragon, knocking it a few steps back.
The two-headed dragon roared furiously. Its next move caught all of us by surprise. Angry red waves rippled out from its body, almost as if a shockwave, and rammed into us, knocking us over and sending us sprawling on the ground. Even Draco was battered by the sudden surge of furious crimson energies, lying on the ground, stunned. Kagutsuchi was sent careening several dozen meters away, crashing into a cl.u.s.ter of gnarled trees and vanishing in a splash of swamp water.
Poor Lilith. She wwas going to curse and swear at getting drenched in the bog, of all waters.
While I struggled to rise to my feet, I noticed someone approaching. A familiar figure, in that lovely dress and sporting long, green hair.
"Ana!? What are you doing here?!"
"When did she…?" Lilith was spluttering as she burst out of the swamp, clutching onto Kagutsuchi to stay afloat. I glanced at her.
"You didn't notice her at all?"
"How would I?!" Lilith shrieked. "Do you think I'm some useless heroine who decided to stay behind and do nothing but watch the battle while not noticing that some random stranger popped out of nowhere and was walking through a very visibly empty battlefield because…the plot demanded it? As if I need an excuse to be displayed as even more useless than before!"
"Chill, girl. Nobody said that." But I knew why she said that. It was all because of that damned anime adaptation. Coughing, I tried to stand, still winded from the blow earlier. Unfortunately, unlike the two-headed dragon from that bad anime adaptation, my current opponent wasn't going to wait politely for me to recover or finish talking. Both of its heads swiveled to glare at me, their jaws opening as outrageous amounts of mana acc.u.mulated within them.
Then twin torrents of hellfire surged toward me before I could do anything to defend myself.
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|Project by ManaboutTools
|posted 10-27-2018 03:06 AM
|2345 views
|13 times favorited
|17 comments
In September I finished a new timber frame style pavilion in the garden. Some might call it a gazebo…not sure the difference. Like my woodshed I built earlier, I call it a "timber frame style" as I use metal fasteners and it's not built using traditional timber frame methods. My wife liked the look of the woodshed and wanted something of similar design as a shady place to sit in our garden. Next year I'll build an elevated deck or pour a patio slab as I have adequate head clearance. The posts are spaced 10' x 10' on center.
Like my woodshed, I use rough lumber that was milled from our own property. It's mainly made from red cedar with some fir for the rafters. I believe it to be a Nobel Fir, and was a blowdown in our back woods that we salvaged.
The roof is metal panels over tar paper and strapping. Off the back I added a snow dam and an eavestrough to collect water in a future cistern.
I posted a 3 part series on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/I26ByRuVtlM I'd like to hear what you think. Thanks
-- Kent, Vancouver Island, https://MANaboutTOOLS.com
17 comments so far
#1 posted 10-27-2018 01:20 PM
Wow. Very nice.
#2 posted 10-27-2018 01:59 PM
Looks very nice and there are enough jointery to qualify as timber frame. Should last forever.
-- earthartandfoods.com
#3 posted 10-27-2018 02:06 PM
I don't know how this isn't ranked higher. This was a lot of work and it looks beautiful. Well done!
#4 posted 10-27-2018 03:39 PM
Another fantastic build! Thanks for sharing.
-- Steve - Impatience is Expensive
#5 posted 10-27-2018 05:11 PM
Great design and build, good job!
#6 posted 10-27-2018 06:53 PM
Thanks everyone for the kind words and support! It's very much appreciated!
-- Kent, Vancouver Island, https://MANaboutTOOLS.com
#7 posted 10-27-2018 07:01 PM
Really nice build. That two level roof added some complexity, but it's not lost on looks, really adds something for the work. Something you don't see every day. Something you don't see every day and it looks good = MONEY$$$$
Nice job, congrats on the 3, and thanks for posting.
-- Think safe, be safe
#8 posted 10-27-2018 08:00 PM
Very impressive "gazebo" ... or whatever you want to call it.
-- "It's fine in practise but it will never work in theory"
#9 posted 10-28-2018 01:14 AM
Kent , nice job and congratulations on your 'Daily Top 3' award.
-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python
#10 posted 10-28-2018 01:25 AM
#11 posted 10-28-2018 03:53 AM
That is awesome. I wish I had soace for stuff like this
#12 posted 10-29-2018 10:26 AM
Super! Beautiful design. great workmanship.
-- Soli Deo gloria!
#13 posted 10-29-2018 11:51 AM
#14 posted 10-29-2018 03:31 PM
thats a beautiful pavillion,i love the way you built the roof,great job.
-- working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.
#15 posted 10-29-2018 05:36 PM
Love the design. The execution looks to be top notch.
-- Willie, Washington "If You Choose Not To Decide, You Still Have Made a Choice" - Rush
showing 1 through 15 of 17 comments
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text: With so much buzz around the expansion of the cannabis industry, a number of heavy-weight investors and brands are making headway in the space. Civilized teamed up with Thomas George, stock expert and president of Grizzle, at Grit Island Investment Conference in the Bahamas to learn about what's next for cannabis, what investors are looking for, international opportunities, and developing interest in auxiliary industries like CBD. We also got the 411 on cannabis titan Aurora's latest acquisitions, as well as on New York's proposed adult use marijuana program.


text:
Holiday planning in Tasmania just got easy. Rent a car from Launceston, Devonport or Hobart so you can experience all the great destinations that our beautiful state has to offer as soon as possible after arrival at Tasmania's Hobart Airport or Launceston Airport. When you're done, drop-off the car at either location.
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When people become depressed during the winter months, it is not the result of reduced exposure to sunlight, according to new research published last week in the journal Clinical Psychological Science.
In fact, the study found no significant correlation between depression and season, latitude or sunlight exposure.
These findings call into question the whole notion of seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a type of depression whose symptoms are described as having a seasonal pattern, usually worsening in the fall and winter and then remitting in the spring and summer.
Seasonal depression has been included in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) since 1987.
"In conversations with colleagues, the belief in the association of seasonal changes with depression is more or less taken as a given and the same belief is widespread in our culture," said Steven LoBello, the study's senior author and a professor of psychology at Auburn University at Montgomery, in a released statement. "We analyzed the data from many angles and found that the prevalence of depression is very stable across different latitudes, seasons of the year, and sunlight exposures."
This study's results — if true — should not be interpreted as meaning that people who experience depression during the fall and winter months are imagining their symptoms. All these findings suggest, write LoBello and his colleagues in their study, is that "merely being depressed during winter is not evidence that one is depressed because of winter."
Study details
Although most people are unaware of it, studies that have examined the claim that seasonal changes are behind some recurrent episodes of major depression have had conflicting results. Part of the problem, says Lobello and his co-authors, is that researchers often ask people to recall when they were depressed, a method of gathering data that is vulnerable to inaccuracies and bias. People who have heard of SAD, for example, may tend to remember their symptoms as developing as the days became shorter, whether they did or not.
For their study, Lobello and his colleagues decided to use data that captured symptoms of current depression in a large group of people. They then analyzed that data to see if it was related to measures of sunlight exposure.
The data came from 34,294 American adults, aged 18 to 99, who participated in the 2006 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey. The survey, which is conducted annually by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, included a list of questions that have been validated as a tool to measure current depression. A total of 1,754 people gave answers to those questions that met the criteria for depression.
The BRFSS data also included the date and geographic location for each of the survey's interviews, which allowed Lobello and his colleagues to determine the latitude where the participants lived and (using U.S. Naval Observatory information) the amount of sunlight that participants were exposed to at the time of their interview.
After using several statistical models to analyze the data, the researchers found that season, latitude and sunlight exposure had no significant effect on symptoms of depression. Those findings held even after adjusting for a variety of possible confounding factors, such as age, race, gender, educational level, marital status and employment status.
"The findings cast serious doubt on major depression with seasonal variation as a legitimate psychiatric disorder," Lobello and his colleagues write.
Limitations and implications
This study has several limitations. Most notably, participants were not diagnosed clinically — by a doctor — but only as a result of answers they gave in a phone interview. Some of the participants may not have answered those questions truthfully, particularly since admissions of depression often carry a social stigma.
It's also possible that people with clinical depression may have not answered the phone at all.
This study is not able to prove — or disprove — that clinical depression has a seasonal variation. But, argue Lobello and his co-authors, if that variation does exist, it most likely affects only a very small subset of people.
"Depression is a recurrent illness," they write. "Because all episodes of depression occur in some season, chance occurrence in two consecutive winters would explain some apparent seasonality. The role of chance as an explanation diminishes in cases where episodes are experienced in three or more consecutive winters. Even so, the existence of such cases would not in themselves demonstrate that changes in sunlight exposure are responsible for the depression."
"The weight of accumulating evidence, including the evidence presented here, indicates that the burden of proof for including the seasonal variation modifier for major depression in DSM has shifted to those who would continue to do so," they conclude.
You'll find an abstract of the study on the Clinical Psychological Science website, but the full study is behind a paywall. The journal is published by the Association for Psychological Science.


text:
StockX, the stock market of things like sneakers, handbags and shoes is discounting their sellers fees for a limited time and now is the time to jump. Normally, fees are 14.5% with a 2.9% pop to get your money out but the way this platform works, it can make you a few hundred or even thousands more if your bag is in excellent condition and, all you have to do is sign up and fill out the form. No taking pictures, no dealing with customers and you ship to them, they authenticate and ship to the buyer! Anytime i can do less work and make more money, I'm in!
"The biggest drop of the season is here: we're offering 5% off seller fees (usually 14.5%) starting now until next week. It's a perfect opportunity to clean out your closet, flip your bags for fall, and most importantly, earn more. With 18 of the best designer bag and accessory brands out there and a catalog of over 20,000 products, StockX makes it easy to sell in a matter of clicks."
- Promo starts Thursday, Sept 20 until Tuesday, Sept. 25 at 11:59 p.m. PST.
- Excludes LV x Supreme.
- Can be used multiple times per user.


text:
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Isn't it time to fly away? Book flight deals today with WestJet and before you know it you'll be in charming, prosperous Grande Prairie. Whether it's a business trip or you want to visit Bear Creek Golf Course, Muskoseepi Park or Wapiti Nordic Centre, you know that you can get there swiftly, safely and comfortably with us. Fly to Grande Prairie from Philadelphia with us and discover how we put exceptional customer care first.


text:
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
The Alan Parsons Project - "(The System of) Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether"
I didn't realize how soul-draining an accounting day job could be until the accounting mentality started to take over more and more aspects of my life. I need order to get my accounting tasks done: assemble the paperwork in a certain way, reply and/or print off emails, check websites and Google Drive for needed information, etc. This Order Of Things unfortunately tends to take over the rest of my life ... you must clean the apartment on this day, you read the newspaper at this time of day, you do not take the bus to the art museum on this day because it is a Tuesday and you write and read on Tuesdays, etc. My bookkeeping business pays the bills and buys the whiskey and I certainly would not give it up or diss my beloved clients, but still. Doing tasks over and over that need and crave order while the other half of my mind is daydreaming and scheming and thinking about that book or movie or TV show or gal at the coffee shop is gonna result in a breakdown or at least an anxiety attack and no matter how much I walk (ankle injury keeping me off the elliptical) or do breathing exercises or dose up on hydroxyzine, I still have phases where I'm short of breath and pacing around and wonder if I should go see the doctor or just walk to a bar and numb out.
But, but. There's always music. I can got lost in it and there's no better feeling when it's playing beautifully in my living room or on headphones especially when the walls are closing in. And to further take the edge off of the hassles of accounting/debits/credits/Quickbooks' refusal to handle customer credit memos responsibly? Make a mix tape to yourself, dummy. Apple Music works beautifully for this: I create a playlist and it carries over to all my devices. I choose the songs, then assign a title to the playlist. Many times the title is an inside joke only I understand. My recent steady rotation of playlists is:
High School Hits - this one's name is as bland as the playlist (Top 40 in 1980-83 was horribly bland, you know this when the highlight of the playlist is After The Fire.) (Forgetting to put Def Leppard, Michael Jackson, Prince, and Van Halen on this list was kinda stupid, dude.)
Q98, Y'know - AOR smashes from the late seventies and early eighties.
Q98 Again - Ditto.
2014 We're Comin' We're Comin'!! - grab bag of solid songs.
Summer 2014 Bound For Rebound - funk, soul, hip-hop, hard rock all apparently intent on helping me find a dare-to-be-great situation.
My most recent playlist was quickly assembled as I was digging Type O Negative so much recently that a doomy, gloomy mix seemed to be the one thing that might make my mind feel right. (And this was before the election, go figure.) It's a mix of Type O Negative, Black Sabbath, UFO, Funkadelic, Deep Purple, Fear Factory, and others who dabble in the artsy darks. (Today's track is courtesy of the The Alan Parsons Project, whose debut album was an homage to the great Edgar Allan Poe.) The title is "The Doom That Came To", as H.P. Lovecraft had a short story titled "The Doom That Came To Sarnath", that I read in seventh grade after being fired up to read his work and finding an anthology of his in the school library. The story scared me bad, I put the book aside immediately, and returned it the next day. So I was trying to come up with my playlist title, but couldn't find the final words. These were considered:
"The Doom That Came To Harriet Avenue" YAWN
"The Doom That Came To South Minneapolis" BIGGER YAWN
"The Doom That Came To Tuomala" might have worked, but sheesh it seemed a little too ominous, like when there was that Twitter meme #AddAWordRuinAMovie and I tweeted "Kill Bill Tuomala". Yikes.
One last thing. My playlists tend to have thirteen songs and I assemble them in mostly-random order. There are thirteen cards in a suit of cards, thirteen songs in my playlists. Over time, the songs have always come to be numbered at thirteen so I don't have to omit any cards in a suit. What I do is shuffle the cards and then pick them one by one, the card number decides a song's place on the playlist. This act of randomness - a fitting act of rebellion against my Accounting Mind - is almost as much fun as picking out the songs themselves. The cards dictate the order of the songs, though sometimes the leadoff track is inserted as mandatory. Various tweaks - switches or re-jumbling of a few tracks - are usually made. (Can't have two slower songs in a row, can't have too much awesomeness clumped at the beginning or end, etc.) The cards are generally shuffled again and used to determine the tweaks. Or maybe a coin flip or two. Then the playlist is hammered out, finalized, and I crank it on my iPhone. I head out the door for a walk, daydream, write a little in my head, and maybe even relax.
Posted by Bill Tuomala at 12:20 AM
Labels: Q98 Classic, Tuesday Tuneage


text:
Up in the mountains, around the town of Alcoy, lies the smallest and least-known part of the Alicante wine region: El Comtat.
It's also home to Celler La Muntanya, a bodega pioneering a very different way of making wine: the micro-vineyard (aka microviña).
It's a world away from the bigger producers of the Vinalopó next door, with their rank upon rank of Monastrell vines stretching in every direction. Instead, this is wine making on a defiantly small scale.
Here's how it works. You have an old, neglected patch of land…a hectare, perhaps less. Maybe it grew grapes in the past, maybe it still has vines on it, maybe something completely different. But you fancy making wine once again. But how? Who gets you started, who cultivates the vines, who makes the wine?
This is where Celler Muntanya comes in. The bodega started back in the early 2000s, the brainchild of Juan Cascant. He'd spent most of his working life up till that point in an architect's office, dabbling in a little winemaking on the side.
The business really got under way in 2004 and by 2006, Celler Muntanya was producing wine that hit 90 points on the Peñin scale; amazingly good going for such a tiny operation. The Guia Peñin is the Spanish wine bible; anything from 90-94 points is classified as 'excellent'.
Now Juan has 28 microviñas or minifundios (smallholdings) under his care, mostly in the countryside around the bodega. The owners come from all walks of life – IT people, a butcher, a doctor. All they have in common is a little land and a love of wine. Celler Muntanya looks after the microviñas in collaboration with the owners, organises the harvest and creates the wine.
Next to the bodega, on a riverside plot alongside the little Rio Agres, lies Juan's campo de experimentaciòn, where varieties I'd never heard of are on trial. Verdil for example, a grape that fell out of fashion and is apparently down to its last 50 hectares. There's also the exotically named Farannà.
Across the 28 microviñas, there are even more varieties. A bodega tour in Juan's 4×4 takes you down narrow lanes, through a sleepy village and along farm tracks to reveal small plots of Syrah, Malvasia, Tannat, Garnacha Tintorera, and Merseguera among the olive groves…sometimes more than one variety on the same plot. There are also one or two more relative unknowns, like Bonicaire (also known as Trepat).
One microviña has 100 year old Malvasia vines; the resulting wine hit 95 points on the Peñin scale. A seriously good result (anything over 95 is 'exceptional').
All are vinified separately back at Celler Muntanya's compact bodega, just off the CV-705 outside Muro de Alcoy. Most are available for anybody to buy, which results in a range of wines much bigger bodegas would struggle to match. The microviña owners can also opt to keep their own produce and drink it themselves.
One blend of Monastrell, Garnacha Tintorero and Giró has been christened Iron Bridge, a tribute to the magnificently-titled Alcoy and Gandia Railway and Harbour Company. This was the British-Spanish consortium that built the railway up from the coast at Gandia to Alcoy in 1892, transforming the economy of the region in the process. Sadly, the railway disappeared in the 1960s, but the wine is still good!
There's also a really nice Saüc vermouth, flavoured with botanicals gathered mostly from the nearby slopes of Monte Mariola, which dominates the Alcoy landscape.
Celler Muntanya runs bodega tours, so you can see the microviña project for yourself. The full tour is more expensive than most, but there are also cheaper basic visits with tastings. Details here.
Incidentally, I borrowed the phrase 'small is beautiful' for the title of this blog post. The guy who invented the expression was an economist named E.F.Schumacher, who used it for his book "Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered". And I can't help feeling old E.F. would have been impressed by the Celler la Muntanya philosophy of small plots and green agriculture.
Schumacher was writing about sustainability back in the 1970s, at a time when not many people had even heard of the word. He liked a spot of gardening himself and was president of the Soil Association, the UK-based campaign for healthy food and farming. So kind of appropriate, really.
For more musings on Alicante wine, try these two blog posts:
A tour around a selection of Alicante's vineyards
The wine that nearly died: on the trail of Alicante fondillón
© Guy Pelham 2018


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Here's an hour by hour breakdown of the December 15 broadcast:
Radio Show Hour 1
A group of TPC listeners in Texas were having a Christmas party while we were on the air and asked if they could call into the show to spread some cheer. And we let them do it! Enjoy this very festive hour of radio!
Radio Show Hour 2
Guest: Paul Nehlen – The businessman and celebrated candidate returns to discuss the Yellow Vest movement in France as well as his book, Wage the Battle: Putting America First in the Fight to Stop Globalist Politicians and Secure the Borders.
Radio Show Hour 3
James Edwards and Keith Alexander continue the discussion from the second hour before taking a call from a listener who has been tuned in for our entire 14 years on the radio!
If you missed our live show, click here to access our most recent program podcasts, or click here to access the complete broadcast archive dating back to 2004, which now includes an additional option for you to automatically receive the latest episodes downloaded to your computer or portable device.
Put TPC on your Christmas list!
TPC's Christmas Fundraising Drive has now reached its halfway point and we need your urgent assistance to stay on the air! Please help us finish the year strong by making a special Christmastime contribution to our groundbreaking work during this season of giving and goodwill.
Click here to make a safe, secure, and discreet credit card contribution to The Political Cesspool Radio Program.
SPECIAL INCENTIVES: Those who donate $100 or more (before December 31) will receive an autographed copy of Paul Nehlen's book, Wage the Battle. Nehlen's campaign against Paul Ryan was one of the most fascinating stories of the past two years and this book is a must-read!
Those who donate $200 or more (before December 31) will receive the signed book by Paul Nehlen and a copy of the Winter 2018 issue of The Occidental Quarterly, edited by Dr. Kevin MacDonald!
Follow James Edwards and TPC on Twitter: @JamesEdwardsTPC


text:
The Enchanted Voyagers Association is a chapter of the American Voyager Association. The club was formed by Kawasaki Voyager Riders in New Mexico, but is open to all riders. Please feel free to use this service.
I started smoking my turkey this morning about 5:00. Kind of cold here at 28 deg this morning. We will all meet at Mary's mothers house for dinner. Should be around 25 to 30 people their. I hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving.
30/65 Do you use Zig Zag or Topps to roll your turkey? I hope you all have a good Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving, All!
I'm staying home today, trying to get my allergy problems under control. 34/60 in ABQ today (it's currently 42), and I'm planning on working on the cage engine later today. Right now, my 'Thanksgiving Breakfast' is in the oven, hoping to do a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit (or 2) a little later. It'll be cheaper than going out, and no one around here makes gluten-free biscuits around here-except me. Everyone Have a Wonderful Thanksgiving, and may our Lord pour his blessings out on you!
Ride Safe & Sane;
EVA Hank
Richard you are a trip but just so you know I use Pecan and or Apricot.


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Uncontrolled clinical trials are defined as trials with one single treatment arm during which all patients receive the same intervention and whose outcomes are followed up over a certain period of time.1,2 The conduct of uncontrolled clinical trials has been considered to be less expensive, more convenient and faster than that of randomised control trials (RCT).1 Uncontrolled clinical trials are further recommended as pilot studies for the exploration of associations between variables and outcome measures, as well as for the estimation of effect sizes as basis for sample size calculation in subsequent RCTs.3
On the other hand, uncontrolled clinical trials have been criticized as being based on the logical post hoc ergo propter hoc ("After this, therefore because of this" = false cause) fallacy4 – which can be considered as a subset of the common 'Affirming the consequent' error5 - and its results are considered to be unreliable, due to regression to the mean, particularly with increasing follow-up period.6 Since regression to the mean is related to continuous measurements (e.g. that of body height, weight or blood pressure), this problem may be less prevalent in uncontrolled clinical trials with binary (success/failure) outcomes that investigate the clinical merits of directly placed tooth restorations.
However, the logical post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy may be considered as the main reason not to rely on uncontrolled trial results for clinical guidance. When, for example, directly placed restorative materials (or any other property of a particular tooth restoration type) are investigated during uncontrolled clinical trials, these materials are used to place tooth restorations in patients and the success or failure of these restoration are evaluated after specified time period. Once failures or successes are established, these are then ascribed to the particular material properties and the usefulness of the material for daily dental practice is then inferred and even recommended.7,8
This process of inference is explained as follows: If the restorative material properties are sufficient then it is inferred that they will lead to a successful tooth restoration outcome and if it is insufficient then the restoration will be a failure. However, the success or failure of a tooth restoration may only partially depend on the properties of the placed material alone or not at all.9,10 Other factors will usually play a role as well. The characteristics of tooth cavities (e.g. size, depth);9,10 patient factors, such as bruxism, caries risk or age, including frequency of sugar intake through diet or their oral hygiene habits,9,10 the quality of dental service applied by the dentist10 or indeed any unknown factors that may exist in the studied patient cohort may affect the success or failure of a placed tooth restoration in time. Therefore, in reality the outcome of a placed tooth restoration may be a success even if material properties are found insufficient in in-vitro studies, due to the beneficial effect of other factors. This in turn creates a logical contradiction, which states that a placed tooth restoration may be a success when the properties of the placed material are insufficient and sufficient. Such statement disagrees with itself and thus cannot hold true. The consequence of such contradiction is that no causal inferences can be drawn.
Since the causal relationship of material properties to restoration outcome is uncertain in uncontrolled trials, the very utility of such trials for the exploration of associations between variables and outcome measures, as well as for the estimation of effect sizes as basis for sample size calculation is negated. In uncontrolled trials, the exploration of associations between variables and outcome measures is undertaken by sub-grouping subjects according to specific variables and then by establishing whether the outcome per subgroup lies above or below the total average of the study sample.3 However, the result of such exploration is again challenged by the uncertainty regarding which of the potentially influencing factors is cause for the outcome per subgroup as each subgroup would differ not only in the variable under investigation but also in the set of other influencing variables. The differences in the latter and not in the former may then be cause for the observed difference of the subgroup from the total average.
Thus, in uncontrolled trials estimated effect sizes may not be useful for sample size calculation in subsequent RCTs either, because the real set of factors that have affected the measured effect size may substantially differ in the RCT sample of subjects. As the uncontrolled trial design does not include any control group, it is simply not able to eradicate such possible confounder influence, which thus render uncontrolled trials not useful as pilot studies. Instead, prospective cohort studies (with test and control groups) and smaller, less expensive randomised control trials would appear more suitable as pilot studies, particularly for the exploration of associations between variables and outcome measures and for the estimation of effect sizes as basis for sample size calculation in subsequent larger RCTs, respectively.
The uncontrolled clinical trial design has also been utilized for the investigation of clinical merits of directly placed restorations in vital teeth.11,12 For this reason the objectives of this study were to establish:
How the number of published reports from uncontrolled clinical prospective trials compare to that of reports from controlled clinical prospective trials for direct restorations in vital teeth;
Whether the annual number of reports from uncontrolled trials is either increasing, stable or decreasing in comparison to that of controlled trials.
Both authors searched PubMed independently until January 26, 2017. Reference check of all included trial reports and hand searching of additional journals were conducted. The details of the search strategy and the including search terms are presented in Table. Citations were included in line with the following criteria:
|Electronic database
|Search term number
|Number of Citations found (without dublications)
|PubMed search strategy: 26.01.2017 Online: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
|[1] (((tooth restoration) OR tooth filling) OR dental filling) OR "Dental Restoration, Permanent"[Mesh] Sort by: PublicationDate Filters: Clinical Trial; Abstract; Humans
|[2] (amalgam OR composite OR glass-ionomer OR compomer) AND restoration Sort by: PublicationDate Filters: Clinical Trial; Abstract; Humans
|[3] atraumatic restorative treatment (no filters)
|[4] composite restorations (Filters activated: Clinical Trial, Abstract.)
|[5] compomer restoration (Filters activated: Clinical Trial, Abstract.)
|[6] amalgam restoration (Filters activated: Clinical Trial, Abstract.)
|[7] glass ionomer restoration (Filters activated: Clinical Trial, Abstract.)
|Total included from database search
|Hand-search included (PubMed listed)
|Total citations included
Report of a clinical prospective trial;
Direct restoration in vital primary and permanent teeth (anterior and posterior);
Restoration longevity, survival or failure as outcome (Definition of failure also included all aspects of patient satisfaction, e.g.: including post operative sensitivity, unsatisfactory aesthetic);
Abstract of trial report listed in PubMed;
Uncontrolled, single treatment arm study design or controlled (randomised or non-randomised) trial with at least two treatment arms;
Report published between 1990–2016.
No limitation on publication languages of the trial reports was set. Both authors scanned titles and abstracts of identified citations in duplication. Potential citations of trial reports without a listed abstract were scanned in full copy. Trial reports were excluded, if: no restoration failure or success was assessed; when no direct restorations were placed; no vital teeth were restored; if the study was not a clinical and a prospective trial. Duplications and any citations without PubMed listed abstracts, which could not be traced in full, were also excluded. The authors resolved any disagreements with regard to citation inclusion/exclusion through discussion and consensus. Reports, which could not be traced in full copy but for which an abstract was listed in PubMed were included for sensitivity analysis.
Data collection from accepted trials and statistical analysis
In line with the stated inclusion criteria, the number of uncontrolled and controlled trial reports listed in PubMed between 1990 and 2016 was recorded per calendar year. All trials that included more than one intervention group were classified as 'controlled trial'. As the number of controlled trial reports per year served only as comparator to that of reports from uncontrolled trials, no further investigation into the details of reports from controlled trials was made during this study.
From the number of annual reports per type of trial, the median trial report number with 25 and 75% percentile, as well as the annual ratio of uncontrolled versus controlled trial reports was calculated. In addition, the annual report numbers and ratios where explored through linear regression analysis (Biostat 2009 statistical software) with the calendar year being the independent variable and the annual trial report number or the ratio of uncontrolled to controlled trial reports the dependent variable. Alpha was set at 5%.
Sensitivity analysis was conducted with additional data extracted from abstracts of trial reports, identified in PubMed that could not be traced in full.
A total of 6521 citations were identified through the initial PubMed search and an additional 36 citations through hand searching (Table). From the total citations found, 5804 citations considered irrelevant to the topic were excluded and 753 were included for review. From these, 63 reports could not be traced in full. A reference check of the 690 traced trial reports yielded an additional 83 relevant citations that could be traced in full. A total of 78 reports were excluded for the following reasons: no restoration failure or success assessed = 17; no direct restorations were placed = 20; no vital teeth were restored = 9; not a clinical trial = 13; duplication = 17; not a prospective trial = 2. A total of 695 trial reports, 118 from uncontrolled (17%) and 577 from controlled trials (83%) were accepted. Details of the included, excluded trials and trials not traced in full copy are presented in separate work sheets in the Additional file.
The median number (with 25–75% percentile) of reports from uncontrolled trials per year was 4 (3–7) and that of controlled trials 22 (15–26), thus the latter being between four and five times larger than that of uncontrolled trials. The annual report numbers of the two different trial types are shown in Figure 1 and a decreasing trend (Coefficient = -0.008, p = 0.01) of publications of uncontrolled trial reports in relation to published controlled trial reports per year is shown in Figure 2. Further exploration of the trend established that changes in the number of uncontrolled trial reports (Coefficient = -0.06, p = 0.31), and of controlled trial reports (Coefficient = 0.37, p = 0.06) per year were not statistically significant. Further details of the linear regression analysis, as well as all numbers of annual trial reports and ratios are presented in the Additional file.
Orange columns: number of reports from uncontrolled trials per year; Blue columns: number of reports from controlled trials per year.
Black dots: main data; White dots: sensitivity analysis data; Solid line: trend line, main data (coefficient = -0.007, p = 0.01); Broken line: trend line, sensitivity analysis data (coefficient = -0.008, p = 0.01).
Sensitivity analysis
Abstracts from 63 trial reports that could not be traced in full copy were reviewed in order to establish whether their absence would have significantly altered the results from the data extracted from the traced full reports. Because the full reports could not be reviewed, in order to verify the correctness of the abstract data, it was decided not to include this data in the main analysis. Details of the abstract data are presented in the Additional file.
When data from the abstracts were added, the median number (with 25–75% percentile) of reports from uncontrolled trials per year was 5 (3–8) and that of controlled trials 23 (18–28), thus the latter would remain four to five times larger than that of uncontrolled trials. In addition, the changed proportions still show a decreasing trend (Coefficient = -0.008, p = 0.01) of publications of uncontrolled trial reports in relation to that of controlled trial reports per year (Figure 2). Further exploration of the number of uncontrolled trial reports (Coefficient = -0.09, p = 0.17) and the number of controlled trial reports (Coefficient = 0.24, p = 0.21) per year appeared to confirm the main results.
Limitations of study method
A systematic literature search based on specific strings of search terms (Table) was conducted. Limitations of this search included the restriction to one single database (PubMed), only; restriction to the time period from 1990–2016 and possible limited inclusiveness of search terms. The latter appeared likely as further citations were found by use of reference check that was missed during the database search. However, these constituted 12% (n = 83) of the total number of included trial reports, only. In addition, the results of the sensitivity analysis showed that exclusion of 8% (n = 63) of trials that could not be traced in full did not affect the conclusions of this study. For this reason it can be assumed that the number of possibly still unidentified trial reports is small and that its absence would not have substantially altered the overall study results.
Limiting the search to PubMed only may have further reduced the number of identifiable trial reports by exclusion of reports that are listed in other databases but not in PubMed. However, this study intended to focus on PubMed listed reports, only. PubMed is a well-known global evidence source that is at the same time freely accessible on the Internet (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed). While other databases such as LILACS (http://lilacs.bvsalud.org/en/) or DOAJ (https://doaj.org/) are also freely accessible, they are either only of regional nature, less well known or are largely redundant, due to overlap with the listed PubMed content. On the other hand, other well-known global evidence sources such as EMBASE are not freely accessible and require subscription. For these reasons, the results and conclusions of reports listed in PubMed are more salient to those who seek clinical evidence and thus reflect the most influential results to the topic.
A further limitation of this study may have arisen from the fact that it did not include any quality assessment of the identified controlled trials reports. Therefore, the established ratio of uncontrolled to controlled trial reports does only reflect the number of reports of uncontrolled trials in relations to that from trials where more than one intervention group was included and not in relation to that of e.g. high quality RCT reports to the topic. Furthermore, the focus of this study was on the number of published reports and not on that of trials. Some trials may have generated several published reports listed in PubMed over the years, e.g. for different follow-up periods and such repetition would need to be considered when evaluating the risk of obtaining definitive clinical guidance from uncontrolled clinical trials.
In addition, the search was also limited to the period from 1990 – 2016, thus excluding all trial reports listed before 1990. The reason for such limitations was that restorative materials studied before 1990 may have mostly lost their clinical relevance today. It was also noted that clinical trials were increasingly listed without abstracts in the years before 1990, thus potentially leading to an increasing number of trial exclusions on that basis.
Discussion of study results
The results of this study suggest that the number of listed reports from uncontrolled trials is small in relation to that of controlled trials and that this number in relation to the number of controlled trials is decreasing.
The low number of published reports of uncontrolled trials seems surprising, as the former study design is generally considered to be cheaper and faster.1 The reason may be related to the relative early recognition of the advantages of prospective comparisons in clinical study design. Hickel et al.13 reconfirmed this recognition for studies of restorative dental materials by stating that "a study without a control group is of limited value". A further reason for the relative small number of uncontrolled trial reports is an apparent lack of direct recommendations and guidelines in favour of the uncontrolled study design.
While the shortcomings of the uncontrolled trial design have been highlighted in the past,4,5,6 the dangers of subsequently using results from uncontrolled trials for naïve-indirect comparisons have been discussed further an the example of high-viscosity GIC versus dental amalgam restorations.12 A 'naïve-indirect comparison' is made when results for competing clinical interventions are extracted from unrelated studies and compared.14 When results from naïve-indirect comparisons between high-viscosity GIC versus dental amalgam were compared to that from RCT to the same types of materials, the latter were found to be highly unreliable.12 This unreliability was further illustrated by a simulation study.15 In this study, the same data was compared using either naïve-indirect comparison or direct comparison on RCT basis. The results showed a poor inter-comparison type agreement with kappa = 0.06 and a 64% overestimation of the true results through naïve-indirect comparison.15 Against this background, the observation that the use of the uncontrolled study design appears to be decreasing is encouraging.
Within the limits of the applied study methodology it can be concluded that the number of reports of uncontrolled clinical trials listed in PubMed over the last 27 years appears more than five times smaller than that of controlled clinical trials for directly placed restorations in vital primary and permanent teeth and its number in relation to that of controlled trials seems to decrease over time.


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For a Purpose
written by Guest Author on the topic of Education on June, 2011
This article was written by Monica Carey. She is the sixth grade teacher at North Valley Baptist Schools.
Recently, an extended family member passed away. For the funeral, relatives gathered from all parts of the country. Many I hadn't seen since the last family funeral a few years back. Though the circumstances were difficult, it was nice to get reacquainted, and I learned much about the lives of my relatives. I was especially excited though to discover that one of my aunts is a Christian school teacher like me. She has worked with third graders for years, and as a rookie teacher, I was eager to get some pointers from her.
When I asked her for general guidance, I honestly expected her to pour out buckets of experience. That wasn't what she did. Her only advice was, "God places you with certain people for a purpose." She went on to say that her school year has been very difficult emotionally. In one day alone, she lost not only her father but also her father-in-law. On the other hand, her year has been great academically. She told me she has never had an easier group of students. In her estimation, God gave her those children to help her through her tough year.
I thought on her words for a long time. She was right. God truly positions each of us educators right where He wants us, gives us the students He wishes us to have, and then uses us as vessels to reach their hearts and minds. Though my aunt didn't give the advice I hoped for, she provided an immense amount of wisdom I may never forget.
God places us with certain people for a purpose.


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So lots of time since the last post. Here is the short of what is going on. I finally moved the last of my money off of Absolute because I got tired of dealing with those scumbags. Now pretty much all of my roll in on Full Tilt.
I've moved up and am playing mostly 3/6 and 5/10 NL, but still playing the 2/4 games when I can't find any good games at the higher limits. I'm still mixing in some 8/16 to 15/30 LHE on occasion, but more of a change of pace than anything else.
We are currently in the middle of the opening round of the playoffs. The first series is against arguably the best team in the league and the only team we had a losing record against in the regular season. It is a best of 5 series and we got out to fast start by winning the first two games. They came back and won the third on thursday night, and tomorrow is game 4. Hopefully we can pull it out and make it to the championship where I really like our chances. Things have been going well for me. I'm 9-1 on the season with about a 2.3 ERA. I might be getting the ball tomorrow night, or I might be closing or taking the ball for game 5 if we can't pull it off tomorrow.
Poker is going really well this month. I'm running good and I think playing pretty well. I'm on pace to have my best month ever, and there is a decent chance I could crack $20k for the first time ever. By I'm not keeping my fingers crossed as I think it is fairly unlikely since I'll probably hit a nasty downswing before the month is over (tends to happen imo).
thats all for now. I'm going to try and get back to posting semi-regularly. Its been a fairly busy summer, and I think I'm going to be cramming in tons of good stuff this fall.
I'm a former college baseball pitcher who quit my job to become a professional poker player and try to make it in the ranks of professional baseball. Baseball didn't work out but poker is going strong. The best part about it is that I haven't had to sit in a cubicle since late 2007.
Monday, August 18, 2008
quick update.
Posted by Jim Perry at 4:53 AM
2 comments:
- Matthew Feldman said...
thanks for the update and the comment at my blog.
hit me on gmail, eh? want to ask you a couple of questions.
- August 22, 2008 at 12:05 AM
- Matthew Feldman said...
btw, did you see this?
- August 22, 2008 at 12:13 AM
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In the weeks before an election, political campaigns are focused on getting voters to the polls — holding rallies, knocking on doors and making phone calls to make sure people show up.
In Georgia and other states, the question in this election is not just about which candidates voters will support, but whether they'll be able to cast a ballot in the first place. The fight over voting rights in the midterms is a reminder that elections are not solely about who is running, what their commercials say or how many people are registered to vote. They are about who is allowed to vote and which officials are placing obstacles in the way of would-be voters.
The issue of voter suppression has exploded in recent weeks, most notably in the Georgia governor's race between Stacey Abrams, a Democrat, and Brian Kemp, a Republican. While running for higher office, Mr. Kemp, as secretary of state, also enforces Georgia's voting laws. This month, The Associated Press reported that Mr. Kemp's office had put more than 53,000 voter registration applications in limbo because the information on the forms did not exactly match state databases. Seventy percent of the pending registrations were from African-Americans, leading Ms. Abrams to charge that Mr. Kemp was trying "to tilt the playing field in his favor." Mr. Kemp claimed a voter registration group tied to Ms. Abrams had "submitted sloppy forms."
Since the 2010 election, 24 states overwhelmingly controlled by Republicans have put in place new voting restrictions, such as tougher voter ID laws, cutbacks to early voting and barriers to registration. Republicans say these measures are necessary to combat the threat of widespread voter fraud, even though study after study shows that such fraud is exceedingly rare. Many of these states have hotly contested races in 2018, and a drop in turnout among Democratic constituencies, such as young people and voters of color, could keep Republicans in power.
This month, the Supreme Court upheld a law in North Dakota that could block 70,000 residents who don't have a qualifying ID from the polls, including 5,000 Native American voters. The law is particularly burdensome for Native Americans because it requires an ID with a "current residential street address," but some Native Americans live on reservations and get their mail through post-office boxes. This is worrisome news for Senator Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat, who is trailing her Republican opponent in the polls. She won election to the Senate in 2012 by 3,000 votes, thanks largely to 80 percent support from the two counties with large Indian reservations.
Could Blocking Voters Swing Elections?
A comparison of winning vote margins in recent elections and voter restrictions or purges in those same states.
Lacking voter ID
required by new law
70,000 people
North Dakota
Heidi Heitkamp,
2012 Senate race
2,881 votes
Incl. these Native Americans
Disenfranchised in 2 largest
counties by voter ID law
Up to 23,000
Donald Trump, 2016
Blocked from registering by
proof of citizenship law
(later struck down by court)
Kris Kobach, 2018
primary for governor
Purged from voter rolls,
2012-2016: 1.5 million
Nathan Deal,
2012 governor's race
voter purge
Rick Scott,
2010 governor's race
Ex-felons who can't vote
1.6 million
Amendment 4, on the ballot in Florida next month, would restore the right to vote for people with felony convictions, except those convicted of murder or a felony sexual offense, upon completion of their sentences, including parole and probation.
Rick Scott,
2014 governor's race
Lacking voter ID required by new law
70,000 people
North Dakota
Heidi Heitkamp,
2012 Senate race
2,881 votes
Including these Native Americans
Donald Trump, 2016
Disenfranchised in 2 largest counties by voter ID law
Up to 23,000
Kris Kobach, 2018
primary for governor
Blocked from registering by proof of
citizenship law (later struck down by court)
Nathan Deal,
2012 governor's race
Purged from voter rolls, 2012-2016
1.5 million
Pending voter purge
Ex-felons who can't vote
1.6 million
Rick Scott, 2010 governor's race
Amendment 4, on the ballot in Florida next month, would restore the right to vote for people with felony convictions, except those convicted of murder or a felony sexual offense, upon completion of their sentences, including parole and probation.
Rick Scott, 2014 governor's race
In Florida, where Andrew Gillum, a Democrat, is running for governor — he would be the state's first black governor — 1.6 million ex-felons won't be able to vote in this year's election, including almost half a million African-Americans. Florida is one of only four states that prevent ex-felons from voting unless they're pardoned by the governor. The architect of the current law, Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, is running for the Senate. Mr. Scott's predecessor, Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican who later switched parties, restored voting rights to 155,000 ex-felons; of those who registered to vote in 2012, 59 percent signed up as Democrats.
But Mr. Scott, who won two elections as governor by just 60,000 votes, reversed that policy and has restored voting rights to just a little more than 3,000 people while in office, with white ex-felons twice as likely to have their rights restored compared with African-Americans. He's now locked in a dead heat with Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat. Though there's an amendment on the ballot that would restore voting rights to up to 1.4 million ex-felons in the state, those directly impacted by Mr. Scott's felon disenfranchisement law won't be able to vote this year. Nearly 100,000 people who were on track to get their rights restored under Mr. Crist lost that chance when Mr. Scott changed the rules — a stark example of the precariousness of voting rights.
Voter suppression isn't just a potential problem in 2018 — it seems to have already had a decisive impact in recent years. In 2016, the year of the first presidential election with Wisconsin's voter ID law in place, the state saw a plunge in black voter turnout, which undoubtedly helped Donald Trump carry the state. A study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that the ID requirement kept up to 23,000 people from voting in two of the state's most Democratic counties, Milwaukee County and Madison's Dane County; African-Americans were more than three times as likely as whites to be deterred from voting by the law. Mr. Trump won the state by 23,000 votes. "It is very probable," Milwaukee's top election official, Neil Albrecht, told me last year, that "enough people were prevented from voting to have changed the outcome of the presidential election in Wisconsin." The ID requirement remains in effect today, and its biggest cheerleader, the Republican governor, Scott Walker, who claimed it was "a load of crap" that the law kept people from the polls, is locked in a close race for re-election against Tony Evers, a Democrat.
The most vociferous supporter of tightening access to the ballot, the Kansas Secretary of State, Kris Kobach, former vice chairman of President Trump's election integrity commission, is also running for governor this year. A voter ID law Mr. Kobach championed led to a 2 percent decrease in turnout in 2012, according to a study by the Government Accountability Office, with the largest drop-off among young, black and newly registered voters. Mr. Kobach won his primary in the governor's race by just 350 votes and is now in an extremely tight race against Laura Kelly, a Democrat, and an independent candidate, Greg Orman, so even a tiny reduction in participation among Democratic constituencies could put him in the governor's mansion. Since Mr. Kobach became secretary of state in 2011, more than 1,200 ballots have been tossed because voters showed up at the polls without a sufficient ID, a much larger number than the 15 cases of voter fraud his office has prosecuted.
Nowhere have hopes for high Democratic turnout collided with the reality of suppressive voting laws more than in Texas. In 2016, there were three million unregistered voters of color in the state, including 2.2 million unregistered Latinos and 750,000 unregistered African-Americans. Though Texas set a new voter registration record this year, it's unlikely that the number of unregistered Latinos and African-Americans has changed much. Texas has the most restrictive voter registration law in the country — to register voters, you must be deputized by a county and can register voters only in the county you're deputized in. The number of unregistered voters of color is a major obstacle for the Democratic candidate Beto O'Rourke in his race against Senator Ted Cruz. Though the demographics of the state suggest that it should be trending purple, the state's voting rules help keep it red.
Chief Justice John Roberts, in the 2013 Supreme Court ruling he wrote that gutted the Voting Rights Act, dismissed the idea that voting discrimination was still "flagrant" and "widespread." Instead he wrote, "Our country has changed." Yet since that decision, state and local governments that formerly had to approve their voting changes with the federal government, like Georgia and Texas, have closed 20 percent more polling places per capita than other states have, many in neighborhoods with large minority populations. More than half the states freed from federal oversight have put in place new voting restrictions in recent years. The 2016 election had the unfortunate distinction of being the first presidential contest in 50 years without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act; in 2018, the threat of disenfranchisement has gotten worse, in the South and beyond.
People tend to focus on obstacles to voting when they believe it will affect a close election, as in Georgia. But efforts to erect barriers to the ballot box are wrong regardless of whether they decide the outcome of an election. If Democrats turn out in large numbers on Nov. 6, as the early-voting data suggests is happening in some key states, it will be in spite of these barriers, not because they didn't exist or didn't matter.
Despite rampant suppression efforts, there is some hope. In seven states, ballot initiatives would restore voting rights to ex-felons, make it easier to register to vote and crack down on gerrymandering. If these pass, we could see 2018 as a turning point for expanding voting rights, instead of an election tainted by voter suppression. But first people need to have the right to cast a ballot.
Ari Berman (@AriBerman), a senior reporter for Mother Jones, is the author of "Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America."
Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTOpinion) and Instagram.


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$10.99 – $74.99
Hawaiian Sun Juice Profile: Mix: 60%VG 40%PG Available in 30ml, 60ml, 100ml, 200ml & 400ml.
Welcome to the paradise with Hawaiian Sun! Grab one and feel the heat of tropical breeze with juicy watermelon, sweet guava and tangy pineapple blended together to give you the taste you'll never forget. If you like sweet fruit vape juice flavors Hawaiian Sun will be the eliquid for you. Hawaiian Sun vape juice tastes like Sweet Guava Pineapple and Watermelon. Hawaiian Sun has been a very popular vape juice flavor. If you are looking for a dessert flavored vape juice check out our other flavor Southern Brew! Our vape juice is made with only the highest quality ingredients. All 100 Proof Vape Juice including our salt nic line is produced in an iso-7 certified clean room. With 100 Proof Vape Juice we take pride in accurate measurements on all of our quality eliquids. Hawaiian Sun is mixed at a 60/40 VG/PG blend. At that ratio for quality vape juice we found that is a perfect balance of vape juice flavor and cloud production. If you are interested in purchasing 100 Proof vape juice wholesale for your vape store or you have any questions please email us at firstname.lastname@example.com.
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With dramatic, ever-changing views from your private balcony, you'll have a new perspective almost every day. And all of our Mini-Suites (also known as Club Balcony Suites), Family Balcony or Balcony Staterooms feature comfy sitting areas, convertible and/or drop-down beds and plenty of storage space. So, if you're looking for an accommodation for two, a little more space for your family or the convenience of connecting staterooms, there's a choice that's right for you.
Starting 8/30/20, the stateroom category Club Balcony Suites will replace Mini-Suites fleetwide providing additional amenities and privileges at no additional cost. Amenities include the option to pre-book onboard entertainment and dining as early as 125 days prior to sail date, complimentary treats delivered to your stateroom, a complimentary bottle of sparkling wine, and a choice of one valet laundry or pressing service. Club Balcony Suites will first debut on Norwegian Encore and then roll out on select ships through November 2020.


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Be Awesome Today (DIY Sign)
At the beginning of the calendar year, I set a semi-small goal for myself: be more crafty. For me, craftiness helps me relax and let out the creative juices that are usually bubbling over but have no where to go. I've been making cards, painting canvases, and more. Our stairwell was (finally!) stripped of wall paper and painted, so it's really bare right now. I love it looking so clean, but there's an overhang that was just begging for something. You know – like in the locker room as the players leave to play? I told Math Man that I should make something to go there. Tell the kids to remember how awesome they are. Being the coach he is, he suggested, "Be Awesome Today," and I loved it!
Making it wasn't going to be difficult. We have so much left over wood from the Clubhouse Math Man built last summer that I assumed I could simply use one of the pieces. I'd already gone all over the craft store world to find something, but it was all too expensive considering I had stuff in the shed outside.
The two littles and I ventured out to the shed one day amidst tons of questions about "why are we out here!?" to simply find one board that I eyed and assumed would fit in the spot on the overhang.
Bonus for me: I was right! It was a perfect fit and probably better than any fit I would have found with something that would have cost a heck of a lot more just for being "new."
My first step was to spray paint it the color I wanted the words to be. Handy me, I had red spray paint out in the carport room, so I used it! I laid it in the grass, on top of a brown paper bag, and went for it. Granted, I didn't try too hard to make it perfect since the goal was for the sign to look worn.
Next, after I let the paint dry, I placed stickers on the board. It took me a while to get the spacing correct, and I was once again met with a ton of questions from the littles. They couldn't understand why I needed an S there or a W there. I took the opportunity for a short language and spelling lesson.
After the stickers were placed in the right spots, we headed back outside for me to cover with white spray paint (which I also had outside! Yay!). Again, I didn't try too hard to make things perfect.
After just a few minutes to dry, I removed the stickers. I did that pretty quickly because I didn't want the chance of the stickers staying permanently with the bond of the spray paint. I wasn't sure, so I went for it. It turned out fine.
The last step was to figure out how to hang the sign. I went back into the carport room and scrummaged (that's a word) through Math Man's variety of screws, nails, and other odds and ends. I found two eye hooks. That made for an easy hanger, and although I thought I was going to ask for help, I was able to do it myself!
Finished Product!
And here it is, finally hanging over the stairs. I've come down a couple of times since I hung it up, and it's having the exact effect I hoped it would — on me at least. As the kiddos continue to learn to read (only 2/4 can right now), I want this to be a mantra they repeat to themselves daily. (Ignore the awkward paint splotches and shadow in the picture! You love me.)
What mantra do you have for yourself or hope your kids will have?awesome, craft, diy, paint, palette, parenting


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Meet the Hybrid Goat Robot 22T: a commercial grade robotic platform with rugged tracks to climb hills and take on slope mowing. It has a cutting width of 22 inches and a 6.75HP engine. The robot has a max speed of 8 miles per hour. As this video shows, you can use the snow plow attachment to turn this robot into a RC snow plow.
More like this ➡ here
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