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Celebrating its 45th anniversary in 2012, Northampton Community College is the larger of two publicly supported community colleges in the Lehigh Valley. It boasts an $80 million budget, more than 2,600 faculty and staff and some 46,000 credit and noncredit students at its campuses in Bethlehem Township, south Bethlehem and Tannersville.
Yet, those who work for the institution describe the intimacy of their "worth place" — a place they gladly visit after hours or on weekends, a place they feel appreciated, encouraged and challenged.
"I joke that when I started here, the president makes you drink a special Kool-Aid to acclimate you to the Northampton Way," said Jeanine Metzler, an assistant professor of accounting the past five years.
The Northampton Way, she said, is a culture in which employees and faculty help each other and the college excel. It's a culture that understands family needs, a culture unlike those she experienced at three previous learning institutions in the Valley.
When her father died unexpectedly in June, Metzler said more friends from NCC attended his funeral than did family. When her adopted daughter is sick, staying home is not an issue.
"People here really care about me as an individual," she said. "I never worked with a group of people who wanted me to succeed more than they want to themselves."
For those reasons and others, NCC was ranked the Top Workplace among large employers surveyed by WorkplaceDynamics in the Lehigh Valley.
New college President Mark Erickson said the "ego-free" culture at NCC is one reason he took the helm. Another is the college's commitment to its community, including students, employers and contributors. Erickson previously worked for more than 20 years at Lehigh University and since 2005 had been president of Wittenberg University in Ohio.
"This place has an incredible personal feel," Erickson said. "It's not just a place to come in a car, take classes and leave … students are everywhere, so engaged." And when they learned of an employee who had taken ill and needed to be hospitalized, he said, the campus rallied to her aid, raising money to help her.
"We are a college of the community. That's the mindset," Erickson said. "What are the community's needs and how do we shift to serve those needs."
NCC is well-positioned to respond with more than 100 associate degree, certificate and diploma programs and more private scholarship money disbursed than any other community college in Pennsylvania.
Tuition costs about $3,600 a year, compared with $30,000 to $40,000 a year or more at the Valley's private colleges. At Lehigh Carbon Community College, the other community college in the Valley, prices are similar to those at NCC but the enrollment is smaller: According to the state Department of Education, Northampton's fall 2010 enrollment was 11,328. LCCC's enrollment in fall 2010 was 8,101.
Attending NCC for two years before transferring to another college or university to complete a four-year degree can save families thousands of dollars.
To be able to offer affordable rates, NCC must supplement its income with government grants and donations. Tuition and fees cover 55 percent of operating costs, state appropriations 26 percent, contributions from school districts 10 percent, and gifts, grants and investments the final 9 percent. One of every four high school graduates in Northampton County attends NCC.
From its start in 1967, college leaders established a successful fundraising foundation that now allows for $500,000 to $1 million in scholarship money each year, as well as capital projects such as the expansion of NCC's campus in Monroe County. That 72-acre campus, which started 25 years ago in a renovated blouse factory, is slated to be completed in 2014.
NCC is the only community college out of 14 in Pennsylvania with residence halls, a campus restaurant (Hampton Winds) to train its culinary students and a special program developed to train dealers to work at the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem and other casinos. Students come from 24 states and 53 countries, according to Erickson.
Diana Holva heard what a great place NCC was to work from her mother, who started as a secretary when the college consisted of one building on Green Pond Road in Bethlehem Township. Holva took a part-time job in the records office in hopes of grabbing a full-time position in financial aid when it became available and did just that. In October she celebrated 29 years with the college.
"It's nice that they give people within first chance at new positions if they qualify," Holva said.
As the veterans affairs assistant, Holva helps nearly 300 veterans, National Guardsmen, reservists and dependents each semester obtain the certifications they need for financial assistance with college classes.
NCC paid her tuition for a general associate degree in 2006, so helping others get their degrees, especially veterans, has become her passion. And when she and a colleague came up with the idea of holding a special orientation for veterans, the administration approved it.
"I have always felt that as an employee I was valued, that my input and opinion mattered," she said, happy to report that the veterans orientation will continue. NCC listens to its staff and students, with communication flowing "from the top down, bottom up and everything in between."
Engaging staffers in strategic planning that began in 2009, Erickson said he will seek input on how NCC can stand out not only in Pennsylvania but also nationally as a top performer. Specifically, he will ask the community how best to use technology to enhance learning and strengthen the pathways from high schools to higher learning.
Undoubtedly, with construction under way in Monroe and new opportunities to work with area employers, NCC will hire in the coming year, Erickson said. Some will fill vacancies and some will be new positions, he said.
Ann Wlazelek is a freelance writer.
• Founded: 1967
• Ownership: Public
• Sector: Education
• Locations: 3
• Employees: 2,661
• Website: http://www.northampton.edu


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NBC topped the first official night of the new season, led byThe Voice and The Blacklist.
Fresh off its Emmy win, The Voice, Monday to 14.7 million viewers and a 4.9 in the adults 18-to-49 demographic, improving 17 percent from last fall's debut.
James Spader's new drama The Blacklist, one of TVGuide.com users' most anticipated new dramas, followed with 12.6 million and a 3.8, easily dominating the 10 o'clockhour and crushing Castle's sixth season premiere (11.5 million, 2.2), which was up vs. last year, and CBS' new drama, Hostages, which debuted to only 7.5 million viewers and a 1.8, tying Hawaii Five-0's performance in the slot last year. The Blacklist was down 7 percent in the demo vs. Revolution's premiere last year, but it pulled in more viewers.
Fall TV Popularity Contest: What did you think of Mom, The Blacklist and Hostages?CBS' other series premiere for the night, Mom, drew 7.9 million and a 2.5, down six tenths from Mike & Molly's season opener last year. How I Met Your Mother's one-hour premiere (9.2 million, 3.6) held steady and 2 Broke Girls (8.8 million, 2.8) fell 24 percent.On Fox, Bones (6.7 million, 1.9) and Sleepy Hollow (8.6 million, 3.1) both dipped four tenths, while ABC's Dancing with the Stars (13.4 million, 2.3) slipped eight tenths from last week.8 p.m.
CBS: How I Met Your Mother 9.2 million viewers (3.6 demo rating) [8-9 p.m.]ABC: Dancing with the Stars 13.4 million (2.3) [8-10 p.m.]Fox: Bones 6.7 million (1.9)NBC: The Voice 14.7 million (4.9) [8-10 p.m.]9 p.m.
CBS: 2 Broke Girls 8.8 million (2.8); Mom 7.9 million (2.5)Fox: Sleepy Hollow 8.6 million (3.1)10 p.m.
CBS: Hostages 7.5 million (1.8)ABC: Castle 11.5 million (2.2)NBC: The Blacklist 12.6 million (3.8)

subset: commoncrawl


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Yesterday during our Boca Hawaii Summer Triathlon Training workout three of my teammates were in accidents with motor vehicles while we were riding our bicycles. No one was fatally injured, all are on the mend, and to the best of my knowledge, each was a victim of hit-and-run rudeness. It is illegal and morally wrong to leave the scene of an accident or to not assist people who are hurt.
In 2012 Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie signed the Vulnerable Users Law, designed to protect bicyclists, pedestrians and people who work on crews such as those who groom road landscaping, etc. It isn't a snare net to capture and punish drivers. It's to make drivers aware that they have to look out for everyone who isn't in a steel capsule hurtling down the highway.
I live in East Oahu, and that's where these accidents involving my teammates occurred yesterday. This part of the Island is chock full of Type-A captains of industry and their high-maintenance Rogue- or Cayenne- or Lexus SUV-driving wives in their yoga pants, phones illegally at their ears, kids set to ignore in the backseat. One woman in her Mercedes coupe got very close and then told me to get out of the way because she was in a hurry to get to her tennis match at Koko Head District Park. I was completely unaware of her importance.
The point is, people out here need a refresher course on sharing the road with bicyclists. We get the lane. We get the whole ENTIRE lane. Do we take the entire lane? Not unless the shoulder is junk. Most of us ride on the shoulder and we're OK with that. Sometimes I see riders doubled up to shoot the breeze while we are out there on Kalanianaole Highway and I am not OK with that. I have a little mirror clipped to my sunglasses so I can see what's coming up from behind me, so I can see that a city bus is about to pull up to the bus stop, or a car or delivery truck wants to turn right. The mirror is very helpful to me, but not everyone uses them or needs to.
East Oahu gets its share of tourist drivers, and I suspect it was a tourist who caused my two women teammates to crash by Hanauma Bay yesterday. I do not know how this person is enjoying their Hawaii vacation. One woman has a dislocated shoulder and the other one has a broken collar bone. Needless to say their bicycles are totalled.
Those of us who ride road bikes and triathlon bicycles have a healthy respect for the road and for the vehicles with which we share it. Most of us obey the laws to the letter. Some of us will roll through a red light if there is nothing going on. Most of us will help each other out if we're on the side of the road changing out a punctured tube.
I make a point of making eye contact with drivers while riding. I always say thank you with a big smile and an Island-style shakka wave to convey my gratitude to those of you who are getting a chance to pass me because finally I have a shoulder to ride on. Believe me, if it were up to me all of our roads would have broad, clean shoulders for those of us who ride bike or who like to run along the highways.
I have a theory: Bicyclists make excellent drivers because we have the perspective of being both the vulnerable and the infallible user. We ride in the heat, the rain and the wind. These elements add to the challenge of navigating along the shoulder and sometimes in the path of traffic. We know we're not as fast as you in your big truck or little sports car or your tourist bus or your delivery truck or mom mobile. But do you know that as a driver on Oahu's roads, you must protect the rest of us who are considered by law vulnerable users? Awareness. We just ask that you have AWARENESS.


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Several employment opportunities are available now! Please apply directly online using the Employment link above.
For further information on the stores in your community, please refer to the Store Listing page. To see the store and more info, follow the appropriate link.
Great Food In Good Company is more than a slogan for Acorn Markets, it is a part of our culture. The Acorn Market chain is recognized for its high volume food service programs. From our delicious Pudgies pizzas, and wings to our quality subs, hot soups, and Berks hot dogs and sausage, Acorn Markets has become a favorite stop for people getting ready to enjoy a football game, party or just passing through.
In addition many Acorn Markets feature Subway Restaurants. From a platter of Subway sandwiches to their delicious cookies, Acorn Markets has become the place to go to when planning a graduation or other party or special event.
Most of our stores are located in the center of small towns. When stopping in you may see local residents sitting down and enjoying a delicious coffee and their favorite baked good, while talking to our store manager or friendly staff. Parents will stop by to pick up a pizza for after the local football game. Workers will recharge their phone cards or pick up an accessory or a DVD to enjoy that evening. Students will stop by after school for a slice and drink.
Acorn Markets is the place to stop by to fuel up your car and satisfy any of your convenience store needs, but we especially pride ourselves on our delicious food. We truly strive to be the place to enjoy Great Food in Good Company.
Special Offers:
While every month we feature a variety of delicious specials, these every day combinations are a favorite of our customers and are easy on your wallet :
Party Pack: Delicious sheet pizza combined with 24 wings and your favorite fountain drink.
Max Pack: A sheet pizza combined with 4 dozen wings and fountain soda. A football game favorite!!
Family Pack: Large pizza, a dozen wings, and a quart of soda, Great for those that need a dinner for the family while on the run.!
Stromboli Special: Stop by for lunch and enjoy a slice of our delicious Stromboli combined with your favorite fountain drink.


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System Center 2012 R2
System Center 2012 R2 delivers unified management across on-premises, service provider, and Microsoft Azure environments, thereby enabling the Microsoft Cloud OS. System Center 2012 R2 offers exciting new features and enhancements across infrastructure provisioning, infrastructure monitoring, application performance monitoring, automation and self-service, and IT service management.
What's new in System Center 2012 R2
Read the System Center 2012 R2 Datasheet
Read the System Center 2012 R2 White Paper
See how System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager and Windows Intune helps manage users and their devices
Medical center gains cost-effective disaster recovery, IT cost savings with upgrade
DHMC used the Windows Server 2012 R2 operating system and Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 to create a disaster recovery solution and further streamline data center management.
System Center enables the Microsoft Cloud OS by delivering unified management across on-premises, service provider, and Microsoft Azure environments.
Application focused
System Center enables easy workload portability between Windows Server and Microsoft Azure. It helps you deliver predictable line-of-business application SLAs by providing deep insight and diagnostics for your .NET and Java applications. Global Service Monitor and System Center Advisor deliver application health and performance insights from Microsoft Azure. System Center helps you provision your apps faster and repeatably using service templates. Your application developers and operations staff can help you take applications to market faster through built-in System Center-Visual Studio dev-ops integration. Finally, System Center provides your application owners with a unified, self-service view across clouds.
System Center 2012 R2 delivers best-in-class management for Windows Server environments that your critical business applications run on. It provides extensive built-in knowledge to help you optimize performance and availability for first-party Microsoft workloads like Exchange, SQL, and SharePoint. System Center helps you bridge physical and virtual networks, thereby enabling flexible.
workload mobility in hybrid environments. It can help you optimize your investments in SAN storage. System Center also provides robust heterogeneous datacenter management, including multiple hypervisors and Linux support. Finally, System Center enables unified monitoring for your on-premises and Microsoft Azure infrastructure, helping you to extend your existing investments and skill-sets.
Simple and cost-effective
To make it easier to deploy, we deliver service templates and runbooks for System Center components. You can easily integrate System Center capabilities with your existing management tools through the built-in web-service interfaces and Integration Packs. System Center can help you optimize storage cost-performance for your business-critical workloads by effectively managing Windows Server file-based storage and Storage Spaces. It also provides extensible automation and integration, thereby helping you to operate your infrastructure in a cost-effective and predictable manner.
- Infrastructure provisioning
- Infrastructure monitoring
- Automation and self-service
- Application performance monitoring
- IT service management
Infrastructure provisioning
System Center helps you manage virtual and cloud environments with full support for Windows Server capabilities, including industry-leading Hyper-V scale and performance, plus support for VMware vSphere and Citrix XenServer. It also delivers robust support for Linux-based environments, with full support for Dynamic Memory. System Center allows VM connectivity to fibre channel-based SAN so you can virtualize the most demanding workloads and connect them to your highest-tier storage platforms. To drive down storage costs for your business-critical workloads, it enables bare metal provisioning and cluster creation of scale-out file server clusters. System Center enables virtual networking for multitenant environments along with automated provisioning of edge gateways that bridge physical and virtual networks. System Center delivers reliable and cost-effective automation to help you drive operational efficiency. You can also migrate on-premises workloads to Microsoft Azure through the familiar System Center experience. The Configuration Manager component helps you automate physical server deployments, software inventory, and in-guest updates.
Infrastructure monitoring
System Center provides best-of-breed Windows Server monitoring and robust cross-platform monitoring support (including RHEL/SUSE Linux, Oracle Solaris, HP-UX, and IBM AIX). You can assure physical, virtual, and cloud infrastructure health with the familiar Operations Manager console. Built-in network topology discovery allows you to monitor the health of your network devices. The connector between VMM and Operations Manager components enables granular monitoring of your private cloud infrastructure resources. The System Center Management Pack for Microsoft Azure allows granular monitoring of Microsoft Azure resources. You can monitor your VMware infrastructure with the VEEAM Management Pack. And you can ensure reliable workload configurations using the System Center Advisor connector for Operations Manager.
Automation and self-service
Use service templates for faster and repeatable application and workload provisioning—for example, to define and deploy a SharePoint farm for use by application owners. With the Windows Azure Pack, you can deploy scalable, multi-VM infrastructure services such as SQL clusters for use by application owners. Work with application owners to define the policies that govern the underlying infrastructure services, empowering them while retaining control. To ensure hybrid IT consistency between on-premises and Microsoft Azure environments, System Center provides unified views (through the App Controller component) and supports common deployment artifacts such as VHDs for Windows Server and Linux. Finally, System Center enables dynamic capacity expansion to support application needs through robust automation workflows (based on PowerShell and the Orchestrator component) and Integration Packs (including Integration Packs for Microsoft Azure and SharePoint).
Application performance monitoring
System Center assures LOB application SLAs by providing deep application insight for .NET and Java applications, including line-of-code level traceability to pinpoint and resolve issues that impact application health. Through integration with System Center Alliance partner BlueStripe, System Center can enable transaction monitoring. Achieve a rapid application lifecycle by delivering dev-ops capabilities that span people, process, and systems. Deep Visual Studio-System Center integration makes it possible for developers to work productively with their operations counterparts in a cloud-optimized release cadence. System Center Global Service Monitor gives you outside-in monitoring for web applications through Microsoft Azure-based global points of presence for a 360-degree view of application health.
IT service management
System Center offers easy publishing and consumption of IT services by enabling self-service requests for private cloud capacity through a Service Catalog and Cloud Service Process Pack. You get deep integration of people, process and knowledge with a CMDB as well as pre-defined industry-standard workflows for core datacenter processes. You can even measure and increase efficiencies of your operation through granular resource metering for chargeback combined with a data warehouse for SLA tracking and reporting.


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Why DID GOD choose ARABIC???
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Joined: 10 April 2005
Location: Antarctica
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Points: 77
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Posted: 25 April 2005 at 8:27am
please post anything on why!? Allah' chose arabic to be the one and only last languge to cend his message?
May Allah Bless those who seek the truth......Allah Stands Alone in truth..
Joined: 03 April 2005
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Though this is a bit of a strange question, Arabic happens to be a very rich language.
The following is an extract from the Fatwa Bank of Islam On-Line:
�Allah Almighty says, � And We never sent a messenger save with the language of his folk, that he might make (the message) clear for them�� (Ibrahim: 4)
Shams Zaman
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Dear Brothers Peace be on You all
Arabic is a unique language in the world which is so vast that it can contain 3000 words for soward, 500 words for lion over 70 words regarding moon etc. It is a verstile language whose words can deliver wide ranging meanings full of depth and yet not contradictory.
The Arabs were so proud of their language and its rich text that they would call non-arabs as "AJMEES" or dumb, or with no language or with no voice or with no verbal expression. See for yourself how many meanings can be attributed for the word ajmee. So once Muhammad, who was an illitrate delivered Quran Arabs were shocked that how come this man could produced a book of such a calibar. That is why Allah challanged the unbelievers to bring forth even one verse of such a calibar if they say that these are the words of Muhammad and not God. They all failed.
This is why Quran is the only miracle given to Muhammad. Thirdly Muhammad was sent to land of Arabia and there people spoke Arabic and if it would have revealed in Hebrew or Greek it would have been useless for the Arabs.
Shams Zaman Pakistan
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Bi ismillahir ramanir raheem
just to correct Quran was not the only miracle given to muhammad (sallah llahu alaihi wa sallam)
Rasul Allah (sallah llahu alaihi wa sallam) said: "Whoever knows himself, knows his Lord" and whoever knows his Lord has been given His gnosis and nearness.
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God love pronouns, obviously.
(I studied Arabic a little bit back in late 2001, after a trip to Egypt and Lebanon. Trying to learn 12 pronouns in a different script, backwards sorta broke my brain a bit...)
We now return you to our regularly scheduled serious conversation...
I, you(masc), you(fem), you(2), you(masc plu), you(fem plu), he, she, we, they (fem), they(masc), they(2)...
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Brother Shams Zaman, thank you for your contribution, it has some very strong points that could help one in seeking the answer to the question posed. In fact, it is true that today we do not completely understand the true miracle of the Qur'an mainly because we are far from understanding the language it was revealed in. The translation may help us grasp a portion of something but never in depth and in the way the original Arabic does... You do not have to be an Arab to admit the wisdom of the language, but a little Arabic may be needed. After all, most of us communicate in English on this board, but that doesn't make us any Englishmen, does it?
Why Arabic? There can be many answers but not many, if any, will provide information that will satisfy all, especially non-Arabs or non-speakers of Arabic. The language being lingua franca at a time of revelation may also not be the explanation. Or there can be no answers at all. It would be important however to remind that the Qur'aan was sent in Arabic not because it was meant for Arabs or certain community only. The Qur'aan and its message is universal.
"Parables in The Qur'an", a TV show popular in the Gulf not so long ago, may help one understand to some extent additional wisdom that unfolds through Qur'aanic language and its Arabic words. Its an enlighting programme, that may motivate one to learn Arabic to get closer to the meaning of the Qur'aan, too. Some episodes are available for downloads from the following website:
Another way to get closer to understanding the Message in Arabic is reading the translation of the meaning seeking additional assistance from "The Easy Dictionary of he Qur'aan".
http://www.ymofmd.com/quran/Quran_Dictionary/Easy_Dictionary .htm
I believe only once we know Arabic, each will be able to deduce his own opinion of why the Qur'aan was sent in Arabic.
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Auzubillahi minash shaitan ir rajeem,
Bismillah ir rahman ir rahim,
Assalamualaikum wa rahmatullah,
Brother Mockba, I would like to comment a little on your post.
Indeed what Shams Zaman said is true and informative about arabic as you acknoledged. - I myself do not know arabic, but am very much interested in learning, and always looking out for a chance. I do agree with you, not everyone has the proper means to understand arabic, and probably this the reason why Quran is the only book in the world that has been translated into maximum number of languages.
There are many ppl however, who have learnt arabic because it is the language of the Quran. One shcolar (american, revert) said, that Quran is not made for arabic, but arabic is made for the Quran. The language evoleved in such a way that it retains and expresses all the subtlities of the Quran efficiently.
If you look into the history of language, it is the first language in which dictionary was developed. The preservation of Quran is a promise of Allah, and this has been interpreted by many as the preservation of Arabic, because if the orginial language is not preserved, much of the essense of the book will be lost. This can be understood when one goes into learning the tafsir ... the methodology scholars have employed in udnerstanding the various verses, sometimes is just awe-inspiring - the beauty of Quran which is in arabic, can never be enjoyed fully unless we taste the taste of Arabic
Kim, long long ago, once upon a time when u visited Egypt ...
I hope u will not tell us about the taxi driver helping u with the seat belt
Maa salaama,
<font color=purple>Wanu nazzilu minal Qurani ma huwa
Shafaa un wa rahmatun lil mo'mineena
wa la yaziduzzalimeena illa khasara.[/COLOR]
Shams Zaman
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Dear MOCKBA
Then there would have been millions who would have argued that why Quran has not been revealed in yet another language. So for me the logic suffice, there may be some who would be satisfied after few more logical explainations. But still there would be lot of those for whom no amount of logic will be sufficient.
Shams Zaman Pakistan.
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Syndicated political columnist Charles Krauthammer decided to phone in his pre-Memorial Day column, and, in turn, wound up introducing us to the world's most insufferable get-together. He presents:
It was our much-anticipated quarterly lunch with Tim Kurkjian, baseball analyst extraordinaire, wherein George Will and I bathe in a constant flow of obscure statistics, Kurkjian oddities, and ribald anecdotes, like the one about the Red Sox beat writer who accidentally walked in on a players' prayer meeting and was greeted by the burly right fielder, newly born-again and not yet practiced in the language of Christian fellowship, bellowing "Hey! Can't you see we're having f— chapel here?"
Wait, what happened here? I started getting dizzy by time I got to "George Will and I bathe." And ribald anecdotes! Saying fuck in chapel? Saucy. Wait till these guys find out about the beer and chicken!
And then, unfortunately, we get an even greater sense of their really aggressively bad repartee:
After which, Kurkjian asked us about our daily reading habits. I confessed that during baseball season I give the front page of the morning paper about 90 seconds before going right to the box scores.
To which Will deadpanned, "Why waste the 90 seconds?"
True story. (You can look it up. It's in Kurkjian's book.)
Really? We need to fact check this story? O.K., fine.
Well, in Kurkjian's 2007 book Is This a Great Game or What? the lunch is described as biannual. That is, twice a year. That is, either Krauthammer can't remember how often he gets lunch with with these people (who could blame him?), or somehow, the worst lunch ever has been now ratcheted up to four times a year.
But who knows. Maybe having lunch with Kurkjian and George Will a few times a year can only influence Krauthammer in the right ways. Here's the kicker to his column about his love of the Nationals:
When the wizened [Davey] Johnson, asked about a recent epidemic of injuries to key players, suggested that perhaps a chicken be sacrificed, a bunch of fans promptly showed up at the park for the exorcism.
The beheading was clean; the chicken, rubber; and the results, pleasing: no major Nats injuries in a week! No entrails were read, but I'd say: The outlook is quite brilliant for the Mudville Nine this day.
Just to be sure, however, I'll check with Kurkjian.
Never mind.
The Nationals and the Joy of Winning


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Leaf cutter ants don´t often bother almond (almendra) trees but last night they did. I thought rain sends them in hiding but it rained all night and it didn't slow them down a bit. In the dry season the homes of these ants are pretty easy to find but now the weeds (sacate) are high. I wondered why they went to the top of the tree but then realized that is where all the tender new growth is. Gonna have to get out there with a flashlight tonight but if it's raining the normal powder won't work.
Maybe I'll have to resort to using them as protein.
Atta species are a popular ingredient in Mexican cuisine, particularly in the southern states such as Chiapas, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Puebla and Veracruz. It is considered a delicacy, as well as a food of high protein content, therefore it is often served as a main dish, not as garnish, despite its small portions. They may be eaten as the sole filling in tacos. The Atta (a leaf cutter ant species), the type of ant most eaten in Mexico, has a nutty flavor.
Almond tree from my roof
What to look for in the dry season
On a lighter note
Two of the three Neem trees I've planted on the Plaza


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This nifty retro-tinged animation by Swedish animator Jacob Stålhammar was designed to evoke 1950s cartoons with gouache-painted backgrounds. As for the plot, it's fairly straightforward. A bunch of cats live on Mars, where they befriend a Martian rover. You know, just your run-of-the-mill "cats on Mars" yarn.
[Via Cartoon Brew]


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Aluminum Siding Repair in Marlton, NJ
When dealing with aluminum siding, one of the biggest decisions that homeowners have to make is whether to repair or replace the siding. You have to consider a number of factors, the most important of which is your budget. Aluminum siding has, in fact, been used for many years, and there are lots of houses that still have them. The durability and longevity that comes with aluminum are some of the reasons why you have to strongly consider using them in your home. For the best aluminum siding repair in Marlton, you should consult the experts at Clever Cost Guides.
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Aluminum Siding Repair Marlton, NJ Average Costs
Whenever you are planning for Marlton aluminum siding repair, one of the most important things you need to consider is the expertise of the team that will carry out the work for you. This explains why Clever Cost Guides has been at the helm of the industry in offering these services over the years. Their contractors are people who have years of experience, people whose work has assisted a lot of clients in the past. You can further consult any homeowner you know from around your neighborhood and seek referrals about the work that Clever Cost Guides's professionals have done for them.
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Looking at national averages and data can help a homeowner get a general idea of the cost of aluminum siding repair in Marlton, but it will not get them an exact number. Marlton aluminum siding repair costs will be affected due to labor rates, material costs, and any permits or licenses required. With that in mind figuring out a local average cost for aluminum siding repair in Marlton is highly recommended before starting such a project.
In 2020 our data concluded that the amount homeowners paid for aluminum siding repair in the Burlington county ranged from $492.00 to $677.00.
Estimates for aluminum siding repair change from state to state and city to city. Below is listed what is usually included and what is usually not included in Marlton aluminum siding repair estimates from local professionals.
Marlton Aluminum Siding Repair Estimate Breakdown
- Average Marlton hourly labor costs.
- Material costs ranging from $4.00 to $6.00 per square foot.
- Average miscellaneous costs for other materials and equipment rental in Marlton.
- Unrecognized costs like surface preparation and cleanup fees.
Marlton Aluminum Siding Repair Estimates Usually Don't Account For
- New Jersey sales taxes for materials and related equipment.
- Required permits and building fees enforced by Marlton law.
- General contractor, if used, fees for this project. These fees usually add another $70.08-$87.60 to Marlton aluminum siding repair estimates.
It may be beneficial and strategic to compare the costs from cities surrounding the Marlton area as well. Homeowners usually compare Marlton aluminum siding repair with Aluminum Siding Repair in Audubon, Barrington Aluminum Siding Repair and Bellmawr Aluminum Siding Repair in order to determine a better price range.
What siding material are you looking for?


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31 artists...31 days. Spend every day of March with me at The Altered Page to meet the 31 spotlight artists in my book The Pulse of Mixed Media: Secrets and Passions of 100 Artists Revealed. See their beautiful faces, read their 'quirky' bios written in their own words, see some of their art that led me to invite them to be a part of my book, and hear my story of what they each mean to me. Then click on over to their sites and see what they have to say about The Pulse of Mixed Media.
The changing seasons are in black, white, gray with a touch of color.
The textures and layers are weathered and rusty with a subdued patina.
I look for dots, marks and circles on surfaces. There is a quiet strength in the riverbed as I seek memories and feelings. Bound by nature and the passage of time, I find solitude.
I have been intrigued by Donna and her aesthetic since the moment I found her blog. She creates the most beautiful and serene artwork in a limited palette of grays, browns, blacks, creams, and whites. The colors of the earth. Her work is abstract, balanced and ordered. At first glance there is a simplicity to her pieces but look a bit closer and you will see the complexity and depth that she brings to each of her creations.
A visit to her blog provides a breath of fresh air and a sense of calm serenity. It is a bit of escape from a chaotic world. Whether she is showcasing her own art, sharing her photographs and finds from her periodic adventures in Japan, or posting vignettes of her space and the objects she has collected along the way...their is always something compelling to by found.
I am lucky enough to be meeting Donna when my book tour stops in Seattle. I am excited to spend some time with her and to see her work in person. I know that I will feel both exhilarated and exhausted by the end of the tour but my sense is that the minute I see Donna and her art, I will feel still and at peace.


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In 2011, I read the manifesto of the Norwegian mass shooter.
It struck me as ludicrously pompous.
Also, his portraits were very similar to satirical photos popular in the early 1980s.
I'm now convinced that the Norwegian was the first trolling mass shooter.
Most people didn't read the manifesto.
Here are some quotes:
"3.40 Applying deceptive means in urban guerrilla warfare
"Give the impression to police authorities that you are after cash, a few million Euro. Tell them to prepare the funds and order them to make a delivery at a defined location and time. This may allow you to conceal your real objective for a while."
"If the Police believe you are just another criminal after cash they will generally avoid armed confrontation and instead attempt to arrest you at a later point."
This isn't real. He's pretending to offer sage advice on urban combat, but he was a former clerk and farmer who was unemployed when he carried out his attack.
He's not delusional. This is trolling.
"Do not break any laws which will lead to a pursuit before initiating your primary mission. An imprudent act might give up your position or intentions away to the enemy."
He broke multiple laws before his attack.
He tried to buy weapons illegally in Prague, he engaged in financial scams, and he violated tax laws.
But EVERYONE in Norway breaks as many laws as they can.
That's what happens in nanny states.
"A system protector who raises a gun against you must be shown no mercy. You can be assured that he will regroup with other agents as soon as you let him go. He will believe you may spare him and lower his gun if you defeat his unit (2 other individuals). Use this opportunity to neutralise him."
Have you ever read anything more laughable in your life?
His point was to make people think he was SERIOUS.
Breivik got cosmetic surgery before he had these photos taken.
I total waste of time.
MEMRI got trolled.
They did the same thing with THIS guy's "manifesto."
The problem is that the "Alt-Right" were clearly NOT satirizing anything.
They were expressing common cause.
Dave Chapelle satirized racism absolutely brilliantly.
And Part Two.
SATIRE is immediately seen as such.
TROLLING is designed to make people think you're serious so that they make fools out of themselves believing you.
The "white power" sign was invented by trolls.
It continues to fool the "experts."
"In 2017, the 'okay' hand gesture acquired a new and different significance thanks to a hoax by members of the website 4chan to falsely promote the gesture as a hate symbol, claiming that the gesture represented the letters 'wp,' for 'white power.'"
"The 'okay' gesture hoax was merely the latest in a series of similar 4chan hoaxes using various innocuous symbols; in each case, the hoaxers hoped that the media and liberals would overreact by condemning a common image as white supremacist.
"In the case of the 'okay' gesture, the hoax was so successful the symbol became a popular trolling tactic on the part of right-leaning individuals, who would often post photos to social media of themselves posing while making the 'okay' gesture."
What happens in the best act of trolling?
Your trolling becomes real.
"Ironically, some white supremacists themselves soon also participated in such trolling tactics, lending an actual credence to those who labeled the trolling gesture as racist in nature."
Here's where the ADL itself gets fooled.
"By 2019, at least some white supremacists seem to have abandoned the ironic or satiric intent behind the original trolling campaign and used the symbol as a sincere expression of white supremacy, such as when Australian white supremacist Brenton Tarrant flashed the symbol during a March 2019 courtroom appearance soon after his arrest for allegedly murdering 50 people in a shooting spree at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand."
I read the Christchurch mass shooter's manifesto.
It's nothing but shitposting.
It's not real.
His "white power" hand signal is not real.
I watched the entire video of his mass shooting.
It was trolling from beginning to end.
Remember: The "okay" hand gesture becoming a symbol of white supremacism was a hoax.
NOW trolls are hoaxing the world into thinking that white supremacists are committing mass shootings.
Trolls are comedians with no talent.
They're performance artists with no artistry.
And they're all deeply mentally ill. Trolling is a sign of catastrophic insanity.
I hope that the Dayton police released the video of the mass shooter being shot to pieces as a warning.
It was very satisfying to see the Antifa satanist struggle to get up as pieces of his body were flying off.
NOW someone needs to leak the autopsy photos.
I knew in 2011 that there was something very wrong with the notion that the Norwegian mass shooter's "manifesto" had to be taken at face value, but I couldn't figure out what the real story was.
Now I understand that he was the first trolling mass shooter.
Trolls compete with each other. Therefore unless we do something FAST, we're going to see "satirical" mass shooting happen much more often.
@ThomasWic I watched Bill Mitchell spend 2 days arguing with same idiots all saying
"Nope nope nope, never gonna happen, we can't have that, they might come for ME someday, so drop this!"
1 of 2
You have a big Twitter platform.
Tell everyone MY story:
Red-flag California.
On September 28, 2018, tweeted in reference to leftist attackers, "We'll need to see assailants shot to pieces on air before this stops. Brains and teeth flying."
Immediately banned from Twitter for life.
Alyssa Milano reported me to the FBI, saying my comment was about her.
Two local cops attached to an FBI task force came to my house.
2 of 2
Cops showed me a tweet I'd sent in 2015, with the attached photo and the comment, "I take psychotropic medication so that others can live."
I explained that I sent the tweet in response to endless death threats.
I asked the cops if they wanted to see my meds; they said yes, so I showed them, and they wrote them in the report.
They asked me if I wanted to harm myself or others. I said no.
Yikes. See ADDENDUM.
The cops agreed that in the face of death threats, it was smart for me to present myself as armed and unafraid.
They asked if I was employed, and I told them I'm an investor. They asked about investments, and I told them about about closed-end mutual funds.
The interview took half an hour.
Yikes. See ADDENDUM TWO.
Here in deep-blue red-flag California, the most famous leftist political activist filed a complaint against me.
I have mental illness in the form of PTSD, I take a heavy load of psychotropic medication, I'd posted a tweet of myself holding a firearm, and I was banned from twitter for "making threats."
The cops CLOSED THE CASE, and nobody took my guns.
They shook my hand and wished me well.
I had EVERY CARD stacked against me.
No confiscation.
The police have the authority now to assess someone for 'danger' if someone calls in with a complaint. No new laws are needed.
You have to consider what we KNOW liberals want to do, and what they've already done to harm this country and our rights over the last 50 years.
You can't give them a tool that can be abused if left unchecked. This is definitely one of those tools.
The problem is what MADE these people. Address the root cause. That's NOT being done.
Those who label words as violence do so with the sole purpose of justifying violence against words.


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List of Teachers Colleges in Australia
Teacher's colleges in Australia have now become part of the general university offering rather being distinct institutions as they were in the past. As such, many universities now have a school of education where teacher training is undertaken, along with providing opportunities for postgraduate studies. Most of the schools welcome international students, and you can examine what is available from the selection below:


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Next: ax_lib_libkml, Previous: ax_lib_hdf5, Up: The Macros
This macro will check for the existence of id3lib (http://id3lib.sourceforge.net/). It does this by checking for the header file id3.h and the id3 library object file. A –with-id3lib option is supported as well. The following output variables are set with AC_SUBST:
You can use them like this in Makefile.am:
AM_CPPFLAGS = $(ID3_CPPFLAGS) AM_LDFLAGS = $(ID3_LDFLAGS) program_LDADD = $(ID3_LIBS)
Additionally, the C preprocessor symbol HAVE_ID3LIB will be defined with AC_DEFINE if id3lib is available.
Download the latest version of ax_lib_id3.m4 or browse the macro's revision history.
Copyright © 2009 Oskar Liljeblad firstname.lastname@example.com
Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification, are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright notice and this notice are preserved. This file is offered as-is, without any warranty.


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Bruce, Miller carry Reds to win with bats, defense
Duo drives in first five runs, combines for out at home to back Bailey
CINCINNATI -- It was no surprise Wednesday when Jay Bruce helped spark the Reds with a two-run homer and some stellar defense in their Interleague contest against the A's. Cincinnati's other star player, though, played only part of five innings and was a little less likely of a hero.
Catcher Corky Miller connected on a pair of RBI doubles in back-to-back innings, giving him multiple extra-base hits in a game for just the fourth time in his career, en route to a 6-5 win against Oakland at Great American Ball Park. Those would be Miller's only two at-bats of the game, as he later left with a right quad contusion, but they were enough to help Cincinnati to consecutive wins for the first time since July 24-25 against the Giants and Dodgers.
The Reds held their annual family game prior to Wednesday's win, and both of Miller's sons -- Caden, 8, and Chase, 5 -- were on hand to make Miller's big day even better.
"It was good," Miller said. "They haven't seen me play a lot, maybe up in Chicago. Having them here, especially with the family day for the Reds, it was fun. It was fun looking out there and seeing them."
With the team because of a left wrist injury to Ryan Hanigan, Miller has spent most of the year with Triple-A Louisville. In his 13th season playing professional baseball, the 37-year-old journeyman logged the first two-double game of his career Wednesday.
He and Bruce also teamed up defensively in the win. With runners on second and third and two outs in the fourth inning, Homer Bailey gave up a single to Stephen Vogt. Although one run scored to cut the lead to 5-2, Bruce prevented further damage with a laser throw to Miller, who tagged Alberto Callaspo for the final out of the inning in a collision at the plate.
Both players were injured on the play, and although Miller caught one more frame before being forced from the game, Callaspo exited immediately with a left forearm contusion.
Miller said Callaspo's knee crashed into his, causing the painful injury that made it hard for him to crouch down in a catching position.
"It's never a good thing to have a collision at the plate," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "But Corky held on to the ball, did what he was supposed to do, and it was an outstanding throw by Jay."
With Hanigan expected back in the coming days, Miller is aware he will likely be sent down soon, especially if the contusion keeps him out of action for an extended period of time. He also knows that at his age and position, he needs to savor every opportunity he has left.
"It's not just today," Miller said. "Obviously two hits is good, but if I would have went 0-for-4 and Homer would have pitched in the seventh, that would have been just the same.
"I go out there every day like it may be my last and try to help the ballclub win."
The run-saving play by Bruce and Miller turned out to be huge for Bailey, who earned his seventh win of the year despite allowing five runs on nine hits. He gave up a solo shot to Josh Donaldson in the second before Bruce and Miller bailed him out in the fourth.
Following a clean fifth, Bailey surrendered four hits, including a double and a triple, in the first five at-bats of the sixth. Fortunately for Bailey and the Reds, Manny Parra took over, and after Eric Sogard was caught in a rundown between third and home on Derek Norris' fielder's choice, the lefty reliever struck out Josh Reddick to end the threat with the Reds leading, 6-5.
"They put the bat on the ball pretty well," Bailey said. "You saw it with Mat [Latos] last night. He didn't have a whole lot of strikeouts like he's been having all year. And when you put it in play, things happen."
Before hitting his 24th home run of the season -- and second in as many days -- in the third inning, Bruce brought home Shin-Soo Choo on a fielder's choice in the first to put the Reds on top, 1-0. Xavier Paul scored the only run not driven in by Bruce or Miller in the fifth, when replacement catcher Devin Mesoraco hit an RBI single to make it 6-2 in favor of the Reds.
Cincinnati chased 14-game winner Bartolo Colon from the game after just 2 2/3 innings, marking the shortest outing of his season and snapping a string of 15 straight quality starts.
"He didn't look like he had his best stuff today," A's manager Bob Melvin said. "His velocity was down. He had a little bit of a stomach ailment in the bullpen when he was warming up. He's had it before, so it was just a combination of things today."
The Reds scored five of their runs against Colon, as both bullpens were effective. After the three runs surrendered by Bailey in the sixth, four Reds relievers combined to throw 3 2/3 scoreless innings, capped by Aroldis Chapman's 27th save of the season.
By taking two games from Oakland, the Reds won their first series since winning three of four against the Giants from July 22-24. And after a five-game losing streak, Cincinnati has now won four of its past six while trying to keep pace with the Pirates and Cardinals in the National League Central.
"I think that we need every win from this point out," Bruce said. "And I think that's something we expect out of ourelves. [The A's] have been playing good baseball all year, and we played a little better these two days. I think that's hopefully a sign of what's to come."


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Fantastic thanks Jobby! Over $22,000 raised for the Royal Children's Hospital Foundation, so the event was a huge success!All the details, results and photos can be found at www.greatamazingrace.com.au and on https://www.facebook.com/UpliftEvents
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There are plenty of odd and irrelevant student jobs in a college town, but what about jobs that provide students with experience and mentoring to jump-start a post-graduation career with companies like Google, Oracle or Apple? Students working in Utah State University's Information Technology department find that kind of college job experience.
In addition to a full-time staff of more than 70, USU IT also employs about 130 part-time students, including 9 student programmers and designers who assist in professional-level projects for USU organizations and departments.
"We place a lot of trust in our student employees to help with big programming and design projects for the university and its organizations," said Kevin Reeve, USU IT enterprise architect. "The students really benefit from the resume-building experience."
Mike Fotinakis, a USU computer science graduate, worked three years as a USU IT web developer/programmer analyst before he graduated in 2010 and was hired as a web developer for Google. Fotinakis said the experience he gained developing and maintaining websites, apps and computer systems for USU IT prepared him for work with a Fortune 500 company.
"I probably learned more from working at USU IT than through my actual major," Fotinakis said. "The flexibility of the team and the project opportunities definitely helped me gain experience that was valuable when I graduated and came to work at Google."
John Pope, USU IT programmer analyst, said he mentors other student employees, training them in the skills necessary to find a job in today's competitive market.
"Our part-time student employees say the main benefit of working for USU IT is the real experience they're getting in a field they're interested in while they're at school," he said. "It's great preparation for the real world."
Callee Christensen, a senior in graphic design and photography, has worked as a part-time designer for USU IT since March 2012. She says her experience working with IT programmers on the Huntsman School of Business and other university and department websites has prepared her for design in the commercial world.
"IT entrusts us with responsibilities so we can learn and gain experience; I have the same responsibilities as the other full-time designers," Christensen said. "Now, I get to my design classes and I know how to utilize design in the commercial world. I'm able to design better than I was before."
For more information about USU IT and its student employees, contact Kevin Reeve, email@example.com
Writer and Contact: Karlie Brand, IT Communications Assistant email@example.com


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Computer Associates' former chief executive Sanjay Kumar has been sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $8m for his role in the company's massive accounting scandal.
Kumar avoided the maximum 20-year sentence for obstruction of justice and securities fraud charges as US trial judge Leo Glasser said this constituted unreasonable punishment. While Kumar was not a violent criminal, he "did violence to the legitimate expectations of shareholders," Glasser said.
The prosecution claimed Kumar deserved firm treatment as he was the architect of an elaborate cover up that was "the most brazen in the modern area of corporate crime." Kumar conceded there'd been "no excuse for my conduct."
Kumar was indicted for instituting and enforcing CA's infamous "35-day month," whereby sales deals were backdated to be included in quarters that had closed, and for offering bribes to potential trial witnesses. Kumar's defense team had urged the judge to hand down a short sentence followed by a longer stint of community service, saying Kumar was one of the software industry's "great minds." ®


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Yearning for Wonderland
The Lovesong of Pokémon Go
How funny to me, at the ripe old age of six and thirty, to be writing a lovesong to a cultural phenomenon I missed entirely when I was growing up. I was just old enough to be too old for Pokémon when it came out. I missed the cartoon, the trading card game, the Nintendo DS games. So when I heard about Pokémon Go, I was dismissive, but I downloaded it so I'd have something to do with the boyfriend. I liked how it got us outside, how it was both simple enough to play and yet challenging to catch all the characters.
And then something magical happened. My mother asked to download it. My sixty-five year old mother who has had two strokes and has difficulty walking further than around the house. Although she's regained a lot of her mobility and can drive, she struggles to walk and it's sometimes difficult to get her out of the house even to walk to the mailbox. Dad suggested I ride the bike around with her, while she rode her mobility scooter.
Once I explained the app, she took off down the driveway on her scooter, holding her phone in front of her. "I see one," she shouted. I showed her how to toss a Pokéball to snag it. She took off down the road again. I figured she'd get to the end of the lane and come back, but she turned down the side street and kept going. I could barely keep up, pumping the pedals to catch her. She stopped for so long at one point that a neighbor yelled to check if we're okay.
I was in heaven. The sun was setting and it was gorgeous outside, that perfect sticky of Kentucky midsummer. The crickets were buzzing, the smell of honeysuckle was in the air. And my mom was smiling, laughing…outside. I circled back around on my bike, helped her track down a particularly tough one. She used an incense to draw them to her and managed to catch /nine/ Pokémon in all just by circling the block.
At the end, she was exhausted, I was exhausted, my t-shirt was stuck to my back and I was covered in bug bites, but I was walking up the driveway grinning like a fool and she earned a medal. So Pokémon Go, I was wrong about you. I know you're not a perfect app, but in this moment, you were perfect for me. For mom. For us.
In Memoriam: Ethel Louise Russell
Sometimes bad news arrives without a hint of warning, during a comfortably pedestrian evening, after a glut of hash brown casserole and bacon. A terrible thought strikes you. And then, before you know it, you've confirmed it and everything falls apart.
I'd been worried about my friend Louise. She was back in Louisville, living on her own, getting more fragile. I'd said goodbye to her in June, took her out for lunch and to help her run errands, told her that Austin was the best place for me right now. She hugged me tight, twice, and let me go with tears in her eyes. If I am honest with myself, I knew then that I might not see her again. She was having more health problems, slowing down, but she had such an indefatigable spirit that I couldn't even conceive of her not being in this world. Fast forward to December. I called her and got no answer, voicemail was full. I was mildly worried, but tried again on New Year's. Same full voicemail message. It's not uncommon for people to be absent-minded about their voicemail, but I was getting more nervous. I tried her cell phone. The number had been assigned to someone else. So I tried emailing her, convincing myself that people cancel their cell phone numbers for a variety of reasons. And then, and then.
I did what I probably should have done in the first place, exactly what I was afraid to do. I googled 'Louise Russell Louisville'. It even popped up 'Louise Russell obituary' as one of the helpfully provided Google search terms. And even /then/, I told myself that it wasn't that uncommon of a name. But then I came to this page and I knew.
She'd died November 6th. I'd missed her funeral, her memorial. I didn't get to send her flowers. No one told me because almost no one knew how much I loved this woman.
This is how a heart breaks.
I was barely able to function, couldn't even see, paid the check in a haze, stumbled out to the parking lot. Luckily, Brian was with me and could drive me home.
To explain all this, I'd have to go back eleven years, to 2004. I was a newly minted manager at J. Jill's at the Mall St. Matthews in Louisville. I was a little nervous – it was my first retail management job – and most of the ladies I was managing had a decade on me, if not more. There was one employee, though, that I especially wanted to know better. She had sass, personality…I would've called her a spunky old lady if it weren't patently disrespectful. She was 67, she went by Louise and NOT Ethel, and she could run rings around all of us. The older ladies loved her – hell, I'm pretty sure most of our customers preferred her. She just had the touch. She was always dressed beautifully, with her hair and makeup done.
One night, we were closing together, and chatting as we straightened the tables. We were already friends, but I didn't know how that evening would change my life. She'd mentioned that she'd worked at Bacon's Department store, when it was still opened. My head snapped up and I grinned.
"Oh wow, my grandma was a manager there for a long time. Did you know Josephine Paris?"
I will never forget her voice and her glee, "Jo? Jo PARIS?"
Not only had she known her, she'd been supervised by her, had loved her. She had such stories of the two of them and their hijinks, left me dazzled with visions of a younger, more mischievous grandma than I'd ever known. Such stories, it was like my beloved lost grandmother blazed back into life at that exact moment, fueled by the strength of her memories.
And so that was that. We were fast friends before we'd even cashed out for the night. We stayed in touch even after I left the store, moved to Florida. I was in Florida for seven years, but I still called her from time to time. Every time we spoke it was if we'd never stopped. She was a touchstone for Louisville, for my grandma, for a lot that was now lost to me.
When I came back, I got to see her again and oh was it wonderful. She came to my wedding. I have a wonderful, priceless picture of the two of us there that I will have to dig out. Time had taken some toll, but she still kept a lot of what made her Louise. She was in a lot of chronic pain, had several surgeries. After my divorce, one of the first things I did was go see her again. And again. It was never anything fancy. One day we went to Paul's Fruit Market and picked up a sandwich. I drove her to get her medicine from the pharmacy and one other errand. She kept thanking me, as if it weren't a gift to me to see her.
Just before I moved to Texas, I saw her one last time. I'm haunted by that visit. She seemed sad throughout, but I thought it was just because I was leaving. I hugged her twice, took her cell phone number, told her to PLEASE put me on a list of people to call if anything happened. I was worried she'd end up in the hospital and I wouldn't know about it. I didn't know any of her family and was going to be half a country away. As always, I told her I loved her and she started crying. I don't know if she knew then I wouldn't see her again or if it was just an emotional moment.
It's easy to blame myself, scold myself about calling her more often. But she knew I loved her. I told her every time we spoke. She knew that she was one of the stars in my sky, my connection to my grandmother gone, a little piece of my soul. Her kindness and love and friendship meant the world. And I will miss her so very, very much. I know I have to let her go, but it's so hard. As long as I knew she was out there, I knew there was a soul who loved me the way my grandma did.
Goodbye, Louise. There's at least one person in this world who will never forget you.
- Do not stand at my grave and weep.
- I am not there; I do not sleep.
- I am a thousand winds that blow.
- I am the diamond glints on snow.
- I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
- I am the gentle autumn rain.
- When you awaken in the morning's hush
- I am the swift uplifting rush
- Of quiet birds in circled flight.
- I am the soft stars that shine at night.
- Do not stand at my grave and cry;
- I am not there; I did not die.
- – Mary E. Frye, 1932
She Held A Lightsaber
** Spoilers ahead. I was careful not to ruin any big reveals, but the nature of the post requires a minor spoiler. Proceed with caution. **
I saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens yesterday and it was so many things I'd hoped for and one unforgettable thrill. In the climactic battle, Rey, the scavenger from Jakku who has consistently been competent and talented and brave and strong, she summons the lightsaber. Luke's lightsaber. And I burst into tears.
Because she was holding a lightsaber. It's hard to explain, unless you were a young female geek who spent much of your childhood casting around for heroes that look like you. There are some notable standouts: Eowyn. Aerin Firehair. Xena. But most of the time I had to content myself with identifying with Bilbo and Luke, and countless other men on their hero's journeys.
I like the original trilogy, but I recently saw a video that compiled women who talk in the Trilogy excluding Leia. It was embarassing. 1.03 minutes, and only really had Aunt Beru, Rebel Alliance Chief Communications Officer Toryn Farr, and Mon Mothma's monologue. I do love Leia Hutt-Slayer, to be sure, but I always wanted more. To me, Star Wars was a universe strangely devoid of women. I wanted star battles and lightsaber fights and all the heart-throttling excitement…I just wanted a girl there. Or two.
I almost bought a poster of Rey before I saw it, but I hesitated. I mean, what if the promise of the trailers is not fulfilled? What if she's just another token girl? But she's not sexualized, she's not there to be romanced. She was not the reward or the princess in the castle or the forgotten sidekick.
/She/ was the hero. She was the Chosen One. She was the one the movie closed on. And Leia, she was a strong leader, didn't crumble under a crushing blow. And there was a female X-Wing pilot! And a female guard captain, Captain Phasma, with the First Order! The movie is threaded with amazing female characters.
While I've enjoyed a lot of his work, I've not always been the biggest J.J. Abrams fan. But I will always thank him for this. For giving her a lightsaber.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a poster to go buy.
Who Won Dark Fairy Queen Midsummer's Night Dream Contest?
For me, the hardest part of these contests is always the judging. One story, I love because of the lyrical writing. Another, because of the gorgeous imagery or the clever plot or the way it makes me feel at the end.
Ultimately, I could probably choose several sets of winners. Thank you to everyone who entered. Judging is very subjective, so I have to leave it to: who wrote a story for #DFQMND that encompasses the theme and does all of the above. I am very excited to announce these winners. I chose two, one for the Dreams package (Light) and one for the Nightmares Package.
So, without further ado, I present…your winners.
WINNER, Dreams
Daniel Swensen, for Annabella of the Spring
Sheer gorgeousness. Daniel, your writing makes it totally worth having to revamp the prize package, since I'm not awarding you the book you wrote. Your story is delicate and yearning and a perfect drop of longing in 400 words. Well done. I will be in touch regarding other prize options.
Honorable Mentions, Dreams
J.T. Ellis, for January in Sunset
Dr. Pete Meyers, for Listen
Holly Kench, for Dreaming Just Enough
WINNER, Nightmares
Steven Marsden, for The Princess and the Whispering Pines
This is a fantastic surprise, for Steven put up a blog simply to enter this contest. He wasn't even in the DFQ group before this. Of course, now he is doomed. #MOOGHOOHAH. Steven, your story was lovely and the tempo was classical fairytale, but there's a dark underbelly that took my breath away. Brava! So glad you entered.
Honorable Mentions, Nightmares
Eric Martell, for Evidence of Things Not Seen
Lyndsey E. Gilbert, for Mother May I
K.J. Collard, for The Coming Winter
Again, thank you to all those who entered! You humble and honor me with your collective talent.
Love to all,
Dark Fairy Queen Midsummer Night's Dream Prizes
First, I should say that I'm adding a week to the deadline, so for those of you palpitating over your stories, you have a bit extra. Linkup closes August 7, 11 pm EST.
You have all been so patient, waiting to hear about these magnificent prizes. We all know you do it for the guts and the glory, but it never hurts to win some snazzy prizes too!
There will be two winners to this contest. I'm doing a Dreams Prize Package (for the best light story) and a Nightmares Prize Package (for the best dark story).
So go on…make it difficult for me 😉
Dreams Prize Package
First chapter and/or 3000 words review from editor Miranda Kate
One digital copy of Beneath the Old Oak by Lisa Shambrook
One digital copy of Orison by Daniel Swensen
One digital copy of Edgar Wilde and the Lost Grimoire by Paul Ramey
Featured on CultNoise Magazine's website, an exciting cultural and lifestyle e-magazine in the UK
Nightmares Prize Package
First chapter and/or 3000 words review from editor Miranda Kate
One digital copy of Dead Sea Games by J. Whitworth Hazzard.
One copy of the Veil & Subdue rock opera deluxe edition by Paul Ramey and Anna Meade
Featured on CultNoise Magazine's website, an exciting cultural and lifestyle e-magazine in the UK
Bonus: Eric Martell has offered to do a fun, personalized TBD for the Nightmares Prize Package. Who knows what hijinks you will work out with him – stay tuned!
Thanks to all the kind creatives who offered prizes for this contest. I reserve the right to substitute prizes of equal or greater value, if necessary. Prizes are giftable and transferrable, upon arrangement with me.


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Indian woman's death: Govt to take up matter with Ireland
India will take up with Ireland the issue of death of an Indian woman dentist there after doctors allegedly refused to terminate her 17-week-long pregnancy on the ground that it was a "Catholic country".
Indian Ambassador to Ireland will raise the issue with the Irish government today.
India was awaiting the results of two probes ordered by Irish authorities in the matter and will "take it from there," official spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs had said yesterday, adding the country was "concerned" over the circumstances in which Savita Halappanavar died.
Meanwhile, commenting on BJP's strong reaction on the matter, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said one needs to be very careful about the "choice of words" while dealing with a tragedy.
"It is extremely sad and unfortunate. Whatever the inquiry does, human loss cannot be compensated," he said, adding the country might like to reflect upon some positions afresh so that such things do not happen, not only with Indian nationals but also with their own citizens.
The Embassy of Ireland issued a statement here yesterday, saying the Irish government, at the highest level, was committed to establishing the full circumstances and facts surrounding the incident.
Halappanavar, 31, died in Ireland due to blood poisoning after doctors allegedly refused to terminate her 17-week-long pregnancy, telling her that "this is a Catholic country".
The Embassy of Ireland said, "The Irish Prime Minister and the Minister for Health spoke on the matter in Irish Parliament yesterday and expressed their deepest condolences to the husband and family of Mrs Halappanavar.
"The Irish government, at the highest level, is committed to establishing the full circumstances and facts surrounding Mrs Halappanavar's tragic death."
Savita's husband Praveen Halappanavar, an engineer at Boston Scientific in Galway, told Irish media that his wife had asked several times over a three-day period that the pregnancy be terminated. This was refused, he said, because the foetal heartbeat was still present and they were told "this is a Catholic country".
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Baby's very first play books
Baby's very first play book animal words
Babies will love looking at the bright, textured pictures and following the winding fingertrails on the pages of this delightful word book. There are animals on a farm, under the sea, in a garden and in the woods, with animal names and sounds to learn on every page, from deer to dolphins, caterpillars to crocodiles and turtles to tigers.
£7.99 Add to basket
Age: 6 months+
Board book:
10 pages
185 x 185mm
Illustrator: Stella Baggott
Fiona Watt is an Editorial Director and writer at Usborne Publishing. She graduated from Exeter University with a Bachelor of Education in Art and Design. She taught for three years at a primary school in Kent, before spending two years at a British school in The Netherlands. She started working at Usborne in 1989 and has written and edited hundreds of books including baby and novelty, sticker, art and craft, cookery, science and activity books. She has written all the titles in the award-winning 'That's not my….' series and many in the highly successful Sticker Dolly Dressing series. She is the sixth biggest-selling UK children's author, with over 10 million of her books sold in the UK since records began.
WINNER - Progressive Preschool Awards
Our Baby's Very First Books series was crowned winner of the Best Preschool Publishing Range category in the first ever Progressive Preschool Awards. A judging panel comprised of buyers from top names such as Harrods, Mothercare, Boots, Toys R Us, Selfridges, Sainsbury's, JoJoMamanBebe and Waitrose selected the winners in each of the award's four categories.


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Neighborhood Influences Exercise Levels
Even more than income, where people live determines who goes out to play, study finds
TUESDAY, March 25, 2008 (HealthDay News) -- Your neighborhood may have a major influence on how much you exercise, according to a study that looked at data on 8,782 people in 373 Chicago neighborhoods.
The researchers found that people who live in neighborhoods with higher levels of poverty, lower levels of education, and more families headed by women are less likely than others to exercise. But this doesn't mean that poorer people are least likely to exercise, said the researchers, who found that individual income wasn't as important as neighborhood in determining exercise levels.
"We can't encourage people to exercise more without looking at the neighborhood environment in which they live," study co-author Christopher Browning, an associate professor of sociology at Ohio State University, said in a prepared statement. "Some people may have the personal resources and desire to exercise but don't live in a neighborhood in which they feel comfortable to go outside for activities."
Neighborhood-related factors that influenced exercise levels included: amount of trust among neighbors, perceived violence in the community, and beliefs that neighbors help each other. The study also found that neighborhood was more important for women than men in determining exercise levels.
Overall, the findings suggested that a wide variety of social and economic factors outside of a person's control can have an impact on physical activity, Browning said.
The study was published in a recent issue of Urban Studies.
The finding that neighborhood characteristics are more important than a person's income in determining exercise levels was surprising and noteworthy, Browning said.
"The result is surprising enough that it needs to be confirmed by other studies. But if the finding is substantiated, it would show just how important neighborhoods are, and would have important implications for any new initiatives aimed at enhancing health and well-being," he said.
The fact that the neighborhood/exercise connection is stronger in women than in men is another important finding.
"This could help understand why African-American women have much higher obesity rates than other groups," Browning said.
More information
The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute offers a guide to physical activity.


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From Linux-VServer
Real name: Guenther Fuchs
Location: Vienna, Austria
More: What do you want to know? Quality, price and users testimonials are those 3 factors that I took into consideration while choosing appropriate writing service to write my essay. I hold my eye on bestwritingservice.com and have never regretted my choice. They provided me with custom papers of the highest quality.


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January 30, 2017 (Ukrinform) Players of the Dauphin Kings Canadian hockey team from the town of Dauphin, Manitoba, took the ice wearing the form designed to resemble Ukrainian embroidered shirts to play against Virden team in the youth league match. As an Ukrinform correspondent reports, the match was called the "Ukrainian night" and ended with the victory of Dauphin Kings with a score of 3:2.
Photo: Dauphin Kings Facebook page
The town Dauphin, which together with its suburbs is the home to more than 8,000 people, is known for its strong Ukrainian diaspora. More than 41% of the population are of Ukrainian origin. More than a quarter of inhabitants speak Ukrainian.


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A kid walks through a neighborhood with some candy, and a guy with a gun reports him in a 911 call. Then he follows the kid, despite being advised not to by the 911 staff. Then he shoots the kid to death. Sounds like murder to me, maybe first degree. That is, premeditated. How far in advance do you have to plan it for it to be more than manslaughter?
No charges have been brought since the great state of Florida condones such behavior as justifiable self-defense. After all, Zimmerman felt threatened. Umm…so do I.


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Inkyaban, the Immortal Storm Pillow
• 100% polyester case and insert
• Hidden zipper
• Machine-washable case
• Shape-retaining polyester insert included (handwash only)
• Blank product components in the US sourced from China and the US
• Blank product components in the EU sourced from China and Poland
Art by Jonah Lobe
What is Swordsfall?
Swordsfall isn't just a setting for an Afropunk game, it's a world. It's a dive into pre-colonial Africa for rich lore you've never heard of before. It's an exploration into a world where most of the faces are dark yet aren't constrained to one corner of the globe.
It's a world where women hold power equal to men and the merit of one's soul is what propels them through life. It's a world where spirits aren't to be feared, instead, they are to be embraced. In a time where we know that representation matters, this project is an effort to add to that spirit in the way I know best.
Narrative fiction in the nerdiest of flavors.
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The One Ring Messageboard
Tolkien wrote:It all began when I was reading exam papers to earn a bit of extra money. That was agony. One of the tragedies of the underpaid professor is that he has to do menial jobs. He is expected to maintain a certain position and to send his children to good schools. Well, one day I came to a blank page in an exam book and I scribbled on it. 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.'
I knew no more about the creatures <sic> than that, and it was years before his story grew. I don't know where the word came from. You can't catch your mind. It might have been associated with Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt. Certainly not rabbit, as some people think. Babbitt has the same bourgeois smugness that hobbits do. His world is the same limited space.
- 'The Man Who Understands Hobbits', Charlotte and Denis Plimmer, early 1967; Daily Telegraph Magazine, 22nd March 1968, pages 31-32
The Hobbit wrote:They dwelt most often by the edges of the woods, from which they could escape at times to hunt, or to ride and run over the open lands by moonlight or starlight; and after the coming of Men they took ever more and more to the gloaming and the dusk.
The Hobbit wrote:There were many people there, elvish-looking folk, all dressed in green and brown and sitting on sawn rings of the felled trees in a great circle. There was a fire in their midst and there were torches fastened to some of the trees round about; but most splendid sight of all: they were eating and drinking and laughing merrily.
The smell of the roast meats was so enchanting that, without waiting to consult one another, every one of them got up and scrambled forwards into the ring with the one idea of begging for some food.
The Hobbit wrote:In fact the subjects of the king mostly lived and hunted in the open woods, and had houses or huts on the ground and in the branches.
The Hobbit wrote:Then the elves put thongs on him, and shut him in one of the inmost caves with strong wooden doors, and left him. They gave him food and drink, plenty of both, if not very fine; for Wood-elves were not goblins, and were reasonably well-behaved even to their worst enemies, when they captured them. The giant spiders were the only living things that they had no mercy upon.
There in the king's dungeon poor Thorin lay; and after he had got over his thankfulness for bread and meat and water, he began to wonder what had become of his unfortunate friends.
The Hobbit wrote:Companies of the Wood-elves, sometimes with the king at their head, would from time to time ride out to hunt, or to other business in the woods and in the lands to the East.
Anyway, it does not matter how popular it was when Tolkien wrote The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings as the stories were meant to be taking place in the distant past.
redrobot wrote:hmm, no. the stories are told about a fantasy world so there is no way you can say 'in the distant past' as tho it was a part of human history. it is not our distant past. it is not their distant past...
A mythology is fiction
hobbits are not intended to be 'rabbits' but an earlier type of human.
It includes fantastical beings just as other cultures had Zeus
The Professor' (as Tolkien is known by most of us) knew a bit (quite a bit) more about entomology
inflated sensitivities
For those of us with a more down-to-earth attitude to life, though, killing an animal for food is part of the whole big, messy give-and-take of the real world.
The Hobbit world is NOT placid, idyllic
this is the proud, self congratulatory myth of the callous and the glib. it is cruel to kill and farm animals. we dont need to do it. let's not do it.
In my opinion, despite their claims, I'm pretty sure there is not a single true vegan existing right now.
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School leaders debating whether to buy educational technology often find themselves weighing the promised benefits against their worst fears—soaring costs, disruptive breakdowns, and befuddled teachers and students—not knowing whether they're about to make a purchase their districts will come to regret.
Now, nascent efforts in schools and districts across the country are underway to help administrators become smarter consumers of technology, so they understand the risks and rewards upfront.
In some cases, those initiatives are being led by school officials determined to approach technology purchases in a more methodical way. In other circumstances, the process is being guided by nonprofits attempting to screen or help school leaders and teachers evaluate ed-tech products and test them under the right conditions in classrooms.
Some school officials and organizations taking on that work see it as connected to the broader goal of bridging what many see as a prevailing divide between technology developers, who complain about not being able to access schools or break into K-12 markets, and administrators and teachers, who complain that too many of the products and services thrust at them are useless or impractical.
Despite their best efforts, many districts "fundamentally don't have the expertise to choose technology products," said Muhammed Chaudhry, the president and CEO of the Silicon Valley Education Foundation, a San Jose, Calif.-based nonprofit that seeks to improve education in that region and around the country. Districts often make decisions about ed-tech purchases based on reputation, word-of-mouth, and pitches they hear from sales staff, Mr. Chaudhry argued, leaving them susceptible to making decisions based on "relationships, rather than using a rigorous process for choosing products."
His organization is helping lead a new program called the Learning Innovation Hub, which aims to foster a freer exchange of information and feedback between ed-tech developers and classroom teachers.
Efforts to evaluate educational technology in more sophisticated ways are also playing out in individual schools.
Barton A. Dassinger, the principal of the Cesar E. Chávez Multicultural Academic Center, a pre-K-8 traditional public school on Chicago's South Side, had grown used to hearing companies make rosy promises about how their products would improve student learning and school efficiency.
So he set up a process that allows his school and its teachers to test individual ed-tech products, monitor their performance, and decide whether to keep using them.
Mr. Dassinger, in consultation with his teachers, chooses supplemental classroom materials for pilot-testing and other types of trial runs throughout the year, as well as during after-school and summer programs.
He keeps a detailed Excel file on his computer that attempts to track the impact of individual products on student achievement. Down the left side of the screen, students' names, grades, and homeroom assignments are listed. There's information indicating whether they belong to English-language-learner or special-needs populations. Across the top row, there's a list of companies whose products are being tried—recently, the names included classroom tools by Compass Learning and ALEKS (Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces), a McGraw-Hill Education product.
Students' scores on various tests—district, state, and subject-specific—appear in green, red, and yellow colors, linked to each product, showing how academic progress has changed over time. Companies often ask to be evaluated by metrics of their choosing, but Mr. Dassinger wants to be able to judge them by the same tests and metrics against which his school—which serves an overwhelmingly Hispanic and socioeconomically disadvantaged population—and its students and teachers are judged.
Barton A. Dassinger, the principal of Cesar E. Chávez Multicultural Academic Center, a pre-K-8 school in Chicago, has set up a process for his teachers to evaluate products offered by education technology companies.
Alyssa Schukar for Education Week
The process is not perfect, he acknowledges. Chávez school officials can't know for sure, for instance, if students' academic gains or declines can be attributed to any ed-tech product or to other factors.
But when combined with the feedback he gets from teachers about how they view products, and how students' respond to them, Mr. Dassinger is confident the process is helping him evaluate technology in a systematic way.
"It allows us to filter out some of the field, to get to some of the best companies out there," he said. In reviewing the products, "if students are not engaged, or they don't understand a technology, that's kind of a red flag."
Part of the dilemma school leaders face in weighing the value of digital tools is that those leaders are often torn by different, competing instincts, said Steven Hodas, the executive director of Innovate NYC Schools, a program within the 1.1 million-student New York City district whose goal is partly to give vendors insights on the needs of educators and other district officials.
Superintendents and curriculum and technology officials want to get a good price and avoid costly and embarrassing mistakes, Mr. Hodas said. But they also want to be bold. And buying technology brings its own set of temptations and complications for district leaders, he said, one of which is that so many devices and programs seem impressive and cutting edge at first glance.
"In the presence of bright and shiny, people tend to make bad decisions," Mr. Hodas observed.
To avoid problems, he said, it's critical for school leaders to clearly identify the problem they hope technology will help solve and to involve principals and teachers early and often, since those educators' acceptance of ed-tech products will go a long way to determining their success.
At the Chávez school, some products go through the review process and come out winners. One such product was st math, developed by the MIND Research Institute, an Irvine, Calif.-based nonprofit that has won good reviews from the school's classroom teachers and appeared to show positive academic results since it was introduced a few years ago. That tool, which stands for spatial-temporal math, is game-based instructional software that seeks to build skills through visual learning.
The performance of various reading products, however, has been mixed at best.
Mr. Dassinger recalled one company's initial showing with a reading product as a "disaster," replete with a lot of black computer screens.
"The teachers just gave up because there were so many hands going up [from students needing technical help]," Mr. Dassinger said.
But even that error produced lessons. One teacher continued to experiment with the product, and the vendor that developed it asked for another chance. The company has since boosted its support for the school's use of the program, and it has become popular among students, Mr. Dassinger said.
Chávez has also helped pilot a new, broader project being organized across Chicago, called LEAP Innovations (for Learning Exponentially. Advancing Potential.), which is meant to give schools access to ed-tech products that have been screened for quality—and to give companies the opportunity to test their products in classrooms.
After an initial period of beta-testing, the program will officially launch a fuller pilot this fall, with a focus on delivering pre-K-8 literacy instruction to schools. Schools apply to participate, identifying the specific educational needs they hope to address through technology as part of their applications. They will receive free software for the length of the program and training on how to implement the product in classrooms. More than 50 schools applied for the fall program—traditional public schools, charter schools, and private schools in Chicago are eligible—and 15-20 are expected to be selected to participate. Companies apply for the program by submitting a detailed application, and if they make it through an initial screening, appear before a "curation panel" consisting of educators, literacy specialists, and a learning scientist.
One of the chief benefits is the opportunity to have technology tools evaluated in real classrooms, using "flexible but rigorous" research methodology, including internal and nationally norm-referenced tests. If they achieve positive results, that's information they can use to market themselves to schools across the city—a major market, with 400,000 public school students—and beyond, said Phyllis Lockett, the CEO of LEAP Innovations.
About 30 percent of the vendors applying for the program are "mature" companies, while the rest are early or midstage, said Ms. Lockett. Initial funding for the nonprofit came from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and funding or support has also come from numerous other sources, including the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and the Parthenon Group, a national consulting company, among others.
"We want the best solutions," Ms. Lockett said, and the process is "agnostic as to which companies get chosen."
A similar concept is at work with the Learning Innovation Hub, a program launched this year by the Silicon Valley Education Foundation, in cooperation with the NewSchools Venture Fund, an Oakland, Calif.-based philanthropic investment group. The iHub, as it is known, will attempt to connect ed-tech entrepreneurs with educators, who will give companies feedback on their products and what could be changed to improve them.
After an application process, eight teachers were named fellows through the program. They received stipends of $1,750 and agreed to devote 40 hours over the course of the spring 2014 semester for professional development on using the education products, provide vendors with feedback, and collect data.
In the first year of iHub, four companies were chosen to participate in the program, which this year focuses on middle school math instruction.
One of the foundation's hopes, said Mr. Chaudhry, whose organization is co-leading the project, is that both the process of reviewing products—and the products themselves, if educators find them to be of high-quality—will "permeate up."
"Ideally, it scales from the classroom to the entire district," he said.
Starting small, whether through pilot projects or other small trials of educational technology, is a good idea for schools and districts, argued Mr. Hodas of Innovate NYC Schools. Doing so gives school administrators the freedom to make mistakes and make adjustments before the stakes are too high.
"You're going to be mostly wrong a lot of the time," he said. "You learn more from being wrong than being right. You have to build that into your process."