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Local retailers have tightened their belts this year at the same time as they hope Clark County's Black Friday shoppers will open their wallets.
Merchants hope that by keeping inventory limited they'll drive up consumer demand, leaving them with empty store shelves, display cases and stock rooms by the end of the shopping season, said Pamela Lindloff, a retail expert and associate vice president with NAI Norris Beggs and Simpson in Vancouver.
"Many of them got stuck with more inventory than they needed at the start of the recession," she said. "That meant they had to discount more than they wanted to."
Unfortunately for merchants, many Clark County residents are still playing catch-up with job loss, stagnant wages and the higher cost of living, which means the fight for shopper dollars is more intense this year, Lindloff said.
The National Retail Federation expects retail sales to rise 2.8 percent this season, below last year's 5.2 percent clip.
That's spurred retailers to readjust their stock levels this year, Lindloff said.
Stores that cater to people with the tightest budgets are choosing to open at earlier-than-usual times on Black Friday, or even on Thanksgiving itself, to kick off the official holiday season.
Toys R Us will open at 9 p.m. Thursday at the Jantzen Beach mall, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will open the doors to its three Clark County stores at 10 p.m. Thursday.
The Bentonville, Ark.-based discount chain seems determined to be the first to open, said Deborah Ewing, a broker and realtor who specializes in retail properties with Eric Fuller & Associates Inc.
"The move came after competitor Target announced it would begin its sales at midnight," Ewing said. Target operates three stores in Clark County.
Kohl's also plans to open its two Vancouver stores at midnight, as will electronics retailer Best Buy and midrange department store Macy's at Westfield Vancouver mall.
In past years, stores like Target and Macy's have launched Black Friday sales at 3 or 4 a.m.
"The truth is, customers speak with their feet," Lindloff said. "The stores wouldn't open if they weren't hearing from the customer."
But some retailers say they've not received any requests to open earlier, so they're keeping Black Friday hours the same.
"We have always opened at 5 a.m., for at least the last 6 years. That's what works for our customers and our employees," said Melinda Merrill, a spokeswoman for Portland-based Fred Meyer, which operates six stores in Clark County.
Merrill said Fred Meyer re-examines its Black Friday schedule every year.
Some shops don't even try to compete.
"Black Friday, that's for the big-boxers," said Mary Sisson, co-owner of Kazoodles.
Her east Vancouver toy store will follow its usual schedule on Friday. Sisson said the store, which belongs to a network of small toy stores, doesn't discount its prices, but hands out a coupon for discounts on merchandise bought at a later date.
At Westfield Vancouver mall, the doors open at 7 a.m. Friday, even though several stores will open earlier — Macy's at midnight, and J.C. Penney at 4 a.m. Nordstrom will open at 9 a.m., just one hour earlier than its regularly scheduled Friday opening.
"That's a choice Nordstrom makes every year," Lindloff said.
High-end retailers have felt no pressure to change store hours since the competition is most intense for shoppers of the most modest means, Ewing said.
"Consumers here are really watching their pennies," she said. Clark County's median annual income was $54,924 for a family of four in 2010. "That doesn't go very far," Ewing said.
Restaurants and coffee shops say they've learned they can boost sales by opening early to support the gift-selling retailers.
"We get really busy, so we're opening at 6 a.m.," a half-hour earlier than usual, said Deana Richardson, who co-manages Elmer's Restaurant near Westfield Vancouver mall. Richardson said hungry shoppers flock to the restaurant after hitting the mall and other stores nearby.
"They come in, they're hungry and they want coffee," she said. "Some of them even have a Bloody Mary to relax."
Editor's note: This story has been modified to reflect a correction. Old Navy is scheduled to open at 3 a.m. Friday.


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subset: commoncrawl


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There's a picture we have of healing as this serene moment of white light and wholeness of body and soul. It's completely benign, and the one being healed walks away and life is great. It's beautiful. It's painless. It's….it's bullshit.
Let me take a step back.
In February I attended a healing ritual. We moved and danced and raised energy to communicate with the spirits we'd called into the circle, and it was the strongest energy I've ever felt from a healing ritual. At each altar I was keenly aware of the changes in my movement and what parts of the healing I'd achieved over the last year. Messages flooded through me. Then I got to the center, and my insides shifted. I began to laugh.
When I started rehearsing parts of Good Girl my nervous coping mechanisms not only intensified exponentially, but they laughed in my face. Quite literally. When I'm nervous or anxious I smile. I laugh, I make jokes. I entertain. One of the hardest parts of this process for me was learning to stop entertaining when I'm unhappy with a situation.
So here I am, in the middle of a healing ritual, with people around me having their intensely poignant experience, and I'm laughing. I'm belly laughing. I'm cackling, I'm laughing so hard I'm crying. It's the first genuine laugh that's passed through my lips without some other prompting in decades, and this is the moment I feel healed. This is the moment I feel the entire community around me giving and taking and healing each other.
Then the spirits talk through one of the priestesses running the ritual. She laughs, and suddenly I am no longer laughing. I'm at once eager and terrified of what's about to come out of her mouth, because it's exactly what I've felt written on my soul since December.
Healing, complete healing, is something you have to be ready for. It's not some idyllic scene with rainbows and crystals. Healing hurts, and it's relative to how deep the wound runs within you that needs to be healed. It tears at you, ripping away the parts of you that are broken, and you feel every cell of it leave you. But that's not all. Healing isn't a finite event. It's a catalyst for the rest of your life, changing every single part of it, and once you've become your whole and unhindered self? This is the hardest part of healing to deal with. Once you are whole and unhindered you have no more excuses. You must live up to your potential. You must do what needs to be done to keep moving forward. You must pull yourself together and be a force in this world.
You have no more excuses, and that's terrifying.
But this is why we heal as community. This is why we tell our stories. This is why we are a web of life and light, because otherwise we would not survive what it is to heal. Otherwise we would be glowing orbs of heavenly light and we would walk back into our lives just as broken as we were before.
Go now, heal each other.
"What would you say," a friend posed to me as I sat at his table, "to a friend who had just told you what you just told me?" We had been discussing certain decisions coming up in my life and what I should consider when making them. He was right. If I took the sentiment and nostalgia out of the situation the answer I was looking for was right in front of my face. I just didn't want to accept it. I tried to take what he had said to heart, and in the following days I gained such a powerful sense of clarity that I felt foolish for not having seen it before. I knew what I had to do, but I also knew that this meant fortifying my relationship with myself.
Then there came this night. A night when all the love and support in the world was gone, and everything was quiet. A night when loneliness took over, and my only option was to learn to stand up in the darkness by myself. You know what? In that moment I learned what it was like to become my own best friend, to really trust myself to be available for me when I needed a little extra strength and love, and to actually do so.
Don't get me wrong, my outer support circle is fantastic, but they can't be with me all the time. I cannot allow myself to become dependent. I also cannot allow myself to become self-destructive when left to my own devices. I must learn to thrive and enjoy being alone, and this is a very fresh lesson. I must learn to do this myself or it will overpower me. The darkness, the silence, the solitude. It all comes from within, so it is from within that it must be overcome.
What would I say to a friend? Nothing. She already knows the answers. She already has the seeds of change within her. She just needs a friend. It's up to me to be that friend.
October is well-known as Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but it is also designated as Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. October 15th marks a day of remembrance and support. A few months ago I wrote a post as a letter to my unborn child, and it was probably one of the hardest things I've ever had to put on paper.
I have felt a calling all my life to be a mother, a teacher, and a nurturer. Decisions I made very early on in my life made a career in such things unfeasible, but I made those decisions confidently as I tried to navigate a situation I was unprepared to face alone, but alone I was. I didn't feel like I could tell my family, and most of the friends I did tell thought I was making a terrible mistake. Still, no matter how terrified I was of what I was about to face, I gave my future, and my heart to a child that many would have cast away as a reminder of violence and hurt. In fact, it may have been that unborn child that kept me alive long enough to work through the emotional and psychological damage caused by the experience. When I lost that first baby I lost the focus of all my attention and energy . Worse were constant comments like "it was probably for the best" and "you'll be relieved someday when you have a child out of love". I didn't care. It was still a loss.
A few years later I would be faced with the same fear. I was in a loving relationship with the father at the time, but we were barely feeding ourselves, and I knew at the time my health was in terrible shape. At our first appointment there was no detectable heartbeat, and I almost blacked out in the office. Repeated attempts yielded no results, and the final consensus was that I had a blighted ovum, an empty sack that the body treats as if it's a viable pregnancy. For days before my surgery to have it removed I had nightmares of babies wailing, and in the days that followed I got the same ignorant comments as I'd gotten the first time combined with everyone's refusal to let me grieve a baby that technically never existed. I still have a tiny pair of booties in a box. It existed in my heart.
All in all I've had this experience five times, and when Hubby and I talk about children there's a little sting in the back of my heart that knows it might only be a dream. Our reasons for not trying yet are numerous and mostly logistical, and when we do try we will have a lot to deal with emotionally and physically. Since the wedding I feel like people are constantly asking if we want children or when we're going to have them. My answer is always the same, "when and if it's possible". I keep it short, because my past is generally ignored, and my future as a mother is a rather sensitive and questionable subject.
I don't write any of this to drag out old wounds or evoke sympathy. I write it because for many years I felt like I didn't deserve to go through any kind of grieving process. Every time I felt sad I pushed it down. Every time someone told me "it'll happen when the time is right" I pushed it down. Every time I felt like it was my fault for one reason or another I pushed it down. Any chance I had to work through my emotions turned in to a chance to push them to a place where I didn't have to feel them, and society wholeheartedly supported that behaviour. It wasn't until much later when I eschewed that the notion that my feelings of loss were silly or unfounded that I was able to release that weight and really move forward. So I write this to tell any one, man or woman, who has been in place that it's alright to grieve. It doesn't matter whether or not the situation was ideal or the timing was right. You have every right to feel your emotions and work through them in a healthy manner.
Let me tell you all a story that encompasses the last year and a half of my life, the story of my wedding, or rather the planning of my wedding. In my experience, planning a wedding was like making a vase on a pottery wheel for the first time.
I started with an image in my head and a chunk of resources. It would begin to take shape, then something unexpected would cause the whole thing to collapse, causing me to start over. If you've ever taken a pottery class you know how I felt. After a few serious setbacks, with nothing to show for all my time and effort but a shapeless lump of clay and a load of frustration, I felt like throwing the whole thing at the nearest wall.
I felt overwhelmed and defeated. All the magazine clippings and lists I had thought would help me paper-mache the perfect flowers for my vase were not helping at all. I had no vase. Fortunately for my wedding, deposits had already been made. Whether or not it was ever a beautiful piece of art, this lump of clay would be on display come September 4th, so I might as well keep at it and stop letting the frustration win.
What I did was a Type A Personality mortal sin worthy of the most harsh punishment any Post-it junkie could ever imagine. I threw out the lists and references. I stopped looking in books and making charts. I started from scratch without columns or bullet points.
I would love to tell you all this was the last time my wedding had to undergo reinvention, but life happens. Jobs are lost. Deadlines are missed. Hidden fees pop up. Vendors will take advantage of even the most well-read DIY bride. DJ's will show up high with no music, equipment, or shoes. Cars will catch on fire…with Hubby catching a little fire, too. Most of these things happened less than a week before the wedding, bur something else happened that week that saved my sanity at the last minute.
I was venting one afternoon to the praying mantis that showed up in our yard the day wedding week began and stayed until I finished unpacking from our honeymoon, when something in the sky caught my eye. It was a single red hot air balloon. Nothing extremely remarkable, but pausing my rant to look up at it gave me the power and capacity to do something inconceivable to me at the time. I breathed. Just a slight change in position made the rest of my tasks no longer seem insurmountable. I was no longer fumbling; I was shaping. I was still learning as I went, but I could see the transformation taking place, and as it did I noticed something else.
At the risk of conjuring some strange poly queer version of the pottery wheel scene from Ghost, I will give you this. While I was the one seated at the wheel, there were many hands willing and available to help shape my vase, helping make it a very unique piece of artwork. This wedding was made possible and special by all the personal touches from t hose around me, the most important being from Hubby. While hands off through a good portion of the planning process, he was there when I really needed him. He reminded me why I was doing this in the first place and that people were there to see us and share our day no matter what it looked like.
On the day of the wedding it all finally made sense. Even without the lists and magazines it all came together, and all the trials leading up to it, like fires in a kiln, served to fortify and solidify the bond we were making. The gorgeous day and brilliant landscape left a prismatic mark on our celebration, and the love and support of our nearest and dearest made the months of work worth every bit of it.
In the end, my vase was not perfect. It was lumpy in spots and slightly lop-sided, but it was filled with love, and that made it beautiful. Throughout the process we learned volumes about ourselves, each other, the people around us, and life. These are the markings that went into our clay. These are the things that will stay with us forever.
Go now, throw away some lists and live!
There is something both nerve-wracking and amazing about what happens in a poly household when one of its member is experiencing rejection, a break up, or some other kind of heartbreak.
On one hand there's the constant insistence from Hubby, the girlfriend, and anyone else involved that they love me. I appreciate it, family, but heartbreak is a process. You can't tell me I shouldn't be sad about breaking my blue vase because the purple one is still pretty. Support me with love, yes, but don't expect telling me you love me to do away with the pain. It makes me feel like I'm somehow in the wrong for still feeling hurt when this happens. I feel guilty that the love I do have isn't enough to stop the pain in its tracks. This is, of course, a ridiculous notion. Again, I loved my blue vase and how it caught the sunlight just right. Reminding me how well the purple one matches the curtains, even filling it with roses, while heartwarming, does not negate the fact that my blue vase caught the sunlight just right.
When Hubby and I broke up with our last mutual girlfriend it was hard. We were both experiencing our own feelings of loss, which were drastically different, but console each other at the same time. For a while it was rough. Neither of us could understand why the other was acting the way we were, and we started taking it personally. We were both guilty at that point of "blue vase-purple vase", and we made a lot of fumbles with each other. In the end, we talked about it and apologized for being mutually ridiculous.
On the other end of the spectrum, the way our household pulls together in one big, loving hug is awe-inspiring. It really makes me speechless to be surrounded by such a strong support system no matter what the crisis might be, whether it's about health, heartbreak, or just everyday stress. While it may not take away the pain, anger, fear, or anxiety, it does help to mitigate the emotional tidal wave.
Recently I made a few bad decisions that could have had a huge impact on our household. Meanwhile, I forged a couple new relationships at once, which is generally against my own policies because of the attention any new relationship needs, and wound up hurt. The way not only Hubby but the entire household gathered around me to support me made me realize just how loved I am, and just how luck I am to have them.
This family is one of the reasons I love my lifestyle and the choices Hubby and I have made to sustain it. Being an only child, I never had the tight-knit relationship siblings have. My mom died when I was 13, taking away the one source of support I felt I had. This household has shown me what it means to be family. Unbiased, unwavering, unconditional. We field the shift together, as a unit, so no one is lost in the undertow.
Thank you, family, for letting me have my experience and my moments, but also for helping me find my way back. Thank you for letting me cry but never too long. Thank you for never letting me close my heart or my eyes, and for always being there with a big group hug. You are my reasons for loving the way I do. I love you all.
Go now, find and love your chosen family.
In the past few weeks there have been more suicides in the young LGBT community than I can count on one hand. As a teacher, a mother, a member of the queer community, and a citizen of the country that is doing nothing to protect these young people from harassment, abuse, and humiliation, I find this trend unacceptable on a violently angry level. We're talking the type of anger that makes my pupils twitch and my hands shake. These kids, like many in our community, were treated in ways that would make anyone feel helpless and hopeless, especially at a point in their lives where they are vividly aware of their differences and want nothing more than to be accepted.
All across the country gay adolescents are told they're just confused, that they're broken or sick, and that they should be ashamed of how they feel, think, and love. At best they are ignored by their parents, but often they are punished, chastised, or beaten. They are cast away, kicked out of their homes, and shunned by their families. Their spiritual leaders tell t hem they're damned, their peers ostracize or bully them, and there is generally little to no support or protection from schools or the community.
But what about those of us who could help them? What about those of us who have been in their shoes and could guide them through one of the most trying and confusing points in their lives? We're kept away from them in hopes they'll grow out of it and in fear that we'll encourage them to be themselves. Instead of being seen as a support system or valuable resource, queer adults are considered a detriment in a youth's life. Why is this ok? At what point do we stop telling our children they can be anything they want to be when they grow up and giving them the mentors and environment to nurture whatever that might entail? When do we instead start limiting and judging them? More importantly, why is any of this treatment allowed to happen? Why were these young people pushed to a point at such a young age that they felt it would never get better?
In his September 22 article Dan Savage speaks of how the first of the recently publicized suicides touched him. Like many of us he was heartbroken. Like many of us he has been where these kids were and are today. Like many of us he knows that something needs to be done. It's time the people who can give these young people a little hope stopped being stuck in a closet and spoke out to them.
"Why are we waiting for permission to talk to these kids?", he says. "We have the ability to talk directly to them right now. We don't have to wait for permission to let them know that it gets better. We can reach these kids."
So, Dan and his partner made a video. Then they made a channel on YouTube and encouraged members of the community to make and post their own videos to encourage these kids and share our stories to show that it does get better. To find the instructions and post your own video, you can go to youtube.com/itgetsbetterproject . As soon as I figure out how to use the camcorder function on my new smartphone I'll be posting my own. If I can get over my technophobia and do this, you should all be making videos!
My life as a bisexual teen (and at the time there was only gay or bisexual in my world…no pansexuals, homoflexibles, heteroflexibles or otherwise) was fairly quiet. I kept it that way purposefully. It had its rough moments, but for the most part I've forgotten the trappings. Yes, I was in the San Francisco Bay Area, but that's not always as free-thinking and forward as it sounds. I went to an all girls catholic school, and had several strikes against me already. I had friends who knew I was pagan, but it wasn't until I was extremely close that I admitted to my sexuality.
I knew at a very early age I loved everyone equally, but never expressed any of it. I was told it was a phase, that I just didn't know how to express my feelings towards friends, and that I'd get over it someday. My mother passed before I could try to talk to her about it, and the rest of my family was all about not making waves. My confusion and fear caused me to withdraw completely. I didn't go on dates. I didn't socialize much. I didn't have my first kiss until I was almost eighteen, and that one defining moment started a revolution inside me. I could no longer be quiet.
I can't imagine my life being any different. It took moving to Philadelphia, a place most consider a lot more conservative that Berkeley, CA, to find "my people". I am never ashamed to talk about my husband and my girlfriend. I am never ashamed to be poly, pagan, or pansexual. I wish nothing more for these young people than to know how good life can be when you find where you belong. We owe them that optimism as people who have laid the path.
Today begins LGBT History Month, and what better way to start than with each of our own personal histories. Those who came before us gave us a wonderful foundation, and we have built the beginnings of a wonderful world, but these kids are the ones who will be in charge of finishing the job. We need to invest in them the pride and freedom we know is possible. Our goal isn't just for them to survive, but to live. Like a good bra, we must not just support but uplift.
This is my promise to the queer youth of America…You can always come to me. You can share with me. You can talk to me. You can be safe with me. You have all my love, support, and optimism. You have my arms for hugging and my shoulder for crying. I will help in whatever ways I can, and I will never abandon you. I will never stop trying to show you that it does get better if you can promise me that you'll never give up being you.
Yours, Autumn.
I knew at some point my family would read Pearls and Pentagrams, and probably have questions, but it seems the posts I thought would make the biggest waves were either avoided or just not as important as I had imagined. Apparently, the fact that Hubby and I open our relationship to other partners is not as shocking as what may or may not have happened to my 5-year old self. Why is it, I wonder, that I was barraged with emails about how "shocked" or "hurt" they were at events that happened to ME? Why is it that I was told I needed to relive these events for the sake of their processing? I write to inspire and support, not to prolong the pain from my past or to give anyone the means to victimize themselves with my experiences. Each and every negative moment of my life has been a learning experience, and I will not dredge up old wounds for the sake of my family's lack of observation when such things were happening. I never blamed my mother for what happened out of her sight. I never blamed my father for calling Child protective Services when I mentioned the "tickle game", and I never told them a thing. Why? I never said anything because I never let it happen again, and I would be damned if I was going to let them take me away from my mother. I had my ways of getting rid of people who were no good for either of us. At 5 and 6-years old I had developed a defense mechanism that kept us together and kept danger out of our household.
That being said, my father is a wonderfully supportive man who has never asked too many questions. I wonder sometimes if it stems from a desire not to know too any details or because he really just does not care as long as I am happy. We met in Las Vegas on Monday, and through the course of the week we had a few good conversations. I mentioned a few times a girl I was seeing for a while. As usual he did not bat an eyelash. Not once did he question the fact that, for the first time, his daughter had openly admitted not just to having the ambiguous "girlfriend" but to actually "seeing" a female, all while engaged to Hubby. I give him a lot of credit. Not all of my family would take such things in stride. My dad and I have always had a close relationship, but it has not always been a communicative one. we share laughs and the occasional "what's going on it your life" conversation, but it was a lot more superficial when I was a teenager. Now that I am in my mid-twenties we talk more openly. Maybe it is because I never feel the need to hide who I am from him. Maybe I know deep down he would never judge me or not love me because of the life I live. He may try to counsel me otherwise, but he would never disown me because of the way I live MY life. He has never put me down for my sexuality, my spirituality, or my personal relationships. I can never thank him enough for that. Did he question me about my Woman Warrior post? Any dad would. Did he press me for more information? No, and I am eternally grateful for that. Neither of us needs to relive those moments in my life. I may have needed to live through them the first time to become the woman I am today.
On a lighter note, we didn't win a dime in Las Vegas, and it poured the entire time. I, however, was just happy to spend some quality time with my father and see him enjoy himself. I could not have asked for a better way to spend my vacation.


text: I haven't ever encountered this problem. I put a rifle together and now it seems "unbalanced". The rifle is 6 3/8 pounds. And the scope is 1 1/2 pounds. It feels pretty top heavy. I like a balanced rifle. When I go and shoot it, it doesn't bother me. I don't think twice about it. But when cleaning it and showing people at home etc etc. I can't help but have it bother me...a lot. I have a Vortex Viper 4-16x50mm on top of my .300 winnie. Should I wait until my first hunt this fall and decide or try and switch scopes whether its a trade or trying to sell it? I never considered scope weight when I put them together. Thanks guys.


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New lower price for Axon II ($78) and Axon Mote ($58).
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I could make the front of it triangular, as to facilitate the movement of the dirt along the robot.
I need to figure out the required speed of the drill in RPMs


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Ravenel T D Jr Dr
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Areas of Practice: Dentists
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The Canadian Living Test Kitchen offers a great collection of hors d'oeuvres recipes that you can make-ahaed or throw together at the last minute.
Chinese dumplings, wontons make great pick-and-dip party food. Although these morsels may not be the authentic variety, the sausage and cream cheese filling will have guests coming back for more. Look for wonton wrappers in the produce section.
See the recipe
These little golden rolls with a cheesy, tangy filling keep perfectly in the freezer, ready to cook in small quantities for impromptu guests and snacking.
A dip is a fun way of adding variety to the week of lunches. Pack about 1/2 cup (125 mL) of this dip, wedges of pita bread, carrot and celery sticks or your child's favourite vegetable in separate containers. Add a few rice chips or potato chips and your child will think it's a party.
These open-faced sandwiches look very elegant on an hors d'oeuvre tray. You can also use chicken breast or roast beef instead of the pork.
Delicious served warm or at room temperature, these appetizers are great on their own or on small toasts.
Juicy pear, creamy cheese and flaky-pastry bites look fancy but are truly easy and quick to make. You can also use an apple instead of the pear.
The easiest of quick bites to make, these will be just about the most popular since there's a myriad of fillings from which to choose. Coloured or flavoured tortillas add extra whimsy.
With a perfect m?nge of flavours, these slices of pink salmon and dill-speckled cream cheese sandwiched in a bakery-fresh loaf are hard to resist.
Crisp, golden appetizer cups look like little bird nests. Use them as a base for any number of toppings, such as smoked salmon and cream cheese, or red pepper jelly or goat cheese and roasted red peppers.
A touch of Caribbean jerk-type seasoning and bright, sweet mango bring warmth to any winter gathering.
Centre-cut ribs, sometimes labelled pork Chinese spareribs, are perfect for appetizers because they are easy to pick up and eat in two bites.
Decorated with a colourful mixed peppercorn crust, this pâté makes a festive presentation. It is lighter than most traditional pâtés because it uses light cream cheese instead of butter.
Mini pita breads are perfect for last-minute entertaining because they can be topped with a variety of staples on hand at a moment's notice. Try sliced Brie cheese, pepperoni and sauce, or pesto and goat cheese. You can also open them into pockets to fill with prepared salads or spreads.
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Secretary Locke Announces Administration's New Initiative to Aid American Businesses
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced a new Obama Administration initiative designed to streamline government bureaucracy and bring services and solutions directly to businesses and entrepreneurs creating and sustaining jobs. Locke made his announcement at the Detroit Economic Club's National Summit. The new initiative will be launched this summer in the Detroit area. Responding both to President Obama's call to make government more responsive and a once-in-a-generation economic crisis, Locke initiated the effort after seeing how complicated it can be to navigate the alphabet soup of Commerce agencies and programs. (More) (Remarks)


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Posts from Latin American
Snack Recipe: Crunchy Chili-Lime Quicos
Recipes from The Kitchn
Quicos are my new favorite nibble, and I'll bet good money that if you like crunchy and salty snacks, they're about to be your favorite new nibble, too. These particular homemade quicos are tossed with lime zest and chili powder, making them even more irresistable than usual. If a Cinco de Mayo celebration is your future — or any party at all! — you'll definitely want this on your snack list.
Latin D'Lite by Ingrid Hoffman
New Cookbook
All my favorite Mexican and South American dishes, but healthier and better for me? Heck, yeah! If you love your enchiladas and pulled pork tacos perhaps a little too much, never fear. Ingrid Hoffman of the Cooking Channel's Simply Delicioso is here to help us keep it spicy and full of flavor while lightening up those much-loved Latin foods.
How To Make Healthier Baked Tortilla Chips
Cooking Lessons from The Kitchn
Lately, I've gotten into the habit of making my own corn chips, a process that has proved to be deeply satisfying on so many levels. First, and most importantly, the end result is absolutely superior to the commercial brands in both taste and texture. I bake my chips with just the thinnest coating of oil, so the resulting chip bakes up satisfyingly crisp with a very slight chew and not at all greasy. The corn comes through strong and clear, not at all like the salt-lick flavor of most commercial chips.
Here's a step-by-step guide to making these lighter, healthier chips at home.
Craving: Huevos Rancheros for Breakfast
With all the spicy Latin recipes last week followed by all the egg recipes this week, is it any wonder that I've woken up every morning with an intense craving for huevos rancheros? I'm going to need a fix of sunny fried eggs smothered in chunky salsa pronto. Have a favorite version to recommend?
Snack Recipe: Beef & Potato Empanadas
Recipes from The Kitchn
You know what you want at 10pm? Heck, do you know what you want at 10am? Empanadas! They're good at almost any time of the day, and that's exactly their appeal. Tasty little pouches. And when those little pouches are filled with soft potato, sweet tomatoes, and a bit of beef, they surely are superbly tasty.
Brazilian Cheese Bread, Barbados Rum Punch, Braised Chicken, Cheese and Potato Soup, Spicy Salsa, Pupusas, Flan & More
New Recipes from The Kitchn
Looking for some recipe inspiration for Labor Day weekend? We propose you go Latin American-inspired and make Brazilian cheese puffs, braised chicken with mojo sauce, or maybe a big platter of cheese-stuffed pupusas! And don't forget the rum punch and hot salsa — it's all party food!
• How to Make Pão de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Bread)
• Bajan Rum Punch
• Braised Chicken with Mojo Sauce
• Baked Chicken with Bacon
• Andean Cheese & Potato Soup (Locro de Papa)
• Herbed Panko Chicken
• Hot & Smoky Roasted Poblano Pepper Salsa
• Salvadoran Pupusas con Curtido
• Lizano-Style Costa Rican Salsa
• Green Piña Colada Smoothie
• Brazilian-style Flan (Pudim de Leite Condensado)
5 Ways to Use Chimichurri Sauce
Chimichurri is that wonderful, fresh sauce that brightens anything it comes in contact with. Traditionally made with olive oil, lots of fresh parsley, lemon, garlic and shallots, it's most often used as a sauce on grilled meats and fish, but I've found that keeping a little container of it in the refrigerator allows you to dress up even the most basic of leftovers.
Spicy Recipe: Hot & Smoky Roasted Poblano Pepper Salsa
Recipes from The Kitchn
Tres Leche Cake: 5 Unforgettable Recipes
I traveled to Quito, Ecuador a few years ago as a stopover on my way to the Galapagos islands. I knew nothing about Quito, and while many things were new and unfamiliar, I had a good feeling after my very first afternoon there. I'd strolled into a cafe for a cup of coffee and noticed a towering display of cake slices. The woman at the register confirmed what I thought: tres leches cake, my very favorite. Things were looking up.
Recipe: Lizano-Style Costa Rican Salsa
Recipes from The Kitchn
There is a particular bottled salsa on every table in Costa Rica. It's called Lizano and the first time you taste it you have to stop and think a minute. Do I like it or not? Sure, it tastes like a mass-produced bottled sauce but somehow it's also really pleasant in a sweet, smoky, tangy way — like A1 meets tamarind paste — and then you're addicted and you look at the label, and if you understand Spanish, as I do, you find that it's loaded with fun stuff like like sodium benzoate and MSG.
You're already hooked, so you continue eating it on your vacation knowing that soon you'll be home and can swear off the stuff, conveniently no longer within arms' reach of a bottle. You eat it because it's perpetually in front of you and is a perfect match for the day-in-day-out Gallo Pinto, literally "spotted rooster" or rice and beans in Costa Rica.
You hate Lizano and love it all at once, and when you get back home you can think of little else.


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« Apolo Ohno To Guest Judge On Project Runway | Home | BB10 Spoiler: Can Memphis See Another Week In His Future? »
BB10: Drama Fills The House, Jerry Doesn't Use Veto
August 05, 2008 08:27 PM by Ryan Haidet
Tonight's episode delivered loads of fights — even when a birthday was being celebrated. But first, nobody seemed surprised by April's nominations for eviction. In fact, Jessie thought it was an honor to be nominated three of the four weeks so far in the Big Brother house.
Fake tears and a hug
Dan, America's temporary Player, was given his next task. He had to hug the contestant America chose for 10 seconds. Of course, America picked Jessie. "Oh, what are you guys thinking?" Dan said in a confessional. But he was going to try anyway. He went to Jessie and asked him to talk about personal stuff. That's when the fake tears started to fall.
Dan said he was really missing his girlfriend Monica and Jessie gave him loads of comfort. That's when the hug came — a whole 17 seconds! Dan gave a great smirk to the cameras as it was happening, too. Great moment Big Brother. Thanks!
Veto picks cause problems
The house gathered in the living room to choose the three players joining April, Memphis and Jessie in the Power of Veto competition. By random draw it was Michelle, Libra and Jerry who were picked.
Right after the picks, April was very upset about Libra and Jerry being selected. She felt like it was simply putting more pressure on her because neither of them would likely win. Libra came upstairs to the HOH bedroom just in time to hear her complain. Libra asked not to be counted out and she took offense that nobody was taking her seriously as a game player. So she left the room. April stayed upstairs and told Ollie that Libra has an excuse for everything.
That's when the drama began. Libra and Keesha went back to their bedroom and started talking about April. Loud enough that Jessie, who was in the room next door trying to nap, was able to hear them. So he went upstairs and told April everything he heard. "One of my naps finally paid off," Jessie said in a confessional. April wanted to confront them on it.
Down the stairs and into the bedroom she went. Libra, right off the bat, said her feelings were hurt and that she was upset. April fired right back and said that she had been told both she and Keesha had been complaining about her. Libra jumped up and gave her (the look we've seen a thousand times now) the look of surprise. Keesha got very upset and stormed out of the room and into the kitchen. She was getting very heated and said she couldn't stand April at all. And all this on Keesha's birthday! Keesha stormed back into the room and immediately told April she didn't like the way she was treating and talking to her.
Libra and Keesha were visibly fed up and wanted to know who told her about their discussion. When April said it was Jessie, they were angry.
Then Jerry came in the room and was trying to tell them that Memphis was out in the living room making fun of them. When Libra went to interrupt, he stuck his hand out and told her to shut up. Renny, who was also in the room, took offense to Jerry's comments and stormed away. "I can't stand when he talks to a woman like that," she yelled. "He better not stick his finger in my face. I'll shove it down his throat."
Keesha left the room again with many of the other houseguests who were waiting to sing "Happy Birthday" to her. But the fight didn't stop. Jessie came in and started arguing with Libra. She told him the discussion was over after he said he came in the room to defend himself. "I'm tired of you," she said. "It's over Jessie." He said that he couldn't help their conversation had woke him up and he felt he needed to tell April what had been said.
Happy Birthday?
Libra came out and saw everybody was waiting to celebrate Keesha's birthday, so she went and got April to join them. They all came out, even Jessie, and sang around Keesha's cookie cake. It couldn't have been more awkward, because when it was over, nobody said anything! Libra was the first to speak after a few seconds and apologized for yelling. That's when Jessie chimed in and said, "Since we're apologizing, I'm sorry for being honest in what I heard."
That's right around the time when Keesha showed a whole new side. She started yelling a lot and defended herself and Libra. When Jessie said he did in fact hear them yelling about April, Keesha gave him the finger and called him arrogant. "You need to leave this house," Keesha yelled. Then Libra turned to Memphis, who has been the intended target all along, and said, "Hey Memphis, every day is a new day. Believe that buddy."
Veto competition
One at a time, each of the six houseguests competing had to hit a ball with a hockey stick. The person getting it the farthest from the center slot of the goal would be eliminated each round. But they would win a prize anyway. The catch was that anybody eliminated after them would have the opportunity to trade prizes.
Memphis was the first out of the contest after he completely missed the net and almost hit Renny. His parting gift was the Veto. Would anybody let him keep it?
Next out was Michelle who won a trip to Hawaii. Jessie was eliminated next and of course had an excuse as to why he wasn't very good at that competition. "If anything you could kind of relate it to miniature golfing," he said in a confessional. "I don't golf, I don't know, because my back is too big, maybe." Jessie's prize was a slop surprise, which he traded with Memphis. Now he held the Veto.
April was eliminated next and won $10,000. There were 10 gold bars, each worth $1,000 that she could either keep for herself or give some away if she ever felt like she needed to (maybe to bribe somebody into not evicting her).
The final round came down to Jerry and Libra — the two nobody had any confidence in. Eat your words April! Jerry was eliminated next and he was given a letter from home. He turned to April and asked if they could split the $10,000 three ways and he would take the Veto from Jessie. She nodded and with that, Jerry traded his letter for the Veto. Jessie was very upset.
Then Libra was given the last prize — the red unitard made famous by both Jen and Sheila in seasons past. Of course she didn't want it, so she traded it for Michelle's trip to Hawaii.
Then Memphis learned his slop surprise was good for a week free of slop any week of his choosing. Then he was told he had to pick one player immediately who would be spending the rest of the week on slop. He chose Jerry.
Unitard drama and the Veto ceremony
Michelle wasn't faring so well with the fact she lost her trip to Hawaii. She started questioning Libra asking why a mother wouldn't trade for a letter from home. After she put on the red outfit, Jessie tried to comfort her and said that her butt looked amazing.
She was obviously frustrated and went to bed. Jessie followed her in and promised he would do anything to help her win HOH next week.
At the Veto Ceremony, both Jessie and Memphis stood up and told Jerry they didn't expect him to use the POV on them. And they each said they respected whatever decision he made. With that, nobody was surprised when Jerry didn't use the Veto.
Image of Veto courtesy of CBS.
Reality TV Magazine is your source for Big Brother 10 news. Discuss the Big Brother cast and events in the house on our Big Brother message board. For other great Big Brother 10 news, you can check out SirLinksALot: Big Brother 10.
Topics: Big Brother |
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May 28, 2016
Enterprise, Miss. Dunking booths, pony rides, and free games made for a great time in Enterprise on Saturday.
It was part of the annual May Fest in the Town of Enterprise. The town usually organizes the event, but the Parent Teacher Organization actually hosted the event this year. Organizers say it turned out to be much bigger than they thought.
"We do hope that they'll let us, that the PTO will get to handle this every year now, make it an annual event," Rachel Cochran says. "We have raised a ton of money, silent auction, we have had tons of things donated county-wide. So, I hope that we can continue it and raise money for our children for our classrooms for technology."
May Fest wrapped up at 3:00 Saturday afternoon.
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text:
Rank and organization:   Private, Company A, 7th Wisconsin Infantry. Place
and date: At Weldon Railroad, Va., 21 August 1864.
Entered service at:
Chippewa Falls, Wis.
Birth:   Mercer County, Pa.
Date of issue:   December
Citation:   Capture of flag of 16th Mississippi (C.S.A.).
This data was extracted from the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, U.S. Senate, Medal of Honor Recipients: 1863-1973 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1973)


text: Our 9 year old likes to hit the single track with us but his bike was toooo small for him. We looked everywhere for a cheap alternative to a "real" mtb, but ended up getting him a Tarpon. It is a fair entry level bike and he is so excited (so are we). We are going out tonight for the 1st ride!


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The Alaska real estate school offering the real estate class you need. In addition to in-classroom real estate training courses, we are excited to offer Alaska real estate sales training Pre Licensing for Licensees and Brokers, real estate Continuing Education and Post Licensing through our online real estate school designed to fit your schedule. With real estate training courses given several times monthly you can take the real estate course all at once or break up your real estate class through our online real estate school to suit your schedule. We are also expanding the electives we offer with over 70 hours of real estate continuing education to give you more variety in the real estate class you may be interested in learning about. Check out our Real Estate Training Courses page for specific information.
You deserve quality training so we have significantly increased our online real estate school options for you with over 100 hours of Alaska real estate license specific information including real estate sales training and real estate continuing education through our real estate school online. We felt investing the time and effort to support our students with quality real estate sales training was the right thing to do.
Simply click the link below to register online or call (907)563-3086 today!
Register for a Real Estate Class or Get More Information about a Real Estate Class:
Real Estate PreLicensing Class
Real Estate Sales Post Licensing Class
Real Estate Broker Training Class
Real Estate Broker Post Licensing Class
Real Estate Continuing Education Classes
With Alaska Real Estate Licensees in mind we spent over 1000 hours in the last 12 months compiling the most important real estate course information an Alaskan real estate licensee needs to know to maintain their real estate licening in Alaska. Unlike other real estate schools, at Royse and Associates we then spent hundreds of hours designing your real estate class so it will be easy and fun for you to learn to get your real estate license and maintain your real estate license.
Compared to other real estate schools, the project turned into a labor of love and we organized the best Alaska real estate sales training resources we found and added them to the site repository for Alaska real estate sales training, which includes over 3000 pages of useful real estate course material and hundreds of important online links to the best sources of real estate information at any of the real estate schools. Access included for free with any full real estate course registration in our real estate school. You will be amazed at the wealth of information our real estate classes online contains. This material is available to all our students whether you take our in-classroom real estate course or your real estate classes online.
Some of the material was added based on lessons learned from my expert witness assignments which now include 13 civil and criminal real estate cases in both state and federal court. Reviewing several thousand pages of depositions, thousands of pages of opposing councils' legal arguments and hundreds of pages of judge's decisions in Alaska real estate court cases, it became clear that certain mistakes occur frequently and lead to unexpected and harsh consequences. With a few adjustments the cases could have been avoided.
Our real estate training courses address those easy adjustments you can make to reduce your risk and keep your real estate license. Some of the lessons you will learn, cost others hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some lessons cost people their freedom, when prison was part of the price paid for their mistake. You will learn to recognize violations of state and federal law unlike any other real estate school.
Invest in yourself and enroll today in a real estate course so you gain the benefits our real estate sales training guarantee. You'll have fun and discover new things to keep your business secure to keep you on the leading edge. Whether it be getting real estate licensing or maintaining your real estate licensing, Royse and Associates' mission is your success.
We look forward to providing you the important information.
You can easily register for a Real Estate Course today
Click Specific Real Estate Class below for Details:
This website is designed to help you in many ways.
It's a real estate community You'll want to bookmark.
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There are 3 levels with increasing benefits:
Benefits included at each Level:
December 1-2 and 5-6, 2016
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Book early to reserve your room.
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Don't you deserve the Hawaii CE Business and Asset Protection Retreat?
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All are from 8am-1:00pm to leave your afternoons free and allow you to write off the weekend.
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You learn more with Jerry. You save time because he's learned how to make understanding easy and fun for students. You get the best instruction gained from his experience teaching Real Estate for 22 years in 46 states and 4 countries.
Teaching CRS Classes for over 10 years to thousands of advanced students, his role as leading GRI instructor in Alaska, and involvement teaching train the trainer classes to other real estate instructors, have lead to his recognition as Alaska's leading real estate trainer. You'll have the security of knowing you learned how to do it the right way.
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Better information Faster...Cleaner


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Developers easily get acquainted with any new releases. Nexus 4 was able to receive a new toolkit for it which gave birth to Google Nexus 10. History has been repeated as there is a wonderful & amazing toolkit for Nexus 10 as well.
The XDA senior moderator & reputed developer mskip has launched another very amazing toolkit for Google Nexus 10. It is full of advanced features, as was expected from it. This is excellent if you have just received your device or have it for a while. Some amazing features are as given here:
- Intelligent installation of correct adb/fast boot drivers on famous operating systems like Windows xp/vista/7/8, either 32bit or 64 bit.
- Ability to backup/restore all the internal data, apps or just a single package, as needed.
- Create a backup of your data/media on your PC for enhanced security
- Locking feature for boot loader
- Root Stock Jelly Bean builds (up to 4.2.0 JOP40C)
- Single Click to unlock the boot loader, root, rename, restore file & flash custom recovery
- FULL NANDROID backup for your system via adb which can be saved in Custom Recovery format in your PC to be recover later via CWM Recovery
- Compress all the /data and /system folders to .tar file & save it to PC
- Easy dumping of phone partition, compress to .zip files using md5 & save to PC
- Installation of BusyBox on the device
- Amazing tips & tricks section for all the toolkit donators
- Donator feature of auto update to latest version at startup
- For quick running of programs, 10 QuickPic available
- Mods section to perform certain task automatically
- No manual download of Google Stock Image, it is moved automatically to correct toolkit folder for extracting & flashing
- Google Stock Image or Flash Custom Recovery to phone
- Rename feature for Recovery Restore File available on some stock Roms
- Easy root/un-root of .zip files using adb side load in Custom recovery
- Special feature of Booting in CWM Touch Recovery without Flashing it
- Boot or flash .img files directly from your PC
- Ability to install single or multi apk's to your phone
- User can Push files from PC to phone
- Able to Pull files from phone to PC
- Dumping selected LogCat buffers to your PC
- Dumping Bug Report to PC
- Ability to set file permission on the phone
- Manual input via command prompt
- One can reboot phone using fast boot mode or Android from fast boot mode
- Quick reboot mode to fast boot mode, Recovery, Android or Download mode from adb mode
More than sufficient features! It is designed for all those things that one may need. Other special features include getting the root, locking/unlocking, recovery, getting logs, reboot options, installing APK & lots more. If you want modding Nexus 10, this is the must use toolkit for you.
Go to Original Thread for further reading.
Source: XDA-Developers


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Lifting the last veil of colonialism
Kettering professor takes a visiting faculty position with the International Institute for the Sociology of Law (IISL) to help graduate students from around the world better understand how political issues impact law and justice in post-colonial south Asia.
By most accounts, India is a relatively young nation: in 1947, after years of imperial control by Great Britain, India gained its independence following a harrowing struggle. But for a nation that depended so heavily on the rule of Britain for many years, this new found independence proved to be a difficult but important lesson.
For years, Britain viewed the people of India as second-class citizens in their own country, working to build an infrastructure that fed India's natural resources to England while depriving the indigenous population opportunities to enjoy the fruits of their labor. After the departure of the British, the government of independent India faced the challenges of framing a constitution that reflected the new, egalitarian aspirations of the people, institutionalizing the rule of law and providing access to legal institutions.
Dr. Badrinath Rao, an assistant professor of Liberal Studies at Kettering University and native of India, views his homeland and south Asian countries of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal with a researcher's eye. His area of expertise focuses on understanding how larger political issues in post-colonial societies of south Asia impact the institutionalization of law and justice. In 2005, based on his research, he became a two-year visiting professor of the International Institute for the Sociology of Law, which is located in Onati, Spain. This institute works to create links and collaborative relations with various European and non-European universities. The IISJ also provides facilities for seminars, workshops, visiting scholars and library research, and has become an important base for the global network of scholars on law and social science issues.
Rao's appointment to the IISJ is important to the organization given the current cultural, economic, political and religious environment in India and other south Asian countries.
"The broader issue," he explained, "is to examine how to institutionalize the rule of law under new constitutions and governments emerging from post-colonialism. The situation in south Asia is further complicated by its mind-boggling religious, linguistic and ethnic diversity. Also, all south Asian countries have to overcome feudal vested interests opposed top the rule of law and social justice."
Rao also said that as countries like India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan emerged from colonialism as independent nations, leaders, under pressure from the global political community and citizens within their own borders, began to understand that new constitutions were necessary to establish legitimate, internationally recognized, independent governments. In India, for example, officials framed a new constitution that drew on the best features of the British, American, Canadian and Australian constitutions. Rao also said that Sri Lanka took the same approach as India in developing a new constitution. But Pakistan and Bangladesh started out as secular republics and later adopted Islam as the state religion. "In all of these countries, because the state has not vigorously enforced the rule of law, securing justice remains a distant dream for most of the citizens," Rao said. "Corruption and inordinate delays," he noted, "have added to the woes of citizens and alienated them from the state and justice system."
This scenario is what fascinates Rao and has led to his selection as a visiting faculty member of the IISJ. Many countries today in south Asia have begun attempts to institutionalize a rule of law that supports all citizens.
"Things are changing," Rao said. "After more than five decades of independence, people are becoming more aware of their rights and the rule of law is becoming entrenched. For example, the judiciary, mindful of popular aspirations, has repeatedly intervened in favor of lay people and protected them from the excesses of the state. In India, public interest litigation (PIL) has emerged as the main bulwark against the transgression of the state. The Supreme Court of India has entertained several PILs and provided much needed relief in several instances."
Given the challenge of institutionalizing the rule of law in post-colonial societies, Rao hopes these positive changes continue. One example is Nepal. "Citizens in that country have gone to the judiciary and have achieved some legal relief of problems," he said, adding that people in Nepal, "are starting to place some trust in the system. Today, those who live in south Asia are thinking more and more about equality and social justice, and I think this is an important and very positive step."
India is also well underway in revising its constitution. Rao said the National Commission for the Review of the Indian Constitution has submitted its reports and it is gradually undergoing implementation. "The whole thrust is now on making the entire law enforcement and justice system responsive to the needs of the people," he said. "There is all-around awareness that this task is absolutely central to India's emergence as a new knowledge superpower."
As a two-week visiting faculty member for 2005 and 2006 at the IISJ, Rao teaches a course each December titled The Sociology of Law in South Asia, which is based on a non-western context to help students sharpen their understanding of theory regarding this subject. Objectives of this course include
- providing a broad overview of the complex interplay of social structures and legal institutions in the countries of south Asia; and
- offering a nuanced analysis of the impact of socio-economic, political, and cultural forces and structures on the institutionalization of the rule of law in post-colonial south Asia.
Rao's passion for this subject also extends beyond the classroom. In recent years, he has presented papers and attended conferences on this subject at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, and at the University of Helsinki in Finland to name just a few. He is also a member in the Association for the Sociology of Religion and Research Committee on the Sociology of Law. He is working on a definitive book-length treatment of this subject tentatively titled "The Myth of 'Equal Respect': Minorities, Multiculturalism and Globalization in India."
To learn more about this subject, contact Dr. Badrinath Rao at (810) 762-7810.
Written by Gary J. Erwin
(810) 762-9538


text:
May 31, 2016
The Peregrine Falcon missing from the Potter Park Zoo is back home.
The bird was spotted Monday night in a field on Aurelius Road near Mount Hope Road. People kept an eye on it until zoo handlers arrived.
The falcon is doing fine.
The Peregrine Falcon escaped Saturday night after a show and tell.
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All Comments (29)
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you are my hero
this is wonderfull
wish i could find women to do that for me lol
Probably the most real 'amateur' videos I've seen...amazing stuff ;)
will be a lot of divorces in czech:)
she is very hot
nice :)
wonderful woman !!!
Need to try this.
I think her husband knows now.
She had a great body
i like sex u wanna fuck me
que esto es un fiasco ,todas esta pagina ,no termina y te dejan a medias .no sirve esta pagina de las checas .
Suck & fuck with her all night long
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you could be the husband loool
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10 stars!!!!
alot of talk, but is good


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"Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'"
2 Corinthians 12:8-9
If you're struggling with the pain of depression, Jennifer Rothschild encourages you to pursue God's grace, not just thorn removal…
Related Post: Why Grace?
Photo: kliverap


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Hi guys, thanks for having me here. This site has always been a great read and research resource for me so i thought i'd join up. My interests lie in all bikes and particularly their mechanics and history. I have NS Bikes 2011 SUburban, a 99' DK General Lee BMX, a 70's Malvern Star 'Sporster' and a 74' Raliegh Comanche amongst other builds and hopefuls.
Look forward to spending time here,
Thanks, Jez.


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50 PureData Nuggets #40: Best practices for external data loading and returning large result sets Community Blog
DANIEL TERLIZZI firstname.lastname@example.com Tags: loading odbc etl jdbc external_table best_practice architecture best_practices puredata nuggets design netezza 4 Comments 563 Visits
The IBM Puredata System for Analytics appliances are build to store and process large amounts of data efficiently in a massively parallel processing architecture. An appliance can store many TB of compressed data and distributes the work over many CPU cores....
from Blog: IBM PureData Systems Customer CommunityModified by DANIEL TERLIZZI email@example.com
Get Smart. Go to Vegas. Save the World. Community Blog
Jennifer Dennis firstname.lastname@example.com Tags: asset it vegas maximo system z michael service las recession oriented pulse soa computing architecture green smarter cloud barak phelps obama planet gq heroes sports tivoli ibm optimization illustrated management 1 Comment 4,171 Visits
SAVE ON PULSE REGISTRATION TODAY through FRIDAY 12/5 at http://www.ibm.com/software/tivoli/pulse/ Okay, okay. IBM Service Management might not be saving the world the same way heroes in a Hollywood movie would. But unseen heroes do exist. They may...
from Blog: Pulse conference community blog
Challenges in deployment architecture - Part 2
Michael Rowe firstname.lastname@example.com Tags: architecture deployment 1 Comment 724 Visits
A few weeks back I talked about how complex deployment planning can be when dealing with enterprise level packaged applications. We have been working solutions which address this in a manner that recognizes that almost no company starts from scratch anymore....
from Blog: ISM for Design and Delivery Blog
Beseitigung von Software-Erblasten
Thorsten Zoerner email@example.com Tags: dokumentation documentation java code catalyst cobol arc host software architecture framework analysis 1,117 Visits
Die meisten IT Verantwortlichen werden dieses Problem kennen. Alte Anwendungen müssen "künstlich" am Leben gehalten werden, da niemand mehr weiß, wie genau sie funktionieren, oder welche weiteren Anwendungen mit ihnen interagieren. Meist sind diese......
from Blog: Blue Blog
What should an Advanced Case Management (ACM) architecture look like?
David Gómez email@example.com Tags: content enterprise case bpm acm process ecm advanced architecture business management 1,937 Visits
What does this picture have to do with this? Well, it is someone's vision for a futuristic building. It is not too far off from what we have today. It is built on what we have today. Now the common question would be what does this have to do with...
from Blog: Advanced Case Management
IBM Workload Deployer: Snap Fingers, Get Application Infrastructures Community Blog
Wes Simonds email@example.com Tags: turnkey infrastructure iwd wes soa business ibm oriented agility burst service private architecture hypervisor cloud simonds transformation deployer workload growth application 5,486 Visits
Private clouds bring turnkey IT closer to reality. Back in my IT days, it often seemed to me that the executives running the show were trying to apply business concepts to IT in a way that didn't work particularly well. For instance, they loved the...
from Blog: IBM Software Community
Free Download: IBM Rational Jazz platform makes software delivery more collaborative, transparent and productive.
Kristina O'Regan email@example.com Tags: rational delivery software development architecture platform jazz 1,267 Visits
What is Rational Jazz? IBM® Rational® Jazz® is a new technology platform for collaborative software delivery. Uniquely attuned to global and distributed teams, Jazz is designed to transform how people work together to build software, making software...
from Blog: IBM Ireland Network
IBM Research Creates New Foundation to Program SyNAPSE Chips
Casper Hansen firstname.lastname@example.com Tags: synapse ibm software cognitive csi architecture software_ecosystems software_ecosystem ecosystem cognition cognitive_systems networks 1,658 Visits
IBM Research Creates New Foundation to Program SyNAPSE Chips Scientists from IBM recently unveiled a breakthrough software ecosystem designed for programming silicon chips that have an architecture inspired by the function, low power, and compact...
from Blog: IBM CSI Newsblog
Lifting the covers on IBM Cognos Dynamic Cubes Community Blog
Marcela Adan firstname.lastname@example.com Tags: architecture cubes cognos dynamic_cubes 3,824 Visits
The architecture of IBM Cognos Dynamic Cubes is something that many find it hard to conceptualize. Cognos Dynamic Cubes are really just an extension of Dynamic Query Mode (DQM) which in turn is part of the three tiered Cognos BI architecture familiar to...
from Blog: IBM Software CommunityModified by Marcela Adan email@example.com
Beseitigung von Software-Erblasten
Mirco Wilhelm firstname.lastname@example.com Tags: documentation software java blueblog architecture code analysis framework dokumentation catalyst cobol arc host 1,067 Visits
Die meisten IT Verantwortlichen werden dieses Problem kennen. Alte Anwendungen müssen "künstlich" am Leben gehalten werden, da niemand mehr weiß, wie genau sie funktionieren, oder welche weiteren Anwendungen mit ihnen interagieren. Meist sind diese Anwendungen...
from Blog: Mirco Wilhelm's Blog
SoftLayer offers three main ways to deploy your solution to the cloud
David Barry firstname.lastname@example.com Tags: finland. cloud netherlands architecture it norway softlayer denmark platform sweden 840 Visits
SoftLayer provides a set of key features that set the platform apart from the industry. The ability to deploy to bare metal servers, virtual compute instances and private clouds...
from Blog: Nordic MSPModified by Martin Sønderholm Eriksen firstname.lastname@example.com
Making the Smart Meter Programme Design Authority more effective
Brian MacDonald firstname.lastname@example.com Tags: architecture metering solution design smart authority 3,767 Visits
I think it is safe to say that the use of a Design Authority in cross functional programmes like Smart Metering is now an accepted best practice. But why are some DAs more effective than others? During the five years that I've been working on Smart Metering...
Off the Blocks with the IBM Service Management Entry Points Community Blog
Jennifer Dennis email@example.com Tags: jams control zarina automation oriented itup ism itil stanford service entry points soa management ibm architecture visibility 3,268 Visits
T he excitement and amazing performances at the 2008 Beijing Olympics bring to mind the importance of getting a great start "off the blocks." Whether you're Michael Phelps, striving for your record eighth gold medal in a single Olympic games, or...
from Blog: Cloud & Service Management blog
The mentoring dilemma
Brian MacDonald email@example.com Tags: swift mentoring ios architecture 456 Visits
All Solution Architects would agree that they have a professional obligation to make themselves available as mentors to less experienced architects and technical staff. The problem that has plagued me is how to make the mentoring experience "real"...Modified by Brian MacDonald email@example.com
Challenges in deployment architectures
Michael Rowe email@example.com Tags: deployment architecture integratedservicemanageme... 619 Visits
Let's think about moving code into production. I don't mean just the idea of code promotion within your SCM, but how packaged applications may impact the complexity of your development, test, and production environments. This complexity can decrease a...
from Blog: ISM for Design and Delivery Blog
What Makes A Good Network Fabric?
Vikram Mehta, VP System Networking email@example.com Tags: fabric vp networking network virtualized vikram system mehta unified architecture openflow 5,905 Visits
What Makes A Good Network Fabric? As I wrote in my earlier blog post, the data center network is going through a major transformation to support server virtualization and cloud computing, convergence of data storage, application-to-application traffic...


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Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn overreacted to the City Council president's signature on a draft environmental-impact statement on the tunnel project to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct.
IF Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn is going to have a hissy fit, he should reserve his outbursts for a topic bigger than a signature on a draft environmental-impact statement.
Welcome to the loopy world of Seattle politics. Last week, the mayor asked his staff to seek more time before signing a supplemental draft environmental-impact statement on the tunnel replacement for the Alaskan Way Viaduct. A signature was required to preserve Seattle's position as a lead agency on the project.
McGinn's staff had been working on the paperwork for some time and he was expected to sign. With the clock ticking on a deadline, Council President Richard Conlin signed instead — to preserve Seattle's role.
McGinn lashed out in anger, calling a news conference, denouncing Conlin, asking him to rescind his signature and asking the governor not to accept his signature on behalf of the state, the primary agency on the project.
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Because Conlin's signature does not purport to certify adequacy or inadequacy of the preliminary environmental review, says Pete Holmes, the city's attorney and top legal authority, it is not an affront to the executive authority of the mayor. The signature neither binds the city nor impedes the mayor's powers.
Relations are poor between the mayor and council. At his news conference, the mayor proclaimed the city was no longer so-called "co-lead" on the project, an action that potentially clears the way for the city to sue.
But government by news conference doesn't bring out the best in anybody. And the allegation that Conlin violated the city charter, so far, has not been borne out
"We do not have a charter crisis," declared Holmes.
To make that more clear, and drawing a sharper line of distinction, the City Council Monday introduced an ordinance to confirm it is city policy for Seattle to remain "co-lead" on the project. It is also a way to show support for Conlin.
The council vote on the ordinance is next Monday This ought to be unanimous, but a couple of council members are soft when it comes to challenging McGinn.
This editorial page has one more bit of advice for McGinn: He should come out and say honestly he is trying to block the tunnel and wants to use his time in office to make it go away. That campaign line about not standing in the way of the tunnel was just something he said to get elected.
The mayor's day-to-day actions speak much louder than those silly campaign words.


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From Tyler Gray:
I received a call from Jason Goncalves at Play Advertising back in April to shoot a summer ad campaign for Red Baron Beer. The agency's layout called for a shot of two people standing on a dock on a hot summer day:
I considered shooting the ad on location near Aurora, Ontario. But the weather isn't always great in April. And I wasn't keen on having to stand in a cold lake behind a camera for 4 hours. Plus the water would restrict my lighting set-up and the talent would freeze.
I started looking through pictures from canoe trips I had taken in the past and came across a shot of the perfect dock! This photograph became the foundation for the final ad. All camera angles, focal lengths and lighting direction had to match this shot:
I pulled more images of trees, water and skies from various other trips and mocked up a few background options for the team at Play Advertising:
Then I shot the talent in Westside Studio's parking lot. I had them stand on plywood so that I could easily blend the shot into the dock:
Other small elements were then added to increase the summer atmosphere:
All of these layers were then combined to create the final image:


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Former Warrior and three-time Cascade Collegiate Conference Player of the Year Stephanie (NIppert) Hull, '13, has been named a finalist for the Ad Rutschman Small College Female Athlete of the Year, as announced Thursday by the organizing company of the annual Oregon Sports Award, SportsOne.
"Looking at the lists of nominees and finalists in all the categories, there are some tremendous athletes here in the state of Oregon," said head coach Nathan Ohta. "It truly is an honor for Corban University and our softball program to have Stephanie recognized among them. Last year, Stephanie had what was arguably the best single season in NAIA softball history and shattered numerous career records both nationally and for the state of Oregon. She has been a great ambassador for Christ and for Corban during her career and her faith, character, humility and work-ethic have set her apart. What she was able to accomplish during her time here at Corban is nothing short of amazing and any recognition she receives could not be more well-deserved. It has been a joy and an honor to be her coach for four years and to watch her play every day. I am excited to see what God has in store for Stephanie in the years ahead."
Hull, who was named an NAIA All-American each of her four years as a Warrior, closed out her record-breaking career with a NAIA-record 83 home runs that included a school and Cascade Collegiate Conference single-season record 30 as a senior in 2013. In her final season of collegiate competition, Hull became the first player in CCC history to register more than 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases in a single-season after she tallied 22 stolen bases to go along with her home run number.
During her senior season, Hull helped lead Corban to a single-season, school-record 43 wins that included the program's first-ever regular season conference title as well as a berth in the NAIA Opening Round.
Hull led the nation in homers (30), home runs per game (0.51), total bases (168) and slugging percentage (1.098), while ranking second in RBIs (82) and third in runs scored (77).
In her final season as a Warrior, Hull set single-season school and conference records for home runs, runs batted in, and walks (68). For her career, Hull was the NAIA's all-time leader in home runs with 83 and ranks in the Top 10 all-time in seven statistical categories that includes home runs (1st - 83), slugging percentage (2nd - 0.954), total bases (2nd - 564), walks (3rd - 120), runs batted in (5th - 240), batting average (6th - 0.447), and runs scored (t-6th - 220).
Hull is joined by a pair of fellow CCC athletes – Concordia's Gabrielle Dixson and Hannah Kimsey – as finalist for this year's award, while Southern Oregon's Mitchell Lofstedt, Linfield's Dominique Forrest, and Linfield's Chris Haddeland are the finalist for the male award.
This year's awards show will be held on Sunday, February 9th, from 7-9 PM at the Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton in the state-of-the-art Stanford Theatre at the Tiger Woods Center. The show will be streamed on OregonLive.com and oregonsportsawards.com.


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The Lorax Pop-Up!
by Dr. Seuss, David A. Carter (Paper engineer)
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Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0375860355, Hardcover)Dr. Seuss's well-known and well-loved The Lorax is as timely now as it was when it was first published in 1971—perhaps even more so. This bestselling ecological warning is now available in an elaborate pop-up book, published in conjunction with the release of The Lorax feature film on March 2, 2012—Ted Geisel's birthday.
David Carter has transformed Seuss's powerful message and has brought to life the Lorax, the Bar-ba-loots, the Truffula Tree Tufts—and more—in eight dynamic pop-up spreads.
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The Once-ler describes the results of the local pollution problem.
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NOV 10, 2013 - Miami Herald
A Must Read - Share
Other than a promising 3-0 start, the Miami Dolphins have had to deal with bad publicity on and off the field. And that was before the Incognito-Martin controversy, which has cast national media attention on a beleaguered franchise.
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Out of bounds
National | EDUCATION: Do "opt-out" policies protect public-school parents who want to keep explicit material away from their children?
WHEN HER DAUGHTER BROUGHT home the reading assignment from her sophomore Honors English class, Sue Porter took the time to check it out. What she found appalled the Bakersfield, Calif., mom. The book was Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. Even a quick scan revealed profane language, graphic descriptions of incest, and the twisted inner musings of a pedophile named Soaphead Church. It was clear to Mrs. Porter that the material was not suitable for her 15-year-old daughter. Her husband's reaction: "Who would want their daughter to read this kind of thing?"
Some students, including the Porters' daughter, told the teacher they felt uncomfortable reading the book. Not only did the teacher not offer an alternative assignment, she "told the students that if they didn't read the book, they would be 'allowing' incest and pedophilia to happen," Mrs. Porter said. No substitute reading selection was offered until after the Porters removed their daughter from the class.
The objections of individual families to The Bluest Eye erupted into a district-level battle over the propriety of such lurid material for any district student. In a series of heated board meetings, teachers defended their professional judgment. Parents, meanwhile, defended their right to shield their children from sexually explicit material. The dispute remains unresolved.
Curriculum-related parental notification and consent, commonly called "opt-out" policies, exist in thousands of school districts. Yet cases similar to the one unfolding in Bakersfield have in recent years popped up in other areas, including New England, Ohio, and Virginia. That raises a question: Do opt-out policies work?
Maybe not in Bakersfield. But even counting controversies in other public-school districts, the number of curriculum disputes seems small when compared with the total amount of classroom instruction that unfolds without incident across America each year. That could mean opt-out policies in most districts chug along without major hitches. Or it could mean that many parents don't know what schools are teaching, and aren't aware of their right to know and, if necessary, object.
Opt-out laws-and rarer "opt-in" laws that require advance parental consent-vary by state. In the area of sexuality and HIV/AIDS education, only three states require parental consent for students to participate, according to a February 2004 report by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of Planned Parenthood. Thirty-five states and the District of Columbia permit parents to remove their children from instruction. In four states-Arizona, Montana, New York, and Pennsylvania-parents' right to opt out is limited to instruction on sexually transmitted diseases. In Alabama, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Vermont, parents opting out must state that their reasons are moral or religious.
California's Senate Bill 71 last year authorized school districts to provide "comprehensive sexual health education to students from kindergarten through 12th grade." The bill requires that parents and guardians be notified about any HIV/AIDS and sexuality education class. Parents may opt out, but the bill contains a gaping loophole: If the parental notification form is not returned to the school, parental consent is assumed.
In some states, conservative lawmakers hoping to close such loopholes have crafted "opt-in" legislation that would put the onus on schools to let parents know about potentially objectionable material. For example, Vermont House Bill 291, introduced in 2003 and still in committee, includes a detailed list of sexual issues and requires schools to obtain written parental consent for each day that teachers plan to discuss any one of them. And no generalities allowed: Schools would be required to notify parents of the date and time of instruction, the instructor's name, and a detailed description of the lesson.
Bakersfield mom Sue Porter would hail a policy like that. As in most other states, literature is not covered in California's parental notification law. That means "you have to opt your student out of [some objectionable curricula] in order to even be informed" that it will be taught, Mrs. Porter said. In addition, opting out after assignments are made can cause other problems: When students observe explosions of controversy, are segregated, given more work, or face retribution for their parents' moral choices, they may decide to go along to get along. "If they think their parents may object to a book, they may well not tell their parents they're reading it," Mrs. Porter said.
But opt-in policies like the one proposed in Vermont can place a difficult burden on schools, said Finn Laursen, president of Christian Educators Association International. Mr. Laursen worked in Ohio public schools for 32 years, including 11 years as a district superintendent. During his tenure, every district allowed parents to opt out of objectionable curricula, a provision he said is "essential for parents to maintain control over their children's education."
But while opt-out policies were fairly simple to manage, Mr. Laursen said districts that tried using opt-in policies found themselves swept up in a paper chase. "There's just an inordinate amount of time spent following up on the paperwork," he said. "If a school has to get permission for everything, it becomes cumbersome just chasing people down. Opting out puts the responsibility on parents, where it should be. It should be parents' responsibility to know what their children are being confronted with."
Mr. Laursen points out that federal law requires every school district to have a written procedure for disposing of objectionable books. Parents, he said, should use it. Sometimes, though, parents who try to-even just for their own kids-get their hands slapped.
That's what happened in the Brunswick, Maine, school district for two years running. During the 2002-03 school year, several families decided that the graphic descriptions of incest and South American prostitution contained in Isabel Allende's House of the Spirits and Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings weren't necessary to the well-rounded education of their Honors English students. After a brief controversy, English teachers agreed to "rethink" the reading list for the following year. But when the 2003-04 list appeared, the same books were on it.
When parents again objected to the material, the district suggested that parents who didn't like the Honors English literature selections move their kids down to standard sophomore English, where reading assignments were "less sophisticated," and appropriate for less "mature" students.
Honors parents, whose college-bound kids benefit from having advanced courses on their high-school transcripts, balked at that idea. Meanwhile, the local library took sides and began throwing around the C-word-"censorship"-in its newsletter. That upset other families, who felt conservative parents were trying to ram Victorian values down their throats. Conservative parents were portrayed as "right-wing fundamentalists," when, in fact, all but one of the families attended mainline churches or none at all.
The conclusion about Christian parents, though incorrect in the New England case, isn't a stereotype for nothing, said former Ohio superintendent Laursen. "My worst experiences [with objectionable curricula] occurred with Christian parents. They would read an article, or hear someone say, 'those [public school] evildoers.' Then they would come in with machine guns when they could've come in with kid gloves."
Mr. Laursen's group estimates that there are more than 650,000 Christians teaching in public schools-many of whom would readily defend parents' rights to control their children's education. "There are certainly organizations that exist to insert their liberal agenda into public schools," he said. "But you can't assume everyone is part of that conspiracy."
In Brunswick, controversy at first gave way to a kind of dubious progress. During literature class, kids from six "opt-out" families went to the library where they studied alternative books on their own. If students wanted to discuss their work with the teacher, they were welcome to do so-after school. That did not sit well with parents who felt that their kids were being excluded from the full honors course experience, simply because they had opted out of reading certain books.
Those parents' concerns prompted the district to go a conciliatory step further. It has kept its reading list, but pledged to revise its opt-out policy. The plan is to send home the entire Honors English syllabus at the beginning of each academic year. Parents who choose to opt out would be able to select from a prearranged list of alternative assignments. Opt-out students would no longer be segregated, because explicit material wouldn't be discussed in class.
Concerned parents (who say they encountered such community-wide resistance that they did not want WORLD to use their names in this article) are hopeful that this plan will allow their children to opt out without losing out.


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Thu, 05/24/2012 - 9:00pm
This week, the radio debut of This American Life LIVE recently performed live on stage and streamed to theatres all over the country. This broadcast includes guests David Rakoff, Tig Notaro, Glynn Washington and many others. This American Life: Invisible Made Visible airs Thursday, May 24, 2012 at 9 p.m. on AM 1370/FM-HD 91.5-2.
You can also check out this short film that Mike Birbiglia created for This American Life LIVE.