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You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'PRDS Forms' tag.
A Notice of Credit-Based Denial to Rent (RNDR) is a new form that has been added to the PRDS library and may be accessed online by SILVAR and SAMCAR (San Mateo County Association of REALTORS®) REALTOR® members at http://www.prdsforms.com. The RNDR is a form needed in the event a potential tenant is turned down due to an unfavorable credit rating.
In addition to Form RNDR 5-09 Notice of Credit-Based Denial to Rent, the revised PRDS Supplemental Seller's Checklist (SSC) is now also available online for SILVAR and SAMCAR REALTOR® members.
PRDS Forms is an extensive line of paper and online forms for residential purchase and sales transactions. These forms are available online free of charge as a member benefit to all SILVAR and SAMCAR REALTOR® members. Created by REALTORS® for REALTORS®, these forms are highly acclaimed, and have been heavily used for over 25 years by listing agents from leading offices in Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Peninsula.
To access these and other PRDS forms, visit http://www.prdsforms.com.
The PRDS Forms Committee has a revised Supplemental Seller's Checklist ("SSC"). The revisions are intended to make the form more user-friendly and to assist sellers in making a full and complete disclosure of those material facts impacting the value or desirability of a property. These latest revisions make the form much easier for sellers to understand and use.
SILVAR will be offering a course soon on these revisions and disclosure issues that relate to both the SSC and the Transfer Disclosure Statement ("TDS"). In the meantime, SILVAR REALTOR® members can check out the August 2012 issue of the Silicon Valley REALTOR®, SILVAR's monthly newspaper, which includes a detailed explanation of the revisions provided by SILVAR board attorney and PRDS Forms Committee member Dave Hamerslough.
PRDS Forms is an extensive line of paper and online forms for residential purchase and sales transactions. These forms are available online free of charge as a member benefit to all SILVAR (Silicon Valley Association of REALTORS®) and SAMCAR (San Mateo County Association of REALTORS®) REALTOR® members. The online version of the forms is an extremely robust and intuitive platform that is far easier to use than other platforms. Created by REALTORS® for REALTORS®, these forms are highly acclaimed, and have been heavily used for over 25 years by listing agents from leading offices in Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Peninsula.
The Standard Forms Committee, which is composed of 25 members from SILVAR and SAMCAR, meets every other week and works very hard to make sure all forms are current and reflective of local practice. The revised PRDS Supplemental Seller's Checklist is a product of the committee's work and efforts to continually get educated about recent laws passed and requirements in surrounding areas, take the information and input it into the forms.
REALTOR® members may access the new PRDS SCC form online free of charge by visiting prdsforms.com.
On Thursday, SILVAR President Suzanne Yost updated members of the Cupertino/Sunnyvale District on the state of the Association. Yost announced the Association is financially secure (SILVAR hasn't raised dues since 2002) and stressed that SILVAR highly values its membership.
SILVAR offers many valuable member benefits, including PRDS Forms, a complete line of paper and online forms for residential purchase and sales transactions. PRDS Forms were developed specifically for Silicon Valley's REALTORS® by Silicon Valley REALTORS® who saw the need. These forms are highly acclaimed and available online free of charge as a SILVAR member benefit.
Yost assured members their dues dollars are very well spent, especially on government affairs. She highly credited SILVAR Government Affairs Director Adam Montgomery for his work in successfully warding off many point of sale and transfer tax proposals that could have hurt homeowners had they passed. A recent example is proposed regulations that would have included sewer lateral inspection and compliance mandates at the transfer of property for homeowners in southern San Mateo County. She added since it is a large association with a strong government affairs staff and many accomplishments, "SILVAR has a footprint" at the local, state and national REALTOR® level.
Yost noted SILVAR's District Council system is an especially good model that emerged upon the merger of the five boards in 1995. This model provides another level of opportunities for leadership. Having more people "with ears close to the ground" helps ensure that the Association meets the needs of agents working in all five districts.
Members are very lucky to be doing business in Silicon Valley, said Yost. Recent speaking engagements before the New York State Association of REALTORS® and the Michigan State Association of REALTORS® brought home this fact, she said. While REALTORS® everywhere have had to face tough markets during the past three years, Silicon Valley's housing market is improving due to its location and strong tech and other innovative industries.
SILVAR's president encourages members to take part in the Association. Join your District Council, get involved in activities at the District and Association level, volunteer for RSVP (REALTOR® Service Volunteer Program) and help others in your community, Yost urged.
"We always want to develop new leaders and give you the opportunity to become leaders," she stressed.
Yost is excited about a couple of new Association components this year. There is SILVAR's Young Professional Network (YPN), which welcomes all members – the young, as well as the seasoned professionals. SILVAR is also developing a Global Business Council, an initiative which will have a strong education component to help REALTORS® learn how to effectively work with international buyers. She added that SILVAR highly values its Affiliate members and a group is currently working on written policies and guidelines for Affiliates.
Last, but not least, Yost urged members to continue to stay positive. "The numbers are getting better," said Yost. "2012 is the year we'll come out of this. 2012 will be better."
SILVAR is happy to announce great news and another free benefit for members. Instanet has officially released tablet support. PRDS subscribers are now able to log in to create transactions, forms and edit forms just like you currently do using your desktop or laptop. You can access PRDS Forms on Instanet on popular Apple, Windows and Android-based tablet devices such as the iPad/iPad2, Xoom, Galaxy, Playbook and others at no additional charge.
Instanet's approach has been to make its site "tablet friendly," rather than require users to learn an entirely new interface and download an app for a certain device. The goal is to provide as many features as possible on as many devices as possible.
As a current PRDS/Instanet user, all you need to do is log into your existing Instanet account through your tablet browser and you will automatically be accessing the new version. There is no new software to install or apps to download.
Most system functions will already work on the tablet. As Instanet makes more features "tablet ready," it will give SILVAR updates for users. Instanet will also post a system message for users logging in on tablets, so they are aware of the updates.
PRDS and Instanet Solutions are pleased to bring this mobile technology to SILVAR members.


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Meet Mick
Being a teenager in the 70's is awesome unless you have Dick for a stepfather. When you're a teenager you are naturally rebellious, add Dick to the mix and it goes way beyond that. Mick wants out of the house, yesterday. But until he gets to leave he has to survive and take whatever crap Dick dishes out. That means putting up with annoying, farting brother as well.

subset: commoncrawl


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Air-conditioning is not just a luxury. It's a critical adaptation tool in a warming world, with the ability to save lives.
It also warms the world.
Which is why the structure of the recent landmark agreement reached in Kigali, Rwanda, on limiting hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) used in, among other things, air-conditioners and refrigerators is so important. The agreement accounts for the trade-offs that the world, especially today's poorest countries, must make in confronting climate change while improving people's lives.
Consider this: While 87 percent of households in the United States have air-conditioning, only 5 percent of those in India do. Any agreement to limit HFCs across the board would greatly reduce opportunities for people in poorer countries to have access to air-conditioners.
To deal with these disparities, the Kigali agreement created three tracks of countries. The richest countries, like the United States, are on the swiftest track, freezing the production and consumption of HFCs by 2018 and bringing HFC levels to 15 percent of 2012 levels by 2036.
Much of the rest of the world is taking a middle road, freezing HFC use by 2024 and reducing it to 20 percent of 2021 levels by 2045.
And a small group of the hottest countries, like India, have agreed to an even slower path of reductions, freezing HFC use by 2028 and reducing it to about 15 percent of 2025 levels by 2047. Rich countries, as well as a group of philanthropists, will also provide $80 million to middle-track countries as incentives to attempt tougher goals.
The system illustrates that, at its core, cutting greenhouse gas pollution requires countries to assume upfront costs today in exchange for smaller climate damage in the future.
But there is no universal answer for how to balance these costs. Countries' choices will reflect their current and future wealth; current and future climate; and other factors, including societal values. The track system allows for those differences and may well be a model for future climate deals.
Looking to the future of global climate policy, it is critical to keep an eye on India, which is the world's third-largest emitter of all greenhouse gases, after China and the United States, and is projected to have the highest rate of greenhouse gas emissions growth over the remainder of the century. India's decision to support the amendment, but at the slowest track, suggests that it will remain focused on improving and saving lives.
In our continuing research, my colleagues and I have found that hot days in India have a strikingly big impact on mortality. Specifically, the mortality effects of each additional day in which the average temperature exceeds 95 degrees Fahrenheit are 25 times greater in India than in the United States.
Currently, India has roughly five of these days per year. Without global climate policy, it is projected to have 75 such days annually by the end of the century. It is apparent that high temperatures are a risk to India today, and at the same time it is vulnerable to climate change, underscoring the challenge the country faces.
The effect of very hot days on mortality in the United States is so low in part because of the widespread use of air-conditioning. A recent study I did with colleagues showed that deaths as a result of these very hot days in the United States declined by more than 80 percent from 1960 to 2004 — and it was the adoption of air-conditioning that accounted for nearly the entire decline.
So we are in a difficult position: The very technology that can help to protect people from climate change also accelerates the rate of climate change.
India, like the rest of the world, cannot choose to improve lives now with no thought of the future. It must balance protecting people today from its already hot climate with ensuring that its people do not face an unmanageable climate in the future.
In time, India will be richer, and perhaps technology will provide more inexpensive solutions, such as cheaper air-conditioners that use alternatives to HFCs. But the agreement reveals that, for now, India is heavily focused on current residents who face risks that simply don't exist in wealthy countries like the United States.
This trade-off between the present and the future shapes every country's decisions about climate policy. It is unrealistic to think that what is right for some countries is right for all. But the choices being made now will determine the climate we give our children and grandchildren.


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Revealing The Best Held Secrets About On the web Purchasing
Shopping online is extremely practical. Getting what you want, when you want, tends to make this a growing market. There are a lot of items that online consumers ought to know. Preserve reading through for good tips on Web buying.
Wednesday is a great working day to uncover offers on the internet. Numerous bodily shops have revenue on weekends, and on the internet stores contend by obtaining income a little bit earlier. You can do just a bit of investigation and get excellent ideas in the center of the week.
Before coming into any individual data, make positive that the web site is safe. Internet addresses beginning with "https" are encrypted for your security. Or else, the web site is not appropriately secured consequently, you could be exposed to likely fraud thanks to the simple fact that your personal information is not safe.
Research price reduction and auction web sites prior to creating purchases from retail merchants. Most of the time, better on-line offers can be identified at Amazon and eBay than traditional shops. There is little negative connotation associated with acquiring from these stores. Even so, it is essential that you realize the return plan. Recognize that every store has their own return guidelines for that reason, you must be aware of them to avert unwanted surprises down the street.
If you are a repeated shopper at a specific online retailer, think about registering as a member. This will save you equally money and time when you're ready to checkout. For occasion, your account can be set up for getting e-mails on special discounts ahead of the general public is aware of about them. Possessing an account can also support you maintain track of your orders and returns significantly greater than not possessing one.
Now that this post is one thing you have read through, it shouldn't be difficult for you to store on the web and to be protected about it. You can shop at any time of day and gain from the convenience. Talk to your close friends about on the internet shopping to understand much more helpful guidelines from them and possibly share good deals and coupon codes.


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Improving Your Quality Score – I Know It's Complicated!
By Laura Kimball | Search Engine Marketing
This is a much discussed topic for any paid search advertiser and one of the biggest challenges we face in managing any PPC campaign as the landscape can change rapidly all it takes is a new competitor who out ranks you to lower your traffic and increase your cost. It is the single area that can cost you the most. Not only will it cost you more in a higher bid but it can also eliminate you from ever being displayed or put you in a lower position. I will break it down for you.
The quality score itself
Google for example uses a rating of 1 – 10 with the following breakdown.
- A QS of 1 – 5 are considered very poor.
- A QS of 5 – 7 are considered medium.
- Anything 7 and above and you are a rock star.
How is it determined?
Several factors come into play when tallying that score and yes, it's complicated! It's a big reason why having a well thought out campaign structure is so important. Basically your account history will have an overall impact so you must maintain campaigns with substantial CTR's for all the keywords in the account.
The following breaks down the typical categories:
Click Through Rates (CTR) – not only is your keyword click through rate important but your overall account history is also taken into consideration as well as your past URL's CTR's.
Ad Copy to Keyword Relevance – In other words relevance is rated on a full cycle on how relevant your keyword is to your ads as well as the relevancy to what the customer searched for.
Landing Page Relevance and Experience – This means how well you have designed your landing page for navigation and how relevant the content being displayed is to the keyword and ad.
Numerous other factors – There are several miscellaneous factors that also come into play mainly focused on how you compare against others in categories such as geographic, network, and targeted devices.
How do you improve it?
Now that you know what goes into the score let's look at improving it.
- Structure your campaign into smaller yet relevant and logical ad groups. Keeping the groups smaller say 10 – 20 keywords will ensure that the group only contains keywords related to each other. Be sure to include negative keywords lists to weed out unnecessary impressions, which will increase your campaign performance.
- Optimize Keyword Ad Copy by ensuring that the content is designed to include copy directly related to the keyword. If you follow the above suggestion in proper campaign ad groups this will be much easier to use dynamic keyword insertion which guarantees relevance or at least making it much more manageable to create ad copy that matches your keyword list. You should always be testing multiple ads to see which ones have a higher performance. Try swapping out several elements such as the call to action to see what really gets people clicking and converting.
- Landing Page Optimization will include not just the relevance but also user experience aspects such as load times, and navigation. Creating targeted landing pages takes time and effort. Put yourself in the users place and really ask the question does this page give me the answers I'm looking for if I typed in that keyword , if the answer is no you need to consider rewriting the page. Keep in mind the more targeted the landing page the higher your conversions will be. Don't be afraid to check out the competition so you have a better idea of what other content your customer may be seeing.
These tips will help you increase your Quality score and help you be more competitive. The time and effort required to get your scores up will pay off with higher ad placements, which are proven to increase click through rates and lower your minimum bid for each keyword.


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Wanderlust. Music Lover. Urban Explorer
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Simply put, deer love sugar beets (Beta vulgaris). The plants' green tops provide a crunchy salad for populations of deer to munch upon while the sweet roots, according to a Heartland Outdoors article, are like deer candy. If you want to attract deer to your yard for hunting or even for pure enjoyment, you'll do well to plant a crop of sugar beets. Sugar beets are annual plants that grow in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 2 through 10, making them a viable crop nearly everywhere in the United States.
Put on waterproof gloves, and mix one part bleach with nine parts water in a bucket. Soak a clean rag in the solution, and use the rag to wipe a pitchfork and shovel. Allow the tools to dry.
Turn over the soil with the pitchfork in the location where you want to plant sugar beets. Remove clumps of grass and other growth, or simply pull up all weeds while wearing garden gloves. Beets don't compete well with other vegetation. So it's important to clear the planting area to give them as much room as you can.
Turn over the soil again with your pitchfork, aerating the soil and preparing it for planting. Shovel some soil to the sides of the planting area. That soil will be used to cover sugar beet seeds.
Sprinkle sugar beet seeds over the planting area at a rate of about 8 to 10 pounds of seeds per 1 acre. One acre is 43,560 square feet. So if your plot is smaller, measure its area to find its square footage, and then plant an amount of seeds that is proportionate to that square footage. If you would use 10 pounds -- 160 ounces -- of seeds to cover 1 acre, which is 43,560 square feet, then you would use 1.6 ounces of seeds to cover a plot that is 435.6 square feet, 8/10 ounce of seeds for a plot that is 217.8 square feet and 4/10 ounce of seeds for a plot that is 108.9 square feet.
Shovel the soil you reserved along the sides of your planting area, and sprinkle it lightly over the seeds. Ideally, the seeds will have no more than 3/4 inch of soil over them. Beet seeds don't necessarily need to be covered, but a soil layer can prevent birds from eating them.
Water the newly planted area just enough to moisten the soil but not drench it. Continue to water the area lightly if it dries out during the few weeks after you planted.
Pull up all weeds that pop up in the planted area. Removing the weeds prevents the beets from having to compete for space and sunlight.
Things You Will Need
- Waterproof gloves
- Bleach
- Bucket
- Clean rag
- Pitchfork
- Shovel
- Garden gloves
- Tape measure
- Garden hose
- Heartland Outdoors: Up for a Challenge -- Grow Sugar Beets
- Quality Deer Management Association: Food Plot Species Profile -- Sugar Beets
- Alternative Field Crops Manual; University of Wisconsin Extension et al.
- The Old Farmer's Almanac: Beets
- Clemson Cooperative Extension: Changing the pH of Your Soil


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Heat: The Achilles Heel of Cancer June 2, 2014Posted by Dr. Adam McLeod, ND in Alternative medicine, Cancer, Dreamhealer, Healing, Health, Integrative Medicine, naturopathic, Naturopathic Medicine, Naturopathy, Prostate Cancer, Research.
Tags: adam mcleod, alternative cancer therapy, Cancer, Dreamhealer, hyperthermia, integrative medicine, naturopath, vancouver, vancouver naturopath, yaletown naturopathic clinic
Written By: Dr. Adam McLeod, ND
It is a well established fact that cancer cells are vulnerable to heat1,2. On a cellular level it makes intuitive sense that cancer cells would be sensitive to heat. Normal cells are spatially arranged so that heat can be distributed evenly and they will not divide if they are physically in contact with adjacent cells. Cancer cells within a tumour will continue to divide regardless of the proximity of adjacent cells; this is one of the hallmarks of cancer. As a result of this uncontrolled growth, the cells in the tumour become densely packed together and this makes it very difficult for them to effectively distribute heat.
Hyperthermia treatment is rapidly becoming a mainstream therapy for patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiation. During these treatments the patients' core body temperature is artificially raised to mimic a strong fever. This is not a pleasant experience for the patient but it is very effective at weakening the cancer cells. It makes these cancer cells more vulnerable to chemotherapy and radiation.
When any cell is exposed to heat there are immediate biochemical and genetic changes that occur so that the cell can adapt to the new warm environment. One of the most potent responses that allows these cells to survive the heat is the production of heat shock proteins (HSP)3. These HSPs protect components within the cell that are vulnerable to heat damage and during hyperthermia the production of these proteins within cancer cells is what allows them to survive. Currently there is a major push with pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs that inhibit these proteins.
There are several different natural compounds which are well documented heat shock protein inhibitors. These substances are safe when used in the right clinical context and you need to consult a Naturopathic Doctor to know if this is the best therapy for that specific type of cancer. One example is Quercetin, a bioflavonoid that is well documented as a potent inhibitor of heat shock proteins in cancer cells4,5,6,7,8,9.
Cancer cells are naturally very vulnerable to heat based on how densely the cells are packed together. When hyperthermia is combined with Quercetin the results are very dramatic10. In one study on prostate carcinoma they concluded that, "When combined in a treatment protocol with hyperthermia, Quercetin drastically inhibited tumour growth and potently amplified the effects of hyperthermia on two prostate tumour types, PC-3 and DU-145 in vivo. These experiments, thus, suggest the use of Quercetin as a hyperthermia sensitizer in the treatment of prostate carcinoma."
It is extremely important to point out two things. Firstly, Quercetin is safe with most but not all chemotherapy drugs and you need professional guidance from a Naturopathic Doctor who focuses in cancer to know if this is safe for you. Secondly, the quality of the Quercetin supplement makes a big difference. Generally speaking Quercetin is very poorly absorbed and there are only a few professional brands of sufficient quality that are effective at sensitizing the cancer cells. In some cases, intravenous Quercetin is more appropriate.
The mainstream medical community is changing its tune with regards to hyperthermia. In private hospitals in the United States it is very commonly used because it is so effective. In Canada, there are only a handful of clinics that currently offer this therapy. As the evidence for this therapy accumulates, in the near future hyperthermia combined with these natural approaches will undoubtedly become the standard of care for cancer patients.
Dr. Adam McLeod is a Naturopathic Doctor (ND), BSc. (Hon) Molecular biology, First Nations Healer, Motivational Speaker and International Best Selling Author. He currently practices at his clinic in Vancouver, British Columbia where he focuses on integrative cancer care. http://www.yaletownnaturopathic.com
1. Van der Zee J. Heating the patient: a promising approach? Ann Oncol, 2002. 13(8): p. 1173-84.
2. Van der Zee J and MC Erasmus. Hyperthermia in addition to radiotherapy. Clin Oncol (R Coll Radiol), 2007. 19(3 Suppl): S18.
3. De Maio A (January 1999). "Heat shock proteins: facts, thoughts, and dreams". Shock (Augusta, Ga.) 11 (1):1-12.
4. Hansen, R. K., et al. "Quercetin inhibits heat shock protein induction but not heat shock factor DNA-binding in human breast carcinoma cells." Biochemical and biophysical research communications 239.3 (1997): 851-856.
5. Gonzalez, Oscar, et al. "The heat shock protein inhibitor Quercetin attenuates hepatitis C virus production." Hepatology 50.6 (2009): 1756-1764.
6. Wei, Yu-quan, et al. "Induction of apoptosis by quercetin: involvement of heat shock protein." Cancer Research 54.18 (1994): 4952-4957.
7. Zanini, Cristina, et al. "Inhibition of heat shock proteins (HSP) expression by quercetin and differential doxorubicin sensitization in neuroblastoma and Ewing's sarcoma cell lines." Journal of neurochemistry 103.4 (2007): 1344-1354.
8. Hosokawa, Nobuko, et al. "Flavonoids inhibit the expression of heat shock proteins." Cell structure and function 15.6 (1990): 393-401.
9. Elia, Guiliano, and M. G. Santoro. "Regulation of heat shock protein synthesis by quercetin in human erythroleukaemia cells." Biochem. J 300 (1994): 201-209.
10. Asea, A., et al. "Effects of the flavonoid drug quercetin on the response of human prostate tumours to hyperthermia in vitro and in vivo." International journal of hyperthermia 17.4 (2001): 347-356.
- 1. Marta Bugarinovic - October 9, 2014
Do you recomend infra red sauna and how many minutes? Is Quercetin recommended for ovarian cancer patients
- 2. Ginger Tea for Cancer | Dreamhealer Naturopathic Doctor and Integrative Oncology - September 21, 2015
[…] Ginger has some well documented anti-cancer effects and it has been shown to reduce side effects from chemotherapy. When a patient is treated with chemotherapy the goal is to get as much of the drug as possible into the cancer cells. Every cancer cell is very metabolically abnormal and it is appropriate to describe cancer cells as being sick cells. Due to this altered metabolism the cancer cells often have more transporter molecules on their surface to remove toxins from within the cell. This presents a problem when these cells are treated with chemotherapy because these cancer cells can eliminate the drug before it has the opportunity to work. These transporter proteins are essential to the survival of multi-drug resistant cancer cells. […]


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With so much going on just now in the world regarding the economy and who owes what to who, what country owes what to other countries, its hard to know where we're going to end up. The tails of doom and gloom that abound in the main stream media seem to hint at some sort of apocalypse, even now I'm not sure anyone really knows what the outcome will be.
It seems to me to be entering the realms of farce when we have the people who caused it making the rules about how we deal with it given all the crap going down is because we let them make the rules while they caused it to happen, or something like that, I know what I mean. Some say we need 2 trillion to adequately deal with the debt in Europe alone, Greece (unfortunately seeming to reside at the bottom of the pile along with Portugal, Ireland and Spain) is due everyone money, Spain is due France money and France is due Germany money. It should be noted, when they talk about Greece being bailed out, that isn't true, all there doing is increasing its line of credit with French and German banks, in effect, French & German banks are being bailed out. The money isn't going to Greece to pay the wages of firemen etc, it's merely being added to the already bulging overdraft in German & French banks so they can loan even more money to Greece to pay those wages. Don't think it's just French & German banks either, I only use them for the sake of brevity, UK banks are in the shit with Greece and others as well.
Meanwhile the Greeks squeal because they're having to sell off public services to service a debt they have no possible way of ever clearing with a creditor who shouldn't have loaned the money in the first place.
Individually we're probably all decent sensible people, mostly anyway. As a mob though we are horrible grasping selfish oiks with only our own interests at heart. Why? Who knows, many blame Thatcher (many can no longer remember her) and many more blame New Labour (who many wish to forget.) Politics is boring this is true, but its important. They spend your money on your behalf, or at least they should, more recently they've been spending it on their own and the banks behalf. More importantly, not only have they spent your money now, they've spent it far into the future, your grandchildren will be paying for all of this.
I fully admit to being a bit of an idiot in these matters, I need things spelt out in the simplest terms and I think you do to so here goes. Think of this as the first economic pop-up book. If you do happen to know anything about global economics and see a mistake here, don't bother getting in touch, it's the Internet and nobody believes anything they read here anyway.
First of all the basics. In the simplest terms there are two types of debt, sovereign and personal debt. Sovereign debt is that which is owed by a countries government, personal debt is that which is owed by you. In the case of the former, a government might borrow money to pay for infrastructure projects (a hospital or bridge for example.) In the latter case (you) you might buy a frock and stick it on a store card or buy some Viagra online thinking it won't show up on your credit card bill but it does anyway.
From our point of view this seems fairly straight forward, except. From the Banks point of view it isn't. Its all the same money to them, it wasn't until after the credit crunch they decided to try and ring fence retail banking (our bit) and investment banking (the government and commercial bit.) Its already getting complicated isn't it but bear with me.
So retail banking. This is your current account, savings accounts, mortgages, pensions annuities and many more things beside that I know and don't know about. The investment banks (the commercial bit) took all that money and lent it out to countries and other banks. All that money you paid into your pension has been loaned to Greece, or I should say added to the overdraft limit Greece has with French and German Banks. That money has gone. The government might say they'll guarantee it but with what exactly, they don't have any money either.
I know what your thinking, if our money has gone, what are they borrowing now? Well, countries like Germany and China run a trade surplus, basically they make more stuff to sell more than they buy in. I suppose the easiest analogy would be you having money left over from your monthly income, you have a surplus. That extra money could be making more money, so they lend it at 3, 4 or 5% to other countries like Spain or Italy. (You will have heard of countries being 'downgraded by Moodies or Standard & Poor? They rate countries by their ability to pay, cunningly the less able a country is in paying its debt, the more expensive it is for that country to borrow money, turns the whole thing into a self-fueling perpetual motion nightmare.)
In all of that, the main difference between you, the government and a bank is this. When you get to the end of a month and you have no money; you have no money. When a bank gets to the end of a month and has no money, it can effectively open another bank account (or balance sheet,) shift the overdrawn total into it and pretend nothing ever happened (this is bank making up the rules as it goes.) When a government runs out of money at the end of the month it can borrow money from the bank after it's carried out that wee shuffle and crucially, if the bank decides actually, we've shuffled more than we should have, government steps in and tells the bank 'don't worry, we'll do some QE'ing which means you can extend the overdraft limit on those overdrawn accounts so you can keep lending'.
A lot of people talk about money being printed with bail outs and QE'ing (one and the same thing by the way) but no money is being printed, its being added on to the banks bottom line so the country (read; it's banks) overdraft limits don't look quite so bad, this (apparently) appeases big business & the 'markets' (read; the banks) and keeps things ticking over.
Now. I've tried to read all that back and if I'm being honest, it looks like I've been possessed by Robert Peston, well, Robert Peston on a really really bad day. Ok, not Robert Peston at all. The upshot of it all is we're stuffed, if I was you I'd start stock-piling tinned foods and weapons. As it happens socialism and capitalism doesn't work because as a group, we are all insanely greedy. Also, people who aspire to positions of great sway and power shouldn't be allowed to have it, they seem to have neither the wisdom or sense of civic responsibility to execute the role safely.
Anyone with a degree in politics should be forever barred from being a politician, they can be a pundit on the telly where they can do no harm. Anyone who aspires to be a banker, should be made to understand they personally will be held responsible for any loses they make, the country (us) will not socialise (shoulder) the debt their mistakes create.
Most importantly though, QE'ing stands for Quantitative Easing. Hold on though, there might be to many 'it's' in there, Quantititat- no... Quantatitat- don't think so... Quantatitative eas-...
Anyway, turns out that blog post about making toast and cooking pasta in the kettle might be handy after all since soon enough we won't be able to afford to turn our cookers on, if we even have cookers...


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Arauco North America and EPA TSCA Title VI, Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood ProductsOthers Environment
The recent ruling in favor of the Plaintiffs in the Sierra Club et al. v. Scott Pruitt case has left the TSCA certification date unknown. In this case, the Sierra Club was challenging EPA's authority to extend the compliance date to December 2018. The judgement in favor of the Sierra Club resulted in the vacating of the TSCA Title VI compliance extension date. The judge however temporarily stayed the order to allow the Parties (EPA and Sierra Club) to negotiate an alternative compliance date. This means that the compliance date will likely be moved to a date earlier than December 2018. The Parties have until March 9, 2018 at 4 pm to meet and confer on an alternative compliance date, and then submit either a joint proposed submission or simultaneous briefs. It is possible that the Department of Justice (DOJ) could decide to appeal this case, although this is not considered the likely outcome.
While we are confident that reasonableness prevails in this case, we are announcing that all Arauco North America mills will immediately be moving to full TSCA certification. This certification and associated labeling will take place between March 15 and March 30, 2018.
The move to TSCA certification is not an emission issue for our operations. Arauco North America has been operating at TSCA equivalent emission levels and has been running our QC data set as if we were under the TSCA environment to prepare for this eventuality. The time between now and the full certification dates provided above will allow us to finish building out our "test before ship" methodology and permit us to complete the installation of upgraded data collection and analysis tools that will further support our ongoing history of excellence on regulatory compliance. Our goal is to ensure our customers continue to have the highest levels of trust regarding emission levels from our products in our new TSCA environment.
Your respective sales representative will contact you specifically as mills receive certification and begin labelling between March 15 and March 31.
Jake Elston
Vice President of Operations
ARAUCO North America
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Mystery Shopping and Children November 24, 2009Posted by Ann Michaels & Associates in Uncategorized.
Tags: mystery shopper, mystery shoppers, mystery shopping, secret shopper, taxes mystery shopper
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Mystery shoppers come from all walks of life, including moms with young children. One question that is asked frequently is if children are allowed to accompany you on a shop.
In some cases, it is necessary, especially if you're shopping a children's clothing store where the fitting room needs to be evaluated, or an amusement park or similar venue.
In other cases, what is the rule? Are kids allowed or not?
Most times mystery shopping companies will specify in the shop posting whether or not children are allowed. If it doesn't specify, and you are interested in the shop, it is best to ask ahead.
If it is allowed, but not essential for the mystery shop (ie children's clothing shop), how do you decide whether or not to bring your children? There are a few rules that might help you decide:
1. What type of shop is it? If it is a retail store or fine dining restaurant that is not geared toward children, it is best to keep them home. You want to mirror the company's typical customer. Keep that in mind and use as a guide when deciding.
2. Your children's ages – very young children may be distracting while on a shop, which will cause you to not be as focused or attentive to the employee and your surroundings. As kids get older, it can be easier. However, you have to watch out – the last thing you want is for your child to blow your cover by asking, "Mommy, is this a shop?" You might want to keep the real intent of your shopping visit from your children, especially as they are getting older.
3. Your child's personality/temperament – you know your child best. If your child is irritable the day of your shop, or especially active, it might be too distracting for your child to accompany you. This is something to consider before taking them along – if they're having a rough day (or you are!), it might be best to keep them home.
4. Children and babies can change the course of the interaction with staff. If you interact with an employee that especially loves children, your conversation and interaction may be skewed. Also, you may be more memorable to the employee, especially if you have detailed conversation about your children. Remember that you want to mirror the typical customer and have a typical interaction to evaluate.
One benefit of mystery shopping is the flexibility it can allow, and also lets you take your children along. However, the goal is to provide companies with objective, detailed information. If you feel that you cannot truly do that with your children along, it is best to keep them home or schedule shops on days where someone can care for your child while you're out shopping.
Until next time…happy shopping!
Mystery Shopping Tax Seminar Coming Soon! November 20, 2009Posted by Ann Michaels & Associates in Uncategorized.
Tags: filing taxes mystery shopper, filing taxes mystery shopping, keeping track of mystery shops, mystery shopper, mystery shopper taxes, mystery shoppers, mystery shopping taxes, tax deductions for mystery shoppers, taxes mystery shopper
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For the last two years Ann Michaels & Associates has held tax seminars for mystery shoppers. As an Independent Contractor, filing taxes may be a bit different for you, especially if this was your first year as a mystery shopper.
Tax seminars will be held online starting in January and are conducted by a CPA. Each session lasts approximately 45 minutes to one hour – all you need is your computer and speakers or a phone to participate!
We typically offer 1-2 "live" sessions per month and have a recorded session available as well to make it as convenient as possible. If you can attend a"live" session you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end.
Last year I interviewed Carolyn Eckert, the CPA that conducts these seminars, to learn some basic information. If you'd like to read that post, you can click here.
Dates will be released soon, so check back in early December!
Until next time…happy shopping!


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Jason Williams is a transportation mergers and acquisitions specialist. If you have an interest in selling or acquiring a transportation related business in the United States, Jason is the expert in this space.
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Barrio Boyzz
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Barrio Boyzz
|New York City, United States
|Latin pop, Contemporary R&B, Pop, Contemporary Latin, New Jack Swing, Adult contemporary
|Years active
|EMI Records, EMI Latin, SBK Records
|Associated acts
|Past members
|Angel Ramirez
David Davilla
Hans Giraldo
Louie Marrero
Robert Vargas
The Barrio Boyzz were a Puerto Rican boy band. The group was founded in New York City by Joe Jacket (of New Kids on The Block).[1] They were signed to SBK Records in 1991. They also starred in the 1994 movie I Like It Like That. Their duet with American singer Selena called "Donde Quiera Que Estés" peaked at number-one on the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks in 1994.[2][3] The band disbanded in 2001[source?].
References[change | change source]
- ↑ "Barrio Boyzz biography". Artist direct. Retrieved 3 June 2011.
- ↑ Lannert, John (1995). "Selena a retrospective". Billboard (Prometheus Global Media) 107 (23): 112. https://books.google.com/books?id=0QsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA62&dq=Dondequiera+Que+Estes+Selena&hl=en&ei=RD3oTYyDN4fb0QG67pmtAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Dondequiera%20Que%20Estes%20Selena&f=false. Retrieved 2 June 2011. ,
- ↑ "Latin Music Conference Awards". Billboard (Prometheus Global Media). 1994. https://books.google.com/books?id=TAgEAAAAMBAJ&pg=RA1-PA32&dq=Dondequiera+Que+Estes+Selena&hl=en&ei=RD3oTYyDN4fb0QG67pmtAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Dondequiera%20Que%20Estes%20Selena&f=false.
- 1991 establishments in the United States
- 1990s American music groups
- 1990s establishments in New York
- 2000s American music groups
- 2001 disestablishments in the United States
- American boy bands
- American pop music groups
- American R&B bands
- Latin music
- Musical groups disestablished in 2001
- Musical groups established in 1991
- Musical groups from New York City


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Monday, August 1, 2016
Broadway for Orlando at Dr. Phillips.
I heard that tickets for this Broadway benefit concert sold out in less than 15 minutes' It was possible to check in on). be for the tickets were officially be sold and these people, in a virtual line had the first picks. Broadway performers came to the Dr. Phillips Center for Performing Arts to raise money for the Pulse victim families and survivors. It was a Star studded cabaret. The local dance company Varietease gave a mesmerizing dance performance full of playful whimsy. My favorite song was "I will Survive" performed as if sung be Eartha Kitt complete with purrs. Most performances featured uplifting themes of hope.
The idea for the benefit [a when a perform heard the horrible new from Orlando. Rather than eat comfort food, he decided to go for a bike ride to clear his head. He played "What the World Needs Now" on a continuous loop as he biked through the city. He knew by the end of the ride, that he needed to record Broadway performers singing 1 song for Orlando. He mentioned the idea to a friend and it snowballed from there be coming a reality. The grand finale had the entire cast singing "What the World needs now is Love Sweet Love". A viral You Tube video had been recorded as an homage to Orlando's loss, so this was a much awaited performance. Actors raised their hands a bore their heads creating a heart shape with their fingertips.
Prints are available for each sketch for $250 and many originals can be purchased for $400. White museum grade shadow box frames are $100 more. You can e-mail Thor at email@example.com
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Almost exactly thirteen months after complaining that it'd been almost exactly thirteen months since the last whisky post, here's another whisky post. Now I wouldn't want you to think that I'd had no whisky at all since that last post, because that wouldn't be true, but I have been ticking over on either things I've had before that just happen to be on special offer (Highland Park, Chivas) or a couple of things that are just no-age-statement versions of things I've already tried (Glenlivet Founders Reserve, Ardmore Legacy).
You have to trust, with these things, that the manufacturers and bottlers are adhering to the rules regarding whisky, which are pretty simple: you can't call it a single malt if it isn't one. That means that the whisky here must have all originated at a single Scottish distillery. and it must be at least three years old.
I don't suppose I'll be shocking you too much when I say that there is no such place as Glen Marnoch, still less a distillery there. So one might speculate: which Islay distillery did the whisky come from? My guess from sampling the highly quaffable contents would be that it's either a Bowmore or a Caol Ila, but the whole point of these things is that the cheapo bottlers' purchase of the source casks is contingent on their keeping schtum about where they got them from. Anyway, it's very good and an absolute steal at less then twenty quid. I'm very much hoping to get some more whisky, some of it with the names of real distilleries on the labels, for Christmas, but this'll keep me going until then.
Monday, December 05, 2016
just another marnoch monday
expectorated into a chrome spittoon by electrichalibut at 11:39 PM
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Potential October 1 Government Shutdown: Federal Contractors' Contingency Planning
A federal government shutdown looms as current funding expires on September 30 and government leaders disagree on funding legislation. The present shutdown threat is fueled by two primary issues set against the backdrop of presidential election posturing by both political parties. President Barack Obama has announced that he will not follow the sequestration cuts the government forced upon itself in 2013 (the last time a partial government shutdown occurred), when it failed to agree on funding. Conservative Republican leaders have vowed to link defunding of Planned Parenthood to passing spending legislation. While leaders of the Republican-controlled Congress have vowed to avoid an unpopular government shutdown, this same vow was made in 2013.
The 2013 partial government shutdown lasted two weeks and caused havoc for many government contractors and uncertainty with respect to a host of employment and labor laws implicated when funding suddenly stopped and employees could not report to work. While some contractors were able to secure retroactive funding to cover or defray labor costs associated with the 2013 shutdown, such funding varies from agency to agency, and from contract to contract — which can make planning difficult.
As of this writing, a shutdown may occur on October 1 or a temporary funding measure may be passed to postpone a possible shutdown to December or early 2016.
Contractors can start their contingency planning by revisiting our articles identifying and providing practical advice on the many employment and labor law concerns linked with a government shutdown:


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When I got my critiques back for Darkfall I knew there were going to be a lot of comments. I knew when I wrote this draft that it was a bit "all over the place" because it was wrapping up the trilogy and I wasn't sure how some things were going to pan out. I needed to write it and see what happened, and then needed to hear what folks said about it before I went back and revised.
I knew I was setting myself up for some serious realigning. And I was right.
The biggest change I had to make was to align the goal structure so all my plot arrows pointed in the same direction. Nya was often being pulled in several directions, and not in a good way. It was like she didn't know what to care about from chapter to chapter, so her goals bounced like ping pong balls. This happened because her goals were plot goals, not personal goals.
I suspect a lot of folks have drafts that look similar to mine right now. There's a good story there, it just needs to be shaped and polished to bring that story out and put the protagonist back in the narrative driver's seat.
This was my revision plan:
1. Determine what the core conflict was on a premise and personal level.
This seems like an easy thing since I knew what it was as I wrote the draft, but novels have a funny way of going off on tangents as we write them. For Darkfall, it was worse than normal because of the trilogy arc versus the book arc and then all the character arcs. I found that I'd spent too much time on the premise arc (the war mentioned in "The Healing Wars") and not enough on Nya's personal character arc. The story isn't about Nya "winning the war" it's about her doing something else that happens to have an affect on that war.
However, it was important for me to write that premise arc, because I had a lot of things to figure out and that helped me do it. I found where Nya needed to go within that premise arc. I cut 10K words (four entire chapters) without batting an eye because I didn't need them anymore. They did their job to get me mentally where I needed to be, but they hurt the story to leave them in.
So look at your story and identify that main story problem your protagonist has to solve to win on a personal level, and how that fits into the bigger idea of the plot.
2. Realign scenes so that personal goal is what's driving the protagonist to act.
Nya spent a lot of time acting out plot in the first draft so the emotional connection wasn't very developed. Once I knew what she personally had at stake and how that was going to affect her choices, I could look at the same scenes and adjust them so her personal goal was driving her, not the plot.
Did this require a lot of rewriting? You betcha. Some scenes had to be completely rewritten with this stronger personal goal in mind. Other scenes only needed a tweak here and there to fix. But the thing is, the story never changed. I can't stress this enough. THE STORY NEVER CHANGED. This is important, because we can revise and change the story without realizing it. Then suddenly, we reach the middle and the first and last halves of the novel don't match up, we have a totally different ending and we wonder what the heck happened.
When you're realigning, look at the scene and what it's trying to do. Look beyond plot to the story underneath. Maybe that situation is what's happening overall and your protagonist has a small part of it. Maybe they're the ones creating this situation, or trying to stop it. Sometimes, (okay, I bet most times) it's asking yourself why your protagonist is doing what they're doing in that scene. Their actions might be fine but the reasons behind it differ now. This often affects what the stakes are. Or even adds the stakes that were missing when the protagonist was acting based on a premise goal.
You might even need to widen your looking. I had mini-arcs of several chapters that encompassed a situation important to the story. I studied those chapters, found what was important story wise and then revised so Nya's personal goal got her from point A (decision to go after that goal) to point B (resolution of her attempt to get that goal).
Let's check in with Bob and the zombies for an example...
Plot wise, Bob and his gals have to blow up a bridge to keep the zombie horde from crossing into a newly discovered town, Lifeline, a fortified enclave that's a safe haven in the mountains. Lifeline is critical to the larger story because it'll be the base for which the final assault on the undead will occur. But at that point in the story, readers have no idea about this, so they really don't care about Lifeline or the people in it. They care about Bob, Sally, and Jane.
You might first write the scene from an author's POV (no matter whose POV is used in the text) and describe what's important to the overall plot. Bob acts out the plot, the bridge is blown up and Lifeline is saved. But Bob takes risks he might not normally do for no good reason. The author has a reason (Lifeline is important to plot) but Bob doesn't. So the stakes are flat, and there's no emotional depth.
So in revisions, Bob needs a personal goal with personal stakes to risk his life and blow up that bridge. Maybe Jane is injured and only the doctors in Lifeline can save her. Maybe Bob and the gals are out of supplies and if they don't stop the horde here, they're all dead. Maybe Bob thinks he can finally ditch Sally at Lifeline and be with Jane.
The new scene has Bob doing all the critical plot stuff he had to do anyway, but now his reasons for acting fit his ultimate goal of being with Jane and living zombie-free every after.
3. Find spots where that personal goal could affect the premise goal to achieve the overall story goal.
In stories where the personal goal is the overall goal this is easy (and honestly, you probably don't have this realignment problem to begin with) But in stories where there's a bigger problem the protagonist has to solve, getting the personal and the premise to line up can be tricky. It's easy to fall back into acting out plot, and it's easy to waylay yourself with personal problems that don't lead you to the right premise resolution.
Think about your protagonist's personal problems and then ask how you can complicate that problem in a way that forces them to make a choice that affects the premise problem.
To use an example from The Shifter, Nya's opening scene problem was that she was hungry, so she decides to steal eggs. She gets caught, which in turn makes her use her shifting ability and she gets seen doing it. That draws her into the premise problem. She isn't trying to solve the premise problem at first, she's trying to solve a personal problem. But now she has another problem that affects her on a personal level, and she has to solve that, which will draw her in even more. Before she knows it, her personal problem and the premise problem become one in the same.
Odds are your protagonist has to be something to solve the premise problem. They have to step up, take over, find the will, whatever, to win. There's a character growth of some type they undergo throughout the course of the novel. Each of these personal goals makes them take another step to becoming that "whatever" they need to be at the end. Their choices lead them (or drag them kicking and screaming) toward that end.
Realigning can take some time to get things to flow well, but it's worth it. You end up with a deeper story and a stronger sense of character and stakes. Your readers care about what's happening, because the protagonist cares. And readers don't just want to see a problem solved they want to see the protagonist win.
Looking for tips on revising your novel? Check out my book Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft, a series of self-guided workshops that help you revise your manuscript into a finished novel. Still working on your idea? Then try my just-released Planning Your Novel Workbook.
Janice is also the founder of Fiction University, a site dedicated to helping writers improve their craft. Her popular Foundations of Fiction series includes Planning Your Novel: Ideas and Structure, a self-guided workshop for planning or revising a novel, the companion Planning Your Novel Workbook, Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft, and the upcoming Understanding Show Don't Tell (And Really Getting It).
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes | Indie Bound


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According to Reference for Business, there are three main levels of management: top-level, middle-level, and first-level. Managers are needed to carry out supervisory tasks, motivate personnel and keep employees on a strategic organizational path envisioned by executives.
Supervise Employees
Middle managers plan meetings, set agendas for company personnel, delegate responsibilities to first-level managers and employees, and much more. Problem-solving skills and decision-making abilities are required by a middle manager as she oversees departmental projects. Middle managers are available to personnel for questions, comments and suggestions. The position requires the manager to hire competent employees by utilizing proper screening and interview techniques. The middle manager seeks out qualified staff who will carry out the company's plan.
An organization requires middle management to motivate first-level managers and other employees. Incentives, meetings, recognition and job advancement are a few methods often used by middle management to motivate employees, and ensure loyalty and company morale. The middle manager must have superior communication and listening skills to reap optimum productivity results from employees.
Implement Organizational Strategy
Middle managers set goals for departments and divisions in order to carry out the vision of the company or organization. The role of a middle manager requires an in-depth knowledge of the company's goals and plans, and the know-how to communicate these goals and plans to the employees. Middle managers meet with high-level executives to communicate departmental successes and failures as well as suggest alternative strategies to achieve goals.


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If you're a frequent reader of this blog you'll know that Welly and I became homeowners to our little gem the house on the lake
Coming home to our own house was incredible and actually quite romantic. There is a certain excitement that comes with knowing something is yours to do with what you want and our project doesn't let us down! We've already started decorating our pad however, being in another country can inspire new ideas and intrigue design.
I love the colours of the bench against the brick, I love the wood and the rustic love affair:
However, on the other side the flowers bring life, wonderful smells and colours into a room or a space:
However, we're just about to take the wall paper down – it's actually exciting as I will no longer wake up to oversized flowers on my beloved fireplace:
This bank holiday I can't wait to get properly started and really make our gem come to life!


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How you can subscribe ?
You can subscribe through following modes –
RTGS/NEFT- You can make payments through RTGS/NEFT, details are mentioned below-
Demand Draft- Demand Draft is also acceptable and should be in favor of "SMART NIVESH", payable at "Raipur" and to be sent to registered address.
Cheque- A crossed Cheque payable to Smart Nivesh could also be sent to the registered address.
Cash Deposit- Payment can also be done by way of direct cash deposit into the Bank Account. Note- Please inform immediately after cash deposit.


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The Shum Show: Callin' All Pollen
Program Summary
A winter storm and a storm of sneezes! We know bouts of heavy precipitation will be increasing with climate change, but did you know pollen production will too? Get your weekly summary with Climate Central's Multimedia Journalism Fellow, Greta Shum, on the Shum Show.


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Tuesday, 22 May 2012
Professor Fizziwillig's exploration box
I hope you are well, yesterday was spent on class samples and other commitments but at about 10 pm I'd had enough and moved on to finishing this: Professor Fizziwillig's box....
(Yes you've seen it in bits and pieces but here is is finished at last; well I'll add some more story to the book but essentially it is complete!)
I'm going to enter this into Simon says Stamp and show, a summer holiday; I'm sure the good professor was enjoying a bit of summer on his voyage!
17 comments:
- CraftygasheadZo said...
How wonderful! Love all the details and the history behind it. Fab. Zo x
- 22 May 2012 at 10:01
- Candy C said...
Neil, your box is AMAZING! I so love the outside of it with all of it's intricate design and textures! The inside...oh my goodness...it is fantastic! I love all of the elements you've discussed in your blog piece. Great pictures and an intriguing story! Thanks so much for sharing your art with us at Simon Says Stamp and Show. <3 Candy
- 22 May 2012 at 10:37
- Rita said...
What an heirloom this is Neil. Absolutely Fantastic. Hugs Rita x
- 22 May 2012 at 10:43
- Bella said...
If I thought the box was fantastic, the story you tell is even better...LOVE it!
- 22 May 2012 at 12:08
- ESS said...
Neil, Love the box and the entire mystery behind it. Makes me want to know more about the strange worlds he visited.
- 22 May 2012 at 12:34
- inkypinkycraft said...
This is amazing, so much detail here and all stunning! Hugs trace. X
- 22 May 2012 at 12:55
- christ said...
i take time to tell you how much I adore your box. There are so many details. It's simply great. And good thinking!!!
Hugs from france
- 22 May 2012 at 13:56
- CraftyLoops said...
Wow Neil this turned out really incredible. I made my very first Steampunk inspired box and used the cogs and gears on the front with a chunky chain around the gears and I have to say.....it was the most frustrating and awkward part to do on the whole box. It was infuriating, lol. But it did turn out ok. I wasn't 100% happy with it as my first attempt but them what crafter ever is! lol. This really is an incredible box, you've put a lot of hard work into it and all the details are amazing. Lee x
- 22 May 2012 at 16:13
- mark gould said...
I love the story to go with everything. Definitely a lot of thought gone into this project in both imagination and in the crafting.
- 22 May 2012 at 17:42
- Elly said...
Brilliant!! I searched your whole blog for this finished box. Now i know, why i couldn't find it (:o) Oh my..all the beautiful details and i love the pen (:o)
- 22 May 2012 at 18:08
- Zuzu's Blog said...
Very cool indeed Neil. and those vials are too die for... very nicely done.. I love items of curiosity and you have made this piece very intriguing indeed.
- 22 May 2012 at 22:37
- Dragon said...
Well I love it, and that's that
Love and light
- 23 May 2012 at 02:13
- Jennifer Rogers said...
Hello, Neil: I am a new commenter (plenty of visits, though)-- love the box: am pretty sure your exotic plumage belongs to a bird that visits my garden quite a bit: a Guinea fowl. Greetings from Lonehill, Johannesburg, S.A.
- 23 May 2012 at 07:18
- Marjie Kemper said...
Stunning! It's like a treasure box with all those gorgeous textured map pages lining the inside.
- 23 May 2012 at 17:56
- email: firstname.lastname@example.com said...
This is truly interesting! I love how much can be discovered with each piece...it's like finding attic treasures - mysterious and they stir the imagination! : )
Thanks for sharing your creativity at the Simon Says Stamp & Show Challenge!!!
For More Opportunities:
*Follow Simon Says Stamp on Twitter
*Like Simon Says Stamp on Facebook
*Subscribe to Simon Says Stamp on YouTube
*Follow Simon Says Stamp on Pinterest
*Sign up for our Newsletter
- 23 May 2012 at 20:44
- Lynne Forsythe said...
AHHHHHHHHHH!!! Neil...this dodad box it OUTTA THIS WORLD....your attention to detail is just AMAZING!! LOVE LOVE LOVE this!!
Thanks BUNCHES for playing along with this weeks challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Show!!
- 28 May 2012 at 14:48
- Shoshi said...
Neil, this is just brilliant. I went on an embroidery course years ago where we learnt how to make 3-D embroidered boxes, and the teacher said "every box should contain a surprise." Yours certainly does this! It's just the sort of thing an eccentric Victorian professor would collect. Do please be careful with the poisoned darts lol lol!!! What an imaginative piece, altogether!
- 31 May 2012 at 01:23


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The story is epic and centuries old. Noah is forewarned that a Great Flood is coming and will wipe out mankind. He is then instructed to build an ark and usher aboard breeding pairs of animals and birds so that life can begin anew after the deluge. The feat required to bring Director Darren Aronofsky's vision of this biblical tale to the big screen required cutting-edge digital technology, particularly when it came to the flood and the animals and birds.
ILM handled the digital animals and water, while Look Effects created the effects for the Garden of Eden sequence, including a matte painting of the Tree of Knowledge, the apple, the serpent, and all the birds. Thousands and thousands in a multitude of species. Large birds, small birds. Birds of prey, birds of peace. Individual birds, flocks of birds. And, feathers. Lots of feathers.
In fact, every bird in Noah is digital except for two doves and a raven. To handle the work, Look devised two major systems from the ground up: one for feathering and another for flocking.
The biggest challenge was designing the birds so they would generate enough volume to make it appear as if Noah had collected two of every bird on Earth. The artists started with a few hero birds and built 14 different body types. From each of those, they created a number of unique grooms.
LOOK EFFECTS CREATED custom feathering and flocking systems for the birds in Noah.
"By varying overall color and size, we were able to give the impression of a tremendous amount of diversity from a relatively small number of base birds," says Dan Schrecker, VFX supervisor.
For shots with more distant birds, the team used its flocking system, which enabled the artists to populate scenes with as many as two million birds. As the camera gets closer, they hand-animated hero birds. All told, the animators worked on over 3,000 individual, hand-animated birds, starting with key ranges of motion that were fed into the flocking system. These then served as a starting point for the hand-animated hero birds.
A key aspect of the bird work was Look's use of Deep compositing. Used for the first time on a large scale for the live-action VFX film Rise of the Planet of the Apes by Weta, Deep allows compositors to work in 3D space in a way that provides added flexibility and functionality that would not be available in a normal 2D compositing approach. "Simply put, without our use of Deep compositing, we would not have been able to do this work," says Dave Zeevalk, 3D supervisor. "It was the basis of how we put together our most complex shots and was one of the first decisions we made. Going forward, it made the bulk of our task easier, especially later in the process when changes that might have otherwise been major were handled more easily due to this approach."
A good example of how this was invaluable can be seen in Look's biggest shot in the film, in which Noah and his family walk down the aisles of bird roosts and put the flock to sleep with their magic smoke. Because of the overlapping nature of the bird roosts and the more than 1,800 hand-animated hero birds, the artists needed to find a way to put it all together, while maintaining flexibility throughout the process.
"As the camera dollies across the set and the birds fall asleep in their roosts, we were faced with the challenge of how to properly seat our digital birds into the practical set. Because they were essentially crisscrossing each other during the course of the shot such that a single bird would appear in front of and behind other birds and the practical set, standard holdouts were impossible," says Zeevalk. "We relied on Deep techniques to combine the CG elements with the roto mattes that were required for the practical roosts. This allowed us to do things like pull individual birds out of the comp fairly late in the process, stay flexible with color and depth of field without introducing edge issues, and deal with the semi-transparent curtains that were present in the practical set."
In addition, the artists rendered the elements with full Deep RGB and breakout passes. Normally, the approach is to render Deep opacity and shadow maps because there is less data to manage, and in most scenarios, this is enough, Zeevalk explains. But because of the volume of birds and the amount of flexibility needed, the group took a more extensive approach. "This led to huge amounts of data that we had to manage, but in the end enabled us to achieve what we set out to do," he adds.
Birds of a Feather
Because of the large variety and volume needed, as well as the required efficiency, the Look team opted to build its own feathering system, which comprised a feather creation tool, a grooming tool, and a deployer.
"Early on, we realized that we couldn't use a traditional hair or fur system because of the randomness with which points were distributed across a surface," explains Zeevalk. "Due to the fact that the layout of feathers across a bird is not completely random, as hair is, we looked for other ways to apply our feathers."
The artists ultimately adopted a blue-noise pattern as a basis for their distribution, whereby every point on a surface has a scale that represents the scale of that feather, and its distance to its surrounding neighbor feathers is based off that scale. They then wrote a blue-noise solver that would apply those points on a surface and then resolve spacing issues. Multiple techniques were used to instance those feathers.
The feathers themselves were a series of cards that were created using a photoreal feather-creation tool built in-house. This separate application allowed them to define shape, length, and other attributes, starting with a flat, oval-shaped, low-resolution feather. They were able to push points around until they were happy with the general shape of the envelope, at which point the tool would generate the rachis along the spine of the envelope and spawn hundreds of curves to represent the barbs. The artist had fine-grain control over splitting, curl, noise, and all the other various attributes that define the look of a realistic feather. The end result was then made into a texture to speed up rendering, as there were too many birds to directly render the curves of every feather.
THE USE OF DEEP COMPOSITING enabled Look Effects to work in 3D space and was crucial to completing the work.
For grooming, the artists interactively painted maps on the birds, which enabled them to control a wide range of feather attributes, including scale, base color, tip color, lift (how much a feather lifts off the body), and which feather types to use. The groomers did not have to generate every single feather, and instead relied on the grooming tool to instance and blend them together into the desired effect.
Another tool allowed the artists to draw in areas of finer detail. "For instance, in the areas surrounding a bird's eye, we need a higher density of feathers, and this tool allowed us to achieve that without increasing the resolution of the underlying geometry," says Zeevalk. "A separate tool allowed us to control basic feather direction with a few pen strokes, instead of having to hand-comb each feather."
A final piece of the puzzle was the deployer, a multi-faceted tool for distributing and applying grooms and feathers within each shot. On a macro flock level, the deployer decided which birds received which grooms.
"With our volume of birds, we wanted a way to procedurally assign grooms to individual birds, so our system looked at what types of birds existed in a given shot and programmatically dispersed grooms, taking note of which birds were in proximity so we didn't end up with two similar birds butting up against one another," explains Zeevalk.
Digging deeper down to the feather level, the deployer took each groom, which was initially designed in a rest position, and applied it to the animated birds, recalculating feather positions frame by frame to maintain relative angles from one feather to the next. "The idea here was that because of the high volume of birds, we couldn't solve for collisions between individual feathers. Looking at averages, the deployer detected outliers and brought those feathers in line with the others surrounding it," says Zeevalk. "This was essentially a method of avoiding most collisions, when a true collision detection system was out of reach for the scale on which we were working."
The deployer also handled the caching of feather geometry, which was then instanced at render time, communicating with Side Effects' Houdini to define exactly what needed rendering -that is, avoiding feathers that weren't visible to camera - and applying static and dynamic noise to feathers for ruffling and air resistance as the birds flew.
Part of the Flock
The second major system Look built was a flocking system. The group started with a series of loopable animation cycles and progressed to different ranges of motion, building a library to draw from.
Because there were a number of shots that required flocking, the group created multiple ways to generate a flock. For shots outside the ark, they were able to work more loosely, generally using curves to drive direction. Inside the ark, they followed a 3D volumetric approach using the geometry of the interior to confine the movement of the flocking birds. The system would then choose which animation cycle to use and when to transition - based on a bird's motion in the world. To prevent collisions, each bird had a field of view of close to 120 degrees. Anything outside of that range was ignored, and as the birds moved around and past one another, their flight paths were constantly updated and re-calculated based on what they "saw" in front of them.
"This flocking AI was the backbone of our system," says Zeevalk.
Birds were then instanced to create the full count needed for each shot. In addition, every bird would spawn a mate, and these would stay in close proximity in order to fly two-by-two as required by the story.
Another key piece of the system gave the appearance of feathers, without the added data of actually feathering all the flocking birds. The artists generated shaders based on each of the grooms and applied it to the flocking birds. "This made them appear consistent with our hero birds but saved us a lot of processing that we didn't have to do because of their distance from camera," Zeevalk explains.
The role a dove plays in the biblical tale is significant, as was Look Effects' role in the film's visual effects.


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"Having two American coaches Pittsburgh Penguins jersey lead their team in the Stanley Cup Final highlights the continued growth and evolution of the sport in our country," USA Hockey executive director Dave Ogrean said. "We have more coaches in our country than ever before, and two of our very best are in the final."
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2019 Society AGM
"The Railway Correspondence and Travel Society"
A Charitable Incorporated Organisation registered with the Charity Commission Registered Number 1169995
The Trustees and Management Committee of the Society do hereby give notice that the Annual General Meeting will be held on Saturday 27th April 2019 at the Welcome Centre, Parkside, Coventry, CV1 2HG, commencing at 13.00.
At the meeting the following four positions on the Management Committee are due for re-election or election as appropriate:
The above are 3 year appointments – plus
Nominations for these posts must be proposed and seconded and have the consent of the nominees. Any items for the Agenda and/or proposals for changes to the Society Rules and Constitution must be notified to Society Secretary, Bob Green, by 27th January 2019.
Note that any proposed changes to the Rules or Constitution will be notified in the March edition of "The Railway Observer". The Agenda for the meeting comprising of any resolutions to be voted upon, plus any appointment, or re-appointment, of the Charity Trustees shall form part of the AGM Supplement issued alongside "The Railway Observer" in April. In accordance with Clause 11 of the Society's Constitution this serves as the formal notice of the AGM.The full programme for the day is here (.pdf file)
Bob Green
Society Secretary
Last updated: 30th March 2019


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Jerry Joseph & the Jackmormons
September 13 @ 9:00 pm$10.00
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Jerry Joseph & the Jackmormons
Joseph is a prolific and accomplished songwriter, writing hits for Widespread Panic and releasing 30 albums in his 30+ year career; as a solo artist, with the Jackmormons, supergroup Stockholm Syndrome, his burning two-piece The Denmark Veseys, or originally, with his beloved 80s cult band, Little Women.
Joseph is also a relentless live performer, playing over 150 shows a year across the globe. He has toured with Vic Chesnutt, Chris Whitley and Walter Salas-Humara, among others.
November 2, 2017 – Jerry Joseph announces release of Weird Blood on Cavity Search Records scheduled for November 17, 2017. Weird Blood is his third album released in as many years with his band the Jackmormons, Steve Drizos on drums and Steven James Wright on bass, and produced by Dave Schools (Widespread Panic, J Mascis and the Fog, Hard Working Americans, Stockholm Syndrome). Glide Magazine premieres the album opener, "Sweet Baba Jay", "reminiscent of Elvis Costello but with more of a defiant punk edge… the song taps into a sort of UK pub rock glory, but with Josephâs own unique and vivid storytelling at the helm." Read and listen here.
In 2015, Joseph and the Jackmormons went into TRI Studios with Dave Schools and walked out with 20 songs. Those songs became the albums Istanbul/Fog Of War (10/2015) and By The Time Your Rocket Gets to Mars (4/2016). The plan was to release a third album, an EP, with the remaining three finished songs supplemented by couple of new songs that Joseph would write. The plan went sideways.
"I rented a tiny house about a mile from my home so I could write but be home for dinner and kid bedtime. I ended up writing a fistful of songs. It was cold early January but a perfect place to write. Weird stuff was happening in general, one of those weeks where I had my copy of Black Star and David Bowie died,â Joseph recalls. âI tend to do the mad scribble thing when I write.â
When after a week of writing, Joseph arrived at Jackpot Studios, Schools was adamant they record all the new songs. They also recorded a couple written in Scotland, âSweet Baba Jayâ and âLate Heavy Bombardmentâ and a few that theyâve been performing, but had never recorded. âThe past few years weâve been trying to figure out album slots for some of the hundred originals that are part of our live repertoire but have never been recorded, like âWild Wild Westâ which has been around since the late 90s,â remarks Joseph. The âtiny houseâ songs became the core of Weird Blood.
âWhen I write in a flurry like that, it's hard to see a thread. It feels more like a purge than a considered attempt at art but in the end I seem to get to stuff that I can't get to when I'm thinking too hard.
So here is the ârecorded during a massive snow storm at Jackpot Studiosâ record. âThere was a lot of blood, it was pretty weird,â I don't even know where that came from, scribbled on something, and turned into a uncomfortable song.â
The prolific writer has released more than 30 records and has a catalog of over 250 original songs and counting. Joseph has always stayed busy on the road, not only touring the US but also far-flung, under-explored locales. In the past couple years he has traveled to war-torn regions to bring supplies and teach and share music. In 2015 he brought instruments and volunteered as a music instructor at an underground co-ed rock school in Kabul, Afghanistan. This Spring, he brought guitars and supplies and taught and performed for the residents of a permanent refugee camp in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
"For me, it was pretty profound. There were these teenage girls learning to play, Syrian Kurds. I wonder sometimes about the power or magic of music, but we certainly attach a lot to it. I think that there are these moments that Iâve found where music does make a difference. Showing these kids how to play a few guitar chords or teaching them 'Three Little Birds' by Bob Marley and teaching them about empowerment. It doesn't matter if itâs clay or dance shoes, no one can take it away from you. They can take the guitar or the paint, but they canât take your creative thinking. A lot of these kids and adults feel isolated and alone, and you go, 'Here [hand them a guitar and a social media account], Youâre not alone. Youâre part of something beautiful and bigger.'"


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Homeownership is important, and even more so to many Baltimore city residents. Low and moderate-income families cannot normally qualify for loans offered by the big banks. The Fact remains that home ownership accounts for much of the wealth disparity among cultures in America.
Kevin Seawright, and RPS Solutions, is on a mission to create affordable housing for those struggling to own a home. RPS Solutions is a non-profit that helps facilitate the transfer of foreclosed and abandoned properties from banks. Home ownership is the key. Kevin Seawright is a managing partner of RPS Solutions.
In partnership with NCST, RPS Solutions acquires REO properties in local markets before banks sell them nationwide at a much higher price. RPS Solutions also works with other local community development organizations to help boost the city's rate of home ownership.
Kevin Seawright has made a name for himself in the East Coast financial community too. He brings a unique blend of business smarts, experience in both the private and government sectors, and acute leadership skills. He is a qualified public accountant and a financial director. His strategies, throughout his career, have resulted in success by merging technology with organizational elements. View Kevin Seawright's full profile at LinkedIn
Seawright's career achievements include managing fiscal officer, payroll director, budget manage, deputy chief COO, director of operations, and oversight of numerous construction and finance projects. His reputation is that of a completely astute business leader that knows how to build rapport with constituents across the board.
Seawright is an MBA and can add the Notre Dame Mendoza School of Business and Executive Leadership Award to his resume. He is also a member on the advisory board for the Babe Ruth Museum, American Society for Public Administration, and the National Association of Black Accountants to name several. Seawright is one of those individuals who commits himself to making a major difference in his community.
View Source: http://weeklyopinion.com/2017/09/kevin-seawright-and-rps-solutions-are-working-to-increase-baltimore-homeownership/


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By Linnea Uyeno
As the Global Street Paper Summit 2015 launched in Seattle, a beacon of tech innovation on the American West Coast, INSP was thrilled to unveil our brand new website to street papers delegates from around the world.
Modeled after the design of social media networks, the new INSP site aims to engage a wider global audience.
INSP chief executive, Maree Aldam, expressed her excitement about the site.
"We have been working extremely hard on our website over the past year. Communication is absolutely at the heart of how we deliver services to our street paper members, and how we communicate with the rest of the world," said Maree.
INSP communications manager, Laura Dunlop introduced the website and went on to explain the vision behind it.
"What we are trying to do is tell our stories much more effectively," said Laura. "INSP is in the amazing position that we are the only people in the world that are able to tell the stories of street papers. Each street paper knows what they are doing in their city. We are the lucky people that get to be at the center of that international network."
INSP's site will connect the stories of street papers worldwide using a social media inspired design. Story tiles eacho Facebook or Tumblr to make interacting with the site effortless, dynamic and fun.
"These tiles are designed to look like social media. This immediately makes it feel shareable, and is there to drive social content so that we bring people back to the website," added Laura.
A key aim for Tangent Graphic, the Glasgow design company which partnered with INSP to create the website, was to make content sharing simple.
An exciting feature allows users to social share quotes and articles with ease by highlighting a section of text that they wish to post, and then choosing to share it on Twitter or Facebook.
"This also shares a link back to the website, so that when people want to share our content we make it really easy for them," explained Laura, adding that the feature would help lure traffic back to the INSP site and increase its online presence.
The site is also more compatible with tablet and mobile devices.
"This is really important because many people are using mobile and different kinds of tablets to look at websites," added Laura.
"Not only is it the fastest growing way people are accessing the internet, it also is really important for people on low incomes and with barriers to access. They are the much more likely to see the website on their mobiles. This means we are reaching the people that we are there to serve as well as a lot of other people."
Another neat feature of the new site is the debut of a new interactive map, which enables users to explore street papers from all over the world, and connects users directly to a specified street paper's website and social media.
"The main point of the map is so that people can not only get contact with us, but also so that people can relate us to all of the street papers. This means INSP can share each individual street paper's network with a wider public," said Laura.
"It's about drawing people in, making sure that we are spreading the message as street papers, and showing people the incredible work our network around the world is doing."


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The old newsroom saying has it that "dog bites man" isn't news, but "man bites dog" certainly is. Of course, this is Florida, where both man and dog skip the biting and just go straight to shooting. So, yes, we're pretty sure "dog shoots man" counts as some sort of news.
A man in Frostproof is recovering after his dog accidentally shot him in the leg.
According to Highlands Today, the incident happened last Saturday, February 23. That's when 35-year-old Gregory Dale Lanier was traveling in his truck with his dog and a gun on the floor, as one tends to do. Lanier thought the gun was unloaded, but obviously that wasn't the case.
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While Lanier was driving, his dog kicked the .38 pistol, causing the gun to discharge into Lanier's leg. He felt a burning sensation and told police that at that point he realized the gun was in fact loaded.
His injuries weren't serious, and no charges will be filed against Lanier or the dog. Police ruled the shooting accidental.
Miami-Dade has its infamous pit-bull ban, and Broward County just gave up on trying to institute its own, but maybe it's time Floridians stop worrying about specific breeds and start worrying about armed dogs. We're pretty sure the Second Amendment does not apply to them.
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