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Houdini Baby & Child Safety Products
Houdini Stop - Houdini Click N Lock -Houdini Door
What sort of Houdini Child do you have?
A harness Houdini? A bedroom Houdini? A put things into the toilet Houdini? An independent Houdini that "can do it myself"? Or do you have one of those scary quiet Houdini types? The kind where when you hear silence you know they are up to something they should not be.
You might not even have a Houdini child. You might just have pet that you need to keep it out of your baby's bedroom or cot.
Houdini Solutions have the ideal baby and child safety products for you! Designed and made right here in New Zealand, they're available for purchase via our online child safety product shop.
Why Choose Houdini Solutions Baby & Child Safety Products?
Our high quality New Zealand made products are simple to use and very effective at what they do. Providing solutions for many common parenting stresses, we can help you to keep your toddler's seat belt on, your cat out of you baby's crib and your wriggly child from tossing off their blankets in bed.
Houdini products are stocked in many baby supplies stores throughout New Zealand and Australia. We also have several international distributors, so if you are based in another country, we can still supply you quickly and cost effectively.
We offer a money back guarantee on all Houdini products too! You can purchase from confidence directly from our child and baby safety products store, with free postage within New Zealand for orders over $15, and internationally for orders over $25.
Designed by parents for parents, Houdini Solutions are proud to make life safer for our smallest and precious people: your kids!


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Saturday 25 January, 2020
The Golden Guitars are at the heart of it all - at the heart of the journey for both artists and fans alike. The Awards night gives fans the opportunity to rub shoulders with the biggest names in country music and see all of their favourite artists perform in one huge show.
Presented in Tamworth, the country music capital, as the finale to the 10 day Toyota Country Music Festival Tamworth, the event is much more than just the presentation of the coveted Golden Guitars. The night is a fast-paced concert, showcasing the cream of Australian country music artists and the songs that have left their mark on the fans throughout the past 12 months.
In TRECC's Lyric Mode, the mid-sized configuration, makes for an even more intimate night of non-stop entertainment and special magic moments you won't see anywhere else.
Presented by Tamworth Regional Council and the Country Music Association of Australia (CMAA), The Toyota Golden Guitar Awards are the nation's longest running music awards concert.
2019 Toyota Golden Guitar Awards Performers included;
Kasey Chambers & The Fireside Disciples, Troy Cassar-Daley, John Williamson, The Wolfe Brothers, Adam Harvey, Beccy Cole, Travis Collins, Adam Eckersley & Brooke McClymont, James Blundell, Graeme Connors, Catherine Britt & The Cold Cold Hearts, Bennett, Bowtell & Urquhart, Kristy Cox, Andrew Swift, Imogen Clark, Tori Forsyth, 2018 Toyota Star Maker Winner Brad Cox and awards hosts Adam Brand and Amber Lawrence.
Keep an eye out for 2020 performing artists to be announced soon!
Watch the 2019 Toyota Golden Guitar Awards here!
Naming rights sponsor
Strategic partners
Official Broadcast Partner
Awards partners

subset: commoncrawl


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首页 » Attraction
Category Archives: Attraction
- 把红豆洗净,浸泡两个小时,红枣洗净去核;
- 锅中放入红枣、红豆,加入600毫升水,倒入红糖,待枣和红豆熟烂即可饮用。
Visit Korea – ☆ National Hangeul Museum
I went to the National Hangeul Museum last month. There are another museum called the National Museum of Korea. But I was interested in Hangeul more.. so I went there first.
They provide "Exhibition Tours" in English on Wednesday 1:00 pm. & in Chinese on Thursday 1:00 pm. & in Japanese on Friday 1:00pm. It was Saturday when I visited, so I took the leaflet in English, Korean and Japanese. I wonder the translation so.. just in case.
I think the Hangeul is the greatest character in the whole World. Amazing!! the shapes and the sounds… You could notice from the creation of Hangeul.
Hangeul was created in 1443. (not a long time ago… compared to other old characters) Although Hangeul was invented approximately five hundred years ago, the principle behind its invention still remains competent from the perspective of the moder linguistics.
Hangeul is the first script that distinguishes the initial, middle and final sound of a syllable. In addition, it maintains a scientific principle in which the consonants and vowels that are similar in their pronunciations resemble one another in their shapes.
(I wonder how…? King Sejong could see..? X-ray was founded in 1895 but it was very far from Korea. hmm… interesting part..)
Hangeul is the alphabet that perfectly delivers the Korean language. Furthermore, for its creativeness and scientific value, it is highly esteemed by linguists all over the world.
If you have interest on Hangeul, you need to visit there! It's easy to access.. take the subway #4 and take off at the Ichon station.. from the exit #2 there is long underground passage.. at the end of the passage, you can see the National museum of Korea. You need to walk more.. 🙂 You can see Hunminjeongeum Haeryebon, which is the explanation book of Hunminjeongeum and other historic exhibitions a lot.
The 2016 year has left almost 110 days… right? hmm.. I hope you have great year, months, weeks and days!! 🙂 Meaningful Lift!!
When I get a flu, my first step is Ginger Tea
It's a winter and Christmas season now. I'm a weak at flu every this season. How about you? Right after I feel cold, I used to buy Ginger tea bottle and drink hot ginger tea until the end of my flu. Do you feel uncomfortable on you throat today? I strongly recommend you to try this.
Ginger has been used to relieve a sore throat and flu. It warms up body and cleans up blood. Even more it's also useful for stomach trouble, vomit and nausea. If you has been suffered by chronic indigestion, everyday ginger water instead of your usual drinking water will help you to digest more easily and sooth your stomach trouble day by day.
Not only ginger tea, I prefer a Lemon mixed honey sweeten ginger tea. Lemon and Honey also strengthen my immunity when I struggle with flu virus. Lemon is full of vitamin C, which can help reduce the duration and severity of symptoms of flu. Honey is speechless.
My Recipe
2~3 fresh gingers (by size)
1 oz 100% lemon juice
1/2 cup honey
A glass bottle
Peel out gingers and Cut off thin slice
Fill a glass bottle with sliced gingers, honey and lemon juice
Open the bottle 2~3 days after
Boil over 1 mug of water
Put hot water on a mug within 1 Ts Honey sweeten ginger with lemon
I hope you to all Peacenoodle friends happy merry Christ mas without any health problem. Bless you at this Christmas and New year season. With Love and Peace ♡
Where tradition and history alive
One of my bucket list would have been to Egypt. Pyramids, museums, markets and people …. It seemed important to first learn about Egypt before I can make my trip to Egypt.
Flag of Egypt.
The flag of Egypt (Egyptian Arabic: علم مصر, IPA: [ˈʕælæm ˈmɑsˤɾ]) is a tricolour consisting of the three equal horizontal red, white, and black bands of the Arab Liberation flag dating back to the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. The flag bears Egypt's national emblem, the Eagle of Saladin centered in the white band.
The official language of the Republic is Modern Standard Arabic.[11] Arabic was adopted by the Egyptians after the Arab invasion of Egypt. Thespoken languages are: Egyptian Arabic (68%), Sa'idi Arabic (29%), Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Arabic (1.6%), Sudanese Arabic (0.6%), Domari (0.3%),Nobiin (0.3%), Beja (0.1%), Siwi and others. Additionally, Greek, Armenian and Italian are the main languages of immigrants. In Alexandria in the 19th century there was a large community of Italian Egyptians and Italian was the "lingua franca" of the city.
The main foreign languages taught in schools, by order of popularity, are English, French, German and Italian.
Egypt is a predominantly Sunni Muslim country with Islam as its state religion. The percentage of adherents of various religions is a controversial topic in Egypt. An estimated 90% are identified as Muslim, 9% as Coptic Christians, and 1% as other Christian denominations. Non-denominational Muslims form roughly 12% of the population
Egypt is a recognized cultural trend-setter of the Arabic-speaking world. Contemporary Arabic and Middle-Eastern culture is heavily influenced by Egyptian literature, music, film and television. Egypt gained a regional leadership role during the 1950s and 1960s, giving a further enduring boost to the standing of Egyptian culture in the Arabic-speaking world
[Imagine, John Lennon / Song by Shakira] Peace Dreamers are speaking "The world will be as One"
John Lennon sang a song for the world peace and love for all human being, Imagine. This is a Shakira version song in UN's General Assembly 2015. She is working for Child education. In this reason, This singing is touching more meaningful in me.
I love this part "Living Life in Peace." I hope some day living life in peace. No tears because of war. No weapon. But living all the people as one.
You may say I'm a dreamer. But I'm not the only one.
I hope someday you will join us. And the world will be as one.
I'm sure we can be the one for Peace. No matter skin color, gender, age or even a religion. Peace is not a personal own. Every human being has the right for peace. I'm not the only one. And you are not the only one. Everyone want peace. Why not? Let's be a dreamer for peace. This dream will come true for sure.
– Imagine –
Imagine there is no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Living life in Peace
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you will join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you will join us
And the world will be as one
A Song For Peace
"One Day"
by Matisyahu
Sometimes I lay
Under the moon
And thank God I'm breathing
Then I pray
Don't take me soon
'Cause I am here for a reason
Sometimes in my tears I drown
But I never let it get me down
So when negativity surrounds
I know some day it'll all turn around because…
All my life I've been waiting for
I've been praying for
For the people to say
That we don't wanna fight no more
There will be no more wars
And our children will play
One day [6x]
It's not about
Win or lose
'Cause we all lose
When they feed on the souls of the innocent
Blood-drenched pavement
Keep on moving though the waters stay raging
In this maze you can lose your way (your way)
It might drive you crazy but don't let it faze you, no way (no way)
"One Day" is a song by Jewish reggae singer Matisyahu from his third album Light. The song expresses a hope for an end to violence and a prayer for a new era of peace and understanding.
The song was used extensively as the theme song for NBC's Countdown to Vancouver Olympics campaign. The song continued to be used during NBC's Olympic broadcasts, from soundtracking montages to scoring bumpers. Matisyahu explained to MTV News that even though it wasn't written expressly for the games, the themes and goals of the track ended up applying perfectly. "I wanted to write a song that was an accessible global anthem for hope and peace," he told MTV News. "I don't know exactly how it came about, but somebody heard it and thought it would be a good fit."
Matisyahu tells Spinner. "It is an anthem of hope with a big beat, the kind of song that makes you bob your head and open your heart at the same time." In an interview with Matisyahu "'One Day' is the song I've been wanting to make since I started my career,"
Traditional Art of Maramures, Romania
Maramures, Romania
I love the Egg Craft. It's one of my wishlist to learn someday. All country has their own traditional Art. It's unique and beautiful. Romania isn't the only country famous for Egg Craft, but everybody can sure its unique quality.
This intricate patterns were secret languages known only to residents of the regions where they were painted. But Whatever pattern has meaning on the cover of eggs, the result always looks beautiful.
Maramures Village is also famous for wooden architecture. Most impressive are the old traditional churches. All of them are completely constructed out of wood, some of them even date back to the 16th century and are protected by UNESCO.
A lot of these churches are still in use these days. Breb, the village where Babou Maramures is situated, has also a traditional old wooden church, one of the oldest, which is still used for religious practice.
Also in this lovely region we can enjoy cozy natural sites. Forests where is perfectly suited for walking, Rock climbing, Bike, Skiing and Snowboarding. My favorite season of Romania is winter. Romanian traditional art spirit comes out from beautiful nature.
Mt. Retezat, Romania
Every country's own traditional arts make us understand intercultural mind easily. When we have eye to see traditional beauty, the World can be closer and closer.
What kind of Art are you interested in?


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The beauty of social media is sharing our experiences with others. Each day I learn new things about you and the things you care about. Inevitably I end up more educated on a wide range of topics and find new things I care about, too. I love learning from you!
When interacting with others and sharing our thoughts online, we all have a voice. It doesn't matter if you have 5 followers or 5,000, people are listening.
Technology is a game-changer.
Back in the day (you know, like three years ago) customer service trainings would warn companies that customers will share positive experiences with 2-3 people, but an "upset customer" will share with 9-15 people.
I'm sure anyone who spends time in social media will agree there's been a significant change in the last few years in terms of the customer experience. This stems from advances in technology giving us both immediacy and amplification.
Immediacy: Our friends are only a hyper-moment away. Smart phones have brought real-time sharing of customer experiences. We commonly share where we are, what we are doing and how it's going. Foursquare and Twitter encourage this moment-by-moment publishing of our lives.
When we are angry and feel like we are being treated poorly, we may choose to immediately vent our frustration and anger with friends… in the heat of the moment.
Amplification: I'd argue the ratio of people complaining five times as often as they give compliments is still valid. The difference now is our networks are dramatically bigger.
The average Facebook user has 130 friends. Twitter numbers are harder to nail down because the majority of users abandon their account within a month or so. The average users, at my best estimate, have between 200 to 2,000 followers.
When you complain, people listen.
There was a lot of chatter a few weeks ago when Bob Harper (pseudo-celeb from The Biggest Loser) tweeted out a complaint when he couldn't get a table at a hot restaurant:
"OMG!! The manager at Bar Lagrasa in Minneapolis was SO RUDE to me. I wanted to have dinner there. Why are people so mean sometimes?"
Dramatic, right? I watched it unfold. Of his 130k Twitter followers, many retweeted it (shared it with their followers). A lot of people publicly supported him and vowed never to eat at Bar La Grassa. According to the manager, 15 people called in Bob's defense. A week or so later, a behind-the-scenes account of the story was printed in the Minneapolis Star Tribune that told the real story – exposing Bob the trainer as nothing short of a whining egomaniac.
I see people in my network acting like Bob – every day. Some are general comments about companies. Some are more specific and call out employee names in specific departments of a store. In fact, I've even seen people call out their ex-lovers on Twitter and Facebook – with the goal of publicly humiliating them.
There are two sides to every story. In Bob's case, the restaurant admitted they wouldn't give Bob a table – because they were packed. However, they also offered his American Express concierge (the person actually making the call) other options. But he didn't give the full story in his tweets.
Shouting from your social media rooftop.
That brings me to the question… do we have a responsibility to use our voices carefully online? If you complain online frequently, especially in the heat of the moment, I challenge you to take a step back and think about the impression it gives to everyone around you.
Not because I'm out to protect the brand of every company that provides bad service. Of course there are positive things that can happen from complaining online. Many would argue it gives companies an opportunity to repair a relationship. That said, I believe there are often more constructive ways to be heard than shouting loudly from your social media rooftop.
Bottom line: There comes a point when your complaints reflect more poorly on you than the company you are complaining about.
As you can tell, I've been chewing on this topic for awhile now and discussing it with others as I've been grappling with the tension of how much complaining online is healthy for our commerce v. how much is simply whining.
I'm careful with my words online, but that doesn't mean that all complaints are off-limits either. In my next post, I'll cover my personal policy on complaining in social media. Until then, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject.


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WASHINGTON — Nearly a decade after the Federal Reserve embarked on an unprecedented effort to shore up the collapsing American economy, the central bank said on Wednesday that it would begin withdrawing some of the trillions of dollars it invested in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
The decision, while widely expected, is nevertheless a significant sign that the Fed is confident that economic growth and low unemployment will continue. In other words, the central bank believes that the American economy has emerged safely from the crisis.
"The basic message here is U.S. economic performance has been good," Janet L. Yellen, the Fed's chairwoman, said at a news conference following a two-day meeting of the Fed's policy committee.
The Fed's retreat from its post-crisis stimulus campaign will be slow but steady as the central bank looks to shrink the enormous $4 trillion portfolio it amassed through a bond-buying spree.
Those efforts, known as quantitative easing, plunged the Fed into uncharted waters as it tried to navigate the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The Fed came under stiff criticism for the program, prompting many Republican lawmakers to question whether the Fed should remain independent.
The Fed, which stopped its buying spree in 2014, is now preparing to pare back its holdings by about $10 billion per month initially. That is likely to raise borrowing costs for consumers and businesses, but only very slowly. Indeed, since the Fed ended its bond-buying, countervailing factors have actually reduced some borrowing costs, like the average interest rate on 30-year mortgages.
Investors are watching warily, but so far there is little sign that the Fed's retreat is tightening financial conditions. Stock prices fell modestly after the Fed's 2 p.m. policy announcement, but bounced back by the end of the trading day. The S&P 500 index rose 1.59 points, closing at 2,508.24.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury also rose 0.02 percentage points, closing at 2.27 percent.
"The Fed did an extremely good job of preparing us for commencing the balance sheet rundown," said Peter Hooper, chief economist at Deutsche Bank. "That's happening with a whimper, but handled differently, it could have been a big event."
The Fed, which has raised its benchmark interest rate twice this year, left that rate unchanged Wednesday, but indicated that it plans a third rate increase later this year as economic conditions continue to strengthen. The Fed said it expects the labor market to continue strengthening and the economy to expand at a moderate pace.
Twelve of the 16 officials on the Federal Open Market Committee predicted another rate increase this year, the same number as in the Fed's last round of forecasts in June.
In its post-meeting statement, the Fed pointed to the strength of job growth and increases in household and business spending. The official optimism went only so far, however. Growth remains weak by historical standards, and the Fed indicated it sees no evidence of acceleration. Fed officials once again reduced their expectations for rate increases in coming years. The median prediction Wednesday was that the benchmark rate will stabilize at 2.8 percent, down from a median estimate of 3 percent in June.
The Fed's benchmark rate now sits in a range between 1 percent and 1.25 percent, a level most Fed officials regard as providing modest encouragement for borrowing.
Expectations of a third rate increase this year strengthened after the Fed's announcement, rising from a 57 percent chance to a 71 percent chance, according to CME Group.
The Fed's next meeting is scheduled for Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, but the Fed is unlikely to raise rates any sooner than its final meeting of the year, in mid-December.
Some economic indicators suggest that higher rates are warranted: The unemployment rate, at 4.4 percent in August, is below the level most officials regard as sustainable. Moreover, Fed officials predicted that the rate would fall to 4.1 percent next year.
But other economic measures paint a contrasting picture. Job growth remains strong, suggesting that the work force is still expanding; wage growth is modest, suggesting employers are still able to find workers with relative ease; and inflation weakened in recent months, puzzling Fed officials and economists who had predicted that prices would begin to rise more quickly as labor market conditions tightened.
The Fed's preferred measure of price inflation increased by just 1.4 percent during the 12 months ending in July, the most recent available data. The Fed is likely to undershoot its target of 2 percent annual inflation for the sixth consecutive year. That has caused consternation among some economists and Fed officials, who are wary of raising rates given the Fed's inability so far to achieve its inflation objectives.
"I can't say this year that I can easily point to a sufficient set of factors" to explain low inflation, Ms. Yellen said Wednesday. She added, however, that low inflation this year did not imply low inflation next year. "What we need to do is figure out whether the factors that have lowered inflation are going to prove persistent," she said.
Ms. Yellen said that weak inflation readings earlier this year "reflect developments that are largely unrelated to broader economic conditions." Similarly, she said that the Fed expected the impact of hurricanes on gas prices to increase inflation temporarily. So far, the Fed's assessment of underlying conditions remains unchanged: Ms. Yellen and her colleagues expect inflation to stabilize at its target of 2 percent a year.
The Fed wants to use its benchmark rate to manage economic conditions while gradually draining its investment portfolio in the background. When Ms. Yellen described the Fed's plans in June, she expressed hope that the process would be like "watching paint dry."
The Fed holds about $4.2 trillion in Treasury securities and mortgage bonds, which it accumulated to put downward pressure on interest rates. It must regularly replenish its holdings as bonds mature. Beginning in October, it plans to withhold $10 billion a month from the reinvestment process — in effect causing that much money to disappear.
It will then increase the pace by $10 billion each quarter until reaching a monthly rate of $50 billion, and then maintain that pace until it reaches an unspecified finishing line.
Ms. Yellen emphasized that the Fed did not plan to adjust that schedule, although she added, "unless we think that the threat to the economy is sufficiently great."
The retreat will put modest upward pressure on borrowing costs, but businesses and consumers are unlikely to see much difference in the near term. "You will see a gradual tightening of financial conditions that will come from the Fed shrinking its balance sheet," said Lewis Alexander, chief United States economist at Nomura Securities.
Still, questions remain, both about the market's reaction and about the goal. Before the crisis, the Fed held less than $900 billion in assets, and most analysts expect the Fed to maintain a significantly larger balance sheet going forward — both because the financial system has grown and because the Fed has expanded its role in maintaining the system.
The Fed's slow pace also means it will take years to rebuild its ability to respond to crises. It does not expect its benchmark rate to reach 2.8 percent for three years, and it expects to take even longer to reduce its balance sheet.
"If we get a severe adverse shock in the next couple of years and interest rates are still pretty low and the balance sheet is still pretty big, what in the world are we going to do?" asked Andrew Levin, a Dartmouth College professor of economics.
Ms. Yellen paused when she was asked that question on Wednesday.
"We have a certain amount of room now," she finally said.
She noted that the Fed could buy more bonds. It could also engage in "forward guidance," or promising keep rates at a low level for a specified period.
The Fed also noted the impact of three recent hurricanes, including one that was striking Puerto Rico on Wednesday, but said the resulting economic disruptions were likely to be temporary.
"Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria have devastated many communities, inflicting severe hardship," the Fed said. "Storm-related disruptions and rebuilding will affect economic activity in the near term, but past experience suggests that the storms are unlikely to materially alter the course of the national economy over the medium term."


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Richard Edwards
November 10, 2009
[efoods]All telecoms companies and internet service providers will be required by law to keep a record of every customer's personal communications, showing who they have contacted, when and where, as well as the websites they have visited.
Despite widespread opposition to the increasing amount of surveillance in Britain, 653 public bodies will be given access to the information, including police, local councils, the Financial Services Authority, the ambulance service, fire authorities and even prison governors.
They will not require the permission of a judge or a magistrate to obtain the information, but simply the authorisation of a senior police officer or the equivalent of a deputy head of department at a local authority.


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Wikipedia article:
Map showing all locations mentioned on Wikipedia article:
VI. CITY OF KOENIGSBERG AND THE ADJACENT AREAKoenigsberg was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946 after the death of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Mikhail Kalinin, one of the original Bolsheviks. The German population was expelled and the city was repopulated with Russian citizens. German was replaced by Russian as the language of everyday life. The city was rebuilt, and went through industrialisation and modernisation. As the westernmost territory of the USSR, the Kaliningrad Oblast became a strategically important area during the Cold War. The Soviet Baltic Fleet was headquartered in the city in the 1950s. Because of its strategic importance, Kaliningrad was closed to foreign visitors.
The Conference examined a proposal by the Soviet Government that pending the final determination of territorial questions at the peace settlement the section of the western frontier of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics which is adjacent to the Baltic Sea should pass from a point on the eastern shore of the Bay of Danzig to the east, north of Braunsberg and Goldap, to the meeting point of the frontiers of Lithuania, the Polish Republic and East Prussia.
The Conference has agreed in principle to the proposal of the Soviet Government concerning the ultimate transfer to the Soviet Union of the city of Koenigsberg and the area adjacent to it as described above, subject to expert examination of the actual frontier.
The President of the United States and the British Prime Minister have declared that they will support the proposal of the Conference at the forthcoming peace settlement.
|City raion
(Gorodskoy raion)
|Russian name
1 January 2006
|Baltiyskiy (Baltic raion)
|Moskovskiy (Moscow raion)
|Leningradskiy (Leningrad raion)
|named after Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg, Russia
|Oktyabrskiy (October raion)
|named after the October revolution
|Tsentralnyy (Central raion)
|lies to the northwest of the historical city centre
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It would be very powerfull to have a trigger that starts conditionally.
For example:
I don't want a Flow to always trigger when an item is modified. Only when a specific condition is met, like Status = Completed
I can now do that by using the When an existing item is modified trigger and setting a condition after the trigger, but it would be nicer that you can configure your condition within the trigger.
@LoviseH I think rikdekoning is suggesting this as an idea. This would be amazing. I've voted.
@jesse and @rikdekoning : great mock-up, I thought it was real and got way too excited
This is very simple to do now by simply making the first action after the trigger a condition. Checking the condition actually represents an action the way that Flow logic works so this would be relatively high effort to implement and might cause issues with how it would be handled by the flow history.
@J_Gilmore I'm aware of your workaround (see last section of my post) but that is exactly what I don't want because it will trigger your Flow on any edit. I only want the Flow to be triggered on certain conditions.
I'm new to SharePoint, but when I first started, I created all of my flows in SharePoint Designer. In SP Designer, I was able to trigger on the change of a single field instead of checking the entire item. I could also update a single field within the record instead of updating the entire record. I believe the trigger went something like this: When {fieldA} is not equal to {current.fieldA} This compared the value of fieldA in the record to the value of fieldA in the PowerApps form. It was strongly suggested that I change all of my flows to Flow and not use SP Designer. Now my flows are extremely long and cumbersome instead of the SP Designer version that was only 2 or 3 lines. To sum it up, the flows need to have more granularity, down to the field level.


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The Youngest Partisan - Purchase This Book
A. Romi Cohen was a precocious, active 10-year old when the Nazis invaded Poland. Soon afterward, they and their puppet regime took over his native Czechoslovakia, and for the next five years he was a hunted fugitive and a valiant fighter with the partisans. [Read more...]


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Confirmed Exhibitors
We look forward to welcoming new and returning exhibitors to the GeoOttawa 2017 trade show - thank you for your support. Be sure to see them in the trade show hall and to browse their websites:
The GeoOttawa 2017 Exhibitor Presentation Schedule has been finalized - please click here to view. We're looking forward to another year of great presentations!
Contact for further information:
Lisa McJunkin
GeoOttawa 2017 Administration & Marketing Manager


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More and more turkeys are ending up on festive dinner tables in Switzerland. swissinfo.ch visits Bühlhof farm in central Switzerland, where the animals are free-range and slaughtered by hand.
Overlooking Lake Lucerne, at the foot of Mount Rigi, is the municipality of Greppen. Bühlhofexternal link is home to Christian and Luzia Muheim, as well as their three children, 12 milk cows, three Stiefelgeiss goats, a cat and around 200 turkeys. And no partridges or pear trees in sight.
The animals come to the family farm at six weeks old. Almost 400 turkeys are fattened and slaughtered every year – the females at 100 days, the males at 130 days. One large buyer is the catering section of the Lake Lucerne Navigation Company, but most of the family's income is from direct sales. Turkeys weighing up to ten kilograms (22lb) can be ordered from October to December – and demand is increasing.
Meat industry umbrella group Proviande says per capita consumption of poultry has risen over the past decade from 10kg to 12kg a year. More is being imported, but more is also being produced domestically.
Andi Schmal, head of Switzerland's largest turkey producer Frifag, confirms this. Over the past ten years, he says, sales of Thanksgiving or Christmas turkeys have increased more than tenfold: almost 10,000 birds are slaughtered for the two occasions.


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Hi, I'm Shelby and I'm a recovering habitual quitter.
Well that felt good to get off my chest.
am was the girl who quit. My older sister was pretty and popular. My younger sister was smart. And I was the quitter. It was my thing.
I quit Daisy scouts before even going in because I was too afraid to go in the classroom filled with blue vests. I quit dance team one year because I felt like I would never be as good as the other girls. I'd quit jobs. Quit relationships. Friendships. I was a full blown quitter.
And once you get labeled something, you almost feel like people expect it from you. So many times I would want to sign up for a new activity and my mom would say,
"Now Shelby, if I pay for this, you're not going to quit again, are you? "
Well yes, mom. I probably will. The minute it gets scary or I feel inferior, I'm gone.
"Of course not, Mom." Rolls eyes.
Two weeks later I quit.
I mean it's like riding a bike. Once you have quit something, it gets easier and easier.
And I am not just talking about jobs or relationships or daisy scouts. I quit on myself.
Maybe it was because I was insecure. Maybe it was because I didn't like myself. Maybe because I was scared.
But for whatever reason, I couldn't stop.
When it came to my health, I was the typical yo yo dieter.
Try this magic shake. *Drinks one sip and checks if i'm skinny* Shit, this doesn't work.
Do this workout dvd. *Can't breathe or jump or move my body* Screw it. This is a joke.
Calorie restrict for 2 weeks to fit in a dress. *Dress doesn't fit* Eat the entire kitchen.
See it's so easy to give up. But eventually, you get tired. You get tired of people expecting you to fail. You get tired of failing yourself. You get tired of starting over. It's just fucking exhausting.
It wasn't some grand epiphany. Nothing significant or monumental happened to make it happen. But one day, I just got tired of my own bullshit. I thought to myself,
What will happen if I stop quitting on myself? What if I forgive myself for my mistakes? What if when a lightbulb burns out in my house of life, I don't try to burn the whole thing down?
And I just stopped giving up on myself. It didn't happen overnight. It was tiny choices and decisions made each day, each hour each minute.
*You can finish this mile, Shelby. Move your ass*
*Answer your damn phone. Your anxiety is not winning today.*
*So you didn't lose this week. But you feel better, don't you? You are not stopping."
*So you ate a whole cheesecake? That doesn't mean you don't get your ass up and work out. You fell down. You aren't staying down.*
*Share your story. Don't let the people who don't understand it make you stop sharing your heart.*
And just like that, I started realizing how strong I am. Strength truly comes from within. Proving the nasty mean voice in your head that tells you you aren't good enough, wrong.
I am making big changes in my life. I am pursuing my dreams of helping others in their health journey-mentally and physically. I would have never in a million years thought I'd be 3 weeks away from completing what needs to be done to do that. I would have been on the wine wagon drinking away using the unused study flashcards as a coaster.
I am not perfect. I have a past. I have my failures. My flaws. My shortcomings.
I am a lot of things.
But I am NOT a quitter.
Originally posted 2016-02-26 14:32:09.


text:
Reassessing the legacy of the Empire State Plaza
On June 21, 1965, Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller gathered with state and local officials and other dignitaries and laid the South Mall cornerstone — a 7,500-pound block of white granite quarried near Cortland, N.H. — that sealed a document box containing artifacts in the foundation of a long, low-slung building taking shape along Swan Street near the intersection with State Street.
Rockefeller proclaimed it would be "the most spectacularly beautiful seat of government in the world" and "the greatest thing to happen to this country in a hundred years." He was not a man given to understatement.
The cornerstone ceremony was pro forma, but it marked both an end to a vibrant ethnic neighborhood that was demolished and the beginning of the largest and most expensive government complex ever built in North America. In its wake, the $2 billion white marble colossus reviled as Fascist architecture writ large and "the City Beautiful's last erection" (Wolf Von Eckardt in New York magazine) left a clouded legacy as the most controversial and most transformative construction project since the Dongan Charter made Albany a city in 1686. The aggressively Modernist South Mall looked as if it had been dropped from outer space into the small-scale cityscape of Victorian-era townhouses that surround it. The writer Isaac Bashevis Singer offered his own assessment of The Egg during a 1983 visit to Albany: "It could look like an egg. It could look like a blintz."
Now, as we mark the 50th anniversary of the start of construction of the South Mall — opponents spelled it South Maul and old-timers never referred to it by its official name, the Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza — it is time to examine its place in the life of the capital city with a historian's sense of distance and perspective.
"The South Mall is a logical evolution in a lifelong series of building projects for Nelson Rockefeller, who cut his teeth making deals in the New York City real estate market," says Richard Norton Smith, author of a recently published 810-page biography of Rockefeller, On His Own Terms. The South Mall reunited Rockefeller with his favorite architect and frequent collaborator, Wallace K. Harrison, who also designed Rockefeller Center, the United Nations and Lincoln Center in New York City.
"There is continuing resentment regarding the South Mall after 50 years, but with the passage of time it becomes more of a historical phenomenon," Norton Smith says. "There are fewer and fewer people around for whom the mall is seen as a crime in terms of ripping out their neighborhood. I think its construction was more complex and involves multiple strands of motivation beyond the theory that Rockefeller built it as a monument to himself."
Barbara Noisette Jackson has lived in the same house on Lower Myrtle Avenue, a block from the State Museum, for all of her 87 years. She recalled the opposition to the South Mall in the 1960s, but did not share the negative feelings of many neighbors. "I thought it was something good and that it was positive for the city," says Jackson, a retired bookkeeper for the Whitney M. Young Health Center. "I'm just glad they didn't take our house. I would have felt differently if they had. After 50 years, I guess I've gotten used to it."
Rockefeller and supporters of the Plaza hailed it as a shining example of urban renewal that reclaimed a deteriorated inner-city district in the South End known as "The Gut." The 40-block downtown ethnic melting pot was bounded by the Capitol building and Madison Avenue and Grand and Swan streets. It was home to an enclave of Italian immigrants as well as communities of Jews, Germans, Irish, Armenians, French Canadians and others. Rockefeller said the neighborhood's shabbiness embarrassed him when he gave Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands a tour of the area during her state visit to Albany in 1959 for the Hudson-Champlain Celebration. Rockefeller reiterated his idea after he gave Beatrix's parents, the King and Queen of the Netherlands, a private tour of Albany to celebrate the establishment of the city's forerunner, Fort Orange, by the Dutch in 1624. Rockefeller said the run-down blocks disgusted him and were not worthy of New York's capital city. He re-envisioned the area as a gleaming, ultra-modern government complex that would provide much-needed office space for a growing state workforce that eventually numbered more than 11,000 state employees at the Plaza.
Years earlier, Rockefeller visited the Potala Palace of the Dalai Lama at Lhasa, Tibet. He became enamored of the stunning complex notched into a steep cliff and he sketched Potala on the back of an envelope, gave it to his architect Harrison and asked him to create something like that in Albany. Initially, Rockefeller's project was going to be built on the Helderberg Mountains escarpment near Thacher Park, but that location was abandoned because it did not fit the governor's urban renewal narrative.
If anyone cared to challenge the governor's proposal, the law of eminent domain was on his side and allowed for the legal seizure by the state of private properties in the name of civic progress and public good as long as fair market value was provided as reimbursement.
Rockefeller came from one of the wealthiest families in the world and it's been said he possessed an "Edifice Complex." If he could dream it, he could build it.
He was the son of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, the founder of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and he inherited her passion for acquiring art. Rockefeller was one of the foremost collectors of Abstract Expression and modern art in the world. He turned the Plaza's concourse into a gallery for 92 paintings and sculptures he had his commission of experts acquire for the state during construction, including works by Pollock, Rothko, de Kooning, Calder, Motherwell, Noguchi, Frankenthaler and other major artists of the 20th century.
"You can't dismiss the aesthetic element behind construction of the South Mall," Norton Smith says. "Rockefeller was not only a great collector, but an enthusiast and teacher of modern art. Rocky thought of the South Mall as a classroom as well as a museum. During this same period, the governor established the New York State Council on the Arts and designated the Egg as a performing arts center. He also envisioned buildings themselves as objects of Minimalist art that reflected Rockefeller's personal taste, for better or for worse."
The Plaza art collection is considered the greatest collection of modern American art in any single public site that is not a museum. The collection was acquired for $2.6 million in the late 1960s, was valued at $12 million in 1985 and has increased in value several fold since then. Although it is not everyone's taste and leaves visitors who prefer realism displeased, Rockefeller fervently believed the Plaza's modern art collection positioned the Empire State as a forward-thinking and sophisticated government that embraced the future. The most disturbing reaction to the modern art was in 1985 when 24-year-old Eugene D. Burt, who operated a shoe shine stand in the Plaza, slashed eight paintings with a knife in a predawn attack and wrote slogans on the paintings, including ''Antichrist Ronald Reagan 666.'' He was charged with criminal mischief and a psychiatric evaluation was ordered. Seven paintings were so badly damaged they were beyond repair, and were removed. The vandalism spurred heightened security measures.
The Plaza's critics, notably scores of people displaced by Rockefeller's plan, considered the complex a megalomaniacal land grab by a billionaire governor who used the shield of eminent domain law to construct an Ozymandian monument to himself at public expense. Rockefeller's project tore 98 acres out of the heart of Albany and displaced 9,000 people and 3,600 households by knocking down more than 1,500 homes and apartment buildings, 350 businesses, four churches and 29 taverns. "An architecture of coercion" is what Time magazine critic Robert Hughes called it and he said a swastika or hammer and sickle would not look out of place on the stark, angular buildings.
In O Albany! Albany-born author William Kennedy, who covered its construction as a reporter for the Times Union, called the South Mall "the consequence of one man's political will, imposed upon our time and space in spite of its incredible cost, in spite of the arrogant wastry and duplicity that marked the manipulation of public money, in spite of the many construction scandals, underworld intrusions, and colossal thievery…"
John Egan, a state official who helped manage the construction of the South Mall, disputes Kennedy's position and challenged critics. "I think the Plaza has proved its value as an absolute success," says Egan, a former commissioner of the state Office of General Services, which oversees the Plaza and all state properties. "It was a massive construction project and an extraordinary undertaking. It was all essentially Rockefeller's idea. Every time our commissioner went to meet with the governor, we held our breath because he might have a new concept. I never felt the people in the neighborhoods were pushed around. They were treated fairly and paid a fair value for their properties. I considered it a magnificent effort."
There is no denying its architectural audacity. The main platform that contains the quarter-mile underground concourse that contains a bank, shops, post office and cafeterias is one of the largest buildings in the world at 3.8 million square feet. Above ground, the two reflecting pools are the size of football fields and a smaller one is turned into a public skating rink in winter. The Plaza's 11 buildings are faced with more than 600,000 square feet of building stones. The 44-story Corning Tower (the tallest structure between New York City and Montreal) required so many acres of Vermont Pearl Marble that it depleted the West Rutland Mine and forced the Vermont Marble Company to shut it down. The main platform, four 23-story agency buildings, Corning Tower, the Egg and Cultural Education Center rest on 25,000 steel piles, each driven 70 feet deep through soft blue clay until they were anchored in bedrock. The ear-splitting clang and earth-rumbling pounding of the pile driving phase went on for months and because the clay was gelatinous it became a frustrating exercise that resembled the Whack-A-Mole arcade game with piles popping up unexpectedly.
"I don't hear as well as I used to and partly it's because the pile driving went on so long and was so loud," says Robert Bennett, who watched the South Mall construction from close range. He served six governors at the Executive Mansion, beginning as a butler and valet at age 23 in 1953 under Gov. Thomas Dewey. He retired as mansion superintendent overseeing a staff of five at 61 in 1991 under Gov. Mario M. Cuomo. For half of his 38-year tenure, he lived in the 41-room historic home on Eagle Street. "I think it was definitely an improvement from what was there. It's a great place for state employees to work and whenever out-of-town friends visit, I always take them to the Capitol, the mansion and the Plaza."
There were limits, however, even to Rockefeller's grandiose visions. One key element that never made it off Harrison's drafting table was a monumental arch that was designed to soar several hundred feet near the Executive Mansion at the State Museum end of the Plaza. An artist's rendering showed a similarity to the 630-foot Gateway Arch in St. Louis. But Rocky's arch got scratched as the project ran hundreds of millions of dollars over original estimates and construction grinded along for more than eight years, until its official dedication on November 21, 1973.
Another enduring drama during the South Mall's design and construction was the test of wills between Rockefeller and Albany Mayor Erastus Corning 2nd, a pair raised in similar privilege of great wealth, prep schools and Ivy League educations. Their families both owned summer estates on Maine's Mount Desert Island and the two had competed in tennis, golf and sailing at the exclusive Northeast Harbor Club as boys beginning in the 1920s. When Rockefeller was sworn in as governor in 1959, Corning had been mayor for 17 years and the stage was set for an epic showdown between Corning, the Yalie and Democrat, versus Rockefeller, a Republican and Dartmouth grad.
Corning mockingly labeled his files on Rockefeller's South Mall as "Brasilia," the futuristic capital carved out of the Brazilian wilderness in 1960 as a paean to Modernism and a government complex Rockefeller had visited and admired. On March 31, 1962, after Rockefeller's proposal was leaked to the press, Corning blasted it as "a ruthless takeover" and "a place that will look most spectacular on postcards all over the world, but will, in fact, hurt the people of Albany." The mayor declared the governor's complex "something that might be expected of a dictatorship."
Corning dug in his heels and slammed Rockefeller's plan in public every chance he got. Behind the scenes, though, Corning, a consummate horse trader, was negotiating to make the best deal for his city — and himself. His private insurance firm, Albany Associates, profited handsomely by insuring portions of the Plaza construction and the bank where Corning was a director, National Commercial Bank and Trust Company, made a good deal of money in the Plaza's financing. Paying for the South Mall was an obstacle that not even Rockefeller could surmount. He could not sell the idea to downstate taxpayers of funding a $2 billion marble monolith in Albany and the state Legislature would never approve such an extraordinary expenditure. It was Corning who floated a complex financing scheme to the governor who "rose to it like a trout to a fly," according to the mayor, an avid fly fisherman.
Here's how it worked: Corning directed Albany County to sell a series of 40-year bonds to build the South Mall, then turned the money over to the state, which took on construction as the county's "agent." The agent's service fees that the state paid the county over 40 years to cover the debt incurred by the sale of the county's bonds and as an indemnity in lieu of taxes amounted to roughly $35 million. In this lease-purchase arrangement, when the county was paid off in 2004, the state would then retain legal possession and become sole owner of the South Mall. In essence, the city was the state's landlord. Corning's financing scheme was spelled out in a 33-page legal document that offered a solution to Rockefeller's political dilemma, an end-run around the legislature and the state's citizens.
A few months before Corning died in a Boston hospital in 1983 at 73 after 42 years as mayor, Don Rittner, a former aide, visited him and asked the mayor about his legacy. "What do I want to be remembered for the most? That I had Nelson by the balls," Corning said.
After 50 years, the Plaza has either worn down or won over some of its detractors, including Susan Holland, executive director of Historic Albany Foundation, a preservation advocacy group that fights to save buildings from centuries past. She recalled watching the construction as a young girl and studying the aftermath of its mammoth displacement as a preservationist. She says the Plaza represents the conundrum of preservation: What do you take down, what do you put in its place, and which one is better? A city can't afford to save every building, nor is every building worth saving.
"The Plaza is an architectural marvel and now that it is 50 years old, it qualifies for an application to the National Register of Historic Places and it does fit the criteria in terms of being characteristic of a type of architecture, a historical period and a method of construction," Holland says, noting its context with the Modernist movement, the rise of suburbanization and the automobile culture and the groundbreaking aesthetic of architect and urban planner Le Corbusier.
While she would not trade the Plaza's cool formalism of its marble trapezoids for the warmth and romanticism of Washington Park's 19th-century brownstones, Holland has come to appreciate the Plaza. "I talk about in a professional way 50 years on without rancor, the way I talk about the University at Albany. I've come to admire the architects behind them. While the Plaza did put Albany on the map for Modern architecture, it absolutely fractured the walkability and connectivity between neighborhoods downtown. It is a giant barrier rather than a design that connects people."
Still, the Plaza attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year for summer concerts, family events and a Fourth of July fireworks display; a wide range of arts performances in the Egg; commencement ceremonies, proms and trade shows in the Convention Center; exhibits highlighting the state's cultural treasures stored in the State Museum, State Library and State Archives. It's the focal point for some of the city's great annual events, including the Freihofer's Run for Women and the Corporate Challenge road race. Its promenades and benches along the reflecting pools are filled with state employees at lunchtime and by families, bicyclists, joggers and skateboarders on weekends.
Some of the fiercest critics of the Plaza are the producers of The Neighborhood That Disappeared, a 90-minute documentary that premiered in December on WMHT-FM and set records for the local PBS station in terms of audience response and fundraising pledges. "I wanted to give voice to the voiceless," says Mary Paley, the director, writer and executive producer. She describes the film as "a love letter to a lost neighborhood that honors good, tough working-class people." She focuses on a tight-knit enclave of Italian immigrants uprooted after multiple generations.
"I have mixed feelings about the Plaza and personally find it cold and sterile," says Pat Bulgaro, the film's co-director, historical consultant and main on-camera interviewer. He recalls the long years of construction as "constant noise, the taste of dust and the rumble of dump trucks." Bulgaro is a third-generation South Ender who grew up above his family's Italian restaurant in the neighborhood. An uncle was evicted and his grandfather's tailor shop was torn down to make way for the South Mall.
He describes a sense of "anger in the pit of my stomach that won't go away" over all that was lost. "The mall undeniably transformed the city from a walking city to a city built around cars where people come to work in the morning, leave at the end of the day and have no connection to Albany," says Bulgaro, who wrote his master's thesis at Siena College on Italian immigration in Albany between 1880 and 1910 and later taught history at his alma mater. He is also a former state budget director who feels residents were not treated fairly and did not receive adequate compensation when they were driven out by the state and the law of eminent domain.
Bulgaro and the filmmakers feel a deep sense of pride at having told the stories of many of the displaced people for the first time. They consider the film a testament that their neighborhood and the residents' lives mattered, despite the crushing dominance of Rockefeller and the state's overwhelming power and resources. "The passions and emotions that were unlocked by the film, were amazing to me," Bulgaro says. "So many people thanked me for telling their story. They still harbor great regret and sorrow over what was lost, but the documentary was cathartic and gave them closure in some way."
Bulgaro feels the most telling line of the film came from Albany historian and former state Assemblyman Jack McEneny, who said: "Is the South Mall grand and magnificent? Of course it is, as long as you have no memory."


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App Review: Aves Vox Pro for iOS
One of the main functions for which the smartphone was conceived is audio – the iPhone evolved from Apple's line of iPod music players, after all. So it is no surprise that one of the main uses of smartphones for birders should be for storage and playback of bird songs and calls. One way to achieve this is simply to convert your existing bird song CDs into a series of MP3 files and store them with your music, but is there a better way?
The main drawback historically of these CDs was the limited variety of songs or calls which were available. In contrast, the Xeno-canto website now provides access to a mind-boggling variety of bird vocalisations from around the world via the internet. The Aves Vox apps offer easy access to a large part of this Xeno-canto library via a simple smartphone app for Apple iOS devices. Aves Vox Pro is the paid-for version of the app.
Features & Functionality
Aves Vox claims to include at least one vocalisation for over 80% of all bird species worldwide, including more than 30,000 recordings. While it is possible to access the Xeno-canto website itself on a smartphone, via its browser, the app offers several advantages. The main one is that it can work offline. Any recordings which have already been played in the app are downloaded to the device, allowing them to be listened to again when there is no internet connection available. Given so many parts of the world (and even the UK!) have poor or no mobile coverage, this is a major positive. It also allows the creation of a personalised library of downloaded bird sounds tailored to where you are going or whichever species you are particularly interested in. The app is also generally quicker to search than going via the Xeno-canto website.
The main disadvantage versus Xeno-canto is that the app contains only a small proportion of the total number of recordings available via the website. At the time of writing, Xeno-canto offers nearly 190,000, over six times the number in Aves Vox. For the most part, the app offers a good selection of vocalisations for each species, but it is not hard to find exceptions. Xeno-canto itself only includes four recordings of Pechora Pipit, for example, but only one of these is available via Aves Vox and that is a song clip. Neither of the two flight call recordings on the website is currently available via the app. However, despite this the app is still an amazingly extensive resource.
The basic Aves Vox is available as a free download, but the paid-for Pro version offers some significant advantages over the base app. These include the ability to create and search through customised species lists, to delete recordings from the device, and to filter recordings by vocalisation types. This review therefore looks specifically at Aves Vox Pro, although the key differences from the free app are highlighted.
The app is fairly easy to use, once you are familiar with it. Starting brings up the search page. Type in a species in the search box, either using its common or scientific name, and the app starts to narrow down the possibilities after the first three letters are typed and displays them in the scrollable list below. However, it should be noted that the app can sometimes be frustratingly slow to respond here. Once the desired name is found, a single tap brings up the available recordings for that species and a tap on one of those downloads that recording. The icon to the left of each recording shows whether it has already been downloaded and is available for playback.
The vocalisations are categorised according to song, call, flight call, alarm call and other calls. In Aves Vox Pro it is possible to filter the recordings to show only one vocalisation, which is useful if you are looking for a particular type. However, they are not always correctly categorised – one recording under Blyth's Pipit is given as flight call but is actually song given in flight, for example. Similarly complex recordings with both songs and calls are not identified, so Moltoni's Warbler appears to include only three songs whereas the distinctive calls are actually present on all of them. The description of the recordings also lacks the other detail provided on Xeno-canto and in particular it has no detail on recording location. This is a key omission where different forms have different vocalisations – for example Subalpine Warbler is not split into Eastern and Western and there is no way of telling to which form any recording relates.
The playback itself is clear, but the controls are frustratingly limited to 'play' or 'pause'. When a recording has been 'paused', it will only start again from where it was stopped and there is no way to go back to the start without leaving the species page. The status bar at the bottom shows the elapsed time for that recording but no detail on how far through it has played or the total recording length. In the Pro version it is possible to repeat playback, but this has to be preset in Settings rather than applied to individual recordings as they are played, which makes it less useful.
Creating lists in Aves Vox Pro is easy and this facility is particularly useful in allowing the user to set up customised lists of species and recordings which are then more easily accessed in the future. On any species page, tapping on the '+' icon at the top offers the possibility to add that species to an existing named list or create new one. Tapping on the lists icon on the homepage and then on a list name takes you directly to your chosen recordings, without have to back through the search function. All the available recordings are still shown, rather than just the ones which have already been downloaded, which might have been more useful, at least as an option. On the search page it is also possible to look for a species only in a single specific list, which is faster than looking through all the species in the app, but perhaps a facility to search through all personal lists at once might be a handy addition.
The Pro version offers the possibility to delete downloaded recordings, which should be useful in managing the memory requirement of the app. However, there is no way of seeing which recordings have already been downloaded without going to the individual species pages, which might be a problem if you can't remember which you already have. A way of seeing all recordings stored on the device would be helpful here. Without that, managing a large library of bird sounds over the long term might be difficult, without reinstalling the app and starting all over again. It is possible to delete recordings completely from the list of those available, but this cannot be undone so is possibly best avoided.
There are unfortunately other issues with the app which suggest it is not yet the finished article. It appears to be somewhat buggy and has a corresponding tendency to freeze at times. It could also be easier to navigate and rather annoyingly there is no 'home' button. When you have finished listening to recordings, tapping the 'back' icon goes back through the pages previously viewed. Similarly, there is no way to go directly to the lists page or to settings, without going back to the home page. The developer is still adding features, so hopefully some of these issues can be addressed in future updates.
Aves Vox Pro is only available for Apple devices and there is no information on whether an Android version is to be released. It is compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch running iOS 7.0 or above. The file size is quoted as a refreshingly small 6.2MB, although this increases rapidly once recordings are downloaded. It is available from the app store, at the particularly attractive price of only £2.99.
The enormous range of bird vocalisations on Xeno-canto is a fantastic resource and access to even a fraction of this is well worth having on a mobile device out in the field. While some bird songs and calls are available as part of electronic field guides like the Collins Bird Guide app, Aves Vox offers a much wider range of recordings and is not limited in geographic scope to just Britain and Europe, for example. More focused bird song apps are similarly constrained in scope and typically much more expensive. Aves Vox therefore offers a more competitively priced alternative which would be an attractive supplement to any field guide. It would prove particularly useful in putting together a collection of bird sounds for a foreign trip or a personal collection of key confusion species, for example.
Given the low price, it is well worth paying for Aves Vox Pro rather than using the free version, to gain access to the useful additional features. Despite the issues, which hopefully can be addressed in future releases, Aves Vox Pro is still a very useful app and well worth having on any birder's smartphone.
Marcus Nash
01 October 2014


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When the 50-foot tall effigy known as "The Man" burned to the ground on
Saturday night before tens of thousands of screaming people, it marked a new
age for the festival known as Burning Man. This year's event, appropriately
themed Rites of Passage, begins a shift from a for-profit moneymaker into a
not-for-profit with a reach that extends well beyond the strip of desert
known as "the playa," Spanish for "beach."
America's beautiful wilderness
Burning Man 2012
Burning Man 2014
Afrika Burn Festival 2011
Burning Man 2009
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When meeting and event planning in Nairobi, make time for the animals. First-time attendees will want to brag about going on safari.


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April 11, 2011
The Button Collection is Growing Larger
I'm still cleaning up the back table from Yard Sale Saturday over a week ago ... a small jar of buttons.
I dumped the buttons out on the table and sorted them out. Here's the catch.
A nice little collection. Only a couple duplicates, so it's my guess this person kept the extra's that come with some garments and perhaps an odd one here and there. (Versus some that cut the button off everything and there are many duplicates).
I sort and keep buttons by color groups. After sorting them, I then move them to plastic zip bags for holding.
Here's just my white, one folder of blacks and 'the metals'. I've been saving them (yes, I cut buttons off of garments that are ruined), as well as buying them whenever I come across. Originally I was going to use use them in 'found art', then charm bracelets, and now, perhaps, a doll here and there. Or, perhaps I'll not use them at all. I don't know.
I do know, however, that the collection will continue !
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According to the forecasts of Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Commission the European Union (EU) wine production of 2015 is expected to be increased by 2.7%, compared to both the 2014-2015 production and the average of the last five years. In the 117th meeting of the Committee for the Common Organisation of Agricultural Markets, which took place in Brussels on September 23, was announced that this year's wine production for the EU-28 will reach 170.8 million hectoliters (Mhl), compared to 166.232 Mhl in 2014.
Of this total, 163.8 Mhl for wines represent mainly the PDO and PGI (105.9 Mhl or 65%). It is confirmed that once again Italy is the head of European producers, and thus ranks first worldwide with an estimated total harvest at 50.369 Mhl, of which 1.5 Mhl grape juices and musts.
The Italian production jumped by 13% compared to last year and by 5% compared to the average of the last five years. Italy produces 61% of PDO and PGI wines.
France comes second with 46.45 Mhl, slightly decreased (-1%) compared to 2014, but increased by 2% in comparison with the average of the last five years. The production is mainly oriented to quality wines, 75% of wines are classified into PDO and PGI wines.
In Spain the production is expected at 42 Mhl, that is decreased by 5% compared to 2014 but stable compared to the average of the last five years. The latter, however, is distorted by the 2013's record high harvest (53 Mhl) and the significant production of 2014 (44 Mhl). The volume of juices production in 2015 represents 5,4 Mhl. The share of PDO and PGI wines is less than the half of total production (48%).
The ranking of countries with smaller scale of wine production:
- Croatia: 943,000 hl [+12%/2014, -31% /average of 5 years (5yr avg)]
- Rep. Czech: 740,000 hl (+38%/2014, +46% /5yr avg)
- Slovenia: 847,000 hl (+21%/2014, + 13% /5yr avg)
- Slovakia: 360,000 hl (+26%/2014, + 18% /5yr avg)
In Greece, although this year's production was disappointing, some of the best known Greek wines such as Santorini, Samos and Limnos (from regions where the harvest has been completed) have an excellent quality. According to Agrotypos' reportage, especially in Santorini despite the fact that the production was reduced, the quality of wine is excellent. This has an impact on prices too, which are on an average of more than 2.70 euros per kilo (last year was 1.90 euros per kilo). There is also positive result for the known wines of Samos and Limnos. Especially in Limnos the production was doubled compared to last year (in contrast with the rest of Greece), and the prices are increased too. According to data of the Greek Ministry of Agriculture for the period 2015/2016, this year's production is the smallest since 1990, although such a low production has not been recorded also before 1990. May this year's assessment is reduced by 5.36% than last year, but it is 12.28% less than the average of the last five years and 30.51% less than the average of the last decade.


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Spices Board chairman A. Jayathilak said signature stalls would be set up in overseas market in partnership with private investors.
"The stalls will help us to gain access to more international markets and further promote the popularity of Indian spices abroad," he said.
The board is an autonomous body responsible for the export promotion of the scheduled spices and production development of some of them such as cardamom. It functions under the commerce and industry ministry.
Pointing out that the board has chalked out a major expansion plan for the retail stores, the chairman noted that it had already set up a few signature stalls within India.
Flavourit Spice Trading Ltd (FSTL), a Spices Board enterprise, has invited expression of interest from prospective investors to take up franchises for 'Spices India' signature stalls in foreign markets.
"The stalls are part of the board's efforts to bring about systematic diversification and sustainability of the industry," said Jayathilak.
Apart from whole spices, the store also has a line of lifestyle and personal care products such as beauty creams, clearness oils, bathing bars, shower gels and shampoos all flavoured with spices.
Spice-flavoured chocolates are added attractions.
The FSTL is currently offering three different franchisee operating models: COFO (Company-Owned, Franchise-Operated), FOFO (Franchise-Owned, Franchise-Operated) and SIS (Shop-in-Shop) retail concept wherein retail stores share a dedicated space for Spices Board products.


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Fans of the reality television show "The Real Housewives of Pittsburgh" were in for a huge shock recently when Kelly Hyland and Christi Lukasiak who are two of the most favorite characters on this show, broke out into a terrible fight. In fact, their fight is something that has disturbed fans to the extent of not making them want to watch this show again in the near future.
The verbal fight between the two dance moms became extremely ugly with the two of them using the "F" word against each other live on national television. Indeed it was not only a bad example for them to set for the youth of America, but also something which put their fans off probably for good. Kelly and Christi are two very attractive lovely women whose entertaining behavior on the show makes fans all over the country hook into it whenever it is aired on television. This public fight of theirs has really spoiled the TRP of the show with little chance of viewers watching it again as frequently as they normally would.
There are of course a number of reasons as to why the fight broke out. Both Christi and Kelly have their versions to tell the media regarding the fight that transpired. While these versions are certainly believable, but they do little to change the bad feeling they have left for the hundreds of American viewers.
According to Christi, the fact that Kelly had failed to call her up a few minutes after the last show was aired on television last week is what led to the fight breaking out between the two of them. Christi says that she has been one of the biggest fans of Kelly's dance moves and that the Hyland family dance team was one that she had been supporting for a long time. Christi also said that she would sit outside in the parking lot always only because of Kelly because she liked how the two of them could spend time there. Yes it was Kelly not calling Christi up that led to this disastrous incident on television that viewers of the show will remember for years to come. The use of the "F" word was something that was particularly uncalled for, and was what made the whole fight seem so ugly to the audience that viewed it.
Kelly however told the media that she did call Christi up and cannot gauge the reason behind Christi's behavior. It is evident of course that one of these two housewives is lying, but it is hard to tell who. Both had such popular personalities before the camera and were successful in drawing a large number of fans over to them in a short span of time but this is now all gone. Yes Kelly and Christi have damaged their chances of gaining anywhere in terms of popularity on this reality show again in the near future.


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Today, I'm jumping in with my own little summer fashion post for Shelly's "Summer Go-To Looks" for Spiel the Beans! I usually don't write about fashion, but I couldn't resist this prompt: summertime has such fun, bright styles, which are my faves!
My favorite summer looks must have a pop of color, a fun pattern, and must be something I love and feel beautiful in:
This is sums up my everyday look: halfway between dressing up and yoga pants. My sweet spot is definitely a little more dressy - it's due to wearing scrubs (aka work pajamas) at my job at the dental office everyday for 10 years. I'm just making up for lost time by being a little more dressy most days!
I absolutely love these mint polka dot shorts! I actually have two pairs - the other is in navy blue. These mint ones are such a fun, bright color. I also love them because you just can't beat polka dots in my book. They're my absolute favorite pattern! And the embroidered neckline on this white top is so pretty and delicate too. I just love how this goes together and how I feel in it.
I love, love, love pencil skirts! A jean one is perfect for everyday wear for me. I love pairing it with my fitted graphic tee of a Bible verse, green polka dot headwrap, and teal sandals. It's such a cute, and comfortable summer look!
My hiking, walking, bicycling, let's-get-out-and-move wear: a Notre Dame tee, jean shorts, and gray and hot pink Nikes. I hate to admit it, but I really don't exercise so this is as close as it gets to work out clothes for me!
My favorite go-to outfit for church is a light dress, cute sandals, beautiful jewelry, and a colorful cardigan. I first bought this dress in black (see the next outfit!), and I loved it so much, I bought it in two more colors! (Anyone else do this?! I think a third of my wardrobe are repeats but in different colors. And my shoes too...as you can see every sandal in this post is the same but different colors!)
This is one of my new favorite color combos: salmon pink, bright blue, and gold. Here's a little closer detail:
Now, I know this is supposed to be about summer looks and here I have a long sleeved cardigan styled with this summer dress. Well, they pump up the AC at Mass so I need long sleeves so I don't freeze!
Here's another church (or date night) favorite of mine. The best part about this dress (and the blue one above) is that it's fairly neutral. I can add almost any pop of color I want to it. I have cardigans, headbands, and jewelry in so many different colors that it is so fun to change up the look of this piece!
It's bright, it's fun, it's pink, it has polka dots - need I say more?! This is my #1 favorite summer outfit!
I'm definitely not a fashion expert, but I've had fun stepping up my game in the outfit department over the past 2 years. And it's all thanks to Shelly, Becky, and Tiffany! They've really been a great inspiration to me and have taught me a lot. Thanks, ladies, for helping me to look and feel beautiful in what I wear everyday!
What are your favorite summer go-to looks?
I'm looking forward to getting some more inspiration from your fave summer styles!
Ok, on to the party!
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Check out the Tuesday Talk guidelines here,
and check out everyone's features on Pinterest here!
Tuesday Talk! by Justine at Full Hands, Full Heart
(One of our new hosts! Thanks for sharing the love and welcoming her this past week!)
You guys share so many great posts every week! It is so hard to choose only a few to feature. So throughout the week, I will also be sharing more of your best posts on my Facebook page too. I'd love for you to follow along!
One thing before you link up - if you want the opportunity to be featured, please make sure there is a link back to at least one of the hosts in your post, sidebar, or party page. (You can grab the button below!) Your lovely blog is being presented on our 13 blogs - we would love it if you would return the favor and link back to us! Thank you!!!
I'm linking up with these awesome parties, especially with
Shelly and Katy for Spiel the Beans with the Queens
(which is on Tuesdays twice a month)!
You can check out the schedule of prompts for the rest of the year here!
(which is on Tuesdays twice a month)!
You can check out the schedule of prompts for the rest of the year here!


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This is Jean-Marc's favorite dessert. It's quick and easy and the ingredients are almost always on hand.
2 Cups fruit, either fresh or canned and drained
60 grams of flour
30 to 50 grams of sugar (depends on your taste)
1/3 litre of milk (I usually use non-fat, but whole of course tastes great)
2 eggs
1 or 2 Tablespoons of liqueur in a flavor that complements the fruit. I find an almond flavor goes perfectly with peaches or cherries.
Blend eggs, then add flour and sugar. Slowly stir in milk to make a smooth batter. Add the liqueur.
Lightly butter or spray with Pam a medium baking dish and throw the fruit on the bottom. Pour the batter to cover and bake in a 350° oven until a tester in the center comes out clean (approximately 35 to 40 minutes. You can sprinkle a little sugar on the top and put it under the broiler for a minute or two to if you like.
This recipe can easily be doubled, and I find that I almost always have to do that.
Tomatoes Provençales
This is a terrific and simple side dish. It's amazing with good tomatoes, and can actually save the kind of bland tomatoes that we're often forced to buy at the market.
Enough tomatoes that, once cut in half, will cover the bottom of a baking dish.
Halve tomatoes and scoop out the seeds. Place them cut side up in the baking dish. Drizzle a good quality olive oil over the top. Sprinkle with salt, crushed garlic (or even garlic powder) herbes de provence or a mixture of rosemary & thyme, and a small amount of sugar. Sprinkle lightly with bread crumbs.
Bake in a 350° for two to three hours until the tomatoes collapse on themselves and start to carmelize. These go well with almost any kind of meat or chicken dish, and are even terrific cold in a sandwich.