text:
A guide to valuing your property
Valuing property – an Estate Agent can do it, So why can't you?
After all, when it comes to valuing property, an Estate Agent is, in fact, giving their opinion on how much they think your property is worth and, let's be honest, will probably keep their opinion in line with how they can gain the most from the sale of your property.
Ultimately, there is the possibility of an Estate Agent undervaluing your property for a quick sale, or overvaluing it to win you over as a customer.
Although most reputable Estate Agents will, of course, give a well-researched, informed valuation of your property, so you can really be sure of your property's value, here's a guide to valuing your property from Quick Move Now.
The value of your property is down to your buyer and their mortgage lender:
When it comes down to it, the value of your property depends on what your buyer will pay for it.
Unfortunately, the value of your property does not depend on how much you paid for it, nor how much you have spent on it, and is neither based on what you would like to receive for it.
In fact, the value of your property relies on what your buyer will pay for it. Overvaluing a property will actual deter potential buyers. In fact, homeowners in England and Wales over-estimated the value of their property on average by 6.8 percent in 2016.
In addition to what your buyer will pay for your property, the value of your property is based on what the buyer's mortgage lender thinks it is worth.
The price decided upon by the buyer's mortgage lender will be based upon recent sales of similar properties and what price these properties are advertised at. The valuation of the property will also be confirmed by a structural survey later in the process.
When valuing property, look at what has sold recently in your area:
The value of your property will be similar to what surrounding properties near to you have sold for recently. Therefore, it can be beneficial to do some research, perhaps referring to the Land Registry, as to how much similar properties around your house are selling for.
It should be noted, however, the Land Registry releases house prices 3 months after the sale, and therefore it is best to only refer to properties sold in the last 6 months for your most accurate valuation on your own property.
Look at what similar properties are selling at:
Have a look at similar properties to yours in your area and see what they are being advertised at, that will give you an idea as to how much you could put your property on the market for.
Some factors to consider when valuing property:
What can your property offer over and above other properties? Or what 'luxuries' does it feature?
Perhaps you have three or four double bedrooms? An en-suite? A large garden, a garage, off-street parking or require a parking permit? All of these additional features will add value to your property.
Ultimately, when deciding on the value of your property, you should compare other property prices sold within the last six months in your area, and compare your property with them.
For example, you may have seen a property similar to yours, on sale for £220,000, however, your property is in a better location, further from the road with better views. Therefore, you could value your property at a higher price.
Don't tell your estate agent how much your property is worth:
Never declare to an estate agent how much you think your property is worth or how quickly you need to sell and move. Simply take their valuation, and make your decision based on a few opinions.
There is no harm in having a visit from multiple estate agents. After all, you don't want to be put under unnecessary pressure from pushy estate agents. Moving house is life-changing enough, without any added stresses and strains!
Not sure which agents to us? There are some great comparison websites available like Get An Agent, where you can read real customer reviews based on previous experience.


text:
Enda Kenny and HSE stop the abuse of Anthony Kletzander in Ireland
This petition made change with 1,421 supporters!
Enda Kenny and HSE stop the human rights abuse of Anthony Kletzander in Ireland
Anthony was an active member of our local community and well known by the people in Raheny. He was actively involved in his local church, library, and a gym member for years. He attended university, dined in the local universities and public places and enjoyed regular visits from his parents, three younger siblings, grandfather and extended relatives. For 3 years Anthony had independent living with personal assistants to support him living in a home of his own near his family and friends. He was living the life he wanted to live, as any man in his twenties.
In 2013 HSE refused to continue to support him in Independent Living in a home of his own, for reasons that they will not share with us. Anthony was forced into institutional care and residential homes: initially Redwood in Co. Meath Ireland and then being transported by Nua HealthCare in Co Kildare Ireland, over 150 kilometres round trip from the family home to a unit in Nua Health Care. Last week Nua moved Anthony to another Nua unit against our wishes so Anthony has been re homed three times in the past year causing serious damage to Anthony. We his parents only learnt that Anthony had been rehomed in the Nua service when his mother and a friend went to visit him at his original Nua unit or "house". This human rights abuse is totally unacceptable. He is now socially isolated from his family and local community.
Although Anthony has been institutionalised for almost a year, due to the fact that staff are not trained up in Anthony's communication Anthony is unable to make any phone contact with us whatsoever and Nua staff do not bother phoning us. We found a company to train staff in Anthony's communication, but that offer was ignored. So Anthony remains effectively silenced. Because our visit is 150 km round trip we spend every minute of every day worrying about his health and safety.
Anthony is becoming more and more fearful and has been in hospital three times by emergency ambulance times because of treatment at the residential homes/institutions. He tells us to tell the institution to stop giving him the medication ( he was medication free before being institutionalised but is now being forced medication against his and us his parents wishes, Nua are fully aware of our objections) . He asks us constantly to get him out so he can have his own life through independent living again, and be close to the people he loves. We all want him back under the care of our family GP of more than 8 years who genuinely cares about the health and safety of our son Anthony.
An organisation in Dublin has offered to arrange support for Anthony live in a home of his own again, and live independently, but HSE refuse to discuss this option-despite it being what Anthony wants and despite having an organisation ready to offer the support to make this happen.
Hearing Anthony constantly asking that he be returned to Independent Living, to live near to his family, who he does not see often enough-to be released from institutionalisation is heart breaking for us as a family to hear. We have always listened and been led by Anthony and we feel extremely helpless in helping Anthony to live the life he chooses. To be constantly knocked back by the HSE and the institutions is extremely difficult for us.
The petition is for Enda Kenny and HSE to call an open meeting to discuss returning Anthony to the life he wants. The meeting should take place before the end of October 2014. The meeting should be attended by the support organisation offering to support Anthony, by Anthony ( with his communication aid), his family, Anthony's chosen advocate Joe Whittaker, and the press. The meeting will be to discuss the arrangements to return Anthony to independent living, to his family and his community to allow him to resume his life, as any 26 year old man.
Linda Kletzander (Mother)
Joe Whittaker (Advocate)
Trending petitions
Today: Joe Whittaker is counting on you
Joe Whittaker needs your help with "Enda Kenny, T.D: Enda Kenny and HSE stop the abuse of Anthony Kletzander in Ireland". Join Joe Whittaker and 1,420 supporters today.
Today: Joe Whittaker is counting on you
Joe Whittaker needs your help with "Enda Kenny, T.D: Enda Kenny and HSE stop the abuse of Anthony Kletzander in Ireland". Join Joe Whittaker and 1,420 supporters today.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
I've gotten to spend a good portion of my day figuring out how to do something I think is pretty basic. I want to stream both my screen and my camera at the same time. I want to do it while I'm walking around. I want to layer the two streams together. Since I'm on an awesome phone I'd like to swap between front and rear facing cameras. I'd like to swap between the screen being the focus of the stream and whatever camera I have chosen.
Why is this so frigin hard? It appears there is no device that can accomplish this and instead we have to cobble together a bunch of technologies to make this work. Even pick one of the requirements above and things fall apart either at the device or in the app store once you start exploring software options.
iOS Options
On iOS you can do amazing things with video and overlays using software like Live: Air Solo. Thank god for this application because I thought I was going to have no solution for quickly switching between my cameras to capture the rapid action of Pokemon GO rare chasing. But iOS has limitations that prevent on device screen capture so streaming the screen will be impossible without an external device. There are lots of external options, but once I use them I'm tethered to some sort of Mac/PC device and now we are talking a lot of weight, power, etc... for a sufficiently long streaming experience.
iOS has further limitations in that you can't stream the video camera from a background application. You can register as a VoIP app but then you can only do audio apparently. Even Facetime cuts off the video as soon as you multi-task.
Android Options
On Android you can capture the screen pretty easily, but the remaining applications are a mess. I found not a single camera capture application that had the same quality as the iOS Live: Air Solo app. Most of them failed to even start recording and would instead just crash. Most would then fail to function properly after being restarted from the crash. I finally landed on an Android application that I have almost configured to properly work for Twitch called Bitstream. It also has screen capture support, but once I get everything cranking and I'm reviewing my stream I see a lot of hiccups and glitches so something isn't working quite right. Its hard to debug these issues due to the stream delays as well.
In the end there is no single device that meets my requirements (arguably an nVidia Shield should do this with its native Twitch streaming capability). I may be able to use Bitstream and switch between sources, but I won't be able to overlay them. That is the closest to a complete solution available without going the laptop option.
Laptop Options?
What would it take to go the laptop option? I need a laptop with a really long batter life and I probably need to have an external battery pack for it as well. I found the Mikegyver series of batteries that work with the Surface Pro series of tablets. This would be nice. Once you have the laptop going you can power your phone off the laptop, you can tether the laptop to the phone, you can mirror the screen onto the laptop and you can use something like OBS to do all of the compositing. You'll probably still end up using your laptops cameras in this configuration instead of your phone.
There is another option for laptops, BlueStacks, but does this work with a mobile game like Pokemon GO and can I walk around outside? It seems to use Fake GPS and other hacks to get it working. That isn't interesting. I want to be mobile, I want to be legit and I want to play the game for real.
Using a laptop is both expensive and heavy, but they appear to be the only quality options.
Why No Native Application?
I really have to ask why though. Is this such a new phenomenon that nobody has thought about how to build hardware and software that makes this possible? Streaming your video to an ingestion server has been around for at least a couple of years now and you'd think the build in applications would allow this. Streaming video from a background app, also seems like another basic capability. Finally, streaming your screen so you can show it to and help others.
I think its time for vendors to build in an application with basic RTMP support and the ability to broadcast from the screens, cameras and microphones present on the devices. Its an amazingly useful way to share your experiences, provide help/support and otherwise express yourself with your friends. Third parties aren't doing a great job so its a huge hole in the application ecosystem and streaming is being dominated by the desktop market when all of the interesting stuff is happening outside.
There are some inroads from app makers. A lot of services are building applications for their dedicated endpoints. Periscope from Twitter is actually quite a powerful application, but it doesn't interact with other services. Meerkat and UStream also seemed interesting, but were closed. At the end of the day I want to send it to the ingestion servers of my choosing and record for a duration of my choosing. Many of the services have limitations in all of these areas.
I'm going to keep running down applications and solutions to this problem. I'm not willing to give up just yet and I think there is a solution hidden somewhere. If you have ideas leave them in the comments.


text:
The sun is finally shining in Norway! I don't want to waste any minute because the beauties that I'm about to show you are perfect for those sunny days with long walks and luminous skin.
I'm really in the mood for that sunkissed glow, as you may have noticed from my previous blog posts and the new Urban Decay Summer 2016 Collection arrives right on time. I've been using their new base, highlighters and eye pencils for the past few weeks and I'm here to share with you my thoughts on them.
I have a few favourites but if I have to pick the one product I absolutely love, it would be the Urban Decay Naked Skin One & Done Hybrid Complexion Perfector SPF 20 which is no surprise for me, considering how much I like the Naked Skin Concealer (review here). I'm really picky when it comes to bases because I have combination skin that tends to look pretty shiny a couple of hours after applying foundation.
This product comes in 6 shades, I have it in Medium Light* and I can say it's perfect for me, it can actually work with variety of skin tones which is amazing. This is basically a multi-tasking cream that combines skincare benefits and protection with the coverage of sheer foundation. It's indeed really sheer and I love this idea for the warmer days but if you want a bit more coverage, you can simply use the Urban Decay Naked Skin One & Done as a primer. It just evens out the skin tone, blurs imperfections and makes everything look very smooth, it lasts all day, it feels and looks light on the skin. The finish isn't matte but isn't glowy either, I have to say I do need to powder from time to time during the day but it doesn't make me look super shiny. The formula is oil-free but with nourishing ingredients like peptides and vitamins, so I think it would work on any skin type. I haven't experienced any breakouts with this product which makes me really happy.
I haven't used the Naked Skin One & Done long enough to say if it really makes the pores look smaller and if it firms the skin but I definitely think my skin looks a bit more radiant.
Last but not least, I'm in love with the packaging because it's both, beautiful and travel-friendly. It comes in a sleek metallic tube with champagne and gunmetal ombré artwork, it's lightweight, it has a pump and contains 40 ml of product which is more than the usual for foundations.
You can find the Urban Decay Naked Skin One & Done in Norway for 325 kr.
We already know how amazing the Afterglow blush formula is, it's soft, finely milled, luxurious, creamy, blendable and simply stunning. Now we can enjoy the same formula in a highlighter form. If you like an intense glow that is still wearable and gorgeous, the next lines (and products) are for you.
The new Urban Decay Afterglow 8-hour Powder Highlighter comes in three shades: Sin* (a beautiful champagne shade and my personal favourite), Fireball* (pretty peach with pink shift shade) and Aura* (lovely iridescent light pink). I love how the formula never looks powdery and lasts all day, it looks really pretty and you can find the shade that looks best on your skin tone. The highlighters are pretty strong but the texture is so creamy that it feels easy to control the intensity, you can apply a sheer layer or you can build it up quite heavily without looking dry on the skin.
The case is stunning, you can actually see the shade through the fishnet "UD" cutout on the lid but the packaging still looks gorgeous. I honestly don't know how Urban Decay make their products packaging look so cool but also practical, it's amazing.
These highlighters retail for 260 kr in Norway.
I'm a big fan of Urban Decay pencils, I love their lip pencils and their eyeliners are so long-lasting and with such a great texture. For summer 2016, they've released a new 24/7 Waterline Eye Pencil in the shade Walk of Shame* (nude) and a new 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in the shade Heartless* (light frosted pink). They can be used in the waterline or as a brow bone highlight, the nude one can even play a concealer role. I have to admit, I don't reach for the icy pink one as much but I do like a bit of Walk of Shame* in my waterline to make me look more awake.
I believe you can see them in Norway at the price of 170 kr each.
As part of the collection, there are also new shades of the famous Naked Skin concealer which is great news and a couple Beached Bronzer shades that I still need to check out.
My two must-haves from this collection are the Naked Skin One & Done Hybrid Complexion Perfector SPF 20*, I simply adore that with this product I don't feel like I'm wearing any make-up and the Afterglow 8-hour Powder Highlighter in the shade Sin*. Have you picked up something from the Urban Decay Summer 2016 Collection?
*PR Samples


text:
Lesson Planning: The Key to Be a Good Teacher
Lesson planning is an important step in the teaching process. A well-planned lesson or a lecture can keep students' interest and help achieve the objectives of the teaching activity. You may be a natural 'planner' in teaching, i.e. you may… Continue Reading


text:
Online Community of Zenith Builders and Flyers
Is it necessary to install either a mechanical fuel pump or electric fuel pump in a 750 Stol fuel system? Or both.
Views: 557
Depending on type engine, you will normally have at least a primary and auxiliary fuel pump; auxiliary usually electric. Carbureted and fuel injected engines fuel systems are different.
With our Viking engine (direct fuel injection), we have two electric fuel pumps inside the header tank supplying low pressure fuel to the engine driven fuel pump.
Ditto Loren's remarks. There is no standard fuel system for the STOL 750 - it depends on the engine, not the airframe. My 750 has a Jabiru 3300. The engine came with a factory installed mechanical fuel pump for the Bing carburetor and did not require an additional fuel pump. I've since changed-out the Bing for a Sonex/AeroInjector TBI carb and it doesn't use a fuel pump at all - strictly gravity-fed and works great. I like the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) simplicity ... gravity is always "ON" ! ;>)
Fuel injected engines will definitely have fuel pumps and also return lines to either a header tank or the fuel tanks. Therefore, you definitely want to determine what engine you will use in time to install the appropriate plumbing during the build.
John, that Sonex/AeroInjector sounds like a nice improvement. One exception to requiring a fuel return line for fuel injected engines is Viking's new Honda direct fuel injected engines, such as the Viking 130.
Yes, the AeroInjector is dirt-simple, yet it provides a mixture control, which I did not have with the Bing. I also saved several pounds in the conversion and that helps useful load. I have found that with this gravity-fed system it is critical that there be no high spots in the fuel line firewall-forward so as to prevent vapor bubbles being trapped and causing "burps" or hesitation. So as not to creep this thread, the details of the install are here.
Didn't know the direct injected engines don't require a fuel return line - that greatly simplifies the plumbing!
when using the 912 series engines I never use the in-line elect. pumps for stand - by or emerg., because they are 1/4" pumps and have a back check valve that hinders gravity feed to the mech. pump . no matter how you plumb it it will need a check valve , also if used WITH the elect. pump they CAN over power the needles in the BING carbs causing flooding when in a critical phase ..BOB
I just noticed didn't write im installing a lycoming 0-235. I figured I might put an engine driven pump no problem, but wasn't sure if an electric pump was necessary. Facet I believe makes pumps with an internal bypass in case of failure, so there is the flow issue solved.
I modded my fuel system from the 701 plans system some time ago cause it wouldn't reliably gravity feed to the carbs with the small lines and plans routing. Went to 3/8 lines out of the tanks, forward about 6" above the windows into facet pumps(3/8) then down the windshield braces to a L R OFF valve on the glare shield, down thru the glare shield and out the firewall to a gascolator and forward to the engine driven pump. I got reliable(very) gravity flow at the carbs now but still use the electric backup pump on takeoff and go around. The backups cause I have had 2 engine driven pump failures and also it's possible on my plane to get the engine driven pump above the fuel tank outlet in the climb thus preventing gravity flow. I have the low pressure model that makes about 5 psi, about what the mech pump puts out. I've run this system a couple hundred hours and it's been perfectly satisfactory...I'm wondering about the "back check valve" you mentioned being in the pumps. Would you tell us more about that? I been running those pumps for decades and no problems with gravity feed thru them at all. And what's this about we will need a check valve no matter how we plumb it...why is a check valve needed?
Joe Spencer
On both the mech pump failures I turned the backup electric pump on and got pressure back. W/O the backup the failure would have resulted in an off field landing both times. That was on the original plans system design. After the 2nd incident I went to the current system. I also got full control over fuel management now with the tank selector valve. Works good!
Theoretically, you won't need a pump of any kind with a carburetored O-235. You will need 3/8 lines and you will have to insure the line routing doesn't cause any feed problems. Typical to consider is such as the lines if routed forward along the top of the windows, will the line gravity feed over the high spot at the forward corner of the window where it meets the windshield (while in the climb). There's all sorts of ways to screw up fuel systems and they have always said that's the number one reason for engine failures in homebuilts. You gotta do it right, don't build in any traps for yourself
Have fun
some of the Facet pumps have an internal check valve so in case of failure, fuel flow is not blocked. If not then a parallel fuel line is needed to bypass the pump. At least so I thought.
I'm already running 3/8th lines from the wings, haven't plumbed the fuselage yet. thanks alot
How does the check valve work? By that, I mean, all the check valves I'm familiar with are designed to block flow in a specific direction...how does one PREVENT flow blockage?
I've done numerous gravity flow checks thru facet pumps and haven't found a problem yet. AFAIK, the facet is pretty much the standard pump used in Van's RVs. I used to be active there and never heard of a check valve in a facet.
OK I just googled the facet specifications. Looks like you guys have got the check valve thing backwards. The only one with a check valve is the one for diesel operations used to prevent drain back and loss of prime. All the other ones are stated as NOT being fitted with a check valve to allow flow in case of pump failure. That makes sense.
Wonder how THAT got started...another one of those things that folks hear and pass along not realizing it's incorrect. Well, one of the good things about forums, huh. We learn.
I'm still wondering why Bob says we have to have a check valve no matter how we plumb it.
looked further and found this link that says built in check valve but only on some models. Looking at the Spruce catalog most don't have a check valve. Believe I got the 40108. 3/8 flare and no check valve
Hi Jeff,
On my CH701sp, I got a Subaru EA-81 with an AeroInjector from Sonex. Since the engine/AI only requires 1.5 - 2 pounds of fuel pressure, no fuel pumps are required. I initially equipped the plane with an electric pump (with a backup) and had to install a fuel pressure restrictor because the pumps were feeding 4-5 pounds pressure... The pumps were flooding the AeroInjector and I turned them OFF after initial startup anyway. Finally, I got rid of the pumps, pressure restrictor and only use GRAVITY and it works great.
Always depends on the type of fuel delivery your engine requires... If your engine is low pressure fed, no pumps required...If high pressure then, you got no choice.
Ch701sp, Ch750


text:
Special Offer: Click here to Like us on Facebook and save 10%!
A new study from Cancer Research UK says that more men are dying from skin cancer than women, despite similar numbers being diagnosed with the disease. Each year in the UK, malignant melanoma kills 1,300 of the 6,200 men who develop it compared to 900 of the 6,600 women… and the gap is expected to widen.
Biological Difference?
Professor Julia Newton-Bishop, a Cancer Research UK dermatologist, suspects that there are biological differences and that women are more immune to melanoma. "We're working on research to better understand why men and women's bodies deal with their melanomas in different ways."
"We think it is something to do with the immune system rather than hormones because pre- and post-menopausal fare the same," she added. In addition, German researchers have identified a gene that makes men more susceptible to melanoma.
Delayed Diagnosis
Other health experts say that the difference is because men delay seeing their doctor and thus are diagnosed more advance staged melanoma. Whereas women most often develop skin cancer on their arms and legs, men often develop the cancer on their back, making it more difficult to spot.
"Asking your partner to check your back is a good idea," said Prof Newton-Bishop. Male incidence rates are now more than five times higher than they were 30 years ago - rising from 2.7 per 100,000 to 17.2 per 100,000.
If you notice any changes in your skin, go see your doctor. Detect the early stages of melanoma by knowing the ABCDEs. Wear sunscreen with a SPF of at least 30 and generously re-apply every 2 hours. It's not about the SPF number, but about how often and how much you re-apply your sunscreen. Order the SunBuddy® - Back Lotion Applicator to help you apply sunscreen to your back and to other hard to reach areas of your body.
Past studies have shown that taking Omega-3 fatty acids, or commonly known as fish oil, have numerous health benefits such as preventing cardiovascular disease, reducing cholesterol, improving mental health by combating depression and ADHD, reducing plaque buildup and blood blots and arteries, and preventing skin acne and wrinkles. As if these benefits weren't already impressive enough, we may soon add preventing oral and skin cancers to that list.
New evidence has recently been published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition by a research team from The University of Manchester in the United Kingdom demonstrating how taking omega-3 supplements may help to protect against skin cancer.
Researchers found that taking a regular dose of omega-3 fatty acids boosted skin immunity to the sun by lowering immunosuppression or sunlight-induced suppression of the immune system. Thus, our bodies are able to fight skin cancer and infection more effectively.
Researchers analyzed the effects of omega-3 fatty acids on a group of 79 healthy volunteers. The volunteers took a daily four-gram dose of omega-3 and then were exposed to either 8, 15, or 30 minutes of summer midday sun from a special light machine. This supplemented group was then compared to a second placebo group.
Immunosuppression was 50 percent in lower in the participants who took the omega-3 supplement and were exposed to 8 and 15 minutes of sun compared to placebo taking participants.
"This study adds to the evidence that omega-3 is a potential nutrient to protect against skin cancer... they suggest that a continuous low level of chemoprevention from taking omega-3 could reduce the risk of skin cancer over an individual's lifetime."
– Dr. Lesley Rhodes, lead study author
Another group of UK researches from Queen Mary, University of London, grew lab cultures of several different skin lines – malignant oral and skin cancers, pre-malignant cells, and normal skin and oral cells. When researchers carried out in vitro tests by adding fatty acids into the cell cultures, results showed that omega-3 fatty acids induced cell death in malignant and pre-malignant cells while not affecting normal cells.
"We found that the omega-3 fatty acid selectively inhibited the growth of the malignant and pre-malignant cells at doses which did not affect the normal cells."
– Prof. Kenneth Parkinson
Unfortunately, our bodies cannot synthesize omega-3 and most of us don't get enough of it in our diets. So, it's a good idea to take a supplement. Nutrition experts recommend a daily intake of 1,200 to 2,400 mg (combined DHA and EPA omega-3 fatty acids).
Here are some foods that contain high levels of omega-3
We hope to hear more on this topic soon!


text:
There are no products listed under this category.
Put your unique style on all of your favorite and most valuable items, and select home accessories to make any room your own. Bubblegum Basics provides personalization with hundreds of colors and designs to a wide variety of bags, décor items, electronics accessories and more. Add your initials, your name, or even a photo to the items you see every day.
Children and adults alike enjoy personalized and monogrammed items for their favorite things. Elegant text and chevron, lattice, Damask, and strip patterns in your favorite colors are ideal for adults, while sports themes, animals, polka dots and other fun designs will captivate kids. Make sure your son or daughter's new electronics stay protected with a durable, personalized case, find a thoughtful gift for the toughest person on your list, or treat yourself to your own special item.
Start with the product of your choosing and select from a long list of different patterns, colors, texts and designs to start customizing. All items show only a selection of colors that can be changed. Find the item you need or start personalizing a distinctive gift for a friend or loved one.
There are no products listed under this category.


text:
There are a lot of Android games that can be played offline or without an internet connection. This article features 7 such new Offline strategy games for Android. Strategy games are based on fantasy worlds where players usually defend or attack the base of their enemy. These strategy games can be played in multiplayer mode and story (offline) mode. So let's begin with our list of best offline strategy games for android.
Offline strategy games for android
1: Crashlands
Crashlands is an adventure and strategy game based on an alien planet with amazing creatures. You can play this game without any internet connection. However, you will have to pay $7 (450 Rs) to download this game on your Android phone.
2: Planescape
Planescape is a role playing game based on exploring planes and surviving combat. You will battle with strange and alien creatures, engage in rich dialogue, and explore the dark and dangerous environment. Planescape can be easily said as one of the best offline strategy games for android. Download it for 10$ and play it offline.
3: Xcom enemy within
XCOM Enemy within is an extension of the popular strategy game named XCOM Enemy Unknown. It has a multiplayer as well as a story mode for offline playing. XCOM will take you over to unknown worlds with exciting maps and enhanced weapons. This game is quite enjoyable and will not disappoint you.
4: Plague INC
Plague Inc is a mix of strategy and realistic simulation. You will have to destroy the planet by spreading highly toxic plague. This game is one of the most downloaded and highest rated offline strategy games for android. The gameplay features 12 different disease type, hyper realistic world and 50 countries to destroy.
5: Heroes and castle
Heroes and Castle is a classic strategy game which will test your defense, attack and warfare strategy. You can summon huge armies of dwarves, Archers, Pikemen, Giants, Catapults, Mages etc. to attack or defend your flank. It can be played online as well as offline.
6: Big little farmer
Big little farmer is an offline strategy game that can be played without any internet connection. You will have to build big farms in cities and harvest crops, raise animals and livestocks and fulfill orders. This game is available as free to play on the google Play store.
7: Minecraft pocket edition
Enjoy the classic game of Minecraft on your Android phone. Minecraft will take you over to random worlds, where you have to build your own amazing things from the simplest of homes to the grandest of castles.
We hope you will enjoy these Offline strategy games for android. Also have a look at 10 best android games with controller support.


text:
Dwayne and I have just finished the multiplayer mode on Portal 2 for the PS3. I had played with my brother and my sister back before I moved, and I hadn't realized we hadn't completed the game. I've already played through single player mode, and I plan on playing through again. It's a great game; it makes you feel more intelligent just for playing it. For simply being a puzzle game, the plot is very in-depth, and it's highly fascinating as well.
I love how there are the two game modes – single player and multiplayer. It's not just going through the single player mode with another person tagging along; since it's a series of puzzles, that would have defeated the purpose. In multiplayer mode, you have to work together because it's not possible to complete the puzzles with only one person (unless you were cheating and using two controllers, and maybe not even then because a lot of them require timing). I also love how it isn't just the levels are re-done, but the plot stays the same; it's like two completely separate games. It's extremely well done, and I'm definitely not the first person to say I hope to god they make a Portal 3.
With that being said, has anyone else seen the (ages old) Portal Engagement Level Video? It's very sweet. Here's a video for those of you who don't know:
<iframe width="640″ height="360″ src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/o8SdYz7cq04?rel=0″ frameborder="0″ allowfullscreen>
Anyways, what's your favorite video game? I may play another soon, but for now, this one is my favorite.


text:
Budget Battles
Medicaid Work Rules Approved for South Carolina
Chart of the Day: Drug Price Plans Compared
Watchdog Questions $6.7 Billion in Medicare Payments
House Passes Pelosi's Sweeping Drug Bill
Shocking Health Care Statistic of the Day
Ready to Rumble: How Pelosi's Drug Bill Sets Up Dems for 2020
Increasing Number of Americans Delay Medical Care Due to Cost: Gallup
Medicaid Work Rules Approved for South CarolinaBy Michael Rainey
The Trump administration on Thursday approved South Carolina's request to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients. Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid...
Watchdog Questions $6.7 Billion in Medicare PaymentsBy Michael Rainey
Health insurance companies in the Medicare Advantage program have received billions in extra payments after making adjustments to their patient charts – changes that the Department of Health and...
Congressional Negotiators Strike Spending Deal to Avoid a Pre-Christmas Shutdown
Congressional appropriators have reportedly reached a deal "in principle" to fund the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year and avert a potential shutdown at the end of next week. The...
Judge Blocks Trump Plan to Divert $3.6 Billion in Military Funds to Border Wall
A federal judge in Texas on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration's plan to divert $3.6 billion in military funds toward construction of barriers along the border with Mexico. District Court Judge...
$738 Billion Defense Bill Authorizes Space Force and New Benefits for Federal WorkersBy Michael Rainey
It looks like Space Force has earned its wings. The leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees announced late Monday an agreement on the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, which...
The Terrible Cost of the War in Afghanistan
The war in Afghanistan is the longest armed conflict in U.S. history, and throughout the 18 years of fighting, U.S. officials have publicly said they were making progress. Yet a new investigative...
The Fiscal Challenge for the Next Recession
The federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2019 was nearly $1 trillion. "In the next downturn, don't be surprised if this number hits $2 trillion," writes Nick Timiraos, The Wall Street Journal's...
Is Trump's $28 Billion Bailout Paying Farmers Too Much?By Michael Rainey
The Trump administration is spending $28 billion to bail out farmers hurt by the president's trade war with China – a huge sum that some experts say overestimates the economic losses inflicted by the...
New Trump Food Stamp Rule Will Cut 700,000 from ProgramBy Michael Rainey
The White House said Wednesday that it has finalized a rule that will tighten work requirements for participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The new rule could result...
Navy Awards Largest Shipbuilding Contract EverBy Michael Rainey
The U.S. Navy awarded a contract Monday worth more than $22 billion to build nine new attack submarines. The agreement with General Dynamics Electric Boat includes an option for a 10 th sub, which...
A Third Round of Farm Bailouts?
President Trump's trade wars are hurting U.S. farmers, but Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue is working to keep them from getting more frustrated even as he promotes President Trump's agenda, The...
A Dam Big Problem
A more than two-year-long investigation by the Associated Press has identified 1,688 dams across 44 states and Puerto Rico that are in poor or unsatisfactory condition and could result in life-...
Sanders, Buttigieg Release Plans for Veterans AffairsBy The Fiscal Times Staff
Bernie Sanders unveiled on Monday a proposal to expand services provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Among numerous policy details in the proposal, Sanders said he would: Fill 50,000...
Congress Wants to Push Shutdown Deadline into December
The House will vote the week of November 18 on a short-term spending bill intended to avert a government shutdown later that week, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said in a letter to...
Buttigieg's $1 Trillion Plan for Free Tuition, Child Care and HousingBy Michael Rainey
Democratic presidential contender Pete Buttigieg released on Friday more than $1 trillion worth of proposals that focus on education, housing and child care. The plans include: $700 billion for pre-K...
Budget Directory
- The Fiscal Times (6019) Apply The Fiscal Times filter
- Reuters (505) Apply Reuters filter
- The Washington Post (403) Apply The Washington Post filter
- CNBC (133) Apply CNBC filter
- Roll Call (130) Apply Roll Call filter
- Defense One (104) Apply Defense One filter
- Stateline (71) Apply Stateline filter
- Government Executive (34) Apply Government Executive filter
- Kaiser Health News (34) Apply Kaiser Health News filter
- Associated Press (33) Apply Associated Press filter
- Business Insider (29) Apply Business Insider filter
- TheWeek.com (17) Apply TheWeek.com filter
- Next-Gov (13) Apply Next-Gov filter
- The Conversation (12) Apply The Conversation filter
- Knowledge@Wharton (11) Apply Knowledge@Wharton filter
- The Associated Press (10) Apply The Associated Press filter
- The Business Insider (10) Apply The Business Insider filter
- Oilprice.com (9) Apply Oilprice.com filter
- Minyanville (6) Apply Minyanville filter
- ProPublica (5) Apply ProPublica filter
- News (5516) Apply News filter
- Partner (1092) Apply Partner filter
- Column (334) Apply Column filter
- Latest-News (120) Apply Latest-News filter
- Analysis (95) Apply Analysis filter
- Opinion (62) Apply Opinion filter
- Op-Ed (52) Apply Op-Ed filter
- Feature (36) Apply Feature filter
- Slideshow (11) Apply Slideshow filter
- Service (10) Apply Service filter
- Blog (3) Apply Blog filter
- Research (2) Apply Research filter
- Book Review (1) Apply Book Review filter
- Photo-Gallery (1) Apply Photo-Gallery filter
- Quick Hit (1) Apply Quick Hit filter
- Slideshow-Best (1) Apply Slideshow-Best filter


text:
Local pianist wins US prize
A Taiwanese pianist based in the US won the top prize at the San Antonio International Piano Competition on Saturday and was also honored for best performance of a Baroque work. Lin Lo-an (林洛安) pocketed US$15,000 for winning the competition's gold medal and earned the chance to perform a solo recital with the San Antonio Symphony in the future. Lin, who began practicing piano at the age of five, has made a name for herself with several high-profile performances, including one at the Kennedy Center in Washington in 2006 and an appearance at the National Concert Hall in Taipei in June this year. The Taiwanese native, who went to the US to pursue her musical education nine years ago, also represented the US at a concert with the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada, in 2007. She is currently enrolled in the Artist Diploma program for gifted musicians at the Yale School of Music.
Cross-strait talks on birds
A delegation from the Chongming Dongtan Birds Nature Reserve in Shanghai, China, will visit southern Taiwan from Saturday through Nov. 2 to promote exchanges on bird conservation, the Taijiang National Park said. It will be the first visit by officials from the world-class conservation area in China since a cooperation agreement on bird conservation and restoration was inked between the two sides in May this year, according to the park in Greater Tainan. The delegation will visit Sun Moon Lake (日月潭), Alishan (阿里山) and the wetlands in Tainan to observe black-faced spoonbills, which migrate to the island every year, park officials said. A former bird hunter, who is now considered a national treasure in China, will be part of the Chinese group, the officials said.


text:
A gas station near the customs post Kotlovka began to operate in Febuary 2015, at a distance of 1 km from the border with Lithuania. It was commissioned by the «SiFinance» company, a member of association «Turkish capital».
The station has a capacity of 500 refills per day. It is designed to provide a comfortable stay. The station is equipped with a store sized 200 m2. Also there is a car wash and a tire service. For the organization of border crossing the integration of the electronic queue function is planned. So there is a spacious parking capable to accommodate up to 250 trucks.


text:
SunGard Availability Services Outlines How Recovery in the Cloud Can Boost Hurricane Season Preparedness
Hurricane season brings into focus the need for companies to reexamine disaster recovery plans. SunGard Availability Services advises organizations to approach hurricane preparedness not as a reactive disaster recovery process but as the opportunity to manage a hurricane as a planned event. The plan process can benefit organizations not just on their worst day, in the wake of a disaster, but every day, by revealing critical gaps in the availability of production environments.
Unlike many other weather-related events, hurricanes have a relatively long warning time-frame, which can allow for the proactive relocation of people and corporate assets in advance of the storm rather than waiting for the worst to occur.
As part of hurricane preparedness planning, companies should examine the role cloud computing can play as a new platform for lower-cost applications recovery. "Infrastructure recovery is evolving to include a combination of physical, virtual and cloud components, allowing organizations to mix and match to meet
specific needs of the applications and systems being recovered," said Kelly Baig, director, product marketing at SunGard Availability Services. "Incorporating this expanded range of options makes it more critical than ever to be sure your recovery service provider has proven experience in handling real-life production operations along with designing high availability solutions and managing business continuity plans."
Additionally, recovery plans should include a process to guide operations in moving back to production systems from recovery sites following failures and disaster threats, such as after a hurricane passes.
"Many businesses fail to take into consideration the time it takes to move recovered applications back to a production environment following a disruption," said Ms. Baig. "Automation capabilities, and careful sequencing of data resynchronization and service restart, are essential in speeding this process and minimizing the impact on business users."
Among the other drivers behind the trend toward recovery in the cloud are:
- Cloud-based recovery services utilize a shared, not dedicated, IT infrastructure which can help reduce customer costs of having additional capacity available when it is needed.
- Cloud computing provides a service pricing model so companies can ramp up capacity as needed during a hurricane response, without incurring added CAPEX.
- Fully-managed recovery services on a cloud platform can help reduce the cost and burden of recovery planning and testing during a disaster.
- Recovery planning and testing can reveal critical gaps in production environments and help close those gaps for improved daily operations.
Posted: 09/01/2016 08:21:00
Posted: 12/05/2017 19:57:00
Posted: 03/24/2017 11:00:00
Posted: 06/20/2017 19:35:00


text:
Government and democracy must be clean, transparent and fair.
New Zealanders have the right to information used to make decisions that affect their lives, so we must make it easier for people to actively engage as citizens in our democracy.
This means cleaning up politics to ensure the influence of money is not allowed to distort our democratic system.
It also means increasing transparency, so New Zealanders know what is going on and who is influencing the decision-makers.
Specific Policy Points
Electoral Reform
- Maori fairly and effectively represented in Parliament through guaranteed representation
- Support Mixed Member Proportional (MMP)
- Support a fixed election date
Official Information Act
- Ensure the Ombudsman has the resources needed to respond to all OIA complaints in a reasonable timeframe, and greater powers to censure agencies for non-compliance or lack of co-operation
- Support legal responsibilities and penalties for public servants to keep good records and ensure staff training on proper implementation of OIA
- Introduce a statutory register of lobbyists
- Introduce guildelines for MPs on handling lobbying communications
Election Financing
- Initiate a review of the overall operation of campaign finance rules, including rules around donations and spending caps and non-political party election activities
- Introduce tigher limits on anonymous donations, place an annual limit of $35,000 on total donations from any single person or entity, and introduce a ban on overseas donations
Local Government
- Require Local Government to publish all resource consent applications and decisions, council minutes and order papers, and video of all council meetings and committee meetings
- Introduce a pecuniary interests register for councillors, similar to that used in parliament, and the source of all campaign donations over $500


text:
|Please note that the wiki page is under heavy development. It may be helpful to check back regularly... Thanks for you patience!
A new printing UI should give us better performance, more ease of use and overall more customer satisfaction. New features like the instant preview in a print dialog as well as unified N-Up printing for all applications will bring OOo's print experience more up to current standards. Additionally system integration can benefit by making use of native print dialogs (for which the MacOSX implementation will be the prime example). The development is done in the CWS printerpullpages.
Comments, questions or feedback is welcomed on the firstname.lastname@example.com mailing list.
The team working on the feature:
|E-Mail Address
|I-Team Lead
|Philipp Lohmann (PL)
Philipp Lohmann (PL)
|Quality Assurance
|Hasan Ilter (HI)
|User Experience
Christoph Noack
First let us see why we need a new print subsystem in OOo. Up to now printing for OOo's applications worked like this:
- the user clicks on File->Print
- a dialog pops up in which the user can enter the page range to be printed, the printer to be printed on, etc.
- the application evaluates the data from the dialog, starts a print job and prints each page consecutively. After the last page is printed, the application finishes the print job.
This works but has some major drawbacks on the Mac platform:
- On Mac the printed range has to be known before the native print dialog (usage of which is a requirement on this platform) gets started. Even when printing without a dialog the number of pages has to be known before the print job starts. However the system dependent print implementation cannot know this page range, because it is only known to the application.
- The Mac print system then requests individual pages to be printed. These need not be in order or each page be printed only once due to the fact that when using the native print dialog a preview gets shown. To achieve this the Mac print system requests the current page to be previewed be printed. This is completely different to OOo's current print model.
- The current workaround on the Mac is to "print" all pages of a document, but not output to the actual printer but keep a memory copy of the printed pages. These can then in the real print job be requested by the system in random order and as often as needed. This solution has obvious performance and memory footprint drawbacks
So for at least the Mac platform we need a more flexible print solution. This solution should have the following features:
- pull instead of push pages: the print subsystem pulls pages a needed from the application, not the application pushes a number of pages to the print subsystem. On systems where printing is push based (Windows, Unix) the push behavior can be easily satisfied by an adaptor that pulls all pages and pushes each to the system consecutively.
- Provide a print preview in the new dialog: the user should be provided with a preview of what his document will look like when printed out. This preview should take into account all available application specific print options which can up to now be accessed by the "Options..." button in the print dialog.
- Be able to use native print dialogs and embed our print options into them, this benefits system integration.
- Reuse existing technology when possible to keep the implementation effort low
Based on these requirements the following new model should be implemented:
- printing migrates to a "pull" model where the print system pulls pages as required from the application.
- A new generic (that is universal on all systems) print dialog gets implemented that features the entry possibilities of the old dialog as well as new features namely:
- a print preview
- all application specific print options (which are hidden on the "Options..." dialog in the old print dialog)
- N-Up printing
Scope of the Work
|In Scope
|Out of Scope
Analysis of the Current State of Printing (OpenOffice 3.1)
Printing Features and Options
Source Data
Currently, there are many options in OpenOffice.org with regard to printing. When looking at the technical constraints (e.g. native dialogs vs. system independent dialog, application settings vs. operating system settings), the space restrictions, ... it seems to make sense to have a look at the current options. Is each option really necessary, can it be well understood? Most of the data is currently provided in several Calc documents which get (hopefully) updated regularly.
- File:Current Dialogs ListOfAllPrintDialogElements.ods: List of all printing dialog elements and options with regard to their meaning, understandability and necessity. It also includes developer comments, which I have to thank for. Worth reading and commenting ;-) Currently, this is the most important document on this page.
- File:2009-07-04 UserFeedbackData PrintingAnalysis.ods: Based on the first User Feedback Data there is a short analysis considering Writer, Impress, Draw and (partly) Math. Please note that the User Feedback system still has the drawback that some of the sources of function requests can not be identified. Elements that are ambiguous (to me) are marked with '???'.
- File:Current PrintingOptions SettingsInDocumentFiles.odt: This document summarizes all printer dialog related settings which are stored in the native OpenOffice.org files (settings.xml). As far as the settings could be identified, they have been transferred to the file "List of all Print Dialog Elements". Issue: Even for the same module (e.g. Writer), only a subset of all options is saved in the document.
This is just an early preview how the printing dialog is used.
Note: The data is based upon a previous version of "2009-07-04 UserFeedbackData PrintingAnalysis.ods", so please read the description how the data has been acquired.
Printing Dialogs
The sum OK and Cancel events are the reference for the number of uses for the dialog. Then, for each of the printer dialog elements the usage frequency is calculated on that data. The usage frequency is given by all events of each element (e.g. more/less/modify for spin fields) which will lead to inconsistencies (unknown until we can analyse the exact sequence of how elements were used). Nevertheless, for all modules (if possible) the average and standard deviation have been calculated. Date of creation 2009-07-05.
|Average [%]
|Standard Deviation [%]
|Comments / Finding
|All Modules
|Only for Impress, the part of Cancel is extreme (21,3%). Why?
|All Modules
|Number of copies
|The usage of Number of copies is slightly higher for Writer and Draw. (But, all events count.)
|All Modules
|All Modules
|None (Pages Text Field)
|All Modules
|In Impress and Draw, properties are set twice that often.
|All Modules
|Selected cells
|Slides per page
|All Modules
|refer to OK
|All Modules
|In Impress, the options are far more used (4 times as much in comparison with Writer and Calc).
|Selected sheets
|All Modules
|All Modules
|All pages
|Writer, Impress, Draw
|All Modules
|Print to file
|All Modules
|In Impress, the need for help is maximal (0,3%).
Current Workflow
The following selection workflows descriptions are used to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of OpenOffice.org printing. These workflows are not selected according their occurence, they are just meant to be examples to better understand printing.
|Steps and Finding
|User prints in Draw directly
|User prints a poster in Draw
|User prints to file
General Findings:
- The printing system is very flexible, but sometimes complicated and complex!
- We have far to many modal dialogs!
- Each print (warning) dialog looks different!
- We have inconsistent options!
This section is intended to show some of the places where OpenOffice.org provides functionality or options concerning printing. You may see that it is not just related to the printing dialog, so that we have to keep an eye on consistency. And if you look very closely, the current user interface isn't that consistent and (maybe) understandable, so please refer to Printing Features and Options
Print Dialogs
Print Options Dialogs
Various Printer Dialogs
Various Printer Warning Dialogs
PDF Export Dialog
Use Cases
Use cases are an important tool for the design of both usable and efficient interaction concepts. Knowing the most common ones, the user interface can be optimized to satisfy the need of a large user base in many situations. Besides the user feedback data, we don't have any knowledge about how our users work with OpenOffice.org. So we asked experts, users and trainers to get some feedback on "the three most common use cases". We know that this data isn't statistically relevant, but we may get some insight which we currently don't have.
Questions to the mailing lists:
- Start of thread on ux-discuss: CWS printerpullpages by Christoph
- Start of thread on de-users: Neuer Druckdialog in 3.2, Top 3 Anwendungsfälle by Regina (German), Thread-View
- Start of thread on de-dev: Neuer Druckdialog in 3.2, Top 3 Anwendungsfälle by Regina (German)
The file Printerpullpages_UseCases_CollectionOfFeedback contains the first collected feedback. If anybody wants to help to further collect/sort/analyse the feedback - that would be really great!
Competitive Analysis
Please note that although we do competitive analysis, we won't publish too many information here, e.g. screenshots. If you are interested in a special program, then try to search for images in your favorite internet search. In 99% of all cases, you will get some pictures and a first idea how it looks like ... and most presumably how it will behave.
Another good approach is to have a look at the official documentation of our platforms:
- Apple User Interface Guidelines, The Print Dialog
- Microsoft Windows User Experience Interaction Guidelines, Common Dialogs (scroll down a bit, since the print dialog is not listed in the TOC)
- Linux Common Printing Dialog, Linux Printing UI Specification, specification created by the Linux Foundation OpenPrinting workgroup available in the OpenUsability.org wiki
- OpenSolaris, Project: "Presto: Automatic Printing Configuration", UI Prototypes, contains some information about the Print Dialog
Information on special applications or general printing dialogs is collected on the separate wiki page Competitive Analysis.
Requirements List
The following list contains the most important requirements to get started. Okay, these aren't real requirements, it is more like a what-feature-is-generally-desired list.
- The new print functionality shall provide an native print dialog. As an alternative, a system independent print dialog is used.
- The new print dialog shall provide all application specific print options which are necessary for most printing tasks.
- The new print dialog shall provide a print preview. The visualization is updated immediately if print options are changed (immediately: time until final visualization <= 500 ms).
Technical Constraints
The following list contains the most important technical constraints which will have impact on the final interaction and dialog design.
- Options: Especially the application specific options have to be "compatible" to be used in the native print dialogs. This refers to the overall number (space restrictions in the native print dialogs), the organization (it should be possible to define property groups), controls (limited use of graphical UI controls), layout (layouting is limited to what the operating system provides), ...
- Size: Since printing is an ordinary task, the dialog should be usable on computers with low screen resolution (e.g. Netbooks with 576px height) and large screens (e.g. PCs)
- GUI elements:
- Non-standard controls: Since printing will provide some visual output, it is strongly desirable to use graphical controls (e.g. for the print order). Especially for embedding of application specific print options into native print dialogs this might cause problems, since a) it might be impossible, or b) it might create additional effort for porting.
- Element "Group Box": Since OpenOffice.org 2.2 group boxes have been replaced by simple horizontal or vertical lines to divide dialogs. As a result, these group boxes aren't themed at the moment (themed: adapted to the visual style of the graphical user interface of certain operating systems).
- Layout: Currently, there is no GUI layout manager available which resizes all dialog elements according the size of the screen and the size of each of the dialog's objects. Consequence: Static dialog layout which considers the space requirements for other languages.
- Mac OS X Compatibility: OpenOffice.org is made to run on a variety of Mac OS X versions. Some of those provide a different feature set with regard to printing, so that there is a need for a compromise to satisfy most of the users.
- 10.4 (Tiger): Application specific options can be integrated in the native print dialog, but there is no print preview available.
- 10.5 (Leopard): Application specific can be integrated in the native print dialog, and a print preview can be made available.
Definition of Terms
Definitions for the use on this wiki page and the specification. They might be different to the final user interface terminology.
|System Independent Print Dialog
|A print dialog that is independent from the underlying operating system, since it is provided by OpenOffice.org. This dialog is used if either the native print dialog is not available or the user explicitly wants to use it instead of the native one. Besides the application specific options, it is required for the print dialog to handle also: printer selection, printer status text, print to file, copy count, collate, N-up printing
|Native Print Dialog
|The native print dialog is the one provided by the operating system, e.g. Mac OS X. The advantage is the visual and behavioral consistency among all applications on the platform, but there are also technical constraints which limit the flexibility of the design.
|Application Specific Print Options
|OpenOffice.org consists of several modules optimized for certain document types, e.g. word processing (Writer) or spreadsheet editing (Calc). For each of the document types the user may require special options which do only make sense with regard to a certain document type (e.g. printing of Notes). Most of these options are today (OpenOffice.org <= 3.1) available in the print options dialog and the tools options settings pages.
|N-up printing
|N-up printing refers to multiple page printing, so that more than one document page (created in the application) is printed on the real paper page. Usually the user selects the number of pages to be printed, e.g. 2 on 1.
|Print Preview
|A preview of what the document will look like when printed out. Therefore this preview should take as much as available print options into account. The print preview is given in the print dialog and therefore complements the page preview available in the file menu in some applications.
Design Proposals
System Independent Print Dialog
The Dialog Itself
| Automatic Dialog Resizing
Currently, the size of the dialog is limited by the use of netbooks which only feature a very low vertical screen resolution. It would be desirable to have some kind of resizing of the dialog, so that we could provide a full dialog at the current OpenOffice.org 3.0 system requirements resolution of 1024x768 and a smaller version providing the same functionality for low resolution displays.
Answer by Philipp: Theoretically, this is possible, but it would create effort which I would like to avoid. (E-Mail to Christoph, 2008-06-16, 11:17am)
Selecting the Printer and Providing Printer Information
Requirements (only new ones): If the user selects a printer for output, then the system should present meta information to the printer during the selection. (meta information: e.g. name, status, type, location, comment).
- According to Philipp, gathering the meta information might cause problems in large network environments. When using Windows or Linux, each of the available (network) printers has be "installed" to be usable for printing. On Solaris, things are pretty different, since all of the available printers (up to thousands) will be made instantly available. That would mean querying a lot of printers at the same time ... The OpenSolaris Presto GUI spec (see Competitive Analysis) does not mention such a problem, but maybe OpenOffice.org behaves different.
Visualization of Printed Pages in the Print Preview
- The system should make efficient use of screen space. (Example: Resizing of the dialog should resize the preview accordingly).
- If the print print preview calculation and drawing requires a long time, then the system should provide sufficient feedback. (long time: >= 200 ms; sufficient feedback: e.g. a progress element in the middle of the print preview page)
- The system should explain the print preview, if the content could cause confusion by the user. (Example: Calc might cause empty pages for certain print ranges, why not explain why the page is empty?)
- The system should provide a high quality graphics output for the visualization. (high quality visualization: e.g. fast and flicker free drawing, smooth changes between portrait and landscape formats, ...)
- Explicitly not required: preview which can be manually zoomed by the user
- The system must make it possible to navigate one print page forward.
- The system must make it possible to navigate one page backward.
- The system should provide a function to jump to a certain print page.
- The system must provide an information about the number of printed pages.
- The system must provide an information what print page is visualized.
- The system should provide an information which can be understood with low effort. (Example: Visual representation that the currently shown page is at about the half of the full print page stack.)
- The system should provide a function to navigate to a certain print page. (Example: Entering the print page number.)
- The system should minimize effort for navigating between subsequent print pages. (Example: Both minimizing mouse travel and providing large controls for forward / backward navigation.)
Control Elements (some comments not to get lost):
- Horizontal scroll bar: Scroll bars satisfy many of the requirements but have to be used for continuous content. If they are used for other things, we may get publicity soon ... on same "bad UI design web pages" ;-).
- Slider: There is a slider available in OpenOffice.org which is currently used for the media player. In the current state, this element shouldn't be used – it seems to lack basic things like keyboard navigation or proper "flicker free" visualization. Nor is it themed for different operating systems. In general, it is hard to select individual pages and the area for "grabbing" the control is very small. Otherwise, they provide excellent feedback about the position inside the document.
N-up printing
tbd (may replace Writer N-up feature in the page preview)
Status and Roadmap
It is planned to provide a new basic dialog in OpenOffice.org 3.2. So the interaction design should be finished until end of June 2009. Hopefully ;-)
Specification document: tbd
Current State
- The development happens since quite a few months. Recently, User Experience jumped in and will try to further improve the dialog and the overall workflow concerning printing.
- Development versions: Development versions can be found at ftp://qa-upload.services.openoffice.org/printerpullpages/
- Issue Tracker: All issues with an descriptive entry "printerpullpages" can be listed with Extended Issue Tracker Query
- EIS: The EIS entry for "printerpullpages" is located at http://tools.services.openoffice.org/EIS2/cws.ShowCWS?logon=true&Id=7202&Path=DEV300%2Fprinterpullpages
Future Tasks
If there are interesting ideas how to further improve printing in OpenOffice.org, then the development might continue for future version of OpenOffice.org.
Philipp said that Caolan, a guy working for RedHat, offered some help to bind the native print dialog in Gnome (GTK). Some years ago, he already blogged about the gnomeprintui.
Other Ideas
|Date Raised
|I-Team Specification
|Replace Print Preview Printing
|Currently, Writer provides very flexible N-up capabilities. This should be made available to all applications – via the new print dialog.
|Improve Workflows
| Besides the printing dialog, the concepts and the handling of printing options is difficult in OpenOffice.org (currently we just provide a list of options which have to be combined in a useful manner – here the user has to know exactly what to do).
Another example is the work-flow breaking dialog handling when printing. More information can be found in the blog post Transparent Decision Making.
So this is no real "idea", it is more a reminder to keep an eye on that.
|Contextual Information Bar
| As discussed in "Improve Workflows", there are currently a number of modal dialogs which might interrupt the workflow. So how about a contextual information bar which informs only (e.g. for wrong page sizes, transparency, gradients, ...)? How about adding a contextual information bar in the dialog itself...
On the other hand, it would be better to get rid of all these additional informations, warnings and decisions. Open Questions:
|Harmonize printing and PDF export
|Currently, the capabilities of printing and PDF export differ a lot (Example: There is no way to export handouts in Impress.) Why not harmonize that?
|Printer Presets
|Currently, we provide a lot of printer settings which have to be combined by the user. Generally, users use only a small number of combinations, since they are editing similar documents. So they might just use settings for "draft" or "final output". Print settings which could be customized could help here (costomized: edited, saved, loaded, deleted). Some competitors already offer this kind of functionality.
|multiple copies of a one page document on one paper sheet
|Use case: You need a lot of DIN A5 sheets to distribute flyers or for to give the sheets to your pupils in your classroom. You write a DIN A5 document. But DIN A5 paper is more expensive than DIN A4 paper. So you want to print the same document twice on a DIN A4 paper. That is not possible up to now. Besides the Issue 67687 , have a look in the internet forums, you see that people are searching for that feature but get only workarounds or have to buy special software. For example http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?t=65019 or http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?t=30747 or the workaround for Word http://www.gmayor.com/print_multiple_copies.htm
|Assistance for envelope printing
|Printing envelopes still belongs to the tasks which most failures. OOo should use informations about the printer (for example from the PPD-file) to help the users. For example, OOo can show how to insert the envelop, or show, what position the envelope must have compared with the standard paper sheet.
|Merge change tracking and notes
| Issue: In Writer, currently there is no common handling for the printing of Notes or handling of Change Tracking. If tracked changes are enabled in the document, they are also printed. There is no way to enable/disable these "reviewer markups".
Proposal: Maybe something to change/merge for further releases? Open Question: Maybe also Calc is affected, since it also supports change tracking.
Mockups and Screenshots
This section contains mockups and screenshots:
- Mockups are working models used for demonstration purposes. There is no real functionality at all, because the following pictures have been composed with graphic programs just to get a first impression how it will look like.
- Screenshots show the behavior of the real development in OpenOffice.org. Those pictures are updated more or less regularly.
Current state of the N-Up tab page in the system independent print dialog.
|An initial draft mockup, just to let you know that we are working on something ;-) Many of the implemented proposals are still in discussion...
|A draft mockup, still many things are in discussion...
| An early mockup. Some comments:
Online Discussion, Press Coverage and Comments
- Philipp Lohmann: One step forward, the next step back, blog posting, 2008-11-11
- Philipp Lohmann: New Print UI, blog posting, 2009-06-04
- Christoph Noack: Transparent Decision Making, blog posting, 2009-06-13


text:
Facebook Integration Add-on
Description of Facebook Integration Add-on of Photo Gallery plugin.
Do you have a Facebook page and want to display photo and video content from your Facebook page on your website? Do that instantly with the Photo Gallery Facebook Integration Add-on. Make your gallery more powerful with the Facebook add-on now!
Attention: Facebook Integration Add-On requires Photo Gallery Premium version 2.2.59 and higher: if you are using an older version, please update your plugin.
General Description
Photo Gallery Facebook is an add-on, which helps to display Facebook photos and videos within Photo Gallery Premium plugin without additional efforts. You can create Facebook type galleries which will display album images of Facebook profile/pages , as well as include Facebook profile/page albums within mixed type PG galleries.
The add-on also changes embedding capabilities of the PG plugin; you would be able to embed individual Facebook page/profile videos and photos in addition to existing YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram,Flickr or Dailymotion options of Photo Gallery Premium plugin.
The Facebook page albums should have public access (Facebook public privacy status), whereas for the personal Facebook profile albums it is not required. The same rule also applies to embedding individual images and videos.
Note: Due to Facebook privacy, you can only use albums/image/videos from your personal profile. Even if the album/image/video of another user is public, you cannot display them using the add-on. The privacy rule doesn't apply to Facebook public pages.
The add-on supports integration with Facebook profiles and pages. There is no support for Facebook groups.
Settings/Social Options
In order to activate the add-on to work, you should create a Facebook application in Facebook Developers website and gain Facebook App ID and Secret Keys. Then you should connect created application with the website if you plan to use multimedia from your profile.
Getting FB App ID and App Secret Key
Go to the Facebook Developers Apps (https://developers.facebook.com/apps) page, and sign in with your Facebook username and password. If you are new to Facebook Developers, you will see a Register a Developer Account button. Follow the steps to create a free developer account on Facebook.
Click the register button. Clicking the Continue button implies that you agree to the Facebook Platform Policies. After signing in, click on the Create New App button.
Specify a name for the application in the App Name field. It is recommended to use your site name. Leave the remaining fields blank.
Within the Select how your app integrates with Facebook section click on Website This section will expand to show a Site URL field.
Enter your site URL in the Site URL field (e.g. http://www.example.com ). Click on Save Changes button.
You will be redirected to your account page, where both the App ID and App Secret Key will be visible.
Afterwards, go to Photo Gallery plugin > Options > Social Options. Here fill in the gained App ID and App Secret Key. Press Save button. If you are planning to embed personal Facebook profile multimedia, press Facebook login/logout link to connect the application with your profile. This is not required while adding images from public pages.
Creating Facebook Gallery
On the left menu select Photo Gallery > Add Galleries/Images > Add new. We will use this option to create Facebook-only gallery.
Name. Provide a name for the gallery.
Slug. Set the URL slug which will be used while reaching the Instagram gallery.
Gallery Content Type. Select Facebook type.
Facebook Album URL. Provide the Facebook album URL either of the application-related Facebook profile or a public Facebook page.
Images Limit. Specify the number of images (image posts ) you want to display when embedding the Facebook gallery. The number of displayed images can be extended when new photos are added to the Facebook album.
Gallery autoupdate option. Choose whether to autoupdate the embedded gallery when new images are added to the Facebook album or not.
Add Facebook Gallery. Then press the button for finalizing the process.
Description. Here you can fill out a description of the gallery for the easier search in the backend.
Author Published. Automatically indicates the username of the user, who has published the gallery.
Add Preview image. Choose the image to be displayed as a preview image (image thumbnail displayed when the gallery shortcode is inserted in a page/post ).
Select All. This option allows applying bulk actions to all of the images included in the Instagram gallery.
Show order column. For reordering images you can either Drag and Drop images a ( moving the pointed cross symbol on the left of the images) or set the ordering preferences manually entering numbers next to the images and videos. To enable the option you should press show order column. This option is more useful when you have multiple pages of images and it is not convenient to use drag and drop.
Alt/Title. Provide a title for each image. By default the images receive title from Facebook, but it can be further edited.
Description. You can additionally have a description for images or keep default description inherited from Facebook.
Tags. Each image can have tags from the list of created tags or add a new one.
Published. Choose whether to publish or unpublish uploaded images.
Delete. Check images you want to remove from the album and press the button.
Publish. Check images you want to publish and press the button.
Unpublish. Check images you want to temporarily unpublish and press the button.
Embedding Facebook Media
As an alternative to creating separate Facebook galleries, there is also an option of embedding:
- Embedding individual Facebook images and videos
Go to existing gallery and pres Embed Media button. When adding images use the following URL example: https://www.facebook.com/examplepage/photos/a.447173452000073.123453.436551809728904/904780776239336/?type=1&theater For the videos, use the following URL: https://www.facebook.com/WordPress/videos/vb.6427302910/313954715398/?type=2&theater Note that image/video must have public access (Facebook public privacy status)
- Embedding Facebook albums into Mixed galleries
To add Facebook albums to mixed type galleries, go to the gallery page and press Bulk Embed button. After that select Facebook, provide the Facebook album URL- either of the application-related Facebook personal profile or a public page. Specify the number of images (image posts ) you want to display when embedding the Facebook gallery. The number of displayed images can be extended when new photos are added to the Facebook album.


text:
Neymar's sister goes a little angry. And during an interview on Rede TV program Fame !, the self funkeiro 'MC Gui discussed his amorous conquests and stated that one of them was none other than Rafaella Santos .
Those words did him any grace and denied when they boarded at a party to which he went. "Never!He's just a friend. I was never with him, "said Rafaella on MC Gui that despite his youth (only 17 years) has womanizing.
And is that by producer and spends "of 1,000 women, but also has the kisses," he joked without going into details about his relationship with the sister of Neymar. What seems clear is that they are good friends, as evidenced by the many photos that have been done together and caring attitude.


text:
Automotive photographer Degler roamed the Caribbean island to find the subjects for his 2015 calendar Carros de Cuba, reasoning that there was nowhere else on earth with a streetscape unchanged since the 1950s, the result of a decades-long ban on importing new cars. With the government recently relaxing this rule, it seemed the ideal time for Degler to capture the island's beautiful automotive timewarp – especially once he'd heard rumours that a Mercedes 300SL 'Gullwing' was lying abandoned somewhere on the 42,000-square-mile island.
[embed_gallery gid='5938' type='simple']
Hidden treasure en route
For a solid month, Degler roved from east to west, travelling 1800 miles by car and taking 300,000 footsteps. He asked every inhabitant he came across whether they knew where the silver car was, or even if they'd heard the same rumour. No luck. With his hopes fading by the day, Piotr had all but given up – but then there it was, with a banana tree making a futile attempt to shelter its carcass.
READ MORE: $1M Mercedes Gullwing burned to the ground at classic race
"I found many hidden treasures on my travels across Cuba—a Hispano-Suiza being one—but the Gullwing eluded me until a few days before my planned departure," Piotr told Classic Driver. "When I first found it, I spent the whole day taking pictures, but then I realised a night shoot might be more appropriate. Finding the car was an indescribable experience." Well, they always say you find love when you give up looking.
Degler's Cuban treasure is now being showcased in his 2015 calendar, along with 11 others he found along the way; the 12 chosen images were selected from no fewer than 25,000 taken during the trip. It's available in three versions, with the Special Edition housed in a rusty metal frame. Further information can be found at deglerstudio.com.
This article originally appeared at ClassicDriver.com


text:
Science bottles are easy exploration activities that are just as portable as they are educational. Preschoolers can explore liquids, solids and anything in between using these sensory science items. Instead of buying ready-made science bottles, you can make your own for your child. As an added bonus, crafting your own science bottles for preschool children means that you can tailor the contents to your little learner's interests. Reuse old plastic water bottles, recycling them into an educational -- and entertaining -- activity that 3- to 5-year-olds are sure to enjoy.
Liquid Bottles
Wash and dry your plastic water, or other drink, bottles. Take the caps off and set them aside for later.
Fill a bottle halfway up with water. Add two or three pinches of metallic glitter and a pinch of shining sequins to the water. When the bottle is ready to go, your preschooler can enjoy the glittery effect or hold it up to the light to see how reflection works. If you notice the glitter or sequins clumping together, add a squirt of baby oil to the bottle.
Fill another bottle with water and cooking oil to make a density experiment bottle. Add a drop or two of food coloring to mix with the water.
Secure the cap on each bottle top securely. Dot glue around the bottom of the bottle cap to create a seal with the glue gun. Wait for the glue to cool and dry. Add a layer of duct tape over the entire cap to make the seal extra tight. Give your preschooler the bottles. She can shake them back and forth, watching the water flow and the pieces inside move through the waves.
Solid Science Bottles
Wash and dry the plastic water bottles. Select solid -- or semi-solid -- objects to put in the bottles.
Gather dirt or soil, rocks and pebbles, small-sized pine cones, tiny twigs and leaves to create a nature science exploration bottle. Fill the bottle halfway up with soil. Insert the other natural materials into the bottle. Close the cap on the top tightly.
Add soil and plastic toy insects or animals to another bottle to create a bio bottle. You could also use corn syrup as an ooey, gooey medium. Just fill the bottle partially up with this slow-moving substance, then drop in plastic animals or insects. Mix the plastic toys around to coat them with the syrup. Secure the cap on the top to close the bio bottle.
Seal the solid bottles together in the same way that you did with the liquid ones. Dot glue, with the hot glue gun, around the top. Finish the science bottles with a layer of duct tape at the top around the cap.
Things You Will Need
- Clear plastic water bottles
- Glue gun
- Duct tape
- Water or other liquids
- Glitter and sequins
- Cooking oil
- Food coloring
- Soil
- Natural objects such as pebbles, small pine cones and twigs
- Corn syrup
- Clear hair gel
- Baby oil
- Small-sized plastic animal or insect toys
Make a super-sized science bottle. Use a 2-liter soda bottle instead of a water bottle to create a larger project.
Brainstorm other science bottle ideas with your preschooler. Ask her for ideas on what she may like to use. If the ideas are reasonable, give them a try.
Instead of only using water, try other colored liquids such as juice.
Never allow your preschooler near the hot glue gun. Only you, or another adult, should use this potentially hazardous craft item.
Don't touch the glue until you are sure that it is cool. Sit the bottle aside for 10 or 15 minutes to allow the glue to cool.
Avoid any items that may pose a choking hazard for your child.
If you use fruit juice or another beverage to add color, throw away the bottle before the contents go bad.


text:
Solus V2
Solus V2
BioSense Solus V2 Blood Glucose Management System: Solus V2® offers break through capabilities ranging from the largest screen display to fully audible technology. The Solus V2® blood glucose management system is intended for use in the quantitative measurement of blood glucose in fresh capillary whole blood from both the finger and forearm. >>Read User Guide
- Reviews (0)
There are no reviews yet.


text:
Ten feet?! I was almost shocked when I heard St. Croix Rods would be offering three new 10-foot models in its Legend Tournament series of musky rods. After all, I remember receiving my first 7-footer back around 1990 — while I loved the rod, I wondered if it would be accepted by the musky fishing public. And now plans called for a rod a full three feet longer.
But 9-foot musky rods have become common and some anglers have had custom rod makers extend those same blanks into 10-foot rods, so it really isn't that foreign of an idea.
For 2018, St. Croix Rods is introducing three one-piece, 10-foot musky rods to its Legend Tournament rod series lineup. The three rods will have medium-heavy-fast (MHF), heavy-fast (HF) and extra-heavy-fast (XHF) designations, rod weights that will cover almost everything you would want to cast. Perhaps only jerkbaits and walk-the-dog topwaters are left out.
Like others in the Legend Tournament lineup, the new rods have nicknames. The LM100MHF is being called the "Slingshot," the LM100HF the "Blade Master," and the LM100XHF will be known as the "Stretch Dawg."
Rich Belanger, St. Croix's promotions director, explained the introduction. "Since we brought out 9-foot rods several years ago, people have been asking for longer rods. The extra length really is nice for much wider figure-8's, and also more depth in the 8 for deeper-following fish. The extra length also creates more leverage once you hook up with a fish," Belanger said.
During a recent fishing trip I had the opportunity to try two of the models, the Slingshot and the Stretch Dawg. A prototype of the Blade Master was not available for me to use that week. Both of the rods I used were capable of incredibly-long casts (especially the Stretch Dawg with a topwater) and giant figure-8's. Because the reel seat on each new rod is placed farther forward for leverage, the resulting longer butt section felt awkward for the first two or three casts but I soon became accustomed to it.
The Stretch Dawg is a natural addition to the company's lineup for fishing giant plastic baits like BullDawgs, Medussas and Suzy Suckers. More leverage and strength are needed for such baits, and I sometimes felt the 9-foot offerings in St. Croix's Legend Elite and Legend Tournament series were not quite enough rod for the biggest of the plastics. Anglers who do a lot of "business" with "rubber" are going to love the Stretch Dawg.
The "bite" on the lake we fished initially involved double-10 bucktails, and I wished I'd had the opportunity to try the Blade Master. However, the Slingshot was more than up to the task. It loaded up and cast the big spinners with ease, but flexed a bit too much for my liking in the figure-8. Of course, I was using it to accomplish a task for which it wasn't designed and the Blade Master would naturally have been a better choice. With smaller spinners, the Slingshot made the figure-8 with ease.
Before the weather changed from summer-like to downright nasty during the four-day trip, I caught three nice muskies while using the Slingshot — two that hit on short line and one in the figure-8. The rod had more than enough backbone to drive the hooks home in each case, and its greater length exaggerated the waggle I give such baits before entering the figure-8. In fact, the waggle seemed to excite all three fish.
The longer length maintained a deep bend while each fish battled at boatside, keeping the hooks pinned in the corner of their mouths. I vividly recall one fight during which the musky tailwalked around the bow of the boat, the rod flexing with each thrash as I led it to the net.
Ah, the net. When I posted to social media that I had field-tested the 10-footers, some questioned how long is too long for musky rods, especially when netting. Longer rods (even 9-footers) require the angler fighting the fish to make a concerted effort to lead the fish into the net, and the 10-footers make the task a little more complicated. If you stand there and think your netman can do it all — especially with today's heavy, fish-friendly nets — you're going to lose fish because they'll be too far from the boat and difficult for the netter to reach. Even Belanger concedes, "It does require some adjustments when it's time to land the fish."
When the musky is ready, use the rod to drag the fish toward the net, and even a step back as the fish enters the hoop is not out of the question. I noticed this with the first musky on the 10-footer, and the subsequent fish were not a problem.
The new 10-foot rods are being built with the same technologies as other rods in the Legend Tournament lineup, and are not the start of a second generation as some have suggested. "The 10's are built the exact same way the rest of the LT series are built," Belanger said, "although we are giving the whole series a facelift with some cosmetic changes. New paint, new labels, handle design tweaks and some processing improvements were incorporated in the build process."
One of the handle design tweaks referenced by Belanger is flat sides to the butt end of the split grip models. Originally I wondered why, but I had my answer when I concluded my first cast with a figure-8 — the flat slide makes for a nice place for your thumb, a minor change that provides leverage for the figure-8.
Do you really need a 10-foot rod to catch muskies? No, but if you desire larger figure-8's, longer casts and greater lure manipulation, or you want easier casts and better control for big rubber, St. Croix's new rods will provide them.
For more information, visit www.stcroixrods.com


text:
A Few of My Favorite Things: Bikes, Nails, Snacks and Suds
We're a month into the season, I've been across the country and across the world, and now I'm settling in New England for Holy Week of Cyclocross. Back to my home from the past year, and psyched to be here! Also psyched about some new goodies this month, some racer-y, and some arguably racer-y but a bit more on the girly side of things.
Moots Frame:
It's almost done, and I'll "meet" this amazing piece of titanium machinery next week. I worked with Moots for the past couple months tweaking their already existing geometry of the Psychlocross frame to make a smaller version, which I'll be testing out for the rest of the season. Super excited to see it and build it up! In the meantime though, I've been loving testing out the Raleigh Women's RX 1.0 bike — it did so good at Night Weasels!
Gel manicures:
This is where it gets girly but also racer-y. I never bother with nail polish because it just gets wrecked three minutes after painting them. But I've had great success with gel manicures in the past so I figured I'd give this a shot, so Gabby Durrin and I went and got our nails done together this week. I really like the design — in Boston yesterday, two women came up and told me they liked my nails and that they looked "classy but edgy." Win. They held up great at Night Weasels, and haven't chipped yet, so I'm thrilled. I like reminding people on occasion that I'm still a girl…
Single Serving Blender
Hanging out with Ben Bostrom in Vegas and Jake Wells in China, I learned something from these two wicked fast MTBers. First, that MTBing with Bostrom is hard but totally worth it, and that Wells is an insanely fast runner. Second, that both are really into nutrition, and both are all about the breakfast smoothie. They're both into the raw food/hemp protein type stuff that the Thrive diet recommends, and I have to admit, after doing the smoothie thing for a couple days, I did definitely feel way better. Just fruit, homemade almond milk (just blend sliced almonds, water and vanilla extract, and it stays good for a week in the fridge!), hemp protein, some Trader Joes "Green Powder," Chia seeds, and a little bit of agave to sweeten it all up, and I am a seriously happy camper in the morning. This little blender was only $20 and came with 5 of the single serving cups with lots of lid options, so that's been super great as well.
Bostrom's fiance also gave me her recipe for insanely good salad dressing so I'll post about that at some point too.
Single Serving Sports Wash
I'm working on a review for sports detergent for Cyclocross Magazine, and brands have been sending me samples. I have bottle too, but what I'm really loving for life on the road is these single serve packets. No chance of spills, no chance I forget the bottle, just sports wash when I need it. So into it!
A few updates on last month's favorite things:
The Challenge Grifos have been crushing it. They are truly the best tires I've ridden, on any course. Feels like I'm gripping everything, and maybe it's just an improvement in my core strength, but even sliding out, I'm able to recover.
The Jawbone Up is an adjustment. Love the smart alarm and idle alert, but keeping track of everything (and keeping it charged, even though that's only once a week) is a bit tough — especially when I was in China and couldn't get online to keep a log. But if I can get the hang of regularly keeping track of stuff, it's been working great!
As for the Osmo Nutrition for Women, I've been loving the recovery drink, especially with the almond milk I've been making with my new blender! And the ride drink is great too — very tasty, and it seems to do the trick for me.
I admit, my major failing this month has been the Athlete's Guide to Yoga App — even though it's right on my phone, I can't seem to make myself do it every day. I like the routines, but with the crazy travel, carving out time (especially in the morning when I wanted to do it!) has been rough. It's not a lack of time, exactly, more a lack of opportunity/me just being kind of lazy (with yoga, anyway!). Maybe this month I'll be better!
And, just for funsies, tomorrow is the last day this coupon code will work, so get on it!


text:
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced today the details of a national competition for more than $4 billion set aside for states that demonstrate innovation in education reforms.
"A low income, middle class student in San Antonio should not be held to a lower standard in algebra than a student in Shaker Heights or a student in Shanghai," Duncan said, as he announced what is being called the "Race to the Top."
States will be judged on their ability to turn around low-performing schools; recruit and retain effective teachers and principals; use data track and improve student progress; and adopt internationally benchmarked standards and tests.
"We are planning to apply," said DeEtta Culberton, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency. "We believe that we are well positioned."
Texas, however, has yet to have its application for state stabilization funds approved, a prerequisite to the considered for Race to the Top funds. Texas was the last state to apply for stabilization funds and is one of just a handful that has yet to have its application approved. Texas' application for stabilization funds was just approved, said a spokeswoman for Rep. Charlie Gonzalez.
Even before today's announcement, several states began prepping for the race – lifting caps on charter schools and making other adjustments in hopes of improving their chances for the federal funds.
States will have two chances to apply for the funds and states that are rejected in the first round will be allowed to tweak their application and try again, Duncan said.