text:
Gamesradar joins forces with N4G
Gamesradar has announced that is has integrated with N4G (News for Gamers). "What this means for GamesRadar: Well first off, we'll be getting our news faster than ever before and from sources all around globe," says the site. "Plus, the fact that the N4G relies heavily on user interest also means we'll be getting more […]
N4G headlines
N4G latest


text:
Glass 2019 at the Jennifer Perlmutter GalleryFrom 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm
- Opening Night and Artist Reception: Feb. 7, 6:00 – 8:00pm
- Discussion with artists and jurors Feb. 9th, 4pm
- Gallery hours: Wed-Sat, noon to 6
Jennifer Perlmutter Gallery is proud to present an exhibition featuring 16 glass artists from the Association of Clay and Glass Artists of California (ACGA). This exhibit features a variety of wall and pedestal art glass, sculptural- conceptual, and decorative. One notable sculpture depicts a polar bear walking out of an ice block. The work was juried in by gallery owner Jennifer Perlmutter and guest juror Myrna Kimmelman, Executive Director of Lafayette Partners in Education (LPIE) and a glass collector. 5% of all sales proceeds in the exhibit will be donated to LPIE to support our schools arts and education programs.
Exhibit dates: February 7, 2019- March 2, 2019
More info here.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The Coen Brothers' Burn After Reading (2008) could best be described as a black-hearted Beltway farce. Ex-CIA analyst Osborn Cox (John Malkovich) is blackmailed by the gym staff who find his half-finished memoirs, cuckolded and then divorced by his wife. These strands of plot then align unhappily with bloody consequences.
Trouble is, I've made it much neater - in every sense of the word - than it it in practice. Despite a great cast (Malkovich, McDormand, Swinton and Clooney) and some great scenes (mostly involving Brad Pitt's gym bunny) Burn.. seems curiously underwritten, lacking coherency and maybe at least one rewrite away from being the sum of its parts.
Granted - Coen Brothers films can feel a little foggy by today's cinema conventions precisely because they leave space for the viewer to form their own ideas as to what's really going on inside or outside their character's heads. When that works well, you get the woozy phantasmagoria of Barton Fink. When that doesn't quite work, you get Burn After Reading.
Curioser still - the film, with its fatalistic 'stuff happens' credo, is strangely apolitical for a Washington-set comedy. Not every film set in the capital has to be political, of course, but for a film about (ha!) the intelligence community to have no such context is a wasted opportunity.
Even minor Coen is, on balance, better than no Coen. Even The Ladykillers. And for goodness sake this is much better than The Ladykillers.


text:
The Bibb Association of Educators have secured the new Bibb Co. superintendent as its keynote speaker.
According to a BAE news release, Dr. Curtis Jones will address the attendees. The event will take place Thursday at the Terminal Station at 6 p.m. The awards will honor all retiring educators and name the district's Education Support Professional of the Year.
The Bibb Association of Educators "pushes to unite and support hundreds of elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators and students preparing to become teachers."
A free parent/teen youth summit workshop is being held Saturday at Southwest Magnet High and Law Academy in Macon from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
This event is free and open to the public, according to a news release from the Georgia Legal Services Program. The workshop, the release states, is being held to discuss data on issues and strategies parents should consider to prevent their child from becoming a high-school dropout.
This event is sponsored by GLSP, the Georgia Appleseed Center for Law & Justice, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.: Epsilon Beta Lambda Chapter and the Macon Bar Association.
Refreshments will be served.
For more information, please contact Joe Lindsey at 478-737-2066.
Residents and business owners are invited to learn more smart growth strategies at a public forum with Smart Growth America on April 15 at 5:30 p.m. in Commission Chambers at Government Center (700 Poplar Street).
The forum is part of free, grant funded technical assistance program offered by Smart Growth America. The organization will be meeting with the community and representatives from Macon-Bibb County, the Urban Development Authority, New Town Macon, Chamber of Commerce, Planning & Zoning, the Middle Georgia Regional Commission, Industrial Authority, Development Authority of Bibb County, and the College Hill Alliance.
"Going Green at 17" is the theme, of this year's 17th Annual Georgia Strawberry Festival and Reynolds, Georgia is the place to be. This family friendly festival has truly grown over the years! We are excited to announce a special "treat" this year: the first annual "weiner dog races"
For more infomation please visit our website at www.ga-strawberry.org
Field Day…Ah the memories. Team t-shirts, 50 yard dash, tug of war, over under; all on the hottest day of the school year, of course. But what if you could experience that elementary school fun as an adult? I think you see where this is going… You CAN!
On May 16, Parks & Rec will host the 2nd Annual Adult Field Day at Luther William Field. Our events are top secret, but you and your team can expect to participate in events such as dizzy bat relays, egg toss, flip cup, and an obstacle course. In addition to this day of nostalgia, you will also get to enjoy giveaways, crown competitions, and live music. Check out MaconBibbTV's coverage of last year's Adult Field Day by clicking here.
In December, Macon-Bibb County's Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission announced a series of events to celebrate and remember the life and impact of the civil rights leaders. The next sponsored event is an Interdenominational Church Service at New Fellowship Baptist Church. A full calendar of events has been posted online, and it is updated to reflect new events that are added.
Events have included the annual March to Government Center, tours at the Tubman African American Museum, the Beloved Community Symposium, a performance by world-renowned violinist Robert McDuffie at Beulahland Baptist Church (more information below), and more.
Members of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission are: Commissioner Elaine Lucas, Commissioner Larry Schlesinger, Sam Henderson, Reverend Dr. Henry Ficklin, Dominique Johnson, Reverend Evans Brown, June O'Neal, Dr. Any Ambrose, Mike Gardner, and Tony Lowden.
The Bibb County School District is on Spring Break March 30 – April 3, which means many parents will be looking for fun activities for their children. The Parks & Rec Department is hosting week-long camps at the Bloomfield, Frank Johnson, North Macon, and Rosa Jackson Community Centers.
From team sports, arts and crafts, and educational activities, there is a variety of things for them to do. For more information, check out the most recent Parks & Rec newsletter. Space is limited in the camps, so register now!
To stay up-to-date about activities for children, adults, and families, follow the Parks & Recreation Department on Facebook.
The Macon Centreplex Coliseum and
Manna Ministries, Inc.
The Thirsty Turtle
13WMAZ, 1314 Gray Hwy, Macon, GA 31211
Powered by Datasphere | LocalSaver.com
Copyright 2019


text:
Should Facebook be blamed for videos of Cleveland murder?
Pennsylvania State Police say the suspect in a recorded Cleveland slaying that was shared on Facebook fatally shot himself in the head as his vehicle spun out of control. The reaction of the family of Robert Godwin Sr., of Cleveland, to his murderer is one not often seen associated with such a senseless, horrific act - forgiveness. [Full Article...]
Bayern faces tough task to beat Real Madrid at Bernabeu
Both sides play the second legs of their Champions League quarter-finals this week. The sense that only Lionel Messi can deny Madrid a first league title in five years was strengthened as he scored twice and made the other for the improving Paco Alcacer in Barcelona's 3-2 win over Real Sociedad on Saturday evening. [Full Article...]
Deadly attack near Egypt's old monastery
According to a statement released by the Ministry of Interior (MoI), a crossfire took place between militants and security forces. After an exchange of gunfire, the attackers fled the scene, the officials said, adding that some of the gunmen were wounded in the shootout. [Full Article...]
Facebook killer takes his own life as police close in
A patrol trooper involved with the pursuit struck Stephens' vehicle, causing minor damage, state police say. As of Monday evening, Stephens was still at large. MORE: Videos show desperation of suspect in Facebook video killing The McDonald's employees tried to "buy some time for the cops" by telling Stephens his fries were delayed, but he said he had no time to wait and drove off, according t... [Full Article...]
The tone of tensions: Korean voices, North and South
Military vehicles carry missiles with characters reading "Pukkuksong" during the military parade in North Korean marking the 105th birth anniversary of country's founding father, Kim Il Sung. The North also previous year launched a long-range rocket that put a satellite into orbit, which Washington, Seoul and others saw as a banned test of missile technology. [Full Article...]
Mallya to stay confined to United Kingdom home
After Mallya went to live in London , the government faced huge criticism from the public and from opposition lawmakers for not preventing him from leaving the country and bringing him to trial. In February, the Indian government handed over to British authorities a formal request for Mallya's extradition, saying it had a legitimate case against him on charges of financial irregularities and loan... [Full Article...]
New Zealand toughens requirements for skilled immigrants
Just one day after U.S and Australia went through a major change in their immigration policies, New Zealand did something similar. Anyone who earns less than that amount will no longer be classified as highly-skilled - regardless of whether their job may have been classified that way previously. [Full Article...]
Most Americans Don't Think Trump Keeps His Promises
Trump's successes include the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch and executive order rollbacks of Obama-era regulations, but he has also had significant setbacks on his promised repeal of Obamacare and his proposed temporary immigration ban. [Full Article...]
Hundreds of Palestinians held by Israel launch hunger strike
Israel's Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, however, said that the strike was motivated by internal Palestinian politics rather than a complaint on prison conditions, and called the demands "unreasonable". Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the June 1967 Mideast war. According to Israeli media, the strike was called for by Marwan Barghouti, who was sentenced to ... [Full Article...]
Pence makes first trip to Asia as tension mounts with North Korea
The Associated Press has reported, citing unidentified USA officials, that Washington would focus on "maximum pressure and engagement" to induce the North to denuclearize. He said Pence will try to balance reassurance with a willingness to respond if North Korea acts. "The most important message from the vice president on behalf of the president is that we have an ironclad commitment to stand ... [Full Article...]
Syria Chemical Attack Fabricated -- Assad
They are Al-Nusra Front who shaved their beards, wore white hats, and appeared as humanitarian heroes, which is not the case". On April 6, the United States had launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the Syrian military airfield in Ash Sha'irat in response to the alleged chemical weapon use in Idlib province. [Full Article...]
Officers fired after punching, kicking man during arrest — GRAPHIC
On Thursday, the Gwinnett County Police in Georgia announced the termination of an officer who was caught on camera stomping on the head of a man who was on the ground in handcuffs. "I have to make sure your license is good and that the auto is not stolen", the officer said. Police stopped Hollins' vehicle because it didn't have a license plate and changed lanes several times without using turn ... [Full Article...]
US and Russia at 'low point' after no breakthrough in Moscow
Earlier in an interview broadcast on Wednesday before the meeting with Tillerson, Putin said that mutual trust between Russian Federation and the US, especially on the military level, had eroded in the first few months of Trump's presidency. [Full Article...]
Jadhav row: India calls off security dialogue with Pakistan
India has said it will appeal the order and was studying the Pakistan Army Act to defend Jadhav. Meanwhile, in what could add to the tension, Police in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir claimed on Saturday, arresting three suspected Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) agents for their alleged involvement in anti-state activities. [Full Article...]
Hillary Clinton calls for independent investigation into Russian Federation hacks
During her tenure at the State Department and her presidential campaign, Clinton, 69, advocated for more aggressive action to deter Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and said the U.S. She said Trump's reasoning for the airstrikes conflicted with the ban on refugees from six Muslim-majority countries. And while a lot of the people who agreed with Trump the candidate are confused and concerned by the... [Full Article...]
AAP on verge of extinction, says BJP after Rajouri by-poll win
He defeated his nearest rival Meenakshi Chandela of the Congress by a margin of almost 14,000 votes, pushing the ruling AAP's candidate to a distant third. AAP had won 67 seats in Assembly elections held in 2015. Similarly, both seats in Karnataka went to the party in power, the Congress, while people voted the ruling Trinamool Congress to victory in the lone Bengal seat. [Full Article...]
Christians celebrate Good Friday in Jerusalem
Most Christians refer to the week before Easter as the "Holy Week". The early Christians certainly believed . It is a time when we peer into the frightening possibility, albeit temporarily, that "No God has saved this Jesus who called himself the Son", when "those sober ones.were right all along". [Full Article...]
Trump strategy on North Korea: 'Maximum pressure and engagement'
SHAPIRO: Explain the reason that people anticipate a possible nuclear test by North Korea this weekend. It did not say why the flights, which operate on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, were being suspended and Air China could not be reached for comment. [Full Article...]
Tottenham Hotspur grab comfortable victory over Bournemouth
And Harry Kane reached 20 goals for a third successive season, scoring on his first start in nearly five weeks after recovering from an ankle injury. Chelsea can restore their lead at the top to seven points with victory over United tomorrow. [Full Article...]
Mayawati foists her brother on party
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Friday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of targetting her for raising a voice against alleged electronic voting machines tampering and said she was not averse to shaking hands with other parties in her fight against the saffron party on the issue. [Full Article...]
« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 Next »


text:
As the weather starts to get warmer, I've gotten an itch for making aguas frescas. This happens to me just about every year. Toward the end of the winter, I always seem to fall into a rut in the kitchen as I wait for spring to arrive. And like clockwork, as soon as we get our first day of warm weather, I head to the store looking for fresh fruits to make aguas frescas. This year was no exception, and the first fruit I spotted was a large bag of mandarinas, mandarin oranges.
I love mandarin oranges both because of the refreshing, sweet juice they produce and their portability as a vitamin-packed snack. In fact, I've been carrying two mandarin oranges my purse at all times for the last few weeks so that I always have a healthy snack at the ready.
But I've also got some cherished memories of the early days of hanging out with my cuñada, when she used to take me out for aguas frescas and where we almost always ended up with agua de mandarina, one of her favorites—and consequently, now, one of my favorites too.
This is an incredibly simple recipe, but one I've been asked for time and again by friends. It's perfect for serving with any meal, and any gathering—large or small.
A few notes: my husband likes his agua de mandarina to be a little sweeter, but I prefer mine to be more natural and without sugar. My advice: try it without sugar first and perhaps leave out the lime juice. If you feel like it's not sweet enough for your liking, you can mix about 2 tablespoons of sugar with 1/4 cup of warm water to get it to dissolve, and then mix it with the remaining 1-1/2 cups of cold water.
I also like to use a handheld citrus press for this recipe because I found that my electric juicer doesn't always extract all the juice due to the small size of the mandarin oranges.
Use mandarin oranges to make a classic agua fresca: agua de mandarina!
- 20-25 small mandarin oranges (should yield about 2 to 2-1/4 cups of juice)
- 1 mandarin orange, sliced thinly to float in the top of the pitcher for decoration
- 1 lime (optional)
- 1-3/4 cups of cold water (or dilute juice more to taste)
- Juice the mandarin oranges.
- If you want to add the optional lime juice or any sugar, add it before you mix the mandarin orange juice with the cold water. Stir to mix well in a pitcher.
- Add thin mandarin orange slices to float on the top of the pitcher.
If you don't serve it immediately, chill in the refrigerator and then stir before serving, as juice will naturally settle. Consume within 2-3 days.


text:
Here you can see 136 movie posters with Trajan.
Trajan is an old style serif typeface designed in 1989 by Carol Twombly for Adobe. The design is based on the letterforms of capitalis monumentalis or Roman square capitals, as used for the inscription at the base of Trajan's Column from which the typeface takes its name. Since lower case forms were not in use in Roman times, Trajan is an all-capitals typeface. Instead, small caps are commonly used, and a more complete set of glyphs contained in Trajan Pro (a 2001 update of the original typeface) includes a lower case of small caps.
Although Twombly was the first to do a very literal translation of the Trajan inscription into type, a number of interpretations (with added lowercase alphabets) predate Twombly's, particularly Rudolf Weiss's eponymous typeface of 1926, Frederic Goudy's 1930 "Goudy Trajan*," and Warren Chappell's "Trajanus" of 1939. (from wikipedia)
— Cem


text:
Because I Don't Need Flowers to Feel Lovedposted by Andrea | 06/16/2014
Today is my birthday — 29 years old!
I love birthdays; however, I'm pretty sure today will simply be another very normal day in the Dekker house.
- I'll wake up early to finish a few things in the mudroom because I'm meeting with a company who might be designing and installing a closet system for us.
- I'll take a quick peek at our online bank statement to make sure the mortgage payment came out today.
- I'll enjoy the various people leaving birthday wishes on my personal Facebook wall.
- We'll eat leftovers for lunch, and then I'm getting my hair cut and colored — a little lighter for summer I think.
- I'll probably clean pee off the floors and spit-up off my clothes at least 2 or 3 times.
- Then I'll do some yard work or take Nora and Simon for a walk if the weather cooperates. If it's raining, I might get groceries instead.
- When I get the mail, there will most likely be a card from my grandma and from Dave's grandma (because neither one ever forgets birthdays!)
- We'll load up the kiddos for a quick dinner out at a local restaurant (using free birthday coupons) and stop by another local spot for a free slice of my favorite cheesecake (another birthday coupon).
- Then it's baths, PJ's, and snacks (for the kids, not me!)
- After the kids are in bed, Dave and I will clean up the house and finish crossing off our many to-dos for the day.
- Then I'll convince Dave to turn the basketball games off and let me watch an episode of The Office on Netflix — while I skim through emails and do a bit of blogging before heading off to bed.
There will be no flowers or gifts, but I'm certain I'll be smothered with slobbery kisses from Nora, a bunch of drool from Simon, and a smooch or two from Dave.
Yes, this is basically what every day looks like for me (besides the birthday cards and free birthday coupons) but that's OK, I don't need flowers or gifts or a surprise party to feel special and loved on my special day.
Yesterday was Father's Day — Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there (including my dad, my grandpa, Dave's dad… and of course, Dave!)
We actually didn't see either of our dads or my grandpa yesterday as everyone was busy doing other things with other people.
We didn't do anything extra special to celebrate — although Dave did get a bunch of cuddles from his two favorite kids and free custard from Culver's thanks to a Father's Day e-coupon.
No gifts, no parties, nothing out of the ordinary (no flowers for Dave either) — just a normal Sunday with church and naps and relaxing.
Father's Day and my birthday — although they are both very special days, they really aren't any different from every other day. Not because I don't love Dave or because he doesn't love me. Not because we don't care about our fathers. Not because our families don't care about my birthday. Not because we didn't have the time to celebrate. And certainly not because Dave can't afford to buy me flowers.
It's simply because that's how real life is.
Contrary to what you might see in movies, on reality TV shows, in magazines, or on Pinterest, real people with real lives don't get lavishly pampered every single birthday, anniversary, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, or other special date on the calendar.
Real people don't get fancy parties and expensive gifts for every occasion. Real people don't get YouTube videos documenting a secret surprise that has been in the works for months. Real people don't get whisked away on a luxury vacation to celebrate their special day.
The real people I know rarely even get flowers 😉
Yes, there are exceptions to this rule (I know real people who REALLY love to pull out all the stops for special occasions, and it's fabulous) however… for the most part, I personally feel like the media and various marketing efforts set real people up for so much disappointment when their special days turn out to be normal days… just like all their other days.
Believe me, I get it.
My top love language just so happens to be "gifts" — so yes, I LOVE getting and giving gifts as much as anyone else. I love the idea of getting flowers or a special surprise; however, I also realize that Dave is NOT a gifts person. He's more of a "let me wash the dishes and play with the kids all day" kind of person.
I know Dave loves me whether or not I get flowers or any other tangible gift to show it. And honestly, who's going to complain about clean dishes and a few hours without kids bugging them every second? Not me, that's for sure!
Yet the media has us convinced that unless we get an elaborate party, an extravagant surprise, an expensive gift, or at the very least, flowers, we are getting slighted. After all, if the special people in our lives really love and value us, they would take the time and spend the money to do those things for us. Right?
I have absolutely nothing against buying flowers, giving gifts, planning surprises, or showering those we love with extra special things on their extra special days — but I also know that those material things are not what really matter, nor do they offer any reflection on how much we are loved.
They are simply marketing… and probably a little bit of "keeping up with the Jones'".
So tonight, I will go to bed one day older — with no flowers or gifts or parties to think back on. I am not sad about this, nor do I feel I was slighted in the least.
It was just another normal day. A day no different from every other day, but filled with the people I love most.
Cheers to finishing out my twenties with a bang!
Filed under: Life • Family • Holidays • Daily Life
Leave a comment
52 comments
I get where you're coming from… however, I can't not give my mom, who has birthed and raised 7 children, something special for her birthday, Christmas or mother's day. I feel like in today's society, if one has the capability to tell someone dear that they are special (it doesn't even have to be expensive), it means something.
Happy Birthday!!
Eric West06/18/2014
Happy birthday! My Father's Day was a lot like Dave's. I relaxed and played with my daughter and her friend. I lounged by the pool for a bit while the kids were swimming and then I took a nap on the couch with my daughter snuggled in next to me.
The best gift for me is time to spend with the people I love.
karen miller06/17/2014
Happy Birthday a day late-sorry! As a single mom of fifty let me tell you how much you are already blessed. It seems like you are a wonderful person inside and out. Enjoy your life and your family every moment you can!
Happy Birthday! I agree with the don't give me flowers. Tell me/show me by doing other things. Lighten my load for the day. I also would rather go somewhere like Culvers than out for a big fancy dinner(that usually costs way to much and can be disappointing). I will admit though that one year my DH got me a lilac bush that I had talked about wanting to add to our landscape and every year when my birthday rolled around I thought about that sweet gesture.
Happy, happy birthday!
Thank you for being real. Our Father's Day was spent demoing the master shower. A very necessary task. Not the relaxing at the ballpark he might have preferred. And his gift was purchased two weeks ago with gift cards–a replacement drill for that one he'd had for years that no longer worked. Great but not a "real" gift either.
Happy Birthday! How fun that your husband gets to be around on your birthday, and I hope you enjoyed a wonderful "normal" day today!


text:
Book on life of PM Modi launched in Washington
Washington: A coffee table book on the life of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was globally launched here and presented to several American lawmakers.
"The Making of a Legend" has images and text depicting Modi's journey, his struggles and initiatives since assuming the office in 2014.
The book has been written by Bindeshwar Pathak, the founder of NGO Sulabh International.
Copies of the book were presented to Congressmen H Morgan Griffith, Thomas A Garrett, Barbara Comstock, Ted Yoho and Ami Bera.
The lawmakers lauded the efforts of the prime minister, a media release said yesterday.
Describing Modi as a "true grassroots leader", Pathak said India is all set to ensure 100 per cent sanitation coverage by 2019.
The event – the first in a series — was organised by Chairman of the Fairfax County's Republican Committee Matt Ames, Member of the Trump campaign's Asian American Advisory committee Punit Ahluwalia and Adapa Prasad of Overseas Friends of the BJP in the US.
Pathak termed Modi as "an able and true mentor" for social welfare and development of India.
The book was launched in India in July.


text:
Indiana's Voucher Program Best In The Country
Indiana's school voucher program is the best in the country according to a report released Wednesday by the Center For Education Reform. In the report, Indiana ranked highest among the 15 states that have voucher programs.
Although Indiana's voucher program is only three years old, enrollment has increased each year with more than 19,000 students currently receiving state money for private school tuition.
Kara Kerwin, President of the Center for Education Reform, says Indiana's program is the most inclusive because it accepts any student who meets the financial requirement and not just those who come from failing schools.
The report did criticize the state's requirement to teach certain content if the school accepts vouchers.
"One size doesn't fit all and so dictating the content is something we look at and say 'hey maybe that's just a little too much overreach into the private school sector,'" Kerwin said.
State superintendent Glenda Ritz opposes the voucher program, and earlier this year the Indiana Department of Education released a report saying the program cost the state $16 million, rather than saving it $4 million as in the previous two years.


text: CHEAT SHEETTOP 10 RIGHT NOWSHOP WITH SCOUTEDSears, Kmart to Close 100 StoresRECESSIONOMICSUpdated Apr. 24, 2017 12:51PM ET / Published Dec. 27, 2011 12:04PM ET Getty ImagesSears Holding announced on Tuesday that they are being forced to shut down up to 120 Sears and Kmart stores due to a drop in holiday sales. The stores to be closed have yet to be identified. Sears Holding said that stores open for up to a year were down 5.2 percent for sales in the eight weeks leading up to Christmas Day, and shares of the company have tumbled almost 50 percent in the past year. Analysts said the company is suffering from a combined weakness in the economy and growth on online sales.Read it at CNN


text:
It's detox season and, here at Professional Moron, we're in the mood to try out some of the more radical theories out there. Indeed, there's a school of thought which suggests ingesting poodle hair is a tremendous way to cleanse one's organs, flush the toxins out of one's system, and return a happy sheen to one's mug. Hell yeah! We can handle that.
We all know about noodles, too. They're those things which look like spaghetti, but aren't, yet are still super tasty and hideously bad for you… unless you go for groovy vegan varieties, such as with the epic Soba brand! We're not doing that, though, as the combination of any dodgy noodles with poodle hair is enough to cancel out the badness to deliver one mega health kick. Oh yeah!
Noodles and Poodle Hair Smoothie
All you'll need for this recipe is a blender, 400g of noodles, a small amount of water, 10g of salt, and a pet dog (specifically, a poodle – extra specifically, a poodle with hair – if it has male pattern balding you'll have to pass on this one). As poodles shed their hair you can skip on the expense of clippers, simply gather the hair up (hair of the dog that bit you!), stuff it in the blender, and whisk the SOB up a notch.
It's a detox drink, of course, so the concoction looks a bit like bile and, frankly, doesn't taste a great deal better. There's a certain unpleasant, choking punch to it which will make you feel dizzy – do your best not to barf because that lot's doing you the world of good! Indeed, some of the unknown (but expected) health benefits of this smoothie include:
- Shiny kneecaps – Get your knees looking top notch in time for the spring weather; bag your ideal man/woman with those lovely things
- Perfectly aligned teeth – You'll clench your jaw so tight in disgust upon downing this beverage your teeth will, forcibly, be jammed into an aesthetically pleasing row – this is sheer unbridled agony, but worth it in the long run
- Earlobe reduction – Hate the size of your earlobes? This smoothie will reduce them by 0.3mm with each sip! Don't overdo it, though, or your ears will retract fully into your skull, rendering you only able to hear your own thoughts
- Telepathic enhancements – Comprehend the world in a new way by reading other people's thoughts and communicating with poodles to gain learned insights on noodle and poodle hair smoothies
Other Health Benefits
This is a mere few of the benefits, however, as this smoothie will also help you to lose a considerable amount of weight. This is primarily due to being unable to keep it down in your gut, so you'll spend most of your time hungry, and the rest of the time shredding calories as you gurn like crazy in an attempt to keep the contents in your gut.
Ultimately, this is a recipe which will put smoothies back on the map now that juicing has become such a big craze. We're pretty sure juicing has zero health benefits (indeed, more like benegits!), so turn to noodles and poodles smoothies for your return to looking like Adonis from the planet Adonis!


text:
By Jeffrey Gleason
Nine weeks into the NFL season, no teams remain unbeaten. This could've actually been said after eight weeks, after seven weeks, and after six weeks as well. Week 5 was the last time an unbeaten team remained, when both the Cardinals and Bengals were sitting at 3-0.
However, after these same nine weeks, five teams remain unbeaten at home. The Patriots, Broncos, Eagles, Packers, and Cardinals have yet to lose on their own turf.
Home field advantage is a phenomenon that gets a lot of traction in sports. Experts often use it to justify their predictions and betting lines usually reflect the perceived advantage of the home side. However, people often generalize home field advantage with a "one size fits all" approach, acknowledging its presence, but assuming it displays a constant impact across different situations.
With five unbeaten NFL home teams and the recent impetus of a road team finally winning Game 7 of the World Series (the Giants topped the Royals on October 29th to capture their third championship in five years), I was interested in how home field advantage was quantitatively different in different situations. How does it vary across sports? Do both good teams and bad teams experience the same advantage? Is it magnified in the postseason? What about differences in earlier eras? These are the questions I set out to resolve.
Although the why and when get more complex, the answer to whether home teams have an advantage in sports is actually what I believe to be a pretty straightforward analysis. To begin, I collected a sample of the home winning percentage for each team in each of the last ten years for the five US professional sports leagues (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, MLS). Although this sample isn't random, the goal here is to look at home field advantage in a contemporary context and therefore it is sufficient. I compared these winning percentages to an expected winning percentage of .500 (in the aggregate, each sport necessarily has the same number of wins and losses). Here are the results:
*Data from sports-reference.com, oddsportal.com, and espnfc.com
**Data over the last nine years for NHL because of lockout and changed rules regarding ties prior to 05-06 season
***MLS winning percentage excludes draws
****The number of individual team seasons is equivalent to the sample size, as each individual team season produces a specific home winning percentage. Individual team seasons is the number of teams per league multiplied by the number of years of data taken
No matter what you believe drives the advantage, there is no disputing that teams in the aggregate win a higher proportion of their games at home than the expected .500. This advantage is also apparent across each of the five major sports, especially in the MLS, where home teams win over two-thirds of their decisions.
My next goal was to assess whether good teams and bad teams both enjoy the same advantage on their home field. Do only good teams play better at home or do bad teams also experience this situational edge? To assess this, I sorted each sport's sample of seasons by overall winning percentage and then split each sample into a top half of "good" teams and a bottom half of "bad" teams. Although the top half would present a higher home winning percentage because of greater team strength, I used their mean overall winning percentage as the parameter of comparison to account for this difference. Finally, to assess which group presented a stronger home field advantage, if they both actually presented one, I took the difference between each group's mean home winning percentage and mean overall winning percentage and used a two-sample t-test to assess whether those two were significantly different. Here are the results:
Both top-half "good" teams and bottom-half "bad" teams present a distinct home field advantage. Furthermore, despite a larger difference between home winning percentage and expected winning percentage for most top-half groups, none of these differences proved to be statistically significant. Therefore, we can conclude that home field advantage carries over across different strength teams, but isn't more powerful for either group.
My next goal was to see how home field advantage presented itself in postseason play. The approach was identical to the one I used for the regular season data, but instead of just testing to see whether there was a home field advantage in the postseason, I also assessed whether that advantage was magnified compared to the regular season. There is an important distinction to be made about the structure of postseason play. Unlike the regular season, where home and road games are evenly split, each major sport (except the MLS which employs a two-game, home, away, aggregate scoring format and the MLB World Series where home field is determined by its All Star Game) gives the team with the better record more home games in a playoff series. This is clearly magnified in the NFL where a playoff round is just one game. Therefore it's reasonable to expect that the home winning percentages during the playoffs (expect for in the MLS) will be higher because the better team is playing a greater proportion of home games. Results are below:
*Data from sports-reference.com, wikipedia.org, mlssoccer.com
**For MLS, Number of Playoff Games = those ending in a Win or Loss (ties are possible because of the two-game aggregate scoring format)
***postseason sample size = one whole postseason, not individual team postseasons
This is the first instance where the results aren't consistent across all five sports. The NBA appears to provide a home playoff advantage that is significantly greater than the regular season home court advantage. We can't just attribute this to the fact that better teams get more home playoff games, because this same scenario presents itself in both the NHL and MLB with no discernable extra effect on home playoff advantage. The NBA is more top-heavy (more standard deviation in teams' winning percentages) than either the NHL or MLB, but regardless, the better team will still only get one extra, and sometimes zero extra, home games per round. However it does seem like an NBA team vying for a championship shouldn't discount the edge that comes with the top seed and the top overall record in the playoffs.
Finally, the MLB home winning percentage across 168 individual team seasons and 25,890 games from 1953-1962 is 0.5404, almost identical to the current ten-year home winning percentage of 0.5422 (data from baseball-reference). This demonstrates that there is practically an identical advantage across these two different eras, and although we must be careful about drawing conclusions from one ten year period in one individual sport, this does point to the possibility that home field advantage, qualified by sport, is consistent over time.
In conclusion, home field advantage is certainly a statistically significant phenomenon. However, it gets much more interesting when you start to look at its intricacies. The MLS presents a home field advantage 7% higher than any other league and home field advantage is 5% more significant during the NBA playoffs than during the regular season. However, there is also startling consistency to many aspects of home field advantage. It is consistent across teams of different strength (and not more powerful for either group), throughout postseason play, and possibly across different eras. I think it's safe to say home field advantage is anything but "one size fits all."


text:
|Area Land
|900 m²
|Town / Village
|Roquebrune Cap Martin
Villa > Roquebrune Cap Martin
The calm, prestige of Cap Martin in a neoclassical villa finely decorated with a true and overhanging sea view. In the first line, a few steps from the beaches, a very charming villa of about 250m2 with a garden planted of 900m2. A very discreet pool in the rock and several terraces facing the sea. On two floors, on the first floor a living room and three bedrooms, on the ground floor a master bedroom, a bedroom and a vast winter garden for your moments of relaxation and reading. Complete property an independent studio ideal for a w.e. Romantic or welcome your guests. Covered parking for two cars, possibility of creating a second for 2 other cars. In perfect condition, no work to be envisaged. Ref. 6098


text:
Dethklok, Machine Head, All That Remains and The Black Dahlia Murder will embark on a 31-date North American tour this fall. The following is Machine Head's press release, and below that are the dates.
Machine Head will spend the next few months on the road, doing what they do best and that's lay waste to stages across the U.S., reducing them to piles of rubble and ash.
In advance of the tour, in mid-September, "Darkness Within," one of band's most powerful offerings, will ship to Rock radio. The video for the track can be viewed HERE.
The Bay Area metal titans will embark on what is sure to be one of the "must see" tours of the fall season with Dethklok, All That Remains and Black Dahlia Murder. That lineup translates into one helluva night for metalheads.
The trek kicks off on October 24th with a "warm up show" in Louisville, Kentucky, 2 massive radio festivals in Orlando and Tampa Florida, and then begins with Dethklok on Oct 30th at The Norva in Norfolk, Virginia and will hit 33 cities before wrapping on December 8th in Atlanta, Georgia.
This tour will also be offering a limited number of Machine Head VIP Meet and Greet packages, look for updates and links coming later this week.
Machine Head will be further supporting their 2011-released masterwork Unto the Locust, which was dubbed "a landmark for Machine Head, a landmark for heavy metal" by ARTISTdirect and which was said to be an album that is so good, it "rewards revisiting" by Decibel. The record was also heralded as one of the best of the past year by Loudwire, capping off near-universal praise for another instant classic in the Machine Head catalog. Jon Wiederhorn of Revolver proclaims "in terms of quality and significance, Unto the Locust may well be this decade's Master of Puppets."
10/24 Louisville, KY – Headliner's *
10/26 Orlando, FL – Tinker Field *
10/27 Tampa, FL – 1-800-ASK-GARY Amphitheater *
10/30 Norfolk, VA – Norva
10/31 Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory
11/2 Silver Spring, MD – Fillmore
11/3 New York, NY – Roseland Ballroom
11/4 Worcester, MA – Palladium
11/5 Montreal, QC – Metropolis
11/7 Toronto, ON – Sound Academy
11/8 Pittsburgh, PA – Stage AE
11/9 Columbus, OH – LC Pavilion
11/10 Detroit, MI – Fillmore
11/11 Grand Rapids, MI – Orbit Room
11/13 Fargo, ND – The Venue
11/14 Minneapolis, MN – Myth
11/15 Milwaukee, WI – Rave / Eagles Club
11/16 Chicago, IL – Aragon Ballroom
11/17 Kansas City, MO – Midland
11/18 St. Louis, MO – The Pageant
11/20 Denver, Co – Fillmore
11/21 Salt Lake City, UT – Great Salt Air
11/23 Seattle, WA – Showbox SODO
11/24 Portland, OR – Roseland Theater
11/26 Oakland, CA – Fox Theater
11/27 Hollywood, CA – Palladium
11/28 Phoenix, AZ – Marquee
11/30 Dallas, TX – House Of Blues
12/1 Austin, TX – Stubbs
12/2 Houston, TX House of Blues
12/4 Orlando, FL – House Of Blues
12/6 Chattanooga, TN – Track 29
12/7 Charlotte, NC – Fillmore
12/8 Atlanta, GA – Tabernacle
* Machine Head only


text:
This Southeast facing bright and stylish urban apartment is in one of the best neighborhood - Olympic Village. Every bit of space is well thought out and functional in this open floorplan. Custom designed built in wall unit combined with a desk complements the living area while adding extra storage and a great room for entertaining. Expansive windows letting in lots of light and views. Intimate dining area is an extension of the heart of the home - the kitchen featuring rich granite countertops, SS appliances, Viking gas range and convection oven. Black out curtains throughout adding yet another detail to the interior. This well run building has an excellent caretaker, well equipped gym, meeting rooms, lounge and garden terrace. Good for investment or first time home buyer.
Taxes (2018): $1,754.00


text:
Upload your resume for review by our career
management partner, The Barrett Group.
For those job candidates seeking personalized
career management, our partner, The Barrett Group, offers a team of
highly experienced consultants, each of whom provides a track
record of success and service for clients seeking to land a
position, renegotiate their current situation or change
For a review of your resume by one of The
Barrett Group's executive consultants, click below.
Upload your resume now for
free critique!
Please let us know if you are a company or recruiter.


text:
Alesund holiday offers
Browse our special offers for Alesund and combine our specialist knowledge with great value savings.
List of offers
cruise offer
cruise offer
Special fly-cruise fares
Book by: 20 March 2020
This full-board, exploratory cruise will bring you through fjords and past remote islands to reach Norway's historic towns, fishing villages and Arctic fun. Everything from dogsledding and snowmobiling to the North Cape and the Russian border is set under the Northern Lights.
Alternatively, call one of our experts on 020 7590 0637. We are open tomorrow from 10:30 am.


text:
Huatulco Vacation Rentals
10,000 sq ft Oceanfront Presidential Villa with Amazing Views (from $115/nt), based on double occupancy for a 7 night stay
Oceanfront Villa - Quinta Alegria
4 bedroom 5 bath oceanfront villa, sleeps up to 8 people, sq.ft.
New reduced rates! As low as $115/nt per person (TAX INCLUDED), based on double occupancy and a 7 night booking, for this spectacular and very private oceanfront villa (SEE NEW LOWER RATES BELOW). In addition to our new lower rates we now offer the services of our private cook for as low as ... » View Details
The Mazunte Beach Bungalow in now For Sale! A rare opportunity to own one of only a handful of beachfront properties in Mazunte and make some rental income too.
Mazunte Beach Bungalow
Mazunte beach bungalow, sleeps up to 4 people, sq.ft.
The village of Mazunte is located less than an hours drive up the coast from Bahias de Huatulco and approximately forty-five minutes down the coast from Puerto Escondido. Mazunte is a very laid back rustic coastal community specializing in low impact tourism catering to those looking for a pla... » View Details


text:
My voice is my Treasure
by Elouise
All my life I've lived under a shadow of silence. I don't even know what to call it. It was my hiding place. A gigantic dark place. A cloud of thunder and lightning. Winds whipping trees in the night. Holding my breath until I thought I would burst. Watching my back lest I be caught unawares.
I began this blog because I wanted to find my voice. Not my professional voice, but my personal voice. It peeked out from time to time, but quickly retreated when challenged or under threat. I loved my voice, but I didn't yet treasure it. Nor did I see it as a treasure.
I've been blogging for nearly three years. At first it was excruciatingly difficult and terrifying. I thought every word mattered. I didn't want to turn myself into a sideshow. I desperately needed to keep my self-respect.
But blogging isn't about getting every word just right so no one can possibly misunderstand me. It's about using my voice differently. Relaxing into what I've dreamed of doing all my life: speaking and even playing with my voice, without apology or fear of what might happen next. Or of what others will think of me.
My voice is my Treasure. Not something I can hide or leave behind, but a gift from my Creator-Redeemer. A sparkling ring placed on my finger the day I was born. I can't think of a better way to say Thank You to God than exercising my voice.
And then there are my readers. Here's a Thank You to each woman and each man who has visited, read, commented, liked or not liked what I've posted.
They say audience feedback, whether verbal or nonverbal, is crucial for successful communication. It's a two-way street. So…to each of you who has helped me see what's happening or not happening, a Great Big Thank You. And a hug too, if you need one!
Elouise ♥
© Elouise Renich Fraser, 7 December 2016
Response to WordPress Daily Prompt: Treasure


text:
The case of the new Graham watch, streamlined and aesthetically refined, measures 47 mm in diameter and is sculptured from stainless steel. The bezel of the model is adorned with a Clous-de-Paris decoration.
The right part of the case features steel start /stop and reset pushers provided with a Clous-de-Paris high-grip pattern. The face is shielded by a domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating. The case construction incorporates a see-through sapphire crystal case-back. It is 100-meter water-resistant.
The Graham watch accommodates an automatic bi-compax chronograph movement - Calibre G1734. Oscillating at a rate of 28,800 vibrations per hour, the 27-jewel movement, built with an Incabloc shock absorber, gives an advantage of a 48-hour power-reserve.
The Graham Silverstone Vintage 30 watch is presented on an integrated brown leather strap. One can acquire the timepiece at the price of 6, 900 CHF.
Enjoy a nice range of Graham watches:


text:
Here, largely for my own gratification, is a list of bugs I've patched:
- bug 46555 - "Select All" is enabled even when text field is empty
- bug 215405 - Scroll position not remembered on pages with cache-control: no-store http header
- bug 263683 - Find Bar "Highlight All" should use selection, not manipulate DOM
- bug 318065 - Value is wrong during oninput for ctrl+z (undo) if text was blank before undo
- bug 345339 - Revisit nsPresState
- bug 348681 - Don't allow overlapping ranges in the selection
- bug 393922 - Remove nsIDownloadProgressListener::onStatusChange and nsIDownloadListener::onLocationChange
- bug 404572 - Get two different "Are you sure you want to quit?" dialogs when trying to quit during download
- bug 408605 - Preference to control cross-session download behaviour
- bug 409624 - FastFind not cleared when doing Clear private data
- bug 415078 - nsWebShell.cpp attempts to fixup immutable URIs
- bug 418874 - Undo function does not work in emptyText textboxes (e.g. Firefox search field, URL bar)
- bug 429723 - Empty findbar turns red and "Phrase not found" is displayed when "Highlight all" is enabled and search term is removed
- bug 449116 - Findbar highlighting should not explicitly repaint selection
- bug 451203 - Unable to select text that has been highlighted by the find toolbar
- bug 451204 - Highlighted text is white on white text on a yellow background, difficult to read
- bug 451212 - "Highlight all" interferes with the look of disabled normal selection
- bug 451286 - Highlight all does not seem to work at all across frames
- bug 451232 - Setting ui.* color pref to empty string or removing pref doesn't immediately reset color to default
- bug 451252 - "Highlight All" find selection not visible in elements that have -moz-user-select: none set
- bug 451540 - Find highlighting in textboxes grows/decreases when editing matched word
- bug 471319 - Undoing the last action of a textbox immediately after emptytext was displayed inserts a line feed (breaks search textbox)
- bug 471722 - Plaintext editor redo handling code looks for incorrect type of bogus node
- bug 471776 - Textboxes with emptytext shouldn't enable undo for display and deletion of empty text
- bug 477631 - [Linux] Intermittent Chrome test_bug418874.xul failure
- bug 483217 - prbool violation in /content/html/content/src/nsHTMLButtonElement.cpp
- bug 483589 - PRBool problem in nsHTMLEditor::EnableExistingStylesheet
- bug 483651 - Trailing <br> not removed when it should be
- bug 493111 - "ASSERTION: Range index not returned"
- bug 495153 - nsIEditor.removeEditActionListener exception in this case when unhighlighting after changing source of iframe
- bug 502673 - Possible to crash with multiple document state listeners on the same object
- bug 510575 - Selecting a table row and pasting in the editor crashes Firefox
- bug 519695 - Assorted findbar nits
- bug 562326 - bug451286_window.xul (used by test_bug451286.xul) randomly times out on the tinderbox if the HTML5 parser is enabled
- bug 566251 - Findbar chrome tests should use SimpleTest.executeSoon rather than using nsIThreadManager directly
- bug 566942 - nsTextFragment::SetTo can be slow
- bug 640302 - Date comparisons in various add-on manager tests are fragile, and dependent on locale
- bug 656131 - Typo in nsWebShellWindow::ConstrainToOpenerScreen
- bug 663585 - Push hooks should print out hg url for the changeset
- bug 682338 - nsXULPopupListener::HandleEvent intends to focus contextmenu target on platforms where it's shown on mousedown, but not those where it's shown on mouseup; been doing exact opposite since 2001
- bug 682618 - test_contextmenu's IsCommandEnabled calls can be dispatched to the wrong element
- bug 693029 - Ctrl+F shouldn't work to open Find toolbar in about:permissions for realz this time.
- bug 724513 - Startupcache can load invalid cache if unable to delete startupCache file
- bug 736358 - Do not prompt users to "open the add-ons manager" when a restartless add-on finishes installing
- bug 740784 - Undo (Ctrl+z) in textarea adding a newline (\n) to the text
- bug 747163 - TelemetryHistogramType returns failure for HISTOGRAM_FLAG
- bug 747379 - Cloning a flag histogram with Telemetry::HistogramFrom breaks the "only one count" invariant
- bug 764207 - Tryserver pushes should output TBPL link for the push
- bug 766181 - Need an extra null check for aOutIndex in Selection::AddItem
- bug 778231 - Add a button to auto-post csets to bugs (Partial fix - still some WIP)
- bug 785051 - Display tree 'motd' field after 'reason', once added to TreeStatus
- bug 789576 - Automatically linkify "bug XXXXXX" when present in tree status reason/motd
- bug 802718 - Manually restore window at end of browser_minimize to avoid breaking rest of suite if test fails
I am the author of m-cMerge, the tool inbound sheriffs use for taking care of post-merge Bugzilla administrivia. You can read about m-cMerge here, and view my contributions to it here.
Badger is a proof-of-concept exploring the idea of issuing Open Badges for Firefox contributions.


text:
URX provides deep linking between apps, providing engaging content and a seamless experience for their users. They utilize carousel cards that contain relevant results from another app.
URX's main metric is user engagement with the carousel unit. They measured engagement with the carousel unit through:
I led a team of 4 designers to develop, scope and execute the project. I also acted as primary client contact and facilitated internal and client meetings.
Due to the new feature release cycles at URX, we had to modify the design of the carousel without any additional engineering requirements. So all design changes had to be made purely as Front End changes.
With the tweaks made to the carousel design, we noticed improvement in both the metrics that were important to user engagement for URX.
In order to achieve our goals, we went through the following process. We went through usability testing of the carousel unit, then we went into a design studio process where we iterated and prototyped new carousel versions. And finally, we A/B tested 4 different designs.
When we began, we followed standard usability testing methods in order to test the engagement of the carousel. We recruited users who read on their mobile phones frequently. We gave them a phone which had an article from Wikia, and we asked them to go through the article, interact with it and narrate their thoughts.
However, pretty early on it the process, we realized this was not the best method to test the carousels for these reasons:
So we decided to delve deeper to understand what factors were at play each time a user came across an article with a carousel in it.
|How does it affect behavior?
|How we controlled for it
How interested are the users in the subject matter of the article? Do they know the artist? Are they a fan?
Recruited participants who read Huffpo + Maroon 5 fans + iPhone users
Where is the user? Are they at home, or on the train? Is it noisy outside or are they wearing headphones? Are they in a rush?
Left the participants in a comfy room on a couch, with no experimenters present for 5 minutes to check out the article
Article Content
How interesting is the content of the article itself? Is it announcing a new song? Is it about the artist's family history?
Crafted a special article on a new album release to make the content more interesting
Song Relevancy
How relevant are the songs in the carousel to the article itself Are the songs mentioned in the article? Or is it a random list?
Used song names that were mentioned in the article itself.
How is the design of the carousel? What do people think will happen when they click it? Is there a clear CTA?
In order to only be testing for the design of the carousel, we needed to control for the 4 factors that had a high impact in the click through rate.
We felt that a carousel unit that resembles a native, embedded music player on the page will
So we drew inspiration from the designs from native music players that are currently out there and started a design studio process. During the course of 3 hours, we came up with ideas, sketched them, presented to the team and finally voted on the best ideas.
Based on the top voted ideas, we created high fidelity mock ups of the ideas that we wanted to test.
By combining multiple ideas, and designing a new carousel unit, we would have no way to interpret the final results. We won't have insights on exactly what ideas led to good or bad results, but merely a final product.
So in order to gain good insights, we decided to test each idea individually, and iterate on carousel version by version, rather than a overhaul.
We picked 4 top ideas, namely 1) Play Button, 2) "Listen On" Header CTA, 3) Progress Bar, 4) Single Song Choice. We developed hypotheses on what metric we would notice an improvement in for each idea.
|Expected Behavior
Play Button
Adding a play button makes for a clearer CTA. Engaged to clicked on first pass.
3/5 users will click on the carousel to listen to music on first pass
Listen On CTA
Adding "Listen On" text to the top bar will make the player seem more native
3/5 users will think that the carousel is a native music player
Progress Bar
Adding a progress bar will make the carousel look like a native player
4/5 users will click on the carousel to listen to music on first pass
Single Song
Using a single song card reduces complexity of choice. Engaged to clicked on first pass.
4/5 users will think that the carousel is a native music player
We then compared the actual results to the expected results, and went through with the change if the actual results were better. If the actual results do no meet the hypothesis, then we drop that idea for the next round of testing.
We gave our Maroon 5 fan participants the article we had crafted about the band's new album. It contained the carousel unit in the middle, along with other media content, such as videos, Instagram images etc. We told them to check it out for 5 minutes, and left the room.
The experimenter came back into the room again to then ask the participants questions on their experience and their interaction with the carousel.
We tested 5 participants each for each version that we A/B tested.
We tested the current carousel unit from URX to get the baseline results. We based all hypotheses for Versions A-D based on these results.
Version A performed exceptionally well against the metric we were testing, which was click through rate. We expected 3 people to click, but 4 ended up clicking. So we incorporated the play button for all future versions.
Version B performed very poorly compared to the hypothesis. 4 people thought it was an Ad, and it might have been because the "Listen On.." CTA at the header might have been too aggressive, making it look more like an Advertisement. So we did not incorporate the Listen On CTA in future versions.
Version C performed really well. Having even a static progress bar made the carousel seem more native and drove up our click through rate to match our hypothesis. So we went ahead and incorporated the progress bar for future versions.
Version D was an interesting case. While all users thought it was native and not an ad, it bombed on the key metric we were hypothesised for, which was click through rate. It might be because having a single song choice means the carousel occupies less space on the screen, and might have attracted less attention. So we decided not to go with the single song choice.
Based on the results from the A/B testing, Version C performed the best, which was recommended to URX. For the future, we also recommended conducting live in the wild A/B testing to further support our design.
For future optimization of user engagement, we also recommend testing other things like carousel placement in the article, song relevancy, and having only one provider.


text:
- Join over 1.2 million students every month
- Accelerate your learning by 29%
- Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month
Meet Humbert Humbert, Vladimir Nabokov's shocking and astounding pedophilic protagonist.
Extracts from this document...
Humbert Humbert Taylor Young Meet Humbert Humbert, Vladimir Nabokov's shocking and astounding pedophilic protagonist. He causes the death of his twelve-year-old lover's mother, and then lies about her "injury" in order to kidnap his "nymphet" and journey across the Continental United States. What could be more disturbing? The fact that, in the end, we love H. Humbert! In his book Lolita Nabokov has effectively accomplished the task of writing as his character, allowing Humbert to deepen tremendously and enhance his audience's experience of Humbert's tragic love for Dolores Haze. I find that Humbert is one of the only truly believable literary figures, and that Nabokov's convincing novel is well written because he wrote it as Humbert Humbert. Thus, Mr. Humbert is an entirely believable character that is deepened with the development of his inner monologues and thoughts, his actions, and his pure love for Dolores Haze. As Lolita is written as H. Humbert's memoir, Nabokov has written as his character. One way that this enhances his writing is in the development of his inner monologue. ...read more.
As stated hitherto, Humbert is detached from reality. He wholly believes that his Lolita truly loves him. Obviously, this is why he kidnaps her. Nabokov displays Humbert as a bit of a romantic, and his overall plan for his and Delores' relationship displays this, he thinks he can sweep her off her feet and carry her off into the wild blue yonder (the West). His romantic qualities prompt his to protect his love. His actions in this category bring him to murder Clare Quilty. This entire scene deepens his character to show how far Humbert will go to protect his Lolita. In his oral death poem to Quilty, Humbert describes himself as Lolita's "wax-browed and dignified protector," (p. 300). Humbert's poem along with the murder of Quilty (killed because he had tried to exploit Delored' body in his child pornography) show that Humbert's mind is clouded and that he is clearly losing his mind. Therefore, Humbert's actions only add to his depth and his character arc.' Humbert's love for Delored Haze is perhaps the most intriguing and well-established idea in the book. ...read more.
He describes this wonderfully in the last section of the poem: ...spitting into [my] flavid toga and at dawn leaving the hog to roll upon his new discomfort the awfulness of love and violets remorse despair while you took a doll to pieces and threw its head away because of all you did because of all I did not you have to die. (p. 300) Humbert is telling Quilty that he killed his relationship with Lolita and that, in turn, Quilty deserves to be killed. In these two examples, Nabokov has already proved that Humbert's is, indeed, true. In fact, this may by "the only convincing love story of our century," (Vanity Fair." Nabokov has created a fully believable and multi-faceted brilliant character. He has developed Humbert by accentuating his inner thoughts, plotting out his actions superbly, and fully exploring Humbert's love for Lolita. The author handles the subject intelligently, brilliantly, writing as Humbert. One of the best-written novels of the century, Nabokov's Lolita is a stunning, provocative, and thought-provoking novel that is, at the same time, a strikingly tragic love story between a lovable pedophile and his twelve-year-old nymphet. ...read more.
This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Love Poetry section.
Found what you're looking for?
- Start learning 29% faster today
- 150,000+ documents available
- Just £6.99 a month
- Join over 1.2 million students every month
- Accelerate your learning by 29%
- Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month


text:
The original plan was for senior Myles Pringle to wait to make his season debut until January.
Plans change – and moving the start of Pringle's final indoor season at Ashland University to Friday (Dec. 7) at the Youngstown State Icebreaker proved to be wise.
Pringle won both the men's 400-meter dash and men's high jump on Friday – breaking facility records and automatically qualifying for 2019 indoor nationals in both events in the process. Pringle crossed the 400 finish line in 46.14 seconds, and ended the high jump at a school-record 2.19 meters/7-feet-2¼.
According to the International Association of Athletics Federations web site (iaaf.org), Pringle now leads the world in the early 2018-19 indoor season in the men's 400 dash, and is third in the world in the men's high jump.
There were three AU automatic marks for D-II indoor nationals, March 8-9 at Pittsburg State (Kan.), on Friday, and the third was turned in by sophomore Trevor Bassitt in the men's 60 hurdles. Bassitt's prelim time was 7.93 seconds, then he placed second in the finals in an auto time of 7.90 seconds.
Ashland's men also earned three provisional nationals marks at YSU – sophomore Channing Phillips in the 400 dash (fourth place, 48.48 seconds), freshman Tim Rumas in the 200 dash (second, 21.67 seconds), and the 4x400 relay team of Phillips, junior Brad Studenmund, Bassitt and freshman Brayden Chaney (second, 3:15.43).
On the women's side, sophomore Miyuki Sugiyama earned a provisional nationals mark in winning the triple jump at 11.91 meters/39-feet-1.
In the women's high jump, junior Ellie Jindra took second place at 1.65 meters/5-feet-5.
Ashland's throwers will compete on Saturday (Dec. 8) at the Findlay Oiler Opener. The entire squad will return from Christmas/New Year's break and go back to Findlay for its Open on Jan. 12.


text:
Fully Licensed & Bonded
The hotel offers 508 rooms in total. It has a lobby with hotel safe, a café, bar, restaurant and conference facilities. Room and laundry services are provided. Parking facilities are available to guests arriving by car (subject to fees). LocationThis recently renovated contemporary hotel is Sydney's premier harbourside hotel, surrounded by spectacular waterside harbour views of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. It is also ideally situated in the heart of the Sydney business district, with the shopping delights of the Pitt Street Mall and 'Rocks' entertainment precinct on the doorstep. RoomsThe beautifully appointed rooms feature en suite bathroom, luxurious bedding package, upgraded amenities throughout, individually adjustable air conditioning, direct dial telephone, tea/coffee making facilities, hairdryer, iron and ironing board, minibar, bathrobe, TV and safe deposit box as standard. SportOn offer to guests are the health club and spa with indoor swimming pool, gymnasium, sauna and treatment rooms. MealsIcons Brasserie, open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, serves modern Australian cuisine. Customs House Bar, open for lunch and dinner, is Sydney's only 150-year-old pub. It offers a festive atmosphere and has a popular outdoor area. Macquarie Lounge, the hotel's magnificent lobby lounge is open for lunch and dinner. It offers coffee, cocktails and entertainment.


text:
Download complete release and game notes in PDF
PAINESVILLE, OHIO -- The Lake Erie College women's basketball team returns to the home court to close out the 2012-13 season with four straight games at the Jerome T. Osborne Family Athletic & Wellness Center. This weekend, the Storm (3-19, 1-18 GLIAC) hosts Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) South Division foes Tiffin University (Thursday, Feb. 21) and Ohio Dominican University (Saturday, Feb. 23).
LAST TIME OUT: The Storm fell behind red-hot Findlay 13-0 in the opening minutes and never recovered as the Oilers won their eighth straight in convincing fashion, 75-37, on Saturday. Lake Erie trailed 44-15 at halftime after the Oilers followed up their opening run with a 16-0 spurt later in the first half. The Storm shot just 27.5% from the field, went 5-of-20 from three-point range and turned the ball over a season-high 32 times. Chrissy Delaney was a bright spot, scoring 11 points and pulling down nine rebounds, a career high. Shelby Carpenter added nine points, her highest scoring output since Jan. 3. Margaret Wuebker led Findlay with 12 points.
DRAGONS DIRECTIONS: Tiffin (11-12, 8-11 GLIAC) snapped a three-game losing streak with an overtime win at home against Walsh University on Saturday. The win keeps the Dragons in a group of four teams fighting for the final two GLIAC Tournament berths. Leading scorer Karli Mast was lost to injury just five games into the season, but Jessica Harris has been solid all year by averaging a double-double on the season (10.1 ppg., 10.3 rpg.).
PANTHERS PREVIEW: Ohio Dominican (8-14, 5-14 GLIAC) has won three games in a row, and four of six overall, to surpass its win total from each of the past two seasons. Sophomore Kacee Hockenberry has been the Panthers' prime scorer, averaging 15.1 ppg. She's scored 20 or more five times, including 21 earlier this season against the Storm. Junior Katelyn Stuckey is averaging 10.8 ppg.
SERIES HISTORY: Lake Erie has never defeated Tiffin, falling in all 10 previous meetings with the Dragons. The Storm leads Ohio Dominican, 6-5, with the Panthers snapping LEC's three-game series winning streak last month.
THE FORECAST: The Storm is at home twice in its final week, hosting Notre Dame College on Wednesday (Feb. 27) and Ashland University Saturday (Mar. 2) in the season finale.


text:
SCOTUS Issues a Super‐Zelman Decision on Education Tax Credits
Today, the Supreme Court of the United States issued the Zelman decision for education tax credits. More than that, it's Super-Zelman.
The findings in Zelman apply just as well to education tax credit programs, but only credit programs allow taxpayers to spend their own money on education.
As Andrew Coulson explained in detail earlier, the Court ruled that education tax credits are not government funds, and the plaintiffs therefore have no standing to bring suit in the first place. They were not harmed because none of their money was collected and then disburse by the state.
Children are rightly our primary concern, but taxpayers deserve more consideration than they often get in debates over education reform.
Education tax credit programs can expand educational choice and freedom while respecting the preferences and values of the individual taxpayers who earned that money in the first place.
Voucher programs simply cannot provide this kind of accountability to both parents and taxpayers.


text:
A good week starting with a visit to the North East with my sons to see our Newcastle United survive in the top flight of English football (soccer if you're reading this the other side of the pond) and visit the beautiful city of Durham and the Angel of the North.
Fast forward to Wednesday and I was joined by regular running buddy Brian and two other work colleagues, Matt and David for a midweek 12 mile walk. Along with our boss and his girlfriend, the six of us will be attempting the 3 peaks challenge in July.
Brian and myself have done some walking mixed in with our running training but it was nice to be joined by two other members of the team.
Down in the south of England we don't exactly have a mountain like Ben Nevis to practice on but we do have the North Downs, which has plenty of challenging hills to train on.
This panoramic taken near Newlands Corner at sunset shows the beautiful views of the Surrey hills beyond.
The quaint church of St Martha's and the views beyond are well worth the effort up the big hill that gets you here. You may have read my recent post of my struggle and relief of finally running up this hill!
David and Brian taking the lead with Catholic Apostolic church in the parish of Albury beyond.
The silent pool, an eerie still natural spring supposed to be haunted by a drowned maiden fleeing deeper into the pool from a horseman believed to be Prince John in the 1200's.
Another view of the Catholic Apostolic church, Albury.
The picturesque village of Shere, this was our half way turn around point before doubling back. We didn't give in to temptation and stop at the inviting pub for a quick pint!
Selfie time at the Silent pool....is that the ghost of the maiden beyond....my mistake it's only Matt ;-)


text:
Singapore, March 18 : Singapore's Changi Airport has been voted the World's Best Airport for the fourth year in a row at the 2016 World Airport Awards, said Changi Airport Group.
This is the seventh time that Changi Airport has picked up this title at the World Airport Awards, Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday.
The airport was also awarded Best Airport for Leisure Amenities, according to the airport.
The 2016 World Airport Awards are based on a survey of 13.25 million customer nominations across 106 nationalities of air travelers and covered 550 airports worldwide.
The survey, conducted by global aviation research firm Skytrax, evaluates customer satisfaction across 39 key performance indicators for airport service and product.
South Korea's Incheon International Airport ranked the second place, followed by Germany's Munich Airport and Japan's Tokyo International Airport, or Haneda Airport.


text:
Those planning to go vegan in 2018 can get a head start on their New Year's resolution at a Nutty New Year Party in Seoul.
In August, organizers Nutties held their first event, a Vegan Cruise Night, and have built on this to bring together a lineup of performances, food and music.
The organizers say they have also tried to give the event "a more vibey and trendy style to show that vegan lifestyle is in alignment with creative atmosphere, delicious food and great values."
The groups say it will provide 50 different vegan dishes at the party, with the chance to check out vegan-friendly products and events designed to help get people talking.
They have tried to make the event open to English speakers, such as by labeling the dishes in English and Korean. It seems to have worked, with expats making up about a third of visitors to the last event.
"We wish to spread the environmental, health and ethical values of veganism in Korea through themes in which the public could be interested," the organizers said via email. "Rather than saying 'This is right!' we wish to communicate with the public through creative gourmet food and trendy party experience."
They gave examples of how it might be challenging to go vegan.
"Many vegans in Korea experience difficulty finding food without anchovies or food additives such as beef stock, which are used in kimchi, side dishes and soup dishes," they said, adding that restaurants were often unhelpful when asked about their ingredients.
"Finding out whether something is vegan or not, such as food and clothes, is difficult in Korea due to the lack of awareness about what is meant by the terms 'vegan' or 'vegetarian.'"
Besides event planning, the group is running a crowdfunding project for scarves and socks that do not use animal products such as wool, and for vegan gourmet food sets.
And those going to the Nutty New Year Party will get a gift set with vegan items such as socks, a scarf and condoms -- which some vegans object to in their non-vegan form as they have been tested on animals.
"Lip balm and pearl accessories may not be vegan since the ingredients may come from beehouses and sea animals like pearl oysters," they said. "However, we do not believe that veganism is about perfection since there are difficulties associated with always checking for ingredients, because there are so many different relationships and hierarchies that we belong to in our society. We try to make small, incremental changes in our lives."
The party is on Dec. 30 from 4-10 p.m. Tickets to the event are 22,000 won and available from https://goo.gl/forms/hgqt0fUnz7XzUxay1, with more information at www.facebook.com/nuttiesparty.


text:
Recent Posts
Author Archives: Tom Kwong
TypeScript vs Dart from Tour of Heroes
This page describes how TypeScript differs from Dart. The idea is to use Angular's Tour of Heroes tutorial example and compare language features. Ch 2. Hero Editor Imports In TS you must say which object ("Component") to import from the … Continue reading
Posted in Programming Leave a comment
HealthyWalk v1.4 Released
This version includes a new feature that allows users to submit feedbacks or report problems to us. It also includes a fix to the display problem in Walk History screen.
HealthyWalk v1.3 Released
This new version allows you to send walk history data via email. The data is saved as CSV file so you can open it with Excel and create your own charts. Also fixed a bug about refreshing data on the … Continue reading
My Graphics 2.4 released
In this release, we have added a new "rainbow remix" color mode. Select the rainbow box and the graphics will be drawn in many different colors. What used to be infinite possibilities has now become infinity-squared. Enjoy!
HealthyWalk v1.2.1 Released
This new version brought a couple of exciting changes – 1. Health-related information about walking 2. Brand new Settings screen 3. Several bug fixes
My Graphics 2.3.2 released
This release improves application stability since iOS 7 upgrade.
HealthyWalk v1.1 released
This release contains several bug fixes. The app now displays an error if the device is not capable of getting activity data.
HealthyWalk v1.0 released!
== Free for a limited time! No ads! ==== This app is compatible with iPhone 5S only. == It automatically tracks your walking activities every day using the built-in motion sensor in your iPhone 5S. No need to buy any … Continue reading
My Graphics v2.3.1 released
This version has now been tested and released for iOS 7. Enjoy!
Invert color in dark environment
Once in a while, you will find yourself staring at your iPhone in the dark and feel very tired looking at the bright small screen. I suppose that is a very common scenario as we iPhone addicts always hold our … Continue reading
Posted in iPhone Leave a comment


text:
About a year ago one of my dear friends had asked me to buy her a TLR. I did buy her a TLR but it never reached her, mostly because I fell in love with it and she too felt that whole emotion overflowing from me. And now that the camera is finally going to her, I feel sad and terrible, like I'm leaving behind a lover on a rainy day, in a taxi which is too cold for comfort, heading for the airport.
Last night over drinks, two friends & I had a intense discussion on the gap between shooting and getting a pleasing picture or getting the pleasing picture in your mind even before you've picked up the camera. To start seeing what you need in your mind and getting it out of a camera needs a strong understanding of how the camera will behave. I'd say that one takes usually about six months to really understand that and start seeing what it would shoot in your head without which your pictures are basically dependent on factors which are out of your control. With the Yashica, I felt that I knew when it was to be used and when it would not be able to create what I need, which is a great feeling, makes everything clear, sharp and very efficient.
And just so you know what I had been doing with the D for a whole year..
Goodbye Yashica D, I shall miss you. 😥


text:
Barnes & Noble Chooses Dothan City Schools for Annual Holiday Book Drive
November 1, 2016 – DOTHAN,AL –
Barnes & Noble Dothan invites customers to give the gift of reading to children in need during the company's annual Holiday Book Drive, taking place November 1, 2016, through January 1, 2017. The Barnes & Noble Holiday Book Drive provides customers the opportunity to donate books to locally designated non-profit organizations. Last year, Barnes & Noble customers and booksellers provided more than 1.5 million books to over 650 local charitable organizations that provide services to children across the country.
Holiday Book Drive recipients throughout the country include schools, libraries, literacy organizations, family social service agencies and homeless centers. This year, the Dothan Barnes & Noble, located at 4601 Montgomery Hwy Ste 100, will be collecting books for Dothan City Schools and Houston County Board of Education.
"The Holiday Book Drive is a favorite program of both booksellers and customers across the country," says Sarah DiFrancesco, Vice President, Business Development for Barnes & Noble. "Customers often purchase and donate a personal childhood favorite as a way to pass on a holiday tradition to a child in their local community."
All donations will be collected at the store during check-out. You may choose any book of your choice or choose from the display located at the cashwrap area.
To find out how to participate in the Holiday Book Drive, contact the Dothan Barnes & Noble Business Community Development Manager / Store Manager Kendria Wright or Rick Walz at 334-673-8013.


text:
Target - TEST DAY
Agenda -
1. Students will get their rough drafts of their "College Essay (Who has been the biggest influence on your life)" back
I will also give them the two College Essay Rubrics - linked to in the next blog post.
2. TEST Chapter 1
3. Any good news? Who is set to have an exciting weekend? Be safe and see you on Tuesday.
Due next week:
Tuesday - Rock art project and explanation of symbols and coded message.
Friday - Final Draft of the College Essay.


text:
The city also kicked off a public comment period of 15 days to get input on how the funds should be distributed. City officials said the plan won't be completed until after a public meeting in January, with the first projects to begin after that.
In general, the money will be split between buying nearly 200 properties for the Indianapolis Land Bank, acquiring 50 units to rehabilitate and developing 70 affordable rental units. Smaller amounts will go toward demolition, new construction, financing and administration . . .
Maury Plambeck, director of the Department of Metropolitan Development, said the public comments and meetings will help determine where to focus within the target areas. He said the money would not solve the problem but would make a dent.
At least 25 percent of the money must be used to buy and redevelop abandoned or foreclosed homes for people whose incomes are not more than 50 percent of the area's median income.
The federal funding provides a large pool of money the City has not had available in the past to tackle abandoned homes. It is estimated there are anywhere between 8,000-10,000 abandoned homes in Indianapolis at present. Let's hope the City makes wise use of these funds to put a real dent in the problem.


text:
Reading Schemes
At Bramley Sunnyside Infants we use a combination of reading schemes as children progress.
We are very lucky to offer a wide range of reading books from different publishers for example:
- Oxford Reading Tree
- Tree Tops
- Story worlds
- Project X
- Rigby Star
- Snap Dragons
- Fireflies
- Lighthouse
These give a variety of fiction and non–fiction books to develop children's reading range. The books are "banded" so that books from different manufacturers, but of comparable level, are grouped together. This provides depth and consolidation for our children as they learn to read.
Children learn to read at different rates. The aim of the reading schemes are to produce competent readers who read for enjoyment and discover about the world around them.
Children are also encouraged to choose a book from our 'Special Collection' to go along side their guided reading book.
They can also pick one of the special gold sticker books. For children in Foundation Stage 1 and 2, they are located in the classroom – just ask an adult if you have not found them yet. For Year 1 and 2 they are on the shelves outside their classroom.
In addition, children in Foundation Stage 1 can borrow a book from the Foundation Library which happens every Thursday


text:
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Meeting of May 30th 2011
Our host this month was Jolene. Present were Beth, Betty, Carla, Colette, Jane, Janet, Jolene, Linda, Michèle and Shirley. All were present! Jolene prepared a very nice ham and cheese roll and other great hors d'oeuvres. We also had a very nice strawberry and whipped cream cake.
The book choice was Jolene's The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. Ms. Morton is Australian and studied both in England and Australia. The Forgotten Garden is her second book of three that have been published. The story is situated in Australia and England and has three main characters in three different time periods. Ms. Morton drew from parts of her own life in writing this book. Her grandmother found out at age 21 that she was adopted and kept it to herself until she was an old woman. Her home in Brisbane is very much like Nell's home, close to Antique shops and tucked into the Paddington hillside. And she heard many stories of family members immigrating to Australia from Europe.
The majority of members very much enjoyed the book, found the characters well developed and were captivated by the story. Even though the story is situated in three different time periods most found it easy to follow. All found the fairytales that were inserted into the story, written by The Authoress added another element to the book. Several members mentioned the connections to Daphne DuMaurier's Rebecca and some to the scenes portrayed by Dickens such as how Eliza was treated by Mrs Swindell, Sammy's death on the streets of London and Eliza's tragic death.
There were some interesting themes, for example a lot about motherhood, the need and desperation to become a mother as Rose felt, surrogate motherhood, the relationships between mothers and daughters, Nell and her daughter Leslie, Nell and her granddaughter Cassandra, Rose and her mother and Eliza's desperate and tragic attempt to take back her daughter after Rose's and Nathaniel's deaths.
Many of us enjoyed the book and felt it was romantic in its depiction of scenery and characters, especially in England, Cliff Cottage, the walled garden, Nathaniel's drawings that illustrated Eliza's fairytales. There was a magical environment to the stories and characters, Eliza so tragic, Linus, evil and creepy, Rose, manipulative, Lady Adeline, uptight and mean.
There was some discussion on our need to know our complete identity and where we come from and how that influenced Nell's whole life and her relationships with her sisters, her daughter and her granddaughter.
Thanks to Jolene for this book, we hope that she may come to enjoy it as much at some point in time
Posted by Muse and Views Bookclub at 11:34 AM
No comments:
Labels: Jolene
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)


text:
Web sites have become an essential part of doing business. Without a presence on the web, your business may be loosing customers. Franktronics will help you register your domain name (yourbusiness.com), establish email accounts, and develop a custom web site.
Our dedicated web servers utilize the latest Microsoft Windows and Linux Operating Systems providing the features you need to run a successful web site. From "One-Page" layouts to large scale E-Commerce to custom database development, Frantkronics has the software and hardware resources to meet your needs.
Already have a web hosting service? Franktronics can maintain your existing web site and help you get the most out of your service provider.
To start your web site project, give us a call at 804-642-5233 and schedule an appointment to discuss your requirements.


text:
What's better than a movie night? A Christmas movie night! There's nothing quite like an evening filled with good company, food and entertainment. A movie night is the perfect Christmas event to host, as the cost is fairly minimal and the pressure of entertaining is out of your hands for 80% of the time. But since it is the festive season, it's only natural to get into the spirit and go all out!
The Line-up
One of the most important things about a movie night is obviously, the films of choice. There are so many options in the Christmas category – so choose wisely! You can go a few different ways with this, depending on your audience.
If you want to lighten the mood, movies like Jingle All The Way, Bad Santa, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation and The Night Before will give you a good laugh. If you're more into the classics, be sure to check out It's A Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Carol and White Christmas.
There are a few stand out Christmas films that never seem to get old, no matter how many times you've seen them! Even though they may be from decades ago, they almost have a sentimental value and it just wouldn't be Christmas without them. Some top picks are Elf, Home Alone and The Grinch!
The Snacks
A big part of the movie night experience is all about the food. Well, let's face it – most occasions are all about food! There's nothing wrong with your standard bowl of popcorn and packets of lollies but adding some festive food will set your movie night apart!
You could whip up some homemade treats like these Christmas tree brownies or if you're looking for a healthier alternative, these sweet Santa hat strawberries are perfect!
Another idea, that will make things a little more interactive, is to set up a self-serve station for between films. You could create a hot chocolate bar, with festive cups, whipped cream and different toppings. This can also be done with ice cream, if you live in a warmer location and don't feel like a hot beverage on a 40 degree day! Everyone will have a good time, getting a little creative and they will definitely thank you for the insta photo ops too.
The Space
If you expect people to sit through a few movies, it's important to make sure they're comfortable. Think about how much space you have in your home and the seating that is available. If you don't have a ton of couch room, grab some pillows, cushions and blankets, to make some comfy spots on the floor.
A big part of any event is all about creating atmosphere. In this case, you want your guests to get into the festive spirit! If you haven't already, make sure your house is decked out in all things Christmas. To add a little something extra, you could light some Christmas scented candles to really set the mood.


text:
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Huntingdon women's basketball team built a double-digit lead in the first half and rolled past Birmingham-Southern 81-58 on Monday night.
The win was the fifth against Birmingham-Southern in the last seven meetings.
Senior T.I. Duncan led Huntingdon (9-2) with 19 points, nine rebounds and four assists. With her second assist of the night, Duncan became the Lady Hawks' NCAA-era career assists leader.
Duncan's four assists on Monday pushed her total to 245 career assists. Former Lady Hawk and Huntingdon Hall of Famer Tiffany Jordan held the previous record of 242.
Junior Shaonica Thomas added 15 points and seven rebounds against the Panthers, Hannah Parks had 12 points and Alex Lowery finished with nine points.
Huntingdon took control of the game early, building an eight-point lead in the first quarter and a 13-point lead in the second quarter. The Lady Hawks carried a 39-31 lead into halftime.
A 3-pointer by Indya Lawrence opened the second-half scoring and pushed Huntingdon's lead back to 11 points. The Lady Hawks would lead by double digits for the remainder of the game.
In the fourth quarter, Huntingdon used a 13-0 run to take a 24-point lead and close out the game.
Records: Huntingdon (9-2); Birmingham-Southern (3-6)
Notable: With a 9-2 record, this is just the second time during the NCAA era the Lady Hawks have reached nine wins before January.
Coming Up: Huntingdon hosts Wesleyan in a conference game on Jan. 2 at 2 p.m.


text:
Taking part in community service improves your leadership skills, enables you to see the impact you can make in your community, helps you learn about yourself and builds your resume.
Service Opportunities Include:
- MLK Day of Service Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "Life's most persistent and urgent question is: 'What are you doing for others?'" Each year, Americans across the country answer that question by coming together on the King Holiday to serve their neighbors and communities.
- Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week The week before Thanksgiving every year is a time for us all to start to think about what we are thankful for, a perfect time to share our compassion with our neighbors who are experiencing homelessness, and work toward a world where no one has to experience hunger or homelessness. This week includes events and programs geared toward educating people about hunger and homelessness locally and nationally as well as various volunteer opportunities.
- Volunteer Fair Once a year, Converse hosts various non-profit organizations at its Volunteer Fair. This gives the Converse community a chance to see where they can volunteer and how they can be making an impact on the lives of people in the Spartanburg community.
- AmeriCorps Week Each year we recognize the commitment of AmeriCorps members and alums by highlighting the extraordinary impact AmeriCorps makes across our nation every day.
- Crescent Mentoring Program This semester-long or year-long program invited Converse students to become a mentor to a local school student. For the past two years, we have partnered with Broome High School.
- Mobile Meals This is a weekly opportunity for volunteers to deliver meals to homebound community members.
- 60 Seconds of Service Once a month, volunteers make sandwiches for local school children who have little to nothing to eat outside of school. This is a partnership with the Sidewalk Hope Truck at Journey Church who delivers the sandwiches every Tuesday and Thursday.


text:
Naked God
The Confederation is starting to collapse politically and economically, allowing the 'possessed' to infiltrate more worlds. Quinn Dexter is loose on Earth, destroying the giant arcologies one at a time. As Louise Kavanagh tries to track him down, she manages to acquire some strange and powerful allies whose goal does not quite match her own. The campaign to liberate Mortonridge from the possessed degenerates into a horrendous land battle of the type not seen by humankind for six hundred years. Then some of the protagonists escape in a very unexpected direction . . . Joshua Calvert and Syrinx now fly their starships on a mission to find the Sleeping God -- which an alien race believes holds the key to finally overthrowing the possessed. 'The long-awaited climax to one of the best sci-fi yarns of the decade . . . Hamilton has reclaimed Britain's dominance of the sci-fi genre' The Times 'Eloquent and ingenious . . . A host of believable characters' Daily Telegraph
Weiterlesen weniger lesen


text:
Take a riverboat cruise up the Mekong into Vietnam and Cambodia's interior with Scorpion's king and queen, Elyes Gabel and Katharine McPhee, who traveled together for Watch! photo shoots in 2015. These globetrotting CBS stars took the trip of a lifetime and these gorgeous photos prove it. Are you filled with wanderlust yet?
Stay tuned for more beautiful photography to come. Watch Scorpion on Mondays at 10/9c on CBS and CBS All Access.
Photography by Cliff Lipson. Originally published in Watch! Magazine, June 2016.


text:
Investment Volumes Down to End 2016
*Preliminary Q416 – data current through Nov. 30, 2016. Note: Excludes development sites. Based on independent reports of properties and portfolios $2.5 million and greater. Data believed to be accurate but not guaranteed. Source: © Real Capital Analytics, Inc. 2017.
- Jan 18, 2017


text:
What Constitutes an AC Emergency?
Monday, July, 18th, 2016 at 2:18 pm by larrysons-seequs
Categories: Air Conditioning Tags: ac emergency, AC repair, air conditioning emergency, cooling emergency, emergency ac repair
The dog days of summer are here, and we've had some pretty sweltering weather lately. When it's hot and your air conditioner isn't working properly, it's obvious that you need repair as quickly as possible. But what happens when your air conditioner breaks down in the middle of the night or on a weekend? You might already be aware that our call center is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but when [Read More...]