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Swami Veda Bharati, D. Litt, Mahamandaleswara, is the founder and Spiritual Guide of both the world-wide organization, Association of Himalayan Yoga Meditation Societies International (AHYMSIN) and the Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama in Rishikesh, India. He is also the Spiritual Guide of Sadhana Mandir Ashram, his master's ashram in Rishikesh and of the Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust near Dehradun, India. He was born into a Sanskrit speaking family and raised in the centuries old Sanskrit tradition. From the age of nine he has captivated audiences with the depth of his knowledge and intuition in the Vedas and Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. All of his knowledge has come intuitively through which he has attained the highest academic degrees; BA (Honours) (London), MA (London), D. Lit. (Holland), and is the author of many books.
Swami Veda Bharati combines the best of the ancient and the modern. He is an inspired and loving teacher, a prolific author, poet and an international lecturer.
With his unique personality he radiates peace, divine love and joy.
Swami Ma Radha Bharati, M.A. Philosophy, M.A. Public Affairs, has been a student of Swami Veda Bharati's since their first meeting in 1971 when he introduced her to meditation. This life-changing event led her to meet and become a disciple of Swami Rama of the Himalayas in the same year. Ma Radha has extensive experience in teaching ethics and philosophy at several Universities. Most recently she has been both the Academic Director and a permanent Faculty member of Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama in Rishikesh, India teaching and continuing her personal practice under Swami Veda's guidance. Her commitment to serve her community is inspired by the ocean of love that has been shown to her through the presence of Swami Rama and Swami Veda. She took sanyasa (renunciation) initiation on November 29, 2007.
Stephen (Stoma) Parker Psy. D., L.P., ERYT-500 is a licensed psychologist in private practice at Northland Therapy Center in St. Paul, MN. An initiate of the Himalayan Tradition since 1971, he has been a yoga teacher since 1974 and is a principal faculty member of the international teacher training program of the Association of Himalayan Yoga Meditation Societies International. He has taught workshops and seminars on yoga, meditation and spiritual practice worldwide. A Sanskrit scholar, he edited the second volume of Swami Veda Bharati's definitive translation and commentary on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
He also serves as an adjunct assistant professor of counseling psychology at Saint Mary's University of MInnesota, the School of Professional Psychology at the University of St. Thomas and he has been an adjunct lecturer in the United Nations Peace Studies Training Program at the University of Innsbruck in Austria.
Paul Emerson, Ph.D. began practicing hatha yoga in 1969 after reading Jess Stern's "Yoga, Youth and Reincarnation." Around 1975 he attended one of Pandit Arya's (Swami Veda) lectures on Superconscious Meditation and was initiated in the tradition by Jim Young that same year. His first official yoga teacher was Dan Richey (Swami Ritavan). He has been teaching through The Meditation Center in Minneapolis since 1976 and is certified through the Rockford school of yoga by the late Behram Guard (disciple of Swami Rama and student of BKS Iyengar). Outside of yoga he is a bioengineer with a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and has done dialysis research, ventilator design and pacemaker/defibrillator firmware. He currently holds about 8-9 patents and has written a number of articles for medical journals.
Peter Fabian, P.T., CFP, ERYT-500 has been a student of Swami Rama and Swami Veda since 1978, taking mantra diksha in 1980. He is currently a permanent Faculty member at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama, Rishikesh India. His duties involve the training of Yoga Teachers in the residential Gurukulam Program and individuals and groups that are visiting the ashram. He also travels in Asia and North America in support of Swami Veda Bharati's Mission as one of the Lead Teachers in the Himalyan Yoga Tradition - Teacher Training Program. His degrees include Psychology and Physical Therapy (1973 and 1979) and is a certified Feldenkrais Practitioner and Yoga Teacher. He maintains a private practice in Physical Therapy in California.
Jim Nelson, M.A., MAT, holds two Masters Degrees in Teaching and Counseling Psychology and has over 35 years of experience as a teacher, therapist and consulting psychologist. He helps emotionally disturbed youth at the Anoka-Hennipen School District and has a private counseling practice. He is a member of the Who's Who of American Teachers and was the first recipient of the Medtronic's Outstanding Teacher Award. Jim has taught yoga and meditation for decades, and is Vice President of the North American Region for AHYMSIN—an international non-profit organization dedicated to non-violence, and spreading the teachings of the Himalayan Tradition.
Chuck Linke, RYT-500, received initiation into the Himalayan Tradition in 1970, after spending twenty years travelling the globe studying and practicing meditation with monastics. Chuck serves on the Board of Directors for the Association of Himalayan Meditation Societies International (India) and the Los Angeles branch and is the Director of the Teachers Training Program (HYT-TTP). He currently resides in Portland Oregon working as an Engineering Manager, teaching hatha, meditation and Heart Math programs at the Raphael House, a safe-house for victims of domestic violence. Weekends often find him on the slopes of Mt Hood volunteering for the Portland Mountain Rescue.
Barbara Aschettino, BS, RYT-500, is a long time student of Yoga and was initiated into the Himalayan Tradition by Swami Veda Bharati in 1982. As a former sales and marketing executive for a high tech firm in Silicon Valley, Barb's yoga and meditation practice helped her to thrive in the corporate jungle. She switched gears 10 years ago by retiring from the high tech world, and began studying Physical Therapy and teaching Yoga. Her dream is to simplify and make the wisdom of the Himalayan Tradition accessible to everyone.
She lives with her husband in Atlantic Highlands, NJ where she teaches Hatha & Meditation at several locations near the Jersey Shore.
Randall Krause (Mokshadeva), MS, RYT-500, received initiation into the Himalayan Tradition in 1988 by Swami Veda and continues to be guided by Swamiji. Randall has served on the board of Divya Jyoti Himalayan Yoga Meditation Center, in Napa, California and has founded and now directs the Himalayan Yoga Meditation Society of Los Angeles (known as HYMLA). As part of the HYT-TTP Faculty he teaches in both Minnesota and Rishikesh, India. He mentors many students, and also has taught internet based courses in Pacifying and Purifying Emotions and The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
Randall has a Masters degree in "Interdisciplinary Consciousness Studies" from JFK University in Orinda, CA, and a Law degree from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). He also has a Certificate in Yoga Philosophy from Loyola University, Los Angeles. Randall is qualified as a Life Coach, and employs the skills and knowledge he learned in that profession to most effectively work with those he mentors and guides in yoga.
Mary Bowman-Cline, CMT, ERYT-500, began teaching Hatha Yoga in Michigan in 1986 as a member of the Yoga Teachers Association of Greater Detroit. After moving to Minneapolis, she became a student and teacher at The Meditation Center and was initiated by Swami Veda Bharati in 1998. In 2007 she completed the HYT-TTP 600-Hour Teacher Training Program and is now a member of the faculty with a specialty in Hatha Yoga and Anatomy for Yoga Teachers, using the "Anatomy in Clay" system. She teaches at The Meditation Center, in the Twin Cities community, and at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama (SRSG) in India.
As a Nationally Certified Massage Therapist Mary combines her yoga and anatomy training, with rehabilitative massage, to design a session best suited for the client. She also volunteers at the University of Minnesota Hospital bringing gentle massage, and Healing Touch Therapy, to cancer patients and their families.
Pierre Lefebvre, M.A, RYT-500, joined the Dhyana Gurukulam at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama in 2005. He studied with Swami Veda Bharati and many other senior teachers of the Himalayan Yoga Tradition for over seven years.
Today, Pierre is teaching hatha yoga, pranayama, meditation and philosophy in Canada as well as in India. As a yoga teacher, he is certified by both the Fédération Francophone de Yoga and Yoga Alliance. Pierre is a very caring teacher, focusing on each student's needs so that all will benefit from the many merits of yoga.
Born and raised in the province of Quebec, Pierre studied western classical music at the University of Montreal. His musical career includes concerts, master classes with great guitar virtuosos as Pepe Romero, and Balinese and North Indian classical music performances.
Michael Smith, E-RYT 500, has been teaching yoga for over 40 years and is currently a curriculum coordinator for the International Himalayan Yoga Teachers Association. He has also been certified by the Himalayan Institute Teachers Association and the Behram Guard School of Yoga Meditation (an Iyengar-based Hatha Yoga School) . He was a public school teacher for 35 years and also a professor of Comparative Religion at North Hennepin Community College.
He has edited and illustrated many books on yoga and has lectured widely on stress management, holistic health and a yoga-based life style.
about | retreats | programs | accommodations | fees | faculty | register | print
Himalayan Yoga Tradition Teacher Training Program
HYT-TTP is the official Yoga Teacher Training organization of AHYMSIN, the Association of Himalayan Yoga Meditation Societies International.
Copyright 2010 Himalayan Yoga Tradition Teacher Training Program


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Resorts World Manila is fast becoming the hottest attraction for leisure and entertainment in Asia. It has world-class facilities, from modernized musical theaters, to the best in the cinema technology to being the best venue for high rollers on its state of the art casino floors that is up to par with some of the world's largest casinos. Comprising three floors of slot machines and table games, it has indeed become one of the best hotels and casinos resorts in Asia. Before you go to a real local casino, you can spend some time to practice online in some casinos sites. That way you will get to know how it works, how to play, get familiar with the various games they have, and maybe even win real money.
Resorts World Manila also encompasses three well known hotels which provide top notch accommodation to its guests. The five-star Marriott Hotel, the ultra-luxurious Maxims Hotel and for the budget conscious, Remington Hotel.
Resorts World Manila is a great option to either spend a family weekend or take a visiting friend or business partner from abroad to unwind, relax and join the many entertainment attractions the resorts provide. The Newport Performing Arts Theater provides a spellbinding venue for classical award-winning musical plays such as The Sound of Music and The King and I as well as popular and critically acclaimed local musicals and stage plays. Its state of the art features makes it among the best in providing a memorable viewing experience.
For the movie lovers, the Newport Cinemas presents top notch luxury and comfort while guests enjoy the latest blockbuster movies in high definition clarity with high adrenalin sound quality. It features the latest Dolby 3D technology which guarantees the ultimate movie experience. Newport Ultra Cinema 1 brings the experience to another level with its reclining and enclosed seats for couples and unlimited popcorn and drinks served by a butler.
Shoppers will also have a grand time at Resorts World Manila with its wide array of stores and boutiques. For the gastronomical adventurers, the fine dining choices inside the resort are of world class as well. So, if you're looking for a place to unwind and entertain guest, Resorts World Manila should be at the top of your list.
Situated just across the Terminal 3 of the Manila International Airport, Resorts World provides the best accommodation for any business, family and leisure travel needs.

subset: commoncrawl


text: After stepping out of my favorite booty-kicking-and-sweat-inducing class at Equinox the other day, I discovered that my gym dreams finally came true: No, Gwen Stefani's abs were not staring back at me in the mirror\u2014the locker rooms are now stocked with Kiehl's! At Equinox facilities nationwide, everything from Amino Acid Shampoo to Cr\u00e8me de Corps is available to freshen you up post-workout. So long, toiletry case! This takes at least five pounds out of my gym bag. Would it be weird if I just showered there for the heck of it? \u2014Maura Lynch, Associate Beauty & Fitness Editor Follow ELLE on Twitter. Become our Facebook fan!


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A Neapolitan private cook at Nenè Kitchen in Bellagio, Lake Como.
Antonella Coppola, hometown, Naples! A new interpretation of hospitality, with flavours inspired by old times, providing a unique service to those whising to plan a homemade event, lunch or happy hour with the autenticity of "Made in Italy" on Lake Como.
Antonella Coppola operates as a private cook at Nenè Kitchen or Nenè Space4You, her attributes are smile, approchability and kindness that will …………..
Nenè Kitchen means good food, design and cozyness!
Contact us for a customized private cook experience at Nenè Kitchen on Lake Como.


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A spotlight on Sivan Joss, Founder of Joss Search
Sivan Joss is the founder and driving force behind Joss Search. Here she explains how the journey began and why she's on a mission to redefine her industry and champion those working tirelessly behind the scenes…
Who are Joss Search?
We're a boutique recruitment firm, based in Mayfair, London, specialising in placing permanent and temporary support staff (predominately PAs and EAs) in private equity, venture capital and alternative investments.
When did you start Joss Search?
I started from my bedroom in 2010, with a small amount I'd saved up. I can't believe how things have developed and how quickly time has gone!
Why did you start the business?
I left school at 16 and had a few jobs before I started working in recruitment – these included waitressing and selling double glazing and computer software. They taught me the importance of hard work, commitment and the ability to build rapport with people from very different backgrounds. It was here that I also discovered my passion for providing exemplary service and, when I started working in recruitment, I was astonished by the lack of focus on providing a high quality service, especially on the candidate side. Like most entrepreneurs I thought I could do it better, so I set out with a mission to redefine what the highest quality service looks like and to challenge the recruitment status quo by being authentic and building real relationships, so everyone knows they're in trusted hands. I set up a limited company, bought a laptop on a credit card and got started!
Sivan Joss
What have been your biggest challenges?
My dad died in late 2010 which was incredibly challenging emotionally. But one of the only things that gave me solace was my business. Looking back, my dad's death was the catalyst for me driving the business forward – you could say that this is my "entrepreneur's wound". From a business perspective, my obsession with maintaining and improving quality can present a few challenges and drive me (and my team!) a little mad sometimes!
What are you most proud of?
We've helped place more than 5,000 people into roles which is amazing. Apparently if all those people held hands they would stretch to the top of Mount Everest! I'm also incredibly proud of the culture at Joss Search. It's something I've always been really passionate about and is based on a solid set of values and principles – we believe in employing authentic characters who are willing to challenge and be challenged both personally and professionally. Good people make good recruiters and the thing that gives me greatest satisfaction is seeing someone leave Joss Search having learnt loads and become a better person in the process.
Why have you rebranded?
The ideals we set out in 2010 remain as true today as they were on day one. However over the years we've refined our mission which is simply to champion hidden heroes – all those people who work tirelessly behind the scenes. We do this by celebrating their unique potential, ensuring appreciation of the huge value the right person can bring to the right role. We feel this rebrand truly represents our internal culture. Our goal is to attract top talent into private equity and alternative investments who might not have otherwise considered a role in this sector. But hidden heroes should be celebrated in any walk of life!


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Volunteer positions
Feline volunteer - Weekday shifts
Invercargill Centre
We are looking for reliable people to help us care for our cats during week days. This role requires a good level of confidence in handling cats of all ages and sizes.
You will be required to help with the cleaning of the cat cages and rooms. The work we ask our feline volunteers to do requires a low to medium physical ability and bending to clean lower cages.
We need volunteers who can help with the following:
- With at least one shift per week
- On any available day between Monday and Friday
- Between the hours of 8.30am – 11am
- Are able to commit for a period of at least six months
You must be confident at handling cats, hardworking and reliable. We need volunteers that are prepared to commit to the minimum requirement of 6 months and can understand written and spoken English.
If you can help, please fill in the application form by clicking the link below.
Volunteer application
For: Feline volunteer - Weekday shifts
Thank you for your interest in volunteering for SPCA. Volunteers are a vital part of the SPCA team and we simply couldn't do the work we do without the large number of volunteers who donate their time to help the animals.
Please fill out this form as completely as you are able. If you need assistance, please call the team at your local SPCA Centre.


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February 27th, 2020 - Server updated to version 2.22cFebruary 9th, 2020 - Donations to support this website and serverJanuary 15th 2020 - Server updated to version 2.22a
The Attack Increased and Decreed symbols are reversed it seems.
hit me up in pm or tell.
Toro's Rural Override: http://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn1/images/texture/toros-rural-overrideI recommend keeping dark_majico tree override if you have it, it adds to the tileset.
...This is an alternative gui/icon set specifically tailored for PotM 2.0 and later...
Quote from: Crimson Shuriken on February 02, 2016, 09:54:29 PM...This is an alternative gui/icon set specifically tailored for PotM 2.0 and later...Really like it, nice job! Particularly the emotes.A few things to note if the aim is for total rework / completion:> Endurance was changed to Bear's Endurance - retains a standard icon, uncertain if intentional or not.> The 7th and 8th Circle are X (which means 10, not VII and VIII respectively).
- Added the ability for users to specify their chat colors using settings in nwnplayer.ini. The color values are specified by: Color=RedValue,GreenValue,BlueValue where the color values can be in the range of 1 to 255. You cannot use 0. Here are the default colors: [Chat Colors] TalkColor=240,240,240 ShoutColor=255,239,80 WhisperColor=128,128,128 TellColor=32,255,32 ServerColor=176,176,176 PartyColor=240,240,240 DMColor=16,223,255 Here are some sample color settings: [Colors] Color=255,1,1 // Red Color=1,255,1 // Green Color=1,1,255 // Blue Color=1,255,255 // Cyan Color=255,1,255 // Magenta Color=255,255,1 // Yellow Color=255,255,255 // White
Is there an override that will bypass the mist/fog in tilesets? The mod is beautifully made, the tilesets are amazing. But when you can't see a thing its frustrating.
Just installed project Q and is running fine so far.The improvement of graphics is really amazing. If you want to give it a try follow the instructions under the videohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZwzbNdu5F0


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Accept Paypal(Credit Card). Up To 70% Off. 100% Authentic. Vivienne Westwood Jewellery, Handbags, Shoes, Melissa, Wedding Dresses, Clothing, Wallet Sale. Free Worldwide Shipping, Free Returns - 30 Day Tght To Return.
Product 25/90
Presenting the new Reina Silver Three Finger Ring for Autumn/Winter 2017-18, this stylised ring comes detailed with the silver cubic zirconia, tipped at each end with the iconic Orb emblem. Intricately curved to snake around the finger, the ring is finished with 'Vivienne Westwood' engraving to the inner panel.
Orb Dimensions: H 1 cm x W 1.5 cmBand Width: 0.4cm


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by Cliff Rold
25-year old Mikey Garcia (33-0, 28 KO) of Oxnard, California, moved up from Featherweight and added his second WBO title in a second weight class on Saturday night at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christie, Texas, coming off the floor in the second and knocking out 30-year old 130 lb. titlist Rocky Martinez (27-2-2, 16 KO) of Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, the eight round with a precise shot to the body.
Both men came in below the division limit, Garcia at 128 ¾ and Martinez at 129 ¾. The referee was Laurence Cole.
The first round and most of the second were measured, both men boxing and warming to their task. A short right hand enlivened the affair near the end of the second, Martinez dropping Garcia. Garcia beat the count but appeared a little unsteady in the ensuing exchange before returning to the corner.
Round three had moments for both men, Garcia landing a particularly nasty right hand. Martinez closed the round aggressively, if not too effectively. The fourth round was close, the fight remaining a technical struggle with enough hard punches both ways to keep tension high. Garcia boxed well in the fifth and knocked Martinez off balance late to assert some control. Martinez showed no wilt.
He surely showed some in round six. A left hook hurt Martinez with about a minute to go in the frame and a blasting right kept him hurt not long after. Garcia turned up the heat, landing hurtful blows to the head and body. Garcia maintained the advantage in a methodically punishing seventh.
The punishment became too much in round eight. Kept on the back foot from the opening bell, Martinez was worked towards the corner and Garcia landed a booming, perfect left to the body. Martinez dropped to all fours as if shot, his face a mask of pain. Referee Laurence Cole finished the count at :56 seconds of round eight.
Garcia addressed the early knockdown in post-fight comments. "Just got caught…it happens in boxing. He just caught me. Even when I was on the ground, I turned back to him, winked at him."
Looking at the knockout, he said, "I saw him covering up the head so I went for the body shot and it just caught him right on the liver." With a new belt in tow, the obvious question was what's next and the name mentioned was undefeated Cuban Yuriorkis Gamboa (23-0, 16 KO) Gamboa is the interim WBA titlist at Lightweight and a former unified titlist at Featherweight.
"I'm willing to get up and meet him at 135 if he doesn't want to come down. Anybody they want to put in front of me, I'm ready."
The best fight of the night came in the middle of the card.
30-year old Nonito Donaire (32-2, 21 KO), 125 ¼, of San Leandro, California, was making his first start since being badly outclassed in losing the lineal 122 lb. crown to Guillermo Rigondeaux in April, and overcame a deficit on the cards to stop 37-year old Armenian Vic Darchinyan (39-6-1, 28 KO), 125 ¼, of Glendale, California, with a concussive assault in round nine.
It was a rematch of their memorable Flyweight title fight in 2007, the fight that propelled Donaire into notoriety with a fifth-round knockout for the crown. Both men had gone on to memorable careers and found themselves at a crossroads some 14 pounds later.
Darchinyan began the fight with a controlled strategy, wary of the left hook of Donaire from the start. It was a wise course. While Donaire appeared to do just a little bit more in the rounds two and three after a fairly even first, it was Darchinyan finding holes and taking the fight to Donaire for the next three rounds. Any questions about Donaire's chin got new answers as he took some bruising left hands.
They appeared to split the next two rounds and Darchinyan looked to have momentum on his side before the fateful ninth. In an exciting exchange, Darchinyan looked like he's stunned Donaire near the ropes and was looking for another big shot when Donaire unleashed a perfect left hook counter.
Donaire went down in a heap and, while he beat the count, was clearly without his legs. Donaire pursued and looked for the finish. Darchinyan tried to hold and find his balance for a saving bomb but it wasn't to be. Trapped in the corner, Darchinyan took a flush bolo punch and was being set up for more when referee Laurence Cole stepped in to save Darchinyan at
2:06 of round nine.
Interviewed in the ring after the fight, Donaire was informed he entered the ninth down on two of three official scorecards. "I tried to work on a different style, which is going back, but the funny thing is it was hard for me to go back. I wanted to fight. (My trainer) kept telling me to box, box and be smart, but part of my body still memorized the fighting style which worked in the end anyway."
It did work and now Donaire turns to a future summarized in one name: Guillermo Rigondeaux. Rigondeaux has a title defense scheduled in December against former Bantamweight titlist Joseph Agbeko.
Darchinyan, who was not interviewed after the contest, has nothing to hang his head about. He made incredible adjustments from their first fight six years ago and, at 37, nearly pulled the upset. His has been a great career, including a quality reign at 112 lbs. and a unification of the 115 lb. division. He's earned serious Hall of Fame consideration and his performance on this night only added to that resume.
In the televised opener, a clash of former Olympians turned out to be a more entertaining fight than it looked to be on paper but some odd scoring marred a fairly lopsided outcome in the ring. 25-year old 2008 US Olympian Demetrius Andrade (20-0, 13 KO), 153 ¾, of Providence Rhode Island, came off the floor in round one to comfortably outbox 27-year old 2004 US Olympian Vanes Martirosyan (33-0-1, 21 KO), 153 ¾, of Glendale, California, to win the vacant WBO Jr. Middleweight title. Martirosyan had moments but failed to sustain offense against the long armed Andrade who kept his jab working all night. The final scores were split, two in favor of Andrade at 117-110 and 114-113 against a hard to fathom score of 115-112 for Martirosyan.
The referee was Jon Schorle.
The card was broadcast on HBO as part of its "Boxing After Dark" series, promoted by Top Rank, Inc.
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene and a member of the Transnational Boxing Ratings Board and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at [email protected]


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Solar Trash Fraud?
Robotic Solar Trash Fraud in Hoboken?
When the city of Hoboken unveiled dozens of those unsightly robotic trash bins all over the place – they were hailed as the next big step in municipal garbage maintenance. But what they appear to be is nothing more than solar trash fraud.
These extremely costly solar-powered bins were supposed to "save" property taxpayer money and city employee time – by COMPACTING the trash (less frequent pickups) and then "communicating" with the city when they were ready to be emptied (increased efficiency).
Well, as evidenced below – they do NOT compact anything. Not one item in either the recycling bins or the regular bins were crushed at all. We've never seen a crushed bag of refuse. Not once.
So either the city got ripped off (or a friendly contractor got a nice payday) for a product that does not do what was promised – or these things are just broken and should be fixed for free. If I were the city, I'd demand a full refund and put the "old-fashioned" garbage cans in like we always had.


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"I have been having the same problem for a month, I thought it was because I very seldom wear any underwear. But after a couple weeks of trying not wear them no changes; I am still wondering if maybe I am allergic to my razor and gel. I t..."
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Parasitic Souls: what if there was a tech bubble, but for magic?
[Editor's note: Kater Cheek was one of my Clarion 2007 students, and has been vigorously writing and publishing ever since. She has graciously offered us the opportunity to publish the opening chapter of Parasitic Souls, her latest novel -Cory]
This novel was inspired indirectly by a book about chemists in the mid-20th century, when someone bold enough and lucky enough could discover a new element and win glory. I then thought about the tech boom of the late nineties and early 21st century. Remember when you could start a website which could become huge overnight and make you and your techie startup founder friends all millionaires?
What if there were a similar boom for magic? And what if, as with technology, new magical advances happened faster than laws could keep up? People could do really horrible things that weren't technically illegal yet (such as put a soul into another's body.)
In Parasitic Souls, magic touches everyone's lives in the same way that technology touched everyone's lives at the beginning of this century. It's a new world, and mages young and old are trying to find their place in it.
The characters are in that liminal almost-adult period after they have moved out of their parents' house, but still haven't quite achieved perfect independence. It's a very appropriate book for teens, who are probably quite curious about life after high school, but adults can empathize too. There's very little violence, very little swearing, and no sex, but a few tense scenes, some romance, and a tight plot. In short: this is a great book for anyone who likes magic or romance or adventure.
-Kater Cheek
Fiona was twenty-four years old, a little taller than average, a little heavier than average, with a mane of hair which she'd dyed magenta. She wore black slacks and a black mesh top over a cami that had felt barely chic enough to pass back in LA but made her feel simultaneously underdressed and overdressed here in Clementine.
The familiar dusty desert smell hit her as soon as she got out of the car. Clementine tried to bill itself as the new Napa, and they did have one winery, but she'd lived here long enough to recognize it for what it was—a dry, sleepy town tucked up into the hills. She heard some mourning doves cry out, heard the flutter of wings, and then it was silent except for a slithering breeze carrying the scent of juniper down from the mountain. Carlotta said Clementine had changed a lot since Fiona left, but from the street outside Carlotta's new condo it smelled and sounded exactly the same as when she was a teenager.
That morning, Fiona had been living in L.A., and she thought she had her life all planned out. She would work morning and afternoon shifts as a prep cook at the local steakhouse to pay for her rent, and then at a seafood restaurant at night to pay for everything else. It didn't leave much time for sleeping, but she was young, she was ambitious, and there'd be plenty of time to sleep when she was a famous professional chef with her own restaurant.
But now that she was here, sleep-deprived and worried, on a leave of absence from work that she already suspected would be permanent, based on a phone call from a girl she'd never met. Carlotta needed her, the girl said. Please come. She'd told her bosses she had to go home to help her mother, the lie coming easily. To say that Carlotta was her dad's ex-wife whom he'd divorced ten years earlier wouldn't carry the same weight.
Fiona would do anything for Carlotta. Fiona wasn't even sure she'd show up to her real mother's funeral.
Once, Fiona asked her dad if she could spend summer vacation with her mom instead of trekking around from hotel to hotel with him while he did his sales presentations, which she'd done before, and which was a lot less glorious than it sounded. She was fourteen at the time, and since her dad had recently divorced Carlotta, Fiona had sunk into a deeply lonely funk that her father would likely have been unwilling to deal with, even if he had noticed.
She had begun to fantasize about living with her mother again. She hadn't seen her mom since she was a child, but she imagined that surely her mother must be the warm and affectionate parent she had always needed and never found. Her dad acquiesced, as he usually did when her requests involved no effort on his part beyond paying a bill.
Her first clue that West Texas wasn't the wonderland that her fertile imagination had conjured came when her plane arrived without a parent waiting at the other end. Fiona waited at the airport for three hours, while irritated airline workers repeatedly called a useless phone number hoping someone would answer. Fiona sat on her suitcase, filled with presents she made or bought with her allowance and wrapped, carefully labeled with the names of relatives she hadn't met.
After the sun began to set and the tiny airport began to close for the day, a beery middle-aged man who said he was her uncle showed up. He belched and lurched, and if he'd shown up at Fiona's school, the teachers would have called all the students inside to keep them safe, but here in the dusty airport, this frightening stranger was her Uncle Roy. Her ride.
He didn't apologize for being late, or explain why he had come and not her mother. Later she learned that her mother didn't drive any more. Not couldn't, but didn't, for reasons no one cared to elaborate.
The summer she spent in her grandparents' house was like a descent into hell. Roy and Grandpa and her mom parked on the couch all day. The television was never, ever turned off, its cacophony barring even the slight escape that sleep might have offered. They had no room for her, no bed, nor any chair. They unwrapped the presents and tossed them aside without a word of thanks. Fiona's mom treated her with the same lack of care. She never asked her a single question, made any effort to get to know her, or said anything at all to her except "down in front!" when Fiona stood in front of the television.
Fiona looked for a spark, some sign that this empty woman shared anything in common with her except the shape of her mouth. She couldn't imagine a less-motherly woman. She couldn't even imagine why her dad had sex with this woman and stuck around long enough to learn her name.
Grandma demanded Fiona sit in the spot between the coffee table and the china cabinet. She slept there, and sat all day watching the same television shows that they did. They watched talk shows, and the shopping channel, Antiques Roadshow, and of course any football game that came on.
She wasn't allowed to leave.
"Where you think you're going?" Grandma brayed, when Fiona crept towards the door.
"I'm just gonna step outside, you know, get some fresh air," she said, only to be informed that she wasn't allowed to go farther than the end of the drive.
Not that there was anywhere to go, or anything to do. She'd left her skateboard back in California, and she didn't see anyone around who had one she might borrow. She met a couple of kids, and had gone up to introduce herself, but in lieu of asking her name, they asked, "What church do you go to?"
When she failed to produce the correct answer, they left instead of hanging out with her. She'd been crying when she came back. Instead of asking what happened, Grandpa just shouted "Shut the door!"
Fiona had taken her place between the coffee table and the china cabinet. She imagined them as robots, guarding a television for all eternity, punished by being chained to this dreary place. She imagined she herself had been imprisoned, sent to this smoky hell of television, of the incessant noise of the window air unit, of canned chili and baked macaroni day after day. She risked Grandma's fury by calling her dad, long distance, intending to beg him to let her come home early, but of course her dad never answered.
She wondered if she would ever escape, or if she, too, would be stuck here like the rest of these horrible strangers who dared to be related to her, growing fat on the couch while the world never changed and the windows never opened.
But summer eventually ended, and Uncle Roy took her back to the tiny airport. She flew home, and her dad came to pick her up on time, wearing a suit and talking on his cell phone with barely a nod to acknowledge her.
"Did you have a nice trip?" he asked, between calls.
"No," she said.
Her dad didn't ask any more questions, because he was already on another call. To her surprise, instead of taking them home, he drove her to Carlotta's house. Fiona didn't bother to hide her surprise. Since Carlotta and her dad had divorced, she assumed that she wouldn't see Carlotta more than on special occasions.
Inside Carlotta's foyer was a mountain of cardboard boxes labeled with Fiona's name.
"My company is transferring me to Hong Kong," he said. "I'm leaving Monday. You're going to stay with Carlotta until I find a school for you."
"Fiona! Sweetheart! How was your trip?" Carlotta called out. She had been wearing old clothes that were splattered with paint. She'd hugged Fiona tightly, and Fiona had realized it was the first hug she'd gotten from anyone since the divorce. "I was hoping your room would be done before you got here, but your dad didn't tell me about Hong Kong until last weekend. Go look at the color I picked."
Fiona went to look at her new room while Carlotta and Fiona's dad talked about money details. Carlotta had chosen Fiona's favorite shade, a bright magenta. Fiona even had her own bathroom, and Carlotta had bought coordinating towels.
Fiona never went to Hong Kong. She lived with Carlotta for the rest of the school year, and when Carlotta decided to move to Clementine, Fiona went with her. Dad sent checks to cover Fiona's expenses, but Carlotta was the one who came to parent-teacher conferences, and Carlotta was the one who hemmed her prom dress. Dad paid tuition so Fiona could go to massage therapy school and cooking school and all the other dreams that needed financing, but Carlotta was the one Fiona always returned to, when her dreams turned out less wonderful than she had imagined.
Fiona knocked on the door to Carlotta's condo. The door opened, revealing a small, dark girl who looked quite young, no more than fourteen or fifteen at the most. The girl's eyes were red, as if she'd been crying.
"Is Carlotta here?"
The girl shook her head.
"Good. Then you have some time to tell me what's going on." Fiona pushed her way in.
She'd been here several times before, but Carlotta loved to redecorate, and every time Fiona visited, the house looked different. This time, she'd taken the small, mid-century bungalow and knocked out walls to open it up. The pitched roof had clerestory windows and a brick façade along the back wall, with a ten foot by ten foot framed chalkboard, complete with a bucket of chalk and a ladder to access the upper half of it. A small loft served as a home office. A string of lights shaped like fireflies wound around the spiral staircase.
"Wow, looks better than the photos. Too bad she's going to sell it."
The girl looked baffled.
"She always sells her houses. Fixes them up, stages them, then sells them." Fiona liked the look of that loft. Maybe she could sleep up there. She headed to the kitchen so she could help herself to breakfast. Difficult discussions always went better on a full stomach.
The kitchen had been completely gutted and redone. It took up easily three times as much floor space as the original floorplan, and had a restaurant-sized, six-burner gas stove and a stainless steel refrigerator big enough to hold an entire cow. The first three cabinets Fiona opened were empty except for a package of paper cups and a stack of paper plates.
"So, who are you?" Fiona asked the girl. "What's your name? What's your story?"
"I'm Sophie."
"Oh. You doing interning? I used to do that in summers. I filed, answered the phone. Boring as anything, but it was something to do, I guess. Kept me out of Texas. Wait though, it's not summer anymore, it's November. Aren't you in high school?"
"I graduated in May."
Fiona took a closer look at Sophie. Sophie had long hair pulled into a ponytail, a button-up blouse that emphasized her flat chest, and a pair of penny loafers.
"How old are you?"
"Really? Wow, you look a lot younger than, I mean, I'm sorry. It's just." Fiona opened the refrigerator. She took out a container of fake cream cheese and a gluten-free bagel. "Soy milk and low-carb, low-fat everything. Can you believe this? Okay, never mind. So you're working for Carlotta, huh? Just the two of you?"
"Just me."
"Huh, well, it's better than those dicks she used to work with at the other agency. God, can you believe this kitchen though? I love Carlotta, don't get me wrong, but I've seen better food in dorm rooms." Fiona sliced the bagel in half with a plastic fork as best she could. "I'll have to convert her to real food. I didn't even know they made stuff like this. Why eat it at all? Why not just eat sawdust? You cut out fat and gluten and sugar and flavor, what's the point? I know, I know, food snob. That's what I get for going to cooking school. What do you do for Carlotta? I mean, what's your title? Personal assistant? Secretary?"
"I'm a warder."
"What's a warder? She said she was into property enhancements. I figured that was flipping houses, now I'm confused. I only pretended I knew what that was when Carlotta told me. You're gonna have to explain it to me. "
"I make magical wards on people's houses."
"You do what now?"
"I make wards."
"Still not getting it."
"It's a very specialized branch of magic. I make wards, it's like a protective sphere. I make it around people's properties."
"Get outta town. You're a mage? I thought magic was all cutting edge Silicon Valley stuff. A mage, right here in Clementine. No way. Show me something."
Sophie pulled her lips in and shook her head.
"Come on ..." Fiona used her best wheedling tone. Sophie shook her head again, so Fiona continued. "Come on, come on, come on. You gotta show me something."
Sophie shrugged shyly and relented. "Grab that lemon."
Fiona picked up the lemon. It had a sticker that said it was organic, and had been shipped from Chile, which was pretty sad considering they were in California and it was the start of citrus season.
Sophie had closed her eyes briefly. She opened them. "Throw it at me."
"What, you mean like chuck it at your head?"
"Anywhere," Sophie said.
Fiona tossed it underhand at Sophie's chest. It missed. It more than missed, it bounced off something. Fiona picked the lemon back up and tried again. This time she threw harder, directly at Sophie's chest. It bounced off something invisible as if off a wall.
Sophie exhaled, relaxing.
Fiona threw the lemon again, and this time it hit Sophie just above the ear.
"Ow!" Sophie rubbed her head. "I let the lemon ward go!"
"Sorry," Fiona said. "You made a ward against lemons?"
Sophie nodded.
"People pay you for this?"
"Not against lemons, but other things. I make a ward on a property, and then the setter makes it so it stays after I leave. Aunt Carlotta sets my wards for me. The setting part is easy."
"Aunt Carlotta?" Fiona took a bite of the bagel. "God, this tastes like crap. Ack, anything to drink in here?" She opened the fridge and found half a container of acai-blueberry-pomegranate smoothie and drank it. It tasted nasty. "How is Carlotta your aunt? She's an only child."
"On my mother's side. She's my mother's first cousin once removed."
"I didn't think she had any cousins. So that makes us, what, second step-cousins once removed? I never figured out how that whole once removed thing worked."
"Aunt Carlotta gave me a job since I'm trying to break into the magic industry."
"Wait, wait, wait, go back a step. How long you been working for her?"
"Since April."
"April? What the—April? For real? I feel so stupid. Has it been that long? I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it. I mean, she said she was involved in a new business, but I thought it was just, you know, like moving back to commercial or something. She's into magic now? I can't believe she didn't tell me more. I'm gonna rib her about that." Fiona threw the plastic fork in the garbage and wiped her crumbs off the counter. "Speaking of which, do you know where she is?"
Sophie shook her head. "That's why I called. I'm worried."
"Worried how?"
"She's not answering her phone."
"How long has she been gone? When did you see her last?"
"She stayed with a client the night before last and hasn't shown up yet."
"Stayed with a client? Like, romantically?"
Sophie nodded. "We had appointments scheduled for today. She didn't call any of them."
"You think something weird happened to her? Like she turned into a mermaid or joined some goddess cult? You read about the mermaid thing? Crazy. Where was that, Florida?"
Sophie shrugged.
"I mean, I know the world changed and everything, but mostly everything seems the same. Blah blah, magic apocalypse, blah blah. You're the first mage I've even met. What are the odds that she turned into an animal or suddenly got life-altering powers? She would have told me—ouch, okay, burn, I get it. Okay, so how about you and I just take over the business for the morning until she gets recovered from her hangover or whatever. Be good employees, proactive and all. Hold down the fort to buy some time. Sound good?"
Sophie shrugged. "I postponed the first appointment until later this afternoon, but we're gonna miss our next appointment if we don't get going. Can you set wards?"
"Sure," Fiona said. "Just show me how and I'll figure it out."
"Well, you just need the fixative and—"
"Wait, wait, I gotta shower first, then you can explain it to me. It's been a rough day already. I had to pack up everything from L.A. and there was a bit of drama, and, okay, you don't wanna know about the rest of it. Let's just say that I'm starting to stink. Hold that thought."
Fiona took a shower in Carlotta's bathroom, which had been redone in pink marble and glass brick. Carlotta always remodeled the bathrooms first.
Carlotta had taken to step-mothering the way she took to everything else—with determination and a will to succeed. They'd bonded despite a mutual love for Fiona's father, and later they'd bonded even further because of a mutual aggravation with Fiona's father.
On the sink in the bathroom, Carlotta still had the little bottle of perfume that Fiona had bought for her as a Mother's Day present when she was in second grade. It was from Avon, and smelled like crap, but the little diamond shaped bottle still rested there on the mirrored tray along with the other toiletries. Carlotta's favorite silk robe, the white one with the red and green cabbage roses, hung up on the back of the door. She'd had that robe as long as Fiona could remember, and even though it had been patched several times and the sash frayed, Carlotta still wore it all the time. Seeing that robe there made Fiona feel better about Carlotta's unexplained absence. She would never leave that robe behind if she planned to be gone more than a couple of days.
Fiona dried herself off with a pink towel and rummaged through the WalMart bag for her second set of clothes (have to hit the mall after she got a paycheck). She picked up a shirt and pair of shorts, bit off the tags, and got dressed. She came out of the bedroom to find Sophie anxiously poring over a map and an appointment calendar.
"Okay, let's go. You can tell me how to set wards on the way. But first, we need to hit the nearest Starbucks. I'm not gonna be able to figure out a new career in the car unless I'm caffeinated."
Setting the wards Sophie made turned out to be pretty easy. Sophie did her trance thing, and Fiona just sprinkled the fixative and waited a few seconds until Sophie said the energy fields had settled, whatever that meant. She asked Sophie to tell her how to do the warding part, but Sophie just gave her a look and said that while setting was so easy a monkey could do it, warding wasn't something you could pick up in fifteen minutes.
After six back-to-back appointments, Fiona's exhaustion caught up with her. She drove back to Carlotta's house.
"What are we doing here?" Sophie asked. "We have four more people to visit."
"Reschedule. It's late and I'm bushed." The house had grown dark, and Fiona fumbled for the light switch, then kicked off her shoes as she made her way to the kitchen. "I'm gonna have to call it a day. Sorry to bail on you, but I only had like three hours of sleep last night."
"Well, I guess I can reschedule," Sophie said. She had a quiet voice, and a way of playing with her lower lip which made her seem ten years old. "So, I guess I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Yeah," Fiona said, opening the freezer. "Let's see, vodka, batteries and daiquiri mix. Nope. How about the pantry? Ew. Spaghetti-Os. Do people even eat that? Sell-by date four years ago. Yuck. I bet it was here when she moved in. Okay, guess I'm going out. You interested in tagging along?"
"I have food at home," Sophie said. "But thanks anyway."
After Sophie left, Fiona logged in on Carlotta's computer and checked her email, then posted her status, and just because she felt like being friendly, she tracked Sophie down through Carlotta's profile and sent a friend request. It didn't hurt to know a few people in this town whom she hadn't gone to high school with. Fiona heard her belly rumble, so she left Carlotta's keys under a flowerpot and headed out to find some food.
Clementine still didn't seem to have much in the way of nightlife, so she figured instead of fruitlessly searching strip malls, she'd just make do with Applebee's. It was not her favorite chain, but she wasn't in L.A. anymore so she'd have to suffer until she could buy some decent groceries.
After she parked the car, she pushed open the door to the restaurant and immediately felt better about her choice. Standing in front of her was Alex Porto, a guy she dated in high school. She broke out into a big grin.
Alex Porto had been a fullback on the football team, and a starring pitcher in baseball season. At Clementine High he had paraded around campus in his "fighting Javelinas" jersey as if he were the only rooster in a flock of hens. She'd been giddy with delight when he asked her out, less giddy when he took her virginity in the back seat of his car after getting her drunk on Boone's Farm, and the opposite of giddy when he invited another girl to Homecoming after she'd already told all her friends he was her boyfriend.
She tearfully told him that he'd hurt her, and that she'd thought she'd meant something to him, and that she wasn't going to sleep with him if he was going to treat her that way. Alex had explained that he did not consider her his girlfriend, that he'd only slept with her because she was convenient, and he was sorry she didn't understand the difference. Alex felt that being the darling of the coach and the pride of the school meant that he was above monogamy and other pedestrian virtues.
If she had been a character in a movie, she would have learned the value of self-worth, and ended up dating a non-jock who was equally handsome, secretly in love with her, and a guitar player for an up-and-coming band.
In real life, getting dumped by such a popular guy had ruined her status. She was dateless for her junior year, lost most of her friends, and ended up as a groupie to the gay guys in the drama club.
So when she saw Alex Porto with a tag that said "assistant manager," balding head, and a third-trimester beer gut, she headed right back to her car, primped as much as her cheap cosmetics afforded, and came up with a fabulous backstory of how successful she'd been since graduating so that she could chat him up and rub in how she was too good for him now.
In front of the hostess podium, Fiona waited for Alex to notice her. When he walked past for the third time, she called out his name. He looked right at her.
"Table for one, miss?"
"Don't you recognize me Alex?"
"Yeah, sure. Great to see you again," Alex said, with a blank stare. "Debbie will seat you."
Fiona acted like she was following Debbie to the table, but she kept going past the bar, intending to hit the emergency exit on her way out. She would have done it, too, except that someone called out her name as she passed his table.
She turned. He was in his early twenties, and so lean that the muscles on his face stood out. He had thick, dark hair that looked a couple of months' growth into a good haircut. He wore a white, button-up shirt with rolled up sleeves exposing wiry arms. The top button of his shirt was undone, and a tiny amulet dangled from a cord around his neck.
"You're Fiona McClellan," he said, tucking the amulet into his shirt. "You used to date my brother Alex."
"If you could call it dating," she turned to scowl at Alex, who was scolding a busboy. "Apparently I wasn't very memorable."
"Alex can be a douchebag sometimes," the guy said. He looked familiar.
"I hear he's running for the mayor of Doucheville," she said.
"Are you expecting someone? You want to join us for dinner?" No one else sat at his table, which had been set for four.
"Best offer I've had all day. Try to ignore the fact that I'm wearing WalMart clothes. I had the week from hell and had to leave everything behind in L.A. I look a lot better when I have more than four hours of sleep and a few shots of espresso in me. At least the lighting is dim," she said, looking at the stained glass lampshade.
"You look fine."
When she sat across from him, he smiled like he'd won a contest, which made her smile in return, though she still couldn't remember his name.
"Marcello Porto," he said, with another smile.
"Mushroom! Er, uh, Marcello! Sorry, I guess that's not a very nice nickname."
"I haven't heard it in a while." Marcello had been a freshman when Alex was a senior, and she had been a sophomore clinging so desperately to her last shreds of social status that she didn't have much time for freshmen.
"Wow, the last time I saw you, you were like this high!"
"Not so little anymore."
"Nope." She hoped he didn't mind that she called him "mushroom."
"You know, I had the biggest crush on you in high school," he said. "How funny to just bump into you like this. What brings you back to Clementine?"
She gave him an abridged version of her life since high school: the starlet dreams, cooking academy, massage therapy school, that time she backpacked with her friend in Costa Rica, going to Alaska to work on a fishing boat for the summer, her brief stint as a hairdresser—basically, she told him about everything. He didn't talk about himself much, and deflected the question of what he was doing for a living, but he seemed interested in her.
By the time Marcello's friends arrived (a young couple who had just moved back home to be near their family, the woman visibly pregnant), Fiona had forgotten all about Alex. Maybe moving back to Clementine for a while until she figured out what was up with Carlotta wouldn't be as horrible as she had feared. Marcello seemed really into her, his friends were nice, and she was virtually positive that she and Marcello would be dating before the week was out.
They were just about to leave when Fiona saw Sophie walk into the restaurant, scanning the tables. Fiona waved her over. Sophie had a very serious expression on her face.
She was about to ask Sophie what was up, but then Marcello turned and saw her. His eyes fixed on her as if she were the only woman in the room. Sophie froze, staring back with an equally consumed look. When Sophie came closer, Marcello looked away pointedly, but you could practically feel their connection.
"Sophie, what are you doing here?" Fiona asked.
"Looking for you," Sophie said. Sophie glanced at the pregnant couple, giving a brief smile and nod. She looked at Marcello even longer, but she didn't smile at him, or say anything.
"How'd you find me?"
"You checked in at Applebee's on Central at 7:47." Sophie held up her phone. It was one of the new iPhones, so new that she hadn't even removed the protective film over the display.
"Oh, well, glad you found me," Fiona said. "What's up?"
"Carlotta's back." Sophie glanced at Marcello again.
"Oh, well that's good."
"No. Not good."
"What do you mean?"
"I think you should come and see for yourself."
Read the rest in Kater Cheek's Parasitic Souls
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Let's face the facts, we live in a digital world and it has become much more convenient and easy to shop for clothing online, especially when shopping for swim suits. For years we have been held hostage by the higher prices and high pressure tactics of the retail store. They provided very little choice and applied pressure to buy. It is really an emotional roller coaster that most sane shoppers would like to avoid, especially for plus-size shoppers who also have to contend with limited selection as well as limited dressing room space. Today online stores provide the widest selection and best quality swim suits available and here is how to find yourself the best online swimwear deals this year.
One of the best things about shopping online is the wide selection of swim suits you can choose from. In a retail store they are limited by space so the odds they will have the perfect size and color suit for you is diminished significantly. That lack of options is going to apply pressure to the buying process and make a lady choose something that might be less than ideal. Then you are stuck with this decision for an entire summer season. Online shopping allows you to see virtually every swim suit in existence (some sites like swimsuitsforall cater exclusively to plus-size shoppers and stock as many as 800 swim suits at any one time) which is great because you can search for the exact one that is going to suit your taste, style and body type.
The number of options in swim suit styles is also going to be much larger online. It doesn't matter if you are looking for a bikini or a one piece there will be a sexy, practical and appropriate suit waiting for you in the online shopping world. It might be a good idea to narrow down the number of online suits that might pique your interest before you start. That will get your focus moving toward the color, type and style of swim suit you are looking for and allow you to find the best online swimwear deals in the quickest amount of time possible. Take a look at some of the plus-size fashion models currently making a splash (including Ashley Graham, who was featured on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swim suit Issue).
Finally when you think about buying a swim suit online, make sure to read all of the available information about the suit that interests you. Understand the fabric that it is made of and of course the cut of the suit. Many people searching for a plus-size suit will look for a high wasted bikini to emphasize their curves and look fantastic. At swimsuitsforall, there are many deals on high-waisted bikinis that will allow you to like Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren, or another pinup girl from yesteryear without breaking the bank. Then once you have chosen the right size it is time to purchase. Another deciding factor to help you decide where to finally buy your suit is the shipping policy and cost of the company. Make sure that the costs are reasonable and some places are even going to offer free shipping on some orders and that can save you a nice bit of money. When you buy women's swim suits from swimsuitsforall.com, you know you have the backing of customer testimonials and a fair return policy — which takes even more stress out of the shopping experience.
Looking good at the beach, at the pool or on vacation is the key here and everyone knows that online retailers have the widest and best swim suit selection and that department stores contain a smaller selection and do not provide as pleasant a shopping experience.


text: snacktime wrote: > I'm trying to figure out why a particular system command is returning > false on windows. > > This works fine and returns true: > > res = system('dir') > > This returns false with $? being nil: > > res = system('rake') > > if I just run rake at the command line it works fine. I'm sure this > is something simple, but windows is not a development environment I am > used to. Try cmd=ExecCmd.new("rake");puts cmd.success?;puts cmd.output using the class at the end of this message (Ara's solution for grabbing the output of stderr and stdout on windows with a broken popen3 was better - giving you separate stderr und stdout - but this one has benchmarking too :) ). I get false rake aborted! No Rakefile found (looking for: rakefile, Rakefile, rakefile.rb, Rakefile.rb) d:/dev/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.6.2/lib/rake.rb:1373:in `load_rakefile' on a directory without a rakefile, which is correct :). system("rake") for the same directory gives a $? of 256. -------- class ExecCmd attr_reader :output,:cmd,:exec_time #When a block is given, the command runs before yielding def initialize cmd @cmd=cmd @cmd_run=cmd+" 2>&1" unless cmd=~/2>&1/ if block_given? run yield self end end #Runs the command def run t1=Time.now IO.popen(@cmd_run){|f| @output=f.read @process=Process.waitpid2(f.pid)[1] } @exec_time=Time.now-t1 end #Returns false if the command hasn't been executed yet def run? return false unless @process return true end #Returns the exit code for the command. Runs the command if it hasn't run yet. def exitcode run unless @process @process.exitstatus end #Returns true if the command was succesfull. # #Will return false if the command hasn't been executed def success? return @process.success? if @process return false end end -- http://www.braveworld.net/riva ____________________________________________________________________ http://www.freemail.gr - äůńĺÜí őđçńĺóßá çëĺęôńďíéęďý ôá÷őäńďěĺßďő. http://www.freemail.gr - free email service for the Greek-speaking.


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Berkeley street vendors shift with summer
Berkeley's summer personality takes over this week after dormitories have shut down, "fraternity row" parties have ceased, and thousands of students have returned home — many of them, for the last time.
The Mr. Hyde school-year season —with its youthful activity and unpredictability — changes into Dr. Jekyll's summer respite.
For businesses surrounding the UC Berkeley campus, summer is when the money leaves. Many stores cut their hours to compensate for the reduction in student traffic. Students "make" Telegraph Avenue. Now they say it's quiet and vacant.
But for many of Telegraph Avenue street vendors, summer is when all the activity begins. Summer means warm, dry weather and street parking for money-laden tourists.
Some earn the majority of their income during the summer. Other fair-weather vendors migrate to Berkeley only during these lucrative months.
"I do great in the summer," said Philip Rowntree, while braiding a beaded jewelry necklace. "I try and work seven days a week. Come June, I love it."
He said that he earns 50 percent of his yearly income during the summer.
Some street vendors are unaffected by the changing demographic. Students and tourists replace each other. It also depends on what they're selling.
For Linda Hall, who has been selling on Telegraph Avenue for more than 25 years, it's a seasonal business. Sales drop from January to May, she said. When students leave during the summer, Hall said sales pick up and peak.
Many of the vendors anticipate the summer knowing that their sales will go up.
"Students are not that good for us anyway because they don't have that much money," Hall said. "You can't count on them. We have to count on their parents."
Vendors say that money is not the only factor. They are affected by student grumpiness and worries. Vendors say they can feel when mid-terms and finals are on students' minds through the general atmosphere and lower sales.
Even if students do buy from the street vendors, they aren't big spenders. According to Rowntree, students usually buy one item. Tourists buy two or three for their friends.
Ted Wojack, who has been vending for 28 years, said that tourists will buy these items as souvenirs.
"They think of tie-dye as a part of Berkeley," he said.
While he spoke, obvious out-of-towners considered a psychedelic blue and white T-shirt with "Berkeley" written on it.
However, the business is also dependent on the weather. Weeks when Berkeley continues raining are horrible for street vendors who must either stay inside, or shelter their displays with tarps or plastic covers. Summer is when they can recover those losses.
But despite the better season and more sales, none of the vendors dislike the students. Wojack earns most of his money from summer tourists, but the school year has its advantages as well.
"It's great when the students are here," Wojack said. "It's exciting."


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Michelle Sleed
Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families
Michelle Sleed has worked as a research psychologist at Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families since 2005. She has worked on a number of evaluations of early intervention and family support. Her research interests include parent-infant relationships and interaction, parental representations, maternal mental health, infant development, and outcomes of psychotherapeutic interventions for parents and infants.
She is an acknowledged trainer of the Reflective Functioning coding for the Parent Development Interview.
Courses this tutor is involved in
- Assessment of Parental Representations
- Assessment of Parental Representations, Denmark
- ITSIEY Module 6: Planning for Evidence Based Practice in Early Years Services
- Reflective Functioning on the Parent Development Interview training in Barcelona
- Reflective Functioning Training on the Parent Development Interview


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Ajax and Web applications in general present some unique and difficult challenges in security. Keeping data and code protected from intrusion and theft remains one of the most important aspects of Web application design and implementation. This track presents best practices for securing applications based on coding techniques for handling security holes and other opportunities for compromise and theft.
Security Sessions:
- Advanced Web Application Security with Joe Walker
- Beyond IFrames: Web Sandboxes with Scott Isaacs
- Secure Mashups: Getting to Safe Web Plugins (Panel) led by Douglas Crockford
More Related Sessions:
- How to Simplify and Automate Testing Ajax Applications with Ted Husted
- JavaScript: The Good Parts with Douglas Crockford
Advanced Web Application Security
Joe Walker, Creator, Direct Web Remoting (DWR); Director, Support & Development, SitePen
The security landscape is always changing. Unless you are aware of CSRF, JavaScript Highjacking, and the many ways to fool an XSS filter, it's likely that your Web application will not be secure. JavaScript, CSS and even simple HTML elements are now used against websites. This session outlines the challenges and the options for protection, for site owners and web users.
Attend and gain a firm understanding of:
- Security challenges particular to a Web 2.0 world;
- CSRF, Anti- JavaScript hijacking, fooling an XSS filter;
- How to protect yourself, from both the point of view of site owners and users.
Beyond IFrames: Web Sandboxes
Scott Isaacs, Author, DHTML specification; Web Sandbox project
Today web gadgets, mashup components, advertisements, and other third party content on websites either run with full trust alongside your content or are isolated inside of IFrames. As a result, many modern web applications are intrinsically insecure, often with unpredictable service quality. Being aware of security issues and possible solutions to avoid compromising security are of prime importance to help make the web a more secure place.
Find out the key challenges in Web Security and learn about the Microsoft Web Sandbox open source framework that runs on all modern browsers and builds on the ongoing ECMA TC-39 security working group efforts.
Attend this session to learn:
- Key challenges in Web security;
- How a website can expand its client experience with third-party scripts without compromising user trust or site stability;
- How a site can control the policies that define the integration;
- How the Microsoft Web Sandbox is addressing these challenges by virtualizing both script execution and the DOM;
- And more.
Panel: Secure Mashups: Getting to Safe Web Plug-ins
Douglas Crockford, Creator, JSON; Author, JavaScript: The Good Parts
Secure JavaScript is coming, and this panel of engineers from four internet powerhouses will discuss the emerging consensus among implementers and how secure JavaScript allows for new kinds of application mashups driving the web today.
Panelists include:
- Marcel Laverdet from Facebook who will discuss FBJS, the first secure mashup scheme to tame HTML, JavaScript and CSS.
- Mike Samuel from Google who will discuss Google's Caja project, which has similar goals but uses a pure-whitelisting approach, addresses the defensive and offensive code problems, and uses code analysis to improve performance.
- Scott Issacs, inventor of DHTML, who will discuss WebSandbox from Microsoft's LiveLabs which focuses more broadly - instead of focusing solely on security it also tackles "quality of service issues" providing, amongst other things, a pause button for web applications.
Attend and dive deep into emerging security threats seen on social networks which include third-party gadgets with executable code. These pieces of third-party code violate the assumptions made by the same-origin model, that script on a web page is authored by the same person or group that authored the containing page. Participants discuss where the same-origin model breaks down, how new security models repair these problems, and the new opportunities available with the new models.
You'll learn about growing security threats not addressed by existing iframe jailing practices and new ways of dealing with these threats and other security threats posed by dynamic third-party content. You'll also learn how these schemes can smooth over cross-browser incompatibilities and how the security analysis done by these schemes can help with testing and debugging of complex web applications.


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Caborca is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas,
a non profit service arts organization.
Contributions on behalf of Caborca may be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductable to the extent permitted by law.
Make a donation
Subsidized studio space provided by the A.R.T./New York
Creative Space Grant, supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Caborca has received financial and in-kind support from:
NYSCA-A.R.T./New York Creative Opportunity Fund, Nancy Quinn Fund,
A.R.T./New York Creative Space Grant


text: Jim Popovitch wrote: > Brad Knowles wrote: >> At 3:41 PM -0500 2006-01-27, Jim Popovitch wrote: >> >>>> 5. Security patches are asynchronous, like earthquakes, they happen >>>> when they happen. >>> >>> Very bad analogy. Hurricanes would be better. There is plenty of >>> potential for user-base warning before a patch is to be released. >> >> No, Stephen was right -- the model is Earthquakes. > > No, Stephen specifically said "Security patches". Patches don't > materialize overnight and surprise *everyone*, sadly just the users. > Let me add that this whole issue is getting clouded by side comments unnecessarily. No one is challenging the skill or capability of the MM developers, so there is no need to keep bringing up the pace/rate they work. Secondly, no one is saying "give us the keys to the kingdom", what I am saying is please keep us informed about what is coming down the pipe. I don't need specifics or details, just info I can use to plan/schedule. Simply put, don't surprise us with patches/fixes (critical or not). Nothing more, nothing less. -Jim P.


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Freeware Programs: Applicorp
On The Border Fiesta Party Planner 1.0 Plan your fiesta with this handy app from San Diego On The Border. You select the Basics, Food, Drink, Decoration, Entertainment and Loose Ends, and we'll create a handy shopping list, which you can view on your phone or email to a friend.
Top Freeware
New Downloads


text: The outrageous singer knows how to become the star of any party! Attending the Scotch Club with his colleague on the judge's seat in the The Voice UK, the rapper will.i.am, the girl chose a provocative suit from last Jean Paul Gaultier "farewell" collection. A severe bottom: straight black trousers with an asymmetrical jacket on top, demonstrating exactly half of Rita's body. This is not the first time she decided to show her body all over the world – we all remember her dress at the Oscar party of Vanity Fair magazine. The singer fully repeated the runway image from Jean Paul Gaultier spring-summer show and added to the suit a bra made of silver metallic leather. In combination with a variety of massive rings, platinum hair color and bright accent on eyes, such a suit is an unconditional bid for the title of the Queen of any dance floor!


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Jan Kjellström
International Festival
of Orienteering 2014
South Wales
18th April - 21st April
These weather forecasts are generated by the Met Office Weather Widget. Click "More details" (as per screenshot on the right) for hour by hour forecasts.
Current forecast relevant to Day 1.
Current forecast relevant to Days 2 and 3. NB the forecast is for a position 5 km south of the arena and nearly 100m lower in altitude. Winds will be stronger in the arena and temperatures are likely to be about 1C lower too.
Current forecast relevant to Day 4. NB the forecast is for a position 1.5 km south of the arena and at about the same height.


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Returns a random number.
float random( [ integer limit ] )
If called with no parameters, returns a floating-point number between 0.0 and 1.0.
If called with a single parameter, an integer, returns an integer between 0 (inclusive), and that number (exclusive). So for example,
random(8)returns an integer in the range 0-7.
{if random() < .3}
There is a 30% chance that this section will appear in the message.
 {/if}
Randomly Select Subject Lines from Content Feed Titles and Test Performance
Use Case: If you have ten pieces of content in a data feed, generate a random number between 0-9 to randomly assign a subject line to users in order to see which performs best.
{randNum = random(10)}
{subjectLine = content[randNum].title}
Then, check the Campaign Summary Page to see which performed best!
Explanation: This script creates a local variable (called "randNum"), which equals a randomized value between 0 and 9 (this value will randomize for each user). Separately, the "subjectLine" assignment references that number in order to randomly pull in one of the content array's titles to act as the subject line.
Set Random Variable on Users for Future Cohort Testing
Use Case: Use in conjunction with Sailthru Trigger functionality to set a value between 0-9 on users upon receipt of a Welcome transactional. This allows you to pre-segment out your users immediately for down-the-line testing (ex. Exclude everyone with "welcome_segment = 0" from the rest of the Welcome Series or a Reengagement Series as a testing benchmark). Used in conjunction with "random()"
{api_user({"vars": {"welcome_received": random(10)}})}
This script uses the api_user() function to set a custom field (var called "welcome_received") on a user upon receipt of a transactional template (in this scenario, a Welcome email). For user segmentation purposes, the script also uses random() to create a randomized value between 0-9 upon receiving this transactional. This is beneficial for future cohort testing as you'll have pre-established user buckets.


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What time does the London congestion charge start and end, what are the bank holiday and weekend rules and what's the T-Charge?
The London T-Charge will begin to be enforced from October 23 - meaning drivers of older cars will face extra charges to enter the Congestion Zone
MOTORISTS driving entering the centre of London fork out more than £10 in congestion charges every day, with additional fees being added to the commute.
But how much do you have to pay, and how soon do you have to pay it? Here are all the rules and regs, including the new T-Charge...
What is the London congestion charge?
The Congestion Charge was introduced in 2003 to tackle the traffic problems in London, hoping to reduce the high traffic flow and increase the use of the city's public transport.
The congestion zone covers zones 1 on the Transport for London tube map.
Currently, there is an £11.50 daily charge for driving a vehicle within the charging zone between 07:00 and 18:00, Monday to Friday, with the payment only required once a day, no matter how many times you drive in and out of the zones.
However, you can reduce the costs by £1 a day with Auto Pay, and the fee increases to £14 if you pay it the next day.
If you don't pay by midnight on the charging day after you drove in the zone, you'll get a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) of £130, which will be reduced to £65 if paid within 14 days.
You can pay by automated telephone service but must have a registered account, which involves an additional, one-off £10 payment.
Is the London congestion charge increasing?
Transport for London (TfL) is proposing raising penalties from £130 to £160 for breaking the rules .
Offences that would carry the new fine include blocking the road, driving in a bus lane, making illegal turns and failing to pay the £11.50 a day C-Charge.
Transport bosses said hiking fines will help improve traffic flow and road safety – but it could also net an extra £45million a year.
Many choose to half their fine by paying early but this would rise from £65 to £80.
What about evenings, weekends and public holidays?
There is no charge on weekends, public holidays, between Christmas Day and New Year's Day inclusive, or between 18:00 and 07:00 on weekdays.
Despite reports that the congestion charge might be extended, London Mayor Sadiq Khan has denied any changes were in the works.
What is the T-Charge?
The T-Charge was introduced on October 23, 2017, with cars, vans, minibuses, buses, coaches and heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) in central London needing to meet minimum exhaust emission standards, or pay a daily £10 Emissions Surcharge - also known as the Toxicity Charge, or T-Charge.
This fee will apply for vehicles driving through the same area as the congestion charge but the £10 is in addition to the current congestion charge.
Motorists can check if their vehicle will face the new T-Charge here.
What can you do to avoid the congestion charges?
TfL has advised of ways to avoid the congestion charge, recommending:
- walking, cycling or using public transport
- upgrading your vehicle to meet the emission standards, and avoid the T-Charge
- join a car club
Are there discounts to the congestion charge?
Motorists who can apply for a discount include:
- Residents within the zone
- Blue Badge holders
- Breakdown vehicles
- Ultra-low emission vehicles under 3.5 tonnes that produce under 75g/km of CO2
- Motor tricycles that are one metre or less wide
- Roadside recovery vehicles


text: New Search Back to Search Results 8726 Share Profile Tsu H. Lai, MD Specialty Cardiology Interventional Cardiology Vascular Medicine Additional Language Spoken Hokkien, Chinese - Mandarin, English Phone (760) 242-4278 Address 18523 Corwin Road Suite B Apple Valley, CA 92307 Get Directions Accepting New Patients Primary Office Address 18523 Corwin Road Suite B Apple Valley, CA 92307 Get Directions Phone (760) 242-4278 Fax (760) 242-1777 Hours Mon - Thurs: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., Fri: 8 a.m. - 12 p.m. More Information The patient rating score is based on responses and comments from Press Ganey. Responses are measured on a 10 point scale, with 10 being the best score. These scores are then translated to a 5 point scale in order to display results in a 5 Star rating. Comments are also gathered from the same survey and displayed in their entirety with the exception of any language that may be considered libel, or may contain private health information, or is unrelated to the provider being reviewed. Learn more about Press Ganey star rating calculations Meet The Doctor Specialties & Education Primary Specialties Cardiology Interventional Cardiology Vascular Medicine Secondary Specialties Internal Medicine Biography Biography Biography Patients Age Limitations: 18 Years and up Certifications Medical Society Membership Fellow American College of Cardiology Back to Search Results


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|YMMV • Radar • Quotes • (Funny • Heartwarming • Awesome) • Fridge • Characters • Fanfic Recs • Nightmare Fuel • Shout Out • Plot • Tear Jerker • Headscratchers • Trivia • WMG • Recap • Ho Yay • Image Links • Memes • Haiku • Laconic
Dead End Drive-In is a 1986 Australian B action/sci-fi film directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith (who also did BMX Bandits, Leprechaun 4, The Man From Hong Kong and Turkey Shoot).
It is Twenty Minutes Into the Future and Australia has stagnated to a state roughly akin to that in the first Mad Max movie, with dingy slums covered in graffiti and gangs of marauding "car boys" scraping by via stealing car parts. Crabs (Ned Manning) is a teenager who is an avid jogger. He convinces his older brother Frank to lend him his '56 Chevy for a date with his girlfriend Carmen (Natalie McCurry). The two go to a Drive-In Theater where they're playing Brian Trenchard-Smith's own other movies, and start to make out... only for the car's wheels to get stolen. The theater's attendant refuses to do anything until morning, so the two are forced to stay at the drive-in overnight. Come said morning, Crabs finds the place alive and resembling a ghetto. He goes to the attendant, only to be informed that he, Carmen and 190 more of society's teen delinquents are to be imprisoned at the drive-in by the government until further notice. Whereas all the other kids, including Carmen herself, seem all too content to remain at the drive-in forever placated by the limitless supply of junk food and violent movies, Crabs ain't, and he starts scheming to escape...
Dead End Drive-In provides examples of:
- Affably Evil: The theater attendant.
- Bittersweet Ending: Crabs manages to escape the prison, but the outside world is still a hellhole, and possibly getting worse.
- The Apunkalypse: Starting to take hold, but the drive-in prison camps are intended to avert this.
- B-Movie
- Bread and Circuses: Disillusioned, antisocial youth are kept off the streets and pacified with a daily regime of snack food and movies.
- Car Fu
- Crapsack World: A worldwide economic crisis has turned Australia into a fascist regime. The rest of the world is probably similar.
- Not to mention all the roving gangs looking to rob you. Police state or anarchy, take your pick.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The prisoners' arguments for opposing the arrival of new Asian prisoners can just as easily pass for any real world ultra-right wing anti-immigration speech.
- Drive-In Theater: Obviously.
- Dystopia: Even if most of the prisoners liked their Gilded Cage, it doesn't change the fact that the government is locking up teens and young adults without a trial, indefinitely.
- Eighties Hair
- Gilded Cage: Most of the prisoners prefer life at the drive-in, which provides food and entertainment, as opposed to life outside.
- Great Escape: Crabs repeatedly plans to escape the drive-in, and is frustrated that his fellow prisoners, including his girlfriend, have no interest in joining or helping him.
- Just Before the End: Australia is starting to become a Scavenger World with both tow truck drivers and gangs fighting over car parts, but the police and government still appear to function.
- POW Camp: The drive-in functions as an internment camp.
- Punch Clock Villain: Thompson the theater manager is just doing his job and doesn't seem to have any malice toward the prisoners.
- Scavenger World: The world has just started to become this.
- Spiritual Successor: To Turkey Shoot. Both are futuristic prison films from the same director.
- Those Wacky Nazis: The gang in the drive-in are Neo-Nazis and recruit other prisoners to join them.
- Twenty Minutes Into the Future: The film takes place in 1991.


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Our new Guitar Section has now been launched and we hope you like it. We value your opinion so please let us know what you think and give us your suggestons to make it even better. Drop Us A Line.
The Gearheads @ MWS


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Looking for a custom application?
Contact a Prince Manufacturing representative.
Get Started Here
Higher wages
A safe, rewarding, team environment
A benefits package you have to see for yourself.
Prince Manufacturing Corporation is The Leader in WORK – LIFE BALANCE!!!
Since our beginning in 1941, we've become a leader in the mobile hydraulics market. Our cylinders, valves, and pumps have gained a worldwide reputation for quality.
We are looking for dependable people to join our team with openings in Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota. If you like good working conditions, a family atmosphere, and being appreciated for a job well done, click on the links for information on openings near you.
Click on one the following locations for more details and to apply OR use the Quik-App to quickly apply for a Job at any of our facilities


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DIY: concrete calculator
Thinkstock Images/Stockbyte/Getty Images
A do-it-yourself project can always be rewarding when you get the job done and the results are good. And with all the tools and supplies you might need, a DIY project can make a dent in your wallet. If you don't do the math and know how much concrete you will need to finish a project, concrete gets expensive fast.
But it doesn't have to. With careful calculations of the size of the project, you can figure out fairly easy exactly how much concrete you need so you don't break the bank.
Measurements and calculations
Measure out the area you wish to place the concrete so that you can come up with a measurement in cubic yards and calculate how much concrete you will need to fill that space with. Take a measurement of the width, length and thickness of the slab so you have a volume measurement. If you're not an algebra wiz and can't figure this out, don't worry. You can take your measurements and enter them into one of the links for the concrete calculators provided below, and the calculator can tell you how many cubic yards your project is, as well as how many bags of concrete you will need, depending on the weight of the bag.
Buy the concrete
Once you have your measurements and you know how many cubic feet you're trying to fill, the next thing you need to do is buy the concrete. The question you need to ask yourself is if you want to do this project yourself and purchase pre-mixed bags or if you want to hire the project out to a concrete contractor. If you choose to do this project yourself using pre-mixed bags, you'll want do your in-store research. Once you know the cubic yards the project will cover, you can calculate how many bags of concrete you will need because each bag will give you information of how much area it will cover. By knowing how many bags you will need, this will help you calculate how much it will cost for concrete. But you're not out of the woods yet. See Section 3.
Extra supplies
If you take this project on yourself, you will also need to calculate the cost of supplies into the overall cost of the project. You're going to need something to mix the concrete in. You will most likely need forms to help the concrete form in the area you wish to contain it in. Forms are typically lumber that you would use as a border for a concrete patio slab, but can also be use to help form concrete steps. You will also need a trowel, smoothing tools and, depending on the thickness of what you plan to make, you'll need rebar to provide reinforcement to the concrete. As you'll only use these tools once or twice, find out if your neighbours or friends have any tools that you can borrow to save yourself some of the costs.
- Thinkstock Images/Stockbyte/Getty Images


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Transportation companies are at a crossroads; facing infrastructure that needs investment, stricter energy and environmental regulations and investors who demand better returns. These companies are looking for new ways to optimize financial performance.
Unfortunately, decision makers often struggle to get a clear picture of their organization's reality including asset location, tax implications by jurisdiction and failure risk using traditional, disconnected systems. Fortunately, there's a smarter solution.
Today, America's leading transportation companies, count on PowerPlan for the detailed information stakeholders in accounting, tax, operations, IT and finance need to accurately track and monitor assets, make defensible asset plans, and ensure they are in compliance with all tax rules and regulations, across all jurisdictions.
Asset planners need to be able to justify their plans to internal and external stakeholders. PowerPlan captures and documents the business cases for both asset-based and needs-based projects, so you can develop defensible plans that optimize capital investments and meet the demands of all stakeholders.
Transportation companies can have assets spread across a large number of different tax jurisdictions. The challenge is, how do you track these assets in accordance with all the relevant tax laws? PowerPlan simplifies the process by detailing all the costs associated with an asset, helping ensure valuations are accurate and exempt items aren't taxed. Whether you own assets or have complex lease agreements, PowerPlan provides the insights you need to leverage all available tax breaks and improve financial performance, by consolidating detailed information from every corner of your company on a single platform.
Stricter regulations require more diligent tracking of assets and costs. PowerPlan provides a complete view of your financial assets, giving you the accurate information and control you need to align with rules such as regional jurisdictions, and the FASB lease standards.
In 2014, the IRS shined a spotlight on what constitutes a deductible expense versus a capital improvement with the release of new tangible property regulations. As a result, transportation companies need to be more diligent in monitoring costs related to repairs, including costs within complex long-term service agreements. PowerPlan lets you track these details at a granular level, regardless of the type of service contract.
"We have reduced our property taxes by 30% through better automation and visibility across all of our tax jurisdictions."
- VP Tax, Railroad
Align asset management strategy with the overall organizational goals.
9 Questions Property Accounting Managers and CFOs Should Ask Now about the New Lease Accounting Standards


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Being a WA Member is pretty awesome.
As a WA Member, you get FREE shipping on your Monthly Journey shipments ($15-$20 value each month). And as an added bonus, you can purchase additional bottles from our Wine List anytime and have them shipped for FREE if you choose to send with your next Monthly Journey. Not too shabby...
Other than that, as a WA Member, you benefit from perks and privileges like:
- 20 percent off 3 or more bottles on our Wine List
- Access to our mini-magazine, thebacklabel
- Members-only private sales and deals
- Rewards for membership milestones


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Humans expend a great deal of cognitive energy on recognizing both faces and the emotional content of those faces. However, according to a study by Fabian Soto and Edward Wasserman of the University of Iowa, this ability is not unique to humans. Pigeons can do it too.
Pigeons do not have a specialized system for face processing, but they still show similarities to people when they are trained to recognize human faces. (Credit: U. Iowa).
When shown an array of human faces displaying different emotions, pigeons could categorize the pictures according to either identity or emotional content. Even more intriguingly, they showed the same biases that humans show. It's much easier for people to group all pictures of a single individual together regardless of facial expression than it is to group pictures with similar emotional expressions regardless of identity. It's believed that this discrepancy is a direct result of our specialized human face recognition system. Why then are pigeons equally better at grouping individuals by identity than by facial expression? The authors suggest that our facial recognition abilities, far from being unique to humans, may be shared by all vertebrates.
Wasserman states:
We hope that our research will prompt other researchers to conduct more comparative work to assess their claims about the evolution of uniquely human perceptual and cognitive processes.


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Mark Vandenbosch
Guest Speaker - Incite Phase 2
Guest Speaker - Incite Phase 2
Mark Vandenbosch is a Professor of Marketing and the Kraft Professor in Marketing. He earned his BA, Honors Business Administration from Western University and his PhD from the University of British Columbia. He has held visiting professorships at IMD in Switzerland and INSEAD in France.


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Simon Escapes gives holidaymakers the chance to escape into luxury at one of Moneysupermarket Founder, Simon Nixon's personal collection of holiday homes. From a magnificent beach house nestled in Cornwall's breathtaking Booby's Bay to a luxury villa in the picturesque village of Deia in Mallorca.
Simon Escapes approached us requiring a completely new and bespoke website that would both revitalise their online presence and truly reflect the luxurious nature of the holiday homes they offer. The main aim of the new site was to incorporate larger and clearer imagery throughout with more space for numerous high-quality images to be displayed. The client also required a site that was fully responsive on mobile devices with a fully integrated booking system that would be quick and easy for customers, together with a simple, fast and efficient backend system.
The result is a fully responsive, clean and classy website with seamlessly integrated SuperControl booking facilities. The design allows for an array of high quality, beautiful images to be displayed with several slideshows and carousels that instantly portray the luxurious nature of the properties on the site. Each property is also accompanied by an abundance of useful information including things to do in the local area, making looking for their dream getaway, easy and hassle-free for holidaymakers.Take a look
Bespoke Website Design
Mobile Responsive
Fully integrated SuperControl booking system
Contact us Form
Mailchimp newsletter integration
Easy to use content management sytem