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James McBride says he views his writing and his music as distinct disciplines, but one is hard pressed to quite believe that's true. His conversation percolates with noise and rhythm, his lines stretch to improvisational lengths studded with sloppin', sassafrassin, and frying eggs. This quality runs strong in the pages of his most recent work, The Good Lord Bird, a novel depicting the wild gospel of abolitionist John Brown en route to Harpers Ferry. Relayed through the eyes of Henry "Onion" Shackleford, a young slave who spends years posing as a girl, the story spins through tall tales, religious fanaticism, and comedic interpretations of history's horrors. "You're just looking to slap some grease on the griddle," McBride says of developing the story's particular tone. "You just pretend you're a starving, no-count, mealy-mouth, prairie bum, and after awhile you start seeing things in that way."
John Brown may be a familiar literary subject—fascinating writers from Herman Melville to Russell Banks—but McBride develops an original angle, crafting humor, even irreverence, from brutality and religious zeal. "Some things are so terrible that you just have to laugh at them," says McBride. "What humor allows you to do is to let the past go with less pain." A saxophonist, composer, journalist, and teacher, McBride is the author of three other books, including the memoir, The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother, which spent over one hundred weeks on the New York Times bestseller list in trade paperback.
We spoke by phone between New York and L.A., where McBride, on a trip to the West Coast, described how he wished he could get inside the heads of the people he passed on the streets. "It's a real stumper to sit around and try to think in your own head," he says. "But when you go into somebody else's head that takes the foot off the breaks."
—Katherine Rowland for Guernica
Guernica: John Brown has been the subject of many different tellings; how did you arrive at a way to depict him so originally?
James McBride: I've always liked that old black guy telling a whopper, with a guitar in his hand, a corncob pipe, and a straw hat. I have relatives like that. It's a voice I always liked. I knew I couldn't write about John Brown the way it's been done before, because he's been done pretty good. So I tried to look at him from someone else's point of view—that of the black participants—who had been there but never really been spoken to or about. But I had to figure out a way to find them and help their voices drive the story home. So I just absorbed what existed and let this world open up to me through the eyeballs of this young kid, or through this old man who's looking back on his life as a young boy playing a young girl.
Guernica: And Henry or Henrietta is the lens through which we see this John Brown. How did he take shape?
James McBride: He's an amalgam of myself and two or three other people; if we had been there, this is what we would have seen, and this is how we would have seen it. Onion—that what's I like to call him—he's a kind of conscience. When you read about John Brown, you read a lot of people's prejudice into what they report, even though they strive to be objective. And in a lot of ways, there is no such thing as objectivity.
Guernica: I imagine that's especially the case for a character who's such an icon, who represents such a radical moment and idea in history.
James McBride: That's true. He's a person who inspires a lot of discourse and opinion. If you go in any direction with him, you're wrong with someone else, and that kind of limits where you go with him as a nonfiction character. If you agree with what he did, you agree with someone who was a murderer, among other things. If you disagree with what he did, then you're disagreeing with a heroic figure who took God's words literally and tried to right a terrible wrong. But in fiction you can just lay it out. You're being the writer and can let someone else take the heat.
You can never follow the crowd as a writer. Don't play the other guy's solo, play your own.
What humor allows you to do is to let the past go with less pain. It's a healing element. It releases some of the pain from the shotgun wound.
Guernica: Why did you choose to use comedy to take on such a serious subject?
James McBride: That's how things were dealt with at my house, most of the time, and that's how I deal with bad things. Some things are so terrible that you just have to laugh at them. What else can you do?
There are two responses to really awful things. One is to lament and say, "Oh my God, oh lord." And the other is to laugh at it a little bit, try your best to deal with it and, if you can, forget about it as soon as possible.
What humor allows you to do is to let the past go with less pain. It's a healing element. It releases some of the pain from the shotgun wound. I make it sound good now, but I wasn't thinking of that when I put this book together. Once Onion became a real character to me, I just really enjoyed spending time with him.
Guernica: Is that how it generally works in your writing? The character takes its own shape and you can move along with it?
James McBride: When it's going well. It's not something where you can snap your finger and just say, "OK." Sometimes it just doesn't go, and you can't get to the level of concentration required or make the character cleanly, or you create a situation and the character doesn't respond to it properly. You feel yourself pulling to the left and the character's pulling to the right. It's a tight keyhole to get into the character's head.
Guernica: The John Brown character that you created is a lunatic on some level. What was it like spending so much time with him?
James McBride: I loved it. I don't know if he's any nuttier than some of the people we have running for office today. Certainly he was nobler than some of the political rascals that run our lives today. I felt there was another, deeper part of him that was so lovable. This book really helped me in that regard. It was a balm for me to do. I wrote it when I was going through a really difficult divorce and it was in some ways easier to step into this world than it was to live in my own. That was the first time a book has been like that for me, where it was more fun to live there than it was to live here.
Guernica: How was this experience different from writing your memoir?
James McBride: Working on the memoir was a kind of catharsis and my life was different at the time. It was a cleansing process that was a little painful and refreshing. This was different: it was an escape, and an escape into a world where I felt there were real heroes and villains.
If you had a toothache back then, God would help you if he'd kill you.
Guernica: The lines separating the heroes from the villains are rather blurred throughout the book.
James McBride: Well, I'd say that's how life is, as well. You get a flat tire and it's two o'clock in the morning and someone from the Tea Party stops and helps you put a new tire on… well, they're great people. If you're a Tea Party person and it's two in the morning and some liberal person from Boston helps you put your tire back on… well, they're not all that bad. You really can't judge people. That's something you really can't do as an artist, as a writer. And this book doesn't try to judge, it tries to show and not tell.
The act of choosing what to place in your piece when you're a historian or a non-fiction writer already renders it into fiction for someone else. In some ways fiction comes a lot closer to reality. When you start talking about something as brutal as slavery and life in the American West, it's really important to take a non- judgmental stance. We romanticize a great deal about life in the American West, but I thank God I wasn't living during that time. No matter what color you were, it was rough, crude, tough living.
If you had a toothache back then, God would help you if he'd kill you.
Guernica: You mentioned how in your house, comedy was a way to deal with all that life throws at you, and it reminded me of a review of your book in the New York Times, which suggested that this use of comedy signaled a greater ease with history. Do you think that's true?
James McBride: I think comedy allows people to accept the more difficult parts of history. I don't think I needed it myself, I just didn't want to write a book that was going to depress people. And history, if it's presented wrong, is just very depressing, particularly the history of slavery. If slavery is presented properly, it's a great story. But I think that within the commercial world of storytelling in which I live, there haven't been many strong works that discuss slavery in ways that are palatable and funny and interesting to the reader.
There are some really great books that have been written about slavery, but I don't think that the discourse about it in society has been very accurate or healthy. On the other hand, I don't think we've come up with ways to tell it that don't insult people or hit them in the wrong way. Part of the problem is that most people don't really understand what slavery was anyway. Most white people didn't own slaves. Slavery was a way of life, just like driving cars is a way of life now. It doesn't mean that it was right. I'm not an apologist: I would have been a slave had I been alive then. I'm just saying that the web of relationships that existed at that time was quite complicated.
Guernica: Your protagonist, Onion, is a boy, and yet he spends years disguised as a girl. What does this gender bending show us about this complicated web of relationships at the time?
James McBride: I wanted to present John Brown as the person I believe him to be: an extremely complicated religious man, who had stern, strong beliefs and once he was firm about an idea, that was it: he would just direct his energies toward that and nothing on this earth could stop him. And there is good and bad in that. And one of the bad things is that once you have an idea, you're all stridency. You have your fork tuned to that pitch and there is nothing else you hear, you miss out on a lot. And I wanted the reader to see that John Brown didn't see this kid for who he was, but rather as a black person who wanted to be free. That was certainly part of the self-definition of an African American during those times, but there were other definitions as well. Some were shy, some had a toothache, some needed a haircut, some didn't like their first cousin—that's another definition of a person. But John Brown's definition was the imposed definition he placed on this young boy, who after a lifetime of servitude, accepted it and figured out a way to survive with it. That was pretty much how slavery worked anyway.
Guernica: Were you also trying to recall the legacy of passing, of black slaves pretending to be white to get out of bondage?
James McBride: I didn't think of that. But you took advantage of any way to get out of slavery that you could. I'm sure there were many slaves who passed, and if they could, they tried as hard as hell. Because the burden of bondage was so massive, passed on to your children, and was worth fighting and risking your life for, as we've all learned very painfully.
When you walk the land, the land speaks to you—even if it's 150 years later. You walk the earth and good things happen.
Guernica: How did you go about conducting research for the book?
James McBride: I read a whole bunch of books and immersed myself in that period. I went to Kansas a couple times, and visited Harpers Ferry several times. I would walk around. I low-keyed it. Harpers Ferry was the site of several important battles, but really it's known for what John Brown did, and you see the ground and how big it was. It wasn't like they were just kicking in the door of an apartment. There was an armory with a gate.
When you walk the land, the land speaks to you—even if it's 150 years later. You walk the earth and good things happen. There's always something to be said for going to a spot, even if there's nothing there. That's why you have a brain, your mind moves to other places when you're standing at an important spot.
Guernica: For your writing, do you have any particular spots that feel like they're most expressive?
James McBride: I can write anywhere really. I have a hard time writing when the birds are tweeting and the brooks are running outside. I need a few sirens wailing, somebody asking for change. I need a little bit of grit and gristle. I need the smell of boiled cabbage. I've tried that several times, for months at a time, trying to write in a quiet, wonderful place where birds are twittering and coffee's brewing. And nothing happens. But if I'm in an old dump like my old apartment and I can't find my fingernail clippers and nothing's working except the old tea maker, that's just great. You always have to find and live in a place that's a little uncomfortable when you're a writer. You need a burr in your side.
Guernica: In a recent interview, you said that there's nothing romantic about our time. And I wondered where you find inspiration in the present, and how you cultivate that sense of wonder that seems so important to the writing life.
James McBride: It is hard to find romance in the present because there's nothing left to the imagination.
Guernica: How can you say that?
James McBride: Well, we know everything there is to know about everybody else. Everything we do is televised. I remember when I was a kid watching a football game and the coach on the sidelines was just yammering away, and I would wonder, what's he saying? But nowadays they'll tell you what he's saying, and when I find out I don't like him at all. There has to be some mystery in life, because the joy of being a writer and the joy of being a musician is the joy of discovery. I don't want someone discovering for me what I should be discovering on my own. If a person is discovering for me, then they're living for me. It's my responsibility, indeed it's my privilege, to go out and discover the world for myself.
You always have to find and live in a place that's a little uncomfortable when you're a writer. You need a burr in your side.
Guernica: When we first started talking, you mentioned that you have family members who talk the way that people do in your book. How did you immerse yourself in that particular vernacular?
James McBride: I rewrote everything. Whatever I wrote when I was too much in the framework of my written language—my east coast, New York vernacular—I would go back and change. I would say, how do you make this thing grumble and mutter and go hee-haw. 'Cause it's not working like this. And after awhile you just fall into it, you find the grease, you're just looking to slap some grease on the griddle. Everything you do, you just put some grease on it, you just pretend you're a starving, no-count, mealy-mouth, prairie bum, and after awhile you start seeing things in that way and it just starts coming to you.
Guernica: Did that language free you up to tell the story in a new way?
James McBride: Yeah, it does. It's a real stumper to sit around and try to think in your own head, but when you go into somebody else's head that takes the foot off the breaks. You can think in someone else's head.
Guernica: You also teach, and I imagine that one of the most difficult things to learn in writing is how to find and nurture an organic voice. What sort of advice do you give to your students?
James McBride: The basic thing is to be humble, and pretend you're a bartender in the tavern of life. Don't get too comfortable and don't really listen to anybody else. Don't stand around with a bunch of writers and talk about writing. You know when you see plumbers at a plumbers convention—not that I've been to one—but when you see two talking, usually they're not talking about plumbing: they're talking about whatever it is that two men happen to talk about. They're talking about sports, a new truck, their wives and children, a good pair of shoes. I just tell my students, don't talk about writing too much, just go out and do it. Find out whatever you need to get to the mainland.
The mainland is where writers find their voice, and you have to figure out how to get there. Sometimes you go by boat, or by lily pad, sometimes you have to sit down with Strunk and White's The Elements of Style and just work your way through that square.
Guernica: Do you find that as both a musician and a writer it helps to have another creative outlet to help you get to the mainland in your own work?
James McBride: I've been at it a long time, and there was time when it was hard and now it's not as hard. You get better at this stuff. I'm a better musician now, and I rarely practice because age has taught me the value of economy. And I think I'm a better writer now because I don't waste as much time, dilly-dallying and sassafrassin' and sloop and sloppin' and frying eggs. When you start writing, half the time you're just saying howdy to the page.
My process now is a little more lean and muscular. I don't waste a lot of time. When I had kids, I learned how much time I had before, and how much time you actually need to do something. If you don't have time, you'll just do it and get it done. When you have kids you realize how much time you burned before.
Guernica: Do you see your music as influencing your writing? Are the disciplines in dialogue?
James McBride: I see them as pretty separate, because they both demand a whole lot of soul. Technically, they do fold together in the sense that you have to have a certain level of skill in order to execute your ideas and you need a medium. The idea of improvisation is one that many writers fall into, and I obviously improvise a great deal when I'm writing, but there's always a structural framework that I'm working around, and that takes more time than the actual writing. Once the characters get to yapping and talking, they'll move from one room to the next, and I just have to make sure that the house is built. That's really hard, that's the kind of thing that sits with you all day long, and you can get hung up on that for a while. Character pushes plot along, but these people have to interact in a certain place and if the place isn't right then they're lost in space.
Guernica: How do you know when you hit the sweet spot?
James McBride: You'll know it. The characters will start to howl to the moon and you'll think it's funny.
To contact Guernica or James McBride, please write here.


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Environmental impact reports and assessments, Mining Highways Huntly East mine Polyvinyl chloride
Environmental impact reports and assessments, Mining Highways Huntly East mine Polyvinyl chloride
A.M.D.B. (Auckland Metropolitan Drainage Board): Manukau Purification Plant The Manukau Sewage Purification Works were opened on 24 September 1960.
Mineral Resources NZ Draft environmental assessment guidelines: Mining/Prospecting SER: Minerals management Draft mining guide (DOC) Department of Conservation guidelines (paper)
Box 1: Macraes Mining Company Globe Hill Reefton Globe hill Mining Project- Environmental Assessment Ground disposal of treated water Box 2: Planning Tribunal against West Coast Council Macraes M
Queenstown-Wakatipu combined district scheme, Environmental impact for Remarkables ski field
Glenbrook steel mill - requests and objections environmental audit Royal forest and Bird protect society
Access to this collection is restricted and requires permission from the contributor. To gain access you will need to:

subset: commoncrawl


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Contact us or visit our offices
ÅF Finland provides consulting, engineering and project management services to energy sector worldwide. We have participated in the engineering or implementation of more than half of all power plants in operation in Finland.
We maintain a certified management system in the field of consulting and engineering for energy and environmental technology which fulfills the requirements of the standards ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015 and OHSAS 18001:2007.
Our company is approved by the Energy Authority as a verifier. The qualification of GHG verification covers the scopes of combustion installations and production of pulp, paper and cardboard. The qualification of verification of production subsidies of electricity covers the scopes of wind flow, timber chip, biogases and wood fuel. All scopes of verification of compliance with the sustainability criteria are covered by the verifier's qualification. We are FINAS accredited institution VB05, accreditation requirement of EN ISO 14065:2013.
In Finland we are also a member of the Finnish Association of Consulting Firms, SKOL.


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The attitude of gratitude is hands down, my favourite thing to do each day. This daily practice is so simple, and yet so transformative.
So what do you do?
Develop your attitude of gratitude
At a basic level, you take three things you're grateful for, and you give thanks. Whether you do it out loud, quietly in your head, in a journal or through prayer, it doesn't really matter. What matters is that you find something to be grateful for. That's it – attitude of gratitude!
You may be having the world's worst day, and feel like everything is going wrong, but there will be something hidden in amongst all the rubbish to be grateful for.
I promise.
Finding it, is the attitude of gratitude.
If you're deep in the dark thoughts right now, be kind to yourself. Even if you can only think of one thing to be grateful for, focus on that. Focus on it twenty times a day, until you start to notice another thing, and another thing. (And if you are one of these people, I've been there, and the best advice someone gave me was to treat yourself with the same kindness you would give to a friend).
Being truly honest, the attitude of gratitude takes work. Hard bloody work. It's really easy to fall back into old habits.
This attitude of gratitude practice is really new to me, so I've got 30 years of negative reinforcement to undo. Trust me when I say it doesn't happen over night! When I'm in a really shitty mood, I'll make myself write 100 things on my list. This absolutely cracks my husband up, because he's like "yeah you've been moaning a LOT", and you know what, he'll be right.
How gratitude affects physiology
Have you ever noticed that when someone pisses you off, you'll muster on it. You'll then pick up on all the other insanely irritating things they do that annoy you. And then once you run out of ideas, you'll remember that other person who jumped in front of you in the queue.
(Note: if you're reading this outside the UK, there is no worse offence than pushing in a queue – and it's a queue, not a line!)
We've all heard of Type A personalities and heart attacks right? Well, when you're living in anger and frustration, your body is adapting by switching on your sympathetic nervous system, and getting ready to fight a tiger. Long term, that's not good.
So why not reverse it?
Why not recognise when the frustration is kicking in, and train yourself to give thanks rather than complain? You'll find that it soon becomes a habit that sets you off on a different train of thought.
When I'm truly grateful for what's going on around me, I am better with my kids, more productive, have more creativity and a higher threshold too!
Most of all though, your thoughts create a certain type of energy within your cells. Thoughts are things. They bring about very real changes within your body's physiology. They will allow your nervous system to dampen down the stress response, and work in the parasympathetics, what we call rest and digest.


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Please make sure that you bring the necessary equipment for your cavern or cave diving course.
Equipment list cavern course:
- mask
- medium length power fins (no split fins) and dive boots
- Regulator with an octopus and a 7ft/ 2m hose recommended (hose can be rented here) as well as submersible pressure gauge, ideally no console)
- 5mm or 7mm wet suit, hood – no gloves!
- BCD with power inflator, appropriate weight system (weights from diving-caves.com)
- slate *
- small knife, we highly recommend the Eezy Cut *
- dive computer and/or dive tables, timing device
- finger spool *
- directional and non-directional line markers *
- two battery powered lights
* these items can be bought with diving-caves.com
Equipment list Intro-to-Cave/ Full Cave Course
- mask, no snorkel
- power fins (no split fins) with booties
- two independent first and second stage regulators. One regulator equipped with a long hose at a recommended minimum length of 2m/ 7ft
- submersible pressure gauge
- buoyancy compensator with power inflator (wing with harness and backplate)
- exposure suit, we recommend at least 5mm suit with hood, no gloves
- 2 line cutting devices, we recommend the Eezy Cut (the Intro-to-Cave level requires only 1) *
- 3 battery powered lights – 1 primary light and 2 back-ups, each with a burn time suitable for the planned dive time
- safety reel with a minimum of 37m / 125 ft of guideline
- 1 primary cave- diving reel with length appropriate for intended dive (one per team only!)
- sufficient gap and jump reels (per team)
- computer or watch (bottom timer) and depth gauge
- submersible dive tables or back-up dive computer, second computer for full cave level required
- slate or wet notes with pencil *
- 3 directional line arrows *
- 3 non- directional markers, we recommend REM's (Referencing Exit Markers) *
* these items can be bought with diving-caves.com directly.
If you miss any of the above equipment and would like to rent or buy it while you stay here, please inquire for availability and prices!
Auch verfügbar / Also available in: Deutsch


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Five Last Minute Home Made Gift Ideas
It's December 23rd. You thought you had finished your Christmas shopping but you remember Aunt Molly or cousin Derek is coming on Boxing Day. The thought of heading back to the shops makes you want to drown yourself in sherry so, what do you do? I have come up with five home made gifts that … [Read more…]


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People who participate in the Workit Clinic plan need to visit the physical site location to meet with their doctor for their first visit, and possibly for a few additional visits if deemed necessary by the doctor. After that, they move to telemedicine (video conferencing) visits with their doctor.
In accordance with federal and state regulations, we do require that our members be in the state we're licensed in to receive their care. This means that members need to be physically located in Michigan, California, or New Jersey at the time of all follow-up telemedicine visits. We also are only able to prescribe medication to Michigan, California, and New Jersey pharmacies.
As long as you can get to our location physically for your first few appointments and be in the state we practice in for follow-up visits, you can participate!
Have more questions? Call us from 8am to 8pm EST: (855) 659 - 7734 or email firstname.lastname@example.com. We're here to help.


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On 3/28/13 12:55 PM, Elliott Sprehn wrote: > and isPositioned is a bitfield check That happens to be a WebKit-specific claim, as far as I can tell. > parse the property name As is this. But yes, the general claim that the JS APIs for doing this right now are full of performance fail stands. ;) -BorisReceived on Thursday, 28 March 2013 17:33:04 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Friday, 17 January 2020 18:13:59 UTC


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Grandstream Launches Cloud-based Video, Audio and Web Conferencing Service
IPVideoTalk allows users to extend a Grandstream GVC320x conference to a global online meeting
Spanish Portuguese French Italian Russian
March 14, 2016 (Boston, MA, USA) – Grandstream Networks, connecting the world since 2002 with award-winning SIP unified communications solutions, has announced the launch of IPVideoTalk, a cloud-based video, audio and Web conferencing service. This subscription service allows any video conference held on a Grandstream GVC3200 or GVC3202 to become a virtual online meeting that can be easily attended by any other GVC320x devices as well as any Web browser users anywhere in the world.
IPVideoTalk allows businesses to turn their physical conference room into a global online meeting that can be broadly attended worldwide, allowing them to keep remote team collaborations productive and reach their customers efficiently wherever they are. IPVideoTalk meetings can be attended by any GXV320x and any PC or Mac users using WebRTC-capable Web browsers (such as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox). IPVideoTalk touts advanced features including industry-leading 1080p Full HD video resolutions, HD audio, computer screen-sharing, meeting scheduler & reminders, meeting control, and much more. Two different service plan levels are currently being offered: IPVideoTalk Basic, which supports up to 25 meeting attendees and up to 3 video presenters, and IPVideoTalk Pro, which supports up to 50 meeting attendees and up to 8 video presenters.
"Today's businesses increasingly need easy-to-use tools for collaboration among geographically disbursed teams and efficient visual communications with their customers, no matter where they are and no matter what computer or mobile devices they use," said David Li, CEO of Grandstream. "IPVideoTalk is an innovative cloud video, audio, and Web conferencing service with industry leading video quality and entirely based on standard Web browsers without requiring any special plugin. The combination of IPVideoTalk's cutting edge cloud scalable video technology, the power of the GVC320x video conference system, and the increased popularity of WebRTC-capable Web browsers will raise the bar for user experience of video conferencing and lower the barrier of adoption dramatically. We are very excited about the potential of IPVideoTalk and are fully committed to growing this service significantly in the near future."
IPVideoTalk features include:
- 1080p Full HD video and HD audio – IPVideoTalk supports H.264 High Profile or VP8 1080p Full HD video resolution and HD audio, separating it apart from most other online conferencing services in the market where only up to 720p resolution video is supported.
- Join a meeting with 1 click from a Web browser – IPVideoTalk is one of the first conferencing platforms to utilize the revolutionary WebRTC technology. This allows anyone to attend IPVideoTalk meetings using any WebRTC-capable Web browsers (Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox) without having to download any proprietary software or install any special plugins.
- Built-in Meeting Scheduler and Meeting Control – Complete meeting scheduler (accessible from www.ipvideotalk.com and any GVC320x linked to an IPVideoTalk account) is available to plan and automatically start meetings, and send meeting notification and reminder emails to invited participants. Comprehensive meeting control is also available to allow a meeting host to chat with participants and mute/unmute/disconnect any participant.
- Screen Sharing – The presenter can share any computer screen by using a GVC320x or a Web browser with other participants in an IPVideotalk meeting for one-to-many presentation, panel discussions, interactive document markup, distant learning, etc.
- Foolproof multi-site conference room integration – easily call and link together multiple GVC320x in multiple locations with your colleagues or customers/partners using IPVideoTalk without worrying about firewall/NAT traversal which is taken care of by IPVideoTalk automatically
IPVideoTalk plans, features, resources and videos
For more information on IPVideoTalk plans and features, visit www.ipvideotalk.com.
Pricing and Availability
IPVideoTalk is generally available for purchase now through Grandstream's worldwide distribution channels. The Basic Plan is $39 per month and the Pro plan is $55 per month. Existing GVC320x users can sign up for a free 2-month trial at www.ipvideotalk.com. Before the free trial expires, customers will be reminded to go to their Grandstream resellers to officially purchase IPVideoTalk plans. IPVideoTalk plans can also be purchased along with new GVC320x devices from any Grandstream channel partners for 14 months of service at the price of 12 months.
About Grandstream Network
Grandstream Networks, Inc. has been connecting the world since 2002 with SIP Unified Communications products and solutions that allow businesses to be more productive than ever before. Our award-winning solutions serve the small and medium business and enterprises markets and have been recognized throughout the world for their quality, reliability and innovation. Grandstream solutions lower communication costs, increase security protection and enhance productivity. Their open standard SIP-based products offer broad interoperability throughout the industry, along with unrivaled features and flexibility. Visit www.grandstream.com for more information.
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Grandstream Contact
Phil Bowers


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Bodog Launches Live Dealer Casino In Asian Market
Well folks, it comes as no surprise that the online gaming mega brand Bodog is expanding it's borders and is making an explosive entrance into the online gaming scene in Asia. Haydock Entertainment holds the exclusive license of the Bodog Brand in Asia, and has been operating in Asia since 2006. This state of the art and extremely exhilarating online gaming experience can be found at Bodog88.com. The site design is a superb creation of innovative, stimulating and cutting edge eye candy, with a user friendly and sophisticated interface. The quality of gaming is top notch, using only the most innovative and advanced gaming functionality. The Bodog Brand is known around the globe, and has become synonymous with a unique and exciting online gaming experience. Bodog's impeccable reputation and unique presentation provides
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Sunday 01-03-10
Posted in Casino, Online Gambling


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Street Rod – the cardgame – Kickstarter campaign started
Today we started the crowdfunding campaign for Street Rod – the Card Game. With your help we can make this project to a success! During the design of the game we made certain to stay close to the original look of the graphics en feel of the gameplay of the original Street Rod games. You […]
Progress on acquiring the original source code
Yesterday someone asked me if I had the original source code. I had to answer "no" to that question. After the conversation I thought: "Maybe try to contact the original owner once more". So I did and with some success, no response at first, but then… my offer was declined and I got a counter […]
Street Rod – the cardgame – Kickstarter launch date announcement
The launch date of the Street Rod – the cardgame Kickstarter will be May 9th 23rd.
New: Street Rod – the cardgame
This year we will once again enrich the Street Rod universe with: 'Street Rod – the card game'. Buy parts, customize your rod, race your opponents and beat the king! As the card game is for 2-4 players, now it's possible to race your friends too. The deck consists of 12 cars, 16 opponents and […]
Exciting news
We're in the process of fabricating something new, something completely different. Want to know what we're up to? Tell your friends, save the date, see you on the 1st of March!
Street Rod SE released
Download and play Street Rod SE for PC DOS now! Enjoy 25 new cars. Choose from 8 brand new stickers. Race against different opponents. It's free! Download Street Rod SE (note: you need a PC with DOS installed or use an emulator) README Street Rod SE ============= This is Street Rod SE (Special Edition) and […]
Street Rod SE re-released on July 1, 2014
Mark your calendar and tell your friends. On July 1, 2014 the Street Rod Data Disks will be re-released (for free) as Street Rod SE Please consider a donation to keep this website ad-free and support my work on preserving the Street Rod games.


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It is with mixed feelings that I write this post; excitement at the prospect of beginning new adventures (whatever they might be), sadness at the thought of leaving such a wonderful school community, and even a little fear caused by the unknown path I'm about to tread.
I've said to many already that one of the greatest things we can do is to find and follow our passions. To never accept mediocrity in our lives. To take a chance and push beyond our comfort zone, even though it risks failure. To have the confidence to believe in our decisions and to back ourselves, especially when we really don't know what the future holds. This is what we ask of our students each and every day in their learning, so it makes good sense for me to do the same.
I'm unsure what the future may hold but I'm excited by not knowing. For all of us, there are countless opportunities we can choose to embrace, as long as we're open to exploring whatever comes our way.
There are so many things about our exceptional little school that I'll miss, because MOPS is such a big part of who I am and what I've come to be. Being in the education sector is so much more than just a job. Taking responsibility for nurturing young minds and caring for young people is way too important to be ever just a job. It's a privilege. It's a special honour bestowed upon us for only a short time and it's up to us to make the best of that opportunity through giving as much of ourselves to the people in our care that we can. And through all of the fun, mistakes and challenging times, that's what I have attempted to do.
Over the last ten years I feel we have grown as a school community and have come to sit at the cutting edge of future-focused teaching and learning. And there is no other place we should be! We mix evidence-based decisions with an innovative culture that questions the status quo, and it works. It delivers the best there is in education.
The students, staff and families who make up our school are all deeply invested in this place and the collaborative way in which we go about our business gives us strength. It provides a clarity of vision for understanding what the school stands for; our collective values, beliefs and aspirations.
With the changing of leadership in any organisation comes inevitable change, and that's a good thing. Tiffany Sinton will bring her unique and creative talents to the role of relieving Principal from the start of next term and she will be wonderful. She will have full authority to lead the school and I have complete trust in her ability to do it exceedingly well. Our school will be in good hands!
Further down the track when my position is filled substantively, the new Principal will also bring unique strengths, talents and ideas to our school. This is something to embrace. It doesn't mean that everything will suddenly change. It can't. It would be wrong to try. Whoever comes in as Principal will certainly have their own way of doing things and some things will be different. What's important is that the school maintains its directions and of course everyone has a part to play in that.
Our school is all about people and relationships. It's about trust and respect. It's about looking after the wellbeing of everyone and caring for one another. It's about being future-focused in teaching and learning, and embracing the world around us. It's about being innovative and fearless in putting into practice what we all hold dear.
We are not a traditional school and nor do we wish to be. MOPS pushes educational boundaries because it's in the best interest of students to do so. This is the responsibility of all schools and education systems and we thrive in that environment.
Make sure your voice is heard and that any changes that come to MOPS are in keeping with our school's identity. Change is good and change is necessary, as long as the change fits within the ethos we've all worked so hard to create. This school is greater than any individual or any group of people. It belongs to you and your views matter. Continue to support our school by advocating for it at every opportunity. The way in which we all work together is what makes us who we are.
But for now, after almost ten years at the helm, it's time for me to say goodbye. Thank you for your support, your friendship and your kindness. Thank you for the extraordinary times we've had together and for the fun we've had. It's been a truly amazing journey. Be kind to yourselves and to one another. I'll miss you all!


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As a CLO, I spend a lot of time talking to learning leaders from a variety of industries, going to conferences and trade shows, and reading industry research and blogs. Phrases like "content explosion" and "fragmented learning" get used a a lot, supporting the common subtext that L&D is experiencing a massive shift in how their employees learn at and for work. It's important to consider and embrace what's happening in the marketplace, and organizations that do will see there is a big opportunity to elevate both their talent and L&D's reputation to one that drives key business performance.
Last week, I wrote part 1 of the 2-part series on the top four trends disrupting the workforce in 2017. The first two trends identified are different generations in the workforce and the rise in digital technology.
Here are the remaining two:
3. Rate of change is moving faster than ever before
Since things are changing faster than ever before, businesses must stay agile. Dutton talked about eBay's evaluation of current programs since splitting from PayPal, and their decision to start over with their learning strategy. They stopped doing a lot of the traditional learning that they had done in the past including multi-day programs geared just for leaders or top talent. Now, they strive to serve all employees, and have launched a few new tools including Degreed and Career Navigator. They are choosing to engage with employees and teams using Slack because that's where a lot of the engineers already spend their time. eBay is also focusing more on coaching for leaders, having employees and leaders engage in more impactful career and performance conversations. Learning is being recognized as a journey through talent communities, and the learning organization is adjusting to meet people where they are rather than taking them out of their natural work flow.
4. A new relationship between employees and employers
Gone are the days where people spent their whole careers at one company. According to Gallup, 60% of millennials say they are open to a new job opportunity, and according to the recent numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average person works for 4.4 years in one job. This is a major shift in work expectations – a shift we as learning professionals have to be thinking about.
During the discussion with the CLO community, we discussed the gig economy, (think freelance workers or Uber drivers) the contingent workforce, (contractors) and how those new models affect the employee/employer relationship.
A recent Forbes article states that by 2020, about 40% of Americans will be part of the gig economy. According to Dan Schawbel, "The trends that have created the gig economy include: the rise of freelancing, the access of technology (especially on the mobile phone), the impact of the recession and the desire to have "side-gigs" and flexibility. For employers, the gig economy allows them to hire on-demand, lower costs and have more competition for talent."
So when we think about the skills gap and how we are going to help people build their skills for now and the future, we need to think about how employees actually work. Learning can be a big competitive advantage if you are a company that will invest in your employee's skills regardless of whether they stay one year or ten years. Career paths and helping all employees develop their skills, even if they don't stay at your company long term, is a growing and beneficial trend.
These four workforce trends are changing role of learning leaders and it's important to keep them in mind when thinking about your future learning strategy. eBay, like a lot of other companies, has realized that to keep talent and to help all employees develop skills quickly, they needed to think about learning differently, move more quickly and iterate, and be more agile overall with learning.
At it's core, being successful in learning today means embracing your workforce – meeting people where they are and giving them learning when they need it. Want to know what your workforce was interested in in 2016? Check out What the World Learned in 2016.


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Smiles & Hugs
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The thought of being home in just one week is looming... I've been here for almost a month. And it feels like a lifetime, yet at the same time it has gone so fast. Its like I have been here forever. I really don't know how I will be able to return back to 'normal life'. I know I can do all things through He who gives me strength- but I'm
Gonna need A LOT of strength.
Yesterday I quickly checked my college email to see if there was anything urgent I needed to deal with - and i was just overwhelmed with the seemingly uselessness of it all. Much of it things i would have been really excited for a month ago but compared to my life here it just seems unimportant.
I feel like I live a double life- I have my deeply rewarding, fulfilling life spending the summer in china with orphans.
And my life at home, playing the motions of life, going from one step to the next. Don't take me the wrong way - i have a great life back home. I'm involved in lots of great things - but being out here serving God everyday is just so much special.
We have had some amazing experiences here at the welfare centre. It is truly a blessing for us to be able to work here, to be allowed in. We have had the opportunity to not only work with the kids but also spend time with their carers and see them change too.
This week we have brought the different sections of the welfare centre out to the zoo and local park. We bring them around to see all the animals which is lots of fun, and then we all sit down in a big circle on grass in the park and have a snack and play some games. Something interesting has happened at each of these times. We are a large group of people (30 +) so we naturally attract attention. But we also draw more people in as we have many kids with disabilities. Crowds gather around us. The first few days people just stopped and stared. But today they seemed to enjoy us being there and were smiling at our games and clapping along.
These are people who never have experience of these types of disabilities.
He can change peoples hearts when we dont even expect or plan to.


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Gaddaffi's Spokesman Defects
Thursday, 31 March 2011
Porridge Outlet
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
Seaside Postcard
Oh I Don't Like to Be Beside The Seaside. Jaywick, near Clacton-On- Sea, Essex,
is offically the most deprived area of the UK
Monday, 28 March 2011
Snakes Alive!
Sunday, 27 March 2011
Welcome to the Heat Haze
Tony Benn Pipes Up Again
Tony joined a million or so protestors to campaign against the cuts, but didn't squat in Fortnum & Masons
Saturday, 26 March 2011
Liz Taylor's Will
Friday, 25 March 2011
Yardy Out- Cue Boycott
Thursday, 24 March 2011
Cheer up - Think of the Petrol
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
Head in the Sand
Sunday, 20 March 2011
The Man in the Moon
"The Man in the moon came down too soon and asked his way to Norwich.
He went to the South and burnt his mouth by eating cold plum porridge..."
Moon closest to earth for a decade
Saturday, 19 March 2011
Census 2011
Thursday, 17 March 2011
I wandered lonely as a cloud......when all at once....
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Roll Over Beethoven
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
Apathy In The UK
Monday, 14 March 2011
Diamond Bogs
Sunday, 13 March 2011
21st Century Fox
Thursday, 10 March 2011
John Galliano's AntiSemitic Collection
Wednesday, 9 March 2011
Judge Dredd
Monday, 7 March 2011
Sunday, 6 March 2011
Adios Alberto Granado, amigo de Che
Adios Alberto!
Saturday, 5 March 2011
Baby Gaga- breast milk icecream- you couldn't make it up, well not for a while
Environmental Health remove breast milk icecream from shop in Covent Garden.
Lady Gaga is miffed, wishing she'd thought of it first......
Friday, 4 March 2011
Gordon Ramsay's Nightmare School
Thursday, 3 March 2011
World Book Day- Sssssssssssssssshhhhh!
O'Brien Hits England for Six
Kevin O'Brien gets fastest century in Cricket World Cup to ensure victory for Ireland
and humbling defeat for Ashes Winners
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
Last Camel to the Ukraine!
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Joyce Ji joined Certara Strategic Consulting in September 2017 as a Statistical Programmer. At Certara, Joyce works on statistical analysis and programming of model-based meta-analysis (MBMA) for clinical trials development. Prior to joining Certara, Joyce was a Statistical Programming Analyst at Genentech. She has held several research roles at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Joyce holds a Master's of Science in Biostatistics, Statistical Genetics from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and a Bachelor's degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology with research distinction from the University of Illinois.
Joyce is a member of the American Society of Human Genetics, and has published the book Breakthroughs in Biotechnology by The Encyclopedia of China Publishing House in 2014.


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We studied seasonal and physiological influences on mercury concentrations in western grebes (Aechmophorus occidentalis) and Clark's grebes (A. occidentalis) across 29 lakes and reservoirs in California, USA. Additionally, at three of these lakes, we conducted a time series study, in which we repeatedly sampled grebe blood mercury concentrations during the spring, summer, and early fall. Grebe blood mercury concentrations were higher among males (0.61 ± 0.12 μg/g ww) than females (0.52 ± 0.10 μg/g ww), higher among Clark's grebes (0.58 ± 0.12 μg/g ww) than western grebes (0.51 ± 0.10 μg/g ww), and exhibited a strong seasonal pattern (decreasing by 60% from spring to fall). Grebe blood THg concentrations exhibited a shallow, inverse U-shaped pattern with body size, and was lowest among the smallest and largest grebes. Further, the relationship between grebe blood mercury concentrations and wing primary feather molt exhibited a shallow U-shaped pattern, where mercury concentrations were highest among birds that had not yet begun molting, decreased approximately 24% between pre-molt and late molt, and increased approximately 19% from late molt to post-molt. Because grebes did not begin molting until mid-summer, lower grebe blood mercury concentrations observed in late summer and early fall were consistent with the onset of primary feather molt. However, because sampling date was a much stronger predictor of grebe mercury concentrations than molt, other seasonally changing environmental factors likely played a larger role than molt in the seasonal variation in grebe mercury concentrations. In the time series study, we found that seasonal trends in grebe mercury concentrations were not consistent among lakes, indicating that lake-specific variation in mercury dynamics influence the overall seasonal decline in grebe blood mercury concentrations. These results highlight the importance of accounting for sampling date, as well as ecological processes that may influence mercury concentrations, when developing monitoring programs to assess site-specific exposure risk of mercury to wildlife.
Environmental Pollution – Elsevier
Published: Oct 1, 2017
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Opinions of Sunday, 22 July 2018
Columnist: Kwaku Badu
I could not believe my eyes and ears when I watched the video clip of a police officer physically assaulting a breastfeeding mother inside the banking hall of a Savings and Loans Bank in Accra.
But upon listening to the victim morosely narrating her ordeal on Peace FM's evening news on Friday 20th July 2018, I had no option than to abandon my earlier incertitude over the veracity of the video clip.
In fact, I believed her story. She was brutalised by a schizophrenic police officer without any provocation whatsoever. How cruel, how uncaring, and how unprofessional some police officers could be?
According to the lady, she has been somehow denied access to her meagre savings of GH250 by the said Savings and Loans Bank staff since last week Thursday.
Apparently, she did not even have a pesewa to purchase her two and half month old baby's food, and therefore decided to revisit the said bank on Thursday 19th July 2018.
She left home early in the morning and headed to the local branch of the said bank. She arrived at the bank premises at around 7.30am and waited patiently until the bank's opening time.
After a short while, the bank was opened for customers. She was seen briefly by a bank teller who asked her to take a seat and wait. She nonetheless obliged without a wink.
After a few hours wait, she was recalled by another teller who informed her that the bank's intra network was down.
She was, however, given an option to either wait for a while or come back the next day.
Obviously, the lady had no other option than to wait till the system is restored. So she sat and waited patiently to collect what belongs to her (GH250).
Unfortunately, however, she was ignored throughout the remaining hours until the closing time of 4.30pm when the hot-headed police officer approached her and asked her to leave as they were about to shut the doors.
But in a state of puzzled countenance, she politely informed the police officer that she has been asked to wait and collect her money. However, the uncaring officer was not prepared to buy her obvious sound explanation as he bizarrely stood by his earlier directive.
So out of desperation, the lady politely asked the officer if he could kindly lend her GH25 so that she can buy food for her baby and reimburse him when the bank effect payment the next banking day.
It was at this juncture that the seemingly ill-tempered police officer became incensed and started hurling invectives at her direction.
As if that was not enough, the aggressive officer gave her two big slaps on the face in quick succession whilst carrying her baby at her back. How cruel and inhumane?
The officer then hit her repeatedly in the head with an umbrella (an emblem of NDC). The umbrella has turned into a deadly weapon.
The pugilist officer then followed up with flurry of jabs in the full view of the nonchalant bank staff. Strangely, however, they did not do anything to rescue the poor lady from the mad dog. How unkind?
Believe it or not, I shed tears uncontrollably listening to her ordeal at the hands of someone who has been entrusted to protect lives and property.
At the moment, we cannot resist but to squall in one voice and beseech the hierarchy of the Ghana Police Service that enough is enough, so they must weed out the uncouth and the Neanderthals in their midst without delay.
Send your news stories to and via WhatsApp on +233 55 2699 625.


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If you have any queries kindly contactSales & Suppport
Namobuddha Phulchoki trek starts from Next to the Dhulikhel where one of the pilgrimage site Nomobuddha (famous Buddhist pilgrimage site) is located and ends at the famous tourist destination Phulchoki and Godavari. Namobuddha-Phulchoki trek, you will be observing some of the spectacular highest picks in the world and much more unforgettable memories of villages and natural beauties. The maximum altitude of this treks will be 2765m(Phulchoki) and provides ideal insight to the flora and fauna of Nepal especially surrounding of the Kathmandu Valley. Phulchoki forest is very attractive and rich in natural beauty, view of unparalleled scenic Himalayas, towering snow covered picks, picturesque landscape, flora and fauna. The accommodation will be the basic sharing accommodation.
Day 1: Arrival in Kathmandu
Day 2: Drive Kathmandu-Dhulikhel(1440m)& hike to Nomobuddha (1720m) 1hr drive & 3hr hiking
Day 3: Hike from Nomobuddha to Balthali (2190m) 4-5 hrs
Day 4: Hike from Balthali to Bebar Danda (2100m) 4-5 hrs
Day 5: Hike from Bebar to Phulchoki (2765m)4-5hrs
Day 6: Hoke from Phulchoki to the Godavari and drive to Kathmandu (3-4hrs)
Day 7: Departure
Day 1: Arrival in Kathmandu
Upon arrival in Kathmandu airport, meet our and transfer to the hotel. In the afternoon you have the option to be a scored stroll around Thamel and local tourist market including the dream of Garden. In the evening cultural show with dinner.
Overnight at Hotel in Kathmandu.
Day 2: Drive Kathmandu-Dhulikhel(1440m)& hike to Nomobuddha (1720m)
1hr drive & 3hr hiking
In the morning have a breakfast and drive to an ancient medieval temple of Pashupatinath and Bouddhanath Stupa. Then drive for about 1hr, along Nepal-Tibet road(AranikoRajmarga) till Dhulikhel, Dhulikhel is well known for one of finest panoramic mountain views. After a brief stop, start a side road hiking to Namobuddha, an important Buddhist pilgrimage site, eco friendlyVisit beautiful Namo Buddha Village with short walking distance to explore the culture and living style of the local people.
Overnight at Eco-friendly Resort in Nomobuddha.
Day 3: Hike from Nomobuddha to Balthali (2190m) 4-5 hrs
After breakfast in the morning, start hiking toBalthali village which enhance and offer excellent mountain views and takes 4 hours. Explore escorted throughout theBalthali village where you will see typical Buddhist village community.
Overnight at Balthali Village in Resort.
Day 4: Hike from Balthali to BebarDanda (2100m) 4-5 hrs
In the morning enjoy leisurely breakfast, start hiking to BebarDanda which will take 4-5hrs.Here, hiking trials passes through deep woodland forest, unparalleled scenic mountains, diverse flora and fauna.
Overnight at lodge in Bebar Dada.
Day 5: Hike from Bebar to Phulchoki (2765m)4-5hrs
After breakfast start hike to Phulchoki through the blissfulness of nature where the greenery is astounding and a tremendous variety of birds live. Phulchoki (literally flower-covered hill) is the highest hill (2765m) in Kathmandu valley. It is also triple-peaked hill situated 20 kms southeast from Kathmandu centre. The hill is very popular for both bird watching and acclimatizationand approximately 300species spotted out of 400 species in Kathmandu valley.
Overnight at hotel in Kathmandu.
Day 6: Hoke from Phulchoki to Godavari and drive to Kathmandu (3-4hrs)
Enjoy leasurly breakfast with golden view of sunrise. Start hike from phulchoki to Godavari, takes about 3 hours. Spend couple of hours visiting Botanical garden, green house and fish farms on Godavari. Then drive to Kathmandu which will takes one and half hour.
Overnight at hotel in Kathmandu
Day 7: Departure
You will be transferred to the international airport by private vehicle according to your flight time


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Niall Ferguson on the Israeli Dangers From Syria and Egypt
Israel is the land of argument. Each June its president holds a conference in Jerusalem to which people flock from all over the world to argue. Every weekday the prime minister has meetings with his cabinet colleagues at which they argue. There is even a white board in his office on which the latest argument is recorded. He could not get up to greet my wife and me because his leg recently had an argument with a soccer ball.
The old joke still applies: as soon as you bring together two Israelis, you have three arguments. And that is the other thing I love about Israel. It is also the land of jokes. The fact that Benjamin Netanyahu injured his leg in a soccer match with Jewish and Arab youths strikes even him as pretty funny.
Yet the situation of Israel today is no laughing matter. The phrase "Arab Spring" is now considered something of a joke as people nervously await the latest developments in neighboring Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood is poised to take power. The Israeli government is convinced the Iranian government is merely playing for time in the negotiations over its nuclear-arms program and that the timeline to an Iranian nuke is measurable in months.
Meanwhile, the prospects of reaching some kind of agreement with the Palestinians look bleak. As veteran U.S. diplomat Dennis Ross reminded delegates to President Shimon Peres's conference, the maps used in schools in Gaza and the West Bank don't even show Israel. What basis is that for the long-discussed "two-state solution"?
Two days in Jerusalem forces you to put your worries in perspective. Here it helps to remember Donald Rumsfeld's classification. Start with the known knowns. First, the crisis of excessive debt in the West is very far from over and that means low growth in Israel's principal trading partners. Second, the "great reconvergence" as the East catches up to the West is likely to continue, creating in the process the biggest middle class in the world in China. Israel is between these two worlds. Growth is down below 3 percent this year, but is forecast to bounce back next year.
Now for the known unknowns. There will be conflict in this region, in addition to the civil war already raging in Syria. Unfortunately, that's all we really know. Because wars are not predictably distributed, we don't have any way of knowing when and where they will occur, or how large they will be. Let's just say that if there is going to be a military showdown with Iran, September or October look like the most likely months.
What about the unknown unknowns—the black swans that almost nobody is currently predicting? My guess is that technology will once again surprise us. Maybe we are underestimating the impact of big data mining, ARM processor architecture, and fiber-optic cables. Maybe we're about to drive smoothly, cleanly, and silently into the future in electric cars. Or maybe some mega-virus will abruptly shut down the Internet and the power grid. Either way, high-tech Israel will play a key role.
But there's another category that Rumsfeld forgot to mention: the unknown knowns. These are the things that people who ignore history don't know, but historians do know.
First, there's the point that all our wonderful information technology has helped make the world more integrated than ever before. But highly integrated networks, though they enhance efficiency much of the time, are very prone to occasional, massive crashes. Globalization has collapsed before.
Second, the rising middle class in emerging markets means not just soaring demand for Western brands. It also means soaring demand for Western rights. A revolutionary bourgeoisie in Asia is about to start demanding the rule of law and no taxation without representation. That is what the bourgeoisie has been doing since 17th-century England.
Finally, the resurgence of China and the stagnation of the United States remind us that it's precisely when great powers change places that you need to watch out.
Last week I suggested that China rather than the United States should lead any intervention in Syria on the grounds that China's economic interest in the Middle East will soon exceed that of the U.S. I was being at least half ironic. Yet on the very day of publication, the semi-official Iranian news agency Fars announced a joint Chinese-Iranian-Russian exercise, involving 90,000 personnel, 400 airplanes, 900 tanks, and 12 Chinese ships, to take place in ... Syria.
Small wonder Israelis like arguments and jokes. The real challenge in the Middle East is telling those two things apart.


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Brian Harr's practice includes the representation of both public and private companies in the sale and purchase of companies.
He has extensive experience in the structuring of transactions to maximize the value of the transaction for his clients. During the negotiations of a transaction, Brian works closely with his clients to identify potential issues, explain the consequences of such issues, and try to find an acceptable resolution to such issues. Once a transaction closes, he continues to work with his clients to see that all post closing covenants are satisfied; and, if there are any other post closing issues, they are resolved in a satisfactory manner.
- Syncsort in purchase of QSL Northern Europe B.V., Rossum
- Sale of substantially all the assets of Aberdeen, LLC
- Syncsort in acquisition of Townsend Security's IBM i security division
- O'Connor's in its sale to Thomson Reuters
- Sale of Lortscher Animal Nutrition Inc. to C.J. Foods, Inc.
- Prairie Capital in the sale of DAMAC LLC
- Navajo Manufacturing Company, Inc. in the acquisition of Cashco Distributors, Inc.
- Represented a publicly traded company in fourteen (14) acquisitions/dispositions
- Represented a privately held company in its sale to a publicly traded company for more than $145 million
- Represented a privately held company with 200 plus shareholders in its sale to a publicly traded company for more than $45 million
- Represented a privately held company in the acquisition of the license to Prince
- Represented a privately held company in the sale of its company to another privately held company in excess of $110 million
- Represented a privately held company in the sale of its assets in excess of $100 million
- Represented a privately held company in anti-trust investigation by the Department of Justice
- Serves as outside general counsel for two privately held companies, both of which have over $100 million in annual gross revenue
News & Publications
Honors & Affiliations
Honors & Awards
IFLR1000 United States, Mergers & Acquisitions, 2019
Community & Professional
Nebraska Bar Association
Leadership Omaha Class 29
TeamMates Metro, Board of Directors
Omaha Children's Museum, Board of Directors
Sacred Heart Church, Finance Committee Member
Douglas County Fair Board, Past Chair
J.D., University of Notre Dame, 1997
- Reform Notes Editor, Journal of Legislation (1997)
B.A., University of Notre Dame, 1994
- History
- State of Nebraska


text: Richard H. Cyburt [email protected] Hydro NSE Static Iron Nucl. Group Heavy Element Nucleosynthesis s-process r-process p-process If universe ~14 Gyr old ◦ Where'd we get so much H & He??? pp-chain is too slow massive stars burn beyond He ◦ Stars must have been born with that H & He Big bang nucleosynthesis What building blocks are available? ◦ n, p, nuclides, e, g, n, etc… What are the reaction time scales? ◦ Related to rxn rates: t = 1/G What are the dynamical time scales? ◦ Hydro-static EQ; no time scale ◦ Free-fall time t = finite First published in Weltall and Menschheit (1907) edited by Hans Kraemer Cosmological Principle ◦ Universe is homogeneous looks the same anywhere we go ◦ Universe is isotropic looks the same any direction we look ◦ Laws of physics are the same everywhere(when) General Relativity ◦ theory of gravity Standard Model of Particle Physics ◦ Constituents of normal matter ◦ Interactions between them Dark Side of Cosmology ◦ Dark Matter ◦ Dark Energy Courtesy of George Lucas GR predicts universe is expanding ◦ Einstein tried to fix this with L ◦ Claims its his biggest mistake Hubble obs. recession of galaxies (1929) ◦ First evidence for universal expansion ◦ Subsequent obs. confirm this If the universe is expanding…. ◦ What was it like in the past? •Smaller •Hotter •Denser ◦ What happens to its constituents? Baryons- n, p, nuclides At kT>1 MeV ◦ Thermal equilibrium ◦ Chemical equilibrium ◦ Main constitients } NSE Photons Neutrinos Electrons/positrons Small number of baryons (n & p) n/p = exp(-Dm/T) Dynamical timescale ◦ Hubble expansion rate H ~ T2/MP Reaction timescales ◦ Weak interaction GW ~ T5/MW4 ◦ Rxn rates Grxn ~ rBlrxn When T~1 MeV ◦ GW~H weak rates become slow n's stop interacting ◦ Electrons/positrons become NR e+ + e2g energy goes into all but n's Tg > Tn n,p would like to fuse into d But Ng(E>Bd) >> NB ◦ So as soon as d is made, it is destroyed ◦ So we must wait….. Called the D bottleneck while we wait, n's decay T~70 keV, d not efficiently destroyed So……. p(n,g)d(p,g)3He(d,p)4He We convert H into 4He (all n's go into 4He) Sometimes we even 3He(a,g)7Be T~40 keV, Coulomb barrier halts nucl. Light Element Abundances Agreemen t He: known syst. 4 Olive & Skillman 2004 D: few obs. systems Burles, Kirkman, O'Meara He: extrap. error 3 Disagreemen t Bania et al, Vangioni-Flam et al 7Li: add. syst.? Spite & Spite, Ryan et al, Bonifacio et al WMAP CMB WBh2 Bennet et al, Spergel et al Obs./Exp./Thry. Systematics (Cyburt 2004; Descouvemont et al. 2004; Serpico et al. 2004) Nuclear Astrophys./Chemical Evolution (Vangioni-Flam et al. 2002; Bono et al.2002; Cassisi, Salaris & Irwin 2003) Physics beyond Standard Model (Malaney & Mathews 1993; Sarkar 1996; Cyburt, Fields & Olive 2004) Nuke fixes: Missing Reactions? Doesn't significantly alter the final abundance predictions!!!! Coc et al. ApJ 744 (2012) 158 Boyd et al PRD 82 (2010) 105005 7Be(d,pa)4He 3He(a,g)7Be 7Li S34 Can fix 7Li, but… lose Solar n flux SNO+S17+SSM=S34 (Ahmed et al, Cyburt et al, Bahcall) S27 100 old value Coc et al (2004) New expt performed Angulo et al (2005) No impact on BBN What about a missing resonance? Rule out renorm >99% (Cyburt & Pospelov arXiv: 0906.4373) Not strong enough!!! Kirseborn & Davids PRC 84 (2011) 058801 O'Malley et al PRC 84 (2011) 042801 Non-thermal processes (Voronchev, Nakao, Tsukida, & Nakamura PRD 85 (2012) 067301) d(d,n)3He, d(d,p)t, 3He(d,p)4He, t(d,n)4He n,p from rxns are highly non-thermal Slowed in plasma, but still partially non-thermal Can enhance some reactions However, thermalization is too strong at BBN T's Changes in abundances <1% See also non-Maxwellian distributions (Bertulani et al arXiv:1205.4000) and electron screening affects on BBN (PRC83 (2011) 018801 Obs syst errors larger or depletion? Some evidence of Li depletion ◦ 6,7Li(p,a) (Masseron et al arXiv: 1203.3295) (Lind et al. arXiv: 1001.5153) rxns deplete Li Pre-MS stars (Molaro et al. arXiv: 1206.1298, Yee and Jensen ApJ 711 (2010 303 & Bildsten et al ApJ 482 (1997) 442) MS stars (Korn et al. Nature 442 (2006) 657) Can we deplete uniformly without increasing the observed dispersion? Better astro models needed! Variation of fundamental constants? Dark radiation or neutrino degeneracy? Beyond the SM….. SUSY? (Cyburt, Ellis, Fields, Luo, Olive & Spanos; Kawasaki, Kohri & Moroi; Mathews, Kajino; Jedamzik) BBN is the first epoch of nucleosynthesis Involves all 4 fundamental forces of nature Standard BBN w/ CMB is parameter free Accurately predict light element abundances Concordance w/ 4He, 3He and D obs. 7Li remains a problem!! 6Li is not a problem!! Steffen et al. arXiv: 1206.2239


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Job ID: 457 - Finance Projects Officer Multinational Bank
July 31, 2005
Job Title: Finance Projects Officer Multinational Bank
Industry: Financial Services
Function: Finance/Accounting
Job Location: UAE
Position Level: Mid Management
Employment Type: Permanent
Salary Level: unspecified
Job Description: Finance Projects Officer - Multinational Bank Our Client, a leading Multinational Bank seeks a responsible candidate to co-ordinate and manages the financial/accounting related support to hire. Purchase and leasing system by participating in user acceptance tests, verifying accounting entries and advising other departments in correcting system errors. Other responsibilities include; reviewing the unearned hiring charges accounting procedures and take remedial action to correct errors by identifying the accounting flows in the system and taking corrective measures to fix it. To co-ordinate/perform accounts reconciliation tasks by identifying interface accounts IDs to be reconciled and drawing up an action plan to complete the exercise. The role provides challenges such as to co-ordinate and manages the banks finance related projects. The incumbent will have an Accounting Degree with 2 or 3 years experience in general banking, Excellent computer skills and knowledge in accounting systems. Good communications, interpersonal and analytical skills are required for the role. Package offered is between AED 7,000 and AED 8,000 plus benefits.
Click Here to Apply


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My aunt gave me a box of Lego that can be eaten! There are many things that I can build with it. For example, a house, a snake and a rainbow wand. The first thing I built is this dog.
This is a snake. It's quite long. I copied it from the box. It uses all the colours, just like the cow.
|House, duck and rainbow wand
|Pyramid and castle
~ mummywee - parenting 6 kids in Singapore without going mad or broke ~


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Over the past few years we have seen our car show grow tremendously. Our tireless efforts each year have allowed us to give out over $15,000 in academic scholarships to 8 students of Xavier High School.
The qualifications for a student to receive the honor of the Eric J. Kalber Memorial Scholarship are:


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Obstetric-2 (new Nov 2006)
Transrectal ultrasound- normal seminal vesicles (variants) and normal anatomy of vas deferens:
(added - 10th July 2007)
Engorged, echogenic seminal vesicles with a fine vesicular pattern
(a septate appearance)
The Rt. vas deferens seen joining the Rt. seminal vesicle
Showing normal anatomy of vas deferens seen in this oblique cornonal section on TRUS imaging.
The normal Lt. seminal vesicle and the (rather engorged) vas of the same side.
Transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP):
(added- 9th April 2007)
In this TRUS sonographic image, the defect due to a Trans-Urethral Resection of the Prostate, is evident. Here, the transition zone of the prostate has been resected. The transition zone is the seat of the benign hyperplasia of the prostate, and is a part of the "inner gland".
Reference: http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic3071.htm
Prostatic carcinoma and TRUS imaging:
TRUS (transrectal ultrasound) imaging of the prostate is very important to diagnose as well as grade prostate carcinoma. 70% of prostatic cancers occur in the peripheral zone of the prostate. This 70 yr. old male patient had a large hard nodule palpable on digital rectal examination. TRUS ultrasound images (transverse and para-sagittal) show a typical hypoechoic lesion of 16 mm. in the left peripheral zone. There is no obvious breach of the prostatic capsule or the surgical capsule. No obvious involvement of the seminal vesicles is seen. There is also evidence of benign prostatic hypertrophy with significant intravesical enlargement.
Diagnosis: prostate carcinoma with Benign hypertrophy.
http://radiology.rsnajnls.org/cgi/reprint/170/3/609 (free)
http://radiology.rsnajnls.org/cgi/reprint/220/3/757 (free)
PROSTATIC ABSCESS:(new)
This is a middle aged male patient who complained of dysuria
and pyrexia of unknown origin (PUO).
He was referred for an ultrasound of the prostate.
TRUS scan shows a hypoechoic collection of 2.5 cms within the right lobe
of the prostate. The walls of the lesion are shaggy s/o an abscess.
Marked tenderness was present in this region on probe pressure.
The seminal vesicles were engorged and measured almost
19mm. to 21 mm. in width.
Reference: 1) http://www.ajronline.org/cgi/reprint/148/5/899
This is a 32 year old young male, with complaints of dysuria.
The transabdominal image (A) shows a doubtful, hypoechoic lesion in the prostate.
The TRUS (TRANSRECTAL ULTRASOUND) image (B) shows a transverse section
through the prostate. Image (C) shows the same cyst in a sagittal section.
Observe the close relation of the midline cyst to the prostatic urethra.
The cyst measures typically 11 x 8 mm.
These findings suggest prostatic utricle cyst.
Other cysts of prostate: Mullerian duct cysts, ejaculatory duct cysts,
cystic degeneration of benign hyperplasia of prostate, cavitary
prostatitis, retention cysts and prostatic abscess.
LINKS and references:
1) http://radiographics.rsnajnls.org/cgi/content/abstract/10/4/635
2) http://radiology.rsnajnls.org/cgi/content/abstract/168/3/625


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South Australia's grape and wine industry has access to a reliable source of funds through the wine industry funds. This gives it the capacity to innovate, the ability to adopt best industry practice and the resources required to respond positively to the demands of the modern market place.
There are six regional wine industry funds and the South Australian Grape Growers Industry Fund.
Who contributes
Contribution and refund forms.
Depending on the rules of each fund, contributions are made by:
- wine grape growers
- winemakers who buy grapes from a grower
- winemakers who grow their own grapes.
Contributions to the South Australian Grape Growers Industry Fund are made by all South Australian wine grape growers but not winemakers.
Winemakers are responsible for sending contributions to PIRSA for all grapes they process. This includes all of their own grapes and any they process for others. The winemaker is also responsible for making contributions for any intermediaries involved in the sale of the grapes.
Wineries in other states
Winemakers operating out of South Australia must:
- collect and pay in grape grower contributions
- contribute themselves, to receive direct benefits or services funded by payments from a fund.
Current Management Plans
The management plan outlines the estimated contributions, investment and purposes of each fund along with guidance on applications to the funds by industry associations.
- Adelaide Hills Management Plan 2019-20 to 2023-24 ()
- Barossa Management Plan 2019-20 to 2023-24 ()
- Clare Valley Management Plan 2019-20 to 2023-24 ()
- Langhorne Creek Management Plan 2019-20 to 2023-24 ()
- McLaren Vale Management Plan 2019-20 to 2023-24 ()
- Riverland Management Plan 2019-20 to 2023-24 ()
- South Australian Grape Growers Management Plan 2019-20 to 2023-24 ()
Benefits from the funds
Payments are made from the funds to the following organisations to provide benefits and services to contributors:
- Adelaide Hills Wine Region
- Barossa Grape and Wine Association
- Clare Region Wine Grape Growers Association and Clare Valley Winemakers
- Langhorne Creek Grape and Wine
- McLaren Vale Grape, Wine and Tourism
- Riverland Wine
- Wine Grape Council of SA
Annual Reports
Annual reports for the wine industry funds.
Peter Willmott
Project Officer, Agriculture, Food and Wine
Phone (08) 8429 0447
Email email@example.com


text:
Free-scoring City scored another five goals to stay top of the Premier League.
Palace held out until the 44th minute before Leroy Sane broke the deadlock and a quickfire double by Raheem Sterling deflated the visitors' initially stubborn resistance.
Late goals by Sergio Aguero and Fabian Delph completed a 5-0 rout.
Joint Premier League leaders versus the bottom-of-the-table side – on paper it looked like a forgone conclusion, but pointless and goalless Crystal Palace arrived at the Etihad under new management and with a midweek Carabao Cup win under their belt.
City made eight changes from the side that beat West Brom 2-1 on Wednesday with seven of those rested against the Baggies returning to first team duty.
So prolific have the Blues been in terms of goals this season that it was something of a surprise that the visitors survived the first 20 minutes relatively unscathed – not that they could have fallen behind.
You can watch highlights via the video above!


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Merge all your track into one preview file.
Multiple file processing.
Preview your original files with your watermark.
Support Mp3/ AIFF/ WAV output formats.
Choose and customise the output file name and quality.
Save a preset for each settings.
Add your files with Drag and Drop Support.
Choose as many watermark files you like.
Now you have full control for your watermark mix volume.
With our unique and powerful algorithm you can process more than 500 files in 5 min.
Now you can drag and drop folders with subfolders.
Zoom in and Out the user interface for better look adjuestments.
Adi Goldstein
Composer and founder of AGsoundtrax
A professional musician, composer, arranger, piano and a keyboard player also a music producers, With a record of dozens of albums and hundreds of commercials and film scores around the globe .
Elad Zucker(Part of Herolo)
Developer & Designer
Elad Zucker is the developer behind AG Watermark Generator and has years of development experience. He's a perfectionist with a great attention to detail and the ability to tune out the world when working.
Hi there,
I wish to extend my personal gratitude to those of you who have sent supporting feedbacks regarding the tags generator.
A year has passed and today I'm happy to introduce the next productive tool.
With The 'AG watermark generator,' your work will be faster and efficient.
Through this new tool, you can create a preview file much easier and by doing so, this guarantees the safekeeping of your music files when being uploaded to the web. Be it SoundCloud or any other music sharing platforms used for sales.
I hope you will find this new application beneficial and fun to use.
Best wishes,
Adi G.
Dmitry Lifshitz
Matt Harris
Andy Slatter
Adrien Gardiner
Ventsi A.K
Daniel Muller
"AG Watermark Generator is great tool, I like the option for custom watermarks and batch converting the most. Must have for every music producer."
"The AG Watermark Generator has been a huge timesaver for me, and has completely streamlined the upload process. In an industry where the creation of product descriptions and tagging (usually across many compositions), can be a lengthy and time consuming process, creating custom watermarked compositions using the AG Watermark Generator has proved to be both convenient and incredibly user friendly. An absolute must for the library music composer's toolbox!"
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"AG Watermark is the tool which saved me so much time by ease the every day task of watermarking and converting audio files to a absolute minimum - thanks so much for this useful app !"


text:
About Us
Everybody Shops is the place where local experts share the quality products they use and love with our larger online family. Industry experts have tested and approved many of the gardening, outdoors and kitchen products sold here, and they have even provided interesting stories or how-to guides featuring some of these great products.
We want to continue being the place where consumers shop and learn about everything they need for happy, healthy and fun living, so we're always adding new categories and new experts.
Truth be told, the Everybody Shops team has all kinds of experts working to bring you this great service. Content experts, web developers, marketing professionals, social media wizards, financial analysts, researchers, procurement specialists, warehouse and inventory engineers, a customer service team and general counsel — we're all working together to bring you this website because, as online shoppers ourselves, we know we're on to something good.
Born out of the newspaper industry with a hunger to expand and grow into new ventures, Everybody Shops blossomed. Established in 2016 by 535media, LLC and headquartered in southwestern Pennsylvania, the Everybody Shops site reaches nationwide, but with the great feedback we've received, we know we're going global!
Ordering online can feel risky at times, but we have you covered. Everybody Shops customers can shop with confidence knowing we offer a reasonable return policy and a fully staffed customer service department ready to help with problems or questions. Enjoy this positive and fun online shopping experience without worry.
Have products you want to sell? Become a partner with Everybody Shops and benefit from the success of our unique e-commerce model. Contact us today at 1-888-551-8860 or firstname.lastname@example.com to get started. Get your products in front of affluent consumers who prefer to shop online, and reach out today.
You may also enjoy:
Sample Page
Privacy Policy


text:
29, rue Jules Gautier Send to Phone
+33 (0)2 47 30 15 29 | Make Restaurant Reservations
OpenClosed Sun. dinner, Mon., Tues. lunch, mid Feb.-end Mar. Open until 9:15pm
- Parking garage
- Air conditioning
- Dress code: Casual dressy
- Outdoor dining
- Reservations suggested
* Click here for rating key
L'Aubiniere Restaurant Review: The village is tucked away in a verdant valley, but food-loving locals quickly discovered L'Aubinière. Jacques Arrayet's precise, full-flavored cooking wins more fans every day. His dishes are tasty and masterful: ground scampi gâteau, curd cheese pastilla, and chocolate fondant. In fine weather, book a table on the bucolic terrace. Cordial service.


text:
This article applies to Classic Commerce. (Looking for Contextual Commerce documentation?)
Invoice as html Link
By default, customers receive a link, such as
https://sites.fastspring.com/testcompany/order/invoice/FS141030-7196-61139, in the order receipt for their invoice, which opens in a web browser. You can create this link in your email fulfillment or web fulfillment by using the variable
#{order.url.invoice} .
Invoice as PDF
To provide customers with their invoice as a PDF instead, simple add
https://sites.fastspring.com/testcompany/order/invoice/FS141030-7196-61139/pdf. You can create this link to the PDF in your email fulfillment or web fulfillment by using
Changing the Invoice Link in the Order Receipt
The order receipt can also be changed to include the link to the PDF. To make this request, please open a support ticket.


text:
Showing 1-1 of 1
By: Christopher Cowles and David Walker
Price: $195.00
Publisher: Australia, Apples from Oz: 2004
Seller ID: 000908
Condition: New
This highly collectable publication is for art directors, designers, printers, historians, sociologists and all those interested in our apple industry. THE ART OF APPLE BRANDING: AUSTRALIAN APPLE CASE LABELS AND THE INDUSTRY SINCE 1788 is the only book of its type to chart how Australian agricultural produce has been sold to the former British Empire and beyond. Colourful paper labels were used to create an identity and, when glued onto wooden boxes, they remained the dominant visual clue about the perishable contents marketed to the wholesalers in local markets and far-flung lands. Memories w... View more info


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Sunday Mass at the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Puerto Vallarta
The Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe is perhaps the most photographed building in Puerto Vallarta. It's located in the heart of the city center. We decided to go there for Sunday Mass during our stay.
Since the outside of the church is so often seen on postcards and promotional literature, I thought I'd include a photo of the altar. The church is just as beautiful from the inside. A traditional image of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe appears high above the altar.
Like other churches we saw in Mexico, the doors seemed to be open all day. There was no air conditioning. For us, there would be no respite from the muggy weather outdoors, although some large fans were running during the liturgy. Regardless of the weather, the open doors had the effect of making the church appear more welcoming. I liked it.
The church offers frequent Mass times. We opted for the 10 am Sunday bilingual Mass. Not because it was bilingual, but because it was a convenient time. Bilingual means you get to hear two homilies and probably not understand either of them. It's not what I'd call a feature.
Be aware that many resources, including Google Maps, refer to this church as a cathedral. It isn't. It's a parish church. I don't know how the confusion started. As far as I know, Puerto Vallarta is in the Diocese of Tepic. I would assume one could find a cathedral there.
If you go: The Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe is located just a few steps away from the City Hall in the center of Puerto Vallarta. Mass in English is offered Saturdays at 5 pm, and a bilingual Mass is available Sundays at 10 am. A schedule of other Mass times is posted outside the church.


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(1979, Educational/Short, color)
Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy
I guess it's just booze that ties things together.
Rating: **1/2
In a Nutshell:
Um... something about underage drinking, I think? Maybe?
Alcohol Trigger Films is a set of three short films with alcohol playing a role in each. Where does the "trigger" come in? Your guess is as good as mine.
Our first film is titled "The Party". In it, three underage drinkers come over to a friend's house to slurp down beer, listen to loud music and, uh, wear hats. The friend in question isn't too happy about the direction the party has taken, but he doesn't actually do anything about it.
Next up is "The Mother", in which a drunken lush embarrasses the living daylights out of her middle school daughter in front of her friends, while weaving through rain-soaked traffic.
Finally, we have "The Ride", so named because... I don't know. "The Party" had a party in it and "The Mother" depicted an inebriated female parent, but "The Ride" is about young teens who interrupt softball practice to pass around a bottle of liquor while they argue about vomit. I guess it has cars in it, but no one rides in them.
Alcohol Trigger Films depicts inappropriate drinking, usually underage. I think the "trigger" part of the title refers to situations that might trigger alcoholism, but that's just a guess on my part. I've also supplied the first sentence of this paragraph with the descriptor "inappropriate". This comes entirely out of my own background and experience as an adult; since no consequences beyond potential embarrassment have been supplied, I'm at a loss as to what the filmmakers think. "Bad", I guess, but once again, that's just an assumption based on the fact that it was made to be shown in schools. Would a kid, used to drinking in his social life, with no other guidance, come to this conclusion on his own? Just what do the seventies have against education, anyway? I know I get down on the fifties social guidance shorts sometimes, but at least they aren't shy when the time comes to tell you what they're about. Even the syphilis shorts eventually own up to the subject of venereal disease. I'm all for discussing the problem amongst ourselves, but that gets difficult when you refuse to tell us what you think the problem is.
The short's aimless, freestyle vibe mostly leaves the riffers to their own devices. Teens emerge from the local deli with a large paper sack, then disappear around a corner when the cops drive past, promping Bill's secretive rasp, "You got the pastrami?" When the first film ends, we watch a blank screen for nearly half a minute while Kevin says, "Presumably they all died and entered a black eternal void. Us too." While the drunken and slightly masculine mom grates out unsolicited hairdressing advice, Mike says, "So her mom is an enthusiastic gay man?" It's a strange, wandering short that doesn't give the riffing much of a place to stand, but the riffers plant their feet anyway and do their best. It's funny enough, so long as you're not frustrating yourself trying to extract a purpose from it.
RVOD066 Alcohol Trigger Films
(1979, Educational/Short, color)


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Summer is just around the corner and I am dreaming of a holiday. Normally we go to Spain on our holidays as we have family there. However, I want to see more of the world! Los Cabos, Mexico is on my bucket list. Everything about the Mexican culture and landscape appeals to me. As much as I would miss my baby, I think this would have to be a kid free holiday.
Los Cabos
Los Cabos is on the very tip of Mexico, affectionately named "lands end" and it is breathtaking. Full of beautiful scenery and fascinating culture. Its perfect for adventure or just relaxing. I've always been a fan of self catering holidays – there's something a bit more laid back about being able to cook when you want, with ingredients you've sourced on adventures to the local shops and markets. Who wouldn't want to rent one of these vacation rentals in Los Cabos? Believe me, I've done some hunting around and these seem absolutely perfect for such a dream holiday. If I win the lotto, I'm heading to Mexico the next day.
Although most people who travel to Mexico stay in all-inclusive resorts, I absolutely adore the luxury feel of these holiday rentals. For me, there's nothing quite like the feeling of being in a home away from home, where you have the freedom to come and go and explore the surroundings at your own pace.
Just imagine, no night feeds, nappies or nasty tantrums. White sand, blue skies, plenty of places to see. Mexican food. I love Mexican food. I would love to try some traditional grub! Los Cabos has an abundance of romantic resorts. Valentines day is just around the corner so I'm sure a few of you lot will end up planning weddings and honeymoons soon! Keep Los Cabos in mind.
Strolling along the beach hand in hand rather than dragging a buggy through the sand. Sipping on cocktails rather than cold coffee. Sunset cruises in lieu of sunrise starts. Meals by the sea, imagine eating your dinner while its still hot! Bliss.
There's so much to do in the region. It's the perfect combination of dessert and beach. You can go surfing in Todos Santos. Dance the night away on one of the strips. Go fishing, try some fish tacos! Watch whales, go shopping, have a drink!
For the romantics, take a trip to 'El Arco', which is an amazing natural rock structure over the ocean at the very land's end. I think I'd absolutely love to see this for myself, as it sounds just beautiful. You can go on a boat trip and visit 'Lovers Beach'. Adam and I barely had time to be a couple before we became parents, so it would be so nice to spend time together there. Calm crystalline waters is just what we need. Not to mention a bit of sunshine! Hilariously, there's also 'Divorce Beach', which appears equally beautiful, albeit with suitably choppier waters.
Los Cabos is a destination favoured by celebrities and tourists alike, and as one of the world's most popular destinations, with a gorgeous climate where the sea and desert meet, it's really not hard to see why. This is a holiday that I know would leave us with incredible memories, so I'm planning ahead for it already!
One of the other things I'd really be excited to get my teeth into in Los Cabos has to be the cuisine. Mexico is well known for it's tantalising tastes, and we're both big fans of salsa, spice and all things sizzling. Due to the location of this amazing venue, seafood and fish make up the backbone of Los Cabos' culinary delights. I can't think of anything better than enjoying a gorgeous plate of freshly sourced clams in a beachside restaurant – heaven! You can experience a wide range of traditional Mexican cuisine at the many restaurants and cafes in Los Cabos, and with such a variety of options, there'll be something to suit everyone's tastes.
Beautiful crafts and artisan wares are something that Mexico specialises in, so a trip to San Jose del Cabo would definitely be on the cards. The central Plaza Mijares is a gorgeous looking town square where I'd almost certainly come away with a load of new handcrafted, one of a kind jewellery and accessories. There'd probably be some cool bits to pick up for Oscar too – I'd never be able to come home without bringing him a few souvenirs!
There's no way either of us could spend the entirety of our dream break in Mexico just sunning ourselves every day, so luckily Los Cabos has an absolute load of outdoor activities that we could get stuck into! I've been looking into the Desertica Cabo Multi Adventure Park, where you can get onto zip wires and enjoy the views as you fly across the cactus-filled park. You can also test out your watersports skills with a kayak adventure, which is something I reckon Adam and I would love to have a go of after a hot day's hiking through the desert terrain.
Speaking of cooling off, I'd totally have to give snorkelling a try! You can go on a boat trip just off the coast and explore the gorgeous coral reefs near to the shore, where I'm sure we'd be able to see tropical fish and maybe further out, we might even see some whales. One of Los Cabos' most popular attractions is whale-watching, and I'd love to see them, it'd surely be a once in a lifetime experience.
Los Cabos is on my bucket list for so many reasons, I could talk about it all day! I'd encourage you to check it out and also have a look into some of the holiday rental options if you're thinking of planning your own trip to this amazing resort.
This is a collaborative post