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Green & Sustainable Parking Lot Services For Cleveland Businesses
Sustainable technologies are becoming a larger part of the conversation in urban development, as with a growing population comes new environmental strains that must be addressed. The parking lots, roadways, and pavements that have shaped our cities and towns for nearly a century play a substantial role in contributing to adverse environmental affects, including excessive surface runoff, carbon use inefficiencies, and wasteful use of diminishing natural resources. Governments are regularly incentivizing public projects to be finished using some combination of sustainable pavement technology, and businesses are beginning to develop the sense of social responsibility necessary to build a greener future.
Sustainable Paving Costs
While green parking lot installation projects can be slightly to significantly more expensive per square foot than traditional asphalt or concrete, there are savings that may completely offset the high per-square-foot-price.
- Run-off reducing pavements, such as permeable pavers, porous asphalt or pervious concrete by their nature diminish or eliminate the need for a catch basin installation line-item, as well as the regular maintenance that comes along with it.
- Run-off reducing pavements also greatly reduce the need for snow plowing and salting in winter months, as the increased accessibility for water drainage increases the rate of melting at the right temperatures. Melting is also accelerated by the stone bed lying beneath the surface, which tends to capture and retain more heat than regular asphalt or concrete.
- Sealcoating is not necessary with porous asphalt.
It is still important to note that there are unique maintenance costs that can still come out to less than $200 per acre for permeable/porous pavements.
- Permeable pavements should be vacuumed at least twice annually to remove debris clogging pavement pores.
- Jet hosing may be necessary for loosely clogged pavement pores.
Other green parking lot alternatives, such as warm-mix asphalt, slag concrete, RAP asphalt, photocatalytic concrete, and additives such as fly ash and solar reflective coatings will invariably be more expensive than standard asphalt and concrete. Consult Ohio Paving & Construction, or your local paving company for more details about pricing per square foot.
Paving Alternatives For Runoff Reduction
There are a number of permeable pavements property owners seeking sustainable alternatives to traditional pavements can choose from. Listed below are some general advantages and disadvantages of using permeable pavements:
- You will more likely meet LEED credit requirements set forth by the EPA.
- Reduced need for storm water management systems like catch basins on site, saving money.
- Increasingly strict environmental regulations make limiting storm water runoff through permeable paving alternatives more attractive to property managers.
- Permeable pavements allow subsurface groundwater to recharge, allowing local ecosystems to thrive.
- Quick absorption of rain water reduces the risk of flooding in urban areas.
- While installation costs are generally 2-3 times higher than more common pavements, permeable pavements usually require less expensive maintenance over time, making such a project an effective investment in the long run.
- Some runoff will not be environmentally friendly, as diesel, motor oil, and other toxic runoff is better left to be treated though the city's storm water management system where it can be properly filtered.
- Turf grids and permeable pavers can be easily damaged by snow plows paving areas where the shovel may get caught in the design.
- Regular vacuuming and washing is necessary for longevity of the pavement.
Permeable Pavements
Permeable pavements are the category of new green pavements capable of filtering moisture through the pavement itself, reducing or eliminating the need for drainage systems. The system works as storm water infiltrates the gaps of the crushed stone or concrete pores until it is can percolate into the soil below. Preliminary testing must be done to ensure heavy storms can safely enter through the system without overflowing and threatening the integrity of the system as a whole.
Permeable pavers offer a number of superior features over traditional pavers, concrete or asphalt. The costs of installation are similar or higher than standard concrete or asphalt, but because of high durability of permeable pavements and reduced need for drainage, money is saved overall from reduced maintenance and drainage installation. Permeable pavements can be used with confidence for anything from a patio to a high-traffic parking lot. Freeze-thaw cycles pose no problem for permeable pavers, as the porous nature of the material handles the increased spatial demands of frozen water perfectly.
Turf Grid
Turf grids are usually made from plastic and utilize an interlocking grid pattern to withstand the weight of traffic, with room for form-fitted grass planters to further reinforce the structure and assist in absorbing rainwater into the underlying subsurface earth layers. Turf grids are extremely popular in Europe, and are gaining popularity in North America as LEED standards increasingly demand environmentally sustainable solutions to urban development.
The interlocking nature of the pavement is an additional, tremendous cost-saving feature, as the costs of repairs are strictly limited to the cost of replacing the damaged pavers, which can be easily swapped out- almost like a puzzle.
Pervious Concrete
Pervious concrete is made from a paste, much like PCC concrete, made of coarse aggregate, water, cement, and additives like slag or fly ash. What's different here is that pervious concrete uses significantly less water and no fine aggregate within the mixture, and is laid over a bed of larger aggregates, allowing moisture to fall through the gaps and percolate into the soil below. This bed of larger aggregates also reinforces the strength of the structure, allowing the pavement to withstand the weight of parked vehicles.
Pervious concrete maintains between 15% and 25% voids for moisture flow rates of around 480 inches per hour. Pervious concrete can be used in any circumstance fit for regular concrete, including sidewalks, parking lots, driveways, and streets.
Porous Asphalt
Porous asphalt consists of five layers that are effective at filtering water for many undesirable pollutants and uses a geotextile fabric to separate aggregates from the underlying soil. A stone recharge bed is used to slowly filter water from the surface into the geotextile fabric and below to the subgrade. Generally, porous asphalt pavements will last 20 years before showing signs of wear.
Porous asphalt pavements are suitable for everything from gas station parking lots to busy highways. While they are slightly more coarse than normal asphalt pavements, they are still the necessary smoothness to meet ADA requirements.
Paving Alternatives Using Recycled By-Products
Using manufacturing waste products as recycled materials for paving has slowly become something of a standard practice for asphalt and concrete plants, as these alternatives offer both longevity and savings for customers.
Fly Ash Cement
Fly ash is a waste product of burning coal in electric generation power plants that is used to replace some portion of Portland Cement in standard PCC solutions. There are a number of benefits to using fly ash in concrete pavements, including greater strength, resistance to chemicals, decreased permeability, increased workability, reduced thermal cracking, and a reduced segregation of materials within the concrete solution. Each pound of fly ash used instead of cement translates into a one-pound-reduction of carbon dioxide emissions.
Slag Cement
Slag cement is similar to fly ash cement, as it uses a byproduct of heating to provide similar perks over standard PCC pavements. The "slag" referred to here is a hydraulic cement by-product from using an iron blast furnace. Slag is drained from the molten iron, and then is ground into sufficient fineness to act as a suitable replacement for a portion of Portland Cement in a PCC cement mix. Slag cement has a reduced need for water, higher strength at 28 days, higher resistance to sulfate attack (often present in water), higher permeability- reducing the chances of chlorine ions from deteriorating steel reinforcements- and more.
The lifespan of slag cement varies based on a number of ancillary factors, but in one example, the use of slag cement increased the expected lifespan of the Route 64 bridge in Smithburg, MD by 37 years.
Recycled Asphalt Pavement (RAP)
As fine aggregate becomes increasingly scarce in the United States, the most sustainable answer for the asphalt industry is recycling asphalt millings. Studies have shown that asphalt pavements comprised of 30% recycled aggregate or less will maintain the same structural integrity as pavements made with thoroughly virgin materials. The Federal Highway Administration has a set of guidelines that all recycled asphalt must meet to be used in any public projects.
Paving Alternatives For Carbon Reduction
Using a runoff-reducing pavement may not be possible in areas where it is not offered, or might not be budget-friendly in certain circumstances. In any case, there are even more options for the environmentally-conscious property manager to consider when looking for an asphalt or concrete paving contractor.
Warm-Mix Asphalt
Warm-mix asphalt utilizes one of several patented additives in an asphalt cement solution, and is an increasingly available technology in asphalt plants nationwide. Warm-mix asphalt activates 30-100 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than traditional hot-mix asphalt and uses 20% less fuel to produce, thus saving energy and reducing the asphalt plant's carbon footprint.
Working condition standards are substantially raised when working with warm-mix asphalt. Workers usually wind up inhaling smoke and dust on job sites working with hot-mix asphalt, leading to an increased risk for respiratory problems later in life.
In areas where there are air-quality control regulations, paving occasionally ceases when use of hot-mix asphalt will diminish air quality over the legislated threshold. Warm-mix asphalt releases far fewer pollutants when applied, making projects in urban areas with quality controls more able to stick to projected timelines.
Photocatalytic Concrete
Photocatalytic concrete is also called depolluting concrete. Photocatalysts are chemicals that accelerate the breakdown of organic materials using strong sunlight or ultraviolet light. The main additive to photocatalytic concrete is titanium dioxide – a compound that disperses the charge necessary to break down organic materials, and adds a white pigment to the concrete surface.
Other environmental benefits include increased reflection of sunlight, reducing the creation of "heat islands" normally caused by dark-colored pavements that civilians battle using energy-intensive air conditioning systems. Smog is urban areas is also reduced.
Solar Reflective Coating
"Solar reflective coating" is an umbrella term for a number of products that can be added to a pavement solution to give it more light-reflecting properties. Reflecting light away from asphalt or concrete reduces the "heat island effect" common in urban areas where dark-colored construction materials absorb sunlight and raise the temperature of the area, increasing energy use. Interestingly, increased light reflection from pavements can also greatly reduce the need for urban lighting in many areas, saving even more energy.
Decreased heat will reduce the occurrence of pavement failures such as rutting associated with traditional asphalt pavements.
Pavements using solar reflective coatings are eligible for LEED credits, and are often made of non-toxic materials to put your environmental concerns at ease.
Request A Site Visit or Estimate
If you would like to have an estimator visit your location to take a look at your parking lot or facility to provide you with a quote, please contact us.
To contact our office about an estimate, call 440-975-8929, email email@example.com, or complete the form below.


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We're changing how society thinks about mental health. This is how we worked with YC to take on the challenge.
Modern Health began with a realization: if I were going through a mental health issue, I would feel a taboo around getting support.
When I talked to my good friend and now co-founder Erica Johnson, we realized that a company could have a huge impact by removing that stigma. As soon as that light bulb went off, we realized this was our calling, so we took the leap to start Modern Health.
Modern Health gives employees someone to talk to no matter what, in whatever form they need:
- Meeting in person
- Talking over the phone
- Texting
- Meeting digitally
We knew we'd need support to get it off the ground, so we enrolled in YC. This has been an amazing experience for us with many lessons learned.
5 Pieces of Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
By going through Y Combinator and our version of the typical startup growth process, we've learned a lot — and strengthened some of our prior convictions. The following five takeaways represent my biggest pieces of advice to entrepreneurs.
1. Make Something People Want
Our biggest takeaway from Y Combinator? Make something people want.
It's a piece of Paul Graham wisdom that's repeated by the partners over and over again. It might sound obvious, but it's incredibly impactful. You can come up with a great product or solution that improves someone's life, but if they don't want it, it doesn't matter.
Modern Health once dabbled with the idea of building a big grandiose digital-only solution. But digital-only is not what people want in mental health, so we ultimately shifted back to the original product idea: a simple solution based on the fundamentals of human psychology.
When you boil it down, Modern Health is really a simple idea: our culture has an epidemic of loneliness.
There's huge value in being able to talk to someone. Human contact is a human need that people will always want. People will never be completely happy when exclusively connected to technology instead of other humans.
While it may be easier to access more people with an exclusively digital interface, we'd rather have a small number of users love our product than a large population feel lukewarm about it. There is no cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all solution to emotional well-being.
It's so simple to say "make something people want," but the real implications never resonated with me until we were actually in the thick of it.
2. No One Tells You When You're Wrong
In a normal job, someone can tell you when you make a mistake, but you have to learn most parts of a startup by doing and iterating.
You have a lot of great resources and mentors along the way, of course, especially if you go through YC, but the facts vary so much for every startup that no one knows every right answer.
Most of the time, you just do your best until you come to a roadblock and realize you need a different approach. That's one reason startups have to move fast—you need to reach roadblocks sooner, not later, so you have time to try a different approach until you ultimately get it right.
3. Seek a supportive environment like YC
Since everyone's sharing the common goal of presenting well at demo day, I expected YC to be competitive, but it's actually an incredibly supportive environment. With everyone in YC working hard, getting beaten down day in and day out, you start supporting each other.
I'll never forget my first practice pitch for demo day. Although everyone in the room had prepared well, we were nervous.
Once everyone started clapping for each other and helping improve our pitches, we felt a lot more comfortable. YC gave us a supportive environment and network that I'm glad I found–it truly feels like we're all on the same team.
4. If You Do Apply, Be Your Honest Self
When we pitched YC, we just presented ourselves honestly. Erica and I both want to improve the way people get support for their mental health. Nothing is going to stop us, so during the interview, we just said:
- Here's what drives us.
- If you want to jump aboard this rocket ship with us, awesome.
- Either way, we're going after it no matter what.
The interview itself just felt like an opportunity to share our vision and our mission. I think it was 10 minutes long, but it felt like 30 seconds. They peppered us with questions and fired shots, so we just shot back.
The only surprising part was how straight-faced they were. We had read up on the interview beforehand, but it was still spooky. They've seen so many pitches and had so many interviews, even just that day, so they put on a poker face and you just jump in with no time for pleasantries.
As a former athlete, preparing for the interview and experiencing it felt like practicing for the big game and then executing what we practiced.
We put in the necessary effort and were committed to each other and the mission, so we knew we would persevere even if we didn't get into YC. I think that mindset is the best thing for the company and is also what ultimately got us into YC.
5. Listen to Advice but Make it Your Own
Erica and I have received incredible support from men and women of all different backgrounds. We'll take their feedback, synthesize it, and transform it into our own version. For us, one of the most important strategies is just having the conviction, confidence, and grit to make it our own.
As a female founder in the startup space, where a majority of companies are male-founded, it's easy to get caught up listening to advice and recommendations. But, at the end of the day you know your company better than anyone else, so it's important to take your own spin on it and implement your own, unique, specific solution.
Two good friends of mine—both female founders who went through YC—were originally the ones who inspired me to take the leap of faith. Had they not encouraged me, I never would have applied. So now I pay it forward by inspiring the next cohort.
Especially for female founders, who often underplay their success or think their work isn't worth praising, my biggest advice is to be bold every day.
Each day, we come into the office on a mission to change the world. We're committed to ourselves, we're thinking big, and we won't let anything stop us.
Next for Modern Health
Going forward, we want to help as many people as we can.
We're growing the Modern Health team and looking for more employers interested in taking better care of their employees.
We're helping along the way, but it's really the employers that are moving the needle, changing how society thinks about mental well-being.
If you're an innovative employer who knows the importance of employee mental health, reach out. We'll be here for you, no matter what.

subset: commoncrawl


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Smoking at 14 of Pennsylvania's state-owned universities has been banned anywhere on campus, including outdoors. The action has sparked protests by some of the 110,000 students in the State System of Higher Education. The students received word of the ban by e-mail with virtually no advance notice, just one day before a new state law forbidding smoking in most workplaces and public spaces took effect.
After discussions with university presidents and system board members, Chancellor John Cavanaugh interpreted the law to extend beyond buildings at educational facilities to include all campus grounds such as courtyards, parking lots and athletic fields.
More than 130 colleges and universities across the country already have such policies.
In the U.S., nearly 24 percent of men, and 18 percent of women, are smokers, according to the latest Trends in Tobacco Use report by the American Heart Association.
Smoking is most common among young adults aged 18 to 24 years.
An estimated 70 percent of smokers say they would like to quit, which would be a wise choice considering the many health risks involved. Many people assume that the only serious negative effects of smoking are on your lungs. But studies have shown that smoking can have negative effects on your endocrine system as well, causing a 3- to 5-fold increase in the risk of all types of thyroid diseases and disorders.
Statistics estimate that adult smokers shorten their lives by an average of 14 years.
Conventional medicine continues to call smoking the "leading cause of preventable death in the United States," and the Centers for Disease Control estimate that smoking causes one out of every five U.S. deaths every year.
I used to believe this too.
When I first finished my residency program and started my medical practice I was dedicated in my aim to help people stop smoking. But over the years I have realized that although smoking is obviously not healthy, it is not the cause of most preventable illness.
High sugar consumption and unresolved emotional traumas get that honor.
Let me make myself clear, I do NOT advocate smoking and I do suggest quitting to be optimally healthy. But if you are currently facing numerous health challenges, quitting smoking should not be at the top of your list.
What's Even More Important Than Quitting Smoking?
Optimizing your health BEFORE you focus your attention on snuffing out cigarettes for good is a far more important goal.
I'm fond of saying that one French fry is worse for you than one cigarette, so swapping your pack a day for an extra value meal a day is NOT a good swap.
And this is not just my opinion; it's based on scientific fact.
A study conducted back in 2001 actually found that obesity was associated with higher rates of chronic medical problems and a poorer quality of life than smoking. So it's absolutely essential that you are devoted to eating healthy before you give up smoking. Otherwise you may simply trade smoking for overeating, or eating too much sugar and fast food, which will lead to obesity and all of its related problems.
Being optimally healthy involves more than just being smoke-free. My entire program to get healthy is described in detail in Take Control of Your Health, but here are some of the basics to get you started:
Once you are regularly doing these three things, THEN start thinking about kicking your smoking habit.
What's the Best (and Worst) Way to Quit Smoking?
The best way to quit smoking is to go "cold turkey." Studies have shown that simply cutting back on how much you smoke does nothing to lower your cancer risk. So once you decide to quit, complete abstinence is required.
I would advise you to avoid prescription medications to quit smoking, however. Despite what the pharmaceutical advertisers say, smoking is not a "treatable disease" or "medical condition"!
Not only are anti-smoking drugs expensive, but their side effects, which include depression, seizures, and suicide, can be truly devastating.
Instead, I highly suggest you use EFT frequently during this process, as it's very effective at helping people to overcome addictions.
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Regularly mentioned to as the 'Residence Gods', Rishikesh is among the most ancient journey focuses on India. The historical backdrop of this town is rich with various legends and legendary stories. The name of the town itself is after one of the names of Hindu God, Lord Vishnu. So come on let's know The Spirituality of Rishikesh.
The Spiritual Beginning…
As indicated by legends, the colossal Hindu holy person Raibhya Rishi performed delayed retribution on the banks of Holy River Ganges at this place. As a reward to holy person's solid compensation, Lord Vishnu appeared to him in his manifestation of Lord Hrishikesh. In this manner, the place got its name.
Since old circumstances, Rishikesh has been an imperative journey spot for the holy people and Hindu fans. In any case, it is amid the underlying medieval period in India that the place began to acquire notoriety. Amid eighth century Adi Shankaracharya, one of most eminent and loved sages from India, fabricated a few sanctuaries and ashrams in the locale.
Tragically, the vast majority of the sanctuaries and ashrams were decimated on account of a few seismic tremors. And surges that have influenced the locale throughout the hundreds of years notwithstanding, a few sanctuaries still stand tall and are similar to the rich social legacy of the place.
History of Rishikesh
One can't just discuss the historical backdrop of Rishikesh, without specifying the Lakshman Jhula. Truth be told, an exceptionally intriguing legend is related with Lakshman Jhula. As indicated by the legend, Lakshman – sibling of Hindu God Lord Rama – crossed the waterway Ganges on a platform he worked with jute ropes. At a similar site, today stands the present Lakshman Jhula.
Previously, before 1924 Lakshman Jhula was made out of Jute ropes. In the year 1924, a huge overflow of river occurred & hence the bridge was demolished within it. Later in the 1930s the extension was modified with iron & steel and was re-opened in 1939.
Rishikesh History According to another legend, another sibling of Lord Rama, Lord Bharat performed compensation where the Bharat Temple stands today in Rishikesh. The temple is famous among the visitor as it compromises of the statue of Lord Vishnu within the sanctuary. Furthermore, the idol was carved out of the black stone(Saligram) & has the Himalayan cast of features.
Religious History
Rishikesh has a rich religious history that makes it an essential place among Indians, yet the occasion that truly put Rishikesh on world's guide was the visit by renowned English musical gang, The Beatles in 1968.
The band touched base in India in the hunt of answers to life's bigger inquiries. Among their stay of a little while, at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram, they learned supernatural reflection. Thereafter, to comprehend the more profound significance of human presence. It is in Rishikesh, that they composed the greater part of the melodies of their most well-known collection, The White Album.
Since their visit, a large number of individuals from over the globe have swarmed the place. Therefore, Either to look for answers to their own particular inquiries. To witness the remaining parts of that memorable occasion.
Henceforth, a huge number of individuals from each side of the world come to encounter the sacredness and excellence of Rishikesh.
Quick Glance, What Rishikesh is all about?
Before coming to the closure, let me run you through interesting facts of Rishikesh.
- Birthplace of Yog, as we all know as Yoga today.
- In 1960s it was the famous stopping point for all the Europeans along the infamous "Hippie Trail".
- The Beatles wrote 48 songs here and spent their time in the 1960s.
- The only place where you can get clean, cold Ganges.
- Crytal therapy, reflexology, light-healing therapy, massages.. and many more. A place to relax and re-discover yourself.
- Sadus(Holy Men) will invite you to chill with them for a Day.
- Only Veg oriented food you will get, Hinduism has deeply dwelled within their culture. Be respectful of the food you get.
- End your day with Ganga Arti, listen to holy men, sing, and light up the diya and float it on the Ganges River.
Follow our blog, to stay updated. Furthermore, check out our other article on Offbeat things to do in Rishikesh.


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Product Specification
- Name: Dora Jumper
- Size: 13.00'L x 13.00'W x 15.00'H
- Weight: 185 Lbs.
Go on an adventure with Dora and her best friend Boots in the Dora the Explorer Jump bounce house! Have a blast with your favorite child Nickelodeon characters in 160 square feet of bouncing room! Perfect for a birthday party, fundraiser, church event, school event, fair, or corporate event.
The Dora the Explorer Jump bounce house is available for rent in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Summerlin.


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VA Caregiver Support
Caregiving Tips by Diagnosis
VA has created plain-language fact sheets and other resources to help you manage the medical condition for the Veteran you love. This information will help you learn about the physical and mental changes you can expect, what these changes mean for a caregiver, and provides specific caregiving tips for each condition.
For information on a condition not listed below, visit VA's Veterans Health Library. http://www.veteranshealthlibrary.org/
- Alzheimer's Disease
- Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
- Dementia
- Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
- Parkinson's Disease
- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Stroke
- Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Need Help?
Your local Caregiver Support Coordinator is a licensed professional who can support you by matching you with services for which you are eligible, and providing you with valuable information about resources that can help you stay smart, strong and organized as you care for the Veteran you love.
Call VA's Caregiver Support Line at 1-855-260-3274 to learn more about the support that is available to you and for assistance connecting with the Caregiver Support Coordinator at your local VA Medical Center.*By clicking on these links, you will leave the Department of Veterans Affairs Web site.


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The Morgan City Lady Tigers softball team celebrates following the final out in Friday's Class 4A Regional Round playoff game against district foe Assumption. Morgan City won the contest, 6-1, to advance to the state softball tournament for the first time since 2004. Morgan City, the No. 3 seed, will continue postseason play Friday against No. 11 seed West Ouachita in a noon contest at Frasch Park in Sulphur. (The Daily Review/Geoff Stoute)
MCHS defeats Assumption to end state tourney drought
The Morgan City High School Lady Tigers punched their ticket to the state softball tournament for the first time in 13 years Friday after knocking off District 7-4A foe Assumption, 6-1, in Class 4A


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Next Steps Mini Course
Work With Me
Mar 27, 2016
If you have an online business or you're thinking about starting one, you've probably heard about webinars.
Webinars (seminars conducted via the "web")
have been around for a long time and are often used for lead generation, education and sales.
I googled "webinar software" and listed five of the options that came up below. The first three options listed are more traditional ones and are what many people use for webinars these days.
Webinar Jam
Got To Meeting
Easy Webinar
Meeting Burner
Each webinar option listed above is different and there are many, MANY others out there!
Some are "wrap-around" products that use Google Hangouts for the actual webinar,
others are stand alone products. I use Zoom for all of my webinars, but I don't use the "webinar" option they offer because it's a lot more expensive. Instead, I limit my webinars to 50 people and operate from the regular "video conferencing" program. (I also use Zoom for 1:1 coaching, group coaching the masterminds I run throughout each year. I can do
of this for the same price!)
All of the webinar software and programs I've seen offer a variety of features and pricing levels.
Some webinar products offer a free one-month trial, others offer a free option for a small number of attendees or for meetings less than an hour. It can get very confusing, (it did for me--see my
"Helpful Idea"
in the next paragraph), but it's super important to research the webinar options you're considering very closely with your specific requirements in mind. For example, I've never used traditional webinar software and lead pages for my webinars, because for the three or four webinars I conduct each year, that choice would cost me about $100 for each webinar I do.
Helpful Idea: Not sure which webinar software is right for you?
This is what I did and it really helped! Create a two-column chart with one column for everything I
in a webinar and the second column for other features I
. You may need traditional webinar software or you may be able to get by with web/video conferencing for now. This chart will help you see what you
really need!
Note: When you search for "webinar software," options pop up that are technically not webinar software...
Web/Video Conferencing:
(This is what I use with Zoom.) Web or Video conferencing ususally contains additional features such as: meeting recording, slideshare, screenshare, live or streaming video, whiteboard with annotation, web tours, text chat, polls and surveys. What web conferencing
doesn't include
is providing the templates for all of the landing pages, or any reminders and updates for the webinar attendees. Having these for your webinars is definitely a time saver and can really lessen the load if you produce a lot of webinars each year with many attendees.
Regardless of your choice of program, please know that there are many ways you can easily produce professional webinars that educate your customers, provide you with quality lead generation and sell your goods and services online. The hardest part is choosing which program!
If you'd like some help creating a webinar or choosing a quality platform for your specific needs, feel free to sign up for a 20-minute business strategy session with me


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Starry Night | A crystal wedding crown with stars
The Starry Night wedding crown with stars hints at the magic above us. This celestial beauty was inspired by an enchanted night sky, featuring a soft golden palette and silver crystal elements that make a beautiful statement of refinement and femininity.
This hair piece isn't for wallflowers or the traditional bride. It was designed for dreamers and modern romantics, and brides seeking something a little different yet classic in styling.
Designing the star struck details
We looked to the sky above us in designing this sparkly golden crown. In particular, the soft light of the moon as it reflects on the leaves below and the subtle sparkle of the infinite stars as we stare up into the darkness.
True to our signature aesthetic, we framed the twinkling stars with soft gold toned leaves – bringing together the earth and the sky in the most effortless way.
The low profile of this headpiece perfectly frames a range of face shapes and wedding dress necklines. As with our full collection, this piece is customisable so if you would prefer a taller profile, the details can be reworked to create a bolder statement. In contrast, the details can also be reduced into more of a headband style piece for brides seeking something a little more low key.
Customisable to suit you
If you love this piece or would like it customised to better suit your bridal hairstyle and wedding dress, get in touch. Feel free to send across photos and links to your dress and bridal look. We would love to work with you to create a dreamy celestial inspired piece for your wedding day.


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CORROSION 2018 is the world's largest corrosion conference and exposition. Each year, CORROSION welcomes more than 6,000 corrosion engineers, scientists, researchers, technicians, asset owners, inspectors, and other professionals from over 60 countries across the world. This comprehensive conference is packed with technical education and knowledge exchange, along with opportunities to connect with industry experts and peers focused on the prevention and mitigation of corrosion worldwide.
Nalco Champion Customer Service
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April 17, 2018 | 11:35 a.m. | Room 222 B-C
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April 17, 2018 | 3:25 p.m. | Room 222 B-C


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When I started scrapbooking, I just stuck pictures on a page without caring about design. As I learned more about page layouts, I discovered a quick trick that changed everything about my pages and it will improve your pages too. It's called ANCHORING!!!
Many pages all over the internet in scrapbook galleries and in Facebook Scrapbook communities have the same flaw. Don't worry, I did this myself. The flaw is floating images and graphics. They're just out there in a visual space with nothing connecting the visual elements to the page they appear on.
Check out this layout the template phase of power scrapbooking.
I couldn't figure out why I didn't like it. As such, I couldn't finish the layout by adding color paper and such.
The quick fix is to anchor your items to the page and to each other.
The template I chose was okay and I could make it work with the principle I'll share, but first I want you to see it before I describe it.
It's not just the rearrangement of the images.
It's that the images are connected to the page rather than placed on the page and connected to each other.
What are the principles of anchoring in scrapbooking?
- Each element needs to touch an element (or chain of elements) that touches the edge of the page.
- The elements on the page need to touch an anchoring element that touches two sides of the page.
- A Corner
- Opposite sides
Notice how this layout, now with color, follows the principles. This layout uses the opposite corner anchored approach. The anchor is the burgundy colored paper. The photos all either touch those two blocks or each other. There is also a light colored velum that connects to two clusters of images together.
What Can You Use to Anchor Your Layouts?
Here are a few tricks that can help of the elements touch each other and then the edges of the layout.
- Tilt Photos – A simple photo tilt can allow photos to touch one another and give movement to a page
- Photo Mats – use photo mats to touch each other or the edge of the page.
- Decorations- Ribbons, sticker strips, fibers, and wire can be used above or below your images and text blocks to connect elements to each other or the page edge.
- Paper Blocks – Patterned paper strips can add color and texture to your layout while providing the anchor to the page edges.
- Vellum Blocks- This is generally to enable you to separate your journaling from the background paper for readability. However, vellum can work
likea photo mat to touch other elements on your page.
If you want to learn more about what I call anchoring or a mentor of mine calls grounding, check the description for a great video tutorial.


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Archive for the 'Wall of Fame Assholes' Category
War Is Good
Remember the aftermath of 9/11 when Bush entangled the United States in several Middle Eastern conflicts? It lead to the rise of a very fervent anti-war left.
Then Obama came into power. The anti-war left fell silent. I guess they were on vacation or something.
Now Trump has undone one of the products of Bush's legacy and announced that the United States is pulling out of Syria, which has cause the anti-war left to not only decide that Bush's wars were OK but that his wars were absolutely necessary!
I have to assume that during its mysterious eight year disappearance, the anti-war left was taken away to Room 101 and taught the importance of Big Brother's wars. Either that or the anti-war left was never actually against war and merely exploited Bush's war in order to criticize somebody who worshiped the wrong political god.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
What happens if you witness a bad crash in front of you and stop to help the injured parties? You get detained and have to pay to get your vehicle out of the impound lot:
Davis managed to get the survivor out of the car, but the second person in the car, 21-year-old Kyree Payne of Northeast D.C., died.
Davis, who lives in Baltimore and was on his way to work, says he told D.C. Police everything he witnessed and was allowed to leave. But when he was just a block away, he was pulled over by a D.C. Police officer – and that's when his nightmare began.
"He said, 'You're being detained because you were a witness to a vehicle where someone died in an accident,'" Davis said.
Davis said he was made to wait for about two hours and was harshly questioned, before he claims a police supervisor told him because he witnessed a fatal crash, his car was being towed.
Davis also said that he was not involved in the crash and that his driver's license is active and his car is registered and insured — as police gave him no citations. Unfortunately for Davis, he will have to find a way to work as his car is still impounded.
That'll teach him for being a good Samaritan!
Of course the officer is claiming that Davis's car was impounded because Davis refused to show a valid driver's license. Davis refutes the officer's claim and since the story points out that he does have a valid driver's license, I'm inclined to side with Davis. However, a more important question is, so what if Davis didn't have a valid driver's license? He pulled a survivor out of a car wreck that was bad enough to leave the other occupant dead. I think a scene like that has far more important issues to address than the validity of anybody's driver's license. And the fact that he stopped to help people should have at least netted him a get out of a petty offense card.
Never Trust a Surveillance Company
The parliament of the United Kingdom (UK) decided to pull a Facebook on Facebook by collecting the company's personal information. Not only did the parliament collect Facebook's personal information but it's now airing the company's dirty laundry. There are a lot of interesting tidbits to be found within the documents posted by the parliament but one in particular shows Facebook's ruthlessness when it comes to collecting your personal information:
The emails show Facebook's growth team looking to call log data as a way to improve Facebook's algorithms as well as to locate new contacts through the "People You May Know" feature. Notably, the project manager recognized it as "a pretty high-risk thing to do from a PR perspective," but that risk seems to have been overwhelmed by the potential user growth.
Initially, the feature was intended to require users to opt in, typically through an in-app pop-up dialog box. But as developers looked for ways to get users signed up, it became clear that Android's data permissions could be manipulated to automatically enroll users if the new feature was deployed in a certain way.
In another email chain, the group developing the feature seems to see the Android permissions screen as a point of unnecessary friction, to be avoided if possible. When testing revealed that call logs could be collected without a permissions dialog, that option seems to have been obviously preferable to developers.
"Based on our initial testing," one developer wrote, "it seems that this would allow us to upgrade users without subjecting them to an Android permissions dialog at all."
If you're using Facebook on a Google operating system, you're in the center of a surveillance Eiffel Tower, and I'm not talking about the monument!
The history of Android's permission system has not been a happy one. Until fairly recently Android had an all or nothing model where you either had to grant an application all the permissions it asked for or you couldn't use it. Not surprisingly this resulted in almost every app requesting every possible permission, which turned the permissions dialog into a formality. Android 6.0 changed the permission system to mirror iOS's. When an app running on Android 6.0 or later wants to access a protected feature such as text messages, the user is presented with a dialog alerting them to the attempted access and asks if they want to allow it.
If you read the excerpts, you'll see that Facebook was concerned about the kind of public relations nightmare asking for permission to access call and text message logs could bring. At first the company was planning to only request permission to access call logs, hoping it wouldn't cause a ruckus. However, once somebody figured out a way to add the additional capabilities without triggering any new permission requests, Facebook moved forward with the plan. So we know for a fact that Facebook knew what it was doing was likely to piss off its users and was willing to use underhanded tactics to do it without getting caught.
You should never trust a company that profits by collecting your personal information to respect your privacy. In light of the information released by the UK's parliament, this goes double for Facebook.
Weaponizing Dependencies
How I miss the halcyon days of the Internet when perceived slights were commonly forgotten after a short period of inconsequential shitposting. Today perceived slights often result in real-world consequences. The most recent example of this is ThotAudit, the result of a bunch of pathetic sexless whiners perceiving women slighting them. In response to their inability to get laid, they have decided to sic the Internal Revenue Service (IRC) and third-part payment processors on online sex workers:
The campaign is called the "ThotAudit," in reference to the derogatory term "thot," which stands for "that ho over there." It began over the Thanksgiving holiday as a grassroots effort to intimidate sex workers and women who sell access to private pornographic social media accounts by reporting them to the Internal Revenue Service for tax evasion—without evidence of wrongdoing. But it quickly morphed into a battle over who has the right to make money on the internet.
The harassers are taking advantage of user reporting tools made available by companies like PayPal, Venmo, and CirclePay, in an attempt to force their targets offline and freeze their finances. The tactic has far-reaching implications beyond adult entertainment. Foreign governments and other groups have abused the policies to silence opponents on platforms like Twitter and Facebook for years. Attacking through the payment processors is a new wrinkle on that approach.
What kind of lowlife piece of shit sics revenuers on people? I mean, come on! That's below the belt, guys!
Back to the story at hand. There are two aspects that I want to discuss in this post.
The first is the extent individuals will go to avoid acknowledging and accepting their faults. When I was young, I wasn't exactly drowning in pussy. I didn't blame women for that though. I acknowledged and accepted my faults, namely my socially awkward nature. I worked to overcome those faults. By the time I hit my mid 20's, I was still socially awkward but I was at least capable of schmoozing a room full of people and was capable of gaining the attention of members of the opposite sex. While I'm still a bit socially awkward today, I have a smoking hot wife and have little trouble meeting new people and entertaining people at a party (entertaining people is commonly seen as an attractive quality and thus a skill worth cultivating).
The key to my transformation was accepting my flaws and working to overcome them. Most people who call themselves incels suffer from a lack of self-awareness and an unwillingness to overcome their faults. The reason they're not getting laid isn't because women are conspiring against them, it's because they have a number of flaws that make them unattractive. Instead of working to improve themselves, they're taking actions that make them even less attractive. They're actually going so far as to exacerbate their faults to avoid acknowledging their faults.
The second thing I want to discuss is something I harp on a lot, the dangers of being dependent on third-parties. Those making themselves part of ThotAudit are trying to convince third-party payment processors to stop processing payments for targeted online sex workers. By doing this, they're destroying the livelihood of those workers. However, this tactic is only feasible because those workers are dependent on third-party payment processors. The fewer third-parties you depend on, the fewer dependencies exist that can be weaponized against you. While it's trendy to recommend cryptocurrencies for sex workers, that's not the only option. Online sex workers could try pooling their resources and establishing a payment processor for their industry, which is a suggestion I made to gun stores that were being blacklisted by third-party payment processors. You might not be able to control the infrastructure yourself but if you have to rely on a third-party, it's better to rely on one that specifically caters to your industry. After all, if your business is porn, Tumblr might cast you overboard but Pornhub probably won't.
Intellectual Property Means Not Owning Property
I make no secret of the fact that I don't subscribe to the concept of intellectual property. The biggest reason I don't subscribe to the concept is because the concept itself is an oxymoron. Property implies ownership and ownership implies absolute control. Intellectual property takes the form of copyrights, trademarks, and patents. If you create a song and are granted a copyright, does that mean you own it? No. The copyright is granted by a government agency. The agency dictates the terms of the copyright. Usually it dictates limitations such as a time frame (for example, your copyright is only valid for so many years). The same is true of trademarks and patents. Receiving a copyright does not grant absolute control, it grants limited controls. Under the concept of intellectual property the only ownership that can be said to exist is government ownership over all creative works.
Things are even worse for consumers. Consider Nintendo's recent announcement:
For nearly three years now, creators who wanted to make money from videos that included footage of Nintendo games had to go through the onerous approval and content requirements of the Nintendo Creators Program, which also gave Nintendo a 30 percent cut of any ad revenues. Today, Nintendo announced it would be halting that program at the end of the year, in favor of a new set of "basic rules" for video creators. If those rules are followed, Nintendo now says, "we will not object to your use of gameplay footage and/or screenshots captured from games for which Nintendo owns the copyright."
In addition, Nintendo says video creators can only monetize these videos through a number of official partner programs on a handful of platforms, including YouTube, Twitter, Twitch, and Facebook.
When you pay for a Nintendo game, you're only paying for the privilege of playing it as far as Nintendo is concerned. If you dared to record yourself enjoying "your" game and clicked the monetize button on YouTube, you could expect a take down notice from Nintendo's legal department because, as far as the company was concerned, it owned any footage made of its games and determined that it wouldn't allow anybody to profit from "its" footage. Nintendo eventually eased up a bit and announced that it would allow you to profit from "its" footage so long as you gave Nintendo a 30 percent cut of the profits. Now it's changing the rules again because as the owner of the games and, according to it at least, all footage of the games, it has the legal authority to do so. While you don't have to become part of Nintendo's Partner Program, you are restricted on where you can post footage from which you want to profit.
Imagine if these restrictions allowed under the concept of intellectual property were expanded to actual property. The construction company that built your home might be able to restrict you from monetizing any footage you made of the house. The manufacturer that built your vehicle might not allow you to post pictures of it on Instagram but only on Flickr. The manufacturer that built your computer might prohibit you from making an unboxing video. If any of the rules that apply to the concept of intellectual property were applied to actual property, most people would probably recognize how ridiculous the situation is.
In my opinion if you purchase a copy of a game, you should own that copy. You should be allowed to do whatever you want with it. If you want to record yourself playing it while you're snorting coke off of a hooker's ass and monetize that video, you should be allowed to do so (I also believe that you should be allowed to snort coke off of a hooker's ass). There shouldn't be a loophole that says any footage of that game is owned by the developer nor should there be any restriction preventing you from profiting from the game you purchased.
Worst Parents of the Year Award
There are a lot of ways that parents can make the lives of their children miserable. One way for parents to start early down this path is to give their child a stupid name:
A Southwest Airlines gate agent at John Wayne Airport is accused of being awful in front of a five-year old girl – and on social media – because of her unique name.
The girl's mother says the agent made fun of the name and even posted a photo of her boarding pass on social media for others to chime in.
Five-year-old Abcde Redford pronounces her name "ab-city."
I guess some points go to the parents for at least getting five letters of the alphabet in the correct order.
Granted, I don't think that the gate agent should have made fun of the child because the child was innocent. They should have ridiculed the parents for picking a name that would so inevitably cause their child to be picked on. If you want to give your child a unique name, there are a lot of excellent choices that aren't as likely to result in ridicule from schoolmates (and gate attendants) as Abcde.
Using Approved Forms of Violence
A college in Michigan has announced that it has developed a plan to defend against shooters. Faculty and students will be given hockey pucks:
Oakland University, a public school in Rochester Hills, near Detroit, is distributing thousands of 94-cent hockey pucks for just that reason.
The distribution, which began earlier this month, stemmed from a March faculty active-shooter training session, which followed February's shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school that left 17 dead.
A participant at the training asked Oakland University Police Chief Mark Gordon what items people could use to defend themselves on the campus, which has a no-weapons policy, the Detroit Free Press reports.
There are so many levels of hypocrisy here that I'm not even sure where to begin.
I guess I'll start with the layer that seems to me to be the most obvious. The school has a no-weapons policy. It is providing faculty and students with hockey pucks for the express purpose of hurling them at an active shooter. In other words the hockey pucks are meant to be used to hurt people. A common word to describe a tool that is meant to hurt somebody is "weapon." So the school no longer has a no-weapons policy. What it really has is a prohibition against unapproved weapons.
Now that the school no longer has a no-weapons policy, I think that it's fair to ask what the purpose of the previous no-weapons policy was. If it was protection, the school has admitted that its no-weapons policy was incapable of fulfilling that purpose by distributing weapons. If it was meant to be a moral statement about the superiority of nonviolence, the school can no longer claim any moral high ground since it is now encouraging faculty and students to use violence. The only possible purpose that is left is that the policy is meant to conceal from faculty and students the fact that certain types of weapons exist. The only thing this accomplishes is prohibiting faculty and students from having a more effective means of self-defense if they want to stay within the rules.
This policy is a demonstration of pure cognitive dissonance. The school doesn't want to admit that it's no-weapons policy doesn't provide any protection against weapons. In order to avoid admitting that it has attempted to equip faculty and students with "totally not weapons" to give them the illusion that they might survive when a bad person violates the no-weapons policy. The bureaucrats who administer the school know there is a threat but are unwilling to give faculty and students sanction to effectively defend themselves. In other words they are knowingly putting the people under their authority in danger.
Comcast Hell
If I were tasked with rewriting Dante's Inferno to reflect the modern day, I would make dealing with Comcast technical support a punishment for one of the levels of Hell. As a Comcast Business customer with a static IP address I'm required to rent a model. It's a stupid requirement. There is absolutely no technical reason why this requirement exists. But it's there and I have to deal with it.
Over the last several days the modem Comcast requires me to rent became flaky. At first it would go offline around midnight or 01:00. Restarting it would bring my Internet back online. Then it started going offline several times a day, which meant I had to make a dreaded call to Comcast.
Us Comcast Business customers can't use niceties like the online chat system. We have to call 1-800-391-3000. That number puts you into contact with the most infuriating automated "assistant" that I've ever head the displeasure of dealing with. The only thing I can compare it to is Siri with a lobotomy (which is saying something since Siri is none too smart). No matter what I said the automated "assistant" would send a restart signal to my unresponsive modem and, shockingly, nothing would come of it. After five or six times of hanging up and calling back I learned that saying "human" when the "assistant" asked for a brief description of the problem would coax it into connecting me with a human operator. After I finally got a hold of a human being, I was told that a technician would arrive at my place in two hours (two hours specifically, not the usual bullshit of a block of time between 07:00 and 12:00 the next day).
I got a hold of a human being about roughly 8:45 so the technician was scheduled to arrive at 11:00. I got home before that and waited. And waited. And waited. Noon rolled around and the technician still hadn't shown up. I other things that I had to do so I told my wife what needed to be done and told her to have the technician call me when he arrived. When I got home around 16:00, the technician still hadn't arrived. So I had to call Comcast again.
My previous trick of telling the "assistant" "human" when it asked for a brief description of my problem didn't work the second time. However, I did get it to put me into contact with a human by saying "ticket number." I then proceeded to have a very blunt and stern conversation with the technical support person about my dislike of being lied to and was informed that a technician would arrive within two hours. Marvelously a technician did arrive with half and hour and withing 20 minutes or so after his arrival I had a new modem. Since the modem ran overnight without becoming unresponsive, it appears that the problem has been resolved.
In summary I would just like to say fuck Comcast. Of course the Internet is awash with stories of Comcast's incompetency so this post is little more than a drop in an ocean. But now you know what I was doing with my time instead of writing posts.
Not Enough Slaves
Senator Tom Cotton has a reputation for saying incredibly stupid shit. However, I think he may have outdone himself:
Sen. Tom Cotton on Thursday slammed his colleagues' efforts to pass sweeping criminal justice reforms, saying the United States is actually suffering from an "under-incarceration problem."
"Take a look at the facts. First, the claim that too many criminals are being jailed, that there is over-incarceration, ignores an unfortunate fact: for the vast majority of crimes, a perpetrator is never identified or arrested, let alone prosecuted, convicted, and jailed," Cotton said during a speech at The Hudson Institute, according to his prepared remarks. "Law enforcement is able to arrest or identify a likely perpetrator for only 19 percent of property crimes and 47 percent of violent crimes. If anything, we have an under-incarceration problem."
The country with the highest incarceration rate in the world has an under-incarceration problem?
Moreover, Cotton's statements about the inadequacies of law enforcers doesn't add any weight to his argument. Assuming Cotton's statistics are correct (which they probably aren't), why do law enforcers only identify perpetrators in 19 percent of property crimes and 47 percent of violent crimes? Could it be that instead of focusing their efforts on crimes where individuals were actually wronged they are focusing their efforts on victimless crimes that are profitable for the department like drug crimes?
Moreover, even if law enforcers were able to identify perpetrators in a majority of property and violent crimes, why should that increase the incarceration rate? The purpose of justice is supposed to be to make a victim as whole again as possible. For example, if somebody steals a $400 television, justice would be for the criminal to repay that $400 value to the victim as well as any expenses incurred (including personal time invested) for finding the thief and bringing them to justice. If that happens, the victim is back to where they were before the theft and thus is as whole again as reasonably possible.
Incarceration doesn't make victims whole, it merely locks a criminal away so they can become a slave laborer for the state or one of its cronies. So what Cotton is really saying is that there aren't enough slaves to work the prison plantations and he believes that any form of prison reform will only worsen the situation. If his concern was actually justice, he would still seek a reduction in incarceration rates.
The Human Capacity for Self-Deception
It's common upon hearing news of an individual committing some kind of atrocity to wonder how they ever brought themselves to do it. It's also common to act rather indignant when that individual argues that their heinous act was actually for the great good because it's automatically assumed that they're lying to protect their own skin. However, humans have a marvelous capacity for self-deception as demonstrated by classified documents revealed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU):
One of the most important lessons of the CIA's torture program is the way it corrupted virtually every individual and institution associated with it. Over the years, we have learned how lawyers twisted the law and psychologists betrayed their ethical obligations in order to enable the brutal and unlawful torture of prisoners.
Perhaps the most striking element of the document is the CIA doctors' willful blindness to the truth of what they were doing. CIA doctors decided that waterboarding actually "provided periodic relief" to a prisoner because it was a break from days of standing sleep deprivation. Similarly, CIA doctors decided that when a different prisoner was stuffed into a coffin-sized box, this provided a "relatively benign sanctuary" from other torture methods. CIA doctors described yet another prisoner — who cried, begged, pleaded, vomited, and required medical resuscitation after being waterboarded — as "amazingly resistant to the waterboard." Incredibly, CIA doctors concluded that the torture program was "reassuringly free of enduring physical or psychological effects."
This reminds me of a quote from Rudolf Diels, Himmler's predecessor:
The infliction of physical punishment is not every man's job, and naturally we were only too glad to recruit men who were prepared to show no squeamishness at their task. Unfortunately, we knew nothing about the Freudian side of the business, and it was only after a number of instances of unnecessary flogging and meaningless cruelty that I tumbled to the fact that my organization had been attracting all the sadists in Germany and Austria without my knowledge for some time past. It had also been attracting unconscious sadists, i.e. men who did not know themselves that they had sadist leanings until they took part in a flogging. And finally it had actually been creating sadists. For it seems that corporal chastisement ultimately arouses sadistic leanings in apparently normal men and women. Freud might explain it.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was likely looking for particular sorts of individuals to staff its prison camps. Namely individuals who weren't squeamish in the presence of torture. Moreover, the CIA likely attracted many unconscious sadists who didn't really know why they found the job description appealing. And the agency was almost certainly creating sadists by putting individuals in increasingly more sadistic positions that eventually desensitized them to the jobs that they were doing.
People who like to inflict physical pain generally don't need to justify their actions to themselves. But what about the unconscious sadists and those who were perfectly normal before taking a job at a CIA prison camp? They likely had some difficulty sleeping at night… at first. Oftentimes when an individual's actions bother their conscious they try to justify their actions to themselves. "I wasn't torturing him, I as providing periodic relief by giving him a break from forced sleep deprivation!" "The methods used to interrogate these individuals don't leave enduring physical or psychological effects so is it really that harmful?" "If we don't use these methods, we won't be able to find out the information we need in time to save lives!" Eventually most people are able to convince themselves that what they did was good and they are able to sleep soundly at night. Through this method a seemingly well adjusted individual can perform heinous acts and truly believe that what they're doing is actually a good thing.


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Digitalisation of Payment Services in Europe
Courtesy of Fernando Zunzunegui Technology has made financial services more accessible, faster, and cheaper. Payment services, in particular, are a testing ground for fintech innovation. Cryptocurrencies, payment initiation, and information management services associated with bank accounts have recently emerged as significant disruptions in the payments industry. As data has become essential to economic success, the… Read More »


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Give your teachers, coaches, trainers, or janitors an extremely versatile and economical towel option that is popular in facilities of all types.
Excellent Versatility
Use these towels for just about any purpose in your school, gym, or facility.
- Teachers can wipe up spills in the classroom or to clean their whiteboards.
- Janitors can use them for general cleaning purposes.
- Coaches can use them with their team to wipe away sweat or clean up spills from water bottles.
- Athletes can pair them with a sanitizing solution to keep equipment clean and germ free.
Designed to Last
A tough cotton/polyester blend makes these towels soft, yet absorbent and durable. They are excellent in institutional settings, where towels must withstand repeated use.
Easy to Clean
Wash these towels in a standard washing machine. Their white color easily helps you to determine whether they are clean before using them again. Choose 40"L x 20"W or 44"L x 22"W.


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Friday, January 23, 2009
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
In the News
The story of my Wendy's painting made it into the Kansas City star last Friday. The story was pretty good, and I'm glad that my painting was in color, but the picture of me was so ugly. I don't even want to be my friend. Here's the link so you all can laugh at my fat face: http://www.kansascity.com/238/story/959473.html
Also, I just got an image back from a woman in Portland who owns a BBQ restaurant. She's just framed my King Kong Cow poster 19 x 36" for the opening.
Posted by Kristen Phillips at 11:53 AM No comments:
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|Jessadabodindra (Rama III)
|King of Siam
|21 July, 1824 – 2 April, 1851
|21 July, 1824
|March 31 1788
|2 April 1851 (aged 63)
|Buddha Loetla Nabhalai
|51 sons and daughters
|Buddha Loetla Nabhalai
Nangklao (Rama III), or King Jessadabodindra (full royal name Prabath Somdej Pra Paramadhiwarasetha Maha Jessadabodindra Siammintarawirodom Borommadhammikkarajadhirat Boromanathbopitra Phra Nangklao Chaoyuhua) (March 31, 1788 - April 2, 1851) third of the Chakri dynasty, was king of Siam from 1824 to 1851. He was selected as successor by an Ascension Council because his younger brother, later Rama IV, was considered less suitable, although born to a senior Queen. The future Rama IV took monastic vows as a Buddhist monk to avoid possible assassination.
Rama III was the last traditional monarch of Siam. Though his successors were also traditionalists, they started to modernize the kingdom. Rama III was king over the largest territory ever to be subject to Thai rule. He entered a trade-treaty with Britain in 1826. His father had received two diplomatic missions from Singapore but no treaty had resulted. Rama III realized that unless he made some concessions to the British, who had now entered Burma, they might simply take by force what they failed to gain by peaceful means. He actually gave limited trade concessions, but this was sufficient to cement a special relationship with the British that opened up Thailand to trade while yielding none of her independence. Thai remained the only nation in Indochina that did not fall to one of the colonial powers. Instead, by negotiating with the British to the West and the French to the East, the Thai kings secured recognition as a neutral buffer zone.
King Nangklao was born during the reign of King Buddha Yodfa Chulalok, later known as Rama I. As the oldest grandson, he was named Tub ("live"). He was the oldest son of Prince Issarasundhorn (later King Buddha Loetla Nabhalai, or Rama II) and Chao Chom Manda Riam (later KromSomdej Phra Srisulalai).
Prince Tub joined the army when his father and grandfather went to war with Burma. While in the military, he was trained to succeed as king. A week after his father became King Prince Kasutranuchit, the only surviving son of the former King Taksin, who had been deposed in 1782, revolted. Prince Tub led the Royal Police against Prince Kasutranuchit. After Prince Kasutranuchit was executed, Prince Tub became known as Krommhean Jessadabodindra.
When Prince Jessadabodindra was 37, King Rama II became seriously ill and died, without having named his successor. According to law of succession, Prince Mongkut (later King Rama IV) should have become king because he was born from the queen consort of King Rama II. However, the older Prince Jessadabodindra was seen as a more appropriate choice, having headed such administrations as the Department of Royal Household, the Treasury, Department of Foreign Affairs, and the Supreme Judicature. After an assembly, the house of nobility approved Prince Jessadabodindra as the 3rd King of Bangkok. Mongkut, passed over for the throne, took monastic vows. Some sources suggest that Mongkut thought his life in danger and so chose to retreat from politics.[1]
King Rama I, founder of the Chakri dynasty, as the first king of the Bangkok period in Thailand's history, became known straight-forwardly as "the first king." His successor, King Rama II became known as "the middle king." In this naming system, Rama III would have been called "the last king," which was considered a bad omen and so was not used. Instead, Rama III renamed his predecessors Buddha Yodfa Chulalok and Buddha Loetla Nabhalai. His successor, Mongkut gave him the name Nangklao.
During the 27-year reign of King Nangklao, trade between Siam and China became very prosperous. His royal merchants constantly set sail for China, and became very profitable. Reputedly, Rama III kept his profits in red bags beside his bed, so his money became known as Red Bag Money. King Rama regarded the Red Bag Money as surety to buy land back if it were to fall to a foreign power.
During Rama III's reign, Siam became a military power. It repulsed Vietnamese invasions. He also made inroads into Cambodia—and the country was partitioned between Vietnam and Siam. Rama III also overran Laos and ordered the destruction of Vientiane in 1827-1828.
In 1826, he negotiated a trade-treaty with the British, known as the Burney Treaty (named after Henry Burney, the British negotiator). This treaty gave lumbering and mining concessions to Britain, in return for recognition of Thai independence. It also established commercial links between Singapore and the community of Chinese merchants in Bangkok. The British, however, wanted more trading concessions, and pressured Rama III to grant these. He managed to resist, refusing to extend the provisions of the Burney Treaty when Sir James Brooke, the Rajah of Sarawak in Borneo (known as the "white rajah"), arrived in 1850, to press for a new treaty. Rama was ill at the time, and so did not negotiate in person. In 1850, when a United States envoy, Joseph Balestier came to enter trade talks, he was received by the Finance Minister.[2]
Like his father and grandfather, Rama III was a devout and faithful follower of Buddhism. He built or repaired 50 temples, including the first Chinese style temple at Rajaorasa, the highest stupa at Wat Arun, the Golden Mountain at Wat Sraket, the metal temple at Wat Ratchanadda, and Chetupol Temple, or Wat Pho. Wat Pho is the site of the first university in Thailand. He fed the poor on a daily basis. However, he also allowed Christian missionaries to work in Thailand.[3] On May 18, 1839, be outlawed the use of opium. [4]
After a 26 year reign, King Nangklao was succeeded by his brother Prince Mongkut. Possibly aware of Mongkut's strong claim to the throne, Rama III chose not to name a successor, thus leaving it clear for his brother's succession.
|Chakri Dynasty
Born: 31 March 1788; Died: 2 April 1851
|Preceded by:
Buddha Loetla Nabhalai
|King of Siam
|Succeeded by:
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Tamil Nadu's failure to control release of water from the Mullaperiyar dam till the reservoir reached its full capacity is one of the reasons for the flash floods in Kerala that killed over 350 people and damaged property worth thousands of crores, the Kerala government said in the Supreme Court on Thursday.
In its affidavit, Kerala blamed the sudden release of water from the dam for the unprecedented floods. "The sudden releases from the Mullaperiyar Dam, 3rd largest reservoir in the Periyar Basin, forced us (Kerala) to release more water from the Idukki reservoir, downstream of Mullaperiyar, which is one of the causes of this deluge," read the affidavit, filed by the chief secretary of the state, Tom Jose.
Located in the upper reaches of the Western Ghats above the Idukki reservoir, Mullaperiyar dam is being operated by the Tamil Nadu government even though it is wholly situated in Kerala. The catchment area of the Idukki reservoir is 650 sq km and the Mullaperiyar reservoir has a catchment area of 624 sq km.
The state, the affidavit stated, was managing the spate of water by controlling spill and letting a major portion of the flood waters escape to the sea by "implementing a strict operational control over the spill of the two largest reservoir systems of Idukki and Idamalayar in synchronization with eight small other reservoir systems in the Periyar basin."
Kerala's affidavit comes in response to a direction by the top court on August 17. The order came on a petition filed by residents of Kerala to maintain structural safety of the dam, which as per an earlier SC judgement is being overlooked by the three-member supervisory committee that was constituted on the directions of the top court in 2014.
On August 17, the Centre informed the top court that the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) dealing with devastating floods in Kerala has decided to reduce water level in Mullaperiyar dam to check additional inflow to avert further disaster.
According to Kerala, the secretary, water resources, Government of Kerala, had addressed a letter to her counterpart in Tamil Nadu as well as the chairman of the supervisory committee on the Mullaperiyar dam urging the commencement of controlled releases of water.
The request was made to get sufficient time to evacuate people so that they would not be hit by flash floods in their sleep. But no positive assurance was received from Tamil Nadu even after repeated requests.
The Mullaperiyar reservoir water was suddenly discharged by opening all thirteen shutters to Idukki downstream at midnight on August 15. Discharge continued and around 9,000 cusecs of water was let out between 8 am and 1 pm and 21,450 cusecs at 2pm. The district administration was at that time frantically evacuating people from the downstream of Idukki dam.
With a view to avoid such disasters in future, Kerala has urged the top court to form a management committee that would directly report to the supervisory committee, appointed at the behest of the Supreme Court, to manage day-to-day operations of Mullaperiyar dam.
The deluge faced by Kerala was unprecedented in its recent history and it has already surpassed the devastation caused by the 1924 floods, the affidavit said. "
It was now considered the most intense flood to have hit Kerala in the last 100 years as 13 of the 14 districts were affected and 774 of the total 1564 villages were inundated.
Of its population of 3.48 crore, more than 54 lakh people i.e. one-sixth of the state's total population was directly affected by the deluge," read the affidavit filed by the Kerala government.>


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Deadly Storm Anniversary
Sunday around 50 people came to watch a presentation about last year's tornado. Renick families and volunteers from other towns came to count their blessings that they're still alive today.
At 3p.m. a Renick board member asked the crowd if they remembered where they were last year on March 12.
Everyone in the audience all slowly raised their hands. The gym was quiet except for the sound of sniffles as people looked at pictures of destroyed homes and remembered the loved ones they lost.
But the tears turned into laughs as neighbors and friends talked and visited. For some, the first time since the tornado.
For many of these faces it's been one day short of a year since the last time they sat in this school's gym.
"There was families that didn't have homes that was in here eating lunch and then also there was the out of town guys that was coming in, you know and everybody was just. You know there nerves was right out on the end," said Roberts.
Roberts' job last year was to keep morale up, but today he didn't have to do that.
"It was an upbeat meeting, we watched films of what was going on and heard the mayor and others that celebrated the fact that we did survive this," Roberts said.
The town also thanked those who helped pick up the pieces after the tornado.
For John Schloot with the Hallsville disaster relief team it's been a long last time since he was in the gym in Renick. "It was one of the final days after doing a little over a week's worth of clean-up, said Schloot.
His crew came in after the tornado and helped get people electricity and water. The meeting ended with the unveiling of plans for a memorial.
Right now it's a sign welcoming people into the town but eventually this will be the location for the future memorial. The memorial will remind those who survived the tornado and recognize those who lost their lives.
"That's the sign of the people, that they can take in the middle of a crisis, live through it, survive the thing, celebrate it, then put down a memorial," Roberts said.
"It was interesting to come up here and see that most of the homes are rebuilt, everything is back in order, their lives are seemingly back in order again," Schloot said.
The town had a service in their new church and as for March 12. It will always be a day to remember.
The Mayor is still working with families in Renick to get a grant for tornado sirens.
He also is working to create a future disaster relief plan.
Last year's severe weather began on March 11.
That day baseball size hail pelted central Missouri.
On March 12, 38 tornadoes touched down in the Show-Me-State, most were short lived, and produced sporadic damage.
5 mid-Missourians died in the storm, 4 in Renick and 1 in Sedalia.


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Saturday, July 24, 2010
Calibrate Your Display Today
Most photo software will let you do basic adjusts like warming up a photo that looks too blue. Or maybe cooling down a photo that's too red.
I happily make these sorts of adjustments just before uploading photos to a website but today, I realized it had been almost 6 months since my last calibration.
I use an older Spyder Express model from Datacolor. It's very easy to use and I've heard good things about their competitors too. No matter which brand or model you buy, you should have one on hand so you can calibrate your display at least four times a year.
When the calibration is complete, the software will show you some photos with a Before and After option. My display was rather cool and blue looking. It was off enough that it made me shudder thinking about all the photos I edited last month.
While I go back and review my photo library you shouldn't wait any longer. It only takes a few minutes. Go calibrate your display today!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Nikon D90 Auto Bracketing
A lot of the photographers were bracketing their photos and they made it look so easy! They'd press the shutter release and the camera would bang out 3 or more shots in less than a second.
My Nikon D90 wasn't playing so nice. I spent half an hour looking for the bracket option in the camera menu before I found it, a button labeled [BKT], on the left side of the camera next to the lens.
Pressing the button doesn't turn on bracketing but, it does display 0F followed by a number between 0.5 and 2.0. Rotate the back command dial to change 0F (off or 0 frames) to -2F (2 frames under exposed), +2F (2 frames over exposed) or 3F (3 frames, one under, one over and one normally exposed). Rotate back to 0F to turn bracketing off.
Next, while still holding the [BKT] button, rotate the front command dial to change the second numbers from 0.5 to 2.0. This changes the amount of over or under exposure from half a stop to two stops.
Finally, if you want to fire off all the shots with one press of the shutter button - it took me the longest to figure this tip out - change the shutter mode from single shot [S] to high speed [H] or low speed [L] continuous shooting. Sounds pretty simple now but, it took me a couple of months to figure this out :)
What if you want to use the self timer to take all three bracket shots? That's pretty simple too. Go into the menu, locate option c3, Self Timer and change the number of shots to 3. Finally, change the shooting mode dial to display both the timer and the low [L] speed continuous shooting mode. When the shutter is pressed the timer will count down and take all 3 shots.
Neat, huh?!
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Scanning Negatives and Slides
I had 200 slides to scan and it took me about a year. It was fun and I turned the old photos into a book.
Now, I'm looking at my old negatives. I have 2000 images on 35mm color negatives taken between 1985 and 2002.
I've been hearing a lot about a company called ScanCafe. They accept your film, scan it for you and allow you to pick and pay for only the photos you want to keep. However, you have to pick at least 50% of the ones you ship in to them.
How much does it cost? 2000 photos at $.29/each - a special summer price through August 31st - would cost $580 if I keep all 2000 images. If I select 50% then the price drops to $290. By using the code FOCUS at checkout then I get a 20% savings on my order - courtesy of Scott Bourne and the Photofocus podcast - then the price of my order drops to $232. I have to add in shipping so the final cost works out to $.25 per scanned image.
If I scanned an image myself it'd take about an hour from start to final corrected finish. An hour of my time or $.25 per image? Definitely - I'm paying the $.25/each!
I'll let you know in September how it worked out.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Project 365
Project 365 and the only requirement is that I take at least one photo a day.
I thought this would be a great project to do for two reasons. The first was to learn how to use all the controls on my brand new Digital SLR.
I took about 6500 photos over the past year to get my one a day and you can't press the shutter that many times without figuring out a thing or two about how the camera works. Here's a short list of my favorite lessons:
I thought this would be a great project to do for two reasons. The first was to learn how to use all the controls on my brand new Digital SLR.
I took about 6500 photos over the past year to get my one a day and you can't press the shutter that many times without figuring out a thing or two about how the camera works. Here's a short list of my favorite lessons:
- Manual Mode and Manual Focus - I no longer struggle with figuring out how the triangle of settings - Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO - to get a good photo because...
- Histogram - I learned a lot about the histogram and how to use it. When I started the project I never bothered to look at it. Towards the end of the project I began to realize many of my photos were too dark. Using the histogram I learned to use....
- Exposure Compensation - The little button on the camera that looks like this [+/-]. If your photo is too dark then you want to increase [+] the exposure. If it's too bright then use [-] exposure compensation. It sure sounds simple to me know but, it's not a button I ever touched when I started.
- Back Button Focus - I heard about this on a few podcasts and thought I'd give it a try. On my Nikon D90 camera the menu setting is called AF-ON and it causes the AE-L/AF-L button on the back of the camera to become the focus button. Press this button with your thumb to focus on the subject then use your index finger to fire the shutter whenever you're ready to go. Most of the podcasters must use Canon cameras because they leave out one important tip for Nikon users - change the autofocus [AF] mode to AF-C. The AF-A and AF-S settings will lock the shutter unless the camera has determined the subject is in focus. Changing to AF-C will prevent the camera from locking the shutter button allowing you to press the focus with your thumb and let go. Whenever you're ready to take the picture then press the shutter with your index finger. The camera will fire whether it thinks your subject is in focus or not.
- Tripod - I started the project with a cheap, small and rather flimsy tripod. I took a photo workshop to learn how to take photos of waterfalls. I learned pretty quickly that I needed a strong and sturdy tripod to get those sharp photos.
- Off-Camera Flash - I don't own an off-camera flash yet but, boy did I learn why I need one. That'll become a future purchase though because I bought a sturdy tripod first!
The second reason I did this Project 365 was to become a better visual artist. My left brain so dominates the right that I struggle to do anything creative and that became the hardest part of doing this project - coming up something new, interesting and/or creative every day of the year. I think I'm a little bit better at the end of the year than I was when I started but, I didn't make any great leaps. Here's a short list of things I learned (or still need to learn) along the way:
- Zoom In - I used the word zoom but I didn't use a zoom lens during my project so I had to zoom in with my feet by walking closer. Anyway, zoom in to the subject. Focus on what's important in the photograph and get rid of everything else. It rolls so easy off my fingertips as I type it but, it hasn't yet sunk into my photographic brain yet.
- Negative Space - The subject is the positive space within the photographic frame. Everything else is negative space. I still struggle with this one too. All too often I take a great photo of a subject only to notice later that a branch, telephone pole or some other object is totally distracting. I wasn't paying attention to the negative space.
- Light - Learning to see light and shadows, textures, warm red light, cold blue light, harsh light, dull, boring light. One more thing on my list of things I still need to learn!
Wow, what a year. At times the project was tough but, worth it. Nothing like forcing yourself to grow whether you want to or not!
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I was going to do a monologue video while I was walking our dog in City Park this morning. What makes New Orleans special? As I was playing the roles of cameraman, director, and voice actor, something came up. This is how far I got:
That's some thrilling footage, isn't it? "Hold on! I gotta go!"
What follows is what I was going to talk about. You'll get the written version. Read it in my voice, you know what I sound like by now, and put a lot of ah's and um's in there for good effect. Clear your throat.
You can see ducks swimming in a pond in a park where you live I'm sure. I like to just pause and watch the wildlife, the fauna and flora go about their lazy ways tickled by the breeze. It's relaxing. I'm sure you like to do that, too, where you live.
Do you have a park where you live? Do you go there often? If you don't, you should. If you don't have a park where you live, I hope you live in the country. Regular exposure to nature refreshes the spirit. Just ask me, your humble narrator. I walk our dog in City Park in New Orleans twice a day. He gets to be off the leash (which is against the rules but we go to parts of City Park where there aren't any other people or any other dogs, so it's all okay). I'm not going to say that walking our dog is the best part of my day, but it's close.
The best part of my day is talking with our guests who choose to make La Belle Esplanade the headquarters for their New Orleans visit. The best part of my day is fulfilling my role as New Orleans goodwill ambassador, sharing what I know and tailoring specific recommendations off the tourist radar that will interest our guests and help them make good memories of their visit that will last a lifetime. Can 547 authentic guest reviews, as of this writing, be wrong?
I will be the first one to tell you that I am not a man who enjoys roughing it out in the wild. I enjoy and appreciate the natural world, but I am a city person. I do not like to go camping. I do not like to go hiking. I don't fish or hunt. I admire birds, but I am not a bird watcher, except in the Okaysions sense, using the word "bird" in its British sense.
I am a humble hotelier who is at home in the urban environment of this wonderful city that Frau Schmitt and I call home. Frau Schmitt is the better half of this operation and we both enjoy the fact that our small personalized hotel is NOT in the French Quarter. It is close to City Park. City Park is a gem. We always recommend that our guests visit City Park.
Anyhow, not to ramble on too long today, I was walking our dog in City Park this morning and we were walking along one of the lagoons that we don't usually visit. It's been a little hot for our little dog. It was 11:00 in the morning and about 96 degrees Fahrenheit. We stuck to the shady spots as we ambled along. The dog was in no mood to run around or get out of sight.
I noticed the ducks and paused. What makes New Orleans special? It's all in the details. Now, I know you can see ducks where you live and I am not going to pretend that New Orleans ducks are anything special, even though they are. You don't travel a thousand miles to watch some ducks swim in a lagoon—or do you?
What I was going to say before I had to go is that I had a wonderful morning full of pleasant surprises that led me to this moment of respite during which the ducks caught my attention. Every day in New Orleans is one serendipitous event following the one before, all in a mosaic that has been laid by fortune and lazy chance. Even when something commonplace happens in New Orleans, it can pack the gentle punch of an epiphany. Those ducks were like that to me.
Then, the dog wandered too close to the road and he wasn't on a leash. Hold on! I gotta go!
Nothing happened. The dog was about 40 feet from the road, which isn't a busy road, but better safe than sorry. If the dog had gotten hit by a car, Frau Schmitt, who is the better half of this operation, would eventually forgive me, but it would take a long, long time. I don't want a dog's blood on my conscience, let alone this one's.
Here is a full on photo of our dog. His name is Simba. If you stay at La Belle Esplanade, you'll never see him. Don't let his good looks fool you. Unlike your humble narrator, he is handsome but he isn't friendly. He is however, one of the things what makes New Orleans special.
Simba is not our mascot. I don't like a place that has a dog as their mascot. A dog is just a dog—-don't tell Frau Schmitt I just said that.
Here is a photo of our mascot:
He is an urbane, handsome, and friendly beast, indeed. Just ask me.
We look forward to meeting you when you come to New Orleans,
—La Belle Esplanade
…ranked the #1 inn in New Orleans and in Louisiana, the #3 inn in the U.S., the #17 place to stay in the whole world.
Monday, June 4, 2018: We were in the Lower Garden District today. We had lunch at Lilly's Cafe, one of the best Vietnamese restaurants in the city, in our opinion. What makes New Orleans special? Ask us about it over breakfast when you are here. We'll tell you all about it. –À votre santé, nos amis!