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Today's homify story is about a jazzy Colorado farmhouse that was given a new lease of life through remodeling, by the Denver based experts from LAURA MEDICUS INTERIORS. Celebrating contemporary living in a rustic style, this renovated home is a stylish, modern farmhouse offering a cozy and comfortable stay for its residents. Let us have a closer look… .
In the spacious living room, two 48' French doors were installed that open out onto a new deck outside- this greatly enhanced the look, totally transforming the living room. Palliative vistas and ample natural light are available to augment the comfy, open comfort extended by the cushy sofas, neutral palette & warm wooden floor.
The experts took out two walls at each end of this roomy kitchen, removed a dropped soffit that ran the perimeter of the kitchen, added a snug window seat with storage- ideal nook for a cozy family snack, and transformed an odd hall closet into a truly useful pantry with wine storage at the top. A small breakfast bar, open wall-shelving & bucolic black lamps are among many other small details that have been added to this wholesome kitchen space.
The well-lit, inviting dining room boasts of a wood & white dining set with all-white chairs. Replacing a generic drywall arch with a custom post & beam, and adding planking to the wall to inject some visual interest & create a shelf for flexible display, the dining room has been given a simplistic yet practically sound allure. Did you notice that candelabra chandelier?
Well equipped, this kitchen upholds the ageless appeal of the combo of black & white, with shiny black countertops offering sufficient spaces to work conveniently in the kitchen. Plentiful storage is another BIG plus. The red area rug covering the dark wooden floor adds to the warmth.


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A nearly two-decade trend that is stripping away employer-provided health-care benefits for retirees in private business will likely continue and could soon hit an even deeper pool of government retirees, new research by a University of Illinois elder law expert warns.
Richard L. Kaplan says the steady erosion of private sector benefits stems largely from a 1992 change in accounting standards that requires employers to project future coverage costs, rather than just booking expenses when payouts are made years down the road.
This year, the same accounting requirements take effect for state and local governments, he said, adding hefty new financial obligations to balance sheets already out of whack amid the nation's worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
"When those future costs are disclosed, the pattern has been that stakeholders - in this case taxpayers - say, 'This is too much,' " Kaplan said. "There could be a big pushback from ordinary taxpayers who used to get these benefits and had them taken away or who never got them at all."
Private companies have increasingly scaled back retiree health-care benefits or eliminated coverage entirely to shore up bruised bottom lines and investor confidence, said Kaplan, whose research appears in the current issue of the Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law and Ethics.
Among U.S. companies with at least 200 employees, only 35 percent provided any retiree health-care benefits in 2006, compared with 66 percent in 1988. Kaplan says similar tough choices lie ahead for government, where retiree health-care benefits are more common, offered by 48 of 50 states and most local governments.
"Health-care benefits for government retirees are going to face considerable scrutiny, probably for the first time, because the accounting standards will make balance sheets look terrible," he said. "And unlike with pensions, which are at least partially funded, most governments have set aside little or no money for retiree health-care coverage."
Courts have almost universally backed businesses in lawsuits over reduced or eliminated benefits, said Kaplan, a law professor and member of the National Academy of Social Insurance. Employee benefit plans typically include provisions that give employers the right to amend key terms - even after workers have retired - despite objections that such moves amount to breaking a promise with retirees.
Kaplan says early retirees face the greatest risk when benefits are scaled back because they are too young to qualify for Medicare, but old enough to face high premiums for private policies - if they can get coverage at all.
"The peril for them is that they took a reduced pension to retire early and now they have this serious financial exposure for health care," he said. "A major health problem could mean economic ruin."
To plug the coverage gap, Congress should revisit extending Medicare eligibility to age 55, an idea first floated by the Clinton administration in 1998, according to the study, co- Nicholas J. Powers, an independent scholar with a law degree and doctorate in economics, and Jordan Zucker, now an associate with the law firm of DLA Piper in Chicago. Both studied under Kaplan at the U. of I. College of Law.
Kaplan says early retirees might be protected under health-care reform sought by the Obama administration that would cover the uninsured, but that proposal faces uncertain prospects.
Without change, the erosion of retiree health-care benefits could ultimately throw the U.S. job market out of balance, he said.
"This isn't just an issue for older people. If older workers do not retire, there may be fewer opportunities for young people entering the workforce," Kaplan said. "Our study examined every reported court decision dealing with this issue and found that the message to employees was pretty clear: You rely on your employer's promises of retiree health benefits at your own risk."
The study: "Retirees at Risk: The Precarious Promise of Post-Employment Health Benefits"
Jan Dennis
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
A nearly two-decade trend that is stripping away employer-provided health-care benefits for retirees in private business will likely continue and could soon hit an even deeper pool of government retirees, new research by a University of Illinois elder law expert warns.

subset: commoncrawl


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ST Now, News As It Happens - Jan 3, 2018
Published:Jan 3, 2018, 6:55 am SGT
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|In stock:
|Item code:
Colour: Creamy White
Tasting Notes: Authentic, intense and velvety cacao taste. Incredibly creamy, smooth, rich and perfectly balanced texture.
Serving Size: 1pump = 15ml, 1/2oz
Unlike "chocolate" (i.e. milk chocolate or dark chocolate), the rich, buttery flavor of white chocolate is not derived from the cocoa bean itself, but from cocoa butter. The sweet, subtle flavour of white chocolate perfectly complements and enhances other flavours.
A creamy white chocolate taste which enhances your steamer! Try to combine it with MONIN Matcha Green Tea syrup and milk, and you'll be amazed by its unusual smooth taste. Add a hint of MONIN White Chocolate sauce in your frozen preparation to keep the consistent texture longer.
Nutrition Facts per 100ml: Energy 385Kcal, Protein 13g, Carb 71.5g, Fat 5.2g, Sodium 91mg/l


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Consumer Alert
Why You Should Get Your Free Credit Report Every Year
The Consumer Protection Unit of the Attorney General's Office recommends that you take advantage of your rights under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and obtain free copies of your credit reports each year.
Your credit report is a list of your credit accounts and credit history. It shows how much you owe on your credit cards, your mortgage, and other loans. It also tells whether you pay your bills on time and if you have filed for bankruptcy or have tax liens or monetary judgments against you. Having an accurate credit report can have a huge impact on your life. Your credit report is reviewed when you apply for a loan for a house or car, buy insurance, apply for certain jobs or even rent a home.
You should check your credit report every year for accuracy, correct any errors you find -- and make sure no one is using your identity to open a new credit card account, obtain a loan or take other action pretending to be you.
There are three primary nationwide companies that compile this information and sell it to creditors, insurers, employers, and others. These companies are Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. You can obtain a free report from each company once every 12 months. However, be aware that there are websites that offer "free" credit reports, but end up charging you money or requiring you to sign up for a service before giving you a copy of your report. There is only one official place to get a free credit report that is authorized and guaranteed by law: the website is www.AnnualCreditReport.com.
For more information:
- Consumer Union - How to get your free credit report or call 1-877-322-8228.
- Department of Law's information on credit reports
- Federal Trade Commission - Credit Reports & Scoring
Consumer Protection Unit
February 2012


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|F*** cinematic trailers.
|PC gamers should get that petition started right now.
also video has been removed
last edited by ravn0s at 14:24:38 08/Dec/12
|holy f*****g s*** yes
dark souls is pretty much all i play these days
|darksouls 1 on pc was an absolute joke, i hope they try harder this time
|the pc version was a complete after thought pushed on by fan petitions and they pretty much openly said they didn't really have any experience with PC or porting
just be happy it made it there at all considering it was never meant to be released on pc. i'd never buy it on pc regardless
interesting they have gone with dark souls 2 rather than a completely seperate game made in a similar vein like demons souls -> dark souls
but there is so much lore and plenty other places mentioned in dark souls that never got carried on or explained in detail in dark souls there would be plenty for them to work with for another game
last edited by paveway at 20:33:34 08/Dec/12
|my massive chubby for this has downsized after learning they have new creators involved and are going to make this new game 'more accesible' and 'more straight forward'
seems they got a taste of mainstream success with dark souls and want a bigger slice of that pie
|Yeah, I recall one of the main guys saying something about thinking the difficulty was too hard and he wanted to make it easier for everyone...
Which basically will destroy the whole point of the game. Any easier and it might as well be halo, because it wasn't really THAT difficult to begin with. All it takes is learning the (very) basic mechanics and getting used to timing. Any gamer worth his salt shouldn't have trouble with that.
|I bought Dark Souls for $20 ages ago and I am too scared to play it because of how hard people say it is :*(
|it's a learning curve fpot but don't be a pussy, just get involved once you take down a couple of bosses at the start you'll get hooked
not going to lie i used the wikis a fair bit to get me through some c***ish bits
fpot my 2 best tips for you;
1) you are going to die so expect it, when you do die try and learn why you died so you can not make the same mistake
2) when you die don't get the s**** and try and rush back to where you died because chances are you will get sloppy and died again which will enrage you even more because you'll lose your souls/humanity permanently
praise the sun
yeah it's not that difficult - once you know what you're doing lol
i don't think he said anything about making the game easier i think he mentioned maybe an easy mode
if they make the next one easier it will be a let down, i don't mind if they make the story and lore a bit more accesible because it really is a bit of a hassle if you want to learn anything about the back story to dark souls you really have to go searching by talking to all the vendors/npc's some of which might not be of any value to your current character build so you really have no use for them. also a lot of the lore is inserted into the descriptions of items which is just a pain reading every item and it is all fairly cryptic at the best of times so you really need to think about it to put the peices together
this guy has a full play through on youtube he's a bit of a guru in the community and explains the lore as he plays through
but if they make the game itself easier a lot of people aren't going to be impressed but it's the same old story i am sure a lot more people will buy the game - maybe they will do an easier mode which would be ok
last edited by paveway at 15:11:50 09/Dec/12
|I'm a bit scared that this will suck.
All the talk about making it "more accessible" smells of mediocrity.
|Better f*****g not put difficulty settings on this to make it easier, really don't need to change much just make it bigger and upgrade the graphics
|i don't really care if they put difficulty settings on it, you can opt out of that. and that only affects the eneemies damage etc
i just don't want the game design itself going soft
|Making the story "more obvious" also sounds like a terrible idea. One of the great aspects of Dark Souls was the indirect way the plot was revealed.
It created an atmosphere of mystery and ruined majestic that worked in tandem with the artistic style to create a real sense of adventure and freedom in the game.
Replacing that with an on-rails, exposition driven linear story would be a disaster for the brand.
|unfortunately it probably won't be a disaster for the brand, it will probably sell more games
it will be a disaster for the fans of the series
|Someone did a single segment (no saving) speed run of dark souls and finished it in just over 32 mins. Pretty amazing stuff.
|heh loved the run down into blighttown that was cool
and standing toe to toe parrying gwyn at the end is badass
though i am assuming that is some kind of bug where he jumps off the side where you place the lord vessel and it lets you into the kiln without having placed the lord souls ? sort of a let down there
|Yeah, that speed run was a huge letdown.
The Gwynn fight and the Anor Londo twins one shot were badass, but how can you call it a completion when you skip a third or more of the game with a bug.
|Pfft, it's not like it's listed as a 100% run.
but how can you call it a completion when you skip a third or more of the game with a bug.Skipping sections of a game using bugs is the essence of a speedrun.
|Yeah speed runs are just aiming to beat the game as fast as possible. Now a 100% speed run would be awesome for sure but would be a hell of a lot longer and harder and sure wouldn't be 1 endless run without saving.


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Press Release
November 13, 2012
HOPKINTON, Mass. - November 13, 2012 -
HOPKINTON, Mass. – November 13, 2012 – EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) today announced that Williams & Fudge, an accounts receivable management firm serving 1,200 colleges, universities and financial institutions, selected EMC ® VNX ® unified storage and EMC RecoverPoint ™ to transform its business operations and accelerate server and desktop virtualization . With EMC and VMware ® virtualization and cloud infrastructure technologies, the company has achieved business expansion, improved availability of mission-critical applications including Microsoft SharePoint, SQL Server and VMware Zimbra email; and significantly lowered hardware and support costs while delivering new services to its internal clients.
Williams & Fudge's business was expanding as demand increased for assistance with collecting receivables on college loans and other debt from higher-education and financial institutions. The firm's previous physical IT infrastructure lacked sufficient scalability to handle the company's growth. It also required significant management resources, which was a drain on Williams & Fudge's lean IT staff.
With the help of EMC Premier Velocity Solution Provider eGroup, Williams & Fudge selected EMC VNX unified storage to transform its business. VNX has enabled the firm it to deliver new IT services, such as the launch of a new business unit, to its internal clients. VNX provides Williams & Fudge with a FLASH 1 st automated tiering strategy that leverages the EMC FAST™ Suite, along with Flash and high-capacity disk drives. VNX supports Williams & Fudge's Microsoft SharePoint, SQL Server, VMware Zimbra email and custom-built Linux applications.
Williams & Fudge has virtualized 100% of its server infrastructure with VMware vSphere and has virtualized 260 desktops using VMware View. Williams & Fudge relies on VMware vStorage API for Array Integration (VAAI) and EMC VSI plug-ins for vCenter to streamline integration between VNX and VMware, enabling faster provisioning and copying of virtual machines, among other tasks.
For disaster recovery, Williams & Fudge uses EMC RecoverPoint continuous data protection and VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM) to replicate its virtualized infrastructures across two data centers located 200 miles apart.
Phillip Reynolds, Data Center Director, Williams & Fudge
"Our company has more than doubled in size to 360 employees while our lean IT staff of three employees has remained the same—something that wouldn't have been possible without EMC and VMware technology. As our company continues to grow—even two- or three-fold—we're very comfortable that EMC and VMware technology will enable our data center to scale with the business."
"We took a very hard look at another storage vendor but determined it wasn't going to deliver the performance we needed for our intensive SharePoint and SQL Server workloads and, in particular, our virtual desktop workload. Plus, it didn't have the streamlined integration with VMware that makes managing our environment so easy. EMC was the clear choice for us and we are extremely happy with how EMC has performed."
"We've transformed into a proactive business, ready for whatever comes next. If a new client project requires 50 additional staff members, we have the agility to create up 50 desktops in no time. For example, we supported the creation of a new division with employees who move to new workspaces every few weeks and need to log in to their desktops from different locations. By leveraging technology as a business enabler, we can rapidly respond to dynamic needs and deliver new services to attract clients."
"With EMC VNX and the FAST Suite backing our virtualized desktop infrastructure, we're getting great performance—even when boot storms occur. It's amazing—just a little flash goes a long way. Our call center agents log into their virtual desktops or reboot in only 30 seconds when it used to take five to 10 minutes for PCs. And because they operate on commissions, enabling our agents to get to work faster contributes to increased revenue for the company."
"SharePoint is the hub of our business operations that connects thousands of documents with our employees for filling out forms, submitting applications, and managing accounts. With VNX and Flash 1 st , we've been able to deliver instantaneous responses times to SharePoint indexing and search functions. SharePoint performance isn't even affected when the infrastructure loads 250 virtual desktops in 10 to 15 seconds. Unisphere comes with application-specific wizards for SharePoint that make it easy to provision storage and perform other administrative tasks."
"We credit EMC and VMware with enabling significant cost savings. We have decreasing potential hardware costs. The number of help desk calls and overall IT support cost per user also has dropped substantially. Instead of patching and maintaining hundreds of desktops and servers, we simply upgrade a few golden images. Lastly, as a result of the excellent integration between EMC and VMware solutions, we can add virtual desktops and machines, disk drives and applications very quickly and easily."
"EMC's RecoverPoint is one of those technologies that actually lives up to everything it is supposed to be. It has allowed our business to have peace of mind and to have our data backed up off-site with very little time to get the data moved over. The bandwidth reduction is phenomenal. We are doing this across a very small pipe."
"RecoverPoint and VMware SRM enable us to migrate all of our virtual machines from our primary data center to another site 200 miles away in about 30 minutes. Because everything is integrated and pre-scripted, we just press a button and it's done. As a result of having an agile cloud infrastructure, we have achieved 100% availability with virtually zero RPO and RTO's. I can sleep well at night knowing our data is protected."
, a part of , enables organizations to modernize, automate and transform their using industry-leading , servers, and data protection technologies. This provides a trusted foundation for businesses to transform IT, through the creation of a , and transform their business through the creation of cloud-native applications and solutions. Dell EMC services customers across 180 countries – including 98 percent of the Fortune 500 – with the industry's most comprehensive and innovative portfolio from edge to core to cloud.


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Do you mean a yeast slurry?
Quote from: mtnrockhopper on February 18, 2013, 02:32:51 AMDo you mean a yeast slurry?Yea, the yeast I pour off from the bottom of the fermentor, to use on the next batch.
I think there might be a benefit if your intent is to freeze the slurry for any extended period. The barrier bags that the vacuum seal units employ would definitely protect against freezer burn...but again, it's probably only of benefit if your intent is to freeze it for a few months or more.You'd probably need to freeze the slurry first in a ziplock bag, then as soon as it has frozen remove it from the ziplock and seal the now frozen slurry the usual way in a vacuum seal bag.
...Sorry, but this is not good advice. You need to add a glycerin solution to yeast before freezing. The purpose of the glycerin is to keep the yeast from getting freezer burn (freezing solid and drying out) So you will not have a solid that can be transfered to another bag. The glycerin will maintain the yeast in a viscous liquid state.
I'm curious about how the cells would handle the negative pressure.


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Norfab Introduces the new CHOICE® in aluminized fabric.
Certified to NFPA 1971, 2013 Edition
The CHOICE™ line of aluminized fabrics meets and exceeds all the key protection standards typically associated with the use of aluminized fabrics for reflection of radiant heat and the shedding of molten metals. With physical properties second to none, the durability and functionality of CHOICE™ aluminized fabrics have been proven repeatedly in demanding field trials.
CHOICE™ aluminized fabrics are constructed in the time tested technique of adhering a thin polyester film with pure aluminum on both sides to a flame resistant textile substrate with a highly engineered adhesive system. The entire manufacturing process is conducted in the USA without the use of solvents.
Brands: NF Arc™
OMNI Quilt™
OMNI Vantage™
FAQ | Request Information | Contact Us | Facebook | Twitter | Linkedin


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Firms responding to the May Business Outlook Survey indicated that manufacturing growth fell back from the pace of recent months. The survey's broad indicators for general activity fell into negative territory for the first time in eight months. Indicators for new orders and employment also suggested slight declines from April. Input price pressures were less in evidence this month, and for the first time in nine months, more firms reported price declines for their products than reported increases. The survey's indicators of future activity remained positive but weakened considerably from April.
The survey's broadest measure of manufacturing conditions, the diffusion index of current activity, fell from a reading of 8.5 in April to -5.8 in May (see Chart 1). The index for new orders fell four points, from 2.7 to -1.2, its first negative reading in eight months. The shipments index edged 1 point higher and remained just above zero. The indexes for current unfilled orders and delivery times both declined and registered negative readings, suggesting lower levels of unfilled orders and faster deliveries.
Firms' responses suggest a slight decline in employment this month. The current employment index, which had been positive for eight consecutive months, decreased 19 points, to -1.3. The percentage of firms reporting decreases in employment (16 percent) was slightly higher than the percentage reporting increases (14 percent). Firms also reported a slight decrease in average hours worked compared with April.
Indexes for prices paid and prices received both decreased, suggesting that price pressures moderated this month. Fifteen percent of the firms reported higher prices for inputs this month, compared with 27 percent last month. The prices paid index declined 18 points. Firms also reported that prices received for their own goods fell: More firms reported price decreases (12 percent) than reported increases (8 percent). The prices received index decreased 14 points to its first negative reading in nine months.
The future general activity index fell notably, from a reading of 33.8 in April to 15.0 in May (see Chart 1). The indexes for future new orders and shipments remained positive but fell 9 and 10 points, respectively. While still positive, the future employment index showed notable deterioration this month, decreasing 17 points.
In special questions this month, firms were asked about the factors that are influencing their production and hiring plans (see Special Questions). While 54 percent of the firms expect to increase production over the next six months, only 21 percent plan to increase employment; 22 percent expect to increase work hours without increasing staff, and 17 percent plan to increase production by increasing the productivity of existing staff. Firms were asked to rank the three most important factors restraining hiring. The most frequently cited reason was the expectation of slow sales growth. Among the top three factors restraining hiring, the need to keep operating costs low (50 percent) ranked nearly as high as expected low sales growth (51 percent). Uncertainty about health-care costs, the inability to find skilled workers, and uncertainty about regulations and policies were also prominently listed.
The May Business Outlook Survey suggests that growth in the region's manufacturing sector fell back from last month. Firms reported lower levels of activity and nearly flat new orders and employment. Overall price pressures were reported to be on the wane this month. The outlook among the reporting firms was notably less optimistic.
|We do not expect to increase production
|We expect to increase production
|Hiring additional workers
|Increasing work hours without hiring additional workers
|Increasing productivity without hiring additional workers
Return to the main page for the Business Outlook Survey.


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Thanks Card
Tip: I used 3 different colors of Distress inks to create this card. Different shades of each color can be achieved by adding layers of the same color over itself. You can also create different colors by layering one color over another. The possibilities are endless! I like to cover the paper with the lightest color of ink I'm using, then add the darker inks here and there, then more of the lighter color. I like to use a cosmetic sponge wedge to apply the ink for a velvety finish and crisp edges of the pattern on the paper—it works especially well on the fine lettering on the tag that I cut into two pieces. I matted the tags with inked cardstock, but you could cut loosely around the edges of the tags, ink the excess at the edges, then trim to leave an inked border.
Supplies: (Find these supplies at www.paperwishes.com)


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As part of the The Civics and Media Project, each day we will be sharing one speaker's presentation from the Workshop 3 session titled '10 speakers, 5 minutes, 1 slide'. Workshop 3 was held on Thursday, 19 November 2015, at the Royal Society of New Zealand in Wellington.
Today, we share with you Tara Ross's presentation. Speakers were asked to present three ideas on how we might achieve a well-informed civil society in 2030. Below are Tara's ideas.
Hear more about her three ideas in her presentation below. The presentations are also available to view on our YouTube channel.
We would like to acknowledge all the speakers and participants; their input was critical. The speakers were Dame Dr Claudia Orange, Dr Carwyn Jones, Jane Wrightson,
Dr Helen Sissons, Dr Siouxsie Wiles, Louise Green, Terry Burrell, Tara Ross, Sylvia Nissen and James Dunne.
Project work programme for 2016
After the publication of the workshop booklet in early 2016, our first additional output will be in Policy Quarterly. The Civics and Media Project has been given space for three articles in the May issue to articulate our findings and inform the policy community. The focus after that will be the World Journalism Education Congress, which will be held in Auckland from 14 to 16 July 2016. The project sponsors have been invited both to attend the conference and to present a session discussing the ways forward that were developed throughout the workshop series.


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"Come with me if you want to live."
For a great selection of film, comic and TV action figures and collectibles, check out BigBadToyStore.com, Urban-Collector.com, BriansToys.com, DollsAmerica.com, ClarkToys.com, ToyWiz.com, VNCToys.com, PastGenerationToys.com, MonkeyDepot.com, RPMDiecast.com, HobbyLinkJapan.com, YesAnimation.com, and SuperheroToys.com.
For a great selection of film, TV and pop culture t-shirts and apparel, check out TShirtGurus.com and 80sTees.com.
For good or bad, the release of Terminator Salvation has ushered in a new surge of Terminator-related merchandise. While a couple of toy companies gambled with the fourth film (hey, I liked it!), NECA found a comfortable niche with a tried-and-true classic: Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Taking four of Arnold Schwarzenegger's most iconic looks as the T-800 and throwing in an evil Endoskeleton for good measure, this line of 7-inch action figures amazes with good looks and kick-butt Ahnold attitude. Series 1 released earlier this year was cool, but with figures now fetching around $15 a pop, cool just doesn't cut it for me. They have to knock my socks off. T2 Series 2 does just that, delivering an impressive minigun-toting Arnie from the Cyberdyne Showdown scene and a Final Battle T-800 with extensive battle damage and grenade launcher. The re-release of the T-800 Endoskeleton in this wave even excels over the first assortment, the cyborg trading in its tired Phased Plasma Rifle for a wicked Phased Plasma Minigun.
T-800 [Cyberdyne Showdown]
With this awesome figure fans can pretend Arnold isn't some goody two-shoes Terminator, but an actual unstoppable killing machine, ala Terminator 1, mowing down everything and EVERYONE with his handheld General Electric M134 Minigun. The weapon is very cool, featuring a long chain of ammo that feeds into a black shoulder bag. The bullet belt is affixed to both the bag and minigun so there is no worry of the ammo coming detached. The bag slips on his right shoulder easy as pie, though it has a tendency to fall off if posing your figure. Since I don't plan on ever taking it off, I placed a small dab of glue on the strap to keep it in place. The Cyberdyne Showdown T-800 also includes a Vietnam-era M79 grenade launcher that slings over his other shoulder. Again, it is prone to slide off, so I glued mine down. I see no reason to have him hold it, his GE M134 Minigun is MORE than adequate.
The headsculpt for this figure is undeniably Arnold Schwarzenegger, especially in profile. It's certainly the best Arnold we've gotten in action figure form on this scale. What's extra nice about it is the ball-joint NECA used for neck articulation. The articulation point, used in the Final Battle T-800 and first two Series 1 figures as well, allows for a wide range of movement: Tilted sternly down, cocked to the side or peering straight up. Having ball-jointed heads on these figures also allows you to swap out Arnold heads. Want that super battle-damaged head on the Cyberdyne Arnie? No problemo.
With big guns and a "clean" mug, the T2 Cyberdyne Showdown figure is the one to grab. For an Arnie a little rough around the edges, look no further than...
T-800 [Final Battle]
Fans received a figure similar to this way back with McFarlane's Movie Maniacs. Way back when Arnold Schwarzenegger's portrait was off-limits. NECA's Final Battle T-800 ups the ante on Todd's uber-battle damaged "Arnold" by giving collectors not only a heavily marred headsculpt that still resembles Arnie, but also a less damaged head that is unquestionably the Govenator.
Deciding on which head to put on my figure was HARD, but I ultimately went with the been-through-hell-and-back sculpt. The figure's composition this way flows fantastically; one's eye is drawn from the steel skull poking through half his face, past the huge hole in his chest, over to the savagely ripped off left arm, and down to his exposed Endoskeleton knee cap.
Pictured above is a closer look at that missing arm; gore and wires spewing in all directions. Good stuff. Other fine details on this figure include fine bullet holes riddled across the back of his leather jacket and the absence of grenades on the bandolier strapped across his chest. Each "cloth" grenade ring is slightly collapsed, realistically miming how real material would behave. This is an amazing recreation of Arnold on his last leg, his last grenade, his final stand.
T-800 Endoskeleton
I passed on the Series 1 re-release of this Terminator because it was just to similar to the one I purchased back in the Cult Classics line. A new headsculpt and paint job just weren't enough to sway me. It took an entirely new weapon, in addition to those improvements, to make me budge. Packing a Phased Plasma Minigun, the Series 2 T-800 Endoskeleton is that heavy weapons specialist my Terminator army has been looking for. I had a bit of trouble getting him to hold the gun properily, however, but nothing a small dab of Superglue on his left, forward gripping hand couldn't fix. The T-800 Endo also comes with an alternate open right hand for those wishing to display him sans awesome weapon (Shame on you!)
Like the Series 1 Endo with Phased Plasma Rifle, this one too features a new paint job. It's much more chrome-like than the Cult Classics version and is a very welcome change. The other alteration NECA made is with the headsculpt. These new Endos ditch the wide-eyed blank stare for a way cooler, menacing squinted look. There's two additonal new neck wires as well, further showing NECA really wanted to make this the most accurate small scale Endoskeleton out there. And it ALMOST is. It has articulation out the wazoo, a great sculpt and a killer weapon, BUT it lacks that very cool display base NECA released with the Cult Classics version. I absolutely love that base, but with economic times the way they are, I totally understand why it wasn't included. Perhaps we can get a fully loaded T-800 Endoskeleton boxed set in the future?
NECA has stated that they COULD do a third wave, but have no plans to do so at this time. Personally I can't think of any other Arnold T2 looks that I'd like to see, though a NECA action figure of the original 1984 Terminator Arnie would make my day.
T2 Series 2 is an outstanding trio of figures that no Terminator fan should be without.
For over 90 new images of NECA's Terminator 2 Series 2, CLICK HERE!
Review and Photos by Jeff Saylor


text: As small hobby breeders, our goal is to breed top quality labrador retrievers that are loving family pets as well as great hunting companions. Training our labradors is a great joy and pleasure. There are many ponds and great locations to train on through out the farm. All of our dogs are worked with everyday on basic commands, hunting skills and ABSOLUTELY loved by our family! Labrador retrievers are our passion and we hope you enjoy them as much as we do!


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Search and order online
ESA Euronews: The Space Truck
- Video Online only
- Title ESA Euronews: The Space Truck
- Released: 20/05/2011
- Length 00:12:00
- Language English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
- Footage Type Documentary
- Copyright ESA
- Description
The European cargo spacecraft ATV is the most complex vehicle ever built to re-supply an International Space Station.
It can take nearly eight tonnes of cargo and uses artificial intelligence to accomplish some of its more complicated manoeuvres.
The Space Truck and its possible developments are the theme of this episode of 'Space'.


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Our design takes classic elements from the great car brought together to make a truly unique rugby shirt. Slightly quirky, this will appeal to escort fans and rally enthusiasts alike, whilst leaving others simply wondering!
Build Specification for your Escort Rugby Shirt includes:-
A blue body and white collar made from 100% ringspun, 300gsm weight cotton.
Authentic "SJN 830R" number plate on the front.
Authentic "Lombard" White rally door square with number "4" printed on the back.
And the caption:-
1978 RAC Rally
Hannu Mikkola & Arne Hertz
1st Overall
MkII Escort RS1800
A celebration of a true legend this is your chance to own, and wear a legend and rally winner!
Blue & White
Available Options:
Copyright ©
2020 Tartan Red.com


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European Union must ask India to act on rights abuses
Published: 21st January 2013 01:31 PM | Last Updated: 21st January 2013 01:31 PM | A+A A-
The European Union should use its rights dialogue with India to
encourage the government to ensure accountability for abuses and
strengthen the protection of women, children, Dalits, and other
vulnerable communities, Human Rights Watch said Monday.
The rights body said this in a letter to ambassador Joao Cravinho, head of the EU Delegation to India. The EU-India Local Human Rights Dialogue will be held in New Delhi Tuesday.
The EU should urge India to end effective legal immunity granted to state security forces under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and the criminal procedure code for violations of fundamental rights, including torture, rape, and extrajudicial killings, Human Rights Watch said.
"The Indian government often has noble intentions when it comes to creating laws and policies, but too often the impact on the lives of ordinary Indians is minimal," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The EU-India rights dialogue is an important opportunity for the EU to help India turn good intentions into real changes."
The Indian government has recently taken some positive steps to improve human rights protections, including enacting a new law to protect children from sexual abuse and proposing amendments to existing laws on sexual assault. However, implementation will remain a challenge unless the government holds accountable the officials tasked to enforce the laws.


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Q: What's your current role and what career
path brought you here?
J.O.: I'm currently a partner and one of the
founding team members at Altimeter
Group. I'm currently the Research Director, as well as wear the hat
of Industry Analyst. Prior to joining Altimeter, I was an Industry Analyst at
Forrester covering Social Computing, and before that, deployed and managed the
social media program at Hitachi Data Systems in Santa Clara. Around that
time, I started a career blog called Web Strategy which focused on how
companies were using the web to connect with customers --and never looked back.
Q: As an industry analyst, what are you focused on
these days?
J.O.: There are three trends that I'm focused my
research on at this time: 1) The Dynamic Customer Journey:
Individuals (both b2c and b2b) are given so many options in their sources
of data, channels to choose from and screens to consume them on that we've
found that at each given touchpoint there are 75 potential permutations.
Companies that can map this, then deliver information to individuals when
they need it will have a competitive advantage and we want to find out who's
doing this. 2) One of the sub themes that supports this trend is Social
Performance. Yesterday's social web was disparate engagement of humans,
but the next phase will be data driven, and soon new technologies will emerge to
help all those that are consuming, publishing, and engaging on the social web
to be more efficient with their time through forms of automation. As you
might expect, this comes with upsides and downsides. 3) The Sentient
World is our research theme that looks out the furthest as the world around us
(even inanimate objects) become 'self aware' and are able to talk back to us
via digital devices and beyond. Big data, internet of things, mobile
devices will all be this next set.
Q: People cite that the line between work and life
is getting more and more blurred. Do you see your personal life influencing
your professional work?
J.O.: The lines between our work and personal lives
are dissolving, and this leads to a greater upside of being always connected
and have deeper relationships with those that are not. It also means a
downside of society expectations that we're always around and available for
colleagues, customers, and beyond. In the future, a balance will be
sought as we seek to achieve the goals of family, friends, work, and our own
personal desires. All of this is being ironically written at 430 am on a
Sunday am.
Q: How can people keep up with what you're
working on?
great question, thanks. There are a few sources of information to find
out, I'll lead with the first which is my blog at web-strategist.com. A few times a
week I'll publish my industry insights (hires, trends, forces, funding,
M&A, business needs) as well as on twitter where I'll point to all the news
that's fit to print @jowyang. As my research reports go live (we publish
them for all to read --called Open Research-- at no cost) they'll emerge on my
blog, or checkout the research tab to find out more now. http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/research/
Q: Recently, you've been working with us
here at Oracle on something exciting coming up later this week. What's on the
J.O.: Absolutely! This coming Thursday,
September 13th, I'm doing a webcast with Oracle on "Managing Social Relationships for the
Enterprise". This is going to be a great discussion with Reggie
Bradford, Senior Vice President of Product Development at Oracle and Christian
Finn, Senior Director of Product Management for Oracle WebCenter. I'm looking
forward to a great discussion around all those issues that so many companies
are struggling with these days as they realize how much social media is impacting their business. It's changing the
way your customers and employees interact with your brand. Today it's no longer
a matter of when to become a social-enabled enterprise, but how to become a
successful one.
Q: You've been very actively pursued for
media interviews and conference and company speaking engagements – anything
you'd like to share to give us a sneak peak of what to expect on Thursday's
J.O.: Below is a 15 minute video which encapsulates Altimeter's themes on the Dynamic Customer Journey and the Sentient World.
I'm really proud to have taken an active role in the first ever LeWeb
outside of Paris. This one, which was featured in downtown London
across the street from Westminster Abbey was sold out. If you've not
heard of LeWeb, this is a global Internet conference hosted by Loic and Geraldine
Le Meur, a power couple that stem from Paris but are also living in
Silicon Valley, this is one of my favorite conferences to connect with
brands, technology innovators, investors and friends.
Altimeter was able to play a minor role in suggesting the theme for
the event "Faster Than Real Time" which stems off previous LeWebs that
focused on the "Real time web". In this radical state, companies are
able to anticipate the needs of their customers by using data,
technology, and devices and deliver meaningful experiences before
customers even know they need it. I explore two of three of Altimeter's research themes, the Dynamic Customer Journey, and the Sentient World in my speech, but due to time, did not focus on Adaptive Organization.


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Newport Jazz Festival
Marcus Miller, Live In Concert: Newport Jazz 2013
Marcus Miller, Live In Concert: Newport Jazz 2013
Few musicians today are as versatile as Marcus Miller: bassist, keyboardist, bass clarinetist, film composer, producer and more. He does jazz, rock, jazz-rock, pop, R&B, smooth jazz — anything that black musicians have invented in the last half-century. He was in Miles Davis' last band, and the ethos of that music tends to carry over into his own. His band closed out day one on the main Fort stage.
Set List
All compositions by Marcus Miller.
- "Detroit"
- "Redemption"
- "Revelation"
- "Jekyll & Hyde"
- "Gorée"
- "Tutu"
- Marcus Miller, electric bass
- Lee Hogans, trumpet
- Alex Han, saxophones
- Brett Williams, keyboards
- Adam Agati, guitar
- Louis Cato, drummer


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This square shower base will complement any bathroom decor. Hand-built using the highest quality acrylic materials, this dual threshold shower base is also available with a stunning teak tray that adds a little bit of warmth to your shower experience.
Also available in 60 inch size.
Like all MTI products, all acrylic shower bases are built to order in the USA and ship within 14 business days, the fastest turnaround in the industry. Acrylic shower bases feature a 10 year limited warranty.
Please note, custom orders may not be returned. More information regarding the return policy of your custom-built MTI Whirlpools product is available here.
View Spec Sheet
Note: This item usually ships in 14 business days from the manufacturer. Please allow an additional 2-3 business days for order transmittal and verification.
Product Ratings & Reviews


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When describing a fighter making his first-ever cut to the welterweight division, one would assume the use of food as a metaphor would likely prove unwelcome.
Not so for "The Ultimate Fighter 11" finalist Kris McCray (5-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC). The former middleweight says his upcoming fight with Carlos Eduardo Rocha (8-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) at this weekend's UFC 122 event in Germany is like heading out the company barbecue, and there's no way his Brazilian opponent is getting the last helping on the buffet line.
"The training is the work," McCray told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). "The fun is when you know you're going to fight. It's like when you work, and at the end of the quarter your company has a barbecue. That's how I feel fighting is. We have about three or four fights a year, and it's basically the same kind of deal."
McCray's most recent company barbecue was in June where he was submitted by a scrappy Court McGee in the tournament final of "The Ultimate Fighter 11." Since then, McCray has dropped down to welterweight and started training alongside such MMA luminaries as Frankie Edgar, Renzo Gracie, Ricardo Almeida and Eddie Alvarez.
For a fighter who was relatively green heading into his "TUF" experience, McCray says the change has proven successful.
"Coming in, I knew I was a little behind the curve – the specific trainers, the nutritionists, the strength-and-training coaches, the pad guys," McCray said. "I just came with a lot of heart and toughness. … But I started getting with some good people, and hopefully I can start showcasing some of that."
McCray said in addition to his slimmed-down frame, he's also beefed up in all aspects of his fighting arsenal. "Savage" believes it's all thanks to the support of his new training partners.
"I'm a more complete fighter," McCray said. "I consider myself a student of this sport. I need to constantly learn and grow with the people around me. I surround myself with people that are moving in the same direction as me. To be the best fighter in the world is cool, and you see [Georges St-Pierre] roll into Renzo's, and you're like, 'That dude made it. He's the man.' That's who you strive to be.
"I want to continue to surround myself with people who want to be champions and stay champions and continue moving forward. I'm going to follow the trail they make in the snow right to the top."
That trail starts against Rocha, and McCray admits to being a little in the dark regarding the newcomers skills, but he insists he's prepared for all the likely scenarios.
"[My coaches] don't know much about him," McCray said. "I don't know much about him. I know he's a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, so his ground game is going to be his strength. They're preparing me for that. Those guys are great."
And ultimately, Rocha is trying to cut ahead in that company line and take what McCray believes belongs to him. That's all the motivation he needs.
"There's one plate of your mom's mashed potatoes left and a little piece of chicken, and you're not that full yet," McCray said with a laugh. "You have to hit that and hit the volleyball court.
"I want to get in there and win and showcase some of my new skills and talent and just get out of there. I want to punch in and punch out, and the earlier the better."
For more on UFC 122, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of MMAjunkie.com.
MMAjunkie.com Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) live from the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino's Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by Gorgeous George, MMAjunkie.com lead staff reporter John Morgan and producer Goze. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.


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For Release in: North America: July 2013
Release Number: 326PR13
Caterpillar has revamped GovBidSpec.com, creating a next-generation web destination for public procurement professionals. This updated site gives governmental buyers faster, easier access to the information they need to make well-informed equipment investment decisions.
Knowing that governmental agencies face unprecedented time and resource constraints, Caterpillar revamped GovBidSpec.com to enhance content and streamline navigation efficiency. An all-new structure includes a simpler navigation menu and feature boxes that take users directly to vital information about Cat® products, bid specifications, procurement tools, dealer support and more. This resource-rich site also includes educational materials, Life Cycle Costing content and valuable information about how to save time, control costs and reduce risk with cooperative purchasing contracts. Visitors to the site will be able to sign up to receive news relevant to their industries.
To keep GovBidSpec.com fresh and informative, the site will be updated regularly with new resources such as white papers, articles and case studies. A digital RFP builder that makes it easy for governmental buyers to request total cost information from bidders is scheduled to be added to the site later in 2013.
For more information about the re-launch of GovBidSpec.com, contact Debbie Closen at 309-675-8684 or firstname.lastname@example.com or visit your local Cat dealer.
# # #
Note to Editors: Caterpillar rolls-out products and services in each of its territories at different time intervals. Although every effort is made to ensure that product information is released only after Caterpillar has received confirmation from our dealer network, our plants, and our marketing subsidiaries that products and services are available in the relevant region, editors are kindly requested to verify with their local dealer for product availability and specifications.
Sharon Holling: firstname.lastname@example.com
Europe, Africa, Middle East
Francine Shore: email@example.com
General Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Reader Requests


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Scoil Chiaráin C.B.S
Welcome to this website
The blog of 16/17!
Scoil Chiaráin Blog
What we think?
What's Going On?
We Like to Move it!
The Green Machine!
Keep It Green]
Assembly Snaps!
Check us out!
Here we go Rang a 2!
Busy bees Rang a 3
Mad Hatters-Rang 4!
We strive Rang 5!
An-obair Rang 5!
On the way Rang 6!
In the Mix Room 6!
Mister Men Room 10!
Heaven in Room 11!
Ms Conroy's Corner!
Green SchoolJan-June
Check out our pics!!Hard at work!(kind of!)
Nov. 18, 2016
Getting creative with pumpkin carving!
Fifth went all out for Halloween with terrific pumpkin carving!
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Huntsy: A Smart Dashboard for Your Job Search
Ask any job seeker, and he'll tell you that looking for a job is, in and of itself, a job. It's time-consuming to prep your cover letter, tweak your resume, follow up and plan your interview, especially when you're applying for multiple positions. Sure, you could make an intense, color-coded spreadsheet — but most of us aren't that Type A. That's where Huntsy comes in — it's like HootSuite for your job search. Huntsy's dashboard offer's a bird's eye view (hence the owl logo) of your job hunt, offering a bird's-eye view of your professional prospects.
"People are applying to many different places — Huntsy is our way to make it easy for them," says Cezary Pietrzak, Huntsy's director of marketing. "The category is just so dusty."
Huntsy's cleaning it off with a slick UI and an organized and social approach to the intimidating job search. You can create an account via your Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn profiles (or create a new login if you eschew connecting via social sites), and then install the bookmarklet or Chrome extension into your browser. As you sift through job listings — on a company's website, the Mashable job board, LinkedIn, Krop, CareerBuilder, Github, Monster and more — you can click the Huntsy bookmarklet to save exciting prospects. A Huntsy widget will push down in the browser and fill out the necessary details — company, title and job description — by extracting it from the job listing.
The bookmarklet in action
Once you click "Add to Huntsy," the job will be added to your dashboard, which looks like this:
The dashboard
Within the dashboard, you can schedule interviews and follow-ups, receive reminders to send thank-you notes, uncover professional connections at various companies (if you linked your social networks) and, most importantly, apply to jobs directly. If you're applying to some jobs in marketing and others in PR, Huntsy can save several versions of your resume and a few different cover letters, letting you emphasize certain strengths and experiences for various positions. When you submit your application, your resume is included in the email as a unique, downloadable link. No longer must you feel as though your application has been thrust into a black hole, never to be seen by human eyes, because you'll receive a notification the moment someone downloads your resume. This feature enables you to have great timing with a follow-up email, since you'll know that your resume is fresh in the recruiter's mind. (The application email also BCC's Huntsy, so the dashboard can track your actions throughout the application process and help you stay on top of each step.)
If you're diligent about using Huntsy, then the email notifications and "today's tasks" could keep you top of your application process, especially if you're applying to more than a handful of positions. Pietrzak says Huntsy's streamlining can save job seekers two to four hours per week, in addition to helping the hunt stay organized and productive.
"You start to have a sense of what's going on in your job search," says Pietrzak of Huntsy's guidance tools. Plus, the way Huntsy breaks the application process into small steps makes the user feel like he is "getting somewhere" something every step of the way — a valuable feature, since the job search often can be daunting and overwhelming.
The site launched less than a month ago and has signed up more than 5,000 users, who are spending 10 minutes on the site per session, says Pietrzak. And many of them are coming back — 40% of the visitors are returning, suggesting that they are in fact using Huntsy with some regularity to manage and streamline their job search. The team is working to perfect the functionality and add new features, including calendar integration (for all of those reminders and interview dates) and linking with Google+. Since it's still new, the bookmarklet can be a little buggy and tends to not fully extract all of the details for some jobs, but a simple copy-and-paste can load everything into your dashboard.
Huntsy is based in New York and was born out of the QLabs hacker community, where the team shares office space with Turntable.fm and Nestio, a Huntsy-esque dashboard for the apartment search.
Does Huntsy sound like it'd be a useful tool for your job search? Let us know in the comments.
Social Media Job Listings
Every week we post a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we publish a huge range of job listings, we've selected some of the top social media job opportunities from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting!
Junior Web Designer at Control Group in New York
Art Director at 2tor in Hyattsville, Md.
Chief Blogger at NVIDIA in Santa Clara, Calif.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, JulNichols


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The Hook - Charlottesville's weekly newspaper, news magazine
Search this site:
water conservation
Snap: Prepping for gowns, UVA powerwashes its caps
Published on
May 8th, 2011
5 comments
UVA gussies its grounds for Final Exercises, aka graduation day, which is Sunday, May 22. Governor Bob McDonnell is the keynote speaker.
Snap: Water-saving at Bodo's
Published on
Nov 7th, 2009
3 comments
The downtown Bodo's has recently joined Charlottesville Radio Group as a business embracing the no-water urinal from Sloan, as this photo of the overhauled men's room indicates. Perhaps this kind of...
'No-brainer': Harvesting story prompts rain to Kaine
Published on
Aug 8th, 2009
4 comments
Hydraulic Wash's struggle to install a rainwater collection system has made its way to Gov. Tim Kaine's desk. FILE PHOTO BY WILL WALKER As the Hook recently reported, a county laundromat owner...
City pays landlords to save water
Published on
Jul 21st, 2009
5 comments
The Hook's landlord just received a $200 check from the City of Charlottesville as a rebate for installing two low-flow toilets. Given that the landlord, Portico Properties, only spent about $200...
© 2002-2012 Better Publications LLC - The Hook
100 Second Street NW - Charlottesville, VA 22902
434-295-8700 (fax: 434-295-8097)


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Windwood, a gated community, would be Neal Communities' first project in the city of Venice
Windwood, a gated community on Pinebrook Road proposed by developer Pat Neal, could become the well-known homebuilder's first project in Venice.
Neal Communities of Southwest Florida's plans for the 90-home subdivision cleared an initial hurdle Tuesday, when the Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval.
The City Council will have the final say.
"This is the first of several projects we're going to be bringing you," Dale Weidemiller, special projects manager for Neal Communities, told the planning board.
Neal Communities is building on lots it acquired in Sawgrass, a gated golf community off Auburn Road. It designed and is the sole developer of Grand Palm, a neighborhood at Center Road and River Road approved by Sarasota County.
Windwood is the first community for which the Lakewood Ranch-based company has sought approval by the city of Venice.
The 46-acre site is on the west side of Pinebrook Road and east of the Sorrento Ranches subdivision. It is separated by a Florida Power & Light easement on the north from the new Plaza Venezia shopping center on Laurel Road.
The site is currently zoned for five-acre lots. Neal wants a zoning classification that allows up to five homes per acre, though he is asking for slightly less than two homes per acre.
The plan calls for a maximum building height of two stories and a minimum lot size of 6,500 square feet.
Weidemiller emphasized that, though other developers failed during the recession, Neal Communities kept selling homes.
"When we start a project, we finish it," he told city planners. "When we make promises, we keep them."
Windwood's homebuyers are likely to be "empty nesters" as well as families with children, Weidemiller said.
The city annexed the site in December 2003.
In 2008, the city approved the proposed Bella Citta project there with a density of 3.89 townhouses and condos per acre. The Circuit Court overturned the rezoning on the grounds that suing homeowners in Sorrento Ranches did not get due process.
Bella Citta LLC lost the property to foreclosure in November 2012.
The homeowners association in Sorrento Ranches wrote a letter of support for the less-dense Windwood plan, Weidemiller said.
No one from the area appeared before the Planning Commission to speak for or against the project.
Another proposed subdivision in Venice by Neal is attracting intense opposition. Nearby residents on rural homesites regard the proposed The Woods at Venice, at Jackson and Border roads, as too dense. Neal is requesting two homes per acre at that site as well.
Although it got a preview of the plans a few weeks ago, the Planning Commission has yet to conduct a public hearing about The Woods at Venice.


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Tag Archives: Pencils
An Old Friend
A few months ago I revisited an old friend of mine, one I hadn't seen in a long time, my sketch pad and pens. It was rocky at first, lots of ripping out paper and crumbling it up, trying again. … Continue reading
Posted in My Art Tagged Drawings, Facebook, Imagination, Little Art, Long Time, Louvre, Loving Others, Memory, Old Friend, Pencils, Pens, Recieved, Sketch Pad 1 Comment


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Turismo de Galicia wants to promote and favour the walking activity as a way to approach to our natural areas and our ethnographical and monumental heritage, as a complement to the development of sustainable tourism. Under the name "sendegal" this app is already at your free disposal in the smartphones i-phone and android.
Official app with birding routes for tourists in Galicia. The Axencia Turismo de Galicia provides this app to assist you on your visit to Galicia as a bird-watching tourism destination. It will help you thoroughly explore the most important bird-watching spots in Galicia through birding routes designed especially for tourists.
Official application from the Costa da Morte Association of Tourism - CMAT. Discover the magnificent landscapes that the Costa da Morte has to offer.


text: ROG Strix GeForceR GTX 1050 Ti 4GB GDDR5 with ASUS Aura Sync & G-SYNC? for best 1080p gaming DirectCU II with Patented Wing-Blade 0dB Fans for 30% cooler and 3X quieter performance. ASUS FanConnect features 4-pin GPU-controlled header connected to system fans for optimal cooling. Industry Only Auto-Extreme Technology with Super Alloy Power II delivers premium quality and the best reliability. ASUS Aura Sync for perfect RGB LED synchronization. GPU Tweak II with XSplit Gamecaster provides intuitive performance tweaking and real-time streaming. NVIDIA ANSEL for a revolutionary new way to capture in-game screenshots. NVIDIA GameWorks™ provides an interactive and cinematic experience, as well as incredibly smooth gameplay. Shop Modal header OUTSHINE THE COMPETITION LEVEL UP PERFORMANCE GAME COOL AND PLAY SILENT PREMIUM QUALITY AND BEST RELIABILITY PERSONALIZED GAMING STYLE GEAR UP FOR ULTIMATE GAMING EXPERIENCE GAME YOUR WAY OUTSHINE THE COMPETITION ROG Strix GeForce® GTX 1050 Ti gaming graphics cards are packed with exclusive ASUS technologies, including DirectCU II Technology with Patented Wing-Blade Fans for up to 30% cooler and 3X quieter performance, and Industry-only Auto-Extreme Technology for premium quality and the best reliability. Aura RGB Lighting enables a gaming system personalization. ROG Strix GeForce® GTX 1050 Ti also has GPU Tweak II with XSplit Gamecaster that provides intuitive performance tweaking and instant gameplay streaming. LEVEL UP PERFORMANCE Uingine Heaven 4.0™ Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Rise of the Tomb Raider™ Resolution: 1920 x 1080 GAME COOL AND PLAY SILENT DirectCU II Technology with Direct-GPU Contact Heatpipes 30% Cooler and 3X Quieter Performance Exclusive DirectCU II cooling technology features direct-GPU contact heatpipes that transports more heat away from the GPU and outperform reference designs, achieving up to 30% cooler gaming performance. * Image for illustration only. Actual design may vary. Patented Dual Wing-Blade 0dB Fans Max Air Flow with 105% More Air Pressure DirectCU II features dual 0dB fans engineered with a patented wing-blade design that delivers maximum air flow and improved 105% static pressure over the heat sink, while operating at 3X quieter volumes than reference cards. The 0dB fans also let you enjoy games in complete silence and make DirectCU II the coolest and quietest graphics card in the market. ASUS FanConnect Targeted Supplemental Cooling When gaming, GPU temperatures are often higher than CPU temps. However, chassis fans usually reference CPU temperatures only, which results in inefficient cooling of the system. For optimal thermal performance, ROG Strix GeForce® GTX 1050 Ti graphics cards feature a 4-pin GPU-controlled header that can be connected to system fan for targeted supplemental cooling. * Image for illustration only. Actual PC layout and graphics card design may vary. PREMIUM QUALITY AND BEST RELIABILITY Auto-Extreme Technology Industry-only 100% Automated Production Process All ASUS graphics cards are now produced using Auto-Extreme Technology, an industry-exclusive, 100% automated production process that incorporates premium materials to set a new standard of quality. Auto-Extreme Technology ensures consistent graphics card quality as well as improved performance and longevity. 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text:
252 x 232 mm
Art in Sixteenth-Century Venice: Context, Practices, Developments. Proceedings of a Conference in Honour of Peter Humfrey (University of St Andrews, 3rd–6th May 2012) – PART TWO
252 x 232 mm
Art in Sixteenth-Century Venice: Context, Practices, Developments. Proceedings of a Conference in Honour of Peter Humfrey (University of St Andrews, 3rd–6th May 2012) – PART TWO
Lorenzo Lotto's Shrouds and Veils (pp. 9-28)
Lorenzo Lotto deploys all manner of draperies and cloths within his paintings. He not only observes textiles closely, he uses them to dramatize appearances, staging local disturbances in grand canopies and curtains as well as in more intimate veils. Drapes and cloths are instruments of disclosure and concealment. In this paper I explore two complementary aspects of Lotto's devotion to cloths, which in a manner characteristic of currents in contemporary spirituality brings together the domestic and the ecclesiastical. In the Madonna and Child with Saints in Cracow, the veil supporting the Child alludes to his shroud. In Lotto's altarpieces, notably the Entombment in Jesi, Christ's shroud and the silken cloth draped over the tomb are analogous to the furnishings of the altar. Some precedent for this can be found in the paintings of Lotto's Venetian predecessor in the Marche, Carlo Crivelli. In Lotto's smaller religious paintings, such as Christ Taking Leave of his Mother, he points to domestic equivalents – such as towels, handkerchiefs, napkins – for the vestments of Christian ritual.
An Ecce Homo by Lorenzo Lotto (pp. 29-37)
The article presents a hitherto unpublished painting of Ecce Homo. The composition is based on an iconographical tradition of Lombard origin (Andrea Solario), but the picture betrays Venetian hand. The author has been identifi ed here as Lorenzo Lotto, and the work has been dated to the early to mid-1520s, when the artist lived and worked between Bergamo and Venice. The picture shows Christ in utter humiliation, with lowered head and forward-bent body, which makes the fi gure almost tangible for the beholder. The spirituality embodied in this image recalls the religious writings of Pietro Aretino, but even more so the well-known treatise attributed to Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, a copy of which was owned by Lotto. Such spirituality characterized the supporters of the 'reformed' social institutions in Venice, such as the Ospedale dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo (Ospedaletto) of which Lotto was a governatore. Christ's disproportionately large hand serves here to underline His humanity as well as His humility, as is the case of Christ's hands in contemporary representations of Christ Carrying the Cross by Romanino and Lorenzo Lotto. Unfortunately, nothing is known about the circumstances of the painting's commission or its early history.
Murder and Martyrdom: Titian's Gesuiti Saint Lawrence as a Family Peace Offering (pp. 39-54)
For centuries viewers have been captivated by Titian's first version of the fi ery demise of Saint Lawrence in Venice's Chiesa dei Gesuiti. This study returns this innovative work to its original context in the lost church of the Crociferi, and presents new evidence for the circumstances of its commission. While it has long been established fact that the work was produced for the altar of Lorenzo Massolo and his wife Elisabetta Querini – the learned and beautiful muse of Pietro Bembo and Giovanni della Casa – what has never been entirely clear are their motivations for the selection of the altar in the Crociferi church and the rather unconventional choice for a dramatic scene of martyrdom to decorate it. The answer to these questions involves a brutal murder, a renegade monk, penitential parents and an intricate web of relationships and alliances between powerful patricians and literati that when unravelled, deepens our understanding of the violence of Titian's masterpiece.
Titian's Lost Annunciation Altarpiece for Murano: An Early Copy (pp. 55-59)
This short note publishes for the fi rst time an early, reduced-scale copy of Titian's lost Annunciation altarpiece from the mid-1530s in a church in the Scottish Borders. It is argued that this copy offers the best surviving record of the appearance of the lost original.
Domenico Bottazzo: A Forgotten Little Master (pp. 61-81)
Taking a series of documented data revealed by Antonio Sartori as the point of departure, the present study deals with a decorative scheme executed by the painter Domenico Bottazzo at the Scuola del Santo in Padua between 1508 and 1520. The artist was responsible for executing a painted decoration in monochrome ornaments of the ceiling made up of 144 panels, and decorating the lesenes and ornamental strips dividing pictorial compositions painted on walls. A decorative scheme that has never been studied before, it is exceptional because of its perfect state of preservation, the inventiveness of numerous solutions employed as well as the high level of workmanship. The painter knew how to attain equilibrium between various artistic inspirations drawn from the painting of Andrea Mantegna and Bernardino da Parenzo, as well as from sculpture, with references especially to Tullio and Antonio Lombardo, Andrea Riccio and Severo da Ravenna.
Jacopo Bassano's Baptism of Christ (pp. 83-103)
Jacopo Bassano's last altarpiece, the Baptism of Christ, has recently entered the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The painting was left in the artist's studio at his death, and listed in the inventory drawn up in 1592 as 'una Tavola d'altare sbozzata' (Ridolfi, writing in 1648, used the term 'non finita' to describe it). It was kept by the family until 1673, and only then did they sell it to another family from Bassano, with whom it remained until late in the following century. Re-discovered in the 1930s, it has since been recognized as one of the most moving and personal of Jacopo's late works, deviating from tradition both in its nocturnal setting and dramatic sense of foreboding. As the Baptism has just undergone cleaning and conservation, as well as a technical examination including infra-red refl ectography, X-radiography, and pigment analysis under the direction of Michael Gallagher (Chair, Department of Paintings Conservation), this is a propitious moment to look at it again, reassessing Bassano's approach to the subject and the altarpiece's place within the artist's later career. Cleaning and treatment have confi rmed the extraordinary, painterly quality of the work, leading to signifi cant new observations about his technique and the issue of 'non finito' in his late paintings.
Remarks on the Collectors' Portraits in Venice between the Late Cinquecento and Early Seicento (pp. 105-119)
The Venetian portrait painting of the Cinquecento and Seicento provides an important, even if small, group of portraits of people who were among the most signifi cant collectors of antiquities and paintings, ancient and modern. The portrait of a 'class' of people, rather than by a particular artist and, in this case, the portrait of the collector in Venice in the modern era, is a subject that has hitherto been only partially explored by scholars and therefore calls for further research and refl ection. Until now, these works have been studied almost exclusively with regard to the artist–client relationship, with the exception of the portrait of Andrea Odoni by Lorenzo Lotto, which is a kind of archetype of or prototype for the Venetian tradition of a collector's portrait, very different from its counterparts produced in the Flemish tradition, because the protagonist is always accompanied only by few objects associated with his collection, but never with pictures (even when, especially from the early seventeenth century, paintings gained a predominant place in the galleries of the Venetians). Moreover, in the fi rst half of the seventeenth century, some collectors preferred 'history' or allegorical portraits, which immortalized them in the guise of gods or characters from ancient history, from portraits in a setting featuring the works of art. The essay examines the relationship between portraits and literary and/or documentary sources, in the light of new evidence acquired in the course of the present research on Venetian collectors, and tries to show how the text and image contributed to outlining a biography of a collector, since portraits may be considered as a sort of 'visual biography', and it is therefore important to examine the extent to which the painted image of a person corresponds with the facts known from written sources (including wills, inventories, and treatises). The cases discussed include the portraits of: Giovanni Paolo Cornaro, Bartolomeo Dalla Nave, Lucas Van Uffel, Alvise Molin, Ludovico Widmann, as well as two anonymous collectors depicted in two little-known paintings attributed to Daniel van den Dyck and Bernardo Strozzi.
Painting Poetry: Bonifacio de' Pitati's Triumphs of Petrarch (pp. 121-141)
Bonifacio de Pitati's six paintings of the Triumphs of Petrarch have had a somewhat chequered history. The scheme was discussed at great length by Carlo Ridolfi in Le Maraviglie dell'arte of 1648, but from the mid-seventeenth-century the Triumphs were continually celebrated as important works by Titian. This essay seeks to reconstruct aspects of their appearance, provenance and critical history. As a result of their size and format, Bonifacio's paintings are of particular interest in the context of artistic depictions of Petrarch's Trionfi . Although the poem was frequently portrayed in the art of the period, this was mostly in the form of tapestries, prints or small-scale panel paintings such as cassoni and deschi da parto. It is argued that the nature and content of the scheme have been continually misunderstood and that, in addition to two paintings in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, two further paintings in Weimar which have been dismissed as copies are actually survivors of the original set of six. An appendix acts as a guide to the scheme's complex iconography.
Unknown Paintings by Pace Pace in Dalmatia and a Proposal for Gabriele Caliari (pp. 143-164)
Certain facts about the painter Pace Pace could be summed up in a few sentences. He is first mentioned in the documents of Venetian Fraglia de' pittori in 1594, as Pase Pase de Felippo Bontecchi. His name appears there for the last time in 1617. On 24 May 1598 Pace Pace acted as witness to the second draft of the last will of Benedetto Caliari (Verona, 1535/1536 – Venice, 1598), Paolo Veronese's younger brother. On 15 June of the same year he witnessed the wedding of Paolo's eldest son, Gabriele Caliari (Venice, 1568–1631) and Angela Galini. To Pace Pace's meagre known catalogue, consisting of three paintings: Saint Sebastian, Christ Washing the Feet of the Disciples (both originally from the demolished church of Santa Croce, Venice) and The Virgin in Glory with Saints and the Souls in Purgatory (Santa Maria dei Carmini, Venice), and few drawings, four new pieces, executed in oil on panel, could be added. They were made in 1599 for the main altar in the Franciscan church Gospa od Anđela (Our Lady of the Angels) that is situated on the slope of the Sveti Ilija (Saint Elias) mountain, above the small town of Orebić on the Dalmatian Pelješac peninsula (Sabioncello). The altarpiece represents the Assumption of the Virgin, while the smaller panels depict Saint Francis, Saint Peter and a Franciscan Saint with the Donor, that is, Nicolai Flori (Nikola Cvitković) from Orebić. Pace's paintings from Orebić reveal a strong infl uence of Gabriele Caliari, who might be the author of the painting representing The Virgin and Child with Saint Anthony the Abbot, Saint Francis and the Donors, located on the right lateral wall of the famous Cappella Giustinian in the Venetian church of San Francesco della Vigna.
Out of the Shadow of Bonifacio Veronese: Stefano Cernotto Revealed (pp. 165-201)
Three paintings in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, one of which is signed 'Stephano Cernoto' and dated 1536, have hitherto formed the entire catalogue of works of this artist of Dalmatian origin. And, as they come from a room in Palazzo dei Camerlenghi in Venice, an undertaking almost in its entirety executed by the shop of Bonifacio Veronese, and as the room itself was additionally decorated with canvases by Bonifacio, also the author of the three paintings was considered to be a de'Pitati's pupil and at the same time a collaborator of his prolifi c workshop. Although a thorough re-evaluation of documents relevant to the painter has not revealed any substantial novelties, it has helped to better establish the chronological and territorial ambits of his artistic activity, which must be narrowed to the period from about 1525 to 1541 and the area of Venice, with brief fl ights into the province of upper Treviso. With those secured dates as a point of departure, the identifi cation of works by the artist's hand, made by the present author as a result of a research of about thirty-fi ve years, has allowed to compile a fairly consistent corpus of Cernotto, who was repeatedly mistaken for Francesco Vecellio or Polidoro da Lanciano. Additionally, the present study discusses what was considered the key work in Francesco Vecellio's catalogue, one that for many years had been considered to be homeless, and was apparently never seen by scholars, but which allows to better make out the differences between Cernotto, Vecellio and Polidoro. From this follows that, contrary to what has hitherto been assumed, Stefano Cernotto was not Bonifacio's pupil, but was trained in the shop of Titian around 1520, a fact that is consistent with a passage by Marcantonio Michiel of 1532, who wrote about a so far never precisely identifi ed 'Stefano, discepolo de Tiziano'. Furthermore, there is plenty of evidence in Cernotto's work for his intelligent study of the works by Palma il Vecchio and Savoldo. After having written the present study, the author, found also other works by the painter, and the catalogue of Cernotto's works, which are fairly easy to identify, will surely grow.
Tintoretto and the Presentation of Christ: The Altar of the Purifi cation in Santa Maria dei Carmini, Venice (pp. 203-217)
This article addresses the authorship, iconography and function of Tintoretto's altarpiece Presentation of Christ in Santa Maria dei Carmini, Venice. It was commissioned by the Scuola dei Compravendi Pesce to decorate the altar of the Purifi cation in approximately 1545. Here the problem of fi tting the work into the chronology of Tintoretto is addressed and resolved and new indications that the attribution to Tintoretto is correct are proposed. The argument is based on an iconographical examination of the Presentation in Venice, and Tintoretto is found to have employed features that were novel and repeated in works that we are certain are by him. The unique iconography also contributes to the functioning of the panel which addresses the particular concerns of the Divine Offi ce on the feast of the Purifi cation in very specifi c ways. How this would have aided the religious function and appealed to its users is explored.
Tastar de corde. Musical Improvisation and the Aesthetics of sprezzatura in Sixteenth-Century Venetian Painting (pp. 219-235)
The paper proposes one more key to interpreting the Venetian Cinquecento paintings representing the music-making. These highly characteristic compositions of early sixteenth-century Serenissima, considered the embodiment of Venetian early Renaissance spirit, might be the testimony to musical improvisations, and these practices can be key to the interpretation of the canvases. Venice has been the musical capital of sixteenth century Europe and the Venetian musical paintings were based on authentic musical practice of the period. This musical practice was vast and music was one of the typical pastimes of educated classes of Serenissima. Western history of music has always concentrated on the most obvious representations of music, namely the score. However, there existed areas of music, not only ethnic or folk, but also classical music, which did not have written form. It was this kind of music that was strongly present in the culture of Northern Italian Renaissance, namely improvised music. Improvisational practice, seemingly totally free, was actually subordinated to fi xed models: typical cadences, rhythmical and ornamental formulae, constituted strictly defi ned or even indispensible element of the prevailing style of the period. The visible attempt at producing the appearance of masterful spontaneity and capturing the moment is an essential component of early sixteenth-century Venetian concerts. The interest that Venetian painters took in the improvisational style of making music (often humorous and capricious) corresponds with the tradition of praising colour and an instinctive, spontaneous technique ascribed to Venetian painting. Venetian Concerts can be seen as a type of paragone, i.e. competition between painting and music for the lead in the art of improvisation. Attaining lightness, creating the impression of negligence and haste (prestezza), and at the same time concealing technical diffi culties was considered an expression of mastery in Venice. This is how the sixteenth-century notion of sprezzatura referring to painting technique can be understood: a refi ned seeming negligence and nonchalance in executing a work of art. Art theorists and great glorifi ers of Serenissima: Lodovico Dolce, Francesco Sansovino and Pietro Aretino in the sixteenth century, as well as Ridolfi and Boschini in their seventeenth-century works saw this improvisational technique as a distinctive feature and a signature of Venetian painters.
A Comical Reverse. Titian's Doodles in Context (pp. 237-255)
The article examines drawings found on the back of the canvas of the recently surfaced Portrait of a Man (Girolamo Cornaro?) painted by Titian around 1511–1512. Drawn with the point of the brush, they depict a large head in profi le and two smaller fi gures. Loose and broad in execution, at least the former belongs to the domain of caricature. By comparison with similar drawings, on paper as well as the versos of other paintings, the drawings are here attributed to Titian. Further, the possibility that the head might be a portrayal of Michelangelo is explored, as is its value as evidence of the reception of Michelangelo's outsize public stature and self-fashioning as an imperfect, Socratic artist whose work carried palpable overtones of the grotesque. The two fi gure studies, in themselves acutely Michelangelesque, are related to inventions by other contemporaries. Next, the fact that the caricature wears a beard, but no moustache, occasions an excursus on contemporary facial hair generally and specifi cally that of Michelangelo's patron, Julius II. Ecclesiastical beards were a controversial issue at the time, and shaving one's upper lip carried liturgical signifi cance. Julius was the fi rst Renaissance pope to grow a beard, as is famously charted by Raphael in his portraits of him in the Vatican frescoes and elsewhere. By focusing on the depiction of his beard, the article sheds new light on the iconography of these pictures and potentially their confused chronology. Lastly, Titian's drawings are examined in the context of contemporary grotesques with reference to Leonardo's explorations of exaggerated physiognomies. On this basis, it proposes a reevaluation of Renaissance caricature.
Betrayals of the Gods and Metamorphoses of Artists: Parmigianino, Caraglio and Agostino Carracci (pp. 257-275)
In Book VI of Metamorphoses Ovid makes only a passing reference to the myth of Jupiter transformed into a satyr to seduce Antiope. For this reason, at the beginning of sixteenth century its iconographic reconstruction could not depend on the ékphrasis of an ample and detailed literary passage, and to illustrate it artists had to draw on collective memory, a reserve of fi gurative models at their disposition. Visual resources thus compensated for the concision of a literary source, and classical myths offered further cues for a new and fascinating game of metamorphoses, this time based on the grafting of different meanings onto identical, or at least similar, forms. Artists' attempts to fi ll the gap of written tradition in this manner constitute an original chapter of ut pictura poësis. This study permits to refl ect on the intersection between visual sources and literary resources in the creative process of image-making, in reference to the specifi c cases of two representations of Jupiter and Antiope: an engraving made by Gian Giacomo Caraglio, Jupiter Surprising Antiope, and a drawing by Parmigianino, Jupiter in the Form of a Satyr Unveiling Antiope, today in the Louvre. Both executed during the 1520s, to varying degrees they show their debt to the Original Sin in the Sistine Chapel, where the drama of the religious subject and the unusual interpretation given by Michelangelo lends itself to a re-elaboration in scenes of strong erotic content. The first part of the article is focused in particular on the contribution of Parmigianino to Caraglio's inventio: the long elaboration of the pose of Saint Jerome in Parmigianino's Madonna with Child, Saint John the Baptist and Saint Jerome, today in the London National Gallery, contributes in fact to the version of Caraglio's Antiope, providing us with a fi rst example of the cross-pollination of religious and erotic scenes typical of this period. The final part deals with the success as an erotic avatar of the Sistine Eve in examples based on Bolognese engravings and drawings, with particular reference to Agostino and Ludovico Carracci. Through such cases of semantic metamorphoses, it was aimed to underline how the artists under discussion eluded the Roman Church's prescriptions of decency and decorum both in the years immediately preceding the Sack of Rome and during the Catholic reaction to the Protestant Reformation. Their attempt was made in the name of freedom of artistic creative process and autonomy of their fi gurative resources.
Divine Grace and the Remedy of the Imperfect. Michelangelo's Signature on the St Peter's Pietà (pp. 277-328)
It can be said that Michelangelo's signature on the St Peter's Pietà (executed 1498–1499/1500) is no less extraordinary and meaningful than the sculpture itself. The two components of the work, sculpture and inscription, move from the past to the future pari-passu, and the author believes that the innovations they bring in both domains are profoundly interrelated. The purpose of this paper is to reconsider Michelangelo's work in what the author considers to be a new light, which may also illuminate, so to say, the inner relationship between Michelangelo's words and image.