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Feeding time
Dinner for the next few days is elk. It hangs from a heavy chain that dangles from a tall tripod of lodgepole pine logs. The body still smells of warmth and life. I glide my knife along the length of the whetstone, a few times on one side, a few times on the other. The wolves in the enclosures on the hillsides can see what I am doing. They squeak and whine, some running frantically along their fencelines. The wolves know that this food is for them.
This is how a feeding begins at Mission:Wolf, a refuge for captive-born wolves and wolf-dog hybrids in the Wet Mountains of southern Colorado. Too habituated to humans to fend for themselves, these animals are brought here to live in safety and relative peace. Because they never learned to hunt, it is up to the humans at Mission:Wolf to prepare their meals. I arrived at the refuge a strict vegetarian, squeamish about meat, and I dreaded the required participation in feedings. I was less than heroic my first time: While the rest of the staff labored over the remains of two diseased cows, I busied myself with fencework on the hillside above, trying to ignore the stench that rode the breeze.
But I was surrounded by, and responsible for, these thick-furred carnivores, and they stared into me with sharp yellow eyes. I was a stranger to them in the beginning, and the fences kept us from really getting to know each other. I knew there was no better way to connect with these animals than through the feeding ritual. So I had to become a part of it: To feel the warmth of a body that was alive just a short time ago, and to know that this warmth would soon feed and fuel the wolves.
And so, months after that first feeding, I stand before this elk, knife in hand. I am wearing a pair of navy blue coveralls, encrusted with jewels of animal flesh, dull red from feedings past. I don latex gloves - soon to be ripped to shreds - and begin.
The first step is to open the belly and remove the guts. I tap for the sternum, then locate the hollow space just below. As I prepare to make my first cut into this elk's perfect body, I have to cast aside thoughts of who she was.
Pulling the hide taut, I slice through fur, clumps of stiff hairs cascading down as I work. White fat reveals itself, and I keep going through this thin layer, through healthy, glistening flesh, finally reaching air. I work delicately, not wishing to puncture the stomach and receive a face full of gas or worse. I follow the rib lines along both sides of the stomach, pulling the hide as I work to make the cutting easier. It strips off as gently as wallpaper.
Once I reach the pelvis, I stand up, breathing heavily. Blood has worked its way past my gloves and along my wrists. The sweet, gamy aroma of fresh elk is all around me, and the wolves are picking up on it. Their whining and squeaking becomes louder, more desperate. I wonder how I could ever have avoided this task in the past. Right now it feels like the most meaningful work I have ever done.
Now I position a wheelbarrow, stained dark crimson, between and below the back legs. I reach deep into the body cavity, my shoulder nestling against the soft fur still blanketing the elk's ribs. After I slice through the esophagus, gravity begins to help me out, pulling down the balloon of gut as I cut anything that is holding the stomach in.
When the stomach finally wobbles into the wheelbarrow, I heave the sloppy load out of my way and take another breather. My wrists are completely red now, and trickles of blood have wound their way underneath the gloves.
Next are the back legs. I cut and probe with my fingers, bending the legs from time to time, searching for the joint where leg joins pelvis. It used to be a blind search for me, a stumble through unfamiliar ribbons of meat. But now I know where that elusive bony knob hides itself. I cut through cartilage, and with a satisfying pop the joint separates from the pelvis. Just some pink meat to slice through, then a layer of hide, and the first leg thuds to the ground.
I have been working alone up to this point, just the elk and I. I have explored every gentle curve of bone and every undulation of muscle. This is not butchering; it is an act of love. I don't want to give up this intimacy, but out of necessity I enlist other staff members to help me cut up the legs.
The work goes faster now. We separate bone and flesh with ax and knife, and soon the elk as she first arrived is utterly gone. A once-living body has been turned into piles of meat, hide, and bone, divided equally into buckets and wheelbarrows for each wolf pack. There is blood everywhere: on us, on the concrete pad, on our axes and knives and buckets. Ravens and magpies soar above, landing nearby with the hopes of snagging some tasty morsel. The wolves are at their breaking point: It is time to feed.
Will Rounds worked at Mission:Wolf for two years, and now lives in Nederland, Colorado.


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Squirrels have fuzzy tails.
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I'm looking to control a stepper motor (from an old floppy disk drive-with worm gear attached) without the use of a microcontroller or a commercial stepper motor controller. There would need to be two push buttons - one which will turn the stepper motor in one direction and the other in the other. I want the motor to spin continuously while either button is pushed down. A potentiometer for speed control would be good, but not wholly necessary.

subset: commoncrawl


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Here is one of my bib entry
author = {F. Van Der Linden, J. Bosch, E. Kamsties, K. K{\"a}ns{\"a}l{\"a} and Henk Obbink},
title = {Software Product Family Evaluation},
booktitle = {Software Product-Family Engineering, 5th International Workshop, PFE 2003},
address = {Siena, Italy},
month = {November},
year = {2004},
pages = {352-369}
and this is the output
[F. Van Der Linden and Obbink(2004)] F Van Der Linden EKKK J Bosch, Obbink H (2004)
Software product family evaluation. In: Software Product-Family Engineering, 5th International
Workshop, PFE 2003, Siena, Italy, pp 352{369
If you see it has just put EKKK JBosh etc instead of full E. Kamsties etc . Also the special chracters K{\"a} aren't read properly in bibliographies.
I have tried the IEEETran and even Springer latex templates to fix it but in vain.
I am using TexMaker and MikTex2.9 for making these files.
Urgent Help required


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If your idea of the perfect holiday is relaxing poolside in a cosy cabana, sippin' cocktails in a swim-up bar as well as a kids club for some well deserved you time, then a Queensland resort is just the place for your next family, romantic or eat, pray love style holiday.
Or, grab a dose of healthy living with your next getaway and indulge in health retreat with calming rainforest surroundings. Open your lungs with fresh Daintree air or calmly make your way east for some coastal cool and sink your toes in the sand for the ultimate in relaxation.
Swap the standard hotel getaway for a healthy one, and bend and stretch around these health and yoga retreats. Add that little touch of luxury at a spa retreat for those who are literally looking to do nothing and simply be pampered – bliss.
Whether it's time of year for a new year, new you or you just to need to relax and unwind, a retreat will recharge the mind, body and soul… and in a stunning Queensland location is just a bonus. Finding your chakra is easy when you can downward dog with sand between your toes and rainforest floor underneath your fingertips. Namaste.
School holidays are always just around the corner and while staycations are great, if your family really needs a holiday, you'll want to find a family-friendly resort. You've come to the right place. For lots of kids, the perfect resort offers endless water slides and bomb diving into epic pools. Or, how about throwing a theme park right in the middle with Seaworld on the Gold Coast? And why not add a little education! There's plenty of options offering hands on marine life encounters on island resorts and even the world's largest open-air aquarium! Keep an eye out for resorts with a kids club so mums and dads have time for a little peace and quiet – you deserve it!


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|Jepson Flora Project: Jepson Interchange
previous taxon |
next taxon
Jepson Interchange (more information)
©Copyright 1993 by the Regents of the University of California
Shrub or tree, monoecious, deciduous or evergreen
Leaves simple, alternate, petioled; margin entire to lobed; stipules small, generally deciduous
Staminate inflorescence: catkin or stiff spike; flowers many
Pistillate inflorescence 1few-flowered, generally above staminate inflorescence; involucre in fruit generally cup-like or lobed and bur-like, bracts many, generally overlapping, flat or cylindric
Staminate flower: sepals generally 56, minute; petals 0; stamens 412+
Pistillate flower: calyx generally 6-lobed, minute; petals 0; ovary inferior, style branches generally 3
Fruit: acorn (nut subtended by scaly, cup-like involucre) or 13 nuts subtended by spiny, bur-like involucre; nut maturing in 12 years
Seed generally 1
Genera in family: 7 genera, ± 900 species: generally n hemisphere. Wood of Quercus critical for pre-20th century ship-building, charcoal for metallurgy; some now supply wood (Fagus, Quercus ), cork (Q. suber ), food (Castanea , chestnut).
Evergreen or deciduous
Leaf: stipules small, generally early deciduous
Staminate inflorescences: catkins, 1several, slender, on proximal part of twig
Pistillate inflorescence axillary among upper leaves, short-stalked; flower generally 1
Staminate flower: calyx 46-lobed, minute; stamens 410
Pistillate flower: calyx minute, generally 6-lobed; ovary enclosed by involucre
Fruit: acorn, maturing in 12 years; nut enclosed by cup-like involucre with thin or tubercled scales
Chromosomes: 2n=24 for all reports
Species in genus: ± 600 species: n hemisphere, to n South America, India
Etymology: (Latin: ancient name for oak)
Many more hybrids have been named but are not included here. Reproduction of many species declining.
Tree (6)1025 m, evergreen; top wide; trunk bark becoming furrowed, widely ridged, checkered, dark gray
Leaf 2.56(9) cm; petiole 415 mm; blade oblong, elliptic, or ± round, tip rounded to spine-toothed, margin weakly spine-toothed, upper surface strongly convex, ± dull green, lower surface glabrous to densely tomentose, dull, pale green
Fruit maturing in 1 year; cup 1016 mm wide, 815 mm deep, obconic, scales thin, ± flat, ± glabrous, brownish; nut 2535 mm, slender, ovoid, tip pointed, shell woolly inside
Ecology: Valleys, slopes, mixed-evergreen forest, woodland
Elevation: < 1500 m.
Bioregional distribution: Outer North Coast Ranges, Central Western California, Southwestern California
Distribution outside California: Baja California
Leaf: lower surface densely tomentose
Ecology: Generally granitic soils
Elevation: 6001500 m.
Bioregional distribution: Peninsular Ranges
Distribution outside California: Baja California
Hybridizes with Q. kelloggii.
Horticultural information: DRN, SUN: 4, 5, 6, 7, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 &IRR: 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.


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At 9 months old, he is already living up to and using the powers of his name: Gabriel the archangel-archetype and bringer of Announcements and superior communication as referenced by the Annunciation; an event where said Angel allegedly told the Virgin Mary or maybe asked her to give birth to the Son of God via the impregnation of the Divine Holy Ghost.
That Angel did not visit but a 9 month old Bronx boy named Gabriel, another version of the announcer of great things, came to Saugerties NY, and began doing holy things, like infants do. His version was to point a lot with tiny fingers of authority indicating without saying, "Hey, you over there, the one I'm pointing to/at, I'm vibrating at the frequency of Delta waves, the slowest and most spiritual ones you can get and I'm sending them to you. Yes, to you and you too, over there, next to her. I'm sending innocent/pure/ecstatic silences to you and mom and dad too. And I might as well point to the sky and send some there as well. Mother Earth needs all the good wishes she can get these days." We watched, they not so aghast as I was; they see/feel this daily.
That said and done, his gestures, look and good intentions did stop us all —-no more talking about Alaska, or babysitters, no more stories of lightning strikes and rubber tires, no more noshing on faux empanadas with sour cream. Our Beta brains, he in his look and gestures, cleared of worry and train ride plans and many other broadcasted maladies of matter-mind-madness. He elicited Silence.
At 9 months old, the Delta vibrating Guru was shown his new Rosary gift and pointed emphatically that he wanted it unstrapped from the card it was attached to so that he could touch it? Bless it? Play with it? Foregoing his mother's generous breast when he seemed restless and his father's lap, the little Guru, still sitting in the center of our rapt circle on the rainbow blanket my mother knit in the 70's, this little beautiful One held up the red heart see through beads of 5 decades of lots of Hail Marys, moved them around as if wanting these beads to catch the August sun rays and allowed us to be yet again mystified by his ability to channel grace.
After we traded with him, giving him a garish, generic plastic pair for everyday use, he indicated that it was time to go, that his Darshana/Sadhana was complete and the purpose of his visit accomplished.
Gabriel, the 9 month old infant, had announced in all of his pure innocence that we had been with the Spirit and that it was IN Us. We all got IT and didn't even have to put a cent in a collection basket because this Church was Love and is FREE.
Linda Mary Montano, 2016, Saugerties NY


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Furmint - Vegan Certified
Furmint is, of course, the main grape in the production of Tokaj, the unctuous sweet wine from Hungary. However, that country does not have the monopoly on this grape. It is grown in other nearby countries, Austria being one of them. Heidi Schröck was one of the pioneers that reintroduced the grape and now produces some of the best Furmint wines in the world. Her dry Furmint is elegant and filled with spice and quince. Her sweet Furmint and blends incorporating Furmint are truly astonishing and need to be tasted to be believed. I would urge everyone to become a believer.
Furmint originates in Hungary with the first references found in documents from the late sixteenth century. It is no surprise that it comes from the Tokaj region whose eponymous wines have made it famous and given so much pleasure. Other origins have been suggested but are without substance.
Furmint is related to Gouais Blanc and therefore to a vast number of well-known varieties such as Chardonnay and Riesling. It is a parent of the other main grape in Tokaji wines, Hárslevelü and the Swiss Plantscher.
Schröck-Kracher Ruster Ausbruch Heidi SchroeckTwo of the best made this Ausbruch together - polished and brilliant
Ruster Ausbruch "Auf den Flugeln der Morgenrote" Heidi Schroeck"On the wings of the dawn" is legendary


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Speak to Pat Nunan about Nunan Gallery, the web site she made to feature her husband, Brian's, art work and her eyes light up. Over ten weeks Pat built a site that showcases the amazing diversity of Brian's work. She used the Twenty Fifteen theme which she found to be super-clean, content-focused, and designed to bring a little more simplicity to our blogs.
Promoting Your Bed and Breakfast0
The owner of Granny Thomas Bed and Breakfast in Campbell's Creek established a web presence for herself in just five weeks when she participated in a digital publishing course at Castlemaine Community Education. The Stay Theme is designed with hotels, inns, and bed & breakfasts in mind, Stay is the perfect theme for property owners. Proprietors can take advantage of its Room and Testimonial post types, home page template, large imagery, minimal layout, and responsive design to show off their property to guests.
Web Publishing for Artists, Writers, Business0
Are you a butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker? Do you need to be the master of your business destiny and make full use of all those internet tools you have heard will give you a presence online, an extra edge and ensure that you can be found by those who now micromanage using their iphones, ipads and computers.
If you need to launch yourself online this is the course for you. We will work together to determine which tools are going to benefit you and your business. We will use the easily managed WordPress, blogging technology to establish an interactive web site that connects you to Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Pinterest or whatever other programs meet your specific needs.
Your ten week journey, using your own computer, connected to our WiFi will take you on an adventure using WordPress. WordPress is an Open Source software system used by millions of people around the world to create beautiful websites and blogs. Originally WordPress was blogging software but since its creation a lot has changed. Today it is used by almost everyone looking to build a website, and has no real limit as to what can be done with a bit of learning. It is completely customisable by the use of themes and plugins; which can be easily downloaded from the WordPress site or from hundreds of other places around the web.
By the end of the course you will have:
- been guided, step by step, to set up a blog that is easy to administer and individualistically customize.
- made use of post and pages
- learned how to use widgets
- developed link-building Strategies
- discovered that you can have multiple users posting on your site
- come to understand safe cyber practices
- developed content writing skills
- learned how to create a digital portfolio
- discovered diverse, imaginative web applications to meet individual needs
- understood how to monetize your blog and promote your business
- learned about building niche communities and online groups
- helped to grow a Continuing Ed WordPress Community
- know more about Social Media Optimization
- And much more…
Aside from coming away with a greater understanding of the potentiality of web applications you will have skills that could be applied, working as, amongst other things, a publicist, freelance blog writer, a digital skills trainer, writing tech news for a company or as a web designer
This course suits a diverse range of individuals. Aside from butchers, bakers and candlestick makers this course will suit a range of visual artists seeking to establish an online gallery presence. It will also be ideal for hobbyists and those wanted to reach out and connect and build niche communities.
Establishing a Web Presence for Your Business0
This site is a work in progress! Kylie is a kinesiologist seeking to gain an online presence for her Life Key Essences Business. We are working to build up a profile gradually, one step at a time.
If you are looking to create an online presence for your business or as, for example, an artist, take a moment to check out this one by Trefor Prest who engaged in the Word Press Publishing course that I run each term at Continuing Education Castlemaine. Other participant examples are Forest Creek Chapel, the Nunan Gallery and this delightful blog by Stephen Thornbill.
Marketing Bay of Plenty Lifestyle0
This site has been created specifically to assist with the sale of an outstanding home in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. It is target specific! It is a pop up blog with the sole purpose of extending the reach and drawing interest from a broader market.
Note the links to the agent, the links to local services and facilities and the use of the gallery widget to display a wonderful collection of photographs.
Do check out more examples of target specific house blogs.
Add An Individualised Blog to Marketing Mix0
"We felt that the blog provided a vivid word picture of our property and that it provided a view not only of our place but of Fryerstown. Apart from painting such a wonderful image of Gladwin House the site highlighted special features of Fryerstown and aspects of this region which we love."
"Providing material for this web site helped us to feel that we were actively involved in the marketing process. The site included personal photographs and additional, complementary material. It was good to be able to tell the story of our property."
"It is complimentary providing another layer of detail."
"It (the blog) gave potential buyers another layer of reassurance of the benefits of the property."
All forms of marketing a property are interrelated and can affect one another. It is a basic law of energy
The point of presenting a diverse range of media is to effectively market and attract that one person who will want to live in the place that has very likely been your greatest asset.
Traditional Real Estate marketing has many tried and true tactics to attract a person to buy your property. A mixture of agent networks, newspaper advertising, and web site exposure all work to spread the word and reach more people.
We use all of these methods.
A point of difference for us is that we provide the vendor with the opportunity to add a highly individualised, personally crafted, web site/blog into the mix.
Adding this blog to the mix, and promoting it through our website and popularly used social media targets the growing mass of people who are micro managing their lives via the vast array of social media from their ipads and iphones.
It also provides the vendor with the opportunity to provide a much more personal view and tell the story of the place and the people who have made it what it is today. Within this web container it is possible to paint a word picture about a specific property, the local community and the region generally. It provides a well rounded picture of what is on offer, enables the owner to present material that will never fit into a one page brochure.
Our web designer (Heather Blakey) works personally with each client and encourages owners to use social media to target even more networks. Not surprisingly we have had specific feedback from an owner saying that they loved the fact that they could "highlight things (they) knew were the real positives about the house and location, things (they) had genuinely enjoyed which made it feel like a more active rather than passive process."
These satisfied owners went on to say that "when you are selling a house it can sometimes feel that everything is in everyone's else's hands. This way we were able to ensure prospective buyers would also know what we would like to tell them about the house."
A Folio of Featured Homes
Artisan Country
Cowling House
Historic Tradable Property
Goodman House Daylesford
Original Yapen Store and Pub
Country Residence in Sandon
Wallace McClellan House and Studio
A Room of Her Own – At Riversleigh0
Virginia Wolfe filled the hearts of women with yearning when she wrote about 'A Room Of My Own'. Blogging technology enabled women to have rooms of their own at Riversleigh Manor.
Soul Tide's blog remains a tribute and shows how you do not have to have independent means to have a very private room of your own.
Potentiate Using Blogger0
Things become what they are because of their potentialities. Teachers often speak of their students' potential, of the reality that just as an acorn in the right setting has the potential to become a mighty oak, the student has potential to excel. To grow into a mighty oak, to reach its potential, the acorn needs nourishment. It follows, therefore, that to reach their potential students need nourishment. Given the right conditions a person's creativity can soar.
Clearly the Soul Food Café, a virtual community for writers and artists, provides just the right conditions for a person's creativity to flourish. Gwen Myers, says "The worlds' oldest living organism is a grove of Aspen trees. They are each a separate tree, but they are one giant organism. Even though an individual tree may fall, the grove still flourishes. That is Soul Food to me. We are each our own tree, mature and strong enough to survive anything life may throw at us; but we all flourish and taste immortality within the Circle Of Soul Food. We weave a magic that is quiet and works in a powerful way. Despite the flow of words from the Circle as a whole, we are each in our quiet, private place; also, I have seen everyone who joins Soul Food bloom, and become what they should be as artists. I see everyone's minds, hearts, and spirits shine more clearly in their words with every e-mail, comment, and post."
Blog is the tool that has been used to potentiate, to make Soul Food participants more active and effective and to create the environment Gwen describes. Given that Blog is, for all intents and purposes, a static software program it is not immediately obvious how such a transformative process has taken place.
For those who are unfamiliar with what blog is we need to provide a little background. The emergence of Blogger changed the dynamics of web publishing. Blogger, a word coined by Pyra Labs, is a service that provides Web-based tools used by individuals to publish directly onto the Internet. The word "blog" is a shortened form of "web log", or web-based journal. Inevitably the word was shortened to just "blog" and the verb "to blog" was born.
For many, web journals or blogs are an alternative to mainstream media while the majority of users perceive maintaining a blog to be a hobby. However, weblogs have become accepted in school, library, information science, and corporate settings. The large number of educational blogging sites on the Internet attest to the growing popularity of this medium among educators.
The Blogging explosion has been extraordinary. It is estimated (at the time of writing this) that there are now over 45 million blogs. About 75,000 emerge each day. This is an impressive number given that Blogger was only designed in 1999. The sheer number of blogs being published demonstrates that individuals have been quick to pick up on the idea of having an online journal, workbook, or directory. However, a blog can be used in so many different ways. An article by Lisa Mitchell, in The Education Age on July 3, 2006, reveals how blogs are transforming peer review and collaboration in academia.
As an educator, a specialist teacher of writing, I have always been keen to apply technology that facilitates communication and inspires people to engage in creative activities. After using Microsoft Word and Publisher in the early 90's as a means to have students 'publish' their work, I found that the availability of free blogs from 1999 onwards provided real platforms for my students to reach a far broader audience. It was very easy to encourage students to publish their work on the web and to persuade students to participate in online discussion groups, particularly when they could do so in their own time and include friends. Students were adept learners and leaped at the opportunity to use all the new, exciting software.
Unlike creating Web pages, which demand design skills, knowledge of html coding and web hosting space, Blogs provide an incredibly easy, free way to establish and maintain a web page. Apart from enabling people to publish, blogs allow visitors to respond to posts and archives of older posts can be accessed at any time. This 'vanity publishing' appealed to egotistical teenagers. However, while bloggers are fun and help to massage egos, my work has revealed that bloggers offer far more than this.
Blogs have features which, when applied imaginatively, enable people to work in a team setting, comment on one another's work, edit one another's material and work collaboratively. It is possible to use the platform of WordPress to build interconnected web sites and have teachers, students and parents communicating online. It is possible to have a school's curriculum online and in small, remote schools, where staff work in relative isolation staff are discovering that they can create forums where they communicate with one another and showcase integrated curriculum.
Blog is a more flexible than email based forums. Users can self publish ideas using this free software and visitors can provide almost instantaneous feedback. Academics who need to impress in order to further their careers are able to build up their credibility by regularly publishing using blogger. People who want to work with kindred spirits can fit into niche communities like Soul Food and enjoy benefits that are not as readily available to authors and other text publishers. A person can post a piece in semi-draft format and have people polish it. A teacher can edit their students' work. This article was posted on a WriteBoard, a sharable, web-based text document program and members of the Soul Food community read it, passed critical comment and actually edited sections. Like blogger, WriteBoard is perfect for authors, journalists, PR folks, editors, publishers, freelance writers, letter writers, songwriters, poets, comedians, students, professors, and groups collaborating on papers.
Early in 2005, aware that I was working with a tool that had unique applications and potential, I decided to apply this technology at the Soul Food Café, the Internet site I have run for eight years. In an interview with Chris Dunmire from the Creativity Portal website, I talked about how I had envisioned the Lemurian Abbey as a place full of fine art and craft, a virtual monastery that would be filled with tiny, spartan cells where votaries of the muse could come, retreat behind walls and observe time differently. I believed that in this Monastery, time would not be measured with clocks and believed that monastic writers would be free to wander through the cloisters and walled gardens in a meditative state, capturing metaphors in their writing nets.
The Lemurian Abbey blogger quickly became a wonderful sanctuary for people from all over the world, people eager to practice the Soul Food Way and make writing and art a daily practice. Barbara Banta moved in with her companions, Tookey and Oreo and folk claimed a role for themselves. Faucon of Sakin'el became the lamplighter, Anita Marie Moscoso clambered down and found the catacombs and Trendle Elwood worked in the gardens.
As people settled into their cyber cells and began living their role and publishing their daily work, a metamorphosis began to take place, and I realised that there was something magical happening on the site. A creative transformation was taking place, and I could see that interaction and collaboration were working in an online setting. Artists and writers, everyday people who had stumbled upon the site, were not only publishing their work without inhibition but were providing support for fellow 'novices'. Every day individuals, many of whom had been creatively blocked by less than favourable experiences at school, college and university, were drawn to the metaphor of the Abbey and the lifestyle it implied.
Soul Food members who have spent a significant time blogging are very complimentary about the way they have been taught to use blogger. Barbara Banta, who lives with a disability, highlights the more serious benefits of blogging when she says, "Blogging has been an amazing growth experience. Instead of limiting myself to a few known interests I'm now stretching out into areas I'd never even considered before. The possibility, make that probability, that people will actually read what I've written is enticing, while the actuality of connecting with others and receiving their comments is encouraging beyond belief. As a woman with a disability, the sheer luxury of being able to communicate ideas and opinions to a worldwide audience is a dream comes true. There's a good chance no one will ever read the manuscript in my desk, but thoughts can now be shared, memories passed on, and my fiction enjoyed."
Taking this further, Monika Roleff observed "a particular asset of Soul Food's blogger network is the healing potential it has to break down boundaries in a supportive environment. People from all parts of the world, all kinds of conditioning can come together and become inspired by differences and similarities, to create a greater understanding in the world."
After the Abbey's success I announced that I would offer free places to people who wanted to be orientated, shown Soul Food and who wanted to work on team Blogs and jointly discover their potential to transform creativity. Twelve people accepted, packed their virtual bags at short notice and took off through the magic doorway into the fantasy Blogger world of le Enchanteur (my alter ego) and the Soul Food Silk Road.
At the time of departure for the Cave of the Enchantress, embroiderer, Leonie Bryant wrote: "I now have a lovely old wicker basket to take with me. It is a little dusty on top and beautiful inside. My excuse for the tardiness in packing has been a long search for my imagination, which unfortunately has been deeply buried since I was a child. I so badly wanted to bring it that I persevered with the search. So here I am with excited anticipation, hoping to make friends with my long lost muse. I have left locked in the cupboard my practicality and sensibility. I am so glad to have such inspiring friends to journey with to Umbria!"
A bond was forged and this hardy group travelled together right through until the end of 2005 and as they travelled they learned more about the potential of team blogging. It soon became clear that there was a need for archives and more and more blogs were created to house responses. Some travellers began to preserve their journeys on personal bloggers and the Soul Food Café's 2005 Advent Calendar was created to preserve what had become known as a 'Journey of the Heart'.
Like pioneers of old, travellers stopped and founded places like Duwamish, the Hermitage, Owl Island, The Isle of Ancestors and the House of Baba Yaga. In the process travellers established themselves and became identities. Everyone on the Silk Road knows of le Enchanteur's hare-brained adventures, love the Hermit, Imogen, and are fascinated by Anita Marie Moscoso's Curiosity Shop. Maps were drawn and the roads filled as more people came looking to meet the characters that had walked before them, who had written or drawn themselves into being.
On a regular basis I have asked participants to analyse blogging at Soul Food and to explain the secret ingredients of the blogger network's success.
Carol Abel, who participated in the original 'experiment', said, "you set up the Lemurian Abbey, amongst other places, and people began to cluster around you and their posts – be they written or artistic – are the adornments. The fact that it is virtual, and yet so tangible, means that it has a huge appeal to an ever-increasing audience. Each person who joined the journey set up their own blogs and so the constellations increased, spawning more and more as friends set up their own and people linked to each other's blogs. There is no doubt in my mind that if I had not come across you I would never have considered setting up blogs of my own and would never have dared 'publish' any of my work. The supportive nature of working in a closed environment, such as the abbey, meant that I could get a foothold on the bottom rung of the ladder and work my way up in confidence, at the same time improving my work, never fearing that I would be let down by other people's lack of interest or hurtful criticism."
Lori Gloyd has been basking in what has been a rapid creative transformation. She says "I have written more and made more artwork in the last three months using blogger than I have in my whole adult life. That is not an exaggeration. For ten years I plodded along just posting a few pieces every four or five months on my own simple website of my own creation. Only a few people in my immediate circle ever saw my work. Now, here, using blog power, uploading is easy and the response from a worldwide audience is swift. I write and create daily. My creativity is flourishing from the use of blogger."
Janie Hart noted that being able to remain anonymous within the blogger network provides an all-important safety net. Lemuria is an artificial environment that you connect to from your own private space, without ever being jostled by the crowd that gathers there.
"Within an artificial environment or story setting," added Ken Muller, "each participant can 'role play' a bit, and even offer discordant views of their own perceptions. Though participants on Soul Food may range across six continents they are 'of the same blood', connected by a creative flow and sense of being." On the bloggers it is one's unique voice that gives each person a readily distinguishable fingerprint.
Gail Kavanagh, enthused about the potential of blogger, says that "the bloggers have given me freedom to experiment and stretch — writing isn't just an isolated activity that I do now, it's part of my whole creative being. I use visual journals, collage, and other media that incorporates writing — I look at my writing as a piece of art and, with the encouragement and support I find on the bloggers, I reach out and try new things. For me, the bloggers are creative liberation. They have freed my spirit."
The bloggers proved to be a place for Gail to experiment and she has thrived in this setting, enjoying the opportunity to recapture some of her 'gypsy-like' childhood. Indeed, it is the opportunity to be child-like, to feel child-like emotions that has enchanted and energized us all.
Gail also identified a characteristic of which students became aware. Students loved drawing before writing, adored using visual journals, collages, artistic trading cards, altered books and mannequins to express themselves before they even picked up a pen or put their fingers on the keyboard. Blogger, combined with free programs like Picture Trail and Image Shack enables people to experiment with abandon and showcase not just their writing but their art as well.
When asked why they are drawn to this virtual community, why they feel comfortable posting in such a public forum, a forum that can be accessed by anyone with an Internet connection, participants all make mention of the fact that they feel that the cyber world of Lemuria provides a safe container in which they can experiment.
Gwen Myers wisely pointed out that one of the allures of writing in this environment, is being able to bask in the inexpressible delight of having people from around the globe comment on her work. She says that "the intense excitement of seeing your words, your work, glimmering on the monitor feeds the creative life. Online publishing provides immediate rewards for the work put into it." Myers explains that many "creative-types, who feel separate from the 'rest of the world', through virtual communities like Soul Food, find commonality and acceptance just as they are. This validation is the key—when you feel a part of a group, feelings of isolation quickly fade and are replaced by a sense of belonging."
Myers goes on to say that she is personally fascinated to see how others handle the same subject matter. Travellers are provided with prompts but there is no compulsion to confine oneself to these. Gwen is also impressed with the ease with which one can go back and assess improvements in one's skill level by looking at old blog posts. After charting her blog posts, she noted that her skills are being polished and observes her willingness to go out on a creative limb. This degree of comfort is fascinating given that almost a million people visit and read posts at Soul Food each year.
Monika Roleff also notes the potential provided of using blog to communicate, discuss and share. She points out that "the comment tool is brilliant for this" and says that "blogging resolves the issue of feeling isolated in your ideas". Good quality feedback from like-minded people has nourished Monika and helped her commit to the daily routine. She says that through this daily process "tangible transformation has come. The results can be seen from week to week, or even day to day."
Charlotte Greene says that it "is undeniable that there is a 'Gestalt' to this blogging thing, at least in the way you have taught us to use it. Not only is the whole more than the individual posts, but it sets an exponential process going, sort of like an elaborate root system sending all these signals up through the trunk and resulting in such unpredictable branching, leafing, and remodelling of the whole structure."
Today visitors gasp in wonder at the beautiful constellation, the clustered quadrivium that adorns the cyber sky above us here in Melbourne, Australia.
Can the Soul Food experience be replicated in a classroom? What insights do the experiences of individuals, ranging in age from twenty five to eighty five, offer teachers who want to engage students and help them realise their creative potential? Can similar constellations be set up for students?
The short answer is yes! Teachers who fail to provide forums for high order thinking skills are failing tech-savvy students who are most comfortable operating in such settings.
Anita Marie Moscoso, a regular author at Soul Food, explains how her view of herself changed after working in this environment. "I had no idea that when I put my blog together and people started to actually read what I wrote that would make me a writer, an author…I thought that would not happen until the day I signed a contract with a publishing house.
Surprise…it didn't happen that way at all.
I get e-mail strangers, they called my stories, strange and disturbing and wonderful…all in one sentence.
My friends and co-workers and people from my community would walk up to me and start talking about my stories. They knew the characters, the plots, they asked questions about the settings and asked where I got my ideas from.
Then one day it occurred to me: I'm a Writer.
Now I look at my blog differently. I don't just dump stories there. I fret over the format ( blog stories have to be short, snappy just like those old radio plays ) I fret over the template and the size of the print. I want my blog to be easy to read, I need to pay attention to the links I post and WHY they're there. I need to keep it fresh and I have to assign myself stories and deadlines and I have to stick to them or that traffic will go somewhere else. In other words, my blog isn't just a space I fill up with random thoughts.
Everything I put there has to have a reason for being there and if I don't commit to it my 'business' will suffer.
I guess I'm keeping what I do in perspective; I'm working these blogs because I want to become the best writer I can become. I'm passed wanting to be like 'someone else'. I just want to be Anita Marie Moscoso-storyteller.
Wish me luck!"
What would happen if all students started thinking like Anita Marie Moscoso? How would you feel if your students started fussing over formats, links, length, and audience? How would a Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Maths teacher feel witnessing students 'talk science and maths' online and adjust their thinking as a result of feedback? What would an art teacher think if students scanned and loaded copies of their work on to a blogger or created an online folio?
In response to the blogging phenomena, the Victorian Education Channel invited me to work with them to establish a cluster for teachers and students from around the world. Global Teacher, as it has become known, is an intricate online network which provides a dualistic, interactive, cyber setting, for educators and students to self-publish using an especially designed publishing and communication tool.
Global Teacher is a network that has been designed to enable educationalists from all over the world to work collaboratively, share educational materials and publish staff and student work but it has not taken very long to realise that blogger enables transformative communications between staff, students and teachers. Staffs are using a tailor made blogging program called Global Teacher while students use a twin program called Global Student. These programs are 'clones' of Edublog and WordPress, which many educators will be already familiar with.
The challenge for educators is to rethink curriculum and move to relevant technology-based curriculum. The blogger revolution is changing not only personal and global communications but thinking, technical, personal and workplace skills. Innovative educators are infusing programs like blogger with oxygen and are using it to engage their students, provide real audiences and develop interactive clusters of learning. Teachers are using new technology tools such as Blog, WriteBoard, Audio Blog, Pod Casting in their provision of higher thinking skill based curriculum.
Currently, participants at Soul Food upload text and images, but we are introducing audio-blogging to facilitate poetry recitations, dramatic readings, running commentary and character acting. Working within a cluster of like-minded promotes critical thinking, applied reasoning, information processing and new communication skills. It encourages people to learn within a team setting and apply technology creatively.
Soul Food inspires everyone to be the best they can be. It subtly teaches goal-setting, self-assessment, time-management, change-readiness and agility. Teachers can learn from this experience and apply similar strategies in their classrooms.
To embrace blogging, expand the use of dotcom tools and help change teaching pedagogy, join Global 2. Make the commitment to do something each day to master and apply this online tool. Learn more about the digital landscape with which your students are already familiar. Experiment, post, and see for yourself how the blogger revolution is changing not only personal and global communications but thinking, technical, personal and workplace skills. Establish a blog and begin networking today. Bring your students on board by signing them up at Global 2 and put links to each of them on your blogger. Shamelessly ask for help. Seek new ideas and let it all happen. You will be amazed by the creative transformation that takes place.
This article was written in 2007 at the height of work with the then Global Teacher which has since morphed into Global2.
The other part of this research project, supported by the State Library of Victoria Association and the Victorian Education Channel in the Department of Education was the Global Student arm which had thousands of student blogs in it.
Pop Up Blogs2
What can be missed and not fully appreciated is the multiple ways in which blogging technology can be used. A favourite application of mine is to make 'pop up' websites that tell the stories of houses that are being sold and offer more than what is commonly presented by real estate agents. Pop up sites like this one are can be used to convey information that would never get on to the glossy brochures and which might slip the agent's attention at inspection times. Waller Realty saw the potential and have engaged me to make sites for clients who can see the benefit of telling the story of their house. I visit the houses, interview the clients and present material that is not on the website or in the glossy brochures. Clients have certainly seen the benefit of this modern marketing strategy.
Another site that includes a YouTube video is a property in New South Wales that a friend wanted to help market.
Check out Properties Featured by Heather Blakey:
- 11 Eleanor Drive Campbell's Creek
- 139 White Gum Road
- 184 Hargraves Street Castlemaine
- 22 Blakely Road
- 229 Colles Road Moonlight Flat
- 41 Gingell Street Castlemaine
- 44 Berkeley Street Castlemaine
- 47 Ray Street Castlemaine
- 5 Campbell Street Castlemaine
- 55 Main Road Campbells Creek
- 55 McCoy Road Eddington
- 57 Farnsworth Street
- 64 Bowden Street Castlemaine
- 7 Scott Court Campbells Creek
- 77 Fogarty's Gap Road
- 9 Garsed Road Strangways
- 9 Hall Road Joyce's Creek
- Allan's Road Maldon
- Cappers Gully Track
- Crocodile Reservoir Road
- Cruits Lane
- Douglas Crescent Castlemaine
- Footers Mansion Dunolly
- Gladwin House Fryerstown
- Green Acres in Chewton
- Hawdon – Sandon
- Historic Kitto Cottage
- Hornsby Street Maldon
- Lighthorse Road Barkers Creek
- Maldon Cherry Farm
- Mount Caroline
- Saunders Court Elphinstone
- St Elmo's Castlemaine
- Stonehill Castlemaine
The owners of Jonquil Hill have sold and are moving and relocating in Tasmania. Here at Waller Realty we wish them well and thank them for taking the time to provide some feedback on their marketing campaign, which included working with a web publishing specialist to publish supplementary material about their property on an individual website.
1. In what way did having a web site impact on the process of selling?The site was viewed by a lot of people, which we found really encouraging. We know we had people come to inspections because of what they read in the blog because they were often able to repeat the details to our agent. It seemed a really effective way to strengthen the process. The blog writer who supported us when we put together ideas helped us focus on the other "assets" of the property and location.
2. How did the web site complement traditional real estate marketing?We felt that the web site gave us an opportunity to tell the story about our house. We could give lots more details about the surrounds, the benefits of the location and some of the features of the property that we thought were important to get across, but with limited words in the traditional advertisement is not achievable. We could also highlight things we loved about the town/region, people and link to groups which had enriched our time while living here.
3. To what extent did presenting additional material impact on your sense of engagement during the process?We could highlight things we knew were the real positives about the house and location, things we had genuinely enjoyed which made it feel like a more active rather than passive process. When you are selling a house it can sometimes feel that everything is in everyone's else's hands. This way we were able to ensure prospective buyers would also know what we would like to tell them about the house.
4. What did you see as the the benefit of promoting the lifestyle of Fryerstown and Castlemaine?As so many people move into the area without living here previously it helps to get an idea of the social opportunities beyond the obvious. There are so many groups and ways to link with people to form new networks. We will certainly miss many of the friends we made and the easy lifestyle of living in this region.
5. What will you miss about living in this region? We will miss the friendships and the vibrancy of the town. There is always something to do. We will miss the great Saturday Wesley Hill market and how easy it is to get to other locations in Victoria when you live here.
Content is an imperative1
Establishing a new website can be tougher than it sounds. It actually takes a good deal of time, effort, skill and imagination to build and maintain a vibrant web site. Many web designers quite literally tear their hair out, grumbling about the fact that their clients have not provided them with enough content to induce visitors to return.
One of the things that separated Soul Food during its heyday was the fresh, authentic content. It has not been updated for many years now but is so big that it maintains a significant, relevant presence today. This ongoing presence is a result of the authentic, appealing content. Explore a feature such as the Soul Food Alchemy Alphabet and you will find that it is quite literally packed with stimulus that still appeals to the would be writer or artist.
The importance of content was highlighted on a recent visit to amazing Mona (Museum of Old and New Art) in Hobart. Their hand held iPods contain a plethora of information about the art being viewed and enhanced the visit. By the time you departed you felt you had read lots of fabulous stories and learned a lot, not only about the art that was being exhibited but about the quirky curator.
Likewise, to attract visitors you need to make sure you maintain authentic, updated material.
If you take a close look at the work with Waller Realty in Castlemaine you will see that part of the content includes 'pop up' websites featuring properties. Each of these featured properties is treated completely individually and is filled with interesting copy about the 'story' of the place.
The Waller Realty blog is maintained with regular posts promoting some aspect of business operation. Posts may be about a testimonial or may feature a property. The side bar is filled with links that paint a picture of the region and the attached Pinterest board provides a local lifestyle snapshot.
So remember: "Web content is the reason that people come to your Web pages. But many Web designers and Web developers forget this in their rush to create the prettiest page or the most interesting architecture or the best interaction. When it comes right down to it, customers are not interested in whether your design has a 3-pixel or a 5-pixel bevel. They don't care that you've built it in Drupal. And they just want the interactivity to work and not get in the way". Source: What is Web Content?


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Cents 4 Sophie
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Debra Mc
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Hi everyone. I just received an email from Stitchin Heaven Quilt Shop in Quitman, TX. They are a national known shop. In the email there is a plea for everyone to help Sophie, a five year old girl with a brain tumor. Sophie has her own web site. It is Cents 4 Sophie. If you get the chance, please look up Sophie. She is a beautiful child and really needs everyones help. She has 2 brothers and a new baby sister so her family really needs help as their insurance won't pay for her new treatments. Wouldn't it be wonderful if everyone could send Sophie a dollar or maybe $5.00. As many of us as there are here, we could really make a difference for this special little girl. Please read Sophie's story and see what you think. They list several banks where you can send money to her.Let's show we care.
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Business workshops planned
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- Published on 04 February 2012
The Mount Vernon Economic Development Corporation, Main Street Mount Vernon, and the Small Business Development Center at Northeast Texas Community College have joined forces to conduct workshops for retail businesses and restaurants in the Franklin County Area.
The workshops will be Thursday, Feb. 9 and Friday, Feb. 10. Keeping Your Business Relevant in a Changed Economy will be the topic presented by Marc Wilson for retail businesses and restaurants. See the February 2 edition of the Mount Vernon Optic-Herald for more information.


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The Venus Project Lecture Tour will stop in Vancouver on Saturday, October 23, 2010 from 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
This event is organised by The Zeitgeist Movement Collective Vancouver, a local chapter for the Zeitgeist Movement and The Venus Project. In their own words: "Adhering to the principles of human birth-rights, we are moving strongly towards a more peaceful way of life. This is referred to as the Resource-Based Economy as proposed by Jacque Fresco, creator of The Venus Project. Looking towards human betterment is what the movement is all about. As the Vancouver chapter, we hope you will join us in the movement and be the change you want to see in the world".
More information and tickets are available on: http://zeitgeistvancouver.eventbrite.com/


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Conservative leader Stephen Harper's long-running quest to attain a majority government was finally achieved Monday in a landmark federal election that also saw Jack Layton's NDP surge dramatically to become the country's official Opposition for the first time in that party's history.
Two other leaders — Michael Ignatieff of the Liberals and Gilles Duceppe of the Bloc Quebecois — went down to defeat in disastrous campaigns for their parties, while Green leader Elizabeth May won her party's first seat in Parliament, another milestone victory in an election marked by seismic shifts in Canada's political landscape.
"What a great night," Harper exclaimed as he addressed cheering supporters in Calgary. "And friends, I have to say it: A strong, stable, national, majority Conservative government.
"We are grateful, deeply honoured — in fact, humbled — by the decisive endorsement of so many Canadians. We shall be faithful to the trust that you have reposed in us," Harper continued. "Whether or not you cast a vote for our party today, our government must and will stand on guard for all regions — and friends, we shall do that faithfully."
Harper then thanked constituents in his riding of Calgary Southwest for allowing him, once again, to follow "in the footsteps of Preston Manning" — a former MP for the constituency and the founder of the Reform movement that gave rise to the reborn Conservative party now led by Harper.
"Our priority is to deliver on our programs of support for families and the senior citizens of our country," he told cheering supporters.
In Toronto, Layton told a roaring crowd: "We're going to work very hard . . . each and every day to earn the trust that Canadians have placed in us. I want to say that I've always favoured proposition over opposition. But we will oppose the government when it's off-track."
Meanwhile, Ignatieff was ousted as an MP from his downtown Toronto riding but told supporters he would stay on, for now, as leader.
He acknowledged the epic scale of his party's defeat in a concession speech shortly after 11 p.m. ET, congratulating Harper and Layton — "two opponents who've had the better of the night," he said.
"Democracy teaches hard lessons and we have to learn them all," Ignatieff added, offering to remain as Liberal leader as the party tries to recover from the worst showing in its distinguished history as Canada's most successful political organization.
Ignatieff insisted that the party's "deep and ancient tradition" will carry on.
And Duceppe was defeated in his own Montreal-area riding as the Bloc lost official party status with its monumental collapse.
The mood was grim Monday night as Bloc supporters saw the impact of the NDP wave sweeping away seats the party has held for its entire 18-year existence.
"I have been honoured to represent you," Duceppe told supporters in Montreal, announcing he was resigning as leader.
"This time, Quebecers wanted to try something else," he said. "I am leaving, but others will follow — until Quebec becomes a country."
Both the Conservatives and NDP were picking up seats everywhere from a wounded, Ignatieff-led Liberal party that lost five of its East Coast MPs and dozens of others throughout Ontario — its last major bastion of strength — and Quebec.
And the Liberals' woes were shared by Duceppe's Bloc Quebecois, which was headed for utter decimation — and perhaps as few as four seats — in the province the separatist party has long wished to lead out of Confederation.
Meanwhile, May, a high-profile environmentalist, made more history by becoming the first member of the Green party elected to the House of Commons.
She defeated Conservative incumbent and sports minister Gary Lunn in the Vancouver Island riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands.
"Today," a jubilant May told an audience of Green supporters, "we proved that Canadians want change in politics."
By midnight Ottawa time, the unofficial election results had the Conservatives with 166 seats, the NDP at 103, the Liberals at 34, the Bloc at 4 and the Greens with one.
In Ontario and Quebec, where 181 seats were in play, a Conservative wave west of the Ottawa River and an NDP tide to the east largely determined the outcome of Canada's 41st general election.
The Tories took more than 70 of Ontario's 106 seats, an increase of about 20. And the NDP will send about 60 of Quebec's 75 MPs to Parliament.
The New Democrats held just one riding in Quebec — Thomas Mulcair's seat in Outremont — before the election.
In Calgary, at a rally of Harper's supporters, Conservatives cheered and celebrated as the results rolled in from across the country — confirming that Canadians, in large numbers, had given Harper the trust he had sought during the five-week campaign.
Harper, for the first time in the four campaigns he has led as Conservative leader since 2004, explicitly called on Canadians to give his party a majority mandate. The central thrust of his election pitch was the Conservative record on maintaining a healthy Canadian economy at a time of historic upheaval in global financial markets.
But a key corollary to his message was the prospect of what he called an "illegitimate," "reckless" and "ramshackle" coalition of opposition parties — backed by the separatist Bloc — if the Conservatives were denied a majority.
And while the majority result means no alliance of opposition parties will be able to topple Harper's Tories for the next four years, the NDP's remarkable rise has profoundly altered Canada's political map.
Mario Laframboise, the Bloc's chief organizer and outgoing MP for Argenteuil-Mirabel-Papineau riding, described her successful NDP rival as the beneficiary of an unbeatable force: "In my riding, my adversary was never present in the riding, no debates, no signs," he said. "It was like fighting against the wind. That is politics."
The NDP juggernaut in Quebec, which gave the party a stunning 59 seats, not only wiped out the Bloc's 47-member caucus but also toppled high-profile Liberal and Conservative members, including foreign affairs minister Lawrence Cannon in the Gatineau-area riding of Pontiac.
Both the Liberals, who had 14 seats in Quebec heading into the election, and the Conservatives, who had 11, dropped to just six seats in the province.
The "orange tide" that pushed Layton's NDP to unprecedented levels of popular support ahead of Monday's vote also reached parts of Atlantic Canada and delivered two new seats to the party there. The NDP's momentum then carried westward across Quebec and Ontario, catapulting the party's seat count — never higher than 43 in its history — to more than double that number.
The initial NDP gains in the East — one seat in Nova Scotia and one in Newfoundland — both came at the expense of the Liberals, as did three seats grabbed by the Conservatives in the eastern provinces, two in New Brunswick and one in Labrador.
Across Atlantic Canada, where the 17 Liberal incumbents at the outset of the campaign represented more than half of the region's 32 seats, a strong showing under Ignatieff seemed crucial to thwart predictions of a historic collapse for the party of Laurier, King and Trudeau.
While the Liberals kept four of six seats they held in Newfoundland and Labrador before the election, it lost incumbent Siobhan Coady's St. John's riding to the NDP's Ryan Cleary and Todd Russell's Labrador seat to aboriginal leader Peter Penashue.
The Conservatives, meanwhile, were looking to steal seats on the East Coast — primarily from the Liberals — to boost their pre-election total of 11 and set the stage for a landmark majority victory by the time polls closed hours later on the West Coast.
One of the two seats the party gained in New Brunswick marked the return of former Progressive Conservative MP Bernard Valcourt, 18 years after he last sat in the House of Commons.
The NDP, with just four seats in Atlantic Canada when the election was called, saw major opportunities for growth in Nova Scotia and elsewhere as the party's unanticipated tide of popularity — driven largely by Layton's impressive campaign — began sweeping the country after the Easter weekend.
In Ontario, the Conservatives held 51 seats heading into Monday's vote — nearly half of the 106 up for grabs in the province — while the Liberals' 37 seats represented the struggling party's most important base of support nationally. In the end, the Tories took at least 70 of the province's 106 seats and the Liberals watched their total plummet by more than 20.
Besides Ignatieff, several other high-profile Liberal incumbents in Ontario, including hockey legend Ken Dryden, Mark Holland and Ruby Dhalla, were defeated by Conservative candidates.
Former Ontario NDP premier Bob Rae, a Liberal, was re-elected in Toronto.
In Quebec, Stephane Dion and Justin Trudeau were survivors of the Liberal collapse. But former astronaut Marc Garneau, hailed as a star candidate when recruited by the Liberals, was not re-elected in his Montreal-area riding.
The NDP's surging fortunes nationally suggested the party might build significantly on its complement of 17 MPs in Ontario — including Layton and his wife, Olivia Chow, in two downtown Toronto ridings.
And the party did push its total up to 22 seats in the province, according to late Monday results.
At the same time, however, potential vote-splitting between NDP and Liberal candidates had raised the possibility that the Conservatives could benefit.
And vote-splitting did appear to be a significant factor in the huge Conservative victory, with about 20 new Ontario MPs added to its caucus, pushing the party past the 155 seats needed to control Parliament.
There were no major changes in seat totals in Western Canada, although the Liberals lost three MPs in B.C. — including former NDP premier Ujjal Dosanjh.
Harper and his senior advisers had earlier settled in for a long night on Monday in Calgary — far from certain they would win the majority government they consider so key to their political future.
As the polls closed in Atlantic Canada, there were signs that the NDP's surge in popularity could start a wave that would have ripple effects throughout the country and stall the Conservatives short of the pivotal 155-seat threshold.
Harper watched the TV coverage of the election results with his family at a Calgary hotel.
Nearby, his supporters gathered at the Telus Convention Centre and waited for him to deliver a speech to them once the election results were clear.
Liberal support began to bleed visibly after early results in Atlantic Canada, Quebec and Ontario showed the party facing major upsets in many key races.
The Conservative stranglehold on the three Prairie provinces, where the party held 48 of the region's 56 seats before the election, was expected to be challenged by the NDP's rise. But that did not materialize.
At the start of the campaign, the New Democrats had just three seats in Manitoba and one in Alberta. The Liberals held two in Manitoba and one in Saskatchewan, where veteran MP Ralph Goodale was re-elected.
The three federal ridings in Canada's Arctic territories — evenly divided between the Conservatives, Liberals and NDP prior to Monday's election — were all seen to be in play at the outset of the campaign. Larry Bagnell, the Liberal incumbent in the Yukon, was defeated by a Tory opponent.
The election was held after a 37-day campaign that began on March 26, when Harper visited Gov. Gen. David Johnston to formally report the defeat of his government in Parliament the day before.
At the time of dissolution, the Conservatives held 143 seats — 12 short of the 155 needed for a majority — the opposition Liberals held 77, the Bloc had 47 and the NDP 36. There were two independent MPs and three vacant seats.
Harper's repeated warnings about an opposition coalition — a governing scenario deemed legitimate by constitutional scholars — were prompted by the ill-fated alliance attempted in 2008 by Layton and former Liberal leader Stephane Dion, with backing from Duceppe. But Harper's attack was somewhat blunted by charges that he had led a similar "co-opposition" bid for power in 2004 and had spoken favourably about such parliamentary arrangements earlier in his political career.
The Ignatieff-led Liberals initially focused their campaign on the historic ruling in March that the Conservative government was in "contempt of Parliament" over its failure to adequately disclose details of its spending plans on a suite of justice reforms, including prison construction.
But Ignatieff's framing of the election as a test of whether Canadians trusted the "secretive" and "autocratic" Harper to continue governing didn't appear to resonate with the electorate. And Ignatieff's evasions on the coalition question appeared to undermine his own trust and leadership profile — already hammered by months of Conservative attack ads, in advance of the election, targeting the Liberal leader's career as an expatriate writer and scholar in Britain and the U.S.
The Liberal campaign re-focused on the party's record as a defender of universal health care and its "family pack" platform of proposed federal payouts, a program aimed at assisting middle-class Canadians who are squeezed between caring for elderly relatives and financing their children's post-secondary education.
Meanwhile, the NDP campaign — buoyed by Layton's impressive performances in the televised leaders debates and his steady climb in leadership ratings — highlighted the party's plans to introduce a cap-and-trade system to fight climate change, to cap credit-card interest rates at five per cent and to shift Conservative corporate tax breaks to smaller businesses.
A 10-point lead in most polls at the start of the election suggested Harper was on the cusp of achieving his long-sought majority. But as the campaign reached its fourth week, an unexpected surge in NDP support — first seen in polling in Quebec but later elsewhere in the country — forced all parties to abruptly recalibrate their messaging and prepare for scenarios that would have seemed unthinkable when the election was called.
Party strategists increased their attention on key "swing" ridings in Quebec, southern Ontario and southern British Columbia, where close races in previous elections suggested the chances of "flipping" seats to other parties was strongest.
Amid the NDP surge, Layton's cap-and-trade energy plan — intended as a key source of federal revenues as early as next year — came under increased scrutiny as critics questioned its feasibility and the overall budget numbers of a party poised to become the official Opposition, or even the leading player in a minority governing alliance.
And the NDP's proposed measures to bolster French-language rights in Quebec and to bring the province fully into the Canada's constitutional fold — both aimed at attracting "soft nationalist" votes away from the Bloc Quebecois — became a target for rival leaders.
Just days before Monday's vote, Layton dismissed as a transparent "smear" a Sun media report about a 1996 incident in which Layton, then a Toronto city councillor, was warned by police to keep clear of a massage parlour suspected of operating as a bawdy house.
On the eve of election day, however, polls suggested the NDP's unprecedented popularity was holding. It emerged that the central challenge for the party was whether its popular support could be translated into seats in the House of Commons by getting new backers to the polls on election day — particularly in Quebec.
But those fears were, in the end, unfounded.
Both Ignatieff and Duceppe, their parties facing sharp drops in the polls as a result of the NDP surge, had made Layton and Harper equal targets in speeches during the final week of the campaign.
And Harper, whose party stood to benefit from centre-left vote-splitting under a modest rise in NDP fortunes, faced the prospect that his hoped-for majority was in jeopardy as the Layton-led "orange crush" increasingly appeared to be consolidating the non-Conservative vote and attracting support from key target groups — including women and Quebec nationalists — needed for the Tories to reach the 155-seat target.
In broader terms, the 2011 election campaign was notable for its apparent re-invigorating of the country's political process. After the 2008 election's record-setting low voter turnout — just 58.8 per cent nationally — this year's campaign was highlighted by student "vote mobs" aimed at banishing youth apathy from Canadian democracy, and the unprecedented use of social media, particularly Twitter, in spreading election news and driving debate.
With files from Mark Kennedy, Althia Raj, Tobi Cohen and Carmen Chai.


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NSA Leaker Says He Isn't Hiding, and More
What's News: Edward Snowden says he intends to challenge the U.S. in Hong Kong courts. ESPN will stop broadcasting in 3-D. Number of 'underwater' borrowers drops. Joanne Po reports. Photo: AP.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... the NSA Laker says he's not hiding from just this this is what's news at this hour I'm WS J live I'm Thailand Co ... Edwards get into the top secret information about U S surveillance programs ... tells a local news paper that he still in Hong Kong ... and has no plans to leave the city ... Mr Snowdon says he intends to challenge the U S government in Hong Kong courts ... he says he is not in Hong Kong to hide from justice but to quote ... reveal criminality ... U S prosecutors are weighing charges against its twenty nine year old former government contractor ... and are considering adding use to get Mr. started extradited to the U S sports network ESPN will stop broadcasting in three D by the end of the year the move dealing a major floods with technology ... that was launched with great fanfare but has been struggling for years ... ESPN says there was extremely limited viewership to make three D broadcast worth it ... ESPN three D was one of nine three D channels which launched in two thousand ten following the release of the blockbuster movie Abbot our ... TV makers rushed into these TV sets as well ... but few consumers proved willing to pay the extra two hundred box for three D capable set ... ESPN says it will be ready to provide three D broadcast again ... if it went three D does take off and positive developments on the housing front a new report by CoreLogic shows that the number of underwater borrowers drops below ten million ... the improvement is due largely to rising home prices which are easing the high level of homeowners ... owing more on their homes than they're worth ... looking keep us anomaly business about Mr upbeat and what's his aunt WS J last ...


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Listings in Computer + Tools -, Doors + Windows -, Specialties -, Plumbing + HVAC and General - in Rosemont
Hydro Extrusion North America
in Doors + Windows -, All, Metals -, Cladding/Curtain Wall -, Cladding/Curtain Wall, Doors + Windows, Metals
Hydro Extrusion North America is the extruded aluminum business unit of global Hydro Aluminum. The business operates more than 20 aluminum extrusion locations throughout North America.
6250 N River Road
Rosemont, Illinois 60018
United States


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|Posted: March 20, 2009
Nanotechnology increases efficiency of sun-to-fuel process
|(Nanowerk News) Researchers at UALR -- the University of Arkansas at Little Rock -- said they have developed a process involving nanostructure that shows great promise in boosting the efficiency of titania photoanodes used to convert solar energy into hydrogen in fuel cells.
|Hydrogen, the third most abundant element on earths surface, has long been recognized as the ultimate alternative to fossil fuels as an energy carrier. Automobiles using hydrogen directly or in fuel cells have already been developed, but the biggest challenge has been how to produce hydrogen using renewable sources of energy.
|Scientists in Japan discovered in 1970 that semiconductor oxide photoanodes can harness the photons from solar radiation and used them to split a water molecule into hydrogen and oxygen, but process was too inefficient to be viable.
|The UALR team, working with researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno, and supported by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority (ASTA), has reported an 80 percent increase in efficiency with a new process.
|The new process has been outlined in a recent study published in the journal Nanotechnology.
|Electrochemical methods were utilized to synthesize titania photoanodes with nanotubular structures. The photoanode surfaces were then subjected to low-pressure nitrogen plasma to modify their surface properties. The plasma treatment increased the light absorption by the photoanode surface. It also removed surface impurities that are detrimental for photoelectrochemical hydrogen production.
|The plasma treatment significantly enhanced the photo electrochemical activity of the samples, said Dr. Rajesh Sharma, assistant research professor in applied science in UALRs Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology (EIT). The photocurrent density of plasma treated material was approximately 80 percent higher than that of the control electrodes.
|Sharmas highly interdisciplinary research interests encompass materials science, electrostatics, and particulate technology. He developed an atmospheric pressure plasma reactor for surface modification of materials in a variety of applications.
|In addition to his work on nanostructured materials for photoelectrochemical processes, he is also working on development of an electrodynamic screen for dust mitigation application for future Mars and Lunar missions.
|In addition to Sharma, the project team includes Drs. Alexandru Biris, assistant professor in applied science and chief science officer of Nanotechnology Center at UALR; UALR Professor-emeritus Malay Mazumder, and UALR undergraduate student Jacob Bock of Cabot.
|Team members in Nevada include Dr. Mano Misra in the Department of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering at UNR, and graduate students Prajna P. Das and Vishal Mahajan at the UNR.
|Dr. Steve Trigwell, manager of the Applied Science and Technology Laboratories at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, also participated in the research.
|Source: University of Notre Dame
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Well, I'm mightily pleased that we made it to 100. Through all the trials and tribulations of the past two-or-so-years that we've been doing these things it's mostly been a pleasure. The plan was to originally compile a greatest hits of Spotifriday for the hundredth edition with the Top 15 or so most featuring artists all making up the playlist. Alas, that never came to pass, so here's the tried and tested format of "some things which featured, in one way or another, on our website over the past seven days or so". It has The National, Girls, Electrelane, Iceage, Hefner and some more. Listen to it here. Here it is, then.
1. Girls - 'Lust For Life'
Girls have been in the news a couple of times this week, firstly for announcing a few UK shows later in the year and secondly for sticking out a free download of a track, 'Vomit', from their new record, which is released later in the year. This track is NOT from it, however.
2. Veronica Falls - 'Beachy Head'
It seems to be the time of year when bands are announcing their Autumn releases and Veronica Falls got in on the act this week, confirming the release date of their self-titled debut, through Bella Union. If it doesn't have Beachy Head on it then they will have made A GRAVE MISTAKE.
3. Electrelane - 'Gone Under Sea'
Recently Electrelane announced a reformation, which was nice. This week they played at the Scala, which went down quite well, I think. They also initiated a non-hostile takeover of our website's editorial content, the index of which can be found here.
4. Wolf Gang - 'Lions In Cages'
Wolf Gang did not get a very positive review this week for the album Suego Falls. It's fine. Not everything can be fantastic and I'm sure some people like it. Let's not get too down on the issue. Listen to this song to judge for yourself.
5. Cerebral Ballzy - 'Cutting Glass'
The lead "singer" of Cerebral Ballzy has very long legs. He puts them to good use to lean on things, jump and climb and generally cause a modest menace to anyone within leg's length. They played Latitude, too, which we reviewed here.
6. The National - 'England'
The National also played! They are much revered by many people. If you want to know what Wendy Roby thought of that particular performance then I suggest you head here. This one is, roughly I guess, about ENGERLUND.
7. Iceage - 'New Brigade'
This is the title track from Iceage's debut record, something we quite liked. It's not especially groundbreaking stuff, but it is quite fucking enjoyable, a bit like Cerebral Ballzy up there. Of course, this may not be entirely your thing, in which case avoid it. Obviously.
8. Hefner - 'Alan Bean'
This is a song about the fourth man on the Moon, as the lyrics make abundantly clear very early on. It's a poignant song this week, what with the last of the space shuttles touching down for the last time. It's quite heartbreaking in many ways, really. Where do you go once you've been on the Moon? Dead Media got re-issued. Read about it here.
9. Belle & Sebastian - 'Come On Sister'
Funnily enough, Hefner also had a song called Come On Sister, but I am fairly certain this is not the same one. It was released as a single this week, where Wendy Roby said it was "sneaky as a mid-period Paul Heaton lyric and oh boy is it ever jolly, it has lollipops in both hands and a smile so wide you could wedge a frisbee in its maw. I appreciate that younglings hate hearing how you mellow as you age but it really is true, and not painful at all - the point being, you do not give a fig. All the rules you set yourself in early life simply fall away. And then one day you wake up and find yourself writing reviews which justify your interest in pop music SO cosy, you could live in it."
10. Jens Lekman - 'When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog'
Great news! Jens Lekman is FINALLY releasing some new material. It's in EP form and is called An Argument With Myself. It'll be released on September 19. Read more about it here.
11. Shrag - 'Mark E. Smith'
The final song in this week's playlist comes from Shrag who are from Brighton. It is because of that reason they feature in the fifth instalment of the Drowned in Brighton series along with some other bands, like Tense Men and...Fear of Men.
Click here to listen to this playlist and here to have a gander at our fairly massive archives. Americans, come on in, we have plenty!


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Forget Apple, look at Google's stockSeptember 18, 2012: 1:18 PM ET
Apple may be getting all the headlines these days but investors might want to take a closer look at Google's stock.
Shares of Google (GOOG) hit a new 52-week high, and are sitting comfortably above $700 -- the same mark that Apple (AAPL) briefly topped Tuesday. (Google first crossed that lofty level earlier this month.)
Both tech giants have a lot going for them. Apple's "iProducts" can do no wrong. And Google is by far the dominant search engine (sorry Bing).
Google had a rough youth but seems to have hit its stride lately. The stock is now just 4% below its 2007 all-time record of $747.
StockTwits traders were pretty bullish on the stock.
DeidreZune: $GOOG at ALL TIME HIGHS -- despite being surgically removed from $AAPL's iPhone 5.
The race to dominate the smartphone market is a close one. Just last month, research firm IDC reported that Google's Android had gained a whopping 68% share of the global smartphone market during the second quarter. That's four times the 17% market share held by Apple.
cselland: I have never used Siri but the speech recognition on my Nexus 7 is stunningly good$GOOG
newsagg: $GOOG just bought Nik but Snapseed is NOT an Instagram-like photo-sharing tool as some reporting. Awesome hi end edit tool though.
DuCorse: Would Google's new Droid RAZR be more threat to Samsung than Apple? $GOOG, $APPL
It would seem that Google has managed to carve out a nice niche in the smartphone arena, which should help keep it on the right path.
And while the search giant has been known to occasionally misspend, investors appear to be pretty forgiving of those missteps. After all, Google is only 14 years old. Even teenagers can learn from their mistakes.
JFDI: What a run $GOOG has had since its June/July lows


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By Steve Kastenbaum, CNN
Follow on Twitter: @SKastenbaumCNN
Editor's Note: Listen to the full story in our player above, and join the conversation in our comments section below.
(CNN) – The Northern Snakedhead fish is not going to win any beauty contests.
With a mouth full of sharp teeth beneath bulging eyes, the invasive predator – native to waters in China and Russia – may be threatening the balance of the ecosystem of the Harlem Meer, a man-made lake in New York's Central Park.
[2:46] "It can attack and feed on the other fish that are there which would disrupt the water body," said Rodney Rivera of the New York State Department of Environmental Protection. "The fact that it breaths and it spends some of its time above water it's kind of an interesting one to most folks."
Some urban fly fisherman have come to the lake in hopes of being saviors to the dozens of turtles, ducks and schools of carp that live there.
Robert Burstein was trying to hook one of the nefarious fish..
[3:47] "I'm trying to protect the inhabitants of the pond. Maybe it's just the desire to fight a monster."
It's not clear how the Northern Snakehead could've wound up in this lake. It's actually illegal to own a live Northern Snakehead in New York.
Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. And listen to CNN Soundwaves on our SoundCloud page.
might I suggest chasing the entire population through a wier using a small amount of chloriene and then simply vacume the offending fish into a holding tank for disposal through emulstion into fertilzer for the local park... a 24-to-36 Hr. hold would create minimal mortality for the remaining species and provide sufficient time for the chloriene level to disapate to safe levels...
/facepalm Carp is an invasive species too, and do as much damage to the environment as snakeheads can do.....
Prove that Asian carp do as much damage as snakehead. Good luck Marc.
While most of the U.S is susceptible to these Snakeheads, Arizona will remain pretty much free. Fried Fish anyone?
The picture is great! I'm a professional fly fisherman and looking at his set up, I hope he doesn't catch that fish. Better have some shock tippet and 4-inch needle nose pliers if you catch that thing. I would use a popper for bass or GTs and strip it over the water like a hurt fish. I've fly fished in China and Thailand where they have Snakefish. These people have no idea what they are in for if they catch one of these.
I saw the report and first thought, "I know more about snake heads than CNN does.Instead of saying what you know you know you should get an expert to talk about it.SNAKE HEAD CAN'T GO OVER A FOOT ON FLAT, DRY LAND AND GET TIRED VERY EASILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you much!!!!!! A few years ago it was reported lose America and would make its way into most of Americas lakes and rivers over time.
Just saw the report on CNN this AM. I haven't laughed that hard in awhile. They eat turtles! Keep your pets away! They will eat everything!!! Good times. I've caught Snakehead in the Potomac. Fantastic fish to catch and eat. Monsters who will eat your pets? No. Do your research folks and you will find that local fish and wildlife agencies have yet to establish a link between a decline in native fish populations and the Snakehead once the Snakehead have become established. Largemouth Bass populations have actually increased in the Potomac. Snakehead have been in the Potomac River for over 10 years.
I guess you know more than the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Maybe you should give them a call. Perhaps, then, all of those communities that have drained lakes and ponds in the name of ridding their waters of the invasive predator did that for nothing? The pet remark was a joke. It's called sarcasm. As for the turtles, yes, they have been known to take bites out of baby turtles and frogs. But hey, don't take my word for it, watch National Geographic's take on the Northern Snakehead. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmU7etSYYqI
Ever seen a Giant Snakehead? They're basically 4-foot piranhas with an attitude.
The fly fishermen aren't going to catch anything. if you want to catch a snakehead, use a pencil popper or a bass assissan on a led-head jig
My son & I fish this pond. Can't wait to catch one and put a knife through its head. This fish will tear through the LM bass, bluegills, crappies, sunnys, & carp that live there. Way to ruin a great fishing spot. I wouldn't doubt if they just poison the whole pond and restock it. Argggh!!! They better not do this to the other ponds in our park!
ohh and I guess I better put more than 2 lbs test on my light rod ; )
Fishing upstae many years also have had snake heads as pets......JUST CHUM THE WATER WITH CHICKEN BROTH AND NET THEM...works very time...NEXT SOMEBODY WILL 1000000 $ TO HUNT THEM OUT OF A PUDDLE...LOL...CAREFULL THEY BITE REALLY REALLY HARD!
Here in Vancouver Canada we have a large Asian population and the fish are sold as dinner for restuarant patrons. However one possibly 2 were released into a local park lake Fish and Game spent 2 weeks trying to catch the fish until it was decided to drain the lake and they were finally caught. Good luck New York get these monsters out of your pond before they destroy everything and get into other waterways.
Not surprised that they went to a seemingly extreme measure to get rid of this fish. It's a real danger to the balance of local ecosystems. It's tolerant to a wide variety of temperatures, can survive out of water for a time and it'll eat just about anything in its path including members of its own species when it runs out of food and it won't think twice about going after juvenile ducks and other birds.
About 10 years ago they were in my town in Maryland. Now you catch them in the Potomac River all around the DC, MD and VA sides. Some of the restaurants cook snakehead meals.
There is an episode of Discovery's River Monsters that covers the snakeheads. They have been discovered all over the US. Seem like a pretty nasty fish to be in that little pond.
Killing critters for sport is terrible, no matter what type critter it is
Then You've never watched river monsters. The host almost always does live releases (the few times the fish was not returned was because of accidental death, like one fish bashing his head on rocks. Said fish was then given to the local residents so it was not wasted.) and does his best to ensure the fish is unharmed.
Also, the snakehead is an invasive species. Like the Asian carp and the Lionfish, unless they are checked, they will RUIN our local waterways.
I happen to share your moral conviction here concerning the ethics of killing for sport, but regardless of my moral judgement concerning the ethics of those who do this, what matters to anything other than the karma of particular individuals doing the killing is whether removing or at least decreasing the ongoing damage from this environmentally destructive species from where it has been mistakenly introduced is helped by encouraging folks who DO kill for sport to choose this place & species for their target.
This was most likely a pet no longer wanted. As an aquarium hobbyist, I once had a few snakeheads. Most fish will do 1 of 2 things when you walk into the room w/tank. They either come to the top to be fed, or run and hide. These things just sit facing you w/a how can I take a bite out this guy look. We also have a "flying carp", and lion fish problem w/non-native species. This is not new. Read about walking catfish in Fla. in the '70s. Fla. once was paying a $25 bounty on them.
@jboh thanks for listening to the piece. So they're that menacing, huh? I've yet to see one up close but I'm hoping to be there if/when one of those fly fishermen catches one.
@jboh, I too owned a snakehead and agree with you fully about walking into a room. My wife hated it.. she literally felt the fish disliked her. It is voracious. I fed it 100 comet fish at a time. Even chicken breast. I never put my hand in the water. I moved out of the country and had to give it to a local fish store. It was about 2 feet long by then. It was a true battle to transfer it.. it fought and bit the whole time. A true monster fish.. but one of my favorites.


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Net Neutrality
Net Neutrality Just Got Sucker-Punched. Will Madison Avenue Get the Bill?
Why You Should Be Freaking Out About The End Of Net Neutrality: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/14/net-neutrality_n_4597831.html
Feds Can't Enforce Net Neutrality: What This Means For You: http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/01/14/262454310/feds-cant-enforce-net-neutrality-what-this-means-for-you?utm_content=socialflow&utm_campaign=nprfacebook&utm_source=npr&utm_medium=facebook
Internet has been the most democratic tool in the last two decades. Trough the Arab Spring, anti-Putin blogs, Erdogan's Turkey, my home country Bulgaria: people have had a viable voice to speak, hear and share, despite government-own, Goebbels-like mass media, who thus looses the opportunity to control public opinion. .
That era is only logical to wind down. In my home country, the Murdock-like media owner, as well as ruling-parties' apparatchiks pay "trolls" to go and muddle the blog sections under online articles and the social media field.
In the U.S., the same process takes different "democratic" way: the big companies are lobbying and buying their way of silencing the Internet right of people to be able to voice, speak and share their opinion.


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Manufacturer's Description
The official videogame of the Superbike World Championship is back in 2008 and lands on the next-gen consoles for the first time with brand new features and enhancements. Thanks to the PS3 hardware performances, the gameplay experience will be enriched in order to let players experience the world of superbikes in a compelling and immersive game.
It's 22 bikes rushing into the first corner and breaking at the same time. The game reflects that fast, furious, craziness of always being on the edge of falling over, crashing against an opponent or surviving the next bend. The player has the possibility to improve the performances of his bike, managing and tuning a lot of aspects like top speed, gear ratios, suspension stiffness and choosing the better set of tires for the single race. SBK-08 features stunning graphics and blisterngly fast gameplay.
- All the official Superbikes from the 2008 Championship
- 22 bikes and 22 riders simultaneously on the track
- 5 game modes - Instant Action, Quick Race, Race Weekend, Championship and Challenge
- Real time light and shadow effects
- Accurate physics model built on real data and validated with Superbike support
- New rider physics providing the most realistic rider behaviours
- In game realism with rider traction control and brake assist
- 2 rider profiles rider simulation and arcade All bikes are technically and visually accurate. Sounds are recorded from the real bikes
|Item Code
|Packaged Weight
|0.1 Kg
|Release Date
|Thursday, 25th June 2009
|Product Type
|Video Game
|Xbox 360


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Analizador CLINITEK Status+
Need simple, enhanced clinical information for urinalysis results?
The CLINITEK Status®+ Analyzer is the latest addition to the CLINITEK® family. The CLINITEK Status+ Analyzer is even easier to use and features new automatic checks (Auto-Checks**).
The analyzer automatically checks each test strip for humidity exposure, common sample interferences*** and strip identification for Siemens test strips. Together, these provide improved clinical information.
Easy to Use and Convenient
- Simple, intuitive touchscreen operation
- Load test – the analyzer does the rest, automatically times and reads every specimen
- Fast results – in-office test results in about 1 minute
- Automatic printed report – no manual transcription needed
Improved Data Integrity
- Analyzer along with patented test strip technology enables Auto-Checks:
- Detects common sample interferences and makes a printed note of any potentially compromised result***
- Checks each strip for humidity to prevent reporting of falsely elevated results
- Auto-identification of test strips, no need for operators to key in manually
- Removes subjectivity of visually read results
Comprehensive Menu
- Routine urinalysis with CLINITEK Multistix® urine test strips, the most widely used test strips in the world**
- Albumin-to-creatinine ratios to detect early kidney disease in confirmed diabetic patients
- Protein-to-creatinine ratios to detect early kidney disease in high-risk patients
- hCG pregnancy testing via the CLINITEST® hCG cassette
Future Ready
- Simple connectivity upgrade to CLINITEK Status® Connect System, for centralized oversight, data integration and elimination of manual documentation when interfaced to data management software or LIS
- Barcode reading capability to eliminate manual tasks
*Point of Care Diagnostic Testing Worldwide Markets. Trimark Publications. June 12, 2009
**Only available when using Siemens IR or color bands
***Feature not available in the U.S.