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NEWTON — Women who spent vulnerable teen years in the Kansas foster care system can't forget how Youthville shattered their adolescence.
Three women shared detailed memories of being physically restrained, drugged and locked in small cinder block rooms, and how one of them was groomed by a staff member 29 years older than her for sexual gratification.
The abuse took place from 2007-2010, before the Newton institution transformed under new ownership, but the experiences exacerbated underlying trauma that still affects their lives.
An investigation by The Topeka Capital-Journal found evidence through interviews, police reports, medical and disciplinary records, affidavits, depositions and court filings to support allegations that Doug Prochazka, a Youthville employee, had sexual relations with a girl he supervised before she turned 18. Crystal, who asked not to be identified by her real name, settled a previously undisclosed lawsuit with EmberHope in 2015.
Crystal moved in with Prochazka when she left Youthville, and she alleged in the lawsuit that he forced her through physical violence into prostitution and pornography. He fathered a child with her and, because he never faced criminal charges, shares custody.
"When I express anger as an older adult now," Crystal said, "he's like, 'You know what? You made decisions. You wanted to be with me. Don't act like you're innocent and everything.' And I'm like, 'But you had this power of authority over me.' "
Newton police and the county attorney believed Prochazka had taken advantage of Crystal, and that he may have produced child pornography involving other victims, but he denied any wrongdoing and they lacked evidence to prosecute.
Crystal, Jess Huber and Natalie Zarate describe a culture without accountability while they were at Youthville. Unskilled, low-wage employees flaunted their control over girls who were there to receive psychiatric attention.
Each of the women independently talked about the frequent use of "booty juice" — their term for a forced injection of anti-psychotic medication into their buttocks — and "seclusion rooms," the small unfurnished spaces where they were locked for more than a day at a time on multiple occasions.
"They literally dragged my limp body into the white room," Huber said. "They kept me in there for days alone, and in the dark for most of it. I hated that room. It was horrible. I remember thinking I was hearing things and seeing things. It literally made me go crazy."
Youthville in 2011 shut down foster care services on the 30-acre campus where the original orphanage was built in 1929 and transferred ownership to EmberHope. Campus operations now include a shelter, school, secure care facility for kids in state custody, and three cottages for foster girls.
"We are deeply saddened to hear the personal stories expressed by these individuals," said Nickaila Sandate, president and CEO of EmberHope Youthville. "No one should ever feel mistreated. As an agency, we have measures in place to ensure the safety and well-being of the children and families we serve."
* * *
Crystal left Prochazka in 2012 when he called her at work to say he couldn't deal with their baby boy anymore.
She could hear the child crying in the background and rushed home to find him disregarded in his playpen.
"He was just sitting there crying with all these empty beer bottles around him," she said. "That's when I just was like, I'm not going to put my son through what I went through growing up."
Crystal's stepfather began abusing her at a young age and raped her daily from the time she was 10 to 14. The girl was placed in foster care after confiding in doctors while hospitalized for a suicide attempt. She met Prochazka during a brief stay at Youthville when she was 15, then went to live with a pastor in Osage County who raped her on the floor of a church nursery.
She went back to Youthville and, as her relationship with Prochazka escalated beyond flirting, kept a journal that her mother later shared with police.
"I was able to find a way to get that love I wanted," Crystal wrote in the journal. "There was a staff (member) there named Doug that was 44 years old. He wasn't cute or anything, but he reminded me of my dad, and that's all that mattered. We would do little things together when we were alone."
At the Youthville cottage where Prochazka was tasked with keeping girls in line, the two would meet outside of camera view in the laundry room. There, she said, he would give her CDs, magazines and bottles of alcohol, and she performed oral sex in return.
As a staff member, Prochazka had access to Crystal's case file and knew she had been a victim of sexual abuse. She was heavily medicated for the trauma she suffered. Sometimes she felt special because of the attention he gave her. Other times, she struggled with their secret relationship.
"He had told me, 'After you age out, you're not going to have anywhere to go. You can come and stay with me,' " Crystal said. "And so I felt like I kind of had to keep the secret because if not, I would basically be on the streets."
A month after she turned 18, Crystal left Youthville and went to live with Prochazka. Her mother contacted police, who investigated the unusual relationship. Crystal told them the two had engaged in sexual relations, including intercourse, for the past two years.
In an inquiry at Prochazka's house, Newton police officer Bryan Hall asked Prochazka if he had ever used Limewire or any other file sharing application. Prochazka said he never used such a service or downloaded child pornography, but Hall noticed an icon for Limewire on Prochazka's computer.
"Douglas stammered," the officer wrote in a report, "then told me he had used it a few times."
Crystal declined to cooperate with the investigation, and Harvey County Attorney David Yoder decided it wasn't in the best interest of a child sex abuse victim to force her to take the stand against her will and tell the jury what happened.
Prochazka, now a 58-year-old DJ, didn't return a phone call seeking comment for this story. He denied in a 2015 deposition having sexual relations with Crystal before she left Youthville. He said she called him out of the blue in March 2009 and asked to move in with him.
"She was anxious," Prochazka said. "She was having trouble with her mother and having these issues, and the conversation as I recall, it transpired into more of a seduction. She was very seductive and coming on to me and very persistent about it."
After Crystal moved in with Prochazka, "things went from s--- to s---," she said.
* * *
Huber began bashing her head into a wall after several days in the seclusion room, hoping to attract the staff's attention.
They found her head split open, bleeding, swollen and bruised.
"It did not work," she said. "They still left me there for a couple more days after realizing what I had done — said that now I had to remain there for suicide watch. But I believe it was just more twisted cruelty."
Each Youthville cottage contains two small, square rooms with cinder block walls painted white. The empty space contains no bedding or furnishings on the hard floor — just an overhead light and security camera in a high ceiling. The girls were too short to see through the window at the top of the metal doors.
Regulations that guide social services allow rare and last-resort use of physical holds, injections and isolation for children who are trying to harm themselves or others.
"You're just re-creating another trauma," said Cheryl Rathbun, chief clinical officer for Saint Francis Ministries, a foster care contractor. "These things should only be used as an emergency intervention when all other interventions have not been effective."
Today, the rooms are available to girls who want a quiet place to "refocus." They aren't forced into the rooms, and the doors are never closed.
But the women interviewed for this story describe a ritual in which staff members routinely turned to physical force and Thorazine shots to restrain misbehaving girls.
"Six grown men staff members sat on top of me with my pants and underwear around my ankles for hours while making the other clients line up against the wall and watch and witness," Huber said. "I remember begging and crying and pleading to them to please just get off of me because I could not breathe and their weight was crushing me. I was probably around 14 or 15 at the time, 100 or so pounds."
Huber ran away from Youthville when she was 15. On the streets, she had to lie and steal to survive. She was willing to do anything to avoid going back to the "hell hole."
For Crystal, whose stepfather had locked her in the basement, being locked in a small, cold room triggered her trauma.
"The lighting really is what f---- with you," Crystal said. "It's because it's all white. There is no stimulation whatsoever. After being in one of those rooms with the door closed on quote-unquote safety protocol for two or three days, you start seeing s---."
She has nightmares about standing against the cottage wall and watching staff hold down Zarate, shoot her up and drag her to the white room. She didn't see Zarate again for three days.
Zarate, a victim of physical abuse before entering foster care, said she acted out in anger while at Youthville. She arrived at the Newton facility shortly before she turned 12 years old and didn't understand why she was placed on so many medications.
"There were certain things happening in that group home that were unspoken," Zarate said, "but we as youth and I believe some of the staff members knew what was going on, which is why they put all of us on birth control."
* * *
Youthville fired Prochazka after police and Crystal's mother made the organization aware the two had moved in together.
Internal emails and a "critical incident report" show the organization's primary concern was the possibility of "media attention or litigation."
To make ends meet, Crystal said, Prochazka lined up men who paid to have sex with her. He made her pose for nude photos, she said, and appear as an online "cam girl." She accepted a job as an exotic dancer to pay his rent.
"I had to dance and sit there and take all these freaking nasty photos for him," Crystal said. "I could sit there and make money so that he could have money for rent, which is really just a joke now that I think about it because literally every dime I made went to him."
She said he enforced the shameful acts by beating her. He also ordered her to give him oral sex under threat of eviction, she said.
Police again investigated Prochazka after Crystal and her son showed up at a domestic violence shelter in 2012. Newton police officer Mitchell Nedrow found a large projector and tripods set up in Prochazka's living room. On his computer, police found lots of nude photos of Crystal and other girls. Multiple photos of Crystal showed bruising up and down her legs.
"Prochazka would make her dress up like a little girl so she would appear young," Nedrow wrote in his report. "During these photo shoots, Prochazka would show her pictures of young girls and tell her to pose like they were. (Crystal) said when she did not pose properly, Prochazka would get angry or violent with her."
Crystal said she spilled her guts to detectives and was alarmed when no charges were filed.
Yoder, the county attorney, said he needed more evidence to convince a jury to convict Prochazka of sexual abuse or child pornography.
"Do I believe that he had inappropriate sexual contact with her while she was underage and while he was a worker at Youthville? Yes, I certainly do," Yoder said. "The problem is after the passage of time and intervening circumstances, that makes prosecution a whole lot more problematic."
Crystal instead in 2014 filed the civil lawsuit, where the traumatic impact of her relationship with Prochazka would be debated by EmberHope's attorney, Scott Gunderson.
The attorney deposed Crystal and asked her to compare the sexual abuse she suffered before and after she arrived at Youthville.
"Would you agree with me that the mental anguish that you say Doug Prochazka caused you to suffer was really no different than the mental anguish that your adoptive father and (the pastor) caused you to suffer?" Gunderson asked.
She was confused by his question, which had to be repeated. As she reflected on the confrontation years later, she concluded "rape is rape."
"How the hell am I supposed to answer that?" Crystal said. "I went from one hell to another hell. I don't know how to judge which was worse. I will never forget that question. How do you decide which is worse? You can't."
* * *
The three brick cottages where girls live at Youthville were built in the 1990s to look like nice homes.
The living quarters are split into two levels. The ground floor has a small kitchen, cafeteria-like dining table, a laundry room, lounge with a TV behind a glass case, and the two seclusion rooms. Therapy sessions are held in the basement. Girls who live here spend much of their days upstairs, confined to two-bed rooms.
Living under strict rules in a small town was unpleasant for Tanner Lindal, a Wichita native who was at Youthville in 2018.
Girls couldn't leave their rooms in the morning until the buzz of an intercom system signaled breakfast was ready. They had to recite rules before eating: Don't tip back in your chair. Don't chew with your mouth full. Don't play with your food. They weren't allowed to talk for the first five minutes of the meal.
"It was very childish," Lindal said.
After breakfast, the girls did chores. They could watch a movie during limited free time but otherwise had to stay in their rooms. They needed supervision to take a walk. The best off-campus attraction was the library.
These days, bad behavior results in "red" status, which means you have to sit alone and fill out paperwork instead of watching the movie.
Lindal felt like she wasted a year of year life by being at Youthville. After she was discharged from the group home in December 2018, she ran away with a boy she met in the office of a child placement agency.
"I experienced things that a 16-, 17-year-old girl should not have to go through," Lindal said. "I was doing drugs. I was homeless. There was a point where I was sleeping on the streets. There were guns to my head at one point. Sleeping in dirty conditions. People holding down my arm, putting needles in my arm. Smoking meth and doing crack. And that went on for four months."
Now 18, Lindal has bonded with other foster girls who experienced trauma, including those who were at Youthville a decade earlier, and is thankful the seclusion rooms are no longer used to lock away angry children.
Sandate, the CEO of EmberHope Youthville, wasn't aware of the abuse outlined in this story. A native of Newton, Sandate has been an administrator at Youthville since 2002 and is proud of the organization's reputation for providing exceptional care for children.
"To be given the responsibility to adequately keep them safe and cared for, make sure that their physical and health needs, their educational needs, their mental health needs are being met — it's not to be taken lightly," Sandate said. "These are obviously other people's children, and they need to be cared for. Through assessments and services we provide, we're able to help them heal, recover, identify what their needs are if they haven't been met. That's our job, and that's what we do."
Yoder, the county attorney since 2002, said Youthville has long been a beacon for sexual predators. In recent years, he has prosecuted sex traffickers who targeted the girls there. He appreciates the cooperation and openness from current leadership.
"There was a period of time, about a decade ago, roughly, where the operation really wasn't run very well," Yoder said. "They were struggling to get people in. They were hiring people maybe without proper screening. They weren't being properly supervised. I prosecuted a few different perpetrators that were working there and were preying on some of the girls."
Now, he said, "they've got their act together."
The women interviewed for this story wanted to speak out about their experiences at Youthville in part to raise awareness of persistent problems within the foster care system.
"Just because you slap some paint on a building and change the name does not make the secrets inside and behind those walls just stop or disappear," Huber said.
* * *
Sometimes, when she thinks about her relationship with Prochazka, Crystal wonders: "Did I do something wrong?"
"I didn't say no," she said. "I accepted his gifts. Was I wrong? It's so hard to talk about it."
From his position of authority as a Youthville employee, Prochazka on standard reports repeatedly gave Crystal poor grades for her behavior. Six other staff members gave her top scores in all nine categories when it was their turn to fill out the report.
Rathbun, who has more than 40 years of experience in social services, rejected Prochazka's assertion that Crystal was sexually aggressive. A lot of girls in foster care have been sexualized at a young age, Rathbun said. The experience changes a child's development and can alter her understanding of what people want.
Staff have the responsibility to set boundaries and refuse advances because they are the adults.
"Consent means do I have as much right to say yes as I have to say no," Rathbun said. "If my no is not going to be respected, then it's not consent."
Yoder left open the possibility that charges still could be filed against Prochazka because of the lengthy statute of limitations for child sex crimes under Kansas law. He was willing to listen to Crystal's concerns.
"I would be glad to meet with her and sit down and visit with her about the case, talk to her in person," Yoder said. "I'd be glad to reopen the file and take a look at it."
Crystal, now 29 and pursuing her GED, said she will never be at peace. She relives the trauma every weekend when she delivers her son to Prochazka.
"He jokes around with me," Crystal said, "and tells me, 'Have you written your book yet? Whenever you write your book, remember to blank out my name.' Jokes about it like it's just some big funny thing, what he did to me."


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its a cheap bluetooth module, I cracked it open its a CSR Chip based module ( The datasheet is locked by CSR themselves) I am more of an low level hardware EE than CSE.
Code: Select all
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0424:9512 Standard Microsystems Corp.
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0424:ec00 Standard Microsystems Corp.
Bus 001 Device 008: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)
anyways, I know the bluetooth service is running
but when I scan It doesn't show any of the devices not my laptop or any of my mobiles (2x Nokia E71 and a Samsung S3)
Code: Select all
/etc/init.d/bluetooth status
[ ok ] bluetooth is running.
Code: Select all
pi@raspberrypi // $ hcitool scan
Scanning ...
pi@raspberrypi // $ sudo hcitool scan
Scanning ...
Anything I am doing wrong ?
When I try to establish a connection with my phone ( The problem in pairing that works and yes I have added to trusted
) it fails "Connection could not be established".
Code: Select all
bluez-test-device trusted XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX yes
Any help or insights on what I am doing wrong would be appreciated!!

subset: commoncrawl


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"The water is crystal clear and you can see just how shallow it is at this spot. Tahiti is dangerously beautiful."
- Zak Noyle
Unique wave image from a surfer's point of view. Zak Noyle captures this Tahiti wave effortlessly.
Photo Location: Tahiti
This photograph is also available as canvas prints.
$ 30.00
"Shooting at Sandy's in the peace and quiet of sunrise...
$ 30.00
Zak Noyle's wave image of a crashing wave framed by a beautiful...


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Young Cooks is currently closed for entries - we will be taking entries for 2020 later in the year. Please follow our Facebook page and Twitter feed for updates or email us at firstname.lastname@example.com and we will contact you directly.
Young people are invited to take part in the south east's annual masterchef-style event.
To enter they need to prepare a dish they have created, which they think is delicious, healthy and showcases their cooking skills.
The Young Cooks judges love to see local produce being used so thought should be given to this.
Any child or young person aged between 6 and 19 years old may enter Young Cooks and our 13 finalists will be invited to cook their dish for our VIP panel at the live final at the end of November at East Kent College in Broadstairs.
Kent Cooks is part of the Young Cooks competition, serving Kent, London, Sussex and the South East.
The aim is to develop the confidence and abilities of young people to prepare meals to a fixed budget, as well as to increase awareness of healthy options and locally grown produce.
Finalists will not only have to cook their dish, they will have to spend a few minutes explaining to the judges how and why they created it, so confident presentation skills are also needed. All Primary finalists will be reimbursed £5 towards the cost of their ingredients. All Secondary and Family finalists will be reimbursed £10 towards the cost of their ingredients.
All completed entries will be showcased as online recipe cards on this website.
Primary school pupils are asked to create one dish using a budget of no more than £2.50.
The child must prepare the dish in up to 90 minutes and will have the support of a trained mentor at the final.
A photo of the dish must be submitted with the entry.
Children as young as 6 years old may enter the Primary category but we stress that if they are selected to compete in the final they must be able to cook their dish independently and be prepared to do this in a professional kitchen.
Secondary school pupils are asked to create two dishes using a budget of no more than £5.
The young person must cook unassisted if invited to the final and prepare the dishes in 120 minutes.
A photo of the dishes must be submitted with the entry.
A child or young person to create two dishes alongside a parent/carer using a budget of no more than £5.
A separate photo of the dish and photo of the child holding the dish should be submitted with each entry.
If short listed the family team must prepare both dishes within 120 minutes at the live final.
Sea bass with sautéed smoked bacon, chicory, dwarf beans, celeriac purée and red wine sauce
2018 champion
Local Skate with Brown butter and Capers with sauted new potatoes.
2018 winner
Crab ravioli in a creamy seafood sauce
2018 winner
Pan Roasted Free Range Chicken Breast, Grilled Baby Leeks, Parsnip Puree, Beetroot & Aged Balsamic Dressing
2018 winner


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|Sighting Report
|Occurred : 12/24/2013 21:15 (Entered as : 12-24-2013 21:15)
Reported: 12/25/2013 5:07:07 AM 05:07
Posted: 1/10/2014
Location: Rutland, MA
Shape: Circle
Duration:10 minutes
|Unexplained saucerlike aircrafts in Massachusetts
I was visiting my brother and his wife. He walked me out to my car afterwards. His wife's cousin was already outside smoking a cigarette.
He said, "What the heck is that?!" We all looked skyward and saw two circular aircraft fly over the neighbor's house and we watched them go past us, until they disappeared over the treeline.
The moon was in its last quarter, the night sky was visibly clear. Their outline was distinctively circular, and they both had 3 red unblinking lights underneath. There was absolutely no engine or motor noises whatsoever. They passed overhead silently. They flew perpendicular with each other.
They were approximately a few hundred feet above the treetops.
((NUFORC Note: Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD))


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Video: Britney Spears's Poo Cocktail Supreme on Jimmy Kimmel Live and the Trailer For Her MTV Femme Fatale Special!
Video: Britney Spears's Funny Porta-Potty Mess, Sexy New Costume, and MTV Special Trailer!
Britney Spears proved that she'll do just about anything in the name of good — but not necessarily clean — fun on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night. The pop star stopped by for a hilarious clip with the Jackass crew in which she recreated their "Poo Cocktail Supreme" in a Porta-Potty slingshot. It's all part of her promotional tour in support of her album, Femme Fatale, which dropped yesterday, and Brit took the stage on the late-night show to show off some sexy new costumes and sing for the crowd. You can catch her this Sunday on MTV in a behind-the-scenes special, and we've got your trailer right here — watch!


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WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY: Now up to 7 inches possible in Shelton
The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for Shelton and all of Fairfield County from 1 p.m. Saturday to 1 p.m. Sunday.
"Light snow develops Saturday afternoon, becoming heavy at times Saturday night into early Sunday morning before tapering off by early Sunday afternoon," the NWS said.
The NWS said that "considerable blowing and drifting snow, with near blizzard conditions, is possible."
From 3 to 7 inches of snow is expected to accumulate in Shelton, which is an increase of a few inches from predictions a few hours earlier.
Due to strong winds, including possible gusts up to 60 mph, there could be problems with downed power lines and tree limbs, the NWS said.
Massachusetts, Maine get more snow
More serious weather alerts have gone out for areas in Connecticut east of Fairfield County — with a Winter Storm Watch for New Haven and Hartford counties, and the more severe Winter Storm Warning for eastern Connecticut, meaning these parts of the state are more likely to experience bad weather.
Based on its current course, the brunt of this storm is supposed to hit eastern Long Island and far eastern New England. Blizzard warnings have been issued for parts of eastern Massachusetts and coastal Maine, where up to 14 inches of snow could fall.


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PLANO, Texas, Wed Apr 11, 2012 – J.C. Penney Co. Inc. said on Wednesday that Michael Dastugue is leaving on Friday after just 15 months as chief financial officer as the department store chain continues to work on its overhaul under its new chief executive.
COO Mike Kramer will assume the CFO duties on an interim basis while a search for a replacement is conducted, the company said. Kramer joined Penney in December, a month after his former boss at Apple Inc., Ron Johnson, became Penney's new chief executive officer.
Shares of Penney rose 3 percent to $34.20 in morning trade.
Under Johnson, Penney quickly did away with its old pricing strategy and is bringing in stores featuring certain brands such as Martha Stewart inside the chain's large department stores to revitalize the 110-year old chain.
Before he joined Penney, Kramer was most recently president and CEO of clothing maker Kellwood Co. From 2000 to 2005 he was CFO of Apple Retail, where he reported to Johnson.
Dastugue, 47, has been at Penney since 1991 and was named CFO in January 2011. He previously worked as a senior accountant at Arthur Andersen.
His departure was announced less than a week after Penney said it planned to cut hundreds of jobs at its headquarters and shut down a customer call center in Pittsburgh.


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Rock Solid in the Rockies
Friends partner to make TDA_Boulder a success
by Jeanne M. Nagle
Jim Moscou '90
An oft-repeated dictum in advertising is that "sex sells." The same can be said of humor. If these two conceits hold true, then Jonathan Schoenberg '90 and Jim Moscou '90 are likely sitting on a gold mine.
Friends since high school, Schoenberg and Moscou currently work together at the Colorado-based advertising and design agency TDA_ Boulder, a small creative shop that has received some big industry accolades of late. Schoenberg is creative director and co-owner with the company's founder, Thomas Dooley, while Moscou is the agency's managing director.
Since early 2010, Schoenberg and Moscou have spent a good portion of their time working on the Sir Richard's Condom Company, a brand born out of the agency's creative department, funded by Boulder investors, and overseen by Moscou, the fledgling venture's interim CEO.
Sir Richard's recent campaign interweaves humor, practicality, responsibility and just a soupçon of social consciousness. For example, Sir Richard's packaging includes suggested retail price stickers like "$874 less than a bugaboo stroller" or "$1,154 less than a year of diapers." And for every condom sold, the company donates one to a developing country. This fall, Moscou will head to Haiti for its inaugural condom drop in partnership with the renowned international health organization, Partners in Health.
Jonathan Schoenberg '90
"Branding and launching Sir Richard's Condom Company has been a rather unique experience," says Moscou. "The Schoenie and Jim from our Hobart days would have gotten a good chuckle out of it. But I also think they would be proud that we are helping to create a business that is doing good."
After graduation, the two friends followed separate career paths. Schoenberg attended a writers' program at Columbia University before embarking on a career in advertising as a copywriter at the international advertising agency Ammirati Puris Lintas and the now-defunct New York City firm Mad Dogs & Englishmen.
In 1996, Schoenberg had a oneyear stint with TDA before returning to New York so that his wife, Megan Battle Schoenberg '91, could finish her master's in social work. He returned to Boulder and the company in 1998, and has been there since.
Moscou put his master's in journalism and mass communication from University of Colorado to good use, making a name for himself as an award-winning reporter. His work has appeared in US News & World Report, Newsweek and the New York Times, among others. In 2001, he was selected as the American Journalism Fellow at Oxford University. Today a selfproclaimed "recovering journalist," he left reportage and landed in the Boulder office of Crispin Porter + Bogusky as a senior strategist working on Microsoft's global campaigns and Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection. In 2009, at the request of Schoenberg and Dooley, he joined TDA.
"When I switched careers and understood what it took to be great in this industry, and saw what Schoenie and Thomas were doing creatively at TDA, my gut told me this could be a great ride," Moscou says.
Moscou's instinct may be right. This year, TDA_Boulder was one of only three advertising agencies worldwide recognized by all four 2011 One Show competitions, the industry's top creative recognition. TDA also won a coveted 2011 Clio for its Sir Richard's package design.
In addition to Sir Richard's, TDA_Boulder helped to brand BOT, a successful beverage venture started by Brian '90 and Cricket Jacobs '92 Allen. The agency also boasts clients such as LL Bean, Russian Standard Vodka, 1% for the Planet, First Bank and Avery Beer.
Their work on Webroot's "Social Media Sobriety Test"—a computer plugin that keeps people from posting while under the influence—resulted in a huge awareness jump for the software company. The test was downloaded by users in 173 countries and was the subject of news stories around the world.
Schoenberg credits Moscou with keeping the company on track. "Jim joining the company has been so incredibly helpful," he says. "We have grown a lot and needed someone we trusted to take over the running of the company so my business partner and I can focus on creative and agency culture."
For his part, Moscou is, as he suspected, enjoying the ride. "When you leave college you hope that you can enjoy your work while also having fun," Moscou says. "Twenty years later, that's not only the case but I get to do it with one my best friends in the world."
Current Issue
- Partnerships
- Partners Against Crime
- Rock Solid in the Rockies
- Out of This World
- Cup of Cooperation
- Howdy, Partner!
- Plugging the Brain Drain
- Different but Complementary
- The Thin Blue Line
- Lab Partners In Love
- Perkins and Craig Form Research Partnership
- Crisis in Japan
- Inspired Adventures
- Three's (Not) A Crowd
- Successful Bloodlines
- Mission: Restore
- Domestic Partnership
- Partnership at the Center Line
- Sustainable Agriculture
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Past Issues


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Short, But Not Too Big Around
Friday, January 21, 2011
"Here and Now" is in an abbreviated state this week. I was sick a couple of days and was not so diligent in my work.
Short, but still good, most pleasurable to me, more poems by
Alex Stolis
, in this case a ten-poem sequence.
Pics are by me, except the last one which is by my son, Chris. I messed around with the images, trying for some kind of sky/sea/desolation/loneliness thing. No indication from the pictures that it worked.
Here's who I have for you this week:
Naomi Guttman
Sudden Death
Median with Weeds
part of the secret to successful poeming
Eugenio de Andrade
Eros Passing
Still Life with Fruit
not expecting much
Langston Hughes
Comment on the Curb
Dennis Levertov
The Jacob's Ladder
George Oppen
Some San Francisco Poems
the healing
John N. Morris
jealousy beyond reason
Robert A. Fink
The Need for Order
Ripley's Wouldn't Touch This
Yung Hung-Tao
Hsin-An River
Watching the Boat Races at the dragon Boat Festival,
The Year Shen-Ch'em (1604)
Songs of the Bamboo Branches
Alex Stolis
Everything adds up lonely
- a ten-poem sequence
Pamela Uschuk
it is hard
I start this week with several poems by
Naomi Guttman
, a poet I did not know until I picked up a copy of her book,
Reasons for Winter
at a second-hand book store last week. The book was published in 1991 by Brick Books, with support from The Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council.
According to the book jacket, Guttman was born in Montreal in 1960, graduated from Concordia University, and received her M.F.A. from Program for Writers at Warren Wilson college in North Carolina. Recipient of grants from the Ministere des Affaires Culturelles and the Canada Council, she lived in Los Angeles at the time the book was published.
Sudden Death
Back from the funeral,
my parents work the garden.
They stake peas, squatting, the
rake weeds, speak
in savage sighs
of the man, the friend - why
and how it is hardly believable.
Only dance the dance of crouch
and bend, shells of their backs
against the summer breeze
down, up, unfolding again
and again the earth beneath them.
Median with Weeds
The dandelions' pointillism fires
without mercy. Their yellow sway is just
the yellow of a child's pure rendition,
waking mu the rarely green divide
between the thoroughfares. But I know the grass
has grown too long and tomorrow
city mowing crews will make heads roll.
Wild herb springing
the definition of a weed.
I want to rip the chaos from my life,
pull u the unruly with my hoe
but then there's the glamor of three-year-olds
in love with yellow flowers -
whose passion is to pick those gone to seed and blow.
A war in my dreams. You
surprise me, though I've
been waiting.
In my mouth your tongue
is pointed, long,
urgently muscular -
We have only a few minutes,
you must go back,
back to the front.
You may not return.
You turn, in uniform,
leaving a hole in my mouth.
Here's my first poem of the week.
Good sign, I'm having way more fun than I did last week.
part of the secret to successful poeming
of the secret of successful poeming
is patience, lying
in wait,
taking the time you need
to contemplate the universal sureties;
where you itch
(but only as long as no reaching
under the table is required),
considering the flow of traffic
on the interstate,
the traverse
of orange morning clouds from eastern light
to western dark,
the price of gas, the dietary effects
of burgers and fries
and pecan pies and vanilla crunch
the politics of remorse
and partisan recrimination,
the increasing globe
of your belly
like the planetary explosion
in Star Wars,
in slow motion,
the fat cats on your front porch
who seem to think every time you drive into your
you're doing it just so you can feed them,
the same over-fed cats
who won't come within six yards of you
if you don't have their food bucket
in your hand,
the neighbor across the creek
who brings her dog out for a walk
along the fence every time you want to take some sun,
(dirty-minded old woman -
nice looking dog)
…but what you must never do
is think about writing a poem
for thinking about writing a poem
is the worst preparation ever
for writing a poem
because your mind will twist
into all sorts poetic poo-poo
and the essence of you, which
is about regular real, boring things
and not about all sorts
of poetic poo-poo
will be submerged
and any poem of the essence of you
will be submerged
as well
and all that's left will be some
high-faulting poo-poo
and by that I mean
the shit
your sixth teacher tried to stuff down your throat
back when you were still learning to read
of course a poem that is the essence of the essence
of you
might end up to be shit as well,
but the original, authentic shit of the essence
of your essence
is better, always, than a pale copy
of the high-faulting shit
of some English dude who probably
with himself
while eating his morning
kidney pie and Cheerios
Next, here are two poems by Portuguese poet,
Eugenio De Andrade
, from the collection
Forbidden Words
, published in 2003 by New Directions.
The book is a bilingual edition, with the original Portuguese text and an English translation by
Alexis Levitin
on facing pages.
De Andrade, born in 1923 in a small village close to the Spanish border, published his first poem at 16 and his first book three years later. He has won every literary prize his country offe3rs, as well as a number of international honors.
Love with words.
Like the rose, bend
only when the wind blows.
like the dew
in the curved shell of the morning.
as the river climbs the last steps
to find its bed.
How can we blossom
under the weight of so much light?
I am passing through:
I love the ephemeral.
Where I hope to die
will it still be morning?
Eros Passing
Call of morning lost in flower:
it would be bird if it weren't ardor.
In the taste of the water I recognize
the tenderness and loins of summer.
A body glistens naked so desire
may dance in the light, straight upon the sands.
In the murmuring waters of memory
just now, with you, I have been born.
The wind bends the stems under a hard light:
the earth is very close and ripe.
Still Life With Fruit
The morning blood of raspberries
chooses the whiteness of linen to love.
Morning filled with sparklings and sweetness
settles its purest face upon the apple
In the orange, the sun and moon
are sleeping hand in hand.
Each grape knows by heart
the names of all of summer's days.
In pomegranates, this I love -
the stillness at the center of the flame.
Here's another of my poems from this week's writing, one of several this week based on long-ago memories. The nostalgic mood, triggered by, of all things, the death this week of Sargent Shriver, Director, in the very earlier years, of the Peace Corps, the same early years when I spent the winter, 1964, as a Peace Corps trainee in New Mexico. Under-age, under-educated and outclassed by my fellow trainees, I completed training, but did not go further. Even so, it was the formative experience of my young life, teaching me that I was capable of much more than I had ever imagined before.
not expecting much
I remember waking up
humid wet
hanging half out my bedroom window
to catch the coastal breeze
blowing in from the gulf,
chilled by the wind
across my sweat-damp sheets...
another fifteen-year-old's day
in the mid-1950s - a poor boy
as I remember it now,
but in fact not much poorer
than most of the people I knew
a circle that included
only a few people I thought rich,
those who filled a good portion of my restless
before-sleep cloud-floating rambles
about being
a boy of mostly secret,
mostly imagined pleasures
lacking confidence,
long on brains but
failing to see anything good
coming from it, wishing I could wish
away my brains for a car,
for a girlfriend, for a fight I could win,
willing to be dumb if dumb
would improve my position
in the small-town pecking order, move me up
a rank or two, enable sex with another person,
lead me to a twenty dollar bill blown onto a mesquite
thorn, hanging, waiting for me to find it in the bushy lot
where I made I den, where I could smoke Parliament
cigarettes, look at naked girl pictures, and dream, not always
of sordid things, ennobling dreams sometimes,
big -plans dreams, the great things I would do someday…
could do someday if I were someone else, someone
who had big plans, someone who did great things,
someone who was not me…
but mostly coupling dreams,
imagining how the flesh
of someone else would feel pressed
against mine, dreams of bodies entangled,
my body en-wrapped by pale arms with tiny blond hairs
like gold in the afternoon sun, and…and…then
things happening that I could only vaguely
imagine, lacking the experience of specificity,
but knowing it was good and stiffly exciting
what ever it was …
a small town boy,
not expecting much, not sure
what there was to expect,
always in later years
at how things turned out
Next, I have several poets from
American Poetry Since 1959, Innovators & Outsiders
. The anthology, edited by Eliot Weinberger, was published in 1993 by Marsilio Publishers.
First, I have this very short moment by
Langston Hughes
. Hughes wrote this in 1951.
Comment on the Curb
You talk like
they don't kick
dreams around
I expect they do -
but I'm talking about
Harlem to you!
Next, I have this piece by
Dennis Levertov
, written in 1961.
The Jacob's Ladder
The stairway is not
a thing of gleaming strands
a radiant evanescence
for angels' feet that only glance in their tread, and need no
touch the stone.
It is of stone.
A rosy stone that takes
a glowing tone of softness
only because behind it the sky is a doubtful, a doubting
night gray.
A stairway of sharp
angles, solidly built.
One sees that the angels must spring
down from one step to the next, giving a little
lift of the winds:
and a man climbing
must scrape his knees, and bring
the grip of his hands into play. The cut stone
consoles his groping feet. Wings brush past him.
the poem ascends.
Unfortunately, the anthology's editor seems to have a strong preference for very long poems, leaving me little for "Here and Now" so this is my last poem from the book. It is a piece of a very long piece,
Some San Francisco Poems
, written by
George Oppen
in 1972.
A Morality Play: Preface
Lying full length
On the bed in the white room
Turns her eyes to me
Never to forget her naked eyes
Beautiful and brave
Her naked eyes
turn inward
Feminine light
The unimagined
Feminine light
Feminine ardor
Pierced and touched
Tho all say
Huddled among each other
The play begins with the world
A city street
Leads to the bay
Tamalpais in cloud
Mist over farmlands
Local knowledge
In the heavy hills
The green loose waves move landward
Heavysided in the wind
Grass and trees bent
Along the length of the coast in the continual wind
The ocean pounds in her mind
Not the harbor leading inward
To the back bay and the slow river
Recalling flimsy Western ranches
The beautiful hills shine outward
Sunrise the raw fierce fire
Coming up past the sharp edge
And the hoof marks on the mountain
Shines in the white room
Provincial city
Not alien enough
To the naked eyes
The city died young
You too will be shown this
You will see the young couples
Leaving again in rags
Here's another of the reminiscences I mentioned.
the healing
my first car
was a 1949 Plymouth
a two-door,
gray -
not in the sense of morning dove egg
but gray in the sense of absence of color,
the color of the void
wherein colors cannot survive the doldrums
of no-thing triumphant…
I don't know where my dad
got this car,
what particular junkyard he got it from
I mean,
but he and I worked on it for a month
and got it running,
running, that is,
like an old man puffing along
behind his walker -
the car's max speed a stately 45 mph…
except for one afternoon,
driving at my usual 45 down Highway 83
between La Feria and Mercedes,
a three lane highway, center lane, which
I never had occasion to use with this car,
for passing,
a cool, sunny spring afternoon,
the kind of brilliant day when talk
of miracles
seems not so outrageous,
when, all of a sudden, such a miraculous event
seemed to occur as my car began to speed up,
50 miles per hour…55…60 miles per hour,
a great healing seemed to have occurred, like
my radio, unbeknown to me, had settled in
on the faith-healing preacher
who came on every Saturday afternoon from
the radio station in Nuevo Progresso
across the border
in Mexico
and hands had been laid
radiophonically on the old and ailing
six cylinders chugging faithfully
beneath my void-gray hood
rejoice I did,
and praised the Lord, until
I looked behind and say two of my friends
in their '57 Chevrolet
those few moments before looking behind,
the closest I've ever come to
believing in a transcendent
faith of my fathers
a moment soon lost
when my friends quit pushing
John N. Morris
is a poet I don't remember using on "Here and Now" before. Remedying that, here are several poems from his book,
Green Business
, published by Antheneum in 1970.
Morris was an American author and educator who joined the faculty of the English Department at Washington University in 1967. He was born in Oxford, England, received his A.B. from Hamilton College and his MA and PhD from Columbia University, the last in 1964. A specialist in 18th-century literature, Morris taught at several other universities, including Columbia University and the University of Delaware. He wrote three collections of poems, and produced two works of non-fiction.
Born in 1931, Morris died in 1997.
He read her Blake by a bad light,
Fire on the mad page.
Art was a fact
Like any other tiger.
Now she is gone
He mopes and is absent.
He knows nothing
Is about to happen.
Nights, in a globe of quiet,
He reads pages
And pages of propositions
Naked o illustration.
The entry into darkness
Was dangerously free.
Still at my waist there dangles
The red, accusing key.
Impossibly, salvation
Though with immortal force,
Perpetually thunders
At the remotest doors.
But far within, forever
I issue strict commands
And do my execution
With blunt, accustomed hands.
It is not merely the joggling, tropical plenitude
Of her that repels, but how her fond hands
Frequent her like tourists, and rummage
As if for some treasure, and pluck at bundles.
Kindness could easily dispel the zoological
Image of her bath: the heave, the tumbling
Breasts, the wet tremor, Still,
Those pleasuring hands, glad of herself!
They know her thickness.
Lord! how she bustles toward her objects.
We had power then. We double-dared
The clouds that moved like the slow hours to rain.
Imaginings grew like weeds in the sweet fields,
And we were kings in carts, princesses upon ponies.
Once upon a green distance Pegasus grazed,
Minutely beautiful.
Knowing as blindmen know the smell and feel
And sound of things, we knew what vision is:
Besides a green and upright arrowhead,
A pinetree was the weighty smell of balm;
Our hands clung round it and we dreamed of ships;
It whispered of waters in the nuzzling wind.
High in its branches was the terror of cliffs.
Beginning now the experience of old men, I begin to understand why they are so cranky.
jealousy beyond reason
the short, bubbly one
great personality,
smile as broad as the West Texas sky
and a memory like a sieve,
filtering out memory
of most things
not immediately before her eyes…
unlike all the other servers at the restaurant,
who leave your check for services
on your table in a little
wallet-like binder,
she leaves it for you
on a folded register tape…
other that I tend to spill coffee
on the paper tape,
making an ugly, sticky mess,
I don't know why this bothers me so much…
but I do know that as I grow older
my patience, once one of my most sterling qualities,
grows shorter and shorter
and more and more I prefer precision around me,
things done as they're supposed to be done,
on time, especially on time,
tardiness of others,
as my projected life span grows shorter,
seen by me more and more
as a kind of theft, stealing from me
that which I have increasingly less
the messiness of others
increasingly annoys me, the slackness
of people, who, unlike me,
have better things to do than
cross a
or dot an
the world is full of such people
and they piss me off now -
beyond reason
souring my
Next I have three poems from
The Ghostly Hitchhiker...and other poems
Robert A. Fink
. The book was published in 1989 by Corona Publishing of San Antonio.
Lots of Robert Finks on Google, but couldn't find any thing of this Robert Fink. According to the book jacket, this Robert Fink was born in North Texas, was a former Marine Corps lieutenant in Vietnam and in 1989 was Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing Workshops at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene.
After living most of my life with the carelessness of a college sophomore, I have reached the stage in life where I identify completely with the poet's first poem.
The Need for Order
Comes upon me in my middle years
like the settling of a house,
the cracks so gradual
I can't recall the ceiling smooth,
the corners square.
No one cares but me
the furniture's sneaking from its spot
like children playing Red Light Green Light
on the lawn I mow twice a week.
Everything is slipping from its place:
The travel posters in their frame.
The philodendrons always turning toward the light.
Blue jeans my sons drop careless on the floor
to shrink a little every day.
At least I have my study.
No one but me reshelves a book.
The plants stay silk..
The sharpened pencils on my desk wait
straight as pickets,
dominoes in a row.
You have chanced upon a wreck
in the smoldering dusk
just over a hill
minutes from a cookout in the country,
a going-away party for a friend.
Your car hums sleek and fast enough
to escape this time, break through
this warp of memory
fading in the rearview mirror.
But you stop, back up, first to arrive,
no one to pinch you back to sleep
relieved the melt4d shapes
indistinguishable as cars,
no need to venture deeper in this dream
to what might be windows to other dreams
darker than imagination.
Nothing moves but the wind
and you between the cars
a hundred feet apart, spun off the road
like errors in an arcade game.
No time for contemplation
but the drivers are not going anywhere,
their passengers asleep for now
and you're no Boy Scout,
so look hard into this mangled face
before the T.V. crews arrive
to pry the easy questions.
Ripley's Wouldn't Touch This
but the assistant religion editor
happens upon a front-page situation
to save him from his cubicle
of Sunday School attendance records,
announcements for bingo parties.
Maybe now he'll rate a phone,
access to the computer.
A man has fallen twenty-one stories
and lived - a slight concussion,
a rope burn scarring both palms
and a new appreciation of heights,
hotels under renovation,
doors marked
Do Not Enter
opening onto missing balconies,
free fall, the construction crew's
rope, carelessly forgotten, swaying
imperceptibly like the building.
His headline will begin with
a man walking on air and failing
until God said:
Reach out.
Behold the rope!
The miracle is he didn't let go.
Like the prophet with a living coal upon his tongue.
Moses lifting high the serpent.
As much as I hate summer, I think I'm ready for a little of it. The problem is, when it comes, it won't be a little.
late in the mornings
these days,
helping my blind cat
when she gets up from
her night's sleeping
all the necessaries,
food, water, litter box,
so that I can put her back
in the chair
for her day's sleeping -
a great temptation
at that point
to put myself back in bed
getting up in the winter
in the dark-dark
an hour before sunrise
does not energize me like
getting up in the soon-light
of summer,
there being something about the dark
makes the cold morning colder
while the dim of an early summer
makes the promise of a cooler day
and lie
that it is,
I enjoy that illusion -
for illusion
is the soft wrap
that consoles us on sharp-edged
and prickly days
when goodness and mercy
do not follow us through the winter/summer
and nights of our lives -
and that fellow three booths down
look exactly like a fellow I knew
forty years ago,
the suicide obsessed fellow,
the fellow
I talked into holding out for another
day twice on a rooftop -
skunk-drunk he was
and I was too
but we both came down -
and I am enjoying the illusion
that he looks exactly like he did
forty years ago
and that I must as well
and that forty years past
he made it
and I made it, but mostly
he made it through the mummy-wrap mist of
his fearful nights
and that's a nice illusion to have at six thirty
in the dark dark side
Here are several poems from
Pilgrim of the Clouds: Poems and Essays from Ming Dynasty China
, published by white Pine Press in 2005. The book includes poems by
Yung Hung-Tao
and his two brothers, Yuan Tsung-Tao and Yuan Chung-Tao. For this week's "Here and Now" I have chosen to concentrate on the elder brother, Yung Hung.
The translation to English is by
Jonathan Chaves
Hsin-An River
The wavers here are bad,
the head winds are terrible;
the folige, all green - even the rocks are green.
From dark cliffs we hear
the murmuring of ghosts,
wild fires wake dragons with their heat.
The trees are old - From T'ang-dynasty stock;
the steles, toppled over
bear Sund-dynasty inscriptions.
Stepping ashore, we meet an old farmer
who claims that ape men inhabit these woods,
(This poem is one from a group of ten)
Watching the Boat Races at the dragon Boat Festival,
The Year Shen-Ch'em (1604)
The lake,newly swelled, is slippery as oil:
red banners, a hundred feet long,flutter past the trees.
I have two or three pieces of old, coarse silk:
I'll tear them into strips to te at the prow of my boat.
From Pi-han Tower, the water fills the valley.
At Cho-tsu Pond, the sun sinks in the west.
On the bridge, below the bridge - people like ants;
I only hope Duke Meng Embankment does not collapse
under the weight.
Songs of the Bamboo Branches
At the mouth of the Lung-chou River
the water looks like sky:
here the women of Lung-chou operate the great boats.
Waves splashing her face, one of them asks the traveler,
"Are you scared? Watch my boat list
under eight feet of wind!"
The boatwoman has painted eyebrows.
Her boat is like a leaf, following the waves of the river.
Her left hand steadies a little girl,
her right works the rudder,
and her dark hair, piled high as a mountain,
stays perfectly in place.
Please note: This is a description of what I actually saw.
Once again, from my friend one of my favorite poets,
Alex Stolis
, a new poem sequence.
Everything adds up lonely
- for Cate Whiteley
singular matrix
Collect the smoothest stones you can find
each a seed that contains the moon's pallor
carefully sift dirt, plant them, feed them, water them
faithfully and wait
for the constellation
to bloom.
You will learn the plural of "I"
is twice as lonely
but not as likely to forget
how to calculate
the circumference
of fidelity.
periodic motion
If I could change the shape
of my thoughts into triangles,
their hard edges and sharp corners
could make my eyes believe again.
There is nothing left but circles,
our final confession is broken,
a window. Redemption is flat, an end
less highway blurred by the sun.
adjacent angles
The only dreams left are empty
bottles, worn out
excuses and every
time I run away the sun is more resistant
words become weaker.
For once, poverty leads the way:
rusting bicycle spokes
knee socks
and poems that rhyme
a green dress hemmed
and again.
You find yourself reliving
a dream
that was once real life:
red plaid skirts
dust from spring cleaning that swirls and floats
like a new universe
the smell of wet dogs and boys who pretend
not to be frightened of girls.
Cigarette ash curves like the beak of a bird, you fall
in love with the idea of permanence.
Embrace its roughness
Want to learn its language.
You imagine every word is a new lover,
believe every story can be captured
in black and white.
spherical trigonometry
small crimes
of the flesh
are best
the landscape
by two bodies
zero matrix
With every word spoken
another opportunity is swallowed
by the past and the future
looks like an under developed
Weegee or Arbus; exposed
to light and hung
out to dry.
In the end there is nothing
to do
but shed bits
of bone, bleed
devotion until expectations
become brittle and white.
dependent variable
I ask your permission to draw a map of your body,
to finger-trace every curve, circle every scar.
Allow me to read your palm, decipher the secrets
hidden beneath the lines. Let me hold every word
you have written for me. Wash each syllable clean
then place them on your lips, watch them blossom
into new stories. Imagine us, by the sea, in a house
of shells. You will taste the salt on my skin, place
your hand on my heart and listen to the ocean.
Take the last road
traveled by the first person
you fell in love with,
watch the dust
behind you
and someone,
will light a candle in your name
and recite a prayer
to st jude.
The irony will get lost
long before you run
out of gas looking for an exit ramp.
compatible matrices
Say, for the sake of argument, you had never
fallen in love before. Never saw that woman,
the one with amazing legs, never noticed how
she walked into a room, lit it up like a firecracker.
Say, for the sake of argument, you never asked her
friend if she was seeing someone, didn't try to steal
a glance, only watched from a distance. Fantasized
about her hair, her perfume, the lace about her bra.
Say, for the sake of argument, you never learned
to say consumed, compelling, outré --never dared
give a knowing look from across the room or a nod
and whisper to signal the perfect moment to leave.
Say, for the sake of argument, you never learned
to catch random bits of conversation, never
learned to feel the weight of a wordless kiss.
You might have become a liar instead; incomplete
and unknowing, a foreign man in a familiar land.
(linear system of equations)
If I could make you a number
it might be a 6
so you could curl
yourself next to me
as I count
how many breaths
it takes to say
your name
or maybe
a secretive 7
so when luck runs
loose I can hang
my head
on the soft curve
of your shoulder
4 is sturdy and even
but doesn't know
how to brush the hair
from your face
can't understand
how you make
loneliness disappear
how there is no
longer a need
for constellations
since I found you.
The next poem is by
Pamela Uschuk
from her book, published in 2002 by Wings Press,
One Legged Dancer
. The poems, some dire, many not, chronicle the poet's journeys through to frontiers of Mexico.
Uschuk was born on a farm in Michigan. She holds and M.F.A. from the University of Montana. She has taught poetry workshops and Native American literature at the university of Arizona's Writing Works Center and to Native students through ArtsReach.
At the time the book was published, the poet was director of the Salem College Center for Women Writers in Winston-Salem N.C.
After I used one of her poems in an earlier issue, Ms. Uschuk very kindly commented on that issue, thanked me for using her poem and mentioned that she is presently teaching at Fort Lewis College in Durango,Colorado (beautiful city, beautiful campus). She also mentioned that she has a new book out,
Crazy Love
, from Wings Press.
I grew up on the US/Mexico border, visiting the border cities of Matamoros and Reynosa often with family and grew accustomed at an early age to the beggars crowding every corner. I remember, also, an old woman with a cup on a sidewalk in Madrid and men squatting cross-legged in Karachi and Kabul.
It never remotely occurred to me that I would someday see the same thing in my own city, in my own country. It is the kind of thing you wish to didn't get accustomed to.
You are a child leading a gang
of children whose faces are the random
predation of genes. With your back crooked
as an Iguana twisting, you beg
pesos from us as we detrain.
From your whole body, an arm flies
to the missing fingers
that club the wrist into a knot
tied by the blue ends of scars.
You do not smile at the money
you demand from our perfect hands.
The chosen one.
a fat man whispers, his gold teeth
obscene stars breaking
stark dusk in this desert depot,
Hoy muchos pobbres, senorita.
You can't help staring. This is for you.
With a hand that isn't a hand
but a flap of skin that charges my eyes,
you collect coins, butting aside
the other children with your thin hip.
Dame dinero. PsstPsst.
Gringa, entiende?
Little extortionist, I understand
how you rule this station
with the tyranny of your terrible wound.
Cocksure and hissing
through teeth black as datura seeds,
your face curses my hands blind,
but how could I ever name you the villain
when you are the rock
that freezes my womb?
I leave all my change on your palmless hand
knowing you hate each of my fingers.
The fat man says deformities
like yours are often planned.
Poverty is a razor that cuts its own skin.
Tonight in the Vista Car, I listen
to Brahms First Symphony, each
resolution powerless to soothe land
that turns sleepless while the train
begs passage over its dark arms.
- West of Cuidad de Chihauhau -
Now, my last poem for the week.
it is hard
slept all day
dreams of when
I made things happen
it was in my
the blind cat
like a pin ball
from wall to wall
until she finds her way;
soft bounces,
her pink nose against the wall,
then turn
a turn into a bedroom
that goes nowhere,
in the dark
beyond her personal dark
until I find her
waiting for the world
to make sense again, then
I take her
where I think she wants to go
doctor appointment today,
five and a half minutes, she will give me
new pills
and four and a half minutes
of advice -
I will take the first
the second…
young and pretty,
what does she know
about being old?
find comfort
in my regular place
around my regular people
do I ever think
I need more
find comfort
in thinking of other places,
other people,
where I can be
the mysterious stranger
in the back of the
I might not ever see before
or since
who know even less about me
then I know about
it is
to be happy
or old, it is hard
to know
the true nature
of happiness
from temporary
it is
to live in a world
where nothing happens
unless you make it
Photo by Chris Itz
dat's all folks.
I allen itz, owner and producer of this blog and too sleepy to put all the regular stuff here. You have my permission to imagine its presence and abide accordingly.
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Socialism refers to an ideology and the state of government based on that ideology. Socialists claim to stand for the values of equality, social justice, cooperation, progress, individual freedom, and happiness. They seek to realize these values by the abolition of the private-enterprise economy, also called capitalism, and its replacement by "public ownership," a system of social or state control over production and distribution. The basis of socialism also lies on the abolition of the conflict of the social classes.
Throughout history, the poor have always been oppressed by the rich, ruling class. Under socialism, the bourgeois, or middle class, would rule while practicing equality of all classes. One of the foremost advocates of socialism in this country is Upton Sinclair. Born Upton Beall Sinclair on September 28, 1878 in Baltimore, Upton witnessed the best and worst of the American social classes. His father, Upton Beall, was an heir of an affluent Southern family, a salesman, and an alcoholic.
Alcoholism caused his fathers death as well as his promotion of Prohibition. Sinclairs 1931 book, The Wet Parade, was his appeal to America for Prohibition. Sinclairs childhood was spent in poverty and moderate wealth. One night, he would sleep in a vermin infested slum while the next he slept in a posh home. This lifestyle gave birth to his quest for social justice with only his writing as a tool.. Uptons understanding of both worlds caused him to realize that it was not fair for some people to be rich while many others are poor.
His first story was a memoir about a pet bird he used to clear a colored boy of arson. Argosy magazine paid him twenty-five dollars for that story. He began writing pulp fiction to establish economic independence from his alcoholic father. He graduated from the College of the City of New York and then became a graduate student at Columbia University. He was drawn to the Romantic poets, such as Shelley. This inspiration moved Upton to write serious literature which used romantic idealism as their central theme.
Sinclair joined the Socialist Party in 1902. He immediately reflected this in his writing. His focus shifted onto the abuses of capitalism and promoted socialism as a cure. He founded Helicon Home Colony, a cooperative socialist colony, in 1906 in Englewood, New Jersey. He joined the Democratic Party, and with his 1934 platform, EPIC (End Poverty in California), he almost won the governorship of California. He also had another unsuccessful attempt to be governor as well as a senator. Upton Sinclairs writing had its problems.
Literary critics called him a "poor writer with artistic limitations" while his contemporary authors thought of him as one of the greatest novelists of all time. He never characterized or developed the characters in his books. He did not focus on complicated, well-structured plots. He spoke to America, primarily the working class but also the wealthy and middle class. He had experienced the entire spectrum of social classes and knew and sympathized with all of them. His writings were on the level of the proletariat, the people for and to he truly wrote.
Here is a list of some of his most notable books and their themes. The Jungle (1906) exposed the poor conditions of the life of a worker in the Chicago stockyards. The Metropolis (1908) described the degradation of morals in capitalistic society. The Profits of Religion (1918) attacked organized religion as an instrument of capitalist exploitation. Jimmie Higgins (1919) urged pacifism. Oil! (1927) probed the oil scandals of the Harding administration. Boston (1928) exposed the injustice of the Sacco and Vanzetti trial.
Dragons Teeth (1942) was the only one out of his more than eighty books that won an award, the Pulitzer Prize. It was the third out of eleven in the Lanny Budd series, which analyzed the nature and problems of Communism, fascism, and capitalistic democracy. One essay written about him likened his writing to the two books of Saint Peter. Sinclairs writing reflects Peters. Peters writing is confusing with poor word choice. Peters writings may not be up to the highest standards, but they contain many truths. Sinclairs writings might lack eloquence, but their value as social justice propaganda makes up for that.
Upton dedicated his life to battling injustices through literature, but to no avail. Even though The Jungle instigated the Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act, Sinclair once noted that it had not helped the workers at all. He was a member of an unpopular political party, the Socialists. He faced the insurmountable obstacles of government and big business to try to help the poor as a muckraker. He exposed corruption and scandals. Even after all that, his works helped few then and only now serve as an inspiration for many. That is his greatest achievement.


text:
In Game Downloadable Content (Requires Internet Connection)Compatible with: TRS19,
Trainz Simulator 2019
TRS19 delivers everything you've ever wanted in a train simulator, and much more:
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Included with TRS19 SP1 is the the content from each of the three TRS19 "Regional" Editions.
TRS19 Platinum Edition
Included in Platinum edition is the TRS19 SP1 content set PLUS 3 Bonus Routes PLUS a huge range of additional locos and rolling stock.
KICKSTARTER COUNTY 2 (all versions)
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JOINTED RAIL USA & CANADA CONTENT PACK (NA Edition)
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SEBINO LAKE, ITALY (EU Edition)
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The Innter Kohn Necktion Railroad has both a standard gauge and narrow gauge for this superb TRS19 model railroad "operations" layout.
Midwestern Branch is primarily a industrial route based upon freight operations in the "breadbasket" region of the USA. While the main line is owned and operated by BNSF, the branch line uses ex-Milwaukee Road units in both SD40-2 and GP38-2 styles to help serve the industries that are in the towns of Littleport, Levitt, Cylinder, and Mill Town. Includes over 500 individual boxcars, reefers, tankers, hoppers, hycubes, gondolas and wagons!
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- UZ RIC Warsaw - Kiev 1
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- 3DZ DRG Class 05 001
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- NKP S-2 Weathered
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- 9 Routes
- 196 Locos
- 1191 Rolling Stock
- 21,000+ items
Additional Information
Visit our Frequently asked Questions page for more help.
Additional Notes:
1. Requires Internet Connection - 12.5GB initial download plus 25GB for additional content downloaded in-game.
2. System Specifications - check your specs here.
3. Mac Users:
TurfFX is a feature that provides animated ground covers and currently works only on PC systems in DirectX mode. Your version will therefore operate the same as the PC version with "TurfFX disabled".
4. Gold Class Membership option
As an alternative to ordering in the store, consider our Gold Class membership package offer. At just $14.99 per month, Gold Class includes:
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|Platforms Supported:
|N3V Games
PC Minimum Specification
|Operating System:
|Windows 7 64-Bit
|Intel I/AMD K10 Series 2GHz 64Bit Processor
|1GB VRam with DirectX 11 Support
|Disk Space:
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Win 8 and Win 10 also supported.
Requires an internet connection for online services.
MAC Minimum Specification
|Operating System:
|MacOS X 10.12
|Intel i5 2Ghz
|Radeon Pro 555 or better with 1GB VRAM supporting OpenGL 3.3
|Disk Space:
|30GB Free Space
|Requires an internet connection for online services.


text:
As you may know by now, I am ever so slightly obsessed by festive food. In previous years I have been known to stick my head into Nigella's Christmas book in November and not be seen again until January. Lost in a storm of cranberries and pomegranate seeds, baking for everyone and anyone.
This year is the first year that my tiny two really understand a bit more about what's going on and I've decided that it's not all about perfection in the kitchen this year. Yes my friends, I have been doing a lot of cheating. Do you know what? I love it. My recipe for you this week is actually a video of the cheatiest (is that even a word?) of all cheating mince pies.
I've made so many batches of these already, they take no time at all, still fill the house with that delicious smell of Christmas and I've still got time to do the important stuff like watch Frozen and make terrible tree decorations with the children. All you need is ready rolled puff pastry, mincemeat, an egg and sugar. Shhhh… Don't tell anyone.
My dear blogger friend Emma and I decided to spend a Saturday morning baking with our children, here we are making my favourite mince pies.
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text:
While doing my usual cover-to-cover Lonely Planet read in preparation for an upcoming trip to Korea, the thought crossed my mind of possibly making a short excursion into the secretive and reclusive "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" (aka North Korea).
Although it's both extremely expensive and extremely unpredictable to enter the North as a tourist, it supposedly provides one of the most unique, interesting, and rewarding trips available on Earth today.
The DPRK is a country where ancient myth bends to political reality, where the mysterious dictator Kim Jong Il is believed to control the weather, and his father, dead for a decade, remains the head of state. To most of us the Cold War is just a distant memory – or a phrase once glossed over in a history textbook. But not in the DPRK. There, time has completely frozen. Mobile phones and the Internet are against the law, and any foreign visitor must be escorted at all times by two guides. Political propaganda saturates every facet of daily life. Nothing is treated as more important than the military. And while the Kim dynasty enjoys a life of great wealth and luxury, virtually nobody enjoys even the simple freedom of movement outside their town of residence. The lower class often ends up in forced labour camps, surviving off grass and rats – for infringements as little as having South Korean relatives – and of course every single person is obliged to wear "loyalty badges" featuring Kim Il Sung's portrait. The DPRK has survived half a century of Stalinism, almost completely isolated from the outside world. It's the only place in the world like it.
Imagine what an experience that could be.
Sadly, I learned that holders of American passports are only permitted to enter the DPRK during the Mass Games, the schedule of which does not agree with my own. But I decided to read through the North Korea section of LP anyway…and I have to say…I'm fascinated. Given a lazy Sunday afternoon with nothing in particular to do, I highly suggest spending an hour or two reading about the controversial history and frighteningly unusual present state of the DPRK.
Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to visit some day.
21 Responses to "The DPRK"
yikes, are cell phones and internet really prohibited? i mean i knew they were strict, but that's just insane!
i gotta say, the more mysteries the place, the more i want to experience it myself. *want* being the operative word. not sure if i'd actually ever go, though :-p
That would be amazing to make it there! Glad that you are still making plans for traveling. I hope that you are highlighting lots of things and making copious notes before stepping on the plane. Thanks for keeping your blog updated.
万歳 for having both an American and German passport 😀
Really, though, I look forward to reading about your upcoming trip.
hmmm, blind worshiping of a figurehead. kind of amazing in this day and age, really…
lol…does Noz have some strong opinions on blind worship? 😛
C'mon dude – dont provide tourist dollars in support of a state that oppresses its people like that.
P.S. – No, you don't know me. I'm just a random lurker that enjoys reading your blog. 🙂
i second mappo's comment
I didn't have enough money to visit the country, in the end it was the DMZ tour for me, which was fine, too. Didn't have to spend money in North Korea this way. http://japanese.tour2korea.com/ena/SI/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=313068
yeah, i guess it isn't "blind" worship so much as "forced" worship.
that clip is hilarious!! thanks for sharing, Noz 🙂
I went to DPRK for 6 days back in 2005 with Koryo Tours. It was one of the most fascinating and rewarding trips I have been on. Seeing the sights that most people will never get to see, and everything that comes with it was something very special.
I put a huge writeup on my site starting here:
Also got plenty of photos I took and a tour video that was made during my visit. As for which of the rumours coming out of the country are true and which are not, actually going there can give you a bit of an idea. Reading something like Under The Loving Care Of The Fatherly Leader by Bradley Martin will give you a much better insight than most.
In fact, there is a tour guidebook specifically for DPRK, which I picked up just before my trip. I believe it's from a series called the Bradt Travel Guides
A quick postscript, the pictures of the Dear Leader and The General in the schools, houses etc are definitely true, and the first thing I thought when I saw them was back to Imperialistic Japan, where every household had a picture of the Emperor.
Yeah, that sucks that you can't get into the country when you are available. I would love to go back and see Arirang (the Mass Games).
If you've an interest in that aspect of it, get hold of a documentary called A State Of Mind. It follows 2 girls through their lives in DPRK and preparations for the Mass Games. Great viewing.
hehe,i could go to DPRK without visa.;-)


text:
Professional accounting / taxation technician
Working as an accountant or bookkeeper for an accounting practice, business, organisations or HMRC.
Summary of this apprenticeship standard
- Level
4 (equivalent to certificate of higher education)
- Typical length
- 18 months
- Current funding band
Up to £8,000 per apprentice.
More information about funding
- Entry requirements
Set by employer.
Candidates will usually have 5 GCSEs at grade A* to C (or equivalent) - including English and maths.
- What apprentices will learn
- professional finance principles and standards - including ethical principles of competence, confidentiality, due care, integrity, and objectivity
- business awareness - including understanding customer and supplier needs to create, validate and report financial information
- using and evaluating accounting and tax, internal control and IT systems and processes
- planning and prioritisation - including working to tight and changing deadlines and time and resource management
- communications and collaboration - including written and verbal communications, internal and external networking and team building
- specialist tax or accounting skills
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None specified.
Before taking their end-point assessment apprentices must:
- achieve level 2 English and maths (equivalent to GCSEs at grades A* to C)
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View a list of end-point assessment organisations for this standard
Organisation Phone Number NCFE/CACHE firstname.lastname@example.com Association of Chartered Certified Accountants 020 70595812 email@example.com DSW Consulting email@example.com ICAEW 01908 248250 email@example.com Association of Taxation Technicians 0844 251 0830 firstname.lastname@example.com Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) +44 0777 358 7528 firstname.lastname@example.com The Association of Accounting Technicians 020 7397 1765 email@example.com
- More Information
The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education has more detailed information about this apprenticeship.


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Turinas & Bird- Counsel for Cloud Technology Companies
According to Gartner, cloud computing will be one of the top ten strategic technology trends for 2015. As the number of companies moving to cloud based technologies grows, they face new and challenging legal issues. Along with the opportunities for greater efficiency and cost savings come additional legal challenges that companies must address, such as risk allocation, data security and privacy concerns
Cloud computing and SaaS arrangements are growing increasingly commonplace, and the benefits of getting IT out of the infrastructure business are obvious. While the technology is rapidly maturing and moving from novelty to commodity, negotiating contracts with cloud vendors can be a challenge.
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text: hi - > > any other suggested alternatives to this approach? > > Let your key be an integer. XOR each byte (or set of bytes) in the > string by the integer to encode. To decode, XOR them again. Let me > know if you'd like code. (Actually, I'd be interested to see other > people's implementations. ;) I googled a bit and found something in this direction, but cant get the reverse of it (at least not a working version!) Would appreciate a working fragment... def encr str key = "ABC123abc123ABC456ABC123abc" # long enough? result = (0..str.length-1).collect { |i| $stderr.puts("#{i} #{str[i]}") str[i] ^ key[i] } result.pack("C*") return result end does the key have to be an integer for XOR ( ^ operator ) to work? tx! /dc


text:
Jack Taylor
Thanks to the support of the company (and many hours work) I was able to complete the MSc whilst simultaneously receiving appropriate structured training; becoming a Member of the RICS in May 2018.
With the support of my experienced and knowledgeable colleagues, I have been able to grow as a professional as well as manage the increased workload that came with studying whilst in full-time employment.
Upon joining Aitchison Raffety, my initial responsibilities primarily concerned assisting the Business Rates team with existing case work. I still work predominantly with the Business Rates team but with greater responsibility for Client Relationship Management and I am also Lead Surveyor for 'Material Change of Circumstance' appeals.
I am pleased with my time at Aitchison Raffety so far and look forward to continuing my professional development here. The large number of specialist departments at the company and level of support provided make it an ideal environment to progress through the APC to achieve MRICS status.
Emily Bentley
I graduated from Sheffield Hallam University in 2013 with a RICS accredited degree in Building Surveying and entered the industry working as a Building Surveyor, but after 12 months decided to take a different career path. I was attracted to commercial surveying and accordingly joined a niche firm in Sheffield. Upon relocating to Hertfordshire, I joined NHS Property Services as a Property Manager. I am now pleased to have joined Aitchison Raffety as a Graduate Surveyor within the Healthcare Division.
My day to day work mainly consists of dealing with Landlord & Tenant matters and Valuations. I also assist in a number of other areas such as Development, Agency and Business Rates, providing me with the range of experience required for the APC.
The AR Graduate scheme provides a structured programme where graduates are given a variety of challenging work and a high level of responsibility, with plenty of support along the way. The strong team ethic makes you feel valued as a member as well as making it an enjoyable place to work. The number of specialist departments at the company makes it an ideal environment to progress through the APC with sufficient experience in each competency in my chosen pathway.
Daniel Medina
I graduated from Leeds Metropolitan University in 2010 with a RICS accredited degree in Building Surveying. Upon completion of my studies, I joined a construction firm abroad however, due to the nature of the industry, decided to pursue a different venture in other fields of work. Upon returning to the UK in 2016, I joined a property development company in London that dealt with commercial retail units for large end clientele. In 2018 I joined Aitchison Raffety's Graduate Scheme within their Building Surveying team.
My day to day work consists of a variety of surveys including quality assessment, schedule of dilapidations/conditions and reinstatement cost assessment surveys. I am also responsible for preparing reports and specifications which has provided me with a wealth of experience for my APC.
I am a year into my APC and have the full support of my team at Aitchison Raffety to help me achieve my MRICS status. The vast experience of the Building Surveying team has greatly benefited me in completing my individual competencies, whilst the company has invested time and effort to ensure that I have all the necessary tools to complete my APC.
I am confident I am at the right company to help me achieve my short and long term goals, and look forward to continuing my development with Aitchison Raffety.


text:
Page # 87 - Harpoon Blow!
shaun on Dec. 27, 2009
DOUBLE UPDATE!!! RATE, COMMENT,and ENJOY!
poonipoonz at 1:45PM, Dec. 28, 2009
It's been a while since i've read this, keep up the great work man. :D
zt2maniac at 10:13AM, Dec. 28, 2009
xaxelx at 8:25AM, Dec. 28, 2009
You can do some pretty amazing s**t with Naruto sprite comics, hm?


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Bronson will release the next installment of his beloved "Blue Chips" series "later this summer," according to a press release.
Action Bronson's music has taken a backseat to his TV ventures as of late. But no more: in a press release, the Queens rapper revealed the Blue Chips 7000 cover art and announced that the project will be out "later this summer" via VICE/Atlantic. The project will feature production from Alchemist, Harry Fraud, and Party Supplies as well as an appearance from Rick Ross (more features to be announced soon).
The Blue Chips 7000 cover dispenses with the awesome basketball theme of the first two "Blue Chips" covers, but hey we'll take it. Bronson's debut cookbook F*ck, That's Delicious, An Annotated Guide To Eating Well is out September 12th. Read his 2015 HNHH digital cover story here. Listen to his new song "Let Me Breathe" below.


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Due to the ongoing Covid-19 Pandemic the store is only open to the public to visit on Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 4pm, we hope to return to longer hours soon. Dismiss


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Various Countries Telecom Infrastructure Construction Market Databooks Drawn Up by Timetric Published at MarketPublishers.com
03 May 2016 • by Natalie Aster
LONDON – TD The Market Publishers, Ltd. is excited to announce that in-demand Timetric databooks investigating various national telecom infrastructure construction sectors are now available in its online catalogue.
Telecommunications Infrastructure Construction in Poland to 2019. The research study provides detailed historical and forecast market value figures for the country's telecom infrastructure construction sector, comprising a breakdown of the data by construction activity such as novel projects, repairs and maintenance, refurbishment and demolition, from 2010 and to 2019. The report is a valuable tool for firms operating across the country's construction value chain and also for new players that are only mulling over entering the market …
Telecommunications Infrastructure Construction in Qatar to 2019. The databook presents an extensive overview and unprejudiced insights into the operating environment of the telecom infrastructure construction industry in Qatar. The report incorporates comprehensive market value data (2010-2019) for the sector, including a comprehensive breakdown of the data by construction activity. It is an essential tool for companies active across the Qatari construction value chain and for new players considering to come in the market …
Telecommunications Infrastructure Construction in South Africa to 2019. The report draws up an exhaustive picture of the market on a country level. It contains historic market valuations and forecasts for the domestic industry based on construction output and value-add methods over 2010-2015 and until 2019. The study presents granular market value figures by construction activity – be it new construction, maintenance and repair, refurbishment and demolition across the domestic telecom infrastructure construction industry from 2010 and up to 2019 …
More in-demand studies by our market research partner are available at Timetric page.
The Market Publishers, Ltd.
Natalie Aster
Tel: +44 208 144 6009
Fax: +44 207 900 3970
[email protected]


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New Member
- Joined
- 19/06/2017
- Messages
- 10
Not yet possible to become knighted...SirDonkalot":rppmut4y said:Anybody knows what the special ability of the Warrior means in the description?
"they pay less gold when they join one of the four kingdoms"
Does that mean anything in the current state of the game?
Does it mean they pay less gold when they join a guild? not necessary one of the big 4 kingdoms but it would make sense.


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Normal hazards associated with rural locations and farming activities are naturally present on Woolly Bugger Farm. These include wildlife, farm animals, farm dams and insects etc. All visitors to Woolly Bugger Farm acknowledge potential hazards associated with all activities on the property and that the owners will not be held liable for any loss, damage or injury incurred while on Woolly Bugger Farm property.
Pet Policy:
We would love to have your "extended" family of four paws but please take note that we require that your pets are well trained, have their own sleeping bags, blankets and toys, that they do not jump onto furniture or sleep on beds/sofa's and that they are "flea-free". You will be responsible for cleaning after your pets, pick up their waste and ensure that the property is left in the way that you have found it. We will exercise the right to hold you responsible for any damage caused by your pets.
We would also like to bring to your attention the fact that the cottages themselves are not fenced off and we have wild animals, sheep and cows on the farm. Woolly Bugger Farm will not be held responsible or liable if your pet gets hurt or runs away. It is your responsibility to look after your pet at all times.
If you require cleaning service, please make sure your dog is on a leash when the cleaning ladies are there or choose that time to take them for a walk.
Damage Policy:
You will notice that we do not charge damage deposits, however, we trust in your integrity to take care and look after the property together with the contents as you will do with your own. We rely on your honesty to take full responsibility for any damage or breakages.
Cancellation Policy:
- No show, on arrival or during the stay – the full payment due for the entire booking may be retained.
- Up to 14 days before arrival – the full deposit paid may be retained.
The preferred payment method is by EFT prior to arrival however we do have an online credit card facility and do accept cash.
We advise high clearance vehicles as the roads to the farm are dirt roads and depending on the weather and when they were last maintained, can be in a poor condition.