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March 4,2015
On my way to the USA for my annual medical checkup. I'll be in Southern California for a little over a week.
Original comments and post on Facebook
March 9,2015
Just before leaving India a few weeks ago we recorded a promotional video of our theater, Usa and Aniruddha, in a proffesional studio in Mumbai.The filming took an entire day. Once the video is edited and completed we will use it to promote our show in other countries. While filming was going on, I took a few photographs. Sweet memories.
Original comments and post on Facebook
March 14,2015
Dear Friends,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
His Holiness Indradyumna Swami requested me to share some with information with you.
A few weeks ago Maharaja visited his skin doctor to check a lesion on his face.
A biopsy was taken and the results showed that it was melanoma, a form of skin cancer.
Srila Prabhupada taught us that "debt, disease, and fire should be extinguished immediately."
So, Maharaja traveled to Durban, South Africa to be cared for by our very old friend and surgeon Sunil Mohan Prabhu and a great team of expert doctors.
Maharaja arrived in Durban on March 11th.
On March 12th he had a PET Scan to determine if cancer had spread to any organs in the body.
By Lord Krishna's grace the results of the PET Scan were perfect and the cancer had not spread to any internal organs.
Yesterday, March 13th, Maharaja was admitted to the hospital and underwent a surgical procedure called, "wide excision" to remove all the flesh surrounding the area where the lesion had been.
At the same time the lymph nodes in his face, near the lesion, were removed to see any cancer cells had spread.
Today the lymph node biopsy results returned and the results show that the nodes were perfectly free of cancer cells.
This clearly means that Indradyumna Maharaja's cancer case was caught in time, he is perfectly free of cancer, and according to all reports and doctors, " the case is absolutely closed."
Indradyumna Maharaja is now recovering from his surgery at the hospital in Durban.
He is expected to be in the hospital for two days more and then will rest at the home of a devotee for the next two weeks.
He wanted me to explain this to you all.
He said that he will not be answering any Facebook messages till he recovers
a bit more from his surgery .. but that he will read each of your messages with love and immense gratitude.
Dear Friends … Let's all just stop what you are doing for a moment.
Please say a deep prayer of thanks to Sri Sri Gaura Nitai, Sri Sri Krishna Balaram, Sri Sri Radha Shyamsundar, and to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada,
That They have protected HH Indradyumna Maharaja that he can continue to travel, preach, teach, and give all of us all his wonderful loving association.
HH Indradyumna Swami Maharaja Ki Jai !!
Srila Prabhupada Ki Jai !!
Harinama Sankirtan Yajna Ki Jai !!
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Original comments and post on Facebook
March 16,2015
Dear devotees,
Please accept my most humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
I would like to thank all of you for your concern, your care and especially your prayers during these last few days. As my dear friend Govinda Swami reported, I was recently diagnosed with Melanoma skin cancer, but the small malignant mole was successfully removed and further testing showed the cancer had not spread anywhere at all. I am presently recovering from surgery to the affected area. My doctors are happy with the results and told me today that I'll be good to go in a few weeks time.
Krsna has been very kind to me and I have had many realizations over the past 2 weeks. I am more grateful than ever for the mercy of my spiritual master, the association of devotees, the holy names, service to my Deities, the chanting of my gayatri mantras, the abode of Sri Vrindavan Dhama and service to the samkirtan movement of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. I wake up each morning and thank the Lord for a new day of service and the opportunity to come closer to His Lotus feet. I am infinitely more aware now how temporary life is and am determined to use every second of what remains of my life in service to guru and Gauranga. I feel a resurgence of dedication to fulfill Srila Prabhupada's instructions to me to, 'preach boldly and have faith in the holy names.' In fact, I feel my service to him has only just begun. Once again I thank all of you for remembering me in my time of difficulty. I look forward to your association for many years to come.
Your servant, Indradyumna Swami
Original comments and post on Facebook
March 16,2015
"A person who has developed detachment can give up the bondage of material society, friendship and love, and a person who undergoes great suffering gradually becomes, out of hopelessness, detached and indifferent to the material world. Thus, due to my great suffering, such detachment awoke in my heart; yet how could I have undergone such merciful suffering if I were actually unfortunate? Therefore, I am in fact fortunate and have received the mercy of the Lord. He must somehow or other be pleased with me." [ SB 11.8.38 ]
Original comments and post on Facebook
March 18,2015
When, by His grace, the Lord puts His devotee into difficulty, many lessons are to be learned. In the following days I will humbly try to share the realizations I got during my recent bout with cancer.
"One who, at the time of death, chants the holy name, 'Krishna! Krishna! Krishna!' will not have to chant any other holy name to be delivered. Among all the names of the Lord, the name Krishna is sufficient for liberation. In fact, [ in front of the name of Krishna ] other holy names of the Lord feel embarrassed, like an unemployed person who has no work." [ Sanatan Goswami, Sri Hari-bhakti-vilasa, 11.502 ]
Original comments and post on Facebook
March 18,2015
"Sometimes it so happens that we have to suffer for our past sinful activities. But because we have taken to Krsna consciousness and serving Krsna, we should know that any suffering we have to bear have been far reduced by the mercy of the Lord. Suffering must be there so long as we are conditioned in this material world, but for the devotees the suffering is minimized compared to that of the nondevotees. We have to tolerate any difficulties which come up, and somehow go on with our chanting, reading and routine work." [ Srila Prabhupada letter to Von Paul Reed, January 2, 1972 ]
Original comments and post on Facebook
March 19,2015
"My dear Lord, O Supreme Personality of Godhead, You are the Supreme Soul. If one meditates upon Your transcendental body, You naturally protect him from all sources of fear, even the imminent danger of death."
"Everyone is sure to die, for no one is excused from the hands of death, which is but a feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead: mrtyu sarva-haras caham [Bg. 10.34]). When one becomes a devotee, however, he is not destined to die according to a limited duration of life. Everyone has a limited duration of life, but a devotee's lifetime can be extended by the mercy of the Supreme Lord, who is able to nullify the results of one's karma: karmani nirdahati kintu ca bhakti-bhajam [Bs. 5.54]. This is the statement of Brahma-samhita. A devotee is not under the laws of karma. Therefore even a devotee's scheduled death can be avoided by the causeless mercy of the Supreme Lord. God protects the devotee even from the extreme danger of death." [ Srimad Bhagavatam, 7.10.30 ]
Original comments and post on Facebook
March 19,2015
Loved you once,
Love you still,
Always have,
Always will.
Original comments and post on Facebook
March 22,2015
Being in and out of hospitals the last few weeks I have seen alot of people suffering. I am eager to get back on samkirtan and chant the holy names for the benefit of the fallen souls.
"If the surface of the globe is overflooded with the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra, the people of the world will be very, very happy." [ Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.24.10, Srila Prabhupada Purport ]
Original comments and post on Facebook
March 24,2015
Lots of time to chant as I recuperate. The real medicine.
"Just always chant Hare Krsna. Never mind whether you are in a factory or in a hell, in a shack or in a skyscraper – it doesn't matter. Just go on chanting: Hare Krsna, HareKrsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. There is no expense, there is no impediment, there is no caste, there is no creed, there is no color – anyone can do it. Just chant and hear." [ On The Way To Krsna, page 69 ]
Original comments and post on Facebook
March 25,2015
"Japa must be heart deep and not only with the lips like something mechanical – in other words, chanting with the heart is our goal." [ Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura ]
Original comments and post on Facebook
March 25,2015
A Letter from Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura
"I am overjoyed to hear that your enthusiasm for chanting is increasing. As our contaminations are removed by chanting, the Lord's form, qualities, and pastimes will be revealed to us in the holy name. There is no point in making a separate effort to artificially remember the Lord's form, qualities, and pastimes. The Lord and His name are one and the same. This will be understood clearly when the coverings in your heart are removed.
By chanting without offenses you will personally realize that all perfections come from the holy name. Through chanting, the distinction that exists between the self, and the gross and subtle bodies, is gradually effaced and one realizes one's own spiritual form. Once aware of the spiritual body, as one continues to chant, one sees the transcendental nature of the Lord's form.
Only the holy name reveals the spiritual form of the living being and then causes him to be attracted to Krsna's form. Only the holy name reveals the spiritual qualities of the living being and then causes him to be attracted to Krsna's qualities. Only the holy name reveals the spiritual activities of the living being and then causes him to be attracted to Krsna's pastimes.
By service to the holy name we do not mean only the chanting of the holy name; it also includes the other duties of the chanter. If we serve the holy name with the body, mind, and soul, then the direction of that service spontaneous manifests like the sun in the clear sky of the chanter's heart. What is the nature of the holy name?
Eventually all these understandings spontaneously appear in the heart of one who chants the holy name. The true nature of hari-nama is revealed by listening to, reading, and studying the scriptures. It is unnecessary to write anything further on this subject. All these things will be revealed to you through chanting."
[ From Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Vaibhava, by Bhakti Vikasa Swami ]
Original comments and post on Facebook
March 26,2015
Chanting All Thirty-Two Syllables
"As Srila Prabhupada's secretary and more than once in any case, I sat before Srila Prabhupada chanting my japa. Sometimes we hear people, and myself, saying, 'Hare Ram, Hare Ram, Ram Ram, Hare Hare. Srila Prabhupada would stop me, and more than once, say to me. 'Chant the entire mantra,' and he would proceed to do so. So it is, Ra-ma." [ Pusta Krsna das, former secretary to Srila Prabhupada ]
In the Padma Purana it is stated:
"Those Vaisnavas who always chant the maha-mantra composed of sixteen names divided into thirty-two syllables ( Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare ) attain Sri Vrindavan, the eternal abode of Radha and Krsna."
Original comments and post on Facebook
March 28,2015
Dear Devotees: This is a very noble cause. Please consider contributing. Sivarama Swami has bulit heaven on earth with his community of New Vraja Dhama in Hungary. Like everything else there, the deity worship is of the highest standard. It's a wonderful example for all of us throughout ISKCON. By donating to the worship of Radha Syamasundara in Hungary you will receive Their blessings from wherever you are in the world!
Your servant, Indradyumna Swami
Govinda Swami
Dear Friends All Around The World,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Last year, on the first of May, I sent an appeal to all my friends around the globe.
The appeal was for your assistance in the renovation of Sri Sri Radha Shyamsundara's altar, and puja facilities, at New Vraja Dham in Hungary.
Your selfless response was overwhelming.
HH Sivaram Swami and I were amazed at how much you all opened your hearts …
and your wallets … to assist this project.
By your help, the terrifically talented artistic devotees, artisans, and managers of the Hungarian Yatra have kept the project "right on track."
And the wonderful result is that we are going to place Radhe Shyam on Their new altar during a grand festival on April 19, 2015.
The new Simhasana has been carved and painted, the inlaid marble floor has been completed, the smaller puja simhasanas are complete, the amazing painting of the Deity chamber is complete, and the new deity back up rooms are complete.
But, dear friends … we are still $50,000 short to cover out budget.
So once again I would like to ask you all to stop for a moment and ask yourself if you can help.
No one knows your Shakti or ability better than yourself.
If you can give a dollar or pound or Euro, a Dhiram, Ruble, or Rupee,
Or five dollars, pounds, Euros, Dhiram, Rubles, or Rupees,
Or, a hundred, or a thousand, or the entire 50,000 …
By whatever amount you are able to share, you will receive the abundant blessings of beautiful Sri Sri Radha Shyamsundar, His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada, and all of the appreciative and loving vaisnavas of the Hungarian Yatra for helping them to complete this devotional service to the Lord.
If any of you can assist us in covering the final portion of our budget you can send your contributions to the following account:
Account Holder (Beneficiary account): MKTHK
Address of the Account Holder: Lehelutca15-17.
Town: Budapest
Postcode: 1039
Country: Hungary
Swift Code: OKHBHUHB
Name of the Bank: Kereskedelmi es Hitelbank
Address of the Bank: Vigado ter 1
Town: Budapest
Postcode: 1051
Country: Hungary
Also …
There is a PayPal account for those who feel more comfortable to assist in that manner;
email@example.com Note .. Temple Renovation
Dear Friends, Once again I thank you for your assistance.
I think that out of the many devotional adventures and services I have been on this last year, this service of assisting my dear friend Sivaram Swami has been the most rewarding.
Your help has made this service to my friend and to the devotees in Hungary most relishable.
My humble prayer is that Radhe Shyam and Srila Prabhupada will bless you all, and also bless me, that we will all have many more years of opportunity for service to Hari, guru, and the lotus feet of all vaisnavas.
Hare Krishna. Affectionate regards.
Your servant,
BB Govinda Swami
Original comments and post on Facebook
March 28,2015
" It is My vow that if one only once seriously surrenders unto Me saying, 'My dear Lord, from this day I am Yours,' and prays to Me for courage, I shall immediately award courage to that person, and he will always remain safe from that time on."
[ Lord Ramacandra, Ramayana, Yuddha-kanda 18.33, quoted in Caitanya Caritamrta, Madhya-lila 22.34 ]
Original comments and post on Facebook
March 29,2015
"Srila Prabhupada was visiting Bombay for what turned out to be one of the last times. Although the building was still under construction, his quarters, at his request, had been hastily prepared and he had moved in.
Srila Prabhupada was in poor health by this time, and everything was a great effort for him, but, still, he was giving darsana to some devotees and guests. At one point an Indian man stood up in the midst of it all and, making something of an exhibition of himself, folded his hands and requested, "Swamiji, give me your blessings."
Srila Prabhupada fixed the man with a stare that lasted enough seconds for the man and everyone in the room to start to feel uncomfortable. When the situation seemed to reach the point where it was intolerable, Srila Prabhupada began to speak. Addressing everyone, he said, in effect, "Such a big organization, this ISKCON . . . worldwide organization . . . with so many problems. All coming on my head. Every day all problems coming to me . . . so many letters from all over the world. All on my head."
He gently tapped his head a few times, saying, "You don't know the headache I have."
Then he fixed the man with a strong look and said, "So, if you want my blessings, you take some of my headache." [ Related by Giriraja Swami ]
Original comments and post on Facebook
March 30,2015
Dear Devotees: Today at 10:05 in the morning in the holy land of Vrindavan, Rasada dasa, a dear godbrother and friend of mine, left this world to join Srila Prabhupada in his eternal pastimes. A number of prominent devotees were present at his side. Rasada prabhu had several intimate exchanges with Srila Prabhupada as he became a devotee. Many times I recounted these pastimes in my lecture entitled, "Pigpen." Rasada spent much of his life distributing Srila Prabhupada's books in Europe and America. He will be missed by all who knew and loved him. The world will miss him too, although they may not be aware, for a dedicated samkirtan devotee is like a lamp that gives light in this world of darkness and ignorance.
Original comments and post on Facebook
March 31,2015
Devotee: "It says in the scriptures that Lord Brahma rides on a swan. Do we take this to mean it's a real swan, or is it symbolic?"
Prabhupada: "Not symbolic, it is fact. Why do you say symbolic?"
Devotee: "Because it's rather unusual."
Prabhupada: "Unusual? What experience have you got? (laughter) You have no experience. Have you got experience of other planetary systems, what is there? Your experience is very tiny. So you should not calculate Brahma's life and other things by your tiny experience."
[ Lecture, SB 6.1.3, Melbourne, May 22, 1975 ]


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Our comprehensive range of services across all areas of automobile needs, including emergency breakdown service.
Automobile Association of Ceylon offers many services related to motoring in Sri Lanka.
You can seek technical advice and mechanical assistance at our Automobile Association of Ceylon Headquarters from competent staff.
There is an excellent Club House for FIA affiliated members including newly restored and upgraded billiard tables with pockets cut to latest..
A spacious and well - maintained Auditorium with modern facilities to accommodate 100 people is available at the Automobile Association..
The Automobile Association of Ceylon is pleased to announce that two holiday bungalows are available to its..
Road Safety - Education and Awareness Programme
Donations and education programme held in Kamburupitiya.

subset: commoncrawl


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Create an Account - Increase your productivity, customize your experience, and engage in information you care about.
View All Calendars is the default. Choose Select a Calendar to view a specific calendar. Subscribe to calendar notifications by clicking on the Notify Me® button, and you will automatically be alerted about the latest events in our community.
March 23, 2020, 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM @ City Hall - Council Chamber
Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) meetings are scheduled to begin at 1:30pm. City Council Workshop meetings will begin immediately after CRA meetings end.
March 9, 2020 - June 5, 2020 @ Boca Raton Public Library - Downtown
Visitors to the Art in Public Places area of the Downtown Library will discover local artist Ben Heller's energetic use of color and texture. His number-one goal as an artist is to evoke emotion and give you no choice but to stop and stare. This free exhibit is open during regular library hours.
March 23, 2020, 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM @ Downtown Library
Get inspired to share your personal stories in this two-part series with Robin Schulte! This program features a performance of well-crafted true stories, as well as hands-on exercises and tips for turning a personal experience into something others will want to hear. Leave with renewed motivation, practical tools and great new skills.


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Health Topics:
Program or Department:
Eligible Participants:
Campus Location:
Northeast Passage provides rentals on more than 180 pieces of adaptive recreation equipment. Rentals are available by the day or week, at affordable rates.
How To Access:
Visit the website, click on the equipment you are looking to rent, and reserve it online. For questions, call Northeast Passage at 862-0070.
More Info:


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Buy a Home
Is that east Los Gatos home nicely remodeled or simply flipped?
Want to buy a house in the Los Gatos neighborhoods of Belwood, Belgatos or Surmont? There are a few things you should know about properties that look "turnkey", especially as the market heats up or inventory more available.
Home sellers who quickly improve houses for a fast profit, rather than for enjoying the house for their own use, often cut corners. Whether it's owners doing a quick makeover or investors remodeling or improving select items, beware! Some of these properties give the impression of being "perfect" but in fact may only have been cleaned up in the most visible areas.
Here are some questions for you to ask or investigate when looking at homes for sale in east Los Gatos, particularly near the foothills :
- Owners or sellers who prepare the home for the maximum return on investment will probably add fresh paint & carpet (or pull up the carpet to expose the hardwood floors), swap out light fixtures, door and drawer or cabinet hardware, and tidy the front landscaping. But what about expensive but less seen areas such as
- the electrical system
- furnace (heater)
- water heater
- roof, gutters & downspouts
- drainage system (often needed, seldom there)
- back yard landscaping
- the foundation (always a potential issue in our east Los Gatos neighborhood if drainage hasn't been properly addressed)
- insulation
- plumbing – has the home been re-piped, or are the old galvanized steel pipes still in the walls and under the house, ready to give up the ghost?
- condition of retaining walls, if any
- condition of concrete or hardscape
- large trees – have they been trimmed, or are they an expense which will fall on you?
- Is this an investment property (purchased by investors at a foreclosure auction or as a distress sale)? Or is it a trustee sale where the family or friends inheriting the property are fixing it up for sale (almost like a flipped house)?
- If it's a house being sold by investors who've fixed it up, how experienced are they? Some clients of mine purchased an out-of-area house from first time investors. The kitchen remodel was made such that a full size fridge wouldn't fit. Fail!(Some trustee sales are in a similar category as first time investors – this isn't something they have experience with, most likely. They may make costly mistakes by either over-improving the home for sale or not fixing the right things. They may or may not be local and have a true sense of market value, too, so may set themselves up with unrealistic expectations.)
- Were there pre-sale inspections? If so, did the owners or investors do the Section 1 work from the termite report and the health & safety issues called out in the home inspection? The home inspection (not the termite or pest) should flag any major issues with the foundation, electrical, mechanical etc. systems in the home. If there's no home inspection, prepare for surprises in these older homes.
- In Surmont, Belgatos, Belwood, and all of the east Los Gatos, Cambrian and Almaden hillside areas, water and drainage is an issue, as mentioned above regarding foundations. Left unchecked, water seeps into the crawl spaces under the houses and can create real havoc as our clay soil expands and pushes on the foundation. So look at the downspouts and see if they simply dump the water at the base of the house (which you will see most of the time – but it's not a good idea, usually), or did the owner take the time and spend the money to handle drainage issues well? How's the grading? Soil and landscaping should slope away from the house so that any water coming down will run away rather than seep into the crawlspace.
Browse neighborhood homes for sale online on this site. When you visit in person, bring a notepad and jot down concerns or questions. It is so easy to fall in love with remodeling that's been done that it may be easy to miss the expensive items not easily seen that may have been ignored.
Need a good, local Realtor? Call or email me. I've been in real estate a long time (since early 1993), am very accomplished and recently was named "best real estate agent in Silicon Valley" by readers of the San Jose Mercury News. I'm also a Belwood resident and I know the area and its values well.
Homes Sought in Belwood of Los Gatos, Surmont or Belgatos Neighborhoods of Los Gatos
As of late January, 2010, there are no single family homes available in the Belgatos, Belwood or Surmont areas. If you are thinking of selling your home but don't want to have to do the typical staging and pre-sale work, please contact me. We may have a buyer for your home without having to go through the usual gearing up for the market….
Mary Pope-Handy
408 204-7673
Are There Any Homes For Sale in Belwood of Los Gatos Right Now?
First, Describing the "Parts" of Belwood
The Belwood area of east Los Gatos is very popular as the homes tend to sit on good-sized lots, the streets are tree-lined and meandering, a huge park provides abundant outdoor activity and exercize space, and the neighborhood is friendly.
There are actually three neighborhoods within what is typically referred to as simply Belwood, though. This matters because it helps to explain the pricing differences from one part of Belwood to the next. So first, a quick into to this part of east Los Gatos. (See photo slideshow of Belwood/Begatos and our park.)
Surmont is the oldest and is on the part closest to downtown Los Gatos along much of Westhill Drive, Old Orchard Drive, Old Orchard Court, Campos Verde, Surmont Drive, and Surmont Court. It cuts off just before Belblossom Drive. These homes are semi-custom and they enjoy tree-lined streets; some of them along Westhill and Surmont even have views. There were several builders who constructed homes here. Homes are mostly on 10,000 to 15,000 SF lots. These houses often sell for the highest prices because they are larger, custom or semi-custom homes on larger lots and sometimes have views.
The next area was not originally part of Belwood proper so is often referred to as "Belgatos area". It includes part of Westhill, part of Belblossom, and part of Belvue – leading up to Belgatos Road. Mostly 10,000 SF lots and semi-custom homes.
Belwood of Los Gatos originally encompassed (mostly) the streets between Belgatos Road and Harwood Road, with the cabana in the middle on Belwood Gateway. (The cabana used to be ONLY for this area and the annual dues are mandatory there. Now it is open to all three areas but the outlying sections do not, of course, have mandatory membership or dues – it's optional there.) These are mostly "Bel" streets, except for Bacigalupi Drive and Jaime Court. Of the three areas, Belwood tends to be the most affordable; it is almost exclusively tract housing (though very nice) and the streets are not quite as tree-lined for the most part. Homes here range, generally, from 1700 SF to 2500 SF, with exceptions (Westhill in this stretch has some larger homes, some may be custom built), and usually sell between 1 and 1.4 million, again with some exceptions.
One notable exception: recently a tiny, 1400 SF house in Belwood with need of many repairs sold for a shockingly low price of $799,000.
Again, Belwood has mostly 10,000 SF lots, but one area – a section of Bacigalupi and Jaime Court – are newer homes on mostly 8000 SF lots, and a few places in Belwood have 12,000 SF lots. So it does vary.
What's for Sale in Belwood, Belgatos, and Surmont of Los Gatos Today
At this time, there are 3 homes actively on the market in this area of about 500 houses. Two of them are on Westhill and one on Belhaven, and all of them are priced at just a little bit under $1.5 million. (Two have been on the market awile – one of them is "by appointment only", which can make it very difficult to sell a house). One more home will be coming on the market soon: it is a 3 bed, 2 bath home with 1744 SF and will be offered at $1,150,000. (not my listing but I have been in contact with the agent about it so can fill you in on some details if you're interested).
Why so few available homes? This is not untypical. While most owners of real estate in Silicon Valley may move fairly often, that's not the case here. People who move to Belwood (or Surmont or Belgatos) tend to make it their long-term home. They move in but don't want to leave! Turnover tends to be low.
Need more information on the available homes? Or what has sold in recent years? Please visit the "Homes Info" area of this website. There you'll see descriptions of each home for sale, plus those recently sold and also some historical information on the second page of that section.
Call or email me if you'd like to discuss buying or selling a home here in Belwood, Belgatos or Surmont. I offer a no-cost one hour consultation to prospective clients.
Suggested Los Gatos or San Jose area home buyer resources: Home buying booklet (pdf), Buyer Reports and more Silicon Valley home buyer reading
Home seller resources: Articles on home selling, home selling or pre-listing packet (pdf)
408 204-7673
mary (at) popehandy.com


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Snoqualmie Dharma Film Festival
The First Annual . . .
Snoqualmie Dharma
Film Festival
Tibetan Buddhist film festival to be held
in downtown Duvall, (King County, WA)
Sat, June 9 . . . all invited, free admission!
Film is an effective medium in which to communicate
ideas both engaging and informative, and it is to this
end that we at the Chenrezig Project, are hosting the
first Snoqualmie Dharma Film Festival, being held at
the Duvall Visitor Center on Saturday, June 9 from
The Festival provides (interested and/or curious) local
audiences with an opportunity to discover films that
communicate and share the beauty of Tibetan
Buddhist culture, spirituality and sensibilities — ideas
and methods that many find meaningful regardless of
faith, philosophies or religion.
This is a free event, a gift to the community;
there is no charge to view any or all of the four
films being screened.
We believe there is a simple, universal message of
wisdom and compassion in Buddhism that can benefit
everyone, regardless of faith or background.
We provide a safe atmosphere for people to gather,
listen, discuss and learn these ancient, meaningful
The Films . . .
We'll kick off the screenings at 1:00pm on June 9th
with a biography of the 14th Dalai Lama titled
Dalai Lama: The Soul of Tibet (an A&E production).
At 2:15pm we'll be screening Unmistaken Child – a
profoundly moving documentary of a Tibetan
Buddhist monk's search for the reincarnation of
his beloved master.
At 4:30pm we'll be sharing Tibetan Book of the
Dead: The Great Liberation — narrated by Leonard
Cohen, a short film providing a remarkably clear
explanation of the dying process (during and after)
we'll all encounter according to classic Tibetan
After a dinner break, we'll reconvene at 7:00pm
for the day's final film, Saint Misbehavin' (aka
The Wavy Gravy Movie) providing an entertaining
— and inspiring — trip through the extraordinary
life of poet, clown, activist and modern-day
Western Bodhisattva Wavy Gravy.
There will be ample discussion time between
screenings, so come on down, expose yourself
to these thought-provoking films, learn about
one of humankind's richest spiritual traditions,
and have fun while doing so.
(Mark your calendars . . . bring a friend and/
or make new ones.)
Please click here for a larger, downloadable
version of the above Festival flyer.
Questions? E-mail to


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Studying Capitalism (Spring 2019, Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, The New School)
The course provides an introduction to the social scientific study of capitalism as the social and economic system of our time. Capitalism transforms human life and is transformed by human life. For anyone who lives in the early twenty first century and hopes to make sense of the world we live in, a basic understanding of the foundations, rhythms, tendencies and pathologies of this system is indispensable. Besides providing this basic understanding, the course will also provide an opportunity to explore themes of contemporary relevance in greater depth. For example, among other themes, the course may explore cultural aspects of work and labor under capitalism, and contrasting views of the historical causes of the crisis of 2007-08. By the end of the course, students engaging actively with the course material should have the conceptual tools to more closely analyze and scrutinize their own experiences and observations.
A sample of sources for reading material:
- Carson, Rachel. 2002. Silent Spring. Boston: Mariner Books.
- Evans, Peter. 1995. Embedded Autonomy: States and Industrial Transformation. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Fulcher, James. 2004. Capitalism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Heilbroner, Robert L. 1999. The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers. Rev. 7th ed. New York: Simon and Schuster.
- Heilbroner, Robert L., and William Milberg. 2012. The Making of Economic Society. 13th ed. Boston: Pearson.
- Hobsbawm, E. J. 1975. The Age of Capital. London: Abacus.
- Hobsbawm, Eric. 2011. How to Change the World: Tales of Marx and Marxism. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- Hunt, E.K., and Mark Lautzenheiser. 2011. History of Economic Thought: A Critical Perspective. 3rd ed. New York: M. E. Sharpe.
- Keynes, John Maynard. [1936] 1964. The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. San Diego: Harcourt, Inc.
- Sennett, Richard. 2008. The Craftsman. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- Sennett, Richard. 2012. Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- Skidelsky, Robert. 2010. Keynes: The Return of the Master. New York: Public Affairs.
The Life and Work of John M. Keynes (Fall 2019, Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, The New School)
The years following the first great recession of the twenty-first century have brought John Maynard Keynes's ideas back to the forefront of academic and public life. There is also renewed interest in questions about the viability and the future of capitalism. In this historical context, the course introduces Keynes as an important historical character whose life provides insight into the unfolding of the first half of the twentieth century by virtue of his proximity to important historical events. Second, the course provides a survey of Keynes's writings, with particular attention to the relationship between his life and the formation of his ideas. Third, the course will engage with the big, far reaching questions Keynes was asking about the nature of capitalism and about the human condition. In doing so, the course takes students into Keynes's life and ideas beyond his role of an economist. For students of economics and capitalism, Keynes and his ideas are unavoidable, and this course provides that necessary engagement.
Main Texts:
- Keynes, John Maynard. [1936] 1964. The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. San Diego: Harcourt, Inc.
- Keynes, John Maynard. 2015. The Essential Keynes. Edited by Robert Skidelsky. United Kingdom: Penguin Books.
- Skidelsky, Robert. 2003. John Maynard Keynes: 1883-1946: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman. New York: Penguin Books.


text: Ashes 2019: Day one washed out at Lord's Loop Sports Created : 14 August 2019 Sport The umpires for the second Ashes Test at Lord's. No play was possible on day one of the second Ashes Test at Lord's due to rain. Miserable weather in London on Wednesday kept England and Australia kicking their heels before play was finally abandoned at around 16:20 local time (15:20 GMT). Rain had returned in the morning with a first inspection due at the scheduled start time of 11:00 and the covers were on again after it was announced that a belated toss would take place at 15:00, with play due to start half an hour later. With no signs of improvement in conditions, however, it was soon announced that there would be no possibility of any action on the opening day. Jofra Archer was presented with his Test cap by close friend and fellow England international Chris Jordan on the outfield, but the England paceman will have to wait until Thursday to officially make his debut in the format. The tourists won the first match of the series at Edgbaston by 251 runs. Get the latest local and international news straight to your mobile phone for free:


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- Safety and Health Topics
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- Agricultural Operations
Agricultural Operations
Vehicle Hazards
In 2011, vehicular accidents caused close to half (276) of the 570 fatalities among agricultural workers.1 Injuries from vehicular incidents are serious and debilitating to farm activities.
Tractors and Harvesters
Farm tractors accounted for the deaths of 1,533 people between 2003 and 2011 and were of fatal occupational injuries in agriculture, forestry, and fishing.2 Today, tractor incidents remain the leading source of death and injury on farms.2,3 The National Agricultural Tractor Safety Initiative provides information on current research and resources available to help reduce tractor hazards.
Rollovers - Tractor rollovers are the single deadliest type of injury incident on farms in the United States. In 2011, only 59 percent of tractors had rollover protective structures (ROPs).4 To help understand and prevent farm injuries and deaths, NIOSH has funded studies nationwide on tractor safety and how to protect farmworkers and children. Here are highlights of what researchers have found:
- Overturns occurred at more than 3,000 operations in a 12 month period. 53% of the overturned tractors were equipped with ROPS.4
- Nearly 1 in 10 farms surveyed had experienced a tractor overturn during the history of their operation. (In a 2002 study of more than 6,000 randomly selected principal farm operators in Kentucky).5
- Operators injured during overturns of tractors without roll bars lost an average of 97.8 days of farm work (more than three months), compared to operators who were protected by roll bars and seatbelts. Workers suffering injuries during overturns of tractors with roll bars had an average of 21.7 days (about three weeks) among operators injured.5
- Tractor deaths tell only a small part of the story, because for every person killed in a tractor incident, four people are non-fatally injured in tractor overturns.5
The OSH Act requires an approved ROPs for all agricultural tractors over 20 horsepower that were manufactured after October 25, 1976, and which are operated by a hired worker. (1928.51(b)(1))
Power take-off (PTO) shafts
Tractors and harvesters should be inspected before they are operated and all operators should be trained in the safe operation. Farmworkers should understand the dangers of the PTO shaft.
The PTO is a driveshaft, usually on a tractor, that can be used to provide power to an attachment or separate machine. It is designed to be easily connected and disconnected. The PTO allows implements to draw energy from the tractor's engine.
Clothing can get caught in PTOs and the associated shafts and joints. The worker may be pulled into the shaft, which often results in loss of a limb or death. Some implements do use plastic guards to try to keep a person from becoming entangled in a PTO shaft, but even with guards, farmworkers need to exercise caution around PTO shafts when they are connected into a tractor or truck. Farmworkers need to know the following:
- All shielding should remain in place and any damaged or missing shields should be replaced.
- Farmworkers should not wear loose clothing or have long hair while working around a running machine. Hair and clothing can be caught by the machinery.
- Farmworkers should stop the PTO when dismounting from the vehicle.
Other Tractor and Harvester Hazards
Farm tractors are involved in most farm fatalities and injuries. Dangers exist from improperly hitching a tractor, using steer skidders incorrectly, carbon monoxide poisoning, and clothing and hair entanglement in improperly guarded moving parts.
- Given that harvesting equipment may be used once a year over relatively few days, the operator should re-familiarize themselves with the piece of equipment, by inspecting it and reviewing proper operating procedures.
- The addition of harvesting equipment to tractors can change the balance of the vehicle and requires farmworkers' constant attention.
- Plan harvesting so equipment travels downhill on steep slopes to avoid overturns. Space tractor wheels as far apart as possible when operating on slopes.
All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs)
The National Safety Council has developed recommendations for using ATVs6. The recommendations include:
- ATVs with an engine size of 70cc to 90cc should be operated by people at least 12 years of age.
- ATVs with an engine size of greater than 90cc should only be operated by people at least 16 years of age.
- Wear appropriate riding gear: DOT-, Snell ANSI-approved helmet, goggles, gloves, over-the-ankle boots, long-sleeve shirt and long pants.
- Read owners' manuals carefully.
- ATVs are not made for multiple riders. Never carry anyone else on the ATV.
- Any added attachments affect the stability, operating and braking of the ATV.
- Just because an attachment is available doesn't mean that it can be used without increasing your risk of being injured.
- Do not operate the ATV on streets, highways or paved roads.
Vehicle Operation
- Do not allow passengers to ride in the vehicle.
- Remove persons not involved in the activity from the site.
- Shut off vehicle for refueling.
- Park the vehicle whenever there is no driver inside, so that the:
- Motor is shut off
- Brakes are engaged
- Transmission is in park-lock or in gear
- Keys are removed
- Attachments are disengaged
- All farm equipment traveling on any roadway should be equipped with an approved Slow Moving Vehicle (SMV) emblem. Emblems should be clean and in good shape.
- Use a standardized system of hand signals to communicate when noise and or distance does not allow for verbal communication.
- Falling Object Protective Structures (FOPS) should be installed on equipment where the user runs the risk of being struck by falling debris.
- Never tow an implement that is improperly hitched.
Vehicle Storage
- Store away from structures housing livestock-to reduce the likelihood of fire.
- Do not store with fuel storage tanks.
- Do not store with debris.
- Ensure that electrical lines are high enough for vehicles to pass below.
- Ensure there is an easy exit from the storage structure.
- Ensure the storage structure is lockable.
- Ensure the floor surfaces are smooth and clean.
- Remove keys from all vehicles.
- Do not allow non-employees or children into storage structures.
1 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), United States Department of Labor. Occupational Injuries and Illnesses and Fatal Injuries Profiles database queried by industry for Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting (GP2AFH), Accessed June 2013.
2 Myers, M.L.,Cole, H. P., Westneat, S.C. "Projected Incidence and Cost of Tractor Overturn-Related Injuries in the United States." Journal of Agricultural Safety and Health, 14(1):93-103; 2008.
3 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Worker Health Chartbook, 2004: Chapter 3 Focus on Agriculture.
4 National Agricultural Statistics Service. [2013]. 2011 Farm and Ranch Safety Survey. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service.
5 Cole, H.P., Myers, M.L., Westneat, S.C. "Frequency and severity of injuries to operators during overturns of farm tractors." Journal of Agricultural Safety and Health, 12(2):127-38, 2006.
6 National Safety Council. All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) Safety.


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You may have noticed this happening more and more lately: Online accounts get taken over in droves, but the companies insist that their systems haven't been compromised. It's maddening, but in many cases, technically they're right. The real culprit is a hacker technique known as "credential stuffing."
The strategy is pretty straightforward. Attackers take a massive trove of usernames and passwords (often from a corporate megabreach) and try to "stuff" those credentials into the login page of other digital services. Because people often reuse the same username and password across multiple sites, attackers can often use one piece of credential info to unlock multiple accounts. In the last few weeks alone, Nest, Dunkin' Donuts, OkCupid, and the video platform DailyMotion have all seen their users fall victim to credential stuffing.
"With all of the massive credential dumps that have happened over the past few years, credential stuffing has become a serious threat to online services," says Crane Hassold, a threat intelligence manager at the digital fraud defense firm Agari. "Most people don't change their passwords regularly, so even older credential dumps can be used with relative success. And since password reuse is rampant, cybercriminals will generally test a set of credentials against numerous different websites."
Credential Craze
Credential stuffing has been a problem for years now, as troves of credentials from seminal breaches like LinkedIn and Dropbox in 2012 and Myspace in 2013 have been used—to great effect!—in countless credential stuffing campaigns. But one trend in particular has fueled a recent rise in successful campaigns.
Recently hackers have posted more gigantic, aggregated credential collections that comprise multiple data breaches. One of the most wild recent examples is known as Collection #1-5, a "breach of breaches" that totaled 2.2 billion unique username and password combinations, all available to download in plaintext—for free.
"With Collections 1 through 5 we have actually seen spikes in credential stuffing recently, immediately after that news came out," says Shuman Ghosemajumder, chief technical officer at the corporate digital fraud defense firm Shape Security. "In fact, we saw some of the largest credential stuffing attacks across several customers in just that week. And that makes sense because you've got all these plaintext usernames and passwords available through a torrent. It democratizes credential stuffing."
The Collection credentials are mostly a few years old, meaning many were already in broad circulation and not worth much. But over the last week, another outlandish trove has provided exactly the type of fresh, high-quality credentials hackers cherish. Posted on the Dream Market dark web marketplace, the collection includes a total of roughly 841 million records, released in three batches, from 32 web services, including MyFitnessPal, MyHeritage, Whitepages, and the file-sharing platform Ge.tt. The first part of the dump costs about $20,000 in bitcoin, the second about $14,500, and the third roughly $9,350. A few of the breaches don't include passwords, and some that do are protected by cryptographic scrambling that buyers will need to decode, but overall these are top-shelf troves ripe for use in credential stuffing.
Hot Stuff
As you've probably guessed, credential stuffing relies on automation; hackers aren't literally typing in hundreds of millions of credential pairs across hundreds of sites by hand. Credential stuffing attacks also can't try massive numbers of logins on a site with all the tries coming from the same IP address, because web services have basic rate-limiting protections in place to block floods of activity that could be destabilizing.
So hackers use credential stuffing tools, available on malicious platforms, to incorporate "proxy lists" to bounce the requests around the web and make them look like they're coming from all different IP addresses. They can also manipulate properties of the login requests to make it look like they come from a diverse array of browsers, because most websites will flag large amounts of traffic all coming from the same type of browser as suspicious. Credential stuffing tools will even offer integrations with platforms built to defeat Captchas.
Credential stuffing campaigns ultimately try to get the malicious requests to blend into the noise of all the legitimate logins happening on a service at any given time, or "simulate the activity of a large population of humans," as Shape Security's Ghosemajumder puts it.
It also requires patience; Shape estimates that typically attackers find matches between their test credentials and an account on the platform they are attacking 0.1 to 2 percent of the time. This is why attackers need hundreds of thousands or millions of credential pairs to make credential stuffing attacks worth it. And once they've gotten into some accounts, attackers still need a way to monetize what they find there—either by stealing more personal data, money, gift card balances, credit card numbers, and so on—to make the whole thing worthwhile.
Stuff It
Th best way to protect against credential stuffing attacks is to use unique passwords for each of your digital accounts—ideally by using a password manager—and turn on two-factor authentication when it's available. But it's not entirely on you. Companies, too, are increasingly attempting to detect and block credential stuffing attempts. And some like Google (which also owns Nest) have started initiatives to proactively check whether users' account credentials have been compromised in breaches and trigger password resets if they discover a match. But the trick is to do all of this without blocking or hindering legitimate activity.
One strategy companies can deploy is to track logins that ultimately result in fraud, then blacklist the associated IP address. Over time, this can erode the effectiveness of the proxy lists attackers rely on to mask their mass login attempts. This doesn't completely stop credential stuffing, but does make it more difficult and potentially costly for hackers to carry out the attacks. Services whose users are mainly in specific geographic regions can also establish geofences, blocking proxy traffic that comes in from elsewhere in the world. Once again, though, attackers can ultimately adapt to this restriction as well by switching to using proxy IPs within those areas.
A recent credential stuffing attack against the productivity and project management service Basecamp helps illustrate the problem. The company reported recently that it had faced 30,000 malicious login attempts from a diverse set of IP addresses in a single hour. The company began blocking the IPs as quickly as possible, but needed to implement a Captcha to ultimately end the attack. When the barrage died down, Basecamp found that the attackers had only succeeded in penetrating 124 accounts; the company quickly reset those account passwords to revoke the attackers' access.
Many companies aren't as prepared to handle the scale of the credential stuffing threat. Shape Security's Ghosemajumder says that it's pretty typical at this point for corporate clients to see 90 percent of their logins come from malicious attacks. He has even worked with customers who deal with credential stuffing in 99.9 percent of login attempts to their service. And while credential dumps from leaks and breaches are the primary fuel for these attacks, criminals can also diversify their approach by using credential pairs gathered from phishing attacks.
"Most credential stuffing uses information obtained from the major data breaches," Agari's Hassold says. "But over the past few years there has been a shift in the credential phishing landscape to target generic account credentials that are then 'stuffed' into a number of different websites."
Though it is frustrating when companies insist that they haven't been breached and deny responsibility for protecting their users from credential stuffing attacks, the truth is that service providers don't have a foolproof way of defending against this threat. As Basecamp's CTO and co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson put it after the service's recent incident, "Our ops team will continue to monitor and fight any future attacks. … But if someone has your username and password, and you don't have 2FA protection, there are limits to how effective this protection can be."
For such a simple technique, credential stuffing is frustratingly difficult to quash. So keep your passwords as diverse as possible and use two-factor whenever you can. And complain loudly on social media about any web service that isn't offering it.
Source: Wired


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Deciding that the proposal was off topic, Senate leaders refused to allow African-American senators to tag a proposal expanding early voting onto voter identification legislation.
Sen. Chris Smith, D-Ft. Lauderdale, filed an amendment to HB 1461 that would have given counties the option of opening early voting locations on the Sunday before an election day. Last year, the Legislature approved sweeping new election law that, among other things, limited early voting hours and prohibited early voting within 72 hours of an election.
That effectively ended the "Souls to the Polls" initiative supported by black churches, African-American lawmakers said last week. The Sunday before an election day is one of the highest turn-out days for Black voters, they said.
HB 1461 seeks to change a different provision of last year's election law. The measure clarifies that poll workers can use identification cards provided by voters to confirm addresses but not to challenge where a voter lives.
Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Coral Gables, who sponsored the measure in the Senate, objected to Smith's amendment. It strayed too far from the topic of the original legislation and was a violation of Senate rules, Diaz de la Portilla said.
Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, the Rules chairman, took a few minutes to meet with both men and research the matter before announcing that he agreed with Diaz de la Portilla. Smith withdrew his amendment.
Senators approved a different amendment sponsored by Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart. That proposal allows voters to opt out of having their driver licenses scanned at the polls.
The state's supervisors of elections requested the option of scanning licenses, saying it will expedite the registration process during high-turnout election days. But Negron said civil liberties were at stake and people should be allowed to vote without potentially giving poll workers access to private information.
"This is the defining moment of the Libertarian caucus of the Senate," Negron said while urging senators to approve his amendment.
It passed on a voice vote, eliciting cheers from conservative senators.
"Freedom," Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, shouted after the vote while pumping his fists in the air.


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Networking in Memphis gathers business professionals, entrepreneurs, community and civic groups within the Memphis area. These events are created to maximize the community potential in Memphis, while building a solid sense of community.
Our Vision and Mission
The current economic challenge can only be met by making important changes in the way companies, organizations and individuals manage their business activity. Networking In Memphis has proven that networking helps re-engineer the selling environment. And in doing so, participants can bolster their products and services to seize new market and prospect opportunities. That's why Networking In Memphis gathers prominent business professionals within the Memphis area: to maximize the business potential in Memphis, while building a solid sense of community.


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Swimming is one of the best forms of exercise you can undertake during pregnancy. Submersion in the water provides a weightless environment, which is especially beneficial as the joints, muscles and ligaments become particularly susceptible to injury due to the increased levels of progesterone, causing them to soften and become overly flexible. Other benefits include maintaining maternal aerobic capacity and a sense of well being.
As long as you are experiencing a healthy pregnancy you should be able to undertake swimming for the full nine months. Unless advised otherwise it is safe to do any stroke that you feel comfortable with, find most physically beneficial and enjoy. However, breaststroke is particularly helpful in improving your posture and reducing back ache by strengthening your abdominal, back, chest and shoulder muscles.
If you are new to exercise it is best to start slowly and build up the length of time you spend in the pool over several weeks. During pregnancy your focus should be on doing what feels best for you and your baby rather that pushing your body hard to improve your fitness.
Although exercising in the water will help to reduce the chances of overheating it is still important to drink plenty of fluids before, during and after your swim to prevent dehydration.
Tips for each trimester
During the First Trimester
If you have the energy, swim for at least 20 minutes every other day for the greatest benefit. Swimming first thing in the morning may relieve morning sickness and fatigue
During the Second Trimester
You will not have to cut down on swimming as your body grows larger. You probably will need to adjust your schedule, but wearing a maternity swimsuit may be more comfortable as your stomach expands.
During the Third Trimester
The water will support your joints and ligaments as you swim, preventing injury. The breaststroke is particularly beneficial in the third trimester, because it lengthens the chest muscles and shortens the back muscles. These are two areas that typically become uneven as your body changes during pregnancy.
Click here for information about taking a fitness class or going to the gym during your pregnancy.
Baby swimming lessons can be a valuable learning and bonding time for both children and parents. It can be an effective method for helping a young child learn and become comfortable in the water.
Both mother and child can benefit from the activity and from a baby's swimming lesson. Although the exercise might not be truly strenuous for an adult, it is at least some activity and any pool activity is beneficial. Children need exercise and baby swimming lessons will do so by encouraging them to move in the water by rotating their arms and kicking their legs. When children are exposed to an active lifestyle and having fun swimming, they will be more likely to pursue active pastimes as they grow older.
Learn 2 Swim @ Xcite
Learn 2 Swim is our successful swimming lessons programme. Learn 2 Swim has a solid track record in delivering a quality, consistent and flexible programme. Most of all providing a safe and fun environment for children and adults to learn new skills.
By enrolling your child, or indeed yourself, within our Learn 2 Swim Programme you are guaranteeing an excellent swimming experience from our highly qualified swim teachers. Learn 2 Swim is affiliated with Scottish Swimming Awards and deliver this programme in all our swimming pools.
To find our more about Learn 2 Swim.


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CHANEL hosted what was one of its most spectacular shows to date in Scotland this week and now you can go behind the scenes with our exclusive film, documenting the event's highlights.
This year's Metiers d'Arts show was held at the ruins of Linlithgow Palace, near Edinburgh in Scotland - a romantic gothic extravaganza that Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman described as "magical". Take in sweeping views of the dark Dickensian-style setting; see Karl Lagerfeld apply the finishing touches to his models backstage; inspect the exquisite collection up close; then watch as an army of Chanel muses take to the wooden catwalk - as baskets of fire roar around them.
Follow the guests through the estate's grounds, round a narrow pathway lit by firelight and with bagpipers playing nearby, to an intimate dinner - where they are joined by musician Jake Bugg, who takes to his guitar for an exclusive performance.
For an insider view into what will undoubtedly be remembered as one of the house's most extravagant and beautiful shows of all time, look no further.


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It's another concerning performance for Chelsea. At least this time we didn't lose.
At 2-0 up, the game should have been signed, sealed and delivered. Instead, Roma gave it their all and made what looked like a probable loss into a jammy win. Luckily, when called upon at 3-2 down, Eden Hazard was our saviour.
On paper, a draw isn't too bad, especially with Atletico Madrid drawing against Qarabag. However, many expected the Blues to comeback from the shock defeat against Crystal Palace on Saturday.
We did see some fight in tonight's match but again, sloppiness and silly mistakes almost allowed the Italians to earn a memorable win at Stamford Bridge.
N'Golo Kante's absence was once again a big miss for us. The energy and determination the midfielder plays with rejuvenates the whole team. At the moment, we desperately miss last season's PFA Player of the Year.
Moving on, these are our player ratings for the Blues:


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The origins of the Quartmind surname lie with the Anglo-Saxon tribes of Britain. The name Quartmind began when someone in that family worked as a person who was mail-fisted or perhaps the nickname 'four hands.' [1] The surname Quartmind originally derived from the armor that soldiers or knights donned for protection in battle. Occupational names that were derived from the common trades of the medieval era transcended European cultural and linguistic boundaries.
The surname Quartmind was first found in Oxfordshire where the first records of the name were Clare Quatremayns and William Quatremeyns who were both listed in the Hundredorum Rolls of 1273. A few years later, Thomas Quatremains was listed in the Writs of Parliament in 1313. [2] Digging further into the 'four hands' reference we found: "French for 'four hands' which form the charge of the family shield." [1] Thame in Oxfordshire was home to one branch of the family.
"About the time of Edward IV., an hospital for destitute persons was endowed with lands by Richard Quatremain, a member of a family of high repute. The north transept [of the church] is the burying place of the Dormer family, and the south transept the sepulchral chapel of the Quatremains; both contain handsome monuments." [3]
The Quartermaine family is a fictional family from the ABC soap opera, General Hospital and Al(l)an Quatermain is the protagonist of H. Rider Haggard's 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines. The character was recently reintroduced with the popular series League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (LXG) and in the eponymous film released in 2003, Sean Connery played the character Alan Quatermain.
Quartermaine's Terms is a play by Simon Gray which won The Cheltenham Prize in 1982.
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Quartmind research. Another 68 words (5 lines of text) covering the years 1618, 1667, 1662 and 1667 are included under the topic Early Quartmind History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
One relatively recent invention that did much to standardize English spelling was the printing press. However, before its invention even the most literate people recorded their names according to sound rather than spelling. The spelling variations under which the name Quartmind has appeared include Quartermain, Quartermaines, Quarterman, Quartermaynes, Quatermain, Quatermaines, Quaterman, Quatermay and many more.
Another 40 words (3 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Quartmind Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
At this time, the shores of the New World beckoned many English families that felt that the social climate in England was oppressive and lacked opportunity for change. Thousands left England at great expense in ships that were overcrowded and full of disease. A great portion of these settlers never survived the journey and even a greater number arrived sick, starving, and without a penny. The survivors, however, were often greeted with greater opportunity than they could have experienced back home. These English settlers made significant contributions to those colonies that would eventually become the United States and Canada. An examination of early immigration records and passenger ship lists revealed that people bearing the name Quartmind arrived in North America very early: John Quarterman, on record in Virginia in 1742; and Joseph Quartman settled in Philadelphia in 1824.


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Rajeev Khandelwal: Hosting 'Bigg Boss' not my cup of tea
He may have started his acting career from TV but Rajeev Khandelwal says he cannot see himself hosting a show like 'Bigg Boss'
He may have started his acting career from TV but Rajeev Khandelwal says he cannot see himself hosting a show like 'Bigg Boss'.
Rajeev Khandelwal
Rajeev, who got his breakthrough role as Sujal Garewal on the 2003 show 'Kahin To Hoga', has hosted two reality shows, 'Deal Ya No Deal' and 'Sach Ka Saamna'.
When asked if he will ever host a show like 'Bigg Boss', Rajeev told PTI, "No no, 'Bigg Boss' is not my cup of tea. I don't think I can do that kind of stuff. I think may be something as exciting as 'Sach Ka Saamna'. May be...If something exciting is offered to me I'll take it."
The 40-year-old actor made his film debut in the 2008 crime-thriller 'Aamir' and followed it up with the 2011 thriller 'Shaitaan'.
Rajeev says he love being part of films which are thoughtful and not preachy.
"I don't seek subjects which help me teach the world.
'Aamir' had a very beautiful thought, without being preachy.
Even in 'Table No 21', there was a thought behind it. So I look out for subjects like these and not the routine subjects that are offered to me."
The actor, who was last seen in 'Samrat & Co.' in 2014, is on a break right now after wrapping up his latest TV serial 'Reporters'.
"I have a movie coming up but right now I am on a break. I am just chilling, I just got done with a show and I was working for six months. Now I need to take a break and attend to other important things in life."
Rajeev will start working on a period drama as his next film outing.
The actor, however, did not divulge further details.
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Your high school counselor is encouraging you to take the SAT. But your neighbor (whose son got into Harvard, by the way…) says the ACT is the way to go. So, what's the real deal? Which test do colleges really prefer? Find out in the latest installment of our video series, We Can Explain.
Continue reading


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RBA keeps rates on hold againAdded on by Etairos Accounting
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has left the official cash rate on hold at a record low 1.5 per cent at its first meeting of the year, citing continuing concerns about weak household consumption.
The central bank said data over the summer had been consistent with its central forecast for gross domestic product growth to pick up to average a bit above 3 per cent over the next couple of years. The RBA noted that the outlook for household consumption was a "continuing source of uncertainty".
Business conditions were positive and the outlook for non-mining investment had improved, while increased public infrastructure investment was also supporting the economy. "The low level of interest rates is continuing to support the Australian economy," governor Philip Lowe said in a statement on Tuesday."Further progress in reducing unemployment and having inflation return to target is expected, although this progress is likely to be gradual."However, the RBA noted that the outlook for household consumption was a "continuing source of uncertainty", with household incomes growing slowly and high debt levels. Earlier data showed retail sales eased more than expected in December after a barnstorming couple of months, but still posted a smart rebound in the final quarter of 2017 in a positive sign for household consumption and economic growth. Consumer spending has been under pressure from record-high household debt and sluggish wage growth, one reason the RBA has been in no rush to raise interest rates.
(Source: Sydney Morning Herald, 6 February 2018)


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Dickson Development wants to help you keep your home in tip-top shape. Check this page often for new tips and helpful maintenance reminders.
A New Tank for an Old Septic System
Regular maintenance on a septic system can prolong its life
This 40-year-old septic system had a tank that was deteriorating. Dickson Development replaced the tank to prevent future problems with the system.
If you have a septic system, have it pumped out regularly. Otherwise the tank might collapse without you realizing it, causing sewage to back up.
Take a Look Under the Hood
The exhaust hood filter is there to capture grease and grime.
If you can't remember the last time you cleaned the filter above your stove top, there is a good chance it's clogged, or at least a slimy, grimy mess.
The filter should be checked regularly for grease build up. The termination point of the duct at the outside should be checked to make sure the flapper is working properly and closed when the fan is not on.
How to clean an exhaust hood filter: Remove the filter and let it soak in boiling water with baking soda and a de-greasing dishwashing liquid. Let it air dry before putting it back in place.
5 Home Maintenance
Tips for Spring
Even the mildest winters can take a toll on your house.
Spring is the perfect time to take a good look both inside and outside of your house for items in need of repair or service. Visually inspect windows, chimneys and siding for cracks and other damage, and don't wait until the first 90-degree day to discover your air conditioner isn't working properly.
Air Conditioning: This is an ideal time to have your unit professionally serviced. Make sure the filters are changed, the hose connections are free of leaks, and the drain pans are draining.
Exterior Electric Outlets: How old are yours? Are they working? Are they on a working ground fault breaker? You don't want to wait until your first big outdoor party to realize you can't power up the sound system.
Exterior Hose Bibs: Your hose bibs, also known as spigots or shut-off valves, help to provide the water you need for landscaping, car washing, filling the baby pool, and so forth. If they froze during the winter, they will not only prevent use, but can also cause damage to your home.
Roof and Shingles: Inspect your roof and roof shingles after every winter. Look to see if any of the shingles blew off, and make sure the flashing is still intact.
Concrete Walks and Patios: Winter wear and tear can cause displacements and cracks in concrete, creating a hazard for trips and falls. An easy repair can prevent further damage and potential accidents.
Clean Your Dryer Vent Every Few Months
Before you do another load of wash, make sure you have cleaned your dryer vent too!
If it's been more than a year, chances are good that your dryer vent needs some attention. Damp clothes are just one of the reasons. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, neglected dryers result in approximately 7,000 fires a year.
How If it's been more can you play it safe? Empty the lint screen every single time you use the dryer, clean the vent every few months, and clean the moisture sensors (if you have them) with a cotton ball and rubbing alcohol every few months as well. For more information, read the complete article from Consumer Reports: http://www.consumerreports.org/clothes-dryers/how-to-clean-your-dryer-vent/
Secure Your Handrails
When things get icy, your steps can get dicey.
Don't wait for the next snowfall to check the handrails on the exterior of your house to make sure they are securely attached. And while you are at it, take a few extra minutes to check the handrails inside your home as well.
Give Your Masonry Chimney a Clean Sweep
Masonry fireplaces and chimneys are often the most neglected items in a home.
Masonry fireplaces and chimneys are made of brick, concrete block, stone, mortar, and other materials that are exposed to and adversely affected by the elements. When neglected, they can become potential and serious hazards, from fire to water damage.
Fortunately, with periodic maintenance, your masonry chimney can last a lifetime. If you can't remember the last time you had your chimney checked, that's a sure sign that it is time. "This is not a job for an amateur," says Richard Dickson. "I strongly advise that you bring in a professional for most of the tips below."
Dickson Development offers these 8 tips for a safe and healthy chimney.
- Check the top of the chimney to see if it is cracked and allowing water to get in. All cracks must be properly sealed.
- Pay careful attention to the part of the chimney above the roof line. This is often where you will find cracks and deteriorating surfaces.
- Take a good look at the roof flashing around the chimney to make sure that it is in good repair. Check for cracks or loose pieces.
- Examine your flue liners. Your chimney will have one or more (for the fireplace and possibly the furnace). These are usually made of clay. Be sure to have a professional examine the liners to make sure they are intact with no cracks or voids. If cracks are found, they should be repaired or the chimney relined.
- Be sure the ash dump is clean, if you have one for a fireplace. This would be either in the basement or on the outside, if the chimney is on the outside of the house. This is something you can do.
- Examine the firebox and smoke chamber of your fireplace for cracks.
- Evaluate the damper on the fireplace to make sure it is working properly.
- Investigate the piping. If the chimney is used for a furnace or hot water heater, the piping connecting the appliance to the chimney needs to be intact and connected properly.
Read our blog for more home improvement tips and trends.
Grab Some Grout. Protect Your Floor.
Take a peek at the grout and caulking around the ceramic tile in your bathrooms to be sure it's intact.
A simple touch up can prevent water from penetrating beneath the tile. Over time, even water can damage the floor, the floor joists and the ceiling below.
Check the Humidifier Duct Work Once a Year
Experiencing dry air? Your humidifier may not be working at capacity.
If you have a humidifier tied to the duct work system in your home, make sure to check it once a year to see if it's working properly and that the settings are correct.
Learn More About the Dickson Experience


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A History of the Holocaust In the book A History of the Holocaust: From Ideology to Annihilation, Rita Botwinick makes many valid points about the Holocaust. She discusses major themes occurring during the Holocaust period of World War II such as intentionalism vs. functionalism and the role of churches during the war. She supports almost all of her arguments with solid research and sources as well as personal observations. Her points are very well thought out and persuasive. I would like to focus on a few of the main ideas that stuck out to me as I read the book. Did Hitler want a Germany that was free of Jews or was his master plan simply to wipe all Jews off the face of the Earth? It is this question that gives rise to the debate of whether Hitler held an intentionalist or a functionalist ideology. The arguments in favor of intentionalism insist that Hitler's intent, even before the war, was to systematically and effectively annihilate the Jewish population from the world.
On the other side of this argument is Functionalism. This ideology holds that Hitler did not set out to annihilate the Jews but that the ridding of their race arose, not from a previously devised plan, but evolved due to many factors over the course of the war. Botwinick argues that Hitler did want to rid Germany of the Jewish race but, that the systematic killing of every Jew was not his initial plan. Thus, she reluctantly sides with the functionalist argument. She does, however, cite evidence that at times contradicts this viewpoint. One such contradiction occurs with the dying statement of Hitler. In this quote he states that although he had lost the war, he had "at least been victorious in the destruction of the Jews" (p.


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Vital Mystic, Radiant Moon Oil
Vital Mystic, Radiant Moon Oil
Peaceful , grounding, nourishing and soothing this oil carries one back to the center of Be-ing.
Directions: Use as a Nasya oil by placing a few drops in each nostril to soothe dry and inflamed tissues and to increase mental clarity. Rub into the bottoms of your feet before bedtime or any other time your body/mind need relaxing.
Ingredients: Sunflower*, Olive*, Sesame oils* Gotu Kola*, Ashwaganda,* Amalaki,* Wild St. Johns Wort, Rosemary,* Shatavari,* and Vit. E, *Organic


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It's the end of another year and I realise how long it has been since I wrote anything. But I also realise that as much as I love storytelling, I am not very good at writing stories. I miss the interaction. I miss the physicality. I miss looking into the eyes of people and gauging how they are taking the story. I am a storyteller and very proud to be one. I set off on the blog journey with grand plans but they sadly did not lead to much. So I'll write another with no real intention to make it a weekly thing but simply to celebrate the here and now and to muse over new beginnings.
Last year I had a baby boy. A new life named Barasa to connect with his maternal great grandfather. 'Bring him back' by calling his name. A new beginning, a new life which also brought an end to another. My girl Imani lost the exclusivity of my company, forced to share for the first time in 7 years, taking it better some days than others. It has been a wonderful year in that regard, learning to juggle 2 kids, keep the storytelling, make time for relationships and try to keep things going in general. My house was not very tidy this year! Always far more important things to do.
This year I needed a change, something to complement the storytelling and shake my life up a bit, meet new people from unfamiliar backgrounds. I decided to set up a business, not one that promoted Mara the storyteller, as I'm never very good at self promotion, but one that still celebrated the wonder of Africa. I founded 'Afrika presents' an amazing little company that creates products for kids to discover more about diverse aspects of African cultures through imaginative and creative play. Inspired by kids around me and incorporating some into my creative team has been terrific fun.
So the end of things always brings a beginning of another and at the end of the year it always feels like an appropriate time to reflect and consider what the next will bring. I'm going to tell Matthew how wonderful he is more often. I'm going to visit my parents more often. I'm going to try routine this year. I'm going to focus more and I'm going to employ an accountant!!! I'm going to really kick ass with the stories and I'm going to try and make 'Afrika presents' make a real difference. Check it out at http://www.afrikapresents.com
What are you going to do?


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35 years of prison time for Kaeng Kek Iev – better known as
Duch – is strange. Iev, a prison chief
in Cambodia's
notorious torture prison S-21 during the reign of the Khmer Rouge, is
responsible for the violent and untimely death of about 14000 people.
He is the first person ever to stand trial and receive
verdict for his crimes during the genocide in 1975-79.


text: Angry Amputees - Want Dead By: Leonardo Talarico Intro : Bb Base :Bb Eb C RIff e|------------------------------------------------| B|------------------------------------------------| G|----3-3-5-5--3-3-5-5--3-3--5-5-8-8-7-7----------| D|------------------------------------------------| A|------------------------------------------------| E|------------------------------------------------| O riff serve pra parte que ela faz a base e toca o riff a base é a mesma Bb D# C Bb Eb C What am I supposed to do, when there's no getting over you? Bb Eb C What am I supposed to say when I know that you're miles away Bb Eb C How could it be that you don't even know my name? Bb Eb C What will I do when there's no one but you? G Bb Eb C Well many people say that I should let you go your way G Bb Eb F But in my head I know that I will seize the day (Riff Com 0utra guitarra em cima do G menos na ultima frase:''High and..'') Bb Eb C So many people think that I've gone a little mad Bb Eb And everyone around me says that I should pack up C And find a better Fuck plan Bb Eb C But who am I to fake when I wish we were together baby Bb Eb C High and dray I find myself alone, and it's no better Refrão Bb F Eb C If you don't want me Well I just want you dead Bb( com riff) Eb I find it hard to live when all I want is you Bb F Eb C The key to misery when I'm by myself and thinking Bb That nothing will ever take your place But no one will ever walk away Bb (riff) Bb From me but all I really have to say Bb F Eb C All I want is you! Well I just want you dead! But you're killing me instead. All I want is you!


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Jermaine Dupri is catching a break. The So So Def founder's Atlanta mansion was in foreclosure and slated to be auctioned off on the courthouse steps in the city's northwest area last week, but he managed have the sale canceled in the nick of time.
The 15,000 square foot home, located on Mount Paran Road in Georgia, was being managed by Design Logistics, who claims he still owes $12,000 for renovating and designing the abode. But his money troubles extend further, with Dupri owing more than $2.5 million on an original loan for the home made by Suntrust Bank. Additionally, he owes $493,768.75 in back taxes for income earned during 2007.
For the home in particular, Dupri is in the hole for $14,024.67 in unpaid property taxes, as well as penalties and fees in connection with another one of his houses.
Dupri, who has helmed hits for Mariah Carey, Jay-Z and more, launched the hip-hop label TAG Records in 2008 under Island Def Jam Music Group, only to be ousted from the imprint less than a year later.
RELATED: Jermaine Dupri Talks Def Jam Split


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Most addictive games have no definite end
Big MMORPGs do not have definite endings, but the same can be said for genres of games of as well. Video games that are addicting do not have end goals where a player can feel that he's finished with it. They can never experience an ending or reach a point where the game naturally ends and there's nothing left to do.
Most addictive games encourage social connections
Video games were formerly solitary activities. Nowadays however, games require players to reach out socially with other players. This feeds everyone's personal need to establish social connections. But these connections could deprive players from creating real life relationships. Learn more to know who have a gaming addiction?
Most addictive games have a leveling system
In most addictive games, a player starts with a character having weak attributes regarding strength, intelligence, skills, abilities, and many more. At first, it only takes a few minutes of play to get to the next level and add new skills. This "privilege" to become stronger reinforces players to continue playing. But the next levels take more and more time to achieve, and it can reach a point where gaining a level alone would take months of play. And around that time, the player has already accepted that he'll need to exert more effort to gain another level, just to experience the rewarding feeling of leveling up.
Most addictive games encourage teamwork with other gamers in the world
This is especially applicable in MMORPGs. The mere fact that two players from different parts of the world can socialize and unite for a common cause makes the experience more exciting and rewarding for players.
Most addicting games have in-game currency
Just as people in the real world desire to gain wealth, these desires also exist in addictive video games. As a player accumulates more and more in-game currency (by playing more and finishing quests and tasks), they gain more power, influence, status, and most importantly, admiration from other players. In-game money therefore gives players lucrative results in its pursuit.


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Having a car service at your company makes it easier for executives or salespeople to get to their destinations on time. They can have the cars pick them up at home or work, take them to the airport, and then pick them up when they return.
In addition, the service can be used to pick up clients arriving from out of town for meetings. Here are some of the additional benefits of hiring a car service for your business.
Makes a Good Impression
Having a car available to your clients when they come into town on business will make a good impression. Along with picking them up from the airport and taking them to their hotel or your offices, the car can be made available to them to run errands. This will give visitors a favourable opinion about your company and its attention to detail when servicing clients.
Convenient for Staff
Instead of staff members using their own cars to drive to business meetings, go to the airport when leaving on a business trip, or run business errands, a car service can pick them up and be at their disposal. This will allow a salesperson or busy executive to finish proposals or accept telephone calls while being driven to his or her destination. He or she can also sit back and relax after returning from a tiring business trip.
Helps Build Brand
Clients will remember a company that goes out of their way to make them comfortable when arriving for business meetings. By hiring private taxis in Crawley as a car service for your business, you can build your brand and receive positive word-of-mouth referrals from impressed clients.
Hiring a car service also saves money because the company won't need to purchase a car and hire a driver for staff or client needs.


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Indoor Cycling Instructor Training
Becoming an Indoor Cycling Instructor will give you lots of additional skills in building relationships with clients quite differently to working the gym floor.
Employers are constantly looking for Indoor Cycling Instructors as this is a very popular form of exercise and classes are frequently fully booked. Not being able to find an instructor with the right qualification can mean disappointing class members … who wants to have that stress as a Club Manager?
Additionally …teaching these classes will help you gain great experience as you work towards your Level 3 Personal Trainer qualification ….setting you apart from those who simply have gym experience.
So what have you got to lose?
You'll be more employable …earn extra money …and become a better trainer in the long term!
Entry requirements
- a suitable Level 2 Fitness Instructing qualification, e.g. Level 2 Certificate in Fitness Instructing (QCF) Gym or ETM
- some experience of studio cycling is useful
- the course requires physical exertion and individual participation is essential; therefore, a degree of physical fitness is necessary
- there is also an element of communication (discussing, presenting, reading and writing) involved and Learners should have basic skills in communication pitched at level 2
- Internally Assessed
- Coursework
- Portfolio of Evidence
- Practical Demonstration
Date – 2 day course. Dates are being planned at the moment, please register your interest for this course by emailing email@example.com
Time – 9.30 – 5.30 both days
Cost – £295
Venue – Queen Margaret University, Queen Margaret Drive Musselburgh, EH21 6UU
Maximum number of students on course – 8
Call now to book your place 0131 669 8888 or email email@example.com
Qualification structure and credit value
Completion of two mandatory units and achievement of 4 credits.
- Instructing a Studio Cycling Session (D/503/0108) – this unit is worth 2 credit values
- Planning a Studio Cycling Session (R/503/0106) – this unit is worth 2 credit values
The Active IQ Award in Instructing Studio Cycling is at level 2 on the Qualifications and Credit FrameworkIt is also recognised by The Register of Exercise Professionals (REPs) at level 2, but does not provide access onto the Register.
Entry onto the Register is gained via a recognised level 2 fitness instructing qualification.


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It takes time, leadership, and a fair amount of luck to successfully build an open-source community. It also takes money. Lots of it, if IBM's $1 billion commitment to Linux is any indication.
Unfortunately, the return on such open-source community investments may be permanently scuppered by the European Commission's misguided defense of MySQL from Oracle's intended acquisition. If the EC is going to punish successful open-source endeavors like MySQL, will investors still clamor to finance the rise of open source?
In many ways, MySQL is the quintessential commercial open-source success story. On the financial side, MySQL managed to build a vibrant business, doing north of $90 million at the time of its acquisition by Sun Microsystems in February 2008.
Equally compelling, however, is the exceptional user and developer community that formed around the open-source database project, registering tens of millions of downloads and a massive developer community.
This community augmented MySQL's financial fortunes, of course, but it also protected MySQL database users from the whims of the company, as former MySQL CEO Marten Mickos wrote to European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes:
Even if Oracle for whatever reason would have malicious or ignorant intent regarding MySQL (not that I think so), the positive and massive influence MySQL has on the DBMS market cannot be controlled by a single entity - not even by the owner of the MySQL assets. The users of MySQL exert a more powerful influence in the market than the owner does.
Unfortunately, the EC seems intent on punishing MySQL--both community and company--for its success. Already the MySQL database project has started to fracture into competing forks, while business rivals like EnterpriseDB and IBM collect confused customers.
More worryingly, the EC's actions may end up diminishing potential returns to investors in other open-source projects, particularly those that take the added time and cost to build global communities.
Technology mergers and acquisitions activity is at a 20-month high. Open-source companies, however, may miss out on this resurgence, particularly those, like Acquia and EnterpriseDB, that build on successful open-source communities (Drupal and Postgres, respectively).
Indeed, based on the EC's actions, perhaps the worst thing these companies could do is foster successful open-source communities. Maybe they should just take the cash and run?
Consider: the EC didn't challenge Yahoo's acquisition of Zimbra, VMware's acquisition of SpringSource, Citrix's acquisition of XenSource, etc. What do they have in common? Rising revenue but, except in the case of SpringSource, much more limited communities than MySQL. (Even the Spring community pales in comparison to MySQL, impressive though it is.)
Granted, the major difference with Oracle/MySQL is that the two are ostensibly competitors, as CNET points out. In the letter referenced above, however, Mickos dismisses such competition. The reality is that MySQL and Oracle compete in two different database markets.
Regardless, as well as MySQL was doing, $90-plus million is spare change in the global database market. The EC, in other words, isn't trying to protect MySQL's business. It's trying to protect MySQL's community.
Such mollycoddling of an open-source community is destructive to all future investments in similar endeavors. Why should commercial entities bother fostering community--the very community that makes them less susceptible to hostile takeover and anticompetitive forces--if doing so simply ends up ruining financial returns?
The EC means well, but it is not doing the right thing for MySQL, its community, or other open-source commercial efforts. Quite the opposite. Just as the commercial open-source community has been pondering a move back to community-controlled open source, the EC threatens to hobble the shift.
The EC may well end up with less competition, not more, by blocking Oracle's proposed acquisition of Sun and its crown jewel, MySQL.


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Panda Platinum Internet Security 8.01.00, like software from McAfee, Symantec, and Trend Micro, is more than an antispyware tool: It's a full security suite that includes firewall, antivirus, antispam, and parental-control features. In our testing, Panda's proactive spyware-blocking capabilities were the best in this roundup at foiling spyware in real time. But its database seems to be less stringent in its definition of spyware than some, and its scanning features were not as effective as those of many other products in this roundup.
We installed Panda on some spyware-infested systems and immediately began receiving pop-ups notifying us of suspicious processes running in memory and giving us the opportunity to delete each one. While the instant feedback was reassuring, the sheer number of individual alerts we had to navigate made us wish for a single screen that would let us view all the detected threats and bulk-manage them—our one complaint about an otherwise excellent user interface.
On one of our heavily infested test-bed systems, Panda detected the elusive key logger SpyAgent right off the bat. When we removed it, however, we lost our Internet connection as well.
Running a full system scan produces a complete list of detected spyware that you can view at a glance, and clicking on a spyware app takes you to Panda's Web site, which tells you more about it. Panda does not provide a facility for scheduling scans at regular intervals (only about half the apps we tested do this), though you can set the program to run on system start-up.
When we set up Panda on a clean system and began surfing dangerously, the software blocked a number of actions effectively. In addition to detecting and eliminating adware and spyware bundled into seemingly harmless programs, it managed to detect Lop the moment we completed the download—when the program was still in a temporary directory—and prevented execution. Panda includes some administrative touches that could be helpful in a small-business or home network environment, such as optional password protection for scanner features and the ability to send a warning via e-mail when the program detects spyware on a system.
If a security suite with strong real-time blocking capabilities appeals to you, Panda Platinum Internet Security 8.01.00 should make your short list, right after McAfee Internet Security 2004.