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The Poconos HAS Reopened! Kalahari, Camel Beach, Hiking ... All Nearby!
- House223 m²
- Sleeps: 10
- Bedrooms: 4
- Bathrooms: 2
- Min Stay: 2–4 nights
House, 4 BR, 2 BA, Sleeps 10, PERFECT for a Family or Friends Getaway!
Bedroom 2
Bedroom 1
Bedroom 4
Bedroom 3
Bedrooms are pretty roomy! LR sofa is a queen fold out bed. Also on site are two inflatable twin mattresses. Linens and towels can be rented for an additional fee.
- Children Welcome
- No Smoking
- Washer & Dryer
- Satellite or Cable
- Air Conditioning
- Internet
- Pets Welcome
- Parking
- Fireplace
- Heater
- Hot Tub
- Swimming pool
- Bathrooms: 2
- Bathroom 1toilet, Bath with shower, Bath (no shower)first floor
- Bathroom 2toilet, Bath with shower, Bath (no shower), Shower2nd floor
Safety features
- Smoke detector
- Deadbolt lock
- Exterior lighting
- Fire extinguisher
- First-aid kit
Location Type
- beachThere are many beaches located throughout the community along the lake. You will need to purchase a temporary membership for use of the beaches for the better part of the summer season.
- mountainClose to Jack Frost, Big Boulder and Camelback, nestled in the heart of the Poconos
- resortPart of the highly acclaimed Lake Naomi Resort - pools, golf, tennis, swimming (pools and lake), boating, fishing, dining, walking trails...just the tip of the iceberg!
- RuralIncredibly private and surrounded by trees, although community pool and clubhouse all walkable
- townPocono Pines is pretty small, but you can find just about everything you may want in Mount Pocono and some of the surrounding communities.
- villageWonderful, quiet, award winning community, very walkable and close to pools, a slightly longer walk to Lake Naomi clubhouse
- lakeLake Naomi is right on site, no power boats permitted, but the neighboring parks with lakes provide options as well as an opportunity to use power boats.
- launderette
- Telephoneland line available for incoming and local outgoing calls only
- Air conditioningIn first floor gathering area and second floor loft, does a pretty good job cooling house in the public areas, and there room fans for each BR and two ceiling fans
- Heatingelectric
- Linens provided*for an additional fee, or I can review what is needed where
- Washing machineolder model but works great!
- Clothes dryerolder model but works great!
- FireplaceYou will need to supply firewood which can be found locally.
- Parkingthree plus cars easily in driveway and single car garage
- Garagesingle car, oversized, with back-up fridge (used often for beer and other refreshments) and additional outdoor furniture
- InternetYup! Access is provided upon check-in
- Towels provided*for an additional fee, or I can review what is needed where
- Fitness room / equipmentat rec center, not at house, requires a temporary membership and an additional fee will apply
- Wireless Internetaccess provided upon check-in
- Iron & board
- Hair dryer
- Living RoomPretty comfy seating with TV and ample space to spread out and/or take a nap. Sofa is a Q size sleeper sofa
- Gym
- Dishwasherstainless steel
- Fridgefull size, stainless steel with freezer
- Hobstainless steel, smooth top with 5+ burners
- Ovenstainless steel, smooth top electric, cookie tins, cake pans and the like in drawer below oven
- Microwavestainless steel, located above stove
- Coffee makerconventional coffeemaker with at least one back-up for the leaded and unleaded, and we also have a bean grinder!
- Toasterstainless steel, 4 slice toaster, will also do bagels
- Blender
- Coffee grinder
- Lobster pot
- Pantry itemsassorted spices, oils, vinegars and the like in cabinet above microwave
- Dishes & utensilsplenty of everything
- KitchenPretty well stocked as we like to cook! Lots of room to spread out and conducive to fabulous epicurean events! Under cabinet lighting, breakfast bar for additional seating. Blender, beater, bowls
- Kettle
- Seating for 8 people
- Dining Room
- Dining area
- Diningplus you have the breakfast bar and dining area on screened in porch for any overflow!
- Televisionflat screen in Living Room, older tube TV in loft and downstairs front bedroom
- Satellite / CableBlue Ridge Cable (Local Provider)
- Stereoin loft, cassette and CD
- DVD playerand VCR, we have one of each on each of the two floors
- Booksdownstairs in Living Room/Dining Room cabinet, plus cook books too!
- Table football
- Gamescan't guarantee all the pieces are there as they get a lot of use, plus puzzles
- Games for kids
- ToysPuzzles, some toys in closet and multiple board games
- Video librarylimited, VCR, mostly children videos, lots of DVDs most of which are children oriented
- GardenPrivate yard with grass front and back. Screened porch in back with table and 6 chairs and additional stacked chairs for overflow.
- BoatCan be rented through the Club. Temporary Membership is necessary to use facilities. 2 beach chairs hanging in garage.
- Deck chairs
- Verandatwo decks with seating, chairs and lounges, and screened porch with outside dining
- Deck / PatioOpen Deck in back of house as well as screened in porch. Front Deck, open.
- Outdoor Furniture
- Ski & snowboardCan be rented locally.
- TennisTemporary Membership is necessary to use facilities.
- GolfTemporary Membership is necessary to use facilities.
- Long-term renters welcome
Pool / Spa
- Outdoor pool
- Indoor pool
- SaunaLocated at Logan Steele Rec Center. Temporary Membership is necessary to use facilities.
- Heated pool
- Communal poolOutdoors is about a 7 minute walk, indoors is at the Logan Steele Rec Center in Timber Trails about a 6 minute car ride. Temporary Membership is necessary to use facilities.
- Hot TubLocated at Logan Steele Rec Center. Temporary Membership is necessary to use facilities.
- Spa Whirlpool
- Our home has on the ground level: 1 Full size bed 2 Single beds 1 Queen size sleeper sofa On the Second Level: 2 Queen size beds Amenities Include: High Speed Internet Washer/Dryer 3 TV's with Cable 2 VCR's Stereo CD player 2 DVD players Microwave 2 Story Stone Wood Burning Fireplace Gas Grill Ceiling Fans Coffee Maker and Bean Grinder Toaster Blender, Waffle Maker and well-stocked kitchen! Foosball
Cancellation Policy
- Bookings at this property are non-refundable.
Damage and Incidentals
You will be responsible for any damage to the rental property caused by you or your party during your stay.
House Rules
Children allowed
Pets allowed - Add'l fee per pet, must obtain owner permission Add'l fee per pet, must obtain owner permission
Parties/events allowed - With owner's permissionWith owner's permission
No smoking
Max guests: 10
Minimum age of primary renter:
- You must be 26 or older to sign the lease and must stay for duration of reservation. Will consider < 26 if specific terms are met. Contact for info
- Lessee must provide a copy of driver's license with signed lease
- We typically prepare short lease after accepting reservation for Lessee'(s) protection detailing reservation and providing info about house.
Cleaning practices
High-touch surfaces cleaned with disinfectant (like countertops, light switches, handles, and faucets)
Cleaned with disinfectant
Check in and check out with no person-to-person contact
Hiking, Biking, Golf, Tennis, Fitness Center, Kayaking, Horseshoes, Amusement Parks, Fishing, Wildlife Viewing, Shopping, Restaurants, Sightseeing, Swimming, Boating, Sailing, Windsurfing, Downhill Skiing, Cross-country Skiing, Horseback Riding, White Water Rafting, Fine Dining, Birdwatching, Theatre, Culture, Casinos, Art Galleries, Historical Attractions/Museums, Downtown Districts - DO NOT MISS STEAMTOWN USA - A MUST SEE FOR ALL TRAIN OFFICIONADOS YOUNG AND OLD ESPECIALLY AROUND THE HOLIDAYS! WITHIN A TEN MINUTE DRIVE TO THE NATIONALLY ACCLAIMED KALAHARI WATER PARKS AND RESORT, HUGE!!!!! INDOOR WATER PARK GUARANTEEING FUN FOR ALL AGES.
Wendy Ney Manley
- Languages:
- english
About Wendy Ney Manley
We own a hand full of vacation rentals and we pick our properties based on whether we would enjoy vacationing in a certain region and if the house would create a meaningful, attractive and memorable backdrop for friends and family to gather. We try to create an environment that offers more personality, comfort and coziness than a sterile hotel room or a home that is void of any warmth or a homey feel. When we vacation we want to do so in a carefree environment that is neat, clean, updated, welcoming and relaxing. My husband jokes that some day he would like to actually use the homes we work so hard to maintain and update, but our family is spread out across the country and very active so between family time and work our free time is not our own. Retirement can't get here soon enough! My husband is from the Buffalo area and commutes to his Houston, TX office on a regular basis. I grew up in the Philadelphia area, although college, grad school and my early career took me to various places across the country. Both my husband and I met in the Philadelphia region, raised our children there and love our 250 year old farmhouse in Pottstown, Chester County, which is where we hang our hats when we are not on the road. Welcome to Casa Comfort La Maison - our home away from home!
Wendy Ney Manley purchased this House in 2003
Why Wendy Ney Manley chose Pocono Pines
When I was between jobs and our children were very young, my mother convinced us to get away for a few days and suggested the Poconos. 'The Poconos???!!!' I said...immediately heart shaped beds, champagne glass hot tubs and all that is tacky is what came to mind! Lake Naomi could not be further from that vision! We stayed with friends in Lake Naomi and quickly became hooked! We are avid tennis players and when we saw the facilities we were hooked! Courts are super well maintained, a separate clubhouse and pro shop, high level competition, not to mention the gorgeous lake and pools - we loved our time there! We own places at and on the beach and this is the place we relax the best, year round! You can choose to be solitary or find a pick-up game if one feels like venturing out, find a desolate beach with idyllic views of the lake or eat with friends poolside or lakeside and have a delightful and satisfying culinary experience. We fell in love with Relaxation 101 when we pulled up to the house! Steps from the Lake Naomi pool, we were instantaneously struck with the open floor plan and the two story stone fireplace as soon as we opened the front door! We loved the fact that if you are in the kitchen you are still a part of what may be unfolding elsewhere, enjoying a roaring fire or just hanging out after dinner either sitting around the large DR table or outside on the screened in porch. When we need to get away, this is where we come, year round and so close to home! Rarely is traffic an issue and if we want to shop the outlets, eat at a fine dining establishment, walk the boutiques at Kalahari (my kids are bummed it wasn't built sooner!) ski or check out Camel Beach, Jack Frost or Big Boulder or even venture north to Elk, the opportunity is there!
What makes this House unique
In 2016 we renovated the kitchen, the two baths, and replaced all the flooring on the first floor with an engineered laminate that really opened up the space. and holds up quite well to typical wear and tear and significant foot traffic The bathrooms are so much more luxurious and kitchen is so much more functional. Don't forget to check out the foosball table - a favorite hangout for my kids, and likely yours too! We love the stone fireplace that runs two floors, the open space floor plan, the screened porch, the brightness of the house even though we are in the woods, the wonderful cross breezes and the single car garage which provides protection when the weather is not cooperating. We added a portable air conditioner to the first floor in 2016, and a second one to the loft in 2018, although the canopy of trees and cross breezes when the windows are open make the house very comfortable in the warmer months. The units are most appreciated on the super humid days. Again, we have tried to decorate in a manner that is comfortable, tasteful and inviting and based on our guest book, our guests overwhelmingly agree. We hope you do too!


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Hey what's going on everyone!! So this week, I will be taking a more serious, less glorious look at an aspect of our walk of faith. I really believe God wants us to be aware of the enemy that we have. This enemy wants the exact opposite of what God wants for us. "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10). This verse provides a clear picture of the goal of the enemy.
Our adversary's objective is to steal our joy. To kill our desires and faith in Christ's work in us. To destroy the wonderful opportunities that God has set up for us to live abundantly. Jesus tells us in that verse that He desires for us to have life, and life in full enjoyment of Him. We as believers, or really just anyone, need to take conscious steps so that the devil has no foothold to gain ground in our hearts and minds.
The tricky part, though, is that he (the enemy) uses things like God does to try to sway us. We can't be fooled. That is why it's so important for us to dig into our walk with the Lord, so that we can know what is genuine and what is fraud. One thing that the devil will use is short lived selfish pleasure. Jesus wants us to be selfless and to love, whereas the devil wants us to be selfish and self centered. Having a relationship with Jesus comes across as so glorious and amazing, and it absolutely is, but we also need to be made aware of the forces that are coming for our souls. The enemy desperate wants to thwart the power of God in our lives.
We are told that, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12). We don't fight against people or other aspects of our life. It's a spiritual root. This life is a fight. We are to fight the good fight of faith. That right there lets us know that this life isn't a cakewalk. We have a goal which is spending eternity with a perfect God, and our enemy is present to strip that away from us.
We can't let him do that. We as believers need to be the example of love and to show others that life with Jesus is so worth the sacrifice of temporary pleasures. I'm not writing this to scare anyone, but rather to encourage us all that we have victory over the devil, and we have the ability through Christ alone to overcome the evil plans that the enemy is trying to carry out. I challenge us all to really show the world the love of Christ, and to press in to the Lord for Him to show us how a life with him can be and is a life of victory and strength over the plans of our adversary. As always, if anyone needs prayer or wants to just talk, feel free to comment here, or DM me on Twitter or Instagram.
Much Love,
Ryan W.0

subset: commoncrawl


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ACRA Statement on the Federal Government Shutdown
ACRA recognizes that the businesses and livelihoods of many of our members are impacted by the partial government shutdown that began on December 22, 2018. Because many federal agencies have shut down, including the Department of the Interior, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and the Department of Transportation, among others, ACRA members are finding that their projects are on hold, and it is difficult to make business planning decisions.
ACRA opposes President Trump's decision to trigger a partial government shutdown. Creating a climate of economic uncertainty is detrimental to CRM businesses and the important work of helping protect America's irreplaceable cultural resources. As the shutdown drags on, we are troubled by the profound impact it has on businesses and people throughout our nation.
ACRA firms work in cooperation with many federal employees, who are now unable to do their jobs and face strained financial circumstances because they are not getting paid. Getting them back on the job is critical to preserving the rich and varied history of our nation.
ACRA recognizes that the President is attempting to secure funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and and joins our Coalition partners at SAA, SHA, and AAA in reiterating our objection to the Administration's plans. We oppose the Administration's decision to waive laws, including the National Historic Preservation Act, the Archaeological Resources Protection Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act, in order to speed construction of a border wall. Waiver of these laws poses a critical danger to the rich, irreplaceable cultural heritage of the border region. We urge the federal government to abide by existing processes to ensure that federal agencies weigh the effects their actions will have on cultural resources.


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Preschools and Child Care in Greater Rochester, NY
Preschools come in all shapes, sizes, and philosophies. Choose the one that is best for you by browsing through KOA's extensive lists. The following schools have elected to be highlighted on this list. Below that is the huge embedded list of all area preschools who have posted to KidsOutAndAbout. (If you work for a preschool that has not yet listed with us, click here for instructions. It's free to be listed in the scrolling box below.)
View our 2020 Special Edition Rochester Preschool Newsletter, with descriptions of even more local preschools.
Click here for upcoming Open Houses
If there is a preschool that we have missed, please email us to let us know, and we'll add it promptly. Thank you!
The Harley SchoolJoy in Learning--starting at age 3!
Education begins at birth. At Harley, children flourish as they experience critical growth and development. Our program is focused on school readiness and creating a positive foundation for learning. Language-rich classrooms foster collaborative problem solving to help students become capable, confident, and eager learners. Learn more about The Harley School's Nursery/Preschool program program for children ages 3 and 4. Tuition begins at $12,000. Through its Acorn Grant Program, Harley provides up to $5,000 to recognize parent investment and student potential. Financial aid is also available to families who qualify. Call 442-1770 or email Ivone Foisy at firstname.lastname@example.com to RSVP or schedule a personal tour. www.harleyschool.org
Rochester Childfirst Network
RCN (Accredited Preschool) has a vision that every child grows up safe and strong able to achieve his or her full potential. With experienced teachers and a cutting-edge curriculum, RCN nurtures and educates children through play. RCN's inclusive and integrated programs include Infant,Toddler and Preschool programs (6 weeks – 4yrs.) including UPK, Special Education program from (Birth to age 5); a School-Age Wrap-Around program (Grades K-6); a Summer Camp (Grades K-6); Family Child Care program that offers training and special services to more than 200 home based child care providers with workshops on child development, health and safety along with NYS Licensing assistance and CACFP (food program) registration. Visit http://www.rcn4kids.org/ for more information or call us at (585) 473-2858 for a personal tour.
Woodbury School
Woodbury School at The Strong offers both a preschool program for three- and four-year-old children, as well as an early kindergarten program for four- and five-year-old children. Both programs are Reggio Emilia-inspired and are therefore responsive to the interests of students. At Woodbury School, children learn and develop through playful activities set among the museum's imaginative, hands-on exhibits. Guided by teachers who facilitate their explorations, children delve deeply into topics that fascinate them. Small- and large-group activities involve art, music, cooperative games, movement, pre-reading, math, and other age-appropriate experiences. Applications for enrollment are taken on an ongoing basis. Enroll your child today!
YMCA of Greater Rochester Child Care
The mission of the Y is needed now, more than ever. In this time of public crisis, the Y is continuing to provide crucial resources to our community. As we enter our temporary new normal with schools closed, but parents still need to go to work and they are left without child care, the YMCA of Greater Rochester is here to provided needed care in these uncertain times.
The Y is offering single day and full week Emergency School Age Care to those in need. There are a limited number of spots at each site listed below. If it is full, you will go on a waiting list. See all available sites here.
If someone in the community needs care for a child(ren) ages 0-5 they can contact the Y at email@example.com. One of our center directors will get back to them immediately.
Greece Montessori School
Empower your toddlers and children for life with the right beginning! Our toddler, preschool and wrap around programs are designed to promote strong sensory, perception, motor, and social skills that will help your young child get off to a fast start and keep pace with the rest of their peers The Montessori school is a "planned environment" where everything is proportioned to the child's size, is readily accessible, is movable to permit flexible arrangement, and is attractive. The children have the freedom to choose and work with the materials or activities they can successfully complete. Please visit our website to learn more about our school, and for information on how to enroll your child. Call us today at (585) 227-4830!
St. Lawrence School (PreK-5th Grade)Full & Half Day PreK 3 & 4
At St. Lawrence School our students achieve academic excellence and spiritual growth through a small caring community environment with a comprehensive and rigorous educational program, including student centered technology, art, and music, as well as after school care programs. Financial aid is available. Please call to set up a time to visit our school and sit in on one of our classes. We would love for you and your child to be a part of our school community! Visit www.stlawrenceschool.org.
Pittsford United Nursery School
Pittsford United Nursery School is a play-based preschool for 2-5 year olds. At PUNS, we strive to teach the "whole child" through educational instruction and play-based learning, including enrichment courses that enable children to expand on interests in STEM, literature, art and more. Children are further engaged in hands-on learning through educational centers, dedicated gross motor time, our fenced-in playground and the PUNS Garden. We offer small class sizes, experienced teachers and flexible cooperative options. We also pride ourselves on being an allergy-friendly school. At PUNS, our goal is to prepare each student for lifelong success in their educational journey.
St. Agnes School
Looking for an exceptional Elementary School or Preschool for your child? St. Agnes School in Avon, NY educates the whole child from 3 years old to 6th grade by combining high-quality education and faith-based values while partnering with families and the community. Our small class sizes and individualized attention create a safe environment where children learn respect for others and themselves, value the importance of service, and strive for academic excellence beyond common core. For over 140 years, St. Agnes School has continued to offer education with heart and soul. Learn more by calling (585) 226 – 8500 or at www.stagnesavon.org.
Rochester Museum & Science Center Preschool
We are proud to be Rochester's premier museum-based preschool! Over 4,000 Rochester-area children have attended our preschool over the last 40 years, enjoying a child-centered, developmentally appropriate program facilitated by a warm and caring staff. We work closely with parents to serve the best interest of every child and family.
Our unique preschool offers hands-on experiences and age-appropriate activities for children ages three, four, and five, for which we were named Best Preschool in the 2018 Rochester Business Journal/Daily Record Reader Rankings Awards.
Perinton Nursery School
Perinton Nursery School is a coop-combination school where teachers and families work together to create the best play-based learning environment for young children. Additionally, family involvement and building community is vital to our educational model. A large, naturally and brightly-lit classroom space with a fenced in playground area, and a separate gross motor activity room offers the necessary room for growing kids to move and learn!
St. Ambrose Academy
St. Ambrose Academy is a private, Catholic, coed, elementary school providing academic excellence for students in Preschool through grade 5. We offer Preschool programs for 3 and 4 year olds with the option of full day wraparound extended care. Our caring teachers provide experiences which enrich all aspects of a child's life: spiritual, emotional, social, physical, and intellectual. In addition to the preschool curriculum, students also receive specialized instruction in physical education and music. We invite you to contact our office to arrange for your personal tour. 585-288-0580
Pittsford Nursery School (PCNS)
Pittsford Nursery School (PCNS) is enrolling for the 2020-21 school year. PCNS is a cooperative preschool conveniently located in the Village of Pittsford, offering several class options for students ages 2-5. The school promotes learning by play, respect for self and others, and continuous intellectual and physical growth and development. The curriculum consists of circle time, gross and fine motor activites, play time, and snack time. Your child's experience will be enhanced with field trips, special visitors, and optional enrichment classes at an additional cost. Please contact Teresa Zatyko at (585) 381-1390 or firstname.lastname@example.com for more information or to schedule a tour!


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Human and Animal Health
Murdoch University has hundreds of experts in areas as diverse as health, marine science, politics, biotechnology, psychology and greenhouse accounting. Our scientists, researchers and academics are available for media interviews to provide specialist comment and news on the latest issues and projects.
Please choose a subject category below to discover our wealth of expertise.
To reach these experts for media enquiries, contact:
|Joanne Manning
Media & Communications Advisor
Phone: 08 9360 2474
Mobile: 0408 201 309
|Pepita Smith
Media & Communications Advisor
Phone: 08 9360 1289
Mobile: 0417 171 551
For all other enquiries, please ring reception on 08 9360 6000.


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Over 30 Years Of Experience
A Step Above The Rest
At A Plus Tire & Auto Care, we've been serving Blackstone and surrounding Massachussetts areas with a wide range of services at affordable rates. Stop by and experience the expert service technicians, friendly staff, and welcoming environment that sets us apart from the rest!
Built on Values &
Giving Back
We've built our company based on values of honesty and integrity. None of our staff will ever take advantage of a customer just to make a quick buck. Throughout the year we support and take part in events supporting Cory's Crusaders to help raise awareness and funding for children with brain cancer.
Our Happy Customers
With a recent move from Canada, importing a vehicle is a long process. A big thank you to Frank at A+ Tire and Auto in Blackstone, MA for making the vehicle inspection process so easy. A quick referral to Inferno Audio to fix my window tinting issue and a quick 30 min turn around and all was done. I highly recommend this business for friendly, efficient, professional and informative service. Thank you!
Friendly and efficient service at fair prices. I've been going there for years, everybody is Awesome, thanks for always taking care of all of my car issues!
My husband and I have been doing business with them for many years. We buy our used cars from them because they are reasonably priced, and have been restored to perfect condition inside and out. They stand behind their cars, and their service is superb. Good people!
Very friendly and courteous. the whole shop feels very comfortable and welcoming. They went above and beyond to help me with an emergency fix!
Fast Efficient Inspections
We know that inspections are never a fun experience to work your schedule around, but since they're mandated by law we highly recommend having it done! Our expert technicians work fast and efficient to make sure you can drive off quickly with your vehicle inspected without wasting your entire afternoon waiting.
With our 30 years of experience servicing vehicles we can take you from getting a free quote, right through to stepping back into your vehicle, as efficiently and stress-free as possible!
Full-Service Professionals
Auto Repair
If you are experiencing any mechanical issues with your vehicle, we're here to help you. Don't settle for less than the best – come in to A Plus today!
A Plus Tire & Auto Care is a proud distributor of premium Hercules tires! Whether you drive a sedan, SUV, or light duty truck – we have the right fit for you!
Auto Sales
Don't get taken advantage of by sketchy used car dealers. Every vehicle for sale at A Plus Tire & Auto Care meets our high standards and is MA state inspected!
Request A Free Quote
Our expert team is here for you no matter what the task. If you need automotive repairs, or are looking to get into a a new-to-you reliable used vehicle A Plus Tire & Auto Care can meet your needs and exceed your expectations!


text: James Hoard 1 Posted August 16, 2009 Share Posted August 16, 2009 Chris Buyers has updated his Royal Ark pages on the orders, decorations and medals of the princely state of Bahawalpur. He has been working with the current Nawab and his brother, Prince Fallaeddin Abbasi, and they seem to have ironed out a number of oddities and identifications. Apparently, Tony McClenaghan seems to have either overlooked or disregarded some of the information sent to him by the late Nawab. The late ruler was himself a great medal collector and authority with an unrivalled collection of his own. The result is that several medals and decorations were either incorrectly identified or omitted from 'Indian Princely Medals' back in the 1990s. The links to the relevant pages are as follows: Orders: http://www.royalark....an/bahawal7.htm Decorations: http://www.royalark....an/bahawal8.htm Medals: http://www.royalark....an/bahawal9.htm Cheers James 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites


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heating demand high, and have a huge impact on natural gas.
After all, with nearly half of all Americans using natural gas for heating purposes, it shouldn't be too much of a surprise to note that recent natural gas reports have shown massive drawdowns in the supply of the key fuel. In just the last four reports, two have been fresh records, with an average drawdown in supplies of over 194 billion cubic feet.
Thanks to this huge use of this key fuel, prices for natural gas have been skyrocketing. Natural gas futures were approaching $5.5/mmBtu, a gain of roughly $1.5 in just a few short weeks.
This level actually represents a four-year high for the fuel, and helped to make natural gas one of the best performers to start 2014. However, as is usually the case for natural gas, big rallies are short-lived, especially given the calls for 'warmer' weather across much of the nation in February.
Forecast and Market Specifics
The outlook for the weather in February appears to be relatively normal across the East Coast. In fact, a few regions are actually looking for higher-than-average temperatures, which could reduce natural gas demand.
Additionally, the furious pace of natural gas' rise over the past few weeks has led some to cash in their positions, particularly given the higher prospect for muted demand along the East Coast.
"The market's collapsed after pushing up to a four-year high," said Gene McGillian, an analyst and broker at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut for a Bloomberg article. "We're going to see some volatility, with prices basically being pushed and pulled by the weather patterns."
It also didn't help that the NYMEX hiked margins for speculators holding front-month natural gas futures. The increase went from $2,750/contract to $3,300/contract and became effective at the end of the business day on Monday (see all the Energy ETFs here).
This boost in requirements, along with the weather forecast, probably helped to push some of the more leveraged traders out of natural gas for the time being. The impact of these factors was pretty severe on prices too, as front month futures tumbled to below $4.95 on the day, representing a 23.7 cent drop per contract.
ETF Angle
Thanks to this reversal, the most popular natural gas ETF, the United States Natural Gas Fund (NYSEARCA:UNG), traded on huge volume of over 28 million shares. This is more than four times normal, and it came as UNG tumbled about 5% on the session.
Meanwhile, the more spread out United States 12 Month Natural Gas Fund (NYSEARCA:UNL), which doesn't focus on front-month contracts, lost just 1.65% on the day, though volume was a tad high here as well. The equity play in the natural gas world, the First Trust ISE-Revere Natural Gas Index Fund (NYSEARCA:FCG), also experienced some weakness, as the product fell about 2.1% on the session.
The winners on the day came in the inverse leverage natural gas ETF market, as these products stole the show on extreme volume. The -2x product, (NYSEARCA:KOLD), added about 8.6% on volume that was roughly 5.8 times normal, while the -3x product, (NYSEARCA:DGAZ), soared more than 13% on volume that approached 20 million shares, well above the 3.2 million share average.
Longer Term
Even with this big move, the recent trading has favored the bulls to a very large extent. UNG is still up over 17% in the past 10 days—including Monday's 5% slump—while leveraged bull funds are doing quite well. The duo in this section of the market—(NYSEARCA:BOIL) for 2x exposure and (NYSEARCA:UGAZ) for 3x exposure—have gained, respectively, 34.8% and 53.7% in the past 10 days, so some profit taking is to be expected.
Bottom Line
Given some of the incredible price increases as of late in the natural gas market, a reversal was probably long overdue. Weather is expected to warm up across much of the country, and natural gas demand looks to tumble as a result. It also didn't help that hiked margin requirements came out today, as a number of traders probably reduced their positions on this news too (also read Understanding Leveraged ETFs).
Still, natural gas can be very fickle and so can the weather. If another Polar Vortex materializes over the next few weeks, more gains could definitely be seen in natural gas. But barring that, more flat-to-negative trading seems likely in this market, particularly given the massive supply of natural gas which looks likely to put pressure on UNG and other natural gas ETFs in short-order once more.
This article is brought to you courtesy of Eric Dutram.


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André 3000 and Big Boi will headline Drake's 5th Annual OVO Fest this summer.
The two-day festival will take place on August 3 and 4 at Toronto's Molson Canadian Amphitheatre, Drake announced via his OVO blog.
Tickets for the Live Nation-presented concert go on sale February 21.
Last year's OVO Fest featured surprise performances from Kanye West, Diddy, Ma$e, TLC, and more.
OutKast will kick off their reunion at Coachella in April and play over 40 festivals throughout the world including New York's Governors Ball and London's Wireless Festival.
Also On Hot 96.3:


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A Day at a Time
October 29, 2013 | Recipient Responses | No Comments|
July 18, 2013
Thank you for the wonderful care package. I had an emotionally stressful and depressing day. When I got in I used many of the products, that made a huge difference in how much better I felt.
Your kindness has touch me deeply and I thank you for caring.
Miriam E.


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Photo by Sarah Finnegan.
The Preserve was intended to be a traditional neighborhood with amenities and green spaces never more than a five-minute walk from each home.
Since the end of World War II, the American suburban design paradigm has been that of the sprawl, with towns and cities ending up split into commercial, residential and recreational areas and leading to residents spending more time behind their steering wheels than anywhere else.
But to Steve Mouzon, town architect of The Preserve, there was much to be said about a different kind of development, where residents felt more at ease walking to restaurants and shops and didn't need to drive to have a high quality of life.
The Preserve was built by USS Real Estate, a subsidiary of U.S. Steel Corporation, which at its height held an immense amount of land in and around Birmingham.
Mouzon said the idea was to create a traditional neighborhood out of the 300-acre development, rather than a sprawling subdivision, with amenities and green spaces never more than a five-minute walk from each home.
"The walkable community is an important part," said landscape architect Nimrod Long III.
Long said even though The Preserve is in the middle of the action in Hoover, he thinks it's a quiet spot.
The Preserve is also directly adjacent to the 250-acre Moss Rock Preserve, which both Long and Mouzon said also draws people to the community.
"It's the only one of its kind in Hoover," Mouzon said. But he hopes future neighborhoods will adopt the idea, he said.
"I don't want The Preserve to be the only neighborhood in Hoover like this in the future."


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We've all been there. Your boyfriend is clearly upset about something, but won't say what's bugging him no matter how many times you ask him. This can be really frustrating and doesn't make either person feel any better. The key to getting your man to open up and let you know how he's feeling is to try to understand exactly why he's being so tight-lipped. It could be one of several reasons, and figuring it out is the first step toward improving communication.
Step 1
Let your boyfriend know you're not going to fly off the handle when you hear what's on his mind. A guy may keep things to himself because he's worried about how his partner will react, says Warren Farrell, author of "Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say." Tell him you're there for him and he can tell you whatever is on his mind.
Step 2
Adopt a calm, friendly manner when you approach your boyfriend. Don't be critical of his lack of communication skills. Remember that boys are often taught from a young age not to show their emotions, which could be the reason he struggles to open up to you. Act like a caring, supportive partner and he may open up to you in his own time, says Cosmopolitan. Ask him the right questions to encourage him to share his feelings. Questions requiring only "yes" or "no" responses will be easier for him to answer, such as "Do you feel pressure at work right now?" Be sympathetic and non-judgmental.
Step 3
Boost your boyfriend's confidence if he appears to be feeling insecure. Even if you don't know exactly what's bothering him, you can help him focus on what he's good at, what's going well in his life and what it is you love about him. He might not want to tell you how he's feeling because he doesn't want you to see him as a failure. Make him believe that you think he's great no matter what, and he's more likely to open up to you in the future.
Step 4
Accept that whatever is on your boyfriend's mind may have nothing to do with you, advises international dating website eHarmony. If you don't have any concerns about your relationship, give him space and let him either sort things out himself or come to you for advice or support when he's ready. Some men simply don't like to talk about their feelings and no amount of encouragement will persuade them to do so.
- Gary Houlder/Lifesize/Getty Images


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Version: 126.96.36.1994953318 (61060021)
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Hard Hit by Virus, Airlines Push for Tests Over Quarantines
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How Harmony CBD Transformed a Life-Threatening Diagnosis
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Table of Contents
Toward an Improvement Paradigm for Academic Quality
The assessment movement that has emerged on American college campuses over the last twenty years emphasizes the need to carefully articulate the particular outcomes we seek for our students, and it demands that faculty and administrators provide evidence of their students' success with respect to these outcomes. It also requires that this evidence be used to improve the educational experience of students in order to better meet those outcomes.
The transformation of the original assessment movement into paradigmatic status has largely been driven by the accreditation process. The regional accrediting bodies, perhaps reasonably concerned about heading off government-mandated standards and testing, now expect institutions to engage in student learning assessment at all program levels, from campus-wide general education down to majors and minors.
This paradigm, like all paradigms, has closed off questioning of key assumptions and has facilitated the ossification of certain practices that may no longer serve us well. My view is that we should consider breaking apart this paradigm by moving away from a focus on assessment and toward an emphasis on improvement. This shift will retain what was valuable in the assessment movement while paring away some of the dysfunctions that have arisen as it has become paradigmatic.
Costs and benefits of the assessment paradigm
I have been deeply involved in this assessment paradigm from the beginning of my career over fifteen years ago. As a new assistant professor with skills in survey research and social science methodology, I was recruited to be my department's director of assessment, even before I fully understood the significance of the assessment movement (or the faculty's reluctance to embrace it). Since then I've directed departmental assessment every year, across two universities; sat on a college-level committee that reviews program assessment; directed the assessment of my university's general education program since 2008; and even worked on general education assessment as a Fulbright Scholar in Hong Kong in 2011. I have implemented a variety of assessments, including off-the-shelf standardized tests, homegrown standardized tests, rubric-scored student writing, curricular mapping, focus groups, and more. During all this activity, I have come to the conclusion that the assessment paradigm provides a distinctive benefit to our students.
It also generates a number of costs.
Unfortunately, the assessment paradigm tends to assume the benefits and ignore the costs. This has created a number of dysfunctions in the ways we attempt to improve higher education. And let's be clear: improvement is the point. Assessment should be about changing what happens in the classroom—what students actually experience as they progress through their courses—so that learning is deeper and more consequential.
The dysfunctionality of assessment today starts with the primacy of evidence and data. One of the key premises of the assessment paradigm is that the faculty's conventional wisdom about what students can and cannot do well is unreliable. We therefore must collect direct evidence of students' abilities to master the outcomes that we define to be part of their educational process. As someone whose own political science research is primarily quantitative, I am entirely sympathetic with this premise. But good data must be available to answer our questions about student learning successfully.
The problem is that assessment data can be either cheap or good, but are rarely both. The fact is that good evidence about student learning is costly. For example, valid and reliable standardized tests are not easy to produce, and without a large staff to create one in-house, institutions have to buy one created by an educational corporation. Undergraduate Major Field Tests from the Educational Testing Service cost about $25 per student tested. The Collegiate Learning Assessment by the Council for Aid to Education runs about $35. Multiply that by the number of students necessary to get a reasonably representative sample, add the costs of paying staff to procure and administer the test, and we're talking about a fairly significant cost.
Standardized tests have their limitations in terms of what they can tell you about student learning, and most don't match up very well to the particular learning outcomes we have defined for our students. As anyone who has administered standardized assessments will tell you, it is a battle to get students to take them (unless required in a course) and then another challenge to get students to take them seriously. This tends to introduce serious sampling biases and validity problems with the resulting measures. And even if you do get a representative sample of students' best work from a high-quality test, it often gives you great answers to the wrong questions. Institutions define their own learning outcomes, and standardized tests rarely match up perfectly.
Consequently, many institutions have turned to rubric-scoring of authentic student work. That is, student work produced for credit in classes is collected, and readers determine how well each student performs on a number of criteria connected to the defined learning outcomes. This has the advantage of capturing students trying to do their best and mapping their work directly onto the key outcomes. Unfortunately, creating good data from a rubric-scoring process is very difficult—and the availability of substantial resources makes it only slightly less so. The main problem is that scoring is a necessarily subjective process that requires all kinds of judgments about what key terms mean, how to distinguish between performance categories, and how to sort students' work into those categories. Calibration sessions that give readers training can be helpful, at least in promoting greater reliability, but may not help in establishing validity (e.g., everyone agrees what a "proficient" response looks like for scoring purposes, but is a student who wrote it really and truly proficient?). Moreover, it is often difficult to determine whether a student is unable to show mastery of an outcome or whether an assignment just didn't do enough to prompt the student to show that mastery. All these issues are complicated in general education curricula, where student work is coming from a variety of disciplines using an assortment of assignments that may not be commensurate.
Of course, content analysis methodology is used in social science research all the time, and there are ways to improve, if perhaps not perfect, these measurements. But these are costly. For example, double- or triple-coding helps, but now two or three times as many readers have to sacrifice the time (presumably at the expense of their other teaching, scholarship, and service obligations) or, for institutions that can afford it, stipends or course releases now go to that many more faculty. And as these projects get bigger and more complicated, the assessment paradigm has justified the creation and expansion of assessment administration offices. To do these kinds of assessments properly and produce high-quality data, it is probably necessary to hire staff with expertise in the methodology who can design and implement the process. Campus-wide administrators hired mainly to be "assessment directors" were rare when I started my career; they no longer are.
As enrollments stagnate, state appropriations dwindle, and campus budgets get squeezed, the opportunity costs of this kind of high-cost, high-quality assessment are sharply felt. Many faculty are reasonably upset when another assessment administrator is hired while a vacant line in their department remains unfilled. Given accreditors' demands for assessment and the need to do more with fewer resources, campus leaders often have to choose between good assessment data or cheap assessment data. For a select few institutions, good data can be easily afforded. For most, it is a difficult cost to bear.
To make matters worse, even the best, most valid and reliable assessment data about student learning are often not really all that useful. At the same time, useful information that could improve practices is easily available without having to score or test our students separately.
To explain what I mean, consider a stylized example. Imagine a particular program has four defined learning outcomes. Student work is collected from a large random sample of students in the program, and readers score the work on each outcome. The resulting data need to be quantitatively summarized, given the number of cases. So averages might be calculated for each outcome, or the percentage scoring at or above a certain score is calculated. What do these numbers tell us? If the average on outcome one is 3.2 on a five-point scale, what does that mean? If 76 percent score at or above a 3, is that good or bad? Standardized tests create comparator benchmarks, at least, but rubric-scored work can't be judged objectively like that. More importantly, while the numbers might be used to show external audiences what our students achieve, what does it suggest we do to improve student outcomes? What is the actionable information from these data?
We might identify the outcome with the worst scores and focus on improving it. But likely all outcomes could stand improvement, and even without any of the assessment data it would be possible to guess about the worst one and save the expense and hassle. And if we guessed wrong, the worst-case scenario is that we improve one outcome instead of another that needed it more. But we would still focus on improving an outcome, so it is not exactly a disaster.
Even if the assessment data can be used to narrow our focus for improvement, they don't really tell us how to improve. To do that, we need other data that tell us about the educational experiences of the students. We need to know what classes students took, in what order, and what they did in their classes; we need to know what the assignments they completed were like and what the instructors did to support their learning; we need to know what kind of cocurricular experiences they had; and we need to know something about the individual students themselves, like their work habits, natural intelligence, attitudes about their education, and mental health. These data, correlated with student outcomes data, would show us what works and what should be more broadly implemented.
Fortunately, these kinds of correlational studies already exist and show us what improves student learning. If we want to improve our students' ability to write or think critically, there is an enormous literature in the scholarship of teaching and learning to which we can turn. These are areas of scholarly expertise in their own right, and people devote their careers to careful measurement and to the testing of pedagogical research questions using sophisticated multivariate methodologies. Institutions do not need to create new data sets as part of an administratively imposed assessment process in order to get answers to our questions about how to teach our students better. Our faculty are already doing this work as part of their scholarship.
The reality is that the improvement piece of the assessment paradigm often takes a back seat to the collection of data. This manifests in the need for continual reminders to "close the loop"—that is, to use the data to change the educational experience of students.
In my experience, most of the value from assessment comes from closing the loop, but the data are useful mainly in that they provide the opportunity for faculty to have conversations about improvement. It is the requirement to discuss the data that provides an opening for fruitful dialogue about what is happening in our classes, what our students struggle with, what we are doing that works, and how we might change programs and courses to better steer our students toward the outcomes we are aiming them toward. It is remarkable how much improvement happens when faculty can carve out some time in their busy schedules just to talk about student success. The imperatives of scholarship and creative activity, teaching and grading, and service work leave little space on the plate for collective conversations about curricula and instruction. The assessment paradigm has been successful in demanding that these conversations take place on a regular basis.
To me, this has been the most important achievement of the assessment movement. The institutionalized collection of student outcomes data is really only a side note, only
a part of the broader process—and a part that is far less important than it appears within the strictures of the paradigm. For this reason, I propose that we eliminate the assessment paradigm. In its place, we should embrace an improvement paradigm.
An improvement paradigm
What would an improvement paradigm look like? How would it differ from the current emphasis on assessment? What would be its tenets?
First, an improvement paradigm would place at the forefront collective conversations about curricula and instruction. Faculty often want to discuss teaching and curricula, but this simply gets pushed off the plate. An improvement paradigm would create spaces where these discussions are required; it would wall off an area on faculty plates crowded with scholarship, teaching, and service demands. Put differently, this is about institutionalizing regular, serious faculty conversations about curricula and instruction. The assessment process, when it functions well, can and does create these conversations—in fact, that is what's most valuable about assessment today. But it would be better to put front and center the part of the process that is most worthwhile.
In practice, this would mean shifting what the campus administration and regional accreditors demand from faculty. Rather than requiring each department to identify an assessment guru who collects and analyzes data for the department, it would be far better to require regular department discussions about how to improve student learning. Deans might require a report of minutes from these meetings, rather than a report on what the assessment data showed. Indeed, the content of these conversations can be seen as the central product of the improvement paradigm (whereas in the assessment paradigm, student learning data are the product, which then must be used by faculty to close the loop). Data can be important in showing faculty how our perceptions about student learning can be incorrect, but the data must be viewed as only one component of the faculty conversation about improvement.
Second, an improvement paradigm would emphasize front-end intentionality over back-end assessment. Improvement requires changing what we do in ways we expect will help. The focus of faculty efforts to boost academic quality should be on what we think we need to change in order to make improvements. This is not to say that student assessment data are irrelevant. We can learn important things about how to improve by looking at our students' performance. But, as I noted earlier, intentional improvements can be driven just as successfully by professional research about teaching and learning. An improvement paradigm would ask faculty to rely on this research just as much as student learning data.
For example, the important work of George Kuh, using the National Survey of Student Engagement data, documents the powerful effect of the so-called high-impact practices on student outcomes.1 In an improvement paradigm, faculty might begin with this research, which already establishes the efficacy of these practices without any new campus assessment data, and ask how they might implement service learning or learning communities or any of the other high-impact practices. Front-end intentionality might also be captured in a curricular mapping process, which involves an analysis of which courses in a program are intended to contribute to particular learning outcomes. If a curricular map shows only a couple of courses that, say, work to improve information literacy skills, then improvement is likely to occur if instruction focused on that outcome is pushed into other courses.
Ultimately, there are two key questions. What do we want our curriculum to do? What can we do to aim more squarely and effectively at those goals? Though this is a forward-looking perspective, it is also a reflective process. We can and should draw from what we have learned about students and their ability to master key learning outcomes—and there is a great diversity of information to draw upon.
This leads to the third key tenet of an improvement paradigm: a broadened view of what should be used to inform the improvement process. Collected data on student learning outcomes are fine, but they are far from the only useful input into a forward-looking improvement cycle and often have a low benefit-to-cost ratio. There are various alternatives that can be used: published research about instructional practices; curricular maps; surveys of instructional techniques and assignments; course and assignment grades (particularly if pieces of rubrics can be utilized); surveys of faculty opinions about student outcomes; focus groups; and, of course, faculty discussions about what our students struggle with and where they need help.
Prospects for a paradigm shift
Scientific paradigms usually arise for good reason, reflecting broad, useful, and accurate understandings of the world. Paradigm shifts occur because new information or theories promise even better ways of understanding. Similarly, the formation of the assessment paradigm was perfectly reasonable at the time. The 2006 report of the Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Education (also known as the Spellings report) raised concerns about academic quality in US higher education. The commission concluded that colleges and universities "must become more transparent about . . . student success outcomes, and must willingly share this information with students and families."2 The report called for a focus on innovation, recommending that "America's colleges and universities embrace a culture of continuous innovation and quality improvement" by developing "new pedagogies, curricula and technologies to improve learning."3
Following just four years after passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, which mandated state standards for primary and secondary education and standardized testing to assess student success in meeting those standards, the Spellings report sent shock waves through higher education. Would colleges and universities soon be mandated by the federal government to follow legislatively determined curricular standards and then to engage in high-stakes standardized testing to determine how well their students meet them? The prospect was scary for those who embrace the value of liberal education. It would be better, the thinking went, to get out in front and begin demonstrating voluntarily how well higher education prepares graduates.4 Student outcomes assessment, already a growing movement among those interested in outcomes-based curricula, would become the key to these efforts. The focus on collecting outcomes data even eclipsed the Spellings report's emphasis on innovation and improvement.
If it is not entirely accurate to say, a decade after the Spellings report, that the wind has gone out of the sails of standardized testing, it is fair to say the gale has softened to a mild, if consistent, breeze. There has been a considerable backlash against standardized testing in US schools, and the initial bipartisan support for No Child Left Behind has fractured on both sides of the aisle. Fights over standards and the pros and cons of testing are now more, not less, evident. Consensus has devolved into dissensus. A recent poll found that only 19 percent of Americans support the Common Core standards, with 54 percent admitting they do not know enough to have an opinion.5 Almost two-thirds of Americans (64 percent) say there is too much emphasis on standardized testing in public schools.6
At the same time, Americans' concerns about higher education continue to focus much more on cost than quality. Fully 74 percent of Americans agree or strongly agree that traditional colleges and universities offer high-quality education; only 5 percent disagree or disagree strongly. In contrast, only about a quarter of Americans believe a postsecondary education is affordable for everyone who needs it.7 College costs are the third most commonly mentioned concern when people are asked about the most important financial problem facing their families, and the top concern for adults under the age of fifty.8
So the time is right for a reassessment of assessment. We need to deemphasize the use of student learning data for external accountability and focus more on improvement based on whatever information is most useful and cost-effective. It is time to reclaim and remake the assessment cycle as an improvement cycle in ways that will benefit our students the most. It is time to embrace a paradigm of improvement.
1. George D. Kuh, High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter (Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2008).
2. The Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Education, A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of Higher Education (Washington, DC: US Department of Education, 2006), 4.
3. Ibid., 5.
4. The Voluntary System of Accountability, now part of the College Portrait, was one important result of this thinking. See http://www.collegeportraits.org.
5. CBS News, "2016: A Wide Open Republican Field, While Clinton Leads the Pack for the Democrats," CBS News Poll, March 21–24, 2015, https://cbsnewyork.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/260281625-cbs-news-poll-2016-presidential-campaign.pdf.
6. PDK/Gallup, "The 47th Annual PDK/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes toward the Public Schools," Kappan 97, no. 1 (2015), http://pdkpoll2015.pdkintl.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/pdkpoll47_2015.pdf.
7. Americans Value Postsecondary Education: The 2015 Gallup-Lumina Foundation Study of the American Public's Opinion on Higher Education (Washington, DC: Gallup), 23.
8. Lydia Saad, "Young Adults Cite College Costs as Their Top Money Problem," Gallup, April 21, 2014, http://www.gallup.com/poll/168584/young-adults-cite-college-costs-top-money-problem.aspx.
To respond to this article, e-mail email@example.com, with the author's name on the subject line.
Douglas D. Roscoe is professor of political science, director of general education, and faculty senate president at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
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The New York Times
February 19, 2009
MORRISTOWN, N.J. — Cindy Dreeszen and her husband live in one of the wealthiest counties in the United States. They have steady jobs, his at a movie theater and hers at a government office. Together, they earn about $55,000 a year.
But with a 17-month-old son, another baby on the way, and, as Ms. Dreeszen put it, "the cost of everything going up and up," the couple went to a food pantry last week to ask for some free groceries.
"I didn't think we'd even be allowed to come here," said Ms. Dreeszen, 41, glancing around at the shelves of fruit, whole-wheat pasta and baby food. "This is totally something that I never expected to happen, to have to resort to this."
Once a crutch for the most needy, food pantries have responded to the deepening recession by opening their doors to what one pantry organizer described as "the next layer of people," a rapidly expanding group of child-care workers, nurse's aides, real estate agents and secretaries who are facing a financial crisis for the first time. Over all, demand at food banks across the country increased by 30 percent in 2008 from the previous year, according to a survey by Feeding America, which distributes more than two billion pounds of food every year. And while pantries usually see a drop in demand after the holiday season, many in upscale suburbs this year are experiencing the opposite.
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Quiz | Polls | Elections | Candidates |
The Most Popular Science Issues of 2020
See where voters are polling on the most popular Science issues of 2020.
Mandatory Vaccinations
Should the government require children to be vaccinated for preventable diseases?
71 Yes
29 No
8,173,993 votes
GMO Labels
Should producers be required to label genetically engineered foods (GMOs)?
86 Yes
14 No
8,086,635 votes


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General Electric Units HVAC Repair
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Our goal is to take care of all of our customers because they've done everything they need to for help, and that was to call us. Let us fix your heating and cooling problems so you can sit back and enjoy the sunset.


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Some of the Sunday newspaper stories involving London clubs..
Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino is wanted by Real Madrid, the Sunday Mirror say.
The newspaper claim Real are discussing future manager targets and that "right now Pochettino is top of the list".
Apparently Spurs chairman Daniel Levy is aware of Real's interest and will face a fight to stop Pochettino eventually leaving White Hart Lane.
The Argentine signed a new five-year contract last summer.
Meanwhile, Chelsea are interested in Newcastle central defender Jamaal Lascelles, according to The Sun on Sunday.
The Blues are also keen on Celtic's former Fulham forward Moussa Dembele, according to the Sunday Express.
The Express have also picked up on reports in Italy claiming that West Ham are hoping Napoli take striker Simone Zaza and sell Manolo Gabbiadini to them.
Zaza has failed to impress since joining the Hammers on loan from Juventus during the summer.
West Ham are reportedly obliged to sign Italy international Zaza, 25, for £17.7m if he makes 10 appearances for them.
According to television station Rai Sport, the club are willing to offer £22.5m plus Zaza for the 24-year-old Gabbiadini in January.


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Secondary Recovery | definition
Enhanced recovery of oil or gas from a reservoir beyond the oil or gas that can be recovered by normal flowing and pumping operations. Secondary recovery techniques involve maintaining or enhancing reservoir pressure by injecting water, gas, CO2 or other substances into the formation.
Return to the Glossary of S Terms or the Index of Oil & Gas Terms to search the oilfield glossary


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A Fashionable Affair: Epson's Digital Couture Project
13 designers bring digital textile printing to life.
Fashion lovers, press, and curious print service providers flooded the organically shaped IAC Building on the western edge of Manhattan last Tuesday evening for the third annual Epson Digital Couture fashion show. Attendees – including camera crews from E!, writers from Nylon and Forbes, and a few local celebrities – came to discover what digital textile printing could mean for the world of fashion.
The Main Event
To showcase the machines that make it all happen, Epson displayed its dye sublimation and direct-to-garment printers near the entrance to the event before visitors turned the corner and witnessed 13 platforms where models clad in digital print highlighted the work of North and Latin American designers. Printed garments included jackets, leggings, and dresses, but also boots, high heels, backpacks, menswear, and more.
The designers' devotion to digital ran the gamut, as well; some, like Lindsay Degen, enjoy the way different processes play together in one design.
Models clad in Lindsay Degen's designs.
"I'm mixing printed denim with real denim, printed quilting with real quilting … The idea is to force the viewer to look more closely at the details and enjoy the textile's construction in addition to the garment's construction," Degen says in a lookbook that was released prior to the event. The RISD and Central Saint Martins grad has had her work featured in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show and was once named to Forbes' "30 Under 30."
Others, like Sarah Richards, have gone all-in with the technology. Richards' work is exclusively digitally printed and has been for half a decade.
"I approach print design with a desire to push the possibilities of the medium and to create textiles that traditional methods are incapable of producing," she says in the lookbook. Richards is also a graduate of RISD and is a native of New York.
Sarah Richard's digitally printed fashion.
Richards says about 90 percent of her work is dye sublimated; she works with a fabric agent to find textile producers abroad. "Everyone I know is using digital," she added in an interview with Big Picture. But to date, it seems producing locally is simply too cost-prohibitive.
Bringing Production Closer to Home
Earlier in the day, Epson collaborated with The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) to present the first-ever Fashion and Technology Forum at Pier Sixty. Eight panelists weighed in on textile printing and more, with moderator Anthony Cenname (WSJ) leading the discussion.
The question of local production threaded throughout the afternoon as the panelists returned repeatedly to the idea that the industry is demanding manufacturers be closer to the market.
"How are we going to compete with a company that does 26 seasons a year?" said Barry McGeough, group VP of the newly formed Innovation Next division of PVH. "It's about short runs and fast integration."
The company's brands, which include Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, are being forced to have new styles ready just days (rather than months) after they've hit the runway to beat out fast-fashion brands that are poised to bring copycat designs to the market seemingly overnight.
Seiko Epson President Minoru Usui said in a later interview with a small group of press, via a translator, that the local-to-local push will require a shakeup of the current supply chain. One day, he imagines that designers themselves may be able to control the entire production process.
Epson America President Keith Kratzberg added that companies like UnderArmour may soon begin "farming out" printing in the US via its Lighthouse research and development arm. The market seems to be anything but out of reach for North America; "digital is becoming so much more top of mind," he said, adding that "the great thing about textile and packaging is that those businesses should scale with the population."
Innovation, Innovation, Innovation
Another oft-mentioned topic was how fashion buyers interact with the market, which of course has changed dramatically with the ascent of e-commerce.
"Technology is rapidly accelerating the way we do business," said Erin Fetherston, a boutique womenswear designer.
Mark Sunderland, Philadelphia University, emphasized the power of information, saying "There's just data floating around, waiting for us to find it, waiting for us to innovate. … Digital printers are going to have to innovate and reverse the supply chain."
The panelists offered perspectives from across the supply chain, alluding to innovations in fiber creation, textile transport, and more. It was clear that no one segment of the business would be able to create change alone – nor would they be able to bide their time.
"Makers of driverless cars are looking to meet unanticipated needs. We as an industry are just figuring that out now," said McGeough.
"Digital print is the next paradigm, the next frontier," added Sunderland. "I'd like to see digital people get involved in textile innovation now."
Follow Big Picture on Twitter for live updates from events like the Epson Digital Couture fashion show.


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The basics are draining your bottom line.
The top 5 most common request are all essential to ensuring your patients and your users are properly supported, but is this what you want your valuable IT resources working on?
Delivering accurate and timely support is essential in providing quality healthcare experiences to your patients and users, but support duties often distract from mission critical tasks, and a static capacity doesn't fluctuate with demand leaving you with either insufficient or costly support. Are your engineers taking password rest calls? Are your users and patients always supported? Can your support model dynamically scale with demand?
Managing this basic support internally can impact quality, cost efficiency, and productivity. Here's how:
1. The Quality
Patient support, go-live support, and other healthcare specific support takes expertise to ensure users and patients get the accurate and timely support they need.
2. The Distraction
Password resets, navigation issues, and other support needs can keep skilled resources off of mission-critical IT work.
3. The cost
Hiring, managing, and firing additional full and part-time support teams to cover your support is expensive and inefficient.
PDS offers a suite of support solutions that provide your users and patients seamless support they need.
Whether it's supporting patients on your portal, taking over your internal help desk, or just covering your next go-live, PDS has your back. Free your team, provide expert support, scale on demand, get back to healthcare.
Help Desk
Ensure your users are always covered with a fully scalable 24/7 outsourced help desk made of a team of expert analysts located right here in Madison, Wisconsin. We're ready to take calls in as little as 4 weeks and can utilize your tools and processes. Fully outsource your team or use us to cover after hours or supplement during peak demand.
Patient Experience Support
Patient engagement continues to be a priority as today's healthcare organizations focus on patient experience, and as patient support volumes continue to grow. Is your team prepared to support your patient? PDS offers a scalable offering that specializes in supporting patient technologies (Patient Portal, Mobile, Wearable, Bill Pay, Telehealth) and ensures a seamless, quality support experience for you patients. Let us take care of your patients so your team focus on growth and expansion of online services.
EMR Triage Technical Support
Supporting users on your EMR is essential in helping your clinical team in providing quality healthcare. PDS can supplement your EMR support by taking the burden of level-1 and support triage off your IT team. We offer a flexible solution that can take over on-going level-1 support or just cover high-demand times like your next go-live.
By The Numbers
Expert Support
PDS has provided healthcare support services for over 20 years across the country. We have the healthcare specific expertise to give you confidence that your users are always supported. Our HIPAA trained support team consists of on-shore expert analysts with an average of 10 years of experience. We are the gold standard for outsourced IT support.
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We are healthcare support experts, and can guide you every step of the way. Our training process is quick and scalable to fit your needs. Whether your organization is large or small, PDS can help. You get:
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Support needs can vary for each organization, for each implementation, and can fluctuate throughout. Our customized support strategy is always on and we can tailor fit a solution that meets your needs and budget.
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Experience with Multiple Ticketing Systems
Thanks to our broad client base, we have gained extensive experience in both standard and custom ticketing environments and have supported organizations of all sizes. We will fit your environment.


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Citizen input sought for solid waste services in DeKalb
DeKALB – An online questionnaire is available to evaluate the city's refuse, recycling and yard waste services ahead of plans to solicit proposals for a new solid waste contract later this year.
The city's contract with Waste Management Inc. is set to expire at the end of August. Depending on the results of the survey, which is on Survey Monkey, services requested in the proposals might differ from services offered in the current contract.
Since collection services are bundled and all residents must pay the same amount regardless of what services they use, the questionnaire is designed to help staff identify the service residents value the most.
The questionnaire will be available on the DeKalb website through March 5. Residents with limited online access can fill out a paper copy at the DeKalb Municipal Building, 200 S. Fourth St.
The city will also be distributing 1,000 surveys to randomly selected residents. Those who receive the mailed survey must return it in its prepaid envelope or to city hall by March 9.


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Cagatay Ulusoy's fans from high society give high amount of tips to the waiters who work at the restaurants/night clubs where Cagatay Ulusoy goes often. This gossip in the high society is very popular nowadays. Elites, even married ones, now target to Cagatay Ulusoy. Neslihan Alkoclar and Engin Altan Duzyatan couple and Idil Firat and Engin Ozturk couple have become …Read More »
Tag Archives: cagatay ulusoy fans
Cagatay Ulusoy's Tattoo
Cagatay Ulusoy shared the photo of his new tattoo "But without the dark we'd never see the stars". The tattoo is just above his left nipple. His photo has been liked by many people in a short time.Read More »


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Welcome to the Gospel Life Podcast! Each Monday, we offer a short podcast to get you thinking about how to show and share the love of Jesus in our broken and hurting world and with your friends and neighbors.
Today, Ed Stetzer, Executive Director at the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism, discusses the intersection of showing AND sharing the love of Jesus. Why did Jesus come, and how do we hold in tension serving others and proclaiming Christ to others? The gospel isn't something we do; it's something Jesus did. How are we responding?
You can also subscribe to the Gospel Life podcast on iTunes here.
Click here to listen to previous episodes.


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The On Demand Print and Apply Robotic Label applicator can
print uniquely different labels for each bottle, dispense the labels and apply
the labels to your containers automatically. Over 100 unlabeled bottles can
easily be racked up and automatically labeled by this system as the printer
prints each label.
Our XYZ Robotic Module platform is very flexible and can be modified to your requirements including linear travel ranges as small as a inch and as large as three feet while maintaining a high degree of precision and speed all at a low cost. We combine everything including the gripper, translation stages, rotation stages, control board hardware and Windows software to provide you with a complete solution for your applications and get you up and running quickly. More Info...
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Widexplorer Broadens Your Web Browsing Experience. Literally.
Normally, your search efforts involve one engine or another. You go to Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Live Search for the general Web, and perhaps photos, etc. You visit Digg, Reddit, or Yahoo Buzz for cool links. YouTube, DailyMotion and others for videos. The list goes on. But in the event that the default dimensions of your Web browsing experience gets dull, tedious and in need of a change (this is the moment of change, after all!), there is Widexplorer to satisfy a new leaning.
Sporting black, a dozen categorical hotlinks, Widexplorer is a simple thing. No miracles being performed there. Nonetheless, its presentation is the kicker. Click any keyword below the search bar to get a grip on what that means.
For instance, the 'buzz' label takes you to all the top Web 2.0 linking services. And all are laid one beside the other. Digg first, then Yahoo Buzz, followed by Delicious, Reddit, Mixx, Technorati, Popurls. It's really quite interesting. It's better than browsing through tabs, in a way, because there's absolutely no clicking to do. Except for the movement of the horizontally-savvy scrollbar in the window. For users of scrollballs of various sizes, it's even more simple to operate. My Apple-issued Mighty Mouse is a wonder here. You will want to play with this one for quite some time if you happen to be similarly equipped, I think.
I'll leave you to browse the remaining options available at Widexplorer, but suffice it to say that this one, if nothing else, deserves a bookmark. The only reservation to have with it - other than its impracticality as a day-in-day-out search service - is that website load times can leave you waiting for the white space to fill out with data. But that is the case with the Web browsing process in and of itself, so it's hard to nab Widexplorer on that point. In all, I say you take a look. Just one to five minutes' time will have you sold. No question about it.
Widexplorer company profile provided by TradeVibes


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Illinois' medical marijuana industry is off to a rough start. It took longer than expected for the State of Illinois to issue medical marijuana business licenses. The process was largely shrouded in mystery, with accusations about the process being unfair being hurled early and often. Now that most, but not all, medical marijuana business licenses have been announced in Illinois, the entities that were denied a license are deciding if they want to pursue cases against the State of Illinois. One such company became the first to file a lawsuit this last week. Per the Chicago Sun Times:
What is believed to be the first lawsuit regarding medical marijuana licenses in Illinois was filed Friday in downstate Coles County by a business that lost out in its bid to get a license to grow medical marijuana.
The business, Shiloh Agronomics LLC contends that the company it lost out to, Shelby County Community Services Inc., was improperly given the license because it is a nonprofit organization that receives tax benefits from the Internal Revenue Service, a federal agency.
"The concern is that because Shelby County Community Services is a federally recognized 501(c)(3) tax-exempt entity, it is not eligible to apply for a permit to engage in an activity that violates federal law," said Jude Sullivan, whose father, James Sullivan, holds a large stake in Shiloh Agronomics.
It's a very interesting legal argument being presented. I'm sure this will open the litigation floodgates in coming weeks in Illinois. To date Illinois only has roughly 1,000 medical marijuana patients. None of them have safe access to medicine, and don't have the right to grow their own. Hopefully lawsuits don't further hinder the process of getting medicine to patients.


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Ronzoni® is part of the New World Pasta family of brands, a leading dry pasta manufacturer in the United States.
Because it is so thin, it cooks in only 2 minutes! Angel Hair is great for light entrees, side dishes or broken and cooked in soups. This delicate pasta works best with very thin tomato-based or broth-based sauces or simple olive oil tosses. Use finely chopped vegetables, seafood or chicken in angel hair tosses to match the delicacy of this shape. Available in 16 oz.
Serving Per Container
Serving Size2 oz. (56g/1/8 of package) dry


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Charlie Holland's blog, aiming for more people cycling more often, particularly in north Lambeth
Thursday, 17 October 2013
Is Nine Elms en-route to being more cycle friendly than Amsterdam?
1 comment:
- Unknown said...
Hello Charlie, thanks for mentioning discussion from North of the river http://www.warwicksquarepimlico.co.uk/1050/troubled-bridge-over-waters-nine-elms-bridge/ ! Pimlico residents generally seem to favour extending the cycle lane grid and also the new bridge from Nine Elms, viewing both as potentially positive for the local area.
There's problems though.
Superhighway 5 (CS5) zooms up to Vauxhall where it stops. Vauxhall Bridge Road has heavy motor traffic and several snarly junctions culminating in Victoria Station chaos, so there is a new proposal to guide Northbound cyclists around Bessborough Street and onto Belgrave Road, then via Belgrave Square to Hyde Park and Marble Arch. The roads on this link aren't suitable for segregation. In fact, it wouldn't be a formal cycle route but simply cycle symbols painted on the tarmac.
Meanwhile, TfL and the Nine Elms developers are pushing option 1 for the new bridge to Pimlico, which maroons Northbound cyclists by the riverside on Pimlico gardens. They can either go the long way round to Vauxhall Bridge and loop back to the Belgrave Road link, which kind of defeats the point of having a new bridge, or they can try a Russian Roulette short cut across the busy four lane Grosvenor Road traffic to St George's Square to join the Northbound link at the junction with Lupus Street.
Most worries in Pimlico centre around the impact of tens of thousands of rush-hour cyclists zooming through previously quiet garden squares and then getting squished by HGVs on Belgrave Road. That doesn't sound like Amsterdam-on-Thames at all!
So, what about a cycle bridge adjoining Grosvenor railway bridge, option 4, and a new cycle route along the rail tracks to Ebury Bridge, Victoria and beyond?
Would love to hear your ideas...
- 19 October 2013 at 12:35