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Corn can save forage
BROOKINGS, S.D. – Drought-induced forage shortages across some areas of South Dakota has livestock producers looking for different ways meet forage needs left when pastures and hay ground are no longer an option. Corn is one such option, said Julie Walker, Associate Professor & SDSU Extension Beef Specialist.
"Research has shown that a variety of feedstuffs can be utilized to meet the cows' nutrient requirements with similar performance to a forage based diet. "At current feed prices, substituting corn for forage is a viable option to feed beef cows," Walker said. "Corn or corn-based by-products can be used to substitute for forages and save on daily feed costs. For operations with the right facilities and management ability, replacing forage with corn can stretch forage supplies and potentially reduce feed costs."
Meeting Nutritional Needs
Research at The Ohio State University reported pregnant beef cows can be fed as little as 3 pounds of hay plus corn and supplements to meet nutrient requirements.
Purdue University research has also shown that late gestation cows could be successfully fed diets where hay was limited to 0.5 or 1.0 percent of bodyweight (dry matter basis).
"Rations were balanced to meet nutrient requirements, and performance (weight gain) was equal or greater compared to cows receiving hay at 2 percent of body weight," Walker said.
In both of these research projects, corn plus a protein supplement were used to balance the ration.
Table 1 shows a couple of examples of rations that meet the nutritional needs for a 1,300 pound dry cows. Limit feeding corn reduces forage requirements by 50 percent compared to a full-feed hay diet. In the two examples using corn, cows are allocated 0.5 percent of their body weight in forage dry matter (1,300 x 0.005 = 6.5 pounds DM; 6.5/.88 (88 percent DM of forage = 7.4 pounds as-fed).
Based on the prices used, incorporation of high amounts of corn reduced the feed cost/day and stretched the forage supply. It is very important to note that although nutritional requirements of these cows are met, her appetite is not.
Management Considerations
Switching from a forage-based system to a concentrate-based ration creates some management considerations.
* Facilities must provide enough bunk space for all the cows to eat at once to prevent dominant animals from overeating. When limit feeding, cows should have at least 30 inches per head of bunk space.
* Strong fences are a must. Because the cattle's appetite won't be satisfied, they will put pressure on the fence seeking additional forage.
* Pens should provide at least 500 square feet per head. If cattle are fed in a pasture setting, cattle will continue to graze (overgraze) because their nutrient requirements are met before dry matter intake hits 100 percent.
* Proper bunk management is critical to avoid digestive upsets, especially when high-starch feedstuffs are fed.
* Conducting feed tests on forages and drought harvested feeds allows purchasing of the right supplements to meet the animal's requirements.
* Minerals and vitamins may be consumed in excess if offered free choice when animals are limit fed. These can be included in the mixed ration or consumption can be controlled by using white salt in the mineral-vitamin supplement.
–SDSU Extension
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Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom Opening New Location In Colorado Springs
Leader in Casual Dining to Showcase Unique, World-Class Flavors for the Community this December
BROOMFIELD, Colo. – Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom, a traditional casual dining restaurant known for its delicious, handmade pizza and craft beers, announced today that its newest location is slated to open in Colorado Springs, Colo. at 1579 E. Cheyenne Mountain Blvd. The new restaurant, scheduled to open on Dec. 22, will be the city's fifth location and will create approximately 120 jobs for the area.
To celebrate the upcoming opening, Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom will be giving "Pizza For a Year" booklets to the first 100 people in line on Dec. 22. The restaurant has also partnered with the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Colorado and will donate one dollar from every Chicago 7 specialty pizza ordered on Dec. 22 through Jan. 1 to the organization, as well as proceeds from Old Chicago's preview events on Dec. 19-20.
"Colorado residents go crazy for Old Chicago, so we're really excited to add another location into the mix in Colorado Springs so everyone can enjoy our freshly hand-made pizza, diverse menu of world-class craft beers and quality, handcrafted taproom classics," said Allison Raitz, general manager of Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom in Colorado Springs. "Our commitment to community extends beyond the dining room as we join forces with Big Brother Big Sisters to raise funds for deserving children in our area. We look forward to serving the city of Colorado Springs for many years to come."
Old Chicago serves its made-from-scratch pizza in locations nationwide and offers three crust types that are made in-house every day — Chicago Thick, a buttery hand-tossed cornmeal crust, served in the pan; Tavern Thin, which has a light and crispy texture and is served square-cut and Ale Crust, a soft and lightly sweetened handcrafted crust spiked with brown ale. Loaded with a variety of mouthwatering toppings, every pizza is made to order. Some of the most popular specialty pizza selections include:
- Chicago 7 Pizza – Pepperoni, Italian sausage, red onions, black olives, green peppers, sliced mushrooms and signature house pizza sauce.
- Meat Me Pizza – Loaded with four premium meaty toppings and garnished with green olives and fresh basil.
- Thai Pie – Roasted chicken, mushrooms, red peppers, broccoli and Thai chili sauce, topped with green onions, teriyaki, sesame seeds, mozzarella and cheddar cheese.
- Tuscan Chicken with Spinach – Lemon garlic sauce, sun-dried tomatoes, applewood spiced chicken, bruschetta tomatoes and roasted garlic, then topped with fresh spinach tossed in lemon vinaigrette.
Since its inception, Old Chicago has been committed to being the best place to share a world-class pizza and great craft beer. Whether it's lunch, a first date or a sporting championship celebration, the Colorado Springs community will always be welcome to gather around at Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom to share good times, great beer and made-from-scratch food daily from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Old Chicago in Colorado Springs will also offer catering services for pickup at the restaurant.
A leader in the traditional casual dining space, Old Chicago has been serving handcrafted food and local craft beers in Colorado and in cities across the nation for 39 years. Old Chicago is dedicated to providing quality food creations and to showcasing craft brewers, while providing great value in a welcoming atmosphere. To learn more about Old Chicago, visit www.oldchicago.com.
About Old Chicago
Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom (Old Chicago) is a traditional, casual dining restaurant specializing in Chicago-style pizzas, taproom classics and craft beer. Founded in 1976, Old Chicago operates in 22 states with more than 100 restaurants. With over 30 craft beers on tap, Old Chicago is also the home of the World Beer Tour, which rewards members for enjoying 110 of the best craft beers from across the globe. Visit www.oldchicago.com to learn more and to find the restaurant nearest you. For information about franchise opportunities, visit www.ocfranchising.com.
About CraftWorks
CraftWorks Restaurants & Breweries, Inc. is the largest craft brewery restaurant operator in the country with nearly 200 franchised and company-owned restaurants primarily operating under the Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom, Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurants and Rock Bottom Restaurants & Breweries brands. As a leader in the craft beer focused casual dining segment, CraftWorks also operates strong regional brands, and employs more than 12,000 people throughout the U.S. All of CraftWorks' restaurant brands have innovative menus with made-from-scratch food and a vast selection of unique craft beer, as well as unbeatable service and loyalty programs with over a half-million active members. Based in Broomfield, Colo., CraftWorks is not only committed to serving its loyal guests, but also the communities in which its restaurants operate. The CraftWorks Foundation has contributed millions of dollars, positively impacting communities throughout the country. For additional information about CraftWorks, the Foundation, and its restaurant brands, please visit www.craftworksrestaurants.com.
SOURCE CraftWorks
Media Contact:
Andie Biederman
Account Manager
Fish Consulting, LLC
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Bikini Beach TV live
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- "keyword Google search : Bikini Beach TV live
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Welcome to Poormans Bikini Beach, the Ebert and Roeper of beautiful girl events, that focuses not only on the beautiful girls, but also on the surrounding hoopla that is a part of everyone of these events from the event itself to the wild antics of the celebrity attendees. There are three events per show and a different beautiful modelactress in a bikini guest hosts each episode. At the conclusion of coverage of each Beautiful Girl event, The Poorman rates the event a Poor Thumb Up! or a Poor Thumb Down!…
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text: Promethean ActivBoard 6 Touch 88D System – Buy 2 Get 1 Free by Mark Menzella. Posted on December 6, 2016 Choose From 3 Configurations including Wall Mounted, Fixed Stand, and Adjustable Stands. All of Promethean's interactive whiteboards come with our award-winning software to create an engaging and interactive learning experience in the classroom. While Supplies Last Expires 12/30/2016 I Want One Wall Mount ActivBoard 88" 6 Touch UST Projector & Wall Mount BUY 2 GET 1 FREE End user price $6,094 Fixed Stand ActivBoard 88" 6 Touch UST Projector & Fixed Stand BUY 2 GET 1 FREE End user price $7,894 Adjustable Stand ActivBoard 88" 6 Touch UST Projector & Adjustable Stand BUY 2 GET 1 FREE End user price $9,494 For more information or to place an order call your Promethean Sales Representative at 877-791-4550 Terms and Conditions: The promotional pricing applies to qualifying orders received November 28, 2016 through close of business December 30, 2016 (PST). The IWB Clearance 2016 Promotion offers pre K-12 customers in the United States and the District of Columbia (PreK-12 customers in U. S. Territories are not eligible to participate) the opportunity, subject to the terms and conditions described herein, to purchase three (3) ActivBoard 6 Touch 88D Systems at the following reduced prices listed above. Minimum three (3) ActivBoard 6 Touch 88D Systems per purchase in order to receive promotional pricing (subject to the terms described herein, unlimited quantities available at promotional pricing while supplies last). ActivBoard 6 Touch 88D Systems must be ordered in increments of three (3). By way of example, an eligible customer who orders 10 ActivBoard 6 Touch 88D Systems will receive the promotional pricing only for nine (9) ActivBoard Systems (3 sets of 3 Systems each = 9 Systems at promotional pricing). The remaining IWB will be priced/sold at regular price without the promotional offer. Offer is not available with special bid pricing or volume pricing. Offer is not transferable and may not be combined with any other offer from Promethean. Offer is not redeemable for cash, and may not be used for credit on previous orders. No product exceptions or substitutions allowed and no quantity exceptions allowed. Offers do not include shipping, installation, or applicable taxes. Offer available only while supplies last and Promethean reserves the right to change, modify, or discontinue the Offer at any time and without notice.


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BenteUno Labs™: AKG K551 Closed-Back Reference-Class Headphones Review
Feeling like stepping up from being an audio junkie to the next-gen audiophile, then give this pair a try... AKG 551 Closed-Back Reference-Class Headphones
Headphones are known usual big-sized cups that covers the ears and long cable that's usually 1 meter and a half. An often misconception of others as a music rebel. But times passed and manufacturers added style and really changed how it looked. Some also included different colors per model. Some have removable or personalized earcups.
Overall, headphones are known for music afficionados who want to get away from the outside world. But hey, times changed its getting more love these days.
In this review, we'll not just tackle a regular headphone unit. This is a Closed-Back Reference Class Headset, The AKG K551 Reference class headphones by Harman.
In this review, we'll not just tackle a regular headphone unit. This is a Closed-Back Reference Class Headset, The AKG K551 Reference class headphones by Harman.
At a Glance:
All Premium. This is what our initial reaction when we took it out of the box. The hard box itself look sturdy enough to hold and display the headphones when not in use. Though it's only available in two colorways: White/silver with blue cable and black/silver with silver cable, it's already enough, as the K551 boasts on its high-end quality-sound engineering. We got the chance to review White/Silver variant, and we like it better than the other. The white finish is more appealing to the eyes, not that we don't like black. It's fresh inside out. Having these as an extension of the new releases of iPhone/iPad models, instead of using the regular earpods will definitely turn heads.
Pack and Specs:
Unboxing the AKG K551 is like opening a big box of gift. AKG didn't include any pouch w/ the package as its 2D axis design is to let it lie flat when not in use. Just make sure that it won't touch a rough surfaces.
Here's the specs sheet for audio geeks:
- System: Dynamic
- Design: Closed-back
- Color: White/silver with blue cable or black/silver with silver cable
- Frequency range: 12Hz – 28kHz
- Sensitivity: 114dB SPL/V
- Input impedance: 32 ohms
- Maximum input power: 200mW
- Net weight (without cable): 10.76 oz (305g)
- Cable: 99.99% oxygen-free cable, 4' (1.2m)
- Main connection: 1/8" (3.5mm) stereo mini-jack plug
Key Features:
- Packs a 50mm driver
- Real Image Engineering
- 2D Axis Fold Flat Mechanism
- In-line mic and remote control for iOS devices
- 3.5mm jack, a standard for music devices
- passive noise reduction
- 12 levels of adjustment for the headband(left and right ear)
- Comfortable to wear despite its size
- unadulterated sound
- perfect for audiophiles with big heads
- rotatable ear foams
- adjustable headband
- too big to carry
- cable seems to curl in time
- non-foldable design
- no pouch included
Just by the design of it, you'll get the feeling that it's something that you can be proud of to wear anytime day or night. Hey it's AKG! If you're going to a war this should be part of your battle gear. Both colorways are pleasing to the eyes. So it's up to you which colorway you'd go down for. The brushed steel finish on the headband and on the the inner ring of the outer portion of the earcups brings elegance.
The Examination
Size does matter. It really does. With the AKG K551, it does deliver outstanding output that really gives you music to the ears, thanks to the 50mm driver. Rich, full, non-generic sound experience that's beyond par and will delight its users.
The sound it produces is loud enough and won't require a booster. So investing on this headset won't be an issue as it will not require you to purchase extra sound enhancers to let you reach music nirvana.
The ear cups covers the whole ear reducing the background noise from the outside world. It doesn't fully cuts off outside noise which makes this headphone safe even if you're walking on a busy street.
Having an oxygen-free cable give you a feeling of security, as you can expect that the quality of the cable and the wires inside won't get damaged easily even if it undergoes bents and folds every time you store it.
As we mentioned earlier, there are 12 levels of adjustment. Though it doesn't lock firmly, but it doesn't feel loose, keeping the adjustment of your choice stay in place. Once you adjusted for a perfect fit, you won't be doing it again. The slide mechanism will only loosen if you're the type of person who likes to share it with friends who have different head structure.
BenteUno Labs™ Conclusion
Reviewing the AKG 551 headphones is delightful experience, as it give you the full surround sound of your favorite album or track. Every tune counts and that's one of the sweet spots of the K551. Whether you're an audiophile or not, choosing the AKG K551 won't disappoint provided that it's Harman/AKG -made, who's experience are unparalleled.
The premium packaging, aesthetics and the unbeatable sound will cost you thrice or more than your regular headphones, you're getting the true value of its price point. No matter what genre you're into, these reference-class headphones can deliver. If you're into the overall sound experience and quality of your headphones then price doesn't matter.
This AKG K551 Closed-Back Reference-Class headset is priced at P16,490 and available on the ff JBL stores:
- JBL Acoustical Space- 4th Floor SM Megamall, Cyberzone Bldg. B, 919-6012
- JBL Sound Gallery- B3, Bonifacio High Street, 856-5041
- JBL Digital Dreams- 4th Floor SM North Annex, Cyberzone, 738-2554
You can also get them from leading gadget stores nationwide. By default per purchase comes with a 1-year warranty.


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All books are available to purchase on Amazon, on Gillbooks.ie or in Easons Bookshops nationwide.
Mediterranean Mood Food
My latest book is called Mediterranean Mood Foods. It's well established that adhering to the Traditional Mediterranean Diet brings many heart, circulatory and physical health benefits. But now, new evidence suggests that the Mediterranean diet may also help lower the risk of depression too, with those who follow the diet experiencing a significant reduction in symptom severity.
I want people to think 'food first' before they consider medication for mental and physical dis-ease. Medication is often long term and has side effects. Our food, drinking and activity habits can be as effective, if not more effective than medication when it comes to managing many mental and lifestyle related disease.
The new evidence we have on food and depression needs to be public knowledge and it affects many of us here in the Western World. The food-gut microbiome-brain connections are fascinating and many people are still unaware of the far reaching effects of what and how they eat.
I feel strongly about the environment and how food production can help or hinder it in the long-term. We need to define a safe operating space for food systems that can enable us to meet our environmental targets for this planet.We now have evidence that a more plant based diet is a win win for both human health and the environment. This book is based on a food pattern that is largely plant based with a moderate intake of seafood, poultry and dairy and the occasional red meat meal. The two agendas of health and sustainability can be merged and viewed as one.
Gut health is for everyone. Our challenge is how do we eat something living every day. Fermented probiotic foods are included in many recipes and most recipes are based on the premise that we need to eat more prebiotic vegetables daily. Rather than suggesting people eat in a restrictive way my philosophy is to use fresh food with lots of flavour to make food and mealtimes enjoyable and accessible to everyone.
There are a number of jigsaw pieces that connect to build good mental and physical health. This book is about a sustainable long - term approach to good health and longevity - an antidote to the growing number of Fad Diets out there.
The science of 'eating for health' doesn't need to be hyped to grasp attention. It just needs to be translated into some simple practical steps which most of us can understand and implement if we choose to.
In this book I give the Traditional Mediterranean Diet a make-over. The foods in my recipes are pretty common-place, accessible and affordable. Mediterranean Mood Food is designed to be a flexible, easy to follow – a real food approach where calories are not the central focus, neither are units and points.
In a meta-analysis published in the British Medical Journal, which collectively included 1.5 million people, researchers found that greater adherence to a Mediterranean Diet resulted in significant improvements to health, including a 9% drop in overall mortality, a 9% drop in mortality from heart disease and stroke and a 13% reduction in Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.
When you eat food direct from nature you don't need to worry about getting enough vitamins, mineral or fibre to feed the good gut bacteria. And you don't have to worry about the balance of fats or avoiding trans fats , sugar or salt. When you focus on real food, calories and nutrients tend to take care of themselves.
This book is a modern twist on the traditional Mediterranean diet. It will help you physically and mentally to stay in great shape and lower your risk of lifestyle related disease.
Your Middle Years; Love them, Live them, Own them!
I had a lot of questions when I reached menopause. While doctors were matter-of-fact and friends had light-hearted conversations about this time of life, there was no road map for what, if unprepared, can be a turbulent transition. That's why Kate O Brien and I put our heads together and wrote one ourselves.
Combining our joint expertise, it shows that midlife and the menopause years are NOT a stumbling block but an opportunity to embrace maturity, feeling energised, refreshed and ready to take on the next phase of life with gusto.
Your Middle Years, love them, Live them, own them is a timely call to women in midlife to make the most of what could be the most exciting chapter in their lives.
You can buy Your Middle Years on Amazon, on Gillbooks.ie or find it / order it in any good bookshop.
Click here for more details on Your Middle Years the book.
Gut Feeling
Fodmaps are found in many everyday foods. These foods are not necessarily unhealthy. In fact, foods such as chickpeas, butterbeans and cashew nuts and certain fresh foods (avocado, beetroot and apple) are both nutritious and high in Fodmaps.
Fodmaps stands for Fermentable, Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides and Polyols. These are small constituents of foods that are poorly absorbed in people who have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and other functional gut disorders.
When these food components fail to be absorbed from the small intestine, they continue along the gut into the large intestine. Here gut bacteria ferment the Fodmaps and cause a range of symptoms including excessive wind, abdominal bloating, distension and changes in bowel habits (diarrhoea, constipation, or a combination of both).
An Australian research team from Monash University was the first to investigate the benefits of restricting Fodmaps in IBS patients. As they manipulated the Fodmap content of the diet, they saw a significant change in the pattern of gas production and other gut symptoms. Since then they have established a precise method of analysing the Fodmap content of a wide variety of Australian and international foods. This means we can now access a comprehensive and accurate database of Fodmap containing foods.
It is estimated that bowel conditions affect as many as one in five people and IBS is particularly common in young women in their 20s and 30s. Gut symptoms can make people feel wretched and consistently interfere with the enjoyment of food and the ability to live a normal life. Thanks to the Monash scientists we understand the mechanism by which the Low Fodmap diet works and we have the evidence that symptoms either improve or are resolved in three out of four people with IBS.
Ideally Gut Feeling is an adjunct to help patients avoid their trigger foods, tailor their cooking skills and follow low Fodmap recipes. All recipes are analysed for their nutrition content and allergens. Symbols are used to help quickly identify meals relevant to the IBS patient; 'high in fibre', 'low in calories', 'spicy' etc.
The book also provides food swap ideas, eating out tips and information on how best to eat with specific symptom. For example, it is best to avoid supplementing your diet with wheat bran if you have constipation. Ground linseeds (6–24g per day) can help relieve abdominal discomfort and bloating if you have constipation.
With 100 versatile recipes, including dinners that include Beef and Bok Choy Stir-Fry and Chicken Skewers with Corn and Rice Salad those who suffer with a sensitive gut can find real relief and still enjoy their food.


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Jobs Power Market Rebound
Unemployment Rate Dips to 8.3% on Broad Gains
The U.S. economy added more jobs in January than in any month since early last year, pushing down the unemployment rate to a level not seen since President Barack Obama's first full month in office.
Employers added 243,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said Friday, notching gains across a wide swath of the economy. That marked the fastest pace of job growth since April and brought the unemployment rate down to 8.3%, from December's 8.5%—the fifth consecutive monthly decline.
To Read the Full Story


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We all have heard the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words, but come to find out when it comes to social media, pictures are worth more than any words. According to new research from HubSpot, Facebook posts that include photos received 53 percent more likes and 104 percent more comments than the average post.
With Facebook users uploading more than 300 million photos to the site per day and the rise of Instagram during 2012, marketers need to be aware that their customers want to and expect to see pictures.
However, pictures aren't only good just for engagement, they are also good for EdgeRank, which is Facebook's visibility algorithm that is based on user interaction. The higher your page's EdgeRank, the more likely it is your content will appear in fans' New Feeds.
The question then turns to what to do about the links your company is sharing on Facebook? The answer is that they are still important. No page should post photos 100 percent of the time, just like you should never post purely your content 100 percent of the time. However, you can sneak your links into these picture posts by adding them in the description or comments section. The same study found that links in photo posts received 84 percent more clicks than just a text or link sharing post.
The main take away from all of this for businesses is that photos are as important as ever, and you need to make sure your marketing strategies call for using social media outlets such as Pinterest and Instagram while also providing visual posts elsewhere.
If your company is ready to visually engage consumers in a way that will make a huge impact on ROI, contact Marketing RELEVANCE.


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Workers of Egypt's cigarette monopoly Eastern Company ended their strike in front of the company's main headquarters in Giza Tuesday evening after successful negotiations with the minister of investment and the company's head.
Workers will receive all of the things they've asked for, including payment of bonuses from the past 42 months and meal allowances.
Ahmed Ismail will also be appointed temporary chairman after the current chairman, Nabil Abdel Aziz, was hospitalized Tuesday. Abdel Aziz is recovering from health problems he suffered due to being trapped in his office by striking workers for 48 hours.
Workers' representative Mohamed Awad said that they welcomed the assistance of Investment Minister Osama Saleh and had also decided to work additional shifts to make up for the days they were on strike.
The employees, he said, were not asking for more than their legal rights. He also pointed out that they had responded to Giza Governor Ali Abdel Rahman's request to allow traffic on Haram Street, which they had blocked during the sit-in.
Eastern Company is owned by the Government Holding Company for Food Industries, and has a monopoly on cigarette manufacturing in Egypt.
It has so far recorded a profit of nearly LE165.4 million during the current fiscal year, compared to LE121 last year.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm


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Many of our customers tell us we have the best honey they've ever tasted. Many of you may like our honey from trying a sample at a farmer's market or from interacting with us during a swarm relocation. You may not know how special our honey truly is. We believe that our honey is not only the best tasting, but that we put more attention and care into the production of our honey than any other honey producer in Texas.
As we approach the first significant harvest of the 2016 honey season, we want to share the reasons why our honey is special. Each day, we'll add a reason why our honey is special, until we're ready to sell honey at a farmer's market or at one of our partner sites.
Day 1: Our honey is special because we are beekeepers.
Believe it or not, some folks selling honey don't actually have bees. They buy buckets or drums full of honey from a commodity distributor and fill bottles. They can't tell you how old that honey is, where it came from, whether it has been chemically treated, or whether it truly is pure honey. At BZ Honey, we take care of our bees so they'll provide us with the honey we bottle and sell to you. We check each hive every week to ensure its health, control swarms, and to maximize colony growth. It's a simple model, but by working with our bees, we can tell you anything you need to know about our honey.
We started as backyard beekeepers and kept increasing our hive count because we love what we do. This is our special calling, to provide pure, local honey to the NW Harris County communities.
Day 2: We manage our own hives.
We continue to grow, but we're still able to personally manage all our hives. We inspect each hive every 7-10 days during the swarm season to ensure our colonies have room to grow to keep them from swarming. We also ensure that each hive has a healthy queen to lay eggs and determine when we can harvest honey. Sure, the protective gear gets hot, we take an occasional sting, and the boxes get heavy, but this is how we ensure the health and check the status of each of our colonies. One day, we may have enough hives that we need to hire additional beekeepers, but today every bee is cared for by a member of the BZ family.
Day 3: Our bees spend the entire year in NW Harris County.
We may deliver an occasional hive to a customer for backyard pollination, but our bees are truly stationary hives. We don't truck our bees across the country for almond pollination or across the state chasing nectar flows. We put our hives into one of our managed yards and we let them create honey from the nectar produced in a 3 mile radius of that yard. We think this keeps our bees healthy and allows us to deliver truly local honey to our customers. You can actually see and taste the difference in the honey produced by our hives in Spring, Summer, and Fall. We don't know of any other beekeepers in our area who celebrate the uniqueness of their honey as much as we do. If you still have some dark, Fall honey left over from last year, feel free to finish it off. We have some sweet, light, Spring honey coming to market soon!
Day 4: We don't put any chemicals in our hives.
Apivar, Apistan, Thymol, MAQS, Oxalic Acid, Fumigilin. This is a list of some of the chemicals that beekeepers put in their hives to control pests. Since beeswax and honey both readily absorb compounds from their environment, we just don't understand how beekeepers can harvest and sell honey from hives laden with these chemicals. "Here you go ma'am, nature's original sweetener with a small dose of Apistan." No, thank you. Our honey is special because we are part of the minority of beekeepers who refuse to use chemicals to treat our hives. Before we even received our first colony, we made a decision to keep our bees and our honey chemical-free. We use sound hive management practices and a focused queen rearing program to allow our bees to manage pests on their own. Every one of this year's production hives survived winter without treatments and is thriving and healthy, producing surplus honey we'll bring to market soon.
Day 5: We relocate wild swarms to our managed yards.
We love being able to catch a swarm of bees before they decide to make their home in the eaves or wall of someone's house. In addition to providing a good service in our community, we put these swarms in our managed yards and use their desire to build comb to grow a new colony. Since swarms are typically led by the old queen from a successful hive, adding these swarms to our yards provides a new genetic line of bees that have survived the fall mite onslaught and winter. We use these colonies to provide drones for open mating with our queens and will breed queens from exceptional colonies. Our honey is special because we encourage a diverse genetic mix of colonies in each of our yards to counter threats from pests.
Day 6: We partner with bee-friendly businesses to host our hives.
To ensure our bees are positioned to maximize nectar forage from certain areas and to provide "neighborhood" honey to local customers, we partner with bee-friendly businesses in NW Harris County. Plants for All Seasons and The Arbor Gate, two of the Houston area's premier nursery and garden centers, serve as a reminder that homeowners can have beautiful gardens without resorting to harsh pesticides. We maintain approximately 20 hives at each location. These bee thrive off the many varieties of flowering plants at the nurseries and the forage surrounding these locations. Last year, we expanded this model and have positioned hives at Jane and John Dough Bakery, Verdant Tree Farm on Barker-Cypress, and at the Tomball Community Garden at Tomball United Methodist Church. Without the cooperation of these bee-friendly sites, we would be unable provide such a wide variety of honey.
Day 7: We celebrate the diversity of our honey harvests.
Most commercial beekeepers blend the harvests from multiple yards and multiple seasons to produce a honey that is a consistent color and flavor. We think consistent color and flavor destroys what makes our local honey special. When we harvest honey from a particular yard, we extract and bottle that honey separately from any other harvests. We specify the yard of origin on each bottle of honey we fill. If you buy honey that's labeled "Tomball, TX", then that bottle only contains honey made from the nectar in a 3 mile radius around our bee yard in Tomball. It may look and taste different than the honey from our Cypress yard or our partner yards. It may also look and taste different than honey from our Tomball yard harvested on a different date. Typically, our Spring honey is our lightest color and flavor, with the color getting darker and the taste more robust as the year progresses to Fall. Each variation is useful and tasty in its own way, so don't be afraid to have several bottles in your pantry.
Day 8: Our honey is fresh.
We extract honey from our hives as soon as the bees cap the honey cells on the frames. You can see the changes in color during the year as different flowers begin blooming. In late May or early June, we begin our season with honey produced from clover and tallow flowers, producing a very light, sweet honey. Over the course of the summer and into early fall, the seasonal flowers will produce honey with a darker color and more robust flavor until we harvest the dark goldenrod honey in late fall. We often tell you something like, "this honey was still in the hive last Wednesday", but if we don't, feel free to ask us. We'll know and we'll tell you. That makes our honey special.
Day 9: We sell pure, raw honey.
We don't mess with our honey! We don't add anything to it. Our bees have done a great job with their recipe, so we don't need to alter it in any way. We also don't ever heat our honey. Raw honey has very delicate floral aromas and enzymes which heat destroys. We take our honey from the hives and bottle it, just the way it is.


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The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has welcomed Russian President Valdimir Putin to Ankara for what has been described by Putin as a "working meeting".
Erdogan began by praising the increased growing economic and political ties between the two countries, during what is beyond doubt, a period of historically good relations between states that fought multiple wars over the centuries and whose relations fell to a 21st century low as recently as 2015.
Since 2015, when Turkey shot down a Russia fighter jet, killing one pilot, relations have rapidly improved, much to the surprise of observers in both Russia and Turkey.
Turkey and Russia continue to engage in multiple cooperative economic efforts including the so-called Turk Stream gas pipeline from Russia into southern Europe.
Since Turkey quietly dropped its support for the so-called Syrian opposition in August of this year, the Astana Peace talks have proceeded even more smoothly. Without speaking directly, Syria now has agreed to agreements drafted by Turkey along with Syria's partners Russia and Iran.
During their short statements to journalists, Erdogan and Putin both expressed their complete confidence in the Astana process. Vladimir Putin praised Erdogan's constructive role in securing the process and Erdogan prised the positive results of recent Astana talks. This effectively is coded language for Turkey fully abandoning its formal opposition to the government in Syria.
Turkey in realising the pragmatic realities of the conflict being won by Syria in addition to Turkey's economic relationship taking precedent over more obtuse 'neo-Ottoman' ambitions, clearly played a role in Turkey's confirmed geo-strategic and geo-political pivot. Furthermore, in the process, Turkey has also grown closer to Iran, both because of the apparently good working relations at Astana and also because of a mutual Russian partner, in addition to a similar view on the Qatar crisis. Crucially Turkey, Iran, Russia, Syria and Iraq are each integral parts of China's One Belt–One Road, an initiative that will necessarily bind the countries closer together, in spite of many generally exaggerated differences (except in respect of Syria and Turkey, although this too is slowly changing).
While Erdogan described Putin as a "dear friend" and praised the leaders' frequent telephone calls and warm relations, Putin was more keen to emphasise the businesslike nature of the meeting. Erdogan stated that both Russia and Turkey support the territorial integrity of Iraq against Kurdish secessionists, however Putin merely referred to a previous statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry expressing Russia's support for Iraq's unity. This is generally a refection of Russia having a less ideological approach to the Kurdish issue than Turkey, which views Kurdish independence anywhere in the region as a direct security threat. Ultimately, both countries have a similar position, but Turkey may likely militarily intervene in northern Iraq while Russia will certainly not. Already, Turkish and Iraqi troops are conducting joint drills on the Turkish side of the border as a result of the Kurds conducting an unconstitutional secessionists referendum. Putin clearly distanced himself from the more militant aspect of Turkey's policy on this issue, as was widely expected.
Erdogan did not mention his earlier remarks offering a prisoner exchange with the United States. Today, Erdogan made a statement addressed to the United States, offering the release of the prisoner Andrew Brunson in exchange for the exiled Turkish cleric, Erdogan rival and terrorist (according to Turkey), Fethullah Gulen. Brunson, a US citizen, had run a Christian church in the Gulenist hotbed of Izmir and is currently in prison in Turkey on terrorism charges. The US has not yet commented on the offer, but Washington's refusal to turn over Gulen to Ankara has been one of many increased points of tension between the former allies.
The most crucial statement of the Erdogan-Putin press conference, however, was when Erdogan referred to Eurasia as "our region". In this sense Turkey has formally left the west in a political sense, even while retaining an increasingly uncomfortable membership in NATO. Turkey is now part of Eurasia and Russia played a large part in bringing Turkey back home.
Now watch the full press conference with Presidents Erdogan and Putin from Ankara.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Duran.


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This collection of essays takes as its starting point Arthur Ripstein's Force and Freedom: Kant's Legal and Political Philosophy, a seminal work on Kant's thinking about law, which also treats many of the contemporary issues of legal and political philosophy. The essays offer readings and elucidations of Ripstein's thought, dispute some of his claims and extend some of his themes within broader philosophical contexts, thus developing the significance of Ripstein's ideas for contemporary legal and political philosophy.All of the essays are contributions to normative philosophy in a broadly Kantian spirit. Prominent themes include rights in the body, the relation between morality and law, the nature of coercion and its role in legal obligation, the role of indeterminacy in law, the nature and justification of political society and the theory of the state. This volume will be of interest to a wide audience, including legal scholars, Kant scholars, and philosophers with an interest in Kant or in legal and political philosophy.
OVERVIEW1. Ripstein and His Critics Martin J StoneI. INNATE RIGHT2. Persons and Bodies Japa Pallikkathayil3. A Regime of Equal Private Freedom? Individual Rights and Public Law in Ripstein's Force and Freedom Katrin FlikschuhII. FORMALITY4. Rights and Interests in Ripstein's Kant Andrea Sangiovanni5. Independent People AJ JuliusIII. PUBLIC RIGHT6. Why Is Willing Irrelevant to the Grounding of (Any) Obligation? Remarks on Arthur Ripstein's Conception of Omnilateral Willing George Pavlakos7. Ripstein on Kant on Revolution Daniel WeinstockIV. RIGHT AND ETHICS8. Right and Ethics: Arthur Ripstein's Force and Freedom Allen Wood9. Kant's Apparent Positivism Martin J StoneV. REPLY10. Embodied Free Beings under Public Law: A Reply Arthur Ripstein
"The book is a model of the genre: not only are all the essays exceptionally well developed, they unfold in a coherent sequence, aided by Stone's virtuoso introduction... a superb book that goes to the heart of Ripstein's legal theory-a theory that is itself justly at the heart of legal philosophy today." – Nick Sage, London School of Economics and Political Science,
Canadian Journal of Law & Jurisprudence


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Join Host, Roy Taylor (Pawnee), for INDIGENEITY RISING. It will be a packed episode of Indigenous art, music and politics. It's also "FALL MEMBERSHIP DRIVE WEEK", I'll have very special guests in the studio and on the phone, as well as my special membership pledge rapper!
I'm welcoming into the studio, "Guest Host", MELISSA OLSON (White Earth Ojibwe). Melissa had principal involvement in an award-winning radio documentary that was heard on KFAI's "Minneculture" titled, "STOLEN CHILDHOODS". I'll be talking with her about that story related to Native Children Adoption pre-Indian Child Welfare Act.
On the phone I'll speak with DEBORAH RAMOS of, ARTES TLALNEPANTLA, who along with INTERMEDIA ARTS is opening, "FESTIVAL DE LAS CALAVERAS, Dia De Los Muertos/Day Of The Dead. This is a multimedia, multidisciplinary arts exhibition that explores contemporary expressions and traditional elements centered on the celebration of Day of the Dead, an Indigenous Mexican tradition.
Also later in the program, I'll speak from Iowa with RUBY MONTOYA, who was involved in supportive Allies civil disobedience action related to opposition of the DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE. She will be in the Twin Cities this Friday for a "STOP LINE 3" event, "DISMANTLING DAPL". Ruby privately launched a campaign aimed at the direct dismantling of DAPL infrastructure.
Be sure to listen in throughout, as it's MEMBERSHIP DRIVE WEEK, we'll be announcing some special INDIGENEITY RISING related premiums and KFAI Fresh Air Radio premiums.


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REVIEW: Ella Eyre – Mandela Hall, Belfast
Shooting to fame in 2013 after featuring on Rudimental's Waiting All Night, 20 year old pop/R&B sensation Ella Eyre has since been an unstoppable force in the UK music scene.
Best known for her sultry vocals, feisty attitude and that lion's mane of hair (which I'm extremely envious of), she played her first major Irish gig this weekend at Belfast's Mandela Hall.
The show was originally planned for October, but had to be rescheduled due to Ella winning her first MOBO award, as you do.
Warming up for Ella was up and coming acoustic sensation Jake Isaac. I was beyond impressed with what this guy could do with just his voice and an acoustic guitar.
Isaacs's vocals were melodic, captivating and calming, and the crowd absolutely loved him, especially when he came offstage and asked us to gather in a circle around him as he sang, making his performance all the more intimate.
On top of this, he seems like a genuinely lovely, funny guy and had such a great rapport with the crowd. Highlights for me were Stronger which he sang flawlessly and Chaos, which he told us was written about his mother.
There was absolute euphoria amongst the crowd as Ella bounced on stage like a ball of energy, and that energy didn't let up for her entire performance. It was like she was feeding off the crowd's reaction and absolutely loving every second of it. Her band were amazing too giving us a few unexpected guitar solos, and her two backing dancers were captivating to watch.
The mood mellowed down slightly and the lights in Mandela dimmed for moving ballad Even If, giving us a chance to really hear her vocals, which were absolutely flawless. The tone stayed poignant with the gorgeous Home, and the crowd erupted when it faded into her number one hit Waiting All Night.
The whole of Mandela sang along to final single Gravity and Ella seemed truly moved by their interaction with her which was lovely to see. With the lights dimming, and neon strobes flashing onstage, she jumped back on for an encore, bursting straight into If I Go, sending the crowd into yet another frenzy. After her final song of the night Together, Ella seemed genuinely touched by the reaction she received and vowed to come back to Belfast soon.
For a twenty year old without even a debut album under her belt yet, Ella Eyre truly held her own for the Belfast crowd, giving us her all for the whole performance. I was seriously impressed with her vocals and unwavering energy throughout the gig and will definitely be back to see her when she returns. Meghan Gilleece, GiggingNI.com


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CITY INITIATIVES for TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION and ENTREPRENEURSHIP (CITIE) supports city leaders to develop policy to catalyse innovation and entrepreneurship.
In 2015 I built the CITIE holding website to showcase the project. It was a multi-section single page responsive website with a rapid turnaround in development time. This holding website was used alongside early announcements of the project to inform about the vision of the project and gather support.
Later in the project I supported the production phase of the main website by providing quality assurance through data analysis and generation of test data visualisations. This role included troubleshooting the data provided from the client and building a comparison tool, so the team could easily test the data visualisations on the main website to ensure they were behaving as they should. I built these tests using Chart.js and Python libraries.
The holding site is no longer live but you can visit the main project website here:
Company: Future Cities Catapult
Year: 2015
Role: Developer
Credits: Design – Alan Waldock
Client: Accenture / Nesta
Developed both the Organicity holding website and the full Organicity website, the latter involved developing a custom WordPress theme.
Company: Future Cities Catapult
Year: 2015
Role: Developer
Design – Paul Hamilton
Development – Thomas Hartnell (WordPress theme) / Kay Lovelace (Further WordPress development on live site)
Producer – Tom Leaver
Urban Datastore
Front-end development of the Urban Datastore. Involved in the design research, which built upon insights from data users. Also rewrote the Transport API documentation into new format.
Company: Future Cities Catapult
Year: 2015
Role: Developer
Design – Alan Waldock
Development – Thomas Hartnell (Back-end development)
Developer Documentation Support – Harry Wood (Transport API)


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Ben is the last Queenslander standing in MasterChef finals
BEN MacDonald is the last Queenslander standing on MasterChef.
The Brisbane IT consultant, originally from Whangarei in New Zealand, has reached the milestone of the reality cooking show's finals week, which starts tonight.
The 36-year-old goes into the finals on a wave of confidence after he wowed guest judge Heston Blumenthal on Thursday with his inventive "bonfire on a plate" dish.
"Eating at Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck changed the way I thought about food forever," said MacDonald, who lived in the UK for 13 years.
In tonight's mystery box challenge MacDonald will have to create a dish based on ingredients chosen by his girlfriend Robyn, whose parents live at Dickie Beach on the Sunshine Coast.
"We spend a lot of time up there," he said.
"We met in London six or seven years ago, so when I got the work opportunity in Brisbane we could be closer to her parents.
"I love it up there; I think it's fantastic. Even when I was living in London we had Christmases up there."
Robyn was a vegetarian when she first met the foodie, who converted her back to meat with his lamb tagine.
MacDonald reckons the separation and limited communication is harder for the partners than the contestants on the show.
"You've been hanging out with a bunch of new friends and going through amazing experiences," he said.
"They're the unsung heroes at the end of the day. They're the ones at home eating cereal for dinner."
There's no turning back for MacDonald, who quit his job in IT when he was accepted on to the show.
"I plan on giving it everything," he said.
"MasterChef is the first step and it will open a lot of doors but it's up to me to walk through them."
MasterChef finals week starts tonight at 6.30pm on Channel 10.


text: thecruisers6 #126 Posted September 7, 2019 4 minutes ago, Norwegian Cruiser 73 said: Good evening from Norway 🇳🇴 We had a great cruise on the beautiful MSC Seaview and the company was wonderful. Cruising with the Irish was great fun. I really like the Seaside Class even if the ship are a bit to big. The YC experience is more personal on the Fantasia Class. I also find the food portions during dinner in the YC restaurant a bit on the small side... And then the cheesekake 😅 I will for sure make a video from the cruise. Stay tuned. Personally I do recommend the Seaside Class. They are great ships and offer a lot of entertainment and offers onboard. I look forward to the video. I feel a bit worried about Meraviglia feeling less personal than Divina and Splendida which we absolutely loved. I think I could quite happily live in the piazza on Divina 😂 I just said to Bea we have to hurry up and win the lottery and cruise every other week. We loved our 3 days in Norway you have a wonderful country. I'm still shaking from the trolls footpath going too fast down though! Can't wait to go again. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


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A concealed, hidden, or buried penis is a rare disorder that may be diagnosed in both children and adults. A concealed penis may actually be normal in size, but the shaft is buried under the lower abdomen or tethered to the scrotum. When erect, it rarely extends beyond 2 or 3 inches. Not only is a concealed penis devastating to a man's self-confidence, but it also carries health risks.
- Obesity (excess fat in the lower abdomen)
- Scrotal webbing
- Circumcision complications
- Congenital birth defects
What are the treatment options for concealed penis ?
- Weight loss
- Surgery to remove excess fat or scarred skin
Surgery might involve:
- Removal of excess fat around the lower abdomen
- Removal of scarred tissue
- Scrotal contouring
If you are in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, or West Virginia, look to Dr. Chris McClung. He has devoted his practice to performing highly specialized reconstructive urogenital procedures like concealed penis repair.
Need more info? To schedule a consultation with Dr. McClung in Columbus, Ohio, request one online.


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Christmas Spirit: An Epidemiology
The Christmas spirit is absolutely infectious in London.
After making it through a term of epidemiology and medical statistics, I think I'm at least qualified to say that. [95% CI crossing fingers, crossing toes].
Call me a Grinch but I'm not usually one to celebrate Christmas. Back in Singapore, the streets get all gussied up with lights and decorations but it's hard to really get into the whole snowman thing when it's 33 degrees Celsius all year round.
I hadn't given it much thought here in London either, even as the temperatures started falling. Then one foggy Christmas eve day we went to our local laundrette and discovered that it'd turned into the neighbourhood Christmas tree purveyor overnight.


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Toronto emcee Nue is wasting no time.
A month following the release of his debut tracks "Obvious" and the enchanting "Alaska", he has returned to drop off his official debut mixtape Iroquois.
More than anything, consistency reigns supreme for the newcomer.
While keeping it in line with the updated approach to introspect that Toronto's rising stars are best known for, Nue's Iroquois is one hell of an entrance.
The 13-track effort comes together with a little help from producers Aid and Sauceboy who handle the majority of the project's tracks with an occasional appearance from producer Litewrks.
Safe to say that Nue is on our radar.


text: We have been doing a little research into the superstitions surrounding dairying after we read this in Marie Hartley & Joan Ingilby's book 'Life and Tradition in the Yorkshire Dales': "Mr J. Swales, born 1874, of Low Wood, near Pateley Bridge, remembers a family story of his grandfather, born about 1812, going to Ripon to see a wise woman because the butter would not come, and she gave him some horseshoe nails in a bottle to be buried in the churchyard. Similarly, Margaret Little of Lowlands, Askrigg, Wensleydale, used to put a poker across the top of her stand churn to keep witches away" Hartley & Ingilby (1997 2nd ed p17) Butter churns at the Dales Countryside Museum. The left hand one is a plunge or stand churn It turns out that there has been some fascinating research into similar superstitions in Ireland. The Killererin Heritage Group based in Galway have collected some wonderful folklore surrounding the making of butter: "A neighbour who called during butter-making was always expected to say 'God bless the work' on arrival and then work the dash or crank handle (depending on the type of churn) before leaving, so as not to 'take the luck.'" 'The Folklore of Butter' Killererin Heritage Group 2007 May Day was a crucial day in the Irish dairying calendar. Witches in the form of hares might try to steal milk from grazing cows. Even worse, a witch might take the tether or 'spancel' used to hobble cows during milking and by dragging it though the May morning dew on the cow pasture steal the coming year's butter, "By uttering the words 'Come all to me', as she collected the dew, she played a charm on the spancel. Afterwards, while she secretly gloated, the farmer's wife spent hours churning in vain. The hag's churn however overflowed with butter." ibid Meanwhile, some members of the National Park's staff have been staying in a traditional Romanian village, where cows are still walked out to pasture daily from village centre cowhouses. Milk is an important part of the diet. The photograph shows some of the team enjoying a traditional cheese dish made from raw milk, soured overnight, strained then boiled with cornmeal. It was apparently delicious, a bit like a cheese fondue. Enjoying a traditional Romanian cheese dish We asked if they had any charms or superstitions to do with dairying and they told us that after they have milked a cow, they mark a small cross on her side with a finger dipped in the milk in the bucket. We look forward to hearing from the people that we plan to interview in Wensleydale, whether they have memories of family traditions and if there are still any superstitions surrounding dairying in the area. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)


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Q: Where can I find more information on your open GSI positions?
A: Info on our open GSI positions (course description, required and desired qualifications, etc.) can be found on careers.umich.edu.
Q: I have been offered admission as a graduate student at U-M but have not yet formally accepted the offer of admission in wolverine access. Should I apply on careers.umich.edu as an external applicant?
A: As a non-matriculated student, you fall into a different category of applicant. If you have not yet formally accepted the offer of admission in wolverine access, do not follow the application process in careers.umich.edu. Please submit your application package in hard copy form or by email and skip the careers.umich.edu application process.
Q: I do not have a letter of recommendation from an instructor for whom I have previously taught because I have no teaching experience. What should I do?
A: You should submit a letter of recommendation from someone who could speak to your ability or potential as an instructor. Such a letter addressing your ability or potential to teach could come from an academic advisor, a supervisor, a teacher, etc. Though a letter of recommendation is not required, it is encouraged.
Q: I have more than one letter of recommendation to submit. May I submit more than one?
A: You may submit more than one letter of recommendation. Most applicants only submit one letter.
Q: I have MANY terms of course evaluation summary sheets to submit. Do you want all of my evaluations?
A: Yes, the hiring committee asks to see ALL of your evaluations.
Q: Do you require an official or unofficial transcript from the University of Michigan?
A: The department requires an unofficial U-M transcript only, but will accept an official U-M transcript. If you are submitting a transcript from another institution you may submit an unofficial transcript, but the hiring committee reserves the right to request an official transcript from an applicant before extending a job offer.
Q: Your deadline is 11:59pm EST, but your office closes at 5pm.. How do I submit my application materials after 5pm but before midnight?
A: If you are unable to drop off your materials during regular office hours (M-F, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) you have a couple options. You could send all of your application materials by email to email@example.com or you could slide your application package under the office suite door (5370 North Quad, 105 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285). Access to the Department at night or on the weekends, however, is limited to Communication and Media students, GSIs, and faculty.
Q: Do I need to submit application materials for each position I'm applying for? For example, I'd like to be considered for COMM 101, COMM 102, and COMM 221; do I need to submit three copies of my application materials?
A: You only need to submit one copy of your application materials (resume or CV, letter of recommendation, transcript, course evaluation sheets, and GSI application-selection form) to apply for positions in the department. However, if you are a Ph.D. student in the Department of Communication Studies and you have not worked as a GSI in the past, you are required to apply on umjobs.org for each position for which you would like to be considered. If you are a graduate student in a program outside of the department and you have not worked for us in the past, you are also required to apply on umjobs.org for each position for which you would like to be considered.
Q: Will you let me know when you've received my application package?
A: The Department will send a confirmation email to those applicants who have submitted complete application packages. All applicants with complete application packages will be notified within 24-hours of the application deadline.
Q: When will you let me know when you've made a decision regarding my application?
A: The timeline for decisions and notifications can be found in each GSI position opening under "Decision making process."


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Special Care for your Senior Pets
We have had nothing but senior pets in our family since we adopted Becca in 2009. Tino was already eleven when we adopted her after our Sally passed at age 12 and Becca was 8 at the time. Jack and Maggie were both around 8 when we adopted them too, so we have lots of experience in caring for senior pets.
First, I will say seniors are the best. Yes, it's true, they may not be as rambunctious and hilariously funny as a puppy, but I also don't have to potty train them or clean up their mistakes. They may not have the stamina for a 5 mile run like I was able to do with Tino and Sally when they were in their prime, but I'm not up for a five-miler anymore either!
Senior's trouble-making days are behind them. They are usually well-behaved, calm and happy to just be with you in a warm safe place to live out their golden years. Sure, they may come with some baggage, particularly health related issues. Becca had orthopedic injuries that required special care. Jack had a weight issue that needed to be addressed. And sweet Maggie had a whole lot of fear issues to overcome. But these are minor compared to the host of training challenges involved in raising a puppy.
Seniors may require some special care depending on their age, their health and their overall condition. Since November is Senior Pet month, we're hoping that lots of folks decide to open their hearts and their home to adopting a senior and to those folks we say HURRAH and offer the following tips for caring for your senior pet that we've learned over the years:
Caring for your senior dog:
- ARTHRITIS: Most seniors have mild arthritis. Be sure and give them a warm, dry place and a comfortable bed to sleep on to help their achy joints. Consider supplements like glucosamine and fish oil to provide joint relief. Limit exercise when they seem stiff, avoid stairs and slippery floors – carpet is the best so they can get traction when walking and getting up. Read our previous posts: Arthritis in Dogs and Tips for Exercising Senior Dogs.
- HOLISTIC TREATMENTS: Consider supportive care such as acupuncture, chiropractic adjustments, even massage helps their joints feel better and remain loose. I give Jack a little massage every evening before bed – it relaxes him and I know helps his old bones and achy muscles.
- RICE: Certainly the human treatment Rest – Ice – Compression – Elevation, works for dogs as well. Many humans use cold packs or heating pads for their joints. Heat feels good, but it is NOT suitable for inflammation. That's when you want to use ice. I had an ongoing achy back for months that I would use a heating pad on every day to 'loosen' it up. My physical therapist finally convinced me that icing it everyday would be a better option as it was inflamed and the ice would reduce the inflammation…it worked, so now I use ice when Jack overdoes it and seems a little gimpy.
- DIET: Watch their food intake. Since seniors aren't as active as they were when they were younger, it's easy for them to pack on some pounds. And since their joints are weaker, those extra pounds can really hinder their movement. There may also be a need to adjust the content of their diet. Your dog doesn't need special (read expensive) "Senior" dog food, you just need to be aware of the food protein and carb levels in their food and feed according to your dog's needs. Read our previous post on this issue: Feeding a Senior Dog: Do Older Dogs need Less Protein?
- EXERCISE: Senior dogs may be slowing down, but it's even more critical for them to get proper exercise. We still run with Jack – not 4X a week like he did four years ago, but at least once a week Steve takes him for a slow jog. He does walk everyday – twice a day during the week and I think it's this movement that keeps his arthritis at bay. Maggie loves getting out too – even more so than Jack I think. She's on some restriction due to her osteosarcoma, but exercise and movement is so important to their well being.
One of our longstanding aspirations is to open a shelter for senior pets. They are tough to adopt out given the expectation they won't be around long and the likelihood that they will be expensive as their health care costs increase as they age. But, it's been my experience they are the most grateful & loving dogs when they find that final retirement home. Puppies may be lots of fun, but nothing beats that contented sign of a senior who just had a nice walk and is settling in for their morning nap.
14 Comments
Oh! I hope you do get to open a senior dog shelter!! I've often thought of the same thing but I just don't have the funds to do it, especially now that we're both retired.
Adopting a third dog was never really in my plans – especially a puppy – but Ducky needed us and I haven't regretted adopting her. Still, when Shadow's time comes to join Callie in Heaven, I know Ducky will want a friend to play with and keep her company when we're away from the house. My "plan" is to adopt a senior Golden, or at least an older adult one, at that point. One that can keep up with the little demon dog, or teach her to slow down a little bit. 🙂
Callie, Shadow, and Ducky\'s Mom recently posted…Ducky's Disappearance/Shadow's Nonchalance
We sure love our senior girl Katie, but for our lifestyle, younger dogs fit better at this time. We all will get old and that is not a problem, but for what we want to do, senior dogs don\'t fit that well, which is why Mom prefers to get a puppy and raise it as she wants it. Maybe down the road if Mom slows down a senior from the get go will be an option, but for now it is rewarding, but very difficult for our lifestyle. We can\'t see how anyone could ever give up their senior pet as they really give so much love. We wouldn\'t trade Katie for the world even if mom is late almost every day because of her needing extra time and attention. It is worth it.
Emma recently posted…Keep Dog Paws And Claws In Shape
SlimDoggy Shelter would be awesome! You guys do a great showing how senior years can be just as vibrant as younger years.
I think opening a shelter for senior pets is a great idea you guys!!!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
Jenna,Mark "HuskyCrazed" Drady recently posted…Nutrience Grain Free Dog Food – Feel The #SubZeroDifference
Adopting a senior pet is so important because they deserve to have a loving retirement. And I do believe so many are so thankful and grateful for the love they are getting. They give us back so much more!! Always!!
Julie recently posted…Silly Dog
I am definitely torn about our next dog. At our age, I sometimes think a puppy would be too much and fifteen years from now, I will be…well, a lot older! Until we can get Pierre to our daughter in Seattle, we are not entertaining the idea of another addition. Senior dogs are so sweet and really do appreciate the love and attention. ♥
M. K. Clinton recently posted…I'm A Dreamer #MoreLove
I would definitely consider adopting a senior pup. Bringing Missy & Buzz home when they were tiny puppies was a fairly spontaneous decision because a friend was caring for a total of 9 puppies and needed to find good homes for everyone.
Several of my dog walking & pet sitting pups are senior K9 citizens, and they are just lovable & adorable. I hope you guys will be able to open that shelter! That would be so wonderful.
Barbara Rivers recently posted…5 Myths About Raw Feeding | Part 2 "Your Dog's Raw Diet Contains Bacteria That Will Make his Human Family Sick"
One of my aspirations is to bring home a senior dog. I love puppies, but I think giving a senior a safe, happy life for the remainder of their time would be amazing.
Kimberly Gauthier recently posted…Serendipitous Saturday | Gaining Perspective through Censorship
What a wonderful idea-a senior shelter. Love it! 🙂
Monika recently posted…An open leter to Blogville
I love senior dogs. They bring so much joy and you don't have to watch them like a hawk like the youngsters.
Sand Spring Chesapeakes recently posted…Gambler Supporting Movember
Great article. certainly sheds light on the truth. I was wondering if i can include a link to my site as well. I have crated a complete dog litter box system that attracts pets to handle their needs within the litter box itself. You can find them
Take care.


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Change is Your Competitive Advantage
Organizations today face a stark choice: change or fail. Transformation has become the only constant of the business landscape, and those companies that cannot adapt are doomed. This book includes practical tools to help managers and employees and to help business make the tough choices that will lead to success.
The New Reality
Those who understand, accept, and adapt quickly to change emerge profoundly the better for it. The New Reality exposes you to messages and guidelines that can help you seize the opportunity change bring to all of us.
Experiencing the promises of tomorrow and truly controlling your own destiny depend on how you position yourself and your competencies. This book presents 17 essential strategies needed for future success in tomorrow's fast-paced workplace.
12 Sure Fire Ways to Earn Less, Stress More, and Get Left Behind in the Global Economy. How much energy and time are you wasting by complaining and whining? You've heard it many times: "get over it." How? This book presents ways to identify negative behaviors, create positive strategies, and be an active participant in today's fast-paced environment.
It Is What It Is!
What Are You Going to Do About It? Change is faster and more complex today, a fact many find hard to accept. But, pining for the good old days is wasted energy. "It Is What It Is" delivers the truth about today's environment in an honest, straight forward style. It then goes a step farther to drive home the need for personal accountability and acceptance in these turbulent times: what are you going to do about it?
The definition of performance for employees is different today. So too, is the definition of leadership. As a leader, it is important to know what no longer works in this fast changing environment. This book identifies 13 roadblocks managers often face and suggests strategies to overcome them.
The 13 Paradoxes of Change
Things are not what they seem. What appears to be working is frequently an illusion. The old accepted ways of managing, leading, and performing no longer apply. This book challenges your traditional beliefs about operating in today's environment and uncovers the truth behind the paradoxes.


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No takers for 600 Seats After IIT's First Round They came, they saw, but they did not join -this is what hold good to students who cleared (JEE Main) 2015- one of the toughest examinations of the country. 600 engineering aspirants have not accepted an IIT seat after the first round. Yesterday that is 12 July was the last day of for accepting seats in the IITs and the NITs in the first round. "There are 10,006 seats in the IITs this year and of these 600 remains vacant after the first round. The seat allocation for the second round starts from Monday. Students who did not appear in the first round are out of the admission process in the second round," said an official of IIT Bombay. "After the first round IIT-Kharagpur, which received a large number of applicants, has 91 vacant seats. The clear picture will come after the final least is out", said the same official. Bombay IIT got the highest number of takers from the top 100. 65 out of 100 top rankers secured their seats in IIT- Bombay this year whereas 58 from the top 100 joined last year. Bombay is followed by IIT - Delhi as the best choice with 30 students among top 100 ranks of JEE Advanced. While IIT Madras got 3 and IIT Kanpur got 2. Ironically IIT-Kharagpur, IIT-Roorkee, IIT-Guwahati and the new IITs have not managed to get even a single student from the top 100 ranks. Computer Science at the IIT-Bombay is the most sought after choice of the JEE toppers. A lots of toppers have opted seats for computer science at IIT-Bombay (IIT-B) in the joint seat allocation.


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Recovery from opiod addiction is never easy but the Physicians and Staff at Recovery Connection helped make it the easiest possible.
Ernie Cranston, RI
I was so scared to call at first but I Thank God every day for the strength to have called Recovery Connection for help. They have been AWESOME!
Victoria Providence, RI


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If You're Gonna Fly Away - Faith Hill
If you're gonna fly away
Don't fly without me
Don't go nowhere
I need you babe
Has the sun gone down on you
Have you given up on truth
I wish I could say hold the right things to make your pain go away
I wish you knew how beautiful you are in every way
When the world is falling down
Just kneel with me and pray
So you take a thousand tears
Hoping to be numb
Lie awake in bed
Counting all that's wrong
No one understands
No one ever will trust me when I tell you
I know just how you feel
You had all these dreams but you're in a small town
Oh, ??? for you
You had nothing else to do
But use music and music and music and music
Just sing a song for me baby
It's not as bad as it seems, no no no
What matters today won't matter tomorrow
Care all your blessing, settle all your sorrow


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AVA @ Mapping Festival 2014
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We travelled to Geneva on May/June 2014 to be a part of Mappathon at the Mapping Festival. We had the opportunity of meeting great people, working and learning new software directly from the developers as well as experiencing the latest trends and technologies with everything mapping related.
In the second half of the video you'll see our very own TACO TRON, fully recyclable and made in site specially for the festival. Let us know what you think!


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2016 Ford Fusion - Stop Safely Now
Today while on my way home from work my car suddenly slowed down and a red triangle flashed on my dash display saying \"Stop Safely Now.\" So I tried to stop safely only to find my car was in limp mode and barely made it to the side of the road. Looked into the manual and guess what, nothing to say except a possible electrical failure, nothing else. So I shut down the vehicle and waited, thinking okay we'll do like a reboot. Started the car and drove away with no problems for the remainder of my 20 mile trip home. Tomorrow I go to work and I'm wondering is the car safe to drive on the expressway? Guess I will take local streets until I can get it to the dealer. I've read posts on the Ford Focus EV I believe with a similar issue but yet to hear anything on the Ford Fusion Hybrid.


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Early in the day, sky is dull
Just like our courage when beginning.
With progress through the day, it's shining
Nicest thing happens when the time is ripe.
Photos taken by Wi on 31/5/2018 at Petchburi, Thailand
Early in the day, sky is dull
Just like our courage when beginning.
With progress through the day, it's shining
Nicest thing happens when the time is ripe.
Photos taken by Wi on 31/5/2018 at Petchburi, Thailand
The road is full of flowers.
Nature awarded you with these prize
Walking to see butterflies…
Free my mind from a tight cubicle
Of dim light & room full of papers,
Computer-generated pollutant,
Block my mind, blur my sight, freeze my hand.
Let's make plan, see flowers, worth the time.
Once I asked my sis what is best
When my hair is straight or updo
My sis say it is all up to you
Woman do have several styles.
Nothing is the best of all things
We can bring our looks to all types
Today, tomorrow, all those kinds
just what you feel like, do them all.
#philosophyofhairdo #non-perfectionism
My analogy of cat's face with drug target such as HIV-protease. What makes them look like a cat? Conserved features (ears and whiskers), and Differential features (eyes and the shape of the face)
Drug is an inhibitor that stop the cat from meowing, such as this Star Corps Trooper helmet.
Let's see what are possibilities if we are to fit cat's face with a Star Corps Clone Trooper Helmet
Bad target arises when Tom's picture is in complex because Jerry is there and it is of low resolution
Fluff friend cat called Syri and Garfield looks so common. The colour are the same and they have no special features, and they are promiscuous. If we have enough amount of pictures and they are in the same pose without distortion, it help with the design.
To discriminate them for helmet design, we need to understand their special features. If they are too similar, we may misidentify closely related cats such as the two kitties from Sanrio. It shows the reason why something we are targeting can fit the same models (this may cause drug's side effects in the case of kinases)
Felix and Sylvester are unique. They are easy for the design of specific helmets for masking them.Most of the effort is CRISPR-cas9 is devoted to find a smart synthetic cat or a helmet that can perform our goal to control these mask singers.
Reference: MANORAA paper
เมื่อฉันรู้ว่าเป็นศิษย์ของปรมาจารย์ปู่ Sir Isaac Newton
When I know that my academic genealogy can be traced back to Sir Isaac Newton.
Digging through old books from the shelf,
Discovered thyself memory.
Old books have some chemistry
From primary school back then.
I dreamt to reach the star
Thus far seems out of my fence.
My imaginary abstinence
Has happened from so many things.
Out of my familiar zone,
On a few smart phones and my bench,
Distraction that I have befriended
Suck persistence out from my soul.
Is this called a burn out–
When we're aroused by nothingness?
Should not that be a bless
To access window of the life,
When fire inside was absent
When we don't want to fight
When mountain seems so high
&Simple life is my medal.
New floral filter on App Looks
It took pictures so pretty
That's only in my fantasies,
The real me looks nothing like it's shown.
Today I feel so exhausted
I paused to play with deceiver
And it lies that I am young forever
What matter was a girl hidden inside
Wrinkles and dark circles around eyes
Freckles got from sunshine every morning
Tears of joy, marks from smile and frowning
Causing this poor thing to get old.
Is it matter how she looks like
If she's nice and kind as ever.
Some say that it does not matter
So please smile to her when we see.
Baby days so frequent at the peak,
People seek and hide smiling
At forty life got interesting,
But smiling was something a bit rare,
As it seems hidden with what's inside.
So people don't smile frequently
Therein hidden unsung story
So pity most are not to be told
To people around from outside
And all kinds of those stranger
Busy life goes by forever
The closer circle was so small.
Till one day the muscles were numb
One only feel handsome on selfie
An unpurposeful smile becomes cheesy
Whilst it used to be best medicine.
Medium: Gelly roll stardust on Black paper
I want to be like a little cactus,
Growing strong on sand and dust.
Adapting to desert afar
Or living in a tiny jar.
Facing the sun when it is hot
Protect itself with thorn it's got.
Then comes the time it has flowers
So rare that makes people wonder.
Learning to thrive on limitation
Even when life was like fiction.
-Wi Tanramluk


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12 Inputs, and a USB audio interface with built-in FX.
The Behringer XENYX QX1202USB mixer is made to handle live gigs, and provide you with the tools necessary to capture professional-quality recordings. Along with its built-in USB/audio interface, "one-knob" mono channel compressors and KLARK TEKNIK FX engines, the XENYX QX1202USB mixer comes with enough recording and editing software to turn your computer into a complete recording studio. The largest of the XENYX Q Series, The XENYX QX1202USB is built for versatility and tone, and is equally at home at your live gig or in the studio. This compact mixer provides 4 mono channels with phantom-powered XENYX mic preamps, neo-classic 3-band British-style EQ, plus 4 stereo channels.
Nothing adds the finishing touch to a live or recorded performance like really good effects. Designed by the world-renowned KLARK TEKNIK engineering team, these high-end FX processors feature 32 studio-grade presets with dual addressable parameters, Tap function and storable user parameter settings. Complete with its own dedicated level meter, these effects provide a wide range of enhancement options, from sweet and mild to absolutely wild!
XENYX Mic Preamps
All XENYX mixers have one thing in common; great-sounding, high headroom XENYX mic preamps. XENYX preamps offer 130dB of dynamic range with a bandwidth that extends from below 10Hz to well above 200kHz. As a result, XENYX mixers can reproduce a cleaner, transparent performance.
British EQ
The British consoles of the 1960s and ˜70s changed the sound of rock and roll. Without them, the British Invasion might not have even happened. Those legendary mixing desks soon became the envy of engineers and producers all over the world. The channel EQs on all XENYX mixers are based on that very same circuitry, allowing you to saturate signals with warmth and character. Even when applied generously, these equalizers exhibit forgiveness and superb audio quality.
USB Audio Interface
Modern technology has put personal recording well within the reach of virtually anyone with access to a computer. But how do you get all that music flying around your brain into a computer? Thanks to the built-in, bi-directional stereo USB audio interface, you can connect directly to your PC or Mac computer via a single USB cable. Now any signal source connected to the mixer can be recorded straight to your hard drive.
Included Software
Behringer has put together a massive software download that includes Audacity (the most popular open source audio editor), Podifier, Juice, Podnova and Golden Ear (a great selection of podcasting software). You're ready to go live on your PC or Mac right out of the box! You also get more than 100 virtual instruments and 50 FX plug-ins, turning your computer into a complete home-based or mobile recording studio.
- Low noise, high headroom 12-input 2-bus analog mixer
- 4 Quality XENYX Mic Preamps
- Built-in KLARK TEKNIK FX
- High-quality compressors with easy "one-knob" functionality and control LED
- Built-in stereo USB/Audio Interface to connect directly to your computer
- Free audio recording, editing and podcasting software plus 150 plug-ins, downloadable at behringer.com
- Neo-classic "British" 3-band EQs for warm and musical sound
- 1 post fader FX send per channel for external FX devices
- Main mix outputs plus separate control room, phones and 2-Track outputs
- 2-Track inputs assignable to main mix or control room/phones output
- FX to control room function helps to monitor effect signal via headphones and control room outputs
- Add some FX to sweeten your live mix, order today.


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Those who give to the Impact Fund cultivate many layers of EMM's work. From the daily cost of operations to the well-being care of missionaries, this fund is essential to keeping EMM's mission alive.
Gifts to missionaries provide funding for living expenses while the worker follows the call of God to plant hope all over the world. Missionary support teams (MSTs) work together with missionaries to raise these funds.
Growing the kingdom takes shape in many different ways. Those who support one of EMM's projects enable communities to be transformed through education, hospitality, and relationships.
53 West Brandt Blvd, PO Box 458
Salunga, PA 17538-0458 USA
toll-free: +1 (844) 891-3939
phone: (717) 898-2251
fax: (717) 898-8092
office hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. EST


text: "TV and the Internet are good ... 10. November 2013 nGFX General, Unity (0) ... because they keep stupid people from spending too much time out in public."― Douglas Coupland, JPod I wonder what spambots will make out of that. Anyway, it's Sunday again and time for the weekly post. Problem is, there's nothing even remotely game-related to write about. I spent most of the time coding a client project and let me tell you: writing an e-mail verification system is oh-so-shit boring. Plus keep in mind: never underestimate the user to do something really bone-headed when presented with a simple form. What's not to understand with "username, 8 to 16 characters, allowed are letters A-Z, numbers, minus or underscore, do NOT use ä,ö,ü,ß"? You know it when you've got the first one on the phone telling you "I can't enter my username - it's 'Hans Müller' " ... Ok, to make this post just a tiny bit useful: what about using a cloud based sync and Unity projects? I for instance gave up on the idea to store a Unity project directly in the Skydrive folder (but it's the same for Dropbox, google drive, ... whatever). The problem is that unity creates a shitload of temp files whenever you change code and it recompiles it. For me it worked for some time, but then it choked and resulted in missing files. But I wanted to sync my current Unity project between 3 computers without using an USB Drive, the obvious and quite simple idea was: use 7zip and a batch file (two actually). I use 7z as it has a nice command line version and it creates a slightly better compression than zip and I can't stand rar. So when starting to work I hit the "unzip.bat", which deletes the local project and then unzips the project from the cloud (and starts Unity afterwards). When done for the day it's "zip.bat", which zips the local project and moves it to the skydrive folder. It really is a no brainer, but it saves a good deal of traffic and time - 26mb (7zip) instead of 157mb (uncompressed, ~4500 files) or 38mp (zip) ... I'm going back to code some game related stuff tonight so at least I have something for next week. -- Oliver (nGFX)


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Chapter One
He had now entered the skirts of the village. A troop of strange children ran at his heels, hooting after him, and pointing at his gray beard....The very village was altered; it was larger and more populous. There were rows of houses which he had never seen before, and those which had been his familiar haunts had disappeared. Strange names were over the doors -- strange faces at the windows -- everything was strange.
-- Washington Irving, "Rip Van Winkle"
Dressed in the street clothes they had given him -- a shabby gray suit, its baggy pants supported by galluses; a rumpled white shirt, its collar too small to button; an old silk tie that dangled halfway down his chest; and a grotesque, checkered cap that sat on his head like an enormous mushroom -- he emerged into the sun-drenched prison yard. In his right hand, he clutched a paper-wrapped bundle about the size of a shoebox. His entire fund of worldly possessions was inside: a Bible, two or three poetry books, a few legal documents, some old, dog-eared letters.
Above him -- patrolling the walls and stationed in the armored cupola of the gray, stone rotunda -- the rifle-wielding guards peered down curiously at the spectacle below.
A crowd of journalists -- reporters, photographers, representatives of international wire services -- had assembled in the yard. At the first glimpse of the shambling old man -- his face half-hidden by the brim of his comically oversized cap -- they began calling his name, snapping pictures, shouting questions.
He pulled the brim lower over his eyes, tightened his mouth into a deep frown, and allowed the attendants to hurry him past the crowd and toward the rotunda.
The clamor of the mob was deeply unnerving. Still, their presence was a source of some satisfaction -- a confirmation of his celebrity. He had always taken pride in his status as "America's most famous lifer," in the awed looks he drew from new inmates when they caught their first glimpse of him. Lately, however, a whole generation of fresh fish had begun to filter inside -- young punks who neither knew nor cared anything about the old man everyone called "Grandpa." And when somebody told them who he was, they just shrugged, sneered, or looked utterly blank. His name -- once so notorious that its mere mention could induce shudders in impressionable children -- meant nothing to them.
Now -- sullen-tempered as ever -- he cursed under his breath as he waited for the attendants to unlock the double-barred doors and usher him into the reception room. Inside, Warden Hogsett and a few other officials were waiting. Ignoring the warden, he grumbled a few words of farewell to the chaplain.
Then -- at precisely 11:35 A.M. -- Hogsett nodded to the attendants, the screen door was thrown open, and -- flanked by two officers, Joseph O'Brien and William Robinson -- he stepped out into the world.
It was the first time in more than fifty years that he had breathed the air beyond the dark walls of the state prison. Everyone involved in sending him there was long gone -- the judge who had tried him, the attorney general and D.A. who had prosecuted him, the governor who had spared his life and sentenced him to a living death instead. He had survived them all. That was another source of satisfaction. The thought of it nearly brought a smile to his face. If it had, the sight would almost certainly have caused his captors to take notice. No one in all the years of his incarceration had ever seen him smile.
A small sedan was waiting in the cobblestoned square outside the main iron gate. So was an enormous crowd of curiosity-seekers -- more than one thousand people in all. They had been there since daybreak. At various points throughout the morning, policemen from Station Fifteen in City Square, Charlestown, had tried to disperse them. But the milling crowd would only wander a short distance away, then gather again in front of the prison as soon as the officers had left.
Even he was taken aback by the size of the crowd. Evidently, the public had not forgotten his name after all.
"Get in, Jesse," said Officer Robinson, motioning him toward the open door.
He knew all about motorcars, of course. During the past dozen years -- ever since the granite door of his tiny cell had been opened and he had been allowed to emerge, Lazarus-like, from his tomb -- he had seen one or two official automobiles in the prison yard. Still, he had never actually ridden in one. So unfamiliar was he with the procedure that, as he stepped onto the running board, his foot slipped, he smacked his head against the top of the doorframe, and his cap tumbled onto the cobblestones. He stooped to retrieve it, mashed it back down onto his head, and -- ducking into the car -- sank into the rear right seat.
Several squealing children ran up to the sedan, pointing up at the rear window as they capered and laughed. He put his face to the glass and glared down at them. Their laughter died instantly, and they scurried away. His face always had the power to frighten little children and, if anything, it had grown even more unsettling over the years -- the heavy jaw jutting grotesquely; the down-turned mouth made even more baleful-looking by the drooping walrus moustache; the left eye now filmed by a cataract; and the right one -- its pupil a dead, milky white -- as profoundly disconcerting as ever.
Officer Robinson slammed the rear door closed and climbed into the passenger seat. The engine roared. An escort of three motorcycle officers cleared a path. The convoy was on its way.
Measured in space, the trip to his new home was relatively short -- a distance of around forty miles. But the leap through time was almost inconceivably vast -- every bit as staggering as Rip Van Winkle's supernatural experience in the ghost-haunted Kaatskills, or the fantastic voyage of H. G. Wells's imaginary time-traveler. When he had last set eyes on the outside world, Ulysses S. Grant was president and Victoria queen. The whole country was in an uproar over the Custer massacre. The telephone hadn't been invented. And the neighborhoods of Charlestown, as one commentator described them, offered unbroken vistas of "muddy streets, horse-cars, oil-lamps, and two-story frame shacks."
Now, fifty-three years and one global war later, he was traveling through a world of telecommunication and transatlantic flight, neon signs and subways, radio stars and racing cars, motion pictures and jazz music, Cubist painting and quantum physics. For the nearly two hours of his trip, he gazed wordlessly at the marvels of modern civilization. He saw steam shovels, airplanes, elevated trains, and thoroughfares clogged with motorized traffic.
The whole world had changed. Except for one thing. The sidewalks were still full of frolicking children. And as the car came to a halt in front of a drugstore -- where Jesse would be treated to his first-ever taste of ginger ale and vanilla ice cream in a sugary cone -- it was hard for him not to remember those days, more than fifty years back, when he roamed this world freely. A time when the streets were his stalking-ground, and the little children his prey.
Copyright © 2000 by Harold Schechter


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Christmas time can be so depressing, says our local vicar, Tim Yeager. It brings out some of the worst features of capitalism and rubs them in our faces – advertising to buy the right consumer products for the ones you love, creative financing so that lenders can make more profit, and it is an environmental disaster…more plastic, cardboard and packaging is produced, carted about and dumped into landfills, vacant lots and incinerators than at any other time of year.
Yet beneath all that, nearly smothered by the gift catalogues, he says, burns a persistent flame – hope for a better world, a more just society, where the social order is turned upside down so that the poor are fed and the rich relieved of their ill-gotten gains.
The story he tells, of the revolutionary hope of Christmas, is of a young unmarried girl in a land far away on the edge of a great empire, occupied by foreign soldiers and ruled by corrupt local despots. When she becomes pregnant, out of wedlock, her response is not one of regret or despair but of joy and hope.
She sings an ancient song of liberation, the Magnificat: 'my soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me — He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, he has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.'
What follows with the birth and the life of her son, a carpenter, is a story of struggle, one that in turn became, albeit with its own priests and pontiffs, a great movement for social and economic change.
When you look at the Christmas story closely, says Tim, "you find a story of working class people living in difficult times, in circumstances not too different faced by millions of people today. Mary, the young mother in the Christmas story, is supremely confident that the future will be better. Her song, the Magnificat, is nothing less than revolutionary."