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By: Eric Kansa, UC Berkeley and OpenContext.org
This blog post looks at the open access debate, and notes how sustainability is as much of an ideological and political question as it is a financial issue. It is intended to follow up on previous blog posts (first, second, third) that discuss how the Aaron Swartz prosecution and death highlighted tremendous injustices in the legal framework governing scholarly communications.
At this year's Society for American Archaeology (SAA) conference in Honolulu, I took part in discussions about open access in various forums, including the Digital Data Interest Group and a forum sponsored by the SAA Committee on Ethics. Sarah Kansa, a member of the SAA Publications Committee has also been participating in open access debates. There's very little to report just yet, except that the issue of open access is clearly on the agenda of archaeology's professional societies. The Obama Administration's (Feb 2013) move to require open access of federally funded research outputs has clearly raised the stakes and urgency of the open access issue. This policy move followed years of advocacy efforts, culminating with a petition signed by over 65,000 people.
In these debates, open access has little explicit opposition as an ideal. Rather, resistance to open access focuses on fears of financial "sustainability." The leaders of professional societies tend to cling to the status quo because they do not see a way to underwrite the costs of open access publication.
So let's look at the issue of sustainability more closely.
Any form of publication has costs. Quality publication costs more. With Open Context, we're working to develop editorial processes to publish higher-quality data, and we're getting a better understanding of the required labor costs. As a publisher (but also as an academic author), I am very aware of the real costs and effort involved in publication.
However, publication costs make up only a fraction of the larger costs of doing quality research. Good research requires costly training, facilities, and in archaeology, it often requires access to remote locations, workers, labs, equipment, curation, site conservation, etc. Often these costs are financed with public funding (or publicly-regulated philanthropy). But even in cases where research costs are not directly financed through public support, field work is a highly regulated activity. Archaeological field work is almost universally governed or, in the case of Cultural Resource Management (CRM), mandated by public laws and agencies.
Since dissemination is an integral aspect of archeological research, archaeological dissemination practices also should work toward building public knowledge goods. The open access critique of status quo publishing is that conventional publishing models subvert the public interest and do not produce public goods, despite public financing of research. Conventional publishing channels public support of research (which finances and regulates all the facilities and the effort that occurs before an article even reaches an editor) into private "all-rights reserved" intellectual property.
One may argue that archaeology has gotten along just fine for many, many decades of conventional publishing, so why change it? There are two reasons, both involve the Web. First, the Web makes global distribution (copying content from servers like the one serving this blog, to clients like the browser you're using) very cheap and easy. (Note: I said copying and distributing content is cheap; producing quality content is still expensive, as explained above). Cheap and easy copying and distribution is critical. It's why open access is even on the agenda.
Second, the low cost of Web-based digital dissemination has helped to spark a political and legal context that makes open access increasingly needed for ethical, research, and instructional reasons. Cheap and easy copying and distribution represents a threat to traditional media business models, including publication business models. In response to this threat, media conglomerates have pushed for "the best laws money can buy," (quoting copyright scholar, Pam Samuelson) and have pressured legislative bodies and law enforcement agencies to enact stricter controls, more intrusive surveillance, and harsher (actually oppressive) punishments for copying.
Unfortunately, these laws not only apply to popular music and movies, they also govern scholarly communications. Worse, many commercial scientific publishers actively promote and lobby to further strengthen these laws, leading to loss of privacy, invasive surveillance, and ever more draconian penalties. This transformed legal context, together with massive industry consolidation, makes conventional academic publishing very different from the "good ol' days" before the Web.
Here are some highlights of just how bad, in a legal sense, the publishing situation has become:
- Many researchers (CRM, adjunct) without regular university affiliations, who beg university-library logins from friends and colleagues, are effectively a criminalized underclass, facing grave legal risks. How many of us do this on a regular basis? These practices violate the same sort of terms-of-service that made Aaron Swartz face 50 years in prison. For instance, JSTOR's terms of service (that Aaron Swartz allegedly violated in his felony charges) specifically prohibited actions like sharing logins.
- Sharing papers (mainly in email, but also on social networking sites like Academia.edu) also carries risks. These risks are mainly in civil (not criminal) law, but that could change if something like SOPA passes. Mass copyright lawsuits with financially ruinous penalties do happen, some involving 100,000 people at a time, including children.
- In 2007, law Prof. John Tehranian published a study where he calculated a jaw-dropping $4.5 billion (yes, with a b) in potential copyright liability involved in routine academic research and instructional activities over the course of a single year.
- Copyright has expanded in scope into a more or less absolute and perpetual property right. No US copyrighted works entered into the public domain last year. None. If archaeologists only communicate their results as all-rights-reserved intellectual property, they're clearly engaged in a form of appropriation. The (more or less) absolute (no fair use) and perpetual (de facto unlimited copyright terms) nature of these property rights increasingly excludes all uses, save commercial transactions. Doesn't that reduce the scholarly record of the past into commodities? Doesn't this put mainstream archeology uncomfortably close to the antiquities trade?
Killed by Sustainability?
Archaeology's professional societies need to consider arguments about "sustainability" carefully. If we make financial sustainability our only concern in scholarly publishing, we undermine the whole point of research as a publicly supported pursuit. Our field is not sustainable, it does not turn a profit, and it requires continued public support (or public mandates in the case of CRM) to survive. We have to ask where monetizing the work of archaeology to make it "sustainable" only succeeds in breaking or distorting our field beyond recognition.
Open access and open data can reduce overall costs and increase research opportunities. But open access is hard to sustain if the locus of sustainability rests solely on individual organizations and projects. A recent court case helps to illustrate this. Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and SAGE sued Georgia State University over e-reserves to curtail "fair-use" (limitations in copyright law to allow research, instruction, critique, free speech). The suit was dismissed but at the cost of over $3 million in legal fees to the university, and appeals are still pending. $3 million could have fully endowed a new professor chair in archaeology, relieved student debt, funded research, or underwritten a new high-quality open access publishing venue. Worse, the high cost of defending against such charges, even when dismissed(!), creates a chilling effect. Though the publishers lost in this round, fair use is notoriously ambiguous and risky to defend in court. The risks involved will no doubt motivate university administrators to make it much more cumbersome and costly for faculty and students to exchange publications in instruction. This legal dispute will only contribute to the general bloat of overhead and administrative hassles that increasingly burden scholarly life. Sadly, we lack clear information or accounting of the insidious costs of copyright protectionism. This greatly complicates policy making.
The Georgia State University case highlights the dangers of thinking about "sustainability" too narrowly. Standard paywalls and strong copyright ended up benefiting nobody but the attorneys. Fixating on narrowly defined notions of sustainability leads to what economists call a collective action problem. Each individual project or organization tries to survive so they have a strong incentive to monetize their intellectual property (paywalls, absolutism in copyright). Damaging negative externalities (legal risks and costly barriers) are problems for others. Thus, the current system clearly pits the interests of professional societies and publishers against those of society members, students, adjuncts, researchers lacking affiliations, libraries, funding agencies, and the public. We should not forget that university administrators find cutting archaeology, like the rest of the humanities and social sciences, very tempting and easy. The high costs of publication in STEM fields leave less money for both open and paywalled humanities publications.
Ignoring these issues and failing to address the collective action problems just reinforces and promotes an ideology that activities that can't be monetized are not worth pursuing. I see this as particularly dangerous for archaeology, since our field is highly dependent on laws to protect heritage from the negative impacts of market forces.
Let's put it more bluntly. Our professional societies seem willing to accept that paywalls, whose breach means 50 years in a federal prison (such as the JSTOR / Aaron Swartz affair), are a necessary cost of doing business. If so, what is wrong with bulldozers plowing through archaeological sites without restriction or mitigation? Isn't that a necessary cost of doing business in construction? Or what is wrong with a university closing an anthropology department and canceling subscriptions to archeological journals? Can't that be justified in the name of sustainability? What negative externalities can't be defended for reasons of sustainability?
Where do we go from here?
If recent history is any guide, and if I'm right about the direction of internal debates I'm following, our professional societies will likely attempt to undermine the Obama Administration's tentative steps to promote open access. They will likely do this out of fear, not malice.
I don't think the costs of publishing peer-reviewed, open access literature are insurmountable. Financing open access is a challenge, but there are many models and many years of experimentation from which to learn. Some points:
- Green Open Access: The Whitehouse seems to have endorsed a "green" model of open access, where copies of peer-review publications become available in open access repositories after an embargo period. (Gold Open Access is another approach, where papers are immediately available, free-of-charge, under liberal licensing conditions). Green Open Access enables publishers to profit on exclusive access for a limited time. Unfortunately, green models have a limitation in that even after articles are publicly available, they are still under "all rights reserved" copyright. This may still leave reuse costly and difficult. Routine reuse such as duplication of a previously published image for comparison as well as innovative approaches to text-mining can still be stymied in costly and complex licensing and permissions negotiations. Nevertheless, despite these problems, public mandates for green open access would still represent tremendous progress.
- Article Processing Fees (Gold Open Access): Article processing fees, such as the $1350 - $1500 charged by the Public Library of Science (PLOS) for immediate, free-of-charge, open access publishing in their journals, represent the most widely known model. This level of expense is far too high for archaeology, a field struggling with much more limited grant and publication budgets. But smaller author-side fees may be feasible via subsidizing publication costs from other sources. Such subsidies may be an ethical necessity, since any fee to publish represents a barrier. A "pay-to-say" model of open access, while less legally dangerous in terms of copyright and access, can also have equity problems. This issue just reinforces my overall point that under-financing research and research dissemination leads to many dysfunctions.
- Membership Fees: PeerJ, an important new commercial publisher, believes it can make a profit publishing free and open peer-review papers financed with only $495 in membership dues levied on contributing authors per year. That price-point starts approaching feasibility for some archaeologists, though most will still need more subsidized support. PeerJ, which only recently launched, is currently focusing on biomedical sciences. It remains to be seen if its model can be extended to archaeology.
- Redirection and Subsidies: The points above note that subsidies likely need to play an important role to finance open access. The most obvious source for such subsidies comes from redirecting library subscription income to directly underwriting open access publication costs. The particle physics community recently made this shift, where libraries, physics journals, and other stakeholder came together to form the SCOAP3 consortium that now finances open access publishing. This kind of approach needs to be explored for archaeology.
The Need to Reinvest in Public Goods
It may be that archaeology's professional societies can find no viable path to finance open access with existing funding. Archaeology is clearly underfunded and it may be too hard to find an acceptable mix of subsidies, advertising, author-side fees, and member fees to pay for open access. If that is the case, we shouldn't count on libraries to continue paying subscriptions and supporting the current model much longer; a lack of public support inescapably bites one way or another. Even Harvard University, blessed with the deepest pockets in higher education, claimed it can no longer afford the costs of paywall scholarship. For reasons of sustainability (oh the irony!), Harvard urged its faculty to publish in open access venues.
Professional societies need to openly acknowledge the costs and risks (especially draconian legal risks) of our current publishing model. If open access is too hard to finance with given resources, we need to clearly communicate to public and private granting foundations and other financial supporters the severity of our financial situation and the costs of under-investing in the public good. Pretending that all is fine and well with our current paywall approach to publishing will do nothing to solve our discipline's financial problems. Worse, it will only perpetuate a crippling ideology that research endeavors need to be more "business-like" (profit seeking) to be worth pursuing.
Academic institutions, including archaeology's professional societies, have drunk the Kool-Aid of sustainability for too long. They have hiked tuition and fees, raising student debt loads to dangerous and unprecedented levels, off-loaded teaching to an abused and disposable class of contingent adjunct faculty (a process now rapidly accelerating with the rise of online courses- aka MOOCs), and have resisted open access reform efforts to break the grip of monopolistic publishers. Sustainability justifies all of these moves. But the real cost of these sustainability efforts leaves a scorched-Earth impact on the public good, undermining the whole point and rationale for the existence of higher education and research societies in the first place.
Sustainability is really a political issue. It cannot be divorced from larger debates about privatization, public goods, wealth inequalities, and how and why we conduct research. Instead of simply accepting the ideology of privatizing and monetizing everything – the ideology that underlies many ideas of "sustainability" – our professional societies should loudly highlight the inequities, risks, and real costs of our current publishing regime. If we can't fund open access with available financing, we are under-supported. Our professional societies should use the issue of open access as the focus of capital campaigns and public policy efforts to support ethical practice in research and research dissemination.
It's high time we get out of the ideological trap at the center of most debates about sustainability, and make a clear case that publication needs to reflect our scholarly values and our obligations to the public.
Eric Kansa blogs at Digging Digitally and and Tweets @ekansa.
All content provided on this blog is for informational purposes only. The American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this blog or found by following any link on this blog. ASOR will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information. ASOR will not be liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information. The opinions expressed by Bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of ASOR or any employee thereof.


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Hayes Green Beach Memorial Hospital continues to be nationally recognized on an annual basis for patient experience, safety, value and quality.
Performance and Value
2015 HEALTHSTRONG Hospital
HGB was named as one of the nation's 2015 HEALTHSTRONG Hospitals by iVantage Health Analytics. iVantage evaluates hospitals according to its Hospital Strength INDEX, a broad performance scorecard based on 56 metrics, including quality, outcomes, patient perspective, affordability and efficiency. The study measured 4,334 hospitals, including 1,300 Critical Access Hospitals – rural community hospitals that receive cost-based reimbursement from Medicare. Nationally, 572 hospitals were named as HEALTHSTRONG, including 26 in Michigan. HGB was one of three Critical Access Hospitals that made the list in Michigan.
iVantage has been ranking hospitals since 2011. This is the third time HGB was named to its list of top ranking Critical Access Hospitals. According to iVantage, a leading advisory and business analytic services company, its "2014 Rural Relevance under Healthcare Reform Study reveals that rural hospitals have achieved a significant level of comparative performance, including demonstrated quality, patient satisfaction and operational efficiency for the type of care most relevant to rural communities."
Patient Experience
PRC Excellence in Healthcare Awards
HGB's Capital Area Surgeons, as well as Todd Otten, M.D., and Julie Coenen, N.P., with HGB Family Care Specialists, and Tony Marl, D.O., with Charlotte Medical Group, were all recently recognized with Excellence in Healthcare Engagement Awards by Professional Research Consultants (PRC).
PRC's national engagement awards recognize "Excellence in Healthcare" achieved in the prior year. This year's awards recognize physicians and practices that score in the top 10 percent of PRC's national database for patient visits in 2014. HGB's general surgery practice, Capital Area Surgeons, includes Mark Jones, D.O.; Jeff Deppen, D.O.; and Troy Ferguson, D.O. The practiced received PRC's 5-Star Award based on its overall composite for outpatient clinical services. This composite score is determined by "top box scores" earned for four core dimensions: timely care, provider communications, overall provider rating and courteous/helpful office staff.
Additionally three individual HGB clinical providers were also recognized by PRC:
• Dr. Todd Otten received a 5-Star Award based on his "Overall Doctor Rating" for family and general practice services.
• Dr. Tony Marl received a 5-Star Award based on his "Overall Doctor Rating" for internal medicine services.
• Nurse Practitioner Julie Coenen received a 5-Star Award based on her "Overall Provider Rating" for mid-level services.
Celebration of Regional Growth Award
HGB was recognized by the Lansing Regional Chambe of Commerce with its Celebration of Regional Growth Award for our efforts to improve the quality of life in Eaton County by creating a regional destination through its investment in AL!VE, the hospital's experience-based, destination health park.
Quality and Safety
Follow the links to view how HGB has also been recognized for its quality initiatives and safety efforts.

subset: commoncrawl


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Invitation to visit was relayed by South Korean President Moon Jae-in during meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Pope Francis indicated he would consider making what would be a landmark trip to North Korea after being invited to visit the isolated state, South Korean officials said.
South Korea's President Moon Jae-in relayed the invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to the pontiff during a 35-minute meeting at the Vatican on Thursday.
Kim told Moon, a Catholic, of his wish to meet the pope during a meeting last month and the South Korean leader announced before the trip he would relay the message.
According to the president's office, Pope Francis expressed his strong support for efforts to bring peace to the Korean Peninsula. Moon's office quoted the pontiff telling Moon: "Do not stop, move forward. Do not be afraid."
If Francis accepts the invitation he would become the first pope to visit the country. North Korea does not allow priests to be permanently stationed there and there is little information on how many of its citizens are Catholic or how they practise their faith.
A meeting with the pope would be the latest in a string of diplomatic initiatives for Kim Jong Un this year. He held an unprecedented summit with a US president when he met Donald Trump in Singapore in June, with the two leaders promising to work towards denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.
The two Koreas have held three summits this year.
Asked if Kim should send a formal invitation, Moon's office quoted the pope as telling Moon: "Your message is already sufficient, but it would be good for him to send a formal invitation."
"I will definitely answer if I get the invitation, and I can go," the president's office quoted Pope Francis as saying.
A Vatican statement made no mention of the verbal invitation from Kim.
It spoke only of "the promotion of dialogue and reconciliation between Koreans" and "the common commitment to fostering all useful initiatives to overcome the tensions that still exist in the Korean Peninsula, in order to usher in a new season of peace and development".
North Korea's constitution guarantees freedom of religion as long as it does not undermine the state.
But beyond a handful of state-controlled places of worship – including a Catholic church in the capital Pyongyang – no open religious activity is allowed and the authorities have repeatedly jailed foreign missionaries.
The pope is expected to visit Japan next year. The proposed North Korea visit comes as China improves relations with the Holy See.


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Numbering and adresses
The Agency manages the Numbering Plan and the Addressing Plan in line with the Numbering Plan and Addressing Plan, which includes planning, the use and allocation of numbers and addresses as a limited resource in way enabling their rational, balanced and efficient use.
The Agency adopts the Numbering Plan and the Addressing Plan.
The Numbering Plan determines the purpose and the manner of use of the numbers for the access to the public electronic communications networks and public electronic communications services as well as their length, type and structure.
The Addressing Plan includes the following: definition and structure of codes of international signalling points, codes of the national signalling points, mobile networks codes, identity network code for data transmission and the manner of operation.The Numbering Plan ( 2MB)
Official Gazette of Montenegro 21/14
The Addressing Plan ( 1MB)
Official Gazette of Montenegro 21/14


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|Neon games
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Stack cards on two card wheels. On the right stack from 7 up to King and on the left stack down from 6 to Ace. You can play 1 of the 8 cards above or below the wheels. You can play on the 2 wheels or on the open stack in the right circle and you can get new cards from the closed stack in the left circle. There is 1 redeal of the stack.


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Thank You For Visiting CreekSide Publishing Company
We are a small publishing company located in Lincolnton, North Carolina. As such we cater to local authors, helping them see their books in print.
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This Spring Star City High School students in College and Career Readiness (CCR) and Jobs for America's Graduates (JAG) courses took a giant step forward towards achieving their future work related goals. These students invested time and effort into preparing for and taking the National Career Readiness Certification (NCRC) assessment developed by ACT.
The preparation for each student consisted of building their personal skills in three areas; Applied Mathematics, Graphic Literacy, and Workplace Documents. They had to set and meet goals, complete practices and tests, and then analyze their own results constantly looking for ways to improve their own learning. Students then had to complete the actual NCRC standardized assessment which lasted about 3 hours.
The three areas on the NCRC measure skills businesses are looking for when hiring new employees. Four levels of certification can be earned; Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Businesses can not only check certificates through a national database, but it also lets them know up front what skills potential employees have before being hired. The higher the level the better understanding that candidate has of job related tasks.
We are extremely proud of all our dedicated students. 105 of them earned their NCRC this Spring. Star City High student results included 44 Bronze, 36 Silver, 14 Gold, and 11 Platinum certificates! They did amazing work and made investments in their own futures which is the main focus for both CCR and JAG courses.


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The 6x6 Photobook is a magazine style, printed softcover book (6 inches x 6 inches in size) that you can customize with photos on your phone, Facebook or Google. This book is available in two variants – 20 and 32 pages. Each page holds only one photo.
What is the 6x6 Photobook?Follow
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Moduleo Select Dryback Classic Oak 24228
Moduleo Select Dryback Classic Oak 24228 Details...
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After you've laid the first tiles, use a hand roller to securely bond them to the adhesive. This will ensure they are adequately bonded, and they won't pop up during the rest of the installation.
Step 4: Use a damp cloth to wipe away excess glue
As you're laying the planks, you may find some of the adhesive gets onto the tiles. If it does ooze out onto them, use a damp cloth to simply wipe it away. Don't allow the adhesive to set on top of the tiles.
Step 5: Use a floor roller to ensure a great bond
Once the first and second lines have been completed, use a floor roller to further bond the tiles to the adhesive. Ideally, the roller should weigh between 50kg to 65kg. Be sure to roll in different directions for best results.
Once the first and second lines have been installed, you can install the rest of the floor repeating the steps above.
Glue down installation does take a little longer than click installation. However, it also leaves you with a strong, stable floor.
Important: We highly recommend contacting the manufacturer of the floor to receive an official installation guide. Failure to follow manufacturer guidelines could void the warranty.
Our Frequently Asked Questions
- Unfortunately not unless you have just ordered some flooring and decide to add an additional box / number of boxes to your order to be sent out with your existing order. If this is the case, please quote your existing order ID in a message and send it via email or the contact form on the "Contact Us" page.
- No.
- We provide stripping and adhesive in the accessories section.
- Sorry but no.
- Installing solid floors in water-prone areas causes them to swell. Consider pre-finished solid wood floors, which come with a waterproof surface.
- No.
- Lifestyle Flooring UK offer solid wood floors reinforced with multiple layers of protective coating. Therefore, our floors are extremely resistant to scratches and chipping.
- Squeaks are caused due to a wobbly sub-floor. Solid wood flooring must be installed on an even and intact subfloor to prevent squeaks.
- Yes, leave a gap of 10mm at the minimum, to accommodate expansions. A decorative bead board or skirting board can serve as a good cover for the gap.
- Lifestyle Flooring UK recommends an acclimation period of 5 days. This ensures that the solid wood is in a perfect condition for installation.
- A solid wood floor can be sanded and refinished several times, which makes the floor look new. The floor doesn't need sanding for the initial 10 to 15 years though.
- Standard engineered wood floors are not recommended for bathrooms as too much contact with water causes them to swell. Pre-finished types are preferable as they feature a water-resistant surface.
- Yes.
- Floors from Lifestyle Flooring UK come with multiple protective coatings, which makes them highly scratchproof.
- Squeaks occur when a floor is installed on an uneven subfloor. Correct installation will not produce squeaks.
- Yes, a gap of a minimum 10mm is required.
- Allow the floor to stay for a minimum of 36hrs in the room of installation for acclimation.
- Engineered floors can be sanded multiple times to retain their new look. They will not, however need sanding for 10 to 15 years immediately after installation.
- Yes. But, laminate floors are water resistant only to a certain extent. So, remove excess water at the earliest.
- Yes.
- Install the floors on even subfloors to prevent such noises.
- Laminate floors are not made of natural products however we recommended a minimum expansion gap of 1/4 inch.
- Yes.


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Monday, December 30
Hey-O sports fans!
It's your Ledger Sports Correspondent and former Ohio Dominican Panther, "The SportsBeard" Roy Hinke. Nineteen years ago, I grew out my first beard and through the miracle of modern magic one can only experience at an Amazing Randi live performance, it grew into a sentient symbiotic life form that began sending sports predictions directly to my brain. With enough time, I learned to harness the immense power of my facial hair to bring these patented "Snow White Locks" to you, avid sports fan*.
It's the most wonderful time of the year — college football bowl season, and what better way to parlay the vast knowledge of the Sportsbeard than by making some bold predix on some of the season's lesser-known bowls? As my life-partner Judy always says, college football is like pizza — greasy and gut filling! Here's the first of my five "Snow White Locks." Let's go bowling!
Richmond, Virginia • December 31, 2013
This contest, "flexed" by ESPNOCHO to 3:30 AM, pits the Remedial College of Southern Kentucky Grizzards versus the new-to-the-NCAA People's University of Portland Granolas.
The Granolas are clearly overmatched, what with their penchant for ironic clogging and statist municipal regulation. Coming east will certainly affect their level of energy, considering the team is mandated to ride bicycles to every away game to lessen their carbon footprint.
"We've added a few wrinkles to our offensive gameplan" coach Lillian Woolsworth-Toth told reporters. Toth, the only openly lesbian head coach in college football, also showed off her latest macramé project and vintage tea collection. "We've freed ourselves from the oppression of expectations." The Granolas plan to confound opponent and viewer alike by not wearing uniform numbers. "We find that sequential numerals are an outdated, chauvinistic expression of micro-aggression. Frankly, all of our players are number one to me."
The Grizzards tout eighth-year sophomore quarterback Turd Perkins, whose leads the team with a -1.8 GPA. He plans to never graduate with a degree in General Studies.
"General Studies is my hero. Without him, the South woulda lost our war."
Speedy and electric cosmetology college transfers Demontague McSimmons and Fittydollarzzz Jones highlight a passing attack that averages 412 yards per game.
Look for the Grizzards (combination Grizzly Bear/Buzzard for the unfamiliar) to strike early and often and send the Granolas two-wheeling back to the Pacific Northwest hinterlands in tears.
Southern Kentucky Grizzards 41, People's University of Portland Granolas 20
*— The Heath Ledger does not promote gambling on sporting events, nor is it financially responsible for monies lost wagering on such events.


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Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout (PS4, PC)
Hanabi last edited by
Got into it too, outside of my controller not working I've had a good time so far.
@dipset Right you are, Ken.
The fake doors one game and the path finding game are literally just about bullying other players.
El Shmiablo last edited by
@hazz3r That sounds incredible.
Playtest is over. I've had an incredible time with this game. I've pre-purchased it on Steam. I cannot wait to start playing on Tuesday when my progression through the Season and all my cosmetics will actually carry forward forever.
Huber said it best. The brilliant thing about this game is that you can jump in no matter your experience or skill level and have a fun, competitive, experience.
There absolutely is meta here and there. Hexa-Gone is particular is very skill based, where there is a knack for staying on the platforms for as long as possible, jumping between hexagons rather than running towards the end.
Perfect match needs to be reworked. The platforms are big enough that most people in the game can fit on. The platforms need to be made smaller so that you can't just rely on the wisdom of crowds.
All the straight up obstacle courses are great fun. I've grown to love See Saw, and some of the other courses have some really fun meta involving getting purposely hit by some of the obstacles.
So yeah, bring on Tuesday. I'd love this game to blow up.
See Saw is already my nemesis, it's horrible. Tried it three times and never got to finish line, pure chaos. Oh man. :P
There was clearly a bunch of technical difficulties now in the beginning, like I didn't get all my rewards, once there was a connection problem, the other time I couldn't leave a game properly after eliminated etc. Only dipped my toes for 30 minutes now, I'll return a bit later (today). I need to learn to embrace the chaos. :)
TokyoSlim last edited by
Still waiting for it to go live on PSN. Might be an hour, might not be.
@sentinel-beach Apparently the demand has blown their expectations away.
See Saw will grow on you, it's so satisfying when you get a good run.
bam541 last edited by bam541
I only got in one session so far. I guess the servers are too overwhelmed right now, or maybe it's because I'm playing this super early in the morning... nah, it's probably the former. The menu music is a certified banger though. I got See Saw (absolute chaos), Block Party (it's quite nerve-wrecking with how this game controls), and the tail chasing one (got one dude who's held the tail for almost 2 minutes straight, too pro).
El Shmiablo last edited by
So I've played a few rounds and I absolutely love how the game plays, but I gotta say... I absolutely hate the colour palette. Everything, and I mean everything, is in such a harsh neon, and it honestly gives me a headache just looking at it.
The soundtrack is also incredibly anxiety inducing, but that seems like a conscious decision.
Axel last edited by
I also gave it a shot yesterday, and overall it's very enjoyable! I seem to always make it to at least the third round so that feels good, unlike shooter battle royales where I can never get a single kill.
However, the connection issues ruined the fun for me, as I was disconnected several times in the middle of the action, and I even won the crown once only to lose connection while on the win screen, and for my win to not be recorded. That hurt. So I'll probably stay off until the weekend.
The controls are a bit underwhelming though, I get that you're not supposed to be as agile as Mario and clumsiness is part of the challenge, but sometimes your character trips and falls for seemingly no reason and it can be frustrating. I'm also not sure what the purpose of the "dive" move is, as it takes forever to get back up, and it doesn't seem useful in any situation (except maybe to push giant balls in some games). The grab move is also very weak and unresponsive, in the egg gathering minigame I couldn't seem to hold on to an egg for more than a few seconds, even though I never let go of the button. Almost thought my R2 button was busted.
TokyoSlim last edited by
Dive is actually pretty useful as a "double jump", as you can jump, and then dive forward in the air. Timing it right can help you pass somebody at the goal line too, if it's a matter of "one last person can make it"
bam541 last edited by bam541
Still not having the best connection/matchmaking experience, but I got a couple more matches. The team challenges are the absolute worst, lol. It always felt like it's completely dependent on luck for most of them (expect maybe the egg basket one), the best I can do is just play the objective and pray everyone else on my team got it right. I also would love to see improvements in the control feedback. Jumping around and diving feels okay, but grabbing things just feels very slippery and sloppy. I wish crossplay is available so I can play it with my friends, this seems like the best chance I got to get them to play a non-F2P game with me.
Also, the group stream the Allies just did earlier is so much fun to watch, Jones is killing it!
Got 3 wins last night. Looking forward to getting back into the game tonight when hopefully they won't close the servers for 2 hours.
The Dive move is the fastest way to move and gives you the most airtime. So for example it's great for the obstacle course with the windmills, as well as the course with the walls that move up and down. You can just squeeze over a wall that would have blocked you otherwise.
Recommend Jump Diving through the last set of doors in Door Dash. Can make the difference between being out and being in the Top 20%.
Its best use is in Hex-a-gon. You can use it to get to hexagons that would otherwise be out of reach. You can really clutch a win that way, as long as you jump straight away after.
Egg Scramble just sucks. It's so hard to get out of the nest.
And as @TokyoSlim says, you can also use it as a Double Jump and a Stretch for the finish line. It's gotten me through a couple of times on Tip-toe.
TheMarcV last edited by
Got to try it out last night and I didn't have any issues finding games or being dropped from games and losing exp/coins so that was good. The game itself is fun but I do wonder how long I'll stick with it. Hopefully the game gets regular updates because I can see myself coming back any time new content is added.
I also agree with the team games, I prefer to win or fail based on my performance and not that of others. Only played the tail and egg team games and while they aren't completely bad it always sucks to lose because of someone else or to have others fail because of you, just my two cents.
bard91 last edited by
Got close to winning my first game but it wasn't to be, having a blast so far mostly pl;aying in small burst and small work breaks :P
The group stream was really good, I loved seeing Brandon excel at the game like that. :D
Haven't been able to play as much as I would have liked yet. Currently I've unlocked the pigeon tail, so not far yet. I'm eager to spend my points on some cool pieces of attire, but so far I've kept them all. I'll know what I want when I finally see it out there.
I agree about the team games, they can feel like a bummer sometimes when losing. But luckily it's all a very fast process and you're back in a new game quickly.
Got my Fifth Win Tonight and bought myself the Alyx Pants. Don't see myself getting 5 wins before tomorrow night and getting the top, will probably save them for the next things to come through the shop.
bam541 last edited by
Just got my first win after a pretty clean Fall Mountain session! This is the beginning of my addiction, lol. Watching the Allies' group stream definitely helped me, I haven't played much (I think I got in like 11 episodes so far, only made to the finals in 3 of them) so I mostly learned about the later challenges from the group stream. Fall Mountain is a really good final game, btw.
DemonPirate last edited by
Fall Mountain is the most nerve-wracking shit I've played. I was first to reach the crown and failed to catch it twice.
These team-based games are killing me. Like I've been eliminated now five times in a row at those. Three times in Egg Hunt, hate it. This game can be brutal.


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23 Mar 2016
In Montenegro, a public space project abandoned for 27 years will soon find its feet thanks to a competition designed to finish the urban space and create useable areas for community engagement.
SADAR+VUGA, HHF architekten, and local consultant Archicon have received first prize in the competition for the adaptation and reconstruction of the Dom Revolucije (Home of Revolution) in Nikšić, Montenegro.
The existing structure, built by Slovenian architect Marko Mušič, was originally intended to represent the socio-political structure of Nikšić, Montenegro and Yugoslavia as a whole. Construction began on the building in 1978, and after eleven years, work was suspended, leaving the site uncompleted in the middle of the city for 27 years.
The new proposal will transform the Home of Revolution by utilising the existing built structure—mainly a shell—and inserting minimal interventions to create a new type of urban space.
Furthermore, the plan introduces a large underground parking space, facilitating urban infrastructure, and making the site a gateway to the city. Thus, this section of the old city can become pedestrian-friendly, freeing urban surfaces for café seating, walkways, and playgrounds.
In treating the existing structure as an urban landscape, the proposal forms a 10/20/70 strategy, in which 10% of space has year-round, defined function, 20% of space is occupied by a central promenade that transects the building in two directions, and 70% of the space is not renovated but rather updated according to codes of safety. Year-round programs include a café, co-working office, gallery spaces, and educational workshops.


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Tonymoly Latte Art Cappuccino Cream-In Scrub Review & Swatches
Coffee lover? You might just love the Tonymoly Latte Art Cappuccino Cream-in Scrub! I got this scrub in my recent Memebox Special #39 Cafe Box and fell in love with but beware dry skin users as this is best used perhaps every two weeks.
Take a look!
Tonymoly Latte Art Cappuccino Cream-In Scrub apparently contains milk as well as coffee extracts to gently exfoliate skin. As you can see it comes housed in a cute little coffee mug! The stirrer located on the top slides out and acts as a spatula to remove the scrub from the container.
The scrub does indeed smell like yummy coffee and creamy milk! It's a very pleasant fragrance to my nose and quite realistic but might not agree with sensitive users. Apparently the coffee extracts and milk act to dissolve dry, flaky skin however, I have my doubts about it actually contain milk. It has a very thick, sticky consistency that reminds me of facial wax. To use it simply apply to a dry, cleansed face and slowly massage it in. It actually has a warming effect as you use it which again, might not agree with sensitive users. The warming effect closely resembles that of Biore Self Heating Mask. As massage it turns white which is when you'll want to rinse it away with water. It has very small scrubby granulates in the mix but I don't feel these are strong enough to whisk away dryness.
After using it my face looks very, very clean and brighter. However, my skin is quite tight so I have to be sure to apply plenty of moisturizer after use. Surprisingly it does give my skin not only a super squeaky clean look and feel but also a smoother one. The dryness around my cheeks is smoother, the flaking I experience on my chin, also gone. So it's obviously working well as an exfoliating treatment.
I'd recommend using it once a week if you have dry skin…personally I use it once every two weeks because it's a bit too drying for me! I like the effects, I just don't love the dryness so once every two weeks is plenty for my skin.
I got it in my recent Memebox but many Ebay.com sellers including F2Plus1 sells this!
Tried it?
Do share!
Explore Memboxes at us.memebox.com.


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Spanish Translation Services for Latin America
Professional English-to-Spanish Translations by Certified, Native Speaking Translators
ICD provides Latin America Spanish translation services, both written and verbal, for those requiring professional English-to-Spanish translation services. Our translation agency includes professional, certified, native speaking translators who are fluent in the language and dialect.
The prevalence of Spanish around the world has made it the second most requested language for translation services—second only to English. As businesses expand internationally, the need for professional translation services and business interpreters is rapidly increasing.
We provide accurate and efficient translation for:
- Some companies will ask for a "neutral" translation as a solution to reach all Spanish speakers in one document. This kind of neutral Spanish deprives the language from local expressions and may translate into a loss of style and effectiveness of communication. Using a native translator is essential to effectively reach the target audience (for example, Latin American Spanish vs. Spanish for Spain). It is important to consult with a professional English-to-Spanish translation agency in order to get the most accurate translation.
- Vocabulary is one of the biggest differences between Latin American Spanish and European Spanish. For example, in Latin American Spanish, the word "ticket" is translated as boleto, while in Spanish for Spain, it is translated as billete.
- In Latin American Spanish, the direct loanwords from English are relatively more frequent. They are used without translating or adapting the spelling to the traditional norms. For example, in Latin American Spanish, email is often used instead of the traditional translation of correo electrónico.
Foreign Language Translation is Available for these Countries: Mexico, United States, Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, El Salvador, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Argentina
If you don't see the language required for your multilingual translations project above, please call or email us.


text:
Located at fashionable Houlakia Bay area, well protected from the wind, this 2 story villa is part of the 3 villa compound Mykonos Tradition. Built by Mykonian laborers, with respect to the Cycladic architecture, it is furnished and decorated as a traditional Mykonian residence, while offering modern facilities. From its huge verandas one can enjoy breathtaking views of the Aegean Sea and Delos Island. As night falls, the flickering lights of passing sea vessels provide a fantastic tableau-vivant. Its fully equipped country-style kitchen with its hand-carved dining tables can accommodate large parties for dining. Located less than a 5 minute drive from bustling Mykonos Town, the villa, a midst 5,000m2 grounds, offers a tranquil and relaxing environment.
Lower Level: huge living room, dining room with fireplace, open-plan fully equipped provincial-style kitchen, study room / library, two bedrooms (4 single beds), one bathroom with shower, one guest bathroom, laundry room. Terrace with outdoor dining area,private pool and sea view.
Upper Level: Living room with open-plan kitchen, 2 bedrooms (one master), 2 bathrooms (1 tub, 1 shower), huge veranda offering a stunning view of the Aegean, ideal for evening gatherings.
The ground floor, as all ground floors, is covered with terra-cota tiles from the island of Crete. Some of the walls are unplastered stone, creating a village style decor.
Private infinity pool
In the living - dining room area is furnished, among others. Two rustic tables carved from chestnut trees from Mount Athos that can accommodate 20 guests, while another large table, hand-carved from pine, provides al-fresco dining at the veranda.
Highlight of the Villa is its first floor veranda with its stone floors, offering magical, color changing sunset views. Another pine tree table can accommodate elegant and romantic cocktail and dining.
24-Hour Front Desk, Private Parking Area, Outdoor Private Swimming pool, Bar, Snack Bar, High-speed Wireless Internet Access, Guest laundry & dry cleaning, Garden, Jacuzzi, Massage room, Library, Breakfast Area
Privileged Yacht rental
Free Wi-Fi, 24 hours concierge and room service which include: concierge services, travel arrangements, food and beverage services in the privacy of the residence, daily maid service, babysitting, in-house laundry and pressing, Private entrance and parking, Spa therapies, express check in/out, car rental, shuttle service (surcharge), Airport Shuttle (surcharge), Shoeshine, Suit Press, Wake-up service
Private cruise upon availability, Hiking, Diving, Horseback Riding, Snorkeling, Water Sports, Spa therapies, Massage treatment
Located in Houlakia beach with its round pebbles, proclaimed a location of special ecological value, is only 100 meters away, while sandy, organized Saint Stefano beach requires a 2 minute drive.
Distances to:
Mykonos port (old): 7.0 km
New Mykonos port: 3.3 km
Town center: 6 km
Airport: 8 km


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(July 2018) The AEDC Small Business Lending Center is sponsoring two important workshops within the North Coast SBDC's first ever summer incubator for young entrepreneurs. The "Raise Capital!" sessions take the cohort through a fast, intense briefing on how to pitch to investors, how to run a crowfunding campaign, and how and when to apply for a business loan. A week later, three sub-groups will do a practice run for each approach to raising capital and receive practical advice and critique from the experts.
Susan Seaman, Program Director, and her colleague James Schaeffer, Loan Officer, are co-teaching the "Business Loan" portion of these workshops. Susan reflected, "For nearly 40 years, AEDC has been supporting Humboldt County small business. Historically, many of the businesses that we think of as leaders in the industry have been built by young professionals who want to create a place for themselves to stay and be successful in Humboldt. We are happy to encourage new generations to find that same success...And to help prepare them to be the industry leaders of the future."
Below, Incubator participant Aidas Worthington demonstrates his ChronoLogic "app" to Susan Seaman.


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Small Admissions: A Novel368
"Perfect for fans of Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep."—Booklist
Top 6 Books You Need to Read—BuzzFeed
Best Books to Give Every Book Lover on Your List—Town & Country
In this witty, hilarious, and entertaining novel that's "The Devil Wears Prada meets Primates of Park Avenue" (The New York Times), a young woman is unexpectedly thrust into the cutthroat world of New York City private school admissions.
Despite her innate ambition and summa cum laude smarts, Kate Pearson has turned into a major slacker. After being unceremoniously dumped by her handsome "almost fiancé," she abandons her plans and instead spends her days lolling on the couch, watching reruns of Sex and the City. Her friends don't know what to do other than pass tissues and hope for a comeback, while her practical sister, Angela, pushes every remedy she can think of, from trapeze class to therapy to job interviews.
Miraculously, Kate manages to land a job in the admissions department at the revered Hudson Day School. In her new position Kate learns there's no time for self-pity or nonsense during the thick of the admissions season, or what her colleagues refer to as "the dark time." As the process revs up, Kate meets smart kids who are unlikable, likeable kids who aren't very smart, and Park Avenue parents who refuse to take no for an answer. Through a comical and crazy run of wildly unpredictable interviews, subtle bribes, outright threats, final judgments, and page-turning twists, the highly competitive and occasionally absurd world of private school admissions is brought to light in all of its outrageous glory that is reminiscent of Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep.
Product Details
|Atria/Emily Bestler Books
|Publication date:
|Edition description:
|Sales rank:
|Product dimensions:
|5.20(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Small Admissions
For one whole year, we worried about Kate. We worried to her face and worried behind her back, credited her with being tough, while judging her for being pathetic. Some days we thought she was suicidal; others she seemed homicidal, or as if she had the potential, anyway, not that any of us would blame her. We didn't know how to help. Her sister, Angela, thought she needed therapy, antidepressants, and time to heal. She prescribed hard work and weekend hobbies, like kayaking or photography. Vicki thought she needed to quit wallowing; why not enjoy life as a single woman, celebrate her independence, go out and get laid? The guy who lived below her thought she should turn her music down and leave the apartment from time to time instead of stomping around over his head all day long. The lady at the liquor store suspected she drank too much. I didn't know what to think. We all agreed she needed to get her ass off the couch and get a life. She needed to stop wearing sweatpants and put on a little mascara, for Christ's sake. And would it kill her to go on a date? We were tired of the whole thing. Sure, life had thrown a huge piece of shit in her face, but . . .
Actually, there was no but. Life had thrown an enormous piece of shit in Kate's face.
Whenever the topic of Kate came up, faces got twitchy; eyes got shifty. Our friends would glance at each other and look at me with a mixture of blame and embarrassment, making it clear what they all thought but couldn't say, at least not around me. I could imagine them whispering, after I excused myself to go to the ladies' room:
She must feel like it's her fault.
It was her fault.
Well, she certainly is partly to blame.
Apart from him, it was all her fault.
I know! I mean, if only she had . . .
I wonder if she feels responsible?
Yes, bitches. I feel responsible.
To me Kate was something like a figure skater, skilled and balanced one second and then, bam, she's splayed out all over the ice the next. Music still playing, and she can't even get up to finish the damn routine.
But before her fall, it was a different story. Skilled and balanced. I remember Kate sitting cross-legged on her bed in our dorm room, laptop open, wearing glasses and retainers, reading an assignment she'd written out loud to us:
Day 1. Sundown. I enter a community living structure after the tribe's evening repast. I am in the midst of seven female natives, and while I believe them to be a peaceful people, I approach them cautiously, watching from a safe distance. I see them communicating with each other, using language and gestures, drinking an amber-colored beverage out of red, plastic cups, and listening to music that causes them to jerk their heads in unison. I come closer to observe their rituals and seat myself on a contraption that hosts a variety of food particles in its fibers. When I insert my hand under the cushion, I discover a handful of blackened popcorn kernels, a pair of unwashed male undergarments, and two small copper medallions. The women in the tribe see the items in my hand and begin shrieking, gesticulating, and backing away from me. I fear I have insulted these gentle humanoids by unearthing their relics from the sofa, but they are forgiving. One offers me a large vessel, into which I respectfully lower the clothing and kernels. When I start to put in the copper medallions, the female makes a gift of them to me. I will bring them home to share with my people.
Kate looked up, ready for our critique.
"I don't get it," Vicki said. She was sitting up in her bed with a Town & Country magazine open across her lap.
"What?" Kate asked.
"If they're pennies," Vicki asked, "why can't you just say pennies?"
"I like it," I said.
"Thank you, Chloe," Kate answered. She was hunched over, reading through her fictional field notes again.
"I didn't say I don't like it," Vicki said. "I just don't get the point."
"Can you tell I'm from another planet?" Kate asked.
"Totally," I assured her.
"It's inconsistent, if you want me to be honest," Vicki answered. "How would an alien know what popcorn is?"
"You're absolutely right," Kate said, holding down the delete button. "It's so stupid."
"You're a freshman," Vicki told her. "You're supposed to be stupid."
"She didn't say she was stupid," I corrected. "She didn't mean to say that you're stupid, Kate."
"It's no good; I'm starting over again," Kate said, closing her laptop and getting ready to go. "I'll work in the Student Center, so I don't keep you up."
"We'll hear you anyway when you come in at two o'clock," Vicki said.
"She'll tiptoe," I suggested.
We had only been roommates for two months, and we had already fallen into our roles. Kate was the bookiest of us. She spent more time in the library and less time in the shower than anyone I'd ever met. Not that she smelled bad or anything. She just couldn't be bothered. She was a scholar in the making, bingeing on nineteenth-century novels whenever she had spare time, the more passion, suspense, and drama, the better.
"You know you're wearing pajamas," Vicki called after her, as Kate walked out of the room.
Vicki was smart and driven in a different way. She was exceedingly practical, registered for classes only if she found them real-world applicable and down-the-road lucrative. "When would I ever use that?" she asked when I suggested we all take a history class on serfdom in the Middle Ages. She signed up for stats instead. I had to check a map when I first met her to wrap my head around where she came from: a flyover state that she had no intention of returning to. One time I walked into our dorm room to find Vicki looking through Kate's dresser drawers. Without thinking, I apologized to her.
And who was I? Among other things, my role in our clique was keeper of the peace. I held us together. For four years I bridged the gap, and it wasn't easy. I was the one who made sure we were always assigned to the same dorm, with rooms on the same hall. I was the one who made plans (Friday-night cocktails and weekend getaways) and posed us in pictures, dressed up or dressed down, with me almost always in the middle. I cleared up misunderstandings and found common ground: in our sophomore year, Kate and Vicki got into a fight about gun control (Vicki's libertarian principles clashing with Kate's progressive sensibilities), and I spent an anxiety-filled week negotiating a truce, apologizing to one on behalf of the other, failing a sociology test in the process.
After we graduated from Wellesley, we decided to move to New York as individuals—still as a trio in spirit, but not as roommates. I figured it was for the best, knowing that our friendships would be far less complicated without the petty problems that stem from too much togetherness. I was relieved to move forward into something simple and more adult.
And then Kate had her disastrous triple toe loop ass-on-ice wipeout and suddenly I found myself reentangled, back in the middle of a big mess.


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Our Midsummer San Antonio Garden Reveal
by Celia Hayes
At this point, we have about filled the back yard of my San Antonio home and the narrow strip running along the side of the house with just about everything it can hold; plants in the ground and plants in pots, or hanging from baskets from the edge of the back porch. Now my daughter has begun looking speculatively at the front of the house ... which admittedly has begun to look a little neglected. Well, those parts not covered with enthusiastic plants are looking neglected. Five or six years ago, I planted one side of the driveway with mostly xeriscape plants, and things which I recall from Greece. There's a small olive tree in the middle of it, with a fig tree, and two grapevines growing on metal obelisks, a pair of rose bushes, a lot of sage and rosemary, and one tall bay tree. It's become pretty much a jumble, now, but a not unattractive jumble. It all thrives on whatever rain falls from the sky.
It's the other side of the driveway, and the walk up towards the front door ... that is the area which my daughter warns me is looking a bit slummy. "We don't want to be 'those people' in that house," she warns me, balefully. The Matterhorn of mulch supplied in the spring by the neighbor doing serious tree-trimming helped a little bit, but the bald fact remained – the length of walkway to the front porch borders a long skinny stretch of mulch with nothing much to break it up save a pair of wildly enthusiastic rose bushes and a small almond verbena tree. I had started a planting at the end – where the gate to the back garden opens, but the stretch in between it and the rose bushes looked ... well, bare. And my daughter was struck by an idea when we saw some garden adornments on sale at Tuesday Morning. Among those items were some tall metal shepherd hooks, to hang plants from – very sturdy items and at a very good price.
Why not line the walk with four or five of these, and hang baskets of plants, and some bird-houses which she got at a yard sale a couple of weeks ago, and swap around the two birdbaths? Move the small concrete one out to the front, for the amusement of the birds, and the tall metal birth bath from where it had been to the middle of the garden in the back yard. So, 'twas done this morning, and with a humongous bag of potting soil, all the new hanging baskets were planted. We even added a new rain-gage to the eccentric collection of garden ornaments ... one which I had been agonizing over at the Antique Rose Emporium. On Saturday they only had four left, so obviously I had to make a decision ... and by this afternoon there was even some rain in it. At last I have been rewarded in planting the flame acanthus and agastache bushes, which between them have sprawled out a long way along the back fence. This week we have seen a pair of hummingbirds busily working their way along the red, and red-orange flowers, almost every morning and afternoon. They might even eventually discover the humming bird feeder, too...
How many useful and attractive plants can one cram into a small suburban garden? I don't know yet, but we're having fun finding out.


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What charming little Felt Aquarium Magnets for your refrigerator or a metal cabinet. Your little ones will love the bright colors and these would make a wonderful learning aid for them. They could learn colors as well as name the sea creatures. You can also have them work along with you if they are old enough. These would also be darling for a felt board without the magnets. This would be a good project to use up your felt scraps too. Another great project from Molly's Sketchbook from "Purl Bee"
These under the sea creature magnets are oh so adorable!


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Uber and Google are fighting to dominate the self-driving car market.
But the real battle may turn out to be Uber versus California's Department of Motor Vehciles.
A day after Uber launched self-driving cars in San Francisco with great fanfare, the California DMV, which oversees autonomous vehicle development in the state, said in a statement that it "encourages responsible exploration of self-driving cars".
It then added was reads like a stern warning aimed directly at Uber.
"We have a permitting process in place to ensure public safety as this technology is being tested. Twenty manufacturers have already obtained permits to test hundreds of cards on California roads," the DMV said. "Uber shall do the same."
The problem is: Uber has no permit to operate a self-driving car in the state, and it insists it has no plans to apply for one.
In Uber's view, its "self-driving" cars don't fall under the DMV's self-driving regulations because they can't be operated without a person controlling or monitoring them.
"We have looked at this issue carefully and we don't believe we do [need a permit]," Uber's head of self-driving, Anthony Levandowski, wrote in its blog post. "The rules apply to cars that can drive without someone controlling or monitoring them. For us, it's still early days and our cars are not yet ready to drive without a person monitoring them."
Self-driving vs. self-driving
Uber's positioning puts the regulators in a tough place.
Under the DMV's rule for self-driving vehicles, an "autonomous vehicle" means any vehicle equipped with technology that has the capability of operating or driving the vehicle without the active physical control or monitoring of a natural person, whether or not the technology is engaged. Tesla's autopilot system, for example, doesn't fall into the category since the company claims a driver always needs to be engaged and it's only acting as an advanced cruise control.
Uber follows the same argument that its technology is not capable of driving a vehicle either without a person monitoring or being there. Yet, it's advertising its cars as self-driving and has said that it's working (via these tests) towards a future where the cars don't require drivers at all.
Crimes and misdemeanours
What happens next in the dispute is unclear. The DMV did not respond to further requests for comment on whether it was in touch with Uber or investigating the development of its autonomous vehicle technology.
Should a company be found to be violating the self-driving vehicle rules, though, it is considered a misdemeanour and the DMV could pursue legal action, including asking for injunctive relief, against the violator, a DMV spokesperson told Business Insider in response to a different request about Uber's trucks on California's roads. California Highway Patrol could also cite any self-driving vehicle that's operating without a permit, according to the DMV.
Uber's argument that it doesn't need a permit would allow it to avoid California's stringent regulations, which include updates on any accident the cars have within 10 days and a summary of how many times the car has disengaged from self-driving and switched back to a driver's manual control.
In its blog post, Uber seemingly implied that the state's regulations are not "pro-technology" and could have the "unintended consequence of slowing innovation."
"Most states see the potential benefits, especially when it comes to road safety. And several cities and states have recognised that complex rules and requirements could have the unintended consequence of slowing innovation. Pittsburgh, Arizona, Nevada and Florida in particular have been leaders in this way, and by doing so have made clear that they are pro technology," the company wrote. "Our hope is that California, our home state and a leader in much of the world's dynamism, will take a similar view."
NOW WATCH: Here's all the futuristic technology Uber's self-driving cars use to get around
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GOVERNMENT on Wednesday launched its E-Portal, an online gateway to all government information and services. The portal — GOV.JM — is expected to be the central place to perform online transactions with the government, find
Online portal to fast-track applications for development permits
A Development Applications Review Process (DARP) Public Portal 11 has been created to improve the process of application for environmental and construction permits. It is part of the Application Management and Data Automation (AMANDA) system
Gov't Committed To World-Class Customer Service Delivery
Amidst complaints about less-than-desirable public-service delivery, the Government of Jamaica is pushing ahead to achieve world-class customer service through the more than 200 public-sector institutions islandwide. This is consistent with one of the Vision 2030
Public Sector Transformation & Modernisation: 3 Focus Areas
Click the link below to explore the 3 focus areas under Public Sector Transformation & Modernisation: Transformation At A Glance
Public Sector Transformation Update
See how well government is performing against it's public sector transformation goals.
Measuring Government Performance Objectively
Find out how government is performing against it's targets


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Imaging solutions for Life Sciences
Strategies for in vivo and in vitro studies combined with Histology, Molecular detection in situ, High Resolution Microscopy, Histopathology and Quantitative image analysis.
"From Molecule to Microscope and Beyond – Quality first"
Company introduction- see our short video and learn more!
We perform scientific contract research that assist you in the success of your projects, being private/industrial discovery, pre-clinical and/or academic research groups. read more ->
Tailor-made experimental labelling methodology, microscope and digital image analysis using techniques such as: Live cell imaging, Confocal microscopy, NIR Detection, Image Analysis and Digital Pathology. read more ->
read more ->
29/09/2020 11:56Two new publications submitted
08/09/2020 10:51IGT has established a Super staining procedure
10/06/2020 14:00Four new scientific publications


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EOHR concludes the second training workshop on capacity building of legal experts to deal with the crime of torture
June 13th, 2013 by Editor
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) concluded the second training course to build the capacity of legal experts to deal with the crime of torture on Thursday, 13 June 2013, which lasted over Wednesday and Thursday, 12-13 June 2013.
Mr.Tarek Zaghloul, the executive director of EOHR talked about "How to document the crime of torture?", stressing on the importance of documentation of the crime of torture; it's not just related to receiving an unusual complaint, but also linked to the location of the incident, the reason and seriousness of the claim and the credibility of the information that opens the door to investigating the incident. A lawyer should take special care of the questions asked to the victim and give high attention to the tinny details and observations. Mr. Zaghloul added that "the overall purpose of the documentation is to prove the facts of the alleged torture incidents.
Then Dr. Nadia Helmy, the lecturer of political science at Beni Suef University talked about "How to make a complaint in the framework of the United Nations Organizations?", referring to the importance of the ability of individuals to submit their own complaints to the international mechanisms as a result of defected legal and legislative construction or due to obstacles in front of the individual's access to legal right against those who have violated his/her fundamental rights. Dr. Helmy added that the international complaining mechanisms are aimed at dealing with individual cases subjected to violations of the state, which is against its commitments to the international human rights standards.
Then Mr. Tarek Zaghloul divided the trainees into working groups to train them on how to document the crime of torture, and how to write a complaint regarding tortured victims, how to b submit the complaints in accordance with the international mechanisms rules. At the end of the last day of the training workshop, Mr. Tarek Zaghloul handed over the training participation certificates to the trainees.
This entry was posted on Thursday, June 13th, 2013 at 9:53 am and is filed under Statements. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.


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Oliver Possum
Oliver the plush Possum doesn't move all that quickly but that doesn't mean you shouldn't slow down and take the time to get to know him! This cuddly Possum has a sweet personality and an adorable face to match it. Crafted with soft white and gray plush materials, Oliver's design features a realistic body shape and an endearing curled tail. Rounded pink ears and inquisitive black eyes accent his pale colored face while tiny little toes detail his paws. High quality polyester fill within ensures Oliver will maintain his round, huggable shape for years to come. Spend some time with this endearing Possum stuffed animal and you'll discover just how lovable Oliver can be!
Additional information
|2.7 oz
|8 × 5 × 4 in
24 Months & Up
9" Long
(23 cm)
|Stuffed Toy Size
Customer Reviews
I love him! I do wish the foot/fingers were more realistic but whatever. I really like the color of the fur
Oliver Possum
I have purchased other toys from Douglas before, and I have always been extremely satisfied. I was so excited when I saw Oliver Possum, but I had to wait because he was out of stock. I got an email saying that he was back in stock, but when I clicked on it, he was already out of stock again. When I eventually could order him, he was not what I was expecting. His fur was falling out and he had bald patches. His fur was also not the incredibly soft texture that I have come to expect from Douglas. He was squishy and huggable though! I am a little disappointed, but I will still love him anyway.
While I had hoped to review the toy I actually ordered, it is apparently lost somewhere in the US Postal system. It has been 2 weeks lost in transit (not the company/shippers' fault), but I am holding out hope it will eventually show up. However, I do have another oliver possum from a while back... he's very cute and cuddly and worth the 5 star rating. Great toy for children and adults.
I would literally die for this possum


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Sun Yat Sen invert pair expected to bring $645,000 in Hong Kong
Sun Yat Sen invert pair expected to bring $645,000 in Hong Kong
A rare vertical pair of the $2 Dr Sun Yat Sen invert will top an October 13-14 auction
A remarkable Hong Kong stamp auction is to star an extremely rare vertical pair of the renowned $2 Dr Sun Yat Sen invert on October 13-14.
The auction house set a world record for the invert with its last sale
The sale will see over 2,000 lots of stamps and postal history from China, Hong Kong and other countries, and is estimated to realise in excess of $3.2m. The $2 pair is expected as the top lot, with an estimate of $580,000-$645,000.
The 1941 Dr Sun Yat Sen inverted centre is considered one of the rarest stamps from the Republic of China, with just one sheet of 50 stamps featuring the error ever issued. The stamps at auction are an extremely rare vertical pairing - one of just two known to exist -which originate from the collection of the illustrious philatelist Huang Ming Fang.
The pair are in pristine condition with full original gum and have been lightly initialled in pencil by stamp expert Peter Holcombe at the reverse. They are expected to set a new world record when sold.
The current world record for a single Dr Sun Yat Sen invert was set at the auction house's last sale in March, when a fine example with the bottom margin attached sold for $311,000, 20.5% above its pre-sale estimate.
Also featuring in the sale will be a mint condition example of the 1897 Golden Dragon Empress Dowager first printing surcharge, which is one of the rarest stamps from imperial China. One of less than 12 copies in similar condition, it will sell with a $129,000-155,000 estimate.
As of March 2012, the value of China's top 100 collectible stamps is up 46% since the China 100 Stamp Index's inception in 2009, suggesting the auction will see some excellent results.
See the results of this auction here.
Paul Fraser Collectibles has a unique block of four 96c olive-bistre stamps from Hong Kong, which is thought to be one of just two multiples, the other being a used pair.
The bookmarklet lets you save things you find to your collections.
Note: Make sure your bookmarks are visible.
Click and drag the Collect It button to your browser's Bookmark Bar.


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Soca website taken down after LulzSec 'DDoS attack'
- Published
The UK Serious Organised Crime agency has taken its website offline after it appeared to be a victim of an attack by hacking group Lulz Security.
Soca said it had taken its website offline to limit the impact attack on clients hosted by its service provider.
Soca.gov.uk had been unavailable for much of Monday afternoon, with an intermittent service restored later.
Lulz Security has said it was behind the denial of service attack which had taken the website offline.
Earlier on Monday, as the agency launched an investigation, LulzSec tweeted: "Tango down - in the name of #AntiSec".
The group has hit a number of high-profile websites in recent weeks, including the CIA and US Senate.
Soca appeared to be the victim of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, where large numbers of computers, under malicious control, overload their target with web requests.
In a statement given to BBC News, a Soca spokesman said: "Soca has chosen to take its website offline to limit the impact of DDoS attack on other clients hosted by our service provider.
"The Soca website is a source of information for the general public which is hosted by an external provider. It is not linked to our operational material or the data we hold."
Earlier on Monday, a LulzSec Twitter posting seemed to confirm the nature of the attack.
"DDoS is of course our least powerful and most abundant ammunition. Government hacking is taking place right now behind the scenes," it said.
The latest attack will come as an embarrassment for Soca, which is tasked with investigating cybercrime.
"It is not going to please the boys in blue one bit," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at security firm Sophos.
Mr Cluley added that it was wrong to confuse DDoS with the kind of hacking that can lead to confidential information being stolen.
However, he warned that LulzSec was capable of both types of attack.
"They have in the past broken into websites and stolen e-mail addresses and passwords, so there is a lot of harm can be done."
Big Lulz
When Lulz Security first appeared in May, the group portrayed itself as a light-hearted organisation, bent on creating online fun and Lulz (laughs).
Soon after, details of its hacking exploits began to emerge.
The first involved stealing and publishing a database of US X-Factor contestants, including their e-mail addresses and phone numbers.
It followed up with a mixture of website denial of service attacks and intrusions where data was taken and made available on the internet.
On June 19, LulzSec declared that it would begin targeting government systems, calling the campaign Antisec.
"Top priority is to steal and leak any classified government information, including e-mail spools and documentation. Prime targets are banks and other high-ranking establishments," said a post on the group's website.
The reason for LulzSec's greater focus on government is unclear, although it appears to have recently ended a feud with the more politically-motivated group Anonymous.