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Iraq has been experiencing a surge in Covid-19 cases.
According to statistics provided by John's Hopkins University in early September 2020, the country of Iraq ranks 20th among the world with over a quarter-million cases. The minorities in Iraq are experiencing difficulties in accessing quality care. While there is no curative regimen at this point, there is an urgent need for oxygen, supportive care and medications. MERCI plans to send donations to cover the expenses for the Christian community in Duhok and Arbil, and expanding its mission to the nearby villages.
Helpiraq.org Network
Medical Emergency Relief for Christians of Iraq
MERCI is under helpiraq.org, which is an agency developed in 2014 in conjunction with Chaldean Diocese of Detroit for different humanitarian relief efforts shortly after ISIS forced over 150,000 Christians to leave their homes in Mosul and Nineveh plains. We support clinics in northern Iraq in providing different healthcare services such as medications, medical supplies and procedures. These clinics developed during the time of crisis to serve the refugees
Student 2 Student
Student 2 Student Coalition (S2S) is a committee branch of the HelpIraq.org network under the St. Thomas Diocese to provide Humanitarian Aid & Advocacy for college students in Northern Iraq who are displaced due to religious persecution. S2S is a youth movement that seeks to connect students in America with students in Iraq and brings to light the reality and hardship Iraqi students endure.
Teachers Educating and Creating Hope
TEACH was created to help. To help educators communicate with other educators, initially in Iraq, to assist with providing materials, curriculum & various assistance to displaced Christians throughout the Middle East, who are currently not attending school. If you'd like to help make a difference we'd love to hear from you
Project Justice
Project Justice is an organization of volunteer attorneys and legal professionals who assist refugees with legal issues in both the United States and overseas. Refugee representation includes both the advocacy of immigration issues and uniting families separated by unjustified visa denials. More recently, Project Justice has been working tirelessly with detained individuals who are at risk of deportation. Attorneys have provided legal counsel to the detainees and are guiding families in finding solutions during this difficult time. A typical immigration case may require months of research and court hearing attendance by the lawyer and many of the Project Justice attorneys are providing services on a pro bono or low bono basis. Project Justice has also set up a legal fund to assist families that cannot afford a lawyer. The Project Justice legal fund will be used for attorney representation for individuals with a verifiable need. Since Project Justice is a part of HelpIraq.org, a 501(c)(3) organization, your contribution is fully deductible.
Adopt a Refugee Family Program
The Adopt-a-Refugee Family program has been successfully working with the Jesuits to aid these refugees for years. There are many ways to help, and 100% of your donations go directly to a family in dire need of help, and hope. There are many ways to help our cause.
100% of your donation is donated to the cause
Help Iraq is a nonprofit organization founded by St. Thomas the Apostle, Chaldean Catholic Diocese of Detroit to assist persecuted Christians and other minorities in their homeland, as a result of the religious persecution of Christians in June 2014 by ISIS, primarily in villages with large Christian populations who have been displaced for over a year now. Many are living in makeshift tents, in abandoned buildings, churches & caravans. Children have been unable to attend school over the past year. In other areas, they have not attended school in years. Their homes, belongings & rights have been taken away with nowhere to turn. Help Iraq Objectives include but are not limited to providing basic daily human needs such as food, shelter, clothing and other necessities. Responding to the alarming humanitarian crisis & to raise awareness of the religious and ethnic cleansing.


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By: Lex Jacobson
I love kids. So much. Hence the fact that I've wanted my own since I was a kid myself. (I'm glad I didn't want them *that* much when I was in high school, because my life would have worked out much differently… back when I had free access to sperm.)
I'm so excited to hold my own baby come January and watch it grow through all of the stages of childhood. I've been hanging around a lot of kids lately – whether they're related or not – which has scared me a little. Because I'm realizing something.
Kids are assholes. Not always, but man, they can be assholes. Demanding disrespectful dickheads. I love my nieces and nephews, and all of my friends' kids, but I don't know what I'm going to do when my kid throws a tantrum in the middle of a dinner party or hits another kid while we're playing at the beach or tells me they hate me in front of everyone. Because I know all three of these things will undoubtedly happen. And Devon and I are going to be as ashamed of ourselves as mothers as our friends are when their children do shit like this.
Though Devon and I were raised in extremely different environments (she in a single-mom-best-friend type relationship and I in a militant-tough-love environment), we do agree that the one most important thing for us is to have respectful children. Both of us were very respectful children (though my "respect" was more out of complete terror of my mother, not true respect) and we would like the same for our children (without the terror part).
But as we're realizing with hanging out with numerous kids these days, we can only shape our own so much, and even though he or she may be an angel at home, undoubtedly at some really embarrassing point in the future – at a most inconvenient time – my child will be an asshole and I will feel like a horrible mother. And it will probably happen around my own mother, just to rub it in even deeper.
I can only hope that my kid's core ethics are strong and clear and that the asshole moments are really just moments (perhaps most of his or her second year?) and that I will give myself credit for raising a generally decent child. Hell, I know lots of adults who are decent people who have asshole moments, so maybe I'm putting way too much pressure on my unborn child, and myself.
I think really we're just a bit scared. It's easy to hand over my asshole nephew to his mother and let her do the parenting, but knowing that's up to us shortly is a little terrifying. All of this is a bit terrifying.

subset: commoncrawl


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Hidden Agreements
By: Rick Boxx
April 15, 2015
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fielded 3,620 whistleblowing tips in 2014, up 21% from two years before. In spite of this large increase the SEC fears that there are even more fraud cases being buried.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the SEC has seen an increase in inappropriate agreements being used to muzzle employees from talking to the government about fraudulent activity. The SEC is now investigating many companies searching for these kinds of agreements.
Although I'm not a fan of too much government intrusion, this is an area that may be warranted.
Ecclesiastes 12:14 teaches, "For God will bring every deed into judgement, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil."
If you're aware of fraud in your workplace, sometimes government intervention can surface what's otherwise hidden.
Learn more about Rick Boxx and Integrity Resource Center


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• The Jemez River and its scenic beauty.
• Hiking to a perfectly lovely waterfall.
The Jemez River starts in the Jemez Mountains about 1.5 hours drive from Albuquerque. Soon after this you come to the Valle Grande – an immense crater left after a series of volcanoes about a million years ago. Drive a little further and you come to Bandolier National Monument, one of the best-preserved ruins built by the Ancient Ones around 1100 AD (that's 900 years ago). A bit further and you come to the science town of Los Alamos, where they built the bomb. It's an enchanting area!
Kim and I hiked along the East Fork of the Jemez last week. At the end of May the grass is lush and green, and the scenery is spectacular.
The river meanders along in places, and amongst the tall Pinus Ponderosa trees (vanilla trees) you can feel the peace of God's creation.
We had to cross the river 8 or 10 times in total, and some crossings were a bit nervous — we teetered on stones and fallen pine trees, trying not to fall into the water.
Kim's a mountain goat, and she has to keep waiting for me to catch up. But I got one-up on her. At one river crossing she slipped from a rock and stepped into the river. It wasn't deep, and it wasn't cold. From then on, she walked in the river in her tennis shoes – and she loved it.
The day was warm but not hot and it was perfectly lovely standing in the shade listening to the burbling water.
As the canyon narrowed, we could hear the sound of a waterfall. And I love waterfalls – I've even seen some terrific ones in Tasmania and in Queensland, Australia.
And suddenly there it was. Not large, just a few feet tall, but really pretty. I sat on a rock and ate my trail mix and said a quiet thank you to God for legs that could get me here, for eyes that could see the splashes of sunlight in the water, and for ears that could hear the murmurs of the droplets. To me, it was a little bit like heaven.
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The Gray Nomad …..Lean in and learn
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
Book of Psalms, chapter 42.


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By Thomas Kupferschmied
Nowadays, most people interact with their contacts both online and offline. However, only few of them have reached a balance that grants effectiveness. As a social media influencer with an active offline presence, I believe I have learned how to combine both dimensions. Here are three ideas for you to achieve this too.
Make a plan
In a world of infinite opportunities, networking needs a strategy too. The key for balancing online and offline networking is considering both dimensions while setting your goals and creating your action plan. Which are your target people? On which platforms can you find them online, and in which environments can you encounter them offline? By the way, a lot of communities live on both channels – Meetups, Tweetups, InterNations and numerous Facebook groups. Make sure you take advantage of these overlaps in your strategy.
Nurture the same relationship both online and offline
As I always tell my clients, in order to raise awareness your brand needs to be communicated through at least five channels – for instance, website, social media, business card, talks and one-on-one consulting. Networking works similarly: if you manage to interact with a person both online and offline, your rapport will be stronger. Therefore, if you encounter someone at an event, follow up on social media. If you interact with somebody interesting online, meet up with them for coffee. If they don't live in your town, have a Skype chat with them.
Use convergence
Convergence means attending an offline event and posting live about it using hashtags. Tweetups are the perfect example, but you can practice convergence at any event you attend. Hashtags play a fundamental role in this phenomenon. Thanks to them, I met so many interesting people that were attending that very event but I would have never encountered at the event itself. Moreover, hashtags allow for you to not only reach more people, but also generate more interactions, as your readers are sharing the same experience as you: the event you are attending.
Thomas Kupferschmied is a branding consultant and influencer based in Zurich, Switzerland. Follow him on Twitter under @kupfi and discover his services on www.kupferschmied.ch.


text: Lloydminster, Alberta, Canada July 25, 2018 ~ Steven J. Scheinin Day 744 Isaac Montgomery Barr, born March 2, 1847 in Hornby, Canada, now part of Ontario, Canada, was an Anglican clergyman. He had the vision of an all-British Colony in the middle of the untapped Canadian west. Intended to be an exclusively British Utopian settlement centred on the idea of sobriety, the town of Lloydminster was founded on May 10, 1903 by the "Barr Colonists", who came directly from the United Kingdom. The town was named for George Lloyd, who took over the colony when Barr realized he bit off more than he could chew. When the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan were formed out of the Northwest Territories on September 1, 1905, the dividing line went right down the center of Lloydminster. Therefore, it is the only Canadian city in two provinces. Technical Stuff: St. Albert, Alberta, Ca. to LLoydminster, Alberta, Canada: 158.5 miles 3 hours 7 minutes 10.4 MPG Diesel: $1.20 Canadian/liter Share this:FacebookMoreEmailPrint


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When I feel depresso, I have a little espresso. That just about sums up the magical qualities of coffee perfectly. With the simplicity of a cup of espresso coffee and yet with healing powers for the wounded soul. And the bout of energy that it brings along is perhaps what always pushes one to take a sip and savour the taste in the mouth dissecting every flavour from every molecular particle, and embark into a journey of imagination and introspection that takes one back to the tree from which the beans were picked itself. Coffee, such a simple and convenient word to sum up a treasure trove of experiences and emotions it indulges the patron over a cup, that it almost sounds understated. Unlike the subtle tinge of flavour of tea, coffee is usually more pronounced and gripping in taste with a distinct ability to alter levels of energy. And although both are products from the bounty of nature, one cannot but wonder at the diversity of natures treats and how relentlessly people have worked at the backdrop to ensure a hot cuppa coffee is available to me, general masses, sitting in the comfort and convenience of their bedroom in their house. This reminds me of an interesting incident revolving around coffee. I was in a conversation with a friend over a cuppa and he too, a fellow coffee lover like me was explaining his relationship with coffee as an integral part of his diurnals. He confessed his relationship with coffee every morning was "Hello darkness, my dear old friend, we meet again". He liked his coffee strong and without milk. It wasn't much for the taste he preferred coffee that way, but more for the kick of energy it would give him ensuring his morning schedule could be adhered to. And for me, I was fond of a mildly sweet milky creamy concoction, I would often sit and savour the taste of a single cup at lengthy stretches of time, confiding my love to it every now and then, bewildered at the taste and flavour "We were meant to bean" with every bit of sincerity. Such is the different facets of the love and relationship, coffee lovers share with the bean beverage. And the lengths of imagination one will plunge into, to personalise their relationship with coffee and give it a meaningful existence in their life.
This coffee falls into your stomach and straightaway there is a general commotion in there…….and ideas begin to move in the mind" – Honore de Balzac (Legendary French playwright & artist)


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Welcome to the Office of Community and Government Relations. Our goal is to establish UVic as a recognized cornerstone of the community, committed to the sustainable social, cultural and economic development of our region and our nation.
The office of Community and Government Relations develops and sustains integrated institutional relationships in support of UVic's core commitment to mutually beneficial engagement with our valued external partners.
Being collaborative and respectful of the continuing and complementary roles and responsibilities of other portfolios, we provide strategic advice and expertise to:
- Engage with provincial and federal governments, the post-secondary sector and other organizations to advance collaborative opportunities, policy, and resources as well as UVic's specific files
- Steward purposeful institutional relationships with local communities and governments to ensure that UVic is a good neighbour within the region, and
- Counsel academic and service units and potential partners regarding current and emerging community, corporate and government opportunities for engagement


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Beloved SVA instructor, Igor Sunara is an awarding-winning director and cinematographer who has worked with Whitney Houston, Liza Minnelli, Diana Ross, Rod Stewart, Bon Jovi, Notorious BIG, and Dolly Parton, among others. Now his first feature, Finding Julia, opens in New York and five other cities on December 1. Here, Igor talks about his process at the helm of a big production.
Please see Finding Julia's website for more information: http://findingjulia.net
I am happy to announce that my feature directorial debut, Finding Julia, premiered in Los Angeles at the SparkLight cinema in Culver city, on Saturday Oct 28th, 2017 at the Asian World Film Festival. The strong cast includes Ha Phuong in the leading role of Julia, Andrew McCarthy, Kieu Chinh and Richard Chamberlain.
Finding Julia is the story of a beautiful young Vietnamese actress who lost her mother when she was quite young, and is haunted by the fear of losing the one person in the world she can trust – her father. It stars Ha Phuong, a singer and TV celebrity in her native Vietnam, as well as Andrew McCarthy and Richard Chamberlain. We shot in New York and Viet Nam.
Working as both Director and DP was a challenging task – fine-tuning performances while simultaneously overseeing the visuals. Actually, my initial intention was not to DP and direct at the same time, but Ha Phuong insisted – as a cinematographer I am used to making actors look their best. Long days shooting in one of New York's coldest winters were hard. Fortunately we could call on cinematographer, and SVA graduate, Mike Simmonds, and later, Seamus Tierney.
I sought a balance between visual language and performance that could help communicate the psychologically intense subject matter subtly. I designed a "grammar" for the film's subtext using the camera as an expressive – rather than a recording — tool. The camera became another actor, revealing her inner world visually in ways beyond words.


text: "Thank you to Larry and his Team !! and of course Kyri! For turning our vision into reality! Thank you Larry for being so accommodating to us and our family & friends, we heard nothing but beautiful comments about you, which is why we chose to have our wedding at Festival Functions. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts."


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ABC honors members and students at 2019 Chapter Awards dinner
More than 230 members and guests turned out on May 9 for the annual Chapter Awards Dinner honoring members for safety and diversity & inclusion efforts, as well as vo-tech students who are graduating and moving forward to work in the construction industry.
"This event is always a rewarding one, especially as we honor the future of our industry with the students who are graduating and beginning their careers in the construction industry," said ABC Delaware President Ed Capodanno. "During the evening, these students and their parents have the opportunity to learn more about the ABC companies what one day will employ them, and these companies' commitment to safety and diversity & inclusion in today's changing workforce."
This year, awards were presented to seven students from four schools. These students have been enrolled in the construction trade curriculum, have shown outstanding academic achievement and completed a successful co-op with an ABC member. Each student received a tool bag and gift certificate to a local supply house so they can purchase tools of their trade.
Jonathan Syva, a plumbing student from Hodgson, receives his award from Mike Luhr of Wayman Fire Protection.
Julian Martinez, a masonry student at Hodgson, is presented his award by Mike Parodi of Breslin Contracting.
Welding student Axel Vega from Delcastle receives his award from Joe Trincia of RC Fabricators.
Miranda Marenco, a sheet metal student from Delcastle, is presented with her award by Adam Wahl from Quality Heating & A/C.
St. George's student Benjamin Jezyk, whose trade is electrical, is presented his award by Jeromy Newton of Nickle Electrical Companies.
Payne DeRicco, and HVAC student from St. George's, receives his award from Karen Gawinski of Berry Refrigeration.
Robin Gray from Delaware Brick presents Tanner Elliott, a masonry student from Polytech, with his award.


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Prototyping is not just for product design. Prototyping can also be used for intangible services or experiences, including human resource initiatives. Redesigning your high potential development program? That can be prototyped. Got an idea for branding your talent recruiting experience? A prototype can be done for that as well.
Why prototype instead of using PowerPoint to present your ideas? Tim Brown of IDEO often refers to prototyping as "building to think." By making the intangible tangible through 3D modeling, ideas are bridged with innovation by using the right brain to liven up the solution, creating space for fresh thinking. The 3D models then become a symbol that can be tested with your employees to gather feedback through interviews and observation. Prototyping also offers a quick and cheap way to "fail fast," one of the key principles of design thinking. In "failing fast," more feedback can be gathered upfront and used to refine your idea before investments are made in HR program pilots.
For an experience with prototyping your human resource or talent management ideas, join us in our NEW Using Design Thinking in HR & Talent Management workshop or download our Executive Guide to Design Thinking for prototyping tips.


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In a match made in football heaven, country music and college football collide at CMT Ultimate Kickoff Party Live From the College Football Playoff National Championship. Featuring performances from Toby Keith, Lady Antebellum, Big & Rich and Brett Eldredge, the 90-minute concert will air live on CMT from the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas on Jan. 9 at 9 p.m. ET.
This is the first year for the College Football Playoff, and it determines who will ultimately play in the national championship game. Before that happens, though, we have the semifinals. On Dec. 7, the College Football Playoff Selection Committee will announce the four semifinal teams who will head to either the Rose Bowl Game or the Allstate Sugar Bowl. The No. 1 and No. 4 teams will play each other, while the No. 2 and No. 3 teams go head-to-head. The winners from those two games will then meet in the national championship game at AT&T Stadium in nearby Arlington on Jan. 12.
CMT will help get the party started for the biggest college football weekend of the year, and the network's venture into the sporting world is sure to be a fun one. Country artists are always popping up at sporting events or talking about their favorite teams, and no football tailgate is complete without a little country music blaring from your speakers.
And the performers for this party make perfect sense when you consider their love of the game. It's widely known Keith is a huge University of Oklahoma fan. Lady Antebellum's Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood are University of Georgia grads and all three members are Bulldog fans. Big & Rich provide the soundtrack to college football every Saturday with a version of their 2005 hit, "Comin' to Your City" which kicks off ESPN's College GameDay. And Eldredge, an Illinois native, grew up a big sports fan and stays in the know on his beloved Chicago teams.
Heck, the performers even incorporate football into their music and daily lives.
Toby Keith's quintessential kiss-off song , "How Do You Like Me Know?!" takes place on the gridiron.
Life's a beach for Lady A's Charles Kelly, but it's even better in his UGA gear.
Plus, no football Saturday is complete without Big & Rich adding "a little bang in your yin yang," right?
Its #CollegeGameDay!!!!! @CollegeGameDay @ESPNMusic @LZZYHALE @cowboytroy @TravieMcCoy pic.twitter.com/qeaPJkdqsf
— Big & Rich (@bigandrich) September 20, 2014
And Eldredge got in touch with his inner Rudy when he toured Notre Dame's sports facility last year. Jealous?
The latest College Football Playoff rankings were released Tuesday (Nov. 18), with the University of Alabama jumping to the top spot. The University of Oregon is currently No. 2. The only undefeated team in the group — Florida State University — is No. 3. And after their loss to Alabama, Mississippi State University slides to No. 4.


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Maui Brewing Company
Founded in 2005, Maui Brewing Company is Hawaii's largest craft brewery, operating 100% in Hawaii. MBC is based on Maui, with its production brewery and tasting room in Kihei, as well as pubs in Kahana (Maui) and Waikiki (Oahu). Maui Brewing Company is available in 23 states and 10 countries.
605 Lipoa Pkwy
Kihei, HI 96753
Phone Numbers
- Local Phone: (808) 213-3002
Email:[email protected]


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The Sequoia Math Department teaches a comprehensive series of courses aligned to state standards designed to increase students' understanding and competency in increasingly complex mathematics. Our goals are to improve the success rate of all of our students and support all students in completing a high level of mathematics. We encourage students to go beyond the minimum two year requirement and strive to get the majority of the students to complete required a-g courses. Our highest level of coursework include IB Standard Level and Higher Level mathematics with further courses in Multivariable Calculus, Differential Equations, and Linear Algebra. We also offer additional Support classes for students below grade level in grades 9 and 10 and have an Algebra Readiness course for those students far below grade level upon entering high school.
The teachers in the Mathematics Department work collaboratively in curricular teams to provide consistency and support. All teams meet on a regular basis to discuss pacing, strategies, data, best practices and assessments.
The department adopted the College Preparatory Math (CPM) curricula for Algebra I (9th grade), Geometry, Algebra II/Trig, and Pre-Calculus. This program comes from the University of California at Davis and is a nationally recognized program named as one of five exemplary math programs nationwide by the US Department of Education. CPM is a time-tested program and has been adopted by thousands of schools throughout the U.S and internationally. It includes the same curriculum as the traditional math textbooks, but it is presented in a unique fashion. Each unit includes an overriding problem anchored in the real world. Teachers coach, leading students to discovery, pose questions, lecture, monitor learning, clarify, and summarize concepts. The integrated curriculum spirals concepts throughout the course. Mastery is not expected the first time that a student is exposed to a concept; rather, mastery is expected over time as the students come in contact with concepts over and over again. The approach focuses on core concepts throughout the year and incorporates the 8 Mathematical Practices of the Common Core curriculum.
Algebra I (10-12th grade) and Algebra II curricula is coordinated throughout the district and utilizes the Big Ideas textbook as well as a variety of supplemental materials. IB courses utilize approved instructional materials in addition to other texts.
There are eighteen fully-credentialed math teachers in our department. We all make ourselves available to tutor individually by posting office hours. Most teachers are available during brunch and lunch and frequently before or after school. In addition, we offer a math support program before and after school in the library via the SAFE program where students can get help on all levels of math. Every Tuesday we offer evening tutorials; one section for our Pre-Calculus and Calculus students and another section for our other courses. Students may drop in during the three hours to get assistance on concepts and assignments from a department math teacher.
Our curriculum currently includes:
If you have any questions about our curriculum or department, please contact the department chair, Beth Peng, at email@example.com.
Algebra Readiness/Algebra Topics/Algebra I
This is a two-year remedial course for incoming 9th grade students who are not ready to take Algebra I. Algebra Readiness includes the study of pre-algebraic skills and concepts described in the Mathematics Framework for California Public Schools. The nine topics are whole numbers, operations on whole numbers, rational number, operations on rational numbers, symbolic notation, equations and functions, the coordinate plane, graphing proportional relationships, and algebra. The course meets 2 periods - once every block day and twice on Mondays. The two courses function as a single class, meeting a total of 100 minutes daily. Elective credit in freshmen year earned for this course will not count toward the Math graduation requirement. However, completion of the course at the end of 10th grade constitutes completion of an entire Algebra I course. Students receive math credit during sophomore year.
Algebra Support
This is a course to support freshmen and sophomore students who are concurrently enrolled in Algebra I. The course focuses on the prerequisites and skills needed for Algebra I and preparation for CAHSEE. Alternative methodologies such as hands on manipulatives are used in this class. Elective credit earned for this course will not count toward the Math graduation requirement.
Algebra I
This course covers order of operations, rational numbers, equation solving, inequalities, polynomials, factoring, rational expressions, functions, graphing of linear equations, systems of linear equations, radical expressions, and quadratics.
A rigorous college-prep course required by all 4-year colleges. Geometrical concepts are discovered by and taught to students through guided lessons. Topics covered include inductive and deductive reasoning, angles, polygons, congruent triangles, constructions, circles, right triangles, similarity, solids, logic, and introductory trigonometry.
Prerequisite: Completion of Algebra I or department recommendation. Open to 9th-graders who have earned a B or better in a formal full-year algebra course in the 8th grade.
Accelerated Geometry/Algebra II Trigonometry
This course is designed to accelerate advanced students to enable them to take calculus and higher level math (after calculus) in their junior and/or senior years. The material is covered at an honors level, and is accelerated so that two courses are taught in one year. The course is excellent preparation for the analysis and synthesis required in advanced math courses. The course covers geometry from a deductive perspective. Topics include proofs, lines, triangles, polygons, vectors, circles, and 3D geometry. The algebra 2 portion of the course covers functions, graphing, polynomials, transcendental functions, rational expressions and equations, radical expressions and equations, trigonometry, complex numbers, and sequences and series. In addition, some topics in probability and statistics will be included as time allows. Students successfully completing this accelerated course may directly enroll in precalculus the following year.
Prerequisites: Algebra 1 with an B or better, teacher recommendation highly encouraged, and a strong desire to learn mathematics.
Algebra II
A math elective, Algebra 2 is a college-prep class. Algebra 1 concepts are reviewed and are taken to a more sophisticated level. The new topics include the applications of linear, quadratic, exponential, and logarithmic equations, systems of equations, determinants, Cramer's Rule, exponential and logarithmic functions, and introductions to conic sections, probability, and statistics.
Prerequisite: Completion of Algebra 1 and Geometry with C- or better
Algebra II/Trigonometry
A math elective, Algebra II/Trigonometry is a college-prep class. Algebra I concepts are reviewed and taken to a more sophisticated level. New topics include the applications of linear, quadratic, exponential and logarithmic equations, determinants, systems of equations, exponential and logarithmic functions, conic sections, sequences, statistics, and probability. The course also includes trigonometry including sine, cosine, and tangent functions and the Laws of Sine and Cosine. Special emphasis is placed on mathematical modeling, graphical representations, and investigations.
Prerequisite: Completion of Algebra I and Geometry with a C or better.
IB Math Studies
This rigorous, one-year math offering is designed to provide a realistic mathematics course for students with varied backgrounds and abilities Students most likely to select this course are those whose main interests lie outside the field of mathematics. The course develops the skills needed to cope with the mathematical demands of a technological society with an emphasis on the application of math to real-life situations. Some of the topics covered include logic, statistics, introductory calculus, as well as a review of geometry and topics from Algebra II. Students enrolled in this course will take the IB Math Studies exam.
Prerequisite: Completion of Algebra II/Trigonometry or Pre-Calculus (with C or below)
A challenging elective course, whose purpose is to prepare students to take AP Calculus and/or IB Math SL/HL the following year. The first semester covers a wide range of topics, including trigonometry, inverse functions, including circular trig, triangle trig, vector, logarithms, and real world modeling with sinusoidal functions. The emphasis is on integrating graphing into the study of all concepts. The second semester is function theory, rational functions, matrices, probability and statistics, Algebra for college Mathematics, polar functions, and series.
Prerequisite: Completion of Algebra II/Trigonometry
AP Statistics
This course introduces students to the major concepts and tools for collecting, analyzing, and drawing conclusions from data. Students are exposed to four broad conceptual themes: 1) exploring data: describing patterns and departures from patterns, 2) sampling and experimentation: planning and conducting a study, 3) anticipating patterns: exploring random phenomena using probability and simulation, 4) statistical inference: estimating population parameters and testing hypotheses.
Prerequisite: Succesful completion of Algebra II/trig, Pre-Calculus, or IB SL
IB Math Standard Level (SL), AP Calculus, IB Math Higher Level (HL) Year 1
This course covers the Calculus curriculum as set forth by the College Board Advanced Placement program and the International Baccaluareate Programme. The course includes topics such as limits, definition of the derivative, applications of the derivative, the Mean Value Theorum, and integral calculus concepts. In addition, the course reviews vectors, matrices, trigonometry, and other IB topics. Students who successfully complete this course will be prepared to take the APAB Calculus exam and IB Standard Level Math exam. This course is also the first year of the two year higher level IB/AP math
Prerequisite: Successful completion of Pre-Calculus with a C- or better. (B highly recommended)
IB Higher Level (HL) Year 2B Higher Level Year 2, AP Calculus (BC)
This course follows the IB Higher Level Year 1/AP Calculus (AB) course, and is designed for gifted math students. The course covers all of the material from BC calculus that was not covered in AP Calculus (AB), and uses the textbook from UC Berkeley's core calculus for math majors sequence. Additionally, a wide range of other advanced topics are covered including calculus based probability theory, complex analysis, functional analysis, separable and first order nonhomogeneous differential equations, advanced induction proofs, multivariable vector geometry and introductory vector calculus. This course not only provides excellent preparation for the BC calculus AP exam, but it also gives students a big advantage in their college mathematics courses. Students who successfully complete the course will be prepared to take the AP/BC exam and the IB Higher Level exam. Students will also receive transferable college credit from Canada college.
Prerequisite: Completion of IB Math HL Year 1/Advanced Placement Calculus (AB or BC) with a C or better (B is highly recommended)
Multivariable Calculus
This course follows IB Higher Level Year 2/AP Calculus (BC), and covers the traditional university level multivariable calculus curriculum. The course covers parametric equations and polar, spherical, and cylindrical coordinates (calculus based), vectors and the geometry of space, vector functions, the calculus of functions of several variables, multiple integrals, vector calculus, including Green's Theorem and Stoke's Theorem, and second order differential equations and their applications. Additionally, the material from IB Higher Level Year 2 is reviewed to make sure that students are prepared for the IB exam. Students will receive transferable collge credit for this class from Canada college.
Prerequisite: Successful completion of IB HL Y2
Ordinary Differential Equations
This is a standard, top university level introductory course in ordinary differential equations. The textbook we have adopted is the book used for the same course at Stanford University. Topics include, but are not limited to: separable ordinary differential equations (ODEs), first order homogeneous and nonhomogenous linear ODEs, second order homogeneous and nonhomogeneous linear ODE's, higher order linear ODE's, systems of linear ODE's, series solutions, a wide variety of applications to ODE's, numerical methods, computing and ODE's, and nonlinear ODE's. This course also provides a review of the HL Year 2 material for students who need to take the IB Higher Level exam, and students will be asked to take a leadership role in teaching/tutoring HL Year 2 students. Other upper division university level topics will be taught as time allows, based on student interest. Students completing this course will also receive transferable college credit from Canada College.
Linear Algebra
This is a standard, top university level introductory course in linear algebra. The textbook we have adopted is also used by Stanford University and several UC campuses. Course curriculum includes, but is not limited to: matrix computations/matrix algebra, methods of solving systems of linear equations in linear algebra, determinants, vector spaces, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, orthogonality and least squares, symmetric matrices and quadratic forms, a wide variety of applications to linear algebra, and computing in linear algebra. This course also provides a review of the HL Year 2 material for students who need to take the IB Higher Level exam, and students will be asked to take a leadership role in teaching/tutoring HL Year 2 students. Other upper division university level topics will be taught as time allows, and based on student interest. Students completing this course will also receive transferable college credit from Canada College.


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[Ed. Note: This article is the third in a three-part series exploring economic issues faced by the new music community.]
Orchestras are frequently criticized for not playing enough new music. But less attention is focused on the cost of such "adventurous programming," both from the viewpoint of orchestras renting new scores and the publishers and composers producing them.
Performing new music can be an expensive gamble for orchestras. While major orchestras are more likely able to afford to take risks (and therefore have less of an excuse for offering routine, predictable fare), ensembles lower on the financial totem pole must budget carefully in order to offer challenging repertoire.
The music of self-published composers offers the perk of being both less expensive and negotiable, according to Andrew Berryhill, executive director of the Duluth-Superior Orchestra, which performs in Northern Minnesota and the Twin Ports region: "I am thrilled to work with self-published composers, as they are significantly cheaper. They are scrambling to get their pieces performed."
Cathy Thorpe, manager of Boosey & Hawkes' rental library, says programming self-published composers is invariably more appealing for orchestras with small budgets. "There is a natural order to that which is appropriate. These orchestras have to search out music they can afford and composers need to find orchestras willing to play their works."
But self-published composer Jennifer Higdon doesn't agree with such hierarchies: "I want my music to be affordable for everyone and to get it out in the world. Orchestras are struggling. I decided early on that renting music is too expensive. We negotiate and will adjust the fees."
She adds that when she was conducting the University of Pennsylvania's orchestra during the 1994-95 season she "wanted to do new music, but we couldn't afford it, which is what pushed me towards self-publishing."
Chris Theofanidis, another self-published composer, says many artistic administrators have commented that they can't believe how low his rates are. "I charge about half the price of a publisher, but I still earn more as I keep all the profits. Rainbow Body [his orchestral work] would be about $700 to rent from a publisher, but I can offer it for $300 to $400 dollars, depending on the number of performances."
But while the lower cost of renting music by some self-published composers might appeal to smaller orchestras, certainly part of the reason many published composers are performed so frequently is thanks to the zealous efforts of their publishers.
Daniel Dorff, a composer and vice president of publishing at the Theodore Presser Company, says, "I would rather keep half the money generated from a lot more performances than all the money generated from fewer performances. No one is doing this for big bucks: we are doing this to have our music heard. The Internet certainly makes a big difference. But disseminating the music is not simply a matter of technology, but committing energy to it."
Composer Gabriela Lena Frank, a relatively new addition to Schirmer's roster, says the company "gets my scores to conductors and people I would never have access to. They brainstorm on my behalf and I'm benefiting from their many decades of relationships."
She adds that the economic benefits for her have been "tremendous." While self-published composers say they make more than they ever would with publishers, Lena Frank asserts that she makes "more even with Schirmer taking some of my royalties than I would keeping 100 percent if I was self published."
Each publisher has a different agreement with its composers regarding sales, but typical rental rates are split 50/50 between composer and publisher, explains Marc D. Ostrow, Boosey's general manager. Composer Marc Adamo, on Schirmer's roster, adds that publishers "keep all the parts organized – and suddenly a 50/50 split looks pretty good, or the administration will eat up your life and you will never write another piece!"
The time and money spent promoting their composers is just one overhead facing publishers (and hence just one reason their scores are more expensive to rent). Office space, staff salaries and benefits are a major expense. As Daniel Dorff says, "We need to be profitable while working on this music that we're crazy about!"
Publishing houses are rare enterprises within the classical music industry: they aren't non-profits. Self-published composer Daniel Felsenfeld calls them "for-profit businesses with a nonprofit mission," while Adamo notes, "I don't know anyone who goes into this in a hard nosed corporate way. Publishing is a bunch of idealists."
Also, only a very lucky few composers are signed by a publisher – and just as some musicians prefer to start their own labels rather than wait around for the rare chance to be signed to a major label, many composers self publish because it's their only option.
Copyist Bill Holab is one of the people making it easier for the self-published to thrive. He provides services such as engraving and typesetting and negotiates rental fees and copyright on behalf of composers, including Osvaldo Golijov and Michael Torke.
"Many composers are self published because financially it can work out better for them," he says. "I do negotiate rental fees, with the approval of the composer. We are flexible and you have to be as the goal is to get the music played. When Barber was starting out the publishers did everything for him, but there were fewer composers then. In the current landscape composers really need to look out for their own interests."
He also points out that the lines between published and self-published composers are "blurry" these days: some of the music of Philip Glass, the Godfather of self publishing, is distributed by Schirmer and Chester Music, for example.
Another essential spoke in the self-publishing wheel is the New Jersey-based Subito Music Publishing, which, explains co-founder Stephen Culbertson, is like two separate companies: a publishing wing that represents composers, including renting, promotion and copyright; and a separate division that provides printing services for any composer on a price-list basis.
Theofanidis says it costs about $200 to print a full set of orchestra parts through Subito; on his own it would cost around $150. Higdon prints and binds everything herself on her own machines; neither says part production is a drain financially.
When it comes to publishing music for sale rather than just rental, the costs are significant. "If we want to publish a score of a rental work, it's a major investment," says Todd Vunderink, Vice President of Peermusic and Director of Peermusic Classical. "You want it to meet standards, as opposed to work on rental scores done by good copyists. There could be a lot of things you might want to change to match your own house rules of engraving. We will end up spending many hours working on what the engraver has done, which is not compensated in any way."
Vunderink explains that (allowing for a range of copyists' fees) a 15-minute orchestral work could cost between $5,500 and $10,500. This includes the publisher's time supervising the work through to getting the music on the stands. In addition, he estimates another $3,000 to $4,000 for reformatting the performance score onto 9 x 12 inch paper, which is the industry standard.
Engraving for a symphonic score might cost $26-30 a page, says Lauren Keiser, president and CEO of Carl Fischer publishing. Then there are additional overheads like the cost of designing covers. His company will be publishing Ricky Ian Gordon's opera The Grapes of Wrath; the vocal score is about 400 pages. It will probably cost between $15,000-$20,000 to print and engrave it, says Keiser.
The overheads for rentals are also more than simply sending out the physical materials, as staff need to organize perusal scores and go through scores once they've been returned and sometimes clean them up. Boosey's Cathy Thorpe explains that she deals with 6,000-7,000 smaller, amateur, regional level and community orchestras "with less sophisticated administration in place" than top tier ensembles. "They think we are amazon.com and we spend a lot of time solving crises and dealing with their poor planning. We take that responsibility off the composers' shoulders."
Both self-published composers and publishers allow rental scores to be kept for an average of 8-12 weeks and impose both rush fees (if scores are needed within less than ten days) and late fees. As for those rental fees, antitrust laws prevent publishers from disclosing their rates, but all companies have flexible pricing tiers that take into account factors like the size and budget of the organization, and whether it's an amateur or college ensemble.
While the music of self-published composers is often cheaper to rent, it doesn't mean that smaller orchestras avoid published composers, of course. The Duluth-Superior Orchestra, which has a $1.4 million budget and offers seven classical concerts a year, has programmed Corigliano's Symphony No. 1 next season, even though it will be a strain on the budget. A John Adams piece, says executive director Andrew Berryhill (a fan of the composer, whose The Chairman Dances was performed in January) costs about $600 to $700 a performance compared to around $100 to $200 for some self-published composers.
Programming new music is a tricky balancing act, agrees Cathy Cahill, CEO of the Brooklyn Philharmonic. She adds that during her six-year tenure, the orchestra has never opted not to perform a new work because rental costs were too high. "But if we decide to do a John Adams piece, we have to spend more on that concert and less on the next one."
For major orchestras, the few hundred dollars difference between a self-published and a published composer is negligible. Berryhill, who was assistant director of programming for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1996-2002, says that cost (unsurprisingly) was less of an issue there. "When Daniel Barenboim says this is what he wants performed you don't argue over rental costs!"
Self-published composers do often negotiate prices or even give their scores away for free, which isn't particularly surprising, as artists in many industries are often willing to sacrifice payment for valuable exposure. Higdon has given her music away as a goodwill gesture and doesn't regret it. It's one way, she says, of advertising her music and breaking into market where her music isn't known, in this case Russia.
Dorff doesn't blame self-published composers for doing so, and says that if he were on his own he might well do the same. But if someone calls Presser about one of his scores he knows the company won't negotiate. For the most part, publishing companies don't budge much on prices, although Peggy Monastra, the interim general manager of Schirmer, says that the company has made deals with orchestras for fundraisers, for example. "It's a case by case scenario and we regularly donate to specific institutions."
The internet has affected the music publishing industry as much as any other. Piracy is a lot easier and publishers, who used to be hurt by photocopying, now also lose out to people sending illegal PDFs around. Copyright administration is thus another important fact of publishing, adds Monastra. "It's one advantage to having a publisher, and I think composers are more conscious of copyright than they were a few years ago, since everything has become digital."
It will be interesting to note whether, and how fast, more self-published composers make it into the American Symphony Orchestra League's list of the top 10 most frequently performed living U.S. composers. According to the League's data, nine of the ten most frequently performed living composers in the U.S. during the 2005-06 season were published, with Jennifer Higdon the only independent in the list. But two of the top four most frequently performed new works that season were by self-published composers: Higdon's Blue Cathedral and Osvaldo Golijov's Last Round; those two works also held the top two spots in 2004-05, with Chris Theofanidis's Rainbow Body in the No. 7 spot that year.
But what will happen to the works of Golijov, Theofanidis, and Higdon sixty years from now? Lauren Keiser says it's helpful for young composers to learn about self publishing, but wonders "who will service their legacy" when they or those they work with die. Long-term viability can also be a problem for published composers who have works with various companies, he adds. "Their catalogue is divided, and so when they pass on their work is divided, instead of with one house firmly behind their talent."
The long-term viability of both self-published composers and publishers might be questioned from both sides of the fence. But in any event, the extraordinary advances in technology that have facilitated the trend towards self-publishing can only be a good thing. The Duluth-Superior Orchestra founded a competition for college-age composers six years ago offering prize money for publishing and copyist services. Now it's not even an issue anymore, says Berryhill. "The fact that composers can produce legible and clean music themselves has lessened our expense for new music dramatically. And any barrier removed to performing new music is a good one!"
Vivien Schweitzer is a New York City-based music critic, arts reporter, and pianist. She covers music and dance news as Associate Editor of PlaybillArts.com, and has contributed classical and world music criticism, profiles, and features to The New York Times, The Economist, the Financial Times, BBC News, Newsday, Time Out, and The Gramophone.


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I had a blast talking with Catherine Duc, an Australian musician who creates some of the most beautiful, entrancing music I've heard. In this interview (er, from back in late January – sorry Catherine!) she talks about her music career and her album "Visions and Dreams". Catherine's got a great personality that really shines through in this interview – enjoy!
Catherine Duc, "Essence of Dreams" from Visions and Dreams
Podcast: Download (33.3MB)


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In celebration of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, here's a quick sampling of some Stone Center Library titles on Afro-Asian topics:
Everybody was Kung Fu fighting : Afro-Asian connections and the myth of cultural purity. 2001. By Vijay Prashad.
- "Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting examines five centuries of remarkable cultural & political interaction between black & Asians around the world. Prashad offers the theory of polyculturalism, which allows for solidarity, not just lip service to diversity."**
AfroAsian encounters : culture, history, politics. 2006. Edited by Heike Raphael-Hernandez and Shannon Steen; with a foreword by Vijay Prashad and afterword by Gary Okihiro.
- "the first anthology to look at the mutual influence of and relationships between members of the African and Asian diasporas. While these two groups have often been thought of as occupying incommensurate, if not opposing, cultural and political positions, scholars from history, literature, media, and the visual arts here trace their interconnections and interactions, as well as the tensions between the two groups that sometimes arise. AfroAsian Encounters probes beyond popular culture to trace the historical lineage of these coalitions from the late nineteenth century to the present."**
Afro Asia : revolutionary political and cultural connections between African Americans and Asian Americans. 2008. Edited by Fred Ho and Bill V. Mullen.
- "Fred Ho and Bill V. Mullen have assembled a first-rate dossier of Afro-Asian work. It is equal parts lyrical and analytical. Flies like a butterfly; stings like a bee."–Vijay Prashad, author of "Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections and the Myth of Cultural Purity"**
Happy reading!
**Source: reviews provided by Syndetic Solutions.


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SAVE Rome
Sven Thofelt
Nationality: Swedish
Age: 32
Occupation: Army Officer, Attache
Height: 6'5"
Weight: 225
Hair Color: Blonde
Eye Color: Blue
Birth And Youth
Sven Thofelt was born on October 31, 1904 in Stockholm, Sweden to Colonel Hrogen Thofelt and Ilsa Thofelt. His father was stationed at the nearby Overste Kopmmendorkapten military academy. Sven is an only child and was baptized as an infant.
Sven's mother was a researcher for a mysterious group known as the Rym Consortium. It is unclear what she researches, as she never spoke of it at home. After his birth, Ilsa remained homebound until Sven turned four years of age, at which time, she returned to her work.
Upon her return to work, Sven was sent to live with his grandparents outside Lund in Skåne, long considered the Religious center of Scandinavia. While there, Sven began his education under his grandfather's tutelage. At night after the day's chores and study were done, Sven's grandfather would tell the most marvelous stories about the days of the Vikings.
Sven's education was enhanced once he turned six. His grandfather introduced him to a tutor named Donar Krigare, who began his formal education. Sven learned all the general educational building blocks that he would need to function effectively in society, as he grew older. During this time, Sven's grandfather continued to tell the young boy stories of Norse mythology and history. During periodic visits Sven's mother would bring transcriptions of Norse texts for the boy to study and learn. Donar added practical martial experience. He taught the young man the use of sword, shield and wrestling in the form of physical education and competition.
In 1912, Sven's parents took him to the Summer Olympics in Stockholm. Where the athletes representing his native Sweden moved the young 8-year-old Sven. It was at that moment that he became determined to participate in the Olympics. After the events ended, young Sven began training in earnest each and every day in the hopes to achieve his dream.
Military Service
In 1914, Sven moved back to Stockholm and moved in with his mother. His education was brought into an entirely new level. His scholastic education was expanded under his mother's tutelage. His father pushed his physical training and taught the young man basic military combat tactics. His martial training expanded to include pistol and rifle training. His primitive weapon training continued under the close guidance of Donar Krigare.
He applied to and was accepted into the Military Academy of Training. There as a cadet, he quickly made a name for himself eventually completing all his course work at the academy with the highest honors at the age of 17. During this time, he began his formal Olympic training. His training specialized in Calvary skills and included sword, pistol and horseback riding.
At the age of 17, his military education was transferred to the Royal Academy of War Sciences. He was attached to the Norrland Artillery Regiment for his recruit training. He continued to advance his military training and at the age of 20, he was transferred to the Artillery and Engineering University. He attended for 4 years and graduated into the artillery service at the rank of Lieutenant. He was assigned to the SVEA Artillery Regiment.
1928 Olympics
Sven competed in the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam at age 24. He won the Gold Medal in the Individual Modern Pentathalon event. His resulting fame aided him in his military promotion. He was promoted to the rank of Captain where he was assigned to the Falttygkaren company of the Gota Artillery Regiment. He continued in this position until 1932.
1932 Olympics
At the age of 28, Sven participated in the Los Angeles Olympics once again competing in the Individual Men's Modern Pentathalon. He placed in 4th position.
Encounter with the Unknown
It was during the 1932 Olympics that Sven had his encounter with the unknown. The night before his fencing match, after a hard day of training, Sven was in the men's locker room, when he heard an abnormal noise. Being inquisitive, Sven decided to investigate. This came to be a decision that he would have preferred to avoid.
What he discovered was a creature consuming a fellow Swedish Pentathlon athlete named Johan Gabriel Oxenstierna. As he watched in horror, the creature turned his attention from his task to Sven. Sven ran, perhaps faster than ever before. He reported the murder to the authorities. By the time they arrived at the scene of the supposed crime, there was no evidence of any foul doing.
The police marked it up to a prank by the athlete, especially since the supposedly missing athlete was quickly located in his hotel room.
Sven tried to put the images of his experience out of his mind, but the next day during competition, he faced Johan Gabriel Oxenstierna in competition. Uneasiness and fear gathered and his opponent bested him.
That night he was attacked in his room. He would have been killed had the creature not been driven off by a SAVE envoy named Eldric Stone. Stone and his team managed to drive the creature away, saving Sven's life. From that moment on, Thofelt knew that nothing was ever going to be the same.
Marriage and Family
Feeling that life was too short for delays, Sven returned to Stockholm in 1932, where later that year he married the daughter of General Thorstein Friis and Lotty Friis. Her name was Brigit Friis.
In 1933, the first of Sven's two sons, Lars was born on June 18, 1933. His second Son, Bjorn was born In March 21, 1935.
After years of excellent service, Sven was assigned to work as a military attaché to the Swedish Ambassador to Italy, Birger Wedberg. In his new assignment, he moved to Rome. He has taken a modest apartment near the embassy. In his work, he often visits with officials of the Vatican as well, usually as a courier from the ambassador.
Shortly after his arrival in Rome, he was recruited to SAVE by Eldric Stone. He has been assigned to the newly formed Vatican SAVE office.


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Professional Community for Car Dealers, Marketing, Advertising and Sales Leaders
I'm sure you and your team realize that we're living through an unprecedented situation right now... How can anyone be so distracted with Corona Virus matters and still be shopping for a…Continue
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Today, companies and brands are often unsure of what to post on social media and often resort to self-promotion, which to be honest is boring and one of the worst things you can do.
Social media when utilized correctly and with a purpose builds a community.
Brands that take on a mentoring role, providing the tools, techniques, and strategies for their customers…Continue
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The holiday season makes it the perfect time for your dealership to join in the spirit, get customers excited, and make sure you're the go-to destination for their holiday car shopping. Not only are consumers looking for big-ticket items like vehicles, but they're also on the lookout for stocking stuffers like service gift certificates, oil…Continue
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The holidays are the perfect time to appeal to consumers and find innovative ways to bring in-market shoppers into your dealership. A simple way to attract more business is…Continue
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Consumers put an endless amount of information online about themselves, often daily. However, several marketing strategies don't use that information to their advantage. If online users are taking the time to educate brands about their behavior, likes, dislikes, wants, habits, etc., it…Continue
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#CarStrong Community | Feldman Gives Back
Community is the foundation that keeps our cities standing tall.Feldman Automotive realizes this and believes it's important to participate and give back in order to build a stronger community around the…Continue
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Hispanic consumers in the U.S. have spoken; they are shopping for brands that affirm their culture
and empower them as individuals. Over 56 million strong, this is a population that does not want to be sold to and highlighted, but rather included. Proud of a rich culture,…Continue
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That time of year is rapidly approaching -- Black Friday. Black Friday is typically the beginning of the Christmas shopping season and an indicator of how well retailers will fare throughout the holidays. In fact, many retailers report that the majority of their holiday season sales happen on this single day. Consumers go wild with excitement, and some even choose to…Continue
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About a month ago I had the honor and privilege of speaking at the Automotive Leadership Roundtable in Miami…Continue
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Top 5 Automotive Industry Social Network Traffic Statistics from Compete, Inc. for 12 months ending December 31, 2012
The December 2012 ranking for the 5 sites (including subdomains) submitted to Compete, Inc. for monitoring of UNIQUE VISITORS:…
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This Automotive Digital Marketing Professional Community and Network is dedicated to Thomas Lesard...
Tom was a giant of a man, who was also my boss from 1982 to 1984 while I worked for the De La Fuente Automotive Group in San…Continue
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Compete Traffic Analysis of Top 5 Auto Industry Professionals Targeted Blogs and Community Websites
Updated with August 2010 data and showing 12 months of tracking and measurement analysis... Click on the images shown below to visit and view the actual Compete.com charts, analysis, reports and details of how they measure and track these performance…
Added by Ralph Paglia on September 23, 2010 at 1:00pm — No Comments
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Tamarind juice is a very popular drink in East Africa, where is believed to be the origin of the tamarind tree. However, with the spread of tamarind to other regions around the world such as Southeast Asia, India, Mexico, Pacific Islands and South America, the juice can now be found in such places as well. It is a deliciously tasting fruit juice with a characteristic sour taste which can be sweetened with the addition of sugar or honey to the juice.
Where to Find Tamarind Juice
The best place to find tamarind juice is at the specialty food stores selling Asian and Indian foods. However, you can also find the juice in supermarkets or retail stores dealing in international foods from all corners of the world. But you can also prepare the juice at home, with the benefit of having it more fresh and tailored to fit your particular tastes and preferences.
How to Prepare Tamarind Juice at Home
If you decide to prepare tamarind juice at home, you will be embarking on an interesting and rewarding exercise that will leave you with a fresh and nutritious fruit juice. The preparation of tamarind juice at home does not require a lot of things, and it is a fairly easy process which can be accomplished in a matter of minutes. Once done, it will be up to you if you want to take the juice right away or if you want to chill it in the freezer and take it later on. On the home preparation procedure, use the following directions-:
- Using a teakettle, bring water to boiling point
- Take an appropriate portion of tamarind pulp or tamarind fruits then place them in a heatproof baking dish or mixing bowl.
- Poor the boiling water from the teakettle on the tamarind and stir the mixture using a spoon.
- Add sugar or honey and continue stirring to make the pulp as soft as possible.
- Cover the mixture and allow it to stand for several hours or leave it overnight.
- Using a strainer or a clean cloth, strain the now soft tamarind so that you have the juice on one bowl and the unused pulp, fiber, and seeds left behind on the strainer or the piece of cloth.
- Depending on your thickness preference, you can add more water to dilute and also more sugar or honey to sweeten it.
- Chill the drink by placing in the refrigerator for several hours or serve it over ice.
- You can introduce flavors to the juice by adding vanilla, cinnamon, or grated ginger as you wish.
Health Benefits of Tamarind Juice
Tamarind juice comes packed with lots of nutritional benefits. Remember, it is out of these benefits that tamarind has been widely used as a traditional medicine, and now you can get all these by simply taking freshly made tamarind juice. Here are just a few of the health benefits of tamarind juice-:
Rich source of antioxidants
To begin with, the juice is a rich source of antioxidants. Antioxidants help in protecting the body from the devastating effects of free radicals. They boost the overall health as well as the immune system to ensure that the body is well prepared to fend off any attacks by the free radicals.
Good for weight loss
Many people, especially those with type 2 diabetes usually need to lose a lot of weight to lower their blood sugar levels. Tamarind juice is very effective in the fight against weight gain. It also has certain chemicals which inhibit enzymes from storing fats in the body thus helping to reduce the instances of weight gain.
Stomach health
Due to the anti-inflammatory properties of tamarind, its juice can be used to treat inflammatory bowel conditions such as Cohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Its sourness also helps in keeping stomach ulcers as well as stomach acids at bay.
Tamarind Juice and Diabetes
Tamarind juice has certain carb-blocking properties which help the body in absorbing carbohydrates. This helps the diabetic patients to lower the blood sugar levels after meals. This is why tamarind juice has been used for a long time as a traditional treatment for diabetes and lowering blood sugar levels. Additionally, the juice inhibits the oxidative damage usually experienced by the pancreas due to diabetes.
Tamarind Juice and Heart Health
Since the juice can prevent oxidation of cholesterol, it keeps the walls of the heart arteries clear by ensuring that no cholesterol sticks to them. As a result, this lowers the instances of high cholesterol levels as well as coronary heart diseases.
Tamarind Juice and Skin Health
Tamarind juice can be used as treatment for burns and in the prevention and cure of eczema. It can also be used to remediate the effects of scars caused by acne and chicken pox on the face as well as other parts of the body. This is not to forget that tamarind juice is rich in vitamin B, and vitamin C, all of which are responsible for removing dead skin cells for the good health of the skin.


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Illinois Motorcycle Permit Test (IL) Simulator 2020
Your final checkpoint! An Illinois motorcycle practice test built just like the real 2020 written knowledge test!
Illinois Motorcycle Test Facts
- Questions: 25
- Correct answers to pass: 20
- Passing score: 80%
- Test locations: Secretary of State (SOS) Offices
- Test languages: English, Spanish, Vietnamese
There are two ways to use this Illinois motorcycle permit test Simulator - you can use it to assess your current skill level and determine whether you are ready to hit the SOS office, or you can use it to prepare for the drivers permit test, just like you would have used any regular motorcycle practice permit exam. However, if you are just starting off on the road towards your drivers permit, using the Simulator to study the rules of the road is probably not the best choice. The reason for this is the sheer number of sample questions the Simulator is loaded with - you would really be studying hundreds of questions and unless you have eidetic memory (most of us don't), they won't stick that easily! This is why we always recommend that you start with regular Illinois motorcycle practice permit tests and work your way up towards the Simulator. By the time you get to this sample exam, you will already have a solid foundation you can build up upon and you won't feel discouraged or overwhelmed after missing every second question on the exam! Take the motorcycle permit test Simulator once, if you must, but do go ahead and complete regular exams before you fully submerge yourself into it!
This free Illinois motorcycle practice permit test was designed to be the ultimate challenge to help you determine whether you are ready to go into your local SOS office and it resembles the real motorcycle drivers permit test to the smallest detail. Just like the real exam, the practice quiz consists of 35 questions that cover a broad range of Illinois state road signs and driving rules. There's really no topic to single out: parking rules, speed regulations, drug and alcohol laws, seat belts, pavement markings and traffic signals, DUI/DWI offenses and penalties, defensive driving and driving on highways - if it's on the real Illinois motorcycle drivers license test, you can count on it being on the Simulator too. All questions are multiple choice, all of them provide you with three or four answers. Unlike regular motorcycle drivers practice tests or the DMV cheat sheet, the permit test Simulator does not have any study aids - the real permit test is not an open-book exam and the clerks won't allow you to use any study materials while working on the DMV computer, start getting used to the idea right now! Close that Illinois motorcycle drivers license handbook, turn over any DMV cheat sheet that may be lying on your desk, remove any road sign study sheets you may be using - this is the test of what you've learned so far, be honest with yourself.
Correct interpretation of results is one of the biggest challenges for those who are taking the online motorcycle drivers permit test Simulator quiz for the first time. The real DMV exam requires you to answer 20 out of 25 permit test questions correctly, that's an 80% score. Unfortunately, many students take it as the maximum score they need to reach and quit studying as soon as they hit this bar. There is probably no bigger mistake you can make, short of not taking any motorcycle permit practice tests at all! 80% is the minimum that gets you a pass, but you have to raise your grades on the practice test much higher and create a safety cushion that will allow you to guarantee that you pass the exam! Just think about it - when you are aiming at 80%, a single extra question you answer incorrectly automatically fails you! Are you sure you are willing to take that risk when all you need is to invest a little bit more time into taking these sample quizzes? Work on the Illinois motorcycle permit test Simulator (and any other quiz on the website, for that matter) until you can answer no less than 90% of all sample questions correctly!
Enjoy our free Illinois motorcycle driving permit test Simulator 2020 and good luck at the DMV!
Pick another quiz
- Illinois DMV Motorcycle Practice Test 20 questions
- Illinois DMV Motorcycle Practice Test 2 20 questions
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- Illinois DMV Motorcycle Practice Test 8 20 questions
- Illinois Motorcycle Written Test Cheat Sheet 25 questions
- Illinois Motorcycle Permit Test Simulator In Progress


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How to Add a Line Between the Columns in an HTML Table in Microsoft Word
HTML tables display data in columns and rows. When space separates the cells making up the table, a line appears between adjacent columns. In HTML, the "cellspacing" attribute sets the size of this line. In Microsoft Word, you don't write the table's code or attributes but you can still set spacing. For example, a two-column table comparing sales figures for two years could include a thick line between columns to clearly set them apart.
Open Microsoft Word, load your document containing the table you want to edit, and then right-click on the table. Click "Table Properties." A dialog box opens.
Click the "Options" button to open a second dialog box.
Check the box labeled "Allow spacing between cells."
Type a width for the line between the columns in the text box. For example, to add 0.1 inches of space, type the following:
Click "OK" to close the dialog boxes.
Photo Credits
- Comstock/Comstock/Getty Images


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good and well that Roku's movie set-top-box would be supporting Amazon Video On Demand in the not-too-terribly-distant future, and apparently the private beta has begun. Over at the Roku forums, an official has made clear that demand was exceptional and the pool of private beta testers has now been chosen. Sadly, there's no mention of when Roku plans on sharing the love with the public at large, but Dave Zatz has appropriately pointed out that YouTube could be following close behind. Still, we have to concur that the most pressing question has yet to be answered: will this Amazon VOD be offered up in glorious high-def? Pretty please?
[Via ZatzNotFunny]


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Here for the first time? Find out what is Smartly about and how we can help you invest.
Everything you need to know about creating an account.
Find out more about the fees associated with Smartly.
Understanding the technical aspects of investing.
Learn more about the process, duration and fees related to deposits and withdrawals.
How we minimise risks and ensure that your investments remain safe and secure.


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When it comes to Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits, there is one myth that many people continue to believe: Young people cannot receive and/or win disability benefits.
Can I collect both Workers' Compensation and SSDI in Ohio?
The federal government of the United States is almost labyrinthine in the complexity of its various branches. There are so many different divisions and programs that making sense of them all can be daunting. Many times, it may appear as if one part is unaware of what other parts are doing, which is to be expected in such a huge organization that employs so many different people. Further, it is sometimes true that spheres of responsibility overlap between departments and programs. For example, when an individual is hurt while at work, or contracts a disease due to conditions at his or her place of employment, that individual may be eligible for different benefits from the government, such as Workers' Compensation and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).
What is a 'Medically Determinable Impairment' for SSD in Ohio?
This blog has previously discussed some basics of applying for Social Security Disability benefits, including such terms as "Substantial Gainful Activity." The importance of understanding such terms is due to the fact that they are part of the legal definition of disability that is used by the Social Security Administration to determine eligibility for benefits both in Ohio, and nationally.
How can an SSDI case be approved if it was originally denied?
If you've applied for Social Security Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security Income, and been denied, you may be wondering what to do next. You may have heard or read that you can request a reconsideration or even a hearing in front of an Administrative Law Judge. But what good would that do? After all, you gave the Social Security Administration all your information the first time, right? Why would having it looked at again make any difference?
Can you work while on Social Security Disability?
Ohio woman may have lied to qualify for disability benefits
There are many people in Ohio and around the nation who face the pain, economic hardship and social stigma of being considered disabled. This could be due to a physical disease or injury or a mental health issue that interferes with their ability to interact with others or get through an average day.
What is a 'compassionate allowance condition' for SSDI purposes?
This space has been used previously to discuss various ways of qualifying for Social Security Disability Insurance. Obtaining the correct documentation to prove to the Social Security Agency that you are unable to work due to a physical or mental condition that will last longer than a year or result in death can be difficult at the best of times. Further, as has been touched on before, most disability claims are denied at the first step of the application, meaning that case may have to go to a hearing in front of an administrative law judge, a process that can take some time to complete.
Can you attend an SSDI hearing by video teleconferencing?
Technology seems to accelerate at an exponential pace, especially here in the 21st Century, and the efficient utilization of it tends to drive the profits of quite a few businesses. Though the legal system and government entities, apart from military applications anyway, are not generally known for being on the cutting edge of technological advancement, there are still times where tech performs important functions in such areas.
What work history is relevant when applying for disability?
Previously in this space, we have touched on the various requirements necessary to qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security Income. Both these federal programs, as administered by the states, serve as a safety net of sorts for those people who cannot earn an income because some physical or psychological handicap prevents them from being gainfully employed. As we have said in the past, this means that the person who is applying needs to show that he or she is unable to work due to a disabling condition, and that the condition is terminal, or has lasted or is expected to last longer than one year. But how does the Social Security Agency go about determining which jobs a person needs to show he or she cannot perform?
Depression may qualify you for disability benefits in Ohio
It is fairly well understood that depression and anxiety are two of the most common mental "illnesses" among the population of the United States. For example, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, as of 2012 almost 7 percent of adults in the U.S. had experienced a major depressive episode within the previous year. This means that, on average, seven out of every 100 residents of Ohio have had a problem with depression. Further, dealing with depression can be debilitating. The World Health Organization estimates that over 8 percent of U.S. "years lived with disability" are caused by depression, making it the single largest cause of disability among mental or behavioral disorders.


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16 March 2013
You're a Poet And You Know It
You're a Poet And You Know It
15 February 2013
You're a poet
And you know it,
When you read a creation
That you wrote but forgot about
And think, "I like the ideation.
It touches me without a doubt."
When someone else reads your writing
And comments on how it made them feel
Or sees the world in different lighting,
Then your transmuted words are real.
You've become a poet
And you know it.
Posted by Unknown at 12:14
No comments
Labels: comments , creation , different , feel , forgot , ideation , poem , poet , read , real , rhyming poetry , see , someone else , think , touch , transmute , words , world , writing , wrote
04 March 2013
DA Sundae
DA Sundae
3 March 2013
The other night I saw a waitress in my dream
Who was making a sundae for me,
Even tho my gut gets torn up by ice cream.
She was having great difficulty
Getting a pimiento-stuffed green olive
Out of the jar. Rousing, the corollary
I worked out was sundaes, I believe,
Are made with a maraschino cherry.
I also realized the problem presented
An allegory for gay marriage
And the waitress' troubles represented
Justice's possible miscarriage
By the Supreme Court as we anticipate
Their ruling on DOMA and Prop 8.
Posted by Unknown at 11:59
No comments
Labels: allegory , cherry , corollary , difficulty , dream , gay marriage , gut , ice cream , justice , miscarriage , poem , problem , rhyming poetry , sundae , Supreme Court , waitress
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Imagine, if you will, a film about a religious ascetic. This monk, or priest, or whatever he is, lives a secluded lifestyle away from human intercourse. He indulges in no pleasures, eats only the barest of meals, and devotes his time near-exclusively to spiritual contemplation. Many of us would be inclined to say that this is a foolish man, an unsympathetic figure missing out on the substance of human life. Yet there exists a rich history of spiritual cinema, from Dreyer to Bresson to Dumont, that challenges that assumption, locating value in the transcendental isolation of withdrawal. Now let's flip the script. Picture a set of people whose entire existence is the fulfillment of desire through experience, the consumption of pleasure. They imbibe alcohol to the point of oblivion so that they can degenerate into a violent mass of bodies, practicing total self-indulgence through self-negation. They seem to have no aims, no cares, no worries, outside of their overwhelming lust for sensation. Such people, one imagines, would be really hard to access cinematically. What movie could find value in their lives in the way that previous films have done for their seeming opposites? That movie is Spring Breakers, a film that scrambles traditional modes of identification, engagement, and critical distance by embracing contradiction to an absurd, nearly heroic degree.
When college students Candy (Vanessa Hudgens), Brit (Ashley Benson), and Cotty (Rachel Korine) find themselves lacking the funds to follow their peers down south for Spring Break, they rob a local eatery. With their religious friend Faith (Selena Gomez) in tow, the girls flee their campus in search of a land of beaches, boobs, and beer (hilariously imagined in the terrifying opening scene). They arrive in Florida, plunging into the party of their dreams: huge crowds of attractive, young, uniformly white bodies convulsing in unison. Upon getting thrown in jail, still clad in bikinis, the foursome meets Alien (James Franco), the giddy, pathetic, menacing, and strangely likable rapper/small time gangster who serves as their emissary into the underworld of Spring Break.
Spring Breakers never misses a chance to draw attention to the horrors of its Florida milieu, but as it progresses it becomes more and more saturated with the hedonistic pleasures of its protagonists, even as those pleasures become more violent and uncomfortable. Writer/director Harmony Korine doesn't spend much time characterizing his lead quartet of coeds, but instead treats them as a single organism. Faith is the one exception, differentiated from the others by her dark hair and her religious identity, but she serves mainly to make the same point I did at the beginning of this piece, telling her Grandma on the phone that Florida is "the most spiritual place I've ever been." There's plenty to be said about Korine's cultural critique (and perhaps its failings), but the aspects I found most engaging in Spring Breakers were those that dove headfirst into the mud pit of contemporary youth culture.
The only thing that outweighs Korine's contempt for this subject is his love for it, as evidenced by Benoit Debie's lush cinematography and Douglas Crise's viscerally loopy editing. This critique/exploitation dichotomy is too outspoken to qualify as a tension; it's a full-blown contradiction, in the most gloriously irreconcilable sense. As someone with moderate-to-strong prejudices about Florida/dubstep/capitalism/teen culture, I had my initial worries that Korine would just be preaching to my choir; yet my first viewing of the film was dominated by the pleasure principle rather than its antithesis, which some viewers have find more striking. A second trip down to Tampa is surely called for (subjects for further research: what exactly is Korine doing by playing down sex in favor of violence? And is his treatment of race a devastating critique of white America's subjugation of African Americans through cultural appropriation, or an unreflective acceptance of racial signifiers?) but for now I'm sufficiently impressed with Korine's ability to turn indulgence into an undismissable force of bliss. Where other filmmakers might have demonized the titular adventurers, treating their values as incompatible with the presumed sensibilities of the viewers, Korine draws us into their monastery of ecstasy, reminding us that for all its flaws, youth culture is not an empty system, but is in fact packed with a richness of dionysian sensation that deserves more than empty lip service.
Spring Breakers is out now in limited release.


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Do you need a personal trainer?
WebMD Feature
Feb. 21, 2000 (Santa Monica, Calif.) --You might think that hiring a personal trainer is like hiring a personal chef -- an extravagance that suits the rich and famous but is out of bounds for the rest of us. But the nature of personal training is changing. Increasingly, trainers are selling their services on a short-term basis, teaching clients the fundamentals and then, after two to six weeks, setting them free to exercise on their own.
This new emphasis has made personal training far more accessible to the average person. Instead of paying $150 a week for life, you can pay a total of $300 to $500 for six to 10 sessions. "You don't have to be Oprah to use a personal trainer," says David Gilroy, a spokesman for Idea: The Health & Fitness Source, an organization that certifies trainers. A recent survey conducted by Idea found that more than 4 million Americans used trainers in 1998, with 47% having fewer than seven sessions.
Lower cost isn't the only advantage of short-term training. "You also gain the independence to work out wherever and whenever you want," says Richard Cotton, a spokesman for the American Council on Exercise, another organization that certifies trainers. "People who are dependent on a trainer tend not to exercise unless their trainer is standing right there."
Learning the Basics
If you hire a trainer on a limited basis, experts say, it's important to take an active role in your sessions. "Act like you're taking a crash course in Italian three weeks before you move to Rome," says Liz Neporent, President of Plus One Fitness, a New York City company that manages 16 fitness centers. "Be prepared to soak up a lot of information. Arm yourself with questions and take notes."
Your trainer needs to take an equally active approach. Instead of simply telling you which exercises to do and adjusting the machines for you, Cotton says, "the trainer has to be in the teaching mode. They have to be willing to share what they know, instead of holding back information in an attempt to keep the client coming back." He even recommends that trainers assign a list of exercises as homework, to be demonstrated at the next session.
Cotton also recommends that a fitness novice sign up for 10 sessions: twice a week for two weeks, once a week for the next two weeks, then once a month for the following four months. The trainer should start by evaluating your health and fitness and then discussing your goals. To get the most out of short-term training, trainers say, it's particularly important to pinpoint specific objectives for the sessions. "Do you want to learn a routine you can take on business trips?" Neporent says. "Do you want training advice for a marathon? Do you want to get started on a weight-loss program?"
Daniel Hernandez had always felt intimidated by both the machinery and people at his gym. He needed a trainer to get him started. After eight sessions, the 30-year-old designer learned to use just about all of the equipment at his club and knew how to design an effective weight routine. "My trainer was so thorough," Hernandez says. "He opened up a whole new world. Now I go upstairs to the free-weight room where all the big guys go."
Personal Attitude
The trainer should tailor your program specifically to your fitness level and personal objectives. By the end of your sessions, you should know several strength-training exercises for each muscle group, allowing you to vary your routine and stay more motivated.
In addition to mastering the proper technique for each exercise, you should understand why the trainer has chosen these particular moves for you. You also need to learn how to progress once you have mastered the basics and when it's appropriate to lift heavier weights and perform more sets of an exercise. "Trainers shouldn't just give you a list of exercises; they should tell you where to go from there," says Chicago trainer "CC" Cunningham, a spokeswoman for the American Council on Exercise.
Although a personal trainer can be most valuable when you start exercising, even workout veterans can benefit from an occasional session. If you hit a plateau or simply get bored with your routine, a trainer can get you back on track, Cotton says. "You may just need a little tune-up, just like the same way an established golfer would go to a golf pro."
©1996-2005 WebMD Inc. All rights reserved.


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The editors have allowed me to share the article with you by clicking on the button below. But, whether you're a subscriber, or simply see the issue on the newsstand in your travels, I hope you'll pick up a copy of Golf Digest magazine. There are always some great tips, drills, equipment reviews and travel ideas you don't want to miss.
News & Features


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Florida Rep. Ron DeSantis and a friend, Rep. Jeff Duncan of South Carolina, had just finished a practice with the Republican congressional baseball team early this morning when they had an odd encounter with a man in the parking lot outside a Virginia baseball diamond.
"There was a guy that walked up to us that was asking whether it was Republicans or Democrats out there," DeSantis recounted to Fox News this morning. "It was just a little odd."
A few minutes later, dozens of shots exploded on the suburban ball field. At least one member of Congress — Majority Whip Steve Scalise — was wounded, as were several members of the Capitol Police, who later apprehended the shooter.
Details are still emerging about the mass shooting, which apparently targeted the GOP members of Congress practicing this morning for the annual Democrats-vs.-Republicans baseball game scheduled for tomorrow at Nationals Park. DeSantis says he's unsure that the man who asked about his party is the same man who opened fire, but he believes so.
The GOP reps had gathered at Eugene Simpson Stadium Park near Alexandria, Virginia, to work on their game plan for the matchup, which has been waged since 1909. Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks says he was standing in the on-deck circle near the third-base line when he heard loud booms and saw Scalise wounded and running into the outfield. The gunman continued to fire with what sounded like a semiautomatic rifle, Brooks tells CNN.
DeSantis just missed the carnage. He and Duncan pulled away from the field less than five minutes before the shooting. But the Florida rep from the Jacksonville area says he's certain the man he encountered was the shooter.
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"He wasn't carrying anything at the time," DeSantis tells Fox News. "It was just a little odd how he walked up to ask and then went ahead and probably like three minutes or five minutes after we pulled out of the parking lot [started shooting]."
No members of South Florida's congressional delegation are on the baseball team this year and apparently none were present when the shooting occurred.
Marco Rubio quickly tweeted out his support to the Capitol Police and DeSantis, whose condition has yet to be released.