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IN the first of a new series, Foyer Manager Andrew Hornsby looks back on the history of YMCA, starting with our founder Sir George Williams, the formation of the Paris Basis and YMCAs work in the two World Wars.
The YMCA originated out of prayer and bible study meetings of young male shop workers in the 1840s.
George Williams, a draper's assistant, is acknowledged as its principal founder and, in 1844 the 'Young Men's Christian Association' was established in London.
Williams' work for the YMCA was recognised by Queen Victoria, who knighted him, and a state funeral was arranged as a mark of respect.
The motivation and drive of George Williams and his friends was a care for young men, whom looking for work were often attracted to cities such as London.
Working conditions were often appalling; therefore YMCA offered prayer and practical support to such workers.
Quick expansion of YMCA was soon on the horizon, with many contributing this to Williams' excellent networking, marketing and discerning character.
From very small beginnings the association quickly expanded with other branches opening in Manchester and Leeds in 1845 and, by 1855, there were 40 local YMCAs operating outside London, including those in Europe and North Africa.
The quick expansion was a team effort and it led to the first international conference in Paris where the 'Paris Basis' was enacted as the binding agreement between YMCAs internationally.
The YMCA continued to expand and support all types of people in all types of ways, notably including during the two World Wars.
Troops were supported by YMCA huts and camps where they could purchase food, drink, and find activities such as roller skating, church services and spaces to relax.
There are currently over 110 YMCAs in England and there are YMCAs in more than 120 different countries, with over 2500 YMCAs in the United States of America alone.
Today, YMCAs are known for the provision of housing to the most vulnerable, the provision of sporting and training activities, and the development of youth work and spirituality amongst young people.


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subset: commoncrawl


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Surface pumping system 2 items
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Pique a Child's Interest in ComputersCredit: javrsmith
It's important for children to learn about computers. Not how to run them, they already know how to do that. They should learn how to control them. That's where this article comes in. This is designed to be the first lesson that a child has had about computer programming. It is going to be easy and fun for them. If it is too difficult to understand, then it hasn't been successful. I would appreciate comments that might make this easier and funner for children. Let's get started on the first programming lesson for children.
What is a computer?
Not what can it do
A computer is a universal machine. That means it is able to do whatever we ask it to do. It needs a program to tell it what to do. If we want to display words on a computer screen, we need to connect the computer to a monitor. We need another program to tell the computer how to control the monitor. Luckily, you don't need to write the monitor control program. That has already been done for you.
In fact, the number of programs that you can use is huge. Your Windows or Mac operating system is a program. These are called operating systems. They are actually made up of a lot of small programs working together. The programs help you by controlling the monitor, the printer, the keyboard, hard disk and anything else that is connected to the computer. Someday, you may want to build a new device and connect it to your computer. You can do that, but you will also have to write a program to tell the computer how to control your new device. Maybe you could make a robotic arm and a controlling program for it. Start planning because there is no reason why you couldn't do it.
How to get Started in Computer Programming
Basics of files, source code, etc
Computer programs are written in an English-like text. A file is created into which the computer program steps are written. The file is saved and then processed by the computer. Computers are not able to process the steps directly so they must be translated, or interpreted, into executable steps. The type of the file is important.
Computers make assumptions about file contents based on the file type, also known as the file extension. Documents may have a file type of "DOC". Spreadsheets may be "XLS". Programs might be "HTML", "PHP", "C" or another type that specific to the programming language. Usually submitting a program to the computer with a file type of "DOC", for example, will not be successful.
Simple Ways to Work
To create a file, you can use Notepad. Simply use the Windows start button, open "All programs", then "Accessories" and select the "Notepad" icon. Enter the lines as shown below:
- This is my first HTML code.<br>
Save the file as "first.html" in the documents folder.
This small HTML program includes these tags:
- Bold. Makes all subsequent text render in bold font.
- Break. Causes a new line. Makes all subsequent text start on the next line.
- End Bold. Makes all subsequent text render NOT in bold font.
My HTML Program
This is my first HTML code.
Run Your First Program
Open via your Internet browser
With the browser, select the menu "File", "Open File". In the filename box, enter "first.html". Click the open button. Your new html program will be opened by the browser and executed. This means that the computer will display the file contents, processing any codes that you have included.
Save the file as "first.html" in the documents folder.
Run Your First Program
Open via your Internet browser
With the browser, select the menu "File", "Open File". In the filename box, enter "first.html". Click the open button. Your new html program will be opened by the browser and executed. This means that the computer will display the file contents, processing any codes that you have included.
In this case, the first line displayed is in bold text and the second is regular text. The "br" tag stands for "break" and it makes the browser put the second sentence on a new line. Without the "br" tag, the program would display as:
Can you figure out why this might be?
The computer browser is doing exactly what we specify.
Experiment With HTML
Using the first.html program, try experimenting with HTML by changing tags. Here is a list of things to try:
1) In the first line, change the "B" to "U" to see the text underlined instead.
2) In the second line, add "" to the beginning of the sentence.
3) In the first line, remove the / B tag and watch what happens.
4) Add more lines with B and U tags.
Next Steps
It is important for children to realize that they control the computer. They also need to know that people have developed programs that make computers perform all of the wonderful things they do. This is not magic.
Computers are the implementation of a great many technologies, machine and programming, that have merged into the modern devices. Everything is controlled by programs, or software. The hardware gives us an amazing capability to process faster, and prettier, than ever before. But it is software that people develop that really makes the computer perform.
Rather than simply being computer users, all of us can take steps towards being programmers. The process is not easy, but it can be done in small steps. Whether children work in the development field or not, it can still be important for them to understand the process. They will be using computers for their whole lives so knowing what makes them work is a great skill to have.
Binary Basics
Learn HTML
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(price as of Apr 8, 2016)
Who Can Program?
Which Language to Learn?
There are many programming languages to choose from. Which to learn is a very subjective topic. If there is a computer programmer in the family, find out what they use. It may be helpful to pick the same one. If you can get ready access to a tutor, you can speed the learning process.
Without someone to learn from, the field is wide open. BASIC is a good choice as it has always been intended for people new to technology. PHP is excellent since WordPress uses it. WordPress is the most important web site builder on the Internet today. Other good choices include "C", Java and Javascript. These are more involved but are standards in industry.Credit: javrsmith
Amazon Price: Buy Now
(price as of Apr 8, 2016)
Learn JavaScript
Amazon Price: Buy Now
(price as of Apr 8, 2016)
Setting Up a Learning Plan
It can be quite a challenge to start learning about technology. There are decades of advancements in place. As a new person, you have a great number of unknowns. Luckily, many of them can be safely ignored. For example, FORTRAN was a very popular language. You may never learn or use it and that is just fine. Similarly, COBOL, APL, and others, can be ignored in favor of SQL, PHP, and Javascript.
The important thing is to get started learning about technology, not just how to use it. There is a lot of satisfaction to be gained as well. Even the simple act of coding a small input form on a window represents successful work. In time, such a small accomplishment can be expanded.
Since we walk before we run, be sure to check the simplest topics thoroughly before attempting to go on to more difficult ones. Learn about variables, constants, assignments, and digital logic. These will form the basis of your use of technology regardless of your development environment.[1]


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- Title: Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddie Guerrero Story (WWE)
- Author: Michael Krugman, Eddie Guerrero
- Released: 2005-12-20
- Language:
- Pages: 352
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Chapter 23
After Starrcade, we were given a very brief Christmas break. My marriage wasn't in big trouble yet, but it was well on its way. Vickie and I were arguing all the time, usually about my partying. She was dealing with it as best she could, but I could see her frustration mounting. Even though my drinking had been a part of our life for as long as either of us could remember, it was clearly growing out of control.
"Let's throw a New Year's Eve party," Vickie suggested. "That can be my turn to have some drinks and enjoy myself."
It was a fun party. All our friends and family came over, and of course everybody got pretty wasted. After everybody had gone home, Vickie and I had a bit of a spat, though to this day, I don't remember what set it off.
Vickie went to bed, but I decided to stay up a while longer. I was feeling pretty hungry and started looking through the kitchen for something to munch on. For some reason, I had an intense craving for eggs. We didn't have any in the fridge, so even though it was three in the morning, I decided to go to the store.
As I was getting into my TransAm, I grabbed a bottle of Renutrient and threw it into the backseat. Renutrient was a legal form of GHB, a drug that promotes fat reduction and muscle building by stimulating growth hormone release. It also gives you a hell of a buzz and makes you pass out. Looking back, I realize I was still feeling upset from my fight with Vickie and thinking very bad thoughts. I'll show you, I thought. I'll hurt myself.
The store was closed, so I went ahead and drove to the next convenience store up the road. I bought some eggs and a twelve-pack of beer, and then got back in the car.
Before I drove off, I decided to take some of the Renutrient. It's a liquid, taken by the capful. Usually one or two caps would put me down, but God help me, that night I took five good-sized shots.
I blocked that memory for so long. It wasn't until much later that I remembered what I had done. It was a suicide attempt, plain and simple. Maybe I did it subconsciously, but no matter how you slice it, that was what I was doing. I was tired of life and wanted to die.
I had given up believing. I had tried to fill the empty place in my heart with wrestling. I tried to fill it with booze and pills. I was making good money and I was still feeling empty. I was miserable in WCW. I knew I wasn't going to go any higher there, and jumping to WWE hadn't even crossed my mind. I couldn't stop wondering, Is this it? Is this what I worked my whole life for?
It didn't help matters that I was constantly fighting with Vickie. I think that night was a culmination of all those bad feelings. The hole inside me had just gotten too large.
I took those five caps knowing that I was going to fall asleep. If I make it home, I thought, then I make it home. If I don't, that's okay too.
I just didn't care anymore. I just wanted the pain to stop.
I wasn't thinking about Vickie or the kids. I was being selfish, thinking only of myself. I wasn't knowingly trying to commit suicide, but it was clearly going on deep inside my subconscious. Why else would I do something like that?
I started driving, heading down Highway 54. I pushed down on the gas pedal and felt the power of my TransAm -- Vrooom! Here we go!
The next thing I knew, there were doctors all around me, holding my leg. As my eyes opened, the first thing they said was, "What are you on?"
"What?" I had no idea where I was or what was going on.
"You've been in a car accident," one of the doctors told me. "You're in the emergency room. Your leg is in very bad shape and we need authorization to start surgery on you."
I sat up and looked at my leg. "Oh wow," I said. "I'm pretty fucked up."
The doctor looked straight at me. "Yep," he said, "you sure are."
And then I passed out.
I woke up again as the doctors were trying to work on me. I freaked out and started trying to fight them off, but they grabbed my arms and held me down.
Again they asked me, "What are you on?"
"Alcohol," I told them.
"No, you're on more than that. What are you on? Tell us what you're on."
They kept pushing and finally I said, "Renutrient."
"What's that?"
"Okay," the doctor said. "Can you give us any contact information so that we can call your family?"
I managed to give them our phone number before going unconscious again.
I was in and out of consciousness for a couple of days. I remember opening my eyes and seeing Shaul by the bed, with tears streaming down her little face. I knew I was in bad shape -- they don't allow little kids into the intensive care unit unless they think the person isn't going to survive.
My family all came to the hospital the afternoon after the accident. My brothers and sisters all flew in from their respective homes. My mom had just flown home to El Paso after spending the holidays with us in Tampa -- she literally got to Texas, then turned around and flew back to Florida. All my friends, like Dean and Tury, came to see me. Our family pastor came and prayed over me.
When I finally came to, the police told me what had happened. I had fallen asleep at the wheel -- obviously -- while going upwards of 130 miles per hour. I came to a curve in the road but didn't make it. The car went off the embankment into a ditch and just started rolling. The embankment basically acted like a ramp, sending the car into the air, soaring up over some trees. They knew this because they found parts of the car in the treetops, which weren't all mangled like they would've been if the car had hit them.
The car flipped so many times it was flattened like a pancake. It looked like a Coke can after somebody stomped on it. Luckily for me, I shot out through the T-top as the car started rolling. I must've flown a hundred feet or so before landing in the gravel on the roadside. Vickie thinks an angel pulled me out through the T-top, because had I stayed in the car, there is no way on earth that I'd have lived.
The cops came to the scene and started dealing with the traffic situation. They saw me lying there and just assumed I was dead. Fortunately for me, a lady who had pulled over to volunteer her help saw me moving. They called for an air evac -- a helicopter ambulance -- and immediately flew me to St. Joseph's Hospital.
My injuries were pretty brutal. I'd fractured my collarbone and compressed a few discs in my spine. I had severe scrapes all over my body from the gravel and broken glass -- Vickie was still pulling little pieces of glass out of my back a month later. I was bruised and swollen all over from the trauma.
Both of my legs were a complete mess. I'd broken my right hip socket and shredded my left calf. A piece of glass had severed the nerves and ligaments so badly that there was no way the doctors could reattach them. Instead, they just pulled the skin over the wound and sewed it up. They literally removed a pound of my calf.
The worst injury I'd sustained was a badly lacerated liver. When Vickie first got to the hospital, the doctor pulled her aside. "We suggest you call your family," he told her, "because we don't believe he's going to make it through the next two nights."
By the grace of God, somehow I didn't hit my head. My brother Mando jokes that it was because of my dad's training. He taught all the Guerreros to tuck and roll whenever we fall. I guess it was instinctive. Even when I was shooting a hundred feet out of a flying car, I still managed to tuck and roll and protect my head.
I only found these things out after all was said and done. A lot of what happened -- in the accident, in the hospital afterward -- remains a mystery to me. I suppose I could've asked more questions, but I don't think I ever really wanted to know all the details.
All things considered, I was very fortunate. My hip socket broke cleanly, so they didn't have to repair it surgically. All I had to do was give it time to mend and it'd be all right.
I wasn't so lucky with my other leg injuries. After performing reconstructive surgery on my calf and thigh, the doctor told Vickie that he doubted I would ever walk again. "What does he do for a living?" he asked.
"He's a professional wrestler."
"Oh no, he'll never wrestle again," the doctor replied. "That's certain. He'll have to find another career. That is, if he makes it."
Within a couple of days it became clear I was going to survive. My liver showed definite signs of healing and it looked like I was out of the woods. The doctors told me that my physical condition was a huge factor in my ability to heal. A normal thirty-six-year-old, without my level of physical activity, would've probably been crippled for life.
Still, the doctors were all pretty surprised. They would come into my room and tell me how fortunate I was. "You're a lucky, lucky man," they said.
Yeah, right, I thought. Sure I am.
While I was in the hospital, the doctors had me on morphine drip all day long. I was able to push a button and get a dose every seven minutes. And believe me, I pushed that button every time.
Obviously I couldn't do that after I went home, so I started taking a lot of pills. Anything to stop the hurting. How could I do the physical therapy if I was in terrible pain? I had to dull the pain before I could begin learning to walk again.
But as a result of having so much painkiller in me, I was pretty much in a fog. I was like the walking dead -- only I couldn't walk!
I started physical therapy about a month after the accident. My whole body hurt, like I'd taken the worst bump ever. I was in pain all the time, on the inside. My hip socket was still in the process of healing, but I couldn't wait anymore.
The physical therapy was as frustrating and painful as anything I'd ever experienced. I didn't want to be there and behaved like a real asshole. They were poking and pushing at me, and all I wanted was to go home and take more painkillers.pdf


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This month marks the 95th anniversary of the introduction of income tax in Canada—a "temporary" measure to help fund the First World War.
The government imposed a number of financial measures to deal with the growing economic burden of the war. Luxury taxes and taxes on goods and services –train and bus tickets, telegrams, patent medicines, tea and coffee–even business profits.
By 1916 the cost of the war had risen to $600 million (close to $11 billion in today's dollars), and there was nothing for it but to introduce personal income taxes, too.
In introducing the tax, Finance Minister Sir Thomas White said he had placed no time limit on the measure, not knowing how long the war might last. But a year or two after the war "the measure should be reviewed…with a view of judging whether it is suitable to the conditions which then prevail."
In war and in peace, income tax has been judged suitable ever since.
Since practically the dawn of recorded history, leaders have instituted such taxes to help pay for war or defence. Ancient Greece and Rome had war taxes. Britain has a long war tax history. Tithes were collected to support a crusade to the Holy Land in 1188. Income tax was introduced in Britain in 1799 to pay for weapons and equipment for the Napoleonic Wars.
Britain's folk history about dealing with burdensome taxation is also long, but none perhaps so familiar as the myth of Lady Godiva, an 11th Century chaste and demure noblewoman who supposedly pleaded with her husband Leofric for tax relief for her people in Coventry. That would happen, he replied, when she rode naked at noon hour through the streets of the town. We might say the rest is history–if only historians agreed that it actually happened.
Canadians may not be familiar with the reason behind the barebacked ride, though most of us are familiar with the chocolates bearing the name of the community-spirited crusader–upon which we pay federal and provincial taxes, a portion of which goes to the defence department budget to pay our troops and keep the armed forces in equipment.


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Log In
Add New Integration
Manage Integrations
Manage Linked Applications
Manage Hub Settings
(1) choose service
(2) choose action
(3) configure integration
(4) deploy integration
Integrating Logentries with Team-One
Send a chat message in response to a Logentries trigger.
Post a chat message to a Workspace when a Logentries trigger is fired.
» more information about this integration...


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The busiest ever Autumn international programme is over. Some 21 national teams played 29 games, including 24 tests - half of all the tests played in the entire year. What did we learn?
The six weeks took us from Amsterdam to Glasgow, by way of Chicago, Calvisano, Helsinki, Lautoka, Toulon, Newbury, Cardiff, London, Villajoyosa, Dublin, Cobham, Doncaster, Yverdon, Prato and above all Grenoble.
It brought us a return to test rugby by Tonga, after 12 years,, Samoa and South Africa, after four years; first test wins for Tonga and Czechia; and 100% records for England, Fiji, Italy and Spain. Not to mention one of the greatest women's test matches ever.
But what are the main things we learnt from this intensive programme of international rugby spread across three continents?
1. When France are good they're very, very good
"Humble and Hungry" is the French team's maxim – they say they still have much to learn, but are hungry for success. Their two test series with New Zealand demonstrated this – slightly overawed in the first test, they failed to take their opportunities, but they learned from it and lead from start to finish in an awesome second test to record a first ever win against the Black Ferns.
Is the next Six Nations a foregone conclusion then?
Play like this again and it would be, but France have performed brilliantly at home before, but failed to do so away from home. And the likely decisive game with England will be in Doncaster.
2. Fiji – one to watch for 2021?
Fiji retained their Oceania crown, perhaps unsurprisingly, but it was how they did it that was most impressive. Unlike in 2016, the Fijiana called up most of their most experienced sevens players, and - after a careful start in their opening game - dominated the tournament. Two years ago an understrength, inexperienced Fijiana team – lacking those sevens stars – were well beaten in the Asia-Pacific qualifier by Hong Kong and Japan. If that is to be their route for 2021 a rather different outcome is possible.
3. England fly under the radar, for possibly the last time.
With France and New Zealand hogging the limelight, England's Autumn campaign fell almost under the radar by comparison. England are in a fascinating position - right on the cusp of becoming the first team to go fully professional for the long term in January, and still grappling with the challenges of trying to run world leading 15s and 7s programmes. Because of their professional status, England will be scrutinised like never before from here on in but this campaign - decent without being outstanding - allowed Simon Middleton to mix and match, with a raft of newish faces used. Kelly Smith impressed hugely while Hannah Botterman gets better and better and with contracts still up for grabs, these Autumn performances could go a long way in determining the make up of the pro squad.
4 Teams in transition show much promise
Technically every team is in something of a state of transition a year after the World Cup, but there are some who are really are rebuiding to the max. Ireland are one such team and though they were beaten by the USA and England, Adam Griggs has much to take from their games. Fielding a very young side, Griggs took a risk including teenagers like Beibheen Parsons and Ellen Murphy, but they have showed huge promise and will only get better while Lauren Delaney looks a real find at fullback. Italy and Spain won all of their games, and USA and Canada have also unearthed some highly promising talent, with the USA tour ending on a high with a win in Ireland, and Canada finishing with back-to-back wins against Wales and Scotland. Even in defeats for others, there were positives, with Scotland and Hong Kong giving their young talent a chance to shine, while South Africa returned from self-imposed exile and, while they lost all three tests, showed they had not slipped back significantly in their period away. That said, their defeats were at least partly due to inexperience of rugby at this level, raising the question of what might have been if South Africa had continued to play and had appeared at the 2017 World Cup - they would only have had to beat Hong Kong to qualify.
5 The recovery of test rugby?
The rise of sevens leading up to the 2016 Olympics resulted in such a decline in test rugby that its very future seemed threatened. Before the rise of sevens, in 2011 - the year after the 2010 World Cup - 29 nations played 54 tests, but four years later in the year after the 2014 tournament - with sevens firmly in the accendancy - only 19 nations took the field, playing a mere 35 games. The entry for the 2017 World Cup was the smallest ever.
After this year as a whole, and the autumn tests in particular (the most concentrated programme ever) there are suggestions that we have turned a corner. 48 tests have been played in 2018 by 25 nations - not quite back to 2011, but a strong move in the right direction. The Oceania Championship is back, and thanks to pressure from the grassroots, the European Trophy too. Samoa, South Africa and Tonga returned to the test match fold this autumn after years away, while from Colombia to Zimbabwe the demand from players to play something more than just sevens is growing. And its a version of the game that pulls crowds (and TV viewers). From over 17,000 again in Grenoble, to a record paying attendance for a test match in England* at Doncaster, fifteen aside rugby is the version that people will pay to watch as well as play.
The future of test rugby remains a concern, but things are going the right way.
*Not including double-headers


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Creative PowerPoint background is a free slide background template available as a free .PPT template for PowerPoint that you can use in presentations about chat or online conversation as well as creative thinking presentations or other slide design templates related to chat or people talking in a chat room. You can download this discussion board PowerPoint template for presentations containing discussions or a chat panel.
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Operational Drilling Technology (ODT) Course
This program is developed to teach drilling practices and problems from Spud to completion for all levels from assistant driller to drilling manager. The course is taught by hole intervals starting with top-hole problems related to big-hole and normal pressure. After an appropriate casing string has been set, drilling continues into the abnormal pressure zone and heavy mud practices and problems are discussed. Well Control is introduced as one of the drilling problems and is taught by hole interval, actual case studies and enhanced training by hands-on simulator practice.
← Back to all classes
Certifications ‣
IADC WellSharp for either Surface or Combined Surface/Subsea
Who Should Attend ‣
Oil Company Personnel, Contractors, and Service Companies -Foreman, Engineers, Drilling Superintendents, Drilling Managers, Drillers, Assistant Drillers, Toolpushers, OIMs, Geologists, Production Workover Engineers, Drilling Consultants, Mud Engineers, Directional Engineers, MWD Operators, Tool Operators, Bit Company Representatives, Fishing Tool Representatives.
Course Length ‣
10 Days
ODT Course Content: ‣
- Simulator Training
- Drill String Design
- Pre-Spud & Operator/Contractor Meeting
- Hole Trends
- Drill out Considerations
- Leak-Off and Formation Capability Tests
- Limitations to Control Capability
- Volumetric Method of Well Control
- Drillers Method of Well Control
- Salt Water Flows & Kick Recognition
- Modified Wait & Weight Method of Well Control
- Well Control Method Determination
- Shoe Pressure Case Study
- Shallow Gas and Kicks; Diverting
- General Mud
- Top Hole Considerations & Hole Cleaning
- Hydraulics
- Lost Circulation – Top Hole
- Deviation & Stuck Pipe
- H2S & Safety
- Mud Solids
- Solids Control & Equipment Workshop
- Lubrication, Stripping, and Snubbing
- Tripping Practices and Considerations
- Surface Casing, Casing & Cementing
- Causes of Abnormal Pressure
- Managed Pressure Drilling
- Well Control Flags & Transition Zone Indicators
- Shales
- Good Mud Practices
- Logging & Perforating
- Kick-Off Plugs
- BOP Equipment & Regulations
- Accumulator Sizing
- Loss Circulation in Abnormal Pressure Zone
- ECD Drilling Technique
- UBO and Barite Plugs
- Bits Overview
- Optimization Consideration
- Differential Sticking & Freeing Techniques (Oil Spotting)
Methods ‣
Lecture, exercise, workshops, tests, simulator practice, PowerPoint presentations, and discussions.
Practice Exam ‣
IADC is now making available an online WellSharp Practice Exam to help those trainees who have test anxiety and want to become more familiar with the process of taking an online WellSharp exam. Four exams are currently available: Driller-Surface Stack, Driller-Combination Stack, Supervisor-Surface Stack, and Supervisor-Combination Stack. Click here for access to these exams.
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The phrase 'Democratizing Machine Learning' is being used by many companies small and large, including us @VerifAI and in this article.
de·moc·ra·tize — democratizing:
— introduce a democratic system or democratic principles to.
"public institutions need to be democratized"
— make (something) accessible to everyone.
"mass production has not democratized fashion"
In the context of this article, the second definition is more fitting than the first.
Every company may have a different notion of what they mean by Democratizing Machine Learning and AI.
To make a figurative analogy: A democratic government may give its people the right to vote, but perhaps the voting ballots are hard to decipher.
Such a country would still be a democracy in principle, but in practice this would be a democracy that doesn't serve all its constituents well.
For example, a country that educates people as to how to use polling booths or makes the ballots very simple, in addition to easy access, would serve all its constituents well.
Democracy and Machine Learning ?
Similar figurative analogies apply to democratizing Machine Learning.
While companies may provide access to ML tools and API's, they may not provide a level of abstraction or ease of use that makes sense for a developer or a professional who may not be a Machine Learning expert.
To truly democratize machine learning, would mean that a wide range of professionals (including, but not limited to, developers, engineers, scientists, marketeers, accountants, radiologists, cardiologists, law enforcement officers, judges, lawyers and other domain experts) could use Machine Learning to improve their productivity. To Democratize Machine Learning, we need to make Machine Learning not only accessible to everyone but also easily useableby everyone.
We can broadly segment Machine Learning techniques into branches called Supervised Learning, Unsupervised Learning and Reinforcement Learning. Democratizing each of these branches of Machine Learning presents their own challenges.
Supervised learning is currently the most widely used form of machine learning, across all industry segments, and, one of the most common applications of Supervised Learning is Classification.
Let take a closer look at what it means to Democratize Machine Learning in the context of a building a Classification app.
Democratizing Classification — Supervised Learning
Classification is one of the most widely used Supervised Machine Learning techniques. This includes classifying images, text and other kinds of data. According to a McKinsey report, Classification techniques will have global economic impact of $2T on multiple industry segments. This number maybe hard to fathom , but, what this says is that Classification of data (images, text, voice) is being used widely across many industry segments, embedded in many 'killer apps' and workflows.
In traditional software (Software 1.0), classification is done by writing an algorithm to classify an image, for instance. These algorithms need to be continuously updated to catch 'unseen' or 'different' conditions. In contrast Machine Learning uses example data to produce a 'classification algorithm' that can be generalized to classify unseen conditions quite accurately (e.g. new images).
Classification use case: An interesting classification problem in the banking/lending industry is to assess the current risk of an active loan, based on historical data and the consumer's profile and behavior. Given a user profile , and data about the loan terms etc., the Machine Learning model, can classify a particular customer's loan to be safe, risky or unsafe.
A comprehensive data-set was published by LendingClub, a peer-to-peer lending company, the dataset contained about a million active loans, and each loan was described in terms of around 52 features (variables). These features include information about the loan, such as the term of the loan, interest rate, loan amount, loan purpose etc. The data also contained features about the customer such as address , annual income, last payment, months since last delinquent payment , total late fees etc.
Democratizing Classification for the bank loan analyst would be to provide the analyst software that would produce the highest accuracy machine-learning model and predict a customers loan to be safe, risky or unsafe.
Choosing the right features to include in the Machine Learning model is critical to the accuracy of the Classifier.
A good effort towards democratizing Classification would be to automate the following steps: Feature Selection, Feature Mapping and Model Creation.
Automatic Feature Selection algorithms are a key part of democratizing machine learning. For the example LendingClub data, the original number of features were 52 (of which 35 were numerical and 18 were categorical).
The final number of features selected, that produced the highest accuracy Classifier was 14. There were a number of features excluded : 37 (of which 24 were numerical and 13 were categorical).
VerifAI's algorithms excludes redundant features automatically, to produce the highest accuracy Classifier, for the lending-club data. The loan analyst (domain expert) should not have to know which features to exclude or include to achieve a high accuracy model. Software algorithms need to do a good job doing Automatic Feature Engineering.
Automatic Feature Mapping is another key set of techniques that transforms the input user data into a form (numerical values) that the Machine Learning Algorithms can understand. Automatic Feature Mapping hides the complexity and details of data transformation required before feeding the data into a DNN (Deep Neural Network) or other machine learning models.
For instance the feature loan_term column may have values such as "60 months", "42 months" , "36 months" etc. These strings values are automatically encoded into numerical values a machine learning model can understand, using a feature hasher, factorizer, one hot encoding or other encoding algorithms . The model's accuracy is dependent on how the inputs are encoded and interpreted by the machine learning algorithms, thus it is important to map and encode the features accurately to input into a ML model. ML engineers spend a lot of time mapping features into usable inputs for models. Automatic Feature Mapping (AutoMapper) is an important step towards democratizing ML.
Automatic Model Selection and Creation is the next important step towards democratizing Machine Learning. Model selection is a complex process that ML engineers learn over time with experience. This process comprises of choosing the best-fit ML model for a given data-set, and then tuning the hyper-parameters for the chosen model to improve accuracy and reduce over-fitting.
For a Classification problem, there can be many models we can use: For instance: SVM (Support Vector Machines), DecisionTrees, Random Forests, DNN etc.
Classifiers accuracy can vary significantly on differently data-sets, making them highly data-dependent. To make Classifiers robust, we need model-selection algorithms to mitigate data-dependent variance.
A fully automatic feature engineering and model creation loop, is an essential step towards democratizing ML Classification problems.
Democratizing Reinforcement Learning
Reinforcement Learning (RL) is a disruptive technology with significant potential to improve many challenging engineering and business problems. In reinforcement learning a software agent interacts with an environment by taking actions and getting back rewards for these actions, with a goal of maximizing future cumulative rewards.
Sequential Decision Making: Any process where a sequence of decisions need to be made to maximize (or minimize) a future reward can be modeled as a Reinforcement Learning problem. For example , an RL agent(s) could make a sequence of decisions that could (a) maximizing the click-thru-rate for a customer on your advertising platform, (b) reduce the cost of your home heating and cooling bill over time, (c) minimize attacks on your enterprise network.
Reinforcement Learning is based on a Markov Decision Process (MDP) model, where the action taken by the agent in an environment , impacts the next state in the environment and the reward generated by the environment. The outcomes are partly random and partly controlled by the agent taking the actions.
The multi-armed bandit : RL uses the notion of exploration and exploitation to learn an optimal policy that could maximize future reward. A good example of the tradeoff RL makes at each iteration can be seen by studying the multi-armed-bandit problem , wherein each arm of the bandit (each arm of the bandit pulls a slot-machine lever) provides rewards according to some unknown probability distribution. In that case, exploration is trying many bandit arms, while exploitation is operating a particular bandit arm.
By trading off exploration versus exploitation an RL agent is able to sample a very large state space and make decisions that can maximize future reward better than any 'directed random' technique.
To democratize reinforcement learning, we need to enable users to express their intent in a manner that can be mapped into an RL problem. There are many current efforts in industry and research towards democratizing RL. Some of these efforts include Facebook's Horizon, AWS SageMaker-RL, OpenAI's SpinningUp, Google's Dopamine and others.
Capturing user Intent: The key issue here is one of capturing the user's intent and mapping it to an RL algorithm and a DNN architecture. While there has been a lot of effort on optimizing RL algorithms , there needs to be a significant effort to capture user intent, and elevate the abstraction level of the RL-Environment to solve many real world engineering, scientific and business problems.
Checks and Balances — Verifying Machine Learning Models
All good democracies have checks and balances that protect the long term sustainability of a nation. Software development based on training neural networks has been termed as Software 2.0, perhaps appropriately so. To sustain this new paradigm, we need to be able to verify Machine Learning models and maintain checks and balances. A large number of decisions are being made by Machine Learning models, and this trend is accelerating into every aspect of our lives.
Courts , Law enforcement, DMV , Insurance Companies, Banks , Hospitals, Schools and many more institutions are using or will be using Machine Learning to make predictions about our daily lives.
Black Box Models: An incorrect prediction may affect individuals in an unintended and undesirable manner. If we project out into to the future with a hypothesis that more decisions will be made by machine learning models than humans, verifying machine learning models is an area that needs attention and innovation.
Explainable and Interpretable Machine Learning are active fields of research, where the algorithms try to explain the decisions made by black-box models such as a DNN or an SVM Classifier. These algorithms also compute the probability of the accuracy of the predictions, and weight them by individual features. Interpretable ML techniques provide insight into the ML models and the bias in the input training data. Some of these algorithms can help us explain and correct mis-predictions and introspect a Machine Learning model. Interpretable and verifiable ML algorithms are a key part of checks and balances required to democratize Machine Learning.
With the advent of new ML algorithms such as generative adversarial networks (GANS) , it is possible to skew the inputs just enough to get an incorrect prediction from a ML model. There will perhaps be many more advances in Machine Learning like GANS that will make verification of ML models a significant challenge. On the flip side, technologies such as RL and GANS can be used to verify complex systems, in a manner that is impossible by traditional methods.
Next Generation Verification: To democratize Machine Learning we need a verification methodology to verify Models and Algorithms produced by Software 2.0 and Software 1.0.
Impact of Democratizing Machine Learning
While it maybe non trivial to measure the impact of Machine Learning, many industry luminaries and academics have compared AI/ML to 'electricity' that will enable the 4th industrial revolution. Even if we were to discount the hyperboles describing AI and Machine Learning, it is still technology that will impact a majority of industries and many aspects of society. For instance, we may not have autonomous self driving cars (level 5) in the near horizon, contrary to the hype, but, we will still see human assisted self-driving cars , autonomous package delivery vehicles and fully autonomous golf carts in the near future.
The economic impact of Machine Learning will depend on how accessible , verifiable , interpretable and useable we make make these technologies for people to build upon. There are significant implications of how Machine Learning will impact many current jobs. Current tasks that require repetitive computer action, will be automated. Democratization of ML will lead to an understanding and acceptance of such technologies into our daily lives. This in turn may help alleviate the concerns of job displacement and will lead to new jobs that don't exist today.
An investor recently told me that Machine Learning is already democratized since his 11yr old son (6th grader) is building ML apps using Python and TensorFlow (this is very encouraging!). While his observation is accurate in multiple dimensions, I argue that we are at the very beginning stages of democratizing Machine Learning.
"mass production has not democratized fashion — yet!"
Democratizing Machine Learning to us means empowering people from all disciplines to solve problems that are currently deemed unsolvable.


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by Linda Gotsch
(Redding, Ca. USA)
A charming story about the journey from neglect to a loving home, this dog's eye view is a wonderful tale of love. Shasta's story is one that many people will relate to. It is well written and something you will want to share with others. Highly recommended.
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My great Pyrenees, who I rescued in January, is probably the sweetest dog I've ever had—and I bred Labrador Retrievers for 30 years. My question is he


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Many times, a good Sunday is all about stumbling on a good movie playing on TV. Especially so if it is a movie you have never heard of. (Which also brings to mind the perils of depending too much on IMDB for movie recommendations. You end up missing some worth-a-watch movies that have not caught the user base's fancy, or are not great enough to make into an elite must-watch list.)
My lazy Sunday yesterday became better with one such movie: The Good Girl (2002), where Jennifer Aniston plays a bored retail store clerk Justine. Justine has the trapped life synonymous with most of working class – an arid job which she has had for many years, and an indifferent husband Phil, who spends most of his time stoned on the couch, watching TV with his friend Bubba. Because she is bored, she craves for the opposite of her dull life. Thus the entry of a slightly eccentric and aloof 'Holden' as a new cashier in the store sparks her interest. Both characters are unhappy with the world, and this unhappiness brings them closer. Justine wants to conveniently keep this friendship as a mild distraction, but Holden is passionate, and insistent – and a flattered Justine gives in. They spend most of the relationship having passionate sex in a seedy motel. However, soon there are whispers in the store, and the Justine who is used to a quiet life, gets unsettled. Holden becomes more mercurial and demanding, sulking terribly when refused one of their secret trysts. To add to the misery, Bubba (Phil's friend) sees the two of them going into the motel, and blackmails Justine into sleeping with him.
It is a rather well-knit story, in which Aniston slides in perfectly. It is hard to not sympathize with a girl who seems to walk limply beneath her unhappiness. She wants to escape her life, and you can see why. You can't possibly grudge her this little romance, especially since you sympathized with a far less traumatized Laura in Brief Encounter. But at the same time, she is scared of Holden's volatility, his youthful irrationality and even more of having to let go of Phil's indifferent dependability. (He fixes her TV for her, holds her hand when a colleague dies – all the little things that seem to make many indifferent marriages work)
The movie is a work of contempt. Arteta/White (Director/Writer) do not seem sympathetic of the working class – they say as much in the stray characters, be it the Bible-reader Cornie, or the very-perked up Gwen, or the cretin Bubba. They even seem to regard Justine's boredom and her distraction with contempt, looking at her as a sort of predator on Holden's youthful passion. Yet, they depict her as a real person, and Aniston makes this person believable – regretful, indecisive, even a little evil and artful. A person, who sometimes, moved by a desire for freshness, is willing to blur moral boundaries. Arteta/White have also managed to get a comic touch in this otherwise depressive story of reality: through Cornie who curses non-believers with hellfire and the weird Cheryl, who is really ingenious in her marketing skills, but mostly with Justine's attempts to control the situation.
If you think Aniston can best portray only the spoilt and fashionable Rachel Green, this movie will certainly surprise you.


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James 2
International Children's Bible
Love All People
2 My dear brothers, you are believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. So never think that some people are more important than others. 2 Suppose someone comes into your church meeting wearing very nice clothes and a gold ring. At the same time a poor man comes in wearing old, dirty clothes. 3 You show special attention to the one wearing nice clothes. You say, "Please, sit here in this good seat." But you say to the poor man, "Stand over there," or "Sit on the floor by my feet!" 4 What are you doing? You are making some people more important than others. With evil thoughts you are deciding which person is better.
5 Listen, my dear brothers! God chose the poor in the world to be rich with faith. He chose them to receive the kingdom God promised to people who love him. 6 But you show no respect to the poor man. And you know that it is the rich who are always trying to control your lives. And they are the ones who take you to court. 7 They are the ones who say bad things against Jesus, who owns you.
8 One law rules over all other laws. This royal law is found in the Scriptures: "Love your neighbor as you love yourself."[a] If you obey this law, then you are doing right. 9 But if you are treating one person as if he were more important than another, then you are sinning. That royal law proves that you are guilty of breaking God's law. 10 A person might follow all of God's law. But if he fails to obey even one command, he is guilty of breaking all the commands in that law. 11 God said, "You must not be guilty of adultery."[b] The same God also said, "You must not murder anyone."[c] So if you do not take part in adultery, but you murder someone, then you are guilty of breaking all of God's law. 12 You will be judged by the law that makes people free. You should remember this in everything you say and do. 13 Yes, you must show mercy to others, or God will not show mercy to you when he judges you. But the person who shows mercy can stand without fear when he is judged.
Faith and Good Works
14 My brothers, if someone says he has faith, but does nothing, his faith is worth nothing. Can faith like that save him? 15 A brother or sister in Christ might need clothes or might need food. 16 And you say to him, "God be with you! I hope you stay warm and get plenty to eat." You say this, but you do not give that person the things he needs. Unless you help him, your words are worth nothing. 17 It is the same with faith. If faith does nothing, then that faith is dead, because it is alone.
18 Someone might say, "You have faith, but I do things. Show me your faith! Your faith does nothing. I will show you my faith by the things I do." 19 You believe there is one God. Good! But the demons believe that, too! And they shake with fear.
20 You foolish person! Must you be shown that faith that does nothing is worth nothing? 21 Abraham is our father. He was made right with God by the things he did. He offered his son Isaac to God on the altar. 22 So you see that Abraham's faith and the things he did worked together. His faith was made perfect by what he did. 23 This shows the full meaning of the Scripture that says: "Abraham believed God, and God accepted Abraham's faith, and that faith made him right with God."[d] And Abraham was called "God's friend."[e] 24 So you see that a person is made right with God by the things he does. He cannot be made right by faith only.
25 Another example is Rahab, who was a prostitute. But she was made right with God by something she did: She helped the spies for God's people. She welcomed them into her home and helped them escape by a different road.
26 A person's body that does not have a spirit is dead. It is the same with faith. Faith that does nothing is dead!
- 2:8 "Love . . . yourself." Quotation from Leviticus 19:18.
- 2:11 "You . . . adultery." Quotation from Exodus 20:14 and Deuteronomy 5:18.
- 2:11 "You . . . anyone." Quotation from Exodus 20:13 and Deuteronomy 5:17.
- 2:23 "Abraham . . . God." Quotation from Genesis 15:6.
- 2:23 "God's friend." These words about Abraham are found in 2 Chronicles 20:7 and Isaiah 41:8.
The Holy Bible, International Children's Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Tommy Nelson™, a division of Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.


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Kaj vam je ljubše (vprašanje seveda velja za liberalce, konzervativci imajo bistveno večje težave glede možnosti pametne izbire): Inkrementalni realizem Hillary Clinton ali sanjaška revolucija Bernieja Sandersa? Sanders zna biti simpatičen s svojim anti-establishment pristopom, toda lekcija Obaminih dveh mandatov – v nebo lansiranih sanj, ki so se razbile na čereh republikanske večine v Congresu in bolj ali manj grdih kompromisov – je jasna: naivno sanjaštvo ima appeal, nima pa prihodnosti. Na drugi strani je Clintonova, ki kot del establishmenta in bogato spoznorirane kampanje s strani Wall Streeta, ne ponuja vizije, pač pa inkrementalni pragmatizem na omejenem številu področij.
Kdo bo zmagal demokratsko nominacijo? Jasno, tisti, ki ima za seboj več denarja (beri: Wall Street). Kdo bi lahko naredil več za prenovo ameriške družbe in socialne države? Najbrž inkrementalni pragmatik, kljub pomanjkljivi viziji in paktiranju s top 1%.
Revolucionarna vizija Bernieja Sandersa:
This is the vision Sanders is selling in Iowa. It's a vision that is hopeful both in its diagnosis of the problems in American politics and in its prescription. It's a vision that says liberals were right all along, and the American people have always been with them, and it's the corrosive influence of corporate donors that has snapped that bond and confused the country.
It's a vision that is intuitively plausible to many liberals because it resonates with their own experience. They remember being excited by the promise of Obama's agenda and then disappointed by the compromises he made, the fights he backed away from, the deals he cut with industry. They remember being organized in 2008 and demoralized in 2010. They remember feeling like they could accomplish anything, only to be told they needed to stop hoping for so much.
And it's a vision that underscores the very real ways in which Clinton and even Obama's political pragmatism blurs into political cynicism. The limits of the presidency and public opinion are very real, but the massive speaking fees Clinton accepted from multinational corporations, the huge amounts of money Obama raised from Wall Street, the fundraisers they both attend for their personal Super PACs, and the ex-financiers both of them relied on as advisers all help explain, to Sanders and his supporters, why Clinton and Obama's agendas were so compromised, and why their dimmer view of the possibilities of American politics may be more than a little self-interested.
Inkrementalni pragmatizem Hillary Clinton:
The problem for Clinton is that the immediate future looks grim for the progressive agenda, and she knows it. Republicans are likely to hold both the House and the Senate. They have a 5-4 majority on the Supreme Court and, at least for the moment, huge majorities in governorships and state legislatures. Americans are, if anything, growing more divided. Money is an ever more powerful force in American politics. The fact that voters don't want a fight doesn't mean they're not going to have one.
Clinton doesn't have an easy answer for any of this, and, perhaps to her credit, she's refused to pretend otherwise. Democrats were bitterly disappointed by the compromises Obama made when he had huge Democratic majorities. The compromises the next Democratic president will have to make, given the likely Republican dominance of Congress, are going to be even more brutal for liberals — and if they're not, it will likely be because nothing of importance gets done in the first place.
The argument for Clinton is that she's best suited to handle this war of partisan attrition — she knows how to work the bureaucracy, defend against a hostile Congress, and find incremental gains where they exist. This is a realistic vision of a Democratic presidency after Obama. It's a vision, as best I can tell, that's shared by Obama. But it's not a vision liberals want to believe in. It's not a vision that Hillary Clinton has figured out how to sell. Perhaps it's not a vision that can be sold.
Vir: Ezra Klein, Vox
Inkrementalni pragmatizem = vizije izpraznjena politika, ki sicer deluje:
Hillary Clinton, it's worth saying, has the opposite problem. Her experience in two administrations—and her overall approach to politics—suggests an eye toward the incremental. A President Clinton would have modest goals, pursued with focus. But, as we've seen with the Obama administration and its challenges, from health care to Wall Street, there are limits to liberal incrementalism. For as much as it shrinks the chance of failure, it also robs liberals of the ambition that they crave. It accommodates the institutional barriers to progressive change, instead of overcoming them. Pragmatism can work, but it's often bleak and uninspiring.
Vir: Jamelle Bouie, Slate


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We are designing a flow check valve rated for 7500 psi and using Solidworks Simulation to analyze the check valve poppet stress distribution. Please see image-01 for the section cut of the valve assembly.
After running the static FEA with non-penetration contact set between the poppet head and the casing shoulder, I'm getting really high stresses around the two contact points shown on image-02.
We did the hand calculation based on formula: Contact Stress = Contact Force / Contact Area, and we got 64.4 KSI contact stress which is about 1/2 of the maximum number the FEA gave us.
We don't know if the high stresses are singularities or not. We have put a rounded corners around the high stress location but no luck, the stress is still very high.
My question is how to interoperate the stress result?
Does the material yield or not yield?
How to make the conclusion persuasive? I don't want to say "the red area is singularity and next to it is the green, hence ok. .."
Should I trust the result from the FEA analysis?
Are there anything else we can do to get a meaningful result?
Thanks in advance.


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Blue Spark Attracts Another $5M
Blue Spark Technologies, a Westlake, OH-based company that makes printed batteries for flexible electronics, among other applications, has raised an additional $5 million in B-round funds from non-institutional investors, VentureWire reports this morning. The company had raised $2.5 million in two earlier closes of the B round. Those previous investors were Early Stage Partners, which is based in Cleveland and has a branch in Ann Arbor, MI, and SunBridge Partners. Among Blue Spark's partners are NTERA, a Philadelphia-based developer of printed electronic displays; Novalia, a UK-based designer of printed electronics; and Soligie, a Minneapolis-based company that manufactures and markets printed electronics.


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Individual Study Rooms 1 - 9
There are eleven Individual Study Rooms located in the library. Individual Study Room 143 and 144 are located on the first floor of the library. Individual Study Room 143 is equip with media viewing capabilities. Individual Study Rooms 1 - 9 are located on the second floor. Each room accommodates a maximum of 1 person. These rooms are available during library hours.
Sabbatical use:
- Three Individual Study Rooms may be reserved for a semester by faculty members on sabbatical and will be locked and removed from the list of available rooms. To inquire about this service, e-mail the Assistant to the Director of the Library or call 315-445-4320.


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Лучшая цена на james j raciti carrabelle and florida s forgotten coast a memoir and interpretive history
In Florida, land and water frequently change places with little warning, dissolving homes and communities along with the very concepts of boundaries themselves. While Florida's landscape of saturated swamps, shifting shorelines, coral reefs, and tiny keys initially impeded familiar strategies of early U.S. settlement, such as the establishment of fixed dwellings, sturdy fences, and cultivated fields, over the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Americans learned to inhabit Florida's liquid landscape in unconventional but no less transformative ways. In Liquid Landscape , Michele Currie Navakas analyzes the history of Florida's incorporation alongside the development of new ideas of personhood, possession, and political identity within American letters. From early American novels, travel accounts, and geography textbooks, to settlers' guides, maps, natural histories, and land surveys, early American culture turned repeatedly to Florida's shifting lands and waters, as well as to its itinerant enclaves of Native Americans, Spaniards, pirates, and runaway slaves. This preoccupation with Floridian terrain and populations, argues Navakas, reveals a deep American concern with the challenges of settling a region so exceptional in topography, geography, and demography. Navakas reads a vast archive of popular, literary, and reference texts spanning Revolution to Reconstruction, including works by William Bartram, James Fenimore Cooper, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, to uncover an alternative history of American possession, one that did not descend exclusively, or even primarily, from the more familiar legal, political, and philosophical conceptions of American land as enduring, solid, and divisible. The shifting southern edge of early America produced a new language of settlement, belonging, territory, and sovereignty, and that language would ultimately transform how people all across the rapidly changing continent imagined the making of U.S. nation and empire.


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Deep Restaurant
Eating Out in County Dublin
Deep is really a family affair, from the owners Brendan & Debbie O'Connor to the team of people involved, they have been cooking up a storm since it opened in September 2004. Located on the historic West Pier in Howth, Deep has been established long enough to have quite a few signature dishes. Deep Restaurant are renowned for their calamari and affordable seafood platters and for the non-fish fans their chicken wings are a must! So you now have more then one reason to come in out of the cool sea air.Deep Restaurant, specialising in all things fishy, serves up some of the finest dishes this side of Dublin Bay. Deep aims to serve customers fresh seasonal dishes with a stirring twist of world fusion. The Deep team have a passion to bring fresh, sustainably sourced food to their menu, keeping pace with the changing of the seasons. We keep the menu fresh and interesting, without doing too much damage to your wallet!
Our Address
12 West Pier,
Howth, County Dublin, Ireland
Contact Us


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RamQuest is unwavering in our commitment to ensure a profound customer experience and continually strive to provide solutions that not just meet, but exceed expectations. But competing in business today is tough, and we know each of our customers also needs the experience we offer to stand with them, support them and back their business. RamQuest brings our entire team of title, technology and business experts to each and every customer engagement.
Ordering is easier and convenient. I am notified via email that the search is complete and it's already in FileScan…it's perfect!!


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The Stockton Gurdwara Sahib, California, USA holds great historical significance for the Sikh community. It is the first Gurdwara sahib that was built to serve the Sikh Sangat living in the whole of United States of America (USA). The Gurdwara
Gurdwara Sahib of Fremont(USA)
The Gurdwara Sahib of Fremont (also commonly referred to as the Fremont Gurdwara or the Sikh Temple of Fremont) is a center of Sikh worship. Although it is located in Fremont, a city in southern Alameda County, it serves the
Gurdwara Sahib of San Jose(USA)
The Sikh Gurdwara or Sikh Gurdwara – San Jose (a gurdwara is the Sikh place of worship) was founded in San Jose, California, USA in 1985 by leaders of the then-rapidly growing Santa Clara Valley Sikh community. Initially the community


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I was first introduced to the Little Fat Book project approximately 2 years ago by a member of an art group that I belong to in my area (Schenectady, NY USA). She was engaging in exchanges with the pages as a member of a Yahoo group. Our art group is a casual group that gets together, once in awhile in our homes, to share techniques and friendships. We had been engaging in round robins with altered books and we decided, as much as we loved this, it was becoming very time consuming and also expensive for mailing (some of the members of my group live outside of our immediate area). We decided to become involved with working on the Little Fat Books and, for me, this was love at first sight!!
The Little Fat Books, a.k.a. , "LFB's", "4 x 4's", or "Little Chunky Books" became our choice for exchanging art. The only requirement for the project is that the pages have to measure 4" x 4", no more, no less. My only suggestion would be to have pages made out of heavier-weight cardstock. I prefer hot-pressed watercolor paper (#90) as the weight of it makes for a nice, sturdy canvas. I encourage everyone to create their art on both sides of their pages. We can bind them, as we wish, and I prefer a simple binding of punching holes to the left side and inserting the office-type steel rings; plain and simple. I like the option of laying my book down flat so I can refer to it, from time to time, and just linger over the art that has been created by my friends.>>>>>.
I have been exchanging LFB pages, now, for about 2 years and we actually have a formal mailing schedule set up. By the 28th of each month we are to mail to a host (we take turns) 4 LFB pages and then they are sorted out and exchanged. So; one can imagine, over time, how fat our little books become. They are jam-packed with art, and this whole activity becomes very interactive as we are always emailing one another asking how a background was done, or where the "perfect" embellishment came from. etc.
I currently have the privilege of working and teaching at a friend's art studio/retail store (Art Connection, Glenville, New York, USA) and have been teaching the Little Fat Book concept. The class was met with much enthusiasm and we decided to begin a Little Fat Book Club at the studio. We have 8 members, so far, and we will meet the third Tuesday of every month. We decided the club will be interactive, we will share techniques and begin exchanging pages as we go.
I highly encourage others to think about starting their own LFB clubs; it is such fun, not terribly time consuming and in the short time that I have been engaging in exchanges with the pages, I've learned so much from the group. The Little Fat Book project enables us to use those scraps of paper we don't know what to do with, it allows for use of all mediums, not to mention using those embellishments that we have stored for a future time.
I have samples of several LFB pages in my picturetrail gallery. (www.picturetrail.com/mrock2)
Artfully yours,
Marilyn J. Rock
Schenectady, New York (USA) 2006


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Catering for between 10 and 210 students our broad range of music workshops can be tailored to suit limitless scenarios. Students young and old, beginner to advanced are welcome.
From drumming workshops to regular class/year group Ukulele sessions, from songwriting workshops to targeted A-Level and GCSE course enrichment, our team of energized music workshop leaders are ready to inspire and motivate. Below is a list of just some of the music workshops we can provide:
Songwriting Masterclass
Beatles Activity Day
Voices In Harmony
Band Workshops
Classical Chamber Ensembles
Drumming Workshops
Ukelele Orchestra
Singing Workshops
Record an Ensemble
African Drumming Workshops
Technology Training
Music Industry Lectures
Assembly Talks
School Workshops
We offer Weekly, Full Day and Half Day music workshops for schools. We can also tailor our sessions to suit your educational needs.
"For any pupil interested in the record industry including any budding musicians out there, Dan Clews's Beatle workshop was the perfect ending to Year 8 study of the Beatles. Dan's expertise and enthusiasm of the subject came over to all the pupils. At the end of the workshop our pupils were able to perform their own production of a Beatles classic. A brilliant day, enjoyed by all".
J Hughes, Bursar, Windsor Park Middle School
"Dan's workshops are fantastic – the students are inspired, entertained and see true talent at work"
Luke Harrison, Head Master, Sevenoaks Prep School
In addition to the above we can also run Band Workshops and over the school holidays we also have our popular School of Rock.
We can deliver Music Workshops in London, Kent or the wider South East area. Depending on the type of workshop you require we might be able to travel further afield.


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Dec 21, 2012 2:26 AM GMT
Not sure if this has been done before. Recently I've been thinking about some of the mistakes I've made in my last relationship. Like not spending enough time with him, not being thoughtful and considerate at times etc. So what things would you do differently knowing what you know now?


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Production Support, Maintenance and Enhancements
After go-live a project is not yet done. Sure, one of the biggest hurdles has been crossed, but inevitably the new users will need some assistance in using the new product. This is where Support and Maintenance comes in.
ACG can answer all of your Support and Maintenance needs, including:
- Onsite or remote administrative support
- Onsite or remote end-user support
- Periodic database monitoring and health checks
- Onsite or remote training services
- Managed hosting services
In addition to regular support and maintenance, one needs to periodically update their systems to keep pace with changing business needs and improvements in technology innovation. In today's marketplace, both business needs and technology are evolving at the speed of thought. As a company changes the way that it does business, it will naturally want its systems to evolve along with it. To keep up with the changes, the company will either need to upgrade, or have enhancements made to their existing systems.
ACG can answer all of your system Enhancement needs, including:
- Application version upgrades
- Application customizations
- Complimentary custom modules
- Application development resources
Without proper documentation, an audit can be a nightmare. And in the post Sarbanes-Oxley world, the last thing any company needs is to complicate any audits.
Not only does ACG provide strategic business solutions for companies, but we also have experience in accompanying those developments with exhaustive, compliant documentation in a variety of industries.


text: We have been waiting oh-so-patiently for the US-Assist ever since it was announced late last summer. Just when we were about to give up hope, they showed up. Man, were they worth the wait… The US-Assist has one of the fastest actions we have seen in an assist, firing with the speed of an automatic. And, as the name implies, they are made in the USA! Click here to learn more about this knife.


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Well heres my story:
I bought SOCOM on ps2 last year on Aug 28th, and i was totaly hooked on that game, i mean REALLY ADDICTED. I played and played, but at the time the player ranking system was disabled. So i kept on playing the game, about 12 hours on the weekends, and 8 hours on weekdays (yes i had school eventualy). So finaly one day the ranking system was up. I expected my rank to be high, but to my suprise i was ranked 30th in the world! I was sooo happy that I played even more than usualy.
Eventualy the servers had lag problems, and they had o take down the ranking system since it was the cause of all the lag, Im pretty sure they look it down when i was ranked about 25th...
Well i still kept on playing and FINALY they put ranks back up, and i was ranked #20, the highest i would ever reach. But at the time there were cheaters above me, about 5 cheaters who used codebreakers to get theirranks as high as possible, so really i was ranked 14-16 but there was nothing i could do about it. And now that socom is populated with cheaters, everyday more and more of them pass me by, like 20 a day, i am now ranked 1000 something.
Yes i have been playing socom for nearly a year straight with NO BREAKS.
And incase you are wondering how they figure out your rank, you get 260 points per kill, and i had about 25 million points, so thats alot of kills wont u say?
and i got about 10-15 kills a game, which is VERY good, if you have played socom u know u cant easily pull off a frag fest of like 100 kills a game. The most kills i have ever had was 32.
Sorry i put you through reading this, but thats my most proud videogaming accomplishment i have ever done


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Hi everyone,
for a project I have set up a nice project catalog with the help of the DataObjectsAsPage-Module. Everything works beautifully with SS3. Each project can have multiple categories and multiple images attached. This is also all working great. Images and categories can be defined in separate tabs of the project admin area.
However my customer now wants to add a photographer to each image and I am struggling somewhat on how to add an extra field to the image uploadField. I figured I need a class that extends Image or DataExtension and adds a table to the database. I defined this extended class in my project page as $many_many relation. I can add images but the extra field doesn't show.
I've tried something like, trying to adapt the doc on UploadFileds:
class ExtendedImage extends DataExtension {
static $db = array(
'Photographer' => 'Varchar',
static $has_one = array(
'Image' => 'Image'
function getCustomFields() {
$fields = new FieldList();
$fields->push(new TextField('Photographer', 'Fotograf'));
return $fields;
class Project extends DataObjectAsPage
static $many_many = array(
'ExtendedImages' => 'ExtendedImage',
'Categories' => 'Category'
public function getCMSFields() {
$fields = parent::getCMSFields();
$fields->addFieldToTab("Root.Images", $uploadField->setFileEditFields('getCustomFields'););
return $fields;
But I get an internal server error. This must be fairly simple. I'm just not seeing it. All I really need is an additional Textfield in the UploadField of the image Class. I'd be very grateful for any hint on this.


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text:
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee filed a formal complaint on Tuesday to strip the Anaheim-based USA Badminton of its national governing body status.
The move comes after a year of strained and increasingly contentious relations between the USOPC and USA Badminton, and infighting between USA Badminton executives and board members.
Jeff Dyrek, USA Badminton's chief executive, resigned unexpectedly in May amid a dispute with the organization's board of directors over financial transparency. Four board members, David Simon, Yucca Rieschel, Ray Ng and Jon Schmieder, all Dyrek supporters, resigned four days later.
The USOPC first notified USA Badminton on April 15 that it would move to decertify the NGB unless it made a series of wide ranging and "significant" reforms by July 15. The mandated reforms included major changes to USA Badminton's staff and board of directors.
USA Badminton board chairman Ben Lee resigned on Oct. 26. He was replaced by Ken Wong, a businessman. Although Wong said he looked "forward to maintaining the mission of growing the sport of Badminton in the United States and elevating the play to new heights," tensions continued between the NGB and the USOPC.
"We have set high standards in order to associate with the Olympic and Paralympic movements in the United States, and we must hold organizations accountable when they don't live up to those standards," USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland said in a statement. "Seeking to revoke recognition is not a decision that the USOPC came to easily, but we believe it is the right and necessary action in the interest of the athletes we all serve."
Linda French, USA Badminton's interim CEO, did not respond to a request for comment.
Hirshland is expected to appoint in the coming weeks a three-member independent hearing panel for the case. The process could extend into early 2020.
The USOPC first raised the possibility of decertification in September 2018 after a USOPC audit revealed the NGB had failed to complete criminal background on nearly half the individuals required to undergo such screening under USOPC policies.
The USOPC's internal audit division found four areas of "high risk" in USA Badminton's Athlete Safety program including failing to conduct required criminal background checks on members, not following Safe Sport training requirements, not verifying Safe Sport course completion in a timely manner and not requiring background checks or Safe Sport training for individuals in "frequent contact with athletes" including medical personnel.
A follow up audit completed earlier this year found that USA Badminton had only "partially implemented" USOPC recommendations in three "high risk" areas related to background checks and Safe Sport training.
USA Badminton CEO resigns as dispute between USOC and NGB escalates
USOC audit finds USA Badminton at 'high risk' for failing to comply with Safe Sport requirements


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To facilitate a statewide network for veteran spouses as they build a community of support
Our History
The Veteran Spouse Network (VSN) began in January 2015 as an online and in-person forum for veteran spouses throughout Texas to become engaged in defining resources and programming for themselves and their families. Today, the VSN has grown to a network of over 800 spouses across Texas. As we move forward, we continue to grow members and partners, offering opportunities for spouses to connect, share resources and offer ongoing support and guidance within their community and throughout the state.


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Four WCF board members, including the organizers of the first four editions of the international Winter Cycling Congress, attended the world's largest gathering of cycling professionals in Nantes, France! We had a great time busting myths about winter cycling and inviting people to join us in Minneapolis to learn more. Check out our poster - "Winter Cycling Myths, Busted".
News >


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Scuba Diving Papua New Guinea Dive Sites - Papua New Guinea Diving vacation
Papua New Guinea Dive Sites ....
Papua New Guinea is a land of variety and contradiction. PNG is likes the land of the unexpected and it is undoubtedly one of the most exciting, remote and adventurous places in the world. The located in the Coral Triangle of marine biodiversity, north of Australia, is a continent with the highest diversity of tropical fish and coral in the world, about 600 islands, of which New Britain, New Ireland and Bougainville is the largest.
PNG is internationally recognized as one of the best diving sites in the world with twice as many marine species like the Red Sea and up to ten times more than in the Caribbean. It has been known as a paradise for underwater photographers "with many international photo awards into account in PNG waters.
Asia Dive Travel - Papua New Guinea Diving


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TA-Technix sport suspension - Audi A4 B8
| TA-Technix Sports suspensions for Audi A4 B8 is for you that desire to lower your car but doesn't want to use a lot of money. One of the biggest strengths with this sport suspension is the price! The shock absorber and lowering springs are tuned with each other, to achieve the best combination for your Audi A4 B8.
TA-Technix have location in germany near Berlin. They have sold coilovers here for several decades. Their products typically have TÜV part certificate, so your car can pass the ministry of transport test. This ensures that you can drive your car on public roads. We offer a 2-year guarantee on all TA-Technix lowerings springs for Audi A4 B8.
Feel free to contact us if you have questions for which TA-Technix sport suspensions that fits your Audi A4 B8. Or if you should choose between a coilover, lowering springs or sport suspensions. We are always ready to help you on the phone: +45 69 15 73 04 or e-mail firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Barack Obama's tech surge is one effort Donald Trump may not reverse2 min read . Updated: 23 Jan 2017, 08:05 PM IST
Jared Kushner, senior adviser to President Donald Trump, tells Barack Obama's team that modernizing government tech is a 'mission critical task'
San Francisco: As Silicon Valley girds for a possible roll-back of net neutrality, the H-1B visa program and other prized policies, here's a bit of potentially favourable news: The administration of US President Donald Trump seems to be ready to embrace the "Obama tech surge," the organized insertion of technologists and modern digital tools into the highest branches of the federal government.
Early this month, leaders of the US Digital Service and other tech teams under Barack Obama met with three members of the Trump transition: Reed Cordish, assistant for intragovernmental and technology initiatives; Gerrit Lansing, chief digital officer at the Republican National Committee (RNC); and Dirk Eyman, the RNC's director of network operations. The Obama techies presented their efforts and reported back that the meeting went well, according to a person briefed on the discussion. Then about two weeks ago, Todd Park, an Obama tech advisor and former US chief technology officer, received this e-mail from Trump advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner:
Todd, Thank you to the leadership of the US CIO, USDS, TTS, and OSTP for the detailed presentation of their initiatives. I have heard only great things about you and the program you have built. The continued dedication to modernizing Government Tech is a mission critical task and we look forward to working with the many talented, dedicated tech professionals in these offices.
These niceties, contained in a correspondence reviewed by Bloomberg, don't mean much if they aren't backed up by action, of course. But it does signify that the Trumpies see the former administration's technorati as fellow bureaucracy-busters and not as part of an Obama-era legacy program to be gleefully rolled back.
Yet, there's lingering anxiety around whether these programs will endure. Last week Wired's Backchannel described the Obama tech surge as a bipartisan effort that counts as "one of the great achievements of the last eight years." The goal was not only to nudge the federal government to embrace modern innovations like cloud computing but to inject tech thinking into public policy and to enlist professionals who understand disciplines like agile development, human-centered design and data-driven decision-making, Backchannel reported.
Over the last few months, the various tech departments have reported on their progress to Congress. Accomplishments include modernizing the federal government's procurement process and working on a tool called Login.gov, which aims to one day enable the public to access multiple government services with a single username and password. And of course, the tech surge eventually revived Obamacare after the debacle that was the initial roll-out of the Healthcare.gov website.
It's too early to take the early signals from the Trump folks at face value because, as Backchannel reported, we have yet to see what will result. One thing to watch will be who Trump appoints as his chief technology officer to succeed outgoing CTO Megan Smith—or whether a president with Luddite tendencies even bothers to fill the position. And of course, there's the lingering question of whether there can be any such thing as bipartisan work in the current politicized environment. Bloomberg
Click here to read the Mint ePaperMint is now on Telegram. Join Mint channel in your Telegram and stay updated with the latest business news.


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▶ Groovy and Java 8
@kenkousen talked at the Boston Groovy Grails & Spring Meetup about how Java 8 and Groovy compare.
I am a bit out of shape about changes introduced in Java 1.8. Normally I only code in Java for Android, with 1.7 source compatibility on. If you are like me and you need to get to speed about Java 1.8 this is a good talk.
You can check the Github repo as well.
Groovy, Web Services and OBIEE 12c
What a praise to the networking library groovy-wslite developed by @jwagenleitner
But closures are the real reason that projects like groovy-wslite are so perfect, and how they make DSL possible. It's a pleasure to use external projects when the implementation methods are self-describing
The post written by @stewartbryson shows how to use the library to connect to SOAP and REST services.
▶ Retrieving Runtime Config Values In Grails 3
As I always say, I hope @jeffscottbrown and the rest of OCI keep doing these Grails quick casts. They bring a lot of value and give light to Grails good practices.
You will learn why you should use GrailsConfigurationAware or @Value annotation instead of calling grailsApplication directly in your controller and service methods. That way, you will avoid retrieving the config value every time method is invoked.
Checkout the companion Blog Post.
Monitoring Grails Apps The Easy Way
In this post, @ericfosterjohns talks about how to use Spring Boot actuators to monitor your Grails apps.
Actuators provide data on your running application through JSON endpoints.
He talks about how to enable, extend and visualise them with the help of Dropwizards metric library and the Actuator UI Plugin.
Actuator-UI Plugin
In the previous link we learn about Spring Boot Actuators and how we can leverage them in Grails 3.
Learn now about UI Actuator plugin by @dhirajmahapatro for Grails. It brings life to your application's health and metrics data. Checkout this awesome 30s demo video
▶ Overview of the Ratpack Web Framework
In this free Oreilly video presentation, @danveloper talks ratpack. He covers:
- Why Ratpack supports not just Java but Groovy as a first time citizen.
- Ratpack modules instead of plugins
- Dependency injection ( Guice or Spring Boot )
- Ratpack awesome gradle integration
- Handlers ( A marriage between filters and servlets )
Specially interesting the part where he explains how Ratpack helps to tackle asynchronous.


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Go to the newsstand today. Walk over to the automotive section. There, behind some of the oldest and most beloved magazine titles on the stand, you'll find some of the worst: "rat rod" magazines (and yeah –– we use that term loosely) that are just a GOT-damn embarrassment to anyone who loves this stuff. We saw the advent of these shitty rags a few years ago and we really didn't think that the Hot Topic of car culture would've lasted more than a year or two. Three, tops. But, here we are, staring at these things on the newsstand, shaking our heads and wondering where it all went so wrong…
But it didn't used to be like this. In 1999, Hot Rod Deluxe quietly showed up on the newsstand and it represented a change in the traditional way hot rods and customs were portrayed in print. Not only was it a magazine dedicated to the first rat rods, retro scene and kustom kulture (see Part VI), but its very idea somehow got through the gates at the granddaddy automotive publishing house, Petersen. This little magazine was published by the very same house its editors railed against in the premiere issue's Editor's Letter!
The rumor was that Petersen was going to "try out" this new idea using the venerable Hot Rod moniker. It didn't seem as though many copies hit the stands at the time, but the hands they found themselves in were attached to arms that reached for the wallets in the cuffed jeans of the hotrodders who freaked out over them. In the pre-Y2K world, Hot Rod Deluxe had a similar effect to MTV in 1981: for the first time, pockets of this new car culture were being exposed to anyone who could get to the magazine rack.
In the very first issue, editors John Pecorelli and Christine Ryan laid out what was important to that southern California hotrodding set: a brief history of Moon Racing Equipment, nostalgia drag racing, dating tips for picking up retro chicks, a tech article on flamethrower installation, features on Social Distortion's Mike Ness and Boyd Coddington's renegade son Greg, Low Brow art and a cover feature on one of the best traditional car clubs still going strong: the Choppers of Burbank, among other music and art reviews. Right from the start, John and Christine made no bones about their struggle to get the publishing giant to agree to such an idea:
"What is the real issue, then? The difference between riding around in a megamoney air-conditioned trailer queen or throwing together a makeshift speedster in your driveway with spare change. The issue is also paying attention to all the other things that go along with hot rodding: the music, the artwork, the clothes, even how to pick up the lassy chicks. You know, the kulture in kustom kulture."
They go on… "In fact, this magazine is so far off the beaten path at Petersen HQ (aka the Deathstar) that it took a Godziller-sized pile of persistence to get this thing off the ground at all. And we'd like to say a prayer of thanks to all the tiki gods that the publishing powers that be finally listened –– and let us bend the Petersen Automotive Group rule book beyond recognition!"
By the time the second –– and last –– issue of Hot Rod Deluxe was published the following year, John and Christine were gone. Petersen Publishing had become an entity called emap usa. But there was significantly more content in this one and it was easy to see how many early rat rods were being built. Almost all were well-done, historically influenced cars that looked more like the machines in the vintage photos of dry lakes racing and mid-century hot rod snapshots than the cars showcased in magazines like Hot Rod and Rod & Custom that shared shelf space with the issue. This one featured the Road Rockets cc, the Blessing Of The Cars show (as well as the Shifters cc-sponored Anti Blessing) and other southern California events, but it also featured some Nor-Cal greatness like the Road Zombies cc, the Billetproof car show, Nor-Cal Rat Fink Reunion and even went so far as the East Coast and Yankee Dave Walter's Deuce roadster in Hummelstown, PA.
But that was it. For reasons that will probably be argued for years to come, Hot Rod Deluxe would only put out those two issues. In some ways, it was OK, though: the magazine had proven there was a need to be fulfilled and would be the impetus for the launch a few different brands in magazine and book publishing, video production, fashion lines, car shows, nostalgia choppers, speed parts, etc. It was a new world with an old soul and a fresh viewpoint and a healthy skepticism of the old guard. Things would never be the same and that was a good thing. The roots of the Rat Rod movement can be found in the pages of the original Hot Rod Deluxe.