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The Week in Mac Accessories: Bags and bytes
In our latest roundup of new Mac gear, we've got all kinds of ways to carry your MacBook, plus mega-storage, colorful mice, standing desks, and more.
Bags and bytes
In our latest roundup of new Mac gear, we've got all kinds of ways to carry your MacBook, plus mega-storage, colorful mice, standing desks, and more.
The $295 Cobra brief is a mid-sized laptop bag — it'll fit a 15-inch MacBook Pro — with an extra pocket for your iPad, phone, or other small items. The laptop compartment is padded, the pockets are trimmed with leather, and the entire bag is outfitted with a waterproof nylon exterior, ensuring that your valuable electronics are safe from the elements.
The $200 Sound Blaster E5 is a high-resolution portable headphone amplifier and digital-analogue converter designed to play your music in high fidelity. It includes dual audio outputs so you can share music with your favorite audiophile.
We've been getting into this whole "standing desk" thing lately, so we're intrigued by the Lift, which sits on your desktop and can easily transition between collapsed mode, for when you want to sit, and standing mode. The lift holds your Mac, of course, but it is also customizable with "display docks for your phone and tablet, a dry erase board great for note taking, a recessed cup holder to protect all of your devices, and a super thick mousepad that sits flush for comfort." The first round of Lifts, funded through Kickstarter, is shipping in October.
The $1,599 8big Rack Thunderbolt 2 comes in capacities of 12, 24, and 48 TB. It has two Thunderbolt ports with transfer rates of 20 GB/s. It can be daisy-chained with up to six other Thunderbolt-capable devices, and it comes in both four- and eight-disk configurations.
The $120 Urbana briefcase "boasts a spacious interior large enough to fit up to a 15" laptop plus an iPad with room to spare for books, folders, and other documents," says the company. It's made of lightweight, waterproof materials for comfortable, lightweight, safe MacBook toting. It comes in Cerulean Blue, Forest Green and Mineral Gray.
We'll let the sellers describe the ThunderBay 4 RAID5 edition: "RAID 5 merges the four drives inside ThunderBay together for exponential performance gains over a single drive, the combined capacity of three of the drives, and data redundancy that allows the array to still work even if one drive were to fail." The dual-Thunderbolt-port device starts at $870 for a 4 TB configuration.
Pad & Quill
The $110 Valet Luxury Sleeve for MacBook, available in brown or black, is built for MacBooks and is made of full-grain leather "as reslilient as a Texas Longhorn," says the vendor. It provides enough room for you laptop computer, of course, but it also features an extra pocket for your iPad, power cables, or similar-size gear. The sleeve ships in late September, but you can pre-order now. Also new from Pad & Quill is the $420 Attache Leather Bag.
Rain Design
The $70 iLevel 2 is an aluminum MacBook stand for your desktop, holding your laptop up and away from the desk for better ergonomics and to help whisk the warm air away for better cooling.
The $25 Spectrum Wired Optical Mouse accessorizes your workspace as much as it does your Mac: It cycles through seven bright LED colors to add a bit of jazz to your computing life. Need some visual peace? The LED can also be turned off, or you can lock into a single color that best expresses your style.
WaterField Designs
The $129 VertiGo 2.0 Laptop Bag is oriented vertically, and comes in three sizes to best fit your particular laptop. The bag comes in black or chocolate leather, has a front pocket with a magnet closure, and sports a zippered pocket inside. It's made to order, but shipped within five days.
Today's Best Tech Deals
Picked by Macworld's Editors


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How Can I Keep From Being Swept Away By Competing Philosophies At School?
The following is an edited transcript of the audio.
I feel like I'm going to get swept away by the many competing philosophies in grad school. How do I see past them all?
Good question. Well, we're all in danger of being swept away by competing philosophies and competing viewpoints in our day. And I think the solution for the grad student is not unlike the solution for everybody else.
1) Stay in a good, worshiping, Christ-exalting, God-centered, Bible-believing church. Worship every Sunday.
I spent three years in graduate school in Germany in a very heady and, I would say, non-evangelical, often marginally believing academic atmosphere. Life to me was Friday night Bible study with real ordinary people who were wrestling with real ordinary problems and sin. And I had to live there and deal with that. They were my friends.
And then worshiping Sunday morning under the preaching of God's word at the Baptist church in Munich, Germany. That was life. That was real. That was powerful. There were things going on there.
It's when you drift away from the people of God and begin to drift away from the word of God that you become more vulnerable to things that are not true. And you can't see the folly of them anymore because you are drifting away from the context in which God means to keep you safe.
2) Be in the word everyday yourself, and plead with the Lord to help you see. Because that's what the psalmist did: "Open my eyes that I may see." This question asks, "How do you see past them?" By seeing into the word of God. "Open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things out of your law."
3) Make sure you're growing—that you don't plateau at your eighth-grade Sunday-school-level understanding of the Bible—and you're dealing with graduate level challenges to the Christian faith. Keep the one growing with the other. Read substantial Christian books. Know theology.
And today, amazingly, we have a wealth of such books so that nobody has to stay at a lower level if they don't want to be.

subset: commoncrawl


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Komodo National Park is home to the world's largest lizard, the famed Komodo Dragon. Getting there is an adventure in itself but you'll be rewarded with beautiful scenery and the chance to walk among these giant reptiles.
Labuan Bajo
For most, the journey will begin with a flight or boat ride to Labuan Bajo. Labuan Bajo is a small, hard-scrabble fishing village located at the western end of Flores in the Nusa Tenggara region of east Indonesia. Tourism is relatively new to the area. Choices for accommodation are more limited that developed areas so plan ahead with a reservation if you don't want to chance it. Some opt for cruises and stay on boats as an alternative. The town has some restaurants and a few bars but its main street is mostly lined with tour agencies offering multi-day cruises, dive excursions and day trips. The pricing was all over the map but itineraries and schedules were fairly uniform. Boats vary between fast motorboat which can get you to several places in a day and more traditional fishing boats that are much slower and have shorter range. In any event, the tour offices are largely middle-men that simply sell a ticket to a waiting boat but provided little flexibility unless you wanted a private tour. Prices for private, small or larger group tours and fast compared to slow boat ran from about $25 to $300 per person. The low end of pricing would be a slow boat, large group ($25 or around 400,000 Indonesia Rupiah per person to fast private which topped out at around $175 or 2,500,000 Indonesia Rupiah per person). The whole idea of bargaining with a middle-man with limited access to information about the boat and the tour (they change itineraries based upon group preferences apparently was a huge turn off to me. Not a tour guy. The idea of being herded to a bunch of sites one after the other with little time to enjoy them isn't my thing. I went a different route and simply headed to the waterfront in order to hire my own boat. Took me less than 5 minutes to find a slow boat that would take me everywhere I wanted to go for the next three days for a total of 2,000,000 which was three days of touring at less than $150 for two people. Typical american that I am, I supplemented that generously with tips. The boat was comfortable and the captain was amazingly cool bringing food and snacks every day (he was a junk food aficionado like me!) which made the long boat rides really enjoyable!
Getting there is half the fun!
Seriously. I was suspicious. The boat ride from Labuan Bajo to Komodo National Park is about 2 to 3 hours. I've been on long boat rides and usually lose interest about an hour in. The trip to the national park by boat is one of the most visually stunning trips imaginable. Green islands with sandy beaches and clear turquoise water are the backdrop to vistas that seem to go on forever. The national park is actually made up of several islands but the three big ones, Komodo, Rinca and Padar are where the dragons live and the biggest draw for visitors. With that said the boat ride might end up being the main event for some since you can simply stop at one of hundreds of deserted beaches along the way to relax, snorkel or enjoy a swim.
First stop Rinca Island
Rinca is the clsest of the islands with several trails where you can explore the park's wildlife including the dragons. We stopped here for the medium trek but ended up doing the long one. The ticket for two including all taxes and guide was around $20 or 300,000 Indonesian Rupiah. You cannot visit the island without a guide. Both Komodo and Rinca have this stipulation. Padar allows you to visit without a guide. Which is sort of scary but that's a whole different blog post! The guides are knowledgeable and pleasant. They all carry a dragon stick to ward off any curious ones who might get too close. They also provide some good information about dragon behavior and their environment while having amazing instincts for finding the dragons that might be hiding in the brush. When we visited we saw about 10 dragons on our two hour walk as well as deer, buffalo, monkeys and wild pigs. I doubt we would have "seen" half of what we saw if we were on our own.
The first introduction to the island is a visitor center where several large dragons congregate. From the start you get the feeling that it is clearly their island and people are just visiting. despite the fact that there are a few towns there. The dragons look slow and sluggish but if you get to close (learned that the hard way!) they can move amazingly fast despite their bulk and demeanor. One great lesson I learned from that experiences is how clever the dragons are. I was going in for a shot of a dragon's claw. The dragon seemed relaxed or asleep with eyes closed and claw turned up before leaping towards me. The guide informed me that that's how they hunt. By tricking prey into thinking they aren't paying attention. From the entrance you have a choice of three treks, short, medium and long. We sort of just played it by ear. The guide suggested we start with the short or medium and if we liked the experience could just take the long path at the right time. Needless to say we opted for the long one which took us close to three hours. The short and medium ones can be done in a half hour or hour respectively. Bring water. The place is hot. And while the bulk of the walk is heavily forested and shady there are some parts that are unprotected with strong sun.
While they weren't visible at every moment, we observed enough of them to the point that they felt omnipresent. Depending upon when you visit you can see a lot of newborns hiding in the trees. We saw mostly juveniles (1-3 years old) as well as a few larger, older ones. They are fairly solitary from birth and cannibalistic so you tend to see them singly but will join together to take down large prey like deer or buffalo. Komodo's hunt by stealth. They wait patiently for prey to come their way and pounce. So be careful about entering the jungle or going off the path if you do visit.While bites and attacks of humans are rare they do happen. Usually due to poor decision-making on the human's part and not the result of dragons acting aggressively, For the most part they seemed pretty non-aggressiveand more interested in hiding and waiting for their next meal than anything else. At one point we came to a tree with a series of skeletons that had been hung up after they were picked clean and left by dragons.
Seeing the rest of the park
We opted to see the park in three days on three separate boat rides. That allowed us a day to explore Rinca, another to see Komodo and one day to trek Padar. The tours don't allow that flexibility. Private cruises do which might be ideal since we were constnatly boating back and forth between Labuan Bajo. Considering how beatiful that boat ride was, I'm not sure it was a huge sacrifice to do it that way. If time is an issue it might make sure sense to do a fast boat group tour. Really depends upon your budget and preferences.
In retrospect the evenings back in Labuan Bajo ended up being a bit of a pleasant highlight as we discovered restaurants and places to see the epic sunsets that unfold in Labuan Bajo's bay.


text: Natalie Portman and Keira Knightley looked so much alike that even their own mother's were unable to tell them apart How Do You Think, Is This factE True or False? True False Hit True or False and SHARE Your Answer With Friends! FB 0 Tumblr 1 Pin 3 Google+ 0 Twitter 0 Reddit 0 Similar factE Cards Leave a Comment (0)


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All our cats put up for adoption are sterilized, vaccinated, dewormed and micro-chipped; they are also covered by a 15-day health warranty.
To obtain more information on our cats available for adoption, please call at 819-821-4727, extension 107.
Adopting at the Eastern Townships SPA is a responsible choice and at attractive fees!
Please note that this page is updated each day from Monday to Friday.
Updated : 24 October 2020


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That top secret Laverne Cox and Beyoncé collaboration? It's finally here
There were a lot of wild guesses when activist and actress Laverne Cox revealed she would be collaborating on a project with Beyoncé.
Some thought it was a special Queen Bey appearance on Orange Is The New Black, others guessed it might have something to do with music. For those who had an inkling that it would involve Beyoncé's athleisure brand Ivy Park, we've got good news.
On Wednesday morning, Cox was revealed to be one of the stars of the latest AW17 Ivy Park line, alongside 60 year-old choreographer Karen McDonald, Souffrant Ralph, and Grace Bol.
Laverne Cox | IVY PARK 🌹🍒 pic.twitter.com/Ar7Q0L67J7
— Zé (@FATHERBONNET) September 6, 2017
"Thank you Beyoncé for this incredible honor," Cox wrote on Twitter. "There are not words that can describe how honored I am to be a part of this campaign. You are life itself. #IvyPark is LIFE. I hope to one day live up to the incredible standard you set in all that you do."
Thank you @Beyonce for this incredible honor. There are not words that can describe how honored I am to be a part of this campaign. You are
— Laverne Cox (@Lavernecox) September 6, 2017
"It's about being free. Listening and moving without any judgement or limitation," reads the caption for Cox's debut on the Ivy Park brand pages.
The full video teaser of the line can be seen on ivypark.com or below.


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- ARPDAUPosted 8 years ago
- What's an impressive conversion rate? And other stats updatesPosted 8 years ago
- Your quick guide to metricsPosted 8 years ago
Three techniques for turning narrative-based games free-to-play
Freemium creativity has only just started. It's not yet time to put down barriers and exclude any game genre from the freemium model. Just because Freemium games have been resource management based that doesn't mean we can't...
- Posted 8 years ago
[Gamesbriefers] Can narrative-led games be free-to-play?
If free-to-play becomes the dominant business model for platforms that encourage longer play times and less 'snacking' (such as consoles or PC), how can rich, 8+ hour single-player narrative games (such as Half-Life 2, Tomb Raider or...
- Posted 8 years ago
How to tell an entire adventure – and get a laugh – in under one minute
The games industry still needs to learn how to deliver compelling narrative. While this example, from the advertising industry, is not exactly sophisticated, it made me laugh. But my question for you: is the games industry more...
- Posted 11 years ago


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Prague city council looks at construction of social housing
Prague City Hall is planning to build hundreds of council houses within the next few years, the daily Hospodářské noviny wrote on Thursday. The first apartments are set to be built at the Černý Most housing estate within the next two years. According to the daily, City Hall plans to select more locations in the city where hundreds of council apartments could be built in the near future.
"Our first project has been prepared for the Černý Most housing estate and others could be designed within the horizon of two to three years," Petra Kolínská, the Deputy Mayor for urban planning, told Hospodářské noviny.
"The city is currently selecting locations where new apartments could be built in the future. We are also working on the concept of a housing policy which is based on the city's strategic plan," she said.
According to city councillor Radek Lacko, the construction works at Černý Most will get underway next year. The city plans to build 180 apartments with different dispositions, including flats for people with disabilities. Some of the apartments will be reserved for people working in care and emergency professions, such as doctors and firemen, and part will be rented for market rents.
The City Hall originally planned to build 250 smaller apartments, but changed its strategy due to the lack of larger flats suitable for families with children.
According to preliminary estimates, the project of council housing should cost around 500 million crowns. The construction will be financed from the State Fund for Housing Development, where the city currently has around three billion crowns it can call on.
According to the daily Hospodářské noviny, the 12 locations where new council houses could be built in the future include the districts Libeň, Vinohrady, and Troja.
It is not yet clear whether the city will cooperate with private investors, Hospodářské noviny wrote. The first cooperation of such a kind took place at the beginning of this year, when Skansa reality sold the city two flats from their new housing development for a symbolic price of 10,000 crowns each.


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One section of the building is currently under construction. This area will be designated to become an exhibition space, where visitors can get acquainted with the ancient fables and stories of the Turul bird through an interactive exhibit.
We will be able to provide more information on the exhibition after completion of the exhibition hall.


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EGSA has selected Milwaukee to be host city for the 2012 Fall Technical & Marketing Conference because it is located in "Generator Country."
Join us at the Hyatt Regency Milwaukee September 9-11, 2012 as we generate great ideas, develop our action plans for the 2013 calendar year and continue to shape the Industry. If you are planning to attend, there's no better time to register for the conference than right now!
Visit the Fall Conference Web Portal at www.egsa.org/fall for more information including speaker line-up, schedule of events, networking opportunities, hotel information and online registration.
Save up to $110 per person when you register by August 3rd, 2012!
Don't pass up the opportunity to make a difference in the future of On-Site Power! Join us as we concoct the perfect recipe for "Brewing a Better Business" (with a tip of the hat to our host city). Milwaukee and EGSA stand ready to host you!


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Charles Rabin
Miami Herald
March 4, 2014
Four days after a man died while in the custody of Hialeah police, the department has yet to disclose any information other than the man's name.
The dead man's mother, however, identified him as Treon "Tree" Johnson, 27, a featured fighter in local filmmaker Billy Corben's upcoming movie about bare-knuckle backyard brawls in Perrine.
Angela Curry said a Hialeah police detective said her son died Thursday afternoon after they found him on a rooftop throwing coconuts at a dog that had bitten him.
The Emergency Election Sale is now live! Get 30% to 60% off our most popular products today!


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I was painting this lady as I listened to an audio book about women in China. The descriptions of their brightly colored clothes stuck with me as I came to this dress. As the story developed there were many good-byes and that stuck with me too. As this woman leaves the farm she waves as the wind carries her away.
copyright 2011 Beth Crews Rommel
acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas 16″x 20″


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I have some linked maps, where I want to filter by due date, across the linked maps. I want the results to be shown on the one screen. Is that possible?
Yes you can, provided you have a later version of MM2017, or MM2018 or - in theory - MM2019 (more on that later).
You can create a dashboard map which rolls up all the maps you need, linked or otherwise. When you do so it's usually easiest to select the central topic of each of the maps - unless all the tasks are contained in one or two specific branches, in which case you could select just the parent topic(s) for those branches. Then in the dashboard map, click on the Map Roll-up icon for the linked topic and select Show Topic and Branch.
When you have finished adding all the maps you want to include, save the dashboard map and apply a filter for the dates you want - only the relevant tasks (and their parent topics) should appear. Don't forget that if you change the due dates of any tasks in any of the rolled-up maps you will need to close and reapply the filter. This also applies if you add new tasks to these maps, and you should also do this whenever you reopen the dashboard map.
In relation to MM2019 I'm experiencing a bug which causes MindManager to freeze whenever I try to apply a filter based on task due date, whether it's a dashboard or ordinary map. I'll report this separately to Mindjet/Corel; hopefully it is an isolated problem.
Update: Mindjet have responded to my support request indicating that the due date filter problem I'm experiencing is indeed a bug which will be fixed in MM 19.1.
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MindManager v. 2017 for Windows
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Power Core
From Sonic Retro
Power Cores[1] (パワーコア)[2] are power-up items that can be found only in Sonic Heroes.
There are three different colours of Power Core: blue, yellow, and red. The Blue Power Core levels up the Speed character, the Yellow Power Core levels up the Fly character, and the Red Power Core levels up the Power character. It take three Power Cores to level up a character fully.
Power Cores can be found in various ways. One is to find them in an Item Box or balloon. Random Power Cores that are not of the leader's type are also rewarded after every 5 enemies destroyed. Enemies like the Egg Hammer, the Heavy Egg Hammer, and the E-2000R will give one random Power Core not of the leader's type for each one that is defeated. The last way to obtain them is via the checkpoints. Depending on which character is the leader, the appropriate Power Core will be given to that leader.
Power Cores also change the attacks of the characters, making them stronger. A fully leveled-up Speed character will be able to create tornadoes with Homing Attacks instead of having to use their Tornado Jump. A Fly character cannot destroy enemies with Thunder Shoot until they are at least to their second level. Upon the third level, they can grab Rings with Thunder Shoot. Power characters will get a more powerful Circular Attack with each level increase.
The Power Cores abilities are not permanent and will reset with each new level that's played. Also, if a life is lost during a level, the player will lose all of their level-ups and will have to collect the Power Cores all over again.
|Sonic Heroes
Main page
Action Race:
Ring Race:
Quick Race:
Bobsled Race:
Expert Race:
PlayStation 2:
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Prima's Official Strategy Guide
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Complete Trinity Original Soundtrax
|Items in the Sonic the Hedgehog Game Series
|Ring | Special Ring | Red Star Ring | Silver Moon Ring | Emblem | Chaos Drives | Special Stage Key | Material
|Shield (Water, Lightning, Fire, Gold) | Invincibility | Power Sneakers | Rocket Shoes | Propeller Shoes | Eggman Mark | Combine Ring | Forcejewel | Power Core | Light Cores | Special Combination
|Level Objects
|Monitor | Spring | Spikes | Checkpoint | Time Warp Plate | Signpost | Goal Ring | Giant Ring | Capsule | Button | Bumper | Speed Booster | Air bubbles | Chao container | Item Panel
|Powerful Items
|Chaos Emeralds | Super Emeralds | Master Emerald | Time Stones | Chaos Rings | Precioustone | Sol Emeralds | Jeweled Scepter | World Rings | Excalibur | Phantom Ruby
|Piko Piko Hammer | Chaos Energy Cannon | Caliburn | Wispon
|Remote Robot | Combi Confiner | Mother Computer | Nega's Camera | Arks of the Cosmos | Miles Electric
|Chili Dog | Speed Down Boots | Scepter of Darkness | Cacophonic Conch


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Maguire, Pearce & Storey, PLLC, is a law firm based in Phoenix, Arizona. We provide legal and consulting services related to all aspects of real estate development and land use management including the entitlement, use, management, and conservation of water, with particular emphasis on:
- water rights and management
- environmental permitting and regulation
- administrative and public utilities law
- development of master-planned communities, mixed-use, commercial and industrial projects, and urban redevelopment
- public/private real estate transactions
- infrastructure finance and development agreements
Our clients include international corporations with water and land use interests, national real estate developers and investors, public and private water providers, irrigation districts, and conservation organizations.
We are recognized for our unique legal and administrative experience in the private and public sectors and specialized expertise. We consistently meet or exceed client needs and expectations for service, quality of work, and, most importantly, the addition of value. We have invested in human resources and technology to facilitate our handling of complex transactions.
What's New
- Rita Maguire will be a panelist at University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center's annual conference titled, Water at the Crossroads: The Next 40 Years, on March 27, 2020.
- Mike Pearce will co-chair CLE International's 22nd Annual Law of the Colorado River Conference titled, Implications of the Drought Contingency Plan, to be held March 12-13, 2020 at the Hilton in Scottsdale, Arizona.
- Mike Pearce spoke at CLE International's 27th Annual SuperConference Live! on Arizona Water Law, titled Perspectives on the Drought Contingency Plan & Much More!, to be held August 1-2, 2019 at the Hilton Scottsdale Resort & Villas.
- Mike Pearce co-chaired CLE International's 21st Annual Law of the Colorado River Conference titled, Innovation & Collaboration in an Era of Drought, to be held March 21-22, 2019 at the Hilton El Conquistador in Tucson, Arizona.
- Mike Pearce provided an Overview of the Law of the Colorado River at CLE International's Arizona Water Law Conference titled, Reforms, Initiatives & In-Depth Legal Analysis, to be held August 2-3, 2018 at the Hilton in Scottsdale, Arizona.
- Mike Pearce co-chaired CLE International's 5th Anniversary Colorado River Conference, All Points of View on Law & Policy in Arizona, on October 10, 2017 at Hilton Scottsdale Resort & Villas. Rita Maguire participated in a panel discussion on, "It is 2045 – What Does the Colorado River Look Like Today?"
- Rita Maguire was a panelist at Stanford University's Rural West Conference in Santa Fe, NM on March 23-25, 2017.
- Rita Maguire moderated a discussion on Conjunctive Management: Policy Options for Resolving Tensions between Conjunctive Management of Tribal Water and States with Separate Ground and Surface Water Regimes at Law Seminars International's Fourth Annual Comprehensive Conference on Tribal Water in Arizona being held on February 9 & 10, 2017 at the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort.
- Rita Maguire wrote an op-ed article titled, "Bottled-water production is efficient use of resource," that was published in the Arizona Republic on June 1, 2016. Read it here.
- Rita Maguire has been awarded the Michael J. Brophy Distinguished Service Award by the Environmental and Natural Resource Law Section (ENRLS) of the Arizona State Bar. The Michael J. Brophy award is awarded to a lawyer who exemplifies the qualities of commitment of service to the environmental and natural resources law profession and the community.
Professional Awards & Recognition
- In the 2020 Edition of U.S. News – Best Lawyers "Best Law Firms," Maguire, Pearce & Storey, PLLC has been ranked Tier Three nationally in the category of Natural Resources Law, and Tier One for Metropolitan Phoenix in the categories of Environmental, Natural Resources, Real Estate and Water law.
- Rita Maguire has been selected by her peers for inclusion in the 25th edition of The Best Lawyers in America© for Environmental Law in 2019.
- Mike Pearce has been selected by his peers for inclusion in the 25th edition of The Best Lawyers in America© for Environmental Law, Natural Resources Law, and Water Law in 2019.
- Lesa Storey has been selected by her peers for inclusion in the 25th edition of The Best Lawyers in America© for Real Estate Law in 2019.
- Maguire, Pearce & Storey, PLLC has received rankings in the 2019 edition of U.S. News – Best Lawyers "Best Law Firms" in the categories of Environmental Law, Natural Resources Law, Real Estate Law, and Water Law.
- Rita Maguire, Mike Pearce, and Lesa Storey are recognized as 2015 leaders in their fields by Chambers USA.
- Congratulations to Rita Maguire, Mike Pearce, and Lesa Storey on being selected as 2015 Southwest Super Lawyers. No more than five percent of the attorneys in Arizona and New Mexico are named to the list.
- Rita Maguire, Mike Pearce, and Lesa Storey have received AV-Preeminent Lawyer ratings by Martindale-Hubbell.


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KKG has been providing top quality legal representation for Atlanta corporations and families since 1985. In the years since the firm was founded, a select number of talented attorneys have been recruited to join the practice. On average our attorneys have 20 years' experience in their practice areas. Our business expertise assures clients of knowledgeable, realistic and effective legal advice that takes their specific corporate priorities into account.
The firm is rated "AV" (the highest rating available) in the Martindale-Hubbell catalog of law firms.


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Returns Policy
- Email us at firstname.lastname@example.com for a returns form.
- Please ensure you include this form with your return.
- Your return must be in its original condition, with tags, unworn, unwashed, unperfumed and free from makeup or fake tan.
- Please ensure you have read out returns policies and your return satisfies the conditions outlined below.
Please note:
- Original postage is not refunded.
- Postage must be covered to send the returned item back to us by the customer.
- All sale items are non-refundable and can not be exchanged.
- Processing times of 3-4 business days depending on availability of stock.
In compliance with Australian Consumer Law, Finding Harmony Designs is not required to provide a refund or exchange if you make a wrong selection, need a different size or change your mind. This includes payments made with AfterPay.
We are, however happy to exchange a size within 7 days of you receiving your order. We will inspect the item before we issue an exchange. The product must be returned in the original condition of unworn, unwashed, unperfumed, with tags and free from makeup or fake tan stains. The return/exchange postage will be covered at your expense.
If there is a fault with the product you've purchased, we will offer to repair or replace it where the stock is available. If we cannot repair or replace the product, we will offer a store credit or refund. All claims for faulty styles are inspected before a refund/exchange or credit is given and the outcome of a refund/exchange or credit is at Finding Harmony Designs discretion. The original shipping costs are non-refundable, however, new items will be sent out free of charge for faulty products.
We do not offer returns/ refunds or exchanges on sale items.
Returns remain subject to Finding Harmony Designs returns policy.
If you wish to return your product/s, send them back to us as you would for a normal return order.
When we receive the product/s and accept your return application, we will issue a credit note for the total value of the product/s returned.
Your agreement with AfterPay will still stand and you will continue to pay any scheduled repayments.
For more information on terms and conditions, visit Afterpay's website HERE. For FAQ's relating to Afterpay, please click HERE.
We will endeavor to process your return/ exchange outcome within 3-4 Business days.
Please email admin@findingharmony designs with your inquiry.


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Monthly Archives: January 2014
Rosalinda Paguergan
Title: Registered Nurse Company: Sierra Vista Hospital Location: Sacramento , CA SACRAMENTO, CA, January 2, 2014, Rosalinda Z. Paguergan, Registered Nurse at Sierra Vista Hospital, has been recognized be Elite American Nurses for dedication, achievements and leadership in psychiatric nursing.
Peggy Hawk
Title: Registered Nurse, Case Manager Company: Healthcare Innovations Private Services Location: Oklahoma City, OK Peggy Hawk is a registered nurse and case manager at Healthcare Innovations Private Services, a health insurance company that provides customers with a wide range of health insurance services. … Continue reading
Betty St. Clair
Title: Administrator Company: Creek's End Personal Care Home Location: Summerville, GA SUMMERVILLE, GA, November 14, 2013, Betty St. Clair, RN, Administrator for Creek's End Personal Care Home, has been recognized by Elite American Nurses for dedication, achievements and leadership in hospice services.
Deborah Groda
Title: Registered Nurse Company: Compass Oncology NW Cancer Specialists Location: Portland, OR, United States Deborah Groda is a registered nurse for the chemotherapy department at Compass Oncology NW Cancer Specialists, a multispecialty medical practice that offers various forms of cancer treatment to patients. … Continue reading
Olga Dulce
Title: Registered Nurse Company: Elmhurst Hospital Center Location: Elmhurst , NY, United States ELMHURST, NY, October 31, 2013, Olga E. Dulce Ospina, Registered Nurse at Elmhurst Hospital Center, has been recognized by Elite American Nurses for dedication, achievements and leadership in nursing services.
Cheri Dodson Reece, RN, MSN
Title: Nursing Faculty Company: Darton College Location: Albany, GA, United States ALBANY, GA, September 13, 2013, Cheri Dodson Reece, RN, MSN, Nursing Faculty Member at Darton College, has been recognized by Elite American Nurses for dedication, achievements, and leadership in industrial nursing education.
Samara M. Gabree, ANP-C, AAHIVS
Title: Nurse Practitioner, HIV/ HCV Specialist Company: Whitney Young Health Services Location: Schenectady, NY, United States SCHENECTADY, NY, September 12, 2013, Samara M. Gabree, ANP-C, AAHIVS, Nurse Practitioner and HIV Specialist, has been recognized by Elite American Nurses for dedication, achievements, and leadership … Continue reading
Debbie Elliott, MSN, CPNP
Title: Regional Public Health Preparedness Coordinator Company: Hocking County Health Department Location: Logan, OH, United States LOGAN, OH, September 12, 2013, Debbie Elliott, MSN, CPNP, Regional Public Health Preparedness Coordinator for the Hocking County Health Department, has been recognized by Elite American Nurses … Continue reading
Cynthia Truesdell, RN
Title: Night Supervisor (Retired) Company: Countryside Care Center Location: Delhi, NY, United States Cynthia Truesdell, RN is a former Night Supervisor for the Countryside Care Center, a health care center offering services to individuals throughout Delaware County. Specializing in nursing home room supervision … Continue reading
Katherine A. Wargo, RN, BS, CLNC
Title: Chief Executive Officer, Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, Registered Nurse Company: Wargo & Associates LLC Location: Madison, CT, United States Katherine A. Wargo, RN, BS, CLNC is a Chief Executive Officer, Certified Legal Nurse Consultant and Registered Nurse serving Wargo & Associates, LLC, … Continue reading


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Harvard has made headlines this week with the revelation that over 125 of its students are under investigation for allegedly collaborating on a take-home final in a civics class. Let's look at some other notable cases involving plagiarism.
c. 100 A.D.: Citing similarities between the two main characters, including sinlessness and virgin birth, authors of the Bhagavad Gita claim that popular best-seller the New Testament had stolen key plot elements from their work. Claim was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.
1776: Thomas Jefferson lifts portions of John Locke's Two Treatises of Government for the Declaration of Independence. As Jefferson is the only man alive who knows who John Locke is, he gets away with it.
1912: Author Morgan Robertson accuses the White Star Line and the crew of the R.M.S. Titanic of copying the plot from his 1898 novel Futility.
1931: Charles Smirth, a Los Angeles heroin addict, accuses Salvador Dali of stealing his nightmares and selling them as paintings.
1989: Milli Vanilli
1992: Dr. Dre releases the hit single "Bitches Ain't Shit", which critics allege is thematically identical to the beloved Shakespeare sonnet On the Fairer Sex and Why They Are Naught Save for Harlots and Liars.
1994: Oasis steals the entire Beatles catalogue and calls it "Britpop".
1998: Dane Cook steals material from rival comedians; goes unnoticed for years as he also makes the jokes unfunny.


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International funding opportunities
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) run a number of schemes to support activities that foster international collaboration through initiating or further developing long term relationships between researchers in the UK and another country. These include establishing partnership links between research institutions, building on existing links between research groups and extending networks, and encouraging researchers from overseas to undertake research in the UK as well as UK researchers to spend time abroad.
There are a number of opportunities depending on the type of collaboration being undertaken:
- Stage 1 - First links: funds to cover the travel and subsistence for short term visits usually from the UK to another country.
- Stage 2 - A broader relationship: where there is already a more established relationship, researchers may wish to apply for funds to extend this relationship in the country of choice.
- Stage 3 - Pilot studies: where relationships are more mature it may be the case that researchers need financial support to carry out pilot research.
- Stage 4 - Sustainable interactions: dedicated schemes to support transnational collaboration or where the funding for international collaboration is embedded in the activities of programmes, often within the UK contribution to specific multilateral organisations.
A number of schemes in these sections are also relevant to Early Career Researchers.


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General plugins (Local): Moodle welcome
Maintained by Bas Brands
Sends a welcome message to new users, sends a notification to a moderator of the new user creation
1018 sites
328 downloads
95 fans
Moodle 2.1, 2.2, 2.3
This plugin sends one email message to users that are new in Moodle and one email to a moderator.
This will work to all standard moodle authentication systems:
- manually created users
- users that signed up
- users authentication through LDAP
- all other standard authentication systems
Configuration can be done using:
Site administration->Plugins->Local plugins->Moodle welcome
Configurable fields are:
enable / disable welcome messages to users
enable / disable welcome messages to moderators
message send to user
message send to moderator
message subject for user
message subject for moderator
send from firstname
send from lastname
send from email address
moderator email address
Download and install in your /local folder in moodle's wwwroot
Run Moodle notifications,
Configure your email messages / moderators etc
Useful links
Please login to view contributors details and/or to contact them
Show comments
- Wed, Jul 4, 2018, 7:27 AMHi Bas, thanks for your plugin. Do you plan to upgrade to Moodle 3.5?
- Wed, Jul 4, 2018, 4:36 PMHi Verónica, I have not made any plans to upgrade yet. Maybe if I have time later this month but I can't make any promises.
- Thu, Jul 5, 2018, 4:32 AMthank you very much for your answer Bas and for keeping it in mind!!!
- Sat, Dec 29, 2018, 7:39 PMHello Is there a way to include a link to the profile of a new user in the email send to the moderator ? (message_moderator)
- Thu, Jan 17, 2019, 9:22 PMCan someone help me! This doesnt work for me.
Enable user messages is ticked
Auth plugins: manual and email ticked
user subject and message not change
i have inputed a sender email and moderator email, a welcome message sender firstname and moderator last name
i have saved the settings.
i then created some accounts for testing and they didnt work.
Tell me what other information i should post ?
- Fri, Jan 18, 2019, 12:33 AMHi, this works fine with Moodle 3.5?
- Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 7:38 PMHello. Does this plugin work well with Moodle 3.6.3?
- Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 9:44 PMHi! Yes the plugin functions fine for Moodle 3.5 and 3.6
- Thu, Jun 6, 2019, 6:00 PMhi, just a little question. if my email plateform is down, does the creation account will be fail too or just the notification email ?i just want to be sure the users can continue to create accounts even where my emailbox is full/offline/down.
- Thu, Jun 6, 2019, 6:01 PMhi, just a little question. if my email plateform is down, does the creation account will be fail too or just the notification email ?i just want to be sure the users can continue to create accounts even where my emailbox is full/offline/down.
- Wed, Jul 3, 2019, 11:37 PMHi there, Just installed this an doesn't seem to be working. I've entered the moderator's email address and that all seems to be working. Can I have it send the information to more than one moderator?
- Fri, Jul 5, 2019, 3:36 PMHi @pierre, no account creation will not be affected by this plugin.
Hi @Dav, no only one moderator is supported.
- Mon, Sep 2, 2019, 2:44 PMI am on 3.7 and this doesn't appear to work - no notification message was sent when I created a new account.
- Wed, May 20, 2020, 3:39 AMHi Bas, useful plugin. Any change you will be updating it for Moodle 3.7, 3,8 and 3.9?
- Thu, Aug 6, 2020, 9:05 PMHi, Does this plugin work well with Moodle 3.9.1?
Please login to post comments


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Christmas vacations have both advantages and disadvantages compared to spending Christmas at home. It really depends on the kind of vacation you are planning and your own family circumstances.
Staying With Relatives
Staying with relatives is the lowest cost Christmas vacation option, but one that has its own stresses. The two families have different expectations of the holiday and there will be many compromises necessary. You, as the visitors, will have to go out every day to give both yourselves and your hosts breathing space, otherwise you will all be at each others' throats after three days. On the other hand, it gives you a chance to spend some quality time together, always necessary for a lasting relationship.
Staying in a Hotel
This is the most expensive Christmas vacation option because of the extra wages hotel staff earn for working on the public holidays and because of the high demand.
If you have young children a hotel stay can be stressful because of the strange environment and different routine. Flying to your vacation destination will probably not be possible because of all the equipment you need to take, so you are limited to places you can drive to.
Christmas in a hotel is a vacation that suits couples much better. You are away from the housework and distractions of being at home and spend more high quality time in each other's company. Sometimes it is very difficult to find the time to give each other in the home environment, between non-stop visitors and housework.
The hotel also provides interaction with others if you want it, but it is unforced and you can walk away from social contact when you need to. Most hotels have pools, saunas and gym facilities and there is no need to ever leave the grounds.
If you want a sociable Christmas vacation that gives you quality time together as a couple then this is probably your best option, especially if the location has other attractions for you.
Self-Catering Christmas Vacations
Self-catering is ideal for a family vacation. It gives the family time together without the same pressures that you have at home. The children have the space they need and can have fun exploring. There are still chores to do, but many fewer than at home, so you all have more time to relax.
If you live in the city and can find a Christmas vacation rental in the forest it is a whole different world for everyone. You can explore as a family and do things you would never do at home. It gives each parent the chance to build their relationship with the children, both separately and together. You can introduce your children to fishing or tracking, to bird watching or nature photography.
This is the ideal Christmas vacation for young families because you are still in full control of your routine. If you have teenaged children, Christmas away from home and their friends can make for either a traumatic or a wonderful vacation. Be prepared for tantrums when there is no phone and no way for teenagers to talk to their friends, but if you can get over this and persuade your offspring to take a positive attitude.


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When you're the only couple to romantically survive after your season of Bachelor In Paradise, then it makes sense to proceed with caution. Carly Waddell and Evan Bass, who fell in love during the third season of the reality show, told E! News that they're ready to start the next stage of their lives together, but they're also not looking to rush things.
"I think that relationship-wise, we're definitely more in love than we ever were before," Waddell explained. I think we fall more for each other every day which is fun. We fell for each other even harder. We've never had a bad spell. It's always been consistently good."
This connection is why their engagement has lasted while the other two couples called it off — well that, and that Waddell and Bass were super reasonable about the whole thing.
"All couples go through things, especially coming off of an intense period like Paradise or Bachelor or something, but we've worked through all of our stuff so well," Bass explained. "I feel like it's been positive and fun."
The hardest part, Bass says, is people's perceptions of the show.
"I hate how people think there's some kind of fairytale in front of the cameras..." he continued. "We're just living a normal life, you know? We talk step-by-step, and we work through. I think that our communication and our ability to have conversations...that's been the key to working on our relationship and working towards marriage."
Oh yeah, when is that by the way?
"We are so close to setting a wedding date," Waddell said. "I think we're going to have a wedding date in like two weeks. We're very close to having that nailed down. It's going to be this year."
It's also seeming more and more likely that we'll be able to watch the duo's wedding on-air. "Everything's a possibility!" Waddell teased.
Right now, we'll just have to settle for the cute Instagrams the couple posts and trust them when they say that we'll be the first to know.


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PlayMaker Help / Swipe Gesture Skip Slide... tried everything - please help« on: September 19, 2018, 03:41:33 PM »
Hi to all. I am working on Slide Show function (where you move slides - but not camera by using Swipe Gesture Event and Animator Play) So I have bunch of slides attached to Game object "Whole" in X direction away from the screen, I have created buttons and animation for each slide and that runs like a dream but since it is going to be released on Mobile Devices, I really want to add same functionality as the buttons but with swiping. So user would have both options. Anyway I created empty game object on Slide 1 Then added fsm to swipe left and that runs like a dream, Then I did the same to slide 2 I added Game object and FSM to swipe right to go back to slide 1 (it work) and then to swipe left to go to slide 3 and that is where I get in trouble. When testing on mobile (Iphone 6) After adding that Slide2 to Swipe Right, Swipe Gesture Event, When starting from Slide 1, it Skips slide 2 and go straight to slide 3. There for it using Animation where it goes from Slide2 to Slide3 or even both animations at the same time. Can't figure way around it... I attached couple of images to get you closer to understand.


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Pinch or double tap to zoom Double click to zoom
Pinch or double tap to zoom Double click to zoom
Pinch or double tap to zoom Double click to zoom
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Men's RealFLEECE® Wander Jacket
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Men's RealFLEECE® Wander Jacket
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You can return items purchased directly from icebreaker.com within 90 days from the ship date as long as they are unworn, unwashed, and in the original packaging.*
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Model Height: 5'10" / 180cm. Waist: 33" / 86cm. He is wearing size Medium.
What's your size? Size Guide
A versatile merino wool men's fleece jacket for daily style and winter warmth, the Wander Jacket is perfect for travel or everyday comfort.
- Reverse coil center front zip
- Raglan sleeve construction for mobility
- Zippered hand pockets
- Center back length: 77.8cm/30¾", Size L
Product Weight
Large = 450 g / 15.8 oz
Fabric Content
87% Merino Wool, 10% Nylon, 3% LYCRA®
What is RealFleece®?
RealFleece® fabric is brushed to deliver ultimate softness and warmth. Made with corespun yarn, the superfine merino is reinforced with a fine nylon core for strength and durability.
Brushed merino traps heat
Corespun yarn for enhanced durability
Our fabric numbering system.
The bigger the number, the warmer you'll be.
Choose your comfort level with our fabric weight numbering system. The numbers represent the fabric's weight in grams per meter2.


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The Idaho Transportation Department reduces duplicate records and takes a proactive approach to data quality.
About the Idaho Transportation Department
The Idaho Transportation Department is a government organization responsible for maintaining the state's transportation infrastructure. Its five branches include aeronautics, highways, motor vehicles (DMV), human resources, and administration. Located in Boise, Idaho, the department works to provide the state's 1.6 million residents with safe, efficient mobility as well as economic opportunities through improved connectivity.
Providing top-tier services to residents is at the heart of the Idaho Transportation Department's mission. To meet their goal, the department needs to have a consolidated view of its residents. But information that is spread across siloed databases prevents the department from accurately matching citizen records and, consequently, from providing the best experience possible for the residents of Idaho.
The agency has a legislative mandate to produce one record per DMV customer. In the past, they ran into situations in which they couldn't identify repeat customers when they came in for different services. This was due, in part, to the many separate databases the department maintained. For instance, driver services had their own client database, vehicle services had their client database, and motor carrier services had their client database.
According to Randi Bristol-Hogue, DMV Transformation Program Manager, "Until we got to a position where we could bring that data together and identify where those clients were the same, we couldn't really provide the level of service that we wanted to."
To further complicate matters, the department's mainframe data table structure is non-relational, so every record in the mainframe represents one transaction. This means that if a resident owns three vehicles, they will have three records even though they are the same person. In a DMV operation, there is a large diversity of datasets, including driver's licenses, motor carrier registrations, domestic Idaho carrier records, and foreign carrier records for those who only pay for miles they drive through Idaho. This translates to a lot of information that needs to be tied together.
In 2010, help came in the form of a mandate by the state legislature. In an effort to consolidate duplicate records for individuals, the Transportation Department lobbied for the state of Idaho to put legislation in place that requires residents to provide unique identifying information (such as a Social Security number or driver's license number) to the department. According to Bristol-Hogue, "The proposed legislation requires residents to give us enough information so that we can adequately match them if they already exist in our system somewhere." With the mandate in place, the transportation department had what they needed to match customers to their records.
While the mandate was a boon for achieving their goal of having one record per DMV customer, it also created unique challenges for the department. The influx of data highlighted the need for more robust data management capabilities than their existing mainframe environment could provide. Any new system would need to provide long-term storage of the data for historical purposes, enable reporting, and have an ongoing process for deduplicating the data.
The Idaho Transportation Department wasn't having success with their current solution, both in terms of its performance (the ability to meet deduplication and quality standards), as well as its operational demands. For instance, their old solution required frequent dataset updates that would take the system offline, causing issues across the department. With no other option in sight, they resigned to trying to make it work.
In 2016, they started conversations and explored what Experian Data Quality had to offer. Initially, the department was interested in solutions for address verification, as well as a solution that had matching capabilities. While these solutions take care of the performance issues the department was experiencing, they still needed to solve for the operational demands that limit their current solution. After a seeing a demo of Experian Pandora, the department felt they might have found their solution. "I think that's when the light went on that maybe there is something better that's worth the effort to make the switch," says Bristol-Hogue.
Putting forward a case to implement the Experian solutions was straightforward for the department. According to Neil Snyder, DMV Software Architect, "When the possibilities of the Experian products came along, the justification was really an economic one. We could swap out the existing product with the Experian product—get more bang for the buck—and from a cost perspective remain neutral."
"When the possibilities of the Experian products came along, the justification was really an economic one. We could swap out the existing product with the Experian product—get more bang for the buck—and from a cost perspective remain neutral."
Significant reduction in the number of records
The Idaho Transportation Department is well on its way to achieving its goal of having one record per DMV customer. According to Snyder, the department started out with 20 million independent records in their dataset. Given that Idaho only has a population of 1.6 million people, this provides some sense of the magnitude of duplicate records in their database. Through previous efforts, the department was able to go from 20 million to 8 million records. Their goal with Experian Data Quality is to have fewer than 3 million records, and they're confident they'll achieve this goal.
Using Experian Pandora, the department implemented a rule change that will make it easier to deduplicate customer records. Historically, the department required three identifying matches (name, Social Security number, and driver's license number) in order to mark a record as a duplicate. With Experian Pandora, they are able to do an analysis to see where they have Social Security numbers and where they don't have Social Security numbers, but have a driver's license number instead. According to Carin Pluto, Senior Database Administrator, "With Experian Pandora, we were able to get approval to deduplicate some of these customers based on two matches, rather than all three. While we could do the same thing though SQL queries, it was much easier to visualize using Experian Pandora."
Improved efficiency and transparency
The benefits of Experian Data Quality's solutions extends far beyond the goal of reducing duplicate records. The department has become much more proactive in its approach to data quality and has really empowered its developers to use their data assets more efficiently. "There's often a disconnect between the people with the skills to write the SQL queries and the people who know how to look at the data. I see Experian Pandora providing a direct path for the people who understand the data to actually get in and extract the output, rather than having that intermediate layer of a SQL expert who has to comprehend what the business goal is, and then turn it into the proper technical queries to produce the output," says Snyder.
Experian Pandora's built-in visualization capabilities help the department communicate data issues with more clarity than they previously could. According to Pluto, "The developers working with the data were aware of the issues, but Experian Pandora gave us a way to highlight a bunch of different problems that can be easily displayed or made visible to others." When the developers spoke about the issues, it didn't really resonate as much as when they finally saw the dashboards in Experian Pandora with rules defined against them.
In addition, the developers are using Experian Pandora to share these dashboards regularly with executives and managers. This level of transparency keeps stakeholders at all levels interested and engaged with the program, and feedback from management has been positive.
Implemented proactive policies and rules
Experian Pandora also makes it easy to bring recommendations forward to the department's data governance council for consideration. Snyder says, "We found it valuable to use Experian Pandora to better convey the current status of a dataset and to predict what the results of a rule change may be, and to do it in a more visual, easily consumed way."
For example, one of the changes they proposed was to standardize suffixes. Often, there are multiple ways suffix information can be written—2, 2nd, II, Jr., etc.—and this creates inconsistencies in the data. With Experian Pandora, they analyzed the distribution of all the various suffixes in the data and recommended a consistent method by which to standardize on those. "Being able to visually display the Experian Pandora output made it easier," Snyder adds.
The department is using Experian Pandora to implement proactive measures to ensure consistency moving forward. According to Pluto, "We used Pandora to identify issues in our data, and we have built in a standard dropdown in our new system for making sure it stays consistent." Experian Pandora helped not only to identify the issue, but also to implement preventative measures for keeping it in the new system. In addition, they have implemented SQL code that will take the various patterns and standardize them as they load this data into the new system. According to Snyder, "We're using the approval to clean up our old data as well as build the new system."
With Experian Data Quality's solutions in place, the Idaho Transportation Department is well on its way to achieving one record per DMV customer. More importantly, they're finally able to provide more efficient, high-quality services to their constituents. The changes they have implemented in their new system will help to ensure that the quality of their data is maintained over the long haul, bringing them one step closer to being the best transportation department in the nation.
"The developers working with the data were aware of the issues, but Experian Pandora gave us a way to highlight a bunch of different problems that can be easily displayed or made visible to others."


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Pizza Doughfrom Lidia Bastianich
Pizza Dough
L'Impasto per la Pizza
Yields: Four 12-inch pizza doughs
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
3 cups all-purpose flour, and more as needed
1 ˝ teaspoons salt
Olive Oil
Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water in a medium bowl and let stand until dissolved. Toss the flour and salt together and stir into the dissolved yeast, using a wooden spoon or your fingers, until you have a stiff dough. Turn the dough onto a floured board and knead 5-10 minutes, adding flour as needed to prevent sticking, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turn the dough to coat all sides with oil, and cover with a damp cloth. Set the bowl in a warm, draft-free spot until it doubles in volume, about 1 ˝ hours.
Punch down the dough and, if necessary, divide into the number of portions called for in the recipe. Place the dough balls on a lightly oiled baking sheet and cover with a piece of plastic wrap pressed directly against the dough. Refrigerate until the dough is roughly doubled in bulk. This can take from 12 to 24 hours. Punch down the dough and continue with the recipe.


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This was published 2 years ago
Hammered north Queensland declared a 'catastrophe'
Disaster assistance has been made available to help flood-affected north Queensland residents recover from what has been declared a 'catastrophe'.
The region has been hammered by rough weather over the past four days, with more than 600mm of rain falling in some areas.
Premier Annastacia Palaszcuk, who will travel to flood-affected regions on Sunday, said the full extent of the damage would not be known for weeks.
She said flooding would have a detrimental impact on banana and sugar cane crops, as well as the aquaculture industry.
"We will get the full assessments over the next few weeks about the impact on the economy and I think everyone should spare a thought for the farmers who are going to feel a huge impact," she said.
On Saturday, disaster assistance was made available for the local government areas of Hinchinbrook, Mareeba, Cassowary Coast and Yarrabah.
Law Enforcement and Cyber Security minister Angus Taylor said the money, made available through the Commonwealth-State Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements, would support response operations, repair flood-damaged assets and assist heavily impacted communities.
"The north of Queensland has again faced heavy rainfall and flooding. A number of residential properties and businesses have been flooded and several communities have been isolated," he said.
"The assistance announced today is designed to help those affected get back on their feet and speed up the recovery process for the community," Mr Taylor said.
The Insurance Council of Australia has declared a "catastrophe" in north Queensland, especially the Cassowary Coast and Hinchbrook regions.
ICA CEO Rob Whelan said the "catastrophe" declaration means insurers would now prioritise claims from people affected by floods and storm-related damage.
Disaster recovery specialists will be deployed to the worst-affected areas once roads reopened, while policyholders needing help can contact the ICA's disaster hotline on 1800 734 621.
One third of Queensland's council areas have been affected by floodwaters as school students remain stranded at a camp in north Queensland.
Near Tully, 71 year 6 students are being cared for by eight staff after they were flooded in at Echo Creek Adventure Camp.
Police said a helicopter managed to drop off "sufficient supplies and medical equipment" to the site and evacuate one child and one parent due to "pre-existing health reasons" during a break in the weather on Friday.
State Disaster Coordinator Deputy Commissioner Bob Gee said the risk was too great to remove the remaining children and adults from the area at this time.
About 8am Saturday, the Willows State School principal Helen McCullough confirmed the students and staff were being kept safe, well fed and dry.
"Happy to report that I have been in contact early this morning and the skies are clearer and camp activities are planned for the day," Ms McCullough said.
On the Cassowary Coast, the North Johnstone River peaked at 8.9 metres about 12.30am on Saturday while the South Johnstone River peaked at 10.47 metres about 1.15am.
Cassowary Coast Regional Council warned residents to keep away from flooded areas and only travel if it was essential.
"It's been a very stressful time for residents in low-lying areas with a small portion of Innisfail residents seeking refuge in the Johnstone Shire Hall during the night," the council said.
"There is a great deal of water around and emergency services ask that you drive to the conditions and keep away from flooded areas.
"There are a lot of cars driving around looking at the water and unfortunately they are causing a backwash into properties which is creating further damage."
Ingham was hit hard by flood waters on Friday with 175 homes north and south of the city inundated and the town centre cut off after floodwaters forced the closure of the Bruce Highway.
A rescue helicopter was sent to Halifax and Hawkins Creek on Friday where two people had been seriously injured after falling in floodwaters.
The pair was flown to Townsville Hospital for treatment.
Floodwaters peaked at 14.7 metres at Ingham on Friday afternoon, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
Police Commissioner Ian Stewart warned parents to be cautious about letting their children play outside as floodwaters receded, with surges through drains and park areas expected.
"We are looking at the same sorts of levels we saw in 2009, it is a dangerous situation," he said.
Emergency Services Minister Craig Crawford urged residents to stay safe and avoid non-essential travel.
"We want people to use their common sense and keep themselves and their loved ones out of dangerous situations," he said.
Showers were expected to shift north and reach the northern Cape York Peninsula by Saturday.
Swift water rescue crews remain on standby to assist in emergencies.
With AAP
Ruth McCosker is reporter at the Brisbane Times.


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A joint initiative between the American Immigration Council and AILA seeks to change the playing field for immigrants facing deportation.
AILA's Featured Issues pages provide a one-stop shop on current immigration-related issues that AILA is actively tracking. This includes government actions and resources, AILA's policy recommendations, and materials and talking points to engage with Congress and the press.Start Your Research
AILA Doc. No. 02011737 | Dated December 18, 2001
18 December 2001
Changes to the Hmong Veterans' Naturalization Act of 2000
On November 28, 2001, the filing deadline was extended by 18 months for individuals eligible for benefits under the Hmong Veterans Naturalization Act of 2000 as part (P.L. 107-77). The new filing deadline for qualified veterans and their spouses is May 26, 2003. The new filing deadline for qualified widows of such veterans is November 1, 2003.
The Hmong Veterans' Naturalization Act of 2000, which became law on May 26, 2000, provides an exemption from the English language requirement and special consideration for civics testing for certain refugees from Laos applying for naturalization. This benefit is limited to no more than 45,000 eligible refugees from Laos who were admitted to the United States as refugees from Laos pursuant to Section 207 of the INS.
Who is Eligible?
The law, Public Law 106–207, applies to refugees from Laos who served with a special guerrilla unit, or irregular forces, operating from a base in Laos in support of the United States military at any time during February 28, 1961 through September 18, 1978 and who entered the United States as refugees from Laos according to Section 207 of the INA. The law extends this benefit to the veteran's spouse only if the spouse was married to the veteran on the day the veteran applied for admission into the United States as a refugee from Laos according to Section 207 of the INA. These benefits were extended to the widows of veterans who died in Laos, Thailand, or Vietnam and were admitted as a refugee from Laos according to Section 207 of the INA by P.L. 106-415.
How Can Applicants Apply for this Benefit?
Eligible applicants—including those who currently have pending naturalization applications—can request this benefit at the time of their naturalization interview. There are no additional forms to be completed and no additional fee.
How Can Applicants Establish Eligibility?
At the time of their naturalization interview, applicants must establish with INS that they served with a special guerrilla unit or irregular forces or that they were the spouse of a veteran on the day the veteran applied for admission to the United States or that they qualify as a surviving spouse of a qualifying veteran who died while in, Laos, Thailand or Vietnam. If an applicant testified to this military service at the time of refugee processing, the required documentation should already be in the applicants immigration file. If not, applicants can bring to their INS interview either:
Original documents;
An affidavit of the serving person's superior officer;
Two affidavits from other individuals who also were serving with such a special guerrilla unit, or irregular forces, and who personally knew of the person's service; or
Other appropriate proof.
Although not required, it is helpful if applicants bring with them to their INS interview the family's copy of the Voluntary Agency family history that was prepared during refugee processing.
What Is the Exemption from the English Language Requirement?
Eligible applicants will not need to demonstrate that they read, write and speak English. They will not be tested on their English language ability.
What is the "Special Consideration" for Civics Testing?
Eligible applicants will be given the modified civics test that is currently provided to elderly applicants who are over 65 years of age and have been living in the United States as permanent residents for periods totaling at least 20 years. They can take the test in the language of their choice and may bring a qualified interpreter to translate for them. [The list of 25 sample questions for elderly applicants is available in INS' "Guide to Naturalization" (Form M-476) and on the INS website www.uscis.gov.]
Cite as AILA Doc. No. 02011737.
American Immigration Lawyers Association
1331 G Street NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20005
Copyright © 1993-2020
American Immigration Lawyers Association.


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My name is Lisa Cowie, and I started going to Ricky about 7 years ago. After never being allergic to anything in my life, I was admitted to hospital with an anaphylactic shock. Frustrated at not knowing what caused it, and feeling very ill, I went to Ricky. I have had several more reactions over the years, and Ricky has been extremely helpful in helping to work out what sets them off, and making sure I have the medication and know-how to deal with them.
If it wasn't for him, my husband and children would possibly not have a wife and mother today.
Over the years, all of my family have been seeing Ricky, and I've found his diagnostic methods very successful.
Lisa Cowie


text: Kurt D. Zeilenga wrote: >(&) and (|) are, with draft-zeilenga-ldap-t-f, valid filter >strings. But what filter2bv produces is not a filter string, >it's a filter diagnostic string. > > > My suggestion is to use "(&)" and "(|)" both as valid filters __and__ as filter diagnostics, in order to exploit it as discussed later. >>I can work this issue around as in slapo-rwm and back-meta, but this >>would require yet another filter2bv conversion. >> >> > >For back-ldap/back-meta, it seems one really needs access to >filter encoding as it appeared in the request so that it can >be forwarded intact (it would be nice if we had an ldap_search() >call where the filter was passed as BER value). > That would be great also for another feature I'm considering (ITS#3711). >But given >that filter massaging would be a nice feature, you actually >need both access to filter encoding and another filter2bv >function. > > In principle that's correct, and I agree. In practice, filter2bv is already performed by the frontend, so it wouldn't be required; yet, the diagnostics make the resulting filter unusable as is in functions that require the filter in its string representation (like back-ldap and back-meta, for instance). The use of filter diagnostics like "(&)" and "(|)" instead of "(?=true)" and "(?=false)" would make the filter yet clearly identifiable as using t-f tokens, but would also make it conformant to filter string representations. The use of diagnostics like "(?=undefined)" and "(?=error)" is acceptable, since it makes the filter correctly unusable, so that ldap_search() spits it out without performing the operation. This may be consistent (after my fix) with back-ldap usage (back-meta is not affected for different reasons). The current workaround I'm using is: - call ldap_search(); in case of filtr parsing error: - look for "(?=" without a preceding "\"; - if they evaluate to "(?=true)" or "(?=false)" - if the remote server supports it, replace it with "(&)" or "(|)", respctively - if it doesn't, try a best approximation of ""(objectClass=*)" or "(!(objectClass=*))", respectively - if it does elavuate to "(?=<somethig else>)" reject the operation. With the suggested change, I wouldn't need the above, or, alternatively, to walk the tree representation of the filter, replace the occurrences of "(?=true)" and "(?=false)", and re-run filter2bv, which was already called by the frontend. The latter procedure is run by back-meta and slapo-rwm because they may need to rewrite DN-valued attrs anyway. The question is: - is the suggested rearrangement of diagnostics acceptable? - or, in other terms, should the filter contained in ors_filterstr be considered a vaild filter string representation if no errors occurred during its decoding? back-ldap has ever relied on this assumption, but in case of t-f filters it's not true, at present. p. SysNet - via Dossi,8 27100 Pavia Tel: +390382573859 Fax: +390382476497


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Baltimore Hotel Mapper Deals
Hotels in Baltimore, MD
Baltimore Hotel Guide & Local Info
Known as the home of Babe Ruth and Edgar Allen Poe, Baltimore is a city rich in history beginning with the American Revolution and War of 1812, when the Star Spangled Banner was penned by Francis Scott Key in a battle with the British. Baltimore is also well known for the Orioles, Ravens, and the famous Maryland Blue Crabs from the Chesapeake Bay.
The National Aquarium, the Downtown Harborplace's shopping mall on the bay, and the Maryland Science Center with the IMAX theater are all popular downtown attractions. Visitors looking to catch a game can see the Baltimore Ravens NFL team, or a baseball game at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.


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- Home
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- Contact Melissa
Greek pastries require a lot of work. Like a lot. Like takes longer than after work which is of course… Continue reading »
Hi, my name is Melissa and I love food, wine and entertaining. After 21 addresses across 4 states in the last 6 years, we're happy to finally be settled in Austin, TX. Family heritage is very important so you'll see influences of German, Greek, Cajun, Tex-Mex and of course, good ole American food. I love fresh ingredients, healthy meals, drinking wine and have a wicked sweet tooth. Hope you enjoy!
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Universal File Formats for Modal Analysis Testing
Universal File (UF) formats were originally developed by the Structural Dynamics Research Corporation (SDRC) in the late 1960s and early 1970s to facilitate data transfer between computer aided design (CAD) and computer aided test (CAT) in order to facilitate computer aided engineering (CAE). SDRC, as part of EDS, continues to support and utilize the UF formats as part of their CAE software. Currently, MTS, Noise and Vibration Division supports and continues to develop IDEAS`software in the test area that utilizes UF formats.
The formats were originally developed as 80 character (card image), ASCII records that occur in a specific order according to each UF format. As computer files became routinely available, single UF formats were concatentated into computer file structures. Recently, a hybrid UF file structure (UF Dataset 58 Binary) was developed for experimental data that allows data to be stored in a more efficient binary format.
The use of the Universal File Format as a defacto "standard" has been of great value to the experimental dynamics (vibration and acoustic) community, particularly in the area of modal analysis. Both users and vendors have benefited from this defacto standard.
At this point, many of the UF formats are considered obsolete by the original developer (SDRC) even though these formats are still being used by the experimental community. The UC-SDRL uses the following selected UF formats in research software such as X-Modal and X-ACQuisition.
Selected Current Universal File Structures:
The specific ASCII structure of several existing Universal File Formats used for experimental data and/or results are:


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Rosses AC News
Well done to Ciaran McGonagle who represented the club and Donegal at the All ireland Novice in Santry, Dublin on Sunday last to end a very successful 2014 for him.
Ciaran ran a solid race in tough conditions containing a large number of athletes and was the first Donegal athlete home leading the team to 8th place county team overall.
It was a great learning and new experience for Ciaran at the National level and will only stand him in good stead for the future. Well done !!!
A successful year was reviewed at the Juvenile Presentation function held in Ionad Naomh Pádraig, Dobhar. Ita Gallagher and Bríd Doherty gave a comprehensive account of the many competitions the club was involved in during the year and the athletes involved in same. Awards were made to athletes who competed for club or county or both in an All-Ireland competition: Caoimhe Boyle, Aoife Mc Gee, Tara Geoghegan, Emily Croke, Leah Mc Garvey, Patrick Marry, Ethan Harkin. Donegal Track & Field Ch's medals were presented to Leah Mc Garvey, Emily Croke, Aine Boner, Patrick Marry, Ferdia Doherty, Aoise Willoughby, Mia Mc Devitt, Luke Mc Dermott, Thomas Marry. The Highest Achiever award went to Patrick Marry and Leah Mc Garvey picked up the Club Athlete of the Year award.
Louise Gillespie gave an account of the club's involvement in Sportshall Athletics with eleven athletes from the club representing Donegal in the UK Finals in Manchester in April, the highlight of which being the gold medal won by Ailbhe O Donnell in the U-15 speed bounce and the bronze medal won by Marc Walsh in the U-13 relay. Noreen Mc Gee and Dawn Croke spoke about the success of the newly established training camps in Magheragallon and Maghery and made presentations to athletes from both groups. Thanks to the coaches in Gaoth Dobhair: Noreen Mc Gee, Sinéad Diver, Leigh Mc Geever and in Maghery: Dawn Croke, Vincent Mc Gee and Emer Magee. Various presentations were made to local schools. St Columba's N.S., Burtonport for winning their section in the Schools Cross Country. Their teacher, Leanne Sharkey picked up the Club Appreciation Award. Scoil Phádraig, Dobhar for finishing 2nd in the Primary Schools Athletics in Carrickfinn, their first time taking part; Scoil Naomh Dúigh, Anagaire for winning the Senior Boys and Senior Girls Relays in the Primary Schools Athletics in Carrickfinn; Scoil Chróine, Dungloe for winning the Large Schools section in the Schools Cross Country. Keadue N.S. were presented with an award for winning the Donegal Cumann na mBunscol Athletics Ch's for 1/2 teacher schools for the third year in a row, much to the delight of teacher Máire Mc Cole who was present. The final award of the night went to Roshine N.S., Maghery who had an outstanding year, winning: Best Small School section at the Rosses Primary Schools Sports; Best Small School section at the Schools Cross Country; Winners of the 3 Teacher section at the Donegal Cumann na mBunscol Athletics Ch's. Thanks to Aidan Gillespie, Rosses AC and Fionnuala Diver, Letterkenny AC for making the presentations.
Donegal Sportshall Athletics trials in the Aura, Letterkenny on Sunday 14th Dec from 1pm to 4pm. Fee €3.
Age groups: U-13: Born Sept-Dec 2001, 2002 and Jan-Aug 2003. (2 lap, 4 lap, Shot , Speed Bounce, Vertical, Long, Triple). U-15: Born Sept-Dec 1999, 2000 and Jan-Aug 2001. (2 lap, 4 lap, Shot, Speed Bounce, Long, Vertical (G), Triple(B). If you intend going please text Sean Mc Ginley 0863775438 and include your name and date of birth. Training in the gym, RCS, Dungloe on Friday from 5.30 to 6.30
The Adult presentation night will take place this Friday 12th December in An Chuirt starting at 8pm. All adults involved in the club are encouraged to come along. It will be nice to catch up after a hectic year and there will be food and beverages available. Anyone interested in going please contact Sinead Diver at 087 2064519. Tickets €10.
Training sessions are happening on Wednesday evenings at 7pm at the Industrial Estate. Please feel free to come along and join the adult group who do a long run in the forestry every Sunday morning at 11am. Meet at the Blue Bridge, Arduns, Gweedore.
Some upcoming events are: Dec 14th – Turkey Trot Letterkenny. Dec 16th – Goal Mile, Letterkenny. Dec 26th – Darren Mills Memorial 5k – Viking House.Tags:


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"Technology Partnerz Ltd (TP) have great finance & risk management workshops. [...]The individual approach to the customer needs (mutual agreement on the training agenda), experienced consultants and ability to set a flex time schedule (2 hrs per day) made this training exceptionally resourceful.
We spent substantial time on the development of competences in uncertainty modeling and risk analysis. Since TP consultants are versatile with various risk modeling tools, our course was not limited to a particular software. In other words I had a chance to work through many problems using various tools such as ModelRisk, Crystal Ball etc. It is also helped me to see advantages and disadvantages of each product. The training material was complete and the homework well structured. It was a great experience to collaborate with Technology Partnerz Ltd."
Anton Babaniyazov, Senior Production Engineer, Schlumberger –Integrated Project Management
"The one-on-one risk analysis training with Eric Torkia at Technology Partnerz was by far one of the best experiences I have had with training. Eric was very knowledgeable in the subject. Eric's teaching methods and subject matter allow those with little to no prior experience with the crystal ball software or risk analysis techniques to comprehend and absorb the material. The training schedule was kept very flexible and Eric was able to mold the material around ideas specific to my line of work. I would recommend this course to anyone seeking training in the Crystal Ball software or Risk Analysis".
Brandon Bilak, Structural Estimator, Crawford Consulting


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Now I'm really kicking myself for not making it to IFB Con this year. Iman, fashion icon and entrepreneur, will be the keynote speaker during the second day of fashion festivities!
For a full line up, be sure to check out IFB Con's agenda here. For a recap of Day 1 click here.
Fashionably Yours,


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Novela is proud to bring you organic bedding sets for your baby. We guarantee your new bedding will reflect the exclusive, elegant, and colorful organic cotton fabric Novela bedding sets have always produced. When you buy our bedding sets, you will find our cotton to be soft, clean, and natural; additionally, our products are non-toxic and non-allergenic.
With numerous bedding sets from which to select, you can be confident in finding one that is perfect for your little one. All dyes used to make our bright, fashionable cotton are also natural.
Our bedding sets at Novela surpass all competition. The cotton has been strategically chosen from Turkey by Novela's founder, Yael Ben-Anat. This special cotton allows for the highest standards to be exceeded when it comes to organic bedding sets.
With a baby sleeping most of the day, parents know organic bedding sets are the way to go. When your baby snuggles up in Novela's bedding sets, you can breathe easy knowing your baby is safe and free from potentially harmful toxins. The cotton we use is all-natural and free from pesticides.
It's up to you to protect your children from the start. When you are ready to have peace of mind and confidence while your baby sleeps, trust Novella to be the provider of your bedding sets.
If you would like to learn more about why organic products are so important to us, please view our pages on the site where we explore in-depth the importance of this. Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have. Our team is ready to explain our passion to you and make you a believer in our products.


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Personal tools
Talk:Plumpy Eunice Hippo
From Webkinz Insider Wiki
You forgot Plumpy's Wig as one of her items in Webkinz World. Sorry I cannot edit it because I cannot seem to find a picture. I will put an Under Construction picture. -Rainbow Zebra
Plumpy's Wig is NOT available in Webkinz World. It's an unreleased item. --FIA
Oh sorry for my mistake, my bad. ~Rainbow Zebra


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Four people in central China's Hunan province have been apprehended by police on suspicion of forcing at least 10 people — most of whom are mentally or physically disabled — into years of unpaid labor, Sixth Tone's sister publication The Paper reported Saturday.
The suspects — three from the household of a man surnamed Xiang plus a supervisor hired by the family — were arrested in November by police in Baojing, a county in Hunan's northwest. In July of last year, a worker escaped from the family and told police of the alleged abuses he had suffered there. In mid-November, police raided the property and rescued 10 people who were being held captive in a dingy barn and forced to work without pay. The police did not disclose Xiang's full name, citing the ongoing investigation.
The workers, who police say hail from several provinces including Heilongjiang in the northeast and Yunnan in the southwest, had been lured to Xiang's farm in Hunan after he promised to pay them a fair wage. The escaped worker, a 45-year-old man surnamed Long with a mild mental disability, told police that he had met Xiang in the summer of 2010 while he was collecting recyclables on the street. According to Long, Xiang had offered him 300 yuan (then $44) per month to work on his family's farm. In the years since, Long says he lost contact with his family, who live in a county about 40 minutes' drive from Baojing: Their attempts to find him were all in vain.
At Xiang's farm, Long and the other workers were forced to tend the cattle, till the land, and dig mines during the day. In the evening, they were confined in a barn, where they slept on straw and dirty quilts scattered on the ground. Their two daily meals consisted of sweet potatoes. Instead of the wages Xiang had promised, Long said they didn't receive so much as a cent for their hard labor. Moreover, whenever the workers showed signs of disobedience, Long said that Xiang, his wife, his teenage son, or the supervisor would beat them.
The dirty, hay-filled barn where the captive workers slept at night in Baojing County, Hunan province, 2018. From the Baojing police
In a video recorded by police when they visited Xiang's property as part of an undercover investigation, the 10 workers are seen sitting on the ground removing kernels from ears of corn. When officers ask them where they come from, the responses they receive are garbled and unintelligible. "When I asked the Xiang family about the workers' identities, they said they were running a charity that helps the mentally disabled out of humanitarian aid," Zhang Changfeng, the head of Baojing's public security bureau, told The Paper.
The police told The Paper that the abuse had gone unreported for years because Xiang's neighbors were afraid of him and the workers did not have the wherewithal to seek help. Following their rescue, the workers are staying at a local shelter that provides temporary housing. The four suspects, meanwhile, are being held by police, pending a formal arrest order from the local prosecutor.
According to China's Criminal Law, people found guilty of using violence or intimidation, or restricting personal freedom, as a means of compelling others to work may be sentenced to up to three years in prison — or up to 10 years in serious cases.
In December, 13 people in Heilongjiang and Jilin, two provinces in northeastern China, were sentenced to between one and six years each for forcing 52 people into labor. As with the Baojing case, many of the victims are mentally or physically disabled. They had been sent to work at construction sites, tree farms, and factories without payment. According to the rescued workers, two individuals had died during their captivity.
When the court judgment document was made public in early January, it sparked backlash from people who thought the sentences were too lenient for the crimes committed. "The defendants will be deprived of their freedom for around the same amount of time they deprived the freedom of others, or even less," Wu Yuanzhong, an expert on legal affairs, wrote in a commentary published Saturday by The Beijing News. Wu implored the court to hold a retrial, adding that illegal detention — which carries a minimum of ten years' imprisonment — should be included among the charges.
Editor: David Paulk.
(Header image: VCG)


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Arya Frost is feeling defeated. She cannot pass her potion test. She already feels alone without a coven to belong to. Thankfully, she has her two close friends Sapphire and Diego to always fully support her and cheer her up. When a dead white crow suddenly appears in her room, it's a bad omen for sure. Then another is thrown against her window.
News & reviews for the fiction lover in us all!


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BY RIGHTS IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ONE of the proudest moments in a musical career spanning more than forty years.
After working happily, but in relative obscurity, for decades as a cover band entertaining the Vietnamese diaspora in Houston, Texas, the last thing Con Ba Cuc (aka the CBC Band) expected was to be brought to the attention of hipped-up music collectors around the globe.
That was until Mark Gergis tracked the band down to ask permission for two long- forgotten tracks of theirs to be used on an account of Saigon's pre-1975 rock and roll scene he was in the process of compiling for the US-based world music specialists Sublime Frequencies.
Yet, despite receiving their mysterious champion warmly, the group Rolling Stone magazine hailed as the 'best band in the orient' back in 1970 seemed perplexed by the renewed interest in their oeuvre. "We came in with the recordings and they hadn't heard them since 1970," recalls Gergis. "They weren't all that impressed either. They were like, 'it sounds terrible. Do you want us to re-record it for you?'"
Such an attitude will not come as much of a surprise to those with a handle on Vietnam's music culture. In the west, the efforts of archivists and specialist labels, not to mention extensive back catalogue reissues, have allowed generation after generation easy access to everything from scratchy blues made in slavery days by wizened old blokes in the Mississippi Delta to three chord potboilers recorded in a garage by a bunch of spotty kids.


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In the next couple of weeks, the Florida Senate will consider a bill (SB296 and HB209) that, as passed by the House, will allow unlicensed individuals to carry firearms during evacuation orders declared by the governor, or during emergencies declared by local officials.
If you support this bill on principle, I can understand that, but let me illustrate some scenarios for you that may change your mind.
Say, for example, a hurricane is approaching the Alabama/Florida border. The governor declares an emergency, and an evacuation is ordered in Escambia County. In response, a resident packs up and evacuates to his family's home in Gulfport. The way this bill is written, that person would be allowed to carry a concealed firearm in Gulfport for the duration of the emergency in the panhandle. Meanwhile, those who live here and who have not been subject to evacuation, would not be allowed to carry a gun.
Interestingly, the law would not only apply to state emergencies declared by the governor. The House version would extend the same privilege to those complying with orders issued by local officials. So if the mayor of Key West declares an emergency due to civil unrest, we could have Key West evacuees here in Gulfport lawfully carrying concealed firearms.
I haven't even mentioned the scariest thing. What if the emergency is here? Imagine if we have a riot in Pinellas County and the sheriff declares an emergency. At that moment, everyone in the entire county, even those in the company of the rioters (felons, etc. excluded of course), would be allowed to carry a concealed gun. Wow.
There is a reason we issue permits to people before they can carry concealed firearms. We check backgrounds, get fingerprints and photos, and ensure the people understand the laws and demonstrate proficiency with their weapons. Eliminating these safeguards, particularly in times of civil unrest, is a dangerous way to go.
I support the right of the people to keep and bear arms, but I think the current laws are sufficient. As it stands now, everyone already has the right to transport guns in their cars or carry them on their own private property, for example.
At the very least, the Senate has to address some important issues before it agrees to pass this bill. We need to be clear on the time and geographic limits that apply to evacuations, and we need to exclude the provision that applies to riots and affrays. I encourage you to contact your senator (it's Jeff Brandes for Gulfport residents) and ask him or her to insist on reasonable changes to this bill before approving its passage as law.


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Stylish and Luxurious Travel Essentials I'm Packing in my Floatti
From wacky Tokyo to majestic Mount Fuji to the cultural hubs of Osaka and Kyoto, a trip to Japan is all your dreams come true. You can stay in breathtakingly stylish ryokan inns or in high-end luxury hotels, and treat yourself to the finest culinary and cultural experiences the country has to offer. For jetsetters like me, packing for a…View Post