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"Involving a personality like Giulio Andreotti makes the Diners Club campaign instantly interesting," says an official at a rival advertising company. Mr. Andreotti is a controversial figure in Italian politics dating back to the end of World War II.
Italian advertising has featured many international celebrities recently -- ranging from Woody Allen, Marlon Brando and Nelson Mandela for communications giant Telecom Italia to Harrison Ford and Catherine Zeta Jones for automobile brands controlled by Fiat. But Mr. Andreotti is the first important Italian politician to jump on the bandwagon. The campaign is also thought to be the first time Mr. Andreotti has publicly endorsed a private sector product.
The campaign, which doesn't specifically refer to the content of the new site, is running only in Italy in newspapers, magazines, radio and outdoor. It plays on one of Andreotti's best known quotes -- "Power wears out those who don't have it" -- with the phrase "The Internet wears out those who don't have it."
Copyright June 2000, Crain Communications Inc.


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Sleeping Owl Iron on Transfer
Made and Sent from only £0.75
- Colour :
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Iron on Sleeping Owl Transfer Description
The Sleeping owl iron on transfer is a lovely iron on owl transfer showing an owl fast asleep. With his eyes nearly closed, its time for bed. A great gift for owl lovers, and extremely popular at the moment with todays design and fashion.
Buying individual transfers means you can create unique designs and iron on exactly where you want. Whether your wanting to embellish an existing item of clothing or buy a cheap tshirt and make your own personalised t-shirt...its cheaper to do it yourself with our transfers!
Remember you can iron on this transfer using a standard iron!
We offer 3 different sizes and follow the simple rule of the sizing by the "longest" side. The size ordered will be the longest side of the design. Please see the diagram below to see how our sizing works!
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subset: commoncrawl


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Common words in construction terminology include abutment, aluminum oxide, boning rods, brick construction and foundation. Individuals working in construction may find it helpful to learn both the Spanish and English version of some of the most common words in construction terminology.
To learn some of the most common words in construction terminology, construction workers can complete on-the-job training with more experienced workers. Apprenticeship programs allow individuals to complete two to four years of training in technical construction. Before an individual is allowed to work on a construction site, he may be required to complete a specific number of training hours.
A home or business owner may want to learn some of the more common words used in construction terminology before signing a construction contract. Such contracts include what work is being done, how much the project costs and all conditions and terms related to payment. In addition to listing the price of the project, construction contracts also typically include the specific materials to be used for the project. The property owner may not be familiar with such materials if he isn't aware of some of the most common construction terms, such as flush joint, half-lapped joint, heartwood, isolated pier and levelling instrument.


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On October 4, 2016, Google held a press event to announce several new pieces of hardware. One of them being their new voice activated home automation assistant properly named "Google Home". This device is a cylindrical piece of hardware that resembles an air freshener. It sits on any flat surface in your house and the best part is you interact with it by just using your voice. However, if necessary, you can interact by touch, but you'll still have to talk to it for it to actually do anything.
"OK, Google, play Nyan Cat on the living room TV", that's my kids favorite action for it. Their second favorite is "Ok, Google, turn on the kitchen light please". I wish they were that polite all the time. As you can see here, it's so easy to use. My kids are 10 and 8, they are becoming pros at this already.
As with all new Android devices shown here at the Android Anthem, we've have to do the traditional unboxing ceremony. I'll go one step further and show you how to set it up as well. Let's take a look.
Google Home might not be for everyone. You'll really need to be on the bleeding edge in order for Google Home to actually find a place in your home. HAve you bought a Google Home already? Tell us in the comments what you think of it so far.


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Click to zoom photo.
is back-ordered. We will ship it separately in 3 to 10 days.
The premium quality Stainless Steel cooksets are made from very sturdy 18/8 polished stainless steel, making them lightweight and extremely durable for any camping trip. All cooksets nest into a compact package. Dishwasher-safe. Ridgeline cooksets feature copper-reinforced bottoms for optimal heat transfer. Each set includes a carry bag for clean storage.Contents:- 1 qt. (950 mL) pot with lid - 1.5 qt. (1425 mL) pot with lid- 6" (15 cm) frying pan with folding handles- 2 plastic mugs - Nylon stuff sack
**If shipping to Canada, Please allow extra handling time of 2-5 business days.
Be the first to ask a question about this.


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Watch the First Episode of NY Jets on HBO Hard Knocks on NFL.com
Published: Last updated: NFL Tags: New York Jets, NFL
Don't have HBO? Right now you can catch the first episodes of Season 6 of NFL Hard Knocks on NFL.com. You won't get all the cursing provided by Head Coach Rex Ryan. The four letter words have been bleeped out. Other than that, you'll get it in it's entirety here on NFL.com.
If you want to check out previous seasons, check out Hard Knocks on Hulu.by


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DualShockers writes: "Back in 2010, Bayonetta released to the utter delight of critics and action game fans around the world. The game's over the top titular character, rich, refined combat and glittering fantasy environments and enemies made it an instant classic. Since its release, fans have been begging for developer Platinum Games to work its magic and whip up a sequel. Nintendo recently made the overwhelming announcement that Bayonetta 2 is actually happening – and it will be a Wii U exclusive.
Obviously, this is fantastic news for fans. The years of waiting, praying and clutching at tiny, insignificant rumors are finally over. A sequel to Bayonetta has finally been announced. Unfortunately, the news of its Wii U exclusivity isn't as amazing. The original Bayonetta was only made available for the PS3 and Xbox 360. It was never even released for the Wii, which makes this news even more interesting."
Words cannot describe how much I am looking forward to Bayonetta 2


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Here is a youth ministry community builder that will initially please your introverts but by the end will be a favorite of your extroverts.
Begin by making a series of different size loops out of rope, twine, clothesline -- whatever you have handy. Some loops should be small enough that, when laid on the floor or ground, only one person could stand inside of them. Others should be large enough to accommodate 3, 5, 10 people and so on. One rope loop should be big enough that, in some form or fashion, the entire group could be within its circumference, provided the group works together (e.g. some people on other people's backs, standing on each other's feet, holding someone off the ground, etc). Lay out all the loops in an open space.
Begin play by telling everyone that when you say "Go!" they must find a loop to stand within and noone's feet can be touching the ground outside a loop. Once everyone is in a loop, you call "Go!" again and everyone must move to a different loop. Meanwhile, your task is to covertly remove one of the loops. Repeat this tricky move after each round, leaving fewer and fewer loops for the group to use. Obviously, leave the largest loop for last, challenging the entire team to somehow get themselves inside the big loop at the same time. Be sure to provide spotters! You can find more community builder ideas here.


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Hinging artwork properly is an important conservation issue. Artwork is always hinged to a backing board and not to the back of the mat. The backing board should be of acid-free material and of sufficient rigidity to support the art without buckling. It acts as a barrier from contamination from any filler board, and creates a surface from which to hinge the artwork. Conservators recommend using 100% rag boards – 4 ply boards are the most commonly used. The backing board is then taped to the window mat. We recommend using a water activated acid-free linen tape to attach the board to the window mat. Click for instructions/video.
There are many different hinging materials i.e. Japanese paper & paste, pressure sensitive tapes, as well as mounting corners which were developed primarily for photographs.
Japanese paper & starch paste
The time proven method used by museums is to make strips of long-fibered Japanese paper and use a wheat or rice starch paste. Paper by weight is approximately 6% water, and therefore absorbs & releases moisture. A paper hinge is used because it will expand and contract like the artwork. Wheat paste is used because it has great adhering power, won't discolor, and is water reversible. A hinge made with wheat paste will be as easy to remove years from now as it is 10 minutes after it is applied. We have instructions/videos on: making japanese hinges, making wheat paste, attaching t-hinge, attaching v-hinge.
Archival Pressure sensitive tapes
Although not museum quality, archival tapes have become very popular because they are acid-free and easy to apply. They typically do not discolor or soak into the paper. The disadvantage of these tapes is removability. For a short period of time they can be removed with water (except on photographs). There can be difficulties removing them after a longer period of time and solvents may have to be used. We recommend using them when the ease of application is more important than strict conservation. Click for instructions/video.
Mounting Corners for Photographs/works on paper
This is the best method for mounting photographs. No adhesive touches the artwork. They are easy to apply just peel and stick. They are also used on matted pieces when the artwork is very heavy, such as watercolors. Click for instructions/video.
Museums prefer to make their own paper mounting corners. They are made from an archival paper. Click for instructions/video.
This site is recommended as an additional resource on papers and hinging:
Northeast Document Conservation Center


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I'm quoted this morning in a story on Ebay's new points program.
My thinking is probably a little more generous than the piece suggests, since my general take is that almost any new reward program from a major company is a good thing — but that I won't be participating until the program becomes a little more generous.
- Frequent-flier-program enthusiasts gave the new program a chilly response.
Gary Leff, who runs a frequent-flier Web site (www.webflyer.com/blog/), called the eBay program a "very bad deal."
Leff said that, once converted to eBay points, airline miles end up being worth less than a penny a mile.
"But properly spent, those miles are worth far more," Leff said in an e-mail. "I recently gave my grandparents two first-class tickets from Miami to Sydney. Those tickets would have cost over $20,000, making the 240,000 miles spent worth 8.3 cents apiece. That's a far sight better than an Anything Point."


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Attila Mesterhazy said in the interview given after the Socialists held a congress at the weekend to decide on the party's future direction that the ruling centre-right Fidesz party would not change in the meantime.
He insisted that more and more people were now showing interest in the Socialist party's ideas and increasingly agreeing with them, while at the same time the social space surrounding the party itself was expanding to include agreements with civil groups and unions. This meant that the Socialist party was now becoming a genuine contender as an alternative government, Mesterhazy said.
"Between two elections, the only measure that can orientate people and warn the governing parties is whose support is growing," he said.
According to the latest Szonda Ipsos poll, the Socialists have added eight percentage points to its core base since April, though the ruling party still commands a huge lead.
At Saturday's congress delegates asked former prime minister and party leader Ferenc Gyurcsany to withdraw his call for a congress vote on a set of proposals, including a direct election of party leadership.
Gyurcsany and his Democratic Coalition Platform wants direct elections for the party leadership and county leaders and to make the party financing more transparent with strict controls.
Mesterhazy told the congress that efforts should concentrate on building a "strong and united Left", which he said was instrumental in replacing the "detrimental" Fidesz government.
In the Nepszava interview Mesterhazy said that the congress had managed to draw a line under many hitherto unresolved issues dividing the party.
"It has become clear that the Socialist party has defined itself as a modern, democratic, left-wing people's party," he said.


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Community Safety
We seek to ensure that Indigenous Australians grow up and live their lives in a safe home and community.
Indigenous Australians are significantly more likely to experience child abuse and neglect, domestic and other forms of violent crime and be incarcerated than non-Indigenous Australians.
One of the Australian Government's three priority areas in Indigenous affairs is ensuring communities are safe.
We provide funding for a variety of targeted evidence-based activities to reduce violence and make communities safer.
Under the Government's Indigenous Advancement Strategy's Safety and Wellbeing Programme, we focus our efforts on five key outcome areas:
- Reduced substance misuse and harm
- Crime prevention, diversion and rehabilitation
- Violence reduction and victim support
- Safe and functional environments
- Social and emotional wellbeing
We work closely with the state and territory governments—who are responsible for the criminal justice system in Australia—on justice system responses to improving Indigenous community safety. This includes supporting initiatives such as policing in remote locations.
Latest News
Indigenous professionals discuss safe and strong communities
Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995: Independent review of Part 10 (Material prohibited in certain areas in the Northern Territory)
Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory Act 2012: Independent review of the effectiveness of Northern Territory and Commonwealth laws in reducing alcohol-related harm
Forecast SROI analysis of the Drum Atweme program (Tangentyere Council)
Forecast SROI Analysis of the Helping Hand and Linking Youth program (Inverell Shire Council)
Forecast SROI analysis of the Youth Prevention and Diversion program (Circular Head Aboriginal Corporation)
Programmes & Policies
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are advised that this website may contain images and voices of deceased people.


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Welcome to CytaCoat
Multiresistant bacteria are a growing serious threat to society.
Our proprietary platform technology provides a unique, universal and covalently coupled antibacterial coating for prevention of hospital acquired infections associated with the use of medical devices. The CytaCoat technology is active against several clinically relevant bacterial strains including multi drug resistant bacteria such as MRSA and ESBL.
A non toxic coating based on a novel discovery
A stable and non releasing coating
Patent granted in 10 countries
Our solution
• Surface chemistry and polymer technology
• Organic chemistry, bioorganic chemistry, microbiology, cell biology
• Biochemistry
• Clinical management, internal and infectious medicine
• Patent
• Finance, sales and business development
Our offer
Both exclusive and non-exclusive licenses to apply our technology on medical devices, together with competence and research expertise covering surface optimisation, testing and evaluation. Collaborative development projects around your company's need for a functional antibacterial surface, both with respect to product optimisation and clinical tests. We offer, as initial step, to test if our surface technology can be applied to your surface of interest.
CytaCoat AB, Retzius väg 8 (House B3 Plan 3), 17165 Solna, SWEDEN
Phone +46 8524 89900 | E-mail email@example.com
Design LIVE Reklambyrå


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Your financial contribution will support our mission to increase organ, eye, and tissue donation in New York State to ensure a transplant for every New Yorker.
Your generosity and compassion helps support of our life-saving mission.
It's easy to make a contribution.
Contribute online:
Click "Donate" below to make an online contribution using Paypal's secure page.
New York Alliance for Donation/Donate Life NYS
185 Jordan Road
Troy, NY 12180
Honor a loved one with a contribution in his/her honor or memory.
You may wish to contribute in memory or in honor of someone special. Please mail or email firstname.lastname@example.com and include the following information with your contribution. A letter will be sent notifying the individual that a contribution has been made.
- Type of gift: in honor of/in memory of
- First and Last Name of Honoree
- Please notify:
Questions about making a financial contribution?
Call the office at (518) 326-3237 or email email@example.com and we will assist you.
New York Alliance for Donation is a nonprofit, tax exempt 501(c)(3)organization. All contributions made to New York Alliance for Donation are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law.


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Corwin Prescott is a Seattle-based photographer whose work focuses on fine art nudes. In less than ten years he has shot on five continents and in all 50 US states, following a successful publishing campaign. His current series We Were Wanderers aims to celebrate the marriage of figure & landscape throughout the world.
Corwin's dedication to the arts community and his desire to help educate photographers of all skill levels has made teaching destination workshops a natural progression of his skills. The video above is a preview of his famous Arctic Nude workshop, the third of which commences in May 2018.


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India, Pak unite under wings of the dying vulture
At a time when India and Pakistan are looking at ways to bridge their differences, a common cause to safeguard endangered vultures seems to have further promoted their efforts to achieve political bonhomie.delhi Updated: May 06, 2012 23:43 IST
At a time when India and Pakistan are looking at ways to bridge their differences, a common cause to safeguard endangered vultures seems to have further promoted their efforts to achieve political bonhomie.
The two countries have decided to work jointly to revive the declining population of vultures, known for preventing contamination of soil and groundwater through the consumption of rotting carcasses, in the subcontinent.
The Indian sub-condition was home to lakhs of vultures till the 1980s, when excess usage of diclofenac – a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) – started taking its toll on them.
"Use of diclofenac (a painkiller) on one of 76 animals is enough to kill a vulture because of its toxicity. The chemical causes brain hemorrhage," said Nita Shah, an expert on vultures.
Diclofenac and other NSAIDs, such as ketoprofen and aceclofenac, have caused a decline in vulture population by over 95%.
"Just a few thousand vultures survive today, and they will also die if efforts are not made to remove NSAIDs from the vulture food chain," said Asad Rahmani, director of Bombay Natural History Society, which has mapped vulture zones in India and Pakistan.
The decline in the vulture population occurred despite India, Pakistan and Nepal banning the use of diclofenac for veterinary purposes in 2006. While conducting a survey of three Indian states, Shah found that diclofenac meant for humans was being prescribed for animals.
The ban has not been implemented effectively, says Rahmani.
Now, India and Pakistan have agreed to bring in legislations in their respective countries for halting the manufacture of multi-dose diclofenac vials.
"We will promote alternatives to diclofenac, such as meloxicam," said Jagdish Kishwan, additional director-general of forests in the environment ministry.
The declaration was signed after a two-day symposium on vultures, organised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Delhi on Friday. Bangladesh and Nepal are signatories of the declaration too.
India and Pakistan have started in-situ vulture conservation programmes by setting up breeding centres in Panchkula and Changa Manda forest near Lahore respectively. The challenge that lies ahead, however, is the re-introduction of the vultures to the wild.
"We can learn a lot from each other," said a Pakistan forest ministry official, adding that the countries are now looking at identifying "trans-boundary" vulture safe zones in the wild.
The two countries may get a helping hand from the IUCN, which plans to seek $15 million from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for starting a five-year regional programme to save vultures.
First Published: May 06, 2012 17:15 IST


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Fed up of your unbalanced, uneven skin tone? Well rebalance your complexion with KORRES Wild Rose Moisturizer for Oily/Combination Skin. Fast absorbing and deeply hydrating your skin will be moisturised morning til night.
Directions for use:
- Massage into the complexion after the skin routine and let luxurious cream soak into your skin.
- For best results use after KORRES Wild Rose Exfoliating Cleanser.


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Organic Farming - Looking Forwards
At the launch event at the BMEL in Berlin, German Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt kicked-off the development of the new strategy: "Organic Farming - Looking Forwards".
"The organic farming sector already makes an important contribution to our food! I would like to take full advantage of its potential!" Schmidt emphasised. "In order to do so we need to work together and have a well-thought-out plan. This is what we hope to set in motion at the launch event."
Alongside representatives from the organic farming sector and with the involvement of the Länder, the relevant associations and science, the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture aims to draw up concepts and recommendations for key areas of action as part of the strategy. It hopes to present this strategy for the future by the end of 2016.
The objective of the Organic Farming - Looking Forwards strategy is to contribute to strengthening organic farming in Germany and to expand the total area of land used for or-ganic farming purposes. This means that in developing the strategy, political parameters are also to be analysed and strategies are to be developed to improve the relative quality of particularly sustainable production methods such as organic farming. In particular, strengthening the range of regional organic goods is intended to open up business development opportunities for the future for small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises too.
Starting point:
With a turnover of nearly 8 billion Euro in 2014, Germany's organic food market is the largest in Europe. Over the past 20 years the market volume of organic products expanded at a growth rate well above average in comparison to the food market as a whole. Despite considerable funding from the EU, the Federal Government and the Länder, German producers were, however, unable to share in this boom to the same extent. This has meant that despite relatively favourable market conditions, organic produce growth has slowed notably in the last few years. Whilst turnover for organic produce since 2011 has grown every year by between five and nine percent, the increase in land area used for this type of farming in the last four years was only one to three percent.
"It is our objective to make sure our agricultural sector is best placed to harness this potential fully. Not only for our economic interests but also in particular in the interest of sustainable management of our resources," Schmidt stressed. "We policy makers consider the organic sector to be important. Just like conventional farming. We don't want them to work against each other but want to encourage competition between alternatives instead."
Course of action
Various scientific studies in recent years have shown that there is no central determining factor for more growth in German organic farming. In light of the complex interdependent relationships it is necessary for key areas of action to be interconnected within a coherent overall strategy.
Picking these areas of action is to be pragmatically orientated around the key question "What can be done, particularly at national level?", without pushing other approaches aside. The focus should be on proposals that lead to more growth in organic farming and which improve organic farming's sustainability performance.
The specific, operative plan of action set out in the forward-looking strategy will finally be transferred to a "road map" with concrete work and implementation stages. Since the strategy is modular, it will be possible, if required, to use interim results to implement certain recom-mendations before the whole strategy has been concluded.
The BMEL has assigned the Thünen Institute the task of coordinating and implementing the strategy's development. This includes in particular overseeing the various work stages, facilitating the discussion process as well as collating working groups' consultation results into recommendations for plans of action and coordinating these with the stakeholders.
The plans of action will be drawn up in close consultation with an advisory committee, whose members will be the same the as advisory committee for the Federal Scheme for Organic Farming and other Forms of Sustainable Argriculture (BÖLN). The task of this advisory committee is to comment on interim results, give suggestions regarding how to proceed, and incorporating industry expertise and perspectives.
- As of:
- 19.05.15
Further information
- Organic Farming in Germany (PDF, 1 MB, File does not meet accessibility standards.)
- Extract from the "Organic farming - looking forwards strategy" (PDF, 384 KB, File does not meet accessibility standards.)
- National Programme for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Plant Genetic Resources of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops (PDF, 3 MB, File does not meet accessibility standards.)
- Report on active climate protection 2008 (PDF, 234 KB, File does not meet accessibility standards.)
- Information and Coordination Centre for Biological Diversity (IBV) (PDF, 1 MB, File does not meet accessibility standards.)
- Conservation of Agricultural Biodiversity, Development and Sustainable Use of its Potentials in Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (PDF, 3 MB, File does not meet accessibility standards.)
- Conservation and sustainable use of diversity (flyer) (PDF, 308 KB, File does not meet accessibility standards.)
- Animal Genetic Resources in Germany (PDF, 2 MB, File does not meet accessibility standards.)
- Aquatic Genetic Resources (PDF, 2 MB, File does not meet accessibility standards.)
- Forest Genetic Resources in Germany (PDF, 4 MB, File does not meet accessibility standards.)
- GENRES - Information System Genetic Resources
- Organic Standards - International Certification Norms for Organic Food Production
- Convention on Biologiocal Diversity (CBD)
- European Commission - Agriculture and the environment
- EU-Projekt CORE Organic
- TERENO - TERrestrial ENvironmental Observatories
- National Action Plan (NAP) on Business and Human Rights


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Flower and gift e-commerce service FlowerAdvisor.com just revamped its website interface last month, and things appear to be going well for the startup recently. It generated SG$1 million last year, and founder Willy Thomas says that the revenue has improved consistently this year as well. He told us a little about the company's plans for 2013.
Willy likes to describe his business as an e-commerce store, rather than just saying they sell flowers. He explained that FlowerAdvisor simply connects customers with local sellers across more than 100 countries. The company now has around 5,000 florists worldwide, but mostly it uses just a few hundred of them as its main florists to keep its quality consistent.
Willy said that most of his customers are from Southeast Asia, particularly Singapore and Indonesia, with the latter region expected to surpass Singapore in terms of revenue in the coming months. The majority of his clients are cross-border customers, which means they are ordering flowers or gifts to be delivered to someone in another country. That is one of the reasons why the company chose to use the tagline "Bridging the Distance."
FlowerAdvisor's peak season in terms of transaction value is Christmas. This is because a lot of people order hampers which are more expensive than other items. The highest number of transactions is (as you might expect) during Valentine's Day, with so many people ordering flowers for their loved ones.
He said that the company has made many improvements in the past year, but most of them are on the company's back-end system, so customers wouldn't have noticed anything. One of them is FlowerAdvisor's international catalogue and delivery API which can be used by other online sellers if they want to provide international delivery services. The API will make it seems as if the international delivery services are handled by that particular seller whereas, in fact, the one organizing the international deliveries is FlowerAdvisor.
In 2013, the startup plans to explore market opportunities more closely in other Asian regions like Malaysia and Hong Kong. The team will be also looking for partners to help expand its market reach. Another task on its 2013 agenda will be to build mobile apps for FlowerAdvisor, so keep an eye out for that as well.


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After 6 years I finally dropped my laptop for the first time. Since then, my cd/dvd drive is not being recognized. It works fine, the light turns on, I can press the button to eject/put a CD, tnen it works really hard to try to read whatever's in there, but nothing happens. I don't even see it in the device manager.
My laptop is not on warranty, I would not be afraid of opening it up with some guidance. I don't know too much about hardware though! I'm hoping that is simply got disconnected or something, since it doesn't appear to be broken.
I have always gotten great help from these forums, especially with all the problems my poor laptop has had in the past few months. I appreciate any help!


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"The River of Doubt"
by davidbjensen
Millard, Candice. The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey. New York: Doubleday. 2005.
Hands down, this is one of the most palpitating non-fiction books I've read in some time! Blending biography with natural history with action thriller, Millard provides a riveting account of the Roosevelt-Rondon Expedition in 1914 down a tributary of the Amazon River. As the first "civilized" men to navigate this tributary deep in the Brazilian jungle, their effort was to survey the river and officially put it on the map. This is a harrowing tale of what the men and their team encountered along the way. Among the hardships they faced–and this list is by no means exhaustive–are suffocating heat, torrential downpours, disease-carrying, poisonous insects, piranhas, cannibalistic native tribes, impassable rapids, starvation, and so on. After barely making it out alive, Roosevelt was greeted upon his return to the United States by incredulous adversaries, claiming his story to be embellished. If I may say so myself, much of what the men survived to tell is truly hard to believe!
Upon beginning this book, I expected an account of perilous adventure during the Golden Age of Exploration, and not much more. But the author makes a number of digressions that are pertinent, engaging, and educational. For example, she spells out the geologic forces that, over the eons, created the Andes to the west, and the Amazon basin to the east, which was once an inland sea before ages of erosion created a drainage basin, and thus, the great river. She speaks eloquently on why the first European explorers christened the river the "Amazon," with its roots in Greek mythology. Pouring over pages and pages, she explicates many of the amazingly advanced evolutionary adaptations and symbiotic relationships among the flora and fauna of the Amazonian rain forest. In no way distracting, these tangential descriptions imbue the book with a well-rounded sense of appreciation for what these explorers had gotten themselves into.
As an intern at the American Museum of Natural History, I found this book to be particularly enjoyable, as I was able to supplement the reading with the exhibition on display in the Hall of South American Peoples. Furthermore, in the photographic archives in the research library, there is an entire drawer marked "Roosevelt-Rondon Expedition, 1914," containing hundreds of prints from the expedition. Those visual stimuli really helped bring Millard's remarkably detailed verbal descriptions to life. In fact, much of her research was conducted at the AMNH research library.
No question about it…5 out of 5 stars!


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Living Room Remodels has Publish by Seftalia Prince in Category living room at April 21st, 2018. Tagged with living room remodel cost. living room remodel ideas. living room remodeling. living room remodeling ideas. living room remodeling ideas with gray. living room remodels. living room remodels before and after. living room remodels pictures. living room remodels with fireplace.
As adjective
Having Life; Being Alive; Not Dead: Living Persons.
In Actual Existence Or Use; Extant: Living Languages.
Active Or Thriving; Vigorous; Strong: A Living Faith.
Burning Or Glowing, As A Coal.
Flowing Freely, As Water.
Pertaining To, Suitable For, Or Sufficient For Existence Or Subsistence: Living Conditions; A Living Wage.
Of Or Relating To Living Persons: Within Living Memory.
Lifelike; True To Life, As A Picture Or Narrative.
In Its Natural State And Place; Not Uprooted, Changed, Etc.: Living Rock.
Very; Absolute (used As An Intensifier): You Scared The Living Daylights Out Of Me! He's Making Her Life A Living Hell.
As noun
The Act Or Condition Of A Person Or Thing That Lives: Living Is Very Expensive These Days.
The Means Of Maintaining Life; Livelihood: To Earn One's Living.
A Particular Manner, State, Or Status Of Life: Luxurious Living.
Living Persons Collectively (usually Preceded By The): Glad To Be Among The Living.
The Benefice Of A Clergyman.
As noun
A Portion Of Space Within A Building Or Other Structure, Separated By Walls Or Partitions From Other Parts: A Dining Room.
Lodgings Or Quarters, As In A House Or Building.
The Persons Present In A Room: The Whole Room Laughed.
Space Or Extent Of Space Occupied By Or Available For Something: The Desk Takes Up Too Much Room.
Opportunity Or Scope For Something: Room For Improvement; Room For Doubt.
Status Or A Station In Life Considered As A Place: He Fought For Room At The Top.
Capacity: Her Brain Had No Room For Trivia.
A Working Area Cut Between Pillars.
As verb (used without object)
To Occupy A Room Or Rooms; Lodge.
As verb (used with object) [re·mod·eled, re·mod·el·ing, (especially British) re·mod·elled, re·mod·el·ling.]
To Model Again.
To Reconstruct; Make Over.
Living Room Remodels have 30 picture of living room category, it's including Marvelous Living Room Remodels 1. Nice Living Room Remodels 2. Marvelous Living Room Remodels 3. Interesting Living Room Remodels 4. Modern Living Room Remodels 5.


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Wool at Pitti Uomo 90
Wool confirmed its place as a summer choice at the lively fashion shown at Pitti Immagine Uomo 90, an event full of exuberance, would-be stars previewing startling looks outside the exhibition, and packed fashion shows. All demonstrated the variety of design in the mix for Spring/Summer 2017 and the importance of menswear as a driver of dynamic fashion, with an increase in international visitors and exhibitors. Vitale Barberis Canonico held a late night chic party in the middle of Florence's iconic Loggia del Porcellino to celebrate a new 21 micron Merino wool fabric developed with chic Florentine label Eredi Chiarini.
Increasingly, wool takes its place in important collections for spring/summer. Among lightweight blends wool was an ingredient chosen for quality and reactive features bringing coolness or warmth; valuable extras for jackets, formals, knitwear and casuals, as well as Merino base-layers.
Blends of various fibres enabled different surfaces which added to the decorative vibe; knops of white cotton with black Merino wool, 3D looks, stripes, checks and fancy stitches.
Summer parkas, long coats, and this year's lightweight field jackets mostly had smooth gabardine surfaces, sometimes with waxy coatings. Light jackets were simply styled with clean lines and 70s influences, plain or patterned, put together in eclectic layers. Summer tweeds included lightweight wool in classic patterns like houndstooths or Prince of Wales checks.
Directional suit jackets are skinny with a shrunken look, worn short and fastened tightly with one button, mainly colourful, in fabric designs such as windowpane checks or stripes. Trousers are straight or tight and narrow and sometimes in very bright colours such as mustard yellow.
Jackets were both unlined or part lined, in bright colours and patterns many with wool content, such as gingham checks. Dusty rose and light orange, blue, yellow and green predominated and were arranged together on many stands for maximum artistic effects such as banks of Merino mix sweaters.
There was little that was strictly formal: collars left open, jackets are light and unstructured, and the look is young, deliberately putting unusual items together. At the same time the sartorial Italian man is not neglected: worsted blazers, smart slacks with immaculate finishes, smooth styling in single and double-breasted versions.
In the same vein was a relaxed, equally suave topical Cuban beat look, with a cool 1950s note, jackets featuring light-coloured wool fabrics, peaked lapels and a soft drape. Tailored shorts, just on the knee in contrasting fabrics, were the almost universal way for the young to wear a suit.
Sportswear continues to make its mark in performance demands, ultra-casual details and cool designs based around knits, where wool is a natural component in the summer mix.


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City of Hamilton confident Tim Hortons Field will host Monday game
Contractors 'give us confidence' stadium will host Labour Day Classic: public works boss
With less than two days left until kickoff, Hamilton city officials say they expect Tim Hortons Field will be ready for the annual Labour Day Classic between the Tiger-Cats and the Toronto Argonauts.
"Contractors have advised us that they will be completing all the key construction pieces over the next two days, and getting final sign-off this weekend," said Gerry Davis, the city's manager of public works, in a written statement sent to Tiger-Cats management.
"These assurances give us confidence that the Labour Day game will proceed."
- Related: Fire at Tim Hortons Field causes $25k in damage
- Related: Ticats' stadium ready or not? We won't know until Sunday
- Related: 'Failure is not an option,' says Ticats owner
Team officials say they're heartened that the city is confident the game will be played in Hamilton.
"It's great to hear assurances from the contractors and confidence from the City of Hamilton that the Labour Day Classic will proceed as scheduled at Tim Hortons Field," Ticats owner Bob Young said in a statement sent out by the team.
In order for Monday's CFL contest to go ahead, public safety inspectors will have to issue an occupancy permit for the stadium. That won't happen until at least Sunday afternoon, the city has said.
Even if the city grants an occupancy permit, Tim Hortons Field, which will eventually have permanent seating for 24,000 spectators, won't be running at full capacity. Sections of the stands that will house around 6,000 seats will still be off-limits, the team says, and a number of VIP and entertainment areas won't be ready either.
Backup plans are in place if $145-million stadium isn't ready for the 1 p.m. kickoff. The Ticats have said the game could be postponed until 7 p.m. or held instead at Toronto's Rogers Centre, the home field for the Argonauts as well as baseball's Toronto Blue Jays.
Saturday fire
The city's statement comes only hours after police said that a fire in one of the venue's mechanical rooms won't affect whether the stadium will be ready for Monday's games.
The Ontario Fire Marshal was at the scene investigating the cause of the Saturday morning fire — which was isolated to a room on the third floor of the stadium's west stands — while dozens of workers prepared the complex for Monday's showdown.
Tim Hortons Field was originally slated to open on June 30, before the Ticats' first home game of the 2014 season. But a bitterly cold winter and problems with building subcontractors led to unexpected delays, forcing the team to play three games at McMaster Univesity's Ron Joyce Stadium.


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Evolutionary Games. Econ 171. The Hawk-Dove Game. Animals meet encounter each other in the woods and must decide how to share a resource. There are two possible strategies. Hawk: Demand the entire resource and be prepared to fight for it. Dove: Be willing to share or retreat.
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Econ 171
Creature 2
Creature 1
Does this Game have a Pure Strategy Nash Equilibrium?
Both play Hawk is the only pure strategy Nash Equilibrium.
Both play Dove is the only pure strategy Nash Equilibrium.
There are two pure strategy Nash Equilibria.
There is no pure strategy Nash equilibrium .
Expected Payoff
Hawk's Payoff
Dove's Payoff
Fraction of Hawks
When fraction of hawks is smaller than equilibrium, Hawks reproduce faster than
Doves. Fraction of Hawks grows.
When fraction of hawks is larger than equilibrium, Doves reproduce faster than Hawks,
Fraction of Doves grows.
Notion 1: Equilibrium is dynamically stable in the sense that a small number of mutants does worse than the equilibrium population and so mutation cannot invade.
Notion 2: Equilibrium is a symmetric Nash equilibrium (possibly in mixed strategies) such that no possible mutation does better against the equilibrium strategy and if it does as well as the equilibrium strategy against the equilibrium strategy, it does worse against itself.
Two Minutes
One Minute
Two days
Fly 2
Fly 1
This game has two pure strategy Nash equilibria.
This game has one pure strategy Nash equilibria where both use the
one minute strategy.
C) This game has no pure strategy Nash equilibria and no mixed strategy equilibria.
D) This game has no pure strategy Nash equilibria and one symmetric mixed
Strategy Nash equilibrium.
2=4p+1. That is: p=1/4.
Payoff to two-minute flies
Payoff to one-minute flies
Fraction of One-minute flies
This game has only one pure strategy Nash equilibrium: Both Defect
This game has only one pure strategy Nash equilibrium: Both Cooperate
This game has two pure strategy Nash equilibria and one mixed strategy
Nash equilbrium.
D) This game has two pure strategy Nash equilibriaand no mixed strategy
Nash equilibrium.
E) This game has no pure strategy Nash equilibria, but one mixed strategy
Nash equilibrium.
Payoff to Defect
Payoff to Cooperate
Probability of Cooperate
What are the evolutionary stable states?
Why do male zebras not help raise their babies? Why don't female zebras desert?
Why do male birds usually cooperate in child care?
There are no pure strategy Nash equilibria. There is a unique symmetric mixed
Strategy equilibrium with probabilities (1/3,1/3,1/3).
All strategies do equally well against this strategy. But the strategy stone does better against itself than the strategy (1/3,1/3,1/3) does against stone. So a mutant stone population could invade.


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I have been finding it increasingly difficult to avoid reading about the heartbreaking disappearance of Madeleine McCann. The darling 4 year old girl disappeared from a Portugal resort where she was vacationing with her parents and twin brothers; parents Kate and Gerry McCann are official suspects.
It's been difficult because I'm a news junky, and this story is all over the place. While other people read fiction, do crossword puzzles, or play cards, I read as many different papers a day as I can get my hands on. But while most aspects of media behaviour fascinate me, it's the media's own fascination with this kind of story makes me turn away.
The adage, "If it bleeds, it leads" may sound a little simplistic, but it fits this situation pretty accurately. News outlets can bank on the fact that the public will follow abduction stories, because they elicit fears of what might happen to our own children. And what do we do when we are afraid? We tune in to TV news and buy the morning paper, to become better armed with the information that will help us protect our own loved ones.
The problem is that while we may feel better informed about abductions (and so take steps to ensure that our own children never play unsupervised and never have an unscripted moment), the chances that anyone will ever attempt to abduct our own children is actually very small.
The Abduction of Children by Strangers in Canada: Nature and Scope, a 2003 study published on the federal government's Our Missing Children web site, indicates that statistics from the Missing Children's Registry somewhat misrepresent the true number of abductions by strangers or acquaintances (essentially, abductions by someone who is not a parent). While the registry indicates eighty-three such abductions between 2000 and 2001 in Canada, there were, "... surprisingly quite a few technical errors which contributed to the inflated number of reported stranger abductions." The actual number of stranger/acquaintance abductions during those two years? Five. Sadly, four of those five children were killed by their abductors. Still, no matter how horrible the circumstances, that is an average of two deaths per year across all of Canada as a result of an abduction by a stranger or acquaintance.
We all worry about child abductions, but aside from being vigilant and educating our children, there may be little we can do to protect them from such a tragedy. However, most parents spend much more time fretting about improbable abductions than they do about the thing that really is killing our children on a much more consistent and avoidable basis: traffic accidents.
Safe Kids Canada reports that every year more than seventy Canadian children die in car crashes (emphasis my own):
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death and serious injury to children of all ages, but those age 4 to 9 are currently the most vulnerable. Canadian data shows that the death rate from car crashes has dropped in all other age groups, but not for children in this age range.
Data also tells us that the majority of Canadian children age 4 to 9 are riding in seat belts, which puts them at risk for serious injuries in a crash. Seat belts are designed to fit adult proportions; children generally don't reach the right size for a seat belt until at least age 9, often older.
Children who are too small for seat belts run the risk of what doctors call "seat belt syndrome" in the event of a crash. This refers to the range of serious injuries that happen to the internal organs and spine when a seat belt doesn't fit properly.
The risks of serious injury and death can be significantly reduced by use of a booster seat, a simple safety device that ensures a seat belt fits a child correctly. Unfortunately, our research shows that [only] 28 per cent of Canadian parents of children age 4 to 9 say they are using booster seats for their children. Most parents think that their children are too big or too old for booster seats, but they are not.
What's the matter with us? We allow the media to play on our fears and transfix us with stories about abductions over which we have absolutely no control, but we simultaneously choose to ignore that over which we have complete control, namely the interior of our vehicles! Less than a third of parents are using booster seats for children who require them, and our children are needlessly dieing as a result. Surveys have also found that even when appropriate child safety devices are employed, they are often used improperly.
Hopefully that will change. Ontario recently moved to make child car seats and booster seats mandatory; proper use of these devices, "... can reduce the risk of serious injury or death by as much as 71 per cent". Beginning next summer, BC will have similar rules in place.
Our provincial governments are doing the right thing by regulating our behaviour. But parents, given the risk they otherwise face, shouldn't we be taking the time to protect our children by learning how to install child safety seats? Shouldn't we also make sure that our children never travel unless they're seated in appropriate devices that have properly installed?
Next time you start to watch, read, or listen to an update about Madeleine McCann, put down the paper, or turn off the radio or TV. Don't be the parent who survives an accident, only to live with the guilt of knowing that they didn't help their child survive. Instead, take control of your own child's safety; go buy your kid a car seat or a booster seat, or have a look at the one they already use. Is it tethered at the back? Is it belted in so tight that it's hard to move side-to-side? If you're uncertain or need some help, call your local fire department. I'm a Seatbelt Nazi... you should consider becoming one too.
To share your thoughts with Right Up Your Alley: Kamloops readers, click on "Comments" (below).


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"This was an election about the 99 percent, said Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown on the day his home state overwhelmingly rejected the anti-labor agenda of Republican Governor John Kasich. "The 99 percent is pushing back." Brown is right. But what was especially significant about the November 8 referendum vote in Ohio and a number of other elections around the country that day was the extent to which they sent specific signals about the willingness of the 99 percent to push back against both Wall Street and the big-money politics that has so skewed the national discourse. At the same time, they rejected attacks on abortion rights, immigrant rights and voter rights.
There's always plenty of spin to go around after an off-year election, as politicians and pundits attempt to find amid the electoral tea leaves a theory of all things political. But the message from Ohio was not open to interpretation.
"This is the only time I know of in the history of the United States that collective bargaining has been on the ballot," said Brown, a pro-union Democrat who staked his political future (he's up for re-election in 2012) on a stand with the labor movement that Republicans have attacked and more than a few Democrats have kept at arm's length in recent years. "Voters had a choice. Do they want workers to have a voice? Do they want unions? The choice couldn't have been clearer. The answer couldn't have been clearer."
The genius of a referendum result is the clarity it provides. Ohioans were asked whether the state should implement dramatic changes in labor law that Kasich and his legislative allies had passed to limit the ability of public employees to organize unions with the muscle to advocate effectively not just in the workplace but in the political sphere. Despite an aggressive campaign by Kasich and big spending by national conservative and corporate interests, Ohioans sided with public workers and their unions.
"We didn't ask for this fight," said AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka as he rallied hundreds of union activists on the morning of the Ohio vote. That was certainly true. But perhaps labor should have asked. As painful, and as expensive, as this year's fights in Ohio, Wisconsin and other states have been, they have renewed the confidence of a movement that was almost universally portrayed as being in decline. Faced with life-or-death struggles, unions did what critics—and, to be honest, even some supporters—doubted was possible: they overcame old differences between public and private sector unions, abandoned the bureaucratic responses that earned labor organizations too many comparisons with dinosaurs, renewed an old-school militancy and combined it with an effective embrace of new technologies and new strategies for coalition building.
And they won. Big.
To be sure, the win was defensive rather than offensive. Ohio unions and their allies across the country were not organizing new members or winning better contracts. They were defending what they had. But that's no small victory, coming just one year after the Republican sweep of the November 2010 elections was heralded by GOP strategists, the Tea Party movement and the chattering class as a "transformational" rejection of progressive ideals, of public sector responses to big challenges, of government itself. Now a poster boy for the conservative movement has been rebuked by the voters of Ohio, and another poster boy, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, is threatened by a recall drive that begins November 15.


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Lindsay Lohan's Maserati Mess
Lindsay Lohan gets out of her Maserati after getting into a minor car accident on Monday (March 23) in Glendale, Calif.
The 22-year-old actress was not driving, but was sitting as a passenger in the car while her assistant was driving. Lindsay's assistant hit a Subaru in front of them, damaging the front left of the Maserati. She has had two previous accidents, one in 2005 and the other in 2007.
Lindsay is currently doing community service after an arrest warrant was issued by Beverly Hills Police to complete her sentence for her 2007 mishap.
15+ pictures inside of Lindsay Lohan's Maserati mess…


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The Calgary Catholic School District offers a variety of Evening Credit Courses in semester II (February – June 2018). These courses are available to all high school students as well as adult learners.
If you wish to view your receipt information, click here.Courses will be offered on Tuesdays & Thursdays from 5 to 8 p.m.
A full refund, less $10 for processing fee will be offered if the student notifies St. Anne Academic Centre on or before February 1, 2018. To withdraw, phone 403-500-2012 ext. 412.
Phone: 403-500-2012 ext. 412 or 403-500-2478 for international students.Set up an ActiveNet accountChange/Re-set username/password
Cosmetology (Hair-styling – 5 credit) This evening course is comprised of five 1-credit courses that offer flexibility to students whether at the introductory, intermediate or advanced levels. Students can progress through each course in this highly individualized program according to their interest and commitment. Note that there is an additional fee of $80 for the specialized materials used in the course.
Diploma Exam dates are as follows:
Diploma Exam date is as follows:
Religious Education 35 (3-credit) Please note: This course is open to current Grade 12 students only. Accreditation for this Grade 12 Religious Education (Roman Catholic) 35 – In Search of the Good (3-credit) course is granted by Alberta Education. In Search of the Good challenges students to understand themselves as moral persons called to discipleship by living the way of Christ. Through an examination of ethical theories, the revelation of Sacred Scripture, and the lived experience and teaching of the Catholic Church, the course invites students to mature as active participants in their faith.


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Rocio Romero's LVM Home
- Location: multiple locations
- Website: rocioromero.com
LV Mini. We've seen other work of Rocio Romero in Dwell and on Small Space, Big Style, but we've never looked at the basics behind the LV series and specifically, the LVM. The LVM�or LV Mini�is a 625 sq. ft. sq. ft studio that is 25'-1� x 25'-1�. It can be used as a studio/office space or small guesthouse with one bedroom, one bathroom, kitchen, and living/dining area. The LVM home starts at $ 21,000...
Rocio Romerohas a really helpful/informative website, especially the LV FAQs. Via The Brilliance. �aaron


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They Can't Spell, But They Tweet
Aubrey Anderson-Emmons — the child actor known for playing Lily, the adoptive daughter of Cam and Mitchell on ABC's Modern Family — has nearly 16,000 followers on Twitter. But when I call her mom Amy Anderson to talk about Aubrey's account, it quickly becomes clear that the four-year-old has no idea it even exists. "Do you know what Twitter is?" I hear Anderson ask her daughter. "You know sometimes we answer questions for people on the computer."
For now, Aubrey seems far more concerned with the location of her Hello Kitty backpack within the house than with answering her mom's questions. "Okay, if you can't be quiet you need to go upstairs," Anderson warns. "As soon as I'm done, we'll go outside and ride our bikes."
A photo of mother and daughter bike riding outside their Los Angeles house, or on the set of Modern Family, are the kinds of things Anderson tweets from her daughter's account, @AubreyLily. She'll also frequently field questions about Aubrey's favorite colors and foods. Though the account's description makes clear that the tweets are typed out by Aubrey's Mom, they're all written in first person.
Child stars have long dealt with excess pressure and overexposure, which can end up being a burden on both the child and the family. Today, they have another thing to worry about – maintaining a coherent social media presence, often before the kids can even spell.
Aubrey's Twitter seems like the project of a highly ambitious Stage Mom, eager to share anything and everything and grow her daughter's fame. But Anderson says it grew out of necessity, not out of self-promotion. Anderson herself is a stand-up comedian, and she found fans tweeting at her with questions for Aubrey. "My Twitter started getting flooded with inquiries for her. And I'm a comedian, so I sometimes tweet some dicey things or make snarky comments. They're just not appropriate for her fans. She's four."
For Anderson, keeping up with the feed and responding to fan questions has become a tempting addition. "I'm addicted to my iPhone so it's hard not to look at it sometimes," she says.
While Anderson created Aubrey's Twitter to have a feed distinct from her own, other moms of celebrity kids have the opposite problem.
Eden Wood, the seven-year-old Toddlers and Tiaras star who now has her own show on Logo, is occasionally subjected to an accidental tweet from her mother. "It's kind of funny, her mom has a Twitter too. She sometimes mixes them up," explains Eden's publicist Andrew Sullivan, who stars in the Logo show alongside her.
Eden, like Aubrey, doesn't know much about Twitter in terms of how to compose a tweet or reply to a message. "But she knows how many fans she has," Sullivan says. "She'll be the first to tell you how famous she is." Though she's too young to tweet for herself, knowing her number of Twitter followers (just over 10,000, a not entirely insane number that should keep her ego in check for now) provides a quantification of her fame in a way that's new for young stars (and, well, for adults too).
But stars like Eden and Aubrey (assuming their careers continue in the direction they're headed) will have to take over their accounts some day. When?
Dr. Carole Lieberman, a Beverly Hills psychiatrist who frequently sees former child stars, says parents tweeting on behalf of celebrity kids is seriously bad news.
"It is an extension of the inappropriate stage mom relationship, and this is just taking it to another level where the mother is literally speaking for her child," she says. "With Twitter, where presumably the parents are sending out tweets that are supposedly from the child, you're further taking away the child's identity. There's already a confusion between the parent and child identity, and to have the parent actually speaking for the child can become very psychologically disturbing for the child. What happens when they're no longer the cute
little kid?"
Lieberman suggests that there is no way for the experience to be a positive one. Even though parents argue they're just responding to fans, she says doing so without the child's full understanding is serving a parent's needs and desires more than it is the child's. Plus, she adds, it can be unsafe. "The other part of it is the parent has to protect the child from a stalker," she adds. "If you tweet a photo of a child at a park or school, you're putting your child in danger. Parents really do need to take this into consideration, because most child stars do not make the transition into adult fame."
Anderson worries a little about the space being unsafe. "Sometimes you see people who you're like, oh that seems like a creep. It's some middle aged man saying oh I love you," she says. But mostly, she reasons, "She need learns to write and spell."
While there are "creeps" on Twitter, Sullivan argues it's actually a less dangerous space than Facebook, where there's friending, more photos, and more sophisticated messaging capacity. "Facebook is a lot riskier. It's less likely for a kid to interact in an inappropriate way on Twitter. It's so public," he says.
While Eden's too young at seven to tweet for herself, Sullivan points out that Lucas Triana, the nine-year-old star of Dance Moms Miami, manages his own Twitter and Instagram. "He responds to every tweet. He doesn't write back big words. It's cute," says Sullivan, who's Triana's manager and publicist. Sullivan argues that it's safe and suitable for Lucas to do his own tweeting because he's "so dance focused that his tweets don't stray away from dance-related stuff. He doesn't really have much personal life to tweet about." But take a quick look at Lucas' feed, @itslucastriana, and you'll find that he's actually busy tweeting photos of his younger brother and a gift he made for Mother's Day. It's innocuous (for now), but his 10,579 and counting followers are certainly not hearing only about dance.
Like his fellow youthful tweeters, his feed is also peppered with "watch our show tonight" self-promotion and the like. Somehow, self-involved tweeting feels less irritating when it's (supposedly) coming from a child.
Read more: http://buzzfeed.com/hillaryreinsberg/they-cant-spell-but-they-tweet


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Is Replacement Battery defect?
Replaced the battery coming with the iPhone by a new Battery received from ifixit following the the ifixit-guide.
When connecting to the charger the battery appeared on the screen showing a small red bar and a symbol similar to a lightning, but the battery won't charge.
I once more disassembeled and reassembled the IPhone checking all connectors, but no better result. No real function on Power- and Home-button.
Any suggestion what to do next?
Gerald Abendroth
Is this a good question?


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Thousands of girls in South Africa are queuing up each month for physical virginity test to prove that they are virgins, reviving an African tradition seen by many as the answer to the scourge of AIDS.
Bare-breasted teenagers wearing nothing but strings of beads and colourful loincloths regularly submit to the ordeal of having a stranger check if their hymens are intact, leaping for joy when the test confirms that they are still virgins.
Advocates say the revival of the rite, which had died out in all but a few rural areas late in the 20th century, is the most effective way to stop the spread of teenage pregnancies and the deadly HIV virus, believed to affect one in 10 South Africans.
Opponents argue that the practice is unconstitutional, unhygienic and violates the human rights of those being tested.
"Those who are behind the comeback...say that if we test young girls to see if they are virgins they will be fearful and will not engage in sexual activity," said Phumelele Ntombela-Nzinande, former deputy head of the Commission for Gender Equality.
"We are arguing that this practice undermines the principles of equality, freedom and human dignity. It is difficult to tell whether or not a girl has had intercourse and after touching about 600 girls you can easily transfer infections."
Girls between the age of seven and 26 lie on a mat in front of the woman doing the test, which only takes a few seconds. It is often carried out with bare hands and the tester seldom washes them.
Girls who pass get white stars pasted on their foreheads and a certificate confirming their virginity.
"We have come here to celebrate and keep our culture going," 16- year-old Brenda Mkhize told Reuters television after her test.
"It's better to be a virgin than to have AIDS and have a baby at the age of 16...we don't see any reason to sleep with a guy, and I think I will stay like this until I get married."
Mkhize was one of hundreds of girls attending a virginity celebration at a sports stadium near Durban in December.
Afterward, the girls sang and danced in traditional Zulu fashion.
"We are here because we are proud of ourselves, because we are virgins," another girl said.
Any volunteers from Asia for this tests??????
Rabu, 16 Mac 2011
African physical virginity test???
by Admin on Rabu, Mac 16, 2011 in People
By Admin di Rabu, Mac 16, 2011
Label: People
Langgan: Catat Ulasan (Atom)


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Thursday, January 20, 2005
Baylor CrimProf Quoted in Booker
Congratulations to Baylor CrimProf Mark Osler for being quoted in the Booker decision. Justice Steven's quoted the following passage from his Federal Sentencing Reporter article Uniformity and the Death of Traditional Sentencing Goals in the Age of Feeney: "While the thick-as-your-wrist Guideline Manual specifically directs sentencing judges to make thousands of determinations on discrete points, not once does it expressly direct that a specific decision leading to the applicable guideline range on the 256-box grid should or must turn on an individualized consideration of the traditional goals of sentencing." Details. . . [Mark Godsey]
January 20, 2005 in CrimProfs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
AZ Spousal Rape Reform
Arizona law essentially retains the marital rape exception. Some in the legislature are considering removing it. [Jack Chin]
January 20, 2005 in Criminal Law | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Jury Pool from Hell
Story here. [Jack Chin]
January 19, 2005 in News | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Interesting New Case Involving Katz Test
In People v. Galvadon, two police officers chased a suspect into a liquor store and then into a back room of the store that was typically used by store employees for commercial purposes. Once there, the officers found marijuana in plain view, and promptly arrested the store manager on duty at the time (in additional to the suspect they were chasing). The store manager moved to suppress the evidence, arguing that that he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the back room, and that therefore the officers' conduct amounted to an unconstitutional search. The Supreme Court of Colorado accepted the store manager's argument despite the fact that: (1) the liquor industry is a highly-regulated industry, which the state argued had diminished any expectation of privacy the store manager might have otherwise enjoyed in the space, and (2) several video cameras were located in the back room that recorded everything that occurred there. Regarding this second point, the state had argued that the store manager lost his expectation of privacy by "knowingly exposing" his actions in the back room to the store owner, who had access to the tapes. Rejecting this argument, the court stated: "The surveillance system in this case was viewable only by Galvadon and the owner of the store. The simple fact that Galvadon's activities were being recorded via the surveillance system is not enough to demonstrate he had no reasonable expectation of privacy from government intrusion. There is no evidence that the surveillance system was reviewable by the government or government officials." BNA summary here. Decision here and here. [Mark Godsey]
January 19, 2005 in Search and Seizure | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
WorldCom and Tyco Fraud Trials to Begin
The trial of former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers starts today in federal court in New York City. He is charged with one of largest frauds in U.S. history, topping $11 billion. Details. . . Listen to NPR story here. Also, jury selection has begun in the retrial of Dennis Kozlowski and Mark Swartz, formerly of Tyco International. Their first trial in Mahattan state court resulted in a mistrial when one juror held out for acquittal. Details . . . Listen to NPR story here. [Mark Godsey]
January 19, 2005 in White Collar | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Locker Room-Style Punishment for Jaywalkers in Manila
The police in Manila have instituted a new program whereby those who are caught jaywalking are smacked with a wet towel. Under the program, 20 patrol cars circle the city with wet blankets attached to poles ready to impose instant justice. Story . . . [Mark Godsey]
January 19, 2005 in News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)
New Article Spotlight: Weather and Crime Rates
Economics professors Brian Jacob of the JFK School of Government, Lars Lefgren of BYU and Enrico Moretti of UC-Berkeley have posted The Dynamics of Criminal Behavior: Evidence from Weather Shocks on SSRN. Here's the abstract:
The persistence of criminal activity is well documented. While such serial correlation may be evidence of social interactions in the production of crime, it may also be due to the persistence of unobserved determinants of crime. Moreover, there are good reasons to believe that, particularly over a short time horizon, there may actually be a negative relationship between crime rates in a particular area due to displacement. In this paper, we exploit the correlation between weather and crime to examine the short-run dynamics of criminal behavior. Drawing on crime-level data from the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System, we construct a panel of weekly crime data for 116 jurisdictions. Using the plausibly exogenous variation in lagged crime rates due to unexpected weather shocks, we find that the strong positive serial correlation documented in OLS is reversed. A ten percent increase in violent crime in one week is associated with a 2.6 percent reduction in crime the following week. The corresponding reduction for property crime is 2.0 percent. Additional displacement appears to occur over a longer time horizon. Furthermore, the results do not appear to be driven by persistence in weather conditions over time or displacement of non-criminal economic activity. These findings suggest that the long-run impact of temporary crime prevention efforts may be smaller than the short-run effects.
To obtain the paper, click here. [Mark Godsey]
January 19, 2005 in Scholarship | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Richard Hatch, of TV's Survivor Fame, Charged with Tax Evasion for Not Reporting His Winnings
From the Smoking Gun: "Richard Hatch, the first winner of CBS's "Survivor," was charged today with failing to report his $1 million reality TV windfall to the Internal Revenue Service. The below two-count criminal information, unsealed today in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island, charges Hatch with filing a false 2000 tax return that omitted his seven-figure "Survivor" winnings. The nudity enthusiast, 43, is also charged with filing a false return for 2001 (he allegedly did not report $321,000 paid to him by a Boston radio station). If convicted of the felony charges, Hatch could face a maximum of five years in prison for each count and could be hit with a $250,000 fine. Hatch is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges in Providence federal court January 24." [Mark Godsey]
January 18, 2005 in News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Job Post: ACLU Racial Justice Program Director (NYC)
Announcement available here. [Jack Chin]
January 18, 2005 in Miscellaneous | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Supreme Court To Hear Oral Arguments in Two Criminal Cases Today
Rompilla v. Beard, 04-5462, questions presented: (1) Does Simmons v. South Carolina, 512 U.S. 154 (1994) require a life-without-parole jury instruction where the only alternative to a death sentence under state law is life without the possibility of parole? (2) Has a defendant received unconsitutionally ineffective assistance of counsel at a capital sentencing hearing where counsel does not review the defendant's prior conviction record which would provide mitigating evidence regarding the defendant's traumatic childhood and mental health impairments? More details here. Read Talkleft's analysis of the case here.
Johnson v. U.S., 04-05, question presented: When a federal court bases an enhanced sentence on a vacated state conviction, is the elimination of the state conviction a "fact" supporting a prisoner's 28 U.S.C. sec. 2255 claim requiring reduction of the prisoner's sentence? Details here. [Mark Godsey]
January 18, 2005 in Supreme Court | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)
New Article Spotlight: Silence and the Racial Dimensions of Megan's Law
CrimProf Daniel Filler of Alabama has posted the above-titled paper on SSRN. The paper was recently published in the Iowa Law Review. The abstract states:
In the last decade of the twentieth century, every state adopted a new criminal offender community notification law. While critics challenged these provisions on a number of grounds, one potential consequential cost of these laws received no attention: the possibility that they might disparately impose their significant burdens on racial minorities and, particularly, African-Americans. This article breaks this silence about race and Megan's Laws, establishing that community notification provisions do have a significantly disparate racial impact. Using newly gathered statistical data, across multiple jurisdictions, it shows that African-Americans are over-represented on these public registries of criminals. It considers how the contours of these provisions may promote this result, and also explores why this disparity is consequential.
Moving from an empirical study of these provisions, the article then investigates the reasons why race concerns never surfaced in the community notification debates. Given the centrality of racial critiques in the criminal law literature, one might have expected legislators, advocates, or at least scholars to have investigated this issue previously. The article suggests several reasons for this remarkable silence, including the narrow scope of equal protection doctrine, failures of legislatures to demand transparency about race, social phenomena such as moral panics and availability cascades, and the framing of Megan's Laws as an answer to white-on-white crime. It then offers suggestions for doctrinal, legislative, and scholarly moves that increase the transparency of race issues, exposing them to fuller democratic debate.
Sounds pretty interesting. To obtain a copy of the paper, click here. [Mark Godsey]
January 18, 2005 in Scholarship | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Reality Show Jail for Former Prosecutors
From TalkLeft, a casting call for ex-prosecutors willing to spend 30 days in a reality show jail. [Jack Chin]
January 18, 2005 in News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Cashing In on High Profile Criminal Trials
Findlaw.com and CourtTV columnist Jonna Spilbor discusses the phenomenon of witnesses, like Amber Frey, cashing in on their roles in high-profile criminal trials. She writes:
Should jurors and lay witnesses in criminal trials be permitted to turn a civic duty into cold hard cash? In my opinion, the cons clearly outweigh the pros. The First Amendment issue is one for the courts to decide; but the policy issue, at least, clearly counsels against allowing profit from either testimony or jury service. A criminal defendant is entitled to a fair and impartial jury of his peers. When the prospect of money enters in the jury box, it's not a stretch to surmise that some juror, somewhere, will be more interested in the prospect of cold hard cash than in the thankless job of jury duty. But jurors should be thinking about justice - not how they can profit. One thing is certain: justice should never be for sale. What about witnesses? They, too, should keep their eye on the ball: They ought to be thinking of telling the truth, not of maximizing their profit. When money enters the picture, there is a very real potential that "star witnesses" with dollars signs in their eyes may color or create "evidence" to maximize their profitability. After all, much like real celebrities, these courtroom "stars" are made, not born. They know more lurid testimony will make their stories more saleable. The temptation to exaggerate - or outright lie - may prove irresistible.
Spilbor goes on to suggest that Frey could be prosecuted under California law for receiving compensation as a non-expert witness, and that, at a minimum, her book deal should have been disclosed to the defense as ammunition for cross-examination. Read more . . . [Mark Godsey]
January 18, 2005 in News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Oakland Imposes Curfew on All Probationers
"As a condition of release from jail, probationers in Oakland are now required to stay in their homes between the hours of 10 pm and 6 am seven days a week. The only exceptions are for work and emergencies. Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown says 80 percent of homicides in the city involve felons who are on probation and parole, and 70 percent of homicides occur at night." Full story . . . [Mark Godsey]
January 18, 2005 in Criminal Justice Policy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Pardon for Civil Rights Offense
The Governor of Louisiana pardoned a woman convicted in 1963 of an offense involving integration of swimming pools. This is the Governor's first pardon. NPR story here. [Jack Chin]
January 18, 2005 in Civil Rights | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Please Take This Survey
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January 18, 2005 in About This Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Monday, January 17, 2005
Washington GOP Seeks Convict List for Recount
Evidently, the purpose will be to challenge voters who may have been ineligible. (But: Even if ineligible voters voted, how will anybody know who they voted for? Unless . . . that's on file somewhere.) Story here. [Jack Chin]
January 17, 2005 in Criminal Justice Policy | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Big Brother in America's Cities: The Trend of Police Video Surveillance in Public Space
A few weeks ago, I posted a story about the police setting up permanent video cameras to conduct surveillance of high crime areas in Dallas. This weekend, while doing my normal Google scans for interesting stories, I ran across a similar story about a new police surveillance system in New Orleans. This prompted me to to run a Google search on the topic, and within 5 minutes I found articles about new police surveillance systems in public places in Washington D.C., Chicago, New York City, Honolulu, Baltimore, Newark, Tampa, Virginia Beach, Memphis, Tacoma, Hollywood, Anchorage, San Diego, Nashville and Palm Springs. Chicago's surveillance network, which the police call "Operation Disruption," includes video cameras with gunshot detectors and microphones so sensitive they can detect when a silencer is being used to muffle gunfire. Two months ago, Chicago spent $3 million to expand the program. Washington D.C.'s system, which the police installed without public knowledge or approval from city council, allows an officer to zoom in on people one-half mile away with the flip of a switch. New York City's system allows a cop to zoom in close enough to read a Broadway show ticket in a scalper's hand from 50 feet away.
The ACLU opposes this trend, and convinced the city of Oakland to drop their video surveillance program out of concerns for privacy. Besides the obvious privacy concerns, the ACLU is worried about abuse, and points to a recent example where a tragic suicide caught on film by an NYPD camera somehow ended up on a porn site. But police departments say the video surveillance acts as a deterrent and allows them to solve crimes after-the-fact. They also cite to national security concerns post 9-11. You can read and listen to NPR stories on the subject here, which do a good job of summarizing the arguments on both sides of the debate. Also see CrimProf Christopher Slobogin's law review article on the subject here. [Mark Godsey]
January 17, 2005 in Search and Seizure | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (2)
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Court
Here are some reported cases involving Dr. King. In King v. State, 119 S.E.2d 77 (Ga. App. 1961), the court upheld a conviction for a traffic offense but vacated the sentence of 12 months in the work house. Dr. King was a defendant in Gilligan v. King, 264 N.Y.S.2d 309 (Sup. Ct. 1965), aff'd, 290 N.Y.S.2d 1014 (App. Div. 1968), a libel action pursued by a NYPD Lieutenant who killed a 15 year old black which set off rioting in New York. Article here. He was also a defendant in the New York Times v. Sullivan action, a libel case in which the plaintiff was a police executive criticized for brutalizing and/or failing to protect protesters. Parks v. New York Times Co., 195 F. Supp. 919 (M.D. Ala. 1961), rev'd, 308 F.2d 474 (5th Cir. 1962), certiorari denied, 376 U.S. 949 (1964). As Mark Eckenwiler pointed out, he was convicted of criminal contempt for violating an injunction against picketing in Walker v. City of Birmingham, 181 So.2d 493 (Ala. 1965), aff'd, 388 U.S. 307 (1967). He was the plaintiff in King v. Mister Maestro, Inc., 224 F. Supp. 101 (S.D.N.Y. 1963), an intellectual property action protecting his copyright on the "I Have a Dream" speech, and in Bond v. Floyd, 251 F. Supp. 333 (N.D. Ga.), rev'd, 385 U.S. 116 (1966), an action protecting Julian Bond's right to a seat in the Georgia legislature in spite of his opposition to the Vietnam war. Here is his Letter from Birmingham Jail. UPDATE: LaborLawProf has a good post, and TalkLeft has a nice collection of comments and links. [Jack Chin]
January 17, 2005 in Civil Rights | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (3)
Ninth Circuit: Covered, Closed Hatchback Area of Car Falls Within Belton Rule
The Ninth Circuit held last week in U.S. v. Mayo that the Belton rule, which allows officers to search the passenger compartment of a car incident to the arrest of a "recent occupant," also permits a search of the hatchback area behind the rear seat. While a few other courts have agreed that hatchback areas may be searched under Belton, Mayo appears to be the first case to apply Belton to a hatchback area that had been closed off from the passenger compartment with a hatchback cover. Apparently, the car in Mayo--a Honda Civic hatchback--came with one of those factory-installed covers that snaps into place and turns the hatchback into a protected storage area primarily accessible from the outside through the back hatchback door. The real question in Mayo, therefore, was whether the closed hatchback area was more comparable to trunk space, which the police are not allowed to search incident to arrest under Belton, or the passenger compartment, which police are free to search.
The Ninth Circuit recognized that a passenger in such a car might have "difficulty" obtaining a weapon from such a closed hatchback area (potential access to weapons was the justification in Belton for allowing searches of the passenger compartment incident to arrest). Nevertheless, the court held that this area was more comparable to the passenger compartment than the trunk and could therefore be searched.
The Mayo holding seems like a stretch to me. While it's possible that a passenger in the passenger compartment could access a weapon hidden in a sealed-off hatchback, this would be no easier than accessing a weapon in a trunk (most cars these days allow occupants to snap forward one of the back seats revealing an open pathway to the trunk). The purpose of hatchback covers are in essence to convert the space into the functional equivalent of a trunk, and there just doesn't seem like a major difference between the two. But then again, the courts at every turn have willingly expanded Belton past its initial rationale (which was already an expansion on the principles set forth in Chimel), particularly after Thornton. Seems like the dissent in Belton was right when it warned that the Belton rule isn't so "bright-line" after all. Or maybe it is a bright-line rule. Indeed, the Mayo court seemingly adopted the following bright-line rule: Any back part of any vehicle may now be subject to search incident to arrest unless it is officially called "the trunk" in the owner's manual. [Mark Godsey]
January 17, 2005 in Search and Seizure | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)


text:
I just signed up for a Google account to start a blog on Blogger. I wanted to enter my profile info before starting the blog. I can't put in my real birthday, which is 29 February 1992 (one of those rare people with leap year birthdays, lol).
I get an error that says "Please enter date in format MM/DD" which I think is with a zero before the single digits. But I put in 02/29 and get the error, so I tried 02/28 and everything went fine. Why does Google seem to think no one could've been born on a Leap Day? I'm all set to just use GMail without Blogger and switch to WordPress or Tumbler! :-(
Thanks :) Good to know I'm not alone!
Google was programmed by BOZOs who don't see things as they are, but as they want them to be.
Google was programmed by BOZOs who don't see things as they are, but as they want them to be.
It seems like Google just overlooked this date and there's not much you can do about it. I just Googled it a bit and it looks like you're not the only one with this problem. Who knows, maybe if there are enough of you they'll change it!
For now it seems like you'd have to settle with Feb 28 as your birthday...


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text:
It's hard to imagine a time where the art of comedy didn't intersect with the art of offense: humor and all the best things about it are often so deeply rooted in racial stereotypes and the social landscape that it consistently splinters the public on just when, if even possible, comedy goes too far. Can an interpersonal joke work if it has no social stigma to play against? While the disputes are many, it's hard to pinpoint a universal line that should never be crossed and what stigmas are off-limits, and it's for that reason the most notoriously crude comics are often the most polarizing.
And then there's Ben Hoffman, who spends most of his time on Comedy Central's new sketch show/man-on-the-street/adventure series The Ben Show pointing out all of his own shortcomings and flaws instead of yours, and while that could be where the real comedic heart of the show lies, you have to wonder why that is. We talked to the comedian about this week's Oscars controversies, the recent comedic trend of straight guys going gay, and why he turns the insults inward on The Ben Show.
A lot of the humor on The Ben Show comes from your own self-deprecation: you consider yourself a pansy, you admit to not being well-endowed, you call yourself a "flabby jew." Why is that?
It's so much funnier for me to insult myself; I'm not a mean person, I don't want to make fun of these people who are nice enough to be on my show. I mean, I don't mind letting them hang themselves on the show, but for the most part, it's much more fun for me, and I can leave with a good conscience knowing that I just met someone and they had fun. I always turn the humor on myself, and yeah, there's other comedians who go after celebrities, but the number one target of my humor is myself. That's the person I wanna go after.
Speaking of that, a lot of people had an issue with Seth MacFarlane hosting the Oscars: they felt he was racist, misogynistic…
I didn't catch it at the time, but I saw a lot of sites talking about it. I read some of it, and I think it's misguided; they were talking about George Clooney and Quvenzhané Wallis, and to me, that's a joke about George Clooney likes young women. It has nothing to do with the girl. To make fun of Kim Kardashian being hairy, that's not making fun of a woman, that's making fun of a Kardashian. It felt to me like the target was misplaced. I know he did the Boob song, but weren't the women in that on-screen as well? I don't like to judge other comedians on their work, but if Seth MacFarlane makes fun of Naomi Watts, and Naomi Watts is in on the joke, it's not for me to say [if it's offensive]. I didn't get it.
There was also the controversy with The Onion calling Quvenzhané Wallis a cunt. Do you think that went too far?
There's always limits. People say that there aren't any, but you have to watch what you say. I don't know who wrote the tweet, but he obviously didn't personally mean that she was a cunt. I'm not a big fan of apologizing for comedy, but I'm also not a big fan of calling underage girls cunts. I think you just gotta go with it and see what happens. There's balls in being willing to apologize, but I guess my main concern is that I've been a big fan of The Onion for years. I'm used to what they do, so it didn't throw me personally. I like that kind of humor, but it's their right to apologize for it. I find it impossible to believe that there was any sort of malicious intent in that tweet. But controversy moves at the speed of a tweet these days, and I refuse to think about my comedy in that sense.
You come into Comedy Central while they're the midst of a heyday: they have a pretty successful roster comprised of Workaholics, Key & Peele, Tosh.0, and even Kroll Show, which recently took off.
And I watch all those shows! I'd be watching those shows if I didn't have a show on the network. It's really weird; my friends are making fun of me for praising what they consider to be The Man. But Comedy Central isn't The Man; it's like a new era over there, and they're letting young new comedians they like do the shows they want to do. There wasn't a bidding war for this show; I didn't pitch this show anywhere. I wanted it on Comedy Central, and they wanted it. It was mutual, and it just kinda lucked out that this show happened at this time at this network. And I couldn't be at a better place. It's weird for me to say that, because I kind of thrive on hating my boss.
Does that fuel your work?
I work out of anger, and I don't know what to do anymore because I like the people I work with, and the notes they give me are helpful and make the show funnier. They want me to make the show I want to make. If I were someone who could feel the emotion of appreciating things, I would appreciate it. But I don't know who to take that anger out on. Maybe my family, or something.
Just to compare, many of those shows are goofy and work through a lot of writing to produce these incredibly outlandish scenarios and jokes. On the other hand, The Ben Show follows you around doing normal stuff. It's pretty subdued.
Well, there's a good chance that you only get one shot at this, and I wanted to put the real me on the screen. I didn't want to be filtered at all, and I'll go down with that ship. I can't control whether or not people like me personally or my sense of humor, but if you were to hang out with me, that's the guy you'd be getting. For better or worse, that's not a character [on screen]. That's just me. For the most part, people don't want to hang out with me. And as much as I've tried to change my personality, it's stuck! I can't do anything about that. But I can sleep at night if I do the show I want to do.
Another side of your humor, the "Guys' Night Out" sketch, comes from a growing comedic trend of straight guys being gay.
Well, I was just out with a bunch of my friends for the night, and as usual, we look around at the end of the night, and all the women had disappeared. So then we just pretend that it was on purpose, and that leads to us sucking each other's dicks. I think we've been bombarded in culture with so many beer commercials and things like that saying you have to be a man's man that it forces people to go the opposite way. Like, it's almost more manly that you're not afraid to do gay humor. Listen: I watch the NFL, I drink beer, I do all this typical guy stuff. But there's so much pressure on being macho that it's a relief to be able to go the other way. In the sketch, you're looking at the four least manly men screaming, "Guys' night out!" It's another way of making fun of myself, to pretend that my night didn't go well and we all went home and blew each other.
We'll let you pitch to the public: why should people watch The Ben Show?
I really think that when all is said and done, there is no other show like this on television. For better or worse, I think there's a new movement with Louie and Girls and this personal type of comedy, and I love Real Life, the Albert Brooks film, where Albert Brooks plays a character called Albert Brooks. I'm not comparing myself to those things, but I'm taking it one step further: I'm not even playing a character, I'm just myself. So it's almost a new way to do comedy, to do sketch, but in between, show me in my real life. This hasn't been done before: it's an experiment, in a way, I think it works. The goal of the show was just to pack it with so much comedy, and there's no downtime, there's no time for laughs, it's a show made for this generation, and I can't think of a comedy show that's done that before. Am I wrong to say that hasn't been done before? I'm kind of right, right?
I'd say you were right.
Now I feel like I'm complimenting myself too much. (Laughs)
The Ben Show premieres Thursday at 10pm EST on Comedy Central.
Terron R. Moore is a writer in New York, NY. You've previously seen him at VIBE, Bullett, and Ology, among others. Follow him on Twitter, he's a real funslinger.