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Development Associate
As the Development Associate, Aspasea assists the Development Lead in the design, implementation and engagement of Asylum Access's grassroots and major donor projects and campaigns. Her work includes strategizing and administering online tools to improve grassroots response and ensuring major donors are engaged and fully appreciated.
Prior to joining the Asylum Access team, Aspasea lived in Indonesia where she worked at an NGO on the national cookstove initiative. She conducted research into the impact of traditional stoves, particularly on women's health and the environment. Before, she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship based in Indonesia, during which time she taught English at a local public school and established a community environmental program.
Aspasea graduated with a BA in International Business from the University of Washington. She speaks English, Japanese, and Indonesian.


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REX THE WONDER DOGMedium: Comic Books
Published by: DC Comics
First Appeared: 1952
Creators: Robert Kanigher and Alex Toth
Please contribute to its necessary financial support.
Amazon.com or PayPal
He can ride a horse! He can swing through trees on a vine! He can hold wild animals at bay with a torch! DC Comics' Rex the Wonder Dog can do things even
Superman's dog, Krypto, can't — including headline a bimonthly comic book for almost eight years.
Rex debuted in his own regularly-published title, with a first issue cover date of Jan-Feb, 1952. The opening story was written by Robert Kanigher (editor of Wonder Woman and DC's war comics) and drawn by Alex Toth (former Green Lantern artist who went on to create Space Ghost). The same team had earlier created Johnny Thunder. The editor was Julius Schwartz, who at the time also edited DC's western and science fiction comics, but is best known for his work a few years later on The Flash, Green Lantern and other 1960s superheroes. Starting in the fourth issue, Rex had a back-up feature, Detective Chimp.
The name "Rex the Wonder Dog" is not unique to this character. Just as an example of other uses of the name, there was a long-running series of silent films about an animal character named Rex the Wonder Dog. Even today, it's amazing how many people give that exact name to their pets.
This particular Rex was a white German shepherd, who spent his youth in the U.S. Army's K-9 Corps. After his hitch was over, he went to live with the Dennis family. His first adventure was to clear young Phillip Dennis of a murder charge. But Rex was more frequently seen with Phillip's younger brother, Danny. In the title's final few issues, Rex got a third human companion — scientist John Rayburn, who anticipated The Atom in being able to shrink living beings. Rex and Rayburn had several adventures together in the sub-atomic realm.
On our own plane of existence, Rex showed an astonishing ability to survive encounters with lions, bears, wolves, panthers, octopuses and even, in the 11th issue (Oct-Nov, 1953), a Tyrannosaurus rex. But he couldn't survive declining sales. With its 46th issue (Nov-Dec, 1959), the series ended.
It was almost two decades before Rex was seen again. In the 144th issue of Justice League of America (April, 1978), writer Steve Englehart (Batman, The Falcon) gathered together practically every DC-owned contemporary adventure character that had a series during the 1950s, from Congorilla to Plastic Man, and Rex was among them. A few years later, Rex turned up in the back pages of DC Comics Presents, where many characters from defunct series made oneshot appearances.
Since then, Rex has made guest shots, and otherwise been tied in, from time to time with various DC characters. He's even been retconned into a relative of Pooch, from a series set during World War II. Another retcon cast him as a canine superhero, the beneficiary of a reprise of Captain America's origin, chemically superheroized to become more effective in World War II by a scientist who conveniently died right after treating him. Also convenient is his inability to re-find the Fountain of Youth, which is what's kept him vital for the past several hundred "dog years". Both he and Detective Chimp (who also got Fountain of Youth treatment) now work with the U.S. government's Bureau of Amplified Animals, and are a minor but persistent element of the DC Universe.
BACK to Don Markstein's Toonopedia Home Page
Purchase DC Comics Archive Editions Online

subset: commoncrawl


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Online language exchange with native Belarusian-speaking partners
WeSpeke is the social network to learn and practice Belarusian online for free with native Belarusian speakers. Find Belarusian practice partners for Belarusian language exchanges or tandems in our large global community. Use text, audio, or video for Belarusian conversation practice with Belarusian native speakers.
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State of the art MOT bay and servicing equipment.MOTs available from scooters to vans up to 3500kg.
Offer 1 Free Tracking with every service. Get Markos to service your car and we will give you a free tracking check and adjustment, which can save you money on tyres and fuel costs. Offer 2 20% off your MOT and any work needed. Use Markos to do your MOT and we will knock 20% off the test and any work your car needs to get it through.Offers apply to MOTs during April, May and June only.We accept all Credit and Debit Cards Offers only available on production of our leaflet. Terms and conditions apply, please contact us for details.


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Pre Shield Years
- Details
- Category: January 2011
- Published: Saturday, 01 January 2011 01:00
- Written by Super User
Welcome to the Pre shield years. These Pre shield years runs from 1965 until 1976. These knives have an unmarked, wide cross on the aluminium scales. It is in the wide cross that the Swiss Arms Inspector stamped the scale with his "WK" acceptance stamp. The position of these stampings will now divide these years into a variant 1 and a variant 2 type for the 1961 model.


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Daisuke Matsuzaka is still the dominant topic on sports radio today.
While most pundits felt sure that since the brilliant Scott Boras is a genius, he had the upper hand on the Red Sox in these negotiations (as evidenced by this "cartoon") it turned out that the Red Sox seemed to have come out just fine in the end.
Dennis & Callahan did a turnabout this morning, saying that Larry Lucchino must've taken control of these negotiations and taught Boras a thing or two. There were stories and speculation that Lucchino had made an arrangement with the Seibu Lions that he could tell Boras and Matsuzaka that if they didn't agree to a deal that the Lions would send Matsuzaka to the minors, where he would lose service time and that they would not post him next year.
That's the great thing about sports radio, what you say today is forgotten tomorrow.
The crossover between Dale & Holley and the Big Show was marked by a confrontation between Steve Burton and Dale Arnold. Apparently this had to be done on air and not in private. In any event the anger seemed to be real with Burton upset that Dale had been critical of him for reporting that Phil Kessel had testicular cancer when the family had reportedly asked that the matter be kept private.
Burton kept saying it was his job to report the news. When asked he said he would've understood if someone had been reporting that his dad was dying of cancer even though he asked them not to.
What I think Burton is missing here is this: Perhaps he had the "right" to report the news, even against the wishes of the family. But it doesn't mean he had an "obligation" to do so or that he's less of a jerk if he did it against the wishes of the family. He seemed to imply that even though the family publicly stated that they wanted privacy, that "maybe" they gave him the ok to report the story so that it would clear up any misconceptions out there. Dale tried to press him on it, but Burton wouldn't confirm.
Neither guy covered himself in glory in this episode which was just another example of the media making themselves the story – something that WEEI does all the time. More time was spent on Gerry Callahan's conduct in his interview with Julio Lugo than on what Lugo said or his press conference.
David Scott is going to be doing a live blog of the Matsuzaka press conference and coverage. Sounds like the event has the potential to be a full fledged circus.
Nothing new on the Allen Iverson front. The latest rumors have the Nuggets (who are in town here tomorrow night) as the latest favorites. Of course that is after the Magic, Pacers, Clippers, Celtics, Warriors and Trail Blazers had all been rumored to have been favorites at one point or another in the past few days.


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Here's the squad Jurgen Klopp *could* have to work with come the start of the transfer window.
Possible departures
Out of contract: Kolo Toure, Jose Enrique, Jordan Rossiter, Joao Carlos Teixeira, Jerome Sinclair
Loans expiring: Steven Caulker
Pre-contracts: Joel Matip
Loan returns: Andre Wisdom, Luis Alberto, Lazar Markovic, Sergi Canos, Mario Balotelli
Under contract
(*denotes player's deal expires in 2017)
Goalkeepers: Simon Mignolet, Adam Bogdan, Danny Ward
Defenders: Nathaniel Clyne, Jon Flanagan, Andre Wisdom, Connor Randall, Martin Skrtel, Dejan Lovren, Mamadou Sakho, Joel Matip, Tiago Ilori, Alberto Moreno, Brad Smith
Midfielders: Jordan Henderson, Emre Can, James Milner, Joe Allen*, Lucas Leiva*, Philippe Coutinho, Adam Lallana, Jordon Ibe, Lazar Markovic, Kevin Stewart, Marko Grujic, Luis Alberto, Cameron Brannagan, Pedro Chirivella, Sheyi Ojo, Sergi Canos, Ryan Kent
Forwards: Roberto Firmino, Daniel Sturridge, Divock Origi, Christian Benteke, Danny Ings, Mario Balotelli*
Areas in need of attention?
Despite already agreeing a deal for Matip, a new centre-back may be required, depending on the length of Sakho's ban and whether Toure is released. Klopp is also being tipped to add to his engine room, with Allen linked with a return to Swansea and Lucas also entering the final year of his deal, while a new striker could replace the out-of-favour Benteke.
Most Reds fans would have a new goalkeeper at the top of their lists, though talk appears to have died down of late. Left-back and wide midfield areas could be added to, but wholesale changes are unlikely. Klopp may, however, wish to streamline his squad and develop a few youngsters.


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The author of this particular research report made the point that the volume of Android devices is being driven by carrier agreements - in the US it's available on all carriers while the iPhone is only available on AT&T- and also by Verizon's 2 for 1 program (where you get 2 Android phones for the price of 1).
Your gleeful comment about how the iPhone will be relegated to 10% market share is therefore somewhat premature - and also does tend to demonstrate that your rather biased in your reporting.
You didn't read, did you?
I take it your jobsian response indicates you understand the research so let's review ...
1) you understand that the iphone is available to ~35% of US subscribers while the Androis is available to 100%
2) you presumably understand that, at some point in the future - perhaps next month perhaps in 2 years - the iPhone will be available to a much large percentage of US consumers (lets say it will double)
3) you understand that a good part of Android growth is 2 for 1 pricing
4) you surelly recognize the iPhone has not been updated in 12 months while a slew of great android devices have been launched and have been heavily promoted
So from these facts you draw the conclusion that the iPhone is headed for 10% market share? And you don't think your biased at all?
I'll just quote the relevant aspect of the article, which you clearly did not read:
Your points are addressed in the article, and clearly too: people prefer cheap and choice, and the iPhone cannot deliver either. It doesn't deliver choice, since it's tied to AT&T, and there's only two models; it doesn't deliver cheap either (Android does: you can get cheap Android phones, or partake in a two-for-one scheme).
The two-for-one thing still means instead of just one, two Android phones make it onto the market - maybe for your partner, your children, a friend, whatever. You seem to think that the free phone somehow vanishes - which is nonsense.
As for the new iPhone coming out - the Android world isn't sitting still, and hasn't sat still either. The iPhone is currently playing catch-up to the top-notch Android phones (hardware-wise), so don't expect miracles there, and of course, new Android phones are coming out all the time. Apple simply cannot compete with the dozens of Android phone makers all at once.
While you want to discount things like the two-for-one scheme lack of carrier choice, it are exactly these things that are vital to Android's success!
Edited 2010-05-10 15:42 UTC
Yes, well, except that if you compare Apple's to Apple's (no pun intended) then - from the article:
AT&T has 32% of smart phone market in the US. Apple has 21% of the US market, all of it from AT&T.
So 2/3 AT&T customers, who presumably have a choice and can purchase a much cheaper device, prefer the iPhone. Indeed, I am an AT&T customer, and AT&T regularly sends me offers for free or 2/1 smart phones.
My issue here is that your just offering your opinions and twisting the data to mean what you want it to mean.
Indeed, if you were to project Apple's market share based on the total market size it would only grow (dramatically), not decline. Now todays statistics are not a good indicator of future market conditions but, really, just pulling a number of the air is ridiculous.
Your reasoning is flawed, since AT&T offers only one Android phone, the BackFlip (two if you count the Nexus One, but this is only sold by Google - not by AT&T itself on its web site).
In other words, people forced to use AT&T can't really choose Android over the iPhone, since there are no Android phones to choose from!
No Thom, it is your analysis which is flawed ...
In order to get an iPhone from AT&T the lock-in of an existing AT&T customer has to have elapsed. So that customer can migrate to any other provider to get another device (taking their number with them).
If what you say is true, and it's all about choice and cost, then customers would - I would think - migrate from AT&T.
I personally don't think it's about choice or cost or freedom. Research has shown that the bulk of the populace who have been with their carrier for years will stay with their carrier, irrespective of the device they offer.
The true market test is when they compete head on and if you look at other markets the iPhone does very well. Now, Android devices are very good so they may, in fact, overtake the iPhone's mindshare but there is nothing in this report to suggest that, you just twisting facts to advance your own agenda.
The facts are such: in the first quarter of 2010, Android held 28% of the market. The iPhone 21%. As simple as that. It is YOU who is coming up with all sots of reasons as to why these figures are supposedly wrong - YOU are doing the twisting, not me.
People who said Android would overtake the iPhone in sales were derided for predicting something like that - and now that IT HAS ACTUALLY HAPPENED, we're called biased because we merely point out that fact, and dare to draw some conclusions from it?
Well, your argument goes like "IF AT&T were not the only one who is allowed to sell the iPhone then ..."
It looks to me like the iPhone is contractually tied to AT&T, so if Apple wants to sell the iPhone with other carriers, my guess is that AT&T will wave some nasty contract.
Apple chose this path, because when the iPhone first appeared they were the only ones offering this kind of user experience, so they probably got the maximum money out of it with an exclusive contract. Nobody but Apple and AT&T knows when this contract (if ever) will terminate.
In the meantime Apple might actually be able to get more money with a more open business model, sacrificing margin for volume. Then on the other hand they may not.
However, the smartphone market is no market with a high probability of producing a monopoly like the desktop operating market, as the network effects are pretty slim. We will continue to see huge marketshare shifts within short periods of time, since changing your phone OS does not exclude you from making a phonecall.
There are some logical hole sin your conclusion as well:
* Most cell phone purchases are based on the two year contract cycle. As the article says there are many people who's contract with at&t is coming up this summer. Those people have not had an opportunity to choose an alternative android phone yet, as android wasn't available on at&t two years ago.
* It should also be noted that there is going to be some lock in with iphone users. They are familiar to the interface and may have invested in apps that would not be transferable to android phones. A neutral user that has the choice of choosing a first smart phone will not have that lockin.
Based on those two points, I don't think you can reliably assume that apple's at&t smart phone market share would be duplicated, if it were now available to a larger audience.
That doesn't mean that Thom's prediction will bear out. Just correcting inaccuracies,wild craziness and statistical abuse where I see it.
I totally agree that Apple's success with AT&T will not be duplicated with other carriers, I think that's a given. I actually also think Apple's share of the AT&T market will decline. However, given that Apple has another 65+% of the US market it can tap it would take a collapse of biblical proportion for them to fall to 10%.
You seem to think that 2 sold phones equals more phones used, when a large number of cases will be with Android phones being exactly like underwear: some people wear one, while they have others available for use, but not in use at any given time, while some don't wear any at all (don't borrow their pants!). It isn't the phone itself that costs a lot: it's the service plans, which is where the real money comes in. Now, if all those 2-for-1 deals require that you activate both phones and pay for the service, then, yes, there are twice as many phones sold to a customer at a time: otherwise, unless those phones are activated and used, the other phone is like spare underwear: available when you crap your first pair. Granted, it's not a perfect analogy, but analogies rarely are perfect. Until those phones are actually in use, those phones don't really count for much except for perhaps a longer time period after the initial phone purchase (where they get two) to buy the next one, unless they really dislike the phone they got, and think getting a later model of the same Android-based phone will solve that problem, even if the old one isn't "broken" otherwise.
I think you can certainly accuse Thom of being incorrect that the market forces described in the article will push Apple's marketshare down, and it would even be fair to accuse him of being foolish to think that. (I also disagree with Thom in his analysis).
But jumping to the conclusion that his incorrectness is a result of bias really only makes you look biased.
Except... That point has already been debunked a comment upwards. AT&T only offers one Android phone - and a pretty bad one, at that. "
It's kind of a hard comparison for AT&T and other carriers, since outside of the few (roughly 4 dozen) phones you can get from AT&T directly, you can only get 2 AT&T 3G compatible phones from third parties: Apples's iPhone (which you can get directly from Apple too) and Google's NexusOne.
Conversely, T-Mobile has the most options available from third-party's for their 3G network; Verizon, etc. still have a closer lock-in on their markets since you have to go to them to switch phones around (e.g. no SIM card or equivalent unless you are going out-of-country; but then, you get a SIM to you use in your otherwise Verizon-controlled device).
Are you certain? When the Nexus 1 first came out, the specs only listed T-mobile's 3g frequencies as being supported. It will, of course, work on the standard GSM and Edge via AT&T, but have Google released a model that supports AT&T's 3g bands now? If they have I might just have to switch eventually. The only 3g android phone I could find at the time of the Nexus 1's release that supported AT&T's nonstandard 3g freqs was the Motorola Milestone, which is way out of my price range. T-mobile is not an option where I live, no reception at all.
ATT only offers one iPhone. The difference between the 3G and the 3GS is more to do with specification. I've owned both (recently got upgraded to a 3GS through an insurance claim) and so have recent experience with both. Same apps running on same OS version, there really isn't too much difference, until you put the processor under any load (running games for example.)
So - back to your point - big deal?
This one was premature, sure... there was lots of Android momentum going into 1Q2010, and nothing particular pushing the iPhone. Then again, the iPhone was and is still far more established than the Android platform. Macs don't outsell Windows PCs even in a bad quarter for Windows (or a bad era, such as the Vista years).
The simple fact is that, just as on the desktop, it's being set up as Apple vs. nearly everyone else. It's foolish to believe that everyone else will not collectively outsell Apple on a regular basis at some point. I wasn't expecting it to start until 2011, nor become a regular thing until 2012.
Also, the 10% number is unlikely... the iPhone will probably stabilize at 25% of the smart phone market. Apple will never even try to replace the Blackberry (their insistence on selling only via iTunes is enterprise hostile... businesses don't buy their apps that way, and they won't bend for Apple), nor will they try to match the variety of Android models that will exist, just as they only offer a handful of different Mac models at any given time.
Even the simple fact that, currently, more than half of all smart phone users want a real keyboard, at least as an option, will drive people away from the iPhone. Apple's not going to cut prices enough for iPhones to be "free with contract", but that's completely possible with entry-level Android phones.
Simply put, there is no possible way that Apple will remain as strong as they are. Yes, multiple carriers would certainly help. To double their availability, they need to get Verizon and/or both Sprint and T-Mobile. Either Sprint or Verizon requires their building a CDMA2000 version... we'll see.
When the new iPhone ships in June or July, Apple will absolutely be back on top, though because of that, I'll bet 2Q2010 is even worse for them in phones, not to mention the distraction of the iPad. But the new iPhone sales will be nearly all upgrades by existing iPhone users. A large majority of the Android phones are being sold to users who did not use smartphones previously. If Android fails to deliver, Apple could get a nice bump in two years, and the whole Android thing falls apart. But if the users are happy with it, the Android market will see the same virtuous circle effect that Apple has... existing users upgrade, those on the fence get pulled in by friends and coworkers, etc.
I know from personal experience that there were quite a few of my iPhone-toting buddies drooling just a little over my Droid. The Droid is better than the 3GS in nearly every way, yet at this point, six months later, it's no longer a leading edge Android device in terms of performance and cool features. There's a bigger, better Android device every month or two. This is a problem for Apple, who do this only once a year.
Also, while I've been predicting Android wins eventually, I was looking at the global market. Android phones are just starting up on China Mobile, for example... they have more customers than there are people in the USA. They have the Lenovo OPhone now, and one of Dell's new models Real Soon Now; others are being actively sought by China Mobile (they use a proprietary Chinese 3G technology over GSM, so you have to develop your phone for China).
Part of the reason why Apple slipped to #3.
That speculation is not based in reality. There's no evidence that Apple is planning on expanding the set of carriers for the iPhone.
Something which Apple will never do. Which means that the iPhone may, in fact, slip to 10% or less of the market over time. Because it doesn't want to compete on volume. Which was the original poster's comment.
Android is being rev'd at a faster rate than iPhone. If you're counting on the new iPhone to take significant market share, it would need to be an order of magnitude better. Which it won't be. Hence, incremental technological improvements aren't going to help.
I agree with his analysis. Apple tends to squander leads in technology because it values high margins more than market share. The iPhone was revolutionary. It combined top quality hardware and software in a well-integrated package. But Android and many other competitors have those same capabilities now, and any improvements that are being made are incremental, not revolutionary. Furthermore, Apple's attempts to charge a toll for every single piece of media that we consume is going to fail.
(I have and use an iPhone every day. My next phone will be either Windows Phone 7 or Android.)
Although I too would suggest the "10% market share" comment is stretching it, I can see the iPhone under serious market pressure from Android phones. Multiple carriers and multiple phone models means out selling iPhone period. And remember, no matter what you think of the iPhone's software/hardware qualities, it is still shackled to that ball-and-chain of a network ATT.
Do you work for apple... all your comments in this page have been about saying how good is apple, how wrong everbody bashing them and how jobs smile make your day.
srsly. do you work for apple?
If ppl check your profile and check your comments... they will see that what im saying is true
I, for one, welcome our new Google overlords. But seriously, as an iPhone user, I welcome Android's rise, because it will put pressure on Apple. Will it force them to open up the iphone to non-approved apps? Well, we can hope, but any pressure would be a good thing.
Second, I will point out that the current iPhone 3GS is getting a little stale, and everyone knows that a new iPhone is coming out soon, so it's no surprise that iPhone sales are in the low point in their cycle. I bet that Android phones won't be anywhere near Apple's numbers in the quarter that includes the release of the new iPhone.
The only way apple will be pressured to change their business tactics is if their current ones stop making them money. To continue to give them money by buying into their ecosystem while hope for change seem counter intuitive to me.
Edited 2010-05-10 15:34 UTC
I agree. And I'm certain that Android's availability on more carriers in the US is a major factor in its rise, so the first pressure that Apple will be feeling will be pressure to "open" the iphone to more carriers, and particularly making a CDMA version available. But if they feel that the open nature of the OS is a competitive advantage that Android is exploiting, then Apple will feel pressured to counter that by opening the iPhone, or at least that's the scenario that I'm laying out.
Indeed, here is recipe for Linux success.
1) Get rid all the shit related to Linux, kernel is only piece of gold here.
2) Say FU to kernel devs, go rogue and develop the kernel outside official system.
3) Get rid Linux name on all possible ways since L stands for lusers.
4) Garnish cake with own superior apps that doesn't use or resemble anyway standard Linux apps.
Truth hurts.
Indeed, here is recipe for Linux success.
1) Get rid all the shit related to Linux, kernel is only piece of gold here.
2) Say FU to kernel devs, go rogue and develop the kernel outside official system.
3) Get rid Linux name on all possible ways since L stands for lusers.
4) Garnish cake with own superior apps that doesn't use or resemble anyway standard Linux apps.
Truth hurts. "
I don't think the truth is that standard Linux apps generally succs, and that this is the reason for people not to use the Linux desktop.People don't use the Linux desktop because it is too expensive to switch to Linux.
They have already spent a lot of time to overcome all the difficulties in windows, they don't want to repeat that process with another OS. They don't want to get the answer "I don't know" every time they ask if this new device they are considering to purchase work on their OS. They don't want to bother finding out what applications in the Linux world that can read their existing data. In other words people have a history with windows that is hard to undo. Another factor is that it would be more expensive to hardware vendors to have two support organizations, so they continue to sell windows devices, as that worked well in the past.
For Linux on the desktop to ever happen, Linux must not only be as good as MacOS or Windows. It must be better and not only a little better like some distros are today, they must be much better or there will be no incentive for people to switch.
In the cell phone world most people don't have lots of old documents, or lots of applications, most people don't even use a smart phone, and that makes for an interesting marketing target. In a sense Android is growing in the same way windows once did, i.e. make use of a new need for personal computing. Back then it was a shift from the mainframe computing to the desktop computing, now it is a shift from the desktop to your pocket.
Indeed, here is recipe for Linux success.
1) Get rid all the shit related to Linux, kernel is only piece of gold here.
2) Say FU to kernel devs, go rogue and develop the kernel outside official system.
3) Get rid Linux name on all possible ways since L stands for lusers.
4) Garnish cake with own superior apps that doesn't use or resemble anyway standard Linux apps.
Truth hurts. "
I disagree with 2/ but for the rest it sounds just so insanely right...
Once again it's so amusing seeing the double standards here.
Let's recap:
a.) AVC/h.264 is bad, because it's patented in some parts of the world.
b.) Novell is bad, because it entered a cross-licensing deal for patents with Microsoft.
c.) Android is covered by patents owned by Microsoft and HTC licensed them from MS. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2010/apr10/04-27mshtcpr.ms...
But hey, somehow nobody cares about this.
H264 is bad because it shackles the web to a proprietary standard, which will hurt innovation and the little guy on the web, while also opening the door to litigation.
It's not the deal itself people get angry about - it's the fac tthat despite years of empty threats, we still have not one single shred of proof regarding these so-called patents.
Uhm, we don't know that. HTC might simply be brushing MS off because it is busy enough dealing with Apple. Again, we have no clue as to WHAT Android is supposedly infringing upon. Show us the proof - Microsoft has been remarkably reluctant to do so, which raises a lot of flags.
If Microsoft really were certain about its patents being infringed upon, it would have no qualms about showing us the patents in question. Right now, it reeks of FUD.
Edited 2010-05-10 15:56 UTC
MPEG-LA clearly states on the AVC licensing page of their website that only commercially acting enterprises with more than 100,000 customers per year are required to pay licensing fees. All others are free to go.
There is no such clause regarding Android patents by MS.
I tell you who "the little guy" is: It's not someone with more than 100,000 customers per year. It's the self-employed guy who owns a small phone shop and who's now in constant threat to be sued by Microsoft when he sells Android phones that are not from HTC -- no matter if he has less or more than 100,000 customers.
MS showed the affected patents to HTC. If those weren't valid, HTC would not signed the deal. In fact in a potential battle against Microsoft, HTC would have the upper hand: HTC is the biggest manufacturer of Windows Mobile phones.
If HTC was to drop its complete Windows Mobile lineup, Windows Phone 7 would be dead before it even launched. MS would be wiped off the handheld map.
BTW: Did you even ask Microsoft which patents are the cause of the licensing deal? Or are you just making it up that "Microsoft has been remarkably reluctant to show us proof"?
Microsoft has an entire website dedicated to patent licensing, along with a contact e-mail address:
Edited 2010-05-10 16:24 UTC
And they are not stupid enough to drop that valuable segment. Plain and simple.
OSNews probably did not, but CNet did. And the patents remain undisclosed.
Oh, you must be unaware of the claims from Microsoft that Linux infrindes on over 200 patents?
The only actual publicly disclosed agreement on IP is with Novell. So read the page before you refer to it, please. The only place where HTC appears is "Exchange ActiveSync Protocol Licensees"
That has nothing to do with the concrete licensing deal that was signed with HTC.
HTC and MS signed a deal about Andoid patents which confirms that Android uses techniques that are patented by MS or HTC wouldn't have signed it. MS would've not taken such steps that annoy its biggest licensee of Windows Mobile -- Motorola would be a good target for a PR stunt. Motorola only sells Android phones and is way to poor for a long-running lawsuit.
But that actually not the point. The point is that Android is defended by you guys (as you just proved). You just stick you head in the sand and pretend no patent is valid.
OTOH you guys have no problem bashing AVC based on misinformation. The AVC licensing terms on the MPEG-LA website are very clear that no "little guys" are even required to pay fees as aren't low volume businesses with less than 100,000 paying customers per year.
As a side, note unlike Android, MeeGo is actually safe from patent threats. Intel and Nokia both guaranty that they will defend any MeeGo adopter who is being threatened. See http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/04/meego_linux_mobile_android_...
A) Me personally, and a lot of people are against software patents in general. Most Linux advocates actually take the same side. So, no I don't stick my head in the sand, I actively fight to keep software patents out of my country and EU(even when it goes against my employer's wishes). (See http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/ and http://en.swpat.org/)
B) Android was never THE SOURCE of patents, MPEG-LA is a SOURCE. I.e Android does not own any patents**. MPEG-LA does not technically own patents, but MPEG-LA is an association. So when we "bash" MPEG-LA, we bash the whole collection of companies for supporting patents and patenting more software stuff.
C) If you actually read the text above, there is nothing hypocritical about being anti-software-patent overall.
*-you may replace "we" to "I" in the text...
**- if Android does, then please enlighten us.
Android's main threat is to Microsoft as most phone makers will prefer a free OS (and one that has actually been released) to one that has a license fee - and MS's whole business model is based on that license fee.
Apple will continue to sell iPhones in increasing numbers in the US and across the global market for a long time yet (until the market is saturated) and will continue to make very handsome profits doing so. As a company they have never sought to dominate market share for its own sake - rather they are fixated on making truly excellent products (you may disagree about whether they succeed but that is their intention) which also makes lots of money.
The iPhone is part of the bigger mobile/touch revolution, which is rendering the desktop a backwater, and in this new market Apple continue to have a unique set of advantages and will therefore be a major force for the foreseeable future. At this point it looks like Google will be the other major player and Microsoft may well fade into relative obscurity and irrelevance.
MS plans on selling games and apps with their existing xbox live system.
Android is providing some good competition but it still sucks when it come to games. There's no movie rental service either.
Microsoft already gets license fees from HTC because of Android: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2010/apr10/04-27mshtcpr.ms...
Android isn't any freer than patented MPEG codecs.
Android isn't any freer than patented MPEG codecs.
Unfortunately there are some out there who some how equate open source equally patent free; As I noted previously, there is no such thing as a piece of software not infringing on some patent some where - as soon as you move beyond a basic hello world programme you're going to hit a patent somewhere along the lines. I wouldn't be surprised whether other patent holders are simply allowing Android to slide or waiting for the same time to pounce.
I think the biggest problem with Android is that you're licensing it from no one, so if the sh-t does hit the fan it'll be you the OEM who takes the fall and not the software licenser. If you go and licence Windows Phone 7 then Microsoft takes on that responsibility as so far as patents go but if you go with Android then you're opening you're self up for a bag of hurt because you're responsibility for whether there are patents infringed (as so far as software is concerned).
I applaud this fact and all, but I don't think it's necessarily evidence of Android's superiority as much as it is of Verizon's superiority compared to AT&T. The playing ground for the iPhone in the U.S. is not level. I have plenty of relatives and friends in the U.S. who would love an iPhone but balk at the idea of switching away from Verizon, because they realize that being able to make calls reliably trumps all else.
Admittedly this is Apple's own doing. Maybe we will see things change, though, if the rumors of a Verizon iPhone hold true.
Edited 2010-05-10 18:00 UTC
Verizon is in the same boat as AT&T realistically. The big difference is that the iPhone makes it more obvious on AT&T's network, and Verizon hasn't had anything nearly as popular yet. Android will likely change that.
The real problem, however, is that none of the carriers allocate enough bandwidth to support their customers, whether wireless via cell, or broadband. They just don't want to invest the money.
Regardless of how anybody interprets the statistics about market share, the simple fact remains that Android is growing rapidly. This current market share stat linked by the article shows it already has a larger market share than iPhone.
The fact that Android runs on multiple devices from multiple OEMs and on multiple carriers puts it at a huge advantage over iPhone, in terms of growth potential and long term market share.
Also, Android's more open sdk, less draconian restrictions, and support of multiple technologies (like Flash), will mean ultimately Android will gain greater developer mind share over iPhone/iPad. Plus, Android uses Java (almost) clone Davlik. There are way more Java developers than Objective-C developers.
Nonetheless, Apple will still sell boat-loads of iPhones and iPads, and make boat-loads of money.
It's just that Android will be bigger.
In this case, there are more than two major players, so it seems unlikely that one of them would establish majority and monopoly from there on. Also, a good portion of PCs success was due to Apple shooting its own foot (never used OS9, but have heard horror stories about it). Linux didn't have a decent UI then to compete for consumer market share.
That's precisely where the market is heading, and if things keep going this way, it will be deja vu all over again for Apple.
I remember the PC/Apple ][ "wars", where you were clearly on one side or the other (many unresolved arguments to this day with my old childhood friends). The Mac changed things, it was a breakthrough product that many lusted after. Everyone wanted one, but it was pricey and that kept it inaccessible to many.
There's probably numerous reasons, many open to debate, about why Microsoft was able to succeed so well with Windows, which back then was a pale imitation of what Mac offered. Ultimately it boils down to market choice; everyone, whether consumer or business user, has a different set of requirements and emphasizes different features over others, when determining what they want or need to purchase. Things like price, usability, software availability, vendor support, third-party support etc. all form a complex equation that differs for everyone. Some people will emphasize price above all else, others will pay a premium for features that they feel they absolutely require.
Apple had a first-to-market advantage with the Mac, but simply weren't able to scale it across the market as fast as Microsoft was able to with Windows. While Windows may not have been anything more than a clumsy attempt at implementing a Mac-like GUI environment, it did have the advantage of running on various different hardware platforms. It was able to tap the existing userbase of DOS-applications. The smart ISVs leveraged their DOS-base as they migrated to Windows, others such as Adobe and Microsoft themselves started focusing their core applications on Windows. Macs were ultimately relegated to a niche player in a market they had effectively launched.
First-to-market doesn't guarantee long term product viability and success, which is a mistake many companies make. Assuming that initial success will expand past your initial market and into a wider one can be a fatal. There are many reasons why a "breakthrough" product can achieve rapid initial success, or even fail to despite perceived superiority. Did that initial market share come from a niche market segment with needs and requirements that differ significantly from the market at large? Did it address a perceived need that could be applied to the market at large? Did it appeal only to a market willing to accept any inherent disadvantages in the personal cost/benefit decision? Will that scale across a larger market in general?
First-to-market gives a company an advantage that is theirs to lose. You can use the time (and profit) it buys you to invest in refining and further developing your product to target a wider market, or you can pour it into marketing to target a wider market and assume that initial success will follow. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
Now we have the iPhone, which was ground-breaking in terms of making Smart Phones appealing to a wider market. As with the Mac, they didn't really offer anything in terms of functionality that hadn't existed to that point. Web browsing, email, app downloads, multimedia, gaming etc. on handsets existed long before the iPhone. What they did do is what they do best; take existing concepts and features, and wrap them in a tightly integrated package and interface to create an overall superior user experience.
They've had a good three year run with their first-to-market advantage, but now the competition seems to be accelerating faster than Apple is. The potential problem for Apple is that they appear to be investing in an ecosphere around the iPhone OS geared more towards locking in users and developers, rather than scaling their product to appeal to a wider market. Deja Vu.
Setting aside arguments of developer frameworks, App Store control etc., the fact is that in a large and complex market, there are going to be customers emphasizing requirements that Apple will not be able to fulfill. Some users will only settle for a physical keyboard. Some users will want a high-quality camera for photos and video above all else. Some will want large storage for carrying personal files and media around. Some can't or won't sign up with AT&T/insert-carrier-here. Some will sacrifice frills for lower price. And some will certainly want to play their favorite flash games on the go. Unless Apple suddenly breaks precedent and starts offering a wide range of products with varying features, there is a portion of the market they will never be able to reach.
Yet Android and other competitors will.
The only question is how large the potential market is.
Apple is gambling that the App Store and their userbase/mindshare will continue to solidify their market and pull in developers and content providers. That's the part that just reeks of Mac vs PC. Jobs is really gambling a lot considering that, despite their success, their market hold is not as firmly entrenched as they appear to be acting.
I find market share numbers to be dubious at best, utterly unsubstantative at worst. The number that is more important is how their userbase is growing. How many of those handsets represent actual users, versus upgrades? My wife and I both have 3G phones sitting in a drawer, because our provider let us upgrade to the 3GS last summer despite having purchased our 3G models less than a year previous. And I suspect that when the next model comes out, they'll be enticing us to upgrade again with similar new user upgrade pricing. Somehow Apple has worked out a deal with our provider that will allow us to keep purchasing a new iPhone for $200 each year (signing a renewal, of course). That's a killer method for generating hardware sales and the market share numbers that accompany them, but are they expanding their user base?
And it's not just me, I know there are 3 people I work with that also took those early upgrades, and wound up doing nothing with their original 3G models.
Certainly I can't qualify that empirically across Apple's entire market, but I wouldn't discount it entirely either. Just as I know people that upgrade their Macbooks every year when the new models come out, I'm sure there is a substantially loyal base of iPhone users that upgrade their phone on a regular basis. That's good revenue, but not an increased market.
This is where I think Android's potential is (and Nokia's, if they can make any progress with Symbian and Meego). Expand the reach to simply include customers that Apple has, by choice, excluded themselves from. Android is a less refined platform than iPhone OS, but it brims with potential, and if Google can address some of the immediate concerns (particularly with regards to fragmentation), it could succeed simply enough as a "good enough" platform that runs on hardware with the features users want.
It's Apple's game to lose right now, but it's only a matter of time before they hit a wall with their existing approach that they can't grow beyond.
Anyways, just my 2c.
Yes, it was 2c. I need to be careful. I have lots of words bouncing around my brain. If I gave my 20 dollars worth, it would not only take down this site from the sheer volume of content, it would likely take down a good portion of the internet tubes with it.
I'm too lazy, so just scroll by next time, easier for both of us.
Yes, its basically driving your potential customers to the competition. This is what they did in the eighties, they could not satisfy demand, and would not let anyone else help them. People would rather have had macs, but they needed some kind of a computer, so they bought what there was and what they could afford, and it was Windows.
Its always been the great paradox of mac advocacy, that people urge the public to do something which they cannot all do: standardize on Apple products. They cannot, the demand simply cannot be met by one company.
Now its deja vue all over again with smartphones. People want a smartphone. They can't all have Apple ones, they are either not available for their network or are too expensive. So they will buy a different make. What else are they supposed to do? Do without?
In the end, you end up with a niche product, you basically drive your customers to new entrants. Its creating the market for the competition. With what satisfaction they must have seen the latest stuff in the development contract!
What Apple really did in the 80s was help their competition. They did the expensive and risky R&D and release of a brand new product and then refused to sell it to everyone. Their competitors had a shitload of free marketing from Apple: Everyone wanted a Mac and as soon as someone offered a Mac-like UI which people could afford they bought it. And then Apple filed a patent suit against those offering the competing product. Hmmm.
Setting aside arguments of developer frameworks, App Store control etc., the fact is that in a large and complex market, there are going to be customers emphasizing requirements that Apple will not be able to fulfill. Some users will only settle for a physical keyboard. Some users will want a high-quality camera for photos and video above all else. Some will want large storage for carrying personal files and media around. Some can't or won't sign up with AT&T/insert-carrier-here. Some will sacrifice frills for lower price. And some will certainly want to play their favorite flash games on the go. Unless Apple suddenly breaks precedent and starts offering a wide range of products with varying features, there is a portion of the market they will never be able to reach.
So, to extrapolate a bit, Android can become the Windows of mobile OSes. Without getting in to an OS/2 debate it might help if Android included a compatibility layer that let it run BlackBerry native apps and old Palm apps, this being the closest equivalent of old DOS apps.
After that, the range of competing OEMs will provide the variety of hardware.
It does remind me very much, and the contorting and backflipping I would see by Mac advocates about how 'it is unfair' to compare Apple to the market as a whole.
Android is challenging and over taking iPhone, Microsoft has finally got its act together where by the time 'Windows Phone 7" Release 2 or something to that effect is released by next year will have something competitive with what is out there, and Apple is still believing that they can 'rule the roost' by being the only supplier. They assume that there is a single solution to a single problem when in reality there are multiple problems with multiple solutions thus requiring many different vendors working to deliver different products for each case scenario. The iPhone isn't the swiss army knife but merely one of many knives one can choose from when slicing up the vegetables for a salad.
Personally nothing would satisfy me more than seeing Apple being pulled down a few notches and humbled a bit; just as Microsoft has been humbled and court off guard in some areas, I have a feeling that Apple might learn the hard way unless they're willing to admit some of the flaws in their business model when looking at it from a long term (10-20 years).
Edited 2010-05-11 11:21 UTC
This is a little more than eerily similar.
Apple not only had a similar position in the 80s with the Macintosh and MacOS but they had a similar--okay, to be honest an identical--reaction to competition.
When Microsoft released a Mac-like UI Apple sued Microsoft for patent infringement.
When HTC released an iPhone-like phone Apple sued HTC for patent infringement.
We've all seen this play before and I can't wait for act II. I just hope that Apple learns a little from history (not likely with Jobs in charge again) and doesn't blow up and die. I don't much like Apple for many reasons but they're useful fellows and do useful things (like figure out how to make people want computers).
In which the head of the Revolution programming environment, a successor to Hypercard, reveals that this is banned from the App store, despite having offered to make considerable adaptations which would result in the IDE generating Objective-C. The whole post is worth careful reading.
This is what he proposed, an excerpt:
....we create an iPhone-only product that uses native Cocoa objects, supports 100% of their API, works perfectly with multitasking and battery life, but uses a variant of the revTalk language to use these objects and APIs, and then translates those into native code. While a significant engineering departure for us from the current revMobile path, this solution would have resulted in perfect-quality iPhone-only applications impossible to distinguish from native applications. It would have been impossible to tell these applications apart from native iPhone applications because they would be native applications. As native applications running directly without a compatibility layer, there would have been no battery life issues, multitasking and iAds would work perfectly, and new APIs would be supported as they came out. In other words, we set out to offer Apple what they wanted by raising our game in response to their stricter requirements, while dropping the other mobile platforms we originally intended to support.
To which the answer was: No.
So guess what they will be obliged to focus on? Android, and probably Linux with it. Along with lots of other people who will do and are doing the same thing.
This is Apple doing once more what it did so well in the eighties, its driving its potential customers to the competition.
Those who the Gods wish to destroy, they first drive mad.
Also from that post:
"Some of our customers have suggested that we continue to develop the version of revMobile that outputs entirely native code (as detailed above). However such a solution--even though it would create perfect applications--would be in violation of Apple's agreement, which states that code must originally be developed in one of their approved languages. As such, we cannot risk hundreds of thousands of dollars of further engineering budget to create a solution that does not guarantee Apple acceptance to the app store."
This says it all, and will ultimately (over time) be Apple's demise. Well, "demise" might be an extreme term. Let's just say that Apple is working really hard to marginalize itself and it's products. Their arrogance, and current revenue, is what's keeping them from seeing this.
From the comments and the article, it seems that eventually the mobile ecosystem would have 3-4 major OSes and all of them would end up with a 20-30% market share. IMO, this will be great, because this would put interoperability as a high priority for application developers and create better standards.
...I refuse to pay for data plans. I don't use data via the Cell Network, but from WiFi is sufficient. iPhone was too expensive and AT&T/Apple requires a $30/month data plan to go with it ($200 up front, plus $720 over the next two years = $920 total for the phone).
Of course, AT&T requires all smart-phones that they put on their network to have a data plan, a minimum of $5/month. But you can get around that if you don't buy the phone through AT&T.
So I went to Google and bought the NexusOne; disabled/deleted the APN settings for Cingular/AT&T, and now I've got what I wanted (for the most part).
The interface is a bit better too. We got a iPod Touch for my wife, which is basically the same as the iPhone, and I can certainly notice the difference when switching between the two. The back button on the NexusOne is a big plus.
Of course, as a developer, I may end up hacking into the NexusOne a bit more too, but it gives a level of freedom that I'd never be able to get from an iPhone, and in some cases more than any other carrier provided phone too.
Methodology: The NPD Group compiles and analyzes mobile device sales data based on more than 150,000 completed online consumer research surveys each month. Surveys are based on a nationally balanced and demographically-representative sample, and results are projected to represent the entire population of U.S. consumers. Note: Sales figures do not include corporate/enterprise mobile phone sales.
> Apple didn't launch the iPad just because it wanted to - it launched it because it needs to.
Because it can. iPhone OS and experience are good enough to fit another niche. It will cut a piece from netbook/notebook market. Android tablets are promised, but no one has appeared yet.
From what i know Nokia is still the worlds largest mobile phone manufacturer.
I think Android will win in the long run because of market penetration. As long as you produce phones you can make an android device. Even Apple can. Only Apple produces iphones with the iphone os.
Android loves the user, Apple loves the users money.
Also, i think that Nokia is not doing a good job defending it self in the "new" touch phone market. Big changes will come here if they don't catch up.
When people will stop to say "aha, Apple have just so small market share" or "Apple's market share is falling".
They just don't care. They have almost as money as Microsoft with their little market share and limited products.
It's the only thing THEY care about...
Why should they sell as much as RIM or Nokia if they can earn more money selling less ?
Edited 2010-05-11 09:33 UTC
The article made some points Apple should not ignore. Unless they bring better hardware/software (yes multitasking), more network coverage, and cheaper prices. the iPhone is doomed to fail. Maybe not be extinct, but gone to a distand second or third place.
On other topic...
Is incredible how Apple keep doing the same mistakes over, and over, and over. They tried to capitalize the PC market with crappy OS (Pre X era) and they failed. Now they want to capitalize the phone market with not that crappy, but still inferior hardware and software, and keep everything as closed as their PC's... guest what... they will fail again.
If you watch their current iPhone commercials, they are not about the phone capabilities, but about the amount of apps you can get. Third parties will move to the platform with the most potential sales.
The only thing that I thank the iPhone, and other non Windows based smartphones is that they are slowly openning the mind of the masses, showing them that they don't need a Windows device for their Internet needs. That eventually will open a market to Linux, BSD and other solutions for the desktop.
Edited 2010-05-12 01:39 UTC
For the guy that mention Windows sales over Apple as an example, hey you made a bad one. Windows was not the best offering during the whole reign of the eighties and nighties. There where better solutions like OS/2, Geoworks, Amigas. Microsoft used a lot of tecniques in their history, including incredible amount of marketing, unfair competition practices that end killing many of those systems, especially those that run on PC clone hardware.
Two MS examples I personaly was involved:
(1) The university I studied made an aggrement with MS for some site software licenses, and end up with a "Can only use Microsoft software" clause. They cannot even install Linux/BSD servers.
(2) A marketing company I used to work made an agremment to get the Microsoft account. What they said... "You can get our account if you aggre to use only Microsoft software in all your offices, and servers. The only exception is Graphic Artist, that can use Macs."
Edited 2010-05-12 02:02 UTC
Massive number of Android models available will certainly decrease Apple's market share. So cheap vs. quality - most people are cheap and prefer cheap, especially if the look and feel is similar (a plain glass screen so software makes a difference). App store and all the locking in tricks won't help, Android gained much already and will be well covered by application availability. Problem for Apple is that their strategy was based on being a better package/product than competition, but that no longer holds.
Nokia however is proof that a single company can dominate long in the mobile phone market, so Apple will remain strong, but they lost a chance to create a monopoly in mobile markets. Maybe they need more models. If they continue restrict themselves to a single device (I don't count iphone variants as separate models), Android will just have 20 of them on the same shelf and sell better. OTOH, Apple has a significant loyal user base, so it will continune selling well.
MS also wants a piece of the cake, using same patent troll tactics as with the Novell, but I doubt anyone else will pay except the HTC, which doesn't need another trial right now.
Well... In my opinion, nokia succeeded for such a long time because they know how to provide people with a large variety of cheap and robust phones with an OS which doesn't absolutely suck.
Cheap samsung phones proved to mean "fragile" for me and my friends, while cheap LG phones often had an horrible buggy and/or unintuitive OS. Only SE and Nokia knew how to make good cheap phones for quite a long time, AFAIK. And since, until recently, cheap phones totally ruled the mobile market...
Edited 2010-05-12 16:25 UTC
I don't think Android out sold iPhone on its own merit. It is Not a superior product. Apple made the mistake when it decided to go with AT&T. It partnered with the wrong cell phone company. So don't get to perky Google. When iPhone is released to other carriers Apple will be on top again.


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Whether developing a facility maintenance program or setting up a thermography contracting business, training is essential. More and more companies require continuing professional development and a proven level of competence. As with many nondestructive testing techniques, training on the equipment and technology is critical so results are accurate and justifiable.
It is important that users of thermal imaging cameras have training in thermal imaging. Costly mistakes can occur if users are not trained to interpret their findings properly. Is there wet insulation? Is it reflection? Is it the wrong time of day for the inspection? Not enough load? Good trainers in infrared will provide training on imager use, interpretation of images, and include a section on safety while conducting infrared inspections. There are many hazardous environments and unknowns in any facility; safety is a key element of success.
Training is important, regardless of the difficulty of the application. There are several experienced infrared trainers operating in the UK and elsewhere. They usually conduct one-week training courses. There are generally three levels of qualification with level 2 being considered the minimum for managing a survey. In-house training can usually be arranged if there are several people to be trained at one location.
When choosing a training course it is important to select one that leads to the necessary certification. In the UK the new ISO 18436 accredited certification is set to be the most widely recognised in future years. For further details of the training topics incorporated for category 1 and category 2 can be found here.
BINDT approved training
Organisations offering training in accordance with ISO 18436
iRed Ltd
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Unit 6, The Old Flour Mill
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Institute of Infrared Thermography
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Debbie Howarth
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+44 (0) 151 486 5120
FLIR Systems (ITC)
The Infrared Training Center
2 Kings Hill Avenue,
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Tel 01732 220011
ABBE approved training
Awarding Body of the Built Environment (ABBE) approved assessment centres offering training and qualification in building thermography in accordance with ISO 6781:
iRed Ltd
iRed Academy
Unit 6, The Old Flour Mill
Queen Street
Tel: 01243 370 296


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Life Coach
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I cant tell you how relieved I am to have completed this project!!! I was so excited to give these "fishing game" gifts. Yes, I am lame and could not think of a better name for them. I have been calling them "fishing thingys" for weeks so?? Fishing Games is the official name I suppose. You may remember when I first posted about them here.
As I mentioned in my previous post regarding these toys MUCH of my inspiration came from this post at Create Studio. Please check out her blog and leave some love! I have referred to this link DOZENS of times!! Thanks SARAH!


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dear laura,
thanks so much for packing and shipping my awesome crystals so well! also thanks for the little note - made me feel very warm in my heart! you all are so kind to have sent the quartz point :) i love all of my crystals and pray that they will aid me in my journey of life....we all have obstacles in our lives and problems - may your crystals help and bless all!
love & light....
dolores :)


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PALO ALTO, Calif. --A young 49ers fan with a debilitating heart condition is ready for some football this Super Bowl Sunday.
Seven-year-old Jacob Murphy redecorated his room at Palo Alto's Lucille Packard Children's Hospital into a shrine dedicated to the 49ers. The room is awash in red and gold. Jacob has jerseys, blankets, sheets, teddy bears, and flags dedicated to the five-time Super Bowl champions.
Jacob and his family have already planned their very own party for the big game. "My uncle is going to come over, my family is going to come and we're going to watch the Super Bowl and eat chicken," he said.
The young fan suffers from congenital heart problems and his stay at the hospital could be a long one. He'd like to add the Lombardi Trophy as a decoration.


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Noelle Kirchner, M.Div., is a Presbyterian minister and mother of two boys. As they wrestle on the floor, she enjoys wrestling with her manuscripts. She writes for Huff Post Parents, the TODAY Show Parenting Team, and has been a repeat guest author at in(courage). You can find her on her blog, where she writes about faith and parenting, and on Twitter and Facebook.
I am excited to share my recent sermon on three ways we can honor God in our family today. Gain godly direction, clarity, and the permission to slow down and capture quality time!
It was a joy to preach on Sunday about a topic so close to my heart - and this blog! Learn more about why I created this blog and the invitation that each of us has to make a difference.
Click here to watch it.


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NEW DELHI: India is just emerging on the global stage and has not yet gone into the brand-building mode, a leading marketing strategist has said.
Jack Trout, a pioneer of brand positioning theory, told the Business Standard that building a global brand first required "a fantastic product" and Indian businesses would need to work on that aspect.
He noted that some Indian companies were already world leaders in their field although these tended to be in IT, where skills were paramount. But, said Trout, "skill is not a product with which you can build a brand".
Something more tangible was needed. "You've got to have a product that has a certain quality, that can compete globally," he argued.
He pointed to the South Korean example, where family-owned chaebols had recognised the need to build brands in a professional manner if they were going to go global. "In a developing market, you can get away with the family thing," said Trout, "but when you are entering mature markets, you need freedom, you need innovation."
Nokia's former head of emerging markets, Shiv Shivakumar, made a similar point recently in the Economic Times, when he argued that "Indian businesses must spend energy on branding".
He compared Interbrand's lists of the top ten global brands and the top ten Indian brands and noted that for the latter the brand value was significantly lower than brand and business revenue in each case.
"A collection of businesses doesn't make a powerful brand but a collection of brands makes a powerful business," he said, adding that Indian brands would need focus, consistency and innovation if they were ever to make it into Interbrand's global top ten.
Trout, expanding on his current consulting role with Bajaj Auto, a maker of two and three wheeled vehicles, cited an international brand as an example to emulate.
There were too many divergent businesses under the Bajaj name, including electricals and finance, he said and the company needed to understand its core competences and stick with that.
"Get into the GM mode," he said, explaining that General Motors had many sub-brands, such as Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, and it had kept them exclusive to avoid confusion in the mind of the consumer.
Data sourced from Business Standard, Economic Times; additional content by Warc staff


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For the Record – Boogie Nights
Jun. 15, 2012 - Aug. 4, 2012
This 360-degree theatrical concert and dining experience features world-class performers who bring the movies to life with signature songs and moments from P.T. Anderson's Magnolia (Grammy and Oscar nominated soundtrack), Punch Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood, as well as the Dirk Diggler disco-fueled Boogie Nights, which scored two hit soundtrack releases. The show stars a rotating cast from stage, screen and music performing "Sister Christian," "Brand New Key," "Jesse's Girl," "Save Me", "Wise Up," "One," "Boogie Shoes," "God Only Knows," "Aint No Stoppin' Us Now" and more. Arrive early and enjoy Barre Vermont's California cuisine and cocktails. Thurs.-Sun. $35. 1714 N. Vermont Ave., L.A., 323.661.6163. fortherecordlive.com
Where - Barre Vermont, Los Angeles


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Alpha Punjabi launches 'Music Night'; announces September plans
MUMBAI: Alpha TV Punjabi has announced its programme highlights for the month of September. In addition to all the popular shows currently on air, the channel is launching a new weekly show named Music Nights for Wednesdays.
According to an official release, the channel is ready to churn out interesting programmes and has added some new programmes also to its existing chart.
Alpha Punjabi is bringing for its viewers the happening party scenes in the UK with a new show Music Night. The show will cover upmarket parties attended by fans of Punjabi music and the music stars. Starting 8 September, the show will air every Wednesday at 8:30 pm.
"Alpha TV Punjabi has brought a unique show for their viewers which gives them a sneak preview of all the up market celebrations and parties being held anywhere in UK and which has "saada Punjab" in it," informs the release.
Alpha Punjabi, which has recently introduced the viewers' choice feature for its Saturday blockbusters, has lined up movies Baagi Surme, Lalkaren Sheran De, Kee Banu Duniyan Da and Sawa Lakh Te Ekk Ladao for viewers to choose from. This Sunday the channel is airing the superhit Punjabi movie Mela starring Girja Shanker, Chandani and Sardar Sohi.
Sudesh Lahiri portrays the character of Yamraj, in the most popular comedy show Alpha Gaddi, on 11 September at 7:30 pm. In Saada Campus anchor Jasmin Bhatti takes the viewers to the Girls College, Shimlay to probe into what is the latest in the students circle out there. This episode will be aired on 9 September at 8 pm.
The celebrity show Meriyan Gallan Mere Geet this week will feature Muscat based singer Zila Khan, daughter of legendary sitarist Ustaad Vilayat Khan through its programme on 12 September at 7:30 pm. Another music programme Kuch Pal Tere Naa will showcase the popular singer Nachhattar Gill this week on 11 September at 8:30 pm.
Sitcom Jugnu Mast Mast has Punjabi comedian Bhagwant Mann taking part in an audition of a music company. It depicts in a delightful way the complexities involved in the whole process and how Bhagwant along with his partner Rana Ranbir takes up the issues and shows the lighter side of the problems, adds the release.
Naachi Saade Naal is a dance based show full of energy and rhythm, in which contestants from different streams and different age groups (15 years to 30 years) are short-listed and then they are invited to perform in front of an elite panel of judges. The weekly show will air 11 September at 8:00 pm.


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Hexagonal Museum Showcases & Pedestals
Museum Showcases w/ Hexagon Pedestal Shape
These museum show cases are a great way to exhibit art collectibles or expensive objects. With several wood finishes, and a few other sizes and shapes to choose from, these lockable glass exhibit cabinets will complement the merchandise on display beautifully. Are you looking for a museum show case to put in an art gallery or retail store? These wood and glass pedestals are suitable for both environments. Curators like to use this museum show case to exhibit period art pieces or other historical merchandise. Likewise jewelry stores exhibit crystals, diamonds and other priceless gems in these stands. This museum show case is a solid fixture built with quality materials and expert craftsmanship. Choose from black, silver, cherry, oak, maple or rosewood finishes. There is sure to be a museum stand here that will either match or complement your existing furniture. This glass exhibit stand is made with a solid wood base with a laminate finish and aluminum framing to hold the glass panels in place. The museum show case featured here will last through many years of use. The unique design of these fixtures will further draw the attention of passersby. Use this museum show case to protect expensive art or jewelry from the curious hands of children. All of these stands feature locking cabinets, optional lighting and hidden casters. Buy this museum show case today, and start designing your new store or gallery layout.
Full vision cases are the perfect glass showcases for displaying jewelry, collectibles and more. All of the museum show case exhibits shown here feature a locking cabinet as a means of controlling access to the merchandise being displayed. All of the glass components on these exhibition stands are tempered. This museum show case is much less of a liability with this safety glass. These displays with locks also feature a mirrored deck to create an amazing effect. Another great feature on these museum show cases are the hidden wheels. These fixtures weigh upwards of 90 lbs., making them difficult to relocate. With the casters; these museum show cases are a cinch to move around. To further focus attention on the displayed contents choose one of these exhibition showcases with side track lighting. These museum show cases with lights feature two adjustable 20 watt bulbs to spotlight art or priceless gems.
Glass showcases, like display cabinets and retail display stands, are offered in a variety of sizes and shapes. All of these museum show cases have matching finishes; so that customers can be assured that if they buy numerous units the wood grains will all match perfectly.Upon receiving these museum show cases; how much production is required?
- These glass exhibits ship fully assembled, and require no additional tools or parts once they are removed from the packing.
- These museum show cases are carefully packaged for shipment. Once customers receive their order, they should carefully remove and inspect the entire fixture.
- For more information about any of the merchandise seen here, contact a member of the customer service team at 1-800-572-2194.
- All of the exhibits on this page feature tempered glass.
- There are other museum show cases beyond the merchandise shown here that feature acrylic lift-off covers.
- Feel free to browse through this online selection to find other exhibit display cases, and pedestals, or utilize our live chat feature for assistance.
Along with these art exhibit stands with locks, there are many other lines of objects available here! In addition to glass exhibit showcases, there is a wide variety of other cabinets including; cash wrap counters, collectors cases and much more. Displays2go has been making and distributing POP displays since 1974. This company began as a one person business, building simple acrylic products and then offering them to local financial establishments and other large corporations around the state. As the orders picked up; a warehouse/factory building was purchased, fabrication workers were hired, and the returning and new patrons grew exponentially. Then with the creation of the internet this company developed this website, and commenced to selling objects to the entire country. Since then, this business now occupies three warehouses containing over a million and a half units, 95% of which ship the same day a customer places an order. In stock requests processed prior to 3PM EST ship the same day, while orders received after the cutoff time ship the next business day. There are a few exceptions to this rule, such as custom artwork products and large build-to-order wood cabinets. With more than 7,000 display products available, this site is able to satisfy a large variety of customer needs from several different selections. This online catalog is continually expanding to include new merchandise. Please come back frequently to take advantage of all these great offers. This site is the nation's #1 choice for all marketing and display products! Thanks for shopping with us!


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If you search for "kinesthetic" on this blog, you'll see a series of posts about kinesthetic activities to help teach various concepts. I will eventually combine all of these into a new page on my Web site -- but it just hit me that I had not yet posted all the kinesthetic activities I use.
At first, not all geometry students know what we're talking about when we talk about angles and their measures. This is probably why it is so difficult to teach some of them how to use a protractor: they don't know what they're measuring. Here are two kinesthetic activities that help a little.
* Arm angles
Ask the students to stand up, and stick an arm straight out so that it is neither horizontal nor vertical. (This helps separate the idea of "straight" from the idea of "horizontal or vertical". Students often confuse those.) Then ask them to stick the other arm out, so that their arms make an acute angle, a right angle, an obtuse angle. It is surprising how difficult it is for many students to do this.
A payoff down the line is that arm angles can be used to introduce the idea of the intercepted arc. The arc intercepted by my angle is the arc I can see between my two arms. This probably seems pointless to some of you, but a number of students have told me that this is what helped them see what was meant by the intercepted arc.
* Walking polygons
This is based on turtle geometry as initially introduced by the Logo programming language, but it does not require a computer. A few "walking polygons" lessons are available in my Geometry Labs book. Here are two ideas:
- I tell students I will walk along the edge of an invisible parallelogram. Then I do the following, twice: two steps forward, a 135° turn to the left, one step forward, a 45° turn to the left. Of course it's not really possible for them to guess my turn angles, but it is entirely possible to figure out their sum, since after doing the two turns I'm facing in the opposite direction.
- Likewise, I tell them I'm going to walk a regular pentagon (or some other regular polygon -- preferably not a square.) At the end of the walk, I'm facing the way I faced at the beginning. This leads to a discussion of a formula for the size of the turn (or exterior) angle in a regular n-gon, and thus the size of the corresponding interior angle.
It is fun (and educational) to follow this up by programming a turtle in Logo or one of its descendants. (I use BYOB, a Logo descendant by way of Scratch.)
"There is no one way"
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Yet again, more kinesthetics!
Posted by Henri Picciotto at 5:42 PM
Labels: Geometry, Kinesthetics
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Founded in 2000, Baltazar's Tire Shop is located at 1435 Muldoon Rd. in Anchorage, AK as a full service automotive repair and tire center. We have spent the last 15 years delivering extensive auto repairs and tire sales to satisfied customers. We are open Monday - Friday: 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m and Saturday 10:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m.. You can come see us in person, or schedule an appointment online today from the comfort of your couch. Whether you are from Anchorage, AK, Eagle River, AK, Wasilla, AK, or another surrounding area, Baltazar's Tire Shop should be your first step when considering purchasing a new set of tires or seeking tire maintenance. We pride ourselves on maintaining a competitively priced line of consumer tires. Feel free to browse our Tire Size Finder online from the comfort of your home to view our wide selection of competitively priced tires from top tire brands like MICHELIN®, BFGoodrich®, and Hankook. We also handle the re-studding and de-studding of your tires. All of our employees were hired with the knowledge that they must provide only the very best customer service. At our location in Anchorage, AK, our tire sales staff will help you make the right tire purchase based on your specific driving needs and preferences. If you are looking to keep your tires performing as they should, well throughout the entire tread life of the tire, consider some of our professional tire services, such as flat tire repairs, low profile tire installations, and tire rotations, performed by our tire technicians. Our auto mechanics can handle a variety of automotive repair services like wheel alignments, brake repairs, TPMS adjustments, collision repairs, glass replacement, and other auto body and painting work, replacement of belts and hoses, exhaust system repairs, preventive maintenance, and steering and suspension system repairs. We also provide towing and roadside service. Since 2000, we have employed experience automotive technicians capable of giving quality automotive repairs and services to all of our customers. We are dedicated to serving the automotive and tire repair needs of customers in Anchorage, AK and other surrounding areas including Eagle River, AK and Wasilla, AK. Check out a comprehensive online list of auto repair and maintenance services offered at our location in Anchorage, AK. Come into Baltazar's Tire Shop today for a quote on an automotive repair service, or visit us online to schedule an appointment.
1435 Muldoon Road
Anchorage, Alaska 99504
Phone: 907-332-3893


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Multiple Dates
re: moving (Program 2) | Dance Graduation Season 2017
Program 2
Presented by graduating VCA Dance and Production students, featuring new and extant contemporary dance works by Alisdair MacIndoe, Stuart Shugg, Rochelle Carmichael and Rhys Ryan.
We strongly encourage advance bookings for all of our performances. This guarantees your seat at a performance and allows us to communicate any unforseen event scheduling changes with you. Please note, tickets are required for entry.


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People were pretty excited when the Dark Forces Team successfully ported WP7 over to the HD2, but it wasn't without its bugs. One of the more annoying of them was that the battery level indicator was inaccurate. Tired of the lies, XDA member, arkatis, decided to do something about it. He has posted a registry hack that seems to resolve the issue. Here's the quick and dirty on how to do it:
1) Charge your phone until the green light shows up
2) Unplug it from A/C and open registry editor
3) Go to the reg path
4) Edit the value from 6 to 20…press ok..Now you will see the battery indicator level has been changed! Again go and edit the value and from 20 go to 80..press ok! Restart and enjoy!
If you want to read the full post with feedback, you can check it out here.
Source: XDA


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Well yesterday ptc* and I were discussing the forthcoming festive period weather and fortunately he took my advice and got out today for a cracking wander around the Kilpatrick Hills before it turns milder this weekend. As he says himself, lucky bastard!
Anyway it got me thinking that it's that time of the year when some of us start to watch the weather charts for signs of the elusive white stuff so I thought I'd post links to a few weather websites.
The first thing I would say is that some weather websites such as Metcheck and the BBC 5 Day forecast appear to give very detailed information. However these should not necessarily be relied on as they are simply based on computer generated models with no human input. Much better to look at Geoff Monk's excellent MWIS mountain forecasts with three day forecasts for five separate Scottish areas as well as the Lakes, Peak District and Snowdonia. The Met Office also produce their own slightly less detailed mountain forecasts.
The Weather Outlook Forum (or TWO) is inhabited by some very knowledgeable weather folk and while at times it does get a bit technical it really is an excellent source of information. The Mountain Conditions thread is worth keeping an eye on as is the daily "Today's Analysis" thread (note: no link as it's a new one each day).
For actual synoptic charts the University of Cologne Meteorology Department provides an excellent summary of the UK Met Office charts amongst loads of other useful information.
Getting back to the white stuff snow-forecast.com produces three day forecasts for Glencoe, Nevis Range and Cairngorm.
Other favourites are the Winter Highland Forum (see in particular the epic Mother of All Snow Ramping thread!)
And should there be a real dumping the Scottish Avalanche Information Service will hopefully keep you out of harms way.
Finally Netweather has an excellent thread on Winter Snow Setups which shows you what to look for in weather charts for the best chance of snow.
And if you're really keen Cicerone publish a "Mountain Weather" book that I really will have to buy one day!
As I said I'm not really obsessed! You wouldn't catch me looking out of the window to see the first snowflakes catch the light under the lamposts…now where's that ice axe? 😉


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Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered a new protein, called Homer, that becomes active in rat brain cells during exposure to cocaine and during a lab model of long-term memory creation.
"Homer is one of the first links between drug addiction and long-term memory that directly acts on nerve cells' message-receiving structures," says Paul Worley, M.D., an associate professor of neuroscience and neurology. "As such, it could be an important step toward understanding the connections between addiction and memory, and toward developing new treatments for addiction."
In a study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and published in Nature, he found Homer by exposing rat brain cells to cocaine and to a lab model of memory used by neuroscientists.
"We call the protein Homer because it homes in' on critical areas where messages are being passed between nerve cells," says Worley.
In the memory model, researchers stimulate a nerve cell with an electric current and measure the resulting transmission of information between neurons.
If the current is given often and rapidly enough over a period of time, the nerve cell activates a number of genes and makes a number of complex changes that allow it to communicate more quickly and more effectively.
Neuroscientists think the brain may use this and other similar processes to enhance or weaken connections between nerve cells, and that this may be a key to the creation of memory.
Worley's group found that nerve cells increased their Homer production levels nearly 50 times within minutes of their activation, and that Homer binds to a message receptor on the surface of excitatory nerve cells, the metabotropic glutamate receptor.
"We think with further research we may find that Homer allows these receptors to stay open longer or to open up more easily," says Worley. "We believe it does something to enhance message reception, and will provide fundamental insights into how the brain maintains long-term memories or becomes addicted to drugs like cocaine."
As scientists learn more about Homer's effects, and its links to other changes in the nerve cell, new targets for drug treatments may become available.
Under an agreement between Lynx Therapeutics, a California Company, and the Johns Hopkins University, Lynx has right of first refusal for licensing Homer. Worley serves as a consultant to Lynx, owns stock in Lynx, and has received Lynx stock options, which are subject to certain restrictions under University policy. This arrangement is being managed by the University in accordance with its conflict of interest policies.
Other authors on the Nature paper were Paul Brakeman, Anthony Lanahan, Richard O'Brien, Katherine Roche, Carol Barnes and Richard Huganir.
Media contact: Michael Purdy, (410) 955-8725
E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions' news releases are available on a
PRE-EMBARGOED basis on
EurekAlert at http://www.
On a POST-EMBARGOED basis find them at http://hopkins.


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Barka! Ga abubuwan da ya kamata ka sani
BURKINA FASO VIOLENCE: Gunfire has erupted at the presidential compound in Burkina Faso during what sources say was a protest by presidential guards demanding their housing subsidies.
MALAWI/LIBYA: Malawi has announced it is severing its much-criticized diplomatic ties with Libya. Malawi's foreign ministry announced it is breaking its ties with Tripoli over the armed conflict in Libya, which it said has caused "grave loss" of civilian life.
IVORY COAST ARMY: President Alassane Ouattara's new government is recruiting more security forces to improve conditions in the commercial capital Abidjan after more than four months of political violence. Life is increasingly returning to normal less than a week after the arrest of former president Laurent Gbagbo.
NIGERIA ELECTIONS: Nigerians are preparing to cast their ballots on Saturday for the country's presidential election, a contest that incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan is highly favored to win.
UNHCR/IVORY COAST: The UN refugee agency reports tens of thousands of internally displaced people in western Ivory Coast are living in alarming humanitarian conditions. Although fighting appears to have ended, the UNHCR says ethnic tensions remain high and people are still hiding in the bush. In the meantime, the World Food Program says it is beginning an airlift of desperately needed food into Abidjan on Saturday. It says some 70,000 people in the city urgently need food aid.
NATO/FOREIGN MINISTERS:NATO foreign ministers wrap up a two-day meeting amid continued divisions over whether to intensify the campaign in Libya. The leaders of the US, France and Britain have published a joint statement in international newspapers saying Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi must go.
LIBYA GASOLINE: The conflict in Libya has affected oil and gasoline prices not only abroad but also at home, posing problems for civilians and the rebel military campaign.
LIBYA/LIFE: The fighting in Libya has devastated coastal cities in the central part of the country, but life in parts of the rebel-controlled east has settled into some measure of uneasy calm.
GUINEA WORM ERADICATION: As the country of Southern Sudan prepares to emerge on the world stage as the newest nation on the planet, health workers combating Guinea Worm disease are hoping the country's independence will lead to eradication of the parasite. VOA's Kane Farabaugh spoke with officials at the Carter Center who are leading the global effort to eradicate the disease, once and for all.
WORLD BANK/IMF: Finance ministers and central bankers attend spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Friday.


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S k a t e L o g F o r u m
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|December 4th, 2017, 12:26 PM
Join Date: Oct 2017
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Posts: 36
Looking for lowest possible frame 3x110+100mm
Dear Fellow skaters,
I am starting to look for the next season for a hybrid frame 3x110+100mm as a replacement for my stock Powerslide X frame that came with my first speed skating set up which was Powerslide R2. In the meantime I progressed to Bont Jets, and I feel now is the time for some bigger wheels as the Powerslide X frame is rather high (overall deck height is 97mm and there is about 10mm space between the top of the second wheel and the boots undersole, which is an unnecessary waste of height; plus it feels heavy too).
I've been reading about the Schankel Litemax hy311 as a possible candidate, but this is not the newest frame and there might be other, better ones out there. Any advice is more than welcome, also links to reviews, articles and comparisons.
I will probably continue to use my 4x100 setup for technical training until I feel my form is good enough, but I also see that the 100mm wheels limit me somehow in terms of speed.
Thanks for any thoughts.
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Experience Santa Barbara at A White Jasmine Inn. The charming bed and breakfast inn, comprised of three cottages, is one of the oldest and widely renown. Formerly known as the Glenborough Inn, the Inn offers a premium location, peaceful gardens, and quaint accommodations.
While each cottage offers gardens all guests may access the main house common areas including the parlor and garden.
The guest is afforded amenities—all of which are complimentary—which belie the Inn's three diamond rating. It is quite possibly the best value in the region.


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Beautiful Feet
Having cracked or bleeding feet is never desirable to anyone. All of dream of a pair of beautiful feet that can be flaunted in the most stylish pair of stilettos. If you wish to get such beautiful feet, you need to know how to care for your feet. Setting aside some time from your daily schedule, about half an hour, for a regular foot treatment will keep them healthy and beautiful throughout the year. The time that you provide to pamper your feet will help you to forget about the day-to-day worries in a great way. Read on to know about the foot care tips that will make beautiful foot.
Apply a foot scrub every day, preferably after a tiring day at work. You can either make a scrub at Beauty Tips or simply buy one that contains essential oils. Massage the ingredients into your feet, and leave on for 5-10 minutes. Wash off with warm water. This method is helpful when it comes to saving time as well as getting the desired effect.
Use a moisturizer everyday on your feet, after bath and before going to sleep, carefully massaging into the dry areas, nails and the cuticles. This will keep the feet feeling soft.
If you suffer from feet that ache from pressure, then there are natural remedies for aching feet as well. For this, you need 4-5 drops of essential oil of tea tree, 3-4 drops of essential oil of cypress and 1-2 teaspoons of jojoba oil. Mix all the ingredients together, pour into a large bowl or bucket of warm water, place your feet in the water and leave on for 5-10 minutes. After this, step into a bucket of cold water in which, a cup of green tea has been mixed.
A foot massage before going to bed would help relieve you feet of stress. For this simply warm colorless sesame oil or olive oil and massage into your soles and toes with both your hands. Put on cotton socks and go to sleep.
Another way of caring for your feet to keep them beautiful is by walking barefoot on pebbles. This would stimulate acupressure points on the soles of the feet, dispensing health benefits throughout the body.
Sometimes girls feet suffer from painful corn. Getting rid from these corns will help you in having most beautiful feet. Soak your feet in warm water and add pinch of salt. Gently rub corn affected area with coarse emery board. Cut a fresh pineapple and put the piece over the area for 5 to 10 minutes. The enzymes present in pineapple will help the skin faster in dissolving the corn.
Add half cup of sugar, one teaspoonful of baking powder and one fourth teaspoonful of poppy seeds combined with ten drops of lemon juice. With the help of vegetable brush, scrub your feet thoroughly and rinse. Follow this twice a week to possess most beautiful feet.
You can also get beautiful foot with paraffin wax. This ingredient is know for making your feet soft and supple. Paraffin wax clears the clogged skin pore and increases in blood circulation. Thus with open pore, your skin will absorb required moisture and you get beautiful woman feet.
A nice foot tonic can help you in getting beautiful girl's feet. You can make an effective tonic with a cup of milk combined by one teaspoonful of mint leaves, peppermint extract and rosemary. Apply this mixture and keep for 10 minutes. Wash off and say "my beautiful feet."


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You can use arrow keys to navigate in the map.
"Stupidity" is an ambiguous term. People have intelligence in certain things while being completely oblivious in other things.
Intelligence is not genetic and edjucation is many areas of the world is the best it has ever been, leading to more and more well edjucated indivduals.
Genetics is not so much the factor as child rearing is. The way we raise our children is the single most important factor in how successful they'll turn out to be. A child must be thought social skills for example in order to succeed in an educational environment.
Education has gotten better and more widespread, and average IQ cannot change.
Stupidity is subjective and does not define an individual or group. A stupid person is defined by other individuals. Those other individuals do not know all, therefore they are in their own rights stupid. People who cannot nurture a child should make the responsible decision to wait until they can.
Scientists have found that our bodies and our minds have both deteriorated significantly compared to our ancestors