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Disappearing Domains
I can buy a dedicated server from a web hosting company and load it up with two or three thousand web sites. I can set it up so you'd think I was the web host, when in fact, I'm simply reselling web hosting services at a nice profit.
All I need is a server in my dorm room closet. Then, when I get tired of the hassels of customer service, or I graduate, I can simply shut down that server and when you log on to your site's dashboard, you get a 404 message - can not conect to server - because I turned off the server.
Your business disappears in the night without a word. All your hard work, all the money you invested, all your income - gone with the flip of a switch.
Scared? You should be.
If it happens to you what have you lost? Much more than just your website. You also lose access to your site's databases – databases filled with invaluable customer information. You also lose inbound links, critical to higher page rank. Even worse, you disappear from search engines altogether. You can see how this nightmare can go on to the point where you've lost it all – and who knows where your web host is. Maybe he graduated from high school.
There are lots of horror stories about deleted domains – websites that have been zapped simply because the owners forgot to pay the annual domain registration fee, for instance. If you're the forgetful type, you don't want to work with a host that deletes your livelihood over a $4.95 charge – but it's happened.
What are the domain registrar's responsibilities?
There is some law and order on the W3. A consortium called ICANN oversees the relationships between web hosts and site owners. You can access the agency's rules and regs on-line to see what your "legal" options are when you encounter a problem with your web host. Any reliable hosting company is going to adhere to ICANN guidelines. Look for some kind of sign that a potential web host is ICANN-savvy.
Next, before you sign up for an expensive, long-term subscription for hosting services, read the TOS – the Terms of Service. And not just the big text, either. Before you sign up with any web host, read the entire TOS – even the finest of fine print. Know how a given host deals with deleted accounts and what steps the hosting company takes to provide access to databases and other critical information if your domain is deleted, and what steps it takes to rectify the problem if technically feasible. All of this will be laid out in the TOS. Read it very, very carefully.
However, if you're reaching for a copy of your host's TOS, chances are you already have a problem and you're looking for the host's contractually-binding responsibilities. So, even if you've been zapped contrary to ICANN guidelines or even the TOS of your web host, there's not much you can do about it. It would cost much more to litigate and even then, getting payment is going to be difficult if not impossible. (And don't think the unscrupulous web hosts don't know this. They count on it!)
It all comes down to the way web hosts treat their clients and fulfill the legal requirements of a client subscription. Some web hosts operate out of a spare bedroom (or even a closet) and just don't have the time to oversee simple, administrative chores like automatic domain renewal for their clients. If you're working with an unreliable or uninvolved hosting company, you may get deleted, along with an auto-responder in your inbox.
On the other hand, working with an engaged web host – one that provides the tools you need to build a site to success – eliminates a lot of uncertainty and sleepless nights. It's all about the quality of the hosting services you receive.
The quality of hosting
How do you know your site won't be vaporized overnight without so much as a heads up from your hosting company? Fly-by-night web hosts disappear all of the time, taking with them their subscribers' money and all of that hard work. It's a fact, not all web hosts provide the same level of service, or the range of services, that better web hosts do. That's why it pays to shop around.
As you're comparison shopping look for signs of reliability. Does the host's site look good? Is the text professionally written or is it just some kid working out of his dorm room hosting a few hundred clients on a shared server? It doesn't take much to call yourself a web host. A small investment in server hardware, administration software and the ability to take credit card payments are about all you need to call yourself a web host company.
However, it takes much more to call yourself a good web host. Think of your web host as a silent but critical partner in your on-line endeavor because, in fact, that's just what a web host is. Why? Because if you lose access to the world wide web, you lose access to your customers or clients and you aren't making any sales during downtime. So you want reliability – even if it costs a few bucks more each year.
What are the "signs" of quality web hosting?
Does the host offer an automatic renewal service? If it does, it's a sign that the host is involved in the success of its clients.
Does the site display any logos – the ICANN logo, the on-line Better Business Bureau or some other affiliation that instills confidence? Look. Ask.
Are the TOS clear, simple and straight up? It's in the best interests of a quality hosting company that clients not have any misunderstandings before buying hosting services.
Does the host offer 24/7, US-based tech support? If your site has suddenly disappeared you want to talk to someone who can fix the problem – now!
You also want to look for a host that's been around for a while. Now, this is no guarantee that your site won't be deleted for some infraction (or for no reason at all). The nightmare scenario described above involved a huge domain registrar with a long-time, web presence.
Is the web host involved in the success of its clients? The good ones are because it's easier to keep a client than find a new one so quality web hosts build their client bases by delivering quality services, near-perfect uptime, tools and applications required to build and launch a website and grow it to profitability. The more freebies a web host offers the better. That's a great measurement of how the web host sees its responsibility in your partnership.
So, scour the blogs, read the reviews and visit each potential web host's site for a thorough evaluation. Read the TOS agreement from top to bottom so you understand just what you're getting and for how long. Finally, look for a web host that wants to partner with you for mutual success.
Websites will still disappear and the horror stories will continue to make the rounds on the web. But if you go with a hosting company that delivers, has a track record and a commitment to your site's success, the likelihood that your site will be deleted are greatly diminished.
Your web host is your on-line partner. That's why it pays to shop around and not let cost be the only deciding factor. Looking for some web-based business security? Drop me a line. Let's get you hooked up to a web host that'll look out for YOUR business' best interests.


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What are recourse and non recourse loans?
Do you know where you stand on your mortgage loans?
The California Legislature passed a law in August 2010, which addressed the deficiency issue in foreclosures and short sales. Deficiency is when the value of the property at time of sale is insufficient to satisfy the amount of the mortgage loans.
The law, effective January 1, 2011, basically makes the first mortgage a non recourse loan for the homeowner, who owns a 1 to 4 unit building in California. A non recourse loan is a loan provided by a lender and the lender does not have the power to go after the homeowner for the amounts owned when the lender has taken the home as collateral. Wow, that is a mouthful but what does it mean?
The law is especially pertinent during this foreclosure and short sale home crisis. If a lender takes possession of the property, the displaced homeowner is not liable for the difference between the original first mortgage and the amount the property is resold for or the amount forgiven in a short sale. The two key elements to keep in mind here is it appears the Federal Government has not addressed this issue at this time and this law only addresses those loans which are the original mortgages on the property. Therefore this law does not address second mortgages, refinanced loans or home equity loans.
It appears that the second mortgages, refinanced loans and home equity loans still could be recourse mortgage and the lenders still would have the option to recover the difference between their initial mortgage amounts and the amounts they received at the time of the resale of the property.
Each state is different when it comes to loan regulations so you will want to check with your state to determine if it is a non recourse state and if the regulations only address secured non recourse loans.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Dear Stadium Doctor:
This question has been puzzling me and my 13-game plafriends at the stadium (excuse me . . . ballpark) for some time.
We sit in the upper deck just to the first-base side of home plate. As we gaze out over the Baltimore skyline, we see the top of the University of Maryland Hospital. So we see lots of MedEvac helicopters come and go.


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Specialist in Dynamics and Control
The Aeronautics, Dynamics and Control Laboratory (ADCL) at UC Irvine is currently accepting applications for a part-time specialist position. The research will focus on geometric nonlinear controllability. We are seeking an individual with a strong background in mathematical control theory, optimal control and differential geometry. A doctorate in mathematics, mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering or a related field is required. Experience with one or more of the above topics is required.


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HUSTLER MAGAZINE AND LARRY C. FLYNT v. JERRY FALWELL, 485 U.S. 46 (1988)
Respondent, a nationally known minister and commentator on politics and public affairs, filed a diversity action in Federal District Court against petitioners, a nationally circulated magazine and its publisher, to recover damages for, inter alia, libel and intentional infliction of emotional distress arising from the publication of an advertisement "parody" which, among other things, portrayed respondent as having engaged in a drunken incestuous rendezvous with his mother in an outhouse. The jury found against respondent on the libel claim, specifically finding that the parody could not "reasonably be understood as describing actual facts . . . or events," but ruled in his favor on the emotional distress claim, stating that he should be awarded compensatory and punitive damages. The Court of Appeals affirmed, rejecting petitioners' contention that the "actual malice" standard of New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U. S. 254, must be met before respondent can recover for emotional distress. Rejecting as irrelevant the contention that, because the jury found that the parody did not describe actual facts, the ad was an opinion protected by the First Amendment to the Federal Constitution, the court ruled that the issue was whether the ad's publication was sufficiently outrageous to constitute intentional infliction of emotional distress.READ MORE


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This article is part of our Rising Star Portfolios series.
Back in November, I bought shares of both Bank of America
Here's what I said back then:
"Despite the who-the-hell-knows-what's-going-on-inside-them factor and the foreclosure doomsday scenarios, Bank of America and JPMorgan's low valuations, their hefty coverage of bad loans, and the likelihood of stealthy government protection has me willing to roll the dice on both these banks."
Afterward I published my buy thesis, we saw shares run up 30% or so for each stock.
Great! But now they're both back down around where I bought them, with Bank of America down about 8% and JPMorgan up about 8%.
All things equal, I usually don't like to add more money into a position unless it's gone down 20%. But I'm making an exception today with Bank of America, because I was quite happy to get the original buy-in price, and not too much has changed.
There is definitely a lot of danger out there for banking in general and Bank of America in specific. Unlike its similarly beaten-down cohort Citigroup
But once again, I think the negative hype is overwrought at these prices. I'll take my shot now when Bank of America is selling for half of its book value. I will be picking up additional shares in my real-money portfolio Monday. And I'll continue looking in the banking space as others shun the industry. I'm seeing some good values in both large and small banks. We just have to be careful and pick our spots.
This article is part of our Rising Star Portfolios series, where we give some of our most promising stock analysts cold, hard cash to manage on the Fool's behalf. We'd like you to track our performance and benefit from these real-money, real-time free stock picks. Click here to see all of our Rising Star analysts (and their portfolios).
Anand Chokkavelu owns shares of Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan. The Motley Fool owns shares of JPMorgan Chase. The Fool owns shares of Bank of America and has also shorted the stock in a separate account. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.


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City's e-ticket plan violates your rights
Regarding the mayor of Monmouth's "Community Notes" included with my recent utilities bill where the adoption of an e-ticket by the local police department is rationalized by the saving of precious police department staff time.
If the only thing that a police officer needs is information from a driver's license to enable the automated search of state data bases to fill out a ticket, the person being charged with a law violation may have absolutely no knowledge of what they are being charged with.
The information will then be transferred directly to the municipal court software and this will force the appearance of the owner of the driver's license to find out just what they have been charged with and pay the related penalties.
Somewhere along the line of rationalization regarding the efficiency of the process, the right of the citizen to confront his accuser has disappeared. And since the intent is simply to reduce the precious municipal employee workload while increasing revenue flow from traffic violations, abuses to the public relative to the traffic law violations would appear to be apparent.
The right of a citizen to confront their accuser when being charged with a violation of law is one of our basic rights and should not be compromised for the sake of municipal employee efficiency.
Richard C. Evans
Let's keep church and state separate
We often hear that our country was founded on Christian principals. In fact, a study of history reveals this to be untrue, as the following short list of quotations from founding fathers clearly illustrate:
"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason." — Benjamin Franklin (1758)
"Christian establishments tend to great ignorance and corruption, all of which facilitate the execution of mischievous projects." — James Madison (1774)
"During almost 15 centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution." — James Madison (1785)
"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, then that of blindfolded fear." — Thomas Jefferson (1787)
"Congress has no power to make any religious establishments." — Roger Sherman (1789)
"Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law." — Thomas Paine (1791)
"I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people build a wall of separation between Church & State." — Thomas Jefferson (1802)
Every single U.S. President until George H.W. Bush publicly stated his commitment to the absolute separation of church and state. We should all well understand that American principle.
Michael Cairns
Vote 'yes' to help keep county safe
There are only two deputy sheriff's available to patrol the entirety of Polk County. This area is 744 square miles with 79,000 people living in mostly rural areas who can only rely on these two deputies.
There is a proposed Polk County safety levy that would provide the funds to increase the number of deputies. It is my professional experience, as a retired deputy sheriff, that leads me to support this levy without reservation.
Join with me to keep our community safe and secure and vote "yes" on the Polk County safety levy, Measure 27-117.
Jesse Lanou
Foundation steps up to help locals
On March 12, as the executive director of Community Mediation Services for Polk County (formerly known as VORP), I had the privilege of receiving a $1,500 grant from the Dallas Community Foundation.
The grant will assist CMS in keeping our phone service active so that Dallas residents can access help in conflicted situations.
I express my gratitude to Dallas Community Foundation for its generosity, not only to my program but also to the many other nonprofits that received grant funds to serve the citizens of Dallas. It was inspiring to see how the Dallas Community Foundation funds impacted so many people in Dallas and the surrounding area.
Thank you Dallas Community Foundation for the good work you assist.
Ken Braun
Ongoing tax hikes need to stop now
Polk County Sheriff Wolfe told the Statesman Journal that he wanted to return to funding levels and staffing for 2008, when there were timber funds of $2.4 million.
What was not mentioned was that staffing from 2004 to 2008 almost doubled even though Polk County's population only grew a little.
The underlying assumption is that the bloated staffing levels and expenditures in 2008 need to be re-established on the backs of property owners by increasing their taxes. At some point the ongoing tax increases need to stop. This levy election is that point. Voters need again say "no."
John Frei
More deputies are needed in county
I am tired of the aggressive, speeding, law-breaking drivers on Highway 22.
We need more patrols and unfortunately the levy is our best option.
I hate taxes and big government, and we need to fix our tax system, but denying there is an immediate problem with lack of sheriff deputies is not it.
Jim O'Brien
Crosswalk would improve safety
I recently went past the state capitol and noticed they installed flashing lights for the crosswalks ... push the button and be noticed.
Since I've had a few close calls and seen a kid on a bike get hit, wouldn't one be nice for the crosswalk in front of Walmart. It is such a busy area ... too many distractions.
Hey, Walmart, most of these people are your customers. Your driveway entrance is so close ... makes getting in and out even more dangerous. It would be nice if you and the city of Dallas got together and figured this out before something happens.
Dennis Bouchard
Corrections needs additional funding
There are 499 individuals on parole in the cities of Polk County. The county corrections department, part of the county public safety team, keeps watch on them — not the city police.
With the continued cuts in the public safety team, I do not feel safe. I worry about who is around our schools, in our parks and what they are doing there.
Let's keep our community safe by giving the corrections department the resources they need and we deserve. Vote "yes" for the county public safety levy.
Cheryl Williams
Many can't afford increase in taxes
What is it about "no" that you don't understand?
A second attempt to pass the county public safety levy is a tax that we can't afford. We are senior citizens and my husband is a disabled veteran. Our income is fixed and COLAs amount to 1.7 percent this year. We have to live within our means and that means doing without frivolous items.
The county should be held accountable for how it spends taxpayer money. Vote "no" on the proposed public safety levy.
Nelda Carroll-Allegar
Commenting has been disabled for this item.


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"Spring is here, and the sap is running wild," my high school English teacher used to say. Not just the sap in the trees, but that which is coursing through the veins of D.C.'s buyers and sellers.
Did you know there is a pent-up desire to buy in this economy? It used to be that the average American moved every 4.9 years. With the recession, that figure has almost doubled to 9 years. That means that not only are there a lot of buyers in this spring market, but a bunch of sellers with a pent-up desire to buy after first selling their existing homes.
The market continues to be strong for sales. The median sold home price in the Washington region for April 2015 was $524,900. That's a 5% increase over April 2014, and a 5.5% year to date increase over this same period (January-April) of 2014. Closed sales for April are almost 15% higher than the 5-year average, while pending (under contract) sales are up 11.3%. Homes are going under contract in 8 days (that's the median), the least amount of time in 10 years.
Part of what's driving those figures is the relative lack of inventory. In April, there was only 1.8 months' supply of homes for purchase, 33% below the 5-year average of 2.7 months. Months of supply is usually taken as an indicator of the market balance between sellers and buyers. In a balanced market, there is a six-months' supply of homes for purchase. (That is the time it would take to sell off all the existing inventory if no new homes came on the market.) We haven't seen six months of supply since June of 2009, though April's 1.8 months of supply is higher than the low point for almost 10 years in January of 2015—1.49 months. With rapid sales and low inventory, it's no wonder that active listings are so low: April's 1,174 active listings is 22% lower than the five-year April average of 1,499.
So what's a motivated seller to do if they want to stay in the Washington region, maybe to move up or maybe to downsize an empty nest? The conventional wisdom used to be to sell first, then buy later. But many potential sellers are reluctant to do this, given how fast their homes might sell, leaving them no place to move. So I turn that wisdom on its head: Buy first, sell later. It's probably going to take a while to find a home that you can successfully compete to buy, but once you've got a contract to buy, it probably won't take you too long to sell your existing place.
Happy hunting!
Ted Smith is a licensed Realtor with Real Living | at Home specializing in mid-city D.C. Reach him at firstname.lastname@example.com or follow him on Facebook, Youtube or @TedSmithSellsDC. You can also join him on monthly tours of mid-city neighborhood open houses, as well as monthly seminars geared toward first-time homebuyers. Sign up at meetup.com/DCMidCity1stTimeHomeBuyers/.


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Everybody wants to be ranked in addition to the first page of Google search. Nevertheless a business or a brand needs to earn that right, and takes a committed strategy and attempt towards making sure this happens. Getting the best Search Engine Optimization Jacksonville, North Carolina services can be the initial step in making sure you get the rankings you deserve. The gauntlet was thrown and the websites have replied.
What's search engine optimization in Jacksonville, North Carolina?
This really is the process of bettering the visibility of a web site on organic, i.e. outstanding and natural search engine result pages. This includes using search engine friendly components in the site. A successful search engine optimization effort and SEO service would have carefully incorporate special and applicable keywords which the on-page optimization would help emphasize for the algorithms that search engines employ.
There are essentially two specific regions of search engine optimization.
This contains elements like the web page, the HTML code, the written content and pictures. All of these elements should be geared towards making the web site as user friendly as possible.
What's search engine optimization, is a question that can best be replied consequently - It's your best tool to get the maximum traction online and also to keep your search engine rankings high.
Jacksonville, North Carolina SEO Optimization Services
HudsonRiverSEO Services supplies the most comprehensive selection of SEO optimization services in the industry. Below are some of the services we supply under Search Engine Optimization optimization services:
We offer detailed and effectual link building while ensuring that there are really no bad links or contextually erroneous links.
We offer complete organic SEO services planned to build a sustainable and natural growth pattern in the brand's on-line visibility.
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Using Google Adwords, marketing newsgroups like Bing advertisements, Yahoo ads and facebook marketing we also make sure your brand is being promoted among the right demographic.
Hudson River SEO Services supply you the most in-depth SEO optimization services, and organic Search Engine Optimization services inJacksonville, North Carolina. To know more about our SEO services contact us today.


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Event Attendance
This report allows you to view a roster of Learners enrolled in individual live event sessions. This report is best utilized if you need attendance sheets for all live event sessions from the past month or if you need to print a sign-in sheet for an upcoming session.
If you have not already reviewed the training materials on Functions Common to Most Reports please do so before continuing with this report.
Access this report by going to Reports >
Section 1: Filter By Hierarchy allows you to filter your report based on hierarchy levels. If you wish to run the report for all Learners, leave this field blank.
Section 2: Filter by Events allows you to choose the specific live event sessions for which you wish to pull an attendance roster. To choose a session, click in the box titled "Events" and click on a session. To choose multiple sessions, hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and click on the session titles. To run the report for all event sessions, leave this field blank.
Section 3: Filter by User Attributes allows you to filter which Learners will be included on the report. To run the report for all Learners, leave these fields blank.
Section 4: Report Output allows you to set additional parameters for how your report will run.
You can choose to only run the report for sessions with a certain Instructor attached to them.
You can also add Optional Columns to your report.
Once you have entered your filters and preferences, scroll to the top of the page and click "Run Report."
Below is an example of an Event Attendance report. Please note that if you chose multiple sessions, each session will appear on a separate page of the report.
To get back to the Knowledge Base and the master list of topics, please click hereThe Relias Platform How-To-Manual


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St. 225, 221, 222, and 227 TRK were alerted for a possible structure fire. 225 TRK, 221SQD, WGN, SRVC, and CHIEF all went enroute. 225 TRK arrived finding a female with burn injuries and a mattress on fire on the second floor. 221 units arrived and assisted 225 with removing the mattress from the 2nd floor and using a water can to extinguish. All units returned in service.
221, 225, 227, 222


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Archive for June, 2008
Join the ArtFairInsider Mailing List!June 30, 2008
High Winds, Hail and Tornadoes Blow Art Fairs to PiecesJune 29, 2008
What a hard start to the outdoor art fair season it has been for artists this year. Here I am reporting on even more damage.
The first story comes from painter Linda Massey from the Stone Arch Festival of the Arts in Minneapolis on June 14 and 15. This was one of Linda's first outdoor art fairs and it was definitely a baptism for her. Here is what she had to say:
I am also hoping the upcoming fairs are more successful than the Stone Arch Art Festival in Minneapolis… The weather was okay during the day but Saturday nite storm flattened many, many booths. Myself and a few other artists who went down to check our set ups put "all hands on deck" for the poor string of artists that were caught in a wind tunnel. It was one 20 second gust of wind that came in and stepped on a dozen or so booths in one section and another dozen down the way.We spent the wee hours in the morn picking up during another wave of storm clouds and torrential rain…
Talk about initiation by fire… I was shocked… but also very impressed with the way all the artist banded together to help out in a crisis… I just got a thank you note from a pewter artist who had loaded up all her inventory beforehand but lost all her pro panels and tent. She was still able to set up the next day using and extra EZ up from a nearby artist and walls from another…Nice group of folks there…
No surprise to me that the artists all worked together to help one another. There is hardly a group of nicer people out there than the traveling artists, always willing to give one another a hand.
Here is the news from Friday night (June 27) at the Omaha Summer Arts Festival from Don Crozier:
Photo courtesy of Don Ament
The Summer Arts Festival is the latest victim of the severe and unpredictable weather which seems to come up out of nowhere. Most of the artists were okay, but according to the Omaha World-Herald, 10 to 20% of the artists suffered enough damage to have to leave the festival after the Friday storm. The festival continues on after the cleanup.
A close friend, Bari Precious of Marshfield Missouri, lost her entire booth and wares, save two teapots, when a triple food tent across from her came crashing into her booth. She is heading back home at this writing and hoping have enough stock and to be able to borrow a tent for her next show on July 5th in Sedalia, Missouri.
I'm sure she'd appreciate a visit to her website and a few words of encouragement….
Story here:
And here is a video:
Another storm hit the art fair in Evanston, IL, Saturday afternoon, bringing high winds and hail and injuring ten people. The weather man says it is now headed to Michigan. I'm thinking I won't go to an art fair tomorrow!!
Thanks for Attending Teleseminar #2-Getting Started in the Art Fair BusinessJune 28, 2008
Yesterday evening we held our second in a series of free teleseminars about the business of doing art fairs, How to Get Started in the Art Fair Business.
Our many thanks to all of you who sent excellent questions and attended the event. All of our phone lines were full and I thoroughly enjoyed telling my art fair stories and sharing our years of experience at the nation's art fairs with all of you.
Some of the questions that we answered were:
- I just feel so overwhelmed I don't know where to start, I can't get enough money together to get materials I need nor to register for any art shows, don't know where to start. Lost and confused. Help me please!
- How can I judge the quality of a show when the 2 sources I know about (Sunshine Artist and Art Fair Source Book) do not agree or don't even mention the show?
- How can I tell when looking at applications the difference between the GREAT shows (the ones with buyers) and the OKAY shows (the ones with lookers)?
- My question is how do you get accepted to the juried art shows? What are they looking for?
- How can I improve my application to get fewer rejections?
- Do purchasing preferences vary by region? What are they?
- and many more
We are transcribing it now for download as an e-book. Stay tuned for publication!
Here are a few of the comments we received afterwards:
- Hi Connie, I missed the first teleseminar, but listened to the second one that was yesterday. Thanks to your website I am very busy this summer beginning tomorrow (Warren Co. Festival of the Arts) till August 23rd (Mason Heritage Festival). I had some concerns about booth display and yesterday's teleseminar gave me confidence. –Konul Zwolinski
- Connie and Scott, I found your seminar helpful and informative. I look forward to future opportunities. i have just gotten started in this business, so I welcome all sources of experience and support. Please keep me on your e-mail list. I can anticipate using more of your services, in the future. –Enlightened Images
- Wanted to thank you for providing me the opportunity to join the call. Great information, and you organized the presentation of the topics very well, each flowed into the other.
Can't wait for the next seminar.
You mentioned the possibility of focused calls – booth design would be most helpful. Would save a lot of trial and error. Thank you. –JR Lamartine
Artless in St. Louis: They Gave an Art Fair and Nobody CameJune 28, 2008
An artist's worst nightmare, read this story from the Riverfront Times in St. Louis by Kristen Hinman:
At least on paper the Olive and Taylor Art & Craft Fair (OTLA) sounded promising: fourteen hours of acoustic music, twelve hours of performance art, beer by Schlafly and handmade pasta from Mangia Italiano. Then there was the funky array of arts…
Read the rest of the story here…
What Are You Doing This Weekend? Head to Des MoinesJune 28, 2008
The folks at the Des Moines Art Festival do everything right. In its 11th year it has become such a centerpiece for the community's image that when companies are recruiting talent to work in the city's financial services and publishing industries that they schedule the interviews around the festival weekend.
Afraid you can't afford the art? Here is an article from the Des Moines Register "Juice" on buying art on a budget. Goes to show you, the staff at the DMAF leaves no stone unturned in attracting folks to the festival, talking points for the media are ever at the ready.
You might also enjoy this article from the Register that profiles Iowa artists, with a few tidbits thrown in about how the artists fared in the recent floods. Homegrown artists return to festival.
Bash on the Bayou? It's the Summer Arts Festival in OmahaJune 28, 2008
How about a little New Orleans flavor in Nebraska? What an interesting concept. The Omaha Summer Arts Festival headed by veteran organizer Vic Gutman is ready to entertain you this weekend.
The Omaha Summer Arts Festival, featuring artwork, food, music and more, runs Friday through Sunday in downtown Omaha. Hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Admission is free, although some activities have a charge. The event is between 10th and 15th Streets along Farnam Street, on the south side of the Gene Leahy Mall.
Read more about it in the Omaha World Herald.
Heading to Utah? Don't Miss the Utah Arts Festival this WeekendJune 28, 2008
Are you serious about art? How serious? The Utah Arts Festival is so serious that they're taking an entire four-day weekend to celebrate painting, sculpture, music, dance, food, film, theater, literature — you name it, and somebody at the UAF is ready to exhibit it, entertain with it, or educate about it.
This year's festival features huge harps. Using 3,000 feet of brass musical wire and a glass and concrete wall, a California artist has created two giant stringed instruments at Salt Lake City's Library Square.
These 16-string "Earth Harps," along with other giant sculptured instruments, are a featured element of the 2008 Utah Arts Festival, which begins today and continues through Sunday.
This festival is much more than its fine group of visual artists, expect also interactive musical experiences with the huge harps, food, crafts and more music.
The Utah Arts Festival is today through Sunday from noon to 11 p.m. at Library Square, 210 E. 400 South, Salt Lake City.
Read about the Earth Harps in the Salt Lake Tribune.
Join the ArtFairInsider email list!June 25, 2008
Free Call-in Teleseminar-June 26: How Do I Get Started in the Art Fair Business?June 19, 2008
Do you have questions about how to get started in the art fair business?
We are pleased to present you with this exciting opportunity to get some sound answers to these questions,
- Thursday, June 26, 7 pm EST
- we are hosting a fr*e call-in seminar, #2 in a series
- discussing the theme of getting started in the art fair business
As publishers of this newsletter we receive a steady stream of inquiries about how to succeed at the art fairs, and here's your chance to get those questions answered, for fr*e!
How To Participate:
- What it is: a 45 minute fr*e seminar, a conference call
- Who can participate: only subscribers to this newsletter
- When: Thursday, June 26, 7 pm EST
- How: respond to this email: email@example.com for call in instructions
- Email us with your questions. What question would you really like discussed?
- We will take the best questions and Connie will answer them LIVE on the phone with you
- Email us to register and submit a question to firstname.lastname@example.com, OR you aren't required to submit a guestion
- preference will be given to the first people who email a question
- Respond to this email to register your interest and receive the call in number. Do it now so that you receive the call-in number in advance and don't miss a minute of the discussion.
The call is not totally free, you must still pay your regular long distance charges to reach the call number.
What Artists Said About Teleseminar I
Just wanted to let you know I attended and found it to be time well spent. Please do it again soon.
Thanks for the opportunity to hear from a professional.
E. ShanleyGreat job! I enjoyed the teleseminar very much. Both of you did well, gave good information, and were interesting to listen to throughout the program. If you're considering doing other programs, I'd love to hear one dedicated to photography.
I make jewelry and I wanted to thank you for the teleseminar.
I have been in business for 2 years and have found that getting into the shows is very competitive. From what I understand, jewelry and photography are the 2 most competitive fields for these shows.
I would love to hear more category specific teleseminars. For me, one on jewelry would be great!
Angie Dresie
Teleseminar I: 17 Secrets for Success at Art Fairs is still available as an e-book. Visit ArtFairCalendar.com and click on the link in the upper right hand corner.
Who is Connie Mettler?
In addition to publishing this newsletter and its partners the ArtFairCalendar.com website and the blog, The Art Fair Insider, Connie has traveled the roads of the U.S. for twenty + years with her artist partner, photographer Norm Darwish, doing art fairs. Additionally, she has started art fairs, consulted with art fairs and been art director of others. Her expertise is sure to be helpful to you.
I look forward to speaking with you on Thursday.
Midwest Art Fairs and FloodingJune 19, 2008
Weatherwise it has been an unusually challenging Spring for artists. Extreme heat and heavy wind and unrelenting rain. What next?
The excellent Des Moines Art Festival is next weekend June 27-29 and there was much talk among artists about whether or not it would be cancelled. The latest news is that their fair site is high and dry and expecting you to show up next week to celebrate their "cultural sweets" in visual arts (175 fine artists), music, food and family activities.
Other riverfront communities have also been scrambling. On June 28-29 Quincy, IL's, Midsummer Art Faire will be ready to roll. Here is a press release from that events coordinator, Maggie Strong:
I have had some anxious artists emailing and calling about our situation, but the faire will continue as planned. We expect a crest this Friday and sandbagging efforts should diminish early next week as the waters recede. So far most of our roads are open so patrons will definitely be able to get to us. Some are concerned that people won't be buying art because they will be focused on the flood and its aftermath, but I am cautiously optimistic that the faire will be an excuse for people to get back to some normalcy and relax. I am writing a letter to the editor to that effect that you might appreciate. See below.
Kinds regards,
Letter to the Quincy Herald-Whig
As we look forward to the 5th annual Midsummer Arts Faire June 27-29 in Quincy's Washington Park, I invite you to consider the role our event plays in the quality of life in our community.
Quincy has a long history of supporting the arts. We are home to America's first Arts Council, The Quincy Society of Fine Arts and numerous other arts-related organizations. As evidenced by their support, the citizens of Quincy and the tri-states understand the important role the arts play in a vibrant community.
Thriving economies and thriving arts programs go hand-in-hand. The arts have a significant role to play in creating the environment and quality of life employers and knowledge-based workers are looking for. The kind of grass-roots support of the arts that Quincy is known for might some day convince a company to choose to relocate to our community, or a young entrepreneur to open up shop in our downtown. There are countless organizations, events and people that contribute to the quality of life in Quincy and I'm proud to count the Midsummer Arts Faire among them.
In the wake of our area's tremendous flood relief efforts, it's time to celebrate the spirit that makes our community shine. Please join us for a weekend of art and creativity and find out for yourself why life is good in Quincy.
Maggie Strong
Midsummer Arts Faire Coordinator
There is a strong photo essay on the Quincy, IL, website showing the community hard at work hauling sandbags to save their city.
Having recently returned from China where we viewed many people filling and hauling sandbags by hand it was a contrast to view these images with people hauling sandbags but trucks and forklifts also nearby to help. There essentially was no machinery in China.


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To be eligible for a refund, this must be your first purchase of an online album of our website, and if you are not satisfied with our product please send us an email at [email protected].
To complete your return, we require a receipt or proof of purchase.


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Creating an account with Tribecafilm.com gives you access to more features and services, like our weekly newsletter and other special features just for the film community.SIGN UP
We're making it easier than ever for you to stock up on Tribeca Film Festival tickets. Our revamped Wish List will save you time and effort in singling out the Festival titles you cannot wait to see.LEARN MORE
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If you were paying attention during the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival, you noticed that Tribeca kicked off a strategic partnership with Conrad Hotels and Resorts (and their sister company Hilton Hotels and Resorts). To celebrate the opening of the new Conrad New York Hotel in lower Manhattan (where we held this year's Tribeca Film Festival Awards), Conrad's Concierge services paid special attention to Tribeca festival-goers, bringing them snacks, umbrellas and tickets in their time of need. (Click to view the video recap.)
Post-Festival, our partnership continues to thrive. To that end, we think readers will enjoy something Conrad has been working on — namely, a short film called Metamorphosis. In this video piece, actor Jason Gray-Stanford, who appeared in the TFF 2012 film Caroline and Jackie, demonstrates the multiple transformations an actor goes through from role to role. In just two time-lapsed minutes, he assumes four radically different personas and characters, all the while delivering an introspective monologue on self-expression.
"This film is a fitting way to salute the beginning of a three-year partnership with The Tribeca Film Festival, the start of which has been a resounding success," says John Vanderslice, Global Head of Hilton's Luxury & Lifestyle Brands. "The brand fit between Tribeca and Conrad is exceptional, and the film really captures the essence of what both of our brands stand for as it epitomizes 'the luxury of being yourself.'"
The film was created by Y&R New York and directed by Nick Losq of Rabbit Content. The elaborate transformations were done by makeup artists at Legacy Effects, whose credits include Hollywood blockbusters The Avengers, Alice in Wonderland, Iron Man and Avatar.


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Roasted Shrimp and Feta Salad
At first glance you might think…oh man does that look delicious, but no way is my child going to eat that!!! Well you might be surprised. My girls tended to pick the pieces they wanted rather than eating it as a whole, but I could care less how they choose to eat the salad. As long as their attempting, that's all that matters. And if your child doesn't want the salad, then I promise you the roasted shrimp by themselves will be a winner. Such an easy, simple way to prepare your shrimp and they come out delicious EVERY SINGLE TIME! You really do need to make sure to NOT over cook them as the recipe warns. Very easy to do!
This recipe comes from good ol' Ina garten. The measurements on her recipe are different than mine however. I scaled back on the herbs and lemon juice. I figure if you like more of an herb-y or lemon-y taste you could always add more in the end.
I promise you and, fingers crossed, your kids will LOVE this recipe. Along with the fabulous taste of the dish, this thing is packed with all sorts of good nutrition. The shrimp provide a good protein source as well as a nutrient called astaxanthin (filled with antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents).The cucumbers give a refreshing touch with it's high water content and contribute some added vitamin B. The fiber in the whole wheat orzo makes for good digestion. And the feta contributes good sources of calcium, protein (4 g per 1 oz), and riboflavin (aka vitamin b-2). Not bad huh. I'll take that good nutrition any day, and I will certainly take it for the girls as well.
Make this and tell me what you think. I always love getting feedback. Helps to make the recipes even better!
Roasted Shrimp and Feta Salad
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Good olive oil
- ¾ pound orzo pasta (rice-shaped pasta. I used 6 oz of white pasta and 6 oz of wheat)
- ⅓ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2½-3 lemons)
- 2 pounds shrimp, peeled and deveined (or more if your like the dish heavy on shrimp)
- 1 cup minced scallions, white and green parts
- ⅓ cup fresh dill, minced
- ⅓ cup fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped fine
- 1 hothouse cucumber, peeled, seeded, and medium-diced (or two medium sized regular cucumbers, peeled and seeded)
- ½ cup small-diced red onion
- ¾ pound good feta cheese, large diced (I don't use low-fat)
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Fill a large pot with water, add 1 tablespoon of salt and a splash of oil, and bring the water to a boil. Add the orzo and simmer for 9 to 11 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it's cooked al dente. Drain and pour into a large bowl (DO NOT RINSE).
- Whisk together the lemon juice, ½ cup olive oil, 1¼ teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper. Pour over the hot pasta and stir well. (Pouring over hot pasta is essential. The hot pasta will absorb the dressing much more, which deepens the flavor of the dish)
- Meanwhile, rinse and pat dry the shrimp. (Patting the shrimp dry helps the oil to fully coat the shrimp) Place the shrimp on a sheet pan, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss to combine and spread out in a single layer. Roast for 5 to 6 minutes, until the shrimp are cooked through. Don't overcook! Immediately transfer the shrimp from the hot pan to a bowl. The shrimp may overcook if left on the hot pan.
- Add the shrimp to the orzo and then add the scallions, dill, parsley, cucumber and onion. Toss well. Add the feta and stir carefully. Taste and add salt and pepper if necessary. Set aside at room temperature for 1 hour to allow the flavors to blend, or refrigerate overnight. If refrigerated, taste again for seasonings and bring back to room temperature before serving.
- If you would like more of a certain flavor just add more in. I found 1½ tsp of salt in the lemon/oil dressing is a good amount to start with. Because the orzo boiled in salted water, you don't want to over salt by putting too much into the dressing as well. If you taste at the end and it seems to need more salt, then sprinkle more over the top. Simple. If your tastebuds want more acidity to the dish, add more lemon juice. If you feel the dish is lacking in the herb department, add more parsley and dill. Stick to the amounts above and then make adjustments if necessary.
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Adventure begins!
Our team is formed! I already knew Vox as he is one of my former students. Adolamin seems like a nice, quiet fellow with a hidden power and Jericho seems fairly talkative and easy to get along with.
Since we are still grunts without any rank in the 42nd Lancers, we still have to take on whatever job the higher ups deem worthy to give us. Today we are assigned to head around Sigil and collect up 6 items! We have 2 days and 200 gold to do so. I'm a bit excited, as I love touring the place. We decide to pick a direction and stay with it until we loop back around to our barracks.
Bazaar cloths for Candlesocks
We first head to the great bazaar where we are sure to find the cloth item we need. We meet a few strange merchants (one even sold wool socks which I decided to purchase!) and end up meeting a half-man/half-lion fellow who has the cloth we need.
We don't have the gold to buy it outright, but he's willing to trade as long as we can make fools out of some Harmonium troops that are hassling a salesman who can't pay his taxes. Jericho takes point on this one to distract the guards. Trying to think of anything humorous, I decide to combine the three items we have recently come across (candles, socks and bottles) into one item and try to sell the invention to the Guvner and Harmonium. Jericho makes the idea stick and gets them to prance around while Vox and Adolamin infiltrate the crowd to get them all laughing at them. It (surprisingly) works!
With the cloth in hand, we head to the next stop.
Law books don't care about Candlesocks
We head to the courts next for a book of law. We find a lawyer who is willing to talk to us, but doesn't seem to have the slightest interest in our Candlesock patent. Jericho was even on fire describing it, too!
Vox snuck out and was able to find someone willing to give us a law book for free!
Roses are… gray?
We next head to the prison for a gray rose. Vox is able to smooth-talk a guard to go get one for us! What a nice guy!
Cauldrons are heavy
Next up was the foundry. It was surprisingly easy to go in and purchase the bronze cauldron we needed, but unfortunately no one was really wanting to carry it all the way back to base. Luckily there are people outside ready to make deliveries for us! The man we payed to haul it off didn't even steal it! Lucky!!
Sad day for a funeral
By the time we got to the mortuary we could feel the downhill slope of our tasks easing things along. We were definitely flying through these orders now!
Adolamin knew his way around this place and was able to find an unused funeral shroud for us. That was fortunate because the combined efforts of Jericho and Vox were not enough to convince anyone to sell us one!
Chaotic poems can kill you!
We then head to the slums to find someone willing to deliver a chaos poem to us. Vox gets some drunks to start singing in a bar and all of a sudden a brawl breaks out! I high-tailed it out of there so I wasn't able to see much of what happened, but I did write down everything that was said. Good thing I had that parchment handy!
Vox remembers our first meeting!
We next head to the Sensates to get a memory stone. Since Vox is a member he was able to forge one himself, though he had to make a copy for their collection. He recounted our first meeting together! I'll admit that it was an interesting night, but hopefully it wont end up causing more break-ins at the library!
Almost home
Our final destination was the gymnasium for a training certificate. Unfortunately they don't just sell those… but they were interested in our strength as members of the 42nd Lancers so they were willing to give us one if we could prove our worth in combat.
Their battle arena was quite interesting and we ended up fighting wave-after-wave of summoned demons. The last one was a real beast and I ended up going through all my spells. It was extinguishing but exciting! With friends like these I probably wont end up eaten by a courl like my dad!
Home at last
We completed our task in record time, but it was a full day of effort. We had some good news though! Company F was apparently wiped out on their latest mission (bad news for them) and with that vacancy we were officially promoted!
Our next mission will most likely lead us out of Sigil and to another plane! I can't wait!


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"But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?' God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." (Matt 22:31-32)
This is the proclamation of Easter. Yet in every aspect this proclamation is dependent upon the preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Without the crucifixion there is no resurrection. The life that is declared during the season of Easter is the life that was purchased on the cross by Jesus. Christians cannot live the life of Easter glory without coming to this glorious life in Christ through the death of the Sinner on the cross. Dying with Christ in Baptism is the only way to the new life of "walking in the Spirit" of the resurrection. Christians always come to the joy of life through the humble repentance effected through confession and absolution. This confession of sin and reliance upon God's absolution is the key to Christian living. By this, a person awakens in the morning signing himself with the cross and reclining in the evening with the same sign on his heart and mind, continually being turned from his own thoughts, words, and deeds to the miracle of Good Friday, manifested fully on Easter Sunday.
This baptismal miracle of repentance is the beginning of true conversations with the God of Easter. For by the miracle of repentance a person is turned from everything else to the Word of God. Every activity in the life of one who has received the miracle of repentance directs his heart to Jesus, the Word of the God of the living. This is the true meaning of repentance.
When a believer's heart is directed by baptismal grace to know that the life of faith is based or founded upon the preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, that person recognizes God's Word more and more fully in every aspect of his life. More and more this life founded upon Christ crucified demonstrates the Lord of Life as the believer's very life. More and more the person realizes what St. Paul declared,
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Gal 2:20)
This is, of course, baptismal talk. It is the language of the preaching of the crucified and risen Lord. Notice that this is different than "making Christ the center of one's life." No, Christ is not the center of the new life of the Christian. Christ IS the new life of the Christian. Christ is not the center of Christian living. He is the Head. He does the thinking. He makes the decisions. He gives the direction. He says when to breathe and to eat and to drink. He determines the path in which the person walks by the Spirit.
The more surely that a person acknowledges this, the more that it manifests itself in the person's daily walk. The more concretely that a person's life of faith is based upon the knowledge of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, the more surely that the person relies upon the God of the living as the real and active force in his life. Before long the person begins to recognize God speaking through everything that he encounters. Before long the person begins to talk to God about absolutely every little thing. What is even more amazing is the person actually begins to listen to God to hear what God is saying.
Yes, God does speak to His children. He does this by using the little things of life to call His children to repent, that is, to turn back to Him in conversation, also called worship. The person begins recognizing that the holy Communion that is renewed through the Sacrament of the Altar continues in every moment of the walk of faith. The person begins to talk to the God of the living about everything.
For example, as a man who earns his living climbing trees, the wind plays a very important role in my daily life. Here in Kansas, the wind blows hard enough to blow branches down the street, sometimes even branches that weigh more than I do. This occurs without even having a storm. When this occurs, I find it very frustrating, especially when I am swaying in the top of a tree.
I have often fussed at the wind, saying things like, "Stupid wind!!!!!!!!"
One day I remembered that in the Scriptures the word for wind in Hebrew is Ruach and in the Greek is pneumatos. These are the very same words that the Scriptures use for the Holy Spirit. This made me realize that when I fuss at the wind, I am really fussing at God. I began talking to God about this. Before long I was realizing that when I fuss about ANYTHING, I am fussing at God. I began to remember that all these things are by God's ordinance and that He is the one working in them and through them for His own purposes.
So now, I don't fuss at the wind. Instead, I fuss directly at God. I ask Him, "Why are You doing this? You know that I have work to do. You provided me with this work. You have commanded me to do it as unto You. So why are you fighting me on it? Why are you making it hard for me to do what you have given me to do?"
Sometimes this goes on for a while, other times I hear God more quickly. This is actually an important realization about prayer/worship. A person cannot hear God unless the person is actually listening. How can a person know whether he is listening to God? That is really very easy to answer. The answer rests in this question, "Who is doing the talking?"
In other words, as the person prays, is his heart being led to the Scriptures, the written record of God's declaration of the Word? Or does the person go on and on, eventually formulating his own answers and claiming that they are from God?
Returning to my fussing with God about the wind, and this happens regularly, I find that before long I am thinking about passages of Scripture that tell me about the way the Spirit works in my life, often even against my will and desire. I hear Scriptures that speak of how the Spirit always speaks of Christ and the salvation that Christ won on the cross. Eventually I end up thanking God for fighting against me with the wind and praying that He would help me to work with the wind rather than against it. When I begin actually to do this, I find that even though the wind is fighting what I was doing, that it can help in other ways when I follow the flow of the wind rather than insisting on doing the work by my own wisdom and choices. Moreover, I am talking to the God of the living rather than merely going about my daily chores on my own. I am aware of God working with me and for me, calling me to repent and return to Him in all things. After all, what is more important, the speed with which I complete the job of trimming a tree that the wind will someday blow down anyway, or that the Wind blow into my life and work the miracle of repentance so that my thoughts are directed away from the things on the earth to the affection of the things above? (Col. 3:2)
Truly the message of the season of Easter is one of the life of continual repentance of baptismal grace and of the regular renewal of the Holy Communion in Christ's body and blood. Through these God shows Himself to be the God of the living and calls His children to know Him in every activity of their lives in Him. This is what St. Paul teaches when he instructs that we should:
Rejoice evermore.
Pray without ceasing.
In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Quench not the Spirit.
Despise not prophesyings.
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
Abstain from all appearance of evil.
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. (1Thes 5:16-24)


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One of a kind, 'Woodland Treasures' bag:
I had a lot of fun making this lovely 'Woodland Treasures' bag, that has a strap long enough for going over your head/cross-ways over your body. It features an acorn, an oak leaf and a little owl on a branch charms and matching beads on the draw closure. A head-turner of a bag that is perfect for afternoon walks in the woods and treasure collecting. I may make another similar one, but it will not be exactly the same, because I do not have all the same yarns left - some of the ones included in this bag, were remnants of one-of-a-kind hand spun yarns. It also has a gorgeous wool smell!
Next up is my one of a kind 'Seaside Treasures' bag, which features 2 beautiful seashell charms, a star fish and a very shy mermaid (she is made from Tibetan silver). Another stunning head-turner of a bag that is perfect for beach combing and long lazy walks along the shore-line:
Like the 'Woodland Treasures' bag, this bag also includes remnants of one of a kind, hand spun yarn, of which I have none left, so although I may make another one similar, it cannot be exactly the same. I have other themed bags in progress, all using unique, hand spun yarn remnants and with charms.
And who is this little fellow peeking out from a little hole in this tree?
This gorgeous little 'Owl on a Branch Brooch' found a perfect hole to perch in, on this tree, right beside the river - this cute little fellow has two olive wood buttons for eyes and a silver brooch clasp on his back, so that he can be pinned to your jacket, coat, hat, scarf or bag and join you wherever you go on your adventures. He is a friendly little character and loves to quote words of wisdom that he has learnt. Here is something he imparted to me yesterday:
To find what you seek in the road of life,
the best proverb of all, is that which says:
"Leave no stone unturned."
~ Edward Bulwer Lytton
Which I think was probably said in response to all the stones, river glass and old pieces of pottery that my children and I collected from the little river-side beach we were on, photographing! We quite filled our pockets and when we got home, we had a lot of fun trying to work out where all the little pieces of pottery might have come from. Here is some that my youngest son found, such pretty and subtle colours:
Next up is this lilac, knitted scarf, which would look gorgeous, dressed up with one of the rose brooches from my son's Etsy store, The Wylde Woods, which you can visit here: http://www.etsy.com/people/TheWyldeWoods
This gorgeous piece of river driftwood was just perfect for photographing everything against. It was very smooth and had lovely textures and colours in it and gorgeous pieces of dried river weeds dangling from it's branches. I hope it will be there next time we go.
That isn't the whole width of the river if you were wondering - at the place where we were, there are a small group of islands in the middle, known as Ness Islands, where there are beautiful trees and rhodedendrons growing, gorgeous paths for walking, little bridges between the islands, where mini rapids and waterfalls flow beneath. It is a very popular spot for dog walkers too and even has a tiny dog cemetery in one corner, where those who once enjoyed this beautiful spot for 'walkies', remain lovingly for always.


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BellaBassFly navigates mature urbanites through the entangled web of metropolitan nightlife. Current events, new music, and interesting new progressing artists. Festivals,art, music and Dance! BellaBassFly provides exclusive press for underground artists. Celebrate life with BellaBassFly! FREE DOWNLOADS! WARNING: MATURE CONTENT
Saturday, July 11, 2015
Above & Beyond feat. Gemma Hayes "Counting Down The Days" (Official Video)
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UK trio Above & Beyond release their latest single 'Counting Down The Days'.
from their Billboard dance number #1 album 'We Are All We Need',
'Counting Down The Days' is also Above & Beyond's first track to
feature the vocals of Mercury Music awards nominee Gemma Hayes.
first came across Gemma through a bootleg mix that found its way on to
our Group Therapy radio show ," said the band's Jono Grant. "Coming from
a folk background, her voice has an honesty and emotion to it that
really stood out from the pack and felt a perfect match for this song
co-written with Victoria Horn."
Set against a laidback summer
groove, Gemma's hazy vocal tones perfectly capture the melancholia of
the drifting relationship on the Radio Edit.
A tried and tested
favourite from their headline sets across the globe everywhere from L.A.
Forum to London's Brixton Academy, Above & Beyond's Club Mix is a
high energy affair that showcases the immediacy and emotion of a peak
time A&B set in style. Now available on Beatport.
Director, DoP & Editor Kenlon Clark
Production Company Green Glow Films
Producer Kevin Lee
Executive Producer Alec Eskander
Live Dates: http://po.st/ablive
Website: http://po.st/wbab
Facebook: http://po.st/fbab
Twitter: http://po.st/twab
Soundcloud: http://po.st/absc
Instagram: http://po.st/abins
iTunes: http://po.st/abitunes
Google+: http://po.st/abgopl
Posted by Bella Bass Fly at 7:25 AM
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To start with, each student was given their own bird to look out for and a tally chart to record how many they saw. Unfortunately the storms on Friday prevented us from seeing as many birds as we might have done, but those that did manage to identify their species were left buzzing by the experience (reminded me of something).
Even those that didn't were still captivated by the few birds that we did see. They would all run to one window to see a Crow, then to the next window to see a Magpie. These were species that I'd probably overlook nowadays, but the astonishment the students showed for them has made me realise that perhaps I should pay more attention to the more familiar things out there. After all, there is no reason why a Sparrow should be any less interesting than a Sparrowhawk! And even if only one student has taken away from that lesson a greater appreciation for the natural world, this planet can only be a better place for it.
|The students were amazed as a small murmuration of starlings rippled over our heads on Friday
Barn Owls have been doing very badly these past four years, undermined by continuous bouts of extreme weather. It is estimated that as few as 1,000 breeding pairs still remain in England, so to lose the one in the fields next to my house would be another devastating blow to a species in serious decline.
Let's hope my search proves more fruitful in the coming weeks!


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I've been thinking a lot recently and I've realised that sometimes it's actually healthy to hate your life…
The other night I didn't know why I was crying so I picked up my journal and decided to write down what I want from life. Instead I filled four pages full of sentences all starting with, "I'm sick of _____.", "why did _____ happen."
Usually I don't let myself complain for long in my journal, because I'm worried I'm digging myself into a deeper hole. But letting the floodgates open and just spilling about everything that was bugging me really helped. And if it helped, how can it be bad? Sure, I sounded like a grouch for all of those pages, but who fucking cares? No one reads my journal anyway, and in all fairness it probably kept me from blowing up at some innocent person in my life about the tiniest thing because I just had so much negativity in me that I had to get out.
Today my mum mentioned that I need to focus on what I love. Which is a pretty obvious statement if you ask me, but I thought, "No, no I don't because I am not happy."
What if someone was in a house that's on fire and they said, "Help me, I hate this place!" and you said, "Oh, but don't you like the colour you painted your bedroom?"
What if someone was in an abusive relationship and you said, "Sure, you hate living with this person but you do like their table manners?"
In either of those situations, it would be totally appropriate for that person in distress to reply, "Oh, fuck off!" to your suggestions. Right?
Yeah, I can sit here and focus on what I like and pretend that I don't hate my life, but there's only so much denying you can do before you are in serious denial and denial means you're stuck.
So maybe hating your life means you need to change what you hate into something that you like better. Depression may still be clutching me and making me feel dead and sad all the time, but if I have to live with those feelings, maybe there's some better way to do it. Some way to make things easier.
So how about changing things until I love them?
If you have depression like I do, it means that we have to try harder than the average person to be happy. It's a shitty situation but just because it's hard doesn't mean we shouldn't try. We can't just give up. If we have to try harder, let's try harder. Let's aim to change the things we can change.


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Mahn Funeral Home
Mahn Funeral Home
Owens, Paul LVisitation:Date: Sunday, August 2, 2015 Time: 5:00pm - 8:00pm Visitation Location:Mahn DeSoto ChapelService: Date: Monday, August 3, 2015 Time: 10:00AM Service Location:Mahn DeSoto ChapelInterment:Woodlawn Cemetery
Memorials/DonationsAmerican Cancer Society,
4207 Lindell Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63108
American Diabetes Association ,
PO Box 2680,
North Canon, OH 44720ObituaryPaul Leon Owens, 90 years, De Soto entered into eternal rest on Wednesday, July 29, 2015 at his residence. Mr. Owens was a Superintendent for Fruehauf Corporation. He was a member of the CC Camp and Amvets Post #48. He enjoyed spending time with his family, going dancing, playing cards and vacationing. Born on Tuesday, July 21, 1925 in Belgrade, Missouri to the late Jessie J. and Jettie M. (Nee Parks) Owens. His surviving family members are a son, Steven J. Owens of De Soto; four daughters, Rita Jean Zoph, Paula Sharon (husband, Jimmy) Zoph all of De Soto, Mary Kay (husband, Dwayne) Wilson of Festus and Gail Ann Owens also of De Soto; one sister, Norma Jean Belfield of Potosi, MO; twelve grandchildren: Tom Zoph, Mary Speth, Tracy Hillman, Kim Rawson, Amy Zoph, Matt Zoph, Adam Zoph, Holly Owens, Sarah Wilson, Kelly Wilson, Michael Shirley and Briann Shirley; thirteen great-grandchildren, ten great-great-grandchildren and one great-great-great-grandchildren.Reverend Jim Owens will be officiating the funeral service.
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Religious Right
Ironically, Wayne Liberati's June 30 letter castigating Jack Germond and Jules Witcover for "missing the point" is a perfect illustration of precisely the point your columnists were trying to // make in their June 23 commentary.
In coining the phrase "irreligious left," Mr. Liberati would have us believe that anyone who disagrees with his conservative Christian viewpoint is not only wrong, but ungodly. That has become an all-too-common message from the religious right. Therein lies the danger.


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Church-wide Intercessory Prayer
Liberty meets every Tuesday @ 7:14 PM
Our Tuesday night prayer meetings are characterized by a strong desire to see God move freely in our own personal lives, as well as our church, our community, and the nations of the world through the power of prayer. This awesome time of unified prayer and communion is lead by Pastor Dawn René McCann. For those who want to press in to the promises of God by cooperating with Him in impacting God´s people and the world, this weekly meeting will change you as much as it changes the world. As you pray, you´ll experience God´s heart and it will satisfy your hunger for more of God and develop a deeper level of discernment and compassion.
Darnell & vanessa skinner
Our car broke down Saturday night and it will cost a lot of money to fix. We are asking to please pray during this time for our faith to remain strong. We know that God has always provided for us and always will. But we need a door to open to help us. It's our only car that we have. With the holidays here and only Darnell working we just need a little help. Thank you again for all the prayers!! Our faith is there--just need to keep it. God will never let us down.


text: You may have heard that The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is the most challenging Zelda game, or the most stressful, weirdest, and saddest. Most of that is correct. It's also a great game that has now been remade for the Nintendo 3DS. If you decide to play the very good remake (you should!), here are some almost entirely spoiler-free tips.


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|Pontus Olsson
|A Novel Virtual Planning of Bone, Soft tissue and Vessels in Fibula Osteocutaneous Free Flap with the Uppsala Haptics-Assisted Surgery Planning (UHASP) System
|Virtual surgical planning has proven useful for reconstructing complex congenital and acquired defects in the head and neck area. Benefits include increased accuracy resulting in improved function and aesthetics, and decreased intraoperative time yielding reduced morbidity and cost savings. Available systems need long lead-time to surgery, often requiring a technician to assist the surgeon, and implant and plate manufacturing to be outsourced. Furthermore, such systems simulate only bone reconstruction and do not include soft tissue for fibula osteocutaneous free flaps (FOFF). The Uppsala Haptics-Assisted Surgery Planning (UHASP) system comprises software that relies on stereo graphics and force feedback from a haptic device to guide surgery planning. After minimal training, a cranio-maxillofacial surgeon can in one hour, without a technician, develop a pre-operative, patient-specific plan for restoring the skeletal anatomy of the face and neck region. The system supports: (1) repositioning of skeletal bone fragments in complex facial trauma cases, (2) use of FOFF in head and neck reconstruction, and (3) design of titanium scaffolds implant for bone substitutes. Estimates in the literature suggest that a detailed surgery plan may shorten surgery by 25%. UHASP reduces the surgery time further both as a result of the insight the surgeon gains during the planning process and with the addition of soft tissue modeling. UHASP's shorter planning process, surgery, and postoperative recovery lead to considerable cost savings as does in-house production of patient-specific cutting guides and fixation plates. UHASP is applicable to general orthopedic and neuro-surgery and also as a teaching tool.


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Posts Tagged 'Framework'
The spring 2012 release of the Horde Application Suite and Framework will probably be called Horde 5. In a recent discussion the majority of developers agreed on a new major revision for some changes that some view as minor backward compatibility break. Currently planned features include:
- New standard UI for "traditional view"
- Move of Ajax code from specific apps to a common framework
- Release of a small inventory management app (sesha)
- complete configuration via UI (likely)
- Webmail: Write support for smartphone view
- Calendar: Resource calendar support for ajax view
At the same time, Horde 3 will no longer receive any support. Horde 3 has been around since 2005 and really has reached its end of life.
Since the Horde 4 release, The Horde 3 family of applications has only received critical bugfixes and security updates, the last being released this february. You should really consider updating to Horde 4 – the transition from Horde 3 to Horde 4 has been tested and done by numerous people and the transition from Horde 4 to Horde 5 should run smoothly as both releases are PEAR based.
I have already removed all things horde3 from OpenSUSE-Factory. OpenSUSE 12.2 will not ship Horde 3 any longer. Depending on packaging progress, openSUSE 12.2 will very likely ship Horde 5 or the most recent Horde 4 release. Horde 4 maintainence will continue.
Horde 3 Packages in the server:php:applications repository (see here) will be available at least until openSUSE 12.1 runs out of maintainence. I won't give these much attention though. Please also note Eleusis Password Manager will be dropped with currently no planned replacement.
Horde's powerful RPC API has been used numerous times to allow integration of horde-based data into external applications or remote sites. It also provides an easy to set up basis for distributed applications with headless workers. In this article I will give you a brief introduction on how to build a scalable distributed architecture based on Horde 4.
Distributed Architecture
- You want your application to be scalable over several hosts. We call the controlling instance the master and the reacting instances the workers.
- You don't want to keep a lot of state on the worker. Adding or removing a worker instance should not require complicated setup. Most cloud layers like OpenStack assume worker instances to be virtually stateless. The master is the single source of truth and should be able to rebuild any broken or lost worker setup from stored information.
- You are working in a hostile environment, e.g. the internet. Firewall only allows select ports and data has to travel over lines you cannot trust. You want to resort to https transport with real certificates.
The master:
I won't go into too many details on the master setup this time. Create a basic app from the skeleton as the horde wiki describes. Separate a communication driver for worker Api calls from the driving logic in your app and don't couple them too tightly. Usually you want small commits of changes to both the master's idea and the worker's reality and you want to check back if everything worked out. This doesn't scale well on large-scale changes though.
Sometimes you want to make complex changes to the "truth" or "theory" in the master's db before you commit them to the worker world out there.
Accessing the worker from the master:
The core piece of your communication with the worker are just a few lines of code
protected function callWorker(WorkerInstance $worker, $callMethod, array $parameters = array()) {
try { $http = new Horde_Http_Client(array('request.username' => $worker->rpcuser, 'request.password' => $worker->rpcuserpass, 'request.timeout' => 20 )); $response = Horde_Rpc::request( 'xmlrpc', 'https://' . $worker->worker_hostname . '/' . $worker->worker_subdir .'/rpc.php', $callMethod, $http, array($parameters) ); } catch (Exception $e) { throw new Appname_Exception($e); } return $response; }
This is a dumbed down version for demonstration purposes. You might want to model WorkerInstance based on Horde_Rdo, the horde ORM layer. It is desirable to evaluate lazy relations and lazy attributes. This has important performance implications but more on this in another post. We're also selling consulting 😉
Worker setup:
We want a stateless worker instance. Obviously, this is theory. Truth is: You need a unique IP and you probably want a unique hostname. Nowadays cloud layers can provide that level of configuration. How about a horde instance without db?
You want the worker to talk under a specific api name. Add a block to your registry.local.php
'myvpnworkerworker' => array ( 'name' => _("someworkerfooname"), /* we can even drop the _() as nobody will localize this */ 'provides' => 'myvpnworkerapp', )
This is stripped down to just the important lines
$conf['auth']['params']['htpasswd_file'] = '/not/in/webroot/passwords.secret'; $conf['auth']['params']['encryption'] = 'plain'; /* In real world, you want to use some encryption instead */ $conf['auth']['driver'] = 'http'; /* We want authentication by http layer after all */
We want the server to be stateless and not to rely on external data. We don't want a local mysqld running and we don't want a remote ldap either. We will store the credentials in a .htpasswd style file. For demonstration purposes, we use plain authentication.
The file would look like this:
passwd.passwd would look like this: rpcuser:totallysecretrpcuserpass adminuser:adminpass localdebuguser:secretlocaldebugpass
We also want to get rid of any components which cannot work without an sql backend
$conf['log']['priority'] = 'DEBUG'; $conf['log']['ident'] = 'HORDE'; $conf['log']['name'] = LOG_USER; $conf['log']['type'] = 'syslog'; $conf['log']['enabled'] = true; $conf['log_accesskeys'] = false; As the worker will probably only show the admin UI to localhost or VPN, you want to log any debug relevant data locally into a file
$conf['prefs']['driver'] = 'Session'; $conf['alarms']['driver'] = false;
We don't want user prefs or alarms on the worker. You might consider setting up some basic email delivery and sending alarms by mail. I won't cover this here.
$conf['datatree']['driver'] = 'null'; $conf['group']['driver'] = 'Mock'; Datatree support is sql-only. Datatree is mostly legacy support and it isn't particularly fast either. There is no guarantee future horde revisions will support datatree. You don't want it. Period. You don't want groups either. The primary user of your instance is the RPC user.
$conf['perms']['driver'] = 'Null'
Only the master speaks to your worker and this must be ensured on the ssl/https layer. No need for a perms backend
$conf['cache']['driver'] = 'File';
If we use caching at all, we want to use a primitive one.
$conf['lock']['driver'] = 'Null'; $conf['token']['driver'] = 'Null';
Horde_Locks is a cool library. Ben Klang wrote it in 2008 when I was working in a non-public project that needed it and I mailed some stuff to him. But it's sql-only. We don't want it here.
Horde_Tokens are essential for a lot of verification tasks but the worker is not the single source of truth.
$conf['vfs']['type'] = 'File';
You probably don't want a vfs at all. Vfs means state.
$conf['sessionhandler']['type'] = 'Builtin';
Anything but sql. You probably don't want sessions.
This should be the key parts to make your stock horde installation not want a database at all.
The RPC Worker app.
The key to your RPC worker app is Api.php
This is the entry point for any Horde RPC calls.
Basically it works this way:
- The upper layer of array() is internal to the horde rpc request layer
- In our client example we wrapped our params into an additional array() to facilitate optional parameters. This means any method in Api.php accepts an array as the single parameter. You could also use a fixed list of parameters with optionals in the rear positions.
- While the horde registry calls applications apis as 'domain/function', the rpc api calls them as domain.function. Examples are horde.listApis and myvpnapp.fetchData
Any function you can call from the outside is a method in Fooworkername_Api in Fooworkername/lib/Api.php.
Concurrency and queueing:
Horde is written in PHP. PHP is generally lacking in thread safety and doesn't support real forking from within an apache module. You can however fork and detach processes using shell_exec. Horde ships some classes which help you use PHP in a shell environment but sometimes you want to resort to shell scripts or perl or anything else because it already exists or is more suitable to the job. shell_exec allows you use all of these. Usually you want your api calls to return fast. This doesn't scale well. Make sure your individual call usually finishes in predictable worst case scenarios in 1/3 of the client's response timeout. In our example we chose 20 seconds for timeout. Mind network latency and external script worst case runtime.
The solution here is decoupling:
- Don't make any UI element depend on live data from the worker
- make a service/daemon or cron job collect worker state at short intervals and serialize these data points in time stamped files or directories
- Create an api entry point to collect most recent state/results
- Collect results of all workers from a commandline script, daemon, cron job or service in reasonable sequences.
- Don't expect most tasks immediately but add them to a queue. Horde_Queue may help you with that task.
Choose wisely where to call existing external apps and where to resort to PHP and the Horde Framework to solve common data collection, processing, formatting and returning tasks.
Remember to have fun.
The author is severly biased towards all things horde and has used horde classes and applications to solve various work-for-hire problems. The Horde Framework is one of the oldest and mature php projects and drives mission critical collaboration and data retrieval software all over the globe.
As you might know, the horde project does not only release a set of production quality software (and an interesting bunch more which are not yet release quality) but also provides over 80 well-designed loosely coupled libraries which help you build websites, business applications or even commandline tools. To stress that point, the Horde Project now put a link to the list of components right on their frontpage. Use Horde_Rdo, a lightweight ORM layer or use the RFC-compliant Imap_Client library which performs equally or even better compared to PHP's interpreter extension written in c. Horde_Auth, a versatile and pluggable authentication layer, has recently been featured in a series of blog posts by lead developer Jan Schneider.
Like in Symfony or Zend Framework, Components are released along with a PHPUnit based test suite adapted in the Horde_Test class and can be obtained individually through the Horde Pear Channel.


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The Patriots couldn't pull it off. The Memphis Tigers couldn't get the job done. Hell, not a single team in Division I-A football could do it and the National Championship was won by a two-loss LSU team.
Leave it to the greatest athlete in the world today to toss his swoosh-emblazoned hat in the ring and embark on a quest to complete the rare undefeated season.
Blasphemy you say? No golfer could make it through the PGA Tour season without losing a single tournament. The fields are too deep and too many things could go wrong along the way for that to every happen.
Or could it?
While I agree that the likelihood of Tiger Woods ripping off 13 or so more wins, including all four of golf's major championships is quite low. Something tells me that the man himself believes in his heart that he could accomplish the seemingly impossible, and that means a lot.
He's already admitted that he thinks completing the regular season Grand Slam is within his reach and when asked if he could eclipse Byron Nelson's record of 11 straight wins he simply grinned and replied, "Mmm Hmm" as if to say, "you ain't seen nothing yet".
Consider that Woods already owns PGA Tour win streaks of six and seven in a row and his current streak of four is actually six if you count his wins at the Target World Challenge and earlier this year in Dubai, both of which boasted high-quality fields.
In fact that "strength of schedule" may be the one thing that keeps Woods from running the table in 2008 as it has been his custom to only play the highest profile events with the deepest fields in golf.
That coupled with the uncertain nature of the game would seem to put the undefeated season outside of his considerable reach.
Personally I don't think it's all that outandish to believe that Woods could win every time out in 2008. In his three starts so far he's won in a myriad of ways from run-away victories at the Buick Invitational and the Championship Match at the World Match Play, to stirring comebacks in Dubai and the first round of the World Match Play.
His stats are nearly as impressive as his ability to gut out wins so far in 2008.
Woods ranks first on the PGA Tour in greens in regulation, putting average, scoring average and average birdies per round. All while ranking 176th in total driving. Which means when he gets his driver warmed up he really could be unbeatable.
People will of course point to the erratic nature of his driver as ultimately the reason why he couldn't possibly remain undefeated in 2008, but I would argue that he can only get better (he finished 45th in 2007 in total driving) and when that inevitablity finally comes to pass he will be so far out ahead of everyone else that it won't matter if he misses some fairways.
I'm not going to walk out on the plank here and say that it's a foregone conclusion that Woods will run the table, but should this streak continue through April and the Masters and then into June and U.S. Open one would have to concede that an undefeated season is a real possibilty for a man that up to this point has done nothing but exceed expectations at every turn.


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Lot 13
Flawless nephrite; well hollowed, with an attached, deeply recessed protruding foot of the same material
This bottle is undoubtedly of an early date, and it may even be from the palace workshops at Beijing, to judge by the colour, so popular at the Qianlong court, the tiny mouth, the unusual shape, and the general resemblance to other bottles of similar taste, size, and feeling that are attributable to the palace (see Sale 7, lot 36 and Christie's, Hong Kong, 1 November 1994, lot 1240, for instance).
What is extraordinary about the bottle, apart from its shape, is the fact that the deeply recessed foot is a separate piece of the same material, so well matched and fitted that it had not previously been noticed as such.
The advantage of using a separate foot is obvious: instead of hollowing the bottle through the mouth (which is unusually small in this case), the lapidary could work through a wide opening in the base. A benefit of doing so is that relatively large pieces could be removed from the interior for use as smaller carvings or for beads. Indeed, it is possible that this bottle was itself originally the core from a larger bottle; although no such bottle is recorded, the larger vessel could have been another type of object with a cylindrical interior. This practice was later adopted in Japan, where it was used in the production of ivory copies of imperial Qianlong bottles (see Moss, Graham, and Tsang 1993, p. 481).
The only other possible reason for using a separate piece of material for the foot would be to repair a mistake in manufacture. If the carver had accidentally pierced the deeply recessed foot while hollowing the interior, the bottle could then have been salvaged by carving away the entire foot and inserting a separate section deep inside the foot rim. A separately added foot, however, occurs elsewhere in imperial production, not only with jade wares, but with glass from the palace workshops as well.
(One way to avoid piercing the bottom of the bottle would be to retain a thick base, which also lowers the centre of gravity for the bottle, making it less likely to be toppled when on display in the palace. See Sale 8, lot 1109. Perhaps a bottle such as the present one was a precursor to thick-based bottles.)
Whatever the reason, the fitting of the separate foot is a miracle of craftsmanship. Nephrite, with its translucency and subtlety of colours, is practically impossible to match up in a different section. Thus, an original matching stopper in identical material often appears to be of a different colour in place simply because of the light refraction caused by the gap between the two pieces. Here this has been entirely disguised, and it was only on close examination under a ten-power lens that the join was revealed. Without magnification, it is invisible.
This is not the Sotheby's sale catalogue. This is a product of Hugh Moss for the purposes of this website. For the catalogue details please refer to Sotheby's website or request a copy of a printed sale catalogue from Sotheby's.


text: A rock is one of many various obstacles scattered around the Stealing Creation area. It is usually used by players to hide behind. Players should note that large rocks will not shield a player from ranged or magical attacks. Players can use the large rock to avoid players who are chasing them with melee weapons (by getting them stuck behind the rock). They are non-interactive scenery and are scattered randomly at the beginning of the game.