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The Commission comments
Alternative dispute resolution ("ADR") is generally regarded as providing many benefits for disputing parties, especially in reducing costs and delays as compared with litigation. Our terms of reference require us to consider improving or updating the legislative provisions dealing with ADR and to consider the possibility of recommending a consistent model or models for ADR. ...
In undertaking this review the Commission should have regard to:
- the desirability of just, quick and cheap resolution of disputes through use of mediation and other forms of dispute resolution in appropriate contexts
- issues of referral powers (including timing of referrals), confidentiality, status of agreements reached, and proper protections required for the parties, mediators, and others involved in dispute resolution
- the proper role for legislation, contract and other legal frameworks in establishing frameworks for dispute resolution
- any related matters the Commission considers appropriate. ...
ADR can provide many benefits for disputing parties. It can reduce the costs and delays associated with litigation and facilitate flexible outcomes. In the context of litigation, ADR can keep disputes private (instead of being exposed in public hearings) and can ensure cases are managed effectively, for example, by narrowing the issues in dispute. It can also assist the parties in preserving, repairing or improving ongoing relationships.
[We] sought submissions on a variety of ADR processes in NSW statutes. Mediation emerged from this as the focal point of stakeholder discussion. Mediation and quasi-mediation processes in NSW statutes vary in detail and coverage and are often inconsistent. This patchwork contributes to uncertainty among users. In particular, it is sometimes unclear exactly what types of dispute resolution are available and what safeguards apply in particular statutory contexts. Further, there are currently no provisions that protect parties during commercial/consensual mediation outside a judicial or statutory context.
Despite the patchwork nature of the statutory provisions in NSW, we are not persuaded that there would be significant benefit in attempting to rationalise these provisions into one or a small number of models. Rather we see a benefit in developing model provisions that would apply to mediations taking place outside any statutory or judicial context, unless their application was excluded.The Commission accordingly recommends model provisions, that in summary are -
Model provision 1: Definitions of accredited mediator and mediation (page 5)
"Accredited mediator" means a person who is accredited by a Recognised Mediator Accreditation Body in accordance with the National Mediator Accreditation System. "Mediation" means a process in which the parties to a dispute, with the assistance of a third party dispute resolution practitioner (the mediator), come together in an endeavour to resolve their dispute. It includes a process that fits this description even when such a process is described as "conciliation" or "neutral evaluation".
Model Provision 2: Confidentiality and admissibility of mediation communications in evidence
(1) Definitions "Mediation communication" means (a) anything said or done (b) any document prepared, or (c) any information provided, for the purposes of mediation, in the course of mediation, or to follow up mediation including any invitation to mediate or any mediation agreement. "Tribunal" means a tribunal established under statute and includes both administrative and arbitral tribunals.
(2) Confidentiality of mediation communications
(a) A person must not disclose a mediation communication except as provided for by Model Provision 2(2)(b) or (2)(c).
(b) A person may disclose a mediation communication if: (i) all the parties to the mediation consent and, if the information relates to the mediator, the mediator agrees to the disclosure (ii) the disclosed information is publicly available, but is not information that is only in the public domain due to an unauthorised disclosure by that person (iii) the disclosure is made for the purpose of seeking legal advice (iv) the disclosure is required for the purposes of carrying out or enforcing a settlement agreement (v) the disclosure is required to bring a claim for mediator misconduct or to respond to such a claim (vi) the disclosure is made for research, evaluation, or educational purposes and is made without revealing, or being likely to reveal, whether directly or indirectly, the identity of any party, mediator, or other person involved in the conduct of the mediation (vii) the disclosure is required by law, or (viii)the disclosure is required to protect the health or safety of any person.
(c) A person may disclose a mediation communication with leave of the court or tribunal under Model Provision 2(4).
(3) Admissibility of mediation communications in evidence A court or tribunal may admit a mediation communication in evidence in any proceedings (including judicial, arbitral, administrative or disciplinary proceedings) only by leave under Model Provision 2(4).
(4) Leave for disclosure or admission of evidence
(a) A court or tribunal may, on application by any person, grant leave for a mediation communication to be disclosed under Model Provision 2(2)(c) or admitted in evidence under Model Provision 2(3).
(b) For the purposes of Model Provision 2(4)(a), the court or tribunal must take into account the following matters in deciding whether to grant leave: (i) whether the mediation communication may be or has been disclosed under Model Provision 2(2)(b) (ii) whether it is in the public interest or the interests of justice for the mediation communication to be disclosed or to be admitted in evidence, notwithstanding the general public interest in favour of preserving the confidentiality of mediation communications, and (iii) any other circumstances or matters that the court or tribunal considers relevant.
(c) Where a person seeks disclosure of admission of the mediation communication in evidence: (i) before a court, the application must be made to the court before which the proceedings are heard (ii) before a tribunal, the application must be made to the tribunal before which proceedings are heard, and (iii) in any other case, the application must be made to NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
Model Provision 3: Mediator's immunity (page 10)
(1) No matter or thing done or omitted to be done by a mediator subjects the mediator to any personal action, liability, claim or demand if the matter or thing was done for the purposes of a mediation session under this Act.
(2) Model Provision 3(1) does not apply if the claimant can show an absence of good faith on the mediator's part. (3) This section is not intended to alter the operation of s 33 of the Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW) or cl 2 of sch 1 of the Civil and Administrative Tribunal Regulation 2013 (NSW).
Model Provision 4: Termination of mediation (page 12)
(1) Where the question of whether a mediation has been terminated arises in any proceedings, the court or tribunal must determine whether the mediation has been terminated.
(2) Unless evidence to the contrary is adduced, the court or tribunal must presume a mediation has terminated if: (a) the mediator purports to terminate a mediation (b) a party purports to terminate a mediation (c) a time limit for the mediation (and any extensions) agreed by the parties expires, or (d) litigation commences or recommences.
Model Provision 5: Enforcement of mediated settlement agreements (page 14)
(1) "Mediated settlement agreement" means an agreement by some or all of the parties to mediation settling the whole, or part, of their dispute.
(2) If a party to a mediated settlement agreement fails to comply with its terms, another party wishing to enforce the agreement may, on notice to all other parties who signed the agreement, apply to the Court for orders to give effect to the agreement if:
(a) the agreement is reduced to writing and signed by the parties, and
(b) the mediation was conducted by an accredited mediator, and
(c) a party against whom the applicant seeks to enforce the settlement agreement has explicitly consented to such enforcement, whether by the terms of the agreement or other means.
(3) The mediator must draw the attention of the parties to the effect of Model Provision 5(2) before the mediated settlement agreement is signed.
(4) The Court may refuse to give orders under Model Provision 5(2) only:
(a) at the request of the party against whom it is invoked, if that party furnishes to the Court proof that the agreement is void or voidable on grounds of incapacity, fraud, misrepresentation, duress, coercion, mistake or other invalidating cause, including that the agreement is void or voidable after a court has found it is unjust in the circumstances relating to the contract at the time it was made under the Contracts Review Act 1980 (NSW), or
(b) if the Court finds that: (i) any of the terms of the agreement cannot be enforced as an order of the Court, or (ii) making the order would be contrary to public policy, or (iii) the mediator failed to draw the parties' attention to the binding nature of the agreement before it was signed.
(5) Any undertaking by one or more of the parties to a mediated settlement agreement to pay the fees and expenses of the mediator is enforceable if: (a) the amount of such fees, or (b) the means for their calculation, is specified in the agreement.As proposal 1 (Removal of statutory defamation privilege) the Commission recommends'
Provisions establishing a defence of absolute privilege to defamation proceedings arising from the conduct of mediations should be repealed.Under Implementation options the paper states
Option 1: Application to mediation under an agreement (page 19)
This Act applies to any mediation conducted under an agreement to mediate entered into after the commencement of this Act if the mediator is an accredited mediator and: (a) the mediation is wholly or partly conducted in NSW, or (b) the agreement to mediate provides that the law of NSW is to apply to the mediation, unless the parties exclude or have excluded the operation of the Act or any provision of the Act, by agreement.
Option 2: Application in existing and future statutes (page 20)
The model provisions should be: (a) inserted in terms or by reference into each of the statutes that in our view would benefit from the provisions listed in Appendix A, and (b) used as a template for future legislation providing for mediation, unless the circumstances otherwise require.In discussing confidentiality the Commission comments
2.9 Submissions support a uniform approach to confidentiality and admissibility of mediation information in evidence. This approach should apply unless the context dictates otherwise. A strong regime in this area is essential to allay parties' concerns that information disclosed during mediation might be used in subsequent litigation or disclosed to the public if the mediation proves unsuccessful. Although the common law provides some degree of protection, a legislative regime would provide additional certainty, allowing courts to protect information appropriately and quickly. For example, in accordance with the Mediation Ordinance 2012 (Hong Kong), the High Court of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region struck out a defence and passages of affidavits that were based on information obtained in mediation.
The model provisions draw upon aspects of the Mediation Bill 2016 (Singapore), the Mediation Ordinance 2012 (Hong Kong) and the Commercial Mediation Act 2010 (Ontario). Submissions identified these as appropriate models. The provisions also align with provisions in the UNCITRAL Model Law, and with the exceptions to confidentiality and inadmissibility recently expounded by the UK Supreme Court. NADRAC has recommended a similar general rule about confidentiality and privilege subject to specified exceptions.
We propose that confidentiality and admissibility be dealt with together, with courts and the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal ("NCAT") placed in a supervisory role under Model Provision 2(4). This reduces procedural complexity and clarifies the relationship between confidentiality and "without prejudice" privilege by integrating both protections into the one regime. The provisions encourage regularity by imposing a default position against admissibility, subject to the aggrieved party being able to justify why the default position should not apply under Model Provision 2(4)(a).
The factors in Model Provision 2(4)(b) that the courts or NCAT must consider are broadly similar to those imposed by s 138 of the Evidence Act 1995 (NSW) with respect to the admission of illegally or improperly obtained evidence. A number of submissions supported introducing a provision like Model Provision 2(4)(b)(ii), which relates to the public interest. An example of the other circumstances or matters referred to in Model Provision 2(4)(b)(iii) is where there is no concluded settlement but one party to the negotiations has made a clear statement, intending the other party to act on it and the other party has in fact acted, giving rise to an estoppel.
The exceptions to confidentiality in the recommended provision are broadly consistent with those provided by s 131 of the Evidence Act 1995 (NSW) that exclude evidence of settlement negotiations. Section 131 prevents evidence from being introduced if it concerns communications between disputing parties. This applies in the context of legal proceedings and is not likely to operate where formal legal proceedings have not yet been instituted. The model provisions would expressly extend this protection beyond the litigation context. This supports the role of mediation as a dispute resolution option in its own right.Comments on the removal of the defamation privilege are
A defence of absolute privilege to defamation proceedings arising from mediations was first introduced by the Community Justice Centres pilot project in 1980. The co-ordinating committee thought it likely that mediations might involve "a heated exchange of views, accusations and abuse" and considered it desirable to protect the parties to a mediation from possible suits for defamation. Along with subsequent provisions based upon it,, this privilege has never been tested. Similarly, there is no known evidence to support the claim made when justifying its insertion into the Land and Environment Court Act 1979 (NSW) in 2007 that "without the protection afforded by [defamation privilege], parties involved in a [mediation] might be less frank and less willing to make concessions to settle a dispute".
However, given that mediation communications are inadmissible, purportedly defamatory statements made in the course of mediation will be inadmissible in any attempt to prosecute a defamation claim, unless one of the proposed exceptions applies. Likewise, as mediation communications are confidential and thus cannot "leave the room", the risk of damage from any purportedly defamatory statement is limited. The good faith immunity provided to mediators also protects them against liability for defamation.
An express statutory privilege against defamation is, therefore, superfluous. The absence of defamation privilege in any international mediation legislation supports this conclusion. We therefore propose that NSW repeal provisions that establish a defence of absolute privilege to defamation claims. Such a privilege should not be included in any generally applicable statute on mediation.


text: WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney accused Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record) on Tuesday of pursuing a defeatist strategy in Iraq to win votes in the next election â a charge Reid said did not warrant a response. The two sparred hours after President Bush said he will veto the latest war spending bill taking shape in Congress, which includes a timetable for withdrawing from Iraq. Cheney, after attending the weekly Republican policy lunch on Capitol Hill, lashed out at Reid. "Some Democratic leaders seem to believe that blind opposition to the new strategy in Iraq is good politics," Cheney said. "Sen. Reid himself has said that the war in Iraq will bring his party more seats in the next election. "It is cynical to declare that the war is lost because you believe it gives you political advantage," Cheney said. Reid, D-Nev., dismissed Cheney's remarks later to reporters, but not before getting in his own dig at the vice president. "I'm not going to get into a name calling match with the administration's chief attack dog," Reid said. Democrats are preparing to send Bush a $124.2 billion bill that would, among other things, fund the war in Iraq but require that troops begin pulling out on Oct. 1, or earlier if the Iraqi government does not make progress in tamping down sectarian violence and forging political agrements. The bill ultimately sets a nonbinding goal for combat operations to end by April 1, 2008. "It's a good piece of legislation," Reid said. "I would hope the president would stop being so brusque and waving it off. This is a bill that is good for the troops. It's good for the country." Bush stood firm Tuesday against any measure that would set a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops. "I'm disappointed that the Democratic leadership has chosen this course," Bush said. "They chose to make a political statement," he said. "That's their right but it is wrong for our troops and it's wrong for our country. To accept the bill proposed by the Democratic leadership would be to accept a policy that directly contradicts the judgment of our military commanders." Democrats said they won't back down and pointed to past remarks by Gen. David Petraeus, the new Iraq commander, that security in Iraq requires a political solution. Reid, who says the war in Iraq is "lost," likened Bush to President Lyndon Johnson, saying Johnson ordered troop escalations in Vietnam in an attempt "to save his political legacy" only to watch U.S. casualties climb steadily. Bush said U.S. troops should not be caught in the middle of a showdown between the White House and Congress. "Yesterday, Democratic leaders announced that they planned to send me a bill that will fund our troops only if we agree to handcuff our generals, add billions of dollars of unrelated spending and begin to pull out of Iraq by an arbitrary date," Bush said on the South Lawn. He said the bill would mandate the withdrawal of U.S. troops beginning as early as July 1 and no later than Oct. 1, despite the fact that Petraeus has not yet received all the reinforcements he has said he needs in the latest military buildup to help secure Baghdad and the troubled Anbar Province. Democrats have argued that the election that left Democrats in control of Congress was a referendum for a change of strategy in Iraq. Bush used the same election results to argue his point. "The American people did not vote for failure," he said. "That is precisely what the Democratic leadership's bill would guarantee. "It's not too late for Congress to do the right thing." Petraeus will try to persuade lawmakers in a private briefing this week to pursue a difference course. As part of the president's push, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was expected to meet Tuesday with key senators, including members of the Senate Finance Committee, to discuss the funding bill. The topic also likely will be discussed at a policy lunch that Vice President Dick Cheney is having on Capitol Hill. Radio ads expected to air Tuesday will attack Reid as treating troops like a "political football," GOP officials said. According to a transcript, an Iraq veteran identified as Capt. Trip Bellard says, "Senator Reid's remarks undercut the morale of our soldiers and undermine our troops on the ground." As outlined by Democratic officials, the emerging legislation would require the withdrawal of U.S. forces to begin by Oct. 1, even earlier if Bush cannot certify that the Iraqi government is making progress in disarming militias, reducing sectarian violence and forging political compromises. Another provision in the measure would withhold about $850 million in foreign aid from the Iraqis if the government does not meet those standards.

subset: commoncrawl


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It's time once again for some pictures from our Family Vault (i.e. the box of 11 albums in our den) and if you're just joining us you can read about these albums and see the first one here, the second one is here, the third album is here, the fourth album is here, the fifth is here and the sixth album is here.
And as always: I'm sure it goes without saying that these pictures are not to be posted anywhere or used in any way without express permission from me. Period. I can be contacted at katamommy at gmail.com. I promise I don't bite! :D
Oh what I wouldn't give for this huge Santa head to hang on my house. lol
Have a great day everyone!


text:
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Broadway: 'Fairness for casting'
Casting directors march for union representation on the eve of the Tony Awards
Just days before the Tony Awards, nearly 100 people marched in front of Radio City Music Hall last Thursday morning to support Broadway's casting directors in their fight for union representation. The group carried signs and chanted "fairness for casting," but their plea wasn't limited to the corner of 51st Street and Sixth Avenue. Twitter users, including several Broadway stars, also sided with the casting directors in 140 characters. "Without casting directors, this wonderful job couldn't exist," wrote J. Quinton Johnson of "Hamilton." "Let's get them properly contracted."
Casting directors are the only group of Broadway workers who are not in a union. They work on individual contracts with studios, and receive no pensions or health insurance. To remedy that, casting directors have banded together with the Teamsters Local 817 to attempt to negotiate with Broadway producers, who are represented by the Broadway League.
Tom O'Donnell, president of Local 817, pointed out the irony of celebrating some of Broadway's biggest successes at the Tony Awards without recognizing some of the people who made them happen. "The biggest snub of this Tony season, and every past Tony season, has been the casting directors," he said. O'Donnell estimated that the non-film entertainment industry is about 98 percent unionized and, especially since Broadway shows have made record-setting profits over the past few years, "it just seems unconscionable that a group of 40 people have to make a decision about 'can I afford to go to the emergency room?'"
Despite what Martine Sainvil, communications director for the Broadway League, called "great respect and deep admiration" for casting directors, the producers' organization has not been willing to negotiate with the Teamsters so far. "We have had a respectful dialogue in the past year with Teamsters Local 817 but do not believe it would be appropriate for the Broadway League or its producing members to recognize a union as the bargaining representative of professionals who are not employees of our productions," Sainvil wrote in a statement. She added that the League has encouraged the group to appeal to the National Labor Relations Board.
But if the rally was anything to go by, support is growing for the casting directors. Tara Rubin, casting director for smash hit "Dear Evan Hansen," which won six Tony Awards on Sunday night, said on Thursday that her profession is fairly young in terms of being fully recognized, but that it deserves the same benefits and guarantees as the others in the industry. "I've been doing this for 30 years," Rubin said. "I'm not going to enjoy many of the benefits when we get them, but I really hope that my colleagues in the field can enter into their careers knowing that they have basic American protections."
Cindy Tolan, casting director for "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," emphasized that Broadway studios should be able to cover such a small group. "We're not talking about thousands of people," she said. "The price of one Broadway premium ticket for one night is more money than [the cost of] one week for one casting director's benefits."
Madeleine Thompson can be reached at email@example.com


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So I went to see Roy, I don't know why, maybe it was a ploy, but in the end I left saying Oye! – Hey look, that rhymed.
Apparently my blog has fans now and I was asked to write about this movie by them. So, as a responsible celebrity, I have decided to pay heed to their wishes. But I will keep the review short because I don't want to get, you know, brain damage or anything.
I read in Wikipedia that Roy is a romantic movie…I am gonna take their word for it. The movie opens with the handsome Kabir, played by Arjun Rampal, who is a director trying to come up with a new story for his movie. Yes, there is a movie within this movie; kindly refrain from making references to Inception though, as one of my friends did. Kabir sits in front of his typewriter, puts on a silly hat, drinks alcohol, smokes cigarettes and plays with his Labrador. Shockingly, he has a writer's block. The old typewriter in a box should have tipped me off on what was to come. Get a laptop or hire a writer, you doofus! I mean, I have MS Word 2013 (which I paid for, myself) installed on my laptop and I am not even a serious writer!
Since he has loads of free time, he calls his dad, who apparently is more interested in his nurse's bra size. Unsurprisingly, the nurse isn't interested. But while the dad is terrible with the ladies, the son is not. A beautiful lady is seen entering Kabir's apartment and considering the dress she was wearing, I am guessing it was not for script reading. She is seen leaving 20 minutes later….if only the actual movie was that quick!
The main reason I went to see this movie is Jacqueline Fernandez and she is introduced as Ayesha Amir, sitting alone in a hotel, reading a book with her geeky glasses and a glass of wine at her table. That was a good scene, so naturally they had to ruin it. Mr Rich director comes over with a drink in one hand, cigarette in the other and some random garbage out of his mouth. Ayesha drops the "I have to get up early tomorrow" line and leaves. I should have left too.
Somewhere in between, Ranbir Kapoor playing Roy is introduced. He likes paintings, he likes to steal stuff, likes drinking, doesn't like to comb his hair…something something, I don't know, things were going really slow at this point and I find it difficult to remember things when I am feeling sleepy.
Blah, blah, blah and they are in Malaysia now. Jacqueline arrives in a magnificent car. She doesn't look too shabby herself. She is there to bid on a painting of a horse; apparently that stuff is Art. Roy is also there and outbids her for the painting which goes for 45 thousand dollars. What?!?! I knew I should have become an artist. I used to draw as a child but thought I was bad. Evidently, I was pronouncing art wrong all this time.
So after all the hard work of getting that painting, and by hard work I mean raising a numbered placard every few seconds, Roy gifts the painting to Jacqueline, via the hotel clerk. He later explains to her that this is his way of getting her to talk to him. Dude, did you spend 45 Thousand dollars just to get a girl to talk to you??!! Wow, and here I thought I was bad with girls!
Casanova director has a hook-up with some girl who ends up getting drunk and passing out. Seriously, there is way too much drinking and smoking here. But then again, they might have read the script and thought that this was the only way to get through filming the movie. Probably I should have gone into the theatre with a drink or two myself.
More randomness occurs as Jacqueline is seen romancing both Kabir and Roy. The scenes switch back and forth, leaving everyone in the audience confused. Well actually, I believe everybody's exact reaction were "What the fuck is going on here??" Now, I can perfectly understand if she was really romancing two guys at the same time, because after all she is a stunningly beautiful woman and she could easily get many guys to go out with her. But hey, this is India and women don't have such freedom here and hence it is much more likely that it is two different women, who just happen to look exactly the same, who are going out with Kabir and Roy. Yep, much more believable.
In between, people randomly start singing and dancing every 15 mins for no apparent reason. But then again, not much in this movie makes sense. There is a police officer who pops up occasionally and whose sole purpose is to look useless and ineffective – much like the movie itself.
One time in the movie, Roy and Tia get trapped in a car while it is pouring heavily outside. So they decide to make out in the car itself because, you know, they need to keep warm. On another occasion, Ayesha does ballet dancing on the beach which was really good to see but sadly, it doesn't last long enough. But the best part, or at least I thought it was going to be, was when she was doing yoga by the rocks on the side of the beach. After some relatively simple moves, she went down on all fours, upside down in an inverted U pose. That takes some serious skill, not to mention flexibility. Not to be outdone, Kabir came nearby and squatted down in what I can only imagine is called the 'Lookout everyone, I am gonna poop now' pose!
But as they say, good times don't last forever. Roy steals a painting from Tia after sleeping with her and so Ayesha leaves Kabir without saying a word. Why? I have no freaking idea why. At this point, I was concentrating more on my popcorn.
On screen, everyone is suffering from heartbreak. Off the screen, everyone is suffering from brain damage. Things were meandering along badly and somebody needed to step up…or step out of the theatre. And on cue, the wanna-be womanizer old man steps in as he goes to talk to his director son. He gifts his son a watch and says "Son. This is called a watch and it keeps time. Make sure you keep it too." I am sure he was talking for the audience as well who were begging "End this goddamn movie Now!"
The Son is unimpressed and says "Naah, I got a girlfriend and so I slept with two other girls, that I remember. And ever since she dumped me, I have been growing this really cool beard because I am huge fan of the cliché." Frustrated, the dad retorts "Fine! Screw this! I am outta here." He gets up and leaves. And by leaves, I mean he dies, of boredom I guess. Or maybe it is from all the drinking and smoking – Remember kids, cigarettes and alcohol only lead to death. The journey is awesome but the destination is a killer.
Okay, reading back I understand that the above scene might not have occurred exactly as I described it but trust me when I say this, my version is way more exciting that what actually happened on screen. Go on, ask anyone…the handful who were awake that is.
Just to keep the audience awake guessing, there is an action sequence in the second half. Roy beats down five trained bodyguards singlehandedly, barely breaking a sweat in the process. But then again, we know that all villains are stupid in movies. This 'action sequence' lasts for all of One minute. Why did he beat them up? Because he has a grand plan. He wants to steal the painting, which He originally stole, from the guy to whom he helped sell it to, so that he can return it to the woman from whom he stole it in the first place. This dude is all kinds of weird!
Meanwhile, Ayesha and Kabir both release their films. Ayesha's film wins some award; in completely unrelated news, Kabir was on the jury that selected Ayesha. She is then shown watching his film and the next thing we see is her leaving the country. Wow, that must have been one lousy film!
Kabir tracks down Ayesha at the airport and after some lengthy mushy dialogues that kept us in the theatres for another 30mins, they reconcile and become a couple again. Tia and Roy are far less torturous. They merely stare into each other's eyes, barely speak 5 words and hug it out. And then the best part of the movie came up, the fact that it ended!
Whoa, I said I will keep it short but like the movie, it dragged along. I was going to apologize for that but then I thought, to hell with that, you people merely have to read this, I had to sit through the whole damn movie! However, that being said, I am a 'glass is half full' kind of guy and so I would like to offer some positives about this film. I had to dig really deep but I found one. I just want to say that this movie is an Excellent choice to watch on Valentine's Day for single people because if This is romance, then I am glad I am single!


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Fiery Judge Jeanine: 'Clinton Foundation a Money Laundering Op, Not a Charity'
Judge Jeanine Pirro went off this morning, calling the Clinton Foundation nothing more than a "money laundering operation used as a slush fund."
She was asked on Fox and Friends for her reaction to a new report that Clinton's former chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, went to New York in 2012 to interview job candidates for the foundation.
.@JudgeJeanine: Clinton Foundation is nothing more than a money laundering operation that was used as a slush fund.https://t.co/C5p2yUTFCQ
— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) August 12, 2016
She argued that people who paid the Clintons via the foundation were given access and favors by Clinton's State Department in a classic "pay-to-play" scheme.
"The foundation is nothing more than a money laundering operation that was used as a slush fund. It is not a charitable foundation. No charitable foundation has only 10 percent that goes to charity," said Pirro, adding that Mills and Huma Abedin were tasked with protecting the organization.
Pirro said this was "illegal" activity, but the media overall is more worried about things like Donald Trump's comment that Barack Obama and Clinton "founded ISIS."
Pirro believes that the whole point of Clinton's private email server was to protect these dealings from disclosure.
Watch the fiery commentary above and don't miss "Justice with Judge Jeanine," tomorrow and Sunday nights at 9:00 ET on Fox News Channel.
Judge Nap: 'Clinton Foundation Case Easier for FBI to Prove Than Emails'
Bombshell Report: CENTCOM Officials Altered Intel to Play Down ISIS Threat
Mom of Benghazi Victim Sues Hillary: 'I Am Still Here and I Want Answers!'


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Oh, if only this old door could talk. Wonder what it would say. It belongs to my neighbor, who saved it from her parents house many moons ago. For some reason, when I saw it, it reminded me of the old houses in the Garden District of New Orleans. I was there many years ago and felt such a fascinating energy as I passed through those streets.
She was telling me that she just couldn't discard it and I can sure see why. It's so much fun to keep items like this and do something creative with them. For right now, it's going to lean on the mesquite tree, keep the prickly pear cactus company, and enjoy being in the desert until she comes up with a new use for it.
Now, when she does do something with it, I'll be sure to photograph it again and we can all see its transformation.
As always, click the image to make it larger.


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Welcome to RecipeSource!
RecipeSource is the new home of
SOAR: The Searchable Online Archive of Recipes
and your source for recipes on the Internet.
|RecipeSource : Soups, Stews, and Stuff : Soup Recipes : Castilian-Style Garlic Soup
* Exported from MasterCook II * Castilian-Style Garlic Soup Recipe By : Tvfn - Taste - Show # 4862 Serving Size : 6 Preparation Time :0:00 Categories : Soup Taste Tvfn Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 6 tablespoons olive oil 4 cloves garlic -- minced 4 1/2 cups day-old country bread,crusts removed -- cut in 1/ 2″ slices then torn roughly into crouton-size pieces 2 teaspoons imported sweet paprika 4 cloves garlic, lightly crushed and peeled 4 1/2 cups water salt freshly ground pepper 4 cups beef broth or beef consomme 6 eggs (optional) 6 tablespoons Spanish mountain cured ham. prosciutto, or capicollo, chopped -- in a 1/4 inch dice Place 5 teaspoons of the oil and the minced garlic in a skillet and slowly heat until the garlic begins to color. Add the bread pieces and saute slowly until they are crisp and golden, about 15 minutes. Sprinkle in 1 teaspoon of the paprika and stir to coat the bread. Reserve. To make the garlic broth, in a soup pot heat the remaining tablespoon of oil and lightly saute the pooled, crushed garlic cloves. Stir in the remaining teaspoon paprika, the water, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer 45 minutes---you should have about 4 cups (these first two steps may be done in advance). Bring the beef broth to a boil. Arrange 6 ovenproof soup bowls on a baking tray and 1 tablespoon of the beef broth to each. If you are using eggs, slip one into each bow, scatter in the ham, and pour in more beef broth (the bowls should be half full). Place the tray with the bowls in a 450F oven until the eggs are set, about 4 minutes. Fill the bowls with the reserved garlic broth, boiling hot, and scatter in the bread pieces. Serve Immediately. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Student Outreach Committee
"My favorite part about SAB is being surrounded by high-achieving, motivated, fun students who love Ohio University with everything they have and are passionate about sharing that with others. The energy in the organization is contagious." -Tracy Kondrit
What is the Student Outreach Committee?
The goal of the Student Outreach committee is to connect all OU students with SAB and the OUAA. We accomplish this through planning fun events for the entire student body and through our social media presence.
Get the Scoop is SAB's main membership drive event. At the beginning of each semester, we set up tables around campus and hand out free treats to students while educating them about SAB and encouraging them to come see us at our Open House events if they're interested in joining. When? Early Fall/Spring Semester
Yell Like Hell is Ohio University's official Homecoming pep rally! Planned by SAB and the OUAA, the event features tons of entertainment acts, speakers, and Bobcat pride as we get students excited for Homecoming weekend. When? Homecoming Week
Founder's Week is all about celebrating Ohio University's birthday! This week features various fun events celebrating OU's history. When? Mid/Late Spring Semester
Bobcat v. Food is an eating contest that is held each year during Senior Week. The event features teams competing against each other to see who can eat delicious local Athens cuisine faster. When? Late Spring Semester


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Dan Faggella is a BJJ Academy Owner, No Gi Pan Am Champion at 130 pounds, and recognized expert in the area of leg locks and lightweight BJJ. Dan writes or Jiu Jitsu Magazine, Jiu Jitsu Style, MMA Sports Mag, and more – find more of his leg lock articles and resources at www.MicroBJJ.com/Keenan
In most sports, there are specific competitors that have a unique calling card of sorts. There is always one or two players who have a unique style that you can't quite categorize them. Always thinking outside of the box, these athletes continuously evolve their style along with the times.
One of these men, from a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu perspective, is Keenan Cornelius.
A super talented brown belt, the former Lloyd Irvin protégé has shown flashes of fantastic skills. Currently training with Atos BJJ, Keenan has a defensive approach that makes him standout amongst the rest of his peers.A unique style, his guard pass defense is second to none. No matter the opinion of his style, it has proven to be effective and useful.
Dan Faggella is a BJJ Academy Owner, No Gi Pan Am Champion at 130 pounds, and recognized expert in the area of leg locks. Dan writes or Jiu Jitsu Magazine, Jiu Jitsu Style, MMA Sports Mag, and more - find more of his leg lock articles and resources at www.BJJLegLocks.com
When you're an experienced vet like Masakazu Imanari, you'll find yourself with plenty of interesting war stories. Especially on the international circuit, you will have a blend of can's that get tossed your way, up-and-coming prospects, and experienced fighters that will pose a tough task.
Way back in December 2005, Masakazu Iamanri met the latter of the three in Mike Thomas Brown. At the time, Brown had 15 fights in just four short years! Proven to be a tough out, Brown had taken on future stars such as Mark Hominick and Joe Lauzon prior to meeting up with Imanari.
Going into his fight at DEEP Impact 22, Brown had not faced a lethal leg lock master like Imanari.
[bjjad][/bjjad][social][/social]{socialbookmarker}sburl="http://www.bjjlegends.com/bjj/jiu-jitsu-techniques-mainmenu-57/263-more-5050.html" sbtitle="50/50 Jiu-Jitsu, Grappling Guard, Defense and Counter" sbdescription="More 50/50 jiu-jitsu and grappling, esstential for the mixed martial artist, UFC, grappling or jiu-jitsu practicioner."{/socialbookmarker}
From Phil Miglarese @ Jiu-Jitsu Matrix, Martial Arts. http://www.BalanceJiuJitsu.com
{rokbox title=|50/50 Defense and Counter| thumb=|images/stories/5050jjm.jpg| size=|450 273|}http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwgPVM_aSRc{/rokbox}
One of the latest debates in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is whether or not it could become an Olympic event at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.
In order to qualify, the sport must meet certain criteria set up by the International Olympic Committee.
Unfortunately, Jiu Jitsu finds itself on the opposite end of several of these criteria. Probably the biggest obstacle for BJJ's Olympic bid is the section of Image and Environment, defined as the sport's ultimate image of credibility and equality in the public eye.
Let's take the area of gender equality. While there is a growing number of top-level female competitors, they are still vastly outnumbered by their male counterparts. The numbers would have to even out a bit more in order to qualify.
V8M6DQRAAJQ4 Yes we've released and will release new video submissions optimized for Android phones.. Check www.BJJLegends.com/mobile for submissions you can download to your iPhone or Android based phone directly. We've include a few FREE techniques to get you started.
All part of BJJ Legends for Mobile.
Check it out and let us know what you think. www.BJJLegends.com/mobile
We heard you and now you want submissions and techniques from legends like BJ Penn, Royce Gracie, Marcio Feitosa and more on DVD and ready for your mobile/phone.
Mafu Kobus got some time with superstar Rafeael Lovato, Jr at the 2009 Jiu-Jitsu National Championships in Long Beach, CA
The 2009 BJ Penn / Leo Vieira Issue is out with over 27 Techniques, DVD and 80 Pages of Full Color
Subscribe Today and Don't Miss an Issue


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First, a message from my 17-year-old self: Oh, my God! Oh, my God! I was in the same room as Orlando Bloom! Breathing the same air! Oh, my God! I saw him act in person! Ahhhh!
Back to being 27 years old: As you can probably guess from the giant photo of a poster above, Orlando Bloom, he of elves and pirates, he of the endless (literally) volume(s) of fanfiction I produced from ages 17 to 19, is making his Broadway debut in Romeo and Juliet as, well, Romeo.


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The Guild Wars 2 site has been updated with new information about this year's Wintersday in-game celebration. Wintersday will include new events, quests, a new jumping puzzle and more.
It's an MMO holiday tradition. As the nights grow long and colder in the Living World of Tyria, Toymaker Tixx returns in his massive floating workshop to spread holiday cheer with high-tech toys and festive games. This year the asuran inventor Tixx and his frequently faulty golem assistant Toxx have a bag full of mirth for players of every persuasion.
Wintersday Events and Activities
- The Wondrous Workshop - Round up mischievous toys running wild inside Toymaker Tixx's holiday workshop!
- Winter Wonderland Jumping Puzzle - Test your skills in a lethal platform puzzle loaded with holiday obstacles and really long drops!
- Bell Choir Musical Activity –Join other players to ring in the season and make sweet, sweet music together!
- Toypocalypse - Enter the Toypocalypse challenge and help save Wintersday from haywire toys run amok!
- Snowball Mayhem – It wouldn't be Wintersday without a chance to pelt your fellow players in the face with snowballs in this fun team activity!
However, not everything is candy canes and snowflakes in Guild Wars 2 this December. The nightmare still continues in the Kessex Hills and surrounding countryside, as players battle inside the Tower of Nightmares introduced in the Oct. 29 release.
Players can get an inside look at the Wintersday release during a livestream with ArenaNet developers on Monday, Dec. 9, at noon (PST) on the Guild Wars 2 Twitch TV channel at http://www.twitch.tv/
Read more on the Guild Wars 2 site.


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The verdict is in, and it is thus: I really need to start writing these things earlier. Something that would have been brilliant at midnight, clever at 1am and vaguely interesting at 2am turns to outright mush at 3:41am as I write this. By now, fatigue turns otherwise complicated thoughts into bivalent minutiae.
Suffice to say this: we drove back to Brooklyn today (on what turned out to be, most annoyingly, the prettiest day to have stayed at the farm) in order to attend Andrew Cohen's party for Colin Soloway. Tessa remarked that it was very old-school and proper in a delightfully WASP-y sort of way that Andrew felt the need to give a party in the returning conqueror's honor. There was great food (sushi, roast beef on spicy bread) and drinks, and the scenery was interesting in that New York literati sort of way. All the women were fascinatingly high-maintenance, and I must still be a rou, because I can't remember any of the guys.
Michelle came with us, and Kim Ludlow met us there. Late arrivals included my agent Jenny Bent, who is more properly Colin's agent until I get my writing act back together. I wore an all-black outfit with those stupid clown shoes Mom bought for us in California. They make me about 6'4″, but any height advantage is nixed by self-mockery and early-90s fashion trendlessness.
The Celextant, April 27, 2002
I was plowing through a bourbon & coke and a really bad cosmopolitan before I remembered Tessa talking about how bad alcohol is for SSRI's. I recalled how beat-up I felt in Los Angeles after a night of vodka chased by Prozac, so I left the cosmo on the radiator and stuck to the soft stuff. Usually I can feel a drink about 3/4ths the way through, but not tonight Celexa must have that whiskey-dick way of prolonging sobriety by making your everyday existence somewhat drunk. There is something impenetrable about the drug, that's for sure, like a space-age polymeric sheath that is translucent yet virtually puncture-proof. A clear condom, perhaps, which is a metaphor that might be too close to home.


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Cross tattoos are a very popular type of tattoo design with both men and women nowadays. They convey a very strong message and have great meaning to the person who wears the tattoo. So what are the different types of cross tattoo and what do they represent? Well cross tattoos are mainly associated with religion, as you might expect, and are very closely associated with the Christian religion in particular. Many Christians are deeply proud and passionate about their religion and a cross tattoo for many is the perfect way to convey their strong belief in the Christian religion, and their love and respect for Jesus Christ and God because the Christian cross symbolises Jesus Christ returning from the dead.
There are various different types of Christian cross. There is the basic latin cross which just consists of two intersecting lines, then there is the crucifix which depicts Jesus Christ on a wooden cross. In addition other variations of the Christian cross include ones covered in thorns or nails. Away from the traditional Christian cross, you've got the very popular Celtic cross. This tattoo design combines the latin cross with a circle to create an attractive looking design. These tattoos are also very popular with Christians but are also very popular with many people who have deep Celtic connections in their family history, as they are a great way to honour their Celtic heritage.
cross tattoos began to emerge throughout the fifth century. It is a representation of Christianity nowadays, although it might have resulted from the earlier pagan wheel symbol of the sun. The iron cross, now a tattoo design, was most frequently used to mark gravestones in Scotland & Ireland; and also placed at sites of hostility or accidents. The Celtic cross, sadly, has been accepted by white supremacists and the neo-Nazi, as well as the Ku Klux Klan. The Celtic cross tattoo is a very accepted way to present a visual representation of your conviction and tradition; and can be a perfect way to symbolize your birthright. Fortunately though, the cross tattoo design for the most part, has provided comfort and a connection to heritage for millions of people.
Because the Holy Cross tattoo shows Jesus and the crucifixion, the bearer of this cross tattoo easily reveals their devotion toward their religion and faith. This tattoo design is also tremendously flexible and customizable, and there are many body part locations that hold this design well; including arms, lower legs, shoulder, back, and forearms. If you are serious about cross tattoos, whether Celtic or Holy cross, it's important to choose a quality tattoo design. Besides heritage, there are many other reasons you may get cross tattoo designs; one being your love for the artwork. Celtic cross tattoos and their designs are extremely flexible, and nowadays (especially because of the internet) you have the ability to customize the tattoo artwork. You can truly give it meaning and personalization, which is what leads so many people toward inking themselves with this versatile tattoo design.
You have read this article Cross Tattoos with the title Cross Tattoos. You can bookmark this page URL http://timberlinchen.blogspot.com/2013/02/cross-tattoos.html. Thanks!


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On the square in Bentonville, Arkansas, the morning of Nov. 11: Folks from Bentonville, Rogers, Springdale, Fayetteville, Bella Vista. And Little Rock, North Little Rock, Sherwood. Hot Springs. Etc. Texas, Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma. From Los Angeles. And who knows where else.
A woman whose wizened face and wary look suggested a hard life in the Ozarks. A little boy with curly hair and a white bow tie named for the artist Philip Guston. The Lubavitcher rabbi from Rogers and three of his children, two of them with carrot tops complementing a clear blue sky. The lady who raises Australian shepherds, her blue windbreaker said; a man who taught Alice Walton in junior high and who recalled her bouncing into class one day with a peanut-filled Coca-Cola and asking him if he wanted to see what it would do if she shook it up.
Museum curators, bicycle enthusiasts, doctors, politicians. Artists. The manager at the bar just off the square. Veterans celebrating Veterans Day. A small "Occupy Bentonville" contingent. A trio getting a better view of the festivities from the roof of Sam Walton's original Five and Dime store.
Strains of Aretha Franklin's "Chain of Fools" and Randy Newman's "My Country" ("This is my country, these are my people./This is the world I understand") played from the platform, decorated with huge Crystal Bridges banners set up on either side, until the astonishingly beautiful voices of the Bentonville High School choir began their performance with "Do Lord," the peal of the sopranos' refrain as beautiful as any heard on any stage ("you ought to hear the high school symphony," the shepherd lady said).
Leona Mitchell, a Chickasaw and African-American soprano from Oklahoma, sang the national anthem; Iroquois singer Joanne Shenandoah sang the "Eagle Cries."
You couldn't get more American than that to open Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Alice Walton's billion-dollar-plus gift to the Ozark town she grew up in, home of the largest retailer in the world, home of one of the planet's wealthiest families.
Architect Moshe Safdie, designer of grand facilities in Singapore, Jerusalem, Los Angeles and now Bentonville, praised Walton as "a force of nature." Then Sam and Helen Walton's daughter took the stage to a standing ovation and said, "This is it! 11-11-11." The opening was following three earlier ones, one an all-nighter for members, the others for dignitaries, artists, art dealers and friends.
Walton announced her plans for the museum in 2005, but she said recently it was an idea born in the 1990s. Opening two years past the expected date on Walton family land just off the downtown square, the museum's total worth — in building, art and endowment — is on its way (if not there already) to $2 billion.
A comic video with a Mission Impossible theme — a briefcase being handed off first to a black SUV, then to a Tyson truck, a J.B. Hunt truck, a Walmart truck, a bicycling crew headed by pony-tailed Tom Walton (Walton's nephew), museum Director Don Bacigalupi and finally to Alice Walton, who opened it to reveal a neon "Open" sign — and streamers shooting out from the stands ended the small-town ceremony and the University of Arkansas Razorbacks marching band struck up the William Tell Overture. Hi-yo, Silver! Off to the museum, anything but small-town. Attendance on Friday: 4,236. Counting the attendance at the pre-opening galas and reservations for Monday, 19,004 people will have been through Crystal Bridges before you've read this.
In the Tusk and Trotter the night before the opening, manager Rick Lambert — who'd moved to Bentonville from Williamsburg, Va., seven months ago to be near a new baby granddaughter — served up a dish of Trot On Over Here ice cream (sticky pudding cake flavored with coffee, medjol dates and brown sugar and shot through with a toffee-maple bacon brittle) and talked about how down-to-earth he finds the Waltons. (One of them, Tom, was in the bar that night with friends and yakking about his new-found upper lip — he'd just shaved off his mustache — with a reporter from the Benton County Daily Record.) Lambert said Alice Walton and her two brothers dined in Tusk and Trotter recently and he took the opportunity to tell them how much he loved living in Bentonville. He said Alice reached across the table, covered his hand with hers and said, "We're so glad you're here." These are genuine people, he said. No pretense about them.
The thriving bar scene at Tusk and Trotter (one of some 160 private clubs created to serve the Walmart vendors) in what is the most conservative corner of Arkansas, the Republican Northwest, where there are no fewer than six religious radio stations (not counting John Brown University's Christian contemporary music station) and a talk show warning of a New World Order and now a world-class museum, is emblematic of the contradictory nature of Bentonville. This is a town with a 20-mile bike trail system (largely thanks to Tom Walton), where the Phat Tire store on the square has supplied bikes to the high school for its campus trail. Where 78 percent of the voters in this town of only 35,301 souls approved a $110 million capital bond issue to finance street improvements (the square has been transformed with brick pathways and crosswalks and lighting and curbs) and $15.4 million for park expansion. The city has spent $46 million of it so far and it shows. Last year, the city opened Orchards Park on J Street across from the museum, a huge green space with a pond, tennis courts and an amphitheater. The Ernest Lawrence plaza features a splash park, frozen for ice skating in the winter. There's a yoga studio right around the corner from that symbol of American capitalism, the Walmart Visitors Center.
And, now, a museum of American art, with holdings of around a thousand masterworks covering four centuries and 50,000 items in its research library, set into 120 acres traversed by 3 and a half miles of trails.
A Facebook friend, a photorealist artist in New York, posted a gripe in mid-October that Alice Walton was "buying tons of art and moving it to Arkansas. ARRGH." She added: "It is sad to me that it is somewhere I am not likely to visit."
It is sad to me, as well, that I am surely going to miss the "David Smith: Cubes and Anarchy" sculpture exhibition now at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
But I will gladly settle for a 1946 surrealistic oil by the famed mid-century artist that hints at the form his sculpture would take, which is on exhibit at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville.
(Arkansas now has two known David Smiths. The other is at the Arkansas Arts Center. Is that too much to ask?)
In May 2005, when Walton announced she would build the museum, the word was that it would be a $30 million museum holding $100 million in American art. Works from the colonial period through the 1950s would be featured. John Wilmerding, the Princeton professor and American painting expert — himself the son of famed collectors — told the Times after the announcement that the collection would include works by "every major American artist" but that it would not accommodate the monumental abstractions of the 1960s New York School. Too big, too pricy.
Since then, Alice Walton shucked Norman Rockwell's "Sick Puppy," one of the announced acquisitions at that 2005 press confab, and acquired Adolph Gottlieb's 185-by-80-inch abstract "Trinity" (1962), for a cool $1.1 million. With executive director Don Bacigalupi at her ear, Walton began adding late 20th century and contemporary work to the collection.
Speaking of ears: one of them is the gallery-filling "Beethoven's Trumpet (With Ear)" by California artist John Baldessari. That giant resin ear and bronze trumpet, the Dan Flavin fluorescent lights and Lynda Benglis' aluminum blob "Eat Meat" are a far stylistic cry from "Kindred Spirits," the Asher Durand painting that gave Walton goose bumps when she first saw it.
In 2009, the museum's non-profit tax filings put the worth of the building at $150 million. In 2010, the Walton Family Foundation endowed the museum with $1.2 billion.
In an interview with Wilmerding recorded in the museum's hardback publication, "Celebrating the American Spirit," Walton recalls sitting at Sotheby's auction house in New York in 2005 looking at "Kindred Spirits," which Sotheby's was selling for the New York Public Library. She says: "It was a transformative moment for me in terms of taking this [museum] from what I perceived as a gift to the community to what I now think of as a gift to the nation."
Walton outbid the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery, paying $35 million for the painting. It gave New Yorkers goose bumps as well, the idea of the library's iconic double portrait of the poet William Cullen Bryant and painter Thomas Cole in a Catskills-inspired (but imaginary) gorge being grabbed for a museum in the Ozarks, for Pete's sake. Their protests were the first in a series of hostile reactions to the retail heiress' moves to acquire art ("rapacious," one writer called them). Her attempt to buy Thomas Eakins' famed "The Gross Clinic" from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia for $68 million raised another outcry — and Philadelphians eventually raised the dollars to match her offer and keep the painting in Philadelphia. (It may have been a mistake to let it go, she mused at a recent press gathering, but she says she's glad Philadelphia realized what it was about to lose.) The alumnae of Randolph-Macon College went crazy when Walton was said to be in discussions with the financially-strapped college to work out a deal to acquire works in the Maier Museum there. Her offer of $30 million to Fisk University in Nashville for a 50 percent share in its Stieglitz collection of American masterpieces triggered a long-running and yet to be resolved lawsuit against Fisk. Art critics speculated the collection — with its portraits of George Washington by Charles Willson Peale and Gilbert Stuart — would be a flag-draped celebration of America as the promised land, where a man from Bentonville could turn his five and dime into the world's largest (and most controversial) retailer.
Let's face it. If you think Alice Walton (worth $20.9 billion, according to Forbes magazine's latest count) has become the 10th richest person in America by driving small retailers into extinction, paying employees so little that they must rely on the beneficence of the rest of us to survive, most recently denying health insurance coverage to its part-time employees and squeezing its vendors' profits to the slimmest of margins, then you may be uncomfortable about the money poured into Crystal Bridges. Or think that the money shouldn't have been spent on art at all, and instead turned back to employees. You may never visit the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Frick, the Metropolitan, the Getty on such high-minded principles.
Or you may hold it against her that Bentonville state Rep. Horace Hardwick passed special legislation in 2005 making Crystal Bridges the only museum in the state exempt from paying sales tax on art acquisitions, a move that cost the state many millions. (Say the museum has spent $500 million on art — which if it hasn't it will — the state would have received $30 million in taxes, Benton County $5 million and Bentonville $2 million without the special law, a total that is walking-around money for the Waltons.)
You may not be awed by the trails through the 120-acre woodland ravine the museum is nestled into, miles of quiet paths punctuated by birdsong and sculpture and tall trees and native plants and burbling springs.
You may not want to be seduced by the searingly beautiful transcendentalist American landscapes hung upon lovely curving walls that architect Moshe Safdie designed to draw the eye into the distance. It may occur to you that these images of America, both grand and simple, are what the land looked like before Walmart (and other retailers) became the Johnny Appleseed of big-box stores, changing the landscape forever.
But the art, the architecture, the reflection of the glass bridges in the pond (filled with city water until the excavation silt is covered), their domed copper roofs supported by ribs of Arkansas pine and hung from cables, will pull you in; if you love art but suffer from a love/hate relationship with a Walton-built museum, the love part of the equation will bury your antipathy.
It may be the Waltons' work, but it is wondrous in our eyes.
Tell me you can look at the wall of Martin Johnson Heade's 19th century paintings of hummingbirds and butterflies from Brazil and wish them elsewhere. Heade was able to paint the blue of the morpho butterfly's wing and the scarlet of the hummingbird's throat as they appear in the real world — iridescent and unspeakably beautiful, so true to color that he abandoned his plans to reproduce them in print inks that couldn't approach the palette of the paintings. Heade's small landscape "Haystacks," a tiny oil of a wet meadow in late afternoon with storm clouds on the horizon, made me do a double take on a quick tour through the museum led by David Houston, director of curatorial; I had to abandon the group to scurry back to the painting and get a real look at it.
When the top brass at Sotheby's entered the colonial gallery, where Peale's painting of Washington glows against a celery-green wall, their jaws dropped, curator Houston said. He knew they had a hit on their hands. This was no stuffy collection of American art. And while it contains a series of portraits from an 18th century merchant family in New York, it's not making an argument for unfettered capitalism, as early art critics suggested it would be, but preserving an amazing, luminous record of a family in 1730s America.
In another gallery, 18th century paintings by Benjamin West, John Taylor and John Singleton Copley are hung together, a visual tribute to Benjamin Franklin's lament that the three were the best painters in England — and all American. "Our geniuses all go to Europe," he complained.
A man who identified himself as an Oklahoma legislator was raving at the red of the velvet background and green of a silk dress in the Copley portrait ("Mrs. Theodore Atkinson Jr.") "Why should New York City have a corner on this art?" he asked. Now, all our geniuses are in Arkansas.
Some masterworks have been in Arkansas for a while, as was the case with Thomas Moran's "Valley of the Catawissa in Autumn." Walton told reporters a couple of weeks ago that the art world considered the painting a "lost Moran." It was lost — behind the sofa at Bernice Jones' home in Springdale for 30 years. "Lost in Arkansas," Walton scoffed.
Dan and Linda Nelson came to Crystal Bridges on Friday from Little Rock just to see Durand's "Kindred Spirits" and the portraits of Washington by Peale and Stuart and then found themselves enthralled by Jasper Francis Cropsey's "The Backwoods of America," a romantic scene of a log cabin hard by a lake, its builder setting out with his dog to cut more wood.
On the other side of the museum, in a contemporary exhibit called "Wonder World," Eric Jackson, a sculpture student at the University of Arkansas, was on the floor inspecting the underside of Roxy Paine's "Bad Lawn," a sculpture of a muddy place sprouting mushrooms and weeds. "This is the best day of my life," he said, getting up and looking around the room. "What's so cool," he mused, was the juxtaposition of a "dirty thing" in the clean space of the gallery. Jackson wasn't the only observer heard to look at the paintings with a critic's eye; another young man in front of Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait's "A Tight Fix" was discussing with an older man how the hunter's knife was the equivalent of the bear's claws. They weren't speaking Art Forum lingo — nothing about relationality and so forth — but they were looking and thinking.
A wood carver in an A&W cap from North Little Rock stood so long in front of a trompe l'oeil painting of guns and pheasants hanging from antlers that his wife left him behind. "The perspective is probably the best I've seen," he said. "This fools the eye more than anything I've encountered."
Lisa Perez of Los Angeles and her daughter, Maggie, had been invited to Bentonville to see the museum by a friend, Mara Erwin. Lisa Perez loves Fairfield Porter, a representational painter in the 1960s whose "October Interior" was out of step with the abstract expressionists of the time. "It's amazing to be able to put together a collection like this," Perez said. She looked at her daughter and they agreed: Crystal Bridges was better than the Getty; the Getty, they said, was "not as compelling."
A visitor to a gallery featuring huge abstracts by Morris Louis and Ken Noland said he wasn't as moved by the modern works "yet." (He was especially baffled by "Eat Meat.") But he found powerful Alice Walker's silhouette of a hanged woman stitched to a tapestry depicting a fire at an orphanage, and studied for some time Kerry James Marshall's "Our Town," an African-American Dick and Jane scene in which Jane is making a black power fist as she rides her trike; a portion of the painting is covered in fat, white Basquiat-like lines. A crowd assembled in front of Jack Levine's 1983 "The Arms Brokers" identifying the faces in the dark red and black social realist work: Richard Nixon, Idi Amin, Henry Kissinger ...
Roger Montgomery, a Fayetteville internist, was sitting on a bench peering at a book on the works of Marsden Hartley in one of the museum's between-gallery reading rooms that let visitors take a rest. Seeing so much art — there are close to 500 works installed now — can be overwhelming. (A U of A student who moved to Arkansas from Chicago observed just how much art is hung on the walls compared to the galleries in his experience.)
Montgomery said he knew the collection was going to be good. "But I didn't know how good it was going to be," he said.
In the gallery Montgomery had just left, featuring work from the middle part of the 20th century, an older woman sat in a walker chair in front a 1940 Hartley painting, "Madawaska — Acadian Light-Heavy." She looked up at me and said, "I helped build this museum." She did? "I buy all my prescriptions at Sam's," she said. The gallery volunteer agreed. "It's really our museum," she said. Because everyone shops at Walmart.
Can we find ourselves a kindred spirit with Alice Walton? Sculptor Mark di Suvero could.
Di Suvero's sculpture "Lowell's Ocean," a monumental piece whose cut steel arms end in swirls and hard angles, came to Bentonville to install the work, which Walton saw at Paula Cooper Gallery in New York. When he arrived on site, the ground was broken up and there were pipes lying around. "There were outhouses out there," he said. He said he couldn't install the work unless the area was leveled out. It quickly was.
The sculptor called Crystal Bridges "the marriage of community and capitalism." To those who wonder about Alice Walton's genuineness, "I suggest you shake hands with her. Hers are working hands." She has "chutzpah," he said. And Arkansas, he said, "is real America." He said he thought it was great that his sculpture is where Arkansans, and the rest of the country that will come to the middle, will see it.
Crystal Bridges is not as all-encompassing and majestic as the Metropolitan nor as risk-taking as the Whitney. Installation art is problematic, given its space. But it is a great collection and will grow to be greater. Which raises the question: "Wonder World" is in space that appears to have been originally planned as offices: oddly angled, no windows, along a hallway that leads to the Great Hall (a turtle-shaped space basking on the south of the upper pond). Won't Walton have to enlarge Crystal Bridges to match the growth of her vision?
There are plans for a new Walton Arts Center in Bentonville. There might be extra room there, of course.
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Read this tip to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Recommended Crochet Products and other Crochet topics.
Be Sweet is a company started by Nadine Curtis to empower South African villagers to utilize their talents and crafts to make a fair wage. They've created some beautiful mohair, bamboo and organic cotton yarns. For more information, check out their website www.besweetproducts.com
|Guru Spotlight
|Phyllis Serbes


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Famous Quotes About Being Honest
Best Quotes On Integrity. QuotesGram
Golf is fundamentally about being honest. I see people hit eight shots
Real Life True Quotes. QuotesGram
Wow this one hit me I honestly wish people would stop to realize
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To be honest, I think it saves time rather than delays things
honest quotes about life
Great Quotes About Being Strong. QuotesGram
Old Famous Quotes John Lennon. QuotesGram
And finally just because it made me chuckle!
Pete Seeger is a dangerous man.
Funny Common Pinoy Mistakes - Pinoy Funny Jokes Images
Best Quotes On Integrity. QuotesGram
Andrew Johnson Quotes
love being around the children. Theyre honest, loving and they
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Nelson Mandela Quotes | QuoteHD


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If you want to find winning -- or losing -- stock ideas, you'll need to understand what lies beneath a company's reported revenue. Many investors screen on metrics like net income or related measurements such as EBIT, EBITDA, or operating cash flow. But companies know that Wall Street is closely monitoring these factors, and they can sometimes attempt to massage their numbers in hopes of providing a "good story" for investors.
Investors can get a much better picture of a company's revenue or cash flow story by looking into the quality of earnings instead. Diligent Fools will play the role of forensic accountant, reading all of a company's SEC filings and financial statements in search of accounting tricks that might be masking deteriorating company performance. To help your investigation, I've uncovered a powerful shortcut: subtracting net income from operating cash flow.
Let's test how well this shortcut works by rounding up a clutch of companies with five-year annualized growth rates greater than 10%. Then we'll rank these contenders with my quality-of-earnings metric, divided by each company's market cap to normalize the candidates' different sizes.
Here are the top two and the bottom two companies in my quality-of-earnings screen for household durables companies:
The highest
5-Year Revenue Growth
Lifetime Brands
Universal Electronics
The lowest
5-Year Revenue Growth
National Presto
These household companies are in the consumer discretionary sector. Let's look at how companies in this sector have performed over the past decade when ranked by my simple quality-of-earnings metric:
The graphs don't lie
Companies with higher quality of earnings significantly outperform those with lower quality. Stocks in quantile 1 generated nearly 18% annualized returns, while the bottom feeders of quantile 5 stocks returned about 7.5%.
Clearly, the revenue growth story for the household durables companies above is an inadequate measure to evaluate these companies. Our earnings quality screen (and decade of corroborating evidence!) suggests that Lifetime Brands and Universal Electronics are our buy candidates, while National Presto and Tupperware might be shorting opportunities. Of course, before pulling the trigger, investors should do their homework to get an even better and more comprehensive picture of quality of earnings and earnings growth.
Finding companies to short will take more than my simple quality-of-earnings shortcut. That's why John Del Vecchio, CFA, a leading forensic accountant and The Motley Fool's shorting specialist, put together a detailed report that shows you how to spot five serious red flags that can help you detect time bombs in your portfolio and lead you to the next big short. You can get the entire report free by clicking here or by entering your email address in the box below.
John Keeling doesn't hold a position in any company mentioned. Tupperware is a Motley Fool PRO holding. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. True to its name, The Motley Fool is made up of a motley assortment of writers and analysts, each with a unique perspective; sometimes we agree, sometimes we disagree, but we all believe in the power of learning from each other through our Foolish community. The Fool has a disclosure policy.


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Creating an ice chain
Watch the video below to see Duncan and Ben creating an ice chain. As you can see, each individual link has to be carved separately, while every other link is cut in half to be looped into its neighbour.Read More»
Ice sculpting in summer
The team are often asked if ice sculpting is just a winter activity and the answer is no! Ice sculptures are requested all year round for all kinds of occasions.Read More»
Looking after ice sculpting tools
'Look after your tools and they'll look after you' is the motto. It may not be the most exciting aspect of being an ice sculptor, but maintaining your equipment is extremely important.Read More»
A day in the life of an ice sculptor
Ever wondered what it's like to be an ice sculptor? Well, it's not all glamorous occasions and commercial shoots, believe it or not.Read More»
Making a maquette
Here you can see Duncan sculpting a maquette of a unicorn in clay. A maquette is a small model prototype for a much larger work and is sometimes created by sculptors to act as a trial run.Read More»
Transporting ice sculptures
You may have realised that transporting ice sculptures can be a tricky business. Unless the team are sculpting live or on site, all sculptures are made at the studio in walk-in freezers at a temperature of -20 degrees.Read More»
Don't you get cold?
The Hamiltons often get asked if they get cold while sculpting. If the team aren't sculpting live on the street as part of a performance, it's most likely that a carving is being made in advance of being transported to its final destination.Read More»
Creating movement in ice sculpture
The team are often asked to carve static inanimate objects, but what happens when they're asked to create a feeling of action in a sculpture?Read More»
The Top Five Questions We Get Asked
Ice sculpture isn't exactly a mainstream art form, at least not here in the UK. It's often the case that people know very little about it and the team often get asked the same questions by those with curious minds. Here are the top five:Read More»
Sculpting human figures
Sculpting human figures is one of the trickiest things the team are asked to do.Read More»


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Sunday we had the pleasure of DS1 and family for the day. With the sun shining brightly we were able to get out for a nice walk in the afternoon through the woods. We stopped off at the play park and then called in to see our daughter at her workplace. Lots of energy burnt off and we were all ready for our roast dinner when we got back home - DH had stayed behind to cook it for us. Once they had gone home I was able to get just a small amount of stitching done on the Cornwall Cottage Sampler. I really am hoping that next Sunday I can complete the first page.
Tuesday, 10 February 2015
Cornwall Cottage SAL
5 comments:
- Barbi said...
Great progress Linda! And sounds like you had a really nice day on Sunday.
- 10 February 2015 at 23:41
- katica said...
it's coming along beautifully! The roast dinner sounds yummy!
- 11 February 2015 at 00:23
- Brigitte said...
It must be a lot of fun to stitch with these colours. Nice Progress.
- 11 February 2015 at 08:40
- Julie said...
Family time is always so precious.
This one is looking so pretty.
- 12 February 2015 at 11:27
- Linda said...
Beautiful. :)
- 13 February 2015 at 19:13
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


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BinaryBook App
BinaryBook has been present on the market for the last three years, so we can safely say they are now an established broker in this industry. With a substantial number of loyal followers, they are also a well known brand in this business. Great service and excellent features are the main reasons for the company's success because traders who conduct their trades on this broker's platform have overwhelmingly positive comments and very good impressions. In this article we will be examining how mobile you can get with the BinaryBook App and which features it has to offer. If you're often on the go and don't have a lot of time to spend sitting in front of your computer, read on!
BinaryBook App | What does it offer?
BinaryBook App mimics BinaryBook Trading Platform absolutely perfectly and you will not notice any differences between mobile trading and your experience while trading on your computer. With the great SpotOption software powering it, there is absolutely no chance for any hiccups. Numerous trading modes are also there, including the SpotFollow mode which enables you to follow the most successful traders and copy their investments. Stocks, indices, currencies and commodities are all at your disposal, so you should have no trouble finding the right investment target. In short, just as is the case with regular trading, we believe you won't have any BinaryBook Complaints when it comes to the platform's mobile version, too.
BinaryBook App | How do you get it?
BinaryBook App is currently available in Google Play store and it will be coming to the App Store very soon, so no matter which mobile device you have, mobile trading with this broker will be available to you. The app will sync with your account without the slightest problem, meaning it doesn't really matter where you're trading from – you are always in full control of your trades. Furthermore, great design allows you to easily find what you need, and the app's accessibility is further increased by the fact that it comes in several different languages: English, Turkish and Arabic. BinaryBook App will also provide you with access to leading market data and analytics, so with it you will really have everything you need at the palm of your hand. If you're a trader who travels a lot, this app is a must.
BinaryBook App | Conclusion
To conclude, BinaryBook App is a great and reliable piece of software which allows you to access your trades wherever you are. You will lose nothing in terms of your trading experience and you will gain a great deal in terms of your mobility. With its great design this app is extremely easy to use, so even if you're a complete beginner you should be able to get the hang of it pretty quickly. The only thing you need to do is to open an account and you'll be able to trade binary options in every corner of the world.


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Series Index
- Overview of TestApi
- Part 1: Input Injection APIs
- Part 2: Command-Line Parsing APIs
- Part 3: Visual Verification APIs
- Part 4: Combinatorial Variation Generation APIs
- Part 5: Managed Code Fault Injection APIs
- Part 6: Text String Generation APIs
- Part 7: Memory Leak Detection APIs
- Part 8: Object Comparison APIs
Visual Verification (VV) is the act of verifying that your application or component is displayed correctly on screen. The TestApi library provides a set of VV APIs. This post discusses these APIs.
Avoid It If You Can
First and foremost, I want to emphasize that visual verification is a test technique that should be used with caution. It is difficult to do correctly and any extensive use typically results in hard-to-maintain test codebases. Here are a few things to consider before you embark on VV test development:
- The UI of an application tends to change a lot during development. If you use visual verification extensively, you may end up in a situation where you have to update a large number of visual verification tests on a daily basis, which is a waste of effort.
- There are small differences in rendering between different video cards on different versions of the OS and of .NET. These differences are particularly pronounced in font rendering.
- Before employing any form of UI verification, one should always review the underlying application architecture. Extensive need for UI testing is typically indicative of poorly architected systems, lacking proper view-model separation, so it's almost always better to invest in proper system architecture than in extensive UI testing.
- Whenever possible, attempt to do analytical visual verification i.e. one that does not employ the use of master images.
The WPF test team has gone through several iterations of cleaning up and retiring unnecessary visual verification tests in an attempt to speed up and stabilize our test suite.
General Concepts
The core VV terminology is:
- Snapshot: A pixel buffer used for representing and evaluating screen image data.
- Verifier: An oracle object which determines whether a snapshot passes against specified inputs.
- Actual: The snapshot being evaluated.
- Master: The reference data (image) which is used to evaluate the actual snapshot.
- Tolerance: The accepted bounding range based on which the actual snapshot will be accepted as valid.
The general VV workflow is:
- Capture some screen content.
- Generate an expected snapshot (e.g. load a master image from disk, etc.)
- Compare the actual snapshot to the expected snapshot and generate the difference (diff) snapshot.
- Verify the diff using a verifier.
- Report test result.
TestApi Visual Verification Technology
TestApi provides the following VV technology:
- Snapshot: this class represents image pixels in a two-dimensional array for use in VV. Every element in the array represents a pixel in a given [row, column] of the image. A Snapshot object can be instantiated from a file (Snapshot.FromFile), or captured from screen (Snapshot.FromWindow and Snapshot.FromRectangle). Snapshot also exposes image cropping (Snapshot.Crop), resizing, diff-ing (Snapshot.CompareTo) masking (Snapshot.And) and merging operations (Snapshot.Or) operations.
- Verifiers: the library provides a set of verifiers that can be used to verify a (diff) snapshot. SnapshotColorVerifier reports passing if
- Various utilities: example of these are the Histogram class, providing basic functionality for handling image histograms
With these prolegomena out of the way, let's look at some code. The first example below demonstrates master visual verification using a basic color verifier, which ensures that the difference between the master snapshot and the actual snapshot is within a defined tolerance:
// 1. Capture the actual pixels from a given window Snapshot actual = Snapshot.FromRectangle(new Rectangle(0, 0, 100, 100)); // 2. Load the reference/master data from a previously saved file Snapshot expected = Snapshot.FromFile("Expected.png")); // 3. Compare the actual image with the master image // This operation creates a difference image. Any regions which are identical in // the actual and master images appear as black. Areas with significant // differences are shown in other colors. Snapshot difference = actual.CompareTo(expected); // 4. Configure the snapshot verifier - It expects a black image with zero tolerances SnapshotVerifier v = new SnapshotColorVerifier(Color.Black, new ColorDifference()); // 5. Evaluate the difference image if (v.Verify(difference) == VerificationResult.Fail) { // Log failure, and save the diff file for investigation actual.ToFile("Actual.png", ImageFormat.Png); difference.ToFile("Difference.png", ImageFormat.Png); }
This approach works fine if you are evaluating the correctness of an application logo or some other application art. You may find that you will need to increase the tolerance a bit to accommodate differences in GPU rendering, but in general the SnapshotColorVerifier provides all the functionality you need.
A somewhat more sophisticated approach involves using of image histograms (see this link for a good introduction to the subject). An image histogram is a histogram that represents the frequency of pixels with a certain brightness. One can define a histogram that represents his/her expectation of the "proximity of the match" between the actual and expected snapshots.
For example, one can define a histogram semantically equivalent to the following statement:
"When I compare the actual snapshot to the expected snapshot (both of 320 pixels), I expect no more than 30 pixels with color channel difference of 1, no more than 10 pixels with color channel difference of 2, and zero pixels with higher differences."
This histogram would look as follows:
Figure 1 Image Histogram
Such form of verification is done by using the SnapshotHistogramVerifier and the Histogram classes, as demonstrated in the sample below.
// Take a snapshot, compare to the master image and generate a diff Snapshot actual = Snapshot.FromRectangle(new Rectangle(0, 0, 100, 100)); Snapshot expected = Snapshot.FromFile("Expected.png")); Snapshot difference = actual.CompareTo(expected); // Load the quality histogram from disk and use it to verify the diff SnapshotVerifier v = new SnapshotHistogramVerifier(Histogram.FromFile("ToleranceHistogram.xml")); if (v.Verify(difference) == VerificationResult.Fail) { // Log failure, and save the actual and diff images for investigation actual.ToFile("Actual.png", ImageFormat.Png); difference.ToFile("Difference.png", ImageFormat.Png); }
The histogram file is just a XML file with the following schema:
<histogram> <tolerance> <point x="0" y="0.87500" /> <point x="1" y="0.09375" /> <point x="2" y="0.03125" /> <point x="3" y="0" /> <point x="4" y="0" /> ... <point x="254" y="0" /> <point x="255" y="0" /> </tolerance> </histogram>
This visual verification approach was pioneered in the WPF test organization about 6 years ago by Marc Cauchy and Pierre-Jean Reissman.
However, none of the two approaches above work particularly well for evaluation of a typical application window, containing controls, text, etc. Such windows tend to have regions that need different tolerance settings. For example, consider the application window below:
Figure 2 Sample Application Window
If you try to perform master based visual verification, you will hit 2 issues:
- The non-client area of the window (the window frame) will tend to be slightly different between different runs of the application. It will also depend on environment factors such as the desktop wall-paper.
- Some regions of the client area of the window will also tend to exhibit significant variance between runs of the application.
Issue (1) is easy to resolve, using Snapshot.FromWindow(...) and excluding the non-client area from the capture. Issue (2), however, is a bit more involved. Here are the expected, actual and diff snapshots of the client-area of the application.
Figure 3a Expected Client-Area Snapshot
Figure 3b Actual Client-Area Snapshot
Figure 3d Difference Snapshot – Completely Black Pixels Are Replaced With Pink
The differences between the expected snapshot and the actual snapshot are difficult to see on Figure 3c, so on Figure 3d I have replaced purely black pixels with pink.
It is not surprising that most of the variation occurs around the text regions in the application window (ClearType renders differently on different machines). So it may make sense to increase the tolerance (or completely mask away) those regions, providing of course we are not specifically interested in their rendering.
In order to achieve that, we use the SnapshotToleranceMapVerifier class. Here's an example:
// Take a snapshot, compare to the master image and generate a diff Snapshot actual = Snapshot.FromWindow(hwndOfYourWindow, ); Snapshot expected = Snapshot.FromFile("Expected.png")); Snapshot difference = actual.CompareTo(expected); // Load the tolerance map. Then use it to verify the difference snapshot Snapshot toleranceMap = Snapshot.FromFile("ExpectedImageToleranceMap.png"); SnapshotVerifier v = new SnapshotToleranceMapVerifier(toleranceMap); if (v.Verify(difference) == VerificationResult.Fail) { // Log failure, and save the actual and diff images for investigation actual.ToFile("Actual.png", ImageFormat.Png); difference.ToFile("Difference.png", ImageFormat.Png); }
The tolerance map that we use looks as follows:
Figure 4 Tolerance Map in "ExpectedImageToleranceMap.png"
What appears pure black (0x00FFFFFF) is actually an off-black color (0x000A0A0A) to handle the small variations that appear as black dots on Figure 3d. Then we also have 4 regions with significantly higher tolerance to handle the variability of the text rendering.
In Conclusion
The visual verification API in TestApi provides a solid foundation for visual verification tests. As a general best practice, however, avoid visual verification as much as possible.


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Ken Carite and his staff at Proshred are top notch!! I have used them the past two years at my business to hold a free shred event for the community of Westfield. Ken and his staff have been excellent to work with, always professional and reasonably priced. I would, and do, recommend Proshred for any of your document destruction needs. Don't wait, call Proshred today!
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- Heather H.
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The Proshred office in the greater Fishers area has great people and never disappoint. This is such an important activity for the safety of myself and clients. Thank you Proshred!
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- Logansport Savings Bank
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March 15, 2005
Library offers SAGES assistance
Today the Faculty Senate Committee on University Libraries met with several staff from KSL and with Prof. Peter Whiting, Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences for SAGES, to discuss ways in which the library can assist faculty in helping students with their information literacy and research skills. The library can come to the SAGES classroom, or the faculty member can elect to have the class come to the library, which has the advantage of getting students into KSL and seeing how the place works "on site." Bill Claspy along with Reference Head Catherine Wells are the librarians heading up KSL's efforts to assist faculty. The Faculty Senate Committee also offer several useful pieces of advice for involving faculty and librarians in mutually beneficial partnerships in undergraduate student learning.
Posted by tdr at 03:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack


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All rooms are non smoking and have ensuite (private) bathrooms and have the following:
Electronic key card locks
Multi-speed electric fans
LCD Clock
Direct dial telephone
Voice messaging
TV messaging
Alarm Clock through TV
23" Philips digital flat screen LCD televisions with satellite channels and Pay TV
Internet on TV
High speed broadband internet access
Data port/modem points
Individual comprehensive music album library
Interactive video on demand
Hospitality trays (tea/coffee making facilities)
Complimentary toiletries
Designated ironing facilities/stations on various floors
Individual safe deposit facilities at Front-Desk
Complimentary luggage storage facilities at Lobby
Complimentary newspapers and magazines at Hotel Lounge
Complimentary Continental breakfast is served in the Hotel Brasserie everyday from 7:30am
Features include non smoking, air conditioning, wooden floor, contemporary furnishings with leather and tapestry fabrics, multiple digital flat screens as well as a large plasma screen with all day coverage (of current affairs, live news and sports plus not to forget the latest going-on's in your favourite soaps!).
Bar Dada is an ideal meeting place before an evening's entertainment and a relaxing haven after a hectic day's sightseeing/business in it's cosy atmosphere.
Here you can enjoy unhurried ambience over a pre-theatre drink and bar snack or perhaps a coffee and brandy after your meal.
Whether an old friend or new acquaintance you can be sure of a warm welcome.
To welcoming you all, Bar Dada introduces Happy Hours in it's cosy environment where you can enjoy your drinks at happy prices.
As everyone knows breakfast is the most important meal of the day!
Keeping this in mind we proudly serve our guests a Continental breakfast between 7:30am and 9:00am (9:30am on weekends) with our compliments.
Completely renovated and air conditioned the Brasserie features a wooden floor and contemporary furnishings to provide jovial atmosphere.
And with soft music and friendly staff ready to greet you every morning, our Brasserie is a pleasant place to start a busy day in London.
Our all you can eat Continental breakfast includes:
Milk, hot chocolate, tea, choice of coffees and choice of fruit juices (apple and orange)
Choice of cereals (Corn Flakes, Rice Crispies, Bran Flakes and Muesli)
Croissants, brown and white bread/toast, butter and choice of jams and marmalade
Choice of fruits and yogurts
|Map Legend
|SIDNEY London-Victoria
31-37 Charlwood St, Westminster, London SW1V 2, UK