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Sunday, October 10, 2010
The Irony of Elegy
Monday, August 23, 2010
An Interesting Piece
A Weight That Women Carry – The Compulsion to Diet in a Starved Culture
By Sallie Tisdale (taken from Minding the Body: women writers on Body and Soul)
I don't know how much I weigh these days, though I can make a good guess. For years I'd known that number, sometimes within a quarter pound, known how it changed from day to day and hour to hour. I want to weight myself now; I lean toward the scale in the next room, imagine standing there, lining up the balance. But I don't do it. Going this long, starting to break the scale's spell—it's like waking up suddenly sober.
By the time I was sixteen years old I had reached my adult height of five feet six inches and weighed 164 pounds. I weighed 164 pounds before and after a healthy pregnancy. I assume I weigh about the same now; nothing significant seems to have happened to my body, this same old body I've had all these years. I usually wear a size 14, a common clothing size for American women. On bad days I think my body looks lumpy and misshapen. On my good days, which are more frequent lately, I think I look plush and strong; I think I look like a lot of women whose bodies and lives I admire.
I'm not sure when the word "fat" first sounded pejorative to me, or when I first applied it to myself. My grandmother was a petite woman, the only one in my family. She stole food from other people's plates, and hid the debris of her own meals so that no one would know how much she ate. My mother was a size 14, like me, all her adult life; we shared clothes. She fretted endlessly over food scales, calorie counters, and diet books. She didn't want to quit smoking because she was afraid she would gain weight, and she worried about her weight until she died of cancer five years ago. Dieting was always in my mother's way, always there in the conversations above my head, the dialogue of stocky women. But I was strong and healthy and didn't pay too much attention to my weight until I was grown.
It probably wouldn't have been possible for me to escape forever. It doesn't matter that whole human epochs have celebrated big men and women, because the brief period in which I live does not; since I was born, even the voluptuous calendar girl has gone. Today's models, the women whose pictures I see constantly, unavoidable, grow more minimal by the day. When I berate myself for not looking like—whomever I think I should look like that day, I don't really care that no one looks like that. I don't care the Michelle Pfeiffer doesn't look like the photographs I see of Michelle Pfeiffer. I want to look—think I should look—like the photographs. I want her little miracles: the makeup artists, photographers, and computer imagers who can add a mole, remove a scar, lift the breasts, widen the eyes, narrow the hips, flatten the curves. The final product is what I see, have seen my whole adult life. And I've seen this: Even when big people become celebrities, their weight is constantly remarked upon and scrutinized; their successes seem always to be in spite of their weight. I thought my successes must be too.
I feel myself expand and diminish from day to day, sometimes from hour to hour. If I tell someone my weight, I change in their eyes: I become bigger or smaller, better or worse, depending on what that number, my weight, means to them. I know many men and women, young and old, gay and straight, who look fine, whom I love to see and whose faces and forms I cherish, who despise themselves for their weight. For their ordinary, human bodies. They and I are simply bigger than we think we should be. We always talk about weight in terms of gains and losses, and don't wonder at the strangeness of the words. In trying always to lose weight, we've lost hope of simply being seen for ourselves.
My weight has never actually affected anything—it's never seemed to mean anything one way or the other to how I lived. Yet for the last ten years I've felt quite bad about it. After a time, the number on the scale became my totem, more important than my experience—it was layered, metaphorical, metaphysical, and it had bewitching power. I thought if I could change that number I could change my life.
In my mid-twenties I started secretly taking diet pills. They made me feel strange, half crazed, vaguely nauseated. I lost about twenty-five pounds, dropped two sizes, and bought new clothes. I developed rituals and taboos around food, ate very little, and continued to lose weight. For a long time afterward I thought it only coincidental that with every passing week I also grew more depressed and irritable.
I could recite the details, but they're remarkable only for being so common. I lost more weight until I was rather thin, and then I gained it all back. It came back slowly, pound by pound, in spite of erratic and melancholy and sometimes frantic dieting, dieting I clung to even though being thin had changed nothing, had meant nothing to my life except that I was thin. Looking back, I remember blinding moments of shame and lighting-bright moments of clear-headedness, which inevitably gave way to rage at the time I'd wasted—rage that eventually would become, once again, self-disgust and the urge to lose weight. So it went, until I weighed exactly what I'd weighed when I began.
I used to be attracted to the sharp angles of the chronic dieter—the caffeine-wild, chain-smoking, skinny women I see sometimes. I considered them a pinnacle not of beauty but of will. Even after I gained back my weight, I wanted to be like that, controlled and persevering, live that underfed life so unlike my own rather sensual and disorderly existence. I felt I should always be dieting, for the dieting of it; dieting had become a rule, a given, a constant. Every ordinary value is distorted in this lens. I felt guilty for not being completely absorbed in my diet, for getting distracted, for not caring enough all the time. The fat person's character flaw is a lack of narcissism. She's let herself go.
So I would begin again—and at first it would all seem so . . . easy. Simply arithmetic. After all, 3,500 calories equal one pound of fat—so the books and articles by the thousands say. I would calculate how long it would take to achieve the magic number on the scale, to succeed, to win. All past failures were suppressed. If 3,500 calories equal one pound, all I needed to do was cut 3,500 calories out of my intake every week. The first few days of a new diet would be colored with a sense of control—organization and planning, power over the self. Then the basic futile misery took over.
I would weigh myself with foreboding, and my weight would determine how went the rest of my day, my week, my life. When 3,500 calories didn't equal one pound lost after all, I figured it was my body that was flawed, not the theory. One friend, who had tried for years to lose weight following prescribed diets, made what she called "an amazing discovery." The real secret to a diet, she said, was that you had to be willing to be hungry all the time. You had to eat even less than the diet allowed.
I believed that being thin would make me happy. Such a pernicious, enduring belief. I lost weight and wasn't happy and saw that elusive happiness disappear in a vanishing point, requiring more—more self-disgust, more of the misery of dieting. Knowing all that I know now about the biology and anthropology of weight, knowing that people naturally come in many shapes and sizes, knowing that diets are bad for me and won't make me thin—sometimes none of this matters. I look in the mirror and think: Who am I kidding? I've got to do something about myself. Only then will this vague discontent disappear. Then I'll be loved.
For ages humans believed that the body helped create the personality, from the humors of Galen to W.H. Sheldon's somatotypes. Sheldon distinguished among three templates—endomorph, mesomorph, and ectomorph—and combined them into hundreds of variations with physical, emotional, and psychological characteristics. When I read about weight now, I see the potent shift in the last few decades: The modern culture of dieting is based on the idea that the personality creates the body. Our size must be in some way voluntary, or else it wouldn't be subject to change. A lot of my misery over my weight wasn't about how I looked at all. I was miserable because I believed I was bad, not my body. I felt truly reduced then, reduced to being just a body and nothing more.
Fat is perceived as an act rather than a thing. It is antisocial, and curable through the application of social controls. Even the feminist revisions of dieting, so powerful in themselves, pick up the theme: the hungry, empty heart; the woman seeking release from sexual assault, or the man from the loss of the mother, through food and fat. Fat is now a symbol not of the personality but of the soul—the cluttered, neurotic, immature soul.
Fat people eat for "mere gratification," I read, as though no one else does. Their weight is intentioned, they simply eat "too much," their flesh is lazy flesh. Whenever I went on a diet, eating became cheating. One pretzel was cheating. Two apples instead of one was cheating—a large potato instead of a small, carrots instead of broccoli. It didn't matter which diet I was on; diets have failure built in, failure is in the definition. Every substitution—even carrots for broccoli—was a triumph of desire over will. When I dieted, I didn't feel pious just for sticking to the rules. I felt condemned for the act of eating itself, as though my hunger were never normal. My penance was not to eat at all.
My attitude toward food became quite corrupt. I came, in fact, to subconsciously believe food itself was corrupt. Diet books often distinguish between "real" and "unreal" hunger, so that correct eating is hollowed out, unemotional. A friend of mine who thinks of herself as a compulsive eater says she feels bad only when she eats for pleasure. "Why?" I ask, and she says, "Because I'm eating food I don't need." A few years ago I might have admired that. Now I try to imagine a world where we eat only food we need, and it seems inhuman. I imagine a world devoid of holidays and wedding feasts, wakes and reunions, a unique shared joy. "What's wrong with eating a cookie because you like cookies?" I ask her, and she hasn't got an answer. These aren't rational beliefs, any more than the unnecessary pleasure of ice cream is rational. Dieting presumes pleasure to be an insignificant, or at least malleable, human motive.
I felt no joy in being thin—it was just work, something I had to do. But when I began to gain back the weight, I felt despair. I started reading about the "recidivism" of dieting. I wondered if I had myself to blame not only for needing to diet in the first place but for dieting itself, the weight inevitably regained. I joined the organized weight-loss programs, spent a lot of money, listened to lectures I didn't believe on quack nutrition, ate awful, processed diet foods. I sat in groups and applauded people who'd lost a half pound, feeling smug because I'd lost a pound and a half. I felt ill much of the time, found exercise increasingly difficult, cried often. And I thought that if I could only lose a little weight, everything would be all right.
When I say to someone "I'm fat," I hear, "Oh, no! You're not fat! You're just—" What? Plump? Big-boned? Rubenesque? I'm just not thin. That's crime enough. I began this story by stating my weight. I said it all at once, trying to forget it and take away its power; I said it to be done being scared. Doing so, saying it out loud like that, felt like confessing a mortal sin. I have to bite my tongue not to seek reassurance, not to defend myself, not to plead. I see an old friend for the first time in years, and she comments on how much my fourteen-year-old son looks like me—"except, of course, he's not chubby." "Looks who's talking," I reply, through clenched teeth. This pettiness is never far away; concern with my weight evokes the smallest, meanest parts of me. I look at another woman passing on the street, At least I'm not that fat.
Recently I was talking with a friend who is naturally slender about a mutual acquaintance who is quite large. To my surprise my friend reproached this woman because she had seen her eating a cookie at lunchtime. "How is she going to lose weight that way?" my friend wondered. When you are as fat as our acquaintance is, you are primarily, fundamentally, seen as fat. It is your essential characteristic. There are so many presumptions in my friend's casual, cruel remark. She assumes that this woman should diet all the time—and that she can. She pronounces whole categories of food to be denied her. She sees her unwillingness to behave in this externally prescribed way, even for a moment, as an act of rebellion. In his story "A Hunger Artist," Kafka writes that the guards of the fasting man were "usually butchers, strangely enough." Not so strange, I think.
I know that the world, even if it views me as overweight (and I'm not sure it really does), clearly makes a distinction between me and this very big woman. I would rather stand with her and not against her, see her for all she is besides fat. But I know our experiences aren't the same. My thin friend assumes my fat friend is unhappy because she is fat: Therefore, if she loses weight she will be happy. My fat friend has a happy marriage and family and a good career, but insofar as her weight is a source of misery, I think she would be much happier if she could eat her cookie in peace, if people would shut up and leave her weight alone. But the world never lets up when you are her size; she cannot walk to the bank without risking insult. Her fat is seen as perverse bad manners. I have no doubt she would be rid of the fat if she could be. If my left-handedness invited the criticism her weight does, I would want to cut that hand off.
In these last several years I seem to have had an infinite number of conversations about dieting. They are really all the same conversation—weight is lost, then weight is gained back. This repetition finally began to sink in. Why did everyone soon or later have the same experience? (My friend who had learned to be hungry all the time gained back all the weight she had lost and more, just like the rest of us.) Was it really our bodies that were flawed? I began reading the biology of weight more carefully, reading the fine print in the endless studies. There is, in fact, a preponderance of evidence disputing our commonly held assumptions about weight.
The predominant biological myth of weight is that thin people live longer than fat people. The truth is far more complicated. (Some deaths of fat people attributed to heart disease seem actually to have been the result of radical dieting.) If health were our real concern, it would be dieting we questioned, not weight. The current ideal of thinness has never been held before, except as a religious ideal; the underfed body is the martyr's body. Even if people can lose weight, maintaining an artificially low weight for any period of time requires a kind of starvation. Lots of people are naturally thin, but for those who are not, dieting is an unnatural act; biology rebels. The metabolism of the hungry body can change inalterably, making it ever harder and harder to stay thin. I think chronic dieting made me gain weight—not only pounds, but fat. This equation seemed so strange at first that I couldn't believe it. But the weight I put back on after losing was much more stubborn than the original weight. I had lost it by taking diet pills and not eating much of anything at all for quite a long time. I haven't touched the pills again, but not eating much of anything no longer works.
When Oprah Winfrey first revealed her lost weight, I didn't envy her. I thought, she's in trouble now. I knew, I was certain, she would gain it back; I believed she was biologically destined to do so. The tabloid headlines blamed it on a cheeseburger or mashed potatoes; they screamed OPRAH PASSES 200 POUNDS, and I cringed at her misery and how the world wouldn't let up, wouldn't leave her alone, wouldn't let her be anything else. How dare the world do this to anyone? I thought, and then realized it I did it to myself.
The "Ideal Weight" charts my mother used were at their lowest acceptable-weight ranges in the 1950s, when I was a child. They were based on sketchy and often inaccurate actuarial evidence, using, for the most part, data on northern Europeans and allowing for the most minimal differences in size for a population of less than half a billion people. I never fit those weight charts, I was always just outside the pale. As an adult, when I would join an organized diet program, I accepted their version of my Weight Goal as gospel, knowing it would be virtually impossible to reach. But reach I tried; that's what one does with gospel. Only in the last few years have the weight tables begun to climb back into the world of the average human. The newest ones distinguish by gender, frame, and age. And suddenly, I'm not off the charts anymore. I have a place.
A man who is attracted to fat women says, "I actually have less specific physical criteria than most men. I'm attracted to women who weigh 170 or 270 or 370. Most men are attracted to women who weigh between 100 and 135. So who's got more of a fetish?" We look at fat as a problem of the fat person. Rarely do the tables get turned, rarely do we imagine that it might be the viewer, not the viewed, who is limited. What the hell is wrong with them, anyway? Do they believe everything they see on television?
My friend Phil, who is chronically and almost painfully thin, admitted that in his search for a partner he finds himself prejudiced against fat women. He seemed genuinely bewildered by this. I didn't jump to reassure him that such prejudice is hard to resist. What I did was bite my tongue at my urge to be reassured by him, to be told that I, at least, wasn't fat. That over the centuries humans have been inclined to prefer extra flesh rather than the other way around seems unimportant. All we see now tells us otherwise. Why does my kindhearted friend criticize another woman for eating a cookie when she would never dream of commenting in such a way on another person's race or sexual orientation or disability? Deprivation is the dystopian ideal.
My mother called her endless diets "reducing plans." Reduction, the diminution of women, is the opposite of feminism, as Kim Chernin points out in The Obsession. Smallness is what feminism strives against, the smallness that women confront everywhere. All of women's spaces are smaller than those of men, often inadequate, without privacy. Furniture designers distinguish between a man's and a woman's chair, because women don't spread out like men. (A sprawling woman means only one thing.) Even our voices are kept down. By embracing dieting I was rejecting a lot I held dear, and the emotional dissonance that created just seemed like one more necessary evil.
A fashion magazine recently celebrated the return of the "well-fed" body; a particular model was said to be "the archetype of the new womanly woman . . . stately, powerful." She is a size 8. The images of women presented to us, images claiming so maliciously to be the images of women's whole lives, are not merely social fictions. They are absolute fictions; they can't exist. How would it feel, I began to wonder, to cultivate my own real womanliness rather than despise it? Because it was my fleshy curves I wanted to be rid of, after all. I dream of having a boy's body, smooth, hipless, lean. A body rapt with possibility, a receptive body suspended before the storms of maturity. A dear friend of mine, nursing her second child, weeps at her newly voluptuous body. She loves her children and hates her own motherliness, wanting to be unripened again, to be a bud and not a flower.
Recently I've started shopping occasionally at stores for "large women," where the smallest size is a 14. In department stores the size 12 and 14 and 16 clothes are kept in a ghetto called the Women's Department. (And who would want that, to be the size of a woman? We all dream of being "juniors" instead.) In the specialty stores, the clerks are usually big women and the customers are big too, big like a lot of women in my life—friends, my sister, my mother and aunts. Not long ago I bought a pair of jeans at Lane Bryant and then walked through the mall to the Gap, with its shelves of generic clothing. I flicked through the clearance rack and suddenly remembered the Lane Bryant shopping bag in my hand and its enormous weight, the sheer heaviness of that brand name shouting to the world. The shout is that I've let myself go. I still feel like crying out sometimes: Can't I feel satisfied? But I am not supposed to be satisfied, not allowed to be satisfied. My discontent fuels the market; I need to be afraid in order to fully participate.
American culture, which has produced our dieting mania, does more than reward privation and acquisition at the same time: It actually associates them with each other. Read the ads: The virtuous runner's reward is a new pair of $180 running shoes. The fat person is thought to be impulsive, indulgent, but insufficiently or incorrectly greedy, greedy for the wrong things. The fat person lacks ambition. The young executive is complimented for being "hungry"; he is "starved for success." We are teased with what we will have if we are willing to have not for a time. A dieting friend, avoiding the food on my table, says, "I'm just dying for a bite of that."
Dieters are the perfect consumers: They never get enough. The dieter wistfully imagines food without substance, food that is not food, that begs the definition of food, because food is the problem. Even the ways we don't eat are based in class. The middle class don't eat in support groups. The poor can't afford to not eat at all. The rich hire someone to not eat with them in private. Dieting is an emblem of capitalism. It has a venal heart.
The possibility of living another way, living without dieting, began to take root in my mind a few years ago, and finally my second trip through Weight Watchers ended dieting for me. This last time I just couldn't stand the details, the same kind of details I'd seen and despised in other programs, on other diets: the scent of resignation, the weighing-in by the quarter pound, the before-and-after photographs of group leaders prominently displayed. Jean Nidetch, the founder of Weight Watchers, says, "Most fat people need to be hurt badly before they do something about themselves." She mocks every aspect of our need for food, of a person's sense of entitlement to food, of daring to eat what we want. Weight Watchers refuses to release its own weight charts except to say they make no distinction for frame size; neither has the organization ever released statistics on how many people who lose weight on the program eventually gain it back. I hated the endlessness of it, the turning of food into portions and exchanges, everything measured out, permitted, denied. I hated the very idea of "maintenance." Finally I realized I didn't just hate the diet. I was sick of the way I acted on a diet, the way I whined, my niggardly, penny-pinching behavior. What I liked in myself seemed to shrivel and disappear when I dieted. Slowly, slowly I saw these things. I saw that my pain was cut from whole cloth, imaginary, my own invention. I saw how much time I'd spent on something ephemeral, something that simply wasn't important, didn't matter. I saw that the real point of dieting is dieting—to not be done with it, ever.
I looked in the mirror and saw a woman, with flesh, curves, muscles, a few stretch marks, the beginnings of wrinkles, with strength and softness in equal measure. My body is the one part of me that is always, undeniably, here. To like myself means to be, literally, shameless, to be wanton in the pleasures of being inside a body. I feel loose this way, a little abandoned, a little dangerous. That first feeling of liking my body—not being resigned to it or despairing of change, but actually liking it—was tentative and guilty and frightening. It was alarming, because it was the way I'd felt as a child, before the world had interfered. Because surely I was wrong; I knew, I'd known for so long, that my body wasn't all right this way. I was afraid even to act as though I were all right: I was afraid that by doing so I'd be acting a fool.
For a time I was thin. I remember—and what I remember is nothing special—strain, a kind of hollowness, the same troubles and fears, and no magic. So I imagine losing weight again. If the world applauded, would this comfort me? Or would it only compromise whatever approval the world gives me now? What else will be required of me besides thinness? What will happen to me if I get sick, or lose the use of a limb, or, God forbid, grow old?
By fussing endlessly over my body, I've ceased to inhabit it. I'm trying to reverse this equation now, to trust my body and enter it again with a whole heart. I know more now than I used to about what constitutes "happy" and "unhappy," what the depths and textures of contentment are like. By letting go of dieting, I free up mental and emotional room. I have more space, I can move. The pursuit of another, elusive body, the body someone else says I should have, is a terrible distraction, a sidetracking that might have lasted my whole life long. By letting myself go, I go places.
Each of us in this culture, this twisted, inchoate culture, has to choose between battles: One battle is against the cultural ideal, and the other is against ourselves. I've chosen to stop fighting myself. Maybe I'm tilting at windmills; the cultural ideal is ever-changing, out of my control. It's not a cerebral journey, except insofar as I have to remind myself to stop counting, to stop thinking in terms of numbers. I know, even now that I've quit dieting and eat what I want, how many calories I take in every day. If I eat as I please, I eat a lot one day and very little the next; I skip meals and snack at odd times. My nourishment is good—as far as nutrition is concerned, I'm in much better shape than when I was dieting. I know that the small losses and gains in my weight over a period of time aren't simply related to the number of calories I eat. Someone asked me not long ago how I could possibly know my calorie intake if I'm not dieting (the implication being, perhaps, that I'm dieting secretly). I know because calorie counts and grams of fat and fiber are embedded in me. I have to work to not think of them, and I have to learn to not think of them in order to really live without fear.
When I look, really look, at the people I see every day on the street, I see a jungle of bodies, a community of women and men growing every which way like lush plants, growing tall and short and slender and round, hairy and hairless, dark and pale and soft and hard and glorious. Do I look around at the multitudes and think all these people—all these people who are like me and not like me, who are various and different—are not loved or lovable? Lately, everyone's body interests me, every body is desirable in some way. I see how muscles and skin shift with movement; I sense a cornucopia of flesh in the world. In the midst of it I am a little capacious and unruly.
I repeat with Walt Whitman, "I dote on myself . . . there is a lot of me, and all so luscious." I'm eating better, exercising more, feeling fine—and then I catch myself thinking Maybe I'll lose some weight But my mood changes or my attention is caught by something else, something deeper, more lingering. Then I can catch a glimpse of myself and think only: That's me. My face, my hips, my hands. Myself.


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Vanessa Carlton - "Nolita Fairytale" Music Video
Vanessa Carlton gets sheer leggy while filming the music video for "Nolita Fairytale," the first single off her upcoming third album "Heroes & Thieves," on Saturday afternoon in New York City.
On set, the 26-year-old songstress consulted with Irv Gotti, the CEO of her record label, The Inc.
Residents and pedestrians in the area of Lafayette Street and Bond Street were disturbed during the filming of the video as a New York City yellow cab performed a burnout, accelerated and then collided with a piano at high speed, sending debris and smoke flying down Lafayette Street.
The carefully orchestrated stunt will be featured in the "Nolita Fairtytale" music video. You can listen to the fun tune here.


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AI-powered chat bots have become useful for everything from food-ordering to powering brand campaigns, but BOTTR gives the average consumer the chance to build their own custom bot.
While most bots currently in existence are created by brands, BOTTR suggests that the average person can use bots to engage their blog readers, create dynamic resumes or even automate the process of answering questions about a personal business. Beginning the bot-creation process happens via Facebook.
On BOTTR, users are able to preview a variety of bots that have already been created, such as ones modeled after public figures like Donald Trump, Kim Kardashian and Steve Jobs, as well as lifestyle-focused bots that challenge users with trivia, reveal horoscopes or even tell funny jokes.
Customizable Chat Bots
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Emoji-Decoding Bots
Meal-Ordering Bots
Classroom Chat Bots
Social-Minded Investment Apps
AI Language Apps
'BOTTR' Helps Anyone Build a Custom Bot for Automating Conversations
- By: Laura McQuarrieOct 22, 2016
References: bottr.me
References: bottr.me


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Sorry everyone for being… well busy and gone and dealing with reality for a while, the BRN has been ticking thanks to the wonderful moderators in the group, Kathy especially for her 300 member little Christmas present she sent to us all!
I logged in today to see a wonderful Gift from ArbaCroatia, a BEAUTIFUL!!!! Collection of Christmas Decorations and tree's.
Included in the box is
Various GARLAND LIGHTS in different sizes with a box of textures for them! (Animated) they include the colors of blue, red and silver (I think)
3 x 7m Trees in gold red and white
2x 15m Trees in red and white
4x Christmas Wreaths
Its best to take a look yourselves, promise you won't be disappointed! Do take note for lag reasons the trees run on a particle system where the Lights are all animated textures!
You can pick these up in the BRN Christmas box, remember it will be taken down on January 1st!


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Tuesday, January 15, 2013
If you insist.....
Labels: California
3 comments:
WTF who in the world would wear that shit, fuck, blue jeans and a t-shirt rules.
- January 15, 2013 at 3:56 AM
- Sandman369 said...
Who would wear it? Metro-sexual, latte sipping, Marx reading urban libs, that's who.
The very same individuals who will beg the Gov for help when the wheels come off, And the urban predators start to teach them about prison sex and pain.
- January 15, 2013 at 5:42 AM
- pdwalker said...
Can you blame him? If I had to walk around wearing that crap, I'd make the same cry for help.
- January 15, 2013 at 8:44 AM
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Gathering of An Army
River Guide
Living on the edge of the Rakitan River in Pramaya, Pormas has served as a river guide for the better part of his life – learning the area from his father, who in turn learned it from his father. The majority of his career had been spent ferrying traders up and down the river, and occasionally taking them through the swamps for more dubious customers. However, lately he has been escorting refugees from the west that the Resistance has been bringing from the troubled lands. Mainly, Pormas has been delivering people to the Leebrook and some scattered departure points along the riverbank.
Now, with the arrival of the Skaldernian army in Pramaya, he has been appropriated to bring the soldiers both from the northern settlements to the village, as well as to the paths that will eventually lead the armies to the desert. For the last year, maybe more, Pormas has done nothing but act as a dog of the military and thus his swamp supply depots and waystations along the river have fallen into disrepair. However, he is fairly certain that none of that will be worth a damn after this war is over.


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Positive Affirmations | Read with me :)
More often than not, I find myself reaching for my phone first thing in the morning. For one, it's usually by my bed, and two, I feel the need to check all my emails and messages to catch up on all the things I had missed while I was sleeping.
But what was I really missing?
I was missing the reason why I was waking up every day. I was so caught up in routine and making things perfect, that I forgot to just live a little. It was during this realization that I remembered something I'd read a few years ago, about how picking up a book when you wake up, instead of an electronic, will positively affect both your mood and health. So, I tried it.
I picked up the book Treasure Yourself by Miranda Kerr.
It's full of positive thoughts and empowering words for all stages of life.
I bought this book a few years ago, and since then, I believe Kerr has released another book in this collection that I am sure is worth reading as well :)
Another book that I think is great to read when you need a little dose of wisdom is The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. I like the description written on the top of the book "A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom," because I feel like that perfectly describes this book.
When reading this, I feel like I am getting the answers I need to get through life,
in the most peaceful and beautiful way.
Bloom, is a book I received from a friend who knew I needed some positive affirmations to get me through all the stresses of school and life.
The preface begins with, "Don't just go through life, grow through life," and there is a quote on every page that symbolizes growth and blossoming into your best self.
I hope you guys try picking up a book instead of your phone one of these mornings!
I swear, it not only helps your eyes adjust to the morning light, but it awakens your mind so that you can have a productive and enlightened day :)
What are some of your favorite books?
Let me know in the comments below!
xo Danielle


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|Series cast summary:
|Bill Maher
|Himself - Host / ... 112 episodes, 1993-2002
|Christine O'Donnell
|Herself / ... 93 episodes, 1994-2002
|Lisa Ann Walter
|Herself / ... 81 episodes, 1996-2002
Political talk show based on the idea that debate is stifled by too much seriousness. Guests are chosen from the worlds of politics and entertainment, often with the goal of creating conflict (ultra-sensitive special-interest groups matched with outrageous comedians). Nevertheless, a relatively friendly atmosphere is maintained, with none of the swearing or chair-throwing common on 'shock-talk' shows. Regular features have included the "Get Over Yourself" award, given to the week's most self-absorbed public figure. Written by Jean-Marc Rocher <email@example.com>
Explore popular action and adventure titles available to stream with Prime Video.


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reporting that relaunched Boston giants Aerosmith could be on the verge of another civil war after guitarist Joe Perry erupted with rage over singer Steven Tyler's plans to become a presenter on US TV show American Idol.
Tyler says the deal has been done to replace Simon Cowell on the series, and he's also planning to do a solo album.
That's the kind of talk which led to the near-collapse of the band this time last year, following Tyler's drugs-influenced stage fall. The incident saw them cancelling a US tour with ZZ Top and eventually resulted in several big-name singers being invited to replace Tyler.
Issues were resolved in an eleventh-hour meeting in February and Aerosmith have been touring ever since, with talk returning to work on a new album.
But now Tyler has announced: "I'm doing it." And while American Idol producers haven't confirmed the deal, Perry is furious that the singer didn't consult his bandmates.
The guitarist tells the Boston Herald: "I found out on the Internet, like the rest of the world. None of us in the band knew anything about it. This is no small thing.
"I mean, after 40 years he couldn't tell me about this? Why so secretive? We're told it's a done deal – but if Steven is committed to a TV show, that kinda affects the rest of us. We'd like to plan our lives."
One of the main reasons for Aerosmith's near-split was a similar level of lack of communication between singer and band. The frontman publicly discussed taking time out to "work on Brand Tyler" without talking to Perry and the others first.


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The Russell Arms is situated in the hamlet of Butlers Cross, and sits opposite Ellesborough Parish Hall. Located just a few hundred yards from Ellesborough golf course, we are ideally located for after golf drinks, an evening meal after a long walk through the Buckinghamshire countryside, or simply just to visit us and enjoy our inviting atmosphere. Alice, Tom, and the rest of our team look forward to greeting you soon and helping you to enjoy your visit to this beautiful historic pub.
The Russell Arms
2 Chalkshire Rd
Butlers Cross
Phone: 01296 624411
Email: email@example.com
To make a booking please give us a call and one of our staff will be more than happy to help you.


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The rate of progression declined by almost 70% in patients treated with the highest dose of BIBF 1120 compared with placebo, and acute exacerbations were 84% less frequent, according to Luca Richeldi, MD, PhD, of the University of Modena in Italy, and co-authors.
Quality of life improved with the drug and deteriorated during a year of placebo treatment. Gastrointestinal toxicity was more common with high-dose BIBF 1120, but the incidence of severe adverse events did not differ significantly from placebo, they reported in the Sept. 22 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
"This phase II trial comparing an oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor with placebo in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis failed, by a small margin, to show a significant difference in the predefined, multiplicity-corrected endpoint (closed testing procedure), the rate of loss of FVC over a 12-month period," Luca wrote in their discussion.
"The closed testing procedure is a conservative method of testing multiple hypotheses (in this case, four groups, each receiving a different dose) simultaneously. As compared with placebo, the dose of150 mg of BIBF 1120 twice a day reduced the annual decline in FVC by two thirds.
"Treatment with BIBF 1120 was associated with improvements in many of the secondary outcomes, suggesting that this agent is a promising treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a serious medical condition for which there are few therapeutic options."
IPF manifests as destruction of the gas-exchange regions of the lung, resulting in progressive tissue injury and scarring, leading to coughing, dyspnea, and other symptoms that limit physical activity and substantially reduce a patient's quality of life.
The condition has an unpredictable clinical course but generally causes progressive deterioration, associated with a median survival of 2.5 to 3.5 years from diagnosis, the authors wrote in their introduction. Some patients have unpredictable acute exacerbations, which often prove fatal.
Although the etiology if IPF remains unclear, the disease is thought to arise from abnormal wound healing associated with multiple signaling pathways.
BIBF 1120 is an intracellular inhibitor of multiple tyrosine kinases. The agent targets vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptors, platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) receptors, and fibroblast growth factor (FGF) receptors.
To assess the efficacy and safety of BIBF 1120, investigators at 92 centers in 25 countries enrolled patients with IPF who were 40 and older and who were less than 5 years removed from diagnosis. The final analysis included 432 patients.
Eligible patients had undergone high-resolution CT in the year before randomization, had an FVC at least 50% of predicted, diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide of 30% to 79% of predicted, and a partial pressure of arterial oxygen of at least 50 to 55 mmHg.
The patients were randomized to placebo or to one of four doses of oral BIBF 1120, ranging from 50 mg QD to 150 mg BID. Treatment continued for a year, and the primary endpoint was the annual rate of decline in FVC.
When the trial ended none of the four BIBF 1120 groups showed a significant reduction in the rate of disease progression as determined by the closed testing procedure for multiplicity.
Patients randomized to the highest dose of BIBF 1120 exhibited a trend toward significant slowing of disease progression (P=0.06).
The annual rate of decline in FVC averaged 0.19 liter as compared with 0.06 liter in the patients who received the 150 mg BID dose of BIBF 1120. The difference represented a 68% reduction in the rate of decline and met criteria for statistical significance by the hierarchical testing procedure (P=0.01).
The 150 mg BID group also had a significantly lower incidence of acute exacerbations compared with placebo (2.4 versus 15.7 per 100 patient-years, P=0.02).
Quality of life, as assessed by the St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire declined (indicating improvement) by 0.66 as compared with an increase of 5.46 in the placebo group (P=0.007).
More patients in the 150-mg BID BIBF 1120 group dropped out before the end of the trial, 32 of 85 (37.6%) versus 24 of 85 (28.2%) in the placebo group.
Discontinuation rates in the other BIBF 1120 groups were 27.9% (50 mg QD), 20.6% (50 mg BID), and 16.3% (100 mg BID).
Adverse events were the reason given by 96 of the 112 patients (85.7%) who stopped treatment during the trial.
The most common adverse events were diarrhea (27.6% of all patients), cough (17.1%), nausea (14.5%), bronchitis (12.6%), dyspnea (11.9%), IPF progression (9.8%), vomiting (7.7%), and upper abdominal pain (7.2%).
Despite the lack of a statistically significant benefit with BIBF 1120, the investigators remained positive about the drug's potential in IPF.
"The results of this phase II study showed an acceptable safety profile and potential clinical benefits of treatment with 150 mg of BIBF 1120 twice a day in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis," they wrote in conclusion. "These results warrant the investigation of BIBF in phase III clinical studies."
Richeldi reported relationships with Boehringer-Ingelheim, Fleishman-Hillard, Genzyme, Gilead, Genentech, Fibrogen, Celgene, Amgen, Centocor, Novartis, Array Biopharma, and Stromedix.
- Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco and Dorothy Caputo, MA, RN, BC-ADM, CDE, Nurse Planner
Primary Source
New England Journal of MedicineSource Reference: Richeldi L, et al "Efficacy of a tyrosine kinase inhibitor in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis" N Engl J Med 2011; 365: 1079-1087.


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Oregon Ducks: Marcus Mariota Perfect QB to Represent Oregon's National BrandSeptember 6, 2012
In Marcus Mariota, Chip Kelly and the Oregon Ducks have found a match made in heaven for the driver's seat who will steer their emerging popularity.
With the Oregon Ducks now one of the most prevalent teams in college football, it had become increasingly necessary for the quarterback to keep a level head when he was to be tested in front of the thunderous crowd at Autzen Stadium.
Fortunately enough, Marcus Mariota's calm nature has helped propel him into brilliant success.
It was one thing to perform well in the unimportant spring game. But fans would hardly recognize Marcus Mariota until the home opener, coming off of a year in which the Oregon Ducks rebounded from a surprising 0-1 start after a disappointing loss to LSU at Cowboys Stadium.
Thankfully, Oregon fans had nothing to worry about. In his first six minutes of collegiate play, Mariota showed pinpoint accuracy and was 8-for-9 over 102 yards and 1 TD. By the end of the night, Mariota was 18-for-22 and recorded 200 yards with 3 TDs.
"Upon further review: Marcus Mariota, 8MM, was 18-22 in his debut, and 3 of the 4 incompletions were drops. Cool, poised and precise," wrote Dale Newton on Twitter earlier this week.
The Era of Mariota, a rare college freshman at the quarterback position for the Oregon Ducks, had begun, and the deliverance unto celebrity had evolved into the rawest form. In his first game as an Oregon Duck, the successes of Marcus Mariota were to be seen across the world from Autzen Stadium in Eugene.
The location in Eugene, OR hardly has the same national weight from a football perspective that a city like Los Angeles or Seattle would. The institution is missing the academic pedigree of a Stanford or a Berkeley. Even the football team lacks the history that many in the SEC carry with them.
But with the help of big-time booster Phil Knight and a forward thinking Athletic Department, the Oregon Ducks' savvy marketing team has helped the football team take on the name of a national brand, with presence and meaning stretching diligently across the globe.
"Oregon's widespread innovations have made an impact on schools and programs all over the map," wrote Brandon P. Oliver. "The financial backing of powerful boosters and general community support have helped the program grow into a national brand that has everyone's attention."
Accordingly, the Oregon Ducks market their team as if they were a professional football team. With the absence of an NFL team but sports-media interest across the state, the Athletic Department at the University of Oregon has done a noble job to step up and fill the need.
"We want to be 'the' national brand in college athletics and certainly having the following in the nation's largest city will help us achieve that goal," said Athletics Director Craig Pintens.
Such is the reason why "Arkansas State Red Wolves at Oregon Ducks" was a prime-time game on ESPN amidst the opening Saturday night of college football.
Each and every year, the Oregon Ducks have become a more marketable team, with rooting interest spreading across the country.
As more fans in remote places develop an interest in the Oregon Ducks, so too do the number of high-school recruits that find themselves picturing a home in Eugene. Mariota, who attended the same high school as former Oregon Ducks quarterback Jeremiah Masoli, once represented one of those recruits.
So where does Marcus Mariota fit into all of this?
The Oregon Ducks have been ranked in 46 consecutive Top 25 polls in the Associated Press. Every time a new Nike uniform combination of the Ducks takes the field, a television market expresses inevitable interest.
Even while the Oregon Ducks were up 50-3 with an entire half of football to play, watching their high-tech and eye-catching uniforms conduct a hurry-up offense and dance into a blur on the screen created a more compelling television interest than many others in the Pac-12.
People want to watch Marcus play football when he wears the Nike greens and yellows of the Oregon Ducks.
With that kind of exposure and inherent pressure, one indicative trait of a successful quarterback is tested composure.
With that in mind, then the obvious question arises: Is there a single better fit for the offensive-leadership position than someone as calm, cool and collected as Marcus Mariota?
Besides the obvious locational symmetry (Mariota's island home is approximately five hours by air) that serves to be more revealing to the national brand than the Oregon Ducks now manifest, his tropical hometown is known for many of the same laid-back characteristics that affectionately create the collective zeitgeist of Eugene.
"He's really calm," Ducks linebacker Michael Clay told the Oregon Daily Emerald. "He's very calm and collected. Whatever he does . . . he's really calm, and he just has things under wraps and he's not really frenetic or anything like that."
At times, his demeanor can be misinterpreted for a lack of interest. But that's hardly what Mariota, a diligent student of the game, feels about football.
"He was kind of too laid back," high school coach Darnell Arceneaux explained to The Emerald. "And at first it kind of struck me like, "Maybe this kid doesn't want it.'"
This, of course, is something that one would never expect to hear out of the Oregon Ducks' coach Chip Kelly. Undeniably, Mariota has proven that he is an individual hungry for success—a staple of the Oregon Ducks.
"He's the perfect fit for what we do offensively," Kelly said on signing day a year ago.
The offense simply seems to work better under Mariota. Perhaps, however, his most impressive trait is his undying interest in readying himself for the next challenge and opportunity that he will be given while serving as the quarterback for the Oregon Ducks.
"In my interview with Mariota yesterday," wrote Rob Moseley of The Register-Guard, "he said one of the things he took from watching Darron Thomas over the last year was not to force anything, in order to avoid mistakes but also to put together series of plays that allow the Ducks to exploit their tempo on offense."
Amidst a quarterback controversy with Bryan Bennett heading into the season, there was significant media focus on who would get the first snap (and subsequent majority of the snaps) of the season for the Ducks.
Amidst the general preseason narrative about the usual judgment of the iconic quarterback (e.g. arm strength, accuracy, speed, etc.) was a focus on the ability to stay calm and enjoy the game in front of him. When he plays for the Oregon Ducks, Mariota does exactly that.
"It was surreal," Mariota said in a postgame interview. "For me, I just had a lot of fun."
The more fun that Mariota has on the field, the more convinced I am that the mature Hawaiian is indeed the perfect player for Chip Kelly to have put in command and run the blur offense of the Oregon Ducks. There's still many tests for Mariota to pass before fans have a full idea what talent level he is at. But with the newly ranked No. 4 ranked team in the nation entering the limelight week after week, get ready to hear a lot about Mariota in the coming weeks.


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WEST MILTON, Ohio – Five years after his death from blood cell cancer, memories of West Milton's "Big Ed" Lendenski were still vivid, warm and boisterous enough to fill the room Wednesday, Aug. 2 at the sixth annual Ed Lendenski Memorial Blood Drive.
"I liked him," said donor Larry Manson, who met Ed when he was the new assistant football coach at Milton-Union High School. "Ed had a personality. You met him, you liked him. And once he met you, he never forgot you."
Maybe that's why West Milton never forgets Big Ed. Tuesday's blood drive was the second held in conjunction with the Lions Club at the West Milton United Church of Christ. It totaled 63 donors and 49 donations.
"We started at Transfiguration Church and it's twice now here," said Lions Club blood drive coordinator Bob Menker. "We're keeping everyone on the same schedule."
Ed Lendenski passed away in 2012 at the age of 80 after a long battle with the bone marrow disorder myelodysplastic syndrome. MDS patients develop severe anemia and his treatment included many blood transfusions. His wife Carolyn and their children Julie Newman, Carol Ann Patton and Eddie Jr. began the memorial blood drive to encourage donations and to honor donors who helped extend his life.
"I didn't realize it was the sixth year," said Carolyn. "We started it the year he passed. I can't believe it."
"I can't believe how many people," said Julie, who told her mom she expected the day to be emotional. "I said I'd probably have to hold your hand!"
Ed was the respected principal and rugged football coach at Milton-Union with a soft spot for all his students, and especially his family. He had nicknames for everyone and personally delivered small flower bouquets to Carolyn, Julie and Carol Ann every week.
"He always looked out for the kids," said Carolyn. "He would ask all the teachers to stand outside and greet them. A lot of them came from split families and didn't have that.
"He wouldn't let any teachers give test on Mondays. He knew it was hard in some homes on weekends, or the kids had things to do. Why make them take a test and fail?"
Ed is a West Milton legend, but not a native son. He was born in Natrona, Pennsylvania, played college football, served in the Army during the Korean War, and played on the Army baseball team managed by future Yankees manager Billy Martin.
Carolyn was born in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii three weeks after the Japanese attack. Her dad was a Navy sailor and she met Ed after her family moved home after the war.
A cherished memory is their celebration of their 50th anniversary in 2011. The staff at Good Samaritan Hospital arranged dinner from the Pine Club in Ed's hospital room. Ed was weak, but wore a jacket over his pajamas. Father Charles Caserta from Transfiguration Catholic Church renewed their vows.
"It was so nice. We had a special table in the middle of the room," said Carolyn. "Their maid-of-honor, best man, neighbors and the whole family were there," said Julie.
Carolyn remembers a special tribute from a former student after Ed's funeral. "He said, 'thanks for sharing your dad with me.'"


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This item is noncancelable and nonreturnable.
Wide angle, or "Bag" or "Balloon" Bellows for Toyo 4x5 G and C Series view cameras. For use with ultra wide angle lenses shorter than 72mm that are mounted on a flat lensboard. It permits the miniscule lens-to-film plane distance needed for ultra-wide angle lenses.
Minimum extension: 25mm
Maximum extension: 310mm
|4 x 5" / 9 x 12 cm
|Bellows Type
|Wide Angle/Bag Bellows
|Packaging Info
|Package Weight
|0.7 lb
|Box Dimensions (LxWxH)
|7.5 x 7.5 x 2.3"


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Just about to leave the Internet cafe, grab a bottle (red or white - decisions, decisions) and join some friends for dinner. After a couple of hectic days at work where we've all managed to deflect whatever's been thrown at us, and still come up smiling, I'm looking forward to a relaxing meal, chinwag and sip. I don't have to work tomorrow, which is even more reason to celebrate.
I've been watching the LOTR FOTR Extended DVD over the last few days, and the extra bits, on top of the movie have been fascinating viewing. Will attack TTT shortly, and although ROTK is out as a basic movie on DVD, I haven't seen anywhere that sells the extended version yet. Will have to try HMV or AMAZON for that.
Feeling groovy,... enjoy your midweek.


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Include Adventuress in Your Estate Planning
Has Adventuress made a difference in your life? One of the simplest and most common ways to make a significant gift is to include Sound Experience in your will or living trust. You might discuss this with your estate-planning attorney/professional, or feel free to contact Catherine Collins at firstname.lastname@example.com with any questions. Thank you for considering this very personal "investment" in Adventuress' future and the future generations that her mission will serve.


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Monthly Archives: July 2017
Fun things you can do with a pretty woman via London escorts
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"Enjoy getting some sleep while you still can" is a common phrase new mother's to be hear. One might wonder how a mother can be so sleep deprived in a child's first few months of life. After all, infants sleep more hours a day in their first year of life. It is because the sleep in not continuous, thus interrupting the mother (and others) sleep.
Sleep has two major stages, Rapid Eye Movement (REM) and non-REM. During REM sleep, the eyes move constantly and rapidly, the brain is active, the body is quiet and still, and dreams occur. The non-REM sleep is the restful sleep, the brain is inactive and the body may active, tossing and turning. During a consecutive nights sleep, non-REM takes about an hour and the two sleep cycles (REM and non-REM) alternate about five or six times. Both sleep stages are important for proper growth and development in infants and children.
As your child gets older, their sleep patterns change. So how does a parent know if their child is getting the quality and quantity of sleep they need? The Parents As Teachers Curriculum gives the following guidelines:
Sleep requirements of children
0-3 months, 14-16.5 hours
3-9 months, 14-15 hours
1 year, 13.75-14 hours
2 years, 12.75-13 hours
3 years, 12-12.5 hours
4 years, 11.5-12 hours
5 years, 11 hours
Around 12 months old, children often will begin to move from a mid-morning and mid-afternoon nap to one longer mid-day nap. If a child is overtired it can be harder for them to fall asleep. If a child is put to bed too early or too late, it can take longer for them to fall asleep. Keeping a fairly regular sleep schedule and bedtime routine for your child can promote quality sleep. When a child has restful sleep, they are more alert when awake and able to practice and learn new skills. Children establish lifelong attitudes about sleep at a very early age, therefore bedtime should not be used as a punishment.
A child can become sleep-deprived in as little as a few days. Sleep-deprivation can occur when a child goes to bed a little late each evening, missed a nap, or wakes too early. The symptoms of sleep-deprivation in children are often subtle and misleading. A sleep-deprived child may appear overactive rather than tired and sleepy. If your child has difficulty waking up, try giving them a little longer nap or have them in bed a little early for a day or so, allowing them to get adequate rest.
There are times when changes in sleep schedule and routine are unavoidable. Such as when on vacation and traveling, daylight savings time, and events such as moving from a crib to a "big bed." It may be time to move your child to a big bed if: they are 35 inches or taller, the crib guard rails are even with your child's chest, and if your child is trying to climb out of the crib.
Moving from a crib to a big bed is a huge change for your child and is easier for them to transition when it happens gradually. Talk about your child's "new big girl/boy bed" while they are still sleeping in the crib. A good time to make the change is when everything else in your child's life is stable and predictable. For example, if moving to a new house it would be best to make the change to a new bed some time prior to or after a household move. Setting up the new big bed while the child's crib is still in the room is helpful at times. Introduce the child into the bed for lounging, reading, cuddling together and taking naps. Let your child select the new bed linens.
Safety Tips for Big Beds:
- Blinds and drapery cords should be shortened to prevent strangulation
- Install a window guard if your child's room is higher than ground level
- Place the bed in a corner so two sides are secure
- Use guard rails no more than 3.5 inches wide around open sides of the bed
- Use a gate for your child's doorway or at an entrance to a portion of your house that has not been toddler-proofed
Parents As Teachers Curriculum (http://www.parentsasteachers.org/)
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Bengaluru, 16 Feb 2016.
In a major boost to the "Make in India" initiative, the government has announced that a few Indian cities will be developed as "African Safari" hubs to boost tourist potentials, starting with Bengaluru.
"It was a no-brainer", said Dr Mahesh Sharma, minister for tourism. "We already have leopards roaming in Bengaluru. There are a few brilliant ones among them, which get recaptured, and escape again, strutting around just as they would in the wild. Then there are the regular panthers prowling the streets of Mumbai. We hope the monkey man will soon return to Delhi. Then there's the ubiquitous but unique species called the "Indian mango man" all over the country. Our people needn't have traveled all the way to Africa to experience wilderness all these years. We have all the basic resources here itself, we just have to use them efficiently.
The minister added that "Keeping with tradition, we plan to name it secularly and in line with most yojanas. As of now, the name "Rahul Gandhi Chalo Jungle Yojana" seems to be emerging as the most popular pick. No doubt, such ideas will evoke great interest and boost revenues."
Unable to keep up to their promise of taking black money hoarders to task, the Government is mulling the idea of letting Safari tourists to shoot those who have hoarded black bucks in case they chance upon them. Last heard, Amir Khan's chief competitor Salman Khan has happily agreed to be brand ambassador and mentor for the programme.
As soon as the programme was announced, politicians from several States, specially UP and Bihar, are dirt-wrestling to seize the initiative and credits.
In a public meeting yesterday, Bihar CM Mr Nitish Kumar strongly demanded the whole state be declared a Safari reserve, claiming to have well-preserved it's jungle-raj tradition, which is now being vehemently reminded by his predecessor Shri Laloo Prasad Yadav to have been started by him.
In a refreshing departure from his usual "oppose-everything-Modi-at any cost" policy, Congress VP Rahul Gandhi has appreciated the nomenclature, saying that his contributions to Indian politics are finally being acknowledged. Yet, not to be outdone by the wilier old foxes as usual, he has demanded Safari status for his constituency of Amethi, and offered to keep himself stationed there to attract initial crowds. However, a well-intentioned but worried party insider was heard wondering aloud, "Him and Safari?….?? Let's hope it doesn't turn into another circus."
Meanwhile, AAP's the Ashutosh has outrightly opposed the idea. Sharing the results of an AAP internal survey in which he himself was the exclusive participant, he announced: "The safari suit is the symbol of the high handed bureaucrats, which is against the very essence of the aam aadmi. Why the Modi is forcing everyone to wear the Safari? Will the Modi explain?"
Jai Ho!!:-)


text: Hi all Android fans! We have placed an 0.9 BETA for our Facebook client (Babbler) in Android Market yesterday. We're preparing the app for a full, official launch in the next copule of days. It would be a great asset for us, if any of You would like to give it a try, and help us with making it even better that it is now. Please check it out here: Cyrket - Babbler for Facebook 0.9 (BETA) And feel free to send us any comments, requests for changes or additions, here on Babbler's Facebook profile: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/apps/application.php?id=59581449033&ref=ts Thanks, Babbler Team


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Penalties: culpability: introduction
In general use, 'culpable' simply means 'at fault'.
We use 'culpable' to describe any act (or failure to act) which triggers
- the provisions of the Taxes Acts authorising ETL assessments, or
- discovery assessments based on fraudulent, deliberate, negligent or careless behaviour, or
- any of the various penalty provisions that require fraudulent, deliberate, negligent, careless or non-deliberate behaviour.
You need to establish culpability whether the penalty is part of a contract settlement or the subject of a formal statutory determination, see EM5102.
For guidance on
- fraud, fraudulent conduct, see EM5105+
- neglect, negligence and negligent conduct , see EM5125+
- deliberate and careless behaviour, see CH81100+
- failures, see EM5105 and CH72100.
Not that there is no failure penalty if the taxpayer had a reasonable excuse for the failure and remedied it without unreasonable delay once that obstacle was out of the way.
- In the penalty context it is important to bear in mind that an incorrect return, statement etc does not in itself attract a penalty. You must establish that the incorrect return etc was submitted fraudulently, deliberately, negligently or carelessly by the taxpayer. Whether you need to consider deliberate or careless behaviour on the one hand, or fraudulent or negligent on the other, depends on whether you are considering penalties under FA07/SCH 24 or under earlier legislation.


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Transform your photos into one-of-a-kind, hand painted masterpieces!
by Gae Helton
Froggy by Gae Helton - 10.000" x 6.625"
Acrylic Print
Hanging Wire
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Acrylic Print
Froggy acrylic print by Gae Helton. Bring your artwork to life with the stylish lines and added depth of an acrylic print. Your image gets printed directly onto the back of a 1/4" thick sheet of clear acrylic. The high gloss of the acrylic sheet complements the rich colors of any image to produce stunning results. Two different mounting options are available, see below.
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Mounting Option #1
Mounting Option #2
Bring your artwork to life with the stylish lines and added depth of an acrylic print. Your image gets printed directly onto the back of a 1/4" thick sheet of clear acrylic.
The image is the art - it doesn't get any cleaner than that!
All acrylic prints ship within 3 - 4 business days and arrive "ready to hang" with four aluminum mounting posts (Option #1) or hanging wire (Option #2).
The high gloss of the acrylic sheet complements the rich colors of any image to produce stunning results.
There are two different ways to mount your acrylic print.
Option #1 (Mounting Posts) - Attach your print to your wall with four aluminum mounting posts. The cylindrical cap of each mounting post can be removed, allowing you to thread a small screw along the center axis of the of post and into the wall. When you're finished, simply reattached each cap, and you're done. The mounting posts act as stand-offs and keep your print separated from the wall by 1". All of the required mounting hardware (i.e. posts, screws, and wall anchors) is included with your print. Click here for mounting details.
Option #2 (Hanging Wire) - With this option, your acrylic print is attached to a 1/4" thick black board which has a wooden frame and hanging wire attached to the back. There are no metal mounting posts at the corners. Simply put a nail in your wall, hang your print from the hanging wire, and you're done. Due to the thickness of the black board and mounting frame, your print is separated from the wall by 1.50" Click here for mounting details.
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Froggy's Garden - A frog surveys his colorful lilies blooming among the lily pads. Illustrative digital art by Gae. Bright green lily pads float on a variegated pond of deep blues and purples. Flowers burst with surreal explosions of bright yellows, reds, and pinks. Hues transform as the petals overlap giving the whimsical frog a quite magical garden. This illustrative piece of digital art was created in Photoshop, making use of the textures generated by repeated and varied application of the clouds filters. The petals of the lilies are ovals of these textures blended with layer blend modes. The frog was drawn with the pen tool then filled with additional custom textures.
Experiments in PhotoShop - Why digital art? I had been an artist at one time - oils, acrylics, watercolor, pastels, etc. I was doing some graphic design - PhotoShop and Illustrator. Then a friend force fed me 6 weeks of in depth studies of some great fine art. I was color correcting for a fine art print shop. With every piece I would think to myself, "I know I can still do this." Well, art is not like riding a bicycle. I had not lost an eye for color or composition. I was exposed to that daily on the job. Unlike a few folks reentering the art world after a long hiatus I could still draw, but painting was a frustrating mess. Classes were going to be a necessity to bring back that skill. In the mean time, I have a medium I know and...
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If you're not happy with a purchase that you made on Pixels.com, for any reason, you can return it to us within 30 days of the order date. As soon as it arrives, we'll issue a full refund for the entire purchase price. Please note - Pixels does not reimburse the outgoing or return shipping charges unless the return is due to a defect in quality.
Pixels sells thousands of pieces of artwork each month - all with a 100% money-back guarantee. We take great pride in the fact that hundreds of thousands of artists have chosen Pixels to fulfill their orders, and we look forward to helping you select your next piece!
All acrylic prints ship from our production facility within 2 - 3 business days of your order.


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Before the night came, I couldn't see myself to betrayed people. I was born to build my life. There are beginning and ending for every human. Life is circle and newborn will rise again. My sense - is my connection , it gave me a possibility to grow. I will stand for freedom, I will stand for my own identity. I got cracked twice. Even it happen twice doesn't mean we can't move.
I will stand until the edge. Carry to the high sky - even mountain and ocean.
I don't let myself down. Love is not a simple word to describe but I will carry this love and do whatever it takes. Those betrayed will gone and disappeared.
I'm a human who always want to know who I am. I'm not always prepared but I will fight.
My father said roots connect us to the past and the wings carry us into the future.
Who am I ?
What am I stand for ?
Why I carry a love ?
Cause I have heart and I can feel this.


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Kawasaki Vulcan S Exhaust which is being introduced in 2015 is a sporty motorbike exhaust for everyone. This motorbike exhaust offer many advantages more than just any other motorbikes exhaust that can get you overwhelming with its advantages. You can get many things done with this motorbike exhaust. The advanced technology from a motorbike exhaust is being offered in this motorbike.
Get ready for a complete latest technology with a great style in this motorbike exhaust. It only weight ten kilograms and would not burden your motorbike at all. It might be bigger than what it looks on the picture. The dimension of this is 100 X 50 X 50 cm.
It comes out with black ceramic coated that would improve the basic style of your motorbike. You can find this exhaust easily on the official Kawasaki store or any aftermarket available. Well, let's get straight to the topic, today we would talk about the basic description as well as the additional information from this Kawasaki Vulcan S Exhaust.
Basic Description of Kawasaki Vulcan S Exhaust
Continue reading "Kawasaki Vulcan S Exhaust Description: You must know"


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4 Million Suicidal Posts on Instagram deserve Kindness not Indifference.
If you check the hashtag #suicidal on Instagram you'll find more than 4 millions posts. Mostly from teenagers that are considering suicide, usually because they feel ugly, rejected, or alone. As I write, 50 suicidal posts have been published in the past 8 minutes. And that's just one of a collection of very alarming hashtags like #depressed (8 million posts), #suicide (5 million) #killme (1,6 million) #suicidalthoghts (290K). The scenario we see emerging talks about an humanitarian emergency which is causing the death of one person every 40 seconds.
Instagram seems to be conscious about the issue and is doing something to help. If you try to access the hashtag #suicidal (or similar) you will be warned by this message:
"Please be advised: These posts may contain graphic content.
For information and support with suicide or self-harm please tap on learn more"
Which leads to the website of an association of volunteers called Befrienders Worldwide that helps prevent suicides by providing emotional support. Unfortunately, it appears that Instagram redirects to this website only those who search for the hashtag #suicidal (who may be just curious to see who's desperate), while if you post with the hashtag #suicidal because you are considering to commit suicide you won't be prompted to check that website (just tested it, perhaps there is something to review in Instagram's mechanism?).
But the real question is: can we really remain indifferent in front of 4 million suicidal posts, mostly from young folks, hoping that Instagram or those volunteers will be enough to help? It's all happening now, in real time, under your eyes. While you read this post dozens of people are suicidal and just 3 clicks away from you. Is there really nothing we can do for them? I think there is at least one small but powerful thing we can do: being kind. I don't see a lot of people being kind to them. On the other side, I saw some idiot encouraging a suicidal guy to kill himself… (immediately reported).
Let's be clear, they are not people that is easy to deal with and before even thinking about engaging with them you should read this advice from Befrienders Worldwide. And yet, in an Instagram context, it would be relatively easy for anyone to bring some positive vibe without need to get too much involved in other people's problems.
These people feel so deeply alone, ugly, unwanted, with nobody caring about them. All one would need to do to help is just to be kind and care a bit. I would discourage to like suicidal posts (that would be almost an encouragement), or engage with these posts in general. You should avoid to connect to their negativity as that would risk to reinforce it and you would risk to absorb it. But you can still leave a nice comment on some other pic where they share something more positive, something you connect more to. For example I saw a suicidal girl who previously published a "10 things about me" in which she was rather cheerful, so I left a positive comment that acknowledged her uniqueness. Will it make a difference? One of the 10 things she wrote about herself was: "I love all of my followers and think it's amazing that you take the time to say kind words to me". Then yes, the kindness she receives from others seems to be one of the things that keeps her going. Every little helps.
I encourage not to fake kindness: you should care a bit about these people, look at what they post, try to see some sparkle of beauty in them. Maybe they are cute, or smart, or artistic, whatever it is just tell the goodness you saw in them. If they feel worthless, make them feel they can be important, if they feel ugly show them their beauty, if they feel like no one cares, show you care. You don't need to be a hero, you don't have to take responsibility for them, you don't need to overdo it (and you probably shouldn't unless you are qualified). You are not going to solve their problems and you shouldn't even try, they are not even looking for your advice, they just need someone who listens and cares and be kind to them. Don't forget that in the darkest night receiving a nice comment could make the difference between life and death, that's how much your kindness can be important. See yourself with your eyes what an abyss of sadness our society is sprouting, how much these people feel alone, and how few are saying something kind to them: #suicidal on Instagram.
Everyone can be nice. It just takes a little, less time than posting a selfie or sharing a funny cat. A bit of kindness costs nothing, makes you feel better, and in this case might also contribute to save a life. If there is one practice that truly recurs in all spiritual traditions, that is the practice of kindness.
"Practice kindness all day to everybody and you will realize you're already in heaven now".
Jack Kerouac
Since kindness is increasingly rare in our dog-eat-dog individualistic and profit based societies, I decided to create a Facebook group for positive-minded people who also feel this world needs more kindness and are happy to provide a bit of theirs.
I called it Merry Kindsters. Here is the manifesto:
If you like the spirit of this initiative and you think it's good to dedicate even just 2 minutes of your time to be kind to others, please join us and help spread the word!
Thank you for caring ❤
What a wonderful article! Thank you! Like Mother Theresa said "Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless." We should all wake up to this reality and do our best to be part of the solution. Sometimes all it takes is a little show of affection and kindness to make a huge difference in someone's life…
I love your Merry Kindsters initiative
I did nt know about the suicide annoancements on instagram , as i ve never been on instagram..
I m lucky to have survived a suicide attempt 44 years ago, as a distressed teenager..puberty can be such a difficult time indeed,kindness would have stopped me in my tracks but there was none at that time, no internet either…So yeah i m loving your initiative!


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Los Angeles, CA
The Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in Los Angeles, California, is an independent, nonprofit school offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in Architecture. Founded in 1972, SCI-Arc is widely regarded as one of the most avant-garde US architecture schools, with a reputation for pushing the boundaries of academic study. SCI-Arc's approximately 500 students and 80 faculty members—most of whom are practicing architects—work together to re-examine assumptions, create, explore and test the limits of architecture. Dedicated to educating architects who will imagine and shape the future, SCI-Arc also offers community design and outreach programs, and free access to frequent exhibitions and lectures by leading thinkers in architecture.
Located in a quarter-mile-long former freight depot in the Arts District in Downtown Los Angeles, the school is distinguished by its vibrant studio culture and emphasis on process. Approximately half of SCI-Arc's students are enrolled in the undergraduate program and half in the graduate programs.
SCI-Arc offers a five-year Bachelor Degree in Architecture (B.Arch); a three-year professional Master of Architecture (M.Arch 1) program—open to applicants who hold a bachelor's degree or equivalent in any field of study; and a two-year professional Master of Architecture (M.Arch 2) program—open to applicants with a minimum of a four year degree in Architecture, or its equivalent abroad. Additionally, the school offers two Master in Design Research (MDesR) post-professional programs with emphasis in emerging systems, technologies and media, as well as in urban studies. During summer, the school organizes a 4-week summer program for high school students—Design Immersion Days; and a 5-week foundation program in architecture, Making + Meaning, dedicated to those interested in architecture and design or about to enroll in a degree program.
Most recently, SCI-Arc was ranked second in design and computer applications in the 2013 America's Best Architecture Schools survey from DesignIntelligence.


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|Desi's ATCs
The second set is from Marilyn in Canada. When I was brave enough to pull on the little ribbon I made a grizzly discovery within these amazing cards!:-)
|Marilyn's ATCs
The third set arrived from Sonja from Serbia. Sonja's cards have a beautiful vintage look to them.
|Sonja's ATCs
Thank you Desi, Marilyn and Sonja for taking part. It is an absolute pleasure to see what everyone created!
Until next time... xoxo


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Thu, Jul. 27, 2017 Posted: 05:26 AM
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This is particularly effective for those who've family and friends out in other countries and those who have to make plenty of international calls for business or professional reasons. Mobile phones and mobile equipment are being developed in lots recently and phone consumers are in conversations with these things often. But if the tariff plans of these devices are not chosen appropriately, then there is no usage of these phones. You can contact your near and dear ones from mobile phones and from home phones also, you only have access number for that. What you need to do for that is you need to make an program for these numbers to the provider company and there after you get those numbers, you could make an international call prefixing that number to your country code and desired destination number. Thus you will simply be linked with your needed person and can call at affordable rates. To avail best features from the prepaid calling cards, you need to select cards that are for a longer period. With extended validity time you can get inexpensive call rates.
NobelCom Ghana can smart choice for making international calls and it relates to buying one of these cheap calling cards. You not just can buy those online, you can put request for access numbers and evaluate among offers with these cards via online medium.
Lynn Joesph


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For this third post, I thought I would pass on interesting and relevant scientific news from recent meetings I attended with my wife, Dr. Sharyn Laughlin. The Annual Meeting of the Photomedicine Society and the Annual Meeting of The American Academy of Dermatology were held in March 2014.
More evidence was presented by Dr. Thomas Ruenger for the role of UVA in inducing enzymes that promote the breakdown of collagen and elastin as an important mechanism for photoaging. The findings presented also show that the effect of longwave UVA is the most pronounced and much greater than the effect of UVB. Over the past decade, there has been a volume of evidence from scientific studies that confirm the important effect that UVA has on photoaging and the induction of cellular damage, leading to all forms of skin cancer. This should come as no surprise to anyone – including those who still do not acknowledge the inherent dangers of UVB-biased sunscreens that give unbalanced protection, and allow the effects of UVA to be mostly unabated and cumulative.
|Our Skin: A Work of Art Worth Saving
Not everything in science needs a study. Many definitive studies cannot be done in humans for ethical and practical reasons. Sometimes critical thinking, cognitive analysis, deductive reasoning – fancy terms for common sense – is all that is required. UVA penetrates to the deeper dermis where the important elements regulating genetics, immunity, and cell function reside, while UVB barely penetrates through the epidermis. UVA is ubiquitous, essentially the same at any latitude and time of day, and is 15-16 times more potent than the dose of UVB that only accounts for 5% of the UV band. It should be logical that the adverse effects of UV radiation may have more to do with UVA than UVB. Erythema or redness of the skin, the first sign of sunburn, and the eventual sunburn, is commonly believed by many people (even some physicians), to be UVB (290-320 nm) mediated skin damage, with a minor contribution from UVA-2 (320-340 nm). It is the basis of the sun protection factor (SPF) that is a label standard that indicates the degree to which a sunscreen reduces the sunburn reaction. The new labelling rules to be adopted in N. America changes the meaning of SPF to denote sunburn protection factor, a more accurate definition. It should convey to the consumer that SPF is a measure of the sunscreen's ability to reduce or protect from sunburn but is not an adequate measure of protection to other adverse effects of the sun. The erythema-sunburn reaction and its genesis is actually more complex and is also related to UVA-1 effects.
Anyone who has had a sunburn by not applying a sunscreen on a very cloudy day has experienced a UVA sunburn. It is a deeper burn and much more painful that the usual sunburn that starts with UVB initiation. A sunscreen that completely blocks only UVB will not always prevent sunburn and over time a gradual or delayed sunburn develops to the UVA part of the sun. UVB is more efficient in causing sunburn and produces the immediate redness. UVA accounts for 95% of UV exposure and this higher absolute amount contributes to erythema. The early or mainly UVB initiated sunburn reaction, is a protective response telling you to get out the sun when the damage is early and more superficial. Continued sun exposure, even with a sunscreen of high SPF, but minimal UVA-1 protection, eventually leads to a more severe sunburn and the deeper damage that causes irreversible consequences- photoaging and the DNA changes that may lead to cancer many years down the road. SPF values > 15 can only be attained if the UV filters used are reducing transmission of UVA-2 and UVA-1, but is primarily a measure of UVB attenuation.
Industry consultants continue to push the trend arguing for high SPF sunscreens with values > 50 even approaching 100. There is a minor photometric basis for using a higher SPF. Looking at the transmission, rather than what is blocked does show that SPF 30 gives twice the protection than SPF 15, a SPF 60 twice that of SPF 30 and four times SPF 15. An SPF 15 blocks 93.3% of incident UV compared to 96.6% with SPF 30, a difference of 3.3% for doubling the concentration of filters. However, considering what gets through by counting photons of light shows that only half the amount gets through with the higher SPF. The higher SPF also compensates for the lower application amounts used by consumers in practice than the amount applied for laboratory SPF testing. There is some truth in a consumer thinking that a higher SPF allows you better protection and a SPF 30 allows you to stay out twice as long as a SPF 15. The danger is that the higher SPF will have some UVA protection but not nearly enough, if it does not contain one of the limited number of filters that give adequate UVA-1 protection. I am cynical enough to think that industry pushes high SPF sunscreens knowing that the public assumes they are better in every respect. Given a choice between a SPF 30 and a SPF 50, always select the more balanced sunscreen with better UVA-1 protection. This is easy to do in the UK or Europe. Look for Boots 4 or 5 stars in the UK or a UVA-PF to SPF ratio of > 1/3 in Europe. The more this ratio approaches 1, the better the sunscreen is for affording you balanced and proper protection. North American consumers have no such ability to use the label metrics for selection. The new rule of using a Critical Wavelength (CW) of 370 nm or greater as proof of truly broad spectrum activity, particularly the most important UVA-1 extinction, will not necessarily be valid.
The CW is a measure of the wavelength at which 90% of the area under the absorption or extinction curve occurs. This relates to broad spectrum activity as to achieve this CW of 370 nm, usually requires a significant UVA absorbance. However, the threshold of 370 nm can be attained by some sunscreens with little overall UVA-PF, particularly in the more problematic UVA-I spectrum approaching 400 nm. Sunscreens with low UVA-PF and those with moderate UVA-PF can both have the same CW of 370 nm. The shape of the extinction curve is a factor and a UVB biased sunscreen SPF 30, with inadequate or a low UVA-PF < 10 can attain the same CW of 370 nm as a sunscreen with UVA-PF of ≥ 10. One would fail the EU criteria but both would pass in the USA and Canada, under new regulations being enforced this year. My preference for adequate UVA protection is that SPF 30 values should have a UVA-PF exceeding 20 with the ratio approaching 1. More about these considerations in a later post.
The other important topics discussed at these meetings included the use of anti-inflammatory(AI) agents
or antioxidants (AO) in sunscreens, and the role for oral
photoprotection as a component of a sun protection strategy. The use of AI
ingredients will be discussed in detail in a future post. Dr. Salvador Gonzales
reviewed the present status of oral
nutrients that afford some measure of UV protection, and its use in oral
photoprotection is increasing in Europe at an annual rate of about 5%. He also
reminded us that a lifetime UV radiation exposure is attained 1/3 through
vacation, compared to 2/3 from every day or non-vacational time. This supports
our view that a balanced
sunscreen is for daily use all year round. In addition 70-80% of sunburns occur
can occur in your backyard. Dr. Mary Matsui presented evidence that certain nutrient
and botanical ingredients applied on the skin are a source of non-sunscreen photoprotection.
The list of useful agents for oral or topical photoprotection is extensive.
Some of these and other agents also may reduce skin damage from visible light
(400-770 nm) and near infrared (IRA at 770 -1400 nm), now shown to be relevant
in addition to UV in the genesis of adverse effects from sunlight. This an area
I am presently researching at CyberDERM. While developing a balanced sunscreen
that mimics the UV protection afforded by black clothing or shade, we are
identifying the single best antioxidant to add to the formula. Some of the
effects of UV and IRA on inducing immune suppression may also be reduced by oral
therapy. Longer wavelengths UVA-1 near 400 nm and visible through IRA at 400-
1400 nm, tend to produce deeper damage to the dermis. Oral antioxidants may be
more rational and efficient than topical application. The concept of skin
therapy from within via the dermal blood vessels is not new. I recall an
ad-campaign from many years ago- "have you taken your skin care today"? For
therapy to cell damage in the dermis, ingestion and delivery by the dermal
blood supply seems more logical than topical administration, which requires
absorption through the epidermis, and the agent is not always sure to reach the
deep dermis. We are also working on an antioxidant mix for oral supplementation
that best achieves all the objectives. For now it appears that taking 2 Gms. of
Vitamin C and 1200 IU of Vitamin C increases the minimal erythema dose – the visible sign of sun damage – by 20% after
1 week and 40% at 3 months (Gonzales et al). Flavonoids and the subgroups- anthocyandins,
catechins, flavonols, and isoflavones – all play important roles in modulating
and inhibiting the various adverse effects. A diet rich in blue and red
berries, red or purple grapes, 1-2 glasses of red wine/day, dark chocolate,
green and white teas, apples, broccoli, onions and scallions, kale, soybeans,
hot peppers, apricots and celery, provides Flavonoids. This diet with Vitamin C
and E as described above may be a useful adjunctive measure to using a balanced
sunscreen and sun avoidance for those at
greater risk of cancer and photodamage. These nutrients, along with ingesting
curcumin, resveratrol, and pomegranate, are already recommended for a myriad of
health benefits. Skin cancer is considered an occupational disease in some
provinces of Germany, and in Canada we need a National Occupational Strategy
for those involved in outdoor work. For these workers and anyone at higher risk
for skin cancer, a dietary approach as outlined is a complementary and
responsible self- help initiative.
|Can a diet rich in anti-oxidants protect you from the sun?