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In this article we will expand on the "Bells and Whistles" section of our Dashboards.
There are multiple ways to alert the user when your data crosses a certain threshold.
The most used technique is to change the color of the data depending on whether the data is on the target, above the target or below the target.
In this article you see a basic example of the column data is mainpulated to change the colors.
Each and every widget has access to this global array of its data.
This is accessible using the "glb" variable. It is an associative array and the actual pointer to the data cells is glb["_odata"]
So let us understand how we built the color highlights for the status column on this "Status Dashboard"
Using the same techinque in the documentation we inspect each cell and add the html css styling to the desired cell.
var cols=glb["_odata"].length; var rows=glb["_odata"][0].length; for (var i=0; i < rows; i++) { if (glb["_odata"][3][i]=="Completed") { glb["_odata"][3][i] = ""+glb["_odata"][3][i] +""; } else if (glb["_odata"][3][i]=="In Progress") { glb["_odata"][3][i] = ""+glb["_odata"][3][i] +""; } else if (glb["_odata"][3][i]=="Cancelled") { glb["_odata"][3][i] = ""+glb["_odata"][3][i] +""; } else if (glb["_odata"][3][i]=="Scheduled") { glb["_odata"][3][i] = ""+glb["_odata"][3][i] +""; } }
Using the above code, gives us the result as shown below
In the javascript code, we determine how many rows and columns does our data have
var cols=glb["_odata"].length;
var rows=glb["_odata"][0].length;
glb["_odata"].length; => This tells us how many columns we have
glb["_odata"][0].length; => Next we inspect the first column and find out its length. This tells us how many rows it has.
Then we process each row for and inspect the cell data in the "Status" column. Looking at the table, we know that the status is the 4th column and since the index of the column starts at zero (0) the index of "Status" is = 3
so each cell is accessible by this glb["_odata"][3][i] in the loop
Now we can do whatever we wish to the data. You can replace the contents of the data but in our case we simple prepend and append the required CSS tags for color highlighting.
How to change the colors of Symbols and Icons
For single cell values, you can access the data in the cells [0][0] through the glb["_new"] variable.
This is true for all icons and widgets where you expect single cell value.
For grids and other charts, it will only give you the first cell value
Let say you have an icon showing some number. You want to change the color of this icon when the number goes below or above a certain threshold.
We will create a new icon and drag it to the canvas
Next we will feed this icon with data from our database
Right click on the icon and select "Data Source"
In our case we will work with SQL Server 2005 database
We select the connection and then add the following SQL in the sql window
select count(*) as user_count
from "ic"."dbo"."xxic_user"
We click ok and in few seconds we get the count displayed on the icon
Now we want to add some exceptions, if the count goes below 3 then make the background color red, if it goes above 5 then make it green
Here are the list of properties that are available for us to manipulate.
- "dWidth":200, [change the width of the object]
- "dHeight":200, [change the height]
- "dx":0, [change the x location]
- "dy":186, [change the y location]
- "fillColor":"#533813", [change the fill color]
- "fontName":"default", [change the font name - this is disabled]
- "fontSize":57, [change the font size]
- "fontStyle":" ", [change the font style - not needed, manipulate through showBold, showItalic etc]
- "horizCellPadding":10, [change cell padding]
- "horizObjectPadding":15, [change overall padding]
- "lineColor":"default", [change line color]
- "lineWidth":1, [change line width]
- "margin":5, [change margin]
- "opactiy":0.4, [change transparency]
- "showBackground":true,
- "showBold":false,
- "showBorder":false,
- "showItalic":false,
- "showStrike":false,
- "showUnderline":false,
- "textBackgroundColor":"none",
- "textColor":"red",
- "textHorizAlign":"center",
- "textX":-10, [change the relative position of text X location in icons]
- "textY":0,
- "vertObjectPadding":10,
- "zIndex":-1,
- "showTextShadow":false,
- "textShadowOffsetX":0,
- "textShadowOffsetY":0,
- "textShadowBlur":0,
- "textShadowColor":"white",
- "showBoxShadow":true,
- "boxShadowOffsetX":0,
- "boxShadowOffsetY":0,
- "boxShadowBlur":0,
- "boxShadowColor":"white"
With all the above properties we can alter the entire icon look and feel and manipulate it to its core. But we will restrain our selves to just a few basic properties.
The most important is the #5 "fillColor"
We add the following Javascript code
if (glb["_new"]<3)
else if (glb["_new"]>=3 && glb["_new"]<5 )
else if (glb["_new"]>5)
And when the number is 3 we get this
When the number goes below 3 we get this
(in our case we decrease the count by 2
select count(*)-2 as user_count
from "ic"."dbo"."xxic_user"
and our icon changes to the red background
Next we try to go above 5
and the result is
So our icon exception is tested for three conditions and it works. In this way if the data changes in real time then the icon whenever refreshed will pick its background color accordingly.
In the same javascript you can manipulate other properties. The icon is accessible using the "this" variable and the property.
so this.textColor="blue" will change its text to blue.
The color can be specified as standard string values like red, green, blue,orange, cyan,black,white etc or using the HEX codes like '#FFFEEE', '#FDEFED' and so on.
If you manipulate the dx and dy then the icon will move around the screen.
Other properties are there for reference but don't have any practical use.
The most interesting effects are by adding the animation effects.
So in the same condtion, I can ask the icon to blink or dance
this.div.effect("bounce", { direction:'left', times:5 }, 300);
will bounce the icon towards left 5 times before it stops
Here is our final javascript code
if (glb["_new"]<3)
this.div.effect("bounce", { direction:'left', times:5 }, 300);
else if (glb["_new"]>=3 && glb["_new"]<5 )
else if (glb["_new"]>5)
this.div.effect("pulsate", { times:3 }, 2000);
When the number goes below, it turns the icon red and bounces
When the number goes above 5 then it turns green and blinks on and off.
This is extremely useful if you are monitoring some real time application.
There are two other alerting mechanism, sound and email. Both of them can be added in the if and else condtion in similar way.
Hope this article gave some additional insights into how you can design effective visual dashboards and reports.


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Mark your calendars…
Alton Merged Branch 309 is having their Second Annual Benefit Basketball Game
USPS vs. UPS Drivers for MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY
The event takes place on April 9th, 2016 at West Elementary School located at 1513 State Street in Alton, Illinois at 7:00 PM.
Tickets are $5 at the door. Bring the kids… "Batman" will me making an appearance! Pictures with your favorite super hero will be available for $5.
Check back regularly to see current announcements and events.

subset: commoncrawl


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Our First Sneaker Fair
Our First Sneaker Fair
The Bernard Shaw plays host to Dublin's very own Sneaker fair, Sole Food (formerly Dub City Sneakz) just in time for Christmas, or as we like to call it, "Kicksmas" :)
Come to the Shaw to get a glimpse into sneaker culture in Ireland with independent sneaker and apparel vendors selling the most rare and slickest kicks about. Feel free to buy, sell or trade with what's on offer and grab yourself a steal for those 'last few bits' for Christmas.
As well as this, enjoy some tasty Big Blue Bus Pizza and cracking tunes as you jingle all the way through the best Ireland has to offer when it comes to the sneaker game.
Vendors will include:
BLOQ, AOS Sneaker ART, Sheinzy to name a few and will be joined by a host of Sneakers.ie will be joining us with some ONCE OFF Christmas specials on all of their stock so don't miss out on some BARGAINS!
Make sure to check out their Instagrams and sites to get a taste for what will be on sale on the day!
Admission is free and all ages are welcome. 1pm - 7pm 13th Dec.


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Cameron Kippen casts an informed eye over the history and development of sport shoes. The blogger is a retired academic and now freelance writer, broadcaster,and shoe savant.
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
The Preston
Professor Jim Richards is a biomechanical engineer at the School of Sport, Tourism and the Outdoors at the University of Central Lancashire. He and his team have developed a new sports shoe called The Preston (named after the town where the shoes were developed). The running shoe contains approximately 20 tiny galvanised steel matress -like springs (or e Spring) in the sole. The springs are also fitted with a damper similar to car suspension. Tests indicate load bearing to the foot is reduced by approximately 10% with each step thereby reducing peak shock from passing up the body. The Prestons were developed to help prevent repetative (overuse) injuries in recreational runners. The prototype shoes are currently exhibited at the Royal Academy's Summer Science Exhibition. There are also plans to make the Preston commercially available though Intersport later this year.
Posted by Toeslayer dot at 7:23 AM
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Carrie Fisher's daughter was on the move moments before her famous grandmother, Debbie Reynolds, suffered a possible stroke.
Billie Lourd hauled some luggage Wednesday in Santa Monica with rumored BF Taylor Lautner ... lending her a helping hand and a shoulder to cry on.
TMZ broke the story ... Debbie was rushed to a hospital shortly after 1 PM after someone at the Beverly Hills home of her son, Todd, called 911. Debbie was taken to the hospital in fair to serious condition.


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Reminder! Jerrod Maruyama will be at Disney's WonderGround Gallery on Saturday, October 11 from 11am – 1pm to celebrate the launch of his newest piece "World of Evil." In the battle of good vs. evil, I choose cute/evil!
Jerrod will be joined by fellow artists Jasmine Becket-Griffith, Bryan Fyffe, Jeff Granito and Sydney Hanson. For more details on the signing and participating artists, visit the event page.


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Struggling With Car Shopping? The Tips Below Will Make It Easy
You may have had the greatest experience when shopping for a used or new vehicle. Maybe you would like more knowledge so that you can handle yourself better job at negotiating. When you have the right information, you can have a better outcome. Use this advice to get what you deserve.
You will be wasting your money if you fail to negotiate a price of the car. You should not pay for the car's full retail price. Sticker prices are marked intentionally high as a way to facilitate negotiation.
Get your loan for a car online prior to going to a dealership. If you already have an approved loan, then the process will be a lot easier.
Know what kind of vehicle you want before stepping foot into a lot. You should do some research online to learn more educated about what you make your decision. This research will also lets you an idea of the price that you should really be paying for the car you'd like to buy.
When shopping, do not go above the maximum amount you can pay, regardless of what the dealer tries to tell you.
Go to the auto show to check out which cars you are interested in. Auto shows are a unique opportunity to compare many different makes side-by-side comparisons of various vehicles in one place. It will also give you a chance to talk to many knowledgeable people in one setting.
You need to have a firm idea of what is affordable for you. Determine the amount you can realistically spend every month on your car payment. You need to secure a loan shopping prior to looking at cars.
You might not get the car you desire. Not having heated seats should not impair your experience.
Bring a friend along during the car-buying process — preferably someone who can give you sound advice on your purchase. They ensure you don't get sucked into a deal which isn't what you are trying to make. Ask this person to point out any flaws that they identify during a test drive.
You should have an upper limit on your spending set before going to a car lot.
Search online for great used cars. You really do not have to go to a dealership. Check out community area classified ads, eBay and classified sites. You can also save some money this way.
Consider fuel economy whenever looking for a new car. A car with better gas mileage may be more expensive, but the saving later on could really make it worth it over the next few years. Think about this when buying a vehicle.
If you start to feel uncomfortable or pressured by a salesman, make your exit. Even if a salesperson wishes for you to stay, leave. Get out of there!There are many available options to stay somewhere that makes you can be spending valuable time.
Incentives need to be studied before negotiations begin. You will need to learn about rebates, fees from financiers, car warranties, and trade-ins. You will be able to haggle much better if you know what they're offering before going to the lot.
You don't need to pay such a fee. If the dealer refuses to remove it, explain that you will take your business elsewhere. They will stop you walk out.
You might not get the absolute best trade-in price, but remain flexible since you got a good sales price on your new vehicle.
This lets you know what kind of deal you can get so that can be considered with the overall value of the car.
Don't dress up when you visit the car dealership. It won't be easy convincing a salesperson that you wish a good rate if you are dressed up in fancy clothes.
Watch out for low payments that are indicative of a higher overall price. You can easily get distracted by a low monthly payments alone.
Speak to loved ones about their dealership experiences. Ask them about their experience and whether or not they recommend the dealer. If these people are all recommending the same place, that's probably one you want to visit.
Invoice Price
Begin having negotiations at wholesale or invoice price. You can find this number at many websites. Plan to get your car at invoice price or a little more if necessary. Once you find the bottom line, move on to discuss financing and incentives. This gets you get the best deal available.
Avoid car dealers that do not have a poor-looking lot. There are lots of dealers that try to sell their customers garbage that should not be driven. If their building doesn't look nice, chances are the vehicles are too.
When you take the vehicle you are considering for a test drive, whether it is new or pre-owned, brakes and maneuver. Make U-turns, back up, and back up.This lets you get a complete feel for how the vehicle operates.
Do not be conned into purchasing add-ons that you don't need. These are often useless or can be purchased elsewhere for less.
Look at available options when purchasing a used car. You can look at brick-and-mortar dealerships. There are many online resources that you can find by using search engines. Look at sites that have used car scores and other information about vehicles you're considering buying.
You should know when to get away from a deal. This is a truism that applies to many other things. If the deal you're offered sucks, then walk away. If it's making you uncomfortable, get up and walk out. If the options are not to your liking, leave. There are other dealers who will be happy to give you on their lot.
The best deals aren't just going to fall into your lap. You have to look for them and you must know how to negotiate. You need to analyze the math they're doing, and you need to do your own too. Keep in mind the tips you've just read to help you begin this process.


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Hydraulic Troubleshooting
Outer squeeze feet operating slow
The Slow outer squeeze feet left a high ring of sand around the outside of mold. The high sand was knocked off by the upset at index back on to the pattern for the next mold. We struggled with blow off pressures to blow off the extra sand. @20 psi we had more control of the sand and helped remove it for the east west rails on pattern. We did not change the center blow off pressure of 7psi as to not wear on the pattern. Fin on drums increased by thickness at parting line. Bolt holes were thick on drums and filled all holes at times. Line cycle was effected with the longer squeeze. Biggest problem was the amount of stickers we were getting from the sand on pattern getting between pattern and the flask.
Oil flow to the head for the outer feet was the core issue. The inner and outer squeeze valves were triggered on at the same time but outer feet were slower with four less cylinders than the inner .There were many places this could be effected from. Here is a list of Items We Checked not in the order we checked them.
We found the adjuster for the valve F had been removed (could have been early on, installing it on other valves to adjust and work on the problem) We installed the adjuster and adjusted the valve to a shorter stroke as it was at full stroke. This allowed the timing to close the valve we needed. Although we restricted the flow by doing this to the squeeze feet it was far less than the amount going to tank before.
Look For Leak By In Squeeze Manifolds.
Inner outer feet squeeze manifolds , removed all valves checked replaced orings along with all the cartridge valves. No Change
Change Multiple Plugs On Pilot Valves For Inner Outer
Idea was have low voltage or signal causing slow valve shift. No change
Check The Squeeze Head For Cross Pressure.
The idea was we have the outer feet oil passages and inner feet passages connected through a failure in the head construction (plugs missing ,cracks ect.) The test was done by squeezing the outside feet only and looking for pressure rise in the inner feet using gauges on manifolds. Then we did the opposite test with the inner only. Both of the test were good with no leakage from one to the other.
Check The Cylinders For Blow By.
The idea was we are bypassing too much oil from leaking seals in cylinders we have to overcome the bypass before the feet will go down. We ran test on both the inner and outer separately. This was done By squeezing and holding the squeeze for the inner or outer feet, then after full stroke of the cylinders we close the tank valve on B side of cylinder. Next watch the pressure on B side and time the pressure increase up to full system pressure. We did this for extend of both inner and outer and retract of both at the inner outer manifolds using the test box with the plugs . The results were the same for all test. Time was 15 seconds to see pressure start to rise and 45 seconds to full pressure. These were determined to be good test and cylinders were in good condition. A sharp or quick pressure rise would indicate a considerable leak by (with in a few seconds).
Regen Valves Timing Changes
The idea was were not using the oil from B side of the cylinder adding it to the a side and wasting it to tank. After multiple changes to the timing of the valve in the program we ended up back at the .052 area where we had started with out any significant changes.
Change The Proportional Strip Valve
The idea was we were pushing down the table or not getting the resistance we needed. No change
Sand Fall
The idea was the sand was low in the center of mold letting the inner feet go down first, outer feet were held up by sand . Ran squeeze feet with no sand by hand still had delay outer feet. Ran with out sand diverter, had to much sand all over no control of sand fall no change outer feet. Changed sand fall timing, table height. Change the timing of the sand fall with the speed of the scale doors. By adding more sand weight to the mold. Remove the rubber from the head plow, (created more sand falling on pattern) All no change. We ruled out sand fall as part of the problem.
Hydraulic Hoses
The iIdea was one of the hoses for the squeeze or feet return had a loose inner cover restricting flow. Replaced and inspected two outer hoses from outer manifold to hard piping. Replaced and inspected two outer squeeze hoses to the head from hard piping. Replaced and inspected two outer (inner) return hoses to the head. All of these items had no findings and no change.
Transducers And Hoses
The idea was transducers reading slow or inner covers on hoses loose, pipe manifold plugged with foreign materials. We changed the manifold, new transducers and hoses. No change
Y Blocks Inpection
The Idea was the two Y blocks for the outer squeeze lines where the hoses go to hard plumb may be wearing and creating a flow restriction. No findings, no change
Quarter Turn Valves.
Idea was the quarter turn valves in the two squeeze lines from the outer manifold block were coming apart inside creating a flow restriction. Inspected them with no findings, no change.
Return Filters For Manifolds Inner And Outer
The idea was we were restricted at the time of the squeeze when we had the highest oil flow. Checked and changed the filters, no findings, no change.
Check All Accumulators High Pressure And Low Pressure
The idea was we were lacking oil volume. We checked the pressures for pre-charge, for residual oil on top of pistons. There were some findings here of low pressure and some oil. There were no changes after repairs.
Pump Amps And Pressure Settings
The idea here was we had some lazy pumps and not achieving our max oil volume. All pumps were checked a few were changed and reset. No changes after repairs.
Listen To Manifold With The Ultra Sound Tool For Oil Leaks
The idea here was is there a leak or slow logic cartridge we cant feel or see on pressure gauges. Use this tool to listen inside the manifold. Checked the inner and outer manifold and found a valve closing very slow, valve F on outer manifold. Valve F is for the A side of squeeze cylinder to tank when squeeze feet are retracted it is open at this time. When we would go to squeeze this valve should close quickly it would not close quickly allowing oil to bypass to tank instead of going to the outer squeeze feet. This was causing our lack of oil to the squeeze feet and slow feet. Comparing the inner manifold with the outer and watching the coils for the pilot valves lights compared to the flow of oil in each valve we determined this as the problem.


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Seferihisar Municipality developed a database for blood bank information of Seferihisar citizens.
The contact data of the possible blood donator stored in this database will be shared by Seferihisar Municipality with the injured party in case of an emergency.
Seferihisar Mayor Tunç Soyer made a statement on the start of this project: "The people feel helpless and panicked when out for blood. They don't have information from where of whom to provide blood in case of an emergency. The blood bank database planned to be built by the Municipality, will contain information about the blood types and the addresses of the citizens, so that we would share them with the necessary parties. This campaign will strenghten the solidarity among people."
If you would like to join this campaign, please fill in the form below. The blood donators do accept the right of the needed to contact them when required.


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Medford Historic Locations
The following historic locations are located in Medford, Wisconsin. Please select a historic place in Medford to view detailed information including address information, historical signifiance, and much more.
Wisconsin Historic Places
|Benn, J. W., Building
202-204 S. Main St.
Medford, WI
Post Office
|Medford Free Public Library
104 E. Perkins St.
Medford, WI
Meeting Hall, Library
|Medford Post Office
304 S. Main St.
Medford, WI
Post Office
|Taylor County Courthouse
224 S. 2nd, Courthouse Sq.
Medford, WI
Wisconsin Historic Places


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Category: US Money Reserve
US Money Reserve's Generosity in the Face of Disaster
Most citizens of the US would argue that gold and silver coins are the currency of the past and the almighty green dollar holds all the power today. However, the US Money Reserve proves that this is not entirely true. The US Money Reserve is one of the biggest administrators of gold, silver, and platinum money in the entire country. It was founded in 2001 by gold experts who wanted to bring their knowledge of currency to an accessible place for America's citizens. They remain dedicated to educating citizens who invest in precious metals about the value and many benefits of owning gold and/or silver.
The US Money Reserve is made up of currency professionals including gold specialists, data experts, research, inventory, sales, and many more. This team ensures that a majority of clients who invest in gold, silver, or platinum have made a profit over the years.
However, the US Money Reserve does more than just provide services for those seeking to invest in coins made from precious metals. When category four Hurricane Harvey hit earlier this year, they paired up with the Austin Disaster Relief Network and raised over $200,000 for victims of the hurricane. Since the US Money Reserve is based in Texas, the destruction created by Hurricane Harvey was personal, according to CEO Angela Koch, and they wanted to do something to help. So, they decided to match donations given to the Austin Disaster Relief Network. All of the money raised by both companies will go straight to citizens of the Gulf Coast in Texas who were impacted by the hurricane.
Members of the Relief Network held the US Money Reserve in high esteem for making such generous donations and asserted that it was corporations like it that allow such high amounts of financial aid for those in need to be raised in the face of a disaster. This nonprofit organization consists of numerous churches in Austin that prepares citizens for crisis and provide resources in the aftermath. This partnership is the perfect example of how nonprofit organizations like the Relief Network, and for-profit corporations like the Money Reserve can come together and provide necessary help to those who need it.


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My morning walk thought…wouldn't "Wheatstalk" be the best name every for a huge country music festival…just sayin. I'm sure someone out there has already thought of this but it it cracked me up when it crossed my mind and I had to share. 🙂
Maybe it's the soft hues of the wheat influencing me but yesterday I played with a much more subdued color palette than usual. Below are images of the collage that's emerging.


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Your application uses Google Maps to display images maps (Map/Satellite) and uses Maptimize to display markers.
We need to have all POI coordinates (latitude/longitude) on our servers to perform our fast clustering algorithm.
So you need to synchronize your data using our web interface or Server API. Then you need to add few line of JavaScript using our Client API as described below.


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this short ITN clip, it's not the plot, the genre or the aliens that get the focus, but the film's use of south London slang.
It's a neat little clip because it shows the slippery nature of slang's meanings. When we ran a poll on this blog a few months ago about the word "peak", it was given a range of different meanings. I understand it as meaning something similar to "hectic", which could be good or bad, depending on the context: a party might be hectic (exciting and a little bit cer-azy - perhaps with people chugging Top Deck shandy and robot dancing in the kitchen ), while a job interview might be hectic (scary and overwhelming, just too much, man).
One of the actors explains it as "getting overwhelming, getting too much, there's danger, it's getting peak", but as Joe Cornish explains, with mock-English teacher seriousness at the end, sometimes these words "can be flipped...their meanings can change overnight without any warning at all".
There's a good interview with Cornish here and the Adam and Joe 6Music site is here.


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FLORENCE, S.C. -- State education superintendent Dr. Mick Zais could be facing a potentially angry mob of teachers Thursday night at a Florence meeting that is being held to inform the public of new educational standards, but more pressingly to get input on how educators should be evaluated.
The community stakeholder meeting to be held at Lucy T. Davis Elementary School is to allow staff from the state Department of Education to explain how they plan to implement the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) flexibility request -- a waiver the state sought from the federal government for parts of what is often called the No Child Left Behind Act.
The one outstanding piece of business in the implementation, though, is deciding the details of the new statewide educator evaluation system.
So far, educators across the state who've attended similar meetings and education advocates like the South Carolina Education Association president Jackie Hicks have been clear: They do not like the state's proposed plan, and they do not want their evaluations tied tightly to student scores on tests that can be faulty.
"Our concerns over this is that we think, evaluate me on something I have control over, of what I do in the classroom, not what's happening elsewhere," Hicks said. "Any teacher will say, "Hold me accountable for what I actually have control over," and we just want to come up with something that can be proven valid and reliable."
The proposed evaluation system, which is being beta-tested in 22 schools across the state this year, is partially a value-added model (VAM) by which teachers are evaluated on individual students' growth from one year to the next on the Palmetto Assessment of State Standards (PASS) test.
But Hicks said she worries that is faulty because, according to U.S. Department of Education data, standardized tests are only reliable 82 percent of the time; when teachers' credibility is based on a test that doesn't work 18 percent of the time, that is taken twice, a year apart, the outlook is bleak for teachers. Plus, PASS was not created to measure year-over-year growth.
"They were not set up to show growth measures. They were set up to see how a student did at a particular point in time in the classroom, so there's no before and after for a teacher's performance," Hicks said. "We need multiple instruments of measuring growth, and an old PASS test does not show where a student is after the summer when a new teacher gets them."
On top of the fact that even excellent teachers can get troubled classes of students, and many factors outside of the classroom play into test scores as well, educators who teach subjects that aren't even tested by PASS would still have evaluations tied to the test results.
SCDE spokesman Jay W. Ragley said that educators had plenty of chances to give input during stakeholder meetings at the start of the year, before the waiver was submitted in May, and that by the time the year is out there will have been 27 meetings. The key is also that this is a proposal, subject to change with additional data and feedback.
But in an October meeting in Greenville, 500 very angry teachers berated Zais with questions about the validity of a VAM evaluation system, shouting out things like, "Will you take your pay based on how our students test?"
In November in Charleston, a smaller, more subdued crowd was also disappointed that, in their opinions, their questions were filtered by department employees, particularly those about the fairness of the teacher evaluation system.
Ragley said in an email Tuesday that submitting written questions is the way these meetings have always worked so that more questions can be answered by filtering out duplicate questions.
Patrick Hayes, the director of the nonprofit education advocacy group EdFirstSC, said that in Charleston the questions were "actively censored" and "not a single concern about the evaluation plan was raised, although dozens were submitted."
The group has since filed a complaint with the State Board of Education.
Hayes and Hicks plan to hold a press conference and public meeting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in front of the school just before the meeting to discuss the concerns with the proposed plan and talk about the perceived censorship of questions. ___
(c)2012 the Florence Morning News (Florence, S.C.)
Visit the Florence Morning News (Florence, S.C.) at www2.scnow.com/community/morningnews
Distributed by MCT Information Services


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Much of US favors Bush impeachment: poll
AFP | July 6, 2007
Nearly half of the US public wants President George W. Bush to face impeachment, and even more favor that fate for Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a poll out Friday.
The survey by the American Research Group found that 45 percent support the US House of Representatives beginning impeachment proceedings against Bush, with 46 percent opposed, and a 54-40 split in favor when it comes to Cheney.
The study by the private New Hampshire-based ARG canvassed 1,100 Americans by telephone July 3-5 and had an error margin of plus or minus three percentage points. The findings are available on ARG's Internet site.
The White House declined to comment on the poll, the latest bad news for a president who has seen his public opinion standings dragged to record lows by the unpopular war in Iraq.
The US Constitution says presidents and vice presidents can be impeached -- that is, formally charged by the House -- for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors" by a simple majority vote.
Conviction by the Senate, which requires a two-thirds majority, means removal from office.
Just two US presidents have been impeached: Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998 and acquitted in 1999; Andrew Johnson was impeached and acquitted in 1868. Disgraced president Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 when a House impeachment vote appeared likely.
In late April, left-wing Representative Dennis Kucinich, a long-shot Democratic presidential hopeful, introduced a resolution calling for Cheney's impeachment. To date, the measure has nine listed co-sponsors and a 10th set to sign on when the House returns to work next week.
But Democratic leaders appear unlikely to pursue such a course.
"TerrorStorm is something that should be seen by everyone, no matter what their stance/affiliation/political bent. " - Rich Rosell, Digitally Obsessed UK
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Even the most lighthearted and tactless chatterbox will think twice about discussing some subjects with friends and relatives. For example, it can be difficult to discuss insurance matters when someone is terminally ill or recently deceased. Because of this, family and executors are left scrambling to locate important documents such as life insurance policies. If you suspect one exists, there are some strategies you can use to find it.
Contact the Medical Information Bureau and request a search. The Bureau has records of more than180 million policies underwritten since 1996, and will search its database for a fee. If the issuing company has since been the subject of a merger or acquisition, the MIB can also help identify its current name.
Review the deceased person's financial records, including check stubs and bank or credit card statements. Unless the policy was a fully paid-up whole life product, there should be some record of the premium payments.
Write or phone the deceased person's former employers. Their human resources departments can tell you whether there is any residual group coverage. If the deceased converted group coverage into a private policy, the HR department can also tell you which company would have issued the policy.
Get in touch with any known financial advisers the deceased person might have used. If you don't have names and can't get them from other friends and family, comb through the deceased person's effects and look for business cards, pens, calendars or other promotional items that might provide a lead.
Call the unclaimed-property office in states where a policy might have been purchased. It's usually part of the state's treasury department or comptroller's office. If the insurer is unable to locate a beneficiary, it's required by law to remit the death benefit to the unclaimed-property office.
Photo Credits
- Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
- Definition of Non-life Insurance
- What Is Supplemental AD&D Insurance?
- What Does Comprehensive Car Insurance Cover?
- Can I Get Homeowners Insurance if I Rent to Own a House?
- Loss of Use in Homeowners' Insurance
- How Do I Find Out If an Old Life Insurance Policy Is Worth Anything?
- How Much Sewer Backup Coverage Is Appropriate?
- What If a Dealer Sells You a Damaged Car?


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Unique print. Used in LIFE 6/81, pp 78-79 for cover story, "Remapping the Heavens, From Our Space Probes a New Picture Atlas of the Planets." Unique composite of Jupiter (left), the largest planet, and Saturn (below), second in size and girdled by an intricate ring system, Uranus (far right), Neptune (middle right), and Pluto (near right) that lies three billion miles from Earth at the edge of the solar system. When Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune were formed, their thick atmospheres were protected by size and distance from the ravages of the solar wind, and like the Sun itself, they remain balls of volatile gases.
Shipping and insurance costs will be added to the price and must be paid for by the buyer. Pennsylvania buyers must pay appropriate local sales tax. International clients are responsible for their VAT and other custom's oriented charges.
Price $8,000
Ref.# 14212
Medium Dye Transfer
Mount on original mount
Photo Date 1981 Print Date 1981
Dimensions 15.8 x 22.6 in. (401 x 574 mm)
Photo Country Unknown
Photographer Country United States (USA)
Email email@example.com
Phone +1-215-822-5662
Contemporary Works / Vintage Works, Ltd.


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"I walked into the Campus as different David than the David who walks out of it after two years."More about Dávid
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U.S. Morning Call: Apple hiring for iWatch project
July 15 - Apple is aggressively hiring workers and looking to acquire startups for its iWatch engineering efforts, according to the Financial Times.
Reading your Monday morning call earnings from Citigroup due out at 8 AM eastern the bank is expected to report at 15% rise in profit from a year earlier. New CEO Michael -- that has been on a cost cutting mission since taking over late last year after Vikram Pandit was abruptly ousted. Crap that's -- the bank benefiting from lower costs for bad mortgage assets that was left over from the housing crisis. Although city has come a long way since then with its stock up 25%. This year the bank's capital ratios are still lagging. Under the new proposed rules banks will need to raise ratios to 5%. Above the 3% agreed upon in the about the agreement. Is the case that means it needs to set aside thirteen billion dollars in capital or eight point 6% of current market cap to comply with the new rules. What's the best performing stock on the S&P 500 this year. It's Netflix. Up 178%. In 2013. And up another 1% in the premarket. But some analysts think Netflix isn't taking subscriber growth seriously enough according to the Wall Street Journal. Netflix to be more like Amazon which has sacrifice margins but has -- online retail dominance as a result. Netflix recently dropped byte com content which then went exclusively to Amazon. Analysts say if Netflix wants to reach greater heights and grow its subscriber base. It may need to pick up margins like Amazon and pay more for contact. Also keep an eye on Boeing shares this week shares to after Ethiopian airline 787 plane caught fire at London's Heathrow airport. A big step back after going worked so hard to restore confidence in the aircraft. But the stocks up premarket after multiple airlines said they still have faith in the dreamliner and will continue to fly them. And finally we're watching apple it's aggressively hiring and looking to snag startup expert I watch engineering efforts according to the Financial Times. Don't hold your breath the tie up the higher suggests that a Smart what. -- until the second half a 2014. Let me not to marking its US stock futures point to a higher open this morning investors in the US not so worried about the slowdown in China. Second quarter GDP data shows China's economy expanded seven and a half percent from a year ago. Back in 2007. -- had -- to fourteen point 2%. And although mining stocks up today with a bad news priced and they're expected to lose out in the long term. Along with energy companies and raw materials providers. All of which were thriving off the economic -- in China. Retailers in the US playing it safe when it comes to inventory. And analysis from Reuters shows better inventory tracking tools are enabling retailers to be conservative in placing their back to school orders. That could mean higher profit margins later in the year when retailers were probably not have to offers made discounts to get rid of excess stuff. Analysts say that from the retailer's perspective it's better to miss sales than stock up. The back to school season is the second biggest sales period for year. Market research firm NPD group -- -- 3% rise back to school sales last year with online sales picking up. Markets waiting for the retail sales data for June due out a little later today. That's it for your Monday morning call remembered follow us on Twitter at Reuters Insider and get Margaret -- -- later dot com slash. I was burned cars.


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"Developing your strategic roadmap for success."
Growth CLUB includes the following:
Planning Day Workshops – Quarterly workshops to assist in the completion of a client 90-day strategic plan using ActionCOACH systems:
- Includes strategies in the areas of mastery (time, destination, delivery & financial), sales & marketing, systems & leverage, team development and revenue & profit growth.
- Workshop offers peer group learning with business owners and professionals.
- Purpose is to equip you with the mindset and tools needed to achieve your goals.
1-1 Coaching – One (1) monthly coaching session with your ActionCOACH. Offers accountability on 90-day plan execution to help you stay on course. Coach provides resources and email support.
Includes Basic CLUB benefits with Coffee CLUB mastermind meetings twice a month.
Annual membership is $6,000. Quarterly payment plan available.


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The Heaviside Condition
A brilliant mathematician and electrical engineer (1850-1925) who received no formal education past the age of sixteen. Despite revolutionising telegraphy and radio communication, he was neither generally acknowledged nor properly remunerated for this work. Others capitalised on and patented his ideas, making money and garnering acclaim, while he remained poor and lived out his twilight years in South Devon; socially marginalised and frequently misunderstood. He died after falling from a ladder in Torquay and is buried in Paignton.
In 2014, Trio Of Men embarked on a research, devising and performance project to explore this obscure and fascinating character. With funding from the Arts Council of England and support from the Barbican Theatre, Plymouth and Doorstep Arts, they developed an immersive theatre show featuring original music, projected video, shamanic ritual and creative community involvement.
This song-story in 7/8 time is a musical response to the life of Oliver Heaviside W.O.R.M. and combines new and inconclusive research with experiments in practical magick, scientific debates in municipal buildings and transcribed dreams. Lyrics are drawn, often verbatim, from Heaviside's own writings; charting his ground-breaking achievements, his passion for cycling, his eccentric relationships with humans and animals and his love of music and mechanical instruments.
'The Heaviside Condition' is rendered in the rich tradition of the classic English concept-album; featuring twelve different keyboards (from a Victorian harmonium to a vocoder), a newly perforated barrel organ roll, bicycle spokes played as percussion and a bassoon. It was recorded in a hair salon, a Methodist church and a Paignton Bed & Breakfast.
The Album and accompanying booklet (priced separately) is available in the Torquay Museum Gift Shop.
The Choral Engineers were formed as an experimental creative choir in January 2015 to take part in the initial performances of 'The Heaviside Condition'. On the album, they can be heard singing, whispering, speaking, producing animal voices and playing mechanical instruments.
Since forming, The Choral Engineers have devised a surround-sound audio-visual piece for the iOrchestra installation, created a new song-cycle for the opening of The South Devon Highway alongside the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and, most recently, they became key performers in the UNESCO Opera 'Earth Echoes'. They are currently exploring their feral voices in a 13th Century Abbey.


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I've been reading "Coach Wooden" by Pat Williams and he had a great story about understanding the importance of today and how today truly matters to the best:
Greg Maddux is the only pitcher in Major League
Baseball history to win at least fifteen games for seventeen consecutive seasons.
He recalls some advice he once received from then-Cubs manager Tom Trebelhorn.
"You know what the problem is with players these days?" Trebelhorn said. "They
are always looking forward to something. They're never trying to do something
today. They're always looking forward to the next off-day, the All-Star break,
the end of the season. They never stop and enjoy the day that's here."
Maddux says that he thought about that and saw that
Trebelhorn has a point. In fact, Maddux realized that he had that same mind-set
of looking only to the future and never enjoying the present moment. From that
day forward, Maddux concluded, "I started enjoying each day… and really started
loving the games from that day on."
And as Pat quoted Coach Wooden:
"When I was teaching basketball, I urged my players to
try their hardest to improve on that very day, to make that practice a
masterpiece… It begins by trying to make each day count and knowing you can
never make up for a lost day."


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Grandma Karen (Mishelle's mother) and Grandma Kay (Steve's mother) were both there. They made some comparisons of how many grandchildren they had and Grandma Karen is expecting a great grandchild as well.
Maureen looks over the serving table which she had so tastefully done in pink while Deb is getting some quality visiting time with her.
Maureen and Cathy had fun planning the shower and especially enjoyed seeing everyone again. Maureen will be at Pocahontas Catholic this fall and will be teaching second grade. We miss her at Rockwell City.
The next few pictures are of some of the guests - Rachel and Andy sitting between the two grandmother's.
Pam, Linda, Deb and Linda look pretty comfy - and they are taking time to admire the really cute gifts Mishelle received.
What posers!! You two have had your picture taken a time or two!! Sherry and Rachel - both blonde - and Sherry has shorter hair - how cute!!
Friends from Pomeroy and "future babysitters" looking forward to the new baby
Nicole just landed a new job with AEA (and we are so happy for her, although we will sure miss her) Emily will really miss her - but we are excited that Emily is back full time! Nicole gave the baby the cutest little onesie - and on the front it said, "Does this diaper make my butt look big!" I just loved that little gift - it just keeps going round and round in my head.
Nora got there a little later than most. She just found out it was going to be a little girl so she had to exchange what she planned on giving and buy something pink - and it was CUTE!! She made up for it, though, she was the last to leave - but it was fun sharing stories with her. And Nora, we do miss your cookies!!


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A wonderful mitzvah project is to educate families about the NEWS about vaccinations.
Several years ago a British lawyer fashioned a campaign against vaccines that attributed autism spectrum disorders to vaccination via a hypothetical, never substantiated link to mercury. This fraud, for which he has been convicted, netted him over a million dollars in "expert" testimony. Children and adults have died for lack of immunity to devastating childhood diseases because many well-intentioned parents disseminated his position and that led some parents to refrain from having their children vaccinated. When their children contract one of these diseases, the lives and well-being of all who come in contact with them are placed in jeopardy.


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Stay on target
Pat Shand is a comics writer, editor, publisher, novelist, and podcaster just to name a few things. In comics, Pat has done both licensed and creator-owned books. One of his latest creator-owned series, Breathless, is slated to come out early next year through Black Mask Studios. I got to catch up with Pat and ask him about this new series.
Thanks for taking the time to chat with me, Pat! Let's jump right in. What's the elevator pitch for Breathless?
We've been pitching it as "Buffy if the Big Bad was the pharmaceutical industry," which pretty much sums up the feel. Sometimes, you just have to cut to the chase, though, and say what it's about: An asthmatic cryptozoologist discovers what might be the cure for asthma and is targeted by a business that makes its wealth off of prescription drugs.
Also, there is a very good dog in this series. I write a LOT of series with cats, so I figured that might be a selling point, maybe? Dog.
How did you end up collaborating with Renzo Rodriguez?
He and I have done a lot of work before together on work-for-hire type shit. I originally saw his stuff in a book written by my guy Adam Cheal, and I was impressed by Renzo back then. His horror is great, always has been, and he continually evolves. He's one of my closest collaborators, so it was high time that we did something that we created from the jump.
The pharmaceutical industry has been on a lot of people's minds in recent years as more and more issues of dishonesty and corruption have come to light. What about the pharmaceutical industry informed your story and how you approached it?
I talked about this a little bit in an interview I did elsewhere, so I'll keep this short as not to repeat myself, but I thought of that fuck Martin Shkreli who famously raised the price of much-needed medication by an astronomical number. I thought of Charlamagne the God asking Shkreli to his face if he was nothing more than a privileged prick. I thought of, most of all, every time I go to the pharmacy to buy my medication. Every time, without fail, the pharmacist scans my package, visibly balks at what they see on the screen, and, their voice dropping, asks me if I'm aware how much my prescriptions cost.
I'm fucking aware.
Ugh, I hear that. You and I are both Buffy fans. The Initiative from season four came to mind while I was reading this regarding facilities that know of supernatural beings and try to figure them out. Other franchises like Men In Black have somewhat similar concepts, but they're all different from what you're going for here with Breathless. What stories helped inspire and influence Breathless and the facility our leads work at and what did you look to avoid?
I totally see what you mean about the Initiative stuff from Buffy. I was more going for the Breaking Bad lab, the big one ran by Gus Fring! That, and a mix of Tony Stark's lab, if Tony were involved in dissecting monsters for their medical properties instead of cutting-edge tech. He'd be so not as rich, right? Basically, though, the reason that Scout is a cryptozoologist in this series is one, to get cool monsters, of course. But two, most importantly, to position Scout in this role where her career operates on the fringes of society. She's working off the books. She's 10-99ing it. She can't get insurance through her job, so she's just like us as comics creators. I wanted the horror movie equivalent of what we go through every day, trying to stay healthy and alive in a world with a medical industry that doesn't really see the need for freelancers to exist.
So your protagonist is named Scout, full disclosure I had the sweetest cat on earth named Scout growing up so I'm a little biased to the name, and she seems to ride that line between empathetic of others and self-serving. Who are some of the inspirations for Scout and how do you approach writing a character that walks a fine line like her?
You know I'm a cat guy, Joe. My wife Amy and I have five of our own cats. Westley, Odo, Neal, Hoyt, and Chichi. And nah, he's not named after Neal Adams.
But yeah, you know what? I think my Scout might be a lot like your Scout. Empathetic, at times, but self-serving for sure. I don't want to say THAT much about Scout because Breathless is a character study. I want people to read it and enjoy the surface of the story, the adventure, and the horror, but then I hope people look back and think a little about Scout. I put a lot of myself and a lot of my anger into Scout as a character, my anger for where we are and my anger for the way that I feel that myself and people like me have been forgotten by an industry that should only function to help everyone.
My last interview for this, they asked if this was a preachy comic. It's totally not. That last paragraph might make it seem like it is, just because it does come from a place of discontent with a system – but fuck it, if someone reads the book and Scout is the fucking villain to them, sure. It could happen. I want that.
True, you are a cat guy. You also have a lot of experience writing horror comics over the years. What draws you to the genre and how is it different than writing other series like Destiny, NY?
I think it's less different because of the genre, and more different because of what it's about. That's probably a bullshit writer answer, but it's true. Destiny, NY – the ongoing series of graphic novels I publish through my own company, Space Between Entertainment – that is a fantasy, but I hinge it around the characters and their love lives and personal woes so fully that my rule in that series is 2-5% supernatural, 95-98% natural. Breathless is more indulgent, less about the metaphor and more about constantly bodily threats. The core of great horror, I feel, reminds us constantly that all we are is a bag of meat that's going to fall apart one day. That's slowly falling apart right now. Take away the monsters, and if that's still the core of your story, that's horror. That's Breathless.
We do have monsters, though. I just love to see Renzo do his goddamn thing.
Awesome! Outside of writing novels about Iron Man and your favorite Avenger, Thor, you tend to write female leads and are queer inclusive. Breathless is no exception. How do you go about tackling intersectionality in comics like Breathless?
I live in New York. I wrote theatre before comics. It's different in off-off-Broadway theatre, really different. When I started writing comics and had to literally argue to not have a fully straight/white cast… that was a big fucking eye-opener. Comics has a long way to go in many respects. I think a big part of it is that a lot of writers still in 2018, they're writing stories that feel and look like the world of the comics they grew up loving as kids. If we seek to write instead stories that feel and look like the world we actually live in… I think things would be different.
I can't wait for you to meet Grace-Eisley Wellington Burke. She's in some of the art I showed you, but her dialogue is fucking crazy. I've never written a character with a speech pattern even close to hers. I want to do a cover; I think we'll do it for #3 or #4, where almost the entire cover is just a speech bubble of Grace-Eisley rambling. Even her name takes a minute to say.
Interesting about the culture shock moving from theatre to comics. I hope that will keep changing for the better. So why is Black Mask Studios the perfect home for Breathless?
Hahaha well… I told this story on my podcast, the Space Between Podcast, but I have to tell it here, because you were THERE. That's one of the reasons you're the first person I hit up about this, because you were there when I first pitched to Black Mask and it was a fucking disaster. At the time, this was a pretty shitty moment for me, but now I love this story.
So, it's New York Comic Con in 2016, and I'm at the Black Mask booth, talking to Matt Pizzolo. He had always been super nice to me, and every conversation we had up until that point was pretty much Matt saying that we just had to find the right project. I printed out this waaay too long booklet that had a bunch of pitches, and I was just starting to talk Matt through it. You had walked up at that point – you were at the booth too. Matt told me that he only had a short window before he had to duck out, so I'm like cool, I can do this, let's roll. As soon as I started to pitch, this drunk dude not a yard away from Matt and me hurls. Projectile. It was chaos for a while, with a bunch of us trying to get this dude help, all of that, and by the time it was all done, I was beyond stressed. I stuttered and bumbled my way through a quick pitch, and Matt – always, a super nice guy – said we'd talk. I felt that I had totally messed up, though, that the incident had really derailed me. I remember you saying something about how it felt like a Curb Your Enthusiasm moment. That's pretty accurate to how I felt. Looking back, it's fucking hilarious, but in the moment… whew, for some reason, I thought that I'd blown my chance!
Anyway, Matt hit me up later on and we started talking about books! We decided to do Breathless first, because Renzo was ready to roll – and, well, my perception of Black Mask was that they put out books with urgency, with energy, books with a creative edge that other publishers aren't really fucking with, right? Like Black Mask put out We Can Never Go Home, Kim & Kim, Young Terrorists. To me, as someone who had done so much work-for-hire, Black Mask was right where I wanted to be fucking. Creating THOSE kinds of books, doing my own thing, you know?
But now, now that I'm working with Black Mask actively, it's even more than that. There's that energy, yes, but Matt is also so genuinely enthusiastic about comics and working with him on this project has been eye-opening for what comics can be. It really shows when someone gives a shit – I think creators can feel that, feel the intention.
So yeah, from the puke incident to now, here we are!
I was there for that! You've sure come a long way at Black Mask since then! Anyway, thank you for taking the time to chat with me. Before we wrap things up, anything you'd like to add? And when can people get a copy of Breathless #1?
March! It's in Previews right now – tell your comics retailer that you want to pre-order Breathless! I know it isn't a perfect system, but that's what we're working with right now. Independent comics thrive off of pre-order sales.
We're starting with four issues, but if we do well… who knows where we could go?
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Is, there, is there balm in Gilead?
Tell me, truly, I implore.
Quoth the Raven, Nevermore.
5. TheSnowQueen
Tis a calm and lovely night
For the snowflakes falling light
Glitter the most perfect sight
You can know.
And the wind is slipping past
And the stars are fading fast
Oh, your dream has come at last
The first snow.
Can you feel the snow queen?
When the moon's unearthly beams
Strike the snowflakes like a dream
She is there.
You can feel her pass by
And you shiver as her sigh
Quivers as a distant cry
In the air.
The night takes a darker tone
As she wanders all alone
And a melancholy moan
Is her song
And that strange, seductive tune
Mixing with the snow and moon
Lures you to your death and doom
Before long.
Come with me
You will see
Things you never knew to be
Come away
And we'll stay
Far from glaring light of day.
Trailing blood on virgin snow
With a diabolic glow
Her insanity does show
In her eyes.
For they glitter when she's pleased,
And they snap when she's uneased
And can drag you to your knees
There to die.
Feel the creeping sense of dread
Tis continually fed
Pounding, pounding in your head
You are found.
Oh the burning, churning fright
How the snow flakes seem to bite
Eerie echoes fill the night
All around.
You must fear time is dear she is near almost here
You must run find the sun there is none you are done
You must run find the sun there is none you are done.
Photo rights to enjoiordie.blogspot.com


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Hallmark Channel Original Christmas Movies will air ALL Week Long, from July 8th to July 14th!
The Hallmark Channel's "Christmas Keepsake" Event in July is the Network's Salute to the 40th Anniversary of the Hallmark Store's Keepsake Ornament.
As everyone is trying to stay cool during the Hot days of Summer, and the Children are HO-HO-HOME from School, it is an excellent time.... to sit back, relax, and enjoy the chilly snow filled scenes from some of the Hallmark Channel's greatest Christmas Movies!
Movies included during the "Christmas in July" Event:
Matchmaker Santa,
Debbie Macomber's Call Me Mrs. Miracle,
A Christmas Wish,
Debbie Macomber's Trading Christmas,
Holiday Engagement,
A Christmas Song,
A Princess for Christmas,
and Many More!
Enjoy and Merry Christmas in July!!!
Thank you, Hallmark Channel, for this early gift!
And... As an extra special gift, Hallmark Channel's sister network, Hallmark Movie Channel, will also join the early holiday celebration by featuring its own summertime Christmas movie marathon with the network's inaugural "Gold Crown Christmas".
See the Christmas TV Schedule to see all the Christmas Movies, plus Times Airing!
Please share in the comments below - which movie or movies you are are looking forward to seeing again!!!


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Asthma Forgetfulness and Asthma Honesty
Have you ever tried to forget your asthma past? Do you have an asthma story you've never shared with anyone? Do you have asthma forgetfulness? If you do, perhaps it's time to share your story.
Trust me. I know from first hand experience that asthma is no fun. I also know that asthma forgetfulness may be the easy route, yet it also leads to poor asthma control later on. If you bare with me I'll explain. I'll also explain why a little asthma honesty might be the cure youve been looking for.
One such experience came to light this morning. It was 6:00 a.m. and I was working as a respiratory therapist. I was paged STAT to the emergency room (ER).
Upon entering the ER I found one of our regular asthmatics sitting on the edge of the bed, slouched over, huffing and puffing to get air in. Her oxygen was so low when she arrived the nurse had put an oxygen mask on her.
I started up a breathing treatment and replaced the mask with a misting pipe in her mouth. The mist was Ventolin, the Godsend to asthmatics; the juice that gets the lungs moving air again. I could tell by the way she held the pipe firmly between her teeth -- the no hands technique -- she was an expert at this.
I sat in a chair the opposite side of the room while the nurses worked their magic: inserted an IV line, inserted Solumedrol into IV line, and asked a million questions. I couldn't help but remember the days of long ago when I was in her shoes, with a Ventolin Peace Pipe proficiently stuffed in my mouth.
Then the nurse asked this question: "So, how many breathing treatments did you give yourself at home before you came in?"
The asthmatic said, "Oh, more than enough."
That was more honest than any answer I ever gave, I thought. Then said, "When I was a kid and a nurse asked me that, I would just lie."
The patient, obviously breathing better now, said, a smile on her face, "You have asthma too."
"Oh yeah," I said, "I had it very bad too when I was a kid. In fact, I used to go through a Ventolin inhaler every day."
"You did what" The nurse said, peering down at me, bug eyed.
"I would use an inhaler every day, and then I'd also take breathing treatments in between. In fact, back then you could only get one Ventolin refill at a time, so there were weeks when I'd have mom go to the pharmacy every day to get a new inhaler."
I wrote about this experience in more detail in my post, "Confessions of a bronchodilatoraholic."
The nurse gasped at my story, yet the patient smiled.
Years ago I wasn't able to be this honest, yet now asthma stories flow easy, and allow me to create a bond with my asthmatic patients. It also helps prevent asthma forgetfulness, as asthma forgetfulness only results in worsening asthma. Trust me: I know.
In fact, for many years I completely blacked out my severe asthma past. I'll be honest, there were days I used up my Ventolin inhaler, and then was so miserable, so afraid, that I never told my mom for fear she'd be mad at me. Then I'd suffer until about 2 in the morning when I couldn't stand it anymore and finally break down and wake her up.
Dad would take me to the emergency room having no clue how long I had suffered.
So then I'd be in the ER, shoulders high and scratching at the mattress to stretch out my lungs to get any extra air into them I could, and the respiratory therapist (perhaps one I work with now), gave me a breathing treatment.
Then came THE question: "How much Ventolin did you use at home?"
"A couple puffs," I'd say after a long delay. Yes it was a lie. A very bad lie.
My asthma -- my hardluck asthma -- was so bad my mom and dad and doctor thought I was going to die. And in 1985 they had me admitted to the asthma hospital in Denver Colorado (then it was National Jewish Health-National Asthma Center (NJH/NAC). I ended up staying there for six months (Yes, I wrote that right).
Once I was discharged my asthma was under better control than ever. I never missed school again due to my asthma, and I rarely ever needed the services of an ER. My asthma was under control -- finally.
All was great right? Well, all except for the fact asthma forgetfulness set in. After several years all the great wisdom I learned from NJH was lost.
The thing is, asthma forgetfulness only leads to worsening asthma because when you forget you have it, you forget to control it (something a gallant asthmatic would never do).
So 10 years after leaving the asthma hospital, my asthma was almost as bad as it was before I went there. I had to relearn everything.
Asthma is a very fragile and devastating disease when it's not controlled. If you don't control it, it controls you. Forgetting you have it, or pretending you don't have it, only makes matters worse.
What comlicates matters are myths that asthma goes away with age.
The best way to overcome asthma forgetfulness is with asthma honesty. Where I once had blacked out my past, I have since forced myself to relive it. I even wrote about it to some extent here. I realize now if I hadn't forgotten, my asthma never would have gotten bad again ten years later.
So my advice to other asthmatics is to never forget how miserable you were before your asthma was controlled. Don't ever forget how you gained control of your asthma. The best way of doing, the best way of being honest, is to share your asthma stories. Thankfully that's something I get to do at work and right here.


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This is a place for me to share some of my work. On this site you will find many examples of micro lessons. Many of them will take the form of 1 to 10 minutes video clips or short to the point articles. I believe that micro lessons could be a powerful tool that we can use with students. I hope that you enjoy this Blog site. This site will discuss educational technology as a tool for student learning. Site Publisher Fred Sharpsteen email contact email@example.com
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Joe Landolina: This gel can make you stop bleeding instantly
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About Me
Fred Sharpsteen
- I am the Director of Technology at a K-12 School system.


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August 17, 2011
KEVIN FUREYv.POLICE OFFICER TRAVIS WOLFE, ET AL.
The opinion of the court was delivered by: Elizabeth T. Hey United States Magistrate Judge
In this action, Plaintiff Kevin Furey ("Plaintiff") alleges that his civil rights were violated by Police Officer Travis Wolfe ("Officer Wolfe"), the City of Philadelphia (the "City"), and Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey ("Commissioner Ramsey") (collectively, "Defendants"), as a result of Officer Wolfe making an off-duty arrest of Plaintiff in the early morning hours of April 5, 2008. Presently before the court is Defendants' motion for leave to file a motion for summary judgment (Doc. 98).*fn1 For the reasons that follow, Defendants' motion will be granted.
On March 10, 2010, Plaintiff commenced this action in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, and on April 23, 2010, Defendants removed it to this Court. See Doc. 1. Plaintiff alleges that his civil rights were violated pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. See Compl. at First Cause of Action. Plaintiff also alleges various state law claims against Officer Wolfe. Id. at Second Cause of Action. Among other things, Plaintiff alleges that Officer Wolfe unlawfully used force against him without probable cause to believe he had committed a crime, assaulted Plaintiff, subjected him to an unlawful arrest, and committed perjury.See id. ¶¶ 9-16. Plaintiff further alleges that Officer Wolfe's conduct was the result of policies, practices and customs and deliberate indifference on the part of the City and Commissioner Ramsey. See id. at First Cause of Action.
As alleged in the complaint, on April 5, 2008, Plaintiff, an undergraduate at Temple University, was arrested by Officer Wolfe and charged with several criminal offenses. See Compl. ¶¶ 9, 14, 30. Of particular relevance to the instant motion are the allegations pertaining to the handling of the criminal charges:
17. At a continued Preliminary Hearing held in November 2008, Internal Affairs detectives appeared and had a secret meeting with the Chief of the Philadelphia District Attorney's Municipal Court Unit, Charles Ehrlich, whereupon Charles Ehrlich offered plaintiff admission to an ARD [Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition] program only if plaintiff agreed not to sue and other conditions. The Internal Affairs officer, defendant Wolfe, the District Attorney in the Courtroom, Deputy District Attorney Ehrlich, screamed at plaintiff's attorney in a threatening manner, terrorizing plaintiff, who overheard in the hallway, believing that he would be wrongfully prosecuted and convicted of crimes he did not commit.
18. At the actual ARD hearing, which took place on June 10, 2009, plaintiff was placed in the ARD program without the requirement that he not sue defendants and the other requirements as set by Charles Ehrlich, who had no authority to impose terms for admission into the ARD program, since Ehrlich was not Chief on the ARD unit.
Compl. §§ 17-18. Meanwhile, on April 5, 2009 -- between the date of the Preliminary Hearing and the ARD Hearing, and exactly one year from the date of Plaintiff's arrest -- Officer Wolfe testified under oath at a Temple University disciplinary hearing ("Temple Hearing"). Plaintiff was subsequently expelled from Temple University. He entered and completed the ARD program, and the criminal charges have been expunged.
On May 12, 2010, Defendants filed a motion to dismiss based on Plaintiff's alleged agreement not to bring a civil action in exchange for the dismissal and expungement of the criminal charges after the successful completion of the ARD program. See Doc. 3. On May 26, 2010, Judge McLaughlin denied Defendants' motion to dismiss without prejudice to re-file "at a later date." See Doc. 9.
On May 3, 2011, the undersigned permitted Defendants to depose Plaintiff's counsel, Ms. Furey, "regarding the circumstances surrounding the alleged coercion of Plaintiff to accept ARD -- a decision which forms part of the basis of the claims asserted in Plaintiff's complaint." See Doc. 66 at 9. I limited the deposition of Plaintiff's counsel to the following: "(1) the facts of what occurred at the court proceedings referenced in paragraphs 17 and 18 of the complaint, (2) her knowledge of an alleged 'secret meeting' between Internal Affairs detectives and Mr. Ehrlich as referenced in paragraph 17 of the complaint, (3) the loud conversation(s) she had or overheard within earshot of Plaintiff immediately prior to his acceptance of ARD, also as referenced in paragraph 17 of the complaint, (4) the alleged telephone conversation Ms. Furey had with Steve Robinson's stepmother . . ., and (5) any other matters agreed to by counsel." Id. at 11.
Plaintiff's deposition occurred on June 22, 2011, at which time defense counsel explored Plaintiff's alleged agreement not to sue Defendants in exchange for the dismissal and expungement of the criminal charges against him following the successful completion of the ARD program. Ms. Furey's deposition occurred in my courtroom on June 23, 2011, at which time defense counsel explored those areas permitted by my May 3, 2011 Order.
On July 5, 2011, defense counsel sent a letter to my chambers requesting a status conference for the purpose of staying discovery to allow Defendants to file a motion for summary judgment. After Plaintiff responded by letter that did not explicitly oppose Defendants' request to file a summary judgment motion, Defendants' request was granted by Order dated July 12, 2011. See Doc. 89. Plaintiff immediately filed a formal motion for reconsideration. See Doc. 90. Following a teleconference with counsel, I granted in part and denied in part Plaintiff's motion for reconsideration by Order dated July 13, 2011. See Doc. 91. Specifically, I denied the motion to the extent that the order staying discovery remained in place, but granted the motion in part by requiring Defendants to file a "formal motion briefly setting forth the issue they plan to raise in their summary judgment motion, whether the evidentiary record is complete on the issue, and whether it is appropriate that summary judgment be filed before the entire discovery record is complete." Id.
Defendants filed a formal motion for leave to file summary judgment on July 20, 2011, arguing that discovery is now complete as to the issue raised in the motion to dismiss denied without prejudice by Judge McLaughlin on May 26, 2010, and because the issue will bring the case to a final and full conclusion. See Doc. 98.*fn2 Subsequently, Plaintiff filed an ...
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In its 17th season, Major League Soccer is still a work in progress.
There have been some positive signs at the local level with five of the 19 teams averaging over 20,000 fans per game this season, and 12 teams averaging over 15,000.
Part of the league's slow, but steady growth is based on a soft salary cap of just $2.8 million with a maximum player salary of $350,000.
However, each team is allowed up to three "Designated Players" that do not fully count against the cap.
On the next few pages, we will take a look at the highest paid Designated Players in MLS.


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And read the first chapter of Witch Winter,book two of the Witch Ways Series, now. (It should be available on August 11, Witch Ways release day.)
It's not the monsters beneath the bed, or the ones lurking in dank and shady basements, or even those living behind bars in our prisons that frighten us the most. The real monsters, the ones we are too afraid to face, live inside us. We listen to them. We let them bend our decisions. We call them common sense, and wisdom, or prudence. But really, they are just fears. They are our monsters, these creatures of our own design, constructed out of our hurts, wounds, and insecurities. They hold us back. They become our excuse, our justification, our rationalization. And we embrace them.
But what would happen if we allowed these monsters to take shape and form? Could we beat them and restrain them with the same strength they use on us? What if we gave them a voice, a voice loud and strong enough to battle our wits? Most of us never take that chance.
But I did. And I thought I had won. I faced the monster, confronted my fear, and sent him back into the chasm of hell.
Only to find I'd made a terrible mistake.
The creature stared at me with his unblinking yellow eyes, watching my every move, as if he knew what I had in mind. I turned my back to him, grateful for the bars that separated us.
"I don't think he has eyelids," I said.
"Mmm," Bree muttered, staying focused on the computer monitor. "Any luck?"
"No. You?"
Moonlight streamed through the windows, illuminating the piles of papers on Uncle Mitch's desk. I didn't dare turn on any lights, knowing that Uncle Mitch was across the street at Janette's house and that he wouldn't like me poking around his lab.
"Maybe we should just go online to see if we can find the experiment ourselves," Bree said, sending me a quick glance over her shoulder. "Didn't he say that he based it on of some university's study?"
I set down a pile of papers. "Yeah, but we know his worked."
Bree grinned. "No, we don't. Remember the love potion?" The light from the computer screen cast a green palor on the angles and planes of her face.
I turned away, shivering, my attention landing back on the creature staring at us.
Bree followed my line of sight. "It's a guinea pig. It can't hurt you."
"It's creepy."
"No, the fact that your uncle used a recipe to make Janette fall for him is creepy." Bree scrolled down a page on the screen. "I mean, I love your uncle, but it's just so not like him."
"I know. That's what makes it interesting, right? Usually, he'd say it's all hokum." I turned my back on the guinea pig. "That's why it would make such a killer article for the newspaper."
"Even though he specifically told you not to use it."
"No, what he said was," I dropped my voice an octave to imitate Uncle Mitch's professor voice, "'It would be dangerous and irresponsible to introduce it to impressionable youths in the throes of puberty'."
"Like fireworks."
"Exactly. And who doesn't love fireworks?"
But fireworks were exactly why I'd been expelled from Hartly, the school I had attended since kindergarten. Not that I had intentionally set fire to the science lab a few months ago. An itch crept up my neck. I didn't want to be expelled from Faith Despaign Academy as well.
But I did want to make the high school newspaper, and the only way to do that was to write a great article. A wave of discouragement washed over me, because I knew that even if I wrote a great feature article on how to make anyone fall in love with you, it couldn't match the news article I'd written about the Thornhill Thespians' murders. "I'll never find a story like that again."
"I know. There's been one murder in Woodinville in about a hundred years and you discovered it." Bree paused. "It's lame your advisor won't let you use it."
I swallowed hard. "That's why I need a story that will create buzz." I paused and used my fingers to make air quotes. "'And doesn't even hint at witchcraft'."
"But what did Lauren's murder have to do with the witch's coven?"
"She was a witch."
"Huh." Bree leaned back in her chair, clearly surprised. "Well, she wasn't a very good one."
"Why do you say that?"
"If she could use magic, why didn't she try to make her life better? I mean, why wear an orange parka every day and live in a hovel if you don't have to?"
"Maybe she was happy with her life. Maybe she was okay with the orange parka and her house on Old Barn Road."
"Maybe…" Bree sounded skeptical. "If I was a witch, I'd at least get a nice coat."
I didn't tell Bree that there was a lot more to being a witch than choosing what to wear. Not that I really had any idea. I only had a tickle brewing in the back of my head, and I pretty much tried to ignore it. I disliked being tickled, even by ideas.
"Hey," Bree said, leaning closer to the monitor. "This is pretty good."
I peeked over her shoulder at the screen. How to Make Anyone Fall in Love With You, the banner read.
Bree squinted as she read. "It's not all sciency like your uncle's experiment probably would be, but it's not too Cosmo Girl either."
I scanned the article, liking what I read. "It's not as if teenagers don't fall in love every day, if not every second.'"
I pulled out my phone and copied the URL onto my browser, tucking my phone back into my pocket after I got the link pulled up. "But you won't try it on Dylan, right?" Bree had been my best friend since my dad and I had moved next door after my parents' divorce eight years ago, but last month Dylan Fox had interfered with that. Mostly because Dylan liked me and Bree liked Dylan. We were past that now. Sisters before misters…mostly.
"Yes…" Bree puffed out an exaggerated sigh, as if I'd asked her to give up shopping for Lent. "Even though I think it's dumb." Bree switched off the computer and pulled herself out of Uncle Mitch's office chair. "I mean, if you don't like him, why shouldn't he fall for me?" She squinted at me through suspicious eyes and pushed her red curls off her forehead. "You don't like him, right?"
Josh, Bree's older brother, flashed in my head, with his dark hair, even darker eyes, and football-hard muscles. He was nothing like his wispy, fair-skinned, red-headed sister. With my pale hair and complexion, I looked more like a Henderson than Josh. I told myself that we were talking about Dylan, not Josh, and I shook his image away. Bree would make my life hell if she knew I thought of her brother like that.
Like what? I couldn't answer that question. Besides being Bree's brother, Josh was also Dylan's best friend, and that just made everything complicated and weird. I fussed over the papers on Uncle Mitch's desk, hiding my face from Bree, and trying to make it seem as if we'd never been in the lab.
Which would have been easier if it hadn't been for Clarence, the guinea pig.


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August is going to be an interesting month for me. First the good stuff: In August, the Fall issues of Twist Collective and Knitcircus will be published. I have a garment in each of those 'zines and am very excited to see the final layout and photos of my garments. I will also be devoting much of August solely on a very large secret project that I'm cooking up.
Above Left: Snippet of one of the projects on the needles. You can see my draft pattern in the background. Right: Part of the main body of the 2nd project and a tiny sliver of a contrasting element. C'mon, did you really think I'd reveal the secret and actually show you details? This is all the hints I can give. Y'all will just have to be patient and wait for a few more days until the publications' release.
And now, something not so exciting, but hopefully will be very good in the long run…I plan to start an elimination diet on Aug. 1. I've contemplated doing the diet for a while now, but I always came up with some sort of excuse and lacked the motivation. Given my lifelong problem with allergies, which seemed to have worsened in the last 2-3 years, I definitely need to do it now.
For over 6 months, I've been undergoing Allergen immunotherapy. And while I've seen some minor improvements already, the process is slow, time-consuming, frustrating and not to mention, costly (insurance covers most, but those copays add up). The treatments involves me getting weekly injections of custom-formulated serums of chemical and environmental allergens. My allergist generally starts patients on a tiny, tiny injection (we're talking about like 1 drop) serum that's diluted to 1:5000 (1 part serum to 5000 parts saline). Whereas the majority of people tolerate that very well, I was so sensitive that I experienced an anaphylactic reaction to that first injection and the Doc had to administer epinephrine as a result. So, she had to take me waaaay down and started me on a 1:50,000 serum. I am finally on the 1:5000 serum that "normal" people tend to start on.
Anyway, even with the immunotherapy, the highest allowed prescription for Allegra (other allergy drugs like Claritin & Zyrtec do nothing for me), inhalers, Advair (low-dose steroid), lots of $$ spent on super expensive mattress covers & filters and regular sinus rinses, I still get random eczema, hives, and other allergy-related reactions and breakouts that require me to supplement with OTC drugs like Benadryl and Sudafed.
Whatever the cost, difficulty or inconvenience, I don't want to ever go back to this:
I'm really tired of it all, especially since my allergies aren't that controlled on top of all the medications I'm taking. I suspect that there are foods contributing to some of these other issues, whether I'm just sensitive or even truly allergic to them. I already know that I'm sensitive or allergic to sulfites, preservatives, citrus and some melons. While the process will be very hard as I'll have to give up things I love to eat, I think (I hope) that in the end, I will be much happier, more energetic, sleep better and just be much healthier. I am scheduled to have some food allergy testing done in December, and while food allergy testing can help, the tests can also register false positives and false negatives. With me playing my own food detective, I can probably pinpoint some of the other culprits and help my Doc to formulate a better diagnosis for me.
So with the Doc's approval and my desire to have a better daily life, hopefully free of daily headaches, more energy, more sleep, better breathing and no more itching, I've committed myself to start the diet starting August 1. After doing more research and reading, it appears that given my ultra-sensitivity to so many things, I will need to eliminate lots of foods that other people on elimination diets can eat, which is a bit of a dismay. 😦 Because of some of my known and tested allergies, I need to eliminate foods that are commonly associated with those allergies. I'll have to cut out all fruits, some of my favorite veggies and all grains (even rice or quinoa!) during the elimination period; it's the only way that I can really test to see if I am sensitive or allergic to some of those foods.
The plan: Make my diet public to hopefully help me maintain the motivation. I'll do a 3 week elimination period and only test low-suspect foods like broccoli, carrots, bananas and rice first. All other foods will be eliminated for 1 month before I start challenging and re-introducing them, slowly and one by one. I'll be keeping a food diary of everything I eat (or rather, don't eat!) and my reactions and how I feel everyday and before/after each meal.
Saying goodbye: It's so hard to say goodbye to some of my favorite foods, and it'll also be hard to see all the food-related post my foodie friends make on Twitter and Facebook. In "prepping" for this upcoming very restrictive diet, I downed lots of swiss cheese and a quart of ice cream in the span of 3 days. The rest of this week will be filled with indulgent meals of pasta, sweets, chocolate, breads, tofu and sushi.
Goodbye, my friends, I hope I get to see you again. I know that I may not taste some of you for a very long time, if ever again…


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Mission Control Partner Connect
The Partner Connect service integrates your business partners into your organization by implementing encrypted connections for secure, reliable and integrity-protected communication. The service then monitors the usage, availability and performance of the business-critical partner connections.
Each connection is an encrypted IPsec tunnel from your organization to your business partner, where the partner's end of the tunnel is intentionally independent of your network. So although you do not have control over your partner's end of the tunnel, the Partner Connect service provides intelligent monitoring, and rates the connection quality. Installation and change management are part of the service, as are 24x7 intervention and incident escalation. On request, Mission Control can handle direct escalations to your business partners.
The benefits of Mission Control Partner Connect are:
Visibility and control
- Status and quality reporting for remote endpoint
- Qualified notification about partner connection status
Fast and easy integration
- Reduced integration complexity
- Straightforward installation
- Change management by Mission Control
- Per partner NAT and IP conflict resolution
Incident response
- 24x7 intervention and escalation
- Incident handling process is part of Mission Control operations
The Service Delivery Platform used in the Mission Control Partner Connect service is on the Microsoft list of validated VPN devices for Azure.
For more information, see the Microsoft website.
For Partner Connect, the Mission Control Portal distinguishes between three tunnel states:
- up (green): The tunnel is up and everything is fine.
- slow (yellow): The tunnel is up and running, but there is either high packet loss or high RTT (round-trip time).
- down (red): The tunnel is down. The comment field shows the error message about why the tunnel is down (e.g. preshared key mismatch).


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Everybody wants to have a nice looking home, but not all have time or money to achieve this. If you have such issues, then you may not realize that there are a lot of things you can do that do not require much effort and are cost effective. Here are some of the things you can do to make your home look great.
Make your entrance inviting and beautiful
When people look at your home, they first see the front door. If you can make the door look fresh and clean them, you are almost there. If your door is old and you cannot afford to buy a new one, you may consider prepping it with and do a new coat of paint. Choose a color that is nice and will complement the rest of the home and use it to paint the door. Also, free your front door from any clutter. Clean the windows around the front door that are reachable and consider putting decorative items like wreath near the door.
Keep the pathways and sidewalk clear
The sidewalks and pathways should always be swept and all the dust and grime removed. Debris and leaves should be removed from the pathway regularly. If your pathway is crumbling, then you can consider a replacement. Stone pavers are a cheap option and can make your home look lovely.
Repair any broken items
If a shutter in the home begins to fall off, fix it immediately. If your fence is knocked over, try to fix it back the way to was. Items that breakdown usually makes your home aesthetics deteriorate so if you cannot fix them yourself get somebody to do it as soon as possible.
Install appealing and adequate lighting
Lighting usually adds some beautiful ambiance to your home. Install some attractive light close to the front door, and you will be amazed the difference it makes at night. Choose led light since they may be expensive upfront but save a lot of money on electric bills.
Keep the house clean
If the sidings of your house get dirty ensure you free them from dirt and fingerprints quickly. Take a look at your home and fix what seems to be out of place.
Tidy up the yard
If you have children, then it requires an effort of the entire household to get the yard cleaned and free of clutter. Ensure your kids keep all the outdoor toys when they are not playing. Clean up pet hair and waste after the pets have used the outdoors. The yard should be kept as clean as possible. Take care of all the plant in your home. Do not let grass grow in the lawns and if you cannot mow it, consider hiring someone to do the job.
Your home will look much better if you can follow these simple tip. Besides they are also expensive so you should not worry about the cost.


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I have used a image from Teddy Bo, actually from the female side Teddy Bea, called strawberry picking!
These bears are so cute:-)
I have coloured with promarkers and touchmarkers
Hi sweetie this is gorgeous i love the reds so rich, and the corners look great, thanks for joining our challenge this week at Teddy Bo hugs pops xSvarSlett
Lovely card. The backing paper is scrummy and the image is lovely and bright. Great flower arrangement too.
Thank you for joining us at Teddybo.
Edna x
Oh this is gorgeous, love the backing paper, it's perfect for the sweet image. Thanks for joining us at Teddy Bo xSvarSlett
Wow! What a fab card, such a cute image We love the colours! Thank you for joining the Digi Divas! Lynne & Woo xSvarSlett
Absolutely beautiful -everything is wonderfully co-ordinated - thanks for sharing with us at Teddy Bo
Debbie xx
This is just so gorgeous a beautiful image and just loving the papers and detail. Chanelle xxxSvarSlett
Beautiful cards...such cute images...thanks for joining us this week at CS.....
Ahhh this is just so pretty and just right for summer :0) I love the papers you have used and the colours.
Thanks for playing along with us at Teddy Bo's challenge.
Love Clairebears x
Gorgeous card....love the sweet image and those backing papers are perfect for the image!
Hugs Tab xxx
Gorgeous card! I love all the beautiful embellishments you used.SvarSlett
Beautiful card....thanks for joining us at Cutie Sunday.
HUgs Stine
Thanks for joining Cutie Sunday this week.
Hi Gry, Gorgeous card! The backing paper is just perfect for this sweet Bea image.
Thanks for sharing it with us at Teddy Bo.
Lisa x


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Espresso Roast Ground
Rich & Caramelly
The heart of our handcrafted lattes.
It's a special blend of beans from Latin America and Asia/Pacific darkly roasted to produce a rich and caramelly sweetness.
Because this dense, full-bodied brew has a stout taste that stands up against milk, it's the perfect foundation for making a latte or cappuccino at home.
Here's an interesting fact: Espresso was invented in Italy by an enterprising soul who was seeking a way to prepare coffee in less time, in order to serve commuters rushing to catch trains. Which is somewhat ironic when you think about it, because coffee lovers in Italy (and all over the world) now prefer to savor their espresso in long, slow sips.
Currently Available
Find It At
- Grocery Stores and Other Retailers
- Enjoy with:
- A croissant and a brisk walk to work.
- Origin
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Espresso Roast Pods
Brew a perfect shot of espresso every time with pre-measured and tamped Espresso Roast Pods.
Conservation International
For more than a decade, Starbucks has worked with Conservation International (CI) to develop and implement the C.A.F.E. Practices program. The program encourages coffee suppliers to grow process and trade coffee in an environmentally responsible way. Starbucks invites coffee cooperatives, farms and supply networks of all sizes and scale to participate. Learn more about Conservation International