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We all know the delicious and tasty avocado that has been used in many dishes in different uses around the world and is packed with numerous health benefits. But, did you know that avocado seeds are also useful and contains health properties for the body? In fact, the seeds contain antioxidant properties than the avocado fruity fleshes and most fruits, vegetables and healing teas do.
Top Benefits of Eating Avocado Seeds:
Avocado seeds contain nourishing oil that is rich in antioxidants. In fact, 70% of the antioxidants are found in the seed alone and the other 30% are actually in the flesh and skin.
• Soothes gastric ulcers
The seed contains antioxidants in it known as phenolic compounds. These compounds contain antibacterial and anti-viral properties, which makes the seeds effective at preventing ulcers within the lining of the digestive system.
• Ease swelling in the gastrointestinal tract
The super fruit's seeds are also a great alternative for reducing inflammatory disease within the body.
How to prepare:
All you have to do to get these seeds into your diet is slice open an avocado, carefully remove the seed, place it into a plastic bag, and crush it with a meat mallet or hammer. After, place the crushed seed into a blender and grind it into a fine powder. Then sprinkle the seed mixture onto meals and eat up to receive the health benefits from this amazing super food.


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Tykes tie up Etuhu deal
Barnsley have completed the capture of Kelvin Etuhu on a free transfer after he decided against signing a new contract at Portsmouth.
Last Updated: 08/06/12 8:02pm
Barnsley have completed the capture of Kelvin Etuhu on a free transfer after the forward decided against signing a new contract at Portsmouth.
The former Manchester City youngster spent the second half of last season with Pompey and the club were hoping Etuhu would stay following relegation to League One.
However, Etuhu has become Keith Hill's first signing of the summer as the Barnsley manager rebuilds his squad ahead of the 2012/13 Championship campaign.
The 24-year-old has put pen-to-paper on a one-year deal at Oakwell after Hill finally succeeded in his pursuit of a player he wanted to sign last season.
Hill told the club's official website: "We're glad we've managed to secure the signing of Kelvin.
"We're excited by the prospect of working with him. We're really pleased and he represents good value for money and I'm just glad he chose us.
"It's exciting because he can play in a number of positions - anywhere across the front line. He's got pace and ability and he will excite the adoring public."

subset: commoncrawl


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>Today's NYT article about the popular Junie B. Jones books brings up a number of reasons adults don't like the series, mostly citing its demonstrations of bullying and other bad behavior. But my heart belong to a Mr. Lewis Bartell, a man mindful of the future:
"My dad doesn't like the grammar," said the Bartells's youngest, Mollie, 9. "And I guess that's important, because maybe when you grow up and you're at work and you say, 'I runned,' people will get annoyed at you."
Mollie, that is so true. In fact, I'm already kind of annoyed at you at nine.


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women's original lightweight rubberised jacket: navy
A festival essential, the Lightweight Rubberised Jacket is new to the Hunter Core collection. With fully welded seams, the jacket is fully waterproof and features a hood with an adjustable draw cord for extra weather protection and deep front pockets to store valuables in.
- Regular fit
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as such. as
democracy should embrace all.
Whitman commends the many people of America in "I Hear America Singing."
He writes of the mothers, and the carpenters. He says that they all sing their
own song of what belongs to them. In this poem Whitman brings these people from
all backgrounds together as Americans. In the freedom of American democracy
they are allowed to sing of what is theirs.
In these poems Whitman has described those held in the lowest esteem.
He has also described the common man, the mothers, and the soldiers. He speaks
for all these people, liberating them. He has taken them out from the ranks
that society had put them in, and brought them together, glorifying them and
America in the light of democracy. ...
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Our Approach
We recognize that the body is its own best healer. Therapeutic massage at the heart of it, is one of the most effective ways to promote the body's own healing ability. This translates into more long term relief from pain and stress.
Our Story
Uptown Therapeutic Massage has its beginnings with a magnificent soul named Amber Ham. With enormous care for almost a decade, she grew it into a robust and healthy practice. Now UTM is lovingly cared for by Kimberly Gray.


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Tuesday, November 27, 2007
USS Wachusett
Named after a mountain peak in north central Massachusetts, the USS Wachusett was a 1,032-ton Iroquois class screw sloop of war that was commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on 3 March 1862. The ship was approximately 201 feet long, had a beam off almost 34 feet and had a speed of 11.5 knots. The Wachusett was heavily armed with two 11-inch guns, two 30-pounders, one 20-pounder, four 32-pounders and one 12-pounder.
As soon as she was commissioned, the Wachusett was assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron during the Civil War. She reached Hampton Roads, Virginia, in March 1862 and was sent to patrol the York and James Rivers in Virginia. The Wachusett supported Major General George B. McClellan's Peninsular Campaign during the spring of 1862 and on 6 and 7 May this ship assisted in landing troops at West Point, Virginia, while under fire from Confederate shore batteries. The Wachusett moved deeper into the James River and on 15 May was part of the Union assault on Fort Darling at Drewry's Bluff, Virginia. The ship stayed on the York and James Rivers through August and also served as Commodore Charles Wilkes' flagship as part of the Potomac Flotilla from 29 August to 7 September.
On 8 September 1862, the Wachusett was made the flagship of a special "Flying Squadron" that was put under the command of Commodore Wilkes. The primary mission of the Flying Squadron (which was made up of seven warships) was to hunt down and destroy the elusive and notorious Confederate commerce raiders CSS Alabama and CSS Florida in the West Indies. On 18 January 1863, the Wachusett and the USS Sonoma captured the Southern merchant ship Virginia off the coast of Mexico and on 25 March the Wachusett captured the British blockade runner Dolphin between Puerto Rico and St. Thomas Island. But even though the Flying Squadron managed to catch some Southern ships, it was unable to intercept either the Alabama or the Florida. In May the Wachusett returned to Boston for an overhaul and some badly needed repairs.
On 4 February 1864, the Wachusett was sent off the coast of Brazil to protect American merchant ships from Confederate commerce raiders, especially the dreaded Alabama and Florida, which were still on the loose. The Wachusett was now under the command of Commander Napoleon Collins, a tough US Navy veteran. Collins was born in Pennsylvania on 4 March 1814 and he became a Midshipman in the US Navy in January 1834. After being promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in 1846, Collins was very active aboard US warships during the Mexican-American War. After the Civil War started, Collins was given the command of several gunboats and was made a Commander in July 1862. Now he was in charge of a formidable Union warship that was hunting down two Confederate cruisers, both of which posed a very real threat to the Union's shipping and commerce.
After searching off the coast of Brazil for many months, Commander Collins finally sighted one of his targets. On 4 October 1864, the Wachusett saw the CSS Florida entering Bahia Harbor in Brazil. The Wachusett stayed just outside the harbor but, since Brazil was a neutral nation during the Civil War, Commander Collins technically could not enter the port to capture the Confederate raider. Collins tried to goad Lieutenant Charles M. Morris, the Captain of the Florida, into coming out of the harbor to fight. Morris, though, wisely decided to stay inside the neutral harbor to avoid a confrontation with the Union warship. What could Commander Collins do? Sitting right in front of him was the CSS Florida, the dastardly Confederate cruiser that had captured or destroyed 33 Union merchant ships. Would he dare risk Brazil's neutrality, risk his naval career and risk a court martial for breaking international law by entering a neutral port to destroy a notorious Confederate raider? What made matters even worse was that Brazil had positioned one of its own gunboats in between the Florida and the Washusett in hopes of keeping the two ships apart. What would Collins do if the Brazilian ship opened fire on his ship?
Shortly after midnight on 7 October 1864, Commander Napoleon Collins made up his mind. He ordered the Wachusett to quietly steam past the Brazilian gunboat and enter the harbor. Collins wanted to ram the Florida and sink it, but as the Union warship approached the Confederate cruiser it was only able to strike it a glancing blow on its starboard quarter. The impact did a considerable amount of damage to the Florida, but both ships remained afloat and seaworthy. Fortunately, half of the Florida's crew (including her Captain, Lieutenant Morris) was ashore while the attack was taking place and only a few shots were fired between the two ships before the balance of the crew on board the Florida surrendered. The Wachusett then quickly took the Florida in tow and literally pulled it out of Bahia Harbor. As the Wachusett and the Florida were leaving the harbor, a Brazilian coastal fort at Bahia opened fire on the two ships. No hits were scored and the two ships quickly left the area and headed north. On 11 November the Wachusett and the Florida reached Hampton Roads, Virginia.
An international firestorm erupted after this event took place. Brazil strongly protested this violation of its neutrality and the United States could only admit that it had indeed acted illegally in taking the Florida. The US Navy promised to return the Confederate raider to Brazil but on 28 November 1864 the Florida was rammed and sunk by a US Army transport in Hampton Roads. Whether this was an accident or a deliberate attack was never established, even though two courts of inquiry investigated the matter. As for Commander Collins, he was promptly courtmartialled for violating Brazilian neutrality. He was found guilty and sentenced to be dismissed from the US Navy. But the bold attack on (and the subsequent capture of) the Florida made Commander Collins a hero in the North and it neutralized one of the South's main commerce raiders. The Union's Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, seemed to agree with what Commander Collins did because he ignored the decision of the court martial and he restored Collins to active duty. Napoleon Collins not only remained in the US Navy, but in July 1866 he was made a full Captain. In August 1874 Collins achieved the rank of Rear Admiral, but he died only a year later on 9 August 1875 in Lima, Peru, while in command of the US South Pacific Squadron.
As for the USS Wachusett, in March 1865 she sailed around the Cape of Good Hope bound for the East Indies. Once there, she joined the USS Wyoming and the USS Iroquois in searching for another Confederate raider, the CSS Shenandoah. The Wachusett stayed in the Pacific until 1867, when she was sent back to the United States. From 1871 to 1874, the Wachusett was sent to the Mediterranean and then returned to the United States to patrol the waters off the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. After being decommissioned from 1874 to 1879, the Wachusett was brought back into service to patrol the Gulf of Mexico. She also joined the South Atlantic Station in October 1879, but in May 1880 the Wachusett was transferred to the Pacific. She remained on the Pacific Station until September 1885 when she was decommissioned for the last time at the Mare Island Navy Yard in California. The US Navy sold the Wachusett to a private company on 30 July 1887.
How many naval officers today would risk their ship and their career (not to mention a court martial) to defeat a sworn enemy of this nation? Commander Napoleon Collins faced that exact problem on board the Wachusett and he decided that defeating the enemy was more important than any single person's career, including his own. That was a tough decision made by a tough officer on board a tough ship.
Figure 1 (Top): USS Wachusett (1862-1887) off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, with the city of Vallejo in the distance, circa 1880-85. She decommissioned for the last time in September 1885, at Mare Island. Photograph from the William H. Topley Collection, Courtesy of Charles M. Loring, 1969. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2 (Middle, Top): USS Wachusett photographed at Shanghai, China, in 1867. Courtesy of Charles H. Bogart, 1973. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3 (Middle, Bottom): "Cutting out of the Florida from Bahia, Brazil, by the U.S.S. Wachusett," 19th Century phototype print by F. Gutekunst, Philadelphia. It depicts the capture of CSS Florida by USS Wachusett at Bahia, Brazil, on 7 October 1864. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4 (Bottom): Commander Napoleon Collins, USN. Carte de visite print of a photograph taken circa 1864 by E. Anthony, New York. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Posted by Remo at 9:02 AM


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Friday, October 1, 2010
Johnson says abuse bill was laudable but flawed
Ron Johnson says he was briefed extensively on a bill to eliminate the statute of limitations on sexual abuse victims right to sue their abusers prior to his testimony before a state Senate committee last year.
Johnson, a Republican, is taking on incumbent Dem U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold.
Johnson has faced pressure this week from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a group representing those abused by priests, after video of his testimony resurfaced. Johnson testified before the committee as a member of the Diocese of Green Bay's Financial Council. The group wants Johnson to push the diocese to disclose the names of pedophile priests.
Johnson has said he wants the Diocese to provide the "utmost transparency" in answering questions from victims.
"Sexual predators and anybody who would aid and abet them, I want to make sure those folks are prosecuted criminally and I can't think of a harsh enough penalty," he told reporters today. "I was just testifying about what the unintended consequences might be of that particular piece of legislation. Laudable goal but a flawed piece of legislation."
Johnson made the comments today following an address to the Dairy Business Association at the World Dairy Expo in Madison. The DBA has endorsed Johnson.
Asked about the Milk Income Loss Contract program, Johnson said he is in favor of a new ag bill, but said he doesn't know a lot of the specifics, and said he would be looking for guidance from people like former state legislator Jim Harsdorf, who introduced him at the event. But he said most Americans support safety net programs for farmers.
"I realize the farm economy doesn't necessarily follow, free market doesn't work all that well because you have a bumper crop and then the prices will really drop," Johnson said. "I certainly support things like safety nets, risk management and those types of programs."
During his stump speech to the group, Johnson said his candidacy was prompted by national health care reform, which he called "the greatest single assault on freedom in my lifetime. It is designed to lead to a government takeover of this health care system."
Johnson relayed the personal story of his daughter who as a child needed a life-saving heart operation. She was saved because he had the freedom to seek out the best care, Johnson said, something he contends wouldn't be possible under a "socialized" system.
"First of all take a look at what happens in Canada," Johnson said to reporters. "There's a reason the premier of Newfoundland came to America to get his heart surgery. It's not because that Canadian system is superior."
Johnson, who owns Oshkosh-based plastics manufacturer Pacur, stressed his insurance plan was the same as every other employee at Pacur, "run-of-the-mill coverage any small- to medium-sized business would have."
On the war effort, Johnson said he would question policy but not "grandstand or undermine the efforts of our troops."
"I would not politicize the war," Johnson said, adding he would work behind the scenes with congressional colleagues and the administration to reach a consensus "so we as a nation could reverse course."
That said, Johnson said he was concerned about the commitment of the Obama administration to the war effort in Afghanistan.
"I'm concerned about what they define victory, success as. I'm not quite sure what it is. I'm concerned that they're committed," he said.
"I'm not privy to all the intelligence," Johnson said. "The bottom line is, President Obama is and he must see something in the intelligence that prompted him to surge troops … There is no doubt about it that we are under threat of terrorism. And we take that seriously. I'd much rather fight that over there than fight that on the streets here in America."


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I can no longer deny that summer is truly over, and fall is upon us. The days are shorter, the leaves are starting to change color, and suddenly it's all about the hats and mittens. See? We've got more kid mittens.
And I finally got around to trying the Fox and Geese hat pattern from Robin Hansen's Fox and Geese and Fences, with some help from Biscuit:
And in other cat news, Jake and Cookie are staring to get along better. Despite Cookie stealing Jake's new catnip mouse right out from under him. But they made up:
Jake's not used to the constant clicking of cameras yet. But he has got the hang of where the soft sleeping places are. I woke up the other night with Cookie curled at my feet, Jake curled up beside my knee, and Biscuit patting my face to wake me up because he was hungry. Some things never change.
This weekend I'd planned to cut a swathe through my to-do list at home, but I've come down with a minor bug that has nevertheless sucked a lot of the get-up-and-go out of me. Which makes me grumpy. I've hit the high points anyway and spent the rest of the weekend sleeping, reading, and drinking hot cider. Not necessarily a bad way to spend a rainy fall weekend, but I'll have to turn up the hustle as soon as I finish kicking this crummy cold back where it came from.


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Detailed plot synopsis reviews of The Diary of Anne Frank
Script Analysis of The Diary of Anne Frank
Click on a plot link to find similar books!
Plot & ThemesTime/era of movie: - 1930's-1950's War impact on civilians/veterans - Yes Ethnic/Regional/Gender story? - Yes Ethnic/region/relig - Jew, regular - German Kind of conflict: - holocaust
Main CharacterIdentity: - Male Profession/status: - student Age: - a teen Ethnicity/Nationality - German
SettingEurope - Yes European country: - Netherlands City? - Yes City: - dangerous Misc setting - prison
Writing StyleAccounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment Any profanity? - None If this is a kid's movie... - Ages 10-15 Is this movie based on a - book
Movies with storylines, themes & endings like The Diary of Anne Frank
|Ladies in Lavender starring Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Daniel Br�hl, Natascha McElhone
|Avalon (1990) starring Aidan Quinn, Kevin Pollack, Elizabeth Perkins, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Elijah Wood, Joan Plowright
|Liberty Heights starring Adrien Brody, Ben Foster, Orlando Jones, Bebe Neuwirth, Joe Mantegna, Rebekah Johnson, David Krumholtz
|Focus starring William H. Macy, Laura Dern, David Paymer, Meat Loaf
|Rhapsody in Blue starring Robert Alda, Joan Leslie, Alexis Smith, Herbert Rudley, Charles Coburn, Morris Carnovsky, Oscar Levant, Paul Whiteman, Al Jolson, Albert Bassermann, R


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being a high level spell caster in this game is the most OP thing ever for PVE.
some interesting cut content from Dark Souls! really well done video. (and he has other great dark souls videos as well. if you guys haven't already seen them)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RkLstvjmUk
(and he has other great dark souls videos as well. if you guys haven't already seen them)
Anyway I am starting with Knight
like what should I stuck up on or what should I look out for.
Also about Artorias of Abyss dlc, are the new zones are available from start?
That shot is great.
Grave Lord Nito is more like Lame Lord... Um... Lame-o.
Also does anyone know where could I find Bonfire after that Boar mini boss? That underground passage with those zombies,is annoyand as hell.
There's a bonfire not too far before the mini-boss, but it requires you to have slain the dragon on the bridge. If you haven't done that, then you must press forward through the underground passage (the enemies there aren't very strong, they only rely on surprising you but if you're careful they're no trouble), and then after that through a few hallways where two or three knights are roaming. Passed that you'll find an open court with a huge knight and a few skeletons in it. On the right side of that court, opposite the cathedral, is a path going far back and then down into a building. There's a bonfire there, just above a blacksmith.
There's a bonfire not too far before the mini-boss, but it requires you to have slain the dragon on the bridge.
I still haven't slayed the dragon ,it's enough for me just to appear on bridge and I'm close to dying from his fire attack. I will try getting there. Also is it possible to get to the blacksmith from that bonfire ,like stairs or something? Because since bonfire I'm tied to atm is near stairs from which I can get up to Undead Parish and closest accessible Blacksmith is long waaaay off near Firelink Shrine.
Also, it sounds like your current bonfire has stairs you can't climb up Are you at the bonfire before the taurus demon in undead burg. You did find the shortcut under the dragon bridge right? There is a ladder you can kick down so that from that bonfire, you can just climb up the ladder and be right at the dragon.
I know only about that way under bridge which leads to those rats.
I did some research and found out about Drake Sword ,I will probably try to get that tommorow since stat wise it's almost 3x stronger and requires measly stats.
That bonfire is accessible regardless of the Wyvern. I've certainly never beaten that guy. Got his tail, of course. He'll fly off once you get past him and/or use the bonfire.
Still, my rule of thumb on weapons in this game is to fuck dpsuse whatever weapon you're comfortable with. Each one has a different moveset and different weight/feel. So get comfy with one and stick to the ones you like.


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Dental Sleep and TMD Center of Illinois is dedicated to relieving pain and suffering from patients experiencing complex symptoms of TMD (temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction) and chronic headaches. Signs and symptoms of temporomandibular joint disorder vary in their presentation and can be very complex. Often the symptoms will involve more than one of the numerous TMJ components: muscles, joints, nerves and the teeth.
What are some of the TMD/Migraine headaches symptoms you should be looking for?
- Pain around the Ears
- Jaw, Tooth, Face, Neck and/or Should Pain
- Clicking or Popping of the Jaw
- Grinding of the Teeth
- Ringing or Fullness in the Ears
- Migraine Headaches or any other type of Headaches
- Sinus Pressure and Lack of Draining
There are 236 types of headaches. The large majority of these headaches have a jaw joint or muscle component. Our treatments reduce the excitability of specific cranial nerves. By lowering this threshold the likelihood and intensity of mirgraines or headaches are diminished.
Is TMD Curable?
Although TMD can become a chronic problem associated with permenant damage from trauma to the head, neck or TMD joint, the symptoms can be eliminated through proper professional care. The objective of our treatment is to gently and naturally bring the head, neck, jaw and bite into neuromuscular alignment. In other words, the head literally teeters on the top of the cervical spine with the center of gravity forward to the spine. It is tethered to the body by muscles of the joint systems. Functional and resting head posture is dependant upon the proper tension in these muscles. Movement of the jaw is not only related to the muscles for chewing, but also head and neck position.
Here's what is involved in our TMD treatment process:
A thorough evaluation and patient history, then a physical examination to discover the muscle hot spots or trigger points. We will perform a bite evaluation using computerized equipment. Then we use a series of office treatments including state of the art equipment and massage therapy. Also included will be very important take home instruments to help you manage and divert early signs of headaches and migraines.
Our goal is to help you be pain free and improve the quality of your life!
If you have any further questions, or would like to schedule an appointment to meet our team and get started living pain free, please feel free to contact our TMD Director, Cathy, at 630-369-5508.


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We've got you covered
This is a limited edition print!
"I've been exploring the connection between my art and movement lately. I wanted to utilize the qualities of ink and water in order to visually display my ideas of expansion. When I think of expanse I think of one of my favorite organic forms- the bloom."
- Dan Huston
After graduating from Bates college with a degree in studio art and environmental studies, I moved to Portland, Oregon to further pursue my art and understanding of its relation to the natural world. My work is strongly influenced by traditional Japanese and Chinese ink painting which I studied for a semester in Osaka, Japan. It is not only a reflection of my love for organic form and abstraction, but also my own impulsive thought and movement which I have been exploring through doodling for as long as I can remember! I think of my art as the visual manifestation of my own stream of consciousness. www.Danhustonpdx.com
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Cat In Green Shorts Giclée Fine Art Print
Cat In Green Shorts Giclée Fine Art Print
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ROME — A Spanish judge Wednesday indicted 40 Rwandan army officers on charges of mass murder and crimes against humanity in the aftermath of the 1994 Rwanda genocide, asserting a concept of justice championed by his nation known as "universal jurisdiction."
Judge Fernando Andreu of Spain's National Court said he also had sufficient evidence to implicate current Rwandan President Paul Kagame in a long string of reprisal massacres after he and his forces seized power, ending the genocide. But Andreu said he could not indict Kagame because as president he has immunity.
Rwandan officials reacted angrily. An army spokesman, Maj. Jill Rutaremara, said the legal case was "nothing but an attempt to tarnish Rwanda's image," according to reports by Agence France-Presse from Kigali, the capital.
The indicted men include a Rwandan military attache stationed in Washington and a Rwandan ambassador in Asia, as well as the army chief of staff, according to people familiar with the judicial order.


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I didn't know much about her before word of her assassination flooded the news. But a deep sadness grasped my heart as images of her flashed across my TV screen.
She was a woman who stood for something.
Bhutto was trying to make a difference in Pakistan. And she did. Not many women in the Muslim world had the kind of power, influence and education that she had when she first took on the role of prime minister. She was by no means perfect but she represented a positive change in a traditional male-driven society. Even today, activists like Nazanin are fighting for women's' rights in the Middle East.
Although Bhutto has passed away, we must make sense of her tragic departure and re-examine what she stood for and where things are going if we don't pay close attention to Pakistan's significant place in this global war on terrorism.
And lastly, here's an excerpt from her autobiography Daughter of the East:
[Hat tip to Muslamics]


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The friendly, courteous staff at the Tourist Welcome Office in Témiscaming make it their duty to inform you of what to see and where to go. Whether you seek attractions, services, activities or local products, they'll provide advice tailored to your needs and desires. The bureau is located in Témiscamingue's historic train station, the Musée de la Gare. You can also rent a bike and set off to explore the area on two wheels. Looking forward to welcoming you!
The Tourist welcome office is located in a village-relais, which is a safe and pleasant rest stop offering a variety of services.
15, rue Humphrey C.P. 89, Témiscaming, Québec, Canada, J0Z 3R0
819 627-1846
Activities and services
- Exhibitions
- Other activities
- Internet access : paid wireless
- Boutique / Sales counter
- Documentation / publications
Vehicle and Parking Services
- Free outdoor parking
Signs and shuttles
- Tourist signs (blue)
Rental services
- Bike rental


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Download DiffEngineX - Compare Excel Spreadsheets
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Microsoft Office or Excel is the only requirement for this software to work.
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The Short Guide To Using DiffEngineX is recommended reading.
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DiffEngineX will not work unless the following is installed: Any version of Microsoft® Excel or Microsoft® Office (all versions from 2003 to 2019)


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Category: Videography
Joan Remembering
Sustainable Farming – Chicks
The farm got four baby chickens. They were put in with a mother chicken who gladly adopted them and has taken excellent care of them. In only days, she's taught them to peck at good things to eat.
4th of July on the Farm
Our First Documentary
There have been two types of video that are near and dear to my heart – biography and documentary. I like the idea of a biography, because it honors someone's life. I love the idea of a documentary because it teaches and opens our eyes to something we may have know existed, but never given a second thought to.
My current project is the latter of the two. It is not only, I hope, going to open the eyes of others, but is opening my eyes as well. I'm learning things that are impacting my own life; things about farming, differences between seeds you buy at the local hardware store and seeds known as heirloom seeds. I'm learning how to make soap, Kombucha tea, more about recycling, solar energy, greenhouses, heirloom animals, and more, more, more. I feel like Oliver in the broadway musical, when he says, I'd like some more please.
This first project is strengthening my arms, because it just isn't practical to drag a tripod or even a monopod around the farm. Sometimes I have to carefully follow my client out into the garden itself, following in her exact footsteps between rows so as not to compact the soil and decrease growth. I have to squeeze into the greenhouses or into the five sided enclosed area where the turkeys brood and newborn poults hatch. I've spent the night at the farm so that I could film the late afternoon and evening activities as well as early morning routines. I've eaten breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the farm on numerous occasions and the variety of foods I eat has expanded greatly. When I leave the farm, I feel good because I ate the way I should eat. In the afternoons we often go swimming in the farm's pool, a treat I hadn't experienced in years. I've grabbed up my cameras and jumped in the car with my client to follow her around to places where she buys food for the animals and picks up fruits and vegetables from the local Good Earth store – things that are no longer sellable, but make wonderful additions to the diets of Allen Heirloom Homestead's sheep, turkeys and chickens. I've gone in a kayak for the first time, tethered to the rowboat that my client built, filming the two of them as they leisurely row about the lake, stopping for a picnic or to read. Frank likes to read aloud to Christina while she crochets. Back at the farm he reads to her as she spins wool or cotton or while she weaves.
Back at the studio, I'm capturing and cataloguing lots of footage and photographs. I'm getting ready to set up a huge spreadsheet that will list all of the subjects Christina wants to include in the documentary. As each one is successfully captured on film, I can check it off (perhaps date it). The spreadsheet will be laid out so that when I have completed each filming item in a segment, I'll be able to edit that segment to completion. If its a segment on sheep wool, we may be able to create a mini-segment to release on just that topic. A few days ago I was able to create a theatrical trailer for the documentary.
I'm working on this project alone. I'm a one-woman company. That isn't always enough, so when I have a project that needs additional manpower, I have a wonderful group of peers I can draw upon. I subcontract out for camera work or editing as needed. That arrangement works extremely well. I, in turn, also get called upon from time to time to help another in the same way. The documentary seems to need just one person though. It has been beneficial in many ways. It gives me total control, experience in all aspects of the project (filming, photography, post production), and it lets me get to know my client and they get to know me. By client, I mean not only Christina and Frank, but also the sheep, turkeys and chickens. We're all getting to know one another. The animals are perhaps a bit more at ease with me as I spend more and more time there. Filming began in April and will continue for approximately eighteen months as we capture all of the seasons. Since I can't be at the farm all the time, I miss important events. The extra months will give me two spring seasons of filming, which are critical months.
It's my wish that I be able to help others learn at least as much as I've learned about sustainability farming since becoming involved with the project. If people who see the documentary have never farmed, I hope it will give them the courage and knowledge to begin. They can begin with containers on a deck or patio. If it's someone who is on the other end of the spectrum and knows a lot about farming, maybe it will open their eyes about heirloom plants and animals, about making a smaller footprint on the environment. I hope the film teaches things that run from one end of the spectrum tot he other and everywhere in between. The goal is to help people take a step forward in healthier eating and living.
Here is the trailer for the documentary.
Here are some photographs I've taken at the farm.
Artist Demo Video Series – Take One
I've begun a series of demo videos. This is a new area for me and it has been a period of experimentation. Here is a small clip.
I'm Very Pleased
The site is coming along very nicely. Of course, you can't see the comparison to where it was just a week ago. There are still a few minor tweaks and places to make better. I'll spend a little time on it tomorrow and then I absolutely must get back to work on some editing. I have a music video and a travel video to finish up. I look forward to putting on my creativity cap and getting back to work.
New year – fresh start!
Day One – Log Cabin Studios receives a facelift. This change goes below the surface. What you're seeing is only the beginning.


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Friday, March 31, 2017
Lending Club Update
This is my first Lending Club update this year and will probably only make the updates quarterly.
At the end of December, I was sitting just under $10,000 in loans and have not made any additional contributions since. As you can see, my balance has climbed to $10,137 during the first quarter of 2017. I am reinvesting all interest payments and if I realize similar returns throughout the year, my ending loan balance will be around $10,500.
This return is lower than I had anticipated, but about what you would expect from a utility stock. Also 5.57% is much better than bank interest for sure. NO FDIC however!!
I've been a little quiet on the dividend investing front and will be making bigger moves in April now that my taxes are done. I'm looking to be around $8500 in forward dividends by May 1!!
13 comments:
- AnonymousMarch 31, 2017 at 6:28 PM
Awesome MDP! Looking forward to your Beast Mode April! Cheers!ReplyDeleteReplies
Me too! I need to really get rolling again!
MDP -ReplyDelete
Solid update on the lending club front. I, too, have been more than quiet on the dividend stock investing front and I don't like it! haha, not too many opps. out there that are "must haves", frustrating. Thanks for sharing MDP, talk soon.
Thanks man! As you know it's about income investing, but bargain hunting for solid assets as well.
How is the default rate in LC? How about taxes? Is it easy to report this income? Is it as simple as 1099 INT?ReplyDeleteReplies
I really don't know honestly. I just give everything to my accountant! My best guess is the interest counts as interest income and the charges off loans are capital losses. Hope that helps!
Thanks for the LC update. Always interested to see how others are investing their money and what kind of returns are possible with P2P lending. Not a bad return though. As you said, similar to a ute stock. Thanks for sharing.ReplyDeleteReplies
You will never hear me complain about a 5% return. The safety of that 5% is what may be a problem in the future. That's why I have hundreds of loans to partially offset the default risk.
Very nicely done, moving forward looks great. It won't be long now and you'll reach that 12k a year mark for dividend income. Very exciting goal.ReplyDeleteReplies
12k is a huge milestone...no doubt about it. It takes a lot of sacrifice, hard work, and discipline to get there.
Thanks for sharing your results. Mine have been slightly higher so far, but I'm only 3 months in. I just added another $2,500 today. I'll have 100 more loans funded soon.ReplyDeleteReplies
The returns definitely bounce around, but normally stay around 6%. I will probably add some more funds once my dividend income picks up a bit.
Nice balance and decent return...certainly much better than a savings account. ;)ReplyDelete
Personally, I find Prosper to be better because their automation appears to find more notes that meet my criteria than Lending Club. Both are still great options to put some extra cash to work.
Thanks for sharing. Best wishes! AFFJ


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September 24th, 2014 · Allen & Unwin
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 267
One misstep and they lose it all. For the last time.
Michael Merrick understands pressure. He's the only parent his three brothers have had for years. His power to control Earth could kill someone if he miscalculates. Now an Elemental Guide has it in for his family, and he's all that stands in the way.
His girlfriend, Hannah, understands pressure too. She's got a child of her own, and a job as a firefighter that could put her life in danger at any moment.
But there are people who have had enough of Michael's defiance, his family's 'bad luck'. Before he knows it, Michael's enemies have turned into the Merricks' enemies, and they're armed for war.
They're not interested in surrender. But Michael isn't the white flag type anyway. Everything is set for the final showdown.
Four elements, one family. Will they hold together, or be torn apart?
Even with a title like Sacrifice, I was looking forward to reading it. I've thoroughly enjoyed the Elemental series and even though I didn't necessarily want it to end, I was looking forward to see how it would wrap up. It's not often I come across a series that delivers which each book - yet this series did just that. Sacrifice was no different.
I love Michael, but if you've read the series, you'll well know he's a rather mysterious character. I was glad we finally got to hear from his POV in Sacrifice, along with Hannah, his maybe-kinda girlfriend. Both are older characters, in the twenties, but it still felt like a YA; it worked and the voice never felt out of place.
I love how fast paced and action packed this instalment was, right from the get go. So much so, that while every book played an important part in the series, it was like it was all leading to this book; to this fight.
The only fault I had was with the ending, which I felt was rushed and anti-climatic. When the "sacrifice" part of the novel takes place, I just found it wasn't as powerful a punch as it probably should have been. Sacrifice wrapped having tied loose ends, but it also felt a little too open-ended, considering it's the last book in the series. It's disappointing we won't be getting another book, but I was pretty happy with how it ended. And hey, positive thinking - now it's open if the author ever decides to continue the series. All in all, it was a kick-ass ending and closed on a bang, and that's how it should be. Because kick-ass and banging? That pretty much sums up this series.
Have you read Sacrifice? Were you happy with the ending? No spoilers (!), but what did you think of the "sacrifice"? Are you excited for the authors next book releasing 2015, Thicker than Water?


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Got through the performance tonight–only had one 'rough' spot!
There is a place where I do a spin into squat and my legs almost gave out on me, but I pulled it together and managed to stand and continue with the routine. A big part of me can't believe I actually did it, and I was able to reach my goal of posting something tangible for my family who are far away to see I am really doing ok.
I did do a statement in the end, and several people came up to me after to thank me for sharing this piece of my journey. In the end, this is what I said:
"As some of you know, in October 2014, I found a lump in my breast that turned out to be not 'just a cyst' but one of several breast cancer tumours. In January 2015, I began chemotherapy and I have now completed 13 of 16 treatments—all while continuing to dance. Tonight is for all those who have survived any form of cancer and for all those still fighting their fight. I would be remiss if I didn't take a moment to thank and acknowledge 'Boss'—whose patience, instruction and support have really made it possible for me to keep dancing. It is not easy teaching a student to dance who has cancer, especially a pro/am student, and that deserves special recognition. I also want to take a moment to thank you—the dancers here—because your support has helped to keep me dancing as well, and I know I wouldn't be doing so well or be so positive if I couldn't. So thank you very much, and I hope you are enjoying yourself tonight. This is to show that with faith, patience and determination, it really is possible to do anything you put your mind to."
When I got home, I discovered one of the people who watched also recorded the performance and shared on facebook dedicating it to those fighting cancer. I didn't expect that at all, and am a little wowed that what I did had such an impact.
I am now ready to finish chemo and move on to the next phase of treatment–I have proven to myself I CAN do what I put my mind to.


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The conventional wisdom has it that the Howard Government will have an open slather with legislation when the Liberal and National Parties gain control of the Senate on 1 July 2005. In truth the situation will not be so simple.
What will happen next year is that blackmailers outside the Coalition will be replaced with blackmailers within it. The power to decide will pass from Democrats, Greens and Independents to any backbench Senator on the Government side disenchanted with the role being a rubber stamp for his or her colleagues fortunate enough to have been tapped on the shoulder by John Howard or John Anderson to become Ministers.
The significance of this shift in power form the third forces to backbench Government Senators has been missed by the political commentators because so few of them were around in the days when Reg Wright, the Liberal Senator from Tasmania, was the bete noir of Prime Minister Robert Menzies. Senator Wright, sometimes with his Queensland colleague Senator Ian Wood, regularly forced his side of politics to reconsider issues under the threat that he would vote against legislation if they did not. In a Senate career of 28 years he eventually voted against his own side on more than 150 occasions. Eventually John Gorton as Prime Minister realised that the only way to remove the irritant was to promote Reg into the Ministry where he served as an insignificant Minister for Works before returning to his role as a Prime Ministerial irritant during the early years of Malcolm Fraser's rule.
Next year the most likely government rebels are National Party Senators who realise that there are those in the grass roots of their Party who believe that there would be greater influence in not participating in a Coalition Government at all. An occasional bit of muscle flexing would help appease those elements.
Not that the revolts have to be on the floor of the Senate. Senators with an objection to a piece of Government legislation can achieve their aims by making their views known behind closed doors.


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Saturday, January 2, 2010
my fav plastic design is the Ericofone, the look is so 60s but it is designed in the early 50s by H.G. Thames for the Swedish company Ericsson.
26 comments:
- Tania said...
Sod the 'smaller', 'lighter', 'sleeker' approach to modern telephony. That there is the phone for me.
(The happiest of 2010's to you and yours!). x
- January 2, 2010 at 4:06 PM
- MODsquad said...
Happy TEN!
Here's to a year full of vintage love!
- January 2, 2010 at 6:06 PM
- read me... said...
Love these phones... we have two!!
- January 2, 2010 at 6:41 PM
- malo said...
My grandparents had one when I was little. I remember the heavy feeling when using it. Masterpiece.
- January 2, 2010 at 6:51 PM
- Liivia said...
Oh, my old phone...it's so sympatic.
Happy new year to you!
- January 2, 2010 at 7:54 PM
- mi-rachel said...
- January 2, 2010 at 11:02 PM
- kristina - no penny for them said...
one of the best designs ever... btw - love your new header!
happy new year!!
- January 2, 2010 at 11:14 PM
- Kristina Sostarko said...
Oh! How GOOD is the base of this phone! My GOD! and look, lets face it, I'd want one just so I could say (when it rings) "oh, hold on a moment darling, the 'Ericofone' is ringing". And I'd scoot off with martini in hand, and have stylish conversations for hours on end. Anything is possible in life with an Ericofone! LOVE it! and (clearly) that name does something for me too! Have fun Kay- love your blog - as usual!
- January 2, 2010 at 11:15 PM
- Sally said...
Hi Kay,
thanks for your comment. I have bought the "fliegenpilze" all over the world, but most of them are from danmark. Since I was a child I am collecting them and I still love them.
I love your pictures and your stile. Do you know this shops:
https://threepotatofourshop.com/ (usa)
http://www.frou-frou.dk/ (danmark)
http://www.harryandsally.de/ (mine ;-)
They might be something for you.
And through your blog I find a new one - the wood wool stool! Great shop!
Happy new year from Sally
- January 2, 2010 at 11:30 PM
- fliss said...
i remember we once had one of these when i was little.aaahhh!, such a funny design!
happy new year to you, may it be filled with many wonderful days.
- January 3, 2010 at 3:29 AM
- caramelcaramelo said...
thanks for your visit and happy 2010! love your new header! kenza
- January 3, 2010 at 5:34 AM
- isabelle said...
whouaa !!! ... so great,
is it still working ??
- January 3, 2010 at 1:32 PM
- Francesca said...
Stylish and ergonomic. Why don't they make it anymore?
- January 3, 2010 at 1:46 PM
- janine said...
Oh my goodness that is so cool! Happy 2010 :)
- January 3, 2010 at 4:16 PM
- soisses said...
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! wish you all the best...
the phone is really great - is it still working?
- January 3, 2010 at 6:57 PM
- Kickcan and Conkers said...
Oh yes, this is the one!
- January 4, 2010 at 12:38 AM
I'm sure we use to have something very similar when I was a boy ;-)
Happy days - I love vintage!!!
- January 4, 2010 at 1:27 AM
- jane said...
saw this the other day and thought about printing it on a tee. now i think i´ll have to...
- January 4, 2010 at 9:45 AM
- Joyce said...
This is the coolest phone! You are styling my friend. Enjoy! xo
- January 4, 2010 at 2:31 PM
- Le blÖg d'Ötli said...
I remember it !!! Good vintage choice for 2010 !!! I wish you a happy and creative year...
- January 4, 2010 at 2:45 PM
- anna said...
Of course from Sweden, could have guessed tha ;) love it!
- January 4, 2010 at 4:09 PM
Of course it's from Sweden. ;) Just kidding, but this phone is beautiful and functional.
- January 4, 2010 at 5:07 PM
- ibb said...
- January 4, 2010 at 6:21 PM
- Jutta said...
That is so stylish. I love the old telephones, they got character.
- January 4, 2010 at 8:22 PM
- Erin @ SYL: Slipcover Your Life said...
Haha this is hysterical, I love that the dial-up is on the bottom!
- January 5, 2010 at 11:28 PM
- Cabrizette said...
fantastique, j'adore !!! Where did you found it ???
- January 8, 2010 at 4:29 PM


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These are really cute. They would look perfect clustered together next to an open fire. Another great post Stuart... I can't get enough! Sarah x
Thank you so much for your comment. I will try to respond to any comments and questions as soon as I can. Happy viewing :)


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Eddie O'Connor was kindly invited by the Dublin Chinese New Year Festival committee to provide a key-note address at Dublin's Lord Major's Mansion House in Dublin on Monday 15 February 2016.
Eddie's Presentation Slides Chinese New Year
My Lord Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen
I wish to thank you, Lord Mayor, and the Dublin Chinese New Year Festival Committee, for inviting me to give this Address on the theme of Climate Change and China.
It is a great honour to be invited to partake in the Chinese New Year Festival for the simple reason that the New Year is of such significance in the life of China, the largest country in the world and its oldest continuous civilisation.
I extend my best wishes to the Chinese people as they face into a new year, the year of the Monkey, and offer them my congratulations on their successes during the one that has just passed.
A Great Civilisation
By any standard, China is a great civilization.
In fact it is one of the greatest in history, certainly one of the oldest in terms of continuity, surely the most enduring in terms of language and culture
and, to my mind, one of the most innovative in science, engineering and technology.
Quite simply, in global and historical terms China's civilisation is a phenomenon for which there is no parallel.
There are at least two defining characteristics at the root of this uniqueness.
Firstly, although it may seem strange to say it, until the arrival of modern transportation the Chinese were an island population
China was a land island: the great Pacific Ocean prevented access from the east, the trackless wastes of Siberia prevented access from the North or the West, while the Hindu Kush, the Kunlun Mountains and the Himalayas prevented access from the South.
Geographic isolation led to the peaceful evolution of an absolutely unique culture.
The Han people who arrived in southern China five to ten thousand years ago had this highly productive land all to themselves.
Being a homologous people with little biodiversity they gradually evolved a distinctive civilisation which has lasted for at least three millenia. So, European society was being formed by a fusion of Middle Eastern God-based cultures with the intellectually-based culture of ancient Greece. At the same time the Chinese followed a different evolutionary path. They developed a completely individual culture which the West still finds hard to understand.
In its formative stages China didn't have to fight off marauding tribesmen because they simply didn't exist. Neither could contending kingdoms get at them.
As a result, a civilization emerged based on social order, social cohesion, inclusiveness, respect for due authority with the family as the founding unit and a written code of social behaviour.
In a broad sense the stages of evolution that characterised European civilisation are by and large not found in China. Religious contentions were unknown. Slavery never existed in China. Meritocracy, to which I'll return later, became embedded in government and administration. As Confucius said in one of his analects, "the class system is absent from the classroom".
The brightest always ran China.
Secondly, there is the sheer size and homogeneity of the population.
The Chinese population has always been large in proportion to the rest of the world. It was about 25% of global population at the beginning of the Christian era and was bigger than the Roman Empire when at its peak in the second century.
Under the Ming dynasty in the late fourteenth century the population began to increase dramatically and it doubled to over four hundred million during the Qing dynasty at the end of the 18th century.
Today it is about 1.4 billion out of a global population of 7.4 billion, nearly 20% of the total. Germany is the largest country by far in Europe but if it were a Chinese province it would only rank fourth in size, and we in Ireland would come last.
Governing a society of this size obviously poses specific challenges not faced elsewhere. The response over the centuries led to the development of a particular set of values so that the society could not only survive but also thrive.
To me, the most distinctive of these values is the sense of inter-dependence which permeates Chines society; you might say that its evolution was a precondition for survival.
This sense of interdependence has been strengthened by the fact that the population is astonishingly homogenous: the Han people account for 91.5% of the population, making it by far the largest ethnic group in the world, indeed the largest ever ethnic group in history.
Because of its sheer numbers of people great emphasis is placed in Chinese culture on the preservation of order, on respect for others, on certain rules of social behaviour. Above all, the Chinese fear disorder, chaos and anarchy, and for good reason as history testifies.
To govern this huge society, wisely and well, the Chinese consciously developed a system of governance, which, as I mentioned earlier, is based on meritocracy. It goes back not just for centuries but for over two millennia, and which has no historic or contemporary parallel elsewhere.
This meritocratic system explains the successful transformation of the Chinese economy over the past four decades, and gives every confidence it will be completed as planned by 2050.
I am neither naïve nor blind to Chinese failings, past or present. It is part of the human condition to fail but it is less common to learn from mistakes: in management speak, to learn from feedback.
But that is what the Chinese have done over the centuries, to the great benefit of themselves, and the world.
In a previous lecture on the Twelfth Five Year Plan I examined the Chinese way of learning by doing: "to manage to cross the river by feeling the stones", as Deng Xiaoping put it. He also advised that one should extract the truth from facts. Wise advice.
That is the Chinese way which is invaluable when it comes to tackling climate change by way of adaptation, mitigation and prevention.
You see, I am not only a believer in the greatness of China, as is obvious, but also a believer in the realty of global warming.
This is no longer a matter for debate, or doubt. It is a scientific fact as real as the roundness of the earth.
Carbon Emissions
It is caused by the Green House Effect which was first discovered by the Irish scientist, John Tyndall, born in Leighlinbridge, County Carlow, the man who explained why the sky is blue, a scientific genius and one of the greatest men of science in the 19th century.
Thanks to him we now know that greenhouse gases absorb solar radiation. He performed the first experiments on radiation absorption in 1861. There was a natural balance of these greenhouse gases in the atmosphere prior to industrial times. It is possible to conclude that a stable quantity of greenhouse gases was a condition that had to exist for our species to emerge.
Industrialization has lead to an explosive release of greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon is the basis of almost all of our energy production whether it be in liquid form as oil, in solid form as coal or lignite, or in gaseous form as natural gas. There has been a massive buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere since the industrial revolution began in the mid 1700s. They capture radiation and warm the climate. Many of these gases can remain in the atmosphere for tens to hundreds of years after being released.
The most prevalent is carbon dioxide, Carbon dioxide is constantly being exchanged among the atmosphere, ocean, and land surface as it is both produced and absorbed by many microorganisms, plants, and animals. However, emissions and removal of CO2 by these natural processes tend to balance.
These carbon emissions are primarily produced by burning fossil fuels, that is, coal, oil and gas used in the generation of electricity, for power, heating and cooling and, of course, in transportation.
Carbon dioxide accounts for about three quarters of total green house gas emissions but worryingly these emissions rose by 42% in the twenty years from 1990 to 2010.
The 2°C Limit
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency the total warming effect from greenhouse gases increased by 36% between 1990 and 2014. The warming effect associated with carbon dioxide alone increased by 28%.
There is an overwhelmingly scientific consensus, such as in the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, that the rise in global temperature must be kept below 2°C when compared to the pre-industrial era. Beyond that, there will be catastrophic and irreversible climate change.
It will lead to drought and desertification, storms and floods, rising sea levels, which will engulf coastal areas and threaten the world's largest cities, like New York, the destruction of millions of species of flora and fauna, and, most ominously, a major reduction in the availability of arable land and the consequential decrease in agricultural output and food production.
What Has To Be Done
Scientists have put a number on what has to be done. The pre-industrial level of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere has been estimated at 270 parts per million. It is now over 400 and the red line is 450 parts per million, at which point the temperature increase will reach 2°C.
A World Bank Report of two years ago called "Turn Down the Heat" forecast that the temperature increase could be as high as 4 degrees, and in the worst case scenario could hit 6 degrees. These would be calamitous increases and were they to happen then human life as we know it would cease to exist.
That report was produced by the Potsdam Institute of Climate Change Impact which I visited two years ago in Berlin and at which I spoke on the Supergrid.
Some doubt the CO2 concentration could rise that far. I don't.
Global carbon emissions from fossil fuels rose from about 600 million metric tons in 1900 to over 6,000 million by 1990 and had shot to over 9,000 million metric tons in 2010.
These figures come from the US Department of Energy, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and can be taken as reliable.
In truth, Lord Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen, carbon emissions at present levels pose a threat to our very existence as a species.
That is why we had the agreement at COP 21 in Paris last December.
The Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change met in its 21st session from 30 November to 11 December last year in Paris with 38,000 representatives from 195 countries.
It was one of the largest international gatherings in history and certainly the most momentous since the establishment of the United Nations itself in 1945.
Under the chairmanship of France, the conference agreed to hold the increase in global average temperature to "well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels" and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees.
This is not only a historic but also a heroic ambition.
Paragraph 17 of the Agreement notes that much greater emission reductions will be required than those currently intended in order to hold the increase in the global average temperature to below 2 degrees. Various measures were agreed among the parties to reduce carbon emissions to the levels necessary to keep global warming within a 1.5 degree limit.
Many people had doubted it, me included, if a global agreement of this sort was possible and some feared a repetition of the disaster at Copenhagen five years ago when nothing was agreed. In the run up to Paris it was obvious that everything ultimately depended on China.
The Role of China
In a nutshell, China would make or break the agreement because a fractured European Union could not do it on its own, the United States was unwilling, or incapable, of taking the lead and the developing world was suspicious of measures that would impose costs they could not bear.
Without a Chinese initiative and political impetus there would have been no agreement in Paris.
China is seen by most developing nations as an honest broker. It is seen as one of their own, a poor country that has got rid of the oppressor and has used it's freedom to create a better life for it's citizens. It has never invaded other developing countries, and following it's principle social and cultural construct of Mianzi it trades for the commodities it needs to grow it's economy.
Deng Xiaoping had famously said, "Keep a cool head and maintain a low profile. Never take the lead – but aim to do something big". However, economic success and the enhanced political prestige that goes with it have changed the geo-political context in which China operates.
In the five years between Copenhagen and Paris, China's place in the world had changed dramatically. While Europe and the US suffered from economic stagnation the Chinese economy grew by a factor of 2 in the past 8 years. It has become the largest economy in the world when measured in purchasing power parity.
That brought responsibility.
Today's China can no longer maintain a low profile. At Paris it had to take the lead but in keeping with Deng's advice China did aim to do something big, and, what is more, it succeeded.
China played a decisive role at COP21 in leading the global community to its historic agreement on combatting climate change. At a crucial point in the lead up to the negotiations it committed itself to a major reduction in carbon emissions and set the bar so high that other countries were either inspired or shamed into following suit.
China also took the lead in financing the climate change actions of the poorest countries in the world, those most affected by drought, floods or rising sea levels. This initiative, amounting to over €3 billion, smoothed the way for the global agreement and it is clear, to use a phrase of Karl Marx, that China was the midwife of history in Paris.
China's new leadership role did not come as a surprise to me, having long studied the culture and history of China and having done business there with Chinese companies for many years.
Indeed, for the past five years I have been predicting that this is precisely what would happen.
Having grown phenomenally over the past four decades China has restored its political prestige and resumed its role as a global economic player and at COP 21 it used that political influence and economic muscle to great effect.
It did so not only in creating a new international order based on cooperation and mutual respect but also in pursuit of its own national goals.
It so happens that the two coincide, for this reason.
The Unique Threat to China
China is a semi-desert and 60% of its landmass, mainly situated in the west of that vast sub-continent, has more evaporation than precipitation. In contrast, the eastern and southern parts are incredibly fertile but depend on the great river systems comprising the Yangtze, the Pearl River and the Yellow River, to irrigate the vast plains of the south and east.
They emanate from the Himalayas and elevated areas adjacent to Tibet. This ecosystem makes China particularly vulnerable to climate change because the hot moisture laden winds from the Indian Ocean travel in a north easterly direction and deposit the bulk of their precipitation in the great mountain ranges, which include the Himalayas.
Here they are formed into glaciers, which themselves are the source of the three great rivers – and herein lies the threat from global warming, which could trigger the following chain reaction.
Global warming is interfering with the accumulation of glaciers on the Tibetan Himalayas and Kunlun Mountains. The temperature rise in these mountains is six times higher than it is in the plains below.
Glaciers are beginning to melt and retreat.
This could affect their ability to irrigate the lands of the south and east of the Chinese sub-continent and this is the core of the threat to the very foundation of Chinese civilisation because most of China's population derives its protein from vegetables and fruit. These amount to some 56 percent of the daily protein intake.
Vegetables alone make up 39 percent of consumption.
So any threat to the irrigation system which produces this protein has the potential to reduce China's ability to feed itself and so undermine the very foundations of a civilisation over three thousand years old.
This is why the Chinese government has got real about climate change.
Arguably it is the country most under threat from climate change and the government has responded with intelligence and decisiveness. A 900 page report published around the time of COP 21 showed that temperatures in China had already increased by 1.5°C and that explains the Chinese zeal to find an international solution and to devise a domestic response to global warming.
The ETS Response
The intentions of the State Council, the Communist Party and the Peoples' Congress were outlined in the Eleventh Five Plan, and elaborated in the Twelfth Five Year Plan, on which I lectured in the Institute of International and European Affairs some five years ago.
The plans indicated that China would do something that had so far evaded the European Union or the United States, and that was to introduce an effective Emissions Trading System and thereby put a price on carbon.
A carbon price that truly reflects the environmental damage caused by burning fossil fuels would be a game changer by progressively pricing coal, oil and gas out of the market and replacing them with renewable energy.
That is why the Emissions Trading Scheme was so vigorously contested in the European Union by the coal lobby and Big Oil. That is why carbon pricing is detested by the coal lobby in the US, led by Koch Brothers who fund the biggest of the Super Pacs and thereby finance candidates opposed to restrictions on the use of coal.
And, of course, Big Oil is even more powerful in the States than it is in Europe.
Now it is well known that coal plays a predominant role in the production of electricity and cement in China. As a result, China is the world's largest emitter of carbon. According to a recent study, reported in the journal Nature, about three quarters of the growth in its global emissions of carbon between 2010 and 2012 came from the burning of fossil fuels and cement production.
China's response prior to COP 21 was a pledge to peak emissions by 2030 and to curb carbon intensity by between 60 and 65% below the 2005 level.
This was a credible undertaking because as early as 2011 China had set up pilot carbon trading schemes in seven cities, following Deng's dictum of learning by doing. Based on the experience of these experiments, which started in Shenzen with 640 companies, a national emissions trading scheme will be implemented next year.
As I said, the aim is to have emissions peak in 2030 but many observers believe it will achieve this goal earlier, perhaps even before 2025. Indeed, a new alliance of pioneer cities was announced last September, which intend to peak earlier than the national goal.
So, there can be no doubt that China is on track to launch its national carbon market in 2017, which will be the largest in the world. The market will use a cap-and-trade system, with eight industries obliged to either reduce emissions themselves or buy credits from others who do.
The petrochemical, power, chemical, construction material, nonferrous metal, steel, paper and aviation sectors will all be covered by the market.
Companies within these sectors that consumed at least 10,000 metric tons of coal per year (between 2013 and 2015) will be given mandatory emissions reduction targets. Specific quotas will be issued later this year.
Carbon Pricing
The success of the scheme will, of course, depend on the cap to be placed annually on emissions. If these are too lenient there will be insufficient downward pressure on emission levels and the carbon price will be too low.
To be effective I estimate it will have to be about $20 per tonne, compared to around $30 per tonne in Europe. I believe the Chinese will succeed in doing it simply because their meritocratic bureaucracy is professionally equipped to devise an effective scheme and because policy decisions of this magnitude are obeyed and implemented.
The Chinese way of doing things will ensure that the Emissions Trading Scheme will work. Its success will encourage other countries to follow suit and will, as I have argued these past three years, lead to a global emissions trading system, even including the United States.
It follows that if the use of fossil fuels is progressively reduced that renewable energy has to be expanded at the same pace. The Chinese plan is to have 15% of its energy from non-fossil fuels by 2020 and 20% by 2025.
As an integral part of its "get real" approach to renewables, China is introducing a green dispatch approach in the power sector based on guidelines which will require grid operators to turn first to the least polluting source of power, such as solar and wind.
These two technologies are mature by now and are cheaper than coal. My company, for example, is building solar and wind plants in South Africa that are cheaper than new indigenous coal and you can take it that the same situation applies in China.
It is important in this context to note that China has the world's largest installations of wind and solar. By the end of 2015, China had 120 gigawatts of wind power and 43 gigawatts of solar, along with 320 gigawatts of hydro. According to the Global Wind Energy Council it now accounts for about one third of the world's installed wind energy capacity.
And according to Bloomberg News this year alone China will install 20 gigawatts of wind and 15 gigawatts of solar, i.e. 20,000 MW of wind, 15,000 MW of solar in one year.
This is a phenomenal amount of new energy. To put it in context, the total installed capacity in Ireland is about 8,500 megawatts and last year we only managed to install 224 MW of wind.
It's obvious that the transition to a low carbon economy must include the decarbonisation of transport and here China has led the way, becoming the world's biggest producer and consumer of electric vehicles. EV sales in China are set to top 220,000 units this year, with the US market at 180,000 and worldwide sales at 600,000.
China is promoting the use of electric vehicles through a combination of free parking and registration, insurance subsidies, carpool lanes and access to highways on days when pollution is so bad that other vehicles are heavily restricted.
EVs only make sense from a green perspective if they are powered by electricity generated from renewables and here they play a dual role in not just reducing emissions but in acting as a giant storage system. Storage is key to the future because solar is self-evidently restricted to the hours of sunshine whereas wind power is variable. A back-up technology is needed.
So the challenge ahead is to devise cost effective storage systems in order to ensure continuity of supply. EVs have a role to play because when the cars are not in use they can be plugged into the grid not just to be charged but to store electricity and feed it back to the grid when needed.
This will be a feature of so-called smart-grids whereby all electric devices are linked together in real time so as to balance supply and demand. China is developing smart grid technology, as well as the Supergrid based on High Voltage Direct Current – to my mind the indispensable component of a renewable power system.
The transformation of the power system is well under way. Fossil fuels will be phased out as planned and renewables will become the only source of power.
Let me conclude, Lord Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen.
By now it is obvious that China has restored itself to the place to which it is entitled in the great scheme of things. It is now a global player politically and will be by far the world's largest economy in mid century.
It faces a unique threat, however, from global warming. The eco-system that has sustained the civilization for millennia is endangered by a consistent rise in global temperature that is particularly severe in the Himalayas, the source of its great river systems and the basis of its food production.
China's response to this threat has been in keeping with its long established system of government based on a meritocracy. It plans to phase out the use of fossil fuels and replace them with renewable energy backed up by measures to increase energy efficiency and the reorganisation of the economy.
It has every chance of success because of its meritocracy.
There is a huge intelligence about those who ran the country at national, provincial and city levels. This intelligence is superbly organized, and managed. It is the great comparative advantage which China has created for itself, and which no other nation, big or small, has been able to accomplish.
I believe that China will succeed in the task it has set itself, both to the benefit of its 1.4 billion inhabitants and to the rest of the global population.
It has got real about renewable energy because it had to, because there is no alternative to the transformation to a low carbon society. We either succeed or perish.
I believe we will succeed, and that China will lead the way in saving the planet and its peoples.
Thank you for listening.


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Three mini-columns for the price of one�Red SoxNow comes the hard part. The easy part was putting last year�s debacle to rest. The easy part was exorcising the ghost of Bobby Valentine. The easy part was...
Three mini-columns for the price of one�
Red Sox
Now comes the hard part.
The easy part was putting last year�s debacle to rest. The easy part was exorcising the ghost of Bobby Valentine. The easy part was signing a bunch of blue-collar dirt dogs last winter in an attempt to change the entitlement culture that had taken over the clubhouse. The easy part was winning back the fan base that had been turned off by the Terry Francona book that basically portrayed Red Sox ownership as more interested in the Red Sox as a TV show on NESN than actually grinding out wins on the field.
The easy part was cruising through the first half of the schedule, as if last year already had been erased from the record book.
And the easy part was bringing back the love. You knew it was there, even as turned off as Sox fans were by the tail end of last year. History tells us that.
Now comes the hard part.
Now comes the part of keeping all this going in the second half.
Can they do it with Clay Buchholz seeing doctors about the discomfort in his arm, the same Clay Buchholz who has been stuck on 9-1 for way too long now? Can they do it with Jon Lester, who still is in search of the magic that made him one of the top lefties in the game? Can they do it with their ace being John Lackey?
For there�s no question that everything broke right for the Sox in the first half, a team that seems to get along and play with a certain fire. Call it the antithesis of last year. But now the Rays are the hottest team in baseball and the Orioles keep hanging around. Now the Red Sox are going to be tested. Now we are going to find out if they�re really as good as they have been the first half of the year, or if this has been just a little reward from the baseball gods for the nightmare that was last year.
Now comes the hard part.
Why can�t he hit the driver straight? That�s the question.
For you can talk about everything else. Can talk about that night back there in November of 2009 when it all changed for Tiger. You can talk about his huge fall from public grace, and the public price he�s paid for it. You can talk about how he hasn�t won a major since 2008. You can dissect his psyche as though he�s lying on some couch somewhere, all the personal demons that came running out of their cages that November night in 2009 and right into every tabloid in the country right in front of him.
Then you can talk about his latest flameout this past weekend in the British Open.
But when all the talk is over, here�s the question that remains: why can�t he hit the driver straight?
This isn�t rocket science here. This is Tiger Woods we�re talking about. This is someone who was a prodigy from the start. This is someone who was going to be the best who ever played the game, and for the longest time it all went according to script. The only question left was when he was going to break Jack Nicklaus� record of 18 majors, something that once seemed like a sure thing.
Now the question is much simpler: How come he can�t hit his driver straight?
Alex Rodriguez
Once he was the best player in the game, the wunderkind with all the ability in the world, the kid who was young and talented and seemed destined to become one of baseball�s all-time greats.
Now he is fighting to get back into the Yankees lineup, as rumors swirl over his head like thunderclouds that he is linked to another drug scandal, this time with Biogenesis, the Florida-based company.
Once he was the biggest star in the game�s biggest town in the country, as if he had been born to be on the back page of the tabloids, this generation�s Joe DiMaggio, with the fame and high-profile actresses that come with that. Once, he was being called the guy with the best chance to break the all-time home run record.
Now he�s become the symbol of everything that�s wrong with baseball, the virtual poster child for a game that�s now paying for the sins of the past. Now it�s as though all the promise has been tainted, his accomplishments questioned.
So you wonder how it ever got so crazy?
For he�s nearly 38 now, coming off his second hip surgery, and is there anyone left who truly believes he�s going to come back and turn the Yankees� season around? Is there anyone left who doesn�t believe that the Yankees would be thrilled to be out from under the weight of both his contract and the drama that now seems to always surround him?
So how did it ever go so wrong?
That�s the question Rodriguez must ponder in those moments late at night. What happened? Was it just the realities of the game, the fact that age always is the most powerful opponent? Or was it some tragic flaw, whether hubris, ego, a sense of entitlement, some affront to the baseball gods?
Either way, it all seems like a story destined for an unhappy ending.
Once the best player in the game.
Now trying to make a comeback, the good times gone.


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Brand new Pregnancy Classes and Postnatal Classes (with baby) starting in September 2018 in Teddington.
Taught by a qualified yoga teacher, who specialises in Pregnancy Yoga and Postnatal Yoga.
Specially designed exercises and stretches designed for the Pregnant and Postnatal body.
Breathwork to restore balance and clarity, with invaluable breathing techniques to enhance your pregnancy and birth.
15 minutes of deep relaxation to help alleviate stress and bring you much needed comfort and rest.
Please contact firstname.lastname@example.com or on 07545980135 to find out more or to book your place.
Pregnancy classes: Tuesday evenings 6.30pm-7.30pm and Wednesday mornings 09.45am-10.45am. Postnatal Class: Wednesday mornings 11.00am-12pm at Teddington Baptist Church, TW11 8PF
I look forward to welcoming you to a class soon. Ash


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Sony has shown that it's not afraid to refresh its flagship Xperia Z smartphone family more often than the annual release cycle that most other OEMs follow. It gave us the Xperia Z in January 2013, the Z1 in September 2013 and the Z2 in February 2014. It should come as no surprise, then, that Sony is reportedly cooking up a new Xperia Z3.
Some new images that claim to show the Sony Xperia Z3 and Z3 Compact have leaked out. Originally posted to Chinese forum Digi-wo, the photos show some Sony-branded front panels that are reminiscent of previous Xperia Z models. They include thin bezels on the sides of the display and beefy top and bottom portions.
There's not much that we know about this Xperia Z3 quite yet, but if the past Xperia Z models are any indication, then the Xperia Z3 will place a focus on its cameras and display. It's kind of a bummer for Xperia Z2 fans that the Xperia Z3 may only be a few months out, but as I mentioned before, Sony has shown before that it's a fan of the rapid refresh cycle.
What do you make of these alleged Xperia Z3 and Z3 Compact parts? Are you interested in what the Xperia Z3 might bring?
Via Xperia Blog, Digi-wo (Google Translate)


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July 2005, The Madeleines are playing mid-afternoon in a dusty tent at Truck Festival. Just by chance, I am one of many who start to gather and tap feet to the organized tumult of sharp edged guitars and swooping, plunging vocals.
January 2006 and those sharp-edged guitars and swooping vocals are still at the forefront of The Madeleine's debut single release, but the contradiction of organised tumultuous energy has drifted away. It so often happens when a band have to take their live, evolving creations into a studio and finalise, then formalise their details. 'Trouble' is a quietly thundering premonition of future problems, "They will never come back / They will never come back / They don't care what you've done / now take the future and run." Zealously earnest, they sound like they mean it, without excess histrionics. However, those rapid drums and those lofty vocals are neat, the frayed edges that were once apparent have been hemmed, tacked and taken to the sewing machine. 'Safety Net' is the more understated of the pair, but equally immediate. Staccato guitars slot together in a way that The Strokes can only dream of, drums pulsate away in precise abandon.
These are a pair of neatly conceived, eloquently voiced and affirmatively poppy odes to staying out of danger and falling into traps. The irony is that The Madeleines haven't taken the kind of risks that would make the difference between being just another London indie band, or being the London indie band that stick in your conscience. This debut single holds up to their contemporaries, but I need to hear more than just Television guitar lines to find a band memorable.
6Rachel Cawley's Score