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The British Academy of Sport (BAS) organized the largest ever International Sports Tournament between the various Embassies in Kuwait over two days with ladies on Friday, 10 March and men on Saturday, 11 March.
BAS and the Serbian Embassy were joint patrons for the 2nd International Women's Tournament, 'Olympia Cup', with 7 teams representing Egypt, Kuwait, Palestine, Philippines, Romania, Tunisia and USA. From the opening game, a high level of skill and expertise were on display as the ladies teams fought competitively to get through to the final. Host nation Kuwait joined newcomers Philippines, and after 3 nail-biting sets, it was the Philippines who held the Olympia Cup 2017 aloft to the delight of their colorful and jubilant supporters.
BAS Founder, Madame Vera Al Mutawa MBE, the Serbian Ambassador to Kuwait H.E. Vladimir Kohut, Balsam Al Alyoub, Kuwait's renowned fencer and sports activist, and the Director of BAS Lucian Anisia presented the awards on stage and the Olympia Cup to the winners.
On Saturday, the second day of the Tournament, BAS and the Romanian Embassy sponsored the 4th International Men's Tournament, 'Independence Cup', with 12 countries including Great Britain, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kuwait, Kirghizstan, Palestine, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia and Zimbabwe opening the event with a highly colorful parade, which included national dress, mascots, flags and enthusiastic supporters.
It was an amazing day with very strong teams and great matches. The semifinals were played between newcomers India and Kirghizstan and Kuwait against Iran. After winning 4 very challenging matches, it was the host nation Kuwait who won the Independence Cup 2017.
The tournament was attended by many of the Ambassadors of the participating countries and also a huge number of community supporters of the various countries, who proudly wore their patriotism for everyone to see.
The Romanian Ambassador to Kuwait H.E. Daniel Tanase, and special guest Sultan Abdulmajeed, a well-known player from Kuwait Volleyball's National Team, presented the trophy and the medals to the winners, runners-up and the participating teams.
The festival of volleyball was sponsored by: ITL World, ABK, I Smile Dental Center, Crowne Plaza Hotel, and the media partners: Times Kuwait and Voop Media.
In April, BAS students will travel to Ireland for a Sports and Culture trip and in May the annual Gala Awards Evening will be held. For more information about BAS courses and activities you can call 99458013 or visit www.bas.edu.kw.
"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed."
"Envy comes from wanting something that isn't yours. But grief comes from losing something you've already had."


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There has been a lot of excitement today about the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet developer promotion for Android™ developers, as tweeted by Alec Saunders, VP Developer Relations. Further details about the promotion will be posted on our developer site as soon as possible, but the plan is to provide one free 16GB BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to every registered BlackBerry App World™ vendor who converts their Android app for use on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and submits it to BlackBerry App World between February 2, 2012 and February 13, 2012. How easy is it to bring your Android app to BlackBerry PlayBook tablet? Check out our Android tools site to see!
To help speed up the approval process of your application, we strongly recommend the following:
- Before submitting your application to BlackBerry App World, please make sure to remove all mention of the word "Android" from your application – both in the application description and the application itself.
- Please remove all links to Android Marketplace from within your application.
- When submitting your Android application to BlackBerry App World, please make sure to select a minimum OS of 2.0.
- Please make sure your application is signed. For more information on code signing, please view the code signing documentation on the BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps webpage.
The Android app needs to be ported and submitted prior to the deadline to be eligible for the offer. The applications will need to meet the BlackBerry App World Vendor Guidelines, and there will of course be some terms and conditions that are principally designed to prevent abuse of the promotion. We'll keep you posted. Now get building those apps!
[Updated: Friday February 3, 2012 @ 4:00 PM]
Wow, BlackBerry developer community! You certainly weren't shy about wanting in on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet offer for apps submitted to BlackBerry App World between now and February 13. And you know what? We are in the year of "Being Bold", and such an outpouring of interest from you should be rewarded! We're opening this offer to any app – BlackBerry® WebWorks™, Native, Adobe® AIRv, and Android. Same deadline of February 13 applies. There are some terms and conditions, but they're there to protect you and your content. We look forward to your submissions!

subset: commoncrawl


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My life, a patchwork quilt, filled with many loves and interests and you are a part of it.
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Catching Up
5 comments:
So GOOD to hear from you again Susanne..I have missed you! You HAVE been a busy-beaver. I love your daughter's kitchen. Love love loooove the green mixer and canisters (I'm a lover of all things green sort-of-gal) I so very badly want to be able to crochet and wished my brain would help me out lol. Love those rugs, they are SO comfy to stand on. I have wooden floors and know the importance of having something to step on when it's cold/winter etc. Ah..all your creatively is inspiring me. Just wish I had the energy! The radiation treatments sure knock you about :-( It sure is sad when a faithful business closes down after many years. Good score for you though! Lovely to hear from you..I'm so glad you are back! xoxoReplyDelete
Wow, you did a lot of catching up! You've been very busy! I love all the things you made and love the story of how you came to complete your mittens and how you reconnected with your mom. Mine is gone and I wish I had a chance to tell her I love her.. she got pretty mean there for a while so I have to really try hard to remember the good times. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)ReplyDelete
Hi Susanne - it's good to see you again. I love all the projects you've made - you've certainly been busy. Your daughter's kitchen is very nice - that butcher block table is amazing. I've always wanted to go to a Wool Festival, but haven't done so yet. One day I will. Take care - see ya next time. :)ReplyDelete
Love to see your updates. Beautiful works and the modern kitchen of Meghan. You're as ever very creative in knitting and crocheting. I treasure the knitted shawl you made for me. So warm and lovely color in cold days.ReplyDelete
Hugs from Hong Kong with early summer,
I love your catch up post, my goodness you have been so, so busy. I love the blankets, mittens, the beautiful rugs and the purple cap. Your daughter's kitchen is so beautiful, I am so glad you treated yourself to that yarn. Alpaca is so wonderful and soft to work with. Make yourself a beautiful shawl that you can use as a scarf too.ReplyDelete


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In the Spring / Summer 2012 Hockey Zones edition I wrote the following:
…The time has come for the Flames organization to do a major re-building, not a "reload" or "tweaking". The current team is not close to being a serious playoff team and potential Stanley Cup contender. The team must acquire some top end offensive skilled players, otherwise the losing pain will continue year after year. Players such as Bouwmeester and Iginla should be traded for draft picks…The Flames must also inject more youth into the team. Kids like Baertschi, Backlund, Brodie…should be given more ice time and a more important role next season…
On Friday April 19thI attended the Flames game against the Anaheim Ducks. It was Miikka Kiprusoff's final game of the season on home ice…maybe his last game as a Calgary Flame? The fans were aware and showed their support and appreciation with a standing ovation during the last 2 minutes of the game. For this writer, it was the top hi-light – a very special moment – in a very disappointing Flames season. Kipper stopped 32 shots and received the 1st star of the game from a Flames 3 to 1 victory. Will Kipper be back next season? It's one of many questions facing the Flames organization and fans who turn their focus towards next September.
Reflecting back on this shortened lockout season, new Coach Bob Hartley did bring a refreshing puck pressure, higher tempo, and more entertaining game for Flames fans. At the start of the season like every new coach of a team, Coach Hartley was getting to know his players. After 20 games into the season Hartley realized he did not have the talent or size to excel. Really folks?… did the Flames have a No: 1 line this past season? When we look at the other 29 teams in the league the Flames probably had the worst No: 1 line! As well, there were too many 3rdliners on the team.
Coach Hartley is a very demanding and savvy coach; it will be a much different Flames team on the ice next October. You heard it here! The team needs to be younger, faster, have more size, play more physical and show more grit. Coach Hartley is now cognizant of the character and talent in the Flames dressing room. He will have a greater influence on the make up of the team going forward. Changes will be blowing in the wind this Summer!!
After not making the playoffs for the 4th season in row, the Calgary Flames organization have some important questions to answer to rebuild this franchise and bring back a winning team to the city. Here are a few thoughts that come to mind. I am sure you have many others!
What is the main goal of the Flames organization?
In the past, ownership and management had over-valued some of the talent on the team and now is the time to make some more progressive and major changes post Iginla era. The organization plans to retool the team with the expectations to make the playoffs next season. A lofty goal indeed to maintain fan interest and enthusiasm but how realistic is this? The Montreal Canadiens finished near the bottom of the NHL standings in 2012 and turned it around this season to win the North – East Division! So it can be done… but the Flames will have to make some bold and progressive moves! They will need to win the lottery in the free agent market and their young guns must truly start to excel next season. The team possesses assets it did not have last year including three – 1st round picks in the NHL entry draft as well GM Jay Feaster finally has some salary cap room to play with (approximately $20M+). He can finally start to mould the team to his and Coach Hartley's likings. Next season's salary cap is estimated at $64.3 Million and the Flames owners are prepared to max the cap!
Who will be the new Captain of the Flames?
Maybe one of last season's alternates – Mark Giordano, Mike Cammalleri, Curtis Glencross? Or maybe someone else like Dennis Wideman or a proven winner from the free agent market to provide the necessary team leadership? Personally, I would like to see Mark Giordano wear the C. He plays with heart every shift!
Do they make a bold move or two? Trade Cammalleri (1 year at $6 million) and / or Tanguay (3 years at $3.5 million) or buy them out?
Under the new CBA each team has two freebie buyouts, this off season or next, each team can let loose 2 players at a cost of 2/3 salary with a zero salary cap residue. Yes, the timing maybe right to buyout one or maybe both of the veterans or package them in a trade or multiple trades. However, it may be difficult to trade Cammalleri because his production is not in line with his contract. The Flames may have to pay a portion of his salary to make any trade work.
How do they fill the void and acquire a No: 1 Center on the team?
Can this be done with a major trade or via free agency? Probably a trade package will work best. Players like
Cammalleri, Tanguay, Sarich, Babchuk, Jackman or even Horak could be potential trade bait.
What to do with the goaltending situation?
Kipper it seems will not return and finish the last year of his contract for $1.5 million. The team must start planning for the near future – when the No: 1 goalie will not be Kipper. Joey Macdonald who they re-signed is a very capable back-up but can he be a seasoned starter? The Flames have some very good prospects in Karri Ramo, KHL and Reto Berran, a Swiss goalie; Edmonton Oil Kings star Laurent Brossoit and Joni Ortio, a prospect from Europe as well. Will any of them rise up to be the No: 1 guy or will the Flames have to trade for a No: 1 goalie? They certainly need to improve their overall team defence (2nd worst goals against in the league) and stabilizing the goalie position is of paramount importance.
What Free Agents do the Flames re-sign?
The most significant Flames restricted free agents are Aliu, Backlund, Bouma, Butler, Brodie, Bryon, Cervenka, and Cundari. The top priorities are Backlund and Brodie. They should also resign Aliu, Butler, Cervenka and Cundari. Cervenka needs a second chance – the challenges of a shortened season and adapting to the North American way of life limited his success and overall effectiveness. However, only do it with an incentive laden deal! The most significant unrestricted free agents are Begin, McGratton, Babchuk, Carson, Irving, and Taylor. They should resign only Begin. Let the others test the free agency market.
Who do they pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft?
Over the past 25 years the Flames have never picked in the top 5 of the NHL Entry draft. This year they will pick 6th overall and have 3 picks in the 1st 30 choices. They must deliver on some very good selections. They need to draft someone who can make the roster now. For their first pick at the No: 6 position, several top prospects should still be available such as Sean Monahan, Center, Ottawa 67's who is 6'2" and 186 pounds. He is described as a big pivot who will take some time to make a big impact with his offensive game still developing. Elias Lindholm, Center, Bryon, Swedish Elite League, who is 6'0" and 185 pounds. He is a well rounded centre and uses great hockey sense to read the play and his vision is elite. Frederick Gautheir, Center, Rimouski, 6'5" and 210 pounds is a 2 way centre who has both the size and skating ability. The amateur scouting staff must do their due diligence prior to the draft date.
Will they aggressively pursue the free agent market?
Do they go after two or three of the following players? Centres like Patrik Elias, Mike Ribeiro, Derek Roy, or Stephen Weiss. Right Wingers like Pierre Marc Bouchard, Nathan Horton, Michael Ryder, or Pascal Dupuis. Left Wingers like Brendan Morrow, Ryane Clowe, Clarke MacArthur, Dustin Penner, Mason Raymond, or Viktor Stalberg. Defensemen like Ron Hainey, Ryan Whitney, or Douglas Murray. Goalies like Antero Niittymaki, Cristobal Huet and Alex Auld? The free agent list is slim this off season especially the goalie list! However, the problem may be – do any of these free agents want to play for a rebuilding team like Calgary or rather a guaranteed playoff team or potential Stanley Cup contender?
In Conclusion:
It seems like everything is on the table during the off season for progressive changes and advancement! The time has come for the Flames organization to do some major re-building work. The denial days are finally over! The Flames must inject more youth, speed, physicality and grit into the team. Kids like Baertschi, Backlund, Brodie, Reinhart et al should be given more important roles next season. After that, roster improvements will have to definitely come through free agent signings or a few trades. The Flames have to take a few calculated risks! Yes indeed, Jay Feaster is still the man who can rebuild the current Flames roster and to get this team more competitive and later into the playoffs. However, we live in a very results orientated NHL world and the Flames fan base want positive changes and a competitive team soon not 5 years down the road. Say tuned. It will be a very interesting off season has management and the coaching staff tackles the rebuilding process. Time and patience will be two key words over the next couple of years.


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Run 3 a cool math game about running, your way through even more space tunnels! Run 3 takes place in the outer space, where the running hero has the goal to jump over the holes to reach the end of the tunnels. In run 3 you will find new games mechanics like crumbling tiles, ramps, darkness, ability to re-enter a tunnel after jumping out and much more.
Arrow keys or WASD to move and jump. Or use Space to jump. Quality settings can be found in the right-click menu.


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Blue eyeshadow lovers, I really think Stars Makeup Haven is your brand. (Don't worry, neutral lovers: I've saved a little something for you tomorrow.)
For those of you just joining us, this week we're admiring all 50 shades of a relatively new makeup line. SMH got its start as a website selling pigment-pressing supplies and empty palettes — and though they still sell those items, they're applying their wealth of cosmetics experience to developing their own line. They've started with these remarkably soft, and incredibly pigmented eyeshadows — $4.95 each, sold in pans the same size as MAC's (1″ or 26mm).
For the rest of this week (ending Sunday, August 16), SMH is also offering you readers a special discount: 15% off your total order with the code karlasugar.
1492 is an intense, reflective, Dodger blue. Pacific Rim is matte smoky blue. Walkin' After Midnight is a shimmery blackened sapphire. Dress Blues is a reflective, shimmery cerulean. Steel Away is a shimmery country gingham blue. Electra-fied is a very sparkly, shimmery silver. In a Bind reminded me of MUFE's Star Black Aqua Eyes liner, and I think it's just slightly warmer than Smoke & Mirrors, which is cooler and more silver. Unzipped is matte black; The White Shadow is the matte white I alluded to earlier in the week.


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EVANSVILLE, IN (WFIE) - For more than a year now, you've been hearing about the Big Switch scheduled for February 17th. For Evansville, it now looks like the date will be June 12th.
Last week, Congress passed a bill pushing back the date at which stations must turn off their analog signal.
14WFIE-TV and other stations around the country could have petitioned to turn off the signal on the original date, February 17th, but that is not going to happen. That's because one station in this market has decided to wait until June.
While we would have preferred to make the switch as we've been promoting, we think it would be confusing if all the stations in the Tri-State didn't turn off the analog signal all at once.
It's estimated nationally about 5.7% of the audience is not ready. Hopefully, the extra months will prepare viewers for this government mandated switch over.
Remember, if you have satellite or cable television, you'll be okay. But, if you are still receiving local TV over the air with an older set with an antenna, you'll need a converter box.
Call 1-888-DTV-2009 for more information, or visit our Big Switch page.
To respond to this editorial, send an e-mail or call 812-253-0107. You can send a letter to me at: Debbie Bush, WFIE-TV, and P.O. Box 1414, Evansville, IN 47701.


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It has taken 5 months, but my tie front cardigan with ruched sleeves is now finished!
The choice of using the new Waikiwi sock yarn instead of the 4ply cotton the base pattern was written for was a bit of a risk, but the swatch measured up & I plowed on.
It fits perfectly, the drape is stunning with just a hint of possum 'halo' to make it really special.
I am glad I have modified the sleeves, the original pattern (by Sian Brown) called for a plain bell sleeve, but I felt that the yarn deserved something funkier. The only devastating thing is since finishing the weather has been so warm I have no cause yet to wear it!


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The bounty of summer, these chantrelles are the big heavy kind particularly plentiful this year, who knows why?
Posted by
Adam Sutherland
Wednesday, July 11, 2007 at 17:16 GMT
The bees swarmed for the second time this week, luckily they settled on this post making it easy to catch and re hive them.
Posted by
Adam Sutherland
Monday, July 2, 2007 at 22:56 GMT


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The Center for Simulation and Research at Cincinnati Children's, founded in 2001, was the first pediatric simulation center in the United States. We create innovative simulation-based programs to enhance patient safety and promote experiential learning for all members of the healthcare team.
We are accredited by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare.
3333 Burnet Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45229-3026
New to Cincinnati Children's or live outside of the Tristate area? 1-877-881-8479
© 1999-2018 Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. All rights reserved.


text: We have immense love and respect for the process of handmade – the vision, the craft, the talent and the dedication…'love handmade' is a mantra that I carry with me daily. Loving handmade and all that it stands for is not just about sitting down and creating, it's about being part of a social movement. It's about presenting the talents that are given to us to naturally express ourselves. It's about being in tune with our creative souls and respecting what is born from that. What is it about handmade that you love?


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China's currency has already dropped quite a bit in the new year, but the yuan is still headed "meaningfully" lower this year, Goldman Sachs said.
The dollar will be fetching 7.0 yuan by year-end, up from 6.5807 currently, Goldman Sachs forecast in a note Monday.
That "reflects the combination of a view that Chinese policymakers are likely to be comfortable with modest (our forecast implies about 2.5 percent) depreciation against the CFETS (China Foreign Exchange Trade System) basket, and that the U.S. dollar is likely to appreciate further against other currencies in 2016," Goldman said.
The renminbi, as the yuan is also known, has already sparked consternation so far in 2016.
Last week, policy makers at the central bank, the People's Bank of China (PBOC), tinkered again with the currency without providing much indication to the market about its endgame -- one factor in the China market selloff that spurred a global stock rout.


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Dale City Man Sentenced To 220 Months For Producing Child Pornography
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – MacArthur Taylor, 40, of Dale City, Va., was sentenced to 220 months in prison, followed by 15 years of supervised release, for creating child pornography by himself engaging in sexual activity with a 14-year-old girl.
Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Valerie Parlave, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Washington Field Office; and Stephan M. Hudson, Prince William County Chief of Police, made the announcement after sentencing by United States District Judge Anthony J. Trenga.
Taylor pleaded guilty on June 11, 2012, to producing child pornography. He was identified by law enforcement after he provided his Dell Streak Tablet to an acquaintance to repair. While attempting to repair the tablet, the acquaintance saw still images of a female minor in various states of undress. A video produced by Taylor was also later discovered on the tablet showing the victim engaging in sexually explicit conduct. When law enforcement interviewed the young girl, she admitted to engaging in sexually explicit conduct with Taylor for the past two years.
The investigation was conducted by the Prince William County Police Department and FBI Washington Field Office's Child Exploitation Task Force. Assistant United States Attorney Jay V. Prabhu and Department of Justice Trial Attorney Maureen C. Cain are prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on https://pcl.uscourts.gov.


text: Private Parties Whether it's an intimate dinner with friends and family, or a small gathering of coworkers, we can host your event. Life is all about experiences and good friends...so why not celebrate at a place that can provide the same feeling with our amazing staff and cozy atmosphere. Students we will feed you! Show us your student card and we will show you a discount! hello... Give us a call if you have questions. Call to Action


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Hey blogosphere! Okay, since I seem to find out these interesting things in culture to speak about (like 11yr olds and the Pussycat Dolls), I figured I'd start a new segment here on Collision Course called "Speak On It." Since this is the 3rd official segment here (along with "Scriptures That Rocked My World" and "Christians Say The Darnedest Things") I figured I'd kick this one off with a bang.
I may be behind, but I just heard this song for the first time this weekend while driving up to Boston. Its called "I Kissed A Girl" by Katy Perry. Wow…
So what do you think? Is this part of the alleged "gay agenda?" Has sexual experimentation become "cool?" Or is this the natural positive progression of human sexuality?
Speak on it!
*Edit: Okay…don't know why you are only getting a 30 second snippet. Anywho…for the entire song, go here
Again, Speak On It


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Artist: Apologetix
Website: http://www.apologetix.com/
Genre: Christian Rock
CD Review:
Great. Think of Weird Al gone utterly positive. With one difference: Id say that these guys are more adaptive vocally. They take classic or known songs and put in perfectly matched lyrics that display the glory of Christ. Or theyre just having fun in a Christian way, like redoing Steve Miller Bands Rock n Me so its well keep apostley namin, cause its so hard to keep all those apostles names straight, isnt it? 18 songs, 70 minutes worth of fun. It starts off with Hotel Cant Afford Ya sung to the tune of - you guessed it - Hotel California, about that fateful night when the hotel was full up, so Mary had to go to the stables. Other gems include I Have To Die First which is the reworked Eye of the Tiger. However, theres a part in there I dont like. Theres a clunky guitar which comes in slowly during one part. Its so loud and strangely incompatible that I kept having to check and see if my mp3 player had clicked on for some reason. Also, the vocals on this one and Didnt Just Die (Live and Let Die) are a little strained out of their range on certain words. However I find that pleasantly human. I tire of satires that have to be utterly perfect. Wheres the fun in that? Plus imperfection adds to the joke, Id say. There are few negatives with this album - if there are any. It is strong. Beautifully and expertly performed. They are masters of form and lyrical rewrites. I wish the sound were a bit fuller at times (but its Much better listening on speakers than earphones!), however, there is NO reason not to get this cd. Even if you dont like The Word, youll like the extreme cleverness, and youll rock to one of the finest cover bands this side of heaven.


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*Note: This is a sponsored post. All opinions are my own. Thanks for supporting those who support Chow Down USA!
Wedding season is in full swing - in fact, one of my best friends back home in SF just got engaged! It feels so surreal, since we've been friends since middle school!
Putting on a wedding takes so much work, including picking out classic, tasteful bridesmaid dresses for the wedding party!
Enter Azazie. This brand honestly has the most incredible, intricate and high quality dresses. You send them your measurements and they literally tailor the dress to you, and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg! I've seen pom pom sandals that go for more than these dresses. You couldn't ask for better pieces for your special day! Plus, the brand name is just really fun to say!
|Wristlet: Fossil
I ordered the Azazie Rochelle in coral, and I couldn't be more obsessed! I ordered it in coral, but there are 45 other colors it comes in as well. That wasn't a typo - they have every color imaginable! It's a floor-length A-line/princess bridesmaid dress made with glamorous chiffon and lace. I adore the one shoulder neckline, and the intricate detail on the top half of the dress which wraps around to the back.
The bottom half is whole other dreamy story. With multiple layers to swish and swirl around, there's no way around it - you'll feel like a princess for sure. Its flawless and subtle pleats add to the ethereal look. I accessorized with a gold wristlet and jewelry, but the dress certainly steals the show!
|Earrings: Shop Jami
Needless to say, I'm blown away by Azazie and could not recommend them enough. One thing to know is that since the dresses are each custom made, production time averages about 5-6 weeks. If you can wait that long, I think it's a small price to pay for such high quality pieces!
I also just noticed on their website that they're having a flash sale for anyone interested! These sample dresses are just $35 (!!), so if they have your size I would jump on it! I'm not getting commission from these sales, I just honestly love their dresses and think this is an amazing deal!
P.S. Wondering why my images are suddenly so professional? For this post I collaborated with Nick Cosky, a local photographer in the Boston area. He's amazing to work with and has so many incredible images of Boston, definitely check out his work! Use code chowdownusa for 10% off all purchases!
Comment Challenge: What's your ideal bridesmaid dress design?
Shop similar styles below:
Linking up with: More Pieces of Me, Beauty by Miss L, Style Nudge, Pink Sole, B Loved Boston, Trend Spin Linkup, Style Sessions, Turning Heads, Mama and More, Shopping My Closet, The Mummy Chronicles, The Pleated Poppy, My Girlish Whims, Chic Street Style, Pumps and Pushups, Stylin In St Louis, Thursday Fashion Files + Curly Crafty Mom, Mix Match Fashion, East Coast Chic, Posh Classy Mom, Two Peas in a Blog, Myriad Musings, Happiness at Midlife, Being Zhenya , Style Diary by Osy, Sydney Fashion Hunter, Ms. Chanda, Meet at the Barre


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© 2019 Open Universiteit | Disclaimer | Contact
M-2009 Statement on Open Educational Resources
It is evident that the increasing and increasingly diversified demand for higher education cannot be met through traditional means within traditional institutions. Open Educational Resources (OER) offer an unprecedented opportunity to advance both the international commitment to Education for All and to building inclusive knowledge societies.
The M-2009 World Conference, having a strong emphasis on OER in its programme, shows commitment among its participants from 70 countries around the world to the goal of combining the potential of OER with the power of Open and Distance Learning (ODL). It is because of the high quality of the learning materials, the learner-centred model and the scale of operation of ODL institutions that Open and Distance Learning can contribute significantly to equalizing access to knowledge worldwide through a continuum of learning opportunities that range from informal to formal.
The organizers of M-2009, ICDE and EADTU, both have had Task Forces on OER in operation, and will join forces with other regional associations in harmonizing current and ongoing work, and in setting an OER agenda for concerted action.
* M-2009 has been a one-time merger of the bi-annual conference of the world organization ICDE (International Council for Open and Distance Education) and the annual conference of the EADTU (European Association of Distance Teaching Universities). It took place 7 -10 June 2009 in Maastricht, The Netherlands.


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The Sixteen Insight Day - Saturday 29 June, 10.30am - 3.30pm
Each year The Sixteen complement their Choral Pilgrimage Tour with the opportunity to delve deeper into the rich history behind the repertoire.
Ever wondered how the infamous Allegri Miserere has evolved throughout its long history? Interested in how MacMillan has paid tribute through his own modern version? Members of the public joined Sally Dunkley (soprano and leading musicologist), Martin J Kemp (Emeritus Professor of the History of Art at Oxford University) and a consort of professional singers as they uncovered the stories behind the 2013 Choral Pilgrimage repertoire.
Martin shared his expertise on the history and visual art of the Sistine Chapel, complemented by Sally's insights into the exciting musical tapestry of this year's tour, with a special focus on the new evolutionary version of Allegri's Miserere. In addition, a consort of singers provided musical excerpts.


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A 198 square feet tiny home with underfloor storage feature built by Brevard Tiny House in Brevard, North Carolina. More info. here.
A 198 square feet tiny home with underfloor storage feature built by Brevard Tiny House in Brevard, North Carolina. More info. here.
Very dark despite the white walls. Do not understand the lack of windows area.
Swap out the horse trough for a bath tub and it looks livable. Love the living room space, and the way they use the volume of the space. Would still like to see the whole loft. But a winner.
Need some cabinets in the kitchen and a rail at the top int he bedroom so you don't roll out and fall onto the first floor.
In all of my years on this planet, I never knew how big of a rolling-out-of-bed epidemic there was until I started reading the comments on this site.
I think the sunk in living room in brilliant. I think I would leave the 'bathtub' in as its very cool. I could live in this tiny house no problem!! LOVE IT.
I like everything except the picture of the guy in the under floor storage : ) A few more inches,and he won't be able to move I love the staircase ❤
Not seeing fridge /stove.Is there a functional kitchen?
In the 4th picture, there is a fridge on at the end of the counter where the sink sits. Don't see a stove though. Maybe there are a couple of those cook tops (induction heating things?) stored in one of the drawers?
I'd put a refrigerator in the space where the washing machine is and use the top for part of the counter space. The amount of space for the washer/dryer is not that different from a tiny fridge under the counter. Plus every bathroom needs a sink!!
Beautiful work, guys. Unsure why folks feel compelled to dump CRITICISM in the COMMENTS section under Tiny House Posts? Lead with something positive, people! Did anyone teach you the Golden Rule? If Tiny Houses are missing something, no need to justify your gigantic house full of material goods, just MOVE ON!
Would love to talk to these guys; have been to Brevard 2 summers in a row – have emailed them and posted on Facebook to try to get a tour of their houses, but no responses…..guess they don't need my business.
Love the floor plan, kitchen and loft stairs, only Id like the sunken living room to be the kitchen. Lots of room for washer/dryer, frig, stove and cupboards. It is a little dark but you could open the raised area with sliding doors and remove that washer wall. Id could live with that!
oops! ment "loft and stairs.


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*+-Al D. came through with a new web edit. It has the same clean style he's always had but now he's brakeless! Nice job, Al!
Posts Tagged: Al Dimino
Upcoming BMXInvasion Contest
*+-Al Dimino sent us an email to tell us about the upcoming "Bike To School" #9 contest at the Dome Park in Wilkes Barre, PA on August 22nd. So, if you're in the area and want to check it out or compete, go to BMXInvasion.com for more details. His comps are always a good time.


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Espa ol
Corsica is renowned for a populace as rugged as its terrain. Indeed, the popular view of Corsica was captured perfectly within the hugely popular graphic novel Asterix In Corsica, wherein the super-strong ancient Gaul found a Mediterranean island inhabited by mountains, chestnuts, wild boar and swarthy locals suspicious of outsiders while busy fighting one another. Fast-forward into the 21st century and things appear not to have changed greatly—road signs in French are painted over, graffiti calling for independence is daubed on every building, restaurants offer wild boar in chestnut sauce and the locals, while friendly, definitely give the impression that it's best to keep your distance.
Beyond the clichés, Corsica holds many surprises, not least that one of the Continent's most popular bands is Corsican. I Muvrini (Corsican for the local wild sheep) has existed for 22 years and in that time has had almost as many adventures as Asterix: they're widely credited with reviving traditional polyphonic singing on the island and they've fired a pride in Corsica's indigenous language and culture.
Their popularity has found 80,000 Corsicans (a third of the population) turning out to see them play a single concert and the French authorities banning them from radio and stage during a period of civil unrest. Most surprisingly, for a group singing in Corsican, is their popularity across France, Spain, Italy and Holland, where they fill stadiums and sell hundreds of thousands of albums. So famous are they that Spain's most venerated living painter, Antonio Tapies, designs their album covers and Sting chose to record with them.
Organizing to meet I Muvrini in the Corsican port city of Bastia, I'm told they want to do the interview at 7.30 a.m. This band obviously keeps shepherds', not musicians', hours. Upon settling in a local cafe I find one of the reasons for their early rising: I Muvrini does pretty much everything themselves. EMI may distribute them internationally but in Corsica they run their own label and recording studio, book their own tours, handle their own publicity, and even sell their CDs village to village. Bandleader Jean-Francois Bernardini explains that self-reliance is a Corsican trait.
"There's no infrastructure for music in Corsica so it's natural that we take care of things ourselves. When we started out no one wanted to spend money on us so we organized everything ourselves. Even now when we tour Corsica we take our own stage, lighting, seating—everything!"
The devotion Corsicans show to I Muvrini comes, in part, from the band's dedication to touring the island every August. This 20-date tour finds them not only playing the cities and beach resorts but also mountain villages where live music almost never reaches.
"There aren't many CD shops in Corsica so we take the CDs with us and sell them as we tour," explains singer Martin Vadella.
Jean-Francois and his brother Alain began training as polyphonic singers in the 1970s. Polyphonic singing appears to have once been a popular form of music making across much of Europe—musicologists believe it was a major influence on Neapolitan song (the roots of Caruso). It still survives in parts of the Basque Pyrenees and the Alps and remains especially s
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How has their entrepreneurial experience impacted their lives? Who are these young entrepreneurs, innovators and leaders and how are they contributing to job creation and growth? JA Europe presents the FERD'S LIST, a European list of young and inspirational entrepreneurs, innovators and leaders.
AmCham EU Youth Entrepreneurship Award
Together, AmCham EU (The American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union) and JA Europe are putting youth entrepreneurship in the spotlight by showcasing young people who have chosen to become entrepreneurs and sending a positive message to the media and policymakers.
Inventing the future
"Inventing the Future" is an initiative of JA Europe and Arconic Foundation focused on entrepreneurship and STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics).
The programme involves JA students (15-19 years old) from across Europe supported by Arconic volunteers helping to prepare tomorrow's workforce for successful, rewarding careers that advance the future.
Why Europe Matters
JA Europe and members of The European Round table of Industrialists (ERT) are launching a survey on "Why Europe Matters".
"Why Europe matters" will reach out to young Europeans, to invite their opinions on issues of concern to them, to work with them towards developing an agenda for action, and to invite leaders to engage with them.
JA marketplace 2019
JA Marketplace offers an opportunity to JA secondary school student companies to show off their innovative ideas and sell their products and services in a public setting. It is also an opportunity to meet young people from other countries, their teachers and business volunteers.


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Various hikes are offered near and atop Lookout Mountain by G3 Adventures. You are encouraged to bring water, snacks, and appropriate clothing and shoes for the weather to enjoy the trail. Special arrangements may be made for groups and private hikes by contacting us. Our schedule of hikes includes Wildflower Hikes in the spring and Night Hikes from April- November. Come join us on one of these educational and fun adventures!
Explore the underground world of limestone caves in the Northwest Georgia Mountains. You will travel through dark tunnels that lead you to open rooms of incredible cave formations. Helmets, headlamps, knee pads, and gloves are provided. Cloudland Canyon State Park allows us into the cave during the months of April, June, July, September, and October only. During April- November, please come with us on a wild cave tour on Pigeon Mountain. A limited number of group tours and private tours are available during the winter months. Please contact us directly to see if we are available.Please visit our FAQs for more information about our locations.
Do you want to expose your students to one of our state treasures? Come to Cloudland Canyon State Park for a program to see waterfalls, live animals, and unique geology. Most programs consist of an interactive program, hiking opportunity, and nature craft to take home with the use of a picnic pavilion for lunch. Programs are offered for all grade levels and correlate to state educational standards (specific standards are listed after program description).
If you are looking to add some adventure to your life, look no further!
G3 Adventures is the premier adventure guide service for the Northwest Georgia area. Our trips are designed for those who are unfamiliar with or wanting to know more about the natural world. Bring your families along and experience a safe, fun adventure.
Most of us come from an environmental background and believe the naturalist David Attenborough when he says "No one will protect what they don't care about, and no one will care about what they have never experienced." We are here to help you have that experience, so you will care about this amazing place we call home.
G3 Adventures offers wild cave tours, guided hikes and educational programs. We offer an extensive collection of environmental education programs for many types of groups including schools, homeschool co-ops, churches, scouts, and corporations. All the gear you need will be provided to you, just bring along a camera to capture the memories.
We have a passion for the natural world and have made it our life's work to share that passion with you. Each of our tours is unique and customized to help each participant have an amazing experience above and below Lookout Mountain. We have the best job in the world and because we honestly believe that, we are thrilled to be in a cave, out in the woods, or on a trail with you and thank you for choosing us.
Our qualifications include degrees in Environmental Science and Environmental Education, over 20 combined years of Experiential Education, over 20 combined years of Cave Guiding, training in multiple levels of First Aid include Wilderness First Responder and Emergency Medical Responder, and training in multiple levels of Cave Rescue with the National Cave Rescue Commission.
We can't wait to show you the amazing things G3 Adventures and Northwest Georgia has to offer! Please visit our schedule page to see what tours and activities we have coming up for you. If you don't see something that fits into your schedule, please contact us. We are a small company and we can often move things around to accommodate you and your group. And remember our motto, "No Destination, Just Exploration!"


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Right, and so it appears I have a baking addiction. Typical, as I'm trying to shift a stone. I find when I'm down, stressed, happy or sad, the kitchen is where I need to be. Today my mood is off. I'm down in the dumps a bit and when I decided to bake my mood took an upturn. My mam told me she had black bananas so excitedly I got in the car and took a spin to the folks to retrieve the said overripe fruits. The blacker the better, k?
So Banana bread. In my opinion, it'd got to be so moist bursting with banana goodness and this recipe certainly is. I've adapted a basic recipe adding some spices and the walnuts give it a nice earthy element. Of course, I adore muscavdo sugar in baking as I love the richness it brings.
I love this bread with some butter, and a cuppa tea, but a friend suggested I toast it, top it with a bacon and a poached egg. It's different, but it works, trust us.
Spiced Banana & walnut bread
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
Grease a loaf tin
|Don't bin 'em! celebrate black bananas with my
spiced Banana and Walnut Bread
9 oz plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 oz butter, soft
6 oz dark brown muscavado sugar
2 eggs
4 large over ripe mashed bananas
4 oz walnut pieces (I'd like to say 1/4's as halves are too big and I don't like to chop them too small either)
In a large bowl combine the all the dry ingredients
In a separate bowl, cream the sugar and the butter.
Whisk the eggs and add the butter and sugar mixture, along with the vanilla extract and mashed bananas. Mix well.
Sir wet batter through the dry mix and combine well. (have a taste of the batter, it's oooooh so good)
Pour mixture into greased loaf tin and bake in preheated oven for 60 mins. If a toothpick or skewer comes out clean, it's ready.
Allow to cool in the tin for about 15 minutes. Then turn out on a wire rack.
NB-All funds for my baking addiction will be gratefully accepted.
There's cake in it for you.


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Indistinguishability amplification
\(\newcommand{\ob}{\mathcal{O}}\) \(\newcommand{\Q}{\mathbb{Q}}\) \(\newcommand{\what}{\widehat}\)
This blog post is about a generalization of indistinguishability obfuscation, which might be useful.
Indistinguishability obfuscation (IO) is a cryptographic primitive (which may or may not exist). The usual way it's defined is as follows.
Definition: An indistinguishability obfuscator \(\ob\) is a probabilistic function satisfying the following.
If \(C, D : 2^n \to 2\) are two circuits computing the same function, then \(\ob(C) \cong \ob(D)\) (where \(\cong\) is computational indistinguishability.)
A way to think about this definition is that IO takes two values which are indistinguishable according to a certain weak class of distinguishers (namely, those that are only allowed to evaluate circuits at points and observe the outputs) and promote that to an indistinguishability by arbitary distinguishers.
Thought of this way, a generalization of this functionality becomes apparent. Before discussing it in full generality, let's examine another instance of this kind of indistinguishability amplification.
Definition: Consider the field (for example) \(\Q[i]\), with \(a + b i\) represented as the pair (a, b).
An indistinguishability amplifier for \(\Q[i]\) is a probabilistic function satisfying the following.
Suppose \(\alpha, \beta \in \Q[i]\) are indistinguishable by all circuits that only use the following operations to compute on values from \(\Q[i]\):
- \(\mathsf{mul} : \Q[i] \times \Q[i] \to \Q[i]\)
- \(\mathsf{add} : \Q[i] \times \Q[i] \to \Q[i]\)
- \(\mathsf{div} : \Q[i] \times \Q[i] \to \Q[i] + \{ \texttt{divide_by_zero} \}\)
- \(\mathsf{equal} : \Q[i] \times \Q[i] \to \{ 0, 1 \}\)
Then \(\ob(\alpha) \cong \ob(\beta)\). Moreover, we demand that the above operations can be lifted to work on obfuscated numbers. I.e., there are functions \(\what{\mathsf{mul}}, \what{\mathsf{add}}, \dots\) such that
- \(\what{\mathsf{mul}}(\ob(x), \ob(y))\) is an obfuscation of \(\mathsf{mul}(x, y)\)
- \(\what{\mathsf{add}}(\ob(x), \ob(y))\) is an obfuscation of \(\mathsf{add}(x, y)\)
- If \(y \neq 0\), \(\what{\mathsf{div}}(\ob(x), \ob(y))\) is an obfuscation of \(\mathsf{div}(x, y)\) and \(\what{\mathsf{div}}(\ob(x), \ob(0))\) is the plaintext \(\texttt{divide_by_zero}\).
- \(\what{\mathsf{equal}}(\ob(x), \ob(y))\) is the plaintext bit \(\mathsf{eqal}(x, y)\).
In other words, \(\ob\) is an indistinguishability amplifier for \(\Q[i]\) if whenever two numbers \(\alpha, \beta\) are algebraically indistinguishable, \(\ob(\alpha)\) and \(\ob(\beta)\) are computationally indistinguishable. For example, since \(i\) and \(-i\) satisfy all the same rational polynomials, they are algebraically indistinguishable according to our definition, and so their obfuscations \(\ob(i)\) and \(\ob(-i)\) would be computationally indistinguishable.
I'll describe the full general formal setup in a follow up post.
Quadratic proof-complexity lower bounds from large scale geometry
Today I want to talk about a quadratic proof complexity lower bound for a certain coNP complete problem (in a certain proof system). The most interesting thing about this lower bound is that it comes from a simple application of theorems from large scale geometry/geometric group theory, and so further demonstrates the utility of the large-scale-geometric point-of-view for thinking about computational complexity. (I've written previously about such an application here.)
The coNP complete problem will be the word problem for reversible circuits. Let's say again what that is. There is a certain subgroup \(G\) of the group of permutations of bi-infinite bitstrings \(S(2^\bz)\). It is generated by the following elements:
- \(\sigma\), a shift:
- For each of the \(2^3!\) possible 3-bit reversible gates, \(g\), the map \(\what{g}\) which applies this gate to the first three bits:
The word problem for \(G\) is coNP hard since reversible circuits can be encoded as elements of the group. Given a reversible circuit \(C\), let \(|C|\) denote the length of the word representing \(C\) via this encoding.
Via this encoding, we can prove the following lower bound:
Theorem: Suppose we have a finite collection of rewrite rules \[p_i \to q_i\] where \(p_i\) and \(q_i\) are reversible circuits which compute the same function and such that if \(C\) computes the identity function then there exists a sequence of rewrites of length at most \(L(|C|)\) rewriting \(C\) to the empty string.
Then for some constant \(c\), \(L(n) \geq c n^2\) infinitely often.
Proof. Suppose we had such a set of rewrite rules \(\Set{p_i \to q_i : i \in I}\). Consider the set of relations \(R = \Set{ p_i q_i^{-1} : i \in I}\). I claim that \(\angled{\sigma, \what{g_1}, \dots, \what{g_{2^3!}} | R}\) is a presentation for \(G\) (where \(g_1, \dots, g_{2^3}!\) are the \(2^3!\) possible gates on \(3\) bits).
First, this group surjects onto \(G\) via the map \(\varphi\) which sends each generator to the corresponding generator in \(G\): every relation \(p_i q_i^{-1}\) holds in \(G\) since \(p_i\) and \(q_i\) compute the same functions (which means they are equal as elements in \(G\)). Second, this map is injective. If \(w \in \ker H\), then \(w\) is a circuit representing the identity function, which by assumption there is a sequence of rewrites taking \(w\) to the empty string. Each of these rewrites \(p_i \to q_i\) corresponds to an equality which holds in \(H\) (since \(p_i =_H q_i\)). Thus we have \(w =_H e\), the identity, so \(\ker H\) is trivial.
So \(\angled{\sigma, \what{g_1}, \dots, \what{g_{2^3!}} | R}\) is a presentation for \(G\). Moreover, since every sequence of rewrites taking a trivial word \(C\) to the identity has length at most \(L(|C|)\), the Dehn function for \(G\) with this presentation is at most \(L(n)\). Suppose for every constant \(c\), \(L(n) < c n^2\) eventually. Then, by the isoperimetric gap theorem, \(G\) satisfies a linear isoperimetric inequality.
But then, (see Theorem 3.22 here), \(G\) must be hyperbolic. However, this is a contradiction. To show \(G\) is not hyperbolic, it suffices to exhibit an infinite torsion subgroup. That is, an infinite subgroup \(H \leq G\) such that for every \(h \in H\), \(h^k = e\) for some \(k\) (where \(e \in G\) is the identity). Let \(g \in G\) be negation on the \(0\)th bit. I.e., \[ g(w) = i \mapsto \begin{cases} \neg g(i) & i = 0 \\ g(i) & \text{otherwise} \end{cases} \] Clearly \(g^2 = e\). Now consider \(g_k := \sigma^{-k} g \sigma^k\) for \(k \in \bn\). This is negation on the \(k\)th bit. Let \(H = \angled{g_k : k \in \bn}\). \(H\) is infinite, and every \(g_k\) has order two. And each pair \(g_{k_1}, g_{k_2}\) commute (if you negate bit \(k_1\) then bit \(k_2\), it is the same as negating bit \(k_2\) and then bit \(k_1\)). Thus, \(H\) is none other than \(\oplus_{k \in \bn} \mathbb{Z}_2\), an infinite direct sum of \(\mathbb{Z}_2\)s. So, \(H\) is an infinite torsion subgroup, which means \(G\) cannot be hyperbolic.
Take aways
At this point, we've shown that any system of "rewrite rules" for discovering triviality of circuits will take at least quadratically many rewrites on some trivial circuit. The proof uses the large scale geometry of a group \(G\) of reversible circuits. Roughly the only part that used the fact that \(G\) was a group was for certifying non-hyperbolicity via the existence of an infinite torsion subgroup. This suggests that it may be possible to extend this argument to non-reversible circuits by constructing a space of circuits whose non-hyperbolicity could be verified by some other means.
When non-uniformity doesn't help
Today I want to write about a simple proof that certain problems that can be computed by polynomial-sized non-uniform read-once branching programs (also called non-uniform automata) can actually be computed uniformly just as efficiently. That is, in some cases, a degree of non-uniformity doesn't actually help solve the problem any more efficiently.
What is a non-uniform automaton? The basic idea is that of a deterministic finite automaton (i.e., a DFA, a.k.a. a finite state machine), but which is allowed to vary based on the input length. That is, a non-uniform automaton for a language \(L\) is a sequence of DFAs \(M_0, M_1, \dots\) such that for \(x\) of length \(n\), \(x \in L\) iff \(M_n\) accepts.
The fact is the following:
Fact: If \((G, A)\) is a finitely presented group and the word problem for \(G\) can be computed by non-uniform automata with polynomially many states, then the word problem for \(G\) has a linear time (multi-tape Turing machine) algorithm.
Proof. Suppose the word problem for \((G, A)\) has a non-uniform automaton \(M_0, M_1, \dots\) with polynomially many states. Say \(S(n)\) is a polynomial upper bound for the number of states of \(M_n\) (assume it is monotonically increasing WLOG). Let \(R(\ell)\) denote the set of elements of \(G\) with a word of length exactly \(\ell\).
I claim that \[ |R(n / 2)| \leq S(n) \] I.e., there are at least as many states in \(M_n\) as there are group elements with words of length exactly \(n/2\). Why? The map from \(R(n/2)\) to the states of \(M_n\) given by running \(M_n\) will be an injection: Take \(x, y \in R(n/2)\) and take words \(w_x, w_y\) of length \(n/2\) representing them. Suppose \(M_n\) is in the same state \(s\) after running on these words. \(M_n\) takes \(n/2\) more input characters, so from this state, we can feed it the word \(w_x^{-1}\), which has length \(n / 2\). Since it should accept \(w_x w_x^{-1}\) (since that's a trivial word), this will put it in an accepting state. But that means \(M_n\) will accept on \(w_y w_x^{-1}\) as well since it will first run on \(w_y\) and enter state \(s\), and then proceed as with the word \(w_x w_x^{-1}\) (since \(w_x\) also puts \(M_n\) in state \(s\)). Thus the word \(w_y w_x^{-1}\) is trivial, which means \(x = y\) in \(G\).
Now let \(B(e, r)\) denote the ball of radius \(r\) in the Cayley graph of \((G, A)\). We have \[ \begin{align*} |B(e, r)| &= \sum_{\ell \leq r} |R(\ell)| \\ &\leq \sum_{\ell \leq r} S(2 \ell) \\ &\leq r S(2 r) \end{align*} \] \(r S(2 r)\) is a polynomial in \(r\), and thus \(G\) has polynomial growth. Thus, by Gromov's theorem, \(G\) is virtually nilpotent. By the work in this paper of Goodman and Shapiro, \(G\) then has a linear time algorithm.
Categorified Complexity Theory
Here's a famous theorem from complexity theory:
Theorem \[\PSPACE \subseteq \IP\]
There are many theorems like this. Like Toda's theorem:
Theorem \[\PH \subseteq \P^{\#\P}\]
or the PCP theorem:
Theorem \[\NP \subseteq \mathrm{PCP}[O(\log n), O(1)]\]
In general, many theorems are class inclusions: showing that the set of problems characterized by one definition are included in the set of problemss characterized by some other surprisingly different definition.
Let's focus on \(\PSPACE \subseteq \IP\) because I know the proof the best. I want to advance the thesis here that this (and all effective proofs -- more on that later -- of class inclusions) really ought to be thought of as the decatgeorification of constructions of maps of "realizers".
There is a category whose objects are sets of languages (i.e., subsets of \(2^*\)) and whose morphisms are just inclusions of sets. From this point of view, the above theorems are constructions of morphisms in this category.
But they are so much more than that! The proof that \(\PSPACE \subseteq \IP\) is a uniform algorithm which takes a \(\PSPACE\) machine and produces an "\(\IP\) machine", that is, an interactive verifier, in such a way that the language computed by the \(\PSPACE\) machine is equal to the language computed by the \(\IP\) machine.
Let's flesh this out a bit. Instead of thinking of a complexity class as a set of languages, let's think of it as a set of "realizers" \(R\) equipped with a map \(L : R \to \mathcal{P}(2^*)\). So \(L\) maps each realizer to the language which it realizes.For example, the complexity class \(\P\) has as its realizers pairs \((q, M)\) where \(q\) is a polynomial and \(M\) is a Turing machine running in time \(q(n)\) and the map \(L_\P\) from realizers to languages is As a more interesting example, the class \(\NP\) has as its realizers pairs where \(q\) is a polynomial and \(V\) is a polytime Turing machine of the stated type. The interpretation map \(L_\NP\) is
In my head I think of complexity classes in this sense
- as "diagrams" \[ \begin{CD} R \\ @VVV{L} \\ \mathcal{P}(2^*) \end{CD} \]
- as a bundle over the space of languages \(\mathcal{P}(2^*)\), above each language sitting the fiber of realizers.
- or just as the set of associated realizers
In other words, this category of complexity classes is just the over category \(\mathrm{Set} / \mathcal{P}(2^*)\) (pronounced, "sets over languages").Let's think about how this works out in a really simple example: There's a map \(\iota : \P \to \NP\) given by This is a bundle map since for any \(M\) we have
That is, the map transforms the realizer into one which recognizes the same language.
The \(\PSPACE \subseteq \IP\) theorem is similar. It really exhbits a map \(\PSPACE \to \IP\) in our category which transforms a \(\PSPACE\) realizer (a polyspace Turing machine) into an \(\IP\) realizer (a randomized polytime interactive verifier).
Of course, the mere existence of a map \(C \to D\) (for classes \(C\) and \(D\)) is equivalent to a containment \(L(C) \subseteq L(D)\) (where by \(L(C)\) I mean the set of languages in the image of \(C\)'s interpretation map). But most class inclusion proofs (like \(\IP \subseteq \PSPACE\)) are actually doing far more: they are exhibiting effective constructions -- that is algorithms -- from the set of realizers of one class to the set of realizers of the other.
Apart from being (in my opinion) a more honest way of representing these kinds of facts (since I think everyone probably spends a few brain cells translating class inclusions into maps of realizers) I wonder if it would lead to new insights in complexity theory.
For example, can we get more interesting conclusions if we assume not just inclusions, but uniform inclusions? What happens if there is a "uniform inclusion" \(\NP \to \P / \mathrm{poly}\)? (It's not clear what that should mean, but maybe it would be a \(\P / \mathrm{Poly}\) machine which takes an \(\NP\) verifier \((V, q)\) and a string \(1^n\) as input and produces a circuit in time \(\mathrm{poly}{q(n), n}\) which computes the language corresponding to \(V\) for \(n\)-bit strings). Could you prove \(\P = \NP\) under this assumption?
Also, I wonder if anything can be gained by thinking of the category of complexity classes as bundles over some base space. The task of complexity theory is then classifying bundles. We have better tools for classifying bundles when the objects have more structure (e.g., fiber bundles, vector bundles, etc.). Is there a model of computation where complexity classes are vector bundles? Can we separate \(\P\) from \(\NP\) there?
Tighter representation theory lower bounds from stronger assumptions
Let me preface this post by saying that the things proved here are more easily proved by the simplest counting arguments. I think the proofs are still worthwhile, however, as they give indications of how complexity theoretic assumptions can be used to prove purely mathematical statements, and the way in which stronger assumptions allow you to prove stronger statements.
Last time, I talked about how complexity theoretic assumptions given you lower bounds on the dimensions of irreducible representations of the symmetric group. This time, I want to show how certain stronger cryptographic assumptions give better lower bounds on such dimensions.
Namely, we'll assume that one way functions exist. I.e., there is some polytime computable function \(f : 2^k \to 2^m\) such that for any non-uniform PPT algorithm \(A\), we have \[ \mathrm{Pr}_{x \sim U(2^k)} \left[ A(f(x)) \in f^{-1}(f(x)) \right ] < \frac{1}{|p(k)|} \] for every polynomial \(k\) and for large enough \(k\). What this says is that \(f\) cannot be inverted on a generic input, except with vanishingly small probability.
Now let's prove the following theorem under this assumption:
Theorem Fix a sequence of finite fields \(F_k\) with \(\log |F_k| = \mathrm{poly}(k)\) and operations computable in \(\mathrm{poly}(k)\) time.
Let \(d_k\) be the dimension of the minimal \(F_k\)-representation of \(S(2^k)\). Then for any polynomial \(q(k)\), for all sufficiently large \(k\) we have \(d_k > q(k)\)
Proof: Let \(S(2^k)\) be the symmetric group on binary strings of length \(k\) equipped with a generating set \(X_k\) corresponding to a collection > of universal gates.
Fix a polynomial \(q(k)\). Suppose to the contrary that for infinitely many \(k\) we have \(d_k \leq q(k)\). Let \(\rho_k\) be the corresponding representation.
Then for such \(k\), we can given a non-uniform polytime algorithm for deciding the word problem in \(S(2^k)\). The advice string is \(\rho_k(x_1), \rho_k(x_2), \dots\) where the \(x_i\) are the generators. There are \(\mathrm{poly}(k)\) many generators and \(d_k\) is bounded by the polynomial \(q\), so the total advice is \(\mathrm{poly}(k)\). Now, we can just solve the word problem by taking our word, replacing generators with the corresonding matrices, multiplying them together and checking if the result is the identity matrix. All this can be done in polynomial time.
The word problem for \(S(2^k)\) on our given generating set is NP-complete (this is somewhat imprecise, what I really mean is described in the last post). We note that inverting any one-way function can be done in polytime with an NP oracle. Since we non-uniformly solve NP hard problems on arbitrarily large input sizes, we can non-uniformly invert one-way functions infinitely often, (come to think of it, one has to do a bit more work, but it should work out). This contradicts our cryptographic assumption.
Examining the proof, we can actually get away with a significantly weaker assumption. Namely, that there is some NP-hard problem \(L\) such that for any \(\mathrm{P/poly}\) algorithm \(A\), there is some constant \(N\) such that for all \(k > N\), some \(x\) of length \(k\) has \(A(k) \neq L(k)\).
A more quantitative assumption
If we make a more quantitative assumption, such as the following non-uniform exponential time hypothesis:
There is a universal constant \(\delta\) such that any circuit for 3-SAT has size at least \(2^{\delta k}\).
Analyzing the circuit given in the above proof, using the fact that multiplying two \(d_k \times d_k\) matrices can be done in time \(d_k^3 \mathrm{poly}(k)\), we get the inequality \[ d_k^3 \mathrm{poly}(k) \geq 2^{\delta k} \] and thus for any \(\epsilon > 0\), \[ d_k \geq 2^{\frac{1}{3} (\delta - \epsilon) k} \] for large enough \(k\).
Sadly this is still far from the truth, which is that \(d_k = 2^k - 1\). Still, a purely complexity theoretic assumption lets us get pretty close.


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Kim Kardashian enjoyed some precious bonding time this week with two of her favorite people in the world, and Francesca Eastwood got married to Jonah Hill's brother Jordan Feldstein in Vegas last weekend — and other top stories from Nov. 22.
1. Kim Kardashian Has "Girls Day" With North, LaLa Anthony, Shares Adorable New Photo
Just one of the girls! Kardashian enjoyed some precious bonding time this week with two of her favorite people in the world: daughter North and BFF LaLa Anthony. She shared a photo of the trio via Instagram on Thursday, Nov. 21.
2. Francesca Eastwood, Clint Eastwood's Daughter, Marries Jonah Hill's Brother Jordan Feldstein in Secret Las Vegas Wedding
What happens in Vegas doesn't necessarily stay in Vegas! Francesca Eastwood, Clint Eastwood's 20-year-old daughter, took the plunge in Sin City over the weekend and got married — to Jonah Hill's brother Jordan Feldstein, a source confirms to Us Weekly.
3. Courtney Stodden, 19, Steps Out With Anna Nicole Smith's Ex Edward Lozzi, 53: Picture
Courtney Stodden definitely has a type. Just over two weeks after announcing her separation from husband Doug Hutchison, 53, the 19-year-old blonde bombshell hit the town with a different 53-year-old man — Anna Nicole Smith's ex-boyfriend Edward Lozzi.
4. Mysterious! Taylor Swift Named Next of Kin by Pilot Who Died in Crash
Curious and curiouser. There are a lot of unanswered questions about the plane crash that killed Canadian pilot Michael Callan in Nashville three weeks ago, but the strangest by far is this: Why did Callan, 45, list country-pop superstar Taylor Swift as his next of kin?
5. Khloe Kardashian Opens Up About Kris and Bruce's Split
Khloe Kardashian is doing a lot more than touring for her Kardashian Kollection while down under. The 29-year-old is opening up about mom Kris Jenner's separation from her stepfather, Bruce Jenner, and how it has affected — or not affected — the Kardashian clan. (Us exclusively confirmed in October that Kris and Bruce had separated after 22 years of marriage.)
Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics and more delivered straight to your inbox!
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Hello my friends! I am really excited to share my new EP, Offerings. Offerings is an ambient sitar journey; floating on slow reggae beats, warm bass and an ultra-chilled vibe. Be prepared to take a soul-journey (and don't forget to bring a friend with you). 🙂
Offerings: released 13 February 2015
Prosad – Sitar, guitar, bass, keys, accordion, percussion, programming, mixing and mastering
Ed Hanley – Tabla on The Fire Within. Sitar & tabla recorded in Ed's studio on the Fire Within.
The Fire Within: An ambient sitar journey painted on the backdrop of a dub inspired mix – warm, full of bass and resting on a slow, soulful groove. Blending classical Indian sitar with a down-tempo one-drop, this track was inspired by time spent in New Zealand and by a continuing study of classical sitar. It features the incredible Ed Hanley on tabla.
Temple Prayer: This song was recorded many years ago and never released… until now. I am happy to say that I finally made the time to polish this track and set it free into the world. The beats were originally made by my good friend, Gary Diggins. I pitch shifted them to match the sitar and doubled the drums with a bit of programming. I then added a touch of my favorite reverb and delay to really accentuate the haunting melodies in the sitar. Enjoy!
The Way She Moves: This track is featured in the independent feature film, Nice2MeetU, written and directed by Naveen Medaram, for which I scored the music. I love the sitar in this track. It is interesting that I hear the pathos in the notes as beautiful and soft and yet it was used in a very intense scene in the movie (I won't spoil it for you) . The contrast of the beautiful music with the onscreen intensity created a tension and juxtaposition of two opposite worlds that worked very well in the film.


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So Gnar posse Pat Milbery, Captain Safety and Jason Graves cruised up to Keystone and met up with the longtime snowboard friends Taylor Brant, Rem Robinson, Braden Wahr, and Matt Stenquist to shred. Props to the park crew at Area 51 for having a incredible set up ready for opening weekend. Sunshine, blue skies, and shredding with the homies was a great way to kickoff the season! Get out, snowboard, and have fun!
All photos by Captain Safety


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The neat part is, where ever you install an HR30 mini receiver, you can access any of the content stored on the HR34! They were showing a cabinet full of small little widgets that seemed to allow you to adopt current wiring to the architecture of this new RVU system, but again, no one could answer my questions. At this point, I am not clear if you need both RG6 and ethernet connected to each of the HR30's or just one or the other.
I could not even get close enough to take a picture and scouring the internet has turned up a blank there as well, but I can say its about twice the height of the current DirecTv units.
I suspect RVU works on a home network and you'll just need ethernet at each location and that's it, and also suspect the adaptors are some way to port the signal down existing RG6 cables in people's homes.
No release date or pricing was given and there is no press from DirecTv on the unit for further clarity. Once this hits, it will be a great way to do a simple video distribution system so you no longer have to worry about which box you recorded that show on you wanted to watch!


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This pretty much cuts to the roots of the Matter of Frum. It also impressed the heck out of a few people who work with snark on a regular basis.
Moe Lane
PS: If you're just getting into politics, RealClearPolitics should be one of your go-to places. They do authorized reprints of some of the most important daily articles (from both sides of the spectrum), collect polls from the major pollsters, and have a couple of blogs that I should link to more often. Well worth perusing, whether Left or Right.


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Dates: November 11 (Please note the change from 3-night to 1-night event)
Time: 6-9 p.m.
Tution: $15
Enrollment: 8 min./ 30 max.
Register by November 4th
In this one-night class participants will learn the basics of the Sikh religion, join the local community in their worship, and share a meal with them. Sikhism is a monotheistic religion founded during the 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. Founded by Guru Nanak, it continued to progress through ten successive Sikh gurus/prophets, the eleventh and last guru being the Holy Scripture Guru Granth Sahib. It is the fifth-largest organized religion in the world, with approximately 30 million adherents known as Sikhs, students or disciples.
About the Instructor: Hardeep Singh earned a Bachelor in Computer Science from the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. He is the interfaith representative for Sikh Dharamsal and participates in interfaith events in the City. He is the owner of a UPS Store in San Antonio, where he lives with his wife, a physician, and two children.


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WANG made Germany stay longer in the hallPhoto: Manfred SCHILLINGS, DTTB
OVTCHAROV: I saw myself in hotel already, when he beat Patrick
Germany safely concluded the opening round of the Men's Team's Event in Ekaterinburg. Vice-champions from Lisbon 2014, beat Poland in the first match of the 2015 LIEBHERR ITTF European Championships.
Patrick BAUM beat Daniel GORAK, Dimitrij OVTCHAROV prevailed against WANG Jakub DYJAS, before WANG Zeng Yi overcame Patrick FRANZISKA.
"We started very well, with two straight games victories made by Patrick BAUM and me; and I am sure that Patrick FRANZISKA had a very good chance to seal the match against WANG Zeng Yi. He had 2:1 in advantage, but WANG recovered. I saw myself already in the hotel after Patricks' lead. Then it was 9:5 again for Patrick and I was ready to go. However, FRANZISKA lost, unfortunately my focus also suffered, so I entered in the match against Daniel GORAK with lack of concentration. After 1:1 and 8:6 for GORAK, I finally found my rhythm, finished that game at 11:6 and finish the match successfully."
Jorg ROSSKOPF was pleased after overall result.
"Patrick had few chances for victory in each game, but it is not easy to play against WANG. There were few vital moments, but the crucial is that we won. We had a good start and we are looking forward match against Spain."
Spain was stretched to full distance against Ukraine. Lei KOU won his both duels, against Marc DURAN and Carlos MACHADO, but all three players in Spain scored today to bring their team to the victory.


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We are surrounded by so many wonderful people who are sending love and light, which is needed more than anything else right now. We're nearly overwhelmed in the best sense of the word by the generosity of spirit and abundance of care you are providing. Still, many are asking what else they can do.
If you'd like, you can give in Karyn's honor to the National Brain Tumor Society, and consider joining our team as a fellow fundraiser. We'd love to have you, whether or not you can walk with us this September.
To donate and/or join, please click here.
Thanks and love,


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Lewis Hamilton came to Canada this week with a starting-grid record so fantastic that virtually everyone in Formula One racing could quote it.
Except, of course, Nico Rosberg, the pole-sitter for Sunday's 45th running of the Canadian Grand Prix.
"I'm not really aware of Lewis's record … but of course I know it's a track where he's very strong at, so all the more I'm very, very happy that it worked out. It's great," Rosberg said after edging Hamilton by 79/100ths of a second in Saturday's pole qualifying.
"It's been a fantastic day and also all through the weekend really progressing all the time, getting stronger and stronger. It's really cool and best position for (Sunday), of course."
It's entirely possible that Rosberg could describe in detail every lap that Hamilton has turned on Île-Notre-Dame. But he certainly wasn't going to give his teammate and fierce rival the satisfaction of sharing that on Saturday.
Only 41/100ths of a second separated qualifiers 3-6: Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, the winner here last year; the Williams-Mercedes pair of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa; and Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo.
Hamilton had won the pole for McLaren on Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 2007, 2008 and 2010, slipping to fifth in 2011 before rallying to claim outside pole the following year. He won from pole in 2007 and 2010 and again in 2012.
Last year, his first with his current Mercedes Petronas team, he qualified second and finished third.
Before Saturday's dazzling dash to the pole, Rosberg had qualified no better than the outside of the second row, that coming last year. In seven trips to Montreal, from 2006-13 (there was no race here in 2009), his best finish was fifth, also last year.
So now these two tremendous talents and ferocious rivals will start wheel to wheel in front of 20 other cars for the fourth time in seven races this season.
The two most recent events on the calendar, in Spain and Monaco, saw wins by Hamilton and Rosberg, both from the pole, their stablemate finishing second both times.
On Sunday, the two Silver Arrows will sprint from a standing start down into the Senna Corner, site of more than one incident of vertical parking over the years.
If one gets there cleanly before the other, any wreck that might ensue will happen behind them. But should they reach the left-right bend together, their cars might emerge in front of the roaring grandstands looking not as pretty as when they arrived.
Saturday's three-segment, sun-splashed qualifying session capped an already eventful day. Earlier, Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre, representatives of the provincial and federal governments and Canadian Grand Prix president François Dumontier announced a 10-year extension of this race, through 2024.
This is the final year of the current contract between event organizer Octane Management and Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone, and the delay in announcing a new deal that has been in the works for years had more than one gearhead sweating right down to his lug nuts.
But on several occasions, Coderre said the Canadian Grand Prix wouldn't expire on his watch and the beaming mayor was good to his word on Saturday, unveiling plans for massive infrastructure upgrades at the Île-Notre-Dame facility.
This edition of the Grand Prix has been all about Mercedes' domination — they've won every event on the schedule and have almost lapped the field in the drivers' and constructors' races.
More than that, it's been about the rivalry between Rosberg and Hamilton, teammates who are not exactly best friends.
Hamilton, the 2008 world champion, will race in his 136th career grand prix Sunday, with 26 wins and 59 podium finishes to his name. Rosberg will start his 154th race, with five wins and 17 podiums.
But what's behind them isn't what matters now. These guys are going at each other with everything in their tool box, and they could well be Pirelli-to-Pirelli down the start/finish straight on Lap 70 Sunday afternoon to determine the winner.
"Nico did a fantastic job today, so congratulations to him," Hamilton said graciously after the qualifying session. "Just wasn't the greatest qualifying session this; sometimes you have good ones, sometimes you have bad ones.
"But it's great for the team that we have got the 1-2 in quali. A really fantastic performance by the team, so let's hope we can make history (Sunday)."
Not exactly sure what history Hamilton is referring to; 13 times since the inaugural Canadian race in 1967 have drivers from the same team finished 1-2.
But it might be historic if they make it to the finish without playing bumper-cars around the 14-turn, 4.361-km Villeneuve circuit.
Indeed, the two drivers couldn't agree that this will be a race almost exclusively between the two Mercedes machines, the rest of the field scrapping for the final place on the podium.
"I expect that it's going to be between the two of us for now, yes. But, of course, there can be surprises so we need to still make sure we push. But I think we have enough of a gap at the moment on race pace," Rosberg said.
Said Hamilton: "I don't think it's just between the two of us. Obviously in qualifying, Sebastian (Vettel) wasn't as close as perhaps he would like to be, but the race pace was great in the last race so I anticipate (Sunday) they should be quite strong.
"So we definitely cannot disregard Sebastian or Red Bull. I think we need to be very cautious, still, and make sure that we keep pushing."
The 305.270-km race will offer plenty of opportunity for overtaking, if not quite as much as, say, the Ville-Marie Expressway. But Hamilton, and everyone else on the grid, knows that track position is hugely important.
"It's not that easy, especially with Nico being so fast, so overtaking is going to be very difficult, to overtake the same car as mine — especially when we're so close in pace," Hamilton said.
"So, we'll do what I can but, of course, the thing (Sunday) is to try to make sure we get as many points as we can."
Montreal's famous contingent of Ferrari fans, meanwhile, must be content to see Fernando Alonso roll off the grid in seventh place, nearly a full second off Rosberg's pace.
Three more spots back, on the fifth row, is Kimi Räikkönen, starting 10th, 1.340 seconds back in qualifying.
"I think it was the limit," Alonso said of his Q-effort. "The lap was very, very good. Surprisingly good. Obviously, the rest of the cars are faster than us and they went faster during all of qualifying.
"It's not like in Q3 they suddenly returned," he said of the third segment. "It was a difficult Saturday for us and it means we were not fast enough."
Weird and wonderful things tend to happen on Montreal streets, as any driver here knows. Twenty-two of the world's greatest racers are about to learn whether that's also true on the island circuit that often is a smooth drive for some, a gaping pothole for others.
firstname.lastname@example.com: Dave_Stubbs


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Freelance Graphic Designer
Welcome to Scott Mackie's freelance graphic design portfolio. Here you can view examples of Scott's design work including: Print, Digital, Brochures, Branding, Website and Email design. He is based in London, Kingston, and available to work client-side, agency or from home.
Print and Digital Design Examples
Having freelanced for many businesses over the years Scott's portfolio covers a range of design disciplines. The examples here include multi-channel retail, publishing and design agency. Most of the projects here are for Brochures, Magazines, Catalogues, Websites, Emails and Advertisements.
Graphic Design Services
Hire Scott for graphic design services as part of a client-side or agency design studio. He frequently works for many London based clients in different sectors. Including: retail, marketing, publishing and B2B. Covering all multimedia design projects for print, digital and branding. His favourite tools are Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign and WordPress. He also knows a bit of HTML and CSS.


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|I could watch this forever... (ABC)
Meanwhile at the hospital, Brooks is all hooked up to a million wires and machines- all for a finger? I mean, I've never broken a finger, but this seems excessive. Des has a hard time keeping her mind off of Brooks (they ARE perfect for each other), but then she sees 9 other hotties around her and quickly moves on. One of the guys whose name I also can't remember (Brad?) confesses to Des that he has a son and Des just eats that up. She loves kids! As the night goes on, Des spends time with each of the guys, and they are panicking about the rose per usual. Chris surprises Des by finding a "special spot" on the roof! How did he find this place?!? Because it's a roof. Every building has one. They have a romantic chat and Chris is feeling confident with her. Phew. I like him enough, I guess he's fine. Finally, Brooks makes a miraculous recovery and shows up at the date in his uniform and splinted finger. Des is smitten and they have a little make out sesh in the middle of the group date. Love it. Even though Brooks went through SO much to be with her, Chris gets the rose and extra bonus time with Des (private concert!). The other guys watch them dancing/kissing and get even more jealous. I guess I like Chris- he seems very nice and normal, which is always a plus for this show.
Kasey gets the one-on-one date card, and I am SO excited to hear what hashtags he comes up with for the date! But before the date, Des gets a sketchy call from Chris Harrison. He has some bizarre news. Uh oh! Des is ready to head to the house to confront one of these bastards. Someone here is being rude and playing a game. NOT okay. Well, it's Brian. Do we even know him that well? Des asks him if there is anything he needs to tell her, and if he is here for the right reasons. And he just LIES about it. Well, in comes Chris Harrison with some woman, aka Brian's girlfriend! Oh snap! Well Stephanie breaks down and starts going ballistic, and it turns out that he has been lying to her the whole time. AND she has a son who Brian is a role model for. Holyyyyy moly. Des and Chris try to mediate this situation, and this guy is clearly just a douche. They slept together 2 days before he came on the show! Stephanie is just trying to help Des and expose him as a jerk, and I'm like, okay okay, just send him home and let them work this out on their own. Chris asks Des if there is ANY chance he is staying on the show, and Des says not a chance. Don't worry, none of us were rooting for him anyway. Moving on. Brian is escorted out, and the guys all try to act like they weren't eavesdropping on the whole thing. Don't worry, Chris explains the whole thing in case they didn't figure it out on their own. Des gives them all the chance to admit anything they need to tell her, but nobody speaks up, and hopefully that means they are all good guys! This situation does bring Brandon to tears thinking about this poor single mother who Brian left, and I cannot handle this emotion. Brandon, get yourself together. You are nuts.
Finally we get to Kasey's date, and hopefully Des will be able to focus on him! They go out to explore Hollywood, and they are ready for some fun! They come across some people dancing on the side of a building, and they are going to try it too! This should be interesting. They start having a great time, but finally reach the point of exhaustion. They actually go to have a "normal" date on top of the building, and all of the sudden these intense winds start blowing. They decide to jump into the pool to avoid the wind, and apparently that is freezing too. This date. Such a disaster. They end up inside in a stairwell, and Des does give Kasey the rose. I think she was just trying to end that date once and for all. What a bummer! I love Kasey but this date was a bust. #fail
|Oh and I could watch this forever too... (ABC)
Later, Des realizes there are 4 other guys waiting for her, and she spends some more time with each of them. I still love love love Bryden, even if he is a little reserved and shy to make the moves, they definitely have a connection and I want him to stick around for sure. Zak also makes a connection with her tonight, and I do not know how she will narrow this down. There are so many good guys that make her laugh! James shows his loving/caring side, and Des is eating it up. In fact, she gives him the rose because he opened up so much and she needs to reassure him that she wants him around. You gotta play the insecure card every once and awhile! And the other guys are devastated.
Instead of a cocktail party this week, Des decides to invite the guys to a daytime pool party. Oh, did she just want to see everyone shirtless?? Amazing plan. America thanks you, Des. But before the party even starts, Ben whisks her away on a car ride for a little extra time. This is a great strategy, but the guys see it as a "character flaw." Okay, you are clearly all just jealous. What angers them most is that he lies and tells them he didn't have any time with her yet. How dare he lie to the other guys! Please. Thank you Ben for realizing "It's not called 'Let's Make Friends'." Anyway, Brandon gets the chance to talk to Des about his emotional breakdown the other day, and essentially tells her he wants to "guard and protect her heart" a la Ali's Kasey, and I cannot deal with him. Too much too soon!
It's time for the rose ceremony, and I really hope she sends home the guys whose names I can't even remember. And Brandon. To my surprise, she keeps some randos around, and some not so-hotties, and I am over it. The final rose of the night goes to Ben (shock!), and poor Brandon gets sent home. After he told her he was falling in love with her?! He is literally going to kill himself, and I am kind of scared for his life. He tells her she is making a mistake and walks away, and Des goes after him to explain that she just isn't feeling it, and it needed to be sooner than later. Agreed! Get your shit together! He can't even cry- he is out of tears. Dear God. Dan is also sent home, not a big deal since we didn't really know him.
It looks like next week will bring more Ben drama, and apparently Bryden is going to be the one to bring it up- Nooooo! That never ends well! Hopefully Bryden won't shoot himself in the foot, and we will see what Des thinks about the whole thing. Stay tuned for all the action!


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I have had a constant upper left quadrant abd pain for 4 years. Just below my ribs. Many tests but no dx. I also have felt like something crawls upward into my throat when I lie down and night. This sx started around the same time as the abd pain.
Recently I feel a series of events when I first lie down...I have a moving feeling in my abdomen that is not painful and I know it is not gas. I then have a feeling like my diaphragm is moving more rapidly and then I start to feel the sensation like something is coming up my throat. I feel it almost to my ears but never see anything in the back of my throat when I look. I also have excessive salivation and some pain in the salivary glands. For the last 4 weeks I have had severe muscle pain all over my body. The doctor is doing a CPK to see if it is my cholesterol rx, which I now have stopped taking. I feel like I am going crazy with all the symptoms that may not be related but are keeping me awake all night.


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- How To Choose Adorable Baby Clothes And Dress For A New Mom
- Things About 0 3 Months Baby Girl Clothes And Dresses All Parents Must Know
- Top Superhero Beddings for Little Heroes
- Star Wars Crib Bedding, May the Force Be With Babies
- Real Wood Dressers, Perfect Storage for Clothes
- Picking Out the Best Solid Wood Cribs
- Bring Jungle-Themed Decor to Your Baby with Safari Crib Bedding
- Adding Unique and Beautiful Round Baby Cribs
- Make your Daughter Feel Special with Princess Bed Canopy
- Pottery Barn Crib Bedding, Best for Babies
Clothes & Dresses
The Adorable Baby Girl Shoes 3 6-9 Months for Any Events
If you are looking for baby girl shoes 3 6 months it is easy. You can go...
The Guideline Of Baby Girl Sleeping Bag And What To Wear
Baby sleeping bags are the convenient choices for regular night use. The size is small enough to...
5 Best Baby Girl Shoes Size 2, 3, 4 Your Little Girl Must Have
Your little princess should get what she needs for her best. The rule is still the same...
Top 5 Newborn Boy Clothes And The Best Outfit Sets
It can be a daunting task to buy newborn boy clothes, especially for a brand new parent....
Best Baby Girls Headbands And Bows For A Cute Look
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It is always the best choice when you bundle your baby in a baby snowsuit or a...
Best Way To Choose Pretty Baby Girl Clothes For Daily And Party Time
If you think that you always have a trouble to find the right pretty baby girl dresses,...
How To Choose The Best Princess Dresses For Babies
For children, fairy tales are the part of their tradition. Children love to read book and watch...
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There are many baby girl superhero clothes that will make your little girl look like a hero...
How To Style Red Baby Dresses Ideas For A Beautiful Look
When you are preparing the first Christmas for your baby, you are going to hunt red baby...


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May 18 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
UK cuts maximum stake on fixed-odds betting machines to £2 on.ft.com/2k6p1tZ
Probe of supermarket deal 'must consider suppliers' on.ft.com/2k6yNfp
UK ministers close to agreement on Irish border 'backstop' on.ft.com/2k5yoKn
National Grid plans green super highway on.ft.com/2k5R3Wh
The UK government cut the highest stake on fixed-odds betting terminals to 2 pounds ($2.70) from 100 pounds and plans to increase the tax on online gambling.
Business minister Greg Clark has asked Britain's Competition and Markets Authority to look at the implications for supermarket suppliers as part of its investigation into J Sainsbury Plc's proposed takeover of Walmart Inc's British arm Asda.
British Prime Minister Theresa May's cabinet has agreed on a plan that will leave Britain inside the European Union customs union after 2021 and avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland.
National Grid Plc is installing a fleet of super fast charging points for electric vehicles at 50 strategic locations along UK motorways. ($1 = 0.7400 pounds) (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom; Editing by Sandra Maler)


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Get a £5 giftcard to spend at Argos - in-store only.
Note for Argos e-gift card redemption:
From the Tender Screen on the till, select F5 – Vouchers when promoted for appropriate tender, then F6 – Argos Collection Codes When prompted for the serial number, enter the 10 digit Collection Code presented by the customer. The till will validate that the Collection Code can be used with the transaction and deduct the correct amount from the total.
This reward costs 5000 BetterPoints
You must be signed in to buy this item.


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I actually didn't wear my blazer today because university reps were coming. I totally forgot. So it was all a coincidence.
(Cotton on boyfriend blazer, Unbranded baggy racerback, Bershka skirt, Zara suede heels)
New "shoerack". It's actually my sister's old desk-like thing where she kept all her toys but my mom moved it upstairs and so now I'm using it for my shoes instead. They're always stacked up randomly :( So it's nice now that they have a place where they belong :)
One of my friends' making a "senior" video at the end of the year so she wanted us to take pictures, so here below is one of the many pictures of my friends (and occasionally, me) that you will see over the course of however many days (I will post one or two at the end of all my posts up to graduation day). I want you guys to meet my friends aka the most amazing people you will ever see on a photograph.
Top: Chi Dang, Andrea Curcio
Bottom: Phuong Tran, Yours truly, Davina Cox
"Of course there's a lot of knowledge in universities: the freshmen bring a little in; the seniors don't take much away, so knowledge sort of accumulates."
- Abbott Lawrence Lowell