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Ken Henry joins ASX board
Exchange operator ASX Ltd. has bolstered its board with the appointment of former Treasury boss Ken Henry.
While the appointment is from next month, Dr Henry, who recently oversaw the federal government's 'Asian Century' White Paper, will stand for election as a director at ASX's 2013 annual meeting, to be held later this year.
The move signals the ASX's renewed focus on the Asia Pacific region after its aborted attempt to merge with the Singapore Stock Exchange in 2011.
This is the second corporate sector appointment for the ex-Treasury boss after he joined the National Australia Bank as a director last year.
"Ken's reputation and experience as an economist in Australia and overseas, and as a senior bureaucrat who has worked with successive Australian governments, will bring fresh perspective and strengthen the expertise of the ASX Board,'' ASX chairman Rick Holliday-Smith said today.
SGX's takeover bid for ASX was scuttled by Treasurer Wayne Swan in April 2011 on the advice of the Foreign Investment Review Board and Treasury Department shortly after Dr Henry's retirement.
The exchange is defending its monopoly over its lucrative settlement and clearing business, which was identified by the Reserve Bank and other regulators as a source of financial risk during the SGX's take-over bid.
Dr Henry was the leading economic advisor for the Rudd government during the global financial crisis and was responsible for implementing the $42 billion stimulus package, which is partly credited for rescuing Australia from a recession.
However, he and his stimulus policy of ''go hard, go early and go household'' was attacked by the Coalition party and a former Treasury secretary and one-time National party senator, John Stone, who accused Dr Henry of abandoning his political impartiality.
Dr Henry, who is widely considered to be one of country's leading tax experts, was involved in a roller coaster of major tax changes since the mid-1980s until the end of his tenure at the department, which included tax reform package of 1985, GST implementation under John Howard and the Henry Review for the current government.
His experience in managing the federal government's white paper on the 'Asian Century' is likely to bolster the ASX's Asia expertise as the exchange looks to the region for growth opportunities.


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Hello!! I'm almost done catching up with Shay's Blog Hero Challenge! One more this week and I'm up to date! Yay! Plus this one fits the blog completely, since I have free things to show you.
Credits :
- 100l$ and cheaper :
- Jeans : free from SLink (mesh)
- Tank : free from Jane (comes in all colors)
- The rest :
- Mesh feet from SLink
- Skin from Curio
- Hair from Sixty-Nine (comes with the pose - I'm not sure it's still available)

subset: commoncrawl


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Express. Home of the Daily and Sunday Express.
Reus and Kroos help Germany cruise
Giovanni Trapattoni's reign as Republic of Ireland boss hurtled into crisis as his side was trounced 6-1 by ruthless Germany.
Ireland were simply overpowered by the team ranked second in the world with Marco Reus firing them into a 2-0 half-time lead before Mesut Ozil, Miroslav Klose and a double from substitute Toni Kroos completed the rout.
There was delighted applause from a capacity crowd when substitute Andy Keogh headed home in injury time, but the consolation was minimal.
The game started relatively positively for the Republic when lone striker Jon Walters laid off Keiren Westwood's clearance to Keith Andrews and he dragged his shot from distance wide. But that proved to be a rarity as the Germans eased into their stride and started to dictate the play.
With Ozil and Thomas Muller buzzing around behind frontman Klose and Reus threatening down the left, their movement was simply too much for Ireland. They soaked up the early pressure and in truth, Westwood had little to do, watching Stephen Ward slice a seventh-minute Muller cross over his own bar and Darren O'Dea block Klose's shot on the turn 11 minutes later.
Reus was booked for diving inside the Ireland penalty area on the half-hour but he did not have to wait long to erase his disappointment. Bastian Schweinsteiger played the ball over the top to full-back Marcel Schmelzer, and he cut inside to set up Reus, whose right-footed shot went in off the underside of the crossbar.
Their task became almost impossible eight minutes later as full-back Jerome Boateng's crossfield pass arrived perfectly for Reus to smash a left-footed drive across Westwood and into the bottom corner. Any hope of an unlikely fightback died in a disastrous start to the second half which saw Germany cruelly turn the screw.
Cox and Walters had both gone close to reducing the deficit in an early flurry, but order was soon restored when, after O'Dea had crudely felled Klose inside the penalty area, Ozil sent Westwood the wrong way from the spot with 55 minutes gone.
If the Sunderland goalkeeper had been under-employed for much of the first half, he was chronically exposed after the break and conceded for a fourth time within three minutes when Klose ran on to Schweinsteiger's tailor-made pass and rounded him before slotting into an empty net.
The Republic had capitulated in horrific fashion, and did so once again three minutes later when O'Shea's weak clearance fell perfectly for Kroos to help himself with a skidding shot inside the post. Kroos deepened the wounds with seven minutes remaining, drilling home from 22 yards with the Republic in disarray and Trapattoni facing a grilling.


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Is advertising a psychotherapy as "evidence supported," any less vacuous than "Pepsi's the one"? A lot of us would hope so, having campaigned for rigorous scientific evaluation of psychotherapies in randomized controlled trials (RCTs), just as is routinely done with drugs and medical devices in Evidence-based Medicine (EBM). We have also insisted on valid procedures for generating, integrating, and evaluating evidence and have exposed efforts that fall short. We have been fully expecting that some therapies would emerge as strongly supported by evidence, while others would be found less so, and some even harmful.
Some of us now despair about the value of this labeling or worry that the process of identifying therapies as evidence supported has been subverted into something very different than we envisioned. Disappointments and embarrassments in the branding of psychotherapies as evidence supported are mounting. A pair of what could be construed as embarrassments will be discussed in this blog.
Websites such as those at American Psychological Association Division 12 Clinical Psychology and SAMHSA's National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices offer labeling of specific psychotherapies as evidence supported. These websites are careful to indicate that a listing does not constitute an endorsement. For instance, the APA division 12 website declares
This website is for informational and educational purposes. It does not represent the official policy of Division 12 or the American Psychological Association, nor does it render individual professional advice or endorse any particular treatment.
Readers can be forgiven for thinking otherwise, particularly when such websites provide links to commercial sites that unabashedly promote the therapies with commercial products such as books, training videos, and workshops. There is lots of money to be made, and the appearance of an endorsement is coveted. Proponents of particular therapies are quick to send studies claiming positive findings to the committees deciding on listings with the intent of getting them acknowledged on these websites.
But now may be the time to begin some overdue reflection on how the label of evidence supported practice gets applied and whether there is something fundamentally wrong with the criteria.
Now you see it, now, you don't: "Strong evidence" for the efficacy of acceptance and commitment therapy for psychosis
On September 3, 2012 the APA Division 12 website announced a rating of "strong evidence" for the efficacy of acceptance and commitment therapy for psychosis. I was quite skeptical. I posted links on Facebook and Twitter to a series of blog posts (1, 2, 3) in which I had previously debunked the study claiming to demonstrate that a few sessions of ACT significantly reduced rehospitalization of psychotic patients.
David Klonsky, a friend on FB who maintains the Division 12 treatment website quickly contacted me and indicated that he would reevaluate the listing after reading my blog posts and that he had already contacted the section editor to get her evaluation. Within a day, the labeling was changed to "designation under re-review as of 9/3/12"and it is now (10/16/12) "modest research support."
David Klonsky is a serious, thoughtful guy with an unenviable job: keeping the Division 12 list of evidence supported treatments updated. This designation is no less important than it once was, but it is increasingly difficult to engage burned out committee members to evaluate the flood of new studies that proponents of particular therapies relentlessly send in. As we will see with this incident, the reports of studies that are considered are not necessarily reliable indicators of the efficacy of particular treatments, even when they come from prestigious, high impact journals.
The initial designation of ACT as having "strong evidence" for psychosis was mainly based on a single, well promoted study, claims for which made it all the way to Time magazine when it was first published.
Bach, P., & Hayes, S.C. (2002). The use of acceptance and commitment therapy to prevent the rehospitalization of psychotic patients: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 70, 1129-1139.
Of course, the designation of strong evidence requires support of two randomized trials, but the second trial was a modest attempt at replication of this study and was explicitly labeled as a pilot study.
The Bach and Hayes article has been cited 175 times as of 10/21/12 according to ISI Web of Science, mainly for claims that appear in its abstract: patients receiving up to four sessions of an ACT intervention had "a rate of rehospitalization half that of TAU [treatment as usual] participants over a four-month follow-up [italics added]." This would truly be a powerful intervention, if these claims are true. And my check of the literature suggests that these claims are almost universally accepted. I've never seen any skepticism expressed in peer reviewed journals about the extraordinary claim of cutting rehospitalization in half.
Before reading further, you might want to examine the abstract and, even better, read the article for yourself and decide whether you are persuaded. You can even go to my first blog post on this study where I identify safe some of the things to look for in evaluating the claims. If these are your intentions, you might want to stop reading here and resume after considering these materials.
Warning! Here comes the spoiler.
- It is not clear that rehospitalization was originally set as the primary outcome, and so there is a possible issue of a shifting primary outcome, a common tactic in repackaging a null trial as positive. Many biomedical journals require that investigators publish their protocols with a designated primary outcome before they enter the first patient into a trial. That is a strictly enforced requirement for later publication of the results of the trial. But that is not yet usually done for RCTs testing psychotherapies.The article is based on a dissertation. I retrieved a copy andI found that the title of it seemed to suggest that symptoms, not rehospitalization, were the primary outcome: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in the Treatment of Symptoms of Psychosis.
- Although 40 patients were assigned to each group, analyses only involved 35 per group. The investigators simply dropped patients from the analyses with negative outcomes that are arguably at least equivalent to rehospitalization in their seriousness: committing suicide or going to jail. Think about it, what should we make of a therapy that prevented rehospitalization but led to jailing and suicides of mental patients? This is not only a departure from intention to treat analyses, but the loss of patients is nonrandom and potentially quite relevant to the evaluation of the trial. Exclusion of these patients have substantial impact on the interpretation of results: the 5 patients missing from the ACT group represented 71% of the reported rehospitalizations and the 5 patients missing from the TAU group represent 36% of the reported rehospitalizations in that group.
- Rehospitalization is not a typical primary outcome for a psychotherapy study. But If we suspend judgment for a moment as to whether it was the primary outcome for this study, ignore the lack of intent to treat analyses, and accept 35 patients per group, there is still not a simple, significant difference between groups for rehospitalization. The claim of "half" is based on voodoo statistics.
- The trial did assess the frequency of psychotic symptoms, an outcome that is closer to what one would rely to compare to this trial with the results of other interventions. Yet oddly, patients receiving the ACT intervention actually reported more, twice the frequency of symptoms compared to patients in TAU. The study also assessed how distressing hallucinations or delusions were to patients, what would be considered a patient oriented outcome, but there were no differences on this variable. One would think that these outcomes would be very important to clinical and policy decision-making and these results are not encouraging.
This study, which has been cited 64 times according to ISI Web of Science, rounded out the pair needed for a designation of strong support:
Gaudiano, B.A., & Herbert, J.D. (2006). Acute treatment of inpatients with psychotic symptoms using acceptance and commitment therapy: Pilot results. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44, 415-437.
Appropriately framed as a pilot study, this study started with 40 patients and only delivered three sessions of ACT. The comparison condition was enhanced treatment as usual consisting of psychopharmacology, case management, and psychotherapy, as well as milieu therapy. Follow-up data were available for all but 2 patients. But this study is hardly the basis for rounding out a judgment of ACT as efficacious for psychosis.
- There were assessments with multiple conventional psychotic symptom and functioning measures, as well as ACT specific measures. The only conventional measure to achieve significance was distress related to hallucinations and there were no differences in ACT specific measures. There were no significant differences in rehospitalization.
- The abstract puts a positive spin on these findings: "At discharge from the hospital, results suggest that short-term advantages in effect of symptoms, overall improvement, social impairment, and distress associated with hallucinations. In addition, more participants in the ACT condition reach clinically significant symptom improvement at discharge. Although four-month rehospitalization rates were lower in the ACT group, these differences did not reach statistical significance."
The provisional designation of ACT as having strong evidence of efficacy for psychosis could have had important consequences. Clinicians and policymakers could decide that merely providing three sessions of ACT is a sufficient and empirically validated approach to keep chronic mental patients from returning to the hospital and maybe even make discharge decisions based on whether patients had received ACT. But the evidence just isn't there that ACT prevents rehospitalization, and when the claim is evaluated against what is known about the efficacy of psychotherapy for psychotics, it appears to be an unreasonable claim bordering on the absurd.
The redesignation of ACT as having modest support was based on additional consideration of a follow-up study of the Bach and Hayes, plus an additional feasibility study that involved 27 patients randomized to either to treatment as usual or 10 sessions of ACT plus treatment as usual. Its stated goal was to investigate the feasibility of using ACT to facilitate emotional recovery following psychosis, but as a feasibility study, included a full range of outcomes with the intention of deciding which would be important for assessing the impact of ACT in this population. The scales included the two subscales of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the positive and negative syndrome scale, an ACT specific scale, and a measure of the therapeutic alliance. Three of the patients assigned just treatment as usual dropped out and so intent to treat analysis were not conducted. With such a small sample, it is not surprising that there were no differences on most measures. The investigators noted that the patients receiving ACT and had fewer crisis contacts over the duration of the trial, but it is not clear whether this is simply due to the treatment as usual group not having regular treatment and therefore having to resort to crisis contacts.
The abstract of the study states "ACT appears to offer promise in reducing negative symptoms, depression and crisis contacts in psychosis", which is probably a bit premature. Note also that across these three trials, there is a shift in the outcome to which the investigators point as evidence for the efficacy of ACT for psychosis. The assumption seems to be that any positive result can be claimed to represent a replication, even if other variables were cited for this purpose among the other studies.
Overall, this trial would also be rated as having high risk of bias because of the lack of intent to treat analyses and the failure to specify a primary outcome among the battery that was administered, but more importantly, it would simply be excluded from meta-analyses with which I have been associated because of too few patients in it. A high risk of bias plus too few patients discourages any confidence in these results.
Is treating PTSD with acupoint stimulation supported by evidence ?
Whether or not ACT is more efficacious than other therapies, as its proponents sometimes claim, or whether it is efficacious for psychosis, is debatable, but probably no one would consider ACT anything other than a bona fide therapy. The same does not hold for Emotional Freedom Therapy (EFT) and its key component, acupoint. I'm sure there was much consternation at APA and Division 12 when stories circulated on the Internet that APA had declared EFT to be evidence supported.
Wikipedia offers the following definition of EFT:
Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is a form of counseling intervention that draws on various theories of alternative medicine including acupuncture, neuro-linguistic programming, energy medicine, and Thought Field Therapy. During an EFT session, the client will focus on a specific issue while tapping on so-called "end points of the body's energy meridians."
Writing in The Skeptical Inquirer, Brandon Gaudiano and James Herbert argued that there is no plausible mechanism to explain how the specifics of EFT could add to its effectiveness and they have been described as unfalsifiable and therefore pseudoscientific. EFT is widely dismissed by skeptics, along with its predecessor, Thought Field Therapy and has been described in the mainstream press as "probably nonsense."[2] Evidence has not been found for the existence of acupuncture points, meridians or other concepts involved in traditional Chinese medicine.
The scathing Gaudiano and Herbert critique is worth a read and calls attention to claims of EFT by proxy: patients improve when therapists tap themselves rather than the patients! My imagination runs wild: how about televised sessions in which therapists tap themselves and liberate thousands of patients around the world from their PTSD?
According to David Feinstein, aproponent of EFT, in including a chapter on Thought Field Therapy in an anthology of innovative psychotherapies, Corsini (2001) acknowledged that it was "either one of the greatest advances in psychotherapy or it is a hoax."
Claims have been made for acupoint that even proponents of EFT consider "provocative," "extraordinary," and "too good to be true." An article published in Journal of Clinical Psychology (not an APA journal), reported that 105 people were treated in Kosovo for severe emotional reactions to past torture, rape, and witnessing loved ones being burned or raped. Strong improvement was observed in 103 of these patients, despite an average of only three sessions. For comparison purposes, exposure therapy involves at least 15 sessions in the literature claims nowhere near this efficacy. However, even more extraordinary results were claimed for the combined sample of 337 patients treated in visits to Kosovo, Rwanda, the Congo, and South Africa. The 337 individuals expressed 1016 traumatic memories of which 1013 were successfully resolved, resulting in substantial improvement in 334 patients. Unfortunately the details of this study remain on unpublished, but claims of these results appear in a forthcoming article in the APA journal Review of General Psychology.
Reports circulating on the Internet that APA had declared EFT to be an evidence supported approach stemmed from a press release by the EFT Universe that cited a statement from the same Review of General Psychology article:
A literature search identified 50 peer-reviewed papers that report or investigate clinical outcomes following the tapping of acupuncture points to address psychological issues. The 17 randomized controlled trials in this sample were critically evaluated for design quality, leading to the conclusion that they consistently demonstrated strong effect sizes and other positive statistical results that far exceed chance after relatively few treatment sessions. Criteria for evidence-based treatments proposed by Division 12 of the American Psychological Association were also applied and found to be met for a number of conditions, including PTSD (Feinstein, 2012).
Feinstein had been developing his claims about energy therapies such as EFT meeting the Division 12 criteria for a while. In a 2008 article in the APA journal Psychotherapy Theory, Research, Practice, Training, he declared
although the evidence is still preliminary, energy psychology has reached the minimum threshold for being designated has an evidence-based treatment, with one form having met the APA division 12 criteria as a "probably efficacious" treatment for specific phobias; another for maintaining weight loss.
In this 2008 article, Feinstein also cited a review in the online book review journal of APA in which Ilene Selrin, Past President of APA's Division of Humanistic Psychology praised Feinstein's book for its "valuable expansion of the traditional biopsychosocial model of psychology to include the dimension of energy" and energy psychology as representing "a new discipline that has been receiving attention due to its speed and effectiveness with difficult cases."
The reports that EFT had been designated as an evidence supported treatment made the rounds for a few months, sometimes with the clarification that EFT met the criteria, but had not yet been labeled as evidence supported by Division 12. In some communities, stories about EFT or –as it was called– tapping therapy made the local TV news. KABC news Los Angeles titled a story,"'Tapping' therapy can relieve anxiety, stress, researchers say" and got an APA spokesperson to provide a muted comment
"Has this tapping therapy been proven effective? We don't think so at this point," said Rhea Farberman, Executive Director for Public and Member Communications at the APA.
The comment went on to say that APA viewed stress and anxiety as serious but treatable issues for some persons and cognitive behavior therapy recommended, but not tapping therapy.
What do these incidents say about branding of psychotherapies as evidence supported?
I will explore this issue in greater depth in a future blog post, but for now we are left with some questions.
The first incident involved designation of a psychotherapy as having strong evidence of efficacy for psychosis, but was quickly changed first to under review and then to modest support. The precipitant for this downgrading seems to be blog posts that revealed the abstract of the key study to be misleading. Designation of a therapy as having strong evidence for its efficacy requires two positive randomized controlled trials. The second trial was described as a pilot study explicitly aimed at replicating the first one. Like the first one, its abstract declared positive findings. However, this study failed to replicate the first study's claimed reduction in hospitalization, and a cursory examination of the results section revealed that this study, like the study that it attempted to replicate, was basically a null trial.
- Do the current criteria employed by Division 12-only 2 positive trials and no attention to size or quality- set too low a bar for a therapy receiving the seemingly important branding of having strong evidence?
- The revised status of ACT for psychosis is that it has modest support. But how does two null trials published with confirmatory bias constitute modest support?
- Are there pitfalls in uncritically accepting claims in the abstracts of articles appearing in prestigious journals like JCCP?
- More generally, to what extent do the shortcomings of articles appearing in prestigious journals like JCCP warrant skepticism, not only by reviewers for Division 12, but consumers more generally?
- Should we expect a prestigious journals like JCCP to encourage and make a place for post publication peer review of the articles that have appeared there?
- Should revised criteria for evidence supported therapies not just count whether there are two or only one positive trial, but incorporate formal quality ratings of trials for overall quality and risk of bias?
The second incident involves rumors of APA having designated as evidence supported a bizarre therapy with extravagant claims of efficacy. The rumor was based on a forthcoming review in an APA Journal that indicated that EFT had sufficient number of positive randomized trials to meet APA division 12 criteria for evidence supported. It was left to a media person from APA to clarify that APA did not endorse this therapy, but it was unclear on what basis this declaration was made.
- If ACT for psychosis has modest support, where does EFT stand when evaluated by the same criteria?
- Can sources other than APA Division 12 apply the criteria to psychotherapies and declare the therapies as warranting evidence-based status? If not, why not?
- Do consumers, as well as proponents of innovative and even strange therapies, deserve evaluation with formal criteria by APA Division 12 and designation of the therapies not only as warranting a designation of "strong evidence" if they meet these criteria, but alternatively as having demonstrated a failure to accumulate evidence of efficacy, and even as having demonstrated possible harm?
- If APA Division 12 takes on the task of publicizing the evidence based status of psychotherapies, does it thereby assume a responsibility to alert policy makers and consumers of therapies that fail to meet these criteria?
- If application of the existing Division 12 criteria warrants EFT as having strong evidence of efficacy, what does that say about the adequacy of these criteria?
To be continued……


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Hypothetically Speaking: Justice Breyer's Dialectical Propensities
In July of 1994, Judge Stephen Breyer testified before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary in connection with his nomination to the Supreme Court. In responding to a question posed by Senator Howard Metzenbaum, Judge Breyer could not resist the temptation to respond by way of a hypothetical:
Let's say—and I will use a hypothetical, I don't like to use that here, because I know this isn't a classroom and I know these are serious matters and I don't like to be professorial, frankly, but I think in this instance, maybe thinking of, say, they turn this wheel around and they charged 8 cents for the electricity, and that might help. They then transmit it across a wire. They then sell it to them- selves, because they are in the retail operation, too. And they sold it, let us say, for 10 cents. So they make it for 8 cents and they sell it to themselves for 10 cents, and the price to the consumer is 10 cents. Now, the plaintiff in this case came along and said, you see, 8 cents is what we have to pay for it, because they sold a little bit to independent retailers, too, and that plaintiff was an independent retailer. And that independent retailer . . . .
In the interest of brevity, I abbreviated my quotation of the Judge's hypothetical.
As Court watchers well know, the hypothetical (typically long and complicated) is his signature move. What prompted my thoughts on Justice Breyer and his courtroom style were some recent comments (see also here and here) made about Justice Clarence Thomas and his courtroom style. That said, I thought I would share a few examples, albeit shorter ones, of Justice Breyer's dialectical propensities.
During the course of oral arguments in FCC v. Nextwave Communications, Inc. (2002), a statutory interpretation case, Justice Breyer ventured to make a point by way of a hypothetical:
I learned the second year of law school–and obviously many of my colleagues don't agree with me, but I learned the second year of law school that when you have a text which says "all," that there are often implied, not-written exceptions. . . 'No animals in the park' doesn't necessarily apply to a pet oyster . . . .
Or consider another hypothetical Justice Breyer posed to Professor Randy Barnett, who represented the Respondents in Gonzales v. Raich (2004):
You know, he grows heroin, cocaine, tomatoes that are going to have genomes in them that could, at some point, lead to tomato children that will eventually affect Boston. … So you're going to get around all those examples by saying what?
Of course, other examples might have been selected (say, Breyer's hypotheticals in McCutcheon v. FEC), but that is an assignment for a more extended discussion. For now, it is enough to ask: How have Court watchers responded to the Justice Breyer's style of questioning? Here are a few random samples of what I turned up in response to that question.
A former Harvard Law School professor, Breyer is the most verbose of the justices. He's unleashed nearly 35,000 words during oral arguments since January, a transcript review shows. Repeatedly, he insists that lawyers imagine scenarios that are parallel to—or perhaps perpendicular to—the facts at hand. . . . When they work, hypothetical questions can reveal a contradiction or expose a fundamental legal principle. Of course, they don't always work. — Michael Doyle, March 16, 2007
Breyer is the Court's most frequent practitioner of the hypothetical question, a conjurer of images that are unusual and hyoccasionally bizarre. — Mark Sherman, March 2, 2008
During Supreme Court arguments Wednesday in a case involving claims against high-ranking government officials over post-Sept. 11 detention practices, discussion frequently turned to an unusual hypothetical scenario posed by Justice Stephen Breyer: a lawsuit over a mouse found in a bottle of Coca-Cola. Though Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. at one point called the hypothetical "by its nature particularly absurd," he and the other justices who adopted it seemed to find it quite instructive. — Tony Mauro, December 11, 2008
Justice Breyer . . . occasionally runs the hypothetical too far out, and it becomes as complex as the underlying legal concept he is trying to make intelligible. — Lyle Denniston, December 7, 2011
Justice Breyer is notorious for asking long-winded hypotheticals in which he can occasionally get lost, and unfortunately these hypotheticals may waste an advocate's valuable time and may not be pertinent . . . . — Ryan Malphurs, 2013
Justice Breyer offered one hypothetical and a view of the legal implications, then conceded he or his law clerk might have it wrong and would have to review the rules again. — Bob Bauer, October 9, 2013
Justice Breyer . . . is the Talmudic scholar of hypotheticals. — Art Lien, February 25, 2014
Stephen Breyer's interminable law professor hypotheticals . . . are about drawing attention to themselves rather than helping the Court work through issues. — Scott Lemiux, February 26, 2014


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What we're about
INTP Atlanta is a mishmash of individuals who want to have honest, direct, discussions. No topic is off limits. For people of the NT temperament, this is a place where you can relate to others and gain insight by sharing experiences. Non-NTs are more than welcome as well, whether the motivation is to learn about NTs, or wanting to engage in conversation.
In response to several inquiries, an INTP is one of the sixteen MBTI personality types. INTPs make up, according to the latest stats, approximately 1-3 percent of the population.
If you don't know what personality type you "fit" into, here is a link to the MBTI test which might provide some clarification: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp
Also, here is a description of INTP: http://intp.org/intprofile.html
Great quotes from notable INTPs:
Albert Einstein:
1. "To punish me for my contempt of authority, Fate has made me an authority myself."
2. "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly."
3. "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
4. "To me it suffices to wonder at these secrets and to attempt humbly to grasp with my mind a mere image of the lofty structure of all that there is."
Bertrand Russell :
1. "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts."
Mark Twain:
1. "I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week sometimes to make it up." (not sure if Twain's an INTP but this quote kind of embodies the INTP disposition)
1. "There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance."
Carl Jung:
1. "The growth of the mind is the widening of the range of consciousness, and ... each step forward has been a most painful and laborious achievement."
2. "The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed."
3. "Everything that irritates us about others can lead to an understanding of ourselves."
Abe Lincoln:
1. "Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing."
2. "All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind."
Charles Darwin:
1. "An American monkey, after getting drunk on brandy, would never touch it again, and thus is much wiser than most men."
James Madison:
1. "Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."
Isaac Newton
1. "To myself I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me."
Rene Descartes:
1. "If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things."
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Court Finds Reassignment Ordinarily Is a Reasonable Accommodation For Workers with Disabilities
Chicago -- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed the dismissal of a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against airline giant United Airlines Inc. The circuit court overturned precedent to agree with the EEOC that "reasonable accommodation" as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) may require employers to provide employees with disabilities with "reassignment to a vacant position" when the employee cannot be accommodated in his or her current position.
The EEOC's suit charged that United violated the ADA by refusing to place workers with disabilities in vacant positions for which they were qualified and which they needed in order to continue working. Instead, UAL required these employees to compete for jobs on the company website. The company's practice frequently prevented employees with disabilities from continuing their employment.
In June 2009, the EEOC filed the original lawsuit in the Northern District of California based on its investigation of a number of discrimination charges filed by United employees located in San Francisco and Chicago. United successfully moved for a change of venue to the Northern District of Illinois, where an earlier Seventh Circuit case, EEOC v. Humiston Keeling, 227 F.3d 1024 (7th Cir. 2000), had already held that a competitive transfer policy did not violate the ADA. In February 2011, the lower court, bound by this precedent, dismissed the EEOC's case against United.
On appeal, however, the Seventh Circuit agreed with the EEOC that Humiston Keeling "did not survive" an intervening Supreme Court decision, U.S. Airways v. Barnett, 535 U.S. 391 (2002). The Court of Appeals held that "the ADA does indeed mandate that an employer appoint employees with disabilities to vacant positions for which they are qualified, provided that such accommodations would be ordinarily reasonable and would not present an undue hardship to the employer."
"The Court's decision will have far-reaching benefits for individuals with disabilities who strive for economic independence and want to work," said EEOC General Counsel David Lopez. "We are pleased that the case may now go forward."
EEOC San Francisco Regional Attorney William R. Tamayo said, "We anticipate that numerous employees at United locations nationwide may have a claim in this systemic case. This case will allow them to seek reassignment and continue their careers with United."
EEOC Appellate Attorney Barbara Sloan added, "In defining 'reasonable accommodation' to include 'reassignment to a vacant position,' Congress clearly intended to ensure that employees with disabilities remain productive workers even when they can no longer do their current jobs due to disability -- as long as reassignment is possible and poses no undue hardship. With its decision, the Seventh Circuit joins the D.C. and Tenth Circuits in implementing Congress's intent."
According to the company web site, United Airlines has almost 50,000 employees in every U.S. state and in many countries around the world. The air carrier operates air travel hubs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Chicago and Washington, D.C. United is one of the largest international carriers based in the United States.
The EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about the EEOC is available on its web site at www.eeoc.gov.


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Every so often, a hoax message circulates on Facebook, warning in a dire fashion that the free social network will start charging for services.
Facebook promises it will always remain free of charge. But an announcement Thursday had users scratching their heads.
Tucked into a blog post about streamlining messages and adding new message filters, Facebook announced it was testing a new system--a fee-based one--for determining whether or not a message gets delivered to your inbox, or shuffled off to an often forgotten "other" folder.
For users in the same network, messages will be delivered as normal. But for users on separate networks, a one-time, $1 fee would guarantee the message would show up in the inbox. Recipients would be able to block unwanted messages afterwards, but otherwise the sender would be able to send unlimited messages to the recipient's inbox.
Facebook is posing the test as an attempt to crack down on spam messaging. But to users, the trial looks more like a chance to finally open up a revenue stream that doesn't directly involve advertising.
And Mashable explains that it could work opposite it's stated intention: "It seems just as likely that it could lead to an increase spam, as anyone from a marketer to your ex-girlfriend could potentially use the option to flood your inbox with unwanted messages."
Regardless, the test will only come to a small number of users, and it is just a test--for now.
Facebook's explanation:
Facebook Messages is designed to get the most relevant messages into your Inbox and put less relevant messages into your Other folder. We rely on signals about the message to achieve this goal.
Some of these signals are social – we use social signals such as friend connections to determine whether a message is likely to be one you want to see in your Inbox.
Some of these signals are algorithmic – we use algorithms to identify spam and use broader signals from the social graph, such as friend of friend connections or people you may know, to help determine relevance.
Today we're starting a small experiment to test the usefulness of economic signals to determine relevance. This test will give a small number of people the option to pay to have a message routed to the Inbox rather than the Other folder of a recipient that they are not connected with.
Several commentators and researchers have noted that imposing a financial cost on the sender may be the most effective way to discourage unwanted messages and facilitate delivery of messages that are relevant and useful.
This test is designed to address situations where neither social nor algorithmic signals are sufficient. For example, if you want to send a message to someone you heard speak at an event but are not friends with, or if you want to message someone about a job opportunity, you can use this feature to reach their Inbox. For the receiver, this test allows them to hear from people who have an important message to send them.


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Whenever I think of fresh handmade phyllo I always think about Shaharazad Bakery, a little shop in the Sunset district of San Francisco. The shop has been closed for years now, but from what I remember, the owner made excellent phyllo. A true artisan. I think he was the only person in San Francisco who sold fresh phyllo dough made by hand. He had a table in the back room that was just the right size for pulling out the dough. Sadly the shop closed when he retired.
For this month's Daring Bakers' challenge, host Erica asked us to make our own phyllo dough. It's so much easier to grab a box from the freezer section at the market, but making phyllo isn't that hard. The recipe Erica provided was the exact same recipe as the strudel dough recipe we used for the May 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge. The only difference was the rolling method. For the strudel, we rolled and stretched the dough into one big sheet. For the phyllo, we cut off small balls of dough and rolled each ball into a thin sheet. Rick Rodger's recipe is a really good one and it's so easy to handle.
Erica also wanted us to use our phyllo to make baklava. Baklava is a dessert made of layers of buttered phyllo and nuts. After it's baked, you pour a hot sugar or honey syrup all over and allow it to soak in. It's not difficult to make since most of the work is just assembling the layers. Oh, but then there's the waiting. It needs to sit in that syrup for a few hours to soak up all that sweet liquid goodness before you can eat it. If you want instant gratification, then you need to look elsewhere.
I'm not sure what nuts make a baklava an authentic one. The internet has a lot of "traditional" or "authentic" baklava recipes using all kinds of nuts. So for my nut filling, I used whatever I had in the house - walnuts, almonds and white sesame seeds. My husband thought the sesame seeds gave the baklava a vaguely Asian flavor that he found a bit overwhelming, but I really liked the sesame flavor. I've always found baklava too sweet which is why I never make or eat it, but I think that sweetness is the appeal of baklava for most people. So if you like 'em syrupy sweet, then this baklava recipe is for you. But I'm a girl who can eat her pancakes without maple syrup or butter so I won't be making baklava again any time soon.
The fine print:
Erica of Erica's Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker's June challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making homemade phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava.
Phyllo Dough
(from Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers)
Note: Recipe makes enough phyllo for one 8x5 inch pan of baklava. Double recipe for a 9x9 inch pan and triple for 9x13 inch pan of baklava.
1 1/3 cups (200 g) unbleached flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons (105 ml) water, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil, plus additional for coating the dough
1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar
1. In the bowl of your stand mixer combine flour and salt.
2. Mix with paddle attachment.
3. Combine water, oil and vinegar in a small bowl.
4. Add water & oil mixture with mixer on low speed, mix until you get a soft dough, if it appears dry add a little more water.
5. Change to the dough hook and let knead approximately 10 minutes. You will end up with beautiful smooth dough. If you are kneading by hand, knead approx. 20 minutes.
6. Remove the dough from mixer and continue to knead for 2 more minutes. Pick up the dough and through it down hard on the counter a few times during the kneading process.
7. Shape the dough into a ball and lightly cover with oil.
8. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and let rest 30-90 minutes, longer is best.
Rolling the Phyllo
1. Unwrap your dough and cut off a chunk slightly larger then a golf ball. While you are rolling be sure to keep the other dough covered so it doesn't dry out.
2. Be sure to flour your hands, rolling pin and counter. As you roll you will need to keep adding, don't worry, you can't over-flour.
3. Roll out the dough a bit to flatten it out.
4. Wrap the dough around your rolling pin/dowel
5. Roll back and forth quickly with the dough remaining on the dowel.
6. Rotate and repeat until it is as thin as you can it. Don't worry if you get rips in the dough, as long as you have one perfect one for the top you will never notice.
7. When you get it as thin as you can with the rolling pin, carefully pick it up with well floured hands and stretch it on the backs of your hands as you would a pizza dough, just helps make it that much thinner. Roll out your dough until it is transparent. NOTE: you will not get it as thin as the frozen phyllo dough you purchase at the store, it is made by machine.
8. Set aside on a well-floured surface. Repeat the process until your dough is used up. Between each sheet again flower well. You will not need to cover your dough with a wet cloth, as you do with boxed dough; it is moist enough that it should not dry out.
(adapted from Food Network's Alton Brown)
(makes one 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan, approximately 30 to 60 pieces)
For the filling:
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
9 ounces walnuts
5 ounces blanched almonds
1/3 cup sesame seeds, lightly toasted and cooled
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 pound phyllo dough
For the syrup:
1 cup honey
1 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 (2-inch) piece fresh orange zest
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Place the walnuts, almonds, sesame, sugar and cinnamon into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until finely chopped, but not pasty or powdery, approximately 15 quick pulses. Set aside.
Trim the sheets of phyllo to fit the bottom of a 13 by 9 by 2-inch metal pan. Brush the bottom and sides of the pan with butter; lay down a sheet of phyllo and brush with butter. Repeat this step 9 more times for a total of 10 sheets of phyllo. Top with 1/3 of the nut mixture and spread thinly. Layer 6 more sheets of phyllo with butter in between each of them, followed by another third of the nuts. Repeat with another 6 sheets of phyllo, butter, remaining nuts, and rose water. Top with 8 sheets of phyllo brushing with butter in between each sheet. Brush the top generously with butter.
Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Remove pan from the oven and cut into 30 to 60 pieces. Return pan to the oven and continue to bake for another 30 minutes. Remove pan from the oven, place on a cooling rack, and cool for 2 hours before adding the syrup.
Make the syrup during the last 30 minutes of cooling. Combine the honey, water, sugar, cinnamon stick and orange peel in a 4-quart saucepan and set over high heat. Stir occasionally until the sugar has dissolved. Once boiling, boil for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and discard the orange peel and cinnamon stick.
After the baklava has cooled for 2 hours, re-cut the entire pan following the same lines as before. Pour the hot syrup evenly over the top of the baklava, allowing it to run into the cuts and around the edges of the pan. Allow the pan to sit, uncovered until completely cool. Cover and store at room temperature for at least 8 hours and up to overnight before serving. Store, covered, at room temperature for up to 5 days.


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At Kitchen Craft, we continually listen to the desires of our customers to ensure that our products meet their needs. Whether moving into a new home or improving their current one, our customers want to create their ideal living spaces - it's our goal to help them. This is why we offer both quality and versatility, classically made cabinets with trend-forward European styling designed to fit any budget.
Kitchen Craft was founded more than 40 years ago in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and is now sold in hundreds of stores in Canada and the United States. Kitchen Craft manufactures two lines of cabinetry, Integra and Aurora, for the kitchen, bathroom, home office, laundry and other areas throughout the home. In 2002, Kitchen Craft became part of the MasterBrand Cabinets, Inc. family of cabinet manufacturers, offering multiple lines from stock to custom cabinetry.
pro source of webster, a trusted Kitchen Craft Cabinetry dealer, is a cabinet store servicing the Webster, TX market. The highly trained professionals at pro source of webster specialize in all aspects of cabinetry to assist you with each step of your project.
Ready to start creating your dream space? Give pro source of webster a call today for showroom hours or to schedule an appointment.


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Healthagen needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 183 designs submitted by 56 freelance designers.
We are an established startup with a million users that is ready to take our product and company to the next level. This is an exciting opportunity for you to create a logo that is viewed by millions of people. We want to convey an image of trust, cutting edge technology, and health.
iTriage is a healthcare decision tool that helps people make better healthcare decisions. iTriage is available for free as an iPhone app, Android app, and on the web at http://www.itriagehealth.com. We will need to be able to create an icon for the App stores as well so that could either be part of your design or made separately using your logo design. Check out our website (listed above) for the current logo and if you have an iPhone or Android you can download the free app from the app stores (search for iTriage). The current logo looks like it says "Triage" but really it should say "iTriage". That is one of the main issues with the current logo.
Our product enables you to research symptoms, diseases, and procedures and helps you determine what type of doctor your should visit. It also will use the GPS functionality in your phone to help you locate the closest doctor.
People interested in healthcare and technology. Really anyone can use it so we don't want to narrow our appeal too much. Our product is focused on the healthcare consumer and not on doctors themselves.
We need a vector graphic, preferably an Illustrator file or at least something that can be opened in Illustrator. Please include the font or at least take note of what the font is so we can purchase it and use it for other marketing materials. The logo needs to be able to work on billboards and business cards so please make sure all aspects of the logo are vector.
As I said before, it should convey health and technology. Contact me with any questions.
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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A man who hacked dozens of email accounts belonging to Hollywood celebrities including Scarlett Johansson has been handed a tough ten year jail sentence by a US court.
Charged by police in October 2011, 35 year-old Christopher Chaney from Florida was accused of breaking into the Yahoo, Gmail and Apple email accounts of a large number of notables using password reset attacks, posting and offering the private data he stole to gossip websites.
Although several famous people were victims of his attacks from late 2010 onwards, but it was topless photographs he posted of Scarlett Johansson that formed the media centrepiece of the case.
The court watched a video-taped statement in which the tearful actress described how she had been "truly humiliated and embarrassed" by the exposure.
"That feeling of security can never be given back and there is no compensation that can restore the feeling one has from such a large invasion of privacy," read a separate statement by another victim, singer Christina Aguilera.
What will have counted against Chaney was the systematic nature of his hacking as well as its extraordinary scale, taking in at least 50 victims, including two women known to him.
After striking a plea deal with prosecutors and being hit with a $66,179 restitution fine (£41,000), Chaney was still hit with a heavy sentence by the Los Angeles court.
"I don't know what else to say except I'm sorry," Chaney said during his sentencing. This will never happen again," Chaney was reported as saying.
As well as sending out a warning to Internet snoopers, the case has also brought home the incredible vulnerability of Internet-based email systems in a faint echo of a much more limited case that involved vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in 2008.
In that case, the hacking and posting of Palin's [email protected] email by David Kernell was accepted as a one-off and the accused was given a one year and one day term in a halfway house.


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Color-Happy Beach House
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What do you do with a hot-pink ramshackle ranch house complete with skunks living in the attic? If said house is for sale and happens to be located on prime oceanfront property on Florida's Atlantic Coast, you do what Connie and Chris Nast did: Snap it up, tear it down, and—staying within the original footprint—start all over again.
The Nasts' new one-and-a-half-story house is a total charmer, featuring concrete construction formed to look like clapboard, open porches upstairs and down, and fabulous ocean views. Inside, the charm intensifies with joyful colors, casual cottage-style furnishings, and a variety of all-in-fun collections—including a flock of pink flamingos.
Credit for the delightful decor goes to Connie and to Boston interior designer Elizabeth "Betsy" Speert. "At first the plan was to hire a local Florida designer, but Betsy did such a wonderful job with our house in Vermont that we knew we wanted her involvement here," Connie explains. Speert, who also owns a Florida winter house not far from the Nasts', was more than happy to accept the job. "I love working with Connie and Chris. The three of us always have a great time together," Speert says.
"Fun" is indeed the essence of this house, and it begins with the front door, painted purple à la Key West. Step inside, and more happy hues greet you. In the foyer and continuing into the open-plan living/dining room, the walls are covered in orangey-colored split bamboo. Kitchen walls and cabinets are painted a vibrant coral, similar to the inside of a seashell. Speert is a big fan of bamboo wallpaper because, she says, "It is so textural and so much warmer and cozier in feeling than flat paint." The designer admits that bamboo wallpaper is difficult to hang. "You need hedge clippers to cut it, and before hanging, you need to paint the walls the same color as the bamboo to hide the gaps that naturally occur."
White-painted furniture, new or old, is another passion of Speert's. "Especially in a room with bright or bold colors, you need to create contrast with the crispness of white," she says. "If you like the shape of a piece but not its finish, don't sell it or throw it out, just paint it white. That's what we did with the hutch and the host and hostess chairs in the dining area, and with an old circular table in the living room." The designer offers another tip on the subject of painted furniture. "If you want a piece to have a country-rustic look, just apply a primer coat and nothing more." (The dining hutch is a good example of this primer-only technique.)
Both Connie and Speert love collections, but the two have totally different ways of building them. "I greatly enjoy the thrill of the hunt, but Connie does not. She knows what she likes, but she assigns me the task of finding these items, and this is perfectly fine with me," Speert says. "I'm happy to go to the ends of the earth to find wonderful things for my clients." Of late, the designer has been doing much of her sleuthing right from the comfort of home, cutting way back on footwork. "I've discovered eBay," she exclaims. "It's absolutely incredible what you can find on this site!"
To accessorize the Nasts' winter retreat, Speert searched for—and found—an amazing array of collectibles, including flocks of wooden, ceramic, and porcelain wading birds (egrets, storks, and flamingos among them), all kinds of interesting seashells, glass perfume bottles, Catalina pottery plates (hung on the walls in the master bedroom), and glazed ceramic plates in the shape of scallop shells, plus a lovely mirror with a green-enamel frame accented in silver.
Along with the bounty of goodies amassed from eBay, the Nasts' house contains many other treasured things, including an antique carved wooden whale in the living room and a large handmade ship placed on a table in the foyer. "Chris and I saw one just like it when we traveled to the Seychelles, and we asked the artisan who made it if he would create one for us. He agreed, but it took nearly two years before we received it," Connie notes.
The Nasts adore their high-spirited winter house and wouldn't change a thing. "It's impossible not to feel happy here," says Connie. "The only thing we take seriously is having fun and not letting life catch up with us."
Photography: William Stites
Interior designer: Betsy Speert, Elizabeth Speert, Inc. 72 Potter Pond, Lexington, MA 02421; 781/274-9372.
Lighthearted Foyer
The foyer greets with happy-you're-here colors, a handmade ship, and a quirky painted duck. Speert designed the awning-stripe stair runner.
Living Room
The living room beckons with bamboo-covered walls, comfortable seating (upholstered in stain-repellent fabrics), and seashore-related accessories. The artwork above the sofa is actually two horizontal canvases hung tightly together.
Living Room from Dining Area
A view from the dining area shows hints of tropical pink in the living room, which crescendo into the kitchen.
Living Room Details
A mirror framed in seashells brings the beach inside.
Dining Area
New chairs in the dining area are upholstered in coral fabric to tie in with the color of the adjoining kitchen. The farm table is a piece that Connie has owned for years; the candle-powered iron chandelier is new.
Dining Area Details
New chairs in the dining area are upholstered in coral fabric to tie in with the color of the adjoining kitchen. The farm table is a piece that Connie has owned for years; the candle-powered iron chandelier is new.
Cottagey Kitchen
To keep the kitchen in a cottage frame of mind, all countertops (except the stone around the sink) are white-painted wood. Shelves on either side of the range are stocked with flamingos found online and cookbooks.
With its multiple French doors and expansive terrace, the back of Connie and Chris Nast's home offers front-row views of the beach and the Atlantic Ocean beyond.
Chris and Connie relax on the steps of their beach home.
Nestled between the house and the garage (where Chris keeps his collection of classic cars) is a cozy sitting area used by the Nasts when it's too windy on the beach.
Master Bedroom
Walls the color of palm fronds add a tropical touch in the master bedroom. Loved by Connie because it's ultrafeminine, the room charms with a Wilton carpet strewn with roses, floral prints by a local artist, and a collection of pottery plates.
Master Bedroom Details
All items on the dresser—except the lamp and the vase—and the mirror above it are fortuitous online finds.
If you enjoyed this colorful beach house, click here to see a classic blue-and-white Florida beach cottage designed by JoAnn Barwick.


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Equine necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 67 diseños de 19 diseñadores freelance.
We are looking for a cutting edge or clean and crisp logo that captures the essence of our site and company in a well designed logo that avoids the typical cliche elements associated with the equine industry. We are big about being able to have features of the logo that will stick in the mind and can resonate in imagery from a distance.
We are launching a social networking site that connects athletes, brands and events in the Equine industry. We are calling it Sponsor Barn. It will provide public facing profiles for athletes and allow them to apply for sponsorships or loyalty progams with brands. It will allow brands to market directly to athletes and levearage those relationships in a multitude of ways. Equine industry is typically a wealthy man's sport so we are looking for something cutting edge or clean that avoids all the cliche looks.
- Item 1...Sponsor and Barn and the .com in the logo
- We also believe that there needs to be some sort of representation of the barn concept but be subtle like a red roof or a framed red structure.
- Contemporary
- Item 1...No boots, buckles, spurs, ropes, cowboy hats or anything typically associated with equine industry by people not involved in the industry.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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Metallic ribbon detail choker with lobster clasp closure.
- Items must be returned within 14 days of receipt.- Items must be unworn, unwashed/unaltered and must have all original tags attached and approved by Swank Staff.- "Sale" items are final sale. They CANNOT be returned/exchanged, so please make sure you like them!*- Underwear and other intimates, bodysuits, jewelry, & hats cannot be returned.- All shoe returns must be unworn and include the original shoebox in its original condition without shipping labels.
* Please note: international orders are final sale and may not be returned/exchanged at this time.
-Please contact us to inquire about exchanging any items in your order.
for FULL Return Policy, click here
Domestic shipping will be a flat rate of $7. Orders over $150 will ship free of charge.
All packages will be shipped within 24-36 business hours after payment verification. As soon as your order ships, we will email you Shipping Confirmation with tracking information for your package. You can also log in to your account at any time to track your order.
For US orders we ship via USPS Priority 2-3 Day Mail with Delivery Confirmation or we offer FREE In Store Pickup unless other arrangements are made regarding expedited shipment. Depending where you live in the US, you will get your package within 1-4 days of the date it was shipped.
for FULL Shipping policy, click here
Copyright © 2019 Swank Boutique


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Iowa Graduate Literature and Writing On-Campus Programs
Graduate Literature and Writing Programs offer students the opportunity to deepen their theoretical understanding of different types of literary works and genres as well as how to express themselves accurately through advanced writing techniques. Offered as graduate certificates, masters and masters of fine arts (MFA) degrees as well as doctorate programs, studying on-campus gives students a chance to experience a social learning environment.
Graduate Literature and Writing Campus Programs Essentials
Prospective candidates for Graduate Literature and Writing on-campus programs may be required to submit writing samples along with fulfilling other admissions requirements. Students looking for advanced training in writing, editing or scholarly literary research may attain that through a master's degree program in writing and literature. Some programs also prepare students for doctoral degrees which is the credential needed to teach at post-secondary levels[i].
GradSchools.com has a directory of sponsored listings in:
- Comparative Literature
- Creative Writing
- Literature
- Professional Writing
- Technical Communication
General Graduate Literature and Writing Degree
A general Graduate Literature and Writing Degree program is often interdisciplinary and gives students the opportunity to do extensive critical reading of a specific type of literature as well as develop their analytic writing skills. Often, students are also given the chance to develop their own scholarly interests which are explored in a thesis-project.
DID YOU KNOW? Writing is not a language but a form of technology that developed as tools developed with human society.[ii]
Types of Graduate Literature Degrees: Literature & Comparative Literature
Graduate Literature Degrees may be very broad or comparative in scope. Literature is considered to be
writing of any kind as an art form with artistic or intellectual value, and is often classified as either[iii]:
- Fiction
- Non-fiction
- Poetry
- Prose
- Novels
- Short story
- Drama
- Genre/aesthetic features
- Written and electronic literature
Comparative literature is the academic study of literature and cultural expression across various languages, nations, and disciplinary boundaries. These graduate programs are often interdisciplinary in that the literature may be affected by sociology, history, anthropology, translation studies, critical theory, cultural studied and religious studies.[iv]
Review sponsored listings such as Master of Science in Comparative Literature or Master of Arts in Classical Studies.
Types of Graduate Writing Degrees: Creative, Professional & Technical
Graduate Writing Degrees teach learners how to communicate through text and uses – whether this be to tell a story or record facts.[v] While writing courses often include grammar, vocabulary and sentence structure, one can also learn the technical skills involved with specific types of writing. Which program is right for you? Here are a few things to keep in mind:
Creative Writing Graduate Programs may be the right fit if you enjoy original composition and self-expression as they encompass forms such as[vi]:
- Fiction
- Non-fiction
- Screenwriting
- Playwriting
- Novels
- Biographies
- Short stories
- Poetry
Professional Writing Graduate Programs are often geared for educators or others who earn a living through writing. They may include topics such as
- Writing practice
- Writing processes
- Research
- How to communicate to a specific audience
- How to influence the audience
Technical Communication Graduate Programs are often a great fit for someone who has specific knowledge in a field such as science, engineering or other factual area; in order to communicate this information, a specialized set of writing methods or computer-based training is used. Commonly these programs help students learn how to write[vii]:
- White papers
- Manuals
- Instructional material
Review sponsored listings such as MFA in Creative Writing, MA in Classical Studies, Master of Arts in Creative Writing and Literature for Educators.
Why Study Literature and Writing at Graduate School?
Effectively, most Graduate Literature and Writing Programs have a campus requirement, even if the courses are available online. Why? It is not uncommon for graduate level Literature and Writing programs to involve some degree of classroom participation; students may have to read their works out loud, give their opinions in live discussions or critique the work of their classmates. These interchanges can be a great way to boost communication and interpersonal skills or enhance your ability to analyze. A few other potential benefits to studying on-campus for you to consider:
- Graduate Literature and Writing Programs involve reading, researching and writing; studying on-campus means access to libraries.
- Campus-based programs offer students the opportunity to work in groups, learning how to collaborate, participate and lead
- Engaging in lively discussion, brainstorming, forming new networks and interpersonal relationships is a possibility with face-to-face learning
- Hands-on learning and being able to get live feedback and mentoring from professors may be encouraging and motivating
As part of your search for a graduate school and graduate program, verify that your prospective school or program is accredited. The U.S. Department of Education (USDE) recognizes the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) as the premier association of accreditation.
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sources[i] bls.gov/ooh/education-training-and-library/postsecondary-teachers.htm | [ii] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing | [iii] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literature | [iv] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_literature| [v] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing| [vi] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_writing |[vii] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_communication
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text:
Rev. Jeremiah Wright did an interview with Bill Moyers. That's a good match; it's difficult to say which one holds America in lower regard.
During the interview, Wright tries to have it both ways — he stands by his statements, but he's being unjustly portrayed through the airing of them. No wonder Obama admires Wright.
JOHN adds: Here is part of the Moyers interview. You'll notice that, notwithstanding Moyers's sympathetic demeanor, Wright fails to suggest any "context" that would make "God damn America" mean something other than "God damn America."


text:
|Part Number
|Vehicle Parts ▸
Suspension & Steering ▸
Alignment Kits
|Item Code
|7 in.
|7 in.
|2 in.
|1.00 lb.
|Sunday, January 1, 2012
|Last Updated
|Friday, December 21, 2018
Whiteline Camber Adjust Bolt Kit 14mm Toyota MR2 Spyder 2000-2005SKU. 00L20 Part No. KCA414
Quick Info
Alignment Kit
Improve Handling
Rigorously Tested
Product DetailsCamber Adj Bolt Kit 14mm Toyota MR2 Spyder 2000-2005
- Camber Adj Bolt Kit Sport Bushings Replaces Lower Bolt
- Adjustment: Adds +/- 1.5deg
- Position: Rear
- Position: Front
- Size: 14mm
- From 10/00 Thru 3/06 Production Date
The simple answer is that there is no such thing!
I know we have probably given more information here than most people wanted, but even this only scratches the surface of the available information and variables that need to be considered when contemplating optimum wheel alignment settings.
The most important thing and something we can not stress enough is the fact that alignment settings are NOT an absolute truth that can be held up as an undisputed rule. It is a dynamic process with the "correct value varying from driver to driver, car to car not to mention the driving environment.
Typically used when discussing wheel alignment and geometry. By this, Whiteline are referring to the difference in alignment angles between a stationary and a moving vehicle. That is, the same vehicle will typically have different caster, camber and toe readings when it is moving compared to when the alignment was done in static form in the workshop.
In an ideal world, all wheel alignments would be done on a dynamic wheel aligner but these are expensive and quite rare. This concept is very important, as the only suspension angles that really matter are those present while the vehicle is moving (dynamic). What is done to the vehicles alignment while the vehicle is stationary, (static) is a process of trying to predict the levels of change while the vehicle is moving and setting the angles according to these predictions.Whiteline puts a great deal of emphasis on the dynamic geometry so rigorous road testing is essential to ensure that the predictions are valid.
- Camber
- Caster
- Toe
- Geometry
Camber is the inclination of the wheel from the vertical when viewed from the front. When the top of the wheel leans out you have positive camber, lean in equas negative camber.
Static negative camber is used to compensate for body roll, body distortion and tyre roll under when cornering. Stiffer bodies and tyre sidewalls are in and unnecessary suspension compliance is out. Therefore the previous requirements for large amounts of static negative camber are disappearing. Whiteline strut braces are good for maintaining camber angles under cornering loads as they further minimise body flex.
Its important to highlight the fact that camber settings are ultimately a personal thing. That is, Whiteline can provide an indicative range to start from but the final number will depend on your driving style, average driving conditions, tyre size and many other things. You need to start with a relevant number, then monitor tyre wear and compensate if necessary.
Whiteline have a range of camber adjusting products available to achieve the optimum settings.
Caster is the backward or forward tilt of the steering axis. Vehicle manufacturers are aware of the advantages of caster and as each new model is released the amount of caster specified increases.
Why, because the disadvantages of high levels of castor are being overcome. Rack and pinion steering means less play, lower Ackerman levels, smaller scrub radius (zero is now very common), better and lower profile radial tyres means less sidewall deflection and higher tolerance to greater slip angles. But the greatest obstacle, that of heavy steering effort, has all but disappeared with the universal acceptance of power steering.
High levels of positive caster equate to dynamic negative camber on turn when you need it most. Whiteline continues to put heavy emphasis on additional positive caster when designing new suspension packages
If you were able to view the front tyres of a vehicle from above the car, you would expect them to look exactly parallel to each other. In fact, they rarely are. The difference in distance between the front edge of the tyres and the rear edge is called toe. Toe describes how close to parallel the two tyres are, and whether they are toed-in (closer at the front of the tyre) or toed-out (closer at the rear of the tyre). The goal of toe is to provide proper tyre wear through various driving conditions. The amount of toe your suspension is set to varies by the drive layout of your vehicle, driving preference, and car's handling characteristics.
On a rear-wheel-driven car, acceleration forces on the tyre tend to push the front tyres back slightly in the wheel well. Static toe-in will result in a zero-toe situation at speed. For a front-wheel-driven vehicle, the front wheels will pull themselves forward in the wheel wells under acceleration. This happens because as the (driven) front wheels claw for traction, they pull themselves forward, dragging the rest of the car along. For this situation, static toe-out will result in a zero-toe condition at speed. Assuming that the rest of the suspension is correctly aligned and maintained, and the tyres properly inflated, toe-in will result in additional understeer for the car. In a corner the inside front tyre will turn at less of an angle than the outside tyre. Additionally, excessive toe-in will result in premature tyre wear through feathering, and increased fuel consumption. Conversely, toe-out will result in additional oversteer for the vehicle. This occurs as the inside front tyre turns at a greater angle than the outside tyre. Thus, in a corner, the inside tyre is trying to turn even more than the heavily-loaded outside tyre. Excessive toe-out will also result in premature tyre wear due to feathering, and increased fuel consumption.
Anti- Geometry
Anti features in suspension systems are a characteristic that can be used to influence the stiffness of the front or rear suspension under traction forces(under braking or accelerating). The individual terms are relatively straightforward and self-explanatory with the anti reducing or totally restricting the characteristic (lifting or diving). In the front suspension there may be levels of anti-dive during braking and anti-lift during accelerating (assuming traction to the front wheels is present), similarly in the rear there could be anti lift during braking and anti-squat during acceleration.
It should also be noted that these characteristic can also be reversed into a pro characteristic (as in pro-lift at the front under braking). Anti features can only be implemented under the influence of the braking or accelerating forces at the wheels, for example a rear wheel drive vehicle cannot have an anti-lift characteristic in the front (as there is no drive to the front wheels).
With the ALK fitted to the Subaru WRX, a softer suspension will be present during braking and accelerating. This will help traction, as the wheel will be able to track the ground more precisely. Also in terms of balance the front end will have a proportionally lower roll resistance during traction or braking, aiding in reducing the power understeer effect that is present in these cars.
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Audi 80
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Chevrolet Cobalt
Base2005 Chevrolet Cobalt Base
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LS Panel2007 Chevrolet HHR LS Panel
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LT Panel2007 Chevrolet HHR LT Panel
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Chrysler PT Cruiser
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Limited2001 Chrysler PT Cruiser Limited
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Dream Cruiser2005 Chrysler PT Cruiser Dream Cruiser
Street Cruiser2005 Chrysler PT Cruiser Street Cruiser


text:
We are LESS THAN ONE MONTH away from the wedding! SAY WHATTT!!!! *panic mode*
We started planning sooooo early (1 year ago) that we actually lost a bit of steam along the way HAHA, and only really got on track about 3 months before. So actually, planning a wedding in three months is pretty do-able!
That is, if you're really not that fussy and prefer a run-of-the-mill wedding.
Not that I have anything against one of those. In fact, if he had a choice, Mr Mode would prefer to just have our names signed on construction paper, presented to HDB for recognition of a lawful marriage, and call it a day.
But I would probably most likely definitely berate him for the rest of our lives for not giving me my dream wedding. So this wedding is really for him, to spare him the agony of my nagging. BAHAHA!
I don't want a cookie-cutter wedding, which explains why I took great effort into ensuring all my wedding sponsors are one of the best in town. 😀
Wedding Decorator – Rosette Designs
One year ago, while researching on wedding decorators in Singapore, I came across Rosette Designs. The photo gallery containing collages of their works left a deep impression but I left it as that as it was too early to plan anything and we didn't even have our wedding date finalized yet!
One year later, after researching on plenty of wedding decorators, I went back to Rosette. Haha! If you take a look at their gallery, you will know what I mean.
After meeting Hellen, principal designer of Rosette, a couple of times and conveying the theme I have in mind, Hellen put together a mood board. I'm SOOOOO looking forward to our wedding day deco!
I think it's very important to set the color theme right. Even if you don't have a strong theme eg. vintage/glamorous/colorful/rustic, at least have a color theme so everything looks more cohesive.
Choosing the color theme was quite fun for me coz I like to mix and match textures and colors. But don't worry if you have no idea coz Hellen will be there to guide you!
Bun Bun is finally donning a wedding gown! Heehee!! I love the groom! Hellen and the team nailed the essence of Mr Mode – the hair, eyes, mouth. And we're the same breed of alien coz we both have 4 ears.
Wedding Photographer – Confetti Peektures
I wanted a photographer who could understand and bring out the beauty of our wedding theme. It sure wasn't easy finding one.
Actual Day Photography
'Vintage garden wedding' doesn't really explain in full how I envision the wedding theme to be. It's more than that. We are holding it at a vintage venue, but we don't want an overkill of all things old and granny. We want it to be romantic, but with a bit of fun, a pop of color, and in accordance to our personalities, a more light-hearted and fun vibe! The photos must reflect these!
I found in Confetti Peektures the perfect photographer – Angie! When we met to understand my concept and discuss what Angie can propose, I was over the moon that she could get what I want. She has way more photos in her iPad so I would recommend meeting up with her for a discussion.
I love that Angie captures emotions very well (you can take a look at her gallery). Some couples like photographers who take glorious scenery but I prefer those who focus on emotions and expressions coz they're the hardest to capture and the most precious.
Casual Pre-wedding Photoshoot
Mode and I met in secondary school and we wanted to eternalize this memory with pictures. So today we went back to school for a casual pre-wedding photoshoot, to re-create childhood memories. HAHA! It was a little nerve-wrecking to write an email to the school to ask for permission. Thank goodness they were very nice and granted us that.
We got our uniforms re-produced to the way they looked back in 1999 and found old-school white shoes and socks too.
Stalker. HAHA.
These pictures were taken by my best friend, with my camera. Thank you BFF for coming all the way down to accompany and help us! I have so many funny behind-the-scenes pictures that I have to write a separate post.
Can't wait to receive the professionally-taken photos from Angie! 😀
Wedding Cake + Favors – Butter Studio
It was through Heroine Make's café hopping campaign that I got to know Butter Studio.
Amantha, my awesome blog manager, and I had a wonderfully sweet time there and it was then that started my love affair with their Sea Salt Caramel Nutella Tart. Big THANK YOU to my dearest Amantha who has helped me a great deal with the wedding too! *muack!*
I couldn't ask for a more fantastic team to make my wedding cake and favors! Shannon is such a nice lady to work with and the passion she has for her business and in making each and every customer happy is truly inspiring.
I love that my wedding cake will not be the typical frosted cake, but something more unique, with a raw, rustic feel. I'm rarely at a loss for descriptive words, but I really don't know how to describe my cake. Haha! Shall let the pictures speak for themselves!
An example of how my dessert table will look. SO PRETTY!!! 😀
My wedding favors will be one of Butter Studio's best-sellers! I'm not telling what so I don't spoil the surprise for my guests but it will be both YUMMY + CUTE coz there will be our wedding sticker on the favor, also designed by Rosette Designs!
Wedding Photobooth – Hello Forever
I've seen Hello Forever around for several events and their print quality is EXCELLENT. No grainy, blurry photos, and the team is very professional. Gonna meet up with the team next week to discuss about the customized backdrop (YES YOU CAN HAVE YOUR OWN!) and props! Woohoo!! 😀
Bridesmaids Dresses – A For Arcade
I'm a huge fan of A For Arcade. I think I have more than 20 pieces of clothing by AFA. Hoho! Love their quality and designs.
You know that feeling when you walk into a shop and want to put your entire paycheck into the hands of the storeowner? Yeah, that's how I feel when I look at AFA's clothings.
I am not a fan of chiffon bridesmaids dresses, so it was quite a struggle finding something that appealed to me. I am ecstatic that my bridesmaids will be donning AFA on my special day! It will be a white tube top with sweetheart neckline and a beautiful blue-green tulle skirt. The color of the skirt is the pop of color for our theme!
I LOVE sweetheart necklines and tulle. These were my 2 criteria for my own wedding gown. More about that in my next post!
Wedding Gowns – Danny L
When I think of how much effort I put into finding my perfect wedding gown, I want to weep and leap in joy.
After spending a year of visiting at least 20 bridal studios, and almost wanting to customize a gown from scratch that would cost an unreasonable sum of money coz nobody understood/could achieve what I want, I have finally found my dream gown at Danny L.
The moment I tried on the gown and looked at myself in the mirror, I wanted to cry coz it was so beautiful – it brought out all my best features and I could totally see myself in it on my wedding day. It was such a huge relief to have finally found The One! I can finally get married liaoooo!!!
I am so glad I never stopped hunting, and eventually found 2 perfect gowns at Danny L's. Thank you Danny for designing and making these 2 beautiful gowns so that I will come along one day and wear them!
I wish I could show you pictures of my gowns. I'll take them when I go for my next fitting! 😀
Wedding Planner – Big Little Details
Thank you to my readers who advised me that the best thing I can do for myself is to engage a wedding planner! I'm glad I listened! 😀
Wedding preps wouldn't be as smooth and efficient if I were all alone. I think Mode and I would quarrel A LOT MORE because everything would fall in my hands – all the coordination and time-checking – and I'd take it out on him.
Thank goodness I have the best wedding planner anyone could ask for – Nicolle from Big Little Details.
From big things such as coordinating with and speaking to all my different vendors, to little things such as helping me decide the placement of our names on the invitations cards, to following me for my gown fittings, Nicolle has been with me every step of the way. If I need an opinion, I'll turn to Nicolle. Haha. Not that the husband's opinion doesn't matter, it's just that his answer will be "up to you", so might as well don't ask him.
Because she planned her own wedding, and is also a very experienced event planner (she has planned multi-million dollar events in Hong Kong), she's very on the ball yet doesn't rush me into making decisions. In fact, she never sways me to make a decision based on her opinions. She'll lay the pros and cons of each, go through them with me, and somehow I will end up with a clearer picture and make my own decision.
She is not only my wedding planner, she has become a friend and my emotional support when the husband does not understand why a woman places so much emphasis on the wedding.
I wrote in my Dayre that she helped me realize that this is just a period of stress and the problem of a lazy husband is something all brides face. HAHAHA!
I only have this photo of Nicolle in discussion with Shannon. EH! I was involved okie, just took a step away for a while to take this photo. I'm a very hands-on bride. Heh! Sometimes the questions Nicolle asks are so specific and to-the-point I would never have thought of asking them if I were by myself. I feel so blessed to be in good hands! 😀
Taiwan Bridal Studio – La Fatte
Even though the places we went to in Taiwan for our photoshoot in January this year had plenty of beautiful scenery, we still wanted the focus to be on us. We did have some of the inevitable look-far-far-away-and-smile pictures, but we preferred the look-at-me-and-laugh style.
Our photographer Rex, makeup artists, and the team from La Fatte Bridal Studio were simply awesome. From the moment we arrived at Taichung airport, to the 2 days of phototaking, to photo selection (trust me, no hardselling at all), to post-editing, to sending of albums, everything was well-taken care of. We just received the albums today so I'm gonna write about that in another post!
Other Awesome Sponsors
My nails will be done by The Nail District. I love that they place great emphasis on hygiene and time passes so fast coz I can watch a movie while getting my nails done. I never get to complete a movie though coz they work so quickly!
I'm so glad I had my Smile Makeover done this year by Dr Jerry Lim, so I can have smile my brightest and widest on my wedding day!
I would also like to thank my favorite Salon Vim for being the best I could ever ask for, for salvaging my hay-like hair when I first stepped into the salon, to nourishing it with quality treatments so I can have beautiful hair always.
YAY! I'm so glad it's all coming together. I just looked at my Pinterest Wedding Ideas board, and somehow, with the help of my awesome wedding sponsors, the wedding looks just like how we (mostly I, haha) envision it! Looking forward to the big day! 😀


text:
50 H A S K I N S & SELLS June
Miss Somers' Anniversary
THE firm having achieved an anniversary,
its twenty-fifth, a few years ago,
we find anniversaries of individual members
in the organization occurring with increasing
frequency. And so, on May 10,
the busy Financial Department of the
Executive Offices forgot for awhile there
were such perplexing things in the world
as trial balances and assumed an air of
The occasion was the twentieth anniversary
of Miss Emma Somers' connection
with the organization. For a moment her
usual poise and dignity deserted her, but
she quickly recovered her composure as she
smilingly received the congratulations and
good wishes showered upon her by friends
and associates, amidst a profusion of beautiful
flowers which covered her desk.
A period of two decades spent in struggling
with and mastering tiny figures in
huge ledgers has left Miss Somers with a
cheerful, unruffled disposition, ready always
to render help where needed. Her
supervision has been one of fairness and
justice to all coming under her direction.
Virtues such as punctuality and regular
attendance have been both her duty and
her pride. To the question, "What are
among Miss Somers' most striking characteristics?"
the answer unhesitatingly is:
"Conscientiousness, faithfulness, loyal devotion
to the firm she has served so long."
Mingled with our congratulations and
good wishes is the hope that the future
holds for Miss Somers years of continued
efficient service, marked with the same
keen interest and enthusiasm which she has
always shown in her work.