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Monthly Archives: August 2017
So after reading Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and seeing Seth Barrish’s Sleepwalk With Me, you might think you have a pretty good idea about sleepwalking. In typical Hollywood style, sleepwalking is usually shown as some demonic spirit which enters another?s body or ...
With holidays just round the corner, millions of people are rushing to their favorite stores in the search of the gifts for their near and dear ones. If you don’t want to go the traditional ways, then how about gifting ... | {
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1. THERE CAN BE NO THOUGHT OF FINISHING 2. FOR AIMING AT THE STARS 3. BOTH LITERALLY AND FIGURATIVELY 4. IS A PROBLEM TO OCCUPY GENERATIONS 5. SO THAT NO MATTER 6. HOW MUCH PROGRESS ONE MAKES 7. THERE IS ALWAYS THE THRILL OF JUST BEGINNING 8. DR. ROBERT GODARD 9. IN A LETTER TO H.G. WELLS, 1932 | {
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Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Dassera Greetings!
It is time to feel festive again with the onset Dassera
closely followed by Diwali! Well, what does the festival season mean?
It means school vacations, less traffic on the roads (at least on festival days),
festival offers and sales doled out by retailers, a host of religious, music and
cultural events organized at various temples and cultural associations, a time
to take some time off work or visit friends and relatives to join in their
celebrations leading to a sudden increase in one’s calorie intake! J At
the same time, festivals are an important part of our cultural heritage, to be
celebrated, carried forward and passed on to the generation next. While our
work schedules may not permit us to celebrate our festivals in the same way our
parents did, yet it is important to ensure that our children don’t grow up
oblivious to the true essence and the value of Navaratri or Diwali. So whether
you observe the Navaratri Vrat (fast), or exhibit the Dassara dolls at home or go
dance to the dandiya tunes or perform the Ayudha pooja to your car, make sure
to involve your little one too!
So in an attempt to educate Abhay the significance of
Dassera, we took him to "Bimba, the Art Ashram", located on DVG Road, Basavangudi
that showcased the age old tradition of displaying dassera dolls during
Navarathri along with a unique rendition of the story “Anjaneya” through the
medium of still theatre in miniature art. So if you are around Basavanagudi,
drop by Rasalok at Bimba to witness this indigenous art form transport you to a
timeless era.
Navaratri is described as celebrating our connection
with the “Devi” or the Goddess, be it Durga or Lakshmi, Saraswathi, (names of
some of the Indian Goddesses) So today we picked up Amar Chitra Katha’s “Tales
of Durga” by Subba Rao and illustrations
by Souren Roy. This book comprises three stories – “Durga – The Slayer of
Mahisha, the story of “Chamundi” and “How Durga slew Shumbha” – three tales
featuring the Goddess as an embodiment of Shakti or courage and power that
destroys all evil and upholds justice for all. Abhay certainly seemed
fascinated to hear the stories of the great Goddesses. His favorite story is
that of Ambika who springs from the body of Parvathi to later create Kali from
her forehead who goes on to kill the asuras Chanda and Munda and hence renamed
as Chamundi. Reading Amar Chitra Katha is a certainly a pleasant throwback to
my childhood that was dominated by the same series. It is also a great way to
introduce our little ones to the stories from epics and mythology, and orient
them towards our rich culture. Happy Dassera to everyone! | {
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And of all the superhero parodies, the best one comes from “Saturday Night Live Korea.”
The show has a running series of sketches where Dr. Stephen Strange is basically a version of David Blaine in “David Blaine: Street Magic.” He walks around and blows people’s minds: He does perfect water bottle flips, knows the phone number of a random girl on the street, and splits an ice popsicle perfectly in half. After each trick, he gives a knowing look to the camera while his posse fawns over him. | {
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A Dream Goes On Forever…
I became interested in my dreams – and the phenomenon of lucid dreaming in particular – when, as a much younger man, I lost someone very close to me. At first, I was just looking for a way to escape the pain of being awake and remembering; but as I started to pay more attention to my subconscious, I became fascinated by the possibility of something more.
And then, by chance (or higher design?) I happened upon a documentary about lucid dreaming. Has it ever happened to you? You suddenly become aware that you are dreaming while you’re still inside your dream and find that you can control what happens? Lucid dreamers have this down to a fine art. In this documentary, however, the researcher – who came across as a very down-to-earth woman – clearly believed that there was more to lucid dreaming than met the eye, and that dreams were more than merely a way for the mind to process the information from your waking day.
The possibility of escape to another world.
The researcher was not especially interested in Freud’s obsession with dreaming as an outlet for the machinations of one’s repressed sexual desires, and she went beyond Jung’s notion of the collective unconscious, to suggest that dreamer’s may be inventing world’s that in some strange way actually exist.
“Wow!”, was my first thought. “How?” was my second. However, it was with my third thought: “Why?” that my life changed, albeit for a short time. It happened like this.
At the crux of the lucid dreaming documentary was an experiment with three “guinea pigs” – men who all claimed they were all able to control their dreams and did so on a regular basis. Prior to the experiment, they had never met. And this is where it got weird…
The researcher introduced them to one another, then separated them and kept them in isolation in three individual bedrooms. She then gave the same task to each man. That night, while they slept, they were to meet up with one another. That was it. No further information was given, and the men were not allowed to have any further contact.
That night while they slept their brain activities were monitored and the periods of rapid eye movement (indicative of dreaming) recorded.
In the morning, the researcher interviewed each man individually and asked each to recall his dream.Man A had dreamt that he was walking through a huge, lush forest that seemed to go on without end. He wandered along aimlessly for some time before he remembered that he had to meet the two other men. Eventually he came to a large oak tree in a clearing and thought it a good meeting place, so he stopped walking and waited beneath the tree. After a while, man B appeared and came to stand beside him. They chatted and waited for man C to arrive, but man C did not appear. That was all.
Man B too had dreamt he was walking through a huge forest. He walked for a long time without meeting either of the other two men, and was just about to give up when he spied a large oak tree in a clearing in the distance. He walked towards it and there he found man A waiting peacefully. He joined man A and they talked for a while. They waited, he said, for man C to appear, but man C didn’t arrive.
Man C’s story was much simpler. He had found himself walking in a huge forest. He walked for hours and hours, but never saw another soul.
By this time the hair on the back of my neck was standing on end. But it was nothing to what happened next…
The researcher interviewed a pleasant middle-aged Englishman who had dropped out on the hippie trail in the late sixties and eventually wound up in Tibet, where he spent the next twenty years living with an arcane Buddhist sect. These particular Buddhists – some esoteric offshoot of Lamaism, a branch of the Mahayana stream of Buddhist thought – placed great emphasis on the importance of dreams. In fact, long periods were given over to teaching initiates how to dream properly, that is, how to take control of one’s dreams and fashion them.
This particular novice had spent half his life in a world where dreams were accorded equal status with waking experiences.In particular, the Lamas taught initiates how to return to a dream, how to re-enter it and how to pick up where they had left off. After fifteen years of training, most members of the sect had mastered this and experienced and enjoyed serial dreams which were internally consistent and in which they participated not as puppets, guided and moved by external forces, but as individuals, fully in charge of their thoughts, actions and movements.
By the time the disciple left Tibet, he no longer knew which of his two worlds – his dream world or his waking world – was the ‘real’ world: they were equally authentic.
For a long time, I agonised about whether I should follow in this man’s footsteps, but, in the end, what saved me from my intolerable pain was writing a novel which incorporated all of these ideas. I did create a new world from my waking dreams and, for a while, I was able to escape to it. And in so doing, I created my fourth novel, “Daniel’s Dream”…
PS The title of this post relates to the song of the same name, written and performed by the inimitable Todd Rundgren. If you’ve never heard it, search it out, for it is surely one of the most beautiful songs ever recorded.
16 thoughts on “A Dream Goes On Forever…”
Peter, I’ve experienced lucid dreaming as well. Found this post fascinating and wonder if there is a connection to lucid dreaming and the traumatic experience of losing someone when you are young. My first novel, now with an agent, incorporates lucid dreams, the msyerious death of a sister and the visions that lead and guide the main character. Glad to find your blog and am going to buy your books right now! Holly Michael. writingstraight.com
Hi Holly, so pleased the post connected with you – too often dreams are dismissed as somehow extraneous or unimportant, when there are times when the reality of dreams is every bit as real and vital as waking life. It’ll be interesting to see if anyone else has had similar experiences after suffering physical and or emotional trauma. Good luck with finding an agent, and if you tire and want to go the self-publishing route, email me – I used to be published by Simon & Schuster, but have chosen to go Indie.
Funny, an agent who has sold a friend’s book to Simon & Schuster is looking at my ms now. She requested it. I haven’t yet queried any agents. If I don’t get interest there, I’ll go indie. That’s my plan. Thanks for the offer of help.
A fascinating post on dreams and what they mean and whether we can control them or not. It is a mysterious world we enter, when we sleep and let go. Thanks for your thoughts. It has inspired me to share some of my own, which I’ll post and link to yours.
Amazing! I’ll be back to read more of your posts. I don’t know much about lucid dreaming, but I’m an expert in day dreaming. Sometimes I picture scenes so vividly in my mind it’s almost as if it was happening for real. Same emotions. I bet my subconscious mind doesn’t know the difference. And now I really want to read your book!
I read this once in Popular Science (way back in the 80s). Several times during the day ask yourself if you’re dreaming. Usually the brain knows this answer, but sometimes it gets confused. This will develop a habit that will re-surface while you are asleep and dreaming.
After you ask yourself this question and think you’ve answered it, go and read something short. A sign or a label will do. After reading, look away for a second and then look back. If you are dreaming, the thing you read will have changed. (dreams are spooky that way)
Once you’ve done this, you are now in control of your dream.
However, it won’t last long. Your brain really does want to rest while you’re asleep! 🙂
Hello,
I’ve just shared this blog post with my friend Danny who is on a mission to train himself to dream lucidly – I get the feeling this might be right up his street! Enjoying reading your posts very much!
I have shared this post with my friend Danny, as he is on a mission to train himself to dream lucidly, so I thought this might be just his thing!
Have enjoyed reading your blog posts, your books sound great 🙂
Dreams and dreaming are a big part of my creative life. I dream in stories 🙂 I’ve also suffered night terrors, sleep walking and talking. So the whole realm of parasomnias, lucid dreaming, and all that hold great interest for me.
Loved your post 🙂
Thank you Melanie – it’s always really satisfying to hear when another person connects with something one has written. Dreams are too easily overlooked in most Western cultures as some sort of “by-product” of life, which so odd as almost everyone has had some sort of extraordinary experience while dreaming. And while Im sire night terrors can’t be much fun, dreaming in stories has got to be great! | {
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Asthma affecting the UAE
The HEPA filter absorbs every part of dust and micro particles
Dust, sandstorms and an over reliance on air-conditioning in the summer – the Middle East has to be an asthma sufferer’s nightmare. A whopping Dhs88 million is currently spent on asthma treatment annually in the UAE alone, and according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), more than 300 million people across the globe have the chronic disease.The 3 layered HEPA filter absorbs every kind of dust and micro particles.
Head of Emirates Respiratory Authority, Dr Bassam Mahboub, says more than 15 per cent of the UAE population suffer from the condition – with more children affected than adults.
Dr Bassam explains: “Most importantly, for sufferers, the indoor triggers can be avoided. The number one trigger at home is dust mites – they live in carpets, drapes, blankets, even the cells of skin. We recommend staying away from decorative fabrics that can house the dust mites; curtains, carpets, blankets. It’s also important to regularly change sheets and blankets – even the curtains”.
Also people without allergies should reduce the particulate matter as much as possible. These tiny dust particles are suspected to cause or increase health problems including asthma or cardio vascular sickness.
Allergy sufferers should definitely consider if their vacuum cleaner is able to decrease or eliminate allergy-causing particles. Only vacuum cleaners with a special filter-system and HEPA-filter are able to suck in these thin dust particles.
You can rely on our Vorwerk Vacuum Cleaners; the filter system of the Kobold VK150 Uphold cleans your home efficiently holding back any type of Micro dust particles. Vorwerk vacuum cleaners filter the out coming air from any dust, fine dust, pollen, mites and other micro particles. The filter system of the Vorwerk Vacuum cleaner works so efficiently that the produced air is a thousand times cleaner than the air that has been sucked in. That makes the out coming air as clean as the air in an operating room. That’s why the Vorwerk vacuum cleaners have received the TÜV certificate “Convenient for allergy sufferers”.
Having read this I thought it was really informative. I appreciate you spending some time and energy to put this article together. I once again find myself personally spending way too much time both reading and posting comments. But so what, it was still worth it! | {
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The Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship expects to have a nearly full house when it completes its long-awaited move out of the Revolution Mill off Yanceyville Street to its new home at the former Carolina Steel facility on South Elm-Eugene.
Sam Funchess, CEO of the nonprofit small-business incubator, said he expects construction work at the donated building to be complete by the end of the month and moving day for Nussbaum tenants to be sometime in mid-June.
Funchess said that after two years of struggling to raise the $2.8 million it is costing to renovate the 60,000-square-foot building, he’s been relieved to find no “gotchas” lurking at the site that could have raised costs or delayed completion. The Nussbaum Center has been under pressure to relocate by the developers of its current home, Revolution Mill Studios, so that the 80,000 square feet it occupies there can eventually be upgraded to Class A office space.
“We’re finding it’s going pretty much like we planned,” Funchess said. “We’re within budget and on our timeline, and it looks like the accommodations we’ve designed are going to accomplish what we want to accomplish.”
Funchess said it appears the new site will be closer to fully occupied from the start than Nussbaum officials expected while planning for the relocation. The budget for the first year of operations there projects an occupancy rate of 65 percent, he said.
As of early this week, 36 of the 54 current tenants of the incubator had committed to moving to the new location, and those tenants would take up about 75 percent of the available square footage there. Two other sizable tenants are still considering whether to make the move, and if both do then the new building will be around 95 percent leased at opening, Funchess said.
“Moving is painful, but we’re trying to make it as easy as possible” by paying the relocation expenses of those staying with the incubator, at a total cost of around $80,000, he said.
Some companies choosing not to stay with the incubator are moving to other locations or will remain where they are in Revolution Mill. Funchess said he does not believe any Nussbaum tenants will shut down because of the move.
Jim Peeples, one of the developers of Revolution Mill Studios, said negotiations with those Nussbaum tenants who want to stay in place are under way.
Major renovation work at the sprawling 625,000-square-foot former Cone Mills textile factory of which the Nussbaum Center is a part has been on hold for more than a year for lack of financing. Peeples said the planned improvement to Class A space can’t go ahead until that financing is in place.
The vacating of the space by the Nussbaum Center “is one of the moving parts that may help us move that agenda forward,” Peeples said, though no breakthroughs appear to be imminent. “We’ve got a number of irons in the fire, but we’re not ready just yet.” | {
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Women's Soccer
Osborne Named to U.S. U21 National Team
May 12, 2003
May 12, 2003
The U.S. Under-21 Women's National Team will embark on a four-game tour of Brazil in mid-May as Chris Petrucelli takes his first trip abroad as head coach of the U-21s. The tour will serve as preparation for the 2003 Nordic Cup, the most important competition in the world for U-21 women, taking place in Denmark from July 21-27, 2003. Bronco sophomore Leslie Osborne was named to the roster.
The USA opens the Brazil tour on Saturday, May 17, vs. Santos FC, the current Sao Paulo state champion. The USA will play its second match of the tour on May 19 against the Brazilian U21 National Team. On May 22, the USA will take on Saad FC, a top club in Brazil that has featured some legendary Brazilian players, including WUSA stars Sissi and Kátia of the San Jose CyberRays, and currently fields a handful of domestic-based national team players. Saad was three times Brazilian champion and is coached by former Brazilian National Team coaches Ademar Júnior and José Duarte, who led Brazil in the 1996 and 2000 Olympics. The USA will finish the tour on May 25, against a Brazilian National Team featuring U21 and senior players. All the matches will be played in Sao Paulo.
It will be the first international tour for the U.S. U21s since last year's Nordic Cup in Finland, and the first tour of Brazil for a U.S. women's team since December of 1997 when the full U.S. Women's National Team split a pair of games with Brazil.
"It's a good trip for us because it gives us a chance to organize our team against quality opponents," said Petrucelli. "We will be challenged by the Brazilian style and speed of play, but we've got a talented team and we're confident in our ability to compete against older players."
Petrucelli's 18-player roster is loaded with college soccer's top talent and includes five players from the USA's 2002 FIFA U19 World Championship team that defeated Canada, 1-0, in sudden death overtime on Sept. 1, 2002, in front of almost 50,000 fans in Edmonton. Those players are goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris (Indialantic Force), defender Amy Steadman (UNC), midfielder Osborne, and forwards Manya Makoski (Arizona State) and Kelly Wilson (Texas). Several other former U19 world champions, including forwards Lindsay Tarpley and Heather O'Reilly and midfielder Lori Chalupny are also in the mix for the Nordic Cup team, but will not travel to Brazil.
The Nordic Cup has been contested in northern Europe every summer since 1990 and was a U20 competition until 1997, when it moved to U21. The USA won its first Nordic Cup in 1997, lost in the championship game to Norway the next year, and has since reeled off an unprecedented four straight titles. The USA defeated Norway (1999), Germany (2000), Sweden (2001) and Germany (2002) in the respective championship games. This year's Nordic Cup has an age limit of players born after Jan. 1, 1982, but each team is allowed two overage players. Petrucelli will take overage players Ally Marquand and Nicole Barnhart to Brazil.
"The team is starting to take shape," said Petrucelli. "We've had close to 50 different players in camp since January and we are getting closer to a team of 18 players gelling and become a tight-knit unit. These games will be great opportunity to develop that cohesiveness even more."
Courtesy of U.S. Soccer. Please Click Here for complete story and roster. | {
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Pochard
Aythya ferina
About
A common diving duck, the Pochard feeds on plant seeds, waterweed, snails and other aquatic invertebrates. Most of the birds in Britain come here from northern and eastern Europe for the winter, with just a few pairs staying to nest.
How to identify
A plump, grey diving duck, a male Pochard has a chestnut head and a black chest and rear end. The female is a darker, duller grey-brown.
Where to find it
A rare nesting bird, much more common in the winter when it can be found in large numbers on lakes, reservoirs and gravel pits around the country.
Habitats
When to find it
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
How can people help
Britain is an important stopover for many wintering migrant species, so it is vital that we protect the places they rely on. But the survival of our waterbirds is threatened by the loss and degradation of many of our wetland habitats. The Wildlife Trusts manage many wetland nature reserves for the benefit of the wildlife they support. You can help by supporting your local Trust and becoming a member; you'll find out about exciting wildlife happenings, events on your doorstep and volunteering opportunities, and be helping local wildlife along the way. | {
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The article claimed Facebook’s stock is "still too pricey," trading at "high multiples of both sales and earnings, even as uncertainty about the outlook for its business grows."
The company's shares are worth only $15, continued the Barron's article, which would mean the stock would have to fall another 25 percent from current levels.
"That would be roughly 24 times projected 2013 profit and six times estimated 2013 revenue of $6 billion, still no bargain price."
Analysts project the company to post a profit of 63 cents a share on revenue of $6.34 billion in 2013, according to estimates from Thomson Reuters.
The article cited issues with the transition of the company’s massive user base to mobile devices:
Success in mobile is no sure thing. The small screens on these devices don't give Facebook much room to configure ads without alienating users. And the way that mobile users access Facebook, through applications on iPhones, iPads, and Android devices, may diminish the time users spend at the Website while handing greater power to Apple and Google , which dominate the apps business.
And just in the last month, major Facebook investors including Peter Thiel and Dustin Moskovitz have sold large quantities of company stock, also stirring concern among investors.
Still, Barron’s said the bullish case for Facebook is that the team will find “creative ways” to produce revenue from its current 955 million monthly active users. Facebook gets an annual $5 per user in revenue, which could potentially double or triple in the next five years, according to the bulls. | {
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Not from the usual acid fog, true, but do bear in mind that any battery
will attract some condensation simply due to its mass and resulting
temperature differential with cabin air.
I've used Optimas in most of my cars for years. Yes, they're expensive
and they're not immortal, but I've got as many as eight years out of
one, and I think that one only died because I neglected it and let it
sit completely discharged for some months. (An advantage of the older
design is that you can sometimes renew them chemically.)
As a matter of tiresome detail, in speaking with my Optima distributor I
learned that the 'gel-cell' label can be a bit misleading. The cells are
liquid-filled; the difference is that the liquid is held in a soft
matrix, making it gel-like. But if the envelope is punctured it'll leak
liquid, so strapping it down is still important. | {
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Glittery Snowflake Wreath
For an easy wreath in a flash, use premade snowflake ornaments (fiberglass or resin ornaments look especially frosty) and a flat foam wreath. Remove the string hangers from the ornaments and position on the wreath. Once you’re satisfied with the arrangement, hot-glue the snowflakes into place. Thread wide ribbon (we layered red on top of white here) through the wreath and hang. | {
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It is ideal for under cabinet lighting, furniture decorative lighting, display and show case .
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Monday, 9 February 2015
It is with great pleasure that today I am welcoming Abi Elphinstone to The Book Zone. Abi is the writer of the brilliant The Dreamsnatcher, which I reviewed last month, and also a fellow lover of middle grade books which she blogs about as Moontrug. Abi has joined us today to tell us about her favourite animals in children's books.
My Magnificent Seven Animals in Children’s Books
1.The Whereabouts Wolf in The Black North by Nigel McDowell. One of my favourite heroines, Oona, is given a Whereabouts Wolf to carry her away from danger: ‘a creature flecked with filth and reeking of the wild’. A Whereabouts Wolf has no eyes – Oona must simply whisper where she wants to go and the wolf will take her there. So when Oona says ‘take us to the middle of nowhere,’ that’s exactly what the Whereabouts Wolf does. I want one…
2.Aslan in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. One of my favourite childhood memories is watching the BBC adaption of this brilliant book around the fire with my siblings at Christmas. The opening theme tune conjures all the magic of my childhood and I fell asleep every night after listening to it imagining I was riding through Narnia on Aslan’s back. I liked the way Aslan was kind and loyal – that he never let the Pevensie children down – but that he was unpredictable and wild as well, as Mr Beaver said: ‘He’s wild, you know. Not like a tame lion’. And that’s kind of how I imagine magic to be.
3.Iorek Brynison in Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. This was a tricky one. Whilst Lyra’s daemon, Pantalaimon, remains one of my all-time favourite characters, there is something about this ‘outcast bear’ who rises up to be a mighty ice warrior, willing to protect Lyra against the slightest harm. And nothing beats the wonder of imagining Lyra riding Iorek across the Arctic ice plains.
4.Wolf in Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver. Torak’s bond with Wolf is one of the most well-drawn, touching and believable child-animal bonds in children’s literature. Wolf begins as a reticent, playful cub but as he takes up his place as Torak’s best-friend and ally, he becomes a brave, loyal and fierce wolf. And the closing chapter of this book shows the wolf-boy bond in a heartbreakingly beautiful way.
5.The White Pigeon in The Last Wild by Piers Torday. This little bird is basically ME in pigeon form – a misdirected ball of enthusiasm, often saying exactly the wrong thing at the wrong time. His malapropisms are laugh-out-loud funny and hopelessly confused lines like ‘Here is your gift – some old sheep’ and ‘Not a bad-looking fat bird yourself’ cement this little chap as a truly memorable character. And it’s comforting to find someone else (even if this someone is a fictional pigeon) whose words tumble out all wrong – because I stutter and mix up words quite a lot, especially when I’m nervous.
6.Saracen in Fly By Night by Frances Hardinge. Without doubt the most amusing goose in children’s books. Owned by the feisty Mosca Mye (‘I want my chirfugging goose back!’), Saracen makes a star appearance at the beast fight disguised as King Prael’s Star-crested eagle. Brilliantly funny.
7.Snow Leopard in The Snow Leopard by Jackie Morris. In a world where we move at 100mph through almost everything we do (yesterday I was moving so fast I ran full pelt into a glass door), the Snow Leopard draws you away to a half-forgotten world of peace and silence. The illustrations of this big cat are mesmerisingly beautiful and snow leopards remain one of my all-time favourite animals.
It was so hard to pick just seven animals for this blog post. I mean, I could have gone on for ages about Joe (from The Diddakoi), Hazel (from Watership Down), Eeyore (from Winnie the Pooh), Charles Scallybones (from A Boy Called Hope), Havoc (from The Burning Shadow) Tarka The Otter, The Ugly Duckling and, ummmmm, one more animal I’m very fond of: Gryff, the wildcat in my debut, The Dreamsnatcher. He is fearless, loyal and patient and although he is by nature a solitary animal full of secrets, he forms an extraordinary bond with Moll, a twelve-year-old gypsy girl. And that’s kind of cool.
~~~
Super huge thanks to Abi for writing this for The Book Zone. The Dreamsnatcher is due to be published on 26th February, and it's flippin' brilliant.
19 comments:
I want to testify of the good work of Dr.Azuka who helped me in achieving the goals, i was in a relationship for 4year with my boyfriend and everything was going so sweet i loved him and i believed he loved me more than anything in this world after a while i noticed some changes in him so i knew something was wrong i tried to please him in several ways but no outcome, shortly i noticed he was seeing another girl i tried to make him understand that i loved him so much but he wouldn't even listen, one day i read a testimony on a similar case a person testifying of the work of this great Dr.Azuka even when i did not believe i was convinced by my girlfriend so i contacted him and let him know all my problems and he said i should not worry that everything will be okay for me, in 2days my lover came asking me to forgive him,so if you are going through any problem contact him he might be the answer to your problem, ([email protected]) or Whats App him on +2348165822678 and you will see that your problem will be solvedi am here to give testimony of how i got back my husband, we got married for more than 9 years and have gotten two kids. thing were going well with us and we are always happy. until one day my husband started to behave in a way i could not understand, i was very confused by the way he treat me and the kids. later that month he did not come home again and he called me that he want a divorce, i asked him what have i done wrong to deserve this from him, all he was saying is that he want a divorce that he hate me and do not want to see me again in his life, i was mad and also frustrated do not know what to do,i was sick for more than 2 weeks because of the divorce. i love him so much he was everything to me without him my life is incomplete. i told my sister and she told me to contact a spell caster, i never believe in all this spell casting of a thing. i just want to try if something will come out of it. i contacted ( [email protected] ) for the return of my husband to me, they told me that my husband have been taken by another woman, that she cast a spell on him that is why he hate me and also want us to divorce. then they told me that they have to cast a spell on him that will make him return to me and the kids, they casted the spell and after 1 week my husband called me and he told me that i should forgive him, he started to apologize on phone and said that he still live me that he did not know what happen to him that he left me. it was the spell that he traditional spell hospital casted on him that make him comeback to me today,me and my family are now happy again today. thank you Dr papa for what you have done for me i would have been nothing today if not for your great spell. i want you my friends who are passing through all this kind of love problem of getting back their husband, wife , or ex boyfriend and girlfriend to contact [email protected] .or call +2348165822678 and you will see that your problem will be solved without any delay.
This has really worked and I am proud to testify of it. I saw a post on how a lady got her man back by Dr. Trust who helped her to get her Ex Husband back. My relationship was crashed down for 3 good years and some months. Although I never believed in spiritual work I reluctantly tried him because I was desperate but to my greatest surprise Dr. Trust helped me to bring back my man and now my relationship is now perfect just as he promised. Getting your ex back permanently spell does not only bring back someone you love back,but it will also re-ignite your lovers feelings for you to be as happy with that person as possible. My man now treats me like a queen and always say he love me all the time. If you are passing through difficulties in your relationship Email him for urgent help.
Hi everyone, I sincerely hope my post gets read and hopefully helps somebody along the line.i will never forget the help the GREAT ILLUOBE render to me in my marital life.The only person that i can boldly say he can cure HERPES SIMPLEX VIRUS and any other kind of disease like CANCER,HIV/AIDS,LOW SPERM COUNT,MENOPAUSE DISEASE, ALS know as ( Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) and can also solve any relationship problem is this great herbalist man called Dr ILLUOBE. Friends your case is not too hard why don’t you give The GREAT ILLUOBE a try and let him work surprises because i know he will cure you of the disease and also help bring back your WIFE or HUSBAND that has left you as the case may be. You can contact him via web(http://drilluobetemple.webs.com) email: [email protected] or call or whatsapp +2348077357453
The greatesst joy in my life now is that my love life has been restored by this great man and the best i can do now is to tell the whole world about this great man. This great man helped me when i had problem with my boyfriend and now my boyfriend is back in my arms if you are out there and you need a right place to solve your relationship problems contact this great man Dr Ogudugu is the right choice. He is a great man that have been casting spells with years of experience and he cast spells for different purposes like(1)If you want your ex back.(2)To cure Hiv/Aids.(3)You want to be promoted in your office.(4)If you want a child.
These comments you see on the internet about DR ONOFE are not just comments, they are truthful words of experience written by those who have been there and found help in reuniting with the ones they hold dear to their heart and other marital and financial problems. I can tell you this because I also asked him for help to cast a love spell to fix my relationship with the only man I have ever loved. we got married but couldn't have a baby and then I discovered my womb was damaged. I had to try some spell casters but to no avail until I contacted DR ONOFE. HE restored my womb and just like that i got pregnant,i have given birth now and our baby is growing. Thank God for our lives and also to DR ONOFE who God has used to blessed us. I know that not everybody will believe this moreover its just something on the internet but my heart knows every of this word that formed this entire comment is true. his contact is: [email protected] or [email protected] website:http://onofetemple.wix.com/http
I DON'T DO THINGS LIKE THIS (PUBLICITY) AM EMOTIONALLY MOVED FOR ITS A PROMISE TO THIS UNFORGETTABLE MAN DR DANIEL KESHIE.I am Bella from Brazil,i am saying this to the world that my husband who left me for the past 2 years is back home. All this happened with the help of dr keshie a powerful spell caster. For those 2 years my husband left me, i was not myself and i felt this life had come to an end all because i love my husband so much and would do anything needed from me just to have him back. Anything i did to bring him back was not working it was seeming each time i tried to have him back the further he was going away from me i was hopeless and helpless until one day i saw a testimony of Ruth saying how the great dr keshie brought back her ex lover. I was not convinced though. but as time went on i kept on seeing more testimonies about dr keshie and i said to myself with a strong faith of mind, it will be a thing of the past if i contact this man. I contacted him really on his email [email protected]; I explained myself to him, what he said was so surprising to the extent i was kind of happy even when my husband was not back yet, this was what he said to me"he doesn't collect fund, what he needs is giving testimonies like this and giving him little to buy items for casting the spell for help needy like me, then i did accordingly to what he asked me. Behold everybody, i still can not believe now my husband is with me after all that happened between me and him because i thought he would not call me his sweet names again, truly when he left me i had many things on my mind of negative that i would murder myself if this great man dr keshie could not help me, which he did, why am i saying all this is because i thought he wasn't real and he couldn't bring my husband back to me because then, i didn't believe it was true bringing one's love back on the internet; what is surprising me to this time is, in not more than 3 days after casting the spell my husband who swore with his life that he would never come back to me again, came back not only that, kneeling down begging me he shouldn't have left me at first.Till now we are never having any mis-understanding again because we now get to understand each other. Even before my husband left, we had little problem on coping in the family because no enough fund which i also complained of and explained to him; after all, when dr keshie brought him back everything changed and now we are building our other house as am testifying now, my two daughters are now in the higher school that they were not before because we now live financially well. All i want to say is thanks and i know is not enough for him but nevertheless, great thanks to THE GREAT DRKESHIE for the help he rendered me if you need help in your Marriage, relationship and even he told me he solves any problem so here his email Address, [email protected], so contact him and see his awesome powers.To me he's a clue to one's problem.
Life can be very displeasing especially when we loose the ones we love and cherish so much. in this kind of situation where one loses his/her soul mate there are several dangers engage in it. one may no longer be able to do the things he was doing before then success will be very scarce and happiness will be rare. that person was created to be with you for without him things may fall apart. That was my experience late last year. but thank god today i am happy with him again. all thanks to DR Henry Olu, i was nearly loosing hope until i saw an article on how DR Henry Olu could cast a love spell to make lovers come back. There is no harm in trying, i said to my self. i contacted him via email: [email protected]. words will not be enough to appreciate what he has done for me. i have promised to share the good news as long as i live.\" http://agagulovespell.blogspot.com.ng
I’m giving a testimony about Dr Osemudiamen the great Herbalist man, he has the cure to all manner of diseases, he cured my herpes simplex virus, though I went through different website. I saw different testimonies about different spell casters and herbalist, I was like: ‘Many people’s have the herpes simplex virus cure why are people still suffering from it? I thought of it. Then I contacted Dr Osemudiamen via email: [email protected]. I didn’t believe him that much, I just wanted to give him a try, he replied my mail and Needed some Information about me, then I sent them to him, he prepared it (CURE) and sent it to me Fed-ex delivery, he gave my details to the FedEx Office, they told me that 2-3 days I will receive the parcel and i took the medicine as prescribed by him and I went for check-up 2 weeks after finishing the medicine, I was tested herpes simplex virus negative. if you are herpes simplex virus patient do me a favor by you contacting him and I assure anyone who is suffering it, your problem will never remain the same again you will be cured. Also Dr Osemudiamen help my sisters husband to cure his HIV/AIDS he was suffering from for the past 3 years. After he cured my herpes simplex virus, then my sister heard about it, she went home to tell her husband about Dr Osemudiamen then her husband emailed him and explained his problem to him. He also prepare herbal medicine and he use fed-ex delivery to sent him the herbal medicine and he instruct him on how he will be using it for 14 days. That on the 15 day of it, he should go and check his self in the hospital and he did as he was instructed by Dr Osemudiamen. To GOD be the glory he was cured of his HIV/AIDS which he was suffering from for the past 3 years thanks to these great man we will ever remain grateful to you Sir indeed might work you did in our families. When you contact him, make sure you tell him that I refer you.. contact him via: [email protected]
Hello my respectable guest,i am writing this article to tell the world on how Dr.Paul brought my ex husband back to me,for about three years and two month me and my ex husband has been living happily together,i couldn't believe my eye when he came up to me one day and told me,it over between us for months i was so down folded,but surprisingly my problem was changed when i saw people testifying about Dr.Paul for bringing their ex-lovers back to them,so immediately i contact his email: [email protected] indeed Dr.Paul is a great spell caster that helped me to bring my ex husband back,i told him about my situation and and then he gave me instructions,which i obeyed cordially and before 48 hours my ex husband came back to me crawling and begging me to accept him back and also swear to me that he would never ever leave me heartbroken again for any other woman,and man today my story is totally changed,i know there are lot of people facing this same challenges,Dr Paul is the right solution to your problem viewers,visit his email [email protected]
Hello my name is JOHN,I know a great spellcaster who helped me when Ihad problem with my wife if you need aright place to solve yourproblems contact [email protected] the right choice. he is a greatman that have been casting spells with yearsof experience. he cast spellsfor different purposes [email protected](1) If you want your ex back.(2) if you always have bad dreams.(3) You want to be promoted in your office.(4) You want women/men to run after you.(5) If you want a child.(6) You want to be rich.(7) You want to tie your husband/wife to beyours forever.(8) If you need financial assistance.(9) Herbal care.(10) you want your hiv/aids cure forever. Contact . WISE DOCTORon:[email protected]
miss milas"i give thanks to jai mother sunlight for her great concern over me and my household. she really indeed has been a pilar to my family. we have been running one problem to another but she has always be the one saving us. my husband and i are so much happy for your great help in our lives mother... you really have be a good mother to us even in our darkest paths' you were there with us to strength us. i don't know what to give but i give you thanks mother. readers,,in have been into pains and suffering...but jai mata sunlight saved me and family and again, she blessed us more than we can ever have thought of. i want to tell you that, Jai Mata Sunlight" is the saviour of life and property. she is the great love healer. contact her for your problems and it shall be solved.via [email protected] i promise you, your return shall be in fulness. with lots of testimonies and blessings.
HELLO FRIENDS,i really dont have much to say but first my name is Perry maggie from usa,i am a loving mother of two,i want to thank the man that make it possible to get my husband back, i am happy with my lovely husband, i am saying thank you to the greatest spell caster that made it possible thank you sir, DR,IMONITIE,for what you have done in my life and in the life of my husband and family for bring back my husband to me thank you,if you have any problem at all you can report it to him reach him on this email:[email protected]... and get your problems solve or you can call his cell phone on +2348058802667 Dr SAMSON CAN AS WELL CURE THE FOLLOWING DISEASES:-1. HERPES2. LASSA FEVER3. GONORRHEA4. HIV/AIDS5. LOW SPERM COUNT6. MENOPAUSE DISEASE7. EPILEPSY8. ASEPSIS9. CANCER10. ANXIETY DEPRESSION11. PREGNANCY PROBLEM12. SHORT SIGHTEDNESS PROBLEM14. Male menopause15. Menopause – male16. Menopause – peri17. Menstruation problems18. Mercury Poisoning19. Migraine20. Miscarriage21. Mites (demodex mites)
I got divorce from my husband when I was six months pregnant with my second child. We had only been married for a short time and had another child who was 1 year old. We had been arguing and quarreling nonstop since the day our first child was conceived, no love nor trust from him anymore so he divorced. And all these whiles, I have been trying all different means to get him back, I also tried some different spell casters from other countries, but none of them could bring Richard back to me. It was only Dr MADANI who guaranteed me an urgent 4 days of his return home, and he assure me that my husband will be with me before 4 days. I am writing to offer my thanks and deep gratitude to you for keeping your promises, and for using your gifted and great powers to bring my husband back home to me.. I was thrilled to know that you are specialized in reuniting Lovers. I never thought, in my whole life, that I would be writing to thank someone for casting a love spell on my marriage, but that day has arrived! I have never been happy in my life, and I feel like all of my dreams has turned into reality now. Thank you, DR MADANI, for helping me through the worst times of my life, for being such a great spell caster, and for giving me a love spell that has brought me so much joy. If you doubt his ability, trust me. You should take a chance. It pays off in ways you could never even imagine, Contact him through his email: dr.kadkiamadani@gmail. com or WHATSAPP HIM +2348138624813 thank you so much sir
I finally found a true and genuine spell caster after spending so much money in other spell casters in trying to get my husband back who was away with another woman for 7 months .I came in contact with [email protected] after i found a post of HELEN on a blog of this God given man helped her with spell results within 3 days of contact and i did so too and i was amazed as that which i thought impossible became real and my husband came back to me and so glad he is going to be spending the Christmas with i and the kids after a long long time. Thanks to Dr Zadson an you can contact him via [email protected] for immediate solutions
Hello everyone, i am here to share my testimony on how i conceived my baby. by the help of a spell caster called Dr aza, i have been married to my husband for 12years without no issue.i had problems with my in-laws even my husband started to have new affairs aside our marriage. it was a very terrible thing to bear. i became a laughing stock among my pear, i prayed and fasted and nothing happened. i was now seen as always unhappy.i was even ready to pack out of my marital home and stay on my own because my husband was not given me any attention that i needed from him. i decided to focus on my job and try to live happy on my own. on this faithful day, i decided to check the internet for updates on healthy living and i came across a story of a woman called mercy, saying that Dr aza helped her with a spell that make her to conceive a baby. i decided to give him a try because this has been my greatest problem in life. today i am a proud mother with a son. words will not be enough to explained what this man did for me.i am a happy mother,i know there is someone in same condition and you feel there is no way. i urge you to contact him. This is the solution to every single mother around the globe. distance is not a barrier, he will surely make your dreams come trough. contact him today via email: [email protected] you can call him or whatsApp his number +2348107155060
I got divorce from my husband when I was six months pregnant with my second child. We had only been married for a short time and had another child who was 1 year old. We had been arguing and quarreling nonstop since the day our first child was conceived, no love nor trust from him anymore so he divorced. And all these whiles, I have been trying all different means to get him back, I also tried some different spell casters from other countries, but none of them could bring Richard back to me. It was only Dr MADANI who guaranteed me an urgent 4 days of his return home, and he assure me that my husband will be with me before 4 days. I am writing to offer my thanks and deep gratitude to you for keeping your promises, and for using your gifted and great powers to bring my husband back home to me.. I was thrilled to know that you are specialized in reuniting Lovers. I never thought, in my whole life, that I would be writing to thank someone for casting a love spell on my marriage, but that day has arrived! I have never been happy in my life, and I feel like all of my dreams has turned into reality now. Thank you, DR MADANI, for helping me through the worst times of my life, for being such a great spell caster, and for giving me a love spell that has brought me so much joy. If you doubt his ability, trust me. You should take a chance. It pays off in ways you could never even imagine, Contact him through his email: dr.kadkiamadani@gmail. com or WHATSAPP HIM +2348138624813 thank you so much sir
I feel so blessed again in my marriage after Doctor Oku brought back my husband that separated with me for good 3 mounths. Am Jessica Butler by name from USA. Even though i have mouths all over my body, it won't be enough to thank Doctor Oku for his help upon my life. My husband separated with me for the 3 months and have been in pains and agony without him. So, i searched for help everywhere but nothing worked out not until i meant Doctor Oku who i contacted online. I explained my situation to him and he promised that my husband will get back to me within 24 to 48 hours as far that my heart still beats for him. I believed in him and he prepared a spell for me and my husband called me exactly when Doctor Oku said. He pleaded and said he needs me back and now we are living happily again for the past 9 months. Everyone out there reading my article that needs help should contact him... Email: [email protected] or call +2347053113465
This has really worked and I am proud to testify of it. I saw a post on how a lady got her man back by Dr. Trust who helped her to get her Ex Husband back. My relationship was crashed down for 3 good years and some months. Although I never believed in spiritual work I reluctantly tried him because I was desperate but to my greatest surprise Dr. Trust helped me to bring back my man and now my relationship is now perfect just as he promised. Getting your ex back permanently spell does not only bring back someone you love back,but it will also re-ignite your lovers feelings for you to be as happy with that person as possible. My man now treats me like a queen and always say he love me all the time. If you are passing through difficulties in your relationship Email him for urgent help.
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Unless stated otherwise all book synopses (in italics at the beginning of each review) are taken from goodreads.com, amazon.co.uk or amazon.com. All books reviewed have been bought by myself unless stated otherwise. | {
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Sunday, June 28, 2009
Heidi Montag Pratt is an American singer and television personality. She was born on September 15, 1986. Montag is best known for appearing on the MTV reality series The Hills.
Montag began dating Jordan Eubanks in 2005 and broke up with him in 2006. In 2007, Montag and Spencer Pratt announced their engagement. On November 20, 2008, Montag and Pratt had a marriage ceremony in Mexico. Montag and Pratt married a second time on April 25, 2009 in Pasadena, California.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Elisha Ann Cuthbert is a Canadian actress. Cuthbert has co-hosted the Canadian children's television series Popular Mechanics for Kids and even acted in the American action-thriller television series 24. She had acted in leading roles in feature films like Old School and The Girl Next Door. She has also had starring roles in movies like House of Wax film and Captivity.
Cuthbert was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.Her parents are Patricia and kevin. Hermother was a homemaker and father was an automotive design engineer. She has two younger siblings, Jonathan and Lee-Ann.
Cuthbert enjoys painting and ice hockey. Cuthbert was ranked #10 by AskMen.com readers in the list "Top 99 Women of 2007". She was previously in a relationship with Dallas Stars player Sean Avery and is now dating Calgary Flames hockey player Dion Phaneuf. she refuses to be photographed nude in film roles or magazines because likes to keep some things to herself.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Freida Pinto is an Indian actress and professional model, best known for her performance as Latika in her debut film Slumdog Millionaire. Pinto's parents are Sylvia Pinto and Frederick Pinto. She has one elder sister Sharon Pinto. She is trained in different forms of Indian classical dance as well as Salsa. she was once engaged to her former publicist, but now she is dating Slumdog Millionaire co-star, Dev Patel.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Kelly Brook is an English model, actress and television celebrity. Her modeling career bagan at the age of 16. Kelly brook dated American actor Billy Zane. The couple split in August 2008. Brook has been dating Wasps rugby player Danny Cipriani since September 2008. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Katusha removed from WorldTour for ethical reasons?
Doping cases, management changes and alleged fraud over the last four years led to the UCI’s decision to omit Katusha from the WorldTour, according to the Italian La Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper.
Overnight, the UCI sent out a press release stating its licence commission gave the Russian team official reason for being refused renewal in the WorldTour. It stated: “The Licences Commission today sent Katusha the reasoned decision behind its rejection of the team’s request to be registered in the first division (UCI WorldTour).”
Katusha acknowledged in a statement that it received the commission’s decision, but failed to clarify the reason. It only stated that its application was complete and corresponded to the commission’s requirements and that it will go on the offence.
The team’s press officer was unavailable when Cycling Weekly called this morning and failed to respond to an email last night for clarification.
The licence commission awarded 18 first division licences on based on four criteria: sporting, financial, administrative and ethical. With 19 teams applying, it was a tight battle for the 18th position, reportedly between Argos-Shimano, asking for a promotion after eight years in the second division, and Saxo-Tinkoff, with its own tainted ethical record. However, the commission cut Katusha, the second-highest ranked team behind Sky in 2012.
The reason was clearly not on sporting grounds. Spaniard Joaquím Rodríguez finished number one in the WorldTour rankings with wins in Flèche Wallonne and the Tour of Lombardia, and placings in the Giro d’Italia (2nd overall) and the Vuelta a España (3rd).
A dubious ethical record, according to Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport, led to the commission’s decision.
Katusha appealed the commission’s decision to the sport’s high court, the CAS. The Lausanne-based court must act soon as the WorldTour season begins on January 22 in Australia with the Tour Down Under.
The team, however, is able to spend its energy applying for a second division licence. With its points and Rodríguez, it should be able to receive wildcard invitations to many of the WorldTour races such as the Tour de France and the classics. It will want to consider the Movement for a Credible Cycling (MPCC). The race organisers agreed that the MPCC member teams adhering to the stricter anti-doping rules will have first priority to wildcard invitations.
The clock is ticking as Katusha also risks losing Rodríguez. According to UCI rules, riders in a non-registered team are free to leave, and without penalty. | {
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Movements
I have been monitored for reduced movement a couple of times. Baby has never been a mover tbh. I'm 38 weeks and all of a sudden baby hasn't stopped moving! Never had this before. Is this something to worry about?
sorry no words of wisdom but maybe just give the midwife/hospital a call and ask them. personally I don't think I would be worried about an increase in movement but you know your body and baby better than anyone else, if you are concerned best thing to do is make a call. | {
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Paxil (Paroxetine)
Paxil is an anti-depressant and is prescribed for a serious, continuing depression that interferes with a person's ability to function. Symptoms of this type of depression often include changes in appetite and sleep patterns, a persistent low mood, loss of interest in people and activities, decreased sex drive, feelings of guilt or worthlessness, suicidal thoughts, difficulty concentrating, and slowed thinking.
Paxil is also used to treat an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), a mental condition that is manifested by persistent thoughts and uncontrolled bodily movements.
Paroxetine (pa-ROX-uh-teen) is a generic term for Paxil. It is used to treat mental depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, and social anxiety disorder also known as social phobia.
Paroxetine belongs to a group of medicines known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). These medicines are thought to work by increasing the activity of the chemical serotonin in the brain. This medicine is available only with a doctor's prescription.
Some possible serious side-effects that include violent behavior and agitation. A small group of people who take Paxil are at a serious risk of violence and suicide. A number of civil law suits have been filed and won against the manufacturer of Paxil.
If you or a loved one has suffered an injury as a result of taking any drug or supplement, call Law Offices of Robert Dourian now at 800-790-8856 or CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT A SIMPLE CASE FORM. The initial consultation is free of charge, and if we agree to review your case, we will work on a contingent fee basis, which means we get paid for our services only if there is a monetary award or recovery of funds. Don't delay! You may have a valid claim and be entitled to compensation for your injuries, but a lawsuit must be filed before the statute of limitations expires. | {
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FREE Polar bears worksheet - Get this fun educational free to download printable find the hidden words game puzzle. This worksheet about polar bears includes a fun hidden words game as well as a missing word seek puzzle for kids. With this worksheet kids can enjoy... | {
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Tag Archives: grade 6
TED is a small non-profit devoted to ‘Ideas Worth Spreading.’ It began in 1984 as a conference, bringing together leaders in the fields of Technology, Entertainment, and Design. The TED website makes a selection of the best talks and performances available to view and download for free. All of the talks feature closed captions in English, and many feature subtitles in various languages. These videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared and reposted. If you subscribe to a news reader such as Google Reader you can also subscribe to new talks here.
I’ve used TED in the classroom to inspire my learners, to bring attention to important world events, to listen to debates and form opinions, to create and stimulate inquiry, to activate prior knowledge, to offer career and life-skills knowledge, and as a writing prompt.
The following TED talk is a debate and asks the question, “Does the world need nuclear energy?” It compares the future of burning fossil fuels energy against the possibility of increasing nuclear power production. Obviously, the vocabulary used in these talks are not necessarily intermediate grade friendly but I feel it serves as a great introduction to a debate writing unit for grade 6, or an introduction to non-renewable resources in covered in B.C. science 6.
It’s simple to use TED as an engaging way to meet many learning outcomes in British Columbia and beyond. Here are a few examples which link specific TED talks directly to B.C. learning outcomes: | {
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} |
JUNEAU - When the man playing Juliet runs off the stage and appears to throw up on audience members' laps, you might suspect this isn't a typical Theatre in the Rough Shakespearean production.
Shakespeare at breakneck speed: 'Complete Works' returns to Theatre in the Rough this weekend093009
NEWS2CCW Editor JUNEAU - When the man playing Juliet runs off the stage and appears to throw up on audience members' laps, you might suspect this isn't a typical Theatre in the Rough Shakespearean production.
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Shakespeare at breakneck speed: 'Complete Works' returns to Theatre in the Rough this weekend
Photo Courtesy Of Aaron Elmore
Clockwise from top left, Aaron Elmore, Doniece Gott and Ed Christian return with "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)" at Theatre in the Rough.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Story last updated at 9/30/2009 - 5:34 pm
Shakespeare at breakneck speed: 'Complete Works' returns to Theatre in the Rough this weekend
By Katie Spielberger | CCW Editor
JUNEAU - When the man playing Juliet runs off the stage and appears to throw up on audience members' laps, you might suspect this isn't a typical Theatre in the Rough Shakespearean production.
Back by popular demand, "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)" by Jess Bjorgerson, Danile Singer and Adam Long will be the first play of the Theatre in the Rough's new season.
Of Theatre in the Rough's 27 productions to date, 13 have been Shakespearean plays. And in "Complete Works," three Shakespeare buffs named Aaron, Eddy and Donny (played by Aaron Elmore, Ed Christian and Doniece Gott) attempt to produce every Shakespearean play in the course of the two-hour production.
More than poking fun at the Bard himself, "It pokes fun at the way he's worshipped and idolized by people like us," Elmore said.
The abridged versions of the plays take forms ranging from a cooking show to a football game. "Macbeth" comes with over-the-top Scottish accents, and "Othello" is set to rock music. The comedies are reduced to a single puppet show with countless sets of twins. And, saving the best for last, there's "Hamlet" - well, can these actors even make it through "Hamlet"?
Throughout the performance, the audience should believe, Christian said, that "The three of us don't really know what the other is going to do."
And with this "willing suspension of disbelief," all kinds of things are possible. The audience gets involved in several points, and not just as somewhere for Elmore's female characters to throw up. The play is written to allow for local and pop culture references and improvisation which can make each performance a little different.
The three-person cast is made up of the same three Roughians who appeared in the 2003 performance. The theater company doesn't often repeat plays, but they couldn't resist the opportunity to remount "Complete Works"
"We really wanted to do it again," Elmore said.
Katie Jensen directed the performance in 2003; this year, since she's currently playing the role Mrs. Antrobus in "The Skin of Our Teeth" at Perseverance Theatre, Elmore will be directing the production.
Having done the show once before, the cast is now able to build on their previous experience. Still, they say it's an exhausting performance, and rehearsals often involved dripping with sweat and gasping for breath.
They did know going in that the last minutes of the play were the toughest, as the cast does Hamlet faster and faster and faster - and backwards.
"We knew that the last 45 seconds were terrifying the first time we did it," Elmore said. So while last time they rehearsed the scences in order, this time, they started with the end.
You don't need to know anything about Shakespeare to appreciate the show, Christian said.
"These plays are in our cultural DNA," Christian said. "So much of what (Shakespeare) invented became the English language. Even someone who is not a theater-goer is going to find so much resonance in them."
Added Elmore: "Some of our best audience members last time were our six-year-olds and eight-year-olds."
Complete Works will play at 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and at 2 p.m. on Sundays, from Oct. 2 through Nov. 4. There will be a free preview at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 1, and a pay-as-you-will performance on Thursday, Oct. 8.
Tickets are available at Hearthside and at the door. Friday and Saturday tickets are $18 in advance or $20 at the door ($5 for kids 5 and under, $15 for students and seniors). Thursday and Sunday tickets are $15 general admission ($5 kids 5 and under, $10 students and seniors).
As a thank-you for those who come to one of the first two weekends and who want to see the show again, if you present your ticket stub when buying your ticket the next time around, you'll get it for just $10. Tickets are redeemable at the box office only and are space available. Discount tickets will be released 15 minutes before showtime. | {
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First and foremost, I NEVER participate in forums cuz frankly I DONT UNDERSTAND THEM. I'm 29 and a pretty savvy nerd and technology guru but I have NEVER been able to understand how forums work. I find them confusing. That being said, I am looking for anyone to point me in the right direction please?
I'm trying to find out how to build my own armor but NO ONE seems to have posted a step by step process. All I have been able to find are SOME of the Jango and Boba Fett files. There is no next step other than "print it out to scale." I have read the forums on here and dont understand how to do things. I have experience with Pepakura files and building those puzzle pieces but not print it out and you're good. All i can find is people saying Work in Progress but no one explains HOW they're doing it.
After i print it out, then what? Why is there no actual step by step tutorial section?! Plus it's IMPOSSIBLE to find what I'm looking for. I enter in templates and all i get are people TALKING about them.
I'll break it down Barney style for someone who is willing to help me. I would like to build some armor. I have experience with Pepakura files but if not no biggie. I like Jango Fett's armor, I like Pre Vizsla's armor, either of them would be nice to make. I would like to make a Jango or Boba Fett helmet. I'm not picky on the gauntlets. I like Boba Fett's ROTJ jetpack. I have my colors mapped out in my head and on paper. I just don't know what to do after you print stuff out. How do you guys turn paper/cardstock, into hard armor pieces?! Just please tell me what to do!!
I think this forum is pretty straight forward and shouldn't be confusing to you, so hopefully thats a step in the right direction.
As much as alot of members here like to push the search function, just using the search isnt always going to bring up what you need specifically. You really do need to put the time in and browse around. If you browse the helmet section you will find a thread for the templates, same goers for the costume section and templates for the armor and so on. One thing to keep in mind is that instant gratification in this hobby just doesnt happen unless your REALLY lucky lol. Everything, including finding information takes a little time and effort. Thats just a general statement and not directed specifically at you.
So, all that said, in the boba fett helmet section, there are pinned threads at the top with templates in them for the helmet, and i believe there is also one in the boba fett costume section for the armor, jetpack and gauntlets
For the helmet i will also point you to my helmet build thread where i pretty much show step by step how i created my helmet. I used WOF templates, put them togther and then basically reinforced the inside with fiberglass and then used bondo on the outside to fine tune the details. Keep in mind when i did this, i had no intention to wear this piece..it was solely to take a mold from and then cast a wearable helmet in fiberglass or resin. However you CAN make it so you can wear the actual piece you create. Just keep in mind you will wear it and make sure you dont make it too heavy.
As for the armor. its a bit more simple. Again using WOF templates, you can trace them onto plastic sheet and cut them out and heat them to get the curves
I started gauntlets the same way but havent finished them. I used mat board and posterboard where i needed them to curve (like where the rocket sits) Again i used WOF templetes and spray glued them onto the board,cut em out and glued em together.
Having some sort of model building skills does help, you kinda need to have a creative mind to work out issues you come across or just to come up with an idea to make things work.
Nothing we do is set in stone, and everyone puts their own twist on how they do things. I just look at it like a lifesize model i can wear. | {
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Dec. 22 – Postgame Notes, Stats & Audio
Please find links below to postgame notes, stats and audio of Hurricanes players Jordan Martinook, Brett Pesce and Trevor van Riemsdyk, as well as Hurricanes Head Coach Rod Brind’Amour and Pittsburgh Penguins Head Coach Mike Sullivan, as they spoke to the media following the Hurricanes’ 3-0 loss against the Penguins on Saturday at PNC Arena.
The Hurricanes will not hold a morning skate on Sunday. Head Coach Rod Brind’Amour will be available to the media at 3 p.m. outside Carolina’s locker room at PNC Arena. The Hurricanes host the Boston Bruins at 5 p.m. | {
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How To Delete Uncyclopedia Account – Solved
How to Delete Uncyclopedia Account :- Uncyclopedia is a Online Encyclopedia just like wikipedia where user can create account, search various topic on the website and take knowledge, write or edit article related to the post, and get detailed knowledge on the topic you searched. We have recently received comments on our website that members of the Uncyclopedia website want to know how they can delete their account from website permanently. After seeing many reviews and comments online related to the website we discovered that many users who are deleting their account from the website are either receiving newsletters or mails from Uncyclopedia website which is making their inbox look spammed and other members say that they are not now working on other encyclopedia so they want to remove their account from this website.
If your reason of deleting this account is email spamming then we will recommend that you can either mark the mail as spam while opening your mail or you can unsubscribe from their newsletter by clicking unsubscribe button given at the bottom of the mail you received. If your reason is other than i will guide you step by step method on how to delete your Uncyclopedia Account.
First A Little Bit About Company
Uncyclopedia website was founded in 2005 and it is one best online free encyclopedia that can be accessed worldwide. Currently the website is available in 25 different languages and in English Language the website has over 30,000 article.
How To Delete Uncyclopedia Account
According to website policy you cannot delete your uncyclopedia account from their website however you can change your username or password to something so nobody can search you. To do this follow the below steps:-
Hide or Change Your Account Through Website
Go to the following url http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/ and login with your account.
Scroll down to bottom of the page then click on Contact.
On right hand side locate ACCOUNT CHANGE section then click on link Rename My Account.
On Rename Account Page follow a simple form process to change your account.
PS :- This process may take upto 24 to 72 hours of time according to company response.
For more information on How to Delete Uncyclopedia Account stay updated to this website. | {
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Stay cheap: Kids book bargains
A special new book club geared toward kids, and the parents/grandparents who read to them. Go to @MattGranite on Twitter for more information on these deals.
http://archive.news-press.com/VideoNetwork/2737014712001/Stay-cheap-Kids-book-bargainshttp://bc_gvpc_od-f.akamaihd.net/media/963482463001/201310/1108/963482463001_2736351338001_89975025-5f55-4029-97b9-3e122035d0f9.mp4?pubId=37906159001&videoId=2737014712001http://archive.news-press.com/VideoNetwork/2737014712001/Stay-cheap-Kids-book-bargainshttp://bc_gvpc.edgesuite.net/img/963482463001/201310/2692/963482463001_2736312903001_w2s-books-640x-1-360-16x9-25-KB.jpgStay cheap: Kids book bargainsA special new book club geared toward kids, and the parents/grandparents who read to them. Go to @MattGranite on Twitter for more information on these deals.5moneybestWKYCmoneyvpcsavevpcdaily dealsdeals01:45 | {
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Yoga with Ruth White
Teacher Training with Ruth White
If Yoga is your passion and you would like to take it further then join Ruth in her teacher training courses to give you the skills to teach in the knowledge of working with very experienced nationally, internationally recognised tutors. Ruth would be delighted to pass on to you the skills that BKS Iyengar taught her.
Ruth runs both 200 and 500 hour courses certified by Yoga Alliance. After the first 3 modules (200 hour course) you are qualified to teach but there is so much more to learn in the following 3 modules to complete the 500 hour course.
Ruth and John are full members of the International Yoga Teachers Association. Ruth is a Senior Iyengar teacher, life teacher with the British Wheel of Yoga and Yoga Elder with the Independent Yoga Register.
Teacher training weekends and days are held, please look on the Residential page for more information.
Here is the training programme and syllabus outline for our Karuna Yoga Teaching Diploma Certificate. Each candidate has an attendance card, which they present or hand in at the end of each module.
As a student you will need to:
establish a daily practice
continue with your weekly local class
go to a second weekly class, either with Ruth at one of her Oxfordshire classes or a local class
do practical homework/reading as given in your newsletter
attend 7 days of residentials for each module
complete the coursework necessary for that particular module (see syllabus)
at some point you will be required to complete a first aid course (these are held on our weekends, usually once a year)
The total cost for the 500 hour course is £2,505 inc. this is not all payable in advance but breaks down as follows:
An initial registration fee of £120, this covers administration, syllabus and the trainee teacher DVD
£95 fee for each of the 3 modules
The cost of 21 days and the extra TT classes on these yoga days or weekends
Forthcoming events, practice tips and bits of inspiration are announced in the regular teacher training newsletter. There are residential weekends, days and a week retreat in the Greek Isle of Lesbos.
Guest speakers give talks on our residentials and days. Subjects covered are listed on pages 8 and 9 of the syllabus. Students take an active part at these lectures, which are followed with questions and answers.
Pranayama can be practiced in or after savasana and before breakfast on the residentials. Meditation is practiced during residentials and days sometimes after savasana.
Let us know when you are ready to take the first step and receive more details.
"Knowledge comes from observation" : B.K.S. Iyengar
"There is nothing I can give you that you have not already got" : Nisargadatta | {
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Other experts from the same city
Anil is a M.Tech from IIT Delhi and has done his M.Phil, M.Sc ( Chemistry) From H.P University, Shimla. He possesses very versatile work experience, at present he is an Assistant Professor and a research officer at Shoolini University. He had worked as scientist, senior scientist and research associate at various R&D, Pharma, Chemical companies like Biocon, Jubilant etc. He had contributes his knowledge in various publications/journals. He is a life member of HSCA (Him Science Congress Association), and ISRS (Innovative Science Research Society). He has qualified various CSIR-UGC, NET & GATE examinations. | {
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With shades, stripes and swaths of swishy fabric, so ends the Great WardRObe Experiment.
Five years ago, on Rosie’s first birthday, I wrote this:
Rosie rules. She is spunky, she is scrappy, she is hilarious, she is punk rock, she is beautiful. She will CUTCHEW if you take something from her, but she’ll also give real kisses, right on the mouth, complete with smacking lips. Her devotion to Noah is unwavering, and “Da!” is the first word on her lips in the morning. When I come in a room she reaches for me, arms up and head flung back in joyful anticipation of the flight to my hip. She sings along to sound, be it radio or vacuum, and she is fearless in ways that make me enormously proud and terrified at the same time. She came into this world kicking all kinds of ass from the start, and I love every spiky hair on her head.”
All of that (save the hip-holding and “Da” calling)—rings just as true today as it did then. Her hair may no longer be spiky, but I still love every one on her head.
There are a few more things I want to say to wrap up this week of being WardRObed (and some outtake shots to share), but right now, I have a 6th birthday party to plan.
Rosie Mae, your cool is contagious. Six looks good on you, girlfriend. And six is looking pretty good on me, too. Keep on spreading that fearless flair—the world is a better place, colored with your special shade of Rosie. | {
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How to Empower Your Employees
Empowerment for your employees involves delegating responsibility with authority. When you empower an employee, you give him or her, the responsibility to make decisions about a project and decide how the project is done.
If you want to truly empower your employees, you need to give them the freedom to do their jobs. By delegating responsibility and authority, you show your team members that you trust them and you give them an opportunity to develop new skills. You can’t just delegate projects to your employees and then tell them that they’re on their own. You must provide them with the necessary information to do the job.
Here are some other empowerment tips:
Match the project with the person. Make sure that the person you choose for a project has the skills to do the job. If the individual doesn’t have the skills, then give him or her the necessary training.
Give 100-percent responsibility. Each project should have a task owner who's entirely responsible for the result — and everything along the way.
Explain the big picture. Your employee needs as much information as you have to give.
Tell all. You also need to tell your employee all you can about the project. You want your employee to make informed decisions.
Offer other resources. If you can’t answer some questions or don’t know certain information, then direct your employee to the individuals who can help.
Don’t be a dictator. You and your employee are a team. Together, you should come up with ideas for the project. The project itself, not you, should govern how the project is run.
Set a deadline and check in periodically for status reports. You don’t need to micromanage the person, but you do need to be aware of what’s going on.
Give your employees decision-making power. The more input the person feels he or she has in the project, the more invested he or she is and the better the results are. | {
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Paraclete Bible for Toddlers (Hardcover) (Juliet David)
about this item
Popular and timeless stories from the Old and New Testaments spring to life on each page through this book’s fun, colorful illustrations and clear, simple sentences. Toddlers and parents will treasure this perfect introduction to the Word of God. | {
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The After Party
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The After Party I created with a girl in mind who dances all night and decides to go and dance even more at the after party. I can’t resist thinking about a fractal who will continue doing the same thing over and over again depending on which variables you feed him.
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The After Party Jeroen Derks created with a girl in mind who dances all night and decides to go and dance even more at the after party. Jeroen can’t resist thinking about a fractal who will continue doing the same thing over and over again depending on which variables you feed him. The variable in the girl’s case is the music. Depending on this variable she will choose her moves and repeat them over and over again, until see get’s tired.
About BusinessPunks
BusinessPunks is a pioneer and leader in creating suits and jackets with unique art linings for made-to-measure and bespoke.
The art linings are designed by artists from all over the world, limited-issue items and manufactured in Austria, Europe. | {
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This looks really exciting, the improvement in the second video is great (even though the resizing still can't fully keep up with the mouse, but it's much smoother). Plus, like the Trolltech guy said, the windowless widgets are much lighter on resources. I think it would be very interesting if some GTK+ developer could comment on that, since the GTK+ widgets use their own X windows, too...
Not to devalue Trolltech's excellent work on Qt, but it seems like this should have been fixed in Xorg rather than worked-around in Qt. A major part of an X server's job is to manage the stacking, moving, and resizing of client regions. Apparently Xorg is good enough to manage windows but doesn't scale well to the widgets they contain.
So the question is: what is the underlying cause of this limitation? Is there something different about managing widgets that isn't merely an extension of managing windows? Is there a shortcoming in the X11 protocol that prevents the efficient decoupling of managing regions from managing their content?
This is functionality that should be common to all GUI toolkits. As the parent noted, it should be implementing in GTK+ and, I'll add, countless other toolkits. So in the interest of good design and smart abstractions, it makes sense to consider how Xorg can better accommodate widget management.
However, I should also note that Qt targets non-X11 environments. On other platforms, the present approach may make sense. On the other hand, certain platforms may already address these problems in their windowing systems. So there are portability issues here that complicate attempts to exploit commonality.
Fair enough. I agree with the reasoning in the linked comment thread. Trolltech was right to go ahead and enhance Qt, especially since they are cross-platform. But it's also important that this generate enough noise to persuade the Xorg folks to make improvements on their end.
Not only non-X11 platforms. While it would be nice if every Unix/X11 platform would be using the latest and greatest x.org X server, a lot are either using older releases (e.g. "enterprise" Linux distributions) or other implementations (e.g. XiGraphics, which doesn't even have proper XRender)
Something is inefficient somewhere and it is not my imagination and it bothers the hell out of me. I made a movie to describe it
Wow, that is seriously messed up. I have a laptop with ATI graphics, using the open source driver, which is absolute crap, and it doesn't do that. I have seen that effect, and it only happens when the laptop was under extreme load (like compiling something and another app pegging the CPU). At work where I am running the nvidia proprietary drivers, it never happens, even under full load.
This is under KDE though. Try KDE and XFCE and see if it persists. Also try with a different app in the background. Some apps are faster at redrawing than others, so while you might see those artifacts over top of Firefox, they might not be apparent on another app.
Also, this whole problem goes away completely if you enable the composite extension (and you might need a window manager that supports it, dunno if metacity does). With composite, the window in the background is cached, so it doesn't have to re-render its contents all the time.
1) Firefox sucks. It's slow, buggy, and as the video shows, it really sucks at repainting itself. for example, it turns off solid fills, so that the previous window contents get left behind instead of leaving a solid color, which looks better.
That's not to say that other apps won't show artifacts too, but Firefox is by far the worst when it comes to this.
2) You're not using a compositor. A compositor -- even the builtin automatic compositing rules in Xorg -- will make this much faster, and remove the repaints. Try it with "xcompmgr -a" if you have xcompmgr installed. That won't give you eye candy. It won't even give you transparent windows, but it _WILL_ give you much much faster repaints.
Without a compositor, there is absolutely *NOTHING* that can be done to totally eliminate the "window trail" artifacts, the best you can do is reduce them by making draws faster, and "faking" it by setting solid backgrounds on windows so that you don't notice the partial draws as much.
windows hasn't had that kind of lag for years.... and they weren't using a compositor. SUre using a compositor helps because the graphics card is powerful.. but does it address the underlying issue?
And when i was moving around.... i wasnt even lokoing inside the window. Take a look at the edges of the window frame. I should do another video showing my CPU spiking.
The point is i think that this new advancement for QT.. coudl also be used for gnome and GTK. I am not sure though but i just want clarification. Here is the post that intrigues me:
an application with windowless child widgets is much more light-weight and resource friendly as we donít allocate native windows for every single widget
s long as X11 is asynchronous (with all its benefits, by all means), resize and move operations will also be asynchronous, and flicker will appear as X11 first clears the exposed area (or leaves a trail of junk behind), then sends an expose notification, allowing the client to redraw. You can probably avoid the flicker with clever use of XFlush, but that will mean performance goes down the drain. With this solution, we donít only remove the flicker, and remove the need to wait for X11 roundtrips, but we also free up X11 resources as Qt no longer needs the subwidgets on the server side. Which means less memory consumption :->. And on Windows, it means people can create more widgets than they could beforeÖ
Windows does have that kind of lag. Again, Firefox shows that lag best, even on Windows, despite the Mozilla foundation's understandable focus on the Windows market (it is, after all, their biggest market). If you look at the WM_PAINT event in the Win32 API, it's more or less the exact same thing as the X11 Expose event, with the same issues.
Note that in the original video, there was no problem with the terminal's redraw (and testing here, even with filled windows, there is no visible redraw except when under heavy load)
As for the final quote that you posted:
- GTK already does similar, except it uses InputOnly windows to figure out where events came from, which means that the code for creating it's widgets is simpler, and which means that event selection can be much finer-grained. it does *NOT* use subwindows for drawing.
- The QT solution doesn't really change the amount of roundtrips in most cases, and the X resources that it frees up aren't very large. I suspect the real win is with Windows, where you can now create more widgets.
windows hasn't had that kind of lag for years.... and they weren't using a compositor
You don't notice these problems on Windows because the graphics drivers have historically always been better than on Linux. Even the most garbage graphics card has had 2D acceleration for years. So the effect is still there, but redrawing is just about instantaneous so you don't notice. Any linux with a reasonable graphics driver is just as good.
aah, that's not true, on a relatively slow system, graphics on windows are always better. This thing they show in the video on that Qt blog is really a problem on linux. And it's great we can look forward do this finally solved with Qt 4.4!
1) Firefox sucks. It's slow, buggy, and as the video shows, it really sucks at repainting itself. for example, it turns off solid fills, so that the previous window contents get left behind instead of leaving a solid color, which looks better.
the huge problem of firefox is that it's not a real gtk app... or at least it doesn't use the native gtk widgets, but it draws them for its own using the gtk drawing apis in order to fake the gtk appearance (it does the same thing on windows for copying the xp/vista themes).
and i use it with the gtk-qt theme engine so the disaster is complete
I don't know how you captured the video, so I couldn't capture it (tell me and I will ), but I had virtually no tailing when I moved a small firefox window with your video going in it, over a maximized firefox window over osnews.
Perhaps you got something oddly set or you really do not use nvidia driver (eg: some bug, and x checked back to nv?)
NOTE: I get max CPU usage to about 15% when moving windows around, even over firefox.
well, it's slow on my amd 2.4 ghz dualcore, with GeForce 6600... But it depends on how critical you are. When I see tearing, it's bad, that simple. Firefox on windows (2.66 ghz P-III) is also bad, btw. At least it's noticeable, unlike with other apps. Also, like they do in the Qt blogpost, resizing a part of an app with a lot of widgets is always smooth in XP, unlike linux.
It may just be me and the way I use my computer but the VAST majority of time I am sitting infront of it, I'm actually working within a window rather than just moving them around the desktop and watching the window trailers. I see it as a feature like the the Mouse Trails in Winblows, albeit one without a preference window...
When it comes down to it a set of widgets just really is a set of drawing instructions, layering, geometry and event management. The magic is in finding a clean way to make all of them fit together cleanly and orthogonally.
Qt4 actually did a good job api wise for breaking out geometry, drawing instructions and layering. I think their mill stone is the event stuff, and the overengineered MVC stuff, but anyways..
>>Find the real cause in the windowing system instead, and you improve all applications, not just Qt apps. I just cannot get used to the graphics lag in Linux.
I totally agree. While so so so much work has been done in projects like KDE and GNOME, X11 development (back in the Xfree86 days) seemed to barely be crawling by. I have the feeling that the Xorg folks are starting to make up for lost time, but the fact remains, X is a dinosaur that should be put out to pasture. Sadly, projects like Mesa-solo seem to be the only savior on the horizon, but that could realistically mean waiting another 5 to 10 years (or so it feels) for a well-performing X-less graphical implimentation. Oh, the whoas of free software. If there were some fundraising, I'll gladly throw some dough their way if this could be sped up.
I can imagine that this technique will put more stress on the X client side and add some lag when xhosting via network. Having independent windows should theorically work better because the XServer does the job of figuring out where to send the event, so latency reduced.
More like, this was the answer from the GTK developers when I asked them about drawing directly (what mentioned in the article) instead of by windows many years ago, and having it optional, because the very slow resizing of gtk was obviously because of this.
This time, I'm glad a developer cares for 99% of the userbase, not the remaining 1%
I have seen this problem in any X11 based toolkit causing X core mechanisms being bypassed by one toolkit after another. (starting with swing).
How come X devs haven't figured out how to solve it throughout the years forcing toolkits that support it to implement complex hacks? Is is that deeply entrenched in X11 design. If is cannot always perform on both remote and local scenarios some deep re-architecting is needed.
Wouldn't some new extension be sufficient?
by setting the right flag on the widgets, one can force them to be individual windows at runtime. so in theory if the difference is indeed measurable and desirable, one could create a little tool that walks the object tree and sets the flag (or if one reached down a bit deeper, changes the default flag set) to get the current/old behaviour at runtime for such networked devices.
I already feelt that most flickering was gone in Qt4.1 with all the widgets double-buffered Qt-application were pretty smooth during resizing and moving.
This is can at most be a minor further improvement, Qt4 already kicks GTK in the nuts when it comes to anti-flicker.
"This is can at most be a minor further improvement, Qt4 already kicks GTK in the nuts when it comes to anti-flicker."
I definitely hope it will be a major improvement (as the video clearly shows) - and badly needed, since on the computers I've been trying Qt 4 apps, on both Linux and Windows, the resizing performance is absolutely horrible, just as horrible as the video shows (possibly even worse), even much worse than with GTK+ (which is already bad enough). And not only the resizing performance, but dialogs show up slowly, tab switching is slow etc. Qt 4 really feels very "heavy" (unlike Qt 3, which is an order of magnitude faster).
Qt 4.3.1 (and QTopia) now provides a GPL exception allowing code under different licences to be linked against the GPL.
APL 1.0/1.1, BSDL, MITL and a few others, check [1]
Well, a few from these allow redistributing binaries without source. You have to make available the source to Trolltech on request under these terms though. ( Check 2) in [1] )
That's a great step by Trolltech - now a lot more projects can use it for own purposes. And if someone wants to hijack the GPL version by utilizing the BSD version and not releasing the code ... Trolltech will ask for it and then sell it itself
Nah, I believe they will ask nicely to get a few commercial licences otherwise it will be opened.
It sounds a bit weird to me that they are focusing their optimization efforts on platforms that didn't need that much optimizing in the first place.
Qt already performs very well on both Linux and Windows for 'normal' applications. However, on Mac OS X, Qt4 has become dog slow (a lot slower than Qt3). Even Java applications feel lighter on OS X. It's not easy being a good looking/feeling application on OS X compared to all the native apps to begin with, but this makes it a lot harder.
The next step is to have the toolkits (QT, GTK, ...) talking directly to the compositing engine (linux Beryl, windows DM).
After that, the next step is to have the Compositing engine talking directly to the video card (opengl, directx).
We don't need anymore an X11-like layer. The toolkits are powerfull enough to manage/render all widgets in one window. The compositing engines can do all the 2D-windows placements. The message bus can be used to do the window/window interaction.
To start off on a mean note, killing X11 would be retarded - that's what drivers are written for, it abstracts and makes everything nice so everyone else has a clue where to start (as in, it's not just inertia that it's still with us). As an extension of this, having the compositing engine speak directly to the hardware would mean different drivers for each - not gonna happen when you figure some people can't get a decent driver at all. What IS gonna happen, though, is X11 is going to migrate to being fully OpenGL (which is not a hardware spec - it however provides a framework where hardware acceleration can take place. what the videocard can't do ends up getting done in software (if at all) and moving X11 to OpenGL means that programmers can take advantage of hardware acceleration with much less effort).
I'm sorry if I'm sounding flamey, but it's posts like this (and the 'hey guys let's split the kernel and reap the magical benefits it will bring' one) that make me wonder if anyone takes the time to understand how any of these underlying systems work and/or WHY they work that way. (I'm also short 12 hours sleep)
What IS gonna happen, though, is X11 is going to migrate to being fully OpenGL
I suppose you are talking about Xegl. You can call it "migration" if you like. But "Moving X11 to be fully OpenGL", as you said, is a major change in X11 "philosophy". Today, the X11 "core" is not bound to any card-level graphic language. And AFAIK, Xegl will not be a compositing engine.
I'm sorry if I'm sounding flamey, but it's posts like this (and the 'hey guys let's split the kernel and reap the magical benefits it will bring' one) that make me wonder if anyone takes the time to understand how any of these underlying systems work and/or WHY they work that way.
In a today Beryl-like desktop, most of the X's job is done by other layers.
first off, its doing really very different things.. compare RDP to vnc or NX(where NX totally beats RDP to death btw..).
and second off.. nah, you probably wouldnt understand, so ill not waste my time arguing with you.. but if you really really wanna know, go look up what its really about, or request it here, and i might enlighten you..
> Today, the X11 "core" is not bound to any card-level graphic language.
> And AFAIK, Xegl will not be a compositing engine.
OpenGL is hardly a "card-level" graphic language. In fact, it is very close to being a superset of X11 (not formally, but in principle), basically bringing 3d rendering and some nice effects to the table. Even network abstraction is a basic feature of OpenGL. Bringing them together raises a lot of formal objections (APIs would change), but no change in philosophy.
You can't "kill" X11, it's the resource manager, handles the events, links the rest of it together. What you mean is minimising it to a tiny component as in Xegl: This is a long term goal of the X server.
I was wondering what toolkit to use. To be honest I was really unsure, but finally I bought a GTK+ book. Now I am not so sure anymore. This flickering has been something I have been annoyed at for years, and pretty much makes QT superior with a great margin...if it works that is
you can write Qt apps in python, ruby or java (to name three) so the "if you like C++" is really a non sequitur =)
that said, i completely agree that a better reason to pick between the toolkits is API design (for me this includes consistency, clarity, speed in use and documentation) which is a place where Qt has always shined brightly.
For programming C++, Qt is a toolkit that aims at making your programming easier. Gtkmm (the C++ layer of GTK) is a big mess to me compared to Qt, because of horrible docs , and very complex, barely documented APIs using templates. Still though, I think the signals system in Gtkmm (libsigc++) is much nicer than Qt Signals (argument binding is extremely useful) and doesn't need a preprocessor.
Anyone else here impressed by the use of videos to explain what the flickering problem is, and to demonstrate the fix I can't count the number of times an article is written; especially on tech sites; and they ramble on and on about problems, but never demonstrate it.
In any case, looks like a great job, though like others have said, I wonder what the limitation is in X that causes this?
Why is it that OS X's Aqua windows tend to move extremely quickly when you move them around?
I mean, they have their Quartz Extreme and X11 has Compiz, so they're both hardware accelerated with OpenGL, but even then, Quartz seems to redraw windows much better when you move them, even on video.
I don't know. Is it just me or does it feel like QT hacks around a lot of problems instead of fixing them properly in Xorg and drivers etc so everyone benefits, not just QT?
As an example, look at what Carl Worth & co are doing to optimize Cairo in recent months (http://cworth.org/blog/). When finding bottlenecks, instead of just hacking around them, they are fixed properly and all rendering stacks on top of Xorg benefits (including QT).
The problem is that this "hack" fixes things on Windows and OSX as well, so even if they did fix X11 they still would have had to done this work anyway. So while it would be nice if they could contribute to X as well I can understand why they don't want to get too involved in fixing 3rd party code when it wouldn't reduce their workload and they've got plenty of work to do on their own products.
Is it just me or does it feel like QT hacks around a lot of problems instead of fixing them properly in Xorg and drivers etc so everyone benefits, not just QT?
It's just you. Trolltech employs Zack Rusin, who has done a lot of work on Xorg and other projects that are outside Qt. EXA and the new Render implementation for example were Zack's work. I don't know enough about it to tell you whether it would have even been possible to fix this particular problem in any other way.
EXA was adapted from KAA. Zack was one of the adapters. I don't think Zack has contributed anything more worth mentioning to the Xserver (not after a quick look at the git log anyway). Don't know about other projects, but I do know that Zack is a great hacker (not to belittle his contributions).
But yeah, I would like to see more stuff like this from Trolltech. Fixing things the right way (tm) instead of cludges in QT.
Trolltech is more than enough of a real FOSS company to fix things the Right Way (TM) whenever feasible, so I suspect this must have been particularly hard or even impossible to fix due to X' architecture. If I understood some ppl above in this discussion, GTK already does something similar.
well, it might just be a lot of deep, architectural work to get it fixed. And commercial entities rarely go for big, architectural rewrites. They go for visible features in a reasonable timeframe... It's one of the advantages we as a FOSS community have - we have people who don't care they need to start a project which will take years and which will only show results in a indirect way. If it's really a deep architectural problem, the community will need to start the work on it, I'm afraid.
Or he could be referring to Glucose, which is a very different (and much simpler) approach: create a new 2D X11 driver that calls into the DRI using glitz. Most of the technical issues making that difficult were solved when the indirect accelerated rendering support was added.
When finding bottlenecks, instead of just hacking around them, they are fixed properly and all rendering stacks on top of Xorg benefits (including QT).
Where has QT been hacking around anything? The GTK+ developers have talked about childless windows for a long while now, too. It's actually pretty important to do that if you want to get in-window compositing without depending on a compositing manager. Plus it reduces X pixmap memory usage.
But the fact is that, when using beryl, the render+clipping+compositing is not done by X.
Yes, it is. You don't understand what a compositing manager does. All it is responsible for is the end-result drawing of windows, the structure of which are provided by the X server still. The client still send drawing commands to X, which still is responsible for clipping them into their respective windows, and which is still responsible for managing input. The most basic compositing manager actually does nothing other than take the existing X-managed window positions and blit the window contents onto the screen based on that information.
The only way to "get rid of X" would be to merge most of X into your compositing manager, which is really just stupid on such a multitude of levels I don't even know where to start enumerating them.
Contrary to all-so-popular belief, X is not a bottleneck. Removing it isn't going to gain you anything, but it will cost you quite a bit.
Removing X is only something ever advocated by people who don't know what the heck they're talking about, as every argument against X can be pretty easily shot down by anyone with even a smidgen of understanding on how the X infrastructure works.
How funny is this. Just a month ago I rewrote my fpGUI (Free Pascal GUI Toolkit) which was based on a windowless framework to being a windowed framework. My experience was the opposite. My event handling and redrawing was a nightmare with the windless design. The code is now much cleaner and performance is much better using the windowed (every widget has a window handle) design.
Going windowless, you have to handle more events, distribute events, handle window clipping, etc... A lot more work, considering the underlying windowing system can handle all of that for you! I do agree on the fact that a windowless design is more lightweight, but allocating resources on todays systems are not a issue anymore like they used to be years ago.
Well, I can imagine it is a lot to handle all events yourself, esp if you write your own GUI at home. But Trolltech has more resources, and the performance improvement is imho a lot more substantial than you suggest. Just look at those movies... Or compare a linux gui with a windows gui. The latter is a lot more smooth when resizing stuff, even when run in wine.
I had always assumed that the cause of this "flicker" was layout management. But this fix indicates that the cause is actually one step lower, in that all size changes occur to X11 windows, which involves the propagation of numerous events.
I don't think it's X11, but rather "dumb" toolkits that draw way too often. Take a look at FOX toolkit (www.fox-toolkit.org). It doesn't do double-buffering except maybe for one or two widgets. Neither does it have windowless child widgets. Yet still the performance is absolutely great. This is mainly due to the delayed repaint/layout, which makes all the difference. Drawing in general is very expensive so you really only want to draw when absolutely necessary. See the "Delayed Repaint/Layout" section on the bottom of this page:
I just wonder if people commenting on this thread are actually reading some of the better comments around here. Those of you talking about X being the main bottleneck haven't got a clue what you're talking about. In reality, X does very little, which is the way it was designed (it didn't specify a toolkit for a reason). The bottlenecks are elsewhere, and the biggest is how the toolkit manages this and what it pushed to the X server. Motif didn't seem to have this problem, as ugly as it looked and as bad to program as it was.
Options such as creating a new, separate, and incompatible, X server are just so stupid it isn't believable. This isn't going to be helped in X for some time, and even then, the biggest bottleneck is still how the toolkit goes about doing things. XCB, as I understand it, is a layer below Xlib, so doing various things directly with XCB can speed things up (and Trolltech may already be doing it), but it's not a panacea.
Apparently, if Trolltech fixes an awful lot of things in Qt then they're doing it all wrong because they should be fixing things in X. What an absolute load. What do you expect them to fix? Also, you have to take into account that this has to benefit cross-platform as well. If Trolltech does all it can to alleviate problems in Qt, and other parts of a system are improved along with it, then we should be in for a substantial improvement, shouldn't we?
I don't know what it is, but all this 'fix it in X' stuff just sounds like some thinly veiled explanation as to why GTK, and Gnome, is just so particularly bad on this front. Attempting to solve this with Compiz, or relying on hardware acceleration to minimise the effect, simply isn't any solution at all and really is a 'hack'. | {
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The New Zealand dollar was little changed below 70 US cents, as the US Thanksgiving holiday left markets subdued, and may fall in the face of continued US dollar strength.
The kiwi dollar traded at 69.96 US cents from 69.80 cents late yesterday, when it touched 69.68 cents, the lowest since July. The trade-weighted index rose to 77.24 from 77.15.
The kiwi dollar has declined more than 5 percent against the greenback since Nov. 8, when Donald Trump won the US Presidential election, heralding a new policy direction for the US that would include tax cuts and massive infrastructure spending, driving US economic growth, inflation and interest rates.
Against that, he has vowed to ditch the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement and enact trade policies that could have implications for trading nations such as New Zealand and penalise China.
"USD strength remains the key theme in currency markets," said David Croy, senior rates strategist at ANZ Bank New Zealand. "The kiwi is holding around 0.70, butlooks set to trend gradually lower as markets focus on the implications of potential US trade barriers and rapid upward re-rating of US growth prospects".
In New Zealand, traders are watching for October merchandise trade this morning, which is expected to show the trade deficit narrowed to $971 million from $1.4 billion a month earlier.
See live rates for the NZ-US $ below. Click for more information:
The kiwi rose to 56.17 British pence from 56.11 pence late yesterday and traded at 66.29 euro cents from 66.26 cents. It rose to 4.8392 yuan from 4.8285 yuan and gained to 79.38 yen from 78.68 yen. It slipped to 94.44 Australian cents from 94.62 cents. | {
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Welcome to my blog!
I'm a life learner with a background that covers everything from fry cook at Burger King to private practice to mother of two. My friends voted me "Most Witty" back in high school. I have a doctorate, but that's still my favorite credential. I am a professional mOe-tivational speaker with a knack for illustrating the point of difficult life lessons with a pinch of wit. This blog is simply the fun and frank observations of a middle-aged woman who's not afraid to speak her age or her mind. | {
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The main core promoter-binding element in polymerase II transcription machinery is
The main core promoter-binding element in polymerase II transcription machinery is TFIID a complex comprising TBP the TATA box-binding protein and 13 to 14 TBP-associated factors (TAFs). choice the nucleotide structure is less essential than the amount of the DNA for high affinity binding. Comparative manifestation profiling of wild-type and a DNA-binding mutant of TAF4 exposed common primary promoter features in the down-regulated genes that add a TATA-box and an Initiator. Additional study of the PEL98 gene out of this group demonstrated reduced Initiator activity and TFIID occupancy in TAF4 DNA-binding mutant cells. These results claim that DNA binding by | {
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I saw her yesterday and my heart is now nmuch more at ease. She was warm, compassionate, and generous. She was able to communicate information to me about my boyfriend that she could not have guessed on her own. I was a little skeptical about her and communicating with spirits in general, and even the idea of spirits. But I am now, 100% sure that this exists. There are clairvoyants that specialize in readings about health and well-being. They are able to gain information about the state of your body by psychic means. These type of clairvoyant readings should be done as a supplement to care by a licensed physician, not as a replacement. In fact, there are many clairvoyants who will not give health readings unless you are under the care of a doctor. To purchase your 30 minute psychic phone reading click the add to cart button above and on the PayPal payment notes please enter your UK phone number and preferred time to connect (mobile phone numbers are ok), if you are overseas please add your Skype name – please note I only use audio on Skype and not the webcam. If you do not see the notes section on PayPal then please reply to your purchase email or use this contact form to send me your phone number/Skype. I will then email you to arrange a time for your psychic phone reading. I am based in the UK so please consider our time difference before purchasing – I work evenings and some Saturday mornings. If you are outside of the UK please check the time difference here.
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This woman is a FAKE! She also goes by QUEENOFWANDS2018 and JAY **. When I could not resonates with what she was telling me in the reading, she caught an attitude and became tremendously defensive. I am still in shock how unprofessional and rude she behaved. The short reading ended by her rudely and abruptly name calling me. I hope this review can save a lot of people money & time. I booked a 30 minute reading $47.
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Dena gave my my first-ever tarot card reading and it was a really nice experience. I was nervous and didn't know what to expect, but she made me feel very calm and comfortable. She is very nice and has a comforting presence around her. She gave me great insight to my future and was spot-on about past and current aspects of my life. I would definitely see her again!
I saw her yesterday and my heart is now nmuch more at ease. She was warm, compassionate, and generous. She was able to communicate information to me about my boyfriend that she could not have guessed on her own. I was a little skeptical about her and communicating with spirits in general, and even the idea of spirits. But I am now, 100% sure that this exists.
We have a community of experienced online phone psychics who are ready to guide you through your most important life decisions. And with so many phone psychics who specialize in specific areas, you're sure to get the right psychic phone reading for your needs. We're confident you'll find the right fit and that's why your satisfaction is guaranteed! In The Ego and the Id, Freud argued that the id was the source of the personality's desires, and therefore of the psychic energy that powered the mind.[2] Freud defined libido as the instinct energy or force. Freud later added the death drive (also contained in the id) as a second source of mental energy. The origins of Freud's basic model, based on the fundamentals of chemistry and physics, according to John Bowlby, stems from Brücke, Meynert, Breuer, Helmholtz, and Herbart.[3]
Now think about how directing your focused psychic energy toward people will enable them to respond to you in improved ways. Next time your child wants to talk to you, give him your full attention. Same with your partner, coworker or friend. Instead of being lost in your own thoughts, or scrolling through your phone, give them the benefit of your psychic energy.
One more major positive to highlight in this Psychic Source review is the outstanding customer service. This site has customer service specialists on hand to help 24/7 (not outsourced), this means that any questions, concerns or problems can be addressed and remedied by a real human as quickly and easily as possible – a feature that few other sites are offering. Then the two men started shouting at each other, threatening, ready to fight. Before I had time to lift a finger one of them pulled a dagger from its scabbard and attacked his adversary, who fell to the ground writhing in pain. At the last second his gaze met mine, appealing for help. I felt his energy flowing through me... but it was too late. The man was unable to say anything, and in a second everything melted away, the two card players, the candlesticks, the table, the gold coins... everything disappeared in a breath of air.
Sharon Michelle is NOT psychic. She was very disrespectful. Once she ripped me off with over $200. She Michelle told that spiritual work can done. She gets angry when I ask questions (please keep in mind that this is all over the phone, not in person consultations). I was able to pick up on his bs really quickly while remaining respectful. Everything predicted was wrong - NOT a psychic. She is a guesser, an astrologer, anyone can come up with this crab. Many private clairvoyants also offer free samples, but you do need to take care. Psychics and clairvoyants are not regulated by any professional body, so there are frauds and fakes. Some free readings are truly free samples, but others may be “bait and switch” tactics. One of the most common tactics is to tell you that there is a “hex” or a “curse” on you that the psychic can remove if you pay them. In most cases, if a psychic or clairvoyant says you have a curse, particularly during a “free” reading, they are fraudulent, and you should stop the reading.
« …See, my friend, the persons coming to you are the victims of a hellish life. They are not less lucky than others, but they are struggling with financial or other types of hardships and it takes them so much energy that they do not see the Signs of Destiny. Some could radically change their lives and experience a fabulous future ... To find the way, they should be listening to the Messages of their Fate, because those who know how to detect them quickly see: Call or text to receive a trusted Psych-Hub phone psychic reading in the UK Today! Most of us come across certain issues and problems at times. Importantly in these situations, it would be ideal to communicate with someone who is empathetic, understanding of our problems and is able to navigate and guide us to a positive spiritual outcome. The ideal outcome for any problem situation is to locate the cause and to remove it permanently, not just look for a temporary fix. Our Psychic Readers understand clairsentience, clairvoyance, clairaudience, and claircognizance. Answer: We at MeetYourPsychic believe our members should always know the total cost of their session (before it begins). This allows our members to make an educated decision regarding their psychic purchase. No hidden costs and no recurring billing. This means, no surprises on your billing statement! True psychic counseling takes time. In our experience, per minute pricing places unneeded stress on the Member and the Psychic to get the reading "over" as quickly as possible. We also feel it is highly unprofessional for a reading to be ended in mid-sentence, simply because you ran out of money in your account. Psychic Readers will end the call when they feel they have conveyed the spiritual guidance you have requested. Even if it may take a couple of extra minutes. Our advisors are highly trained professionals in their field and they conduct their sessions to reflect that truth. Established in 2009, BAP is the only privately-owned psychic directory to promote twice-tested professional psychic readers. In addition, we currently are the ONLY privately-owned psychic directory to perform criminal background checks on our members, and we also set the standard for being the first in the nation to implement immediate call button services for our clients.
Maximum refund equal to last order total. All sales of distance energy healings, past life regressions, email and text readings, store products and astrology charts are final. The free will actions of you (and others) will affect your future. Therefore, the accuracy of predictions, timelines and success of distance energy healings cannot be guaranteed.
Astrology is the study of the movements and relative positions of celestial objects as a means for divining information about human affairs and terrestrial events.[9][10][11] The position of the stars, planets, sun and moon when one is born are believed to have affect one's personality, shape how relationships work in one's life and predict future events such as one's economic success.
Oranum is a very interesting site offering live streams with their psychic mediums. It is a nice way to meet your psychic and get a feel for their energy before you start. Truthsoul is one of Oranum’s top-rated mediums who is a 5th generation medium! Oranum operates on credits, so you don’t get billed per minute in the same way as on other sites. It’s a nice way to ensure that you don’t spend more than you planned to! | {
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26 January 2010
Lonely: 1. a: being without company b: cut off from others: solitary
2. sad from being alone
3. producing a feeling of bleakness or desolation
Most of the time I'm okay being alone. It's nice to be able to do what I want, when I want, and not have to worry about anyone but myself. When it's just me no one cares if I'm put my pjs on as soon as I get home from work or if I eat the same thing for dinner 4 nights in a row. No one sees if I turn up the music and dance while cleaning. I can work out in my living room and not have to worry what I look like struggling to keep up with Jillian. If I don't feel like doing the dishes, I can just leave them in the sink. And if I feel like sitting around all night and doing nothing, there's no one to make me feel guilty for being lazy.
But then there are the not so great things about being alone all the time. Coming home to an empty house, eating dinner alone, no one to talk to, sitting on the couch by myself hoping for something decent on tv to fill the hours til I can justify going to bed. When I'm sad or have a bad day at work there's no one there to give be a hug when I get home and tell me it's all going to be okay.
Sometimes the silence is deafening. Sometimes I just lay on the couch and cry because it hurts to be alone. Sometimes I just want someone there to talk about my day and to cook dinner for. I'm just tired of being alone. There's not a whole lot I can do about it, which sucks. I just feel stuck. I just want someone to share my life with.
“I've got everything I need except a man. And I'm not one of those women who thinks a man is the answer to everything, but I'm tired of being alone.”
“Loneliness is the first thing which God's eye named, not good” John Milton
08 January 2010
Ever just have one of those weeks? Well, this one was mine. On top of freezing cold and snow all week, my dad's been in the hospital with a small bowel obstruction, this week was Nathan's birthday and marked 1 year since his death, work's been busy, and I'm working in the ER tomorrow. Talking about getting kicked when you're down. It has just been one thing after another and I couldn't seem to catch a break. A few high points have helped me keep sanity including playing Quelf Sunday night with a wonderful group friends while holding sweet little Jake,holding babies in the nursery at church, spending time with someone near and dear to me on my day off yesterday, and keeping at the 30 Day Shred.I also have almost gotten my Christmas tree down. All the decorations are off, but the lights are still on. I know when I take the lights off a million pine needles are going to fall off and I'm avoiding removing them because of the mess. Normally I would just take it outside and do this, but it's way too freakin' cold for that!So to make up for this week I am spending Friday night curled up on the couch, watching movies, and having some me time. Hope the rest of you have had a better week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a good shift in the ER tomorrow.
PS
The getting kicked when down thing yeah, it continued. My ER shift was crazy and I got asked by a patient if I was pregnant. Seriously?!?!? Seriously. Next week has to be better, I can't take much more of this.
04 January 2010
I can't believe another year has passed. 2009 was a year of ups and downs. It didn't start off too great. January 7th will make one year since my friend Nathan lost his fight against Cystic Fibrosis. It's still hard for me to think of him really being gone. It still hurts like it was yesterday and I miss him just as much. After the year starting on a low note, things improved slowly. I started a new job in Interventional Radiology that I really like, my little sister got married, and my niece turned 5. I got to travel a lot which always makes me happy. I spent 2 of the most amazing weeks at Young Lives camp loving on babies and can't wait to go back again this summer. I cruised around the coast of Europe with one of my best friends, and made my 3rd trip to Mexico to do GYN surgery. I participated in the Great Strides Walk for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. I gave up caffeine. I mastered making peanut butter fudge. I had another kidney stone that required lithotripsy (3 days before my sister's wedding). I got to celebrate the birth of the sweetest little boy with 2 good friends. Sunday game night became a tradition. And I finally got a table for my dinning room.
I hope that 2010 will hold good things for me. It will be my 10 year high school reunion, 5 years since I finished PA school, and my 28th birthday. I want to travel more, spend more time with the people that are important to me, make memories that count, and maybe just maybe trade in my single status for good. Stay tuned to see what this year has in store for me. | {
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Hal Leonard Instrumental Play-Along: Beauty And The Beast - Flute
The sheet music for the Disney classic "Die Schöne und das Biest" 2017 for flute including online access to the Hal Leonard online library for demo and playalong tracks. There is the possibility to slow down the tempo of the tracks without changing the pitch, a loop function to practice for demanding parts and much more. | {
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Both heavyweights were coming off streak snapping losses, American Top Team’s Shawn “The Savage” Jordan with his explosive knockout power collided with former NCAA Division I wrestler Mike Russow who had an 11 fight win streak including 4 in the UFC. | {
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Sony ACID Music Studio v8.0
A complete home recording studioIf you're serious about making music, ACID Music Studio is the perfect tool for original song creation, audio recording, MIDI production, studio-quality mixing, and effects processing. Share your songs any way you want – burn CDs, upload to the Web, or export to MP3 for portable devices such as the PSP® or iPod®. | {
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Back in the old gladiator days, the lassies would fight with one or both breasts exposed so as to get more attention from the men in the audience. Granted, today's serious sports events don't have fighters go out with half a sports bra on, but you can't deny the fact that women who fight in some places- I'm looking at you Russia- have been known to beat the **** out of each other naked on camera for money.
Ehhh? Komrade, why you bring me girl into this? She is hot, da, but not so I let her out with a breast out.
:wanim
.
:icon_twis .
To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence;
Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without spilling your Guinness.Sun "Fu Man JhooJits" Tzu, the Art of War & Guinness
Back in the old gladiator days, the lassies would fight with one or both breasts exposed so as to get more attention from the men in the audience. Granted, today's serious sports events don't have fighters go out with half a sports bra on, but you can't deny the fact that women who fight in some places- I'm looking at you Russia- have been known to beat the **** out of each other naked on camera for money.
Just a thought.
Modesty aside, I'm pretty damn flat chested and I would NOT want to fight bare chested. Boobies flopping around are not comfortable.
I enjoyed the article quite a bit. Gladiatorial combat is, I feel, important to have in some form in society. Today we have our pro and amataur fighters. Fighting is in everyone's blood, a little bit at least (it's the way of us multi-cellular organisms), and woe to whoever forgets that gender is not an exemption from the need to affirm your existence by fighting.
I wish more women fought, and not just for the sleazy reasons. I don't want to sound all TMA on you here, but I think that when we fight we learn things that generalize beyond the ring as well.
Back in the old gladiator days, the lassies would fight with one or both breasts exposed so as to get more attention from the men in the audience.
Just a thought.
That's why that one woman in Olympic beach volleyball got a boobjob--so more
people (read "men") would watch.
I agree with kid spatula--the "jiggle twins" need to be restrained for athletic
competition. I mean, I saw my wife chase down the puppy across the yard
one morning in her nightgown---looked like a couple of crew cut socks with
rocks in 'em swinging around.
SEANBABY:"The seventh law of thermodynamics is that every time a fat person gets near a trapdoor, they fall in. Itís the closest thing we have to scientific proof of God."
I find it ironic that women in our modern society are supposedly much more liberated than women in ancient Rome, but there seems to be less opportunity for female fighters in ours than in the Roman's. Sure, there aren't any laws to prevent them from fighting, but I've never even seen a women's boxing match scheduled for pay per view.
Modesty aside, I'm pretty damn flat chested and I would NOT want to fight bare chested. Boobies flopping around are not comfortable.
Yeah, I've kind of thought on similar lines about the Greeks that used to compete naked in the original Olympics.
On a side note, last year, on my wife's very first day home alone with our new baby (her Mom and sister spend the first two weeks with us), some dirt bag broke into our house while she was in the bedroom nursing our daughter. She heard some noise from the front of the house and put the baby down on the bed just as the dirt bag came around the corner into the back hall towards the bedroom. She yelled "What the **** are you doing in my house!" and the dude turned tail and ran. Her mamma wolf's instinct being piqued at this point, she gave chase all the way out into the street before he got in his car and sped off (he'd left the engine running). Of course, she hadn't taken the time to put her bra or shirt back on, so she was chasing him in only a pair of sweat pants. If she'd caught him, it would have put a whole new spin on the term "rear naked choke." :icon_roll | {
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Disgaea 5 Complete (NIS America/Wii U/$59.99/eShop/Demo)
Disgaea 5 Complete is a strategy RPG that offers hundreds of hours of over-the-top, award-winning gameplay, and marks the first time the core game is available on-the-go. The game includes all 8 bonus scenarios, 4 fan-favorite characters, and 3 character classes that were originally DLC in the PlayStation®4 release of Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance.
No. of Players 1 player
Thumper (Drool/Switch/$19.99/eShop)
Thumper is rhythm violence: classic rhythm-action, blistering speed, and brutal physicality. You are a space beetle. Brave the hellish void and confront a maniacal giant head from the future.
Scream down the endless track and crash through punishing obstacles with simple, airtight controls. Hurtle forward, master new moves, reach overwhelming velocities, and survive epic boss battles. Every crushing impact is interwoven with a pounding original soundtrack. To reach synesthetic bliss, you must survive rhythm hell.
The popular spin off from Dark Witch Story is now available on Nintendo Switch!
Play the 1 player STORY MODE and defeat all the bosses!
Play the VS MODE to battle 1vs1 against your friends, and the CO-OP MODE for 2-player team play!
High quality graphics true to the original Dark Witch Story
Quality music composed by Raito
Beautiful illustrations
Gameplay
Press the buttons rhythmically in timing to cut down Boing-boings (bullets).
Jump to avoid fire beams!
Get your groove on Dark Witch style!
No. of Players 2 players
Galaxy Fight: Universal Warriors (HAMSTER, Co./Switch/$7.99/eShop)
Galaxy Fight: Universal Warriors is a fighting game released by Sunsoft in 1995.
In the world that was destroyed by the destructors of the universe, eight warriors challenge to fight each other 's speculation.
Please enjoy the world view of SF touch and the fight full of speed.
The "ACA NEOGEO" series has faithfully reproduced many classic NEOGEO masterpieces.
Players can change various game settings such as game difficulty, and also reproduce the atmosphere of arcade display settings at that time. Players can also compete against each other from all over the world with their high scores.
No. of Players 2 players
Wii/Wii U
Darksiders Warmastered Edition (Nordic Games/Wii U/$19.99/eShop)
Deceived by the forces of evil into prematurely bringing about the end of the world, War – the first Horseman of the Apocalypse – stands accused of breaking the sacred law by inciting a war between Heaven and Hell. In the slaughter that ensued, the demonic forces defeated the heavenly hosts and laid claim to the Earth.
No. of Players 1 player
Pinball (RCMADIAX/Wii U/$1.49/eShop)
Guide the ball around the board collecting points, but be careful not to run out of time or land in the hazard zone. Endless fun for everyone!
In a continent that was torn asunder by warring gods, guide two armies through brutal tactical battles—as this reimagined RPG epic invades the West! Uncover the intertwining stories of Alm and Celica, engage foes, fend off dragons, and explore 3D dungeons. Your prowess will grow as you master this melding of modern and legacy Fire Emblem gameplay.
Alm and Celica lead separate armies united by a common goal: to stop the war and unify Valentia. Each army has its own path, units, and supplies, so balance their needs. Here, battle is waged in the traditions of elder Fire Emblem™ games, when the rules of battle were simpler, yet the challenge formidable as ever. When you encounter a dungeon, explore it in action-adventure style: smash false walls, break pots, or ambush enemies with a slash of your sword. You never know; you may stumble upon some uncommon items…or a hidden tactical battle with a brutal boss.
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DLC Pack #1 – Fledgling Warriors Pack ($7.99, three pieces of content): Ideal for early- to mid-game adventurers, this pack includes a new dungeon (The Astral Temple) and two new maps, great for gaining more items, in-game currency and experience points.
The remaining four DLC packs will be released in the coming weeks. See the full schedule here.
No. of Players 1 player
Drancia Saga (CIRCLE Ent./3DS/$5.00/eShop)
Chain attacks to get the coins! Upgrade the powers through the skill tree! Defeat the massive monsters with good pace to solve the mystery of Drancia! The playable characters are over 50! Furthermore, there's a collaboration with the titles such as "The Legend of Dark Witch" "Gunman Clive" !
When you connect the stars that God of the Stars created in the sky with a line, items necessary for the girl are born. Let's give that item, It will helps realize her dream.
Items born in 3D can be laid out freely in the girl's room.
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When you connect the stars that God of the Stars created in the sky with a line, items necessary for the girl are born.
Let's give that item, It will helps realize her wonderful life.
Items born in 3D can be laid out freely in the girl's room.
You can also increase the number of items in the room by gathering the stars you get when clearing.
Let's make the girl's winderful life come true with God of the Stars!
Extra... The stage will be added to the person who played "Mysterious Stars 3D : Road To Idol" edition!
No. of Players 1 player
DodgeBox (Bidement Entertainment/3DS/$1.50/eShop)
A fun game where you use the Touch Screen to avoid falling boxes! It gets harder as it continues!
No. of Players 1 player
Virtual Console
Blazing Lazers (Konami/Wii U/$5.99/eShop)
Players control the extraordinary firepower of their Gunhed Star Fighter to take on the Dark Squadron that has begun its invasion of Earth. Collect power-ups to increase your ship's battle strength so it can cut through enemies and defeat the bosses in all 9 areas. Of course, as part of the "Soldier" series, the game contains a good combination of fast-paced speed with catchy, drum-propelled background music, coupled with the Field Thunder that can be used to destroy enemies in one fell swoop for the ultimate sense of satisfaction!
No. of Players 1 player
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Great deals this week! Check out the full list of deals on Nintendo 3DS and Wii U available this week. | {
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This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government
The new Corporate Covenant will help improve the lives of the Armed Forces
For the first time ever businesses and charities, both small and large, will have the opportunity to sign an official written commitment that they will help improve the lives of Armed Forces personnel, their families and veterans who are working for them or using their services.
By signing the brand new Corporate Covenant, businesses and charitable organisations will be able to choose unique ways in which their organisation can support our Armed Forces. These include:
providing sustainable job opportunities for reservists, veterans and Service spouses
offering exclusive discounts for members of the Armed Forces community
supporting their local cadet unit
getting behind Armed Forces Day every year
In time for Armed Forces Day on Saturday, 29 June, 5 key business organisations have already pledged their support at an official signing at Horse Guards today, 28 June. The first company to sign the Corporate Covenant was coach operator National Express.
These trailblazers now join over 320 local authorities around the country who have signed their own local Community Covenant.
Mark Francois, the Minister of State for Defence Personnel, Welfare and Veterans, said:
Our Armed Forces and their families give everything to our country so it is only right that society, including businesses, recognises their tremendous contribution and sacrifice. Many businesses already support our Armed Forces but they want to go further; I want to help them do that.
That is why today I am launching the brand new Corporate Covenant so all businesses, large and small, will now have the opportunity to formally support our Armed Forces community and make a real difference to their lives.
I hope organisations and charities from across the country get behind the Corporate Covenant and do their bit to support the Armed Forces in any way they can.
Neil Carberry, Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Director of Employment and Skills, said:
Businesses support our forces and the CBI is pleased to sign up to the covenant. It is important that employers work with the forces to develop a relationship that ensures reservists, ex-Service people and forces families can make the most of their workplace potential.
Mark Fox, Chief Executive of the Business Services Association, said:
We fully support the Corporate Covenant which provides a welcome opportunity for industry to show its support for the Armed Forces. | {
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Stephen Maher is a social critic and PhD candidate at York University in Toronto, Canada. He blogs at Rational Manifesto.
On his most recent album, Wrecking Ball, Bruce Springsteen crafted a powerful statement of support for the working class, the existence of which barely penetrates contemporary art or politics. This is not an accident: the growing power of capital over public discourse has provided it a forceful means through which to shape individual consciousness, and establish an apolitical and at most technocratic understanding of power. Those at the top, we are led to believe, are there because of their technical skills and have risen by meritocratic means—the vast gulfs created by inequalities in wealth, power, and privilege are ignored. In fact, gigantic corporations—controlled by the 1% (or by the 0.1%)—dominate all forms of production. Even in the cultural realm, the art and voices of the working class are sidelined and squelched. Working people thus become invisible. As Occupy has helped make clear, the 99%, though divided in all kinds of ways, share the collective disappointment of being ruledby others, as opposed to ruling themselves;of constantly producing and reproducing the bases of wealth and power at the top of society, rather than fulfilling their own developmental potential…. Power over surplus distribution—and thus nearly everything else—is left to an unelected ownership class. The overwhelming majority of the population is unable to locate itself in the “democratic consensus” or the dominant culture.
In our ad-driven consumer age, it is a monumental struggle to encourage sympathy and solidarity by bringing the stories and views of working people to a mass audience. Indeed, one of the greatest successes of the Occupy movement has been to force the idea into the national discourse that the working class exists as such (we are the 99%), a notion that is usually reserved for the radical fringe. On Wrecking Ball, Springsteen channels and supports the proletarian discourse of the 99%, which overcomes post-political, technocratic ideology and constructs a world sharply divided between exploited and exploiters. He crosses over from his earlier lament for a fallen America and the unfulfilled promise of the American dream to rage at the “robber barons” who “ate the flesh off everything they’ve found” and “whose crimes have gone unpunished,” calling on workers to stand united in seeking social justice. In telling the seldom-heard stories of working people and subjectivizing them as victims of the violence of capital, Wrecking Ball represents an important salvo in the cultural struggle, providing justification for and encouraging solidarity with the cause of the 99%.
In its review of the album, the popular music website Pitchfork chides Springsteen for “rail[ing] against those up on ‘Banker’s Hill’ in the sort of black-and-white terms that continue to plague and cleave his home country.” In suggesting that those who have united as “the 99%” are merely troublemakers, and that Occupy is actually a “plague” on society, Pitchfork—regarded as a hip and liberal publication in the hegemonic discourse—paradoxically adopts a position that would make Newt Gingrich blush. How is this possible? In fact, the Pitchfork review can be taken as a model to demonstrate the shortcomings of the so-called “hipster” current. This social current, of which Pitchfork is the ultimate expression, is the embodiment of postmodern skepticism and relativism. Artistically, it is concerned solely with exhibiting middle-class angst, while it presents liberation as the styling of an individualized consumerism and pornographic self-expression. Any transformational social project, or genuine contact with the working class, is seen as anachronistic and totalitarian. As Arcade Firedescribed on their 2010 album The Suburbs, what appears as progressive experimentation and “liberation” is really Rococo—trivial but elaborate ornamentation that amounts to little more than an indication of privilege and isolation, like the elaborate dress of the court of Louis XVI.
Naturally, this ideology—which emphasizes consumerism and the liberation of the market while discouraging social and political engagement—poses no threat whatsoever to structures of power and domination, and is therefore ubiquitous. It has served to mask and even defend the marginalization of working-class art while concealing the domination of the cultural terrain by the forces of capital, under the guise of liberation and freedom. As Arcade Fireput it, “they seem wild, but they are so tame.” With Wrecking Ball, Springsteen has produced a record of startling beauty, that unambiguously proclaims solidarity with the 99% and reaffirms the possibility of a better world. It is a powerful statement in support of the Occupiers’ struggle against a ruling class that is waging unmitigated war against workers and the poor. The force of this statement, and the nature of Pitchfork’s response, help to reveal the class bias concealed behind postmodern “common sense” and hipster skepticism.
The Plague of Class Society
Pitchfork’s review seems to advance the peculiar suggestion that class conflict is caused by the troublemaking of workers. This assertion is deeply anti-democratic, disdainful of the poor and working class, and ignorant of history—not to mention current events. The only way that democracy can be practiced in a society divided by its economic system into classes is through the popular organization and activism of the systemically disempowered—the 99%. In the absence of such mobilization, the desires and interests of those empowered by the system—the 1%—have been pursued almost unopposed, as reflected in the platforms of both the corporate-owned political parties. The bipartisan consensus around “free trade” and deregulation has led to the implementation of measures permitting our rulers to endlessly enrich and empower themselves, while reducing their obligations to the rest of society. The vast and growing disparity in power and wealth that has resulted has contributed to the dangerous weakening of already limited democratic institutions, constraining the ability of people to defend the victories of the past.
It is worth noting the level of abstraction at which the review operates: aside from distant allusions to Occupy as a divisive plague (to which the album contributes), history is noticeable only in its absence. In a review of an album dealing almost entirely with working-class issues at an absolutely critical historical juncture, the Pitchfork reviewer makes no note of the radical, bipartisan attack on working people (and their organizations and communities) underway across the country, intensifying in recent years. That the reviewer did not even consider such issues relevant to his critique indicates the degree to which the working class has been rendered invisible, and explains the vital importance of forcing working-class voices into the public arena. With capital’s increasing dominance over cultural production, the appearance of the working class in the world has likewise diminished, its voice silenced. As shown by the Occupy slogan “we are the 99%,” in the current hegemonic ideological constellation, even proclaiming the existence of a single working class is a subversive act. If the historical moment that gave birth to the record were clarified, the meaning of the record as a contribution to a struggle for justice and freedom would be plain.
In the wake of the economic crisis, millions of Americans have been thrown out of their homes and left with nothing, while the banks evicting them are provided with trillions in tax dollars. Across the United States, unions are being attacked and dismantled, and hard-fought gains in living standards and political rights rolled back. The recent “right-to-work” (for less) offensive, direct attacks on public sector unions in Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and elsewhere, and the revelation of the activities of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)—a national anti-labor organization in which corporate lawyers hand legislation to the “representatives of the people” to propose in legislative bodies across the country—are only the most recent examples of this battle.
This ruling-class offensive has been justified by deflecting blame for the economic crisis from Wall Street financiers on to working people. In the wake of the 2008 economic catastrophe, a myth was fabricated by the bankers and elite corporate managers. The crisis, they argued, had nothing to do with the immense risk that had accumulated within the financial system, responsibility for which lay with the laissez-faire, deregulatory attitude of the post-Reagan era and the ensuing bonanza on Wall Street. Rather, according to this myth narrative, the causes of the crisis were the remnants of working-class organizations and excessive state spending, which provoked a “debt crisis.” And since, as usual, any reduction in military spending is off the table (with the exception of a few symbolic gestures and accompanying histrionics from the “defense” establishment) these cuts must come from our already pathetic social safety net—which is the laughing stock of the industrial world.
Of course, according to this ruling-class mythology, the crisis has even less to do with stagnating real wage rates over the past thirty years, despite the fact that the average American has worked more hours with dramatically greater rates of productivity. That is, even as Americans produce more—through both working longer hours and greater productivity—their wages stagnate and decline. This means that every penny of this additional wealth has gone into the pockets of the corporate and financial elite, even as they cry poverty and insist that there “just isn’t enough money” to pay for public schools, medicine for the old and sick, and houses for the homeless. Unable to work any more hours, and with real wages stagnant, workers were forced to take on debt to maintain standards of living, which also kept up aggregate demand in the economy.
With workers now unable to carry any more debt and the economy stagnating, the ruling class proposes to turn the screws still further on working people. With its mythology parroted by politicians and the media across the country, the ruling class now imposes its “solution”: cruel austerity measures, which will further damage the economy and needlessly punish workers and their families. The term austerity itself is misleading: this austerity for workers and the poor has meant super-profits and mega-bonuses for the rich. Springsteen presents these contradictions when he sings, “banker man grows fat, working man grows thin / it’s all happened before, it’ll happen again.” There is certainly a “plague” at work here, but not the one Pitchfork envisions. It is the plague of the dictatorship over society by an elite few, who systematically exploit the rest of society.
Wrecking Ball
From beginning to end, Wrecking Ball furiously tears these myths to shreds, while incorporating a surprising array of influences, each linked with the American experience, and weaving them into a brilliant and contemporary pastiche. Attempting, as always, to create an American music (perhaps this time more successfully than ever), Springsteen incorporates gospel, the blues, early rock, modern rock, Irish folk, African rhythms and choruses, country and western, contemporary pop, New Orleans jazz and funk, American folk music, and a seemingly endless array of other textures and flavors in order to create a seamless whole. Though Pitchfork insists that this is really all just an attempt to “cover up some of the album’s lackluster songwriting,” the writing is worthy of comparison with the compositions of America’s finest working-class troubadours (with whom the writers at Pitchfork are no doubt unfamiliar).
The first half of the record, derided by Pitchfork as a “misguided” if “noble gesture,” is a fiery denunciation of the wealthy and powerful from the point of view of those who mow the lawns, pull the leaves out of the drains, repair the roofs, harvest the crops, fix the cars, and who were left behind to die as the levees broke in New Orleans. Springsteen captures these voices and presents these experiences in the song “Jack of All Trades.” By narrating American life from the point of view of the oppressed, exploited, and neglected, Springsteen gives the working class the voice that it is denied in dominant culture. As he sings on “Shackled and Drawn”:
gambling man rolls the dice, working man pays the bills
it’s still fat and easy up on Banker’s Hill
up on Banker’s Hill the party’s goin’ strong
down here below we’re shackled and drawn.
It would be hard to find a more succinct way to summarize the principles that have animated economic developments in the wake of the financial crisis than these few lines.
The opening song, “We Take Care of Our Own,” points out the bitter class and racial divisions in the United States with biting irony. Do we take care of our own? And who are “we”? The patriotic elite are always urging us to unite around the flag in support of another foreign intervention, yet they have abandoned working people to a grim fate. While the revolving door between big finance and politics has ensured that the 1% has taken care of its own, the disgusting neglect for the poor of New Orleans—who were literally left to die—stands out in history as a shocking disgrace. But it is also clear from the song that Springsteen is not merely addressing an isolated, tragic phenomenon in New Orleans. Rather, those in need all across the country have simply been abandoned by the ruling class, left without homes, medicine, education, and food:
from Chicago to New Orleans
from the muscle to the bone
from the shotgun shack to the Superdome
there ain’t no help, the calvary stayed home
ain’t no one hearing the bugle blowin’
we take care of our own
wherever this flag is flown.
The pro-immigrant rights message of “American Land” further deepens this question: If “we” refers to Americans, then what about the large number of Americans who were not born here? “The hands that build the country / we’re always trying to keep out,” he sings.
On “Death to My Hometown,” an incredible composition embracing Irish folk music, American gospel, African rhythms and choruses, and contemporary rock and pop, Springsteen declares war on the “greedy thieves” who “brought death to our hometown.” Though there was no overt war—no bombs fell, no armies invaded, and no shots were fired—“just as sure as the hand of God / they brought death to our hometown” and then left us out to rot:
They destroyed our families, factories,
and they took our homes
They left our bodies on the plains
The vultures picked our bones.
The song then reaches its rousing climax to the sound of a shotgun blast. Similarly, the somber, doubtful consolation the narrator of “Jack of All Trades” provides his beloved masks homicidal fury at the injustice of his situation, which explodes in the song’s final verses: “If I had me a gun,” he groans, “I’d find the bastards and shoot ‘em on sight.”
On songs like “Death to My Hometown,” the object is militant organization to “send the robber barons straight to hell.” But Wrecking Ball is not merely a rabid attack against bankers. Even the narrator of “Jack of All Trades,” despite his homicidal impulses, affirms that “there’s a new world comin’ / I can see the light.” Where Springsteen once shied away from the darkness on the edge of town, here he locates there the possibility for something better, which is largely the focus of much of the album’s latter half. Not surprisingly, Pitchfork views the second half as “something of a rescue mission,” but wildly misinterprets Springsteen’s central point. “Why spew anger when exultance is in your grasp?” asks Pitchfork—in other words, ignore the darkness altogether and focus myopically on the light.
The religious imagery on the second half of the record could lead one to conclude that the liberation and peace Springsteen describes can only be achieved in heaven. But it should be read, rather, as a reaffirmation of the utopian project—the realization of a better world on the other side of the wrecking ball of capitalist crisis. On “Land of Hope and Dreams,” we discover the sheer beauty of total liberation in a world in which “dreams will not be thwarted” and “faith will be rewarded.” After “forty days and nights of rain have washed this land,” “a new day’s comin’,” Springsteen sings on “Rocky Ground,” but in the future paradise “Jesus said money-changers in this temple will not stand.” Throughout the album, Springsteen deliberately plays on this ambiguity between a heaven on earth and the realization of a divine afterlife.
“We Are Alive” presents a view of eternity definitely out of sync with the Christian notion of the afterlife. Referred to by Pitchfork as a “dry history lesson,” the song reminds us that those who dedicate their lives to change live on in their victories, reaching out from the grave to stand with us today and continue the fight:
we are alive
and though our bodies lie alone here in the dark
our souls and spirits rise
to carry the flame and light the spark
to fight shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart.
We hear the voice of a man who was killed in the Great Railroad Strike in 1877, which lasted for forty-five days and spread to Maryland, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Missouri before being brutally suppressed by the U.S. military. The voices of many other people are heard: one was killed in 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama during the civil rights movement, and another describes trying to cross the U.S. border from Mexico. “Tonight all the dead are here,” Springsteen sings on “Wrecking Ball.”
Far from being “divisive,” Springsteen unites these seemingly disparate struggles, illustrating the universality of the emancipatory movement to which he aspires. This inclusiveness is mirrored in the incredible range of influences he exhibits on the album, which could be seen as the musical expression of the unifying discourse of “the 99%.” It is here that the greatness of Wrecking Ball lies, and it is what makes Pitchfork’stake on the second half of the record particularly troubling. The reviewer sees a music that “welcomes all Americans regardless of class, race, creed,” and expresses the wish that the rest of album could be equally “ambiguous.” But what he misses is that while Springsteen (like Occupy) welcomes everyone to what he sees as a universal struggle for justice, it is not Springsteen’s music that divides America into classes—capitalism does. Class difference is not merely articulated, but rather is ontologically prior to discourse. Rather than running away from this reality, Springsteen seeks to use his music as a way of overcoming it—not by constructing some ideal paradise to which we can escape, but by alerting us to the real injustices in the present preventing the realization of such noble ideals.
The Invisible Cage
George Orwell once remarked, “all art is propaganda.” Indeed, culture is the site of a giant battlefield, and music is a weapon deployed by both sides. Antonio Gramsci applied the notion of a “war of position” to the political struggle as well as to the terrain of culture. Rather than seeing culture as a self-identical and coherent whole, Gramsci saw it as a contradictory set of appropriations and deployments. From Gramsci’s point of view, hegemonic uses of culture—that is, cultural deployments articulated within the dominant order—unfold in accordance with a “logic of domination,” while counter-hegemonic practices move according to a “logic of resistance.” Thus in order to decode the meaning of a cultural activity, Gramsci argued, one must identify the political processes that work either to maintain or transform cultural patterns.
Today, the large-scale production of music is dominated by concentrated capital, much like the rest of the media in the United States. In their landmark work Manufacturing Consent, Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky documented the effects of private control over the media, and “free market” pressures, on news content. Their results were startlingly consistent: views outside of the elite consensus are marginalized and essentially silenced. But these tendencies—exacerbated alongside continuous deregulation and concentration—are also present in other areas of cultural production.
Here lies the moment of truth of the ideology of individual self-expression, to which everyone supposedly has an equal right: it is not what is said that matters so much as what is heard. As the ruling class accumulates wealth and power, its control over culture grows, increasingly reflecting bourgeois views of the world and its problems. Working-class art is marginalized and reduced in proportion with its spending power and political voice. What at first appeared as the freedom of all to express themselves equally becomes the means through which capital dominates our conceptions of the world, amplifying those voices it finds palatable and silencing those it does not. Che Guevara, in his “Man and Socialism” speech, perhaps best described the result: “Meaningless anguish or vulgar amusement…become convenient safety valves for human anxiety. The idea of using art as a weapon of protest is combated. Those who play by the rules of the game are showered with honors—such honors as a monkey might get for performing pirouettes. The condition is that one does not try to escape from the invisible cage.”
Music critics are key components of this cage. Employed by the same giant corporations which not just produce the albums but own the radio stations and concert venues, their job is not to conduct a serious analysis of the social-historical meaning of a given artistic development, but rather to sell advertisements in their magazines. Since serious, critical social analysis is prohibited, these critics are forced to consider music solely in the abstract, without taking into consideration its real historical foundation. As such, they become champions of Rococo (the obsession with “meaningless anguish or vulgar amusement”), a key characteristic of the “modern man” so brilliantly lampooned by Arcade Fire. The critical skepticism of Pitchfork and those of like mind is thus merely a mask for the unrestrained domination of culture by capital. Rather than urging that cultural elements and apparatuses be appropriated as conduits for the voices of working people, and art used as a way of protesting injustice, the working class, they suggest, would do best to keep its filthy hands out.
The point of Springsteen’s work has always been the exact opposite: to bring the plight of the forgotten into public consciousness. He sketches the exact contours of the “invisible cage,” rendering it visible. Exploring Springsteen’s most brilliant canvases can be a wrenching experience, awakening the listener to the emptiness and despair swept under the carpet of the American dream. Even the positivity of his most exuberant songs (“Thunder Road”) is driven by the extreme fragility of the possibility of escape from a dark and disappointing world to a vaguely conceived promised land. As he put it in a recent interview, “my work has always been about measuring the distance between the American reality and the American dream.” In Springsteen’s art, this distance manifests itself as a tension between content and form, meaning and aesthetic. Aesthetically, the foundation of much of Springsteen’s music is the early rock-and-roll of artists like Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison. But clearly, Springsteen’s music is not just a kitschy throwback to the golden age of rock. Rather, its originality and power reside in his application of this pure form, the saccharine sound of the American dream, to the harsh realities of working-class life. This is the counter-hegemonic gesture par excellence: Springsteen appropriates and turns to the ends of the working-class forces alien to it, redeploying these elements in accordance with a logic of resistance.
This tension between content and form is a sonic representation of class struggle, the very sound of the hollowness of ruling-class idols. Far from the heroic and liberating depiction of the automobile that was as ubiquitous in the early rock songs as it is prominent in American dream ideology, to Springsteen, cars are objects of tragedy. They illustrate the paradox of capitalist “liberation”: one can drive as fast or as far as one wants, but it is impossible that the destination will be a “new life” or a “new world.” The promise of the automobile, such a central part of American dream ideology, is empty. Just as abstract ideals of democracy and equality are circumscribed in their concrete application in a class society, Springsteen lays the technicolor world of the town green beside the unthinkable, barely concealed darkness on its outskirts.
The Occupy movement demands that we stare into that darkness and imagine another world that might be constructed there. “Wrecking Ball,” the song from which the record takes its name, is a moving testament to the indestructibility of the human spirit, that infinite element that surpasses any given situation. This is the place from which all resistance—and reconstruction—must come. A wrecking ball destroys, but it also creates, and the wreckage it leaves behind must contain the tattered germ from which the future will blossom. Even the U.S. military, a white lynch mob, and the guns of the U.S. Border Patrol cannot prevent those who have gone before from joining us today. With them at our side, we must pick up the pieces and join the fight for a new world. And in so doing, we will stand with them in eternity. | {
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Smog Check
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Smog Check: Repair
Has your vehicle recently failed a smog check? Are you due for a smog check and not sure your vehicle will pass? Get all the smog repairs you need; simply bring it to our service station. Our professionals know the importance of a street legal vehicle and work hard on your repairs. | {
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Seton Hall's second-half surge upsets No. 22 Texas Tech
NEW YORK (AP) — Kevin Willard's words could be construed as both his belief and a warning to those teams who will come across Seton Hall's path.
The Pirates are not a one-man team.
"(Angel Delgado) understands that he has so many weapons around him," Willard said after Seton Hall's 89-79 victory over No. 22 Texas Tech on Thursday night. "Eventually teams are going to have to stop double-teaming him. ... I just think the guys around him are working with him to make it easier (for him)."
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Look no further than what transpired on the Madison Square Garden court. Myles Powell scored seven of his 19 points in a span of 45 seconds late in the second half to salt away Seton Hall's sixth win in seven games.
Powell was one of four Pirates (6-1) to finish in double figures. Desi Rodriguez finished with 24 points while Khadeen Carrington had 16 and Delgado, who led the nation in rebounding last season, added 12.
"We never stay down," Carrington said. "We did a great job."
Whereas Seton Hall left on a high, Texas Tech viewed their first loss as a mixed bag.
The Red Raiders entered the game fourth in the nation allowing 55 points per game.
"Without watching the film Seton Hall was more aggressive than Texas Tech," he said.
Trailing by three at halftime, Seton Hall outscored Texas Tech 31-22 in the first 12:42 of the second half to take a 70-64 lead.
For a team possessing an interior presence in Delgado, Seton Hall was able to take a lead not by dumping the ball into the post but with its perimeter attack. The Pirates made four 3-pointers and knocked down seven jump shots in all during that stretch.
"We talk a lot about getting inside-out 3s. I have the best shooter in the country on my team. Anytime he shoots it looks like it's going in," Willard said. "Angel gets us a lot of easy looks. That's one of the reasons we have open 3s. You have to put four guys in the lane against him."
Following a missed free throw by Norense Odiase, Powell drilled a 3 to extend Seton Hall's lead to nine, then drew a player control foul on Stevenson.
"I stayed level-headed," Powell said.
One minute and thirty-two seconds later, Carrington's running leaner in the lane gave put the Pirates ahead 75-65. Before Carrington's basket, Seton Hall grabbed four offensive rebounds sandwiched around a missed free throw.
Texas Tech twice cut the deficit to six, first on Evans' two free throws with 3:05 left, then on his layup 53 seconds later. That was as close as the Red Raiders would get, as Powell made a 3 and converted two layups in a 45-second span to put Seton Hall ahead 86-73.
"They shoot the ball like that with their talent and their coach, they're going to play in the second weekend of the (NCAA) Tournament," Beard said of Seton Hall. "They played great."
The Pirates outrebounded Texas Tech 37-33. Seton Hall shot 50.8 percent from the field (30 for 59), including 55 percent from 3 (11 for 22).
"We're still a work in progress," Willard said.
BIG PICTURE:
SETON HALL: During his news conference immediately following the 75-74 loss to Rhode Island in the NIT Season Tip-off on Nov. 23 at Barclays Center, Willard was at a loss to remember the last time his team allowed a team to score 54 points and shoot 60.7 percent in an opening half. Seven days later, Seton Hall yielded 42 points and 56.3 percent shooting to Texas Tech in the first half.
TEXAS TECH: The Red Raiders entered the game ranked in the top five nationally in scoring defense (4th overall with an average of 55.3 points) and field goal percentage defense (2nd overall at 33.5 percent). They may drop because Seton Hall finished with 89 points on 50.8 percent shooting from the field.
NOTABLE:
SETON HALL: The Pirates improved to 1-1 all-time against Texas Tech. Seton Hall dropped an 87-69 decision to the Red Raiders on March 16, 2010, in a first-round NIT game held at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
TEXAS TECH: The most points the Red Raiders had allowed in a half this season was 31 to Boston College on Nov. 18. That was until Thursday night when the Pirates scored 39.
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The best part of working at ICF is that my team is like a second family-- we take care of each other both in the office and out, too.
Cons
I've felt during my tenure that I have not been rewarded for hard work. In particular, management seems to only recognize successes in new business initiavies, rather than continued success in longer-term work.
Advice to Management
ICF Is an incredibly top heavy organization. I understand the need to pursue new business intiatives and have strategic hires to get new business. That said, they need to recognize when junior staff are spread too thin and overworked. Additional hires at the junior level may be more strategic than they think.
If you have a good supervisor, you will have flexibility, good feedback, and support. Most people work from home, so that is a definite perk.
Cons
Senior management does support or respect their staff. The only they care about is money. They do not want to pay their employees what they are worth because it cuts into their very large, multimillion dollar bonuses. They do not value good employees. Their promotion matrix does not allow for significant advancement, in fact it makes it almost impossible to get promoted. They expect you to work 24/7, but senior management is not willing to do the same. Poor infrastructure. They do not have the systems nor people in place to handle the volume of business or number of employees they have, yet they continue to expand.
Advice to Management
Significantly improve your infrastructure, especially if you are going to continue to expand at your current rate. Improve the quality of senior management trough better training. Change your promotion matrix so that it is possible for good employees to be promoted. | {
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On the face of it, $10/month seems like a great deal for unlimited movie theater tickets. That is, until you realize that there is a hidden cost to seeing every new Marvel or DC movie to hit the cinema – incessant advertisements in your email promoting every new action figure, poster, video game, kids toy, or special Spiderman themed food item at Walmart. In reality, you are subsidizing your movie habits with personal information that advertisers are buying at a premium, just to get their marketing in front of your eyes. | {
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THE LIBERTY TIMES EDITORIAL: Ma not up to economic challenges
Tue, May 07, 2013 - Page 8
Taiwan’s economy is not just in a slump, it is in great trouble. Last week, the IMF adjusted the nation’s economic growth figures for this year downward by almost 1 percentage point, leaving it only just above 3 percent. Then the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) announced the economic growth figures for the first quarter of this year, putting it at 1.54 percent, 1.72 percentage points below its original forecast of 3.26 percent. That economic growth has been adjusted downward by more than 50 percent is evidence that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration has misjudged the situation and that the economic problems are more than just a matter of short-term economic trends — there are some major long-term issues.
The list of the Ma administration’s miscalculations is long. Half a year ago, Ma repeatedly said that in September last year, positive signs for Taiwan’s economy had begun appearing, and that he could now “see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Following that, DGBAS Minister Shih Su-mei (石素梅) said that things were looking up for Taiwan. Council for Economic Planning and Development Minister Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) said with some emphasis that economic growth of 3.8 percent for the year would not be a problem, and that it might even exceed 4 percent, while unemployment would fall below 4 percent.
Now the economic forecasts by some of the government’s highest officials have blown a hole in all these predictions, along with the government’s credibility.
Using inflated government figures that cannot stand up to scrutiny to deceive the public is par for the course for the Ma administration, and it is resorting to doing so with increasing frequency.
There are data to show that economic growth has continued to drop in every quarter for the past two years, and in particular during the year from the fourth quarter of 2011 to the third quarter of last year, when economic growth hovered between just over 0 percent and 1 percent, even falling below zero in the second quarter. When things started looking slightly better during the fourth quarter last year, the government thought that, given to the low base of comparison, the figures would look better for this year, and government officials began to exaggerate the situation and play up their economic forecasts.
The government has learned this trick from its past successful deceptions. Ma took office in 2008, and that year, economic growth halted at 0.73 percent. The following year was even worse, as the economy contracted by 1.81 percent, the nation’s worst performance on record. In 2010, Ma’s third year in office, the economy rebounded and grew by 10.76 percent after two years of deplorable figures. The government saw this as proof of its ability, and since then it has been bragging about how it “created” economic growth of more than 10 percent. It is now repeating the same trick, allowing itself to be made a fool of by the constantly changing economic climate.
Apart from the current economic slump, the overall economy is facing a fundamental and long-term problem that is even more worthy of our attention.
With the exception of the strong economic rebound during Ma’s third year in office, the government has only barely managed to maintain more than 4 percent growth for one year in the past five. Economic growth in the remaining three years was anemic, and during the first quarter of this year, it has been possible to see the causes of most problems: sluggish exports and weak domestic consumption.
From a short-term perspective, the sluggish exports are evidence that the international economic situation remains unstable. Economic growth in the US looks better in the short term than for the long term, and it is unlikely to remain above 3 percent. Unemployment in the eurozone stands at more than 12 percent and even Germany has begun to show signs of a recession. Apart from Taiwan’s international competitiveness being weakened by industrial innovation and marketing problems, there is also the excessive focus on China, as pointed out by the minister of economy. It has meant that Taiwanese companies have not been aggressive in the US and European markets and that they have ignored emerging markets, the markets which have seen the largest growth in demand in recent years. As China’s economic growth has passed its peak, its and Taiwan’s industries are moving from complementing each other toward competition. If Taiwan continues to deceive itself with the illusion that China is the world’s largest market and sticks to the mindset of the old “move west” policy, it is asking for trouble.
Since the signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement with China, the government has bet everything on China and that is the main source of Taiwan’s current economic problems.
Taiwan does not lack capital or talent, but the government is incapable of promoting investment to revitalize the economy. Instead, capital and talent are fleeing the country.
Together with last year’s electricity and fuel price hikes and the capital gains tax on securities transactions, the result has been that the economy has been deserted and private consumption and investment have weakened, leading to falling economic output and anemic economic growth.
Even worse, the government lacks the ability and the determination required to meet this challenge and revitalize the economy. The public, which has seen through the government’s tricks, is losing faith in the economic outlook.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is implementing his “Abenomics” approach in a bid to use currency, fiscal policy and growth promotion strategies to revitalize the Japanese economy, which has been in a slump for several years. Despite the risks, his efforts and determination to change the current situation have met with praise. Taiwan’s economy, on the other hand, is in the hands of Ma, and with the exception of big talk, empty slogans, broken promises, ineptitude and Sinicization, he is incapable of doing anything to meet the long and short-term challenges facing the economy. The public cannot simply sit by and wait in anticipation: It must take action. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
7/8th Grade youth group are inclusive of seventh and eighth grade students. They also meet during the education hour on Sundays. In addition these youth also meet at other times for activities and events. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Chauncey Billups: Pistons’ Move Downtown ‘Good For The City And Organization’
CLEVELAND - JUNE 02: Chauncey Billups #1 of the Detroit Pistons looks on against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game Six of the Eastern Conference Finals during the 2007 NBA Playoffs on June 2, 2007 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
Detroit Pistons legend Chauncey Billups had some pretty remarkable moments at the Palace of Auburn Hills during his eight seasons with the team, culminating in winning Finals MVP when the Pistons won the 2004 NBA Championship.
The 40-year-old retired point guard sounded off on Twitter on Monday night, a day before team owner Tom Gores is expected to announce that the Pistons will be moving back to downtown Detroit after playing in Oakland County for almost 40 years.
Billups likes the idea of the move, calling it “good for the city and organization.”
So many greats moments in Auburn Hills but I like the move. It will be good for the city and organization. https://t.co/oPRC4cBoFW
Billups had his No. 1 jersey retired to the Palace rafters back in February. He now works as an NBA analyst for ESPN.
Billups is second in Pistons history in 3-pointers made (890) — behind Joe Dumars — and first in free throw percentage (.892).
The Pistons will likely move in to the still-under-construction Little Caesars Arena with the Detroit Red Wings next fall. Rumors have swirled for months that Gores has been trying to work out a deal with the Ilitch family and Olympia Development to bring the Pistons back to Detroit, who last called the city home in 1978 at Cobo Arena.
Gores and Chris Ilitch will make the announcement on Tuesday at Cass Tech High School at 3 p.m. | {
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Dutiful but Dumb
Synopsis of Dutiful but Dumb starring the Three Stooges
Working for Whack magazine, Moe Click, Larry Clack and Curly Cluck are three inept photographers. After messing up an important assignment, their boss sends them to the small country of Vulgaria, to get a photograph of their new “invisible ray”. If they’re caught, what’s the loss? Soon, the Three Stooges are in Vulgaria, and promptly facing a firing squad – after Curly’s clever delay, the Stooges escape long enough to find the ray, and nearly escape, until their stomachs overrule their limited common sense, and Curly does a classic routine with trying to eat a bowl of oyster soup, ending with a shooting match and the Stooges being recaptured and carried away on the point of three bayonets.
Review of Dutiful but Dumb
Dutiful but Dumb is one of the Three Stooges classic short films; it begins with Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard as “ace” photographers (Click, Clack and Cluck) for Whack magazine, a fictional photojournalism magazine, run by Three Stooges veteran Vernon Dent. The Stooges are tasked with taking a photograph of a movie star on his honeymoon with his (newest) bride. A very funny segment as they try using their telescoping camera in an inspired bit of prop comedy. However, it’s Curly who manages to sneak into the honeymoon suite, hiding with his head on a platter, surprising the newlyweds when then pull the cover off their food long enough for him to take their photo and make his escape.
Unfortunately for them, Moe loses his temper with Curly in the darkroom (in an extended scene where Curly uses a clown’s logic to tell the time – a hilarious routine) and ruins the photograph. In addition, there’s another bit of physical comedy when the Three Stooges burst into the boss’ office and knocks over a series of stands, similar to giant dominoes, hitting the boss over the head. Vernon Dent is about to fire them, when the suggestion is made that every photographer that they’ve sent to Vulgaria to photograph the military’s new “death ray” has failed to come back. But what do they have to lose by sending the Three Stooges there?
Soon enough, the Stooges are on the scene in Vulgaria, where taking a photograph is a crime punishable by death. None of the natives want their photos taken, naturally enough, and when the Three Stooges see a Vulgarian military unit, led by Three Stooges regular Bud Jamison, preparing to execute another tourist for taking a photograph, the Stooges make the mistake of asking if they can take a photograph! A chase quickly ensues (a funny moment is a tourist snapping a picture of this), with the Three Stooges ending up running straight into the prison. While they’re about to be executed, they get their last request – a final smoke – and Curly pulls out a cigar approximately three feet long! Eventually falling asleep, the boys are nearly executed before they make a temporary escape into an office, where the “death ray” is. After Curly mistaking it for a camera and shooting off Moe and Larry’s pants, the commanding officer comes back in, and the boys hide. With Curly hiding inside an old-time radio, eventually having to be a one-man band when they turn the radio on, and eventually giving himself away.
After a brief struggle, the Three Stooges manage to overcome, and steal their uniforms. They begin marching out, and would have gotten away, except for the lure of a free meal. The Stooges foolishly sit down to eat, leading to one of the Three Stooges most iconic scenes, with Curly trying to eat a bowl of oyster soup. With the oyster fighting every inch of the way, eating Curly’s oyster crackers, spitting at Curly, biting his hand, etc. It’s a classic scene that has to be seen to be appreciated. The scene ends with Curly losing his temper, and firing a gun at the soup, leading to total chaos and the Stooges being recaptured. The short film ends with the Three Stooges being carried away on the tips of the guards’ bayonets.
Funny movie quotes from the Three Stooges short film, Dutiful but Dumb
Sign: Whack, The Illustrated Magazine – if it’s a good picture, it’s out of Whack
Bride: Darling!
Movie Star: Sweetheart!
Bride: Have you forgotten all your other wives?
Movie Star: Completely! Except on alimony day … but … This is Wednesday! [they kiss]
Moe Click (Moe Howard): Hey, what’s the idea of the three watches?Curly Cluck (Curly Howard): That’s how I tell the time.Moe Click (Moe Howard): How do you tell the time?Curly Cluck (Curly Howard): This one runs ten minutes slow every two hours, this one runs twenty minutes fast every four hours, the one in the middle is broke and stopped and 2 o’clock.Moe Click (Moe Howard): Well, how do you tell the time?Curly Cluck (Curly Howard): I take the ten minutes from this one, subtract it from the twenty minutes on that one! Then I divide it by 2 in the middle.Moe Click (Moe Howard): Well, what time is it now?Curly Cluck (Curly Howard): [takes out his pocket watch] Oh, ten minutes to four.
Sign: The Vulgarian Frontier – Subject to change without notice
Moe Click (Moe Howard): [as the Three Stooges are about to be executed by firing squad] Wait a minute! This ain’t according to rule 27 of international law!Larry Clack (Larry Fine): We’re supposed to have a last request!Curly Cluck (Curly Howard): Yeah, this is request night!Vulgarian Soldier (Bud Jamison):: What do you request?Moe Click (Moe Howard): How about a last smoke?Vulgarian Soldier (Bud Jamison):: Okay, but when the smoke is finished, so are you!
[Curly pulls out a 3 foot long cigar and begins smoking] | {
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So my wife and I went downtown Davenport just to hit a couple bars and walk around a bit in hopes that we may actually run into someone from the band. We were out of the car literally 1 minute walking down 2nd Street deciding where to go, when my wife looks across the street it says "Is that Billy"?? I looked over and actually recognized Jeff immediately. So we went across the street where they were probably a half block ahead of us. We were trailing them for an encounter when they walked into the Woodfire Grill.
So we went in and there stood Billy and Jeff waiting for the hostess. My wife opened with "Can we buy you dinner"?? Billy said that wasn't necessary. I asked if we could get a couple of pictures with them and told them that I didn't want to be rude and interupt their meal. So I thought it would be best if we could do it before they were seated and ordered their food. Billy said that would be fine and said we could talk a bit. Then the hostess came up and asked Billy how many were in his party. He said 4. I thought for a minute that he and Jeff must be expecting a couple of other people to dine with them. But Billy actually meant myself and my wife as the 3rd and 4th people. Billy wanted to sit outside, so the hostess started to lead us to our table and Billy said again "C'mon, we can talk for a bit".
So we're seated and the first thing Billy says is that he hates when people think they only have 60 seconds to say whatever they want and then have to move along. So there I sat at a table with just Billy, Jeff, and my wife. I was in complete disbelief. I was getting one on one time with Billy and Jeff. Several times I told him that I didn't want to intrude and disrupt their meal. We talked for a total of around 15 minutes before I let them be. Billy did most of the talking and I would simply add my 2 cents or ask him to explain further.
A few things that are newsworthy are that they WILL be playing GLOW as the 2nd song of the set (I couldn't believe he actually gave the setlist placement of the song). I asked about the release and he said it looks like Europe will get a physical release and the US will get a digital version (iTunes). He said he is currently fighting the record company on this, but it looks like that is what will happen. So it'll most likely be just like the American Gothic release. I asked if it was just the one song (GLOW), or if there would be other tracks and told me they had just had a conversation about this and he was not at liberty to disuss it. He said "they" told him not to talk about it.
For the most part, Billy talked about the current state of music and touring. He was telling me how over the course of history even huge acts like Frank Sinatra and Elvis eventually resorted to simply doing shows in Las Vegas. He said soon enough we will be seeing mainstream rock acts such as Motley Crue doing 1 month stands in Vegas. He was going on about how the tours were great when they were in Europe and then it was like hitting brick wall when they came back to the states. I asked how he meant... as far as ticket sales, the setlist they were playing??.... Him and Jeff at the same time said "both". He said they are not the only band out there having trouble selling out venues.
I started asking him about this tour and he was VERY excited to talk about it. He said it will be unlike ANYTHING they have ever done before (even the previous eras). He said it will TOTALLY rock and it will kick everyone's ass. He mentioned that they are working on 9 new songs that the band has never performed before in this incarnation of the band (I'm not sure if that includes GLOW). I figured those would be spread out across the 9 or 10 shows. You know, 2 or 3 songs this night, another 3 or 4 the next, and then kinda mix and match those songs across the tour for a total of 9 new songs. Billy informed me that they WILL be playing ALL 9 SONGS EACH NIGHT!! Now this next thing he told me, REALLY disappointed me. He said they will no longer be changing up the setlist night to night. It will be the same setlist every single night of the tour in the same order (much like the February / March 2008 Europe shows). At this point, I actually looked Billy dead in the eyes and told him "That's Bullshit"!! I must say, it was definitely interesting to sit directly across from Billy Corgan and say that what he was doing is Bullshit. I told him that for me, A LOT of the fun is wondering what songs they will play on any given night of the tour and it's WAY more fun when they throw something in there that they haven't been playing regularly on the tour. I mean CHRIST!! To not even change the order of the songs!?!? I told him I prefer (like most die hard fans) when they take 30 songs on tour with them and play 22 - 24 of those a night. Then there are always a few songs that you aren't sure if you'll hear or not, but always hope so... or even hope for something they haven't been playing at all on the tour. He said the days of changing the setlist night to night and kinda learning songs as the tour progresses are over.
Just before this, I asked him if they would give an extra 45 minutes in Hammond. And he just kinda looked at me like what do you mean?? I said, well tickets for Hammond are TWICE as much as any other date on the tour. And seeing as the show is so close to your hometown of Chicago... is there going to be a little "give the fans more for their money". Billy told me the casino's pay the band more money than any other venue, and they also charge a lot more per ticket. The band had no hand in those ticket prices. That's when he informed me it would be the same show across the tour. He tried to explain to me that they were getting a better crowd response that way, but I still told him that totally sucks!!
I told him part of the fun as a die hard is waking up the morning after they play a show (wherever they are in the world) and being able to find their setlist to see what they played the night before. It's just no fun for us REAL fans. And he actually agreed that it is short changing us die hards. Which by the way, he did say that if you're a die hard fan, you're REALLY going to enjoy this tour. About this time the waiter came up to ask what everyone wanted to drink and overheard us talking about casino's. The Rhythm City riverboat casino is just a couple blocks from us and the waiter says do you like to gamble?? (totally oblivious to the fact that it is Billy Corgan sitting there) Billy quips back, "I like to gamble with my life". Everyone at the table (Billy included) bursted out laughing at his comment.
Billy got on the James / D'arcy lawsuit a little bit with me. NOW THIS REALLY SUCKS!! He told me that due to the lawsuit, the Gish tour scheduled for early 2009 has been post-poned indefinitely!! Since the boxset may or may not come out (they currently don't know) there will be no tour. He said the whole point of the tour was to coincide with the release of the boxset. So basically tour for the boxset. Well, if there's no box set... there's no tour. He said the release may still come out, but it has DEFINITELY been pushed back due to this lawsuit.
I asked him about what eras those 9 songs come from for this tour (and how far back) and he said all the way back. And then I had a MonteLDS moment. I asked him if they go all the way back to 1988 and Billy looks and me and says.... "Now you're scaring me"!. I started laughing at that point (thinking about Monte). I didn't even mention a song title, tease, whatever. I simply mentioned 1988 to get that response.
I know my story might be a little long and not all in the correct order of conversation, but that's what I remember most at the moment. I keep thinking of extra little tid bits here and there. Myself and my wife keep jogging each other memories about certain things he said. So before we left, Jeff offered to take a picture of myself and my wife with Billy. Then my wife took a picture of me with Billy and Jeff. I felt like Jeff was totally left out of the conversation and told him "I absolutely fucking love what you're doing with the band. I think you're great"!! And Billy gave his re-assurance that Jeff was doing REALLY well. That's about all of my story for now. I'll upload the photos sometime soon.
Billy looks just beautiful. I like the first pic with him more because he's smiling
I'm really happy to hear that he is very excited about what he is doing. that is wonderful.
i agree with the disappointment in a non-changing setlist. of course they have their reasons. but with the computer if you see the show on u tube then you know exactly what your show will be when they come to your part of the U.S and that doesn't increase excitment to see your show. but i'm still going to watch as many shows as i can because thats the way my love is. maybe they could have 3 different shows and then you dont know which show you'll get. but they are new playing with each other so it must be really so hard to learn all that material and grow together. so maybe taking a certain amount of songs and really getting into a feeling for how the band plays together is important to them at this time. whatever as long as they are doing what makes them happy.
too bad about the lawsuit stuff but i'm 100 percent thrilled that they are happy and excited about where they are going next. that is way more important to me than covering the past.
Ming the Merciless shirt? That's fucking awesome. Wear that shit every night, Billy. We'd like it more than the dresses.
I don't know about those pants though. There should be some kind of rule against wearing purple pants unless your name is Bruce Banner.
As for the setlists not changing, that kinda sucks for us internet geeks who sit here on Netphoria waiting to see if any surprises showed up in the latest show. But if it makes for a better live show for the people actually there, so be it. Besides, it's not like the band ever really varied the setlists enough to get terribly excited about anyway.
the 9 songs are old tunes that this incarnation just hasn't played before? for some reason i was under the impression that they were 9 NEW songs. but they are 9 old songs and they will be played every night? now that is exciting.
Location: Well, if it isn't my old friend, Mr. McGreg, with a leg for an arm and an arm for a leg!
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Damn, thanks for that story, this is the most useful thing anyone's posted in about a year. A non-varying setlist is pretty weak for anyone who wants to see multiple shows, but I have a feeling the shows will involve a lot of instruments and some cool shit.
Those pictures though, I always forget how tall Billy is, and I've never seen his birthmark quite so red and visible, weird. | {
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Hare Krishna! The Film
July 7, 2017 - July 9, 2017
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Directed by John Griesser and co-directed by Jean Griesser and Lauren Ross (HG YADUBARA DASA and VISAKHA DEVI DASI)
Hare Krishna! follows the true story of an unexpected, prolific,and controversial revolutionary. Using never-before-seen archival verite, Prabhupada’s own recorded words,and interviews with his early followers, the film takes the audience behind-the-scenes of a cultural movement born in the artistic and intellectual scene of New York’s Bowery, the hippie mecca of Haight Ashbury, and the Beatle mania of London, to meet the Swami who started it all. | {
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The newspapers will share each other's articles on climate coverage in an effort to pressure diplomats to craft a stricter new global agreement to reduce emissions at the UN's global summit on climate change on December 11. the Guardian's coverage, already the most activist in its approach, will begin appearing in 25 major newspapers around the world as part of a new content sharing agreement, coordinated by the Global Editors Network.
Bad news keeps flowing from Antarctica
The massive shelves of ice that ring Antarctica have been shrinking over the past couple of decades, and that could have grave implications for sea level rise.
It’s not the ice shelves themselves that pose a problem: they’re mostly afloat, so when they melt or dump massive icebergs, it doesn’t affect water levels any more than melting ice cubes make your drink rise and overflow.
But the ice shelves serve as massive barriers that slow the flow of glaciers out to sea. As the shelves shrink, the barrier weakens, allowing glaciers to start moving faster. And since that ice is land-based, it adds to sea level rise.
Cutting warming to 1.5°C could endanger food supply
As world leaders try to agree how to prevent global warming from heating the planet by more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels, scientists have tackled an altogether thornier question: can we keep the rise below 1.5°C?
The lower target—demanded by more than 100 countries as a safer goal—is attainable, they say. But there will be little room for error, and getting there will mean not only cutting greenhouse gas emissions, but actually removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
That is not possible with the technology now available. And even if it could one day be done, it would probably have forbiddingly harmful consequences for world food supplies.
John Christy at the University of Alabama at Huntsville is one of the fewer than 3% of climate scientists who publishes research suggesting that humans aren’t the primary cause of the current global warming. He’s thus become one of Republicans’ favorite expert witnesses.
Last week, the Committee on Natural Resources held a hearing to discuss draft guidance by the the President’s Council on Environmental Quality to include carbon pollution and the effects of climate change in the consideration of environmental impacts of federal projects, as part of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review process. Needless to say, the Republicans on the committee don’t like the idea, as is clear from the hearing highlights and lowlights in the video below.
France's Hollande concerned about slow progress in climate talks
French President Francois Hollande said he was worried about a lack of progress towards a United Nations climate deal in Paris in December and called on the financial sector to "decarbonise" its investment portfolios.
Hollande said on Wednesday that only 37 of 196 U.N. member states had so far submitted plans to the United Nations outlining their actions to slow global warming beyond 2020. The plans are meant to be the building blocks for a deal in Paris.
"I note and I am concerned that at the moment I am speaking there are only 37 submissions," Hollande told the Paris Business and Climate conference, where global chief executives are discussing how industry can help fight climate change.
"The contributions should in theory be submitted this summer," he added.
Limiting global warming to 1.5C is still possible, say scientists
It's still technically possible to limit global warming to below 1.5C this century, according to new research published in Nature Climate Change.
Only a small window of opportunity remains open, the study says - and it is closing rapidly. Global carbon pricing or its equivalent should have been implemented already and must certainly be in place by 2020. The world would then need to become carbon neutral by mid-century.
The new study pitches into a live and vociferous debate over whether the world should be aiming to limit warming to 1.5C or 2C, and whether either target remains achievable. Carbon Brief puts the new study's findings in context.
Seeds of Time - preserving food resources in a hot future climate
So often, we talk about “proving” climate change is happening, or articulating changes we expect in the future from increased extreme weather. We should also talk about adaptation - how can we adapt to a future climate?
A recent film, being shown in theaters in New York City now and Los Angeles next Friday is a great success story about adaptation; decisions we can make now that may influence the fortunes of future generations. The movie, called Seeds of Time, is directed by Oscar-nominee Sandy McLeod. It is narrated by Dr. Cary Fowler who identifies the challenges agriculture will face with climate change and other potential disasters. Cary was former Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust. Their goal was to put together an international plan to preserve global genetic diversity.
The world's fossil fuel reserves cannot be burned unless some way is found to capture their carbon emissions, Royal Dutch Shell Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden said on Friday.
In an interview published in the Guardian newspaper, Van Beurden forecast that global energy use would produce "zero carbon" by the end of the century, and that his group would get a "very large segment" of its earnings from renewable power.
The interview came a day after Van Beurden slammed as a "red herring" calls to divest from energy companies as part of the fight against climate change, in particular the "Keep it in the Ground" campaign led by the Guardian.
The surprising links between faith and evolution and climate denial — charted
For a long time, we’ve been having a pretty confused discussion about the relationship between religious beliefs and the rejection of science — and especially its two most prominent U.S. incarnations, evolution denial and climate change denial.
At one extreme is the position that science denial is somehow deeply or fundamentally religion’s fault. But this neglects the wide diversity of views about science across faiths and denominations — and even across individuals of the same faith or denomination — not all of which are anti-climate science, or anti-evolution.
At the other extreme, meanwhile, is the view that religion has no conflict with science at all. But that can’t be right either: Though the conflict between the two may not be fundamental or necessary in all cases, it is pretty clear that the main motive for evolution denial is, indeed, a perceived conflict with faith (not to mention various aspects of human cognition that just make accepting evolution very hard for many people).
We need real consensus, not Bjorn Lomborg’s illusion of it
The Australian government’s intent to create a “Consensus Centre” to work on the big issues facing the nation signals a welcome revival in interest in using research to inform policy, if it can be taken at face value. But it needs to be done right, and if it is, universities can readily help.
The University of Western Australia’s recent decision to decline the A$4 million offered by the Abbott government, having originally agreed to host Bjorn Lomborg’s proposed “Australian Consensus Centre”, came after an outcry from faculty and students who were concerned that Lomborg’s views on climate change and other environmental issues were not based on the level of objective analysis expected of universities.
Lomborg is well known as a cornucopian, in the tradition of the US economist Julian Simon. Both have argued that environmental problems are not especially serious, and that the conventional economic growth model can continue indefinitely, even on a planet that is clearly finite.
Now, if only those 25 newspapers would also team up to make sure that their online comments sections were about the science of human-caused global warming as well. Clicking on almost any of the links to their articles and then going to their comments sections brings up a disgusting repetition of personal attacks, unscientific nonsense, the usual memes from the deniosphere's script, and so on. I'm not saying cut off one particular point of view when it comes to the science, but how about raising the bar a bit and turning them into real discussions? Kudos to Skeptical Science for leading the way on that.
I posted a comment addressing the prejudices of the Guardian and the SMH which has not appeared perhaps because I was critical of these two papers. That said it is heartening to read in the SMH (May 24 2015) pieces noting the 2011 floods in Queensland were not due to climate change but to human error and that the cost to households of solar panels has outwibghed their benefits
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[JH] Your prior post was deleted because it was nothng more than nonsensical sloganeering.
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Ryland, what would the economics of solar power be if you actually paid the full price for it? Even removing the subsidies on fossil fuel makes a big difference to the cost equation. How skeptical have you been of the claims made by the opinion piece compared to the skepticism you have expressed here about peer-reviewed science?
Ryland, I should also say that if you want to primarily discuss political comment around climate change, then have a look at thinkprogress. This SkepSci site is primarily about the science of climate change and debunking pseudo-skeptic nonsense associated with it.
Not my area of expertize, but you can find levelized cost for different energy production in US here. None of this includes accounting for externalities (ie damage to environment from use of fossil fuel). This is much more difficult calculation. I understand that internally, Shell uses a $40 per ton costing which I guess is what they think a carbon tax might be.
"Of course, and even larger perspective is needed. In March, 2010, Queensland experienced record breaking floods, with many towns experiencing record flood depths, and the greatest area flooded ever reported for Queensland. It was reported that the flood effected area in March was larger than Victoria (area: 240,000 square kilometers, or 92,000 square miles). In the week after Christmas, that record was broken, with a reported flooded extent greater in area than New South Wales (810,000 square kilometers or 313,000 square miles). That is an area about the size of the five largest contiguous US states either under water or cut off, or with crops rotting in the ground two weeks before harvest.
In the last week of December, the floods were mostly confined to the interior behind Rockhampton and Bundaberg (also flooded) and to the Darling Downs and interior. There was minor flooding in Brisbane, and in the north of the state (where at least one woman lost her life). Since then the floods have moved south, flooding Gympie, Maryborough, and of course, Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley (and soon to be Ipswich and Brisbane). Dalby deserves a special mention, having experience five flood peaks in two weeks."
The post was in connection to the Toowoomba floods, described at the time as an "inland tsunami":
The Toowoomba floods were astonishing in that Toowoomba is literally at the crest of the Great Dividing Range west of Brisbane. Toowoomba's catchment area lies entirely inside the city limits.
That was less surprising in that Murphy's Creek lies at the bottom of the range, hard up against the edge of the Lockyer Valley. Any flash flood coming down the range would have had no time to disperse before hitting Murhpy's Creek.
Further downstream from Murhpy's Creek (and downstream of the confluence of Murhpy's and Lockyer Creek, on which Helidon sits), at Helidon, the water level rose 8 meters in thirty minutes, with 4 meters of that rise being in ten minutes. Helidon is downstream of three other streams in addition to Murhpy's Creek. The rapidity of the water rise at Helidon is astonishing given the relative distance from the valley walls (and hence time and distance for the flood peak to disperse).
(Source, see here for video of after flood levels at the same location)
I run through all this to illustrate just how deceptive is your comment @4 that "it is heartening to read in the SMH (May 24 2015) pieces noting the 2011 floods in Queensland were not due to climate change but to human error". It is deceptive because the 2011 Queensland floods were not restricted to a flood in Grantham. Nor is the SMH report about the "Queensland floods", but the rather about the floods in "Grantham, Queensland", something made very clear in the article. It is further deceptive because Grantham certainly would have flooded in any event on January 10th, as is made clear from the generalized flooding both upstream and downstream of Grantham. Indeed, Grantham had already flooded on Jan 9th, and would do so again in a further flood on Jan 11th when the Grantham water gauge ceased operating at 14 meters (source).
What is at issue in the SMH is whether the collapse of an earth wall in a local quarry made the flood worse in Grantham than it would otherwise have been. It has no bearing at all on the causes of the flood. Further, the story is known to be inaccurate (and essentially a beat up by Channel Nine). The Channel Nine Chopper did not record the "wall of water" through Grantham. It did not even record the peak of flooding in Grantham, video of which did not emerge until March 18th. Rather, it responded to reports of the flood which had already peaked by the time it was airbourne. The "new evidence" on the Sixty Minutes report was not relevant evidence at all.
Even the reports account of what the prior inquiry said is inaccurate. Channel Nine claims the inquiry "...determined the flood hit the town at 3.15pm". The SMH reports that as:
"The commission concluded that a wall of flood water hit Grantham between 3.15 and 3.30pm, which fit the timeline of events that suggested the overflowing river upstream was the cause of the devastation."
"While it accepts the submitters’ contention that the road from Gatton to Grantham was clear shortly after 3.00 pm (a conclusion consistent with the Commission’s finding in its interim report that the Grantham flooding occurred between 3.20 pm and 4.00 pm), it does not consider that there is any basis to reject the SES controller’s account as given in his statement referred to in the interim report. It is supported by statements from the group leader of the Gatton SES unit and members of the SES group which set out to perform the doorknocking task, as well as by the contemporary record in the form of the Gatton SES attendance log."
IMO it is very difficult to mistake 3:20 to 4:00 for 3:15 to 3:30; so Channel Nine and the SMH have directly misrepresented the Commission to beat up a story. So the "missing hour" is manufactured by dishonest reporting by Channel Nine (and possibly lazy reporting by the SMH).
SkepticalinCanada @5, with reference to solar panels, Ryland is probably refering to this article, which does say:
"Feed-in tariffs had to be paid for. The businesses that run the networks were allowed to pass on these costs to other electricity consumers through their energy bills. Essentially, governments arranged it so that money went from people without solar to people with solar.
By the time premium feed-in tariffs end - Queensland's scheme runs until 2028 - Australians without solar will have paid about $5 billion extra on their electricity bills. They have paid a further $5 billion as a result of federal government subsidies to solar from the Renewable Energy Target. Add a third subsidy that is embedded in the structure of network tariffs, and people without solar PV have spent $14 billion subsidising those who have."
That is 14 billion over twenty years. The excessively high feed in tariffs do in fact represent a problem, not least because they encourage people using solar panels to shape their energy use so that their peak energy use is at night when they are drawing energy from the grid, and hence primarilly CO2 emitting sources.
However, if that is the article to which he refers, he has again misrepresented its contents. The article is primarilly about the potential revolution in solar power from the introduction of relatively cheap, convenient batteries:
"Yet change is on the way and if it is managed properly, solar PV will finally become a major player in Australia's power system. In concert with home batteries, solar panels will change people's relationship with the grid, giving them the ability to store and manage the electricity their solar panels produce, and reducing their electricity costs.
These changes will benefit not only solar PV owners but everyone. Battery owners will use the grid less at peak times, placing less strain on the network and reducing the need for costly investment in new infrastructure. Reducing network costs will push down electricity prices."
@12 Thank, Tom. I did find that particular article, and was still puzzled by ryland's claim about the cost if that article was the basis for his claim. Saying that their costs have outweighed their benefits is, in my opinon, significant misrepresentation of that article and in fact other articles at the SMH.
The braoder extent of the Grattan Institute report in question have been described in this smh article. It turns out, the report considered not only unfair feed-in tariffs and essentially flat charges at peak demand times and at low demand times. They have also looked at what may happen with over-invested, "gold-plated" power network once improved storage technology prompts people to move away from the networks:
Rising power charges is encouraging more users to consider "unplugging" from the power grid, which would then push up power prices for those staying on the grid. Unplugging may make sense only for some large users in remoter locations, the study found. [...]
As a result, fears that the tens of billions of dollars invested by state governments and superannuation funds in power networks would be hit by a "death spiral" as users desert from the power network will not occur. [...]
As part of this, government must also clarify who will pay to shut down the parts of the power network no longer needed as new technology and declining demand reduce network revenues.
Under present regulations, the networks can raise prices to offset revenue declines so that a declining number of users would be called upon to fund an unnecessary network, the report found.
In other words, those who don't embrace new solar/battery technogoly and stay behind, will continue to "fund" the dying FF infrastructure.
"Lavish government subsidies plus the structure of electricity network tariffs means the cost of solar PV take-up has outweighed the benefits by more than $9 billion."
I, on the other hand, don't understand the very misleading headline of the article I quoted @13: "Billions wasted on solar subsidy, says report", which is vey inaccurate and does not repfect its contents and may have resulted ryland's misunderstanding of the complex issue of energy transition from FF to solar/renewables.
Further, I don't know how the benefits (presumabl $5 billions) of the subsidies in question have been calculated: what was for example the prize of the emissions saved, how the emission savings have been calculated, for the lifetime of the subsidised solar installations or for the perior 2008-2020 in question, etc. So what was the reason for "failed subsidies" that gave science deniers further ammunition? One more familiar with the Grattan Institute report might want to answer that question.
"In other words, those who don't embrace new solar/battery technogoly and stay behind, will continue to "fund" the dying FF infrastructure."
In the unlikely event of such an outcome, governments would simply raise taxes elsewhere to subsidize the grid.
Consider the plight of hundreds of thousands of poeple who are forced to rent properties because they're not earing enough to pay a million+ dallar mortgages in the big cities, and ask what percentage of landlords are going to fund expensive PV solar systems for them.
Also, the cost of housing is pushing more and more people into appartments and estates where PV solar and power storage would required strata approval and in many cases it may not be viable anyway due to insufficient surface area.
Personally, I would love to install a PV solar and storage system too but I'm currently unable to lawfully clear the trees (and a good thing too) that currently shade my entire foof area for much of the year.
It's my hope that future large scale solar and wind farms will be publically floated, affording mum and dad investors the oportunity to investment and share the rewards.
"I did find that particular article, and was still puzzled by ryland's claim about the cost if that article was the basis for his claim. Saying that their costs have outweighed their benefits is, in my opinon, significant misrepresentation of that article and in fact other articles at the SMH"
is both incorrect and unfair
The piece to which I was referring was the piece by Lisa Cox on May 24 the headline of which was "Cost of household solar has outweighed benefits: Grattan Institute report." Fair criticism is obviously perfectly correct but your comment is manifestly wrong. I fail to understand why your comment was made as you state you have read thre articleyou did read the article. The heasdlinde was not tucked away out odf sight.
00
Moderator Response:
[JH] For future reference, please provide links to articles and other materials that you include in a comment.
"(The report) predicts it will soon become viable for households to install solar without government subsidies as the cost of panels falls and battery storage from companies like Tesla becomes more widely available in future."
So, to date the costs may have outweighed their benefits, but you failed to mention what is clearly in the quote, and not "tucked away out of sight." My original comment about significant misrepresentation stands.
Moderator the URL is http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/cost-of-house...ar-has-outweighed-benefits-grattan-institute-report-20150524-gh7
Skepticin Canada I quoted accurately and in turn you failed to mention
"it argues Australia could have reduced greenhouse gas emissions for much less money if governments had focused more on commercial and large-scale solar power, instead of household subsidies. "We've got the highest percentage of households in the world [with solar PV] because we've targeted our subsidies at households whereas other countries targeted the commercial sector," Grattan Institute energy program chief Tony Wood said. "We'd be better off if that was where we were going." The report calculates that the capital cost of installing and maintaining household solar systems since 2009 has been $18 billion, while their benefit in terms of greenhouse gas abatement and reduced conventional electricity generation has been $9 billion.
ryland @17, your original claim @4 was that the article claimed "the cost to households of solar panels has outwibghed their benefits". I gave that its most natural interpretation which is that the costs of solar panels, on average, out weigh the benefits in households with solar panels - a claim that is not supported by the article and arguably misrepresents it. Even if we allow that the claim is that the cost of solar panels averaged across all australian households have outweighed the benefits, it still ignores appropriate context from the article in which the article points out that the equation on household solar is changing.
Assumes that all government revenue comes from households so that the full value of direct subsidies for household solar to particular householders comes from all householders generally. The actual case is that a substantial portion of government revenue comes from taxes on business, which are not necessarilly passed on to householders in increased prices; and part of whose income comes from exports and hence is not a cost to householders under any interpretation. Costs to electricity suppliers from feed in tariffs could also be defrayed against businesses. Consequently, while on the issues the examine they can purport to have shown the costs of household solar exceed the benefits across the entire economy, they cannot accurately make that claim with regard to householders only.
The report ignores the contribution of household solar to the Renewable Energy Target. They do make the case that non-household solar would have been a cheaper way to contribute to meeting that target; but that being the case the net cost of household solar to the economy is the difference between the cost of non-household solar and household solar. As the costs of meeting the RET are passed on to all electricity customers, that a portion of those costs are met by individual householders represents a saving for other customers not accounted for by the Grattan Institute.
The report ignores the fact that new installers of household solar, and purchasers of houses with household solar already installed, and renters of houses with household solar already installed, do not get the high feed in tariffs that caused the initial poblems, but a price approximately equal to the wholesale cost of electricity. As renewable energy is sold at a premium value to householders, pricing household solar at the lower value wholesale value of non-renewable energy means that increasingly into the future, household solar will actually be providing a subsidy to purchasers of renewable energy from the grid.
Finally, and most importantly, the report ignores completely the social cost of carbon, and therefore ignores the benefit of emissions reductions from household solar.
The Gratten report claims that the previous method of rewarding solar installations was overly beneficial to solar installers. That is why more systems were installed than expected. The tariff scheme has been adjusted already. They say future incentives should be adjusted to reflect costs and benefits. They also say the the utilities are over incentivised to build more infrastructure. Although they do not quantitate the amount it is probably a lot more than the amount invested in solar.
They expect distributed solar to be the cheapest method of generating new power in most of Australia by 2020. It may be more cost effective to put the solar on businesses since they have bigger roofs.
So the Aussie government was not perfect in their scheme for solar installation. Did you expect the government to be perfect? As Tom says, the Gratten report does not consider at all the social cost of the carbon saved. They also do not count the decrease in everyones utility bills since decrease in demand leads to lower electricity rates to generators (on page 18 they say it is zero sum to the economy since generators make less money). Most consumers think it is a benefit when their rates go down.
00
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Our previous events from 2015
A TRUE paradigm for human evolution and transformation On Wednesday 16th December we are pleased to welcome Rudi and Jenny Kennard of Innate Wellbeing who specialise in training others in a Three Principle based approach. They have trained principle-based facilitators...
Body Calm: The Powerful Self-Healing Meditation Technique for Health and Happiness On Thursday 29th October we are delighted to welcome Sandy Newbigging to the Yes Group Norwich. Body Calm introduces you to a system of self-healing that uses the power of meditation...
*CANCELLED - THURSDAY 27TH AUGUST 2015* We are very sorry to have to announce that this months Yes Group event will no longer be taking place, as our speaker has had to cancel due to unforeseen circumstances. We will be working hard behind the scenes to ensure that...
After much anticipation, YES GROUP Norwich is proud to welcome Jean-Pierre de Villiers, internationally renowned coach, speaker and author for our re-launch on Thursday 30th July 2015. Jean-Pierre has over a decade of experience in fitness, health, wellness and...
YES GROUP Norwich welcomes DES O’CONNOR, Award Winning Relationship Expert and Success Mentor, on Thursday the 30th April 2015. Too often, relationships between men and women are discussed in adversarial terms – how to “get” more of what you want from a relationship,...
Mailing LIst
About Us
We are a not-for-profit organisation that meet each month to be inspired, educated and empowered by the world’s finest leaders in the areas of personal development, spirituality, health, wealth and social contribution.
Basket Brigade
Basket Brigade is an annual event, inspired by Anthony Robbins, of unconditional contribution and fundraising. Basket Brigade is a global event which feeds approximately 3 million people worldwide around Christmas time, and has been going for over 30 years. | {
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Petrobras and BTU
See a resemblance? On the left Petroleo Brasileiro SA and on the right BTU. BTU has a much nicer B-wave but otherwise both charts tell the same story and that story does not appear to be over yet. For a brief moment we thought BTU might already be a buy but it just kept going down. It is clear that both these stocks are a buy relative to where the stock price was a few years ago, after all that is what “sell high, buy low” is all about. However we may not be there yet. Stocks cannot trade at negative values but that does not mean that the companies involved may not have a negative value. This occurs , typically , when the costs of borrowings start to exceed the income generated. Before that actually happens the governments and or competitors step in to pick up the pieces. Looks like that day is not that far off. | {
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Features and Advantages of Wood Crusher
1. Compact structure and simple design make wood crusher easy to clean and maintain.
2. High yield and stable working performance ensure a continuous running.
3. Ground by both knives and rotors, raw material has better crushing effect.
4. Crushed wood material are about 3-5 mm and can be used for bio-pelletizing directly.
Working Principle of Wood Crusher
Materials are cut by the blades and impacted by high-speed airflow generated by rotor at the same time. Ground materials with size less than screen diameter will be discharged from the screen hole, while the left larger than screen hole will still remain in the grinding chamber and re-crushed by blades & rotors. | {
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Xiaomi Mi 5 vs iPhone 6S Plus: Official Camera Samples Compared
Xiaomi announced the Xiaomi Mi 5 flagship with much fanfare at its Spring Conference in Beijing China. The phone comes with powerful specs, but the company has paid special attention to one particular area — its CAMERA. The 16MP sensor at the back will come with DTI technology which will reportedly help the sensor to utilize more light and reduce noise and blur. Further, the presence of 4-axis OIS helps in making sure that all the pictures turn out to be clear and crisp, even when you are taking a shot of an object in motion.
The Sony IMX 298 16MP sensor at the back will come with DTI technology which will reportedly help the sensor to utilize more light and reduce noise and blur. Further, the presence of 4-axis OIS helps in making sure that all the pictures turn out to be clear and crisp, even when you are taking a shot of an object in motion.
During the conference, Xiaomi didn’t waste any opportunity to compare its new flagship, the Mi 5 with Apple’s most recent handset, the iPhone 6S Plus. In terms of weight, dimensions, and even camera, the company tried to prove that the Mi 5 is better than the iPhone model.
In fact, in the conference, the company shared some samples of the Xiaomi Mi 5 directly compared with the same shot taken by the iPhone 6S Plus. In a couple of pictures, the Mi 5 does take pictures with better light as well as richer colors. So, there seems to be a visible improvement in the quality of pictures taken with the Mi 5, but we will reserve that judgement for later.
Meanwhile, you can check out these images. What do you think? Which ones better? | {
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feminist(s) of the week: cath & josie of feminaust
2 February 2012
How would you describe yourself and your life?
Our lives are quite similar in that we are both very busy (Cath thrives on chaos), live in the same street, are generally the ‘feminists’ at every party/event/social encounter and proudly disagree or point out anything anti-feminist we come across, and enjoy dressing up at dinner parties. Oh yeah, and we run a website dedicated to creating a safe platform for people to discuss and debate feminism and feminist issues.
What does Feminism mean to you?Josie: To me, feminism means always questioning the status quo for ways in which people have or don’t have power because of their gender. It also means reflecting on my own behavior constantly and ranting a lot about patriarchy.
Cath: For me feminism is about recognising the structures in our lives which dictate the way we do things and how we discuss gender. I am a strong believer in the power of socialisation to pre-determine our behaviour and I love both pointing this out to people and constantly subverting people’s expectations of me. I also like to pick holes in people’s gendered language. For me “being a feminist” is an active experience so it requires me to be active in my beliefs.
Do you think feminism has a place in today’s society?
Of course! Feminism is designed to make itself obsolete – if feminism is successful as a movement and a theory then it renders itself unnecessary. But at the moment there are so many things that point to feminism being relevant and absolutely necessary if we are going to progress to a better world. For example: the advent of Slut Walk, lack of representation of women in leadership positions across society, unequal pay, body image and objectification issues. The list goes on! It’s easy to look at our world (for us, inner suburban Melbourne) and imagine that things are all hunky dory now. But anyone with the slightest insight can see different, that feminism and the equality movement in general has a long way to go.
Which feminist stereotype annoys you the most? Why?
The mainstream one – that feminists are hairy and man-hating. First of all, there’s nothing wrong with being hairy (nor does it instantly make you a feminist, a lot of men are hairy). Second of all, man-hating implies that all feminists are lesbians, and that that’s a bad thing. There’s nothing wrong with being a lesbian (which doesn’t automatically make you hate men either). And not wanting to have sex with men is different from hating them. PLUS feminism doesn’t hate men, it critiques patriarchy and patriarchy is not just damaging to women but also to men. So not only is it an offensive stereotype to hairy people, lesbians and feminists – it is also fundamentally wrong.
If you could pass on one piece of advice to other feminists, what would it be?
Don’t be afraid to call a spade a spade: when you see something anti-feminist say so in the best way you can. Silence is your enemy, authentic voice your friend.
Is there a down side to being feminist? Have you ever received negative feedback from others?
The main down side of being a feminist is that it’s hard to enjoy mainstream things any more. I can’t watch, read or engage in anything without having my feminist glasses on. For example, watching AFL is nearly impossible now because I get so angry that there are no women on the field or in the media team. Watching movies is really hard because I get so angry that so many characters are men, and women are only made characters if it’s a female role i.e. mother, wife.
We get negative feedback from people all the time. From family, from good friends and from strangers. Sometimes ardent feminism is something you have to wear like a label and sometimes it isn’t but if you’re going to dedicate your “spare time” to damning the patriarchy you’re inevitably going to get found out in nearly any situation. I’ve even had good, close, feminist friends try to wind me up with bad jokes and horrid gendered language. It’s hard to keep saying that you’re not easily provoked, you’re just offended by their behaviour/language/attitude. Society hasn’t reached a place where feminist bashing is unacceptable yet, but we’re working on it! | {
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I'm Cristiano Sarmento a Sr. Designer & Art Director working in the advertising / tech industry, with a focus on product design. I was raised in Brazil, and lived & worked in Sydney. In 2016, I moved to Stockholm and went to Hyper Island. Now working at Klarna. | {
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Poll
Community
Spencer County Retired Teachers will meet Tuesday at Taylorsville Elementary School at 9:30 a.m. We will tour the building and have a short business meeting updating everyone on the pension bill and on important health insurance information.
The Taylorsville Masonic Lodge #210 will have an all-you-can eat country ham breakfast from 7 a.m. until 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 3. The breakfast is $7 per person. Carry-out is available.
Poll workers needed for upcoming
Primary Election
The Spencer County Farmers Market Committee will be holding a planning meeting on Thursday, beginning at 6 p.m. They would like all of those who have previously sold or are interested in selling to attend. They will be discussing the previous selling season and begin planning the 2018 season. It will be held at the Spencer Co. Extension Office.
You do not need to be a large producer to participate in the market. Backyard gardeners are welcome.
The Spencer County Habitat for Humanity will hold a Valentine’s Dinner and Silent Auction on Saturday, February 10, at the Spencer County Extension Office beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Tickets are $12 and are available at the Tea Cup and the Red Scooter or by calling Steve Hesselbrock.
Habitat for Humanity is now accepting items for the silent auction. To donate or for more information, contact Steve Hesselbrock at 507-3940.
The Spencer County Habitat for Humanity will hold a Valentine’s Dinner and Silent Auction on Saturday, February 10 at the Spencer County Extension Office beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Tickets are $12 and are available at The Tea Cup and The Red Scooter or by calling Steve Hesselbrock.
Habitat for Humanity is now accepting items for the silent auction. To donate or for more information, contact Steve Hesselbrock at 507-3940.
Join us for Dad Dayz Scavenger Hunt on Saturday, June 18th starting anytime between 10:30 a.m. and noon. Get a group together and start at the library. The hunt will take you through Taylorsville.
Learn and play Old Fashion Games and make your own marble on Tuesday, June 21st. There are spaces available at 12:30 and 2 p.m. Call 477-8137 to reserve your space. | {
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Golden Olive, Truly Helpful Close
I just walked past the mmj coop on Corliss and it looks like they’re out of business. All the signs are gone.
We dropped a line to the Truly Helpful Cooperative, the marijuana dispensary he’s talking about, for more details but didn’t hear back. We’ll be curious to see how the city’s many dispensaries fare once a medical prescription is no longer required to buy pot at a store later this year.
On a related note, The Golden Olive, the delicious Greek restaurant run by Greek-born Evyenia Haritos, has also closed. We dropped them a line, as well, but haven’t heard back any details. We had heard through the grapevine that it was struggling recently, sad to see it go.
Regarding Truly Helpful Collective, it was one of the 11 targeted specifically by the Feds: http://bit.ly/17vRXxX
It’s understandable the owners would back away from that threat. I hope the Federal agents involved would feel some sense of shame from wasting their life energy and taxpayers’ money chasing medical marijuana.
H
Regarding Golden Olive, I think the site will become a Turkish restaurant. I was at a show recently at Cafe Paloma in Pioneer Square, and the owner read an emotional Nazim Hikmet poem and announced that he was planning to open a Turkish restaurant in Wallingford. He mentioned that it would be on the site of a Greek restaurant (insert joke here). If the Paloma menu is indicative of what they’ll serve, I’m looking forward to it — especially if they’ll also have occasional live music!
Wallyhood is dedicated to fostering community and communication in the Wallingford neighborhood. A group of volunteer editors rotate the responsibility of managing the site, and we welcome stories from all our neighbors.
This week’s editor is Jack McLaughlin. You can contact the editor-of-the-week at [email protected].
Subscribe
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Graham Delivering Investigations Training in Dubai.
Following previous courses in Singapore and Shanghai Sancus lead Investigations trainer, Graham Jones, is out in Dubai this week presenting our tailored Investigations training course to GSK employees.This is part of a package of training for GSK that will see Graham visit client venues across the world.
Below are a few images from Day 2 of the course with all the delegates looking fully engaged with Grahams every word……….or totally mesmerised by his choice of shirt! | {
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The chatter is ceaseless. And even superstars like John Mayer fall out of love with the medium (or an aspect of it) and decide to ditch their Twitter profile (where will all those 7 million followers now go?)
At almost every networking event you turn up to there is some self-proclaimed ‘Guru’ or ‘Expert’ preaching that Social Media has revolutionised commerce (I have heard the words “game changer” a few times) and that the legal profession is going to get left behind if it doesn’t climb aboard.
As if there was nothing else to worry about!!!!!
CHARGEABLE HOURS.
BILLS.
DEALING WITH DEMANDING CLIENTS.
WINNING NEW WORK.
FOCUSING ON MY CAREER.
COMPLETING THAT ARTICLE THAT IS NOW 2 WEEKS OVERDUE (WHERE I WILL I EVER FIND THE TIME FOR THAT?).
DEALING WITH ANOTHER 50-PAGE TENDER DOCUMENT….
Now I fully understand the position.
Trust me.
I had 14 years of listening to the beat of the drums.
And it doesn’t get any easier.
Most firms are so preoccupied with hitting the *numbers* that most if not all lawyers have long since forgotten why they went into law.
Billing has assumed such importance that nearly every other aspect of the job seems pointless. It can become quite macho: “How much did you bill this month” was classic phraseology.
No one ever said to me “How many delighted clients did you serve this month” or “How many were WOWED, pure and simple”.
When it comes to the *proper* use of social media, it is incredibly important to consider why this medium is any better than the more traditional broadcast approach or face to face meetings or networking.
If it was so radical then TV, radio and newspaper advertising would, by now, be dust! You can’t tell me that every marketing buff across the board has got it that wrong?
If you are seduced by the new toy then that is perfectly understandable. But I would lend a cautionary note, which is simply this. You need to have a very clear understanding of what you are taking on as, otherwise, it will be like trying to take hold of the proverbial Tiger’s tale. Before you know where you are, you will be tied into an endless stream of Tweets, daily blogging, using all the social bookmarking sites and trying to understand how on earth you are supposed to make LinkedIn pay for itself.
My advice is to work out a clear strategy that will take you through the next 6 months and stick to it.
A few basic questions to ask yourself before you commit:
1. Do I have enough time to not only engage myself but also supervise others?
2. Do I want to have a life with my family outside of working hours? Twitter in particular doesn’t sleep and is not a 9-5 occupation.
3. Do I understand the technology?
4. What happens if the platforms go down for any prolonged period or worse still are pulled because of a lack of funds?
5. What are the risks to my business?
6. Will I need to rewrite any in-house documents?
7. Am I only going to use it for leads?
8. Do I understand how to work out the ROI?
9. Does it fit with the firm’s profile/brand?
10. How will it complement my existing off-line material?
If you can’t answer all these questions then go back and ask yourself the Why question. Why social media?
When all is said and done there are only so many hours in the day and you have to do what works for you. It will definitely pay you to instruct someone to advise on adoption but don’t be afraid to ask some blunt questions like;
1. Is it worth it? Or
2. Will I make money; Or
3. What sort of ROI or Return on Time can I expect?
If you decide to dive in (no toes in the water please) then you will need to come up for air and make sure you constantly analyse the situation. If you feel it isn’t working don’t be afraid to get some honest feedback and readjust your objectives.
For more on developing business, innovating in professional practice and implementing social media, subscribe to the RSS Feed of my Blog. Follow me on Twitter at @0neLife, or @Ju_Summerhayes connect to me on LinkedIn, or friend me on Facebook. If I can help you or your practice, check out my coaching and consulting firm via LinkedIn, email me on [email protected] or call me on 075888 15384.
Julian-
Good for you in laying out some of the very real issues when considering jumping on the social media bandwagon. It seems that the trend has started with a growing band of true believers who have overpromised what it can deliver for the average professional services firm. This will result in a lot of people rejecting it wholesale. Over time the true role of social media will become clear.
For our clients I have found us recommending they look to their face to face networking “time budgets” as a place to “borrow some time” to explore social media. If they do not experience good results, relative to face to face networking it may not be a good investment. Just a thought….lwf
Julian-
Good for you in laying out some of the very real issues when considering jumping on the social media bandwagon. It seems that the trend has started with a growing band of true believers who have overpromised what it can deliver for the average professional services firm. This will result in a lot of people rejecting it wholesale. Over time the true role of social media will become clear.
For our clients I have found us recommending they look to their face to face networking “time budgets” as a place to “borrow some time” to explore social media. If they do not experience good results, relative to face to face networking it may not be a good investment. Just a thought….lwf | {
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Tuesday, October 7, 2014
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen CraneFirst Published 1895Source: I bought this for my kids through the elementary school
Goodreads Summary:During an unnamed battle, 18-year-old private Henry Fleming survives what he considers to be a lost cause by escaping into a nearby wood, deserting his battalion. He finds a group of injured men in which one of the group, the "Tattered Soldier", asks Henry, who's often referred to as "The Youth", where he's wounded. Henry, embarrassed that he's whole, wanders thru the forest. He ultimately decides that running was the best thing and that he's a small part of the army responsible for saving himself.
When he learns that his battalion had won the battle, Henry feels guilty. As a result, he returns to his battalion and is injured when a cannon operator hits him in the head because he wouldn't let go of his arm. When he returns to camp, the other soldiers believe he was harmed by a bullet grazing him in battle. The next morning he goes into battle for a 3rd time. While looking for a stream from which to attain water, he discovers from the commanding officer that his regiment has a lackluster reputation. The officer speaks casually about sacrificing Henry's regiment because they're nothing more than "mule drivers" and "mud diggers". With no regiments to spare, the general orders his men forward. In the final battle, Henry becomes one of the best fighters in his battalion as well as the flag bearer, finally proving his courage as a man.
My Thoughts:Blah, blah classic. Blah, blah first book that portrayed war realistically. Blah, blah must read. So I did. And now I can mark that off my list. I'm not saying it wasn't well written; there were parts I really thought were brilliant. Then there were parts that I thought were just overblown wordiness.
Honestly, some of the time, I couldn't figure out what the heck was going on and I'm not sure that Crane even knew. Maybe that was the point? That in the chaos of battle, things get turned topsy-turvy and you can't tell which way you're going? I swear there was a long scene, though, where wounded soldiers were fleeing the battle scene and then troops racing into battle overtook them.
I couldn't find a good summary of this book that gave you the idea of what the story was about without giving away the whole book but I'm not sure it matters. This book is much more about what is going on in the heads of the soldiers, Henry's in particular, than in their movements. Henry vacillates between being concerned that he won't be courageous to feeling he is, indeed a courageous man; between feeling certain that he is a coward to being certain that running was the right thing to do; between feeling terror in the face of the enemy and pure, animal hatred of them. For a man who was born after the Civil War and, at the time he wrote this book, had never experienced war, Crane seems to have had a firm grasp on the inner workings of a young soldier's mind. | {
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DR. JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE ( WIDESCREEN )
Item# dr-jekyll-and-sister-hyde---widescreen-
$9.99
Product Description
Dr. Henry Jekyll, in attempting to find a toxin that will wipe out all common diseases, accidentally stumbles upon a formula that transforms him into a gorgeous but evil woman. He needs female hormones for his experiments, so a number of London women meet bloody deaths.
Runtime: 97 min / USA:94 min
Country: UK
Language: English
Color: Color (Technicolor
Year: 1971 | {
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D’Esperance, Elizabeth (1855–1919)
DEsperance, Elizabeth (18551919)
Pseudonym of Elizabeth Hope Reed, a nonprofessional medium,
the story of whose life and work was recounted by William
Oxley in Angelic Revelations (1885) and by Reed in her autobiography
Shadow Land (1897). The latter work is particularly
important for the account of her own experiences. In his preface,
Russian psychical researcher Alexander Aksakof describes
the book as the frank but sorrowful story of the authors search
for the truth at the mercy of unknown but potent powers.
Born Elizabeth Hope, her earliest recollections included
seeing (in the ancient house where the family lived) strangers
continually passing to and fro, some of whom nodded and
smiled as she held up her doll for their inspection. These shadow
people were her earliest friends. She did not associate them
with ghosts, of which she was told frightful tales by the maid.
For her there was nothing supernatural about them, although
they shrank from her touch and she could not feel anything if
her hand came into contact with them. They for months at a
time vanished and on the whole they made her life miserable.
Her mother discouraged her telling stories of unseen visitors,
and the family doctor terrorized her by warning that those
who see things that do not exist are usually mad and become
dangerous.
A long cruise in 1867 on a boat that her father captained was
the brightest recollection of her teens. The sleepwalking that
had troubled her earlier was now cured and the shadow people
stayed away, but the happiness that was hers for many weeks
was finally marred by the terrifying vision of a shadow ship that
passed right through their own.
Another unusual experience befell her later at the end of the
school term. She had to write an essay on nature. She could
not manage a single thought. The last night came and even
then she went to bed in despair, praying in tears and crying
until she fell asleep, leaving sheets of paper and some pencils
littered across her desk. In the morning she found the sheets
covered with her own handwriting, containing an astonishing
essay on the subject. The teacher was greatly surprised by the
quality of the essay, and when she heard the story she spoke to
the rector about it. On examination day, the rector himself
read the essay and explained it as a direct answer to prayer.
At age 19, she married and settled at Newcastle-on-Tyne,
England. After her marriage the shadow people came back into
her life. By chance she heard of Spiritualism and table rapping,
which she then considered tomfoolery. Challenged by a
friend, she sat in a circle of six. The table soon began to vibrate,
heave, and answer questions. It even disclosed the unknown
whereabouts of her father, which was found afterward to be correct.
More extraordinary phenomena followed. A pair of studs
disappeared from before their eyes and from information
rapped out by the table they were found in the next room beneath
the undisturbed, compacted soil in a flower pot. The
wanderings of these studs amazed the circle. Once they were
found in a locked Japanese box on a high shelf; another time
they dropped from the ceiling into the cup of a guest at coffee
time.
An experiment in clairvoyance was crowned with remarkable
success. Reeds eyes were covered by a Mr. F. in the dark
and she described an incident in his life that occurred 12 years
earlier. She recognized him in the vision.
Her interest was now thoroughly aroused. She spoke of the
shadow people to friends, and though the idea that she was a
medium was at first repugnant to her, she agreed to play the
part. It was suggested that she should attempt automatic writing
to establish a more efficient means of communication. It
soon came about with a tingling, pricking, and aching sensation
in her arm, and thereafter the circle reported contact with
spirit visitors Walter Tracey, a bright, jovial American,
Humnur Stafford, the self-constituted philosopher guide,
and Ninia, a child of seven. The control of each could be distinguished
by the sensation in Reeds arm and hand.
The next phase of her development came when she saw a
luminous cloud concentrated in the darkness of the room slowly
evolve into the form of a child. No one else could see the
strange apparition that she sketched, but the new development
was hailed with delight. People soon began to talk about it in
Newcastle and overwhelmed dEsperance (the name she began
to use in her new public life) with requests for the portraits of
their dead friends. To better her art she studied for a few
months, but as her sketching improved her power of seeing the
luminous figures diminished and violent headaches followed
the attempts at drawing.
Then T. P. Barkas, an intellectual of Newcastle, joined the
circle. One evening he introduced a series of popular lectures
on science, illustrated with practical experiments which he intended
to deliver. The mediums hand passed remarks through
automatic writing that claimed the theories advocated by
Barkas were wrong.
This was the beginning of a scientific period of mediumship
that lasted for several months. Hammer Stafford described in
detail an instrument that proved later to be the telephone, and
another by which messages could be forwarded to great distances
in the original handwriting. Barkas delivered his lectures
and closed them with one titled Recent Experiments in
Psychology Extraordinary Replies to Questions on Scientific
Subjects by a Young Lady of Very Limited Education.
After a year, the mediums failing health put an end to the
scientific séances. She went to the south of France to recuperate.
On her recovery she became filled with the missionary spirit,
but in trying to make converts for the new truth of Spiritualism
that she had glimpsed, she discoveredto her dismay
that the psychic powers could not be consciously summoned.
Her ability to write on scientific subjects appeared to fail, and
DEspagnet, Jean Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology 5th Ed.
404
her clairvoyant faculty became feeble when conscious exhibition
was needed.
Yet she achieved one resultthe reconciliation between a
Professor Friese of Bremen and Johann Zöllner. The alienation
had taken place when Zöllner accepted Spiritualism. It
was Zöllner who wrote to Friese about her. As a result she spent
weeks in the professors house. One day he publicly declared
that he had become a Spiritualist, resigned his chair, and began
to write books, later published under the titles Jenseits des Grabens
and Stimmen aus der Geister Reich. A visit to Bremen by
dEsperance was followed by a long stay in Sweden. A new line
of experiment was tried there. She read letters, written in various
languages and enclosed in seven envelopes, the words of
which she had to spell out letter by letter. This power also fluctuated,
and determined efforts usually resulted in failure.
It was here that she first tried to sit for materialization. In
the darkness of the cabinet, she reported, she soon became
conscious of a curious disturbance; the air seemed to be agitated
as though a bird were fluttering about and at the second attempt
she felt as if fine threads were being drawn out of the
pores of her skin.
A face was seen by the sitters outside the curtains, but she
did not see it from within. So she stood up, feeling her knees
strangely weak, put her head out, and above her head she recognized
the merry, laughing eyes of Walter. During a sixweek
trial Walter learned the art of full materialization.
During his visits she felt strangely listless. Thoughts and impressions
swirled like lightning through her brain. She was conscious
of the thoughts and feelings of everyone in the room.
While dEsperance was in this state any movement required a
great effort, which invariably compelled the materialized forms
to retire into the cabinet, as though deprived of power to stand
or support themselves.
Yolande, a young Arab girl of 15, soon made an appearance
and remained a constant visitor. She was inquisitive and
continually mystified her audience by making things in the
room invisible and producing a variety of apports in the form
of flowers and plants. It took her about ten to fifteen minutes
to build up her body from a cloudy patch on the floor, while
the process of melting away usually took place in two to five
minutes, the drapery being the last to disappear, in one-half to
two minutes.
Yolandes flower apports were very strange. She usually
asked in advance for water, sand, and a water carafe. After the
water and sand were mixed in the carafe she covered it with a
part of her drapery. In a séance held on August 4, 1880, an exotic
plant grew up in the carafe. It was an Ixora crocata, 22 inches
high, with a thick woody stem that filled the neck of the bottle,
the roots firmly planted inside the glass. The natural home
of this plant is India. It was produced for William Oxley of
Manchester, and it lived for three months in his gardeners
care.
Sitters frequently brought fern leaves and asked Yolande to
match them. She always complied. Roses were produced from
nothing and freely given away. Yolandes last and greatest work
was achieved on June 28, 1890, when she apported a seven-foot
high golden lily with 11 blossoms. The feat was witnessed by
Professors Boutlerof, Fiedler, Aksakof, and others. The power
was not sufficient for its dematerialization (Yolande insisted
that the plant was borrowed and she had to return it), and she
instructed the sitters to keep it in darkness. The lily remained
in the house for eight days and then vanished in an instant, filling
the room with an overpowering perfume.
Materialization Fraud
Bitter experiences were also in store for dEsperance. The
first befell her in Newcastle in 1880. It came after observations
that one of the materialized phantoms, the French lady, bore
a bewildering resemblance to the medium.
A suspicious sitter seized the form of Yolande while the medium
was believed sitting inside the cabinet. DEsperance describes
her experience when this occurred
All I knew was a horrible excruciating sensation of being
doubled up and squeezed together, as I can imagine a hollow
gutta percha doll would feel, if it had sensation, when violently
embraced by its baby owner. A sense of terror and agonizing
pain came over me, as though I was losing hold of life and was
falling into some fearful abyss, yet knowing nothing, hearing
nothing, except the echo of a scream I heard as at a distance.
I felt I was sinking down, I knew not where. I tried to save myself,
to grasp at something, but missed it; and then came a
blank from which I awakened with a shuddering horror and
sense of being bruised to death.
The result of this experience was the outbreak of the earlier
hemorrhage of her lungs and a prolonged illness. In Sweden,
after her recovery, successful photographic experiments were
conducted to obtain portraits of the materialized entities and
spirit photographs without a formal séance. These experiments
proved to be a drain on her nervous energy, so they were
dropped after a while.
In the later materialization séances she invariably observed
the rule of sitting before the cabinet and exhibiting herself and
the phantom at the same time. Her unique description of double
identity dates from these days and reads
Now comes another figure, shorter, slenderer, and with
out-stretched arms. Somebody rises up at the far end of the circle
and comes forward and the two are clasped in each others
arms. Then inarticulate cries of Anna! Oh, Anna! My child! My
loved one!
Then somebody else gets up and puts her arms round the
figure; then sobs, cries and blessings get mixed up. I feel my
body swayed to and fro and all gets dark before my eyes. I feel
somebodys arms round me although I sit on my chair alone.
I feel somebodys heart beating against my breast. I feel that
something is happening. No one is near me except the two children.
No one is taking any notice of me. All eyes and thoughts
seem concentrated on the white slender figure standing there
with the arms of the two black-robed women around it.
It must be my own heart I feel beating so distinctly. Yet
those arms round me Surely never did I feel a touch so plainly.
I begin to wonder which is I. Am I the white figure or am I the
one in the chair Are they my hands round the old ladys neck,
or are these mine that are lying on the knees of me, or on the
knees of the figure if it be not I, on the chair
Certainly they are my lips that are being kissed. It is my
face that is wet with the tears which these good women are
shedding so plentifully. Yet how can it be It is a horrible feeling,
thus losing hold of ones identity. I long to put one of these
hands that are lying so helplessly, and touch some one just to
know if I am myself or only a dreamif Anna be I, and I am
lost as it were, in her identity.
In 1893 at the house of a Professor E. of Christiana, an
Egyptian beauty calling herself Nepenthes, materialized in
the midst of the circle and was seen at the same time with the
medium. At the sitters request she dipped her hand into a paraffin
wax bucket and left behind a plaster mold of rare beauty,
which the modeler said must have been produced by sorcery as
it was obviously impossible to extricate the hand from the wax
glove without ruining it.
Nepenthes vanished from their presence as she came. She
lowered her head, on which a diadem shone, little by little became
a luminous cloud, and gradually faded away. Before her
disappearance she wrote a message in her own hand in ancient
Greek in the pocketbook of one of the sitters. All present were
ignorant of ancient Greek letters. The translation read I am
Nepenthes thy friend; when thy soul is oppressed by too much
pain, call on me, Nepenthes, and I will come at once to relieve
thy trouble.
From time to time dEsperance felt greatly troubled. The
theories of subliminal consciousness and orthodox religious
Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology 5th Ed. DEsperance, Elizabeth
405
objections that the phenomena had to do with the devil disturbed
her to a growing extent. An out-of-the-body travel experience,
however, enlightened her; she realized the great
truth behind the phenomenal side of Spiritualism and, fortified
in courage, continued her missionary work.
Three times her life was endangered because of injuries received
by those who tried to catch her in fraud. The worst experience
befell her in Helsingfors in 1893, when an attempt to violate
Yolande caused nearly two years of indisposition, turning
her hair white and grey.
The outrage followed the most enigmatic phenomenon of
her mediumship the partial dematerialization of her body
from the waist down. Aksakof made an investigation and, with
the testimonies of those present, published the full story in his
book A Case of Partial Dematerialization (1898). This alleged phenomenon
occurred on the evening of December 11, 1893, at
the house of a Professor Seiling, with some 15 people present
at the séance.
Fourteen years later, Hereward Carrington published a
lengthy criticism of the case in the Proceedings of the American
Society for Psychical Research (March 1907), which was answered
by James H. Hyslop. Carrington discussed how the incident
might have been achieved by trickery. If dEsperance
was using deception, she was never caught.
Materialization mediumship has largely disappeared under
the impact of numerous revelations of fraud and the inability
of mediums to produce such phenomena as described in relation
to dEsperance under controlled conditions with competent
observers. At best, her case must remain open, though
there is every reason to believe that she simply was never
caught.
In addition to many articles she wrote for the Spiritualist
press, dEsperance wrote two books, Shadow Land (1897) and
Northern Lights (1900), the latter a collection of psychic stories
and experiences. At the outbreak of the World War I
dEsperance found herself virtually a prisoner in Germany,
where she then resided. All her papers were seized, among
them the manuscript of a second volume to Shadow Land. It was
destroyed, probably along with a quantity of séance reports in
shorthand.
Sources
Aksakof, Alexander. A Case of Partial Dematerialization. N.p.,
1898.
Berger, Arthur S., and Joyce Berger. The Encyclopedia of
Parapsychology and Psychical Research. New York Paragon
House, 1991.
Carrington, Hereward. An Examination and Analysis of
the Evidence for Dematerialization as Demonstrated in Mons.
Aksakofs Book. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research
(March 1907).
Oxley, William. Angelic Revelations. 5 vols. N.p., 1885. | {
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draft-TS 38.470(RAN3)
NG-RAN –
F1 general aspects and principles
The present document is an introduction to the 3GPP TS 38.47x series of technical specifications that define the F1
interface for the interconnection of gNB-CU and gNB-DU within the NG-RAN architecture (TS 38.401). | {
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Simon Dawkins reckons Aston Villa are in a false position in the Premier League after a favourable first impression of the talent in Paul Lambert’s squad.
Dawkins enjoyed a winning introduction to his Villa Park career when his encouraging cameo helped them climb out of the drop zone with Sunday’s 2-1 victory over West Ham.
The 25-year-old winger admits it has been a challenge to acclimatise to the English top flight by being launched into the claret and blues’ tense battle for survival.
But Dawkins, who is on loan from Tottenham after a successful Major League Soccer stint with San Jose Earthquakes, is convinced there is sufficient quality at Villa.
“It’s a hard situation to come into when the team has been struggling but with the players we have here we should never be struggling,” he said.
“I’ve just been here for a couple of weeks and I’ve seen the quality. Hopefully I can learn from these guys and develop and we can get out of it.
“Everyone is positive because they are good players. The position in the league doesn’t reflect the talent that we have in the team. I’m sure every guy in there has the ability and the belief that they can get out of it.”
Dawkins has been particularly impressed with Christian Benteke and admits he didn’t realise quite how good the Belgian striker was until he signed on deadline day.
“He’s a really good player,” he said. “He’s got the touch, he’s got great ability to hold the ball, he can finish. He’s got pace, he’s got everything. For such a young guy he can be something really special.
“I didn’t realise how good he was before I came here but you realise when you play with a player like that in training every day.
“I heard a lot about him so I knew what to expect but he is even better than I expected.”
Dawkins came on a 64th-minute substitute in Sunday’s win over the Hammers and admits his Premier League bow was well worth the wait after injuries hampered his progress at Spurs.
He is a free agent when his White Hart Lane contract expires at the end of the season and is determined to enjoy his spell at Villa rather than worrying about the future.
“I’ve been at Tottenham for so long that I’m probably one of their current longest serving players,” he said.
“So it’s good to finally make my Premier League debut, even though it’s with Villa rather with them, and hopefully I can push on here.
“It was a great atmosphere at Villa Park. I’ve heard a lot about it but it was my first time here and it was a great experience.
“Transfer deadline day was the first I heard from Villa. There were a lot of clubs interested and there were some also in the Premier League.
“I just wanted to come on and try and make a difference and hopefully I contributed to the result.
‘‘The most important thing was the three points because we’re really struggling down there. The gaffer just said to me ‘go on and try to change the game’ and hopefully I did that.
“I’m just trying to do well, take that next step and show people what I can do. Aston Villa have allowed me to do that and have given me that opportunity.” | {
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Hot Topics:
Pedroia leads the way as Red Sox crush Orioles
Boston's Christian Vazquez connects for a two-run triple during the eighth inning of Tuesday's win over the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park. AP PHOTO
Sentinel and Enterprise staff photos can be ordered by visiting our SmugMug site.
BOSTON (AP) -- After a stint on the disabled list before even throwing a pitch this season, Drew Pomeranz made his season debut a memorable one.
Pomeranz struck out six and allowed just one run in six innings for the Red Sox, who tagged Baltimore for 15 hits while beating the Orioles 8-1 on Tuesday night.
"I felt like I waited forever to get that first start in," said Pomeranz, who opened the season on the DL with a strained left forearm.
"Things clicked in warmups today and I just felt really good out there. I took that to the mound and just tried to hold out there for as long as I could."
Pomeranz exceeded all expectations with the way he threw and how long he stayed out there for the Red Sox. He had a shutout going through six innings and held the Orioles to four hits before getting pulled in the seventh with Boston hanging on to a 2-1 lead.
Pomeranz's teammates delivered some extra offense late to turn the game into a rout, which was fine with Pomeranz as he got his first win in Fenway Park.
"I was letting it fly out there a little bit. I was trying to be aggressive," Pomeranz said. "It didn't matter if I was throwing 90 like I was at the end or 95. It was still coming out how it needed to come out."
Dustin Pedroia drove in four runs, including two on a bases-loaded single in the seventh, and Christian Vazquez capped off a 4-for-4 game with a two-run triple in the eighth.
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Boston put together back-to-back three-run innings in the seventh and eighth to blow open what had been a close game.
"I thought we did a great job with the aggressiveness on the basepaths. We bunched a number of hits together late," Boston manager John Farrell aid.
Pablo Sandoval had a sacrifice fly in the second and Pedroia had one in the fifth off Dylan Bundy (1-1), who was also strong through the first six innings. Bundy pitched 6 1-3 innings, allowing three runs and seven hits.
Bundy was pulled after walking Sandoval with one out and Boston up only 2-1. The Red Sox caught a break when shortstop J.J. Hardy botched a grounder that could have started a double play and get the Orioles out of the threat.
"It's just one of those nights where a lot of things fell their way," Baltimore manager Buck Showalter said.
Instead, Chris Young reached and Vazquez followed with a single to load the bases. Pedroia blooped a single just out of Jonathan Schoop's reach in shallow right to drive in two, then Andrew Benintendi added an RBI single to make it 5-1.
"It just turned into ugly baseball after I didn't make that double play," Hardy said.
Chris Davis scored Baltimore's only run, leading off the seventh with a single and scoring later on a fielder's choice.
STRONG START
Pomeranz showed no lingering effects from the strain that delayed his first start of the season. He was good early and got stronger as the game continued.
Adam Jones' one-out double in the sixth was just the third hit for the Orioles and ended a run of 12 straight outs for Pomeranz, who preserved the shutout by getting Manny Machado on a pop out to first and Mark Trumbo's fly ball to right. Jones was the first baserunner for the Orioles since the second inning.
"I thought he settled into a good rhythm," Farrell said. "I'm sure there was quite a bit of adrenaline which would be expected for the first start of a season, but he was able to stay in his delivery very good."
HARD LUCK
Hardy said Young's grounder appeared to be the start of a routine double play before he bobbled the ball and Boston loaded the bases. He credited reliever Darren O'Day with getting the ground ball the Orioles were looking for to keep the game close.
"When you get the ground ball that you're looking for to end the inning and it doesn't happen, I think it's very deflating," Hardy said. "It just kind of unraveled. It all started with that routine double play."
TRAINER'S ROOM
Orioles: RHP Chris Tillman (right shoulder bursitis) pitched two innings in extended spring game Tuesday in Sarasota, Fla. ... Manager Buck Showalter said some of his players are battling through the bug that has been making its way around the majors. "I know we've got a lot of guys that aren't 100 percent with it, but so do a lot of clubs," Showalter said. "So nobody really wants to hear somebody else complain about it. Our guys have done a good job not broadcasting it to the world."
Red Sox: Placed CF Jackie Bradley Jr. (right knee sprain) on the 10-day DL retroactive to April 9. Bradley worked out Tuesday and said he felt great, but will let the knee recover fully before returning to the lineup. "Whenever it's ready. I am not going to rush it. I just want to make sure I am able to make all the same powerful moves I made before with no hesitation." ... SS Xander Bogaerts returned from the bereavement list after missing four games.
UP NEXT
Orioles: Send RHP Ubaldo Jimenez (0-0, 10.38 ERA) out for his second start as Baltimore wraps up its two-day visit to Boston.
Red Sox: RHP Steven Wright (0-0, 5.40) is coming off a no-decision in his season debut last week in Detroit. Wright allowed four runs and seven hits, striking out four and walking three over 6 2-3 innings Friday against the Tigers. | {
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Of all things, the subtitles for Avengers: Infinity War might be hiding a huge clue about what happens in the aftermath of Thanos wiping out half the universe — and it might even hint that none other than Pepper Potts will suit up in her own Iron Man armor for Avengers 4.
Since the release of Infinity War on digital and Blu-ray earlier this month, some fans who prefer watching with subtitles on have noticed a peculiar grammar construction on Gwyneth Paltrow’s last line of dialogue in the movie. And on Wednesday, Yahoo! Entertainment noted a huge difference from what we all initially heard.
After the fight against Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian in New York City, Iron Man boards their alien spacecraft headed for Titan to rescue Doctor Strange. Pepper Potts calls him. “Tell me you’re not on that ship,” she says, telling him repeatedly to “Come back.” Their conversation is cut off just as she says, “I’m going to—.”
Upon rewatching and listening to the scene, it does actually sound as if Pepper Potts says “too” instead of “to,” which would mean that she’s not “going to” do anything other than try to join Tony on this journey. Considering that ship has already left Earth’s atmosphere by this point, she obviously doesn’t tag along for the ride to Titan, but it definitely sounds like Pepper Potts might at least try to follow that ship.
Could that mean Pepper Potts will suit up in some kind of Iron Man armor in Avengers 4 or even that maybe she already has?
Recall that in Iron Man 3, Stark encased her in a suit of armor to protect her from an explosion. Back in December 2017, Paltrow also shared a video over social media that revealed her in a motion capture suit while on the set of Infinity War/Avengers 4. And in Marvel Comics, Potts does suit up as the hero Rescue after Tony Stark makes her custom armor, so there’s a precedent for all of this happening.
Shortly after Infinity War’s release, in an interview with Paltrow published in the official Avengers: Infinity War magazine, she claims that Potts and Stark “have a child.” They do talk briefly in Infinity War about having kids, but she claims to not be pregnant … yet.
Given the rumored time jump between Infinity War and Avengers 4, maybe they do have a child in the next movie? And maybe both Stark and Potts suit up as superhero partners in addition to being a married couple?
What Are Marvel's 9 New Mystery Movies?
There’s no telling how this might play out in the next Avengers movie. For all we know, maybe the closed captioning was simply a mistake on the part of the person who wrote them. Mistakes do happen, but maybe the mistake here was letting slip this little tease that something more complicated was going on? | {
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G.I. JOE DESERT DUEL: Available from Toys “R” Us at the Entertainment Earth booth at San Diego Comic-Con. Features the F.O.E. Striker and the Cobra Basilisk. Includes Night Fox, Philip “Chuckles” Provost, Elite Horseman and Cobra Air Trooper. Approximate Retail Price: $59.99
The sets will also be available in limited quantities at Hasbro Toy Shop following the con as well. So make sure and keep an eye out if you’re in the market!
About The Author
Starting this website has been a labor of love. I love sharing my fandom experiences but more than that I love hearing everyone else’s stories. I love hearing about conventions, movie locations, meet celebrities good and bad, I love it all.
I sincerely hope you enjoy my exploits, the adventures of everyone who submits an article, and all the members of the Fanboy Family!
Without everyone who writes and reads MTF there wouldn’t be a site. This is truly for the fans, by the fans! | {
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First Grown Up Job Guide: Moving on From a Mistake
Making a mistake at work can feel like the end of the world. All of a sudden a simple blunder can seem catastrophic, possibly career-ending (even though it rarely is).
If you’ve had a slip-up at work, take a deep breath, don’t panic and read our guide for moving on.
Fess up
You don’t need to announce ”I screwed up” over the staff intercom or send an all-office email. Simply let your boss and anyone else who may be affected by the mistake know that it has happened. Apologise and state that you understand why you failed. This demonstrates that you’re willing to move on from your mistakes. Be genuine and sincere, it will go a long way.
Come with a game plan
You will need to come up with a plan to rectify your mistake and present it to your boss. This will reassure them that you are working on a solution and will also demonstrate your problem-solving capabilities. Have a plan B and C in mind too just in case they are not a fan of your original suggestion.
Get some perspective
Mistakes happen every single day and unless you’re a doctor or firefighter, no one is going to die if you screw up at work.
Of course, you want to put your best foot forward in a new career but remember that you’re human and humans mess up all the time. Just ask your coworkers, they probably have some horror stories of their own.
Shut up
Once you’ve apologised to the main people involved and done your best to rectify the situation you then need to move on. No one likes a workplace martyr. Mistakes happen every single day, don’t spend a whole week dwelling on one little hiccup. Instead, you should put your energy into more productive things like acing your next project.
Work hard
Remember the old nugget, ”This too shall pass.” The final step in moving on from a mistake is to work hard in order to earn your colleagues’ trust. You need to show your team just how dedicated you really are. In a few weeks, no one will even remember. | {
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Since Embyr311 has not been updated their original mod for the toddler patch for a while and the original mod makes toddlers' trait disappeared, I have decided to make updated versions of the mod.
This mod is compatible with custom traits like my Sarcastic Trait as you can see in the image.
And Traits from Reward Store, Hidden Traits,Traits from completing child and adult aspirations and Traits given by chosen aspiration are not counted as the additional CAS (personality) Traits if you are worried.
NPC sims generated will have the number of traits stated by the package.
----
Tuning resources:
-Embyr311's original "Add More CAS Traits"mod
or any mod that modifies the same files listed below will likely conflict
S4_03B33DDF_00000000_A37570B802C829D0_traits.traits
S4_03B33DDF_00000000_5D0152209188C58B_sims.aging.aging_tuning
S4_E882D22F_00000000_00000000000035F9_picker_Trait_Add
S4_E882D22F_00000000_00000000000035FA_picker_Trait_Remove
Thanks for creating the original mod to Embyr311 again!
Additional Credits:
Embyr311, Sims 4 Studio
968 people have said thanks to chingyu1023 for this download.
For more information about this creator and their policies or details, click here.
Screenshots
Screenshots
Expansion / Stuff Packs Required
Built with Game Version: 1.27.80.10
You must have the expansion, game version or stuff packs listed above installed to use this custom content. Please see the post text for any exceptions.
Download files
You need to be a Registered Member to be able to download from MTS. Registration allows you to thank and leave comments for the creators, see your download history, participate in the discussions and much more!
I almost never post anything, but I wanted to say thank you for this mod!
Only recently loaded my game up again and it looks like the add traits in regular menu is no longer adding CAS traits even with your updated more traits mod in my folder. I tried using multiple versions of the more traits mod and deleting cache, but it's still only allowing three CAS traits.
I almost never post anything, but I wanted to say thank you for this mod!
Only recently loaded my game up again and it looks like the add traits in regular menu is no longer adding CAS traits even with your updated more traits mod in my folder. I tried using multiple versions of the more traits mod and deleting cache, but it's still only allowing three CAS traits.
What version of the mod?
Or rather, what mode of the mod? there are 15 of them.
First of all this is exactly the kind of mod I've been searching for so thank you so much for making it and maintaining it!
That being said this is not working for me at all, not sure if I'm missing something??
I've got it in live mode, done cntrl + shift + c, typed traits.equip_trait trait_<traitnameNoSpaces> and used the exact trait name, no spaces, correct capitalization to match the how they look in CAS. i tried it with modded in traits as well as default traits to no avail. tried it with and without the brackets, with and without leaving the words 'traitname' in there, with and without quotations,
and with the game paused and unpaused. Nothing seems to be happening.
Just for kicks I also tried all the versions of "traits.equip_trait TraitName" that i could think of and that didn't work either.
Script mods are enabled and my other mods seem to be working fine.
Am I missing something or is this mod not working atm?
Thanks!
Excuse me, I am big fan of the mod, been using it for too many months.
I've a question...
I always used the "add traits in regular menu" + "25 CAS traits for All ages" , and never had a problem.
My doubt is:
If I change right now the "25 traits" (the version of the mod is "10"), for the 9th version,
then go delete all caches, and then enter the same household on my game,
will I have problems with anything?
I regret on that much traits lol XD
Thank you so much, happy new year.
EDIT:
SECOND question, more a request than a doubt:
Can I have please the Cats and Dog version, of the version 9 of this mod, please?
Can you anyone do that for me?
That version works perfect on my 1.46 SEASONS , I truly need it,
the actual ones brakes my game.
TY
First of all this is exactly the kind of mod I've been searching for so thank you so much for making it and maintaining it!
That being said this is not working for me at all, not sure if I'm missing something??
I've got it in live mode, done cntrl + shift + c, typed traits.equip_trait trait_<traitnameNoSpaces> and used the exact trait name, no spaces, correct capitalization to match the how they look in CAS. i tried it with modded in traits as well as default traits to no avail. tried it with and without the brackets, with and without leaving the words 'traitname' in there, with and without quotations,
and with the game paused and unpaused. Nothing seems to be happening.
Just for kicks I also tried all the versions of "traits.equip_trait TraitName" that i could think of and that didn't work either.
Script mods are enabled and my other mods seem to be working fine.
Am I missing something or is this mod not working atm?
Thanks!
I have the same problem. I would love to make it work.... I`m not sure why, but it dosen't shows up for me neither. It might be, that it has an unnoted conflict with other mods I have.
Not sure...
I'm actually having issues with this. The person above me says it's working for them, so maybe it's just me, but I've removed it, cleared my localthumbcache, tried again and still nothing. I'm not sure what could have changed. It just went from working before the update to not working. No idea. | {
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50 Slovenian Tolars banknote (Jurij Vega)
The Bank of Slovenia issued Slovenian Tolar banknotes in 14 different denominations,
including this 50 Slovenian Tolars banknote (Jurij Vega). They are part of the Slovenian Tolar banknotes series. The Bank of Slovenia started issuing
these 50 Slovenian Tolar banknotes in 1993. They were withdrawn from circulation in 2007.
The banknote of 50 petdeset tolarjev has the image of Jurij Vega, Slovenian mathematician. The words ‘Banka Slovenije’ are printed on the 50 Tolar note.
Do you have a 50 Slovenian Tolars banknote (Jurij Vega)? Here's how to exchange it for cash:
Indicate how many 50 Slovenian Tolar banknotes you want to exchange
Click on the 'Add to Wallet' button
The exchange value has been added to your online wallet.
Repeat these steps for any other notes and coins you want to
exchange. Complete checkout and get paid within 5 days of receiving
your currencies. To exchange your 50 Slovenian Tolars banknote (Jurij Vega) for cash:
add it to your wallet now! | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Custom Picture Frame Matboard
Frames Now Custom Matboards are cut to precision using our computerised matboard cutter. Shop online with confidence with both contact-free home delivery and Click and Collect.
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This should match the dimensions of the existing backing board of your picture frame. Please specify the height and width of the matboard you would like in centimetres. The maximum size is 93 x 63cm.
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Step 3) Enter Matboard Window Dimensions
Please specify the height and width of the matboard window you would like us to cut in centimetres. We will centre the window to the matboard.
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Product help
Our picture frame sizes refer to the image size that it will suit or internal capacity of the picture frame, not the overall outside measurement of the picture frame.
When measuring your image to fit into a picture frame, measure from the absolute outside edge. If a matboard is included in the frame, measure in the same way as above. Please note matboard openings are cut 5mm less than the image size allowing for a slight overlap. This will hold your image flat and prevent the edges slipping out and becoming visible.
All frames will hang landscape or portrait, please specify when ordering.
Our picture frames are designed with easy self-fitting in mind. A how-to-fit guide specific to your selected product is included upon delivery. | {
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The Mechanisms and Effects of Physical Activity on Breast Cancer
Abstract
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. An extensive part of this health problem can be prevented by an active lifestyle. Physical activity can reduce the risk of breast cancer, reduce the rate of recurrence, and increase the survival rate of patients with breast cancer. The aim of this review was to summarize our current knowledge regarding the effects of physical activity on breast cancer risk, recurrence, and survival. Furthermore, we investigated 5 possible underlying mechanisms through which physical activity has an influence on breast cancer (ie, a reduction of sex hormones, metabolic hormones, adipokines and oxidative stress, and an improvement of the immune function). In this review, we give a complete overview of this subject. | {
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} |
CONTACT PARIS SHOWROOM
Paris Showroom is a Paris based team of local experts that helps you find the best place to organize your Fashion Week venue, showroom or event in Paris, among the high quality and functional places and showrooms we have selected in Paris. | {
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} |
Sunday, 21 November 2010
Making A Difference: Jane Goodall
“The least I can do is speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves.”
From the earliest age, Vanne Goodall, Jane's mother, who, along with Grandmother Danny, had a considerable influence on her, encouraging and supporting her daughter in the pursuit of her heart's desire: “You can do whatever you set your mind to.” Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall was born on April 3rd, 1934 into a close-knit family. Four years later, a sister, Judy, who shared the same birthday, was born. Family values such as courage, honesty, compassion and tolerance were instilled into the young Goodall sisters; they were taught to follow their own inclinations and instincts.
(Sources: janegoodall.org, 2010; webster.edu, undated)
Jane and Judy's father, Mortimer Goodall, was in military service. For her first birthday, Mortimer gave Jane a stuffed toy chimpanzee named Jubilee, named after a famous chimpanzee at the London Zoo at that time, which she still treasures to this day.
After the Goodalls divorced, Vanne and her two daughters continued to live with Grandmother Danny at the seaside town of Bournemouth. Animals were an integral part of Jane's childhood, and she loved to play with and care for them (an early fascination with animals was also a trait fostered by her mother). Along with the family there lived a variety of pets, but Rusty, Jane's dog, was by far her favourite. But as much as she enjoyed the company of her friends and pets, she was equally happy to climb up trees where she would sit alone for hours and read (a precocious reader, Tarzan and Dr. Dolittle were among her favourite books and she dreamed of having Dr. Dolittle's ability to converse with the animals). This self-reliance and aptitude for solitude Jane would later find practical in her adult life working as a primatologist, when she was obliged to spend hours alone in observation of wild African chimpanzees.
But life on Bournemouth's seaside would not immune Jane and her family from the onset of World War II and its incipient horrors: the sounds of distant bombings could be heard and planes could be sighted on the horizon. It is alleged that at the age of ten or eleven, Jane saw pictures of Holocaust victims which left a profound impression on her.
(Source: webster.edu, undated)
Goodall family photo before Jane's father, Mortimer, left for war service
After finishing school and unable to afford a university education, the nineteen-year old Jane decided to move to London where she found work as a secretary at a documentary film company (her mother had suggested that secretarial skills were invaluable anywhere in the world and thus, may even afford her the opportunity to travel). While still in London, at the age of twenty-two, an opportunity arose to visit a friend in Kenya. She jumped at the chance and returned to live at home in Bournemouth where she found work as a waitress at a local hotel (she would tuck the money earned each night under the carpet in the drawing room); by the age of twenty-three, she had saved enough of the proceeds from her job to set sail on the Kenya Castle on a round-trip to Africa in 1957. She arrived in Mombasa, Kenya, on April 2nd.
Within weeks of her arrival in Kenya, Jane made an appointment to meet with the famed paleontologist and archaeologist, Dr. Louis Leakey. Taken with her enthusiasm, energy and love of animals, Leakey hired Jane as a secretary/assistant and she accompanied him and his wife, Mary, on an archaeological dig at Olduvai Gorge. Realising that there lacked substantial data in regards to man's closest relative, the chimpanzee, Leakey, as a leading authority on the evolution of man, reasoned that any knowledge gleaned about primates may shed much-needed light on man's own arcane and evolutionary past. Despite her lack of scientific training or professional experience, Jane was eager to undertake the study of a group of wild chimpanzees in Tanzania. The British colonial authorities, however, were none too keen to allow a young Englishwoman alone in the African bush and refused to allow her to travel to the chimpanzee reserve on Lake Tanganyika. (Sources: achievement.org, 2009; janegoodall.org, 2010)
To resolve the bureaucratic impasse, Jane asked her mother to join her in Africa. Together in 1960, mother and daughter arrived at Gombe Stream in Tanzania. At first, Jane was not successful in securing the reticent chimpanzees' trust and in fact, they fled from her on sight and Jane was forced to observe them from a distance through binoculars. Though discouraged by her initial efforts, over the ensuing months, however, she ever so gradually won the trust of a single male chimp, David Greybeard (Jane's unconventional, unheard of habit of assigning chimpanzees names and not the requisite number, as accustomed scientific practice dictated, signalled a departure: Jane believed that in order to understand animal behaviour, the observer must view an animal as an individual and not as a number. Jane's firm belief that chimpanzees were individuals with personalities, emotions and minds of their own also did not bode well with her scientific colleagues). (Sources: achievement.org, 2009; janegoodall.org, 2010)
Jane during her first months at Gombe, observing the chimps through binoculars
It was a commonly held belief that chimpanzees were strictly vegetarian. It was a belief shared by much of the scientific community at the time; that is, until Jane observed something completely unique through her binoculars. One day, Jane discovered David Greybeard feeding on the flesh of a baby bush pig and sharing his meal with a female; during the course of her studies, she would come to realise that chimpanzees hunted monkeys and other small mammals in cohesive, cooperative hunting groups - a hitherto perceived human trait. (Sources: janegoodall.org, 2010; achievement.org, 2009)
But something more astonishing lay in wait. Two weeks after spotting Greybeard eating meat, Jane, while hiking up to the peak spotted Greybeard in the underbrush again, this time at a termite mound. Greybeard was 'fishing' termites out of their mound using a flexible piece of twig. On consecutive visits to the same spot, Jane watched as Greybeard and another chimp, Goliath, as they stripped twigs of their foliage to create termite-fishing 'tools.' What she witnessed was revolutionary in its meaning: for the first time, chimpanzees were seen creating and using tools in order to access food. Up until Jane's observations, anthropologists commonly held the assumption that only human beings were capable - or intelligent enough - to create and use tools, that tool-making was a defining characteristic of humankind. When Jane excitedly wrote to Dr. Leakey of her findings, he famously replied, “Now we must redefine 'tool, ' redefine 'man' or accept chimpanzees as human beings.” Leakey successfully acquired more funding in support of Jane's studies which came to show that chimpanzees live in hierarchical social groups - dominant males vie with one another for the all-important status of alpha male and to gain access to estrus females. (Source & quote: janegoodall.org, 2010)
During her studies in Tanzania, Jane met Dutch wildlife photographer, Hugo van Lawick, whose pictures of Jane at work for the National Geographic Magazine helped garner exposure and support for Jane's research work in Gombe (the two were married in London in 1964). On Dr. Leakey's advice, Jane returned to England to enroll at Cambridge University and earn a doctorate in ethology - the science of studying animal behaviour in its natural environment. In 1965, Jane received her doctorate from Darwin College, Cambridge. After they married, the van Lawicks returned to Gombe where Jane established the Gombe Stream Research Centre. In 1965, with the airing of the National Geographic television program, Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees, Jane came to public (and international) prominence. In 1967, Jane gave birth to their son, Hugo - affectionately nicknamed “Grub” - and, following the example of chimpanzee maternal habits, Jane was in constant touch with her son during the first three years of his life; for much of the 1970s, she promoted this primotological example of child-rearing. (Source: achievement.org, 2009)
Jane and her husband, Hugo van Lawick, divorced in 1974 but remained amicable; they collaborated on the documentary, People of the Forest. Also in the 1970s, Jane began to observe warfare between rival chimpanzee clans, including acute savagery and even cannibalism. As a result of her studies, it has been theorized that our own aggression and warlike tendencies are rooted in our distant, primatological past. Jane once commented, “When I first started at Gombe, I thought the chimps were nicer than we are. But time has revealed that they are not. They can be just as awful.” Of one conflict, the strategy devised by warring chimp clans was to individually hunt down and brutally attack the 'enemy' one at a time, leaving them to succumb to their wounds. While such brutality is disturbing, even shocking, Jane has also been witness to altruistic acts of kindness. For instance, she has observed two infants, orphaned by an epidemic of pneumonia, both adopted by unrelated adolescent males who had themselves lost their own mothers; one male allowed one of the adopted infants to not only share his bedding at night but to cling to him for warmth on cold and rainy nights.
(Source & quote: janegoodall.org, 2010)
In 1977, Jane founded the Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation with the focus on the power of the individual to protect the environment for all living things; it currently has nineteen offices around the globe.
Jane Goodall has become more than a researcher; she's become an outspoken opponent of the usage of chimpanzees in medical research and an advocate for the humane treatment of animals in medical and scientific research laboratories only when no other options exist. She also travels extensively on international speaking and lecture tours - she reportedly travels nearly 300 days a year - to bring attention to the plight of wild chimpanzees and the dangers posed to their natural habitats, including the destructive trade in "bush meat." Her aim is to educate young people to better appreciate and to conserve the natural world around them while promoting the understanding that we all share the planet with other beings. (Source: achievement.org, 2009)
Jane Goodall has also written several authoritative books over the years about her experiences, observations, and insights into chimpanzee society (her 1986 book, The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior, forinstance,has become the definitive book on chimpanzee behaviour and is the culmination of twenty-five years' worth of research and findings in Gombe). Her body of work and expertise form our core knowledge of social learning and behavioural conduct among chimpanzees. In fact, Jane Goodall's work has been instrumental in helping to redefine our concept of primates, particularly chimpanzees, as hominids. (Sources: achievement.org, 2009; janegoodall.org, 2010)
For her years of dedication and indefatigable efforts, Jane has been honoured with numerous awards in recognition of her life's work. These honours have included: the Medal of Tanzania, the National Geographic Society's Hubbard Medal, the Kyoto Prize of Japan, the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research, the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science, and the Gandhi/King Award for Nonviolence. More significantly, in 2002, Jane was appointed as a Messenger of Peace by the United Nations; in 2004, the title of Dame of the British Empire was conferred on her by Queen Elizabeth II. (Source: achievement.org, 2009)
In 2002, in recognition of her life's work, Jane was named the U. N. Messenger of Peace | {
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Estimate Template Fill Line Printable Fillable
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This is very important material to master. Quoted Text below is from one of my Bible classes; the quotes are read from time to time, to remind us of the SIGNIFICANCE of this Beautiful Bible we are so privileged to have. [L.1628 92SD.] If not quoted, it's paraphrased. I believe my pastor was quoting from other theological sources, but when you think over the meaning of the words, you see how apt they are, just the same.
"Verbal Plenary Inspiration" means "God the Holy Spirit so supernaturally directed the human writers of Scripture that, without waiving their intelligence, their individuality, their personal feelings, their literary style, or any other human factor of expression, His Complete and Coherent Message to mankind was recorded with perfect accuracy in the original languages of Scripture: the very words bearing the Authority of Divine Authorship."
So "Verbal" means, "the Bible in its original languages, from first to last (Autograph), is an exact record of the Mind and Will of God as He intended it to be."
So "Plenary" means, "the entire text of the Bible is equally from God, but not necessarily equally-important."
So "Inspiration" means, 2Tim3:16's "God-breathed" (theopneustos): just as God breathed into Adam's nostrils AFTER MAKING HIS BODY and that made Adam EXHALE and thus become a living soul, so also God's breathing of the Word into the Scripture writers produced an 'exhale' of Canon, without waiving any of their own personal attributes.
Note the next verse, which shows the PURPOSE of getting Scripture: to make you mature, proficient, thoroughly equipped for every "good of intrinsic value accomplishment" (true meaning of the Greek word agathos, which Greek lit. and Drama constantly hail).
If you track 1Cor12-13's keywords (esp. meros) in the inspired Greek, you will see that Canon was expected to be completed in WRITING in Paul's day (completion of Head would cause completion of Body). Some tie-in verses reinforcing this fact: the AGE-OLD PROMISE of His Thinking in writing, Jer31:31-34; 2Pet1:20-21, a parallel to 2Tim3:16; Heb4:12; Rev22:6-21.
Then, there's "Infallible" and "Inerrant". "Infallible" means, "incapable of error"; "Inerrant" means, "totally free from error". Note that these terms apply to the original text, NOT to copies or translations. So, the task of textual criticism is, to COMPARE the original-language copies (manuscripts, abbreviated term is "MSS") to see which one is most accurate. Some of the scribes OF the original text made their own changes to suit their OWN opinions, yikes (viz., 1Cor13:3 or 4's kauthesomai is NOT in the Autograph). Some just made booboos, i.e., one scribe capitalized "pros" in James4:5, thus beginning an incredible series of head-scratching by scholars who should know better. Since we have so many copies (some no longer than a verse), and the original languages are both so a) precise and b) so chock-full of multiLAYER nuance and meaning, it becomes CLEAR (though painstaking) which is the "Autograph" (original text) and which is NOT. FAR BETTER WAY TO PROVE AND SEE DEPTH-OF-TRUTH, than if there was one or a few 'nice' manuscripts.
So the task of translation is, to "apprehend the exact thought of the WRITER", not our own, not someone else's. Unfortunately, all the translations are regularly and even predictably tainted by the OPINIONS of the translators; who, in the name of 'translation, not interpretation', CHOPPED OFF meanings that really ARE in the original text; or, ADDED IN meanings which are NOT in the original text. (My websites often illustrate this problem.) In all fairness, Scripture is SOOO very multilevel, it's IMPOSSIBLE to merely translate ALL of the meaning which is REALLY SAID in the original-language texts. However, the way translations chop off or add to the word is always SLANTED to a legalistic, gotta-work-for-God OPINION. It's as predictable as gravity, once you see the original enough, versus any translation.
So if you REALLY want to know God's Word, you have to learn and study it in the original languages. Only a few pastors in the world teach Bible in the original languages to their congregations, but such pastors DO exist. So you can use 1Jn1:9, ask Father in Son's name to direct you to the pastor He wants for you. Never Never Never underestimate God's Power. Your IQ is of no importance, high or low. JUST BE WILLING TO LEARN. | {
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POSTED:
October 12 2017 16:18:41. By Keith Long
- United Score Eight In Dominant Trophy Display
For their third Manchester Football League Murray Trophy fixture Beechfield United from Division 1 faced Division 2 outfit Hindley Juniors. This season the competition has a different format with the teams playing group games so it was vitally important that United collected all three points. With home advantage Beechy were obviously favourites to win the game and they did so in style courtesy of a convincing 8-0 home victory. After making three team changes for the match United were soon into their stride moving the ball around with ease and in midfield Mike Phythian, Steven Erskine and Craig Massey were at the heart of some top quality moves. Beechy forced three successive corners and on one occasion Carl Ravenscroft on the edge of the area fired the ball just over the crossbar. The visitors had some serious defending to do as United continued to produce a constant flow of quick passing moves and two great crosses from both flanks by Andrzej Browne and Mike Rogerson deserved a better finish.
When Hindley Juniors created any worthwhile attacks they developed down the left wing there was no real end product from the visitors and in the opening quarter-hour Beechy keeper Rob Harrison was virtually no more than a spectator. Following a few more classic moves ruined by Hindley's offside tactic it was no real surprise that United took the lead in the twenty fifth minute. When the Hindley Juniors keeper gathered the ball following a back pass the referee had no option but to award Beechy a free kick and after Jamie Sinnott had casually played the ball back to Mike Phythian United's midfield man superbly hammered it home through a crowded area from 25 yards. A superb pass by Jordan Jones-Waite set-up Jamie Sinnott for a neat finish but the match official disallowed the goal for offside. Some of United's on-touch passing moves were a joy to watch and just after the half hour mark Beechy went 2-0 up when a cross cum shot by Jordan Jones-Waite floated over the keeper and dropped into the net.
Following more excellent football from Beechy the third goal arrived in the 39th minute via a vicious swerving shot from Jamie Sinnott and though the Hindley keeper got both hands on the ball he could only help it into the net. Hindley Juniors first direct shot on target came in the 41st minute but the attempt from their No3 was wide of the target. As the second half unfolded United continued to dominate the contest and after a wonderful piece of skill by Jamie Sinnott the ball was at the feet of Steven Erskine who's first time effort dipped just over the crossbar. A couple of minutes later the overworked Hindley Juniors keeper managed to hold onto the ball following an attempt to score by Andrzej Browne. In this one-sided match United's defensive quartet of Mike Rogerson, Tim Taylor and Luke Johnston were rarely under pressure and the latter netted the fourth goal from close range after the keeper dropped the ball following a Mike Phythian free kick. Jamie Sinnott scored goal number five when the referee deemed he was fouled by the visitors keeper and United's No9 blasted home the resulting spot-kick.
Beechy made a couple of substitutions with Rob Lockley and Tom Allcock taking over from Andrzej Browne and Carl Ravenscroft. Despite being outplayed Hindley Juniors never let their heads drop but they simply had no answer to United's overall strength and ability. A stunning strike from outside the area completed a memorable hat-trick for Jamie Sinnott who made it 6-0 then minutes later Jamie was replaced by Kurtis Lee. Rob Harrison made a rare save but within seconds Beechy were back on the attack and great play on the right flank involving Kurtis Lee and Rob Lockley led to Jordan Jones-Waite being left with an easy strikers finish for 7-0. After Kurtis Lee completed the scoring Hindley Juniors produced a late attacking surge and Mike Rogerson displayed his defensive qualities with several top-class headed clearances. During the last piece of action the visitors No7 who was hoping to get his side a consolation goal fired the ball into the waiting arms of Robert Harrison. | {
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Thumbs-up: To Honor Flight Chicago for taking two local World War II veterans to Washington, D.C., Wednesday to visit veterans’ memorials. Joe Bussone of Sycamore and Pete Johnson of DeKalb were among the 86 veterans who made the all-expenses-paid trip. The group toured the National World War II Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Thomas Jefferson Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum. They also got a warm welcome back home at Midway Airport, which they appreciated. “I would go again just for this reception right here,” Joe Bussone said. “People giving thanks and appreciation.”
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For many years, short-read sequencing has been the bread and butter of bacterial studies at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. Now, long-read sequencing is helping us to interpret bacterial genomes and understand how they evolve.
Short-read sequencing works by splitting the DNA of various microscopic organisms into small pieces that can then be sequenced. Researchers can then rebuild these small pieces into the whole genome of the bacteria.
This type of sequencing, sometimes referred to as shotgun sequencing, has seen huge drops in price over the past few years. Whereas we used to sequence the genome of one bacterium at a time, we can now sequence many thousands of disease-causing bugs, thus forming a picture of the entire population of each species.
We typically sequence billions of the small DNA pieces, giving reads of sequence around 100 base-pairs in length. This works very well for finding small, single-base, differences between samples. These variants are ubiquitous in human DNA, and researchers working in human genetics have carried out studies which have been able to show how these relate to disease susceptibility as well as traits such as height.
In bacteria, however, we often have much larger and more complex variations in sequence that can be unique to a single strain. In these cases, longer reads are necessary to reconstruct the entire sequence.
The recent development of SMRT (single-molecule real time) sequencing has helped us start to tackle this issue. While short-read sequencing makes lots of copies of small DNA segments then reads them all at once, SMRT reads single DNA molecules one base at a time producing much longer reads. The results are slower, but the genomes are easier to reconstruct.
SMRT sequencing can be used to analyse function of restriction modification systems in Streptococcus pneumoniae. Credit: Public Health Image Library, CDC
Not only do we get reads with mean lengths of many thousands of base pairs, we can also report methylation at each base. Methyl markers act as on and off switches on the DNA that can affect how other machinery in the cell interprets the coding sequence.
In a recent news and analysis article ‘R–M systems go on the offensive‘, Rebecca Gladstone and I look at some of the uses of SMRT sequencing for analysing function of restriction modification systems in the bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae (a common cause of pneumonia).
Restriction modification systems are a bacterial equivalent of an immune system, cutting invading DNA into pieces while protecting the bacteria’s DNA through methylation. Under constant threat from rapidly evolving viruses, the bacterial population must be able to rapidly switch which sequence pattern they recognise, otherwise the viruses would be able to systematically avoid their defences.
A recent study used SMRT sequencing to find the different possible DNA arrangements of the restriction modification system, which allows the bacteria to survive this viral onslaught. In a concurrent study, bacteria with different DNA arrangements were grown in the lab, and SMRT technology was used to find the different methylation patterns these rearrangements cause, and their knock-on effect on virulence.
Taken together, these studies suggest that a mechanism that exists to defend against viruses also has an effect on whether or not the bacteria cause disease in humans – an important finding that may help us better understand why only some of these bacteria lead to illnesses such as pneumonia and meningitis.
Restriction modification systems are proving to be a very important part of bacterial evolution, and new technologies such as SMRT sequencing will continue to advance our ability to understand them.
John Lees a second year PhD student at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. He works with Stephen Bentley and Julian Parkhill in the Pathogen Genomics group, and Jeff Barrett in the Medical Genomics group. John’s research involves combining human and pathogen sequencing data derived from cases of bacterial meningitis in the Netherlands. He’s currently interested in developing tools for association analysis, and applying them in this context. | {
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“Things are correlated. Even if we hire the Lebanese University’s contract professors as full-timers, we will not be able to pay for their salaries, because there is no legislation and there is a stuck ranks and salaries scale,” Bou Saab said in a news conference after meeting Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain al-Tineh.
Bou Saab said that if Parliament did not meet and legislate, “we will move from one vacuum to another, and face a problem that is difficult for the Lebanese people to handle.”
The minister praised Berri’s contributions toward resolving the issue of the contract professors, saying that “if not for his positive role we could not have reached any solutions."
Bou Saab said Thursday that of the 4,000 contract professors, the university could only hire about 400 full-timers. He added that he had held several meetings with political blocs over the last 40 days and would continue doing so until a deal was reached.
The contract professors at LU held a protest Thursday near the Grand Serail to coincide with the Cabinet meeting. Following the session, Bou Saab met with the protesters who were angered by the ministers’ failure to act.
“I wanted to give you some good news about the university file, but unfortunately, the issue has not been resolved yet,” Bou Saab told reporters after the meeting. “The Lebanese University will be in real danger if the issue of contract teachers is not resolved next week.”
As in every public institution, the government is trying to achieve a sectarian balance in the appointments.
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Education Minister Elias Bou Saab said Friday that the government would not be able to pay the Lebanese University professors' wages once moved from contracts to full-time employment, due to lack of legislative approval, the National News Agency reported.
Bou Saab said Thursday that of the 4,000 contract professors, the university could only hire about 400 full-timers.
Following the session, Bou Saab met with the protesters who were angered by the ministers' failure to act. | {
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Josh Forde, owner of developer Fordesoft, posted on their blog that he wants to give a copy of Super Blackout on PlayStation Vita to those who already had purchased the PlayStation Mobile version. PlayStation Mobile, sadly, was shut down this past September and users can no longer download purchased content from the store.
The puzzle game launches this Tuesday for PlayStation Vita at a $4.99 price point but if you want it to be free you’ll have to track down the purchase email sent by the PlayStation Store. If you can find the date purchased and the order number, email it to Fordesoft and they will be able to send you a code for the Vita version within the week.
Forde stresses to make sure the information is correct, as he can’t send out codes to those whose information doesn’t match the sales record. | {
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In the present report we describe a 3-D maze spatial navigation task for rats based on a
modification of an eight-arm radial maze. The arms radiating from a central platform can be
presented in a horizontal plane either raised 10 cm above the level of a central platform or lowered 10
cm below. Memory of visited and non-visited arms can be guided by distinct internal cues (patterns)
that are presented on panels set at the end of each arm. Rats are trained in three different maze
configurations (eight session each) with arms set lowered, flattened or raised relative to a central
platform. A food pellet is placed at the end of each arm and rats are allowed to make eight arm
choices only, in each testing session. In this task rats perform better when moving uphill to raised
arms than when moving on flattened arms or when moving downhill to lowered arms. It is likely that
spatial navigation on raised arms is based on visual cues that were highly visible from the central
platform. This result can be accounted for by the position of the rats' eyes that are placed laterally on
the sides of their heads. | {
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Shamanic Pharmacology and the Wisdom of Experience
Almost seventy years since Albert Hoffman first synthesized LSD-25, inaugurating the rediscovery of consciousness expanding substances in the West, the wise application of psychedelics yet escapes recognition in most of the modern world. One of the first scholars to shed light on the matter by illuminating the original context of visionary medicine was Gordon Wasson, who began publishing on the use of psilocybin mushrooms among the Mazatec people of Oaxaca Mexico in the early 50s. Inspired by a mystical experience in which he saw God in the company of a medicine woman named Maria Sabina, Wasson went on to write extensively about the traditional use of psychoactive plants. Research on the use of plant sacraments like peyote, ayahuasca, and iboga corroborate much of what Wasson outlined about the role of visionary plants in tribal culture. The well-read scholar should now be aware that what modern society has come to dismiss as mere hallucinogens are frequently elements of shamanic medicines used to both cure disease and obtain information from the supernatural realm.
LSD therapy enjoyed considerable success in psychiatry before it was nationally prohibited in 1970 and all authorized scientific investigation ceased. The last two decades have enjoyed a cautious resurgence of studies on mind-altering drugs. John Hopkins University now informs us that smoking cannabis is the single best preventative measure for Alzheimer’s disease. Research at Harvard confirms the efficacy of psilocybin to treat cluster headaches. It is promising that these dynamic medicines are finding their way back into the laboratory, but it should also be noted that such discoveries pale in comparison to the traditions of holistic healing developed by plant shamans over the last several millennia. Throughout history medicine men and women have taken responsibility as doctors for entire tribes, and today terminal cancer patients, severe drug addicts, and more are finding their way back from shamanic ceremonies healed from what western medicine couldn’t treat. It is important to realize that much of the healing ability of shamans comes from information derived from the visionary experience, such as what other medicinal plants are appropriate for an individual patient. Even the most comprehensive clinical trials will always overlook such learning experiences, likewise any role the spirit world might play, while testing only for the immediate curative properties of chemicals.
To help us move toward a deeper understanding of shamanic plant medicine, I would like to engage a widely held misconception about ayahuasca and related medicines while putting attention on the indispensability of experience and traditional wisdom for learning about consciousness expanding plants. Ayahuasca tea is often made from the combination of the ayahuasca vine (Banisteriopsis caapi) and chacruna leaves (Psychotria genus); though a wide variety of admixture plants are preferred in different circumstances. It is widely held that ayahuasca vine and chacruna are individually inactive, only potent when mixed together. Thusly, it is held up as a great mystery how ancient rainforest dwellers might have discovered such combinations among the millions of plants that grow in the Amazon. The simple explanation is that both and likely all medicinal plants are individually active as long as they are properly prepared. Yet moreover, indigenous shamans when asked how they know the properties of so many plants answer consistently and without ambiguity that the plants told them. Most disregard the straightforward explanation yet the acquainted continue to be mystified by the prodigious knowledge shamans possess.
The pharmaceutical principle that purportedly demonstrates why combinations such as ayahuasca vine and chacruna leaves work together and not separately is based on the relation of a digestive enzyme called monoamine-oxidase to alkaloids known as tryptamines. Monoamine-oxidase (MAO) is normally present in the stomach and intestines where it aids in the breakdown of such substances as aged food and stimulants, also tryptamines. Many well-known psychedelic alkaloids are tryptamines such as psilocybin, LSD, and the various dimethyltriptamines (DMT). Harmala alkaloids such as those present in ayahuasca vine act as monoamine-oxidase-inhibitors (MAOIs). By deactivating MAO enzymes, ayahuasca vine and other MAOIs tend to potentiate the action of oral tryptamines dramatically. For example, the peak of a psilocybin mushroom experience normally begins to level off immediately, the rate of digestion by MAO having caught up to the rate of psilocybin’s passage into the bloodstream, but a full inhibitory dose of harmala alkaloids can prolong the peak of a mushroom experience for up to ten hours, having halted the action of MAO completely. It has become well established that pure crystalline nn-DMT, by contrast to psilocybin, is only orally psychoactive in combination with MAOIs, since nn-DMT is broken down too rapidly in the presence of MAO for it to have a chance to reach the brain at all. It is held, therefore, that DMT containing plants, such as chacruna, are only orally effective in combination with sufficiently strong MAO-inhibitors like ayahuasca vine.
With respect to an ayahuasca analogue made form plants found in North America I can speak most definitively. The visionary mixture with which I am most well researched and experienced is the brew sometimes called juremahuasca made from syrian rue (Paganum harmala) and jurema preta (Mimosa tenuiflora, Acacia tenuiflora, or Mimosa hostilis). Though syrian rue and ayahuasca vine feature a slightly different set of alkaloids as well as a difference in character which might best be described as a desert spirit by contrast to a rainforest spirit, they are practically identical in pharmaceutical function. Both contain harmala alkaloids and are strong acting MAO-inhibitors. Jurema preta, like chacruna, is a potent source of few alkaloids other then nn-DMT and is ritually mixed with syrian rue as chacruna is with ayahuasca vine. By the same principle that precludes the exclusive activity of vine and chacruna leaf, it is said that jurema is not orally active in the absence of MAOIs. Provably, boiling DMT containing herbs in combination with adequate harmala alkaloids produces beverages with all the visionary qualities the plants are known to have, while boiling such plants by themselves produces non-visionary tea. One too many assumptions is made, however, in extrapolating that DMT containing plants thus require separate MAOIs to experience their effects, as the case of jurema preta makes clear.
Jurema preta, known as tepescohuite in southern Mexico, is not the most subtle tree. While its leaves and branches resemble a typical wattle or acacia, its bark is strikingly pink, an oily outer layer that peels cleanly from the white hardwood beneath. Toward the base of the trunk the bark approaches light violet, transitioning into dark purple as one reaches the roots, where the sticky-gooey bark continues to peel readily off the hardwood of the roots proper. Tepescohuite is tenacious, extremely fast growing, and thorny, occupying dense regions between Mexico and Brazil. During the day, the thin, oily and astringent leaves extend bipinnate to 180 degrees on both sides of the stems, while at night they fold closed in a gesture suggesting retirement for sleep. On the coast of Oaxaca where I have harvested myself, I found the soil beneath the trees scattered with colorful reptiles and quartz crystals, large butterflies and elfin insects filling the whole area with an aura of enchantment. Rather early in my relationship with these potent purple phantoms, I began to wonder if the visionary properties of these auspicious trees might not be accessible in some other way besides extracted or combined with MAOIs. Simply being in the presence of tepescohuite seems to affect a subtle head change, and anyone with a natural proclivity for communicating with plants is bound to notice from the get-go a distinct telepathic presence. The well-known shamanic preparations of jurema preta utilize the root bark in combination with harmala containing plants; else the extract is smoked, snorted, or injected intravenously so as to bypass MAO in the gut. Because the primary psychoactive constituent of the plant is nn-DMT, it is presumed non-orally active when used without MAO-inhibitors.
Leading entheobotanist Jonathon Ott put it succinctly enough when he said: “It isn't so much that I ‘seem to think’ that Mimosa [tenuiflora] is active without MAOI added, but rather that I know this, having felt it in my own body in the only valid scientific analysis I know: the psychonautic bioassay.” So have I, and so have uncountable curanderos through the ages. Simply chewing the raw bark is a perfectly viable means to achieve third eye vision, and a common traditional method of preparation is simply to soak the material in cold water and then drink it; a decedent of the Zapotecans in Oaxaca Mexico told me so, showing surprise at the idea of an any more elaborate preparation. The tea thus taken has all the visionary power of smoked DMT, a longer duration, and ayahuasca-like purgative properties. In fact, the only way I know to render the root bark inactive is to kill it, for example, by boiling it in water. Perhaps the first scholar to challenge the inaccuracy, Jonathon Ott proposed a tentative theory to the effect that the raw form of the bark contains, in addition to nn-DMT, various tryptamines with the nn-DMT molecule as the base but with the attachment of additional chemical groups that resist breakdown by MAO for adequate time to facilitate assimilation (somewhat like the difference between psilocin and psilocybin but pertaining to internal rather then external preservation). A compound meeting that description was recently isolated from mimosa tenuiflora and named yuremamine, though its mechanism of action remains to be proven. While science plods along in these discernments, the misconception that jurema preta is individually inactive because it is DMT-based persists in much publication.
Based on my study of jurema preta, I would boldly extend the hypothesis that chacruna and other traditionally employed DMT source plants are perfectly viable raw as well. Unlike mimosa tenuiflora, a low percentage of alkaloids in psychotria viridis are actually beta-carbolines (typically viable MAOIs; the class of indole alkaloid that includes the harmalas). I have only encountered one reference to the use of pure chacruna for visionary medicine, used in a combination of cold water infusion and bath water, but neither have I found any clear contradiction to my theory, such as an unsuccessful bioassay with a strong chacruna infusion or a definitive word from a native. Regardless, there is no doubt at all that syrian rue and ayahuasca vine are individually active, despite much hearsay to the contrary. Indeed, such claims are in pointed incongruity with the active tradition of ayahuasca use. Western pharmacology has largely interpreted the function of the harmala containing plants to be little more then the catalyst of orally active DMT, but it is no coincidence that the vine is considered the foremost power in every native tradition and that ayahuasca teas containing vine and admixtures are always named for the vine, never the tryptamine component. Shamanic rituals often employ ayahuasca vine by itself; so Amazonian hunters use it to gain the prowess of the jaguar.
From a strong dose of syrian rue, I first simply notice that I'm feeling particularly clear headed, perhaps in spite of a little nausea, that my normally congested thought patterns are beginning to dissolve into non-ego oriented lucidity. Before I know it, my mind has utterly transcended mundane preoccupations and is souring the cosmos in even contemplation of eternity, animals develop greater affinity for me, and plants seem ready to teach me. As the effect of syrian rue takes hold in the mind, one begins to get the sense of the plant’s personality and role. Abnormally meandering thoughts begin to feel guided and arranged by an intent present in or coming through the plant to communicate an integrated higher wisdom. I’ve found that at a certain dose of syrian rue, a startling open eye visual phenomenon begins involving a sort of light tracer that reacts to the movement of my eyes, but I’m still not sure what it is I’m seeing at this point, and I find it takes the addition of a only a moderate amount of an admixture like jurema preta to make the vision clear. Amazonians offer the classification of ayahuasca vine as ‘la fuerza’ (the force) and chacruna leaves and similar admixtures as, ‘la luz’ (the light). Still, many report visions from use of the ayahuasca vine alone, and some tribesmen have even expressed perplexity that one might not, asserting that they only add chacruna to make the brew ‘sweeter.’ In any case, the addition of tryptamine containing plants to harmala based tea certainly removes any ambiguity regarding the visionary quality of the medicine, but in this regard I only refer to ‘visionary’ in sense of third eye sight. Regardless of the precise quality of extra-visual perception they might provide, the notion that ayahuasca vine and syrian rue are not profoundly illuminating, entheogenic, and consciousness expanding on their own is malarkey.
How the notion became popular that such shamanic staples as ayahuasca vine and syrian rue are independently inactive is a mystery to me. It is as though a conglomeration of white coat types got far too publish-happy without ever having ingested a respectable quantity of the remedy they profess to know, typical enough of western medicine I suppose. To say nothing of the anti-inflammatory, analgesic, anti-bacterial, anthelmintic, anti-protozoal, anti-oxidant, and general potentiating properties of ayahuasca vine and syrian rue, which could easily be sufficient to inspire a medicinal custom in themselves; the proof of these plant’s potent psychoactive properties is only a dose away. Admittedly, the effect of MAOIs can be somewhat subtle at the minimum dose required to potentiate DMT, and it is often assumed erroneously that higher doses are redundant, but a good dose like ten grams of syrian rue or thirty grams of ayahuasca vine, raw or decocted, will surely end anyone’s doubts. Harmala plants invoke a process of holistic cleansing, ego-dissolution, engagement with a wisdom teacher, and a broad opening of the mind and senses; not to mention the telepathic properties (for which the harmala alkaloid harmine was originally named telepathine).
The work of Cleve Backster with plants and polygraph machines has revealed and made popular surprising evidence that plants have sophisticated intelligence, efficient means of interspecies communication, and a wide range of emotional activity. Little do most of us realize that shamans have been communicating with plants for millennia, learning healing songs from them, in the Amazon called ikaros. Ayahuasca vine is said to be first and foremost a teacher, known to impart telepathic wisdom about, for one thing, whatever food or medicine it is combined with. Jeremy Narby’s research on the traditional use of ayahuasca makes a strong case that this information is derived through direct interface with DNA, observing also that many visions described by ayahuasqueros depict cellular life much as biologists with microscopes do. Many shamanic traditions especially that of ayahuasca involve divining which other medicinal plants a particular patient needs. Ayahuasqueros are respected for the number of ikaros they know, that is the number of plant medicines they are proficient in using, and ayahuasca teas are prepared with a great variety of additional plants depending on the purpose of the occasion.
So, not only does ayahuasca vine potentiate the properties of plant medicine in general, as in its MAOI activity, it can even facilitate direct communication with other plants and in particular the learning of their medicinal properties. Opening and cleansing diverse perceptual channels and clearing all obstacles to the metabolism of tryptamines, it seems ostensible that practice with the vine can only lead to the discovery of such especially strong ‘light’ plants as chacruna. Indeed, there are many plants potent in DMT and other psychoactive alkaloids besides chacruna in the Amazon, and few of them have traditions of use exclusive to that of the vine in regions where the vine is also local. Knowledge of the independently powerful ayahuasca vine surely leads to the discovery of visionary admixtures local to the shaman. For further consideration, while gathering jurema preta root bark, I noticed that the trees were often entwined branch to vine with passionflower, a pleasant though weaker MAOI. You could break of a branch to throw into your pot and have to pull the two apart to prevent the natural synergy. It would stand to reason that plants are not designed to obscure their medicinal properties. For those with the wisdom and humility to talk with her, mama earth is an open book who loves you.
Rather then elucidating the raw vs. cooked properties of jurema preta, scientific investigation has done little but to suggest retrospectively some tentative explanations for what is experientially clear: that jurema preta root bark is perfectly active raw but non-active when boiled in the absence of a separate MAOI. The precise reason, except in as much as essential alkaloids are apparently broken down or dissolved, is not yet elucidated by science. Traditional ayahuasca mythology, by contrast, offers interesting clues. “Huasca" means vine or rope and the prefix “aya” suggests "of souls,” “spirits" or "of the dead." Primary to the shamanic experience is perception of the soul realm, dream-time, or astral plane. Here the experience of contact with dead relatives is not uncommon even for novices, and accounts of shamanic mediation of deceased spirits are frequent even in Biblical history. I hypothesize that after death communication is one of the particular specialties of the ayahuasca vine, as concretized in its functionality with other plants. For example, the living jurema preta tree is perfectly prepared to affect you, but when its bark is boiled and, among other changes, its living enzymes killed, the plant loses its oral-activity unless combined with a potent MAOI. Pharmacologically, boiling jurema results in the reduction of a delicate balance of alkaloids to more or less pure nn-DMT. If crystals are memory systems then nn-DMT is the immortal spirit of jurema preta. After death, jurema’s vision can only be unlocked by a plant with the rope-to-astral power of ayahuasca.
It is well known that mushroom tea must be steeped, because boiling mushrooms will destroy their experiential properties. How is it then that the assumption of jurema preta’s oral inactivity become commonplace when proof to the contrary is as simple as trying it raw? Is it just too bitter? For one thing, I think it’s fair to say that Western culture tends to give far too little consideration to the consequences of cooking things. It has occurred to few of us that we are the only species on the planet that ritually destroys the living enzymatic content of most of our food before ingestion. At minimum, cooking reduces vitamin and other nutritional content to a great extent and eliminates all living enzymes, a certain quantity of which is absolutely vital for digestion. The profound properties of only raw psilocybin mushrooms, jurema preta, and others plants suggest to me that the food-killing paradigm could have even graver consequences, perhaps removing us from health regulating mechanisms and primary perceptions innate and enjoyed by rest of the biosphere. If this is the case, the harmala containing plants could prove a crucial tool for transcending the consequences of our cooking proclivities and consciously reconnecting us with the living earth.
More generally, the error in reasoning that led to the assumption of pure mimosa tenuiflora’s oral inactivity is fairly plain to see in retrospect. The science proved that pure nn-DMT is only orally active when MAO is inhibited. It was a reasonable hypothesis then that therefore plants in which nn-DMT is the primary alkaloid are only functional in combination with their harmala containing counterparts, yet it was clearly non sequitur by way of a logical proof. Obviously, the pharmacological analysis failed to account for the possibility of alternative MAOI mechanisms in the raw plant, for one thing. What makes this otherwise forgivable oversight troubling was the abject failure to compliment scientific analysis, often biased by patterns of removed linear thinking, with the evidence of disciplined self-experimentation and the testimony of well-practiced natives, with the benefit of which the faulty conclusion could never have become so widely circulated. Focused study of the chemistry and pharmacology of visionary plants is an interesting approach to the time-honored sacraments, worth expanding, but is in no way sufficient to supplant the accumulated knowledge of tribal shamans. Even the experiences of neophytes with what we would do well to realize are conscious teacher plants are probably more generally informative then any kind of conventional experimentation, just as a conversation is almost certain to be more revealing of human character then any number of brain scans.
Conscious of the profound healing qualities of visionary medicine, I certainly hesitate to criticize the resurgence of academic interest in shamanic sacraments, which appears to be the forefront of the well-intentioned effort to bring the benefits of traditional plant medicine to Western culture. Yet when I see, for example, the CBS news expose on the iboga extract centered on how early scientific studies such as tests on rats and mice indicate that ibogaine could prove effective as a broad spectrum treatment for addictions, I want to puke. The video barely acknowledges the traditional context of the plant’s traditional use in Gabon Africa, and far from crediting tribal shamans with sophisticated knowledge of iboga’s medicinal action it implies that our only indications of the plant’s efficacy are the results of recent clinical trials. The reporters claim outright that no long term studies on the use of this plant exist yet, perpetuating ignorance of the many generations of effective application within the Bwiti and Fang tribes. Once again, even the accounts of modern drug experimenters reveal far more than all the laboratory experiments performed up to this point, to wit the many people who have actually achieved a remedy for the near impossible affliction of opiate addiction. Conservatives and even Albert Hoffman in the 60s lamented the escape of LSD and other psychedelics from the laboratory into the hands of popular culture, but the truth has to recognized that objective science is hopelessly out of its element in engaging the transcendental teacher plants; individual practice with shamanic sacraments is really the only way to learn from them, else listening to the songs and stories of those that do. We ought to let the indigenous be our guides in the many respects their wisdom far surpasses ours, but instead the prejudice of primitivism holds sway, and we continue in our blind and self-destructive relationship with mother earth, oblivious to the healing wisdom she offers us with every fresh sprout. It is of the utmost importance that we overcome our ethnocentric vanity in order to become aware that shamans and their tribes have a vastly more profound understanding of spiritual healing then most of us have yet guessed exists, as well as the contentment of a felt awareness of the divine on earth, available to all the humans humble enough to learn. | {
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RELATED CONTENT
A growing number of eyecare practices are taking advantage of smart phones, email and text messaging to stay connected with the patients who are at home, at work, or otherwise on the move. Using specially designed software, they are scheduling appointments, reminding patients of their appointments, informing patients about new products or upcoming events, or answering questions after hours. Many practices are also using social networks to foster a dialogue with patients.
Kevin Gee, OD, a private practitioner in Missouri City, Texas, favors the Solution Reach system, formerly known as Smile Reminder, for communicating with patients and posting to Twitter and Facebook. His staff sends patients multiple appointment confirmation messages by email and text, a technique he said is particularly effective.
“We send out confirmations a week ahead, two days ahead and three hours ahead of their appointment,” explained Dr. Gee. “If the patient confirms at one week or three days before, they get a simple reminder message after that. If, at the three-hour mark there’s no confirmation, we assume they’re not going to keep the appointment. That frees the office to take that patient off the books. No-shows usually happen within three hours,” he noted.
Dr. Kevin Gee.
Dr. Gee also believes that conducting surveys of his patients is vital to helping him optimize the patient experience at his practice. “We have a 21 percent survey return rate, which is pretty good. These questions are very specific, and patients can even rank individual staff members on their performance. We send a follow up email after an appointment, which is automated thru SolutionReach. Patients have the opportunity to send their comments, which get posted to a review website as well as to Google. Reviews are quite vital. We call it the glass ceiling. It keeps everyone accountable, including the doctor.”
Several other vendors offer tools to help the practice assess patient feedback.
DocPIES EyeCare features a patient experience survey based on the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) protocol from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a U.S. Government agency.
A new company, focalCenter, has launched a validated and standardized eyecareScore survey that provides eye doctors, clinics, optical retailers, or vision plans a standardized method for determining how their patients’ experiences compare to their peers and over time. According to focalCenter president, Ron Krefman, OD, eyecareScore is a “visit-specific patient experience measure developed with the latest survey science methodology.”
Wineinger Eyecare, an optometric practice in Shawnee, Kan. uses a variety of electronic tools to survey patients, send them information and schedule appointments. “We use Demandforce to text patients two hours before their appointment,” said Ryan Wineinger, OD, referring to the automated marketing and communications program that integrates with Eyefinity/OfficeMate, his practice management system. “It allows more intimate communication with our patients. We send them a text to remind them about their appointment, or when their eyewear or contact lenses are ready. It’s instantaneous.”
Dr. Wineinger said that sending out appointment reminders this way helps his practice run more efficiently because, “it keeps putting patients in our chairs.” He also noted that using multiple methods of electronic communication to patients boosts his practice’s visibility. “We send out our quarterly newsletter via email. Depending upon the time of year, we can also coordinate reminder appointment with information about sunglass trends, or remind patients to use their Flex spending. It creates a more enjoyable atmosphere for patients.”
Integrating Demandforce with Eyefinity/OfficeMate and a patient’s electronic medical records allows Dr. Wineinger to easily gather information about their eye health and then email them specific information about product and treatment options. For example, he might send a 14 year-old information about wearing contact lenses in the summer while swimming.
Other program features let him read patient reviews online and access the practice’s Facebook page. “When a patient comes to see us, they get a thank-you email within 24 hours. They can select a button, fill out a survey and review us on Demandforce. Those reviews get driven straight to our Facebook page and Google. We respond to every one, including a bad review.” He noted that he also uses Demandforce to conduct surveys, which can include customized questions.
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What is the site about.
This site is an exploration of Geek Culture, featuring reviews, commentary,videos, podcasts and other geeky nonsense
About Me
I am a longtime fan of science fiction, fantasy, comic books, gaming and a podcasting enthusiast. Also a former Employee of Wizards of the Coast, and one of the founding members of the Camarilla Fan organization. In addition to my work here I am a reviewer on the Youtube series The Video Nasty Project and a frequent contributor to the horror movie podcast Don't Read the Latin.
Follow me on Twitter @fanboy_network
Email: [email protected]
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/dr_caliban
Tumblr: http://fanboy-news-network.tumblr.com/ | {
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I-Tried-It-Tuesday: Lash Extensions
Today I learned that sometimes beauty dreams really do come true. Ladies, I am the proud owner of a brand new set of lash extensions—and I’ve been shamelessly batting them all day.
Judging by the number of mascara posts and comments I’ve seen here, I know I’m not the only lash-obsessed person up on this blog. So I’m assuming most of you have heard of Xtreme Lashes? The company has been around for about four years, but I’ve never had the chance to try out their lash extensions until today. I’m so sold on these babies! Check out the results:
My lashes pre-extensions.
My new loooong lashes.
I'm not even wearing mascara!
I got them done by Master Lash Stylist, Noor, who must have the most patience of anyone I’ve ever met. She spent over two hours attaching tiny little hairs to each and every one of my lashes. And get this: Noor says that for photo shoots, the process can take up to six hours!! That’s pretty intense. The good news is, the extensions last three to four weeks and you can save a little time in the morning since you don’t have to wear mascara. The bad news is the price: They run between $200 to $500. Not exactly recession friendly, but for a major event like a wedding, I think they’re worth squeezing into the budget.
Would you drop serious bank on lash extensions? Have any of you ever had them before? | {
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Humanity has wiped out 60% of animal populations since 1970, report finds
Humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970, leading the world’s foremost experts to warn that the annihilation of wildlife is now an emergency that threatens civilisation.
Indigenous peoples are crucial for conservation – a quarter of all land is in their hands.
Do Conservation Strategies Need to Be More Compassionate?
Some scientists and ethicists are criticizing traditional conservation strategies, which they say focus on saving valued species while discounting the lives of less charismatic animals. Will these advocates of “compassionate conservation” point the way to new approaches, or are they simply being naïve?
Indigenous Peoples and local communities have been conserving their lands and forests for centuries. But the rise of “fortress conservation” is forcing them from their homes, hurting people and forests alike.
Code of conduct needed for ocean conservation, study says.
A diverse group of the world's leading experts in marine conservation is calling for a Hippocratic Oath for ocean conservation ? Not unlike the pledge physicians take to uphold specific ethical standards when practicing medicine.
To conserve tropical forests and wildlife, protect the rights of people who rely on them.
Many of our planet’s most beautiful areas are also sites of intense conflicts. In a recent example, traditional herdsmen in February took over the land around Mount Kenya, which is a World Heritage Site and biodiversity hotspot, burning down the tourist lodge and bringing in thousands of cattle to graze. | {
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"We have identified the root cause and have pushed a fix that we believe will resolve this issue for affected customers. Please note that in order to receive this fix, you will have to manually connect affected devices to a network."
Update the policies. Once connected, the Chrome device will automatically fetch an updated Chrome policy, which will resolve this issue. To ensure that the policies are updated, go to chrome://policy and press Reload policies.
Once you complete these steps, the Chrome device will reconnect to the managed WiFi network automatically. | {
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Merced County DA's son sued after fatal crash
MERCED, Calif.
The family of a man killed in a collision with the teenage son of Merced County's district attorney has filed a wrongful death suit.
Dylan Morse is charged with vehicular manslaughter and drunken driving in connection with the Valentine's Day crash in Sonoma County. The 18-year-old has pleaded not guilty.
Attorney Patrick Emery, who represents the parents of victim Alexander Ruiz, says they are also suing Morse's passenger, Ryne Spitzer, and Safeway Inc. The parents allege the grocer should not have sold beer to the underage teens.
The California Highway Patrol says Morse, with a blood-alcohol level at twice the legal limit, ran a light and broadsided Ruiz.
Morse's attorney, Chris Andrian, and Safeway officials did not comment. | {
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