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Apocalypitc Heaven: 7 Must-Install 'Fallout 4' Mods You Can Get Right Now
Today marks the momentous occasion when console owners (XBOX One owners that is) can revel in the mods the PC gaming community has enjoyed since Fallout 4's released in November of 2015. Could the face of console gaming be forever modified (lol)? Perhaps. But let's not focus on the grandeur outcome of this event and rather draw our attention to some of the bat-shit crazy and beautifully conceived mods people have created for Bethesda's glorious RPG.
Fallout 4: Mods? MODS!
From the creators of a weather mod for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, comes an overhaul to Fallout 4's weather unlike anything you've seen this Summer.
At one point in 2015, True Storms was the fifth highest ranked Skyrim mod on nexusmods with over 10,000 endorsements. Its heralded return is an impressive feat by creator fadingsignal, one that sees heavy rains, dust storms, radiation rains, new unique weathers, sound effects, particle effects, textures and more introduced into Fallout 4. If you feel like you need more immersion for this fantastic, albeit glitchy video game, look no further than this impressive feat!
Hey, that's a lot of storms you've just added to your game! Looks like you're gonna need a better place to stay, huh? Don't worry we got you covered.
Homemaker - Expanded Settlements is a mod that adds over 1000 new craft-able objects, encompassing a great deal of the base game's paraphernalia. It also includes new build sets, working planters and much more. So what are you waiting for, Sole Survivor? Go build that dream home of yours!
Now that you're comfortable in your abode you're gonna want to make sure its secure, right? Aren't you tired of having your settlements raided? Aren't you just looking for some better equipment to protect your loved ones and the 40 million aluminum cans you've amassed? Well fear no more, dear citizen: Robot Home Defense is here to help!
Ever found yourself staring at your sole survivor thinking, "Why the hell did you just say that?" Don't worry, you're not alone. Bethesda may have made a great RPG, but the dialogue paraphrases they've included are often nonsensical.
Sometimes my character's retorts genuinely took me by surprise. That's not what we want in our RPGs, now is it? Well this mod enables the player to see everything their character is going to say in conversation. It's a small change, but one that makes a big difference.
So, you got that snazzy new home to protect you from the badass lightning with the robots chilling outside and you can actually anticipate your own responses. You're doing pretty well so far, huh? Well how about an upgrade to your own person? See, I knew you'd be interested.
This mod is an easy to use tool for customizing and creating new bodies and outfits, and converting outfits between body types. Fallout 4 has a damn good character creation system, but we can definitely improve on things and this mod takes so many steps in so many right directions.
This game is so buggy and so glitchy. What do you mean you disagree? LOOK AT THIS SHIT!
Yeah, exactly! With that cleared up you may want to consider patching up some of this RPG's more frustrating glitches; I for one found them infuriating and totally distracting throughout my time in the Wasteland. But this mod aims to be a comprehensive bugfix for Fallout 4.
The goal of the Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch (aka UFO4P) is to eventually fix every bug within the game that's not officially resolved by the developers to the limits of the Creation Kit and community-developed tools, in one easy-to-install package. Now that is quite the undertaking!
SO! You got nice pants, a pleasing physique, a decent gaff, robots guarding your shit, it's pissing rain outside (and it sounds sick), them glitches are disappearing and you actually approve of your own dialogue. Now all you need is GUUUUUUUNS.
This mod will let you build the weapon of your fever dreams. With it you can put any weapon attachment on any weapon, so you can electrify a triple-barreled minigun or splice a Fat Man onto an alien laser pistol. That's a thing. I love video games. I really do. | {
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Real Estate British Columbia
Real estate investing includes purchasing, selling, handling and renting real estate for financial gain. Many wealthy Canadians are investing in real estate in Canada to optimize their capital gains and for monetary security.
To put money into Canada, particularly in BC, you have to do some extensive research to understand the present as well as the future chances for real estate investment. As a future investor, you need to examine the BC property marketplace closely to see which cities hold the possibility of increase in the forthcoming decade.
The BC property marketplace, though restoring from a little low interval, is now booming and it’s the perfect time to put money into positive cash-flow properties here. Customer self-confidence is rising as well as the mortgage interest rates are fairly low.
The City of Vancouver has brought the most interest of the BC property and buildings marketplace. There’s definitely no lack of chances in the current real estate market state. Now, it’s anticipated the cost of residential property in the BC region could increase by 8% and more than double of that in Vancouver.
Grand Forks real estate is just another area growing rapidly in relation to the BC landed property marketplace. With leading infrastructure and transport projects coming up, the area will experience positive population increase and this really is unquestionably a great sign for property growth.
Nevertheless, it’s to be remembered the free hold marketplace isn’t an organized one; therefore, the investor is likely to put in lots of personal effort and time. The investor has to first find the properties in which to invest, then inquire and correctly check the standing of the entire property, prior to buy. He’s to haggle hard and negotiate a sales price with all the seller and eventually, draw up a sales contract together with the aid of a land holdings lawyer.
Real estate investing groups might be great way to get your land holdings queries replied and stay abreast of current market trends in BC real estate, such as the appropriate area to invest in, the correct costs to anticipate and most of all, the ideal time to sell. Whether you’re a brand new investor or a seasoned one, participating in real property investing groups offers chances to join with like minded individuals from throughout the planet and freely share strategies and experiences. | {
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Jää Ry meeting this year is going to be held in Oulu. Preliminary time for it has been decided to be on 19.4. Place and exact time at that date has not been decided yet due to reservations for a place for the meeting has not been done yet but 15:00 is being considered.
Note that this date is not final yet and might change but it is fairly certain. Members and other players will be properly informed when exact time, date and place has been arranged and decided. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Pages
Friday, 20 March 2015
The Cost of Sacrificing Liberty for Security: Guantánamo Diary
This piece originally appeared in Critics at Large March 20 and I reproduce it on this website because I wrote extensively about Eugenia Ginzburg and the plight of inmates of Abu Ghraib andGuantánamoin That Line of Darkness: The Gothic from Lenin to bin Laden (Encompass Editions, 2013).
A Guantanamo detainee being led by a guard in March 2002. (Photo: Andres Leighton)
“Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
—Benjamin Franklin cited by Mohamedou Ould Slahi inGuantánamo Diary.
On November 20, 2001, Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a 30-year-old electrical engineer and telecommunications specialist from Mauritania, received a visit at his house from twoMauritanianofficers summoning him to answer questions at the country’s intelligence ministry. “Take your car,” one of the men told him, as Slahi stood in front of his house with his mother and his aunt. “We hope you can come back today.” He has not returned. After spending a week in a cell in his native country, the authorities found no evidence against him. However, at the behest of the Americans, Slahi wasrendered to a black site in Jordan for six months, and then flown blindfolded, shackled and diapered to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan for two weeks; from there he was transported to Guantánamo in Cuba where he remains incommunicable to this day.Three years into his detention, Slahi wrote in basic idiomatic English he obviously picked up from his guards—his fourth language and acquired in Guantanamo—a manuscript which was immediately classified. It took years of litigation and negotiation by Slahi’s pro bono lawyers to force the military to declassify aredacted version, heavily black-barred (that sometimes goes on for pages, some of it to conceal the identity of his interrogators, guards and fellow detainees).
Edited by Larry Siems,Guantánamo Diary(Little, Brown & Company, 2015) is a searing account of one man’s descent into a nightmarish inferno. Slahi’s phantasmagorical experience recalls the fiction of Franz Kafka, a master at delineating the surreal and the illogical, especially The Trialin which Joseph K. is informed by telephone that his case will be briefly examined the following Sunday, which turns out to be only the beginning of his journey through the bureaucracy of terror ending with his death. But I believe that an equally apt analogy may be located in the persecution of the Soviet citizen, Eugenia Ginzburg (1904-77). Her comfortable life as a loyal Party Member and literature teacher was rudely shattered during the Great Terror (1937-38) after she was also informed by telephone to make a brief appearance at NKVD headquarters. As recounted in her extraordinary memoirs,Journey into the Whirlwind(1966) andWithin the Whirlwind(1981), that request signalled her portal into the juggernaut of Stalinist terror that lasted eighteen years. She never again saw her husband who was later arrested and executed, or one of her two sons who died of starvation in a home for the children of “enemies of the people.” I recognize that some readers may find the comparison an odious example of moral equivalence, but I think it is entirely appropriate to link the two cases, as did the late historian Tony Judt inan important essay he wrote almost seven years ago:the Soviets dismissed the rule of law as “bourgeois justice,” in post 9/11 America, some members of the Bush administration regarded the rule of law as a luxury that could be dispensed with for anyone labelled an enemy combatant. What distinguishes them—and it is an important difference—is that in America it was still possible for the judiciary to challenge government power when judges ruled that state actions could be unconstitutional, and for lawyers and human rights activists to defend victims of arbitrary state power without finding themselves locked away.
OnceGinzburg was hurled into the Stalinist maw, she was subjected to what was known as the "conveyor" interrogation of seven days without sleep, temperature manipulation of extreme heat and cold, and charged with being a member of theTrotskyite terrorist counter-revolutionary group. No longer considered a human being, she was constantly pressured to name other members of her treasonous group and confess her crimes. Ginzburg did neither and she considered herself fortunate that she was not executed. Instead, she was sentenced to years of hard labour and transported to the goldmines of Kolyma, one of the most formidable and coldest places on earth where her life was spared by the support of good friends, especially a German doctor, with whom she fell in love, who enabled her to acquire inside work first as a nurse than as teacher. A one-time true believer in communism and the Party, she gradually regarded the system as evil and the second volume can be interpreted as her mea culpa.
From the outset, the American military were suspicious of Slahi, not for any alleged involvement in 9/11, but a belief that he had been the Al-Qaeda mastermind behind the “millennium plot,” the 1999 attempt by Ahmed Ressam to smuggle explosives over the Canadian border and blow up the Los Angeles International Airport. Slahi had been in Montreal, although not at the same time as Ressam, but they had prayed at the same mosque. Slahi travelled twice in the early 1990s to Afghanistan in order to fight the Soviet-backed regime, a campaign covertly supported by the Americans, and actions that Slahi always acknowledged. But he left as soon as the Soviets departed, when the various jihadi groups began to fight among themselves. He never denied that he maintained contact with former comrades who had fought in Afghanistan. Because of this background, his associations with known Al-Qaeda operatives, including extended family members, and that he acquired his electrical engineering degree in Germany, the military is convinced that he is an Al-Qaeda recruiter. With his less than six degrees of separation, Slahi is targeted for the myriad interrogation techniques of the “special plan” personally approved by the Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, reminiscent of those deployed by the Soviets, recounted by Ginzburg, and dramatized inThe Confession—the 1970 film based on the autobiography of Artur London, a diplomat who recounts his trajectory into the vortex of paranoia and political madness during the early 1950sCzechoslovakian Party purges.
Mohamedou Ould Slahi
These sections fromGuantánamo Diarydocument the torture treatment, a grotesque catalogue of abuses that is chilling to read, confirmed by the release in late 2014 of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee report on the C.I.A.’s interrogation-and-detention program. Slahi endures long periods of solitary confinement without his Quran and any sanitary amenities; unrelenting freezing temperatures, his suffering compounded by being doused with ice (a punishment that was also inflicted in the Gulag); stress positions, including hours of standing painfully bent over with his hands shackled to the floor that seriously inflamed his sciatic nerve and where he frequently soils himself; beatings about the face and ribs; and sexual abuse where female interrogators rub their breasts against his body and fondle him. He is blindfolded and taken on a three-hour boat ride as part of a mock kidnapping and forced to drink salt water until he vomits. Perhaps worse is the unending sleepless interrogation twenty-four hours a daywith guards wearing Halloween-like masks. Not surprisingly, Slahi begins to hallucinate. Broken, he falsely confesses to planning to blow up the Toronto CN Tower, a landmark which he had not previously known existed. He names anyone he has heard about and conjures up incriminating information, anything to stop the pain, a confession that pleases his interrogator prompting him to offer his captive food. Throughout this ordeal, Slahi constantly asks of what he is being accused and never receives a straight answer. It is no surprise that his harrowing treatment yields no valuable information, but it does reveal much about his resilience and the character of his interrogators.
If theDiaryconsisted of primarily a litany of horrors, it would be a grim undertaking that might discourage potential readers. Yet,because of the insight and humanity of Slahi, it is much more. Despite his constant fear that he will be executed and his family harmed, and the obstacle of the 2,500 redactions, readers can discern his capacity for distinguishing between the loutish sadists who scream obscenities at him, insult his religion and exercisewith legal impunity any form of power or abuse to sandbag him, and the terrified young men, including one guard who feels so guilty that he admitted to Slahi that he knew he could “go to hell for what I have done to you,” and also the decent Navy medical officer who attempts to secure medicine for his sciatic nerve condition. He is capable of feeling empathy toward some of the guards as he recognizes that they come from backgrounds of poverty and that they are used by the Army to do the dirty jobs. Slahi’s humour helps to prevent the slide into despair or hatred towards his tormentors. One of my favourite examples occurs when he is in Bagram and is promised that if he tells the truth about his terrorist involvement he will be released immediately but if lies, he will never see his family again and they will be sexually assaulted. He knows what he is hearing is bullshit: “I just wished the government agencies would start to hire smart people.” Like Ginzburg who maintains her humanity by citing Russian poems, Slahi takes solace in his faith grateful that he memorized the Quran before his ordeal begun and prays whenever he can despite the prohibitions of his guards. Both Slahi and Ginzburg are also more upset by the cries of others than by their own suffering. When Slahi’s conditions improve in 2004, likely coinciding with the Iraq transfer of Major General Geoffrey Miller(known for implementing the “special plan”),he receives medicine, food and books ranging fromHenry VtoCatcher in the Rye, the latter making him laugh so much “that his stomach hurt.” His wry humour and curiosity aboutWestern culture are now more inflected with a gentle irony. When askedtogive his guards the names of characters fromStar Wars, Slahi comments, “I was forced to represent the forces of Evil, and the guards the Good Guys.” What the reader may find most invaluable about theDiaryis that it turnsan anonymous orange jumpsuit into a three-dimensional human being, a sensitive, intelligent and victimized individual who harbours no feelings of retribution toward those who have wronged him.He ends with offering his interrogators a challenge leavened with grace and absolution: “That he holds no grudge against any of the people mentioned in this book, that he appeals to them to read it and correct it if they think it contains any errors, and that he dreams to one day sit with all of them around a cup of tea, after having learned so much from one another.”
Two of the 2,500 redacted pages ofGuantánamo Diary.
A sceptic might ask whether sympathetic readers to Slahi’s plight, and I count myself as one of them, are being duped by a clever snake-oil conman. I strongly doubt we are being hoodwinked and there are several reasons for my belief. What he says about his awful treatment has been verified by a number of other sources from the Senate Report noted above to other inmates such as Moazzam Begg and Murat Kurnaz who spent time at Guantánamo and wrote their memoirs after their release. Of equal importance is the valuable introduction provided by Slahi’s editor, the writer and human rights activist, Larry Siems—who was never allowed to meet the author—that provides context, and declassified government documents and monographs that he cites in his extensive and helpful footnotes that corroborate what Slahi writes. In his introduction, Siems reveals that a District Court judge who thoroughly immersed himself in Slahi’s habeas petition concludedin 2010 that the government’s evidence was “so attenuated, or so tainted by coercion and mistreatment … that it cannot support a criminal prosecution,” and ordered his release. (That Slahi, through his lawyer, Nancy Hollander, was able to request a judge to review his case, was only possible because the Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that all prisoners had a right to habeas corpus, which allows them to challenge their imprisonment in accordance with the Constitution.) Despite President Obama’s vow to closeGuantánamo and his argument as a Presidential candidate that all detainees should have that right, his administration challenged that decision leaving Slahi’s legal status in limbo.
Slahi’s case demonstrates once again that the rule of law and due process—that no one is above the law, the existence of an independent judiciary, the accused has the right to an impartial hearing, that rules govern court procedures and the admission of evidence, the principle that an individual cannot lose his liberty unless he has violated a clearly prescribed law and that he has the right to appeal—are above the power of any politician, and that they are not merely legal niceties. They are the cornerstone of the justice system that dates back to the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215, principles that fell into abeyance for centuries, but were revived in the eighteenth century and were core beliefs of the Founding Fathers of America who wrote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and are fundamental to the 1867 Canadian Constitution Act and the 1982 Charter of Rights. There are strong reasons for embracing the rule of law:not only does it protect citizens from arbitrary government but protects us from each other when enraged individuals may be tempted to take the law into their own hands. The culture of fear and the so-called War on Terror have delivered a substantial and possibly an irretrievable blow to a sacred principle. (I do not want to suggest that even when the rule of law is operative, its application is always a reality; when justice is denied, there is the possibility that individuals, including police officers, may be tempted to dispense their own form of rough justice, as exemplified in Richard Price’s(writing as Harry Brandt)excellent crime novelThe Whites.But the principle still serves as a restraining check on vengeful impulses.)
Guantánamo Diaryshould be widely read but I havedoubtsthat will happen. There is no visual evidence; no one took pictures that might end up going viral, as occurred at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq 2004 setting off an international scandal about how Americans treated their prisoners. Secondly, Slahi is a Muslim and Muslims do not garner much sympathy given the barbaric behaviour of ISIS and the Charlie Hebdo killings in Paris. After that massacre, a number of Republican Senators, includingJohn McCain, the former tortured prisoner in Vietnam, urged the President to stop releasing inmates fromGuantánamo. One can only wonder how many Americans support former Vice President Dick Cheney’s belief that he does not worry about innocent Muslims because he considers them collateral damage in the war against terror. Yet what remains widely unknown is thatthe vast majority of terrorist acts are not committed by Muslimsand that the overwhelming victims of Islamist terror are Muslims. Pope Francis has frequently said the Islamic State does not represent genuine Islam and that“all religions have these little groups.”But it is not surprising thata Muslim doctor and his family are stopped at the Canadian borderand prevented from entering America.
In Canada itself, a number of recent events substantiate the perception that anti-Muslim feelings are growing and worst of all it is being lead or exploited for partisan gain in an election year by the Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. After two separate attacks by jihadist sympathizers left two Canadian soldiers dead last fall, Harper refused to speak out against the vandalism against mosques and the racist slurs hurled against Muslim candidates in Toronto’s municipal election. Not only has he refused to express any support for Canadian Muslims, in keeping with his hard-edged ideological impulses, he has more recently escalated a flap over whether a Muslim woman should wear the face-covering niqab during a citizenship oath into an assault on the Muslim faith itself when he said that this piece of cloth is rooted in a culture that is anti-woman. According to Toronto Starcolumnist Haroon Siddiqui,in contrast to Obama, Harper continues to conflatethrough his rhetoric the Muslim faith with terrorism, thereby ignoring the greater threatscited in CSIS documentsposed by white supremacists.In this climate of hysteria, is it possible thatGuantánamo Diarywill be impartially read and that its author,Mohamedou Ould Slahi, will receive the justice that he surely deserves?
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That Line of Darkness: Vol. 2
That Line of Darkness: Vol. 1
About Me
Author of That Line of Darkness: The Shadow of Dracula and the Great War, Encompass Editions (2012) and second volume, That Line of Darkness: The Gothic from Lenin to bin Laden, Encompass Editions (2013). | {
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F-Pace is a new sensation with the looks of an SUV and the DNA of a sports car. With its unprecedented features and specifications, it is a riding bliss for the people having a deep penchant for thrill and adventure. With its huge desirability and visual enhancements, this family-friendly crossover is redefining the rules of power and efficiency. Superb control, everyday practicality, stunning interiors, and magnificent performance are the key highlights of the F-Pace. Other spectacular features of this car are:
Superlative Driving Performance:
Jaguar F-Pace is a power-packed vehicle manoeuvred with a Jaguar lightweight Aluminum platform in combination with its standard powerful engine. This new gen machine stands out with its high-tech features like Electronic Power Assisted Steering, All-Wheel-Drive System, and Driveline Dynamics Software.
Jaguar F-Pace is launched with the choice of gasoline or diesel engine. The new range of Ingenium is introduced to harvest the high performance and power. New stop and start technology and smart regenerative charging system use the energy of braking to rev up the power of batteries. It is mounted with 2.0 litre i4 turbocharged Diesel engine and 3.0 litre V6 supercharged engine. Both engines represent the new breed of Ingenium.
This vehicle is developed for sheer performance and packed with the eight-speed automatic transmission, offering rapid shifting of gears for an effortless acceleration. Also, you can control gearshifts manually with a touch of a finger via the steering wheel paddles. With the top speed of 250 km/h and ability to reach 0-100 km in mere 5.5 seconds, it is an incredible car for the ultimate driving experience.
Exquisite Exteriors:
F-Pace showcases a distinctive aura with its agile looks and sporting character. Visually, it is like the sports variant, Jaguar F-Type, and offers a unique road presence. Aerodynamic design allows extra comfort and thrust to your driving experience. It not only provides stability at high speed, but also increases the down force, reduces the fuel consumption, and eliminates the distracting wind noise. An SUV with the genes of a sports car is a rare feat and only Jaguar can make it come true.
F-Pace offers a spectacular view from every angle, whether it is front, side, or rear. Head grill, sharp curves, and sleek bumpers bestow stunning looks to this wonderful car. Tucked with J-Blade LED, it offers a commanding presence on the road.
This is an exclusive SUV festooned with a stunning tapered roofline, rear bumper crease line, and an innovative teardrop shape. Powerful rear haunches offer F-Pace a sporty appearance and seductive backdrop. It is enhanced with aerodynamically efficient and lightweight alloy wheels offering a dynamic style to this vehicle.
Posh Interiors:
The cabin of Jaguar F Pace is beautifully crafted with a sporty and contemporary design. It is installed with the latest range of accessories. The interiors are created from the premium materials and its sophisticated settings are further accentuated by the striking features. Driving through the miles of the road becomes effortless due to its comfortable leather seats.
Its’ premium dual colour-themed interiors, mounting dashboard, head up display, comfortable rear seats, and touch screen entertainment are bound to deliver the sheer satisfaction in every journey. Features like head up display put every statistic on your windscreen providing relief to your neck while driving. Enriched craftsmanship along with configurable mood lighting system offers a wonderful driving experience every time.
The rear seats are wide enough to provide an ample space for accommodating three adults comfortably. Back seats are also featured with electric recline that provides perfect seat adjustment with a single touch. Interior of the F-Pace is incomplete without mentioning its Panoramic Roof. The wide transparent glass roof offers majestic views of the surroundings, especially under the moonlight. The tint over the glass provides an escape from the excessive heat and maintains your privacy.
Safety and Practicality:
Jaguar F-Pace has advanced technology features for enhancing your confidence and assisting you for a comfortable drive. It is made versatile with rear seats in 40:20:40 configurations. This feature enables a different combination of rear seat fold, allowing an adjustment of any bulky items and additional passengers easily.
Gesture tailgate is embedded with an innovative technology that allows opening and closing without a physical touch or using a key. Simple foot presents under the rear flank on the rear side can open and close the door. Driver’s convenience is always a top priority for the R&D team of Jaguar. In this context, they have decked the rear space with reversible load space floors that convert into easy to clean, rubberized surface when needed.
In-Car Technology:
F-Pace is a cluster of high-tech features and specifications. It has InControl feature truly personalized for the valued Jaguar customers. It provides state-of-the-art multimedia along with endless features to the driver. This technology offers connectivity, entertainment, and information with a single touch along with the real-time assistance. The Jaguar InControl Touch also includes navigation guidance, phone connectivity, text-to-voice integration, InControl Apps, and climate control feature.
These are the stupendous features and specialties that make Jaguar F-Pace a spectacular vehicle and an easygoing companion for you.
Are you searching for the best Land Rover? Visit a top Land Rover dealer and check out your desired vehicle for a test drive. Choosing the right dealer will help you get professional, honest and dedicated service throughout the life of your vehicle. Moreover, you can get the service of an efficient sales team who has deep rooted knowledge of products and can meet your expectations, by handling all your automotive requirements competently. Furthermore, you can plan great things and can enjoy the enhancements and improvements made by the Land Rover dealers. If you come across the best dealer, nothing will be able to slow you down on the road. Now, the question is how to find a great Land Rover dealer?
Let’s check out the top five tips for finding a competent Land Rover dealer:
§ Have a look at countless features on the website – Remember that shopping for a Land Rover is not an easy job. So, look for various features on the site. You can browse through online inventory to get pre-approved financing, after which you can schedule your test drive online. This will help you to get prepared by the time you meet the dealer. You must seek a dealer who is ready to answer your queries throughout the week, can take you for a test drive and can assist you in getting the right car.
§ Opt for the right model – Make sure to opt for the right model from the dealer. Weigh up the qualities and find out the perfect Land Rover for your requirement. Decide whether you want a luxurious vehicle with a rugged look. In such a case, you can opt for Range Rover with numerous innovative technologies, a luxurious interior and a sophisticated body. You can make a statement on road and off road with this vehicle. If you want agility, look no further than the Range Rover Sport which is the fastest Land Rover with responsiveness and agility. This could be a great option if you love road adventures.
§ Pay heed to versatility – Find out a dealer who has new vehicles in stock known for versatility. This helps to tackle any terrain. Moreover, this helps you to fold down the seats easily for increasing the storage space. Consequently, you can have up to seven seats while driving the car. So, it’s obvious that you can take your entire family with you for a trip or else, you can go for a couple’s retreat with your car full of luggage. If you want to move away from classic Range Rover design, you can opt for the Range Rover Evoque from the dealers to get a vehicle in a five-door, as well as, a coupe body style which will help you to drive around the city in perfect style. Furthermore, you can look for reliable and capable LR4 which is flexible enough to deal with any situation. You can take this car over mud, ruts, snow, pavement, gravel and grass. However, you should schedule a test drive before purchasing from the dealer.
§ Decide whether to buy a new or used vehicle – Land Rover dealers often give you the option to buy new or old vehicles. You may opt for a new vehicle or a used one after deciding on the type of car you want to purchase. If you are purchasing a used vehicle; however, you must check out whether it is a certified pre-owned Land Rover (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Rover). Remember that a certified pre-owned inventory offers you more confidence while you are driving on the road.
§ Go for first class service – You may look for first rate service on-site from the dealer to fulfil all your requirements. Check out in this regard whether the technicians are registered with factory accredited training programs that will help to keep your car running smoothly from one adventure to another.
Follow these five tips to find out a great Land Rover dealer. Whether you want a new car or a tune-up, the dealers can help you deal with any circumstances. So, what are you waiting for? Browse through the inventory list online, schedule a test drive and stop by a dealership today to enjoy a fascinating journey on the road. You will get an unrivalled comfort with your family members if you make the purchase from a competent Land Rover dealer. Choose the best and experience a legendary ride even in the toughest of the terrain environment.
Are you passionate about Mazda6? Want to get hold of this car and make a strong statement on the road? Search for the top Mazda6 car dealer in your town and make everyone go crazy with its exclusivity. Now, what’s so trendy about the Mazda6? Let’s check out a few trendy aspects of this vehicle:
§ Sheet Metal Elegance – The design of the Mazda6 is created for transforming the ordinary sheet metal to embody the vitality of life. It exudes the power and elegance of a wild animal as if it is ready to pounce on its prey.
§ Enhanced Visibility – Everybody wants better visibility while driving and the Mazda6 perfectly excels in this regard. The vehicle is updated with the door mirrors to move part of the integrated turn signals to the front. Moreover, if the mirror width is reduced slightly, it becomes easier to steer through the narrow roads and the tight spots. In addition, high beam control helps you see better while driving at night. The system mechanically switches to low beams while detecting oncoming traffic and vehicle ahead.
§ Reinvented Wheel – Usually, a flashy and dynamic wheel lessens its functionality; however, the Mazda6 is designed by pushing the boundaries without any compromise on the performance of the wheel. Several designs were tested before reinventing the wheel of the Mazda 6. The engineers obsessed with the goal of presenting the subtlest technology for improving performance have spent around eight years for developing the subtle technology. Ultimately, the wheel is designed which looks beautiful, gives a strong performance and is also light in weight.
§ Progressive Design – Grand Touring models of the Mazda6 often come with a striking signature front grille lighting accent, which adds to the bold first impression of the car.
§ Peace & Comfort – If you want to get peace and comfort, the Mazda6 will be the perfect choice. The cabin of this car is designed for enveloping in sporty elegance with a large centre console as well as a sleek dash and instrument panel, matching the leather-trimmed sport seats. High grade leather seats provide you premium comfort.
§ Unique Engineering Technology – You can drive this vehicle without compromising the fuel efficiency. The unique engineering of SKYACTIV Technology offers better driving experience with a remarkable EPA estimated 35 highways MPG1. SKYACTIV engine can compress air-fuel mixture in cylinders to an extraordinary amount, squeezing more energy from every drop of fuel. You will enjoy an outstanding efficiency by enhancing your driving dynamics with reduced consumption of fuel and can conquer more miles uninterruptedly. SKYACTIV-Vehicle dynamics with G-Vectoring Control facilitates smooth as well as less fatiguing drive for yourself and your family. Moreover, the high efficient car movement control system operates in the background at the time of spirited driving. Besides, if you are cornering the car, the system works flawlessly by making an adjustment to power delivery, shifting the weight of the vehicle on initial turn-in and all the way through the corner. It’s true that the effect is subtle but gives you a good feel after a great drive.
§ Infotainment System – Mazda6 offers 2 infotainment systems providing information, entertainment as well as outside world connectivity. You must only make use of the multi-function Commander control on the centre console and complete touchscreen display for navigating the multitudes of functions quickly and intuitively.
§ Traffic Sign Recognition – Mazda6 comes with Traffic Sign Recognition System 4 which helps you to read road signs like ‘speed limit’, ‘do not enter’ and ‘stop’ by making use of strategically mounted cameras. The information is then revealed in Active Driving Display in full colour to make you alert and informed without taking your eyes off the road. This removes distractions through the projection of critical driving information right in front of you. The innovative display deliberately placed in your field of view, right above the gauge cluster helps you process fast information by keeping eyes focused on the road ahead.
So, what are you waiting for? Take a smarter approach to drive in a better way by getting a Mazda6.
Pre-owned luxury cars are quite popular among buyers who want to get more value for the money they spend. Besides avoiding depreciation that takes place in the original value of new cars, the large selection of used cars is another reason making pre owned cars a worthy purchase. However, finding and buying a pre-owned car is not as easy as it might seem. It is understandable to have some apprehensions and doubts regarding the condition of a used car; that is why it is crucial to put in some effort and time to carry out a careful research about the car before making an offer. Mentioned below are some very important things to check in pre-owned luxury cars.
• Initial inspection
Personally visit to check the car you are planning to buy to look for any visible signs of damage. Almost every vehicle has some imperfections, which can be easily repaired. However, you should avoid buying a luxury car requiring repairs which can be extremely time consuming and expensive. You should take a close look at the vehicle and look beyond the surface. If you notice any major dents or poor paint job, then it might hint at a cheap repair or accident. Another thing to look for is the presence of rust on the body, frame and underbody. Applying a fresh coat of paint to mask rust is a common trick used by sellers, which an experienced mechanic can help you find out. After inspecting the exterior, check the interior. The odometer and speedometer should work well and report correct measurements. The tires should be analyzed diligently to check the level of wear and tear, as unevenly worn out tires mean that the suspension or wheels are out of alignment.
• Condition of the engine
The next highly crucial thing to look at in pre-owned luxury cars is the condition of the engine. Look under the hood and if you see a dirty engine then it might signal at lack of maintenance. Similarly, presence of stripped or rounded nuts and bolts could indicate poor repair work. If the spark plugs appear newer than the other engine parts, then it is a good sign because it means that the previous owner has ensured regular tune up and maintenance of the car. Now, turn the key and notice the time it takes to start the car or any unusual noises coming out of the engine. Also look for smoke coming out of the exhaust, which might point towards internal problems requiring complete engine overhaul.
• Test drive
The final and equally important thing is to take the car for a drive, as this way you can come to know a lot about the vehicle, such as transmission, brakes and alignment. Once you are behind the steering, keenly observe the controls and performance of the car and pay special attention to any clunks and groans, as such noises can indicate several underlying issues which, although repairable, can consume a lot of your money and time.
Does the wiper, lights, air conditioner and sound system work properly? Especially notice any drop in the performance of the engine when the air conditioner is turned on. Now check the transmission, as there should not be any louder or clunking noises when switching gears in a car that has automatic transmission. Similarly, the gears should smoothly shift in manual transmission and any grinding sound could point towards bad synchronization. The next thing to look at is the alignment and it can be tested by taking your hands off the steering wheel while driving and noticing if the car gets pulled in any direction. Properly functioning brakes are crucial to enjoy a safe ride, so be aware if the car gets pulled into a side or shudders when you hit the brakes. This might be because of the lack of hydraulic fluid or the brakes could be loose. When you apply the brakes, the pedal should feel firm and if it does not, then the master cylinder might need to be replaced.
Besides the things listed above, it is suggested to ask for the repair history of the car, whether you are buying it directly from the owner or through a dealership. Going through the report can shed light on a lot of things about the damages and repairs a car has received and thus save you from making a regretful decision.
Hilary was in dire straits! She needed to visit her ailing daughter in a foreign country and was in urgent need of a cash loan. She had applied for a personal loan, but the bank was taking far too long to process it and so far, they were not even certain that it would be approved. Besides cash, if there was something else, that Hilary was really short of right now, it was time! In a quandary and unable to find a way out, she sought out her neighbor’s opinion.
“What do you see on that highway?” Mr. Hopkins, her neighbor, asked her when she went to him. “I see cars and other vehicles driving by!” she replied, wondering what it had to do with her problem. “Well, Hilary, when I look that way, all I see is ‘cash’ driving by on that highway!” he told her smiling. Being the owner of a company, that gave out cash loans against car titles, Mr. Hopkins, couldn’t be more right! Fortunately, for Hilary, her newly purchased car came in use, when she needed it the most. Not only did she get the loan amount she required in cash against it, but also got it within the same day!
Car Title Loans-Simply Explained
If you are wondering, what a car title cash loan is, ‘Investopedia’ defines it in the following words- “A short-term loan in which the borrower’s car title is used as collateral. The borrower must be the lien holder (i.e. own the car outright). Loans are usually for less than 30 days. If the loan is not repaid, the lender can take ownership of the car and sell it to recoup the loan amount. ” So, to avail a cash loan against your car, you are required to possess a clear car title. As long as you have the necessary documents to prove, that you are the sole legal owner of your car, you become eligible to get a quick cash loan, against your car title.
Why Do People Opt For Cash Loans against Car Titles
There are a number of reasons why an individual requiring quick cash, would opt for a car title loan. While the primary one of course, is that he/she does not have any other source of getting the dough he/she needs, which may be due to not having a credit card or a bank loan or adequate savings; there are plenty of other reasons too! The process involved in getting a cash loan against a car title, is extremely simple. All that a customer needs to do is, fill in an application form, submit the necessary documents, have his/her car evaluated and get the necessary cash in hand! The application form for a quick cash car title loan can be filled out online or at the office of the car title loan providing company. The documents required, usually include a photo identity proof, a residence proof, a proof of income and a clear title of your vehicle.
How Do Car Title Loans Get Processed So Quickly
Getting cash against your car title is usually not a time taking process. It involves driving down your car to the title loan company office, having its financial value assessed, your documents verified, and your loan amount, will be approved within a day or two. Some companies also offer to process cash title loans within hours or even less! The reason why car title loans can be processed this quickly, is because, these do not require any credit checks to be performed. This means that, even if an individual has an unfavorable credit history, he can still avail this quick and easy cash loan.
Eliminating credit checks, not only reduces the time taken to process the loan, but also leads to a high rate of approvals, unlike in the case of bank loans. However, the best part about a title loan is that after getting the required cash in your hand, you get to drive home with your car. The only thing that you are asked to leave behind is your car title documents. And, you can have them back too, when you pay back your title loan amount!
Precautions When Taking Title Loans
While a title cash loan comes quickly, easily and conveniently, it will work in your favor, only if you take certain precautions. Car title loans are secured loans, in which your car is the collateral. The risks involved in this loan transaction are that, if by any chance you are unable to pay your loan amount, you will lose your car! And, sadly, the financial worth of your car will obviously be more than the loan amount you borrowed. Moreover, you need to pay attention to the interest being charged by title loan companies; so that you know exactly how much your short term and long term payments will amount to. The best approach to handling car title loans however is paying them off as quickly, as possible!
This article was written by Melinda. Edwards. Filw, a financial writer, who believes, that availing a cash loan against your car, is advisable if you need cash fast.
Have you considered opening a car auction business? Do you have any experience in this field or have you ever worked in any car dealership store? If most of the answers are in no, then you definitely need to attend trial auctions as you cannot expect to start a business about which you don’t have the slightest experience. Nowadays, many people are opting for this business, as it is supposed to bring in much profit in a less amount of time. It is necessary that you have the passion for cars; otherwise it would be quite difficult for you to have a foothold in this business.
Requisites
It is necessary that you have some knowledge about cars. Make sure that you employ people who have a sound knowledge in this field, for example experienced car mechanics. Most of the times, owners make the mistake of buying cars without accompanying their best car mechanic supervisor. If you are new to the business, the car sellers will definitely hook you up with cars that are either too old to drive or have some sort of internal damage.
Hiring Professionals
It is necessary that you check the resume well before hiring salesman for your business. Try to hire professionals who have an experience in this field. One or two experienced sales man is far better than hiring a bunch of fresher people. However, you can employ college students on part time basis. The main reason behind hiring them is that they are always full of life and can instigate energy in your work place. It is also necessary that you train these young people to help your business in the coming days.
Planning
It is very necessary that you plan your business before hand. There are many websites, where you will be able to find a number business plans for your business. Many people have smelled the scent of success by following the business plan minutely. Business plans help you to analyze the costs of establishing and how you can make profit within the first year of establishment.
It is very necessary that you buy the cars from reliable sources. It is not good to regret after buying a lot of cars from a forger. Always remember that you can achieve prosper in your business by making your client and customers happy. A happy customer will automatically spread a good word about your business. Therefore, it is quite necessary that you reward them with special gift coupons once in a while for their loyal support.
Conclusion
It is necessary that every business official conduct events and social parties before establishing a business in the locality. Try to connect with the people from the very first day. You can also provide your clients with 30 day car warranty periods for used vehicles. It is best to take tips from experienced professionals in the business for running the business in profit. Try to build your ownership qualities from the very first day. We hope that the article seems of any help to you.
Alex Mathew is a proficient author writing articles on auction of second hand cars and other similar topics. He contributes regularly for second hand car dealers.
Summary: Car auction business is tricky and needs dire determination for perfect administration. Hiring an experienced sales team is very essential to run it flawlessly.
We all know the basics to keeping our car running such as checking oil levels, tire pressure and driving carefully. However, there are some things that aren’t checked during car servicing. If you really want to look after your car and pay very close attention to the small details, follow these somewhat unknown tips.
Break-in
Speed
Much like a new shoe, cars need to be broken-in. During this break-in period, it’s important not to speed excessively; generally speaking 88kph (kilometres per hour) is the limit. However the car’s manufacturer may have a different guideline for you to follow, so stick to that. Usually this speed limit only applies for the first 1,600km.
Acceleration
In the early stages of your car’s life, only use medium acceleration, preferably keeping below 3,000rpm. This can prolong the life of your engine and even eliminate the need to bring your car to a pre-nct testing centre, as you will be sure to pass with flying colours.
Fuel
Usually the only thing people need to remember about fuel is whether their car takes petrol or diesel. However, here are a couple of good tips regarding fuel.
Petrol Stations
Only go to well known petrol stations such as Maxol, Texaco etc. as smaller, independent petrol stations may not treat their fuel properly, thus causing damage to your car. Smaller stations may not have pump filters to get rid of dirt, or they may even water down the petrol to get more out of it.
The Tanker
If there is a fuel tanker filling up the petrol tanks, your best bet is to go elsewhere. You may think ‘Oh, but surely that fuel will be freshest?’ That is true; however when filling the tanks, dirt and sediment can be stirred up from the bottom and can damage your car. Wait a day for it to settle down before going back. Even this can lessen the need for a car servicing and inevitably save you some money.
Keys
A little known fact is that a hanging your car key on a heavy keychain does your ignition no good. As you drive along, with those dozens of keys bouncing and applying weight and pressure to your ignition, it can eventually lead to ignition switch failure.
Interior
Protect the interior of your car from sunlight by investing in shades for your car. Not only do these prevent fading of your seats and dashboard, but they also help to keep your car cool when parked in the sun.
Weather-stripping
Make sure that the weather-stripping along your windows and doors is tightly sealed and not allowing any rain to get in. Loose weather-stripping can cause dampness and mould and, let’s face it, who wants to deal with that? The simple solution is to replace any worn or torn weather-stripping, available from any motor shops in a large variety so you’re sure to find some that matches the original.
Treat Scrapes
If your car scraped or scratched, be sure to treat these immediately, as giving it time will allow rust to form.
If you follow these top tips, even a car servicing garage will be impressed and may even ask you for advice!
Many parents actually fear having to teach their teen to drive. That said teens can often start bugging their parents to teach them how to drive once they become 18. So, parents now have a rather difficult decision to make i.e. should they teach their kid how to drive or send them to a driving instructor. If you have taught people how to drive before then you should be able to teach your own kid how to drive. But if this is not the case then it is best to enroll your kid into a driving school. This is especially if you live in a densely populated area where there is no way for you to teach your kid the basics of driving prior to taking them on the road.
The pros of being taught by a parent
Probably the biggest benefit of teaching your own kid how to drive is it’s free. There are some professional driving schools that can be very expensive. This is why teaching your kids how to drive will save you money but it will take up a lot of your time.
Cons
You will need to take the time out every day perhaps around the same time to teach him or her how to drive.
The other con is the fact that as a driver for years many parents have picked up on bad driving habits. These habits have become second nature to them but it will be passed on to their kids. Parents often don’t remember the intricacies of the various driving rules. This may lead to the kid failing his first few tests
Teaching a teen how to drive is also stress and there will be arguments too. If your teen loses his or her temper easily and argues it is best that they be sent to a driving institute.
The pros of a driving school
Probably the biggest benefit of choosing a professional school is that you can be assured that your teen will learn how to drive safely. Instructors are familiar with all the latest laws, rules and regulations and so your teen will learn exactly what they should in order to keep themselves safe on the road.
There are a number of insurance companies that may offer discounts to students who have learnt how to drive from a driving institution. Some of these insurance discounts can be as high as 15% off their regular premium. So the investment of sending your teen to a good driving school can help to save you quite a bit of money in the long term.
Cons
Probably the biggest drawback of a driving institution is the expense of the classes. There are some schools that will charge as much as $50 an hour. You also need to factor in the expenses of traditional driver’s education classes. So when you add all these expenses up the cost of choosing a professional school can easily be a few hundred dollars.
The other con is the fact that schedules for good schools fill up quite quickly. This means that teens often have to wait for days if not weeks for a driving lesson. This can translate to less time behind the wheel of a vehicle. That said driving is best learnt via firsthand experience but many classes offer relatively less driving time. This will then have to be made up with a few lessons at home. However, there are institutions in Australia that offer more time behind a wheel post hours behind a simulator.
Before you enroll your kid into a driving institution make sure to first check the schools credentials. Also, find out how much time your child will be getting behind the wheel. If all sounds good only then should you pay the initial signup fee.
Avi is a professional driving instructor, car enthusiast and works for www.aasprint.com.au. He loves long drives on lonely loads.
Pass your driving test the first time and become a safer driving by following our top tips for success.
Every learner driver would love to pass their driving test first time, but unfortunately not everyone does. Although the latest statistics from the Driving Standards Agency reveal that 50% of men and 42% of women pass on their first attempt, it still means that a high number of young would-be drivers are walking home disappointed.
So how can you pass your test first time, while cementing your status as a safe driver? By following these top tips, of course. Even if you didn’t pass your test first time, these tips will help you to understand where you might be going wrong: and are sure to help you to take on whatever obstacles the road ahead might pose.
Do be relaxed. Practicing relaxation techniques will help you to calmly take in your surroundings and react safely. It’s also a good way to stave off tense muscles during the test itself; there’s nothing worse than failing a manoeuvre because your leg just won’t stop shaking.
Don’t pick up tips from other drivers. People who already have their licenses often acquire bad habits on the road, like driving one handed or not indicating on roundabouts. These unsafe attitudes might cause accidents, and will definitely land you with a big fat fail.
Do be an active passenger. When you’re in the car with friends and family members who already have their licenses, pay attention to the road and think about what you would do in their situation. Keep your thoughts to yourself, though: nobody likes being told off by a newbie.
Don’t put pressure on yourself. It’s a wise idea to tell as few people as possible that you’re taking the test. It’s not about superstition; it’s about avoiding excess stress. On the day of your test you’re already going to be feeling nervous, and knowing that your entire social circle is waiting to hear the result can easily push you over the edge. Being panicked can also cause accidents, as it makes it difficult to think critically. The date of your test should be on a strictly “need to know” basis.
Do practice as much as possible. If you can’t schedule in extra lessons with your instructor, beg a friend or family member to take you out in a dual control car. Make sure they have a full license and are over 21. Take a lazy drive out into the countryside or practice some test routes. Even if it’s an aimless drive, you’ll still come face to face with interesting scenarios that might have flummoxed you in your test.
Don’t Take your friends advice as gospel. If they take you out driving you can ask them for help, but remember to check if they’re right by asking your instructor the next time you have a lesson. As mentioned before, seasoned drivers often have unconventional ideas about what is safe and what isn’t. Your best mate might think it’s okay to bump up on the kerb during a turn in the road, but you know better.
Just like it goes with shopping, in most cases the lowest cost may not necessarily be the best value for money. While most of us want to save some money when looking for special services, you want to go beyond cost when trying to hire a limousine in Brisbane. Depending on cost alone could let you end up with a bad service and, as such, you need to know what factors to consider when making such an important decision.
Sign an Agreement
Don’t be fooled by the friendliness or otherwise of the people you are dealing with, your safety is always in having a signed agreement for the deal you have entered into. Such an agreement will be specific regarding every detail including the type of vehicle, the value, the timings and every other important detail. Always make sure you understand everything that is written and if not, it’s your right to seek a clear explanation.
Check the Limo Physically
You must see the limousine you are paying for physically before you make a commitment. There are limousine companies in Brisbane that will show you a photographic inventory of the latest limos on their brochures and internet sites but in real sense they don’t own such vehicles. You don’t want to find yourself in a dilapidated ramshackle when you thought you were paying for some classic vehicle to make an impression.
Verify the Pricing Details
When you receive a quote from a company for their limo, make sure they are clear what the price they gave you actually includes. You don’t take it for granted that the price includes other charges such as service costs, parking fees, fuel surcharge, tolls, and driver gratuity among others. You want to be sure about what your total expenditure will be lest you get surprises at the end of the day.
Check their Track Record
Just before you append your signature on that contract; it will be prudent for you to check their track record. It is always important for you to know how long the company has been in business and what former customers have to say about their services. You can easily get this information by reading the review section of their websites or better still, check their ranking at the local Chamber of Commerce website.
Verify Chauffer Selection Method
The quality of your trip using a limousine in Brisbane will directly depend on the quality of the chauffer you get. You want to be sure that this company screens their chauffeurs and that all of them are certified since your safety also depends on this individual. | {
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Researchers in the Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute have designed and tested a novel, minute-long procedure to prepare human amniotic membrane for use as a scaffold for specialized stem cells that may be used to treat some corneal diseases. This membrane serves as a foundation that supports the growth of stem cells in order to graft them onto the cornea.
This new method, explained in a paper published this month in the journal PLOS ONE, may accelerate research and clinical applications for stem cell corneal transplantation.
Corneal blindness affects more than 8 million people worldwide. Among other causes, corneal blindness can be the outcome of corneal stem cell deficiency, a disease usually resulting from genetic defects or injury to the eye — such as burns, infection or chronic inflammation — that can lead to vision loss. A feasible treatment to rectify vision loss for such patients is corneal stem cell transplantation, either as a biopsy from another eye or by transplanting cultured stem cells, although this promising approach is not yet fully standardized.
An approved biological foundation for cultured stem cells is the human amniotic membrane, a thin but sturdy film that separates the fetus from the placenta. For the best growth of stem cells, amniotic cells need to be removed by chemical agents. The existing methods for removing these cells from this membrane are not standardized, leave behind amniotic cells and may cause unwanted loss of some of the membrane components.
The amniotic cell removal method created at Cedars-Sinai takes less than one minute and ensures virtually complete amniotic cell removal and preservation of amniotic membrane components, and also supports the overall growth of various stem and tissue cells.
"We believe that this straightforward and relatively fast procedure would allow easier standardization of amniotic membrane as a valuable stem cell support and improve the current standard of care in corneal stem cell transplantation," said lead author Alexander Ljubimov, PhD, director of the Eye Program at the Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute. "This new method may provide a better method for researchers, transplant corneal surgeons and manufacturing companies alike."
Mehrnoosh Saghizadeh Ghiam, PhD, a research scientist in the Regenerative Medicine Institute’s Eye Program, assistant professor in the department of Biomedical Sciences and first author of the study, commented on the potential of the new method.
"The amniotic membrane has many beneficial properties and provides an attractive framework to grow tissue and stem cells for regenerative medicine transplantations, especially in replacing missing stem cells in the cornea," said Saghizadeh. "Our method for preparing this scaffold for cell expansion is and may streamline clinical applications of cell therapies."
The study was conducted by a research team that includes co-author Katerina Jirsova, PhD, from the Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, the director of the Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute Clive Svendsen, PhD, Yaron Rabinowitz, MD, director of the Division of Ophthalmology Research at Cedars-Sinai and Dhruv Sareen, PhD, director of the Regenerative Medicine Institute's iPSC core facility. The Eye Program is in the Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute and collaborates with the Cedars-Sinai department of Neurosurgery and the Cedars-Sinai Medical Genetics Institute.
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Working to keep your digital experiences secure
Introducing HubbleStack
Hello! My name is Colton Myers and I am the co-creator and architect of HubbleStack, an open-source security compliance project written in Python. Christer Edwards, another member of our team, named the tool after the Hubble telescope. Just like the Hubble telescope gives us a window into the complexities of our universe, HubbleStack gives us a window into the complexities of our infrastructure!
To help facilitate faster compliance with security controls across Adobe, especially due to our many acquisitions in recent years, we found that we needed a tool to handle security auditing and compliance that scaled across many teams with varying infrastructure.
We tried a couple of third party vendors, but struggled to get the data we needed with the performance we required. Open source software is also our preference wherever possible.
Christer decided to get a proof of concept replacement into development. It was based around SaltStack – our tool of choice for configuration management. The new tool worked really well. We quickly pivoted to create a version that uses SaltStack as a library and doesn’t require Salt to be installed on the target system.
It is composed of a few different components:
Nova – This is the audit piece of Hubble. It uses a set of user-defined profiles to audit against security standards, such as CIS (Center for Internet Security) standards. It returns successes and failures as well as a compliance percentage for the system.
Nebula – This is the information-gathering piece of Hubble. It primarily uses the open source project osquery (https://osquery.io) to collect all sorts of raw information from the systems which we can then use to search for patterns, vulnerabilities, and attacks.
Pulsar – This is the file integrity monitoring piece of Hubble. On Linux it uses inotify to monitor file events on the system and send them wherever you specify.
Quasar – Quasar is the reporting piece of Hubble. It is a series of modules which help you get the data to its final destination.
The project has grown at an incredible pace at Adobe. It is now deployed to almost every server across Adobe. We collect almost 5TB of data per day for our Experience Cloud solutions. Hubble has been a great help for us to find and fix issues that other tools may have otherwise missed.
But this is only the beginning! We want to continue to add more capabilities to the tool. We want to flesh out our CIS audit profiles, add more STIG (Security Technical Implementation Guides) and other audit profiles, and add more modules to gather different data. We also invite others to help contribute to the development of Hubblestack. The project is open sourced and you can join the project on GitHub. | {
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Monthly Archives: November 2012
Thomas Junior Payne was a loving, kind, humble, compassionate, funny and beloved Husband, father, uncle, grandfather and great-grandfather. Married to Vila Mae Hammer on June 24, 1946, the two were inseparable and were in love until the very end... | {
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Prosciutto and Lemon Roasted Chicken and the Hameau de la Reine
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #173B0B;”] G reetings everyone, and happy Sunday. Time flies, that’s for sure, and come the end of October it will have been 1 year since I made my first post on FiveEuroFood. I’m not going to reminisce about “my first ever post” right now – I’ll save that sentimental trash for the actual “1 year anniversary” but over the time I’ve been blogging I’ve met some great people – I’ve seen what you do with your own blogs – and for the food bloggers amongst you, I love how you all manage to blend “adventure” with “food” and I was wondering whether perhaps I should try the same thing. There’s nothing wrong with some non-food eye candy every now and again and sometimes I really have things I want to share, but up to now, with a couple of exceptions, I’ve clung onto the theme of “food and food alone” for dear life. I’m not going to change this – every post is still going to have a recipe – but I figured, why not let my blog evolve too. Why not share a few of my experiences with my readers and make my posts more fun to read? So, henceforth, about once a week I’ll be posting a story or two about what I’ve been up to, with a few photos. I’ll put the recipe underneath each time so if you find me tremendously boring you can just scroll down 😀
I’ll be tagging each of these posts under “Adventures”, so I can collate them all together later, and so without further ado, I present “Adventure #1″:
The Hameau de la Reine.
I‘m lucky enough to live in a rather convenient location – 10 minutes drive away from Versailles, 20 minutes drive away from Paris – and so I have many opportunities to visit all manner of wonderful places in my spare time. My wife and I actually used to live just a stone’s throw away from the walls of the chateau gardens in Versailles and many a walk was taken here. One of our favourite places to wander around was the area near the “Petit Trianon“, or more specifically the “Hameau de la Reine” (Queen’s Hamlet) – a little village built entirely for Marie Antoinette.
…a rustic retreat in the park of the Château de Versailles built for Marie Antoinette between 1785 and 1792 near the Petit Trianon in the Yvelines, France. Designed by the Queen’s favoured architect, Richard Mique and with the help of the painter Robert Hubert, it contained a meadowland with lakes and streams, a classical Temple of Love on an island with fragrant shrubs and flowers, an octagonal belvedere, with a neighbouring grotto and cascade. There are also various buildings in a rustic or vernacular style, inspired by Norman or Flemish designed, situated around an irregular pond fed by a stream that turned the mill wheel. The building scheme included a farmhouse, (the farm was to produce milk and eggs for the queen), a dairy, a dovecote, a boudoir, a barn, a mill and a tower in the form of a lighthouse. Each building is decorated with a garden, an orchard or a flower garden. The largest of these houses is the “Queen’s House” at the center of the village.
It’s truly a delightful place to wander around in, especially in late autumn/winter when it’s all but deserted. There are myriad little pathways all around the little village to explore, lakes and little rivers to see, small pastures with goats, sheep and potbellied pigs and, in the spring and summer they even fill the gardens with vegetables, to truly recreate the authentic feeling of a “living, breathing village”, as it may well have been like, producing milk, eggs and vegetables for the Queen. I realised however that the appearance is the most important thing here – whoever it is that now cares for the park no long cares about function. We walked past so many plots of land, filled with bell pepper plants, courgettes, cabbages, lettuces, leeks, even small vineyards… just rotting away. They’re planted, carefully tended, and then left to die in the autumn, and then the same cycle is repeated the next year. Sure, they won’t be solving world hunger with the produce but they could give it to a local homeless shelter or similar organisation – the food wastage is just shameful, no matter how pretty it may look.
Despite being overcast we were lucky – the rain held off all day and we enjoyed the opportunity to “escape into the past” so to speak for a few hours. On the way back to the car I was surprised to see that we’re really getting into autumn now, especially having just seen a patch full of sunflowers in the “Hameau” (ok, most of them were dying now, but still). Seeing horse chestnuts on the ground shocked me a little – it’s something I normally associate with late October, but there they were, shining brightly on the ground. A good reminder that salad season is well and truly gone – time to bring out the apple pies, soups and stews.
So what about this recipe then? As I’ve said in earlier posts, I love cooking whole chickens. If you’re 2 people (or just happen to buy a big chicken and have a larger family), you can easily get 3 meals out of one bird. Eating the breast as the first dinner, usually as part of a roast dinner, I usually like to roll the excess meat in egg and breadcrumbs and fry it later for a delicious home-made alternative to “nuggets”, and then of course you have the carcass. Chicken soup from the carcass is so good compared to when white meat is used. The flavour is so rich and gamey. Best of all, buying a whole chicken can be a frugalist’s dream come true. I actually spent €18 on my chicken because I prefer to buy organic and free-range but if these factors aren’t so important to you then you can buy a chicken for a song – €5 maybe or less and you’ve got meals for days to come!
If you can’t find prosciutto then bacon will serve as well. It will act as a great “shield” to ensure the lemony and bacon/prosciutto taste is roasted into the chicken skin and meat, imparting a great background flavour, and keeping the meat succulent. Enjoy the remainder of your weekend everyone
Ingredients
1 Whole Chicken, prepared for roasting
1 pack Prosciutto (~7 slices)
1 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tsps dried Thyme
2 tsps Ground Black Pepper
1 tsp Salt
Zest from 1 Lemon
Juice from 1 Lemon
Instructions
Preheat your oven to about 140 degrees Celsius, and while it’s warming up, take a fork and stab your chicken all over – Go crazy, the more the better, although obviously don’t completely wreck the thing. Once this is done transfer the chicken to a roasting dish and then mix the lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Brush the chicken all over with the sauce, being sure to get well into any nooks and crannies, next to the legs and wings for example.
Separate your slices of prosciutto and lay over the chicken, being sure to cover all parts of the chicken well. Cover roasting dish with aluminium foil and place into the oven.
After one hour in the oven, remove from the oven and take away the foil. Carefully remove the prosciutto “shell” and return to the oven. Turn up the heat to about 160 degrees Celsius to crisp off the skin and allow to cook for another 30 minutes or so, until golden brown. If you are concerned about if the chicken is cooked or not then you can test it in two ways – either with a meat thermometer – remove the chicken and insert the thermometer probe into the thickest part of the breast meat (not touching any bones). The temperature should be 85 degrees Celsius for optimum “doneness”. Alternatively, you can cut into the breast meat – the juices that come out should run clear, with no pinkish hue. Serve as desired – I’ve served with roast potatoes, roast carrots, broccoli and gravy, with the prosciutto chopped up on top. You can’t see the chicken so much in the picture but the plate was quite loaded! Enjoy
Comments
Hi Charles, something went amiss as I am unable to access the recipe. You and your wife are indeed very fortunate- Hameau de la Rheine looks so picture postcard like. We visited Versailles but did see Hameau de la Rheine! Another good reason for a return visit! As if Paris was not enough.
Hi Eva – thanks for stopping by. Sorry you couldn't see the recipe, I guess maybe you were viewing from your cellphone? I was using a new mobile theme (which is actually pretty good… very uncluttered) but it doesn't support the "shortcode" tags that I use in my posts (to create the drop-downs, boxes, drop capitals etc) so if there's text contained in a shortcode it just won't show up – rather annoying. I've disabled the mobile theme now until shortcodes are supported in it – you can try again if you like to view the recipe and let me know
OMG! Look at that chicken wrapped in prosciutto!!!!! That is a thing of beauty! I love it Charles. I've never made a whole chicken before…I should do that some Sunday. It no doubt would give us leftovers for the week too.
And I LOVE your adventure. I can't wait to read more. I went to Versailles with some friends on a tour of Europe after college and it was one of my favorite places in France. That palace and those grounds – just amazing! It is so sad that they tend such a wonderful garden only for it to go to waste. Yet, as wrong as it seems, it's also rather fitting if one believes the story about the Queen in which she said, "Let them eat cake." Still, I'm with you – they should make some kind of use of the food aside from beauty.
Oh oh, roasting a whole chicken is a whole barrel of fun, especially when you get it just right so the skin is all crispy and golden. It really is a wonderfully economical dish too. I always think it's weird when I hear other people have been to Versailles too – small world, but then it's quite a popular tourist destination. You should see the tourist hordes spilling out of the train station in the mornings during the summer months… absolutely incredible. They've improved the Chateau "experience" a lot recently. I went for the first time about 5 years ago and it was terrible. Room after room of literally "nothing". No furniture, barely any art, with a few rooms at the end which were actually interesting. I went again recently and the route is about 3 times longer, with so much more stuff to see… definitely worth the entry cost now. Hope you enjoy reading my future "trips"
I have no doubt I'll enjoy your future trips. It's always fun to see places that I want to go – and I'd love to get back to Versailles. I know that Mr. N would absolutely love it. He really gets into architecture and design. One of these days we'll get the kids over there. In the meantime, I'm going to live vicariously through you. And I'm putting a whole chicken on my list of things to cook this fall. (And you can bet it will be wrapped in prosciutto!)
Charles, what an excellent idea to publish you adventures! The photos are incredible! They bring back make one want to go and visit Versailles again.
The chicken wrapped in ham is amazing! I have already had small birds (pigeons and cockerels) wrapped in bacon, but dried ham sounds even better! I must try it one day!
I buy whole chicken very often and also only free range (like eggs). One (silly in appearance) tv program showing birds in cages was for me enough to stop buying the pointlessly tortured birds. When I sometimes eat out some low quality chicken the difference is also huge in taste.
However, I rarely bake it whole. I often cut it before baking or before using the parts in another way. Then I am left with a carcass, which, as you say, is excellent for a home-made stock. I reduce it and freeze it and it's usually enough for several soups.
Thank you for your kind comments Sissi – I've had pigeons and quails wrapped in bacon too, they're so delicious. One of my father's favourite dishes is pigeon or quail wrapped in bacon, served on a bed of cabbage, with a redcurrant sauce (I think) and a side of game chips… a bit like thick potato chips. Served with a good bordeaux, it's so delicious! I'm making a point of buying organic, free-range meat and animal products wherever possible – It's more expensive, but it just means that I eat less of it. Many people in general eat way too much meat I think so it's not a bad thing. I remember reading about a chicken "farm" in the US which had to destroy vast quantities (read: at least several hundred thousand, possible more than a million) because one or two birds had some contagious disease. Of course, they can't take risks with public health, but it's wrong that living creatures are just treated as commodities. Apparently as well more than 50% of factory farmed chickens have issues with cancer at the time of slaughter so we're all eating cancer-meat… yummy!
Anyway – more cheerfully – glad you liked the post – I'll post some more about a new trip in a week or so
Charles, the worst is the amount of antibiotics the standard farms stuff into animals: they have to because when animals are kept in unnatural and difficult conditions (they cannot even turn, not to mention walk) they become aggressive and develop many diseases and they are also given hormones to grow quicker. I am always thinking: put human beings in such small space and see how they react…
And then we eat all the antibiotics…
I agree that free-range meat is more expensive in general, but, as you say, we eat too much meat anyway and people are simply used to very cheap meat. Strangely, the free-range pork is not expensive (the difference is ridiculous) and lamb is almost the same price as the standard one, but I have to go especially to another butcher's to get it.
Older people say that when they were young meat wasn't a daily thing for average people, but then in those times animals weren't kept in small cages to save the space and weren't given hormones to grow quicker…
Eep, absolutely – body-builder style cows with so much "meat enhancement" drugs they look like walking steaks :p I know some people who honestly believe that "a meal is not a meal if it doesn't include meat" and this weird glazed, horrified look comes over their face when you mention salads or something like this 😀
The supermarket near me finally started selling things like organic pork tenderloin so now I can feel good about enjoying this wonderful cut of meat too!
By the way, I have started to use the wonderful knife I have won in your giveaway! It's incredible! What I love most is the fact that the handle is adapted to a woman's hand (or maybe it's simply versatile? some handles I have tested were too big for me). It's extremely comfortable! The handle's colour is the biggest surprise: it has an exceptionally beautiful colour!
Oh I see – telling me I have woman hands? 😀 Well, I find the handle a good fit for me too, and I guess my hands are quite big. I agree about the colour – it's a really rich colour. Their website has some videos showing how they make their knives – it's really interesting So glad you like it!
Charles, I didn't want to suggest you have woman's hands! I suppose they make perfect handles because some knives I have tried in shops were extremely uncomfortable and I always assumed they were made for bigger hands.
Can you advise a good knife sharpener? You have more experience than me in taking care of good knives…
Hi Sissi – I bought this one earlier this year – it's quite expensive, but it has a very good solid feel, good handle and is really effective too! I prefer these over alternative style knife sharpeners as they don't grind down the blade so much and make them last longer!
Hi Marianna, thanks a lot – I'm going to try and make an adventure once a week – it's also a great way of forcing myself to use my camera more. Up to now I haven't been taking any photos except for food, and I used to love going out taking photos, so this is great motivation
There's no-one living on the farm anymore – it's all empty buildings – it's quite weird to go there in the winter – around 5pm, when it's dark and cold, no-one else around… the park closes around 6 or 7 I think so you can still walk about then. Really eerie.
Ha, and you didn't break in the abandoned buildings and didn't take pictures from inside?……. )
I would really like to see more pictures and to see how people live in France, it's so interesting… When you live somewhere you take a lot of things for granted and you dont think that they might be interesting to someone – but they are )
Ha, I wouldn't really call them "abandoned" :/ Cracking open the doors on these places would be equivalent to breaking open a door on an "un-used" part of the Louvre, just so you could take a look inside :p
You know, I think I've only cooked a whole chicken once or twice in my life. I don't know why because it makes entire sense to do it that way. Lemon and thyme is a delicious combination with chicken (were you able to taste it under the gravy? :)) I really appreciate the simplicity of this recipe Charles. Gorgeous photos of Hameau de la Reine; that is odd about the produce being left to die in the fall after its fulfilled its showcase purpose… I wish I was there to recover it…
The trick is to not add too much gravy, but I'm a bit of a heathen so I usually have a small lake on my plate, although I save it for the roast potatoes 😀 Glad you liked the photos – I used to go out and take quite a lot of photos but don't really do that at all anymore so this is a great way of renewing my old hobby too
"A whole village just for one person" – oh to be rich royalty, but then with a lifestyle like that, as well as the chateau not far away, it's not surprised the proles wanted her head :/ Glad you liked the post!
Hehe, yeah – I'm not at all gifted in graphic design so I hired a guy from Freelancer.com to make me 6 banners – Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, Easter and Christmas, so I'm going to be updating the banner as the year ticks by My favourite is "Winter" and "Summer", but you'll need to wait to see those 😀
Wow, you definitely live in a ideal location. If there is a nice hotel near by, you have to let me know because you're close to everything. And this home is stunning. I love the culture and its story. You definitely brought smile to my face with this beautiful cottage home and this beautiful looking lemon chicken. Adding prosciutto to this is just superb
Hi Kay – nice hotel? Well, there's this place literally right next to the Chateau park grounds – you can have a view of the castle, the park and gardens all from here, but it's rather expensive 😀 There are plenty of cheaper hotels right in the centre of Versailles though so you can easily find something to suit any budget!
You know how I feel about prosciutto…but an ENTIRE chicken wrapped in prosciutto!? WOW. That is just stunning. I don't even know what to say. All around great photos. I'm extremely jealous of your location. When can I come visit? 😉 Oh, and I just saw that you're on bloglovin. Following you there as well now.
Haha, good to hear – I think some people like to crack the bones open and boil it up for a really long time with some onion, carrot etc to make a stock (though you might want to read up about that) – sounds like you already disposed of it though. I guess people generally don't keep bare chicken carcasses lying around the house 😀
First of all, the chicken looks so yummy! I love prosciutto and it's such a wonderful idea to use that to trap the moisture and the flavor! Second of all, your story was wonderful and makes me miss France dearly. I went on a family vacation there a few years back and we visited the Hamlet. Everything was dead then, too, but it was so pretty there and I wish I could go back! Keep up the fun stories and beautiful pictures, along with the great food!! 😀
I used to start work quite late … around 1030, and would sometimes take a walk in the hamlet before work with my wife – at this time in the morning, especially in late autumn, when it's all frosty outside on the grass – with no-one else around, save a few dog walkers, it's really a magical place – very peaceful and beautiful. Glad you liked the look of the dish – let me know if you decide to try it!
Thanks Cham! By the way, if you want to make it extra delicious, make some cuts in a lemon and then push the whole lemon into the chicken's… er… "derriere". Super tasty after the lemon juice has evaporated into the chicken meat!
Aah, speaking of that – I need to buy some and make a nice fondue savoyarde sometime soon! I still have the little tin of fuel for my fondue kit sitting in the refrigerator (I was scared it might suddenly catch fire in the summer, lol)
Welcome! My name is Charles and this is FiveEuroFood. My goal with this site is to offer you recipes which reflect that cooking tasty food from scratch is not only easy and fun, but cheap as well. Read More →
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Most businesses consider leads to be the fuel that powers their business. But experienced businessmen will tell you that leads are nothing without having them converted into actual customers. For this, you need to possess high quality leads that have high probability of conversion. By totaling both these aspects, you will know that you are not only required to attract leads. You are also required to actually identify and segregate quality prospects out of… | {
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Big entry at veteran event
At total of 60 boats will be on the startline of the Veteran Boat Rally in Porto Cervo, Sardinia today
A record entry of more than 60 beautiful yachts, representing ten different countries will be on the startline of the first day’s racing at the Prada Veteran Boat Rally in Porto Cervo, Sardinia today.
Entries include Croce del Sud, the three-masted yacht owned by the Granelli Mentasti family, Nyala a 12 metre owned by Patrizio Bertelli, Tirrenia II, and the 54.35m Shenandoah of Sark.
This event is open to all sailing yachts built in wood and or metal, launched prior to 1950 (Vintage Yachts); on the discretion of the organizing committee, also sailing yachts built after 1950 launched prior to 1976, and replicas of classic and vintage yachts, conforming with CIM and ITMA regulations.
Racing will be divided in to Vintage Yacht, Classic Yacht and Spirit of Tradition and will conclude on Sunday 3 September with the final parade off Porto Cervo Marina, and prizegiving.
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In IVF, One Embryo Is Better Than Two
Action Points
Explain to interested patients that in recent years, use of single embryo transfer has increased, but the live birth rate per woman has remained unchanged and the multiple birth rate has decreased substantially.
Explain that in this study, single embryo transfer appears to be less expensive than double embryo transfer, and is likely more cost-effective.
Note that the practice of implanting a single embryo has not been widely adopted because of doubts about its overall applicability, despite numerous reports about its efficacy.
OULO, Finland, March 25 -- For in vitro fertilization, single embryo transfer is more effective and less expensive than double embryo transfer, researchers here said.
Over the course of the study period, use of single embryo transfer increased while the live birth rate per woman remained unchanged and the multiple birth rate decreased substantially, Hannu Martikainen, M.D., and colleagues reported online in Human Reproduction.
"The present study provides evidence for the superiority of single embryo transfer over the traditional transfer of two embryos," the researchers said. "These data should encourage clinics to evaluate their embryo transfer policy and adopt single embryo transfer as their everyday practice."
The practice of implanting a single embryo has not been widely adopted because of fears that it will lower pregnancy rates per embryo transfer, increase the cost of treatments, and extend the time needed to achieve pregnancy.
However, there is "universal agreement" that multiple pregnancies, often a result of double embryo transfer, pose the biggest health risks from in vitro fertilization -- mainly from complications related to prematurity.
To compare the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of single versus double embryo transfer, the researchers looked at data on 1,510 women under age 40 treated in the Infertility Unit of the Oulu University Hospital between 1995 and 2004.
Treatment was split into two periods: 1995-2000, when single embryo treatment was rarely used (4.2% of women), and 2000-2004, when it was more routinely practiced (46.2% of women).
The researchers found that the pregnancy rate and live birth rate were higher in the single embryo transfer period, and multiple birth rate was significantly lower (P<0.0001).
And the incremental cost-effectiveness calculations, done in euros, showed that 19,889 were saved per live birth when single embryo transfers were more common than in the double embryo transfer period.
The higher pregnancy rate in the single embryo transfer period is likely attributable to more effective use of cryopreserved embryos, the researchers said. During the double embryo transfer period, embryos were frozen in groups of at least three. But during the latter period, embryos were typically frozen in individual vials.
Cost-efficacy is in line with other analyses that have found lower overall costs with single embryo transfer if expenses for pregnancy, neonatal, and pediatric care are taken into account.
However, the present study found that an increased use of frozen embryos, which is much cheaper than fresh cycles, occurred during the single embryo transfer period, adding to cost-effectiveness.
Another study in the same issue of Human Reproduction focused on cost-effectiveness of seven in vitro fertilization strategies, including single and double embryo transfer and combinations of the two.
They found that combinations of the treatments were not at all cost-effective.
"A choice has to be made between three cycles of single embryo transfer, double embryo transfer, or standard treatment," said Audrey Fiddelers, Ph.D., of the Academic Hospital Maastricht in the Netherlands, and lead author of the study. "It is not cost-effective to switch between these three treatment methods during the period of the three cycles of treatment."
Dr. Fiddlers said, however, that the choice of which procedure to create policy around depends on the society's willingness to pay.
At the lowest ceiling -- 7,350 -- three-cycle single embryo transfer has the highest probability of being most cost-effective. If a society is willing to pay 15,250, double embryo transfer would likely be most cost-effective, the researchers said
They noted that investigating the long-term costs and outcomes of in vitro fertilization singletons and twins will "give a clear answer to the question of which strategy is ultimately the most cost-effective."
Dr. Martikainen and colleagues concluded that with single embryo transfer, "outcome is improved, overall costs are decreased because of the incorporation of frozen embryo transfer cycles, and the incidence of multiple births is reduced more than twofold."
Dr. Martikainen's study was funded by Sigrij Juselius Foundation, the Academy of Finland, and Oulo University Hospital.
Dr. Fiddelers' study was supported by a grant from the Dutch Organization for Health Research and Development and the Dutch Health Insurance Board.
None of the researchers reported any conflicts of interest.
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD Emeritus Professor University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
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Monday, June 4, 2012
The Change Myth
Welcome to Tomorrow
It is a new year - again.
During this time of year I usually review my goals and objectives. It is the time to take stock of the past 12 months, and realize where you have been over optimistic, where you’ve succeeded, and what you’ve learned from failure.
It is also the opportunity to set new goals, to motivate it, and plan its execution.
It is a good time to consider and re-consider changes you want to make to yourself, your circumstances and to your business. Your goals and objectives bears testimony to the degree of change you plan to make.
Similarly, Organizations has to review the year past, and plan the results for the next year.
As I.T. Professionals we are in the business of change. A lot of what we do has to do with changing something. We are either changing a business process, a technology or a business model. Our main reason for being in this business is to change things. Our projects deliver new solutions and hopefully this leads to business improvements.
However, sometimes we are so busy changing things that we manage to confuse change with progress. There is a famous saying in this business: “The only constant in I.T. is change.” We are so used to continuously strive for change that we sometimes forget to check if the changes we are implementing is really improving matters. The new system, the next technology, changing that team structure, replacing a team member are all changes. Stop and ask yourself if it is change for change sake, or change for the better.
We confuse action and activity with results. We are often caught in a change trap where we as experts need to come up with the next best thing. We are under pressure to make things better, faster, more functional. This keeps us busy, but it also distracts us from evaluating our results. The pressure on completing the project, or deploying the next release sometimes leaves little room to evaluate if we are really achieving the desired improvements or outcomes.
The objective of this first Blog entry for 2007 is to explore something I call: “The Change Myth”.
In 2007 let us not be so busy changing things, that we forget to check if it is for the better. Let our goal be results in the face of activity.
Ready, Set, Go
Although our business is changing things, I’ve found that as people, I.T. Professionals are as reluctant to change our ways as the next person. Unless there is a convincing and compelling event or set of circumstances, that require us to re-evaluate what and how we do things, we will be reluctant to change the ways in which we think, operate and organize ourselves.
For example: It is sometimes difficult to justify an investment in a new solution purely because it provides more or better functionality - even if it is cheaper. However, if the current solution is not working, and is unstable, then it becomes very easy to justify a new implementation. This is also referred to as: “A Burning Platform.”
In facilitating change, we have to face a very powerful human fear - the fear of uncertainty. This fear needs to be contrasted against the pain and discomfort we hold for the current state, else changing is simply not a compelling option.
Change assumes dissent with the status quo, else there is no good reason to embrace it. If the current state of affairs are not more uncomfortable than the possible uncertainty of the future potential benefits, then there is simply no motivation to change.
The resistance to change can therefore be addressed by addressing the future “uncertainty factor” versus the current “level of (dis)comfort”.
Be sure to know who is feeling the discomfort. I have often tried to improve I.T. delivery and found it hard to improve an I.T. team because the incumbents are quite comfortable and set in their ways. This, while a business is suffering from a lack of response from this “comfortable” I.T. team. In this case, the discomfort is with the business, and unless the “comfortable” I.T. team feel this discomfort too, they will have very little motivation to contemplate changing and improving their ways.
The “uncertainty factor” is is the degree of certainty or uncertainty about the intended outcome and its perceived benefits.
The “level of discomfort” is the amount of dissatisfaction one has with the current state or circumstance, and its symptoms.
To facilitate change, one therefore has to address two important matters:
Removing Future Uncertainty; and
Increasing Current Levels of Discomfort.
It is All a Matter of Perception
Uncertainty is removed when you have a clear view, and is convinced of the benefits of a change. This can be done in several ways: Thorough planning, trials of several options, comparisons, the inclusion of warranties and guarantees, prototyping, testimonies, profiling and more. AlL these methods are designed to remove uncertainty about a particular outcome.
Businesses are particularly creative in devising means to address possible uncertainty for their prospective customers. In this way, they make a change towards their products or services easier for the customer. If a client trusts that they will receive the promised benefits, then the Company has a better chance of making the sale and winning the customer.
The business has more control over the perceived future outcome than they have over the current levels of discomfort, and therefore devote the majority of their energy in addressing this aspect to facilitate change.
Your ability as I.T. Professional to remove uncertainty for your customers in the work you do, will also go a long way in ensuring your distinction from fellow Professionals. Give your clients trust in the proposed changes or improvements and it will be easier for them to follow your lead.
How does one increase the current levels of dissatisfaction to facilitate change?
Although no one will admit it, certain products are designed with a lifetime in mind. Miraculously, once a product leaves its warranty period, it starts to cause problems, have faults, and ultimately fail. It costs more to own and maintain, and that newer option suddenly makes a lot more sense than before.
Another way is to improve the new and contrast the benefits of the new with the old. Demonstrate the inferiority of the current against the new. How often have we not upgraded to a faster computer only to discover soon afterwards that it appears as slow as the older one. This happens while it is in line to be replaced with yet another faster and better model.
The Insurance industry does a good job of reminding you of your “possible” discomfort if you don’t have their product or service, thereby creating for you more discomfort. Your home, car, and even your loved ones are at stake - definitely a very discomforting situation.
When you find that your superiors are making your job very uncomfortable, then you should realize that it is time to move on. Similarly, customers can go out of their way to make live difficult for a supplier. When this happens, be aware that they are probably already committed to making a change and you will possibly not be part of this future.
The risk with increasing someone else’s discomfort levels is that it can be perceived as unethical and/or malicious. Be careful.
Degrees of Change
If you are planning some slight enhancements or a fundamentally new direction for your new year, you should be aware that there are some key considerations that can help you achieve your desired change outcome successfully. Know what you are getting yourself into, before you start.
To differentiate the changes you are planning, it may be useful to take note of the degree of change. Each degree of change has attributes that characterize the change type, and will help you to be more prepared for the journey.
To keep matters simple in this discussion, I am highlighting only three degrees of change and some of their attributes:
Small Changes: These are changes that can easily be facilitated through efforts of continuous improvement. Inherently you are happy with the status quo, and will benefit from small improvements to further enhance and maximize the benefits. For example: In your personal life you may decide that your fitness program is on the right track, all that is needed is an increase in frequency, or a few more repetitions. Upgrading your bicycle may also do the trick to enhance and revive your current fitness program. The innovator in this case is usually internal to the system - you can make the changes yourself. If you are a business, your internal staff should be able to identify and implement these improvements. Typically these changes are motivated by slight improvements like improved costs, or shorter timeframes to reach your goals and objectives. The key question that drives changes of this nature is: “How”. How can it be made even better? The costs for these changes are relatively small, so is the risk and gain.
Large Change: In this instance you require a serious improvement on the current. Essentially you are not happy with the current situation. The current solution does not meet your needs. You know the desired outcome. What remains is the implementation of a solution to significantly improve the status quo. For example: Typically in business, these initiatives are driven by Total Quality Management (TQM). A desire to significantly improve the quality of service or a product calls for some major engineering or organizational intervention. In you personal realm you may decide that the current fitness regime of cycling no longer produce the desired results, and opt for something more intense like Thai Kickboxing or Weight Training. The goal is usually effectiveness driven by the question: “What”. What can be done to achieve the desired outcome? A catalyst is usually required to facilitate this type of change amongst the current organization. You may need to bring some consultants in to assist you with the changes and it will typically require training and re-skilling of the current workforce. The costs for these changes are large, so is the risk and gain. and
Fundamental Change: This requires a paradigm shift. It may require you to change your basic assumptions about the problem and its possible solutions. Typically fundamental change is driven by unsolved problems and may prove to be quite difficult. In business a paradigm shift may mean making an industry change. For example: An I.T. Business may elect to transition themselves from a product business to a service business. The business may decide to change their market focus. Instead of selling to large corporations, they may decide to target medium enterprises with a different set of solutions. In you personal health and fitness objectives, you may decide to give up on exercise and diet altogether and elect for cosmetic surgery instead (not a very wise decision, but certainly a paradigm shift). The innovator in this degree of change is usually from outside the organization. You require a coach or doctor to introduce the change. Often the current team will be replaced with a new workforce. The change is driven by a shift in values and beliefs and motivated by survival or competition. The costs for these changes are significant, so is the risk and potential gain.
Conclusion
In summary then, make sure that you focus on the outcomes when you contemplate any changes for the year in your personal life or business. Set up a score board that helps you to track your progress against your desired objectives. Unless you keep score you won’t know who is winning. Change for the better.
Secondly, if you are planning slight modification, a new solution or a totally new business or career, know that each degree of change has its own attributes, drivers, cost, risk and ultimately benefits.
You can rely on yourself or your team to make smaller changes. A large change will require some catalysts like a coach or a consultant, and if you want to fundamentally change and improve matters, it may require the most painful of all solutions - a paradigm shift and a new team.
Lastly, to facilitate any change in your personal or business life be sure to identify the point where the the discomfort of the current outweighs the uncertainty of the future change. It is usually easier to address and lower the uncertainty factor, than it is to address the level of discomfort.
Change is mostly fun! It provides opportunity to learn.
If you are a pathological learner like me, then go forth and change the world this year. If you don’t change it, you will never know if it can indeed be better!
Hendrik van Wyk
P.S. Thank you to my esteemed colleague and friend Richard Dickie, for the inspiration to write this entry. | {
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DOJ sets stage for possible Google challenge
The U.S. Justice Department has hired a well-known lawyer, former Walt Disney vice chairman Sanford Litvack, to weigh and possibly lead an antitrust challenge against Google, the Wall Street Journal reports today. Google’s advertising pact with Yahoo would be the most likely target of a case, but it’s not clear if the DOJ will proceed. From the story:
For weeks, U.S. lawyers have been deposing witnesses and issuing subpoenas for documents to support a challenge to the deal, lawyers close to the review said. Such efforts don’t always mean a case will be brought, however.
Mr. Litvack, who was the Justice Department antitrust chief under President Jimmy Carter, has been asked to examine the evidence gathered so far and to build a case if the decision is made to proceed, the lawyers close to the review said.
Of course, Microsoft has traditionally been a big focus of antitrust scrutiny, but this situation has put the company on the other side of the fence. Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, has spoken out repeatedly against the Google-Yahoo advertising partnership, saying it would put too much of the market in the search giant’s hands.
Under the Google-Yahoo partnership, ads from Google’s lucrative system would appear next to selected results on the Yahoo search site. The idea is to give Yahoo a financial boost. The plan was conceived when Microsoft made its big (and ultimately unsuccessful) offer to buy Yahoo earlier this year.
Google and Yahoo say the non-exclusive arrangement is legal and doesn’t require regulatory approval. However, it’s being delayed while the Justice Department investigates. | {
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Special session • Even with all Senate Democrats onboard, GOP opposition leaves outcome in doubt.
By Robert Gehrke The Salt Lake Tribune
Published March 22, 2011 9:03 pm
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Several Republican senators are backing a push to quickly repeal a rushed bill to restrict public access to government records. But opposition from Senate leaders and other colleagues leaves the outcome of Friday's vote in doubt.
"I would like to see us repeal [HB477] on Friday," said Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem. "There's just got to be a place where you can have a rational discussion, and I'm just not convinced you can in this kind of environment."
Gov. Gary Herbert issued a call for a special session on Friday designed solely to repeal HB477, the revisions to Utah's Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA) that have sparked public outcry, rallies and a referendum effort aimed at repealing the measure.
But Senate leaders aren't pleased with the governor's decision to call for the quick repeal and are frustrated they weren't consulted.
"The governor hasn't talked to us. He didn't call, other than to say he was going to call the session. I haven't seen a bill yet, so I don't even know what's in it," said Senate Majority Leader Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City. "It's strange, the way this happened. … They're not coordinating anything here at all. … Man alive, it's kind of beyond me."
A majority of House Republicans, following a closed-door caucus Monday, said they would support a quick repeal. But Senate President Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, said his caucus favors a slower, more deliberate process to come up with compromise legislation that would immediately replace HB477 if and when it is repealed.
Opposition to immediate repeal, which Jenkins said is shared by other Republican senators, and the anticipated absence of at least three members makes it uncertain that the Senate will get the 15 votes needed to repeal the bill, even with all seven Democrats backing the action.
Senate Republicans are planning to meet in a closed-door caucus beginning at 10 a.m. Friday, with the special session scheduled to begin at noon.
Herbert's spokeswoman, Ally Isom, said the chips will fall where they may, but added it would be a mischaracterization to suggest there were no discussions with legislative leaders before the governor called the special session.
"We're not going to speculate on what actions the Senate will take," she said. "The governor has done as he committed, and that is to call them into special session."
Valentine said there are real issues with GRAMA, but he fears the legislation that was passed went too far in some areas. He said he will sponsor the bill to repeal HB477 if he is asked.
Another GOP senator on board for repeal is Sen. Dan Liljenquist, R-Bountiful.
"HB477 is not the starting point for the discussion on changes to GRAMA, and I'm in favor of repeal on Friday," Liljenquist said.
Sen. Stephen Urquhart, R-St. George, also supports repealing HB477, but he is baffled by the timing of the special session.
The governor struck a deal with lawmakers to delay the implementation of the bill until July 1 and, in the meantime, create a working group to discuss potential changes to GRAMA a panel that includes Urquhart.
"I think we clearly have to repeal," Urquhart said. "My preference would be to repeal and replace [with a new bill]. We're going to have this working group, [the bill] doesn't take effect for three months. So, for me, I can't understand what the governor is doing."
Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, shares that sentiment. He said calling the special session for Friday will cost taxpayers about $30,000 in tight budget times and that the issue could have waited.
"Why are we rushing to do a repeal?" asked Hillyard, who was the Senate sponsor of HB477. "My initial inclination is I would not vote to repeal it immediately."
"By and large, we opposed [HB477] and didn't like the process and didn't like the result, so repeal seems appropriate, particularly in light of the concern from the public and the understanding there is going to be a study of the issue," Romero said.
Sen. Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake City, who was the only Senate Democrat to back HB477, said he voted for it with a promise from GOP leaders to study the issue.
"If it takes the pressure off everyone to do it without the law in place, then so be it. Let's go for it," Davis said. GRAMA advisory groupto hold its first meeting
A 25-member group of lawmakers, citizens and media representatives will hold its initial meeting Wednesday to begin discussing revisions to Utah's open-records law, the Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA).
The so-called working group was formed in the wake of public furor over the Legislature's rapid passage of HB477, which restricts access to some government records. The group will meet at 9 a.m. in Room 210 of the Senate Building, the east office building behind the state Capitol. The session is open to the public and will be streamed live on the unofficial Senate website, senatesite.com.
Salt Lake Chamber President Lane Beattie is the chairman of the group. | {
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Bethesda has released the second gameplay trailer for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition. The special edition, which has upgraded graphics and mod support is due out for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on October 28. Take a hop, skip and jump to check it out below. | {
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What was really neat about this Japanese version is the humor is universal. It made the rounds on live journal and I know not many people there understand Japanese. Everyone who saw it including my youngest thought it was hilarious! | {
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The Write Way To Die.
I killed someone today. And nobody will ever even know. Well, just one person, but she won’t tell. Let me see if I am brave enough to recount it for you.
Mean Girl: You’re going to turn fifty in two weeks and you think NOW, all of a sudden out of the blue, you can try to make something of yourself with writing?
Me: It’s not totally out of the blue. I’ve tried my hand at writing before, you know. But something always roadblocked me.
Mean Girl: Something? Typical. Gotta have that scapegoat, doncha?
Me: Well I know it seems like an excuse, but there were kids and divorces and deaths in the family and health issues – – mental health issues you know. Can you keep that part to yourself, please?
Mean Girl: Hah! Your children are so easy, it’s not even funny. What do you know of kiddy turmoil? Good grades, no drinking, no drugs, nothing! And you were a stay-at-home mom, for God’s sake.
Me: But there’s six.
Mean Girl: Boo hoo – – try being a working mom AND raising kids. Try being a widowed wife, working mom AND raising kids. Try being a widowed wife, working mom, raising kids AND being diagnosed with breast cancer. Try being…
Me: I get it. I see what you mean. But don’t forget the mental health issues. Those were hard.
Mean Girl: Will wonders never cease?! You know what? Just shove ten cookies in your mouth and call it a day. Tomorrow you can start fresh.
Me: Yeah, okay. I bought some Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies – – they were for the kids.
Mean Girl: LOL. Seriously ? And you’re fooling whom with that “it’s for the kids” crap? I know. They know. We all know. So eat them, already.
Me: I could try taking a risk with my writing, blog about something different than my typical humor. Something meaningful to me in a more serious light?
Mean Girl: I don’t think so, babe. Even if you dared – – you’ve still got that old-age thing going on. When are ya gonna do something about that?
Me: What can I do about it? Cosmetic surgery?
Mean Girl: Nah, you’re way beyond that. But here’s an idea that would kill two birds – – pun intended. (I know how you love them puns.) Kill yourself. And then maybe, if you get lucky, some well-meaning friend or relative will talk up your writing and some of it will get more known, given higher regard. You know the whole “Unrecognized artists who only become famous after their tragic death” thing. Google it. It’s real, not an urban legend.
Me: Yeah?
Mean Girl: Yeah. Sound good? Or too chicken to even go that route?
Me: Shut up.
Mean Girl: Come again? What’d you say?
Me: Shut up. Shut the hell up.
Mean Girl: Oh, it’s getting interesting now. A big-talking loser.
Me: You’re the loser. What are you, like 15 years old? Like the Mean Girl from middle school.
Mean Girl: I WAS born in middle school. Good job.
Me: Born at age 15 – – thirty-five years is a long enough life for you.
Me: Guts? I hate your fucking guts. There’s no use for you around here anymore. You. Are. Dead.
Mean Girl:
Me: There. How was that? That okay?
Therapist: Well done, Stephanie. Well done. It was self-defense.
Note: This was an atypical posting for me. My blog is humor based (with an occasional anchoring of seriousness) so if you need a laugh after this, please see my most recent posting – – about the Academy Award nominated movie, “Her.” Just click HERE
I wish I would have done this a long, long time ago. Depression has been with me all of my life and she’s a nasty, loathsome and diabolical being who would seek to destroy me. When I think of the wasted time spent listening to the lies and the self-deprecating comments, if only I would have buried her… Thank you for this insightful piece. You are an artist!!
So brave, so true, you are amazing, sadly for my Daughter that bitch of hers has taken over. I regularly try to kill her myself. Some days I frighten her and she runs for cover. I even tried talking her to death( which I have managed to do to a few people…they disappeared) but not this one. Not all doom and gloom though, we do have fun and laughs about that bitch when she is cowering. We have many laughs about the strangest things.
Yes, It’s a tough battle. As many already commented, the voice resurrects itself in many different forms. You seem like an amazing mother and grandmother. I just turned fifty two days ago and remain close with my own mother who has seen me thru quite a lot. I’m off to read your other comments now. You do get around fast! 😉
Wow, what an enlightened post. It’s as if you can actually identify the negative and positive thinking trajectories in your mind. Your positive side says ‘I want to write about humans and the world!’ And the other says ‘You can’t because you’re not good’. The fact that you’re listening and empathising with yourself is such a good thing. It led you to be inspired, to write this and put it out there for people who are like you to get and empathise with themselves. It shows the power of positive thinking because as a result, you chose to think positively and post your writing on the internet and I empathise and understand as a fellow human being. A beautiful reflection and I’m so glad you posted it 🙂
What a remarkably kind comment. Thank you so much. Your reinforcing what I did means so much to me. You must work in the field of psychology?
I actually didn’t do this in front of a therapist as the ending implies, nor did a therapist give me the exercise to do as homework. I was just trying to post some writing one day, and the mean girl was bullying me extra awful – – so I decided to give her a voice. A real one. As dialogue in an actual post. Because then I could stifle her voice. Hopefully forever. Thank you again for empathizing and taking the time to read/remark.
Stephanie
No problem, I love empathising because I believe it brings out the good in people and the good in people is the individual unique characteristics – playful, creative, interesting, happy, sad. I’m not a psychologist but like you, I’m a writer so I’m an observer of human nature. All it’s ups and downs. Generally, I like to take a positive message from everything because it makes things easier for me but more so because it makes things easier for others when we understand. It’s what we love about books, film, art in general! Relating to each other. A beautiful thing! I’m only 22 and I have massive ups and downs and massive uncertainty because I’m young and naive but I practice learning from others and celebrating others. It’s such an empowering way to be. Don’t listen to negative voices, listen to positive ones! 🙂 it’s yin and yang. Know your enemy but don’t indulge him. Indulge your friends, what makes you happy.
Oh, what a brilliant and well written post! Kudos to you for killing off that bad character- my own mean girl was born around the time yours was and it’s time for her to go too. Absolutely loved this- you have a new follower 🙂
No Truer Words! Thank you for reading, commenting and most of all for taking a moment to thank me for sharing – – it was quite hard to do, but comments like yours make me feel very good about doing so.
Take care,
Stephanie
Hey there – – I think a wrestling match is wisely advised! You will come out on top – – there can be no other acceptable finish. Take good care now and thanks so much for the read and comment!
Stephanie
Relieved and shocked! Relieved that the mean girl is not actually a real person, though we all know they exist out there…….and shocked by how awful your own thoughts can be towards yourself. My own ‘mean girl’ is pretty subtle but no less deadly! I really hope she stays dead!
Thank you. That was very kind to say. I actually would also be shocked if she had shown up suddenly and started talking like this but alas, she’s been building up gradually and insidiously so that I never even noticed how much her bullying had escalated. Anyhow, really appreciate your visit. Please come back again soon. | {
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Chateau de Fargues Sauternes 2007
Actual bottle from our inventory is pictured. These bottles are in excellent condition, from their original wooden case and all fills are into the neck. All bottles are as good or better than the bottle pictured. To see other wines currently available from this producer, please click the link with the name of this producer underlined above, just to the right of "Producer."
Reviews
Wine Advocate
Neal MartinJune 2013
97
The de Fargues 2007 delivers 13.9% alcohol and 134 grams of residual sugar. Picking commenced on September 11, with slow botrytis formation and recommenced October 2-24, the picking ale to be conducted at a relatively leisurely pace. It has a very typical de Fargues nose that has lost its tongue at first, but it opens up to reveal a slightly spirituous bouquet with clear honey, pressed flowers, almond and a distant scent of the sea. The palate is medium-bodied with very fine tannins and outstanding delineation. It is utterly harmonious with a thrilling, edgy finish that expresses the terroir with great clarity. There is an effervescent quality that really takes the 2007 to another level, while the marmalade and white pepper finish is powerful and leaves a lasting impression. This is a fabulous 2007, one of the wines of the vintage. Tasted April 2013.
Wine Spectator
James MolesworthWeb Only - 2012
95
Rich and caressing, with gorgeous toasted coconut, dried orange, ginger cream and mango flavors that all glide through the lush finish, where macadamia nut and papaya notes fill in the remaining space. Offers plenty of depth for the cellar, too. Gorgeous. Drink now through 2037. 1,750 cases made. | {
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Between 2014 and 2026, nearly 1.6 million students will enter the state’s K-12 public school system as ninth graders. Under current graduation rates, more than 213,000 of them are predicted to drop out or delay high school graduation. Let’s break it down further. For every 100 ninth graders that start public high school in NC: 86 graduate high school within 4 years. 14 dropout or take more than 4 years to complete high school. In…
By this Sunday (May 1), most college-bound high school seniors will have made a decision about where they will be this fall. For North Carolina students staying in-state, college-bound students have a choice between 15 campuses. Where do they go? Last year, 30,700 graduating high school seniors reported that they intended to enroll at one of the state’s public 4-year universities. The fall enrollment data for the UNC system indicates that there were 27,443 recent…
The U.S. Women’s National Team advanced to its fourth World Cup final with last night’s 2-0 victory over Germany. On that team were six former players from UNC-Chapel Hill, the highest representation of any U.S. college. Four other universities—Pennsylvania State, Stanford, UCLA, and the University of Virginia—each have two players on the U.S. national team. These former Tar Heels are concentrated in the team’s defensive positions. None of the five forwards attended UNC, but two…
Nationally, college enrollment declined by nearly half a million (463,000) between 2012 and 2013, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey. This was the second year in a row that saw a drop of this size. The Census Bureau noted that much of the decline took place among 2-year colleges or community colleges. Across the nation, enrollment at community colleges declined by 10% between 2012 and 2013, while 4-year colleges…
Duke v. UNC is consistently ranked the best rivalry in college basketball, and one of the greatest rivalries of all American sports: The teams are consistently among the best in their sport. The campuses are all of eight miles apart. The games are among the most hyped of each college basketball season and they rarely disappoint, and frequently determine the ACC champion. Beyond head-to-head competition, the rivalry is close on nearly every metric: fan base… | {
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ACT Records have brought together two more their ever expanding stable of top class European players for yet another fascinating and intriguing duo set. Pianist Iiro Rantala from Helsenki is generally thought of, alongside a very small handful of others as leading the way in contemporary jazz piano these days and is even mentioned by some in the same breath as the late Esbjorn Svensson. His partner Ulf Wakenius was one of the last guitarists in Oscar Peterson's trio and made eighteen albums alongside the Canadian master. With a liking for the duo format, he has in recent years partnered Pat Metheny and Neils-Henning-Orsted- Pederson.
From interpretations of works by Bizet, through John Coltrane to Stevie Wonder, this is an album for quiet indulgence. Guitar and piano blend together as one on most offerings and weave their own magic spells when in solo mode. There are a number of compositions by both players, each being a musical reflection of a particular city such as Rome, Berlin and Vienna etc. The highlight for me however is a mesmerising duo on Coltrane's "Giant Steps" which afforded a unique alternative look at this great standard.
Jazz is the broadest of churches these days and all the better for it, but listening to the admittedly beautiful and skillful playing here it is somewhat difficult to place it fully in the category as most people understand it. | {
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Hi all,
We are still looking for ideas and submissions for Fedora Audio
wallpapers. We've has some good suggestions but no submissions yet.
In the interests of getting something together before release, perhaps
we should not concern ourselves too much with the Audio aspect of the
theme - but simply head for something minimal that suits the desktop
theme we've chosen. We are going for a darker desktop theme - candiates
so far are Oxygen or Caledonia.
I've packaged the Caledonia KDE themes in my repo here:
http://repos.fedorapeople.org/repos/bsjones/audio-bsjones/fedora-audio-bs...
Look, I'm really no good at this stuff - and my packaging workload to
get this spin ready for release is already immense, so I'd love it if
someone would like to take this on. I'll also be responsible for
packaging the whole fedora-jam-kde-theme in the end, so if anyone wants
some help in writing kde themes let me know. Our goal is to have a
unique look and feel rather than just a KDE spin with audio packages.
Anyway, I've thrown together a simple background where I think the blue
contrasts nicely with the darkness of the caledonia theme. Here are
whole screenshots to give some context (the first one was me being lazy
with colorize giving the rings, but you get the idea). The wave form is
just an idea I have been playing around with. It will probably go. Would
love it if people could suggest some ideas or even submit some backgrounds!
http://bsjones.fedorapeople.org/fedora-jam-desktop.pnghttp://bsjones.fedorapeople.org/fedora-jam-desktop2.png
kind regards,
Brendan
Hi Willinton, i'm sorry i can't help you with that... but this is a Design
mailing list. Most of us don't know anything about that.
I suggest you to try here http://fedoraproject.org/es/get-help.
seems like that's the right starting point to get help :)
Cheers,
Jorge E. Avila
2012/9/13 <design-team-request(a)lists.fedoraproject.org>
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> 1. help me!!! (wilinton acevedo rueda)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2012 00:27:05 -0500
> From: wilinton acevedo rueda <wili920503(a)gmail.com>
> To: design-team(a)lists.fedoraproject.org
> Subject: [Design-team] help me!!!
> Message-ID:
> <CAD7KiLaAgQaqukMxr7j8_2+t4XLSV1ksr=
> 9K6tEEG9DhBWaMxQ(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Good night, dear friend of the community come to you for help or
> suggestions
> :
>
> 1. I have a problem with my mail server in fedora, you'll see I have a 389
> ldap + postfix + dovecot fds I did in fedora 14 for the university and the
> link is here not much, otherwise it is very short and basic to who I can
> help you look
>
> http://wared-red.blogspot.com/2011/03/manual-instalacion-y-configuracion-...
> . the problem is that I try on fedora 16 and 17 but not achieving the
> result of
> my guide itself, I hope I can help the dovecot apparently does not like is
> the
> connection, if they need information I will send my files tomorrow, still
> will
> try with this if not please see this post who the answer.
>
> 2.Trate fedora with zimbra but apparently no longer licenses
> previously stipulated
> with zimbra, as I have read tell me that can only be installed on CentOS
> and
> RedHat, I might indicate that I can do this too, or do you recommend for
> server email with fedora.
>
> Note: all servers calleron fedora Chat American, I have not been able to
> get
> any, well answer me this email if possible in Spanish because that is
> traduccido with google, thank you very much, God bless you in advance.
>
> Wilinton Acevedo Rueda
> wared-red.blogspot.com
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--
- Jorge E. Avila | {
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Article Summary
The Formula D Finals took place on Oct. 7-8 at a venue better known as "The House of Drift" at Toyota Speedway of Irwindale. This track has had a long-standing relationship with the event since 2005 where this year 32 drivers from across the globe would compete to be crowned as World Champion. These 32 drivers would involve huge names in the drifting world like Vaughn Gitten Jr. and JTP representing Falken and our beloved Ford Racing.
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About Cool Fords
Cool Fords is one of the largest all Ford online websites dedicated to covering automotive news while also featuring user-submitted rides. The enthusiasts who visit Cool Fords regularly return to feed their appetite of Ford car & truck photos and to read stories. Founded in 2006, Cool Fords is headquartered in Southern California. | {
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SONET—The Backbone of the Internet
By
Also the name of a family of multiplatform optical carriers made by now-defunct Nortel Networks, SONET is an acronym taken from the words Synchronous Optical Networking. Per techopedia.com, it “is a standardized digital communication protocol used to transmit a large volume of data over relatively long distances using fiber optic cables. With SONET, multiple digital data streams are transferred at the same time over optical fiber using LEDs and laser beams.” SONET, accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and used in North America, standardizes the use of optical signals synchronized for multiplexed digital transmission. Europe and the rest of the world follows a similar standard adopted by the International Telecommunication Standardization Specialization Sector (ITU-T) called Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH).
The Elements of SONET
SONET is structured by a fundamental frame format – the Synchronous Transport Signal (STS -1) with a base level speed of 51.84 Mbps – and is transported by an Optical Carrier (OC-1) signal. Although the terms “STS” and “OC” are often used interchangeably, they are not the same. While both are expressions of data rates, STS can be transmitted over both optical and electrical cable. OC is defined by its use as an optical signal to carry STS frames.
SONET is characterized by an echelon of signaling speeds. Multiple STS-1/OC-1 signals can be multiplexed to create higher bandwidths of data. For example, three STS-1/OC-1 signals comprise a STS-3/OC-3. See the following tables depicting Optical Signal Hierarchy:
Line: Line signals are originated or terminated by Line Termination Equipment (LTE) – e.g., an Add/Drop Multiplexer (ADM) – across one or more sections. A LTE synchronizes and multiplexes data on SONET frames and can multiply lower-level SONET frames to create higher-level SONET signals; for example, 4 STS-12s would make one STS-48.
SONET architecture provides for efficient bandwidth usage and network redundancy/protection. This means that in a fiber ring, e.g., bidirectional line-switched ring (BLSR), the network still has the capability to transmit data even if a network element or a fiber optic cable fails. In the case of a point-to-point path, e.g., unidirectional path-switched rings (UPSRs), only the affected section of the network is disrupted; the remaining sections of the line remain in service.
BLSRs, which switch at the line layer, may be either two-fiber or four-fiber. In case of a network failure, two-fiber rings reloop or reroute signals “the long way round” on redundant protection fibers. With four-fiber rings, failures on one line can be switched to protection fibers connecting line nodes rather than backhauling traffic in the other direction around the ring.
See this brief video tutorial on SONET and SDH from Professor Messer on YouTube:
Optical Amplifier/Regenerator: Regenerates an optical signal by converting it to an electrical signal, processing it, converting it back to an optical signal and retransmitting down the optical path. This process is necessary to overcome attenuation of the fiber optic cable and distortion of the optical signal.
Note that any hardware element connecting a non-SONET signal to a SONET network is considered path terminating equipment (PTE).
Access Networks using relatively low bandwidth and characterized by a large number of sites and connections. At this level, migration to a Next Generation Network (NGN) is hampered by the proliferation of existing asynchronous legacy devices;
Core Networks has high density traffic, a limited number of ingress/egress points and relatively high bandwidth.
Coda
SONET has been known as “backbone” network technology since before the dawn of the millennium. Whether SONET or SDH standards are used, the technology is well-entrenched in global networking. Therefore, its applications are myriad for IT, telecom and Internet uses. And as the technology has developed, ever-increasing transmission speeds are now commonplace. Twenty years ago, people marveled at STS/OC 48 framing speeds. Today, networks accommodate speeds 16 times faster, e.g., STS/OC 768. But just as important, SONET’s flexibility for a variety of applications supports migration to a comprehensive Internet of Things (IoT) envisioned for the 21st century. | {
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The pupil membership department works with our constituent districts to ensure that appropriate processes and procedures are in place to justify the pupil data used in generating State Aid. We conduct formal audits of the September and February pupil membership counts; we provide training to staff and consultation services in matters of pupil accounting rules, laws and interpretations. | {
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April 2, 2005
Hi all
I just wanted to say hello to everyone and to say thank you again to Michael for the opportunity to guest blog. Wishing him and Spirit of America good luck in Lebanon. Once again, they’re where history is being made.
I just got back from vacation, and I’m just catching up on the news, so here’s a post about some recent driving adventures in Costa Rica.
Getting Lost is half the fun
I’ve always loved road trips. When we moved from New Jersey to California, I used the excuse of “visiting the family back east” to drag my kids on cross-country camping trips every summer.
For some odd reason they’ve forgiven me for this. Long, boring hours stuck in the back of a minivan are thankfully forgotten. They remember the friendly chipmunks in Estes Park, the horses that musically farted as they ran through our campground in Dinosaur National Park. They forget the night we drove through deserted, ghostly Nevada towns, searching desperately for a diner and a gas station.
A few years ago, we visited Thailand and Malaysia. I heard and saw so many bad things about traffic in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur that I decided to let someone else do the driving. Nobody warned me about Costa Rica, though, so during our recent trip there we went ahead and rented a car. The roads in San Jose and the cliffhanging mountain roads on the way to the Arenal Volcano were about as crazy as Bangkok was rumored to be - except for the lack of elephants.
For adventure, whitewater rafting and jungle tours are loads of fun, but they can’t compare to a drive down local roads.
When driving around a blind curve in a no passing zone, always cross over the solid yellow lines to face oncoming traffic. Be prepared to veer over to the shoulder to avoid oncoming traffic. Hope that there is a shoulder.
The larger vehicle always has the right of way
Potholes can consume a small car. Swerve to avoid them.
Slow down for cows. They’re offended if you pass them on the right.
Roads and streets are not always well marked. And they're in Spanish. What's up with that?
No Hay Paso means do not enter. Ceda means yield, and Comidas Tipicas means that there’s some very good fried fish, rice with beans and ceviche at the restaurant around the corner.
A yellow ‘pelligro’ means that you’re about to drive or fall off a cliff. (In Malaysia, a sign that reads “!” means the same thing) | {
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During the Republican National Convention, liberals looked for every opportunity to show delegates and speakers in a negative light. The results were pretty pathetic, with leftists resorting to old tricks like using photos of attendees waving to claim they were making “Nazi” salutes.
There were also attempts to paint Republicans as plagiarists. First they tried to denigrate Melania, and then Donald Jr. But now it turns out that it really is the liberal Democrat socialists who are the plagiarists; surprisingly, this particular plagiarism has Republicans cheering.
A chant erupted during the Republican convention—almost every time Hillary Clinton’s name was mentioned, delegates would shout “Lock her up.” Liberal media and activists pounced on this expression, saying that it was “sexist” and sounded like something out of the Salem witch trials.
So what will these same people do now that those on the far left have taken up the cry?
Joel B. Pollak, who is covering the Democratic National Convention for Breitbart.com, says this:
Supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) adopted a slogan from the Republican National Convention in their protests against presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on Sunday: ‘Lock her up!’” (…)
The protests have gained renewed energy, thanks to a recent release of emails by Wikileaks, which showed Democratic National Committee (DNC) leaders colluding to assist Clinton and undermine Sanders in the primary. The revelations have been so damaging thus far that they forced the resignation Sunday of DNC chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), who will leave after the convention and has long been reviled by the Sanders camp.
Pollack points out that this is quite a change of heart among the Feel the Bern crowd, who have also been seen sporting “Hillary For Prison” t-shirts much like those worn at the RNC. After all, their hero famously said to Clinton during one of their debates , “the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails!”
Perhaps even Sanders’ most loyal followers have finally found something they disagree with him about. Now that the Vermont senator has repeatedly endorsed Clinton, and is even urging these demonstrators to stop protesting, some of the disillusioned may actually find a welcoming new home among Donald Trump’s allies. | {
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In parks throughout New York City, the ubiquitous rules and regulations signs remind visitors not to feed the squirrels or pigeons—or presumably any other wildlife that comes into view. There are some logical reasons behind this, but still, feeding animals is great fun for kids, adults, and animals alike, so what’s a city dweller to do?
Hit the zoo! At ages 10 and 7, Riley and Halina have mostly outgrown the climbing webs, mock logs to crawl through, and gigantic faux turtle shells to crouch down in, located in the children’s zoos that the Wildlife Conservation Society maintains within the big zoos in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. But still, they always ask to take a swing through the children’s section in order to indulge in innocent nostalgia by marveling at how small all the equipment now seems. They also want to feed the animals.
Just remember to bring lots of quarters for the grain dispensers because the dollar change machines—in the zoos that have them—don’t always work; so far in our explorations, the hand sanitizers in every location have always been stocked.
Tisch Children’s Zoo in Central Park
Outside a mostly wetlands habitat environment, the Tisch Children’s Zoo in Central Park has two small mangers where you can feed grains to goats, sheep, alpacas, ponies, and big, fat pigs. We have visited this zoo several times a year over the past six years, and on a recent visit, we realized how little the children’s feeding styles have changed in that time.
Halina has always thrust a hand full of pellets as far into the animal pen as she can and screamed with delight as her furry friends nip and lick the delights off her outstretched palm. Riley, for his part, is far more timid, choosing instead to throw single pellets deep into the habitat so the animals have to scramble around and look for them. It follows that Halina still goes through her pellets at a much faster rate than Riley, and then makes all sorts of deals to try to get him to give her more.
Queens Zoo
Located a stone’s throw from a lovely carousel, the Queens Zoo has a bigger barn that you can visit, and here, Highland cows and Flemish giant rabbits lope around in addition to alpacas, goats, pigs, and sheep from all over the world. The Queens Zoo itself sits on the edge of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, which is one of our favorite parks in the city for all its amazing relics from World’s Fairs past.
Prospect Park Zoo
This zoo is nestled in the Children’s Corner of Prospect Park, which also contains a vintage carousel and the 200-year-old Lefferts Historic House which you can walk through for a glimpse of bucolic old New York. The Barn and Garden area here features all the usual suspects—goats, pigs, sheep—and milking cows.
Bronx Zoo
Unsurprisingly the biggest barn area is found at the Bronx Zoo, which, tragically, is closed for renovations until next summer—so mark your calendar! The interactive exhibits and play structures are by far the best for older children. Indeed, this remains a destination unto itself for our kids. They still love the underground prairie dog habitat where they can pop their heads up in clear tubes to survey the applauding parents around them, the rope web that is a whopping 8 feet high in the back, and the piece de resistance: the high slide that curves down through a (fabricated) hollowed out tree. The farm area here has several areas and a greater number of all the creatures you hope to see.
Queens County Farm Museum
The granddaddy of all feeding zoos—though unrelated to the Wildlife Conservation Society—is the Queens County Farm Museum which offers visitors whole bags ($3) or buckets ($5) of pellets so they can wander around and feed the animals who are mostly wandering around in pens. The legendary two-acre “maize maze” is now open for the season, challenging visitors young and old to find their way out. Dating back to 1697, it is the oldest still-operating farm in New York State, which itself is something to experience. It also has a greenhouse, small orchards, a vineyard, and beautiful flowers throughout. | {
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A mother has spoken of her horror after a nine-year-old boy threatened to stab her daughter with a knife in the canteen of a Hull primary school.
The girl's mother told Hull Live how the boy first threatened to stab the little girl with a butter knife from the school canteen before saying he was going to get a bigger knife from home and return the following day to stab her.
Lisa, 42, says he made the menacing threats after her daughter - who is a lunchtime monitor at the primary school - because she had simply told him to stand in line quietly.
A picture posed by models of mother and daughter
She said: "The little lad was messing about and she told him to get back in the line and from what I gather a bit of an argument broke out between them and then both sets of friends joined in.
Read More
"He said to her, 'I will stab you in a minute' and picked up the butter knife from the table.
"My daughter said something about how he wouldn't be able to hurt her with a knife like that. He then responded by saying he would bring a proper knife from home the next day and stab her with it."
The incident was reported to staff at the school and Lisa says staff dealt with it "accordingly". The boy's parents were spoken to and his bag was checked the following day.
Lisa said: "I know kids these days can have arguments all the time but it's what he said to her that bothered me. How do I know he wasn't going to go home and get the knife and go through with what he said?
Read More
Lisa has spoken out about what happened in support of Hull Live's #NoMoreKnives campaign.
Working in partnership with Humberside Police and Kayleigh Pepper, whose brother Rich was stabbed to death in east Hull in 2015, the campaign aims to educate young people on the dangers of carrying a knife. | {
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Jessica Simpson
By Katy SteinmetzMonday, Oct. 03, 2011
Kevin Mazur / WireImage
Jessica Simpson may not have cultivated the reputation of World's Best Actress (or Singer), but she is at the top of the celebrity-fashion class at least when it comes to her bottom line. Last year, New York magazine noted that Simpson was on track to becoming the first celebrity whose fashion line would top $1 billion in sales. (She raked in $750 million in 2010.) When the publication put her on its February cover, it called her "Jessica Simpson, Fashion Mogul." In addition to shoes, apparel, accessories and fragrances, her line has recently expanded to include diamond-clad jewelry. Prices for the bling start at $79, which is indicative of Simpson's niche: she's the fashionable girl next door whose simple look other girls in the neighborhood can afford to copy. | {
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Homegrown: Trimming an Austrian pine
I have an Austrian pine and we trimmed the top to stimulate growth in the fall of 2008. It seemed to stimulate branching of the tree over the summer, but may have added an unsightly dense knot of growth.
My husband then decided to trim off an alternate leader last spring. Unfortunately, cutting the alternate leader left 1/3 of the tree with no limbs at the bottom of the tree.
Is there any hope it will ever have a beautiful shape? Did we overprune this little tree? Should we leave the tree to grow without our interference from now on?
Thank you.
— Barb
Actually, you may be on the right path. The tree may just need a bit of time, proper application and perhaps a better understanding of the tree for things to work themselves out.
When I talk to people about a pine tree that’s a bit misshapen or thin, the first thing I’ll counsel is patience.
All types of trees can sometimes go through an awkward “teenage” phase when some parts grow faster than others or they’ll go through a growth spurt that kind of knocks them out of proportion.
Left alone, the tree will almost always work out those issues and shape up to be a beautiful specimen.
However, we can sometimes apply a bit of strategic pruning to shorten that awkward phase or minimize any shortcomings the tree may develop. I’m not a big fan of shearing on pines, but if you want to try it, it’s very important to time the pruning carefully or you’ll end up with problems.
Each spring, when the new buds break, the shoots elongate and form what we call “candles.”
As time passes, new needles emerge along the shoots; the shoot completes elongating and sets new buds for the next growing season at the branch tip.
These new branches then harden off, changing from somewhat soft, succulent tissue to harder, woody tissue.
The best time to shear is when this elongation is complete, but before the branches fully harden off. The time for this varies a bit from year to year, but around here it’s usually any time from the end of May into the middle of June.
Pruning much earlier or later than this results in smaller buds and spindly, weaker growth in subsequent years.
If you do shear the pine, shear the entire tree, not just a portion or you’ll end up with that flat top you’re seeing.
You’ll want to start to shear it into the shape you desire, that is, prune less at the very top and progressively more as you go down so you re-establish that cone shape.
Be patient about this; it may take several years of progressively pruning the tree to bring it fully to the shape you want.
You might consider using this method on your tree for a year or two to point it in the right direction.
It’s also important to not cut the candles off too much. Taking just a bit off of the tip will help thicken the tree while minimizing that short, dense, bushy growth.
You probably did the right thing taking the alternate leader off. Sometimes a double leader is not a problem in a pine and sometimes it is.
The problem is that you really won’t know for some years which way things will go and if it needs to be removed at that point, you’re really looking at mangling the tree.
I know the tree looks a bit lopsided now, but that should pass. The adjacent branches will grow into that area, filling it out in time.
Concentrate on giving it the best care you can. Water it deeply but infrequently and fertilize it lightly in the spring with a slow-release nitrogen fertilizer.
You should start to see some improvement next summer, which should continue as time passes. | {
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3 Killed in Fiery Crash ID'd as Burbank Family Members
Police identified three members of a Burbank family who were killed Thursday when their car careened off a hairpin turn and tumbled several hundred feet down a canyon before erupting into flames.
Police said Vrezh Khudabakhshyan, 52; his wife, Klarisa Petrosian, 56; and their son, Armond Khudabakshyan, 20, all died in the 10:20 a.m. accident on Glen Oaks Boulevard, which winds past mansions in the hills west of the Rose Bowl.
The family got lost while taking a shortcut to Altadena, said Janet Pope, a spokeswoman for the Pasadena Police Department. After they reached a dead end at the top of Glen Oaks Boulevard, they turned around and swerved off an embankment that had no guardrails, Pope said.
"It looks like a very tragic accident," she said. "We still don't know what happened."
Investigators still were determining if another car was involved, though there were no skid marks at the scene, Pope said.
Other possibilities being investigated included mechanical failure, a sudden medical condition or whether the driver was speeding in the 15-mph zone. Police were unsure who was driving the 1989 Honda Accord at the time of the accident, Pope said.
The bodies were so badly burned, investigators initially believed the remains belonged to an adult and two children. They identified the victims after locating the car's vehicle identification number, which led them to an apartment building in the 600 block of Olive Avenue in Burbank.
The couple's daughter, Elfrida Khudabakhshyan, who was at the home Friday, said she was too distraught to talk about her family. "My family's not here," she said. "They're not coming back. I have no way of getting to them. I want to be there for them."
The building's superintendent, Sam Wallace, said the family had lived on the first floor of the three-story building for about two years. He said they were affable and appeared to be close-knit.
"Their son loved to swim" in the building's pool, Wallace said. "He would often go in the morning and he wouldn't get out for hours. He'd just go back and forth."
Elfrida Khudabakhshyan wondered if the fatalities could have been prevented by a guardrail. "Why hasn't the city done anything as far as having fencing there?" she said.
Ann Erdman, a spokeswoman for the city of Pasadena, said the city regularly inspects its roads to see how existing guardrails are holding up and if new ones need to be installed.
She said officials were studying the need for safety measures in the hillside neighborhoods after residents recently complained about the influx of trucks in the area near the accident.
"We don't know whether guardrails would be an outcome of that study," Erdman said. | {
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Meet the Farmer: Rodolfo Ruffatti
Coffee: Buying, selling, drying, processing, sorting, grading, analysing. Even teaching farmers and supporting them. Doing even one of these things is an incredible amount of work. It’s hard to believe we are talking about just one person, doingall of this, single-handedly.
Oh but we are talking about just one person. And that man is the hero we need! Rodolfo Batlle Ruffatti. You may have heard of him before -- we ourselves even collaborated in the past with Rodolfo and a friend of his, Omar, where we helped to provide coffee growers the opportunity for organic coffee farming in Colombia, and we'd like to revisit that one day.
But first, let's delve deeper into the life of Rodolfo. Originally born in Santa Ana, El Salvador, Rodolfo grew up in a family who has been reliant on and dedicated to the coffee industry since the mid-19th century. The Ruffatti family has been cultivating coffee for well over a hundred years, and are known worldwide for their coffee and humanitarian efforts, so if you haven’t heard of them before – shame on you! Best thing you can do now is try his coffee!
As a youngster, Rodolfo originally started to work, as many do in the coffee producing community, at his family’s own mill, buying fresh cherries, picking them up and bringing them to the mill. However, when puberty hit hard (as it does), we learned that Rodolfo decided, like most teenagers, to master his own destiny, and became empassioned with photography. Nevertheless, after time he realised that his soul still belonged to his origins in coffee. That marked his eventual return his roots – ah, the world of coffee, my old friend. Rodolfo began running his own farm in the 70’s.
Today, you will still find Rodolfo hanging about on coffee farms half the time of the year, like “La Finca El Salvador”, to process his dad’s or friend’s coffees. But the other half, Rodolfo is doing what he is really known for; being a green specialty coffee importer. Rodolfo works directly with farmers themselves, meaning that he’s them by buying and selling their stories and coffees to roasteries worldwide. For him, it’s all about the coffee farmer. His mission is to go out and teach farmers how to cultivate, process and dry their varieties in coffee and above all, empower them to be the creators of amazing tasting coffee.
La Finca El Salvador, located in Cordillera del Balsamo, brings us a Bourbon Rojo variety with a semi-washed process. With a rich and strong body as well as nuances of chocolate and roasted almonds coming through, every sip of coffee brings you to the lively streets of El Salvador. Perfect to roast with a Bonaverde Berlin.
So thank you, Rodolfo. You are doing a great thing in this world! He really leading the charge when we talk about the new post-3rd Wave of Coffee.
Or for those of you who are curious in our coffee varieties, but don't know where to even start, we at Bonaverde always recommend trying our Coffee as a Service with multi-bean PayGo plan -- it means you not only get to try Rufatti, but also explore all of our other top-notch speciality grade coffees and discover your own favourite! | {
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The Prison-Crime Relationship in Low Income communities
Todd R. Clear, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
ABSTRACT
As a theory of public safety, incarceration is based on the premise of "addition by subtraction:" removing people from their communities subtracts deficits and promotes safety. This paper argues that very high concentrations of incarceration may well have a negative impact on public safety by leaving communities less capable of sustaining the informal social control that undergirds public safety. This happens not only because incarceration, experienced at high levels, has the inevitable result of removing valuable assets from the community, but also because the concentration of incarceration affects the community capacity of those who are left behind. Data from a series of studies in Tallahassee, Florida, are used to explain how "coercive mobility" has negative effects on (1) what people do privately with intimate relations, (2) what people do collectively in social relations, and (3) the normative views people develop regarding criminal conduct argument. | {
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Upcycle Craft Night
Wednesday, April 22
6 pm - 8:30 pm
Upper Level, Craft Room
Open to grades 7-12
Celebrate Earth Day by making crafts completely from recycled materials. Projects will include a soda box pencil case and t-shirt bracelet. *Bring an old t-shirt -- all other supplies will be provided.*
Peep-o-Rama
Thursday, April 9
3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Upper Level, Craft Room
Open to grades 4-9.
Happy Peeps Season! This spring break, why not enter our 5th annual Peeps diaomara building contest? Awards will be given for most original, best design, and more. We'll provide the supplies, you bring the creativity!
Teen Services Wish List
Help CHPL Teens grow our collection and develop new programs! Just click on the image below
to view the books and supplies that we'd love to receive. From there, you can select an item
and choose to have it shipped directly to the library. We appreciate your generosity!
E-Books: ALA Youth Media Award Winners
Looking for something different to read? Try one of these award winners: | {
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Collymore believes Aston Villa’s board are to blame for the club’s struggles.
Speaking to talkSPORT, former Villa striker Stan Collymore has suggested that Tim Sherwood is the worst manager in the club’s history, but still highlighting the fact that he is not to blame for Villa’s recent struggles.
He said: “He [Sherwood] may well have been the worst manager Aston Villa have ever had, but believe you me, at the top of Aston Villa Football Club, Randy Lerner, Tom Fox, Hendrik Almstadt, Paddy Reilly are not fit for purpose.”
Collymore is very outspoken when it comes to how Villa are run, showing his dislike recently at the senior members of staff hired by owner Randy Lerner.
All the management team come from non-footballing positions, but they hold dominance over the playing squad at Villa Park, ultimately deciding who is signed and sold, rather than leaving that to the head coach in charge of the side.
This is the plate Sherwood was served with at Villa Park, being handed a side of a number of signings made over the summer, many of whom he did not want to bring in. The head coach lost Christian Benteke, Ron Vlaar and Fabian Delph, and was forced to build a team from a selection of players thrown together randomly.
Collymore has admitted that Sherwood could realistically have been the worse manager Villa have ever had, and he did little to show during his time at Villa Park that he was good enough for a Premier League job, but he could only work with what was handed to him.
And the people that handed his team to him are not football men, with no history in the sport, and Collymore believes the blame for Villa’s struggles rests entirely on their heads.
Billy Hawkins
Billy is a freelance writer who contributes to various sites concerning football. Known to possess an obsession with statistics, Eastern European club sides, and Victorian football, he focuses upon the untapped potential of the Football League in the belief it is more enjoyable than the Premier League. | {
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Leading Positive Change
Steve Jobs and many other successful leaders have been quoted on similar words of advice: perseverance is what makes the difference between success and failure. Jobs once said, “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance…unless you have a lot of passion, you’re not going to survive. You’re going to give it up. So you’ve got to have an idea or a problem or a wrong that you want to right that you’re passionate about; otherwise, you’re not going to have the perseverance to stick it through.”
At UTMB Health, our passion is providing excellent care and service for our patients and families. This requires dedication, innovative thinking and tremendous talent. Above all, it requires teamwork. Making a difference—even if we’re not in a position that we might perceive as a “commanding” position—doesn’t mean that we are not influential and respected leaders on our teams or that we lack power to make a difference.
Many of you may be familiar with TED Talks. TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks. TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. Meanwhile, independently run TEDx events help share ideas in communities around the world.
I recently watched a TEDx presentation by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School professor and best-selling author, who is in the business of “sparking change”. Named one of the “50 most influential business thinkers in the world” by Accenture and Thinkers 50 research, Kanter has worked with thousands of leaders in dozens of countries. Her experiences have helped her extract what she believes to be the Six Keys to Leading Positive Change: show up, speak up, look up, team up, never give up, and lift others up. I thought Kanter’s ideas would resonate with all of us, no matter what role we have at UTMB. These are some simple things we can all work toward each day that will not only help us contribute to our teams, but also make us better leaders (formal and informal) and promote our Culture of Trust.
In this inspiring presentation, Kanter illuminates each key by carefully weaving in the stories of influential world leaders, fictional characters, and even ordinary people whose passions have ignited positivity. They are the stories of people who released their ideas into the world, found partners to help advance their goals, and remained motivated in the face of adversity.
How can we lead positively? These six positive things can help us keep things moving in the right direction and are ideas that each of us can use every day at work:
Show up. If you don’t show up, nothing really happens. This means being both physically and mentally present, ready to make a contribution. Be there. Be present. The very fact that you show up and realize that your presence makes a difference is the first key to leadership.
Speak up. No one knows what we’re thinking if we don’t express it! The power of having a voice isn’t simply about words; the power of having a voice is shaping the agenda and shaping issues for others—make people think about things in different ways. The person who is most influential in a discussion is the one who names the problem and gives people an idea for action. In a Culture of Trust, we all feel free to speak up, regardless of our role in the organization, because it is only when we are all willing to share our ideas and speak up that our patients get the best care and our work is best supported.
Look up. Look up at a higher principle—a bigger issue, vision or value. Without values, leadership is hollow. It is important for any leader to know what they stand for and to be able to elevate people’s eyes from the everyday problems that bog us down. We need leaders who help us get above those issues and realize what is truly fundamental in our values. Great companies stand for their mission, vision and values. When their leaders lead, they constantly remind people of a nobler purpose. It isn’t just about making money; it’s about trying to achieve something for the world. We should remind ourselves every day of that for which we stand. Dr. Joan Richardson, our own Chair of Pediatrics, said it best: “We want everyone who works at UTMB to be able to look people directly in the eye and say: ‘The care you will receive at UTMB Health will be the same care I would want my most cherished of loved ones to receive.'”
Team up. Everything flows better with partnerships. Anything worth doing is very difficult to do alone! The best enterprises and ventures are those in which there is a sense of partnership from the very beginning—in addition to having a good value proposition, successful organizations partner faster. There is great value in taking lots of separate efforts, bringing them together and aligning in one big team.
Never give up. Everything can look like a failure in the middle of the process. There’s almost nothing we start that doesn’t hit a roadblock or obstacle. At other times, a project can take longer than we imagined, because we have never done it before! The critics may surface and start attacking: “It doesn’t work!” You may have to go back to the drawing board. If you stop prematurely, it truly will be a failure. However, if you persist and persevere, if you find a way around the obstacles and flexibly redesign, often you can create a success. And it may not always be the success you first imagined. Keep in mind that a lot of technology turns out to be applied in ways we never thought of in the beginning. The ability to hang in there and not give up is a hallmark of leaders. It is also the hallmark of all of you who have worked so hard to bring UTMB back after Hurricane Ike.
Lift others up. Share success. The credit, the recognition and the idea of giving back once you have a success is what creates an environment in which you can do it again, and it builds support. It’s great to feel positive about an achievement, but make sure others feel elevated by what you do as well. | {
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US renews Iran sanctions waivers for China and India
WASHINGTON- The US State Department on Wednesday renewed 180-day waivers on Iran sanctions for China, India and seven other economies in exchange for their reducing purchases of oil from Iran.
"The United States and the international community stand shoulder to shoulder in maintaining pressure on the Iranian regime until it fully addresses concerns about its nuclear program," Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement.
The sanctions are one of Washington's main strategies to choke funding to Iran's nuclear program, which Western countries suspect seeks to develop the ability to make weapons. Iran insists the program is for peaceful purposes.
Sites Of Interest
The Jerusalem Post Customer Service Center can be contacted with any questions or requests:
Telephone: *2421 * Extension 4 Jerusalem Post or 03-7619056 Fax: 03-5613699E-mail: [email protected]
The center is staffed and provides answers on Sundays through Thursdays between 07:00 and 14:00 and Fridays only handles distribution requests between 7:00 and
13:00
For international customers: The center is staffed and provides answers on Sundays through Thursdays between 7AM and 6PM
Toll Free number in Israel only 1-800-574-574
Telephone +972-3-761-9056
Fax: 972-3-561-3699
E-mail: [email protected] | {
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October 11, 2019
October 14, 2019
November 1, 2019
November 11, 2019
Announcements
Strategic Plan
The Scappoose School District 2019-20 Strategic Plan was approved by the Board of Directors, Monday, April 8, 2019. This comprehensive document will provide a roadmap for the District for future years, while allowing for annual review and revision. The Distrist would like to thank the many stakeholders who contributed to the creation of this document.
Title IX
Scappoose School District does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, disability, marital or parental status, or sex in providing education or access to benefits of education services, activities and programs in accordance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as amended; Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972; Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended; and Title 11 of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Persons having questions about equal opportunity and nondiscrimination should contact the Director of Student Services or the Superintendent at 971-200-8000. Persons having questions about or requests for special needs and accommodation should contact the Director of Student Services at 971-200-8000. Persons having concerns or complaints about Title IX should contact the Title IX Coordinator, Paul Peterson at 971-200-8000. Federal civil rights laws prohibit discrimination against an individual because he/she has opposed any discriminatory act or practice or because that person has filed a charge, testified, assisted or participated in an investigation, proceeding or hearing.
Public Complaint Policy
Members of the public, parents, staff and students are encouraged to make their concerns known to the district and to give the district an opportunity to review those concerns and respond to them. Complaints about instructional materials, staff members, alleged violation of state standards or retaliation against a student or a student’s parent who in good faith reported information that the student believes is evidence of a violation of state and federal law, rule or regulation, should approach the principal and, if possible, resolve the problems at this level.
Complaints about Board policy or administrative regulations should be referred directly to the superintendent.
Complaints against the principal may be filed with the superintendent.
Complaints against the superintendent should be referred to the Board chair on behalf of the Board
Complaints against the Board as a whole or against an individual Board member should be made to the Board chair on behalf of the Board.
Complaints against the Board chair may be made directly to the Board vice chair on behalf of the Board.
When a complaint is made directly to the Board or to an individual Board member, it will generally be referred to the superintendent for evaluation and possible investigation. A Board member shall not attempt to consider such complaints in any official capacity acting as an individual Board member.
If the person(s) having a complaint fails to resolve the concern with the principal or the superintendent, the person may request that the matter be referred to the Board. If the Board deems it advisable, it may provide for a hearing of the complaint at an official meeting of the Board.
The superintendent shall develop administrative regulations designed to encourage the timely resolution of public complaints while providing a system of review which will allow both the complainant and other affected parties an opportunity to be heard.
If a complaint alleges a violation of state standards or a violation of other statutory or administrative rule for which the State Superintendent of Public Instruction has appeal responsibilities, and the complaint is not resolved at the local level, the district will supply the complainant with appropriate information to file a direct appeal to the State Superintendent as outlined in Oregon Administrative Rules (OAR) 581-022-1940.
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Scappoose School District does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, disability, marital or parental status, or sex in providing education or access to benefits of education services, activities and programs in accordance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as amended; Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972; Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended; and Title 11 of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Persons having questions about equal opportunity and nondiscrimination should contact the Director of Student Services or the Superintendent at 971-200-8000. Persons having questions about or requests for special needs and accommodation should contact the Director of Student Services at 971-200-8000. Persons having concerns or complaints about Title IX should contact the Title IX Coordinator, Ron Alley at 971-200-8000. Federal civil rights laws prohibit discrimination against an individual because he/she has opposed any discriminatory act or practice or because that person has filed a charge, testified, assisted or participated in an investigation, proceeding or hearing. | {
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Disclaimer: My blog is about my views and my healthy living lifestyle, I am not a registered dietitian. I am however a professional wine drinker ; ) Affiliate Links and Sponsored posts may pop up on HDL.
your salad looks so freaking delicious !!!! and this coffee as well ; I love caramel macchiato, it’s my fav’ :):):) …. sadly, can get some only when i’m in Paris (I’m living in a town which doesn’t have any Starbucks at all ;(
Big hugs, hun. Keeping you and your family in my thoughts <3 Hope what ever it is isn't to serious and resolves itself soon.
I often joke that I eat my cinnamon with a side of food. I use a ridiculous amount because I love it so much, but I learned the hard way that you can definitely get too much of a good thing 😆 And I haven't tried any of the new vanilla drinks, but I'm curious about the blonde roast!
Bravo gets me through my sad days. The new Starbucks vanilla spice latte is AMAZING. It’s the best if you get it as a frappuchino. I got mine with an extra shot of espresso, soy milk, and no whipped cream. So freaking delicious. Praying for you<3
Lots of love and prayers to your family Katie, I’m sure it will all be sorted – you are such a wonderful and positive person and I know you’re able to tackle any obstacle in your way. Or that of someone you love. That salad bag looks amazing, simple and so good for you. Have a great day! | {
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More than four years (rule changes coming from Samurai Edition) dedicated to looking for combos to get the House of Tao's Ring back to your hand to be able to play it once more... its original mechanic comes back.
* * *
Official ruling if the Oracle of the Void (Link) is not enough for you : Link. | {
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Tameside Police Warn Local Residents
In a post made on their Tameside South Facebook post , they warn that they have
"had numerous reports of Bogus Officials, particularly in the Audenshaw and Danebank areas."
The have described the offenders as wearing high visibility clothing and indicated that they "have been attending addresses and informing residents that they need work doing on their properties. They have also been targeting elderly residents."
They have asked to remember to be vigilant and report any suspicious activity to 101 and to always remember to use a trusted trader, stating that "you can find a number of different trusted companies on https://goo.gl/s8kXXm." | {
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The Popular Types Of Trading Practices
The trading sector is a vast ocean that offers an opportunity for everyone to appease their respective financial desires and trading goals. For a newbie, this field might be little overwhelming, especially if they are completely unprepared or completely unaware of the fundamentals of the practice. If not anything, at least, one should try to understand the types of markets or the types of trading practices prevalent to choose the best that fits their best expectations.
The stock market
Even if you have tried to follow it or not, at least, once in your lifetime you would have heard someone talk about this trading market or the practice because such is the popularity of this practice, in where the norm is to deal with the buying and selling of the shares of the listed companies of the market. If the company, whose shares you own performs well in the market then, you may enjoy greater profits and if not, be prepared enough to face the unfavorable losses! Again, this market is a huge one with many variants like short-term stock trading, mutual funds, bonds and so on that requires in-depth knowledge and dedication to gain the mastery!
The forex market
Yet, again a popular market, where the currencies of the world are traded against each other. This is indeed necessary to carry out the international business and therefore, this market is certainly an important and as well as a huge one even huger than the stock market. It is indeed the largest liquid market in the world, whose average daily trading volume is more than $5 trillion. But pursuing this trading practice is easier when compared to the stock trading practice and that too with the availability of the automated trading systems like the QProfit System the feasibility and profitability has only increased. The bot way of practice, is it a scam? Go ahead and discover yourself!
The commodity market
As the name indicates, in this market the commodities such as the raw commodities like the sugar, wheat, oil, gold, copper, aluminum etc. are traded, which can either be a physical trading or the derivatives trading.
The binary options market
Also, known as all-or-nothing options, in this market, the underlying asset, be it the currency or the commodity is speculated to attain the profitability. That is the trader has to speculate the price movements of the underlying asset accurately to gain a profit, or else he/she might have to lose everything in the bidding. Although the market is a straightforward one, the risks are huge and hence, better preparations and understanding are important!
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Monthly Festival : Turn your book into a movie and get it seen by 1000s of people. Or garner FULL FEEDBACK from publishers on your novel and help your next draft. Or get a transcript video of your novel performed by professional actors.
Logline: Following murderous pogroms in Warsaw at the end of World War One, eight young Jews, ages 14 to 16, risk their lives to reach Palestine, nearly freezing to death crossing the Alps in an empty freight car, then stowing away in a rusty Italian freighter; refused entry into the Holy Land at Haifa, they jump ship later in Alexandria and finally reach Eretz Israel thanks to some British army officers who face immediate arrest while trying to keep the youngsters from being deported back to Poland.
Interested in this logline, please email us at [email protected] and we’ll forward your email to the writer. | {
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The List: 26 Mar 1993 (Issue 197)
now a repository for all sorts of ephemera connected with Glasgow‘s history — everything from old cigarette packets to suffragettes‘ campaigning material. I PROVAND’S LORDSHIF 3 Castle Street. 552 8819. Mon-Fri 10am—5pm; Sun I 1am-5pm. The only surviving medieval house in Glasgow. built in 1471. Period room displays range from 1500-1918. I ROGER DILLCLIFFE FINE ART 134 Blythswood Street. 332 4027. Mon-Fri 9.30am—5.30pm. Shona Barr: Decent Paintings and Landscapes Until Thurs 8 Apr. Spanish. Scottish and English scenes. I SCOTLAND STREET SCHOOL MUSEUM 225 Scotland Street. 429 1202. Mon—Sat 10am—5pm; Sun 2—5pm. Cafe. [D]. Designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and now home to archive material on education in Scotland from 1872 onwards. Reconstructed classrooms give a flavour of Victorian. Edwardian. Second World War and 19605 schooldays. Story from Glasgow: linoprints by lien Currie Until 18 Apr. Design Award Exhibition Until Fri 2 Apr. Display of entries from this children‘s competition. I SPRINGRURN MUSEUM Ayr Street. 557 1405. Mon—Fri 10.30am-5pm; Sat mam-4.30pm; Sun 2—5pm. Described as the first real community museum in Britain. I STREET LEVEL 279-281 High Street. 552 215 I. Tue—Sat I lam—5.30pm. Women Behind the Camera Until Sat 3 Apr. Mysterious photographs of women taken by German artists and filmmakers. Dorte Eissfeldt. Silke Grossman and Dore O. I ST MUNGO MUSEUM OF RELIGIOUS LIFE AND ART 2 Castle Street. 553 2557. Mon—Sat 10am—5pm; Sun 1 1am-5pm. Free. Brand new museum of world faith which opens on Sat 3 Apr. Exhibits include a Zen garden. priceless art works from the world‘s six major religions. Dali‘s Christ of Saint John of The C moss and the story of religion in Scotland in words and pictures. Also temporary exhibitions. Buddhist Art in Scotland Sat 3 Apr—27 Jun. An exhibition of work from the Samye Ling Tibetan Centre. The show includes examples of Buddhist religious images painted on cotton. called Thangka painting. by Sherab Palden Beru. I TRANSMISSION GALLERY 28 King Street. 552 4813. Mon-Sat noon-6pm.
The City Collection: Prints and FIIDIDQISDIIS Until Sat 27 Mar. Howson. Wiszniewski. Bellany and younger artists Ashley Cook. Jane Hyslop. Paul Fumeaux and Josephine Ganter. as well as historical prints and recent photographs.
land of the Dragon: Dinosaurs from China Until 26 Jun. During the last 30 years extensive excavations in China have revealed an unexpected wealth of dinosaur remains; today almost one sixth of all known dinosaur species have been identified from Chinese material. This exhibition. on loan from Beijing. consists of six fossilised skeletons. including ther massive 70ft-long. l3ft-high
Mamenchisaurus. Admission £2/£1. Chernobyl - The Legacy Until 22 May. An investigation into the events which led up to the melt-down of 1986 and the effect the world‘s most devastating technological disaster had on the people of Russia. Eye witness accounts. photographs and an exhibition of children‘s drawings recording their response to the catastrophe make chilling viewing. I COLLECTIVE GALLERY 22—28 Cockbum Street. 220 1260. Tue-Sat I lam—5pm. Aileen Keith - Fragments of Memory, Pigments oi Imagination Wed 31 Mar—Wed 21 Apr. Using lead. copper and plaster. Keith‘s sculptures explore recollection and the way in which past events relate to the present. Moyna Flannigan - Denude Wed 3 I Mar-21 Apr. Contemplative figurative drawings and paintings using layers of paint to evoke a strong physicality. I THE DANISH CULTURAL INSTITUTE Carlsberg House. 3 Doune Terrace. 225 7189. Mon-Fri 10am—5pm. Cari llielsen and Danish Music after Cari Nielsen Until 16 Apr. Two shows. one which focuses on the life of this famous Danish composer and one which traces the history of Danish music from the year of his death. 1931. I EASTERN GENERAL HOSPITAL (Outpatients Department). Seaficld Road. info: 661 0982. Daily 9am—8pm. New Work Until 30 Apr. An exhibtion of work by final year painting students at Edinburgh College of Art. I EDINBURGH GALLERY 18a Dundas Street. 557 5227. Mon—Fri l lam—5pm; Sat 10am-1pm. Fresh Perspectives Fri 26 Mar— 1 7 Apr. A diverse show of work by six young Scottish painters. I EDINBURGH PRINTMAKERS WORKSHOP AND GALLERY 23 Union Street. 557 2479. Tue—Sat 10am-5.3()pm. Capital Marks: New Prints from the Studio Until Sat 3 Apr. Featuring Elspeth Lamb. Barbara Rae and Iain Maclntyre. I FLYING COLOURS GALLERY 35 William Street. 225 6776. Tue—Fri I lam—6pm; Sat 10am—1pm. Lorna Robertson Until Wed 31 Mar. Colourful mixed-media work evoking the turbulence and texture of the sea and the harbour. I THE FRENCH INSTITUTE 13 Randolph Crescent. 225 5366. Mon—Fri 9.30am—5.30pm; Sat 9.30am—1.30pm. Project Perec Until Fri 9 Apr. A multi- media show of works by Scottish students. all of them inspired by Georges Pcrec’s novel. Les Chases. I HANOVER FINE ART 22A Dundas Street. 556 2181. Mon—Fri 10.30am—6pm; Sat 10am—4pm. Cats and Other Animals Mon 22 Mar—Mon 5 Apr. Mixed works by gallery artists and turned wood by Leo O‘Connor. I JOHN NNOX HOUSE See entry for Netherbow Arts Centre. I MATTHEW ARCHITECTURE GALLERY University of Edinburgh. 20 Chambers Street. 650 2342. Mon—Fri l()am—4.30pm; Closed Sat and Sun. Exploring Materials: The Work of Peter nice Until Thurs 1 Apr. Rice was last year‘s recipient of the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture — the most prestigious award for architecture in the world. This show traces his career and his unique experimentation. from site engineer on the Sydney Opera House to the Pavilion of the Future at Expo 92. in Seville. I MUSEUM OF CHILDHOOD 42 High Street. 225 2424. Mon-Sat 10am—6pm. All manner of archive material and old toys relating to childhood through the ages. I NATIONAL GALLERY OF SCOTLAND The Mound. 556 8921. Mon—Sat 10am-5pm: Sun 2—5pm. The home of a fine collection of works. from the Renaissance to Post- lmpressionism. including Velazquez. El Greco. Rembrandt. Gainsborough. Degas. Van Gogh and Scottish Colourists.
LISTINGS ART
GLASGOW SCULPTURE American STUDIOS Screenprints and from the collection of GLASGOW MILESTONES now a". Reba and Dave Williams 24 Craigmont Street, HUNTERIAN ART GALLERY UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW Glasgow | {
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Aug 15, 2009
Woof
I got nothing. Brain is dry as yesterday's toast.
So let's look at some doggie pictures. Why not?
When you look at photos of strangers it's often "whatever..." But sometimes you get the feeling that you know the person. Like this guy - I'm convinced he was funny, friendly, kind. He is certainly good looking. 1948... probably too young to be drafted into the war. Good for him.
17 comments:
You'd love my mom. She always managed to cut off people's heads in photos somehow. That's how I ended up getting into photography. She would give up and give me the camera and say see what you can do with it.
PS - While the young gentleman in the photo would have been too young to participate in World War II, there's a good chance he went to Korea. If so, I hope it didn't change him. War sucks.
the fellow would have been my fathers age. He got out of the Korean war due to flat feet; his brother for being a 1/4 inch to tall.
With all the current attraction to mid-century modern, these photos truly show how such lofty ambitions played out in the average middle class american home. The bottom was shot in the 70's I know because the fellow is wearing wallabees. A shoe that was the hight of fashion back then. Another thing that I forgot about is that there was some kind of weird colonial revival thing paralleling modernist 60's design.
Did I mention orange shag and mustard colored drapes? Ramona went in for that
My own experience is that it is incredibly hard to take good dog pictures. My daughter brought the camera to an agility-training class I'm taking with my dog. She ended up with about 30 pictures of dog butts.
I hardly ever respond but I really like your blog. This is another brilliant post. I like the pictures very much and also: "Brain as dry as yesterday's toast"? Where do you come up with such lines? I love it. | {
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Our Quality Guarantee
At Haigh’s we have been making fine chocolates in Australia since 1915 for our customers to enjoy. We will continue to source only the very best ingredients, including premium cocoa beans, and use artisan skills combined with specialised chocolate making techniques to create award winning chocolates.
Delivery Promise
The chocolates you have chosen with great care will be packaged with attention to detail and we will endeavour to deliver your order in a timely manner anywhere in Australia every time. | {
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If you woke up craving new footage from Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, the newest game in Tolkien's iconic fantasy world, then you crave weird things. But also, you're in luck: via GameSpot, here's eight new minutes of footage from Shadow of Mordor, filled with orc-stomping and orc-slashing and orc-murdering.
In this behind-the-scenes trailer for The Lord of the Rings: War in the North, developer Snowblind Studios tackles the daunting task of filling out areas and stories of Middle-Earth that J. R. R. Tolkien only hinted at.
Today we celebrate the birthday of J. R. R. Tolkien, the English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor whose contributions to English literature forever changed the way we imagine fantasy worlds. | {
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Fireplace store in ca - how to use fireplace insert dampers
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Something I have considered is making sure the room itself is so striking, so well put together and full of interesting furnishings and objects, that the fireplace becomes a non-issue.
You must attend to any such hazards before even considering lighting a fire below.
I'm thinking some type of rubber cable stay device but I can't seem to find a place which sells it online.
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Tomichi Cabins are located in Hochatown, Oklahoma, north of the city of Broken Bow.
The coziness of a fireplace fireplace store in ca without the hassle of storing and carrying wood or the headache of the clean up, the gas fireplace is a fantastic choice for the modern lifestyle.
If you check out the lounge room, you will find a funky fireplace and plush seating to curl up on.
The volatile smoke released by the coal can still catch fire and can burn for up to 30 minutes.
Dry wood lights more easily, burns more quietly and with less smoke, and will keep burning longer.
Rated 5 out of 5 by Disney2413 from Very happy I have had my Fire Sense black wall fireplace for a week.
A gas insert has a fixed-glass front, so it's probable the existing hearth extension can be safely removed.
If you want to be even more professional, try applying v-joint paneling, which will match the ceiling/walls; and will complete the authentic converting a fireplace to pellet stove fireplace store in ca cabin look with almost genuine log beams.
I also put the tile up above the fireplace opening leaving them whole, and then cut the decorative wood piece curved, just tricking you into thinking that I cut each of those tiles into nice curved pieces.
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For allen and roth electric fireplaces reviews I had a large stone fireplace that I built, and it was just a rock star with the doors open. Your fireplace will be left looking like new after you clean it with Quick'n Brite It is safe for use on stone, brick, marble, slate and any other fireplace material. Our commitment to quality is reflected in the craftsmanship of our stainless steel BBQ grills and accessories and is backed by the full support of the Summerset warranty. HomeSaver's 4-ply stainless steel construction is unsurpassed in strength and protection. Call us today at 732-462-4289 for more information on our outdoor firepits or stone fireplaces or to get a FREE ESTIMATE, fill out our Request a Quote form at the top of the page. Furthermore, fire glass will not emit any smoke, ash, or toxic fumes and is very low maintenance.
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The traditional design of the Portobello Electric Fireplace Media Center is crafted of a contemporary glass ember firebox for ultimate style. We are located at 26 West Passaic Street in Rochelle Park, NJ. Depending on a fireplace insert's added features, such as blowers, thermostatically controlled fans, special finishes, materials, and hardware, it can cost between $1,000 and $2,500, not including installation or the cost of fuel and electricity. If you were next to someone with one of the older wood-fired whole house boilers, you might have a case, since those go 24/7 and are notorious for unclean and inefficient burns. When lighting the newspaper logs, use kindling just as you would for a regular fire. The upper louver on this fireplace can be removed by simply lifting up and pulling out. Storing ashes until spring takes some consideration because it is important to keep them dry until they are used. This electric fireplace is ideal for both residential as well as commercial purposes. We applied the adhesive like frosting on a cake and pressed onto the hearth frame. Bio fuel fireplaces are easy to install and require no gas lines or electrical connection. The vent free gas logs use the same technology as the vent free wall space heaters that have been around for several years. Or, if you prefer, you can use double-wall DVL black stovepipe before adapting to the DuraTech pipe. However, it would not be a good idea to mount both of them side by side on the wall. Gas log sets will give you the look of a wood burning fireplace, without having heat n glo fireplace lighting clean and light it.
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That is true whether it is $25 electric space heater or the electric heater in a $350 flat panel FAKE fireplace. Outdoor fireplaces, fireplace ceramic tile installation are typically a step up from these in size, cost, and installation. If it's coming down the flue you will most likely get smoke in your face and in the room when you light the fire. Hang a large, semicircular mirror that restates both the shape of a fireplace's semicircular opening and a semicircular mantel that protrudes from the wall. Tahoe Premium Fireplaces are available in Millivolt, and in Green Earth Preferred Intermittent Pilot and Multi-Function Remote Control models.
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It keeps out the cold, looks much nicer than the cardboard, and is easy to pop off when we want to use the fireplace. Gas fireplaces are cleaner and easier - but I guess if I want to a fire I want to go for it all what is a fireplace fireback way. We can also give you advice on how to fit your fireplace beam or mantel, using our simple fitting kit with instructions. In day one of our fireplace remodel, our primary goal is to demolish the existing volcanic rock fireplace and hearth. Be sure to view the entire entire Fireplace gas key valve gallery for great ideas and then bring your fireplace to life. For an electric fireplace to supply you the heat that you want, you need to plug into the electric socket.
tv stand electric fireplace combo
At Archadeck Outdoor Living, we design and build custom outdoor living structures for our clients. Media Console TV Stand Electric Fireplace Heater Adjustable Flame Remote NEW. Although it is conceivable that any fireplace could be made to work in any building, the cost in some cases would surely be prohibitive. Historically fireplaces were used for domestic purposes such as heating water, cooking, or bringing light to an otherwise dark room. The first consideration when deciding on an outdoor fireplace design is whether your outdoor fireplace will be portable or permanent. Select the color and design cautiously in order to compliment your walls and can set aside worries of quality as our gas inserts have a higher level of heat efficiency. Zalter said she thought the house might sell for 10 times the price if it were in Toronto. Used since Egyptian times, mosaic tiles let you create a truly one-of-a-kind design. A pellet burning insert is highly efficient and utilizes an environmentally safe fuel source which is composed of recycled wood waste and natural wood materials. Fireplaces by Weiss-Johnson specializes in the installation and service of new fireplaces in the Edmonton area. Tempered Glass is also used in other applications where heat, mechanical strength and safety are a factor. Once dry, begin applying light coatings of high temperature paint, such as the Stove Bright Satin Black Touch Up Paint - 43200 I apologize that the original parts are no longer available. Our Premium Collection includes a selection of our finest designs with exquisitely detailed wood trim moldings. Placed directly under the television means that how to remodel old brick fireplace attention is always focused in the direction of the fireplace.
electric fireplace oak oak
Delivery was faster than expected and so I had to get to work quickly building a fireplace surround. Stone or brick work must also be done to the exacting standards needed for installation of your outdoor appliances or fireplace fixtures. With the proceeding picture showing the clients cardboard mock-up; the mock-up is a great way to gauge the size / shape of the surround before producing it. Forno Bravo commercial pizza ovens can be configured granite surround for fireplaces wood, propane or natural gas. I had used another chalk-based paint the color would be very similar to Country Chic Paint's Pebble Beach. With a split log or natural tree bark looking ceramic fiber log options, you can customize your vented log set by placing it where you want. Some larger motors have aluminum or copper bars which are welded or brazed to end-rings. The chimney connector must extend into the chimney above the lower point of the tile liner. Minimum clearance between the vent and combustible materials is 3 inches for L-Vent and 1 inch for Type B gas vent. A quality chimney cap is an important part of maintaining your entire fireplace system. However, when the chimney is cooler, such as when a fire is just getting started in a cold fireplace or when a fire has burned down or is on a low flame, the natural-draft fireplace is more vulnerable to being backdrafted. While they are very common in northern Europe, they are not very well understood in warmer climates where the traditional fireplace is common. If someone in your house has asthma, allergies or other respiratory issues, irritants from the fireplace can make these problems worse. You can visit the What Kind of Fireplace do I Have page if you are having trouble. This is a matter of preference. Once homeowners add a portable fireplace to their home, they can enhance the unit with a beautiful mantel, which will provide a finished look. And we enjoy talking to the Storytellers to help them understand how to explain the fireplace to any visitors who might be asking about it. My mother received her two Amish heaters about 3 weeks ago.
rock fireplace and mantels
I was okay with waiting, but the other factors did not sit well with me...and I wanted to sit well in zero clearance fireplace liners of a new fireplace insert. A Ceramic Masonry Fireplace is a freestanding fireplace that is made of masonry such as ceramic brick or firestone. 120 is hand crafted out of an Asian hardwood called Choi. Softening the edges with greenery and pretty planting will help blend it into the garden. We know how difficult it is to find what you are looking for in regards to locating your fireplace in Toronto. New basement gas burning fireplaces come with many features such as thermostatic control, LCD wall control, fireplace blower fan, and fireplace remote control.
how to place fireplace dayz
We manufacture all our brick tinting products at our factory in the United Kingdom. Every person I've spoken too tells me its the strongest stone for the heat around the fireplace. First made assessment and provided quotation, second time he brought all the parts needed and got the fireplace working again in one hour. There are benefits to choosing a gas zero clearance fireplace, such as: unmatched convenience; gas is ideal for zone heating: no electricity is needed; and gas is efficient roman inc tin fireplace screen environmentally friendly as a heat source. We are new to living in a cold climate and we do not personally use a fireplace and therefore didn't think to look for one. Residents and businesses should burn clean, dry wood in short, hot fires with plenty of air in order to reduce air pollution from smoky and inefficient fires.
why paint a brick fireplace
A highly efficient gas fire or stove allows homes to be heated effectively and generate even greater amounts of heat instantly. No Flame Only Option: While it's easy to store during the off season, some customers prefer a fireplace they can use all year because of a no-heat or flame-only option. View the minimum requirements for each level of restaurant rating in Sydney's Northern Beaches and around Australia. The drawers can be placed independently on each side of the console as shown or both on will gas fireplace work without electricity prices side. The Good Housekeeping Seal also adds an independent two-year warranty against defects. | {
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Rachel Maddow on Pence’s 5 biggest lies: His troubles are just beginning
Mike Pence may be the second-in-command in Washington, but as Rachel Maddow made very clear, his role in the scandals continuously burgeoning around the Trump White House — and the consequences thereof looming ever closer — looks to be on a par with that of his boss.
Befitting his reality TV resume, Donald Trump is certainly the star of the ever-deepening drama his scandal-ridden young administration has brought to D.C.
But as Rachel Maddow concisely and devastatingly laid out on her show, Vice President Mike Pence deserves just as much time in the media spotlight.
Pence’s reputation has perhaps benefitted from comparison to Trump, though that is the lowest of low bars one could possibly set. And the fact is that Pence is not without his own repugnant history; he differs from Trump in degree, not in kind.
Which makes the fact that Pence is a skilled and smooth liar all the more troubling, particularly when those lies are an attempt to cover up the seemingly boundless national security scandal around the Trump administration and Russian interference in our democracy.
Maddow put Pence’s proficient mendacity front and center in that media spotlight, listing five of his biggest and, now, most obvious lies regarding the Trump team and Russia, and making clear just what his motivation may be.
Vice President Mike Pence has made a number of blunt — blunt, direct, false statements related to the Trump-Russia investigation, both during the transition and since he has been vice president.
When controversy started to swirl around Mike Flynn because of his foreign contacts, Mike Pence bluntly asserted that the Trump transition had not applied for a security clearance for Mike Flynn’s son. They had, actually, applied for a security clearance for Mike Flynn’s son.
After the president fired the FBI director, Mike Pence bluntly asserted that the decision to fire James Comey was based on a recommendation from the deputy Attorney General. The president himself and, reportedly, the deputy attorney general himself, now today have both made clear that that was not the reason James Comey was fired.
Mike Pence has also bluntly, baldly asserted that James Comey was not fired for anything having anything to do with the Trump-Russia investigation. The president himself now admits that what he was thinking when he made the decision to fire Jim Comey is that he was thinking about how much he hated that Trump-Russia investigation.
Mike Pence has bluntly asserted that there were no Trump campaign contacts with the Russian government. That is not true.
He has bluntly asserted that he had no idea that Mike Flynn had a paid relationship with any foreign country’s government. That would seem to be impossible, given his role in the transition and the number of times and the number of ways that transition was formally notified, including in writing, of those ties.
And of course, Mike Pence has the starring role in the big unanswered question about Mike Flynn’s time in the White House, which is why they let him stay on as national security adviser for 18 days after the Justice Department came to the White House and told them that Mike Flynn was compromised by the Russians and was vulnerable to Russian blackmail. Why did he stay on for another 18 days thereafter? The White House story is that — well, actually, there is no story for that. In the end, they said he had to go because he had lied to Mike Pence. But why does a lie to Mike Pence take 18 days to flower before it has any consequences for something as serious as a foreign government having its tentacles that far into the upper reaches of the national security chain of command at the top of the U.S. government?
Mike Pence apparently formed a political action committee this week. Maybe he’s looking at his boss’s troubles and the Russia scandal and starting to imagine himself becoming president. Mike Pence has his own troubles when it comes to this scandal. And as long as reporters like the ones who work at Reuters keep turning up 18 new previously undisclosed Russian contacts during the campaign — that the White House hadn’t come clean about before, even now — it seems like those troubles are probably going to get bigger and not smaller over time.
As the talk of impeachment grows louder and less escapable, it is crucial to remember that, even if Trump were to be removed from office, the man waiting in the wings would do nothing to lift the cloud of corruption hovering over Washington and spreading outward daily.
Pence may think he wants to be President, but as he surely has noticed, with that job title comes harsh scrutiny. And as Maddow’s litany made plain, Pence would likely make it no further than Trump without calls for his removal resounding just as loudly.
Shareblue Media is an American media company. We tell real-world stories to give voice to the heroes fighting for American values. We are a rapidly growing community — reaching over 140 million people per month across platforms — that is optimistic, honest, and unafraid. | {
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The Rapture Racket: Cashing in on the Apocalypse
Oops, he missed it again — the date for the rapture, that is. But that’s OK. Miscalculating the date for the end times is nothing new for Harold Camping.
In 1992 he published his book, “1994?” in which he predicted Sept. 6, 1994, as the beginning of the end. Undeterred by that non-happening, Camping did some re-calculating and published another book in 2008, “We Are Almost There!” He conveniently forgot to mention his 1994 prediction’s failure to launch.
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Djork-Arné Clevert
Johannes Kepler Universität
über das Thema:
Rectified Factor Networks
Zeit: Thu 7.5.2015, 17:15, 60 Minuten
Ort: S3-055 in Science Park 3
Zusammenfassung
Deep learning is currently one of the most hottest topics in machine learning. During this talk, we will introduce a new deep learning approach, namely, rectified factor networks (RFNs). RFNs are generative unsupervised models, which learn robust, very sparse, and non-linear codes with many code units. RFN learning is a variational expectation maximization (EM) algorithm with unknown prior which includes (i) rectified posterior means, (ii) normalized signals of hidden units, and (iii) dropout. Like factor analysis, RFNs explain the data variance by their parameters. For pretraining of deep networks on several benchmark datasets, e.g., MNIST, rectangle data, convex shapes, NORB, and CIFAR, RFNs were superior to restricted Boltzmann machines (RBMs) and denoising auto encoders.
Vortragender
Djork-Arné Clevert, trained in Computer Science at TU Berlin, received his PhD in computational biology from the Charité Medical University Berlin in 2011. He was a senior scientist at the Institute of Bioinformatics at Johannes Kepler University from 2007 to 2013. During that time, he has been Co-PI in several large projects with pharma industry. After working for industry as senior data scientist at Zalando AG. Dr. Clevert became a post-doctoral researcher within a Marie Curie fellowship at Johannes Kepler University in 2014. While Dr. Clevert´s research has mainly been concerned with microarray data in earlier years, his research focus recently shifted to the analysis of big data sets with methods, such as, deep learning. Jointly with Prof. Hochreiter, Dr. Clevert is co-organizer of the Conference "Critical Assessment of Massive Data Analysis (CAMDA)". | {
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Gated Communities Could be Coming to Jackson, But Expectations Are Mixed
Jackson’s communities simmer over adding gates to neighborhoods, with residents and authorities trading support and doubt over the project, presided over by a city council hesitant to do the wrong thing.
Woodland Hills, a neighborhood in Jackson a short drive north of the University of Mississippi Medical School, is the epicenter of a discussion about gated communities, according to the Jackson Free Press. Supporters believe the gates will drive up property value and improve their safety, but opponents are concerned with their own property value and the shift of crime to their homes instead.
Woodland Hills natives line both sides, sharing their opinions with the Jackson City Council. The discussion highlights some of the good and bad effects, plus the uncomfortable truths of installing gates in a community.
The Jackson City Council passed an ordinance allowing neighborhood associations to erect their own barriers earlier this year, and residents are now eager to start using it, according to the Free Press. This first proposal required approval from 60 percent of an association’s members or affected residents, but the ordinance’s process and implementation is ambiguous.
The ordinance is now being criticized by the mayor, who mentioned in October it’s too difficult to implement. The council is considering a redo. Despite that, some neighborhoods are moving forward while waiting for concrete instructions on how to submit their proposals. Woodland Hills is the most prominent.
The Good Effects on Traffic and Crime
The supporters of the project believe the gates will “keep possible criminals and high-speed traffic off their streets,” according to the Free Press. They also cite several other factors, like improved property value and competition with the suburbs, where gated communities might be developed on totally private land or subject to different rules.
Gated communities improve people’s perception and possibly reality of their safety, and adds a sense of community to the neighborhood, according to several studies drawn from by the International Foundation for Protection Officers, a non-profit organization serving the security guards of these communities.
Traffic is another big concern, and one gates might alleviate. IFPO’s sources state the addition makes streets less congested, letting pedestrians travel more freely, and reduces car-related crimes.
The sense of safety and community some Woodland Hills residents might get from the new gates could reduce those feelings for others, however.
The Bad Effects on Community Living
One resident told the Free Press in the same earlier article that gating would change “the property value and tone of the charming neighborhood,” with his value likely to decline when a gate is placed right in front of it, while also keeping him from the neighborhood he freely travels in today.
Another complained their family has lived in Woodland Hills for several decades, much longer than other residents, and one of the gates would exclude their home from the new community. She mentioned the measure would do nothing to reduce already low crime, instead just sending it elsewhere in the area.
Studies have shown some of the often benefits of gated communities can be drawbacks, too. IFPO cites several studies decrying gated communities as cutting residents off from society, causing economic segregation, and privatizing public roads and land.
Don’t hold your breath for a Woodland Hills basketball court and civic center, but many other, more expansive or newer neighborhoods might see exclusive developments only residents can use. Private land with private expenses drives out public amenities, according to IFPO’s database of studies.
The gating process in Jackson is confined to Woodland Hills only, but the decision the city council makes could serve as a first study for future communities to look at. Some things are bound to happen though, regardless of whether they’re good or bad.
The Ugly Realities of Gating
Every gated community is different, and there’s no easy way to tell what changes installing gates could bring, but some of the biggest fallout is obvious, and not pretty. Residents could live on opposite sides of a gate whose street they can remember driving down, now having to stop to enter a code or speak to a security guard just to enter a new “neighborhood.”
Security in a gated community is also “only as good as the people who provide it,” per IFPO’s sources. A poorly designed or maintained gate, and the security employees or measures it comes with, might provide little property or safety benefit to users.
Perhaps most importantly, Jackson’s current gate ordinance requires the general public have uninterrupted access to the street, according to the Free Press. This means one of the biggest sells, the gates’ effect on traffic, might not be very effective if drivers put up with waiting for a gate to open so they can keep taking their shortcut home instead of an alternate route. The new ordinance might change this requirement.
Gating a community might mean more exclusive residences or quieter neighborhoods, but people will still be driving cars, and you or a loved one might find yourselves in danger. Venturing out to work, the movies, or grocery shopping can quickly turn sour, and Jackson’s roads can be dangerous.
Our attorneys are ready to fight for your compensation. They can help you understand the complexities of auto accident law, investigate and build your case, and negotiate with insurance companies on your behalf to improve your situation. Fill out our free, no-risk case evaluation form if you’re ready today. | {
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Category: Greece
Greece is situated in Southeastern Europe towards the southern end of Balkan Peninsula. Athens is the capital of Greece. The country is bordered by Albania, Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria and Turkey. Greece is surrounded by Aegean Sea, Ionian Sea and Mediterranean Sea. Greece is considered as the birthplace of Western civilization, Olympic Games, Western Philosophy, Scientific principles, mathematical principles, Western literature, historiography, university education, Western drama and political science. Ottoman Empire conquered Greece in 1453. The War of Independence was fought against the Ottoman Turks from 1821-1829 and finally, complete independence of the country was recognized under London Protocol of 1830.
Greece is a republic with parliamentary system of government. President is the head of the state and government is headed by Prime Minister. Executive power is vested on the president and the legislative power is exercised by both government and Hellenic Parliament. Judiciary is independent to both executive and legislative powers which consist of 3 supreme courts such as Court of Cassation, Council of State and Court of Auditors. Greece is a developed country with advanced and high-income economy. Tourism sector is the main industry responsible for revenue and foreign earnings. Other major industries are shipping, food, chemicals, textiles, mining, petroleum and metal products.
Shipping industry is also an important sector responsible for the economic growth of Greece even in ancient times. Greece has a total population of 10.74 million. About 94% of the population is ethnic Greeks. About two-thirds of the population is from Balkan countries such as Albania, Romania and Bulgaria. About 10% of the population is the migrants from former USSR. Around 97% of the total population is Orthodox Christians. Other religions are Islam, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Protestants and Jews. The official language of the country is Greek. Other languages spoken in the country are Bulgarian, Romani and Turkish.
Greece is a fascinating tourist spot with its glorious heritage, sandy beaches, archaeological sites, quaint villages, nightlife and shopping destinations. The capital city, Athens is a historic town with numerous places worth visiting. National Archeological Museum, Roman Agora, Tower of the Wind, The Temple of Olympian Zeus, Arch of Hadrian, The Ancient Agora and Acropolis Museum. Rhodes is an island of Greece located in Aegean Sea. The Old Town of Rhodes is declared as the World Heritage site by UNESCO. Some of the tourist spots at Rhodes are Mosque of Suleimaan, The Palace of the Grand Master and Colossus of Rhodes.
Corfu Island situated in Ionian Sea is also known as the green island. Tourists can enjoy outdoor activities such as windsurfing, scuba-diving, kayaking, snorkeling and other such activities in Corfu Island. Delphi is a place where you can find stadium, theatre, traditional temple and archaeological museum. Race Track in Olympia should be visited as the Olympics games between 8th and 4th BC were hosted here. Knossos is a popular historical site where you can visit the Archaeological Museum. There are about 20 caves in Greece and among them Perema Caves is the biggest and fascinating because of the stalactites and stalagmites formations. Lalaria beach is a rocky beach where you can enjoy the day on the clean sand of the beach. | {
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Forum für Wissenschaft, Industrie und Wirtschaft
Engineering alternative fuel with cyanobacteria
10.01.2013
Sandia National Laboratories Truman Fellow Anne Ruffing has engineered two strains of cyanobacteria to produce free fatty acids, a precursor to liquid fuels, but she has also found that the process cuts the bacteria’s production potential.
Micro-algal fuels might be one way to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign energy. Such fuels would be renewable since they are powered by sunlight. They also could reduce carbon dioxide emissions since they use photosynthesis, and they could create jobs in a new industry. President Barack Obama, speaking in February at the University of Miami, advocated for investments in algae fuel development, saying they could replace up to 17 percent of the oil the United States now imports for transportation.
“Even if algae are not the end-term solution, I think they can contribute to getting us there,” Ruffing said. “Regardless of however you look at fossil fuels, they’re eventually going to run out. We have to start looking to the future now and doing research that we’ll need when the time comes.”
She has been studying the direct conversion of carbon dioxide into biofuels by photosynthetic organisms under a three-year Truman Fellowship that ends in January. She presented her project at a poster session in August and published her work on one strain, “Physiological Effects of Free Fatty Acid Production in Genetically Engineered Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942,” as the cover article in the September 2012 issue of Biotechnology and Bioengineering.
Ruffing considers her studies as proof-of-concept work that demonstrates engineering cyanobacteria for free fatty acid (FFA) production and excretion. She wants to identify the best hydrocarbon targets for fuel production and the best model strain for genetic engineering, as well as gene targets to improve FFA production.
She is using cyanobacteria — blue-green algae — because they are easier to genetically manipulate than eukaryotic algae, the natural “oil”-producing photosynthetic microorganisms more commonly used for algal biofuels, and because cyanobacteria can be engineered to create a variety of target fuels. Genetically engineered cyanobacteria excrete FFA and allow fuel to be collected without harvesting the cyanobacteria. This lowers the requirement for nitrogen and phosphate and reduces costs.
But current yields from engineered strains are too low for large-scale production. Truman Fellow Anne Ruffing looks at a flask of cyanobacteria with precipitated fatty acid floating on top. She has engineered two strains of cyanobacteria to produce free fatty acids, a precursor to fuels, as she studies the direct conversion of carbon dioxide into biofuels by photosynthetic organisms. (Photo by Randy Montoya) Click on the thumbnail for a high-resolution image.
Ruffing favors cyanobacteria because fuel from engineered cyanobacteria is excreted outside the cell, in contrast to eukaryotic algae, in which fuel production occurs inside the cell.
In general, this is how the process works: Eukaryotic algae grow in a pond to the density needed, then producers must get rid of the water, collect the cells and break them open to get the fuel precursor inside. This precursor is isolated and purified, then chemically converted into biodiesel. Cyanobacteria excrete the fuel precursor outside the cell, so a separation process can remove the product without killing the cells. That eliminates the need to grow a new batch of algae each time, saving on nitrogen and phosphate.
While other research efforts have focused on metabolic engineering strategies to boost production, Ruffing wants to identify what physiological effects limit cell growth and FFA synthesis.
“You can’t really hope to continue to engineer it to produce more of the fatty acids until you address these unforeseen effects,” she said. “As much as you want to do the applied side of things, creating the strain, you can’t get away from the fundamental biology that’s necessary in order to do that.”
Much of our fundamental understanding of photosynthesis comes from cyanobacteria, but it’s only been in the past decade or so, with advances in gene manipulation and recombinant DNA technology, that they’ve been considered for fuel production, Ruffing said.
The strains she engineered for FFA production show reduced photosynthetic yields, degradation of chlorophyll-a and changes in light-harvesting pigments, Ruffing said. She saw some cell death and lower growth rates overall, and suspects the toxicity of unsaturated FFA and changes in membrane composition are responsible.
Now she’s looking at what genes are changing when cyanobacteria produce fatty acids. She’s creating mutants by knocking out certain genes or introducing or overexpressing genes to see how that affects the cell and fatty acid production.
“So I’m engineering the cell, then I’m trying to learn from the cell how to work with the cell to produce the fuel instead of trying to force it to produce something it doesn’t want to produce,” she said.
She’s producing FFA from Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 and Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002, chosen as so-called model organisms that have been studied for several decades and for which tools exist to manipulate their genes. She also is working with the two strains and a third, Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, for biofuel toxicity screening.
Ruffing hopes to continue working on strain development after the fellowship ends.
“It is possible that there’s a natural strain out there that could be a better option, so this is still pretty early research,” she said. “There’s a lot of exploration to do.”Sandia National Laboratories is a multiprogram laboratory operated and managed by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies, and economic competitiveness.
Physicists from Regensburg and Marburg, Germany have succeeded in taking a slow-motion movie of speeding electrons in a solid driven by a strong light wave. In the process, they have unraveled a novel quantum phenomenon, which will be reported in the forthcoming edition of Nature.
The advent of ever faster electronics featuring clock rates up to the multiple-gigahertz range has revolutionized our day-to-day life. Researchers and... | {
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Miniature Diorama Photographer
One Word Photo Challenge: Drink
Part III: People, Places & Things
If you want to share a literal image of the actual word, do that. But if you’d rather play with word association, post something that reminds you of the specific word, or something you use the word for, do so. It only has to make sense to you. Have fun and keep on photographing!
This week’s word is Drink! Don’t forget to check out Color your World as well, posting daily January – April.
[…] You know you’re in Canada when you’re drinking a Caesar. (6 Mile Pub, a historic stagecoach inn in Victoria, BC) You know you’re in Thailand when you have no idea what you’re drinking but it tastes good! (Bangkok’s Weekend Chatuchak Market) You know you’re in Vietnam when your iced coffee comes in a contraption like this. (A hammock café on the way to the Mekong) You know you’re in Belgium when every beer you drink comes in a different glass, and every beer you drink is delicious! (Way too much beer selection for only one link – instead try my Belgium link page if you’re interested in Belgian beer) You know you’re in Ireland when you see Guinness everywhere. (The ‘White Room’ in the Guinness Storehouse at St. James’s Gate Brewery in Dublin)You know you’re in India when everyone offers you a cup of reviving chai. (How to make chai) You know you’re in Holland when you’re drinking beer in a Brown Café. (Café Chris, a historic pub in Amsterdam) You know you’re in Spain when masses of free food comes with your ice cold beer. (Pintxos, a bar snack elevated to the highest form in Bilbao) More of Jennifer Nichole Wells’ One Word Challenge: Drink. […] | {
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tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6447430773023632747.post1437136471403675887..comments2014-11-15T17:05:53.724+08:00Comments on Frangipani: Himalayan Adventure Part 1Frangipanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]:blogger.com,1999:blog-6447430773023632747.post-64838189321910933332014-11-15T17:05:53.724+08:002014-11-15T17:05:53.724+08:00Thank you. The website for this national park is h...Thank you. The website for this national park is http://www.greathimalayannationalpark.com. I came to know about the place through the website. My trek was organised by a co-operative group called Himalayan Ecotourism (http://himalayanecotourism.com). I can tell you that the my costs were very reasonable. You can enquire with them for more details.Frangipanihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]:blogger.com,1999:blog-6447430773023632747.post-71243948395465652812014-11-15T00:34:13.449+08:002014-11-15T00:34:13.449+08:00Sir Excellent Blog & Great Pictures . How did ...Sir Excellent Blog & Great Pictures . How did you come to know about this beautiful area? How much do you pay to get an experience like this. [email protected] | {
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WordPress is now used to create all kinds of websites and blogs. There are thousands of themes and templates that cater to all possible niches in the market. With so many choices, it is much easier to complement the content of your website with your theme designs. Overall, your choice of theme depends on the | {
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INTERVIEW: Defibrillator use on the rise
02/08/2018
Implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs) are being surgically inserted in patients at increasing rates at a cost of almost $155 million per year.
Head of Centenary’s Clinical Cardiac Genetics Group Dr Jodie Ingles, has led the Australian-first study which analysed data from the National Hospital Morbidity Database, and was published in the Medical Journal of Australia.
“An ICD looks a bit like a pacemaker. It’s a little box implanted under the chest wall with a lead which goes into the heart. Essentially, it sits there and monitors the heart’s rhythm and it has one purpose. That is, if your heart goes into an abnormal rhythm that could cause cardiac arrest and subsequently sudden death, it will actually charge up and deliver a shock,” Dr Ingles told ABC Far North Queensland presenter Kier Shorey. | {
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I have a feeling that cheating, hoodie wearing, moobie having maladroit used to convince his kids that Christmas was actually the 27th just so he could get stuff cheap the day after Christmas......cheating lying POS!!!!
I have a feeling that cheating, hoodie wearing, moobie having maladroit used to convince his kids that Christmas was actually the 27th just so he could get stuff cheap the day after Christmas......cheating lying POS!!!!
good to see you got the holiday spirit confessor.lol
fins up ho's down. Time to take a trip up to foxboro rip our shirts off and start up a bunch of bull mess. We ain't going to the playoff, we done got our coach runn oft, and barkleys staying in school. I don't think theres ever been a better reason to go out and pick a fight.
Let's not have an episode of how the hoodie stole christmas. | {
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China denies visa to Indian badminton manager from Arunachal Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh's Bamang Tago, who was nominated manager of the Indian badminton team , has been denied visa by the Chinese government to travel to Fuzhou for the ongoing China Super Series Premier badminton tournament.
India TV Sports Desk, Beijing [Updated:17 Nov 2016, 6:10 PM IST]
India China flag
Arunachal Pradesh's Bamang Tago, who was nominated manager of the Indian badminton team , has been denied visa by the Chinese government to travel to Fuzhou for the ongoing China Super Series Premier badminton tournament.
Tago, who is also the Secretary of Arunachal Pradesh Badminton Association, has been running from pillar to post after he was denied visa by the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi "on ground of Arunachal domiciles", a day after applying for the travel document on November 10.
Tago today sought the intervention of Minister of State, Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju in this regard.
"I have been in Delhi since November 10 but I have not been granted the visa. I am the manager of the Indian team and they are already there playing in the first round today but I am stuck here," Tago told PTI.
"When I checked with the Chinese Embassy about the status of my visa application, I was told by embassy officials that since I belong to Arunachal Pradesh, an approval from Beijing is required," he said.
"There has been no response from the Chinese Embassy since then. So today I met Mr Kiren Rijiju and sought his intervention. He told me he will look into the matter and enquire about it and get back to me. I am hoping something positive comes out," Tago added.
Tago was to lead a 14-member Indian team on the invitation of Fuzhou Municipal Sports Bureau to participate in the Thaihot China Open in Fuzhou, which started yesterday and will conclude on November 20.
Badminton Association of India (BAI) had submitted all required documents of members of Indian contingent at Chinese Embassy, New Delhi several weeks back for obtaining the travel documents. But while all other 13 members got their visa without any problem and left for Fuzhou on November 12, Tago have been left behind.
"My visa has been withheld on the ground of me being a domicile of Arunachal Pradesh which is totally a discrimination by China," Tago said.
"It has been 54 years since the Chinese aggression of 1962 and 70 years of India's Independence. The issue of Arunachal Pradesh remains unsettled because of the territorial dispute between India and China which has put the future of the Indigenous people of Arunachal in uncertainty," he said.
In 2011, a five-member karate team on its way to Quanzhou to take part in the Asian Karate-do championship was prevented by Indian immigration officials at IGI airport New Delhi for possessing stapled visa issued by the Chinese Embassy. In Jan 2012, a team of Arunachal weightlifters were prevented to board their flight for possessing stapled visas.
Further, in October 2013, two young archers from Arunachal Pradesh could not participate in the Youth World Archery Championship in Wuxi in China as Indian immigration officials prevented them to board the flight for the same reason.
"China has now become an important location for international sports events and will continue to host more in the future. In such a scenario, sportspersons from Arunachal Pradesh will be deprived in days to come for no fault of theirs," Tago said.
Meanwhile, MEA said that it has taken up with China the issue of visa denial to Bamang Tago and hoped that the Chinese side will address it in the spirit of reciprocity and smooth development of bilateral relations.
"This matter has been brought to our notice now. Government's position on differential treatment of Indian passport holders is clear and well known. We have conveyed it to the Chinese side. We expect them to address this issue in the spirit of reciprocity and smooth development of bilateral relations," MEA Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said. | {
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Received 03 April 2011Accepted 11 June 2011Published online 05 July 2011
Acknowledgments:
The authors are grateful to the funding support from Nanyang Technological University through the Nanyang Assistant Professorship Award and also the technical support from the staff members of Nanyang Nanofabrication Centre. | {
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TRAFFIC CITATIONS, OCCUPATIONAL LICENSES& CRIMINAL DEFENSE
The Law Office of J. Chance Smith is dedicated to handling your traffic citations, driver license issues, and small criminal defense matters with integrity and professionalism. The Office serves all of the North Texas Region, including, but not limited to, Dallas County, Tarrant County, Wise County, Denton County, Ellis County, Collin County, Rockwall County, Parker County, Johnson county, Hunt County, Kaufman County. | {
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The Dodo Archive
Bouncy Orphaned Fox Tells Us What The Fox Says
At long last, now we really know what the fox says. This bouncy fox, whose name is Loki, came to the Turtle Bay Exploration Park, a museum complex and botanical garden in California, after he was orphaned at six weeks old, and was raised by the handlers there. According to the park's YouTube page, they wanted to show people what kind of sound a fox really makes, in response to the popular Ylvis song. | {
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And this makes the national news how…?
Two ferry workers in North Carolina are in hot water because they expressed political opinions by flying a “Trump 2020” flag on a state-owned sea vessel. This is fair and appropriate and I have no issues with such punishment (as long as it is served fairly and consistently).
Officials with North Carolina’s ferry system have suspended a boat captain and crew member for a week after they hoisted a flag supporting President Donald Trump’s re-election on a state-owned ship.
A passenger on the MV Frisco ferry took a picture of the “Trump 2020” flag flying below the U.S. flag and even with the North Carolina flag last month and posted it to social media.
Ferry Division spokesman Tim Hass told media outlets that putting campaign material on a state-owned vessel is not appropriate. He did not release the names of the employees suspended for a week.
Hass says the flag was only up for one run on the Outer Banks ferry.
A big fat whateverburger to this.
I agree with the disciplinary action given to the workers. A state-owned vehicle should not be used for political propagandizing.
I just wonder about some things, however.
For instance: if it had been a Bernie Sanders or Kamala Harris or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez flag, would anyone have cared to photograph it for the purposes of social media drama?
Would anyone have given a flying shit?
This is truly low effort. Why is the MSM all over this insignificant unhappening that has no business being covered by the faintest local news outlet in North Carolina? This is just another aggregated MSM micro-attack on the President which seeks to erect a structure of niggling attacks aimed at upsetting his reputation and legitimacy.
This ubiquitous Trump-bashing is becoming very predictable and trite. They should phone the meaningless tripe in, sorta how it makes for equally rote blog posts! | {
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Contents
But Americans aren’t feeling much oneness these days, and many tell pollsters they suffer loneliness, social isolation and little connection with others. Residents of places like Casa Verde, one of.
"Britain’s Loneliness Epidemic": The Guardian. co-housing is being touted as an antidote to the chronic loneliness many people face in old age. Groups have sprung up across the country: 12 are established, and another 32 are in development, three of which hope to create homes.
Cohousing communities hope to offer antidote to America’s epidemic of loneliness – Religion News Service . religionnews.com COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (RNS) – In a time of social isolation and loneliness, cohousing communities are on the rise. Residents say life together has challenges but offers many rewards.
America’s loneliness epidemic: A systemic risk to. I hope we can find a way as a society to rebuild the carrot of strong communities without needing the threat of loss of salvation as stick.. the only antidote for loneliness is to be aware of it and develop the courage to introduce.
Beth Chapman, ‘Dog the Bounty Hunter’ star, has died – The Texas Post What Every Arthritis Patient Needs to Know About Medical Marijuana | HealthCentral Reddit gives you the best of the internet in one place. Get a constantly updating feed of breaking news, fun stories, pics, memes, and videos just for you. Passionate about something niche? Reddit has thousands of vibrant communities with people that share your interests. Alternatively, find out what’s trending across all of Reddit on r/popular."Dog the Bounty Hunter" star Duane Chapman says his family is planning a pair of memorial services for his wife, Beth Chapman, who died Wednesday of Stage 4 lung. either service would be public..
LongRoom News antidote. The Big Loser In Last Night’s Debate Was Barack Obama VIDEO: Democrats can’t name a Biden accomplishment ‘The Expanse’ Gets a Season 5 with Amazon (And Season 4’s Coming in Hot!) How Capital Punishment Preserves The Value Of Human Life
For the earlier parts of the Housing America. Cohousing offers something of an antidote for those with a renewed thirst for community.. as a solution to the country’s epidemic of.
"Modi is the new-age Aurangzeb," says Shastri, incensed by the government’s destruction of more than 270 homes and 15 neighborhoods to clear 45,000 square meters of space for the corridor. A hindu ascetic sits amid demolished areas in Varanasi, India. | {
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If you see this message your web browser does not support JavaScript or you have disabled JavaScript on your browser. The calculator will not work without enabling JavaScript.
x = hours
x = minutes
x = milliliters/hour
x
volume
calibration
gtt/min
gtt/15sec
Formulas
To calculate rate using minutes
volume x calibrationminutes
= gtt/min
To calculate rate using hours
volume x calibrationhours x 60
= gtt/min
Examples
1) Give a 50cc IVPB over 30 minutes using IV tubing with a calibration
of 10. How many drops per minute should this IVPB be set for? See the example below.
select "x = minutes"
x = 30
volume = 50
calibration = 10
Actual formula:
50 x 1030
= 16.7 or 17 gtt/min
2) Using IV tubing alone (calibrated at 60), prepare an IV
to infuse 1 liter over 8 hours. How many drops per minute should the IV be
set for? See the example below.
select "x = hours"
x = 8
volume = 1000
calibration = 60
Actual formula:
1000ml x
608 x 60
= 125 gtt/min
Note, when using microdrip tubing (calibration = 60), the drip rate will be the same as
mL/hr. This will save you the time of
calculating the drip rate if asked to give the rate in mL/hr.
3) The doctor orders an IV to infuse at 125cc/hr.
Calculate the flow rate using 10 drop/min IV tubing.
select "x = milliters/hour"
x = 125
calibration = 10
Actual formula:
125cc x 1060
= 20.8 or 21 gtt/min
Note
You may be wondering why a second
answer is displayed in the calculator. The first answer displays the
number of drops per minute. The second answer displays how many drops fall
in 15 seconds. Sometimes the IV rate is set by counting for 15 seconds
instead of a full minute. | {
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Beaufort Street Festival Cookbooks
Get something truly local and unique.
Recipes & Ramblings is a community cookbook boasting gorgeous recipes submitted by people who have a genuine love for Beaufort Street.
Recipes from local chefs, residents and businesses.
The inaugural Recipes & Ramblings cookbook was launched in 2012. “A Food Journey From Beaufort Street And Beyond” is a culmination of community spirit and shared love of all things culinary.
Recipes are submitted by local residents, chefs, businesses, prominent figures and people who have a genuine love for Beaufort Street.
Our cookbooks from 2012 and 2013 serve as a memoir of our love for dining and cooking captured in stunning photography and accompanied by delightful rambles.
More recipes and ramblings
The cookbooks could not have happened without the collaboration of our creative volunteers all of whom donated their time, skills and keen taste buds! A power-house of strengths, spanning all spectrums of talent; from photographers and stylists, to recipe testers and bloggers, whose hard work is found on every page.
2014 Festival Cookbook
Safe to say, these crocchettes are the ultimate pre-dinner treat! Such a moreish delight. Thanks for the recipe Teresina Femia- a Beaufort Street loiterer! | {
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New Joe Guesthouse
When you are traveling on a budget you need clean, safe and affordable accommodation. We offer you all this and so much more.
We are situated in a quiet back alley just 1 minute walk from Khaosan Road, which is one of Bangkok's busiest budget tourist streets, yet you will find that we offer you a quiet and peaceful atmosphere. The rooms are the largest in its class, each one has its own private bathroom and balcony. We have a wonderful garden which will gives the feeling of seclusion, but in reality you are just a few minutes from all the major tourist attractions of Bangkok, the Grand Palace, Wat Po (Reclining Buddha Temple) and Chao Phraya river to name a few.
The ideal location gives you easy access to all the major transportation routes, the Southern Bus terminal and Train station are in easy reach, allowing you to travel easily around Thailand.
We have English, German and French speaking staff. We offer more services and facilities than others in our class, so if you are looking for affordable guest house accommodation then we are the ideal choice for you. | {
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} |
Friday, January 29, 2010
I had a craft day today at my house with some of my friends. I wanted to make bow boards since I desperately need a place to hang all of our bows! So that's what we did, and they turned out so stinkin' CUTE!!!! And now I'm not so sure that I want to stop making them. They are so much fun. I made three today and have most of the materials to make six more. I just need more ribbon.
It was a super fun day. Well, that is until Brooks rolled down the stairs. He's okay, it just scared him. That was a bummer deal. But the boards were FUN!!!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Aubree has her moments where she's super sweet and adorable. She had one of those as we were driving home from the grocery story yesterday afternoon. She sits next to Brooks in the Tahoe. All of a sudden, she leans over him in his seat and starts talking to him in her high-pitched, sing-songy voice saying, "Oh, Brooks, I love you. Oh, yes I do! Yes, that's right. I love you. Were you with Jesus before you were born? Oh, yes you were. Yeeeeesss you were! You got to talk to him, didn't you? Yeeeeesssss! He's your friend, huh, Brooks? Yes he is. Oh, yes he is."
It was one of those moments that makes it worth being a mom. I love my kids, so fresh from Heaven.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Brooks had his six month check up yesterday, even though he'll be seven months old next week. Oops! Oh well, he's still in his sixth month. And I didn't want him to be miserable just before Christmas recovering from shots. So we waited. And it's a good thing; he's been a bear since his shots!
He's been growing nicely. He weighs 18.8 lbs, which puts him in the 60th percentile and is 27.5 inches long - the 72nd percentile. There's nothing little about this guy! He's definitely our chunky monkey!!
Right now, he's rolling ALL over the place. We really have to keep an eye on him. He sits up now on his how for almost a minute! And he LOVES his baby food (if you couldn't tell)! Ooh, except for green beans, I've just found out. He's a good eater, good sleeper, and such a happy baby, aside from getting shots and teeth. I'm so lucky to have such a good baby, finally!! We all love our Brooks boy!
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Brynnlee's been driving me CRAZY lately!! Let me tell you about my day on Tuesday. Aubree was running late for pre-school so we were rushing around trying to get her ready before her ride came to get her. Just as they arrived, Aubree had run into the bathroom to use it. She finished as fast as she could and ran out the door. Once Aubree was gone, Brynnlee and I sat down for some lunch. She made a mess as usual, so I cleaned her up and put her down to play while I cleaned up the table, chair, and floor.
When I finished, I noticed that Brynn was very quiet and decided I'd better go check on her. She was in the bathroom, playing in the toilet - the toilet that Aubree was in too much of a hurry to flush. Yep, she was elbow deep in pee-water. And not only that, but she had grabbed the toilet brush and was using that to fling pee-water all over the bathroom. Everything was drenched - the walls were dripping, the towels hanging on the walls were wet, the floor was soaked, and the rugs were sopping. I just about threw up.
I grabbed Brynnlee, put her in the empty bathtub, took off her soaked shirt, and made her stay in the tub while I got everything cleaned up. I washed the walls and floor and toilet with Pine Sol. Scrubbed the toilet again with Lysol toilet cleaner. I started the washer with the towels and rugs.
When everything was finally clean. I opened the shower curtain to bathe Brynn. And what did I find? Brynnlee covered in shampoo, head to toe, and let me remind you that she still had pants and a diaper on and her hair done for the day. She still lathered herself right up. So I bathed her and threw her clothes in the wash too.
Once she was cleaned and dressed - again, I put her down to play, shutting the bathroom doors, and started on the vacuuming. After only a few minutes, I noticed that the entire contents of the diaper bag (and that's a lot of stuff for both Brynnlee and Brooks) were strewn all over the floor in my bedroom. I sent her out and cleaned it up.
I started to vacuum again and came into the family room to find that Brynnlee had emptied two bags of cereal onto the carpet. That was it. I had had it!!!! I made her help clean it up then sent her to her room for a nap. And I went to my room too.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
My sister-in-law, Shannon, had this on her blog and I thought it was a good way to summarize the past year. So here's my rendition:
Where did you begin 2009? Driving home from the cabinWhat was your status by Valentine's Day? Married with three kidsWere you in school? Nope, thank goodness!!Did you have to go to the hospital? I did to have a baby and to visit Brett when he smashed his toes under a trailer jack.Did you have any encounters with the police? Yes, one awful day when I left Aubree in the house watching cartoons as I got my hair done right next door. And Brett did too - twice in one week and both times he was let off with a warning.Where did you go on vacation? We went to Mesquite, NV and had sooooooo much fun!What did you purchase that was over $500? A house and a sectional. It literally makes me sick to spend money like that!Did you know anyone who got married? Yep, my little brother, Andrew.Did you move anywhere? Yes. We moved across the driveway from our mobile home to the house.What sporting events did you attend? Lots of T-ball last summerWhat concerts/shows did you attend? My mother-in-law took us to see Wicked. How lucky are we?!Where do you live now? In Salem, IdahoDescribe your birthday. It was kind of crappy. I won't go into it, but Brett took me out for dinner and that was nice.What's the one thing you thought you would never do, but did in 2009? Did the make-up on my sister's body after she passed away.Any new additions to the family? Baby Brooks and our puppy girl, AngelWhat was your best month? August, when I read the whole Twilight seriesWhat music will you remember 2009 by? "I Know You Want Me" from our exercise classWhat would you have changed about 2009? So many thingsWhat did you like most about 2009? Learning how important my friends are to meOther than home, where did you spend most of your time? At the churchChange your hair style? Yes, I went from a light brown to a deep, dark brownHow old did you turn in 2009? 28Any new years resolutions for 2010? Oh yeah! Check my previous post.What was your favorite purchase this year? Decorations for the house and an IUDDid you get sick this year? Yes, the day of my sister-in-law's baby shower that I was hosting at my house. Needless to say, we had to make some last minute changes on the location.Start a new hobby? Making cheesecakesWhat are you wishing for in 2010? Just an all around better year!
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
I know I'm really slacking in this post and the previous one, but hey, at least I'm getting them on here.
I am so excited for the new year!!! I've got high hopes for this year being a better one than last and I'm going to work really hard to make it so.
I LOVE making new year resolutions every year. It's a chance for me to find ways to become better than I am, write them down, and really work on them.
Here are my resolutions for 2010:
1. Organize the house2. Make a menu calendar every month again3. Keep excersizing4. Get to a size 45. Eat less sugar6. Potty train Brynnlee7. Read more with the kids8. FHE EVERY week9. Scripture study with the kids10. Attend the temple once a month11. Entertain more12. Do more service (I'm shooting for at least once a week)13. Take more day trips as a family
So we'll see how it goes, but so far, I've been doing really well and I hope to keep it up!
On New Year's Eve, Brett's cousin invited us up to the cabin that they were staying in. We had such a nice time eating dinner, playing games, watching movies, and visiting with family. Thanks B.J. and Maja!!
Here are some pictures of our evening...
Brynn and Jaren fixing a trailer
Brynn and Owen, B.J. and Maja's little one
Me and my Brooks boy
Brynnlee found a fun place to play cars
The big game table
Some of the kids watched a movie downstairs
It was such a gorgeous cabin! And we all had a great time. Until our drive home, that is, when Brett got pulled over by a police officer for not signaling before he turned. I tried to bribe the officer with some banana bars and he let us off with a warning. PHEW!!! So goodbye 2009 and hello 2010! I'm so happy to see you. We'll hope for a better year this year!! | {
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Languages
Malaysia: The rise of political Islam in Malaysia
Source:
Yale Global via Qantara
Growing assertiveness of Islamic courts intrudes on the rights of non-Muslims and threatens social harmony in the prosperous nation, says Sadanand Dhume.
In a globalized and increasingly competitive world, Malaysia cannot expect to modernize its economy without modernizing its society. In practical terms, this means choosing the universal values of freedom of conscience and freedom of inquiry over the narrow dictates of Islamic orthodoxy.
Those seeking a glimmer of optimism amidst the barrage of bad news from the Muslim world often point to Malaysia. It boasts a functioning democracy, a robust economy and a record of peace among its three major ethnic groups: Malays, Chinese and Indians.
Malaysia has done much to deserve its reputation for economic dynamism and social harmony, but a flurry of actions by the country's hard-line Islamic authorities illustrates the contradictions within the Malaysian model, and raises doubts about the country's effort to rise to the ranks of developed nations by 2020.
The dictatorship of religious affiliation
The most recent example of this ongoing clash between the modern and the medieval involves Revathi Masoosai, a 29-year-old ethnic Indian woman born to Muslim parents but raised by a Hindu grandmother. Last month, Malaysian religious authorities forcibly separated Revathi from her Hindu husband, Suresh Veerappan, and handed their 15-month-old daughter to Revathi's mother.
Under Malaysian law, anyone born to Muslim parents is automatically considered Muslim, and converting to another religion is illegal. (No such injunction bars non-Muslims from embracing Islam.) Since Muslims come under the purview of sharia, non-Muslims cannot seek redress from secular courts.
Fear of angering religious hotheads
Revathi's case is only the most recent of a string of similar incidents. In 2005 Islamic authorities deemed that M. Moorthy, a celebrated mountaineer and a practicing Hindu according to his wife, had secretly converted to Islam before his death. Over his wife's protests, Moorthy's body was taken from his family and given a Muslim burial.
In another infamous case, Lina Joy, a computer saleswoman in her 40s, has spent nearly 10 years unsuccessfully seeking official recognition of her conversion from Islam to Christianity.
Two years ago, followers of an offbeat spiritual movement called Sky Kingdom – best known for revering a giant cream-colored teapot – saw their commune razed by authorities who declared their beliefs "heretical." In recent months, Hindus have taken to the streets to protest a spate of temple bulldozings, including the demolition of at least two that date to the 19th century.
In each of these cases, the government of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, who publicly champions a tolerant approach to faith called Islam hadhari, has stood by for fear of angering religious hotheads.
Ethnic preferences and religious supremacism
The nub of the problem lies in Malaysia's inconsistent approach to modernization. Unlike neighboring Singapore, which stands for equality before the law and a strict meritocracy, Malaysia has sought prosperity against a backdrop of deepening Islamization and handouts for ethnic Malays, deemed by law to be Muslim.
Until recently the Malaysia of vice squads and apostasy laws did not intrude upon the Malaysia of glittering skyscrapers and high-speed airport trains. But the rise of China, India and Vietnam, and the demands of a shift from low-cost manufacturing to more knowledge-intensive work, raise serious doubts about the viability of the Malaysian model.
The country needs freedom of inquiry to unleash the creativity of its people. It needs to foster an atmosphere of tolerance to staunch the outflow of the country's brightest non-Malays and to attract overseas talent and investment. Neither is likely without rethinking the twinned and contentious issues of ethnic preferences and religious supremacism.
The privileges of the Malay population
Of course, it's too early to write off Malaysia just yet. Its success over the past four decades depended on shrewdly balancing ethnic politics and pragmatic economics. After riots in Kuala Lumpur in 1969 between the prosperous Chinese minority and ethnic Malays, Malaysia instituted a program to raise the Malay share of national income.
The government aggressively favored Malay businessmen with government contracts, and Malays gained a virtual monopoly on generous government scholarships for overseas study. At the same time – in order to grow the pie rather than to merely carve out a larger slice for Malays – Malaysia followed outward-looking economic policies that encouraged foreign investment and export-led growth.
As with other parts of the Muslim world, the rupture with the past brought by prosperity rose in tandem with Islamic consciousness. The OPEC oil boom of 1973 allowed Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States to bankroll efforts to Arabize the Muslims of South and Southeast Asia.
The ruling party's mosque-building spree
The ripples of the 1979 Iranian Revolution were felt directly on Malaysian college campuses. During the 1980s the headscarf became ubiquitous among Malay women. Meanwhile, in a bid to outdo the Islamist opposition in terms of piety, the ruling party UMNO, United Malays National Organization, went on a mosque-building spree. Religious students made a beeline for the Middle East and Pakistan, and in a show of pan-Islamic solidarity, visa rules were eased for visitors from many Muslim countries.
In the wake of Malaysia's troubles during the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997, long-serving Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad became something of a global cheerleader for anti-Semitism – publicly peddling conspiracy theories about attacks on the Malaysian ringgit and accusing Jews of "rule[ing] the world by proxy."
Meanwhile, disregard for non-Malays – for the most part Buddhist and Christian Chinese and Hindu Indians, who together make up a third of the country's 25 million people – expressed itself most clearly in the architecture of the new administrative capital Putrajaya. Gaudy domes and soaring minarets dominate the skyline, and an Isfahan-inspired bridge spans a massive artificial lake. Acknowledgment of other cultures is conspicuous by its absence.
By some measures, Malaysian affirmative-action policies have worked. The Malay share of corporate equity rose from less than 4 percent in 1971 to – estimates vary and those on the higher end are politically explosive – between 20 and 45 percent in 2006. Over the same period per capita income – in purchasing power parity terms – quadrupled, from about $3000 to about $12,000. Malaysia is the world's 19th largest exporter.
Pluralism versus intolerance
At the same time, rather than enable the Malays to compete effectively as equals, Malaysia has ended up creating a class of crony capitalists dependent on government largesse and a Malay population that sees special privileges as a birthright. Often this supremacism is expressed in terms of religious intolerance. The one silver lining: Liberal-minded Muslims such as the lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar and the academic Farish Noor have joined non-Muslims and a plethora of blogs in criticizing this trend.
These troubles could not come at a worse time. Malaysia's traditional strength in low-cost electronics manufacturing is being challenged by the rise of China and Vietnam. The government has invested heavily in technology infrastructure in the form of the Multimedia Supercorridor, ambitiously hailed as the Silicon Valley of the East.
But amid white-hot competition for scientific talent and despite relaxing some of the usual race laws, Malaysia finds it hard to attract and retain Indian and Chinese engineers. Meanwhile, many of the country's brightest students – especially non-Malays – migrate to Australia, the US and Singapore, where everyone enjoys freedom of conscience and equality before the law.
For Malaysia then, the fate of Revathi Masoosai has wider implications. Its resolution will signal whether Malaysia seeks a future as a prosperous and pluralistic trading nation in the global mainstream, or a country whose inconsistent efforts to modernize ultimately doom them to failure.
By: Sadanand Dhume
Sadanand Dhume is a journalist and writer with a long-standing interest in Asia. He has recently completed a book on the rise of radical Islam in Indonesia. He is also a Bernard Schwartz fellow at the Asia Society in Washington, DC. This article was previously published by Yale Global | {
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One of the most frequently asked questions we ever receive revolves around the question “what is the best material to make mens wedding rings out of?”
This is a really tough question, and only the individual can really answer this, but here is a bit of a breakdown to help you make the decision. These are only general concepts, and there is some movement on these concepts. What is also important is the quality of the product you are comparing. Poor quality anything is not going to be great to make a wedding ring out of!!!
To make it easier, we’ve made a great infographic which makes things a bit more easy on the eye!
CLICK TO ENLARGE
Tungsten Rings – Tungsten Rings are arguably the most hardy from a scratcc resistance point of view, but they can still crack if hit with something or dropped from a tall height. Also, some people find the greyness of Tungsten to be less spectacular than other metals. Overall it is a very good choice for tradesmen or those that do manual labour and have their ring on. Tungsten Rings can be bought quite cheaply but it is very important to find a supplier of high quality Tungsten as there are big variations in the quality of Tungsten products. This is for a few reasons, including the binding agents used. Even non cobalt binders such as Nickel can be problematic if they fail a Nickel release test, which is a hallmark of poor quality rings. Its not possible to produce a quality product and sell it for $10 or $20 as seen on many of the popular “e-marketplace sites”.
Black Titanium Rings – Black Titanium Rings are exclusive to Edward Mirell who have the patent on the product. Click here to learn more about Black Titanium Rings. Black Titanium has an incredibly hard outer shell but it maintains much of the grey titanium ductility which means that it is very scratch resistant, but not particularly prone to cracking. It is very hardy, is an amazing colour, and can be made into all manner of incredible shapes. Black Ti made by Edward Mirell is used by some of the worlds biggest companies in their manufacturing processes. An excellent choice for a wedding ring. Remember only Edward Mirell have the patent for true Black Titanium. Most other “black titanium” is just powder coated or electroplated which is a vastly inferior product.
Cobalt Rings – Cobalt is one of Alpha Rings favourites to make a wedding ring out of. Its more scratch resistant than Gold, Silver, Titanium but a bit less scratch resistant than Tungsten. It has the most brilliant colour which resembles Platinum, but at a fraction of the price. Cobalt is suitable for males of all walks of life, be it tradesmen or office workers. Cobalt wedding rings always look impressive and stay looking good for a long long time. If you are after a “silverish” colour, then Cobalt would be our choice. Cobalt is lighter than Tungsten aswell.
Ceramic Rings – Ceramic rings have had a big decline in popularity in recent years. Unless you are after a different kind of colour like blue or red or something, there are just better options elsewhere. Black was traditionally the most used colour, but Black Titanium has since far exceeded Ceramic in almost every regard (except that Black Titanium is more expensive). Ceramic rings are light and scratch resistant but they are very limited in the type of styles that can be made. We really don’t produce them much anymore.
Titanium Rings – Grey Titanium rings are some of the most versatile rings on the market. They are almost right in the middle when it comes to scratch resistance. Much more scratch resistant than Gold, Silver and Steel, but less than Cobalt, Tungsten and Black Titanium. One of the great things about Titanium is the incredible amount of design variations that can be produced. Titanium is incredibly light, has good resilience and is moderately priced. Scratches should be expected but this will add to the character of the ring. Titanium is another product that requires high quality production techniques to avoid weakness in the construction which can occur if not using Commercial Pure (CP) Titanium
Steel Rings – Steel rings are excellent as fashion or costume jewellery but make a poor choice for wedding rings. They scratch too easily and are too easily bent out of shape. Alpha Rings doesn’t sell steel because there are many better choices. We’d recommend you steer clear of rings where the outer surfaces are Steel.
Gold Rings – Gold Rings are still incredibly popular because of the traditional element and people still like the colour of Gold. Gold has attributes which make it good as a wedding ring as an alloy – but contemporary metals do a better job. Gold is also very expensive. Thats a good thing if you want to have a ring with a high intrinsic value, as in, the precious metal is actually worth something as resell value.
Silver Rings – Silver, generally speaking, makes a poor choice for a mans wedding ring. Silver is way too soft and easily bent and disfigured. Silver is fine as an inlay but it will scratch. We would never suggest to use Silver for a wedding ring. A Silver ring just won’t stand up to the rigours of wearing it every day.
We’ve taken some images below to help you with a visual comparison between Cobalt, Tungsten and Titanium rings. It is quite hard to explain the visual differences with words, and photographs are often quite difficult to produce the right colour rendering. The below images do a reasonable job of showing the subtle differences between the three metals. Tungsten is clearly has a more “grey” hue to it. Cobalt has more of a “whiteness” about it, and Titanium has a yellowish type of grey to it. Have a look for yourself.
Here is a clear comparison in the same lighting. Cobalt brushed and polished is on the left, Titanium polished in the middle, and tungsten brushed and polished on the right
Tungsten ring on the left, Titanium ring on the right
On the left is a Cobalt ring with a brushed face, on the right is a Tungsten ring with a brushed face
16 thoughts on “Comparing types of materials for mens wedding rings”
Hi Michelle, thanks for the email. You should basically consider Tungsten rings to be a product that cannot be resized. They are too hard and its simply not possible to do, given the relatively low cost of the product its cheaper and easier to buy a new one unfortunately.
Hi if I wanted a ring that doesn’t scratch then is Tungsten the only option?
I don’t mind the gunmetal too much but I don’t want black. I want it as a wedding ring.
So scratch resistance is very important
Hi there Billy.
Thanks for the question! Basically tungsten is going to be almost impossible to scratch. And as you said it’s gunmetal grey if you like your ring to be that colour.
If you want something more silverish, you could look at Cobalt rings which offer excellent scratch resistance, more different designs and the colour is great.
Cobalt rings are a bit more expensive though.
Hi there.
Why is it that you say that ceramic rings are hard in your image but then you say that they’re only really good for being used as a fashion ring? I thought the whole point for a wedding ring was that they needed to be hard so they didn’t scratch?
Hi there Tony.
Great question. Yes you are right in some respects that its sensible to choose a wedding ring material that is hard. The benefit of a hard material is that its not going to scratch easily. The offshoot of that is that when materials become extremely hard, they then become brittle. This creates two issues.
Firstly, if you drop it or subject it to an abrupt force, its possible that you could crack it.
Secondly, when thinking about the possible design elements of wedding rings, the harder the ring, the less opportunity there is for design variations.
So thats why we think Ceramic rings are best used as a fashion ring. They tend to be quite plain in their design. But if you are interested in a very simple, traditional design, and you find a colour you like, then that might be the best choice for you.
We used to stock ceramic rings but the demand for them fell away to almost nothing so we no longer sell Ceramic.
Cheers!
Nick
Hi Johno, thanks for the email. Unfortunately we don’t manufacture any gold rings. We find that our niche is in contemporary metals and we can don’t hold any gold to make rings out of.
Some of our Edward Mirell rings have gold/white gold inlays through them, but again, no full gold products.
All the best in your search!
Nick
Hi Adam!
Your best bet is to check out our Timoku rings here Timoku
Its the closest product we’ve got to the Mokume and its made with black and grey Titanium using various patented processes.
I wear one myself!
Regards
Nick
Hi Steph!
Sorry but no we do not make any ceramic rings anymore. We do have some black ceramic rings still in stock, let me know what you’re after and I can see if we have anything. However we stopped selling that when we started supplying the Black titanium rings, bracelets and necklaces because the black to, although more expensive than ceramic, is a better product in every way.
All the best!
Nick
Gday William, thanks for the comment. Cobalt is very much lighter than Tungsten. When they are both “brushed”, Cobalt is significantly lighter, when they are both “polished”, Cobalt is not as noticeably lighter than Tungsten – but still definitely lighter in colour.
However its the tonality of the colour which is still very different. Tungsten has a “greyer” hue, where as Cobalt has a much more “silverish/white” hue. You could say that Tungsten is more gunmetal. Cobalt was made more to resemble platinum, so that might give you an idea.
Both metals are incredibly scratch resistant, but Tungsten is more-so. Cobalt has the edge with being more resilient to cracking.
All the best!
Nick
Hi Allison,
We don’t produce ceramic rings but I’ve still got a whole bunch of black ceramic rings of various sizes and widths floating around. I can talk to you about those over sms, email or phone. We’ve only got black though, as no one really used to buy ceramic rings in Australia, from our experience.
All the best,
Nick | {
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Analysis: GSK and Gilead go head to head as HIV drugs enter new phase
FILE PHOTO: Dolutegravir pills used in the treatment of HIV are seen at the Kenyan ministry of health offices in Nairobi, Kenya, June 27, 2017. REUTERS/Baz Ratner/File Photo
LONDON, November 2 (Reuters) – Gilead Sciences and GlaxoSmithKline are heading for an HIV showdown, pushing rival treatment visions and competing products that are expected to hit the market in the next few months.
Gilead is likely to secure the bigger near-term win, as it builds on a 20-year-old strategy of combining three drugs to control the AIDS virus, while GSK is placing a longer bet that its core drug is potent enough to work with just one other.
If it succeeds, GSK could rewrite treatment standards by delivering cheaper two-drug regimens with fewer side effects. Gilead says the idea may risk drug resistance because the virus will only have to evade two drugs rather than three.
The stakes are high for the two leaders in the $27-billion-a-year HIV market, with shares of around 53 and 22 percent respectively, according to industry data.
GSK’s new Chief Executive Emma Walmsley has made HIV one of two central pillars of the British company’s pharmaceuticals division, along with respiratory medicine, after deciding to cutback in other areas.
For California-based Gilead, a new HIV product is an opportunity to boost sales in a key antiviral area, following the rapid rise and fall of its hepatitis C business.
Deborah Waterhouse, who took over as head of GSK’s majority-owned HIV business ViiV Healthcare in April, told Reuters she was braced for “intense competition”.
ViiV, in which Pfizer and Shionogi have small stakes, has been on a roll since 2013 due to the success of its super-effective integrase inhibitor drug dolutegravir, which is already included as part of traditional triple therapy.
Gilead has now matched dolutegravir with an equally good rival in bictegravir and the U.S. group hopes to win U.S. approval by Feb. 12 to launch it with two other drugs, creating a combination known as BIC/F/TAF.
“The playing-field is about to become more level as Gilead brings BIC/F/TAF to market. It is undoubtedly true that from mid-February next year it is going to become a much more competitive space,” Waterhouse said in an interview.
Investors fear the impact on GSK’s star HIV business, which grew sales 26 percent to 3.2 billion pounds ($4.25 billion) in the first nine months of 2017, especially as growth in the key U.S. HIV market is slowing.
Although millions of people are now treated in poor countries with cheap generics, the premium-priced U.S. market still accounts for 65-70 percent of global HIV sales by value.
With nearly 2 million new infections globally each year, researchers are pushing on with new approaches to a disease that is increasingly an issue for older patients who have been kept alive by modern drugs but are more vulnerable to side effects.
TREATMENT CHOICES
Many doctors currently mix and match medicines to get access to the best-in-class agents of dolutegravir and TAF.
As a result, between 40 and 45 percent of U.S. patients on GSK’s Tivicay, the brand name for dolutegravir, take it with Gilead’s Descovy, which includes TAF. But Gilead’s new three-way pill will remove the need for those two separate prescriptions, which is a cost factor for private U.S. patients.
Waterhouse expects Gilead’s new drug to see “significant uptake”, but she doesn’t anticipate a wholesale rush to switch therapy as most HIV patients only see their doctor twice a year.
GSK’s own approach of promoting two-drug cocktails will be a slower affair, even though it hopes to get a U.S. green light for its first combination of dolutegravir and rilpivirine by Dec. 1, two months ahead of Gilead’s new drug approval.
The problem is demand for this particular dual drug regimen is likely to be limited, in part because rilpivirine must be taken with a meal, which requires patients to have breakfast at exactly the same time each day.
The real opportunity for GSK will come with the combination of dolutegravir and the cheap off-patent drug 3TC. That should reach the market in the second half of 2019, assuming clinical trials pan out well.
“This is the start of a journey,” Waterhouse said. “You will see a much faster uptake of BIC/F/TAF than dolutegravir/rilpivirine – that is to be expected – but then we will build up with dolutegravir/3TC.”
Having a cheaper product is particularly important in cost-conscious Europe. Patented HIV drugs remain pricey in developed markets, with Tivicay carrying a U.S. list price of $1,536 a month, although developing countries can buy generic HIV drugs for a fraction of this.
Not everyone is convinced by GSK’s two-drug approach, given that drug resistance is a perennial worry in HIV. Indeed, there was one case of a patient in a clinical trial developing resistance earlier this year, although GSK believes this was likely down to failure to take the drugs properly.
Still, Mike Elliott, Gilead’s vice president for medical affairs in Europe, argues it doesn’t make sense to take chances. “Why risk what we know? Triple therapy is established and shouldn’t be compromised on,” he said. | {
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While fast video access didn't fixed the ground textures, dgVoodoo2 v2.54 does indeed work correctly.Is the current version (WIP 61) just bugged or was there an indented change from v2.54 to later versions that broke C&C Generals?
Ohh, then it's the good old AMD problem again...Fast vidmem access won't help this. It'd be really nice to have a little app for the reproduction so I could submit that to AMD.
Thied dgVoodoo with Serious Sam First Encounter, with choosing direct3d renderer in menu, screen goes black, the game still works perfect in windows7 without dgVoodoo, so just for info, don't bother? i do not.
While fast video access didn't fixed the ground textures, dgVoodoo2 v2.54 does indeed work correctly.Is the current version (WIP 61) just bugged or was there an indented change from v2.54 to later versions that broke C&C Generals?
Ohh, then it's the good old AMD problem again...Fast vidmem access won't help this. It'd be really nice to have a little app for the reproduction so I could submit that to AMD.
That would be great Can I provide any help with testing, log files or something else?
I've just noticed that from 2.55 onwards (2.54 was fine; WIP61 has same issue) that V-Rally 1 is drawing distant tiles floating in the air, they then glide down into place. On 2.54 they seem to be clipped and not visible in the distance.
I finished testing hundreds of demos and games with the new version, fixed some regression bugs and a minor DXBC code generating bug I encountered (NFS HP2).
dgVoodoo 2.6 is released. Of course there are many games which aren't in my test base so you may find regression bugs with them.I'd like to fix (those and other known) bugs in subsequent patch versions.
Thanks, I forgot about checking the packages with virustotal. The non-dbg version had a really bad rate.I reuploaded dgVoodoo2_6.zip with an uncompressed dgVoodooCpl, now much better. To compress or not to compress, that's the question. Those **** AV's like it different each time.
Dgvoodoo2 DDRAW DLL's still doesn't work well with Wing Commander IV compared to Sol's DDhack fork.As for Wing Commander II with the Windows Patch, 2.54 had Darker skies akin to the PS1 and old video boards, the newest version makes the sky DOS blue. | {
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An Unbiased View of Dog Training Program
An Unbiased View of Dog Training Program
You will need to use insulated copper wire for that boundary wire inside a Canine containment fence. The farm style wiring employed for electrical livestock fence would not get you a dependable boundary sign.
also the procedure could well be put in at our cottage and that is manily employed in the summertime for a handful of weeks and long weekends. would training just take lengthier and become ongoing every time we return? TAC's Lonestar Labradors is happy to announce a litter of all chocolate lab puppies. We offer an entire health and fitness guarantee on the puppies. We may have the dew claws eliminated, initially two rounds of worming, and the initial round of shots will on...Thanks for delivering this sort of great solutions to maintain our pets Risk-free & delighted along with your guidance & encounter. Kudos for you & your site!How will this impact the fence’s ability to work? We have now about 1/2 acre of aspens and firs, plus a steep hillside right down to a creek. Would this be a challenge? Also, does the fence must be completely on the aspect of your home wherever the transmitter is ?
November eight, 2011 at 3:51 pm I’m on the brink of set up a Puppy fence for a back again yard only but I would like the Pet in order to go in and out of your home freely. I choose to go from one particular corner of your house within the back again, go within the back again garden, and go to the other corner. I have read about the double loop, but that needs 2 times just as much trenching and wire.When you have interference troubles, you should be able to modify the wire to stop any interference issues.
I’d be running the twisted wire into the perimeter boundary an excellent 50 toes far from the steel pole barn. Do I have to worry about sign interference because of the steel pole barn?
Doggy Dan Dog Training Program
might be profitable that you just’ll as an alternative be making contact with me which has a testimonial telling precisely just how much you have got completed getting discovered and utilized my dog training. Priority Buy Form
A lot of the Puppy breed books on the market take a look at Each individual particular Doggy currently being welcoming, loving and very good natured. But 90% of pet dogs are categorised in that way, so With regards to choosing a Puppy, you have to go further more than what a breed book may say.It will be better to mount the transmitter box faraway from any huge steel item (just like the steel wall). This is often without a doubt genuine of all inground devices.
This way, it’s effortless to regulate the placement with the fence. As for pvc, there isn’t any solution such as just one you mentioned that may aid in blocking interference.
You will discover wire handles which are utilized to keep extension cords down that you can purchase online by means of Amazon and these more info kinds of. If you need to maintain it basic, we frequently use a section of garden hose across driveways that we are not able to Slash into or bury beneath.
The solution is dependent upon how broadly you established the transmitter. Frequently Should you have the boundary set large sufficient that it'll transmit with the h2o, it will likely transmit in the ice. | {
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Plasma Display Panel And Its Manufacture
(1 - 10 of 88 results)
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the display margin by providing, on a column electrode, a wide part as the area superposed with one electrode of row electrodes paired every picture element is large, compared with the other electrode thereof. SOLUTION: A wide part DW protruded horizontally dispersiv ...
It is an object of the present invention to prevent deterioration of a transparent electrically-conductive film which forms display electrodes, so as to enhance the reliability of display electrodes. In an AC type plasma display panel including a plurality of display electrodes X & Y formed of a tra ...
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a substrate for a reflective AC type PDP(plasma display panel) and a method whereby the substrate for the AC type PDP can be manufactured with high accuracy and good reproducibility in a short time through a simple manufacturing process, the substrate having a high b ...
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a plasma display panel requiring low power consumption and having good display quality.SOLUTION: A protruding dielectric layer 16a is partially formed on the surface of a first glass substrate 11a, and discharge maintaining electrodes 12a, 15a are formed on the surfa ...
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a technique capable of effectively forming transparent electrodes at a low cost by a method like a laser ablation method when manufacturing a PDP. SOLUTION: In this plasma display, display electrode groups 12a, 12b comprising transparent electrodes 121a, 121b and bus ...
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent discharge interference between vertically adjacent discharge cells and to improve the utilization factor of discharge light by arranging a pair of substrates face to face, arranging multiple stripe-like barrier ribs in parallel on one substrate, and providing wall-li ...
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the display of a plasma display panel, that is, to sharply lower a blink of an image, and to improve luminous efficiency.SOLUTION: In this plasma display panel, discharge gas is enclosed in a gas discharge space between a pair of opposite substrates, and a protective ...
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To simply adjust light transmittance of a protecting plate by reducing white light transmittance of a C light source of a stacked body with a light transmittance adjusting layer in a specified ratio to the light transmittance of the stacked body in a state having no adjusting l ...
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To increase luminescent brightness by forming a phosphor layer having a projection lower than a barrier rib and capable of increasing a fluorescent area in a slender groove between ribs. SOLUTION: Wall-shaped projections 6 are formed so as to have the height of 80% of the heigh ...
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent luminescence to an adjacent cell, to increase removing capability of impurity gas in a panel, to reduce exhaustion baking time, and to improve yield and reliability, by providing an exhaustion groove at a position corresponding to an un-discharge gap portion. SOLUTIO ... | {
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Thanks for the compliments Chris. I'm happy to hear you like the lil guy. I sourced the pen light torches from Amazon. They run on a single 1.5v AAA battery and are pretty bright for their size, so I stripped them, soldered some wires to the terminals, and wired them in parallel through a drop down buck converter and relay that Richard R put me on to, which are connected to a digital port on the EZ-B. The retract mechanism was made from two dried out marker pens, a cut length of metal coat hanger wire which are linked to a HD servo with a servo horn. I put up a couple of pics so you can have a better look. | {
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Bloomberg
Bloomberg | Quint is a multiplatform, Indian business and financial news company. We combine Bloomberg’s global leadership in business and financial news and data, with Quintillion Media’s deep expertise in the Indian market and digital news delivery, to provide high quality business news, insights and trends for India’s sophisticated audiences.
Elon Musk, chairman and chief executive officer of Tesla Motors, stands for a portrait with a Tesla Roadster electric car outside the Nasdaq Marketsite in New York, U.S. (Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg)
Musk Says Tesla Roadster to Swap SpaceX Thrusters for Rear Seats
(Bloomberg) -- Tesla Inc. may offer an option on the upcoming Roadster sports car to enable drivers to float above the ground using thrusters from Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX.
And no, if his tweets are to be believed, this isn’t a bunch of hot air.
In his initial tweet Wednesday, Musk was responding to a follower who sent him a GIF rendering of a levitating car. While his claim that the Roadster may boast aircraft-like qualities drew some bemused responses, he wrote soon after that he wasn’t kidding.
Musk, 47, is chief executive officer of both Tesla and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. The two companies have done plenty of sharing over the years, including of engineers and materials. And SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket pulled off quite the cross-promotional feat in February by launching Musk’s original Roadster into orbit in February.
Before getting Tesla fans too excited, Musk cautioned that the feature may not be street legal. | {
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About Us
The Tiger Beat takes you behind the scenes with the members of RIT University News—the news and public relations division of Rochester Institute of Technology. Get the “story behind the story” and an insider’s look at who we are and what we do to publicize RIT news. | {
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I used to play quite a bit of chess when I was little so seeing someone put together a pony chess set is pretty cool to me. Check out the tumblr with finished photos here.Another Fan-Made Game
Looks like we have another fan-made game for you guys! These seem to be popping up everywhere lately. Check it out above and look in the description for the download link if you're interested.Huge Reddit Giveaway!
The pony community over on Reddit has recently surpassed 30,000 members and a member of that group is looking to celebrate with a huge giveaway for fellow Bronies out there! He's currently looking for some volunteers to help with this effort and make it a success. So far they have over 30 members helping out so it looks like it is already well under way!
If you'd like to help out you can find more information here.All Mane Six Spotted In Sydney Magazine!
A graphics designer for the Negotiator decided to go all out and has managed to place ponies once again in the magazine! Not only that but they managed to include a Derpy in the centerspread and have a web animation featuring the ponies put on magazine's website as well. While they may not look like our pastel colored ponies from the show it's still an awesome bit of work! | {
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I have wide flat feet caused by having a duck for a father, but that's another story...my 32's fit fucking awesome. You really do need to try on boots, even if you say you can't, understand that you are effectively shooting in the dark. If ordering online find somewhere with a localish distributor so u can return.
The board, w/e there are so many to choose from, I'm sure that Attack Banana will work fine, as long as you get something middle of the road flexwise with some rocker in it (for that Japan pow).
Bindings, my limited experience is with Ride and K2. The Rides I had were just not the right model for me, but I was able to experience some rockstar customer service from them (broke a ratchet spring mid-season during an epic season, had 4 ratchets and 4 ladders in my mailbox within the week). My K2 Uprises this year were fairly comfortable and damp, but small parts seem to want to disappear off them, and I cannot squeeze any customer service out of them whatsoever. I got a reply once but it was not followed by any helpful reality, so yea. Continuing to research bindings, the top of my shortlist are Raiden Machine or Blackhawk, or some Romes, both of which are very well represented here on these forums. Flux's are too but do not have the dampening and canting I desire.
Have fun! Gear shopping fucking rules!
__________________
Support Local Business
"Shop Smart. Shop S-Mart!" - Ash | {
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} |
2018/07/19
How to look for a third person for threesome?
Plenty of couples and singles have fantasy about adding a third person to spice thing up. Maybe you are curious about a threesome relationship. Whatever the reason for deciding to try to have a threesome, It will be a unforgettable experience on your sexual history. If you you are couple looking for third person for a threesome, do you know how to find the third person for threesome relationship?
It’s important that both you and your partner agree on whoever it is that will be touching, kissing and sleeping with both of you. Therefore, you need find a right third person who are looking for couple for threesome. Here we list some tip of threesome dating when it comes to find a third person.
Local Threesome club
If you and your partner want to find a third person for threesome in real life, you can search and choose a popular threesome club in your area. If you have no ideas where to find such a club, you ask your friends to introduce or enter "threesome club" on Google or other search engineer. It may take time and energy to find a third person for threesome. If you have enough time and energy, you can try this advice. However, if you are busy and have few time to try your fortune, you can try the second way: Join a threesome site.
Find a third person on threesome sites
It is not a easy job to find a threesome in real life. More and more couples and bisexual women and men looking for threesome online. If you find difficult to find a threesome in real life you can choose a popular and safe threesome dating site to find a their one.
Use search engine like Google search ”couple looking for third”, “threesome sites” or “threesome finder” to find a reliable threesome site. You will find a big variety of threesome sites for you to choose, if you want to save time to check these threesome sites, you can check a review of threesome sites, such as coupleseekingawoman.com to find the best site easily.
One important thing you need keep in mind is to remember choose one dating site with high reputation and large members which can protect users’ privacy and find a threesome quickly.
Steps of finding a threesome on threesome site
When you join a threesome site you need use right ways to find a third person. After choosing the best and most suitable threesome site, like Couple Looking For A Third. If you are new about threesome dating site, you can check the following steps to find a third person for threesome relationship through online threesome dating.
Create a threesome profile. When you join a threesome site, you need create an attractive profile which plays an important role for people to attract a couple or third person for threesome relationship. The online dating profile made for two is that the threesome partner can easily figure out if they’re attracted to what you mutually offer.
Choose suitable photos. Do not skip this step when you are creating a profile. If you are couple looking for a third, you can choose you and your partner photo, if you are a single bisexual woman or bisexual man, you can use your own photos without group photo.
Contact potential third person for threesome dating. After finding a suitable bisexual woman or man, contact her/him without doubts. You can send messages or emails to get to know each other. Do not wait the bisexual women or men to contact you. Firstly, you can send flirts or winks to these users you are interested, it is a nice beginning to start a threesome dating.
Are you a couple looking for third person for threesome relationship? Check the safe and high quality threesome site: Couple Looking For A Third and find your third person for threesome dating now. | {
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Float Switch
SJE-Rhombus wide-angle pump switches directly control pumps from 1/2 HP at 120 VAC up to 3 HP at 250 VAC in non-potable water and sewage applications. Each pump switch features an adjustable pumping range and is available in various cord lengths to meet your application needs. All SJE-Rhombus pump switches are UL Recognized, CSA Certified and backed by a three-year limited warranty.
The SJE VerticalMaster® II pump switch is designed to operate in non-potable water applications with limited space. This switch works well in small sump chambers and laundry trays, as well as in large tanks (not recommended for a sewage environment). CE Compliant, UL Recognized, CSA Certified
The SJE MicroMaster® switches are designed to provide automatic control of pumps in potable water, water and sewage applications. They are designed for performance and dependability and are not sensitive to rotation or turbulence, allowing it to be used in both calm and turbulent applications.
The SJE AmpMaster® pump switch provides automatic control of grinder and high head sewage pumps in grinder and lift station applications, as well as septic tank effluent pump (STEP) systems. UL Recognized; CSA Certified.
The Double Float® pump switch consists of two floats. Each float contains a heavy duty mercury switch. One of the two floats contains a holding relay which enables the floats to function is series. This switch provides automatic control of pumps in non-potable water and sewage applications.
The Hi TempMaster® pump switch provides automatic control of pumps in water and sewage applications. It is designed for performance and dependability and is not sensitive to rotation or turbulence, allowing it to be used in both calm and turbulent applications.
SJE-Rhombus narrow-angle control switches accurately monitor high (normally open) or low (normally closed) liquid level conditions in water and sewage applications. Each control switch is available in various cord lengths with various mounting options to meet your needs. All SJE-Rhombus control switches are UL Listed, CSA Certified and backed by a three-year limited warranty.
SJE SignalMaster® control switch
The SJE SignalMaster® control switch is designed to activate pump control panels and alarm by accurately monitoring liquid levels in potable water, water, and sewage applications. This switch is available for normally open (high level) or normally closed (low level) applications. UL Listed; CSA Certified.
The SJE SignalMaster® SPDT control switch is designed to activate pump control panels and alarms by accurately monitoring liquid levels in potable water, water, and sewage applications. This switch can be wired to work in either normally open (high level) or normally closed (low level) applications. UL Listed; CSA Certified.
The Sensor Float® control switch is designed to activate pump control panels and alarms by accurately monitor liquid levels in sewage and non-potable water applications. This switch is available for normally open (high level) or normally closed (low level) applications. UL Listed; CSA Certified.
The Sensor Float® Mini control switch is designed to activate pump control panels and alarms by accurately monitoring liquid levels in confined sewage and non-potable water applications. This switch is available for normally open (high level) or normally closed (low level) applications. UL Listed; CSA Certified.
The SJE MilliAmpMaster™ control switch is designed to activate low current control panels and alarms accurately monitoring liquid levels in potable water, water, and sewage applications. The internal switching mechanism has sealed gold cross-point contact for reliable low current operation. This switch is available for normally open (high level) or normally closed (low level) applications. UL Listed; CSA Certified.
This easy to install alarm features an innovative, sleek 2-colour molded enclosure which integrates the LED red translucent beacon. The alarm sounds and the upper housing half illuminates when a potentially threatening liquid level condition occurs.
The alarm horn sounds and the red beacon illuminates when a potentially threatening liquid level condition occurs. A power on light on the switch indicates power to the alarm panel.
- Automatic alarm reset and alarm test/normal/silence switch- Enclosure meets Type 3R water-tight standards- Alarm system (when installed on separate circuit) operates even if the pump circuit fails- System includes standard control switch (mechanical or mercury available)- Can be supplied with or without float switch
The alarm horn sounds when a potentially threatening liquid level conditions occurs. The horn can be turned off, but the warning light remains on until the condition is remedied. A green power on light indicates power to the alarm panel.
- NEMA 1 enclosure for indoor use- Horn and warning light, horn test and silence switches- Step down transformer included to reduce the possibility of shock- System includes standard control switch (mechanical or mercury available)
The float bracket provides a convenient installation of float switches by providing a location to stow excess float cord. It is available in two sizes; the six float bracket accomodates 1-6 float switches; the four float bracket accomodates 1-4 float switches.
- Can be mounted directly to wall or mounted with wall mounting device - Supplied with UL recognized cord connectors | {
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A Guide To The Relief And Stimulus Measures Offered For Businesses In Dubai Amid The COVID-19 Crisis
Given the economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses in Dubai have been subjected to a variety of relief measures and stimulus packages from both government and commercial entities in the Emirate and the UAE to help them during this crisis–scroll down this post for more details on each of them.
At the very outset of the COVID-19 crisis in the UAE in mid-March 2020, H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, released a AED1.5 billion economic stimulus package for businesses for the following three months. Developed by Dubai Government, the stimulus package includes 15 initiatives focused on the commercial sector, retail, external trade, tourism, and the energy sector. These include:
– Nine initiatives for the commercial and business sector, which include a freeze on the 2.5% market fees levied on all facilities operating in Dubai; a refund of 20% on the custom fees imposed on imported products sold locally in Dubai markets; the cancellation of the AED50,000 bank guarantee or cash required to undertake customs clearance activity while bank guarantee or cash paid by existing customs clearance companies will be refunded. Furthermore, fees imposed on submitting customs documents of companies will be reduced by 90%. With regards to measures for boosting external trade, the requirement for providing a banking instrument while submitting customs-related grievances has been cancelled. In addition, traditional wooden commercial vessels registered in the country will be exempted from mooring service fees for arrival and departure, as well as direct and indirect loading fees at Dubai Harbour and Hamriyah Port.
Local commerce will benefit from the cancelation of the 25% down payment required for requesting installment-based payment of government fees for obtaining and renewing licenses. The move seeks to reduce the financial burden on SMEs. In addition, commercial licenses can be renewed without mandatory renewal of lease contracts in a move aimed at stimulating business activity and easing government-related procedures. In addition, companies will be exempted from permits for new sales and offers.
– Four initiatives for the tourism sector, including the reduction of municipality fees imposed on sales at hotels from 7% to 3.5%. The second initiative exempts companies from fees charged for postponement and cancellation of tourism and sports events scheduled for the year 2020. The third initiative freezes fees for the rating of hotels. The fourth initiative freezes the fees charged for the sale of tickets, issuance of permits and other government fees related to entertainment and business events.
– Two other initiatives that seek to reduce the cost of living and doing business for citizens, expatriate residents and the business community through 10% reduction in water and electricity bills including those charged in the residential, commercial and industrial sector, for a period of three months. The second initiative reduces deposit paid for water and electricity connections by 50%. For more information, click here.
The Central Bank of the UAE, CBUAE, has launched an AED100 billion comprehensive targeted economic support scheme for retail and corporate customers affected by COVID-19. The scheme consists of AED50 billion from the CBUAE funds through collateralized loans at zero cost to all banks operating in the UAE and of AED 50 billion funds freed up from banks’ capital buffers.
The purpose of the targeted scheme is to facilitate provision of temporary relief from the payments of principal and interest on outstanding loans for all affected private sector companies and retail customers in the UAE. Participating banks should use the funding to grant temporary relief to private sector corporate customers and retail clients for a period of up to six months.
All banks will be allowed to tap into a maximum of 60% of the capital conservation buffer, and, additionally, banks designated as systemically important by the CBUAE will be able to use 100% of their additional capital buffer for systemic importance.
The CBUAE is also reducing the amount of capital banks have to hold for their loans to SMEs by 15% to 25%.
To ease its macro-prudential stance, the CBUAE will increase the loan-to-value, LTV, ratios applicable to mortgage loans for first-time home buyers by 5% points. This will contribute to the affordability of housing without unduly increasing inherent risks. The CBUAE will also revise the existing limit which sets maximum exposure that banks can have to the real estate sector. When the exposure reaches 20% of the banks’ loan portfolio (measured by risk-weighted assets), banks will be allowed to increase it to 30%, but will be required to hold more capital.
Furthermore, the CBUAE will adopt new regulations with the objective to reduce fees incurred by merchants when their customers pay by debit or credit cards. The CBUAE will also issue new regulations which will limit fees banks charge to their SME customers, and stipulate that banks cannot require a larger minimum account balance that AED 10,000.
Additionally, the CBUAE will mandate all banks to open accounts for SME customers within a maximum time frame of two days, provided acceptable documentation is in place and that the risk is acceptable in view of the AML and CTF obligations.
The CBUAE will issue guidelines on margin calls, requesting banks to always request additional collateral within a reasonable time, before liquidating the pledged stocks in a situation of market downfall. This would reduce excessive market volatility and provide investors with increased flexibility to act in their best interest.
Lastly, from March 15, 2020, and for a period of six months, the CBUAE has waived all fees which it charges for the payment services provided to banks operating in the UAE through its payment and settlement systems. For more information, click here.
Dubai banks offers business relief package for customers
A number of Dubai banks are offering a relief package to help ease the financial hurdles amidst the current COVID-19 crisis. In light of supporting the business sectors in the UAE and Dubai, the measures follow the initiative of the UAE government and UAE Central Bank six-month economic stimulus package and the Dubai government three-month economic stimulus package. Emirates NBD, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates Islamic, Mashreq and Commercial Bank of Dubai are some of the banks that have joined the effort. Taking into effect from April 1, 2020, to June 30, 2020, there are various offers for different types of customers, including small business customers, business banking customers and trading clients, among others. More details on the offers can be found here.
RAKBANK takes measures to support SMEs
The National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah (RAKBANK) is offering financial relief to SMEs and corporates impacted by the effects of the COVID-19 crisis. SMEs are encouraged to shift their business online and discuss options for financial relief. For businesses that offer essential services, such as delivery of medicines and groceries, RAKBANK Simplify platform’s monthly fee will be waived off for the next three months. More details can be found here.
UAE Cabinet approves reduction on water and electricity bills of businesses
In a move to support businesses affected by the pandemic, the UAE Cabinet has approved the decision to reduce the water and electricity bill of shopping malls, commercial shops, hotels, hotel apartments and plants, by 20% for the duration of three months, starting from April 2020. They will also benefit from six months payment deferral of water and electricity connection’s installments, and three months freeze of service reconnection fines, varying from AED3,000 to AED5,000. More details can be found here.
Dubai Chamber supports its members with the issuance of ATA Carnet and attestation
In cooperation with UPS, Dubai Chamber has launched a free service to collect, process and deliver documents for the issuance of ATA Carnet for temporary admission of goods and attestation, starting from March 26, 2020. Dubai Chamber members can contact the company for the pick-up of their documents from their homes or offices. More details about the package here.
DMCC has rolled out a business support package to support its 17,000 members, which will be applicable as of April 1, 2020, until June 30, 2020.
The measures include a 100% waiver for late licence renewal penalties, 100% waiver for all Flexi Desk and DMCC Business Centre penalties until the end of 2020, 100% waiver of the Office Sharing Permit fee, 100% waiver of the Company Reinstatement fees, 30% discount on licence renewal, waiver of outdoor area rents for JLT retailers with existing contracts where DMCC is the building owner/landlord, waiver of rent for two months for commercial establishments impacted by the latest Dubai Economy directive requiring a temporary closure where DMCC is the building owner/landlord, and a three-month suspension of rent for Flexi Desk and DMCC Business Centre tenants renewals or monthly/quarterly instalments with no discount.
Incentives for new registrations, and companies already in the process of registering at DMCC include an 80% reduction on the total company set-up fee if shareholders are residents of JLT, up to 50% reduction on the total company set-up fee along with a Flexi Desk for one year, flexible payment options for new DMCC Business Centre tenants and a complete digital process for business set-up from the comfort of their home. For more information, please check here.
UAE Cabinet introduces measures to support suppliers to government
The Federal Cabinet approved a slew of measures to support services suppliers to the federal government entities, which include fast tracking payments owed to suppliers within 15 days from the date of issuance of the resolution, exempting suppliers affected by the COVID-19 crisis from fines for delays in regards to the execution of federal government contracts for a renewable three months, and awarding 90% of federal government purchases to SMEs. Read about all the other measures adopted by the Cabinet here.
Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) has introduced a series of fiscal easing initiatives from April 1, to June 30, 2020, which include five initiatives introduced on a conditional basis that will offer businesses the opportunity to benefit from a waiver of annual licensing fees on new registrations during the next three months. Businesses can also take advantage of a 10% of renewal fees for existing license holders in the DIFC for entities due to renew their licenses.
DIFC will also allow deferred payments for all properties owned by DIFC Investments Ltd for a period up to six months from April 1, 2020. A reduction on property transfer fees in the DIFC from 5% to 4% will also be applied to any transfer of property (or any part thereof) that takes place within the three-month period. DIFC will also facilitate the free movement of labour in and out of the centre between other free zones, provided employers have the necessary secondment arrangements in place and employees are recorded with registry services to secure a secondment card in order to access buildings and offices within the DIFC. For more information find here.
UAE Securities and Commodities Authority provides regulatory relief
The UAE’s Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) has provided listed companies with an additional 45 days to file their financial statements of the FY 2019 and Q1 of 2020. To address potential compliance issues stemming from the impact of the coronavirus on investors and capital markets, the SCA has issued a circular informing traders that they have been graced with additional 45 days so that they can report their disclosure statements no later than 14/5/2020 and 30/6/2020 for the FY 2019 and Q1-2020, respectively. More details on SCA’s relief measures can be found here.
The Central Bank of the UAE has decided to reduce by half the reserves requirements for demand deposits for all banks from 14% to 7%. This will inject liquidity of about AED61 billion, which can be used to support banks’ lending to the UAE economy and their liquidity management. For more information, click here.
UAE Ministry Of Economy reduces service fees for individuals and businesses
The UAE Ministry of Economy has reduced fees associated with 94 services provided to individuals and the business sector. The financial impact on the business sector as a result of this reduction is estimated to be valued at AED113 million in 2020.
The new measure is aimed particularly at fees related to innovation, business activities, investment, production, trade, import and export activities, as well as commercial registration services, commercial agencies, trademarks, origin, and auditors and intellectual properties.
Services receiving 25% discounts include the collective management licence fees; applications for registering a trademark or trademarks of goods, products or services related to a single category; and publishing official documents for joint stock companies or partnership companies on shares basis, among other services. 50% discounts apply to some of the ministry’s services as well, including ‘To Whom Concerned’ certificates for auditors; ratification of partnership contracts; renewing the registration of branches of national companies in an auditors schedule, and ‘Origin Certificates’ for national products (plus the amount of the invoice) among others. Most notable are the 95% reduction in fees for the licence to utilize the ‘Made in UAE’ mark and the 98% reduction in renewal fees for said licence. For more information, click here.
Dubai Land Department, through its Real Estate Regulatory Agency, launches “Together” CSR initiative Dubai Land Department (DLD), through its Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA), announced the launch of a new CSR initiative called “Together,” in cooperation with a number of jointly owned property (JOP) management companies in Dubai. This initiative will see RERA and its partners will provide necessary supplies free of charge to those in need and affected in many projects and freehold areas across the Emirate. The parties supporting the initiative have also announced other steps and procedures to support this effort, including the cancellation of fines for 2019 and 2020, the provision of flexible instalment service for service fees, the reduction of service costs, and the provision of a flexible payment option for air conditioning services.
DIFC announces three months of free rent for its retailers
Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) has implemented a new support package for its business partners based at DIFC-owned assets giving them a three-month rent-free period on their base rent, providing businesses with added flexibility and financial relief. From April to June 2020, retailers of all types based in Gate Avenue, Gate Village and Gate District will not be required to pay basic rent. For more information, click here.
DP World implements measures to ensure safety of its people and secure flow of essential trade
DP World, UAE Region has implemented a rapid, resolute action plan to secure the health and safety of its people and its services across all its business, logistics and supply chain assets to keep essential trade flowing in the midst of the global pandemic. The comprehensive and inclusive measures are being rigorously applied in close consultation with ports and health authorities to contain and prevent the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) infection.
Many Port and Free Zone operations, such as remotely operated quay cranes and automated gantry cranes and gates, are inherently resilient thanks to their investment in technology. At the flagship hub of Jebel Ali Port and Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza) the focus is on securing the integrity and efficiency of the movement of vital supplies like food items, medicine and medical equipment required by the UAE and Dubai Health Authority (DHA) to contain the infection. DP World, UAE Region teams are now working on improving the operational resilience further with a slew of initiatives like segregating workforces, increasing cleaning and disinfection, providing transportation to get employees to work through lockdowns, and arranging accommodation for employees near their place of work.
As the region’s busiest trade enabler, DP World, UAE Region has ensured continuity of services by encouraging most of its employees to Work From Home, and installed thermal cameras at all operational buildings, entrances and gates to identify the body temperatures of individuals to facilitate the isolation of suspected COVID-19 cases.
As part of the package of incentives, DSOA is offering rent waivers to the retail sector affected by the closure including restaurants, shops, and gyms at Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority owned buildings, commencing from March 15, 2020 and ending once the government allows retail outlets to reopen. In addition, they are exempt from late payment fines until August 31. Likewise, multiple business partners and tenants are to also benefit from a waiver on all late payment fines until August 31.
The retail sector at DSO will also receive discounts of up to 10% of the rental value upon renewal, and an additional 5% discount on the annual rent, if paid on time and in one instalment. Marketing fees, likewise, are to be reduced by 25%, and deferred for up to three months. Retail business owners can also choose to pay outstanding fees in installments, and leverage their visa security deposits to pay off their financial dues to DSOA.
DSOA has also approved a package of incentive measures for startups based at Dubai Technology Entrepreneur Campus (Dtec), the largest tech hub and coworking space in the MENA region, wholly owned by DSOA, including a waiver of all late payment and overstay fines until August 31, 2020. Dtec is providing entrepreneurs the opportunity to benefit from deferred rent payments for up to three months, and a 5% discount on their annual rent, if paid on time and in one deposit. In addition, on renewal of their tenancy contracts, flexi desk and fixed desk tenants can enjoy the option of paying their rents in up to six installments, in addition to leveraging their visa security deposits to pay off their financial dues to DSOA.
DSOA has also approved a flexible payment scheme for companies operating from its buildings. Companies can postpone rent payments for the next three months, commencing April 2020. Service charges are also being waived from March 15 until further notice, and payments can be spread, based on discussions with DSOA’s Finance Department, over a period of six months following the expiry of the postponement date. DSOA is waiving cheque retrieval fees and pardoning first offenders’ bounced check fees, thereby facilitating easy monthly payments in accordance with its terms and conditions. In addition, DSOA is issuing a waiver on all late payment fees until August 31, 2020, and granting a 5% discount on the annual rent, if paid on time and in one deposit. The Authority is further enabling customers to use their visa security deposits to pay off their rental financial dues.
New companies establishing their offices in DSO for the first time can also benefit from a set of incentives. During the exemption period, DSOA is offering new companies a grace period on monthly rent payments until end of May 2020, and a discount of up to 10% on the monthly rent. Furthermore, the Authority is waiving the service charge until the government allows companies to continue working from their offices.
Existing residential tenants at Dubai Silicon Oasis now have the option of paying their rents monthly and a new rental structure has also been activated. DSOA is to defer all new and existing lease payments for up to two months and provide flexible payment plans for the remainder of the lease duration. The Authority is to waive cheque retrieval fees on bounced checks for first offenders. Residential villa tenants can benefit from a discount of AED5,000, while other residential tenants receive a discount of AED2,000, if they pay the annual rent as one deposit.
The Dubai World Trade Centre Authority announced a series of measures to ensure economic and financial stability. The authority will not charge organizers with cancellation fees or late payment fees, and will allow them to carry forward paid fees as credit to 2021. For exhibitors, the DWTCA will issue a full refund on cancelled events. It will also offer a three-month rent deferent plan for commercial tenants from April-June 2020, while retail tenants has a rent-free period for up to six months. For free zone businesses, there’s a 70% rebate on all category specific business registrations and licenses, and a 50% annual rebate on general trade licenses. More details here.
The Dubai Airport Freezone Authority (DAFZA) has launched a set of economic incentive packages for companies based in the freezone. The initiative includes postponing lease payments for up to three months and facilitating the payments into easier monthly instalments. DAFZA will cancel companies’ fines, refund the security deposits on the leased spaces and labour guarantees to companies, as well exemption for new companies on registration and licensing fees.
DAFZA has also taken a set of preventive measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus within the free zone. A committee for emergency and crises has been formed and is working around the clock to monitor and follow up the operations of the free zone during this difficult period. The committee’s role is to ensure also that all instructions and directives issued by the Ministry of Health and Prevention and other authorities are applied in the free zone. The free zone has implemented a 100% remote work system within the authority’s buildings based on electronic and smart applications and advanced technical infrastructure that the country and the free zone provides.
Dubai Economy reduces fee for instant licenses to AED250
During the first quarter of 2020, the Business Registration and Licensing arm of Dubai’s Department of Economic Developed had issued 50 instant licenses to businesses. In light of the coronavirus epidemic, Dubai Economy has reduced the fee for instant licences by over 90%, from AED3,000 to AED250. For existing license holders, the new fee will apply at the time of renewals.
Dubai South Free Zone’s incentives for businesses affected by COVID-19
Dubai South Free Zone will offer individuals and companies in its free zone flexible payment plans with easy instalment schemes as well as waivers of penalties on late renewals and cancellations of contracts and licenses. Customers will also benefit from a 20% reduction on licence fees renewals, while first year license fees for new customers in the aviation, logistics and e-commerce sectors and the Business Park will be waived. In addition, customers who operate in the Business Park Free Zone will have the opportunity to apply for a lease deferral request of up to six months, which will be granted on a case-by-case basis. Meanwhile, Dubai South Business Centre customers renewing their contracts between now and October 2020 will receive a reduction of up to 25% on their renewal fees as well as the flexibility to settle annual rental fees in up to four installments. Furthermore, individuals and companies looking to establish a new business will be granted rental fee reductions of up to 25%. For more information contact the Dubai South team here.
About Us
Construction Business News is an original title by media production house BNC Publishing, covering the Middle East’s lucrative construction market. Covering the industry’s most important sectors each issue of Construction Business News analysis the latest developments and trends in real estate, contracting, MEP, FM, construction machinery, architecture and sustainability… READ MORE | {
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Video: Texas man arrested for 'rudely displaying' gun
The man was charged with interfering with a police officer and charged a fine, which he plans to appeal
By PoliceOne Staff
TEMPLE, Texas — The Temple Police Department in Texas released its dash cam video of the arrest of an Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran who was stopped while hiking with his teenage son and disarmed — a controversial arrest that led to two high-profile trials.
C.J. Grisham and his 15-year-old son were on a 10-mile wilderness hike for the Boy Scouts when officer Steve Ermis stopped them, according to KXXV.com.
A tense altercation began when both the officer and Grisham grabbed the citizen’s firearm, which was strapped across his chest.
"Once I find out there are no issues then you can be on your way," the officer said as he placed Grisham’s hands behind his back.
Grisham asks the officer, “You can just stop anyone in the world?” to which Ermis replies, “For rudely displaying, yes.”
Grisham told the officer he also had a handgun in his waistband and a permit in his wallet. Equipped with his own body camera, Grisham began filming the incident, then handed the camera over to his son.
Grisham was charged with resisting arrest for the March incident, which ended with a hung jury, according to the report. Tuesday he was convicted of the misdemeanor of interfering with a police officer and was fined $2,000. | {
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What is understood by "public administration" in the contemporary UK higher education setting? Is it still being taught and, if so, why? These questions initially appear to be fairly straightforward but any review of the topic quickly poses some rather more tricky areas of enquiry. This article will focus upon three central questions. First, some persistent issues surrounding public administration as a field of research and enquiry provide a problematic start for any discussion: what is meant academically by public administration and does it retain any scholarly meaning, or any disciplinary base(s) that warrants its location in university departments? Is it distinct from public policy and public management or can it now be wholly subsumed within these more readily understood (and more marketable) categories? Second, there are difficult issues around public administration as a field of practice in a highly turbulent public sector world. Public administration (especially in its received meaning from the continental European tradition) was predicated upon stability, structure and law. Contemporary UK public administration is built upon flux and uncertainty. Third, the pedagogic aspects of teaching this elusive area raise significant additional issues, compounded by the differences between teaching a practitioner audience of public administrators (perhaps allied to work-based learning delivery) alongside, or in place of, an academic social or political science audience. Business schools have grown as the main site for such teaching. Differentiated modes of teaching have proliferated while the focus of what is taught has grown more elusive. Teaching public administration starts to look like quite a rich and contested area of academic activity. | {
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Mobile Phone Repairs in Melbourne: Fixing Even the Toughest Phones
Mobile phones are some of the most fragile devices around, which is why phone manufacturers come up with various ways to make them last longer. While some companies offer free repairs or replacements for their damaged products, HTC takes a different approach by introducing a better, more durable HTC One model to be released on March 25.
While a metal casing can significantly improve a mobile phone’s robustness, some things like excess heat or water damage are simply beyond the capabilities of today’s protective systems for handheld devices. Thus, a more durable HTC One hitting the Australian market doesn’t necessarily mean that providers of reliable mobile phone repairs in Melbourne, like TelcoWorld Corp, would be needed less. In fact, some strategies for improving mobile phone durability may bring with them a whole different breed of issues and threats.http://www.telcoworld.com.au/news-blog/industry-news/mobile-phone-repairs-melbourne-fixing-even-toughest-phones/ | {
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Tyler Ford's story is so inspiring.
At Tuesday night's AMFAR (The Foundation for AIDS Research) gala, Miley Cyrus didn't just accept a huge award for her activism. She slayed the red carpet and spread a message about gender identity all at once.
The Associated Press reports that Miley was honored at the gala for her work in the fight against AIDS, along with Bravo host Andy Cohen. She also auctioned off three bedazzled versions of Caitlyn Jenner's Vanity Fair cover, autographed by Caitlyn herself, which sold for a whopping $69,000.
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Her date, Tyler Ford, introduced her on stage and spread the word about being agender. "Tyler is a queer, biracial, and agender person, whose pronouns are they/them/theirs," Miley wrote on an Instagram post introducing her 24-year-old date.
Tyler is a former contestant on The Glee Project, and is currently a photographer, poet, and staff writer at Rookie magazine. "My whole life, I was led to believe that there were only two genders," they said in a quote on Miley's Instagram. "I thought I had to shrink myself to fit into a box that was never going to contain me. It took years for me to find words for my gender identity, and to feel comfortable expressing myself as I am."
Agender people feel they have no gender identity, or one that's neutral or "blank." Miley has been campaigning lately to raise awareness of people who don't feel like they fit within a "binary" of male or female, and she has said she can relate to that. "I'm just equal. I'm just even. It has nothing to do with any parts of me or how I dress or how I look. It's literally just how I feel," she told Time.
Miley's activism is really inspiring, and her message is one that it's tough to disagree with: "People try to make everyone something," she told Time. "You can just be whatever you want to be." | {
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Denise Austin: Fit for Life
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Denise Austin has been empowering people to take ownership of their fitness for decades. She was one of the first and one of the biggest names to burst onto the scene in the 1980s and she helped the industry grow and evolve to where it is today. She’s sold more than 25 millions videos and DVDS, starred on countless TV shows and has written a dozen books. Today, she is reaping the benefits of what she has preached and applied to her own life. Now in her 60s, she is still fit, still amazing and still going strong, anxious to share what she’s learned along the way.
Austin checks in with Growing Bolder Radio about her career in fitness and shares how her personal thoughts and philosophies have changed over the years. She also discusses why she believes our mental health is equally as important to nurture and pay attention to as our physical health. | {
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Dembélé debuts with an assist at Camp Nou
The new signing for FC Barcelona has made his debut as a blaugrana and he produced his first assist, creating the chance for Luis Suárez to add the fifth in the 5-0 win over Espanyol
www.fcbarcelona.com
08:45PM Saturday 09 Sep
Football
09 Sep 17
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Great debut for Ousmane Dembélé at Camp Nou. The blaugranes’ latest signing enjoyed his first minutes out on the field as a Barça player in front of the FC Barcelona fans at Camp Nou. If that was not enough, the Frenchman produced his first assist for his new club, putting in a perfectly weighted pass for Luis Suárez to get the final goal in the 5-0 win over Espanyol.
The Barça number 11 played a total of 22 minutes after coming on to replace Gerard Deulofeu in the second half. In his 11 touches he produced five good passes and Espanyol defender Aaron was shown a yellow card for hauling down the pace Frenchman.
Last season Dembélé was the best assist provider in the main leagues in Europe with a total of 20. A man who is no stranger to creating goals and he has shown just that on his debut at Camp Nou as a Barça player. | {
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Sydney (4)
Today we woke up early to go to the opera house for a guided tour. The tour was super well explained and we got to go into both opera rooms. After that, Dad, Florence and I went back to the hostel to grab our swimsuits and towel because we were going to Felix and Madeleine’s house to eat lunch on the beach. We had fun there and after that we walked a 5km walk all the way from Coogee to Bondi beach and we passed 5 different beaches. After the long and tiring walk the parents and Jules got a pizza while Florence, Madeleine, et moi sommes parties prendre des photos avec du graffiti. Après on est rentré et les enfants ont mangé à l’hostel et les parents au restaurant.
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By me:
We start the day with a guided tour of the Opera House, at 9am. This great detailed tour, with an entertaining and informed guide, takes us underneath the world-famous sails. It’s great to have the opportunity to step inside such an iconic landmark. We explore both theatres and the foyers and we can even take a seat in the elegant custom-made white birch timber chairs and marvel at the vaulted ceilings.
After the visit, Isabelle goes with Jules to buy Birkenstock shoes for them. I go with the girls to Coogee where Alexis and Bénédicte live. They invited us for a picnic on the beach. They have a very nice and modern house, 200m from the Coogee Beach. Cool! The beach is rather crowded. We swim in the big waves, some of them being quite impressive. The lifeguards ask us to swim between the flags. We eat nice salads on the beach.
After a good ice cream (6 $ per scoop!), we walk the Coogee – Bondi cliffwalk with Alexis and Madeleine. The sky is cloudy but the walk is nice. It’s also great to have the opportunity to catch up with Alexis after such a long time.
We arrive in Bondi around 6:30pm. The sweeping white-sand crescent of Bondi is one of Australia’s most iconic beaches. Reliable waves draw surfers while, nearby, locals swim in the Icebergs ocean pool. We quickly have a beer (with a pizza) before taking the bus back to The Rocks.
I prepare pasta for the kids at the hostel.
Isabelle and I take a Uber to go to Cho Cho San restaurant, which I booked. It is located in the “hot” (red light) King Cross district. The restaurant is nice and trendy. It’s full when we arrive (9:30pm) but empty when we leave. The food is great (modern Japanese cuisine).
We take a taxi to come back.
There’s a Shangri-la is right beside our hostel. Strangely enough, I don’t feel “frustrated” not too stay there. I think we are getting used to living with lower standards. And also we can see that we don’t spend much time in our room when we visit cities. Moreover I think that our hostel suits better our needs, with the kitchen at our disposal and the common area that is nice for the kids to check internet and to chill out.
Once more, the Habour Bridge…
Visit of the Opera House. The Concert Hall, with more than 2,600 seats. | {
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Diamond Silver Square & Five Beads Necklace
Code: mes2-necklace-silver-square-diamond-beads
Price: $299.00
Qty
Description
A half inch flat silver square showing the contours of hand-shaping is embellished with a tiny diamond in one corner by Saundra Messinger. The square pendant hangs from a silver box chain and five little square silver beads add beautiful asymmetry to this piece. The necklace can be worn at 16 or 18 inches.
This necklace is no longer in stock, please allow 2-4 weeks for delivery. | {
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A Pit Bull with muzzle on leash looks at the camera in an animal shelter.
A Pit Bull with muzzle on leash looks at the camera in an animal shelter.
Photo: CHRISTOF STACHE, STR
Image 2 of 14
A woman approaches a memorial for Christina Bell Burleson, 43, who was attacked and died from wounds after being mauled by two female pit bulls on the corner of Glen Prairie near Leonora Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2014, in Houston. The woman, who did not want to be identified, said that she was friends with Burleson and her loss is tragic. "She was a real person, she just wasn't someone on the streets." less
A woman approaches a memorial for Christina Bell Burleson, 43, who was attacked and died from wounds after being mauled by two female pit bulls on the corner of Glen Prairie near Leonora Wednesday, Jan. 8, ... more
Photo: Johnny Hanson, Houston Chronicle
Image 3 of 14
A memorial for Christina Bell Burleson, 43, on the corner of Leonora and Glen Prairie, who was attacked and died from wounds after being mauled by two female pit bulls at that spot Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2014, in Houston. The note reads, "R.I.P Lil Speedy. Now you finally have your wings. Soar high." less
A memorial for Christina Bell Burleson, 43, on the corner of Leonora and Glen Prairie, who was attacked and died from wounds after being mauled by two female pit bulls at that spot Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2014, in ... more
Photo: Johnny Hanson, Houston Chronicle
Image 4 of 14
Osby Pinles shows his bloody knuckles after he tried to pull two female pit bulls off a woman around
2 a.m. on the corner of Glen Prairie and Leonora.
Osby Pinles shows his bloody knuckles after he tried to pull two female pit bulls off a woman around
2 a.m. on the corner of Glen Prairie and Leonora.
Photo: J. Patric Schneider, Freelance
Image 5 of 14
Image 6 of 14
Osby Pinles shows his bloody calves after he attempted to pull off two female pit bulls off a female victim around 2 a.m. on the corner of Glen Prairie and Leonora on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014, in Houston. According to authorities, a total of three victims were attacked with the female victim dying at the scene from multiple wounds. less
Osby Pinles shows his bloody calves after he attempted to pull off two female pit bulls off a female victim around 2 a.m. on the corner of Glen Prairie and Leonora on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014, in Houston. According ... more
Photo: J. Patric Schneider, For The Chronicle
Image 7 of 14
Provided photo of Christina Bell Burleson, 43. Burlenson was attacked and died from wounds after being mauled by two female pit bulls on the corner of Glen Prairie near Leonora Sunday, around 2 a.m.
Provided photo of Christina Bell Burleson, 43. Burlenson was attacked and died from wounds after being mauled by two female pit bulls on the corner of Glen Prairie near Leonora Sunday, around 2 a.m.
Photo: Johnny Hanson, Staff
Image 8 of 14
Amber Rickles wrist and chest were biten by pit b ull mix Gus after a struggle in her laundry room.
Amber Rickles wrist and chest were biten by pit b ull mix Gus after a struggle in her laundry room.
Photo: Advocates For Amber
Image 9 of 14
Amber Rickles wrist and chest were biten by pit b ull mix Gus after a struggle in her laundry room.
Amber Rickles wrist and chest were biten by pit b ull mix Gus after a struggle in her laundry room.
Photo: Advocates For Amber
Image 10 of 14
Image 11 of 14
Amber Rickles wrist and chest were biten by pit b ull mix Gus after a struggle in her laundry room.
Amber Rickles wrist and chest were biten by pit b ull mix Gus after a struggle in her laundry room.
Photo: Advocates For Amber
Image 12 of 14
Animal advocacy groups argued that Gus was provoked and was acting out of fear, Rickles admits she used a taser on the dog by said it was to protect herself.
Animal advocacy groups argued that Gus was provoked and was acting out of fear, Rickles admits she used a taser on the dog by said it was to protect herself.
Photo: Save Sweet Gus/Facebook
Image 13 of 14
Gus is now free and being trained in California at the Cesar Milan Foundation.
Gus is now free and being trained in California at the Cesar Milan Foundation.
Photo: Save Sweet Gus/Facebook
Image 14 of 14
Should pit bulls be banned?
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Back to Gallery
League City council members are considering tough new rules governing the ownership of dangerous dogs after a toddler and her mother were mauled by a pit bull last month.
Chelsi Camp's 2-year-old daughter was still in the dog's grip when officers arrived at the apartment complex where they lived on March 31. Officers had to shoot the animal to free the child.
The girl, whose name was not available, was taken by helicopter to Memorial Hermann hospital with severe injuries to her head and face. Her mother, 23, also was injured and was treated at the hospital.
At a City Council workshop Monday, League City Police Chief Michael Kramm outlined a series of stringent measures to control dangerous dogs.
Possible changes could include mandatory microchips, fluorescent ID tags and sterilization of dogs meeting a definition of dangerous.
Kramm also suggested that any dog deemed dangerous could be euthanized or banned from the city. "What you have to decide is whether you want a dog that's been deemed vicious to remain in your city," he said.
Kramm added he would prefer vicious animals be destroyed, "If my dog bit one of my kids or someone else's kids it would cease to exist – I can't imagine allowing that animal that's been deemed vicious back out there (even to another city)."
Current city ordinances require that a dog deemed dangerous or vicious be registered with city animal control and kept enclosed and muzzled, with signs warning the public of its presence.
Councilman Todd Kinsey suggested tougher measures for owners of pit bulls specifically, saying that breed accounts for almost 80 percent of attacks that result in injury.
"Statistics bear out that that breed is responsible for almost all dog attacks, our number one job as local officials is to our citizens safe," Kinsey said in a telephone interview.
Earlier this month a pit bull mix ordered euthanized after an attack in Montgomery County was saved from death by TV's "dog whisperer," Cesar Milan.
The Milan foundation agreed to take the dog, Gus, after a year long court battle fought by local and national animal advocacy groups.
Gus was sentenced to death after ripping open a woman's arm and chest in February last year.
In January, Christina Bell Burleson, 43, died after being mauled by two pit bulls in Houston.
According to Police Chief Kramm, Texas law prohibits the banning of specific breeds but it would be possible to increase regulations for pit bulls.
Kinsey said he would like to see higher registration fees for pit bulls, extra security fences so they are unable to dig out of yards as well as special liability insurance requirements.
"I'm in favor of making it difficult for people who want to own pit bulls in our community," Kinsey said. | {
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On 4th November, The Henry Jackson Society hosted ‘Africa Emerges: Consummate Challenges, Abundant Opportunities’, featuring Professor Robert I. Rotberg, Director of the Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution at Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and former President of the World Peace Foundation.
Rotberg began by arguing that ‘Africa is poised to join the other continents in raising living standards for a billion people.’ However, he then outlined key challenges that Africa is facing, which must be overcome if the continent is to ‘catch up with Asia’.
Rotberg noted that ‘Africa slipped economically’ as Asia ascended, and that there were ‘coups everywhere’. These problems taken together led to ‘large periods of stagnation’, which manifested in a large reduction in GDP growth per capita.
That said, Rotberg stated that ‘in this century, Africa has begun to grow in a way that is remarkable.’ He pointed to the rapid and continuing increase in oil and mineral exports from countries such as Equitorial Guinea, Rwanda, Mozambique, Kenya, Nigeria and Angola. Further, this growth has the potential to shift the economic sands across the African continent.
Rotberg argued that the fundamental engine and driver of this emerging growth in Africa is China. He spoke of how Chinese involvement in the continent has ultimately led to increased prices for African raw energy and mineral exports. Indeed, he went so far as to say that ‘every time you buy chinese goods, you are helping Africa.’
Turning to politics, Rotberg spoke of a ‘growing middle class’ in Africa. Although he accepted that there are competing figures regarding the actual numbers which make up this new African middle class, he argued that ‘importantly, twenty years ago nothing like this existed.’
Ultimately, Rotberg argued that this emerging middle class, coupled with greater fiscal responsibility and anti-corruption efforts, could radically alter life on the African continent. He noted serious challenges to this, particularly in relation to a rapidly growing population and dwindling energy generation capacity, but was still keen to stress the positive advances which have been made across Africa in recent years.
The Henry Jackson Society is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales under company number 07465741 and a charity registered in England and Wales under registered charity number 1140489. | {
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Iran: End arbitrary house arrests of Mousavi, Karroubi, and Rahnavard
International Federation for Human Rights, Iran: End arbitrary house arrests of Mousavi, Karroubi, and Rahnavard, 13 February 2013, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/512764a82.html [accessed 26 September 2017]
Disclaimer
This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.
Last Update 13 February 2013
Press Release
Iran: End arbitrary house arrests of Mousavi, Karroubi, and Rahnavard; Free all prisoners of conscience
(Beirut, London, Paris, 13 February 2013) - The Iranian authorities should immediately release from arbitrary house arrest two former presidential candidates Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, his wife Zahra Rahnavard, author and political activist, and cease harassing or detaining without cause the couple's two daughters and Mehdi Karroubi's son, said the Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi and six leading human rights bodies.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, International Federation for Human Rights, League for the Defence of Human Rights in Iran, and Reporters Without Borders co-signed today's appeal.
On 14 February 2011, security and intelligence officials placed two former presidential candidates and Zahra Rahnavard, and Karroubi's wife, Fatemeh Karroubi, under house arrest after they called for demonstrations to support the popular "Arab spring" uprisings across the region. Zahra and Narges Mousavi, daughters of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard, and Mohammad Hossein Karroubi, son of Mehdi Karroubi were arrested on Monday 11 February 2013, two days before the second anniversary of arbitrary house arrests of their parents and Mehdi Karroubi. They were released later the same day.
"For two years now Iranian officials have stripped these opposition figures of their most basic rights without any legal justification or any effective means of remedy," Ebadi said. "They and their families should not have to endure even one more day under these wholly unjustifiable and abusive conditions."
Mir Hossein Mousavi, former Prime Minister and Mehdi Karroubi, former Speaker of Iran's parliament, had been presidential candidates in the 2009 election in which the incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner, in disputed circumstances. The announcement of his victory set off huge protests in Tehran and other cities, which the authorities violent suppressed, followed by arrests and show trials of journalists, government critics, and opposition activists linked to the campaigns of Mousavi and Karroubi. After the election, authorities tightly monitored and controlled the movements of Karroubi, Mousavi, and their wives, and suspended the presidential candidates' newspapers Etemad-e Melli and Kalameyeh Sabz. In mid-February 2011, in the wake of their joint appeal for Iranians to demonstrate in support of pro-reform protests in Egypt and Tunisia, the men and their wives were placed under house arrest without court orders.
Fatemeh Karroubi has since been released from house arrest. But the three detained opposition figures remain cut off from the outside world by the terms of their house arrest and are prevented from meeting and communicating regularly with other members of their families.
Iran's senior officials have given varied accounts of the action against the opposition figures. In November 2011, Mohammad Javad Larijani, head of the High Council for Human Rights, said that the detainees had engaged in "illegal activities" and incited violence. He also said that no one could be placed under house arrest in Iran "without trial and without a court order," and that the public would soon be informed of the charges against the detainees. More than a year later, during which no charges were brought, Iran's police chief, Esmaeel Ahmadi Moghaddam said on 25 December 2012, that the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had approved the detention of the opposition figures in advance of their "house arrest".
Despite these pronouncements, Iranian officials, including Iran's judiciary, have failed to provide any legal justification for the opposition figures' continuing arbitrary detention under house arrest.
The UN bodies have repeatedly called on the Iranian government to release the three opposition figures, declaring their detention arbitrary and unlawful.
On 11 February, three UN Special Rapporteurs called for the immediate release of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi and their family members and hundreds of other prisoners of conscience who remain in prison for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of opinion and expression, or freedom of association and assembly.
In August 2012, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, a body of five independent experts acting under the UN Human Rights Council, issued an opinion that the detentions are "arbitrary (and thus prohibited)," and recommended that the Iranian government release the detainees immediately and compensate them for their wrongful imprisonment. In September 2011, the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances initiated urgent investigations to determine the fate of the opposition figures, whose whereabouts were unknown at the time.
Other UN officials and bodies, including the Secretary General, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, the Human Rights Council, and the General Assembly have also characterized the house arrests as arbitrary detention and called for the detainees' immediate release.
"If authorities had evidence showing that these opposition figures had committed a serious crime they should have charged and prosecuted them in a fair and transparent manner quite some time ago," Ebadi said. "The fact that they have failed to do so for two years is a clear indication that they have no such evidence and that the continuing house arrest of these three critics is politically motivated."
As Iran prepares for new presidential elections on 14 June 2013, hundreds of opposition figures and critics of the government, as well as journalists, students, lawyers and other human rights defenders, remain in imprison. Many were arrested in the government's post-2009 election crackdown and sentenced after televised show trials in which they were shown "confessing" to vaguely-worded national security 'crimes,' including supporting a "velvet revolution." Since 26 January, Iran's security and intelligence forces have initiated a new wave of arrests against journalists accused of having "connections" to foreign media, apparently in an effort to silence dissent prior to the presidential election.
"Thirty-four years after the establishment of an Islamic Republic founded upon the principles of freedom and justice, jails in Iran today are overflowing with hundreds of political prisoners, including prisoners of conscience, many of them ordinary Iranians whose only crime was to speak out," said Ebadi.
Ebadi and the six rights groups called on Iranian authorities to release immediately and unconditionally everyone detained for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, assembly, or association, and to cooperate with UN human rights bodies with a view to improving the current rights situation in Iran. | {
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