Lizbeth R. Jimenez is a self published author, freelance artist and aspiring actress from New York City. Lizbeth R. Jimenez has loved art her entire life and studied in the high school of art and design and attended college in the school of visual arts. She has had art work displayed in the United Nations in 2005 and her work has earned her the attention of a few sites such as OtakuPride.com (2009), Ningin.com (2008), was interviewed by the FUSE Network in 2007 (aired early 2008), and was interviewed by Pierre Bernard of the Conan O'Brian Show in late 2007 where she was filmed drawing his portrait.
She is currently doing freelance work and has drawn covers for a number of Independently published novels, and can be seen in a few independent films such as "Murder Avenue" and "I'm Trying (but I Don't Know How). But her pride and joy will forever be a story she has been working on since she was 14 years old: Sacred. After years of hard work, it was finally published and became available for the first time on Barnes & Noble.com on December, 23, 2009. She's diligently worked on "Sacred" for over 7 years and is excited to finally be able to share her beloved story with all of you and hopes to bring so much joy and inspiration to her readers through her writing and art work.


Our neighbor Joe used to visit several times a week. Joe was eight years old, polite and respectful, happy, bright-eyed, a popular kid in our neighborhood. When he stepped onto our front porch, he was usually looking for someone to play with. Sometimes, his mother sent him to fetch his sister.
Joe knew how to knock appropriately, and he knew our doorbell is unreliable. Most days, he neither knocked nor rang. Joe preferred to chat with our dogs through the window, until I noticed his voice and the dogs’ cheerful barking. “Mrs. Rogers,” he’d say when he saw me. “Is my sister here? Please tell her it’s time to come home.”
One mid-summer day, after he delivered his mother’s message, Joe said, “Mrs. Rogers, do you know there is a caterpillar on your door? A big, fat, fuzzy, white one?” Joe’s earnest expression made it clear that our front-porch situation was urgent.
I pressed my forehead on the glass door and gazed down, my eyes following his finger. Sure enough, a caterpillar was dangling from the door spring. “Yes indeed,” I said. “I can see it.”
“Well?” Joe awaited my response. The awkward pause gave him confidence. He could see I was missing his point. “Mrs. Rogers, don’t you think I should do something? And, by the way, Mrs. Rogers, don’t open the door. He’ll be squished.”
“What do you have in mind, Joe?”
“I think I should get a twig, and carefully move him, Mrs. Rogers.”
I agreed that was the right thing to do. “You can go now, Mrs. Rogers,” he said. “I’ll take care of this.”
It was hard to leave, but I did. I didn’t want Joe to think I lacked confidence in his ability to tend to the life of a fuzzy caterpillar. I can still picture Joe in my mind, though, his expression, his commitment, the natural way he noticed a caterpillar and cared. Years have passed. I still think often of Joe and the caterpillar, when I feel too-busy or scattered, when I see Joe, or when I see a butterfly. Joe’s front-porch spirit reminds me still that there is always time to care.


After the Roses is not the end of Daisy’s story. I’ll be returning to her journey, but I do have other projects to complete first.
While I was researching for After the Roses, I came across a reference to a court case in 19th century Wellington, New Zealand; a scandal in its day, though all but forgotten since, and an example of truth being stranger than fiction. My current project is a non-fiction book on the events surrounding this case, and the more I discover, the more engrossing I’m finding the story.
If you’d like to go on my mailing list to be notified when I have a new book out, please use the Mailing List tool in the sidebar.


Balancing Customer Experience and Concerns
The collection of consumer personal data has become an important part of any business segment. Accurate customer data allows firms to target markets more effectively, engage in customer relationship management, and be more market oriented.
But such large-scale collection of data which reveals attributes of a consumer’s personality and behaviour, has led to profiling and what has been termed as “Corporate Surveillance”.
But with the coming of privacy regulations and evolving best practices, we see businesses having a closer look at the value addition that usage of personal data brings in marketing processes, vis-a-viz the cost of compliance and reputational risk associated with breaches and undetected malpractices. This is an important consideration, since even if the payoff for successful use of consumer data is huge, the cost of implementing all the required capabilities is massive as well.
In this background it is safe to say, digital marketing is poised for evolution. To determine which direction businesses will take, an honest inquiry needs to be made in answering one important question, i.e.—Should my business care about consumer privacy, even if consumers may not?
Businesses need to ask this fundamental question, because when designing practices for a consumer, one must put them at the core and focus on developing holistic practices to aid the consumer in participating in the digital environment, not the stick of regulations and compliance. This holds paramount especially in a segment like digital marketing.
Katz and Tassone hypothesized that consumers, despite being displeased with the prospect of a loss of privacy, have become acclimatized to the necessity of giving up their privacy in order to participate in modern society. This acclimatization is the result of the widening distrust between the user and businesses.
We need to examine how to re-establish trust between the users and businesses, to develop sustainable data driven marketing strategies. This goes beyond thinking about privacy policies, and consent; it points to creating greater transparency around usage of consumer personal data, to develop business models that sustain creation of loyal customer bases and protect the business from regulatory scrutiny, while creating competitive advantage for businesses in the market.
Join us as we discuss the different paths towards achieving this intricate balance at the NASSCOM-DSCI Annual Information Security Summit, 2018. Register Now: https://aiss2018.dsci.in/
 Myerscough, Stuart, Lowe, Ben, and Alpert, Frank (2006), “Willingness to Provide Personal Information Online: The Role of Perceived Privacy Risk, Privacy Statements and Brand Strength,” Journal of Website Promotion, Vol. 2 (1-2), Pages 115-140. DOI: 10.1080/15533610802104182
 James e. Katz, Annette r. Tassone; Public Opinion Trends: Privacy and Information Technology, Public Opinion Quarterly, Volume 54, Issue 1, 1 January 1990, Pages 125–143.


The writing workshop, which began as a literature circle, continues to take place: not in the Magdelstube, but online!
The next meeting will take place on Thursday, 9 April from 7 pm.
About the writing workshop:
Do you write stories, plays or a novel? Are you looking for feedback for your texts? We want to meet once a month to discuss our own texts and support each other in our projects.
All you have to bring along is something you have written yourself. This could be a short story, a prose novel, an excerpt from a story, a novella, a novel, a play or a screenplay. Almost anything is possible, also poetry.
If you are also willing to discuss honestly, factually and differentiated, then you’re right here.
The writing workshop is open to new participants!
Access to the online workshop via following link: https://meet.jit.si/schreibwerkstatt-jena
The writing workshop meets in this online conference room at the date of the writing workshop.


The following is a list of the books that have been overwhelmingly helpful throughout my career in UNIX, Linux, Cisco/Juniper networking, and EMC storage. I hope you find them to be just as helpful!
- Bokotey, D., Mason, A. & Morrow, R. (2003). CCIE Practical Studies: Security. Indianapolis IN: Cisco Press.
- Boney, J. (2005). Cisco IOS in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition. Sebastopol. CA: O’Reilly.
- De Ghein, L. (2007). MPLS Fundamentals. Indianapolis, IN: Cisco Press.
- Doyle, J. (2006). OSPF and IS-IS. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Addison-Wesley.
- Doyle, J. (2017). Routing TCP/IP Volume II, 2nd Edition. Indianapolis, IN: Cisco Press.
- Jain, V & Edgeworth, B. (2017). Troubleshooting BGP. Indianapolis, IN: Cisco Press.
- Spurgeon, Charles E. (2000). Ethernet the Definitive Guide. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly.
- Stringfield, N., White, R., McKee, S. (2007). Cisco Express Forwarding. Indianapolis, IN: Cisco Press.
- Teare, D., Vachon, B., & Graziani, R. (2015). Implementing Cisco IP Routing (ROUTE) Foundation Learning Guide. Indianapolis, IN: Cisco Press.


The Organic Chemistry Journal (OCJ) publishes original work in all areas of organic chemistry including organic synthesis, organic reactions, natural products chemistry, structural investigations, supramolecular chemistry, physical organic chemistry, theoretical and chemical biology. Contributions, in English, may take the form of research articles or short communications. Prospective authors are invited to submit their manuscripts onlne via our website or e-mail to org.chem.j.@gmail.com.
The authors are responsible for contents of papers. The submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (exept in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewere, that its publication is approved by all authors.
Preparation of manuscript
Manuscripts should be prepared using Microsoft Word 2003 or 2007. Note that figures, schemes and tables should be included in the manuscript after the paragraph they are first referenced. Chemical structures should preferably be embeded in their original chemical structure drawn in file format (e.g. CDX for ChemDraw).
Manuscript for Full Research Paper articles submitted to the Organic Chemistry Journal should be devided into the following sections:
§ Authors’ Names and Affiliations
§ Results and Discussions
§ Supporting Information (if any)
§ Acknowledgments (optional)
The title of an article should be clear, concise and comprehensible to all readers with the purpose of quickly identifying the focus of the reported work. It should be brief and contain the most important keywords to optimize electronic retrieval. As far as possible, abbreviations should be avoided. Capitalize the first letters in all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs.
Authors’ Name and Affiliations
For all authors who have made substantial contributions to the work, first name, middle (can be initial(s)) and last (family) name must be provided. Below this information the institutional address should be written in a separate line. At least one author must be designated with an asterisk as the person to whom correspondence should be addressed.
The abstract for the manuscript should not exceed 350 words. The abstract may be a compact text or may be structured into the separate sections: Background, the context and purpose of the study; Results, the main findings; Conclusion, brief summary and potential implications. Abbreviation should be used sparingly in the abstract. If used, then only common ones should be employed.
The abstract should be followed by up to five keywords describing the main topics of the paper for indexing purpose.
The introduction section should be written the standpoint of researchers without specialist knowledge in that area. It should clearly state the background of the research, as well as its purposes and significance, and should include a brief statement of what is being reported in the article.
Results and Discussion
The results and discussion section should contain a description of the experimental or theoretical results that substantiates the conclusions of the work. A comprehensible discussion which links the results to related investigations and to existing knowledge in the relevant field should follow.
This should be presented as a clear and detailed description of experimental procedures and analytical conditions to enable readers to carry out similar work. Supply sample preparation procedures, name, model and configuration detailes of equipment used, and data handing methods.
In this section the authors can dedicate the article to a scientist of outstanding merit or acknowledge financial support, technical assistance and other contributions or advice persons who are not coauthors.
In general authors are obliged to perform literature searches and to cite original publications describing closely related work. A complete list of all references should be provided at the end of the article with an individual reference number for each reference. All references must be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerials, in the order in which they are first cited in the text, followed by any references in tables or legends. The references should be ed at the appropriate location in the text by writing the reference number as superscript. Multiple citations should be separated by commas. In case of more than two sequential references, ranges should be given. The references should be presented in a style consistent with the ACS Style Guide. Examples of Organic Chemistry Journal reference style are shown below. Please take care to follow the reference style precisely; references not in the correct style must be retyped.
Article within a journal
1. Jacobsen, M. F.; Moses, J. E.; Adlington, R. M.; Baldwin, J. E. Org. Lett. 2005, 7, 2473-2476.
2. Constantino, M. G.; Lacerda, V., Jr.; Aragao, V. molecules. 2001, 6, 770-776.
3. Bartlett, P. A.; Green, F. R., III; webb, T. R. Tetrahedron Lett. 1977, 331-334.
In press article
4. Betson, M. S.; Clyden, J.; Helliwell, M.; Mitjans, D. Org. Biomol. Chem., in press.
5. Sheem, S. K. Low-Cost Fiber Optic Pressure. U.S. Patent 6,738,537, May 18, 2004.
Article within conference proceedinds
6. Jones, X. Zeolites and synthetic mechanism. In Proceedings of the First National Conference on Porous Sieves, Baltimore, MD, June 27-30, 1996; Smith, Y., Ed.; Butterworth-Heinemann: Stoneham, MA, 1996; pp 16-27.
7. Gutsche, C. D. Calixarenes; Royal Society of Chemistry: Cambridge, U.K., 1989.
8. Gleiter, R.; Hopf, H., Eds. Modern Cyclophane Chemistry; Wiley-VCH: Weinheim, Germany, 2004.
Graphic and Tables
All figures and schemes must be embedded in the manuscript text after the paragraph they are first mentioned. After a manuscript has gone successfully through the peer review process authors may be asked to upload individual graphic files separately. Any diagram, graph, spectra, photograph or other type of illustration is presented in the manuscript as a figure. The designation scheme should be used primarily for reaction schemes. It is the authors’ responsibility to provide figures at a sufficiently high resolution to ensure high quality representation in the final article. Figures and schemes are consequently numbered with Arabic numerals in the order they are first cited in the manuscript text (i.e. Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.). All figures and schemes should be prepared in black and white style. Colored figures are only acceptable for online version of journal.
Tables should be cited in the text by using Arabic numerals. Each table should have a title explaining the components of the table. Footnotes to tables should be indicated by manuscript lower-case letters and included beneath the table body.


Do you know that feeling when you read a book and are bursting to tell other people about it?
On Thursday nights, readers from across Moonee Valley have the opportunity to share thoughts and recommendations at our online Book Chat.
Led by Jennie Moulder from our Libraries team, these sessions always throw up interesting discussions and suggestions for books to try.
“I introduce the chat, but once people get involved I can sit back and enjoy the discussion,” Jennie said. “it is live, informal and not recorded.
“We have some participants who are there every week, others visit now and then, but during the lockdown period we found it was an important opportunity for people to connect.
“I love that we have people from different parts of Moonee Valley who have never met in real life sharing their reading preferences and getting involved in the chat.”
Often the discussion is light-hearted, but there is no telling where the conversational thread might lead. For example, on one recent Thursday the discussion turned to the issue of grief, and what books one might read while grieving.
Book Chat will be held weekly until the end of October, and then fortnightly for the rest of the year.
She emphasises that, although our libraries are currently closed, library staff are available 9.00-5.00 Monday to Friday to help people over the phone.
We asked Jennie to give us three recommendations of good reads for a Covid-19 spring. She chose three books that are available as e-books and e-audiobooks.
“These are wonderful platforms, and a great way to explore books. Our team is always available to give help on the phone to people who want to access e-books and e-audiobooks and aren’t sure how.”
So, what should we be reading right now, when we’ve been through a tough winter and are hoping for a better spring?
Jennie is a big fan of a new genre called ‘uplit’ – empathetic novels that build optimism, and focus on things like human connection, everyday heroism and love.
JENNIE’S UPLIT RECOMMENDATIONS
* The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
A wonderful book, with lots of depth and heart
* Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
I absolutely love the central character. This book has with quite a dark backstory but leaves you feeling positive.
* The Flat Share by Beth O’Leary
Deals with the heavy topic of emotional abuse, but it has a great story that leaves you feeling good at the end.
Explore our range of online offerings here.


The poetry books Io and Fågelflickan (Bird Girl) will be published in February 2018. Io is a 100 pages collection of Martins poetry from 1995-2018 and Fågelflickan (Bird Girl) is a 80 pages conceptual poetry book set in a North-Swedish landscape. Both books are in Swedish.
The books can be ordered directly from the writer or from the Blurb bookstore. Links for online purchase will be added later upon release in February 2018.


Nadal-Sala, D., Grote, R., Birami, B., Knüver, T., Rehschuh, R., Schwarz, S., & Ruehr, N. K. (accepted). Leaf shedding and non-stomatal limitations of photosynthesis mitigate hydraulic conductance losses in Scots pine saplings during severe drought stress. Frontiers in Plant Science, 1600.
Nadal‐Sala, D., Medlyn, B. E., Ruehr, N. K., Barton, C. V., Ellsworth, D. S., Gracia, C., ... & Sabaté, S. (2021). Increasing aridity will not offset CO2 fertilization in fast‐growing eucalypts with access to deep soil water. Global Change Biology, 27(12), 2970-2990.
Nadal‐Sala, D., Grote, R., Birami, B., Lintunen, A., Mammarella, I., Preisler, Y., ... & Ruehr, N. K. (2021). Assessing model performance via the most limiting environmental driver in two differently stressed pine stands. Ecological Applications, 31(4), e02312.
Gattmann, M., Birami, B., Nadal-Sala, D., & Ruehr, N. K. (2021). Dying by drying: timing of physiological stress thresholds related to tree death is not significantly altered by highly elevated CO2. Plant, cell & environment, 44(2), 356-370.
Nadal-Sala, D., Hartig, F., Gracia, C. A., & Sabaté, S. (2019). Global warming likely to enhance black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) growth in a Mediterranean riparian forest. Forest Ecology and Management, 449, 117448.


The role of the automobile manufacturing industry in reversing climate change
With concern for the environment reaching a fever pitch, every sector is scrambling to implement measures to reduce their environmental impact that will satisfy consumer demands.
This series of articles will seek to address some of the gaps in understanding preventing automotive manufacturers from executing policies founded in corporate sustainability practices.
It will address the auto industry’s role in the current ecological crisis and where that intersects with its responsibilities in micro- and macro-economies. It will analyze the significance of the automotive industry to slowing climate change and the roadblocks preventing the industry’s ability to implement meaningful sustainability practices industry.
"If I have seen further, it is be standing
on the shoulders of giants."
- Isaac Newton
It is hoped that this series will offer one other thing:
America would not be the political, economic, and cultural power it is were it not for Detroit and the Big 3. We have prevailed victorious through hard times because of the automotive industry, and it is the automotive industry with the vision, the infrastructure, and the tools to reverse climate change.
This series will endeavor to first identify and re-frame the auto sector’s significance in the historic events that have shaped the present world.
From there, it will address the unique challenges preventing the auto sector from fulfilling its environmental manifest destiny. Finally, this series will fill gaps in existing literature and offer practical implementation items which are actionable and measurable and can be incorporated into existing business frameworks which unify objectives for the numerous stakeholders served by the automotive manufacturing industry.
Upcoming in this series are articles, blogs, infographics, and blogs providing context for the challenges facing the automotive industry during this next critical juncture in history. The authors will endeavor to equip the American automotive industry with tactics that will help it again rise to the challenge issued when Tolstoy proclaimed, “everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself”.
Fill out our form and receive updates on this series and gain access to enriched features.
To learn more about ways ERA Environmental is already assisting automotive manufacturing facilities adopt successful and profitable sustainability management practices that improve all elements of their triple bottom line, follow the link below, and one of our environmental scientists will contact you.
This Blog Was Co-Authored By:


Fombellida Cirugia Mucogingival Pdf 20
Fombellida Cirugia Mucogingival PDF 20
If you are looking for a comprehensive guide on mucogingival surgery, you may be interested in the book Fombellida Cirugia Mucogingival by Manuel Fombellida, a renowned periodontist and professor from Spain. This book covers the theoretical and practical aspects of mucogingival surgery, a branch of periodontics that deals with the correction of esthetic and functional problems of the gingiva and alveolar mucosa.
Mucogingival surgery aims to improve the appearance and health of the soft tissues around the teeth, implants, edentulous ridges, and alveolar sockets. Some of the common procedures include free gingival grafts, pedicle grafts, connective tissue grafts, coronally advanced flaps, tunnel technique, and vestibuloplasty. These techniques can help treat conditions such as gingival recession, altered passive eruption, lack of keratinized tissue, gingival hyperplasia, and mucosal defects.
The book Fombellida Cirugia Mucogingival is divided into four parts: Part I provides the basic concepts and principles of mucogingival surgery; Part II describes the surgical techniques for teeth; Part III explains the surgical techniques for implants; and Part IV discusses the surgical techniques for edentulous areas. The book is richly illustrated with clinical photographs, diagrams, and tables that demonstrate the step-by-step procedures and outcomes of each technique. The book also includes a DVD with video demonstrations of some of the most relevant techniques.
The book Fombellida Cirugia Mucogingival is available in Spanish and English editions. The Spanish edition was published by Quintessence in 2010, while the English edition was published by Quintessence in 2013 under the title Mucogingival Esthetic Surgery. The book has received positive reviews from experts and practitioners in the field of periodontics and implantology. It is considered a valuable reference for dental professionals who want to learn or update their knowledge and skills in mucogingival surgery.
If you want to download a PDF version of the book Fombellida Cirugia Mucogingival, you can search for it online using various keywords such as "fombellida cirugia mucogingival pdf 20", "fombellida cirugia mucogingival pdf download", or "fombellida cirugia mucogingival pdf free". However, please be aware that some of these websites may not be reliable or legal, and may contain viruses or malware that can harm your computer or device. Therefore, it is advisable to purchase the original book from a reputable publisher or seller, or borrow it from a library or a colleague.
We hope this article has given you some useful information about the book Fombellida Cirugia Mucogingival and how to download it as a PDF file. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact us. Thank you for reading!


We met Skarekro at our local comic shop, Comics 2 Games, one day when we stopped by to pick up some comic books.
We were introduced by a mutual friend and Kro, as he is fondly referred to, explained to us how he really wanted to work in comics. He showed us some of his art and Rodney and Kro became fast art buddies.
When we got to Issue #5 of PPn’J, we wanted to go in a different direction with the art as Rodney had been doing it all for the first four issues. With him writing, penciling, inking, and hand-coloring the books with colored pencils, he had little time to work on anything else. We also wanted to move to digital coloring, so the books would have a more modern look and feel. After watching Kro grow as an artist, we felt like his style would help change the look of the book. So, Rodney and Kro started working together to design the new style for the characters.
Together, they make a great team. Rodney would thumbnail out the pages. Kro would add his touch with the pencils; giving the characters the fun updated look. Then Rodney would go back and embellish with inks and digitally color the art.
Kro was the guest artist on Issue #5, Apple Bomb Barrage, and Issue #6, Slope Slop, as well as two free comic book day shorts. We also have Issue #7 penciled by him, but we have put the book on hiatus to work on some other projects. We hope to finish that issue in the future and release the complete PPn’J series as an Omnibus.
Kro continues to work in comics and lives in Florence, Kentucky with his Wife and family of furry friends.
You can see more of his art on FB @Jeremy O’Ryan (Skarekro Art) and on IG @skare_kro_art.
Comics2Games is in Florence, Kentucky. http://www.comics2games.com


It should enhance the message you want to convey rather than distract from it. By selecting quotes that align with your main idea, you create a seamless flow within your writing or speech. Furthermore, quotex mastery involves knowing when and how to incorporate quotations into your work. Quotes can serve various purposes – they can provide evidence for an argument, support a claim, add credibility to your ideas, or simply offer a fresh perspective on a subject matter. However, it is important not to overuse them as this may dilute their impact and make your work seem disjointed. Another aspect of mastering quotex is choosing quotes that resonate with your audience. Different people connect with different ideas and perspectives; therefore, it is crucial to consider who will be reading or listening to your work when selecting quotations.
By using quotes that speak directly to their interests or experiences, you create a stronger connection between yourself and your audience. Moreover, effective quotex mastery involves proper citation and attribution. When using someone else’s words in your own work – whether it be from quotex books, articles, speeches or interviews – it is essential to give credit where credit is due by citing the original source accurately. This not only demonstrates integrity but also allows readers or listeners who are interested in exploring further resources related to the quote. Additionally, mastering quotex requires careful consideration of language style and tone. Quotes should seamlessly blend into the overall voice of your piece without sounding forced or out-of-place stylistically speaking. Paying attention to word choice ensures that the quote enhances your writing rather than disrupts its flow. Lastly, quotex mastery involves understanding the power of brevity.
Sometimes, a short and impactful quote can convey more meaning than a lengthy explanation. By selecting concise quotes that encapsulate complex ideas or emotions, you allow your audience to engage with your work on a deeper level. In conclusion, mastering the art of quotex is an essential skill for effective communication and writing. It requires careful consideration of context, purpose, audience, citation, language style and tone. By incorporating quotations seamlessly into your work and choosing them wisely to enhance your message or argument, you can elevate the impact of your writing or speech. Quotex is a powerful tool that can help individuals and businesses unlock their full potential. Whether you are looking to improve your productivity, enhance your creativity, or boost your overall success, understanding the secrets behind Quotex can be a game-changer.


In the realm of personal development, Dr. Robert Anthony’s book “Beyond Positive Thinking” stands as a beacon of wisdom and insight, challenging conventional notions about the power of positive thinking and offering a transformative approach to creating lasting change. Through a combination of psychology, metaphysics, and practical exercises, Dr. Anthony guides readers on a journey of self-discovery, empowerment, and manifestation. In this comprehensive review, we’ll delve into the key themes, concepts, and insights of “Beyond Positive Thinking,” exploring its relevance and impact in today’s world.
Understanding the Power of Belief
At the core of “Beyond Positive Thinking” is the recognition of the profound influence that our beliefs have on our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Dr. Anthony emphasizes that our beliefs are not merely passive perceptions of reality but active creators of it. He contends that our subconscious mind acts as a powerful force that magnetizes people, circumstances, and opportunities into our lives based on our dominant thoughts and beliefs. By understanding and harnessing the power of belief, readers can transform their lives and manifest their deepest desires.
Unraveling the Subconscious Mind
One of the key insights of “Beyond Positive Thinking” is the exploration of the subconscious mind and its role in shaping our perceptions and experiences. Dr. Anthony argues that our subconscious mind operates according to its own set of rules and principles, often independent of our conscious awareness. He explains how deeply ingrained beliefs and conditioning from childhood can shape our reality and influence our behavior in profound ways. Through awareness and introspection, readers can uncover hidden beliefs and patterns that may be holding them back and create new pathways for growth and transformation.
Overcoming Self-Sabotage and Resistance
Another central theme of “Beyond Positive Thinking” is the exploration of self-sabotage and resistance—the inner barriers that prevent us from achieving our goals and fulfilling our potential. Dr. Anthony identifies self-sabotage as the result of conflicting beliefs and desires within the subconscious mind, leading to behaviors that undermine our success and happiness. He offers practical strategies for identifying and overcoming self-sabotage, including techniques for releasing resistance, reframing negative beliefs, and aligning with our true desires. By addressing the root causes of self-sabotage, readers can break free from limiting patterns and create new possibilities for growth and success.
Embracing the Power of Intention
In “Beyond Positive Thinking,” Dr. Anthony introduces the concept of deliberate creation—the conscious and intentional process of manifesting our desires through focused intention and attention. He emphasizes the importance of clarifying our intentions with clarity and specificity, aligning our thoughts and beliefs with our desired outcomes, and taking inspired action towards their attainment. Through visualization, affirmation, and emotional resonance, readers can amplify the energy of manifestation and bring their dreams into reality. Dr. Anthony reminds us that we have the power to shape our destinies and create the life of our dreams through the power of intention.
Living in Alignment with Universal Laws
Throughout “Beyond Positive Thinking,” Dr. Anthony explores the principles of universal laws and their role in shaping our reality. He introduces readers to concepts such as the law of attraction, the law of resonance, and the law of cause and effect, explaining how these principles operate in the universe and influence our lives. By understanding and aligning with these universal laws, readers can unlock the keys to manifestation and create a life of abundance, joy, and fulfillment. Dr. Anthony invites readers to embrace the principles of universal laws as guiding principles for personal growth and transformation.
“Beyond Positive Thinking” is a timeless masterpiece that continues to inspire and empower readers around the world to unlock their full potential and create the life of their dreams. Through its profound insights, practical exercises, and transformative teachings, Dr. Robert Anthony offers a roadmap for personal growth, empowerment, and manifestation. Whether you’re seeking to overcome self-limiting beliefs, achieve success, or manifest your deepest desires, “Beyond Positive Thinking” provides the tools and guidance you need to unleash the power within and create a life of abundance and fulfillment. With its timeless wisdom and practical strategies, this book is a must-read for anyone seeking to transform their life and unleash their full potential.


Exercise has long been known as a non-pharmacological therapeutic modality to restore impaired cardiovascular function. Recently, whole body vibration has emerged as a useful method for improving overall health, with improvements in body composition, muscular strength and heart health being common. Whole body vibration training is also particularly effective for elderly and deconditioned people who cannot participate in traditional exercise.
Over the next few weeks we will take a look at just how whole body vibration has been proven to be a very useful therapy tool for improving cardiovascular health.
There are different types of vibration platforms used in clinical studies including rocking side to side action of the platforms, uniformly up and down action, and triplane in which the surface moves font to back, side to side, and up and down directions.
The mechanical action of the vibration causes a change in length of the muscle-tendon complex, which activates reflex muscle contractions. Performing an exercise on the vibration plate causes more muscle activity than performing the same exercise on the floor – more muscles, doing more work, more often.
The rate of vibration (or Hz) has an influence – with frequencies between 35Hz and 45Hz creating more activation than frequencies below 35 HZ, and therefore delivering more benefit. Power Plate has tri-planar movements with a frequency range between 25 and 50Hz, depending on the model.
Cardiovascular health or fitness and vascular aging are associated with muscle strength and muscle mass. The more muscle that is lost through the ageing process, the higher the risks of cardiovascular disease.
The effect of whole body vibration on muscle mass
Several studies have shown whole body vibration to result in increases in muscle mass in the young and the old, in healthy or obese, and diabetic and diseased clinical populations.
These studies varied in length from 8 weeks to over 6 months. In many of these studies the increase in muscle size from whole body vibration training was very similar to what conventional strength training achieved. Important to note however that the amount of time of the training session for whole body vibration was much shorter than the strength training session.
Another consideration is that many of the groups studied were not able to attend regular strength training sessions due to illness, physical condition, diabetes, or obesity. The shorter sessions meant that compliance was better – leading to healthier long term outcomes.
It was concluded that whole body vibration training with the right parameters can be as efficient as regular fitness training methods in increasing muscle mass, in less time.


Caspari's Online Library allows you to search through a wide selection of over 7,000 books, journals & audio recordings. Registered users can reserve books online.
Next Open Lecture:
Murray Salisbury, "Re-Creating Biblical Poetry: Translating Ancient Jewish Poems for Modern Christian Communities". Tuesday 13th May, Caspari Center, 7pm.
Next Missiology Course:
3-14th November 2014.
On Monday 14th April, Caspari Center will close at 12:00 for Passover. We will reopen as usual on Tuesday 22nd April.


This month's question comes from S.K. Andrews, author of The Kelly Society book series and the upcoming release Bay of Darkness a Paranormal adventure born from a Celtic love story centuries old (release date October 2, 2019)
Amazon Buy Link S.K.: You have filled many roles in the entertainment field (writer, director, producer), but do you prefer projects in which you are writing and producing? Or, are you content to be the storyteller and let someone else make the trains run on time? N.S.: This is a great question as it's one I'm often asking myself. I love the ideation stage of any project when the only limit is imagination. Those early stages of idea creation, story problem solving, and refinement are delicious (even with dealing with Hollywood's fabled "development hell"), because anyone in this business is a dreamer and this the stage where dreams are built.
The execution stage, or production, is problem solving of a different sort, and also a challenge I like, even as the limitless dreams of your imagined world are inevitably constrained by the realities of such things as cast, locations, weather, time and money. I suspect I am also a little too much of a control freak to completely hand over my work to others, although I like to believe I am a good and easy collaborator. I do like to do it all; my biggest question is always: will there be enough time?
September 2019 Dispatch from the Cheerfully Dark Mind Nina Sadowsky
What summer vacation? While I barely took a breath this summer, it was happily one of my most creative and productive periods ever! NYU LA launched with the arrival of the first cohort of students on August 28th. Our orientation took us all over the city of LA and culminated at OUE Skyspace where the brave among us slid down a glass slide on the outside of a skyscraper.
And I'm official! See the press release here. I also had a prolific writing summer, churning out a new suspense novel and working on several pilots. More news on those fronts soon I hope!
Save the date! Official launch: January 28th 2020 Barnes & Noble at The Grove, Los Angeles, California
Official New York launch: February 7th, 2020 NYU Bookstore Please remember that pre-orders can help an author more than almost anything else, and please check out the relevant links: AMAZON https://amzn.to/2UVP9ru PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE http://bit.ly/2Vcmu6w BARNES & NOBLE http://bit.ly/2Wp6afc INDIEBOUND https://urlzs.com/okCUJ


People with schizophrenia die 12 to 15 years earlier than their counterparts in the general population, a difference driven largely by ischemic heart disease and cancer, according to a large study of Swedish patients. “Despite having more than twice as many contacts with the health care system than other people, schizophrenia patients had no increased risk of having a diagnosis of nonfatal ischemic heart disease or cancer but had a far greater mortality from these conditions, suggesting substantial underdiagnosis and/or undertreatment,” said Casey Crump, M.D., Ph.D., of the Department of Medicine and the Stanford Prevention Research Center at Stanford University.
For instance, ischemic heart disease was diagnosed prior to death in only 26% of schizophrenia patients, compared with 44% of others who died of heart disease. “Preventive interventions should prioritize primary health care tailored to this population, including more effective risk modification and screening for cardiovascular disease and cancer,” the researchers said.
For an in-depth review of this topic, see the book Medical Illness and Schizophrenia, Second Edition, from American Psychiatric Publishing. For an analysis showing higher standardized mortality ratios for cardiovascular and other diseases in people with mental illness, see the new online issue of the APA journal PS in Advance.


Recent article from CleanWaterAction.org, 2016
(see additional articles under "More Info")
Risks of Recycled Tire Products
Nearly 300 million car and truck tires are discarded every year. To address the problem of tire stockpiles, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) encourages the recycling of waste tires into playground mulch and synthetic turf athletic field infill. Use of recycled waste tires has grown over the last two decades with thousands of playgrounds across the country using the material as cushioning under outdoor play equipment and as infill on artificial turf fields.
Increasing evidence about the toxicity of recycled tire material is raising concerns. Waste tire mulch and crumb rubber contains toxic chemicals such as phthalates, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and many other chemicals known or suspected to cause adverse health effects. According to a chemical analysis conducted by Yale University, 96 chemicals were found in the 14 samples analyzed. Half of the chemicals have no government testing on them – making it unclear whether they are safe or harmful to human health.
Children go to playgrounds almost daily and young athletes frequently practice and play on the artificial turf fields, exposing them to chronic toxicity from the various chemicals present in the recycled waste tire. When the material gets hot, the off-gassing of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) increases. Cumulative exposure can result in a buildup of toxic chemicals in their bodies and can potentially result in disease. For example, there is concern that soccer goalies with chronic exposure to crumb rubber on synthetic turf fields may be at a higher risk for lymphoma and leukemia cancers.
EPA acknowledges that more studies of crumb rubber need to be done, and has retracted an earlier assurance that crumb rubber turf is safe. On February 12, 2016 EPA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission launched a multi-agency action plan to study key environmental human health questions related to rubber from waste tires. By late 2016, the agencies will release a draft status report that describes the findings and conclusions of the research through that point in time. The report will also outline any additional research needs and next steps.
Clean Water Action supports delaying any new installation of playgrounds containing recycled tire mulch and artificial turf fields containing crumb rubber until findings from the Federal Research Action Plan on recycled tire crumb rubber infill are published and evaluated. The public deserves comprehensive evaluation of the product and deserves to be safeguarded from exposure until it is proven that there are no adverse environmental effects or risks to public health.


Angela Wright is Professor of Romantic Literature in the School of English at the University of Sheffield. She is a former co-President of the International Gothic Association (2013-17). Her publications include Gothic Fiction (Palgrave, 2007), Britain, France and the Gothic, 1764-1820: The Import of Terror (Cambridge University Press, 2013 and 2015), (with Dale Townshend) Ann Radcliffe, Romanticism and the Gothic(Cambridge University Press, 2014 and 2016); (with Dale Townshend) Romantic Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion (Edinburgh University Press, 2015). Her most recent book is entitled Mary Shelley and appears in the Gothic Literary Authors series in January 2018. She’s at work now on a number of new projects, including a book entitled Fostering Romanticism and the co-editing (with Dale Townshend and Catherine Spooner) of a three-volume Cambridge History of the Gothic.
Marie Mulvey-Roberts is Professor of English Literature at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Her teaching and research interests include Gothic and gender. She is the author of Dangerous Bodies: Historicising the Gothic Corporeal(Manchester University Press, 2016) the winner of the Alan Lloyd Smith Memorial Prize, Gothic Immortals: The Fiction of the Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross (Routledge Revivals, 2016) and British Poets and Secret Societies (Routledge Revivals, 2014). She is the editor of The Handbook to Gothic Literature (Palgrave, 1998 rvd 2009) and has edited many other books including Writing for their Lives: Death Row USA (Illinois University Press, 2007) and the forthcoming Global Frankenstein (Palgrave, New York) with Carol M. Davison. She recently co-curated the exhibition Strange Worlds: The Vision of Angela Carter at the Royal West of England, Academy, Bristol, co-built the website getangelacarter.com and co-founded the Angela Carter Society. She is the co-founder and editor of the quarterly journal, Women’s Writing on historical women writers, for which she co-edited a special issue on Mary Shelley. Her two short films onFrankenstein and its links to Bristol and Bath are included in a MOOC run by English literature teaching staff at UWE called Writing the West: Writers of the South West.


Financial sustainability with best practices.
Paper and Cellulose
Advanced Process Control - Bleaching Stage Optimization
Challenge: Bleaching Step Optimization.
Solution: The implementation of optimizing control in the bleaching stage can optimize the use of reagents, based on the characteristics of the pulp fed. From measurements of flow and characteristics of the pulp, the control ensures that the required amount of reagents will be used, guaranteeing the right levels of the pH and brightness of the product.
Result: It is expected a reduction of 50 to 80% in the process variability, reduction of the use of chemicals, control of brightness and a more accurate pH level.


With the gradual promotion and industrialization of electric vehicles and the increasing development of electric vehicle technology, the technical requirements of electric vehicles for charging piles have shown a consistent trend, requiring charging piles to be as close as possible to the following goals:
(1) Faster Charging
Compared with nickel-metal hydroxide and lithium-ion power batteries with good development prospects, traditional lead-acid batteries have the advantages of mature technology, low cost, large battery capacity, good load-following output characteristics and no memory effect, but they also have advantages. The problems of low energy and short driving range on a single charge. Therefore, in the case that the current power battery cannot directly provide more driving range, if the battery charging can be realized quickly, in a sense, it will solve the Achilles heel of the short driving range of electric vehicles.
(2) Universal Charging
Under the market background of the coexistence of multiple types of batteries and multiple voltage levels, charging devices used in public places must have the ability to adapt to multiple types of battery systems and various voltage levels, that is, the charging system needs to have charging versatility and The charging control algorithm of multiple types of batteries can match the charging characteristics of different battery systems on various electric vehicles, and can charge different batteries. Therefore, in the early stage of the commercialization of electric vehicles, relevant policies and measures should be formulated to standardize the charging interface, charging specification and interface agreement between charging devices used in public places and electric vehicles.
(3) Intelligent Charging
One of the most critical issues restricting the development and popularization of electric vehicles is the performance and application level of energy storage batteries. The goal of optimizing the intelligent battery charging method is to achieve non-destructive battery charging, monitor the battery's discharge state, and avoid over-discharge, so as to achieve the purpose of extending battery life and energy saving. The development of the application technology of charging intelligence is mainly reflected in the following aspects: optimized, intelligent charging technology and chargers, charging stations; calculation, guidance and intelligent management of battery power; automatic diagnosis and maintenance technology of battery failures.
(4) Efficient Power Conversion
The energy consumption indicators of electric vehicles are closely related to their operating energy costs. Reducing the operating energy consumption of electric vehicles and improving their cost effectiveness are one of the key factors that promote the industrialization of electric vehicles. For charging stations, considering the power conversion efficiency and construction cost, priority should be given to charging devices with many advantages such as high power conversion efficiency and low construction cost.
(5) Charging Integration
In line with the requirements of miniaturization and multi-functioning of subsystems, as well as the improvement of battery reliability and stability requirements, the charging system will be integrated with the electric vehicle energy management system as a whole, integrating transfer transistors, current detection, and reverse discharge protection, etc. Function, a smaller and more integrated charging solution can be realized without external components, thereby saving layout space for the remaining components of electric vehicles, greatly reducing system costs, and optimizing the charging effect, and extending battery life.
Post time: Aug-16-2021


Value-based Care and Financing in Health Care
Value-based health care is a health care delivery model in which providers, including hospitals and physicians, are paid based on patient outcomes. Under value-based care agreements, providers are rewarded for helping patients improve their health, reduce the effects and incidence of chronic disease and live healthier lives in an evidence-based way.
Value-based care differs from a fee for service or capitated approach, in which providers are paid based on the amount of healthcare services they deliver. The “value” in value-based health care is derived from measuring health outcomes against the cost of delivering the outcomes. Read the full article


Welcome to Abbotsford
The historic house is now closed for the season and will reopen on the 1st of March. Why not go for a walk or visit our café and shop until then, we're open daily.
Discover Abbotsford, the home of Sir Walter Scott;
one of Scotland’s most fascinating places.
Created almost 200 years ago on the banks of the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders, Abbotsford was the culmination of Scott’s creative ambitions as a writer and the fount of his inspiration.
Explore the historic house and discover a treasure trove of intriguing objects and unusual artefacts which inspired Scott’s greatest poems and novels. Learn about Scott’s life and achievements, browse the gift shop, dine in style in our restaurant or simply relax and unwind as you wander through the beautiful formal gardens and tranquil woodlands.


INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Andrew Luck knows how to read a defense, now he wants readers young and old to join his book club.
The Indianapolis Colts quarterback launched the Andrew Luck Book Club Monday. The website will periodically feature two books: one for “rookies” that Luck enjoyed when he was younger and another for “veteran” readers that he’s currently enjoying.
According to the Colts, Luck will use social media to engage with members of the book club and talk live about the selections. He also plans to host Q&A sessions about the books. The first “rookie” selection is Jerry Spinelli’s Maniac Magee; the first “veteran” selection is Daniel James Brown’s The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
“I have always loved to read and have my parents and grandparents to thank for introducing me to the enjoyment of reading at a young age,” said Luck.
“People ask me all the time what I’m reading or if I have any suggestions of what they should read. And, when the topic of starting a book club came up over and over again, I figured it was time to put something together. I’m really excited to see this get off the ground and I’m looking forward to building a community of readers online and through social media.”
Luck wants to use the book club as a forum where people can discover new books and build a community of readers nationwide.


Explore a diverse selection of books, CDs, DVDs, and more, all in excellent condition. Suitable for all ages and covering various genres, these items come at affordable prices, ranging from 25 cents to $2. Don’t miss our unique collection of rare books, each priced individually.
Your purchase not only gets you a great deal but also supports the library’s initiatives. The sale typically happens on the third Sunday of each month, with occasional exceptions for special events. Join us in finding literary treasures while contributing to the community.
For more interesting events at the San Carlos Library, please check their calendar.


Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. Come now, let us argue it out, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.
Scripture passage from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.


One of my very favorite times of day is early in the morning, sometime between 4:00 and 5:00 AM. That’s around the time that Tegan usually wakes up and makes her way into our bed, to sleep for a few more hours snuggled between us. Like her three brothers before her, she slept exclusively in our bed as a baby and toddler, and it’s only been recently that she’s started choosing to start the night in her own bed. As I think most any cosleeping parent would tell you, it’s a bittersweet milestone to be sure.
But we still have our mornings.
I always wake up as soon as she’s out of her bed… partly because of mother’s intuition, but mostly because she’s so dang loud. How a tiny 40 pound girl can make herself sound like a herd of elephants just coming down a hallway is beyond me, but she does. Every time. Once into our room, she almost flies onto our bed as if possessing super powers, and nestles herself in between her father and I. If we’re sleeping too close together, she simply burrows her way in. Not an eighth of a second after she lands, she’s asleep once again.
As our fourth and final child (our “caboose” as one of my friends likes to say), her fading babyhood is all the more poignant. At four, she is so busy, so active, so big… but in those early morning hours, she’s still my baby. And as I lay there in the dark, waiting for sleep to come again and loving her so fiercely it almost hurts, I drink it all in: the soft, rhythmic sound of her breathing; the faint scent of coconut in her tousled curls; the warmth of the little hand she’s wrapped around my back.
In those moments, nothing else matters but me and my baby.
I am home.


Texas Humane Network’s Humane Library Project aims to source the best literature for children and young adults on animal welfare and then donate these books to Texas school districts with high instances of abuse and neglect to help them learn about animals and develop empathy. An important lesson in empathy is that animals are living beings and should be treated with respect and compassion. Teaching children how to care for animals correctly, with love and care, is an excellent way for our young people to develop empathy and prepare to be fantastic pet owners in the future. This project’s impact is far-reaching; empathy promotes moral intelligence, and morally intelligent people make decisions that benefit both themselves and the people around them.
Scroll down for a list of recommended books for your own Humane Library at home!
Interested in donating toward a Humane Library? Contact us at firstname.lastname@example.org.


The Trilogy That Doesn't Get Enough Love: The Farseer Trilogy
The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb is a classic of epic fantasy that tells the story of FitzChivalry Farseer, a royal bastard who becomes embroiled in the political machinations of the Six Duchies. The trilogy comprises three books: "Assassin's Apprentice," "Royal Assassin," and "Assassin's Quest."
In "Assassin's Apprentice," we are introduced to Fitz, the illegitimate son of Prince Chivalry. Fitz is brought to the royal court and becomes the apprentice of Burrich, the stable master. As Fitz grows up, he discovers that he has a unique gift: the ability to communicate with animals. However, he also learns that he is the tool of a larger political game, and he must navigate the treacherous court politics of the Six Duchies.
"Royal Assassin" picks up where "Assassin's Apprentice" left off, with Fitz now serving as the assassin of King-in-Waiting Verity. Fitz's loyalty to Verity and the royal family is tested as he becomes embroiled in a plot to undermine the Six Duchies' defenses against the Red-Ship Raiders, a pirate fleet that is attacking the kingdom.
"Assassin's Quest" brings the trilogy to a satisfying conclusion as Fitz embarks on a quest to rescue his kidnapped love interest and uncover the secrets of the mysterious Elderlings. Along the way, he must confront his own past and the legacy of his family.
Overall, the Farseer Trilogy is an outstanding example of epic fantasy. Hobb's world-building is intricate and immersive, and the characters are well-developed and compelling. Fitz, in particular, is a fascinating protagonist, and his struggles with identity, loyalty, and duty are the heart of the trilogy. The trilogy is not without its flaws - the pacing can be slow at times, and the plot can feel meandering - but these are minor quibbles in the face of the trilogy's strengths. Fans of epic fantasy should not miss the Farseer Trilogy, and it is a great starting point for those who are new to the genre.
Ryan McRae is the author of the website and a lover of fantasy novels.


It is simply wrong thinking, wrong believing, wrong speaking and wrong actions that defeats most believers. If our thinking is right our believing will be right. If our believing is right then our confession will be right and if our confession is right then our actions will be right. In Matthew 8:5-13 we see Jesus' encounter with a Roman centurion.
In Matthew 8:5-8 we find that some how this centurion heard about Jesus or observed Jesus as He ministered so he went to Jesus and pleaded for his servant who was "lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented." Jesus’ response was immediate, “I will come and heal him”. There was no questions concerning the Father’s will to heal this mans servant. However, the centurion offers Jesus an alternative “Lord I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word and my servant will be healed.” This is important because it reveals some things concerning the centurion and Gods will.
First we see the centurion’s faith at work. He heard about Jesus or observed the ministry of Jesus, it produced thought, he believed and he confessed by offering an alternative to Jesus coming to his house and healing his servant. Next, Matthew 8:9, The centurion tells Jesus that he is a man under authority just like Jesus is. He knew that he could verbally command soldiers under him and they would obey because they recognized his authority. He had discerned the authority that Jesus had and in the same way that the centurion commanded soldiers he believed that Jesus could command healing on his servant without Jesus going to his house.
In Matthew 8:10-12 We see that Jesus marveled at this mans spiritual insight and then brings a word of conviction to those who were Gods children and should have faith in God. Could the same statement be said to the church today, "I have not found such great faith" and be true as it was then? Jesus equates this mans understanding of authority as having great faith. In other words, "I have not found such a great confidence in my power, even among the Jews, as this Roman, a Gentile, has shown himself to possess.”
Finally Matthew 8:13 shows us the results of this encounter. The centurion heard, thought, believed, confessed and now he acted, “Go you way”, and then he received, “His servant was healed that same hour.” The fact that the centurion changed the circumstance in which Jesus was to heal his servant also shows us that God is far more willing to do things than most believers have faith for. We do not know if the centurion was a follower of Christ or not, but what is evident is true faith is all that it takes to move our Heavenly Father as we ask in Jesus' name.
Believers can and should speak the Word of God with authority being fully convinced that what God has promised He is also able to perform. So let's begin right now by changing our thinking, believing, confessing and actions from being manipulated by doubt, fear and unbelief and place our faith in the integrity of God's Word. Let us declare right NOW that 2011 will be the most fruitful year that we have ever experienced for HIS glory...


Author and historian Mahendra K. Doshi launched Surat to San Francisco: How the Patels from Gujarat Established the Hotel Business in California, which features personal stories on the incredible entrepreneurship journey of the Indian-American hoteliers. The book contains the untold history of the Patel hospitality narrative, from its genesis to its gradual consolidation and expansion throughout the U.S., and chronicles its founders and those Patels who came in the 1940s and 1950s. Today, the Gujarati hoteliers maintain a dominant presence in the U.S. hospitality landscape. The book traces the fascinating and inspiring history of how the Patels started the hotel business in California, and spread it to almost stratospheric heights.
For more information, please visit: www.patelhotelhistory.com


Total Litter Items
Total Rubbish Bags
Percentage of litter that is plastic
Percentage of litter that is local
Litter Monitoring Statistics as of June 2019
Our plastic challenge
The average plastic waste generation in Tanzania in 2010 was estimated at 0.02kg per person per day (Jambeck et al., 2015). This accounts for the per capita production prior to waste management and recycling interventions. In the commercial capital of Dar es Salaam, the amount of plastic in the total municipal waste composition increased from 16% in 2012 to 22% in 2014. This was primarily from the increase in PET beverage bottles, packaging of food stuffs and plastic bags used by small- and large-scale commercial vendors.
Considering an average waste collection of 58% in major urban centres across the country (Yhdego and Amir,2016), it is extrapolated that an estimate of 0.015kg of plastic per person per day ends up in the environment in 2019. That is equivalent to about one 500ml PET empty water bottle or 5 plastic shopping bags (HDPE).
The ability of the municipal waste management system to collect, treat and dispose waste in Dar es Salaam is hindered by inadequate human and financial resources, poor and insufficient quantity of equipment, restricted accessibility in terms of infrastructure as well as restructuring of governance structures.
This has resulted in land and marine pollution in the form of soil infertility, blocked drains that exasperate flooding during heavy rains, increased risk of water borne and non-communicable diseases, foul smells and deterioration of recreational beaches.
In 2018, 26 clean-ups organised by Nipe Fagio in Dar es Salaam collected 16,500kgs of waste; of which an average of 50% of sampled waste was plastic from domestic beverage and food industry brands and plastic bags. Apart from the visible effects of plastic pollution, a research paper in 2016 found microplastics in Tilapia and Nile Perch fish species sampled from Lake Victoria (Biginagwa et. Al., 2016). An on-going research conducted at the University of Dodoma (with support from WIOMSA) indicates preliminary findings of an accumulation of microplastics in the sediments and in cockle tissues sampled along the coastal shores of Dar es Salaam, Mafia and Pemba (Mayoma et al., 2019).
- Biginagwa, F. J.,Mayoma, B. S., Shashoua, Y., Syberg, K., Khan,a F. R. (2016).
- First evidence of microplastics in the African Great Lakes: Recovery from Lake Victoria Nile perch and Nile tilapia. Journal of Great Lakes Research, 42 (1) , 146-149.
- Jambeck, J. R., Geyer, R., Wilcox, C., Siegler, T. R., Perryman, M., Andrady, A., … & Law, K. L. (2015).
- Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean. Science, 347(6223), 768-771.
- Mayoma, B.S., Khan, F.R., Hemed, S., Shimba, M.J. (2019).
- Threats of microplastics pollution to the marine ecosystem of Tanzanian coastal waters. https://blog.wiomsa.net/2019.
- Yhdego, M. and Kingu, A. 2016. Solid waste management in urban centers of Tanzania leapfrogging towards a circular economy, Research Paper
Nipe Fagio (NF), “give me the broom” in Swahili, is a civil society organisation founded in 2013. Nipe Fagio is based in Dar es Salaam with partners in 14 regions of Tanzania. We aim to empower the civil society, the private sector and government to build lasting change towards turning Tanzania into a clean and sustainable country, conscious through education of its role on waste management and reduction of pollution.
Nipe Fagio advocates with the government:
- To increase government responsibility for reinforcing current laws and policies
- To push for new laws and policies to foster sustainable deve
Nipe Fagio works with the private sector:
- To identify and create business opportunities that promote a clean economy
- To educate about Best Waste Practices (BWP)
- To promote a safe circular economy
Nipe Fagio engages with the community:
- To raise awareness about the threats of pollution and environmental degradation
- To raise awareness about the threats brought by poor waste management for community and ecosystem health
The programme piloted in June 2019 at the beach sites where a site cleanup was conducted followed by a 10-day maro-litter accumulation survey. The accumulation surveys recorded 3,000kg of waste from both sites over the 10 days
The team is led by Ana Le Rocha, the Executive Director of Nipe Fagio. The core team is comprised of 2 Project Coordinators, 1 Policy Coordinator, 1 Campaigns and Communications Coordinator, 4 Community Mobilization Officers and 1 Finances and Admin Officer.


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美国哈佛大学Vijay G. Sankaran等研究人员合作开发出大规模平行单细胞线粒体DNA基因分型和染色质分析方法。这一研究成果于2020年8月12日在线发表在《自然—生物技术》上。
Title: Massively parallel single-cell mitochondrial DNA genotyping and chromatin profiling
Author: Caleb A. Lareau, Leif S. Ludwig, Christoph Muus, Satyen H. Gohil, Tongtong Zhao, Zachary Chiang, Karin Pelka, Jeffrey M. Verboon, Wendy Luo, Elena Christian, Daniel Rosebrock, Gad Getz, Genevieve M. Boland, Fei Chen, Jason D. Buenrostro, Nir Hacohen, Catherine J. Wu, Martin J. Aryee, Aviv Regev, Vijay G. Sankaran
Abstract: Natural mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations enable the inference of clonal relationships among cells. mtDNA can be profiled along with measures of cell state, but has not yet been combined with the massively parallel approaches needed to tackle the complexity of human tissue. Here, we introduce a high-throughput, droplet-based mitochondrial single-cell assay for transposase-accessible chromatin with sequencing (scATAC-seq), a method that combines high-confidence mtDNA mutation calling in thousands of single cells with their concomitant high-quality accessible chromatin profile. This enables the inference of mtDNA heteroplasmy, clonal relationships, cell state and accessible chromatin variation in individual cells. We reveal single-cell variation in heteroplasmy of a pathologic mtDNA variant, which we associate with intra-individual chromatin variability and clonal evolution. We clonally trace thousands of cells from cancers, linking epigenomic variability to subclonal evolution, and infer cellular dynamics of differentiating hematopoietic cells in vitro and in vivo. Taken together, our approach enables the study of cellular population dynamics and clonal properties in vivo. Combining droplet-based ATAC-seq and mitochondrial DNA sequencing reveals clonal variation in human cells and tissues.


Outcome of ABO-Incompatible Living Donor Kidney Transplantation: A Single Center Study from Nepal
Keywords:ABO incompatible , graft survival, infection, kidney transplantation, patient survival, rejection
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a progressive condition and has emerged as a public health problem worldwide. Kidney transplantation is the most effective treatment for end stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. However, the increasing number of ESRD patients and the limited availability of living and cadaveric donors has led to a growing waiting list for kidney transplantation. ABO-incompatible transplantation has emerged as an alternative for these patients in Nepal.
This was a retrospective observational study of all the patients who underwent kidney transplantation from March 2017- Feb 2019. Data on demography of recipients and donor, blood group, HLA mismatch, induction agent, post-operative complications and creatinine clearance at discharge and one-year post-transplant were collected and analysed. Then we compared patient and kidney graft survival at one year between ABO incompatible and ABO compatible recipients.
During the study period there were total of 124 kidney transplant recipients among them 12 were ABO incompatible and 112 were ABO compatible recipients. The study showed slightly lower patient and graft survival in ABO-incompatible recipients than ABO compatible recipients (83.3% vs 99.2%, p<0.001). However, death-censored graft survival were similar in both groups (100%,p<0.001). The graft function at one year measured by creatinine clearance was better in ABO-incompatible recipients than ABO-compatible recipients (67.1±11.75 vs 61.87±12.82, p<0.001). Postoperative complications were slightly higher, however, complications at one year were lower in ABO-incompatible recipients.
The study showed that living donor ABO-incompatible kidney transplant recipients have a good outcome at one year but is associated with greater risks of patient and graft loss at early transplant period compared to ABO-compatible recipients.
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Copyright (c) 2023 Journal of Institute of Medicine Nepal
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The Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOP), in broad sense, are a set of chemical treatment procedures designed to remove organic materials in wastewater by oxidation through reactions with hydroxyl radicals (OH*). To produce these radicals chemicals like ozone, hydrogen peroxide, UV light are used in combination. The ozone-peroxide combination has been known to produce high-energy hydroxyl radicals and are more effective in decolorizing textile effluents than other types of AOP, i.e. UV-Peroxide. These radicals are produced in situ by the following reaction:
2O3 + H2O2 → 2OH* + 3O2
It, however, has has some limitations resulting from ozone stability, which is affected by the presence of salts, pH and temperature. Ozone-Peroxide AOP is also expensive, but they produce no sludge. It is also possible to use AOP as a pre-treatment to biological treatment where the substances are broken down into simpler forms which can be biodegraded in the biological process.
Membrane treatments like ultra-filtration (UF) or micro-filtration (MF), or adsorption techniques like activated carbon treatments are used sometimes as an alternative to advanced oxidation processes. These processes are always used in combination with some other process as these are used as final polishing steps. Some dyes are not biodegradable and therefore are not affected by the biological processes. These dyes can be removed by membrane or adsorption treatments.
As the demand for water reuse is rising due to scarcity of water, it is recommended that, for achieving consistently high quality treated effluent, it is advisable to use AOP – either as a pre-treatment step to biological treatment to alter the biodegradability of primarily stable dye molecules, or as a post-treatment to biological treatment as a final polishing step. There are also studies which suggest that the combination of conventional activated sludge treatment (biological treatments) followed by sand filtration or activated carbon filter (physical treatments) have high organics removal and color removal rates with low operational difficulty and nominal chemical cost.
Below is the basic process flow diagram of a treatment process. First, the primary treatment takes place through coagulation or flocculation following which settling of wastewater takes place in a gravity settler. The wastewater then undergoes biological treatment. After the biological treatment, the water is transferred into a solid/liquid separator, from where it is transferred into one of three different available options as illustrated in the process diagram.


New Year is always a time of resolutions and one of them is often to learn something new to read more. Below is a list of 12 books for the next 12 months ahead. I have read them all and I hope that you will find something for yourself in this mix. Whether you read them all, a few, or even only one, enjoy them and let me know their impact on you. And if you know great books that could benefit others, please let me know or recommend them in the comments section below.
Happy New Year, and happy reading!
“How Will You Measure Your Life” by Clayton M. Christensen. When my stepson was 20 and was trying to figure out what to do with his life, I gave him this book and it helped him find his own way. I recommend it to my Millennial clients , who love it so much that they give it as presents to their friends. The book looks at fundamental questions about life, and our own purpose, through a lens of business theories and business experience. Because of this, it is also very useful to leaders who want to leave a meaningful legacy. But it is mostly a great book for those who try to find answers to the universal life’s questions. It also looks at some of the biggest, typical traps in life and offers advice on how to avoid them. As professor Christensen said: “Look at it as a guidebook for your future. (…) It won’t offer simplistic answers. It won’t tell yo what to think. It won’t prescribe a set path for happiness. Instead, it will equip you to lead the type of life to which you truly aspire.”
“Difficult conversations: How To Discuss What Matters Most” by Sheila Heen, Douglas Stone and Bruce Patton. If I could recommend only one book today, this would be it. I’ve been recommending it for years to all my clients and to everybody who asks me for advice on how to have better relationships, manage conflicts more successfully, and live a better, more fulfilling life. I have read it 7 times, I took a course at the Harvard University with the authors, and I have run several communication courses based on it. Their participants have often described it as “revolutionary”, “life-changing”or “transforming”. Just do yourself a favor and get your hands on a copy today. And for maximum benefit, do not stop at reading – practice the principles every day! You can thank me later, when you notice how the quality of your relationships improves, how the conflicts in your life become less frequent and intense, and how you become more assertive, more respected, more effective in the way you communicate.
“Thanks for the Feedback – The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well” by Sheila Heen and Douglas Stone. This is the direct sequel to the “Difficult Conversations”. This time, Sheila and Doug focus on what they have identified as the most difficult conversation type: feedback. What is innovative in this book, is the focus on how to receive feedback. “Blending the latest insights from neuroscience and psychology with practical, hardheaded advice, this book fills an important gap in the literature on leadership, organizational behavior, and education”. And I agree with professor Adam Grant who said that this book: “is a roadmap to less defensiveness, more self-awareness, greater learning and richer relationships”.
“Extreme Ownership: How US Navy Seals Lead and Win” by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. Two retired U.S. Navy SEALs wrote a book about leadership and responsibility for all of us non-SEALs out there. And it’s good. They call their method “Extreme Ownership” because it’s exactly about that: taking complete responsibility for everything in your life and work that you can influence. They describe the leadership lessons which they learnt during their missions and offer a practical way to apply them in life and in business. What I love about this book is that it offers extremely powerful lessons in a simple, no-nonsense way. I recommend it to everybody who wants to stop going round in circles with their life or career and to those who want to understand what leadership is really about. If I could, I would make this book a mandatory reading for everybody with a leadership ambition.
“Ego Is The Enemy” by Ryan Holiday. This book has a clear message: there is no success, or good life, if your efforts ride on your ego. Using examples and stories from literature, history and philosophy this book shows the destructive powers of ego. Its message is especially relevant to leaders, because through their position of authority they can cause extensive damage to themselves and their organizations unless they learn to control this destructive force. It’s a cautionary tale, but one that also offers inspiration and guidance to dealing with this deep psychological challenge. It’s also a reminder that hard work, and humility, not ambition, are the cornerstones of success.
“Our Iceberg Is Melting” by John Kotter & Holger Rathgeber and “Who Moved my Cheese” by Spencer Johnson, M.D. Ok, so these are two books but they are related both by the topic (managing change) and the style (fable). Written in a very entertaining way (a story about animals) and nicely illustrated, both books look at what change is. They also look at the importance of facing the facts before and during change, at the importance of taking risks and at the typical resistance issues. Then, they offer a simple roadmap to a successful change management. These books are a must-read for anyone dealing with, or managing change.
“Men at Arms”, a Discworld novel. For July I recommend a light read by the inimitable Terry Pratchett. This is the 14th novel in his Discworld series. Go ahead and read them all! But if you read only one, read this one. It’s a hilariously written detective story, but one that also looks quite closely at the issues of true vs. fake leadership, tolerance, charisma, friendship, calling vs. career, duty vs. ego, love and marriage, and last but not least, at how the politics are made. A great book for those long beach days.
“Biography of Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson. August is another “lazy” summer month. What better thing to do with all the time you have on those long evenings than to read this fascinating biography of a fascinating person by a fascinating author? “Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur (…) and the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination”. Another perfect read (all 656 pages) for those lazy summer days.
“Agatha Christie, An Autobiography”. Agatha Christie, the undisputed queen of detective stories, was born on 15th September, and her autobiography makes a perfect recommendation for this month. You will learn, in her own words, about her formative early years, about her creative routine, about making big life mistakes and taking big risks, about success and disappointment, about the unhappy marriage to Archibald Christie and her happy marriage to Max Mallowan, about creating the most famous detective of all times, and about a silly bet with her sister that changed absolutely everything. Enjoy!
“Poised for Success”. This book is for anyone who is serious about building their personal brand and making the best possible first impression on everyone they meet. Written by my mentor Jacqueline Whitmore, it explores what she calls the four “P” qualities of success: Presence, Polish, Professionalism, and Passion. It’s basically a guide to packaging yourself for success by refining and maintaining your professional and personal brand. In the highly competitive world today, this book helps you stand out in a positive and memorable way.
“Grit” by Angela Duckworth. What is more important for success: talent, intelligence, and luck or: hard work, commitment and discipline? Why some people succeed in life, despite limitations and adversity, and some fail, despite having everything they need to succeed? And why some people always get up and try again, and others don’t recover from failures? In a gripping combination of hard scientific research and compelling stories, professor Angela Duckworth answers these questions and provides a roadmap to living and working better, to raising resilient kids and to creating more success. If you want to understand psychology of achievement and harness it for your own success, read this book. And if you are impatient, watch her TED talk.
“The Difference: When Good Enough Isn’t Enough” by Subir Chowdhury. In our recent discussion, my mentor Desiree Steinman observed that “Humanity has all but left big corporations”. Based on my experience and what I see in the world, sadly, she might be right. However, this book offers hope and a roadmap for the humanity to find its way back to the big corporations. In this powerful guide to living a successful life and career, the management consultant Subir Chowdhury explains how the “caring mindset”: the ability to nurture the skills, loyalty and passion of the people who make up an organization, and creating a culture built on straightforwardness, thoughtfulness, accountability and resolve make the difference between successful and unsuccessful organizations. Basically, this book is a business case for what Charles Dickens described so compellingly in his “Christmas Carol”. Two hundred years later we are still struggling with the same issues. This is the modern book about the anti-Mr. Scrooge approach, and so, a perfect book for December.


what's next on your to do list?
Strange But True: Summer Reading Club
Since 1990 the British Columbia Library Association and local public libraries have sponsored a provincial Summer Reading Club which encourages summer reading and public library use by school-age children and families in BC, encouraging them to do their very best and to set their own reading goals.
Children ages six to twelve are invited to join the Strange…But True? Summer Reading Club this summer, registration begins June 15. Vancouver Public Library also invites school age children to join the Multilingual Summer Reading Club – read books in any language!
This year’s Summer Reading Club illustrator is Mike Deas. Mike is an author/illustrator of graphic novels. His love for illustrative storytelling comes from an early love of reading and drawing while growing up on Saltspring Island, British Columbia. Summer Reading Club members will receive a reading record, bookmark, and stickers to collect. Children can record the titles and authors of the books they read on the reading record. It’s lots of fun and absolutely free!
Check out Vancouver Public Library’s Summer Reading Club events at: http://www.vpl.ca.
The Summer Reading Club is sponsored by the British Columbia Library Association and the Vancouver Public Library, with funding from the Libraries and Literacy, Ministry of Education, The Honourable George Abbott, Minister.


The Good Braider by Terry Farish
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Viola's harrowing journey with her family from the war torn country of Sudan to Portland, Maine. Before leaving Juba, Viola is raped by a soldier; her self worth and her bride price are stripped. Farish does a superb job painting the fear, anguish and despair of Viola and those in her community in fear for their lives while trying to flee a country gripped in civil war. Once Viola, her mother and little brother escape, Juba, they begin a long perilous journey to Khartoum. Once Viola arrives in Portland, Maine settling into a community of African immigrants, attending school and working a job there is the clash of the new American culture and preserving the Sudanese culture. This novel in verse achieves the beauty of Viola's new American world and harsh reminders of the brutal civil war, Viola's voice is strong, happy, conflicted, scared, and hopeful. I loved the braiding title, which symbolized Viola's African world of beauty and how once in the US, she does not braid anymore and will not have her own hair braided. It is through her friends and family from the Sudan as well as her American friends that Viola finds her place in her new world of Portland, Maine. This is a must read for young adults; they will learn about the genocide the Sudanese suffered through, they will appreciate the customs and community that are so important to Viola. What is even more important for teens is to see the world through Viola's eyes and the positive and negative impact of American culture on immigrant communities. Powerful, this book is beautiful!
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Napoleon Hill is one of my favorite authors. I thought I’d share a few of his many great quotes.
Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit.
No man ever achieved worth-while success who did not, at one time or another, find himself with at least one foot hanging well over the brink of failure.
Before success comes in any man’s life, he’s sure to meet with temporary defeat and, perhaps failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and most logical thing to do is to quit. That’s exactly what the majority of men do.


Victor Lodato is the author of two critically acclaimed novels. Edgar and Lucy was called "a riveting and exuberant ride" by the New York Times, and Mathilda Savitch, winner of the PEN USA Award, was hailed as "a Salingeresque wonder of a first novel." Mathilda Savitch, a "Best Book of the Year" according to The Christian Science Monitor, Booklist, and The Globe and Mail, won the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize and has been published in sixteen countries.
Victor is a Guggenheim Fellow, as well as the recipient of fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts, The Princess Grace Foundation, The Camargo Foundation (France), and The Bogliasco Foundation (Italy). His short fiction and essays have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Granta, and Best American Short Stories.
Victor was born and raised in New Jersey and currently divides his time between Ashland, Oregon and Tucson, Arizona.


I’ve always had a fascination with myriad things macabre and gruesome: Horror literature, horror films, horror-themed music, etc… The myths, legends, and tales of fear and terror have captured my imagination for as long as I can remember. The forms of media and how these stories and images are presented have been expanded and modified, but my appreciation for the horror genre has always been foremost in terms of what amused and entertained me.
As a kid in the 70s, I didn’t have access to the internet and thousands of cable channels, but always found a way to appease my appetite for the ghastly and horrific. Books – novels and anthologies of short stories – were always in my possession via libraries and stores. Hell, even comic books of the 70s catered to my tastes (and – happily – even presented monstrous creatures as heroes, like Werewolf by Night and Ghost Rider – more on that later). Television was limited, but I always sought out programming that featured horror films. This was always specialized weekend programming, usually on a Saturday afternoon or late at night. The shows I recall were ‘Shock Theater’ and ‘Creature Feature’ for afternoon fun, with ‘Count Zappula’ (a local horror film host) and ‘TJ and the ANT (All Night Theater)’ occupying my late night viewing.
Nevertheless, I was a pretty normal kid. My absorption of horror literature and film wasn’t the result of a hermetic existence. On the contrary, I’ve always been an active, social person, as well as an avid sports fan. Still, my interest in horror was greater than most people I knew.
When I state, ‘I am the monster’, I’m tapping into not just my enjoyment of ghoulish themes, but also how I identify with – what I consider to be – the true protagonist of these tales and images: the monster or alleged menace.
Does this mean I root for the shark in Jaws?
Identify with Hannibal Lector?
Of course not.
Feel a kindred spirit with the menacing ghosts in Poltergeist?
To be more specific, I find some themes and stories of terror which include a sympathetic take on the monster or menace to be a nice twist. Not a genuinely cruel or evil presence, but possibly a misunderstood or misfortunate character. Examples would include any number of those afflicted with lycanthropy and beasts or persons that are merely defending their turf or utter existence: Werewolves; Frankenstein’s Monster; King Kong; Godzilla; The Creature from the Black Lagoon; etc… Shit, throw in the mad scientists too. We all identify with the misguided genius.
Vampires? Nah, fuck ‘em. I’ve been a vampire on Halloween, sure, but vampires as sympathetic or engaging characters is a premise I’ve found tiresome for awhile now. Anne Rice, other modern authors, films, and episodic TV shows for many years now have offered the world blood suckers as cute, cuddly, and ‘hip’ in an annoying manner (the recent exceptions for me are the brilliant films ‘Let the Right One In’ and ‘Thirst’). Besides, I’ve never identified with the well-manicured, perfumed seducer wearing a suit and cape. I do like the monstrous personification of the vampire in films like Nosferatu and Salem’s Lot, however. A truly menacing and frightening presence, a nearly unstoppable, mysterious force of nature is the best way to deliver the goods with the vampire character, in my opinion.
I’ve really dug the monster cast as a martyr/hero theme, and as I mentioned before, the comics of the 70s drilled down into that scenario in a timely manner for me. Already a super hero/comic book nerd, the concept featuring a wolf man or demon from hell (i.e. Werewolf by Night and Ghost Rider) as a vigilante unwanted by society was something I dove into (and already a common storyline in comics with Batman and Spiderman being the best examples).
What about the beast carrying away the beauty?
Oh yeah. I’m all over that. I am the monster.