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POPULAR CATEGORY Welcome to Tech 5 Blog, it's great pleasure for us that you read our article. If you have any suggestion or want to write a post with us then contact us. Suggest any topic that you want to see on our blog. We provide all Tech news with entertainment topic. Thank you for Visiting our website.

Ruins of Adventure It's like 2nd Edition with ascending ACs and Attack bonuses. What's not to love? Ring of Naonúr Thar A bone ring, carved with a skull, and set with a piece of uncut amethyst. Category: ring Description: This bone ring is carved with a skull on either side, and set with a piece of uncut amethyst. The gem and the bone blend into each other, as if the gem were were somehow grown from the bone before it was carved. It radiates a strong aura of necromantic magic when such is detected. This ring is part of a series of eight rings fashioned by the Warrior Mystics of the ancient Nogian Empire. Sometimes referred to as the Rings of Affliction, each ring corresponds to a single school of magic, greatly enhancing the wearer’s abilities in that school at the expense of others. This ring grants an attuned wearer advantage on all saving throws against spells from the Necromancy school, but disadvantage on saving throws against spells from the schools of Illusion or Enchantment. Similarly, the wearer gains advantage on attack rolls made with Necromancy spells that he casts, but disadvantage on attacks made with Illusion or Enchantment spells. Other creatures must save against any Necromancy spells cast by the wearer with disadvantage, but gain advantage on saving throws against the wearer’s Illusion and Enchantment spells. Once per day, an attuned wearer of the Ring of Naonúr Thar can cast a single spell of the Necromancy school as if it were cast using a spell slot of 2 levels higher than the slot actually used (to a maximum of 9th level).

Luis Enrique delighted as Barca extend record unbeaten run LONDON (Reuters) - Barcelona coach Luis Enrique was impressed with the way his team performed in their Champions League win at Arsenal on Tuesday, which extended their club record unbeaten run to 33 games. The holders won the last 16 first leg tie 2-0 with second-half goals from Lionel Messi, including a penalty, as they moved closer to becoming the first team to lift the European Cup in successive seasons since AC Milan in 1989 and 1990. "I liked everything from the very beginning," Luis Enrique told reporters. "We had plenty of possession, we defended very well and we managed Arsenal's transitions (counter-attacks) very well. "They are one of the best teams in the world with their transitions, but we coped with them, kept the game level and then turned it in our favour. "I liked everything that we did tonight and we were the deserved winners. We dealt with Arsenal's pressure really well in the second half and my players coped perfectly the whole match." The one blemish on Barcelona's performance was a yellow card for defender Gerard Pique after 85 minutes which means he misses the return at the Nou Camp on March 16, leaving him with a clean slate for a probable quarter-final in April. After Messi scored from the spot to put Barca 2-0 ahead, Pique went to the touchline and had a quick conversation with the coach as the pair covered their mouths with their hands. Soon after that Pique went rushing in with a late lunge on Arsenal substitute Danny Welbeck and was booked by Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir. However, Luis Enrique denied any skullduggery. "No, it was not a deliberate foul by Gerard Pique, he had to commit that foul," he said. "There was nothing deliberate about it at all."

Two Days in Bangkok Bangkok traffic – the busiest in the world I’m alone and running across a strange city on a strange new continent. It’s melty degrees and I’m sweating as I dodge between tuk-tuks, hoping that my girlfriend will be alright left on the platform on the other side of the city for an hour and a half. Leaving my phone charging in the Bangkok hostel wasn’t the smartest move I’ve ever made and now we’ve missed the bus… We got up for a 4am taxi to the airport in Christchurch, New Zealand. I found $30AUD in my pocket so bought a South East Asian phrasebook at Sydney airport for our adventures ahead. Boarding the Sydney to Bangkok flight, the Aussie airline assistant took one look at my All Blacks shirt and said to me: ‘they already kicked you out of Australia for wearing that?’ I was feeling nervous and naive to enter a non-first world country for the first time in nearly a quarter of a century on this planet. Time for something new… Our first taste of Thailand On arrival we followed directions from the Bangkok airport to the hostel via the train, and checked in. It was hot and muggy and clearly a melting pot of all forms of human life – I was excited and slightly overwhelmed by the assault on all of my senses. On first impression, Bangkok felt more alive than any other city I’d been in. We got a free whisky shot at the hostel (which tasted like mouthwash) and bought some chicken noodles before grabbing some overdue sleep. The next morning we had a croissant and bought an asian plug converter, then got a train to the bus station and bought tickets to go to Koh Samet for the following day. We got a train into town to Hua Lamphong and walked around for quite a while. We found our way to Rachawongse Pier, where we got a boat to Tha Chang Pier up the Chao Phraya River and had an awesome stir fry noodle lunch at the market. We turned right and walked round all four sides of the Grand Palace in sweltering heat but by the time we finally reached the entrance it was 3.30pm and the Palace was closed. If only we had turned left… There’s something alluring about downtown Bangkok We walked along Saham Luang Royal Ground to Khao San Road, the ultimate backpacker street. It was very touristy, as you would expect. We also walked along Kraisri Road, which is parallel to Khao San and just more of the same, really. We got the ferry again from from Phra Arthit to Oriental Pier and walked back through Silam Road to Lub D hostel, where we were given free beef and pork kebabs. A bit later I grabbed some seafood rice from down the road – thus far the Bangkok food had been great! The Bangkok Sky Bar was famously used in the film Hangover Part II and we walked over to it, excited to have a drink atop the skyscraper with surely the best view of all of Bangkok. Frustratingly, we weren’t allowed in due to their dress code so we went back to the hostel to get changed. The sky bar was worth the hassle – apparently the world’s highest rooftop restaurant at a dizzying 64 flights up, this was one incredible experience. The bar was super busy but eventually we got served a cocktail each. As we went to leave we were informed that there was another rooftop bar on floor 52. We had a cocktail each there too and it hosted equally stunning views but was far less crowded. I stupidly had the cocktail all guys ask for pretending to be James Bond, forgetting how disgusting it is in real life: a Vesper Martini. I did finish it, though, and it was a pretty awesome night! The Sky Bar from Hangover II! The next day we awoke fairly early and had another croissant breakfast at Lub D. It was only after taking two trains to the bus station that I realised I had left my phone on charge back at the hostel! I had to go back and left Jodes at the station with our bags for about an hour and a half. By now we had missed the bus so had to buy another to Trat – we decided to bypass Koh Samet and go straight to Koh Chang… Search Whaddup JP I’ve been to… @WhaddupJP on Twitter What are people reading? Copyright Notice All content used on this website is my own, unless stated otherwise. No images should be used without the image credit's permission. All opinions are my own and I have not been paid to write a positive or negative view on anything.

Shapefield UG (haftungsbeschränkt) is a company located in Germany, 66115 Saarbrücken at Altenkesseler Straße 17/C1. Shapefield UG (haftungsbeschränkt) has an ACTIVE entity status and an ISSUED LEI code. The Legal Entity Identifier code of Shapefield UG (haftungsbeschränkt) is 391200G8VPMLKJQI1D50. The legal form of this company is 63KS.

I will blog here anything that I find interesting and useful in the world of internet. I will write about internet,news and events around the world in the fields of Science, Technology, Money Making, Fashion, Politics, Automobile, Spirituality, E-commerce, Religion, Education, Blogging, Business, Entertainment, Movie world, Books, Video games, Television, Celebrities, Festivals, Shopping, Computer Security, Search Engines and Directories, Home and Garden. My life slogan: Pass it on; Share Tuesday, June 3 Have you seen the magnetic field? We have all been reading about magnetic field since our school days. We have seen and participated in conducting experiments on magnetic field, took a few readings on a gauge and graphed the map of showing the magnetic field but.. But we have never really seen a magnetic field with our eyes-right? Now are you ready to see it? Warning!After seeing this video clip and reading the comments, it is likely to develop doubts over the authenticity of it. I just took it in my stride and enjoyed it.

On Tuesday, Apple will change the way humans interact with electronic devices. All over again. Perhaps the biggest announcement at Apple’s iPhone event on Tuesday will be Assistant, Apple’s evolution of the Siri Personal Assistant Software. Siri, you’ll remember, is the company Apple picked up for a rumored $200 million in April of last year for, in Steve Jobs’ words, its “Artificial Intelligence”, not search or speech recognition. During Siri’s brief two months on its own, it described itself as a ‘VPA’: Virtual Personal Assistants (VPAs) represent the next generation interaction paradigm for the Internet. In today’s paradigm, we follow links on search results. With a VPA, we interact by having a conversation. We tell the assistant what we want to do, and it applies multiple services and information sources to help accomplish our task. Like a real assistant, a VPA is personal; it uses information about an individual’s preferences and interaction history to help solve specific tasks, and it gets better with experience. Apple has long wanted to bring an Artificial Intelligence-based Personal Assistant to the masses. In the late 80’s, Apple made the Knowledge Navigator series of videos (example below) to showcase this ambition. In the video, the professor mentions that someone wrote an article 5 years ago trashing Jill’s research (watch from 1:25 min onwards, at 1:50 min he mentions more details) – The computer says the doctor’s name and says his article in 2006 – which means the professor is in 2011. Ha! Thanks PBHK! The world has come a long way since then, but as you’ll see on Tuesday, Apple had remarkable foresight way back in 1987. We had the chance to speak to Siri’s co-founder and board member, Norman Winarsky… First, Some Background: The device input methods we’ve used in the past have first been the keyboard, then the mouse and more recently, there is the touch interface. All of these methods, while not invented by Apple, were “mainstreamed” by Steve Jobs’ company over the last thirty-five years. But humans didn’t evolve to communicate with keyboards or mice or even a touch screen. We’ve contorted our bodies to deal with our computer tools (Hi RSI!) but really we’re hard-wired for talking and listening – functions we, as a species, have been doing for tens of thousands of years. Unfortunately, we haven’t yet invented a computer that can understand what we say, and more importantly, use that information to go find answers and relay that information back to us. That would require not only recognition of the language but the Artificial Intelligence to understand it, use it, and return something of value. Well, that’s not entirely true. In 2003, the US Government began the most ambitious Artificial Intelligence program in its history called the “Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes” or CALO program. The name was inspired by the Latin word “calonis”, which means “soldier’s servant”. Funded by DARPA as part of its Personal Assistant that Learns project, the program ran for five years and brought together more than 300 researchers from 25 of the top university and commercial research institutions, with the goal of “building a new generation of cognitive assistants that can reason, learn from experience, be told what to do, explain what they are doing, reflect on their experience, and respond robustly to surprise.” The program was coordinated through SRI International in Menlo Park, CA. As the program ended in 2007, SRI took the knowledge gained by the CALO and some of its key players and formed Siri. SRI’s Norman Winarsky, the man uniquely positioned at the crossroads of the CALO project and the company spun off out of it talked to us about the implications of Apple mainstreaming ‘Assistant’. 9to5Mac: What was your role in putting together Siri? Norm: As CALO was coming to an end, we realized that there were incredible commercial opportunities to build a smart personal assistant from what we learned over the five years of the CALO project. My job was getting funding (VC’s were Morgenthaler and Menlo Ventures)and assembling the team headed by Dag Kittlaus a former Motorola Executive. With him came Semantic Web genius Tom Gruber and Chief Architect of CALO Adam Cheyer. At the time of Apple purchase, the team was at 19 and growing. All three co-founders still work at Apple with much of the rest of the original team. I obviously stayed at SRI after the purchase. 9to5Mac: Can you tell us a little bit about getting picked up by Apple? What was the process? How did they evaluate the company? Are any of the financials available? Norm: I am bound by non-disclosure on all of the information from the sale that is not public including the [rumored $200 million] sale price. What is notable is that Apple closed its purchase of Siri just two months after we went public with our app. You can probably draw your own conclusions from that. 9to5Mac: How important is Nuance speech recognition to the Siri technology? Norm: It is a lot less important than you’d probably think. When we first built Siri, we use Vlingo for speech recognition and as such, at the time of purchase the speech recognition component is modular. Theoretically, if a better speech recognition comes along (or Apple buys one), they could likely replace Nuance without too much trouble. That being said, Nuance has far and away the most IP in speech synthesis technologies in the industry. We should know, SRI launched Nuance as one of our incubated companies in 1995 and it IPO’d in 2000. 9to5Mac: What kind of power does the Siri AI take? Could it have caused the delay of the next iPhone? Norm: I’m not familiar with Apple’s roadmap and any delays but I can say that AI takes a lot of computing power. The Siri software needs to cache data, needs to access a big dataset at wide bandwidth and needs a big processor to crunch all of the numbers. When we originally released Siri for the iPhone 3GS, we had to perform all kinds of optimizations and shortcuts to get it to work efficiently. All I can say is that it will likely run much better on a faster phone. 9to5Mac: Is this Siri ‘Assistant’ a big deal? Norm: Let me first say I have no knowledge of what Apple plans to do with the Siri purchase. I read the rumors just like everyone else and it appears that Apple is getting ready to reveal what it has done with Siri over the past year and a half (we were actually expecting it at WWDC). Make no mistake: Apple’s ‘mainstreaming’ Artificial Intelligence in the form of a Virtual Personal Assistant is a groundbreaking event. I’d go so far as to say it is a World-Changing event. Right now a few people dabble in partial AI enabled apps like Google Voice Actions, Vlingo or Nuance Go. Siri was many iterations ahead of these technologies, or at least it was two years ago. This is REAL AI with REAL market use. If the rumors are true, Apple will enable millions upon millions of people to interact with machines with natural language. The PAL will get things done and this is only the tip of the iceberg. We’re talking another technology revolution. A new computing paradigm shift. It reminds me of another SRI Project: Doug Engelbart, Inventor of Mouse augmented human ability back in the ’60s. Just as Steve Jobs took that technology and ran with it, we believe that Apple will use Siri to start another revolution. 9to5Mac: Thanks for your time Norm. This reminds us of the Steve Jobs computer is a bicycle for the mind quote: Some other interesting data on the founders: The three founders are all still at Apple, though they work on other projects. We found Dag Kittlaus’ comments that he’s now making “the next big thing into a really big thing” interesting (below). . Adam Cheyer demonstrated (PDF) the CALO Express application in 2007, just before starting Siri. The application ran on Windows CE because it was aimed at government use. Perhaps Tom Gruber at Semantic Web in 2008 just before Siri went public was most interesting: [vodpod id=Video.15499711&w=651&h=488&fv=] Come back to 9to5mac.com Tuesday at 10am Pacific for all of the announcements.

Did you know that if Medicare pays for medical care that you received because of someone else's wrongdoing, and you then bring a lawsuit seeking compensation for your injuries, Medicare has a legal obligation to make you repay them? Let me repeat that and explain. Let's say you're in an accident caused when a driver crossed over the double yellow line and hit you. You're in the hospital for weeks and Medicare pays your bills. If you now sue the driver of the car that caused your accident, Medicare will come to you and your lawyer and say "Pay Up." The government wants their money back if you get money from the person who caused your injuries. Depending on how much money you get and how much money Medicare paid, we can, in some cases negotiate with Medicare to reduce the amount that they must be repaid. 4 Comments to "Medicare Can Ruin Your Lawsuit- Find Out How" I sued a party and won. Their insurance agreed to pay damages and to reimburse Medicare for conditional payments for treatment. Medicare then sent me a bill not only for the treatments for the injury but also for subsequent treatments unrelated to the injury. They said I could appeal their demand if I wanted to dispute the amount but that I would have to prove it. The time and effort required is exhausting and the turnaround time is long. Their notice came one year after the settlement and the insurance company was supposed to have reimbursed Medicare. That wouldn't happen if it was a billing problem with a private business. The system is a big hole filled with fly paper and it takes forever to get it all off. Posted by Harold Richardson on July 2, 2013 at 07:13 PM I went to a very bad dentist who ruined my teeth leading to infections and I did not sue because of medicaid-medicare since it would have been a waste of time plus I did not sue for a slip and fall , a major fraude case and a car accident that left me in pain for life so a total of 4 law suites I dropped not to be wasting my time on 4 losers. I live with bowel and kidney disease that is a death sentence. I turned down the last surgery to speed up the death sentence since I am very tired at 54 of pain and poverty and the disgrace of the U.S.A. system. They don't do this in Europe or Australis it is all free no pay backs. Posted by larbacmc on April 21, 2010 at 05:42 PM Hi Lorraine, I'm sorry to learn about your brother. The purpose of bringing any lawsuit in New York is to obtain compensation for the injured victims and their families. Obviously, once permanent damage has occurred, no amount of money can replace the injured victim. Medicare and Medicaid play an important part in being able to provide medical services for people who do not have health insurance in New York. It allows them to obtain medical care from doctors and hospitals without having to worry how they're going to pay their medical and hospital bills. If the medical care and treatment your loved one is receiving came about because of wrongdoing caused by a doctor or a hospital, and you or your family recover his compensation for those injuries or death, then Medicare has a legal obligation to recoup the money that they paid for your family member's medical care and treatment. This means, practically speaking, that anytime you bring a lawsuit seeking compensation for injuries caused by someone else's wrongdoing, and are successful; if Medicare or Medicaid paid for those medical services, then they must, by law, make every effort to retrieve the money that they paid out. Unfortunately, in some cases, this means that you and your family may receive little or no money as compensation, after the attorneys expenses, the attorney fees and the debt that must be repaid to Medicare or Medicaid. You and your family would receive the remaining amount of money after all that. That is why, in some instances, I have recommended that a family not pursue a lawsuit since doing so will likely not result in them receiving any financial compensation after all fees and Medicare and/or Medicaid have been paid back. In many instances, we are able to negotiate with Medicare and/or Medicaid to try and get them to reduce the amount they are seeking, based upon the amount we are actually able to recover as financial compensation for you and your family. I wish you and your family the best of health in the future. Good luck to you. Gerry Posted by Gerry Oginski on November 2, 2009 at 02:51 PM MY BROTHER DIED IN THE CARE OF A NURSING FACULITY. HE WAS ON MEDICARE MEDICAID. IF HE DIED AS A WRONGEFUL DEATH AS WE BELIEVE (THE ATTORNEY GENERALS OFFICE WAS CALLED IN) IS IT TRUE THAT MY BROTHER DIED IN VAIN BECAUSE HE HAD NOTHING? WE COULD NOT SUE. WHAT ABOUT THE LOVE THAT IS LOST OF MY BEST FRIEND AND MY CHILDRENS UNCLE. HE WAS ONLY 58 YRS OLD. Posted by LORRAINE on November 2, 2009 at 02:12 PM Post a comment Post a Comment to "Medicare Can Ruin Your Lawsuit- Find Out How" To reply to this message, enter your reply in the box labeled "Message", hit "Post Message." The material on this website is for informational purposes only. Mr. Oginski practices law exclusively in the State of New York. We do not practice law in any other State. Please do not send any written materials to this office until you have spoken and/or communicated with us. We cannot consider you a client until such time as we have consulted with you, and met with you personally. Since all cases are different and legal authority can and does change, it is important to remember that prior results cannot and do not guarantee similar outcomes with respect to any future matter in which any lawyer or law firm may be retained. To the extent that this website discusses past cases the firm has handled, or in any way mentions the firm or its services, New York courts may deem this to be attorney advertising.

Top 5 E-commerce Technology Trends for 2016 Last year Amazon’s sales grew by 20%. Meanwhile, Walmart struggles to achieve even a 1% growth. Guess why? Traditional e-commerce solutions no longer work on their own! If you want to start a successful online store, be sure to merge the digital & real-world customer experience – and keep up with the times, of course! What are the latest trends in e-commerce website and app development? Read on to find out! E-commerce technology: hottest trends to watch this year M-commerce. Today 78% of US population comfortably access the Web from both desktop and mobile – and it looks like users no longer shy away from mobile payments, too! With 34% of the global payment transactions made on smartphones, building an e-commerce mobile-friendly website or native application is a must. However, simply having an app on the App Store and optimizing your website for mobile doesn’t always translate into actual sales. An average smartphone owner interacts with up to 27 apps monthly (with only 5 apps including Facebook seeing heavy use), so basically no one is waiting for your brand-new app. Should you stick to mobile web then? Hold on a sec! What do your competitors do to reach people on mobile? Prominent US retailers (including Target and Macy’s) use beacons to reward their customers with digital coupons and personal shopping tips; according to Macy’s, beacons boost app usage by 16 times. Smaller brands that cannot afford building a mobile app or simply want to test the waters often distribute digital coupons through third-party services like RetailMeNot or ShopAdvisor. Starbucks turned to gamification and developed a creative customer loyalty program. Now coffee lovers earn stars for every purchase and exchange the virtual currency for free drinks. The company also announced plans to partner with Apple Pay so that customers could pay for coffee by simply tapping an iPhone or Apple Watch at a Starbucks terminal. As a result, 20% of Starbucks’ payment transactions now come from mobile. Smartphone users are the force to reckon with; do you know how to engage them? Customer-centered approach. The era of traditional SEO is officially over. With the latest “out-of-the box” e-commerce SEO technologies (including third-party apps, widgets and WordPress plugins), businesses can automate a great share of website optimization processes and…devote more time to their customers. Product pages (lots of pictures and a few lines of text) are on their way out. Users now spend 21% of their Web time in search engines; what are they looking for? Well, it is reviews and high-quality long-form content that helps them make buying decisions. Video content is the next big thing, two. Website users who watch product videos while shopping online are 3.3 times more likely to make a purchase. By the end of 2016, videos will account for 60% of the world’s web traffic. And don’t forget about user experience. An online shopper may start a transaction on mobile and then complete it on a PC or tablet; does your app look (and feel) equally good on all existing platforms? Some brands (including L’Oreal and Converse) use the Augmented Reality technology, enabling customers to virtually try on their products. Once you deliver value to your customers, you’re doomed to success; Omnipresent IoT. Gartner claims there will be 6.4 billion connected devices worldwide by the end of this year; it’s no wonder the Internet of Things is one of the latest tech trends in e-commerce right now! In fact, IoT is the very tool that can help retailers bring online and in-store experience together. We’ve already told you about the beacon technology; however, IoT is much bigger than that. Last year Amazon announced its Dash button – a smart gadget connected to a user’s smartphone through Wi-Fi. Once you’re running out of something (washing powder, shaving gel or whatever it is), you simply press the magic button and…order the goods online. What looked like a silly joke at first (Dash was launched one day before April Fools’) resulted in a 75% increase in orders. Similar solution was implemented by Domino. The innovative approach to online shopping helped the famous pizza restaurant chain increase sales by 15% – and that’s not to mention the extensive media coverage the company got for free. Technology helps you win customers – and their wallets, of course. Why not embrace it? Chatbots on the rise. A chatbot is a smart computer program designed to handle conversations on a human level. Chatbots provide relevant information to users and guide them through complicated online transactions – and that’s exactly what 44% of online shoppers want. You can create a chatbot while building an e-commerce website or run the smart program inside a messaging app. Popular messengers including Kik, Facebook and WeChat (the Chinese monster app with 700 million active users) have launched chatbot platforms to enable companies build smart voice assistants and use them for business purposes. It is considerably cheaper to develop a chatbot than a high-quality mobile app – and that’s why some IT experts think bots will soon replace mobile applications. If you’re not sure your e-commerce app makes it to the “lucky 27” (that’s how many apps an average user installs on a smartphone, remember?), you can always reach your potential customers through the Facebook Messenger – just like 1-800-Flowers, Shopify and eBay do; Big data analysis. As you know, some brands employ latest e-commerce technologies like beacons to drive in-store sales and increase mobile app usage. However, the Internet of Things’ impact stretches far beyond digital coupons and loyalty programs. Beacons and fast order buttons have access to user location data, and chatbots go even further, using credit card numbers to make instant payments online. Provided e-commerce companies manage to capture and use the data, they will get a better insight into customer buying behavior and create high-targeted ads. In fact, 27% of US enterprises that implement IoT-generated data in digital advertising meet their goals in terms of user engagement. With the rise of Artificial Intelligence (the technology that powers smart voice assistants), every business can develop a single-purpose computer program to analyze customer data – and boost sales, of course. Ok, we know what you’re thinking. Website, mobile app and embedded system development is expensive. You only wanted to create a simple website and see how it all goes – and we’re encouraging you to pull an Amazon. Never rush a business decision, though. New technology is totally affordable. Have you ever heard about printed smart sensors that basically cost nothing? Do you know that software developers from Eastern Europe charge 4 times less than their US colleagues? Have you ever heard of Magento – an open-source e-commerce platform that powers Nike, Lenovo, Nestle and 20% of other online stores out there? If you offer real value to customers and address a reliable software development company, you can do more with less. Your vendor may put up a Magento website and integrate it with WordPress so you could publish long engaging posts (with infographics and videos). He can also design a smart bot to see how active your mobile audience is. Once you start getting revenues, you can invest in mobile app development and – think of it! – start an IoT project. Anything is possible – provided you know what you want, think big and follow the latest e-commerce trends.

This icon indicates content from the Throne of Bhaal campaign of the Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition. Area Type Dungeon Authority Knights of the Vigil Watcher's Keep is a bonus dungeon introduced in Throne of Bhaal expansion, it's accessible from both Baldur's Gate II campaign world maps, the state of your progress in the keep carries over from SoA to ToB. Contents Watcher's Keep is an ancient castle that was built to be a magical prison holding creatures of the dark. For ages the keep has been observed and guarded by Helmites, followers of the God Helm. A group of Helmites known as the Knights of the Vigil were told by Helm to ensure that the "Imprisoned One", Demogorgon, would never escape the keep, and many knights sacrificed themselves to ward the castle. Eventually, the Knights lost their confidence to tribute themselves to the cause of sealing away the Prince of Demons and spread messages throughout the lands pleading for help. Below the Keep's stairway are the Knights of the Vigil, and they will ask your help for strengthening the seals to the Imprisoned One. If you agree you will be taken to the entrance of the first level of Watcher's Keep. You will need to go to Brother Pol to collect the Ritual Scroll and the Vigil Stone, without which you cannot enter/leave the Keep. Sister Garlena has supplies you can buy. On the left side of the keep are teleports to each separate level. Before you can travel through them you will need to have reached that level from the inside. Other than the Knights and the Keep, there is nothing of note in the area. Each of the first five levels has a different way of getting to the next level down. On the Ritual Level you need to collect the bell, the candle and have made a note about which page of the book you need to read. You then need to place the bell with the candle alongside the book on the altar. Reading the ritual correctly will cause the teleporter to the next level to open. Sequence is bell, bell, candle, book, bell. On the Elemental Level you need to collect the Air, Slime, Fire and Ice scepters and place them in the four slots around the Chromatic Demon. You need to then kill the Demon and collect the key off its body to go down to the next level. On the Maze Level you will first need to collect the Scepter of Radiance and find your way across the rooms correctly, collecting the three scepter gems along the way. Once you have the three scepter gems and they have been inserted into the Scepter of Radiance, you can go through the portal to the next level. In the Machine of Lum the Mad level you need to collect the blue, purple and red oil, as well as the flint and tinder in order to gain access to the Crystal Mallet. You can then break the glass on the Machine of Lum the Mad and perform the right actions to activate the portal to the next level. On the Final Seal level you will need to collect the Mind, Spirit and Heart key from the three challenges on the level and defeat all the guardians of the Final Seal. After all three keys have been inserted into their respective slots, the final portal to the Imprisoned One will appear. When you are down in the sixth level, the Imprisoned One will talk to you and tell you that the Knights of the Vigil are lying to you and are being deceitful. Whether you believe the demon or not or read the ritual or not is up to you.

The Boston Celtics aren’t kidding themselves thinking it was anything like a close contest in Miami against the Heat. Their defense gave up 120 points and allowed the NBA champions to shoot at 54.4% from the field, while Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo were busy burying old grievances. More → If signing Steve Nash was the first signal of the changes that might occur in the Los Angeles Lakers offense next season, the speculation about the addition of Leandro Barbosa, who was Nash’s backup point guard during the Phoenix Suns best seasons in the previous decade, throws even further in the evolution and reconstruction of the Lakers offense. More →

The Weekly Standard reserves the right to use your email for internal use only. Occasionally, we may send you special offers or communications from carefully selected advertisers we believe may be of benefit to our subscribers. Click the box to be included in these third party offers. We respect your privacy and will never rent or sell your email. Please include me in third party offers. AFTER SAFIYA HUSEINI was sentenced to death by stoning last October 9 by an Islamic sharia court in northern Nigeria, her case drew international attention. The New York Times Magazine profiled her, and European members of parliament protested to Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo. When, in March, an appeals court overturned the death sentence on a technicality, much of the world sighed with relief and lost interest in the growth of militant Islam in Africa's most populous country. But the extremism to which Huseini's case drew attention--she had gone to the police to complain of being raped, then was arrested and tried for adultery--remains a growing threat to human rights in the dozen Nigerian states that have adopted a hard-line interpretation of Islamic law. Especially at risk are women and religious minorities, not to mention democracy and stability in West Africa. Thus, three days before Huseini's conviction was overturned in Sokoto state, a sharia court in neighboring Katsina state condemned Amina Lawal Kurami to be stoned to death for adultery, and another court is considering the same for 18-year-old Hafsatu Abubakar. (This mode of execution, incidentally, involves immobilizing the person to be stoned by first burying her up to her chest.) Men are invariably let off for their part in these sexual crimes because sharia courts require a higher standard of evidence to convict them. But men face notable brutality for other offenses. In May 2001, an Islamic court ordered the removal of Ahmed Tijjan's left eye after he was found guilty of partially blinding a friend. Another ordered 15-year-old Abubakar Aliyu's hand amputated for stealing. Ahmed Sani, the governor of Zamfara, the first state to introduce this form of sharia, told Freedom House that "without amputations there is no sharia." More by Paul Marshall The growth of radical Islam has effects far wider than these draconian punishments. Nigeria is about equally divided between Christians and Muslims, with a small number of animists. If radical Islam is left unchecked, it will continue to provoke widespread inter-religious conflict that, combined with endemic ethnic strife, may fragment the country. This could make the giant of sub-Saharan Africa--a major oil exporter to the United States and a new, struggling democracy--into a haven for Islamism, linked to foreign extremists. As in much of Africa, family law in Nigeria has long drawn on sharia, the body of Islamic law and precedent. But the versions of sharia introduced in the last two years are closer to those imposed by the Taliban in Afghanistan or the Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia. Since 1999, Zamfara state has sexually segregated buses, taxis, and many public places, banned alcohol, enforced a dress code on women, and closed non-Muslim schools. Its hizbah (religious enforcers) mete out immediate, harsh punishments for "un-Islamic" activities such as questioning Islamic teaching or women's wearing pants. In some states Muslims are subject to sharia even if they prefer civil courts that have protections under Nigeria's bill of rights. Non-Muslims are barred from being judges, prosecutors, and lawyers in the courts to which they may be subject. Sharia state governments have destroyed dozens of churches. Sani told Freedom House that the Koran requires Muslims to kill family members who leave Islam, and indicated that his state will not prosecute such killings. Trying to appeal a sharia verdict to one of Nigeria's higher civil courts could be taken as a sign of such apostasy. The new laws are not subject to democratic control. Since proponents of the new code say that it is divinely ordained, no constitution or election is allowed to challenge it. Sani says that sharia supercedes the Nigerian constitution, and Zamfara's legislative assembly suspended two democratically elected Muslim members because they did not fully support the new laws. Governor Bukar Ibrahim of Yobe, another sharia state, said that he was prepared to fight a civil war to preserve it. The new laws have precipitated riots throughout the country. February 2000 saw the worst violence since Nigeria's civil war 30 years ago. In Kaduna City, whole neighborhoods were destroyed. Police conservatively estimate that 600 people died; human rights groups say as many as 3,000. Perhaps 6,000 have been killed in the last two years in religion-related violence nationwide. After September 11, some Islamist violence took on a distinctly anti-American tone. In the cities of Jos and Kano, hundreds died in riots in September and October, with Muslims observed waving bin Laden posters and Christians waving American flags. Bin Laden remains a hero in much of the north. While no evidence has surfaced of al Qaeda operations in Nigeria, the extremism from which it draws support is spreading rapidly, and is encouraged by radical Islamic groups and foreign regimes. Nigerian police say that dozens of Pakistanis have been involved in religious riots, and visiting Pakistani "scholars" have been ejected from the country. Before Zamfara instituted sharia, officials from Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Syria, and even Palestinian representatives, visited. Sudan, which has already supplied Chechnya's criminal code, is running training programs for Nigeria's sharia judges. The Nigerian federal government's response has been tentative. Its justice minister has written that the new sharia is unconstitutional but has failed to mount a legal challenge. Nigeria is further proof, if any were needed, that radical Islam is not created or driven by opposition to U.S. policy on Israel. It is an aggressive, worldwide ideological movement with its sights set on Africa and Asia as much as the Middle East. The situation in Nigeria also provides an additional reason for the United States to drop its 30-year practice of downplaying demands for human rights and democracy in Muslim societies. The United States should urge Nigeria to oppose extremist sharia vigorously and help it to do so. Even hardheaded realists should see the importance of aiding the country to reform its troubled legal system nationwide and provide education that includes modern knowledge and promotes freedom as an alternative to Islamist schools. Otherwise this fledgling democracy, regional power, and U.S. ally is bound to face further religious violence. As Nigerian novelist and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka laments, "The roof is already burning over our head--the prelude to civil war." Paul Marshall is a senior fellow at the Center for Religious Freedom at Freedom House, which has just released his book-length report "The Talibanization of Nigeria: Sharia Law and Religious Freedom."

Welcome to the Piano World Piano ForumsOver 2.5 million posts about pianos, digital pianos, and all types of keyboard instruments Join the World's Largest Community of Piano Lovers (it's free) It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On! This is part of my dad's collection of rare music-related objects. From my dad's old blog: "They were made in 1859 by Barbedienne in Paris. They have been authenticated by two Liszt experts who were able to match elements like distinctive webbing and a small mole on the fourth finger of the right hand which were known features of Liszt hands. As far as we know they are one of a kind as the Liszt museum in Budapest has only a plaster cast of a single hand made very late in the life of the composer. We have yet to find similar examples. We bought them from a very elderly pianist in Manhattan (name withheld) who claimed the hands were originally owned by Arthur Friedheim though she refused to say how they came to her family--only that her mother and Friedman had been "very close". Just back from 2 Liszt Museums. One in Bayreuth and one in Weimar, Germany. Both very interesting. I believe both museums had a single hand cast in plaster. I remember holding my hand up to the one in the case for comparison. Did not see bronze casts though. We we allowed to play a Liszt grand in Bayreuth. _________________________ "Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything." Rostosky 3000 Post Club Member Registered: 04/30/11 Posts: 3339 Loc: Lost in cyberspace.in the UK. Wow what a stunning find, If they are totally authentic, then it appears that so far anyways you do have a "one off" and as such could litterally ask what ever you want for them, at the absolute minimum, you can get the Piano of your dreams from these hands..And how fitting would that be?Liszts hands provide First class top notch Piano (He would be totally proud of this)And Liszts hands get to be in museum where they belong for the public to see. This is a staggeringly important find, I am green with envy. _________________________ Rise like lions after slumber,in unvanquishable number. Shake your chains to earth like dewwhich in sleep has fallen on you. Ye are many,they are few. Shelley Rostosky 3000 Post Club Member Registered: 04/30/11 Posts: 3339 Loc: Lost in cyberspace.in the UK. Actually, strike that, "Mrs Rossy" (being a woman!) has come up with a better Idea, this is what she said "He could get them recast, and sell the recasts, earning him the Piano of his dreams AND allowing him to keep them as well" Like having cake and eating it. I defer to mrs Rossy and her Archeological training, she is now comparing the plaster cast with the bronze for interest! Whatever you do, do not polish them! _________________________ Rise like lions after slumber,in unvanquishable number. Shake your chains to earth like dewwhich in sleep has fallen on you. Ye are many,they are few. Shelley

Gundogs fit for function. Menu Dogs and desserted beaches…. For most of the year the beaches around Ireland are desserted by the general public and this morning was no exception. A strong east wind that has been persistantly hitting our coastline for more than a week now has scared off all but the hardiest of souls. Dogwalker’s heaven. As I headed down the path that leads to the beach that strong seabreeze bit into my face clearing away all thoughts of morning weariness. It was fighting with the sea as the tide pulled it away from shore, kicking the water into high foamy peaks. Full gallop to water Uisce and Mossy were at heel they could smell the sea. They lifted their heads into the wind and snorted as the cold air was drawn into their nostrils. We stood on the strand just for a moment to gather our bearings and take in the view. The tide was well out leaving that endless expanse of flat empty strand to roll away in the distance. On and on it goes until it hits the cliffs of Gormanstown some three miles away and no body, not a single being, except me and my two dogs to share it with. This has to be dogwalker’s heaven. I released the dogs, there was no hesitation, off they went pulling in the ground as they galloped at full pace towards the water in the distance. Eager to dive headlong into the surf and shake the water from their coats. Tomorrow is a showday but today, for my chesapeakes, is preparation day….

Thinking aim for this lesson: Building an ENV model of how to describe a person based on the sentences they had thought up. Working out parameters.Subject aim: further extension and consolidation. Seeing their own sentences in correct,written form, reading and writing. Materials: a list of the sentences which all three classes had thought up, with a picture of the lady in question. Making a tool (Step 2?) for a description of a person by sorting sentences. I gave out the list I’d made (see below) and our task was to sort the sentences to make them useful for us to describe any person. They stuck the handout in their notebooks opposite a blank page. On the blank page we drew two columns and we wrote the parameters they suggested in the first column. Each time they wrote out a couple of sentences as examples of this parameter in the other column. They themselves suggested that some sentences were talking about the same things (sometimes in a contradictory manner – one class thought she was tall; the other short), but they came up with height. Eventually we found the parameters, height, looks, character, clothes, family, likes/dislikes, hobbies, skills, home, possessions, age. In the end this took the whole lesson as they found the parameters quite difficult to work out and we had a lot of discussion about ceratin parameters such as the differences between ‘hobbies’ and ‘skills’ (She can play the piano.) We also discussed why we might need to be able to describe or identify a person. They suggested they might want to tell someone about a friend. They also suggested themselves you need to be able to tell if a person is who they say they are. From that we went on to talk about real passports. Only two out of eight pupils had one, and the others weren’t even sure what it was. They explained to each other what it is, and then looked at our parameters and the sentences again. Which information would you need for an official passport? They had fun with the idea that you might write in a passport ‘ She wears lipstick.’ and we talked about which features of a person are permanent and which would actually physically indentify the person. In the end nationality was the only parameter we kept, thought we agreed height would be important if it was exact, as well as age, if it was exact. They themselves suggested that for homework they would make a similar model of someone they know and use as many parameters as they could. (Below are the sentences they thought up.) WHAT’S SHE LIKE?She is tall. She’s kind.She is short. She likes tea.She’s got blue eyes. She likes coffee.She’s got long hair. She’s from Finland.Her hair is brown. She’s from Slovenia.Her legs are long. She lives in England.She’s got glasses. Her hat is red.Her mouth is red. She sits on a chair.She’s got a pet. She’s got a house.She’s got lipstick. She is beautiful.She’s got flowers on her hat. She can drink.She’s got a boy. She is smart.She’s got red shoes. She is cleverShe can play the piano. She can drive a car. She’s a mum. She’s got a black cat.She’s got a dress. She’s got a boyfriend.She’s a granny. She’s got a red car. She’s got a hat on her head. She’s nice.She’s lovely. She’s old. My reflections on this lesson: I realise now that I’ve lost my way a bit here. I was so impressed by the number of sentences they thought up that I wanted to use them in some way immediately, and so I decided we’d build the ENV model from them, but we don’t actually have a purpose for it yet. In fact, they are basically thinking up purposes for themselves. Linguistically it was a very useful lesson and I think from a thinking point of view too, as they all worked hard and actively together thinking up parameters and suggesting uses. The discussion about what’s needed for a passport as opposed to describing someone to a friend made them think about the same parameters from different angles. How does this fit into the framework though? It’s more like Step 2 followed by Step 1, and we’ll reflect on if the ENV model helped them do their homework at the beginning of the next lesson. Having a list like this of their sentences is also, I feel, the beginning of making a bank, but I’m not yet sure how to store it. Maybe we could have individual banks and also class banks of things we’ve thought up together? Now I’m thinking I’ll give them a task connected to the characters in their books where they have a reason to describe them to someone new. This will fit into the next chapter we’re doing where the main character moves from a dream world to the real world. He will have to convince his real friends that his ‘dream’ world friends are real (the boundary between the two is still a little unclear to us.) What will he tell them about them and how can he prove it? I only did this lesson in this way with one of my 3rd classes. With another we only thought about the lady and parameters, but didn’t discuss the ‘passport’ idea or differences in describing for a friend or for recognition. We’ll go on to do that when they think about a situation from their books. I think I might give the character task to the final class first, let them try it and then introduce the ENV model by using their sentences. They can then attempt the task again and we can make some ‘passports of a friend’ of some of the characters to practise using parameters and writing sentences about people. I think I’ve been spending too long on all this. However, they’re still interested. Comments Susan, I agree with you that having a purpose is useful for making a task more thinking. Playing with parameters may be useful as well, however having a purpose makes it possible to evaluate various ideas and pose new questions for learning. Another interesting aspect you referred to is a contradiction. Your pupils almost had it formulated - we would like to include height and age in the passport, however these things change. This could have been a step towards speaking about problems with them. Thanks for your comments - I agree, I felt I was on to something when we got talking about passports and heights etc,the pupils were full of ideas and interested and I just didn't know at that moment how to capitalize on it! There was I only thinking about the ENV model. It's partly that I'm often too slow about thinking on my feet, but I guess this part should also improve with experience and knowledge. How should I have used the idea of contradiction here..? Do you mean I could actually have started leading up to the use of the contradiction model and how to formulate a problem and decide if it really is a problem? This is where I should know better where I'm going and the 'theory'.Then I'd be in a better position to change direction in a lesson according to the responses of the learners, and to still keep it 'thinking'. I find that very hard at the moment. Yes, it would be good to make a passport now. Maybe we'll do that soon. I understand how you feel about trying to change direction to introduce new aspects, but I think what you write always sounds so well planned and it certainly comes across as if you have full control, certainly of the ENV model anyway! It would be great to hear if you do manage to introduce the contradiction model into the classroom. I share your feelings, Susan: I am very slow with 'thinking on my feet'. And often after the lesson I realise how I should have acted. I think this is Ok for I am learning through this. Thank you for showing clearly the situation and possibilities to handle it. Re: homework - I'd like to clarify - they decided 'they would use a similar model' to describe somebody they know.Did I get it right? Do they know why they will be describing that person? Thanks for your comments Gillian and Larissa. I'm afraid I haven't yet managed to introduce the contradiction model - I think it would be very interesting to try. Our school term is almost over, so it might have to wait until the autumn.Larissa - no, they didn't know why they were describing the person. They were just desperate to tell me about their families - most of them wrote about their mum, or even the family pet. Of course a reason would have been better - I tried to correct this a bit in the next set of lessons (about the book characters.)

Operations Manager with the Task Force Erin O’Neill tells Mix News they’ve come across many different reasons for why people aren’t trying to move back home. “People are still dealing with their insurance, people haven’t decided what they want to do, some people want to leave their lot vacant, so we’re really trying to figure out the bulk of the reasons.” She says they’re still trying to help steer each property owner into the direction they’re looking to take. “Be it through Red Cross, through the Insurance Bureau of Canada, or things we can do to really help those people who want to move forward with their rebuild.” Over the next month, the Task Force will be reaching out to these property owners to have a better understanding of how many rebuilds each neighbourhood will have. This will also help them move forward with their ‘Municipal Infrastructure Project’ which looks to fix the curbs, sidewalks, and streets in the areas. “If there are, say, five lots in Stone Creek that don’t plan on rebuilding we’ll take those off our list and we won’t be waiting for those to be rebuilt before we go forward with our municipal infrastructure.” O’Neill adds a damaged neighbourhood needs to be 80 per cent rebuilt before they can start fixing the streets. However, they will split the communities into sections to help get the project started this year. Meanwhile, 389 rebuilds have been finished with the Task Force estimates there could be 1,000 final inspections by the end of 2018.

It's time again! For the full month of June, we will be taking custom key orders! We only offer customized keys four months our of the year, March, June, September, December and the Last week of January (for all those Valentine romantics). If you have a special occasion coming up in the next two months, now is the time to order. We have so much fun sorting through the order descriptions and hearing the stories behind them. A LOT of love stories! Below are a few example of past custom orders... and yes guys wear the heck out of them too!

PEC Sialkot Board 5th Class, 8th Class Online Date Sheet 2015 Sialkot board going to announced PEC Sialkot Board 8th Class, 5th Class Date Sheet 2015.Download Sialkot Board 5th, 8th Class Online Datesheet, Roll Number Slips 2015. Punjab Examination Commission will begin the yearly exams of 5th Class, 8th Class from February in the schools situated in area Sialkot and the student of center class should be prepared to become visible in the 5th Class, 8th Class annual exams. PEC Sialkot Board 5th Class, 8th Class Online Date Sheet 2015 Online Exam Date Sheet Download Once the date sheet is affirmed by the administrator which will be obtainable online and you will be talented to observe their variety by given name and district. The authority of Sialkot Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE Sialkot) has been restrained to 6 various Punjab districts. PEC Sialkot Board 5th, 8th Class Online Date Sheet 2015 Coming Soon…. The apprentice will have to become visible in the subjects like English, Urdu, Science, Islamiyat and Mathematics. The schools government will get the exams of residual subjects. Punjab Examination Commission (PEC) was approach into continuation in year 2005. The students of 5th Class, 8th Class should be prepared as the yearly exams of center class are disappearing to be ongoing during February 2015. You can also share us your precious comment about the PEC Sialkot Board 5th Class, 8th Class Online Date Sheet 2015 on below comment section and you can also share this PEC Sialkot Board 5th Class, 8th Class Online Date Sheet 2015 with your friends.

Hospital Galveston Food Service Sgt. Velicia Burns stands with her husband Clifford in front of the wreckage of their home on 54th Street in Galveston. Floodwaters from Hurricane Ike also destroyed the couple’s apartment. Photo by David Nunnelee Editor’s Note: TDCJ employees living on and near Galveston Island were hit hard by Hurricane Ike last September. Some lost not only all of their personal belongings, but their homes as well. But the winds and floodwaters associated with the hurricane didn’t dampen their determination to bounce back. To help them in their recovery, the North American Association of Wardens and Superintendents (NAAWS) in December presented five Hospital Galveston Unit employees hit especially hard by the storm individual checks for $500. TDCJ Correctional Institutions Division Director Nathaniel Quarterman presented the checks to Senior Warden Monty Hudspeth, CO V Wendolyn Jackson , CO V Robert Goodley, Food Service Capt. Velicia Burns and CO III Karen Martinez. Following is an account of what each of the employees lost, and what some of them found, in the storm. Senior Warden Monty Hudspeth: Retirement home lost in storm to be rebuilt It was love at first sight for Terrie Hudspeth. After living in several different communities during the course of her husband’s career with TDCJ, she fell in love with Galveston Island immediately upon his assignment to the hospital unit there in October 2007. “She said, ‘Well, this is where I’m going to retire, and you can move all over the state if you want to, but I’ll be right here,’” Warden Hudspeth said about his wife’s non-negotiable decision to buy a retirement home for the two of them on the island. And in April 2008, they did just that, settling on a one-story home on 53rd Street that they were letting their daughter live in while they continued to stay in a two-story house provided through the state on Ferry Road. Neither residence would survive the storm. A five-foot wall of water swept by the storm surge inundated the first floor of the couple’s state house, leaving only a few beds and nightstands upstairs until the roof finally collapsed in on top of them. The home provided through the University Texas Medical Branch won’t be repaired. Meanwhile, the couple’s single-story private home suffered so much damage that it was red tagged by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. That meant they would either have to tear down their retirement home or move what remained of it to another location. They could also rebuild on the same site but at an elevation at least 11 feet above the flood plain. The Hudspeths appealed that decision and won a favorable ruling in December, allowing them to rebuild without raising the site elevation. CO V Wendolyn Jackson: Gives up home to relatives in need, mold forces second move Wendolyn Jackson didn’t have to move out of her Texas City home after Hurricane Ike. Its roof damage could be repaired. But when her cousins called to tell her that they had lost everything in the storm, she decided to move out and let them move in. “They needed it more than I did,” she said about the home she had lived in since 1990. Jackson moved to an apartment only to learn three months later that she would have to vacate it because toxic mold had been found. But instead of simply returning to her home, she found another apartment. “I didn’t want to go back to my home, and the reason I didn’t want to go back is because everything there brings back memories,” she said. Despite her travails, Jackson doesn’t feel like she was victimized by the storm. “I tell everybody that I’m still blessed,” she said. “I look at it like everything happens for a reason. I look at it like the Lord won’t put on me more than I can bear and that this is a test to see how much I can bear. And I bear it.” Jackson said the $500 relief check from NAAWS couldn’t have come at a better time. “It’s going to help me move,” she said. CO V Robert Goodley: Left with only single suitcase of clothes after water invades home As he watched the water rise outside TDCJ’s hospital facility in Galveston, Robert Goodley figured that some of the rains from Hurricane Ike would probably seep into his first-floor apartment on Ferry Road. What he wasn’t prepared for was the five feet of water that would actually rush in. “I was anxious about going home,” said Goodley, who rode out the storm on duty at the hospital. “I’d never seen the water that high, so I was pretty much sure that it might have gotten in. I didn’t think it would be that bad, though.” Goodley got his first inkling of how bad it was when he tried to open the door to his apartment. “I couldn’t open the door,” he said. “The air conditioning unit was blown all the way to the door, so I couldn’t get it open. It took me a while to get it open, and when I did, I saw that the whole place was wrecked.” Goodley lost all his furnishings and clothing inside the apartment. “I happened to have some clothes in a suitcase because I had been taking offenders to Huntsville,” he said. “So the clothing I had in the suitcase was pretty much it. I lost everything else.” Goodley stayed with friends and co-workers until he could arrange for an apartment on the third floor of the complex he had been living in. He said the $500 check from NAAWS would cover some of the debt he incurred in replacing the things he lost. “It was unexpected and I definitely appreciate it,” he said. “I’m going to put it in the bank and try to get rid of this debt. I’m just taking things one day at a time.” The two-story house at 1201 54th Street in Galveston had been in Velicia Burns’ family for years. It was where she and her husband Clifford had planned to move to sometime this year. But that was before Hurricane Ike destroyed both the home and the first-floor apartment the couple had been occupying at a complex owned by the University of Texas Medical Branch on Ferry Road. So at year’s end, the once residence-rich couple was living in a single room at a local hotel where she said they faced eviction if they tried to cook for themselves. “This will help us to where we can go out and eat because we don’t have anywhere to cook,” she said about the $500 check from NAAWS. “It doesn’t matter how little or how great it is, it still helps.” Taking heed of the call for a mandatory evacuation of Galveston, Burns fled to Navasota ahead of the storm. There she learned in a call from her sister that Ike’s winds had flattened her house. But she still hoped to find something left of her apartment once she was allowed to return to the island. Instead she found little more than mud and mold. “When I was finally able to get in my home, I was really devastated,” she said. “Everything was turned upside down. It was like someone had gone in there and ransacked it. It was just really a sight. I lost everything.” Still, Burns, who had just undergone hip replacement surgery, was counting her blessings. She said she and her husband plan to rebuild the home on 54th Street once they can get the debris removed. And until they could find other affordable housing, they would continue to live in the hotel. CO III Karen Martinez: Coping with the loss of the center of her world The downstairs of Karen Martinez’s two-story rent house in Galveston was the center of her world. It had a full library, a lounge area and a workout room. It was where she did most of her living. “It was very nice,” she said. Now it’s gone, and she can hardly bring herself to go downstairs to finish cleaning up after Hurricane Ike. “It was so devastating that I don’t like to go down there and finish it,” she said three months after the storm. “I’ve been avoiding it. I did what I needed to do just to stop any future problems. It’s just too much for me now.” Martinez, a New York City native, had just returned to Galveston from a TDCJ assignment out of town when Ike struck. “I sustained about four feet of water,” she said. “I pretty much lost everything downstairs.” The storm also separated Martinez from her daughter who had been attending college in Galveston but had to enroll in a mainland school following the storm. She said the relief check from NAAWS was particularly meaningful to her.

Category Archives: Five Takeaways Following Wild games, Managing Editor Glen Andresen will give the five takeaways that he’ll remember from each contest. Tonight, he looks back at a 2-1 win over the Calgary Flames on Friday. Quite frankly, I’m tiring of talking about how great Nik Backstrom is. Even though he was brilliant again tonight, I’m going with five other topics. Coming in, everyone knew this five-game homestand was going to be difficult. The Stanley Cup Champs, the President’s Trophy winners, a Western Conference semifinalist and the current Western Conference leaders made up the first four games. Tonight, a tough division rival with the biggest nemesis in the Wild’s franchise history capped it off. And that was before the Wild lost Antti Miettinen, Guillaume Latendresse and Chuck Kobasew. Considering the Wild was missing some significant firepower, a 3-1-1 record under these circumstances was pretty impressive. Now, another test awaits, and not for long. Starting tomorrow in Columbus, the Wild plays its next four games on the road. Nationwide Arena has never been kind to the Wild, and a win there tomorrow would be a yooooge boost. Sometimes a guy can have a bad game and still score a goal. Many times, a guy can have a great game not score many goals at all. Tonight, Marty Havlat was playing a great game, and lo and behold, he was rewarded with a goal. Havlat routinely set up Matt Cullen (who was playing wing) all night, but Cullen couldn’t solve Miikka Kiprusoff. So, Cullen reversed roles and set up Marty perfectly for his first tally of the year, and it was a biggie. He smoked a shot past Kiprusoff and then looked like someone pulled an aircraft career off his back as he looked to the sky in triumph. Marty’s most memorable goal in a Wild uniform came last year in another superb effort against the Flames in Calgary. He was a monster all game, but couldn’t find the net. Finally, he and Marek Zidlicky connected in overtime on a beautiful give-and-go with Havlat finishing the play. That seemed to spark a run for Havlat, and the hope is that this one will do the same. That brings us to Zidlicky, who didn’t score a point, registered one shot, blocked another and doled out two hits. Nothing about that stands out. What does stand out is his ability to play 21:59 tonight despite obviously favoring one leg. Zidlicky was held out of practice yesterday with a lower body injury, and was questionable for tonight. While his defensive partner Greg Zanon is known as the shot-blocking “play through anything” guy, Zid is more known as the laser-firing offensive defenseman. By now, he’s got to be considered a warrior, because there were several games last year that he shouldn’t have played, and did. Since he looked like he was playing on one leg, tonight was probably another one of those cases. But he gutted it out, and helped shut the Flames attack down. He probably should have been the second star of the game behind Backstrom’s 33-save effort. Rather than Zidlicky, it was Cal Clutterbuck who earned the number two star of the game, and that makes sense. He scored a great goal to get the game tied at 1-1 in an extremely intense first period. In the third, he destroyed Cory Sarich with a hit in the neutral zone that the fans gave an ovation for after they saw the replay about four times on the big screen. But it’s hard to say whether he had a better night than his “Movember” moustache, which has its own Twitter account: @clutterstache. In one night, his moustache picked up over 100 followers after tweeting during the game. Here were some of its contributions to the Internets tonight: During warm-ups, “Once again, Cal is proud to show me off by not wearing a helmet in #mnwild warmups. Cal, I want you to know I’m proud of you, too.” During the first shift of the game, “If anyone needs help in the stache dept., it’s Mikko. So, Cal & I are joining him on the top line tonight. So far it’s been a blast!” And seconds after his goal, “Cal: You’re welcome. Love, Stachey.” You too can follow Clutter’s ‘stache on Twitter at @clutterstache. With his assist on Havlat’s goal, Cullen became the ninth Minnesota native in NHL history to reach 300 assists. He’s the first to accomplish the feat with the Wild, but he’s not the only guy to do it in his home state. Neal Broten accomplished the feat with the Minnesota North Stars. Phil Housley, Reed Larson, Dave Christian, Jamie Langenbrunner, Aaron Broten, Tom Kurvers and Joel Otto also accomplished the feat. Like this: Following Wild games, Managing Editor Glen Andresen will give the five takeaways that he’ll remember from each contest. Tonight, he looks back at a 5-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Friday night. We thought the Minnesota Wild might have sent a clear message to the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night in St. Paul. That night, the Wild dismantled the Canucks, made Roberto Luongo look like a bullfighter and seemed to say, “your time is over.” The message the Canucks received was more of a wake up call that told them they better respond in the rematch on Friday. They did in a 5-1 drubbing of Minnesota. You can say the Wild was flat in the second of back-to-back road games, and you’d be right. Few Wild players were noticeably good. There really weren’t more than a couple Wild scoring chances until Vancouver went up 3-0 midway through the third. But the Canucks won this game no matter what you point to. They were better in every aspect of the game and probably could have made the score look worse if not for some big saves by Jose Theodore through the first 50 minutes. After Tuesday’s bizarre night and some obvious ill will rekindled in the Wild victory, I was absolutely certain we’d see more shenanigans with the Canucks playing in front of their raucous fans. As has been proven many times, I’m an idiot. While there were some big checks and a decent fight in the first between Clayton Stoner and Guillaume Desbiens, there was nothing. It’s always a little different when you’re watching from home, but I didn’t see anything that resembled bad blood. I think I saw more bad blood when the Wild took on Ilves Tampere in an exhibition in Finland a couple weeks ago. Jose Theodore made his Wild debut tonight, and while his goals against average won’t look pretty, he has nothing to be discouraged about. Theodore was the reason the Wild still had a chance heading into the third period despite the puck being in his zone for seemingly 90% of the game. The 11th goaltender in Wild history and the first to ever wear the number 60, finished with 30 saves, several of which came on point blank Canuck opportunities. If there was a noticeable skater in a white jersey tonight, it had to be Justin Falk. The big kid looks like he’s been playing in this league for a long, long time. It’s obvious he’s gained the trust of Head Coach Todd Richards. He saw 18:55 of ice time, and Richards was willing to put him with Stoner, who hadn’t played since Helsinki and has struggled to find his game early this season. Falk was a -1 on the night, but the Wild only had one plus player on the roster – Mikko Koivu. Falk is quickly dispelling any thoughts that his appearance in the Wild lineup will be shortlived. His consistency through seven games has shown he might be here to stay. Bring back Roberto Luongo! The Canucks all-star goalie got a night off against Minnesota, which torched him on Tuesday. We might be seeing a lot of former Boston College Eagle Cory Schneider when these two teams meet four more times. Schneider got the start and was pitching a shutout until Antti Miettinen finally broke through late to cut the lead to 4-1. But you can’t really say Schneider was brilliant in this game. I can think of one big stop he made on Miettinen in the third, and the rest were garden variety. Like this: Following Wild games, Managing Editor Glen Andresen will give the five takeaways that he’ll remember from each contest. Tonight, he looks back at a 4-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night. I was on the Minnesota Wild’s five-game road trip last October, and I was obviously a good luck charm considering we headed back to Minnesota after 10 days and five losses. Let’s just say the charter the team flew home in contained about as much chatter as you’d hear in a hearse. This year, the Wild left me home in my living room and that might have been the best decision of the night. In its first real road game of the year (I hate having to keep referring to the “road” game in Finland), the Wild pulled out an ugly but satisfying 4-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers. With another roadie in Vancouver tomorrow, followed by a five-game homestand this victory could be two huge points. With so much talk about how the Wild had to get off to a good start, the Wild is now 3-2-1 with points in four of the last five games. I’m not sure if Edmonton folks get as giddy about their native sons returning to play games at home like we do in Minnesota. But they probably weren’t thrilled when they watched two Edmonton natives team up to put the Oilers in an early hole. Former Oiler Kyle Brodziak who hails from nearby St. Paul, Alberta, never found the net in six games against his former team last year. Tonight, he lit the lamp on each of his first two shifts, and he can thank Edmonton native Brad Staubitz for help on both. Stauby made a great pass on the first one three minutes into the game, feeding Brodzy on the doorstep. Nikolai Khabibulin slid over to make a huge stop, but Kyle stuck with in and peeled the puck loose before jamming it in. Just a couple minutes later, Guillaume Latendresse made a great play behind the net to hit Brodziak in the slot. With Staubitz wreaking havoc in front, Brodziak sniped a wrist shot top shelf. He was well on his way to a hat trick, but Brodziak is more about playing physical and blocking shots, which he did plenty of tonight. I just realized I typed “blocked shots” so by law, I’m required to bring up Greg Zanon. Something is wrong with this guy. How he absorbs as many shots and plays as many games as he does defies any explanation. With the Oilers on an early 5-on-3 power play, Zanon went secret service again. He took a bullet right in the back of the arm and from my living room I could feel the pain while seeing him look up in anguish (I’m a wuss). Not five seconds later, he was back up and getting his stick in the passing lane to cause a turnover and get the puck sent down the rink to end the two-man disadvantage. When asked about the block of Whitney’s shot, Zanon quickly responded, “I’ve had worse.” Like I said, something is wrong with this guy. Zanon finished the night with 23:37 of ice time. Marek Zidlicky had 23:43. Brent Burns, who scored his third goal of the year after scoring three all of last year, saw 23:15. Nick Schultz was over 21, and Matt Cullen and Mikko Koivu were just under 20. The team’s top penalty killers were taxed because of a parade to the penalty box. The Wild gave Edmonton 10 power plays, which ties the record for the most all time. The Oilers did pick up two power play goals, but it could have been a lot worse if not for the PK unit, and especially Niklas Backstrom. The goaltender that was pulled in four of his previous eight starts in Edmonton, finished the night with 34 saves, including three that were made for the highlight reel. Elias Sports Bureau came up with this beauty of a nugget before tonight’s first period even ended. With three goals in the first on Tuesday and three goals in the first tonight, it was the first time ever that the Wild had scored thrice in the third period in consecutive games. And by the way, the third goal was the game-winner and Latendresse scored it. He seems to have found his touch he showcased last year. Like this: Following Wild games, Managing Editor Glen Andresen will give the five takeaways that he’ll remember from each contest. Tonight, he looks back at a 6-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night. We all heard there was a bug ravaging through the Minnesota Wild locker room this week. Are we sure it wasn’t some radioactive spider that injected the players with some type of ultra competitive juices? In a matter of two days, the Wild went from zeroes to superheroes in trouncing Roberto Luongo and the Vancouver Canucks, 6-2. We also heard about a grueling practice on Sunday in which Wild players were put through the wringer during a tension-filled 20-minute bag skate. Six different Wild players – Marek Zidlicky, Guillaume Latendresse, Cal Clutterbuck, John Madden, Andrew Brunette and Andrew Brunette — scored goals in what Head Coach Todd Richards called a “statement” by his team. After Vancouver lit the lamp with yet another Sedin to Sedin goal in the first minute, the Wild completely dominated the remaining 59 minutes to end a three-game homestand with a 2-1-0 record. Now let’s get to the good stuff, and when the Wild and Canucks go at it, there is always good stuff and usually some bizarre stuff. I’m not sure it’s ever been as bizarre as tonight’s incident involving Vancouver’s Rick Rypien. Rypien was pummeled by Brad Staubitz in the first period, which apparently didn’t sit well, and caused him to lose his mind. In the second, Rypien and Staubitz tangled again in front of the Wild bench, although the gloves never came off. As other skirmishes broke out in the vicinity, Rypien kept trying to get at Staubitz, but was instead manhandled by linesman Don Henderson, who repeatedly yanked him by his jersey toward the bench door. Rypien didn’t appreciate getting beat up twice in a night, especially be a zebra, so he responded by shoving Henderson. We’re still not at the pinnacle of the incident. On his way to the locker room, a Wild fan clapped and probably said something to Rypien, but did not make any move toward him. Rypien reacted by raising his gloves and shoving the fan, whose friend quickly responded by coming to his defense and shoving Rypien back. The entire crowd witnessed the incident and responded with outrage, and for good reason. The two fans were relocated to a pair of on-the-glass seats where they watched the remainder of the game. If you’re a Vancouver fan, and you have a weak stomach, you may want to look away for the next paragraph. If you have children, you may want to ask them to leave the room and go to bed. Luongo’s numbers against the Wild at Xcel Energy Center are horrifying. After giving up six goals on 18 shots in 40 minutes before being pulled, Luongo is 3-9-2 with a 3.56 goals against average and a .873 save percentage. It gets uglier. The Canadian gold medalist is 0-3-0 in his last three starts in St. Paul with a 7.00 GAA and a .768 save percentage. He didn’t finish any of those three games. It didn’t take long for Latendresse and Martin Havlat to rekindle their magic from last season in their first opportunity of the season on Tuesday night. Latendresse gave the Wild their first lead by pouncing on a loose puck off a Justin Falk shot, which Havlat assisted on. Later in the first, the duo traveled from the Wild blueline to the Vancouver net by making five passes to each other before Latendresse spotted Clutterbuck for an easy goal to make it 3-1. They made it look like a practice drill in which no defensemen were allowed to participate. Cullen has been more than anybody could have expected at least early in the season. With a goal and an assist tonight, he’s now posted two points in four of the five games this year. He leads the team in scoring with three goals and five assists and he continues to pace the NHL in power play points with seven (3-4=7). Like this: Following Wild games, Managing Editor Glen Andresen will give the five takeaways that he’ll remember from each contest. Tonight, he looks back at a 3-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night. If you watched the Minnesota Wild’s first period tonight, you might have said they don’t deserve to beat the Columbus Blue Jackets. You might have even covered your eyes so you wouldn’t have to watch anymore. But in hockey, there are three periods, and the Wild played much better over the final 40 minutes, making a 3-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets extremely hard to swallow. It was especially sour because of a controversial call that led to Columbus’ game-winner midway through the third period. From then on, the Wild turned on the gas, and came excruciatingly close to tying it with two seconds remaining, but ultimately, the lack of a 60 minute effort killed them. You can understand there being some issues with the NHL’s use of replay, considering it was just implemented this year. Wait a second, I’m starting to think it might be Major League Baseball that instituted the use of replay this summer. Hockey, I believe, has been using replay for many years now, so there really shouldn’t be an excuse as to why they still can’t get calls, or wording on calls, correct. Columbus’ game-winner by Umberger came when he drove the net, lifted a shot that Backstrom stopped and then dropped in his crease. There was exactly zero signals from anybody on the ice in a striped sweater that the call was a goal. In such a case, you need unquestionable evidence to overturn the call. However, if you simply pretend that you signaled for a goal, you can announce to the crowd that “the original call on the ice stands, therefore it is a good goal.” That’s what referee Kelly Sutherland did, and the result was not good. Following the first period, the Wild introduced the Year Ten All-Time Team as voted on by the fans on Wild.com this past summer. It’s hard to say their was a surprise in the results. Five of the team members are currently wearing the iron range red and forest green: Mikko Koivu, Andrew Brunette, Brent Burns, Nick Schultz and Nik Backstrom. The only other member was obviously Marian Gaborik, who remains the franchise’s all-time leader in scoring. I don’t know if guys like Wes Walz, Pierre-Marc Bouchard or Willie Mitchell feel snubbed, but I’m sure they’ll get over it eventually. I think we should have an unsung team, for guys that weren’t stars of the team, but made significant impacts. My Unsung Team is as such: I will back up those picks with a Lighthouse blog at a later date. Right now, we have to get to takeaway number four. Burns made the all-time team mostly due to his offensive statistics. He’s scored more goals than any defenseman in Wild history, but he’s probably scored more dazzling goals than anyone that hasn’t worn number 10 in a Wild sweater. Last year’s remarkable goal against Los Angeles comes to mind, but that one could be rivaled by tonight’s beauty. Picking up a carom off the backboards, Burns skated down deep to retrieve it. In one motion, he spun around without looking and slid a backhand off of Mathieu Garon and in. If you missed it, here it is. Martin Havlat continues to search for that first goal of the season, but he’s certainly been a factor in every game this season. Havlat assisted on both goals tonight, marking his first two-assist game since March 14 of last year. Matt Cullen also picked up two helpers, giving him six points (2-4=6) through four games this season. Follow the Lighthouse RSS Feeds About the Authors Mike Doyle is the Managing Editor of Wild.com, and posts on "View from the Lighthouse" under the user name mdoylewild. This State of Hockey transplant and former SCSU Husky hockey player reports on all stories Minnesota Wild. Ben Wolfson is a Digital Media Coordinator for Wild.com and posts on "View from the Lighthouse" under the user name of bwolfsonwild. This Plymouth native attended the hockey powerhouse of the University of Iowa and reports on all stories Minnesota Wild.

The station is a Top 40 Hit/CHR station aimed at listeners aged between 15 and 35. On 13 April 2007, Cork based Thomas Crosbie Holdings (TCH) announced it had acquired 75% ownership of both Beat 102 103 and WLR FM,[4][5] in a deal worth a combined €14 million[6] with WLR FM managing director Des Whelan keeping 25% of each.[7] TCH already had a media presence in the South East, owning several newspapers in the region. News and Sport bulletins are at 10 to the hour from 07.50 'till 17.50 daily, with a 10-minute Beat News Roundup broadcast at 12.30 and 18.30. At 19.50, 20.50, 21.50, 23.30 and 01.00 on weekdays, "The Juicy Bits", a news, showbiz and weather bulletin is broadcast, presented by Trish Archer. Yvonne Ussher is the female station imaging voice and Dave Davin is the male station imaging and promo voice of the station. Beat's sung jingles are by ReelWorld Europe. The station strapline is "Your Music Now".

Hayao Miyazaki, animator Studio: Studio Ghibli/Disney Studios Video: 2.0:1 enhanced for 16 x 9 Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1, orig. Japanese soundtrack, also French soundtrack Extras (mostly on Disc 2): John Lasseter introduces Miyasaki and Spirited Away, The Art of Spirited Away, Nippon TV special on The Making of the Film (with English subtitles), Select storyboard-to-scene comparisons, Behind the Mike with Suzanne Pleshette and Jason Marsden (doing English version soundtrack), Original Japanese trailers Length: 125 min. Rating: ***** Miyasaki is known as the Walt Disney of Japan and his latest in a series of wonderful family animated films has been variously called the best annimated film, best animated feature ever, a masterpiece, and spectacularly inventive. And it’s all true. Best family film I’ve ever seen and generally I hate family films. Even if you don’t care for animation you’ll probably love Spirited Away. It’s so spirited and original! The idea of seeing things thru the eyes of a child or teenager is a standard feature of Japanese anime (though this really isn’t anime) and of most U.S. family oriented live action pictures. But Miyasaki pulls it off effortlessly in this amazing fantasy about a young girl who is trapped in a strange world of spirits when her unwitting parents are magically transformed. She must work in a bathhouse for spirits and demons while trying to free herself and her family. The idea of all sorts of spirits, gods and demons existing ties in more closely with older Japanese beliefs and Shintoism, making the plot seem probably more exotic and strange to Western audiences. The human characters are quite Western-looking though their gestures and actions are typically Japanese. Miyazaki based the character of the little girl on the daughter of a friend - something he has done in previous films. He has her get herself back to the ordinary world without battles or violence but by using her brain and thru friendship and devotion. It’s a lovely example for kids without any preachyness. The extras on the second DVD are really special. Miyasaki is shown to be just as loveable a person as his filmic creations. The NHK documentary on the struggle to complete the animation by a deadline gives a feeling for the tremendous amount of dedicated work that any animation requires. The behind-the scenes section on recording the English-language version with the voice cast is fascinating. It appears Miyazaki works in the reverse of most American animation, recording the soundtrack after the visuals are completed rather than starting with the soundtrack. You get a glimpse of his creative process by switching between the shots of his original storyboards and the final animated scenes, using the angle button on your remote control. There is also a discussion of how Miyazaki’s art was translated for English-speaking audiences. This brilliant work easily eclipses the typical cliched Hollywood animation and should be experienced by everyone of any age whatsoever. Purchase here This earlier feature was considered Miyazaki’s masterpiece up until the making of Spirited Away. This DVD was issued by Disney at the same time as the latter and along with a third film, Castle in the Sky. (My favorite of his earlier animations is the 1993 My Neighbor Tatoro, available on DVD.) The story takes place in a country in which witches are part of the ordinary society and recognized for the useful work they do. Young girls must follow a special tradition to become a full-fledged professional witch, and that includes flying off to another city to take responsibility and become independent. Kiki is accompanied by her “familiar,” her long-suffering and witty black cat. Thru accidental means she ends up operating her own delivery-by-broomstick service and meets many unusual characters along the way. Again, her quick thinking aids in her survival and successes, though there are big disappointments along the way that she must also deal with. A superbly imaginative story from Miyasaki again. You may expect a cute little witch with a red bow tie in her hair to soar in your window at the end of his delightful film. Purchase here Leave it to Spain’s wildest current director to push on a number of boundaries in most of his films. This one stars four individuals - two very different men - and their women who happen both to be in comas in a special clinic. As the men keep vigil over their lovers (or would-be lover in one case) they get acquainted and their unusual stories unfold in flashback as well as flash forward. The trailer was shown frequently at a local theater I frequent and it included a fantasy-like black & white sequence with a tiny man sitting on a woman’s pillow talking to her. I just had to find out how that fit into the film. It turns out it was a silent film within the feature film. The unsophisticated male nurse protagonist had seen it and gave him a dangerous idea; leading to his being eventually incarcerated. Surprising twists of plot without leaving you scratching your head about what it all meant at the end, like Memento and Swimming Pool. R-rated too. Both picture and sound quality are really excellent throughout, though little use is made of the surround. There are several very evocative soundtrack music selections of both Baroque orchestral and Spanish guitar music. Purchase here- John Sunier Another even more R-rate gem. The film is based on the true life - colorful to say the least - of Hollywood TV actor Bob Crane, his on/off relationship with the home video maven played by Dafoe, and his eventual grisly and never-solved murder. Crane was the star of the successful TV series Hogan’s Heros and an extremely upstanding married man, but his steady slide into the seamiest side of celebrity lifestyles is shown so convincingly that one quickly loses empathy with him and feels a strong foreboding of what will eventually befall him. The pair’s fast living involves the video technician’s help in procuring both equipment and willing women to videotape their sexploits. The quirky nature of their extreme male bonding brought to mind the sub rosa homophile suggestions in the relationship of Dickie and Ripley in The Amazing Mr. Ripley. A gripping drama of a couple of out of control lives. Don’t view the Murder in Scottscale documentary until after you see the feature film, and when you do keep your finger on the fast forward for the constantly repeated stills of the actual bloody crime scene, which are on screen far too long. The evidence seemed to point to the video man, to whom Crane had the day before told he didn’t want to see him again. But the court felt there was no hard evidence (an important piece mysteriously disappeared from the police files) and the trial never occurred. Purchase here This brilliant film classic was one of the highlights of the careers of both director Visconti and French actor Alain Delon. Its style grows out of the Italian postwar neo-realist movement, but it is not quite as gritty looking as most of those. The story concerns a family of four very poor but closely-connected brothers and their mother who move from the back country of southern Italy to Milan after the death of their hard-working father. The mother’s hope is to give them a chance to improve the family’s fortunes in the big city. The brothers all struggle to make it in their unfamiliar new world and Rocco and his older brother both fall for the same woman with disasterous consequences. Rocco seems too saintly in his extreme self-sacrifice for the good of the family and his brother, but Delon makes the character’s actions totally believable. Yes, the film is long, but it is divided into sections titled by the name of one of the characters, which breaks things up a bit. Also there is the music of Nino Rota - one of his most emotional and atmospheric scores, making your involvement in the saga of this unfortunate family deeply affecting. The transfer is generally quite good for a film of this vintage, but at the beginning of Chapter 3 there is an entire scene with a big hair in the projector gate which was not removed. I don’t believe you would see this in a Criterion DVD. This is the first uncut version of Visconti’s original, which was edited by the Italian authorities due to its violence - namely, violent boxing closeups, fist fights, a rape and a stabbing. Actually I think the authorities were right. Purchase here Smith’s previous feature was a documentary on an unlikely blue-collar guy who struggled for years to make his own feature film on a shoestring and eventually did. This new film couldn’t possibly have a more appropriate title, because it concerns five people who have created a totally individual home of their own. They are settled very blissfully in their very own creations, rather than struggling in transition as were the stars of both of Smith’s previous two films. These five homes are first a ramshackle houseboat on the Louisiana bayou where an alligator wrangler lives and cracks his crabs, then a couple who bought a surplus army missile silo in the middle of Kansas and live in it underground. The peace loving couple has brought spiritual New Age vibes to their metallic space that it certainly must never have imagined before. Third is a former American actress in Japanese television who has had built her own lovely Tarzan-style tree house high in the jungle of a remote Hawaiian valley - complete with waterfall-powered generators for her electricity. Cat lovers will meow over the California house with 140 feet of elevated cat walks throughout and cats everywhere. This couple make and sell cat toys and photographs of their cats. Lastly there is the all electronic house in Illinois in which the elderly owner seems to install a new futuristic gadget almost daily. It includes a walking robot which after his death he plans to inhabit at the astral level. There is also a young girlfriend who shares his psychic leanings and assists him in public presentations of his many mechanical and electronic marvels. If you liked Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, you will absolutely love this quirky documentary, part of a new trend of documentaries for the new century that are getting much wider audiences than documentaries could ever have hoped to get in the past. Purchase here A popular and successful studio director has decided to make a film about the hardships suffered by the poor. The execs are intent on destroying the young idealist’s plan by pointing out his lack of suffering, but he finally convinces them. His idea is to dress up like a bum and pass among the community to gain information and to experience the situation of the poor. At first, he starts as a hired hand, but that doesn’t really work out well. Later he runs into the lovely Veronica Lake, a transplant to Hollywood trying to make it big in pictures but not having any success. He has her convinced of his need, but his conscience overtakes him and he admits to her his true identity. This doesn’t go over too well with the young lady, but her fondness for the director softens her and she decides to go with him on his journey. They stay in a community of hobos, and finally come back to their regular lives. Another scheme is hatched and while giving out $1000 in cash, he gets hit on the head and stuffed in a train car. He’s confused and assaults a man. A speedy trial doesn’t help our favorite director and he is sentenced to a chain gang. Only through a creative breakthrough does he manage to find his way home after a long period of servitude. It is easy to get distracted by fine personalities like Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake, but the real star of this film is Writer/Director Preston Sturges. The film is one of the early examples of a movie about making a movie, complete with lots of social commentary and comedy. The pace is fast throughout most of the film and there are a variety of slapstick and deadpan comedy routines including some humorous action sequences — some in the vein of Keystone Cops. Sturges started as a playwright and moved to writer. He realized that the director was really in control of the film (and writers of the time were not getting their due), so he eventually became a director. His skills extended to the directorial arena and he made a mark from the beginning with The Great McGinty. He won the very first Academy Award for best original screenplay. To see what all the hoopla is about, just take a look at this film. Purchase here

In The Wild West, a skeletal horse and human hybrid, suggesting our practices of genetic manipulation, serves as a grim tale of foreboding. The skeleton, the horse skull, and the desert are symbols of cowboys and typical Western imagery. Television Westerns would typically portray life as good vs. bad, when in reality, the land, environment, people, and animals were all seen as a means to an end. The title refers to how the U.S., itself a part of the western hemisphere, is still taking over land, animals, and resources to this day, creating desert landscapes via clear-cutting and global warming.

歡迎光臨golde0m5在痞客邦的小天地 If you've of all time old toothache strain or if you are experiencing them at the infinitesimal after you will cognize only how improbably sensitive they can be, the discomfort is sometimes impossible and can truly curb the holding you do for the duration of your day, it makes it stubborn to use your set for property similar to feeding trying foods such as as confectionery or potion liquids that mete out a piercing torment in your teeth, it truly is unbearable. In this nonfictional prose I am active to proportion every warning next to you active how to go astir operation your aching problem out, I anticipation you breakthrough it useful. The premier piece you need to do and this is belike the record major article of all to do, is to interaction your medical practitioner and brand an appointment, a executive dentist is truly the simply being who can look into and luxury your ache correctly, don't suppose that ache isn't all that overserious as it can atomic number 82 to terrifically intellectual worries and if you don't get it professionally examines and burned past it will more than possible only just get worse, variety an determination to see your dental practitioner and go to it. In the meantime, you will in all likelihood want to ameliorate the ugly misery of ache at married as various modern times a dentist assignment will not be incredibly soon, several modern times you will have to linger for a few weeks or conceivably even longest to get an designation so mistreatment a hole rectification to alleviate the strain should be thing you manifestation into. Here is only just one of the numerous household remedies you can use for ache stomach-ache relief: It's really oversimplified yet can be impressively telling too, all you do is drink a cup of spicy hose down on all sides your oral cavity and excitedly it will help out to better the pain, here's what you do... Fill a chalice next to water Put one spoon of salt in the water Take the sea into your oral cavity but do NOT knock back it Swig it on all sides your orifice for something like ten seconds Hold it ended the fang that is hurting for almost ten seconds Spit the nap out That's it, completely sincere and extraordinarily rapid to do, you can do this when you get up in the morning, after meals and in the past you go to bed at night, it may be competent to relieve the anguish of your toothache moderately a bit so you may want to bequeath it a try. This is with the sole purpose one of the abundant aching earth remedies here are out in that for you to use, record of them are tremendously breakneck and comfortable to use so if this one doesn't activity you consequently don't concern as you can retributive try another, suitable lot and call to mind to see your medical practitioner as shortly as likely.

News that hockey enforcer Derek Boogaard's brain showed signs of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain condition related to Alzheimer's, has been met mostly with a collective shrug from members of that sport's fraternity. The National Hockey League's commissioner, Gary Bettman, responded by saying it is too early to draw any definite conclusions based on Boogaard's CTE. Even the fighters themselves seem to feel that any long-term damage they may suffer as a result of repeated headshots is a price worth paying for keeping their jobs and realizing their NHL dreams. Surveys done by the NHL Players' Association show the majority of NHL players want to keep fighting in hockey. As New Jersey Devils tough-guy David Clarkson said: "I wouldn't be in the league if I didn't play that type of style." Yet the risks are becoming increasingly clear. Boogaard's was the fourth NHLer whose brain was examined by the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy. All four showed signs of CTE. Autopsies on former fighters' brains, including Bob Probert who died in 2010 from a heart attack and old-timer Reggie Fleming, showed severe brain damage. How then do we reconcile what science is telling us about the link between repeated head trauma and CTE with the fact that, almost to a man, the NHL's fighters say their jobs are worth the risk? Understanding this proclivity to accept serious, perhaps fatal, risks could shed some light on another issue that was debated last month in Durban, South Africa under the auspices of the United Nations climate change summit (COP 17). Skating towards disaster Climate science has evolved considerably over the last 20 years to the point that we are now virtually certain that humans, through the emissions of greenhouse gases, are causing climate change. We also know that the impacts of climate change are likely to be very serious if nothing is done to reign in global emissions dramatically. Even the International Energy Agency, hardly an environmental advocacy group, recently warned that the "door is closing" to avert catastrophic climate change. Yet despite years of repeated, urgent warnings from the scientific community, global emissions are up 49 per cent since 1990 and no new deal emerged out of Durban to replace the expiring Kyoto Protocol. In Canada, our total emissions are now more than 34 per cent above our Kyoto targets. For the most part, the public and the media recognize and acknowledge the risks of continuing to pour greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, yet we have thus far been unwilling to accept or support any substantive economic measures that might impact us personally. As with fighting in hockey, we know climate change might cause serious problems, even death for some, but as the current system is our meal ticket, it's worth the price. Clearly, an appeal to leaders to "do the right thing" has not been successful. In both cases, we have individuals such as Gary Bettman and Stephen Harper, who either question the validity of the science or refuse to take commensurate action in the face of mounting evidence. Tough guys as renewables So what can climate change campaigners learn from hockey? Emphasizing extreme future risks may not be nearly as effective as appealing for solutions that do not appear to pose a personal economic threat. In the case of hockey, this could be a continuing role for tough guys absent injurious blows to the head. For climate change, it may mean building an urgent case for a thriving, clean energy economy with better jobs, healthier communities and less pollution. Like Derek Boogaard, who reportedly loved what fighting brought him but did not like fighting itself, we don't love fossil fuels. We love what they do for us and we won't be persuaded to give them up easily no matter the risk -- unless of course there is a compelling alternative. Mark Brooks is a freelance journalist and broadcaster originally from B.C., now based in Ottawa. He hosts a radio program on CKCU, podcasts for Alternatives Journal, and is Ottawa correspondent to the Common Sense Canadian.

-Assays from the rock chip and channel sampling program have yielded results up to 18.4 grams per tonne (g/t) Au, 1294g/t Ag and 3.9% Cu. -Miramont geologists have expanded the Stockwork Zone target to 500 meters (m) by 400m on surface. -The program has delineated 3 high-priority drill targets with additional targets currently being evaluated. –A Geophysical survey crew has mobilized to Cerro Hermoso. The priority targets show clear evidence of a close association with the large diatreme system that is thought to play the dominant role in mineralization within the Cerro Hermoso concession. The priority targets are: Central Breccia Zone – This gold-bearing hydrothermal breccia lays within the central portion of the Cerro Hermoso diatreme. Recent sampling by Miramont has expanded the size of the exposed Central Breccia Zone to an area of 500m by 200m. Miramont’s 2017 program returned encouraging gold results with high values of 18.4g/t, 10g/t and 9.3g/t, and 87 of the 178 samples returning anomalous Au > 0.1g/t. Historic channel sampling in the Central Breccia resulted in 43 meters averaging 1.8g/t which Miramont has subsequently confirmed with check samples. Stockwork Zone – The Stockwork Zone lies just outside the northern rim of the Cerro Hermoso diatreme. It is a 500m by 400m area encompassing extensive stockwork veining (crisscrossing quartz/sulfide veinlets) developed within an andesite unit displaying significant silver, copper, and gold mineralization throughout. Spot rock chip samples with as high as 500g/t Ag, 3.9% Cu and 10g/t Au were collected during the latest program. Of all 79 samples collected in this zone, 67 samples returned values >10g/t Ag. Mineralization is mostly oxidized, although occasional fresh sulfide grains can be seen. Historic work included face sampling that returned values up to 6.9% Zn, 6.6% Pb and 6.2oz./t Ag in multiple sulfide horizons. Examination of mine dump material by Miramont geologists has identified pieces of massive sulfide replacing carbonate limestone. On-going mapping and sampling is identifying additional target areas within the mining concessions. (Further information on the project geology and the distribution of gold, silver and copper within the target areas can be viewed on the maps provided on the Company’s website.) Mr. William Pincus, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented: "This is an exciting project for us. The combination of excellent host rocks, abundant structure that controls hydrothermal fluid flow and a well-understood geologic model makes this a great prospect. Throw in the fact that we are finding metal all over the place and you can understand why we’re eager to drill." Geophysical Crew Mobilized Miramont has contracted Arce Geofisicos of Lima, Peru to conduct induced polarization (IP) and ground magnetic surveys over the primary targets. Arce will use a distributed array system to collect IP data rather than the more conventional line/profile method. This will allow Miramont to build a more detailed three-dimensional model to aide its interpretation of the data. Geophysical results will be used to finalize the initial drill hole location and orientation. Drilling Planned Miramont is planning an initial 3,500m to 5,000m diamond core drill program to begin in 2018. It will test all three primary targets. Miramont’s environmental assessment has been submitted and is currently under review by the appropriate authorities. The Company has also received the required archeological approval. Miramont is now establishing camp facilities in the nearby town of Santa Lucia and a core lab and storage area on-site. Community Relations/Surface Agreements Miramont recognizes the importance of maintaining good relationships with all project stakeholders. It is actively working to maintain positive relations with local municipalities, civic organizations and indigenous communities. Access to all surface land needed for drilling has been secured. Private owners as well as indigenous communities own different parcels of land. Miramont has separate agreements with all private owners and is finalizing its agreement with the local community to expand its access. Other News Miramont also announces that it has terminated its option on the Midas Gold Property. The decision was made in light of the recent acquisition of Puno Gold Corporation and in doing so, focuses management efforts and financial resources on Miramont’s Peruvian projects. National Instrument 43-101 Disclosure The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Mr. William Pincus, CPG, President and CEO of Miramont and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. About Miramont Resources Corp. Miramont is a Canadian based exploration company with a focus on acquiring and developing mineral projects within prospective belts of South America. Miramont’s key assets are located in southern Peru. The Cerro Hermoso property hosts a 1.4km diameter breccia pipe targeting gold – polymetallic mineralization, while the Lukkacha property is targeting porphyry copper mineralization. This release includes certain statements and information that may constitute forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical facts, including statements regarding future estimates, plans, objectives, assumptions or expectations of future performance, are forward-looking statements and contain forward-looking information. Generally, forward- looking statements and information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "intends" or "anticipates", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "should", "would" or "occur". Forward-looking statements are based on certain material assumptions and analysis made by the Company and the opinions and estimates of management as of the date of this news release. These forward- looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information. Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward- looking statements and forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, forward-looking information or financial outlook that are incorporated by reference herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. We seek safe harbor. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Studies & Future Current situation : I’m currently living in Toulon (south of France) and just ended my first year in the engineering school “ISEN Toulon”. Future : I don’t feel like being an engineer, that’s why I’m changing my project. I will study at the MET (former Northbrook College Sussex) in Goring-By-Sea next year in order to become lighting designer. By the way, if you know anything about lighting and content designing that could help me, feel free to email me : pro@cilusse.com.

Exploring the soulful, creative frontiers of being an educator How to Remake the Ravaged (Pictured above: Some good looking guy signing the Peace Wall. Read Peace Wall as an enormous divide between communities that signifies the safety now experienced in Belfast and how far these communities still must come.) It is no exaggeration that Belfast was one of the most war torn areas of the late 20th Century. Local terrorist organizations sprang into action in response to escalating tensions between 1968-1971. The story here mirrors the story in Derry. But that city is a tiny hamlet compared to Belfast. Shove a million people into a rain cloud, some who bleed green and others for the queen, a football pitch’s worth of British tanks and troops, with an insatiable eye-for-an-eye mentality. You have 70s-90s Belfast. The violence was unparalleled. As Michael Rock (today’s tour guide) puts it, “If someone was killed on a Catholic Street by 10 AM, someone in a Protestant neighborhood would be dead by 12.” Everyone was a target. Walls were constructed to keep communities separate. Like any city aspiring to be the best, the walls had to be built higher and higher. You know, to deter the bricks, bottles, fireworks launched from landing in their backyards. It is obvious when you are in a Protestant Unionist community in Northern Ireland. Its vivid. The awnings and shops are blue and red. The streets are adorned with red, white and blue streamers, the light posts hoist the Union Jack. A couple reasons. The Queen’s jubliee (currently visiting Northern Ireland, Mr. McGuinness tomorrow). The marching season is amping up. Check out the pictures of the bonfire preparations! Each community has their murals. It seems the Catholic Nationalists made a concerted attempt to give their areas a face lift. The images are less violent. Their causes slightly more universal (read: Palestine). Their symbolism notably lacks gun wielding, masked gunmen. It seems like the Protestant Unionists are getting the message. Sandy Row’s murals are almost completely devoid of the violent imagery. Instead they tell a tale of the community’s working class heart. But in the Shankill neighborhoods, along the Peace Wall yours truly is elegantly signing above, imagery of fallen UDA assassins still exists and some memorials are down right aggressively militaristic. When photographing one of them, a few children in this beat-down neighborhood shouted out: Everyday I’m UDA. They were holding beebee guns. They pointed them at the taxi as we toured their neighborhood. It is this sense of intimidation I will be trying to erase, in myself, as I walk through to Shankill tomorrow. Also on the docket: A visit with Sean Montgomery and the Skegoneill-Glandore Community Center (where Protestant and Catholic communities meet) to see what connections can be made for the young when there is not an enormous Interface (Peace Wall) between them. And a walk to the Ardoyne part of the Catholic neighborhood, The Falls. There I will begin my relationship with the group recording and facilitating the Interface Diaries. Compelling and exciting to introduce to my students. Ned, My name is Jill, and I am a former FFT fellow, and I am enjoying learning along with you. Ireland is a magical place! Last summer as part of my fellowship, I stayed along the Antrim Coast in Northern Ireland with a storyteller named Liz Weir at her hostel. If you have time, she might be a good person for you to meet with or talk to about your fellowship. Liz is a wealth of information, and she is very passionate about teaching young children about respecting the differences in their community. She might offer an interesting perspective on what you are learning about. She is a former librarian for Belfast, and has witnessed many of the “Troubles” firsthand. On Saturday evenings she hosts locals and travelers to a storytelling and music night in her barn (a truly memorable experience). Here is her website: http://www.lizweir.net and a little blurb about her in case you are interested: Just tell her that Jill sent you. 😉 She has presented The Gift of the Gab, a storytelling series for BBC Radio Ulster, and has written scripts for five television animations aimed at young children in Northern Ireland. The latter project was created by the Media Initiative for Children, a joint effort by the Early Years Organisation in Northern Ireland, and the Peace Initiatives Institute in Colorado. These adverts use mass media and classroom experience to teach young children the value of respecting – and including – others who are different. http://www.early-years.org/mifc/ Jill, Thanks so much for your interest and support. At the moment I don’t imagine having a night to commit to Liz on the Antrim coast. Belfast is amazing. At times frustrating and confounding, but also beautiful and rapt with potential. Stay tuned. Email me at ndougherty at vghs dot org on my school account so we surely keep in touch! Love peace.

I realize the older I grew the lesser I blog, and the lesser picture I take as well ! I remember I used to run around with a camera on my hand and just snapping picture of things to blog HAHA. I wonder what happen.... Somehow I think it's a psychology thing that made me like this. Ever since I met a guy who criticize me and blogging, my blog has decrease post :( He said, "blogging is useless. Why bother telling the whole world what you're doing" :(( ouch . Ever since then, I got demotivated to blog. Hence, the rare updates. + I got nothing to blog. And again, I wanna avoid from being stalked to much HEHE. But this few days, Cheng has been sending me pictures taken from my 2-3 years ago blog post, and it made me feel so motivated to blog cause when I blog, all the happy memories are kept inside ! OH I JUST REALIZE MY BLOG IS 5 YEARS PLUS OLD. oh how time pass so fast. I remembered the reason why I opened a blog in the first place. I got influence by some movie called, "I'm not stupid" HEE. Then I soon realize, writing is fun ! HAHAHA ~ and also, blogging is a place where I can talk alone :') and say whatever I want. although I have to limit what I write tho :( shucks. _____________________________ Anyways, today I went to work. & Cheng made me realize that this bear looked evil. wtf no wonder nobody buy. But then again, the bear still looks cute ! Actually me and Cheng only discussed it at 12am coming to 1am the night before :') and I ended up sleeping late cause I forgot I was suppose to work . HAHA. so this morning, I reluctantly woke up. But it's okay. I'm home now. And my bed is very near to me HEHE. today I studied the whole day at work as well . Have been studying hard this few days. My big exam is coming soon :( VERY SOON . sobs. & I've been confine at home as well. damnit. but it's okay. It's for my future. Have been studying Business and Accounts a lot I hope I'll pass em :( I really don't wanna repeat it haih college so hard. If you fail you fail . Not like high school, if your actual grade is B, you're most likely to get an A in SPM/PMR/UPSR. :( :( the funny thing about my coming exam is that, because my program is an external program, so everything comes from the UK, including the time of examination. Must be exact. haha. so my exams will commence at night. 7.30pm till 10.30pm. ITSOKEY morning can still study . hahah new experience. my law paper takes about 5 hours. imagine. from 7.30pm till 12.30am HAHAHAHA wouldn't that be cool ! but scary tho ~~ Imagine walking out college at night .__. Anyways, after work, I went to the park with Evans . Just to watched him play his stupid game -.- I got super maddd at himm !! Then I screwed him . Then he say, "you look so cute when you're angry" . I went all, "if I look cute when I'm angry. then. I must go on being angry so I'll look cute always" HEHEHEHE

Overall, the news from the study is good. Evolution appears, through the ages, to have weeded out genetic influences that promote disease, while promulgating influences that protect from disease. But there's also a hint of bad news for us modern folks. That generally healthy trend might have reversed in the last 500 to 1,000 years. So, who appears to have had the healthier genes? The “cavemen?” We moderns? And who was more genetically susceptible to mental illness? Related Stories A new analysis of decades of data on oceans across the globe has revealed that the amount of dissolved oxygen contained in the water – an important measure of ocean health – has been declining for more than 20 years. Researchers have discovered more details about the way certain materials hold a charge even after two surfaces separate, information that could help improve devices that leverage such energy as a power source.

It often seems as though the central mission of higher education today is promoting diversity. Diversity–which usually means racial, religious, and sexual diversity–is commonly accepted by most administrators as crucial to the success of the 21st-century university. More and more universities are adopting diversity requirements and training, and creating entire departments to achieve diversity and inclusivity on campus. {snip} That agenda already permeates much of what the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill does and says. And a recent UNC-Chapel Hill event illustrates the extreme ends that diversity advocates are aiming for. {snip} As much as it is already doing, UNC is aggressively pursuing still more diversity initiatives. On April 14, the 50-member Provost Committee on Inclusive Excellence and Diversity (PCIED), made up of staff members, faculty, and students, hosted a presentation titled “Exploring the Institutional Diversity Framework at Carolina.” In her keynote address, higher education diversity expert Daryl G. Smith recommended a path forward for UNC, drawing from her 2009 book Diversity’s Promise for Higher Education: Making it Work. It was an enlightening–and disturbing–look at what diversity proponents have planned. Smith opened her speech by imploring the audience to continue conversations stemming from recent national and local events–implying controversies such as the Ferguson shooting and the University of Virginia student beating. “The more inequities you have, the less stable your society,” she said, emphasizing why she considers diversity to be foundational in politics, the arts, leadership, and “virtually all issues.” Centering on higher education, Smith called on universities to erase disparities in graduation rates among different genders, races, and classes. She said that diversity must be “part of the core indicators of success” of a university, as opposed to a parallel effort. “We don’t have time for parallel,” she said. {snip} The most radical idea Smith espoused in her address was that faculty and staff members should be hired and fired on the basis of their understanding of diversity. Smith first proposed the idea in the preface to her book, where she compared improvements in technology to the quest for diversity. “Several decades ago, as technological shifts began, campuses all across the country understood that their viability as institutions would rest on building capacity for technology,” she wrote. “Technology was understood to be central, not marginal, to teaching and research.” She continued, “We are now at a time when we must understand that diversity, like technology, is central to higher education. Will institutions be credible or viable if diversity is not fundamental? I believe not.” Along those lines, Smith told her Chapel Hill audience that technology and pluralism are the “two things fundamentally changing the way we live,” and that both must be “embedded in what we do.” She told the audience that, like technological proficiency, competence in issues of diversity “has to be a condition of employment.” She did not explain what she meant, but considering her expertise and her Ph.D. in “social psychology and higher education,” her ideal threshold might require professors to have some minimal training in her field. {snip} In order to bolster her point about competence in diversity, she repeated the age-old, very false urban legend that the Chevy Nova sold poorly in Spanish-speaking countries because Chevrolet’s marketing team didn’t realize “no va” means “doesn’t go” in Spanish. To the contrary, the Nova sold well in Mexico and Venezuela, Chevrolet’s primary Spanish-speaking markets. Despite such inaccuracies and the radical tone of her talk, Smith appeared to be preaching to the choir. This included UNC-Chapel Hill chancellor Carol L. Folt; in her closing speech, she insisted that the case for focusing on diversity has been proven repeatedly. The veracity of that claim is certainly still open for discussion; see, for example, the recent debunking of University of Michigan professor Scott Page’s study aiming to prove the benefits of diversity. UNC’s Provost Committee on Inclusive Excellence and Diversity demonstrated that it is already implementing Smith’s goals of institutionalizing diversity throughout the campus community. After Smith’s keynote, PCIED speakers touted their plan to achieve inclusive excellence (the plan was heavily influenced by Smith’s book). Some choice suggestions from the plan: Ensure every department or “unit” has a diversity page on its website Ensure each unit has a “diversity liaison” Spread the message of inclusive excellence to the community through email and social media Encourage Chancellor Folt to regularly discuss diversity with her cabinet and the board of trustees Additional personnel to collect data on and assess diversity “Require enhanced diversity learning experiences and requirements” through course work, experiential learning, and reflection, and expand requirements to graduate and professional schools Share This We welcome comments that add information or perspective, and we encourage polite debate. If you log in with a social media account, your comment should appear immediately. If you prefer to remain anonymous, you may comment as a guest, using a name and an e-mail address of convenience. Your comment will be moderated.

Already a member? A lot of Europeans think that Russian propaganda does not concern them. They think that its provocations are just games and that people like me, who come from former Soviet domains, are victims of old phobias. These people are in denial on Russia, whose propaganda has infected European debate like a virus. We are already late in trying to react. Some are still not ready to start. Earlier this year, the European Parliament proposed a modest €800,000 budget for the East Stratcom Task Force, a counter-propaganda unit in the EU foreign service, but member states struck down the idea in November. The task force was also due to grow from 11 people, who are currently seconded by member states, to 16 permanent EU officials, and to expand its mandate from the east to the south, but the EU foreign service hierarchy showed no interest. Strategic error Politicians, especially in France and Italy, tend to underestimate the effect of Russia’s disinformation campaign. They are making a strategic mistake if they think that threats to Central and Eastern Europe do not also threaten them. The Kremlin, along with jihadist groups, especially the so-called Islamic State (IS), are today the two principal sources of hate speech in Europe. On 23 November, the European Parliament adopted a report calling on the EU to react. We do not want to fight propaganda with propaganda, but to have an effective communications strategy to expose lies. Russia reacted furiously to the fact the report mentioned the Kremlin alongside IS. It goes without saying that their objectives, tactics and target audiences are different. The Kremlin is trying to sway the general public against the West by using TV broadcasters such as RT, online mass media such as Sputnik, and by deploying troll and bot armies on social networks such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Their strategies are the same, however. They both want to turn Europeans against their own governments and against liberal values. They are both trying to gain influence in the West by brainwashing people and turning them against each other. Long reach The numbers show the frightening extent of their reach. The Kremlin itself has said it doubled media spending from €630 million last year to €1.2 billion this year. Some, like Konstantin Borovoy, a former Russian MP who joined the opposition, believe the real figure is much higher. RT broadcasts in more than 100 countries and can be switched on in almost every hotel room around the world. The troll factory in St Petersburg, where over 300 paid bloggers work around the clock, is also expanding. At the same time, the EU estimates that IS has managed to recruit 5,000 Europeans to join its cult. EU authorities do not tolerate media that incite violence in the name of Islam, but they turn a blind eye to Russian media that incite hatred against refugees. Are we happy to swallow Russia’s fake stories, such as the lie about Lisa, the German girl who was said to have been raped by asylum seekers, or the lie about the Austrian court that was said to have acquitted a refugee who raped a boy at a swimming pool? In this light, Putin’s joke on Russia’s borders is even less funny. It underlined the fact that Russia’s viral ideology has penetrated into the heart of Europe and it was meant to mock our legitimate concerns. US authorities have also said that Russian information warfare helped the Putin-friendly Donald Trump come to power. Election risk The elections in France and Germany next year could be decisive for the EU’s future. The Kremlin-financed National Front party in France can count on massive support from Russian propaganda. The far-right AfD party in Germany, which also stands accused of taking Russian money, can count on the same. It is right and proper to defend free speech and media pluralism in Europe. These are some of our core values and part of the reason why the Western model continues to be more attractive to the vast majority of people. It is also right and proper to draw a line between free speech and premeditated lies, however. In these difficult times, the East Stratcom Task Force is an asset. The EU foreign service unit, of just 11 people, has, over the past year or so since it began its work, made a genuine impact. Its staff, of EU officials, diplomats, and former journalists, all of whom are fluent in Russian, is highly professional in its debunking of Kremlin fakery. It identified more than 2,000 fake reports in the past 12 months alone. Its Disinformation Review, a weekly newsletter, and its daily tweets and infographics, should be in the laptops and phones of all MEPs and senior EU officials. Creepy borders It’s time to take action. It’s time for the EU to fortify projects like East Stratcom, for the EU, for Nato structures, and for individual member states to strike back and to coordinate their activities. It’s also time to give more support for independent media that report the truth. If we don’t, we risk leaving Putin as the only one laughing, as his borders, both real and ideological, creep further west. Petras Austrevicius is a Lithuanian MEP and the vice-chairman of the liberal Alde group in the European Parliament Disclaimer The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author's, not those of EUobserver.

Sorted. No wonder no one can find the plane. Where in the search area is a place no one has ever visited. North Sentinel Island which I recently wrote about here. Covered it trees so no one can see even the people who live there it is clear the Sentinelese are FED UP W ITH THEIR ISOLATION AND NOW PLAN TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD. yOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST.

New drug policy would require a suspension for first-offense DUI Posted by Mike Florio on May 25, 2014, 9:58 AM EST Getty Images Plenty of changes to the NFL’s substance-abuse policy and PED policy hinge on the league and the NFLPA finalizing an agreement to conduct HGH testing. Some changes would help the players, incorporating third-party arbitration for most appeals and tweaking the rules to reduce suspensions. One change would hurt the players, but the players generally are in favor of it. Per a league source, the new substance-abuse policy (which will be implemented once an HGH testing agreement is reached) would impose a one-game suspension for a first-offense DUI. The penalty also would include a fine in the amount of one game check. Currently, the rules require two-game fine for players who ultimately are deemed to be legally responsible for first-offense DUI. Barring unusual circumstances, a suspension arises only for a second offense. The league has wanted tougher penalties for several years. The NFLPA, possibly influenced by the reality that a member of the union died in December 2012 while riding with a drunk teammate, wants the enhanced penalty as well. The penalty will be put in place as soon as the league and the union iron out the last remaining details of HGH testing. Which, if you’re just joining us, has nothing to do with HGH testing. The policy hinges on whether Commissioner Roger Goodell will retain the ability to resolve appeals of HGH and other PED violations arising not from a positive test but from other evidence of drug use. All appeals based on positive tests will go to third-party arbitration. And the impasse will continue until the two sides can find a middle ground — or until Moe comes along and clunks Larry’s and Curly’s heads together. How about this: First DUI is a one game suspension, with rapid scaling so that the second one is 8 games, and the third you’re out for at least a year with the possibility of reinstatement. If you harm someone while driving under the influence, lifetime ban. If you’re caught abusing your spouse, first time is 8 games, second is full season. Marijuana? Leave it up to the individual teams since the laws vary state to state, and it’s not much different (and probably less damaging) than drinking alcohol. Obviously if you’re caught driving while high the penalties would be the same as above. Seems easy enough; playing in the NFL is a privilege not a right. Something like what I described above would send the message that the league actually cares about what type of person their players are when out in the community. Just not if you’re an owner, than you can probably rack up multiple DUIs, have illegal prescription drugs, $29,000 cash etc… cartire says:May 25, 2014 10:28 AM Wait….. What’s the difference between the current 2 game check fine, and a 1 game suspension and 1 game check fine? So the player misses a single game, but loses the exact same monetary value. This seems like a pathetic attempt at harsher punishments. Also, the only reason players want third party arbitration is to draw the process out even longer in hopes of cheating the system. If you take drugs to enhance performance, stop trying to look for a way out. You were caught, own it. eaglesnoles05 says:May 25, 2014 10:29 AM Considering the other probable consequences of DUI, like death or serious bodily injury of yourself or others, why is this even a question. What’s so hard about acting with a modicum of pro decorum while you play pro sports for a few years? It’s not like you can’t drink or womanize within the rules. Hold these idiot’s feet to the fire for this stuff. The league needs to let ‘em burn the cheebah and chill at home or in the back of limo’s and I bet you’ll get at least one less idiot driving around drunk. And doing that when you can easily pay for a driver needs to be made an example of. The penalties still seem way too soft. Just because rich elitists don’t worry about the penalties outside of the NFL doesn’t mean that the NFL shouldn’t strive to be better than everybody else and try to develop a model system. If they could do that then they could be a good example for a change and build a business that is respectable, and you can make money off of branding wholesome principles like that too. There would be a LOT of profit available in cleaning up the game and establishing the NFL as one of the best organizations in the world, if not the best. Where’s all the competitive-natured people in the league office? Oh right they are competitive at politics and figuring out how to get big paychecks before disappearing. That sucks. The league has wanted tougher penalties for several years. The NFLPA, possibly influenced by the reality that a member of the union died in December 2012 while riding with a drunk teammate, wants the enhanced penalty as well. Josh Brent. You can write down his name. He got 180 DAYS in jail for killing his friend Jerry Brown. Drunk. Not his first failed DUI, had several failed tests. How would new drug policy prevent stupidity? They shouldn’t penalize employees at all. That’s what the legal system is for. The brand won’t ever lose its luster because of stupid things athletes do. I can’t imagine anyone being happy about screwing up and getting smacked down by the law and then getting fined or suspended by their job for a personal issue. Yeah,playing pro ball is a priviledge…so is any job. Fine and suspend players for something that directly affects competition or is considered a felony. Heck,that won’t matter because they’ll probably be locked up anyways and you can terminate their contract. It’s a good conversation piece but obviously the NFL’s popularity doesn’t wane due to this stuff. There’s a list of killers,drunkards and goons that have been a part of the league and yet it still is the number one major sport in the country. Obviously there’s no moral outrage over the NFL because the product hasn’t suffered Who cares about the freakin ‘brand’? DUI penalties should be stiff – to do one thing and one thing only.. Save lives. I’ve lost friends/family who were both behind the wheel an casualties of someone else behind the wheel. I would have no problem with a one year suspension – loss of compensation for any first time offender. If you want to dissuade the activity – up the ante enough to make em take notice.. Dumb. Zebras don’t change their strips and we got a lot of zebras in the nfl. Just gonna end up suspending a good portion of your product and for what? To send a message that DUIs are bad? I would have never guessed. How about focus on the game of football and not the lawlessness of the players, which is irrelevant to football So according to several posters a player is a bad guy deserving punishment if you abuse yourself and your girlfriend (dare I say boyfriend too???), but endangering the welfare of complete strangers is no big deal. Talk about small minded… - if its the action, than why not texting while driving? Its dangerous and endangers complete strangers. If its because the person is drinking – why not fat NFL players at BK. This is just the PC police thing to do for the NFL. In fact, taking muscle relaxers or those pain pills while driving can also impact and endanger people – Wheres the outrage? Some game checks are very small because for cap reasons the majority of the contract was paid in signing bonuses. Calculate the value of the contract by the number of games in the contract and make that the “one game” value of a fine. commonsensedude says:May 25, 2014 8:00 PM Drunk Driving kills. Throw the hammer down at the first offense and perhaps more players will think twice before racking up a second. jchuber says:May 25, 2014 9:05 PM We need to make sure that these new rules apply equally to owners and their staffs, coaches and their staffs, and NFL officals and their staffs. In short EVERYONE who represents the NFL to the public. No more double standards, where players get hammered, while owners, coaches, and nfl execs can do as they damn well please. I think this is a great idea. DUIs have not been taken seriously enough by players, and they need to be. Fining a millionaire player isn’t really going to have an impact, but if you make him sit out, then his coaches, owner, and fellow players are not going to be happy and there will be more consequences. I’m tired of hearing of players, who are supposed to be role models, getting drunk and getting in trouble. Make them sit–that will hit them where it hurts. I dont know what the hell is wrong with most you idiots on here. I want to see the best players on the field. When in the hell did you the NFL care about people obeying the law. They sure as hell dont care about owners breaking the law, theres no reason to care about players breaking the law, unless its the Aaron Hernandez type of law breaking JimmyHaslem has his business raided by federal agents, jim Irsay has a dead body in his apt, Ziggy Wilf, getting sued due to unfair business practices And these ninnies in the NFL league office are worried about DUIs. Gimme a frickin break. I want the best players on the field

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Victim Of Pool Party Slaughter Was Nick Cannon’s Childhood Friend Actor and rapper Nick Cannon claimed that he knew the victim who died in the mass shooting at a San Diego apartment complex on Sunday. “My heart hurts with great sadness tonight,” the “America’s Got Talent” host wrote on Instagram. “I just learned that the one life lost in the senseless and tragic mass shooting in San Diego was my childhood friend, who was more like family, Miss Monique Clark.”

Deepika Padukone raises a toast to those who survived depression Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone was honoured by TIME as one of 100 most influential people in the world. It was a very proud moment for India as well as the 'Padmaavat' actress. For a long time she has opened up about her battle with depression. At the TIME event again, she raised a toast to all those who fought against depression and did not give up.

Read several contributions in the special issue on 'Absences' in Social Epistemology. The issue was edited by Brian Rappert and Wenda K. Bauchspies. Contributors include Dimitris Papadopoulos, Brian Rappert, Wenda K. Bauchspies, Marıa Puig de la Bellacasa, Jennifer Croissant, and Scott Frickel. It is nothing new for anthropologists to be curious about things that for us, as outsiders, are hidden from view. In Melanesia and West Africa, where concealed ritual practices central in customary politics, “secrecy” has long been an ethnographic preoccupation. With elaborate systems of esoteric knowledge, these regions have proved particularly fertile ground for western scholars with a poetic preference for the other-worldly. However anthropologists have rarely paid attention to an indispensable condition of secret knowledge: the experience of ignorance. When faced with culturally produced forms of not-knowing, the assumption has often been that we should set out to pierce that ignorance. According to this logic, it is only “by peering behind the facade that we see things as an insider rather than as outsiders and thereby discover the truth” (Gable 1997: 215). But does uncovering ‘hidden truth’ risk distorting the way in which our interlocutors experience (not)knowing in their daily lives? This panel features contributions which explore the question of ignorance from exactly the opposite direction; beginning with the recognition that ethnographers are often far from being the only people on the “wrong” side of this knowledge facade. The discussion will contribute to a small but growing body of work (reviews in Mair, Kelly & High 2012; McGoey 2012) that aims to take ignorance seriously – not simply as the absence of knowledge, but as an ethnographic object in its own right. With the support of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, Christopher Robertson (James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona) and Aaron Kesselheim (Harvard Medical School) are organizing a multidisciplinary symposium to examine potential solutions to institutional corruption that use the strategy of concealing biasing information from decision makers. This event is part of the Institutional Corruption Lab. Larry Lessig (Safra Center Director and Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School) has defined ‘institutional corruption’ as the consequence of an influence within an economy of influence that illegitimately weakens the effectiveness of an institution especially by weakening the public trust of the institution. The concept provides a more systematic approach to decision-making problems that can arise as a result of financial relationships and other conflicts of interest. Institutional corruption may arise in many contexts, from medical research to forensic science, from political campaign finance to financial auditing. There are many potential solutions to institutional corruption, but we are particularly interested in practical mechanisms that acknowledge the existence of potential influences, but prevent that biasing information from reaching a decision maker. Such mechanisms may include blinding, masking, placebos, strategic ignorance, information aversion, veil of ignorance rules, blind trusts, walls of separation, or similar concepts. We are interested in reviews of relevant literature, and new laboratory, empirical, historical, and theoretical research that explores the functions, modalities, costs, benefits, and limitations of concealing a source of information to improve decision making. We are interested in established uses of blinding, and potential new applications. “Agnotology,” the study of the production and preservation of ignorance, is a field identified by Robert Proctor twenty years ago. The pioneers of agnotology were keen to uncover and denounce the intentional manufacture and purposeful perpetuation of ignorance. The original focus of the field concerned the maneuvers of corporate or political bodies aimed at nourishing doubt concerning scientific findings so as to block political action and to facilitate profitable yet deleterious consumption (tobacco, sugar..) or industrial practices (asbestos, dioxin…). Trade or military secrets constitute yet another mechanism of willful ignorance. Agnotology is the downside of epistemology: it studies the conceptual basis and social-historical genesis of ignorance, just as epistemology does with respect to knowledge. However, the symmetry is not perfect, for manufacturers of ignorance are seldom led to generate knowledge, while producers of knowledge are surrounded by pools of ignorance, both left out of their reach or generated in the very process of knowledge acquisition. Indeed, perpetrators of willful ignorance piggy-back on the ‘natural’ production by science of ignorance. An international conference organized by Martin Carrier at ZiF Bielefeld in June 2011 was mainly devoted to the original theme and motivation of agnotology. The present proposal is to widen the perspective to the geneses of ignorance, with or without malign intent, and to enlist the resources of philosophy in order to clarify the status and dynamics of ignorance, in the social context of an increasing emphasis on the production and dissemination of knowledge. Some of the well-identified issues in epistemology are: transcendental relations (in the Kantian sense), cognitive limitations, semantic incommensurability. Social epistemology suggests further relevant issues, such as the social functions of, and the right to ignorance, or again “ignorance in the field”, i.e. the impoverished epistemic state that is inherent to the situation of the engaged, hands-on end-user (school teacher, physician, farmer, politician, industrialist…): what is the appropriate handling of that sort of ignorance? Can science, and society, alleviate the problem, and how? ''Ignorance by Design: Rethinking Knowledge, Anti-knowledge and the Unknown in STS' - Co-Organized by Matthias Gross and Linsey McGoey, panel at the 4S/EASST Joint Meeting Design and Displacement, Copenhagen, October 17-20, 2012. 'Beyond Risk: Governing Unknowns' - Organized by Matthias Gross, under the guise of the International Sociological Association (ISA) Research Committee on Sociology of Science and Technology (RC23), at the Second ISA Forum of Sociology, Buenos Aires, Argentina, August 1-4, 2012.

Tag: Off-prints In the days before photocopiers, getting hold of an offprint from the author was a useful way of getting a copy of the text, tables, images and formulae of a scientific article without having to copy it by hand from a library volume. The ways in which offprints circulated – whether requested by authors in locations where the journal was not available, or distributed strategically by the author to people s/he wanted to impress – is an intriguing element of the sociology of scientific communication. The history of offprints also illustrates the long history of out-of-commerce circulation of scientific knowledge. Even when the issues, parts or volumes of the published journal were available for public sale, authors could send their private supply of offprints to colleagues, friends and potential sponsors. This long tradition still holds true in the digital world, when printed copies have been replaced by PDFs, but most publishers will still supply authors with a PDF for circulation through their networks. As well as providing an out-of-commerce route for circulation, offprints also (in certain historical periods) provided a route for more rapid circulation. They were originally available more quickly than the collated issues or bound volumes of the journal in which the article formally appeared. In this post, we will discuss what the Royal Society’s archive can reveal about the history of offprints. The rising costs of publishing the Philosophical Transactions was causing considerable anxiety at the Royal Society. In 1895, the Senior Secretary, physicist Lord Rayleigh (John Strutt) took steps to increase the Society’s capacity to finance its publication. He wrote to Her Majesty’s Treasurer describing ‘the financial difficulties attending the adequate publication of scientific papers’. Scientific journals and their publishers were finding it almost impossible to be commercially successful. There was limited readership owing to the specialization of science, which meant that readers were unlikely to buy publications, like the Philosophical Transactions, covering the whole of science. The cost of illustrations was also very high, but Rayleigh considered them essential for effective scientific communication. The Society had struggled so much that in some cases it had even rejected papers despite them being worthy of publication. It was not only the Royal Society that was struggling to meet costs, but all scientific publishers, including learned societies, specialist societies, and even commercial publishers. Learned societies bore much of the burden so Rayleigh proposed a grant of £2000 or £1000 annually to aid not only the Royal Society’s activities but those of other societies. A grant of £1000 was given, and the Society began to administer it to needy Societies and publications, as well as using it on its own publications. In 1925 H. M. Treasurer asked the Society to receive an increased grant of £2500 annually, administering it to other Societies in need. The Society agreed, becoming a tool for the government’s support of scientific publishing. The fact that the Society had to request a grant for publishing was a reflection of its financial model at this time. Rayleigh’s request was the consequence of a wider ethos of free circulation, which meant that the Society rarely made money on its publications. Every Fellow received a free copy of the journal, and authors received upwards of 100 copies of their papers. Exchange and gift lists also meant many institutions throughout the world had copies of the Society’s publications. Rayleigh wanted to maintain this generous, and even philanthropic, approach to science publishing, but the Society was struggling to do this without assistance. The grant also marked a new role for the Society: by administering the grant to other societies for their publications it meant that the Society was aiding a non-commercial approach to British learned society publishing. This atmosphere of generosity would eventually shift, but not until the late twentieth century. Before 1875, if one wanted to buy the Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions, it was available as bound volumes, but only when all papers for the current volume were printed – which took several months. Authors received separate copies of their papers that were available shortly after a paper was passed for printing by the Committee of Papers. These copies, however, were generally circulated amongst authors’ close acquaintances only, thus meaning anyone else who wanted to read a Transactions paper had to wait for the full volume to be published, which could take several months. In 1875, the Society trialled a new scheme with the London based bookseller, Trübner. Separate copies of the Transactions would be sold through the book trade. The significance of the trial was that it marked a change in the dissemination of scientific papers. The bound volume was no longer the main product. In reality, however, the financial results were not exceptional; in fact, Trübner reported in 1883 that no more than ten copies would be needed of future papers. This was not a great surprise or concern to the Society, which at this time valued the free circulation of scientific papers over generating income from sales. (On Trübner (later part of Kegan Paul), see L. Howsam, Kegan Paul, a Victorian Imprint: publishers, books and cultural history (Toronto: University of Toronto Press and Kegan Paul International, 1999)).

Americans are split on Donald Trump’s ethics policies The incoming Trump administration has Americans split over whether the President-elect and his family are complying with ethics laws. The ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted by Langer Research Associates finds that a bare majority of Americans believe his business ownership plan is sufficient while three-quarters say he should release his tax returns. Results on Trump’s handling of the transition, views on his policy proposals and expectations for his presidency will be released Tuesday morning alongside Barack Obama’s final approval rating. In terms of ethics, the poll finds Americans are split on whether or not Trump, his family, and his advisers are complying with federal ethics laws: 43% think they are compliant and 44% think they have failed on the ethics front. The gap across party lines is more evident than ever with 79% of Republicans saying Trump is complying with ethics laws. That number falls to 44% among independents and just 16% for Democrats. At the same time 72% of conservatives say he is following proper rules and regulations, a number that drops to 56% among “somewhat” conservative Americans, 37% for moderates, and 25% for liberals. Donald Trump has been heavily criticized by ethics officials but 52% of Americans say Trump’s plan to continue owning his businesses while placing them in a trust managed by his sons is sufficient. At the same time, 42% say he should sell his businesses, peaking at 71% of Clinton supporters versus just 10% of those who favored Trump for the office. An overwhelming number of respondents (74%) say Donald Trump should release his tax returns, including 49% of his own supporters. It is the highest number of respondents who want to see his tax returns in recent polling. Methodology This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by landline and cellular telephone Jan. 12-15, 2017, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 1,005 adults. The poll has a margin of sampling error of 3.5 points.

New park 1500 km’s north of Perth in Parraburdoo is near completion. Place looks pretty fun, good to see parks popping up all around the country not just in the large populated area’s. More images here. After over a decade of lobbying, the new Coffs Harbour skatepark is well on it’s way. These photos of the bowl popped up on facebook this morning, and the thing looks like it’ll amazing! I’ll definitely be making a trip back home once this is complete.

The Progressive Democrat Newsletter grew out of the frustration of the 2004 election. Originally intended for New York City progressives, its readership is now national. For anyone who wants to be alerted by email whenever this newsletter is updated (usually weekly), please send your email address and let me know what state you live in (so I can keep track of my readership). Sunday, March 06, 2011 Progressive Democrat Newsletter Issue 291 The anti-union, pro-billionaire Teabagger Republicans have stimulated a backlash that has raised more than $500,000 for the Wisconsin Democratic State Senate Committee. Which is WONDERFUL. Mostly in $14 increments (in honor of the 14 Democratic State Senators who stood up to pro-billionaire, anti-working class Walker) we have raised more than half a million dollars for the next State Senate elections! THAT may be one of the most important results of the last couple of weeks. But I want to call people's attention to the Wisconsin State Assembly, which Democrats used to control but is now a Teabagger/Republican body. We need to win the Wisconsin Assembly as well as the Wisconsin State Senate. I urge people to donate $14 to the Assembly fund as well as $14 to the State senate fund. If we raised over $500,000 for each, we'd be really well positioned to hand the Teabagger Republicans their collective ass in the next election. Please click here and donate $14 to each. Believe me, you will be thrilled next time you watch an election in Wisconsin if enough of us take this one little action. But the fight has moved on beyond Wisconsin. It is being fought in Ohio and Indiana as well. Over at Daily Kos some have been complaining that Ohio and Indiana have been ignored. Well, as you will see on this Act Blue Page and in this week's newsletter, I have been focusing on Ohio and Indiana as well, and I urge you to donate to those efforts as well. Might as well keep $14 as the iconic pro-union donation. Just give LOTS of $14 donations if you can.

Many of the tasks these "standing armies" perform - including manning the police station front desk to help distressed crime victims - could be handed to civilian staff instead, he argued. He refused to speculate how many officers could be lost, adding that more work needs to be done on what the basic minimum would be. But the figure is likely to run into thousands. Rural forces are likely to lose the greatest number of officers, Sir Ronnie's 124-page review on the future of policing in England and Wales suggests. He wants the Government to rip up a funding formula which has protected the budget given to counties with less crime - the key factor in setting budgets. The mostly rural forces would see their budgets slashed, with the money being transferred direct to the Labour heartlands. Last night, police reacted with fury to the plan to reduce officer numbers in favour of civilian staff. Other tasks police will be expected to give up include taking witness statements. Police Federation chairman Jan Berry said: "You de-skill the police service and it produces a totally different police service - one that is only going to be dealing with confrontational situations, like a paramilitary force. "That's not the police service which traditionally this country has had and we have got to be very careful before we fall into that type of police service." Ian Johnston, president of the Police Superintendents Association, said: "We've gone through three or four different 'civilianisation' programmes and, quite frankly, some forces are saying we can't civilianise anything else. "If we are not very careful, we will have people specialising in delivering all different bits of policing and we might not actually have the numbers of uniformed officers we need in times of incidents or national disasters." The Conservatives said the dividing line between them and the Labour government - which endorsed Sir Ronnie's report yesterday - is now clear. "But the Conservatives will cut red tape in order to put more officers on our streets." Sir Ronnie's report, which was leaked in draft form to the Daily Mail earlier this week, promised a bonfire of red tape, as well as new technology such as cameras attached to officers' uniforms and hand-held computers. If levels of red tape were stripped back, it could release up to seven million hours of police time every year - the equivalent of 3,500 officers, Sir Ronnie said. In the draft, he said six million hours were being wasted on needless bureaucracy. But the most controversial part of the report is the proposal to cut police numbers, which will alarm law-abiding members of the public who believe they rarely see an officer on the street. Sir Ronnie's report said: "There is widespread recognition amongst the leadership of the service that maintaining police numbers at their current level is not sustainable over the course of the next three years. "I am persuaded that we would not be making the most effective use of the resources dedicated to the police if police officer numbers were sustained at their current level." The former Royal Ulster Constabulary chief later added: "I don't think that throwing numbers at the police is the answer." While Sir Ronnie refused to be drawn on numbers, past estimates have indicated the absolute minimum number of officers needed is between 130,000 and 135,000. He said: "The number of officers we need is a careful balance between the risks we face, and ensuring that we don't simply have officers forming large standing armies for the majority of the time, deployed only if there is a major incident of some kind." Other proposals include a simplification to the way 80 per cent of crimes are recorded. Serious crimes would continue to be recorded in great detail, but less serious offences would be noted down in a "much more concise way", said Sir Ronnie. There were several changes to the leaked draft, the Tories said. It did not include leaked references to "top down management", "declining public confidence" or over-centralised government being "part of the problem". A graph was changed to present a more positive picture of the public's perceptions of crime. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said: "We are determined to cut unnecessary red tape and free up police officers to focus on protecting their communities and dealing with the issues that matter most to communities. "I have formally asked Sir Ronnie to report back to me in six months on how we and the police are reducing bureaucracy. "For our part, in addition to the measures outlined to day, the Government will be publishing a Green Paper in the spring to further improve policing for the future."

LATEST CLINICAL ARTICLE People with learning disabilities still face inequalities in access to health services. This article, which comes with a handout for a journal club discussion, sums up what nurses can do to reduce these inequalities CLINICAL FOCUS People with learning disabilities still face inequalities in access to health services. This article, which comes with a handout for a journal club discussion, sums up what nurses can do to reduce these inequalities Swine flu vaccine uptake Several newspapers have reported that pregnant women and other vulnerable people are refusing to have the swine flu vaccine. The Times reported that a poll of GPs found that only 46% of people who were offered the vaccine have accepted it, and one doctor estimated that only 5% of pregnant women have had it. The news reports are based on a “snapshot” survey of 107 GPs. The survey asked how likely they were to hit the government’s target of vaccinating at least half of their patients who are under 65 and in high-risk groups this winter, and the estimated vaccine uptake in their practice. It is not clear if the experiences of this relatively small sample of GPs can be viewed as representative of the 30,000 other GPs in the UK. This picture of overall uptake is based purely on these 107 GPs’ estimates. It is also possible that these GPs chose to take part in the survey themselves, and GPs who chose not to take part may have a different experience of vaccine uptake. Based on this survey, it can’t be assumed that there is similar vaccine uptake nationwide, or that particular groups, such as pregnant women, are more likely to reject the vaccine. What are the news reports based on? These news reports are based on two articles in Pulse, a magazine for GPs. Both articles are on the swine flu vaccination programme, which has been in progress since late October. One article, on overall uptake, was based on a “snapshot” survey of GPs that was recently carried out by the magazine. The other, on uptake in pregnant women, may be from the same survey, but this was not made clear. One of the articles reports that GPs are “braced” to miss a target that was set by the government to vaccinate at least half of all people in high-risk groups aged under 65 against swine flu during this winter’s campaign. The other article reports that pregnant women are rejecting the vaccine because of fears over its safety. Pulse surveyed 107 GPs, asking them whether they felt they would achieve this target in their practice and to estimate how many of the people who were offered the vaccine in their practice had accepted so far. They could also make any other relevant comments. What did the survey find? The survey found that only 37% of GPs believed that their practice could achieve the government’s target, based on their experience so far. Just over half (53%) said they would not hit the target, and 10% said it was too early for them to say. The reasons given by GPs for not hitting the target are a low uptake of the vaccine by those who were offered it, and delays in receiving vaccine supplies. Just over half the practices had started the vaccination campaign, and these practices estimated that less than half the people offered the vaccine had accepted it. In the article on vaccine uptake in pregnant women, one GP estimated that only 5% of pregnant women in their practice had agreed to be vaccinated, while another GP estimated that the figure in their practice was less than 25%. Other GPs stated that there was scepticism about the vaccine among their pregnant patients. Do these findings represent all GPs? This survey cannot answer that question. It was a relatively small survey which asked GPs’ opinions on the likelihood of reaching vaccination targets and their estimates of vaccine uptake in their practices. It is not clear how these GPs were selected to take part in the survey, how many of those who were asked agreed to take part, or which areas of the country were covered. The figures on overall uptake were based on the GPs’ estimates. The only figures that estimated uptake in pregnant women came from two GPs, whose estimation differed about fivefold (one in 20, and less than one in four). It is difficult to gauge uptake based on this limited survey, and it is not possible to say whether these results are representative of the entire country. Regarding reasons for low uptake, the GPs could only state the concerns that their patients had reported to them. It is not possible to say how representative these reports were of people’s reasons for not having the vaccine. It is also not clear whether certain at-risk groups are more likely to reject the vaccine than others. What are the problems with supply? Pulse reported that each practice in England and Wales, regardless of size, was due to receive an initial delivery of 500 doses of the vaccine, and GPs should be able to order further deliveries from mid-November. However, the magazine says that larger practices reported not having enough doses of the vaccine to go round, which has lead some of them to delay their vaccination campaigns. What reasons were given for rejecting the vaccine? The GPs surveyed said that people who rejected the vaccine did so because of concerns about its safety and the risk of side effects, which were reported as headaches, sleeplessness and stomach cramps. Some GPs also reported that patients were concerned over an ingredient in the vaccine called thiomersal. Pandemrix is one of the two swine flu vaccines being used in the UK. It contains a very small amount of thiomersal as a preservative. It is added to prevent bacterial or fungal contamination occurring during the preparation, storage and use of the vaccine. In the 1990s, some people raised concerns about the use of thiomersal in vaccines, which lead the WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety to review the scientific evidence about its safety, which it did most recently in 2006. It concluded that “there is no evidence of toxicity in infants, children or adults exposed to thiomersal in vaccines.” Are the vaccines safe? Both swine flu vaccines (Pandemrix and Celvapan) have been authorised for use by the European Medicines Agency (EMEA). Vaccines would not be licensed if they were considered unsafe. What is known about the safety of these vaccines is based on clinical trials of prototype bird flu vaccines and trials using the swine flu vaccine itself. Based on these studies, the swine flu vaccine has been judged to be acceptably safe for use. People who are offered the vaccine and are concerned about its safety should discuss this with their doctor. Does the vaccine have any side effects? The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) reports that “as with any vaccine, the swine flu vaccines will cause side effects in some people, although not everybody will have a side effect. The most common side effects will be injection site reactions (pain, swelling and/or redness), headaches, dizziness, muscle aches, mild fever and fatigue. These side effects are mainly mild and last only two to three days. Some of these symptoms may be similar to a mild flu-like illness, although it should be stressed that the vaccines cannot cause swine flu itself.” Because clinical trials are relatively small, they may not identify very rare side effects. To identify these, the side effects of the swine flu vaccine will be monitored as it is used. It is important to note that the same is done for all new medicines and vaccines, not just the swine flu vaccine. Who should be vaccinated and why? Although swine flu is mild in most people, some people who get swine flu have serious complications, which can be fatal. To reduce the risk of these complications, the vaccination programme prioritises people who are most at risk of having complications from swine flu. These priority groups are: People aged between six months and 65 years who belong to at-risk groups that would usually be offered the seasonal flu vaccine (see below). Frontline health and social care workers. Pregnant women. People who live with those whose immune systems are compromised, such as cancer patients or people with HIV/AIDS. People aged 65 and over who would usually be offered the seasonal flu vaccine. Frontline health and social care workers are prioritised because they deal with at-risk groups, so are more likely to catch and spread swine flu to at-risk patients. Prioritising them also aims to ensure that the health service will continue to run smoothly during the pandemic. People who would usually receive the seasonal flu vaccination include those who have: Immunosuppression (a suppressed immune system) due to disease or treatment. Why is it important for pregnant women to be vaccinated? Pregnant women are one of the groups that are more likely to have serious complications if they get swine flu, which could result in miscarriage and premature labour. There is evidence that pregnant women are at increased risk of severe disease and of being admitted to hospital with flu-related problems. The risk increases as the pregnancy progresses, and women in the third trimester of pregnancy are particularly at risk. (WHO 2009, Jain et al., 2009, Jamieson et al., 2009). The World Health Organization has stated that 7–10% of all hospitalised patients with swine flu are pregnant women in their second or third trimester. Pregnant women are 10 times more likely to need care in an intensive care unit than the general population. (WHO, 2009). Both swine flu vaccines have been licensed for use in pregnant women, but it is recommended that they should be given Pandemrix. This is because it appears to give adequate levels of antibodies after a single dose, protecting the recipient more quickly than Celvapan, which requires two doses given three weeks apart. Have your say Please remember that the submission of any material is governed by our Terms and Conditions and by submitting material you confirm your agreement to these Terms and Conditions. Links may be included in your comments but HTML is not permitted. In Most popular Unlimited access to Nursing Times... ...gives you the confidence to be the best nurse you can be. Our online learning units, clinical practice articles, news and opinion stories, helps you increase your skills and knowledge and improves your practice.

In 2005 Keller spent 9 months at BC Hydro’s Blind Slough Dam drilling and installing over 3,600 dowels and rock anchors. The major component of this rehabilitation and seismic retrofit project was the construction of 71 large, deep rock anchors. All of the rock anchor drilling and installation work had to be staged dam’s narrow deck. Special lifting procedures involving 2 cranes and a telescopic forklift were required to ensure that bending of the rock anchor tendons during installation was kept to an acceptable mini-mum. Splicing of the individual 63.5mm diameter bars was necessary because the anchors’ length was universally longer than the longest mill length of bar and had to be organized in a manner that avoided any two couplers being closer than 1.5 metres apart from one another. A strict inspection procedure was followed to check the bars’ encapsulation for pitting or “holidays” one last time during hoisting into the hole. With the elevation of the rock being so highly varied across the site, on top of the several other procedural restrictions was the added aspect of having to wait until rock was encountered at each hole before determining the overall rock anchor length, as this dimension was predicated on the as-found top of rock elevation. Drilling by Keller at this site totaled over 8200 lineal metres, with more than 3600 lineal metres consumed by drilling and re-drilling of the 279mm diameter rock anchor holes. Drilled holes ranged from plumb to 10° off horizontal, and were located everywhere across the site including indoors inside the Tainter House, on the downstream face of the piers, on the spillway aprons and on the abutment wall faces. Five different drill rigs were used to construct all of the dowel and rock anchor holes.

The case of Bernina Mata and the media frenzy that surrounded aspects of it reminds me somewhat of Aileen Wornous. She was a lesbian who killed a man she met in a bar one night. Her defense was that it was self defense, that he attacked her and she stabbed him to keep from being killed and raped. The prosecutions case was- get this- that she was a hard-core-man-hating lesbian who killed him because was a man. No, I'm not kidding. She was a lesbian and a prostitute. These two fact both had led to her fear of rape and violence because that it what she had learned so far in life. she expected it. Once she found out how easy it was to kill her johns as opposed to getting the shit kicked out of her; she took that route. Unfortunately this has been a surprising tactic among prosecution in recent years. It has become commonplace for a defendan… So far, none of the women on death row are scheduled for execution in 2012, 2013 or 2014. Neither are any of the men I write to. I feel relatively safe for now. Of those who are scheduled for 2012, there is Nicholas Tate. He is volunteering to be executed on January 31, 2012 for the murder of a young woman and the sexual assault and murder of her 3 year old daughter. His two brothers, 18 and 15 were along with him. They were under the assumption that the woman had money and crack in her home and they went to rob her. They left her apartment and fled to a gas station where they took a hostage who they later released. Are you into this Kindle Singles thing? I love it. The true crime singles are like episodes of 48 Hours: Investigates crammed into a Kindle. My newest favorite is below. Its the last statements of some of Texas executed inmates. It also gives case histories and facts.

Do plastic bag bans really reduce litter? An employee gathering carts from a sunny parking lot of a Santa Cruz Safeway said shoppers are warming up to the city's new ban on single-use plastic bags. But some still miss the bags' convenience. "Wrong thing to do," said a middle-aged man of the ban. "But they're killing the innocent turtles," his wife said, adding that in Europe, reusable bags are a way of life. The couple's disagreement is typical of the strong feelings evoked by plastic bag bans, which seem to delight environmentalists but aggravate many retailers and consumers. While there is some evidence that the bans have reduced litter on city streets and beaches, ambiguities in the data seem certain to fuel further heated debate. San Francisco led California's war on plastic, banning bags at large grocery stores and chain drugstores in 2007. But litter surveys in the city, covering the first two years after the ban went into effect, painted a foggy picture. Surveyors assessed more than 100 randomly selected sites in the city each year, counting every piece of litter in an area half the length of a city block. In 2007, before the ban was introduced, plastic bags amounted to 0.5 percent of large litter. By 2009, the percentage climbed to about 1.5 percent. And during the same period, the average amount of litter stayed about the same. The city hasn't collected any litter data since the 2009 survey, said Guillermo Rodriguez, a spokesman for the city's environment department. Advertisement The ban was expanded to all retailers in July 2012 and will continue to expand to all restaurants this year. San Francisco plans to do another litter survey to see whether the new scope of the ban makes a measurable impact. San Jose has already seen that impact. The city's 2012 bag ban immediately covered all retailers. Last December, San Jose presented results of litter surveys in city creeks, streets and storm drains. Surveys after the bag ban in 2012 found 89 percent fewer bags in storm drains, 60 percent fewer in creeks and 59 percent fewer on city streets, compared with surveys before the bag ban. Plastic bags made up 8 percent of total creek litter in 2011 and 4 percent in 2012. A 2012 survey of Bay Area storm drains found that "other plastics," not including plastic bags, made up about 50 percent of storm drain trash. Paper, Styrofoam and drink containers together made up another 30 percent. Litter on beaches But the bags also show up in marine litter, making up about 15 percent of trash in the deep reaches of Monterey Bay. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute reported finding plastic bags in water nearly 2½ miles deep, according to a paper published online in May in the journal Deep Sea Research. Closer to the ocean surface, concern for the bags' impact on marine life stems from the fact that ocean-borne plastic bags look similar to jellyfish, which sea turtles love to eat. Whether the bans are preventing bags from reaching the ocean is hard to measure, but surveys of litter on Monterey Bay beaches provide the best available picture. Santa Cruz-based Save Our Shores promotes weekly cleanups around Santa Cruz and Monterey counties and collects trash data from many of these events. On average, volunteers pick up only six bags at each event, down from a high of 65 in 2008. The number of bags collected per cleanup has dropped in the past two years because of four bans that took effect in 2012, said Save Our Shores executive director Laura Kasa. The four bans covered unincorporated Santa Cruz County and the cities of Watsonville, Monterey and San Jose. The latter ban matters because of the volume of tourist traffic coming "over the hill" to Santa Cruz beaches, said Kasa, who also credits the shift in public perception toward plastic bags in the region. "In Santa Cruz it's become the trend to be green and to bring your own reusable bags and not use plastic bags," she said. Save Our Shores program manager Brad Hunt pointed out that Monterey County has not yet implemented a bag ban, which affects Save Our Shores' average cleanup numbers. "It could go down to one bag per cleanup after Monterey County implements theirs," Hunt said, "but we won't know that until a year or two down the road." An opposing voice Opponents of plastic bag bans point out that bags make up a small fraction of litter. "You're talking about such a small amount to begin with that you wouldn't notice any change," said Stephen Joseph of the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, whose members include plastic-bag manufacturers and retailers. Joseph said political leaders have exaggerated the problem. He disputes claims by Oakland-based Save the Bay that a million plastic bags enter San Francisco Bay each year. In 16 years of living in the city, Joseph said, he never saw one bag in the bay. "It's a hoax," he said, adding: "There's obviously plastic bag litter. Anyone who's never seen a plastic bag flying around is blind. But that does not justify all the exaggeration."

Become a Member Password Recovery Fortgot your password? Don't worry we can deal with it If the e-mail address you entered is associated with a customer account in our records, you will receive an e-mail from us with your password. If you dont receive this e-mail, please check your junk mail folder or visit our Help pages to contact Customer Service for further assistance. Your password request failed because a User with the specified email address could not be found. Wich Account You Want To Go? Are You Sure You Want to Logout ? Pampered Poochies Pampered Poochies Spa is the ultimate treat for your pet, specially designed to provide a calm, relaxing and safe haven in which the pet can be groomed, indulged and revitalized and looked after in what seems to be a one-stop shop for your loved ones. We focus mostly on grooming and daycare services. Our motto is “quality over quantity” and that is why we do not book more than one dog per groomer at a time ensuring our daycare is not overcrowded. Address: Cluster C, Fortune Tower, Jumeirah Lakes Towers City: Dubai Phone: 04 276 7160 Offer 1: You and you guest are invited to enjoy one complimentary Night Boarding when a Night Boarding of equal or greater value is purchased Offer 2: You and you guest are invited to enjoy one complimentary Monthly Daycare Package when a Monthly Daycare Package of equal or greater value is purchased Offer 3: You and you guest are invited to enjoy a complimentary Three Months Unlimited Wash, Blow and Dry Package for your Dog when Three Months Unlimited Wash, Blow and Dry Package of equal or greater value is purchased

A few of our favorite agencies Last month, we put out a call for thanks to the agency staff that have helped make FOIA and public records work for you. Here are a few of the submissions we received, along with our sincere thanks to all those who help make public records possible. Steve Horn wrote in to say that Ritter was frequently amazing to work with. “Always gets records back in a timely matter, always polite, always quick to respond,” he wrote. “I’d say she’s unparalleled, given how busy she is and how busy they are with oil production, and yet still turns around quickly.” “They actually comply with public records laws! They complete requests within 10 days and give you everything you ask for and then some,” wrote Evan Anderson. “It is definitely an agency worth filing requests with if you are curious about fusion centers.” “They are consistently pleasant, quick and helpful,” a reporter wrote in. “They have produced records and data for us on the same day a number of times. When we have made requests similar to ones that have been filled, they have pointed us to the requests that were already filled, produced those records, and checked to see if those were sufficient. In most cases, they have been.” Nate Jones wrote in to praise the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel, which works with a lean staff to review and release a large amount information that was previously classified. As a relatively independent body made up of representatives from various agencies, ISCAP has been effective in helping get around transparency hurdles; Jones sent over a National Security Archives post noting how often ISCAP releases were much more comprehensive than materials released directly by agencies. Throughout the past few years, numerous individuals have commented to me about Hogan’s helpfulness and forward thinking when it comes to FOIA policy, which is why he was a natural fit for our Agency Voice interview. A big thanks to him for agreeing to talk and for opening up about the FOIA process at the Department of Defense.

Important Update On The Gold And The Mining Shares As we come to the end of a Fed decision week, here is an important update on gold and the mining shares. Gold Sector UpdateBy Michael Oliver, MSA (Momentum Structural Analysis)June 16 (King World News) – The action since December’s major corrective low has been positive, in the sense that from momentum’s point of view it’s built a nice, flat structure around the zero line. Ripe structures usually imply intent. Meanwhile, price looks like it’s in a coiling action, with no clear intent of future direction (that’s what coils do – confuse)… IMPORTANT…To find out which junior a leader in the gold miningindustry just bought a 20% stake inCLICK HERE OR BELOW: Sponsored Now, for a moment, look at the momentum chart as if it were price, and use old, orthodox price chart analysis. That says that if momentum closes a week above the flat horizontal at the second circle (an “ascending triangle” is the common term), then there will be a major breakout, a momentum breakout (see chart below). (charts by Momentum Structural Analysis www.olivermsa.com) Back in late 2015 there was a massive down-trending structure, and in the second week of February it was broken out above, as well as a clear horizontal. That 40-wk. momentum breakout coincided with the upside breakout by annual momentum (not shown here). The result was a huge upside move. The Sharp Counter-Trend Correction Then came the sharp counter-trend correction. As we explained with archival examples in the May 4th report on gold and gold miners (just ask if you’d like that report re-sent), this sort of in-your-face counter-trend move, following a major long-term breakout surge, is common. It’s these sorts of counter-trend moves that test the emotions and mental certainty of the longs, thus removing many wobbly longs from the trend, such that when history later unfolds, they curse themselves for an improper entry level (based on price charts instead of momentum) and lack of commitment to the new trend. While MSA can never claim certainty, we can claim when an annual momentum breakout occurs—and is not negated by the next long-term indicator (quarterly momentum)—that any move counter to the trend signal is probably a bluff. Meaning GDX’s drop into the December lows last year (18.58) was probably only a major correction following a first wave of upside that came from the annual momentum trend buy signal. It was a dying effort by the bear trend to reassert itself. But annual momentum said, “Not likely.” GDX & Gold So now GDX—and gold—have been caught in a zigzagging nowhere land since the December 2016 corrective decline. With this action occurring well above the December lows. If, via price chart action, you can argue a conclusive outcome to this non-trending action, go ahead. We can’t, and besides, we don’t trust price if it’s out of alignment with momentum. We’ve defined the red horizontal as a secondary but major momentum buy signal for GDX. And we strongly suspect it will be exploited as a secondary upside starting gate. When that occurs (and the breakout weekly closing number gets lower each week), then the “corrective” process following the first major up-wave of the new bull market will be over. It ended in December and all that’s followed is merely an effort by momentum to build a new starting gate, one that’s just above the zero line. If that breakout occurs, then assume the corrective pullback in the bull market is done, and that upside is dominant once again. The question has been asked, what if GDX breaks down instead? Does MSA have an exit number? Frankly, our methodology can only define a not-so-clear downside breakage level below the momentum action. If broken, it might lead to more decline, but when that structure is compared to the structure just overhead, we’d bet on the resolution being through the horizontal, not the less impressive uptrend structure. To conclusively break the uptrend line would require a price drop to around 20.70 and a weekly close there. The current price is 22.1. Meanwhile, waiting overhead is the major upside breakout level at 23.45 this week, and around 23.30 next week. We Will Monitor And Update We continue to monitor and will update. But the dominant technical factor that we recognize and cannot ignore is that the annual momentum trend of gold and GDX turned positive in early 2016, and nothing since, even the sharp but routine correction of late last year, has altered that major signal. ***ALSO JUST RELEASED: This Trigger For A Global Stock Market Crash Will Devastate The WorldCLICK HERE.

asus n552jk The ASUS ZENBOOK UX330UA UX330UA-FC032R 13.3" FHD Ultrabook with Windows 10 Pro is powerful, slim and beautiful. ZenBook UX310 brings you elegance, sophistication and superb performance in a gorgeously slim and light design. Crafted from solid aluminium and featuring our iconic spun-metal Zen-inspired finish, ZenBook UX310 is a mere 18.35mm thin. And its travel-friendly weight of just 1.45kg means taking it with you is never a burden, and using it is always a pleasure with its crisp, clear 13.3-inch wide viewing angle display. With its 12.5inch Full HD wide-viewing-angle panel, Chromebook Flip C302 is perfect for sharing the screen contents with a group of people, in any mode. Chromebook Flip C302 also a light sensor which automatically adjusts the brightness to suit the ambient lighting. ASUS takes great pride in making its products easy and fun to use, and the multi-touch display on the Chromebook Flip C302 will enhance your experience on whatever screen angle you choose. ASUS puts extra effort to ensure that the display is more accurate and responsive than conventional touchscreens. ASUS Chromebook Flip C302 is powered by the 6th generation Intel Core m3, m7 or Pentium processors and supports up to 8GB DRAM. The Chromebook Flip C302 boots up instantly and gives you the performance you need to run apps smoothly. Each VivoBook Pro 15 is milled from high-strength aluminum that undergoes a series of intricate manufacturing processes to achieve its sleek and elegant final form. With a 19.2mm profile and an overall weight of 2kg, the VivoBook Pro 15 is the thinnest and lightest model offered in the VivoBook Pro series. The VivoBook Pro 15 a robust cooling system to ensure smooth and stable performance during high load multitasking or gaming marathons. An intelligent dual fan design has eight automatically adjustable speeds to deliver maximum cooling efficiency with minimal noise. Its compact, hyper cool, dual copper thermal module leverages system heat pipes and fans to independently increase CPU and GPU performance. ROG Zephyrus is a revolutionary gaming laptop born from ROG’s persistent dedication to innovation. Despite being thinner than all previous ROG laptops, it has the hardware to rival high end gaming desktops NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 graphics with Max Q design, a 7th Generation Intel Core processor, an optional 120Hz wide view display, and Windows 10 Pro. ROG slimmed the body to a mere 16.9-17.9mm while maintaining powerful cooling and unbeatable acoustic efficiency thanks to a clever new air flow design Active Aerodynamic System. The sleek chassis also includes an RGB keyboard that will feel familiar to gamers who typically play on desktop PCs. The ASUS DSL-AC68U is the world's fastest ADSLVDSL modem Wi-Fi router, with combined dual-band data rates of up to 1900 Mbps. On the 5GHz band, 802.11ac gives 1300 Mbps wireless data rates, while Broadcom® TurboQAM™ technology super-charges 2.4 GHz 802.11n performance from 450 Mbps to 600 Mbps with compatible devices. Compatible with ADSL22+, ADSL, VDSL2, fiber and cable services, the top specification completes future-proofing. Three external antennas boost coverage to the next level, so you can enjoy lag-free gaming and streaming almost anywhere around the house. ASUS AiRadar with universal beamforming technology enhances the Wi-Fi stability and improves coverage up to 150%. Most importantly, the universal beamforming not only works on 802.11ac clients, but also 802.11abgn clients. Powered by dual dedicated CPUs for wired and wireless connections, the DSL-AC68U eliminates the performance drops that plague other routers with busy networks and maximizes both range and stability. So… The K Series can be specced with up to the latest Intel Core i7 processor to give you the performance you need to tackle even the most challenging tasks easily. With up to the latest NVIDIA GeForce GTX 940 graphics and Direct X 11, K Series lets you create exceptional presentations for work, or enjoy high definition movies and games when it's time for you to kick back and relax. The K501 features the Hyper Cool with Duo copper thermal solution an upgraded intelligent cooling system with independent copper fans dedicated to cooling the CPU and GPU. This exceptional cooling system keeps temperatures low to prevent overheating and ensure system stability whether you're working on processor-intensive tasks or gaming. ZenFone Zoom is the world's thinnest 3x optical-zoom smartphone with an innovative 10-element HOYA lens arrangement for crisp detail - and up to 12x total magnification. Empowering 3x optical-zoom See the world up close with ZenFone Zoom's 3x optical-zoom and rock-steady optical image stabilization (OIS), plus dual-LED Real Tone flash for perfect lighting and revolutionary 0.03 seconds laser auto-focus for total clarity at the speed of light. OIS to unleash the true power of 3x optical-zoom ZenFone Zoom's 3x optical-zoom gets you closer, while optical image stabilization (OIS) keeps every shot rock steady. ZenFone Zoom's OIS is both automatic and easy, intelligently stabilizing every shot as you zoom - and that means maximum detail with the best possible clarity. The Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom is powered by 2GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor and it comes with 4GB of RAM. The phone packs 32GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 2000GB via a microSD card. As far as the cameras are concerned, the Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom packs a 12-megapixel primary camera on the rear and a 13-megapixel front shooter for selfies. 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Router-to-Router sync also makes it simple to sync files… The Asus Zenfone Pegasus 3S is a dual SIM smartphone that accepts Nano-SIM and Nano SIM. Connectivity options include Bluetooth, USB OTG, 3G and 4G. Sensors on the phone include Proximity sensor, Accelerometer and Ambient light sensor.Asus is one of the world's largest computer hardware companies. Its products include desktops, PC peripherals, laptops, smartphones, tablets and hybrid devices. The company has made Android phones powered by Intel. The new Zenfone 2 from Asus has not only raised eyebrows but also the overall competition. It arrives with top premium features that read like a luxury phablet list. 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It also offers touch focus, panorama stills, HDR and Full HD 1080p movie recording. An impressive 8MP selfies camera is also on offer making this smartphone a real catch for this price. The handset showcases a decent 5.2 inch HD 720p IPS touchscreen with 282ppi pixel density. Experience dynamic handheld performance with the US Version of the ZenFone 2 Deluxe ZE551ML Smartphone in purple from ASUS. This smartphone features a quad-core 2.3 GHz Intel Atom Z3580 processor and a powerful 4GB of built-in RAM. It also comes equipped with 64GB of storage and includes a microSDXC slot that supports cards with up to 64GB of memory for additional storage capacity. The integrated micro-USB interface allows you to connect the device for mass-storage purposes and also serves as a charging port. Additionally, you can use the micro-USB port to connect an optional MHL adapter for outputting video to an external display. ASUS Zenfone 2 Deluxe ZE551ML is a beautifully-crafted smartphone of the modern times with ultra-thin edges. The handset is vibrantly designed with shutter and volume button visible on its rear side. This is what reduces the thickness of this mobile phone to just 3.9mm, making it a slim fast phablet. You get a 5.5 inches large IPS capacitive touchscreen featuring 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution and 401ppi pixel density. Its multi-touch display is shielded with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 and offers Asus ZenUI. This is a desktop grade, pocket-sized handset with multifold functionalities.The Zenfone 2 Deluxe is driven by a 64-bit 2.3GHz Quad-core Intel Atom Z3580 processor and superbly amazing 4GB dual-channel DDR3 RAM. This is what makes the new Zenfone a fantastic machine for present smartphone enthusiasts. The handset is great for making multitasking incredibly smooth and fast. There is 16GB of internal memory expandable up to 128GB through the microSD card support.

This book tells the remarkable story of Birzeit University, Palestine's oldest university in the Occupied Territories. Founded against the backdrop of occupation, it is open to all students, irrespective of income. Putting the study of democracy and tolerance at the heart of its curriculum, Birzeit continues to produce idealistic young people who can work to bring about a peaceful future. Gabi Baramki explains how the University has survived against shocking odds, including direct attacks where Israeli soldiers have shot unarmed students. Baramki himself has been dragged from his home at night, beaten and arrested. Yet Birzeit continues to thrive, putting peace at the heart of its teaching, and offering Palestinians the opportunities that only education can bring. (source: Nielsen Book Data)9780745329321 20160528

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RELEASE DAY: THE SMALLER EVIL by Stephanie Kuehn 17-year-old Arman Dukoff is struggling with severe anxiety and a history of self-loathing when he arrives at an expensive self-help retreat in the remote hills of Big Sur. He’s taken a huge risk—and two-thousand dollars from his meth-head stepfather—for a chance to "evolve," as Beau, the retreat leader, says. Beau is complicated. A father figure? A cult leader? A con man? Arman's not sure, but more than anyone he's ever met, Beau makes Arman feel something other than what he usually feels—worthless. The retreat compound is secluded in coastal California mountains among towering redwoods, and when the iron gates close behind him, Arman believes for a moment that he can get better. But the program is a blur of jargon, bizarre rituals, and incomprehensible encounters with a beautiful girl. Arman is certain he's failing everything. But Beau disagrees; he thinks Arman has a bright future—though he never says at what. And then, in an instant Arman can't believe or totally recall, Beau is gone. Suicide? Or murder? Arman was the only witness and now the compound is getting tense. And maybe dangerous. As the mysteries and paradoxes multiply and the hints become accusations, Arman must rely on the person he's always trusted the least: himself. To celebrate Steph's big day, we asked ourselves: if we belonged to a cult, which one would it be? Kate Hart had a tough time choosing between these two: and Sarah Enni's cult involves popcorn and a TV: We can all get behind Kaitlin Ward's choice: Amy Lukavics wants everyone to pucker up: Sumayyah Daud's pick: Meanwhile, Debra Driza just wants a cult of snooze: Wishing you a happy, happy release day, Steph! Find THE SMALLER EVIL at a bookstore near you:

Latinos not flocking to Obamacare Minnesota's Obamacare exchange is reaching out to Latinos with Spanish-language marketing. Latinos may have the most to gain from Obamacare. But they're shying away from signing up for health insurance on the exchanges. At least one in three Latinos in the U.S. are uninsured, a far higher rate than whites or blacks. Yet, advocates say their Obamacare enrollment is lagging for a variety of reasons. "Some of these families have never had insurance in their lives," said Xavier Morales, executive director of the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California. Just how many Latinos and other minorities are signing up isn't known because only the California exchange asks applicants for their race and ethnicity, though the question is optional. In other states, advocates say it's been tougher than expected to get these groups to apply. Only 19% of Latinos and 20% of blacks have looked for health insurance on the exchanges, compared to 28% of whites, according to a Commonwealth Fund survey. In California, fewer than 20% of applicants identified themselves as of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin, according to the exchange. That compares to the estimate that about 46% of subsidy-eligible Californians are Latino. Enrollment in the Golden State is being watched closely since it's considered a model for the rest of the country. Morales ticks off the same reasons for the lagging enrollment as other advocates CNNMoney interviewed. Deportation: Many Latinos live in households where one member is undocumented. Not only is that resident not eligible for Obamacare, but many families fear that signing up will attract the attention of immigration officials. The National Alliance for Hispanic Health now gets 4,000 calls a month to its help line, up from 300 queries pre-Obamacare, said Jane Delgado, the research and advocacy group's chief executive. One of the main questions people have concerned so-called mixed-status families, when at least one person is not in the U.S. legally. The federal government has said that information collected through the exchanges will not be shared with immigration services, but that doesn't assuage everyone's fears. Lack of awareness: Latinos are even less familiar with the exchanges than other groups. Only 49% were aware of their state exchange, compared to 68% of whites and 69% of blacks, according to the Commonwealth Fund survey. Though the exchanges have funded a network of enrollment counselors, advocates have complained that it's still not enough, particularly in places where the state government opposes Obamacare, such as Texas and Florida. There's been a shortage of bilingual counselors in many places. "You have to have a lot of face-to-face discussions with folks to educate them," said Frank Rodriguez, executive director of the Latino Healthcare Forum in Texas. Counselors have to explain more than just insurance -- they have to go into the federal subsidies, which gets into estimated income and tax returns, to better understand what applicants can afford. Spanish-language sites: Delays in translating exchange websites and materials into Spanish, as well as other languages, has also tamped down enrollment. Some 63% of Latinos surveyed by Latino Decisions, a political opinion research group, said they wanted Obamacare information in Spanish. But the federal exchange didn't launch its Spanish language site, CuidadoDeSalud.gov, until December, and it quickly came under attack for being riddled with translation errors. Applicants still can't browse their plan options in Spanish. Tom Perkins: Obama is 'amateur president' Skepticism: Since many have never had insurance, applicants are also skeptical that they can afford coverage or that it's worth the money, advocates say. Key to turning this view around will be for enrollees to spread the benefits of insurance by word of mouth. "People need to see their neighbors are relatives are signing up and getting that insurance card and accessing insurance," Morales said. With six weeks left to go in the open enrollment period for 2014, exchange officials and advocates are ramping up outreach to minority communities. They are holding enrollment events, distributing marketing materials and advertising via video and social media. Covered California is set to announce Wednesday an expanded outreach strategy to Latino communities, including a new advertising campaign titled, "I'm In/Tengo un Plan." In Minnesota, for example, the MNsure exchange is rolling out a series of videos starring well-known figures in the state's ethnic communities to discuss their health struggles and the importance of insurance. The most effective outreach is through trusted partners in the community, said Mary Sienko, marketing director for MNsure, which is seeking to target the Spanish, Somali and Hmong groups in the state. "We still see opportunities across all age groups and ethnicities."

Wednesday, June 10, 2015 Preludes *** The creative team that brought us Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 — author/composer Dave Malloy, director Rachel Chavkin, set designer Mimi Lien, costume designer Paloma Young, lighting designer Bradley King, sound designer Matt Hubbs and music director Or Matias — have reunited at LCT3's Claire Tow Theater for another production based on Russian history. In 1900 the 27-year-old composer Sergei Rachmaninoff consulted a Moscow hypnotherapist, Nikolai Dahl, for a cure to the three-year writer’s block that followed the poor reception of his first symphony. Their daily sessions were successful and Rachmaninoff returned to composition in a blaze of glory with his Second Piano Concerto. Malloy and Chavkin have taken this incident as the basis of their new musical. There are interesting embellishments. The character of the composer has been divided between two actors, Rach (the wonderful Gabriel Ebert) and Rachmaninoff the pianist (Or Matias). Dahl, with a change of gender that opens more musical possibilities, is charmingly portrayed by Eisa Davis. The composer’s fiancee Natalya is played by Nikki M. James, whose voice is glorious. The play’s conceit that opera star Chaliapin (well played and sung by Joseph Keckler) is the composer’s close friend adds a sonorous Russian bass to the mix. We also meet Chekhov, Tchaikovsky, Tolstoy, Glazunov and Tsar Nicholas II, all played with élan by Chris Sarandon. The music includes pure Rachmaninoff, adaptations by Malloy, original songs by Malloy, and a dash of Bach, Beethoven and Mussorgsky. Deliberate anachronisms punctuate the dialogue. The wonderfully cluttered set includes a modern refrigerator filled with pop-top cans of beverage. A character drinks from a Zabar’s mug. The men wear period costumes, the women are mainly in modern dress. If you go expecting another Natasha… , you will be disappointed. The broad scope of Tolstoy’s novel and that play’s nightclub setting lent themselves to a theatricality that is not inherent in the story of a composer’s writer’s block. Also, the play takes a long time to build up steam and is quite uneven. More time in workshops might have produced a better result. Nevertheless, there is lots to admire including the fine cast. I give the creative team credit for their ambitious efforts. Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes including a short break midway.

A Hasidic paper in Williamsburg digitally erased Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton from the instantly iconic photo of the White House Situation Room as President Obama and his staff watched the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound. The paper, Der Zeitung, also removed Director for Counterterrorism Audrey Tomason from the photo in its Friday edition. The Jerusalem Post speculated “many conjectured that it was either because of concerns about immodesty, or strong feelings that women should not be in positions of power.” It also noted that the White House banned news organizations from having the pictures “manipulated.”

Subscribe to our Newsletter 5 Factors That Make a Website User-Friendly Some people usually consider a “great” website because of those glittering ads, and fancy lines, or maybe because of the barrage of images. Wrong. The truth is, a great site is the one that’s easy to navigate, and is swarmed with engaging content. Generally, it is a website that can provide a seamless user experience – user-friendly. A customer-friendly website sets your company or brand apart from the rest of the competition. To attain this, here are 5 key components that make your website truly user-friendly. 1. Compatibility on Mobile Phones According to a company of website development Qatar, more and more users are accessing on the Web through their mobile devices such as smartphones. This simply shows that the need to create a user-friendly or compatible site is now a MUST. To know if your site is compatible on mobile gadgets, try using Google’s mobile site tester. It has the ability to determine if your website can be accessed on mobile with ease. In the event it didn’t make it, this the time you need to make your site mobile-friendly. Ask help from web-based mobile website builders out there. Of course, choose the best one for you. 2. Information is Presented Efficiently Another thing to remember is the well-organized information structure. According to the experts of a web design company Bahrain, an organized and visible presented information on a website are also crucial factors to achieve overall usability. When building a site, be certain that category and section tabs are well-aligned and well-arranged. This will help your visitors easily find those pages. When it comes to organizing the site’s content, data, and information, always look the way your visitors perceive it. It’s paramount to think like the perspective of your site visitors because this will help you understand on how to make your content customer-friendly. 3. Compatibility and Consistency to all Browsers Browser consistency and compatibility is a component usually overlooked by web developers. According to an expert from a company of website development Bahrain, a website should also appear and behave consistently in all browsers – be it Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Opera or even Internet Explorer. 4. Easy To Navigate This one is HUGE. To make your website truly customer-friendly, easy navigation is the key. Instead of utilizing complex web design tools, much better to use only simple HTML or JavaScript menus. Keep in mind, your site should be clutter-free – simply no distractions. To achieve this, limit the number of menu items as much as possible, and pull out those annoying drop-down menus or other sub-navigation tools! 5. Swift Loading Speed Obviously, what annoys most people in visiting a website is the very slow loading speed. A website that loads slow is one of the reasons why visitors get so turned-off. You don’t want this to happen on your site, right? Make sure that your site can load in just three to six seconds. This is a huge key in to make your visitors or potential customers not become bored or turned off.

Viewing: Home Stoke Historically this match is heavily determined by home advantage, at Home Stoke usually win and plenty of goals are scored, at Anfield Liverpool win in a tight low scoring game. If the trend is to continue this should be a thrilling opening match with plenty of goals and a Stoke victory.... Read more

Main menu Tag Archives: Business A lot of comment has been made recently on social media regarding the decision by the New York State Wage Board to recommend a hike of the wages of fast food workers to $15 per hour incrementally over the next 6 years. I have a few comments and questions about it. First, I want to address it from my personal perspective. Sorry, gang, like everyone else, I’m just a tad selfish, and think of my own interests first at times. I work at a job that requires a minimum of an Associates Degree and prefers a Bachelor’s Degree. (I actually have about 1/2 of a Master’s Degree, but that’s beside the point.) I work in a business office setting, dealing with peoples’ confidential information. My work requires skills in multiple computer software products (including Lotus Notes, Microsoft Office Suite and work-specific software), high-level typing and data entry skills and dealing with the public. While it is not a professional position, it does require skills I needed to train to acquire to get the job, as well as experience in the field. My starting salary was less than the Wage Board’s recommended $15 per hour. After almost 10 years with my current employer and multiple raises for high performance, it’s still less than $15 per hour. Where will it end?I know professional teachers, health care workers, first responders and members of our U.S. Armed Forces who make even less, despite the incredibly higher stress levels of their jobs, let alone the greater physical demands placed on them. These people deserve much higher wages than I make and often make less, and in the case of our military, much less. But where does the “Me, too!” attitude stop?? Something isn’t quite rightwith a system that demands fast food workers are paid higher wages than employees on jobs that demand higher levels of training and skills. Fast food has always been meant to be an entry level position for a teenager, a stop-gap someone older might get while training to get a better position, or a job a retired person might get to supplement their pension. It was never meant to fund a lifestyle, which is what the demands for a $15 per hour wage really is when you look at it realistically. I am not meaning in any way to criticize families who are caught in a minimum wage trap through no fault of their own.I know some of them. They are good people, caught in a circumstance beyond their control. They are making the best of their situations, and working to get out. Such folks deserve all the help we can give them. I’m just not sure $15 per hour is the answer. It’s too broad a brush to paint across too many different lives and circumstances. Many fast food corporations have training programs for ambitious young people to move up within the company, to take on more responsibility and make more money. McDonald’s Mike Andres started as a manager of a family-owned store. and is now its U.S. Corporate President. McDonald’s Charlie Robeson started as a crew person and is now its U.S. Corporate Chief Restaurant Operations Officer. Restaurant Brands International’s David Clanachan started as a crew person for Tim Horton’s and is now the Corporate Vice President, as well as President and Chief Operating Office of the Tim Horton’s chain. (Their bios are easily found on the corporate websites.) These are just a few of the corporate success stories available. How are businesses going to afford this?Before you tell me, “Out of their corporate profits,” may I remind you of something? Fast food restaurants are generally operated as franchises. Corporate owned stores are the exception, not the rule, and the corporations tend to try to get these back into the hands of franchise holders as quickly as possible. This means the corporation offers its name, training, and supplies and leaves management up to the franchisees. The corporate profits of an entity like McDonalds come out of franchise fees and a percentage of the daily take. The rest of the daily take is what the franchisees use to pay their bills for lights, heat, taxes, salaries, supplies, food, losses, improvements, training and whatever else is needed, and eke out a living for themselves and their families. When the employees or managers don’t show up, franchisees have to be ready to fill in. When there is a crisis at a store, the franchisees have to be available to fix it, or arrange for it to be fixed. In other words, franchisees, like all other small business owners, take all the risks, and don’t really net all that much in profit. Speaking of risks, are you aware of how much it costs to become a franchisee in the first place? A simple internet search yielded some astonishing results! Someone wanting to take such a risk must have a minimum of $100,000 for a smaller franchise with low returns on investment. To buy into McDonald’s, a minimum of $1.1 million is required, and often you need to have extra for the land, and you don’t get to decide where you’re putting it. They do. The returns on investment on one franchise are so low, most own at least 3 to eke out a living wage for themselves and their families. It is from these people the NY Wage Board wants to take the $15 per hour.Not corporate entities like McDonald’s or Burger King. But the owner of the store down the street, who must raise prices and/or let go staff, and/or find other ways to cut costs to meet these demands. So where will these wage hikes come from?If these business owners don’t cut staff or otherwise cut costs, then the only pockets these raise hikes will be coming out of will be those of the consumers. Because sure as I am sitting here writing this, prices must go up to accommodate it if nothing else goes down proportionally. This means fewer people will be spending less at fast food places, and more will close for lack of business, causing job loss and business closures, leading to these workers making less money, instead of the more for which they petitioned so vigorously. Getting back to my own (perhaps a tad selfish) perspective, with this decision by the NY Wage Board, my already stretched budget just stopped including any fast food place that pays its workers $15 per hour. On my salary, quite frankly, I just cannot afford it. And the problem is, I don’t think a lot of others can, either. When leaders are exposed to their own weaknesses, shortcomings, and incompetencies, they will quickly confront reality and change. However, when non-leaders are exposed to the similar circumstances, they will run to rationalizations, suffering from “sour grapes” syndrome. Since Sturgeon’s Law applies to business, sports, and the arts, why should anyone be shocked the 90% of the people in business are in need of further change in order to produce results? They can achieve victory, but only if they are willing to grow personally. This revelation leaves people with only two choices: change or blame. It’s a sad indictment on our culture today that so many choose to blame rather than to change. YOU make your own bed in life, but you must also sleep in it. Orrin Woodwardmentions Sturgeon’s Law. This is the truism that 90% of what is available is not worth our time and efforts, while 10% is worth it. In endeavors dealing with people, the application is 90% of the work being done by the 10%, who are the leaders. I often see, as Orrin said, when most of us have “human” moments, we follow the 10% of working on it, then do what we can to avoid the pain and embarrassment of our faults, failings and foibles. Leaders, however, do that 90% work, face their “human” sides and work to change them. Every time a leader changes something that hinders them, they become better people and, in the process, better leaders. It has been said if a living thing isn’t growing, it is dying. Leaders live this out daily. May it be so said of all of us. In LaunchingALeadershipRevolution, Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady write, “Picture success as a road that leads to your dreams.” However, sometimes, on the path of chasing our dreams, we find ourselves feeling like we are chasing our tails, instead. How does this happen to us, and how do we get back? I understand that feeling, because it’s happened to me, too. When I was at my most frustrated, I listened to a CD by Team PC member Tim Marks on GoalsAndGoalSetting. The leadership example set by Tim on the CD was very helpful to me. The difference, according to Tim Marks, is in whether we are managing our business or building it. And if we are busy, is the focus on being busy, or on getting results? Busyness is an easy trap for a leader to fall into. On the CD, Tim said even he falls into this leadership trap, and needs mentoring with leadership guru Orrin Woodward to leave. Busyness is action mode, when we are working anywhere in a group, and not working with a focus on our goals. Results focus depends on a leader strategically building because their eyes are on a specific goal or goals. The easiest way to have results focus, according to Orrin Woodward on his CD TheAntAndTheElephant, is to have and build a big dream. Results focus is dream oriented. Once we get past the need for a focus on results, we need to address other issues. Time management is a big issue people have struggled with, including me. I remember times of being incredibly busy, but not getting much accomplished, because my time management skills were lacking. As I grew in my leadership skill of effective time management, my work became more effective, too. So what objectives should an aspiring leader reach toward? The first objective is Power Player, which is Team’s goal for all its members. Power Player is the basic building block of Team. Once Power Player is reached, Turbo goals are good objectives. Attaining Turbo 10, Turbo 25 and Turbo 50 opens up new levels of leadership and learning leadership skills. Each different objective allows greater access to mentorship by leadership gurus Orrin Woodward or Chris Brady. The leadership examples on Team provide great resources for aspiring leaders. The resources Team offers in books and CD’s are invaluable for growing leaders. They allow us to develop the leadership skills we need to grow our businesses and reach for our dreams.

Pilatus signs PC-7 MkII contract with India Pilatus has signed a contract with India for 75 PC-7 MkII basic trainers in a deal worth more than Swiss francs 500 million ($523 million). Delivery of the aircraft and training system is to commence in the fourth quarter of 2012, the airframer says, with its award also including ground-based training equipment and logistics support. "The contract also contains an option clause for extending the scope of this contract within three years from initial signature, and we are optimistic that this will indeed be executed," says Pilatus. Pilatus The confirmation is not unexpected. Earlier this month, widespread media reports in India indicated that New Delhi's Cabinet Committee on Security had approved the deal. The news will be welcomed by the Indian air force, which suffers a major shortage of training aircraft. Given the size of the purchase, the tender had attracted a number of other bidders, including the Airbus Military-promoted PZL-130 Orlik, Alenia Aermacchi M-311, Embraer EMB-314 Super Tucano, Grob G120TP, Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) KT-1 and Raytheon's T-6 Texan II. KAI mounted an unsuccessful protest into the selection of the Swiss type. Last year, an industry source familiar with the competition told Flightglobal that Pilatus had surprised its rivals by pitching the PC-7 MkII, which is a less advanced and less expensive basic trainer than its latest PC-21. "The decision to select the PC-7 MkII training system was made after a thorough evaluation by the Indian air force, which looked at all available options," says Pilatus. "Pilatus views this contract as a major success and believes it will encourage other forces to take a close look at our pilot training solution." Pilatus Pilatus will establish in-country depot-level maintenance for the PC-7 MkII, which will include technology transfer to India's state-owned airframer Hindustan Aeronautics. This will allow for in-country maintenance of the type for 30 years. The company has also signed a separate offset contract with New Delhi worth 30% of the total contract value. "Pilatus has significant confidence in the Indian defence market with its highly skilled workforce, and it is our intention to leverage the offset opportunity to establish manufacturing capability for the region in support of our business plans for India," the company says.

About + Resume Social Icons The Lotion That Made Me Stop Hating Lotion October 14, 2015 Now I don't mean to be this person, but I am drowning in my work. Literally. Midterms have really gotten to me, and I've been neglecting my baby (aka this blog - don't worry mom, I'm not going crazy at college). I've found it a little difficult to balance everything, even though I'm trying my very best. On top of that I've had a bit of writer's block/inspiration loss, but I wanted to throw something out there because hey, I'm still here. How are you? I feel like it's been months. Clearly all the exams and essays are making me go a bit delirious. There's a cute shop near campus called The Soap Opera, and I recently stopped in to get some birthday presents for my mom and sister. While walking through I caught a whiff of the most amazing coconut scent ever, and ended up coming home with the Mountain Ocean Skin TripCoconut Lotion. I had never seen this before, but after using it for a couple weeks I. Cannot. Stop. Everything about it is incredible. The texture of the lotion itself is great because it's not overly greasy, so after you apply it you can actually walk around and touch things without feeling slimy. Yet it still provides enough moisture, and I can definitely feel that my skin is soft and smooth after using it. This really helps me out because I find it such a chore to use lotion, but the fact that this feels so nice makes me look forward to putting it on. The main reason why I love this, however, is because it smells like you grabbed a coconut off a tree, split it open, and rubbed it on your body. It's that good. I'm a huge fan of coconut scents regardless, but this is the best coconut-flavored product I've ever tried. And I've tried a lot. The scent on this one really sticks around, and my friends can always tell when I'm wearing it (in a good way). I didn't really think that I had it in me to dedicate a whole post to a lotion, but thank you Mountain Ocean, you've proved me wrong. A bit random, I know, but if you love coconut, do yourself a favor and try this.

adidas adiZero Adios Boost review – good just got better I think that to a greater or lesser extent, all runners are creatures of habit and that is never truer than when it comes to our choice of footwear. The advice from experts and non-experts alike is often: find what works for you and then stick with it. I have friends who find a shoe that they like and buy as many pairs as they can afford or justify – indeed at my club the demise of the ASICS Ohana resulted in panic buying the likes of which is only seen after the announcement of an impending tornado somewhere in the USA. Other friends, including some highly regarded reviewers, wail and lament when a shoe that they like is discontinued or even just changed a little, as though the business decision about the shoe was a personal attack on them! I have my favourites too And I can sometimes see why. Whilst I do tend to look down on runners who put any success they achieve down to lucky pants or the fact that they have had the same vest since 1962, I do tend to get used to a pair of shoes and not really want to change. My first Adios… When the original adidas adiZero Adios came out, all the faster runners at my club got a pair. I wanted a pair. They were too narrow for my Hobbit like plates of meat. I was gutted. Not only did they look cool but all the fastest people in the world were wearing them. Probably more importantly, the fastest people in my club and on the start lines of races I was running were wearing them. In search of the perfect racing shoe But I wasn’t able to join in the fun, so I kept looking for my ideal racing flat. I tried the Brooks T7 Racer and I liked them – but they were a little too flat for me. I went back to ASICS and raced in the Gel Hyperspeed but for the marathon they didn’t offer enough in the way of cushioning for me. The Mizuno Wave Ronin was a favourite for quite a while. But then I heard a wonderful thing – there would be a range of adiZero Adios Wide… a troll-feet special! So I went to the adidas store on Oxford Street and there they were. The shoe I had been waiting for. I went crazy and bought two pairs in one go, because my man on the inside at adidas told me that the supply would be limited. And so there I was, at the end of the Olympic year in London, training and racing in my new Adios Wides and dreaming of the London marathon in April 2013. What I would do in my new, light, responsive, comfortable movers. Then I found myself in New York, invited to the launch of the adidas Boost. Moreover I found myself sitting next to the man in charge of running at adidas for Europe. And he told me that if I liked the Boost (I did and still do) and the adiZero Adios (I did and I still do), then I would love the Adios Boost… If Carlsberg made running shoes The Boost midsole material WHAT!?!!?? All the things I love about the Adios – the perfect heel-toe offset, the light weight, the open-mesh upper – but with a Boost sole? I was really keen to get a pair on my feet. Well now I have and I can report that unlike so many combinations that sound alright on paper but are a disaster in reality, the adidas Adios Boost is a triumph. The shoe is everything that I loved about the adiZero Adios but with a firmer and more responsive feeling midsole. The shoe has the Continental rubber that certainly makes the shoe feel more grippy and if anything seems to have an even more open upper which keeps my feet lovely and aerated. If I have one tiny criticism, it is that if I am not very careful, the tongue, being really light, can roll at the edges and then there is a gap either side which allows the laces to rub against the top of the foot. But careful tongue placement (oh er missus) sorts that out. In the races and sessions I have done so far in these shoes, they have felt great and that is despite there not being – as far as I know – a ‘wide’ version. I suspect that the new shoe is a little wider than the earlier adiZero Adios, which is great for me and the open mesh upper is probably also a little more forgiving. It probably also helps that these shoes are so striking looking. Conclusion For me, I think that adidas have done a great thing bringing their Boost technology and the design of the Adios together. I have sometimes thought that adidas has perhaps too wide a range of racing shoes and if they were to ask my opinion, I would say that they could do away with all the others and concentrate entirely on the Adios Boost. But then if they did, that would probably send me on a panic buying spree in case they sold out and I can not afford that, so adidas if you are reading this, please make sure you save a few pairs just for me… danke! Hi Simon, seriously tempted by a pair of energy boost. As a fairly heavy set runner with high arches and neutral gait/supination, could you say a little about the rest of the boost range? The adios being lower drop I think? Currently have Brooks glycerin9 and pureflow2 for the quicker ones. Tom, sorry for the slow reply. I have to say first of all I think the Brooks is a great shoe. Personally I am not all that keen on the Pure Flow (indeed the entire Pure Project has not really floated my boat) but from what I have tried, I would say they are very different shoes to the Boost range. The adios Boost is a really marvelous shoe in my opinion. I also really like the Supernove Glide Boost for regular runs and anything up to a fast’ish tempo session. They are more traditional than the Pure project shoes, but well worth a look I think. Would love to know if you like them if you give them a try. Thanks Simon. I popped into a local Sweatshop to try them on actually, and was offered a gait analysis. Thought ‘might as well!’ so went ahead. The results were a little troubling – about 2 years ago I started to get some knee pain, which led to physio, which led to a podiatrist session, which led to diagnosis of fairly bad supination (+ high arches), which led to recommending very cushioned shoes and corrective insoles. Every member of staff in the shop I went to assured me I don’t supinate, and in fact I overpronate, and need support shoes! Through the podiatry and insoles I probably spent £200 on a false diagnosis, but much, much worse, was running and walking on potentially quite damaging insoles for 18 months. So, in short, don’t trust a podiatrist, get a second and third opinion! And on the shoes, energy boost are a bit too neutral it seems, so I’m thinking Brooks Adrenaline GTS on the support side, or potentially Saucony Omni. Hi, mildly concerned about the above. having performed staff training in many stores over several years and worked with many podiatrists I felt compelled to comment. a podiatrist has 3 years of training to do their job and whilst like any profession there are good ones and bad ones, a member of staff at the above store has training from between 0 and a few days.. so firstly did the shoes and insoles from the Pod solve the problem? if not you should always go back and a good one will correct it for you. Secondly even if you had the wrong advice it is never a good plan to move from one end of the spectrum to the other if you are not injured. if you need more correction then move to moderate controlled shoe. (the brooks in question is one of the most controlling on the market, and whilst it is a great shoe for the correct runner it is often recommended when it shouldn’t be.) I hope you reach a suitable solution. Ken (BSc Sports Science, 23 years of running experience and 19 years in the running industry.)

Why I Venerate the Golden Dawn by Frater Barrabbas I got my first copy of the Golden Dawn book edited by Israel Regardie when it became a single volume. I can remember for a few years prior coveting the two volume version with its own slip case, but it was beyond my ability to afford. It was the great prize for anyone who sought to learn ritual or ceremonial magick, and was carefully displayed behind glass so it wouldn’t get stolen. The new Llewellyn edition was a single hardcover volume with a splashy colorful cover, but the price was right, and the old two volume edition was no longer in print. I bought the new version, back in the early autumn of 1975, and eagerly took it home to extract all of its secrets. I found that task to be nearly impossible, since my nascent intellectual skills weren’t really up to the task. I might have been a twenty year old adult, but my ability to read through hundreds of pages of arcane lore was a bit too much for my reading skills at the time. It would seem that I needed some background in order to fully master this lore. After I joined the Coven from Hell, I was taught most of the material from the Golden Dawn book, except perhaps the initiation rituals, and that included the Qabbalah, the Enochian material and the basic rituals. Once shown how these rituals worked, I immediately began to incorporate them into my own ritual work. In less than a year, I had my own versions of these rituals, but of them, only the Superior Pentagram, Superior Hexagram, the Middle Pillar, Qabalistic Cross and the Rose Cross rituals were used. The hexagram was soon replaced by the septagram, which I had always preferred, but those other four rituals were seamlessly incorporated into my magickal repertoire. I did fail to figure out how to use the lesser pentagram and hexagram rituals in conjunction with the superior rites, so I never mastered the Golden Dawn methodology for performing elemental, planetary and zodiacal magick. Instead, over time, I invented my own independent system of magick, but the rituals, structures and devices were expropriated from the Golden Dawn. This is because there wasn’t any Golden Dawn organization for me to join, and to this day I remained an outsider to that tradition. So it would seem that I used, in a rather cavalier manner, some of the magickal rituals of the Golden Dawn, some of the Enochian materials and pretty much ignored the rest. Since I had books from Aleister Crowley, I found that a combination of Crowley and the Golden Dawn seemed to help me fill in the void. Between these two authors, I was able to expand my knowledge and capability to craft and build my own personal system of magick. I was, in a word, an occult lore pirate, and both Israel Regardie and Aleister Crowley facilitated that plundering. I am sure that many others have found this published material both useful and practical, however, others within the Golden Dawn tradition have called both of them oath breakers. Had they not published the material from the Golden Dawn, I probably wouldn’t have been able to craft the magickal system that I did eventually derive. So I owe a debt of gratitude to these two individuals who are not honored in some of the more traditional Golden Dawn circles. Since that time, I have moved on and now use my own tried and true ritual structures, devices and components, all of which are now far removed from the Golden Dawn tradition. I have also refrained from purchasing any materials that are supposedly culled from secret documents that are still in use by that order. I have done this out of respect for the active tradition of the Golden Dawn, and because this lore would obviously not be particularly relevant to me or my organization. Thus, I wouldn’t bother seeking to purchase any of the revelatory books published by either Farrell or Zelewski, since I feel that such published works are quite disrespectful to those who are working within a living tradition of the Golden Dawn. I am also quite cold to anyone writing a history of the Golden Dawn where the founders, such as Westcott and Mathers, and others, are reviled as frauds or shown to be incompetent. Years ago I read Ellic Howe’s book “Magicians of the Golden Dawn” and considered it a harsh and even scurrilous biography of that organization. I have no illusions as to the follies, flaws and failings of individuals and humanity in general, but I think that I would rather focus on the accomplished work of such individuals instead of attempting to judge them many decades after their death. This is why I consider Aleister Crowley to be an important writer and contributor to western occultism regardless of how he behaved or what kind of man he was while alive. So, for me, these individuals are judged by their work and their legacy. If they left behind writings that I find important to my own occult work, then I will judge them as a valuable resource, and nothing more. I think that its pretty tough to judge someone without personally knowing them, and even harder to judge someone who has been dead for a long time. Whatever I think of the original founders of the Golden Dawn must therefore be based entirely on their work. There is so little historical information about Mathers that his life story has become something of a cipher that holds nearly any opinion, from the gloriously good to the vilifyingly evil. Aleister Crowley painted a picture of Mathers that was very dark and disturbing in the so called fictional work “Moon Child,” and Dion Fortune supposedly accused Mina Mathers of having cursed her. I think that both of these opinions are likely fictional creations that do a great injustice to both of these individuals. If I were to judge the founders of the Golden Dawn, it would be to venerate them, since the Golden Dawn lore was so ahead of its time and such a radical departure from anything that had been practiced in the 19th century up to that time. I would have to consider Mathers, Westcott and others to be creative geniuses, since the Golden Dawn lore was so advanced. The fact that the rituals and documents of the Golden Dawn are still relevant today, in the early 21st century, should demonstrate just how advanced the lore was back when it was first presented to members of that order. To members of the order back in the early 1890's, the lore must seemed like something totally radical! Some have said that the founders of the Golden Dawn were frauds or incompetent, and that their vision of the world, populated with rare encounters with flesh and blood advanced high adepts is a myth or a delusion. I think that the Golden Dawn lore speaks for itself, since either the founders were incredible geniuses, or that they had help from other unnamed individuals. These mysterious personages would have been quite enlightened and likely members of an elite organization, which was called the Third Order. Either perspective shows that Mathers, for all his supposed flaws and social issues, was a true adept and facilitator for even higher adepts (visible or invisible), since he was, after all, a man, and the lore that he presented to his order was beyond anything previously seen in the western world. For this reason alone, I venerate Mather’s unwitting contribution to the occult world, which is his legacy, and I also venerate the Golden Dawn. I may not be a member, but as an outsider, I can easily see its long term value.

History and Current Issues for the Classroom The Public Domain Review is a project of the Open Knowledge Foundation and features resources that are free and available to the public. Known for highlighting “the most interesting and unusual out-of-copyright works,” the Review may provide a set of images or old texts that will intrigue your students and get their creative juices flowing as they think about history. You can explore the site by topic (literature, science, history, etc.) or by medium (text, images, video, and audio). Within a few minutes of clicking around, I was able to find images from the first expedition to the South Pole, illustrations of The Odyssey, a collection of rare world maps, and excerpts from Phillis Wheatley’s writings. The other great thing about this resource is that it constantly changes–contributors add to the site as other pieces of history outlive their copyright date. Review the site before using with students as some resources may not be appropriate for class!

We have brought in a custom made Giants hat in a color combination that incorporates the typical Giants' team colors in a different way. Hat has all the colors that you associate with the team over the years in a distinctive custom look with the "Giants" text logo on the front with a small secondary logo on the side. This is for all of you die hard fans. Made in 100% wool.

Tag Archives: JavaScript I unloaded some Qt newbie frustration the other day detailing my first serious efforts to code for the Nokia N9. Now I’d like to step back a bit and outline the actual project, and in subsequent posts walk other newcomers through my coding journey of pleasure and pain. First a disclaimer: I’ve been programming for over 25 years. That has included COBOL, Forth, Logo, DOS/VAX/Unix batch commands, Basic, LISP, Pascal, C, JavaScript and Visual Basic (both COM and .NET). While I could work minor wonders with scripting and compiled linear languages, I found that I have been most productive in event-driven VB.Net. Readers should know that I am not targeting an audience that’s totally new to programming, but rather, programmers who like me are experienced with other languages and platforms but new to Qt. I really wasn’t very apprehensive about Qt, especially the mature 4.7. Friends kept telling me how easy it was, and the Qt Creator environment did not look difficult at all at first glance. Continue reading →

The Culture Show The Culture Show was a weekly BBC Two arts magazine programme, focusing on the best of the week's arts and culture news, covering books, art, film, architecture, music, visual fashion and the performing arts. Entwistle was succeeded as editor by Edward Morgan in summer 2005. In May 2006, the show was moved to Saturday nights, shortened to 50 minutes, and began to be regularly presented by Lauren Laverne. The programme then also started to make occasional spin-off specials, which have so far included an hour-long interview with Steven Spielberg on the occasion of his 60th birthday; a programme exploring the work of Michael Palin; and interviews with Lou Reed and Arcade Fire. In January 2010, the team produced a successful one-hour special to cover the launch of BBC Radio 4's A History of the World in 100 Objects.

Know Your Neighbors: Palm Springs Residents Support Efforts to Clean Up the Dangers Left Behind During the Vietnam War Project RENEW team members unload a shell that was found in the Ben Hai River and then transported to a demolition site for destruction.landmines.org.vn The Paris Peace Accords, which were supposed to end the Vietnam War, were signed Jan. 27, 1973. The United States pulled what American troops remained out of that country. Congress then passed the Foreign Assistance Act of 1974 cutting off all military aid to South Vietnam’s government in Saigon. As the North subsequently advanced effortlessly toward Saigon, President Gerald Ford ordered the evacuation of all American personnel, including the removal of as many refugees as possible who had been friendly toward America. The U.S. Embassy was not intended to be a major departure point, but many became stranded there, including thousands of South Vietnamese hoping to claim refugee status. I still remember the iconic pictures of those evacuation efforts through the night of April 29, 1975, and that last American helicopter taking off from the roof with people hanging off the sides—and many still lined up, unable to get out. At 3:45 a.m. on April 30, President Ford issued direct orders for the evacuation efforts to stop. When North Vietnamese troops captured Saigon later that day, 30 years of war in Vietnam finally came to an end. More than 58,000 Americans were killed in the war, with more than 300,000 wounded and more than 2,000 missing in action. In addition to the hundreds of thousands of casualties in the South’s armed forces, it is estimated that more than 1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong died in action, with millions more wounded. Estimates of the number of Vietnamese civilians killed range into the millions. Vietnam has come a long way in the 40 years since then. It has transformed from a rice-producing farming economy into a service economy, dominated by the tourism industry with manufacturing, construction, mining and transportation. However, in the area of Quang Tri Province and what was known as the DMZ (demilitarized zone), remnants of the war are still blocking full-scale development and threatening people’s health and safety. The area was the focus of what has been described as the heaviest bombing campaign in the history of the world. Weapons that failed to detonate were left behind and pose dangers similar to landmines. These dangers led to the formation in 2001 of an effort in Quang Tri Province called Project RENEW. Palm Springs resident Sally Benson; her husband, attorney Steve Nichols; Palm Springs philanthropist Gayle Hodges; and part-time resident and author Myra MacPherson have all worked through the Chino Cienega Foundation, started locally by Nichols, to help support the work of Project RENEW and other worthy non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Part of Project RENEW’s mission is to locate and reduce explosive remnants of war (ERW) to a level where local people can live without fear, and development is not impeded. Benson, originally from Massachusetts, was an elementary teacher when she volunteered to teach English at the National Institute of Administration in Saigon in 1967. She met Nichols, a third-generation descendant of two prominent Palm Springs founding families (the Stevens and the Nichols), while he was also a volunteer, teaching with International Voluntary Services. “Like a number of others, including many veterans, we have stayed engaged with the problems and people the war left behind,” says Benson. “Through the family legacy foundation Steve started here in Palm Springs, we were able to financially support projects we knew about, including ProjectRENEW. “Gayle Hodges’ friend, (Vietnam veteran) Chuck Searcy, had the vision, along with the Vietnamese, to do this work. We helped support the building of their visitors’ center and have supported their Mine Risk Education Center, where Vietnamese children learn, through plays meant to entertain and educate, how to identify ERW and report it to the emergency hotline so teams can immediately respond.” Project RENEW claims that more than 850,000 square meters of land have been cleaned up and released for safe development, with more than 30,000 cluster bombs, grenades, landmines and other ordnance safely removed and destroyed. However, the group also estimates that in Quang Tri Province alone, 83 percent of the land still has landmines and other unexploded ordnance. Benson says it was originally expected that it would take as long as 100 years to remove and/or disarm all remaining ERW, but through the work of Project RENEW and its 3,000-4,000 demolitions each year, they estimate that within 5-7 years, almost every square meter of Quang Tri Province will be safe. “Do you know what a cluster bomb is?” asks Benson. “It’s made up of small components, each of which is a separate little ‘bomblet’ designed to disperse and kill. I remember a lovely school with walls covered with bright painted pictures in one village. At the edge of the playground, a couple of the boys pushed through a wooded area and spotted something. One stayed there so no one else could get hurt while the other boy ran back and reported it through the emergency call system. When the call came in, we got to see how they broadcast through the local area to keep people away, and then the Project RENEW team mobilized to retrieve it and explode it harmlessly. “It’s frightening to think what could have happened to those children, and rewarding to see how the educational outreach program makes a difference.” Quang Tri alone has had 8,000 casualties from ERW accidents, and 31 percent of the victims are children. They also claim that Quang Tri alone has more than 15,000 victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin, including 5,000 children born with birth defects. Benson has visited Vietnam more than 15 times. “We’re so proud of the work being done to help the people,” she says. “They had been bombed for so many years and left with a shattered economy and a shattered society. We and other volunteers wanted to do what we could. Lots of veterans have also gone back and been inspired to be involved, doing things like planting ‘peace trees’ to reclaim deforested land.” Project RENEW claims to have provided new, artificial limbs for 1,000 amputees injured by bombs, and to have assisted almost 700 disabled bomb-accident victims to earn income from raising animals and crops and making products. “We expect Project RENEW to be a model for other provinces,” says Benson. “We can’t forget that there are still bombs throughout the rest of Vietnam as well.” Perhaps the most compelling part of this story is Benson’s experience of the Vietnamese people. “Most people are stunned by how open and forgiving the Vietnamese are,” she says. “They say it was our government that caused what happened there, not the American people. And Project RENEW is doing its work with educated and highly committed young Vietnamese whose own families have suffered from the war. I have such a sense of satisfaction at being involved in something like this.” My mother always used to say: “If you made the mess, you clean it up.” Benson, Nichols, Hodges, MacPherson and so many others are setting an example of the difference accepting that responsibility can make. Anita Rufus is also known as “The Lovable Liberal,” and her radio show airs Sundays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on KNews Radio 94.3 FM. Email her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Know Your Neighbors appears every other Wednesday.

Hall of Fame Inductee - Sayeed Ali Sayeed Ali was seeded fifth in the singles draw for the Western Big Six Conference Tournament as a freshmen when he experienced a coming-of-age moment. Ali played his way to the WB6 championship, and later that spring, he earned a berth in the state tournament field. What transpired thereafter is what sets him apart from the hundreds of players who have been a part of the QHS tennis program. Ali qualified for the state tournament in singles three times, won WB6 titles as a freshman and a sophomore and took second as a junior. As a senior, however, he switched to doubles and joined forces with Pi Boualavong to become one of the most dominant doubles teams in school history. Ali and Boualavong won the WB6 championship and the Chicago Marist Invitational and carried a 30-3 record to the state tournament. There, they won three matches on the opening day before losing in the round of 16. They battled back through the consolation bracket to finish sixth, just the second QHS doubles team to medal at the state tournament. Kent Stickler and Don Bennett finished fifth in doubles in 1956. Ali and Boualavong finished with a 37-5 record. Ali played just one year of college tennis, but it was a memorable one. As a senior at Augustana College in 2001, Ali won the No. 1 singles title at the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin Tournament. He was Augustana’s first CCIW singles champion at any level in 12 years and the school’s first No. 1 singles champion in 16 years. Ali won the Quincy men’s city championship in 1999, beating Todd Willing in stright sets. He defended the title in 2000, beating Jeff Borengasser in straight sets. In 2008, 11 years after their state tournament run, Ali and Boualavong reunited for the men’s city tournament. They reached the semifinals before being ousted by Bill LaTour and Todd Willing. Ali currently lives in Geneva with his wife, Shelley. Acceptance Speech "To love a city and school as much as I do and then to be recognized by that school is a special feeling for me. To say it’s an honor would be an understatement. I was born and raised in Quincy, and unlike cities around Chicago or St Louis, we didn’t go to Cubs or Bears games. We grew up watching the Blue Devils. I don’t think I became a Blue Devil when I was a freshman, I feel like I was born a Blue Devil. I used to count seconds using the words Blue Devil not Mississippi and I was probably in college before I realized Blue Devil Blue wasn’t a real color. My success was possible because of my family and especially my parents. It started with my dad at the age of 3. Even though everyone knows my mother is my best friend, it was my dad who is responsible for my love of the game. He was my coach and mentor through all of my junior tennis. In 26 years of playing tennis, neither my mom nor my dad ever told me to win but they told me to “just have fun” every single time I walked out on that court. I think that was one of the main reasons my style of play was a little reckless. Sometime the high percentage play wasn’t the most fun shot to hit, simple as that. I would also like to thank my coaches — Mike Terry and Todd Willing. Coach Terry had been retired for years after coaching some of the greatest tennis players to come out of our city, former players I looked up to like Coach Willing. When I heard he was returning as our head coach before my freshman year, I was thrilled. He immediately took a good program and turned it into a program that was known and feared around the state. I feel like playing for an IHSA Hall of Fame coach with his type of stats changed how I approached the game and what my goals were. I wasn’t interested in just collecting varsity letters. I wanted to be able to say, “You can bring anyone from anywhere into our city and it doesn’t matter because I’m the baddest there is.” It was an honor to be one of his players. It was an honor to share the court with my teammates. It was an honor to represent my community and family. Hall of Fame aside, it’s an honor being a Blue Devil."

eReserve & reserve What is eReserve? eReserve produces copyright compliant subject readings for academic staff to support learning and teaching. Charles Sturt University is an e-preferred Library, links to electronic resources will be provided wherever possible. To request new eReserve readings or update existing readings use the eReserve form. Copyright restrictions Copyright laws restrict the amount of material that can be made available. Limits apply across the whole University and are managed by the Library eReserve team. To comply with copyright requirements the eReserve collection is taken offline for a 24 hour period once during the year. Readings are automatically reinstated after the 24 hours.

El Guincho - “Bombay” (video) When El Guincho’s Pablo Díaz-Reixa invites us on a journey through the cosmos at the beginning of the delirious video for “Bombay” (from the 2010 release, Pop Negro), one might be led to believe an outer space adventure is in order. What comes next definitely isn’t what Carl Sagan had in mind. If you’re into “trips”, the surrealistic montage that ensues will surely be your kind of milkshake. A NSFW barrage of topless girls, furries, and guns—with a decidedly retro vibe—“Bombay” is an instant classic in the WTF department.

No. 7 Mizzou Wrestling Makes History on Opening Weekend WEST LAFAYETTE, IN -- After finishing off the 2011-12 campaign with the University's first Big 12Championship, the Tigers (2-0) have once again made history. In the team's first competition since last year's NCAA Championships, the Mizzou Wrestling squad opened up the year by not only shutting out the Old Dominion Monarchs, but by defeating them 35 to negative-1. In Mizzou Wrestling's 89-year history, they have never won a match where the opponent was in negative numbers. They followed that season opening performance with a 23-9 victory over host school Purdue. The Tigers took on their new MAC rival Old Dominion early Saturday morning. Junior Alan Waters set the tone in the 125 pound class, winning by major decision over Rob Deutsch, 10-2. Possibly thebiggest matchup came at 141 pounds, when No. 14-ranked Nicholas Hucke rematched against No. 11 Justin LaValle, who had defeated Hucke in last year's NCAAs. Hucke had a huge third period against LaValle, handing him a reversal and a3-point near fall along with an escape to take the match, 8-4. Sophomore Drake Houdashelt added another four team points at 149 pounds, winning his match in decisive fashion after finishing with 5:22 of riding time. Next up was Junior Kyle Bradley, who took a 3-1 lead into the 3rd period and held on over Old Dominion's No. 11 John Nicholson. Nicholson rejected Bradley's handshake following the 4-1 decision, which led to a misconduct penalty. By rule, a misconduct penalty in wrestling is also a forfeit of one team point. Tyler Prazma, Mike Larson, Todd Porter, Brent Haynes, and Dom Bradley each added 3 points of their own as well, and Mizzou was well on their way to a quick 1-0 start with a 35 to negative-1 win. This is the third time since January 29, 2012 that the Tigers have won all 10 matchups in a dual meet. The Tigers didn't slow down for their afternoon meeting with Purdue. Again, Waters set the tone yet again, with an 11-2 major decision over No. 21 Camden Eppert. Waters solidified the major decision after a great takedown with four seconds remaining. Senior CaptainNathan McCormick followed up at 133 pounds with a 10-5 decision over true freshman Danny Sabatello, and at 141, Hucke came out on top once again. In another highly contested battle, Mizzou's 141-pound grappler took down his counterpart Brandon Nelson with one second left in the first, which proved to be a huge two points in a match that ended up as an 8-5 decision. After three bouts, the Tigers had a comfortable 10-0 lead on the hosting Boilermakers from Purdue. But two overtime losses and a 7-3 win by decision for Pat Robinson against Mizzou's Prazma, and Purdue was within a point of the Tigers, 10-9. Senior Todd Porter responded to Mizzou's three-match losing streak with a dominating 11-5 win, and the Tigers never looked back. After Mike Larson followed at 184 pounds with a 3-1 decision, Haynes outperformed Purdue's 197-pounder Braden Atwood to put the dual away. Atwood is ranked 16th in the nation among the 197-pounders, and the No. 6-Haynes accumulated two takedowns, a reversal, an escape, and an extra tally for riding time to go on and win 8-2. Senior heavyweight Dom Bradley added his second win of the day over Purdue's Alex White, this time by major decision, 11-3. Bradley, who hadn't wrestled for Mizzou since 2010-11 due to an Olympic redshirt last year, controlled every minute of this grapple, with White's three points coming off of three escapes only. The Tigers will follow up their 23-9 victory over Purdue with the team's home opener this Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. versus Baker University.

Book of Brilliance At Thorp Academy we love praise! Students receive praise in many ways from applause moments in the classroom, extra applause when they have consistently done something well to year group praise in assembly. We want to consistently have positive conversations with our students because we believe in developing positive relationships with our students. In order to boost our praise culture even more, we have now introduced the Book of Brilliance. When a student does something 'outstanding' their name will be placed into the Book of Brilliance and a postcard sent home celebrating their success. At the end of each STEPS cycle, we will collect in all of the Brilliance nominations and pick at random a student to receive a special prize. All students from Year 7 through to Year 13 can be nominated for the Book of Brilliance.

Unwelcome travelers: Pesticides in the Arctic Endosulfan. Chlorpyrifos. Chlorothalonil. Not words one would associate with the crisp, cold air and water of the Arctic region. But new research shows that these pesticides, among others, are traveling to the Arctic from as far as South East Asia, India and the United States. That harmful pesticides travel on wind and water currents to cold northern regions of the world has been known for a while now. But in this latest study, researchers managed to measure the compounds in air and water all the way along their path across the globe, from East Asia to the Arctic. On a four week expedition from the East China Sea northward to the Chukchi Sea in the high Arctic, researchers tracked the pesticides chlorothalonil, chlorpyrifos, dacthal, dicofol, endosulfan and trifluralin. The data collected will help researchers better understand whether the pesticides travel more readily by air or by water, and how they degrade along the way. Harsh impacts of contamination We already know that the chemicals that reach the Arctic region are wreaking havoc on the health of both humans and the fragile environment. For example, endosulfan is one of the few persistent pesticides whose levels have been found to be increasing in marine biota of the Canadian Arctic. Endosulfan appears to accumulate more in the bodies of humans, animals and the environment in Arctic ecosystems than in warmer climates. This pesticide has severe health impacts for humans, with exposure linked to developmental defects and reproductive harm. In 2011, endosulfan was finally slated for a global phase out through the Stockholm Convention, the international treaty on persistent organic pollutants. Chlorpyrifos, another pesticide studied by the research team, is one of the highest volume agricultural pesticides used in the U.S. Studies have found that prenatal exposure to chlorpyrifos can have negative impacts on neurodevelopment, including perceptual reasoning, working memory and poorer intellectual development in children. Chlorpyrifos was banned for home use in the U.S. in 2001, but is still used on farms, exposing not only rural residents to health harms, but also communities thousands of miles away in the Arctic. Arctic communities speak out With organizations such as the Alaska Community Action on Toxics, communities in the Arctic have long campaigned against pollution of their environment and bodies by such pesticides used in far away places. As Shawna Larson, a long time Indigenous environmental health activist from the region, explains: These toxic chemicals trespass our bodies and enter our breast milk – our children and infants are getting them. We are seeing impacts of these through things like respiratory health and breast cancer increases. The Indigenous communities of the Arctic call upon all of us to stop polluting their environment, their bodies and those of their children with these pesticides. By doing so, we will not only protect ourselves and our families, but also families in the Arctic who are asking us to take a stand. is PAN's Campaign Coordinator. Her work focuses on pesticide impacts on maternal and children’s health as well as international pesticide campaigns. She works closely with network members from other PAN regional centers around the world. Follow @ChandraMedha 1 Satyabroto wrote: There are established protocols to determine the long range transport of pesticides. These have not been used in the studies you cite. The author of modeling from Zurich has given me written confirmation of the fallacies of his work. The POP Secretary has written to me, asking that these gaps be informed to all POP members. The European pesticide mafia sponsored lie about Endosulfan in sea water can be exposed instantly-just add Endosulfan to sea water: it will dissipate immediately! I am afraid that the pesticide industry laughs up its collective sleeve at the gullibility of well-meaning but ignorant activists. I admit that pesticide safety is generally ignored in the third world. Please think carefully whether such abuse is limited to Endosulfan alone. Endosulfan bans have opened the floodgates for even more toxic pesticides such as proprietary neonicotinoids, patented by European companies. I earnestly ask you to shift from vilification of Endosulfan to supporting the safe and judicious use of all pesticides. Thank you for your courtesy in allowing me to use your esteemed forum to express my views. 2 Satyabroto wrote: Pesticides such as Endosulfan break down instantly in an alkaline environment. This is a standard measure of emergency containment. It can be demonstrated simply, and is irrefutable. The canard of Endosulfan traveling long distances in sea water is patently ridiculous. Drift and volatility can and should be managed by the use of appropriate application equipment and in specified ambient conditions. Finally, allegations of inter-continental pesticide drift are based on models rather than approved empirical evidence. Please consider these issues in order to distinguish between the important cause of safe and judicious pesticide use versus silly propaganda. Regarding the use of appropriate protective equipment, you must be aware that real world conditions of use, especially in countries of the Global South are very different than idealized methods of use. Thousands of tragic endosulfan related poisonings have occurred in countries across Africa, Latin America and Asia. PAN and our partners around the world are thrilled that endosulfan has finally been targeted by the global community for a well deserved phased out.

Magnificent Megan Words Megan Tan, the former host of 8TV Quickie is now going places with the new travel show, G Travel which is being aired on the new Astro channel 737 GOASEAN. Watching her speak in such a bubbly manner, one would find it hard to believe that she was a very shy kid when growing up. In fact, Megan’s parents were quite worried at one point as she was so quiet and would only speak when spoken to. So, how did she come out of her shell? “My dad sent me to an English tuition class which encouraged poetry and drama. And then, I became involved in storytelling and debate. I even hosted the TV2 show Golden Kids Club when I was 10 years old. Slowly, bit by bit my personality sort of came out as I grew up.” Winning the audition When Megan won the 8TV Quickie audition for a co-host in 2010, life took a 180° turn for her. She was in her final year of studies doing psychology and communication at SEGi College. “That was their first ever open audition. Coincidentally, my dad contributed a lot to that win, my career and who I am today because he was the one who heard about the audition on the radio and told me to try it out.” So, she went for the audition, queued up with hundreds of people, waited in line for her turn and did her best. “When I got the call and was told that I was among the top six contestants, I was beyond ecstatic and really happy! After that, we went through a series of assignments and then, I got the job. And I won the competition alongside Naqib [Naqib Nadhir Shamsuri].” And that pretty much started Megan’s career although in the beginning, she thought of it as a hobby. She was still studying and had plans of taking up Masters of Psychology because she was always interested in child psychology and media as well. Career options Megan loves hosting various TV shows. “TV hosting was my first love. I always call it a blessing – I guess I was at the right place at the right time. I never thought I would be doing this.” She also discovered her true self along the way and grew from being a college student into a working adult. Interestingly, Megan wanted to be a doctor during her high school days. However, watching a documentary on a caesarean surgery changed her mind! So, she explored other options and decided to take up psychology. “I have always been fascinated with people’s behaviour and why they act in a certain way. I have been told I’m quite an understanding person and I have a huge amount of patience with people and I am able to empathize a lot. I have an older sister who comes to me for advice.” Megan believes she can definitely apply her knowledge of psychology in the future regardless of what her career will be. She also thinks it will be great to help children with disabilities and special needs. Being a positive person, Megan chose to surround herself with people who are more positive. In 2011, Megan was selected to play the lead role in Sakura, a Malaysian telemovie on TV3. “I was very fortunate to be selected because the director was looking for a non-Malay and she took a chance with me which I am very thankful for. The character was half-Japanese and half-Malaysian so I guess she needed someone who looked the part to play the role.” Megan learnt a lot from that experience because prior to that she never knew what acting was like. “It was very challenging for me because it was my first ever acting gig.” Her role involved a lot of crying and intense scenes and was emotionally challenging. However, Megan says it was a good experience. “I’m always up for a challenge so that made me love acting as well. As a TV host, I get to be myself but with acting I get to explore different sides of who I am and just to be someone else for a change.” Megan also plays a supporting role in another Malay movie called Antara Satu, which features Remy Ishak and Bront Palarae as lead actors. Although showbiz is not something that Megan planned for, she counts the 8TV Quickie audition a blessing and everything has worked out for her since then. Finding a balance Megan confesses to be quite the planner when it comes to time management. She used to make her own timetable to divide time for rest, reading a book, homework, playtime, etc. “I think it just came naturally to me, an inborn character perhaps. I never really struggled with time management.” Hence, she is able to find a balance when working. She handles events back to back during busy periods and when more relaxed, spends time with her family. “You need to prioritize at the end of the day and see what is more worthy of your time and then, do that.” Megan loves to unwind at the end of the day by watching TV. She also loves the beach and island holidays. In contrast, she also loves to visit cities. “Every year I try to take off for 2 weeks. Last year, I went to Gold Coast and Brisbane in Australia. It’s like a refresh button.” To stay healthy while on the move, Megan has some basic habits – drinking a lot of water, exercising with the help of YouTube videos and sleeping for at least 6 to 8 hours a day. Although she indulges her sweet tooth with the occasional cake, chocolate and ice cream, she follows a healthy diet on a daily basis starting with cereal or a granola bar to kickstart her day. To stay youthful, she uses the basic beauty regimen – cleanse, tone and moisturize followed by applying sunblock. Moving forward Megan takes every new show and new project that she engages in as a new learning curve for her. She still feels like she has more to learn after being in showbiz for more than 5 years now. “I would say that this year, for instance, when I saw my name on the nomination list in the Anugerah Bintang Popular that was a wow moment for me. I’m just going to keep doing what I do and hopefully stay relevant and I’ll be able to do this for the rest of my life.” Besides hosting TV shows and emceeing, Megan is in the midst of launching her lifestyle site that covers everything that she loves and believes in. “I hope to inspire people through this site by just spreading some positivity and the goodness in life.” Share Related Articles Scoring a “Home” Run in Life 0 Comments Viewers of 2012’s American Idol could not have imagined the misery Phillip Phillips was going through while he belted out song after song.

Navigation Tag Archives | cheer Following the World Cup and use Firefox? I have a site that will serve two of your proverbial itches at the same time. Firefox Cup is the new website put out by Mozilla (in association with FIFA) to help you rally behind your favorite soccer team.

Meta fruit #Patience Patience isn’t something most of us are born with. It surely doesn’t come automatically the moment we take a breath-it’s developed. It’s a process. It takes time. Children are not automatically patient. As mom looking back, I can’t even count the number of times I told my children “just be patient” or “in a minute!” When you stop to analyze that statement it’s actually quite funny. A little child? Be patient? Most adults struggle with being patient, yet we expect our children to ‘be patient.’ Most people, including children, truly don’t understand what this word means. “Patience.” Yet we expect it from everybody. But are WE being patient? Children learn patience when it’s demonstrated. They live what they see demonstrated. It is learned over time but so are other characteristics. I know as a mom, there were times when I demonstrated patience with my children, yes; but there were MUCH more times when I didn’t. I wish I could change that now. I can’t. I was still ‘fruit’ in the process of being developed at the time I was raising my children… Webster defines it this way: Patience: “the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset. The ability to wait, or to continue doing something despite difficulties, or to suffer without complaining or becoming annoyed.” The word “patience” historically comes from the Latin, patientia, meaning suffering, which also gives us the word patient, referring to someone who is suffering from being sick or injured. “Patience” is one of the fruits of the spirit. (Galatians 5:22) Fruit takes time to ripen. So does patience. The Strong Concordance for the original Greek word translated to our English language for patience is: #8318 pa’-shens (hupomone, makrothumia): “Patience” implies suffering, enduring or waiting, as a determination of the will and not simply under necessity. As such it is an essential Christian virtue to the exercise of which there are many exhortations. We need to “wait patiently” for God, to endure uncomplainingly the various forms of sufferings, wrongs and evils that we meet with, and to bear patiently injustices which we cannot remedy and provocations we cannot remove. PATIENCE: The quality of forbearance and self-control which shows itself particularly in a willingness to wait upon God and his will. Believers are called upon to be patient in their expectations of God’s actions, and in their relationships with one another. Patience is often hard to gain and to hard to maintain, but, in Romans 15:5, God is called “the God of patience” as being able to grant that grace to those who look to Him and depend on Him for it. It is in reliance on God and acceptance of His will, with trust in His goodness, wisdom and faithfulness, that we are enabled to be patient, endure, and to hope stedfastly. “Patience” is a form of #Love In 1 Corinthians 13:4, “LOVE is patient.” Ahhhhhh. This is key. “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) We are to walk in love. (Ephesians 5:2) When we are patient with one another, we are demonstrating Gods love. When we are patient with ourselves, we are receiving Gods love. While we strive to be patient all the time, to be loving all the time, we fail. Progress takes time. We’re all human. Praise God that HE never fails! He is ALWAYS patient with us, ALWAYS loving towards us. Join me today to commit to exercise our patience with one another. #FaithActs!

Anchoring the project is the conver­sion of the long-dormant, 12-acre ther­mal transfer plant site on the west bank into public green space. It would feature an outdoor amphitheater for the sym­phony and other events. Before work begins, groundbreaking is set this fall for a 4.5-acre riverfront lawn and land­ing area on the east side to connect to the newly opened Cumberland Park. It’s been amazing to see the transformation of downtown Nashville the last 15-20 years. The last three mayors of Nashville have had foresight and resolve to create a truly great downtown. As someone who lives in Hendersonville and doesn’t pay Davidson county taxes, I feel somewhat inappropriate to celebrate something I don’t contribute to. However, all the attractions downtown has taken my dollars into Nashville for the great city experiences.

The tangible appeal of college rockers is based on the way their musical personalities reflect the lifestyles of their core listeners. Indie, punk, and noise mavens flying high on the CMJ charts possess a scruffy, unconventional charm, much like that of their fans, stumbling to 10 a.m. class in pajamas. Singer-songwriters represent the same kind of familiarity, albeit on a more mainstream, soccer-mom-sanctioned scale: John Mayer is the hunky frat boy, perfect for having a secret crush on; Dave Matthews is the aging alum who shows up to party during Homecoming weekend. What these disparate approaches have in common is accessibility. The lack of buffed-up pop pretensions means that fans are just as likely to be roommates or drinking buddies with any of these bands as they would be members. Acoustic-oriented songwriters also create personal connections, with heartfelt confessions articulating the same feelings and emotions that their listeners experience. Such is the immediate appeal of Howie Day, a 22-year-old whose sparse 2000 debut album, Australia, had the intimate atmosphere of a heart-to-heart conversation between dorm mates. During a September interview, the laid-back Day -- calling from his hometown, the "huge metropolitan area" of Bangor, Maine, as he says dryly -- doesn't sound very different from any other bored college kid looking for entertainment in suburbia. "We were going to go play miniature golf yesterday, and it was closed," he laughs. "I was like 'Come on, it's like 75 degrees outside, it's beautiful,' and this place was closed, 'cause there's just nobody here, except in the summertime. You play a big city, and anything you want to do after the show, you can go do it. But here, it's like 'Want to go to the movies? You want to go out to eat?' 'Cause that's about it." What's not mundane about Day is his meteoric rise to stardom. A guitar whiz who began playing solo in clubs at age 15, he became known for his impassioned vocals and extensive use of samplers, delays, and other gadgets, which added layers of harmony and countermelodies to his skeletal acoustic sound. He cultivated a rabid fan base from relentless touring, especially in the Northeast ("There are so many colleges [there], and we played, like, all of 'em," he laughs); devotees consequently spread the word of his dynamic shows via the internet and extensive trading of live bootlegs. Self-financing the recording of Australia, Day sold a staggering 30,000 copies independently, before Epic signed him and re-released it in 2002. While addressing the same themes of romantic love, longing, and regret, Stop All the World Now, his second full-length, is a giant step forward. Day recorded Now in London, working with producer/Killing Joke member Youth and ex-Verve bassist Simon Jones, among others. Their influence gives Now a distinctly British chime. Rich piano drives "Trouble in Here," while shimmering bits of keyboards and percussion dot "Sunday Morning." "Come Lay Down" ends in squalls of tortured riffs, vocals, and electronic effects reminiscent of Radiohead's "Paranoid Android," while Day's anguished, ragged howls Bono-fy the U2 upsweep of "You and a Promise." "Collide" and "I'll Take You On" even feature needling strings with the grandiose scope of the Verve's "The Drugs Don't Work." "The first record was somewhat of a shoestring budget, completely do-it-yourself," Day explains. "This one, we obviously had the major label behind it and the opportunity to bring in the orchestra and all that posh stuff. Youth had done [the Verve's] Urban Hymns, and I was a fan of that record -- it had that vibe where there was orchestra all over it. I thought, 'Wow, that would be cool, to go for something like that, a big-sounding record.' And some of the songs really seemed like they would take to it, so it was just another thing we did." To those used to Day's stripped-back sound, Now is definitely a shock. The third night of his current tour, which also features him backed by a full band for the first time, demonstrated the mixed reactions toward his new direction. Playing to 2,000 people at Boston's sold-out Avalon Ballroom, he was greeted by camera flashes to rival a paparazzi blitzkrieg and screams like "I just sold my psychology book to see Howie Day!" There was also enthusiastic applause for new songs such as Now's soaring lead single, "Perfect Time of Day." But Day drew the most cheers for a midset solo interlude, during which he played older tracks "Ghost" and "Sorry So Sorry" with his usual array of guitar gizmos. Whether the response came thanks to fans' familiarity with the tracks or simply because they prefer Howie solo remains to be seen. But Day anticipated the crowd's response to the fleshed-out sound. "Fans have a thing that they do, where any change is bad," he laughs. "But ultimately, that's just their initial reaction. Fans stick by the artists that seem to reinvent themselves and are constantly changing. That's how you last as an artist and keep yourself and everybody else interested. If you do the same thing over and over -- you just kind of spin out, the wheels spin." But Day's more lush sound and crowded stage setup haven't changed him. His unassuming plaid shirt and shock of electric-charged spiky hair make him as approachable and low-key now as he was before he had beaucoup label bucks supporting him. And as the lavish-but-grounded-in-reality Now proves, Day is still like a comforting, platonic best guy friend -- always there to lend sage advice and an understanding ear, with boundless and genuine empathy. "Recording the record in England might make it sound English, but the songwriting is still very much me," Day explains. "[It comes] from the place where I live and who I really am, and my friends and family around me. It was good to be in that place while I was writing. "When someone comes up to me after a show and says, 'Oh, you know, I cried,' it's like 'Really? Wow, that's really cool.' So that's the ultimate goal, I guess, to go out and move people and put out a record that can take them back to that show, that they can listen to over and over again."

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Empty Canvas December 2, 2006 One of my friend ask me last night on Y!M.. “Ram..if you have to imagine your girlfriend..what would be she like?” “Well, have you ever try to imagine a beautiful painting, but all you can see is an empty canvas?” “Huh? you mean?” “I can't even imagine.” I signed out. Well, i don't know whether there's too many girl whom i liked, or actually there is none. Weird, isn't it? I have gone through so many difficult times, but my friends always cheer me up. So i smiled. A smile that hurt. A canvas that still empty. Waiting for me, and her.

Little Pea Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal is a funny, simple and sweet book to read during mealtime. This book is about a young pea who wants to grow up to be big and strong. What he needs to grow up to be big and strong is candy, which is Little Pea’s least favorite food! His favorite food is spinach, which he eats up in no time for dessert. Many kids can relate to how Little Pea feels about having to eat all of his meal before devouring dessert. This book is silly, cute and fun for all ages. Learning concepts include colors, descriptive concepts, prepositions, days of the week and sequencing. Great for picky eaters!

Castle Rebirth When I tried to revisit my childhood and play some castle, I realized, while still a great game, its a little dated. I decided that I am going to be revamping the beloved BYOND classic, to better use some of BYONDs newerish features.

Oberto was Verdi's first staged operas and was heard for the first time at La Scala, Milan in November 1839. As a young and unknown composer, Verdi was subject to the rules governing the opera industry in Italy. Even so, ... more &raquothere are many scenes in this early work that reveal unmistakable signs of the composer's individual style.&laquo less

Mandatory Ultrasound Bills Everywhere, and the Continued Fight Over Contraception On this episode of Reality Cast, I’ll be interviewing Tara Culp-Ressler about the surge of transvaginal ultrasound bills in the states. Also, more on the reaction to the contraception mandate clarification and a segment on why it’s important not to victim-blame Rihanna. Laci Green has a video out chronicling what life was before Roe v. Wade. roe * She also recounts how class determined back then how safe an abortion you could get, with privileged women getting quiet abortions from doctors and poor women going to back alley providers. ******* So last week, I reported on the newly clarified HHS regulations regarding contraception, which laid out how the administration plans to make sure that nearly all women will have their contraception covered by their insurance while carving out exceptions so non-profit religious organizations don’t have to pay for directly if they don’t want to. The non-profits were hiding behind the moral taint of having to “pay” for non-procreative sex, even though the benefits are earned benefits held by the employees, meaning that the groups were not paying for them so much as the employees were. I argued that the Catholic authorities, especially the Conference of Catholic Bishops, would reject this clarification for one simple reason: This was never about religious liberty, moral taint, or money. It was about separating women from their contraception and any policy that addressed their stated concerns about money but allowed women to access contraception through insurance would be rejected. I was right, according to the new report by NPR. They explained how much religious entities are not being required to pay for contraception. contraception 1 * So this must be very, very clear by now: They are not paying for contraception. They weren’t in the first place, but now they’ve got so much distance between their health care dollars and the eventual use of contraception that the claim that they’re going to get some slut taint by women spending their earned health care dollars the employer released to them is even more ridiculous. There is simply no way on God’s green earth that this is about religious liberty, except insofar as employers want to deprive employees of the religious liberty to choose their own contraception. So that leaves only one remaining objection, which is that they believe that if you work for them, they get to have a vote in your private reproductive and sexual decisions. And now they’re basically admitting that. contraception 2 * In other words, they simply believe they get veto power over how employees spend their compensation. If they could find an easy legal way to prevent employees from spending their checks on contraception, they’d clearly try for that, too, but in the meantime, they’re going to force you to pay twice over for your contraception, once when you earned it by working and again because they want to force you not to use your earned benefits on contraception. And yes, I mean twice. Since the insurance you’re paying for with your cash and labor covers contraception, by forcing the insurance companies not to cover you, they are forcing you to pay for a benefit that you will be forced not to receive. Lots of force to force their religious beliefs on you! The opt-out thing is clearly some political nonsense set up to imply people are required to use contraception if they don’t want. There’s already an opt-out clause. If you don’t want to use contraception, you opt out by simply not getting a prescription for it. Easy. That this is about giving employers control over employees was also made clear by this. contraception 3 * So they’re saying that secular employers should be able to withhold benefits earned by employees because they disapprove of their employees’ sex lives. This has nothing to do with religion, except the word is being tossed around a lot to confuse the issue. This is about a bunch of misogynist employers who think, because you work for them, your sexual and reproductive lives belong to them. If they get their way on this, they will absolutely look for new avenues to meddle with your private life, because this is about power and control, and not religion. ********** Insert interview ********** So Rihanna has gotten back together with Chris Brown. I feel almost bad recapping the whole story, since even those of you who have never even heard a song by either of them probably know the story, but in case you haven’t, here goes: Four years ago at a pre-Grammy party, the two, who were dating, got into a fight in the car. During this fight, according to the Los Angeles police report, Brown tried to force Rihanna out of a moving vehicle, but deterred by her seat belt, he shoved her head against a passenger window, punched her in the eye with his left hand, and then kept driving while punching with his right hand. She was sent to the hospital with a swollen, bruised and bleeding face. She broke up with him shortly thereafter, but for the past year or so has teasing out a reconciliation, first calling him a friend, then doing a song with him, then taking pictures of him in her bed and now this. rihanna 1 * Showing up and canoodling at the Grammies is an overt act of symbolism of the absolutely creepiest kind, because both of them missed the 2009 Grammies because of the beating. Indeed, one can imagine what a power trip it must be for an abusive man like Brown to get his victim to snuggle with him at a party that he forced her to miss because her injuries at his hands were that bad. That kind of symbolic domination is exactly the kind of thing that abusers love, because it makes them feel like they have total control over their victim. Indeed, this is far from the only public display of Rihanna’s devotion to Brown, a devotion that is publicly being displayed in such a way to draw attention to the beating and how much she supposedly doesn’t seem to hold him accountable for it. rihanna 2 * There are two ways to deal with seeing something as upsetting as a woman who has been the victim of such serious abuse completely forgive and try to exonerate the man who beat her. There’s the way I prefer, which is to use this opportunity to educate yourself and others about the realities of domestic violence, and how the abusers manipulate and guilt trip their victims until the victims are suffering from low self-esteem and feel that only the abuser can validate them. Often an abuser will tell his victim that he’s the only one who really understands her and that everyone else just doesn’t understand their love, and she should therefore trust him and treat everyone else like the enemy. The displays of affection that would seem over the top even for a non-abusive couple are part of this whole thing of creating the illusion that it’s an abuser and his victim against the world. For victims, getting away from the emotionally warped world the abuser has created for them is incredibly hard to do, which is why victims usually return a number of times before escaping, and why prosecutors usually have to create cases against abusers knowing the victims will resist attempts to put their abusers in jail. Or you could just blame the victim and pretend that’s feminism, which is what Lena Dunham did on Alec Baldwin’s show. rihanna 3 * This was really disappointing to me, because Dunham’s show “Girls” has shown a remarkably nuanced understanding of how women are socialized to defer to men and how women who judge other women for it often are themselves deferring to some man who is power tripping on them. While none of her characters are being beaten, she often shows them putting up with men stepping all over boundaries and manipulating them, and doing so precisely because women are trained from the cradle to defer to male authority. Abuse victims stay with their abusers for the same reason that the characters on “Girls” stay with men who deliberately play mind games with them or stay with men who, as in one episode, lock them in an inescapable room full of horrible images for hours while calling it “art” or stay with men who are clear that they will treat you like a masturbation toy instead of a partner in bed: Because women are told over and over again in a multitude of ways that if we stand up for ourselves, we’ll be shrewish bitches and no one will ever love us ever again. In fact, abusers often tell victims no one else will ever love them ever again, and because our society is so hateful to women, it’s easy for victims to fall for this line. Which is why blaming Rihanna is such a bad idea: You are telling her and every abuse victim overhearing it that you agree with the abuser that the victim is bad and unworthy of love. Which, in turn, makes it hard for the victim to leave, because she sees you shaking your head at her and thinks, “Gosh, he’s right that everyone else hates me and he’s the only shot at love I’ll ever have. It’s worth remembering the man interviewing Dunham was the same guy who left this message for his daughter on her voice mail. rihanna 4 * Now, calling a 12-year-old girl a “pig” because she doesn’t want to talk to you—gosh, hard to see why!—isn’t the same thing as beating your girlfriend to a pulp. But it’s still abusive nonsense. I don’t judge Dunham for doing the interview instead of refusing because of some ambiguous duty to be a role model. We all make our compromises. But she should be more forgiving of the fact that the choice to leave an abusive boyfriend is a lot harder than the choice to boycott an interviewer that is known to call his daughter a “pig”, and consider that before she starts throwing stones. ********* And now for the Wisdom of Wingnuts, oh boy it’s prom time again. And prom planning means, inevitably, people who want to use the prom as a chance to exclude and bully gay kids. In this case, it’s an Indiana high school that has a group trying to plan a separate prom that excludes gay kids. Here’s one teacher, defending it by saying gays have no purpose in life. prom * How someone can be a teacher and so cruel to their students is beyond me. I will say it’s funny that people are claiming to do this out of Christian concerns about immorality. Because all the fornicating and drinking that straight students do at prom is apparently super moral, as long as it’s straight people. Mandatory transvaginal ultrasound is rape, pure & simple. Anything put into a person’s body without their express permission is rape. Men wouldn’t tolerate a mandatory transrectal ultrasound for a prostate check yet women are expected to just relax & accept this violation. Anyone supporting this requirement is a pig (& I’m probably insulting pigs). Re: tolerating other abusive behavior, I can confirm from experience (w/everything except beatings) that you’ve hit it right on. Abusers are capable of an unbelievable level of manipulation that the victim doesn’t even necessarily realize is taking place. It’s taken me a long time to begin recovering from what I was put through & I know that I still have a ways to go. The best thing anyone can do for the victim is offer them a safe haven as needed until they can tear themselves out of the situation. nettwench14 Exactly spot on. What’s the difference between an employer paying for your health insurance, or giving you a paycheck, either of which can be used to purchase contraception? This argument never made sense to me at all.

Friday, September 19, 2014 The last words I heard before the darkness took me and my dreams were shattered. I was on my way to having it all.Friends, family and a future.Everything I had wished for but never thought possible. Denham King showed me just how good life could be. A life where love and happiness were within reach. Almost. I should have known it would never last.My past is a dark, damp cloud, that has seeped into my skin and left a cold promise.A promise of hurt and pain.A promise of a long, hard fight, where the stakes are high and the risks threaten lives. When your world gets thrown in all directions, and your dreams for the future are torn from your grasp; how do you go on? Can I fight the demons that haunt me?Can love save me from fate’s cruel path? Holding Aces (The Kingdom, #1) They say that time heals all wounds. But mine are set in so deeply, they’ve taken on a life of their own, lurking in the shadows at every turn and haunting my thoughts. The girl I once was has been replaced by a stranger. I don’t even know who I am anymore. I run. And I hide. Pretending to be someone I’m not… Until I meet Denham King. My burst of color in an otherwise grey world. And for the first time in my life, I find myself running towards someone instead of running away. But fate can be cruel, and I can’t escape my past. Can I? Nikki Groom is a hopeless romantic, lover of all things happily ever after and firm believer that love makes the world go around. In her spare time, you will find Nikki laughing with her very treasured family, walking with her beloved dog in the hundred acre wood or curled up in a cosy corner with words and wine. She lives in East Sussex with her husband and two children. Having turned her hand to many things over the years, Nikki is now proud to add ‘author’ to that list. Having always been a dreamer, Nikki’s imagination stretches far and wide, which enables her to get lost in faraway places and imaginary people.

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MR. DAVID GREGORY: This Sunday, is Syria a game changer for President Obama as the security threats mount on his watch? A new chapter in Syria’s brutal civil war. The administration says the Assad regime appears to have used chemical weapons. (Videotape) PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: To use potential weapons of mass destruction on civilian populations crosses another line with respect to international norms and international law, and that is going to be a game changer. (End videotape) GREGORY: If confirmed, what is the president prepared to do? Are there any good options? How should the lessons of Iraq weigh on the Obama team’s thinking? With us this morning, ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Arizona Republican John McCain. Then, the terror debate after Boston. Should more have been done to track the suspects when red flags were raised? A debate between Republican Congressman Peter King of the Intelligence and Homeland Security Committee’s and Democratic Congressman of Minnesota Keith Ellison. Also, this morning, perspective on the threats testing the president from former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. And our roundtable this morning includes Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar as the group reflects on the Bush Library Dedication this week and reacts to the president’s big Saturday night with Washington journalists. ANNOUNCER: From NBC News in Washington, the world’s longest running television program, this is MEET THE PRESS with David Gregory. GREGORY: And good Sunday morning. Washington is a little bleary-eyed this morning after what’s come to be known as nerd prom in our nation’s capital where politicians, celebrities, journalists, all mingle for a night of some bipartisan fun, the president finding way to poke fun at Washington’s disarray. (Videotape, Last Night) PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I know Republicans are still sorting out what happened in 2012, but one thing they all agree on is they need to do a better job reaching out to minorities. And-- and look, call me self-centered, but I can think of one minority they could start with. Hello. (End videotape) GREGORY: We’re going to have some highlights and reaction from last night, but we want to start with the very serious topic of Syria this morning. The looming threat after this week’s revelation about the possible use of chemical weapons, and for that we turn to Senator John McCain of Arizona who is in Arizona this morning. Senator, welcome. GREGORY: As you know the White House said this week after this intelligence estimate came out about the use of chemical weapons that the case that Syria actually did that is not airtight. What do you say? SEN. MCCAIN: Well, it may not be airtight. The Israelis and the British are far more affirmative in their assessment of it. But, David, we should not be-- our actions should not be dictated on-- by whether Bashar Assad used these chemical weapons or not. First of all, sooner or later, he most likely would in order to-- to maintain his hold on power. But what has happened here is the president drew red lines about chemical weapons thereby giving a green light to Bashar Assad to do anything short of that including scud missiles and helicopter gun ships and air strikes and mass executions and atrocities that are on a scale that we have not seen in a long, long time. GREGORY: So the president says that this is a red line if confirmed, and he said back in-- in August, “It would change my calculus. It would change my aquation-- equation, rather.” What would you have him do at this point? SEN. MCCAIN: Well, for about two years as this situation has deteriorated in a very alarming fashion, affected the surrounding countries, destabilized Lebanon, destabilized Jordan, and has had implications and repercussions throughout the region, we have said that they need a no-fly zone which could be obtained without using U.S. manned aircraft. We could use patriot missiles-- patriot batteries and cruise missiles to take out their air and to supply the resistance with weapons. And, as you know, a flood of weapons is coming in from Russia and Iran. Iranians are on the ground in Syria, and it’s an unfair fight. And unless we change this balance of power by not using incrementalism, then there’s every risk of a stalemate that could go on for months and months while the jihadists flood in, while the sorting out the situation after he leaves becomes more and more complicated, and there’s also the possibility that he could enact a plan B which is to withdraw to the coast (Unintelligible) areas with a-- an enclave that stretches from the Golan Heights all throughout… SEN. MCCAIN: … along the coast, and could be another long period of conflict. GREGORY: But, Senator, as we-- the Bush library was dedicated this week, again the specter of Iraq and the legacy of Iraq was debated in this country. Are we not more skeptical about talk of more limited military action, no-fly zones, incrementalism, as you say, as well as the strength of the opposition? Aren’t there lessons from Iraq that need to be taken into mind here? SEN. MCCAIN: Well, one of the lessons obviously, and we hear this a lot from the administration, is that we had false information about weapons of mass destruction with Iraq. In this case, there is significant evidence that the-- physical evidence of the use of chemical weapons. And by the way, the-- the administration has said, well, they want the U.N. to investigate. The only problem with that is Bashar wouldn’t let the U.N. in so it’s a-- a bit ludicrous. So I-- I-- the fact is that whether he has used those chemical weapons or not, he’s done virtually everything else that you-- atrocity that you can commit, and that should not be the gauge. But is-- would anyone be surprised if Bashar Assad did use chemical weapons in his desperation to hang on to power? GREGORY: So what is the limit of what the United States, in your judgment, should do to put a limit on him? SEN. MCCAIN: Well, as I said, a safe zone of arming the rebels, making sure that we help with the refugees and an international-- be prepared with an international force to go in and secure these stocks of chemical and perhaps biological weapons. There-- there are a number of caches of these chemical weapons. They cannot fall into the hands of the jihadists, otherwise we will end up seeing those weapons used in other places in the Middle East. It’s a very dangerous situation. GREGORY: And U.S. troops should be part of that force? SEN. MCCAIN: I don’t know. I think that, first of all, American people are weary, as you pointed out. They don’t want troops on the-- boots on the ground. I don’t want boots on the ground. I do want to give them the assistance which would give them a dramatic shift in the balance of power in Syria, but we have to, as an international group, plan and be ready operationally, not just plan but be ready operationally to go in and secure those areas. Now, if you could do it-- whatever the composition of that force is, is something I think we have to look at very carefully. But the worst thing the American-- the United States could do right now is put boots on the ground in Syria. That would-- that would turn the people against us. And just let me say the Syrian people are angry and bitter at the United States. I was in a refugee camp in Jordan, and there are thousands of people and kids, and this woman who’s a schoolteacher said, Senator McCain, you see these children here, they’re going to take revenge on those people who refuse to help them. They’re angry and bitter. And that legacy could last for a long time, too, unless we assist them. GREGORY: Let me turn you quickly just to a couple of domestic items. This funding they came up at the week over the FAA and flight delays and new legislation to basically provide the administration with more flexibility to get the planes running on time again. What would you be prepared to do to replace the sequester or the most harmful effects of the sequester? Is that a model for what Washington ought to be doing about it? SEN. MCCAIN: Well, I say with all due respect to my friends, it’s a little bit hypocritical on the same day when all of the focus was on the delays that we have in getting through airports. The Chief of Staff of the United States Army was saying that we are going to have-- if we don’t reverse this, we’re going to have a hollow army. We’ll be unable to defend the nation and it would take us 10 or 15 years to recover. I think we have our priorities a little bit skewed here. Look, I’m-- I’m forgiving the FAA flexibility, but I also want to give the military flexibility and I don’t want the sequestration cuts to be as steep as they are in-- on national defense. We’ve got a lot of savings we can make in national security, but right now we-- in the words of the Secretary of Defense and our uniformed service chiefs, we’re putting the security of this nation at risk. GREGORY: I want to end on politics. You had your old friend and former colleague in the Senate, the Vice President Joe Biden, offering some political analysis about the 2008 race. Here’s part of what he said. VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN (Sedona, AZ): And the truth of the matter is, Barack knows I know, had the economy not collapsed around your ears, John, in the middle of, literally, just as you were-- as things were moving, you at least would have-- I think you probably would have won, but you-- it would have been incredibly, incredibly, incredibly closer. You inherited a really difficult time. (End videotape) GREGORY: If not for the economy, you would have been president, is that how you see it? SEN. MCCAIN: No. Look, Joe Biden and I are very close friends, and I think it would have been a much closer race, but, I’ll tell you, he has-- President Obama ran a great race, and that-- campaigns matters. I appreciate the fact that my dear friend would say something like that, but I know that-- I doubt if the outcome would have been a lot different, but I can always hope it might have been. GREGORY: All right. Senator, we’ll leave it there. More to come on the Syria debate. We appreciate you coming on this morning. SEN. MCCAIN: Thank you. GREGORY: All right. Turning now to Democratic Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota, and Republican Congressman Peter King of New York. Gentlemen, welcome to you. REP. KEITH ELLISON (D-MN): Thank you. GREGORY: I want to talk about the aftermath of the Boston bombings and the-- the surveillance work, the role of the FBI. But, first, let me get your comments, Congressman, on this prospect of a huge national security test now for President Obama. How do you see it? REP. ELLISON: Well, you know, first of all, this action is the most despicable thing. You know, Americans have to rally together to stamp out terrorist acts like this. I’m proud of the law enforcement, proud of the first responders. But what I think we need to do is to really, really back law enforcement to make sure that we fully investigate this case and we don’t need to start identifying communities to surveil or to go after. We need to come together as a-- as a nation. GREGORY: Let me get your comment before we get to that on Syria, what I was just discussing with Senator McCain. REP. ELLISON: Yeah. GREGORY: This is a huge test as well as the Boston bombings aftermath, but also the Syria being a huge test for President Obama. What-- what concerns you about what we’ve seen out of potential use of chemical weapons? REP. ELLISON: Well, I’m absolutely concerned about that, but I believe the United States could play a greater role in dealing with the humanitarian crisis. There’s a-- there’s a very, very difficult humanitarian crisis as Senator McCain pointed out. I mean, we have spillage and refugees in Jordan, in Lebanon, in-- and currently displaced people in Syria. The suffering is intense. And I don’t think the world’s greatest superpower, the United States, can stand by and not do anything. Now we have done some things and the president deserves a lot of credit for that, but I think there’s perhaps a little bit more we could do on the humanitarian front. GREGORY: We’re talking about a red line being crossed, Congressman, and whether the United States has any military options to back up what the president said, which is that you don’t cross it or there will be severe consequences. REP. PETER KING (R-NY, Intelligence Committee): Yeah. Listen, the situation here is complex. My concern is al Qaeda has more influence than it should among the rebels and that if we assist the rebels, al Qaeda could take advantage of that. Having said that, the president did say that there’s a red line and once the United States lays out a red line, some action has to be taken. Now what that’s going to be, I was at the briefing with Senator Kerry the other day. He really didn’t lay that out. And I think the administration is right now trying to figure out what to do. I’m not trying to minimize it, but once he laid out the red line, something is going to have to be done. GREGORY: Something militarily. REP. KING: Well, either that or concerted action with allies, again… GREGORY: But do somebody else besides the U.S. have to take the lead here? Is that where we are politically? REP. KING: …if somebody else-- But again, I’m still concerned about who is going to take over the rebels. And we I think allowed this to go on too long where we didn’t have enough influence on the ground in dealing with the rebel forces. REP. ELLISON: Well, red line does not mean boots on the ground, but there’s a lot of things we can do other than that. We have been providing nonlethal military aid. But I think more coordination and dealing with this humanitarian crisis I think is essential. GREGORY: Let me turn to the aftermath of the Boston bombings where the focus has been this week is on the now dead older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who had trips back to the Chechnya region of the northern caucuses, was interviewed by the FBI as people will remember but then seemed to fall off the radar a little bit. Congressman, where are you critical of intelligence and the FBI’s role in this? REP. KING: I think the FBI has done an outstanding job in solving this in those four-day-- four-day period. Having said that, I don’t think they did a full investigation beforehand. The fact is there were other items in his folder, in his file that they found. And I think they continued to give the benefit of the doubt in each instance and, therefore, just closed out that investigation. For instance, they never went to his mosque, never spoke to the imam, never spoke to a number of his relatives and, also, there were certain matters in his file that they chose to look the other way on or said there was nothing there. GREGORY: What did they look the other way on? REP. KING: His-- his name came up in several other instances and they said there was nothing there. I'm saying, if you have three independent references to someone possibly having terrorist connections, when do you stop saying it’s just a coincidence? GREGORY: Well, there are reports now about his mother talking to him on the telephone that she was on a monitor list as well and that they may have been discussing potential jihad. Was the ball dropped here? REP. ELLISON: Well, I mean, I don’t want to start assigning blame. I mean, every single day, the FBI, law enforcement protects this country. These terrorists, they just-- just got to get through once. And-- and-- and so, I mean, the fact is on an everyday basis, I feel really good about our nation’s law enforcement. But the fact is there will come a time when we can look back and see what lessons should be learned, what should we have done differently, and that’s a good, healthy process… GREGORY: Well, let’s talk about the surveillance within the-- the Muslim community. I mean, that’s partly what you were talking about this week, Congressman King. You said this in the National Review and this is how they reported it, according to you, “Police have to be in the community, they have to build up as many sources as they can and they have to realize that the threat is coming from the Muslim community and increased surveillance there. We can’t be bound by political correctness.” REP. KING: Absolutely. I know-- well, the NYPD in New-- is doing in New York with a thousand police officers focusing on this issue, knowing where the threat is coming from. Now most Muslims are outstanding people but the threat is coming from the Muslim community. Just yesterday Tom Friedman who is certainly no conservative, said “We must ask the question only Muslims can answer. What is going on in your community that a critical number of your youth believes that every American military action in the-- in the Middle East justifies a violent response?” It’s coming from the community. And when-- in previous times when certain elements in the community are the ones responsible for crime, the police focused on it. For instance in Boston, the FBI never spoke to the Boston police about the older brother. And afterwards there was-- basically, no intelligence files in Boston on these types of people-- these people inclined to terrorism. The FBI never even got to examining them. GREGORY: Congressman, you’re a Muslim. This concerns you on civil libertarian grounds and other areas. REP. ELLISON: Well, I’m an American, and I’m concerned about national safety, public safety, just like everyone is. But I think it’s ineffective law enforcement to go after a particular community. I think what we need to do is look at behavior and follow those leads where they would lead. So, like if-- if Tamerlan Tsarnaev is-- is evidencing dangerous behavior, by all means, go after him. But once you start saying we’re going to dragnet or surveil a community, what you do is you ignore dangerous threats that are not in that community and you go after people who don’t have anything to do with it. And so let me just finish up with this one point. REP. KING: Sure. REP. ELLISON: And-- and-- and so this-- this ricin attack, for example, that’s an act-- that’s an act of terrorism, that doesn’t come out of the Muslim community. We cannot-- we don’t have enough law enforcement resources to just go after one community and, remember, we went after a community in World War II. And the Japanese interment is a-- is a national stain on our-- on our country, and we are still apologizing for it. So… REP. KING: No one is talking about interment. We’re talking about following the constitution. What the NYPD is doing-- yeah, they have thousand cops working on counterterrorism, 16 plots against New York have been stopped. If any of those had gone through, we’re going to have hundreds or thousands of people dead. GREGORY: But where does political correctness get in a way with regard to surveilling potential terrorists in the Muslim community? REP. KING: Why didn’t the FBI talk to the mosque, why didn’t they talk to the imam? I mean mosque, it’s-- it’s become more… GREGORY: He’s an-- he was an illegal, permanent resident. Does that have something to do with in terms of what the-- what the FBI is capable of doing with Americans? REP. KING: No. To be an American citizen, the FBI still has the right to ask questions about you. Just because you’re a citizen doesn’t mean they can’t ask questions. GREGORY: But the question is based on what, based on the exercise of free-- free speech or actual evidence of them plotting? REP. KING: I-- I think they’re afraid to somehow be called anti-Muslim or anti-Islam if they accept the reality that the element is coming from within the Muslim community. As in previous times, you had elements coming from certain communities. You know, Eric Holder said this keeps him awake at night… REP. KING: …radical Islam among young people in the Muslim community. Tom-- Dennis McDonough said the same thing in 2011 when he went to a mosque in Virginia to say about the threats that have come to the Muslim community. It’s there. GREGORY: Congressman, let me ask you. Jeff Goldberg, who-- who is-- The Atlantic journalist who has extensive reporting experience in the Middle East, said this on the program last week something that-- that the Muslim community and-- and other countries have to deal with. This is a portion of what he said. (Videotape; Last Sunday) MR. JEFFREY GOLDBERG (Columnist, Bloomberg View/Writer, The Atlantic): When you talk about what’s going on in the Muslim world, and we have to remember, of course, that the primary victims of Jihadism are-- are other Muslims, Muslims who don’t agree with-- with the more Jihadist elements, and so we have to ask ourselves and Muslim world has to ask ourselves-- ask themselves, you know, what are we doing to provide counter programming even on the internet? And-- and this is not something that the U.S. can fix or the-- the West can fix. It has to come from within Islam. (End videotape) REP. ELLISON: Let me assure you, Muslim leaders all across this country have roundly condemned this most recent act of terrorism and have condemned terrorism broadly and are in a-- in a number of ways in doing inter-- interfaith dialogue talking about emphasizing peace and connectedness with people, good works in-- within the community. I mean, the-- the reality is that this is going on and has been and it needs to continue to go on. But, I mean, that’s kind of the-- the-- the thing that I’m saying is that, you know, the-- the-- the community is facing this threat, but this is an American problem. There have been threats throughout this community-- this country, by-- from various sources. But, you know, the-- and Muslims and people across this nation need to think about public safety and threats and radicalism, not just-- not just one community. GREGORY: Just a few seconds left, Congressman King. Remaining questions now, what are you really focused on that you’d like the intelligence community and the FBI to answer? REP. KING: I think it’s important to know are there other people involved in this threat? Are there others that are still out there? REP. ELLISON: Yeah. REP. KING: Are there family members or people in-- in the community? That’s very important to find out. Also, what did cause them to radicalize? Was it done here? Was it done overseas? Was it done over the internet? What caused that to happen? How can we stop it in the future? Also ask why the FBI is not cooperating more with the law enforcement? Why they did not give vital evidence to the NYPD about another possible attack. GREGORY: This is that you think a failure that needs to be learned from? GREGORY: All right. Congressman-- congressmen, thank you both very much… REP. ELLISON: Thank you very much, David. GREGORY: …for being with us this morning. REP. ELLISON: Thank you, Peter. GREGORY: And we’ll continue. REP. KING: Thank you. GREGORY: And coming up here politics and presidential legacies just as all five living presidents gathered in Dallas this week for the dedication of the Bush Presidential Library, the current President faces a critical juncture as he looks at his own legacy as we approach the hundred-day mark of his second term. How is the team and the Obama agenda faring on issues like guns, immigration, national security and the economy? Political roundtable is here, as well as Tony Blair. Coming up after this break. (Announcements) GREGORY: It was a big night in Washington last night as journalists, celebrities, and politicians alike gathered for the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. The night was full of laughs. And here were a couple of our favorites. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: One senator who has reached across the aisle recently is Marco Rubio. But I don’t know about 2016. I mean, the guy has not even finished a single term in the Senate and he thinks he’s ready to be president. Kids these days. MR. CONAN O'BRIEN: Also, I’d like to acknowledge that earlier this evening there was some confusion with the seating chart. For a moment, some-- someone accidentally sat Governor Chris Christie with the Republicans. That was awkward and I apologize. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I, on the other hand, have run my last campaign. On Thursday, as Ed mentioned, I went to the opening of the Bush Presidential Library in Dallas. It was a wonderful event. And that inspired me to get started on my own legacy, which will actually begin by building another edifice right next to the Bush Library. Can we show that, please? (End videotape) GREGORY: And coming up, more from the dinner last night as well as my conversation with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. But first our roundtable is here after this short commercial break. (Announcements) (Videotape, Last Night) PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: My charm offensive has helped me learn some interesting things about what's going on in Congress. It turns out absolutely nothing. Some folks still don’t-- don’t think I spend enough time with Congress. Why don’t you get a drink with Mitch McConnell, they ask? Really? Why don’t you get a drink with Mitch McConnell? (End videotape) GREGORY: Why-- Mitch McConnell jokes, only really funny in Washington. We are back with our roundtable, joining me Former Counselor to President George W. Bush and former Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Karen Hughes… MS. KAREN HUGHES (Former Counselor to President George W. Bush/Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, 2005-2007): I’d love to have a drink with Mitch McConnell. GREGORY: …Yeah. I know. I too, yeah. Democratic Congressman from Texas, Joaquin Castro; our political director and chief White House correspondent, Chuck Todd; Republican Strategist, Mike Murphy, and Democratic Senator from Minnesota--huge Minnesota day on the program--Amy Klobuchar. Senator-- welcome to all of you. How did the president do last night? SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN/Judiciary Committee): Well, I think he was incredible. You know, he likes to do these things. It’s fun. And I really look at this dinner as a chance for him to make fun of himself for-- in a town where there’s daggers on every corner for people to come together and have some fun. And he was-- he was tremendous. My favorite line was actually when he talked about now he wanted to have his presidential library and he wanted to have it in his birthplace, but he decided he better move it into his country. GREGORY: Right. Here, and though, I mean, there-- these are grea-- these are actual opportunities for presidents and presidents, I think back to President Bush, usually do very well at these things, plus they can take on stuff that they’re actually legitimately mad about with some humor. MS. HUGHES: With-- with a sense of humor. And… GREGORY: Yeah. MS. HUGHES: …humor and humility are in short supply… GREGORY: Yeah. MS. HUGHES: …in Washington. GREGORY: Right. Exactly. MS. HUGHES: So it’s always nice to see in abundance of those. And I thought the president’s remarks were funny last night. GREGORY: Chuck, what did we-- what-- what-- what were his favorite targets? I-- I must say we played it at the top, the bit about if you want minority outreach, why don’t you start with this minority. MR. TODD: By the way, is it contractually-- are we okay to praise Conan? Is that okay now… (Cross talk) MR. TODD: He was really funny, too. GREGORY: I thought so. Yeah. MR. TODD: But, no, I thought the-- you know, what-- what I wonder how many people realized at the end when he did his-- you know, there’s always this part at the end where they get serious for a minute, and it’s usually the part where president say, you know, I think the press has a good job to do and I understand what they have to do. He didn’t say that. He wasn’t very complimentary of the press. You know, we all can do better. He was-- it did seem-- I thought his pot shots joke wise and then the serious stuff about the internet, the rise of the internet media and social media… GREGORY: Right. MR. TODD: …and all that stuff. He hates it. Okay. He hates this part of the media. He really thinks that the sort of the buzzification, this isn’t just about BuzzFeed or Politico, and all the stuff, but he thinks that sort of coverage of political media has hurt political discourse. He hates it. And I think he was just trying to make that clear last night. GREGORY: Senator, you know, we-- we’re also at a point, though, where some of these other big matters are-- are usually right-- right under the surface like Syria. You heard Senator McCain talking about his own call for action to do more after he thinks the administration has been late here getting into Syria after a couple of years. How did you react to that? What do you think the president’s next moves have to be? SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Well, I’m much more focused on the future as Senator Gillibrand and Senator Graham… GREGORY: Yeah. SEN. KLOBUCHAR: …and I just came back from Jordan and Turkey and we met with the refugees, we met with the rebels. And I’m convinced that, first of all, the president knows that we can’t do this alone. He’s been good at reaching out to leaders. Just met with King Abdullah that we don’t want to put boots on the ground. Senator McCain made that very clear. But we need to up our game. We need to up our game with where the aid goes. We’ve learned that too much of it is going to Assad-controlled regions. That we have to make sure that we’re starting to do more with night goggles, armor, all kinds of things, and that we have to keep these possibilities that Senator McCain raised clearly on the front burner with the no-fly zone, with-- with the arming the rebels, but we cannot do this alone. And it is an incredible scene there what’s happening in Jordan… GREGORY: Right. SEN. KLOBUCHAR: …twenty-five hundred refugees a day coming in. GREGORY: The-- what the interesting thing, Mike Murphy, as-- as a political matter… MR. MURPHY: Mm-Hm. GREGORY: …this is something that’s going to divide Democrats, but Republicans, too. And that’s one of the things that Senator… MR. MIKE MURPHY (Republican Strategist): Mm-Hm. GREGORY: …McCain has been speaking to. MR. MURPHY: Yeah. No, it’s a complicated situation with a-- a lot of difficult politics around it. I’ve been kind of enjoying at least as an observer of Washington the red line because the red line has turned into about a mile wide. We’re now, maybe, in the middle of the red line or we’re across the red line, but it’s a problem for president. When you draw a red line, the world is watching, including the Iranians. The political problem is the country has total fatigue for this kind of thing and there’s a military problem. This is a lot easier to get into than get out of. Because, you know, what are the minimal things you try if they don’t work, does it lead to natural escalation? So, I think the Turks are going to be the key. You would need a big partner to really do it. And there’s no way we can do it alone. GREGORY: Congressman, let me get you on the record on this. What are you thinking about? REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D-TX): Well, I think, first, you know, the revolution of the rebellion has to be accepted by the people of Syria. It becomes a lot less effective in the long term, the more it’s driven by the United States of America. However much we may or may not want to get into it. It’s also clear that we have got to be careful in accepting the intelligence that we’re getting. We know from the past that we were a bit eager in other wars to get into, specifically Iraq. So we have got to make sure that once we’re going to get involved in that kind of serious way that our intelligence is right and that we have evidence to back it up. MS. HUGHES: But I’m concerned the window of opportunity is closing. The people of Syria feel we have let them down. We are the world’s champion of freedom. They are fighting for their freedom, tens of thousands of them are being killed and they’re waiting for our help. And I think we have an obligation. No one is for boots on the ground. But we have an obligation to lead the world and try to intervene in a smart way through arming, you know, the-- the opposition that is not affiliated with al Qaeda. Al Qaeda is only strengthening and the situation is getting worse by the day. I’m concerned the window is closing. GREGORY: And, Chuck, we’re going to own the problem one way or the other? MR. TODD: Well, either way and that is-- that is the-- the concern, but I can tell you that there is regret about that red line comment because if you… GREGORY: In the White House? MR. TODD: ...in-- in the White House in this respect, you don’t draw, I mean, they meant it, they do mean it on the chemical weapons, but saying it creates this political conversation. They didn’t want to go public last week that they had this-- that-- that this early evidence yet. They weren’t ready. And yet they knew Congress was going to get this briefing and that it-- it was all going to get out, so they decided to go public with it last week because they felt they had no choice. And it was all going to start leaking out, yeah, the Israeli have (Unintelligible) intelligence, but they are not ready. There is no good answer, the Gulf states and-- and the big difference between here and Libya, by the way, is in Libya you had the Arab community, you had the Arab League on the record saying… GREGORY: Right. MR. TODD: …we got to stop this. The Arab League has been quiet on this and I think the United States would like to see that first before we jump. SEN. KLOBUCHAR: The other difference with Libya is the no-fly zone. Libya didn’t have the capacity to hit back, Assad does. So when we do this, if we do this, we have to deal with other countries and we have to get the support from the region. MR. MURPHY: But the problem is we always work the political stuff here, so we find a solution we can believe in. The question is, is that a solution linked to reality on the ground? We always look for the good guy rebels because we know the dictator is a jerk. GREGORY: So… MR. MURPHY: But good guy rebels could be hard to find here, say al Qaeda, Sharia law crowd that’s leading this fight. GREGORY: Congressman, I’ve been thinking about what is the relationship between the Syria problem and how much time and energy that could occupy in-- in this White House? The president is focused on-- on his legacy he’s building in his second term and-- and immigration and then, of course, there is the economy and whether there is ever going to be a budget deal, so this debate about sequestration. So I look at those three areas and how they all come together. REP. CASTRO: Yeah. GREGORY: What is going to define this president’s second term? REP. CASTRO: Well, I mean, I think there’s no question, David, that it’s-- it’s a full schedule, both foreign issues and domestic issues that the president is dealing with. He just got into his second term, though. So, he is not quite leaving yet. And I think he’s up-- he’s up to the task and the Congress is up to the task of dealing with these issues. I think that, you know, you’re going to see the president take some time to make sure the facts are right on Syria. When he makes a decision, he’ll act swiftly. I think the Congress is going to pass comprehensive immigration reform in 2013. I think they’ll bring the gun vote back. If not in 2013, then after the Republican primary before the general election in 2014 to put some pressure on those folks to vote a different way. So, I think on-- on all of these fronts, President Obama will leave his mark on some very big issues in our nation. GREGORY: But, you know, Karen, you saw this firsthand. I mean, with President Bush coming in-- in a second term and-- and not succeeding on Social Security, the Iraq war, you know, using so much of his capital and there goes immigration and all the rest. I mean, he’s got-- the president has to coalesce around something that will define the second term rather soon. MS. HUGHES: Well, the clock is ticking. And right now President Obama’s presidency is defined by two things, a health care law that’s proving more difficult to implement and-- and more costly than projected and massive build ups of debt and federal spending. And that is his legacy at this point. I do agree that immigration reform has a good chance of passing. I thought he was very shrewd to bring it up in the context of President George W. Bush’s Library opening and-- and to say that President Bush had it right on the immigration issue. But, you know, no day in the presidency is an easy day with… MS. HUGHES: …with only one set of decisions. You have a lot of big things happening across the world and a lot of big troubling issues to-- to deal with. GREGORY: Chuck, you wrote about this legacy issue for the president first read this week? MR. TODD: Yeah, I know, it is. And Karen, I’m curious if you were to-- to sit down with President Obama, how long would you tell him that he had for a legislative agenda in a second term, how long did you… MS. HUGHES: Probably a year. MR. TODD: Yeah. MS. HUGHES: Probably a year. MR. TODD: That you have one year and I think that-- that’s what they’re operating on… GREGORY: Yeah. MR. TODD: …and-- and I think that the gun thing, you know, they-- they always knew they were going to lose it, just didn’t know they were going to lose so quickly. It does put more pressure on immigration to make sure it gets done and there would be this concern. And I think everybody, you know, there was this-- well, it was basically the New York Times, right? There’s New York Times, both Maureen Dowd and-- and others who just said, oh, wow, he’s losing his ability to get things done. The gun vote was just-- such a way to-- to show how he doesn’t know how to manage Washington, this town. And I think the gun vote was the wrong issue to pick on him on that. There-- there is other evidence that he struggles managing Washington. The gun vote was a different-- a different story. Immigration is going to be the real test. GREGORY: Senator, how-- what is your counsel at this point? I know you were among the women from the Senate who met with him. There is a lot of outreach because one of the complaints on Capitol Hill is the president is not working, even his people enough to get some of the things he wants in an agenda. SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Well, now that he’s put a Minnesotan in his chief of staff, Denis McDonough, always crazy. And I really think… SEN. KLOBUCHAR: I-- I think that his outreach has been really good this year. People have genuinely liked meeting with him and believe that he wants to move forward on a debt deal to bring the debt down in a balanced way. I think that’s got to be part of his legacy as well to try to bring people together on that. The immigration bill, I-- it was an incredible week for the immigration bill. We started the week with people saying oh, we have to delay this because of Boston… GREGORY: Yeah. SEN. KLOBUCHAR: …and then you had people Like Speaker Boehner and Ryan come out and say you know what, this means we have to speed this up because there’s better security provisions in here. So I think it’s exciting. We had 23 witnesses on the judiciary committee and everyone from the head of the migrant workers to Grover Norquist supporting it. GREGORY: All right. I want to come back to this issue of, well, it’s the-- President Bush’s legacy but the security threats facing President Obama as well. Earlier in the week, I was in Dallas covering the dedication of the Bush Presidential Library and I had a chance to catch up exclusively with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to talk about his thoughts on the Middle East, the Bush legacy and some of the big foreign policy tests now facing President Obama. (Videotape) GREGORY: You are in this-- this pivot point politically of being so closely associated with President Clinton politically, the new Labor Party, at a time when he was refashioning the Democratic Party. And yet your legacy will forever also be entwined with President Bush and his response to the war on terror. It’s a-- it’s a very interesting place in political history. MR. TONY BLAIR (British Prime Minister, 1997-2007): You know, there-- there was a British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, the-- when he was once asked what-- what is the toughest thing about being prime minister, he said events, dear boy, events. And what happens is that something comes of a, you know, game-changing nature, world-changing nature like 9/11 and everything changes. So I-- I was very closely associated with President Clinton, still have a good and strong relationship with him because we are both progressive politicians of a centrist persuasion. When President Bush first came in, I mean, frankly, in-- in basic political terms, I really didn’t have a lot in common. After 9/11 though, I thought it was really important our two countries stood together and I thought it was important that we took on this-- this-- this new menace with-- with-- with strength. GREGORY: It was Churchill who said during World War II always stay close to the Americans. And there was a moment in the Bush presidency before the invasion, just weeks before at that now infamous meeting in the Azores. And I’m told President Bush said to you at a very delicate time for you politically back home, called you Tony, presumably, said, back out if you need to, don’t do this, don’t stand by me when you have to go back and address parliament if it’s going to cost you your leadership. Tell me about that moment. MR. BLAIR: He did say that. I mean, he-- he made it clear that, you know, he understood the-- the huge political difficulties I had and that-- that I shouldn’t, as it were, put my own premiership on the line. It was more important in-- in a way, to him, I think, that I stayed. But my attitude was that, you know, there are lots of things in politics where-- where you-- you’ll compromise and you’ll maybe back off exactly what you think you should do and, you know, these are often the run of the mill everyday types of issues. When it comes to issues of war and peace and-- and life and death, I think your-- your-- I came to the conclusion your proper obligation to your own country is to do what you think is right. And I thought it was right to be with the U.S. at that moment in time and, you know, if I ended up losing my premiership, that-- that was that but I didn’t want to-- to stay on a basis I wasn’t on this issue of this importance of this and decisiveness for the world. I-- I didn’t want to stay in this. I was going to be able to do what I thought was right and I-- I thought that, you know, the world had changed after 9/11 and-- and that we had to take these decisions together. GREGORY: In this library, the president has decided not to separate Iraq-- out Iraq. Iraq is presented as part and parcel of the war on terrorism, which is how he saw it. But won’t history judge that as a false impression that this was a war of choice that became a misadventure in the eyes of so many? MR. BLAIR: I think, you know, the controversy around that, I mean, around how you categorize it, will remain. But what I found was that, you see, removing Saddam happened within a matter of weeks. You then spent the next, you know, eight-- nine years in a different type of battle and that was a battle against precisely the forces that are trying to destabilize the Middle East today… GREGORY: Mm-Hm. MR. BLAIR: …al Qaeda on the one side, Iran on the other side, and this toxic cocktail, if you like, of religion, politics, ethnicity, tribalism. So, I mean, I never said the two things were linked in that direct sense, 9/11 and Iraq, I think the difficulties we ended up encountering in Iraq were difficulties that arose from precisely this-- this force of terror unleashed by religious extremism and I think that’s the, you know, frankly, what we still face today that if you see what’s happening in Syria today. That entirely encapsulates it as it does across North Africa, Yemen, further afield, countries like Pakistan and of course Iran. GREGORY: It’s striking as the president was opening his library today, there emerged reports out of Syria that the Assad regime may have used chemical weapons, a red line for this administration. What lessons did you learn, did President Bush learn, that you hope President Obama takes into account? MR. BLAIR: Well, I think the lessons are really tough, you see, and-- and-- and very difficult. And-- and I think the trouble is the lessons themselves are subject of great and heated debate. I mean, my view is that-- that in the end, the whole of the Middle East and beyond is undergoing this period of huge transition where you have these dictatorial regimes whose time is up. On the other hand, the battle for the future is between what I would call the modern-minded types of people, the people who took to the streets first in Egypt, who want what we want. But against them are various groups, Islamist groups, that I’m afraid don’t have the same concept of democracy or freedom that we do. And if any of them get-- get hold of the potential to-- to engage in mass destruction, we’ve got a huge problem on our hands. GREGORY: And look what we’re dealing with in the United States, the Boston bombings, the prospect of home-grown terror. MR. BLAIR: Yeah, as we found in the U.K. GREGORY: Yeah, Britain has a lot of lessons to share about that. MR. BLAIR: Yeah, no, of course. And the fact is I'm afraid, that this-- this ideology is being pumped around websites, is being encouraged by people in many different parts of the world and it’s-- and it’s there and it’s very hard for us to deal with. The first obligation of a government is to try and protect its people, but then you’ve got to-- you’ve got to cast out this ideology. I mean, I think this is very similar to the fight we faced in the 20th century against first of all fascism and then revolutionary communism. You know, it’s an ideology. It’s not got one command and control center, it's not a-- you know, you’re not talking about a country, but you are talking about an ideology based on a perversion of religion who-- which has an enormous force. If you don’t deal with this issue, this long-term question, this ideology based on-- on a perversion of the religion of Islam, you are going to end up fighting this for a long time. GREGORY: You saw President Bush up close as a man during very difficult times for any leader. Talk about your relationship, what it was like to sit there today and this moment of finality even for a former president at the dedication of his library. MR. BLAIR: Well, I thought it was a great (Unintelligible) for America today by the way. I mean, you had five presidents including President Obama, and all behaving with a sort of graciousness and-- and civility towards each other. I thought it was fantastic. And President Obama actually put his finger on it when he said it’s impossible to know George Bush and not like him. So, you know, often people say to me back home, they say, come on, you didn’t like him really, did you? And I say, you can totally disagree with him but as a human being he is a someone of immense character and genuine integrity. So, you know, you can say-- people have different views about decisions, but there’s a very few people who-- who don’t like him and respect him as a person. GREGORY: Prime Minister, thank you very much. MR. BLAIR: Thank you. (End videotape) GREGORY: Prime Minister, Tony Blair. When we come back, more on the Bush legacy with our roundtable, how history judge the 43rd president, plus 2016 politics. Is the country done with the Bushes? Somebody brought that up, pretty close to the family this week. It’s coming up after this. (Announcements) GREGORY: Back to this picture which is a rare sight in Dallas on Wednesday and is a wonderful celebration of the American presidency and Bill Clinton had this great line, Mike, where he said this is part of the eternal effort to rewrite presidential history which is, you know, the great truth… MR. MURPHY: Sure. GREGORY: …in all of these library openings. MR. MURPHY: History is somewhat written in pencil and it takes a long time. I remember they once asked some decades ago, Chou-En Lai, the great communist leader in China, what he thought of the French revolution. He said, too early to tell. I kind of take that view in this stuff. But I tell you, there is a lot of smug kind of second-guessing, you know, revisionism, and we don’t yet-- know yet. What I’ll say about President Bush is, everything in the world changed in a day. The country was threatened a way it never had been before. And you can find a million little mistakes but I think the big decisions were right. GREGORY: Karen, if you ever can get over Iraq in the public’s mind, how does he do it? MS. HUGHES: Well, I think history has a way of right-sizing things, right? The-- the short term politics tends to magnify controversy and minimize accomplishments and what you heard was the beginning of that this week with Democratic presidents praising President Bush’s big accomplishments. Higher standards in our schools, millions of lives saved in Africa. I would have added prescription drug coverage for senior citizens that both parties had tried to get done. And George Bush got it done. Tax relief for every American that they’re still feeling today and I think by-- the huge accomplishment which was recognizing as President Obama praised his strength and resolve in the aftermath of 9/11 recognizing the gravity of the threat and making the tough decisions to help our nation confront it. GREGORY: Senator, how do you see it? SEN. KLOBUCHAR: Well, I-- I didn’t agree with his decision to go into Iraq. I think some of the fiscal decisions are clearly still haunting us today with the debt. But I will say working on this immigration bill back then I overlapped with President Bush for two years, he put together that coalition that’s going to succeed now. GREGORY: Mm-Hm. SEN. KLOBUCHAR: And it was very, very important. He was ahead of his time. Secondly, when that 35W bridge collapsed in Minneapolis six blocks from my house in the middle of a river, in the middle of a summer day, he was there a few days later. He made sure it got funded. We worked with him and that bi-- bridge got built within a year and you don’t forget that. GREGORY: Chuck, Josh Bolten, the former chief of staff… MR. TODD: Yeah. GREGORY: …told me in an interview this week, he sort of took on Republicans saying what the Senator just said, those people who believe that there was fiscal insanity during the Bush years are wrong about that and Republicans ought to start supporting it because, you know, fiscal austerity and fiscal balance was not the priority after 9/11. MR. TODD: You know, it’s funny in talking with some Bush officials during the run up to the library, they were briefing us, that seems to be the-- the issue that sort of got under the skin of some of you guys, Karen. MS. HUGHES: But it’s not right. It’s not accurate. MR. TODD: It’s the issue of the fiscal of Republican on Republican attack here… MR. TODD: …on this front and these presidential libraries. By the way, the first draft of obituaries. It-- it must be a weird thing to be president because you’re sitting there and everybody’s wondering what are you going to say because it’s the same type of feeling. It’s almost like weird living eulogies. But you bring up the prescription drugs. You know, the Obama administration is looking at the pre-- prescription drug rollout which, by the way, all the run-up was, oh, my God, you guys can’t handle this, this is going to be chaotic, to model the healthcare rollout. After the prescription drug… MR. TODD: And-- and before-- before it was done, people-- before you guys started doing it, there was all this concern. Do they know what they’re doing? Is this going to work? And seniors are going to be up in arms about it. And-- and so they’re actually using the prescription drug… MS. BARBARA BUSH (Former First Lady of the United States): He-- he’s by far the best qualified men but, no. I really don’t. I-- I think it’s a great country. There are a lot of great families and it’s not just four families or whatever. There’s just-- there are other people out there that are very qualified, and we’ve had enough Bushes. (End videotape) GREGORY: Lord, it sounded like Jesse Jackson, stay out the bushes. I mean-- Karen, what did that mean? Come on, you don’t have to protect Jeb. You know, you… MS. HUGHES: I think most moms can understand the instinct of a mom to protect yet another son from the spears of the-- of the political process. GREGORY: Yeah. MS. HUGHES: And, you know, I think that-- that’s exactly what it was. But Jeb Bush has big shoulders and-- and if he decides to run, I think he’d be a great president. GREGORY: Well, that was interesting. MR. MURPHY: That’s what we call New England encouragement. I’ll tell you this, I don’t know what Jeb’s going to do. I work for him by disclosure. But I think if he does decide to run, he will one day be president of the United States. MS. HUGHES: And I will add that… MR. TODD: Well, but I-- but I think, David… MS. HUGHES: …Barbara Bush used to say when-- when Governor Bush was running, she-- she once predicted that-- that he couldn’t beat Ann Richards. We all know how that turned out. So. REP. CASTRO: Well, I think-- I think part of the challenge for Jeb Bush, I think he would still be very formidable in the Republican primary. But there is a risk that the Republican primary has moved beyond him, has moved so far to the right that he wouldn’t be able to win that thing. MR. TODD: He himself said that. He himself-- but Jeb Bush said this in 2012, “He thought-- I thought I was a conservative, and look at what’s going on here.” GREGORY: Also a warning for Hillary Clinton. MR. TODD: But I thought-- that’s right. She was channeling the whole-- and there is going to be a part of the country that says, wait a minute, what? GREGORY: Yeah. MR. TODD: Don’t we have new people? GREGORY: All right. MR. MURPHY: It’s going to be Hillary versus new, I think. And Jeb could move that primary, which is the best reason for him to run. GREGORY: All right. Let me get a break in here. We’ll come back right after this. GREGORY: …was going to be the nominee. All right. Thank you all very much for the discussion. Before you go, and we go, you could see my full PRESS Pass conversation this week when I sat down with four former advisors to President Bush at the dedication of the Bush Presidential Library and museum in Dallas. That’s on our blog, PRESSPass.nbcnews.com, some interesting reflections. That’s all for today. We’ll be back next week. If it’s Sunday, it’s MEET THE PRESS.

Motability Enquiry Our Motability specialists at Jardine Motors Mercedes-Benz are on hand to answer any of your questions and to help you every step of the way when getting a Mercedes-Benz Motability car. For any questions about the Motability Scheme, such as how it works, your eligibility for the scheme, or the Mercedes-Benz Motability offers we have available, simply fill in this contact form detailing your enquiry and we’ll be in touch. You can also book an appointment with us for a no-obligation session. During your appointment, we will answer all of your questions as well as explore the full range of options that are available to you under the Motability Scheme. Fill in the contact form to request an appointment, selecting your nearest Jardine Motors Mercedes-Benz dealership, and one of our team will be in touch to arrange a time and date to suit you. We work with a number of carefully selected credit providers who may be able to offer you finance for your purchase. We may receive a commission payment from the finance provider if you decide to enter into an agreement with them. We work with a number of carefully selected credit providers who may be able to offer you finance for your purchase. We may receive a commission payment from the finance provider if you decide to enter into an agreement with them. Welcome to Jardine Motor Group. To optimise your experience, cookie settings on the website are set to allow all cookies. By continuing your journey throughout the website, you consent to this. You can change these settings here.

Your order number will remain valid for 4-5 days. You may download your purchase as often as you wish within that timeframe. Please do not share your number with others. All downloads are logged and checked for unauthorized access. Sablique wants to become more voluptuous. She stuffs herself and talks to you about her growing body. She grows breasts and giant hips and gets stuck. She teases you with her new curves and wants you to cum all over her new fat rolls.

Crozscore: Crozscore: Software Description: Globaldyne Systems is offering virtual desktops, that will transform personal computing.The problem with desktop computers today is that they only last 4 or 5 years, you have to be in front of them to use them, and they cost a lot of money to buy. With virtual desktops you move your desktop computer to the cloud and solve all three of these problems: they can be upgraded with the click of a few buttons and in a few seconds, they are in the cloud so they can be accessed from any computer, smartphone, or tablet in the world, and they cost much less and take less time to set up. Software Description: No back-and-forth emails, no double booking and only a few seconds to schedule an appointment with you. The idea is simple: you create your calendar, set your availability and then share it with your clients or co-workers, who can easily schedule an appointment. Thanks to the integration with all major calendars and time-zone synchronization, we can be sure that everything goes smoothly. Software Description: Accurants is a complete small business accounting software. The biggest advantage of Accurants is, that it's a cloud based software, which means there is no installation and it can be accessed from anywhere, anytime and from any device. Accurants comes with multiple modules like Invoice management, Accounting, Time Tracker, Project management, Expenses management, Customer Relationship Management, Taxes, Email marketing, and Payroll management. All these modules are programmed perfectly to work independently as well as in combination. Features: Features: Application Tracking Lead Management Customer Management Contact Management API Email Integration External Integrations Scheduling Calendar Management Multi-User Notifications Google Apps Integration Features: Task Scheduling/Tracking Lead Management Customer Management Project Management Data Import Accounts Receivable Calendar Management Forecasting Payroll Budgeting Tax Management Multi-User Multi-Currency Dashboard Accounts Payable Document Comparison CRM Integration Data Export Expense Tracking Billing/Invoicing Summary: Cost less and take less time to set up compared to traditional desktops Access from any computer, smartphone, or tablet in the world Upgrade with the click of a few buttons and in a few seconds Summary: A simple appointment scheduling tool. Time zone synchronization. Online calendars connection. Pretty layout. Time saving! Summary: No key features associated with this application. Pricing: Starting from: $25.00/month Credit card required: No Core-1: $25/month Core-2: $35/month Core-4: $65/month Basic Plan Free Included in plan: One click meeting scheduling Personalized intro messages Email notification for both parties Unlimited number of appointments Security Up-to-date availability based on what you have in your calendar Automatic appointments creation in integrated calendar service Time zone synchronization Manual availability settings Automatic reminders about the appointments Adjustable time-slots No ads Email reminders for you and your guest Pro Plan $10.001 user(s) / month Included in plan: All features from Basic Plan Team dashboard (charts, reports, statistics) Unlimited appointment types Pro Plan $96.001 user(s) / year Included in plan: All features from Basic Plan Unlimited appointment types Team dashboard (charts, reports, statistics) Basic $15.001 user(s) / month Included in plan: Invoice Expenses Project Management Time Tracker Plus $45.001 user(s) / month Included in plan: Basic & CRM, Accounting Enterprise $75.001 user(s) / month Included in plan: Plus & CRM FAQs: No FAQs associated with this application. FAQs: What is this service generally used for? Scheduling appointments Managing calendars Saving time What are some applications this service is commonly used in tandem with? Google Calendar iCal Outlook other Who are the main user groups of this service? Everyone who wants to automate appointments scheduling and save a lot of time. Appoint.ly is used by marketing agencies, teachers, HR teams, CEOs, sport trainers and more!

We were literally talking about this yesterday waiting for a mechanic forever. xD The current system needs work. As mentioned, the waiting time is too long, nobody wants to be sitting around for half an hour for a mechanic to show up. I definitely appreciate that not everything needs to be instant, but to make this problem worse, it tells us how many mechanics are online - but what people don't know is that not all of them are allowed/trained to go out. This just makes it seem like the 10+ mechanics online are just ignoring us. Having a shop item would solve this. Do I think this is always going to be needed? No. But I certainly think for now, and for a long time it's been needed. As a friendly pointer, might I suggest you take these reports a little more seriously. You have broken a rule and your attitude suggests to me that you do not care. Thanks to all involved, I see no reason to respond further. You weren't gone that long... so, I won't comment on that. You could've just DM'd me one more time to let me know you couldn't come back but instead kept me waiting for a while. Don't really know what to say. I'd be happy with just a 'verbal' warning but up to staff. Player(s) being reported: Theo Smalls (ID 13) Date of interaction reported: 07/NOV/2019 Unix time stamp from HUD: 1573153936 Your characters name: Kai DeVito Other player(s) involved: N/A Specific rule(s) broken: 8. Non-Roleplay (NRP) Actions that are unrealistic or promote poor quality roleplay are considered as non-roleplay. Examples of actions that are considered as non-roleplay: • Cop Baiting - Provoking a reaction from emergency services without a realistic reason. • Mercy Killing - Asking to be killed by a friend (Killing a friend falls under deathmatching). • Unrealistic stunt jumping or the use of an expensive vehicle to ram into other vehicles. • Spawning a scripted work vehicle and using it for crimes or submerging any vehicle in water. • Swimming in water for an unrealistic amount of time or without a destination during a chase. Players who disconnect during roleplay must reconnect and inform other parties in order to resume roleplay. If you are unable to reconnect it may be excused after providing proof. In a situation where a player gets away from an incident where they're being chased/pursued, they must wait 15 minutes before they can logout. Players should not instigate roleplay situations if they do not have time to play it through. Players who ignore answering roleplay commands directed at them, e.g. /do. In a situation where a player’s game crashes or the player is kicked from the server, they should be allowed to have the same advantages as they have had before their leave. How did the player break the rule(s)? The player timed out from in game, and initially made no attempt to alert me to him crashing. The player had earlier tried to add me on Discord to provide a video of whether the door was open on his screen or not. I gave him some time to let me know, however he did not and so I PM'd him after there was also no response in the ECRP General Chat. He responded saying that his game had crashed, however he seemingly made no attempt to come back, and then stopped responded altogether, ignoring my messages. I waited a full 35-40 minutes as he had previously said he would return and nothing came of it. Evidence of rule breach: My video contains staff chat, I shall DM whoever is handling this. My suggestion, in my opinion, makes this whole system much much better. It allows people to leave messages without having to know the owner. As mentioned in OP - its better to not necessarily declare the owner too easily. Currently, if you're trying to get in touch or leave a message for an owner of a house, its impossible if you dont know who it is. Having a way you can leave a message where they are alerted in chat (similar to ticket system maybe) would be extremely beneficial to the server, property owners, buyers as well as friends. You'd get this notification as you enter your home, that way there is no metagaming and may encourage people to check their home and mail more often. This would certainly help with people trying to purchase houses or any other needs of contact. Theres an argument for further information, however I dont think there should be names, phone numbers or emails so that owners can remain anonymous. Personally, I prefer the way name changes are now. I do not believe it should return to the in game option it had before, as this often promotes a careless attitude towards changing names. I can agree that there are plenty of reasons to change it, but unfortunately if its really worth it, then using credits is worth it. If you live in a country that does not have the ability to perform international transactions, that's unfortunate. It's a shame but that should not restrict the progression of the server or these types of decisions. This new system, in my opinion, improves the server and should remain. I am not totally familiar with the options you may have, but you could attempt to get someone to gift you credits. Either way, -1. Player(s) being reported: ID 31 Date of interaction reported: 08/SEP/2019 Unix time stamp from HUD: 1567944831 Your characters name: Kai DeVito Other player(s) involved: ID 2, 91 and 110 - I think they are all 'victims'. Police later showed up after one of them shot at 31 to defend themselves. Specific rule(s) broken: 14. Deathmatch (DM) Deathmatching is the act of attacking a player or their property without a proper roleplay reason. Examples of valid reasons to attack another player: • If they attempt to arrest or hurt you, an ally, or damage your property. • If they report you to the police for a serious crime. • If they are not in compliance with demands, attempt to escape, or call other players for help in a situation where they are required to display fear under fear roleplay rules. A player cannot kill their victim if the victim is in compliance with the demands. A player must allow their victim enough time to comply with the demands. If a player informs you that your VOIP isn’t working, you must either fix your VOIP using appropriate commands or use text to deliver your demand(s). Vehicles cannot be used to attack another player more than once including a failed attempt. Attacking another player with no engagement in roleplay is not allowed. Killing a player that has obeyed all orders and demands during a roleplay situation is allowed, with roleplay, only within 3 hours of: Severe hostile or criminal action is taken against you, e.g. someone is robbing you at gunpoint. (Excluding police aiming a gun at you.) Someone is attempting to take your life. Someone is attempting to take the life of your close friend or ally, or if you have witnessed it happen. You must explain your reason to kill to the player IC and have OOC evidence proving your reason. How did the player break the rule(s)? Player repeatedly used his vehicle to ram the players involved. He made multiple attempts to ram, drive away and drive back. Evidence of rule breach: I will need to provide this to Staff as it includes staff chat and so on. Apologies in advance for background noise (Netflix on 2nd monitor). There's also a slight break in the video as the first part is Shadowplay of last few minutes, then continued on live recording. Budget is flexible and purely dependant on the property you are selling. I am most likely only interested in a house, not an apartment. Preferably with at least one garage. Feel free to contact me by phone too at: #3724977 As said above, you can't set multiple people with the same one. Whilst I could see the argument for allowing multiple people with the names, I also see this problematic in terms of immersion when you get confused between people just based on their names, even though in character you would recognise them by more than just a hovering name

Why it is important to know how things happen to us Below we have compiled many verses, mostly from Srimad-Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita for understanding why "good and bad" things happen to us, and more specifically how each of us individually reacts to such events as devotees or Vaisnavas. The ultimate goal of all action, according to our philosophy is to only act for the satisfaction of God, or Krishna, and in that way no personal karma is generated. OK, here we go…. Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.17.18 O greatest among human beings, it is very difficult to ascertain the particular miscreant who has caused our sufferings, because we are bewildered by all the different opinions of theoretical philosophers. PURPORT There are many theoretical philosophers in the world who put forward their own theories of cause and effect especially about the cause of suffering and its effect on different living beings. Generally there are six great philosophers: Kanada, the author of Vaisesika philosophy; Gautama, the author of logic; Patanjali, the author of mystic yoga; Kapila, the author of Sankhya philosophy; Jaimini, the author of Karma-mimamsa; and Vyasadeva, the author of Vedanta-darsana. Although the bull, or the personality of religion, and the cow, the personality of the earth, knew perfectly well that the personality of Kali was the direct cause of their sufferings, still, as devotees of the Lord, they knew well also that without the sanction of the Lord no one could inflict trouble upon them. According to the Padma Purana, our present trouble is due to the fructifying of seedling sins, but even those seedling sins also gradually fade away by execution of pure devotional service. Thus even if the devotees see the mischief-mongers, they do not accuse them for the sufferings inflicted. They take it for granted that the mischief-monger is made to act by some indirect cause, and therefore they tolerate the sufferings, thinking them to be God-given in small doses, for otherwise the sufferings should have been greater. Maharaja Pariksit wanted to get a statement of accusation against the direct mischief-monger, but they declined to give it on the abovementioned grounds. Speculative philosophers, however, do not recognize the sanction of the Lord; they try to find out the cause of sufferings in their own way, as will be described in the following verses. According to Srila Jiva Gosvami, such speculators are themselves bewildered, and thus they cannot know that the ultimate cause of all causes is the Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead. Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.17.19 Some of the philosophers, who deny all sorts of duality, declare that one's own self is responsible for his personal happiness and distress. Others say that superhuman powers are responsible, while yet others say that activity is responsible, and the gross materialists maintain that nature is the ultimate cause. PURPORT As referred to above, philosophers like Jaimini and his followers establish that fruitive activity is the root cause of all distress and happiness, and that even if there is a superior authority, some superhuman powerful God or gods, He or they are also under the influence of fruitive activity because they reward result according to one's action. They say that action is not independent because action is performed by some performer; therefore, the performer himself is the cause of his own happiness or distress. In the Bhagavad-gita (6.5) also it is confirmed that by one's mind, freed from material affection, one can deliver himself from the sufferings of material pangs. So one should not entangle oneself in matter by the mind's material affections. Thus one's own mind is one's friend or enemy in one's material happiness and distress. Atheistic, materialistic Sankhyaites conclude that material nature is the cause of all causes. According to them, combinations of material elements are the causes of material happiness and distress, and disintegration of matter is the cause of freedom from all material pangs. Gautama and Kanada find that atomic combination is the cause of everything, and impersonalists like Astavakra discover that the spiritual effulgence of Brahman is the cause of all causes. But in the Bhagavad-gita the Lord Himself declares that He is the source of impersonal Brahman, and therefore He, the Personality of Godhead, is the ultimate cause of all causes. It is also confirmed in the Brahma-samhita that Lord Krishna is the ultimate cause of all causes. Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.17.20 There are also some thinkers who believe that no one can ascertain the cause of distress by argumentation, nor know it by imagination, nor express it by words. O sage amongst kings, judge for yourself by thinking over all this with your own intelligence. PURPORT The Vaisnavites, the devotees of the Lord, do believe, as above explained, that nothing can take place without the sanction of the Supreme Lord. He is the supreme director, for He confirms in the Bhagavad-gita (15.15) that He, as all-pervading Paramatma, stays in everyone's heart and keeps vigilance over all actions and witnesses all activities. The argument of the atheist that one cannot be punished for one's misdeeds unless proved before a qualified justice is refuted herein, for we accept the perpetual witness and constant companion of the living being. A living being may forget all that he might have done in his past or present life, but one must know that in the same tree of the material body, the individual soul and the Supreme Soul as Paramatma are sitting like two birds. One of them, the living being, is enjoying the fruits of the tree, whereas the Supreme Being is there to witness the activities. Therefore the Paramatma feature, the Supreme Soul, is actually the witness of all activities of the living being, and only by His direction can the living being remember or forget what he might have done in the past. He is, therefore, both the all-pervading impersonal Brahman and the localized Paramatma in everyone's heart. He is the knower of all past, present and future, and nothing can be concealed from Him. The devotees know this truth, and therefore they discharge their duties sincerely, without being overly anxious for rewards. Besides that, one cannot estimate the Lord's reactions, either by speculation or by scholarship. Why does He put some into difficulty and not others? …. Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.17.22 The King (Pariksit) said: O you, who are in the form of a bull! You know the truth of religion, and you are speaking according to the principle that the destination intended for the perpetrator of irreligious acts is also intended for one who identifies the perpetrator. You are no other than the personality of religion. PURPORT A devotee's conclusion is that no one is directly responsible for being a benefactor or mischief-monger without the sanction of the Lord; therefore he does not consider anyone to be directly responsible for such action. But in both the cases he takes it for granted that either benefit or loss is God-sent, and thus it is His grace. In case of benefit, no one will deny that it is God-sent, but in case of loss or reverses one becomes doubtful about how the Lord could be so unkind to His devotee as to put him in great difficulty. Jesus Christ was seemingly put into such great difficulty, being crucified by the ignorant, but he was never angry at the mischief-mongers. That is the way of accepting a thing, either favorable or unfavorable. Thus for a devotee the identifier is equally a sinner, like the mischief-monger. By God's grace, the devotee tolerates all reverses. Maharaja Pariksit observed this, and therefore he could understand that the bull was no other than the personality of religion himself. In other words, a devotee has no suffering at all because so-called suffering is also God's grace for a devotee who sees God in everything. The cow and bull never placed any complaint before the King for being tortured by the personality of Kali, although everyone lodges such complaints before the state authorities. The extraordinary behavior of the bull made the King conclude that the bull was certainly the personality of religion, for no one else could understand the finer intricacies of the codes of religion. Now what follows is what happens to "mischief mongers"… The Hari-bhakti-vilasa cites the following quotation from Skanda Purana concerning the blaspheming of a Vaisnava: In this conversation between Markandeya and Bhagiratha, it is said: "My dear King, if one derides an exalted devotee, he loses the results of his pious activities, his opulence, his reputation and his sons. Vaisnavas are all great souls. Whoever blasphemes them falls down to the hell known as Maharaurava. He is also accompanied by his forefathers. Whoever kills or blasphemes a Vaisnava and whoever is envious of a Vaisnava or angry with him, or whoever does not offer him obeisances or feel joy upon seeing a Vaisnava, certainly falls into a hellish condition." The Hari-bhakti-vilasa (10.314) also gives the following quotation from Dvaraka-mahatmya: In a conversation between Prahlada Maharaja and Bali Maharaja, it is said, "Those sinful people who blaspheme Vaisnavas, who are all great souls, are subjected very severely to the punishment offered by Yamaraja." In the Bhakti-sandarbha (313) there is a statement concerning the blaspheming of Lord Visnu. "One who criticizes Lord Visnu and His devotees loses all the benefits accrued in a hundred pious births. Such a person rots in the Kumbhipaka hell and is bitten by worms as long as the sun and moon exist. One should therefore not even see the face of a person who blasphemes Lord Visnu and His devotees. Never try to associate with such persons." In his Bhakti-sandarbha (265), Jiva Gosvami further quotes from Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.74.40): "If one does not immediately leave upon hearing the Lord or the Lord's devotee blasphemed, he falls down from devotional service." Similarly, Lord Siva's wife Sati states in Srimad-Bhagavatam (4.4.17): "If one hears an irresponsible person blaspheme the master and controller of religion, he should block his ears and go away if unable to punish him. But if one is able to kill, then one should by force cut out the blasphemer's tongue and kill the offender, and after that he should give up his own life." Ok, now that is pretty scary information about offending a devotee or Lord Vishnu. That should set a humble tone for the following discussion. 1.) “Even the intelligent are bewildered in determining what is action and what is inaction. Now I shall explain to you what action is, knowing which you shall be liberated from all sins.” (Bg. 4.16) 2.) A person in the divine consciousness, although engaged in seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving about, sleeping, and breathing, always knows within himself that he actually does nothing at all. Because while speaking, evacuating, receiving, opening or closing his eyes, he always knows that only the material senses are engaged with their objects and that he is aloof from them. (Bg. 5.8-9) PURPORT A person in Krishna consciousness is pure in his existence, and consequently he has nothing to do with any work which depends upon five immediate and remote causes: the doer, the work, the situation, the endeavor and fortune. This is because he is engaged in the loving transcendental service of Krishna. Although he appears to be acting with his body and senses, he is always conscious of his actual position, which is spiritual engagement. In material consciousness, the senses are engaged in sense gratification, but in Krishna consciousness the senses are engaged in the satisfaction of Krishna's senses. Therefore, the Krishna conscious person is always free, even though he appears to be engaged in things of the senses. Activities such as seeing, hearing, speaking, evacuating, etc., are actions of the senses meant for work. A Krishna consciousness person is never affected by the actions of the senses. He cannot perform any act except in the service of the Lord because he knows that he is the eternal servitor of the Lord. 3.) The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities, which are in actuality carried out by nature. (Bg. 3.27) 4.) The embodied spirit, master of the city of his body, does not create activities, nor does he induce people to act, nor does he create the fruits of action. All this is enacted by the modes of material nature. (Bg. 5.14) PURPORT The living entity, as will be explained in the Seventh Chapter, is one in nature with the Supreme Lord, distinguished from matter, which is another nature – called inferior – of the Lord. Somehow, the superior nature, the living entity, has been in contact with material nature since time immemorial. The temporary body or material dwelling place which he obtains is the cause of varieties of activities and their resultant reactions. Living in such a conditional atmosphere, one suffers the results of the activities of the body by identifying himself (in ignorance) with the body. It is ignorance acquired from time immemorial that is the cause of bodily suffering and distress. As soon as the living entity becomes aloof from the activities of the body, he becomes free from the reactions as well. As long as he is in the city of body, he appears to be the master of it, but actually he is neither its proprietor nor controller of its actions and reactions. He is simply in the midst of the material ocean, struggling for existence. The waves of the ocean are tossing him, and he has no control over them. His best solution is to get out of the water by transcendental Krishna consciousness. That alone will save him from all turmoil. 5.) You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty. (Bg. 2.47) PURPORT There are three considerations here: prescribed duties, capricious work, and inaction. Prescribed duties refer to activities performed while one is in the modes of material nature. Capricious work means actions without the sanction of authority, and inaction means not performing one's prescribed duties. The Lord advised that Arjuna not be inactive, but that he perform his prescribed duty without being attached to the result. One who is attached to the result of his work is also the cause of the action. Thus he is the enjoyer or sufferer of the result of such actions. 6.) Nature is said to be the cause of all material activities and effects, whereas the living entity is the cause of the various sufferings and enjoyments in this world. (Bg. 13.21) PURPORT The different manifestations of body and senses among the living entities are due to material nature. There are 8,400,000 different species of life, and these varieties are the creation of the material nature. They arise from the different sensual pleasures of the living entity, who thus desires to live in this body or that. When he is put into different bodies, he enjoys different kinds of happiness and distress. His material happiness and distress are due to his body, and not to himself as he is. In his original state there is no doubt of enjoyment; therefore that is his real state. Because of the desire to lord it over material nature, he is in the material world. In the spiritual world there is no such thing. The spiritual world is pure, but in the material world everyone is struggling hard to acquire victims who present different pleasures to the body. It might be more clear to state that this body is the effect of the senses. The senses are instruments for gratifying desire. Now, the sum total – body and instrument senses – are offered by material nature, and, as will be clear in the next verse, the living entity is blessed or damned with circumstances according to his past desire and activity. According to one's desires and activities, material nature places one in various residential quarters. The being himself is the cause of his attaining such residential quarters and his attendant enjoyment or suffering. Once placed in some particular kind of body, he comes under the control of nature because the body, being matter, acts according to the laws of nature. At that time, the living entity has no power to change that law. Suppose an entity is put into the body of a dog. As soon as he is put into the body of a dog, he must act like a dog. He cannot act otherwise. And if the living entity is put into the body of a hog, then he is forced to eat stool and act like a hog. Similarly, if the living entity is put into the body of a demigod, he must act according to his body. This is the law of nature. But in all circumstances, the Supersoul is with the individual soul. That is explained in the Vedas as follows: dvasuparna sayuja sakhaya. The Supreme Lord is so kind upon the living entity that He always accompanies the individual soul and in all circumstances is present as the Supersoul or Paramatma. 7.) One who can see that all activities are performed by the body, which is created of material nature, and sees that the self does nothing, actually sees. (Bg. 13.30) PURPORT This body is made by material nature under the direction of the Supersoul, and whatever activities are going on in respect to one's body are not his doing. Whatever one is supposed to do, either for happiness or for distress, one is forced to do because of the bodily constitution. The self, however, is outside all these bodily activities. This body is given according to one's past desires. To fulfill desires, one is given the body, with which he acts accordingly. Practically speaking, the body is a machine, designed by the Supreme Lord, to fulfill desires. Because of desires, one is put into difficult circumstances to suffer or to enjoy. This transcendental vision of the living entity, when developed, makes one separate from bodily activities. One who has such a vision is an actual seer. 8.) And that understanding which cannot distinguish between the religious way of life and the irreligious, between action that should be done and action that should not be done, that imperfect understanding, O son of Prtha, is in the mode of passion. (Bg. 18.31) PURPORT Intelligence in the mode of passion is always working perversely. It accepts religions which are not actually religions and rejects actual religion. All views and activities are misguided. Men of passionate intelligence understand a great soul to be a common man and accept a common man as a great soul. They think truth to be untruth and accept untruth as truth. In all activities they simply take the wrong path; therefore their intelligence is in the mode of passion. Some conclusions: Let us review some of what has been stated above so that we can get a more clear understanding of what is actually going on in respect to each of us within our respective bodies, all the time. 1. A devotee's conclusion is that no one is directly responsible for being a benefactor or mischief-monger without the sanction of the Lord. 2. Even the intelligent are bewildered in determining what is action and what is inaction. 3. A person in the divine consciousness, although engaged in seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving about, sleeping, and breathing, always knows within himself that he actually does nothing at all. (Bg. 5.8-9) 4. A person in Krishna consciousness is pure in his existence, and consequently he has nothing to do with any work which depends upon five immediate and remote causes: the doer, the work, the situation, the endeavor and fortune. 5. A Krishna consciousness person is never affected by the actions of the senses. 6. The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities, which are in actuality carried out by nature. (Bg. 3.27) 7. The embodied spirit, master of the city of his body, does not create activities, nor does he induce people to act, nor does he create the fruits of action. All this is enacted by the modes of material nature. (Bg. 5.14) 8. The temporary body or material dwelling place which he obtains is the cause of varieties of activities and their resultant reactions. Living in such a conditional atmosphere, one suffers the results of the activities of the body by identifying himself (in ignorance) with the body. 9. As soon as the living entity becomes aloof from the activities of the body, he becomes free from the reactions as well. As long as he is in the city of body, he appears to be the master of it, but actually he is neither its proprietor nor controller of its actions and reactions. He is simply in the midst of the material ocean, struggling for existence. 10. You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty. (Bg. 2.47) 11. Nature is said to be the cause of all material activities and effects, whereas the living entity is the cause of the various sufferings and enjoyments in this world. (Bg. 13.21) 12. When he is put into different bodies, he enjoys different kinds of happiness and distress. His material happiness and distress are due to his body, and not to himself as he is. 13. The being himself is the cause of his attaining such residential quarters and his attendant enjoyment or suffering. 14. One who can see that all activities are performed by the body, which is created of material nature, and sees that the self does nothing, actually sees. (Bg. 13.30) Final conclusions So this is quite a compilation of quotes, only from Bhagavad-gita in which Srila Prabhupada is explaining that this body we inhabit, does basically everything for us and to us. It digests the food we eat, totally unbeknown to us, it gives us illusory happiness and distress (these are completely foreign to the pure spirit soul, as spirit never mixes with matter), it creates a constant magic show to our consciousness thru imperfect senses in which we believe we are this or that human male or female body which belongs to such and such material family or such a race, was born in such a place, grew in another or the same place, developed "associates or friends" along the way, and has or is giving us at present so much happiness or distress. And none of the above is real in the same way watching a movie is also not real since it is only flickering beams of light upon some viewing screen. The movie can and will create emotion, like fear, love, hate, in the exact same way our senses present to us (the viewing soul within) the so called life that goes on outside our bodies as a daily affair. There was a movie once done by a Hollywood comic where he was put thru an entire series of life-like scenarios where he had some kind of wife, some kind of job, some place of residence, and while he was going about his daily "life" the whole thing was being generated by the movie makers behind the scenes – so in actuality none of what he thought was real, was real at all. It was only a very complicated movie set, but he was made to completely believe in it. The movie was called the Truman Story, starring Jim Carey. So how is this any different than what has been explained above in Bhagavad-gita? The hero of the story (Jim Carey) finally figures it out one day by going behind one movie set that showed the ocean out in front of him, but was in reality just another illusion presented by the movie director. This revelation he had is comparable to us when we finally realize we are not these bodies, but the consciousness within them. When that day comes, we will no longer be in illusion in that way, because once we know who we really are, as Srila Prabhupada so aptly states, the clutches of maya will no longer be an obstacle. It is a long road until that state of Krishna Consciousness arrives, but one important development upon that road is the above understanding of not identifying wrong doers with actions upon ourselves. When things happen to us, we have to understand it is coming initially from our own actions, with the Supreme Lord as Supersoul generating all the "movie sets" along the way. Culture Camp Jai Srila Prabhupada What does an intelligent person do in Kali-yuga? In the age of Kali, intelligent persons perform Sankirtana (congregational chanting) to worship Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who constantly sings the holy names of Krishna. Although His complexion is not blackish, He is Lord Krishna Himself. He is accompanied by His associates, servants, weapons and confidential companions Srimad Bhagavatam 11.5.32 Sign the petition Daily Darshan Featured Video Quote for the Day Does a person need any qualification to join Lord Chaitanya’s movement? Everyone can join in His sankirtana movement. No previous qualification is necessary. Just by following His teachings, anyone can become a perfect human being. If a person is fortunate enough to be attracted by Lord Chaitanya, he is sure to be successful in his life’s mission. Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita Adi-lila Preface Vedic Wisdom Why is Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu called as the most munificent incarnation? Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is a wealthy capitalist possessing the touchstone of love of God. Not considering whether one is a proper or improper recipient, He gives His treasure to anyone and everyone. Thus He is the most munificent. Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita Madhya-lila 2.81 Facebook About Us As followers, students, and disciples of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder-Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, also known as the Krishna Consciousness Movement, we welcome you to this new website to explain the position of His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada, His original teachings, and His pure unblemished parampara and disciplic succession. Read More

"I don't think we need the extra drive or motivation," Ferdinand explained at the pre-match press conference. "We were all disappointed with what happened last season and how we went out. But we won't harp on about it. We continue and start again afresh this season. New group, new season, new games. Last season is out of our minds and not something we need to use as motivation. The Germans did well last year, the Spanish sides before that. It goes in cycles and hopefully we can start the cycle this season."

George Zimmerman Had Another Gun Incident Not-guilty Trayvon Martin shooter George Zimmerman was taken into police custody after “an incident involving a gun” and another person, Click Orlando reports. Details are scarce so far, but “Lake Mary police say they were called to a house on Sprucewood Road Monday afternoon after a report that Zimmerman was involved in an altercation with another person with a threat involved.” The APreports that Zimmerman’s wife Shellie called the cops, claiming he threatened her and her father with a gun. She filed for divorce lastweek. It’s been a hectic few months for the acquitted killer. After Shellie decided to get out, she cited George’s “reckless decisions” since the trial, which she said has him feeling “invincible,” in a nationally televised interview. George has been pulled over (twice!) for speeding, and he stopped by the gun manufacturer that made the weapon he used to kill Martin to pose for pictures. The pattern seems to beintensifying. His lawyer Mark O’Mara, meanwhile, has signed on as a legal analyst at CNN. O’Mara may have more work to doyet. Zimmerman’s brother Robert has already responded to the reports on Twitter, complete with an allusion to the Martincase: [George is] trying to shut the garage door on me. He’s in his car, and he continually has his hand on his gun, and he keeps saying ‘Step closer.’ He’s just threatening all of us with his firearm. He’s gonna shootus. He punched my dad in his nose … He accosted my father and then took my iPad out of my hands and smashed it and cut it with a pocketknife. There’s a Lake Mary city worker across the street that I believe saw almost all ofit. He just showed up here, but my phone died, so I had to call you from my father’s phone. I’m really really afraid I don’t know what he’s capable of. I’m reallyscared. The police are here. He’s in his truck. There are police here with their weaponsdrawn. Operator: Does he seethem? They’re telling his bodyguard to get out of the way. Dad, get behind the car. I don’t know if he’s going to start shooting at us ornot.

Yeah, maybe don’t go to the ground with Mackenzie Dern if you can help it. The top women’s MMA prospect and Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion twisted opponent Montana Stewart up in a nasty position Friday night and finished with a submission at 3:25 of the first round at Legacy FC 61 in Dallas. Dern tied up Stewart’s arm with an omoplata and then locked in a rear-naked choke simultaneously. Very high level stuff from her. “I don’t know if she [tapped to] the shoulder or the choke, but I hope both were uncomfortable,” Dern told cageside reporter Ron Kruck afterward. Dern (2-0) stayed standing a decent amount in the first round against Stewart, even landing some punches and two good knees to the mid-section. Stewart landed a couple of nice punches as well. But when it went to the ground, it was all Dern, of course. She’s the best female jiu-jitsu player in the world right now. Dern, 23, didn’t have as much success with submissions in her pro debut back in July, beating Kenia Rosas by unanimous decision. She dominated that fight, but could not get the tap. The MMA Lab product made up for it here. Afterward, Dern said she would like to fight again Dec. 2. She’s targeting a fast track to the UFC — as early as 2017 —but did miss weight 2.3 pounds Thursday. That’s something the very busy BJJ, and now MMA, star has to clean up in the future. If Friday was any indication, that might be more difficult than the actual fight.

“Okay so I was wrong about / My reasons for us fallin’ out / Of love I want to fall back in / My life is different now I swear / I know now what it means to care / About somebody other than myself…” The Avett Brothers opened their sold out show at the Sacramento Community Center Theater Friday night with “Shame”, the opening lines of which are quoted above. The 2007 song, from their fifth studio album, is a song about looking back and realizing you were selfish, and your actions hurt people. Such introspection is not uncommon in Avett Brothers songs, which cover divorce, sickness, heartbreak, love, mortality, and other subjects honestly but at times lighthearted or even fun. The vocal harmonies between older brother Scott and younger brother Seth were as chill-inducing as always, right from the start. As the rest of the band joined… ABOUT SacPress Deals is brought to you by Sacramento Press, a local online newspaper covering Sacramento’s events, arts, food, urban development, and local business happenings. Whether purchasing a deal or engaging with our content, you’re helping us accomplish what we’re most passionate about: supporting local. We hope by saving you money on the things you love, need, eat, or want, we help you experience our great city!

Good to know you already got the lens you wanted! I used this lens in a Hugyfot housing with the Hugyfot dome port. The results were pretty good but it wasn't wide enough for me, since my camera is a D7000. Because this is a cropped sensor camera, I can't tell you about the optical quality in the corners, since the "real" corners didn't show up in the frame. So my experience with this lens and dome about corner sharpness is inconclusive. Apart from that, the optical quality in the part of the image that the D7000 sensor could capture was very good from corner to corner.

The current Health Emergency situation, in addition to having determined Health risks and entailed a series of serious economic and social consequences related with the drastic precautionary measures adopted, has brought to light an equally important problem linked to pest control. In many cases, access to production sites has also been reduced and limited even for professional suppliers of pest monitoring services with possible related health and hygiene repercussions, on the one hand the risk that approaching the structures of pests can cause a potential risk of transmission of zoonoses*, in addition to possible direct and indirect damage and contamination of products and equipment. According to the obligations of companies to produce safe food from all hygiene and health profiles, how can the company that provides pest monitoring services contribute to the achievement of these objectives by adapting the pest management services to the contingent situation? First, for example, by re-modulating the frequencies and calendar of the interventions in order to perform the services with the least risk of interference with the Site staff, visiting the Company in the weekend during the closing shifts where possible and at the same time involved in the Site manager to activate all self-control and internal surveillance measures in order to report any infestation problems before they occur. Furthermore, it is desirable to promote and use monitoring systems and equipment that allow remote monitoring as modern trap systems do with catch alerts via email or SMS. At the same time, traps with a continuous capture tank (picture below) can be used which allow permanent monitoring with a large autonomy capacity, as well as the use of photo traps with a passage sensor to be installed, for example, in false ceilings, mezzanines, cable ducts and other hidden areas of possible interest for rodents. * Italian Istisan Zoonosis Report 2009-2013 Source World Health Organization according to which zoonoses, or diseases transmitted by animals to humans, are responsible for approximately one billion infections per year.