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This article was contributed by Shodo Spring, a Soto Zen priest who has organized the Compassionate Earth Walk, which will take place from July to September of this year. The walk will trace the Keystone XL route through the Great Plains.
A monk asked Yun Men, "What are the teachings of a whole lifetime?"
Yun Men said, "An appropriate response."
For as long as I've been aware of climate change, I've been asking the question about an appropriate response. As far as I can tell, our culture is in the process of destroying itself, taking everyone else with it. When I learned permaculture, I realized that the problem was not technical – we already have the methods to sequester carbon, grow foods without fossil fuels, and generally live well by acting like the part of the planet that we are. The problem was spiritual. I am a Zen priest: that problem is my business. Still I did not know what to do. I signed petitions, learned to grow food, was active in my local Transition group, and got involved in local politics. When time allowed, I went to Washington and got arrested in front of the White House with 350.org – over the Keystone pipeline. Nothing was enough.
During the last part of my formal training, I sat two training periods at Tassajara. About a week into the first one, I started having visions of walking along the pipeline. The visions persisted and elaborated; I asked myself; I consulted with teachers and friends. Finally I accepted the assignment. I found its name – Compassionate Earth Walk – and its meaning – to accept the support of all beings, to rejoin the family of life. All that is the origin of what now belongs to many people.
This is the official statement:
The Compassionate Earth Walk traces the Keystone XL route through the Great Plains. The ancient practice of pilgrimage responds to present and future environmental catastrophe, focusing on its causes in our own culture. We walk as a blessing to the earth and to those we meet, and as a prayer for all earth's children.
We walk in the context of a great movement of resistance against the pipeline, the tar sands, the many poisonings of our world. Indigenous people are leading in blockades and movements – the Unist'ot'en in British Columbia, the Anishinaabeg in Minnesota, Idle No More, Owe Aku of the Lakota, a thousand others around the world. Some of the colonizers are also beginning to recognize how we too are colonized, and to resist. This walk is a part of that movement, and it goes a paradoxical way. It does not directly protest or attempt to stop the pipeline or the tar sands.
This walk is zazen. In the same way that we meet ourselves on the cushion, here we meet our collective selves while putting one foot after another on the ground. As we face our own thoughts and emotions, here we face that great injury in the earth, that expression of the break in our collective human spirit. As well as we can, we to meet it without turning away.
As in zazen, we walk in the middle of all beings, receiving life from them, offering life to them, allowing the whole to heal itself. We throw ourselves upon the mercy of the universe. We give up attempts to control even our fellow human beings. (We attempt to give up our attempts to control. If you have a sitting practice, you know what I mean.)
The walk is also a ceremony of gratitude to the earth, which has never abandoned us, and an expression of our love for all earth's creatures including human. Someone said, "When you sit, you call upon Avalokiteshvara." Thus the walk is also a prayer. And, although this is a Buddhist description of what we are doing, people of all faiths or none will be coming with us.
On July 1 we will gather in northern Alberta, in a beautiful place near the tar sands themselves. We'll spend a few days making ourselves ready on both spiritual and practical levels. July 5 and 6 we join the Fourth Annual Healing Walk at the tar sands site. This walk is organized by local First Nations women, with allies coming from around North America and beyond. Walking and supporting them, we also open ourselves to the experience of the devastation that is the tar sands.
Then we walk south along the pipeline route, with meditation, ceremony, and community, continuing the healing process and sharing with those we meet.
The earth has not turned away from us; we have turned away from the earth. We live in a culture built on illusion, dedicated to being the hungry ghost – always wanting, never satisfied – imagining that material possessions can satisfy the hunger caused by our rejection of the kindness of the earth, willing to kill for that hunger – willing to sacrifice even our own children, along with millions of children we have not met. Or we pretend that it's not our responsibility, that we are too small to make a difference, that someone else will take care of it.
Finally, for me this walk is a response to seeing faces of my small grandchildren – each unknowingly consuming enough for a hundred people to live on in a sane culture – and our betrayal of their innocence. It is eight years since I turned away from that betrayal; since then I have taken two long walks and gotten arrested for the first time. It is 18 months since the vision came of this, my own appropriate response. Finally, I join those who put saving beings first instead of last in my own life priorities.
If this vision calls to you, please consider joining us as a walker, or as a supporter offering skills, money, hospitality…. You are also invited to hold us in your hearts, to sit with us every morning wherever you are, to place the Walk and our intention on your altar, to remember us in services, and to share information as widely as possible.
Find out more about the walk at: www.CompassionateEarthWalk.org


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You must seem for the very best garden furniture retailer in order to make certain you should be able to supply a garden using the best home furniture there exists. However, this is simply not as elementary as it may seem to become particularly if one aim just for quality goods. Which is therefore that you have to be aware of your number of options to be able to really find what you require.
As you might have noticed, there are numerous merchants on the market in fact it is rather perplexing to find out which can really offer you what you would like. You could have also already expended the entire day looking for a shop that includes the ideal sets of back garden products however you still cannot terrain on a good deal. And except if you have at all times on the planet, you might just be undertaking the exact same thing the very next day yet again.
All of these hassles are indeed very frustrating knowing that these matters can take place over and over again so you usually are not even getting close to your main goal. Luckily for yourself, there is now a significantly better way you could retail outlet for the greatest groups of furniture there exists, with no issues of heading from a retail store to a different one. The sole thing that you need is an internet connection so you simply will not even have to keep the comforts of your property. For lots of people, this really is a very handy point and, actually, several feel that it must be the best choice.
Among the finest aspects of being able to buy online is that you may check out several retailers as you wish without you having to abandon your chair. Instantly, you can access several websites that will give you several alternatives for your perfect backyard adjustments. You will be able to find a number of catalogs of merchandise with assorted tends to make, types, colors, and designs. And above all, you can also view the costs and compare them to the other shops offering comparable merchandise.
It is actually for these reasons that we now have a large number of people who want to order online to get the best goods that they could area in their home gardens, patios, gardens, and lawns. And because they are very available, you can have them anytime that you would like because buys can be put in an instant. So if you are searching for a great patio furniture store, you need to search online.
Inspired by: ezinearticles

subset: commoncrawl


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Spent 5 days in Hungary discovering its multicultural food and wine culture. Travelled to Tokaj to taste deliciously sweet wines and fresh white wines. Stopped in Eger to learn about Bikavér and meet a group of fantastic wine makers. Finally wandered around Budapest and visited the glorious food market.
I've been wanting to do videos of my food and wine discovery trips for a while. This is my first attempt at it. This time I've decided to take my DSLR camera to Hungary and film as much as I could. When I came back I edited the footage and this is the final result. Let me know what you think!


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Suicide Attack on Baghdad Police Academy Kills 19
(Reuters) - A suicide car bomber killed 19 Iraqi police officers and cadets Sunday in an attack on a crowd outside a Baghdad police academy, police and hospital sources said.
The car exploded as it careered into a crowd of cadets whom police had just escorted out of the compound and were standing in the street outside, police working at the academy said.
Police and hospital sources said 14 cadets and five police were killed, and 26 people were wounded. All except two of the wounded were police or cadets.
I can see body parts scattered on the ground and boots and berets covered with blood. Many cars were set ablaze, said a policeman working at the academy on Palestine Street in northeastern Baghdad.
The attack is the deadliest since Jan. 27, when a suicide bomber set off an explosive-laden vehicle near a Shi'ite funeral procession in Baghdad, killing at least 31 and wounding 60.
It breaks a short period of relative calm that accompanied an easing in a political crisis pitting Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki against senior members of the Sunni-backed Iraqiya political bloc.
Tensions rose Thursday, however, when a panel of judges detailed 150 attacks they said were carried out by death squads under the command of Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi. Maliki sought Hashemi's arrest in December, sparking the crisis.
Hashemi, who has taken refuge in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, has denied accusations made against him, dismissing them as a plot to destroy Maliki's opponents.
Iraqiya lawmakers and ministers responded to Maliki's move against Hashemi, as well as to an attempt to have a Sunni deputy prime minister dismissed, by staging a walk-out.
Their protest coincided with a string of attacks on Shi'ite targets in December and January which prompted fears of a return to the kind of sectarian bloodshed that peaked five years ago, in the aftermath of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Iraqiya lawmakers returned to parliament at the end of last month, and Iraq has seen a spell of relative calm since then.
Iraq is less violent than at the height of the sectarian war in 2006-2007 but is still plagued by a lethal Sunni insurgency, including al Qaeda-linked fighters, and Shi'ite militias. Bombings and killings still occur daily.
(Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed and Suadad al-Salhy; writing by Francois Murphy, editing by Rosalind Russell)
© Copyright Thomson Reuters 2023. All rights reserved.


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I sent this response to the NYTimes op-ed section, but it wasn't chosen for publication. Instead, I will share my thoughts here.
Response to Some Books are More Equal than Others
Like Claire Needell Hollander, I am often asked for summer reading advice. Because I teach English at the #1-ranked STEM high school in the nation, friends and colleagues often email me for book suggestions for their own middle and high school students. Because I run a relatively well-known blog, I also receive countless emails from parents and teachers across the country who want advice about summer reading assignments. I am always happy to share with them the summer reading assignment my 9th grade colleagues and I use for our students. For the past two years, my summer reading assignment has been a blend of fiction and nonfiction with a great degree of student choice. Like Hollander, I believe that it is important for our students to read during the summer, but I know that it is important that they read both fiction and nonfiction.
We know that reading selection does matter, as Hollander points out in her essay. Students do acquire verbal and world knowledge when reading classic literature like Stephen Crane's "The Red Badge of Courage". However, many students lack the background knowledge necessary to make the connection between the main character "donning blue" and his enlistment in the Union army. And this is the problem I have with assigning dense classics as summer reading, rather than as part of a rich English class where students and teachers work alongside one another.
So how do we encourage students to read during the long summer months? Hollander and I agree that nonfiction is all-too-frequently overlooked when it comes to summer reading assignments and that teachers need to reflect on the intention of their summer reading assignment. But it is also important that part of that intent is to give students choice in their reading. It is possible to this, without succumbing to the pressure of choosing a handful of classics for students to read, without support. Students should be encouraged to read fiction and nonfiction during the summer, while looking for the connections between the books they choose, and then making connections to the wider world.
My colleagues and I at HTHS have worked together, across disciplines, to develop the summer reading assignment for our incoming freshmen. Our students come to us from over fifty towns and must apply for a spot in the 9th grade class. They are high-achievers but their academic backgrounds vary due to the number of middle schools they come from. Because of this, we know that it is important to provide students with more than a required reading list of a title or two. We also work together throughout the year as part of an integrated curriculum of Biology, Humanities, and Applications of Software, so we want our list to reflect that. Our intention is to introduce students to real-world applications of the topics we will cover in class during the upcoming year while focusing on the importance of cross-curricular connections.
There is no written assignment for our summer reading. Students are asked to read at least one fiction book and one nonfiction book, along with a One Book, One Class selection. There are no notes, no written tests, and no book reports. Like Hollander, I believe that this only hinders students. Instead, students are told that they will reflect on their reading throughout the school year, especially as they begin their Free Form Friday project (an initiative based on Google's 20% Time). Free Form Friday allows students to create a project centered on a topic of their choice as long as they can show the connection between their topic and our subject areas- Biology, Applications of Software, and Humanities. This year's projects included the effects of reading fiction on empathy, fashion and sociobiology, parkour, designing a better cardboard box, and designing and building a 3D scanner for under $60. The project begins by asking students to draw connections between the books they chose to read over the summer.
Over the summer, students are asked to read Brian Christian's "The Most Human Human" as part of our One Book, One Class initiative. Mr. Christian is an alumnus of the school and his book is the ideal composite of cross-curricular connections between math, science, English, history, biology, linguistics, computer science, and much more. His book inspired more than one Free Form Friday project this year, including a group that wrote the code for their own vocaloid program. This is what we intended when we chose the book as our all-class read.
Students are also asked to read at least one fiction and one nonfiction book over the summer. We provide a list of close to thirty titles that cover a variety of topics, genres, authors, and eras. On the list, we also note which books are our personal favorites, which many students appreciate. My students are high-achievers, and both they and their parents appreciate the list of suggestions, which cover a wide range of reading levels, from middle grade to adult books.
My colleagues and I hope that students begin to make connections between the books as they read, as the books are deliberately chosen. For example, last year many students noted the similarities between Rick Yancey's "The Monstrumologist" (fiction) and Rebecca Skloot's "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" (nonfiction). Both books force the reader to ask themselves if it's better to sacrifice one for the survival of many. We frequently discuss the book selections in class, making connections to in-class reading and current events. There is no right answer, and many times I am surprised and impressed by the ideas my students come up with!
By asking students to choose from books like John Green's "The Fault in Our Stars"; Laurie Halse Anderson's "Catalyst"; Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"; Jarred Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel"; Lauren Redniss' "Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout "; and Deborah Heigelman's "Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith", amongst others, we are pushing students to make connections between the known and the unknown. We are allowing them to choose the books that work for them, but we are also pushing them to step out of their comfort zone. Come September, they will understand "Antigone" better for having read Neal Shusterman's "Unwind" or Rebecca Skloot's "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks". All three books deal with heavy themes that include the sanctity of life.
Where Hollander and I differ is that I see value in students reading popular literature alongside nonfiction. By reading popular books like "The Hunger Games" alongside nonfiction such as "The Diary of Anne Frank", students are forced to consider themes like the power of dehumanization to justify inequality. Then, while reading the newspaper in class, or studying imperialism history, or discussing eugenics in biology, or reading "Things Fall Apart" in English, this theme can be further explored. Pairing fiction and nonfiction and empowering students to make connections between books will push them to make similar connections between the works they read independently and the classics read in class, or the articles they read in the newspaper, or the textbooks they use in science and history.
Any reading is good reading, as long as we make our intentions clear to students and hold them to a high standard. Hard truths can be found in nonfiction, as Ms. Hollander points out, but they can also be found in fiction. It is important for our students to read both in order to grow into critical readers who can comprehend, evaluate, and synthesize all kinds of texts.
Filed under: summer reading | Tagged: nonfcio, summer reading | Leave a comment »


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The Playboy car was an innovative little automobile that was built by the Playboy Motor Car Corporation of Buffalo, New York between 1946 and 1949.
Maintenance and administration costs of this website are done on a purely voluntary basis. If you enjoyed this website and learned something about the rare Playboy car, please contribute to help defer these website administration costs.
Please contribute by sending the suggested amount of $1.00-$5.00 to my PAYPAL account at:
Below is a direct link to PAYPAL:
Thank you very much for your contribution! Enjoy the website!
In addition, if you would like to advertise on this website, please contact me at:
Right after World War II ended in 1945, there was quite a pent-up demand for new automobiles since auto manufacturers had shifted their efforts to manufacturing vehicles and equipment for the war effort during the period of 1941-1945.
Louis Horwitz, a former Packard dealer, Charles D. Thomas, a former Pontiac engineer, and Norman Richardson, a talented garage mechanic, founded the Playboy Motor Corporation with the intention of creating a small, second car priced at less than $1000 for around-the-town errands. This Playboy car was designed with the intention of being that around-the-town second car, and it featured America's first retractable hardtop convertible. The company only made a reported 97 prototype cars prior to closing up shop. None were ever originally offered for sale to the public. The cars were exposed to heavy publicity and were shipped around the country and even around the world in the hopes of generating interest and possible dealer franchise investors. A stock offering that would have provided capital to begin fullscale production failed in the wake of the unrelated Tucker automobile scandal. The Tucker scandal scared off potential investors who were then, albeit unjustifiably, worried about any new start-up car manufacturer.
In early 1950, after failed negotiations with industrialist Henry J. Kaiser to buy out the company, and after a second stock offering didn't work either, the assets of the company were auctioned. Most were bought by a Chinese businessman who produced one larger prototype of the Playboy in 1951 (see the "Mystery Cars" page of this website) before he went belly-up as well. Another businessman, Alvin Trumbull, from Connecticut, tried again to revive the car's interest over the next few years, but, eventually, he also gave up. Finally the remaining inventory was sold in 1964 to Donald Moore from Massachusetts, a collector and previously proposed Playboy dealer.
There are currently only 51 Playboy cars known to still exist in the world. Of those, only about 15 are known to be in roadworthy condition, and fewer than 5 are known to have the optional windshield-mounted spotlights.
According to an episode of the "Biography" TV series and of "The E! True Hollywood Story," as well as in a 2010 documentary entitled "Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist, and Rebel," a woman who worked for Playboy Motor Cars at the time they shut down suggested to her son's friend that he use the Playboy name for his new magazine. That friend's name was Hugh Hefner!
This story was confirmed by a letter that the Webmaster of this site personally received from Hugh Hefner in June, 2002 which reads, in part:
"The Playboy name was suggested by a friend whose mother had worked at the then defunct Playboy Motor Car Company..." - Signed Hugh M. Hefner
Hefner did NOT ever own a Playboy car.
This story was further confirmed in Episode #2 of the 2017 Amazon Prime Series entitled "American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story."
Hefner died at the age of 91 on September 27, 2017.
Copyright Ed Howard All rights reserved.


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This page is tagged because it NEEDS REVIEW. You can help the Joomla! Documentation Wiki by contributing to it.
More pages that need help similar to this one are here. NOTE-If you feel the need is satistified, please remove this notice.
This guide will take you step-by-step through the general procedure of how to migrate from Joomla 1.5 to later versions such as Joomla 2.5. Please read through all the material as this is not a light undertaking.
Joomla 2.5 is the stable release that is based on the development version that was called "1.6". Don't let the numerical closeness of 1.5 and 1.6, mislead you. Joomla 1.6 took three years to develop and has been a major undertaking. Countless hours have been spent by many volunteers from around the world to put it all together. Although much of the code is the same from Joomla 1.5, much of it has been written from the ground up, and the changes between 1.5 and 2.5 are comparable in size and complexity to the changes from Joomla 1.0 to 1.5. Because the changes from Joomla 1.5 to 2.5 are so large and because of the massive effort put into getting Joomla 2.5 to where it is today, there is no core upgrade path. This is indeed a migration. In planned future releases of Joomla, such as Joomla 3.0, 3.5 and so on, the changes from version to version will be more incremental and a core upgrade path is planned.
Now that Joomla 2.5 is finally here and stable, a community initiative led by the developers of Joomla is turning towards jUpgrade (a 3rd party Joomla extension on the JED originally developed by Matias Aguirre) for help and to help. Many of Joomla's developers (who are all volunteers that freely contribute their time) are volunteering to put the finishing touches on jUpgrade.
jUpgrade allows you to migrate from Joomla 1.5 to 2.5.
Other migration solutions including commercial solutions are listed on the Joomla Extensions Directory and should be considered as well. Other tools are not included in this tutorial but should be given consideration before you use jUpgrade if your time is highly valuable and limited.
Let's get started!
Please, please save yourself (and possibly your clients) a lot of headaches and make sure that your server (and in the case of jUpgrade, your browser too) is up for the task. Please review the technical requirements for Joomla! 2.5. Please review the requirements for jUpgrade as well.
Before you get started, there are a few things that you are going to have to check and/or think about:
Skipping this part is perhaps the biggest mistake you can make. If you have a proper backup (or several) you can always revert if needed. However, if you don't properly backup your site and something goes wrong, you are going to waste a lot of valuable time and sometimes money, getting things back to the way they were. So please backup!
Akeeba and Kickstart can be downloaded from Joomla extension directory. There is a link to full instructions as well.
Download the latest version of jUpgrade. It is highly advisible, especially when development still is progressing, to always use the latest available version!
This whole section needs to be removed and links to setting up a local used instead
If you are really nervous by this point and your heart is beating fast, then you should probably set up a testing environment.
XAMPP is an easy-to-install package that bundles the Apache web server, PHP, XDEBUG, and the MySql database. This allows you to create the environment you need to run Joomla! on your local machine. The latest version of XAMPP is available at the XAMPP web site. Downloads are available for Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and Solaris. Download the package for your platform.
Important Note Regarding XAMPP and Skype: Apache and Skype both use port 80 as an alternative for incoming connections. If you use Skype, go into the Tools-Options-Advanced-Connection panel and deselect the "Use 80 and 443 as alternatives for incoming connections" option. If Apache starts as a service, it will take 80 before Skype starts and you will not see a problem. But, to be safe, disable the option in Skype.
As of August 5, 2010, XDebug has been updated (to version 2.1) which fixes some important bugs (for example, watching local variables for nesting functions). The latest XAMPP package (1.7.3) now includes this new version of XDebug. If you just want to update XDebug, you can download the latest module from [1]. There is a handy website that tells you which XDebug binary you need, depending on your phpinfo() information here. To use it, you just copy the output of your phpinfo() display and paste it into the form on the site.
Installation for Windows is very simple. You can use the XAMPP installer executable (for example, "xampp-win32-1.7.3-installer.exe"). Detailed installation instructions for Windows are available here.
For Windows, it is recommended to install XAMPP in "c:\xampp" (not in "c:\program files"). If you do this, your Joomla! (and any other local web site folders) will go into the folder "c:\xampp\htdocs". (By convention, all web content goes under the "htdocs" folder.)
If you have multiple http servers (like IIS) you can change the xampp listening port. In <xamppDir>\apache\conf\httpd.conf, modify the line Listen 80 to Listen [portnumber] (ex: "Listen 8080").
This guides you through the installation of Xampp on Debian GNU Linux or one of its derivatives such as Ubuntu, Knoppix or GRML. Note that this guide applies to Joomla! . It has been successfully tested on Debian 4.0 [Etch], Debian 5.0 [Lenny], Ubuntu 8.04 LTS [Hardy Heron], Ubuntu 10.10 [maverick] and Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot). It will work for all Debian based Linux distribution as well.
Download XAMPP for Linux to your your Home folder.
Open Terminal and enter:
sudo tar xvfz xampp-linux-1.7.7.tar.gz -C /opt
(replace xampp-linux-1.7.7.tar.gz with the version of XAMPP you downloaded).
This installs ... Apache2, mysql and php5 as well as an ftp server.
sudo /opt/lampp/lampp start
sudo /opt/lampp/lampp stop
starts/stops all the services
By default error reporting in Xampp is set Development level. This causes several error messages on the screen that need not concern the average user. To prevent that from happening:
In your Terminal type
sudo gedit /opt/lampp/etc/php.ini
In the php.ini file, locate
error_reporting =
And change the value to
error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE & ~E_DEPRECATED
Also locate
display_errors = On
And change the value to
display_errors = Off
Stop then restart XAMPP for the new settings to take effect
Open up the Terminal and type
sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/xampp-control-panel.desktop
Then copy the following into the gedit and save.
[Desktop Entry] Encoding=UTF-8 Name=XAMPP Control Panel Comment=Start and Stop XAMPP Exec=gksudo "python /opt/lampp/share/xampp-control-panel/xampp-control-panel.py" Icon=/usr/share/icons/Tango/scalable/devices/network-wired.svg Terminal=false Type=Application Categories=GNOME;Application;Network; StartupNotify=true
N.B. Ubuntu 11.10 needs python-glade2 installed in order to run the GUI. python-glade2 can be found in the Ubuntu Software Center.
Connect to localhost with an FTP client Default
nobody lampp
Use your ftp client to create folders in your localhost and to copy files to/from your localhost.
Open your Browser and point it to
The index.php will redirect to
There you will find instructions on how to change default usernames/passwords. On a PC that does not serve files to the Internet or LAN then changing the defaults is personal choice.
Another way that will have the same result is to install EasyPHP, is an easy to install package, Nothing to configure. It's already done! You just need to download, intall ... it installs a complete WAMP environment for PHP developers on Windows, including PHP, Apache, MySQL, phpMyAdmin, xdebug ... The complete and ready-to-use environment for PHP developer. For download EasyPHP[2]
Go to your Joomla backend. e.g. www.yoursite.com/administrator
Extensions >> Install/Uninstall
Browse >> Select com_jupgrade >> Upload File & Install
It is important that this plugin is installed and that it has been set to enabled, as the proper functioning of jUpgrade depends on it.
As of jUpgrade version 2.5, support is present to migrate to Joomla! 1.7 and Joomla! 2.5. Configure the options by navigating to Administrator > Components > jUpgrade > Parameters.
When finished, Save the options.
Components >> jUpgrade
Start Upgrade
Do not exit the screen until everything has finished loading. Scroll down to check if finished.
Note that jUpgrade currently does not migrate custom and add-on templates. Only the default templates are initially installed. You must manually migrate the other templates.
Even if the migration process was not 100% successful, your Joomla 1.5 is still intact and none of your users are affected. You have an opportunity to check out your site both in the frontend and the backend to make sure everything is working.
So what actually happens? jUpgrade downloads the version of Joomla that you selected to the jupgrade directory (which it creates) in the root folder of your Joomla 1.5 installation. It then extracts all the files from the download. Once extraction has completed, jUpgrade installs the new Joomla version and then migrates your old database to the new database which it has created. Your new site will be installed in www.mysites.com/jupgrade assuming that your Joomla 1.5 installation is in your html root.
Please do a full site review of your new Joomla installation and make sure everything is set up properly. Your new Joomla site will be installed in www.mysites.com/jupgrade assuming that your Joomla 1.5 installation is in your html root. Here is a general checklist:
Links to external sites probably didn't change during the migration but the internal links might have been affected. Verify that all external and internal links are correct with a program such as Xenu's Link Sleuth.
Work is currently being done on the template upgrade feature of jUpdate and it is not yet fully functional. Your module positions may have to be adjusted in the module manager.
If you had custom templates or templates other than those installed as defaults, they may have been copied from your version 1.5 files. If so, they now must be upgraded or modified and then Discovered. See Upgrading a Joomla 1.5 template to Joomla 2.5.
If everything looks good to go, backup the new Joomla installation.
Quick overview of what we are going to try to do now:
'It should happen in this order' If you do it in reverse order, the new Joomla files will get mixed with the Joomla 1.5 files (many of 1.5 files will be overwritten) and you will have a big mess! Your site will likely still work, but it's a security ticking time bomb waiting to go off.
Next log onto your host's file manager (e.g. cPanel, Plesk, etc) or an FTP Client, however, preferably a file manager. The general procedure is (it should take about 30 seconds if you review the steps before you start):
This procedure is optional. In the process of migration using jUpgrade, the MySQL database has grown. At the end of the migration, the old tables and some newly-acquired tables are no longer needed.
In your new site's Administrator, open the Global Configuration page. Then select the Server tab and look in the Database Settings area for the Database Tables Prefix field. Any tables with that prefix must not be removed during the following cleaning operations.
If Jupgrade did not work out for you like many of us, you might want to consider manual upgrade. Be warned, however, that this process is very tedious (especially see step 6 below), and the procedure is not well tested as of yet (if at all). So just like the Jupgrade method, you will want to backup your database just in case. Before upgrading you should check to make sure every extension you want is Joomla 2.5 compatible. Also back up your directory files just in case and keep a list of the extensions you used.
Now onto the upgrade; please note that the following procedure should only be chosen if all else fails, and requires a good working knowledge of MySQL! See the last paragraph of this section for a possibly less tedious alternative to doing steps 1, 2, 6 and 7) :
Step 0: First of all, as always before big changes, backup all your data; that includes all files as well as exporting all database tables.
Step 1: If you want, you can convert the prefixes of all the tables in your database. This is especially useful if you would like to keep your 1.5 database in parallel to your new installation, at least for the transition period. It is best done using a script; the "MySQL Table Prefix Changer Tool" available at Nilop is one that worked well.
Note: Executing this script will stop your old site from working because after the prefix conversion, your old installation can't access the database anymore (it will still try to access the tables by their old prefix)! If you wish to re-enable your old Joomla installation, wait until the script has finished and import the database you exported in step 0.
In order to run the script, first upload it via FTP to the root of your site. Now you can launch it by pointing your browser at Mysite.com/prefix.php (assuming you named the script "prefix.php"). The script will ask you for several pieces of information before it can do its job. Among them is of course the new prefix you wish to use for the new version of Joomla. Joomla 1.5 defaults to a prefix of "jos" -- whatever prefix you choose make sure it is different from that; we recommend "jml" or "j16", for example. Once you have filled in all the information, the script is ready to perform the prefix conversion.
Notice in the following screen shot that the table prefix of our Joomla 1.5 installation is "jos":
For Joomla 2.5 you want it converted to "jml" as seen here:
Step 2: Export all the database tables you would like to use on your Joomla 1.6+ site. Usually this corresponds to content and components.
Step 3: Uninstall your old site including the database, files, and directories that are associated with Joomla. Or if you would rather just test the upgrade, skip this step and create a new directory for your joomla 2.5 installation.
Step 4: Install the new version of Joomla via FTP or cPanel. If you have no database associated with it, install a new database and user.
Step 5: Install upgraded components and other extensions you used before onto your new Joomla 2.5 site. This should be done now to prevent your old database tables from getting overwritten later. Note: It is possible that some developers made changes to the SQL schema of individual tables when they upgraded their extension to joomla 2.5. We recommend that you check the documentation for each extension you had installed on your old Joomla site and for which you install an upgrade into your new Joomla site concerning special database upgrade considerations.
Step 6: Convert the table schemas in the .sql file you exported in step 2 (containing your Joomla 1.5 tables) such that they are compatible with the version of Joomla! you are upgrading to. This is a very tedious process - you'll have to check the database schemas for changes between the version of Joomla you're upgrading from and the 2.5 version you're upgrading to, and modify the SQL file accordingly. Note: This step could use a more detailed description, if you have ever done a manual Joomla migration, please help and share your experiences and knowledge here!
Step 7: Import the upgraded .sql file into your Joomla 2.5 database.
Keep the following in mind: It is possible for settings to get lost depending on how each component stored them. From personal experience it worked just fine, but you may want to review the settings of each component.
For an easier way to migrate articles, categories/sections, contacts, images, and users, be sure to use J2XML for exporting and J2XML Importer for importing the data.
Turn on debug feature: Administrator > Site > Global Configuration > System > Debug Settings > Debug System > Yes.
Load a page of the Website. Any errors? If you see any errors reported or if the content does not appear, remember that overrides must also be edited when moving from version 1.5 to later versions.
Does your (custom) template have an html directory? If yes, that indicates the presence of overrides. You can quickly check whether overrides are causing problems. Temporarily rename the templates/<template_name>/html directory.
Another method to locate template problems is to switch to one of the templates provided in the core distribution of Joomla such as Beez.
Creating an extension as significant as jUpgrade requires an enormous amount of time and effort considering the major structural changes between Joomla 1.5 and the later versions. Add to this the fact that during each release of Joomla 1.6 betas, the extension would have to be modified to work with the new changes between releases, and all of a sudden it's too hard for any one person to complete in a short period of time (especially when you are not being paid).
With this being said, it's time to step up and make a difference, whether big or small. Have you profited from Joomla in the last year? Are you excited about the future of Joomla? Would you like to contribute back and show your gratitude? Now you can in this project! We, as part of the Joomla community, are calling on the entire Joomla community to help out in whatever way you can. You don't have to be a master developer, just go through this tutorial on a test site and if you come across any bugs, report it. If you know how to fix it, create a patch for it. If you are a master developer, step up to the challenge.


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"Life is too short to drink bad wine." – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
You enjoy an occasional glass of red wine, or you just want to pair the day's love infused dinner with an exquisite bottle of white. You go to the nearest wine shop, liquor store or supermarket only to be left alone staring at the abundance of options. Of course, you can ask the salesperson at the shop, but can he or she incorporate the knowledge of millions of wines into his recommendation? No, I didn't think so either. It is your lucky day though, Vivino is here to help.
Finding the perfect bottle
Vivino boasts over 9 million different wines in its database covering over 3000 different wine regions for its community of 29 million wine lovers. Founded in the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen, by Heini Zachariassen and Theis Søndergaard in 2010, it is world's largest online wine marketplace. The company is spread over three continents with their offices in Copenhagen, San Fransico, Ukraine and India, and so far has secured $56.3 million in funding including a staggering $25 million from SCP Neptune, the family office investment vehicle of the Moët Hennesy CEO, Christophe Navarre. A "community-powered e-commerce platform for personalized recommendations" as Zachariassen puts it, allows users to scan the labels of the whichever bottle they are about to buy and the app recognizes the key pieces of information such as the price, producer, year and the region of production. The app also gives tasting notes and recommends food pairings to go with your precious bottle.
Here's a 60-second video explaining how:
Wine lovers unite!
The community dimension of Vivino is what makes it a truly customer-centric platform. It allows users to rate the wines, read the comments of other users and even follow their fellow oenophiles, possibly consisting of family and friends whose reviews will be highlighted in their feeds. Since the launch of the app some seven years ago, half a billion labels have been scanned and 88 million ratings have been submitted. With such a wealth of data, the company launched Vivino Market in 2017 offering wine lovers customized recommendations depending on their past behavior on the platform. The more labels they scan and more ratings and reviews they leave on the platform, the better recommendations the users get. Vivino seems to be the perfect conjunction of social media, big data, and machine learning assisting wine lovers to never be disappointed ever again with their choice of wine.
A new era for selling wines
Vivino's value proposition does not only concern wine lovers in the pursuit of a good wine. It also benefits retail partners and sommeliers alike. Guest-to-sommelier interaction is usually an awkward one: guest trying to explain what kind of wine he or she likes and sommelier trying to pinpoint "the one" with not much to go on other than "dry". Vivino successfully steps in at this point. The users of the platform can simply show the sommeliers wines that they previously enjoyed, making everyone's lives a little easier. And Scott Zocolillo, Managing Partner, and Sommelier at Nectar in suburban Philadelphia's Berwyn agrees: "Vivino, to me, shows trends and preferences. I love when a guest has their app out, [as] it helps move the conversation along and helps me do my job and get them the best wine for their experience." It doesn't end there, though. Through its marketplace, Vivino charges a flat commission for retailers on the orders that are bought on its website and app. With over $40 million worth of wine sold through Vivino, it provides a disruptive opportunity for wine producers to reach a vast community of users who are appreciative of wine. A win-win situation for all parties involved!
Powered by a solid community of users with its current data capabilities, the company plans to expand to emerging markets such as Hong Kong, Brazil, and Mexico through its increased partnerships. The goal is to sell $1 billion in wine by 2020 and with 2 years to go, that doesn't seem to be an easy target. However, Zachariassen seems to believe in the potential of the online market for wines. "Wine is a $300 billion industry and if you look at the online part of wine, e-commerce, it's still very, very small," says Zachariassen, pointing towards a plethora of opportunities in the online wine retail business in the years to come. For now, what we can do as wine lovers is to sit back, relax and crack open that bottle of red which is guaranteed to be a pleasure.
Here is another article written about Vivino from 2014: https://consumervaluecreation.com/2014/05/18/viva-il-vino-exploring-wine-with-vivino/
Crunchbase. (2018). Vivino | Crunchbase. [online] Available at: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/vivino#section-locked-marketplace [Accessed 5 Mar. 2018].
Freedman, B. (2017). The Launch Of Vivino Market Could Herald A New Era In Wine Buying. [online] Forbes.com. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianfreedman/2017/03/30/the-launch-of-vivino-market-could-herald-a-new-era-in-wine-buying/#35e56f975ed1 [Accessed 5 Mar. 2018].
Page, H. (2018). Investors Pour $20M More Into Wine Curation And Delivery App Vivino – Crunchbase News. [online] Crunchbase News. Available at: https://news.crunchbase.com/news/investors-pour-20m-wine-curation-delivery-app-vivino/ [Accessed 5 Mar. 2018].
Scott, K. (2017). Vivino: This app is designed to turn anyone into a wine expert. [online] CNNMoney. Available at: http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/01/smallbusiness/vivino-wine-app/index.html [Accessed 5 Mar. 2018].
Vivino.com. (2018). About Vivino. [online] Available at: https://www.vivino.com/about [Accessed 5 Mar. 2018].
Yeung, K. (2016). Vivino raises $25M round, led by Moet Hennessey's CEO, for its wine discovery app. [online] VentureBeat. Available at: https://venturebeat.com/2016/01/12/vivino-raises-25m-round-led-by-moet-hennesseys-ceo-for-its-wine-discovery-app/ [Accessed 5 Mar. 2018].


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Tiffany, Louis Comfort
Tiffany, Louis Comfort, 1848–1933, American artist, decorative designer, and art patron, b. New York City; son of Charles Lewis Tiffany. He studied painting with Inness and in Paris and painted oils and watercolors in Europe and Morocco. Later he established the interior-decorating firm in New York City which came to be known as Tiffany Studios. The firm specialized in favrile glass work, characterized by iridescent colors and natural forms in the art nouveau style. This work ranged from lamps and vases to stained-glass windows and a huge glass curtain for the national theater in Mexico City. His lamps became enormously popular in the 1960s and were widely imitated. In 1919, Tiffany established the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, which now awards grants to artists. Tiffany is represented in the Metropolitan Museum by a painting, Snake Charmer at Tangiers, in the Museum of Modern Art (New York City) by several glass pieces, and most completely in the Neustadt Museum of Tiffany Art (New York City).
See E. Neustadt's The Lamps of Tiffany (1971).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: American and Canadian Art: Biographies


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At every Remembrance day, I remember in particular my Grandfather and my Great Uncle whom I knew and who served in WWI. But this year, thanks to my sister Diana, who has been doing all the work, I would like to honour the wider family by name who served in both wars. When you see the list - you may also wonder about your wider family. How great was their sacrifice and effort. Diana and I have found this research deeply moving and meaningful. I know you will too if you look more deeply into your family.
The Patersons were part of a close knit group of intermarried Scots families who played a major role in the establishment of Canada. All the sons and many of the daughters served in WWI. Many were killed or wounded. For the women at home - it must have been unbearable. My Great Great Aunt, lost all her children. Some lost their husbands in one war and their son in the next.
Diana and I remember them most of all.
At the centre of the "Clan" were the Allans - who while capitalists of a first order - had a deep sense of duty. The Allans lived on both sides of the Atlantic and family members saw each other often. Most of the Canadian boys were educated in England. Some served in the British Army.
But Canada weeps for them all. For to survive was not the end. Many were scarred for life both in body and soul.
My grandfather Alec, just promoted to Major. He was in France and in every action from Feb 1915 to September 9, 1918. He was one of the few from the 1st Division who volunteered in 1914 to survive. Here is an entry from the Battery War diary that talks to this.
First of all the fallen in WWI.
Gwendolyn Evelyn Allan, aged 17, and Anna Marjory Allan, aged 15, (her body was never recovered) drowned at the sinking of the Lusitania 7th May 1915. Their mother was rescued and stayed in England to found a hospital for Canadian soldiers. Her son Hugh was to die the following year.
Here are the two girls and their mother, Aunt Marguerite, who survived.
Her son, Flight Sub Lieutenant Hugh Allan, son of Lt Col Sir Hugh Montague Allan - the then patriarch of the family - killed on his first mission aged 20 on July 6 1917.
Captain John James Allan Liverpool Scottish killed 27th April 1916. His mother, Edith, had taken him to sign up on 15th May 1915
Allan Routledge killed 23rd Sept 1916
Temp Major - Captain Montague Claud Gribbon died 8th December 1915 at Kut el Amara in Mesopotamia - left his widow 389 pounds
Major Charles Napier North, Montague Claud Gribbon's brother in law, shot in the head by a sniper while inspecting wire near Zonnebeke Loos Nov 1st 1914 - left his widow 224 pounds 2 shillings and 3 pence.
Captain George R Houston Boswall of the Grenadier Guards, died Loos 27th September 1915 aged 38!
Alexander Young, son of James Allan ( all we know right now)
Those who survived WWI
Major Claud MacFie - Seaforth Highlanders - DSO Gallipoli
Lieutenant Ellice Allan Mackenzie Royal Canadian Artillery
Major James MacFie - India
Lt Col Bryce Allan DSO Gallipoli
Lieutenant Duncan Charles Allan son of Margaret MacFie - daughter of Sir Hugh Allan
Major Alexander Thomas Paterson (CFA) DSO and Bar - Served in France from Feb 1915 to September 9 1918 when he was gassed - My paternal Grandfather
Lieutenant Hartland Paterson lost a leg to wounds in his first action on September 12th 1918 - Alec's brother and my Great Great Uncle
Captain James Blackwood Paterson - Paymaster for the Canadian Black Watch and lender of last resort to all Canadian Officers!
Lt Col Charles Ballantyne - personally raised 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards (Canada) - My maternal great grandfather
Charles Bridges - It's complicated!
Major Charles Hope (CFA) My wife's Grandfather
The Fallen in WWII
Bill is 4th on the left in the 2nd row
Flight Lieutenant William Hope - 1944 Killed testing a Typhoon - Charlie Hope's eldest son and my wife Robin's Uncle
Captain Hugh Ellice Mackenzie Canadian Grenadier Guards - we have not found out how he died yet
Second Lieutenant George Cleeton Houston-Boswall Royal Scots regiment in December 1941 at Hong Kong
Served in WWII
Commander Robert Alexander Allan - RNVR - DSO Crois de Guerre, OBE
Col Alexander Thomas Paterson (yes my grandfather served in both)
Midshipman James Alexander Paterson CRN (my dad) invalided out of the service
My father is on the right - in the centre his aunt Elspeth who looked after the boys while their father was away at war for the second time. My Uncle Robert is on the left. I was named after him.
Cpl Francis Hope, my father in law