text:
I hope you're all having a fabulous week!! I certainly am and it is very much due to the amazing and beautiful sunny weather we are STILL having! It seems that summer has arrived early and it is just the best!
I'm pleased to announce that my creative slump is officially over! I noticed that today as I was leaving the house for work, I had an urge 'make' which I am sure was directly related to the fact that I couldn't! So I'm back on the hooking buzz with enthusiasm after a week or so of not doing much!
I've been contemplating my Granny Circles for a while now, and decided that it is time to re-do that tutorial, as since I first had a play with making the circle back in August, I've learned a few new techniques and stitches, and I like the way I've been doing the centres lately much more… they're not as 'squished,' so I decided to do up a brand spanking new tutorial! Please remember that the mandalas will be a big bigger when finished as they need to be blocked… I lay gladwrap on my carpet in a sunny spot and wet the mandalas, then pin them to the carpet gently stretching them out to their full size and leave to dry! This tutorial is for a flat piece of work and it is not intended to be used as a cushion, so please work the increases accordingly if you have other purposes for this!! I've seen some amazing creations in ravelry with the beautiful granny mandala and some STUNNING colour combining and I'm hoping that after this refreshment I'll see many more! I love seeing these beautiful circles spinning joy through my computer screen! if you make one, let me know! I'd love to come and see your beautiful work.
Soooooooooooooo………. Get your 4mm hook and your 8ply wool ready and let's get started!!!
Round 1: Make a magic ring…. if you've never done this before now, click here for step by step photo instructions….. and into this circle make 3ch (counts as 1dc) 1dc, *ch1, 2dc* repeat ** until you have 6 2dc's separated by 1ch each, join with a slst to 3rd chain of original 3ch. Pull the end of the magic circle closed nice and tight and weave in those ends, go on, weave as you go!
Round 2: Join next colour with a slst into a 1ch space from previous round and ch3 (counts as 1dc) 1dc, ch1, into the SAME space, dc2tog, *ch1, into the next space dc2tog, ch1, dc2tog* repeat sequence until each 1ch space from the previous round has 2dc2tog each separated by 1ch.
(dc2tog: yarn over hook, insert hook into stitch, pull through a loop, yarn over, pull yarn through 2 loops on hook, yarn over, insert hook into the SAME stitch, pull through a loop, yarn over, pull loop through two loops on hook, yarn over again, pull loop through remaining three loops on hook.)
Rounds 3 & 4: Join new colour with slst into a 1ch space from previous round, ch3 (counts as 1dc) into the same space, make 2dc, *ch1, 3dc into next space* repeat until end of round and join with a slst into 3rd ch of original 3ch. Each 1ch space should be filled with 3dc each cluster separated with 1ch.
Yes! That's better! Photos are far more interesting than words!!!!
OK… let's make our first round of increases…..
Round 5: Join new colour with a slst into a 1ch space from previous round, ch3 (counts as 1dc) 2dc, 1ch, 3dc into same 1ch space, *ch1, into next space 3dc, ch1, 3dc* for entire round, at end of the round ch1 and join with a slst to 3rd chain of original 3ch.
Rounds 6&7: No increases in these rounds, just repeat rounds 3 & 4
Round 8: Increasing again, but this time only in every SECOND 1ch space from previous round. So, join new colour with a slst to 1ch space and ch3 (counts as 1dc) into the same space, 2dc, ch1, 3dc, *ch1, into next space 3dc, ch1, into next space 3dc, ch1, 3dc* repeat for the entire round and at end of the round ch1 and join with a slst to 3rd chain of original 3ch.
I love watching rainbows emerge….. they get more and more beautiful with every colour!
Rounds 9, 10 & 11: No increases, just repeat rounds 3 & 4.
Round 12: Increasing again, so repeat instructions for round 8…. BUT…. increase every three 1ch spaces. (Increase, normal 3dc cluster, normal 3dc cluster, increase….)
Rounds 13, 14 & 15: No increases, just repeat rounds 3 & 4 again….
Round 16: Increasing every third space, repeat round 12.
This is a nice size mandala and will be bigger after a darn good blocking!!!!!! From this point onwards, just keep repeating the increases with three rows between them without increasing, the edge with your favourite edging! I usually do a round of sc, then a mini shell-stitch: With right side facing you, into 1 stitch make 1sc, 1hdc, 1sc, slst into next two stitches and repeat sequence all the way around.
I added a few extra rounds to this one in natural undyed wool…. I had grand plans to make it into a veeeeeeeeeeeeery special baby blanket, but then remembered that I hadn't make the ends secure enough to stand the wear and tear, so lucky for KB, as she LOVES this one (natural fibre addict) it is the new centre piece for our table and it looks awesome.
OK, well I hope you have lots of fun making yourselves some beautiful mandalas!!!! If you're a raveler and want to bookmark/ queue/ hook it! Click HERE for the link to all of the patterns and tutorials I've popped on there. And click HERE for google images of beautiful mandalas where you can click to get lots of info for your beautiful selves!
I'm off…. must fly…. it's 6pm already… where did the day go? Boring jobs await my creatively-itchy hands… think big piles of dishes… an unmade bed and dinner awaiting cooking…. Oh and a Raymond to feed too!
Wishing you all a perfectly blessed day,
Lots and lots of love from Alice and Raymond XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
p.s thinking of perfect blessings… thank you…. oh THANK YOU anonymous person who handed my cay keys in to the supermarket customer service desk this afternoon…. you are a flipping legend and gratitude did not even cover the feeling I had when my keys were back in my hands!


text:
Caymans Post
A world within. A state apart.
Wednesday, Mar 22, 2023
Cayman Islands News
Add Your News
Ukraine war footage ...
This video is of a Russian tank and was filmed recently, the town is Marinka. The tank is driving through what used to be a playground of the local kindergarten (building on the left).
Related Articles
Video Shows US Cops Restraining Black Man Who Died At Mental Hospital
Irvo Otieno's death has already drawn murder charges against the officers and guards involved, thrusting the spotlight back on US law enforcement brutality.
Call me anytime: Zelenskyy plays the long game with Xi Jinping
Ukraine is conspicuously diplomatic in its dealings with Vladimir Putin's top ally.
Renault CEO's message to Germany: Car engines are dying, the future is electric
'All the money is going into electric or hydrogen technology,' Luca de Meo told POLITICO event.
If boring Switzerland can't save its banks, who can?
As if the country of pristine mountain landscapes and pastoral bliss is about to spawn the next financial crisis.
Politics gets a bad rap: Orbán aide tangles with MEP via ChatGPT
Meet the EU's answer to Biggie and Tupac.
France-Germany feud heats up over cars and nuclear
Rift risks spilling over into EU leaders' summit in Brussels this week.
Beyond TikTok, Dutch tell government staff to uninstall Chinese, Russian apps
Staffers can't use apps from countries with 'offensive cyber program' against the Netherlands.
TikTok commands the attention of 150 million American users. That's its best defense yet against Biden's threat of a ban.
TikTok's popularity could make the threat of a ban difficult to enforce. It's now used by 150 million Americans each month, or 45% of the population.
US speeds up Abrams tank delivery to Ukraine war zone
The Pentagon is speeding up its delivery of Abrams tanks to Ukraine, opting to send a refurbished older model that can be ready faster, with the aim of getting the 70-ton battle...
US dismisses China mediation on Ukraine as not 'impartial'
The United States said Tuesday it does not see China as capable of being an impartial mediator between Moscow and Kyiv over the war in Ukraine.
"Embrace New Reality": Credit Suisse Reassures Hong Kong Clients
Executives at the event from the troubled Swiss lender were eager to offer reassurances, even as details of the takeover by Swiss giant UBS remained unclear and global markets w...
Subscribe also to our WhatsApp channel:
Caymans Post
Add Your News
Credit Suisse's Scandalous History Resulted in an Obvious Collapse - It's time for regulators who fail to do their job to be held accountable and serve as an example by being behind bars.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman tours potential migrant housing in Rwanda as asylum deal remains mired in legal challenges
Paris Rioting vs Macron anti democratic law
'Sexual Fantasy' Assignment At US School Outrages Parents
Credit Suisse to borrow $54 billion from Swiss central bank
Russian Hackers Preparing New Cyber Assault Against Ukraine
Jeremy Hunt insists his Budget will get young parents and over-50s back into work
If this was in Tehran, Moscow or Hong Kong
TRUMP: "Standing before you today, I am the only candidate who can make this promise: I will prevent World War III."
Mexican President Claims Mexico is Safer than the U.S.
A brief banking situation report
Lady bites police officer and gets instantly reaction
We are witnessing widespread bank fails and the president just gave a 5 min speech then walked off camera.
Donald Trump's asked by Tucker Carlson question on if the U.S. should support regime change in Russia?.
Silicon Valley Bank exec was Lehman Brothers CFO
In a potential last-ditch effort, HSBC is considering a rescue deal to save Silicon Valley Bank UK from insolvency
BBC Director General, Tim Davie, has apologized, but not resigned, yet, following the disruption of sports programmes over the weekend
Elon Musk Is Planning To Build A Town In Texas For His Employees
The Silicon Valley Bank's collapse effect is spreading around the world, affecting startup companies across the globe
City officials in Berlin announced on Thursday that all swimmers at public pools will soon be allowed to swim topless
Fitness scam
Market Chaos as USDC Loses Peg to USD after $3.3 Billion Reserves Held by Silicon Valley Bank Closed.
Senator Tom Cotton: If the Mexican Government Won't Stop Cartels from Killing Americans, Then U.S. Government Should
Banking regulators close SVB, the largest bank failure since the financial crisis
The unelected UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, an immigrant himself, defends new controversial crackdown on illegal migration
Man's penis amputated by mistake after he's wrongly diagnosed with a tumour
In a major snub to Downing Street's Silicon Valley dreams, UK chip giant Arm has dealt a serious blow to the government's economic strategy by opting for a US listing
It's the question on everyone's lips: could a four-day workweek be the future of employment?
Is Gold the Ultimate Safe Haven Asset in Times of Uncertainty?
Spain officials quit over trains that were too wide for tunnels...
Don Lemon, a CNN anchor, has provided a list of five areas that he believes the black community needs to address.
Hello. Here is our news digest from London.
Corruption and Influence Buying Uncovered in International Mainstream Media: Investigation Reveals Growing Disinformation Mercenaries
Givenchy Store in New York Robbed of $50,000 in Merchandise
European MP Clare Daly condemns US attack on Nord Stream
Former U.S. President Carter will spend his remaining time at home and receive hospice care instead of medication
Tucker Carlson called Trump a 'demonic force'
US Joins 15 NATO Nations in Largest Space Data Collection Initiative in History
White House: No ETs over the United States
U.S. Jet Shoots Down Flying Object Over Canada
Being a Tiktoker might be expensive…
SpaceX, the private space exploration company, made a significant breakthrough in their mission to reach space.
China's top tech firms, including Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, NetEase, and JD.com, are developing their own versions of Open AI's AI-powered chatbot, ChatGPT
This shocking picture, showing how terrible is the results of the earthquake in Turkey
President Joe Biden delivered the 2023 State of the Union Address , in order to help Americans that missed the 2022 speech, do not have internet, and suffer from short memory.
The desk of King Carlos Alberto of Sardinia has many secret compartments
Today's news from Britain - 9th February 2023
The five largest oil companies in the West generated combined profits of nearly $200 billion in 2022, which has led to increased calls for governments to impose tougher windfall taxes
2 earthquakes in Turkey killed over 2,300 people
Powerful Earthquake Strikes Turkey and Syria, Killing More Than 1,300 People.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Ron Paul declined an opportunity to speak at the Republican National Convention tonight (because of the strings that were attached), but his supporters couldn't be silenced when he made a surprise appearance on the floor this afternoon.
Chants of "President Paul!" and "Let him speak!" greeted the presidential hopeful, Kenneth T. Walsh of U.S. News reported.
Although Mitt Romney won the Republican nomination, Paul supporters aren't backing down.
Romney's request to read his speech before he took the stage incited outcry from his supporters. Paul refused to speak on principle.
Paul campaigners also distributed letters to delegates' hotel rooms urging them to buck tradition by voting based on "based upon his or her conscience, as outlined in our Constitution as well as the rules of the Republican National Committee."
And Paul carried several state delegations in this afternoon's roll call, including Minnesota and Iowa. He even won 20 delegate votes in Texas, where his former presidential rival, Gov. Rick Perry, received zero.


text:
We all know the story of Vincent van Gogh's ear, an organ that the artist is rumored to have severed from his own head in a fit of lovesick madness. For her project Sugababe, the artist Diemut Strebe has recreated the living ear of the legendary Post-Impressionist. Teaming up with scientists and using an advanced 3D printing technique, Strebe constructed the true-to-life organ from a sample of the late artist's DNA found in an envelope that he had licked in 1883 and live cartilage from the ear of Lieuwe van Gogh, a grandson of the painter's brother. The replicated ear, now on view at The Center for Art and Media in Karlshruhe in Germany, is kept alive by being suspended in a solution laced with nutrients.
Strebe's installation includes a microphone into which viewers can speak. The sound is then carried to the ear, which hears speech as a crackling noise that is projected through speakers for all to listen. For the artist, Sugababe is a physical manifestation of Theseus' paradox, wherein the ancient Greek hero was asked if a ship would remain the same if all its individual parts were replaced with new ones. Here, Strebe asks if this clone of an ear might in fact be considered the same ear worn by van Gogh. Tragically unable to respond the viewers who speak to it, the organ seems startlingly alien. Though it is composed of the same elements as the original ear, it lacks the humanity and the romance we ascribe the artist whose molecular biology it shares.
Given the tragic history of the artist, Strebe's work carries with it a sense of loss and poignancy. Where the living van Gogh was unappreciated— reviled, even—in his time, here even his tiny organ is preserved with the utmost care, his body transformed into a valuable work of art in and of itself. (via Design Boom and The Daily Beast)
Someone Made A Living Replica Of Vincent Van Gogh's Severed Ear appeared first on Beautiful/Decay Artist & Design.


text:
Nov. 18, 2008— -- When "Nightline" first met Odell Barnes, the man known to some as the Foreclosure King, he was on his cell phone constantly, buying foreclosed homes by the dozens from his front porch in South Carolina.
A year later, he's still answering the phone, but he's off his porch and in Detroit.
"It's too big for me," he said of the current housing crisis. "One thousand houses a week? It outgrows you."
Sitting on another front porch -- this time at a burned-out house in Detroit -- Barnes has plunged face first into the nation's housing crisis. He's always bought houses in bulk from banks, but what's changed is that, in the last year, mortgage insurer Fannie Mae has begun dumping foreclosed houses on him. The original owners are gone and Fannie Mae and the banks can't sell any other way.
What's also changed is the volume and locations of the houses he sees all across the country .
"I've always had Detroits, the inner-city houses, but not the Wisconsins, not the Maines," he said. "I'm buying in Maine, I'm buying in Delaware." He also mentions California and Nevada, states where he says he'd never had houses.
"I don't think there is a state I don't buy in anymore," he said.
Detroit has been particularly hard hit. Barnes said that if he buys a package of 100 houses, 10 percent of them may be tear-downs or have serious problems, like fire damage. There are also many livable homes, just waiting for a little TLC.
But in this part of the country, where dying industries have exacerbated the foreclosure problem, there were so many foreclosures being dumped that Barnes couldn't handle all the sales from his front porch. He's opened an office here and brought in partners, like local entrepreneur Abner McWhorter.
"The last thing I think we want with these homes is that they get in the hands of landlords who try to, if nothing else, rent them or mothball 'em, [and] if the market turns around, to cash out," McWhorter said. "We really don't need that as a community right now. I'm glad that we teamed up and we're doing pretty good."
With hundreds of houses sitting empty, in danger of falling apart or being stripped of anything salable, Michigan and Detroit have become ground zero in the nation's housing crisis. But now it's not just the inner cities -- houses in middle-class suburbs are being hit.
"Two years ago, you bought 100, 200 houses a month, now you buy 2,000 to 3,000 houses a month and it's going to be more," Barnes said. "They don't know what to do with them, the mortgage companies, and they're just dumping them."
The problem is that nice houses can easily be turned into bad ones. And one vacant, neglected house can quickly destroy a block, that block can bring down the neighborhood, and so on.
To Barnes, the solution is simple -- get people into houses. Barnes does that by buying packages of houses from lenders, then selling in smaller packages to investors. Either he or his investors then find out the going rate for rent in the neighborhood and offer to sell the house for slightly less than that.
The day "Nightline" stopped by Barnes' and McWhorter's shared office in Detroit, Edward Moody was closing on his second house, on the same block as his first. He fixed up the house he's living in now and plans major repairs on the one he just picked up.
"This is bringing back up the neighborhood. It's making the houses better and easier for people to get 'em before they tear 'em up," Moody said. "I want somebody to get them before they strip 'em all out. It's much easier."
Moody said this will provide housing for his family and his in-laws.
"This way is better. Just like I can go in and fix the house any way I want," Moody said. "The other house, I made the whole house into one. Took out the kitchen and converted it. I put my kids upstairs and me and my wife had downstairs. I took out one room. You do what you want to do at the price that you're getting it for. To me, it's winning."
To Barnes, winning is simple changes that can keep houses from falling into disrepair. He wonders why Fannie Mae and the banks aren't -- or can't -- do what he's doing.
"There should be some in-between ground on giving the house away, or renegotiating with the people," he said. "I don't know if Fannie Mae can do that."
Fannie Mae says it can't.
"Our business model is really financial. We are not a real estate investor," said Stacey Stewart, senior vice president of Fannie Mae. "It often makes more sense to sell them in a bulk sales process, to an investor or to a state or to a nonprofit that can really take on those properties, bring them back up to a place ... that is appropriate for sale or rent to a new family or homeowners."
Stewart said that by selling houses to people like Barnes, Fannie Mae is working to keep the houses occupied. But is it better to work to keep the original owners in their houses in the first place? Fannie Mae has recently ramped up efforts to do that.
"We have a number of different things we're doing to help many families stay in their homes," Stewart said. "From restructuring their mortgages so that their payments over time can be more affordable, and families can afford to pay them over time, to reviewing any properties that are going to foreclosure."
To Detroit resident Nadine Miller, these arguments are all academic. She pays about $300 a month for a house she bought from the Barnes/McWhorter partnership. And because of Barnes' and McWhorter's incentive program -- refer a friend and get a month free -- she won't have a mortgage payment for a year.
McWhorter said he wants more people like Miller; a homeowner is always the solution.
"You're more involved in the neighborhood if you own the house versus a renter," he said. "A renter is typically in the mindset of just passing through. I had an opportunity where we sold a house that we were renting; a homeowner bought the house and put a new roof on it. Suddenly they care."
Barnes admits this business has been very good to him, but he's worried because there's such an alarming avalanche of business now. And, he said, human nature being what it is, as soon as the United States is out of this crisis, people will go right back to their old ways.
"We're a society of indulging," he said. "Unless somebody says you can't, we'll do it. If you give somebody a credit card, we're going to max it. You tell us we're going to get an equity line on our house for a million -- give us a little time, we'll have it maxed. That's the way we are. I don't know what to do about it. I really don't. But this will happen again 20 years from now."


text:
Square Enix, like many major publishers, has made a nice little wad of cash from re-releasing old games on iTunes for a premium charge. However, the Japanese company has at least gone that little extra mile with Chaos Rings, producing a full and original RPG experience, one that not only deserves the premium asking price, but may actually be a bargain.
Designed from the ground up as an iPhone/iPod experience, Chaos Rings represents the first serious effort from Square Enix to get into the Apple arena. Has this effort paid off? Read on as we review Chaos Rings!
Chaos Rings (iPhone)
Developer: Media.Vision
Publisher: Square Enix
Released: April 20, 2010
Chaos Rings revolves around four pairs of mysterious characters who have been summoned by The Agent, a shrouded and sinister figure that is forcing chosen warriors to fight in the Arc Arena. Their reward is eternal life, but it comes at the cost of killing others or facing certain death themselves.
Not the most philosophical and introspective plot on the market, but the light narrative suits the handheld experience and the script is, at the very least, nicely put together with a few cool twists and turns and a cast of strong, well defined characters. You have the smirking and callous mercenary, the noble prince who wants to return to his people, and the solemn warrior who fights side by side with his devoted wife. Not the standard "brooding emo" fare that Square Enix regularly casts, and all the more welcome for it.
The game allows players to step into the shoes of each of these paired characters, and while you won't squeeze eighty hours from each chapter, there is plenty of gameplay to be had for the money, and nearly all the depth you'd expect from a JRPG has been condensed onto the iPhone for your portable pleasure. Players can return to previously conquered dungeons at higher levels for tougher challenges and better equipment, they can shop for weapons, they can customize their characters, and generally put in plenty of hardcore effort and get rewarded for their trouble. The sheer amount of content squashed into a humble iPhone game is impressive, to say the least.
The gameplay itself keeps things strictly traditional, with random encounters and turn-based battles. Taking a "not broke, won't fix" approach, the combat is rock solid and will be familiar to any RPG fan. One unique twist is that characters can fight individually or pair up for stronger attacks, the trade-off being that paired characters share the attacks of enemy monsters. There is also a "break" system represented by a circular gauge at the top of the screen. When the gauge is blue, allied characters have a battle advantage, but when it's red, monsters are the ones with the stronger attacks and better defenses. It's an interesting tug-of-war system that lends a little extra depth to the battle.
Characters can be customized with the use of Gene Plates, which are earned by defeating different types of monsters. For example, killing a spider will earn the Insect Plate. These Plates house various passive or active abilities and spells, all of which are earned by continuing to beat monsters of the corresponding Gene type. Mastering these Gene abilities can create absolutely devastating characters, although magic spells themselves never feel particularly useful apart from during boss encounters, especially with regular attacks being as strong as they are.
That's one of the major issues with Chaos Rings, and one that may put some players off — after some dedicated grinding, enemies become an absolute joke. While it's certainly gratifying to see hard work pay off, the game becomes a cakewalk even on the highest level dungeons once good Gene Plates are equipped and higher level weapons have been found. It's still lots of fun, and the game can feel incredibly empowering, but some players may be disappointed by how easy the game becomes.
Another low point comes from, ironically, the game's biggest challenge — the puzzles. During the course of each dungeon, players will encounter puzzle rooms that force them to play around with blocks to collect gems before proceeding. These puzzle sections really threaten to kill the pace of the game and can get rather frustrating, especially because they seem to needlessly tossed into the game. These puzzles somehow seem to get easier the longer the game goes on, but the early ones definitely do their best to ruin the opening hours of the title.
These thorns, however, are minor niggles compared to the overall package. Chaos Rings is a fantastic handheld RPG that evokes the feeling of an old PlayStation classic. The presentation is really sleek, with fantastic graphics, a great art style courtesy of Yusuke Naora, and some decent touch screen controls (although the character navigation could do with a little tightening). Special mention must be made of the absolutely incredible soundtrack. There are plenty of gorgeous tunes on display, with music that shames the aural presentation found in most console RPGs.
Chaos Rings isn't just a superb iPhone RPG, it's a truly terrific RPG in its own right. Better than Square Enix's recent console output, this title outclasses many recent JRPG experiences and easily takes pride of place among the very best iTunes offerings. At $12.99, it's more than worth the cost of downloading, and if you love JRPGs, you really do need to check it out. Simple as that.
9.5 — Superb (9s are a hallmark of excellence. There may be flaws, but they are negligible and won't cause massive damage to what is a supreme title.)


text:
zmqmachine 0.4.0
ZMQMachine is another Ruby implementation of the reactor pattern but this time using 0mq sockets rather than POSIX sockets. Unlike the great Eventmachine ruby project and the Python Twisted project which work with POSIX sockets, ZMQMachine is inherently threaded. The 0mq sockets backing the reactor use a thread pool for performing their work so already it is different from most other reactors. Also, a single program may create multiple reactor instances which runs in its own thread. All activity within the reactor is single-threaded and asynchronous. It is possible to extend the 0mq library to "poll" normal file descriptors. This isn't on my roadmap but patches are accepted.
Copy to clipboard
Runtime Dependencies (1):
ffi-rzmq >= 0.7.0
Development Dependencies (1):
bones >= 3.5.4


text:
Building on the achievements of the European Year of Education through Sport 2004
Outline of the Community (European Union) legislation about Building on the achievements of the European Year of Education through Sport 2004
These categories group together and put in context the legislative and non-legislative initiatives which deal with the same topic.
Education training youth sport > Sport
Building on the achievements of the European Year of Education through Sport 2004
Document or Iniciative
Commission Communication of 22 December 2005: "EU action in the field of Education through Sport: building on EYES 2004 achievements" [COM(2005)680 final – Not published in the Official Journal].
EYES 2004 was launched to increase awareness on the potential of sport as a tool for education and social inclusion. The wider aim of this initiative was to promote education through sport in formal and non-formal education.
Objectives and outputs
Specific objectives included promoting voluntary activities, pupil mobility and exchanges through sport activities, social inclusion of disadvantaged groups and the creation of a better balance between intellectual and physical activity in school life. The main results are:
- involvement of the 25 Member States and the 3 EFTA/EEA countries: Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway;
- 167 projects co-financed, out of 1643 applications;
- 66 projects in the field of formal education;
- 60 projects using the values of sport in activities for young people;
- 30 ceremonies (opening and closing of EYES);
- representation at 12 international events such as Euro 2004 and the Olympic and Paralympic Games;
- 2 Eurobarometer surveys.
Cooperation with the participating countries was channelled through the Advisory Committee in which most of them were represented by delegates from Education and Sport departments. This has become the first stable European network of public authorities responsible for education and sport.
During EYES 2004, the Commission cooperated with the Council of Europe, notably by co-financing a project in the field of education on democratic citizenship in Europe. As part of the preparations for the International Year for Sport and Physical Education in 2005, a fruitful dialogue was established with UNESCO with a view to continuing activities in 2005.
Impact assessment
The initiative has created and built up lasting networks and often new partnerships between education and sport. EYES 2004 provided numerous examples of good practices which go beyond its networking achievements.
Its main impacts have been:
- a significant contribution to disseminating the educational values of sport;
- the fostering and increasing recognition of activities in the field of education through sport;
- a contribution to changing the attitudes of the European public in this area.
However, its effects seem to have been more limited in other ways, for example in promoting sport as a vehicle for social inclusion of disadvantaged groups, encouraging a better balance between intellectual and physical activity in school life, and highlighting the positive contribution made by voluntary work and student mobility.
Expectations in formal education
Formal education could take better advantage of the values conveyed through sport to develop knowledge, motivation, skills, readiness for personal effort and social abilities. This makes sport essential in formal education for acquiring and developing key skills needed by everyone for personal fulfilment, social inclusion and employability.
On the other hand, formal education has a crucial role to play in encouraging habits leading to regular physical activity and in countering unhealthy lifestyle habits.
The expectations surrounding EYES 2004 led to the following ideas:
- using national expertise to develop a better understanding and increased knowledge at EU level of the place of sport and physical activity in school life;
- raising awareness of the mutual benefits for educational institutions and sport organisations;
- improving recognition of the qualifications of those who teach sport-related professions (e.g. trainers and sports managers);
- taking advantage of the potential of sport and physical activity in formal education to reverse current trends towards a sedentary and passive lifestyle;
- making full use of the results of EYES 2004 by capitalising on the good practices developed and taking better advantage of the possibilities for financing projects and initiatives based on sporting activities.
Expectations in non-formal learning
EYES has proven that there was a demand in European civil society for sport to be used in non-formal learning and as a tool for promoting social integration, developing intercultural dialogue and combating discrimination, particularly racism and xenophobia.
Taking part in sport is educational not only in its own right but also by virtue of active participation in sport clubs and organisations, which helps to reinforce civil society through teaching practical democratic values.
Follow-up by the European Commission
The Commission, within the limits of its competence and in full respect of the principle of subsidiarity and the autonomy of educational institutions and sport organisations, will ensure a follow-up to EYES 2004, in particular along the following lines:
- carrying out new studies, organising further expert meetings and launching new surveys;
- continuing to organise meetings with the public authorities responsible for education and sport and expanding them to stakeholders in both areas;
- intensifying dialogue and cooperation with the Sport Movement on the educational and social functions of the sport (e.g. volunteering, participation in sport notably for women, fight against racism and xenophobia, education and protection of young athletes, etc.);
- taking advantage of the possibilities to finance projects and initiatives on sporting activities in the framework of EU actions (e.g. future European Years, the new EU programme on "Integrated Life Long Learning", "Youth in Action" and "Citizens for Europe");
- improving recognition of the qualifications in sport-related professions and facilitating mobility;
- raising awareness of the importance of physical activity in reversing the trend towards obesity.
In Declaration 29 attached to the Amsterdam Treaty, the Nice European Council recognised that sport forges people's identity. In the Nice declaration, the European Council underlined that, "even though [it does not have] any direct powers in this area, the Community must, in its action under the various Treaty provisions, take account of the social, educational and cultural functions inherent in sport."
The Council, in its Resolution of 17 December 1999 on the non-formal education dimension of sporting activities in the European Community YOUTH programme, called upon the Commission, in cooperation with the Member States, to devise a coherent approach in order to exploit the educational potential of sport, considering that sporting activities can have a pedagogical value which contributes to strengthening civil society.
This Communication is the response to the request from the European Parliament and the Council for the Commission to report on the measures taken during the European Year of Education through Sport 2004 (EYES 2004).
Related Acts
of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 February 2003 establishing the European Year of Education through Sport 2004 [Official Journal L 43 of 18.02.2003].


text: How to manage different colour palettes in OpenGL? Basically I want to display a set of 2d points and points must be colored based on the depth value at that particular point. The depth value may range from -ve to +ve say -25m to 3000m. So how do I color these set of points using rainbow colorband?


text:
Nine Inch Nails, Red Hot Chili Peppers + Paul McCartney Headline 2013 Outside Lands Festival
San Francisco's Outside Lands festival will definitely finish out each night on a rocking note. Organizers have revealed the 2013 festival lineup with Nine Inch Nails, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Paul McCartney set to headline this year's event.
The music weekend takes place August 9-11 at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park and features a wide array of performers, along with plenty of food, wine, beer and art to keep audiences entertained during breaks in the action. Tickets for this year's festival will go on sale this Thursday (April 18) at noon PT.
Along with the three headliners, this year's festival features alt-rock favorites Phoenix, Vampire Weekend, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Band of Horses, The National, Grizzly Bear and Young the Giant, R&B and rap stars like D'Angelo and Jurassic 5, and music legends like Willie Nelson & Family and Daryl Hall & John Oates, as well as up-and-comers like Gary Clark Jr., Foals, Emili Sande, Atlas Genius, and Waaves. To see the full lineup, click here.
For Nine Inch Nails, Outside Lands will be part of a growing festival presence for the returning rockers. The band has previously announced headlining spots at New Orleans' Voodoo Music Experience, Philadelphia's Made in America festival and Chicago's Lollapalooza.
Red Hot Chili Peppers, meanwhile, are in the midst of a two-weekend headlining stint at Coachella and will play Metallica's Orion Music + More festival in Detroit.
Watch the Outside Lands Lineup Announcement Video


text:
I would like to tell you about a serious condition afflicting thousands of policy analysts. It's called Petty Little Dictator Disorder, or PLDD, and you or someone you love could be suffering from this epidemic sweeping through our think tanks, advocacy groups, and government offices. According to the description pending for inclusion in the DSM V, here are the warning signs of PLDD:
- Do you spend a fair amount of your time imagining how the government could be used to shape people's behavior for their own good?
- Do you tell yourself and others that you believe in liberty and stuff but there are negative externalities, information costs, and children who need protecting from their parents, so we need to step in?
- Do you use the word "we" a lot to refer to government action by which you really mean you and your friends?
- Do you consider yourself an expert despite having never really done anything or rigorously studied anything in your life?
- Do you feel the need to communicate your expert opinions in no more than 140 characters more than 1,000 times a year because you need constant reinforcement in the belief that you are changing the world?
- Do you sit in cafes or bars with your colleagues and have conversations that resemble dorm room pot-smoking bull sessions about how it would be best for families to live in apartments above bodegas with the sound of light rail roaring just outside their window because, after all, the life you currently have and enjoy is the same thing that families with three children and a dog should want?
- Do you think science or a panel of experts can identify the right way to do almost anything?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may be suffering from PLDD. But don't worry, help is available. Here are some steps that may address your PLDD:
- Think about how others have plans for their own lives just as you have a plan for yours. Just because you don't understand their plan doesn't mean that theirs is not legitimate or that you should impose your vision on them.
- Recognize that just as others are subject to limited information and systematic deviations from rationality, so are you. You shouldn't imagine that you are the rational, well-informed one whose plan can fix the defects from which others suffer.
- Remember that you and your friends are not the government. Once the government takes responsibility for an issue, no one can completely control what the government will do and those with the strongest vested interests (and often not the best intentions) are likely to have more influence than you.
- Be humble about the limits of your knowledge and expertise. You may have gone to an elite school and have always been told how smart you are, but that doesn't mean that you understand everything. Understanding comes from real experience and/or rigorous examination of an issue. Reading a bunch of articles or having spent a few years as the deputy assistant director of whatever does not count as experience or rigorous examination.
- Don't confuse the constant sound of your own voice (or Tweets) and the praise of your friends with actually influencing things. Roosters may be noisy but they don't actually make the sun come up. Pick your topics, develop real expertise in those topics by having meaningful experience and/or engaging in rigorous scholarship, and then communicate when you really think you have something to add.
- If you choose meaningful experience as your path to expertise, remember that it takes many years of experience to develop expertise. Rigorous scholarship allows one to generalize from a systematic review of evidence relatively quickly, but it is virtually impossible to generalize from experience until you have accumulated many years of it.
- Dorm room, pot-smoking bull sessions are fine if you are in college, but you really need to grow out of them if you want to be a serious policy expert. Sitting around after you've graduated college and agreeing with your friends about how much different occupations should be paid, what kinds of cars people should drive, what people should eat or drink, etc.. just makes you the Peter Pan of dorm room, pot-smoking bull sessions.
- Understand that "ideology" is just the negative spin that people suffering from PLDD use to describe the principles or values of people with whom they disagree. There is nothing wrong with having an ideology (or principles and values) since it helps guide you about the ends for which you are striving. Just be sure not to confuse your ideology with an empirical claim.
- Be humble about the ability of science or experts to resolve questions, just as you should be humble about your own expertise. Science provides a method for understanding the world, but it does not answer questions about principles and values. And even when it comes to empirical questions, science always leaves some uncertainty. That doesn't mean you should reject science and embrace the nihilistic view that science just consists of lies and manipulation to disguise interests and power. But it does mean you have to be wary of interest and power corrupting science just as they can corrupt everything else.
PLDD has often gone unnoticed and untreated. Attention has instead focused on BSDD — Big Scary Dictator Disorder. And while it's true that people with BSDD, like Hitler, Stalin, Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong Il, have posed grave threats to the world, the dangers of PLDD are more insidious. People with BSDD are relatively easy to recognize, there is strong motivation to mobilize an opposition to their disorder, and the condition is quite rare. When it comes to PLDD, however, people hardly notice how their liberty is chipped away bit by bit by those suffering from PLDD. PLDD is also very common, by some estimates afflicting a majority of policy analysts. And the righteousness and good intentions of those with PLDD undermine the effective mobilization of a response to the disorder.
I hope you will help me fight the scourge that is PLDD. Try to check this disorder within yourself and watch for the signs of it in others. Together, we can win the war against PLDD.


text:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | A PressPac Instant Replay*
ACS News Service Weekly PressPac: October 12, 2011
New Saudi Arabias of solar energy Himalaya Mountains, Andes, Antarctica
Mention prime geography for generation of solar energy, and people tend to think of hot deserts. But a new study concludes that some of the world's coldest landscapes — including the Himalaya Mountains, the Andes, and even Antarctica — could become Saudi Arabias of solar. The research appears in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Kotaro Kawajiri and colleagues explain that the potential for generating electricity with renewable solar energy depends heavily on geographic location. Arid and semi-arid areas with plenty of sunshine long have been recognized as good solar sites. However, the scientists point out that, as a result of the limited data available for critical weather-related conditions on a global scale, gaps still exist in knowledge about the best geographical locations for producing solar energy. To expand that knowledge, they used one established technique to estimate global solar energy potential using the data that are available. The technique takes into account the effects of temperature on the output of solar cells. Future work will consider other variables, such as transmission losses and snow fall.
As expected, they found that many hot regions such as the U.S. desert southwest are ideal locations for solar arrays. However, they also found that many cold regions at high elevations receive a lot of sunlight — so much so that their potential for producing power from the sun is even higher than in some desert areas. Kawajiri and colleagues found, for instance, that the Himalayas, which include Mt. Everest, could be an ideal locale for solar fields that generate electricity for the fast-expanding economy of the People's Republic of China.
The authors acknowledge funding from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
Science Inquiries: Michael Woods, Editor, 202-872-6293
General Inquiries: Michael Bernstein, 202-872-6042


text:
11/22/2017 Liebherr-Aerospace honored with Airbus System Supplier ALM Award
The "Golden Concept Plane" was presented to Liebherr-Aerospace by Airbus in fall 2017 in Hamburg (Germany). The aircraft manufacturer honored its tier 1 supplier based on the successful first flight of Liebherr-Aerospace's 3D printed spoiler actuator valve block on a flight test A380 on March 30th 2017. It is the first 3D printed primary flight control hydraulic component flown on an Airbus aircraft.
The valve block made from titanium powder is part of Liebherr-Aerospace's spoiler actuator and provides primary flight control functions on board the A380. It offers the same performance as the conventional valve block made from a titanium forging, but it is 35 % lighter in weight and consists of fewer parts.
Liebherr-Aerospace developed the 3D printed hydraulic component in close cooperation with Airbus and the Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany. The project was partly funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy. The first flight testing of a 3D printed primary flight control hydraulic component shows that Liebherr-Aerospace and Airbus are pioneering the way aircraft systems will be developed and manufactured in the future.


text: Companies who manufacture their own products in-house are worth taking a look at because with their own research team, they will be constantly coming up with ways to improve on their current products. They would only do this if they intended to stay in the business for the long haul. Using our imagination has helped us create a wonderful article on Pheromones. Being imaginative is indeed very important when writing about Pheromones!


text:
Monday, January 28, 2008
How To Deploy Solar Electric SystemsResponse to Eric Janszen
See: http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/01/hbc-90002258
This article " "The Next Bubble: Priming the Markets for Tomorrow's Big Crash," Harper's, February 2008. touts renewable energy as the next bubble. I beg to differ.
Since I have education in business and economics, and a background in solar energy going back 26 years, I have to weigh in on this one. First of all what Eric Janszen is describing is not the healthy functioning of the economic system. It is actually what happens when the system is pervaded by corruption. These vulture capitalist tendencies are not a part of what sustains a free market economy. They are what destroys it.
The excessive, non-economic profits, (as they are called in business school) are making ruthless, immoral people fabulously wealthy while robbing society of its vitality. Don't get me wrong, I support a free market economy that operates within bounds that reflect the values of fair play, and healthy societal functioning. But when we get desensitized to the shady operators and dirty tricks that are at the root of these bubbles we are writing the epitaph of a free, prosperous society.
If the clean energy revolution falls into this same trap, we are finished. Because this is one issue which is not simply about consumerism, or the latest trend or the coolest new gizmo. This is about survival. If we don't truly allow the innovators to rise to the top, then we can kiss civilization goodbye, because the alternative is depopulation on a massive scale. James Lovelock, author of the Gaia hypothesis is predicting that this depopulation will kill off 5 1/2 billion people, leaving the earth with a sparsely populated impoverished habitat. He is also predicting that it is inevitable. He may be right if we don't clean up our act in terms of the systems that we use to solve our problems. This means government and economics.
The words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt come to mind: "We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics."
I am not a Libertarian or any other kind of ideologue. I am a student and practitioner of innovation, business, economics, history and a developer of solar energy technology for 26 years. I have a Masters degree in business and have built numerous highly successful solar energy products and installations. Because of this experience I conclude that the main impediments to implementing the transition to a solar/renewable energy economy occur because renewables do not easily fit alongside the highly vested monopolistic interests of our current energy providers. As a result I have been developing products that will take these monopolistic dinosaurs out of the loop. Competition is the only thing that will force them to change.
Eric Janszen responds:J Cole,
Date Posted:
January 26, 2008
Date Posted:
January 26, 2008
Solar is economical for consumers buy and run but not for producers to market, sell, install, etc. Is there no business model that works for the industry? Solar vs oil/gas is the difference between buying commoditized audio products (made in China) from a retail distributer at the local mall or the high end audio solutions (Made in USA) at the one high end audio reseller in a region. It comes down to demand, economies of scale, cost, price, cost benefit, marketing costs, cost of sales, etc. If oil were $200/bbl many home builders would include your solar products as a feature and an add on option for existing homes to reduce dependence on grid electticity would take off. Also, with economies of scale, off peak solar can feed back into the grid. A floating tariff that raises imported oil gradually to $200 will make this business model work for your industry.
Reply from Jonathan Cole, January 28th :
What you say is true that "It comes down to demand, economies of scale, cost, price, cost benefit, marketing costs, cost of sales, etc." However that is a general statement that does not address the specifics of how products are engineered to serve the user purpose as well as the economic purpose. At this time, all solar electric installations are one-of-a-kind custom designed installations. Like the early days of the automobile industry where every car was coach-built. How many cars would be sold today if each one was unique? Until we mass produce modularized energy appliances with low installation & maintenance costs, and high durability, we cannot make the change to distributed (the most efficient) solar electric systems.
Jonathan Cole


text:
Identical twins don't share exactly the same genetics, but the difference is so small that many DNA tests have trouble distinguishing one twin from another. It turns out the world's most sophisticated genetic tests have nothing on Czech police dogs.
There are roughly 11 million identical twins or triplets, and identical twins occur in about 3 out of every 1000 births. (The rate is substantially higher in pregnancies that are the result of in-vitro fertilization.) Identical siblings occur when a single egg is fertilized, but then splits into two separate embryos. As a result, identical twins will share exactly the same DNA at birth, although some environmental factors and random chance can cause certain genes to be expressed in slightly different ways. That said, studies show that certain traits of identical twins become more alike as they grow older, including intelligence and personality.
Whatever the slight variations between them, identical twins have similar enough DNA that it can be difficult to tell them apart using even the most cutting edge tests. But scientists recently demonstrated the amazing aptitude that police dogs have for telling the twins apart. Working with ten German shepherds serving in the Czech Republic's police force, researchers asked children to swab their cheeks and place the resultant DNA samples in glass jars.
Two of these children were identical twins, and another two were fraternal twins. The researchers then set up a fake crime scene investigation and provided the police dogs with the scent of one of the identical twins. The dogs were then asked to find that scent in one of the glass jars that had been placed in the room. Each of the ten dogs was given twelve trials, and every dog successful matched the right identical twin to the right jar in every single trial. They were similarly successful when asked to match other scents, including those of the fraternal twins.
This is a remarkable result, particularly because the identical twins involved in this study don't just share identical DNA - they also live in the same home and eat the same diet, leaving next to no possible environmental explanations for the dogs' success. It's an uncanny result, and it's perhaps the most amazing testament yet to the power of a dog's nose.
PLoS ONE via ScienceNOW.


text:
Earlier this week, a pretty interesting and telling exchange took place at a Mitt Romney town hall meeting. A student asked Romney what he would do to make college more affordable for students who struggle to pay for it. Romney's reply was jarring:>
"It would be popular for me to stand up and say I'm going to give you government money to pay for your college, but I'm not going to promise that," he said, to sustained applause from the crowd at a high-tech metals assembly factory here. "Don't just go to one that has the highest price. Go to one that has a little lower price where you can get a good education. And hopefully you'll find that. And don't expect the government to forgive the debt that you take on."
It's a brutal response. One reason, of course, is that college is a form of public investment. We have a shared stake in a more educated population, which ultimately produces higher living standards for all. Treating college affordability as a question of simple personal responsibility is an act of collective economic suicide.
Romney does not take this position toward all government services. Like the Republicans in Congress, he maintains that Medicare must be maintained untouched for all Americans 55 years old and up – he constantly attacks Obama for being "the only president in modern history to cut Medicare benefits for seniors." But he proposes to eviscerate the rest of the domestic budget, even more than the enormous cuts in the House budget, slashing tuition assistance, poverty programs, and the like on an unprecedented scale.
In my magazine piece, I including a quote describing some of the sentiments underlying the right-wing belief that programs for the elderly must be maintained while transfers to the young and poor are slashed:
Theda Skocpol, a Harvard sociologist, conducted a detailed study of tea-party activists and discovered that they saw themselves beset by parasitic Democrats. "Along with illegal immigrants," she wrote, "low-income Americans and young people loom large as illegitimate consumers of public benefits and services."
That is the context in which to understand the Republican position, which has increasingly coalesced around the defense of public services for its core constituency at the expense of others. As Sen. Lamar Alexander put it during the health care debate, "If you find savings by cutting waste, fraud and abuse in Grandma's Medicare, spend those savings on Grandma." Romney may not come from the tea party wing, but he has accommodated himself to its policy demands, and his support within the primary race is concentrated among older Republicans.
The glue holding together the contemporary Republican agenda – the fierce defense of entitlement spending on the elderly, the equally fierce opposition to welfare spending on the young, the backlash against illegal immigration, the nationalist foreign policy, the cultural traditionalism – is ethnocentrism. Republicans are defending the shared cultural prerogatives of a certain group of people. That is why I am arguing that the shifting demographic tides will require the GOP to undertake a major reorientation in order to maintain its competitiveness. There's simply no way to transpose their sense of what is and what is not a legitimate government function onto a progressively younger, browner electorate. (Latino voters overwhelmingly support Obama's health care reform.) Their conception of us versus them can work for a while – it worked quite well with the anomalously old, white 2010 off-year electorate – but the them is rapidly outnumbering the us.


text:
What to Sell Online: 8 Strategies for Finding Your First Product
For new entrepreneurs, deciding to start an online business is exciting but it's also new terrain that can be intimidating and difficult to navigate. One of the biggest challenges aspiring ecommerce entrepreneurs face is figuring out what to sell online - whether it's a single product or multiple products that occupy a niche in a market.
Coming up with product ideas can be tough and it often feels like everything has already been done. Not to mention there's a lot of competition online these days. Consumers are just a click away from online giants like Amazon, Walmart, Zappos and Best Buy, who also happen to be extremely difficult to outrank in the search engines.
But, there are still golden opportunities out there and new, successful products are being launched all the time.
So, how can you get in on the action? We've put together a list of eight strategies and opportunities that you can use to help you start generating product ideas. Product and Niche Opportunity Types
Below is our list of eight potential opportunities to help you find your own product or niche. Each involves a different mindset and approach.
Find Opportunities in Keywords
Build an Interesting/Captivating Brand
Identify a Customer Pain Point
Identify Customer Passions
Go With Your Passion
Look for an Opportunity Gap
Consider Your Experience
Capitalize on Trends Early
Let's take a look at each opportunity in more detail:
1. Find Opportunities in Keywords
It's no secret that organic search traffic is a massive marketing channel. Looking for keyword opportunities involves strategically looking for a product or niche online based on the search queries people are using, volume and competition for those searches. This approach is fairly technical and involves a strong understanding of keyword research as well as SEO. Finding opportunities in keyword searches can be an effective strategy for capturing consistent organic traffic from Google. This strategy is particularly useful if you plan to dropship products, as margins on drop shipped goods are thin making it difficult to use paid advertising channels effectively.
Example: When Andrew Youderian first got into ecommerce, his goal was to build a business that would generate income and provide him with flexibility. Because of this, the viability of the business was more important to him than being passionate about the product he sold. Because of this he took a technical approach in picking a niche that he felt had the highest chances of success, basing his niche selection on careful keyword research. Andrew Youderian found an opportunity to rank for keywords in the fishing equipment industry as well as CB Radios.
2. Build an Interesting and Unique Brand
Taking a brand building opportunity approach is very different from an SEO approach. This involves developing a superior understanding of your customers, crafting a unique brand and carving out a unique place in your customer's mind. A brand building approach can be particularly effective at setting you apart if margins are slim or competition is fierce.
Examples: dbrand produces precision cut skins for smartphones, laptops and game consoles. In a little over a year they have been able to build their brand to 64,000 Facebook fans with their unique culture and communication with customers. Tapping into the meme culture, reddit and adding a unique sense of humour has catapulted dbrand to the top of the industry.
For example, take a look at this interaction with one of their customers:
16 Oct 13
Mark @Fluxman
@dbrandSkins @sonyxperia really interested in the Purple Z1, but also like the Mahogany Skin. I wonder if it will "clash" too much...
dbrand ✔ @dbrand
@Fluxman @sonyxperia Purple and Mahogany look pretty boss together if you ask me or this pool table. pic.twitter.com/NPhEfCbv7w
12:48 PM - 16 Oct 2013
View image on Twitter
Retweets 1 1 like
A big part of building a successful brand is choosing a product or business that you can position in a new or unique way. An example of a retailer who has done this well is DODOcase, an iPad case manufacturer. They operate in an extremely crowded and competitive space however their cases are handcrafted using traditional artisan bookbinding techniques in the city of San Francisco. And if that's something you want, you can only buy from the3. Identify a Customer Pain Point
Solving a customer pain point has always been a great way to get sales. Tylenol wouldn't be in business if a headache didn't hurt. A customer pain doesn't always have to be physical pain though, it also accounts for frustrating or poor experiences.
Example: Jing understood the pain people get from grinding their teeth. Not only physical, but in time constant grinding can lead to expensive dental bills. Knowing this was a pain point that many people would seek out a solution for and happily pay money to solve, he created Pro Teeth Guard. Pro Teeth Guard makes custom moulded teeth guard to prevent you from grinding your teeth while sleeping.
3. Identify a Customer Pain Point
Active Hound is another great example of a brand that solved a pain point in the market. After talking to other dog owners at their local park they found that a major gripe among pet owners is that dog toys are expensive and they don't last. Understanding this inspired them to create a line of ultra durable dog toys that can take some serious chewing and rough play. Taking a minute to think about pain points and little annoyances in your own everyday life could be just what you need to come up with the next great product idea.
4. Identify Customer Passions
Almost as good, maybe even better than solving a customer pain point is catering to a customer passion. When consumers are passionate about something they will often spend more money. Golfers are notorious for spending thousands of dollars to lower their score by even one stroke. Additional benefits can include deeper interaction and loyalty with your brand as passionate consumers are generally more involved in the industry and the buying process.
Example: Black Milk Clothing was started In 2009 after the community of the founders blog, 'TooManyTights' exploded. Noticing the passion and opportunity around women's tights he created Black Milk Clothing. Today Black Milk is a multi-million dollar company that's grown to over 150 employees and distributes its products globally. They do a great job of piggybacking on pop culture with their designs which allows them to tap into passionate audiences and customers from a range of different areas.
5. Go With Your Passion
Some people consider choosing a niche based on your own personal passion to be a recipe for disaster but that's not always the case, and can prove to be extremely profitable. Building an ecommerce business is a lot of hard work and you'll likely hit some bumps in the road on your journey. Passion tends to be one thing that always helps to carry you through the hard times. For some people the passion of building a business alone can be enough to drive them but for others to succeed they need to be passionate about what they are selling and their industry. Staying motivated is key to building and carrying a business through the difficult periods. They say if you love what you do, you'll never work another day in your life.
Example: Eric Bandholz began BeardBrand as a blog discussing business and sales strategy. Slowly, his passion for beards crept into the blog and in time he turned his passion for the bearded lifestyle into a separate and successful ecommerce business selling beard grooming related products.
6. Look For an Opportunity Gap
Finding an opportunity gap involves looking at a particular product, niche or industry and identifying a problem or deficiency that can be capitalized on. What can you do different or better from what everyone else is currently doing? An opportunity gap may exist in the form of an improved product feature, an unrealized market by your competitors, or even in your marketing capability.
Example: Chaim Pikarski is a perfect example of someone that seeks out and capitalizes on opportunity gaps. Chaim started out by scouring Amazon ads and thoroughly reading the comments section looking for deficiencies and feature gaps buyers posted. Using this information he sourced a manufacturer in China and made the product better. He has repeated the process thousands of times over.
Hipo shower radio is one such product Chaim has manufactured:
7. Consider Your Experience
Have you worked in a particular industry and know the in's and out's? Maybe you have a skill or a particular set of experiences that makes you an expert on a particular topic. Turning your expertise into your own online business is a great way to enter the market with a leg up that may not be so easy for others to duplicate.
Example: Jonathan Snook is an expert in web design and development. He used his years of experience and knowledge to write a self published book on web development and CSS called SMACSS, Scalable and Modular Architecture for CSS.
Jillian Michael from The Biggest Loser took the same approach and used her expertise in fitness and weight loss to develop and sell a line of products, including DVD's, books and fitness equipment.
8. Capitalize on Trends Early
Capitalizing on a trend early enough can be massive for a new business. It allows you to carve out a place in consumers minds and establish yourself as a leader before others have a chance to. Jumping on a trend early can also have some big impact on your SEO and allow you to climb to the top of search rankings easier and quicker.
Example: Flockstocks noticed the trend for feather hair extensions very early on. Before spending any money or buying inventory, founder Sophie Kovic tested the market by quickly mocking up a test website. The results? 11 sales in 4 hours. Knowing there was a huge opportunity she built out her site, ordered inventory and even ended up winning the 2012 Shopify Build A Business competition in the Apparel & Jewelry category.
Which Opportunity Do You See?
Keep in mind that because of heavy competition in the most common and popular product categories, choosing the right niche can be instrumental to your success. Don't be afraid to look at smaller product categories and niches. Even though a niche is a smaller subset of a larger category with less potential customers, it makes up for that by way of less competitors and a more targeted audience. Less competition makes it easier to get to the top of Google, and usually is more cost effective and efficient to advertise to your customers.
The niche and products you choose will shape your entire business, the activities you do, and the difficulty you'll face. Selling food related products is very different from selling products like smartphone cases and there will be unique challenges involved in each.
Understanding each of the eight opportunities above should get the gears turning and help you find the perfect first product or niche.
This is the first in a series of posts that will detail the process of getting started in ecommerce. In the coming weeks we will be posting further in-depth articles on other aspects of finding and evaluating products to sell online.


text:
MONOPOLY Millionaire Review
- Publisher: Electronic Arts
- Genre: Entertainment
- Released: 11 Oct, 2012
- Size: 193.0 MB
- Price: $2.99
- The fortune cards and upgrades add a new flavor to the game.
- Makes playing a round of Monopoly, either against friends or the AI easy and stress free.
- Graphics are a bit muddy. Wonky dice physics.
- Earning that million takes a lot longer than it sounds.
If you're looking for a new spin on an old classic, Monopoly Millionaire doesn't completely reinvent the wheel here, but has a couple new additions to make things interesting, that should keep the enthusiasts more than happy.
- Full Review
- App Store Info
There's a lot to be said for the mobile versions of Monopoly that EA have released over the years. In my experience, no game is responsible for causing more arguments amongst friends (maybe Mario Kart), so it's nice to be able to enjoy such a well designed take on capitalism playing against computer controlled opponents. For those of you who don't have a problem playing with friends, there's always that option too, and plenty of tweaks to create the type of game you want to play.
So the question on everybody's lips is "What is Monopoly Millionaire, and how does it differ from the versions that came before it"? That's a valid question. One answer is that you're playing for higher stakes. In a game about acquiring property and bankrupting your opposition, it all feels more visceral the more dollars that are at stake, and in just the simple act of making the goal of the game a million dollars (plus upping the costs of all the properties), it does a lot to up the ante of the experience. Other features include choosing to upgrade your player piece every time you pass go. Upgrading yields greater profits from the chance and millionaire lifestyle cards, but also the potential for greater penalties as well. Finally are the fortune cards, which sit on top of every unsold property, and have effects like forcing unfair trades or blocking such a trade from an opponent.
These little tweaks do a lot to give the game a fresh edge, but a lot of the rest of the experience is a bit lacking. The graphics are quite muddy with particle effects and close ups of the board lacking a polish that should be conveyed in a game about riches. The dice physics are more than a little off as well, finding it hard to come to a stand still and getting caught on the card piles as they brush passed.
These are quibbles however, and if you're a fan of the previous mobile Monopoly offerings, the tweaks to the design here are enough to make this worth a purchase. If you've never head of Monopoly before, we do apologize for not getting into the rules of the game, but suggest you check out the reviews of the original releases, and if you like what you see, this is a good a purchase as they are (all depending if you want the authentic experience or not).
DescriptionCAUTION: This is no ordinary MONOPOLY experience. Are you ready to do whatever it takes to bank a million bucks first and become a MONOPOLY Millionaire? "GO" for it!
FIRST TO A MILLION WINS! Enjoy a fast, fresh take on the classic MONOPOLY game. Do you have the drive to be a MONOPOLY Millionaire?
Trade properties on the sly, force powerful land-grabbing deals, and risk it all – in a private jettin', yacht clubbin' dash for a million in cash.
• Zoom past wannabes in the fastest MONOPOLY experience ever!
• Purchase palatial Dreamland Properties like Bling Beach and Paradise Island
• Splurge on upgradable Movers – show friends how hot you roll!
• Compete for the Million with friends in Pass n' Play or local Wifi
• Test your moneymaker with 3 difficulty modes
• Get lucky! Fortune Cards can speed up your rise OR send you back to broke
Ready to feel like a million? GO for it!
Terms of Service : http://www.ea.com/terms-of-service
Privacy and Cookie Policy: http://www.ea.com/privacy-policy
Game EULA: http://tos.ea.com/legalapp/mobileeula/US/en/GM/
Visit https://help.ea.com/ for assistance or inquiries.
EA may retire online features and services after 30 days' notice posted on www.ea.com/1/service-updates.
Important Consumer Information. This app: Contains direct links to the Internet; Collects data through third party analytics technology (see Privacy & Cookie Policy for details).


text:
Gourmet Tortillas from Spain
Tortilla Española is the ultimate Spanish comfort food. Ask anyone in Spain and they will tell you that their mother makes the best tortilla. Unlike corn tortillas, Spanish tortillas are made of diced potatoes and fresh eggs which are cooked into a delectable snack. Served hot out of the pan or at room temperature as a snack, this is one of Spain's great foods.
- New


text:
Free Arkansas Permit Practice Test Questions
We have multiple drivers' license practice tests covering each section of the permit driving exam. Pass all of the general practice tests and the road sign tests with a score of 100 percent, and you will be ready to pass your Arkansas driver's license test. Using online practice test websites are a proven and effective learning/study method for improving driver test scores.
Our Current Driver's License Practice Tests
Driver's DMV Practice Test #3 | Driver's DMV Practice Test #4 | Permit Practice (135 Questions)
Driver's Road Sign Test #1 | Driver's Road Sign Test #2 | Driver's Road Sign Test #3
Motorcycle Practice Test | Final DMV Exam #1 | Final DMV Exam #2 | Final Road Sign Exam
Final Motorcycle Exam | Defensive Driving | Teen Driver Safety
Privacy Policy | About | Contact
© 2020 DriversLicenseTest.net


text: He's already livened up Torchwood, Smallville and Dragonball, but now Buffy's punky vampire, James Marsters, is joining the cast of Caprica, the prequel to Battlestar Galactica. He'll play a terrorist (presumably a monotheist) named Barnabus Greeley. Says EW's Michael Ausiello, "Driven by desires both moralistic and carnal, Barnabus is as lethal as he is unpredictable." And Marsters will be in at least three episodes. [EW]


text:
Heat, Light and Cooking In An Emergency
To conserve your cooking fuel storage needs always do your emergency cooking in the most efficient manner possible. Don't boil more water than you need, extinguish the fire as soon as you finished, plan your meals ahead of time to consolidate as much cooking as possible, during the winter cook on top of your heating unit while heating your home, and cook in a pressure cooker or other fuel efficient container as much as possible. Keep enough fuel to provide outdoor cooking for at least 7-10 days.
It is even possible to cook without using fuel at all. For example, to cook dry beans you can place them inside a pressure cooker with the proper amount of water and other ingredients needed and place it on your heat source until it comes up to pressure. Then turn off the heat, remove the pressure cooker and place inside a large box filled with newspapers, blankets, or other insulating materials. Leave it for two and a half hours and then open it, your meal will be done, having cooked for two and a half hours with no heat. If you don't have a large box in which to place the pressure cooker, simply wrap it in several blankets and place it in the corner.
Store matches in a waterproof airtight tin with each piece of equipment that must be lit with a flame.
Sterno Fuel a jellied petroleum product, is an excellent source of fuel for inclusion in your back pack as part of your 72 hour kit. Sterno is very light weight and easily ignited with a match or a spark from flint and steel but is not explosive. It is also safe for use indoors.
Sterno Stove
A Sterno Stove can be purchased at any sporting goods store and will retail between $3 and $8, depending upon the model you choose. They fold up into a very small, compact unit ideal for carrying in a pack. The fuel is readily available at all sporting goods stores and many drug stores. One can of Sterno fuel, about the diameter of a can of tuna fish and twice as high, will allow you to cook six meals if used frugally. Chafing dishes and fondue pots can also be used with Sterno.
Sterno is not without some problems. It will evaporate very easily, even when the lid is securely fastened. If you use Sterno in your 72 hour kit you should check it every six to eight months to insure that it has not evaporated beyond the point of usage. Because of this problem it is not a good fuel for long-term storage. It is a very expensive fuel to use compared to others fuel available, but is extremely convenient and portable.
Coleman fuel (white gas)
W hen used with a Coleman stove this another excellent and convenient fuel for cooking. It is not as portable nor as lightweight as Sterno, but produces a much greater BTU value. Like Sterno, Coleman fuel has a tendency to evaporate even when the container is tightly sealed so it is not a good fuel for long-term storage. Unlike Sterno, however, it is highly volatile; it will explode under the right conditions and should therefore never be stored in the home. Because of its highly flammable nature great care should always be exercised when lighting stoves and lanterns that use Coleman fuel. Many serious burns have been caused by carelessness with this product. Always store Coleman fuel in the garage or shed, out of doors.
Charcoal is the least expensive fuel per BTU that the average family can store. Remember that it must always be used out of doors because of the vast amounts of poisonous carbon monoxide it produces. Charcoal will store for extended period of time if it is stored in air tight containers. It readily absorbs moisture from the surrounding air so do not store it in the paper bags it comes in for more than a few months or it may be difficult to light. Transfer it to airtight metal or plastic containers and it will keep almost forever.
Fifty or sixty dollars worth of charcoal will provide all the cooking fuel a family will need for an entire year if used sparingly. The best time to buy briquettes inexpensively is at the end of the summer. Broken or torn bags of briquettes are usually sold at a big discount. You will also want to store a small amount of charcoal lighter fluid (or kerosene). Newspapers will also provide an excellent ignition source for charcoal when used in a funnel type of lighting device.
To light charcoal using newspapers use two or three sheets, crumpled up, and a #10 tin can. Cut both ends out of the can. Punch holes every two inches around the lower edge of the can with a punch-type can opener (for opening juice cans). Set the can down so the punches holes are on the bottom. Place the crumpled newspaper in the bottom of the can and place the charcoal briquettes on top of the newspaper. Lift the can slightly and light the newspaper. Prop a small rock under the bottom edge of the can to create a a good draft. The briquettes will be ready to use in about 20-30 minutes. When the coals are ready remove the chimney and place them in your cooker. Never place burning charcoal directly on concrete or cement because the heat will crack it. A wheelbarrow or old metal garbage can lid makes an excellent container for this type of fire.
One of the nice things about charcoal is that you can regulate the heat you will receive from them. Each briquette will produce about 40 degrees of heat. If you are baking bread, for example, and need 400 degrees of heat for your oven, simply use ten briquettes.
To conserve heat and thereby get the maximum heat value from your charcoal you must learn to funnel the heat where you want it rather than letting it dissipate into the air around you. One excellent way to do this is to cook inside a cardboard oven. Take a cardboard box, about the size of an orange crate, and cover it with aluminum foil inside and out. Be sure that the shiny side is visible so that maximum reflectivity is achieved. Turn the box on its side so that the opening is no longer on the top but is on the side. Place some small bricks or other noncombustible material inside upon which you can rest a cookie sheet about two or three inches above the bottom of the box. Place ten burning charcoal briquettes between the bricks (if you need 400 degrees), place the support for your cooking vessels, and then place your bread pans or whatever else you are using on top of the cookie sheet. Prop a foil-covered cardboard lid over the open side, leaving a large crack for air to get in (charcoal needs a lot of air to burn) and bake your bread, cake, cookies, etc. just like you would in your regular oven. Your results will amaze you.
To make your own charcoal, select twigs, limbs, and branches of fruit, nut and other hardwood trees; black walnuts and peach or apricot pits may also be used. Cut wood into desired size, place in a large can which has a few holes punched in it, put a lid on the can and place the can in a hot fire. When the flames from the holes in the can turn yellow-red, remove the can from the fire and allow it to cool. Store the briquettes in a moisture-proof container. Burn charcoal only in a well-ventilated area.


text:
Agricultural Center / Extension Services
Solutions for Your Life
Who We Are
The Cooperative Extension Service is a nationwide educational network and partnership between state universities, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and County governments. All universities engage in research and teaching, but the nation's more than 100 land-grant colleges and universities have a third critical mission—extension. Land-grant institutions "extend" their resources, solving public needs with university resources through non-formal, non-credit programs. The Cooperative Extension Service is administered by the University of Florida, and St. Johns County Commissoners provide support for local faculty, staff and facilities. Visit their website at https://sfyl.ifas.ufl.edu/stjohns/
What We Do
The Cooperative Extension Service conducts educational programs in agriculture, horticulture, family and consumer sciences, marine interest, and 4-H youth development program (view a short 4-H video). Locally-based advisory committees assure that programs are designed to meet community needs. Volunteer training is strongly emphasized in our programs to enable us to reach more of the county's population.
Our Programming
- Seminars, demonstrations, field days, public exhibits, workshops
- Networking with educational, governmental and human resources agencies
- Speaking to garden, service, civic clubs, schools and commodity groups
- Newsletters and weekly newspaper columns, personal contacts, farm visits
- Diagnostic services: soil testing, plant disease, insect and nematode identification
- Training for professional in-service needs and extension volunteers
- Research publication library
Our programs are open to all residents regardless of race, color, sex, religion, national origin or handicap. In compliance with ADA, participants needing special accommodations to attend programs should contact the office one week prior to the activity.
Location & Contact
Phone: (904) 209-0430
Web: https://sfyl.ifas.ufl.edu/stjohns/
4-H: https://sfyl.ifas.ufl.edu/stjohns/4-h-youth-development/
3125 Agricultural Center Dr.
St. Augustine, FL 32092-0572. Google Map
From I-95, take Exit 318 to SR-16 West, then almost immediately turn left onto CR-208. Take the first street on the left, which is Agricultural Center Drive. The building is located at the southernmost end of the road.


text:
Ballet in the nineteenth
century was an ideal medium for the manifestation of the Romantic movement.
Expressionism, lyricism, and inspiration took precedence over Classical
ideals, and interest in the supernatural and the exotic provided subject
matter for some of the most popular ballets of the period, among them La
Sylphide and Giselle.
The Romantic ballet was dominated
by female dancers. Marie Taglioni, whose Parisian debut in 1827 essentially
marks the beginning of the period, was noted for her grace and strength.
Her opposite in physique, style, and temperament was Fanny Elssler; the
two were defined by Theophile Gautier as Christian and pagan dancers.
Arthur Saint-Leon and Jules Perrot were among the most famous of the male
dancers, who functioned as lesser partners and often became choreographers
in addition to appearing on stage. It was Perrot who choreographed
the Pas de Quatre with four stars of the era: Taglioni, Carlotta
Grisi, Fanny Cerrito, and Lucile Grahn.
Shortly after the middle of
the century the Romantic Ballet began to decline as the music hall and
other more popular forms of entertainment gained audience attention.
But ballet audiences today applaud the technical achievements which had
their origins in the nineteenth century, and in the words of dance historian
Ivor Guest, the ballets handed down to the present added poetic dimension
and new aesthetic foundation to the art of the dance.
The Delarue Collection offers
not only vignettes of this extraordinary time of artistry and grace, but
also a glimpse of the entire period portrayed as well.


text:
It was a weekend of clichés. The FA Cup was restored to its place at the top of English football and in the hearts of millions of fans. Thousands poured forth from homes not usually filled with the sounds of football chatter to watch David vs. Goliath encounters. Communities came together and embarked on quests to places suddenly rendered exotic wonderlands. Who would have thought Manchester could seem such a distant, unattainable paradise?
There were shocks across the board. Even in an all Premiership tie in London, eye brows were raised as the holders Chelsea were dumped out. But the novelty attractions lay elsewhere in the form of so called minnows taking on the swaggering, mega-bucks big boys. Leyton Orient snatched a replay with Arsenal. And of course there was the tie of the round.
It was the dream draw on everyone's speculative lips as the balls were swirled and plucked. No one quite expected it to really happen, despite the FA Cup's notoriety for such things. Non-league Crawley Town, netted a huge financial windfall from the grandest theatre of football in the land, not to mention an unforgettable "day out".
I say "day out" because it was always going to be more than that. United's FA Cup jitters have become commonplace in recent years and Crawley were up for the occasion. They're also a team studded with players that could play at a higher level, bought for sizeable sums in non-league terms. Crawley are now reaping rewards that are not merely financial. Thanks to holding the Premier League leaders and the world's most famous team to a mere 1-0 win, they have secured a place in the hearts of countless neutrals and established themselves on the football map. Many would say they deserve the plaudits for a fearless second half display in which they dominated a team far above their standing.
I am reluctant to praise Crawley and refuse to join in the enthusiastic congratulations. Yes they played well at Old Trafford and reasserted the reality that the so called stars of football can be little better than a well organised, galvanised lower league team in a one-off match. Yes they gave hope to other small teams hoping for a break and injected life into the dreams of youngsters. Yes they hinted at the FA Cup's ongoing ability to charm and surprise. But the manner in which they progressed from the previous round tarnished the innocence of their fairytale moment for me.
Until they burst onto the scene courtesy of an FA Cup run, I'd not heard of Crawley, the so called "car park for Gatwick" of the non-league. I don't follow non-league football so I have no bitterness about their supposed Manchester City like spending to propel themselves towards the football league like an unfeeling big stack bully. But I saw the highlights of their triumph over Torquay.
The behaviour of the Crawley players in that game was nothing short of shameful. There was talk of the squad showing disrespect by warming up in the home side's goalmouth prior to kick-off and of spats between the managers behind the scenes. On the pitch Crawley displayed evidence of dirty tackling and unsporting tactics alongside promising bouts of impressive football. Worst of all were the school boy tantrums surrounding two missed penalties.
Crawley players literally fought each other in fits of moody rage for control of the ball and the right to have a go from the spot. They tugged at each other's shirts and unmistakeably swore. They abused the referee and demanded cards for their opponents. It was an ill tempered match and Torquay also had a sending off, but those two petty squabbles over penalties highlighted Crawley's immaturity, arrogance and disrespect.
There's been all the usual talk about the "magic" of the FA Cup surrounding Crawley's tie with Manchester United. But for me if there is such a thing as FA Cup magic a key ingredient of it is the good behaviour and pure innocence behind the lowly sides' valiant and courageous displays. There's an assumption these days that it's the money at the top of the game that breeds the bad side of football. I didn't believe this to be entirely true. But the arrogance and disgraceful behaviour demonstrated by Crawley against Torquay, that sets such an unsporting example for watching youngsters, seems to suggest that even an injection of cash lower down the leagues can lead to behavioural problems and dissent in the dressing room.
It's a worrying trend of excessive wealth tainting all corners of the game, given greater weight by Leyton Orient's chairman Barry Hearn's plans to fly his squad to Las Vegas as a reward for securing a replay with Arsenal. On the surface this is far more acceptable than Crawley's shocking antics on the pitch and simply a part of another cup fairytale. But why isn't a replay with one of the country's greatest teams reward enough? It seems football in itself isn't enough anymore. After the ludicrous transfer window the last bastion of pure football, the FA Cup, appears under threat too. Cup glory is becoming a trendy badge, an accessory or piece of bling, rather than something honourable, innocent and valuable all by itself.


text:
GAITHERSBURG, Md., Aug. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — Patton Electronics—US manufacturer of UC, cloud, and IoT enabling solutions for carrier, enterprise and industrial networks—has been named among the top ten unified communications (UC) solutions providers according to InsightsSuccess magazine.
Patton is doing some unusual things that no other network equipment manufacturer does to enable UC implementations.
Patton offers a unique set of competencies and capabilities that help companies bring their UC dreams into reality. Two examples…
- SmartNode enterprise session border controllers (eSBC) address a broad range of networking functions including IP security, legacy telephony integration (analog and ISDN), network demarcation, and much more—all in a single customer premise device.
- CopperLink Ethernet extenders and Power-over-Ethernet extenders, enable the Internet of Things (IoT) –as well as cloud connectivity—by helping companies to connect IP endpoints to their corporate networks over very long distances using existing copper or coaxial network cabling infrastructure.
What Patton is doing today in the UC area, is a lot like what they have done in the technology business for the past 30 years…
Patton's specialty has always been interconnecting legacy TDM and serial systems with new-generation IP-based voice, data, and multimedia technologies. Incorporated in 1984, Patton has built everything from micro-sized widgets that connect "this-with-that," to carrier-grade telecom gear that connects subscribers to service providers.
Going forward, look for more innovative UC and IoT-enabling solutions from Patton that satisfy real-world customer requirements: new VoIP Gateways, eSBCs and integrated access devices (IADs) that IP-enable existing network systems so SMBs can transition to new-generation ALL-IP solutions—affordably and at their own pace. Also watch for ongoing development of Ethernet and Power-over-Ethernet solutions that save customers money by leveraging the existing copper plant for long-reach IP connectivity.
Other Awards
Last year, INTERNET TELEPHONY (IT) Magazine recognized Patton with the 2016 Communications Solutions Products of the Year Award for the SmartNode 5540 Enterprise Session Border Controller (eSBC) with 2,4, or 8 integrated analog FXS telephony interfaces.
In addition, Cable Spotlight Magazine awarded the 2016 Product of the Year Award for Patton's CopperLink 1101 Power over Ethernet (PoE) Ethernet Extender.
Patton Contact: Glendon Flowers | +1 301 975 1000 | email@example.com
InsightsSuccess Contact: David Martin | +1 614 602 1741 |firstname.lastname@example.com
Source: Patton Electronics Co. via GLOBE NEWSWIRE


text:
Juliet Glove - LympheDivas
Don't stress! Returns are easy. Details
LympheDivas Juliet Glove features a beautiful rose pattern on a beige background. It is designed to perfectly match your LympheDivas Juliet Armsleeve. Correct graduated compression is delivered throughout the hand and fingers. The glove is knit with reduced compression at the wrist, so it will not double the compression when worn with a sleeve. Available in 20-30 and 30-40mmHg compression levels.
Other features include:
Other features include:
- Completely seamless design to reduce binding and finger irritation
- Revolutionary knit, that pulls moisture from the skin, keeping you cool and comfortable
- Latex and silicone free


text:
Please help me welcome Margo Bond. Isn't her cover fantastic?
About Under Her Skin
She's lucky he's a charmer…
Lindi Parker works hard at being human, not an easy task for a snake shifter. She has no desire to search for others like her—until a new case changes everything. When Lindi learns that she she's not the only shapeshifter in the world, she also realizes she might be next on a killer's list.
In order to save herself and the abused children she works with, she will have to team up with Dr. Kade Nevala, a member of the shifter tribe responsible for eradicating weresnakes—and the most attractive man Lindi's ever met. Even more terrifying, she'll need to embrace her serpent side, a choice that has enormous consequences for Lindi, and for everyone around her.
Release Date: June 15
Add to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30244024-under-her-skin
I'm not the kind of woman who goes around kissing strange men—especially strange men with hypnotic gold eyes who set off every internal warning system I've got.
And as a general rule, I avoid making out with men who drag me into dark rooms against my will.
But all those rules went out the window when this man kissed me.
His lips burned against mine, searing something deep inside, heating me to my core.
The almost peppery scent that had frozen me earlier now flooded my senses. His hands dropped from my shoulders and ran down my arms, wrapping around my waist and pulling me closer to him.
Muscles that moments ago had been writhing in an attempt to shapeshift now twisted to move closer to him.
About the Author
Margo Bond Collins is addicted to coffee (mmm…caffeine) and SF/F television, especially Supernatural (mmm…Winchesters). She writes paranormal and contemporary romance, urban fantasy, and paranormal mystery. She lives in Texas with her daughter and several spoiled pets. Although she teaches college-level English courses online, writing fiction is her first love. She enjoys reading urban fantasy and paranormal fiction of any genre and spends most of her free time daydreaming about heroes, vampires, ghosts, werewolves, and the women who love (and sometimes fight) them.
You can learn more about her at http://www.MargoBondCollins.net and follow her on all the usual social media outlets (listed below).
For updates about publications, free fiction, and other goodies, be sure to subscribe to her newsletter: https://confirmsubscription.com/h/d/03A21E5E161401F0
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/author/margobondcollins
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Website: http://www.MargoBondCollins.net
Blog: http://www.MargoBondCollins.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MargoBondCollin @MargoBondCollin
Google+: https://plus.google.com/116484555448104519902
Goodreads Author Page: http://www.goodreads.com/vampirarchy
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/MargoBondCollins
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/mbondcollins/


text:
New flame shape chess medals that has a super bright shiny face, the look of a brand new minted coin. Black brass plate on the back of each medal allow your personalized message to stand out for only 50 cents. Available in gold, silver and bronze finishes. This medal has a free 7/8 x 30 inch v-sewn neck ribbon or pin drape of your choice.
|1 +
|25 +
|50 +
|100 +
|250 +
|500 +
Free FEDEX ground shipping on all prepaid orders over $100 in the continental U.S.
This item will ship within 5-7 business days.
When timing is important please let us know when you would like your order so we can make sure you get it on time.
Date Needed By: