text:
About Us
In Optipe we specialize in apps for Excel. We know how long you can get lost in your daily work with data and tables. Our goal is that users of our products can do more in less time. Increased efficiency and effectiveness in its management. Optimize Time Performance.
Our professionals has extensive experience in implementing various computational solutions in a wide range of companies, as well as being users of Microsoft Excel. This experience was overturned in our products, which we are sure will be very useful to Excel users.
Optipe is headed by José Antonio de Diego Glaría, Chilean Computer Engineer from the University of Concepción and Master of Business Administration from the University of Talca. He has been professor of Statistics for Management in Magister programs at the Universidad de Talca and Universidad Santo Tomás. Knowing Excel for over 25 years, has extensive experience in developing models of management control. He has implemented many solutions to automate several administrative processes. Conducts workshops for companies on management tools for decision making, aimed at executives and business professionals who require a more advanced knowledge of Excel for analysis to help interpret business information.
Optipe. Optimize Time Performance.
Contact us at our email: optipe @ optipe.com


text:
Day of Absence/Day of Presence Wins NASPA 2007 Innovative Program Award
The National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) Division V region recently awarded The Day of Absence /Day of Presence organizing committee from The Evergreen State College the 2007 Innovative Program Award for its yearly diversity program efforts. The award was presented to representatives from the campus at this years NASPA convention in Las Vegas in October.
Although many of Evergreen's campus events and activities focus on issues of diversity each and every day, the yearly observance, Day of Absence and Day of Presence, asks the entire campus to think about racial diversity for two days each year.
The Day of Absence was originally a unity dinner celebrated by our African American faculty in the mid 70's. It grew to become an opportunity for all students, staff and faculty of color to gather off-campus for an educational and community-building retreat.
The idea for the Day of Absence came from a play of the same name by African American playwright, Douglas Turner Ward. Presented in 1965, the play is a social commentary on race relations in the U.S. and satirizes the South's refusal to see the African American as an equal member of the community. In the play, a town wakes up to find all of the African Americans missing, leaving those left to reflect on the meaning of their community without these valued members.
In the mid 90's, the Day of Presence was added by students and staff of color in order to reunite the college community and honor diversity and unity as a whole campus.
On the Day of Absence, while students and staff of color are off campus, typically, a group of white students and staff plan educational workshops and invite guest speakers to campus to work on issues of multiculturalism from an ally perspective.
Depending on the ideas generated in the committee, the events look different every year. The primary function of the event has always been to give the campus an opportunity for community building and reflection around issues of culture, heritage and diversity. Currently the open organizing committee is meeting weekly and would like to extend an invitation for anyone from the Evergreen community to participate, for more information contact Norma Alicia Pino or Raquel Salinas at First Peoples' Advising Services, (360) 867-6467.
The Evergreen State College is a nationally recognized public liberal arts college known for its distinctive interdisciplinary curriculum, high level of student/faculty engagement and emphasis on putting learning into action.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
- Home
- Community
- Business
- Visitors
- Kids & Teens
- Government
- Employment
- Consent Decree
Permits and Inspections
Permit Guide for Building Construction
Permit Information for Streets and Sidewalk Projects
Plan Examination and Approval Process
Building and Housing Inspections
Skilled Trade Permits and Applications
Obstruction and Street Opening Permit
Type "A" Daycare Zoning Application Procedure
Plan Examination and Approval Process
Once permit applications are made, plans are reviewed by the City for code compliance. There is a charge of $15 per 1000 square feet of work and a minimum fee of $15 for reviewing plans for homes, garages, sheds, fences, and swimming pools. The review period varies according to the project's complexity. In general, review of one- and two-family homes can be completed in three to five working days.
For more information see the permit guide.
Building and Housing Inspections
Contractors and do-it-yourselfers are responsible for scheduling inspections by calling the office number listed on the building permit. Inspections should be made after foundation excavation (before pouring concrete), after rough-in (before concealing work), and upon completion. NOTE: If faulty work is discovered, the inspector will issue a violation notice, and a specific period of time is allotted to correct the problem.
Skilled trade Permits and Applications
EPA & EPF - Electrical Permit and Fee Schedule
PPA & PPF - Plumbing Permit and Fee Schedule
HPA & HPF - HVAC Permit and Fee Schedule


text:
Maternity Location
candid maternity photographer in los angeles, servicing santa monica, pacific palisades, beverly hills. On location couple photography in culver city, mar vista, playa del rey and manhattan beach. Best pregnancy photographer for brentwood, playa vista, venice beach, hollywood, studio city, sherman oaks, calabassas and bel air.
Read More


text:
Bookworm review: 'The Promise' a winner for readers
It was a vow you took very seriously.
Friends forever, you said in school. Til death do you part, you uttered in front of an altar. Semper fi, on my honor, read my lips, it'll get done, I'll be there.
It's easy to make a pledge to someone. It's not always easy to keep it — especially, as in "The Promise" by Ann Weisgarber, the covenant is a big one.
Catherine Wainwright was well aware that she'd caused quite a scandal.
It was bad enough that she'd kept company with another woman's husband. It was brazen to touch Edward's arm in public and they were seen alone together at night, which made tongues wag. But what really caused Dayton's society women to shun Catherine, to make her a pariah, was that the man was her handicapped cousin's husband — and such audacity in the year 1900 was simply unforgivable.
Her piano concerts were canceled. Friendships ended. With her money almost gone and her mother unwilling to help, Catherine turned to a stack of letters from a suitor she'd spurned eight years before.
Catherine and Oscar Williams had known one another in school, their relationship stiffly cordial. Once he moved to Texas, they spent years corresponding through the mail, but she'd wanted nothing to do with his working-class existence. Now, panicking, she wrote to him, and learned that he was a recent widower.
"My Son is in need of a Mother." he wrote three months later. "I am in need of a Wife." And so, in desperation, Catherine packed the belongings she hadn't already sold, and boarded the train to Galveston ...
Nan Ogden took pride in her roots and her stubbornness. She also knew that the word of a Texas woman was steel, so when she promised Oscar's dying wife that she'd help Oscar raise his son, Nan was determined to keep her vow.
But it wasn't going to be easy with the new Mrs. Williams in the house. Oscar and every man in Galveston saw Catherine's loveliness, but not her laziness. So why couldn't Oscar also see that Nan was really the better woman for him?
One good book. That's all you need this summer — just one book that you can put down if you need to, but that you won't want to.
And that describes "The Promise."
With a real historical event as her background, author Ann Weisgarber spins a story of two women who are more alike than they'd ever admit, and the reasons they eventually learn of that truth. That's cause enough to become totally captivated by this novel, but what struck me most was the way in which this story is told: Weisgarber deftly turns the clock back 115 years, immersing readers in social mores, turn-of-the-last-century life, and tiny details of day-to-day survival. That, plus wonderful characters, makes this book a winner.
Just be prepared with a tissue, that's all I'm going to say. Bring a box of 'em, in fact, because this book proves that "The Promise" isn't all that can be broken.
The Bookworm is Terri Schlichenmeyer. Terri grew up in Granton (Class of '78), where she was known for "always reading" and for her ability to name all the presidents in order. She lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 12,000 books.
About the book
"The Promise" by Ann Weisgarber, c.2013, 2014, Skyhorse Publishing $24.95 / $32.99 Canada, 310 pages


text:
SR22 Drivers Insurance Solutions of Columbia
The Best SR22 Insurance Columbia MO Has To Offer!
The Best SR22 Insurance Columbia MO Has To Offer! Our team of talented agents are here to help you get into affordable car insurance. Whether you have had a DUI or an at-fault accident with no insurance, we are here to work through every situation. We have the experience and skills to handle any situation. If you've been hard-pressed to find an agent who can help you get SR22 Insurance Missouri locals rely on, then you've come to the right place. We understand that this can be difficult for you, and we are here for you. Our team offers you skilled details and the best quality attention for all of our clients. To get affordable and effective coverage in Missouri, call the SR22 Missouri specialists.
Business Name:
SR22 Drivers Insurance Solutions of Columbia
Serving AroundColumbia Missouri 65203USA
About Columbia
Columbia is a city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is the county seat of Boone County and home to the University of Missouri. Founded in 1821, it is the principal city of the five-county Columbia metropolitan area. It is Missouri's fourth most-populous and fastest growing city, with an estimated 126,254 residents in 2020.As a Midwestern college town, Columbia has a reputation for progressive politics, persuasive journalism, and public art. The tripartite establishment of Stephens College (1833), the University of Missouri (1839), and Columbia College (1851), which surround the city's Downtown to the east, south, and north, has made the city a center of learning.
Neighborhoods in Columbia, Missouri
Quarry Heights, The Neighborhoods by TigerPlace Skilled Nursing, Thornbrook
Things to do in Columbia, Missouri
Our Newest Profiles


text:
We Are Not Jealous About This New York Times Gossip Blogger Article
People keep asking us if we've seen this Times article about up-and-coming young bloggers. Yes, we are a young blogger, of course we have seen it. So what. Wait... you don't actually think we're jealous?
So our Mom calls us up today all, "Did you read that thing about 'the rising stars of gossip blogs' in the Times?" And we thought, that's funny, we don't remember being interviewed for any article. Turns out this is because we weren't even it!
"That nice girl, [Gawker Weekend Editor] Maureen O'Connor was in it. Why weren't YOU in it," says Mom. Yeah, that's cool. They talked about her Peter Orzsag toupee investigation. Good job, Maureen! But, Mom, it's an article in a newspaper. Nobody cares about newspapers anymore. Didn't you read the article?
Mom says, "Hey, look. Foster Kamer and Maureen are both 25, just like you. So is Fashionologie editor Tommye Fitzpatrick. That Curbed editor is only 24!" OK, Mom. We get it. Look, we actually were quoted in Foster's blurb, talking about his famous penis joke. So go tell all your friends our name is in the New York Times. Whatever. Did you see that hilarious picture, though? It's like something Wesleyan would send out to high school juniors. Except that Erin Carlson. She looks nice, I guess.
Mom: "You should ask her out on a date!" Sure, yeah. But, Mom. They called them "gossip bloggers!" It's like, what is this, Sex in the City? Even the article says, "the lines between 'reporter' and 'blogger,' 'gossip' and 'news' have blurred almost beyond distinction." Nobody calls us 'gossip bloggers' except the New York Times, like they need to point out that we're basically over-sharey college students writ large. And apparently every young media person in New York now dreams of "making it as a blogger." You know that we never dreamed of being a gossip blogger: We want to write for TV! Imagine if we were in the article and Jon Stewart read it. He would be like, Well, we were going to offer this kid a job at The Daily Show but it looks like he's already achieved his life's dream by becoming an editor at Gawker.
"These are all excellent points," Says Mom. "I guess it's a good thing you weren't in the New York Times Top Nine bloggers of 2010 list." Great. Now can we go back to sleep? It's almost noon and we have to be up in six hours.
"You're sure you're not even a little jealous?" Mom asks. No, mom. Goodbye.
And then we wept ourselves to sleep, waking just as darkness fell. Another day, another night shift for America's Next Top Gossip Blogger.


text:
MSI Geforce GTX 275 Lightning Video Card Review
Videocards/VGA Reviews by leeghoofd @ 2009-12-16
The previous Lightning model based of a Geforce GTX 260 by MSI was a big success within the overclocking/gaming community. Can MSI pull it off again with the higher rated GTX 275? What did MSI change to declare this card the fastest GTX 275 out there? Only one way to find out: Let us explore the card and included software bit by bit.


text:
You can dance your life, and in dancing your life you can lead the life you want to have.
-Anna Halprin
If you were here last week, you know I proposed that this question begs us to look in the wings for other metaphorical questions. Questions that stray from the literal, and speak to emotion and energy and essence:
Where did you stop dancing with your creative force, with possibility and imagination?
Where did you stop dancing with your ability to play?
Where did you stop dancing in your interactions with the ones you love?
All of us (even those who strive to make meaning) can become disconnected from our inner metaphorical dancers, those sprites who travel in the flow of life. Those delicate creatures who need care and attention.
Because in this world we come up against disillusionment and overwhelm. We live the same day over and over again. Our metaphorical dancers lose their way. And our bodies become vessels of trapped feelings and emotions, and who knows what to do with all of that?
Which is exactly where my experiments have taken me. Each morning for the past few weeks, I've capitulated to the wisdom of my body, letting it lead the way and express whatever emotions it needs to.
Dancing inside the house and outside in the garden, I've moved through joy, sorrow, laziness, curiosity, irritation, excitement, and love. And every single time the original emotion has transformed to a sweet, subtle form of sustenance.
Always, in the end, I feel centered and ready for my day.
I was inspired to take this on after reading The Creative Connection: Expressive Arts and Healing, by Natalie Rogers. In the book Rogers describes how to deepen the experience by adding other art forms, and several times I've piggy backed writing and drawing onto my morning dance ritual.
The beauty is that one doesn't need any particular artistic background to proceed. Expressive art is for your inner growth. No need to judge or critique your efforts. Because the thing that you're creating is you. Just you. For your eyes and your experience alone.
Obviously, my drawings are rudimentary and childlike. My dance not always graceful. But that's the point, in some sense: to retrieve that experience, that place, where we no longer need to color within the lines. We talk and talk and talk about doing that, but at some point it becomes clear that words and thoughts won't get us there.
So I'm delighted to share my experiments. And if you decide to dip your toe in the waters, please know that you're allowed to lock the door on your inner critic.
I wake up. I feel tired and overwhelmed. Like I'm struggling to hold up a big clod of dirt.
I let my body move to the feeling, arms outstretched, wrists limp, swaying back and forth, turning, turning, creating a cavern of space between my arms and chest.
Then, a new feeling emerges…desire. To be cared for, embraced. My body moves to this feeling and I dance over to the birch trees. Green leaves surround me, embrace me, pull me in. Suddenly I am dancing with the trees. I look up and see a sky of green leaves above me.
Then, another feeling arrives…possibility. My body moves in quick steps and I see a small branch on the ground. I pick it up. It moves with me. It is my companion, my third arm, my walking stick. There to support me. And suddenly, another feeling shows up – curiosity. The branch becomes a divining rod and my body follows it as it pulls me through the garden. It shakes. I shake. Its energy pulses through me. Then finally, Eureka! We hit the spot and water gushes up out of the earth. A beautiful, graceful, flowing fountain.
My body feels complete.
It stretches.
I am tuned in to all my senses.
I am grounded.
I no longer feel tired and overwhelmed.
Right now, stop what you're doing. Pay attention to what you're feeling. Maybe you're tired after a long day? Anxious to get over to the next blog? Curious about what I've written here?
Whatever it is, observe the sensation in your body. And now, for one minute, simply let the feeling move you. Move your body a lot or a little. Stay in your chair, or get up. There's no right or wrong way to do it. Simply dance.
When you're finished, notice the feeling again. Has it transformed in any way? What was it like to dance it?
Then, please, dance over to the comments section and share your experiences!
I welcome referrals to my blog and counseling/coaching services. If you know someone who may be interested in what I do, please share with them. Your satisfaction and trust in my services means a lot. Thank you.


text:
Note: In some cases, the permissions that you request
<uses-permission> can affect how
your application is filtered by Google Play.
If you request a hardware-related permission —
CAMERA, for example — Google Play assumes that your
application requires the underlying hardware feature and filters the application
from devices that do not offer it.
To control filtering, always explicitly declare
hardware features in
<uses-feature> elements, rather than
relying on Google Play to "discover" the requirements in
<uses-permission> elements. Then, if you want to disable
filtering for a particular feature, you can add a
android:required="false" attribute to the
<uses-feature> declaration.
For a list of permissions that imply
hardware features, see the documentation for the
<uses-feature> element.
- syntax:
<uses-permission android:name="string" android:maxSdkVersion="integer" />
- contained in:
- description:
- Specifies a system permission that the user must grant in order for
the app to operate correctly. Permissions are granted by the user when the
application is installed (on devices running Android 5.1 and lower) or while the app is running (on devices running Android 6.0 and higher).
For more information on permissions, see the Permissions section in the introduction and the separate System Permissions API guide. A list of permissions defined by the base platform can be found at
- attributes:
- The name of the permission. It can be a permission defined by the
application with the
<permission>element, a permission defined by another application, or one of the standard system permissions (such as
"android.permission.READ_CONTACTS"). As these examples show, a permission name typically includes the package name as a prefix.
- The highest API level at which this permission should be granted to your app.
Setting this attribute is useful if the permission your app requires is no longer needed beginning
at a certain API level.
For example, beginning with Android 4.4 (API level 19), it's no longer necessary for your app to request the
WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGEpermission when your app wants to write to its own application-specific directories on external storage (the directories provided by
getExternalFilesDir()). However, the permission is required for API level 18 and lower. So you can declare that this permission is needed only up to API level 18 with a declaration such as this:
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" android:maxSdkVersion="18" />
This way, beginning with API level 19, the system will no longer grant your app the
This attribute was added in API level 19.
- introduced in:
- API Level 1
- see also:


text:
Pugachev, Emelian Ivanovich
Pugachev, Emelian Ivanovich yĭmĭlyän´ ēvä´nəvĭch po͞ogəchôf´ [key], c.1742–75, Russian peasant leader, head of the peasant rebellion of 1773–74. A Don Cossack, he exploited a widespread peasant belief that Peter III had not actually been murdered. Claiming (1773) to be Peter III, he soon found himself at the head of an army and of a revolutionary movement. His followers—Cossacks, peasants, runaway serfs, Tatar bands, and serfs from the mines and factories—all belonged to the lower classes, whose rights and liberties had been increasingly curtailed in the past two centuries. Pugachev announced the abolition of serfdom. His army overran the middle and lower Volga districts and the Ural region and took Kazan and several fortresses, committing barbarous excesses and threatening the throne of Catherine II, who was waging war on the Ottoman Empire. However, the rebels lacked experienced leadership and were ultimately defeated. Pugachev was betrayed, taken to Moscow, and beheaded. As a result of the rebellion Catherine introduced the administrative reform (1775) that increased the central government's control over outlying areas and more firmly entrenched the institution of serfdom.
See A. Pushkin, The History of Pugachev (1983).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Russian, Soviet, and CIS History: Biographies


text:
Officials: Joan Rivers rushed to hospital
NEW YORK – Joan Rivers is in a New York City hospital Thursday after she was rushed from a doctor's office when she went into cardiac arrest, police and hospital officials said.
The 81-year-old comedian's condition wasn't immediately known.
"This morning, Joan Rivers was taken to The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, where she is being attended to. Her family wants to thank everybody for their outpouring of love and support," said Sid Dinsay, a spokesman for Mount Sinai Hospital. "We will provide an update on her condition as it becomes available."
New York City police officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to publicly name Rivers, said she was taken to the hospital just after 9:30 a.m. Thursday.
Rivers' representatives didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
The entertainer has logged a half-century in show business and gave rise to red carpet commentary — and the snarky criticism that often accompanies it. Her signature red carpet query: "Who are you wearing?"
She continues to maintain a busy schedule, and was to perform a show Friday at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey. That show was postponed because of her hospitalization.
Rivers spoke at an employee event at Time Inc. in New York on Wednesday night and appeared healthy, practically jogging when she walked in to take her seat, said Shira Blum, an online project manager.
"She seemed totally healthy," Blum said. "She was very energetic, hilarious, funny. And it was such a shock, a surprise to hear the news this morning."
Rivers took questions and said she wakes up every morning and "is thankful that everything works," Blum said.
The host of "Fashion Police" on E! network, Rivers also presides over an online talk show, "In Bed With Joan" and co-stars with her daughter, Melissa, on the WEtv reality show, "Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?"
Her latest book, "Diary of a Mad Diva," was released this summer.
In 2009, Rivers emerged as the winner of NBC's "The Celebrity Apprentice." A documentary, "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work," premiered in theaters in 2010.
A native of New York, Rivers originally entered show business with the dream of a theatrical career, but comedy became a way to pay the bills while she auditioned for acting roles.
"Somebody said, 'You can make six dollars standing up in a club,'" she told The Associated Press in 2013, "and I said, 'Here I go!' It was better than typing all day."
After proving herself in comedy clubs as a rarity — a woman comedian — Rivers was a smash on her first booking on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" in 1965. "God, you're funny," Carson told her.


text:
Nutrient to Know: Vitamin D
You may be up to speed on vitamin C and even know a bit about the various B vitamins, but what about vitamin D? Well, some are calling it the "super supplement." Here is what you need to know.
Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, which means it needs fat to be absorbed by the body. This is one of the many reasons why it is important to have fat in your diet. In October 2008, the American Academy of Pediatrics doubled the amount of vitamin D recommended for infants, children and adolescents (from 200 IU to 400 IU). This drastic change made many people take a closer look at this vitamin.
Vitamin D plays an important role in calcium absorption and bone growth. For children, it helps prevent rickets, which is a softening of the bones characterized by knocked knees and bowed legs. In adults, this condition is known as osteomalacia and is characterized by bending of the bones, especially the spine. Vitamin D is also involved in nerve and muscle function and helps reduce inflammation in the body. Recent research suggests that it may also play a role in immune system function and protection against high blood pressure.
Vitamin D is one of the only vitamins that your body can make on its own! Your skin can actually synthesize vitamin D when it is exposed to sunlight (how cool is that?). Foods such as eggs, fish, mushrooms and fortified milk products also contain vitamin D. Since it is not present in a wide range of foods, supplements are also available. Look for vitamin D in a multi-vitamin or a separate supplement in the form of vitamin D3.
It's important to note that you cannot overdose on vitamin D with too much sun exposure, but too much from supplements can be toxic. Always talk with a registered dietitian or your doctor before taking a supplement. Signs of overdoing it include nausea, confusion and fatigue.


text:
CHICAGO — There are many theories about what has caused a recent spike in Chicago's homicide rate, including a splintering of established drug gangs, the warm winter and high unemployment in some neighborhoods that seem a world away from the city's beaches, lush parks and skyscrapers.
The numbers clearly show there is a problem, with eight killed and at least 35 wounded in a spasm of gunfire last weekend.
The violence is nowhere near its historical peak of the early 1990s, when Chicago recorded roughly 900 homicides per year. But from Jan. 1 through late May there were 203 homicides — an increase of more than 50 percent over the 134 during the same period in 2011.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel has made combatting gangs a priority and has stood with Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy to unveil a plan of attack. Among the new police tactics is the deployment of dozens of specialized undercover officers to units on Chicago's West and South sides and then saturating those neighborhood streets with uniformed officers.
In addition, Gov. Pat Quinn on Monday signed into law the Illinois Street Gang RICO Act, which aims to dismantle gangs by boosting penalties for crimes performed as part of a criminal enterprise.
In Englewood, a roughly 20-by-20-block South Side neighborhood, homicides jumped from 40 in 2010 to 60 last year, which is more than half of the total 2011 homicides for cities such as Cleveland, Milwaukee, Washington, D.C., Oakland, Calif., and Kansas City, Mo.
Though police are loath to attribute this winter's unusually warm weather as a possible factor, because it smacks of excuse-making, there were far more people on the streets in January, February and March — including gang members — than during those months in 2011.
Just as important have been dramatic changes within the gangs themselves.
"Historically, in the past, the gangs were very organized from the top down," said Sgt. Matthew Little of the Chicago Police Department's gang enforcement unit. As more gang leaders are arrested, convicted and sent to prison, the gangs they left behind have become "very splintered," he said.
Young men on the city's streets agree.
"There is no one to control this, so it has become haywire," agreed Devon Tims, who said he's in the Chicago Vice Lords, making him one of the city's estimated 70,000 gang members.
In interviews, McCarthy said the "fracturing" of larger gangs into smaller ones has doubled the number of factions, and the number of conflicts. "These kids have guns and they end up using them," he said.
McCarthy said the gangs are far more territorial and rigid than those that operated when he was a ranking commander in the New York City Police Department and the chief in Newark, N.J. And that means trouble when a gang member simply crosses the street into the territory of a rival gang.
"If we see a car with three of (one gang's) guys three blocks over there (on another gang's turf), they are probably going to shoot someone," said Leo Schmitz, a gang enforcement commander who was redeployed in January to command Englewood's police district.
The demolition of the city's infamous public housing complexes in recent years also played a role. While the high rises long were considered a massive failure that warehoused the city's poorest families and became magnets for gangs, tearing them down caused a new set of problems by scattering gang members to other parts of the city.
Some of them eventually settled in the thousands of houses that were abandoned during the nation's recent financial crisis. There the battle for supremacy started anew.
Residents and activists from the most violent neighborhoods have seen similar campaigns to combat gang violence over the years and were both hopeful and skeptical about the latest one.
Jean Carter-Hill, an activist from Englewood, said she thinks the increase in officers patrolling the streets is helping clean up the area but that the city needs to do more, such as helping youths with conflict resolution.
"Every time there is a conflict, these young people get a gun," she said. "And everyone seems to know where a gun is."


text:
Oklahoma Lie Detector/Polygraph Expert Witnesses
Oklahoma Law & Legal Expert Witness Listings
You may limit your search for Lie Detector/Polygraph expert witnesses to a specific area by selecting a state from the drop down box.
Expert Witnesses
List Your Qualifications by Clicking Here
Location: Multiple Locations
Areas of Expertise: Justin M. Ramsdell, Psy.D. Psychologist Justin Ramsdell is a clinical psychologist and college professor specializing in mental health treatment in correctional/custodial environments, law enforcement...
Location: Multiple Locations
Areas of Expertise: Consolidated Consultants (CCc) continues to deliver high quality expert witness and medical expert witness referrals nationwide since 1995. CCc is the only referral service where you can view the full,...
Lie Detector/Polygraph Expert Witnesses by State
All States, Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Wyoming


text:
Poll: Which Eliminated Finalist Would You Bring Back?
Edward Chen/Creel Films, 2012, Television Food Network, G.P.
We've seen your Tweets, Facebook posts and blog comments, and we know that some viewers are frustrated, confused and downright angry about particular eliminations from the past eight episodes. One Food Network Star fan went so far as to write that the network "made the worst decision ever" in sending home Team Alton's Emily .
It's the nature of the Star beast that even in the very first week of the competition someone must be eliminated. Still, you can't help but wonder if that first person and others sent home later could have improved, and proven themselves real contenders, if they stayed longer. After all, maybe they just needed a few extra days to adjust to the demands of shooting. Perhaps they would have benefitted from more time with their mentors.
Who's your favorite finalist still in the running? Don't forget to cast your Fan Vote up to 10 times per day.


text:
Hey there, I've just now uploaded my first song to SoundCloud!
It's a (not-that-good) cover of the super-celebrated Neil Young song "Hey Hey, my (into the black)" (live version here Live in Bercy 2013)
I've enjoyed playing and recording it on my couch, in a free November afternoon.
The instrument I used to record the song are:
- a Cort "El Cheapo" electric guitar, from the '90ties, customized with Seymour Duncan '59 (neck), Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro (center), and Dimarzio Super Distortion (bridge) pickups. I used the bridge pickup within the song, for the lead part.
- a brand new Yamaha FX370C acoustic guitar, with a piezo pickup under the saddle. It's the guitar on the background.
- a Gretsch Electromatic G5700 lap steel guitar, for a solo part, open D tuned.
- a brand new Harley Benton Kahuna CLU Ukulele Bass
- a Line 6 Sonic Port VX music interface for recording guitars and voice
- a MacBook Air with Garageband 10.1.0 – the drummer track is completely electronic and almost automatically created by Garageband.
Here it is!
[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/231726252″ params="color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="166″ iframe="true" /]
Sure, I should play and study a lot more, but I am quite satisfied with the final quality and the amusement I had while playing, recording, mixing and sharing!
comments are welcome, but don't shoot the guitar player!


text:
Kyle Larson maintains points lead
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Kyle Larson finished second at Phoenix International Raceway and then headed to the beach for a brief family vacation.
There was no lamenting his third consecutive runner-up finish because Larson is the current points leader of NASCAR's top series. His positioning atop the standings is almost as good as a trip to victory lane.
Larson has now finished second in four of the last five Cup races dating to last season's finale, and he was in contention for the victory in the Daytona 500 until he ran out of gas on the final lap and finished 12th. A two-tire stop put him in position to win Sunday at Phoenix in overtime, but a slip on the restart cost him any chance of running down leader Ryan Newman in the two-lap sprint to the finish.
"I mean, I guess little mistakes or inexperience or whatever you want to call it," Larson said of his bridesmaid status. "Hindsight is always 20/20. But I should have went a lane up in one and two. I should have known to just stay close to Newman. That's what I wish I would have done. But, yeah, it's weird ... I finish second like every week. Maybe we'll turn them into wins soon."
Sure, wins would be great, but at this pace, Larson doesn't need them. He's using consistency to run up front and stay in contention for a spot in NASCAR's playoffs. It's the beauty of NASCAR's points system that is often overlooked.
Yes, a win just about guarantees a spot in the 16-driver field. But there have not been 16 individual race winners yet in this format, and additional slots go to the highest-ranking drivers in points.
Collecting points is how Newman nearly won the championship two seasons ago despite not winning a race, so not making it to victory lane is not a deal breaker.
Of course, the way he's running, no one expects Larson to fall short of winning a race for much longer. He's got one career victory, but many believe he'd have more if not for his own mistakes and his desire to not ruffle any feathers. Larson wants to run clean, so when he found himself bottled with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on the restart Sunday, he didn't force the issue.
Afterward, he admitted letting this win slip away "stings" but he wasn't very hard on himself because it's hard to be disappointed when you're the points leader.
Larson is part of the rapidly changing face of NASCAR , in which young drivers are pushing toward the front and passed the veterans. Behind him in the standings are Chase Elliott (third), Joey Logano (fifth) and Ryan Blaney (sixth). At 26, Logano is the oldest of the bunch.
Kyle Busch dropped the phrase "everything is great" in response to every single he was question he was asked at Phoenix about a meeting with NASCAR to discuss a scuffle with Joey Logano. Then he said it again Sunday after finishing third in a race he likely would have won if not for a late caution brought out by -- Logano.
His response channeled the attitude Marshawn Lynch often took in the NFL, when he only showed up to interviews so he wouldn't get fined. But Busch is putting "Everything is great" to a good cause.
Busch said Monday that his charitable and will sell T-shirts with "Everything is Great" across the front. The shirts are $22 -- the same number as Logano's car -- and there's no shipping or handling. Busch may have been in a lousy mood at Phoenix, but he's at least trying to use it now to raise some money.
There's been so much attention on the fast starts of Larson, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney and Austin Dillon, that somewhat overlooked through the first NASCAR month has been the Joe Gibbs Racing rookies.
But Daniel Suarez finished seventh at Phoenix and Erik Jones was eighth in his Furniture Row Race entry for career-best finishes for both Cup rookies. Suarez has all of four Cup starts to his name, while Jones now has seven. Suarez was aided on the late caution by a two-tire pit call.
"The guys did an amazing job," Suarez said. "They just did exactly what they had to do: a fast pit stop, two tires and the car was almost as good as four tires."
Jones felt like Sunday could be a good day for his team, and he'd tested at the track in early February.
"I think it helped a lot," Jones said of the test. "It was able to at least give us a good baseline to start with. I think every time we start coming back to these tracks for the second time we're just going to be that much better and that much stronger. It was a big deal. I hope we test somewhere else this year for sure."


text:
You'll find a variety of developer content here including an index to Stan's articles (unfortunately, the links may no longer work since Fawcette was acquired), information about Microsoft Visual Studio, .NET development, Microsoft Patterns & Practices, and the DotNetNuke open source portal project - DNN as an Applications Development Platform.
Stan's past articles cover a wide variety of development topics including VB6, VB.NET, SQL Server, XML and Web Services. Future articles will cover the .NET v3 tools and beyond: Visual Studio 2005/2008 and SQL Server 2005/2008, future Visual Studio products, and other advanced developer topics.
Watch for Stan speaking at Microsoft product launch events, in MSDN webcasts, CodeCamps and other developer events around Florida, and attending major conferences such as Microsoft TechEd and PDC and the MVP Summit. Code well and prosper!
This talk discusses Entity Framework 4 new features, WCF Data Services new features for building OData/REST feeds, and Silverlight 4 Client Libraries for WCF Data Services. This was presented at the Tampa mini-PDC Community Event.
This talk provided a look at what a DNN authentication provider is, how it works, and surveyed the authentication providers that are available for DNN. Then we dove into the process of building a custom DNN authentication provider using Visual Studio 2010. The discussion included a look into the structure of a provider, how to work with it in design and debug mode, and finally, how to package and install a provider module.
I presented this at the Orlando, FL DNN group on July 6, 2010.
With the introduction of VS 2010, you have more choices than ever for personalizing your favorite IDE. Microsoft has given us a whole host of new knobs to turn, and we'll cover a number of them in this session. We'll start with language-specific settings, editor styling, the brand-new WPF shell, and we'll see how the very useful Start Page can be customized. Then we'll visit the Visual Studio Gallery, where you can find hundreds of free and useful add-ins, including the Productivity Power Tools. Finally, we'll look at the new extensibility model which is based on the Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF), the Extension Manager, and the VS Software Development Kit (SDK) - these tools let you build your own extensions to VS, and share them with the community. There is much to explore, and this session will light your way on the path to personalizing your Visual Studio experience.
I gave this talk at the Sarasota .NET Developers Group on Sept 20, and at the SW FL CodeCamp on Sept 25, 2010.
Russ Fustino (MS Developer Evangelist) and I have teamed up to create a new video series aimed at the serious .NET developer - It's All About the Tools! What started at local user groups and CodeCamps, branched into a traveling roadshow (mostly Russ traveling), and now to a TV show format. The best part is that you don't have to travel to see it!
We've recorded and posted 3 full shows to Channel9 at Microsoft, and we're now posting each individual show segment as a Toolshed Tooltip. So rather than having to watch an hour long show (which are chock full of information), you can pick and choose just the tools you want to see in 10 minute segments.
Take a look and let us know what you think. We're open to suggestions for new tools, criticism if you have that, and any other ideas you might have. My email is: stan _at_ vbnetexpert _dot_ com. Please use subject line: It's All About the Tools!
These new slide decks break the module development process out into more detail, including discussion of code generation techniques for DotNetNuke custom modules, Created for the Day of DNN on June 13, 2009 in Tampa.
This updated slide deck is an introduction to custom module development in DotNetNuke, using the v5 release. Here's a blog post where I describe the talk that goes along with the deck.
Be sure to check out the WROX Professional DNN 5 book at right - I wrote the custom module development chapters (ch. 12-15), along with a team of FL developers. The slide deck is essentially a summary of the information presented in the 4 book chapters.
The authoring team is finally finished with the book - this is an effort that started in the middle of July, and went through the end of the year. Updated: the book is now shipping - you can order your copy online from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
If you're in Florida, the book team ran a DNN track at both the South Florida CodeCamp on Saturday, February 7 and will be repeating the track at the Orlando CodeCamp on Saturday, March 28. We're also planning a DNN Firestarter event in Tampa, tentatively on Saturday, April 25 (more info to follow on this).
The Web Service Software Factory (WSSF) Modeling Edition is a powerful and extensible application-generation framework that can help you and your organization become more efficient at building enterprise-class service applications.
The Modeling Edition provides three Domain Specific Languages implementing models of your application: Service Contract, Data Contract, and Host Implementation models. Models provide a way of storing your configurations so that your application code can be regenerated without re-entering the configuration info each time.
This deck was presented at the Tampa Bay IASA Group (Architecture). You can download the updated Web Service Software Factory Modeling Edition (WSSF) slide deck on my VS Downloads page.
In partnership with Microsoft MSDN Developer Evangelist Russ Fustino, we're refreshing our webcast series we've dubbed where It's AATT! The It's All About The Tools! series is by developers, for developers - a tools demo extraveganza that's designed to help you get your job done faster and easier.
Russ and I have presented Episodes 1-3 of the seminar series at over 50 events so far, and now we're brushing up the material and links, as all things on the web change over time. We're re-recording all three episodes this month, and working on Episode 4, to boot.
Russ and I have an ever-increasing list of ideas for tools to demo, so there will be more episodes to follow. We're setting up a website where we can post the material and to collaborate with developers about their favorite tools. Hang on, it's going to be a wild ride!
Where It's AATT! - WebCast series: It's All About The Tools!
In partnership with Microsoft MSDN Developer Evangelist Russ Fustino, we've webcasted several sessions of our popular seminar series dubbed where It's AATT! The It's All About The Tools! series is by developers, for developers - a tools demo extravaganza that's designed to help you get your job done faster and easier.
There are a total of four episodes out, and more events are planned - including some TV shows built around the same theme. You can get the slide decks here.
Day of Patterns & Practices - PnPGuidance.net
The second-annual "Day Of" event that David Hayden (MVP) and myself created was held on January 31, 2008 in Tampa, FL. Check out the PnPGuidance.net website for links and info. Dave and I covered updated P&P software factories material. Joining us was Jeff Barnes (MS Architect Evangelist) and Ron Jacobs (MS P&P group) talked on test-driven development and the new ASP.NET MVC framework. We're hoping to make this an annual event, although we don't have a 2009 date yet. We may bring it to other cities around Florida.
Florida 2009 CodeCamp Developer Training
The 2009 Florida CodeCamp season is here! If you haven't attended in the past, a CodeCamp is a free, all-day Saturday developer event put on by regional developers, for developers. If you've been to CodeCamp in the past, then you know you don't want to miss the 2009 Florida season.
This year I'll be doing talks on Software Factories, DotNetNuke, VB new features, and Visual Studio 2008 / FW3 dev. If you're interested in getting some speaking experience, CodeCamp is a great place to do just that. Email Joe Healy or shoot me a note if you're interested.
See my past developer events page.
Click below for Florida-based MSDN events presented at various locations around the state by Russ Fustino and his cadre of DEs.


text:
GM Finance says it received subpoena from Justice Department over subprime auto loans
GM Finance says it has received a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice for documents related to subprime auto loans.
The affiliate of General Motors Co. said in a filing Monday with the government that the Justice Department requested documents related to the origination and securitization of subprime auto loan contracts since 2007.
Subprime loans generally are made to borrowers with questionable credit repayment histories.
GM Finance said the Justice Department is considering a civil lawsuit for potential violations of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act, a federal law that was passed following the savings and loan crisis in the 1980s.
General Motors Financial Co. said it received the subpoena on July 28. It disclosed the request in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.


text:
Welcome to our website! As we have the ability to list over one million items on our website (our selection changes all of the time), it is not feasible for a company our size to record and playback the descriptions on every item on our website. However, if you have a disability we are here to help you. Please call our disability services phone line at (416) 635-6111 during regular business hours and one of our kind and friendly personal shoppers will help you navigate through our website, help conduct advanced searches, help you choose the item you are looking for with the specifications you are seeking, read you the specifications of any item and consult with you about the products themselves. There is no charge for the help of this personal shopper for anyone with a disability. Finally, your personal shopper will explain our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, and help you place an order if you so desire.
(416) 635-6111
Brooklyn Furniture in Toronto, ON is an authorized dealer of Legacy Classic Kids Products. The individuals that founded Legacy Classic Furniture, Inc. in 1999 had a clear vision, the entrepreneurial spirit to follow it, and the passion to make it a reality. They focused on creating retail partnerships built on trust, they offered innovative operational expertise, and they made quality their overriding objective. The result, over ten years later, is a respected company with dedicated employees that feels like a family run business. They are proud of their legacy and continue to work hard to strengthen the vision and passion that defined them in the beginning.
So if you are looking for Legacy Classic Kids products in Toronto, Richmond Hill, Markham, Newmarket, Mississauga, Oakville, Milton, Maple, Woodbridge, Burlington and Thornhill, or if you have any questions about Legacy Classic Kids products, please feel free to call us at (416) 635-6111 or simply stop by Brooklyn Furniture at any time and we would be glad to help you.


text:
Train contemplates engine turn-around, but search for the right site continues
Private land in Dillsboro might spare the historic Monteith House site from becoming home to a turntable for the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, part of a plan to return regular train service to this tourism-dependent town.
Kim Albritton, the railway's vice president and general manager, confirmed railroad representatives will talk with private landowners about the possibility of using their land for a turntable instead of Monteith Park as originally proposed. That has not taken place yet, she said.
Without a turntable, engines must travel in reverse, pushing the train's cars instead of pulling them, when making the return trip back to Bryson City after an excursion to Dillsboro.
Previous discussions had involved putting the turntable in front of the barn near the Monteith House. The old farmstead house faces the proposed turntable site just a few hundred yards away. It would change — if not stop — plans to renovate and turn the house into an Appalachian Women's Museum. The museum would honor and recognize the contributions of Appalachian women to this region.
Dillsboro Mayor Mike Fitzgerald emphasized that town leaders had considered using the town-owned, historic Monteith Park as "a last resort" only.
That falls in line with stipulations from the state, which in 2004 gave Dillsboro $250,000 to help fund the park. State rules mandate the town must "explain in detail which sites have been evaluated and where they are located and why Monteith Park is the only alternative" for a train turntable, according to an email dated Feb. 24 received by the town from LuAnn Bryan, a consultant for the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation.
Related Items
If the requirement to use "all practical alternatives" is met and no other site is viable, the town does have the state's OK to let the train use Monteith Community Park, according to the email.
The turntable would then be built on about three-quarters of an acre. In return, the town would offer up two acres, known as the Vanderwoude property, for recreational development, according to town documents. The town would be required to replace the lost parkland.
Dillsboro resident Emma Wertenberger, who is heading up efforts to turn Monteith House into a museum, said she and other committee members haven't given up on the idea.
"We still hope to have a home at the Monteith homestead," she said.


text:
While iTunes Match was designed for matching music and providing cloud access to a music library, there are many audiobook listeners who might want to access their favorite books in the cloud. Doing so requires a bit of work, however; here's how you can do it.
First, whether you need to go to the trouble of setting up your audiobooks for iTunes Match depends on where you got them. If you bought them from the iTunes Store, you're out of luck. Not only do audiobooks not show up in your purchased list, but since they are protected with DRM, you can't convert the files (which is what I'm going to explain below) so they can be added to iCloud.
However, if you're an Audible.com member, your entire audiobook library is already in the cloud. If you download the Audible app for iOS, then log in with your username and password, you'll be able to download or stream any of the books you have purchased.
If some or all of your audiobook collection comes from either CD rips, DRM-free downloads, or MP3 CDs (CDs that contain MP3 files), then there are some simple steps you can carry out to get your books to work with iTunes Match.
Getting audiobooks to match
There are two reason why iTunes Match doesn't match your audiobooks. First, it doesn't match anything in your Books library. And, second, even if your audiobooks are not in that library, iTunes Match won't match anything that's at a bit rate of less than 96 kbps. If you followed my instructions on ripping audiobooks, you almost certainly have books at less than 96 kbps. This makes sense, in order to save space, since audiobooks don't need to be at a bit rate as high as music, and are usually very long.
However, if you want to put your audiobooks in the cloud, you can start by ripping them—or at least the ones you want to have iTunes match—at 96 kbps. After doing so, make sure that you don't select the tracks, press Command-I, go to the Options tab, and select Audiobook from the Media Kind menu. If you do this, the books will end up in the Books library, which iTunes Match ignores.
Instead, leave them as music—which they will be by default when you rip a CD—and set their genre as Spoken Word or Audiobook. (If you have a lot of audiobooks, you can use more genres; just type in the ones you want, such as Fiction, Non-Fiction, History, Romance, and so on.) These files will get uploaded to iTunes Match, and you'll be able to access them from other devices from their genre, or from the artist's name (generally the author).
If you have ripped audiobooks in your iTunes library at bit rates of less than 96 kbps, you have the option of up-sampling them. In other words, you can convert the files from their existing bit rates to 96 kbps, so you can use them with iTunes Match. To do so, go to the the General tab of iTunes's preferences, then click on Import Settings. In the Import Using pop-up menu, you can choose either AAC Encoder or MP3 encoder; neither offers any particular advantage for use with iTunes Match. From the Setting pop-up menu, choose Custom, then use the following settings: Stereo Bit Rate: 96 kbps; Sample Rate: Auto; and Channels: Mono (unless you've ripped in stereo, such as for full-cast recordings). Then check Optimize For Voice, and click the OK button three times to save your changes and dismiss all windows.
Now, select one of your audiobooks, no matter how many files you have. I recommend that you create a new playlist with these files; it will make it easier to delete them after you convert them. To do so, press Command-Shift-N, or choose File -> New Playlist from Selection. Go to that playlist, select the files, then choose Advanced -> Create AAC Version (if your import settings are for AAC files), or Advanced -> Create MP3 Version (if you chose the MP3 encoder). iTunes will start converting the files. This may take a while if you have a long book, or just a couple of minutes for shorter books.
When iTunes has finished the conversion, you can do one of two things. First, you could delete the files you just converted, and keep only the 96-kbps versions. To do so, select the files in the playlist and click Option-Delete. A dialog box will ask if you want to delete the songs; click Delete Items.
The other option is to keep both sets of files—the ones at the lower bit rate for your iPod, say, and the higher bit rate files for iTunes Match. If you do this, I'd recommend tagging one set of files so it's clear which is which. The easiest way is to select the files you just converted, press Command-I, and in the Album field, add something at the end of the album name, such as (low bit rate), or (iPod version). This means that each version of your audiobook will be a separate album, and you'll be able to sync them easily.
One other option is to use Splasm's $10 Audiobook Builder. This application lets you join files together, but you can also change the bit rate when doing so. After you've created what the program calls a project, click Build Options below the cover image in the Finish tab, or go to Audiobook -> Build Options, and click the Quality pop-up menu and select Custom. Set Data Rate to 96 kbps; Channels to Mono; and Sample Rate to 44.1 kHz. Click OK, and in the Format pop-up menu, choose as M4A (AAC Music). Audiobook Builder will join and convert the files. Add them to your iTunes library, and match away.
With this technique, you can put audiobooks in the cloud for listening whenever you want. It's limited to books you have on CD or in DRM-free files, but if you're a big fan of audiobooks, you probably have a lot of these.
[Senior contributor Kirk McElhearn writes about more than just Macs on his blog Kirkville. Twitter: @mcelhearn Kirk is the author of Take Control of iTunes 10: The FAQ.]
iTunes 10.5
Read our full iTunes 10.5 review


text:
Update: Or maybe not. On Monday evening, the House adopted a rule for consideration of tonight's continuing resolution with only six Republican "no" votes, of which only two came from moderates: Reps. Peter King (R-N.Y.) and Charlie Dent (R-Pa.)
Business Insider asked Kevin Fogarty, spokesman for Rep. King, what happened to the moderate revolt that King was trumpeting. Fogarty replied: "You would have to ask the moderate offices that."
Earlier: This evening, House Speaker John Boehner (R) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R) are making their third attempt to get Obamacare changes in exchange for passing a continuing resolution to keep the government open.
They're getting some opposition from the right, including the Senate Conservatives Fund and Heritage Action, which don't like the fact that the new plan wouldn't defund Obamacare entirely.
But what's new is that Republican moderates are threatening to vote against leadership's plan because they do not want to have this fight over Obamacare. And those moderates may have enough votes to block the plan from passing.
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) has declared his intention to vote against the rule bringing tonight's amendments to the floor. King spokesman Kevin Fogarty told Business Insider he has 25 other moderate Republicans with him against any further defund-Obamacare push on this continuing resolution.
Especially since some conservative members are likely to vote against the CR from the right, that spells big trouble for Boehner's plan. Fogarty told Business Insider that Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), two of the House's most hardline conservatives, were not among the count of 20-25 moderates. Both plan to vote "no" on the amendment.
Boehner can probably only afford 17 total Republican "no" votes, since only two Democrats are likely to vote with Republican leadership.
We've started to see rumblings of moderate Republican revolt this month. When the House passed a bill cutting the food stamp program by $40 billion, 15 moderate Republicans balked on the grounds that the cuts were too big.
On Saturday, two moderate Republicans voted against amending the continuing resolution to delay Obamacare for a year, including its mandate that employer-provided health plans cover contraception.
One of those representatives, Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.), told Business Insider in an email, "as a lifelong and consistent supporter of women's rights and health care, I do not support addressing divisive social issues such as access to birth control on a last-minute continuing resolution."
On both food stamps and Saturday's CR vote, moderates didn't have enough votes to stop the House from pursuing an agenda driven by pressure from outside conservative groups. If King gets his way tonight, we'll have found the force that can stop the Jim DeMint takeover of the House GOP.
But perhaps the really radical thing is not what King plans to do but how he's talking about it. He told National Review:
"If Obamacare is as bad as we say it's going to be, then we should pick up a lot of seats in the next election and we should win the presidency in 2016."
If Obamacare is as bad as we say it's going to be? That's the kind of talk that makes Rush Limbaugh's head explode.


text:
(not my actual girl)
Last night, my daughter called me to her room where she had been crying for at least an hour. I sat with her and she told me what was going on.
There is so much friend drama. And it goes back and forth and continues tonight.
One of her friends was mad at her… no idea why. She couldn't get an answer. This is a girl (C) who calls my kid all the time. They are on the phone constantly… even in the mornings before school. My daughter has slept over at C's house for, like, five of the last six Fridays.
C ignored my girl at school yesterday… and didn't call at all. This morning… back to calling again… today at school, no problem. She told my kid that she couldn't have anyone over today. Tonight, god knows what happened on the phone with calls and group chats and whatever the hell 10 year olds do… but my daughter is certain that at least one girl is sleeping over at C's house. Maybe even two… the second one possibly being a girl who was just talking to my daughter earlier about what a jerk C has been lately.
My daughter said, 'I guess I wasn't mean to have friends.' And she cried. She's upset and angry and sad and annoyed… all of those things.
Both last night and again tonight, I sat with her… hugged her… listened to her talk and cry. I told her of course she has friends. I said everything will be okay… it will blow over. Of course, I really have no idea. I hope I wasn't lying.
I know she's my girl, but I'm not just being her mom when I say that she is the sweetest kid. She is so nice to everyone… even those she doesn't like… even those who aren't nice to her. I honestly cannot imagine what reason C (or anyone) could have to be mad at her. God, even though my own two kids fight, she is very sweet to her brother at least 90% of the time… even when he probably doesn't deserve it! (Don't get me wrong… he's sweet, too, but he's a 13 year old boy who often has a low tolerance for his 10 year old sister.)
Even with me… if my girl so much as senses that I am upset about something, she is right there with a smile and a hug. She always wants to help… to make people happy.
I'm sad for her. It breaks my heart. And there's nothing I can do.
I can't fix this for her. I know it's not mine to fix, but seeing her so sad is killing me. I barely made it without crying myself. Man, I do not have the emotional capacity for motherhood. I never thought about situations like this one when I decided to have children.
She's only 10. This is going to get worse when she's, like, fifteen, isn't it?
Don't answer that. I don't want to know.
©2018 what sandra thinks


text:
Natal hypnotherapy uses the natural state of hypnosis, deep relaxation and the power of suggestion to enhance your pregnancy and birth experience. Using hypnosis, you tap into the subconscious - this is the part of your mind that is responsible for all your bodily functions including your heart rate, hormone production and elimination system, as well as the part which stores your emotions, fears and anxieties.
To deal with fear, overcome anxiety associated with pregnancy and labour, to increase self-confidence and trust in your body's natural ability to give birth, hypnosis techniques can therefore greatly reduce, if not eliminate the fear and tension, which leads to severe pain during the birthing process.
The subconscious mind does not know the difference between reality and imagination (ever had déjà vu or a dream that felt as if it was real?) Therefore through hypnosis (similar to guided visualisation) you have the opportunity to "experience" a calm natural birth over and over again in your mind.
In this way, once the actual birth begins, your body is familiar and comfortable with the rehearsed responses and so reacts accordingly. During the birth you remain relaxed, involved and in control, being conversant and alert of the experience. You will be aware of your body's contractions and will flow through the sensations using deep relaxation, breathing and your natural ability to tap into your body's own pain killers (endorphins). Being able to enjoy the experience in a calm and relaxed way leaves no room for tension and fear, which are the main causes of pain.
Imagine yourself labouring in a jungle. Suppose you saw or even thought you saw a tiger lurking in the nearby shadows. What do you think would happen? Would you have a conscious choice on what happens next? You may think you could control the situation, but your body would already have made the decision.
Simply believing there is a tiger in your birth space would instantly stimulate a healthy "fight or flight" mechanism. Labour contractions would slow down or stop and would not resume until you felt safe.
This fear activates the nervous system to produce adrenaline (danger hormone), which gives you the "umph" or power to prepare to fight or run away. Your cervix tightens (to prevent giving birth where it is not safe) and the increased level of adrenaline neutralises the oxytocin (the hormone responsible for contracting your uterus) and endorphins (pain killing hormone), so that the body naturally slows down or even stops the birthing. Experiencing fear during labour leads to your heart rate increasing, your breathing becoming shallow and faster (so reducing the amount of oxygen in your body and your baby), your heart pumping blood faster around your body so raising your blood pressure and blood being directed away from your uterus (and your baby) to your limbs, essentially to prepare you for action.
All this "fight or flight" preparation uses a great deal of energy. As our bodies were only designed to be in this heightened sense of preparation to "fight or flight" for a few minutes at a time, you can imagine that staying in this state for prolonged periods of time will be extremely draining, if not dangerous.
You may be asking, "what does a women giving birth in a jungle have to do with me?". This is essentially about fear – fear of pain, fear of dying, fear of tearing, fear of losing control. Your nervous system does not know the difference between real or imagined danger or fear and so will respond in the same way to both - ever felt the rush of adrenaline and fear when watching a horror movie? Is the threat real or imagined?
If you go into the birth feeling and being frightened, your system will respond accordingly. This fear will lead to increased adrenaline in your body, which leads to increased tension in your muscles and your cervix with less "contraction" hormones being produced, so that your uterus is having to work much harder to flex and tighten. This subsequently makes contractions far more painful, in the same way that if you tense up when you are in pain, the pain becomes far greater.
All the while that there is fear in childbirth, your birthing body will not be allowed to flow easily through the natural progression of labour. In addition, the minute you introduce artificial hormones from induction, the body stops producing the right amount of natural hormones, including the wonderfully powerful endorphins or natural painkillers.
So how does being relaxed and calm make a difference?
By being relaxed during your labour, your body responds in a very different way to the fear scenario described above. When you are relaxed, your breathing is even and rhythmical; ensuring a high level of oxygen is entering your body. This oxygen goes through to your baby, ensuring that your baby remains calm and stable. Increased oxygen stimulates the production of oxytocin (hormone responsible for contraction) and endorphins. Your blood pressure remains at a healthy level, and as your body is limp and relaxed you conserve your energy, with all excess energy being channelled through to the muscle that is really working hard, namely your uterus.
As the uterus has no resistance or tension from surrounding muscles, the contractions are more effective and more comfortable. As the labour progresses unhindered by artificial hormones, other natural hormones kick in including relaxing which allows the cells of the birth canal to relax, soften and stretch, so making the baby's descent easier and more comfortable.
So how does hypnosis work?
Hypnosis is a natural state, which we all experience many times a day. It is a time when your conscious, (analytical, rational mind) takes a step back and your subconscious (feelings, memories, emotions) comes more to the forefront. For example when you are day dreaming, reading a book and realising you have read the same thing over and over again, driving on a long journey and not remembering anything about the journey etc.
With intended hypnosis, you purposefully take yourself into a daydream like state using music, soothing images and guided visualisation. Once the critical and analytical part of your mind also relaxes, you become more receptive to positive suggestions and affirmations. As the mind does not know the difference between imagination and reality, the more times you give yourself positive suggestions, the more real they become.
How does the natal hypnotherapy preparation work?
The birth preparation guides mothers into a deeply relaxed state using breathing techniques, guided imagery and visualisation. Once she is in a deeply relaxing daydream like state, the training continues with a detailed visualisation of giving birth from a physiological perspective. It is like she is going through a dress rehearsal of giving birth in a calm, natural way.
This way she is practicing how she would like to feel and respond to the sensations and changes during labour. The training also includes "triggers" such as "each new face you meet reminds you of the confidence you have in your body… each contraction encourages you to relax… the sights and sounds of the hospital float over you and allow you to remain wonderfully relaxed". This way you are using the things, which may otherwise have caused you some anxiety and turning them into something positive and useful.
So in summary, the key to a comfortable birth is to keep the levels of anxiety and adrenaline to an absolute minimum. Be keeping relaxed, focused and breathing steadily and rhythmically, your body will have the best chance of producing the right birthing hormones to enable you to birth your baby unhindered by chemicals of drugs.
For more information see Natal Hypnotherapy and class details on the Tummy2mummy website


text:
You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'McCall 4425' tag.
The answer to that question is yes. Apparently a LOT of people want my copy of McCall's 4425.
In case you're wondering, I'm not giving it away, so feel free to clench your little fists and punch your screens in frustration over the very enticing and misleading title of this post. McCall's 4425 is one of the jewels of my hefty, enviable collection of vintage gown patterns. I stalked eBay for a long time to find this one in a small size and I had to bid-bomb many weak, inferior eBayers to win it. And it does bring me joy to gaze at its beauty and know that I have what so many others desperately covet.
What does NOT bring me joy is the sheer number of people who email me asking me if they can have it, buy it for cheap, or if I can (seriously??) make them a copy and send it to them. (This is not a knitting pattern- we're not talking about a 3-minute photocopy job here.) Inevitably the writers of the emails justify their requests by quoting the ridiculously high prices that vintage pattern dealers want for original copies of the pattern, and by telling me that they desperately need it for a wedding/gala/cotillion but don't want to pay that much. What am I supposed to say in response? "OMG are you serious??? They're charging $150 for the pattern? Oh you POOR THING!! Take mine!" Listen, peeps, I know how much the pattern costs- I actually bought it, which is how it came to be that I have it. I've had it for so long that I don't remember how much I paid for it (certainly not $150) but I know it was NOT CHEAP. So it drives me kind of insane when people "graciously" offer to reimburse me for the cost of tissue paper to make a copy and for the postage it would cost for me to send it to them when I actually paid the money for this pattern that they don't want to pay. (Also not my favorite? When people say, "The cheapest I've seen it for online is $125, and that's ridiculous. Would you be willing to sell yours for $50?" That's just bad negotiation skills in a seller's market.)
Now, I don't mean to come across as a let-them-eat-cake (let-them-wear-cashmere?) seamstress (even though, let's face it, I am a freakin' empress) I realize that not everyone can afford to splurge hugely on patterns (I certainly wouldn't pay $150 for it), and I know what it's like to covet that elusive vintage tissue paper masterpiece. But when something is out of my budget, I'm not about to email strangers on the internet and ask them if I can have theirs for free or if they can make me a copy for a fraction of the price, and then explain the request by saying that it's just too expensive for me to buy my own. Lots of things are expensive- Prada boots, signed first editions of Catcher in the Rye, Warhols, Bernina 830s… I can't afford them, can you send me yours? I'll pay for shipping.
So I received an innovative request from Traci, who stumbled upon my blog while looking for the pattern, asking if she could "rent" the pattern for a short period of time such that she could copy it herself. I have to give a big thumbs-up to Traci for proposing a solution that would require neither hours of labor on my part, nor giving up my precious pattern at a fraction of market value, while actually offering compensation for the request. Thank you, Traci, for being decent. If Selfish had even a tiny sliver of goodwill to bestow, she would give it to you. Of course, shipping my rare patterns across the oceans to strangers without any guarantee that they'll come back isn't the wisest of ideas, and I don't feel quite right about distributing my patterns for a fee such that others can make copies.
What I proposed instead was that I would send her a good quality photo of the pattern piece drawings such that she might be able to recreate the dress herself. For all the hullaballoo over McCall's 4425, it's actually relatively simple- a basic double-darted strapless sheath with an asymmetrical front hemline, and an additional draped panel that gathers into a little loop at the hip. And being the magnanimous sewing empress that I am, I'm providing the images to you as well, out of the quasi-kindness of my teeny, tiny, almost nonexistent heart:
Photos of pattern envelopes seem to be pretty standard fare on the web, so I'm going to assume there's nothing unethical about posting them here. If the good folks at McCall's think otherwise, I'll remove them. In the meantime, you can click on them for larger views. See? It's really not that complicated a pattern. (I'm guessing that what people really want is that drape, so you could easily start with any strapless sheath pattern and just modify it to accommodate the drape going off of the photos above.)
Incidentally, there are people on the web selling what I assume are unauthorized copies of this pattern if you really want it, but even the copies seem to run around the $100 mark. I'm not going to post links because I don't want to promote those businesses, but if you Google and check Etsy, you'll probably find some. As for making copies of my own, I'll reiterate what I've got on my FAQ:
Despite lots of inquiring and searching, I have never been able to find definitive information that convinces me that copying and distributing vintage patterns from the 1950s is legal in all cases. In addition, copying patterns is time consuming and requires big paper and lots of space. If you can provide me with evidence that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that a particular pattern is no longer under copyright (and by this I mean something along the lines of a record from the US Copyright Office indicating that the copyright on a specific pattern has expired, not a quote from an ill-informed rant about pattern copyright on someone's blog), then we can talk. My hypothetical fee for legally copying patterns is the same as my hypothetical fee for sewing: $85/hour for labor plus all materials costs.
Now. How may I help you?