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Pencz, Georg
Pencz, Georg gā´ôrkh pĕnts [key], c.1500–1550, German painter and engraver of the Nuremberg school. He probably studied with Dürer in Nuremberg. He was banished in 1525 but soon returned. Pencz is thought to have visited Italy and to have worked with Raimondi. The influence of Italian mannerism is evident in his work. Of his paintings the best are portraits, such as those of Marshal Schirmer (Nuremberg); Erhard Schwetzer and his wife (Berlin); and Young Man (Vienna). As an engraver he ranks among the best of the German
Little Masters.Notable prints include Six Triumphs of Petrarch; portrait of John Frederick I, elector of Saxony; and Life of Christ (26 plates).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: European Art to 1599: Biographies


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Medical coverages are given by government parts or by privately owned businesses. These wellbeing approaches are accessible on premise of gathering or can be obtained for people as well. These strategies shield you from high and surprising costs.
Thought of medical coverage was initially purposed by Elder Chamberlen in 1694. Firstly it was only for infections. Be that as it may, toward the begin nineteenth century incidental protection is additionally added to medicinal protection. This protection includes protection office for changeless incapacities. Really this model began in twentieth century. The greater part of medical coverages take care of expense of routine checkups, crises and the greater part of the medications. Be that as it may, it's not generally similar case. Distinctive medical coverages have their diverse conditions and terms.
Medical coverage arrangements are outlined in a manner that it can suit your costs and simple to buy. These protection arrangements will shield you from expenses and additionally give you wellbeing with no strain of installment of specialist bills. There are numerous medical coverage arranges gave by various healing facilities or different associations to suit your premium and your need.
Two sorts of medical coverage arrangements are accessible: –
1. Complete medical coverage arranges: – These arrangements will give you a rate of your aggregate restorative cost. These arrangements are exorbitant however they cover about aggregate cost.
2. Booked medical coverage arranges: – These arrangements are not all that costly, so these are basic in people groups. Be that as it may, have restricted advantages. These arrangements are not all that powerful. They don't give all of you restorative costs. They give you most extreme settled measure of health advantage.
Medical coverage organizations first checks the past wellbeing record of individual and momentum records excessively like smoking and drinking propensities, weight or does he had any treatment accomplished for any long haul sicknesses. So they give them medical coverage bundles to pick as per that reports like a man having genuine wellbeing issues need to purchase extensive arrangements. This is called unfavorable choice. They likewise give rebates if individual leaves smoking and remains sound for long time. Different variables like way of life, high-value advances, propel restorative innovation, ageScience Articles, drinking and smoking propensities and so on additionally influence the medical coverage cost. A portion of the nations have made medical coverage arrangements necessary for each subject.

subset: commoncrawl


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By Elizabeth Landau, CNN
Last week we learned that, yes, Mars could have hosted life, based on the analysis of powder procured by rover Curiosity drilling into the Red Planet.
Now, data from other instruments on board Curiosity show more evidence of water in the area. The rover's Mast Camera (Mastcam) spotted evidence of water-bearing minerals in the "Yellowknife Bay" area where Curiosity drilled. Mastcam has infrared-imaging capability that allows scientists to detect certain minerals.
Scientists released the news at a briefing at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas.
"With Mastcam, we see elevated hydration signals in the narrow veins that cut many of the rocks in this area," Melissa Rice of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena said in a statement. "These bright veins contain hydrated minerals that are different from the clay minerals in the surrounding rock matrix."
Another instrument on board Curiosity adds to these findings. The Russian-made Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons tool detected hydrogen under the rover that appears to be part of water molecules that are bound into minerals. There is more of this evidence of water at Yellowknife Bay than at other sites Curiosity has visited so far, researchers said.
The clay that Curiosity discovered during its drilling must have been created by wet environmental processes, NASA said. The overall mix of chemical elements didn't change much when the clays were produced, scientists said. Information from the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer, a Canadian-made technology, delivered this insight.
The rock outcrop into which Curiosity drilled appears to have an elemental composition that matches basalt, the most commonly seen rock on Mars.
Curiosity landed on Mars on August 6. The rover weighs 2 tons and is about the size of a small SUV. The mission costs $2.5 billion.
By Elizabeth Landau and Polina Marinova, CNN
Stargazers in North America were delighted this week to see a highly anticipated comet make an appearance in the March sky.
The comet is called Pan-STARRS, and it gets its funky name from the telescope credited with discovering it in June 2001: the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System in Hawaii.
Brian Karczewski, 24, got a great shot of the comet from a California church parking lot and submitted an iReport about it.


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This Chinese New Year essay by Patricia Tanumihardja includes a Teochew braised duck recipe and new traditions for her new family.
I look Chinese, I speak Chinese, but I'm not really Chinese. Or so it was drummed into my head when I was growing up.
Let me clarify. My family is Indonesian-Chinese, which means our ancestry includes both indigenous Indonesians and ethnic Chinese who were born in or immigrated to Indonesia in the last century. However, my father has always insisted that we're not Chinese. We don't have Chinese names (the phonetic translations of our Romanized names don't count). My parents don't speak Chinese (I do, only because I learned it at school while growing up in Singapore). And we barely celebrated any Chinese festivals growing up (well, except for Chinese New Year).
This disconnect with my Chinese heritage never bothered me, and I've passed the last few decades in blissful ignorance. But this year is different. Our first child is due right on the cusp of Chinese New Year, and as I contemplate whether my son will be an Ox or a Tiger, I also ponder the significance of this holiday for us as a new family.
I don't want to be one of those mothers who adopt a holiday or tradition just because. When I was a child, every Chinese New Year Eve our family would make the once-a-year visit to my maternal grand-aunt, whom we called Ku-Po, for a reunion dinner of sorts. Ku-Po was perhaps our only relative who actually celebrated the holiday. She spoke no English, only Hakka, a Chinese dialect that my mother could understand but couldn't speak. The evening was usually awkward, and I sat stiffly in my seat, unable to connect the dots between the ritual, the food, and my heritage. The only thing that kept me going was knowing that red packets bulging with a generous bundle of crisp, new ten-dollar bills were waiting at the end of the visit. I don't want this for my child. I want our son to grow up with a holiday that's relevant, one that's steeped in meaning. But without a set of traditions to root me thus far, what's a soon-to-be-mother to do?
In my years spent researching food and culture as a writer and cookbook author, I've learned that New Year traditions have evolved with Chinese diaspora. And as an immigrant twice over, I've always picked and chosen for myself which cultural values to ascribe to and which to discard. My conclusion? That mixing and mingling and borrowing traditions, food or otherwise, isn't such a bad thing. So I figured, why not do the same for Chinese New Year? I came up with the following list of potential customs and pondered which I might want to keep—and which I might not.
At this time of celebrating rebirth and new beginnings, the Chinese clean the house (always a good idea), pay off all debts (err…couldn't even if I tried), and resolve differences with family members, friends, neighbors, and colleagues (a wonderful idea, if only in theory…). Parents buy a new set of clothes and shoes for their children, preferably in red or orange (who doesn't like to go shopping?). And they also give two red packets of money to each child, a symbolic way of passing good luck to the next generation (definitely).
And then there's dinner on Chinese New Year Eve. The most important meal of the season, it's a time when families reunite to give thanks. Convincing my husband that the family needs to gather for one more holiday might be a difficult task, although at least traveling will be cheaper and easier than Thanksgiving or Christmas. The dishes for this event, as well as the guidelines for their preparation, tend to have symbolic meanings or contain ingredients that are homophones for luck or prosperity, and range from the peculiar but passable to the downright impractical, including:
- Round shapes—common to nian gao (sticky rice cakes) and fish balls—portray togetherness and symbolize reunion. Turns out I like these more than I had imagined.
- Certain ingredients are considered auspicious, such as gingko nuts (they resemble silver ingots, which represent good fortune), bamboo shoots (cut in long, slender slices that symbolize long life), and black moss (its Cantonese name, fat choy, sounds like the New Year's greeting, "Gung hay fat choy"). However, regarding that last ingredient, I don't think my husband and future children would enjoy eating something that looks like hair, no matter how much luck it may bring.
- A whole fish symbolizes a profitable year ahead. The leftovers allow you to take a reserve, or surplus, into the new year, ensuring that your family will have an excess of good fortune throughout the year. Keeping the head and tail intact symbolizes a good beginning and a happy ending in all aspects of life. Whole chicken, with menacing eyes, is sometimes served in place of fish. My husband doesn't like to have his food staring back at him, so….
- Using knives, cleavers, or sharp objects during celebratory days could sever the entire family's good fortune. Anyone who intends to include chopped ingredients in New Year dishes must prepare them in advance to avoid bad omens. The procrastinator in me protests!
Next, I set out to create a menu.
Perhaps braised duck (see recipe below) would work, it's still poultry, after all—minus the head and feet. No one at my table would miss the extremities, that's for sure.
Thit kho, a delicious South Vietnamese pork belly stew with coconut water, fish sauce, and hard-boiled eggs, could also belong on the same table. Pork is a mainstream protein available to everyone, rich or poor, while eggs symbolize longevity and fertility, and I like the idea of a dish for all.
And, just because it's a lot of fun, we could have yu sheng, a Chinese New Year dish that's popular in Singapore and Malaysia. It's made up of sliced raw fish, shredded lettuce, pomelo pulp, ground roasted peanuts, and crispy fried dough, and is dressed with spices and plum sauce. When ready to eat, everyone stands up, chopsticks in hand, and tosses the salad together. The higher you toss the ingredients, the more luck you'll have. Entertainment for our future children.
Although in the end, whether I even celebrate Chinese New Year this year is a moot point—baby will come when baby wants to come. What matters, and what some might say has always mattered, is that the festival be relevant to me and my family, and that I make it ours for generations to come.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Too anxious and exhausted to cook, Pat Tanumihardja left the Chinese New Year dinner plans entirely up to her mother, who is visiting from Seattle to help with the newborn. The family celebrated with a pseudo-traditional meal of lumpiah (Indonesian spring rolls), steamed whole trout, stir-fried shrimp and vegetables, pork ribs, and salted vegetable soup. Her son Isaac decided to show up on February 20th.
☞ Contents
Teochew Braised Duck
LC Lo Ack AccompanimentNote
Whenever you serve this Lo Ack, or braised duck, consider steamed white rice a must in terms of accompaniments. [Editor's Note: We don't like to be bossy. But sometimes the situation demands a certain straightforward matter-of-factness.] For additional traditional accompaniments, take a peek at the variation that follows the recipe.
Teochew Braised Duck
- Quick Glance
- 6 servings
- For the chile-lime dipping sauce
- For the Teochew braised duck
Pound the garlic and chiles in a mortar and pestle or whirl in a small food processor until a coarse paste forms. Add the lime juice and salt and mix well. You will have about 1/2 cup.
Pound the garlic and chiles in a mortar and pestle or whirl in a small food processor until a coarse paste forms. Add the lime juice and salt and mix well.
Rub 1 1/2 tablespoons salt evenly all over the duck, including inside the cavity.
In a large wok, Dutch oven, or other vessel large enough to contain the duck, combine the water, soy sauce, lemongrass, galangal, sugar, cloves, star anise, cinnamon, peppercorns, and remaining salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Gently lower the duck into the wok. The liquid should reach halfway up the duck. (If necessary, top off the soy mixture with additional water.) Cook the duck, basting it every 5 minutes or so, until it colors evenly, about 20 minutes.
Cover the pan and gently simmer the duck until the meat is fall-off-the-bone tender, 40 to 60 minutes more, flipping the duck halfway through cooking. If the sauce looks like it's reducing to the point of drying out, add a little water, but no more than 1/4 cup at a time. To check for doneness, poke the duck in the thigh with a chopstick. If the juices run clear, the duck is done. Or use a meat thermometer to check if the internal temperature has reached 165°F. If desired, turn off the heat and leave the duck immersed in the sauce for another hour.
Cut the duck into serving pieces and arrange on a serving platter. Skim the fat from the surface of the sauce and discard. Drizzle the sauce over the duck and serve with the chile-lime dipping sauce.
Tuxedo Variation
- Traditional Teochew Braised Duck Accompaniments
Add fried tofu or hard-boiled eggs to the sauce about 20 minutes before it's done, or jazz up the braised duck meat with a medley of duck intestines, liver, and gizzards.
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #LeitesCulinaria. We'd love to see your creations on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.


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May 7, 2009 — -- Elizabeth Edwards showed contempt today for the woman she claimed seduced her husband, John Edwards, saying, "There is no excuse for women to do this."
In a sitdown with Oprah Winfrey, Elizabeth Edwards, 59, refused to utter the name Rielle Hunter, 45, but said her husband's mistress was partly to blame for the affair that torpedoed her husband's political career and traumatized her family.
"Women need to have respect for other women," she told Winfrey.
Elizabeth Edwards placed much of the blame on her husband, but said Hunter had to know that John Edwards had a wife who'd been diagnosed with terminal cancer and that she had two young children, along with an adult daughter. That should have prevented Hunter from going after her husband, she said.
"You can't just knock on that door and say you're out, I'm in," Edwards said. "If you admire that life, you can't just take it. Build your own."
Hunter has reportedly been angered by comments Edwards made in recent days while touting her memoir "Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts Facing Life's Adversities."
The National Enquirer, which first reported John Edwards' affair in 2007, reported that Hunter wants him to take a paternity test and is threatening legal action. John Edwards, who has denied fathering the baby, initially agreed to a paternity test, but Hunter had declined.
Elizabeth Edwards has barely been seen in public since last summer, when news of the affair broke. Some are questioning her motives and her decision to put her family in the spotlight and stir up the scandal. Her husband, the former senator from North Carolina, told Winfrey the decision to publish her book was totally his wife's.
"I think it's thoughtful. ? I think it's [about] how she feels. ? I never suggested she change anything," John Edwards said.
Gayle King, editor at large of O magazine, which is running excerpts of the books and who also visited the Edwards' sprawling home in Chapel Hill, N.C., with Winfrey, said Elizabeth Edwards wanted to present her side of the story.
"I don't think she wants to be portrayed as a long-suffering wife. I think she wanted people to know what she was thinking and what she's feeling," King said in an exclusive interview with Diane Sawyer on "Good Morning America."
The Edwards said they are working on their 31-year marriage, but that trust remains a key issue.
On whether they are getting to a better place, John Edwards said, "I feel like we're getting to it. It's not over, but we're getting to it."
"I love her. I care about her," he said about his wife.
He said he wasn't certain whether his wife would leave him when he first told her about the affair two days after announcing his candidacy for president in December 2006.
"It's an ongoing process of finding your feet again. You know, finding, sort of retelling your story to yourself," Elizabeth Edwards told Winfrey. "There's a lot of adjustments to make. And when you talk about trust, I think that's probably the most difficult hurdle."
In her book, Edwards said that when her husband first admitted the adultery, he "left most of the truth out," saying it was a onetime fling.
"I didn't suspect he would drop by and see her again after we had that conversation," she told Winfrey, referring to her husband's visit to Hunter's hotel in which photographs show him picking up her baby. "What it meant was that this trust we managed to build just pushed us way back -- farther back actually -- in the process."
John Edwards Seduced With the Phrase 'You Are So Hot'
Elizabeth Edwards, who said the affair deeply shattered her self-confidence, was careful not to use the word "affair" in the interview to describe her husband's relationship with Hunter.
She said the video producer who worked for her husband's campaign seduced her husbands with four words, "You are so hot."
"If you asked me to wager this house we were building whether my husband would've responded to the come-on 'You are so hot,' I would've responded, no," she told Winfrey. "And I think if you pulled him out of the situation, he would've said no, and he doesn't know to this day why he said yes."
Edwards denied rumors that the former senator had moved out of their 28,000-square-foot home in North Carolina, which was completed three years ago.
"Yes, he's still living in the house. Yes, they're still together," King said. "It was very clear that she loves her family and loves the family life that she has, and wants to preserve that."
The Edwards have three children. The oldest is 27, and the youngest, 3. Their 16-year-old son Wade died in 1996.
Elizabeth Edwards said her children know about the affair and that their father told them he acted inappropriately.
"The children pretty much know, I don't know what they heard in school, but they have computers," she said.
When thinking about her cancer, Edwards said she sometimes cries and cries and thinks of "things undone, people I'll leave behind."
In her book, Elizabeth Edwards revealed that she vomited when her husband first told her about the affair.
"I cried and screamed. I went to the bathroom and threw up," Edwards wrote, according to the New York Daily News.
John Edwards publicly admitted the affair in an August 2008 interview with ABC News' Bob Woodruff.
"It was a huge judgment, mistake in judgment," he said. "But yeah, I didn't think anyone would ever know about it. I didn't."
She revealed in the interview that she had asked John Edwards for only one gift when they got married -- fidelity -- because her father's cheating had had a detrimental impact on her mother.
"It was really important to me partly because I had seen what happened to my mother when she caught my father cheating on her. I didn't want to go through that. It made her less than she could be, and I just did not want to see that happen to me, so that was the one thing I asked for. He willingly said yes," she told Winfrey.
Edwards told Winfrey she had no idea whether John Edwards was the father of Hunter's baby. John Edwards has said he and his wife believe he is not the father. However, his wife does not state that explicitly in the interview with Winfrey.
"And there is great speculation that your husband, John Edwards, is the father of that baby," Winfrey said.
"That's what I understand. I've seen a picture of the baby. I have no idea. It doesn't look like my children, but I don't have any idea," Edwards said.
When pressed by Winfrey, Edwards added that whether the baby is her husband's or not would make a different in her husband's life but not hers.
"This is the part where you have to concentrate on your own life. Whatever the facts are doesn't change my life, in that sense," she said. "I don't see an upside of making it part of my life. ? He doesn't know any more than I do about this."
In her book, Edwards apparently does not address the issue of who fathered Hunter's daughter.
In it, she also lashed out at Hunter, calling her life "pathetic" and in the interview with Winfrey, she detailed how her husband told her the affair began.
"What John said is that this woman spotted him in the hotel in which he was staying," she said. "He was meeting someone in the restaurant bar area, and she verified with someone who he worked with that it was John. John went to dinner at a nearby restaurant, and when he walked back to the hotel, she was standing in front of the hotel. She said to him, 'You are so hot.'
"I can't deliver it because I don't know how you deliver such a line as that," Edwards added, laughing.
"This person is very different from me, and really very different from him," she said. "We're basically old-fashioned people. So, this was a pretty big leap for him. Maybe it's being so different is what was attractive."
Edwards, who fought her first bout with breast cancer in 2005, was diagnosed again during her husband's presidential campaign, this time finding out that it could not be cured.
"Being sick meant a number of things. One, that my life is going to be less long, and I didn't want to spend it fighting. ... I was reminded constantly of how supportive he'd been and how great he'd been. ... I didn't want it [the affair] to define our marriage. ? If you take that piece out, I do have a perfect marriage. ? The times when I've been in enormous pain, he's been at my side," she said.
Her treatment includes chemo pills she takes at home and intravenous medication every two weeks. She has a port in her chest for the medication.
"Maybe my cancer is a bigger thing in their life then this woman passing through," she said.
Edwards said she still feels angry and hurt, and doubts herself at times, but she has realized that it was not about her.
"I am now a different person. The way we were is no longer," she wrote in her book."That's really the entire meaning of the book ... is that we resist any kind of change ... Start saying what's the best I can make of what I have right now. ... [Fairy tales are] not real for most people. There are all sorts of things that are going to interrupt the dream you had," she said.
The Campaign
Even when she knew the full truth, Edwards threw herself behind her husband's campaign. When her breast cancer returned in March 2007, she urged him to continue his run.
"Once they hear him speak, once they feel his passion, once they understand he is the truth teller in this race," Elizabeth Edwards said in January 2008 about her husband's presidential bid.
Lagging behind Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, John Edwards dropped out of the Democratic race in January 2008.
However, her book tells a different story. Elizabeth Edwards writes in the book that she had initially wanted her husband to quit the race because she was afraid the affair would raise destructive questions for her family, according to the Daily News.
"He should not have run," she wrote.
"I thought for my family, for my children, for me, it would be best if he got out of the campaign. He said truthfuly ? that if you want to raise a lot of questions you get out of a campaign you got into two days before," she said, admitting that he was right.
"I changed the way I talked a lot. ... At first I didn't think I could do it and I didn't. I canceled a lot of things at the beginning. It would be overwhelming ... that the one thing I asked for I didn't get," Edwards said, referring to her promise about fidelity.
The couple were always thought to have a strong marriage. In a rare interview with the Detroit Free Press last fall, Elizabeth Edwards said the idea that they were a perfect couple was a myth.
"There is no perfection out there," she told the newspaper.
For now, as Elizabeth Edwards said, the two are working on their relationship and marriage.
"I lie in bed, circles under my eyes, my sparse hair sticking in too many directions," she wrote in the book. "And he looks at me as if I am the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. It matters."
"I wouldn't be here if I didn't love him," she told Winfrey.


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It's time to get things started – again!
Disney is getting audiences excited for the next Muppet adventure, by teasing us with a few images from the upcoming movie. And yes, this is a huge tease, considering that The Muppets... Again! won't be hitting theaters until March 21, 2014.
From the photo below, it looks like we can expect to see a lot of our old favorites, including Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, Animal, and even Walter. The pic above has one of the film's very special guest stars, Ricky Gervais. Yaayy!
The film also stars Tina Fey and Modern Family's Ty Burrell. Jason Segel opted not to return or help out with the writing duties for this follow-up to the 2011 hit. Not to worry, though; Segel's writing partner, Nicholas Stoller, is teaming up with director James Bobin for this one, which has the gang out on a tour, traveling through Berlin, Madrid and London.
Of course, where there are Muppets, there's mayhem. Some of chaos will include Kermit's deadly doppelganger, whose dastardly sidekick is played by Gervais.
Flight of the Conchords' fans will also be happy to hear that Oscar-winning songwriter Bret McKenzie (aka Lindir) will also return.
Expect many more teasers to come. We have a long time until The Muppets... Again! will hit theaters.


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In some not-so-shocking news, the stunning island of Bora Bora has been voted the most photogenic place on earth in a recent survey launched by VeryFirstTo.com. Over 700 participants helped put the French Polynesian island in the top spot, no doubt thanks to its crystal clear waters and overwater bungalows. (It's also our readers' favorite island in Australia and the Pacific, and fifth-favorite island in the world).
Bora Bora is joined at the top of the "pretty list" by other similarly sunny and ocean-flanked destinations like Australia's Great Barrier Reef (#2), Bali (#4), Santorini (#11), and Maldives (#12)—all of which except Bali are on our own list of Best Islands in the World.
Another not-so-shocking revelation: holding up the back end of the list is the unfortunately downtrodden Detroit, which was ranked the least photogenic city in the world. In a way, we kind of understand: the Motor City has proven unpopular with our readers as well. In our own survey of The Unfriendliest Cities in the World, it ranked number eight, with one reader deeming it the "armpit of the world"—so we sort of get it. But the next result floored as a little: London took the title of second least photogenic place in the world. Yes. London.
It's important to note that most of the respondents were based in London, which may have skewed the results a little. According to VeryFirstTo founder, Marcel Knobil: "The research indicates that we look beyond our home countries when identifying exceptional beauty and think about our homeland when it comes to identifying ugliness." In any case, despite the dubious honor, tourism to England's capital city shows no signs of slowing down (and for the record, we think it's plenty pretty).
More on Photos:**[
Please Stop Taking These Pictures
Can Using Instagram Really Make Your Hotel Stay Better?
Photos: Overwater Bungalows in Fiji, the Maldives, Bora Bora, and French Polynesia


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NMSD serves a diverse group of children and their families. A comprehensive array of educational support services are available according to each child's needs and complies with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
If a child needs a particular related service in order to benefit from special education, the related service professional will be involved in developing the child's Individualized Education Program (IEP) and the team makes a decision regarding to the appropriateness of the recommended services.
Support Services provided to students who attend NMSD include, but are not limited to:
Audiology, Speech and Language:
NMSD also provides related support in a variety of other areas:


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I often have to give presentations that include extensive use of complex network diagrams to expensive-suit-wearing types. I've always used Visio for network diagrams, but have always felt that they look clunky. What other software is out there which:
- Can export as HTML with links to other pages.
- Has some kind of pop-up or menu for object config data (IP-address, OS, License, etc)
- Looks really sexy.


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Dolce & Gabbana Pink Sequin Embellished Dress
Dolce & Gabbana Pink Sequin Embellished Dress details
Color: pink
Size: IT 46
shoulders – 19″
armpits – 19″
waist: 16″
length: 44″
sleeve – 24″
Made in Italy
FREE shipping within USA
RETURNS: please check our Terms of Use to see if this item is eligible for return
About Dolce & Gabbana fashion house:
This fabulous Italian House of Fashion was created in 1982 by designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. Since then they have firmly established themselves as one of the leading high-end luxury brands on the fashion Olympus. They are most well-known and recognized for their iconic lace dresses, vast embroidery and embellishment of garments and of course their iconic women's handbags. This fashion house offers women's, men's and kids Pret-A-Porter and Haute Couture collections, shoes, accessories and leather goods. Their widely recognized modest and yet sophisticated dresses that stand for femininity, motherhood and humbleness have become a favorite of celebrities. Their flawless and sophisticated tailoring, attention to the smallest details, overwhelming floral patterns and classic style leave no one indifferent. Dolce & Gabbana is the brand which brought on runway world-known Majolica and Carretto Siciliano patterns, inspired by traditional Italian and Sicilian street tiles ornaments and motifs. Fabulous and romantic jackets, coats, tops and skirts, new floral and gourmet patterns with each collection, eye-catching silhouettes, perfect tailoring and much more to fall in love with this Italian luxury fashion band forever.
MONALISALIKES offers a wide selection of Dolce & Gabbana women's dresses, shoes and handbags at discount prices with the guarantee of authenticity.
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All News Releases By Date
EPA Reaches Agreement with Carmeuse Lime to Control Dust from its Chicago Plant
Release Date: 08/07/2012
Contact Information: Phillippa Cannon, 312-353-6218, firstname.lastname@example.com
Chicago (Aug. 7, 2012 ) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached agreement with Carmeuse Lime, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to resolve Clean Air Act violations at its Chicago lime manufacturing facility. The company will pay a $350,000 fine and spend $125,000 on lead abatement in south side neighborhoods.
"As a result of this agreement, residents of Chicago's south side will breathe cleaner air and children will be protected from lead contamination," said EPA Regional Administrator Susan Hedman.
EPA and the City of Chicago conducted a joint inspection of the Carmeuse plant in response to complaints from local residents about excess dust. The inspection revealed poor maintenance at the facility, which led to the release of dust into the surrounding neighborhood.
The consent decree requires Carmeuse to upgrade and replace equipment and to improve maintenance and housekeeping practices. By implementing these changes, which have been/will be incorporated in the facility's air permit, Carmeuse will dramatically reduce the amount of dust released into the neighborhood.
Under terms of the consent decree, Carmeuse will also hire a nonprofit organization to install new energy-efficient windows in neighborhood homes that have window frames with lead-based paint. Window replacements will occur in the houses of low income residents with young children in the Englewood, West Englewood and South Chicago neighborhoods.
Carmeuse is a major lime producer, with 35 facilities in the United States and Canada.
Search this collection of releases | or search all news releases
View selected historical press releases from 1970 to 1998 in the EPA History website.


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This article originally appeared in the September 2009 issue of ELLE DECOR. For more stories from our archive, subscribe to ELLE DECOR All Access.
Anna Sui—the woman as well as the fashion label she launched in 1981—broadcasts an anarchic edge, flaunting clothing with fantastic patterns, colorful layers, and retro references from Age of Aquarius rock stars to Belle Époque courtesans. Often all in the same outfit, mind you. Sui's new Manhattan abode, a top-floor space in the same 19th-century Greenwich Village building as the one-bedroom apartment she's lived in since 2000, is just as funky. It's an inspired mingling of extravagant furniture, chinoiserie wallpaper, and vintage doodads whose sum-total flamboyance recalls the do-it-yourself glamour of the 1970s, when Sui first came to Manhattan from her native Detroit.
The designer acquired the annex a little more than a year ago, realizing it would be a perfect spot for spreading out to work on book projects. (A salute to her career will be published next year by Chronicle Books, written with Andrew Bolton, a close friend and a curator of the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.) As Sui says, "With two apartments, I can have dinner downstairs and drinks and dessert upstairs."
The original group of strangely proportioned rooms was streamlined by architectural designer Mani Colaku. Now the front door opens onto a long entrance hall that acts as the small place's spine, its high, narrow dimensions dressed in a black wallpaper ornamented with pagodas and mandarins. "I love anything chinoiserie," notes Sui, a granddaughter of a Chinese diplomat. A bath and a small alcove kitchen are on the right, with a sunny book-lined study on the left. At the end of the corridor lies a dressing room that contains the overflow from her wardrobe and features custom-made shelving designed to fit every one of her shoe boxes—each affixed with a Polaroid of its contents for easy identification.
When it came to furnishing the apartment, she was influenced by two American style divas—cosmetics entrepreneur Helena Rubinstein and interior decorator Dorothy Draper. The result is a magnificently mixed-up but strangely calming atmosphere that's signature Sui. She had always been drawn to the furniture in Rubinstein's Manhattan apartment, especially the sinuous, extravagantly carved sofas and chairs made by John Henry Belter, a Victorian cabinetmaker. Sui bought similar pieces, but the wood finishes didn't match, which is where one of Draper's decorating tricks came into play: When in doubt, paint it black. The designer's furniture restorer in Harlem lacquered everything ebony, from two Louis XV–style commodes to a 1960s faux-bamboo étagère to several rococo mirrors. The dark hue soothed the curlicues into submission and calmed the disparate looks into a harmonious whole. So did covering the sofa and most of the chairs with a pattern Sui designed for a recent collection, a flowerlike motif she printed on upholstery-weight cotton sateen.
Pretty much everything in the space is black or white—with touches of gold—including the floors, lighting, and an inlaid Indian chest of drawers placed against a wall of antiqued mirror that makes the study look twice as large as it is. The collections that fill every tabletop and surface follow the color scheme too: Black-and-white photographs of rock stars (Keith Richards and Brian Jones) are propped on the window ledges, vintage china is displayed atop one of the commodes, and the whimsical papier-mâché busts that inspired Sui's trademark mannequin faces populate several shelves. "I decorate like I do a collection, putting the familiar with the kooky," says the designer, who dreams of creating a line of wallpapers and fabrics in her inimitable style. "I just like mixing up things I'm interested in."


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Out in Chicago, a wild man who was apparently in a desperate need of deodorant, stole a Bobcat tractor from a construction site and then drove it through the gates, window and wall of a store. He grabbed a couple cans of deodorant, a few gift cards for good measure and then left.
The police caught him later but seriously, deodorant? If you go through all the trouble of hijacking a tractor and tearing down a wall, at least make it worth it! To be fair, the sweaty pits guy idiotically chose a Family Dollar store, which is a discount store that sells household goods. Dude. You have a tractor. Go get something better! [NBC Chicago]


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I was well chuffed just after Christmas to be nominated by Tierneycreates for the Unique Bloggers award. It's the first time I've been nominated for an award so it did give me a bit of a lift, so thank you for the nomination.
As part of the acceptance I have to answer three questions set by Tierney, at this point I nearly bottled it 🙂 …
- What mythical creature would improve the world most if it existed?
- What would be the coolest animal to scale up to the size of a horse?
- What ridiculous and untrue, yet slightly plausible, theories can you come up with for the cause of common ailments like headaches or cavities?
Anyway, here's my answers;
- Unicorn, everyone would love a unicorn (and it's the only mythical creature I can think of!!)
- A golden retriever, though the hair shedding would be even more of a nightmare!
- Lack of creative activity, not enough sewing or creating in general to release tensions and stresses 🙂
I would now like to nominate some of my favourite blogs, please don't feel obliged to continue this onwards, it's just my way of saying thank you for inspiring me.
- Tall Tales from Chiconia
- Nana Cathy
- Tialys
- Love those Hands at Home
- Living in a Rapid City
- Hillview Embroidery
My three questions are…
- What's your earliest sewing memory?
- What have you made that you are really proud of?
- Is there another craft you would like to try?
If anyone is wondering, here's my answers;
- Sitting with a square of binca aged about three, embroidering running stitch around it, probably a ploy to keep me quiet !
- This is a hard one for me, as there are a few very different things; my wedding dress, all lace and beads, My Splendid Sampler quilt as I learnt so much making it and it was a pretty big undertaking with two blocks a week for a year! Recently it would have to be my flower trellis embroidery, just so far out of my comfort zone…as my mum would say, 'there's no such thing as I can't'
- Oooh, weaving, needlefelting, goldwork, silver jewellery…but I really can't start another craft 🙂


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Across the world, people have varying levels of belief (and disbelief) in God, with some nations being more devout than others. But new research reveals one constant across parts of the globe: As people age, their belief in God seems to increase.
The new study is based on data collected as part of the General Social Survey by researchers at the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago.
The researchers looked at data from 30 countries where surveys, taken at two or more time points between 1991 and 2008, asked residents about their belief in God. Participants answered three main "belief" questions, including their level of belief (from strong to atheistic), their changing beliefs over their lifetime and their attitude toward the notion that God is concerned with their personal lives.
Age seemed to be a big factor in belief. Belief in God was highest among older adults, with 43 percent of those 68 and older saying they are certain that God exists, compared with 23 percent of those 27 and younger, averaged across the countries surveyed.
"Looking at differences among age groups, the largest increases in belief in God most often occur among those 58 years of age and older," Smith said in a statement, referring to the change in belief between the 58 to 67 age group and those 68 and older. "This suggests that belief in God is especially likely to increase among the oldest groups, perhaps in response to the increasing anticipation of mortality." [8 Ways Religion Impacts Your Life]
Atheism ranged from 52 percent in the former East Germany to less than 1 percent in the Philippines; a largely opposite pattern was found for strong belief in God, with 84 percent of Philippine residents indicating such and 8 percent of those in East Germany saying they were certain God existed. The lowest "strong belief" in God came from Japan, where the level was 4 percent.
Overall, countries dominated by Catholic societies, like the Philippines, showed the strongest belief in God. The United States stood out for its high belief in God among developed countries. At the other end of the religion spectrum, atheism seemed to have the strongest hold in northwest European countries such as Scandinavia and those of the former Eastern Bloc, excluding Poland.
Support for the concept that God is concerned with people in a personal way ranged from 8 percent in the former East Germany to 82 percent in the Philippines. About 68 percent of individuals in the United States held that personal view of God.
Over the study period, just five of the countries showed a consistent growth in their belief in God: West Germany, Israel, Japan, Russia and Slovenia. Meanwhile, 16 countries showed a consistent decline in belief: Australia, Austria, East Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Norway and Poland. Some countries showed a mixed pattern, with some measures moving toward belief and others away. [See full list of countries ranked by God belief]
"Belief in God has decreased in most countries, but the declines are quite modest, especially when calculated on a per annum basis," the researchers write in their April 18 report of the survey.
Though modest, this decrease could add up to a real effect over time.
"If the modest, general trend away from belief in God continues uninterrupted, it will accumulate to larger proportions and the atheism that is now prominent mainly in northwest Europe and some ex-Socialist states may spread more widely," they write, adding that it is possible the trend could go the other way, with belief in God seeing a rebound.
Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.


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The Associated Press
Health officials have confirmed four cases of Legionnaires' Disease at a Wilson County facility.
The Wilson Times reported (http://bit.ly/1kYaHih) two more possible cases are being tested at Wilson Pines Nursing and Rehabilitation Services.
The home's administrator, Peggy Bulluck, says she and her staff are working with the Wilson County Health Department and the Centers for Disease Control to monitor the situation and prevent the spread of the illness.
Legionnaires' is a form of bacterial pneumonia. A person may develop Legionnaires' if exposed to legionella through breathing contaminated mist or vapor. It cannot be transmitted from person to person.
Health department officials say the four people are recovering.
Department spokeswoman Joyce Wetherington says samples from waterlines have been taken. The results are expected later this week.


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Papi underwear is always exciting, luxurious and fun. Each pair of Papi underwear is designed for the utmost comfort with a fine-tuned fit and supremely stylish cut. With an athletic energy, Papi underwear has an expressive, body-conscious fit so guys who wear the brand can feel confident in flaunting their sexual energy. Papi underwear are worn by a variety of different men, stylish guys from every demographic, but the styles are geared toward the young consumer who wants quality in every aspect of his life.
The history of Papi underwear
When Papi underwear originally hit the market in the nineties, New York City and the rest of the country welcomed the Papi underwear brand with open arms. And since the beginning, Papi underwear has become a great success. In 2004, Papi underwear was acquired by the Florida-based company, Isaco International, and was been transformed into an even more luxurious lifestyle brand. Now, when people think of Papi underwear, they think quality and cutting-edge style. With Isaco International working as a force behind the Papi underwear brand, it has gained international presence and is now widely-recognized.
One of the things that makes Papi underwear so exciting is that it gives men almost as many options as women normally have in the underwear market. Traditionally, men have had fewer options, but with these styles in Papi underwear, all that has changed. Choose from styles like traditional bikinis and briefs or spice things up with a thong or a jock strap. Guys can choose from:
- boxers
- boxer briefs
- gym short style
- low rise Papi underwear
- novelty Papi underwear
- trunks
Some of the top-selling Papi underwear collections include the Camouflage Collection, a line of Papi underwear made from soft cotton and featuring two different shades of classic camo print, and the Cool Jersey Papi underwear collection, a sporty line made from smooth stretch microfiber. The most popular styles in Papi underwear include thongs, trunks and briefs with lower rises that show off the lower abdominal muscles and look great with hipster jeans.


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Star Wars, Lord of the Rings sword master dead at 89
LONDON - The Associated Press
In this photo taken by AP Images for Electronic Arts, Plainclothes warriors join the battle as Electronic Arts celebrates the launch of BioWare's Star Wars. AP photoOlympic fencer and movie sword master Bob Anderson appeared in some of film's most famous dueling scenes though few viewers knew it.
Anderson, who has died at age 89, donned Darth Vader's black helmet and fought light saber battles in two of the three original "Star Wars" films, "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi."
Anderson, who worked with actors from Errol Flynn to Antonio Banderas during five decades as a sword master, fight director and stunt performer, died early New Year's Day at an English hospital, the British Academy of Fencing said Monday.
Vader, "Star Wars'" intergalactic arch-villain, was voiced by James Earl Jones and played by six foot six (1.98 meter) former weightlifter David Prowse, but Anderson stepped in during the key fight scenes.
"David Prowse wasn't very good with a sword and Bob couldn't get him to do the moves," said Anderson's former assistant, Leon Hill. "Fortunately Bob could just don the costume and do it himself." The scenes worked beautifully, although Anderson, then nearing 60, was several inches shorter than Prowse.
Few knew of Anderson's role until Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker, said in a 1983 interview that "Bob Anderson was the man who actually did Vader's fighting." "It was always supposed to be a secret, but I finally told (director) George (Lucas) I didn't think it was fair any more," Hamill told Starlog magazine. "Bob worked so bloody hard that he deserves some recognition. It's ridiculous to preserve the myth that it's all done by one man." Robert James Gilbert Anderson was born in Hampshire, southern England, in 1922, and was drawn to fencing from an early age.
"I never took up the sword," he said in an interview for the 2009 documentary "Reclaiming the Blade." ''I think the sword took me up." Anderson joined the Royal Marines before World War II, teaching fencing aboard warships and winning several combined services titles in the sport.
He served in the Mediterranean during the war, later trained as a fencing coach and represented Britain at the 1952 Olympics and the 1950 and 1953 world championships.
In the 1950s, Anderson became coach of Britain's national fencing team, a post he held until the late 1970s. He later served as technical director of the Canadian Fencing Association.
His first film work was staging fights and coaching Flynn on swashbuckler "The Master of Ballantrae" in 1952.
He went on to become one of the industry's most sought after stunt performers, fight choreographers and sword masters, working on movies including the James Bond adventures "From Russia With Love" and "Die Another Day"; fantasy "The Princess Bride"; Banderas action romps "The Mask of Zorro" and "The Legend of Zorro"; and the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
Fencing academy president Philip Bruce said Anderson was "truly one of our greatest fencing masters and a world-class film fight director and choreographer." Hill remembered him as "a splendid man, a great man who gave so much to fencing that can never be repaid." Anderson is survived by his wife Pearl and three children. Funeral details were not immediately available.


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This is not your average ice hockey. For the 25 players of the U.S. men's hockey team, the secret to success in Sochi will be their ability to create quick chemistry.
In crafting the final roster – and with plenty to choose from in one the deepest pools of NHL talent – USA Hockey arrived in Sochi having made its final selections with player dynamics in mind.
"This is a unique tournament and it creates a unique challenge," head coach Dan Bylsma said of his team's chemistry. "The team that comes together and figures that out the fastest will be the one that is most victorious."
Months of planning and consideration led to the return of 13 players from the silver medal-winning team from the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games – a far cry from four years ago, when the team featured three players with Olympic experience.
General manager David Poile and his Olympic management team built the 2014 roster around speed and skill – key characteristics for success on the larger international rink. Team USA begins round-robin play Thursday against Slovakia.
Assistant GM Ray Shero has stepped into Poile's position in Sochi as the longtime Team USA general manager recovers from surgery, having been hit by an errant puck during a recent Nashville Predators practice.
The U.S. team is in contention for a medal in Sochi with veteran players like goaltender Ryan Miller – the 2010 Olympic tournament MVP – and team captain Zach Parise, who tied as the team's leading scorer.
Along with Parise, the U.S. also returns one of the NHL's most gifted players in Patrick Kane, who has the ability to be a game-changer, as does returnee Phil Kessel, who is among the NHL's top scorers this season. The U.S. also boasts returning Olympians David Backes, Dustin Brown and Ryan Callahan, who are current captains of NHL teams.
"There's no shortage of leadership," Parise said. "There's plenty of guys who are leaders, we're not lacking in that area. With those type of guys leading the way and with players like Patrick with their skill, we're going to be a hard team to play against."
Team USA is expected to battle traditional hockey powers Canada and Russia, in addition to Sweden and Finland. Teams like Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia also look to join the medal conversation.
Since NHL players began participating at the Games in 1998, the United States has had limited success outside of North America. At the Nagano Games, the U.S. finished sixth, while at the Torino Games, Team USA was eighth.
Team USA drove the tournament all the way to overtime in the gold-medal final at the 2010 Games before Canada captured gold and Team USA settled for silver. In Sochi, Brown plans to use those memories to propel the team forward.
"Sometimes a loss like that will motivate you more than anything else," Brown said. "I remember how I felt after Vancouver and it is one of those things I will keep in the back of my mind this time."


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The Contestant Announcement
From the creator of The Bachelor franchise, comes the new summer series, Bachelor in Paradise. Some of "The Bachelor's" biggest stars and most talked about villains are back. They all left The Bachelor or The Bachelorette with broken hearts but now they know what it really takes to find love, and on Bachelor in Paradise they'll get a second chance to find their soul mates.
Below is the Bachelor in Paradise cast list:
AshLee Frazier, 33, Houston, TX – The Bachelor, Season 17 (Sean)
AshLee was falling hard for Sean so much so that she brought him home to meet her family, only to be dumped in Thailand after the overnight dates. Hopefully for AshLee everything will finally fall into place in Paradise.
Ben Scott, 30, Dallas, TX – The Bachelorette, Season 9 (Desiree)
Ben came off as the villain who used his son to gain attention from Desiree and in turn alienated the other guys in the process. He later left Des after an awkward two-on-one date. This time around Ben is looking to hopefully rehab his image and meet someone who sees the real him.
Clare Crawley, 33, Sacramento, CA – The Bachelor, Season 18 (Juan Pablo)
After Juan Pablo said some naughty things to Clare in a helicopter in St. Lucia, he rejected her at the proposal. She then won America's heart by standing up for herself and putting Juan Pablo in his place.
Daniella McBride, 26, Los Angeles, CA – The Bachelor, Season 17 (Sean)
It took a while for Daniella to warm up to Sean, but one night during a group date after party in Montana her emotions got the best of her. That following episode, Sean sent her home.
Elise Mosca, 28, Los Angeles, CA – The Bachelor, Season 18 (Juan Pablo)
Elise opened up to Juan Pablo about her mother's wish for her happiness. Unfortunately though their relationship failed to blossom and Juan Pablo sent her home.
Graham Bunn, 36, Los Angeles, CA – The Bachelorette, Season 4 (Deanna) & Bachelor Pad, Season 2
Most notably, Graham had a relationship with Michelle Money on Bachelor Pad, Season 2 and continued it for a while after the show. They are no longer together, but are great friends.
Lacy Faddoul, 25, La Jolla, CA – The Bachelor, Season 18 (Juan Pablo)
Lacy left without ever really getting a shot with Juan Pablo. This caregiver to the elderly needs a good man who will take care of her.
Michelle Kujawa, 30, Anaheim, CA - The Bachelor, Season 14 (Jake) & Bachelor Pad, Season 1
Michelle was very emotional on Jake's season of The Bachelor so she joined Bachelor Pad, Season 1 to fall in love but didn't find it.
Robert Graham, 31, Los Angeles, CA – The Bachelorette, Season 9 (Desiree)
Robert, the sign spinning entrepreneur went home before ever really having a chance to show Desiree who he is.
Sarah Herron, 27, Los Angeles, CA – The Bachelor, Season 17 (Sean)
Sarah went on a fantastic repelling date with Sean at the beginning of the season but ultimately, the connection just wasn't there and he let her go before the rose ceremony in Canada.
Plus, three eliminated cast members from the current season of The Bachelorette, to be announced at a later date.
For seven weeks, the group will live together in an isolated romantic paradise and over the course of six episodes we'll follow these former bachelors and bachelorettes as they explore new relationships. America will watch as they fall in love or go through renewed heartbreak. The romantic dating series will feature new twists, shocking surprises, unexpected guests and some of the most unlikely relationships in "Bachelor" history, plus all the usual romance, drama and tears we've come to expect from the "Bachelor" franchise. It all comes together in the romantic television event of the summer, beginning Monday, August 4 at 8:00 PM ET/PT.
Hosted by Chris Harrison, Bachelor in Paradise is produced by Next Entertainment in association with Warner Horizon Television. Mike Fleiss and Martin Hilton are executive producers. Bachelor in Paradise is broadcast in 720 Progressive (720P), ABC's selected HDTV format. (CLOSED- CAPTIONED)


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You searched for: Creator Personal Names Manning, Warren Francis, b. 1896. Remove constraint Creator Personal Names: Manning, Warren Francis, b. 1896. All Creators Manning, Warren Francis, b. 1896. Remove constraint All Creators: Manning, Warren Francis, b. 1896. Digital Content No Digital Content Remove constraint Digital Content: No Digital Content Subject Corporate Names West Virginia University--Planning. Remove constraint Subject Corporate Names: West Virginia University--Planning. All Subjects West Virginia University--Administration. Remove constraint All Subjects: West Virginia University--Administration. All Subjects Education, Humanistic. Remove constraint All Subjects: Education, Humanistic. Subject Topical Rhodes scholarships. Remove constraint Subject Topical: Rhodes scholarships.
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Bunk Bed Mattresses
No bunk bed is complete without a bunk bed mattress. Bunk bed mattresses have been specifically designed for bunk bed use. It's best not to take your chances with any old mattress. Read this quick guide and find out how to buy the right one for you.
Bunk Bed Mattress Height
Choosing a bunk bed mattress that is the correct dimensions is of ultimate importance. Most bunk bed mattresses range between 15" to 18" in height. Choosing a mattress that is too tall will make your guard rails ineffective. It is wise to leave at least 6" of space from the top of the mattress to the top of the guard rail. Leaving too much space between the mattress and the guard rail can also be hazardous. Many children toss and turn during the night and you don't want any chance of getting an arm or leg wedged in. If your bunk bed doesn't come with a mattress, be sure to read the specifications to find out exactly how much height you can have.
Innerspring vs Foam
Choosing a type of mattress is largely a matter of personal preference. Foam mattresses are increasingly popular for the home. Many people prefer to sleep on the comfort of a latex or memory foam mattress and your kids or guests are no different. Regular foam is still widely used especially for childrens bedrooms. Innerspring mattresses are always a great choice.
Bunk Bed Mattress Sizes
Bunk beds are typically available in twin size but full size and queen size bunk beds are also popular, especially in loft bunk beds. Some bunk beds have a larger bunk bed on the bottom. Be sure to check the size before making a bunk bed mattress purchase. Read More
Futon Bunk Beds
Futon bunk beds generally have a bunk bed mattress included as part of the set. If not, purchasing a futon mattress in the correct size will be a smart plan. Futon mattresses are designed to fold up, unlike a regular bunk mattress.
Optional: Bunky Board
A bunky board is another popular choice to use in conjunction with a bunk bed. The bunky board is a board that replaces a box spring mattress. It is essentially a flat board that lies between the mattress and the bed frame. Adding a bunky board increases the firmness of the bunk bed mattress and might even help to prolong mattress life.
Cheap Mattresses & More
Cymax offers a full range of bunk bed mattresses from trusted brands like Simmons Beautyrest and Serta, including the Serta Perfect Sleeper mattress. Take a look through our selection and find the best mattress for you at a sale price. We offer free shipping on most items and factory direct warehouse pricing to ensure you always bring home a great deal.


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France's burqa ban: A brave step that we Muslims should welcome
France's ban on wearing the niqab in public defends secular society – and the rights of Muslim women like me. Liberals bemoan the ban's infringement on personal freedoms. But Islamists who mandate that women wear the veil are incorrectly interpreting the true message of the Quran.
| New York
France's recent "burqa ban" unveils the ignorance surrounding Islam, an ignorance shared by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. President Nicolas Sarkozy's push to ban the face-veil, the niqab – put into effect last week – shocks Western elites. Legislating self-expression is surely more the provenance of draconian states like Iran and Saudi Arabia, than secular La France. To many, Mr. Sarkozy's France smacks of uncivilized intolerance. But is Sarkozy really so wrong?
I first saw a veiled woman when I was six, possibly seven. Fascinated, and – never having seen anything like this – frightened, I looked up at my father, who explained she was from Arabia. Like us, he told me, she too was a Muslim.
Thirty-five years later, veiled women no longer catch the eye of pluralistic Muslim families like mine. Instead, in an extraordinary distortion of social mores, I find they now symbolize all of us, even assimilated, heterodox Muslim women like me.
France's ban of the niqab in the public space is logical and one that many Muslims, myself included, welcome. Why?
Intensely secular societies, which not only tolerate, but actively celebrate multicultural pluralistic diversity, have been exploited by insular, Islamist neo-orthodoxy. They do so at my expense – the expense of the moderate Muslim. Be clear, neo-orthodox Muslims place no priority on the status of their women, whether living in Bamian or Brittany.
It would be decades before I could relate to the veiled woman – not until I lived and practiced medicine in Saudi Arabia where veiling was legislated. At thirty-one, arriving in Riyadh, I first wore the hijab (which covered all of my hair and neck) with an abbaya, which covered my entire body, to the ankles. This would be my only vehicle into the public sphere for the next two years.
French legislation is the first country to criminalize wearing the niqab in all public places, sparking wolverine cries of Islamophobia. Naïve liberals, predictably outraged, bemoan the infringement of personal and religious freedom in this mandating boundaries of clothing. Certainly, orthodox, state-sponsored secularism repudiating the niqab has triggered accusations of misogyny and marginalization by the powerful French state of an already beleaguered minority – the misunderstood Muslim woman.
The true origin of the 'veil' in Islam
But the dilemma is more complicated than state intrusion on personal expression or religious freedom. Instead we need to examine the precise self-expression in question – the veil itself – and search for its roots in Islam.
In the early Islamic period, the word khimar, "veil," did not necessarily connote face covering. In the Quran, Sura 24:31, the reference to "khimar" reminds Muslim women of the need to "draw...[it] over their bosoms" as integral to female modesty.
Similarly, the verse of the veil commanded only the prophet Muhammad's wives, as a mark of high distinction, to speak from behind a "hijab," meaning a curtain (Quran Sura 33:53).
Later, theological scholarship indicates traditions asserting use of the khimar specifically to mean niqab may have been fabricated. Records show Aisha – one of the most eminent of the prophet Muhammed's wives, a great scholar of Islam and one of the foremost teachers of early Muslims – provided great detail on the color and fabric of the khimars in her day. Nonetheless, no record exists as to how exactly they were worn.
This convenient vacuum allowed others to insert their own interpretation of veiling, for their own motives, including enforcing gender segregation and even gender apartheid – extraordinary, given Islam's central emphasis on equality of both men and women and profound regard for justice above all other values.
Today's adherence to literal interpretations of the veil, largely by Muslims ignorant of the true dictates of their own religion, are thus actually derived from cultural misogyny, which claims, falsely, to have a basis in the divine. Thus, with its ban, France is not impinging on religious freedom so as much as on cultural mores – mores that repress women.
Modern veil symbolizes division, ignorance
Beyond symbolizing the precepts of religion in this unique post 9-11 era, veils also graphically articulate the widening chasm between West and East. In some minds, the veil demarcates profound and irreconcilable ideological divides. As throughout history, the veil continues to be a stark visual trope that brutally bifurcates. Veils have long divided society by gender in the past, and today, even more so, by politic.
Today, the veil is undeniably the international symbol of Islam. Such a symbol ironically obscures the faith's complexity and pluralism into a single faceless monolith. Every day, Muslim women are veiled, unveiled, de-veiled, or re-veiled, and their positions in relation to fabric are often overtly political and frequently shifting. As the veil has become a political statement in the migrant Muslim Diaspora, it is frequently mistaken for a symbol of devotion, most often by ritualistic Muslims themselves.
Because of the niqab, Muslim women generate attention, rather than deflect it – the exact opposite of the principle of veiling. They obscure the long-forgotten ideal of Islamic veiling (a dedication to chaste modesty and dignified purity) that extends well beyond either clothing or gender, foolishly relegating a rich philosophy into mere cloth. Islam mandates modesty of the male Muslim as much as of the Muslim woman, through conduct, not necessarily specific garment – a principle smothered in today's revival of rote ritualism.
These Islamist Muslims push the limits of societal tolerance beyond the pale, provoking latent intolerance. The Netherlands is perhaps the most inflamed example of this today. Their actions, and not the state's, ultimately limit the progress and acceptance of all Muslims, whatever the extent of our external symbols of Islam.
Worse, through their own innate ignorance of Islam, these Islamists contribute to profound fragmentation of their adopted society, espousing insurrection that threatens the state from within. This destruction of the host society is anathema to the believing Muslim and deeply against Islamic ideals, which demand cohesion and collaboration at the broadest societal level, irrespective of the nature of that society's leadership.
Will Muslims protest false Islam?
France's ban is not to be demonized but lauded. In the short term, it will be painful and ugly and certainly likely to deepen the poles around the extraordinary trope of the veiled Muslim woman. However, this ban is a necessary evil in order to curtail the advancement of rigid expressions of a false Islam into greater positions of influence.
Yet within this civil turmoil, there may be some gain. Limiting face-veils to a private practice within the home can yield a more cohesive society, if only Western authorities are courageous enough to carry this through. Authorities will succeed only if they are supported by educated Muslims intimate with the nuances of veiling beyond a literal construction.
Sarkozy, in his absolute refusal of France's intimidation to encroaching Islamism, has gifted an unparalleled opportunity for Muslims everywhere. Rather than explain veiling to the non-Muslim, it is the Muslim populations in the diaspora whom we must teach. Muslim women in particular have a central role to play in this dialogue.
As Muslim women, we must always remember that we are more than our womanhood. We are Muslims first, women second. We are more than our modesty, whether it is swathed in fabric or faith. We are more than these practices, whether mandated by men at home, or men of state. In this regard, Sarkozy's ban is, in fact, not a test of France's tolerance, but rather a test of our own.
Can Muslims overcome the rigid myopia of Islamism that emerges from within our midst? Or will we, too, be smothered in a veil of our own making – the asphyxiating veil of ignorance that threatens to strangle us all?
Qanta A. Ahmed is the author of "In the Land of Invisible Women," detailing her experience practicing medicine in Saudi Arabia. She is associate professor of medicine at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook; honorary professor at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland; and a 2010 Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellow in Science and Religion. Follow Dr. Ahmed on Facebook, Twitter @MissDiagnosis, and her Huffington Post blog.


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"My True Love Gave To Me…" Contest With TSTNov 28th, 2010 | By Krystal | Category: Contests, Fandom, Featured Articles, Site News
"On the 6th day of Christmas my true love gave to me…"
There are only 6 days left until Eclipse comes out on DVD! Woo-hoo! In honor of the release, we here at Twilight Series Theories will be hosting a special holiday-themed countdown and contest.
Here's how to enter:
Just reTweet this post on Twitter (@TSTPodcast) OR share the link on Facebook (and be sure to post the link below in the comments). You will need to do this every day for the 7 days we are promoting the contest!
If you reTweet/Share ALL 7 days you may win an autographed picture of Peter Facinelli, Eclipse DVD and some other Twilight goodies… 7 Prizes total! The winner will be picked at random Sunday, December 5th!
And, just for fun, some of the TST staff will be answering a special holiday question-of-the-day, so be sure to play along with us in the comments section! 🙂
Question #2: What makes you a Bahumbug?
Krystal: When other people are Bahumbug over the holiday. Let me enjoy the season! If I want to listen to Christmas music on November 1, so be it. If I want to stand in line in the middle of the night on Black Friday, that's okay too. Same goes for the fandom. If I want to stand in line for hours to see a Twilight movie, don't knock it. Everyone is nuts over something; this just happens to be my thing.
Stefanie: Shopping in stores. Too many people rushing around everywhere at Christmas. Internet shopping is one of the best inventions ever.
Kallie: So, I'm really not sure if it's possible for me to be Bahumbug!?!?!?


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Lightning hit two jetliners flying into Philly Wednesday night during that burst of rain, wind and hail we had. Both planes were on approach to land at Philadelphia International Airport. Both made safe landings.
US Airways Flight 1036 was struck by lightning as it entered Philadelphia airspace. The Boeing 757 was carrying 96 passengers and a crew of seven from St. Martin in the Caribbean. The pilots landed the plane just fine. Maintenance workers were checking it over Wednesday night, which is standard operating procedure according to the airline.
Lightning also hit an AirTran jet on approach around the same time. That jet also made a safe landing.
While it sounds really scary, commercial airlines get hit by lightning more than once a year, according to an article in Scientific American. But there has not been a commercial crash blamed on lightning in more than 40 years. The skins of many commercial airplanes are made mostly out of aluminum which is a good conductors of electricity. And the planes are engineered in such a way that when (apparently not if) the jet takes a lightning hit, most of the current stays on the outside of the plane.


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Today's News: Our Take - Amazing Race's Trey and Lexi: We Don't Feel Guilty About Splitting the Rockers' Money
Victory and $1 million was a challenge away for Trey and Lexi on The Amazing Race, but the Texas couple fell from first to third when she struggled at the memory Roadblcok - and got hit on the head with a pole to add insult to injury. "We knew we had a lead and were close to winning, but the most important part of the Race is to not get too confident," Lexi tells TVGuide.com. "The Race can change at any time and it did there." Find out how long it took for her to complete the task and why they don't feel guilty about sharing James and Abba's money with the twins.
Fall TV Report Card: How's the new class doing?
Did you ever finish the task?
Lexi: Yes, I did. [Laughs] I took four and a half hours!
You said you prepared by memorizing the flags, but did you not pick up on greetings all of the greeters said to you?
Lexi: Not really because your emotions are so high when you land on that mat. You hear "hello" and I'm paying attention to what they're wearing because they're each wearing something unique. And I'm a girl, so that's what I'm looking like. And when we leave the mat, Phil would say, "And that means goodbye," and I just thought, "Oh, wow, that's so nice of him to translate." [Laughs] We were not thinking that he was giving us hints for the final challenge!
What was it like seeing Brent and James finish before you when you got there first?
Lexi: It was so tough. It was right there at our fingertips. We really thought that it was going to be arranging the flags in the order of the countries we went to. Seeing the flags at the U.N., we were like, "We got this." My heart just literally dropped when I read the clue because I've never traveled before. I don't think world geography and history is one of my strengths. I didn't have control over it and that was the most frustrating part for me. It was more of a mental task. If I was cultured and knew these languages, it was an easy, but if I didn't, which I didn't, it was definitely challenging.
Trey, do you think you would've done better?
Trey: I absolutely would not have done any better. [Laughs] We would've been there five and a half hours if I were doing it. I was so proud of her throughout the whole time. She was competitive and kept me going the whole Race. I'm so happy for her. She did everything she could. I couldn't be more proud.
How much did it hurt when the pole fell on your head?
Lexi: Oh, my God! That was painful. That was like the final straw. It was an emotionally exhausting day and I was just so frustrated with the challenge and I couldn't do it. When that pole bonked me on the head, it was my time to melt down!
Do you know how far behind the Chippendales you were?
Trey: I think we were about 40 minutes. We were pretty certain we got third.
The twins begged you to wait for them to do their Speed Bump in France, which is kind of ridiculous. You didn't, but did you give it any thought?
Lexi: [Laughs] No. We had an alliance with them because we're friends and they're strong teams, but you have to put yourself first. I know that they wouldn't have done it. I think they were just worried about being last and lost it a little bit. We're all competitive and I think that's why our alliance worked. At the end of the day, we're all racing for ourselves.
Trey: As you saw, we were running off as soon as we got the clue. We would've loved to have kept racing with them that leg because they're great friends of ours, but everyone knew you couldn't wait for anybody. This was for a spot in the final.
Photos: Everybody's posing nude! Check out Rihanna and other stars who've bared all
Do you think you underestimated the Beekmans?
Lexi: Not really. I felt like as the Race went on, the Beekmans always had something up their sleeve, like when we were in France and Josh started speaking French. We were like, "Uh oh!" I knew Josh would be successful at that last challenge, just knowing how smart he is. And both the Beekmans and the Chippendales travel frequently, so I knew that we had a disadvantage.
Let's talk about the rockers' money. Did you know it was theirs?
Trey: We weren't sure. The situation just unraveled in a different light on TV than we wished it had. Nobody stole anything. Any Amazing Race fan knows that you're not allowed to go in other teams' bags and tamper with their things or Race things. The money was found on the ground when it was in no one's possession. It was a travel agency we had all been through. We knew it could be the rockers', but weren't sure. And when you're racing for $1 million, you're looking for any opportunity to help yourself within the rules. We feel no guilt about doing that. Money was found on the ground. We are not people who steal, and neither are Natalie and Nadiya.
It seemed like the twins had to convince you not to saying anything. Did they?
Lexi: It was more talking about if we should say anything. We decided we weren't going to offer up that we found money unless someone said something. As you saw, the rockers didn't say anything because they didn't want to appear weak. If they said they had lost money and asked us if we found anything, we would've given it back. But at that time, we weren't even 100 percent sure it was theirs. It was a strategic move to keep the money between us. It just came across on television a lot shadier than it was with the editing. Unfortunately, the promos also said "steal," so people get that in their minds. And obviously, in real life, if that were to happen, we would've asked everyone there, "Hey, did someone lose $100?" But this was a game and we didn't break any rules. We know in our hearts that we didn't steal. We would never, ever steal. We were very strategic in how we played the game, but not to the point of compromising our morals for it. And if we had stolen, we would've been penalized.
Amazing Race's Jaymes and James: We had a lot of taxi trouble
Have you talked to the rockers about it? They said they had no idea you guys had it until they saw the episode.
Lexi: Yeah. I called them the next day and explained the whole story. ... They understood where we were coming from and why we did it. We love Abba and James. They're good people and after our conversation, we were fine.
What are you up to now?
Lexi: We're just working and ... looking forward to the holidays.
View original Amazing Race's Trey and Lexi: We Don't Feel Guilty About Splitting the Rockers' Money at TVGuide.com
Related Articles on TVGuide.com
Other Links From TVGuide.com


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Anantara Maldives introduces coffee from elephants
Maldives Promotion House – In a Maldives exclusive, Anantara Resorts introduced Black Ivory Coffee at its four resorts in the South Male and Baa Atolls, joining the group's Anantara Golden Triangle resort in Thailand as the first hotels in the world to offer one of the most unique coffee experiences on the planet.
At a retail price of approximately US$1,100 per kilogramme, this coffee is also one of the most expensive and exclusive in the world. Currently 50 kilogrammes are available for sale.
Black Ivory Coffee is created from a process whereby coffee beans are naturally refined by Thai elephants. Research indicates that during digestion, the enzymes of the elephant break down coffee protein. Since protein is one of the main factors responsible for bitterness in coffee, less protein means almost no bitterness.
The process begins with selecting the best Thai Arabica beans that have been picked from an altitude of 1,500 metres. Once deposited by the elephant, the individual beans are handpicked by mahouts (elephant trainer and carer) and their wives and sundried.
Approximately 10,000 beans are picked to produce one kilogramme of roasted coffee; 33 kilogrammes of coffee cherries are required to produce one kilogramme of Black Ivory Coffee.
Refinement of the coffee takes place at the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation (GTAEF) in Thailand, the brainchild of William (Bill) E. Heinecke, Founder, CEO and Chairman of Minor International, Anantara Resorts' parent company. Black Ivory Coffee joined Minor International's elephant conservation and welfare programme by donating eight percent of coffee sales to GTAEF to help fund a specialist elephant veterinarian to provide free care to the elephants of Thailand. Additional funds will also be used to purchase medicine as well as to build a new laboratory.
In order to demonstrate freshness and to enhance diners' senses, the coffee is ground by hand at the table and brewed using technology developed in 1840 in Austria. This balancing syphon is not only a beautiful machine, but also widely recognised as the best way to brew coffee. The consistent 93° Celsius temperature and contact time between water and bean result in a very clean and flavourful taste. The four minute brewing process is visually enticing and leaves a lasting impression.
Spring Harvest 2012 Tasting Guide:
Beans: 100 percent Thai Arabica handpicked beans. Sundried to allow the juice of the cherry to be absorbed into the bean then semi-washed, resulting in extra sweetness and flavour.
- Current production: 50 kilogrammes.
- Roast: Full City.
- Brightness: Smooth mellow. To maximise the experience, roll the coffee to both sides of the tongue.
- Fragrance: Floral and chocolate.
- Body: Full bodied, syrupy.
- Flavour: Milk chocolate, nutty, earthy with hints of spice and red berries.
- Finish: Clean, pleasant aftertaste, chocolate notes lingering.
Commenting on the exclusive offering, Jeffrey F. Seward, Cluster General Manager Anantara Resorts Maldives, said that his team of culinary gurus continuously introduce guest experiences that celebrate Anantara's brand values of indigenous, expertise and discovery. "We are delighted to be amongst the first hotels in the world to offer this one-of-a-kind coffee experience that also has a positive impact in the lives of Thai elephants. It perfectly and flavourfully fits the philosophy of Anantara Resorts to afford our story collecting travellers unique experiences in a destination that appeases more than just aesthetic senses."


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Kono Naka ni Hitori, Imouto ga Iru!
Kono Naka ni Hitori, Imouto ga Iru!
Abiding by his father\'s will, Shougo was transferred into an academy where many young girls attend. It appears as though his younger sister (separated from him at birth) also attends this academy. She is trying to get closer to him without letting him know who she actually is. Problem is, Shougo seems to be popular with the other girls as well! Can Shougo \"properly\" reunite with his little sister while getting a girlfriend at the same time?!
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Game 7 Will Decide Bruins And Canadiens Again
The Bruins crowd has been hostile to Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban, booing him every time he touches the puck.
And he can't wait to get back to Boston.
"That's what playoffs is all about, man," Subban said after the Canadiens won Game 6 to force the series back to Boston's TD Garden for a decisive seventh game. "I hope their crowd is louder. ... I hope it gets nasty, I hope it gets dirty."
The Bruins and Canadiens will play on Wednesday night in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference semifinal, with the winner moving just one step from the Stanley Cup finals. It is the ninth time the two Original Six rivals have met in a seventh game, with the Bruins taking the most recent one in 2011.
Boston played two more Game 7s that year on their way to the NHL championship. The Bruins also went to seven games in a playoff series the next year, and again the year after that.
Montreal hasn't been back to a deciding game since its first-round loss to Boston in `11.
"We've been through those many times," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "You hope that your experience is going to help you get through those."
The Bruins led the series 3-2 before Montreal won 4-0 in Game 6 to stave off elimination at the Bell Centre. But to advance to the conference finals for just the second time since 1993, the Canadiens are going to have to win in Boston.
Subban isn't expecting the reception to be any different than in the first three games at the TD Garden, where Montreal won Game 1. Subban had two goals in the opener- including the game-winner in the second overtime - leading to racist messages on Twitter that both the Bruins and Boston's mayor condemned.
Subban also scored in Game 5 in Boston.
"It's going to be great," he told reporters after the Game 6 victory. "I can't wait for the crowd, the noise, the energy in the building. I can't wait to take that all away from them."
The Bruins and Canadiens have met in the playoffs 34 times since 1929, with Montreal winning 24 of the previous 33 series. The Bruins have won seven of the past 11, and two in a row.
The teams have met eight previous times in a Game 7, with Montreal winning five.
It's been a while since the Canadiens have had to play in a winner-take-all game, but the Bruins know that experience won't help if they don't play better than they did on Monday.
"That can only take you so far," forward Daniel Paille said. "It's OK ... but you don't want to count on it."


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The first gathering of the newly organized New York asexual meetup group will be in Manhattan.
Sat. 2/14 at 6:00 at the Washington Square Diner (W. 4th slightly East of 6th St).
The group will try to sit at a front table.
To find out more info or to find a meetup in your area check out the Meetup Mart.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
New York Asexual Meetup Group
The first gathering of the newly organized New York asexual meetup group will be in Manhattan.
3 comments:
Erm, what, exactly, is the New York Asexual Meetup Group? :p
- February 12, 2009 at 3:09 PM
- Queers United said...
It is a group of people who either have no sexual desire or very little. They don't feel the need to be sexually active for the most part. Asexual meetups are social and to get a sense of community. I haven't heard of them being terribly political, maybe someone else can correct me.
- February 12, 2009 at 3:11 PM
- Jeff Flaster said...
I started a social networking group HomoRomantic Asexual Network..for all gay,lesbian,bi,trans,queer,& intersexual members of the asexual community.
http://homoromanticasexual.ning.com/ I look forward to meeting & befriending you all.
- September 29, 2009 at 1:11 PM


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Few animals have captured the imagination like brown bears. They are a high priority in conservation - given their dependence on large natural areas, brown bears are important management indicators for a number of other wildlife species.
Brown bear, grizzly bear, Mexican grizzly bear
Least concernIUCN
Scientific Name
Ursus arctos
Geographic Location
Europe, Northern America, Asia
Brown bears usually forage in the morning and evening and rest under dense vegetation during the day. Depending on the season, brown bears may travel hundreds of kilometers during the autumn to locate food supplies.
Hibernation lasts from around October/December to March/May. In certain southern areas however, hibernation is very short or may not occur at all. To hibernate, bears choose a location such as a burrow, located on a sheltered slope under a large stone or among the roots of a large tree. Dens may be used on repeated occasions over the years.
Brown bears can grow to a huge size, males up to 350kg, females to 200kg. The biggest brown bear was caught in Romania and weighed 480kg.
Although the pelage of this species is usually dark brown, it can vary from cream to almost black depending on the location of the species. In the Rocky Mountains (USA), they have long hairs on the shoulders and back which are frosted with white.
Ecology & Habitat
Brown bears can be found in many habitats, from the fringes of deserts to high mountain forests and ice fields. In Europe, the brown bear is mostly found in mountain woodlands, in Siberia it occurs primarily in forests while in North America they prefer tundra, alpine meadows and coastlines. The species' main requirements are areas with dense cover in which they can shelter by day.
Life Cycle
Young born bears are vulnerable, being blind, naked and weighing only 340-680g. Cubs grow quickly, reaching 25kg by 6 months, and continue lactating for 18 to 30 months while eating a variety of foods. Cubs usually remain with the mother until the third or fourth year of their life. Although they mature sexually between 4-6 years of age, the species continues to grow until 10-11 years old. In the wild, the brown bears can reach 20 to 30 years of age. Despite this long life expectancy, most brown bears die very early.
Brown bears mate from May to July, and a gestation of 180 to 266 days follows, with births occurring from January to March, usually while the female is still in hibernation. She generally lays down two to three offspring, and breeds again 2 to 4 years later.
Brown bears are omnivorous, and their diet varies with the season - from grass and shoots in the spring to berries and apples in the summer, nuts and plums in autumn. All year round they eat roots, insects, mammals (including moose and elk in the Canadian Rockies), reptiles, and of course, honey. In Alaska, grizzlies feed on salmon during the summer.
Population and Distribution
The total global population of brown bears is estimated to be above 200,000, Russia has the largest number of brown bears, believed to be over 100,000.
8,000 brown bears are thought to remain in western Europe and the Carpathians (Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine, Romania), and they are also thought to be found in Palestine, eastern Siberia and the Himalayan region, possibly the Atlas Mountains of northwest Africa, and Hokkaido (Japan).
The species is still fairly common in the mountainous regions of western Canada and Alaska, where its population may reach 30,000 individuals. In other parts of the United States, fewer than 1,000 grizzly bears remain.
Historical Distribution
The brown bear was once distributed in northern and central Europe, Asia, the Atlas mountains of Morocco and Algeria (northern Africa), and western North America as far south as Mexico.
Prior to the arrival of European settlers, it was found on the Great Plains of North America. The populations of the Sierra Nevada and southern Rockies have been extirpated, while those of Northern Mexico were lost in the 1960s. Grizzly numbers were estimated at 100,000 in the United States in the early 1900s.
Major habitat type
Temperate Broadleaf Forests
Biogeographic realm
Nearctic, Palearctic
Range States
Afghanistan; Albania; Andorra; Armenia; Austria; Azerbaijan; Belarus; Bosnia & Herzegovina; Bulgaria; Canada; China; Croatia; Czech Republic; Estonia; Finland; France; Georgia; India; Iran; Iraq; Italy; Japan; Kazakhstan; Korea; Kyrgyzstan; Latvia; Macedonia; Montenegro; Nepal; Norway; Pakistan; Poland; Romania; Russian Federation; Serbia; Slovakia; Slovenia; Spain; Sweden; Tajikistan; Ukraine; United States; Uzbekistan
Brown bears were once subject to hunting and big game trophies, as well as being sought for their meat and hides.Bear gall bladders reportedly bring high prices on the Asian aphrodisiac market, but although demand is growing, there is no evidence that products derived from bear parts have medical value.
Other serious threats to bears are habitat destruction and persecution, problems that affect populations to different extents across their range.
For example, grizzly bears are now found only in 2% of their former range. Logging, mining, road construction and other developments have reduced available bear habitat and contributed to the decrease in bear populations.
In some countries, human/bear conflict has caused problems, particularly in areas where bears can interefere with livestock, orchards, water supplies and garbage bins.
What is WWF doing?
In Europe, there is a focus on minimising human/bear conflict, working with government authorities to ensure livestock is adequately protected and wild bear populations are managed effectively. In addition, a nature park in Russia provides a safe environment for brown bears and is used by WWF as a model ecotourism project:
- Human-Animal Conflict: bears and wolves
- A tumultuous year for the Alps' famous three
- Nalychevo Nature Park
- Adopt a Bear! Help save the brown bear and protect its habitat with WWF Canada, WWF US or WWF Germany
- Spread the word! Click on the button to share this information with others via email or your favourite social networking service.
Make a donation
Did you know?
- The Kodiak brown bear of Alaska, and the Kamchatka brown bear are the two largest sub-species of brown bear due to the their protein-rich diets of spawning salmon and other fresh fish.
- Brown bears are very strong and show remarkable endurance, reportedly being able to outrun a horse, and drag a dead elk up a hill.


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