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"I was blue mouldy for the want of that pint. Declare to God I could hear it hit the pit of my stomach with a click." James Joyce sends Leopold Bloom into a pub or two during his jaunt across Dublin on the 16th of June, and on Bloomsday, "Ulysses" fans around the world follow in his stead. New Yorkers have gathered in Manhattan bars to raise a glass and read a few passages for more than half a century, but Brooklyn, an Irish stronghold for just about forever, hasn't seen many formal Bloomsday celebrations. The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, a social group based in Park Slope, sought to remedy that last Saturday, marking their one hundred and fiftieth anniversary with the first annual Bloomsday in Brooklyn pub crawl.
I haven't read "Ulysses"—my Joycean education began and ended with "The Dubliners" in a Galway classroom—but I've never been one to pass up organized, purposeful drinking. I arrived at the Black Sheep Pub on Bergen Street amidst raucous cheers, and it took me a moment to remember the World Cup, where England, fittingly, was being given a run for its money. The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, including the event's organizers, John Burns, Jimmy Ryan, and Declan Walsh, had spilled out onto the sidewalk with glasses of Guinness in hand. A lively trio of musicians was working their way through Irish folk standards. I barely had time to catch my breath when a bell sounded and a bagpiper started up (the piper, Garry Cheddy, was raised in Belfast and plays for the Department of Corrections: "Whenever they go up Fifth Avenue," he said with a sigh, "I go with them."). We marched behind him, en masse, across Brooklyn's Fifth Avenue, stopping in front of O'Connor's.
A judge, a D.A., and an Irishman—no, it's not the start of a joke—stood at the center of the group. Kings County District Attorney Charles "Joe" Hynes was the principal actor, playing the role of his namesake in the "Cyclops" scene. He was joined by Brooklyn judge Bernie Graham, with Dublin-born Declan Walsh as narrator. Passersby stopped to watch and applaud as Hynes braved his way through a tongue twister of a speech celebrating "Irish heroes and heroines of antiquity"—like Patrick W. Shakespeare and Brian Confucius—pausing only when the ball slipped through the hands of England's goalkeeper and a deafening roar drowned out Joyce's prose.
"The passage was very difficult, but it was fun," Hynes told me afterward. Judge Graham tried an egalitarian spin: "I enjoyed the fact that we were reading outside, on the main avenue of Park Slope, in a very democratic way." Walsh, whose accent lent a great deal of credibility to the performance, said they chose "the high points of the book, the really poignant moments that mark the day." The Friendly Sons spent six weeks going through the book at "300 miles per hour" with Jesse Meyers, a professor at N.Y.U.'s Glucksman Ireland House. "It was 'Ulysses' for Dummies," one of them joked.
The bell rang again and we inched our way toward the third bar, Loki and the Benchmark. The long walk down Fifth Avenue was worth it: in Loki's peaceful, open-air courtyard, Leopold Bloom's Gorgonzola sandwiches were stacked high in wicker baskets. I went to work hunting down the die-hard Joyce fans in the crowd. Dan Farrell, a philosophy professor from Ohio who's written about the book, seemed to have travelled the farthest. He was in town for a month and had read about the event in the Times; the performances convinced him to stay for the entire crawl. "They're fantastic," he said. "I was skeptical with amateurs, but that's what it should be!" A few tables away, James Toolan and Bryan Finnegan sat with matching, well-worn copies of the Gabler edition. " 'Ulysses' is worldly—everyone should read it," said Toolan. "It's nonsense. I am nonsense. It's no sense." Finnegan nodded sagely, adding, " 'Ulysses' is life." I thanked them, a little more confused than when I started, and wandered towards the bar for my first drink of the afternoon.
A pair of my friends arrived, and after a drink, we decided to forgo the final two stops, Harry Boland's in Park Slope and Rocky Sullivan's out in Red Hook, in favor of dinner (the highlight of my afternoon, hands down, was when Garry Cheddy teased my hungry friend, shouting, "Aw, c'mon! Go home, grandma!"). But we had one more bar to visit: Jackie's, a few blocks down Fifth Avenue. The street was packed with families and giddy revelers, crowds celebrating Brooklyn Pride weekend, the Puerto Rican Day Parade, the draw with England, and a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Our little procession, bagpipes leading the way, was a cheerful parade in itself. "There were these wonderful celebrations of this wonderful book, but there was nothing in Brooklyn," Jimmy Ryan told me. "Brooklyn was craving a Bloomsday celebration. I have no doubt this will live on for years." Joyce, we hope, would have approved, perhaps with a single word: "Yes."


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(:input file upfile size=60:) can be used for uploading (attaching) files. upfile in this example is the name of the control. One or several (with different names) can be used inside a fox form, in addition to other input controls. Fox will do the usual posting plus the file upload on form submission. In the
(:fox formname ...:) markup either upload=1 or uptarget=TargetPageName needs to be set.
- upload=1 will direct upload attached to current page or target page set with target=PageName.
- uptarget=TargetPageName will attach upload file(s) to the page specified. Only one upload target can be specified.
To optionally rename the file use a text input box like
(:input text upfile_name :) for instance. Note that it's upfile_name corresponds to the input file box name of upfile, the new name box needs to use the file box name with an added _name postfix.
The following replacement variables can be used in the template to post file attributes file name, file extension, file type and file size, or to use for input validation in
(:foxcheck ...:) markup. upfile is the name of the input file control, i.e
(:input file upfile:). Change it for different file controls.
{$$upfile_name}holds the file name.
{$$upfile_ext}holds the file extension.
{$$upfile_type}holds the file type.
{$$upfile_size}holds the filesize in bytes.
Upload Security: In order to successfully upload files the user needs PmWiki upload authorisation.
$FoxAuth is not used.
<< Multiple Target Pages | Index | Mail Notification >>

subset: commoncrawl


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The Angeles Arrien Foundation for Cross-Cultural Education and Research is a non-profit 501(c)3 public charity committed to supporting the preservation of indigenous and perennial wisdoms, environmental sustainability, and fosters better well-being for children and elders worldwide.
If you wish to make a financial contribution to the Angeles Arrien Foundation for Cross-Cultural Education and Research, please send your donation to: Angeles Arrien Foundation, P O Box 1278, Sausalito, CA 94966, 415-331-1890
All donations go to support the work of the Foundation for Cross-Cultural Education and Research, by providing grants and scholarships to support individuals, organizations, communities whose work meets the qualifications outlined in the Foundation's Mission. Grant applications are by invitation only, once a Letter of Inquiry has been formally submitted and reviewed. We do not accept any unsolicited requests for funding by email.


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With less than 48 hours of time, our associate attorney Jeannine Myers met with members of a new client and defended them at trial in Kettering Municipal Court on a complaint alleging fraud by sellers of real property. After cross-examining Plaintiff, and despite not being provided with Plaintiff's documentary evidence before trial, Jeannine obtained dismissal of the Complaint by way of directed verdict pursuant to Ohio Civ. R. 50(A).
Congratulations Jeannine!


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Hello September! I think September is my favourite month. It's the month where I feel everything is starting again. Does that sound weird? When I was at school, college and university the new year would begin in September. It was the month Ben and me got married (it's almost our one year anniversary!) And it's the month where you can see summer disappearing and the colder weather creeping it.
Don't get me wrong, dark mornings and dark evenings can be so depressing. As can cold blustery winds and relentless rain…but there's something so lovely about curling up in bed hearing the wind outside and being snug and warm inside. And runs that aren't stupidly hot!
This weekend has been great. A nice quiet one, while also having dinner with friends and seeing my mum for a coffee and slice of cake. Unfortunately Ben has come down with a cold. SORRY – man flu. So I've been making him lots of hot lemon with honey drinks and giving him some TLC.
And I finally went for a run! Hurrah! This whole week has all been about avoiding running and mending myself. This is what my workouts this week have looked like:
Monday: LBT (due to spinning fail) and circuits
Tuesday: Spinning
Wednesday: Spinning
Thursday: Pump
Friday: Spinning
Saturday: 4 mile easy run
Sunday: 11 mile long easy run
Yeah I sort of went spinning crazy. I really enjoyed it. OK it wasn't the same as running but it was still good to get that "oof that was tough" buzz afterwards and sense of accomplishment. Don't get me wrong, I will always choose running over spinning though.
One thing that annoyed me about spinning was one of the instructors kept talking about weight-loss and fat-loss – "burning those calories". That is not why I go to spin. I go to spin to help compliment and improve my running without actually running. Spinning is a tough workout and really works my legs and works muscles that I don't use when I run so I become stronger overall.
It just annoys me when people can be so narrow-minded. The gym is not all about losing weight! I get a lot of judgements from people as well when I tell them I go to the gym. Comments like "you don't need to go to the gym!". It just irks me that that's all people think I'm doing.
Moan over. So as you can see I did go running eventually. I decided not to do Parkrun because I couldn't guarantee I wouldn't go into 'race mode' and do something stupid and reignite my groin problem (hmm, maybe I should call it something different? That sounds weird haha). Instead I ran the 4 nice and easy miles to Parkrun (while Ben drove) and then marshalled. I love marshalling because it's great to cheer people on and a few people afterwards said it really helped
Later Alfie and me had such a lovely long walk while I listened to an old MarathonTalk podcast (interview with Nell McAndrew one running a stupidly fast marathon – she is amazing and sounds lovely).
Then we had dinner at my friends house which was great. Felt like proper grown ups having a dinner party!
Then Sunday I tentatively went out for my long run. I was so worried it wouldn't happen. That I'd aggravated things the day before…but it went fine! My groin didn't hurt but it didn't feel completely sorted, still an annoying niggle, so I kept things nice and easy.
I don't think I've ever run at such a consistent pace! It didn't hurt and it felt amazing to get out for a long run. It just cleared my mind wonderfully of any stress.
This week I'm still going to take it easy on the running front. Probably keep going to spin but see how I feel for the Thursday running club session and then maybe Parkrun Saturday.
It's two weeks until my next half marathon (Bristol)!! So I'm glad things are getting back on plan…finger's crossed!!
How was your weekend? What did you get up to?
What's your next race or big event your planning for?
What's your favourite time of year and why?


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As is typical when a bunch of SQL Server Professionals get together, karaoke is happening. When? RIGHT NOW! The MVPs have gathered in Seattle for their Summit. They are having a huge party at the CenturyLink Field. Part of this party includes SQLRockaroke. I am watching the posts and pictures on Twitter, and it looks like they are singing karaoke to a live band. Jason Strate (@StrateSQL) and Jorge Segarra (@SQLChicken) kicked it off. I don't know any more details, but I'm sure Jason will write about it later!
BTW – There are rumors that the crew may or may not be going to Bush Gardens later.


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LANSING — Michigan municipalities are a step closer to getting incentives for developers to redevelop brownfield sites.
The state Senate passed legislation on Wednesday that assists developers with the financial burden of cleaning up brownfield sites. The legislation would let developers keep a portion of taxes collected after the projects are completed to recuperate some costs of cleaning up the site.
MIThrive is a coalition of economic development organizations, cities and chambers of commerce from all around the state that supports the legislation. Sites such as the Pontiac Silverdome and the Hayes Hotel in Jackson could benefit from this legislation.
Several projects in Detroit also likely would benefit from such an incentive. Detroit real estate developer Dan Gilbert and his team were among the leading architects of the bills last year, before they failed to advance at the end of the legislative term.
Gilbert's involvement, and his team's assertion that the incentive could unlock at least $2 billion in projects, have spurred speculation that the redevelopment of the former J.L. Hudson's department store on Woodward Avenue and a proposed $1 billion Major League Soccer stadium on the site of the stalled Wayne County Consolidated Jail project on Gratiot Avenue could be among them.
GOP Sen. Ken Horn of Frankenmuth introduced the bills. He said they have made substantial changes from bills that failed to clear the Legislature last year.
Those changes include the MIThrive coalition taking the focus of the campaign from Detroit to other Michigan cities, in part to convince outstate lawmakers and their constituents to support the incentive.
The incentive would require developers to meet minimum investment thresholds to qualify for the tax capture, starting at $500 million in Detroit and are lower based on a city's population. Tax captures would be capped at $40 million annually, and the state could approve no more than five projects per year.
The bills now move to the House, where they died last year. Since then, the lower chamber has welcomed dozens of freshman lawmakers and a new speaker in Tom Leonard.
MIThrive spokesman Dan Austin said in a statement: "We look forward to demonstrating to the House how the Michigan Thrive Initiative will turn eyesores into thriving developments and build the vibrant communities that are essential for Michigan to grow and prosper."
- Crain's Detroit Business reporter Lindsay VanHulle contributed to this report.


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School districts say test scores inaccurate, asking for rescore
School districts across the state are fuming after finding major problems with the results from fifth- and eighth-grade writing tests.
"Two red flags just jumped out at them that these results couldn't be accurate," director of communications for Norman Public Schools Shelly Hickman said. "The state has a moral obligation to deliver accurate results and clearly the testing company in this situation has not done that."
Video: Schools show test in question
Hickman said those red flags jumped out at administrators for Norman schools when reviewing the writing scores from CTB/McGraw-Hill for their fifth and eighth graders. The first was the uniformity in the grades for each category of the test.
"Eighty percent of our eighth-graders got the same score regardless of what category the testing company was looking at and that is really, really rare," Hickman said. "For example, this student got a '1' in every single category, this student got a '2.5' in every single category, which is just very rare; typically you're going to see variation in the scores."
Hickman said that red flag number two came when looking at how many students were docked for plagiarism. In one example, a student clearly cited a piece of text, using quotations and giving credit to the author of the text, but was still docked for plagiarism.
Edmond Schools also found similar issues with the grading of the test. Edmond testing coordinator Glenda Choate poured through the data herself, also finding tests scored as plagiarized that shouldn't have been.
"It is kind of disheartening and very frustrating to now find out that possibly the way they were scored is not entirely the way we were told to begin with," Choate said. "When we heard that information at this last week's meeting that's when I started really digging in to see how many that affected in our district and the number is quite high."
Last week, districts across Oklahoma met with the state Education Department and McGraw Hill at a state department testing meeting, where Choate said they were informed that if the company saw a certain percentage of text copied into a child's essay, that child would automatically be given a score of 35, which is one point below passing.
"That really concerned us because we did not know of this magical or unknown number out there about what that would be," Choate said.
In Moore, Juli Gatin teaches reading and English to eighth-graders at Highland East Jr. High, and says the flawed results are frustrating for students and teachers who have worked on the curriculum all year.
"To not know how they were judged, how they were scored, is very frustrating because the children have done everything we've taught them to do according to the state department," Gatin said. "To not know that the goals and the scoring rubric have changed is very disheartening, it's very frustrating, it's very upsetting."
Districts can request that McGraw Hill do a re-score of the tests. However, if the vendor doesn't change a score, it costs that district $125 per test. For districts with the possibility of hundreds of re-scores that cost could potentially reach into the tens of thousands of dollars, money districts say they don't have.
Norman schools have requested that the state re-score their fifth- and eighth-grade tests at no cost to the district. In a letter to State Superintendent of Instruction Janet Barresi, the district writes,
"As a result of these invalid and unreliable scores, there is no avenue for teachers to use these scores to guide instruction, nor for parents and students to understand their writing achievement at this time.
We are requesting that all fifth and eighth-grade writing samples be re-scored at no cost to the district. There are clearly many problems with the scoring that are out of our district's control. This is an issue that can only be resolved by the OSDE and CTB. We do not accept these scores as valid representation of our students' writing achievement or ability."


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SciMy Interview: Professor Datuk Dr. A. Rahman A. Jamal
interviewed by Dr. Wong Kah Keng
Prof. Datuk Dr. A. Rahman (MD, MRCP, PhD) is the founding director of the UKM Medical Molecular Biology Institute (UMBI) at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Kuala Lumpur. He graduated from UKM in Medicine in 1985 and obtained his MRCP (Paediatrics) from the Royal College of Physicians Ireland in 1991. He joined the Faculty of Medicine UKM in November 1991 and went on to pursue his doctorate studies in 1992 and was awarded a PhD in Haematology and Molecular Biology in 1996 from University of London, United Kingdom. He has since been actively contributing to Malaysian academic and research arena, specialising in molecular biology of cancers and thalassaemia.
Prof. Rahman is a senior consultant and professor of paediatric haematology and oncology and molecular biology. He has held numerous national and international appointments including the project leader for The Malaysian Cohort, Chairman for the National Stem Cell Committee for Ethics in Research and Therapy, Chief Scientist for the Space Science Programme for the National Angkasawan Programme (2006-2007), member of the Asia Cohort Consortium and also an editor for the Journal of Paediatrics and Obstetrics and Gynaecology. In this interview, Prof. Rahman shares with us his insights on cancer research and the space science programme, as well as the challenges faced to setting up an international class research institute.
Q1. What influenced you to specialise in paediatric oncology and subsequently PhD studies in molecular biology?
When I was a medical officer, I had my first exposure to children diagnosed with cancer. I immediately saw that this was a very challenging disease to treat. I decided to take up paediatrics as my specialisation and the field of haematology and oncology became my choice of subspecialty. With the desire to understand and be trained in cancer research, I decided to pursue a doctorate degree in 1992. I knew that the best environment to be a clinician scientist would be in the academia hence I applied to join UKM and was offered a scholarship to do my PhD. I was lucky as my PhD project involved looking at gene arrangements and mutations of the RB1 and CDKN2A genes in acute myeloid leukaemia. The PhD exposed me to various molecular biology and cell biology techniques.
Q2. You were the Chief Scientist for the Space Science Programme for the National Angkasawan Programme (MOSTI) in 2006-2007. Could you share with us your experiences of the programme?
I must first thank Datuk Dr. Mazlan Othman, the then Director General of National Space Agency (ANGKASA) who invited me to join the Space Science programme back in 2006. I was deeply involved in the contract negotiations with Russian authorities for the science experiments which we planned to send to the International Space Station (ISS) with our astronaut. The contract for the science experiments was an important component of the overall contract for the training of our two candidate astronauts. The procedures that our scientific team had to go to get approval from the Russian authorities were highly technical and challenging. There were 10 sets of documents which had to be submitted and approved. As we all know one of the main aims for sending our astronaut to space was for him to conduct scientific experiments in the ISS.
The biobank is part of The Malaysian Cohort (TMC) project – it is a national resource that we are building gradually and it is unprecedented by Malaysian standards
As this was the first time Malaysia had an astronaut in the ISS, he became an overnight celebrity and unfortunately the space science component had lesser coverage. Nevertheless all the scientists involved performed well and all the 5 experiments led by researchers from UKM (Cancer Cells in Space and Microbes in Space), UPM (Protein Crystalisation in Space) and UiTM (Endothelial Cells and Osteoblasts in Space) were successful and the results have been published in various journals. The coverage on the space science by the media was vastly overshadowed by the focus on our astronaut, despite the fact that the requirements, such as the bioethics, safety and security, hardware integration, experimental design, limitation of weight and volume, availability of equipments on the ISS, etc. that needed to be fulfilled for our space science experiments to be approved, were extremely demanding. To quote a prominent US space scientist's words loosely, if one manages to pass the hurdles of getting a space experiment approved to be sent to the ISS, that alone is already a measure of success!
Q3.What were the space science experiments conducted?
I actually was given a chance of a trial run by Datuk Dr. Mazlan to send the famous nematode i.e., Caenorhabditis elegans, to the ISS in collaboration with researchers from the University of Colorado, USA in December 2006. This was successful and the worms (propagated in a liquid medium) was in the ISS for a total of 7 months. The results have been reported and published1-2. That gave us a good exposure on many of the processes involved in sending a space experiment to the ISS although the Russian way of doing things were a bit different in certain ways. For the October 2007 flight, our astronaut brought with him 5 sets of experiments. The key objective was to study the effects of microgravity on organisms and cells focusing on adaptation and also gene expression changes amongst others. I was the leader for experiment on Eukaryotic Cells in Space for which we sent Jurkat and HepG2 cells. Another experiment which UMBI led was the Microbes in Space where two types of bacteria were sent. Prof. Dr. Raja Noor Zaliha of the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) led the Protein Crystalisation in Space which turned out to be highly successful. The lipases which she crystalised in the ISS had much better resolution compared to the ground controls. The UiTM group sent two cell lines (endothelial cells and osteoblasts) and have also published the results.
Space experiments are highly challenging – the scientists need to ask the right questions in terms of testing the effects of microgravity and radiation, have the appropriate experimental design, the containment requirements, the non-ideal conditions as compared to ground experiments, and the limited astronaut time and resources available to conduct the experiments. A space experiment usually takes around three years to plan and tested on the ground before sending it to space; we planned this in 18 months, and I believe the Malaysian scientists have done an excellent job which ensured the success of the space science programme, particularly in obtaining the scientific results.
Q4. UMBI is home to the largest biobank in the country3. How does the biobank contribute to local research scenes?
The biobank is part of The Malaysian Cohort (TMC) project4 – it is a national resource that we are building gradually and it is unprecedented by Malaysian standards. We started recruitment in 2007 and in September 2012 we concluded our first recruitment phase at 106,527 participants, way past our target of 100,000 individuals. We collected data on demography, medical history, family history, environment exposure, as well as lifestyle factors including diet and physical activity. Comprehensive biophysical measurements were done and also blood tests. Blood and urine were collected and these were processed and stored in both -80o C freezers and liquid nitrogen tanks for future research. As we know, the first and famous cohort study was the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) initiated in 1948 that followed a group of people throughout their lives to identify risk factors to heart diseases. The FHS is still ongoing by following up the children of the original participants of the study. A cohort study is excellent in identifying risk factors and early biomarkers for diseases – it takes time for events, or diseases, to occur. A casecontrol study is not the best model although easier and less costly to do. A cohort study follows the individuals from the time when they are healthy or asymptomatic to development of diseases.
The Malaysian Cohort Biobank follows closely the protocol and standards from the UK Biobank that houses the data and bipspecimens from over 500,000 individuals. The UK Biobank has conducted a lot of validation procedures including stability testing of biospecimens or bioanalytes stability and systems management. The Malaysian Cohort is now in the follow-up phase and we are repeating the interview, the biophysical measurements and the blood tests and also storage of blood and urine. There is a huge potential for many research projects studying changes involving lifestyle, genome, proteome or metabolome alterations that occurred within that five-year period and link them to diseases. The Malaysian Cohort (the vast database and the Biobank) is a valuable national resource and the value will certainly increase with time.
This amount of funding pales in comparison with that of, for example, the Cancer Science Institute (CSI) of Singapore that was awarded SGD172 million grant by their government
Q5. What are the challenges faced by institutes with the Higher Institution Centre of Excellence (HICoE) status?
The biggest challenge is sustainability. I think the government has tried hard to improve local research arena but our central research funding remains insufficient. For instance, one cannot expect to produce a research institute with international prestige with a mere RM3 million of funding annually. This amount of funding pales in comparison with that of, for example, the Cancer Science Institute (CSI) of Singapore that was awarded SGD172 million grant by their government at inception in 2008. Hence, I think the central funding pool for HICoE institutes needs to be increased significantly and also to create more research positions – all of the successful overseas research institutes have a critical mass of principal investigators (PIs) supported by a team of postdoctoral researchers, an aspect that we are lacking due to insufficient funds to sustain postdoc positions.
Q6. Do you think that local researchers should participate in whole genome sequencing (WGS) studies on cancers?
I think this is the best time to do this when the cost of sequencing is much lower than it was before. Our funding committees must be aware of the trends in research and genomics medicine is now top of the list of priorities of many nations. The way our grant proposals are evaluated needs to be changed and we need to bring in the appropriate experts into the panel. If we do not have Malaysian experts in cancer or genome research, nearby regional ones should be recruited to identify truly novel and worthwhile cancer research projects. Cancers are very diverse even within the same subtype, and WGS is crucial in subgrouping the cancers for targeted therapies. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project has finetuned different types of cancer classification but there is still a gap as many of the samples are not from this side of the world, a potential that we should definitely explore.
Q7. What are some of the strategies that Malaysian cancer researchers should adopt?
We should focus on cancers that matters in Malaysia and have unique phenotype specific to our populations e.g., for colorectal cancer, we seem to see it occurring relatively younger in Malays compared to the Chinese. Few nations, if at all, are motivated to answer such question except us. Also, we should encourage multi-centre collaborations e.g., among the local universities with the Ministry of Health as they treat the largest number of cancer patients nationwide, and hence possessing huge number of cancer samples. Besides, we shouldn't work on too many different cancers – the government should address the key types of cancers relevant to us and with the capacity to perform well internationally, and to prioritise funding for these specific researches.
Q8. Finally, what are the advices you would give to young scientists?
I encourage young researchers to look for opportunities outside of Malaysia or to obtain a postdoctoral position overseas. The exposure and the skills acquired in a top laboratory outside Malaysia will be valuable. I am not implying that we do not have sufficient number of PIs to train local talents but when one is trained in developed countries, one would be exposed to the best in research with cutting-edge technology. They will also forever be linked with their supervisors or institutes, and able to bring back the networking to Malaysia for future collaborative projects. Finally, young scientists should not say 'no' too early in their career. By taking up various challenges, sooner rather than later opportunities start to knock on one's door, and thus young researchers should take up the challenges presented to them even if it means one has to walk the extra mile and work the extra hour.
This article first appeared in the Scientific Malaysian Magazine Issue 10. Check out other articles in Issue 10 by downloading the PDF version for free here: Scientific Malaysian Magazine Issue 10 (PDF version)
[1] Jamal R et al. J Am Soc Gravit Space Res. 2010;23:85-86.
[2] Then et al. Asia-Pac J Mol Biol Biotech. 2014;16:47.
[3] http://www.ukm.my/umbi/biobank-sample-log-in/
[4] Jamal R et al. Int J Epidemiol. 2014; doi: 10.1093/ije/dyu089


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Experience the Culture & Spirit of the Fiji Islands
Fiji is one of the happiest places in the world, making the Fijian people extremely friendly, welcoming, and hospitable. Experience the rich culture of the island during your stay with weekly cultural entertainment and excursions, from a dinner show at Main Bure restuarant to exploring the villages and towns in the surrounding area and meeting locals in person. Craft your stay at Namale to be fully immersive in Fiji culture and experience the meaning of the "bula spirit," the Fijian way of life that celebrates life, happiness, and appreciation for all things.
Kava Drinking Ceremonies
Kava is the national drink of Fiji, and the Kava Ceremony is an essential experience of the local culture. Kava is made when the crushed root of the Yaqona plant (a relative of the pepper plant) is strained with water into a large communal bowl (a tanoa, or kava bowl). A mild sedative, Kava is relaxing and sometimes numbs the lips and mouth. But, the most integral part of the Kava drinking ceremony is the communal aspect, as ceremonies are often organized to welcome visitors, to mark important occasions, or to celebrate friendship. It is a way to bring locals and travelers together and is a symbol of respect, warmth, and hospitality. Served in a half coconut shell (bilo in Fijian), try a high tide (full cup) or low tide (half cup) – but be sure to clap once and say bula! before you drink, and clap three times after.
Fijian Meke Performance
Meke is a thrilling performance of traditional song and dance which tells the history, love stories, and legends of Fiji. It's a wonderful way to experience the spirit of the islands while watching the vakatara (orchestra) and mantara (dancers) in full traditional dress perform rhythmic movements set to percussive drumming and clapping. Watch traditional Fijian warriors perform an exciting spear dance, followed by a graceful fan dance performed by the women of the village. Villagers of all ages, from babies to elders, take part in the special performance. After the completion of the meke, guests are invited to join the group for a taralala, a simple group dance full of energy and community among locals and guests.
Traditional Village Tour
Get a glimpse of daily life in a local Fijian village. Vivilli village is located right across the street from Namale, and Naidi village is a quick 5 minute drive in our air conditioned transfer. A local village tour is a truly unique way to experience traditional local life. Upon arriving in a Fijian village, it is customary for someone from the group, along with our Namale tour guide, to present the village chief with an offering of kava root to show respect and thank them for allowing the group to visit. Once this ceremony is completed, take a walking tour of the village, exploring the church, community gathering places, and local homes. Meet hordes of excited children eager to greet you, and peruse handmade goods crafted by the women villagers. Learn about the ways of village life, from living without electricity to communal cooking to social life, and get a true taste of the culture of the island.
Church Visit & Sunday Choir
Every Sunday evening at Namale the local church choir comes to serenade guests with beautiful songs during cocktail hour and dinner. Or if you'd like, join the community for a Sunday service at the local church and experience the energy and impact of faith in Fiji. At the church, get the chance to meet and mingle with the choir group and hear about their local church. Namale's activities staff will guide and transport you to the nearby church, a humble and beautiful building tucked amongst the village and the rainforest.
Lovo Dinner
Lovo is a community feast prepared in a traditional earthen pit. To cook lovo, chicken, fish, and pork are wrapped in palm fronds or banana leaves are placed into a pit dug into the ground and lined with hot stones. Then, root vegetables native to Fiji like dalo (root of the taro plant), cassava (root of the tapioca plant), and uvi (wild yams) are added to the mix, and the pit is covered with earth and coconut palms to create an underground oven. What emerges hours later is a smoky, delicious barbecue, served buffet style in our Walu Restaurant.
Indo-Fijian Night
Nearly 40% of Fiji's population is Indo-Fijian, and Namale's weekly Indo-Fijian night is dedicated to celebrating Indian cultural influences. Enjoy a festive setting in Main Bure restaurant created by special decor while watching an evening show featuring an Indo-Fijian band and Bollywood-style modern dance. Indulge in unique menus featuring a sampling of Indo-Fijian cuisine, curries, and sweet and savory bites. Plus, enjoy complimentary Mendhi (temporary henna tattoos) at our special mendhi station on Main Bure's front deck.
Pearl Farm Tour
Discover the farming and cultivating process of some of the world's rarest saltwater pearls, grown and harvested right in Savusavu Bay. Let our activities staff schedule you an affordable tour with local operator J. Hunter Pearls, and snorkel above the underwater farms, where the pearl oysters are suspended from ropes below the surface. Then visit the showroom to learn more about the process and take home some precious pearls of your own in stunning hues of chocolate, pistachio, copper, and gold. Showroom visits are free of cost; snorkeling tours are a small additional charge.
Local Farmer's Market
Every Saturday vendors gather at Savusavu's open air market to sell local goods, from fresh fruit, spices, kava, and local honey to handicrafts, woodworks, and textiles. Just a short 10 minute drive away from Namale, it's a worthwhile excursion to experience local life in Savusavu town. Purchase memorable souvenirs or learn about local exotic foods, from the fresh catch of the day to locally produced coconut oil. Namale's chefs even make regular trips to the market to source the freshest ingredients for our kitchens!
Savusavu Town
Savusavu Town is a short 10 minute ride from Namale, and is a great day trip to work into your stay. In town you'll experience local life personally, from perusing the shops full of souvenirs or handmade goods, grabbing a bite to eat at a local restaurant, and enjoying the stunning views of the bay and the Copra Shed Marina. Let Namale's guides show you around, or grab a ride to main street and explore on your own. It's a sleepy island life at its best, and the main town on Vanua Levu, "Fiji's best kept secret."


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Here are some characters and environments I created for Thornley Fallis and OREA up in Canada. Fun project, they're posed out and built for animation:
Here's a little behind the scenes process:
Thanks for visiting, make sure you check out my portfolio. Hopefully I can help you out on your new project.
© 2022 rauschy All Rights Reserved.
Theme by Theme Trust


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As you may have noticed over the weekend, my website was under construction. You may have also noticed that there are no discernible changes this week. At least I didn't lose everything. Which at one point, I thought I had.
How'd I get to the point of making up new curse words about a WordPress theme?
It started with me reading up about how to make an author website look more professional. I learned there are a variety of "author themes" you're supposed to be able buy, load into WordPress, and they make the site look better while being easy to use.
Stop laughing.
I then read a well-respected website that had video tutorials to show you how to upgrade your website in 30 minutes.
Seriously, stop laughing.
I set aside two hours for the process, thinking it would take a normal person twice as long as promised, so I'd need to double that.
After five hours of work, I shelved it. When I couldn't figure out how to get the blog page set-up, I knew it was time. I was lucky that switching back to the original theme brought back all of my blog posts.
Seriously, for about an hour or so, I thought I'd lost the whole blog.
Every single aspect of the web page these was a fight. None of it was intuitive.
When the video failed me, I downloaded the user manual and tried to read that.
If you've ever read a user manual, you'll know they were written in Chinese and translated into English by people who speak Swahili.
So much for ideal for the novice user.
Another day when I wish would've studied computers instead of finance.
I've sunk too much money into this theme to give up without a fight. My game plan now is to pick one thing to add to the in-progress website, focus on that, then start another.
I also need to see if these new themes are compatible with some of the other things I did to the blog, like creating a mailing list. Which you can totally sign up for! (hint, hint)
Please bear with me. I think it'll all be worth it when I'm done, but in the meantime, if you stop by and the site looks wonky, you'll know why!
How about you? Any project you took on that you thought you'd budgeted plenty of time for, only to learn you were woefully wrong?


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Laura and Kyle Stoner prepared their 2-year-old, Haylee, to be a big sister to the twin girls they were expecting. They knew that a family of three would change their lives, but they had no idea what an impact these babies were about to make.
Kacy and Mikayla were born at 28 weeks, each weighing just three pounds. Despite their tiny size and early arrival, the girls seemed healthy at first. Two days later, however, brain scans revealed extensive damage in their brains. The girls were both diagnosed with severe bilateral and cystic periventricular leukomalacia (PVL), a brain injury in premature infants that can cause developmental and physical delays.
The Stoners' lives were instantly turned upside down. "The first three months were all about the unknown," Laura says. I was living at the hospital, spending every waking moment with my baby girls, while Kyle was working, taking care of our home, and bringing Haylee to the hospital every chance he could get."
Then, they received the prognosis: Kacy would have cerebral palsy and be challenged to do everything most people take for granted. Mikayla, along with having PVL, was diagnosed with hydrocephalus, a buildup of fluid in the cavities (ventricles) deep within the brain. The buildup of fluid puts pressure on the brain, which can damage tissue and cause impairments in brain function. The doctors could not promise much of a future for the girls.
Faced with this news, Laura and Kyle decided to see neurosurgeon Dr. Hal Meltzer at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego. And he gave them just what they needed: hope."Dr. Meltzer opened our eyes to new possibilities with both of our girls," Laura says.
The girls would have numerous surgeries – nearly 50 between the two of them – which included hip, dental and eye surgeries, and 15 brain surgeries for Mikalya. And for five years, they would have intensive speech, vision, and occupational and physical therapy.
Kyle and Laura describe this time as "a huge blur," but they were getting through it, with a physician they trusted. "We were surviving the only way we knew how: together," Laura says.
The treatment helped, so well that Dr. Meltzer describes the twins as "miracle girls." "They represent the achievements that are possible at a special place like Rady Children's," he notes.
The girls, now 8, are leading active lives. Despite being in wheelchairs, they are avid horseback riders, star hitters on a baseball team, and surf, dance and love the water. Laura describes Kacy as "truly capable of doing anything she desires" and Miklaya as "nonverbal but communicates with her eyes or the huge smile that she almost always wears."
Haylee, now 10, took on the role of a second mom. "She sees a mom struggling with her child and immediately steps in to help," Laura says. "She invents games where her sisters are the stars. She just makes the world a brighter place."
Both Kacy and Miklaya have been surgery-free for two years but still come to Rady Children's once a week for occupational and physical therapy. They are excited to come, as they get to pick out toys or take something from the treasure chest.
Laura and Kyle feel truly blessed to have their three wonderful girls. And they are grateful for all that Rady Children's has done for their family.
"We would do anything for Rady Children's Hospital," Laura says. They gave us hope and have helped us discover a life we never thought possible. We were amazed at how compassionate and supportive everyone is. Whether you're here monthly, once a year, or one time in your life - this is a family, this is a community. There is an abundance of love here."
To give back to the Hospital, the twins have participated in Rady Children's Radiothon, an annual fundraising event. "They loved it because they felt like stars," Laura says.


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Dr Miles Sutherland, Aiden Parker, Lyle Ashley Tate and Carter (Gil) Gillespie have been told to meet at Lyle's place at 9pm. They don't know why they're being summoned as all they have in common is their friendship with Flynn Archer, the town's resident hothead and former bouncer.
Last we saw of Flynn, he was being airlifted to the nearest major hospital, unconscious and lucky to be alive after hitting his head on the edge of a shelf after a short but violent fight with the town's mortician, Henry Vale, who Flynn killed by stabbing him in the eye with a fountain pen.
Flynn had snuck into the mortuary in an attempt to free his lover, Aiden, from his prison in a hidden room in the basement where he'd been tortured. Vale was using him to get at Flynn whose parents he had already killed. It was the discovery of two severed hands belonging to Flynn's father that set the whole saga in motion.
The town's former assistant mortician, Stan Riley, had detached them from his corpse in an attempt to expose Vale's use of the mortuary to cremate his victims and dispose of the evidence by mixing their remains with others left for burial.
Stan himself became the latest to be disposed of in that way, and if it hadn't been for his planting of the hands and leaving cryptic clues in a diary that he hid inside a sealed frozen dinner package, Flynn might have been left to fight Vale alone.
However, Miles, an Aussie Doctor, and his work colleague the young British paramedic, Gil, had been in the park with Flynn when a scruffy dog unearthed the first hand. Seriously out of condition and overweight, Miles adopted the stray, in the hope that taking him for walks would help him get fit again. He called the dog, Roofie, sensing that instead of sleepless nights grieving for his late husband, Darren, he'd have no trouble falling asleep on the couch .
To complicate matters, Stan's replacement as assistant mortician, Lyle Ashley Tate, having run foul of the Italian mafia is himself in hiding under the watchful eye of the Agency.
It was only when Aiden's dog, Dante, turned up in the backyard of Miles' house that Miles and Gil realized that Aiden and Flynn were missing. Accompanied by the two dogs, they ended up at the funeral home just in time to save Flynn's life.
While all this drama was being played out, the men's personal lives have been a tangle of mixed emotions and hot encounters.
Needing more living space, Gil has only recently moved in to live with Miles as his own flat had been too small for the active and energetic young man. He had also become involved with Lyle, who is in the last stages of a sex change operation.
Miles is perplexed by his own attraction to Gil as he is still grieving Darren's tragic death from AIDS. Despite harboring unrequited strong feelings for Miles, Gil has also caught the eye of others in the town, especially the Sheriff, Lance Peabody.
Even though they haven't seen much of each other, the chemistry there had been hot and instantaneous. In fact no-one had seen the Sheriff for some time which was lucky for Gil as he already was finding it difficult juggling his feelings for both Lyle and Miles.
Written in joint live role-playing sessions, the soap is moving to a new location both on the web and in the story. It's envisaged that when the characters settle down, there will opportunities for guest authors to take turns bringing their own characters into the mix for a few episodes.
Who knows what is going to happen. The characters are certainly unsure of their future, and their writers aren't much better. All they know is that writing the saga of The Hands was so much fun that they didn't want it to end.
The current team of authors: Andrea Speed, Jessie Blackwood, JJ Levesque, Jen Swanson, Katisha Moreish and I are posting our stories free on the web as thanks for all our current readers and those who might be inspired by our writing to check out our other books. From time to time we will suggest a different charity that readers, if they are so inclined, might like to donate money in recognition of our effort.


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"Where did they go?" John asked. He and his team of five were playing a friendly-game of paintball with his rival company. They were playing to see who would be shutting their business.
"They're probably scared," Bob scoffed, "chicken."
"We ain't scared," someone said behind them. It was Jeremy from the rival company. Without hesitation, Jeremy squeezed the trigger and a splat of paint landed on Bob. "Aw no!" Bob cried. and fell.
Nate shot Jeremy. John, Stuart, and Steve surveyed the field behind them while James and Nate surveyed looked out at the wall.
"We can't even see them." James said.
"Maybe they've got special power or something." Steve said. Stuart scoffed quietly, "or something."
"We gotta get into the open." John said. "If we lose, we lose with dignity. You hear me?" On three, John's team scattered onto the field and what happened next felt surreal. The other team's players popping from thin air. Let's just say, they lost by a landslide.
(~150 words)


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Improve Your Pwin Topic Cluster Page
A topic cluster is a technique we use to increase search engine optimization for a new website or on a topic new to a website. By focusing on the various facets of a particular topic, we show Google that your site deserves authority for this keyword phrase.
For the site visitor, they get an improved search experience, because they can find everything they need to know about the topic in one place.
Improving Your Government Proposals' Pwin Part 1: Assess Your Proposals
Measuring your proposal quality is one of your first steps following submission. This blog post highlights the various areas you should look at when completing this step.
Improving Your Government Proposals' Pwin Part 2: Change Your Business Development Culture
You shouldn't just focus on getting it done. Instead, this blog post shows how your proposal team should focus on doing what it takes to win the contract.
Improving Your Government Proposals' Pwin Part 3: Rethink Your BD, Capture Management, and Proposal Processes
It's not just your proposal that needs to be tailored to every situation. In this blog post, you can see how treating every opportunity as a unique one will increase your win probability.
Improving Your Government Proposals' Pwin Part 4: Practice Continuous Process Improvement
Your process may work now, but there's nothing stopping you from continuously improving. This post will show you how this is the key to increase your chance of being awarded contracts.
Improving Your Government Proposals' Pwin: Follow Proposal Management Best Practices
First one: bring your proposal manager in during capture. Why? You can find it in this blog post, along with other useful tips.
Improving Your Government Proposals' Pwin Part 6: Use Checklists and Templates
While reusing previous proposals decreases your Pwin, creating checklists based on the successful thought processes used to win federal contracts will increase it. In this blog post, you'll learn how checklists (and templates) can speed up your proposal development process.
Improve Your Proposal Pwin Part 7: Master the Formal and Informal Proposal Reviews
Even if your deadline is approaching, you need to make time to review your proposal. Learn how this can (and will) raise your Pwin in this blog post.
7 Ways to Improve Your Government Proposals' Pwin
This is the round up post. At the start of each method description, you'll read a quote from each blog post that captures the major concept behind each article and video.


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Maca powder is a versatile and exceptionally nutrient-dense food extract made from the root of the maca plant and cultivated in Peru for thousands of years. Referred to as the "Peruvian Ginseng" due to its energizing and non-hormonal aphrodisiac effects, it has an impressive nutrient content with many minerals, vitamins, alkaloids, fatty acids and sterols. Research suggests that maca can promote brain function, improve bone health, and even improve cognitive ability in healthy people. It is easily enjoyed in morning smoothies, sprinkled on cereal and yogurt or added to soups and stews.
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Bloom-Carroll area news: Easter egg hunt on March 24
The Carroll Business Association announced the Carroll Annual Easter Egg Hunt will be held at noon March 24 at Basin Park. The event is designed for children ages baby to 12 years old. Participants should bring their own baskets. The Easter Bunny will be there to pose for photos. For more information, see Carroll Business Association Facebook Page.
BC bricks
Bloom-Carroll Athletic Boosters are taking orders for the next round of engraved bricks to be placed at the entrance to the football field. The engraving will be in June but members need to collect orders several weeks in advance. Bricks are $125 and includes three lines of words with 13 characters per line including spaces. For more information, call 740-756-4317.
Coyote issue
Lithopolis Mayor Joe Taylor reminds area residents to watch their family pets. Several coyote have been sighted in the Village. Taylor reminds residents not to leave pet food outside.
Church classes
Lithopolis United Methodist Church, 80 N. Market Street, is holding classes for youth who are considering being confirmed in the Methodist Church. The classes are held Sundays, 12 to 2 p.m. in the Student Ministry Center (light lunch included), now thru April 8th (not meeting on Easter Sunday). The classes are designed for youth in grade 7th or older. Topics include the basics of the Christian faith and the Bible.
The group is led by Randy Creviston, Charles Martindell, Alex Feldman and Christina Albrecht. This is a group for youth who are considering faith commitments and may decide about Confirmation after experiencing this group.
Sundays at 4 p.m. through March 25 in the Student Ministry Center, 57 East North Street, there is a pastor's Bible Study. Community members are invited to join in this season of Lent study that will help participants go deeper into the story of the earliest years of the Christian church. The study will be led by Charles Martindell and the classes will run about 75 minutes each week. Child care to be provided if needed.
For more information, call 614-837-2230.
Bond issue
Bloom-Carroll Local School District Superintendent Shawn Haughn is releasing a series of weekly videos on the website designed to educated community members about the upcoming bond issues that voters will see on the May primary ballot. The site can be accessed at www.bloom-carroll.k12.oh.us.
Please email news items to Anne Darling Cyphert at email@example.com.


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When Charlotte isn't working on her full time job, she loves to craft, read, go to movies, and of course, she also spends lots of time writing. She is a big romance lover because she says she believes in happy endings. That's one of the reasons she wants to see all her books published. Her new book, is titled, Real Love, and it was released this month. It's a romance that can lift your heart into outer space.
As a young girl, Monda was placed into the tutelage of Mistress Teevac. Trained to use her empathic skills and educated in the ways to please a man, Monda is on her way to her new mate and master when her spaceship crashes. Rescued by a handsome space lieutenant, who literally makes her heart race, Monda's eyes and heart are opened to new possibilities.
When Lieutenant Patrick Lancaster looks at the exotic Monda, he sees beautiful not alien. With an instinct to protect her and the desire to have her, he'd be honored to call her his own, but the starts have something else in mind. Or do they?
Want more? Let's get an excerpt:
Her face was more angular than most. Her lips, thick. A constant pout, like she waited to be kissed. When he looked at her big blue eyes and long blue eyelashes, he thought exotic, not alien.
"Monda." He reached to wipe the tear. No, it was not his place. He shoved his hand into his pocket. "I didn't mean you. I don't think of you as alien. I meant other aliens, like the green guys from
"I know," she whispered.
"What I mean is you're an alien but not an alien.You don't look like an alien. Of course any guy would be honored to have a girlfriend like you."
"Any guy, but you."
As a fan of science fiction and romance, that caught my attention. Real Love is available now.
If you'd like to get in touch with Charlotte, here's her contact information:
Contact Information:
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com: http://charlottecopperauthor.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/charlotte.copper.52
Twitter:: @charlottecopperhttps://twitter.com/CharlotteCopper
Thank you, Charlotte, for introducing us to Real Love. Comments or questions for Charlotte?


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New Seafood Restaurant
New seafood restaurant brings major buzz: One of Houston's best chefs is all aboard
According to co-owner Tracy Vaught, Caracol, the seafood restaurant she and her husband chef Hugo Ortega will open soon in the BBVA Compass Plaza next to Osteria Mazzantini, has been on their minds for a long time.
"We bought a beach house in 2008 and named it Caracol," Vaught tells CultureMap. Although Vaught seems surprised that restaurant openings now receive coverage on the level of presidential primaries, she understands the high level of interest in the new project from two-time James Beard Award finalist Ortega.
She recalls that when they opened Hugo's they didn't know what to expect, and that an article from then Chronicle food writer Dai Huynh started to help the restaurant build a crowd. Now Hugo's is one of CultureMap's 10 Best Restaurants in Houston, and Caracol will get a much noisier reception.
Seats have a mesh weave that recalls decks chairs and fish-inspired art adorns the walls.
On a tour of the space last week, Vaught notes the details designed to enhance the coastal atmosphere, including a light-colored palette and decorations above the bar that are designed to resemble ship's rigging. Seats have a mesh weave that recalls decks chairs and fish-inspired art adorns the walls. The restaurant features a large bar area with adjacent wine room, an 80-seat dining room, two private dining rooms and a patio. All together, Caracol can accommodate over 200 people.
Thankfully, the kitchen is enormous, with a wood-fired grill, massive prep areas and custom-designed seafood storage. As Vaught was finishing the tour, Ortega inquired as to whether I wanted to try some dishes.
Well, it would be rude to see no, wouldn't it? And Ortega is such a gracious host . . .
The First Taste
Alongside executive chef Daniel Bridges, Ortega produced four courses that demonstrate Caracol's seafood-oriented direction. The tasting began with Petalos de Pescado. Inspired by the cuisine of Puerto Vallarta, it's a tiradito-style red snapper dish served with thin slices of orange and jalapeno. Alongside, homemade "capellas" — puffy, "petal-like," Veracruz-style tortillas that are fried on a comal prior to serving.
The mild fish gets a spicy lift from the pepper and a salty crunch from the tortillas for a bite that satisfies the entire palate.
Next up, Ortega brought out Ensalada de Pulpo, grilled octopus with red wine sauce, which was stunning both to look at and taste. He said the technique of flavoring the thick, meaty pieces of octopus with red wine originated with a sea captain but admitted that Mexican food historian Diana Kennedy probably would say the story was nonsense.
So what? It looked great, tasted better and is a must-order.
Regular CultureMap readers will recall Ortega's ability to prepare delicious short ribs, and Birria Mascota, a mole-rubbed, bone-in version, is another stunner. The combination of the mole and pineapple enhanced the beef's natural flavor, and the presentation looks great, too.
Vaught was hopeful that Caracol could host an invite only service this weekend ahead of opening next week, but the restaurant still had to pass a final inspection. The restaurant will use Facebook to announce a firm opening day and provide a link to make reservations.


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Cameron Bridge 25 year old Old Particular (Douglas Laing)
Non Chill Filtered
No Added Colouring
£82.95 From Master of Malt
Continuing with the set of Single Grain whiskies from the Douglas Laing camp on their Old Particular label. These are all single cask releases of 20+ year old grain whiskies. Next up is the Cameron Bridge (I'm reviewing in age order and this is the youngest at) 25 year old. All of these whiskies are "as natural as you can get", presented at cask strength, non chill filtered and with no colouring.
On first pour this is a strong alcohol driven nose. Lots of acetone, wood glue, some pear drops. Strong and nose burning. Immediate thought that water will help, this has been stored well and not lost a lot of alcohol in 25 years, unless it was filled at a very high ABV. After just a few minutes there is more polished oak. Will cover and give it some time and space. A little softer with time, some creamy corn, grilled sweetcorn, and a touch of charred oak.
A very thick mouthfeel, coating, with viscous oils. The arrival is intensely creamy, lots of vanilla cream. Custardy. I'm so surprised at how smooth this is, with hardly any burn. Considering its ABV, and even the 'hotter' nose, this does not come across on the palate. We have deep and gentle green fruits, loads of confectionary sugar, lots of toffee, honey and all things sugar coated. Toffee apples! Rhubarb and custard sweeties, but light on the rhubarb. Some cracked black pepper over mashed potato! Lovely, lovely stuff.
Lots of intensive, fruity confectionary slowly dissipates and leaves a lovely warmed chest behind, with a coating of custard!
Adding water.
A few drops added with a delay to settle. The nose now, while still deadly to get too deep (sinus burn!), has some deeper creamy custard and polished varnished oakiness. Everything great about the nose intensified by the dilution. The palate is pretty much as before in content, chewier and with a more gentle development, steadier and therefore, frankly better. The finish continues along the theme, more of the same, but slightly better! This one benefits from a small drop of water. I tried adding a little more and there developed a little bitterness towards the end of the development going into the finish. So go carefully.
Another quality grain from the Douglas Laing camp. Many malt heads snub grains, but there is some great stuff going about and this is no exception. Lovely stuff.
Thanks so much to Douglas Laing co. for providing the sample.


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On November 24th, 2016, there was a big event at SKKU. It was the election of the student council for the new semester. Following that election, SKKU welcomed the 49th student council, 'Sungkeum'. As lots of students have voted, and participated in several public hearings, the election took place with a great deal of interest surrounding it. The Sungkyun Times (SKT) assumes that there are still students who have some questions for the new student council. In this article, SKT interviews the Seoul and Suwon student presidents, Won Yoo-Bin, and Oh Hoon-Yeong asking them about their promises, and listens to their ambitions as student presidents.
Q1. What was your motive to run for student president?
Won Yoo-Bin | Hello. My name is Won Yoo-Bin, and I started my undergraduate degree in 2012. Over the past year, I have learned a lot, and grew very affectionate towards the student council while I was student president of the College of Social Sciences. During my term, I dreamed of leading my fellow students through the student council. I decided to run for student president of the Humanities and Social Science Campus to settle the issues that the previous council made, and lead our school by constructing a better student council.
Oh Hoon-Yeong | Hello. My name is Oh Hoon-Yeong, I also started my undergraduate course in 2012. While I was working as president of the College of Science Student Council, there were some activities in which students participated very actively. Those activities also helped to improve student's school lives. Therefore, I started to dream that all Kingos, not only students from the science college, could benefit from the activities held by the student council.
Q2. There are several promises that you made before you were elected. Do you have a special promise you focus on the most?
Won Yoo-Bin | Now we are especially focusing on preparing a male student lounge. Currently, there are a few lounges for female students on campus, but on the other hand, there are none for male students. I think it is important to prepare a place where all students can rest on campus.
Oh Hoon-Yeong | We are currently doing our best to unify student union fees. Besides the school student union fee, students also have to pay for colleges or department student union fees. A lot of students pay each student council and union fees without knowing the reason why they are paying for each or how their union fees are used. To prevent these situations, we are focusing more on unifying student union fees.
Q3. What are you doing to meet the expectations of your promises?
Won Yoo-Bin | The first thing we should do is to arrange available places. We are even thinking about giving up a certain place which belongs to the student council if we cannot find a suitable place. After we find a place, we should deal with budget issues with the school.
Oh Hoon-Yeong | From now on, we are planning to let a central committee and school know about our schemes, and persuade them to agree with them. After going through several steps of persuasion, the student council is planning to publicize the unification of student union fees on the school transfer meeting which will be held in April. If the plan gets passed through the school transfer meeting, then it will be possible to practice unification of the student fees.
Q4. How are the school council's activities going after the election?
Won Yoo-Bin | Each campus has worked to compromise the level of school tuition fees. The school and the student council went through the school tuition inquiry commission seven times. Following the seventh school tuition inquiry commission, we have now finished all discussions, and it is settled. I strongly think that now we should pay attention to see whether the school is going to apply the settlement or not. Either way, the student council will continue the process until realization of the settlement on tuition fees.
Oh Hoon-Yeong | Currently, the student council is organizing issues from the inquiry commission, and we are looking forward to the school doing its job. From February, this year, the student council will be focusing on the entrance ceremony which will be held in the final week of February.
Q5. Just like the council name 'Sungkeum', is there a special way to communicate with students?
Won Yoo-Bin | The student council, and students, have been interacting through the Facebook page or through Kakao Talk. However, I realized that wasn't enough. Until now, students were always just asking about simple things, and the student council used to answer them with formal answers. So 'Sungkeum' came up with a more personal interactive communication method. It is called the 'Hamsung' project which is going to be similar to the election campaign. Some of the members of the student council, including myself and the student vice president, will go out to the campus and interact with students.
Oh Hoon-Yeong | 'Sungkeum' on the Natural Science campus is composed of eight groups. The Student council of Natural Science is planning to go offline and survey the students one by one to hear their opinions. Moreover, we are considering putting up a question booth where students can ask any questions that they have for the student council, and the student council will be able to discuss those issues with them, and explain the plans that we have.
Q6. What is the image of an 'ideal leader' do you think?
Won Yoo-Bin | In my case I think there are two kinds of leaders. One is someone that helps the members of the student council express what they want to achieve, and another is one that listens to students' ideas, and then leads them in the same direction. These two kinds of leaders are the ones who I think are needed, and are who I am trying to become.
Oh Hoon-Yeong | I think an ideal leader is someone who can gather various opinions even if the procedures might be complicated. Gathering all opinions into one might take lots of time. However, a good leader must have the ability to stand with all that matters, and try hard to get a result that everyone thinks is reasonable, and appropriate. I also think a good leader must have a certain boldness in order to push his or her plans ahead.
Q7. Lastly, can you tell us your hopes for the student council as a student president?
Won Yoo-Bin | I want to create an atmosphere whereby students can believe that a council is a necessary, and meaningful group for this year. I promise that the student council will work hard to live up to the many expectations of the students, also I hope that students pay more attention to what we are doing. Thank you.
Oh Hoon-Yeong | I want to help create an environment where the school, and the students can grow together. I promise to reflect as many opinions as possible to enhance our students' participation, and make the school put students before anything else. Thank you for your support.
이정현 firstname.lastname@example.com


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Royce Lewis is starting off his time in MLB the way everyone wants to: by making history. The No.1 draft pick in the 2017 class officially signed with the Minnesota Twins on Saturday, between a doubleheader.
The $6.725 million the Twins rolled to Royce is the most any high school player has received. (No word on whether the Prince umbrella giveaway was thrown in to sweeten the deal.) And Lewis is probably the only new signee to comment on the cleanliness of his new city.
Not everyone can have killer storybook spy names like No.425 overall pick Antoine Mistico, and not everyone can have tools like Lewis, but everybody's got something.
The card for the tweet up there shows us the first sentence of the story, and you can spot the weasel words right away: might be developing some consistency. I haven't written about someone taking a baseball to the beans for a week, so I might be giving that beat up. Or maybe I'm sitting in a dark room, waiting, waiting, waiting for someone to crumple over in extreme pain.
But I might be thinking the whole endeavor is just too immature to continue. Might be sitting on a cache of rare paintings to sell, too.
Maybe the article doesn't need that might be, though. Maybe it was just slipped in by accident, and we're being too hard on it. How does it read when you click through?
Tebow is gradually finding consistency and discipline at the plate. He had hits in three straight games, and in Sunday's finale at Hagerstown, he walked twice, including once with the bases loaded in the eighth inning of Columbia's 5-3 victory.
Hey! That does sound consistent. It feels like the kind of consistency that a fella can build on, and certainly not the kind that can be completely obliterated in the very next paragraph.
Patriots 3, Buccaneers 0 Dion Lewis finally broke the game open with a 33-yard run, getting the Pats in the red zone. The drive stalled from there and New England had to settle for a Stephen Gostkowski field goal, getting the first points of the game.
It hasn't been the shootout we expected so far, with both teams trading punts and rarely crossing midfield. The most notable thing to happen was Brady appearing to hurt his non-throwing wrist on a sack, though he's still in the game.
Brady badly overthrew a wide-open Chris Hogan and got picked off on the Patriots' opening drive, giving the Bucs some nice field position. Tampa was unable to take advantage, going three-and-out on the ensuing drive.
Pence's camp had to know going into this game that players would kneel. With players kneeling it would give the administration the chance to act, to push the issue back to forefront of the political conversation in a week when the president has been criticized for a variety of things, from his response to the hurricane devastation in Puerto Rico, to a gun control debate in the wake of another mass shooting, to the ongoing flame war with his own party.
Culture war politics are always about the distraction, a shiny thing to stare at to avoid real, complex issues that require something beyond political orthodoxy to resolve. And this administration thrives on distraction. It's obsessed.
There's nothing wrong with disagreeing over whether players Cheap Custom Baseball Jerseys should stand for the national anthem. That's the great thing about free speech: It protects both sides.
Any fan of an NFL team that could use a spark on offense and big-play ability may find in April that Kirk is the best option.
The Bears' 2016 first-round pick got the scoring started Monday when he Cheap Dan Marino Jerseys tracked down Sam Bradford, who inexplicably held the ball for more than five seconds in his own end zone.
It's going to be hard for me to sleep tonight, the Suns' Devon Booker said.
Yeah, I think it's rare, Reich said. I mean, I think those players are rare, and I think it's rare in Carson's standpoint, and obviously as confident that I feel like that's no fluke and that there's further to go down that path to go for him and that he's going to make it all the way to the end of that path, as confident as I am of that, you've still got to go out and prove it every day.
The Redskins pushed above .500 at 3-2 following a 26-24 victory over the San Francisco 49ers. They jumped out to a 17-0 advantage and had to rally to pull out the victory.
There's no reason to assume that a football reporter doesn't understand routes, or that knowing about routes is dependent upon that reporter being a man or a woman. This is just another example of the sexism in sports that women face daily.
Rodrigue issued a statement to the Charlotte Observer:
This afternoon, I did my job as an NFL beat writer and asked Cam Newton a question about one of his receivers. I was dismayed by his response, which not only belittled me but countless other women before me and beside me who work in similar jobs.
Cam made a mistake. From my understanding there was a conversation, Rivera said. And I would like to talk about the Detroit Lions who we play Sunday.
Here's a great example of a third down play. It's cover zero, so everyone is pressing. The Eagles block it up and the center, Jason Kelce, takes two. Wentz avoids the rush, steps up and flings this ball deep to Nelson Agholor, who's improved by leaps and bounds. Watch how he finishes this play. He didn't do this last season.
NFL players are seldom excited to play on Thursday night, but the Kansas City Chiefs and the Oakland Raiders relish the opportunity to get back on the field this Thursday at the Oakland Coliseum after disappointing losses.
Getting beat like we did on Sunday, it probably happened the right way to get the bad taste out of our mouth, Kansas City linebacker Derrick Johnson said.
The Chiefs (5-1) took its first defeat of the season Sunday, falling 19-13 to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
While the Raiders' losing streak includes dropping the past two games at home, the Chiefs find themselves amid several streaks in the other direction. Kansas City owns wins in nine consecutive regular-season road games along with a 12-game winning streak against AFC West opponents. The Chiefs won each of their past five meetings with the Raiders.
It's pretty impressive because it's a good division, Del Rio said of Kansas City's streaks. But they've been rolling, they're playing excellent football.
Oakland quarterback Derek Carr puts the losing streak on his shoulders, acknowledging he hasn't played his best football.
I need to play better for my team, Carr said. I have no problem putting that on me and making sure that when I show up on Thursday night that I do my best in preparation to put my best foot forward.
In Week 2, they bottled up Kareem Hunt, even though he scored two touchdowns. Take out the 53-yard score, and the Eagles held Hunt to 12 carries and 28 yards. Jim Schwartz 4-3 system allows the DL to jet up the field, which creates issues in the zone run game, and their linebackers can fly.
Winston was downright brutal in the first half, completing just 8 of 16 passes for 71 yards. He was better in the second half, leading the Bucs to a near comeback. But the early damage was done. Winston ended his night with 334 yards and a touchdown on 26-of-46 passing.
Perhaps the Patriots defense finally woke up after being the worst in the league over the past three weeks, but Winston's performance simply wasn't good enough. He badly overthrew his receivers, sailing passes over their heads multiple times. He got happy feet in the pocket, panicking and dumping off checkdowns instead of waiting for receivers to get open. He should've had an interception that went through a Patriots defender's hands. He didn't throw his first touchdown until deep into the fourth quarter, and his heroic comeback efforts were too little, too late.
We're looking at that. A lot of times you got someone in there, you got a missed tackle, you got everyone else coming through the ball, you got a pileup going and he squirts out. It's just not acceptable. They shouldn't happen and we understand that.
A bounce-back win over the Raiders this week coupled with a home win against the Denver Broncos (3-2) next week would give the Chiefs a commanding lead in the division and put them in the driver's seat for the AFC's top playoff seed at the season's midpoint.
We understand where we're at, we understand what happened Sunday, Smith said. I think a little bit you're flushing that. You realize what a big game this is — on the road, short week, division game, Raiders. I think that's enough said. We've got to go full steam ahead, do whatever we can to get a win.
The short week, however, presents a different set of challenges. Del Rio knows from experience, having played in four Thursday games during his career as an NFL linebacker.
The Packers have run RPO concepts with Rodgers in the past, and they might rely more heavily on those plays with Hundley to try to create quicker reads while relying on the offense's playmakers to do work after the catch.
The Jaguars are 3-3 and have alternated wins and losses, but they're still tied for first place in the AFC South. That's why there should be no panic. Every team in the division is flawed and it's not unreasonable to think that a .500 record could win it. The Jaguars have the easiest remaining schedule, so if they can find a way to string a couple of victories together they can make a bit of a run. But the offense has to start making some plays in the pass game for that to happen, because the defense has carried the team thus far. — Mike DiRocco
Bradford definitely dodged a major bullet. If he would have torn his left ACL for the third time in his career, he would have missed the season — and the Vikings probably wouldn't re-sign him in 2018. Bradford missed 25 games in his career because of two consecutive ACL tears.
However, Bradford isn't completely healthy.
At this point, you're going to have to play through some discomfort, Bradford said after practice Friday. I would like it to be 100 percent, but I don't even know if that's possible until the bye week or the end of the year.
As of right now, though, the Vikings and Bradford can divert their attention to winning games to eventually clinch a playoff spot. But, again, the Vikings will only go as far as Bradford takes them.
I don't blame him for trying. For him, it's all about winning the trade, regardless of the long-term consequences. I prefer to operate from a different point of view. When you trade with me, I'm going to have no problem giving you more than I get back. Why? Because while you might win the trade, I'm the one who will win the trophy. Here are three ways I do it.
With the ruling in New York, Elliott didn't miss any practice time. He was on the field for the first full workout Wednesday.
I don't find it frustrating, said quarterback Dak Prescott, who teamed with Elliott last year for a pair of remarkable rookie seasons that helped carry the Cowboys to the best record in the NFC.
I find that there's nothing I really can do. Just as I said, we'll take it week by week. And as of this week, he's playing so that's all we're worried about.
The catch? Send them guys who'll be on a bye when your teams square off so they can't hurt you. So offer WR Alshon Jeffery and TE Jared Cook and ask for TE Austin Hooper and WR Terrelle Pryor Sr. in return. Since Atlanta (Hooper) and Washington (Pryor) both had byes in Week 5, if you make this deal in Week 8, you're covered at those positions going forward. When you play that owner in Week 10, it can only go in your favor, as both Philadelphia (Jeffery) and Oakland (Cook) are on a bye. You might well end up losing the trade, but you'll win the matchup!
The game showcases two of the best defenses in the NFL and two of the most prolific wide receivers.
The Bengals have won their last two games, and the change to Bill Lazor as the offensive coordinator has brought life back to an offense that was stagnant early in the year.
Wide receiver A.J. Green has been the beneficiary of most of those passes and will look to do so against a passing defense that is the best in the NFL. The Steelers allow only 153.5 yards a game through the air and the secondary has yielded only one pass of more than 40 yards through six games.


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We have extended our returns policy to 45 days to give you additional time to decide.
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Over the festive period, we know you might need a little longer to return your items so from November 1st up until January 14th you can return your items to us by post for a refund.
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Why Do Drivers from Nacogdoches, Livingston, Woodville, Rusk and Huntington Trust Loving Nissan with Their Car Financing Needs?
Here at Loving Nissan, we understand that finding the best auto financing details can be of large concern to many of our clients. Luckily, our team of experts are top-notch at finding the best financial options for drivers, so that they can worry about the more exciting parts of buying or leasing a new Nissan Altima, Nissan Rogue, Nissan Frontier, Nissan Sentra or Nissan Versa. Of course, if you're in the market for a used car, we're available to crunch numbers for that as well. In short, we're committed to finding you the best deal available.
To get started finding your best financial options, simply fill out our easy-to-use contact form. It's a stress-free way to get the process rolling. However, if you prefer to speak to us in person, we relish the opportunity to meet you. Visit us anytime during standard business hours here in Lufkin. After all, we're only a short drive from the Nacogdoches, Livingston, Woodville, Rusk and Huntington areas.


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Fluorite Faceting Information
Color: Colorless, yellow, green, blue, pink, purple, red and orange
Moh's Hardness: 4
Refractive Index: 1.434
Critical Angle: 44.37°
Specific Gravity: 3.18
Cleavage: Perfect in 4 directions
Fracture: Even to conchoidal, brittle
Dispersion: .007
Heat Sensitivity: High, in my experience
Birefringence (double refraction): None
Crystal Structure: Isometric
Treatments: Generally none, sometimes can be irradiated.
What I prefer to polishing with: Flourite is not something I cut, recommended polishes are wax lap with Alumina or tin oxide or chrome oxide Ultralap. Orient the table about 10 degrees off the crystal face to reduce cleavage problems.
Jeff's Comments: Cuts pretty easily, and can be a tough to polish. Watch the heat when dopping… Typically has silk and cleavage problems
Design Notes: About any designs will work well.


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Trips in Review
Death Valley Photo Shoot- Trip reviewed by Ben Dove
On March 7, Canyon Rio took a truck and trailer full of tents, kitchen supplies, water, and food over to Death Valley, California for a Marc Muench Photo Workshop. Marc is a professional landscape and sports photographer designated by Kodak in 2003 as a Kodak Photo Icon. Marc's photography has appeared on covers or inside Time, National Geographic, Traveler, Arizona Highways, Ski, Skiing, Sunset, Outside, Sierra Magazine, etc. Marc also puts on photo workshops for armatures, enthusiasts, and anyone who wants to benefit from the experience of him and his team. (photo)
After driving six hours to reach Death Valley, Katy, Donnie, and I struck out for Eurika Sand Dune where we were to set up camp and awaited the arrival of the photo workshop the next day. It was immediately apparent why Marc had contracted with us. Eurika Sand Dune is four hours away from the park entrance. The workshop participants, who had been staying at the park hotel, could spend most of the day driving to the dune and back and miss out on the chance to explore experience the dune under different light. (photo)
As soon as we left the blacktop, we began driving on the worst washboard roads I have ever experienced. Normally it would not be a big deal. I am not a fan of roads in National Parks and the more decrepit the better in my opinion. However, we had brought a trailer for the gear and it was apparent that if we drove at any speed above a crawl the trailer would shake its self apart. After six hours, we had seen one amazing sunset, removed one VERY stuck rock from between the tires on our dully truck, and arrived at camp. (photo)
We spent the next morning getting everything set up and shaded from the desert sun. A kitchen with more stove burners, pots, pans, utensils, and counter space than I have at home quickly went up. This was followed by individual tents for our guests and a large military mess hall tent for communal activities. On the river we always try to organize things in a way that makes sense, is neat, and visually appealing. Normally this goes unnoticed by our clientele but we did our best this time knowing our work was about to be seen by a group of people whose entire purpose on this trip was to judge visual aesthetic. (photo)
I have to hand it to the photographers, they were not there to pretend or go through the motions. From the moments they arrived in the afternoon, they were off scouting locations to take pictures from once the light was right. For our part, Katy, Donnie, and I kept drink coolers topped off and food available. As we drew closer to the "magic hour," the hour before the sun when the light is so wonderful for photographs, the photographers began to gather their tripods and march off to their chosen shooting locations. Meanwhile the crew and I got to work on dinner, chicken curry with salad and dutch oven brownies. The workshop participants would be back as soon as night fell for dinner before going back out for some night photography. (photo)
I do not think there was any point that night when everyone was asleep at the same time. People would go off the shoot the dune by moonlight, and later, once the moon had set, they would shoot the stars. Katy and I took turns sleeping too so that someone was always available to keep the coffee hot and snacks available. The next morning, while we prepared a pancake breakfast, the process from the evening before was repeated with people choosing a shooting location for sunrise and the morning "magic hour." I wish I had been able to see some of the photos from that day after they had been touched up and printed. If they were anything like the sunrise I saw with my eyes then there were keepers to be certain. (photo)
After breakfast we packed up the circus and slowly drove another six hours and got set up to repeat the process. This time at the famous moving rocks on the Racetrack Playa. No one gave me a conclusive answer as to how the rocks moved but the trails they leave on the Playa are permanent reminders that nature does incredible and unexpected things. These trails are just as permanent as the boot prints left on the Playa earlier this year. Someone took it upon themselves to walk on the Playa when it was wet; a reminder that people do careless and unexpected things. (photo)
After a grilled steak, chicken, and salmon dinner the guide crew was able to get a restful nights sleep thanks to a cloudy night sky. To be honest, I was disappointed. I had been consulting one of the work shop participants about night time photography and was looking forward to giving it a try if the opportunity presented itself. As it was, we woke up in the morning to prepare a breakfast feast of home fries, bacon, fruit salad, and eggs. Said our farewells, and packed up camp to begin the long trip back to Flagstaff, Arizona. The group would be sticking around to continue shooting but they would do so closer to their rooms at the hotel and would not need our mobile base camp any longer.
It was my first trip to Death Valley and I was happy for the excuse to go. If any reading this decides to make the trip, you have to camp out. Anything really worth seeing in Death Valley is far enough away from the entrance on rough enough roads that it takes some time to get around. Furthermore, you have to get out of your car, get off the road, and spend some time experiencing the place under different lights. Death Valley is a harsh place under the light of day. But if you get to see it at sun rise and sun set, under the light of the moon, or when the clouds are just right, then you will get to experience a landscape of vibrant color and incredible textures that you would never know was there from your car, driving on the road, in the middle of the day.


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This section contains 527 words
(approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page)
The Grass Harp Summary & Study Guide Description
The Grass Harp Summary & Study Guide includes comprehensive information and analysis to help you understand the book. This study guide contains the following sections:
This detailed literature summary also contains Related Titles and a Free Quiz on The Grass Harp by Truman Capote.
The Grass Harp is a story told by Collin Fenwick, an orphan whose life spent with eccentric relatives enriches him more than he could ever have imagined. Collin is especially close to his aunt Dolly, a gentle soul whose only act of rebellion occurs one autumn when she removes herself and a few others to live in a tree house in a sprawling tree on the outskirts of a small Southern town. The episode teaches lessons of love and life for those who inhabit the tree house as well as those who try to extricate the rebels from their firm positions.
Collin is only eleven-years-old when he comes to live with the Talbo sisters, Verena and Dolly in a small Southern town. Collin recalls that his parents married at a very young age and were very much in love, his mother reduced to tears each time her husband would have to leave for his traveling salesman job. Collin's mother dies before she reaches the age of thirty and Collin's father is devastated by the loss and launches into a whirlwind of destructive behavior belying his grief. Collin's father's cousin, Verena Talbo, arrives to take Collin to live with her and her sister, Dolly. Soon after Collin arrives at the Talbo residence, Collin's father is killed in an automobile accident leaving Collin an orphan.
Collin grows up in the big Talbo house where he is slightly frightened by the aggressive businesswoman, Verena, but adores Dolly, a gentle, sensitive person. Collin is also very fond of Dolly's friend, Catherine, who lives in a small building at the back of the Talbo property. Catherine had also been orphaned as a girl and lived with the Talbo sisters since their father brought her to the house to live. Verena is envious of the relationship that Collin, Dolly and Catherine share but is too vain to admit her emotional weaknesses and needs.
Dolly and Catherine have a small cottage industry of making a dropsy cure from boiling down selected herbs. Verena, who is an assertive businesswoman, brings home a man from Chicago one day with the secret intent of producing the dropsy potion in mass quantities for sale once they have wrestled the formula away from Dolly. This intrusion into Dolly's affairs launches the normally reticent Dolly into a rebellious move that shocks not only Verena but also the entire town.
Dolly, Collin and Catherine take a few belongings and some provisions and move into the tree house in a China tree on the outskirts of town. During this time, they learn about each other as well as two other townspeople who take up temporary residence with them, Judge Charlie Cool and Riley Henderson. The story that ensues is a series of attempts by Verena and the authorities to extricate the tree house dwellers but Dolly will not be moved until she is sure that the decision is hers alone and not the wishes of anyone else. The lessons learned during these few days in autumn reveal deep emotions of love, betrayal and enduring bonds forged by people brought together in unusual circumstances that somehow seem completely normal.
Read more from the Study Guide
This section contains 527 words
(approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page)


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The leader of the rating became Manama, in second place – Prague, closes the top three best cities for immigration in Madrid.
Analysts of the international organization for migration InterNations published rating of the most favorable cities for immigration. The leader was the capital of Bahrain, Manama.
According to experts, in Manama migrants is quite easy to find decent housing and work.
The second position in the list is Prague (Czech Republic) thanks to her career opportunities, and closes the three leaders of Madrid (Spain).
Also in the top five included Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and Amsterdam (the Netherlands).
Among the most successful for immigration of the cities were Lagos (Nigeria), Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), Paris (France), Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) and Dublin (Ireland). Experts note that immigrants quite difficult to find a job, decent housing and provide a decent life.
Top 5 best cities for immigration
1. Manama, Bahrain
2. Prague, Czech Republic
3. Madrid, Spain
4. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
5. Amsterdam, Netherlands
Top 5 worst cities for immigration
1. Lagos, Nigeria
2. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
3. Paris, France
4. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
5. Dublin, Ireland
The rankings experts have conducted an extensive survey of thousands of immigrants living in the 51 most popular city in the world. They talked about quality of life, personal finances, job satisfaction, assimilation, health care, education and other factors.
Earlier it was reported about Kiev, which was in the basement of the ranking of the best cities in the world.
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