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I even enjoy dying in the character who is dying.
— Franz Kafka
Every time I close my eyes,
It's like a dark paradise
There's something apocalyptic about a Blood Moon. The sense of waste and transient beauty, light and life shedding away. The moon takes its thirty-year delayed menstruation; red cloud wisps over its shining face like clots of blood being pulled across a pool of silver. Somewhere out there, lovers are lying in lush paradise, staring up at this white eye opened by god; far away, drowned in stars. A voice swirls like smoke over soft, shimmery guitar. It's the eclipse, sometime about now, then, yesterday, and I am or I was listening to Lana Del Rey.
Honeymoon, then going back to Dark Paradise. Insomnia in the space between night and day; between one universe and another, always afloat in claustrophobia. Returning to this song again and again, its repetition, invoking the familiar sadness and masochism that Lana dreamt up only a few years ago, you're surrounded by an eternal world of neon palms, boulevards dripped in milky dusk, the sickly excess of tequila sunrise against soaring choruses and stripped-back lyrics. In a way, you fall or sink into Lana Del Rey's music. Like Kubla Kahn, the eponymous Chinese emperor of Coleridge's opium-provoked fragment poem, you are sucked dreamily into the sultry visual world of dark objects, consumer heaven, the young and beautiful place of honeydew where you are invited to drink 'the milk of paradise'. Lana's swooning melodies charm over time, drawing you into an atmosphere of narcotised darkness which evokes a silent movie – even as the interplay between sound and image is as crucial a set of semiotics as anything Roland Barthes might analyse. You could fall back into the darkness, be seduced by the languid timeless sigh which slides over memories, nostalgia for lost evenings, red dresses and cigarettes, lost girls pressed up against bad boys in clubs, feeling like their whole existence is just a vision, propelling their electric bodies on and on as if in tune to Freud's death drive.
Much of Lana's music is about desire: the kind of desire that doesn't leave you cut-up on the kitchen floor in crude emotion (a la Natalie Imbruglia, 'Torn'), but passes through that place in the heart of culture that falls into absence and darkness. The secret hollow of modernity. It makes sense that she sung the sultry standout track for Baz Luhrmann's 2013 The Great Gatsby adaptation, 'Young and Beautiful'. Del Rey's America is so Art Deco, from the typeface of her new album, to her obsession with cars and jazz and girls called Carmen, the fragile magic of Hollywood glamour which often bleeds at the seams. Lana returns to that dull wound and picks at it, indifferently, till it's fresh again – a more ethereal thing that transcends the rotting body of America's culture. Sex, violence, money, power, charisma; they all blur together in Lana's fixated, addictive lyrics. In her performance, she already knows the irrelevance of authenticity; it makes her internet-immune, a kind of perfect. Nobody can critique her, because she's always one step ahead. Despite the success of Lady Gaga, who wears her gender performativity on her sleeve, American culture remains obsessed with the cult of authenticity. Lana has been attacked for 'making up' the stories portrayed in her songs, the easy-love lifestyle she presents; for having plastic surgery and performing under an alias that nods more to Hollywood mythology than the girl-next-door vibes of her real name, Elizabeth Grant. Remember James Frey, the 'man who rewrote his life' and was subsequently attacked by Oprah when she discovered he'd fabricated and exaggerated a hefty chunk of his memoir of drug addiction? Lana, like James Frey, like Hemingway, is interested in the interplay between real life and fantasy, performance and authenticity; importantly, however, she shows how real life is itself played out and realised through the lens of mediated fantasy. Her songs betray a Baudrillardian ecstasy of communication, simulacra and simulations, updated for an age where the past is showered with the longed-for shroud of Hollywood glamour, where the present is fragmented, split across the Internet (where Lana first made her success, sensation).
Isn't it lovely when somebody makes albums that really feel like art? From Born to Die's glamorous sadness draped in an American flag, to the monochrome somnolence of Ultraviolence (produced, appropriately, by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys), each of Lana Del Rey's records captures a persona, but one which shifts and gathers nuance in the filters of crooning choruses and soft guitars, the distinctive colour charts of an album cover. Born to Die: pastel blues and palm trees, red lips and smoky eyes; the glossy, time-travelling Americana of her short film Tropico (2013), whose flashy symbolism mixes purity with moral pollution, the Garden of Eden with unicorns and gangsters. Ultraviolence: black and white, the spare sex of sorrow. Her latest offering, Honeymoon, sinks deliciously a familiar aura of daydreams, heartache and a sense of mesmerising stasis captured in Lana's recital of 'Burnt Norton' from T.S Eliot's Four Quartets, which evokes an abstracted and absent conception of time, slipping away into endlessly echoing, impossible memory…
Footfalls echo in the memory. Sound effects; quiet sirens, the soft familiar crackle of static, reminding us of the temporal duration, the space of presence that opens up with each play of the song, then closes again in silence – but always there, always there waiting in possibility, for the next click, the next play. Down the passage which we did not take.
In the album sleeve, the white printed lyrics to 'High By the Beach' flicker and disappear in the yellow-gold light of a glossy photo depicting a tree-lined avenue. Lana Del Rey songs always paint little vignettes of stories, but her characters frequently disappear from view, their situations dreamlike, slanted towards death but never reaching conclusion. Like any avant-garde novel worth its salt, Lana Del Rey's music often bears a slightly creepy, unsettling quality, a sense of never being quite finished, a sense of repetition, frustration and surrealist reality. While she can master a good pop tune, Lana never gives us that self-satisfied pomp and narrative closure of a Taylor Swift song; there is an almost uncanny quality to her musical arrangements: the drifting melodies, tinges of trip hop, strings, rippling snares and minimal beats. Literary references abound: from that iconic reading of Allen Ginsberg's Howl in Tropico, to the album title Ultraviolence (alluding to the random acts of 'ultra-violence which the teenage protagonist of Anthony Burgess' dystopian novel A Clockwork Orange is addicted to) and all that sinister seduction of 'Carmen': 'It's alarming, honestly, how charming she can be', in a nod to Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. In 'Ride' she references the sexual plight of Tennessee Williams' Blanche DuBois, drifting through life by 'relying on the kindness of strangers'; in a way, Blanche is a perfect Lana Del Rey heroine. Not only is she a 'fallen woman' but she is also an alcoholic, guzzling bourbon and symbolically-charged cherry soda (My pussy tastes like Pepsi-Cola, / My eyes are wide like cherry pies – 'Cola'), and longs to die in a most extravagant way, conflicted by her desire for purity and her sexual appetite: first, she will eat an 'unwashed grape' (the poisoned fruit of Eden, the rotten core of carnal pleasure) then be 'buried at sea sewn up in a clean white sack and dropped overboard—at noon—in the blaze of summer—and into an ocean as blue as my first lover's eyes!'.
My baby lives in shades of blue
Blue eyes and jazz and attitude
Well New Orleans – the setting of A Streetcar Named Desire – is a city rich enough in jazz and attitude, especially in the 1940s. In a way, all of Del Rey's characters are caught up on the deathward drive of streetcars named desire, only her streetcars have morphed into getaway vehicles and limousines, or else the rides of suburban rockstars: I spend my whole life driving in cars with boys / Riding around town, drinking in the white noise. The white noise? The ever-present static reality of radio and television, life flickering on amidst its background hum and rush. It's an edgier version of Lorde's '400 Luxe', a delicate, pulsing tribute to the romance of small-town time wasting on roads where the houses don't change:
We're never done with killing time
Can I kill it with you?
Till our veins run red and…blue
We come around here all the time
Got a lot to not do, let me kill it with you
You pick me up and take me home again
Head out the window again
We're hollow like the bottles that we drain
You drape your wrist over the steering wheel
Moses can drive from here
We might be hollow, but we're brave
On the subject of heroines, Lana is constantly critiqued for her portrayal of women; namely, her ensemble of doomed and lovelorn characters who lavish over their hopeless agony and fail to resist the anonymous bad boys which recur in her songs. Yet there is an irony to this critique, because critics seem to forget that it is a woman who is pulling the strings over all these puppets. Lana slips in and out of her roles as easily as she slips between haunting, orchestral notes. She is always in control, her voice brilliant as smoky quartz crystal, even as she sings about being out of control. There is a litheness to her performance that indicates the strength of her fiction: Lana is like a novelist, fabricating a shadow world which shows up the underbelly of American culture, from its Golden Age of 1950s glamour to the fractured present, where alcohol and club culture meet the melting pixel pot of the Internet. I wish I was dead already, she can say in a Guardian interview, incanting it like a spell, letting Twitter fall on its knees with spits and stirs of protest and loathing. Prostitutes, gangsters, trailer trash alcoholics. These people, these liminal figures on the margins of society – stereotypes, yes, but vivid ones nonetheless – are the lifeblood of Lana's music and as she renders them, they have emotional depth, a soulless soul, unlike hiphop's deadpan delivery of gangster vocabulary. As her voice swells to a pitch we realise that Lana has already dismissed something as 'crude' as identity politics, embracing instead the freedom land of the seventies, free because America, land of opportunity (for white women, at least) had then opened up a new lifestyle, a new kind of being. There is power in being a sad girl, nasal and depressed but somehow free, as in the paean to glamorous dishevelment, 'Cruel World' (from Ultraviolence): I like my candy and your heroin, / And I'm so happy, so happy now you're gone. / Put my little red party dress on, / Everybody knows that I'm a mess, I'm crazy … 'Cause you're young, you're wild, you're free, / You're dancing circles around me. There's that cliché of Americana: being young and wild and free – think of Bruce Springsteen's celebration of wild youth – and again, Lana places her voice in the hullabaloo of this tornado of deathly ecstasy, making herself the static one in the centre, languishing over her candy and heroine while everyone else dances circles around her.
'I felt very still and empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo' — Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar.
Hiphop melancholia, narco-swing, vintage pop; whatever you wanna call it, Lana always kinda slips the net. Its her characters, her musical and metaphorical landscapes that draw you in. In a way, her songs are just as literary as any old poem.
Crying tears of gold, like lemonade. Here we are on 'Ultraviolence', drowning in violins and vats of sadness, relishing the salt taste and thinking of the ocean. The ocean haunts Honeymoon too. It's there in the California blues, the 'blue nail polish' that's her 'favourite colour' and 'favourite tone of song' in 'The Blackest Day', the sultry ice cream gleam of 'Salvatore' which glides in and out of languid Italian and consumable nouns (cacciatore, limousines), perhaps like a narcotised, Sinatra-style swing version of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' 'By the Way' (the bit where they seem to throw a demented grocery list at you). Shady blue, summer rain, sparkling lights; it's a beautiful snowflake of a song, catching its glitter in the strings and the la-da-da-da-daaaas which fall around you, soft and sad yet somehow delectable. The ocean is the darling of the suicidal American woman: it is the world's womb, the waves that embrace desire, the space of endless multitude, escape from restrictive culture. In 'Dark Paradise', the singer is lying in the ocean singing your song – is this a meta statement, one persona talking back to the distant maker? All of Lana's heroines are looking for that dark paradise; that refrain, But I wish I was dead. Think of Edna in Kate Chopin's 1899 (later banned) novel of sexual awakening, The Awakening: Chopin's impressionistic purple prose isn't so far from the poetic melodrama of Lana's lovelorn world: 'The voice of the sea is seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamouring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander in abysses of solitude'. Chopin's onomatopoeic prose chimes with Lana's frequent use of sound effects, from the Fourth of July fireworks which open 'National Anthem' to the glitchy blips of 'Video Games' and twinkling bird sounds of the Hollywood hills in 'Is This Happiness'…Expressions of desire flicker with the imagined bliss of paradise.
In the conclusion to The Awakening, Edna steps out into the ocean, never to return, remembering as the horizon catches her eyes the sounds and scents of her childhood: the simple 'hum of bees' and 'musky odour of pinks' which fill the air narcotically. Walking into the ocean as Lana's heroine writhes on her bed and balcony, longing to just get high by the beach, longing for that preserved moment of perfect stasis, the endless waves, the endless boulevard leading to a distant horizon of fathomless dark glass, tall buildings rising up amidst pink flamingoes like surrealist paintings. Haze of smoke, daytime closing.
There is a passage from Don DeLillo's debut novel, Americana (1971) which David Foster Wallace happened to underline in his copy of the book:
"David, I truly love you and hate you. I love you because you're a beautiful thing and a good boy. You're more innocent than a field mouse and I don't believe you have any evil in you, if that's possible. And I hate you because you're sick. Illness at a certain point inspires pity. Beyond that point it becomes hateful. It becomes very much like a personal insult. One wishes to destroy the sickness by destroying the patient. You're such a lovable cliché, my love, and I do hope you're found the centre of your sin".
A 'lovable cliché': the sort of thing Lana embraces, makes raw and coats in her voice of smoke and silk. The antithesis of beauty and disgust, love and hate; how our attempts to disinfect the one from the other are doomed to fail. Culture is a contradiction. In Americana, the protagonist David Bell is a TV executive who finds himself deeply apathetic, despite being attractive, sharp and popular with the ladies. He frequently articulates his experiences, his life at large, as if they were a film. He becomes obsessed with finding meaning, embarking on a Kerouac-esque quest at getting to the nitty-gritty of America's heart of darkness, but this documentary gets messed up in his attempts to re-stage and re-enact events from his past. I guess it's true that the novel is all about unattainable desire, whether this is desire for meaning, personal fulfilment or something more carnal – the search for the centre of your sin which could easily be a Lana lyric. What's more, this pathological fixation of DeLillo's David Bell to some extent parallels Del Rey's obsession with the silver screen version of America; the photography of Honeymoon's cover even resembles a sexier version of the Penguin cover for Americana:
While Del Rey's female characters languish in their statically trapped daydreams of love and violence and Hollywood glamour, DeLillo's version of Americana is largely embodied in the road myth and its cult of masculinity:
There is a motel in the heart of every man. Where the highway begins to dominate the landscape, beyond limits of a large and reduplicating city, near a major point of arrival and departure: this is most likely where it stands….Men hold this motel firmly in their hearts; here flows the dream of the confluence of travel and sex.
This kind of commentary permeates the book, often arriving at a kind of religious, anthropological rapture which lacks the self-consciousness of DeLillo's later novel White Noise, but provides a rambling cultural landmark that paves the way towards the sort of position Del Rey occupies in the mainstream. The Beats, protesting consumerism even as they gorged on apple pie; Bret Easton Ellis, with his deeply despairing coterie of psychopathic, serial-killer yuppies and sexually-violent, chronically-bored L.A teenagers; Lana Del Rey, voicing the glorious wastage of our postmodern wasteland, our beaten bodies and minds, voicing her vision through scenes of sun-drenched nostalgia which evoke a beautiful and terrible America, made glossy and pure through stars and stripes, a delicate riff; drifts of strings, jazz, Instagram filters. That golden period where love suffuses with the candy-flavoured stuff of daydreams, movies: Honeymoon. The whole album renders a narrow reality of the past and present: it's pastel-shaded afternoons lost to the call of the ocean, sad ballads of frustrated love (I lost myself when I lost you), electro blues; it's The Blackest Day, with Billie Holliday, palm trees and prescription pills, throwing up the lilac and cinnamon-scented ash of society's ills – emotional debris, disconnection, slowing tempos, the hullabaloo of static thrills.


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Maggie Wiggle Dress - Roses
Vintage 50's Pinup Dress
The Maggie dress is making her triumphant return in a wiggle that is perfect for a fall day. Made with a beautiful stretch velvet and lined with a soft wicking stretch cotton.
80% Nylon, 20% Spandex. Hand wash in cold water, mild detergent and line dry. No bleach, iron or dry clean.

subset: commoncrawl


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My mind is going blank- but this is what I thought of
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Top Ten Tuesday
My mind is going blank- but this is what I thought of
11 comments:
I need to get cracking on reading! I've only recognized a few characters from people's lists. It gives me something to look forward to. :DReplyDelete
I love Alice. And Hermione is also a natural choice (I say, as she is on my list too) but the others I am not familiar with. I'll take your word on it though!ReplyDelete
Hermione and Cara! Yay! Love both of those characters...ReplyDelete
P.S. I'm composing an email to you at this very moment! :)
I love you chose Cara from the Sword of Truth series! She's not only a wonderful friend but also one of my favourite supporting characters ever (:ReplyDelete
Thanks for dropping by my blog today :) I figured that Hermione would make most of the literary BFF lists. She's definitely a keeper!ReplyDelete
freaking awesome list, now Rose and Leesie are my gals :DReplyDelete
- AnonymousNovember 30, 2010 at 11:06 PM
I actually found it a lot harder than I thought it would be too!ReplyDelete
Thanks for stopping by my blog. I appreciate it!
I love your top three! :)ReplyDelete
Bear with me, but I do not see myself befriending vampires (or dating them, honestly). Way too scary for me.ReplyDelete
My list: http://readerbuzz.blogspot.com/2010/11/top-ten-characters-i-wish-i-could-bffs.html
Similar list to mine! I love how Hermione is on most :)ReplyDelete
Hermione definitely. The rest I don't know. :-)ReplyDelete
I would love to hear from you! (I always try to visit your blog back) I love links, so feel free to link to your blog or a post you like.
Sorry, but I am award and tag free zone, I do not have the time to return. Comments are reward enough :)


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Karen Petruska
Personal Information
Karen is a Doctoral Candidate at Georgia State University. Her research interests include television studies, media industries studies, new media and technology, and feminist theory. She has also been studying Italian for six years. Her dissertation examines 1970s television through the lens of the television critic.


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Cii My Story | 10 March 2014/08 Jumadal Ula 1435
Maulana Saeed Mcane is the the first South African parolee who graduated in 2013 at the Darul Uloom Nu'maniya in Durban.
He was imprisoned in 2001, accepted Islam at the Westville Prison due to the efforts of the Muslim Prison Board in KZN. He was released on parole in 2008 and studied the Imaamat course at Madressah Taalim ud Deen in Isipingo Beach. Thereafter he began the aalim course at madressah Miftaahul Falaah in Harding from 2009 to 2012.
The first account in our new feature series titled MY STORY is a story of a hard crime prisoner who is now an aalim. Look forward to new installments of MY STORY weekly Insha Allah.
My name is Saeed – my Islamic name. My original Zulu name is Bongqi Mcane and I am from the South Coast of KZN. Around Port Shepstone there is a small town called Harding. My family is from there. My parents moved to Umlazi which is a location in Durban. I grew up there and schooled there but I did not complete my High School studies.
Harding is a rural place and since many people look for employment in the cities they move out. My parents did the same, that's when we moved to Umlazi. After Soweto, I think it is the biggest location in which most of out indigenous people are living. Because of the conditions of these locations there is lots of unemployment and crime. The fabric of the society is torn apart. Growing up we found ourselves having role models who were gangsters and thugs. People who were criminals involved in hijacking and car theft. We looked up to them instead of better people like maulanas, sheikhs, qaris, accountants and we wanted to be like them. Like many I also wanted to live a gangster life and become one of the biggest gangsters in my area. I dropped out of school in grade 11.
Regarding me coming to know about Islam – I had a friend in school when I was doing my grade 11 in Chatsworth. He was a Muslim and we were very close. I didn't understand much about Islam or even religion, because I grew up in a Christian family with strong Christian values. At that time I was already involved in crime and every Friday I'd watch him leave school early, he was given permission, and since he was my friend I also wanted to leave early. I knew he was leaving for his prayers but for me I thought it would be an opportunity to leave early and go to town and get naughty not necessarily to leave early to go to the mosque which was nearby our school. I started leaving early also on a Friday and going and committing crimes. Many times I found myself being caught by police, going in to prison for three or four months and then I'd be released until I left school totally. I didn't see school as being of benefit to me and I thought it would just be better to be a fully fledged gangster or thug. But it happened that once my friend was worried about my condition and he asked me to come with him to visit his Maulana who could explain Islam to me. And I went with him and I listened to what they were saying but I was not interested. Until today I don't know where my friend is. From those days which are maybe more than 10 years ago I don't know where he is or what happened to him. Until I got involved in bigger crimes, like armed robberies, then there came a stage where my parents were very, very upset and unhappy with me in the house. The police used to come to look for me and other kinds of people would come to look for me. And then I decided to leave the house and live on my own with other criminals. By this time I was heavily involved in crime everyday until 2000, when I got caught along with some other guys for armed robbery and hijacking. We were sentenced to 15 years in prison. I stayed in prison for eight years. Because of the SA government is trying to change prisons into correctional centres where a person can come is as a thug but will be released as a person who can contribute to society. There are many programmed in prison. Besides that they allow different religious denominations to come and speak. For example Christians are allowed to come and give services. There was also school being offered. When I got into prison I thought my life was finished that I'm going to be here for 15 years but they also have a system of parole for good behaviour. That's when I was released in 2001 after eight years.
Most organisations have a reception area, where people are received, the prison has one also. When I was sentenced I was sent from the courts to Westville prison. In the reception they take down all your information like your personal information, what do you eat, are you allergic to anything, what is your religion and they advise you on how to best fulfil your needs. They asked me regarding my religion, I grew up as a Christian and I was Christian at that time but everything I grew up with had left my life because I was really, really off, out of the right way, the correct path. When they asked me about my religion this I thought about the last time I was in contact with a person who was spiritual was with this friend of mine, Ali Gaffaar. So I told them that I am a Muslim. And they said to me that I don't look like a Muslim and they wrote apostolic church on my ticket. I was given my clothes which were green clothes at that time and I was told I'd spend the first night in prison at reception. The next morning I was taken to my section where I was to spend my years.
During my time in reception I noticed there was one prisoner I think he was a Muslim although I can't remember exactly but I noticed that next to his bed there was a copy of the Quran, the thick Quran which is completed by Yusuf Alli, the white one. There was no reading material, there were many prisoners but next to this prisoner there was a thick book. At that time I didn't know it was a Quran. Then I started thinking to myself that I'm going to be in prison for many years and I need to get rid of this part of me and make sense of my life. So I asked him to let me see the book and he said in prison you don't borrow people things, if you want things you buy them. So it's a different life in prison. Although officials are trying to make it a correctional facility gangsterism and bullying is still rife. So I asked him again to borrow it to me because I have no money. And he said no, not unless I gave him some money because prisoners are always looking for something to smoke or to buy drugs. I had one nice jacket on me and so I asked him to trade the jacket for the book. And I thought the book was so thick it would take me years to complete. Only once he gave it to me did I come to know that it was the Quran. And I started reading and reading and reading. And I can tell you that on that night I hardly slept because the Quran and the bible the incidents that are in and the names and stories of the Ambiya AS it's almost the same stories but in the Quran it emphasises Tauheed – the Oneness of Allah Ta'alah. I started enjoying reading this book and I had developed an interest to get to know more about Islam. Even before I actually accepted Islam, I remember there was a library in the prison, there is a school, I remember going to the library and I even searched for books about Hinduism and different books of different religions. When you are in prison you have a lot of time by yourself and you realise that you are there for good and you want to learn about yourself, about who you are and how you came to this world and there is that soul search, how did I end up here, where did I go wrong in life. And then I found out that I wanted to find out more and more about religion. Because I thought being there, there was no way out and it was like being deep in the sea with no one to help you but God. Only God can make a miracle happen to take you out. I still had that hope that I was going to go out soon. And then I saw that I was going to the library more often and I started schooling at a religious school and receiving education to finish my matric. I learned that the Quran has the message of One God compared to Christianity which was how I grew up and compared to the Hindu scriptures which I was reading. While I was reading the Quran the love for Islam came into me until the officials in my section told me that on certain days people from different religious denominations visit the prison. And they said that I could attend the talks given by the maulanas or pastors with the other prisoners.


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One of the most important aspects of Clashing, and Clashing well, is protecting your trophies and loot.
It all hinges on your base and how it's designed. Outside of having a great strategy for offensive attacks, defensive layouts offer you the chance to protect resources you've produced or raided.
See more: How to build clash of clans base
A poorly constructed base can give your enemies easy access to your loot, your trophies, or your war stars, while a well-designed base can protect vital resources and keep your enemies (and their goblins) out.
Here are our expert tips to keeping all your best stuff under lock and key.
Buildings: What needs protection?
When considering your base design, knowing what to protect and what not to protect is critical.
As a general rule, your defences and storages should all be in a protected position inside the walls while other structures, such as army camps, should never be inside your walls. Think of your base as a dart board with the bullseye being the most protected portion of your base.
What's in the bullseye? Town Hall – Depending on your strategy, you can either place your Town Hall inside or outside your walls. In trophy mode, your TH is the bullseye. It's the building you want to protect the most of any other. Destroying it is the difference between a 1-star and 2-3 star attacks.
For trophy hunting, your town hall should be inside your walls in the centre of your base and well protected by defences. In farming mode (solely focusing on resources to build your village), your TH should be placed outside your walls in the corner. This gives any invading enemy the chance for easy trophies while leaving your precious resource storages intact.
Storages – Unless you are designing a war base or in a full scale trophy push, your storages are the most important building to protect. Of the storages, the most important resource in the game is dark elixir. Outside of your TH, dark elixir storage should be your most protected building. It should be at the centre of your base, well insulated with defences. No exceptions.
Most read: How to Reset a Minecraft Server World – Glimpse Blog
Other storages should be placed within your walls with defences (preferably splash) nearby for protection. Storages should be spaced throughout your base and not in a central location. One critical mistake that many players make is placing all of their storages together in the centre of their base.
A skilled raider will easily gain access to the centre of the base, thus stealing all of the resources. Spreading out storages makes it more difficult to steal all available loot.
Don't do this:
Do this:
Clan Castle – Your clan castle should be viewed as both a defensive building and a storage. Your clan castle allows you to add an extra layer of protection with clan troops (provided you are in a clan) and also hold all war loot.
A suggested placement for your clan castle is in the middle of your base near your dark elixir storage. This will make it more difficult to release the clan castle troops pre-attack and also ensure that your loot is well protected.
Inner most layer of defence just outside the bullseye
Just outside of your most protected buildings, you should place your first line of defence. These defences include those that do splash damage or high levels of damage.
Mortar – Mortars defences provide splash damage to multiple targets. Mortars have a wide attack range and should be placed in the innermost portion of your base. This will allow them attack and destroy groups of troops (such as archers) from afar. X-Bow & Inferno Tower – Xbow and inferno towers should almost always be placed towards the centre of your base. Both of these defences provide high levels of damage to any invading troops and are extremely value in protecting your loot. Hidden Tesla – At town hall 7 and above, you have access to hidden tesla. These defensive buildings provide surprise defence against raiding troops. In farming mode, placement of tesla near storages provides extra defensive support. In trophy mode, teslas should be placed near your town hall. Mid level layer of defence
Just outside of your mortars, you should have defences that act as the 2nd layer of defence after archer towers and cannons (discussed below).
Wizard Tower – Wizard towers deal splash damage to multiple targets, but have a narrow range for attack. Suggested placement is in the 2nd layer of defence (behind archer towers and cannons) and near storages for farming bases. Placement near storages will allow them to quickly destroy groups of troops such as archers, barbs, and goblins. Air defence & Air Sweeper – Air defences serve only one purpose: attacking air troops. They are incredibly destructive to air units, but merely act as an obstacle to any ground unit. Suggested placement is scattered throughout the inner layers your base giving maximum defensive coverage should you be attacked from air.
Note: for early town hall levels outside of war, air attacks are much less common than ground attacks, thus air defences are not as important for protection and can be placed towards the outer layers of your base for distraction.
Heroes – Placing your heroes inside your walls adds an extra layer of defence. They should be placed within the walls behind the first layer of defensive buildings like cannons and archer towers. Outer rings of defence
Most read: Quick Answer: How To Get More Army Camps In Clash Of Clans – BikeHike
The outer most portion of your base should have your first layer of defence. These defences should have a wide radius for attack so that they can start destroying enemy troops early.
Cannon & Archer Tower – These defences provide single target damage and have a wide radius for their attack range. Suggested placement for these units is just within your walls to act as the first layer of defence. Everything else Traps – Well placed traps are essential to a good defence. Scattering your traps around your layout will increase the likelihood that enemy troops trigger them. After observing attacks on your base, you should be able to know where troops are often likely to travel. Adjust your traps accordingly. Army Camp, Barracks, Laboratory, Spell Factory, Collectors, Builder's Huts – All of these buildings are nothing more than obstacles for invading troops. Assuming you regularly collect resources from your collectors, these buildings should be placed outside of your wall as a distraction for troops such as barbarians, archers, and wizards.
These obstacles can be spaced from the wall, but in range of defences. While invading troops are occupied with them as distractions, your defences will have more time to destroy them.
Walls – Regardless of whether you're farming or trophy hunting, walls one of your biggest assets. Walls are your first line of defence and can provide your defences valuable extra time against invading troops. There are several strategies for wall layouts: One layer
This design uses a single layer of wall to prevent troops from accessing the main portions of the base. Think of it as a fence around a house.
Typically this "fence" is used with an inner fence protecting your most valuable resources.
This type of base is usually fairly easy to penetrate with any raiding army that has wall breakers, especially for early town levels.
This design uses walls to create many separate compartments containing one to several buildings within the base.
The advantage of this design is that it slows attacking troops down significantly while they are moving from one compartment to another leaving time for your defences to destroy them.
The disadvantage to this method is that it requires a majority of your walls sometimes meaning you must make a choice of what to keep inside and outside of your base.
Maybe you are interested: How to Kill all Mobs in Minecraft Using 1 Simple Command
Tips! Spread out your storages – Don't place any one defence directly next to the same defence. Spread them out! Watch replays and update your base – Use the replays of attacks on your base to help improve your defence and keep the next raider out.


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Man. It is so nice outside. Perfect weather to go out to a show, don't you think? There's a lot of awesome dates coming up. Some of which I haven't even posted in the shows section yet!
Tonight we are having a stellar house show at our apartment with Denison Witmer and Nick Flora.
Don't miss it. All the details right HERE.
Other upcoming stuff…
10/9/10 – St. Louis, MO
10/16/10 – Wataga, IL
11/12/10 – Greenville, IL
11/14/10 – Lake Wylie, SC
All these details to be announced!
love ya. happy fall.
– op


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"Don't fail us again." That's the message from the family of Arancha Gutiérrez, a 31-year-old Spanish woman who was murdered in Tortuguero last weekend while visiting Costa Rica with her husband and a group of seven other Spaniards.
Speaking to Spain's El Pais, Miguel Ángel Escribano, said nobody – not Spanish or Costa Rican authorities or the management at their hotel – had told them that police had stopped patrolling the beaches: "They didn't warn us of the danger we were running."
"Spanish people travel across the world to destinations that can be more or less dangerous and we decide how much risk we take," he said, reading from a statement inside San Fernando de Henares City Hall, in the Madrid region. "But this does not mean we are looking to get ourselves killed."
Escribano said that before traveling to Costa Rica the couple had consulted information offered by Spain's Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) on global destinations.
"We thought Tortuguero was a very safe place where nothing ever happened," explained Escribano. "After the tragedy, we became aware of things that, it seems, no one knew about."
Spain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs website has been updated since the murder of Gutiérrez and María Trinidad Mathus, from Mexico and now recommends that tourists "travel with caution" to Costa Rica. According to the website, travelers should "adopt measures to protect themselves and avoid traveling alone or to remote or poorly lit places, both in urban settings and tourist areas."
"There has been an increase in violence with the use of firearms (although not directed specifically against tourists) in the most conflictive areas of the urban area of cities such as San José or Puerto Limón, especially at night.
"Since the aggressors are usually under the influence of drugs, in the case of being assaulted, it is recommended not to resist and to prevent this type of events the basic rules of prudence should be adopted with luggage and personal objects, especially with valuables (cameras, video devices …). It is recommended not to wear jewelry and it is strongly discouraged to travel in pirate cabs," explained the Ministry in the Security section.
In addition, as a result of recent attacks against female tourists, "it is recommended to take self-protection measures and avoid traveling alone or in isolated or poorly lit areas, both in urban areas and in tourist areas."
The website asks travelers to Costa Rica to keep handy Spanish embassy's emergency phone number (+506 6050 9853).
Escribano thanked the Spanish consulate and embassy in Costa Rica, as well as the Costa Rica government and police force, for their support following the murder. But he called on the Spanish government to do more: "Don't leave us in this important moment because this matter cannot be left unresolved. Don't fail us again."
The family returned to Spain on Thursday. Escribano and the victim's family – mother, father, sister, and brother-in-law – agreed that the attack had been sexually motivated.
"Arancha left to go running early in the morning, like any woman wishing to enjoy her holidays would have done. She was attacked by a vile pervert, a blot on the human condition," they said.
"We do not know how far machismo reaches, and up to what point a woman cannot enjoy nature by herself in broad daylight, creating fear and insecurity for the rest of the women who want to live freely."
OIJ Raids Home of Suspect
Meanwhile, in Costa Rica, the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) raided Friday morning the apartment of the suspect in the killing of the Spanish woman, an individual named Albin Díaz Hopkins, in the community of Tortuguero de Pococí, in search of elements that tie him to the murder.
Hopkins is believed to have met the victim the before the murder, was released on Monday for insufficient evidence to place him in preventive detention. The court did, however, turn him over to immigration officials given his 'irregular' status in the country.
Hopkins, of Nicaraguan nationality, remains since Tuesday in the custody of the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería (immigration service), since he is illegal in Costa Rica, being held in the Central Region Apprehension Center (CARC), located in Los Lagos de Heredia.
Authorities suspect sexual motive was behind the attack, as Gutiérrez's clothes had been torn off.
More tourism security promised
The Tourist Police (Policía Turística) increased the vigilance in Tortuguero since Friday.
Also on Friday, the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) reported that for December, when the high season starts, it hopes to have an application ready with warnings and safety tips for tourists.
The application will have geolocation to alert the user about the dangers according to where they are, explained the Minister of Tourism, María Amalia Revelo.
This in addition to President Carlos Alvarado's announcement on Thursday that the central government will allocate US$1 million annually from the budget of the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) to tourism security.


text: Free Download: How to Sew an Oilcloth Wallet October 19, 2015 By Editor & filed under Uncategorized. Sewing your own accessories is the perfect way to add style to your look and use up remnants of fabric that may be gathering dust in your fabric stash. Small accessories like wallets make great gifts for friends and loved ones too. You can even make wallets in a rainbow of colors so that you… Read more »


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Danedri Thompson
Cheryl Harrison-Lee has accepted the position of Gardner City Administrator.
Her signature is on a contract agreeing to take the job. City officials will likely sign after the holiday weekend.
According to the contract, her first day with the city will be July 16.
Today, interim-city-administrator Mike Press is managing the city under a temporary contract that is set to expire at the end of June. However, it is likely city council members will extend his contract to assist in Harrison-Lee's transition.
Harrison-Lee's previous experience includes municipal government experience in Florida. She is also a former district manager with the Florida Department of Transportation.
"She's extremely capable, very bright lady," Press said. "I think she's going do a great job for the city."
Cheryl Harrison-Lee accepts city administrator job
Danedri Thompson


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Take for example Material Girls recent exhibition at Textiles in Focus. I tried to make sure I knew exactly how things would be placed, where the focal point would be and how the pieces would work displayed together. I tried to make sure that we had all the extra staging needed and that , as this might be this body of works only showing, it was displayed in a certain way. BUT we had never shown at this venue before so I had little idea of how our work would show in the space, exactly what the screens were like, etc... so it was a case of on the day just reacting to what we had. I think it worked, we had lots of positive comments and on the heels of this exhibition I have booked another venue in December - Gallery 50,Craft Arena, Billericay- because I thought the girls work looked so good it deserved another showing.
The exhibition -Tales and Textiles
Five items of my own pieces based on a Miao Creation Myth
Then there are the spontaneous outings. When we woke up on Saturday instead of horrid rain the sun shone but my DH insisted he was going to paint the kitchen ceiling so my DD, who was at a loose end, and I decided to pop up to the Tower of London. We go quite a bit as its only about 1hr away from us on the tube but we hadn't been for about 3 years. We spent a silly day doing the things we used to when she was young. getting in the way of the guardsmen (by accident of course) oohing over the crown jewels and trying to remember all those gory stories and locating what had happened to who and where and when (I actually had a great,great,great, great ..... grandfather who was held in the Tower after the 2nd Battle of Worcester
originally he was one of Cromwell's capts. but I think he swapped sides after Charles 1st got the chop). We also found that they have put lots of sculptures in to enhance their Menagerie at the Tower exhibition which I loved there are some pics of them on my facebook but I haven't managed to find out how to get them onto this computer yet ,bad Chrissy!. It really was a good day, So perhaps I should give spontaneity a bit bit more of a look in in future :)


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Saint Mary's cruises at San Francisco 84-53
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Garrett Jackson went 10 for 13, with 4 of 5 from 3-point range and a career-high 26 points Thursday night as Saint Mary's beat San Francisco 84-53.
Brad Waldow and Kerry Carter added 18 points each. Waldow went 7 for 8 with seven rebounds while Carter added six boards and five assists.
Saint Mary's (21-7, 13-4 West Coast) never trailed and led by as many as 22 in the first half on its way to a 49-29 edge at the break. The Gaels kept their lead at or above 20 in the second and finished 14 of 27 from 3-point range.
The Gaels clinched at least a tie for second place in the final conference standings, staying one game ahead of BYU (12-5) with one game to go for both teams.
Tim Derksen led San Francisco (12-17, 6-11) with 12 points and Kruize Pinkins grabbed 10 rebounds.


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A geographic gem on the coast of County Antrim in Northern Ireland, the Giant's Causeway is a constant subject of cultural and geological infatuation among locals, travelers, geologists, and especi...
Have NASA's space tourism posters got you dreaming of hiking the canyons of Mars and gazing at the auroras of Jupiter? Don't get fitted for a spacesuit just yet — leisure space travel is still a lo...
Everyone's got a list. Call it a bucket list, a must-do list, or a list of goals, we've all got places we dream of seeing. And, these days, "we come, we see, we selfie" seems to be the motto. So, h...
The Irish countryside is one of those rare places that combines an epic mythos with whimsy: the same land that holds the regal and ancient history of the Celts and the tribes before them also spawn...
Of all the countries in the world, Ireland is the one worth road tripping through. From booze hounds to outdoorsman, these road trips are sure to please.
To be included on the UNESCO World Heritage List, sites must be of outstanding universal value which are nominated by their country of origin and then reviewed by an advisory committee. There are m...
When it comes to making lists, there's always going to be debate. Over the years, many have tried to declare an eighth World Wonder, but they never end up making the official list. These locations ...


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Got A Cavity? It's Not Uncommon
Nobody likes to hear that they have a cavity, but tooth decay is quite common. In fact, tooth decay is the #1 chronic childhood illness in America, beating out the common cold. While not contagious, cavities occur most often in children and young adults – and they're completely preventable, with a little dental TLC.
What Is A Cavity?
Your mouth contains lots of bacteria, both the good kind and the bad. When the not-so helpful bacteria get together with food debris, that lingers in your mouth, acid can result. Over time, that acid can attack your tooth, eating away at the enamel and creating a hole that's filled with decay.
Fact: Don't like the drill? Neither do we! Our Waterlase treatment is drill-free, shot-free and pain-free!
A cavity, also known as caries, is actually an infection in your tooth. Left untreated, a superficial cavity can grow, affecting the nerve of the tooth. That's why it's important to catch a cavity when it's small, before it grows into an abscessed tooth! Let Dr. Tartagni know, right away, if you experience any of these symptoms of a cavity:
- Tooth pain
- Sensitivity to hot, cold or sweet foods
- Rough edges on your tooth, that you can feel with your tongue
- A visible spot or hole in your tooth
- Pain when you bite down
- A bad taste in your mouth
- Bad breath
- Swelling of the gums, especially near a sensitive tooth
Goodbye, Cavity!
If you have a cavity, it's easy to treat and you'll hardly feel a thing. We use advanced laser treatment to remove any tooth decay, without a drill. Once your Waterlase treatment is completed, we'll fill your cavity with tooth-colored composite, for a seamless restoration.
The best prevention for cavities, along with good oral hygiene habits, are regular checkups at Shoreline Dental. Call our Milford or West Haven locations to schedule your appointment.


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Printer Service / Supplies / ConsultingRetail Sales
Tu-Sa 10-6
Driving Directions:
213 high street, first block off of Hanover.
At Frag Out, we not only produce the most comfortable custom apparel, but we strive to give back to the veteran community. Our goal, as we grow and hire veterans, is to create an environment of camara
TriCounty Area Chamber of Commerce
152 East High Street, Suite 200
Pottstown, PA 19464
Phone: 610.326.2900


text: Duhaime's Law Dictionary Quick Take Definition: A formal process of the exercise of eminent domain in which the government takes possession before the adjudication of compensation. Related Terms: Eminent Domain, Straight Condemnation In East Tennessee Natural Gas v Sage, Justice Michael of the United States Court of Appeals wrote extensively on straight condemnation: "We begin our discussion by reviewing the mechanics of how the federal power of eminent domain is usually exercised. Congressional authorization is required for land to be condemned by the government for public use. Congress sometimes exercises the power of eminent domain directly by enacting a statute that appropriates specific property. Congress's normal practice, however, is to delegate the power of eminent domain to government officers who may condemn property in the name of the United States for public use. And Congress may grant condemnation power to private corporations executing works in which the public is interested."Although the federal statutes conferring the power of eminent domain routinely identify the officer who may exercise the power and the purpose for which it may be exercised, the statutes typically do not prescribe the procedural methods or steps for exercising the power. (The) Secretary of a military department may acquire by condemnation any interest in land needed for the site, construction, or operation of fortifications, coast defenses, or military training camps. The Secretary of the Interior is authorized in his discretion to acquire for inclusion within the Mammoth Cave National Park by condemnation any lands within the maximum boundaries...."When a condemnation action becomes necessary, a government official has two statutory methods available for exercising the power of eminent domain. Under the first method, called straight condemnation, the action usually proceeds to a determination of just compensation and final judgment before the condemnor takes possession. Under the second method, often referred to as quick-take, the government may take possession of the condemned property at the beginning of the case."In Redevelopment Agency v Gilmore, Justice Grodin of the Supreme Court of California referred to the: "... early possession or quick-take provisions of the eminent domain law. Under that procedure, a condemning agency may take over condemned property prior to trial and judgment by depositing in court the probable compensation as determined by appraisal and obtaining an order for possession. The condemnee may apply for the right to withdraw the court deposit or any portion thereof."When the quick-take procedure is used, the final award of compensation draws legal interest, commencing when the agency took possession or when it was authorized to do so, whichever is earlier, and continuing until final payment. (However, interest ceases to accrue on any amount previously deposited in court when the condemnee withdraws that amount. In other words, the condemnee receives interest on the difference between the final award and any amount previously deposited and withdrawn." REFERENCES:East Tennessee Natural Gas Co. v. Sage, 361 F. 3d 808 (2004)Redevelopment Agency v. Gilmore, 700 P. 2d 794 (1985) Categories & Topics: Duhaime's Constitutional, Human Rights and Administrative Law Dictionary Duhaime's Real Estate and Tenancy Law Dictionary Always looking up definitions? Save time with our search provider (modern browsers only) If you find an error or omission in Duhaime's Law Dictionary, or if you have suggestion for a legal term, we'd love to hear from you!


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Business Type
Full Company Description
Astro Asia provides thermal protection for temperature sensitive cargo. Our Thermal Pallet Covers, Container Liners and Insulated pallet boxes are used extensively in the Healthcare/Pharma & Food/Beverage industries. We ship globally.
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Pay-Per-Click or PPC Campaign Audit For Seattle Businesses & Marketing Agencies
The Complete Pay-Per-Click (PPC) audit
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Audit. If you feel like your Pay-per-click campaign might be missing out on something or if you feel like your paying too much, FameHouse PPC audits allow you to see what your pay-per-click priorities should be, competition PPC marketing, and waste spend.
FameHouse provides PPC audits to local Seattle businesses and marketing agencies whose, clients want more from their Pay-per-click campaigns. We look at important key metrics – such as your campaign settings, account structure, keywords, ad copy, quality scores, and more. Audits help companies understand growth opportunities, campaign priorities while, providing insights on how to better optimize strategies that make buyers prefer their business over the competition.
- Waste Spend. PPC campaign audits exposes budget bleeders that are holding you back be it: account settings, campaign design, keyword types, quality scores, negative keywords and more.
- Relevancy. Ad copy audits determine if Adwords campaigns are effectively communicating with the buyers behavior every stage of the buyers journey be it: discovery, exploration, engagement or purchasing.
- Competative Insights. Identify your competitors Adwords management mistakes & use them to your advantage.
- New Adwords Strategy. FameHouse audits show companies how to improve existing PPC campaigns, open themselves up to more leads that build a healthy sales pipeline for large or small businesses.
If you suspect your marketing efforts are not delivering what you'd expect, reach out to FameHouse for a free conversation about where you think you are losing customers, where you'd like to gain them and what you would like to change.


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Document Type
Publication Date
Publication Citation
14 Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law 143 (2006)
This article analyses the role of U.S. law schools in educating foreign lawyers and the increasingly competitive global market for graduate legal education. U.S. law schools have been at the forefront of this competition, but little has been reported about their graduate programs. This article presents original research on the programs and their students, drawn from interviews with directors of graduate programs at 35 U.S. law schools, information available on law school web sites about the programs, and interviews with graduates of U.S. graduate programs. Finally, the article considers the responses of U.S. law schools to new competition from foreign universities for the job of educating the world's lawyers.
Recommended Citation
Silver, Carole, "Internationalizing U.S. Legal Education: A Report on the Education of Transnational Lawyers" (2006). Articles by Maurer Faculty. 321.


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Sex is a term which is ever related to myths. With today's society, it is built up often as something male-centric or elusive. Therefore, it is not surprising anymore that most people still feel misled these days.
Now is the best time to erase the misconceptions about sex as we debunked them one by one;
Myth #1 – There's no fun in using condom.
Not at all. The right type of condom can improve sex for the couples. A recent research discovered that almost 68% of men choose the wrong shape or size condom. Once they tried a different condom and figured out the perfect fit, the fun and pleasure skyrocketed.
Myth #2 – The only goal during intercourse is orgasm.
Most individuals perceive sex as journey, concentration on arriving at a specific destination known as orgasm, instead of enjoying everything down the road. However, sex is more than that. It should sexual intimacy that must be what feels exciting and pleasurable to you. By means of exploration, every sexual encounter could be more thrilling, not being stuck on the same conclusion.
Myth #3 – Sex is more enjoyable when you are still young.
It's definitely not true. While sex during your younger days may be more athletic and quicker, older adults who are sexually active claimed that, they experienced more fulfilling and rewarding intercourse of their lives. At this time, there is more focus on creativity, sensuality, and emotional connection and at the same time, less emphasis for quick orgasms.
Melanie Davis, Ph.D. CSE says that we shouldn't be envious to younger generation as we could have a much better time for this.
Myth #4 – Woman can feel orgasm through an intercourse alone.
Approximately 75% of women don't experience orgasm by means of vaginal intercourse alone. Direct clitoral stimulation is necessary. When both partners want reach climax instantaneously during sex, it's would be best to use a vibrator or their finger to pleasure the clitoris.
Myth #5 – The size of penis matters.
Another common misconception in sex is that, the bigger the penis, the better— which is wrong. Size doesn't matter as what most of us think. The real deal here is the compatibility of the size. A small vagina and a big penis aren't a good combination. Moreover, knowing how to play with it skillfully is more significant than its size.
Myth #6 – There must be an erection to arouse a woman.
The process of turning on a woman and arousing her can be delightful itself, especially when the mind isn't preoccupied with any performance demands. Having said that, you should be aware that foreplay doesn't need an erection. Many women want foreplay even without vaginal intercourse. As a matter of fact, some girls do foreplay to intercourse and usually relish it more when it's not used as a strategy to reach orgasm right away.
There you have it – the top biggest myths related to sex. Don't be ashamed and embarrassed when seeking answers about this subject. This may possibly led you to being deceived or worse, experiencing sexual problems down the line.


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Cyber Talk Radio: Security is a Team Sport
Security is a Team Sport - Week 9 of Cyber Talk Radio
Our guest this week was Omar Quimbaya, technology evangelist at Def Logix.
Show Summary
This past Saturday, November 19, the ninth episode of Cyber Talk Radio hit the airwaves on 1200 WOAI and iHeartRadio streaming.
Omar Quimbaya, technology evangelist Def Logix joined the show to discuss how security is a team sport and firmware security.
In the first half of the show, Omar gives the listeners background on Def Logix and a cybersecurity meet-up that he leads called, CyberDEF DOJO. In case you aren't familiar, CyberDEF DOJO is a place for local hackers, innovators and learners to hone their skills in the art of cybersecurity. The organization also works to develop cyber secure communities by learning, hacking and pitching. We then transition the conversation into "why security is a team sport." Omar cautions that you cannot rely on one single person to solve all of your security problems. All teams at your company need to be aware of their behaviors online, processes if a breach were to occur, proper data access, etc. Omar highlights that the three main areas that comprise cybersecurity are people, processes and technology.
In the second half of the show, Bret and Omar walk listeners through firmware security and what happens inside your computer. Omar answers questions such as "What is firmware?" and "What are the security implications of firmware?" Hackers are now putting malware in firmware which is extremely hard to remove. It is basically a "chronic disease" in your hardware. We also walk through ways to find out if your firmware has been affected by malware. Omar gives tips on how to monitor your network and regulate what devices can access the network. Want to hear our security predictions for 2017? Make sure to listen through to the end of the show!
Listen to a replay of this episode or past episodes on a Cyber Talk Radio Podcast stream.
We're live on Pocket Casts and iTunes so please subscribe to stay up to speed on the latest episodes. Past episodes are also posted on our YouTube channel.
Recent episodes – available to stream from our YouTube channel -
- Healthcare Data Privacy & HIPAA Security with David Schulz, executive director at Cyber Risk Associates
- Authentication and Identity Security with Paul Querna at ScaleFT
- Application Security aka AppSec with John Dickson and Dan Cornell at Denim Group
Upcoming episodes – Saturday nights from 11:00 p.m. to Midnight -
- Episode 10, November 26, 2016: Incident Management and Response with Robert Autenrieth, president at J. Nels Consulting, LLC
- Episode 11, December 3, 2016: San Antonio, Cyber City USA with Jim Perschbach, EVP of business development at Port San Antonio
Have an idea for a topic or want to be a guest?
Contact Cyber Talk Radio via our request a topic or be a guest form.
About Cyber Talk Radio
Cyber Talk Radio is a 1200 WOAI radio show that airs every Saturday at 11:00 p.m. The weekly show hosted by Bret Piatt, CEO at Jungle Disk, will feature guest speakers to discuss cloud computing, cybersecurity and Internet trends facing businesses in industries such as healthcare, financial services, legal and real estate. As a major Cyber City in the U.S. and home to over 80 information security companies, San Antonio is an ideal city to host Cyber Talk Radio and educate local businesses and listeners. To learn more about Cyber Talk Radio, request a topic or submit to be a guest speaker, visit http://www.cybertalkradio.com/.


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Create an Account - Increase your productivity, customize your experience, and engage in information you care about.
Effective with the November 15, 2017 Business Meeting, agendas and related materials as well as action agendas will be posted in Novus Agenda. Please click Novus Agenda for access.
Past Action Agendas may be accessed in our Archive Center.


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First Drive: 2018 Volkswagen Golf GTI European Spec
The evolution of VW's hot hatch continues
MALLORCA, Spain — Class-defining and at the same time class-less since its debut in 1974, the Volkswagen Golf has become a cornerstone model of the Volkswagen brand. The same can be said in many ways of its sporty variant, the GTI. The very first Golf GTi was in essence a grown up Mini Cooper made in Germany. Its 110-hp engine had an easy time motivating the roughly 1,700-lb crackerjack that made history for its amazing handling, roadholding, and performance.
The 2018 Volkswagen Golf GTI has more than double the power of that first model. It's also a lot heavier, with a roughly 70 percent weight gain to slightly more than 3,000 lbs. One thing that hasn't changed much though: The GTI still remains a blast to drive.
True to the maxim "never mess with a winning team," exterior design changes to the European spec 2018 Golf GTI we recently took out for a drive are purely cosmetic. While the sheetmetal remains untouched, its bumpers, lights, and grille get fresh make-up. It also features extra trim, and four little red winglets underlining the headlights. The daytime running lights and the taillights use LED technology
Its turbocharged 2.0-liter I-4 picks up an extra seven horsepower in European specification, while GTI Performance Package gets a 14-hp boost in its newest guise. Despite the updates, the asking price remains virtually unchanged.
Our red test car is a four-door manual with 19-inch wheels, adaptive dampers, intelligent lighting, the all-in infotainment pack, and just about every available driver assistance system. The cloth seats look and feel good, the cockpit is still more steering-wheel than games console, and the ergonomics are more intuitive than confusing. Pressing the starter button activates two sound sources. Initially it's even battle between Dynaudio stereo system and the EA211 engine, but after a fingertip correction, the powerplant beats the amplifier.
The GTI's drive mode selector invites you to tweak engine and transmission response, damper setting, and steering behavior, but it won't let you turn up the exhaust volume. For a loop on Spanish gatorback C-roads, we lock the shock absorbers in comfort and leave the other elements in sport. Although there is an ESP button, you can only deactivate traction control. So, take-off wheelspin, yes; lift-off oversteer, no.
Like its predecessor, the 2018 GTI is not an aggressive street racer but a relaxed gran turismo with long legs and plenty of low-end grunt. Its livery is tastefully tailored, its stance is understated yet confident, and its voice is half Peter Fonda, half Sean Connery. The seventh-edition best-seller is built like a vault — think Golf with Phaeton genes, not vice versa. The cockpit oozes quality: soft-touch surfaces, metal accents actually made of metal, solid controls, sturdy fabrics, high-definition displays, and more than a dozen modern conveniences including gesture control and active info display are available.
Want to hitch a ride? At the word go, we're off. Even at 4,000 rpm, the acoustics are still reminiscent of a padded cocoon — no suspension rumble, front axle quiver, tire roar, or driveline indispositions. The only music playing in your headphones are the dense and delicately staggered tonalities of VW's finest gasoline engine.
Equipped with a sports suspension and so-called progressive power steering, the new GTI comes well prepared for the narrow twisties that carve in serpentines and terraces up and down the steep mountain flanks. You never need sixth gear on this roller-coaster terrain, but first is a must around the hairpin turns that climb like spiral straircases through the rock formations. With the exception of short straights and occasional switchbacks, this is mainly second- and third-gear stuff. Good to know then that this Golf picks up the torque thread at a low 1,500 rpm, spanning its lofty 258 lb-ft peak from there all the way to 4,600 rpm. It does not come as a surprise that the six-speed manual changes ratios almost as rapidly as the optional DSG transmission. It's a quick and slick gearbox, precise and well staggered, complemented by a light and progressive clutch. Although redline is 6,500 rpm, there is no real need to push the single-turbo 16-valver beyond its wide sweet spot.
Waltzing one-two-three, one-two-three with the GTI along the southern edge of the Balearic Islands is a pleasantly controlled, unexcited, reduced experience. This car frowns at and refrains from grand gestures, so turn in with restraint while staying in the taller gear then open up the steering early and feed the torque diligently. The reward is a captivating blend of cornering grip and exit speed, a high level of composure, immaculate body control, not much understeer, and plenty of feedback. You always know exactly where you are with this Golf, be it one tenth under or over the limit. A scalpel rather than a butter knife, it carves a fine line without leaving deep grooves on the blacktop. Physically pulling itself together the instant fast forward switches to fast rewind, the GTI shines through the ubiquitous second-gear twisties.
Overdriving the hatch upsets the handling balance by inducing excess understeer and destructive ASR/ESP interference. It's much better to keep this car on a long leash, give torque preference over power, time driver inputs defensively, maintain a steady flow. After all, this is no longer your father's GTI — or the GTI I still remember vividly from the original press launch. The Golf has grown up, put on weight and learned new tricks — but is still delightful to drive.
Of course, we expect a sharper Golf R and European-only track-bred Clubsport to follow. In a way, the GTI feels more like a detuned Golf R without all-wheel drive, like the cruiser version of the line-topping bruiser. But don't forget that Mallorca and its winding by-ways are only one side of the coin. Picture this car on fast country roads or on the autobahn and it will no doubt collect more brownie points. After all, no contender can match the epic Golf for its sweet ride-and-handling mix and the rare combination of laid-back competence and absolute commitment.
2018 Volkswagen Golf GTI Specifications
|Summer 2017 (est)
|$33,000 (est)
|2.0L turbocharged 16-valve DOHC I-4
217 hp @ 4,700-6,200 rpm, 258 lb-ft @ 1,500-4,600 rpm
|6-speed manual, 6-speed dual-clutch automatic
|2- or 4-door, 4-passenger, front-engine, FWD hatchback
|167.6-171.3 x 70.5-70.8 x 56.8 in
|103.4 in
|3,007-3,056 lb
|6.4 sec
|155 mph


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Create an Account - Increase your productivity, customize your experience, and engage in information you care about.
The Planning Commission uses the Comprehensive Land Use Plan as a decision making tool and a measure to implement the overall goals, objectives, and policies of the Plan. They also review the Plan periodically and make recommendations for revisions to the County Board.


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Charitable giving is big business, with many organisations handling millions in revenue. But big charities have come under fire for issues from bad accounting to actually doing more harm than good. In our short series on The Problem with Big Charity, Paul Palmer looks at how to make good investments.
Charitable organisations by definition aim to do good with the money they receive and spend. But what about the investments they make? What if these investments don't appear to match the aims that the organisation promotes? For example, a charity that promotes conservation would raise eyebrows if they invested and received returns from an oil company. Some charities have come under particular scrutiny for this mismatch, while others have faced calls to divest their money from uncomfortable concerns. Others use ethical investing as a guide.
Ethical or Socially Responsible Investment (SRI), sometimes also referred to as sustainable investment, is about taking steps to ensure that an organisation's investments reflect its values and ethos and do not run counter to its aims. This kind of investment takes environmental, social, ethical and governance factors into consideration and is based on achieving the greatest impact from investments by both pursuing maximum financial return and ensuring investments complement, rather than undermine, the wider aims of the organisation. There is no one-size-fits-all model for how to do this – instead, there are a number of approaches that can be used separately or in combination.
Three ways to do it
Positive screening involves selecting companies for investment that have a commitment to responsible business practices and/or that produce positive products or services. This approach can include selecting companies whose products help to combat climate change, such as technologies for generating renewable energy. Positive screening can also mean selecting only the best performers in a sector on a range of criteria such as their record on human rights or pollution.
Negative screening excludes companies or sectors that do not meet the ethical criteria that a charity has set. For example, a health charity not wishing to invest in the tobacco industry.
Engagement, or shareholder activism, is using the influence and rights of ownership to encourage more responsible business practices. This mainly takes the form of dialogue, but it can also extend to using voting rights to enact change.
Legal obligations for charities
Charity trustees are responsible for making investment decisions and are required under charity law and guidance from the Charity Commission (CC14) to do what is in the best interests of the organisation. Generally speaking, this means maximising financial return; however, CC14 allows an organisation to choose to take a lower rate of return if: a particular investment conflicts with the aims of the organisation; the organisation may lose supporters if it does not invest ethically; or there is no significant financial detriment.
Those responsible for the investments must clearly articulate why certain companies or sectors are excluded or included. With their professional advisers, trustees should also evaluate the effect of any proposed policy on potential returns and balance any risk of lower returns against the risk of alienating support or damaging its reputation.
The leading case law in this area is the 1991 Bishop of Oxford Case, a test case to clarify the law on the conflict between the maximisation of return and the primary principle of the charity's mission. It clarified that an ethical constraint based on the charity's mission takes precedence over the fiduciary maximisation duty, so cancer charities can exclude tobacco company shares, for example.
Failing to adhere to principles certainly runs a reputational risk, as Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, discovered when in 2013 he said he wanted to "compete Wonga out of business" – the online payday loan company was subject to criticism over its very high interest rates. But hardly a day later, an investigative journalist found that the Church Commission, which looks after the £6 billion investments of the Church of England, held an £80,000 stake in Wonga. Comic Relief also reportedly invested millions in funds with shares in arms, tobacco and alcohol, according to a 2013 Panorama investigation.
Avoiding a media storm and reputational damage
So if a charitable organisation wants to set up a practical ethical policy on exclusions it needs to work out what activities should be avoided, what constitutes a material involvement, and where information – such as how much profit a company makes from an undesired product – should be obtained.
Defining the activities for exclusion is the first step but isn't always straightforward. For example, with alcohol-related investments, should the exclusion apply to companies which manufacture alcoholic products or to distributors and retailers? Trustees must come to an objective agreement as to precisely what activities to exclude and why these conflict with their charity's objectives.
In principle, a company with any involvement in an excluded activity should be avoided but in practice some definition of materiality is normally applied. Such tests can include proportions of sales, profits or numbers of employees. However, obtaining information is particularly problematic when a strict materiality test is used. For example, a fund manager will clearly know when a company earns 50% of its profits from alcohol but may not if the figure is just 0.05%. Annual reports and accounts can be informative, but of course accentuate the positive and bury the negative.
Screening services provided by specialist ethical services can help. There is however a cost to screening funds, and charities need to ensure that costs versus benefits and risks are properly assessed. Until recently, most large investment managers did not offer cost effective funds but this is changing, with major players, including UBS and Blackrock, now entering the market to offer a range of active strategies and passive funds, using socially responsible, exchange-traded funds.


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Sunday: Closed
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The complex has a variety of multi-functional spaces and platforms that can be activated for different living functions and for meditation. The spatial continuity between interior and exterior spaces is flexible – also the inside is out and the jungle is in the house. The Ultra-Ruin is an architectural instrument played by nature including human. The main user is a private family, but the space is occasionally opened up for wider meetings.
Ultra-Ruin is more of an organic accident, than based on industrial control. Accident is greater than architectural control. Architectural control has been opened up in order to let nature to step in and human error to take place. In order to understand the dynamics of an accident one must be present. To be present is the key of all art.
Architecture is not an independent language and architecture is not talking alone. Architecture needs nature to become part of nature. Ultra-Ruin is a post-ruin condition, where human has come back to the house / ruin and share the same space with jungle.
The Ultra-Ruin has been developed in close and still ongoing dialog with the client since 2009. The first architectural reaction was to build a table around which we could talk. Then to build a shelter for this table. The rest of the Ultra-Ruin has grown up around this initial impact. We still keep talking and the Ultra-Ruin keeps growing as an open form.
Architect: Marco Casagrande
Project Manager: Nikita Wu 巫祈麟
Casagrande Laboratory team: Frank Chen 陳右昇, Yu-Chen Chiu 邱郁晨
Location: Yangming Mountain, Taipei, Taiwan
Site: ruin of an abandoned farm house and surrounding terraced farms
Interior space: 210 m2
Terraces: 520 m2
Materials: Mahogany, Zelkova, Camphor, Taiwan Cypress, bronze, steel, stone, brick
Completed: 2013
Photos: AdDa Zei 蔡明輝


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We enjoy sharing ideas, recipes, special offers, news, and inspiration with you through the Father Time Club email. And we do Bread Giveaways through this email list or on social media. You'll also receive a coupon code for 30% off your first order after joining our email club.
Your privacy is important. We will never share your email or information with anyone.


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Here you'll find pictures -mostly nudes- that are simply beautiful, or out of the ordinary, models that look amazing, pics that inspire me, although my "normal" photowork is quite different. Once in a while I'll post pics I made myself, but most are by other photographers from all over the world, collected from websites and blogs. I'll try my best to name names and add links. If you think I violate your copyrights, please let me know and I'll remove the post...
dinsdag 27 juni 2017
maandag 26 juni 2017
zondag 25 juni 2017
donderdag 15 juni 2017
woensdag 14 juni 2017
maandag 12 juni 2017
zaterdag 10 juni 2017
Claire Fromaigeat by Gaspar Noe
vrijdag 9 juni 2017
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This is a detailed tutorial of how I sewed the
Two Fabric Flanged Machine Binding
to my
Ruffle Flowers Table Runner Quilt
I saw this type of binding online and
those bindings looked too small and thin for me,
so I developed my own cutting method
to make a full, standout binding.
I have had many requests from readers for a tutorial of this binding method
Sew here it is ...
I run a line of stitches around the edge of the quilt during the quilting process and use this as a guide line for aligning the cut edge of my binding on the back of the quilt.
Cut 1 and 1/2" strips of the main binding fabric fabric,
2" strips of the accent (flange) fabric.
Sew the strips together end to end.
Trim the selvedge and press open.
Sew together lengthwise.
Press to the main fabric.
Press in half making a sharp edge on the flange.
I like to use a large Binding Baby to hold me prepared binding.
This cutie sits very nicely on the second thread spindle on my machine.
As you can see I match my binding thread color to the flange color.
My bobbin color is the one I used for quilting the back of the quilt.
The I fold my corner at a right angle and put a clip where
I want to start sewing on the next side.
I remove the clip, needle down and up and pull up the bobbin thread,
take two stitches and backstitch two stitches
so my corner is closed and secure.
To finish my binding, I stop my stitches leaving about a ten inch opening.
Then I fold the fabrics to meet in the middle of the opening
and finger press.
I mark the place where I want to start stitching with an erasable fabric marker.
I cut both ends about an extra inch long.
I open the binding and with right sides together,
I match the flange edge carefully an pin
I mark a line with the erasable fabric marker
and sew along the line.
I hand press open the closing seam, trim to a quarter inch seam
and turn it right side out sand flatten it.
Then I sew the opening closed.
Then I fold the binding to the front, tucking in the batting edge,
and use binding clips to secure around the edges.
The flange will just cover the line of stitches that secure the binding to the back.
Here is the corner fold.
Here is what the clipped binding looks like front and back.
To stitch the binding to the front of my quilt I use my zipper foot.
This little foot fits snugly into the narrow flange.
To turn the corner, I open the binding and stitch right up to the line
that attaches the binding to the back.
I resume stitching at the corner and continue all around with the help of the paw.
This is a close up of the binding on the front.
Close up of the back.
You can see the line of stitches that secures the binding to the front
just inside the turn.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.
If you use this method, I would love to receive feedback to
Here are some of the other recent flanged bindings I have sewn.
There are also how to photos for the scrappy binding on my
Fat Quarter Cubes Pillow
which has a gray ombre flange.
I have entered this tutorial in the
Voting open June 16-20th.
Tips and Tutorials Festival Link Up
Lots of interesting and inspiring new tutorials and tips in the links!


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You know what I'm going to say. Why do I need to say it? C'mon. So I went to some forum to try to steal what a poster I enjoy might have written about Paul Rudd in this role, but there was nothing worth plagiarizing there, so it's up to me to tell you my important thoughts. Paul Rudd is perfect for this role. I already loved him in "Clueless," and every other movie he's permeated; it almost doesn't matter what he's doing in them, he's the perfect mix of cuteness and vulnerability found in my favorite shrunken men.
Not that he's made my LIST of favorite shrunken men, but after I watch this movie he might very well find himself plunged deep in it. It's all down to him, and how many times during the movie I'm distracted with turpid thoughts. I wager a minimum of forty. Feel free to place your bets. As to what might happen in the movie, who cares? I'm not familiar with Ant-Man, or his storyline, but as long as there's something big happening to his tininess, I'll shuck the bucks. It will help if Ant-Man does this:
You know you want him. Well, maybe not you, but do start your Matchbox engines, because in exactly three months I'll thunder my way to my local Carmike Cinema, I'll peel off the roof, and I'll crush whoever talks during the movie.


text: Very honoured and humbled that this image of a man walking in the souk was chosen as a lead double spread image for a feature on the world's best outdoor markets in the Spring 2017 issue of GQ Style magazine. I was approached a couple of months ago by the editors, and now it's in print! This is an edit of an image I shared fresh from our Morocco travels back in 2013. I remember seeing this in my viewfinder and quickly grabbing the shot, and thinking that there was something here. Little did I know that it would end up today in GQ Style.


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Minimum order: 10 units
Plain white envelopes are free and included. Or you can upgrade to one of our custom colour options and add printed envelope addressing. Find out more!
We use plastic-free packaging and sustainably sourced papers from FSC-certified forests. Read more here.


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Gov. Haslam, lead Tennessee to do right by refugees
- An ex-pat urges the governor to understand the plight and culture of those fleeing their lands.
- Remind yourself what it means to belong to the Volunteer State.
- Use appropriate terminology when addressing the refugee crisis and ISIL.
An open letter to Gov. Bill Haslam, from a concerned Tennessean abroad
Dear Gov. Haslam:
I have always been incredibly proud to be from Tennessee.
For the past five years I've been living abroad in Egypt and Germany while working and pursuing my master's degree at the American University in Cairo.
When people ask me where I'm from I immediately respond "Tennessee" because I identify with what was once known as the Tennessee lifestyle: helping others, being kind to all and sharing everything.
However, in Berlin I am ashamed and horrified with the news I am seeing concerning the refugee crisis. I have witnessed Germany accepting more than 700,000 asylum seekers this year, and yet you, along with dozens of other state representatives, are wanting to refuse refugees the chance to live.
I ask you, and the citizens of Tennessee, to do the following.
Syrian refugees say resettlement process is 'very serious'
Remind yourself what it means to belong to the Volunteer State.
Gov. Haslam, are we not the "Volunteer State"? Shouldn't we volunteer to step up and open our hearts to those who need help the most?
You should proudly promote the fact that we have many immigrants and refugees living in our state who contribute in a positive way to our society daily.
Use appropriate terminology when addressing the refugee crisis and ISIL.
Please stop using the term ISIS, the name of many women throughout the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) who do not want their birth names associated with the terrorist group.
You should request that other governors, politicians and citizens use the Daesh (a word the terrorist group hates, which could also be used as an insult) or the term ISIL instead.
Condemn the "Christian" tests requested by GOP presidential candidates.
Religion tests to examine the hearts and determine the motives of every refugee? This idea is as shameful as the measures ISIL takes to control innocent Syrian lives. We must not lose sight of our morals and values; otherwise we will be no better than ISIL.
Judging desperate groups of people for their religious beliefs and cultures should not be ideologies that America promotes.
Tennessee governor asks feds to stop sending Syrian refugees
Be confident in the American integration and screening processes for refugees.
We need to trust in the extremely high levels of screening, which has been highly developed and respected for decades, the refugees will undergo before their arrival. The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have built effective and secure measures that keep our own citizens safe while assisting asylum seekers.
What's the harm in letting them stay if they undergo intensive integration processes, which include taking American culture and English courses, similar to successful ones set up by the UNHCR and government officials in Germany?
Educate yourself about the MENA region and culture.
Perhaps you've not spent time in the MENA or maybe you cannot fathom the small details that make all the difference in homesickness — the bread, music, bedtimes, ways of greeting and praying are all so different (and absolutely beautiful)! Try to understand that many refugees are doctors, chefs, teachers, scientists and carpenters.
They could help our society become more successful and diverse if we allow them stay in a peaceful place, similar to ones they once knew.
Despite the Paris attacks, President Francois Hollande of France remains committed to taking in 30,000 refugees in two years, as he believes it's the honor and duty of his country. Let us, as Tennesseans and as Americans, take part in that duty to help the refugees so they could thrive. So they could live.
Whitney Buchanan is a Tennessean living and studying in the Middle East.


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Downloads of Packages
- 1
- 2
- 3
TS Print Client - Latest Version
TSPrint is the RDP printing software for Terminal Services, Remote Desktop, VDI, or Citrix environments. Simple implementation and ease-of-use, coupled with an affordable licensing system, makes TSPrint one of the most popular remote desktop printing solutions on the market. Increase the stability of servers, without installing printer drivers on any terminal server. Clients print directly to their local printers from the terminal server, without additional administrator time required for implementation or configuration.


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Football Officials Wanted
The MWFOA is recruiting highly motivated men and women who love the game of football and possess the desire to ensure the game is played with the highest level of integrity and fairness for each team and player. The MWFOA provides quality football officials for high school and youth programs in Benton, Linn, Lincoln, Marion, and Polk counties.
All officials must complete an online registration form through the OSAA website and pay initial registration fees. These fees cover the cost of your background check as well as your officiating packet. This packet includes a rule book, official OSAA officiating badge, as well as other training materials from the NFHS.
When completing the initial registration, all officials must select their officiating association.


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This month, the ALTD team sat down with Ilanit Bard, General Manager of Lûmé, a multi-sensory fine dining restaurant situated in a terrace house in South Melbourne that was formerly a burlesque club.
Lûmé set about to create a venue with the bones and soul of a restaurant, but with a theatrical and multisensory approach.
Lume is a fully 'dry restaurant - or in other words, boozy staff knock-off drinks at the end of service aren't a thing there. Ilanit believes that's an old fashioned mindset and they want to stay far from it. Read the full interview online...it's awesome.
As a venue that defines itself against the status quo, Lûmé is the perfect venue to champion serving the ALTD Spirits range in its extensive non-alcoholic menu.
Here's what Ilanit had to say:
Name, age, gender, location
Ilanit Bard, 32 years old, Melbourne. I don't like gender.
Please tell us a bit about Lume & your work there
Lûmé is a special place. The weird kiddo of the fine-dining scene. The trend is going on the right, we choose to go on the left. We tend to not follow codes and be ourselves.
I started working there alongside Shaun Quade and other talented people like Eileen Horsnell, Orlando Marzo, Michael Clarke and never stopped being inspired by the incredible humans of Lûmé since then.
I came from a wine bar/bistro background, I don't feel like myself in most fine-dining restaurants and wanted to change this. Lûmé is a very large and sumptuous living room with impressive and fine food from all over the world. Lûmé is Melbourne in a Nutshell.
What is your main focus at the moment?
I am focusing on our beverage list with Ben Knight and Orlando Marzo. I am also taking a big curve into improving technology at Lûmé. Never stop getting better version of ourselves.
Lûmé is a Dry Restaurant...how does that work?
Yes, we never wanted to give alcohol to our team members as a reward. This is an old fashioned mind-set and we want to stay far from it. It was already this way when I started and I embraced it. We also started practising Yoga about a year ago, with Paolo (Chef of Yoga) once a week.
We do drink a little on Saturday night after the last shift of a week, more like a celebration of our accomplishments and lessons that we learnt as a team. Nothing crazy, there is still a non-alcoholic option. Some team members aren't drinking alcohol at all.
Any lessons or insights for other restaurants / venues curious about doing something similar?
Treat your team members as athletes and try to be this fair coach that they need.
Any major challenges / successes with being Dry?
Team members see their workplace more seriously.
The last alcoholic drink you had was & when?
A Negroni on Monday night.
On Saturday night my go-to drink is a...
Usually half glass of sparkling, or just sparkling water :) it depends on the mood!
Favourite alcohol-free drink?
Lûmé zero-proof's page. It is a celebration to Australian's flora; it is considered, complex and suits our degustation very well.
Share something that most people don't know about you
I am afraid of public speaking.
What are you really into at the moment? Can be anything – beverage, food or, other!
Foraging :) Those little aromatic herbs and flowers are so underrated. Most people think they are just decorative but they are much more than that. So, I have joined Spurrell Foraging's team to learn more about it and be able to bring this to the tables at night.
Anything else you want to say?
Thank you!