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Putin's Roulette
Sacrificing His Core Supporters in a Race Against Defeat
Occupy Wall Street reminds me of a doctor who sees a patient with a broken arm, decides that both arms are broken, and proceeds to amputate them: The diagnosis is half right, and the cure may be worse than the disease.
Start with the diagnosis. "Us against them" always makes for good theater. But is the big problem with the American economy really the top one percent versus the rest of us? Are we being victimized by the fat cats? The data seems undeniable. The share of income going to the top one percent has risen dramatically over the last 40 years. If the top one percent have more, surely the rest of us have less, right? But as the writer P.J. O'Rourke has said, wealth is not a pizza. If we're sharing a pie, and you get a bigger piece, that does not mean that I have less to eat. It depends on what happens to the size of the pizza. Ten percent of an enormous pizza is more filling than all of a tiny one.
The protesters are right about one thing: Washington has been coddling Wall Street. But they have missed the most important way that Wall Street lives off the rest of us. Programs like the Troubled Asset Relief Program of 2008 are red herrings. TARP did send $700 billion to Wall Street, but most of it has been paid back.
There is a much more important, albeit quieter, favor Washington has been performing for Wall Street over the last 25 years: When large financial institutions get into trouble, policymakers make sure that their creditors receive 100 cents on the dollar.
The economist Milton Friedman liked to point out that capitalism is a profit-and-loss system. Profits encourage risk-taking. Losses encourage prudence, which is just as important. Over the last 25 years, however, government policy has been laissez-faire when it comes to profits, and socialist when it comes to creditor losses. That is a very destructive cocktail. It has encouraged imprudent risk-taking financed with large amounts of borrowed money. When you subsidize recklessness, you unsurprisingly get a lot more of it.
The bailouts of large creditors -- such as the 1984 rescue of Continental Illinois, the 1995 rescue of Mexico, and the 1998 government-orchestrated attempt to save the creditors of Long-Term Capital Management -- sent a signal to large lenders that they might lose little or nothing if the investments they fund go bust. That in turn made lenders much less cautious, allowing financial institutions to use borrowed money, rather than their own capital, to finance the housing boom.
Using borrowed money instead of equity lets you keep the upside for yourself. Such an arrangement is always appealing. But why did lenders accept such risks when they do not share in the upside, especially when the investments were increasingly risky? Part of the reason is that government created expectations that lenders might get their money anyway.
And they often did. When Bear Stearns went belly up in March 2008, the government did not let the firm go bankrupt. The Federal Reserve guaranteed the toxic assets of Bear Stearns to make the acquisition deal sweeter for J.P. Morgan Chase. But the real impact of the deal was that Bear's creditors -- mostly other large Wall Street firms -- paid no price for financing Bear's debt-financed mistakes. J.P. Morgan Chase honored those obligations 100 cents on the dollar. That reinforced the expectation that large firms could lend and borrow from one another with little or no risk. Reckless leverage is what made the crisis a crisis rather than something milder.
The received wisdom is that it was the failure to rescue Lehman Brothers that worsened the financial crisis. But it was the rescue of Bear Sterns' creditors that let Lehman continue to roll the dice, using borrowed money rather than pulling back and raising more capital.
The real cost to Main Street has not been the transfer of taxpayer money to Wall Street. The real cost to Main Street has been Wall Street's imprudent lending and investment, which led to lending trillions of dollars to build more and bigger houses. That was a bad use of precious capital. The incentives to invest wisely have been distorted. And we are all still paying the price for the collapse of highly leveraged firms.
This is not capitalism; it is crony capitalism. Occupy Wall Street's diagnosis of a parasitic symbiosis between Wall Street and Washington is correct. The coddling of Wall Street let borrowing get out of control, unnaturally enlarged the banks, and helped justify and fund bonuses that otherwise would have been much smaller.
But the top one percent includes a lot more people than just Wall Street executives who have been living large because of the opportunity to leverage investments with borrowed money. The top one percent included Steve Jobs, who grew fabulously wealthy by making the rest of us better off. The same goes for Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the founders of Google. These innovators make enormous sums of money, but the gains to the rest of us are even larger. Great innovators make the economic pie bigger.
When we fail to distinguish between those who grow the pie and those who shrink it, we are going down a very dangerous road.
If the protesters want to fix the symbiosis between Wall Street and Washington, the first thing they need to do is recognize the disease. The disease is not too much capitalism but too little. If firms that fund bad investments by other firms lost all their money, they would either disappear or learn to be more prudent. Washington needs to be less involved with Wall Street, not more. We need less crony capitalism and more of the real thing. We need to demand of our politicians that they stop bailing out losers 100 cents on the dollar. If we keep subsidizing recklessness, we will keep getting more of it, and the rest of us will pay the price.


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Welcome to Valle Crucis Log Cabin Rental's new website. We hope that our new site makes it easy for you to find what you are looking for. If you have any questions about one of our North Carolina Mountain Log Cabins please feel free to call us. We are located just outside of Boone North Carolina and are close to the mountain resorts of Blowing Rock and Banner Elk, right in the heart of the Blue Ridge mountains. Whether you're looking for a vacation rental, real estate or building advice our 25 years of experience is yours for the asking. Please give us your thoughts regarding our new site and anything we can do for you to make it even better. To those of you who have stayed with us in the past…thanks for you business. To those of you who have not stayed with us yet…we look forward to your arrival! From all of us at Valle Crucis Log Cabin Rentals.
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subset: commoncrawl


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AirPhysio COPD Mucus Treatment Best OPEP Lung Therapy Aid for Breathing Launched
Life Health Wellness announced the launch of the AirPhysio device as an affordable, long-term therapy device for those suffering from Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The Australian-made Oscillating Positive Expiratory Pressure (OPEP) device uses resistance and vibration to loosen mucus, making it easier for a user to huff cough it out.
More details can be found at: https://lifewellnesshealthcare.com/products/airphysio-device
The OPEP device works by using vibration to loosen the bonds of mucus sticking to the airway walls to help the body's natural mucus removal process. This lung therapy aid also prevents pulmonary complications and post-surgery atelectasis by facilitating secretion mobilization and increasing lung volume.
According to the WHO, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease caused over 3 million deaths in 2019 and is among the world's leading causes of death. Although COPD is common, it is also preventable and treatable. Environmental exposure to toxins such as tobacco smoke, air pollution, fumes, chemicals, and occupational dust is the most common risk factors for COPD.
COPD patients often suffer from flare-ups making quick treatment and hospitalization necessary. AirPhysio works to strengthen the lungs and increase lung capacity by making it easier for a user to inhale but offering resistance while exhaling.
AirPhysio is a drug-free, handheld device that is beneficial as a lung expander for acute to severe respiratory conditions. People of all ages and backgrounds can benefit from this breathing apparatus such as children, adults, the elderly, smokers, singers, wind instrument musicians, swimmers, and deep-sea divers. The device is quick and easy to use for breathing exercises, requiring just 5 minutes of use once to thrice a day.
Unlike other OPEP devices, AirPhysio is made in Australia and not in China. It has been featured and recognized around the world. The AirPhysio website also features an optional filter that captures 99.9% of viruses and bacteria. The filter is not required for use of the device.
According to a customer, "This amazing device is very helpful for COPD patients. It definitely assists in clearing the airways."
Interested parties can find more information at ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9QPd42Dy0k
Life Wellness Healthcare
Life Wellness Healthcare
Tweed Heads


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THIS RESTAURANT HAS CHANGED NAMES Central Park
Cuisine: Contemporary
This brick-lined dining room serves salmon-and-shrimp cakes drizzled with chipotle cream, pizzas, and a very respectable plate of short ribs.
Openings: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner daily
- Parking lot
- Dress code: Casual
- Heart-healthy dishes
- Kid-friendly
- Outdoor dining
- Reservations suggested
THIS RESTAURANT HAS CHANGED NAMES Central Park Restaurant Review:
The operators of some San Gabriel Valley coffee shops (Canoe House, Beckham Grill & Bar, Shakers, Diner on Main) up the ante with this more upscale establishment. Sitting on a quiet stretch of Fair Oaks Avenue south of Old Pasadena --- just across from the city's Central Park --- the space is comfortable and laid-back, with black-and-white photos of everybody from Marilyn Monroe to Larry Bird lining worn brick walls. Art Deco-inspired pendant lamps hang from a high ceiling over candlelit dark wood tables. Breakfast is big here, with nice renditions of old-fashioned favorites. In the evening, starters range from a trio of salmon-and-shrimp cakes bathed in chipotle cream and topped with red onion chutney, to chicken pot stickers or a balsamic-drizzled stack of tomatoes and cheeses. Thin-crusted pizzas are reliable, and entrées include beer-battered fish 'n' chips with lemon-jalapeño tartar sauce, Atlantic salmon Provençal and a plate of short ribs.


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I was eating lunch with my brother this afternoon, and I said, "Yeah, just a month and SoldierMan leaves." My brother's 15, so he doesn't even remember a time without SoldierMan being in our lives; he really is the big brother. And I guess he didn't really realize it was so soon, so it took him back for a minute.
Then he said, "You know, not very many people get the chance to live their dream. And it's really cool that he's getting to. So it's a good thing."
Perspective. We all need it once in a while.
Now, I'm off for a half-time pedicure, then ready for my boys to pull out some Sooner Magic in the 3rd.


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09 June, 2008
Every issue of TSV that I've edited has had one or two leading features that define that issue's unique identity. Whether it be an interview, an analysis of some aspect of the series, a comic strip story or a particularly in-depth review, this item (or items) is the very heart of the issue. In the case of TSV 57 that core item is The Lion's Tale, an extensive expose of the rediscovery of the rediscovery of The Crusade episode 1.
While I usually chose to leave the writing of such lead items to others so that I'd have enough time up my sleeve to actually put the issue together, in the case of this article there was no one better positioned to write the piece than myself. The fact that I was effectively doing double duty as both lead writer and editor goes a long way towards explaining why there's a fairly long delay – half a year in fact - between issues 56 and 57.
The discovery of a lost Doctor Who episode in New Zealand generated a huge amount of interest at the time, and to this day many people I meet (fans and non-fans alike) recall the news of the find and appear genuinely interested in having me talk about my part in the episode's discovery and return. At the time of writing (in early June 2008) I've just returned from a month-long trip to the UK during which I met a few fairly well-known people in Doctor Who circles, and sure enough The Lion continues to come up as a topic of conversation more than nine years later (I even got to visit BBC Television Centre on this trip and met people who were responsible for the episode's restoration and saw the machine on which the film print was copied). A number of the people I've worked and socialised with recall reading or hearing about the episode discovery. It's not something I usually volunteer myself but when I mention that I am a Doctor Who fan (something that's rather more socially acceptable to admit to these days, to my delight), a typical response from a non-fan in New Zealand is to observe that an episode was once discovered here. At which point I confess my own involvement in that, and usually end up telling a potted version of what happened.
The full version of The Lion's Tale appeared in TSV 57, and was subsequently republished online in a slightly altered version. This was one of the earliest items to make the transition from print to the online medium, and perhaps even pre-dates the creation of the TSV Archive. As such it means that the heart of TSV 57 has been available to read on the website for a lot longer than the rest of the issue. The article was revised early last year (2007) with the assistance of Jon Preddle, mainly to incorporate information that has since come to light about why the episode was found in New Zealand despite never actually having been screened on television in this country. The online version still resembles the original printed piece, and the one notable omission is a plot synopsis of the episode, which was borrowed from Andrew Pixley's archive feature in Doctor Who Magazine. Despite fully intending to do so, I neglected to ask permission from either Andrew or DWM to reprint this section in TSV. Which was rather embarrassing; especially when Andrew told me that he'd prefer that I hadn't reprinted the excerpt. Fortunately Andrew was very good about the whole thing, and the archive synopsis was left out when the article went online.
If The Lion's Tale was the heart of TSV 57 then its soul was The Life and Times of Neil Lambess. Neil frequently mentioned to me how much he loved the Jackie Jenkins column in DWM. The Life and Times of Jackie Jenkins was a regular column about events in the life of a female Doctor Who fan. Jackie was a fiction, penned by DWM columnist Vanessa Bishop, but many of the things she wrote about had a truth that resonated with fans. Neil was particularly awed by the fact that in one instalment 'Jackie' talked about the return of The Lion, meaning that his key role in discovering the episode had influenced Jackie's semi-fictional existence. I suggested to Neil that he ought to write up his own experiences surrounding The Lion in the form of a pastiche of Jackie's column. Neil writes with a great deal of feeling and with his honest emotions very much on show, and I think that is what makes his work so compelling and so suited to this type of confessional piece. Although it was never intended to be anything more than a one-off, I was so taken with Neil's article that I asked him to continue with a regular column, which in later issues Neil re-named Errant Nonsense.
The other key significant item in the issue was the Pilots of the Deep comic strip. This was a good fit with The Lion content in the sense that this was also about restoring a piece of lost Doctor Who narrative. Pilots of the Deep had for many years been an unfinished work, a loose dangling thread in the history of TSV. The initial two parts of the strip, which featured the Seventh Doctor and Ace encountering the Sea Devils, had appeared in 1989 but it was never completed. A decade later, the strip was reprinted with a newly-created conclusion as a collaboration between Peter Adamson and David Ronayne. It was particularly satisfying for me to see the story finally completed as I'd collaborated with Mark Roach (now a successful Auckland independent music producer) on the second instalment back in 1989. I met up with Mark late last year at a reunion of a group of old friends I hadn't seen for years and he told me that he'd discovered the TSV website and appreciated getting to see his old Doctor Who writing and artwork again.
Finally, the stunning front cover artwork by the awesomely talented Alistair Hughes cannot pass without mention. The Doctor's face emerging from an old map of Palestine is quite astonishing to behold, and appears almost three-dimensional. Quite brilliant.
Read TSV 57 here
Fellow TSV 57 bloggers:
Alden Bates
Jamas Enright
Posted by Paul Scoones at 11:17 am
Labels: Alden Bates, Andrew Pixley, Comic Strips, Doctor Who, Fanzines, Jamas Enright, Jon Preddle, Peter Adamson, TSV
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IT DEPENDS: Are you Being Served? The Budget/Story Dilemma
Writing films are flights of fancy with no limitations. Producing require lots of logistics. It may seem dichotomous, but Christopher Schiller explains how budget and story can both be served.
Christopher Schiller is a NY transactional entertainment attorney who counts many independent filmmakers and writers among his diverse client base. Follow Chris on Twitter @chrisschiller.
Click to tweet this article to your friends and followers!
Writers write character. But characters with nothing to do are boring, and movies so written seldom get made. It's all about story. Serve the story and you are off to the races. Or are you? Time and again writers come against the conundrum of a potential producer loving the story you tell, it's just that there is no way they can raise the budget that would be needed to tell it. "Love the Jurassic Park story ideas, but, does it have to be dinosaurs? I hear they're very expensive."
This article pits the demands of telling a good, compelling story against the business demands of making the film producible within budgetary and time constraints. Writing films are flights of fancy with no limitations. Producing films are practical things with lots of logistics. It may seem dichotomous, but, the two disparate viewpoints can be reconciled.
Serving the Story
I have a saying, "It's a good day of writing when I'm arguing with my characters. It's a great day when they are winning the arguments." Stories resist being put in boxes. When you have a vibrant, living story it needs to go where it needs to go. Trying to make it into something else is folly at best, detrimental at worst. How many movies have lost you when the characters on screen suddenly did something inexplicable, against their established nature, just to move the plot along or avoid an obstacle? Good storytelling needs to be free to go where it has to.
Or does it? (It depends, is the answer in case you were wondering.)
A wealthy protagonist's fall from grace to poverty and self enlightenment has to establish the wealthy lifestyle enough in the beginning to explain the struggle. But does the script need to be set in a huge, expensive mansion, on a yacht in the south of France, or can the character's wealth be established in the back of a limo on the L.A. freeway with the windows tinted to obviate any connection to the outside world? Written well wouldn't any of these establish the precipice from which our lead must fall?
Script EXTRA: Film Budgets - Limitations and Creativity
Each of those choices in a script has a production dollar figure attached to its realization. The mansion is a pricey location rental and insurance. The yacht adds travel, accommodation and water safety issues. The limo with blacked windows could be shot anywhere with post foley and sound design filling in for the external world. Considerably different dollar figures involved to bring the character to where the story needs them.
Here's the rub. Picking from among those choices at first is the writer's job. But if a skilled writer goes into the situation aware of the production complexities of each choice, the writer can be seen as either disconnected from reality and difficult or practically savvy and workable. If the quality of the story is the same whichever is chosen, which reputation would you want to strive for?
Serving the Budget
Writer's make choices that serve the story. Do it well and you get accolades. But the practical matter is the producibility of that great script relies on how well the writer serves the budget. Unlike how some writers want to view things, these are not opposite sides of the same coin. You do not have to abandon the quality of the story to cater to an arbitrary budget restriction. A good writer can write themselves out of any restriction, in fact, good writers can prove they are good by being able to write to a specific, practical limitation without extending the limitation to the story's excellence. Sometimes being held back allows you to explore options that wouldn't have occurred if you can go anywhere, sometimes to even better results. "Necessity is the mother of invention," right?
Here's a secret. There is no budget before the script. Any "budget" number bandied about before a script is written is fallacious. A true budget – one that can be funded – takes a detailed evaluation of a finished script, every scene, character, location, prop, crew requirement and a nearly countless number of other details needs to be pulled from those pages and worked through a spreadsheet to hit real numbers of how much a film will cost to produce. Real producers know this. Real financiers REALLY know this. Until there is a script there is only puffery and posturing. The reality comes after the script is done.
So what does this mean to the writer? It means that every decision made in the script stage affects and determines the final budget required to make the film. So how can you use this to your advantage? Let's look at a specific, typical example.
Script EXTRA: Legalities of Location, Location, Location
Containment Thriller
One category of low-budget films is particularly suited to shining a light on the issue. A containment thriller is a film that has limited locations but a high tension value to keep the audience interested. The concepts are simple to express, but, the number of variations available even within the limitations allows each writer to find a different way of expressing a strong story while keeping under a producible budget minimum.
Do you set your film on a submarine stuck on the bottom of the ocean? A locked room where kidnap victims use their wits to escape their captor? A nuclear reactor control room in the midst of a potential meltdown? A castaway stranded on a desert island? An agoraphobe trapped in her own house when robbers break in?
All of these varied ideas have limited locations, small casts, reduced production requirements (especially if you are able to rely on stock footage for outside of the box references,) that make them attractive for low budget producers. Each of these ideas gives the audience something to root for, high stakes to lose (for the characters, not the investors in the film,) and each is as different as night and day (another factor that affects budget, by the way.)
Writing within limitations can allow the writer to create a satisfying and producible script. And being able to write within limitations is a skill set that is recognized by producers looking for writers they can work with – someone who isn't hung up on writing for writing sake, or worse.
Serving an Ego
Egos. We all have one. As writers we often find ourselves writing something that we are really proud of. A cute turn of phrase or twist on a situation that sits on the page and reminds us why we take up writing in the first place. Sometimes we have an inordinate and disproportionate love of these bon mots. Sometimes to the detriment of the script's producibility.
"But the hero has to be listening to the Beatles White Album as he prepares to confront his boss! It's a must."
"The villain has to ride up on a mint condition 1952 Vincent Black Lightning motorcycle and wreck it right in front of his mansion. It's important to establish who he is."
There are times when a writer can only see one way of portraying the ideas they have in their head. They see such specific detail in their mind that anything but that way would ruin the whole thing. As you might suspect, both of the above examples would be problematic for production. Getting music cleared for a film is a laborious and costly process. Integrating a specific musical choice into the film ties you to the cost demands of the owners and may not even be licensable. And requiring the use of very rare and expensive vehicles is difficult and costly enough, let alone adding the cost of wrecking a precious collector piece.
Killing your darlings is the phrase that a lot of writers dread. It refers to having to cut your favorite scenes from a script. This is usually necessary to shave time or complexity and is requested by a producer trying to get the script into producible shape. Producers don't make these requests because they're sadists and like to watch writers suffer. It is usually seen as a necessity to reach budgetary or other practical production goals. Whether those goals are worth giving up your darlings is a calculation.
Saving Your Darlings, at a (Calculated) Cost
Sometimes sticking with your convictions will prove to be the absolute right choice. Would the movie Being John Malkovich (1999) be the same film without it having to be "John Malkovich"? For Charlie Kaufman it was critical that it was and luckily when the real John Malkovich read the script, he agreed.
Every writer has to make a choice between what they envision in the script and what's practical. For example, Guardians of the Galaxy(2014) was already a costly risk (science fiction based on a lesser popular comic book series and cast of characters.) Was it so important to the story to maintain the large list of 80s pop songs referenced in the original comics? The calculus was made and the expense of the songs was taken into account in the budget. The same calculus of "is it worth it" has to be made when you set your film at a specific location versus something generic, or a time period versus modern day. Each writing decision has the practical consequences underlying that choice. If the calculus is made and the decision is to keep it in the picture, then at least you go in knowing the odds of getting it made have shifted.
Script EXTRA: Cut the Scene! No, Don't Cut (Please)! Cut!
Serving the Unexpected
Occasionally those choices are taken out of the writer's hands by circumstances instead of intent. A location suddenly becomes unavailable, the budget tightens because a financial backer pulls out, deadlines change, or actor issues. There is the famous scene change necessitated in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom(1984) when Harrison Ford got sick. There the script change ended up being a fan favorite solution. "Why can't I just shoot him?"
In such cases serving the situational requirements is the necessity. If you can serve both the budget and the story at the same time you'll find yourself the writer the producer wants to turn to when things get hairy. Price your services accordingly.
Serving the Needs of the Writer
Remember, you're still the chef. What you put on the plate still needs to be tasty. But many fantastic dishes were created because the initial ideas fell on the floor in the kitchen. It shouldn't come off as a last second save. Let them believe it was how you meant it all along!
In the long run whether it was the original story you intended to tell or the best you could manage under the budget constraints, the audience should still be entertained. If they leave with the appropriate reactions to your work, then you can be happy (or as happy as we writers ever get to be.) Maybe the next one you write will be able to keep everything in the picture.
More articles by Christopher Schiller
Screenwriter Contracts DecodedUnderstand Common Screenwriting Contract Terms so
You can Sign Your Contract Confidently


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Laura Peppard, director and founder of the Reno Psychic Institute, has been fulfilling her vision of creating a safe space for exploration of one's spiritual abilities for the last eight years. The Psychic Institute offers a learning and healing space and is a resource to the community for spiritual counseling and classes. It's year long clairvoyant program is an indepth exploration and transformation into one's ability to "know thyself." Laura has been a student of metaphysics since she can remember. She is one of the founders of The Church of Inner Light and an author of "Psychic Views."
For more information on classes and events, call (775) 324-2872 or visit www.renopsychicinstitute.org.
Showing the single result
The Desert Pearl
Showing the single result


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Create an Account - Increase your productivity, customize your experience, and engage in information you care about.
Excavation permits are reviewed by Public Works and Engineering prior to being issued. Link to permit below.
Notification of approval will be sent to email address listed on the application (last line reads: EMAIL APPROVED EXCAVATION PERMIT TO: ______________________).
The total fee is included in this email, and must be paid prior to the permit being issued.
Permits are reviewed by City staff, and signed by the City Engineer, Public Works Director, Building Official, and City Planning Department. Staff will notify the applicant of deficiencies or completeness within 15 days of submitting an application. Link below.


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A Look at GameLuv in 2012
Now that my 2012 recap is out of the way let's take a look at GameLuv. WordPress compiled a fancy page of stats for anyone running their Jetpack plugin revealing that the site had 23,000 views and 69 new posts in 2012. For a site where it's basically just me posting about Achievements and very obscure games I think that's pretty good.
The busiest day of the year was Monday, May 7th with 201 views, the majority of which were this post about crazy Bejweled Avatar gear. I can only imagine this is thanks to the Giant Bomb effect. At some point Ryan spotted someone's Avatar wearing this insanely shiny Bejeweled outfit and it probably sent everyone running to Google and ultimately to GameLuv. I'm glad to be your Top Google Result for weird Avatar clothing!
Our most popular posts continued getting hits in 2012. The post I made about Skylanders just before it exploded onto toy store shelves is now up to nearly 4,800 cumulative views. Dana's nostalgic post about The Ocean Hunter from July 2010 is nearly at 2,000 views. And for whatever reason my closing thoughts on Metal Gear Solid 4 continue to draw people to the site. Thankfully, the majority of visitors to GameLuv in 2012 landed on the homepage to read whatever the top ten posts were that day.
The only disappointing stat to me is that we only got about 18 comments after you rule out all my replies. I'm no good at starting or maintaining conversations and with people flitting from Twitter to Facebook to a dozen other social sites I guess it's to be expected. Still, it'd be nice to have a few more back-and-forths with real people to counter all the Russian spam comments I delete.
Seeing almost double the visitors to GameLuv over 2011 makes me feel great. Even though my lofty goals of retiring from a fat GameLuv paycheck have never panned out it really helps keep me going. As Katy and I branch out into YouTube (where the real pennies are at!) you may see more videos posted but I'm sure GameLuv in 2013 will continue to feature dumb Achievements, weird old games and photos of things I bought on clearance. Now that I think about that, 23,000 views sounds miraculous. Thank you all so much for visiting the site!


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I am so happy that summer is finally here! I look forward to the lazy mornings with my girls. I look forward to the heat, the pool, the beach, day trips, long weekends, Jon's vacation, the drive in movies, the ice cream shops and picnics outside. I look forward to another old fashion country summer. I'm fortunate enough to live in a town where they do summer BIG with farmer's markets on Saturdays, music concerts in the park on Tuesdays, ice cream socials, 4th of July parades and fireworks!
I look forward to all these things but putting Chloe on the elementary school bus this morning was really tough for me. It seems like I just put her on the kindergarten bus yesterday. I can't believe that she will be in middle school. I wish time would slow down just a little bit.
I look forward to spending each day this summer with my girls and enjoying every moment.


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ANU Crawford School of Public Policy
Policy processes for practitioners: an introduction
Two and a half-day short course
ANU Crawford School of Public Policy
Two and a half-day short course
22nd September 2015
- 24th September 2015
ANU Crawford School of Public Policy
Robyn Hardy
Trish Mercer
Wendy Jarvie
Kristen Connell
This introductory workshop at The Australian National University's Crawford School of Public Policy will give you a comprehensive overview of the core elements required in policy development, including policy frameworks, the importance of evidence-informed analysis, finance and budgeting and effective policy communication.
This workshop starts at the beginning of the policy process. It covers key policy development frameworks and the complexities of 'real world' policy development; the importance of policy instruments and the expertise required of policy workers; and finally, how we understand and engage with our stakeholders.
You will then look at what evidence-based policy is, where it has been successfully used and why it can seem so hard to do, drawing on social policy case studies in schools reform, early childhood education, Indigenous policy, income support, and gun reform. You will be involved in exercises critiquing and using research for policy development and implementation, including a longer exercise to gain practical insights into the challenges of making evidence-informed policy.
Budgetary processes will be examined by discussing the links between the resourcing of policies and policy implementation or delivery challenges. You will explore how budgets can be better used to design and manage programs and how incentives and policy can align. You will also examine how different ways of delivering and marshalling resources can affect the policy outcomes.
The final section of the workshop will be concerned with best practices in policy communication. By the end of the course, you will better understand how to foster inter-agency support through effective communication during policy development. You will see how detractors and opponents will use the media to criticise or punish poor policies and learn how to optimise the communication of good policy in the media and public arena.
The course will be offered by an ensemble of accomplished presenters with extensive academic and practitioner experience and will include case studies and intensive Q&A and discussion sessions.
Dr Robyn Hardy is currently lecturing in procurement at the University of Canberra. She is also a Director of ACTTAB. Robyn recently retired from her role heading up ACT Government Shared Services Procurement, a division of the ACT Treasury Directorate. Robyn has a degree in economics from JCU and a Masters Degree and PhD in public policy from ANU. Her PhD research was on 'Interjurisdictional Cost-shifting'. Robyn has had a long and varied career in the public service, serving in both the Commonwealth and ACT Governments.
With over 20 years' experience as an SES officer (1989-2010) in Commonwealth central and line public service departments, Trish Mercer is highly experienced in policy and program formulation. From 2003 to 2010, Trish worked in the Department of Education, Science and Training and its successor the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, undertaking senior roles in early childhood, schools and student income support and also running for three years the department's research, analysis and evaluation area.
Trish also had hands-on service delivery experience from 1996 to 2003 as a member of the SES team responsible for establishing the Commonwealth's joined up service delivery agency Centrelink. As Area Manager, she had direct responsibility for some 1,000 staff in offices across Central and North Queensland and gained extensive experience in delivering innovative services in rural and remote communities, including Indigenous communities.
Trish is now a Visiting Fellow in the Australian and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) at ANU. Her research projects include early childhood, schools reforms and public policy innovation, and she is involved in running public policy workshops in Commonwealth departments.
Dr Wendy Jarvie has enjoyed a diverse career, including as a government policy practitioner, university researcher and a development specialist. She spent 22 years working in the APS, including seven years (2001-2008) as a Deputy Secretary in the Department of Education, Science and Training and the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.
She also managed evaluations and strategy development at the World Bank in Washington between 1998 and 2001. Wendy has consulted widely for international agencies including the World Bank and the OECD on early childhood education, and for the IMF on employment services.
A Visiting Professor at the UNSW School of Business in Canberra, she is currently undertaking research in in early childhood and Indigenous policy, and the use of evidence in policy and program management. Since 2012 she has been a member of the Australian government's Independent Evaluation Committee for Australian Aid.
Kristen Connell is a communications skills specialist and trainer. Her training focuses on topics including written communication skills, media management and negotiation skills. Kristen holds a BA in Journalism and tertiary qualifications in business management. She worked as a journalist for nearly seven years, including five years in the Press Gallery at Parliament House in Canberra.
Kristen has provided media advice to Federal and State politicians during two election campaigns. In addition, Kristen has spent nearly a decade undertaking public relations, media management, strategic planning, workshop facilitation, lobbying, policy development and project management for high profile national organisations and government departments.
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Costa Rica Food & Dining – The Costa Rican gastronomic offer has been strengthened during this first quarter by the arrival of five new casual restaurants. SantaKalaka, Nacionsushi, Porto 8 Premium Seafood, Lizarran and 100 Montaditos are new to our market.
Despite having just months on the market, they are already considering expansion. That shows we like to have these new options and frequent them and that the companies are making their concepts attractive to Ticos.
Porto 8 opened in Plaza Templo, Escazu, a resort. It made an investment of $350,000 and hired 15 people.
Lizarran was inaugurated in Plaza Real, Alajuela in January. It has not provided investment and employment data. It does, however, plan to open 70 international points this year.
After Lizarran, a second Spanish franchise arrived. It's called 100 montaditos. It hired 30 people and has a capacity for 298 people in the Terrazas Lindora commercial complex in Santa Ana.
Another was the Panamanian franchise Nacionsushi. It began by investing $600,000 and hiring 25 for its first location in Escazu Village.
Lastly, we have Santa Kalaka opened last month at Multiplaza Escazu, with an investment of $320,000 and hired 16 employees. It's a taqueria created by Mexican investors.


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Background: Exploring anatomical variations in human body is interminable. Slight variations are observed in the individuals especially in the veins. Knowledge of these variations is a need of modern days advance medical science to conduct innocuous procedures or to avoid needless complications. Aims: This is a case report of a 60 year old male cadaver having variations in the superficial veins of the neck. Materials and methods: During routine dissection on the male cadaver we noted deviation in normal morphology, formation and termination of superficial veins unilaterally on the left side. Results: The retromandibular vein continues downward as external jugular vein without dividing into anterior and posterior divisions. The facial vein instead of terminating into internal jugular vein joined external jugular vein. And the external Jugular vein besides terminating into the subclavian vein terminates at the jugulo-subclavian confluence. Conclusion: Presence of such variant course in the veins may cause difficulties in the invasive procedures. So it is advisable to have prior knowledge of these variations for safe conduction of procedures.


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VOUBS has started with a single idea for providing place for online contests, where different professionals would be able to advertise themselves and get rewards for their work, while entrepreneurs and companies from all over the world could benefit from designers, photographers, artists, copywriters and other individuals.
VOUBS now is a globally accessible online contest platform providing real-time contest management to professionals, entrepreneurs and companies across the world. Amassing a wealth of support from partners and investors in 2014, VOUBS has since become a global powerhouse of progression, featuring .bg and .com domains, over 100,000 registered users from 159 countries, hosting 275 contests with prizes totalling approximately 125,000 Euros and cultivating an unparalleled reputation of reliability.
The "Portraits photography" contest is suitable for participants from around the world, who wish to submit their best photos on the theme "Portraits" and win great cash prizes.
Are you a fan of portrait photography? We are looking for the most impressing and valuable photographs.
A portrait is a photograph of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this reason, in photography a portrait is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the photographer, in order to most successfully engage the subject with the viewer.
Contest winner with the highest total score and the best photograph on 1st place will win the amazing 500 euro prize, plus 10% from the entry fee fund. All participants from 2nd to 20th place will receive an encouragement award of 50 WINGS.


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Rep Thayer Central HS eSports by ordering this black Pullover Hoodie!
This Pullover Hoodie features a generous front pouch pocket with a double-lined hood with color-matched draw cord designed to fit easily over a hat. Made out of a premium cotton material with a classic hoody silhouette for a comfortable, relaxed fit.
Available in Unisex and Youth sizing.
Orders will be taken until December 6th ONLY! You are pre-ordering this item, which will ship to you around late December to early January.
This is a custom made product just for you. Please review the sizing guide to ensure proper fit as we cannot make changes after your order is processed. We are not able to exchange sizes once your gear is produced and shipped.
Customizations Total: $0.00


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Intorducing a new map that has been developed for two months and we haven't it in MineCraftings. During its tour, find breathtaking scenery and several redstone systems like puzzles.
Revenge Of The Gods 1.4 is defined by its author as an adventure map, parkour and puzzles, that will entertain us between two and three hours. The rules are simple, peaceful playing and not to break or not put any block neither crafting.
How to install Revenge Of The Gods Map for Minecraft?
- Donwload Revenge Of The Gods Map
- Open de folder: .minecraft/saves
- Paste the download file into: "saves".
- Enjoy the new map!


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Sugar - 1/4 cup
Milk - 2 cups
Vannila Ice cream - 1 scoop (optional)
Ice cubes - 2 to 4
Add Strawberry and sugar to a juicer blender and blend it thoroughly. Add milk and ice cubes and belnd them again till they frost. Serve in a tall glass with a topping of Vanilla Ice cream.
This quantity makes about 3 cups of milk shake.
Pic from the net
Recipes >


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Best thoughtful baby gift!
We were gifted the birthstone teether when my youngest was born and he loves it! He is still teething, so we keep it in the freezer for him. (He is 20 months old) We plan to keep it as a keepsake as he grows! Its in all of his monthly pictures from his first year!


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"The United States is a nation divided into two groups, separate and unequal. The two groups work in the same economy, speak the same language, and have the same national history. But they live fundamentally divergent lives. One group receives benefits–psychological, social, economic, educational, and moral–that are denied to the other group. The primary fault…Continue reading2 Groups; Separate and Unequal… but probably not what you are thinking
Author: TJ Gilroy
The root cause of our biggest problems:
Father Fracture The biggest reason that you may not know the real you is what I call a Father Fracture. As I will explain, you get your identity from your father. This can be a problem, as you will see from my wife's comments below. In your formative years, your father is supposed to be…Continue readingThe root cause of our biggest problems:
If you're burned out, depressed, or find it hard to trust anyone, the source of your frustration may surprise you. Confidence When you have the approval of your father, without having had to earn it, you have a source of confidence that lasts a lifetime. When you KNOW you are loved by your father, no…Continue readingHow Having a Father Fracture Affects Your Trust, Confidence, and Burnout


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$190M plant move part of democracy, McGuinty says
Voters understand that when politicians make campaign promises it's taxpayers who will pay the cost if that party wins, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Tuesday as he defended a $190-million bill for cancelling a power plant already under construction in Mississauga.
"Political parties in the context of the campaign present commitments, then should they earn the privilege of forming the government, the responsibility is to honour those commitments," McGuinty told reporters after touring a factory in Guelph.
"That's how democracy works," he said.
The premier took responsibility for the decision to scrap the Mississauga plant just days before last fall's election, but said taxpayers should not expect the Liberal party to help pay the bill.
'It was clearly a seat-saving decision made on the eve of an election, and that's why we're calling for the auditor general to come in and give us a real figure of what the cost was.'—Jagmeet Singh, NDP
"I made that decision at that time in my capacity as leader of our party," said McGuinty.
"When we earned the great honour of serving Ontarians as their government, I then made the decision as head of the government, as premier, to honour the commitment that we made in the context of the campaign. That's what happened," he said.
McGuinty justified his decision to halt construction of a power plant his own government had approved by noting more condominiums were built in the area adding many more people to the neighbourhood.
"We listened to Ontarians who made a very compelling case that events had overtaken the original decision made some six years ago, some significant changes were there to be seen by all in the community," he said.
However, the opposition parties say McGuinty's last-minute decision was motivated by his desire to save Liberal seats in the Mississauga area, where opposition to the gas-fired plant was wide spread.
"I think that the Liberal government should be held accountable for this decision," said New Democrat Jagmeet Singh.
"It was clearly a seat-saving decision made on the eve of an election, and that's why we're calling for the auditor general to come in and give us a real figure of what the cost was."
'Genuine confusion'
Energy Minister Chris Bentley first said the cost of relocating the Mississauga power plant was $180 million, but the government later admitted there was another $10 million given to the developer of the project to halt construction.
There was "some genuine confusion" on the minister's part, said McGuinty, not an attempt to hide the true cost of the decision to halt the project and have the power plant built in the Sarnia area instead.
Bentley admitted Tuesday he should have disclosed the $190 million last week, even though some of the extra $10 million applies to another project by the same developer of the Mississauga gas plant.
"I think in light of the confusion it would have been much better to speak to all of the issues at the time," Bentley told reporters.
However, the New Democrats weren't convinced that the "confusion" wasn't a deliberate attempt by the Liberal government to downplay the total cost of cancelling the project.
"I tend to believe there seems to be some sort of lack of forthright honesty on the part of the (energy) minister," said Singh.
"When one minister comes out under question and comes up with an answer of $180 million (and) the next day the answer is $190 million, only after the media exposes the additional cost, I think that there's certainly something here amiss that doesn't sit well with me or with Ontarians."
There's still no word on the cost of the government's decision to scrap another planned gas-fired generating station in Oakville, which the Liberals cancelled after local opponents brought in activist Erin Brockovich to speak against it.


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A clash between two rival cults claimed the lives of two people with one more being abducted in Ijebu Ode area of Ogun State, western Nigeria.
One of the victims was killed at Osimore Street, another was shot and beheaded at Ajegunle Ijada area of the state. It was assumed that the attack was a retribution for the previous attack of Eiye cult group members.
A member of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, identified as Razaq, was shot at his residence in Oketun Street, Itantebo, Ogun State. He was immediately rushed to a private hospital wherefrom he was abducted by his attackers who followed him and scared people away by chaotically shooting into the air.
The armed Eiye cult members did not remain aloof, they also traced one of the rival group men to a football field and started fire. However, the man scaled the fence and got out of sight. The skirmish started at the premises of Moslem Primary School 2, Isoku, off Ijagun Road on Sunday morning, June 22. Frightened residents of Ijebu-Ode township are begging for measures to be taken to suppress the cultist groups.
One of the witnesses said, "I think something must be done urgently to salvage us from these small boys who are killing everywhere. They shot someone on Sunday and we rushed him to a hospital. But surprisingly, some boys stormed the hospital and took him away. As I am talking to you now, no one knows the whereabouts of the abducted man.
We have been searching for him since then. We even heard that they came back this morning to look for a boy they shot earlier, but his relatives have taken him out of the town. You need to see how the boy with the help of his family fled the town. He was disguised as a woman before they could take him out of the town."
When PM News correspondents visited the Ajegunle-Ijada area of Ijebu-Ode on Sunday evening all shops, bars and joints which normally close late during weekend stopped doing business around 7:00 p.m. Also several vehicles of anti-crime military personnel of OP MESA were seen in the town.


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Mercedes-Benz's long history building dramatic flagship coupes started with the 1952 300 S, considered a "car for the world's elite." The 220 S Coupe followed in 1956, and the elegant W111/W112 coupes ran from '61 to '71. Over the years, the 280 SE 3.5 Coupe, SEC coupe, S600 Coupe and CL class all added to Mercedes' reputation for building gorgeous, sought-after coupes. Now comes the new S-class Coupe, making its public debut at the Geneva motor show March 4 and arriving in U.S. showrooms this fall starting around $116,000. Benz promises classic proportions, modern luxury and state-of-the art tech (optional headlamps with 47 Swarovski crystals!).
"As exclusive as it gets" is how sales and marketing management board member Ola Källenius described the new car. (So, they're only building one? Or are they not building any? --ED) "The large coupe has always been the supreme pinnacle of our model range, and that's why it's now called the 'S-class' again."
We like to think the new car is Benz's battleship, the sedan its aircraft carrier.
You'll likely first notice the long hood with more-pronounced lines and powerdomes, as well as the low greenhouse, high beltline and accentuated wheel arches. There are both concave and convex sheetmetal surfaces -- Benz says it's going for "sensual, timeless purity." The car is 198 inches long with a 116-inch wheelbase, 75 inches high and 56 inches wide.
A panorama roof covering 2/3 of the car's top is standard, and simply pushing a button allows you to switch the roof's transparency from light (nearly clear) to dark (lets in less than 1 percent outside light).
First out of the gate is the S550 Coupe, with a 4.7-liter twin-turbo V8 developing 449 hp and 516 lb-ft of torque. You'll get to 60 mph in about 4.8 seconds.
The new S coupe has what Benz calls a curve-tilting function, a world first. The car leans into corners in a similar way of a motorcyclist or skier, cutting lateral acceleration. Curve tilting combines with Active Body Control; each suspension strut has hydraulic cylinders adjusting the force in each strut individually. So depending on the curve angle and speed, the tilting function allows the vehicle to incline automatically and continuously in fractions of a second to angles up to 2.5 degrees. The system detects upcoming curves using both a stereo camera behind the windshield and an acceleration sensor. Bring on the twisties!
Like the S sedan, the coupe is available with several new assistance systems such as pre-safe brake, distronic cruise control, cross-traffic assist, active lane keeping, adaptive high beams, and night view.
Inside you'll find a heated center armrest and two audio-system choices, surround sound and 3D surround sound. Head-up display showing speed, navigation instructions and driving-assistance-system messages is optional.
The dash has a two-part wide-screen TFT display, and of course everything is wrapped in lovely leather. New interior colors include red, saddle brown and porcelain.
But wait, there's more…
We expect an S600 Coupe with the S sedan's updated twin-turbo 6.0-liter V12 developing 516 hp and 612 lb-ft of torque. We also hear that Benz plans to unveil the S63 AMG Coupe at the New York show in April, with AMG's twin-turbocharged 5.5-liter V8 delivering 577 hp and a stout 663 lb-ft of torque. An S65 AMG range-topper is coming next year.


text: The Catch One is located at 4067 W. Pico Blvd. in Los Angeles CA. On this page you will find upcoming The Catch One concert and event dates as well as ticket information. We have tickets available for all events. We even have tickets to sold out The Catch One events, shows and concerts.


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Nocturnal House: Vampire Kisses
Happy Halloween, Snarklings! For this visit to the Nocturnal House, I've decided to take a break from the usual sort of gruesome and terrifying vampires I prefer to read about, and instead, in the spirit of trick-or-treating, indulge in a sweet and spooky treat.
Now, I read a lot of YA vampire books. (I read a lot of vampire books, period.) But the various YA takes on vampire fiction fascinate me, in part because the YA books often have a bit more plot going on than some of the "grown-up" market vampire novels. Probably because YA authors don't have the easy narrative drive of vampire sex scenes.
(An aside: hey, I'm all for well-written vampire smut! WELL-WRITTEN being the key words there. There are certain authors who rely a bit too heavily on sex scenes, with the end result being kind of boring, and there is nothing sadder in a vampire novel than tedious, yawn-inducing smut.)
Anyway! YA vampire books! There are a couple of series I read which cause me to eagerly wait for the newest volume to be released. My very favorite series has earned a place on my comfort reading shelf, and the first book of the series is one I indulge in when I need cheering up.
Vampire Kisses, by Ellen Schreiber
This book is adorable. It's a cloud of pink and black cotton candy; fluffy, sugary, but with a sweetly spooky overtone. Here, maybe the opening will show why I mentally draw glittery hearts and bats around this book:
It first happened when I was five.
I had just finished coloring in My Kindergarten Book. It was filled with Picasso-like drawings of my mom and dad, an Elmer's-glued, tissue-papered collage, and the answers to questions (favorite color, pets, best friend, etc.) written down by our hundred-year-old teacher, Mrs. Peevish.
My classmates and I were sitting in a semicircle on the floor in the reading area. "Bradley, what do you want to be when you grow up?" Mrs. Peevish asked after all the other questions had been answered.
"A fire fighter!" he shouted.
"Uh"¦a nurse," Cindi Warren whispered meekly.
Mrs. Peevish went through the rest of the class. Police officers. Astronauts. Football players. Finally it was my turn.
"Raven, what do you want to be when you grow up?" Mrs. Peevish asked, her green eyes staring through me.
I said nothing.
"An actress?"
I shook my head.
"A doctor?"
"Nuh, uh," I said.
"A flight attendant?"
"Yuck!" I replied.
"Then what?" she asked, annoyed.
I thought for a moment. "I want to be"¦"
"I want to be"¦a vampire!" I shouted, to the shock and amazement of Mrs. Peevish and my classmates. For a moment I thought she started to laugh; maybe she really did. The children sitting next to me inched away.
I spent most of my childhood watching others inch away.
How could I not fall in love with the book at that point? Vampire Kisses is about sixteen year-old Raven Madison, the only goth girl in the small town she calls Dullsville. Her parents, little brother, and best friend Becky love her, but don't necessarily understand her black-clad, vampire-obsessed ways. There's her nemesis, soccer jock Trevor, who loves to torment her. Then, on Raven's sixteenth birthday, a family rumored to be vampires move into the haunted Mansion in town!
"I saw a Mercedes parked at the Mansion!" I informed my family at dinner. I was late as usual, this time for my own birthday dinner.
"I heard they looked like the Addams Family," Nerd Boy said.
"Maybe they have a daughter your age. Someone who doesn't like to get into trouble," my mother added.
"Then I'd have no use for her."
"Maybe she has a father I can play tennis with," my father said hopefully.
"Whoever it is will need to get rid of all those old mirrors and crates," I added, not realizing what I had said. They all looked at me.
"What crates?" my mom asked. "Don't tell me you've snuck into that house!"
"It's just something I heard."
"Raven!" my mother said in that disapproving mother tone.
It seemed no one in Dullsville had seen the new owners. It was wonderful to have a mystery in this town for a change.
Over the course of the story, Raven gets into assorted scrapes while trying to find out the truth about the Stirling family, including run-ins with golden boy Trevor, a stint in an after-school job to pay for her dad's tennis racquet, which she lost on Halloween night (why yes, she dressed up as the scariest thing she could think of – a preppy tennis player), sneaking into the Stirling Mansion, and finally, finally meeting Alexander Stirling: seventeen, nocturnal, home-schooled, and the handsomest Goth boy she'd ever dreamed of.
Gothy girl meets Gothy boy, Gothy girl still suspects that her spooky dreamboat really is a vampire. Gothy girl also has to deal with the harassment from Trevor, the gossip around Dullsville about the weird Stirling family, being nervous about asking Alexander to the Snow Ball dance, and why is Becky being so unenthusiastic about the Snow Ball, anyway?
Yes, it's a teen romance. But Raven rings true as an outcast babybat teen girl longing for a more spooky world. I'm self-aware enough to know that if Vampire Kisses had been around during my adolescence, I would have identified with Raven so hard I might have vanished into the book. As fictional characters to identify with go, Raven isn't a bad choice. She's fiercely loyal to her family and friends, she's determined to be herself in a town full of people who think she needs to fit in, and she refuses to be a doormat. No matter what taunts Trevor throws her way, she returns fire with snarky wit, frequently showing him up as the insecure jerk he is. In fact, the only thing that I didn't like about Raven is that she's not that interested in school. Every Goth I've ever known is some flavor of bookworm; maybe not everyone liked school, but we all liked reading and learning about the world. When you're yearning for a darker, more glamorous world than the one around you, books offer a glimpse into other, possible worlds.
As teen romances go, it's a better one than most. Raven doesn't make Alexander her whole world, and decides that the reality of having a sweetheart she can relate to is better than her dreams of being swept away by a darkly handsome vampire prince. But because it's a teen romance, there's a big scene at the Snow Ball, confusion, and a Big Reveal at a party. Not to mention that Raven may have to revisit some ideas she once held dear, especially ones about vampires "¦
He walked me to the door and playfully bit me on the neck with his vampire teeth.
I laughed and tried to pull the fake teeth out of his mouth.
"Ouch," he exclaimed.
"You're not supposed to Superglue them on!"
"Raven, you don't still believe in vampires, do you?" he asked.
"I think you've cured me of that," I answered. "But I'm going to keep the black lipstick."
As I said at the beginning of this post, the entire Vampire Kisses series is a sweet and spooky treat. Each book is just as charming as the one before, and Ellen Schrieber explores some interesting ideas in between dollops of gothy teen romance: Should you change your life to be with the person you love? What about keeping secrets? How difficult is it to live in the daylight world when your heart belongs to the night? My favorite of the series is probably Vampire Kisses 5: The Coffin Club, but as it is a book set primarily in a Goth club with a secret vampire club in the basement, how could it not be?
The Vampire Kisses series is in no way scary, and the vampires aren't that monstrous. But I find the books adorable, and I re-read them when I am in need of something sweet, comforting, and adorably gothy. What are your favorite dark or spooky comfort books?
80 Responses to "Nocturnal House: Vampire Kisses"
cay Says:
November 6th, 2011 at 5:10 am
If you want comfort reading you've got to try the house of night series. Although the characters cannot be classed as Gothic by any stretch of the imagination, and indeed sometimes call us freaky and weird, there is just so much Goths can relate to. The clothes, stylish, mainly black and elegant, the inability the characters (who happen to be vampires) have to fit in, and being shunned by narrow minded people. I like this series because the vampires are not monsters but normal humans with exclusive schools, their own government and laws… and who just happen to drink blood.
Maria Says:
November 6th, 2011 at 8:20 am
Oh! D. Gray Man and Umineko no Naku Koro ni both have fabulous dark elements as well (Umineko is very bloody and violent though, not for the squeamish). Chobits as well, though you have to look very hard for it.
Hunter Says:
November 7th, 2011 at 2:51 pm
my girl friend and i are both avid readers. she absolutley fell in love with it and carries it verywher 🙂 thinking im going to get ther the rest of the series for her birth day. 🙂
Victoria Vivisection. Says:
November 7th, 2011 at 9:21 pm
Hm. Honestly, I don't know how much I'd like Vampire Kisses. I'm not a big fan of romances, personally – especially if they are YA vampire romances. But that's just me.
I've seen a few commenters mention some really fabulous books, though only one of them – Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman – has a vampire-like character.
Neil Gaiman is a treasure trove of dark and wonderful stories. Coraline is popular, and so is The Graveyard Book. I've read quite a lot from Gaiman, and I'm a fan of it all. (I've actually just finished American Gods.) In an anthology of short stories, he wrote a poem titled "Vampire Sestina" and a short story called "15 Painted Cards from a Vampire Tarot."
Someone mentioned Terry Pratchett. I think that it's appropriate to mention, since I was just talking about Gaiman, that they co-wrote a book, Good Omens. Good Omens is fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. It's a humorous take on Armageddon, and it's one of those books you really want to keep coming back to, just for a comfort read.
And Poe, Snicket, Black, Carringer, and Funke are all wonderful writers who were mentioned by commenters. I totally agree that they're worth reading.
Jinx October Says:
November 8th, 2011 at 6:59 am
I really hope i can convince my boyfriend to get me those books! cx anyways i love books from spookily adorable YA, to the old classics like Poe. But my FAVORITE series of all time would be hands down The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod. it's also a teen romance, very actiony with insights on what it's like being a teen vampire 🙂 well, half vampire anyway. i'd VERY much recommend this book to anyone who likes spooky books portrayed in modern times. I love Heather Brewer<3
Gene Wirchenko Says:
November 8th, 2011 at 9:19 pm
Another series of books to consider is the novels based on TSR's Ravenloft setting. Some deal with Ravenloft's Dracula analog: Count Strahd von Zarovich.
taylor dean Says:
November 10th, 2011 at 10:03 am
I'm pretty sure I would hate that book, I may be a teen girl but romance, especially teen romance, is just plain irritating to me 😛
Nikiki Says:
November 12th, 2011 at 5:35 pm
I have read the series over and over again and I still love it!
Amelie Says:
November 13th, 2011 at 5:42 pm
During my sophomore year of high school a friend of mine, while we were both in the very begining stages of finding our inner goths and bringing them out to meet the world, gave me the second book in this series because she was cleaning out her closet and, on most occasions, does not re-read books. I brought this as a get-away, safe-haven to Christmas dinner with my family and read through it in just under a few hours. I fell absoultely in love and have in the last year procured all but one of the currently released books (still in search of lucky #7). I am currently a junior, still a baby bat, and every once in a while having Raven to relate to is wonderful and gives me more confidence to deal with the people who disaprove of goth and can't politely keep their rather rude comments to themselves. Since most of my book shelf is stocked with things like Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Edgar Allen Poe, Anne Rice, and even Bram Stoker, I find this a nice rest when I don't want something quite as in depth, long, or that requires more concentration (refering more so to Bram Stoker's Dracula). Yes, the book isn't written in magnificent vocabulary and discription, but it is a lovely little comfort book with a goth protagonist who doesn't fit the classic anti-social, depressed, and self-harming-for-attention, untrue cliche. Yes it's not perfect, yes it has flaws, but I will admit to having stayed up on some insomnia filled nights with a cup of hot chocolate eating this book up like pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving.
pauladashe Says:
November 13th, 2011 at 7:42 pm
Annette Curtis Klause's "The Silver Kiss". An absolute must-read for vampire romance fans. Basically set the template for many other teen vampire romances to come, but with much more depth, feeling, and darkness. Also deals with teenage grief, loss, and loneliness. I read it every autumn.
Teresa Says:
November 14th, 2011 at 4:20 pm
Yay!! You finally did a review of my all-time favorite vampire romance series!! Raven (besides Jillian of course) is my goth idol!! When I first started reading the series, I absolutely loved Raven's style and confidence, not willing to take any crap from anyone and always being true to herself. Alexander is a dream, the perfect goth boyfriend(and being a vampire helps too). I resent the other comments about how this is more for teenagers when I am 19 and STILL read the books over and over again, blushing when reading Alexander's parts. I have all eight of the books and all four of the manga which I love too. The manga is extremely good and the gothic fashions in there are killer, the most coolest and creative goth clothing ever!
Elise Says:
November 14th, 2011 at 6:52 pm
Ohhh, I've been waiting for Vampire Kisses to show up on your list! 🙂 As far as vampire books go (and I have read a lot/continue to read a lot of them), Vampire Kisses is my favorite. There's just something about the utterly sweet way Raven's point of view is portrayed. And I also LOVE the way Alexander and Raven are near opposites in personality, like how Alexander is so reserved and cautious while Raven is really outgoing and adventurous. Every time I reread these books (at least the ones that are currently out), I get in a really good mood. It's such an adorable series. Love these books to death.
P.S. Maybe you should try looking at the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead. I like the later books better (the first and second are OKAY, but the rest are AMAZING, especially when they leave the academy). It's for a young adult/adult crowd, it's really heartbreaking and cute and funny and witty, it's amazingly well-written, and it sucks you in to Rose's world completely. I even had the immense pleasure of meeting Richelle Mead at a book signing. She's an amazing person. 🙂
Ashley Says:
November 17th, 2011 at 9:41 pm
I am a fan of the series as well. The books are cute and interesting, and a pleasant way to spend the afternoon reading for a couple of hours since each book isn't very long. It might be teen romance, but I still think that there are also other things going on in the book where people won't be completely bored or irritated by the romance that is in the books.
Amanda J Says:
November 19th, 2011 at 8:47 am
Ahh, Mrs Manners, your Nocturnal House section, coupled with the books you recommended in Gothic Charm School book have increased my reading list somewhat (I literally always have a book on the go) Something Wicked This Way Comes, Lost Souls and Edward Gorey's Amphigorey series are now on my must-read list, after I finish reading Phantom Of The Opera. I love your website, it's so inspiring.
Megiliel Says:
November 19th, 2011 at 4:51 pm
Sounds like a book I need to add to my wishlist. X)
"The Little Princess" by Frances Hodgson Burnett has been one of my favorite comfort books since I was little. It's a lot darker than the various movie versions, what with all the child abuse and Sara's parents being dead. Plus she has a certain fondness for pretending she's a prisoner in the Bastille, which I think any spooky child with an interest in history can relate to on some level. The best part is that it isn't so dark that it's depressing, which is great when the majority of your book collection is a bunch of classic novels where all the characters you actually want to live don't make it.
bre Says:
November 21st, 2011 at 4:25 pm
Oh, just as a suggestion you should defenitly do a review on the amazing morganvill vampire series by rachel caine. it is the best comfort book ever but the main person is not a goth her wonderfully amazing best friend eve is.___
Elise Says:
December 1st, 2011 at 7:47 pm
I know I've already posted once, but I realized I had something else to say when looking back at this!
I kind of have something to add to your post. Just so people are aware of this and if they've enjoyed "Vampire Kisses": Ellen Shreiber has also come out with a manga series (of which I happily own and enjoy) for Alexander and Raven's adventures. The manga is called "Blood Relatives."
Another thing that I recently remembered is that "Vampire Kisses" was the first book I read (I was maybe 10 years old) that got me into writing for a hobby. Writing is now my creative outlet. Once I read "Vampire Kisses," I knew I wanted to write about "vampires and goths," which sounds a little odd, but this was the series that inspired me the most, ever since the beginning (I'm now 15 years old), even though mine and Schreiber's series are very different now.
Again, sorry for the extra post! Love this series! I'm really glad you mentioned it!
Skye Says:
March 16th, 2012 at 6:17 pm
I have one favorite book and one series that I like to read over and over. 'Oh My Goth' is the first one and I like it because the main character Jade learns some lessons.
Next I love the Manga series, Skip Beat, it is really hilarious. I like how Kyoko has a lot of time spent on getting her revenge on Shotaro Fuwwa. It might not be healthy in real life,but it is just manga.
cosplayer Says:
July 2nd, 2012 at 3:09 pm
for all you other anime fans, after reading the novels, i found that they have a manga series as well! 😀
of course i'd suggest reading the books first
just letting you all know
Morticia Morbid Says:
July 4th, 2012 at 3:52 pm
I have read this series and I have fallen in love with it time and time again and I feel compelled to put in my most cherished book list. I also indulge in the manga and am very happy to put this series on my comfort-shelf as well.
Hermione Says:
July 11th, 2012 at 12:16 pm
I totally have to read this! It sounds divine!
My favourite comfort book, which I finished in a week (all five books, when I first read them), is Souless, and others in the series. It is a book set in an alternative Victorian England with vampires, werewolves and souless men and women! I won't give away the plot for you but I will just say it had me up all night and swishing my lacy black skirts with excitment. From airships to terrible hats to absolutely killer parisols which fire numbing darts this series has it all!
nayeli sanches Says:
July 16th, 2012 at 7:03 pm
Ive read all of the series actually this series is the best nd changed my whole
Perspective it made me want to know more bout the gothic world i think
raven has and will always will be my gothic idol n role model if i were to be
somebody i would be her n have that hot vampire boyfriend ^~^
Lou Says:
March 24th, 2013 at 1:29 pm
Belated response, I know, but I'm surprised no one mentioned these yet. My absolute /favorite/ comfort books- The Gemma Doyle trilogy, by Libba Bray. A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, The Sweet Far Thing. They're not quite as "hardcore" gothic, but they're set in the 1800's and have lots of delicious Victorian trappings. The characters are wonderful, the plot is gripping, and it's got plenty of yummy themes of empowerment and strength and choice that make bad days less bad.
(The only downside- the subject of self-harm is brought up, and dealt with very clunkily, which I imagine could be frustrating with people who've struggled with it. But otherwise, lovely.)
Rachel Says:
April 10th, 2013 at 4:34 am
I positively love and adore this series! I discovered it when I was but a Babybat. I wound up buying the 4th book, "Dance with a Vampire," first and now I own the entire series (for those of you wondering, my dears, the entire set spawns 8 lovely books).
My only complaint is that they got rid of the old cover art, although some might find the new cover art delectable. Personally, I prefer the older art, with the exception of the new cover art for the first book! It is of a choker. I'm going to covet a copy of said choker for my wedding day.
Anyway, at least from my humble point of view, this series is quite exceptional. I reccommend and enjoyed it! If you do decide to read, do have fun!
Infinite x's & o's,
~ <3
Aly Asphyxiated Says:
September 3rd, 2013 at 4:13 pm
I simply adore these books!! I agree with one of the other top comments I also really enjoy the Gemma Doyle Trilogy.
goth girl 2000 Says:
January 6th, 2014 at 7:13 pm
I love any vampire book but vampire kisses is the best book I have ever read. 🙂 :):):):)
onyx Says:
March 10th, 2014 at 1:55 pm
Omgosh this book sounds so cutley gothy!
Nit Says:
September 22nd, 2016 at 8:41 pm
I always enjoy reading Vampire Kisses. I appreciate how Raven stays true to herself and her dream throughout the series. Her style is to die for! Especially in the manga. The lack of cursing and gore have made me feel comfortable when recommending it to younglings. I do believe that my favorite character is Jagger. I know he's not Alexander but dang! (*Daydreams about his eyes.*)
My favorite vampire/spooky books, other than Vampire Kisses, are Let Me In by John Ajvide Lindqvist (not exactly comforting but certainly spooky), the Splintered series by A.G. Howard (a little bit on the punk side, but Morpheus is oh so tricksy/delicious!), Peter Pan by Sir J.M. Barrie, Doll Bones by Holly Black, The Hunt by Andrew Fukada (not goth-y but there's a TON of vampires), Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson, and And the Trees Crept In by Dawn Kurtagich. I know for a fact that I forgot so many, but I hope this suffices.
I must admit that I have spent the past several nights (and dawns) going through your blog and catching up on all your posts. Your advice, warmth, and humor have gotten me through a few rough patches, and put a smile on my face. Thank you, and I hope you have a wonderfully spooky night!
Caroline Åsgård Says:
December 14th, 2016 at 5:32 am
I read all of the Vampire Kisses books, and I was not a fan. It was really cringey and childish in my opinion. I'm not a teenager anymore, so that's probably why. I prefer the old classics! But I am now reading The Bloody Red Baron, and while I'm not liking it as much as Anno Dracula, it's not bad!
The_L1985 Says:
May 13th, 2019 at 5:55 pm
The English-language manga trilogy "Re:Play" by Christy Lijewski was pretty good.
Izaak, a homeless man with no memory, ends up being recruited by a small-time punk band as their new bassist. (Mainly because their very ADHD lead singer hears him out busking and impulsively hires him on the spot.) The guitarist is suspicious of him, and discovers strange and terrifying things about Izaak…
Meanwhile, love is brewing, the transphobic bassist from a rival band (who is also the drummer's brother) makes trouble, and two members of a mysterious organization appear to be observing Izaak's behavior for some reason. (Not gonna spoil it.)
While it's not very Goth, it is a pretty fun bit of vampire fiction, and I've never regretted buying it back when it came out. Plus, the series tagline, "Forever Never Dies," is exactly the kind of sappy Jack-and-Sally kinda thing I go for.
Because it was published by Tokyopop, it's not something you're going to find easily in brick-and-mortar stores, but you can still get copies on Amazon. Here's a link to the first volume, if it intrigues you: https://www.amazon.com/Re-Play-Christy-Lijewski/dp/1598167375


text:
[This is the first of an occasional series on what we can do to make our presence on Earth tolerable to the rest of the biosphere, and mostly should do anyway, regardless of one's view of the dangers or possible means of salvation. It will be filed under 'Solutions'.]
Australia is one of the largest emitters per capita of greenhouse gases. We are also the world's largest exporter of coal, which is the dirtiest fuel in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. We must therefore be the world's worst citizens regarding global warming. However we could be rapidly cleaning up our act, and diversifying and improving our economy in the process.


text: My role at the Foundation is Head of Impact Assurance (IA). In my early engagement before taking on this role, I compared the role and function of IA to creating a well of knowledge, experience and intellectual rigour upon which the Foundation could draw in conducting its day-to-day work. My specific role is to act as the originator and curator of this 'well' and to help grow the capacity internally in the Foundation to keep the well full and useful. Doing this work was part of what motivated me to join the Foundation; it felt like a naturally extension of my work as both an entrepreneur and an entrepreneurship scholar and academic. The work at the Foundation is by no means a culmination of any well thought through life plan; my life has taken many twists and turns (from selling real estate to being a theatre usher), what is common through most of my life activities has been a focus on being entrepreneurial. It's only in the latter part of my life since completing my PhD that I have begun to focus on the philosophy of entrepreneurship. South Africa is a country absolutely pregnant with possibility, but it is also a deeply wounded country and one that daily enacts a fragile balance between this possibility and opportunity and the woundedness and challenges. I don't have hopes and dreams for the country, but I have hopes and dreams for my role in the country. These are largely around using my talents and skills to the broader betterment of others; not in an evangelical way, but in a quiet, intelligent and useful way. Education and in specific entrepreneurship education is a slow, at times painful, but also rewarding process. It needs to be undertaken with great care, enthusiasm and most importantly a sense of fun and passion. I hope that my work at the Foundation and my continued work as an entrepreneurship educator reflects this belief.


text:
CCA Sports is always looking for fun, entergetic, outgoing officials, league managers, interns, and promo team members.
Get paid hosting sports you love and events you attend while fitting it in around your full-time job, college classes, parenting, or whatever you have going on in your life!
What does it take to work for CCA:
- Ensure a fun and competitive environment for all skill levels.
- Be kind, fair, polite and firm enforcing rules and policies.
- Friendly with people and able to interact with players and fans proffesionally.
- Help setup and breakdown facilities including but not limited to paperwork and equipment.
- Report and attend to any participants injuries.
- Strive to be a good ambassador of CCA Sports. You are the face of our leagues!
See below for current job opportunities with CCA Sports!
- Game Officials are independent contractors that offer their services to referee/umpire fun and fair games, maintain control of play and establish open, friendly rapport with teams and spectators.
- League Ambassadors are independent contractors or part-time employees that are responsible for signing in teams, dealing with player & team issues, inputting scores on the online portal, distributing t-shirts and marketing of all upcoming leagues and events. Please be prepared to commit to a minimum of an 8 week season of at least one night a week.
- Promo team members are independent contractors or part-time employees who attend our social events. They are responsible for talking to attendees about upcoming leagues and events, signing them up for our newsletters and generating an interest in CCA Sports leagues and social events.
Compensation is variable and will be established with each independent contractor or part-time employee.
Marketing and Event Internship
CCA is looking for a creative, energized, and motivated Marketing Event Coordinator Intern. The Marketing/Event Intern will work directly with the Director of Events & Business Development on marketing and event planning efforts. The ideal candidate is 21+, a self-starter, trouble shooter and will have experience and knowledge in areas of event execution and logistics, digital event tools (email, social media) and supporting day-to-day functions.
They will interact with the CCA community both digitally and at events/leagues at various Indianapolis locations. In addition to the above, you will take part in the virtual production sector as well. By assisting in curation and production of the events CCA creates, you will learn how to build, strategize, market, and execute an experience through the lens of creative storytelling.
Interested applicants should email their resume and cover letter to firstname.lastname@example.com or click below to apply.
Digital Marketing/Graphic Design Intern
The Digital Market/Graphic Design Intern will work directly with the Marketing/Operations Manager on all social media accounts and the development of original digital content. The ideal Digital Marketing/Graphic Design Intern will have some knowledge and interests in many areas of graphic design and digital marketing including; email marketing campaigns, Canva, Adobe Creative Suite, and creative digital problem solving to name a few.
He/she will attend leagues to engage with CCA participants, promote events and upcoming leagues, as well as create content for our social media. Interns will also help as needed in event management.
Interested applicants should email their resume and cover letter to firstname.lastname@example.com or click below to apply.
Facility Groundskeeper
CCA is hiring for a part time employee to oversee the field maintenance as well as equipment stock of rental facilities. This includes but is not limited to; mowing, grooming ball diamonds, painting/chalking lines, raking or shoveling, setting bases, water removal, ordering equipment.
Requirements: Must be able to operate a commercial riding mower, and ball diamond groomer, have a general knowledge of equipment maintenance to identify if problems arise with equipment, be able to frequently lift up to 50 lbs, have a general understanding of laying out fields ensuring they are square and meet dimension specifics.
Preferred to have experience with hauling a trailer. Must be able to pass a background check and drug test.
Hours: Operating days are Sunday through Thursday, typically in the morning hours. Minimum of 10 hours and up to 30 hours per week dependent on weather conditions. Position begins March 22 and will run through early October. Pay begins at $13 per hour and is dependent on experience.
Please submit your resume to firstname.lastname@example.com or click below if interested in this position.
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text:
A very little bulldozer learns that taking care of kittens is a very big job in this darling follow-up to Bulldozer's Big Day from award-winning author Candace Fleming and Caldecott Medalist Eric Rohmann.
The construction site bustled. Cement Truck was stirring…stirring…stirring. Digger Truck was scooping…scooping…scooping. Crane Truck was lifting…lifting…lifting. And Bulldozer was—watching…watching…watching.
Little Bulldozer wants to help, but all the bigger trucks say he is too small. So when Crane Truck says he can clear a bit of debris out of the way, Little Bulldozer is eager for the job. He can do it, yes he can. What he doesn't expect is to find a family of newborn kittens living in the pile of debris! Can he take care of babies? Now that's a tough job. A job that happens to be just the right size for Little Bulldozer.--from the publisher
40 pages 978-1481458948 Ages 3-7
Also in the series: Bulldozer's Big Day
Read Alike: Mighty, Mighty Construction Site


text:
The distinguished German soldier, General Johann Adolf Graf von Kielmansegg, who has died aged 99, embodied his country's turbulent military history through his service in three successive national armies - the Reichswehr of the Weimar republic, Hitler's Wehrmacht and the Bundeswehr of today, in which he rose to the Nato command of Allied Forces, Central Europe. His father, a Prussian aristocrat, was a major in yet another German army, that of Kaiser Wilhelm II's second Reich.
Although not quite 12 years old when the kaiser abdicated following Germany's defeat in the first world war, Kielmansegg was determined to follow his father into uniform. Opportunities were limited because the Versailles treaty of 1919 limited the Reichswehr to 100,000 soldiers and 10,000 sailors, and banned capital ships, submarines, aircraft and tanks. But the young Johann Adolf got into a cavalry regiment in General Hans von Seeckt's new army.
Since almost every German adult regarded Versailles as grossly unjust, it became virtually a national sport, years before Hitler came to power in 1933, to undermine the treaty. Stalin helped by allowing Germany to train tank and aircraft crews secretly in the open spaces of Russia; when this was revealed by the Manchester Guardian in 1926, the still war-weary western powers turned a blind eye. Thus Kielmansegg exchanged his horse for a tank.
After 1933 Hitler soon suborned the general staff with vistas of massive expansion and unlimited rearmament as he tore up Versailles to popular acclaim. Kielmansegg took a two-year junior staff course, and by the time the second world war broke out he was staff officer responsible for transport and supply in one of Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt's armoured divisions.
The blitzkrieg against France and the low countries in May 1940 saw the Wehrmacht advance from Germany to the North Sea, the English Channel and the French Atlantic coasts in 10 days. Faced with the dilemma of giving priority to fuel or ammunition at the height of the campaign, Kielmansegg chose petrol, gambling that the sheer speed of the advance would make massive supplies of ammunition less necessary.
His experience of the Polish and western front campaigns enabled him to produce a standard textbook on armoured warfare as early as 1941, a work whose inclusion of the ritual salute to Hitler led to postwar allegations of Nazi sympathies. These were rightly dismissed, especially after Kielmansegg publicly condemned revisionist dismissals of the Holocaust. He also fought in Operation Barbarossa, when Hitler invaded his erstwhile Soviet ally in 1941 and almost got to Moscow.
Kielmansegg was then posted to various administrative posts in Berlin, where he renewed his friendship with his fellow staff-colonel (and fellow count) Claus von Stauffenberg, who went on to lead the army officers' plot to kill Hitler and sue for peace in the west. Although aware of the conspiracy, Kielmansegg was kept out of the loop by his friend. But on July 20 1944, when the plot failed, he faced another dilemma: to destroy papers proving he knew of the plan so as to foil the Gestapo, or to keep them in order to prove to the approaching allies that he was no Nazi. In the end he and his wife, the former Baroness von Dincklage, who died in 2000, shredded the papers, annoying the neighbours with the ensuing hyperactivity of the lavatory cistern.
This proved a wise course since the Gestapo included Kielmansegg in their massive round-up, holding him for two months before releasing him for lack of evidence, an unusual display of delicacy. His luck continued after his release: discharged from the staff, he was ordered to face the advancing Americans in command of a Panzer regiment, rather than go to the eastern front, where those out of favour were more commonly sent. Knowing that the end was near, he arranged to meet his wife on a family estate in north-west Germany. She managed to get out of Berlin with their two sons and two daughters; he was taken prisoner by the Americans but escaped in the chaos and got to the rendezvous.
After the war Kielmansegg worked in publishing until 1950, when he became secretary of a committee set up to supervise the remilitarisation of the federal republic. When this occurred in 1955, he went back into uniform as a major-general commanding a division of the new Bundeswehr, and served as Bonn's military representative to Nato for two years until 1958. Eight years later, as a full general, he became its commander in central Europe. He had 500,000 German, US and British troops on West German territory under his command until he retired, liked and respected, in 1968.
All four of his children survive him, including the son who went on to become a Bundeswehr major-general.
· Johann Adolf Graf von Kielmansegg, soldier, born December 30 1906; died May 26 2006


text:
Discrete Structures for Cyber Security
Learn to:
Perform abstract operations on discrete structures and apply the tools and techniques you've learned to solving cyber security problems.
Why is this important?
Discrete structures are the foundation of digital computing. Although relatively few people work primarily on discrete structures, almost all cyber security professionals work with the techniques and concepts covered in this module to provide a foundation for their own specialist areas.
This module will give you a greater insight into the reasoning behind much of the more applied cyber security material that you will be studying throughout the course.
At the end of this module you should be able to:
- Operate on sets, relations and functions
- Apply logic to support reasoning about problems
- Select and apply appropriate proof techniques in the solution of problems
- Map real world examples to appropriate counting formalisms
- Model a variety of real world problems using appropriate data structures
- Apply the tools and techniques of discrete probability to solve cyber security problems
Delivery and assessment
14 half-day sessions will be regularly spaced across Year 1. Within each half day session, there will be a mix of lecture, tutorial and practical activity.
Assessment is 70% coursework and 30% examination for this module.
Essential information
Entry Requirements
A level: AAB (STEM subjects preferred)
IB: 36 points (STEM subjects preferred), with a minimum of 4 in English
UCAS Code
Degree of Bachelor of Science (BSc)
3 years full time (30 weeks per academic year)
Tuition fees
Find out more about fees and funding
How to apply Undergraduate admissions


text:
You can do quite a bit of unorthodox stuff with PHP. If you head over to epbsoft.com, you'll find several flash coloring sheets I made with PHP, not Flash. (Sort of anyway.) I make them by first creating specially formatted SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) files and feeding them to a PHP script that writes ActionScript files that are then compiled by MotionTwin ActionScript compiler. As far as capabilities, it's not all that capable. I have to jump through a couple of hoops to make an SVG that my ActionScript generator can actually parse properly, but when it works, I like the results.
svg-to-coloring.php.zip <– The source code is available if you want to take a look at how it works.


text:
It starts here
It has to start somewhere. This it happened to be our trip to Galicia in September, 2013.
Nonstop from LAX to Madrid. Then hop another plane to Santiago de Compostela. Pick up the blue Opel and drive about 45 minutes SSW to the town of Noia (which also happens to be known as Noya) on the Atlantic coast of Spain, just an hour or two north of Portugal.
As is our wont, we wanted food. Pulpo, in particular. Octopus, in case you're not a veteran of Spain. Boiled octopus that's then cut and grilled and dusted with pimentón (smoked paprika). It's a texture thing. It's a flavor thing. And maybe more than anything else, it's a "you know you're on holiday thing".
We stayed in the lovely Hotel Noia, a relatively modern place with a desk clerk named Juan Carlos who was charming in at least 4 languages. If you find yourself in Noia for a night or two, I'd highly recommend it. Very clean. Mod cons. Just a few hundred meters from the restaurant recommended to us when we asked about pulpo, Tasca Tipica . We lucked out in that we were starving and jet-lagged although it was still embarrassingly early and even light outside when we arrived, they were willing to serve us. We grabbed the second of 8 outdoor tables (more room inside). By the time we'd had our first (and among the best) pulpo and padrón peppers for our trip, people were crowding the door to eat and drink. The crisp local white is called Albariño and is usually an excellent companion to seafood and peppers. We would enjoy lots more albariño over the next couple weeks.
Energized from a good meal and wanting to explore before the inevitable crash that comes from 20-ish hours of flying over 6 time zones, we opted to stroll further afield and came across the big town square, cafes along one side. Children playing, houses on the far side of the square up-lit, outdoor bars with TVs showing Barca playing some team (Celta de Vigo, maybe?). Anyway, we enjoyed the low-energy bustle of people just being people and sat down for another glass of albariño as the match finished and our briefly renewed energy faded.
Why were we in Noya, er Noia? Tell you soon.


text:
Cateye Out Front Mount
14,40 €
Available From:
- Less than 10 available
- Selling fast
Out of stock
Introducing the Cateye Out Front Mount. If you find yourself peeking down at your computer a lot when out on a ride you will notice that having the computer mounted directly above your bars or stem can be a bit a struggle sometimes. Cateye have created the Out Front Mount. This mount fits on to the handlebars, however extends out in line with your stem. The Cateye Out Front Mount is designed to optimise the position across the range of 'Flextight Compatible' computers: Strada, Stealth, V-series, Padrone, Micro.
Product code: 892272