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Welcome to The Cross & the Pen, Crosswalk.com's author to author interview column.
Do you know what I like about writing fiction? It gives me the opportunity to talk about faith in real life situations in the very same manner Jesus used. Parables. The parables of Jesus were really no more than fiction short stories, if you think about it.
A few years ago I was given the opportunity to write a work of fiction with my good friend, Linda Evans Shepherd. We worked on a concept, wrote a book proposal, handed it over to a few editors and waited. And waited and waited. For a year and a half we waited. Then we received a phone call that changed everything and we were on our way to writing the first book in a forthcoming series of books called "The Potluck Club" (Revell).
"The Potluck Club" tells the story of six women who get together once a month for potluck and prayer. Problem is, these women have enough misinformation to bring down an entire community! But when their individual faith is put to the test, they come to understand the very power of this thing we call prayer.
Recently I got together with my friend Linda to talk about the PLC, as we call it. Wanna listen in?
Eva Marie: Linda, Linda, Linda! Tell the readers how our working together on this project came about!
Linda: I'd just spent a relaxing weekend in the mountains of Colorado with my family where I'd read yet another unsatisfying book on the friendships of women from the secular market. I remember thinking, "They got it all wrong!"
I contemplated their mistakes, then thought if I were to write a book on the friendships of women, I would center it around real recipes and call it "The Potluck Club." I would call in another writer, to write the voices of some of the characters, thus creating a book by friends on friendship. That's when I phoned you, Eva. As the family car dipped in and out of the cell signal on the mountain road between Golden and Boulder, I called, and. …
Eva Marie: And from my point of view, I was very tired, sitting in an airport and having been on the road for a solid month, when you called. At that point I was too tired to talk, but when we lost our connection and I closed my eyes, I remembered all those potluck dinners my mother took me to when I was a child. I remembered all the food! But, mostly I remembered the dynamics of the women who had cooked it. And so ... a partnership was born! Linda, let's talk about HOW we do this. We have six characters ... and each character has a very unique voice.
Linda: Once we got cooking with plot ideas, we decided we should be in charge of three characters each. These characters' lives would intertwine with one another on a daily basis as well as at their monthly potluck prayer meetings. We took turns writing the chapters in each one of our character's voices. This was such fun, as we would have no idea what would happen to our characters when it wasn't our turn to write. Like in real life, we took turns responding to events affecting our characters and creating 'situations' for each other's characters. So, not only is our plot wonderful, we have a lot of unexpected twists and turns along the way.
Eva Marie: It was totally fun! Totally. So, let's talk about the ladies! Let's talk about Donna. Who is Donna Vesey?
Linda: Donna is one of my favorite characters. She's the local sheriff's deputy and has a history of conflict with several of the women in the Potluck Club. She's a living doll, but tries to be tough so she can control the situation around her. As we get to know Donna, we'll soon discover her secrets and the reason why she's one angry woman.
Eva Marie: Yes, she is. And we really begin to understand why in book two, due out in 2006. What about Evangeline Benson?
Linda: Evangeline Benson, the founder of the group, is a strong willed wonder who is having the time of her life, and it's not all joyful. As she unravels her personal history of failed romance, recovers from shocking news delivered at her front door by her very own niece, and combats the controlling hot cinnamon rolls of Lisa Leann, she experiences deeper faith and personal growth.
Eva Marie: Oh, that Lisa Leann! She's a pill, as my mama so aptly described her!
Linda: Lisa Leann Lambert is a true, but 'naughty' Christian who whips up wonderful dishes which she uses to bait and control others. Her favorite 'spread' is gossip. This makes her behavior rather hard for the members of the club to swallow. And by that, I especially mean a certain Evangeline Benson, the founder of the Potluck Club. Of course, if Lisa Leann gets her way, she'll soon replace 'Evie' and will take over everything, at least everything in Summit View, Colorado.
Eva Marie: And then we have the tragic story of Goldie Brook Dippel.
Linda: Goldie Dippel – what a dear. She's pretended for years that she was ignorant of her husband's various affairs. But no more! It's time to face the truth about her life and to find the courage to change it.
Eva Marie: You go, Goldie! Vonnie Westbrook?
Linda: What can I say about sweet Vonnie Westbrook whose halo hides a deep, dark secret? As this secret comes to light, Vonnie's entire world and everything she thought she knew about it, will be rocked. Interesting is the reaction to those nearest her. Donna Vesey will see her 'ideal' mother figure slip from sainthood to sinner.
Eva Marie: But was Vonnie really a sinner or just a woman who thought she was doing the right thing at the time?
Linda: She tried to do the right thing, but she lied to her husband and to all who knew her. So yes; she has some guilt, at least in Donna's eyes.
Eva Marie: We often call Lizzie Prattle our "Rock of Gibraltar." Let's talk about our calm and rational Lizzie for a minute.
Linda: Someone has to keep the group grounded before they stir up more trouble than the club can survive. And that person is our levelheaded, faithful Lizzie the high school librarian. She, with her watchful eyes, brings balance to the characters. It's not that she doesn't have troubles of her own; she does. But Lizzie is able to handle them with grace. At least, so far. ...
Eva Marie: There's one other very important character. …
Linda: Oh, yes. Another 'character' is our fictional setting of Summit View, Colorado based on the Frisco/Breckinridge area of the Colorado high country. This setting was fun to introduce to you, a former Georgia peach who now resides in Florida.
Eva Marie: Let's talk a bit about our writing process. During the year, we send chapters back and forth to each other, but … then … come January!!!!
Linda: Come January, you join me in my Frisco, Colorado hideaway for a week of intense writing. In that one week, we complete an entire half of the manuscript, each writing in different rooms as we intermittently cry over our character's tragedies or howl with laughter over their antics. This, of course, generates the often heard call, "Hey, what's so funny?"
It's all a hoot.
Eva Marie: But we do take a break every afternoon.
Linda: Every afternoon we walk down the hill to Frisco's Main Street where we go into Butterhorn's Bakery & Café (which we based Higher Grounds Café on), for a cup of latte and a time of soaking up the local atmosphere.
Eva Marie: It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it. And then comes nighttime!
Linda: Yes! We wrap ourselves in blankets like tacos and watch "The Lucy Show" and chick flicks. It's a wonderful time.
Eva Marie: Thank you Linda for talking with me about our book!
Linda: Wait! I want to talk about another character very near and dear to the book, a character I sometimes refer to as Eva Diva, but mainly known as Eva Marie Everson, my co-author and friend. Eva's genius has certainly shone in the pages of this creation and so have her characters.
Eva Marie: (Blushing) That's sweet, but I think YOU'RE the genius! (laughter) Let's just say that the six women of "The Potluck Club" are the real geniuses and hope that our readers will have as much fun with reading them as we did writing them!
Linda: But, Eva! They're real! They're not just some characters we made up!
Eva Marie: Oh. Oh, yeah! You're right!
For more information about The Potluck Club, to form your own Potluck Club book club or to join PLC's recipe club, please visit www.PotluckClub.com. Be sure to read "The Rainbow Story."
Linda Evans Shepherd is a nationally and internationally recognized speaker, the radio host of the nationally syndicated radio feature, "Right to the Heart," a TV host and an award-winning, prolific author. She speaks to those who want to laugh and draw closer to God and each other. Linda has authored fifteen books, including "Intimate Encounters With God" and "The Potluck Club." Married for 26 years to husband Paul, Linda has two teenaged children, Jimmy and Laura.
Award-winning national speaker Eva Marie Everson is a recent graduate of Andersonville Theological Seminary. Her work includes the upcoming "Sex, Lies and the Media" (Cook) and "The Potluck Club" (Baker/Revell). She can be contacted for comments or for speaking engagement bookings at


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More about Entertainment Weekly magazine: Entertainment Weekly is tops in pop culture. Get your weekly fill of all things entertainment, from movies and television to books, music, video games and DVD releases. Extravagant celebrity photo spreads and bright, clever design make Entertainment Weekly fun to read and easy to navigate. Stay up to the minute on your favorite Hollywood stars, track progress on the movies you're dying to see, and get insiders' picks on what to watch on TV each night. Weekly features include Dalton Ross' hilarious Top 10 list of newsworthy tidbits, a colorful back-page essay from author Stephen King, and a themed Pop Culture Quiz for true aficionados of the world of entertainment. A two-time National Magazine Award winner for general excellence, Entertainment Weekly magazine truly has something for everyone. Get the most bang for your magazine buck with a subscription to Entertainment Weekly!

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Nothing says Christmas like a red poinsettia! A traditional Christmas decoration; send this red poinsettia plant as a holiday gift - or keep it for yourself
Is your lucky someone in the mood for something sweet or savory, juicy or crunchy, creamy or refreshing? No need to guess with this gourmet Christmas gift basket - it's got it all! A generous corporate holiday gift with personal gift basket delivery service, it's packed with fresh fruit, gourmet chocolates, soft cheeses, summer sausage, cookies, crackers...everything a foodie could hope for.
Casual elegance is the perfect description of this radiant bouquet, so stylishly arranged in a white cylinder vase wrapped with a festive red wire. Merry contemporary Christmas to you and yours!


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We are in the middle of our lockdown in South Africa, due to Covid-19, but fortunate to be spending it at nDzuti Safari Camp (my parents' camp) in the Greater Kruger Park...
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#17. To: Slavik_Avenger (#2)
Israelites have zip in common with Indo-Europeans, they are Semites.
The English-speaking nations of White Israelites are Semites, specifically Caucasians. Shem is the father of the white race; Ham the black race; and Japeth the Asian race.
Shem is the father of the Caucasoids-the fair-skinned blonds, red-heads and brunets who are often called the "white" peoples. So the Anglo-Saxon-Celts must have descended from Shem. This makes absolutely perfect sense when you realize that the very name of the Caucasian race is derived from the CAUCASUS MOUNTAINS - British-Israelism Utterly Refuted....REFUTED!Go educate yourself about the mass Israelite immigrations north and west from the Promised Land of Israel and Assyria, as prophesied.
List of 110 Brit-Am Biblical Proofs
List of Brit-Am Secular Proofs
The Scottish make mention of their Israelite and Scythian origins and migrations in the The Declaration of Arbroath 1320 -
They journeyed from Greater Scythia by way of the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Pillars of Hercules, and dwelt for a long course of time in Spain among the most savage tribes, but nowhere could they be subdued by any race, however barbarous. Thence they came, twelve hundred years after the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea, to their home in the west where they still live today.History records the revealing travels of the apostles to the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel: Where did the twelve apostles go?
Israel in the Isles
Cam Rea: "Sometimes They Come Back"
The Assyrian Exile
The Ten Tribes of Israel were exiled by the Assyrians to the North and Became Identifiable with the Cimmerians, Scythians, and Goths http://britam.org/CamReaAssyria.html


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This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter's approach.
The cloud promises unlimited capacity, pennies per hour to operate, 4+ nines of uptime and infrastructure managed by a dedicated staff. Even technical challenges around security and compliance can be achieved and are no longer suspect. So why wouldn't you send everything to the cloud?
Obviously there is much more involved than tossing out your current plan and bringing in a "magic cloud" to solve all problems. Some apps are a better fit for a private cloud or no cloud at all. Some apps are a better fit for public cloud. And, often the same app's best-fit environment isn't the same for its entire existence. That makes the answer to the question, "What should I put in cloud?" a bit more complicated.
TROUBLESHOOTING: 5 signs that you've lost control over your cloud apps
Cloud success is all about strategy. If all your team is worried about is cutting your IT budget and that's your only success metric, cloud may not be right for you. But the benefits can't be reaped by simply dumping the old infrastructure for new, and your goals can't be reached if you try to manage the new infrastructure with an old way of thinking.
If, however, your strategy is to reduce overall cost of managing your IT infrastructure, and you tackle the project with an eye toward transforming your way of thinking, cloud could be a good fit for you.
Not only do you need a strategy for how cloud will work with your existing infrastructure, but you also need a strategy for each application or workload you're evaluating. One popular strategy to optimizing your cloud is to look at specific workloads and applications and determine which placement will help achieve the highest ROI at what time.
The cloud application life cycle
The life cycle of an application is dynamic. In the beginning when the application is new and less known, you can make educated guesses about what kind of bandwidth, storage memory and compute it will need. But new workloads can be bursty and behave unexpectedly. The cloud is perfect for new and emerging applications because they are low risk. You can commit fewer resources than you think you need and then burst into more resources as you watch and learn how it behaves. Emerging applications could be anything from test/development all the way up to the mission-critical application.
As those applications stabilize, they begin to become more predictable and mature. As they evolve the resources required become more predictable and you may benefit from moving the application from the public cloud to an internal environment where it can live out its stable time frame. The costs benefits of agility and scalability can be wasted on stable, mature apps. [Also see: "Gartner: 5 things a private cloud is NOT"]
Legacy applications seem to take too long to go away. They have passed the point of maturation and the resources used are in decline each month. They may be taking up valuable IT manpower, time and space in your internal environment. You can't just make them disappear. Cloud is quickly becoming a perfect-fit retirement home for applications. The biggest benefit is being able to tie real costs to the application, and show the costs back to the owners of the legacy app. They may reveal that the application's usage is not nearly worth it and speed up its decommissioning. After that, the cost simply goes away.
What doesn't work
From patterns we've seen, there are a few types of applications you should beware of moving to the public cloud. They might not achieve a greater ROI in public cloud than they could in private cloud or another internal environment. However, applications are dynamic and there are always exceptions to the rule.
RULE: Mature, stable mission-critical apps should not live in public cloud. As mentioned in the life cycle description, value from cloud typically doesn't come from the stable, predictable time frame of its life. Bursty and growing or declining applications get more value and a higher ROI in the public cloud than stable applications do, which is why it's recommended to host stable apps in your private cloud.
EXCEPTION: SaaS mission-critical applications often thrive in public cloud. A mission-critical software-as-a-service (SaaS) application often lives its entire life cycle in the public cloud. The main reason SaaS applications stay in the cloud forever is because in most cases they are green-fielded in the cloud and constantly rely on the elasticity of IaaS to continually grow and contract the environment as usage patterns swing. SaaS apps usually follow a similar pay-as-you-go billing pattern and it's most cost-effective to match infrastructure costs with revenue.
RULE: Highly integrated, business-critical apps should stay where they are. Any highly integrated business app, like your ERP or your finance applications, should stay where they are because it would be nearly impossible to move the application without causing problems that would grind business processes to a halt. Your ERP is your logistics system and you can't get more integrated than that. Any application that would halt operations if you moved it wouldn't be worth moving.
EXCEPTION: Only rarely will you have an exception to this rule. One exception might be that you don't have an ERP solution yet and you're looking to start one. As long as you aren't already integrated into the business, it can make sense to start off in the cloud so you have the benefits from the start and don't have to worry about the mobility of it later. It's possible that if you're young and looking for integrated solutions, than going to a SaaS solution will make sense. The key question is, "Have you already done the integration?" If not, then you can do a cloud-based SaaS because it's probably better in the long run.
RULE: Bursting into the public cloud doesn't work. There's a general understanding that you can have your application live in your internal environment and when it needs more room you can "burst" those extra resources into the public cloud. It's an idea of bursting between clouds and owning the base while renting the burst. That idea isn't widely in use because it hasn't been successful yet. The required technologies are not as agile as they need to be to create the desired efficiencies.
EXCEPTION: There are two types of cloudbursting that are in wide use and capitalize on the benefits public cloud has to offer: horizontal burst and vertical burst. Vertical cloudbursting refers to intracloud application burst when your application lives in a cloud with enough room and resources to burst up to a certain percentage. This is intracloud burst because it's bursting into the same cloud in which it's living. [Also see: "Gartner: Cloud computing's most over-hyped terms"]
Horizontal burst, or intercloud burst, is how bursting between clouds is working most commonly right now, but it isn't following the "burst-into" philosophy commonly thought of. Rather, it refers to moving other smaller applications off to the public cloud purely so you have the room and resources to allow your private cloud applications to burst within their private cloud without reaching capacity. There may be no more benefits from moving those smaller, stable workloads off to public cloud other than allowing room for your private cloud applications to be able to burst.
Based on the characteristics and life cycle of enterprise applications running in the cloud, you should start to have a good idea what will and won't work. You shouldn't try to shoehorn cloud into your strategy by dumping every app you have into public cloud immediately; it might not get you the most efficient, economic results possible.
Don't just rush to pick the applications that are consuming the most pain, or consuming the most resources, or the most data. Chances are those are your mission-critical apps which could be highly integrated to other apps that would also need to move to the cloud. Cloud is not a cure-all prescription for your IT pain points; rather it works harder for you when you're strategic about which applications are placed in which environments. Success is about executing a total cloud strategy for each application.


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Avoid Footprints. Stay Safe From Google Bans.
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The only feature that I did not see is the ability to have it come out regular instead of spun. However I have only used the tool once so the feature may be there.
Overall, I think it is very useful.famemonster, via moneymakerdiscussion.com
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How many computers can I install this on?
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Does SEO Content Machine Support Link Building Programs?
SEO Content Machine has customizable templates that create content for
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- Chimp Rewriter
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Where can I ask questions or contact support?
Help & support at the vote site if you have questions or need a feature.
What operating systems are supported?
Runs on Windows OS and Mac OSX via Parallels or VMWare.
- Baronn, @ BlackHatWorld
Well I have been a lurker for quite a number of years on BHW and never really commented on anything...
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- Thomas K, via Email
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- Mark Stockdale
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It's constantly being developed, with several updates per month, and support is second to none. In my opinion, this is the only serious choice for SEO Content on the market today.


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Last week we asked you to impress us and you have succeeded.
On April 12 we kicked off our WarioWare D.I.Y contest with a call to wannabe game developers to create the best Kotaku-themed game. The rules were simple, you had to be the right age and live in the right place and you had to make a WarioWare title using D.I.Y. that has the word Kotaku somewhere in it. That was it.
Once created, we asked you to capture a video of the game in action, post it to YouTube and dump it in the comments of our contest post.
Despite the short window, 95 of you managed to speed through the week-long crunch to create an eclectic mix of games.
As promised, we're leaving the first round of voting up to the readers.
Reader omgwtflolbbl was kind enough to move all of the videos over onto their own YouTube channel. So now you'll need to hop here to view and then back here to vote. The poll randomizes the order. It might take awhile, but please look through each clip before casting your daily vote. That's right you should be able to vote about once a day.
The 11 qualifying mini games with the most popular votes at 12:01 a.m. Monday, April 26, will be selected as finalists.
Now get to viewing and voting:


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10 thoughts on "Dune"
There s a characteristically witty essay by Borges about a man who rewrites Don Quixote, many centuries after Cervantes He publishes a novel with the same title, containing the same words in the same order But, as Borges shows you, the different cultural context means it s a completely new book What was once trite and commonplace is now daring and new, and vice versa It just happens to look like Cervantes s masterpiece.Similarly, imagine the man who was brave or stupid enough to rewrite Dune in the early 21st century Like many people who grew up in the 60s and 70s, I read the book in my early teens What an amazing story Those kick ass Fremen All those cool, weird sounding names and expressions they use They even have a useful glossary in the back The disgusting, corrupt, slimy Harkonnens don t you just love to hate them When former aristo turned desert guerilla fighter Paul Muad Dib rides in on a sandworm at the end to fight the evil Baron and his vicious, cruel nephew, of course you re cheering for him Who the hell wouldn t be So that was the Dune we know and love, but the man who rewrote it now would get a rather different reception Oh my God These Fremen, who obviously speak Arabic, live on a desert planet which supplies the Universe with melange, a commodity essential to the Galactic economy, and in particular to transport Not a very subtle way to say oil They are tough, uncompromising fighters, who are quite happy to use suicide bombing as a tactic They re led by a charismatic former rich kid OK, we get who you mean , who inspires them to rise up against the corrupt, degenerate um, does he mean Westerners Or only the US And who is Baron Harkonnen intended to be I m racking my brains Dubya doesn t quite seem to fit, but surely he means someone Unless, of course, he s just a generic stereotype who stands for the immoral, sexually obsessed West This is frightening What did we do to make Frank al Herbert hate us so much You d have people, not even necessarily right wingers, appearing on TV to say that the book was dangerous, and should be banned at the very least, it incites racial hatred, and openly encourages terrorism But translations would sell brilliantly in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, and a bad movie version would soon be made in Turkey.I honestly don t think Herbert meant any of that but today, it s almost impossible not to wonder If anyone reading this review is planning to rewrite The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, you d better make sure you get your timing right Who knows how it will be interpreted five years from now
No one should argue the importance Dune It laid the foundations for a great deal of the themes and constructs in modern science fiction Frank Herbert was as important to the genre as Isaac Asimov and Arthur Clarke Unfortunately, just like them, he s quite dated, and his books can be a labor to read One thing he maintained from old science fiction was prim and scientific dialogue that no one would ever actually speak I ve known many scientists, and they don t talk like this You re not going to convince me a child does.The stuffy dialogue is inserted into even stuffier narrative, until it feels like nothing is organic about Herbert s prose This is a terrible tragedy when you ve got a world that he put so much effort into building and it is an amazing feat of world building, technically interplanetary building But unlike J.R.R Tolkien, who he is so frequently compared to, Herbert didn t make sure to include a great story in his world Instead he included a story that frequently illustrated how clunky an artificial world can be, even if it s lovingly crafted I struggled to attach or find interest in anyone, yet they re archetypes than human beings, whose logic races past modern skepticism and whose dialogue is cloyingly artificial, the way people cared for the Hobbits, Dwarves and Rangers In his world building, Tolkien at least saved himself from being dated by antedating himself, and even with his illuminated prose, wrought characteristics in just one protagonist than all of Dune s cast Even the political intrigue Herbert tries to fall back on was overdone in the Spy genre decades before he started this book All fans of the Genre genres should appreciate Herbert s massive contributions, but they shouldn t pretend to enjoy the books if they don t, and they should be wary of certain pitfalls typical of science fiction that survived into his landmark work.
Nope Sorry I don t get it.I was able to finish it by listening to the audiobook but I was bored throughout the whole 21h.So many descriptions anyone else found the way Paul s mom describing him kinda weird And let s not even mention how many times I laughed at the main female character being called Jessica.I m sure I ll get plenty of comments telling me it s a classic and it brought so much to the genre At the end of the day, my rating is always based on my enjoyment.
In my head, the purpose of this review is very clear It is to convince YOU to read this book Yes, you Waste time no Go grab a copy.Machiavellian intrigue, mythology, religion, politics, imperialism, environmentalism, the nature of power All this set in a mind boggling, frighteningly original world which Herbert ominously terms as an effort at prediction Dune had me hooked First impressionThe very first stirring I felt upon opening the yellowed pages of Dune was that of stumbling upon an English translation of an ancient Arabic manuscript of undeniable power and potence which had an epic story to narrate The tone was umistakably sombre and I realized Herbert was not here to merely entertain me, he was here to make me part of the legend of Muad Dib It was intriguing and challenging and heck, since I live for challenges I decided to take this one up too, gladly The challenge was the complexity and depth of the plot, which left me perplexed, in the beginning I knew there were dialogues which meant much than their superficial meaning and was unable to grasp at it I felt a yawning chasm between Herbert s vision and my limited understanding of it However, of course, I plodded on and could feel the gap closing in with every page much to my joy and relief The Foreword To the people whose labours go beyond ideas into the realm of real materials to the dry land ecologists, wherever they may be, in whatever time they work, this effort at prediction is dedicated in humility and admiration The foreword makes it pretty clear that Frank Herbert isn t kidding around This is a serious effort at predicting how our world is going to look two thousand years from now and by God, it s a bloody good and detailed prediction However, the real merit in this effort lies in the commentary on our lives in the present.Why Frank Herbert is a geniusThe setting of the book is arid futuristic the plot is driven by political mind games reminiscent of The Game of Thrones The issues he tackles are as modern as the colour television Herbert s genius manifests itself in his ability to combine the past, the present and the future in one sweeping elegant move called Dune.Plot and SettingDune is set in a futuristic technologically advanced world which after the Butlerian Jihad the bloody war between Man and Machines has eliminated all computers and passed a decree declaring Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a man s mind Since there are no computers, the essential working of the galaxy is still medieval and feudal with heavy reliance on men and their dallying around Lots of thriller potential right there Men with superhuman analytical abilities called Mentats have taken the place of Computers On the other hand, we have the Bene Gesserit, an ancient school of mental and physical training for female students it gives them superhuman intuitive powers who follow a selective breeding program which makes them feared and mistrusted through the Imperium Their desired end product of this breeding program is the Kwisatz Haderach, a superman who ll be able to glimpse into the future How he ll be able to do this is rooted in Herbert s idea of determinism given that one can observe everything and analyze everything, one can effectively glimpse the future in probabilistic terms Quantum physics anyone The Kwisatz Haderach is the proposed solution to the male female dichotomy, between the analytical and intuitive.The plot of Dune is almost wholly set on the desert planet of Arrakis also referred to as Dune , an arid wasteland where water is so scarce that men have to wear stillsuits which recycle human moisture for further consumption The source of the galaxy s interest in the planet is Melange, a spice which bestows upon one longevity and prescient powers Everything on the planet is permeated with the spice, the air, the sand, the food Everybody on the planet is hopelessly addicted to the spice, their only hope for survival being their continued intake of the spice The Spacing Guild, the economic and trading monopolistic arm of the Galaxy badly needs the spice for interstellar transport This is because their frigates travel faster than the speed of light and hence travel backward in time The spice is the only way they can look into the future and see their way ahead How cool is that All the powers on the Galaxy are out to mine the spice, braving the sandworms, their name merely an euphemism, for they are gigantic 200 metre long creatures which always come digging through the sand whenever spice mining is undertook Always There s also another little glitch There exist on the planet, the kickass native desert tribal Fremen, whom the foreign powers look down with suspicion and disdain The Fremen ethos is one of survival and scarcity, driven by tribalism and egalitarianism Okay, I ll stop right there No spoilers about this Except that they value water to the extent that spitting on a person is the highest honour they can bestow upon him.Our protagonists are the Atreides family, consisting of the Duke, his Bene Gesserit concubine Jessica and their son Paul, who have been entrusted the stewardship of Arrakis We discover the alien planet of Arrakis along with them, firstly with fear, suspicion and wonder and ultimately, love and respect Paul Muad Dib, however is no ordinary prince There s a teeny weeny chance he might be the Kwisatz Haderach, something which troubles him constantly and gives us our conflicted hero The poor chap trips balls over the spice and has visions of black hordes pillaging and murdering around town bearing his flag and sees his dead body multiple times.My favourite character, however has to be the Baron Vladmir Harkonnen, the most evil character I ve ever come across in my literary excursions He is ruddy ruthlessness, he is virile villainy, he is truculent treachery He executes the inept chess players in his employ which says oodles about his badassery and his fondness for cold blooded logic He sees everything in simplistic chess terms What is my best move What is my opponent s best move Is there anything I can do to completely squash his move Is there a tactic which leads to mate in three ThemesIn this setting, Herbert does so much, it s unbelievable Religion, politics, the dynamic nature of power, the effects of colonialism, our blatant destruction of our environment are themes which run parallel to the intensely exciting and labyrinthine plot He shows the paramount importance of myth making and religion for power to sustain over long periods of time Man, as a political animal is laid completely bare.Real lifeNow these are my thoughts about what Herbert could have meant to be Arrakis It makes perfect sense Herbert draws heavy inspiration for the religious ideology of Muad Dib from Islam He says When religion and politics ride in the same cart and that cart is driven by a living Holy man, nothing can stand in the path of such a people which is the philosphy of the politics of Islam Islamism in a nutshell The spice, much desired by everyone, is the oil Baron Vladmir Harkonnen is symblomatic of the wily Russians The Desert foxes Fremen are representative of the native Saudi desert dwelling Bedouin tribe who have a strongly tribe oriented culture and undoubtedly value water in equal measure And the ultimate loser is the environment.Why do good books get over I almost forget this is a science fiction novel, it s that real It is also scary and prophetic It is a reading experience that will leave you dreaming of the grave emptiness of Arrakis and make you wish you were there to brave it all in the privileged company of the noble Fremen Frank Herbert achieves the pinnacle of what a sci fi author aspires to rise to authentic world building.
Dune.No other single syllable means as much to the science fiction genre, a single word that conjures images of sandworms, spice wars, great battles between rival dynastic families and a massively detailed and intricately crafted universe No wonder this is widely regarded as not just a Science Fiction masterpiece, but a literary achievement as well Like a study of Shakespeare, the reader finds that this is an archetype upon which many influences and imitators have based their works The complexity and depth of the creation is staggering and I am continually astounded at the discipline with which Herbert must have focused his imagination.This is the book upon which Herbert would base his greatest series and one that would outlive him as his son has continued to expand and add detail to the vast, immaculate tapestry woven by a true master of the genre Encapsulating political, economic, sociological, biological, cultural and dynastic themes, Frank Herbert has set a high standard for later practitioners.Brilliant 2015 reread Read years later, this has lost none of its narrative power, if anything I can better appreciate the virtuoso attention to detail Herbert exhibited in his epic creation From the perspective of having read his later 5 Dune sequels, I am astounded at the rich tapestry he has woven Most impressive was his close omnipresence, analyzing the thoughts and minute actions and subtle nuances of his complicated dynamic interplay of characters The exhaustive training of the Bene Gesserit and the intricate relations of the Houses and the Guild would stand as a monumental benchmark for speculative fiction ever since.This time around I found myself looking closely at the Harkonnens and will likely read some of Brian Herbert s additions to his fathers great work 2019 reread I m even in love with this book and am again in awe of Herbert s narrative skill This time around I noticed that all of the quotes that begin chapters are from Princess Irulan and I paid close attention to how Herbert crafted these interludes.I also was drawn to the religious undertones that really began very early in the book and how Paul realized his gifts and was preparing for his role in the beginning chapters all demonstrating Herbert s great narrative skill.Finally, I became aware of what a great character was Gurney Halleck While the ghola of Duncan Idaho dominated the later books, Herbert s creation of Halleck was an enjoyable and thought provoking addition to this masterpiece.
I m sort of tempted to try this again I don t think it ll be worth the hassle though I could never give Dune five stars because I really struggled to get into the novel in the beginning It has taken me almost two months to read This, for me, is a very long time to spend on a book It took me so long to read because I found the writing style incredibly frustrating I had to read whole chapters again so I could get the gist of the plot This was so in the beginning, which I found particularly hard to read because of the author s way of shifting between the thoughts of multiple characters I found this very annoying however, I persevered over my initial despondency towards the writing, and plodded on through the book I m glad I did so because in the end I did come to really enjoy it Indeed, the story is fantastic, but the writing will always remain unbearable for me A truly brilliant plot Dune is to science fiction what The Lord of the Rings is to high fantasy it is the novel that officially, and unarguably, defines the genre The story begins with the house of Atreides accepting the Dukedom of the planet Dune The former Baron has been ousted by the Emperor, and is no longer of consequence Well, that is how it initially appears Very early on it revealed that the whole thing is a political ploy to bring the house of Atreides to its knees The Baron lies in wait, and is ready to strike against the new, and benevolent, approach the Duke uses on the Fremen The Fremen are the natives of the dessert planet thus, they know how to survive its harshness above all others They do this through their frugal approach to water They value it above all else, and will never waste a drop in earnest The Baron Harkonnen, as a chide against the natives, squanders water in the cruellest ways He, and his dinner guests, throw cups of water on the floor of the dinner hall it was his tradition The wasted water was soaked up with towels, which the Baron allowed the Fremen to suck the water out of When the Duke enters he rejects this custom, and is respectful to the Fremen way of life He and his son and heir Paul, who is the protagonist of this novel, go as far as to try the Fremen s grossly effective water saving suits These Stillsuits, quite literally, recycle all the water the body wastes and feeds it back to its wearer The Fremen way is the right wayThis early familiarity, with the Fremen technology, no doubt helps to keep Paul s mind open when he is later forced to live amongst the Fremen Paul is somewhat of a marvel he is prophecy s chosen one When he eventually gains the trust of the Fremen they allow him to choose a Fermen name He calls himself after their most revered prophet Muad Dib They accept this and follow him as their leader His inherited title of Duke dictates that he is their lord, but their religion determines their real loyalty He has to, quite literally, fight for every ounce of their trust Indeed, it does not come cheap, and will only be given to one who is a member of their people Without change something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens The sleeper must awaken Thus, Paul becomes their saviour Consequently, he receives heaps of character development through this book He goes form boy to the revered leader of a nation The Fremen, like Paul, want the evil Baron Harkonnen gone from their planet They do no want a cruel oppressor who is ignorant to their ways they want Paul I think the imagination behind the Fremen culture really is wonderful They have efficiently adapted to survive their harsh planet To emphasise this point you need only look at the fact that off world humans live in fear of the giant Sandworms that infect the planet whereas the Fremen ride them as a coming of age ritual Indeed, Paul has to ride a worm if the Fremen are to follow him Deep characters The result of this is a very complex, and intriguing plot I found the first third of this book to be very perplexing initially This is a world we are told about rather than shown at the start We hear about the Fremen but do not truly understand them till the very end I was very overwhelmed at the beginning, and in all honesty I do think this novel merits a re read to further establish my understanding of it This did affect my rating because it inhibited by enjoyment of the book Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense But the real universe is always one step beyond logic Indeed, aside from Paul there is a whole host of dynamic, and well rounded, characters His mother is to be the new revered mother of the Fremen people, which for someone of her age is quite remarkable There is also the captain of Duke Leto s household guard who is a very deep and honourable individual As much as I came to like these characters I was still frustrated with the writing of them in the beginning I found it difficult to read scenes in which up to four characters internal thoughts are portrayed alongside their dialogue It wasn t always clear who was thinking I much prefer a narrative that is focalised through one person Well, at least one person per chapter Overall, I thought the idea behind this novel was utterly fantastic However, my personal reaction to the writing style limited my overall enjoyment of the book I do intend to read some of the sequels However, I do not have any intention of doing so in the near future Maybe, in a couple of years I will return to the brilliant, and annoyingly written, world of Dune.Postscript I thought I d show of some pictures of my beautiful folio society edition of Dune Also, all of the pictures except the first in my review are from the artwork in this edition Enjoy
Update 1.99 on kindle US today 8 6 17I was so worried that I wouldn t understand a thing in this book I will admit there are some things that went over my head but for the most part I figured it out I remember a billion and 65 years ago I watched the movie and was like what the Basically all I remember is Sting and sandworms I would love to watch it again and see if I understand it after reading the book I m still not sure what all the spices were about on Arrakis I keep thinking it s like their farming like we would farm corn or tobacco, etc I could be wrong and I didn t get the connection between the spice and the sandworms Is it like a drug to them I did read in the back of the book that is was like a drug when taken in small quantities and really addictive when taken in large quantities and that Muad Did felt his prophesies were because of the spice I liked Duke Leto and I hated that he was betrayed not long after they got to Arrakis There is always some twat out there causing trouble I really enjoyed Paul s character and his mother Jessica They seemed like really strong people and adapted very well in everything they were put through I didn t really pay too much attention to the other characters or I guess I should say I didn t have many thoughts about them With the exception of the ones that betrayed them I really enjoyed when Paul and Jessica had to travel to get away from the evil Baron Harkonnen before they were killed too I don t know why, but I enjoyed their little journey I think they were both great in their roles when they were found by the Freman and showed they were a force to be reckoned with Now maybe I m getting this all wrong but I m trying to tell it through the way I saw it in my mind I don t understand how Paul s sister, Alia, was an abomination That one must have went over my head too It might have had something to do with the poison Jessica took to become the Reverend Mother I m not sure but I know some of my goodreads friends that read this will get me sorted out Other than the sandworms and traitorous people on Arrakis, I was most freaked out by the thought of the water issue I would NOT was to live somewhere there was a water shortage And the part where they were talking about selling foot water, I can t even Which basically means your stinky foot sweat Overall I really liked the book I enjoyed traipsing through this desert with Paul and his mother Only in book form though, not in real life Since they are doing re makes of about a million different movies, I wish they would re make this one because I think it would be really awesome I would like to see this land come to life in today s time I don t know if I m going to continue with the series as I have heard this is the best one and the others get confusing But I would like to see how Paul is as a ruler and what all happens to them, or maybe not depending on what all happens If anyone can answer any of the things I was confused with that would be helpful Also, I have seen some pictures on here of this really cool Dune book with art in it Does anyone have a link of where to get that book or is it still available Thank you MY BLOG Melissa Martin s Reading List
Update 8 28 17Re read Number 13 I cry when Paul meets Gurney I shiver when Jessica consoles Chani I m awestruck by the peaks and troughs of time, free will, and the weakness in Paul even as he heroically strives against the evil that is about to be unleashed upon the universe sigh Perfection Easily the number one book I ve ever read I waver, sometimes, but right now, it is my absolute favorite Original Review This is a phenomenal classic of literature.It s not just science fiction It transcends science fiction, as a fascinating discussion of free will versus inevitability Can the Jihad be denied Can Paul ever really avoid his own death, despite seeing every time line play out with him as the butt of every cosmic joke Can even cruelty or mercy even remain comprehensible after such knowledge Yes, I think this work outdoes Nietzsche It certainly does a great job of making us care about the question.Is this all Is this just a work that pays great justice to philosophy of action and inaction Or is the novel merely a clever play at turning the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle into the physical embodiment of a man It is that, of course The Kwisatz Haderach can be many places at once, and he can be both alive and dead at the same time just like that certain cat.Is the novel a coming of age tale, first set as a mirror against his father Leto, only then to mirror the whole universe that had just turned against him Yes, of course He was, after all, both the product of all his upbringing and his genes, embodying the question of nature versus nurture He was taught within many schools of martial arts and assassins, as well as training the mind in both the schools of the Mentats with their pure logic and that of the mystics, the Bene Gesserit, that allows complete control over the body down to the cellular level And if this training wasn t enough, he was deeply schooled in politics, leadership, and the meaning of loyalty The boy was raised right Of course, that is nothing without ninety generations of genetic bloodline tampering from the Bene Gesserit, right To become the fulcrum between cellular memory, tapping the minds and lives of all your genetic ancestors as well as tapping the ability to fold time and space, to become the eye of a storm of time.What a damn brilliant setup for one tiny character, no His training links to the unlocking of his genes and to the life extending and enveloping spice, Melange, to make him not merely aware of time in a theoretical sense, but eventually to be unable to discern what was in the past, the present, or the future Here s a true Super Man, well beyond Nietzsche.And don t believe for one second that this serious discussion about what would make a superior man makes for dull reading No We ve got PLOT that s probably some of the most exciting and visceral in all of literature, driving us right into the web of intrigue, vengeance, treachery, and galactic politics To quote the text, we ve got Plans within Plans, and it hardly stops there We know the House Atreides is falling into a trap laid by the Emperor and House Harkonnen, and yet free will and pride prevents any chance to avoid it The setup is brilliant and extremely political, giving us character sketches of some of the most brilliant and memorable characters of all time.Duke Leto, the Red Duke, the most honorable and beloved leader.Duncan Idaho, the emotional and intuitive hero.Gurney Halleck, archetypal loyalist and troubadour.Lady Jessica, the woman who ought to have had all honor in life, but was unjustly reviled and set aside for political necessity Chani being both her mirror and her eventual glory And of course, my favorite character of all time, Paul Muad dib Atreides, the one that would prevent the greater evils he foresaw, and went to enormous lengths and sacrifice to achieve, but who eventually failed in his task because even a god cannot overcome destiny Or the will of so many minds set as one So damn brilliant.Frank Herbert spent five years writing this treasure, working and reworking it until he published it at age 25 None of his other works come close to this masterpiece, and there s little wonder It was birthed, fully formed, like Athena from Zeus s head, with enormous forethought and care The worldbuilding was just as carefully formed, from the ecology of Arrakis and the life cycles of the sandworms, to the history and the creation of the Fremen from their mild beginnings as Zensunni Wanderers, adherents to the Orange Catholic Bible, to their history of oppression so like those of those who are Jewish, to their settling and hardening of their bodies and souls in the wastes of Arrakis, also just like the Jewish who carved out a place for themselves in Israel Current politics aside, this was a very potent idea before 1965 when Herbert wrote this, and indeed, the core is still just as powerful when you turn it back to Muslims The Galactic culture is rich and detailed The CHOAM economic consortium, with their monopoly on space travel and their need for the Spice to allow them to see a short period into the future to plot a safe course before folding space The Empire is caught on a knife s edge between a single power and every other House who sit in the possibility of putting aside all their squabbles for the sole purpose of checking the Emperor, if they so desired And Duke Atreides was such a possible popular leader among all the Great Houses, which was the primary reason the Emperor wanted him dead And of course, we have our Villains The Baron Harkonnen has always been a crowd pleaser Brilliant in his own right, devious and able to corrupt anyone with just the right sorts of pressure, including a certain absolutely trustworthy doctor we might mention The Tooth The Tooth You can t handle the Tooth Feyd Rautha Harkonnen is especially interesting for the question of nature versus nurture.The Bene Gesserit had intended him to mate with Paul, who should have been Leto and Jessica s daughter, and that offspring should have been the cumulation of ninety years of a breeding experiment to recreate the Kwisatz Haderach which had come about almost by accident during the Butlerian Jihad in the deep past, to overthrow the AI overlords.He was practically Paul s genetic twin, or at least, his potential to be the One who can be many places at once was on par with Paul But instead of fulfilling the kind of destiny that we get with Paul, we see him grow up under the auspices of his Uncle the Baron, becoming as cruel and devious as he was deadly He was the argument of nurture in the conversation, of course, and having so very little of it eventually cost him his life.I often wonder about the directions that Dune could have taken, all those little paths in time and circumstance that could have been What if Feyd had been brought to Arrakis earlier and overwhelmed with Spice the way that Paul had Sure, he wouldn t have been able to convert the unconscious changes into conscious manipulation, but he might have had enough glimpses of the future, the way that the Fremen did, to have given him the edge he would have needed to kill Paul.And then there s a relatively minor character, Hasimir Fenring, the Emperor s personal assassin, who was nearly the Kwisatz Haderach, himself Unable to breed true, he was still potent enough to be completely hidden to Paul s time sight in the same way that Paul was hidden from the Spacing Guild s weaker time sight His training as a skilled killer was also superior to Paul He was, by all the hints and tricks in the tale, Paul s perfect downfall It always gives me shivers to think about, and it was only in a single instant of both recognition and pity from Paul that stayed Fenring from killing our hero It was just a moment of whim.The setup was gorgeous Paul s pity, had it been missing at his moment of greatest triumph over the Emperor, would have meant Paul s assured death I still wonder, to this day, what stayed Frank Herbert s hand from killing his most wonderful darling We knew the pressure of religion and politics was going to have its way upon all the oppressed peoples of Dune The return of a monstrous religious Jihad was going to happen one way or another, sweeping across the galaxy and toppling the Empire, regardless of Paul s frantic plans and desires Paul s own death would only mean a higher level of fanaticism, and Frank Herbert s warning against unreasoning devotion would have been made even clearer with Paul s death.Perhaps it was pity that stayed his hand Who are we to say who lives and who dies If you really think this review is overlong, then I apologize, but please understand that I could absolutely go on and on much longer than this It is a symptom of my devotion to this most brilliant of all tales.And yes, it still holds up very, very well after twelve reads I am quite shocked and amazed.
I blame the movie.I was an avid but novice fantasy and sci fi reader in 1984 when David Lynch s Dune rolled out as a big budget adaptation of the 1965 classic book It was an artistic and box office failure with Roger Ebert calling it a real mess, an incomprehensible, ugly, unstructured, pointless excursion Numerous references were made to its excessive length, particularly a tv edition that was over 3 hours long I never did pick up the classic sci fi book, assuming the commentary heard about the movie applied to the book All that changed when I broke my finger and found myself with a lot of extra time on my hands groan.Besides, sandworms.Dune has a lot of ingredients that don t fit into my preferred stories, yet the gestalt was not only tolerable, but engrossing It begins with the Atreides family preparing to shift their holding from their current home to the planet of Arrakis The Emperor has given the Atreides the territory and trade on the planet of Arrakis, formerly under control of their enemies, the Harkonnen The planet Arrakis is hot, arid and generally hostile to life There is, however, a small population of native, fierce Freman who have managed to build an existence in the desert.Paul Atreides is the young heir of the family, and mystical testing reveals he might be the one prophesied.Paul undergroes a rapid growth curve, facilitated by his teacher Dr Yeuh and his father s advisors.But it is in the desert that Paul will discover his strength as well as his new people.Seriously, now.Honestly, I have to wonder how much of this like is generational If Sanderson or Rothfuss wrote this book, two chapters in Dune would have made a whole book, and while detail may have been added, it likely would have made for a book as slow as the movie I liked the scope of Dune, and that there is a resolution to the initial conflict It is also interesting that despite the volume of concepts packed in here, with political maneuvers, terraforming, technology, cultural assimilation, and mysticism all playing roles that I didn t find it overwhelming, perhaps because so much is genre familiar On the downside, it could have perhaps used a bit transitions, particularly near the end when months at a time are skipped Writing was solid nothing really stood out, but it told the story well There s some vague mysticism that might irritate those who like explanations It was a bit of an eye roller to have the chief villain be a fat, gay, sadistic pedophile, but Herbert really isn t thinking outside the trope character box much it s not enough that he sentences people to death but he has to be physically abhorrent And gay World building is fun, but standard desert.Overall, I m glad that I finally took the time to read it and put those old assumptions to rest I love a good hero.
People often forget that this series is what innovated our modern concept of science fiction up until Neuromancer and The Martix, at least Dune took the Space Opera and asked if it might be than spandex, dildo shaped rockets, and scantily clad green women Herbert created a vast and complex system of ancient spatial politics and peoples, then set them at one another s throats over land, money, and drugs.Dune is often said to relate to Sci Fi in the same way that Tolkien relates to Fantasy I d say that, as far as paradigm shift, this is widely true Both entered genres generally filled with the odd, childish, and ridiculous and injected a literary sensibility which affected all subsequent authors.Few will challenge the importance of Star Wars effect on film and storytelling in general, but without Dune, there would be no Star Wars Princess Alia, the desert planet, the Spice, the Bene Gesserit, and Leto II all have direct descendants in the movies It is unfortunate that Lucas seems to have forgotten in these later years that his best genius was pilfered from Herbert, Campbell, and Kurosawa.Though I have heard that the later books do not capture the same eclectic energy as the first, Dune itself is simply one of the most original and unusual pieces of Sci Fi ever written Read it, Starship Troopers, Ringworld, Neuromancer, and Snowcrash and you ll know everything you need to about Sci Fi that you want .


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- 1 can salmon (6oz) drained
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped red bell pepper
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped jalapeno pepper
- 1 teaspoon prepared horseradish
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 1/3 cup bread crumbs
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- olive oil for frying
Combine the first eight ingredients in a bowl. Add more mayonnaise or breadcrumbs as needed.
Form the salmon mixture into patties. Place the patties on a wax paper lined pan or plate and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Fry the salmon cakes until golden brown on both sides, about 3 minutes per side.
I like to serve the salmon cakes over a spinach salad.
I topped the cakes with a little plain Greek yogurt mixed with horseradish, lemon juice, garlic and dill.
Now these, I'll eat!


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Save to your scrapbook
Heston's Asparagus Egg Dippers with Smoked Salmon
This will be saved to your scrapbook
You can also add it to one of your existing cookbooks
"As it was such a success last year, we decided to run my salmon-wrapped asparagus and soft-boiled egg recipe again but this time, for extra indulgence, the asparagus is cooked in butter rather than oil. The method is the same but the results are even more heavenly." Heston
Serves: 2
1 bunch Waitrose Asparagus
Unsalted butter
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
100g pack Heston from Waitrose Lapsang Souchong Tea Smoked Salmon
2 medium Waitrose Columbian Blacktail Free Range Eggs
Remove the woody part of the asparagus stems by gently snapping off the ends (they should break naturally).
Melt the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat, then add the asparagus, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and cover with a lid. Cook for approximately 5 minutes, or until the asparagus spears are cooked but still a vibrant green. Remove the pan from the heat.
Cover a chopping board with a layer of clingfilm. Put the salmon slices on top in a single layer, then lay another layer of clingfilm over the top. Using a rolling pin, flatten the salmon so it becomes uniform in thickness. Remove the clingfilm, cut the salmon into strips and use to wrap each spear, leaving the top sticking out, and a few centimetres showing at the base.
Using the smallest possible pan, just cover the eggs in cold water, and cover the pan. Bring to the boil quickly, over a high heat. Once boiling, remove from heat and leave to stand, still covered, for 6 minutes.
After 6 minutes, remove the eggs from the pan and place them in egg cups. Crack the top of each egg with a spoon and remove the top. To serve, dip the salmon-wrapped asparagus spears into the soft egg yolk.
Typical values per serving:
|Saturated Fat
This recipe was first published in May 2011.


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PicoMail is a fast, feature rich and free mobile email application for any Java (J2ME, MIDP 2.0) cellphone. Supporting easy email account configuration, HTML messages, graphics, attachments, bookmarks, cookies, automatic spam filtering, search, hyperlinks, security and much more, PicoMail is a great mobile email application for any cellphone user and, best of all, it's free!
PicoMail features include:
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Bookmarks (default: Google, Facebook, Twitter, BBC)
Support for Unicode and many character encodings


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November 4, 2010 (Interfax-Ukraine ). The Verkhovna Rada's committee on parliamentary cooperation between Ukraine and the European Union considers it expedient to cancel visas for Ukrainian citizens for short-term travel to EU countries, the committee's co-chairman, Borys Tarasiuk, said at a press conference on Thursday. "We, the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada and the European Parliament, expressed the view that the best systemic response to the problems linked to the visa regime with respect to Ukrainian citizens would be the cancellation of visas for Ukrainians for short-term visits to EU member states," Tarasiuk said. He said that these recommendations had been expressed in a joint report by the lawmakers of the Verkhovna Rada and the European Parliament on visa policies between Ukraine and the EU. Tarasiuk said that he was planning to submit the report to the Ukrainian president and the Cabinet of Ministers. He noted that MEPs would send the same document to the EU leadership. Tarasiuk also said that the 15th meeting of the committee on parliamentary cooperation between Ukraine and the EU had been held in Kyiv on Thursday and that it would continue in Odesa on Friday. He recalled that the committee included 16 deputies from the European Parliament and 16 Ukrainian lawmakers.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Ukraine wants European Union to cancel visas for short-term travel
Posted by Oleg Bezverkhnii at 18:23
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Hello! November has been quite busy hasn't it? Lots of records sneaking out before the year is out... and all the while we've been distracted at DiS HQ trying to work out what our albums of the year will be. Our countdown begins on Monday, but before all that, here's what we/I've been blasting at DiS HQ this month...
Song of the Month
For some reason we didn't review the latest Fiona Apple album, but we'll make amends for that. For some reason Fiona didn't put this track on the record, and it's pretty much the song of the year... Cate our features editor has listened to this about 30 times a day since it hit the internet a few weeks ago.
Album of the Month: Melody's Echo Chamber
You've probably had this on repeat all month, right? No? Read Dom Gourlay's review right now and sort yourself out.
DiScover - New Band of the Month
You know you're in for a treat when a DiS reviewer mentions Twin Peaks' Audrey Horne in the first line of a review, and she's mentioned for good reason,a this Stumbleine album really is a special record. Someone on Twitter described it as Burial gone sexy, and in his review Jon Falcone went as far as saying "Spiderwebbed is dreamy, it's beautiful and it's one of 2012's finest debut albums without question," and all I can really do is nod in agreement and see if you join me when you click play on this:
November as a Playlist
Here are my/our picks of the month, in a playlist format
Some dude called John Stewart has remastered The Grey Album and uploaded it to Soundcloud:
Mr Gira had a chat with Red Bull
Independent Label Market
Jon Hillcock interviewed the chap behind the Angular label and Independent Label Market (which takes place tomorrow, details here) in his latest All Back No Front podcast, which is dripping with great new tunes:
Released a new video the other day for my favourite track on Synthetica (I do like songs that aren't about drowning too)
...and finally, our friends at Pitchfork had a chat with Interpol about the 10th Anniversary of Turn on the Bright Lights


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A combative US Rep. Stephen Lynch launches campaign for Senate seat
SPRINGFIELD — With the scent of bacon and eggs floating through the air, US Representative Stephen F. Lynch launched his campaign for US Senate by working the crowd this morning at a Springfield restaurant, emphasizing his blue-collar roots and taking jabs at his Democratic primary rival, US Representative Edward J. Markey.
"It will be an uphill fight for me, but the fight is worth fighting. Shame on us to allow someone to clear the field, box out all the other candidates, and buy the election,'' said Lynch, in an apparent reference to Markey, who has already received a number of endorsements in the race to fill the Senate seat left vacant by the departure of John F. Kerry.
"There's a disconnect in the United States Senate. It's a private club. I could close the gap between what's happening on Main Street in Springfield and what's happening in Washington,'' he said at O'Brien's Corner, an eatery that owner Brian O'Brien described as "the Irish capital of Western Massachusetts.''
Lynch's campaign also released a video today talking about Lynch working as an ironworker for 18 years before being elected to the Legislature and to Congress. It said he was one of only two members of the state's congressional delegation to vote against the federal bank bailout because he believed it did not do enough for Main Street. It also touted his opposition to privatizing Medicare and Social Security.
Markey issued a statement this afternoon, saying, "I welcome Stephen Lynch into the race for US Senate.'' He said he urged Lynch to join him in a pledge to prevent special interest groups from injecting millions into the campaign.
"We need a senator who continues to stand up for the progressive values that John Kerry and Massachusetts believe in and who's focused on creating the jobs our economy needs. That's why I'm running for Senate,'' Markey said in the statement.
The biggest event of Lynch's tour of the state today was an afternoon kick-off rally at the Ironworkers Local 7 hall in South Boston, where several hundred union members cheered Lynch, a onetime president of the local.
Lynch said if voters send him to the Senate, he will not be part of the club. "I would not fit in in the United States Senate,'' Lynch told the blue-collar crowd. "But neither would you!'' he added, to loud applause.
Lynch said he grew up in the Old Colony public housing complex. He was one of six children of a mother who was a union postal worker and a father who was a union ironworker and World War II veteran. He recalled lean times in the 1970s and 1980s, when he was unable to find jobs as an ironworker. "I know what's it's like to stand in an unemployment line … that feeling of insecurity,'' he said.
Markey and Lynch are so far the only candidates to declare their candidacies for the seat. Former US senator Scott Brown, a Republican, has not said whether he will run.
Asked if he was ready to face Brown in a general election, Lynch mocked the former senator's famous pickup truck, saying, "I had a truck, too … but it was a work truck,'' according to WBZ-AM.
Lynch was also asked in Springfield about his anti-abortion stance, an issue that could be prominent in the primary.
"That's just a bumper sticker,'' he told reporters. "In reality, my record is very common sense and very practical. … I never said repealing Roe v. Wade is a solution to anything. … I have advocated for funding for Planned Parenthood.''
Lynch shook hands and sat down for one-on-one conversations with patrons at the restaurant. "I want to tell the people of Springfield that when I go to the United States Senate, they will be going to the US Senate,'' he said.
Kathleen Murphy, a Democratic activist in the city, said at O'Brien's that she hadn't made up her mind yet who to vote for, but she welcomed the competition.
"I don't like anyone being canonized for a job. I just don't like that. … All I know is that he comes from humble beginnings, and I have a great respect for humble beginnings.''
Elizabeth Tynan-Moriarty, who is also involved in Democratic politics in the city, said she supported Lynch because he believed in strong family values.
"We need to bring that back. And he's here. How many politicians come out to Western Massachusetts?'' she said.
Be civil. Be kind.Read our full community guidelines.


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Next: ax_lib_firebird, Previous: ax_lib_ev, Up: The Macros
This macro provides tests of availability of Expat XML Parser of particular version or newer. This macro checks for Expat XML Parser headers and libraries and defines compilation flags
Macro supports following options and their values:
1) Single-option usage:
--with-expat -- yes, no, or path to Expat XML Parser installation prefix
2) Three-options usage (all options are required):
--with-expat=yes --with-expat-inc -- path to base directory with Expat headers --with-expat-lib -- linker flags for Expat
This macro calls:
AC_SUBST(EXPAT_CFLAGS) AC_SUBST(EXPAT_LIBS) AC_SUBST(EXPAT_LDFLAGS) AC_SUBST(EXPAT_VERSION) -- only if version requirement is used
And sets:
Download the latest version of ax_lib_expat.m4 or browse the macro's revision history.
Copyright © 2008 Mateusz Loskot email@example.com
Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification, are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright notice and this notice are preserved. This file is offered as-is, without any warranty.


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I know all the classic big resorts, but are there worthy affordable alternatives?
If it's only skiing and snowboarding that you're after—not elaborate pedestrian villages with skating rinks, heated outdoor pools, and Nobu outposts—look beyond the marquee resorts like Aspen and Jackson Hole, Wyo., where the passes can top $90 a day. Under-the-radar mountains often have equally good runs at steep discounts.
Bridger Bowl, 16 miles north of Bozeman, Mont., offers a pass for $45. Vermont's Mad River Glen, which caters exclusively to skiers—no snowboarding allowed—has midweek tickets for $39. At Utah's Powder Mountain, about an hour north of Salt Lake City, the $58 lift pass is a serious deal, considering the mountain's 7,000 acres of skiable terrain. Entry to Wolf Creek, which gets Colorado's top snowfall (an average of 465 inches per year!), is just $52.
Keep in mind that flights to smaller cities like Bozeman are expensive. You'll get better deals flying to hubs, such as Salt Lake City and Denver, meaning your overall expenses could ultimately be lower.
I like to stay close to the lifts. What are my best options?
Plenty, as long as you can go during the week and avoid peak travel periods. State ski-association sites like and feature loads of lift-and-lodging deals at hotels and resorts; the best ones are well below $100 per person per night, but prices shoot up during weekends and holidays. For example, a three-night ski-and-stay package at Heavenly Lake Tahoe in California costs $425 for two people midweek in April. On a more prime February weekend, a similar package will run you $652.
If you're traveling with a group, booking a condo directly from the owner via or is usually a better buy than a hotel: The per-person lodging costs are cheaper, and a kitchen saves you from eating out all the time. Be sure to examine online photos, check references, and find the property's exact location on a Google map. Then call the owner and ask what he means specifically by phrases such as "ski-in, ski-out" or "walking distance from the lifts."
What are some smart savings strategies for families?
Kids don't need thousands of acres of runs, so consider one of the many mom-and-pop mountains. They're just right for perfecting your snowplow (or spending the day sipping hot chocolate). Three to consider: Quechee Ski Hill, in Quechee, Vt., adults $40, kids $34); SolVista Basin at Granby Ranch, in Granby, Colo., adults $54, kids 6 to 12 $32, under 5 free); and Soda Springs, in Truckee, Calif., adults $30, kids 13 to 17 $25, 12 and under $20).
If you prefer a big resort, pick one where kids under 5 or 6 get free lift tickets. Some ski areas are stingy about age requirements—only 4 and unders ski free at Vail and Heavenly—but others are more generous. At Brighton, Utah, and Big Sky Resort, Mont., kids are free through age 10. Many mountains also offer a "junior" discount for tweens and young teens.
Almost every ski state has a program that grants kids around age 10 a free season pass regardless of where they live. You'll have to download an application from the state ski association's Web site and then mail in a processing fee (usually $10 to $25). Most programs are called "Fifth Grade Passport," though sometimes there are also options for fourth or sixth graders. Regardless of where you go, if you're skiing with kids who are just learning, ask about a limited-access pass for yourself—there's no sense in paying the full rate if you'll be on the bunny slope all day. At Utah's Snowbird, you can pay $72 to ski the whole mountain, or just $20 for the beginner-area Chickadee lift. Not bad!
Buy early—and in bulk: The best discounts are usually on packs of four or more tickets bought in the fall.
Test the snow: If conditions are bad, return your pass within an hour. You can often get a voucher for another day of skiing.
Nab deals online: , , and post discounts of up to 60 percent.


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STORIES FROM THE HEART: Pregnancy masked her heart failure; now she helps warn others about heart disease
When Jill Russell started feeling chest pains late in her pregnancy, her doctor offered a simple explanation. It was probably just anxiety over the arrival of her daughter.
Relax, she was told.
Jill figured that made sense. After all, before becoming pregnant, she was the epitome of good health – at […]


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I had a lock-then-shut-off problem a while back so I repalced the PSU and heatsink/fan combo for my AMD2000+ on my ASUS A7N8X.
I'm getting some issues again now, but these are only lock ups, no forced shut offs. It seems my computer gets under load, somehow when running media player, or certain mp3s. I want to say that sometimes I'll see the task manager register explorer as spiking in the resources department right before my system becomes unstable.
I actually cannot get an anti-virus run to complete without the triggering of this nusance. My computer locks and I guess restarts too(I always run the utilities while away).
Motherboard Monitor(or whatever it's called) says 87 degrees F CPU socket, 98 CPU diode and 120 on average, for the case reading.
When playing media players, VLC, Media Player Classic, and both packaged Windows Media Players(both modern and old school), all make the computer go to poo with certain mp3s. Some videos will cause the animation and music to pause at random times but I can close the video player and resume computer operation normally.
Some of these symptoms run along with other heat problems I've had before but I might suspsect a virus. I can't get some old school games to install, which normally should, because of issues over time. It's been a long time since formatting so maybe I should just do it and get it over with.
Or maybe figure out hardware/virus issues first?