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COLUMBUS, Ohio – A team of researchers is beginning to see exactly what the response to threats looks like in the brain at the cellular and molecular levels.
This new information, including the discovery that a model of social stress can increase inflammation among brain cells, should provide new insight into how the stress response affects inflammatory and behavioral responses.
It may also provide new targets for drugs treatments in the continuing struggle to curtail depression and anxiety.
Scientists from Ohio State University's Institute of Behavioral Medicine Research reported their results in the latest issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.
John Sheridan, professor of oral biology, and Jonathan Godbout, an assistant professor of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics, turned to colonies of mice to make their discoveries.
Groups of mice living together quickly adopt a hierarchy ranging from dominant to subordinate. This vaguely political system controls the interaction among the animals. Once these patterns had been established, the researchers then added an additional, highly aggressive mouse to the mix for a two-hour period each day to disrupt the social hierarchy.
With no place to retreat, the mice were forced into conflicts with the new aggressor. After as few as three episodes with the aggressor, the original mice showed distinct signs of what the researchers considered "anxiety-like behaviors." This kind of experiment creates a "social disruption" within the group of mice and is widely used to mimic psychological stress.
"These animals can't flee, so they have to stand and fight," Sheridan explained. "In doing so, they're repeatedly defeated, creating a condition called "learned helplessness," a condition closely linked to depression.
What Sheridan and Godbout saw was that the animals' anxiety continued for a long time after the termination of the stressful episodes of defeat. "For two weeks or more after we stopped the stressor, we could still see this anxiety-like behavior," Sheridan said.
The real discoveries came when the researchers analyzed what was happening in the animals' brains and in their immune response.
"We found that in the stressed animals, a certain type of immune cell (myeloid progenitor cell, or MPC), produced in the bone marrow, entered the circulatory system and migrated to the brain," explained Godbout.
These MPCs might normally relocate in this way to deal with an infection or an injury in the brain, but in this case, they moved solely because of the response to a social stressor, he said. The experiments showed that the number of these cells more than tripled in the brain following the stress.
Other immune cells called microglia, normally residing in the brain, also triggered an inflammatory response because of the stress. The researchers also noted that the stressor caused a particular activation pattern of neurons, or nerve cells, within the brain.
The response to social stress also caused an increase in the amounts of some inflammatory cytokines in the brain, including interleukin-1 (IL-1) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-a) which are linked to inflammation. These cytokine responses correlated with an insensitivity of MPCs to glucocorticoids, hormones that normally inhibit inflammation in the body.
So the research team saw these and other cellular changes occurring in the brain following the stress, at the same time they were seeing the behavioral changes – the anxiety-like behavior.
The findings are evidence of a two-way communication that's existing between the body and the brain in times of stress, Sheridan said.
To test that apparent connection, they gave the mice injections of propranolol — a so-called "beta-blocker" drug often used for cardiac conditions — before they encountered the more aggressive mouse. In this case, the researchers saw no increase in IL-1 or TNF-a, no glucocorticoid insensitivity, and no long-lasting anxiety-like behavior in the test animals.
"If we treated the animal with a beta-blocker each night before we put the intruder in, it completely blocked the signal. The anxiety-like behavior never developed," Godbout said.
"What this basically argues is that we may now have a new target for individuals who have extended anxiety-like behavior," Sheridan said. "We may have a new target cell to think about in terms of new therapies.
"And since that cell (the MPCs traveling from the bone marrow) is coming from the periphery of the body, we might not need to resort to psychoactive drugs that can have adverse effects on the brain."
Proving that, however, will take more animal studies and subsequent large studies using humans before this approach could be used clinically, he said.
The research was supported in part by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research.
Working with Sheridan and Godbout on the research were Eric Wohleb, Mark Hanke, Angela Corona, Nicole Powell, LaTonia Stiner, Michael Bailey and Randy Nelson, all of Ohio State.
– Written by Earle Holland
*Source: The Ohio State University


text: Back Spirometers What is a spirometer? A spirometer is a device used by your doctor that assesses lung function. Click to Enlarge Spirometry, the evaluation of lung function with a spirometer, is one of the simplest, most common pulmonary function tests and may be necessary for any or all of the following reasons: To determine how well the lungs receive, hold, and utilize air To monitor a lung disease To monitor the effectiveness of treatment To determine the severity of a lung disease To determine whether the lung disease is restrictive (decreased airflow) or obstructive (disruption of airflow) After taking a deep breath, a person forcefully breathes out into the spirometer as completely and forcefully as possible. The spirometer measures both the amount of air expelled and how quickly the air was expelled from the lungs. The measurements are recorded by the spirometer. The normal, healthy values measured by the spirometer for the amount of air exhaled vary from person to person. Your results are compared to the average expected in someone of the same age, height, sex, and race, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). However, if the values fall below 80 percent of the average, it may be a sign of lung disease or other airflow obstruction. If a person has abnormal spirometer measurements, he or she may need to have other lung tests to establish a diagnosis. How often will this test be administered? In some cases, spirometry may be recommended for individuals with a family history of lung disease and chronic respiratory problems to establish your personal baseline (a comparative measure that is used as your "optimal" measurement of lung function), according to the NHLBI. However, certain high-risk groups, such as smokers, those exposed to occupational irritants, and those with breathing and coughing problems, may be recommended to undergo spirometry on a routine basis, as ordered by their doctors.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
When products cross borders, factors such as fulfilment speed, inventory costs and compliance get more complicated. UPS Trade Direct provides strategies for getting your goods to customers days or even weeks faster. By consolidating your shipments, we can reduce your overall freight transportation and customs brokerage costs and bypass distribution centres to reduce inventory ownership time by up to 20 days. Increase your global competitive edge while streamlining customs clearance and simplifying the path to your customers.
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With UPS Trade Direct, we'll consolidate your packages and freight into pallets, transport the pallet to your destination country, clear it through customs as a single entry, then distribute and deliver to multiple addresses. This strategy eliminates the need for multiple carriers and multiple customs clearances, and can help to improve customs compliance. You'll also streamline your fulfilment process, saving significant time and costs – and even expediting your order-to-payment cycle.
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text:
SSE had previously proposed to site 17 turbines at Brown's Holt and up to 22 turbines at Woolfox, but RES said that its revised proposals would be more modest in scale.
RES head of development in England David Cox said: "Both projects have great potential, offering excellent wind speeds and access. We will be reviewing the existing data about each site in some detail and expect to begin the process of drawing up our own plans for wind farms at these locations in the next few months."
The company said it expects to submit revised planning applications for the sites before the end of 2014.


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During the procedure, a minute section of a patient's tooth is removed, reshaped and chiselled through to grip the man-made lens which is then placed in its core.
It is implanted under an eyelid where it becomes covered in tissue.
The process requires a living tooth as an implant because doctors suggest there are chances the eye would reject a plastic equivalent.
So a canine - which is the best option due to its shape and size - was taken out of Mr Jones' mouth.
A patch of skin is then taken from the inside of the cheek and placed in the eye for two months, where it gradually acquires its own blood supply.
The tooth segment is finally transplanted into the eye socket. The flap of grafted skin is then partially lifted from the eye and placed over its new sturdy base.
Finally, surgeons cut a hole in the grafted cornea to let light through.


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SPCA Don't Trust Controversial SF Art Institute Exhibit
The SF SPCA issued a condemnation today of an exhibit that's been featured this month at the SF Art Institute, claiming that it is "barbaric and depraved". Entitled "Don't Trust Me", the exhibition (originally slated to run through May 31 — but now canceled after outcry) was on display at 800 Chestnut St. and was featuring six short videos that are looped footage of animals getting hammered (and nope, we don't mean getting drunk in North Beach ).
The critters, including an ox, a sheep, a horse, a pig, a goat, and a small deer are shown being beaten with a sledgehammer by the "artist".
The invited presenting "artist", born in Algeria, but based out of Paris, is Adel Abdessemed, who according to his own hype:
is open and generous, sensitive albeit controversial. For materials, he relies on bodily or embodied experiences (human and animal), ordinary household objects, industrial products, and even buildings. His work consists of the stark contrasts between beauty and violence, impulsiveness and rationality, romanticism and radicality, life and death.
Whatever ya wanna say about the guy, he's from France and his money is worth more than yours these days, so there.
I actually wanna thank SFAI's Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs and animal hammering fan Hou Hanru for bringing this unique artistic endeavor to my attention, where I once might have had to travel to a Chino slaughterhouse to see similar art. Hou's SFAI website bio says of his curatorial and department chairing expertise :
"Hou is one of the first curators and thinkers to examine postmodern issues of nomadic identity, hybridity, globalized mobility, what he calls "in-betweeness,"
Way to go Hou !!! You impressive idea thinker you !!! Keep it up and I bet our board of supes will be fighting over which street to name after you !!!


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Condo resident says US flag will stay despite fines
Boston man has no plans to remove flag
A Boston man said he has no plans to remove the 6-foot-by-10-foot U.S. flag hanging in the window of his condominium, even though management threatened to fine him $25 a day starting Tuesday for breaking condo association rules.
Mark DiGiovanni told the Boston Herald he was given a "gentle reminder" on Monday from the company that manages the building in the Fort Point neighborhood about the penalty for breaking the rule that requires all units to have only white curtains.
DiGiovanni, 52, a facilities manager and set designer, said the law is on his side, pointing to the 2005 federal Freedom to Display the American Flag Act. The law said condo associations "may not adopt or enforce any policy, or enter into any agreement that would restrict or prevent a member of the association from displaying the flag of the United States."
Condo association trustee Sean McGrail said management was reacting to a complaint about DiGiovanni breaking the curtains rule.
McGrail had previously accused DiGiovanni of "fake patriotism."
"When he bought it, the condo documents were very clear. In my opinion, he doesn't want to hear 'no,'" McGrail said.
He said the association doesn't want the 92-unit building to look "like a college dorm."
State Rep. Hank Naughton, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said "the Constitution trumps these private agreements."


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Are you rock star now, or what? That is so cool that you've got a radio gig.
And thanks for touching on this important subject. One of the biggest issues that most people face, at least that's the impression I get, is how, with the economy struggling, are we going to maintain our health coverage. It's a drag to have to think about, but for many of us, a primary impetus to keep the jobs we don't love.


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Redd Vizard has been a singing and performing sensation on 30A for a decade. Starting as a singing bartender at the former Sally's Backside, the songstress has branched out over the years to various other locations up and down the coast with her spicy hot and saucy performances.
The song bird is now branching out even further with the debut of her own line of hot sauce.
Redd's Hot & Saucy sauce made its debut in January and the first case sold out within a week.
"We have been talking about it for a couple of years and just decided to do it," said Redd.
The inspiration for the name came when someone posted on her Facebook page that "Redd is hot and saucy."
Redd's husband, Paul, suggested a hot sauce to match Redd's performance, and after many recipe tests, the formula was finalized.
Made from a base of carrot juice, mixed peppers (a secret combination) and key lime juice (a
Key Westconnection), the mixture is 100-percent natural and contains no preservatives or vinegar.
Although this is Redd's first foray into food distribution, she said she has always enjoyed experimenting in the kitchen.
"Such as, I always eat guacamole and doctor it and make it my own. And the creation of this sauce goes with the way I cook. When I make salsa, I put jalapeños in it. So, when we saw that post on Facebook, we thought that marketing our own sauce would be a fun thing as I'm not your average entertainer," said Redd, who admits she enjoys keeping them guessing.
Redd's Hot & Saucy is basically a hot sauce and very versatile, she said, and can be used for items such as oysters.
"It's made with total natural ingredients," said Redd. "Key lime makes it tangy, but not vinegary. I even use it on salad. A dash makes it bright, but not overwhelming."
Redd said even though the sauce was just recently christened, she has been making and working on it for a couple of years, and plans are already cooking for a sweet sauce, a spicy version and a chunky variety.
Redd's Hot & Saucy is available from her and wherever she performs: Marie's Bistro in Blue Mountain Beach, Sally's By The Sea Store - Enzo's, and Nick's on the Beach for $7.99.
The Vizards moved to
Santa Rosa Beachin 2007 from Key West, where she performed as a singing bartender at Aqua nightclub. She recreated the singing bartender role in 2008 at Sally's Backside in when it opened. Blue Mountain Beach
Redd also has taken her saucy performances that include a cabaret style, up and down the coast.
"I am surprised and overwhelmed by the positive support for the sauce," said Redd. "I sold out the first batch in a few days, and hope to get as many of the local restaurants and retailers to carry it too. I also have quite a few free recipes at www.reddshotsauce.com and will keep adding more."
Redds Hot Sauce has a kick but it's not so overwhelming. I like the subtle tang which goes great with my favorite deviled eggs !Mike R, Buyer
Oh that's hot... Carrot Juice ? Key Lime Juice? No vinegar ? wowGiovanni, client


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Is this ballet for you?
Go if: you want to treat your kids, godchildren, nieces and nephews or even perhaps the kid in you.
Skip if: Bah humbug!
Dream Cast
Sugar Plum Fairy: any ballerina who can do proper gargouillades
The Nutcracker is a major example of a balletic twist of fate. The very thing critics and audiences objected to at the time of its premiere 117 years ago – its appeal to children – is what turned it into such a bankable classic. From your local end of the year ballet school presentation, to the most lavish productions for the big companies and every kind of thing in-between (even Nutcracker on Ice), Christmas season has now become saturated with Nutcrackers everywhere.
Ivan Vsevolozhsky, the same Imperial Theatre Director who had brought together Tchaikovsky and Petipa for his ambitious project The Sleeping Beauty had imagined a new ballet to be based on the book L'Histoire d'un Casse Noisette by Alexandre Dumas père. This was a story he knew from his time in Paris as a diplomat and which Dumas himself had adapted from Ernst Theodor Amadeus (E.T.A.) Hoffmann's Nussknacker und Mausekönig (The Nutcracker and the Mouse King) from 1816.
Vsevolozhsky managed to secure Tchaikovsky and Petipa's collaboration again but Tchaikovsky only agreed to write for The Nutcracker on the basis that he would also be able to work on his opera Iolanta. Because Petipa had fallen ill he ended up working mostly with the choreographer's assistant Lev Ivanov. Although Tchaikovsky's music was appreciated (but again thought too symphonic for a ballet) the production was criticized, mainly for the lack of logic relationship between its two acts. The Nutcracker received only 14 performances initially. Some critics thought there was not enough complexity in the story and "no subject whateverâ€. To critics and audiences alike, the Nutcracker was a luxurious piece but one that was "made for childrenâ€.
The Nutcracker in the West
Although it was not considered much of a hit in Russia, The Nutcracker kept being performed throughout the theatre season (at that time, it was not heavily associated with Christmas). In the West, however, it boomed. First seen in scattered pieces, with the Arabian dance transplanted into the Ballets Russes's Sleeping Princess and with Anna Pavlova's take on The Waltz of the Snowflakes, London audiences soon got the first full version.
Most versions have some links back to the original, but by the time they were staged, much of the choreography had been lost and/or changed. This meant that Ivanov's original Waltz of the Snowflakes had to be reconstructed from notations (presumably incomplete) made in St. Petersburg before WWI. Likewise, Ivanov's Grand Pas De Deux in which Prince Coqueluche (Koklush) spread out a veil gently gliding the Sugar Plum Fairy as if she were on ice (or icing sugar) has been revised or scrapped in most versions, although Balanchine's Nutcracker still pays homage to it.
Perhaps the biggest downside to so many different Nutcracker versions over the years has been the progressive watering down of E.T.A Hoffmann's original story and its aura of mystery, rooted in the German Romantic movement. Hoffmann's tales often include fantastic elements coexisting with folklore (another example being Coppélia) which are sometimes ignored in favour of the ballet's child-friendly aspects. However, some versions of the ballet seek to preserve the Romantic layers and its mystery, notably Nureyev's version for the Paris Opera Ballet (POB) as well as Sir Peter Wright's for The Royal Ballet and for Birmingham Royal Ballet.
The first complete Nutcracker was staged in London by the Vic-Wells Ballet in 1934, based on choreographic notation by Nicholas Sergeyev. Ten years later saw the first US version by San Francisco Ballet (1944), and another ten years brought George Balanchine's blockbusting version for NYCB (1954), now staged every year by several US ballet companies. By the 1980s, 300 separate productions were touring the US.
Sir Peter Wright's versions
Sir Peter's 1984 version of The Nutcracker for The Royal Ballet, still performed by the Company, stays close to Hoffmann's original tale. It emphasises Drosselmeyer's mission to find a young girl – Clara – who can break the curse imposed by the Mouse King on his nephew Hans Peter and thus restore him to human form. References to Nuremberg and German Christmas traditions are present in the settings, with a kingdom of marzipan featured in Act 2. Equally successful is his 1990 version for Birmingham Royal Ballet, this one closer to the Russian tradition of having Clara double up as the Sugar Plum Fairy, but with a slight twist: it is Clara's alter ego ballerina doll who turns into the Fairy.
The Odd Ones
Nureyev's production for POB has a clear emphasis on symbology and the subconscious: Clara wanders down the stairs at midnight to find her family and friends turned into rats and bats, while Drosselmeyer transforms into a handsome prince.
Mikhail Baryshnikov's 1976 popular version for ABT turns the Christmas dream into a coming-of-age tale. There is no Sugar Plum Fairy nor Prince Koklush, the focus being Clara's encounter with the Nutcracker Prince as orchestrated by her Godfather Drosselmeyer. As the ballet ends, so does Clara's fantasy.
More recently, the ballet has seen a flurry of ironic takes. In Mark Morris's The Hard Nut (1991) the Stahlbaums are a suburban family with a fake Christmas tree, bad hairdos and too much to drink, the second act Arabian divertissement being a trio for oil sheiks. In Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker! (1992) Clara lives in an orphanage run by Mr. and Mrs. Dross and tries to win the heart of the hunky Nutcracker prince.
The sheer amount of versions make it impossible for us to list all the differences and twists in the various Nutcrackers around the world, but the storyline is more or less always the same:
- Herr Drosselmeyer
- Clara (or Marie, or Masha)
- Nutcracker Prince (or Hans Peter)
- Sugar Plum Fairy
- Her Prince Cavalier (Prince Koklush)
Act 1
A Christmas party is taking place at the Stahlbaums', parents to Clara and Fritz. Drosselmeyer brings his goddaughter Clara a gift of a nutcracker doll. Children being children, Fritz eventually grabs and breaks the Nutcracker doll much to Clara's dismay. Drosselmeyer fixes it restoring peace amongst the youngsters. Guests depart and Clara suddenly sees herself surrounded by a fantasy world, where the Christmas tree grows, and dolls and soldiers come to life to battle with the mice who have also grown to Clara's own size. She sees her Nutcracker doll leading the battle and being attacked by the Mouse King. She throws her slipper at the Mouse, liberating the Nutcracker who turns into a Prince. They embark on a magical journey, their first stop being the Land of Snow where snow flakes waltz around them in patterns, as if blown by the wind.
Act 2
Clara and her Nutcraker Prince arrive at the Kingdom of Sweets where they are greeted by the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Prince Cavalier. They are invited to watch a series of divertissements representing exotic travels and various different sweets: Chocolate (Spanish dance) Coffee (Arabian dance) Tea (Chinese dance), the Russian Trépak (Cossacks), Mother Ginger & the polichinelles (in certain versions), along with the dance of the little pipes/Mirlitons and the Waltz of the Flowers. The celebrations close with the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Prince dancing a grand pas de deux. The curtain usually falls on Clara waking up back at home wondering whether it was all just a dream.
Tchaikovsky died in 1893 not knowing what a big success his work would achieve. He had been burned twice before when writing for ballet (with Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty), so he was less than enthusiastic to do so again but Vsevolozhsky convinced him on the basis that he would also be able to write the opera Iolanta which interested him more and which premiered on the same day as the ballet. Paradoxically, his Nutcracker score became, over the years, the more celebrated of the two works.
Having received the joint commission, Tchaikovsky started on The Nutcracker writing to his brother Anatoly in March 1891 that "the main thing is to get rid of the ballet; as to the opera I am so fascinated by it that if I could have two weeks of peace I would be sure to finish it on schedule". As he embarked on a trip to Berlin and Paris en route to an American tour that same year, he heard of the death of his sister Sasha. Perhaps for this reason, a hint of sadness and nostalgia permeates The Nutcracker's haunting score.
He finished composing the ballet on 6 July 1891, having added to it a novelty instrument which he had bought during his tour in Paris, the celesta, which he used to give The Sugar Plum Fairy her characteristic sound of heavenly bells.
An essential Nutcracker Spotify/Ipod playlist should include the below tracks:
Op.71 – Overture
Op.71 – Act 1 – No. 1 The Christmas Tree
Op.71 – Act 1 – No. 2 March
Op.71 – Act 1 – No. 6 Clara and the Nutcracker
Op.71 – Act 1 – No. 7 The Nutcracker Battles the Army of the Mouse King
Op.71 – Act 1 – No. 8 In the Christmas Tree
Op.71 – Act 1 – No. 9 Scene and Waltz of the Snowflakes
Op.71 – Act 2 – No. 10 The Magic Castle on the Mountain of Sweets
Op.71 – Act 2 – No. 12a Character Dances: Chocolate (Spanish Dance)
Op.71 – Act 2 – No. 12b Character Dances: Coffee (Arabian Dance)
Op.71 – Act 2 – No. 12c Character Dances: Tea (Chinese Dance)
Op.71 – Act 2 – No. 12d Character Dances: Trépak (Russian Dance)
Op.71 – Act 2 – No. 12e Character Dances: Dance of the Reed Pipes
Op.71 – Act 2 – No. 12f Character Dances: Polchinelle
Op.71 – Act 2 – No. 13 Waltz of the Flowers
Op.71 – Act 2 – No. 14a Pas de deux: Intrada
Op.71 – Act 2 – No. 14b Pas de deux: Variation I (Tarantella)
Op.71 – Act 2 – No. 14c Pas de deux: Variation II (Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy)
Op.71 – Act 2 – No. 14d Pas de deux: Coda
Op.71 – Act 2 – No. 15 Final Waltz and Apotheosis
Original Choreography: MariusPetipa/Lev Ivanov
Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Original Designs: M.I. Botcharov with K. Ivanov wit costumes by I.A. Vsevolozhsky
Original Cast: Antoinetta dell'Era as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Pavel Gerd as Prince "Koklush†(also known as Prince Coqueluche or Orgeat), Nikolay Legat as The Nutcraker Prince and Timofei Stukolkin as Drosselmeyer.
Premiere: 6 December 1892 Mariinsky (also credited as 17 December 1892)
Sources and Further Information
- Royal Opera House Nutcracker podcast
- The Royal Ballet's Nutcracker Programme Notes.
- The Nutcracker History by Gerald Charles. Ballet Met Notes for The Nutcracker, November 1998 [link]
- Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker/Swan Lake/The Sleeping Beauty Highlights. Naxos Recording with the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra. [link]
- The Refined Product of a Great Artist: Tchaikovsky's Iolanta by Hugo Shirley. Opera Holland Park. [link]
- Nuts, Sluts, Rats and Bats by Judith Mackrell. The Guardian, December 2001. [link]
- How to Design the Nutcracker by Ismene Brown. The Arts Desk [link]
- Breaking Pointe: The Nutcracker is a Gift that Takes More than it Gives by Sarah Kaufman. The Washington Post [link]
- Wikipedia entry on The Nutcracker [link]


text:
A new poll suggests Canadians would be almost twice as likely to vote Liberal with Justin Trudeau at the helm than with other lesser-known prospective candidates for the federal party's leadership.
The Harris-Decima survey conducted for The Canadian Press indicates 33 per cent would be certain or likely to vote Liberal if the party was led by the Montreal MP and eldest son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau.
That's considerably more than the vote-drawing power demonstrated by nine other putative contenders, who polled between 10 and 18 per cent.
The poll appears four months before the race is set to officially begin and before any candidate has actually entered the contest.
Doug Anderson, Harris-Decima's senior vice-president, says the impressions of the various possible contenders are "undoubtedly soft" and could change dramatically once the contest is actually under way.
Consequently, he says the results are useful only as "a sort of starting grid" of public opinion, by which to measure the progress of the race.
The telephone poll of just more than 1,000 respondents was conducted June 14-18, and is considered accurate to within plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times in 20.
Mr. Trudeau initially ruled himself out of the contest but pressure has mounted on him to change his mind since Bob Rae's surprise announcement last week that he will not seek to turn his job as interim leader into a permanent gig.
With his youth, telegenic looks and family pedigree, Mr. Trudeau is the highest profile federal Liberal in the country. The poll results likely reflect recognition of his name as much as any perceived leadership qualities.
The poll tested the initial appeal of nine other putative contenders, with Montreal MP Marc Garneau placing a distant second to Mr. Trudeau. Eighteen per cent said they'd be certain or likely to vote Liberal if Canada's first astronaut took the helm.
Another Montreal MP, Denis Coderre, came in at 17 per cent; former cabinet minister John Manley and former MP Gerard Kennedy at 16 per cent each; Ottawa MP David McGuinty at 15 per cent; Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney at 14 per cent; New Brunswick MP Dominic LeBlanc at 13 per cent; former MP Martha Hall Findlay at 12 per cent; and Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi at 10 per cent.
Mr. Manley has ruled out running while the candidacies of Mr. Carney and Mr. Nenshi fall into the category of wishful thinking by Liberals desperate to find prominent stars to help restore their once-mighty party to its former glory.
The Liberals were reduced to a third-party rump in the 2011 election, surpassed by the ascendant NDP for the first time in history. Michael Ignatieff lost his own seat and resigned as leader almost immediately.
The poll suggests Mr. Trudeau has the greatest early potential to maintain the Liberals' current support and draw support from other parties. Even so, 67 per cent of respondents said they'd be unlikely to vote Liberal – a number that rose to 82-89 per cent with other possible contenders at the helm.


text:
We thank all of our customers and shop owners for their support over the years and for being an important part of the fiber community.
If you would like to read more about our closing, please refer to the newsletter that was sent and shared on Social Media in late December.
Make sure to find your favorite shops so that you can continue to support them!


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Today in the News: EPA administrator to step down
Quote of note
"Over the last four years, Lisa Jackson has shown an unwavering commitment to the health of our families and our children. Under her leadership, the EPA has taken sensible and important steps to protect the air we breathe and the water we drink, including implementing the first national standard for harmful mercury pollution, taking important action to combat climate change under the Clean Air Act, and playing a key role in establishing historic fuel economy standards that will save the average American family thousands of dollars at the pump, while also slashing carbon pollution." - President Barack Obama on Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson. Jackson announced today that she will step down as head of the EPA after the President's January State of the Union speech.
News to know
Former President George H.W. Bush is being treated in an intensive care unit in a hospital in Houston, Texas. Bush has been hospitalized since Nov. 23 for a lingering cough after suffering from bronchitis. Bush is reportedly suffering from an elevated fever. He also has a form of Parkinson's and has needed a wheelchair for the past few years. His sons, former President George W. Bush and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, along with other family members, have visited him over the holidays.
Hot video: With fiscal cliff deadline approaching, Senate and House members are still on vacation


text:
The iTunes player keeps all your music, movies, and TV shows in one place. Quickly organize and browse your media library, transfer to any of your devices, and play your music how you like.
Use iTunes to rip your music CDs and have them automatically organized into albums and titles, even see the album cover right there on your computer. Rate each song one to five stars so you can keep a top list of favorites. Any song you purchase from the iTunes store also goes straight into the media library.
Select Genius Mixes in iTunes while playing your favorite song to let iTunes search your music library and find other songs that are similar and that you will like as well. If there is a great song that you have not heard yet but is available in the iTunes Store, the album is only a click away.
Related Software
|Popular Downloads


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Paper Accents Assorted Vellum Variety Pack offers an archival quality vellums in assorted weights that are great for scrapbook pages, cards, crafts and more! Acid free, lignin free and buffered. Includes a variety of mix and match colors. 8 1/2 x 11 inch. 25 pc.


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Long Island v/s MS 13Saturday, November 5th, 2016
EXCLUSIVE: Long Island vs. MS-13 Gang
NOVEMBER 03, 2016 AT 6:29 PM Metro Focus
Long Island's gang violence epidemic continues to rage on in Brentwood as another name is added to the growing list of casualties. The skeletal remains of 18-year-old Jose Pena-Hernandez, a known gang member, were recently discovered in the woods behind the abandoned Pilgrim State Psychiatric Center. Many are beginning to worry that there are still more bodies to be found, and authorities remain on high alert as they investigate each murder and their possible connections to the notorious MS-13 gang. Tonight, in an exclusive MetroFocus interview, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Tim Sini gives us an update on the investigations.
Homies Unidos was invited by Council of Thought and Action(COTA) to Hempstead, Long Island in an effort to be proactive to the issues affecting their neighborhood. We cannot be reactive to the violence in our communities, we cannot rely that law enforcement will solved the problem.


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24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell — November 1, 2012: Markets Pick Up Some Steam Today (NFLX, TWX, JCP, RVBD, CMVT, ALL, CZR, HTZ, MUR, APA, EXC, XOM, HCA, RGLD, RATE, CHK, FLR, GDOT, LVS, PCLN, SBUX, YELP, CVX, HES, MHP, OZM, RL, KSWS, ZUMZ, RIMM)
U.S. equity markets opened higher following a spate of moderately good news on U.S. employment. The ADP report showed job gains (more coverage here), and the report on new claims for unemployment benefits came in a bit lower than expected (more coverage here). Tomorrow's non-farm payroll report is probably the most eagerly anticipated data point in some time, given its potential impact on next week's presidential election. In Asia, Chinese PMI ticked up for the first time in three months (more coverage here), lifting Asian markets. In Europe, the U.K.'s PMI reading was lower than expected, but Britain's housing prices have strengthened slightly.
The U.S. dollar index rose today, now up 0.18% at 80.059. The GSCI commodity index is up less than 0.1% at 637.74, with commodities prices mixed again today. WTI crude oil is up about 1% today, at $87.09 a barrel, following a decline in U.S. crude stocks (more coverage here). Brent crude trades down 0.6% at $108.05 a barrel. Natural gas is up 0.2% today at about $3.70 per thousand cubic feet, following an inline inventory build (more coverage here). Gold closed at $1,715.50 an ounce, down about 0.2% for the day.
The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up nearly 135 points to 13,231.39 (1.03%), the NASDAQ rose nearly 43 points (1.44%) to 3,020.06, and the S&P 500 rose 1.09% or about 15 points to 1,427.59.
There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) cut to 'perform' at Oppenheimer; Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) reiterated as 'outperform' and target price raised to $53 at Credit Suisse; J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP) maintained as 'buy' with a target price of $35 at Argus; Riverbed Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: RVBD) raised to 'buy' at Cantor Fitzgerald; and Comverse Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: CMVT) cut to 'sector perform' at RBC.
Earnings reports since last night resulted in some price moves today, including these as of the last half hour of trading: Allstate Corp. (NYSE: ALL) is down 3% at $38.79; Ceasars Entertainment Corp. (NASDAQ: CZR) is up 0.7% at $5.83; Hertz Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HTZ) is up 1.7% at $13.50; Murphy Oil Corp. (NYSE: MUR) is down less than 0.1% at $59.95; Apache Corp. (NYSE: APA) is down 1.1% at $81.82 (more coverage here); Exelon Corp. (NYSE: EXC) is down 5.9% at $33.66 (more coverage here); Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) is up 0.3% at $91.41 (more coverage here); HCA Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HCA) is up 5.8% at $30.06; and Royal Gold Inc. (NYSE: RGLD) is up less than 0.1% at $88.18.
Before markets open tomorrow we are scheduled to hear from Bankrate Inc. (NYSE: RATE), Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK), Fluor Corp. (NYSE: FLR), Green Dot Corp. (NYSE: GDOT), Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS), Priceline.com Inc. (NASDAQ: PCLN), Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX), Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP), Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX), Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES), McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. (NYSE: MHP), Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (NYSE: OZM), and Ralph Lauren Corp. (NYSE: RL).
Some standouts from today include the following stocks:
K-Swiss Inc. (NASDAQ: KSWS) is up 34.7% at $3.07. The footwear company beat EPS estimates this morning and raised its fourth quarter outlook for revenues.
Zumiez Inc. (NASDAQ: ZUMZ) is down 16% at $21.27. The clothing retailer posted weak earnings last night and lowered guidance. We have more coverage of October retail sales here.
Research in Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) is up 9.8% at $8.70. The mobile device maker has been rising for two days on what could be just short covering. More coverage here.
Stay tuned for Friday. San Francisco Fed President John Williams is giving a speech. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):
8:30 a.m. – Employment report
10:00 a.m. – Factory orders
Paul Ausick
Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, HI/LOW, Market Close Tagged: ALL, APA, CHK, CMVT, CVX, CZR, EXC, FLR, GDOT, HCA, HES, HTZ, JCP, KSWS, LVS, MHP, MUR, NFLX, OZM, PCLN, RATE, RGLD, RIMM, RL, RVBD, SBUX, TWX, XOM, Yelp, ZUMZ


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How-To: Pintuck Ring Bearer Pillow
This pintuck ring bearer pillow tutorial that Eunice and Tricia Roush shared on Hello! Lucky is too cute! Want to make one for your special day? Head over to the site to see the complete how-to! [Via CraftGossip] More: How-To: Chic Wedding Chalkboards @Craftzine.com blog ucculent Wedding Bouquets @Craftzine.com blog Papercraft Wedding Sparkler Holder @Craftzine.com […]Continue Reading


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Things go from bad to wierd…..
August 28, 2006
Last Monday was one of the strangest days of my life. We finally exchanged on our new house after months of problems. But this good news was unfortunately mixed with some bad personal news in the family.
So the update of this blog will be affected in the short term.
Comments are closed.


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Shark Girl (v.2)Previous Next
Introducing Snuggly Rascals headphones for kids, featured on TV, national & international newspapers and winners in 'Innovation of the Year and Travel Products under £15' at the MadeforMums 2018 awards.
Snuggly Rascals (v2) are available in 7 fun designs: Shark, Unicorn, Owl, Penguin, Kitten, Monster and Panda in super soft fleece or breathable cotton.
- Made with a high quality, super soft fleece or breathable cotton and ultra-flat speakers, Snuggly Rascals are extra-comfortable headphones suitable for kids of all ages (3+ recommended).
- Unlike standard earphones and headphones which can be uncomfortable on or in the ears, Snuggly Rascals are lightweight (only 50g), perfect for travel and designed for comfort over short or long periods.
- Velcro, size adjustable headband to fit head circumference 38cm to 58cm
- Connects via standard 3.5mm audio jack connection on 1.5m cable
- Volume limited
- Headband is machine washable at low temperatures (don't forget to remove speakers, and kids!)
v1 to v2 differences: enhanced speakers, single speaker cable configuration, free stickers, puzzles and competition.


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As a nice middle-of-the-road counterpoint to the flab of Terrence Cody and the idealized manhood of Greg Oden, here are some Blackhawks shirtless in a limo.
The vital Canucks blog Orland Kurtenblog got their hands on these beauties today, which, best they can tell, were taken during Chicago's road trip to Vancouver this weekend. And sure enough, Patrick Kane, seen above (with pants unbuckled), told ESPN Chicago how much he loves the Pacific Northwest.
Kane likes coming to Vancouver. "The weather is pretty nice right now and you see a lot of pretty girls walking up and down the streets so obviously that's a good thing. And it's a hockey city too, so you have fun with that."
Well, I'll say this for Kane: at least he's not taking taxis any more.
John Madden, meanwhile, gets his flex on while holding a champagne flute, and Kris Versteeg doesn't mind being touched. All are auditioning for the Flyers, apparently.
Chicago Blackhawks Remind Us That Mugging For Pictures With Shirts Off is a Questionable Decision at Best [Orland Kurtenblog]


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Editor's note: A nationally syndicated columnist, Roland S. Martin is the author of "Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith" and "Speak, Brother! A Black Man's View of America." Visit his Web site for more information.
Roland S. Martin says America's history with Iran has not been a happy one.
(CNN) -- Critics of President Obama, mostly Republicans, have seethed that he has not been more forceful in ripping the theocratic leadership in Iran for their brutal handling of protesters angry with what they see as a stolen election.
In Tuesday's press conference, the president toughened his talk, saying, "The United States and the international community have been appalled and outraged by the threats, beatings and imprisonments of the last few days."
Still, Obama's measured and calm approach has been right on target, while his critics have been totally off base.
What these shortsighted naysayers should do is pick up a history book, or take a quick trip to Langley, Virginia, and let the CIA tell them our own sordid past with Iran.
Whenever U.S. relations with Iran are raised, everyone seems to want to refer back to 1979, when our embassy was overrun by militants and Americans were taken hostage for 444 days. The nation, and the world, was captivated by the drama, and many consider the affair the chief reason why President Carter lost to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential election.
The Iranian revolution of that era is what led to today's theocratic rule in Iran, where the clerics hold sway over every facet of the country. They replaced the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, himself a dictator who ruled with an iron fist with the help of his CIA-trained death squads. How did he come to power? The United States helped overthrow a democratically elected government in Iran.
To understand the hatred of the United States in Iran, we have to go further back than 1979 -- to 1953, when Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh had the gall to care more about his country than what the British and the United States wanted.
The two superpowers were angry that he nationalized oil interests -- at the time Anglo-Iranian Oil, now known as British Petroleum, was receiving 93 percent of oil proceeds and the Iranians were getting 7 percent.
So with the CIA leading the charge, along with British intelligence, the United States helped destabilize the country, blocked the importing of goods, spread leaflets around the country blasting Mossadegh for a lack of leadership, and used local goons to lead protests.
It was this effort that led to the installation of the Shah of Iran, who subsequently had Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini exiled. Khomeini was a revolutionary leader who used his voice to label the United States the "Great Satan" for its actions.
Nice history lesson, you might say, but what does it have to do with today? Everything.
Khomeini rose to power by blasting the United States for intervening in the affairs of Iran. It was the younger voices in Iran who responded to his criticism of the United States, and they cast their lot with a revolutionary figure rather than the pro-Western Shah of Iran.
One of those young men who cared more about their own country than the interests of the United States? Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, now the president of Iran (A fascinating account of our sordid history with Iran is detailed in Stephen Kinzer's "Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq").
President Obama knows that every word uttered by U.S. leaders can be turned right around and used against the protesters who are in the streets. He also understands how deep resentment of the United States is in Iran, and if the clerics can successfully get people to believe that the United States is behind the protests, they have the possibility of using America as the scapegoat.
Isn't it ironic that the president's conservative critics want him to stand up for democracy in Iran, when it was the United States that chose to destroy democracy and install a dictator we could control more than 50 years ago?
Folks, democracy can never be imported. It must be homegrown. If we look at our own Civil Rights Movement, the democratic movement in Poland and all of Eastern Europe, they were all driven by the people at the bottom, not the top.
We are seeing a remarkable amount of courage in Iran. The people there are tired of being treated like children, and are putting their lives on the line to demand change in the country.
Instead of inflaming tensions, the United States should continue to issue tempered comments, and allow the people in the streets to drive this issue. This should not become a U.S. vs. Iran discussion.
If the focus remains on those demanding change in the streets of Iran, especially if the beatings and oppression continues -- remember Selma, Alabama, and Bloody Sunday? -- then those who are silent in Iran will be silent no more, and other countries will begin to weigh in on the brutality.
The change we desire in Iran will not happen with a press release or a comment by the president of the United States or even a congressional resolution. We must show support, but from a distance. The United States played a direct role in the mess we see in Iran today. It's best that we shut up and allow Iran to determine Iran's fate.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Roland S. Martin.
All About Iran • Mahmoud Ahmadinejad • Barack Obama


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PoP The Balloons is a cool action game very easy and intuitive to play, but it will be hard to stop playing.
Hit with your finger the blowing up balloons on the screen, came on don't let them vanish away! you have just 60
second to pop all points! so focus on all your senses and on your extraordinary a sight! Now get out all your power
against the balloons! Came on hurry up!
Watch out the colors ballons, white give more points than the others.
Enjoy popping ballons the more you can!


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Was Christ only a man, the son of God or actually God incarnate?
Use this control to limit the display of threads to those newer than the specified time frame.
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Connect with FICO for answers to all your product and solution questions. Interested in becoming a business partner? Contact us to learn more. We look forward to hearing from you.


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- This event has passed.
Sour Duck Market Farmer's Market
Mar 13, 2019 @ 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm
|Recurring Event (See all)
An event every week that begins at 4:00 pm on Wednesday, repeating until Mar 25, 2020
Sour Duck Market is hosting a Farmer's Market every Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., or until sold out. Come support your local farmers and expect farm-fresh produce and goods! Bonus: Happy hour runs from 2 p.m. – 6 p.m.


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aspartic acid
aspartic acid əspär´tĭk [key], organic compound, one of the 20 amino acids commonly found in animal proteins. Only the
l-stereoisomer participates in the biosynthesis of proteins. Its acidic side chain adds a negative charge and hence a greater degree of water-solubility to proteins in neutral solution and has been shown to be near the active sites of some enzymes (see pepsin). Aspartic acid is not essential to the human diet. It was discovered in protein in 1868.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Biochemistry


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North Korea says it is forging ahead with a planned rocket launch this month, perhaps as soon as Dec. 10, drawing strong condemnation from U.S. officials who view the act as a thinly veiled ballistic missile test.
"A North Korean 'satellite' launch would be a highly provocative act that threatens peace and security in the region," officials with the U.S. State Department in a statement.
North Korea's state-run Korea Central News Agency said Saturday (Dec. 1) that the country will launch a long-range rocket between Dec. 10 and 22 from its Sohae Satellite Launch Station near the northwest village of Tongchang-ri. A photo of the launch site from space released last week by the commercial satellite imagery company DigitalGlobe showed striking similarities to North Korea's work ahead of its failed Unha-3 rocket launch in April.
North Korea claims the rocket launch will mark its fifth try to put a satellite in orbit, but critics in the United States, South Korea and elsewhere say it is little more than a long-range ballistic missile test for the North's nuclear weapons program. [North Korea's Rocket Program in Photos]
"Devoting scarce resources to the development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles will only further isolate and impoverish North Korea," State Department officials said, adding that the launch violates United Nations Security Council resolutions. "The path to security for North Korea lies in investing in its people and abiding by its commitments and international obligations."
In South Korea, a Yonhap News Agency report cited an unnamed senior government official as saying the upcoming rocket launch is aimed at celebrating the one-year anniversary of the North's new leader Kim Jung-Un, who took power last year.
In April, the country launched a three-stage Unha-3 rocket (the name means Galaxy-3) carrying the Earth-observing satellite called Kwangmyongsong-3, which translates to Bright Shining Star-3. The mission was highly touted by the North Korean government, but failed shortly after liftoff, prompting a rare public admission of failure by the country.
North Korea's Unha-3 rocket is 105 feet (22 meters) tall and is designed to carry payloads of up to 220 pounds (100 kilograms) into orbit.
South Korea is also currently preparing to launch its own rocket mission using its Korean Space Launch Vehicle 1. The rocket will launch from South Korea's Naro Space Center, about 300 miles (482 kilometers) south of Seoul. Two attempts to launch the satellite-carrying rocket have been delayed by technical glitches.
The mission marks South Korea's third rocket launch attempt. The first two attempts, in 2009 and 2010, ended in failure.
You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.


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Looking for the perfect home in the perfect place? Chances are you'll want to check these local established neighborhoods


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Above: Kazuma Kiryu will beat your ass if you complain about how this list fails.
Do you want to read another top 10 list with Skyrim on it? Then you'd better look elsewhere. My list of the top games of 2011 is up now at thephoenix.com, and it is entirely dragon-free.
Bitching about year-end lists is a tradition as old as making year-end lists, so I won't indulge here, except to say that I think it's more fun to see an individual's list than a group list, because the former is bound to be more idiosyncratic. The drawback, of course, is that one person can't have played everything in a given year, so -- gasp! -- the list won't be "objective."
Maybe Skyrim would have been my favorite game of the year if I'd played it, or at least a contender, but I honestly have to wonder: who cares what I think? It's sold millions of copies. It's a critical smash. It's picking up awards left and right. Nobody needs my validation. But if my list can convince someone to give Yakuza 4 a whirl, or Jetpack Joyride, or Shadows of the Damned, or Outland, then I think I've fulfilled a more important duty.
Oh right, I said I wouldn't bitch.
But if you do you come here for the bitching, you could also check out my review of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, which went up a couple of weeks ago. I promptly forgot about it, because this game has already taken up more of my mental energy than it deserves. Plus it's Christmastime. Why beat a dead horse?
Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and happy new year. And, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for reading.


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Buchanan, George
Buchanan, George, 1506–82, Scottish humanist. Educated at St. Andrews and Paris, he became (1536) tutor to James V's illegitimate son James Stuart (later earl of Murray). He was imprisoned (1539) for satirizing the Franciscans but escaped to the Continent. He taught at Bordeaux, where Montaigne was among his pupils, and at Coimbra and became highly regarded as a Latin poet. Returning to Scotland in 1560, Buchanan declared himself a Protestant. He became an opponent of Mary Queen of Scots after the murder (1567) of Lord Darnley and in 1571 published the Detectio Mariae Reginae, a bitter attack on the queen. From 1570 to 1578 he was tutor of the young king James VI (later James I of England). Buchanan's Rerum Scoticarum historia (1582) is a useful source for his time, but his most influential work was the De jure regni apud Scotos (1579), which argued that the king rules by popular will and for the general good.
See I. D. McFarlane, Buchanan (1981); P. J. Ford, George Buchanan: Prince of Poets (1982).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: British and Irish History: Biographies


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As per the report, the Global Building Automation and Control System Market is anticipated to witness significant growth during the forecast period from 2020 to 2027.
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Key players in the Building Automation and Control System covers :
Automated Logic
Evon Technologies
Schneider Electric
Beckhoff Automation
Johnson Controls International
Bosch Sicherheitssysteme GmbH
Distech Controls
Emerson Electric
Analysts have also stated the research and development activities of these companies and provided complete information about their existing products and services. Additionally, the report offers a superior view over different factors driving or constraining the development of the market.
The Building Automation and Control System can be split based on product types, major applications, and important countries as follows:
The basis of applications, the Building Automation and Control System from 2015 to 2025 covers:
The basis of types, the Building Automation and Control System from 2015 to 2025 is primarily split into:
Access Control
Electronic Security and Safety
Energy Management Systems
Fire and Life Safety
Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning
Other Products
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The report clearly shows that the Building Automation and Control System industry has achieved remarkable progress since 2025 with numerous significant developments boosting the growth of the market. This report is prepared based on a detailed assessment of the industry by experts. To conclude, stakeholders, investors, product managers, marketing executives, and other experts in search of factual data on supply, demand, and future predictions would find the report valuable.
The report constitutes:
Chapter 1 provides an overview of Building Automation and Control System market, containing global revenue, global production, sales, and CAGR. The forecast and analysis of Building Automation and Control System market by type, application, and region are also presented in this chapter.
Chapter 2 is about the market landscape and major players. It provides competitive situation and market concentration status along with the basic information of these players.
Chapter 3 provides a full-scale analysis of major players in Building Automation and Control System industry. The basic information, as well as the profiles, applications and specifications of products market performance along with Business Overview are offered.
Chapter 4 gives a worldwide view of Building Automation and Control System market. It includes production, market share revenue, price, and the growth rate by type.
Chapter 5 focuses on the application of Building Automation and Control System, by analyzing the consumption and its growth rate of each application.
Chapter 6 is about production, consumption, export, and import of Building Automation and Control System in each region.
Chapter 7 pays attention to the production, revenue, price and gross margin of Building Automation and Control System in markets of different regions. The analysis on production, revenue, price and gross margin of the global market is covered in this part.
Chapter 8 concentrates on manufacturing analysis, including key raw material analysis, cost structure analysis and process analysis, making up a comprehensive analysis of manufacturing cost.
Chapter 9 introduces the industrial chain of Building Automation and Control System. Industrial chain analysis, raw material sources and downstream buyers are analyzed in this chapter.
Chapter 10 provides clear insights into market dynamics.
Chapter 11 prospects the whole Building Automation and Control System market, including the global production and revenue forecast, regional forecast. It also foresees the Building Automation and Control System market by type and application.
Chapter 12 concludes the research findings and refines all the highlights of the study.
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Years considered for this report:
Historical Years: 2015-2019
Base Year: 2019
Estimated Year: 2020
Forecast Period: 2020-2025
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This is a small system for chatboxes in pop-ups. It supports up to three open chatboxes per player.
Features: password protection, max. chatter limit, kicking and banning, and a sound notification for incoming chatter.
Now with //comments!
Also check out Server Tool, the free tool to minimize downtime of your crashy game to an absolute minimum!
Dec 1 2009, 9:00 pm


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There are times when I let my voicemail fill up to the point of callers getting the "Sorry. Mailbox is full. Please try again." message. This is why.
Click on the image for a closer look.
Look, I'll return missed calls even if you don't command me to do so, I promise. Unless you're annoying. [Doghouse Diaries]


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50-Inch Class (49.85" Diagonal) 1080p KURO Flat Panel Monitor
- Deep Intense Blacks for Unmatched Contrast
- Ultra-thin Cosmetic Design (2.5" deep)
- Expanded Picture Set-up for Custom Calibration
- IP Control for Set-up, Control, Configuration and Self-diagnostics
Pioneer KURO monitors bring cutting edge technology and flawless visual design together for an experience unlike anything you've ever imagined. Building on Pioneer's revolutionary line of KURO televisions, the new Pioneer monitors boast the same award-winning black level performance that has become synonymous with the KURO name.
Expanded features, multiple user menus and detailed picture settings put the custom installer's needs at the top of the list. Equipped with a host of options for seamless system integration, the Pioneer KURO monitors are an installer's dream.
IP network protocol and a multitude of other control options bring connectivity to the forefront and make installation almost effortless. Expanded picture set-up and finely tuned adjustment control within each setting let the custom installer create a visual masterpiece for the client with near limitless potential. Experience the new line of Pioneer KURO monitors today and discover a new world - nothing short of visual astonishment.
|Specifications and design subject to change without notice.
PIONEER, ELITE, KURO and the Pioneer, Elite and KURO logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Pioneer Corporation.


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Kale Pesto
|Menu Part
|Cuisine Type
This recipe was developed by Chef Scott Samuel, conference chef for the CIA, and was presented at the CIA's Healthy Flavors, Healthy Kids conference in San Antonio in May. Samuel's presentation was aimed at introducing dark leafy greens beyond spinach onto menus. This pesto would be great on a whole-wheat pasta or as a spread on a sandwich.
1 ¾ cups raw chopped nuts
3 garlic cloves, smashed
1 lb. + 9 oz. chopped kale
3 ½ oz. grated Parmesan
1 ¾ cups extra virgin olive oil or canola oil
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
1. Toast nuts in 325°F oven for approximately 8 minutes. Remove nuts and cool.
2. Pulse garlic cloves in food processer until finely chopped.
3. Add kale, toasted walnuts and Parmesan. Pulse until chopped.
4. With food processor running on low, slowly add oil.
5. Season with salt and pepper.
Nutrients per 1-oz. serving:
Calories: 111
Protein: 1.7 g
Carbohydrate: 1.8 g
Total Fat: 11.1 g
Saturated Fat: 1.7 g
Sodium: 88 mg
Calcium: 57 mg
Dietary Fiber: .5 g
Recipe by Scott Samuel, conference chef for The Culinary Institute of America


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Wood Keychain Mouse Head with Ribbon (Package.Price)
⚠ Attention! Now all our wood products come 3/16" thick ⚠
Wood Keychain Mouse Head with Ribbon 3/16" thick. Chose your size
Available in : 25- 50 and 100 units pack
Laser cut with black edges
Excellent for all type of craft
Accessories not included but available in our store.
Engraving available on request.
They are made from a great sturdy/rigid Playwood material. They have many uses from key-chains to necklace pendants. These are great for adult/kids craft projects, games, scrapbooking or even drawing.
Condition is new cut and in good condition. These are very usable for many crafts and can be very fun and useful.
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by Richard C. Cook
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
July 21, 2008
Dr. Ron Paul, the Republican candidate for the 2008 presidential nomination, is not the first U.S. politician to point to the abuses of the Federal Reserve System and call for its abolishment. Similar pleas to get rid of the Fed were made by Reps. Wright Patman (1893-1976) and Henry Gonzales (1916-2000), both Democratic congressmen from Texas and chairmen of the House Banking Committee.
Few recall, however, how controversial the Fed was when it was first proposed and then maneuvered through a recessing Congress just before Christmas 1913. Rep. Charles Lindbergh, Sr., R-MN and father of the future aviator, called the Federal Reserve Act "the worst legislative crime of the ages."
But the strongest opposition came later, during the Great Depression. The source was Rep. Louis T. McFadden, a Republican representative from Pennsylvania who, as a former bank cashier and president, knew the financial system intimately.
McFadden was born in Granville Center, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, on July 25, 1876, just three weeks after the nation celebrated its centennial at the Philadelphia Exposition. He graduated from Warner's Commercial College in Elmira, New York, and went to work at the First National Bank of Canton, PA, in 1892.
McFadden was elected to Congress in 1914 and served until 1934. Though a Republican, he moved to impeach President Herbert Hoover in 1932 and introduced a resolution to bring conspiracy charges against the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve.
He also made a 25-minute speech on the House floor accusing the Federal Reserve of deliberately causing the Depression. At the time, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board was Eugene Meyer, who resigned after Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated as president in 1933 and purchased the Washington Post at a bankruptcy auction.
Later in 1933, McFadden introduced House Resolution No. 158, Articles of Impeachment for the Secretary of the Treasury, two assistant Secretaries of the Treasury, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, and the officers and directors of its twelve regional banks. This was McFadden's political swan song. In the election of 1934, he lost his reelection bid to a Democrat by 561 votes.
Let's fast forward to 2008. We are in the early stages of an economic collapse that Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics at the NYU Stern School of Business, calls "the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression."
Once again the Federal Reserve is implicated, this time for having enabled the creation of gigantic investment bubbles in home mortgages, commercial real estate, equity funds, hedge funds, and derivatives that are now bursting. Mayhem is now starting to be sown within the producing economy of working men and women after having wreaked devastation on Wall Street and within the banking industry despite massive Federal Reserve bailouts over the past year.
The chief culprit would appear to be Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006, who presided not only over the ongoing subprime mortgage fiasco, but previously over the dot.com bubble of the 1990s. This blew up when the stock market crashed in 2000-2001, obliterating $6 trillion of investor wealth.
The subprime conflagration of the 2000s was ignited by an orgy of application fraud that commenced just after George W. Bush became president. According to former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, the investigation of this fraud by state attorneys-general was blocked by Bush's Treasury Department.
Perhaps Louis T. McFadden was onto something. After his premature death, his words faded into history as he was derided for being anti-Semitic when he said such things as, "America has to choose between God and the money changers who have unlawfully taken our gold and lawful money into their possession." Today he is dismissed, sneeringly, as "one of the heroes of the Federal Reserve conspiracy theorists." (Edward Flaherty, PublicEye.org)
But maybe McFadden said some things that are still worth listening to. In his June 10, 1932, address on the House floor, he declared, as reported in the Congressional Record:
"Mr. Chairman, we have in this country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve banks. The Federal Reserve Board, a Government board, has cheated the Government of the United States out of enough money to pay the national debt. The depredations and the iniquities of the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve banks acting together have cost this country enough money to pay the national debt several times over. This evil institution has impoverished and ruined the people of the United States, has bankrupted itself, and has practically bankrupted our Government. It has done this through defects of the law under which it operates, through the maladministration of that law by the Federal Reserve Board, and through the corrupt practices of the moneyed vultures who control it."
Remember, this was a former bank president and member of the Republican Party speaking! McFadden added:
"From the Atlantic to the Pacific our country has been ravaged and laid waste by the evil practices of the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve banks and the interests which control them … This is an era of economic misery, and for the conditions that caused that misery, the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve banks are fully liable."
Further statements by McFadden in his House speeches may be found at: http://home.hiwaay.net/~becraft/mcfadden.html
As we watch today with dismay while the U.S. dollar shrinks in value and foreign investors continue to buy huge quantities of federal government debt, we might recall McFadden's words from a 1934 speech:
"The Fed Note is essentially unsound. It is the worst currency and the most dangerous that this Country has ever known. When the proponents of the act saw that the Democratic doctrine would not permit them to let the proposed banks issue the new currency as bank notes, they should have stopped at that. They should not have foisted that kind of currency, namely, an asset currency, on the United States Government. They should not have made the Government [liable on the private] debts of individuals and corporations, and, least of all, on the private debts of foreigners."
Of the twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks, or corporations, McFadden said in words that also prefigured the life-and-death stranglehold the Fed has over every aspect of the U.S. economy today:
"The imperial power of elasticity of the public currency is wielded exclusively by the central Corporations owned by the banks [i.e., the regional Federal Reserve Banks.] This is a life and death power over all local banks and all business. It can be used to create or destroy prosperity, to ward off or cause stringencies and panics. By making money artificially scarce, interest rates throughout the Country can be arbitrarily raised and the bank tax on all business and cost of living increased for the profit of the banks owning these regional central banks, and without the slightest benefit to the people. The twelve Corporations together cover and monopolize and use for private gain every dollar of the public currency and all public revenue of the United States. Not a dollar can be put into circulation among the people by their Government, without the consent of and on terms fixed by these twelve private money trusts."
In language that suited the 1930s but is also prophetic of our own disjointed times, McFadden summarized his outrage by saying:
"Are you going to let these thieves get off scot free? Is there one law for the looter who drives up to the door of the United States Treasury in his limousine and another for the United States Veterans who are sleeping on the floor of a dilapidated house on the outskirts of Washington?"
McFadden may have paid with his life for his outspokenness. After he lost his congressional seat in 1934, he remained in the public eye as a vigorous opponent of the financial system; that is, until his sudden death on October 3, 1936, of a "dose" of "intestinal flu" after attending a banquet in New York City.
Reporting his death in its October 14 issue, Pelley's Weekly stated that it had "became known among his intimates that he had suffered two [previous] attacks against his life. The first attack came in the form of two revolver shots fired at him from ambush as he was alighting from a cab in front of one of the Capital hotels. Fortunately both shots missed him, the bullets burying themselves in the structure of the cab."
Next, 'He became violently ill after partaking of food at a political banquet at Washington. His life was only saved from what was subsequently announced as a poisoning by the presence of a physician friend at the banquet, who at once procured a stomach pump and subjected the congressman to emergency treatment.'
Evidently the third time the assassins succeeded, and the most articulate critic of the Federal Reserve and the financiers' control of the nation was dead. He was 60 years old.
Copyright 2008 by Richard C. Cook
Richard C. Cook is a former U.S. federal government analyst, whose career included service with the U.S. Civil Service Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the Carter White House, NASA, and the U.S. Treasury Department. His articles on economics, politics, and space policy have appeared on numerous websites and in Eurasia Critic magazine. His book on monetary reform, entitled We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform, will be published soon by Tendril Press. He is also the author of Challenger Revealed: An Insider's Account of How the Reagan Administration Caused the Greatest Tragedy of the Space Age, called by one reviewer, "the most important spaceflight book of the last twenty years."
From the archives:
Richard D. Wolff: What is Capitalism and Socialism? What is Money? What is Debt Jubilee?
If This Is The Last Century Of Capitalism, What Will Replace It? by Pete Dolack
If We Don't Solve The Problem Of Economic Polarization, We're Going To Go Into Another Dark Age by Michael Hudson
World Prout Assembly: Monetary Policy with Richard C. Cook
Richard C. Cook: On The Eve of WW3 (videos)
Status Report on the Collapse of the U.S. Economy by Richard C. Cook


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Last June in the most popular post ever on this blog, I said this:
"You ignore new delivery systems at your own peril. RSS, SMS, iPhone, e-paper, Blackberry, widgets, podcasts, vlogs, Facebook, Twitter — these aren't the competition, these are your new carriers. Learn how to deliver your content across every new technology that comes into view on the horizon, and be there when new devices go into mass production."
Six months later, Facebook has taken off as a tool for newspapers to gain "fans" and disperse their headlines and related news, Amazon's Kindle — as small and flawed a step as it may be — is a step toward e-paper newspaper subscriptions, and a solid bunch of news organizations have started using Twitter as a quick way to push information out to the Web and mobile devices, without waiting around for any corporate initiatives or guidance from the folks in IT.
If you're unfamiliar with Twitter, go sign up now and start "following" my updates. Then find your friends and favorite newspapers or cable news channels, and follow their updates to get 140-word snippets of news, commentary, and links to full stories or interesting pages. Search for your local paper to find out if they're Twittering the news yet. If you work at your local paper, now would be a good time to start.
Zac Echola has a great tutorial up on a basic way to start feeding Twitter public weather data – that's a good way to start serving your readership automatic updates — no reporting required, no programming experience required, just the smarts to route some information through free Web services to get a job done in your newsroom.
If you're looking to use Twitter for "live" reporting, check out Jack Lail's post about how a Knoxville local kept his readers updated on the progress of a big high school football game:
"…McCaughan's Twitter posts had an immediacy that captured the drama and tension of a playoff game between two arch-rivals. It was breaking news to the people that wanted to know. It was news of the moment."
And if you need more convincing of why news organizations should become more agile by using services like Twitter to break news, check out this post at Strange Attractor, chronicling a couple recent examples of online news folks beating their newsrooms to the punch when news broke.
Starting to get ideas? Look up Twittergram, Seesmic, Utterz, and Jott. They're all services that start down the path of delivering payloads (audio, video, photo files) over a simple social network like Twitter.


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We carry a lot but not all variations of 6Boost manifolds in stock. Please contact us prior to purchase as out of stock manifolds can take 10 weeks for delivery
We can supply any 6Boost manifold which is available. If you do not see what you require listed, please contact us and we will be happy to check on availability for you.
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Available in a wide range of flange patterns including T3 open entry, T3 split pulse divided entry, T4 open, T4 split pulse divided. We can also supply 6Boost high performance race manifolds suitable for Greddy 3 bolt flange and HKS T51R V-band flange. All manifolds are available with single or twin wastegate ports.


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Don't Leave Me Side TableHAY
Aptly named "Don't Leave Me" (and commonly abbreviated to "DLM") this portable side table features a handle that allows it to be carried from room to room. Although it has a lightweight structure, its slanted legs provide great stability. Available in standard or XL sizes.
- Learn more at hermanmiller.com
- Interested in a Quote?


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There is something about the beginning of autumn that brings out the melancholy in me, even though I do like this season for its anticipation of Advent and Christmas. It is a time when nature says "slow down" and we tend to become more introspective, all the while the world says, "Hurry up! Only ___ shopping days until Christmas!" This is usually a busy time for our family; summer is over and we have just canned peaches and chokecherry jam. Now we pick several bushels of apples and take time to make apple sauce, apple pie filling, and spiced apple rings for the coming year. Sometimes there are pears or plums that we can preserve also. We get together with family and make our traditional red tamales to freeze for Christmas Eve. We try to make a lot so that we have some in the freezer for the next 12 months, but they never seem to last past June, if we can keep our hands off them for that long! It is a joyful, busy time.
But this time of year makes me a little sad, especially when it is a cold, cloudy day and I have not gotten enough sleep. I lack the energy I need to do the daily laundry, dishes, and meals: the work that is never ended. But God grants sunshine as well as clouds. He allows us to feel our imperfections and to experience the Ember Days in a more profound way, perhaps, than at other times of the year. We learn, if we are willing, to rely solely on Him. When the sun shines, the day seems to sparkle, with red and gold leaves and sometimes frost: the coming of winter is evident.
For the first time since I have been a mother, I am not homeschooling my children. Seven of the ten are attending a local charter school, and I am at home with the three youngest, who are not yet old enough to go to school with their brothers and sisters. It would seem that I should feel more free, and have more time to run errands, clean the house, work on projects long overdue, and even start one or two more that I have wanted to do for a few years.
But I am tired.
I do not seem to have more time now, and I need more sleep at night. I am older than I was. The coming winter is evident in the frost-colored hairs that appear little by little, and then less gradually.
But God grants sunshine as well as clouds. I feel the end of my life coming much faster than it seemed when I was young, although I have always, ever since I can remember, seen the end of my life very near. The years and decades are shorter than they were. The clouds of doubt and sorrow and sin and regret close in, and I panic, thinking I have only so many shopping days left and not enough money! The temptation to believe that I have done nothing worthwhile with my life is very strong, and I want to just fall asleep and not think about the hopelessness of it all. But then the clear, warm, saving Sun pierces my melancholy and I am suspended in the Love of God. I have time, but I must begin again now and not give up.
Thank God for good Spiritual Directors. They are sometimes the only light shining in the darkness. Mine told me recently, when I was having a hard time seeing any good in myself, "Love yourself as others love you." That is possibly the most difficult task I have ever undertaken. He asked me to look at the successes in my life: all of my children are happy and know that their parents and God love them. The teens among them are joyful and outgoing. The little ones are thriving and confident in the love of their family. He asked me to look seriously at the way people see me, and recognize that I have allowed God to work through me my whole life. God has granted me favors that not everyone is granted. He loves me because He made me lovable. Others have always thought of me as a kind and holy person.
I always thought that those successes were all God's, and they are, but my Spiritual Father reminded me that I had to cooperate with God in order for these things to happen.
And so, on this cloudy autumn day with amber sunshine piercing through the cold, I begin again to do the work He chose for me. That sink-full of dishes and that frozen roast thawing on the counter are my emblems. Some day they will be pictured beside me – grey hairs and all – on a holy card. In the meantime, "Jesus! MY Jesus! I trust in You!"
"Sometimes we feel tired and discouraged, just like Jesus' disciples… 'We have worked hard all night and have caught nothing!' (Lk 5:5) However, nothing is lost if, in the hour of darkness, we are able to trust once again in Him, Jesus, in Whom we have placed our joy and hope." ~Pope St. John Paul II


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I received this book free from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.The Simplicity of Cider by Amy E. Reichert
Published by Gallery Books on May 16th 2017
Pages: 336
Genres: Magical Realism
Format: eARC
Source: Edelweiss
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Audible
Also by this author: The Coincidence of Coconut Cake, The Kindred Spirits Supper Club
Fall in love with The Simplicity of Cider, the charming new novel about a prickly but gifted cider-maker whose quiet life is interrupted by the arrival of a handsome man and his young son at her family's careworn orchard by the author of The Coincidence of Coconut Cake and Luck, Love & Lemon Pie.
Focused and unassuming fifth generation cider-maker Sanna Lund has one desire: to live a simple, quiet life on her family's apple orchard in Door County, Wisconsin. Although her business is struggling, Sanna remains fiercely devoted to the orchard, despite her brother's attempts to convince their aging father to sell the land.
Single dad Isaac Banks has spent years trying to shield his son Sebastian from his troubled mother. Fleeing heartbreak at home, Isaac packed up their lives and the two headed out on an adventure, driving across the country. Chance—or fate—led them straight to Sanna's orchard.
Isaac's helping hands are much appreciated at the apple farm, even more when Sanna's father is injured in an accident. As Sanna's formerly simple life becomes increasingly complicated, she finds solace in unexpected places—friendship with young Sebastian and something more deliciously complex with Isaac—until an outside threat infiltrates the farm.
From the warm and funny Amy E. Reichert, The Simplicity of Cider is a charming love story with a touch of magic, perfect for fans of Sarah Addison Allen and Gayle Forman.
I adore Magical Realism and I adored Reichert's debut The Coincidence of Coconut Cake but this one just didn't do it for me. I've had a rollercoaster of a reading year and being very much a mood reader it seemed like every time I picked this one up, it never felt like the right time. Alas, I'm making this my last attempt (my fifth attempt, for the record) and calling it quits. This book possessed a lovely, heartwarming feel to it as you learn about the orchard and see all these special touches of magic throughout but as the summary states, Sanna is most prickly indeed. Her character was so completely off-putting to me that it lessened my interest in everything else. Did she redeem herself in the end? Possibly. But if I've restarted a book five times in a single year and still can't get through it, honestly, that was more time spent trying than should be necessary.
I received this book free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman
Published by Random House Books for Young Readers on February 27th 2018
Pages: 544
Genres: Fantasy
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository
Also by this author: Seraphina
Meet Tess, a brave new heroine from beloved epic fantasy author Rachel Hartman.
In the medieval kingdom of Goredd, women are expected to be ladies, men are their protectors, and dragons get to be whomever they want. Tess, stubbornly, is a troublemaker. You can't make a scene at your sister's wedding and break a relative's nose with one punch (no matter how pompous he is) and not suffer the consequences. As her family plans to send her to a nunnery, Tess yanks on her boots and sets out on a journey across the Southlands, alone and pretending to be a boy.
Where Tess is headed is a mystery, even to her. So when she runs into an old friend, it's a stroke of luck. This friend is a quigutl—a subspecies of dragon—who gives her both a purpose and protection on the road. But Tess is guarding a troubling secret. Her tumultuous past is a heavy burden to carry, and the memories she's tried to forget threaten to expose her to the world in more ways than one.
Returning to the fascinating world she created in the award-winning and New York Times bestselling Seraphina, Rachel Hartman introduces readers to a new character and a new quest, pushing the boundaries of genre once again in this wholly original fantasy.
Blogger Problem #74: Being blinded by the excitement surrounding an ARC that you accept it without completely thinking it through.
Seraphina was a real struggle for me to get through, especially when all my blogger friends were raving about it. Despite this, I still picked up Shadow Scale (Seraphina #2) and ended up DNF-ing. Even though Tess of the Road is not classified as Seraphina #3, it really is. It's set in the same world, most of the same characters, just focusing on a different main character. Same series, spin-off series, either way… I really should have skipped over this one. Hartman's world building is spectacular but I continue to struggle with the pacing of her stories.
I received this book free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.Strange Fire by Tommy Wallach
Narrator: Julia Whelan, Joy Osmanski, Madeleine Maby, Corey Brill, Jacques Roy, Gibson Frazier
Published by Simon & Schuster Audio on October 3rd 2017
Pages: 386
Length: 9 hours and 35 minutes
Genres: Fantasy
Format: Audiobook
Source: the Publisher
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Audible
Also by this author: Thanks for the Trouble
It only takes a spark.
They said that the first generation of man was brought low by its appetites: for knowledge, for wealth, for power. They said mankind's voracity was so great, the Lord sent his own Daughter to bring fire and devastation to the world.
The survivors were few, but over the course of centuries, they banded together to form a new civilization—the Descendancy—founded on the belief that the mistakes of the past must never be repeated.
Brothers Clive and Clover Hamill, the sons of a well-respected Descendant minister, have spent their lives spreading that gospel. But when their traveling ministry discovers a community intent on rediscovering the blasphemous technologies of the past, a chain of events will be set in motion that will pit city against city…and brother against brother.
Along with Gemma Poplin, Clive's childhood sweetheart, and Paz Dedios, a revolutionary who dreams of overthrowing the Descendancy, Clive and Clover will each play a pivotal role in determining the outcome of this holy war, and the fate of humanity itself.
I understand that the whole purpose of a blurb is to quickly encourage readers to pick it up, but when you do, and the blurb is nothing like it promised, that's mighty disappointing. Oregon Trail meets Westworld was what hooked me and caused me so much excitement I admittedly didn't even read the rest of the blurb (although this is a rampant problem for me.) If I had read the entire blurb I would have been immediately put off by the excessive religiousness and would've skipped this. But nooooo…. my 10-year-old brain started daydreaming of Oregon Trail instead.
Strange Fire is told from the point of view of two brothers from a religious society that views technology to be the root of all evil. It's less fantasy and more futuristic dystopian but possessed an essence of more popular dystopian novels (Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, Handmaid's Tale, as well as the more recent Blood Red Road.) The writing was well done but the plot was slow to build which makes more sense when you consider it's the start of a series. I tried to keep an open mind regarding the religious aspects but this ultimately just failed to capture my interest.