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It seems like one of life's ironies that just as you are getting your act together in your thirties you start to notice the first small visible signs that you are getting older.
You have a great relationship, your career is on track, you are starting to really make it in the world and you notice that little crinkles that were cute in your twenties are starting to get deeper and turn into proper crow's feet. The telltale signs of long hot summers are starting to show as brown spots.
Hormone changes are at the bottom of these changes. Our bodies are designed to carry babies through our teens and twenties and after that our reproductive hormones start to decrease. Most hormone changes start about thirty and continue right on through menopause.
After the age of twenty-five we don't produce as much human growth hormone (HGH) either and this means that we stop replacing cells as fast, collagen production slows and our skin becomes loose and dull. By the time we are thirty our levels of growth hormone might be only about twenty percent what they were when we were eighteen.
As oil production drops, older skin is not able to retain moisture as well as younger skin causing loss of elasticity and producing wrinkles. The decreased collagen in your skin results in thinner less flexible skin which is more likely to damage and is slower to repair.
If you nurtured your skin right through your teens and twenties, stayed out of the sun and off tanning beds, avoided any high living, ate perfectly and didn't smoke you'll probably look amazing at thirty. But, chances are you spent lots of your twenties out in the sun, a glass of vino in one hand, a cigarette or burger in the other. By the time you reach your thirties your earlier vices will become evident, you can see it in your skin. The normal effects of the hormonal changes in your body will be worse.
But don't despair. There is still time to repair the damage and to turn those fine lines, saggy skin, blotches and dryness around.
We've all heard anti-aging advice from our mothers since we were small. Brush your hair one hundred times, drink lots of water, eat lots of fruit and veges, get eight hours sleep and lots of exercise. While these are all important there is more to it.
There are two parts to supporting the regenerative processes of your skin and slowing the processes that cause it to age.
When we are identifying the causes of aging skin and hair we need to consider both the internal and environmental factors. Of course beauty does come from within and if we are not putting the right things into our body it will show up straight away on our skin.
Free radicals are produced by your body and are a natural part of metabolism. Your body can deal with a certain amount. But when you make poor food choices, are exposed to chemicals in your environment or the products you use on your skin and hair, you produce many more free radicals, far too many for your body to deal with, and this results in inflammation.
Free radicals are known not only to be the cause behind many chronic and serious diseases, but they also affect your skin by causing inflammation, destroying cells, and causing pigment changes.
In your everyday life your skin is exposed to many harmful toxins, from those found in air pollution (both indoors and outdoors) to those in your moisturizer. There are the obvious toxins like petrol fumes or those used in nail salons, but there are also a myriad of others that are not at all apparent. And many environmental toxins can affect our skin through pathways that include our gut, our liver, our kidneys and our lungs. No matter which way the toxin affects us, it creates free radicals in our body that lead to inflammation and the resulting signs of aging showing on our skin.
Too much sun exposure can dramatically age the skin. It produces broken capillaries, wrinkles, age spots, dry, thickened, pigmented skin. Known as photo-aging, skin aging is accelerated by exposure to UV radiation. Wearing sunscreen may not be the best answer to the problem of UV exposure, as the chemicals in the sunscreen can actually react when they come in contact with the suns rays to speed up skin damage and promote aging.
Vitamins A and C are helpful in reversing the damage caused to your skin by the sun's rays. Whether you take a supplement, eat lots of foods rich in these vitamins or find them in the products you apply to your skin, they will benefit. But don't use products full of harmful chemicals simply because they have vitamins added. There will not be enough vitamins in the product to counteract the damage caused by the chemicals.
Antioxidant rich diets are the answer to slowing down the aging caused by free radicals, by both reducing them and producing beneficial anti-aging results for your skin.
Foods that are denatured, pesticide-ridden, genetically modified, processed are essentially 'dead' foods and toxic to your body.
Read your makeup and skin care ingredient labels carefully.
Some chemicals in most makeup products are endocrine disruptors and mimic hormones. Makeup, skin care and hair care products should only contain natural products. A good rule is if you can't eat it don't apply it.
Be careful of synthetic cleaning products as they contain dioxin which also disrupts the endocrine system and interferes with the immune system.
Avoid soap or foaming or gel cleansers. They strip the natural oils from your skin and cause aging. Try a quality, chemical free, milk cleanser, or make one your self. Any cleanser that leaves your skin feeling tight needs to be avoided as it could lead to dry, flaky, irritated skin.
Select a moisturiser that will help your skin by keeping it hydrated and protect it from the dehydrating effects of airconditioning and heating. BE CAREFUL, many chemicals are added to leave your skin feeling moist and soft but are actually dehydrating. If the humidity is less than 65% these humectants will draw moisture to the skin from the cells below the surface instead of from the air, which naturally causes the skin to dry out.
As an alternative a light application of a vegetable oil such as jojoba, coconut, almond, apricot kernel, camellia, avocado or olive will nourish your skin and can be used as an alternative to face creams.
Even those with oily skin can use oils as a skin moisturiser. Vegetable oils, particularly jojoba, nourish your skin without causing pimples, acne or blackheads, which are caused by a combination of factors.
Jojoba oil is a liquid wax which was used to treat skin conditions like acne and eczema in folk medicine. It is said to be closer to human sebum than any other oil which makes it an ideal choice for skin care. Strange as it sounds to put oil on oily skin, it works because chemically oils break down oils.
Gently massage a few drops of jojoba oil into your face. Place a warm washcloth over and allow it to cool before wiping off the oil. Rinse the cloth and apply a few more times until the oil is gone.
Don't use these oils around your eyes, instead choose rosehip oil which is rich in omega 3.
Exfoliating helps to remove dead skin cells but needs to be done gently or it will accelerate aging and cause inflammation. Natural options include oatmeal ground in a blender with almond or rice milk added. Form it into a light paste and gently massage into your skin before washing.
While it is important to take steps to minimise wrinkles forming the challenge becomes how to get rid of those you already have without resorting to toxic skin care. Here are a few home remedies you can try out to reduce wrinkles.
- Coconut Oil is one of the best home remedies to minimise wrinkles and it is easy. Simply gently rub organic coconut oil over your face and neck before going to bed. It is rich in antioxidants and vitamins and has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. Coconut oil contains an essential emollient to reduce wrinkles and make skin firmer and softer.
- Aloe vera contains malic acid to improve the elasticity of your skin to reduce wrinkles. Simply cut the leaf off and extract the gel. Apply to your skin and leave on for twenty minutes then wash off with warm water.
- Ginger is high in antioxidants and helps inhibit the breakdown of elastin. Drink ginger tea twice a day or eat a piece of finely chopped ginger mixed with a tablespoon of honey every morning.
- Cucumber cut into thin slices and placed on the skin can soften the skin and help remove wrinkles.
- Vitamin E massaged into the skin daily can help remove wrinkles (simply break open vitamin E capsules)
- Rosehip oil patted gently into your face reduces wrinkles.
- Apple is very high in malic acid. Mash a boiled or stewed apple. Add one tablesppon of honey and some milk powder (if you have it). Apply to your face and leave on for at least fifteen minutes before washing off. Apple improves your skin's elasticity.
Above all avoid products which include parabens, parrafin, mineral oil, propylene glycol, sodium lauryl sulphate, or acrylamide.
These preventions and treatments are not just for those in their thirties. Everyone will benefit from a natural skin care regime and no matter what your age you can always slow down the aging process.
While you can't stop the aging process entirely, taking a few simple steps can certainly slow it down and give you glowing skin along the way.
All information and opinions presented here are for information purposes only and are not intended as a substitute for professional advice offered during a consultation. Please consult with your health care provider before following any of the treatment suggested on this site, particularly if you have an ongoing health issue.
Source articles
http://www.livestrong.com/article/155700-jojoba-oil-for-acne-prone-skin/ http://www.top10homeremedies.com/home-remedies/home-remedies-for-wrinkles.html


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If there was any doubt that Long Beach Poly wouldn't leave the Walter Pyramid with the CIF title, it was eliminated when senior forward Jasmine Dixon registered two blocks on one of Long Beach Millikan's first possessions.
Dixon's aggressiveness set the tone for a defensive masterpiece as Poly (26-2) out-hustled their way to a 66-33 win over their Moore league rival for their second consecutive CIF championship and third in the last four years.
Millikan (27-4) was held to the lowest point total in a Division IAA final, just one point shy of the previous record, which was set by Lynwood in the 2005 final – also against Poly.
It seems like it would be old hat for the Lady Jackrabbits to win another title but for a school synonymous with winning, each new title is just as exciting as the first.
"We never get tired of winning championships, that's what Poly is all about," head coach Carl Buggs said.
Dixon, who was selected to play in the McDonald's All-American game next month, finished with 14 points, 10 rebounds, four blocks and four steals in an all-around performance that symbolized the message her team wanted to send.
"We had to go out there and prove that we weren't ready in the [first game] but now, we are," Dixon said.
In their third meeting , the Lady Jackrabbits avenged one of only two losses on the year with a vintage performance . On offense, they were poised and unstoppable in the post and on defense, they chased every loose ball with reckless abandon.
Senior forward Courtney Clements finished with a team-high eight points as the Arizona-bound forward with hampered by foul trouble and the pressure of Poly's defensive stopper, April Cook.
"Their team goes as she goes so I really had to stop her and make sure they wouldn't hurt us," Cook said.
In their first meeting back in January, Millikan scored an upset in the first meeting back in January, taking advantage of Poly being tired after playing in three consecutive out-of-state tournaments. The rematch a few weeks later saw Poly win in dominating fashion.
The game was effectively decided in the second quarter when Poly outscored the Rams 17-4. Millikan, making their first appearance in a Southern Section final, struggled to find any rhythm on offense and simply had no answer for Dixon nor junior forward Monique Oliver, who added 12 points and 12 rebounds.
The win was hopefully the first of three anticipated celebrations in the next two weeks as the Lady Jackrabbits will no doubt be the No. 1 seed in the Division I regional bracket and be favored to win their third regional and state championship in the next two weeks.
But at least for tonight, they can celebrate the rare accomplishment of winning three CIF titles, which is something the seniors will look fondly upon.
"Not a lot of people can say they've done that in their high school career," Cook said
Redondo 56, Mira Costa 42 – Senior forward Atonye Nyingifa scored 26 points and 19 rebounds to lead the Lady Sea Hawks (Redondo 27-3) to their second Southern Section Division I-A title in four years.
"I'm just doing whatever my team needs to do," Nyingifa said, "In playoffs, it's a whole different level, every team steps up their intensity. "
Just like the Poly-Millikan game earlier in the evening, this was the third meeting between league rivals as Redondo and Mira Costa (Mira Costa 27-5) split their meetings in the Bay League.
The second half was a battle between the UCLA-bound Nyingifa and Mira Costa senior forward Mikah Maly-Karros. Maly-Karros, who will play for LMU next year, finished with 19 points and 15 rebounds but it was tough for the Lady Mustangs to overcome a second quarter where they only scored two points.
Both teams will play in the Division II bracket of next week's state regionals.

subset: commoncrawl


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Philadelphia looked everywhere outside the organization for a replacement for Rod Thorn as team president and GM. They wanted Danny Ferry but he went to Atlanta. They talked to former Blazer guy Tom Penn and former Hornet GM Jeff Bower but that didn't come together. They made a run at Nuggets' GM Masai Ujiri but he stayed put.
So in the end they stayed in house.
Multiple reports Friday morning have the Sixers promoting assistant general manager Tony DiLeo to the big chair. He will take over for Thorn when Thorn retires. The formal announcement is expected later Friday.
What that really means is coach Doug Collins has the power — he has been a primary force in basketball decision making for a while now. Not bringing in a guy with clout from the outside means Collins keeps ahold of the reins.
This also means consistency with the plan — the Sixers are building around Andrew Bynum (who they must re-sign after this season), Evan Turner and Jrue Holiday. That likely would not have changed with a new GM, but now the plan is locked down. Well, as long as they can lock those guys down.


text: The Best Restaurant in New York Is: Wall Street Bath & Spa Caity Weaver · 09/15/14 12:48PM Rich: I thought we were going to use the actual spa and I wondered what it would be like to be topless around you, Caity. Would it change things? Would it bring us closer or push us away from each other? I guess we'll have to figure that out on another day, when we go to water slides.


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Opening Times
Months Open
Open all year round
Other Details
Open All Year
Independent retail site with shops & cafe in Burnham Deepdale on the A149 coast road, approximately half way between Hunstanton & Wells-next-the-Sea
There's great food and drink from
Deepdale Café, offering breakfast, lunch,
tea, coffee and cake. The shopping site is home to mainly independent
shops -
Deepdale Stores
supermarket & fuel station (petrol & diesel), Fat Face clothing & accessories shop, Gone Crabbing Norfolk clothing & souvenirs shop, Relish jewellery & accessories, One Stop Nature Shop, The
Hare & The Hen gallery (including Philippa Lee pottery), and Driftwood Glass Studio. The shops are joined by Deepdale Bike Hire, and Deepdale Visitor Information Centre (TIC).
Dalegate Market welcomes Pop Up Shops a week at a time throughout the Summer and at various other times of the year. Dalegate Market is also home to two of the major North Norfolk Coast events - Deepdale Christmas Market and Deepdale Spring Market.
Dalegate Market is popular with visitors, tourists and locals, whether they are shopping for the essentials like bread and milk, or spoiling themselves (or others) with presents and gifts such as jewellery, clothing, binoculars, art and crafts. Come and join us for some retail therapy for wonderful items that you won't find on the high street.
The site fits well with the tourism accommodation facilities of Deepdale Farm next door, which include Deepdale Backpackers Hostel, Deepdale Camping and Deepdale Groups Hostel. There are also many other things to do and see in the village - Brancaster Staithe & Burnham Deepdale.
Opening Times
Months Open
Open all year round
Other Details
Open All Year


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London Statement on Tax Havens & Corporate Responsibility
Initial statement of the Corporations Working Group, as passed by the OccupyLSX General Assembly on 25th November
"Of the world's 100 largest economic entities in 2000, 51 were corporations and 49 were countries. [3]
With its relentless pursuit of profit at all cost, the present corporate system fits the definition of a psychopath, driving the rapid destruction of our society and the natural environment. [4]
This is done only to benefit a small minority and not the needs of the 99 per cent. The way corporations and governments are intertwined fundamentally undermines democracy. Corporations are rarely transparent or accountable to the people. This corporate system is broken and we call on the people to reclaim their power and bring about a radical and immediate change.
We propose these following points as first steps towards this:
Globally, corporations deprive the public purse of hundreds of billions of pounds each year, leaving insufficient funds to provide people with fair living standards. We must abolish tax havens and complex tax avoidance schemes, and ensure corporations pay tax that accurately reflects their real profits.
Corporate lobbying subverts our democracy. Last year corporations spent £2 billion influencing the British government. We believe exploitative corporate lobbying has no place in a democratic society. Legislation to ensure full and public transparency of all corporate lobbying activities must be put in place. This should be overseen by a credible and independent body, directly accountable to the people.
The existing system of corporate sanctions allows executives and board members to avoid individual responsibility for the consequences of their actions and inactions. Those directly involved in the decision-making process must be held personally liable for their role in the misdeeds of their corporations and duly charged for all criminal behaviour.
A welcome development at Occupy London is that many people working within these corporations have communicated support for our concerns. We encourage anyone to come forward and offer their opinions, or any relevant information, either openly or confidentially, to add to this discussion.
We recognise that corporate employees may feel like they do not have the power alone to create change, but by welcoming them into talks with Occupy London and working together, we can create a socially responsible and sustainable economic system."
[1] http://occupylsx.org/?page_id=575
[2] http://occupylsx.org/?p=839
[3] Sales: Fortune, July 31, 2000. GDP: World Bank, World Development Report 2000
[4] http://www.thecorporation.com/index.cfm?page_id=47


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The information in this Readme pertains to Novell ZENworks Application Virtualization, which is a product that lets you convert applications that run on Microsoft Windows into self-contained virtual applications.
The following information is included in this Readme:
ZENworks Application Virtualization 8.0.1 has new GUI menu options that allow you to create site license certificates and application configuration files.
Certain commands have been modified in this release as shown in the table. The Xreg command is still used when performing streaming activities.
Some of the issues that were discovered in the original shipping version of ZENworks Application Virtualization have not yet been resolved.The Readme for the previous release has been updated to indicate which issues have been fixed in this release.The following sources provide information about Novell ZENworks Application Virtualization 8.0.1:
This section contains information about issues that might occur in ZENworks Application Virtualization:
There are several issues in ZENworks Application Virtualization 8.0.1 regarding support of virtualized applications on 64-bit Windows machines.
Running the virtualized 32-bit Microsoft Office 2003 Professional Enterprise application is not supported on the following 64-bit platforms:
Windows 2008 64-bit
Windows 7 64-bit
Windows Vista 64-bit
The application has been removed from the default application creation template on machines running the 64-bit platform.
Running a virtualized 32-bit Microsoft Office 2007 application on a 64-bit platform also fails.
Although application virtualization of the Citrix ICA Demo 18.104.22.168 application is supported on the Windows Vista 64-bit platform, it is not supported on the Windows XP 64-bit platform.
(Fixed in v8.0.2) Microsoft Office 2010 virtual application is not supported on 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems.
Use the instructions provided in this section while working with ZENworks Application Virtualization 8.0.1 and ZENworks Configuration Management.
If you build a virtual application by using theoption on the ZENworks panel of the control console, then copy the application to a machine where the ZENworks Configuration Management Agent is installed, the virtual application might fail when it is launched, displaying the following error:
This application can only be run on devices registered with a ZENworks zone.
Workaround: To avoid this issue, make sure that you save the ZENworks configuration settings (that is, changes made on the ZENworks panel of the console and stored in the *.xappl file) before you build the application. To save the changes, click > .
(Fixed in v8.0.2) When you attempt to publish ZENworks Application Virtualization bundles by using the MS ISA Proxy or the Novell NBM Proxy, the following error message is displayed:
An error occurred while publishing the bundle: The remote server returned an error:(403)Forbidden.
Workaround: To publish a bundle on the ZENworks Configuration Management server, disable the MS ISA or the Novell NBM proxy settings. In the ZENworks Application Virtualization window, select> , then select .
The following issues in ZENworks Application Virtualization 8.0.1 relate to its use with various Web browsers.
Safari version 4.0.4 or 5.0 might fail after you have created the virtual application if the virtual application is not configured correctly.
Workaround: Make sure that you follow these steps exactly when you build the application:
Select(Option 2) in the Configuration Wizard.
Capture the Before Snapshot.
Install the Safari4 application.
Capture the After Snapshot.
Select the Startup file as @PROGRAMFILES@\Safari\Safari.exe instead of the default (Multiple Files).
Save the configuration, but do not build the virtual application.
Modify the .xappl configuration file by setting the enhancedDEPCcompatibility attribute to .
Build the virtual application file.
Close ZENworks Application Virtualization, then delete the Safari Sandbox.
Run the virtualized Safari application.
The Silverlight virtual component in a Mozilla Firefox virtual application fails to work.
Workaround: None.
(Fixed in v8.0.3) Java applets might not load correctly while using a virtual Internet Explorer 6 on Windows Vista and Windows 7.
Workaround: None.
Use the instructions provided in this section while you use the Snapshot Wizard to virtualize third-party applications in ZENworks Application Virtualization 8.0.1.
(Fixed in v8.0.2) Building a third-party virtual application using Snapshot Wizard, that would build a single startup file, might fail to launch if you use the default settings for the startup files attribute i.e., "(Multiple Files)".
For single startup files without any shortcuts: You need to select the appropriate output file as the startup file when an application is run directly from a single executable file. For example, select the startup file as @PROGRAMFILES@\Safari\Safari.exe, if the wizard selects "(Multiple Files)" by default.
For multiple shortcuts to different startup files: If there are multiple shortcuts to different startup files, you have to build the virtual application by clicking the ZENworks Application Virtualization 8.0.1 User Guide.icon and icon in the virtual applications ribbon bar. For more information on using the Snapshot feature, see section "3.6.1 Snapshotting" in the
The wizard cannot be used in this scenario, because it results in broken shortcuts being installed or bundled with the virtual application.
Novell, Inc. makes no representations or warranties with respect to the contents or use of this documentation, and specifically disclaims any express or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. Further, Novell, Inc. reserves the right to revise this publication and to make changes to its content, at any time, without obligation to notify any person or entity of such revisions or changes.
Further, Novell, Inc. makes no representations or warranties with respect to any software, and specifically disclaims any express or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. Further, Novell, Inc. reserves the right to make changes to any and all parts of Novell software, at any time, without any obligation to notify any person or entity of such changes.
Any products or technical information provided under this Agreement may be subject to U.S. export controls and the trade laws of other countries. You agree to comply with all export control regulations and to obtain any required licenses or classification to export, re-export, or import deliverables. You agree not to export or re-export to entities on the current U.S. export exclusion lists or to any embargoed or terrorist countries as specified in the U.S. export laws. You agree to not use deliverables for prohibited nuclear, missile, or chemical biological weaponry end uses. Please refer to the Novell International Trade Services Web page for more information on exporting Novell software. Novell assumes no responsibility for your failure to obtain any necessary export approvals.
Copyright © 2009-2010 Novell, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, photocopied, stored on a retrieval system, or transmitted without the express written consent of the publisher.
For Novell trademarks, see the Novell Trademark and Service Mark list.
All third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.


text:
Parents who spank their babies are at greater risk of eventually having Child Protective Services called in to protect their kids than parents who do not spank, according to a new study.
"A few other studies have shown that parents that spank their children are also more likely to engage in harsh physical punishment and abusive parenting behaviors," said lead author Shawna J. Lee from the University of Michigan School of Social Work in Ann Arbor.
It seems plausible that discipline that starts out as spanking may, in some cases, escalate to abuse over time, Lee told Reuters Health in an email.
Research has shown that spanking doesn't result in kids listening to their parents' directions any more closely. It has been linked to more aggressive behavior and more acting out as the child grows up.
The American Academy of Pediatrics does not endorse spanking for any reason, and suggests time-outs as an alternative.
"The collective research over the past 20 years on spanking and physical punishment clearly indicates that hitting your child is related to a wide range of negative outcomes and hasn't shown any benefit to the child," said Tracie O. Afifi, who studies physical punishment at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.
In the new study, Lee and her colleagues analyzed data from a previous study that had followed 2,800 families with a newborn baby in 20 U.S. cities for five years. In three-quarters of the families, the child's parents were not married.
For their report, the researchers considered interviews conducted with the mothers when the child was first born, and again at ages one and five.
At one year, mothers were asked if they or their partner had spanked the child for misbehaving in the past month.
When kids were five, mothers reported whether Child Protective Services (CPS) had ever contacted them about any child in the household.
According to the results published in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect, 30 percent of the one-year-olds had been spanked by their mother, their father or their mother's current partner in the past month. Ten percent of families were contacted by CPS when children were between age one and five.
Spanking was more common in the group that was ultimately contacted by CPS.
Among the families with no CPS calls, 29 percent of kids had been spanked, compared to 38 percent of kids in families with CPS involvement.
Families with CPS involvement were also more likely to have lower household incomes. Mothers in those families tended to have lower education levels and higher rates of depression than mothers in families without CPS calls.
Many parents don't know that spanking is harmful, or they try not to spank but then become frustrated and do it anyway, Lee said.
"For many parents who use corporal punishment, they continue with the same practice although it is not effective in changing the child's behavior in the long-term," said Deborah D. Sendek, from the Gundersen National Child Protection Training Center at Winona State University in Minnesota. Sendek was not involved in the new study.
"As the child gets older, the parents tend to use more force and hit more frequently, which can cause an injury bringing them to the attention of CPS," she said. Plus, older children who have been spanked may develop problems concentrating, trouble with schoolwork, bullying behavior or conflict with authority, which can lead to a CPS referral as well, she said.
But spanking may be only one factor that contributes to CPS involvement, in addition to poverty, alcohol and drug abuse, parental stress and depression, Lee said.
"Child behaviors that are frustrating or annoying to parents often reflect the normal development of a young child who is curious and in the process of learning about the world (and) is 'testing out' theories about how things work," Lee said. "When parents are frustrated, I advocate for trying to redirect their child to other activities or giving them something else to do."
"Parents should not spank their children - in particular, babies and very young children," Lee said. She encourages parents to discuss the issue with their pediatricians, ask for resources and consult the American Academy of Pediatrics "Connected Kids" initiative (http://bit.ly/1gHgmqj).
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1fXdeqm Child Abuse & Neglect, online March 3, 2014.


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We want stronger food tastes. What about our wines?
A couple years ago, Dr. Vino wrote an influential blog post called "Is the clock ticking on hedonistic fruit bombs?" He didn't come right out and say so, one way or the other. But he cited evidence of a "backlash" against high alcohol, extracted wines. Since then (Dec. 2007), lots of people have wondered if the pendulum is swinging away from higher ripeness and toward wines of greater finesse. I, myself, have written about this, although I've done so in the same hedge-your-bets way as Dr. Vino. I have speculated that cooler vintages in California (and, man oh man, 2010 is turning out to be one of the coolest yet) may be helping to bring the grapes in at lower brix levels.
Now comes an absolutely fascinating article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal with powerful implications for the wine business. With the intriguing headline "A Taste for Hotter, Mintier, Fruitier," its thesis is that "The increased craving for intense flavors suggests that the American palate is changing." Changing from what to what? Away from "natural flavors" and towards "intensity in flavor." The author, Miriam Gottfried, lists plenty of examples of how steroidal flavors are being packed into our foods: "Snack chips are spicer. Chewing gum is mintier. Energy drinks are fruitier. In short, American cuisine is adrenaline cuisine."
Gottfried bases her conclusions after interviewing a chef at a New York outfit called International Flavors and Fragrances, whose website describes it as "a leading creator and manufacturer of flavors and fragrances." Their executive chef told Gottfried that Americans are seeking "a lot more umami," the term popularized some years ago to describe a certain type of appealing savoriness in food. That Americans are in fact seeking more savoriness is accepted by a vice president of the James Beard Foundation, who told Gottfried, "You always need something spicier, something more, a bigger high" when it comes to food. He was echoed by a chef at McCormick's (the spice people), who told the reporter, "Bold is replacing boring."
I can totally accept this hypothesis. We do want more flavor, don't we? As a longtime aficienado of cookbooks and food sections in the local newspaper, I've noted a trend toward spicier, bolder, richer, more layered, more complex and more savory food. Here in California, with our heavy Mexican and pan-Asian influences, our cuisine has become wildly delicious and adventurous. A good restaurant meal is a high to rival any substance I've ever had.
If it's true that the American palate is changing in the direction of bigger and bolder, can it also be true that those same Americans are wanting their wines to be tamer and leaner? I suppose a case could be made. You could argue that a big, bold meal wants a companion wine to be restrained, in order to let the food star. On the other hand you could take the "like-with-like" route and suggest that the last thing you want with a big, umami-flavored dish is a thin little wine.
I'm still not ready to come down on one side or the other and make some stark pronouncement that hedonistic fruit bombs are [or aren't] dead. I don't know if the pendulum is swinging, and if it is, which way. We in the media tend to paint things in too-absolute terms anyway, as if everything is black or white. Of course, things aren't. America is too big a country, and too fractured in cultural diversity, for such simplistic pronouncements to be made.
What are my own experiences with "hedonistic fruit bombs"? There are still plenty of them. And I don't see them going away anytime soon. Of course, the word "bomb" is an explosive one. Your "bomb" may be my "chockful of fruit" delicioso. California growers and vintners have worked too long and too hard to achieve fruit perfection to turn around and throw it out the window. Cooler vintages may lower the alcohol a little bit, but not enough to reverse a generational shift, which is what we saw from the 1970s to the 1990s. The most important word in all this may be "hedonistic." Last time I checked, it wasn't an expletive, but a word based on the Greek root for "pleasure." Nothing wrong with pleasure, in my book.
P.S. No new post tomorrow. I'm in Seattle for the weekend.
Very interesting.
I'd suggest that the main "accomplishment" with the trend toward fruit bombs was tannin management, supporting America's desire to consume instantly – no waiting for aging.
I'm hoping that we'll see more wines incorporate this tannin management with reigning in the fruit to allow other subtleties to come into better focus, resulting in more complex, balanced wines.
However, I'd still like to be able to reach for a knock-down, drag-out, exciting fruit bomb from time to time. I'd like a wide-ranging variety of wines in my spice-rack cellar.
Um… it's a little self-serving of a guy who works for "a leading creator and manufacturer of flavors and fragrances." to claim we all crave more of his product, don't you think? Thanks for the infomercial.
This is like anti-bacterials in soap. Nobody needs them, never did. In fact they probably are bad for us. But once one soapmaker started using them all the rest had to or risk being thought "soft on germs." Same with sunscreen: bought any SPF60 lately? It's hella better than SPF30 – not. Recent studies may be showing that these screening agents may cause cancer. But every skin product has to have a screening agent or its competitors will be able to say they are "tougher on UV."
I look to what my young kids want to eat to tell me how effective these ultra-flavorants are in marketing based on real taste. They want to try stuff based on super-attractive packaging and the word "extreme!" anywhere on the label – everything from ultra-sour candies to super-spicy corn chips. Funny thing – with remarkably few exceptions they never finish a bag, and when they ask for that type of snack again they want the "regular" version.
The American palate is not changing. What is available to the American palate is changing, as companies with small armies of flavor chemists churn out more new products from that infinite ocean of corn that they then have to somehow sell.
I utterly reject the statement that "you always need something spicier, something more, a bigger high." That's not hedonism, it's nihilism. Just ask any junkie.
Spot on, Steve. And, as a Californian, you have probably noticed that CA food, and what has euphemistically been called "California Cuisine" have always had deeper flavors and more international influence than the English/French based cuisines that have dominated cooking around the world for years. But, it is not just here. Look at Spain, for example. Those great Spanish restaurants like El Bulli, Akalari and others did not make their ways in life by imitating French cooking. They brought new and deeper flavors to the table.
I have long argued that CA wine is more appropriate for the foods we eat than for milder flavors. Our Chardonnays go with line-caught salmon grilled over grape vines, not Sole Dore. Zinfandel never saw the piece of veal scallopini it could go with. Even our Cabs want rich, meaty flavors. We don't make much Pinot Noir that goes with fish or poached chicken breasts.
But, that said, you and I have both noticed a scaling back to some extent in the alcohol/ripeness levels of the wines we taste. That is OK with me because I am not a fan of what tastes like prune juice to me–even if I have a higher tolerance for ripeness than those who think everything out here is over the top.
Good topic. I think that the bigger flavors that have popped up in the last 30 years have desensitized peoples palate to flavors that are more subtle.
If you grow up with Bubblelicious, Kool Aid and Doritos and then when you are a young adult eat Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, then you probably want the bolder flavors of Bobby Flay when you are more mature.
Wines that would have been considered bold in yesteryear are now bland and tasteless. Heck maybe just some Tabasco in your Pinot!
I suppose the typical American diet traditionally has been skewed towards relatively bland foods. And then there's the whole processed food situation. I'd see this kind of in parallel to wine. The first step away from the bland processed products, be it wine or food, is to something intense. That might be a Power Pinot or something doused in chile peppers.
The thing about really good food, though, is that it isn't necessarily monolithic or super intense. Like wine, it's about balance and layering of flavors. Some foods are simply about being bold, just as some wines are. But the presence of many flavors doesn't imply a flavor-bomb. I've had quite a few Indian dishes for example that aren't scorchingly hot, but instead are complex, layered and just plain seasoned with the right proportions of spices. Foods like this are consistent with thinking on wines needing to be dialed back.
As far as hedonistic goes, it's only derided because of its overuse by a handful of critics. It's usually a euphemism for a wine that is toeing the line of being undrinkable due to balance issues, but is great for certain palates and occasions.
Ditto on Charlie's reference to the lower alc trend. I hear a lot of noise about it, wineries are listening, but not to be confused with hearing. I just returned from another trip to Italy, where yes, even there alcohol levels are creeping up, but incredibly flavorful wines are plentiful under 14%, and not just the indigenous varietals, the "Bordeaux" blends as well.
As a number of people weighed in here, balance is – or should be – the operative word, be it the foods we eat, or the wines we drink. Sadly, that equation is, well, out of balance, in many of our wines.
Just like a good wine, a good meal should be balanced. That is, the spice and heat should complement another aspect of the meal (sugar, acidity, umami, whatever flavor aspects the chef wants to highlight).
More flavors, more choices and more options for the consumer are always a good thing; they will vote with their feet and their dollars as to what they want and the evolutionary process will play out in the marketplace.
I can now go to McDonald's and Carl's Jr., two fast food companies that are far from bastions of healthy eating, and have relatively healthy food options. These are good tasting, healthy and nutritious salad offerings that offer good flavors (cranberries, walnuts and apples from Carl's; Southwest from McD's) that were uneard of even 5 years ago.
The rise of "food channel nation," everyday gourmet options available to the mass market and the incidence of some increased awareness of health considerations all contribute to the trend.
Some of these same trends give rise to more choices to the wine consumer and the marketplace will ultimately decide which players win and which players don't win. Just don't place all of your economic eggs in one flavor basket!
Perhaps Americans are discovering there is more to cuisine than processed foods, or bland meat and potatoes. The trend toward local food acquisition has allowed Americans to discover how truly fresh foods are richer in flavor and textural qualities, leading to more enriching dining experiences, even at home. Cultural diversity has led to discovery of new foods and broader dining experiences. The produce departments in big box stores have broadened their selections from less than 100 items 20 years ago to an average of over 450 items. Americans are simply discovering the reality that they have more choices and are excersizing their power to make better choices.
The mistake here, and the one that is generally made across the board in this country, is that less ripe equals "tamer and leaner" or "thin little" (i.e., less flavor) wine, and more ripe wine equals more flavor. The question is do you equate dominant fruit forward flavors and alcoholic sweetness as more flavorful, or is layered complexity more flavorful? My experience is that less ripe wines are not categorically subtle, but can be boldly complex and multi-layered from start to finish.
Steve – The question is what is ripe or ripe enough? Are grapes ripe when the resultant wine is not vegetal or "green"? Some level of vegetal, or let's call it herbaceous-ness, is very appealing to some and can bring tremendous complexity. And the bottom line is a less ripe cab, for example, will likely have more gripping tannins even if the green pepper flavors are gone. For me tannins are appealing, even necessary, but in general they have been demonized by the media.
In spite of California's ability to extend its growing season into mid-autumn, with relentless sunny weather and max temps in the high 70's (see October average highs for Boonville, Healdsburg, Santa Rosa, Sonoma, Calistoga, Santa Helena, Scotts Valley, Livermore, Soledad, Paso Robles, Santa Ynez, Temecula…), that result in soft wines with great density, low acidity, good fruit weight and high alcohol, I notice two distinctive currents in Californian winemaking for high-end wines.
The first relies on over-ripe, almost shriveled, grapes, anaerobic fermentation, a short fermentation/maceration (7-10 days) period, light pressing with some residual sugar to avoid seed breaking and excess astringency, and malolactic and aging taking place in 100% new oak barrels for no more than 12-14 months. The second, uses physiologically ripe grapes, open top fermentation tanks, long macerations, fermenting to dryness, and aging in a combination of new (usually 25-50%) and used French barrels for more than 16 months. Both employ micro-oxygenation to a certain extent, to avoid harsh tannins.
The former winemaking style (the "hedonistic fruit bomb"), which came into vogue in Australia, is by far more popular and in greater number, and has become the epitome of California Cabernet; the latter reflects the old-world/Bordeaux style and appeals to consumers who like to drink wine with food.
Even though it is (technologically) possible to make wines in California in whatever style the winemaker feels like, the wines made in both ways described above will always have one thing in common; they're made with California fruit. And will, or should, invariably reflect this fact.
And lest we forget, less ripe does not automatically mean boldly complex and multilayered. It can also mean thinner, leaner and less expressive with green, underripe flavors. Scott, do you remember the so-called "food wines" of the early 1980s? They were intentionally less ripe because no less than the NY Times said CA wines would not go with food. So, we got "food wines" with no flavor. During the 1970s up to 1980, most wines in CA were under 14% alcohol. The food wines were closer to 12.5-13.0. What boring crap that was. But, here is the funny part. European wines are now as ripe or riper than CA wines of the time. They are more fruit forward than ever, yet we still here this old bunkum that European wines are complex and CA wines are simple and sweet.
Think about cantaloupe. There is a point at which the greenness leaves cantaloupe and the is replaced by more enjoyable flavors. Yet, done right, there is still plenty of acidity and vitality. Grapes are not immune from that equation.
This debate has been going on for decades here in California. But, it is not just here. Think back to, or go read about, the great Bordeaux vintage of 40 to 70 years ago. They were all vintages in which high ripeness was achieved–and the greateat of them like 1947 and 1982, were darn close to CA levels of alcohol. So, too are the Right Bank vintages of the 2000s.
It is not forward expression that is the problem. It is the loss of complexity. However, here again, we have a poster who simply suggests that all CA wines are fruit forward and tasted of sweet alcohol rather than more intensely of the grapes from which they are made. And in the very next breath says that wines like Staglin or Hobbs Beckstoffer Cabs or Williams Selyem or Merry Edwards or Dehlinger Pinots or Freestone or Chasseur Chardonnays are lacking in complexity when clearly they do not.
For me, it's very simple. When I eat intensely flavorful foods, I drink a wine with a similar profile (think a big CA Zin with chili or spicy Indian food. When I eat something more subtle, I pair it with a more subtle wine. I'm a foodie and a wine-know and I enjoy making great pairings. I am dismayed when I go to wine dinners at friends' homes, only to find that it really is a competition to see who can bring the biggest, most alcoholic red wine. A cult Napa cabernet with vegetarian lasagna? I don't think so.
Great topic! I'm obsessed with Asian cuisines–I like having all 5 flavors in my dishes (sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami) along with different textures.
Allowing the food to be the star is definitely my preference. A truly incredible meal is one where the wine wasn't overpowering and there wasn't a conscious distinction between the food and the wine. It's a complete experience.
Perhaps it's less about the boldness of fruit and more about complexity and overall satisfaction. We're overwhelmed with choices and have the world's cuisines at our fingertips. When we can choose foods that satisfy all 5 flavors why not expect the same complexity from our wines?


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iTabletki - the service, aimed to help people in exchanging and consolidation of information, for one of the most popular, though serious topic in the internet - drug treatments reviews and ratings.
The idea is not new, and we still tried to make the website looks nice, and starting to grow up new features.
Why should someone bother about another website with drugs reviews, descriptions, ratings?
First off all - its free, no ads, commercials, and so on (at least for nearest future).
We have solid volume of treatments with connections based on active ingredients,
pharmacalogical groups, conditions…
I consider for myself as a usuful feature - displaying possible generics (analogs) of selected treatement. Cause where the marketing and hypes (even through doctors) tries to sell a special treatment from a special manufacturer, and this often seems expensive,
not everybody know that often you can find a more beneficial generic drug with the same effect.
Shortcomings - lack of new content, and navigations through conditions (diseases) by ICD-10 - which is rather obscure to people, who are not professionals. We will work on it.
Technically - we are using Yii, MySql, jQuery, Twitter Bootstrap. Working with Yii for 2 years, i'm still often astonished how it's COOL! Thanks Qiang and all the team. The most complicated in iTabletki - for us was the subject field (even i almost finished the pharma education)…
Thanks for all critics, advices, feedback
And one of the most pleasant thing - that this is first project which i'd done with my fellow, not for any company, money, but for ourselves and interest. Doing regular job (for food and paying bills) and expose yourself to another deals which you believe in, is not easy, but if you believe you should at least TRY!
iTabletki - помогает людям оценить то или иное лекарственное средство, и поделиться опытом с другими.
oh me bastard - made a mistake in the name of Yii founder Qiang


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Take a look at our huge selection of Action Figures, Pop! Vinyl Figures, Statues, Model Kits, Vinyl Figures, and Prop Replicas!
Complete with napkin holder and menu holder-- just like in the show-- it features a working coin mechanism and even dispenses "fortunes"! Meticulously crafted of polystone and steel, the life-size Signature Edition Mystic Seer Replica is a black-and-white replication that measures about 13 1/2-inches tall x 7 1/2-inches wide x 6-inches long and comes with a certificate of authenticity. Can't you just see this in your living room or office? Not for commercial use. Ages 14 and up.
Was the real Mystic Seer black and white or red? And what color was the Devil's head? Our sources don't know for sure. CBS doesn't have any color photography of this famous prop, and Mr. Shatner himself doesn't remember what the color was when he starred in that famous episode back in 1960. Even the experts and Imagineers at The Walt Disney Company aren't certain, as The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror ride at Disney's California Adventure has a red Mystic Seer replica with a red head in the lobby, while the same ride at Walt Disney World features the replica with a cream colored head.
"You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead. Your next stop... the Twilight Zone." (Spoken by Rod Serling at the beginning of each The Twilight Zone episode.)
Need extra fortune cards? Click here for card backs. Click here for card backs. Click here for blank card fronts. Click here for normal card fronts.
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|11.60 inches (29.46 cm)
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|9 inches (22.86 cm)
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HaysMed Technologist Received Certification
Hays, Kansas (March 28, 2016)—Mandy Schaben, Ultrasound Technologist at HaysMed recently received Breast (BR) specialty certification through the American registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography® (ARDMS®). The BR certification recognizes a technologist's knowledge, skills and abilities in the area of normal breast as well as breast abnormalities that are found with screening or diagnostic mammography.
The (ARDMS®) is an independent, nonprofit organization that administers examinations and awards credentials in the areas of diagnostic medical sonography, diagnostic cardiac sonography and vascular technology.
.ARDMS Credentials are recognized as the top standard throughout the global medical community and by leading professional sonography and vascular organizations. When a sonography professional holds certification from ARDMS, you know that he or she is dedicated to providing high-quality care and meeting the highest standards
Schaben works in the Imaging Department at HaysMed and has been an Associate for one and a half years.


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New Method for Creating Tough Metallic Glass Composites
Scientists at the California Institute of Technology have developed a new strategy for creating "liquid metal" that makes it able to bend significantly without breaking, while retaining a strength twice that of titanium. It is among the toughest, or least brittle, known materials, and could be used anywhere that strong metal alloys are traditionally found, but may prove most useful in the aerospace industry, where lower density means fuel savings.
When commercialized metallic glass known as Liquidmetal and Vitreloy hit the market several years ago in the forms of golf clubs and baseball bats, it was too brittle to withstand much duress. Now, says Douglas Hofmann, a Caltech materials science graduate student and lead author of a paper presenting the method for making the new material, it can be made to flex and can be produced at relatively low cost. "Metallic glasses now have among the highest toughness of any materials," he says.
Like window glass, metallic glass has no crystalline structure, but it is made with combinations of zirconium, titanium, copper, nickel, platinum, or other metals. Although the random arrangement of elements makes the material as strong as some of the strongest known metals, it also makes it very brittle. Most other metals deform plastically, meaning that under a heavy load, the deformation before ultimate fracture is permanent. Metallic glass behaves like an elastic band, which regains its original shape when released, but snaps when stretched past a certain point. A piece of metallic glass with any substantial thickness shattered easily when it was bent, and, Hofmann points out, "you couldn't build a bridge out of it. It breaks with no visual precursor.
"Many researchers in metallic glasses are trying to make them useful in structural applications," Hofmann says. He and his colleagues at Caltech have finally accomplished exactly that. They experimented with different combinations of metals to create a new version by manipulating the ratios of starting materials. They were guided by previous work by coauthor William Johnson, Caltech's Mettler Professor of Engineering and Applied Science, and his collaborators. Over the past two decades, these scientists had found that ductility--the ability of a material to deform in tension before breaking--was linked to the formation of branching, crystalline structures called dendrites within the metallic glass.
The team experimented first with the size of the dendrites. Hofmann and Johnson started by noting that when metallic glasses are bent, 10-nanometer-wide features called shear bands rip right through glass that is thicker than one millimeter, but are stabilized in thin glass. "The bending experiments told us that the size of the particles we need to add is proportional to the length scale of the shear bands before they become catastrophic," Hofmann describes.
In this time of exploding interest in nanotechnology, Hofmann was surprised to find that the dendrites had to be on the order of hundreds of microns in size, many thousands of times the size of the shear bands. The second major insight was that they also had to be softer than the surrounding metallic glass.
Because they are crystalline, the dendrites deform plastically, and their size blocks a single shear band from growing into a catastrophic crack. "It takes more energy to move a shear band forward than it takes to form a new shear band," notes Hofmann. "We took an alloy that broke with one shear band and made it make countless shear bands.
"We took a metallic glass, which is considered a brittle material, and showed that by making a designed composite out of it, we can span the entire space of toughness," Hofmann remarks. "The tougher it is, the harder it is to drive a crack through it. Now we have ductility and toughness," he claims.
Because the new metallic glass is tough and strong and has relatively low density, its obvious applications would be in any structure that incorporates titanium. In aerospace technology, these properties are crucial to minimizing weight and saving fuel costs.
But, says Hofmann, "we're not trying to replace titanium; we're trying to find applications where a stronger material would be useful," particularly because the material is still difficult to make. Still, he points to one particularly alluring quality: "you can use less of it because it's stronger."
The paper appears in the February 28 issue of the journal Nature. All experiments were performed in Caltech's Keck Laboratory of Engineering Materials. The other authors are material scientists Jin-Yoo Suh, Aaron Wiest, and Gang Duan, Caltech graduate students; Mary-Laura Lind, a visiting scientist; and Marios D. Demetriou, a senior research fellow.
Source: California Institute of Technology


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From Professionaltips
Revision as of 14:56, 20 February 2007 by 192.168.8.169 (Talk) (→Bibliography)
Trustees are persons who serve on a library or library system governing board who are legally responsible for the administration and management of a library; they may be elected or appointed, depending on the rules, laws or procedures in their state or municipality. The Association for Library Trustees and Advocates (ALTA) in conjunction with the Public Library Association, both divisions of the American Library Association, have developed an Ethics Statement for Public Library Trustees as well as a typical list of responsibilities.
Available from the American Library Association:
- Risk and Insurance Management Manual for Libraries, by Mary Breighner, CPCU; William Payton; Jeanne M. Drewes, general editor. LAMA, 2004. ISBN-13: 978-0-8389-8325-6
- Successful Library Trustee Handbook, by Mary Moore. 2004. ISBN-13: 978-0-8389-0891-4
- Trustee Facts File, Robert P. Doyle and Robert N. Knight, editors; 3rd edition. Published by the Illinois Library Association, Illinois State Library, 2004. ISBN-10: 0-8389-8317-0
Materials available for loan from the Georgia Public Library Service
Sources Consulted in the Preparation of Utah's Public Library Trustee Manual
Manuals by State
- Illinois: Trustee Facts File, by Robert P. Doyle and Robert N. Knight. 3rd ed. 2004.
- Utah: Utah Public Library Trustee Manual, compiled by Pat Montgomery. 2006.


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Is your computer infected? Popular free software distributed malware to millions
CCleaner is available on Mac and Windows computers, as well as Android smartphones
CCleaner is available on Mac and Windows computers, as well as Android smartphones
CCleaner is available on Mac and Windows computers, as well as Android smartphones
CCleaner, a popular program used to remove unwanted files from Mac and Windows computers and Android-based phones, was injected with malware by hackers and distributed to more than 2 million users last month.
Malicious software was found inside CCleaner 5.33.6162 and CCleaner Cloud 1.07.3191. While only 5,000 people downloaded the impacted version of CCloud, 2.27 million installed CCleaner 5.33.6162 in August.
Avast, which recently acquired CCleaner developer Piriform, released a virus-free version of the software last week. The Prague-based company said Tuesday that only 730,000 people are still using the infected version.
"For a period of time, the legitimate signed version of CCleaner 5.33 being distributed by Avast also contained a multi-stage malware payload that rode on top of the installation of CCleaner," said Cisco's cybersecurity division Talos. The malware could steal various types of data from devices, including IP addresses, network adapters and active software.
"The compromised version of CCleaner was released on August 15 and went undetected by any security company for four weeks, underscoring the sophistication of the attack," said Avast CEO Vince Steckler and EVP of Consumer Business Ondřej Vlček in a blog post.
The company says it's working with law enforcement to identify the perpetrators behind the attack.
Avast encourages anyone using CCleaner to upgrade to version 5.34 or higher, which will delete the backdoor code from their devices.
"Our first priority is our commitment to the safety and security of our millions of users, and supporting our new partner Piriform as they manage this situation," Avast said.
CCleaner has been downloaded more than two billion times and is used by General Electric and the YMCA. The popular software is installed around 20 million times per month.


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It's impressive when a goalkeeper can stop one penalty kick in a match, but two? Against the likes of the San Ramon Valley High girls squad?
It's practically netminder nirvana.
California senior goalkeeper Lauren Holden, an Oregon commit, accomplished the improbable feat in the Grizzlies' 1-0 loss against the unbeaten Wolves on Jan. 22 in East Bay Athletic League girls soccer. The same night, Livermore keeper Savannah Winters stopped a PK in the Cowboys' 2-0 loss against Monte Vista.
So Holden and Winters had mixed emotions after their PK piece de resistance.
Like a good poker player, Holden pays close attention to each shooter's movements on a penalty kick before making her move. Against the Wolves, she denied Allie Dutto and Cal-bound Alexa Vandevanter with dives to her right.
"I read it pretty well, I guess," Holden said modestly.
People have come to expect the spectacular save from Holden, even some of the Wolves.
Holden recalled a funny conversation with San Ramon Valley's Morgan Idso after the game.
"She was, like, 'I just won 20 bucks because I guessed you'd save it,'" Holden said with a laugh, referencing her stop on Vandevanter.
Idso, Vandevanter and Holden are teammates on the under-18 Mustang SC team, which competes in the Elite Clubs National League.
What is Holden's mindset when a striker stands 12 paces away preparing for a free direct shot?
"Well, I freak out," Holden said. "And then I compose myself and I try to look into the kicker's eyes to see if they're going to give me anything. Other than that, I try not to guess. I try to read it, but if it comes down to guessing, I do."
In an injury-plagued season, the Grizzlies were thrilled to get standout senior captain Rachel Feldman back recently, but promptly lost Chelsea Arnold to an injury. It's been that kind of season for California, who entered this week 6-6-5 overall and 2-4-4 in the EBAL.
Feldman, another under-18 Mustang ECNL player who has committed to Navy, scored in a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Livermore on Jan. 24.
"She is our playmaker, so she does everything she can," Holden said of Feldman. "She scored against Livermore. Hopefully we can keep scoring now."
Of going to Oregon, Holden said it's "been my dream school since I've been in middle school. When I got the opportunity to talk to them, I took it."
WILD SOCCER RACE: As the EBAL girls soccer season heads down the home stretch, every team entered the week with a mathematical chance to earn a North Coast Section Division I berth. They'll need to finish either .500 in league or overall against Division I opponents. San Ramon Valley is sailing toward a repeat EBAL title and an automatic berth with a seven-point cushion over surging Monte Vista to start the week. But after the Wolves, it gets a little dicey. As of Monday, only eight points separated the next six teams: Monte Vista (17 points), Amador Valley (16), Granada (15), Foothill (12), California (10), and Livermore (9).
polo honors, ALOHA STYLE: Three San Ramon Valley boys water polo players were selected to California-Hawaii All-American teams. Tyler Martin, the MVP of the EBAL in the fall and a first-team all-Bay Area News Group East Bay selection, made the third team. Conor Neumann made the seventh team, and Nick Pasichuke made honorable mention.
FOOTHILL mat-tastic: The Foothill wrestling team earned a big 41-30 victory over host Livermore in an EBAL showdown on Jan. 22. Then the Falcons routed a small Monte Vista team 63-15 to improve to 4-0 in league. Competing in packed Cowboys gym, the Falcons got thilling wins by pin from junior Dominik Sutalo, freshman Dustin Dukleth and sophomore Michael Belichak. Against the Mustangs, Foothill's Kohlten Clark rallied for a win in overtime at 223 pounds.
Contact Matt Schwab at firstname.lastname@example.com or follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/schwab_matt.


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Music bloggers know what's going on waaaay before the rest of the music bizniz. Such is their knowledge, they've been unpaid A&R scouts for a long while, and some have even been given imprint record labels. Bloggers are the create-diggers of the digital age, helping to surface those rare, truly special acts from the deluge of SoundCloud links, YouTube clips and Bandcamp hashtags. As "new music tipping season" is about to kick-in with the BBC's annual Sound Of... poll, DiS consulted Tom Johnson from the terrific GoldFlakePaint music blog - who has his finger so firmly on the pulse it's a surprise no-one is claiming that he's 'killing music' - to find out who he's been loving this year, that the rest of us are likely to see making their mark and be loving the debut albums of in 2014.
A sister-duo from deepest Cornwall who make creepy and hypnotic songs that tread an unsteady path between folk melodies and pulsing electronica. They write and record their music in a caravan, so the story goes, and the few tracks they've released this year have been puzzlingly ambiguous but, more importantly, beautifully unique. Recent live shows with the likes of Sohn and Empress Of should aide their journey out of the West Country and in to your cold, wintry hearts. A debut EP is in the works.
Woman's Hour
Everything about Woman's Hour feels like it's been constructed with the most careful consideration. And it probably has. Following a couple of well-received tracks back in 2011, the four-piece took some time away, took a long hard look at themselves, and then returned with new ideas and a new outlook. It's worked wonderfully. Thunder and Darkest Place, both released this year, are gorgeously crafted, slightly experimental pop songs that rise and fall and shine in all the right places.
Ricky Eat Acid
I've been lucky enough to have heard REA's new album and it's true to say that I've not listened to much else for the past few weeks. From the powerful spoken-word samples, to the Tim Hecker-esque instrumentals, it's beautifully constructed and delivered. It has a couple of vibrant electronica tracks that offer a real change-of-pace but at it's heart lies some of the finest ambient music I've heard in a long while. It deserves to be huge and with the right kind of coverage it could well be.
Probably THE singles band of the year, if that still meant anything. Every track they've released so far has been golden. Sultry, soulful and ridiculously smooth RnB jams is what they do and they've barely put a foot wrong since they first emerged. They also do that whole "mysterious and secretive" thing pretty well considering, you know, the internet age and all that. Their debut EP dropped in October and is one of the freshest releases imaginable. 2014 is all theirs if they want it, so let's hope, for all of our sakes, that they do.
Los Angeles Police Dept
The solo project of Ryan Pollie; LAPD makes untidy and fuzzy pop songs that are packed full of melody and heart. A full-length could well be wonderful.
Brilliantly scrappy and unhinged garage pop that always feels like it's about to fall apart. They've joined the good ship Alcopop! which is probably the best thing they could've done at this point.
Already reasonably well established, but the producer/multi-instrumentalist has signed to 4ad for his debut LP, which promises to be beautiful and wonderfully sad. Sad and wonderful. Yeah.
Scotland's answer to No Age? Aberdeen's answer to PAWS? A bit of both, maybe, but this duo make brilliantly raucous guitar pop that socks you right in the jaw. Which is always a good thing.
OR 2014's 'most like to do a Chvrches'. A Brighton duo who make exuberant and colourful electro-pop songs that could quite easily take over THE ENTIRE WORLD. Or something.
Weird and spooky electronic/folk crossover who are probably my favourite new band of the year. Already released more than a handful of wonderful songs; can't wait for much, much more.
Bleeding Heart Pigeons
A Limerick trio who are pleasingly difficult to pigeon-hole (lol). Their new EP is out in December and the two new tracks from it are varied, engaging and always engrossing; especially the seven-plus minutes of Catharsis.
Lyla Foy
Previously known as 'Wall', London's Lyla Foy has just been snapped-up by Sub Pop for a debut record that promises to be full of warm and achingly pretty, pop songs with a beautiful, country-ish glow.
Happy Diving
New to the ever-flourishing Father/Daughter Records roster, this California quartet's debut track is a grouchy and gloomy beast full of big ol' riffs. Exciting to seeing what else they have up their sleeve.
Glass Animals
Another band who have been kicking about for a while, but it suddenly feels like everything is falling in to place for them. Woozy, soulful and always brilliantly interesting, with the right-backing 2014 is theirs.
Related Reads
1) Visit goldflakepaint.co.uk for a steady stream of recommendations.
2) DiSsers tips for 2014, including some picks from DiS' editor (quite a few tips for 2013 are yet to come to fruition too!)
3) From a few weeks ago: Woman's Hour named DiS single of the week


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As a government agency that has implemented multi-factor authentication (MFA), you're part of a growing trend. According Forrester Technographics, 50% of organizations want to add two-factor authentication as an option in the next 12 months while another 50% already implement two-factor authentication.
Your Constituency Expects Maximum Efforts to Secure Data
Whether it's related to public safety or constituent personal identifiable information, governments must take the highest precautions to make sure only those employees with the proper permissions are granted access. One challenge you may be facing with MFA is scaling its deployment across your organization. We recommend that you think about how to manage MFA across multiple devices and perhaps locations in your organization, as well as which types of MFA work best for your needs.
Managing MFA
Technologies such as Intel® Authenticate—available on devices with 8th Gen Intel® vPro™ Technology—simplify MFA scaling. It gives IT the flexibility to create and deploy custom MFA policies that enforce user identity protection. The IT administrator can mix and match identification factors for different users and provide varying levels of access across the corporate domain, network, VPN and more. Intel Authenticate provides a simple self-service enrollment tool for end users to quickly get started, eliminating calls to IT.
Enabling True "Hardware" Authentication
Lenovo recommends using MFA grounded in hardware. This MFA type is much harder for hackers and malicious code to snoop and capture password data because it's located deep in the silicon, isolated from the OS and applications.
There are several ways to authenticate users and ensure that the credentials are stored at the hardware level, and you can use Intel Authenticate to set up different combinations of the following:
- Facial Recognition: Infrared (IR) cameras are more secure than regular cameras for facial recognition. In addition, ThinkPad Glance utilizes face-, eye- and gaze-tracking to automatically lock a device if the user is not present.
- Fingerprints: Lenovo Match on Chip Fingerprint Reader (MoC FPR) stores biometric credentials on a separate chip, making it almost impossible to hack.
- PIN: Short PIN codes can be used alongside other authentication factors as part of an MFA solution.
- Consider the following as supplementary MFA factors:
- Phone Proximity: Users can pair their smartphone with their PC via Bluetooth and securely use the proximity of their phone as an authentication factor.
- Location: Use location-based services to determine if a user is in an expected location like their office.
As you look to update your access management strategy, you'll need modern devices to support and scale hardware-based MFA and the convenience of solutions such as Windows Hello.


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If you're here because you're interested in comparative politics, you ought to go chug yesterday's rich post on Nate Jensen's blog about what legislatures in authoritarian regimes do and then chase it with Tom Pepinsky's addendum on his own Indolaysia blog. Nate solicited thoughts on this topic from some of the best minds in the field, including Tom, and you can learn a lot in just a few minutes of reading.
What struck me in reading those posts was the sharp tension in comparative politics between the general and the specific. Nate's question has been a focal point for comparativists for nearly a decade now, and the arc of that inquiry it has inspired should be familiar to anyone who works in this field.
- A particular case or new line of deductive theorizing suggests an intriguing puzzle.
- Some solutions to that puzzle are tabled in the form of broad conjectures.
- Patterns are found in cross-national data that seem to confirm those conjectures. (Note, though, that the preceding two steps do not necessarily occur in that order).
- The field buzzes with the promise of a new covering law, the Holy Grail of political science. Conference panels abound.
- People with expertise in specific cases start to nibble at that law, identifying permutations or exceptions in the parts of the world they know. By the time they're done, there's practically nothing left.
- Distracted by the next big puzzle, the field fails to notice what just happened.
- The policy community discovers the covering law and incorporates a few of its prescriptive implications ("Consociationalism good! Presidential systems bad!") into current practice.
Okay, so those last two may be a little mean spirited, but you get the idea: there's some meta-irony here. The quest for covering laws keeps serving up failures, but the quest itself ends up following a recurring pattern.
On the specifics of how institutions shape politics, I think Nate's virtual round-table also provides a nice reminder of the limits of functionalist theories of institutionalism. Functionalist theories see institutions as intelligently designed solutions to specific political and economic problems. For any formal political institution, we should be able to work backwards from the fact of the institution's existence to the problem it was intended to solve and then show in practice how the institution's origins support that line of reasoning. Voilà.
The problem is the disconnect between the assumed version and the reality of how institutional arrangements come into being. In some cases, historical institutionalists have mustered compelling evidence to show how the original institutional innovation was deliberately and successfully designed to solve a specific problem in a specific case. Most of the time, though, the backstory on how a particular institution actually came to exist in any instance chosen at random looks rather different from that first instantiation. And when a functionalist theory gets the "how" part wrong, it's going to get the "why" part wrong, too.
Scott Desposato's contribution to Nate's post on legislatures in authoritarian regimes provides a nice case in point: Brazil. That country's 20-year, military-led authoritarian interlude didn't proactively decide to create a legislature as a way to credibly commit to the protection of its subject's property rights or to craftily divide its opponents. Instead, it inherited an elected legislature from the democratic regime it toppled, which inherited its basic contours from the colonial metropole that built it. If the Brazilian junta can be said to have made a choice here, it was the decision not to demolish an extant legislature, but that choice surely had as much to do with inertia and the expected costs of such a destructive act as it did with the anticipated benefits of keeping an elected legislature around.
These path dependencies are less problematic for softer versions of institutionalist theory that emphasize the marginal and contingent effects of specific institutions under a variety of conditions, as I think Jennifer Gandhi does in her award-winning book on political institutions under dictatorship.
Even there, though, the layers of contingency pile up pretty quickly. Institutions that seem to function a certain way in a certain set of cases for a certain period of time start to do different things or simply become less relevant as the economic, social, and technological context changes around them, and as wily humans looking for an edge keep innovating. For example, in an era of ubiquitous and instant communication, the information-gathering and opposition-moderating functions that authoritarian legislatures are sometimes said to serve may now be satisfied in other ways, as Gary King, Jennifer Pan, and Molly Roberts suggest in a widely-cited paper on the selective censorship of China's Sina Weibo social-media platform.
So where does that leave us? I think the opening line of Barbara Geddes' contribution to Nate's blog post sums it up nicely:
Autocratic legislatures play different roles and serve different functions in different dictatorships.
In other words, "It depends" is about as close to a covering law as we're going to get.


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St. Mary's School volleyball teams named 2013 KISL Champions
Staff Writer
St. Mary's School Junior Varsity and Varsity Volleyball teams have both been crowned as Overall Knoxville Independent School League Champions for the 2013 season.
The Junior Varsity team ended the season with 13 wins and 1 loss – placing third in the tournament but ending the season in first place overall.
The Varsity team was undefeated in regular season play, winning first place in the tournament, and ended the season as KISL champions with a record of 16 wins and no losses.


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ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece's prime minister pledged Monday to do "whatever it takes" to eradicate the extreme right-wing Golden Dawn party, whose leadership was arrested over the weekend on charges of acting as a criminal organization after a fatal stabbing.
Condemning Golden Dawn as a "neo-Nazi" group, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras promised zero tolerance for the party, which has enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity during Greece's crippling financial crisis.
"We are dedicated in completely eradicating such a shame," Samaras said in a speech at the American Jewish Committee in New York. "We must do it within the context of our democratic constitution. But we have to go all the way and do whatever it takes. There is no room for the neo-Nazis in any part of the democratic world."
The government crackdown was sparked by the Sept. 17 slaying of Greek anti-fascist hip-hop singer Pavlos Fyssas in an attack blamed on a Golden Dawn supporter.
The party has vehemently denied any involvement in the killing.
Samaras' conservative-led coalition government says it will submit legislation to Parliament this week aimed at cutting state funding to Golden Dawn. The draft law would suspend state funding to a party if any members of its leadership or lawmakers are being prosecuted for felonies.
Golden Dawn is a formerly fringe nationalist group with neo-Nazi roots and a barely-concealed for Nazi symbolism, literature and anthems. But it strongly denies the neo-Nazi label, highlighting its nationalist anti-immigrant agenda.
With 18 lawmakers in the 300-member Parliament, it is slated to receive more than 873,000 euros ($1.18 million) in 2013.
"Democracy cannot fund its rivals," said Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos. "When you have a criminal organization which is operating inside a political party, there must be sanctions regarding funding."
Under the new legislation, funding would be suspended pending the outcome of a trial, Venizelos said Monday.
Six Golden Dawn lawmakers — including its top two officials— 14 other members and two police officers have been arrested and are being held in custody pending court appearances. Arrest warrants have also been issued for 10 more people.
Golden Dawn lawmaker Christos Pappas turned himself in Sunday to authorities in Athens. Police announced Monday that a search of his home in the northern town of Ioannina had uncovered two unlicensed handguns, a bayonet, brass knuckles, two helmets with 'SS' and swastika insignia, several flags with swastikas and a photograph of Adolf Hitler with the words Golden Dawn across the top, among other items.
This is the first time since the 1974 restoration of democracy after a military dictatorship that sitting members of a Greek Parliament have been arrested.
The Golden Dawn lawmakers will retain their seats in Parliament unless they are convicted or resign. The party has hinted it could have all its lawmakers resign and leave the seats empty in an attempt to trigger local elections.
But government officials have been dismissive of the threat, saying the constitution has enough safeguards.
Since its 2012 election success, Golden Dawn has been blamed for numerous violent attacks, mostly against dark-skinned immigrants but also against gays and left-wing activists.
In a report, a Supreme Court prosecutor has laid out serious allegations against the party's leadership, including involvement in murder, attempted murder, carrying out explosions, possessing explosives and robbery.
Associated Press writer Nicholas Paphitis contributed.


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Well, I thought I should write another episode of my Building your own WOPI Client series, here's the links to the previous episodes part 1, part 2 and part 3. This time around we'll dig into another of the different actions that a WOPI Client can surface – the interactivepreview mode.
As you've seen in the previous posts we can build a viewer and an editor for C# files, to be used in document libraries for instance. What if we would like to lift up and enhance our custom file formats in search, just like Office Web Apps Server does with the Office files. We'll you can do that very easy, and you should! In this post I'll show you how to surface the preview mode in a Search flyout. This also means that we're going to take a look at the new SharePoint 2013 Search Engine, the Design Manager and some funky HTML syntax.
Configure indexing for C# files
The first thing we need to do is to actually make SharePoint indexing our C# (.cs files). This is done in two steps. First we need to tell SharePoint 2013 Search to include the .cs file extension and then we need to tell the search engine what filter to use. To include .cs files in the index there is two ways to do it, using PowerShell or using the Central Administration. In Central Administration you go to the Search Service Application and choose File Types, then click on New File Type and type in cs. That's it. Using PowerShell the following snippet works (as long as you only have one SSA):
$ssa = Get-SPServiceApplication | ?{$_.TypeName -eq "Search Service Application"}
New-SPEnterpriseSearchCrawlExtension -name cs -SearchApplication $ssa
Once that is done we need to fiddle a bit with the registry (usual regedit disclaimers apply here). Start regedit.exe and navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\15.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extensions and choose to add a new Key. Give the key the name ".cs" (without quotations) and then set the default value to the following (fancy crafted) Guid: {0FF1CE15-002C-0000-0000-000000000000}. All you now have to do is to restart the Search Engine like using the PowerShell below and then start a full crawl:
Restart-Service OSearch15
Now when you search for any content in your .cs files it should look something like this:
It's something, but not what we want…
Building the WOPI Preview
Before we start customizing the UI let's build the interactiepreview mode of the WOPI client. Just as we did in the previous post, when we added the edit mode, we need to add a new action to the discovery file and then remove and add the bindings again (for that PowerShell, see previous post). This is the action I've added to my WOPI Client:
<action name="interactivepreview"
urlsrc="http://wacky.corp.local/csharp/preview.aspx?<ui=UI_LLCC&><rs=DC_LLCC&>" />
As you can see that the urlsrc points to a preview.aspx web form. That web form is essentially a copy of the viewer.aspx, with the exception of the menu which I have removed. In a real world scenario you might consider having very different viewers for the normal view mode and the interactivepreview mode. You want this process to be fast and you might just generate a thumbnail or something.
When all is compiled and deployed, and you have removed and re-added the WOPI bindings, it's time to hook this up to search.
Creating the Display Templates
Let's build the search interface. The SharePoint 2013 Search Interface does not any longer require extensive XSLT skills but instead plain ol' HTML hacking. Every Result Type in SharePoint 2013 Search can have it's own Display Templates, and there's two of them; the normal item view and the flyout/hover view. The easiest way to create new Display Templates is to copy an existing one. For this sample let's use the Word Display Templates.
You will find the Display Templates in the new Design Manager (which exists in a Search Center or a site with the Publishing features enabled). You access the Design Manager through the Site Settings menu. Once in the Design Manager you should choose Display Templates in the menu on the left hand side. Then I usually filter on Target Control Type, to narrow down on the Display Templates used for Search; choose SearchResults and SearchHoverPanel. Now scroll down to the Word Item and Word Hover Panel. You'll see two of each but we're only interested in the HTML files for now. Download those two files to your local disc and name them Item_Cs.html and Item_Cs_HoverPanel.html respectively.
Now open these two files in your favorite HTML tool – for me that is Visual Studio 2012. There's a lot of weird stuff in here as you will notice, lots of comments and JavaScripts. I'm not digging into all the details here, that's for Randy Drisgill or someone else to do.
Let's do some simple string replacement. In both files replace "Word" with "Cs" as the first thing. Next update the mso:MasterPageDescription to something more appropriate and the title tag, perhaps replace "Microsoft Word" with "C#". In the Item_Cs.html file locate the second div having an id equal to "_#= $htmlEncode(itemId) =#_" and remove everything inside it and replace with this instead:

_#= ctx.CurrentItem.Title =#_

_#= Srch.U.processHHXML(ctx.CurrentItem.HitHighlightedSummary) =#_

What this does is that we're first rendering the title of the document with the value ctx.CurrentItem.Title. All these JavaScript variables are enclosed in __#= … =#_. Then we output the hit highlighted summary using a built-in method (Srch.U.processHHXML). Finally there's an empty div which will contain the flyout (The flyout is defined in the Item_Cs_HoverPanel.html file). There is one final thing that we need to do and that is to update the hoverUrl JavaScript variable in this Item_Cs.html file. It should point to the Item_Cs_HoverPanel.js file like this:
var hoverUrl = "~sitecollection/_catalogs/masterpage/Item_Cs_HoverPanel.js";
Notice that it points to a JS file, not the HTML file. And also that it's located directly in the masterpage gallery and not in a subfolder (compared to the original Word html file).
The Item_Cs_HoverPanel needs no more changes than replacing Word with Cs and updating the title and description.
To add these Display Templates to the Design Manager, just drag and drop them into your browser where you downloaded the original Display Templates. The files will end up as Draft version so go ahead and publish both of the HTML files.
Once the files are approved, the Design Manager will create two JS files from these HTML files and that's what's used behind the scenes when rendering the search results.
Create a Result Type
The final thing we have to do is to tell the Search Center to actually use our newly crafted Display Templates when finding C# files. For that we need to create a new Result Type. Go to Site Settings and choose Search Result Types under Site Collection Administration. Click on New Result Type to start creating it. Give the Result Type an appropriate name, for instance "C# Files". Under Conditions choose Show more conditions and select the FileExtension property and set it so that it "Equals any of…" and enter "cs" in the text box. Under Actions choose the C# item in the drop down and then simply click Save. You should now have a Result Type looking like this:
Test the stuff…
All that is left is now to test if all this works. Go to the search page of you Search Center and search for something you know exists in your C# files, that by now should have been indexed. You should then see something like this:
You see the items (using the Item_Cs Display Template) and if you hover over one of the search results then you see the preview from the WOPI Client being generated (using the Item_Cs_HoverPanel). Isn't that nice, huh?
In this post you've seen yet another way to leverage a WOPI Client, this time in search, using a preview mode of the files. You have also seen how "easy" it is to generate a custom search result design using the Design Manager, Display Templates and Result Types. I'm really looking forward to seeing WOPI Clients for all kinds of different formats out there…


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(Opportuno Venecia cashmere & silk-blend dress, Zara blazer & heels, Ann Taylor Large Leather clutch, ASOS claw ring, spike stretch bracelet & skinny cross bangle)
Somebody asked me recently why I named my blog VivaLuxury, which got me thinking I never really discussed the meaning behind the name of my blog. You see, to me, the word luxury is synonymous with comfort, confidence and overall good feeling. My blog, above all else, celebrates the idea that clothing must be enjoyable to wear and make you feel good. Which brings me to this week's giveaway, when Opportuno contacted me about hosting a giveaway for one of their gorgeous designs, I couldn't help but think that a lightweight cashmere and silk dress represents a quintessential VivaLuxury item. I mean really, does anything feel better than cashmere?:) So, without further adieu, this week you have a chance to win a beautiful Venecia dress made from the finest Italian silk & cashmere. Hope the winner enjoys wearing it as much as I do!
THIS GIVEAWAY is open to everyone,
OLD FRIENDS AND NEW and it will SHIP INTERNATIONALLY
1. LIKE this post on BlogLovin by CLICKING HERE
2. FOLLOW Opportuno on Twitter by CLICKING HERE & LIKE Opportuno on Facebook by CLICKING HERE
3. FOLLOW VivaLuxury on Twitter by CLICKING HERE & LIKE VivaLuxury on Facebook by CLICKING HERE
4. Mention this GIVEAWAY on either Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or Pinterst with a link back to this post
Please leave a comment here including your email address so I may contact you if you win! The GIVEAWAY will last for 7 days until Monday June 11, 2012. I wish everyone the best of luck!