text:
Butler man poses as 6th grader; Asks 12-year-old girl for nude photos
Brian Stivason is in Butler County Prison
A Butler man faces possible trial on charges he tried to coax a 12-year-old girl he met through Facebook into sending him naked photos of herself.
Brian M. Stivason, 26, tried to convince the Jefferson Township girl in November that like her, he was in the sixth grade, state police said.
But the child outsmarted the suspect, according to court documents. She found out Stivason was lying and notified her parents, who contacted police.
Troopers eventually verified the girl's account and arrested Stivason on felony charges of unlawful contact with a minor, criminal use of a communication facility and attempted sexual abuse of children. He also is charged with corruption of minors, a misdemeanor.
On Wednesday, the defendant waived his preliminary hearing in the case before District Judge Sue Haggerty in Saxonburg.
Stivason remains in the Butler County Prison on $50,000 bail.
Police said Stivason first contacted the alleged victim on Facebook in November of last year and the two later began texting one another.
At one point, upon the suspect's request, the girl sent Stivason a "cheerleading picture" of herself, according to court documents.
Soon after, he began asking for nude pictures.
Instead of sending those photos, she checked his Facebook profile and found out he was not her age, as he claimed. Troopers spoke to the child and her parents, and on Dec. 3 spoke to Stivason. He initially denied any contact with the girl. But before long, police said, he corroborated her account
A forensic examination of the suspect's cellphone and computer would provide more evidence, documents said.
Butler Township police, meanwhile, acknowledged Wednesday that Stivason is a suspect in a similar investigation there.
Detective David Fish said charges in that case are pending but he declined further comment.


text:
Cistus Nursery is a retail micro-nursery located on scenic Sauvie Island, 15 miles northwest of Portland, Oregon. Cistus offers Mediterranean climate, southern hemisphere, hardy tropical plants, and more. Come visit the nursery and wander through the display gardens, or browse our Plant Lists and have a small piece of the nursery sent to you through the mail... Plants are our passion, and sharing our treasures with fellow plant lovers is our joy. Please go to our facebook page and instagram for the most recent news and COVID-19 updates.
Location22711 NW Gillihan Road, Portland, OR 97231 | Map
Hoursevery day 10am to 5pm (Winter hours 10am to 4:30pm)
*Cistus will be closed Dec. 24th, 25th and New Year's Day.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
HAXTUN — U.S. Senator Michael Bennet met with recipients of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development grants and loans Monday, at Abts Pharmacy in Haxtun, as part of his tour of the Eastern Plains, to highlight and discuss the importance of USDA Rural Development resources in the Farm Bill.
"The programs included in the Farm Bill reach much farther than our farmers and ranchers. This is an important bill that we need to pass sooner rather than later because it provides assistance for all aspects of our rural economies," Bennet said.
It's thanks to the Farm Bill and USDA Rural Development that Melissa and Travis Bumgardner, the owners of Abts Pharmacy, received a $200,000 revolving loan, administered by Highline Electric Association, to help them expand their business from Julesburg to Haxtun and Holyoke.
When they first bought the pharmacy in Julesburg four years ago, they had a regular business loan, "the last loan that that company did zero down," Melissa said.
"After a couple of years of being there we noticed that the neighboring towns around us were without pharmacy services that we felt these rural communities were entitled to have," she said, noting Haxtun hadn't had a pharmacy for 10 years.
They were already delivering to Haxtun and Holyoke and had a "pretty good clientele going." So, they met with Don Burris, CEO of Haxtun Hospital District, to "see how we might be able to partner to bring the pharmacy here at the least expensive way possible."
"Coming here into the hospital saved us a tremendous amount of money, because we didn't have to buy and refurbish a building, and they provided much of the remodel for us," Melissa said. "Then having the other pharmacy and be able to share fixtures and things like that also helped."
Though those things helped them cut costs, they needed money to start up and getting a commercial loan on a startup pharmacy is "near impossible," she said. So, they turned to Highline.
"We were at the wire; we really needed to get some things done and the folks at Highline made it possible for us," Melissa said. "If we didn't have this loan, this pharmacy would not be open. We didn't have the other funding opportunities that we needed to open."
The $200,000 they've received primarily paid for the pharmacy in Haxtun, but it also helped with the one in Holyoke.
Between the two counties and three stores there are 25 employees total, eight in Phillips County.
"Those are eight employees that would not be having jobs, were it not for (the loan)," Melissa said.
Highline was able to offer Abts Pharmacy a loan after they obtained interest free loans and grants from the Rural Utilities Service for the Crook Community Center and Fire District and the Melissa Memorial Hospital in Holyoke, in 2007 and 2009. From those two projects, more than $500,000 was paid back into a revolving loan fund.
So far, they've loaned out $320,000 and currently they have approximately $208,000 waiting to be loaned out.
A committee, made up of individuals in banking and economic development, review projects requesting a loan and make recommendations to Highline's board of directors.
Bennet asked those at the meeting what they would say to people who say, "Well, is this really a reasonable thing to cover? Shouldn't we just let the private sector do this?"
Burris pointed out that the pharmacy benefits the citizens who use it, but it also provides an economic boost to the hospital.
"It's really a domino effect. Getting someone to start a business and bring that to our community doesn't just help them. It helps the hospital; it helps other businesses in town," he said.
Highline President Michael Bennett added that being in a rural area in a smaller community, a lot of traditional banks might look at the population and say "you're not going to be able to support a pharmacy; you're not going to be able to do these kind of things."
"So, without specialized funding, with people in the local area that understand the needs, I don't think you'd be able to secure the funding that easily," he said.
He called the revolving loans "the last mile in some cases."
John Ayoub, CEO Melissa Memorial Hospital, in Holyoke, talked about how they benefited from Highline's loan to build a new building. Thanks to the loan they were able to add an arthroscopy tower and increase their medical staff from just over two full-time equivalents to just over 6 FTE's.
"These are great paying jobs, they're doctors, nurse practitioners," he said.
"If you look at were we were, we've doubled the net revenue of the hospital in just the last six years," Ayoub added. "When we look at the income that folks are bringing home, we went from about $3.5 million in 2007 to about $6.1 million this past year."
Another entity to benefit from Highline was Haxtun Community Child Care Center; they received an operating loan to build the center.
Prior to the center being built there was nowhere for parents to take their children while they worked, so they were leaving Haxtun. Now, with the center people are returning to the town.
The center has gone from just four children enrolled two years ago, to 103 children enrolled this year. There are four teachers at the center and they have room to hire four more.
Laurie Jones, small business consultant for Northeast-East Central Colorado Small Business Development Center, talked about the $27,500 USDA Rural Business Enterprise grant that Logan County Economic Development Corporation was awarded. She wrote the application for the grant.
"The purpose of the grant is to get technical assistance for a feasibility study to look at the oil seed industry as an alternative crop to be grown in our region," she said. "Then (we could) have a processing center in Logan County, which could be kind of a central hub."
They have put out a request for proposals and they should be getting proposals back from professional consultants in about a week.
"Coming through a grant fund program helps ease the burden a little bit, of bringing in someone, getting an independent consultant driven report done, that we can then disseminate out in the farming community through CSU, work with some of search partners and give us that credibility to get started," Jones explained.
The Farm Bill that has helped make all the things that were discussed possible has been stalled in Congress and is currently operating on a short-term extension.
As a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Senator Bennet helped write the bipartisan Farm Bill that the Senate passed in June. Earlier this month, he was selected as a member of Farm Bill Conference Committee, which will work out the differences between the House and Senate version of the Farm Bill.
"If Congress doesn't act the Farm Bill will expire in a matter of weeks," Bennet said. "The bill is critical to our rural communities, and they deserve much better than short-term extensions that make it more difficult to plan for the future."
Callie Jones: (970) 526-9286; email@example.com. Follow @cjones_JA on Twitter.


text:
There was no way she was sitting in the hot seat.
Unlike virtually all witnesses who come to court to testify, Premier Kathleen Wynne remained standing and despite her high heels, never once sat during her four hours of testimony in the bribery trial of two high-ranking Liberals.
She had a message to send: that she was here to testify of her own volition, that she did nothing wrong.
A little nervous at the beginning, Wynne was clearly well-rehearsed: memory loss on any details that could land her in trouble — "I don't recall the specifics of the conversation" being a common refrain — and then forthright when in less dangerous territory.
The way Wynne told it, she just wanted to keep Andrew Olivier in the "family" after she'd found a better choice to run in the 2015 byelection to take back the Sudbury riding Olivier had failed to win five months earlier. The premier never told her lieutenants to offer him bribes to step aside, no sir. Pat Sorbara, Wynne's former deputy chief of staff and campaign director, and Gerry Lougheed, a Liberal party fundraiser, have pleaded not guilty to charges under the Ontario Elections Act that they offered incentives to Olivier to withdraw his plans to run and make way for Wynne's preferred star candidate, Glenn Thibeault, who was defecting from the federal NDP.
Sorbara has also pleaded not guilty to a second charge that to get Thibeault, she allegedly offered paid positions to two of his former NDP riding staff. When asked about Sorbara, Wynne smiled fondly. She'd known of her "excellent reputation" for years and after she joined their campaign in 2014, they spoke daily. The admiration was mutual — even as her former boss was about to reluctantly hang her out to dry, Sorbara smiled in return. That's what you call a team player.
Olivier, however, was not.
In the 2014 general election, he lost the Sudbury seat held by the Liberals for almost two decades. When the winner resigned five months into his term, Olivier announced that he wanted to try again.
Wynne didn't want him.
"Andrew Olivier had not been as strong a candidate as I had thought," she explained.
When she learned the NDP's Thibeault was interested in switching parties, Wynne was intrigued.
"I thought it was something we should explore," she said. "We didn't have a candidate and didn't have a prospective candidate" who was strong.
When Wynne dispatched Lougheed to speak to Thibeault, she said she gave no instructions on how to woo him. She also denied ever being asked to promise him a cabinet position. That would be "antithetical to how I would want to proceed," she insisted.
Thibeault was promoted to energy minister in 2016.
After meeting him at her home to discuss his potential candidacy, Wynne was convinced Thibeault was her man.
"I felt that Glenn and I had connected, that we liked each other. I liked the approach he was taking."
When he agreed to run, she had Lougheed break the news to Olivier that he wouldn't be running. She then followed up with a phone call of her own. It was the decent thing to do, she said.
"We wanted to keep him involved if we could … and to see if there was a possibility that he would work with us and support Glenn."
Her aim was party unity, she explained. But even without Olivier's blessing, she was determined that Thibeault would be her candidate. After an "awkward" conversation, Wynne hung up not knowing what the disappointed Olivier would do.
She tasked Sorbara with following up. Did Wynne give her deputy any direction on what to say or offer?
"There was no instruction," she said.
As for Thibeault's requests regarding paid staffers and expenses, she left that with Sorbara as well.
"She did not discuss the specifics with me."
The subtext? Messy backroom wheeling and dealing was up to her loyal lieutenants.
It was exhausting to watch. Standing on those heels for so many hours, Wynne had a narrow tightrope to walk: Separate herself from any taint of wrongdoing without throwing her good friend, Sorbara, and Lougheed, an important party powerbroker, under the bus.
But try as she might, by the end of her testimony, the smell of road kill was heavy in the air.
Read Mandel Wednesday through Saturday.


text:
Marcel Canclini necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 105 diseños de 25 diseñadores freelance.
flockstreet: we are a web 2.0 start-up and building a web application focusing on design and usability.
We are young, we are new, we are social media and we are connected.
Our customers create their profile (like on facebook), but as a company. They add their services and products and what ever else that is special to what they do. With this profile they can start to interact with each other. Basically flockstreet is where companies flock together and live social media and make new business online.
Our target audiences are small and medium-sized companies in all branches. Our typical user is not so much into web – he would rather be the practical, working kind of guy. On the other side they all have a small business running that they are interested in keeping. So most of them will sooner or later go onto the internet and flockstreet is helping them out here. That's about our challenging audience.
We also have the small and medium-sized companies that know about social networks and like it.
Our customers are getting together on flockstreet to share information about their company and in order to learn about solutions that other companies can offer. We want to make our grumpy small company user wonder about this "social media thing". So the logo would suggest:
- reliability
- confidence
- curiousness
...and on the same time we want our customers to feel good when thinking of us (like thinking of a nice summer day). They gonna have to work hard and outgrow them self regarding their habits and are rewarded with interesting business opportunities and partners that bring solutions. So we are at the same time looking for something like:
- together we are more
- networking brings solutions and opportunities to you
- getting together and growing.
The logo might include/evoke a snow-flake and/or street, but not necessarily.
Our application is focusing on usability, clean design and will not be overloaded with information, so should be our logo/brand.
We are pretty much undecided about colours. Not too colourful. Yellow not as a main color.
Format requirements:
1) the logo will be used on the website where we don't have restrictions on the format
2) the logo or a part of it would be used as avatar (those must fit in a square shape)
It is up to you, to provide either one logo to fit both format requirements or if it is possible to use part of the logo for an avatar. (you all know the twitter, facebook, ... , logos)
We like:
http://twitter.com/cloudsuisse (the white cloud on red with the lettering)
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


text:
The thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland that lies in front of the
windpipe, also known as the trachea, and just below the voice box, also called
the larynx. This gland makes hormones that regulate the way the body uses
The thyroid gland uses iodine from food to make two thyroid
hormones: thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3). The thyroid gland stores
these hormones and releases them into the bloodstream as they are
If the thyroid gland does not produce enough hormones, it is
called hypothyroidism. If the gland produces too many hormones, it is called
hyperthyroidism. Problems with the thyroid gland can affect many body systems.
Changes in weight, heartbeat, body temperature, digestion, and muscle function
are common. Both hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism can be treated, usually
with medicine and sometimes with surgery.
Last Revised:
August 7, 2012
Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:
Kathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine & Matthew I. Kim, MD - Endocrinology
This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2012 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.


text:
TEHRAN, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Iranian security forces have taken opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi and his wife to an undisclosed location, an anti-regime Web site claims.
Opposition Web site Jaras reports that Karroubi and his wife were taken from their home Friday and nothing is known as to their whereabouts.
"An eyewitness had gone to the alley were Mehdi Karroubi's home is located and noticed that not only were the lights completely off and there was no sign of anyone's presence, but also that there was no longer any sign of security vehicles or the plainclothes forces who used to patrol the area," Dutch broadcaster Radio Zameneh reported, citing the Persian-language account.
Iran is cracking down on the opposition movement as political uprisings spill across much of the Middle East and North Africa.
Tehran greeted the waves of unrest that followed the contested 2009 re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a show of force.
Masked security forces took the place of the guards normally posted outside the home of Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in mid-February.
Mousavi was put under house arrest Feb. 14 as opposition leaders in Iran petitioned the government to stage demonstrations.
Lawmakers have called for the execution of Mousavi and Karroubi. Both men launched bids to unseat Ahmadinejad in 2009 and became leaders of the opposition Green Movement in the wake of the unrest.


text:
A few more reasons you'll love Chubby Stick.
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Two of our best-selling, luscious lip colour favourites.
Click below to compare them now.


text:
PHOENIX (AP) — Ending a six-month legislative session, Arizona lawmakers endorsed a key element of President Barack Obama's health care law in a huge political victory for Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, after a lengthy fight over Medicaid expansion that divided the state's Republican leadership.
The expansion that will extend health care to 300,000 more low-income Arizonans came after months of stalled negotiations, tense debates and political maneuvering as Brewer pushed the Medicaid proposal through a hostile Legislature.
She secured her victory Thursday after lawmakers passed Brewer's $8.8 billion state budget that included the Medicaid expansion provided under a key provision of the Affordable Care Act. The Legislature's Republican leadership called it "Chicago politics" and labeled Brewer a puppet master, but Brewer remained undeterred as she prepared to sign the measures into state law.
"The day has been a red-letter day for the people of Arizona," Brewer told reporters after the budget votes Thursday. "It was a win, win, win all the way around."
Brewer, an early critic of the Affordable Care Act, surprised the nation when she acknowledged the Medicaid expansion as the law of the land in her State of the State address in January. She noted that rejecting an expansion would mean Arizona taxpayers would subsidize care for those in other states while receiving no benefits themselves.
The expansion is expected to help reduce the amount of uncompensated care hospitals must absorb and help cut what Brewer called a hidden health care tax that people who buy insurance pay, through higher premiums, to cover others' care.
After the Legislature secured her political win, Brewer softened her support for the health care law.
"Medicaid was here long before Obama health care. I have never liked Obama health care," she told reporters after the vote. "It has nothing to do with Obama health care."
The expansion is optional under last year's Supreme Court decision upholding the health care law, and many Republican governors rejected it.
In all, 23 states plus Washington, D.C., are moving ahead with the expansion, while 15 states have turned it down. Another 12 states are still weighing options.
Nearly all the states refusing are led by Republicans. Several of the states accepting have Republican governors, but most are led by Democrats.
Washington will pick up the entire cost of the expansion for the first three years and 90 percent over the longer haul. It's estimated that less than $100 billion in state spending could trigger nearly $1 trillion in federal dollars over a decade.
In Arizona, Republican leaders in the Legislature called the expansion a massive government overreach that would drive the federal government deeper into debt. They predicted the government promises of paying for the expansion would turn out to be false.
"This is the biggest mistake we've made in the Arizona Legislature this year and maybe ever," said Republican Sen. Kelli Ward, of Lake Havasu City.
Republicans control the Legislature and all statewide elected offices in Arizona, but the Medicaid fight highlighted internal fractures between those who want smaller government and others who, like Brewer, who said broader health care access is good for the state.
"The bottom line here is greed," said Sen. Al Melvin, a Tucson Republican who is running for governor and voted against the Medicaid expansion. "The people who want this know in their hearts that Obamacare is going to collapse under its own weight."
A newly formed coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans worked closely with Brewer to stand up to the conservative leaders who had blocked debate on the Medicaid expansion for six months. Lawmakers worked through the night Wednesday to get the plan through the House, and the Senate vote came hours later Thursday afternoon.
"I've never seen the case where a governor has rolled over her own party because she was throwing a temper tantrum," said Republican Rep. Eddie Farnsworth, of Gilbert.
Senate President Andy Biggs said lawmakers had little information about what was in the budget before passing it.
"I am deeply and profoundly disappointed at the manner at which this came down," he said.
Brewer dismissed the insults, predicting that all would be forgiven and Republican leaders would move forward together.
"Tomorrow they'll probably say 'I'm sorry' or we will just forget it," she said. "I just try to listen and let it go."
It was a year of wins and losses for Arizona's GOP.
The Legislature voted to adjourn its 2013 session early Friday morning after passing a slew of other bills, including an election overhaul that could make it more difficult for voters to obtain and return mail ballots. Biggs had to beg for extra votes to get the measure opposed by Democrats and voter outreach groups passed in the Senate.
Among the bills left on the floor was a proposal that would have prohibited abortion clinics from using Medicaid dollars to fund administrative costs and allowed for unannounced inspections, a top GOP priority.
Still, Brewer signed more than 100 bills advanced by conservative Republicans throughout the marathon session, including a measure that bars cities and counties from destroying guns turned over to police at community buyback events and instead requiring that they be resold. She also signed bills that will wildly increase campaign finance limits for state candidates and require unemployed workers to present documents showing they were fired before they can receive benefits.
Through it all, Brewer made it clear that the Medicaid expansion was her top priority. She held multiple rallies featuring low-income patients on the Arizona Capitol lawn and during the final month of the session, Brewer refused to sign any other bills until lawmakers passed a budget that included the health care expansion.
The Medicaid plan would cover people making between 100 percent and 138 percent of the federal poverty level and restore coverage to more than 100,000 childless adults who lost Medicaid coverage because of a state budget crunch. About 1.3 million Arizonans already are covered by the state's plan.


text:
Welcome to Watch List, where we identify five things on TV to watch while you stay at home and circumvent the New York Times paywall. LET'S GO!
BODY OF PROOF – 10:00PM (ABC) The always delightful Dana Delany ("China Beach," "Desperate Housewives," the throwaway love interest in "Tombstone") gets her own hourlong drama premiering tonight. Delany plays a brilliant but irascible surgeon (is there any other kind?) forced to become a medical examiner when an accident leaves her unable to operate. It's just like CSI, if CSI were a show on Lifetime. Anyway, expect lots of arcane medical lingo and crimes solved in a relatively tidy 42 minutes. ANTICIPATION: PROCEDURALISM!
BIZARRE FOODS WITH ANDREW ZIMMERN – 9:00PM (Travel Channel) Everyone's favorite bald ex-hobo travels to China to sample something called "volcano-rabbit head." I don't quite know what the hyphen there is meant to imply. I assume it's a rabbit's head with stuff oozing out of the top. Or maybe it's a rabbit's head cooked INSIDE a volcano. Or maybe it's a cat. Either way, tasty! Zimmern also samples boiling chili. My mom would like that. My mom can drink coffee straight out of the pot, with no milk or anything to cool it down. It's terrifying to behold. Her esophagus must be made of Pyrex glass. ANTICIPATION: RABBIT HEAD!
THE BIGGEST LOSER: COUPLES – 8:00PM (NBC) The couples go on an Easter egg hunt featuring over 5,000 hidden eggs. And that just strikes me as overkill. Ever been to an Easter egg hunt where none of the kids can find the eggs? They're sitting right out in the open, and Little Johnny still can't see the stupid things. Even when you point. Now they're gonna go searching for 5,000 of them? I assume tonight's episode is sixty thousand hours long. One of the eggs is golden, by the way. ONE. Inside is a note that says, "You don't have to look for eggs anymore." ANTICIPATION: EGGY!
DIVORCE WARS – 9:00PM (CNBC) CNBC takes a look at the industry of multi-million dollar divorces. You talk about a recession-proof business. ANTICIPATION: UNHAPPY RICH PEOPLE!
REAL HOUSEWIVES OF MIAMI – 10:00PM (Bravo – an NBC/Universal network) Season finale tonight. Unless you count the reunion show coming in 12 weekly installments. ANTICIPATION: BITCHY!
Tuesday Watch List: Dana-mite!
Welcome to Watch List, where we identify five things on TV to watch while you stay at home and circumvent the New York Times paywall. LET'S GO!


text:
Super-fast and great-looking, Ubuntu is a secure, intuitive operating system that all computer types.
- Ubuntu is free. Always has been and always will be. From the operating system to security updates, storage to software.
- Ubuntu is fast to load, easy to use, available in most languages and accessible to all.
- Ubuntu applications are all free and open source – so you can share them with anyone you like, as often as you like.
- Ubuntu comes with full support and all kinds of services available worldwide.
- Ubuntu is far more than an operating system. With thousands of applications to choose from, it's completely free and easy to use.
- Ubuntu is made for sharing. Use it, modify it, improve it, share it. Anywhere, any time and with any number of people all over the world. No licence required.
- Ubuntu operating systems are regularly updated and come in a new, improved, easy-to-install release every six months, so you're always up to date.
- Ubuntu comes with all the support you need and powers the most popular computers – on servers, desktops, notebooks and netbooks.
- Ubuntu comes with a ready-made community dedicated to building and promoting free systems and software. Join us.
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text:
It's after 1 a.m. local time, yet Michael Sanciprian cannot contain his excitement over the phone as he discusses his World Gym Taiwan clubs. Sanciprian has traveled many miles and sacrificed countless weeks and months away from his wife back in California to focus on the growth of his clubs in Taiwan.
When Sanciprian first arrived in Taiwan in 2007, the country had three World Gym Taiwan clubs. World Gym Taiwan was created by John Caraccio in 2004. Today, Caraccio and Sanciprian are partners and operate 15 World Gym Taiwan clubs. The latest club, which was scheduled to open late last month, is on the sixth floor of Taipei 101, one of the world's tallest buildings.
The two have succeeded, in part, with roll-up-the-sleeves guerilla marketing as well as "gorilla" marketing, relying on the famous World Gym gorilla to attract the Taiwanese to a U.S. brand. Sanciprian says his clubs generated $49 million in 2009. By the end of 2011, he expects revenues to hit $100 million, with an additional 20 locations.
"I do it the old-fashioned way," Sanciprian says. "I still do marketing stuff that we did in the late 1980s because it's still so new [in Taiwan]."
As the U.S. economy continues to lag, resulting in banks restricting lending to potential operators, and as some big-box club operators continue to struggle to pay the rent on their high-priced leases, international possibilities may be an attractive option for U.S. operators. However, creating successful club operations around the globe is not as simple as creating a club in a veritable fitness oasis. U.S. operators must wade through some difficult terrain before achieving success overseas. Besides economic hurdles, there are language and cultural barriers as well. For example, the 125,000-square-foot Gold's Gym in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is built so that men and women exercise separately.
"International business is a code word for paperwork," says Helen Rockey, chief operating officer for World Gym International, Los Angeles.
The Taiwan clubs represent one example of American operators looking outside U.S. borders for growth and prosperity. Recently, Gold's Gym International, Irving, TX, landed what potentially could be the largest franchise agreement in the company's history. A group based in the United Arab Emirates, Al Ahli Holding Group, agreed to operate 26 new Gold's Gyms in four Arab Gulf countries and has the option to operate an additional 66 clubs in 13 countries.
Last month, Anytime Fitness, Hastings, MN, announced a master franchise agreement for the United Kingdom and Ireland. Anytime Fitness, which has 1,250 clubs open in the United States and about 100 clubs open in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and India, could boost its total club count to 2,000 by the end of the year with the recent franchise agreement.
Clubs in countries outside of North America generated revenue three times greater than North American clubs, according to the 2009 International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA) Global Report. North American clubs generated $22.7 billion of the$68.1 billion in revenue worldwide. European clubs produced $33.3 billion in revenue, a 16 percent increase from the previous year. (The 2010 IHRSA Global Report is scheduled for release this month.) And there is room for growth. The 2009 IHRSA report says that European club units rose by 8.6 percent, and membership grew by 4.6 percent from the previous year.
"It's not the kind of barren wilderness that a lot of people suspect it is internationally," says Jim Teatum, president of Global Business Systems, San Diego, which handles international franchising for World Gym.
China remains one of the most attractive opportunities for the club industry. Only 4.5 percent of the 1.3 billion people in mainland China belong to a health club, according to the 2009 IHRSA Global Report. Despite that low penetration rate, mainland China's impact in the industry is beginning to grow, says Mark Mastrov, founder of 24 Hour Fitness and now the co-owner of New Evolution Fitness Co. (NEFC), Lafayette, CA. China's restrictions, however, can make life difficult for club operators, he adds.
"Investing money and bringing money into countries and then pulling money out is probably one of the harder challenges," Mastrov says. "If you're bringing funds from abroad — no matter what country you're in — into China, there are regulations on how you bring the money in and how you bring the money out. There's a lot of tax work."
Few club operators know the potential growth opportunities and the frustrations in the international market quite like Mastrov, who has opened clubs in more than 25 countries. He made California Fitness, a wholly owned subsidiary of 24 Hour Fitness, successful in the Asian markets. California Fitness opened in seven Asian countries, targeting the novice fitness club members, and included the backing of some big-name celebrities, such as movie star Jackie Chan and basketball star Yao Ming.
Mastrov says international markets are interesting but difficult.
"I've seen a lot of people lose their shirts internationally investing," Mastrov says. "There's thousands of sad stories versus lots of winners. How many Americans have gone abroad and performed well and made money? Not too many in the 30- to 40-year history of our industry."
Mastrov says the downturn in the economy around the world means that banks overseas are just as cautious as banks in the United States about lending money to potential club operators.
"As the U.S. goes, so does the rest of the world," Mastrov says. "If it's difficult to borrow money in the U.S., it's not going to be easier to borrow in Australia or Beijing or Hong Kong. It's going to be more difficult."
Karen Woodard-Chavez, president of consulting company Premium Performance Training in Boulder, CO, and Ixtapa, Mexico, says that credit is typically not as available overseas as it is in the United States.
"When credit is more difficult to acquire and the standards are more stringent, you see a very different type of person starting their own business," Woodard-Chavez says. "Very often, businesses are not started with any credit at all but instead the individuals own capital, and then credit may be used to grow the business."
Real-estate costs also vary from country to country. In Asian countries, real-estate values are sky high, especially in Hong Kong, where a lease could cost $300,000 to $400,000 per month, Mastrov says.
Real estate isn't the only area of caution. Some business aspects of the club industry do not translate overseas, says Joel Tallman, senior vice president of franchising and global operations for Gold's Gym International. For example, some countries' banking systems do not support an electronic funds transfer (EFT) method of payment for members, instead operating in a cash environment with paid-in-full memberships.
However, Sanciprian overcame the reliance on the cash model, and now about 95 percent of the World Gym Taiwan clubs' billing is EFT (all through checking accounts — no automated clearing house drafting), with 5 percent pre-pay for those who do not have a credit card.
Once the World Gym Taiwan clubs went to an EFT model, personal trainer revenue increased 600 percent, from $15,000 a month to $90,000 a month, Sanciprian says. He also negotiated a rate for the clubs' rent at about 80 percent less than his competitors and convinced the buildings' landlords to help with the build-out of the clubs.
Despite World Gym Taiwan's success, a U.S. brand name alone won't seal the deal for overseas franchisees. One of the most important aspects to franchising in other countries is to choose the right people for the master franchise agreements.
Business acumen and financing are just some of the qualities Gold's Gym looks for in a potential overseas partner, Tallman says. Gold's Gym spent about a year in negotiations with the Al Ahli Holding Group before announcing the franchise deal.
"We choose our partners very carefully," Tallman says, "We spend a long time picking the right people. In years past, we've looked for people just to occupy the position of franchising in that country. The quality of the operation, the quality of the product, the facilities are very, very important now."
The recent Anytime Fitness deal in the United Kingdom and Ireland involves people with international fitness industry experience. The master franchisee group includes Justin McDonnell, who already is the Anytime Fitness master franchisee for Australia and New Zealand.
Building successful international clubs involves more than building relationships with local franchisees. It also involves building relationships with the people who manage and run the clubs. Woodard-Chavez says staff members overseas value their positions and contributions to the club more than staff members do in the United States. They also see their positions with the club as a profession rather than a job.
At the end of the day, according to many club operators and consultants, the values and work ethics that separate the good and bad clubs in the United States are what determine successful clubs overseas. Those traits include hard work, market differentiation, attention to detail, qualified staff and business savvy.
"The overall business practices of clear strategy (vision, mission, core values, market differentiation), transparency in communication and operations, strong financial drive and control, and delivering more than you promise are applicable," Woodard-Chavez says.
If U.S. club operators are considering opening clubs overseas, licensing and franchising are the avenues that will work best, Mastrov says.
"For Western people to go down, live and operate, get in the culture, it's very, very difficult," Mastrov says. "Going out and trying to put your flag down abroad is almost impossible unless you've got local operators or local partners that you've got long-standing relationships with. That's why you don't see many Americans get out there and move to Sydney, Australia, and build clubs. It's very difficult. It takes a lot of capital and a lot of patience and a lot of skill. You've got to pretty much be a Ph.D. in fitness, a Ph.D. in finance, a Ph.D. in tax accounting. It takes decades to figure all of this stuff out."
Sanciprian, so far, is among the minority that has succeeded overseas.
"The whole point of using World Gym was just one pure strategy to go to the Taiwanese, go to our landlords and establish that we are a Western-style gym," Sanciprian says. "It did work. Every single day, we're working our tail off, but it did work. If you ask anybody in Taiwan, 'What is fitness?' they're going to say, 'World Gym.'"
For past articles on U.S. clubs in foreign countries, visit our website at www.clubindustry.com.
Sean McGarry, founder of Franchise Direct, an Atlanta-based company that serves as a portal for franchise and business opportunities, outlines five advantages of operating overseas:
- An increased revenue stream
- Contributions to headquarters costs
New ideas and new approaches by international franchisees
By adapting to the international market and developing language skills necessary to operate there, the franchise will strengthen its brand
- Helps to build the brand globally
Two of the obstacles of operating overseas, according to McGarry, are:
- A lack of understanding of local customs and laws
- The language barrier
Language and cultural barriers are one of the biggest obstacles for U.S. club operators in foreign countries. Mark Mastrov, the co-owner of New Evolution Fitness Co., Lafayette, CA, suggests U.S. club operators target an English-speaking country for their initial expansion overseas.
"If you don't speak Greek, if you don't speak Russian, if you don't speak Finnish, you've got no shot," Mastrov says.
Michael Sanciprian, the CEO of World Gym Taiwan, says he spent a half-million dollars to build a software program that translates English to Mandarin Chinese, the native language of Taiwan. Sanciprian's partner, John Caraccio, the president of World Gym Taiwan, has been in Taiwan for 15 years and speaks fluent Mandarin.
"He understood the ins and outs," Sanciprian says of Caraccio. "He had that backside for me to understand the Chinese and Taiwanese market. I came with the front side. We developed our partnership based off that. We respect all the holidays, we respect the staff, we have the Chinese way, but when it comes to running the company, it's 100 percent Westernized."
The Taiwanese like to exercise in groups, Sanciprian says, so group exercise classes are popular in World Gym Taiwan clubs, complete with a rock concert feel. Other Taiwanese clubs have a swimming pool, steam room, sauna, Jacuzzi and a cold pool. Those cost money and maintenance, Sanciprian says, which is why he is building some newer clubs with only a sauna.
"What you do is you make that member lazy [if a club has several aquatics options] because what happens is you can't get them out to the fitness floor for them to understand they need to buy [personal training]," Sanciprian says.
Club operators have to be mindful of the differences in culture as it relates to exercise involving men and women. In the 125,000-square-foot Gold's Gym in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the club is split down the middle. Men work out on one side of the club, and women work out on the other side. The home page of the club's website, www.ggarabia.com, has a link to the men's gym and a link to the women's gym.
"In the Muslim world, preventing women from being seen by men is closely linked to the concept of Namus," says William Holford, CEO for the Gold's Saudi Arabia master franchise. Namus is a gender-specific ethical category of relations in Middle Eastern Muslim culture that involves, among other values, modesty.


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Rain and Hail…Next Stop…Maryvale
Part of this Spring Training adventure was spent camping at Lake Pleasant. This is a beautiful lake, with lots camping sites and more importantly showers and electricity.
Mike and I each had our own tents and the combination of 50 mph winds and torrential rains that started on Saturday night really put a kink in our Arizona camping experience.
Saturday night was a nightmare weather-wise and everything Mike and I had in our tents got drenched.
Props to my buddy Dan(thank you) for hooking us up with a coupon for a room at the Talking Stick Resort near Salt River Fields. This was a really nice hotel and after our bout with the rain this was a little slice of heaven. We spent Sunday and Monday night at the Hotel and by doing that we avoided the snow and hail that visited our campsite.
Brewers vs Rangers
Maryvale Baseball Park holds a special place for me. It was here I snagged my first live game home run ball.
Here's a link to that blog entry back in 2009:
Snagged my Holy Grail at Maryvale
This would be my first time back to Maryvale since 2009 and I had visions of another home run snag, however this time I wanted to catch it on the fly. The weather was sketchy at best with the sky clear in some areas and pouring rain in other.
I hardly took any pictures at this game as my focus was a home run ball.
If you want to see some game pictures check out the Rox Addicts blog entry on this game.
I did try to get a good one of Brad Hawpe for Queen Geri..Here's the best I could do Queen, just know I was think'n of ya 🙂
Although not in the best neighborhood Maryvale Baseball Park is my favorite little spring training stadium. I love the vibe here. Nobody messes with you, the food is reasonably priced and this park has a fantastic berm.
Here's a few shots of this little gem.
Look at the flags in the above picture. The wind was blowing and it wasn't one of those warm desert winds. This was a chill you to the bone cold wind.
This park is Happy Youngster stomping grounds and I was on the lookout for that bright yellow shirt. Unfortunately I didn't run into my friend Nick.
Due to the rain this game was called before it got to the 5th inning, so in the end this game really wasn't a game.
I'm "D" The Ranter and I'll be back Maryvale, my ticket is good for two years.


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When I was three years old, my mother stood me up on a piano bench in the church she and my dad pastored and, together, we sang an old hymn entitled "Inside the Gate". That moment started a life-long love affair with these too often forgotten, beautiful and comforting songs.
Mom passed away the day after Christmas, 2002. She was an amazing woman with a heart for God like no one else I have ever met. Right now, she sings with the angels and dances down the golden streets hand in hand with my father.
After never spending a night in a hospital for his entire life, Dad lost use of his legs in September of 2007. After much testing, it was determined that he had, in addition to the final stages of Parkinson's, multiple myeloma. Over the next year and a half, I watched as disease ravaged this humble, sweet man's body until he finally went home exactly at sunrise on Easter morning, 2009. He lived with Cassie and me till the end.
After it was clear that regular church visits were impractical, we started having what we called "Chapman Church". Whoever was in town and available came over to the house around six where we would just sit around Papa's bed and tell stories and sing the old songs that brought him so much comfort. These were some of the sweetest moments of my life so far.
It is in Mom and Dad's honor that I do this work.
I don't know about you and please don't be offended, but I really don't fully enjoy modern worship music all that much.
I find myself longing for a simpler experience. For me, worship is very personal. I much prefer being in an intimate setting either alone or with a few people I hold very close.
A few months ago, an old friend of mine back home in Texas passed away and I was asked to come sing at the funeral as I had done ten years ago when this sweet woman's husband had passed. I was unable to attend but offered to set up a camera and sing the song and send it for them to use at the service. That experience triggered this idea.
Once a week, I am going to do just that. I'll tell what the song means to me or how it came to be in the first place, then perform it acoustically for those who want to subscribe here.
I so look forward to the stories of encouragement that will accumulate on this site. Please interact with each other and lose yourself in the purity of these old songs.
In addition, if you have a parent or someone close to you who is facing hospice care, I will give the subscription away in hopes that your load might be lightened, even for a minute, as this difficult time is upon you. Just email us here with a hospice contact's email and phone number and know that you will be taken care of.
All the best and let's keep these wonderful songs alive!


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Welcome to TEOTI - The End Of The Internet. The End Of The Internet is TEOTI - Where Gods live. We are a global community of debaters, not haters. Gamers, not lamers. Sharers, carers, dungaree flarers, TEOTI expands your vision, envibralizes your world.
Reddit is for circle jerking, Facebook is for grannies, kittens and for racist Auntie Alice. TEOTI belongs to the Gods among us. TEOTI will sear your soul and give it back to you with a side of french fires. Stride with us, and be TEOTIAN. Joining is free, leaving is impossible.
Post in a forum, gain points, win cool stuff. Defend your views, share those of others. TEOTI is Anonymous. TEOTI is Liberated. TEOTI is Happening...Now..


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Katy Perry & Russell Brand Couples Costume
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Katy Perry & Russell Brand
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This homemade costume for couples entered our 2012 Halloween Costume Contest.
A word from Nikki, the 'Katy Perry & Russell Brand' costume creator:
My boyfriend and I dressed up as Katy Perry and Russell Brand!! I was inspired by the "Katy Perry Candy" costume sold in stores. I like being original and creative so I decided I would do my own costume with the "candy dots dress" as my theme! I found a white strap less dress, bought some foam balls, cut them in half and spray painted them to get the Candy Dots effect. Then added a blue wig!! The Russell Brand costume was really simple and easy. Just dressed him in his own clothes, added a crazy wig with some teasing involved and a little bit of face makeup for the 5:00 shadow! :)
Similar costumes:


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Rita04 necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 190 diseños de 48 diseñadores freelance.
In this age of texting, things literally get lost in translation. This crowd sourced site would allow women to help other women tackle the issues around communicating with men in 140 characters! Users will be able to upload their problem or issue via the website or Twitter and the community will be able to comment on the situation. Each problem or issue will be tagged to allow for easy searching and indexing.
I am an experienced Internet executive with over 4 years of experience in community sites.
The target audience is for women aged 18-40 in the U.S. initially who are looking for a comfortable, friendly and feminine site where they can share their texting experiences and get advice.
I want the logo to represent textingwithboys.com.
I would like the logo to be chic and feminine with pink in the logo or text. Perhaps the "texting" is more masculine in flavor and the "with boys" has a script-like feminine flair. A few sites whose aesthetic matches what I am looking for include:
http://glo.msn.com/ (feminine logo)
http://www.laurenconrad.com/ (more feminine)
http://www.nanettelepore.com/ (more feminine)
I am really open to your creative expertise and a tag line is definitely for extra credit!
Please provide the logo in .jpg and layered .psd (RGB) format.
And, please do not use any stock images or clip art in the logo.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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Security in Somalia: Can it be Achieved?
"Live is best organized as a series of daring ventures from a secure base", Bowlby
Filled with euphoria, Somalia is emerging from over twenty years of state collapse and some even say that Somalis are determined to rebuild the country this time. However, there are persisting security challenges despite recent military gains against Al-Shabaab, the extremist militant group that has been waging bombing campaigns against the Somali authorities. Speaking in his inauguration as the newly elected president of Somalia, Mr. Hassan Sheik Mohamud has outlined his vision for Somalia for the next four years, underlining security as his number one priority in a country that is suffering from multiple malaises including environmental, economic, social and political - a daring venture indeed. Can the new president achieve security in Somalia? To answer this, we need to identity the insecurities the country is facing with regard to human and state security. Moreover, I will attempt to explain that security is not one dimensional issue and that its units are interdependent, making necessary to take a holistic approach when dealing with security. This paper will critically examine the number of security threats Somalia is facing today, contextualizing it in a socially and culturally sensitive manner and offering solutions to the present security challenges and to prevent return of insecurities in the future.
Persisting insecurity
The focus of the new government in Somalia is to end insecurity as announced by the new president recently in his inauguration speech (the Guardian, 16 September 2012). The newly elected president has elaborated on this in another speech in the southern City of Baidoa where he focused on Al-Shabaab, an insurgency group that is in decline in its territorial control in Somalia but still a major security threat because of its bombing and insurgency military tactics. The president challenged Al-Shabaab in his speech by offering them a political dialogue while at the same time making it clear that all options are on the table including military action. The president also rightly highlighted "the judiciary and democratic rule" as part of what he considers critical in the restoration of security in Somalia. From a theoretical standpoint, the concept of human security is best explained by the contrasting views of the neo-realist and post-modernist thinkers. The neorealists argue that state's security is paramount as it is the "guardian" of the nation and if the state is secure, the people are at peace (Buzan, 1991). This approach focuses on the military capability of the state to deter external aggression and to provide internal security. However, some point out that the state could be a security threat itself to its own citizens and the security of the state itself does not guarantee human security and freedom. In this context, the postmodernists propose a "broadened conceptualization" of security that embraces individuals and groups (Booth, 2005). In this sense, the target or the referent is not the state but the human. This argument forces the state to not only concentrate on the defense of the country but also the protection of the citizens and the well-being of the society. This means that security is not only physical security from harm or threats but also security risk from lack of human rights and any threat to human dignity and wellbeing such as hunger and lack of economic opportunity. However, both sides recognize the importance of the strength and capability of the state to provide security. This means that there is an agreement that a weak state that can't defend its territory can't logically provide human security. In this view, Somalia has been weakened by years of civil war and foreign intervention. The state which is made up of "people, territory and government" has suffered major setbacks in the context of Somalia. The state doesn't have control over its territory, the Somali people had no functioning government for years and as a result there is lack of trust and confidence in the state's ability to govern and restore order. Famine, terrorism and foreign domination rule the day in Somalia. The state needs serious fixing. The restoration of security in Somalia has to start with the building blocks of the state, its institutions and its monopoly on responsible violence. It has to win the hearts and minds of its citizens and regain its sovereignty from the clutches of internal and external forces. These forces include Al-Shabaab, Somali clannish politicians, and the enablers of domination that continue to make the Somali leaders subservient thugs. Exceptional leadership skill and courage is critically and urgently needed to overcome these existing extreme challenges and deficiencies in a responsible manner.
Internal security threats
There are five major internal security threats to the Somali state including weak institutions, the Al-Shabaab, the clannish politicians who cater to not only the clan interest but their own interest, underdevelopment and external interference. All feed one another and the first four form the basis for the external security threat. Fixing these problems will diminish or may even end the external threat entirely, while also making it a strong, responsive state possible.
Strengthening Weak Institutions
In order to achieve state security goals, robust institutions are required that can provide public goods and that are resilient to internal political and economic challenges as well as external pressures. Institutions are the explicit expressions of effective political process of states (Wade, 1990). This means that the art of leadership in negotiations between the state and "societal groups" produce the institutions that maintain order and mediate relations between the state and citizens for collective action. The Italian thinker, Gramsci provides possible relevant ideas to the current institutional formation in Somalia. Gramsci wrote that a state's historical process produces "organic relations between political and civil society" (Lawrence and Wishart, 1971). This means that through conflict and negotiations, the particular interests of the different groups in society merge at the political level where they take national character in the state machinery, "providing intellectual and moral unity." Through this, good institutions emerge that are responsive to societal needs and enjoy greater legitimacy. In the historical context of Somalia, post-colonial institutions were distant and unresponsive to the needs of average citizens due to lack of vision, lack of government resources and delivery capacity. During the Cold War, the state was marked by strong institutions with better economic development but also engaged in violence, exclusion and nepotism. Since the collapse of the state in 1991, the new institutions that took shape in Somalia were tribal based as clan politics have been the norm for the past two decades in the absence of national state. Tribal or clan politics has been characterized by greed but effectively utilizes the concept of tribal grievances to capitalize on perceived inequalities, exclusion or oppression. To address this problem, clannish politicians engage in collective punishment, monstrous widespread victimization of women and children and propensity for revenge. The emerged clannish politicians have wrecked the country as they have demolished many of the social and political institutions that unified the country including the institution of Somali citizenry. In its place, they constituted the clan identity and sometimes clan based regional identity, leaving the people divided and in conflict. To solidify this process, they continue to push for the construction of clan based constitutional system that legalizes tribal territories. Such proposition is enshrined in the provisional constitution and one can't overstate the urgency and the need to rectify this. Clannish politicians are a threat to Somalia's national security and to the long-term stability of the country. Dislodging the clannish politicians and restoring the Somali political identity, the citizenship of the SOOMAALI, is of prime importance. Similarly, the state can't be representing one region, clan and a particular interest group and this realization must sink in the minds of the new leaders in Somalia. The new institutions must reflect the merged interests of the political and civil society, while the Somali political identity is the expression of this political unity. The need for balanced power with checks and with regional autonomy can be achieved without adversely affecting the unity of the Somali state.
Al-Shabaab has stated that they are fighting for the implementation of Islamic rule and expelling the foreign troops in Somalia by force. Their actions, however, has spoken volumes. They have killed more Somalis than foreign troops and they have been violating Islamic rules by their continued violence against Somali civilians. Many Somalis have turned against the actions of Al-Shabaab and it has no moral authority at all. The new president, Mr. Mohamud has rightly pointed out that Al-Shabaab should lay down their arms and join other Somalis seeking political solution. By choosing dialogue, Al-Shabaab may be able to claim victory over violence and this will give the Somali people new opportunity to reclaim their lives. Given the historical hardline position of Al-Shabaab, there isn't much hope of peaceful resolution. The new Somali president has made it clear about the resolve of the government to restore peace and security. Al-Shabaab is one of the greatest security challenges Somalia faces today. And the best strategy to defeat Al-Shabaab is not militarily but as Fareed Zakaria aptly put in an article published on Washington post, "the real answer, many argue, is to strengthen the state's capacity so that the government has greater legitimacy and the opposition gets discredited". It is very obvious that, there can be no military victory regarding Al-Shabaab and the Somali social institutions can offer key solutions to the Al-Shabaab phenomenon. The Al-Shabaab ideology can be confronted through religious education and combated through the media and by allowing greater civil rights.
Peace dividend is capitalized across Somalia as business is picking up speed after the threat of Al-Shabaab has declined with its loss of territorial control in many parts of Somalia. With growing youth unemployment and fast population growth, Somalia may slide back into internal conflict. The current militaristic approach to peace in Somalia doesn't seem to be focusing on this challenge. Daryl Copeland (2009) believes that "sustainable development" is critical for the long-term stability and security in countries like Somalia that have multiple security problems. He notes in his latest book, Guerilla Diplomacy that the traditional military engagement in countries like Somalia does not address their security needs. Moreover, he admonishes the militaristic approach of the Western policy makers as he believes that this approach undermines the human security needs. He writes, "to address the fundamental drivers of insecurity, decision makers must break the habits of attempting to contain or subdue adversaries and instead move toward engaging them while acting on the most pressing needs of humanity. They must reduce the use of armed force in favor of diplomatic approaches to achieve economic and political objectives, which will entail stowing the cold war baggage, substituting dialogue for battle, and embracing human-centered equitable and sustainable development as the long-term basis for the new security." He makes the connection between peace and development but advocates dialogue instead of military to fulfill the human security and development needs. In this view, focusing on military success only in Somalia will not guarantee human security.
External Threats
The US and its EU allies have adopted the war on terror campaign to contain the "Al-Shabaab violence" in Somalia. This campaign manifests itself through the military forces from several African countries under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). In this model, no US or EU forces are on the ground in Somalia to "minimize their human cost." This means that the US and EU countries incur financial cost while the Africans sacrifice human lives. This military model is considered "smart" in Washington and Brussels and its narrative is palatable to the domestic polity. However, the conflict in Somalia can't and should not be understood through the narrow prism of the war on terror and there are deeper and more complex national and regional political dynamics that explain the anger and disappointment of the Somali people. Like many parts of the globe, there is a regional conflict in the Horn of Africa that has its history in the colonial period. Both Kenya and Ethiopia have territorial dispute with Somalia and they pursue narrow state interest that fosters instability in Somalia. In this perspective, both countries view a strong Somali state as a national security threat. To achieve their stated goals, both countries provide weapons and political capital to factions in Somalia. Some of the factions, mainly clan based, collaborate with these two countries to gain political edge over other rival clans. This tactic has devastated the Somali state and rendered the country a hotbed for different forces that include nationalists such as the once Eritrea based Re-liberation forces, religious groups such as Al-Shabaab and many non-violence resistance groups. The cause for their struggle is to end the unending military activities of Kenya and Ethiopia. The US and EU are considered enablers of these two countries as they underwrite their activities in Somalia. This endangers the lives of the other African forces that are not considered to have similar objectives in Somalia such as Uganda, Brundi, Djibouti and Sierra Leone. The contributions of these African troops are widely and positively recognized in Somalia; however, they will not be able to maintain independent standing in Somalia and may face hostile reaction in relation to the activities of Kenya and Ethiopia inside Somalia and this may create hostility towards them. The new Somali government can't rely on the African troops for its long-term security and it has the opportunity to continue with the rapid rebuilding of the Somali security forces so it can assert itself and its national interest. Moreover, with the changing international approach regarding Somalia, the new government may have the opportunity to convince the US and EU to end their support for Kenya and Ethiopia. This requires exceptional diplomatic strategy and vision. The presence of Kenya and Ethiopia in Somalia has the potential to reignite clan based violence and the resurgence of Al-Shabaab.
The new government in Somalia has identified restoring security as a priority and it is clear from security perspective in its broad concept, it includes both state and human security. This means that the new government must consider the internal and external threats that are drivers of insecurity. There are key security concerns that demand concurrent attention which includes not only the political and institutional transformation, curbing the violence but also focusing on the economic and development needs of the country. Such an approach will foster peace and harmony and will spur economic opportunities. The external security threats will always continue to exist as this comes with the anarchical international system, making incumbent on all states to guard against outside interference. In this sense, domestic peace starts with building unity among the diverse political and civil society groups and the business community. By taking this approach, the new Somali government may succeed to embrace a more centrist attitude, while strengthening the institutional capacity to be more responsive to the needs of the national community. In this perspective, state and human security can be restored.
Abdi Dirshe is a political analyst and is also the current President of the Somali Canadian Diaspora Alliance. Contact Abdi at email@example.com


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We have definitely spread the word to older adults about the importance of exercise for their future quality of life. The Alliance for Aging Research indicates that 86 percent of maturing Americans believe that exercising regularly is very important or essential to staying healthy as they grow older. According to an Internationational Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association survey, 74 percent of the 78 million Baby Boomers think belonging to a club would be beneficial to starting an exercise program.
Most of our clubs have invested in age-appropriate equipment, assigned specific staff to oversee their senior programs, and implemented special programs and classes to accommodate the aging market.
Personally and professionally, I've been encouraged by the increasing number of 60-something and 70-something people coming into our clubs in the last couple of years, but I'm also seeing a problem that needs to be addressed — soon and with gusto. The percentages aren't adding up. By that I mean the growth of our older adult memberships and/or the participation in our specially designed programs aren't coming close to equaling the available number of older adults who want and need our leadership, programs, education and direction for living a longer, happier and healthier life.
One reason senior growth in clubs and programs isn't increasing may be that you have become complacent with your club's senior program. You are aware of the 20 to 40 senior participants in the aquatics classes, yoga, Tai Chi or Silver Sneakers™ program. They attend classes regularly, so they must be happy, right? My question is, why aren't these exercise classes multiplying? Let's be honest. This market has never been here before. It's a new business within our business, and the demand is so great that we have to treat it as such. Do you have a mission statement in your club specifically for your older adult program? Do you have a business plan that includes a goal of increasing the senior membership by 30 percent each year or a 10 percent to 20 percent increase in your classes each quarter?
Clubs also need to reexamine their marketing efforts to make sure they are putting their deconditioned seniors at ease and sending the right message to older adults. First, ask yourself if you're walking the talk. For example, all clubs tell me that they have a great senior program and that they encourage older adult memberships by inviting them into their programs. However, advertising posters in their clubs portray young, beautiful, buff people, often posing with notably unattainable bodies for the typical 60-year-old. Your advertising for the older adult may be more effective if you focus your message on the attributes of physical fitness that display the joy of aging rather than the goal of getting a beautiful, toned and muscular body.
Your aging members need to see vibrant people playing with grandchildren, walking in the park with friends, riding bikes in a group or playing tennis. And it's okay if they have gray hair, a few wrinkles and a few extra bulges. Your marketing must show laughter, self confidence and energy. Show them that their participation in your programs will lead to good postures, dexterity and strength. It's life stage marketing with a more subtle way of introducing fitness at their level.
Most importantly, they must not feel that they are "the old people" trying to keep up or fit into the young world. There are millions of older adults who need and want your club, and the majority are not comfortable coming in and fending for themselves. They must see themselves in your big picture.
Sandy Coffman is president of Programming For Profit, a training and consulting firm in Bradenton, FL. Coffman specializes in customer service, programming and retention. She can be reached at 941-756-6921 or at [email protected].


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Student or Learner
I would really appreciate it if someone who is familiar with the CELTA course could answer my questions:
1. Why is the CELTA so intensive?
2. Why can preparation for lessons take up to six hours?
1 It doesn't have to be- you can take it part-time. If you do it full-time, it has to be intensive because there's a lot to get through in the time. Would you want to study with a teacher who'd done an easy course but didn't know much?
2 You only do a few observed lessons, so the more time you put into them, the more you will gain from them. Teachers don't put in anything like the same amount of time when working, but the first lessons are the foundations, so it's worth doing them well. Would you want to be taught by someone who thought that 30 minutes' preparation in training was enough for them to grasp the basics?


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Watching George Melford's THE SHEIK, which doesn't seem to really get much love these days. Valentino in a ghutra is an iconic image, but the film itself is not watched. THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE gets a lot more respect, being the work of a recognised auteur, the Irish maverick Rex Ingram, and being a film of genuine seriousness.
THE SHEIK is a frivolous erotic fantasy, if such things can truly be called frivolous, and while the movie-makers are quite aware that the vision of the Middle East they promulgate is a piece of fairy-tale orientalism, the prejudices they espouse are still, I suspect, 100% sincere ~
Apologies for messed-up image — although my disc plays perfectly, it was weirdly resistant to frame-grabbing.
Still, beautiful titles! You just have time to read the text and then scan the illustration before it's gone. And the pretty pictures would give illiterate audience members something to enjoy, I guess.
Valentino himself is much more lightweight than I'd expected. He isn't always blowing smoke out through his nose like in HORSEMEN. (That always makes me think of a scene from Mork and Mindy where Robin Williams reads from a romance novel: "His nostrils flared. Her nostrils flared. Everything flared.") He's less iconically camp, more straightforwardly gay-seeming. And he rather lacks the air of danger I expected.
Indeed, when he smiles, am I alone in thinking… Ray Walston?


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Rup & Forn Creative create and make metal 9" Battery Operated Vintage Marquee Lights in letters A-Z and in red, white, pink, black and our vintage favourite, rusty. You are currently looking at the listing for the letter K, but for the rest of the alphabet, check out the 'Light up Letters' Section.
So at 9", or a smidgen under 23cm, these light up letters are the perfect size for anywhere around your home, office or wherever you want to put them really. Each light is battery powered, so you'll need to pop 2 x AA batteries in the back, but because every light has been fitted with LED bulbs, they won't drain your batteries too much (with some good batteries, you should expect to get around 2-3 months of use if your light was left on for 24 hours per day!). Also, as the bulb are LED, there is absolutely no heat from the light, so safe to leave on as night lights or for long periods of time. You should never ever have to replace the bulbs, just the batteries.
Each letter can be free standing or look just as amazing on the wall (we've made little holes on the back, ready for you to hang), and as our 9" letters are battery operated, there are absolutely no cables, so they look even better!
We don't have many of our marquee lights created at any one time, so if you can't see what you are looking for, or it looks like it might be out of stock, email us on hello [!at] rupandforn.co.uk and we'll be happy to tell you what your options are.
If you have any further questions or queries about our Vintage Marquee Lights, please do get in touch.
Thanks for considering Rup & Forn Creative!
Rupert & Fornella
Rup & Forn accept all methods of payment.
For international orders, please note that we will complete all of your customs paperwork when shipping your order.
We offer international worldwide shipping on all of our products.
Your order will be sent to you using the best method for the size and weight of your package.
In the UK, our most commonly used courier is Royal Mail or UPS - standard UK delivery is 2-3 days. When posting via Royal Mail, we do not track your order (unless paid for) but instead retain proof of postage. For smaller international orders, we use Royal Mail International - standard International delivery times vary, but are usually 5-10 working days. We also use UPS and DHL too, depending on where you are based, but regardless of who we ship with, we will always notify you of the carrier, tracking information (if available) and keep you informed with the progress of your order. If there is an option to send an order to you via UPS Express, you should see this when you place your order. UPS Express normally gets to you within 2- 3 days, anywhere in the world.
We will always insure your package for the relevant amount and deal with any issues that may arise from damaged packaging, lost parcels etc.
We try to keep the costs of shipping to a minimum, especially is purchasing more than one item, however if the shipping costs are significantly lower for us to send you your order, we will happily refund you the difference.
Just contact me within: 14 days of delivery
Ship items back to me within: 30 days of delivery
Request a cancellation within: 12 hours of purchase
But please contact me if you have any problems with your order.
Because of the nature of these items, unless they arrive damaged or defective, I can't accept returns for:
Please contact me if you have any problems with your order.
We want your shopping experience with us to be as simple as possible and let's face it; we can all have a change of heart. If you're not satisfied with your purchase in any way, we guarantee to exchange it or provide a full refund, providing you contact us within 14 days from delivery and we will do everything we can to make the situation better. Refunds will be processed within 7 days of us receiving the returned item – Item must be in its original packaging and in a re-saleable condition. If the item is deemed faulty, we will also cover the cost to return the item.
We often supply our products to like minded companies and businesses on a 'trade/wholesale' basis. If you think our products might suit you or your business, please get in touch and we can chat through our options.
This Privacy Policy describes how and when I collect, use, and share information when you purchase an item from me, contact me, or otherwise use my services through Etsy.com or its related sites and services such as on www.rupandforn.co.uk or www.rupandforn.com which is also hosted by Etsy.
This Privacy Policy does not apply to the practices of third parties that I do not own or control, including Etsy or any third party services you access through Etsy.
To fulfil your order, you must provide me with certain information (which you authorised Etsy to provide to me), such as your name, email address, postal address, payment information, and the details of the product that you're ordering. You may also choose to provide me with additional personal information (for a custom order, for example), if you contact me directly.
Why I Need Your Information and How I Use It
I rely on a number of legal bases to collect, use, and share your information, including:
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*if necessary to comply with a legal obligation or court order or in connection with a legal claim, such as retaining information about your purchases if required by tax law; and
*as necessary for the purpose of my legitimate interests, if those legitimate interests are not overridden by your rights or interests, such as 1) providing and improving my services. I use your information to provide the services you requested and in my legitimate interest to improve my services; and 2) Compliance with the Etsy Seller Policy and Terms of Use. I use your information as necessary to comply with my obligations under the Etsy Seller Policy and Terms of Use.
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Information about my customers is important to my business. I share your personal information for very limited reasons and in limited circumstances, as follows:
*Etsy. I share information with Etsy as necessary to provide you my services and comply with my obligations under both the Etsy Seller Policy and Etsy Terms of Use.
*Service providers. I engage certain trusted third parties to perform functions and provide services to my shop, such as delivery companies. I will share your personal information with these third parties, but only to the extent necessary to perform these services.
*Business transfers. If I sell or merge my business, I may disclose your information as part of that transaction, only to the extent permitted by law.
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I retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to provide you with my services and as described in my Privacy Policy. However, I may also be required to retain this information to comply with my legal and regulatory obligations, to resolve disputes, and to enforce my agreements. I generally keep your data for the following time period: 4 years.
Transfers of Personal Information Outside the EU
I may store and process your information through third-party hosting services in the US and other jurisdictions. As a result, I may transfer your personal information to a jurisdiction with different data protection and government surveillance laws than your jurisdiction. If I am deemed to transfer information about you outside of the EU, I rely on Privacy Shield as the legal basis for the transfer, as Google Cloud is Privacy Shield certified.
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If you reside in certain territories, including the EU, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal information. While some of these rights apply generally, certain rights apply only in certain limited cases. I describe these rights below:
*Access. You may have the right to access and receive a copy of the personal information I hold about you by contacting me using the contact information below.
*Change, restrict, delete. You may also have rights to change, restrict my use of, or delete your personal information. Absent exceptional circumstances (like where I am required to store data for legal reasons) I will generally delete your personal information upon request.
*Object. You can object to (i) my processing of some of your information based on my legitimate interests and (ii) receiving marketing messages from me after providing your express consent to receive them. In such cases, I will delete your personal information unless I have compelling and legitimate grounds to continue using that information or if it is needed for legal reasons.
*Complain. If you reside in the EU and wish to raise a concern about my use of your information (and without prejudice to any other rights you may have), you have the right to do so with your local data protection authority.
How to Contact Me
For purposes of EU data protection law, I, Christina Chappell, am the data controller of your personal information. If you have any questions or concerns, you may contact me at email@example.com. Alternately, you may write to me at:
Christina Chappell
C/O Rup & Forn Creative
1/2 29 Thornwood Drive
Jan 15, 2018
My daughter loves her K!!
May 5, 2017
Feb 27, 2017
We ordered 3 of this marquee letters for our wedding and they are absolutely gorgeous! They are a little less than a foot tall, very sturdy, super bright, and simply perfect!
Dec 29, 2016
Beautiful light up letting K fast delivery and great customer service can't wait to buy another one :) love this store !!!
Feb 1, 2016
It is absolutely beautiful!! I can't wait to give it to my friend on her birthday. Will definitely purchase one for myself soon xx


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Are you a IL feeling a little overwhelmed, or a returning law student finding a new class rather confusing? CALI, the Center for Computer Assisted Instruction, has a web site full of interactive computer-based lessons (over 700 of them, both IL and advanced) keyed to typical law school courses and texts. Prepared by law faculty, these online tutorials cover many topics and concepts of law school subjects such as torts, contracts, constitutional law, evidence and tax, as well as IL favorites such as "Legal Research 101" and "Anatomy of a Case." From the CALI welcome page, you can select "Lessons" and search by subject, casebook, or topical outline to find the best one for your needs. You'll have to register with a special password (law school authorization code) the first time you use CALI at the web site. For this password, refer to the recent e-mail that you received from Law School Information Systems, or ask at the Law Library Reference Desk. Law students can also pick up a CALI lesson DVD (Mac compatible this year!) from the Law School Information Systems Office (Room 223).
Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat
Above the Law - A Legal Tabloid - News, Gossip, and Colorful Commentary on Law Firms and the Legal Profession


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- Options
ThuleGate Mate Tailgate Pad
Item # THU0370
Your new first mate on the bike tours.
You may hit the road with a bunch of trail-mates, but your favorite one is bound to be the durable Thule Gate Mate Tailgate Pad. Heavy-duty vinyl and extra padding is what helps keep your truck and everybody's bikes looking good.
- Durable, waterproof vinyl throughout protects both your truck's tailgate as well as bike forks and frames
- Heavy-duty nylon material straps secure the pad to the truck
- Thick end pads called Knock-Blocks cushion and limit movement to the sides of the bed
- Pull-up cover conceals the gate lever until you need to open it
- Heavy-duty vinyl and foam padding
- Nylon straps secure pad to your tailgate
- Knock-Blocks cushion and prevent movement
- Handle hood tailgate access
View more Truck Bed Racks
BackcountryGetaway Goat Tailgate Pad
YakimaGateKeeper Tailgate Pad
DAKINEPickup Pad DLX Curve
KuatDirtbag Truck Bed Mount
DAKINEPickup Pad DLX
What do you think about this product?
January 17, 2018
- Familiarity:
- I've used it several times
This is an awesome accessory to our truck! We load bikes in and out all summer long and it has been awesome to have this in the back of the truck and throw on when we like bikes in! Really protects the truck and folds up pretty tight! Great purchase and Thule is awesome!
Ben Christensen
August 19, 2016
Perfect fit for Hilux
- Familiarity:
- I've used it several times
The tailgate pad (small size) is very easy to mount and dismount, it fits perfectly with Toyota Hilux 2012, also bike acolyte smoothly once it is in place. Only removing 1 star since I got a small scratch in my paint after using it 1st time, but haven't realized what caused it since the interior material is soft. Other good thing is that is light and easy to put away. Only need to be careful to not loose the elastic bands in each strap.
Andres Soto
April 25, 2016
Do the bike(s) stay in place on turns or will they slide or tip without a bungee cord?
Mark H.
Joe Torreano
May 10, 2016
Hey Mark, The bikes should stay in place during turns without securing them with any bungees. If you ever have any questions about Thule products or anything on the site, feel free to contact me directly. Joe
November 22, 2015
does its job
- Familiarity:
- I've used it once or twice and have initial impressions
if you have a truck and dont want to spend the big bucks to get the expensive bike racks, then this is for you. just throw it over your truck bed, throw your bikes on. and you are ready to head up to the trails!
November 3, 2015
Needs individual bike straps
- Familiarity:
- I've put it through the wringer
This is really nice with the bumper ends and all but I like the pads with the individual straps for the bikes better.
February 22, 2014
Will it work for children's bikes as...
Will it work for children's bikes as well?
September 22, 2015
Yes, you might want to strap them down though. The front wheel is mostly what keeps the bikes in place. The Dakine Pick Up pad item # DAK3434 may work better for you. It has velcro straps to hold the bikes in place.
September 12, 2013
Best way to transport bikes
- Familiarity:
- I've put it through the wringer
I have a new Toyota Tacoma and bought the small. This is definitely the best way to shuttle mtn bikes around if you have a truck. Pad is durable, keeps bikes from scratching car and bikes don't move at all when driving. Just throw the bikes over the tailgate and be on your way. I highly recommend this pad.
August 27, 2013
Built for late model trucks.
- Familiarity:
- I returned this product before using it
I ordered this pad intending to use it on my first generation Toyota Tundra. As other users have mentioned, it's made for the newer trucks that flair at the top of the tailgate. I certainly could have made this work on my truck, but, it wasn't quite right. Additionally, I like to be able to throw my topper on my truck while leaving my pad on. Because of the extra material in the top of the pad, the glass on the shell would not have closed. Pretty cool setup for one of the newer pick ups without a topper. Not ideal for the 'ol ones.
Grant Helgeson
July 18, 2013
A Must Have for Shuttling
- Familiarity:
- I've put it through the wringer
I bought the Large for my Titan and it fits great. Like chad mentioned below, the Dakine pads seem to fit a little better without gaps between the tailgate and the pad, but this will get the job done and will make life easier when you've got a lot of bikes to pile in and shuttle. The added loops to secure the bikes are a bonus, my original pad didn't have anything like that so they would flop around a bit in bumpy terrain or on corners, so that will help keep your bikes in one spot while you're traveling.
Mike Lee
July 15, 2013
Easy Transportation
This tailgate pad makes fitting a bunch of bikes into the bed of your truck easy. I have a 2004 Toyota Tacoma and purchased the small. My only complaint is that the top of the pad has a large flat section that appears to be made for trucks with a plastic cap on the tailgate. The Dakine pad does fit a little nicer on tailgates without this. Not a deal breaker just something to think about before you purchase a pad.
Chad Cordell
July 11, 2013
I Cannot Believe I Went Without This
- Familiarity:
- I've used it several times
I just purchased this tailgate pad (Large for my F350) and have had a chance to use it a few times so far. It was very easy to install, provides excellent protection for your bike, bikes stay in place very well, it has bomber construction/material, and opening and lowering the tailgate is no problem. I highly recommend it.
Jason Bleyl
May 14, 2013
The Gate Mate comes in two sizes?54? and 62? for compact and full-size trucks
Greg Adams
March 26, 2013
Quick and Easy...
- Familiarity:
- I've used it once or twice and have initial impressions
The Thule Gate Mate makes transporting bikes super quick and easy...saves extra time by not having to hassle with fitting bikes on racks. Also, reduces wear and tear on the bike and leaves no scratches on tail gate!
Michael Martino
June 12, 2012
What's the lenght of the Small size and...
What's the lenght of the Small size and the Large size. I have a Nissan Frontier which is not a full size truck but is indeed alot wider than other trucks in its category.
Alejandro Quesada
September 12, 2013
I have a Toyota Tacoma which probably comparable to the size of the Frontier. I bought the small and it fits and works perfectly.
June 9, 2012
The Thule pad makes transporting 5 mtb's in a pick-up truck super easy. The bonus is bikes don't get dinged or scratched, unlike putting them on my trailer mounted hitch where they getting trashed from grinding against each other.
Michael L.


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Inbee Park took over the top spot in the women's golf ranking Monday, ending Stacy Lewis' four-week run at No. 1.
Park moved ahead of Lewis eight days after winning the Kraft Nabisco Championship for her second major title and second victory of the year. The 24-year-old South Korean player also won the LPGA Thailand in February.
"This is a very big day in my golf career," Park said Monday at the LPGA Lotte Championship in Hawaii. "I'm so happy to share it with my family, who are here in Hawaii with me. It's nice to reach this goal, but I know a lot of players are close to No. 1. It gives me something else to play for every week."
Lewis dropped to second, an average of 0.04 points per event behind Park in the two-year standings.
Taiwan's Yani Tseng remained No. 3. She was No. 1 for 109 weeks before Lewis grabbed the top spot with consecutive victories in Singapore and Phoenix.
Park is the eighth player and the second South Korean - following Jiyai Shin - to hold the No. 1 spot. Annika Sorenstam, Lorena Ochoa, Ai Miyazato and Cristie Kerr also have topped the ranking.
Last year, Park won twice on the LPGA Tour, had six runner-up finishes, topped the money list and took the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average. The putting star had a string of six straight top-three finishes. She won the Evian Masters in July in France, tied for third in her next start, added three straight second-place finishes and capped the run with a victory in October in the LPGA Malaysia.
Park won the 2008 U.S. Women's Open and has five career LPGA Tour victories. She also has won four times on the Japan LPGA.
The LPGA Lotte Championship begins Wednesday at Ko Olina in Kapolei.


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4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Least willing to go down without a fight: Fifth District candidate Bern Ewert. Despite trailing his opponent Al Weed 106 to 55, he writes to delegates committed to Weed urging them to vote for him in the secret ballot at the May 20 Democratic convention in Buckingham, Bob Gibson reports in the Daily Progress. Former Delegate Mitch Van Yahres, a Ewert backer, disagrees with the tactic to capture the nomination to challenge incumbent Republican Congressman Virgil Goode. Ewert also questions Weed's use of migrant workers at his Nelson County vineyard.
Longest time to discover a death: The body of a man is found in the cab of an idling tractor trailer parked at the Sheetz on U.S. 29 in Madison County, according to the DP. Employees noticed the green Volvo truck as early as Friday, May 12, but did not report it until around 6am Monday, May 15. The truck's engine was still running.
Largest post-Foxfield party: Around 70 college-age defendants show up in Albemarle General District Court May 10 to face the music for illegal consumption of alcohol, Rob Seal reports in the Progress. Most of the first-time accused cop a plea. Sydney Anne Talon, 19, is sentenced to four days in jail for kicking a police officer as he was going through her purse.
Best military academy case: The ACLU and Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression team up to oppose a court order requiring that a website critical of Hargrave Military Academy, HargraveHasProblems.com, be taken down. A U.S. District Court judge in Roanoke issued a temporary restraining order May 8, and the two free-speech organization argue that the order violates the First Amendment.
Most ironic pot bust: The president of a nonprofit gardening organization in Lynchburg, John Russell Wormuth, is arrested for growing marijuana in his downtown apartment there May 12, according to the Lynchburg News & Advance.
Biggest green gathering: Representatives from Adovcates for a Sustainable Albemarle, Piedmont Environmental Council, Sierra Club and Southern Environmental Law Center show up to speak out against the North Pointe development at a May 10 public hearing.
Best new designs for New Orleans: UVA architecture prof (and former Charlottesville mayor) Maurice Cox is one of 14 winners of the Katrina Design Competition sponsored by McGraw-Hill Construction and Tulane University to re-envision housing in the Crescent City.
Best magazine: The Virginia Quarterly Review takes home two National Magazine Awards May 9, including the fiction award, elbowing aside lit mag heavyweights such as the New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, and Harper's.
Webbiest: Monticello's website, with its interactive, multimedia Monticello Explorer, beats out the Library of Congress, London's Tate Gallery, and the Museum of New Zealand for a 2006 Webby Award in the Cultural Institutions category.
Most twisted: Evan Almighty star Steve Carell hurts his ankle while filming in Richmond May 13, ending production early that day, the Progress reports. Carell planned to be back on the set May 17.
Biggest ark in a subdivision: The growing sea-going vessel dominates the landscape at Old Trail in Crozet. Wags wonder if it'll be called into service in New England.
Worst week for couch potatoes: Long-running series The West Wing (7 seasons), Will and Grace (8 seasons), Malcolm in the Middle (7 seasons) and That 70s Show (8 seasons) all air their final episodes.
Worst episode for near-hometown boy: American Idol final four contestant and former Fluvanna resident Chris Daughtry is booted off the show May 10.
Latest way to spy on U.S. citizens: NSA builds a database of phone call records.