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Arriving in Cappadocia, Turkey, feels like traveling to another galaxy, or at least another time period. Conical peaks, formed from volcanic rock, stand tall over arid valleys. Below, small cave cities are home to family-owned restaurants, pottery shops and street vendors hawking everything from souvenirs to goat-milk ice cream. To the credit of central Turkey's preservation efforts, Cappadocia is a city frozen in time — and for good reason, as the region is filled with historical significance dating back to the fourth century.
The Goreme Open-Air Museum, the most popular and historically significant site in the region, is home to ancient cave churches and dwellings where early Christians sought refuge from the Roman Empire in the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries. Visitors wander in and out of the caves, which bear names such as Apple Church and Snake Church, to see frescoes featuring iconic scenes from the life of Christ. Unfortunately, many of these works are in deteriorating condition — a fact that plays a part in Cappadocia's unique history. In 1922, a population exchange deported native Christians in the area to Greece. In exchange, Muslim Turks and Slavs from Greece were given land in Cappadocia to inhabit. A lack of awareness for historical preservation combined with a religious taboo against iconography led to the vandalization and damage of many of the frescoes. Since then, the Turkish government has worked to preserve the caves and, in 1984, the museum was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Today, visitors are cautioned to keep their voices down and avoid flash photography to prevent further damage to the works. In fact, the best-preserved fresco in the museum can be viewed in the Dark Church for an additional fee, which regulates foot traffic in and out of the cave.
After touring the man-made wonders of the area, take in the natural beauty of Cappadocia. As a result of ongoing erosion, past volcanic activity and tectonic shifts, Cappadocia hosts unique geological formations that seem to belong on the set of a sci-fi fantasy movie. For instance, Pasabag is a valley famous for its "fairy chimneys" or tall mushroom-shaped rock towers. Visitors also enjoy hiking Devrent Valley, also known as Imagination Valley, for its animal-shaped rock formations. Some of the formations, such as the famous camel, are so uncanny that you might think they were carved by hand and not the work of natural erosion and winds.
At the end of a busy day of touring, treat yourself to a Cappadocian home-style dinner — the highlight of which is testi kebap, or pottery kebap. This trademark dish is prepared by stuffing pieces of spiced meat into a clay pot and then firing it in a wood-burning oven. At the table, diners crack open the pot to reveal the tender, sizzling meat inside.
No trip to Cappadocia is complete without a famous sunrise hot-air balloon ride. Here, early morning is prime departure time for hot-air balloon flights, granting passengers unparalleled views of the valleys and rock formations. This once-in-a-lifetime ride is a sight to behold, as you float among hundreds of other balloons while the rising sun casts a warm, rosy glow over the Martian-like landscape.
Destination Resources
Getting ThereMost visitors to Cappadocia will take a one-hour domestic flight from Istanbul to one of the nearby airports, either in Nevsehir or Kayseri.
Getting AroundShuttle vans and tour buses are the best bet when it comes to navigating the narrow alleys and roads of this ancient region. Most guided tour packages include transportation to and from the different sites.
When to GoThe tourist season lasts from April through October. Spring and fall months have the most moderate weather, although the tail end of fall can be fickle with dipping temperatures and rain.
Where to StayDo as the early Cappadocians did and sleep in a cave. Karadut Cave Hotel and the Shoe String Cave House offer all the comforts of modern amenities but with the unique novelty of being built into a cave.www.hotelkaradut.com; www.shoestringcave.com


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Packer fans are groaning, "Here we go again with Dallas."
Packer fans are groaning, "Here we go again with Dallas."
They used to say the same thing in the 1990s, when the playoffs always went through Dallas – with the Packers never winning.
That was when Brett Favre was starting out in the '90s (uh, 1990s, not 1890s). He is 0-8 at Dallas, including 0-3 in postseason. And if it seems like the two teams always play there, that's close. Favre has only faced the Cowboys twice in Green Bay, winning 45-17 in 1997 and 41-20 in 2004.
Thus, the significance of gaining home-field advantage in Thursday's showdown of the two 10-1 NFC teams.
If Green Bay was healthy, it'd still be difficult to contain the Cowboys. If corner Charles Woodson (toe) can't play, that makes it that much tougher. Woodson and fellow corner Al Harris are the strength of the defense.
As proficient as Favre has been this season, this doesn't look like the time for him to finally win at Dallas. Make it Cowboys 30, Packers 20.
Wild-card forecast
New Orleans, as inconsistent as it's been, gets the nod here as most likely to emerge as owner of the NFC's second wild-card slot. The Giants will secure the other spot.
The Saints have a most favorable schedule. Even if they lose at home this weekend to Tampa Bay, they could win their next three after that -- at Atlanta, then home to Arizona and Philadelphia.
If the Bears win three of their next four, they could battle the Saints for a playoff berth Dec. 30 in the season finale at Soldier Field. Hey, anything's possible this season.
Put hiking boots on
Bears tight end Desmond Clark takes an energetic view of his team's climb in the playoff race.
"It's only one step out of six," Clark said of Sunday's 37-34 overtime win over Denver. "We've still got five more steps (games) to take to get to the top of the mountain where we want to go."
At least the peak doesn't look quite as high now.
Crazy? Keep it coming
Bears quarterback Rex Grossman led his team to 17 points on its last three possessions Sunday -- after marching his team to a total of two field goals on its previous 12 drives.
"Sometimes, when you get a head of steam, it's hard to be stopped," Grossman said of the furious finish. "Momentum is a crazy thing."
Average down, enjoyment up
Chicago wideout Bernard Berrian began the weekend with the highest average yardage per touchdown reception among active players with at least 10 career scoring catches. His mark was at 36.7 yards.
Sunday, his one touchdown catch covered 3 yards. That dropped his average to 33.6 and his ranking to third behind LaDainian Tomlinson (36.3) and Santana Moss (33.9).
Still, eight of Berrian's 11 career touchdown catches have been 30-plus yards.
Reed Schreck's NFL Quick Shots appear Tuesdays and Fridays. Contact him at 815-987-1381 or email@example.com.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Youth Committee exists to promote Go amongst young people up to the age of about 18. In this context, youth ends when school ends, so that, for example, the Student Development Co-ordinator, who is responsible for promoting Go in Universities and Colleges, is on the Clubs and Membership Committee rather than the Youth Committee.
An important part of the work of the Youth Committee is the encouragement of the teaching of Go (for instance the residential youth camp) and supporting clubs in schools, such as by the organisation of the UK Go Challenge (13x13 tournament for schools).
Young players are, of course, welcomed and encouraged to attend adult tournaments and other events generally (accompanied by a responsible adult).
To contact a Youth officer, email: firstname.lastname@example.com
|Job Description
|Child Protection Adviser
As described in the policy on working with children and young people, the Child Protection Adviser provides advice to members involved in youth go activities.
Members should contact the CPA to discuss any situation of concern that may come to their notice.
|Sue Paterson
To increase the exposure of Go in schools and other educational facilities, by establishing and maintaining contacts with schools, education authorities and throughout the world of education and visits schools to give an introduction to Go.
Also gives advice to other Go players on teaching Go and setting up clubs for youth Go.
|Peter Wendes
|Junior Web Site Editor
Edits the junior section of the web site, including the lists contained thereon.
Ex-officio (see Online Committee)
|Martin Harvey
|UK Go Challenge
Organises the annual UK Go Challenge competition for schools.
|Tony Atkins
|UK Youth Team
Organises international matches with other countries, normally via the Internet.
|Martin Harvey
|Youth Championship
Organises the annual British Youth Go Championship.
|Tony Atkins
|Youth Grand Prix Organiser
Keeps track of the points scored in the annual Youth Grand Prix (see junior section).
|Tony Atkins
|Youth Representative - North East
Co-ordinates contact with schools in a particular area, providing advice and help where needed.
|Youth Representative - Northern Ireland
Co-ordinates contact with schools in a particular area, providing advice and help where needed.
|Youth Representative - Scotland
Co-ordinates contact with schools in a particular area, providing advice and help where needed.


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Sales Have Ended
Sales Have Ended
Searching and Review Clinics
These clinics have been set up to help the PenCLAHRC Evidence Synthesis Team to manage and respond to systematic review related queries from within the geographical area covered by PenCLAHRC. Whether you are an academic or an NHS professional who needs to know where to start on the systematic review process or how to go about designing a search strategy, you can book a half hour appointment with one of our reviewers or information specialists.
Please visit our web page for further details:
how our researchers can help you
terms and conditions of booking
clinic locations
future dates
Please note: you may book a maximum of 2 appointments per clinic, of which 1 must be with a reviewer and 1 with an information specialist. Any additional bookings made for the same clinic by or on behalf of the same person will be declined.
***These sessions will take place at South Cloisters, St Luke's Campus, University of Exeter, unless otherwise advertised on the web page***


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We're looking for a programmer and an animator to join or team.
Both positions are initially unpaid but you'll receive royalties when the game has been released. If the upcoming crowd funding campaign is successful, a paid position might be possible.
- Time
- Experience with T3D
- Torque Script
- Git
- English
- Humour
- Time
- Experience with T3D
- 3ds max
- Rigging / Skinning
- TP, FP and weapon anims
- English
- Humour
Drop us a msg: info ~ deadlymatter - com
Website: http://www.deadlymatter.com
Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =402901401
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O7gvMXLKVE
Edit: Changed the title


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Four new modules have now been released.
An introduction to each module is given on the Learning tool summaries.
The IG Training Tool is at:
Your IG Toolkit session will automatically timeout in 5 minutes
Please press Ok within 5 minutes of this message appearing to stop your session
timing out


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Northeast Georgia Health System Earns Spot on 2012 InformationWeek 500 List of Top Technology Innovators Across America
Sept. 14, 2012
Northeast Georgia Health System (NGHS) is on the InformationWeek 500, an annual listing of the nation's most innovative users of business information technology (IT), for the second year in a row. The annual list was revealed recently at a gala awards ceremony at the InformationWeek 500 Conference in California.
Northeast Georgia Health System recently designed and implemented a Virtual Data Warehouse to address the increased need for up-to-date data to drive decision-making. This strategy allows NGHS to use medical data and patient records across the entire organization to make quality decisions faster, which in turn increases patient safety and enhances patient satisfaction. For example, NGHS is able to use its Virtual Data Warehouse to provide data to support improvements to patient flow through operating rooms. By having key performance information immediately available, surgery team members are able to improve processes to ensure optimal patient flow in surgery.
"Northeast Georgia Health System is honored to be recognized for the second year in a row for our commitment to innovations in IT," says Carol Burrell, President and CEO of NGHS. "Our new Virtual Data Warehouse allows us to provide valuable information to our physicians, clinical and operational support staff faster than before – all for an investment of one-third the typical cost of a traditional data warehouse that isn't as flexible when gathering information from our various hospital information systems."
"The InformationWeek 500 has recognized the most innovative users of business technology for 24 years, and this year's innovations were particularly impressive," says Rob Preston, InformationWeek's Editor In Chief. "What the editors looked for are unconventional approaches – new technologies, new models, new ways of grabbing business opportunities and solving complex business problems with IT."
InformationWeek not only identifies and honors the nation's most innovative users of information technology (IT) with its annual 500 listing, but it also tracks the technology, strategies, investments and administrative practices of America's best-known companies. Past overall winners include PACCAR Inc., The Vanguard Group, CME Group, National Semiconductor, Con-Way and Principal Financial Group. The InformationWeek 500 ranking is unique among corporate rankings, as it spotlights the power of innovation in information technology rather than simply identifying the biggest IT spenders.


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800-313-9128 FAQ | Contact | Dealer Login | Drop Ship Dealers Wanted
Summer Sale - Coupon SAVE10 at checkout for an extra 10% off!
Classic icons of seafaring life, particularly with fishermen, these beautiful and elegant glass floats have transitioned from their days of functional nautical accessories to beautiful decorations for the home. Used for centuries to float vast nets, long lines, and drop lines, glass floats have become collector's items as many, centuries old, occassionally wash ashore to the delight of the discoverer. Enjoy these stylishly chic Glass Float replicas from Handcrafted Nautical Decor, wherever you may place one, and display your love of the sea.
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I think you are under the impression this change is dumbing down the game and makes the unit handling require less strategy but I don't think that's true. This change is not removing functionality or strategy, it makes it easier to control units. Assigning artillery units to sensor might seem like it requires good unit handling skills but I think it makes unit handling unnecessarily complicated and convoluted for no good reason.railgen wrote:True:
It will help out players, who don't put that much effort into games and it might be fine for ordinary warzone maps.
That makes it justified somehow as wz does not really support ntw type maps, I think.
If I want to move my artillery units then they automatically become un-assigned to sensor when moving them and then I need to re-assign. Also I cannot assign to regular sensor and CB sensor at the same time. It's better to just have artillery droids use sensor without needing to be assigned to them.
The new change makes it easier for better players to more easily control their artillery units. It will make game play more enjoyable.
No not including sensor towers. If all structures can cause artillery to fire simply because opponent is within visible range, this means the only difference between sensor towers and other structures is that sensor tower has more visible range but implies that all structures essentially act as a sensor tower. I think that's bad.MIH-XTC wrote: I think this is very good as long as it applies only to sensor droids and not other structures such as an oil derrick. Including sensor towers?
Mortars are hardly ever used on tanks and as a result they cannot be used as alternatives to mg, rocket and cannon but now they can be with auto-assignment to sensors. That's what makes this change good, we just need to recalibrate the build time.But mortars were never a problem? This update applies mostly on wide range weapons with wide explosions - Ripple, as example, is very rarely a good choice.
MIH-XTC wrote: I know you are concerned about armies of mortars or artillery becoming too powerful or unstoppable in larger quantities as a result of this change but the solution for that is very easy . We simply increase the build time of artillery turrets.
Under new sensor functionality, I would guess maybe a 25% increase in build times. I don't have time to test now to get exact numbers but it's no problem to rebalance artillery as a result of this improved functionality.
This is a big misconception. It is very easy to change low oil balance without affecting high oil balance.But what makes you think that would solve the problem? What you do is making it worse in low oil game but not that much in flat long high oil.
You can't put low, mid and high all in one balance mod. You will always outbalance yourself when you don't modify the actual game physics and AI.
For example, if we increase build time for mortar from 500 to 5000 then mortar becomes absolutely worthless regardless of sensor behavior because it will take 2 minutes for each mortar tank. If we change it from 500 - 800 then it will take longer to get 20 - 25 mortar tanks and in that same amount of time opponent could have more rocket/cannon so now it's balanced again but with better unit control behavior.
Hopefully this makes sense.
We just need to calibrate the build timse so that 20 - 25 mortars under new behavior is balance with the amount of rockets/cannons needed to overcome mortar. The same goes for any other artillery unit.
If a unit is overpowered then adjusting build time simply means you reduce their effectiveness by reducing their quantity. Adjusting the build time and build power is the only rebalancing solution without affecting other balance variables.
25% was just an estimate to illustrate the solution of increasing build times.The 25% won't change much after all, since there is no direct anti indirect weapon what will make it easy to stack up that units.
This is one of the reasons why engine upgrades need to make units progressively faster. The only reason groundshaker tanks win in current high oil balance is because units move too slow to get close enough, not because of splash damage. Rocket or flamer should be counter to mortar droids since they are supposed to move faster than mg and cannon
feel free to share your ideas. I know what it's like to have many ideas but just need to organize them for communication purposes.And don't forget that AI is always improvable. I could give you many ideas how you could ease a lot of things.
From a stats/balance perspective, not very much has seemingly changed. One change that I think needs to be reverted in 3.2 are the factory upgrade modifiers. Beforehand factory upgrades went 30, 120, 210, 270 but now they go 30, 60, 90, 120 meaning units produce slower in middle - late game. However, I don't think this was intentional. It turned out like this because the factory upgrades only use upgrades 1, 4, 7 and 9 but both 3.1 and 3.2 have the same incremental modifier (30).Would be nice if you could show a multiplayer beta game so we can see a bit about the balance.
Currently you won't find regular games opened.


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Will the proposed Employee Free Choice Act destroy the hotel industry's profitability by driving up workers' wages, as some owners argue? Or will it level the playing field between labor and management, as unions claim? Those are just two questions on the table as the opposing camps clash over the legislation.
The most contentious provision in the legislation — called "card check" — allows union certification at a workplace if more than 50% of workers sign union cards. That could replace the current method of secret ballot elections.
"That's where I have real concerns," says Tony Mangano, owner of the 150-room Ramada Syracuse in Syracuse, N.Y. An adjunct professor at Syracuse University, Mangano also is a union member. "The union process at Syracuse University was done by secret ballot. Card check would take away that privacy."
Fast track to unionization?
Under current law, an employer can demand a secret-ballot union election. The Employee Free Choice Act would allow unions to be certified, if a majority of workers have signed union cards and there's no evidence of employee coercion. Lodging industry advocates say that would result in fewer secret-ballot elections.
"This legislation would have a devastating impact on the industry," says Marlene Colucci, executive vice president for public policy at the American Hotel and Lodging Association, a trade group in Washington, D.C. "You'd have an automatic increase in unionization because you're rewriting the rule book and making it so easy to unionize." That, she says, could damage profitability of hotels because of higher employee wages.
Union advocates admit the law would result in higher pay for the industry's 1.8 million workers who aren't already unionized. "The pay and benefits of hotel workers covered by union contract is much better than for non-union workers," says Stewart Acuff, assistant to the president at the AFL-CIO, a national federation of unions in Washington, D.C.
Unions deny, however, that would destroy hotel profitability. "Look at cities — Chicago, Las Vegas, New York, San Francisco — where hotel workers generally work under union contract," says Acuff. "All have very healthy hotels that make a lot of money."
Hotels remain profitable, according to PKF Consulting in Atlanta, but their rate of growth has declined. The historical industry average for hotel profit growth has been 4.7%, but was 13.3% in 2006 and 7.2% in 2007. PKF forecasts a drop to 2.9% in 2008.
Colucci also says allowing workers to simply sign a union card to gauge whether they want to unionize impedes employers' ability to make their case to employees. "The law currently has a set of election procedures that allow the union and the employer to present their case. Then employees go into a voting booth in private and say 'yes' or 'no,' " Colucci says. "After you educate employees on both sides of the issue, in about 50 percent of the cases they don't vote for a union."
Union advocates counter that the concept of a private ballot as sacrosanct in union elections is a myth. "Union elections have no similarity to our civic and political elections in American public life," says Acuff of the AFL-CIO. "There's intimidation, retaliation, and firings, so the current election system meets no standard for free and fair elections. Opponents are imposing a standard that doesn't exist with a secret ballot."
Acuff also dismisses the argument that employers won't have a chance to make their case to employees. "That's the most condescending and contemptuous argument I've heard," he says. "Employers have a lot more time to communicate with employees than unions. When workers sign cards, they know full well what they're doing."
Elections matter
In March, the Employee Free Choice Act passed largely by a party-line vote of 241-185 in the Democratically controlled House. In June, however, Republicans filibustered the Senate version. "Basically, the legislation is dead for this Congress," says Colucci. "But it's the first thing at the top of the labor agenda."
"There are no likely scenarios under which this bill will pass if Republican Sen. John McCain is elected president. He's said he would veto it," says Acuff. "We're working very hard to elect Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, who supports this bill, and as close to a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. If there's a filibuster-proof majority, we think it will pass."
G.M. Filisko is a reporter and attorney based in Chicago who writes regularly on legal and real estate issues. You can contact her at [email protected].
In the U.S., there were 354,000 leisure and hospitality workers represented by unions in 2007, accounting for just 3.2% of all unionized workers. That's down slightly from 370,000 in 2006.
|All Unionized U.S. Workers
|U.S. Lodging Workers
|10.5 million
|370, 000
|11 million
|Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics


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diner, restaurant resembling the railroad dining car. In the mid-19th cent., the first dining cars that appeared on trains were nothing more than an empty car with a fastened-down table. George M. Pullman, who had begun producing sleeping cars in 1858, soon began designing a dining car. By 1868, Pullman had designed the luxuriously and meticulously appointed
"club car."
Roadside diners, however, evolved from horse-drawn lunch wagons, whose origins date to the 1870s. Such wagons became more elaborate in the late 19th cent., and many became roadside fixtures on empty lots. Although some railroad dining cars were sold and turned into roadside restaurants, most roadside diners were factory-built restaurants that were assembled on their permanent site. Instead of the tables and white tablecloths of the early dining cars, they commonly had booths along one wall and a long counter down the other. In the 1920s and 30s, the diners that served America's growing highway system became a symbol of automobile travel. Diners from that era were sometimes art deco in design, sleek and streamlined.
See study by R. J. S. Gutman (1993).


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How did I miss this Alabama story?
Greg L. Gambril, a DA in south Alabama (Covington County), is prosecuting women for endangering their fetuses under a chemical endangerment law intended to protect children from meth labs — "chemical endangerment of child".
"When drugs are introduced in the womb, the child-to-be is endangered. It is what I call a continuing crime." He added that the purpose of the statute was to guarantee that the child has "a safe environment, a drug-free environment. No one is to say whether that environment is inside or outside the womb."
Tiffany Hitson spent her daughter's first year in Julia Tutwiler Prison. He has prosecuted at least eight women under this law.
WTF is wrong with this asshole? Does he really not have anything better to do? Can't someone disbar this motherfucker for blatant prosecutorial misconduct in using a law (a) to target crimes not intended to be reached, and (b) in violation of women's constitutional rights to privacy?
Oh, no, wait — I forgot. Alabama is fucked up and the rest of the country just lets it stay that way. Women in Alabama, women in religious cults in Texas — fuck 'em.
I know the ACLU of Alabama is overburdened, but come on.


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Artist Stock image site
Image Stock site
So, after travelling around for so much, and taking many many photos, we decided to start up small stock site with all our images on. We have accumulated over 60,000 images over the years, and we have made around 35,000 of them available to be bought. The site is primarily for Artists, so they can [...]
Daily Gallery
Amazing Antarctica
The last, great, and mind blowing wilderness of the planet.
The great white continent in the south, the fairly unexplored and distant land of the last absolute wilderness of planet Earth; Antarctica! We had no idea just how amazing this place would prove to be and just how much it would blow our minds and just how much wildlife actually lived there. This unearthly part of the planet proved to be the best experience of our whole world wide trip!
A journey through the mighty mountains of the south
Chile would be our very first country to visit on the South American continent and we had no idea what to expect from this very thin but very long country. We knew that the national parks in the south would be spectacular but what about the rest?
The extremes of New Zealand
A road trip through the South Island
Ever since we visited the North Island in New Zealand, we have longed to go back and discover the South Island and all it's famous landmarks. Once we picked up our camper van and started heading out on the road, we knew fairly soon that we would be in for a road trip treat of a life time!
Training through Vietnam
A 2-week journey from South to North
We had heard so many great things about Vietnam and we decided pretty early on in our travel plans that we wanted to go via trains along the whole length of the country, from Ho Chi Minh in the south to Hanoi in the North. This is our experience of this diverse and beautiful country!
Tomb raiding in Cambodia
Tombs, Tombs and more Tombs
We knew that Tomb Raider and The Killing Fields where big hit movies both recorded in Cambodia and we knew that they both gave two very different views of two so different parts of the history of the country. Once we got there we realized that those two movies gave a very true picture to the country itself and what it had to offer.
Fantastic Laos
An unexpected diversion through Laos
We had not originally planned to travel to Laos but so many of our friends and other travelers along our way kept telling us not to miss it. So in the end we decided to go by squeezing in 7 days that we didn't really have and wow, it was definitely worth it!
Same same, but something different….
Thailand from bottom to top
This was the start to our train and bus journey through south east Asia
Annapurna trekking adventure
Climbing up to ABC
We had done lots of climbing and walking in Spain, but this was a bit different….


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As mentioned before, there have been some changes made to the site. The biggest change has been the elimination of the groups on the site. This is due to ongoing maintenance issues associated with BuddyPress, the software used create groups, and the changing nature of the structure of Occupy Wall Street. The primary group features used were forums and documents.
A Network Group Blog directory has been added, which enables people to easily find the active nycga.net network blogs. In addition, it displays the four more recent network blog posts.
All previously created Group Documents are accessible on the site on the Document Archive page or by using search. The document listing is arranged alphabetically by group, with an indication of the number of documents available. For groups that would like to continue adding publicly viewable documents, a form has been added that allows anyone logged-in to post a document.
Discussions have been added to the site–which any logged-in person can participate in–to replace the group-based forums. Currently, the forum categories are limited to General Discussion, Announcements and Questions, but more can be added as needed.
Please let us know (tech [at] nycga.net) if you have any comments, feedback, suggestions, etc.
OWS Tech


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After Sandy Hook, Should Violent Video Games Call a Cease-Fire?
In the first post-Sandy Hook press conference held by the The National Rifle Association today, executive vice president Wayne LaPierre tore into some gratuitous and controversial parts of pop culture to explain the spate of mass killings that have occurred this year.
"There exists in this country, sadly, a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells and sows violence against its own people," LaPierre said during the press conference. "Through vicious violent video games, with names like Bulletstorm, Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat and Splatterhouse. And here's one: It's called Kindergarten Killers. It's been online for 10 years. How come my research staff can find it, and all yours couldn't, or didn't want anyone to know you've found it?"
Critics of the NRA were quick to pick apart LaPierre's indictment of pop culture as easy scapegoating. And as the gaming website Kotaku points out, LaPierre's choice of videogames seemed almost random enough to be inconsequential—the bombastically titled Kindergarten Killer is an obscure flash game and only ever made news four years ago when it was removed from a Finnish web site after a school shooting occurred there.
It's worth noting that in 2006 the NRA made its very own first-person shooter called NRA Gun Club. Described as a "nonviolent target shooter," it's recognized as one of the worst games ever made by many video game critics.


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Tutte tribute could be in place by Christmas
The Bill Tutte Memorial working group was set up last year after Journal news editor, Alison Hayes, got the backing of the town council for the newspaper's campaign for public recognition for Tutte's code-breaking efforts – which were described by Winston Churchill as the "greatest intellectual feat of the Second World War" and were said to have shortened the conflict by at least two years, saving millions of lives.
The working group set out to establish a memorial to the man whose genius enabled him to break the Lorenz cipher which was being used by the Nazi high command to send coded messages to its commanders in the field. Read the full story HERE


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In her first red carpet appearance since she publicly apologized to Robert Pattinson for cheating on him with Rupert Sanders, Kristen Stewart says it will be business as usual when she and her co-star reunite to promote the final Twilight film in November.
"We're going to be fine, Stewart, 22, told the Associated Press. "We're totally fine."
Kristen Stewart apologizes for cheating on Robert Pattinson
It was almost two months ago that Us Weekly published photos of Stewart and her Snow White and the Huntsman director kissing. The day after the photos were released, Stewart and Sanders, who is married and has two children, released statements apologizing for their actions. "I'm deeply sorry for the hurt and embarrassment I've caused to those close to me and everyone this has affected," Stewart said in a statement obtained by People. "This momentary indiscretion has jeopardized the most important thing in my life, the person I love and respect the most, Rob. I love him, I love him, I'm so sorry."
In early August, Pattinson, 26, appeared on The Daily Show and Good Morning America to promote his film Cosmopolis, but did not indicate whether he and Stewart, who have been dating for three years, were still together. When asked by George Stephanopoulos if he had anything he wanted his fans to know, Pattinson replied, "I'd like my fans to know that Cinnamon Toast Crunch only has 30 calories a bowl."
Jodie Foster: Leave Kristen Stewart alone
Stewart has kept a low profile since the scandal. She was originally supposed to attend the MTV Video Music Awards alongside Pattinson and the rest of the Twilight cast to present a new clip from the final film. However, while her castmates were in Los Angeles, she was walking the red carpet in Toronto for her new film, On the Road.
"I was a little nervous, obviously. I'm always nervous before a red carpet," Stewart said of Thursday's premiere. "To be honest, I was just kind of telling myself, like, just don't black out. Be there, don't just figuratively put your head down and barrel though it. Be there, appreciate it. Luckily, very, very much I was able to do that."
Now the question is, what does she mean by "fine?" Are she and Pattinson still together or what?


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Three young British Muslims were convicted Thursday of plotting terrorist bomb attacks that prosecutors said were intended to be bigger than the 2005 London transit bombings.
A London jury found 27-year-old Irfan Khalid, 31-year-old Irfan Naseer and Ashik Ali, 27, guilty of being central figures in the foiled plot to explode knapsack bombs in crowded areas — attacks potentially deadlier than the July 2005 attacks on Underground trains and a bus which killed 52 commuters.
Prosecutors said the men, fired up by the sermons of a US.-born al-Qaida preacher, hoped to cause carnage on a mass scale. Their plot was undone by mishaps with money and logistics, and ended in a police counterterrorism swoop in 2011.
Prosecutors said targets and other details had not been finalized when the men were arrested.
The three had pleaded not guilty to charges of preparing for terrorism
But the jury at Woolwich Crown court agreed with prosecutors that the trio were the senior members of a home-grown terror cell inspired by the anti-Western sermons of U.S.-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in Yemen in September 2011.
The suspects convicted Thursday were among 12 people arrested in September 2011 in counter-terrorism raids in Birmingham, central England.
Several other suspects have pleaded guilty to offenses related to the plot.


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Give The Gift Of Flight
Description: This Mother's Day, give Mom the ultimate luxury travel product from Flexjet. The Flexjet 25 Jet Card debit option, operated by U.S. air carrier Jet Solutions, starts at $100,000 and gives access to as many private jet flight hours as needed onboard high-performance Learjet or Challenger aircraft. The cost of each flight is simply deducted from the debit card balance, which can be replenished via an automatic or manual recharge option. Whether it's a romantic weekend getaway or a business trip visiting multiple cities in a single day, you can be ready for take off with just 24 hours notice. And, with the ability to reach 10 times the number of airports served by commercial airlines (5,000 vs. 450), travelers arrive closer to their destination ... without ever having to remove their shoes!
Price: $100,000.00 Visit the Website
For The Gourmet Loving Mom
Description: Give your mom a break from the kitchen and let her indulge in some of the world's best cuisine with Jacada Travel's latest series of Gourmet Tours. Jacada's Gourmet Series offers private guided food-focused adventures featuring exciting itineraries to Peru, Argentina, South Africa, and Chile. Even better, get your dad and siblings in on this to treat your mom to the ultimate Mother's Day gift – quality time with the family! And with summer's line up for exciting festivals to bring forth the finest cuisine, there's no better time for her to indulge in a trip created to appeal to all of her senses. For more information, please visit JacadaTravel.com.
Price: $3,200.00 Visit the Website
Hotel Shangrila, Santa Monica Offers Your Very Own Shangrila
Description: Your Very Own Private Shangrila – Total $1,297 for two persons / $985 for one person Veranda Suite Accommodation with outdoor verandas with view of the sea Al fresco Breakfast Stocked Refrigerator with Santa Monica's famous Farmers Market produce Entrance to Soulcycle - the ride which delivers an intense full-body workout with a fun and energizing atmosphere Complimentary DVD of the film "Lost Horizon" James Hilton's classic 1933 novel, in which Shangri-La is an isolated earthly paradise populated by immortal and ageless residents. All are promised eternal youth. Dual Massage at Sybaris Rejuvenation Lounge for 90 minutes One of the hotel's highly touted signature cocktails The Your Very Own Private Shangrila package is priced out for single and double occupancy, nightly. Package is valid through 2013, subject to availability, and is exclusive of tax and gratuity. For additional information, visit www.shangrila-hotel.com or call 310/394-2791.
Price: $985.00 to $1,297.00 Visit the Website
Hotel Shangrila, Santa Monica Offers Your Very Own Shangrila
Description: Seeking more leisure time at a slower, refined pace reminiscent of the 30s? Look no further than the Hotel Shangrila in Santa Monica, California, (built in 1939) where this 71-room luxury hotel, boasting 35 suites, is still "wowing" guests with the debut of this new leisure package in celebration of a multimillion renovation and recent addition of one-of-a-kind Art Moderne and Art Deco collectibles. The Artful Lodger – Total $765.00 for two persons One Bedroom Suite Accommodation Private Towncar to Getty Villa Entrance and Reservation for Getty Villa Relaxing Foot Massage at Sybaris Rejuvenation Lounge for Two Surprise "House" Confectionary Turndown Amenity Chocolates Complimentary Valet Parking The Artful Lodger applies to one or two persons in the room, nightly valid through 2013.
Price: $765.00 Visit the Website
Happy Mother's Day – Sparkling Ways To Say "I Love You Mom!"
Description: This Mother's Day, 12th May, show your Mom how much you love her with one of our Sparkling Hill Resort & KurSpa gift ideas. Sparkling Hill Resort is a new four season149 room European inspired wellness resort in the North Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada. Designed with 3.5 million Swarovski crystals elements. Guest rooms all have stunning and expansive views of lake and mountains. The resort offers golf, ski and wine tours. Surprise Mom with a Girls 2 Night KurSpa Getaway at Sparkling Hill Resort & KurSpa. Mom will feel loved and special as she renews in our 40,000 sq.ft. KurSpa which boasts over 100 treatments & therapies, enjoys dinner in PeakFine Restaurant overlooking the spectacular views of Lake Okanagan or strolls along our many beautiful hiking trails.
Price: $520.00 to $580.00 Visit the Website
Stay & Spa Package At Spa Ssakwa'q'n
Description: The new Spa Ssakwa'q'n (pronounced "SOCK-wah-kin" and describes a small, refreshing lake on a mountain top) was part of a massive expansion project that was unveiled last year at the Coeur d'Alene Casino Resort in 2011. The new Stay & Spa Package includes one-night accommodation (double occupancy) in the resort's new Spa Tower, two 60-minute massages and two vouchers for $25 "extra play cash" for use at the resort. Total cost: $369.50, a 20% savings. For more information call 1-855-232-2772 or visit http://www.cdacasino.com/spa/.
Price: $425.00 to $475.00 Visit the Website
RE: FATHER/SON; MOTHER/DAUGHTER PACKAGES AT L.A. MID CITY WEST HOTEL FOR MAY & JUNE PARENTS' DAYS: "Gals & Dolls" And "All American Dad's Day Out"
Description: The boutique hotel, centrally located on Third Street between The Grove & The Beverly Center in West L.A., has created two packages that celebrate parents all summer long. The gals can enjoy a bit of mother-daughter (and doll) time with the American girl "Gals & Dolls" package, featuring a custom doll bed & Mother's Day reservation at the American Girl Cafe. While the guys can enjoy an old-fashioned, American boys day out complete with burgers, beer & baseball. For more information visit www.theorlando.com
Price: $290.00 to $315.00 Visit the Website
Château Élan Winery & Resort's Mother's Day Buffet Package
Description: The resort is offering a Mother's Day package including overnight accommodations at the Inn and the Mother's Day Buffet for two in Versailles on Sunday, May 12th. The Mother's Day brunch is also available for those mothers visiting during their special day. Reservations are recommended. While visiting Château Élan, mothers can enjoy one of Georgia's most luxurious spas offering European and specialized treatments, massage and wellness therapies, hydrotherapy, signature anti-oxidant winery treatments, skin care treatments, nail care (caviar manicure), sauna, steam room and more. Mothers and their guests can also choose from one of Château Élan's seven gourmet restaurants, two 18-hole golf courses, biking and walking trails and a Viking Culinary Studio for cooking classes.
Price: $239.00 to $314.00 Visit the Website
Joy Mangano Clothes It All Luggage System
Description: Turn your suitcase into a mobile closet with ease! The Joy Mangano Clothes It All Luggage System includes a beautiful designed suitcase, removable garment bag, dust bag and ID cuff made in faux suede and genuine leather. Available in a variety of colors and prints, Mom can pack and unpack in a breeze! Get what you need in one simple step and you're on your way to fun travel times. Available Colors: Chocolate Brown, Coffee Latte, Dark Denim Blue, Deep Teal, Olive Green and Perfect Purple.
Price: $169.95 Visit the Website
Live Life Uplugged
Description: Ascent Solar Technologies presents the EnerPlex Surfr for the Samsung Galaxy SIII. EnerPlex allows you to set yourself free from the outlet, 2100 mAh battery for the Samsung Galaxy SIII as well as a supplemental solar charging solution, yet remains only 15mm thick. It's hardened plastic construction protects the S III from drops and scrapes yet remains incredibly lightweight at less than 70 grams. The EnerPlex Solar Phone Charger for Samsung gives you hours of more freedom to talk, text and play. In addition, the EnerPlex for Samsung Galaxy SIII also comes with a convenient and handy wall charger so you can charge your EnerPlex battery while indoors. No more dead phones while you're driving home, out at dinner, or stuck at the office late into the night. The EnerPlex for Samsung Galaxy SIII is the easiest solution for everyone.
Price: $89.99 Visit the Website
The SHOLDIT Clutch Wrap
Description: Introducing SHOLDIT -- The latest accessory innovation that combines the style of a scarf with the function of a purse As much as most women love handbags, its safe to say that most women don't always love lugging them around and experiencing the neck and back strain a heavy bag can cause. Finally, there is a fashionable, hands-free alternative to the traditional handbag. Introducing, the SHOLDIT Clutch Wrap: The ultimate accessory providing a multi-functional and convenient alternative to carrying a handbag. The patent-pending Clutch Wrap™ offers three accessories in one: a wrap, a scarf, and a clutch, and comes in 8 different fashionable styles. At first glance, SHOLDIT™ looks like a traditional infinity scarf. Upon closer examination, you'll find two spacious zipper compartments perfectly sized to carry a woman's top necessities like a cell phone, wallet, lipgloss, etc. SHOLDIT™ can be worn across the body as a wrap or double-wrapped around the neck to create the classic scarf look. As if that's not chic enough, SHOLDIT™ can also be transformed into a clutch by tucking the wrap inside the larger pocket while still leaving plenty of room for your essentials. Whichever way the SHOLDIT™ Clutch Wrap™ is worn, it guarantees a fashionable way to keep your valuables secure while enjoying hands free movement without the strain of a handbag.
Price: $79.00 Visit the Website
Stylish Car Rental To Show Mom She's One Of A Kind.
Description: Silvercar is a completely reimagined car rental experience. No lines, no counters, no questionable cars. Travelers can go from the plane to their own, sleek Audi A4 in silver with their smartphones to have a premier car rental experience for the cost of a standard full-size. Give mom the gift of stylish travel with a Silvercar rental in Dallas or Austin.
Price: $75.00 to $125.00 Visit the Website
DoubleNest Hammock By ENO
Description: The DoubleNest reigns supreme. It's an all-access pass to relaxation. Big enough for two and palatial for one, the DoubleNest stuffs easily into its attached compression sack. Take it anywhere, set it up in a flash, lay back and…Oh, did you want to join me? I've got room for one more. Available in a seemingly endless array of color combinations. It's easy to match the home team's colors.
Price: $69.99 Visit the Website
Mother's Day Brunch At Luxe Sunset Boulevard Hotel
Description: Give your mom the star treatment at On Sunset's Mother's Day brunch. Located at the Luxe Sunset Boulevard Hotel, enjoy a lavish buffet created by Executive Chef Olivier Rousselle, an al fresco dining experience and live jazz music on Sunday, May 12. Children can enjoy the popular "Build-a-Bear" station and create their new stuffed animal friends ($10) while the whole family celebrates mom. On Sunset will offer a variety of brunch options, including an omelet station, carving station, viennese table, antipasto display and entrée station. Complimentary cava sparkling, mimosa, or peach bellini offered to adult guests. Luxe Sunset Boulevard Hotel is located at 11461 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90049. On Sunset Mother's Day Brunch will serve from 10am- 2:30pm. Adults $65/Children under 12 $32. Call to make reservations: 310-691-7584.
Price: $64.00 Visit the Website
ILuv MobiCup
Description: Specifically designed to fit perfectly in your cup holder, this Bluetooth enabled speaker fits just as neatly into your on-the-go lifestyle. Pop MobiCup into the cup holder on your baby's stroller, beach chair or car and effortlessly listen to music or talk to friends without occupying your hands. Not only is it wireless, it also boasts crisp sound, a built-in mic, and top-mounted controls so you can change the volume, take a call or play a track with the touch of a button. MobiCup is even splash-resistant, which makes it a great companion for your outdoor activities. Whether you're taking a road trip or lounging at the beach, MobiCup makes it easy for you to listen and talk wirelessly.
Price: $59.99 Visit the Website
ExecuCar Luxury Sedan Service
Description: For the traveling relative, friend or colleague, give the gift of VIP ground transportation. Ride to and from the airport or around town in style and comfort with ExecuCar private sedan service. Passengers will enjoy an upscale, chauffeured ride in a sleek, late-model black towncar or SUV. ExecuCar operates in 30 markets across the U.S. and features flat rates, Meet and Greet and 24/7 availability. ExecuCar is known for its exceptional customer service and experienced drivers. Book your luxury ride online or on your smartphone to earn frequent flyer points or miles with select airline partners. Airport transfers, point-to-point or hourly charters available.
Price: $50.00 to $105.00 Visit the Website
Authenti Sea Glass And Sand Dollar Charm Necklace
Description: This sweet little charm necklace is sure to remind you of a day at the beach! It is made with a sterling silver sand dollar charm, a white fresh water pearl and a drop of authentic blue sea glass. It comes on a sterling silver open link chain in your choice of 16" or 18" long. When purchasing from Lita Sea Glass Jewelry please know that each item you purchase is the EXACT item you will receive! All the jewelry is handmade with love in Massachusetts.
Price: $39.00 to $49.00 Visit the Website
CityPASS - Up To 46% Off Combined Prices For Admission To Must-see Attractions
Description: CityPASS® is the company known for showcasing North America's most exciting cities by assembling ticket booklets of the most-visited attractions in New York, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco, Hollywood, Southern California and Toronto, Canada. Convenience, value, and consistency have made CityPASS a popular choice by sightseeing travelers. CityPASS booklets include actual admission tickets each attraction. Admission tickets are good for one-time admission only. Do not pull a ticket from the booklet or it will be invalid. Tickets removed by attraction staff only. The booklet is valid 9 consecutive days. The first use is considered day 1.
Price: $36.00 to $306.00 Visit the Website
BnBFinder Travel Gift Certificate
Description: Caregivers and caretakers. In one simple word: Mom. She conjures up special feelings and memories in each one of us. From stay-at-home moms and single moms to military moms and working moms, they have a place in our hearts reserved just for them. While they don't expect thanks, each Mother's Day we might find ourselves wondering what to get Mom to show her how much she is loved and appreciated. With the BnBFinder Travel Gift Certificate you can shower her with picnics in the park, sight-seeing and shopping excursions, spa treatments, getaways with girlfriends, food & wine tours, crafting workshops or let her choose where and when to go. The possibilities are endless!
Price: $20.00 Visit the Website
BnBFinder Travel Gift Certificate
Description: Caregivers and caretakers. In one simple word: Mom. She conjures up special feelings and memories in each one of us. From stay-at-home moms and single moms to military moms and working moms, they have a place in our hearts reserved just for them. While they don't expect thanks, each Mother's Day we might find ourselves wondering what to get Mom to show her how much she is loved and appreciated. With the BnBFinder Travel Gift Certificate you can shower her with picnics in the park, sight-seeing and shopping excursions, spa treatments, getaways with girlfriends, food & wine tours, crafting workshops or let her choose where and when to go. The possibilities are endless!
Price: $20.00 Visit the Website
Boardroom Travel Mug
Description: Trudeau's Boardroom Travel Mug is a sophisticated way to keep drinks warm when at the office. The mug features Trudeau's Trulock technology to prevent it from leaking and a leatherette finish makes it easy to grab and go. 16 oz. This great mug also features a 360 degree rim, allowing users to drink from anywhere on the rim with a guaranteed leak proof lid! The Boardroom Travel Mug comes in a wide array of colors including brown, black, red, and pink! This item is handwash only.
Price: $16.99 Visit the Website
Stray Boots Tours
Description: Avoid crowded brunches, monotonous guided tours and monotonous boring dates. Spend quality time with friends & family and head outdoors to enjoy an interactive scavenger hunt! With Stray Boots, the leader in mobile gamified city tours, users can give Mom & Dad the gift of quality time with her kids and give a unique twist to dates through their trivia-based adventures throughout 14 US cities—allowing for a fun-filled, kid-friendly alternative to exploring the city in your own backyard and major cities throughout the US. Perfect for the fashionista, food lover, history buff, and adventurous at heart, Stray Boots provides users with challenge-based questions and clues on a scavenger hunt that guides them to historical points of interest throughout the tour city, creating an on-the-go adventure. Best of all, the game teaches participants fun facts about the city as they visit each clue spot. It's all the benefits of a guided tour without the hassle of reservations and a set schedule. Stray Boots tours are a great alternative to budget-friendly travelers, birthday parties, corporate outings, and weekend visits with friends. The Stray Boots app can be downloaded in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store for free.
Price: $12.00 Visit the Website
Champneys Spa Indulgence Mediterranean Bliss Collection (Travel Kit)
Description: Indulge yourself with this collection of body care treatments inspired by the fragrances of the Mediterranean. Maintaining glowing skin while you travel is now easier than ever with these rich textures and decadent ingredients in each conveniently sized bright blue bottle. Champneys prestigious U.K. spas are among the finest in the world, with a rich heritage in health and beauty. For this collection, we've traveled the Earth to bring you four magnificent products in one box… 1. Mediterranean Bliss Body Glow scrubs your skin to leave it feeling polished and moisturized. 2. Mediterranean Bliss Bubble Heaven is a smooth elixir that transforms bath time into a decadent oasis. 3. Mediterranean Bliss Shower Cream leaves skin feeling fresh, rejuvenated and silky smooth. 4. Mediterranean Bliss Body Hydrator is a gorgeous, rich moisturizer that will get your mind wandering to a Mediterranean getaway! Additionally, the Body Polisher is the perfect cleansing accessory to this one-of-a-kind collection.
Price: $11.99 Visit the Website
Rabbit TV
Description: Busy moms who have trouble keeping up with their favorite shows are perfect contenders for Rabbit TV. Rabbit TV is a USB drive that plugs into a laptop or computer internet connection to provide viewers with more than 5,000 television channels, 25,000 movies and 50,000 radio stations anywhere with internet access. All shows and movies available online are aggregated and categorized into one interface. Rabbit TV retails for $10.
Price: $10.00 Visit the Website
Toddy Gear: Screensters
Description: 100% microfiber, character-inspired line of cleaning dolls bring a hint of flair and personality to your mobile devices • Dual-sided, scratch-free design with a plush side that absorbs dust and oils, and a silky side that polishes any screen or lens • Fashionable companion for your smart phone, MP3 player, e-reader, tablet, gaming device, and other sensitive electronics • Available in 10 collectible choices inspired by characters you encounter in everyday life • Intelligently designed to fit comfortably in your pocket or attach to your bag/backpack • Ideal for children and adults alike
Price: $9.99 Visit the Website
Organize Your Travel
Description: With today's myriad of travel sites, even the most experienced traveler has their hands full managing all the details of a typical trip. Booking airline tickets, hotels, rental cars, and restaurants leaves you with lots of separate pieces of paper. Throw in maps, directions, things to do, and weather, and the chaos multiplies. TripIt, the leading mobile travel organizer, turns chaos into order by making it easy for anyone to: - Organize trip details into one master online itinerary — even if arrangements are booked at multiple travel sites - Automatically include maps, directions, and weather in their master itinerary - Have the option to book restaurants, theatre tickets, activities, and more right from within the online itinerary - Safely access travel plans online, share them, check-in for flights, or print an itinerary To get started, simply forward confirmation emails from anywhere you book to [email protected] and TripIt automatically creates one simple, smart itinerary to access on a smartphone, calendar, or anywhere online. For even greater peace of mind while traveling, TripIt Pro acts like a personal travel assistant that keeps travelers in the know regarding flight status, alternate flights, and more; tracks frequent traveler points in one place; and monitors eligible flights for fare refunds.
Price: $0.01 to $49.00 Visit the Website
INRIX Traffic App
Description: The INRIX Traffic App is free on all smartphone platforms and provides up-to-the-minute traffic information. It's like having your own personal traffic reporter in the palm of your hand. Other free features include: •Find fasted routes based on current traffic conditions •See recommended departure and travel times •Share your arrival time via email or sms text message so people know when to expect you to arrive •Get personalized traffic alerts/push notifications For just $24.99, you can get a lifetime subscription to all premium features in the app including: •Access to traffic cameras •View cheapest fuel prices You'll never be late again when you use the INRIX Traffic App!
Price: $0.00 to $24.99 Visit the Website


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Marion County, FLHome Sitemap Contact
Calendar of events
Library - Belleview - It's Sew Fun!
Sewing program for ages 10-18. Pre-registration required.
- Date: 10/05/2019 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
- Location: Belleview Public Library
13145 SE Highway 484
Belleview, Florida 34420
Return to full list >>
It's Sew Fun! at the Belleview Public Library select Saturdays from 10 am to 12 pm.
September 7th, 21st, 28th & October 5th
Sewing program for ages 10-18. Pre-registration required can call 352-438-2500 to do so.
Master the basics of sewing and complete simple projects with the Lady Lake Chapter of the American Sewing Guild.


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MM is not popular enough to pull off the Sakura/Otome-Gumi concept now. They were selling out arena tours back then, and added those smaller venue, split-group gigs as a way to offer fans a more intimate experience. They're doing small-houses now because that's all they can fill. I can't see them releasing separate singles of new material, and without new material, what's the point of splitting up the groups?
Just get the group down to around ten girls and get on with it.
MM can absolutely sell out hall tours still, they're the only group that's guaranteed to do one every fall and spring. They're not doing small 3/400 capacity venues because they can't do anything bigger.


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Fairfielder tackles toughest state job: Protecting at-risk kids
Joette Katz had the most secure job in state government.
After two decades on the state Supreme Court, where she wrote about 600 decisions, the longtime Fairfield resident could have remained until mandatory retirement in 2023.
But a chance encounter with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy at an upstate festival in the days just before his November 2010 election as governor changed her life and is transforming the way Connecticut treats thousands of troubled children.
After a lifetime in law, Katz left the quiet realm of court arguments and judicial research to become commissioner of the perennially controversial state Department of Children and Families.
"I wanted a challenge," Katz said recently in her 10th-floor office with a stunning view of downtown Hartford.
"I was 57 and I thought I could do what I'm doing for the next 13 years and then you become constitutionally senile at 70 and get thrown off the Supreme Court, or I could look for something entirely different.
"The opportunity presented itself and I thought this would be great. I still have the energy and the work ethic. So I figured do it now before I really become senile, constitutionally or otherwise."
Katz has cut the DCF budget, reduced its case load to the lowest in 15 years and brought many kids home from out of state, all while trying to untangle a long-standing federal court decree and navigate the unions representing the department's 3,200-plus employees.
She has developed a reputation as a focused, no-nonsense visionary whose goal is to make life better for the state's at-risk kids. The leader of the union representing DCF employees calls Katz the best agency head in at least 20 years, noting that she has a rare ability to connect with workers, listen and even change her mind.
But Katz, now 60, also has her detractors. Among them are longtime social service providers, many of whom call her imperious, and question whether the goal of keeping children with family members will have long-term, positive results.
Criticism is probably to be expected, given all the changes she has implemented.
A new focus
Katz has pushed staff to accept new programs that have worked elsewhere, including asking families and friends, and even their doctors and lawyers to help determine the best programming for children. She has put a stop to unannounced home visits by agency social workers that were putting at-risk parents and guardians on the defensive.
She has changed the way the agency assesses whether alleged child victims are safe, no longer investigating lower-risk families for abuse or neglect. Indeed, she has questioned whether an intense focus on safety is in a child's best interest.
For years, front-line workers who are familiar faces in the urban neighborhoods of Stamford, Danbury and Bridgeport were taught to remove children from unsafe environments.
"For workers who really have been trained in a way to abandon the discretion they were initially taught to exercise in favor of a `safety, safety, safety, safety' was challenging," Katz said. "But there's so much more than safety at stake. I think we've made a lot of progress in changing the culture."
The theory is that it's better to keep abused and neglected children with family or friends, if not their parents, than placing them in congregate settings and foster care, both in and out of state. And along the way, state case loads can be reduced.
Katz discounts criticism, praises department staff for adapting to new goals and says that the only thing that really matters is improving the lives of the 4,000 kids for whom DCF is responsible. That's down from 4,800 under former Gov. M. Jodi Rell.
New governor meets veteran judge
The Brooklyn, N.Y.-born former public defender and state Superior Court judge decided that after years of occasionally ruling on the department's problems, it was time to change careers and accepted what may be the toughest job in state government. Katz retired from the Supreme Court, with a $120,000 annual pension, and took the $154,000 DCF job.
Asked recently what he did to lure Katz away from the $162,500 Supreme Court post, Malloy said that it wasn't anything she said in particular.
"It was a gut feeling that I could do it," Malloy said in his Capitol office. "I had run into her, during the closing weeks of the campaign, and I remember exactly: It was the pumpkin festival in Putnam. Something told me that she might be ready for a change in scenery. She didn't say anything. It was a gut. So a day or so after the dust had settled, I called her and discussions began and she was in fact ready for a change. And she's been really into reinventing a department that needed to be reinvented."
Malloy said the DCF had over the years failed to follow the best practices from states that have handled child-abuse issues with better success.
"In fact, Connecticut failed to do that in a lot of areas and this is just one of the areas," Malloy said. "There is no doubt in my mind that children, if they have to be placed, are better off if they're placed in-state. And if they have to be placed, then more often than not they're in better shape if they're placed with a family member. Keeping a family identification is extremely important for the child."
Around Thanksgiving 2010, three weeks after Malloy's narrow victory over Republican Tom Foley, the Democratic governor-elect asked her to take the DCF job.
"What really persuaded me to take this job, frankly, was him," Katz said of Malloy. "He didn't do any hard sell, but you know what? I liked the way he would govern. His attitude is that he puts the people that he wants in the job then gets out of the way."
Flashing an ability to multi-task, Katz, who is married and has two grown children, dove into DCF issues during the court's eight-day Christmas break. Then, the former honors graduate in college and law school, with a reputation as a brilliant, driven jurist, delivered 19 court decisions on Jan. 5, before starting her new job the next day.
Toughest job in state government
"Ignorance is bliss," she said with a smile during an hourlong interview. "You think you have an idea, then you get here and then you realize it's like anything else."
Even knowing the legal side of DCF-related issues was of limited help, she said.
"There was no way that I really understood the whole scope of the agency, frankly, and it's just as well," Katz said. "The court sort of sees society's problems as they percolate to the top. But you can't really have a complete understanding, particularly of an agency this size, and I think the biggest challenge for me, I'll tell you, is the state bureaucracy. It's really from getting from A-Z and getting there in my lifetime. As a judge, I was isolated from that."
She told employees that she brought a fresh perspective and she wasn't afraid to make decisions.
"If you wait for perfection, you'll never do anything," she said. "We're going to move certain things, and we'll tweak as we move along. I made a four-year commitment. We have a certain window here. We have a very supportive governor; we're going to work with the Legislature. We have the worst statistics in the country on engaging with families in terms of foster care. We have way too many kids in congregate care; we have way too many kids out of state, and this is my agenda."
And when a child under DCF supervision died, high-ranking state officials would line up to blame DCF workers.
In June 2011, just days after contact with DCF officials, 5-month-old Kyle Robinson, of Ansonia, was allegedly shaken by his mother's boyfriend and died in Griffin Hospital in Derby.
Rather than point the blame at individual DCF employees, Katz accepted responsibility.
"As long as you do what you need to do, I don't expect that there are not going to be bad outcomes sometimes," she said. "That's life, getting back to society's problems. What lessons can we learn? Are there other children in the family?"
Working under a consent decree
Paul Lavallee, president of Local 2663, AFSCME Council 4, said last week that Katz earned the respect of union members.
"Change comes hard for everybody," said Lavallee, who has been at DCF for more than 20 years. "Past administrations gave us lip service. She's been realistic. She certainly makes up her mind. Most refreshing for me is to have someone to hear us."
While the agency has seen its $885 million budget reduced by $75 million since 2010, staff reductions have come through attrition.
Social-service agencies with state contracts are more critical of Katz.
Ron Cretaro, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Non-Profits, recently sent Katz a letter asking for performance measures for the shift of kids into family settings, success in school; clinical and mental health treatment and other qualitative measures.
DCF is saving money and making strides toward meeting the elusive goals of the 1991 federal class-action court case that charged the agency with too often removing children from their homes, but Cretaro said the savings may be at the expense of local non-profit providers.
"Putting kids in less-restrictive environments might be saving money for the state, which is bending over backwards to try to get out of the consent decree. But its relationships with providers is resulting in less funding," Cretaro said.
Some other social-service providers, who asked to not be identified out of concern that it might affect their relationship with DCF, said Katz rules through intimidation.
Katz admits to caring more about results than the feelings of social service providers.
She said data on outcomes is crucial.
"We are following all the kids we brought back from out of state," Katz said. "We work with providers. We work with a monitor and in fact most of those kids are doing better."
A recent quarterly report by Ronald Mancuso, the federal court-appointed department monitor based in Wallingford, notes DCF improvements. The report cites many children brought back from out-of-state placements, children under six no longer being warehoused, and the family-focused agenda.
On the negative side, the report notes a shortage of potential foster homes, there are still many children awaiting placement in group homes, and there is a shortage of DCF staff.
"We have a huge problem with older age kids who have not achieved permanency, and that's another one of my targets," Katz admitted. "These are kids who have been in care too long and were brought into the agency under past administrations. Yeah, they were safe, but they've grown up, many of them in foster homes, but many of them in congregate settings."
Katz is planning a statewide expansion of a program called considered removal, in which 500 cases were recently followed.
Parents, guardians, relatives, religious advisers and others were brought in for consultation with DCF workers. In about 350 cases, children were not removed from their homes, while half of the remaining 150 were placed with relatives.
"I tell everybody that I want kids having breakfast with the same person who put them to bed the night before," Katz said. "I want them with a family. Kids do better when they're with relatives. There's less trauma. And all of these things save money. It's better for the kids and better for the taxpayers. That's how we've generated the savings."


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Podcasting Network
Posts tagged The Great American Nightmare
Justin Murr Talks The Rock n Skull Music Festival and Working with Jani Lane0
5 years
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Welcome to the fourth episode of The Nothing Shocking Podcast. On this episode Bob went and covered Rob Zombie's Great American Nightmare Haunted House as well as his concert. We also chat with Justin Murr, promoter of the upcoming Rock n Skull Festival which you can get tickets to right here: http://www.tickettailor.com/checkout/view-event/id/20089/chk/a11a
Our Albums of the Week are:
Glenn Tipton – Baptizm of Fire
Hanoi Rocks – Two Steps to the Move
The Steepwater Band – Grace and Melody
31 Alice Cooper Billy Sheehan Black Berry Smoke Black Stone Cherry Brooks Strause Brooks Wackerman Captain Spaulding Cozy Powell David Lee Roth Def Leppard Don Airey Edgar Winter Ginger Fish Glenn Tipton Gov't Mule Grace and Melody Hanoi Rocks ICP Jani Lane Jeff Massey Joe Bonamassa John 5 John Entwistle Judas Priest Justin Murr Kiss Michael Monroe Molly Hatchet Motley Crue Neil Murray Paint it Back Piggy D POD Ramones Rob Zombie Robert Trujillo Rock n Skull Shannon Larkin Steven Tyler Texas Chainsaw Massacre The Devil's Rejects The Great American Nightmare The Steepwater Band Two Steps from the Move White Zombie


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Monday, December 18, 2006
La boucherie/butcher's: a place cocottes, French or otherwise, ought to steer clear of.
Rosetta Stone French (CD-ROM) -- "an award-winning method used by NASA and the Peace Corps". More language software here.
une cocotte (ko-kowt) noun, feminine
1. hen, chic 2. pot, cooker (for making stew)
In French, cocotte (the feminine diminutive of coq) is originally a child's name for "hen" (coq...cocotte) (in English "cluck-cluck") and has a further two meanings: my sweetie ("ma cocotte") and "tart" (as in trollop or kept-woman).
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I was sipping rose petal tea from a dainty tasse* and eating a second slice of lemony citron cake at Dominique's when I learned that a hooker is a cooker in France. "Cooker!" I gurgled, slapping my knee. Considering the heat involved, the word seemed apropos.
Dominique was explaining to Gwen, who'd brought the "cookers" over, that they are also called "poules."
"Well, I could've told you that!" I thought, eyeing the poules from across the room. They looked like hens to me. I could have also told you the French word for "cooker" (cocotte). But what I could not have told you three days ago was that a cocotte is a hooker like a cocotte is a cooker.
Setting our teacups on their silver-rimmed saucers, we studied the "cookers" with their thin, pipe-cleaner legs, soft felt kissers, and pliable bodies (loose bean bags that they were). There they sat, up above the fireplace, long legs dangling over the mantle, watching us eat cake. Can you believe they each wore a fire engine red mohawk? (Or "crest" is it?) Dangling legs aside, these cocottes of Gwen's didn't exactly resemble "les femmes de moeurs légères" or ladies of light morals.
"You can call hookers 'poules'?" Gwen wondered, keeping an eye on her girls across the room as any one in the trade would. The sewing trade that is. As for me, I stood there, cake in hand, hiccupping an old French word with a new-for-me meaning: cocotte! cocotte! cocotte! Fun sounding words have that effect on those of us in the word trade. Cocotte-cocotte-cocotte!
We thanked Gwen for our "hookers"--a thoughtful early Christmas present (and hand-made at that!) and I thanked Dominique for enlightening me on yet another French word. While "cooker" may not be a direct translation for "hooker" in French, you could say that a cocotte is a hooker is a cocotte is a cooker!
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One of Gwen's cocottes, chez moi.
(In the background, one of Rodin's cocottes...)
References: une tasse (f) = cup
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If you enjoy French Word-A-Day, you might like to help support it. Find out how, here:
* * *
More on the term sizzling term cocotte:
"(The French have) more words for "working girl" than any other language I know....There's cocotte, horizontale, grisette, demi-mondaine, courtisaine, demi-castor, dégraffée, irregulière, femme galante...At some stage, disconcertingly, the definitions blur, and common prostitutes at the bottom of the ladder become revered courtisans at the top."
--from True Pleasures: A Memoir of Women in Paris
Terms & Expressions:
les oeufs en cocotte = baked eggs
en cocotte = in a stew (cooking)
la cocotte minute = pressure cooker
Allez, hue, cocotte ! = Come on, giddy up, let's get going!
Last minute shopping? Some ideas:
A game my kids rave about.
L'Occitane sampler.
Gift certificate.
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On Thursday morning, 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh said that the 49ers were coming off a perfect Wednesday practice, and he wanted an exact duplicate of that later in the day. On Thursday afternoon, Harbaugh said his players had exceeded his expectations.
"I thought yesterday was outstanding, but today was a photo copy of that," Harbaugh told pool reporter John Clayton after Thursday's practice. "In some ways, it was maybe a little better. I'm real pleased, real pleased."
The 49ers did about 70 minutes of work on the Saints' outdoor practice field and then 30 more minutes in the Saints' indoor facility. The indoor work included kicker David Akers making all his field goal attempts while his teammates were yelling and making noise to try to distract him.
"That's the first time they ever have done that in two years," Harbaugh said of the noise. "David made all of them, which was even better. His mechanics are real good. That bodes well. Good things will happen for us in that area."
If the 49ers play as well as they're practicing, good things will happen in the Super Bowl.


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Farmwork for Board in Argentina with WWOOF
WWOOFING On a Farm in Patagonia — Nutcracking in the Boonies of Argentina
By George Nelson
15 hours from Buenos Aires and the slightest of furrows interrupted the seemingly endless monotony of the Pampa. The drivers of the deluxe double decker bus switched and it wasn't long before Pedro, he wore a nametag, was carving through Patagonia's jagged landscape like a bat out of hell, energized after a powernap on the back seats.
All the while a balding Argentine on his way to El Bolson – I never caught his name – with a ponytail repeatedly performed the "my back is stiff so I need to stretch and ogle the girl behind me" routine every five minutes a few seats down. Luckily for the girl – travelling to Bariloche – she was fast asleep, or perhaps whatever was in the mate he offered her earlier had taken effect.
Either way her eventual awakening seemed to ease the pain in Casanova's back, but not much. Nine hours later I was the sole passenger sitting up top as the now exhausted Pedro signalled the end of the line and the beginning of my WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities On Organic Farms) week in an unidentified remote township. [Ed Note: due to the somewhat trying circumstances this WWOOFer encountered, we are not revealing the host's identity}
WWOOFING the World
WWOOFing works like this: farm owners offer food and board in return for a few hours work each day. The idea is to learn about organic agriculture and how to live off the land. I had signed up and was looking forward to a break from the city but a touch of trepidation had crept into my thoughts. Travelling to a far-flung farm I found on the WWOOFing website seemed like a fine idea when I was back in Buenos Aires, and it still did, but I was now truly in the sticks with no plan B.
The fact that I had only exchanged a couple of brief emails with the farm owners was also playing on my mind. I had envisaged my days would be spent rounding up sheep on horseback and ploughing the turf behind a coupe of oxen, but the rain and darkness were doing a good job of stifling my previous imaginings.
The farmer, who I shall call "S" was waiting for me in the rain sporting a weathered pair of leather boots and a ruddy complexion. His southern drawl was about as incomprehensible as an inebriated Dorset sheep farmer but he carried a certain rusticated charm. I soon learned that he preferred to be called El Toro.
Pack of Dogs
The front seat of his aged Fiat was a far cry from the bus' reclining thrones although the journey from the town to the farm was short.
No more than nine dogs greeted us at the gates, four of which were feral and snarling from behind an enclosure.
The quartet of hounds remained hostile night and day. Remarkably the two bites I received during my stay were delivered by a timid black Labrador named Sol, a faint memory of a rabies jab some time ago offered little comfort.
I also inadvertently made enemies with a belligerent turkey stag who took me for a love rival after catching me red handed showering his dames with corn the following day.
Parked up and wearing unsuitable footwear I trudged through the mud to the quincho with an open fire and table – but this was not to be my home. Photos on the wall showed dancing farmhands and lavish banquets drenched in sunlight, the backend of winter would not offer such revelries.
I dropped my bags and made my way to the farmhouse on the other side of the yard. El Zorro's wife, Paula, stood out front and ushered me into the kitchen where two girls were kneading dough. Something was cooking on the hob while the television blared the rural news channel.
Cats sprawled about the place in various states of repose and a frail lamb occasionally bleated for its mother from a straw lined chest next to the hearth. Paula dominated the kitchen with her presence but she was friendly and there were few formalities.
Only one rule was enforced while inside the house: nothing but Castellano the language spoken in Castille, Spain. The shorter of the girls, Catherine (21), turned out to be a devout Catholic from Washington state, the other, Melanie (24), a liberal Australian from the east coast. We were told a Canadian was on his way to join us in the next couple of days although he never showed.
Two Shifts a Day
Expectations were outlined from the off: two shifts of graft a day, the first 10am to 1pm followed by 5 to 8pm. Lunch was served at 1:30pm and supper at 10pm. The rest of the time was ours to do as we pleased. Fair enough I thought and after a dram of ale I was told to collect my bag and led into the darkness towards a gushing river.
Heavy rains channeled from the mountains had been hampering progress on the land and the ground was sodden. A rickety makeshift platform a meter wide bridged the gap and with the help of El Zorro's lamp we made it across onto an equally saturated field.
Silence engulfed the area but looming shadows stirred on the horizon and even though the enormity of the landscape could not be seen, it was felt. Bigote and Conan scanned the hedgerows before disappearing into the night but the mongrels were waiting for us patiently next to the barefaced terracotta walls of an unfinished building functioning both as stables and my lodgings.
El Toro climbed up through a frameless ground floor window, I followed and scrambled over a pile of old timber causing the steeds to shuffle and snort nervously in the obscurity.
Steps led to a padlocked trap door. The farmer reached behind a beam and pulled out a key, opened the door, and hoisted himself into the loft before offering a big rustic hand. Inside the air was warm and smoky.
A dim light came on to reveal a wood burner crackling in the corner, a couple of chairs, and a bed. On paper it may sound charming but the concave mattress looked like it might have been stuffed with goat's hair back in the dark ages and had certainly done the rounds.
El Toro grinned wildly and departed leaving me to contemplate solitude for the first time in a long time, and how to avoid skin contact with the mattress before sleep.
Mornings on the Farm
Mornings on the farm were spectacular. Clouds licked the rambling mountains before rolling away to reveal snow-capped peaks. Chile's rugged border could be seen in the distance. Breakfast consisted of homemade bread and jam and was served in the quincho alongside any number of dogs lying prostrate across the beginnings of a fire.
It usually wasn't long before the wife of El Toro walked in, tapped her watch and cracked the whip; there was work to be done. The rain was an issue, especially for a Somerset lad such as myself who wanted nothing more than to roll up my sleeves and incite the gratifying aches of hard labour.
Granted, during dry spells I was working the land outdoors but when the heavens opened we were ordered inside where shelling duties awaited – the farm hosted many walnut trees, with the nuts being sold at market. We formed a production line, one cracking walnuts with a hammer while the other two separated casings from innards.
Possibly the worst place to suffer the effects of a walnut allergy was here and the Yankee girl, Catherine, (I was called "El Gringo" by El Toro) was continuously flirting with swollen cheeks, weeping eyes, and inflamed nasal passages. Her battling spirit was admirable, if not painful to watch, especially when disagreeing with Melanie's free-spirited outlook, but observing piety and atheism locking horns within the confines of a small shed in the Patagonian countryside was a welcome distraction from the onset of repetitive strain syndrome.
The walnuts took me by surprise – there were bags and bags stored up from previous seasons. Santiago mentioned something about them being sold at market but during my time on the farm there was no evidence that any of the produce grown was being prepared for the fairs at El Bolson. The wood of the walnut tree was used extensively, not just on El Zorro, but throughout Lago Puelo. The dense wood was used for just about anything from work surfaces to garden furniture.
A Vegetarian Challenge
If combatting the adverse effects of hypersensitivity wasn't enough the rigors of mealtimes were all too obvious for Catherine, who turned out to be a vegetarian. She had no palette for hearty winter fare but this was no fault of El Toro's wife who rustled up meat-free options for both lunch and supper.
The grub was typically Argentine with home-baked pizza, pasta garnished with the obligatory fried eggs, empanadas, stew and milanesas prepared throughout the week. Nearly all ingredients were sourced from the fat of the land. My only complaint being the distinct lack of fruit and vegetables but the season was to blame and the local grocery was only two kilometres away.
Although El Toro was no conversationalist he occasionally lit up and the mention of Syria roused strong feeling igniting a passionate monologue proclaiming the glory of Argentina and brilliance of neutrality.
We also learned that he drank nothing other than beer and wine, not even water (his ruddiness explained), among other eccentricities. His name, though, remained a mystery and he was none the wiser as to why he had been coined "El Toro" I can only imagine he was something of a ladies man way back when.
Fireworks on the third day as the wife of El Toro unloaded a few lungful's of air on Melanie for rocking up late –- she was staying in the hostel across the road after taking a disliking to the lodgings, prompting a walkout.
Relations had soured between the two as the continual rain had forced extended nut peeling sessions. Having myself taken a comical dive in the mud post tepid shower that same evening, the bastard turkey was my only witness, I placed my tail firmly between my legs and jumped ship to the hostel across the road.
The lure of my own bathrA river crossing. oom (a swollen river and three acres of muddy pandemonium guarded the washroom on the farm) and internet connection (theoretically I was still holding down a job) proved too much so I bailed.
However, my work on the smallholding endured, so too my relationship with El Toro and his wife. Their opinion of me may have taken a beating but I was enjoying the open-air toil in the fields, especially as the weather cheered during the second half of the week.
Downtime was a joy. Endless forests, soaring waterfalls, and the stunning turquoise waters of Lago Puelo – the town's namesake- offered endless opportunities to explore. The views from the mountain behind the farm, located only 700 meters from Lago Puelo National Park, were breath taking and the Rio Azul flowed freely within the farm's grounds before spilling into the lake.
Evenings were quiet but with the larger El Bolsón only a 40-minute bus ride away there were a number of bars and restaurants, all selling incredibly expensive craft beers. Again, the season dictated the events schedule but Rino Rafanelli & La Rimanblu were in town on Saturday night causing quite a stir, at least among fans of eighties rock, and there are many in Chubut it seems.
Haunted by Walnuts
The turn of the week signalled the end of my time on El Zorro and while the sight of walnuts will forever haunt me it was refreshing to witness an organic and almost completely self-sufficient smallholding in action. Kitchen waste was fed to the pig, building materials sourced from the immediate area, and nearly all food cooked from scratch.
After living in Buenos Aires, where recycling habits leave much to be desired, the countryside provided some respite from the relentless activity of the city. El Zorro and his wife were welcoming yet it soon became clear that WWOOFing was designed for the spring and summer months when adverse weather conditions might not curb outdoor work.
And even though I jumped overboard to warmer climes when the going got tough, guilt still prevails, I look back with a sense of achievement that is not too great, nor too trivial. As I said my goodbyes it was touching to see both the turkey and the undomesticated pack of hounds rush out with such enthusiasm to bid me farewell, escorting me from the premises amid a barrage of gobbles and barks.
Find out more about WWOOFing at the WWOOF Argentina website.
George Nelson is a 26-year-old freelance journalist from the West Country England. He currently lives in Santiago, Chile. He has written for publications all over the world and has worked for newspapers in the UK, South America, and the US. Apart from writing on travel he enjoys reporting on sports – football and cricket – and environmental and social issues.


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By knowing what's available in the sky, what's being observed, and how often, you can make more informed choices as to what to devote your time to. The simplest use of this form is simply to tell you what objects are potentially available to you when you plan to observe tonight. But there's also a deeper purpose for this.
The AAVSO encourages the continued observation of stars with long-term light curves [2] -- those stars that have been historically well-observed for several decades or longer. By using this form, you can find which stars with long-term light curves have or have not been observed recently. You might find that some of your favorite stars haven't been observed enough and make an important contribution by observing them. Or you might find that they're well covered by other observers, and you can devote your time to other equally important stars that haven't been covered well. You can use this information to make your own best judgement as to how to spend your time.
There is no fixed definition of what "well-covered" means, but it depends upon the star. For long-period variables like Miras, we suggest that individuals should observe them about once every 7-10 days. Further, we want to have a reasonable number of different individuals observing them during a given time frame in order to help average out differences between observers. In this case, a Mira star might be well-covered if we have at least 10 different observers and 40 total observations during a given month. At the opposite extreme, some stars like dwarf novae can vary night-to-night or even hour-to-hour. In this case, we might want as many individuals as possible observing every single night.
IMPORTANT NOTE: You may find that a star of a given class has few or no recent observations. That might be because no one has looked at it recently, but it may also mean that there is no sequence or only a very poor sequence available for the star. In fact, this is often a reason why stars are not well observed. If you find a star with few observations, be sure to click the name to go to a 2-degree chart. If no comparison stars are available, you are encouraged to assess for yourself the value of new observations of this star, and if you believe there is scientific justification for doing so, please make a request to the AAVSO sequence team that a sequence be prepared. (Note: some bright stars will not have comparisons within a 2-degree chart, but may have comparisons on a 5- or 15-degree chart.)
The answer to that depends upon a number of factors. What you can observe depends upon your equipment, your location, the time of year, when you plan to observe, and so on. But what you should observe is a broader question. What kind of science matters most -- to you and to the community? Should you observe something that no one ever looks at, or should you contribute to the continued upkeep of long-term light curves that are well observed? Can you use your best judgement to strike a balance between those two?
The Observation Planner Tool provides information about targets available to you in your sky tonight -- what's visible and when, and how many other observers have been watching them recently. You may be able to use this information to make better-informed decisions about which stars you will observe tonight.
If you are new to variable star observing, this tool is not for you. It would be much better for you to start by observing stars in the Easy-to-observe [3] list or the Binocular Program [4]. Although this Planner includes stars from those lists, it also includes many more stars, some of which are hard to find or have poor comparison star sequences.
As an example, a visual binocular observer in Australia interested in Miras that transit the meridian around 22:00 hours local time might choose:
Another example: a pre-dawn telescopic observer of dwarf novae (UG and subclasses) in the northern hemisphere who wants to check on objects just coming out of solar conjunction might choose:
In addition to these parameters, you can also choose to output the information as a web page or as a comma-separated variables (.CSV) file, the latter of which can be imported into most spreadsheet packages. Note that the web page output contains links to a 2-degree chart and a 30000-day light curve for each star in the list.
Note that this is a very rudimentary tool, and leaves out some functionality for the sake of simplicity. For example, it will not tell you if a useful comparison star sequence exists for the star or not. It won't tell you how high your targets will be, and does no calculations specific to your observing site other than the Declination range that you select. For that reason, the hour angle calculations will be approximations only.
For Spreadsheet users: If you import the .CSV file into a spreadsheet, and notice that the RA is missing the hours, try re-formatting the column as either "Text" or "Time" with this format HH:MM:SS.
[1] ftp://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/cats/B/gcvs/vartype.txt
[2] http://www.aavso.org/overview-long-term-visual-light-curves
[3] http://www.aavso.org/easy-stars
[4] http://www.aavso.org/aavso-binocular-program
[5] http://www.aavso.org/category/tags/test


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Two BlackBerry 10 Devices Hit FCC Ahead of January Debut
Research In Motion's planned launch of BlackBerry 10 on Jan. 30, 2013, is proceeding according to schedule. New filings with the Federal Communications Commission reveal that the agency has approved two new BlackBerry 10 devices. The first appears to be an LTE handset intended for AT&T; the second is a mystery gadget with no publicly available details or specs.


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On the eve of his sixtieth birthday, The Kool-Aid man is learning to talk.
According to a Kool-Aid press release, the giant pitcher of punch will be able to say things other than "Oh, Yeah!" while bursting through walls and the like. Apparently that bit was getting stale.
"…The new lifelike Kool-Aid Man is technologically advanced, CGI-generated and more interactive and colorful than ever. In addition to his iconic tagline "Oh Yeah!" he will now have his own characteristic sound, expanded vocabulary and developed personality," says the company.
Congratulations Kool-Aid Man, it has taken you 59 years to surpass the vocabulary of an 18-month-old baby.
Here is a look back at a classic:


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Detailed Description
Draper's Padded Carrying Case will protect your RoadWarrior or Traveller portable projection screen from life's hard knocks. Constructed of ½" thick shock-absorbing material sandwiched between tear-resistant black nylon inner and outer sleeves.
Standard Features
Zipper, handle, shoulder strap. For Traveller screen sizes: NTSC 80" diagonal and HDTV 73" diagonal.


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Seemingly one stunning CertiPAMP ingot presentation, the Lunar Rooster MULTIGRAM+8 is in fact an ingeniously packaged bullion set divided into eight snap-off units – each securing a 1-gram Year of the Rooster ingot of 999.9 fine gold. The Chinese Zodiac is an ancient scheme that relates each year to an animal and its reputed attributes, according to a 12-year mathematical cycle. PAMP's popular Lunar Calendar Series celebrates the Chinese New Year tradition of exchanging gifts of good fortune with unexpected designs that delight and captivate, front-to-back.
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