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If you at all follow UFC goings-on (or even just follow someone on Twitter who accidentally watched a UFC card at a bar once), you’ve probably heard about the Biblical drama storm currently following Conor McGregor. This week McGregor “retired” from MMA over the UFC’s refusal to give him a slightly lighter promotional schedule. It’s been a confusing mess of whispers and speculation, so here’s some clarity: the UFC is absolutely being idiotic right now. Here’s where things are at: after McGregor sauntered onto Twitter, picked up a microphone as if to say something, and then dropped it and walked away, UFC president Dana White claimed the whole spat arose because McGregor refused to fly to the US to do a press week for his fight at UFC 200 in July. McGregor was silent for a while, leading to rampant speculation about whether he actually retired, or if this was some kind of ploy to squeeze more money out of the UFC, or even if he’d been rattled by recently witnessing an MMA fight in which one of the combatants later died. Yesterday, however, McGregor broke the silence, explaining that he requested a lighter press schedule ahead of UFC 200 because he’s pretty much been doing nonstop press for the UFC since the start of last year. He’s also jumped in and pulled the UFC’s ass from the fire multiple times, taking on last-second fights against top fighters like Chad Mendes and Nate Diaz. The latter fight, which saw McGregor jump up two weight classes to fight a guy heavier and taller than him, ended with McGregor’s first UFC loss. “I am paid to fight,” McGregor wrote on Facebook, saying that he asked for a “slight adjustment” to his promotional duties for UFC 200. “I am not yet paid to promote. I have become lost in the game of promotion and forgot about the art of fighting. There comes a time when you need to stop handing out flyers and get back to the damn shop.” He even said he’d fly out to New York for the day of his biggest media obligation of the upcoming press week (which would kick off in Vegas this weekend) and then return to training in Iceland after that. “It is time to be selfish with my training again, “McGregor added. “It is the only way. I feel the $400 million I have generated for the company in my last three events, all inside 8 months, is enough to get me this slight leeway.” That whole faux-retirement thing? McGregor said it was his way of showing the UFC that he didn’t need to attend a few press conferences and do some interviews to justify the $10 million they put into marketing this event. In a single tweet, he grabbed the entire sporting world by the eye stalks. So far, it seems that the UFC disagrees. Shortly before McGregor released his statement, Dana White continuously said things like, “You can’t not show up to promote your fight. You can’t do it.” He also referenced the time Nick Diaz (Nate’s older brother) no-showed a press conference and had a title shot against then-welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre yanked away from him. Now outlets like TMZ are reporting that the UFC has flatly refused McGregor’s offer. Unless somebody does something drastic, McGregor will not be fighting at UFC 200. What the UFC is doing here is so categorically stupid that my brain feels like it’s been repeatedly concussed by Alistair Overeem during his steroid-fueled days of being part-man, part-horse torso. Let’s break this down: At the heart of this whole fiasco is Conor McGregor’s unprecedented popularity, born of his notorious flare for self-promotion. Unlike many other fighters, he’s become a singular entity, responsible for some of the UFC’s highest earning pay-per-views to date. After a tough time during which the UFC lost stars like Brock Lesnar and Georges St-Pierre, McGregor (along with Ronda Rousey) helped put the UFC back on the map, gave it a larger chunk of cultural landmass than ever before. McGregor generates mindshare and conversation. People who don’t give a shit about the UFC do give a shit about Conor McGregor. My dad sometimes texts me about Conor McGregor. I’ve been following MMA for more than a decade. That’s a first. The UFC, however, continues to be an operation that is first and foremost focused on The Brand. If a fighter dishonors or tarnishes The Brand—if they fail to dance the company dance in the company mandated Reebok ballgown—they’re on The Shitlist (also a Reebok product) in a heartbeat. The UFC has an abysmal track record when it comes to putting fighters first. See also: the fact that fighters are all contractors (not employees with benefits and bargaining power), the aforementioned Reebok deal, which drastically reduced the amount of money fighters could make while lining the UFC’s pockets and giving them a nice little prestige boost to match, letting go of beloved figures for bad-mouthing the Reebok deal, etc. This has led to some moves in the past almost as baffling as the current McGregor situation. Remember when Dana White publicly threw Jon Jones under the bus for UFC 151's cancellation, even though it was the UFC’s decision and Jones had every right to turn down a last-second opponent switcheroo? At the time, Jones was the UFC’s star on the rise, their next great hope. But he put himself before The Brand, and that simply would not do. So the UFC put its foot down on Jones’ head and shot through its own foot to hit him. It was petty. It was short-sighted. In the long run, it didn’t help anybody, least of all the UFC. What makes the McGregor situation unique is that the UFC actually helped McGregor prove a point they’ve been kicking and screaming to deny: McGregor is bigger than the UFC. See, the UFC wants to build superstars, but only to a point. If they don’t need the UFC anymore—if they won’t kowtow to the UFC’s demands—that’s a nightmare scenario. If a fighter gains that kind of leverage, why, that might slightly detract from money the UFC could make! The horror! Meanwhile, for some time McGregor’s expressed interest in running his own fight promotion and co-promoting in partnership with the UFC. The first time McGregor said this, I imagine an alarm that sounded like a thousand banshees wailing in unison went off at UFC HQ, and a flock of ravens thick and black as coagulated blood devoured Dana White, forcing the UFC to release his sixth clone. So, for the most part, the UFC just sort of gives McGregor whatever he wants at this point. Wanna win a belt and then jump up a division to fight for a different belt? We’ve expressly forbade other champs from doing it, but sure! Go ahead! Wanna continue to put the featherweight division on hold so you can avenge a loss to a guy at welterweight, a division you have no business beating your head against? Haha yeah do that I guess! Also here are some the biggest paydays in UFC history. Please don’t go. It’s telling that this is how the UFC attempts to reassert dominance. They didn’t do anything of actual consequence. Oh no, that would be too risky. This is posturing, mean mugging for the camera, plain and simple. They could’ve (and at this point probably should) taken away McGregor’s featherweight championship. They could’ve suspended him. They could’ve fired him. But in their heart of hearts, they know they need McGregor more than he needs them. The tweet heard ‘round the world just drove that point home. This weekend, the UFC is putting on one of its biggest shows of the year. Disgraced ex-light heavyweight champion Jon Jones is making his big return on a card that’s stacked with quality matches, including the most intriguing flyweight title fight in eons. Jones is, in all likelihood, the UFC’s third most popular fighter after McGregor and Rousey. But hardly anybody’s talking about that, especially in the mainstream sports world. It’s kinda hilarious, actually: A lot of outlets have posted videos and interviews in which they mostly asked people like Jon Jones and flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson about... McGregor. We’re on the verge of a marquee UFC event, but one tweet from McGregor is eclipsing it. But OK, at the end of the day, the UFC is being self-interested. It’s a massive company, and massive companies are, by nature, self-interested. So, you might argue, they’re not being stupid at all. But even in the short term, ripping McGregor away from his throne atop UFC 200 is a moronic move. He just served them up a fantastic marketing angle on a silver platter, and they slapped it out of his hands, shoved his nose in it, and said, “NOW CLEAN IT UP.” For almost all of McGregor’s UFC tenure, we’ve known him as the guy with fancy suits, ridiculous bow ties, and ridiculous-er watches. Once upon a time, though, he was a poor Irish kid busting his ass and barely making ends meet. Now he’s going back to the basics to rediscover that part of himself, to train like a madman and shut out all other distractions. So we have McGregor, this guy who’s been dominating airwaves, radiowaves, Internet waves, sine waves, and hell, probably even ocean waves (the UFC’s expansion into dolphin markets is doing better than expected), and suddenly, for a little while, he’s gonna disappear. Just as people were starting to get sick of hearing him talk and talk and talk, he... stops talking. To train for the biggest fight of his life. THAT IS ONE HELL OF AN ANGLE. COME ON UFC, HOW ARE YOU NOT GETTING THIS? You’ve got a built-in storyline, plus a rare quality you don’t find in modern marketing hype cycles: mystique. What will McGregor be like when he returns from his self-imposed exile? What will he say? How will he fight? As a fight fan, I would be out-of-my-mind excited by all of this! Thrilled! Curious! Unable to look away! It’s a perfect fucking storm. But instead of promoting that, fight promotion company/lapse of judgement factory the UFC plans to pull the plug on McGregor’s UFC 200 fight entirely. It’s unbelievable. You’d think the UFC would’ve learned a lesson by now, but I guess their strategy of frequently stomping on fighters hasn’t led to a landmine yet. Maybe this will be it. Here’s hoping. It’s about damn time Dana White and co learn some kind of lesson.

Protection Earlier this month, it was getting worst between the two of them, and hard to be together. They were trying to hold on to each other, but sometimes, holding on hurts more than letting go. He was a famous political man, and she was his assistant. If one didn’t know her better, they’d say she was sleeping with her boss for the sake of her job. But it’s not like that. They met and they fell for each other, like any 2 normal people, but they were everything but normal. Other than him being famous, he was still married and getting a divorce.. But Her? she was just a woman, a young woman who studied hard and worked harder to get to be where she is now. Somehow, they managed to last 8 months now.Eventually, their relationship hit rock…

Media hysteria continues over Charlottesville; the two really good things that came out of it One commentator wrote: “If it wasn’t already abundantly clear, today’s events made it increasingly evident the left and right cannot peacefully coexist under the same government. To avoid a civil war, there is only one way out. It is time to end the Union and secede.” The smart-ass chick who got run over and killed after leftists smashed the car of James Fields Threats against me right on my FB wall: . Really, geriatric? Enjoy my collection of canes and dentures….oh, and this Marine shot expert and he always carries. John de NugentOh, and this one on how Robert E. Lee was was mean to escaped slaves (other owners usually gave them an ice cream cone, I guess), and how he supposedly was a lousy general. (Gee, if so, why then did Lincoln offer the overrated Lee the supreme command of the UNION Armies? 😉 )https://www.yahoo.com/…/ap-explains-robert-e-lee-went… John de NugentNote the twisting author says General Winfield Scott offered him the Union command. (I wonder if Scott just maybe consulted with President Abraham Lincoln first about that little job of crushing NINE STATES?) It has been quite a weekend and a good one in a way. Let the Spencerian Alt-Righties get a strong whiff of reality. Repeatedly I have read his toxic meme of derogatory, arrogant remarks about WN “Boomers,” as if these young guys were going to go to Charlottesville and kick the cops’ ass, yes, defy the police state, which has been hounding WNs since J.Edgar Hoover’s FBI of the 1940s! Spencer was almost whining in a vid how his rights were not respected and he got roughed up. Well, Spencer, we “Boomer WNs” have been getting the “full treatment” for decades before you were born: beaten, defamed, framed and murdered. Ava WagnerThe Alt Right wasn’t looking to fight the cops. They tried to coordinate and cooperate in the planning so that all would stay safe. What they didn’t plan on was the double cross. The cops take their orders from city and state leaders who are to blame for the deaths and multiple injured. Владислав БучневIt isn’t about age or generations; a person is either a decent honest man or vile scum, regardless of age. I don’t think that there are more decent people in young generation now than there was in the past; most probably even less, because of obvious genetic degeneracy. The only difference is that the youngsters now are presented with a hard choice: either they lick negroe’s feet or begin resistance. There is any way out except of war; all those who would try to continue “peaceful coexistance” are sure to be killed by both sides. Владислав БучневThe only language that communists understand is the language of force. It was well shown in 1920es in Germany. Any logical arguments would make any difference; sheer force and determination are the only factors. Be the first to comment Search Search for: Because I am so effective at combating Fake News, I am the constant target of online attacks and relentless hacking. This requires funds to pay for online security, secure hosting guaranteeing our right to speak freely, and more. Even a small donation is deeply appreciated. Thank You. Please donate below…

{{menu.title}} {{menu.title}} Music, Mathematics and the Harmony of the Spheres 18:00 - 19:00, 29 November 2017 At Bronte Lecture Theatres The development of the scientific world view, occurring in very broad terms between 1550 and 1750, is generally regarded as leading to the replacement of ‘magical thinking’ by the ‘scientific method’. This can however be seen as a much more ambivalent process, in which beliefs fluctuated and co-existed with each other, even in the minds of major scientists such as Newton and Hooke. Both these thinkers were profoundly influenced by the traditions of alchemy, astrology and the idea of sympathetic resonances throughout nature. While mathematics certainly came to the fore in this period as the ‘language’ of science, this happened partly because of the ‘mystical’ belief persisting from the time of Pythagoras that numbers underlay the structure of everything in the cosmos. Further, music, in the form of ‘harmonic theory’, was a major factor in both practical investigations of and in theorising about matter and material phenomena. In this entertaining and non-technical talk, Hugh Peters explores 16th and 17th century thought, drawing on the work of Newton, Hooke and others and addresses the subjects of the ‘music of the spheres’ and the origins of Newton’s Principia. The speaker is an accomplished musician and will illustrate some of the concepts on the classical guitar. This event is being held at the Bronte Lecture theatre on campus. Maps of the campus and directions to the University can be found HERE This is a free event but please note that places are limites so please register for your place HERE

Saturday, June 23, 2012 How to Make Yarn Pom Poms ~ fun for all ages! All you need is card board (I use a cereal box!), scissors , and yarn of any kind!! Children and adult of all ages can do this project. For younger children have an adult do the cutting! Pom poms are used in many ways for many fun project and are not just for crocheters and Knitters! I will have a post coming up on how to make Monster friends and Princess friends out of them. They are also fun to make and toss up and down! They are so light there isn't a need to worry about breaking things! Add them to shoes, flip flops, hair clips for a fun way to accessorize! I traced a glass to get the circle, Using a favorite cereal box can get less than eager children excited about crafts or make it more fun for ones that already love to craft! There will be shrinkage so you will want to cut out the circle bigger than what you want your Pom pom to be. Cut out 2 circles They don't have to be perfect so feel free to let most 4 year olds and up ( with supervision) try to cut a circle out next drawl a smaller circle ( again doesn't have to be perfect) and a v like shape cut out both circles like this and you are ready to start! Now you are done with your homemade pom pom maker!!! You can also purchase these at many crafts stores, But I think they are fun and easy to make!! However if you need to make alot of these before hand and want to save time there is less trimming involved with a store bought pom pom maker! Now grab your yarn! Feel free to hold two or more stands of yarn at once when you wrap for a cool effect. I will show you with one multi color strand. Place a small strand of yarn inside the two circles like this tip* tape the outside perimeter of your circle if small children have trouble. Now hold the two cardboard pieces together so the yarn doesn't slip out. Take the yarn from your ball or skein and begin to wrap your circles. I always start in the middle work my away to each side and back again so every spot was wrapped at least 2 twice. For a fuller one wrap 4 or 5 times. Start wrapping this is wrapped 4 times Next we will cut the yarn placing the scissors between the two cardboard pieces like the pictures below Now you need to tie a knot tightly with your two strings and remove the pom from the cardboard trim to a nice round shape if desire or you can brush it with a fine tooth comb for a fuzzy look!!! About Me I started a crochet blog about 2 ish years ago just for fun, now I am reaching 10,000's every month :) I feel so blessed to be able to help teach so many how to crochet and I am glad so many love and share my FREE patterns and videos. In July 2014 I felt lead to start another blog about my faith/family and general crafts I do for both. For crochet patterns go to www.crochetchiq.com

Search This Blog Books; People; Ideas : These are few of my favourite things. As I live between day-to-day compromises and change-the-world aspirations, this is the chronicle of my journey, full of moments of occasional despair and opportune discoveries, of connections and creations, and, most of all, my quest of knowledge as conversations. Subscribe to this blog Follow by Email Transformation of Indian Higher Education: Noting The Signs of Change For those who felt change is always slow and cumbersome in India, the recent move by the Indian government to annul the Rs. 500 and Rs 1000 notes overnight should be a clear sign that things have changed. Indeed, there are certain things which never change - the implementation was poor and thoughtless and the bewildering array of tinkering that came afterwards demonstrated the jugaad mentality - but Chinese-style decisive action may have now become politically fashionable. This may give hope to those who thought India would open up its Higher Education sector eventually. There has been a bill, drafted and redrafted several times but never acted upon, to this effect dating back to 1990s. Various governments since then expressed its intention to make the Indian Higher Ed competitive globally, but in reality, had done the opposite. While India expanded its Higher Ed capacity significantly since 2006, creating a few thousand seats every day on average, the sector remained steadfastly parochial, corrupt and disconnected from global realities. This is a tragedy if one considers the demographic and demand factors. India hit a point of demographic advantage, with 2.1 million people turning 25 every single month in India. This made it the fastest growing Higher Education market in the world, with almost a quarter of the prospective students for college level education globally. Poor education made real the Confucian double threat: "Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is dangerous." Because of the demographic advantage, India is also poised to offer a quarter of world's new workers, about 25 million every year. And, yet, its very own IT service industries, caught in global recession, and threatened by increasing automation of what used to be called 'knowledge work', were poised to lose too many jobs. By some estimate, three-quarters of new service sector jobs in India, the ones that sustained the creation of the 'new middle class', are under threat of automation. And, while the talk is of 'moving up the value chain', the strengths that helped create the IT services industry - abundant pool of cheap manpower available for back office work - are precisely the weakness that prevents such a move. The Indian students going abroad, given the rising aspirations and poor state of Indian Higher Education in general, is growing, though it was severely disrupted by the anti-immigration sentiments first in Australia (2007-8) and then in the UK (2011 onwards), two of three most popular destinations. However, despite this, the number of students travelling abroad for education is growing at almost 18% a year, and currently stands at 360,000 a year. Only China, with 700,000 students annually, has more students looking for global education (To put this in perspective, China's Higher Ed sector is nearly the double the size of India's in terms of number of students, the per capita income in China is about 5 times that of India and a number of foreign institutions have campuses or collaborative arrangements in China but almost nothing in India). While India set itself on a path to create an open global economy, starting with structural reforms more than two decades ago, its insistence on a closed Higher Education system, which has become out of step with the rest of the world and decidedly anti-innovation, is inexplicable. The only explanation why things are this way can perhaps be found in the lobbying power of the 'Education Barons', the large, mostly South Indian (but not exclusively) College groups that would go any lengths to keep the market to themselves. These groups were enormously powerful, not least because these colleges were effective licenses to print money. India, because of the demographic factors, is a sellers' market in education. It is also a market which combined excess demand with state regulation of fees that could be charged, resulting in a thriving black economy where the families would pay extortionate 'capitation fees' (or, once this was made illegal, some other form of payment) to send their children to college. The phenomena was well known and indeed the corruption was at all levels - a former Head of Indian Medical Council, which controls the Medical Schools across the country, was caught accepting a cash bribe from one of the colleges wanting to expand capacity - but these colleges controlled the politics through their money. Often, indeed, the college owners are the politicians, and vice versa. However, this may be finally changing. When the government annulled the high denomination notes, these colleges were among the most affected: The very fact that it could even be done indicates a political shift. One could speculate about a weakening of the private education business in India: The low employability (about 18% for Engineering graduates), competition from different states (private engineering colleges and universities are no longer a monopoly of South Indian states), the demographic shift within India (with North and East having younger population, and South Indian population gradually ageing) and the weakness of the Indian IT services industries may all have contributed to the position. The neglect of Higher Education has affected an entire generation of Indians, and the current government's mandate is, implicitly, to improve their lot. This may now happen. There are conversations in India about ring-fencing the profitable sectors, like Engineering and Medical Education, for domestic players, but allowing the Foreign Universities to offer courses in Basic Sciences and Liberal Arts. This may not be the ideal solution, but could be an important first step towards opening up an arcane and inward-looking system. There is also another idea, floated by the Indian Commerce Minister recently, about allowing Foreign Universities to open from Special Economic Zones, more like the UAE model (expect some 'Academic Cities'). This could work too, and there are some obvious candidate cities, like the upcoming city of Amravati, being built to become the capital of newly structured Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The government's intention in transforming the education sector in general is evident in its efforts to get a new education bill passed (after a thirty year gap) and in breaking the monopoly of some professional organisations, like the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) or Indian Medical Council, on respective professional education areas. The current government, though socially conservative, is perhaps more aware than the previous ones about the middle class consensus that got it into office (and which can, in time, drive it out of it) and as a result, acutely keen on jobs and education that leads to jobs. Overall, there is an opening - even if just a sliver of it right now - and a possibility of rapid transition of Indian Higher Ed sector. We have heard this before, but this time, it is more solid than it ever had been. The institutions in UK, which have more or less given up on India, because of the failed expectations, and Indian students, because of UK government's single-minded persecution of them, should now wake up and prepare to re-engage. And, indeed, they may need a different set of strategies than they used in the past: The usual institutional visits to Indian colleges, which had failed to yield any returns, intellectual or financial, now need to be abandoned. The Indian government is likely to depend on private initiatives to reform the Higher Ed sector, and it is likely that Indian companies and industrial groups would be the prime sponsors of the new projects involving foreign universities. This is a different kind of conversation, though not without precedent. But, this, a new institution-to-business conversation, may open up the world's most exciting Higher Education market for the UK universities, just as they ponder their options in the face of a sudden exit from European Union. Comments Popular posts from this blog A friend has recently forwarded me a quote from Lord Macaulay's speech in the British Parliament on 2nd February 1835. I reproduce the quote below: "I have traveled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such calibre, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native self-culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation." The email requested me to forward me to every indian I know. I was tempted, but there were two oddities about this quote. First, the language, which appeared … Business gift giving has always been common and contentious at the same time. Business gifts are usually seen as an ‘advertising, sales promotion and marketing communication medium’ (Cooper etal, 1991). Arunthanesetal (1994) points out that such gifting is practised usually for three reasons: (a) in appreciation for past client relationships, placing a new order, referrals to other clients, etc.; (b) in the hopes of creating a positive, first impression which might help to establish an initial business relationship; and (c) giving may be perceived as a quid Pro quo (i.e. returning a favour or expecting a favour in return for something). The practitioners of gift-giving generally argue that doing business is often an aggregation of personal interactions and relationships, and gift-giving should be seen as a natural way of maintaining and enhancing these relationships. ‘Business gifts, especially one given in the course of the festive season, is … In an earlier post, I pointed out that the application of 'platform thinking' in education misses the mark, as it fails to understand how value is created in education. Since this apparently contradicts my earlier enthusiasm for the university as a 'user network', this statement needs further explanation. To start with, Clayton Christiansen's idea that the universities of the Twentieth Century needs to evolve from its current 'value chain' model - wherein its value lies in its processes - to a form of User Network, where its value emanates from its community, still resonates with me. The Value Chain model, with departments, examinations, textbooks and degrees, that we know the university for, is very much a late Nineteenth/ early Twentieth century formulation. And, indeed, one can claim that the universities were always communities, and its value came from being a member of that community rather than its end product - the degrees - for much of history. It … In most societies today, making profits are accepted as moral, if not especially praiseworthy. This was not as obvious as it appears today – people used to be embarrassed about making a profit not so long ago. Crazy as it seems today, it is worth thinking why it was so. Profits, as economists will put it, is the reward for risk-taking, for putting a business enterprise together in the pursuit of an objective. In this definition, remember, profits are not what it is commonly understood to be – the gross middle-line towards the bottom – but a figure net of entrepreneur’s earning [wages for his labour], dividends and interests on borrowed capital, and provisions for building and other physical assets [a sort of rent, offsetting what these assets could have earned if leased out]. This pure profit – surplus – accrues to a business as a reward to its organisation, for the act of entrepreneurship itself. Economists were divided on how this surplus comes about. The conventional wisdom was, as I … I wrote a note on Kolkata, the city I come from and would always belong to, in July 2010. Since then, the post attracted many visitors and comments, mostly critical, as most people, including those from Kolkata, couldn't see any future for the city. My current effort, some 18 months down the line, is also prompted by a recent article in The Economist, The City That Got Left Behind, which echo the pessimism somewhat. I, at least emotionally, disagree to all the pessimism: After all Kolkata is home and I live in the hope of an eventual return. Indeed, some change has happened since I wrote my earlier post: The geriatric Leftist government that ruled the state for more than 30 years was summarily dispatched, and was replaced by a lumpen-capitalist populist government. Kolkata looked without a future with the clueless leftists at the helm; it now looks without hope. However, apart from bad governance, there is no reason why Kolkata had to be poor and hopeless. It sits right inside … Buzzwords have disadvantages. Right now, experiential learning is one, and that means we put the label on everything and it stops to mean anything. Also, this means reasonable conversation about experiential learning becomes difficult - at times such as this, either you preach experiential learning or you are traditional, antiquarian and hopelessly out of touch. But, overlooking the limitations of experiential learning can cause big problems. Experiential Learning does many things - putting practice at the heart of learning is an important paradigm shift - but not everything, and it is important to be aware what it does not do. Usually, we equate the terms Project-based Learning (the method) with Experiential Learning (the idea) and Learning from Experience (the ideal), treating them as one and the same and using the terms interchangeably. Any talk about distinctive meaning of these terms is usually seen as pedantic, but really represent very different ideas about education. Learnin… India's unemployment rate has reached a historical high and the government is panicking. It has rejected and suppressed the report and committed itself to inventing a new set of numbers. Members of the national statistical body have resigned, and the bad job numbers have become one of the worst kept secrets in its modern history. As the government went down the road of obfuscation, it had also fooled itself believing that everything was fine. Once the statistical reports were questioned, the best explanation that the Head of the apex economic policy-making body could come up with was that Uber and other taxi-hailing companies have created millions of jobs in India. But then, the crisis is anything but hidden - walk on any street in any neighbourhood in any Indian city, and it is likely that you will see a few working-age people loitering, waiting or playing cards or carom in the middle of the day. IMF has recently warned that youth inactivity in India is highest among all develo… Smart presentations don't mean valuable insights. So it is with the current fad of presenting the vision of an all-new 21st-century education - through presentations, conferences and infographics - style trumps substance all the way through. For, despite the claims of revolutionary changes in society and the workplace, the neat charts that lay down 21st-century skills next to the 20th-century one's show do not how different they would be, but rather how similar these are projected to be. We are told that we have arrived at a fundamentally disruptive moment in history and we need new skills. So, we need, for example, communication and critical thinking, learning to learn and a host of other cool things. Indeed, many of those terms are very familiar to the educator: Many of those were around for more than two centuries, ever since the dreams of liberal education were spelt out. When these slides were presented, I often wondered whether the point about critical thinking meant … I didn't write for almost three weeks as I was in India. The essence of my work there is to deal with employment creation. Part of my work is pro-bono - a city initiative focused on Industry 4.0 - and the other part is commercial, advising a large Indian corporation on the development of next-generation Skills training programmes. But the sense of crisis regarding unemployment cuts across scale and scope of my work and is a recurrent theme that pops up everywhere. India has a really big challenge. About 2 million people reach working age every month in India, and even if only half of them are actively seeking employment, the few thousand jobs that the organised sector creates are woefully inadequate. India may be the fastest growing large economy in the world, but demonetisation of 2016 and poorly implemented General Sales Tax (GST) have hit businesses hard and froze up recruitment in many sectors. The widely promoted 'Make in India' initiative - the government's atte… That governments are so enthusiastically trying to promote start-up cultures, handing out investment grants and building fancy new hubs, would make Milton Friedman turn in his grave: One can anticipate his protest - it is not the business of government to do business! But then, democracy in its 'for the middle class, by the middle class' incarnation expects the government to be a job creation machine, and when all else fails, the Ministers say 'let start-ups be'! In fact, they celebrate it: In this affair, failure, the hallmark of government programmes, is some sort of credit. It allows the governments to celebrate the doctrine of creative destruction - ever so cool - while destructively creating a self-blaming proletariat, whose revolutions are limited to ventures and whose idea of nirvana is an Exit. There was never a better mantra invented to justify a permanent bureaucracy. But, at this point, I must stop and make an important distinction. My post is about start-…

Given the linear-gradient(black, white) value for background property, should serialized value include implicit "top" gradient-line? Quote from http://dev.w3.org/csswg/cssom/#css-values: "Where CSS component values of the value can be omitted without changing the meaning of the value (e.g. initial values in shorthand properties), omit them. If this would remove all the values, then include the first allowed value. That could apply here but not necessary as it's unclear if it applies to arguments of css functions too. Currently, internal implementation in Opera does not return it. I can see that webkit's does (and Gecko's is not quite up to date so not sure if it's relevant). -- Rafal Chlodnicki Opera Software

How It Should Have Ended: ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ The comedic geniuses at HISHE (How It Should Have Ended) have set their sights on the classic “Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back” and come up with a hilarious take on how the movie … well … should have ended.

The effect of sound intensity on the audiotactile crossmodal dynamic capture effect Abstract We investigated the effect of varying sound intensity on the audiotactile crossmodal dynamic capture effect. Participants had to discriminate the direction of a target stream (tactile, Experiment 1; auditory, Experiment 2) while trying to ignore the direction of a distractor stream presented in a different modality (auditory, Experiment 1; tactile, Experiment 2). The distractor streams could either be spatiotemporally congruent or incongruent with respect to the target stream. In half of the trials, the participants were presented with auditory stimuli at 75 dB(A) while in the other half of the trials they were presented with auditory stimuli at 82 dB(A). Participants’ performance on both tasks was significantly affected by the intensity of the sounds. Namely, the crossmodal capture of tactile motion by audition was stronger with the more intense (vs. less intense) auditory distractors (Experiment 1), whereas the capture effect exerted by the tactile distractors was stronger for less intense (than for more intense) auditory targets (Experiment 2). The crossmodal dynamic capture was larger in Experiment 1 than in Experiment 2, with a stronger congruency effect when the target streams were presented in the tactile (vs. auditory) modality. Two explanations are put forward to account for these results: an attentional biasing toward the more intense auditory stimuli, and a modulation induced by the relative perceptual weight of, respectively, the auditory and the tactile signals.

Planning Models for a Bus Rapid Transit System (BRT): The Case of Metrobus in Mexico City Fernando Lambarry, Mara Maricela Trujillo, Luis Arturo Rivas Abstract This article is about the planningprocess of a bus rapid transit system in Mexico City, called Metrobus.It is aqualitative research that describes the two consolidated models of BRT planning, the one from the ResearchBoard of Transportation based in North America developed cities; and the one from the Institute of Policy forTransportation and Development applied in Latin American cities. Also the study describethe BRT system ofthe Mexico´s Cityin which fieldwork was done based on in-depth interviews to themanagers of the operatingcarrier companies of the 4 current BRT corridors. The Mexican case shows two variables that are not stronglyconsidered in the studied models and should be incorporated in similar context: the BRT environmental impactand the strategy of consensus withthe BRT operators. To make sure that you can receive messages from us, please add the 'ccsenet.org' domain to your e-mail 'safe list'. If you do not receive e-mail in your 'inbox', check your 'bulk mail' or 'junk mail' folders.

Probably the first question you are going to ask yourself when starting an rpg is what kind of storyline you’ll follow. And while I cannot tell you what to do (that’s a decision you make for yourself) I can perhaps inform you what not to do:Read the rest of this entry →

The State of Cloud Computing Around the World: Europe A large number of potential adopters of cloud computing in Europe are averse to embracing the technology fully due to unfounded fears that it has unnecessary risks or dangers operations and management, resulting in the region falling behind a large part of the world. While there are specific challenges that need to be hurdled with regard to cloud computing, they can be addressed, and in fact doing so would necessitate a faster and more streamlined adoption of cloud computing by Europe’s organisations, businesses, and public authorities, which would result in accelerated productivity growth and an increase in competitive across the board. There are several key areas where actions are needed in order to help drive the adoption of cloud computing in Europe: The market of Europe, to date, cannot be looked at as a single market because the European Union only unifies certain aspects of politics. By and large, each country continue to maintain their own laws on technologies, press freedom, and consumer rights Aside from the fragmentation of the laws and culture, there is also the issue of unclear and highly debatable laws. These laws don’t clearly draw up the rights and protection of cloud consumers that prevents businesses to fully trust the cloud Issues with contracts due to fears over data access and portability, as well as change of control and ownership of the data. Various conflicting standards due to a proliferation of different standards and a lack of certainty as to which ones provide adequate levels of interoperability and portability. The above factors prevent, or at least make it difficult to start, a “European Super-Cloud”, or a dedicated hardware infrastructure that will provide generic cloud computing services to the public sector users across Europe. Digital Single Market Due to its emancipation from geographical limitations, cloud computing is capable of elevating the digital single market to a new level. But this will only happen if we manage to implement single market rules. The gains to be had are potentially huge, with the estimated GDP to be generated by the public cloud amounting to 250 Billion Euro in 2020 with cloud-friendly policies implemented, compared to only 88 billion Euro if there is no intervention. It is also expected to generate around 2.5 million new hobs. A large number of the steps needed to make Europe more a continent that is able to maximize the potentials of the cloud were already extensively discussed in the Single Market Pillar of the Digital Agenda for Europe and the Single Market Act. Majority of said steps are now being discussed by lawmen. In actuality, these items are not difficult to decide on. However, as in any other item in legislation, things are being dragged longer. In Europe’s Digital Agenda, there is a campaign to simplify copyright clearance, management, and cross-order licensing. The key actions proposed by the Digital Agenda are designed to enhance Europe’s capacity to exploit the exciting new opportunities of cloud computing for both producers and consumers of digital content. For the cloud to work well as a platform for digital content services, there is a need to enhance access to and use of all sorts of content and data across different devices and territories. Besides completing the Digital Single Market, a climate of certainty and trust must be developed by allaying fears and stimulating the active adoption of cloud computing technology throughout Europe. In order to create trust in cloud technology, there is a chain of confidence building steps that need to be taken, such as: Legislation, Legislation, Legislation There is a need to come up with a wider standard, with endorsements of certificates by regulatory authorities in order to indicate compliance with industry standards and legal obligations. This will go a long way towards allaying fears over the cloud. At the moment, individual vendors are all fighting for dominance by locking in their customers coming up with proprietary offshoots or variations of cloud computing technology, resulting in different technologies that lack interoperability, data portability, and reversability, and further stoking the fires of uncertainties towards the technology. Fortunately, the path towards standardisation and certification are already underway, with the US National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) already managing to publish a series of documents that contain a widely accepted set of definitions. The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is also getting involved by organizing different groups operating under one umbrella to ensure that each country under the union is using a standardised program. Much as this is a huge undertaking, it is far from being adequate. There are more issues that need to be dealt with and even more conflicts that need to be settled. Drawing Clear Expectations and Commitments Unlike traditional IT outsourcing arrangements, which are up front and described in detail, cloud computing contracts tend to be more open ended due to its greater flexibility. This results in most service level agreements for cloud services to be complex and multi-layered, with equally extensive and complicated disclaimers. These sort of contracts may be advantageous to providers who want to protect themselves, but it results in a lot of consumers turning away out of fear of being taken advantage of. Even large companies who usually have their own team of legal experts tend to stay away as the contracts rarely provide enough liability for data integrity, confidentiality, or even service continuity. It is therefore imperative that a regulatory body be implemented in order to bridge the different, and usually diverging national sales law rules by providing contractual parties with a uniform set of rules. The European Cloud Partnership Shaping the European cloud computing market would require the help of the public sector, primarily because it is the largest buyer of IT services, and can therefore set stringent requirements for features, performance, security, interoperability, and data portability and compliance with technical requirements. Several member states have already started national initiatives, including Andromede in France, Trusted Cloud in Germany, and G-Cloud in the UK. Unfortunately, due to the fragmentation of the public sector market, the requirements provided by the initiatives have very little impact, with services integration being too low that the citizens do not always get the best value for money. A more widely followed public requirements can only result in a more organized and adaptable set of rules that will enable businesses to afford the cloud. Enabling more businesses to adapt the cloud will reduce costs and make operations more seamless. The private sector can also stand to benefit from higher quality services, more competition, and faster standardisation for high-tech SMEs. A new initiative called European Cloud Partnership (ECP) is being started in order to a more unified standard that all members of the EU can follow. This means that even when specifics of the law change from country to country, each member of the UE will follow the same principle. It is designed to bring together industry expertise and public sector users that will work on common procurement requirements for cloud computing in a more transparent and open way. It does not mean that European countries are set to build data centers. It doesn’t even equate to a drive to encourage more cloud start-ups. It is geared towards creating a unified standards that will ensure all players that enter the European market work within the standards of Europe. The ECP will also set out to help prevent fragmentation by ensuring that public cloud usage is safe, secure, greener, and interoperable in accordance with European rules. Under the guidance of a steering board, the ECP will bring together public authorities working with industry consortia in order to implement a pre-commercial procurement action to: Identify requirements for the public sector cloud, as well as develop standardised specifications for IT procurement. Aim towards joint procurement of cloud services via public bodies based on the emerging common user requirements. Set up a coordinated effort between stakeholders when it comes to executing cloud-related actions as described in this document. There will be a series of actions designed to support the three key actions above, as well as other initiatives that are conducive to faster cloud implementation and adoption for both consumers and businesses, such as broadband access, roaming, and open data. Measures and Allies There is a need to investigate how to make full use of all available instruments through research and development support under Horizon 2020 on long term challenges that pertain to cloud computing as well as in assisting the move towards cloud-based solutions (such as software for switching from legacy systems to cloud, and for managing hybrid services) and avoiding any lock-in to unfair SLAs. There is also a need to launch physical centers and set up other equipment that would connect different European cloud facilities to protect cloud based public services, and for the implementation of a standalone cloud plan under the eCommission strategy, which will include a programme of actions that will move public services implemented under the community programs into the cloud. Last but not the least, there also needs to be some sort of drive towards promoting e-skills and digital entrepreneurship related to cloud computing. Due to the lack of technical barriers preventing cloud services at geographical borders, there is a need to not only take advantage of the opportunities presented by the Digital Single Market, but to look beyond the borders of Europe and target wider international situation for both the adoption supporting measures and the legal framework. It is in Cloud computing’s nature to require a reinforced international dialogue on safe and seamless cross-border use. For instance, the various laws on security and cybercrime will have to be modified and standardised in order for cloud computing to be adopted on such a wide scale. More and more third countries are starting to realise the importance of cloud computing. The USA, Japan, Australia, and Canada already have or are developing solid cloud computing strategies, and many South East Asian countries such as Malaysia, India, Korea, and Singapore are following suit, with some of them even managing to go toe to toe or even exceed the efforts of their western counterparts. The main goals tend to be partnerships that will drive adoption by public bodies, via promotion of technological developments and further standardisation, as well as cross border collaboration and dialogue on legal and technical challenges that need to be hurdled. The EU must therefore deepen its collaboration with international partners not just for technological R&D, but also to smooth out legal issues, all of which will help in helping more businesses and individuals adapt the cloud. The dialogues need to happen in a multilateral discussions like the UN or the OECD . This will help promote the goal of a seamless use of the cloud technology and eliminate any existing or future personal interests by cloud investors or politicians. It will also help pushing everyone to discuss the problems that cloud is experiencing that keeps others from realizing its possible role in fostering free trade with various countries, such as Singapore and India. There will be an increased encouragement of international dialogues with other countries when it comes to key themes relating to cloud services like data protection, law enforcement agencies’ access to data, and implementation of Mutual Legal Assistance Agreements in order to avoid conflicts between companies with conflicting requests from public authorities. Other key themes include the standardisation of data security on a worldwide level, liability of intermediary service providers, interoperability requirements, and standards pertaining to public services; tax law as it applies to cloud services, and large scale collaboration and cooperation on research and development of the technology. Conclusion Cloud Computing Technology concerns a wide range of different policy fields, with ongoing policy initiatives like the data protection reform and the Common Eu Sales law needing fast and rapid adoption in order to help break through barriers to the wide scale growth of the cloud industry in the region. The key actions outlined earlier in this document need to be implemented as early as 2013, particularly with regard to standardisation and certification of technologies related to cloud computing, and the development of safe and fair contract terms and conditions on the initial launch of the EU Cloud Partnership. There is a need to be vigilant when it comes to emerging policy issues that can affect cloud computing’s societal and economic potential in various fields, such as public procurement, taxation, financial regulation, and even law enforcement – particularly in the latter as cloud computing’s inherent borderless nature presents a few issues regarding compliance, jurisdiction, and reporting. The next two years will be very important, as the actions defined earlier in this document will be developed and implemented in order to lay the foundation for Europe’s status as a cloud computing powerhouse. The success of the drive will hinge on how fast the decisions are made and implementation take place, which is expected to run from 2014 to 2010. Being successful means an immediate CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 38% can be achieved by cloud services that offered for free or cloud services that are available to individuals, which is twice the estimated growth rate if the legislations or laws outlined above are not put into place. It is also largely up to Member States to adopt, embrace, and further enrich the potential of cloud computing, usually through the development of a public sector cloud that is based on common approaches that foster increased trust and performance while reducing costs. There needs to be more active participation in the European Cloud Partnership, and for close cooperation between the member states with regard to the development and adoption of common interoperability measures and standards. Some valid pts here however one should also delve into the politics of the business. Who is raising questions about security? most likely the traditional vendors in the market as they would love to sell more infra, eg. firewalls, gatekeepers etc… One should ask the industry “do you have a firewall on your cell phone?”

Mossad's 'I've Got a Secret' Pays Off in 'Debt' August 31, 2011 Ménage a Mossad? Three is not the charm as deployed in The Debt, which goes through the trials and terror of a trio of Mossad agents of the '60s inexcusably failing to execute a plan to kidnap and carry a Nazi war criminal from his disguise of a life in East Berlin to Israel for prosecution. In their failure comes the success of The Debt, an enormously entertaining and enterprising remake of the Israeli film Ha-Hov(2007), in which the Israeli secret service serves up a totally different picture of what had been shown as honed at efficiency and excellence. Mossad post-Munich was one mission. Mossad as messed up in The Debt quite another. Which is what we get in The Debt, which owes more than a paycheck to director John Madden, whose depiction of the maddeningly complex kidnap scheme and ineptitude of the trio chills as it spills out a diorama of deception and decayed morality. Any crypto messages about krav maga? The Cambridge-educated director laughs at the mere idea that he has taken a chop at the Israel martial art so artfully displayed in The Debt. Yes, he kids, it helped him get what he wants on set: "I would yell, 'Keep out of my way!' " It was his own take on cinematic art -- not the martial kind -- that got him his way and that earned respect, with acclaim and accolades coming for Ethan Frome, TV's Prime Suspect: The Lost Child (starring Debt headliner Helen Mirren); Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown, Shakespeare in Love (an Oscar nominee for his work on the Oscar-winning pic) andProof. Proof that you can improve on a genre -- and The Debt pays off as topnotch thriller-chiller material -- is his upgrade of a take on Ha-Hov, which Madden viewed as "a chamber piece" and then proceeded to put bullets in the chambers to fire off his own victory of a version. (Debt producer Eitan Evan served in the same capacity on the Israeli original.) As Mossad misfits, the three agents are no match that Yenta would be proud of: All damaged psychologically by their links to Holocaust tragedy, the two men and one woman fall in lust and loss in a romantic roundelay that makes for a Mossad moshpit. Is This Any Way to Conduct Espionage? Love, look at the three of them? Where's their professionalism and precision, the dispassionate dimension conjured up by years of living dangerously? "It's a useful reminder," reminds Madden, "that there was an ad hoc quality to Mossad in its early years, and that things" -- including sex and the sedition -- "don't always go by the plan." The acclaimed director of Broadway's Grown Ups (1981), cartoonist Jules Feiffer's fiery three-dimensional evocation of a Jewish family at war with itself, Madden's mature approach to art pays off again here. "I resist the kind of simplification" seen in other story lines of relationships, he concedes. "Complexity is the point." He offers a tip of the hat also to moviegoers who get that point: "Audiences deserve to be treated as grown ups." And here, in The Debt -- fiction at its most convincing -- purchasing an adult ticket gains admission to a confession that the Israeli secret service's secret wasn't always in service to its country.

M2 What is 'M2' M2 is a measure of the money supply that includes all elements of M1 as well as "near money." M1 includes cash and checking deposits, while near money refers to savings deposits, money market securities, mutual funds and other time deposits. These assets are less liquid than M1 and not as suitable as exchange mediums, but they can be quickly converted into cash or checking deposits. BREAKING DOWN 'M2' M2 is a broader money classification than M1, because it includes assets that are highly liquid but are not cash. A consumer or business typically doesn't use savings deposits and other non-M1 components of M2 when making purchases or paying bills, but it could convert them to cash in relatively short order. M1 and M2 are closely related, and economists like to include the more broadly defined definition for M2 when discussing the money supply, because modern economies often involve transfers between different account types. For example, a business may transfer $10,000 from a money market account to its checking account. This transfer would increase M1, which doesn’t include money market funds, while keeping M2 stable, since M2 contains money market accounts. The Money Supply The money supply measures the amount of monetary assets available in an economy. This is an important metric in macroeconomics, because it can dictate inflation and interest rates. Inflation and interest rates have major ramifications for the general economy, as these heavily influence employment, consumer spending, business investment, currency strength and trade balances. In the United States, the Federal Reserve publishes money supply data every Thursday at 4:30 p.m., but this only covers M1 and M2. Data on large time deposits, institutional money market funds, and other large liquid assets is published on a quarterly basis, and it is included in the M3 money supply measurement. Changes in Money Supply M2 in the United States has grown along with the economy, rising from $4.6 trillion in January 2000 to $12.8 trillion in June 2016. The supply never shrank year-over-year at any point in that period. The most extreme growth occurred in September 2001, January 2009 and January 2012, when the rate of M2 expansion topped 10%. These accelerated periods coincided with recessions and economic weakness, during which expansionary monetary policy was deployed by the central bank. In response to economic weakness, central banks often enact policy that increases the money supply, promotes inflation and reduces interest rates. This creates incentive for businesses to invest and for consumers to maintain their purchase activities. The Phillips Curve illustrates an inverse relationship between interest rates and unemployment, and the Federal Reserve's mandate is to balance these two important macroeconomic statistics. M2 provides important insight into the direction, extremity and efficacy of central bank policy.

Isaac Mizrahi FABULOUS Rollerball Customer Reviews In the 1996 documentary Unzipped, Isaac Mizrahi quipped, “Either it works or it doesn’t.” Happily, the fashion-mogul’s debut scent definitely falls in the former category. With bright citrus and soft floral notes, the blend is fresh and sweet without being overly girly. And yes, as the name implies—it will make you feel fabulous no matter what. Springtime floral I am so happy with this scent! It is bringing spring to me during a bitter cold February. It's a very good scent. It's not overpowering and cloying, which is my problem with some floral scents. It's so very feminine and sexy. I am not kidding, I put this on and my cat came over and licked my wrist. That was a puzzling one, certainly, but he must enjoy it as much as I do. This is going to be my go-to scent for the coming months and I think it would make a "fabulous" gift as well. 5 Was this review helpful to you? Yes | NoWas this review helpful to you? Yes | No Floral Fabulous has a delicious scent that reminds me of a spring wild flower meadow with a dash of vanilla and orange. It's so subtle that it won't be overpowering, but you'll pick up hints of fragrance as your wrist meets your nose during the day. 4 Was this review helpful to you? Yes | NoWas this review helpful to you? Yes | No Lovely fragrance I'd been looking for this perfume for quite some time and never could find it in stores. I snatched it up as soon as I saw it on Birchbox and I don't regret it. It smells amazing! I've had a few people compliment me on how nice and fresh it smells, without being too flowery. I'd like to purchase the full-size bottle soon. 5 Was this review helpful to you? Yes | NoWas this review helpful to you? Yes | No A New Favorite! I absolutely LOVE this scent. I recieved the sample as part of the "Be Bold" gift with purchase from my most recent order. I had never smelled the fragrance before but it is now one of my favorites. It is rare for me to find a fragrance I truly love, and I've found myself wanting to use it more and more in place of my usual perfume. This is musky, yet floral and super feminine without being too heavy a scent. The roller ball fits perfectly in my purse or clutch (it's the size of a lip gloss or mascara tube), so as soon as it runs out I'll probably need to get another! 5 Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No1 of 1 found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No LOVE this perfume This little rollerball not only comes in a great package, but it's a great fragrance that makes me smell fresh all day! I am a waitress so I need something to keep me smellin' great all day. This does just the trick! 5 Was this review helpful to you? Yes | NoWas this review helpful to you? Yes | No

Week Review - July 16-22, 2017 This week featured the Squirt Selects, Peewee Selects and Bantam Super Selects groups. You can catch all the action in this weeks highlight video! Group Photos Saturday Final Exhibition Games There's no better way to end the week than the highly anticipated final exhibition game. Coach Steve introduces every camper and they get the opportunity to step out onto the ice, skate through the giant Heartland "H", all while the spotlight is on them. It's an NHL caliber introduction and it's always a pleasure to see the camper's enjoy the experience. Check out the Squirts, Peewees, and Bantams final exhibition games below! New Mile Run Record! Bryce O'Brien shattered the Peewee mile record by 6 seconds with a time of 5:34! Incredible run by Bryce and it was great to see the entire group congratulate him! Follow us on Social Want to stay up to date with what's going on at Heartland Hockey Camp? Follow us on our social media channels! We offer camp updates, promotions, free giveaways, and more!

Having a challenge figuring out how to do something? Here’s a technique straight from the ProNagger’s designer bag of creative ideas. Write yourself an email as if you were asking for help from an expert in the field you need help in. Let the email sit for...

This website and blog are written in English, but Iam Norwegian. Its not always I find the right word or sentences, so feel free to correct me! Leave a comment an I will be happy to check out your blog :) HI, I’m not gone, but my work, my normal daytime work is taking all my time. Well I sit in front of a computer and construct steel to the oil industry. Engineering is fun but here in north it is so cold and dark these two month before Christmas. So I sleep a lot after making dinner to children and so on. Days fly by. Daydreaming a lot when I drive or when I can’t sleep at night. Dream about my sewing machinery and all the project I want to do but almost never have a chance to do. Well this dress was on my project list for Autumn and I have been sewing on this 5 minute here, 15 min there in several weeks. And I think it is so far the most advanced project i have done. So a little bit proud The pattern are SS and so are all the fabric. Satin..yes its slippery!! bah..cursed a lot. The first picture is from the SS (stoffogstil) catalog. This is the dress the way its supposed to to turn out. Beware i don’t were any makeup, and the picture are taking before we are going to a Christmasparty at work the next day. Do you think I accomplished it? The flower-fabric is a see-true fabric and was very difficult to hem, wasn’t pleased but turned out ok. Haha noticed my feet are kind of disappearing on the picture to. We have almost black floor, sorry Anyway the dress fit so perfectly in size 36 eu. And now i have a really nice dress

Who’s ready for some fun in the sun summertime mini sessions? Our new lemonade stand is ADORABLE! We are having one more round of lemonade stand mini’s this Sunday, June 26th. These will be held in Keller, TX in the SHADE! These will probably be our last outdoor mini’s until the fall, so don’t miss out! The kiddos had so much fun! There’s a few spots left… Book online here: http://bit.ly/1cRlUcF We have officially put all of our upcoming 2014 MINI Sessions for our Keller, TX studio location on the calendar and they are now booking! We are expecting all of these sessions to fill up quickly, so be sure to book early to secure your session day and time. These are 15 minute sessions with special reduced pricing and packages. Summertime Goodness – August 1st and 9th (featuring colorful backgrounds, watermelons & ice cream!) Back To School – August 30 (will {Read More}

Media Analysis Performs multiple analytics within target media. The Media Analysis API allows you to perform multiple Media Analytics API functions on the same input file. For example, you can create a transcript of the text in the media file, and detect scene changes in the same file. This API is similar to running the individual Media Analytics APIs, but it can use the media processing resources more efficiently because it does not need to decode the input file multiple times. This approach can improve the performance, and the API unit cost of using the API, compared to using the media analytics APIs individually. Note: The Analyze Media API is not the same as a Combination. A Combination runs each of the APIs individually, while Analyze Media runs all of them in a single job. Quick Start You can upload a media file to the API by using a POST request method. For example: You can also provide a file as a URL or a Haven OnDemand object store reference. Note: Because input files for this API can be large and take a long time to process, the API runs only in asynchronous mode. Note: The API processes only the first 60 seconds of any input file and processes for a maximum of 2 hours (the processing time is not necessarily the same as the length of the input file). After 2 hours, the API returns the results it has processed, truncating anything after that time. Input files are also subject to a maximum size quota. For more information, see Rate Limiting, Quotas, Data Expiry, and Maximums. You specify the operations that you want to perform by submitting a JSON object that defines the input parameters for each API that you want to run. You must specify at least one analytic. The Analyze Media API can run the following APIs on the file that you upload: The source_information response field contains information about the media that you send. This field is returned only once in the Analyze Media API response, rather than appearing in each analytic subsection. Asynchronous Use Additional requests are required to get the result if this API is invoked asynchronously. You can use /1/job/status/<job-id> to get the status of the job, including results if the job is finished. You can also use /1/job/result/<job-id>, which waits until the job has finished and then returns the result. Model This is an abstract definition of the response that describes each of the properties that might be returned. Media Analysis Response { source_information ( Source_information , optional) Metadata information about a media file license_plates ( License_plates , optional) scene_changes ( Scene_changes , optional) faces ( Faces , optional) objects ( Objects , optional) transcription ( Transcription , optional) classes ( Classes , optional) } Media Analysis Response:Source_information { mime_type ( string ) MIME type of the document. video_information ( Video_information , optional) Information about the video track if one is present. audio_information ( Audio_information , optional) Information about the audio track if one is present. image_information ( Image_information , optional) Information about the image track if one is present. document_information ( Document_information , optional) Information about the document track. This is only available if the source media is a multi-page image, presentation file, or PDF. } Media Analysis Response:Source_information:Video_information { width ( integer ) The width of the video in pixels. height ( integer ) The height of the video in pixels. codec ( string ) The algorithm used to encode the video. pixel_aspect_ratio ( string ) The aspect ratio of pixels in the video. For example, if the video is made up of square pixels this value is 1:1. } Media Analysis Response:Source_information:Audio_information { codec ( string ) The algorithm used to encode the audio. sample_rate ( integer ) The frequency at which the audio was sampled. channels ( integer ) The number of channels present in the audio. For example, for stereo this value is 2. } Media Analysis Response:Source_information:Image_information { width ( integer ) The width of the image in pixels. height ( integer ) The height of the image in pixels. } Media Analysis Response:Source_information:Document_information { page_count ( integer ) The estimated number of pages in the document. } Media Analysis Response:License_plates { items ( array[Items] ) All of the detected license plates from the source media. } Media Analysis Response:License_plates:Items { start_time_offset ( number , optional) Time offset from the start of the video to where the license plate first appears. This value is expressed as a non integer number. This is only available if the source media is a video. end_time_offset ( number , optional) Time offset from the start of the video to where the license plate is no longer visible. This value is expressed as a non integer number. This is only available if the source media is a video. time_offset ( number , optional) Time offset from the start of the video to where the license plate was identified. This value is expressed as a non integer number. This is only available if the source media is a video. page ( integer , optional) Page in the document where the license plate is located. This is only available if the source media is a multi-page image, presentation file, or PDF. The minimum possible value of this property is 1, which means that the license plate is located on the first page. origin ( enum<Origin> ) The location that the license plate originates from (that is, the license plate registration location, rather than the location where the video was captured). This field has the same possible values as the source_location parameter. location_adjusted_text_components ( array[string] ) An array of strings that represent the different textual information extracted from the license plate. For example, Saudi Arabian license plates consist of 3 letters and up to 4 numbers; these two components are represented as separate elements of the array. This field uses the ocr_text information and applies corrections, according to the format specified by the identified origin. This always contains at least one item, and each item contains at least one character. ocr_text ( string ) The characters identified by Optical Character Recognition (OCR) before any corrections are applied according to the format specified by the recognized origin. shape ( enum<Shape> ) The shape of the license plate. confidence ( number ) A value (0-100) of confidence in the license plate identification. source_region_coordinates ( array[Source_region_coordinates] ) A set of coordinates (relative to the top left of the source) that represents the bounding region where the license plate can be found in the source media. If the source media is a video then this region is where the license plate was found at time_offset in the video. This always contains at least 3 co-ordinates Time offset from the start of the video to where the scene change occurred. This value is expressed as a non integer number. } Media Analysis Response:Faces { items ( array[Items] ) An array of Face objects. } Media Analysis Response:Faces:Items { start_time_offset ( number , optional) Time from the start of the video to where the face first appears. This value is expressed as a non integer number. This is only available if the source media is a video. end_time_offset ( number , optional) Time from the start of the video to where the face is no longer visible. This value is expressed as a non integer number. This is only available if the source media is a video. time_offset ( number , optional) Time offset from the start of the video to where the face was detected. This value is expressed as a non integer number. This is only available if the source media is a video. page ( integer , optional) The page (1-based index) in the document where the face is located. This is only available if the source media is a multi-page image, presentation file, or PDF. age ( enum<Age> , optional) The age range of the face. source_region_coordinates ( array[Source_region_coordinates] ) An array of coordinates (relative to the top left of the source) that represents the bounding region where the face can be found. If the source media is a video then this region is where the face was found at time_offset in the input source. Time from the start of the video to where the object first appears. This value is expressed as a non integer number. This is only available if the source media is a video. end_time_offset ( number , optional) Time from the start of the video to where the object is no longer visible. This value is expressed as a non integer number. This is only available if the source media is a video. time_offset ( number , optional) Time offset from the start of the video to where the object was detected. This value is expressed as a non integer number. This is only available if the source media is a video. page ( integer , optional) The page (1-based index) in the document where the object is located. This is only available if the source media is a multi-page image, presentation file, or PDF. source_region_coordinates ( array[Source_region_coordinates] ) An array of coordinates (relative to the top left of the source) that represents the bounding region where the object can be found. If the source media is a video then this region is where the object was found at time_offset in the input source. Haven OnDemand uses cookies to enhance and improve the experience it provides. By continuing to use this site or pressing Continue, we will assume that you accept receiving all cookies. 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After reviewing more than 35 pages of email from top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, Judicial Watch observes that Abedin advised a State Department staffer that it was “very important” to review phone calls with Clinton because she was “often confused.” Judicial Watch notes that Abedin emailed State Department Clinton aide and companion Monica Hanley from her “[email protected]” to alert her about the need to go over phone calls with Clinton. advertisement Additionally, Abedin’s emails reveal “repeated security breaches, with the Secretary’s schedule and movements being sent and received through Abedin’s non-governmental and unsecured Clinton server account,” states Judicial Watch. On January 26, 2013, Abedin had the following email exchange with Hanley: Abedin: Have you been going over her calls with her? So she knows singh is at 8? [India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh] Hanley: She was in bed for a nap by the time I heard that she had an 8am call. Will go over with her Abedin: Very imp to do that. She’s often confused. The emails also provide specific details of Clinton’s last day in office on January 31, 2013. Exact times and locations of all her appointments during the day are given. “Huma Abedin’s description of Hillary Clinton as ‘easily confused’ tells you all you need to know why it took a federal lawsuit to get these government emails from Clinton’s illegal email server,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “These emails also show that Hillary Clinton’s and Huma Abedin’s decision to use the Clinton email server to conduct government business was dangerous and risky.”

King's Disappointment Both King and Gandhi were frustrated that they could get people to protest but not to serve. Thinking that my friend Martin Luther King might turn over in his grave if he knew the holiday in his name was becoming just another day of shopping, TV, and relaxation, in 1994 I went to one of Martin's comrade-in-arms, Congressman John Lewis. "How do we make it a day on, not a day off?" I asked. As legislators (I was a senator from Pennsylvania at the time), our solution was a bill. Congress passed the law charging the new Corporation for National Service and the Federal King Holiday Commission with organizing it as a national day of service. It seemed so obvious. After all, it was King who had said, "Everybody can be great because everybody can serve." And he said, "Life's most persistent and urgent question is 'What are you doing for others?'" King and "service" are virtually synonymous, we thought. Advertisement Yet I have a confession. The holiday we created emphasizes something for which King was not known. Rather, he was most closely associated with civil disobedience, struggle, a season of suffering, marching through unfriendly streets, facing snarling dogs, and going to jail. And, of course, as one whom Martin used to describe as the only lawyer in his camp who would help him go to jail instead of using all the tricks of the trade to keep him out of jail, I know that his insistence on nonviolent action changed the course of history. Advertisement Yet I believe that Martin would be deeply disappointed that his name were connected only with the fight for racial justice and nonviolent protest. Time and again, Martin talked with me about a side of Mahatma Gandhi that deeply appealed to him. Not just the Gandhi of the salt march, and the years in prison, but Gandhi the servant leader. Advertisement Gandhi said that satyagraha --the name he gave to his way of action, "firmness in truth"--had two sides: civil disobedience and, the other side of the coin, constructive service. Gandhi often said that his purpose in life was to live the sermon on the mount. He asked the Indian independence movement to carry out a 13-point plan of constructive service that included personal action to end untouchability by working, eating, and serving side by side with untouchables, by adopting them as members of one's family. It included teaching all Indians to read and bringing health care to every village.

Cybercrime. Cyber Terrorism. Cyber Warfare. US Army Organizing First Cyber Warfare Combat Team to Fight Future Wars Read The U.S. Army is now organizing the first unit in a new cyber warfare force that will be deployed in future combat zones and manned by “cyber soldiers,” electronic warfare experts and (for the first time) good, old fashioned hackers. The detachment is led by Brig. Gen. Patricia Frost, Director of Cyber, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Army G-3/5/7. In this position, she heads the new Cyber Directorate (which also covers electronic warfare) of the army’s headquarters staff in the Pentagon. Gen. Frost has made her career in military intelligence and cyber warfare and is an acknowledged expert in her field. She’s a graduate of the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Officer Basic and Advanced Courses; Combined Arms Services and Staff School; the Command and General Staff College and the U.S. Army War College.

Handle Your Feelings Skillfully You might want to think of yourself as a rational being, however, in fact, your life is motivated by emotions. Emotions upset you, drive you, intimidate you, and inspire you. They inspire decisions, move you to action, or paralyze you in anxiety, stress, and fear. They are the cornerstone of your finest memories and the bond that produces deep connections with other people. In this article, we’ll explore four principles for skillfully working with your emotions and three tips to handle intense feelings such as anxiety, anger, and sadness when they threaten to overwhelm you. It is possible to feel anxious one minute, angry the next, and then have waves of despair flood through you seemingly out of nowhere. Since they could take you on such wild rides, it is natural to be somewhat wary of strong emotions – and do what you can to prevent them or keep them at bay. You have seen what can happen when so-called”negative” emotions like fear, anger, and sadness overwhelm you or others. You have memories of unskillful expressions of these feelings you wish you could forget. Images of emotional trauma are stored deep in your subconscious, warning you to be wary once you feel these emotions yourself or witness them in different people. In the face of vulnerable feelings, a more logical approach may feel safer. It’s easier to concentrate on your thoughts and not venture into the scary world of feelings. Yet, reason has its limits. You may think you are more rational than you are. While you can logically weigh choices or consider unique thoughts, the closing”Yes this” and”Not that” arises from what”feels right.” Even when you’re focused on thinking instead of feeling, in the long run, your decisions and actions are based on your own”gut feelings.” Because emotions are so powerfully connected to actions and decisions, as well as being connected to threatening memories and your most powerful inspirations and social connections, it’s important to learn how to handle them skillfully. Let’s explore four principles for relating to emotions in a mindful, intentional, and empowered way. Practicing these principles grows your Emotional Intelligence, which is a skillset for handling emotions well. Four Principles to Handle Emotions Skillfully 1. While your first inclination when you feel overwhelmed by uncomfortable feelings, such as fear, anger, and sadness, may be to divert yourself, downplay the feeling, or run away, this just causes emotions to go underground, into your subconscious mind, where they’re saved as strain on your body, eat away at your reassurance, and eventually surface as sickness. Repressed emotions are the cornerstone of compulsions and bad habits, in addition to the source of overwhelm and flareups in relationships. You want to address them. Emotions arise to offer you specific details on what is happening inside you, around you, and with others-and this information will stick with you until it’s acknowledged and heeded. So, it’s important to shift your perspective from fear of emotions to viewing them as helpful guides. Emotions arise with information you need about your life and the ability to take action on this information. Thus, the number one principle of handling emotions is to stop ignoring them and listen to what they have to show you. You can begin by paying attention to how you feel, in your body, right now. What are the sensations happening inside your skin? Especially, notice any areas of current discomfort, as these hold important clues to what you will need to know and do now. If you’re not accustomed to checking in like this, you may not feel much at all or you may feel strong aversion to feeling discomfort. Stay with it. Remain current with whatever feeling or lack of sense is there. Attention to feelings requires practice. It is a real skill you can learn. Bear in mind, if you do not pay attention to what your emotions are trying to tell you, they get stuck on repeat and keep cycling through you. 2. Mindfulness of everything you feel shifts your connection to it. Mindfulness is paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, without judgment. When extreme feelings arise, instead of immediately trying to do something about them, make time to witness, listen to, and feel them. This action of mindfulness brings new neural connections into your habitual emotional patterns which enables them to shift. You bring a layer of awareness to your emotions that affects how they impact you. Mindfulness prevents you from being”gripped by” your emotions in a way that”takes you over.” You gain freedom and space inside and around the feelings you”have,” by recognizing that feelings do not define”who you are.” They’re simply information about what is going on inside you, around you, and others. 3. Knowing that emotions are transient is reassuring when emotions run strongly or cycle repetitively. When you shine the light of awareness in your emotions, you can see what they must show you, take suitable action, and enable them to release. 4. As soon as you’ve tuned into the sensation of an emotion in your body, ask it what message it’s for you. What’s this feeling telling you about how you’re relating to a circumstance, to yourself, and with other people? Given this information, what action would be useful for others and yourself? Simply notice what comes to mind. Because we are not generally taught to comprehend the significance in emotions, we often overlook, ignore, or prevent their messages. When we do this, emotional energy assembles into overblown high play to receive our attention. It is as if our feelings state,”O.K. you didn’t get the message in my civil indoor voice, so I’m going to shout it in you.” You then feel extreme anger, overwhelming sadness, or anxiety that is through the roof. When emotion has amped up to there, it can be useful to bring it down a notch to a manageable level. A few simple actions can help you do so. 3 Tips to Handle Intense Emotions 1. Pause, close your eyes, and take a few slow, deep, gentle breaths. Stop what you’re doing, close your eyes, and focus on slow, deep, gentle breathing, in and out through your nose. Closing your eyes and engaging in this type of breathing activates your body’s natural relaxation response, which helps dissipate the pressure, energy, and intensity of strong emotions. 2. Feel the feeling of the emotion in your body. Notice where the emotion can be found inside your body. Feel the quality of feeling there. Noticing feelings as sensations helps you see them objectively, so you obtain space from what you are feeling. 3. Adopt the mindful perspective of a curious observer and query the emotion as if it is a friend who wants to tell you something important. Bear in mind that Mindfulness means paying attention, on purpose, at the present moment, without judgment. With this attitude, ask your emotion questions, as though it is a friend who is attempting to provide you valuable information and you are a scientist seeking discovery. When you follow these tips, you shift your perspective and take the”over-the-top” extreme edge from what you are feeling. Extreme anger can downshift into a firm”no,” intense sadness can mellow into”letting go,” and higher anxiety can settle into a motivating spur to action. Once a feeling has downshifted in strength, it’s easier to listen to it, feel it, and respond appropriately. You can take action to address the current situation. The main point is that, as opposed to fearing the emotional intensity of fear, anger, and sadness, see if you can move toward these feelings with a mindful, curious attitude. As you do that, notice how they change and guide you to what you will need to do right now.

Ingredients Directions 1 tablespoon House Seasoning, recipe follows Preheat grill. Combine all ingredients, except the House Seasoning and honey, in a large stock pot and bring to a low boil. Add turkey legs and boil for 30 minutes or until the turkey legs register 165 degrees F. Put turkey legs on the grill, season with House Seasoning and brush with honey. Grill over medium heat for about 15 minutes, rotating occasionally as needed. The turkey legs should be crispy and golden brown when done.

When something switches quickly, it generates a broadband RF burst (Fourier theory tells us that something narrow in the time domain is wide in the frequency domain). The RF will generally be both radiated into the air and conducted in the AC wiring. Unless your system is close to the switching unit, then probably you are mostly hearing the results of RF that is conducted through the AC wiring. But maybe it's possible that the wiring also radiates some of the RF, at some distance from the actual switch. Anyway, the first thing I would try is low-pass filtering. There are two main locations at which to try filtering, initially. One location for an RF filter is across the AC Mains, before your power transformer, i.e. across the primary winding's connections of the transformer. There are special capacitors that are safe for use across the AC Mains. Soldering one across the transformer's primary connections might be enough. There are also more-complicated filter topologies, and some ready-made power-line filters, that you could try. But I am not enough of an expert to try to tell you what to use, there. The second location for an RF filter is the signal input to the preamp. You can easily install a low-pass RC passive RF filter, there. It's just a resistance in series with the signal input and a capacitor to ground, downstream from the resistor. (But if you are using the inverting input, then you shouldn't connect a cap to ground directly from the inverting input. So you use two resistors, and connect the cap to ground from between the two resistors.) You want to put the -3dB "cutoff" frequency of the filter at about ten times the highest frequency that you don't want to affect. So 220 kHz or more should be OK. For an RC lowpass filter, the cutoff frequency is f = 1 / (2 π R C) and C = 1 / (2 π R f) So you can just choose an R value and calculate the C that is needed. Note that C is in Farads and f is in Hz. (So multiply the resulting C value by 1000000 to convert it to uF.) Example, with 1000 Ohms and 220000 Hz: C = 1 / ( 2(3.14)(1000)(220000)) C = 723 pF (0.000723 uF) You could use a standard value like 680 pF. Or, pick a C value and calculate the needed R value: R = 1 / (2 π f C) Example for C = 0.01 uF and 220 kHz: R = 1 / (2(3.14)(220000)(0.00000001) R = 72.3 Ohms Using a slightly-different value for R will not matter very much. ---- You should have an RF filter on your signal input, anyway. So I would install that, first, and leave it there, whether or not it solves the popping problem you have right now. (Another location for RF filtering is at the DC power inputs for the opamp. You should already have sufficient decoupling capacitors from the power pins to the load ground. Installing a small resistance (33 Ohms?) in series with each DC rail, just before the first decoupling capacitor, might help.) If RADIATED (i.e. over the air) RF is causing the problem, the first things to check are the wires for the input signal and ground. They must never be apart or separated from each other. Otherwise you have made an antenna. They should be tightly twisted together ALL the way from end to end. Shielded twisted pair cable would be even better, with the shield connected to the chassis at one end, and to nothing at the other end. Also, the wire pairs to and from the transformer should be tightly twisted, everywhere. RF can also get in through the output (speaker cables) and through everything else. I bulit a AD815 preamp with the simple LM317/337 regulator... I found the spark noise ("pakpak") from AC line when the fan or air condition switch on or off... Any way can solve it? Thanks! What is an AD815 preamp? Is that based on the Analog Devices AD815 amplifier? What is the input impedance? I'm guessing high. Is the amp and power supply regulators properly bypassed? Do you have a scope to see what is misbehaving? Yes. I was going to ask about the bypassing and decoupling caps but forgot. The power pins of the op amp must have a small cap to ground, which must each be connected extremely close to the pin; more than 2 mm is probably too far away. The other end of each cap should go to power ground, as close as possible. These caps help to prevent high frequency instability, which would possibly occur because of the hidden positive feedback loop(s) through the power rails that most transistor amplifiers have. You also must have some larger capacitors from each power pin to the load ground, for decoupling. They supply the fast transient currents and prevent those from inducing voltages across the inductances of the main power and ground rails. The decoupling caps should also be connected as close as possible to the power pins. If multiple cap sizes are used, the smallest ones should be closest to the pins. I bulit a AD815 preamp with the simple LM317/337 regulator... I found the spark noise ("pakpak") from AC line when the fan or air condition switch on or off... Any way can solve it? Thanks! Another possibility: If your AC Line voltage dips lower, momentarily, when a large load switches on, maybe you are hearing the sound caused by your regulator(s) going out of regulation. Where is the schematic? What is the rated transformer output voltage, what kind of rectification is used, what is the total reservoir capacitance per rail, what are the nominal rail voltages after the regulators, what is the nominal load impedance, what capacitance values are installed from the AD815 power pins to ground, and what is the rated maximum load current per rail? You would also need to know the clipping voltages of the AD815, i.e. between each power pin and the output pin, under your operating conditions. To diagnose whether or not the headroom for the regulators is the problem, it might be simpler to just temporarily try a much larger reservoir capacitance per rail, after the rectifiers, unless you are already cutting it too close and have very small ripple amplitude. Or you could instead try a transformer with secondary voltages that are a few volts higher. The input bias currents and offset Voltages are a bit high for low noise preamps. 400 mA currents and 100 MHz seems a little excessive for a preamp. Amplifiers at this speed usually do better on 4 layer boards with a ground plane to keep it under control. I'd be leary of a 2 layer board and can almost guarantee you bad results on a single layer. There are many chips better suited as a 'preamp'. For driving audio balanced line the SSM2142 or DRV134 are better suited.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014 The Post-Memorial Day Assessment of the United States Military President Obama spoke earlier today at the West Point Commencement. He purportedly laid out his foreign policy. I have no idea what he said because what matters is what his Administration is doing. I have no idea what he said because after 5½ years in office a President who has to explain his foreign policy has no foreign policy. A strong foreign policy depends upon a strong military. A strong foreign policy depends upon a military, which can project force, and a President willing to project force. We have neither. Don't judge the President by his words, but by his acts. President Obama has been carrying out one of the most important goals of America’s left – the decline of America’s military. They believe that America’s military has been used to secure oil and other natural resources (“Bush invaded Iraq for oil”), to prop up petty dictators, and to enslave third world nations. Sadly, the Congressional Republicans played into President Obama’s hands through the sequestration, half of which would be Pentagon cuts. The United States projects power through the Navy’s aircraft carriers. The Navy is now down to 10 active carriers, several of which are always being refitted at base in the United States. The Navy now has fewer ships than any time since pre-World War I. China is now asserting control over the South China Sea, and pushing Japan, the Philippines, and Vietnam around. The Russian Bear has emerged from hibernation. The Mideast is a tinderbox of Islamic militants fueled by Iran. Regardless of what happened in Benghazi on 9/11, 2012 the military claimed it had no assets available to come to the rescue of the besieged Americans. The Pentagon is asserting that neither the Army, the Navy, the Marines, nor the Air Force were able to come to the assistance of American diplomats under military attack. The once powerful Mediterranean Sixth Fleet had no vessel, which could have come to the assistance of the Americans. No ship, no plane, no helicopter was available! That is the true tragedy of Benghazi. Secretary of Defense Hagel said the Army will downsize to 440,00 – 450,000, it’s smallest size since 1940. The Pentagon, which never liked the A10 Warthog, wants to scrap the plane eventhough it is the best ground support plane in the world. No other plane comes close to its effectiveness and durability. The ugly plane can fly low and slow unlike the jet fighters. Remember the devastation the improvised explosive devices early brought to American and allied soldiers? The Pentagon came up with MRAPs (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicles to protect the troops at roughly $500,000 each. The Pentagon plans to scrap about 20% of its equipment ($7 billion) in Afghanistan, including thousands of MRAPs. It claims it would be too difficult and expensive to bring the equipment back to the States. The President announced in 2013 that he ensure the security of America and its allies by reducing the strategic nuclear weapon by a third below the level set in the START Treaty. 50 ICBM's were recently removed from their North Dakota silos and placed in storage. The Air Force will see its force of strategic bombers reduced to 60 from 93. The Navy’s nuclear subs will carry 54 fewer nuclear bombs. Many of the existing nuclear weapons are degrading, but the President is not spending funds to maintain or upgrade them. The United States can still claim the strongest military in the world, but the President lacks the will to project or sustain it.

American Headache Society Members (Worldwide) 1,600 TOTAL MEMBERS @ $ 315.00 / F PROFILE: Members of the American Headache Society (AHS) who are physicians, dentists and related scientists interested in the study of headaches. The association brings together practitioners in different fields of medicine to discuss ideas and beliefs about headache and and head pain. Members receive THE JOURNAL OF HEADACHE AND FACE PAIN as part of their membership. NOTE: Formerly called the American Association For The Study of Headache (AASH). TERMS: PREPAYMENT REQUIRED WITH EACH ORDER. Cancellations accepted only upon return of order BEFORE MAIL DATE. Cancellations AFTER MAIL DATE subject to ALL rental and shipping charges. Cancelled orders are CONDITIONAL UPON ACCEPTANCE by list owner and may incur running, shipping or penalty fees. We believe this information is accurate. However, NO WARRANTY is implied nor are results guaranteed from rental or use of this mailing list. GreatList # 3448 LIST CONTAINSPostal addresses LIST UPDATED MONTHLY UNIT OF SALE$125/yr membership. FULFILLMENT OPTIONSP/S labels only @ N/C KEYING Not Available. MULTIPLE USENot Available. MINIMUM ORDEREntire list DELIVERY 10 working days from receipt of a fully documented mailing list order and prepayment (if required).

Daniel Boulud takes us to his butcher in New York's Meat Packing District to choose the cut for his famed Seared Rib Eye and Red Wine Braised Short Ribs, teamed with a Tomato in a Light Choron Sauce stuffed with Marmalade, Spinach Fondue, Diced Buffalo Mozzarella Salad and a heavenly serving of Pommes Dauphines. We recreate coveted dishes from the acclaimed restaurant Boulud: Peekytoe Crab Salad in a mold of Persian Cucumber-Black Sesame Coulis, draped with Early Mesclun and Radishes. Dessert is arguably the best molten lava cake in the world: a Warm Guanaja Chocolate Coulant filled with oozing Liquid Caramel and paired with a Creamy Milk Sorbet.

The county has been planning for the change for four years, Sleeter said. That included researching digital communications, writing grants and installing equipment, he said. The change to digital radios is a voluntary response to a federal mandate to narrow-band communications. The federal government has ordered some radio licensees to reduce their bandwidth, which is the slice of the radio wave spectrum each licensee uses to broadcast. Less bandwidth can mean quieter transmissions or smaller coverage areas, Sleeter said. He advocated for, and county officials agreed, to change to digital equipment to make up for the loss of bandwidth. The county tested the new system earlier this month. Individuals can continue listening to local emergency voice traffic, but they must buy digital scanners or radios to do so.

University of Cincinnati research is revealing early farming in a former wetlands region that was largely cut off from Western researchers until recently. The UC collaboration with the Southern Albania Neolithic Archaeological Project (SANAP) will be presented April 20 at the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology (SAA). UC students Kassi Bailey (yellow shirt), Michael Crusham (blue shirt), and Kathleen Forste (red shirt) at work on the excavation. Susan Allen, a professor in the UC Department of Anthropology who co-directs SANAP, says she and co-director Ilirjan Gjipali of the Albanian Institute of Archaeology created the project in order to address a gap not only in Albanian archaeology, but in the archaeology in Eastern Europe as a whole, by focusing attention on the initial transition to farming in the region. Allen was awarded a $191,806 (BCS- 0917960) grant from the National Science Foundation to launch the project in 2010. “For Albania, there has been a significant gap in documenting the Early Neolithic (EN), the earliest phase of farming in the region,” explains Allen. “While several EN sites were excavated in Albania in the ‘70s and ‘80s, plant and animal remains – the keys to exploring early farming – were not recovered from the sites, and sites were not dated with the use of radiocarbon techniques,” Allen says. “At that time (under communist leader Enver Hoxha), Albania was closed to outside collaborations and methodologies that were rapidly developing elsewhere in Europe, such as environmental archaeology and radiocarbon dating. The country began forming closer ties with the West following Hoxha’s death in 1985 and the fall of communism in 1989, paving the way for international collaborations such as SANAP, which has pushed back the chronology of the Albanian Early Neolithic and helped to reveal how early farmers interacted with the landscape.” The findings show that Vashtëmi, located in southeastern Albania, was occupied around 6,500 cal BC, making it one of the earliest farming sites in Europe. The location of early sites such as Vashtëmi near wetland edges suggests that the earliest farmers in Europe preferentially selected such resource-rich settings to establish pioneer farming villages. During this earliest phase of farming in Europe, farming was on a small scale and employed plant and animal domesticates from the Near East. At Vashtëmi, the researchers have found cereal-based agriculture including emmer, einkorn and barley; animals such as pigs, cattle and sheep or goats (the two are hard to tell apart for many bones of the skeleton); and deer, wild pig, rabbit, turtle, several species of fish and eels. What seems evident is that the earliest farmers in the region cast a wide net for food resources, rather than relying primarily on crops and domesticated animals, as is widely assumed. Allen and Gjipali’s research team included graduate and undergraduate students from UC’s departments of anthropology and classics. SANAP is an international collaboration with researchers representing the U.S., Spain, France, Greece and Albania. The Society for American Archaeology is an international organization that is dedicated to the research, interpretation and protection of the archaeological heritage of the Americas.

Orthodontic treatment is highly predictable and immensely successful. Depending on the severity of the malocclusion (bad bite) or irregularity, orthodontic treatments may occur in either two or three distinct phases. The benefits of correcting misaligned teeth are many. Straight teeth are pleasing to look at and greatly boost confidence and self esteem. More importantly, properly aligned teeth enhance the biting, chewing and speaking functions of the jaw. There are several types of irregularities, including: Overbite – The upper teeth protrude further than or completely cover the lower teeth. Underbite – The lower teeth protrude further than the upper teeth causing the chin to look prominent. Crossbite – Some of the upper teeth may close inside the lower teeth rather than on the outside. Overcrowding – Insufficient room on the arch causes some adult teeth to erupt incorrectly and become rotated. The Phases of Orthodontic Treatment Generally, orthodontic treatment takes between six and thirty months to complete. The treatment time will largely depend on the classification of the malocclusion, the type of dental devices used to correct it and the perseverance of the patient. Here is a general overview of the three major stages of treatment: Phase 1 – The Planning Stage The orthodontist makes an exact diagnosis in order to realign the teeth in the most effective and expedient way. The first several visits may comprise of some of the following evaluations: Medical and dental evaluations – Dental and physical problems tend to go hand in hand. Problems in the oral cavity can lead to (or be caused by) medical problems. The goal of this evaluation is to ensure that prior medical and dental issues are completely under control before treatment begins. Study model (castings/bite impressions) – The patient is asked to bite down into a dental tray filled with a gel substance that hardens around the teeth. The trays are removed from the teeth and filled with plaster to create models of the patient’s teeth. Study models enable the orthodontist to scrutinize the position of each tooth, and how it relates to the other teeth. Panoramic X-rays – X-rays are fantastic tools for viewing potential complications or pre-existing damage to the jaw joint. X-rays also allow the orthodontist to see the exact position of each tooth and its corresponding root(s). Computer generated images – Such images allow the orthodontist to treatment plan and examine how specific treatments may affect the shape of the face and symmetry of the jaw. Photographs – Many orthodontists like to take “before, during and after” photographs of the face and teeth to assess how treatment is progressing, and the impact the treatment is having on the patient’s face shape. Phase 2 – The Active Phase All of the above diagnostic tools will be used to diagnosis and develop a customized treatment plan for the patient. Next, the orthodontist will recommend custom orthodontic device(s) to gently move the teeth into proper alignment. This orthodontic appliance may be fixed or removable. Most commonly, traditional fixed braces are affixed, which utilizes individual dental brackets connected by an archwire. Lingual braces are also fixed, but fit on the inside (tongue side) of the teeth to make them less visible. Removable devices are an alternative to fixed braces. Examples of removable devices include the Invisalign system, headgear and facemask. These devices are designed to be worn for a specified amount of hours each day to expedite treatment. Whatever the orthodontic device, the orthodontist will regularly adjust it to ensure adequate and continual pressure is being applied to the teeth. It is essential to visit the orthodontist at the designated intervals and to call if part of the device breaks or becomes damaged. Phase 3: The Retention Phase When the teeth have been correctly aligned, fixed braces and removable devices will be removed and discontinued. The most cumbersome part of the orthodontic treatment is now over. The orthodontist will next create a custom retainer. The goal of the retainer is to ensure that the teeth do not begin to shift back to their original positions. Retainers need to be worn for a specified amount of time per day for a specified time period. During the retention phase, the jawbone will reform around the realigned teeth to fully stabilize them in the correct alignment. If you have any questions about orthodontic treatments, please contact our office. LOOK YOUR BEST We combine experience with the latest in dental technology to deliver the best patient experience possible.

A blog for passing time, and passing messages about media, about media ecology which is the study of media as environments, about language and symbols, about technology, about communication, about consciousness, about culture, about life and the universe, about everything and nothing, about time... Tuesday, February 26, 2013 So, Alfred Korzybski published his magnum opus on general semantics in 1933 under the title of Science and Sanity, because he believed that scientific method gives us our best understanding of the world, our most accurate maps, as it were, of a territory that we can only really know indirectly. As a scientific approach to mental health, education, and social, political, economic, and ethical progress, general semantics caught the imagination of many science fiction writers, among them Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert, and A. E. van Vogt. As a form of quasi-therapy, general semantics influenced a number of significant therapists, including Albert Ellis, Fritz Perls, and Albert Bandler of Neuro-Linguistic Programming fame.Another well known figure who credited Korzybski and general semantics with having had an important impact on his thinking was L. Ron Hubbard. Understandably, many individuals associated with general semantics do not want to be associated with Hubbard, or have general semantics be connected to him in any way. And arguably, whatever Hubbard took from Korzybski he didn't use in a way that Korzybski intended or would have approved of.But Hubbard was, early on, a science fiction writer. I haven't read his books, I must confess, but I did see the one movie that was made based on his work. It wasn't very good, but John Travolta was quite amusing, unintentionally of course, as an alien: Now that's what I call Saturday Night Fever!Anyway, Hubbard eventually shifted his focus from fiction to psychotherapy (well, some say he never shifted his focus away from fiction, but that's another matter). That's when he came up with his own brand of therapy, called Dianetics. That link will take you over to the Wikipedia entry, where it says: When Hubbard formulated Dianetics, he described it as "a mix of Western technology and Oriental philosophy". He said that Dianetics "forms a bridge between" cybernetics and General Semantics (a set of ideas about education originated by Alfred Korzybski, which received much attention in the science fiction world in the 1940s)—a claim denied by scholars of General Semantics, including S. I. Hayakawa, who expressed strong criticism of Dianetics as early as 1951. Be that as it may, after coming up with his Dianetics, Hubbard went on to create Scientology, and note the link here between Science and Sanity, science fiction, and Scientology as a belief system. And as you no doubt know, Hubbard established Scientology as a religion, founding the Church of Scientology in 1953. It's a religion that has been embraced by a number of celebrities, and quoting now from the Wikipedia entry on the Church, here's the section on celebrities: Hubbard envisaged that celebrities would have a key role to play in the dissemination of Scientology, and in 1955 launched Project Celebrity, creating a list of 63 famous people that he asked his followers to target for conversion to Scientology. Former silent-screen star Gloria Swanson and jazz pianist Dave Brubeck were among the earliest celebrities attracted to Hubbard's teachings.Today, Scientology operates eight churches that are designated Celebrity Centers, the largest of these being the one in Hollywood. Celebrity Centers are open to the general public, but are primarily designed to minister to celebrity Scientologists. Entertainers such as John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Lisa Marie Presley, Nancy Cartwright, Jason Lee, Isaac Hayes, Edgar Winter, Tom Cruise, Chick Corea and Leah Remini have generated considerable publicity for Scientology. Now I don't know about you, but I was a bit surprised when, while watching the Superbowl a few weeks ago, this commercial popped up:According to a piece by Cavan Sieczkowski in the Huffington Post entitled Church Of Scientology Super Bowl Ad Raises Eyebrows, the Church did not actually buy a Superbowl ad, the most expensive of all possible commercial placements. A small portion of advertising time is reserved for the local and regional stations running the Superbowl network feed, and the Church bought time on the stations in a few major markets, including New York and Los Angeles, a much cheaper proposition, but one that gave the impression that they were willing and able to afford the highest advertising rates in the universe. Sieczkowski goes on to relate the following: The Atlantic –- the one time publisher of Mark Twain, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edith Wharton –- is now publishing Scientology propaganda. The "sponsored content", bought and paid for by the Church of Scientology, went up Monday around noon and features all sorts of breathless praise for Scientology and its alleged growth last year.The post—an example of the kind of advertising many publishers are turning to as display ad revenue stagnates—is basically one long tribute to David Miscavige, the "ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion": And here, Berman provides a quote from the sponsored article in The Atlantic: Mr. Miscavige is unrelenting in his work for millions of parishioners and the cities served by Scientology Churches. He has led a renaissance for the religion itself, while driving worldwide programs to serve communities through Church-sponsored social and humanitarian initiatives. Berman goes on to note that the article focues "on Miscavige's plans to expand the religion's already existing churches" and adds another quote from The Atlantic: David Miscavige spearheaded a program to build every Church of Scientology into what Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard termed "Ideal Organizations" (Ideal Orgs). This new breed of Church is ideal in location, design, quality of religious services and social betterment programs. Each is uniquely configured to accommodate the full array of Scientology services for both parishioners and the surrounding community. Ideal Orgs further house extensive public information multimedia displays that introduce every facet of Dianetics and Scientology, along with libraries, course and seminar rooms for an introduction to and study of Scientology Scripture. Chapels serve to host Sunday Services and other congregational gatherings. It is from these Ideal Churches that Scientologists extend their humanitarian programs to mitigate intolerance, illiteracy, immorality and drug abuse. And Berman then adds The post then lists the "unprecedented 12 Ideal Scientology Churches" built around the world last year, including locations in Germany, California, Italy and Israel, with accompanying pictures of each opening's celebration.And let's not forget the comments. Of the 17 comments posted as of this writing, 11 are so pro-Scientology they read as though they're an extension of the original post. A bold, proud day for The Atlantic and its fine history of journalistic excellence. Well, it is not surprising that The Atlantic removed the piece, given this sort of scathing criticism. Berman's critique ends with the following update: The Atlantic took down the post, writing: "We have temporarily suspended this advertising campaign pending a review of our policies that govern sponsor content and subsequent comment threads." A lot of magazines sell sponsored content to advertisers. (Business Insider has several sponsored content series running right now, for instance.) The usual rule is that such stories must be clearly labeled so that readers can see whether editorial may have been influenced by advertisers. Normally, however, both the publisher and the advertiser try to make the content credible or useful in some way, because readers can spot blatant propaganda a mile away -- and that's of no use to anyone.Blatant propaganda, however, is exactly what The Atlantic appears to have published. The article, titled "David Miscavige Leads Scientology to Milestone Year," was an encomium to the the "ecclesiastical" leader of the church and his many accomplishments (which mostly include buying old buildings and turning them into new churches, according to the article).The Atlantic is a highbrow magazine known for it famous writers and agenda-shaping journalism. This, decidedly, was not it. So now for the good part. A journalist by the name of Mike Daly writes for an online news site by the name of Adotas, described as where interactive advertising begins, and Mike's bio goes like this: Mike Daly is an award-winning writer and editor with nearly 30 years of experience in publishing. He began his career in 1983 at The News of Paterson, N.J., a long-since defunct daily paper, where at age 22 he was promoted to the position of Editorial Page Editor. Since then he has served in managerial capacities with several news organizations, including Arts Weekly Inc. and North Jersey Media Group in New Jersey and Examiner Media in New York. His work has been honored on numerous occasions by the New Jersey Press Association and the Society for Professional Journalists. So he's the real deal. And Daly does a feature on Adotas called Today's Burning Question, and on January 18th the burning question was, "What can be learned from The Atlantic’s Scientology Sponsored Story debacle?" He then collects answers from industry contacts, which in this case includes “The Atlantic’s embarrassed retraction of sponsored content serves as a reminder that the established ways of doing business for traditional media industries are no longer working. When print media dominated, it was easy to specialize and compartmentalize content and operations, leading to the journalistic ideal of strict separation between advertising and news, and more generally between financial considerations and editorial judgment, often invoked metaphorically as “church and state”. The public relations industry sought to scale the walls by providing ready-made content for news media, for example in the form of press releases, but this content was typically offered free of charge and taken up by news media free of charge. For this reason, public relations professionals were previously viewed with great suspicion by journalists and advertisers alike, but today emerge as having superior ethics overall than many news and advertising professionals. As electronic media came to dominate the culture, beginning with broadcasting, but more fully with the Internet, we’ve seen the boundaries between different types of content blurring in many different areas, such as docudrama, edutainment, infomercials, advertorials, and product placement in motion pictures and television programming. And online, the boundaries grow even fuzzier, as it is often not clear whether the source of a particular blog or YouTube video is a private individual, organization, or business. Digital technologies have presented new challenges to advertising that have led to efforts to break out of the compartment of a labeled advertisement, as it becomes easier and easier for audiences to ignore that type of content, while the same technologies have severely undermined the business model of periodicals such as The Atlantic, so both of these traditional media industries are struggling financially, and sponsored content must seem like a marriage made in heaven. What they failed to take into account is that in the electronic media environment, there are intrinsic values that differ from those of the print media environment. Print media favored content, facts, logical structure and organization. Electronic media favor transparency, honesty, self-disclosure, and a sense of genuineness in the presentation of real personality and appearance. Much of what is valued in the electronic media environment was missing in the way that The Atlantic presented Scientology’s sponsored content, and so the content and the sources were immediately rejected and ridiculed by audiences, and this can have a negative effect on the reputations of the magazine, and possibly the sponsor as well.” — Dr. Lance Strate, Professor of Communication and Media Studies and Director of the Professional Studies in New Media program at Fordham University. Now, that is rather long winded, I must admit, and it is the longest of the responses. How it stacks up to the others I leave up to you to judge. One thing is certain, however, and that is that the science of sponsored content has a long way to go yet before it reaches a state of sanity, and that the new media environment is very unforgiving of maps that mislead us about the territory they are supposed to represent. Monday, February 4, 2013 I have been fascinated with the development of augmented reality technology (see, for example, my previous post, The New Hyperreality ), and believe that it will play an increasingly more important role for the future of new media. Here's a video from a news report that I haven't included in any previous post. It's a few years old now, but gets across the basic idea: And yes, I agree with this report, it seems quite clear to me that hands-free is the most effective mode for using AR, rather than looking through your cell phone's camera, just as we tend to favor bluetooth headphones or ear pieces over holding the phone up to your ear. So this suggests AR goggles will be very big at some point in the near future. Now, here is Nokia's projection of a future development of a hand's free visual display, Nokia future vision: The eyewear is a substitute for a screen in this instance, as opposed to at true form of AR where the actual world we're looking at is augmented by electronic data. A more complete picture is presented in Google's vision for the future, called Project Glass: One Day...:And here's the write-up on it: We believe technology should work for you — to be there when you need it and get out of your way when you don't. A team within our Google[x] group started Project Glass to build this kind of technology, one that helps you explore and share your world, putting you back in the moment. Follow along with us at http://g.co/projectglass as we share some of our ideas and stories. We'd love to hear yours, too. What would you like to see from Project Glass? To be honest, I can't imagine going skydiving myself, and this seems somewhat less ambitious than the previous video, simply a matter of adding a video camera to the glasses to record whatever it is you're looking at. This also seems to be the case for this other video from Google, Glass Session: Madame & Bébé Gayno: Using the glasses for a live streaming video chat, specifically a Google Hangout, adds something new to the mix, admittedly, and makes sense in this context. But for a regular video call, such as you might do via Skype, I guess you'd have to look in the mirror, a technique used in this next video, DVF [through Glass]: You can see that, in this case, the glasses provided raw footage which was later edited. Here's the write-up: Experience the DVF Spring 2013 show at New York Fashion Week through the eyes of the people who made it happen—the stylists, the models and Diane von Furstenberg herself. All the footage you see here was filmed using only Glass, Google's latest technology that lets you capture moments from a unique, new perspective. See what happens when fashion and technology come together like you've never seen before. So, yeah, it all seems pretty cool, especially if you want to document your life, an idea that began with written diaries during the print era, became increasingly more visual with the addition of photography, especially as cameras were made increasingly more accessible and portable, and continued with the introduction of home movies, home video cameras, and now blogging, tweeting, social media profiles, status updates, Instagram and the like. So this is just one more step in creating a complete record of everything we say and do, and see.But this is a far cry for the AR depicted in the first video, and that's because those much more sophisticated Google glasses are just an idea for now, and the video does not depict an actual technology. But here's one that's much closer to realization, iOptik - a glimpse into the future -vers 1.1: And here's their write-up: Innovega's wearable transparent heads-up display, enabled by iOptik contact lens technology, delivers mega-pixel content with a panoramic field-of-view. This high-performance and stylish eyewear is perfectly suited for the enjoyment of immersive personal media. The first part of the video is a CGI compilation provided by CONNECT, San Diego and the second part is actual footage through our system. One big problem that none of the videos I've included here so far makes clear is that there are limitations to what the human eye can focus on at very close range, so it may not be possible to simply have AR glasses that work in the way depicted. Remember that with AR on mobile devices, the devices are held at a much farther distance from the eye than glasses are. This is a key point that Evan Ackerman discusses in an article on the DVICE website. And according to Ackerman, The way Innovega gets around this problem is by modifying your eyeballs to focus much, much closer. Innovega has developed a special contact lens called iOptik that is completely transparent, except that it can refocus polarized light (like the light from a display) so that you have no problems seeing it. And it's not an either-or thing: with the contact lenses in, the world looks completely normal, except that you can suddenly see a high resolution display that's projected on a pair of glasses, superimposed transparently across up to 120 degrees of your field of view. Ackerman also notes that while Google glasses have a long way to go, Innovega's innovation may be ready roll out later this year. For a more technical explanation, here's Randall Sprague, CTO of Innovega, in a video called I Can See for Inches and Miles: As well, this iOptikCameraDemo video provides a somewhat dry, technical, but revealing demonstration of the technology as it interacts with human vision:What's also quite interesting are the markets listed by Innovega for its optical technology. They include augmented reality, of course, interfacing with mobile devices, and immersive video and 3D gaming, and also simulation and training, which makes sense. What may give some folks pause is that their list of markets also includes "defense and covert operations" and "field operations for warfighters," but if you think about it, this should not be surprising, as all of new media, and communication technologies in general, have military applications. What is quite valuable in human terms, especially given our longer lifespans and aging population, is the market for low vision. This technology will be a great boon for those suffering from Macular degeneration, and similar problems.One further question comes to mind, from a media ecology angle. McLuhan argues that changing the way we use our senses changes our sensibility, our thought processes, and ultimately our culture and social organization.And recent research backs him up by showing that reading, along with other types of media, actually rewire the brain. So how will this new technology affect our sense ratios, the balance of our senses, and our outlook on the world, individually and collectively? This could be the most radical shift in vision since the introduction of reading itself! Saturday, February 2, 2013 In a post back in June, Robert Priest, Dr. Poetry, and the Viral Verbal Vortex, I wrote about my friend Robert Priest, a poet and musician, and shared an essay I wrote about him for the online poetry and creative writing journal/magazine, Big Bridge, which was also entitled, "Robert Priest, Dr. Poetry, and the Viral Verbal Vortex". And in the essay, I included some discussion of his meme splices or meme switches, a technique he employs where he switches out similar sounding words in a series of familiar phrases and sayings, so that substituting splice for spice yields, "the splice of life," "the splice garden," and "the splice trade," for example. It's a great technique for poetry, humor, and also what in general semantics is referred to as consciousness of abstracting—in this instance by substituting one word for another, it makes us more aware and more critical of the meanings we attribute to the words we use.And readers of Blog Time Passing are no doubt quite familiar with my views on gun violence and the second amendment by now. If not, or if you're in need of a refresher course, you can go back and read the following posts: You can start with What to Blame for the Colorado Shooting? from this past July, in response the Aurora movie theater shooting. And I shared a poem on the topic the following month, Second Amen Dementia. And then, in December, reacting to the unspeakable horror of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, I posted On Guns and More, followed by Human Sacrifice and the False Idol of Firearms. And in that last post, I included commentary from Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie on how gun worship is blasphemy, and from a leading Roman Catholic intellectual, on how guns have become the new, American Moloch (Moloch being the most despised of false gods in the bible, because his worshipers required that children be thrown into the fire as sacrifices to him).And so, it occurred to me to apply Robert Priest's technique to the terms gun and god, as another way to express the idea that idolatry and blasphemy is alive and well in America, in the form of gun worship. I posted the result on my poetry blog over on MySpace last month, and I thought I would share it here as well. I will leave you with this poem, rather than try to add some final concluding words to this post, as I feel that at the end of this piece, there really is nothing more to be said. Machine Gun Moloch (A Meme Splice) I am the Lord, thy GunI, the Lord thy Gun, am a jealous GunThou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy Gun in vainThere is no Gun but GunTo the greater glory of Gun!In Gun we trustGun bless youGun is everywhereYou cannot hide from GunDo you believe in Gun?Have faith in GunPraise be to GunGun's will be doneHave you found Gun?Pray to the almighty GunOur Gun and Gun of our fathersMay Gun bless you and keep youMay the face of Gun smile upon youAs Gun is my witnessIt was an act of GunGun damn you!We are assured of victory for we have Gun on our sideHe just thinks he's Gun's gift to usOh my Gun!Have you heard Gun's voice?Gun is our help and our saviorThe law of GunGun does not give you anything you cannot handleYour arm's too short to box with GunGun speaks to usGun wants us to worship HimGun demands our obedienceGive thanks to GunCan you feel the presence of Gun?Walk with GunThere but for the grace of Gun go ISubmit to Gun's judgmentStand before GunKneel before GunApproach Gun's altarKnow Gun's peaceGun is justGun is loveSwear to GunSo help me Gun!It's in the hands of GunAwait the kingdom of GunGun willing!For Gun's sake!Honest to Gun!Dear Gun!Gun is a circle whose center is everywhereIf Gun did not exist, it would be necessary to invent HimI believe in Gun even when He is silentMan plans, Gun laughsOh for the love of Gun!You must fight for your Gun-given rightsThis will put the fear of Gun into you!Why Gun? Why me?One nation, under Gun About Me⎯Lance Strate Lance Strate is Professor of Communication & Media Studies at Fordham University. He is a founder of the Media Ecology Association & served as their President for over a decade. He is a Trustee & former Executive Director of the Institute of General Semantics, President of the New York Society for General Semantics, & Past President of the New York State Communication Association. He is the author of Echoes & Reflections; On the Binding Biases of Time; Amazing Ourselves to Death; Thunder at Darwin Station; 麦克卢汉与媒介生态学 (a collection of essays published in Mandarin translation under the title McLuhan & Media Ecology); & Media Ecology: An Approach to Understanding the Human Condition; & co-editor of Communication & Cyberspace; Critical Studies in Media Commercialism; The Legacy of McLuhan; Korzybski and…; The Medium is the Muse; La Comprensión de los Medios en la Era Digital; & Taking Up McLuhan's Cause. He is the recipient of the MEA's Walter Ong Award for Scholarship & Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book; the NYSCA's Neil Postman Mentor Award &Wilson Fellow Award, & the Eastern Communication Association’s Distinguished Research Fellow Award.

A New Comic Called ‘Trump’s Titans’ Is Some Kind Of Parody, But Of What, And Why? With little fanfare, a new comic book series hit Comixology today, but it’s not likely to stay under the radar for long. Trump’s Titans, published by Keenspot Comics, bills itself as “unbelievable presidential parody,” but if you’re looking for biting satire, that doesn’t appear to be what the book has to offer. Arguably, the barely hidden SS logo in the book’s title is as critical as the book gets. Beyond that, the book seems to deliver unironically on the solicit’s promise of “an alternate reality just slightly to the right of our own, where President Donald J. Trump is not only the most powerful man in the world, but the most powerful being in the universe!” Though the comic mocks Trump’s underlings and exaggerates Trump’s already unbelievable personality, there doesn’t seem to be any underlying message beyond what never amounts to more than playful needling of the Trump administration’s quirks and eccentricities. How do we know? Because after reading the three page preview above, we shelled out the five bucks — yes, this 25-page comic costs five bucks — to see if there was any payoff. Spoiler alert: there was not. Some more spoilers follow… In Trump’s Titans, we see President Trump punching out President Obama… …in order to gain access to lost Reagan era technology that turns The Donald and his companions, Steve Bannon, Mike Pence, and Jared Kushner, into superheroes. Trump puts his new powers to use fighting “globalists” in the Middle East. Where he’s invited to join them by their mysterious leader (who we’re guessing is secretly Ivanka, based on how Trump hits on her): And his wife, Melania, makes an appearance as well: And their interaction epitomizes the book’s primary flaw. Trump’s behavior is outlandish and despicable (though arguably hardly more so than it is in real life), but there’s no consequences; no comeuppance. For the kind of humor Trump’s Titans seems to be going for, the success of the jokes relies on an implicit expression of purpose which is nowhere to be found in the book. When Trump says that women belong in the kitchen, we can read it as condemning that sort of obviously sexist belief. But it could just as easily be read as celebrating it, depending on the perspectives of the reader and the author. There are a lot of Trump supporters who don’t seem to have any problem with anything Trump does. His most recent approval ratings show 37% of all people think he’s doing a good job. 79% percent of Republicans approve of Trump, even after his comments in the wake of the Charlottesville white supremacist rally. How many Trump supporters would cheer, without a hint of irony, for the idea of Trump punching out Obama? Trump’s Titans takes no side in the debate. As a result, it’s impossible to tell whether the satire here is aimed at Trump and the right, or at the left’s dismay over Trump’s actions. And that makes it impossible to tell who the book’s audience should be. And all of that reduces the book to little more than an SS logo prominently displayed on comiXology’s website, pissing people off for no discernible reason. Perhaps that’s the author’s intent. Perhaps the story’s failure to punish Trump for his misdeeds is meta commentary on his seeming lack of consequences in real life. Maybe Trump’s Titans‘ refusal to commit to a position on the subject matter it tackles represents the lack of responsibility accepted by others who profited while helping Trump rise to power, such as the media that reveled in the increased ratings and subscription numbers brought by the Trump media circus until about a month before the election, when they realized he might actually win. Or maybe it’s exactly what it looks like: a fast and cheap cash grab, like a Bluewater/StormFront/TidalWave comic about Paula Deen, but with admittedly less frightening artwork. As far as we can tell, there’s no second issue of Trump’s Titans scheduled for release anytime soon, though the book does promise a follow-up called Trump’s Titans Vs. Fidget Spinner Force #1. Maybe there’s a payoff planned for some point in the future that will make the book’s intentions clearer, but it isn’t present in Trump’s Titans #1. We could ask the creator, John Barron, but he almost certainly doesn’t exist — John Barron was the name Trump famously used while pretending to be his own publicist. And as the book makes explicitly clear, nobody else involved is willing to take any responsibility for it: There’s room for a good Trump satire comic out there, but Trump’s Titans, at least so far, isn’t it. If you want to form your own opinion on the book, you can find it on comiXology. A prophecy says that in the comic book industry's darkest days, a hero will come to lead the people through a plague of overpriced floppies, incentive variant covers, #1 issue reboots, and super-mega-crossover events. Scourge of Rich Johnston, maker of puns, and seeker of the Snyder Cut, Jude Terror, sadly, is not the hero comics needs right now... but he's the one the industry deserves.

Monday, January 3, 2011 Blogging 101, Bring in the New Year with a Blog Since it is a new year, I have decided to do a quick guide to starting a blog. It's a great time to start one, if you haven't already. If you do have a blog already, make sure you are updated to the latest features! See the steps listed at the bottom of this post after step 6 to learn how to update your blog. If you are just starting a blog, you will automatically be making your blog with the newest features, and there is no need to upgrade. One fun thing to do with your blog (especially a family blog), is to compile it into an actual bound book of blog posts for the whole year. There are a number of places to do this: Blurb, Bookemon, Blog2Print, and more. I was recently talking to one of my friends who told me that she loves to look at others' blogs, but has no idea how to do her own. So for those of you like my friend, here we go! With my post this week, you will be able to create a blog, and make a blog post. Stay tuned for my next Monday's post that will help you understand a few more features available to you. 1. When you view a blogger blog like ours, you will notice that up in the navigation bar, there is a spot that says "Create Blog". Click on that. ***After you have completed all of these steps and made your own blog, you can always click on the "Sign In" option in this same area where you will be able to sign in and access to edit your own blog. 2. It will take you to a page that you can fill out to get started. If you already have a gmail account, you don't need to fill anything out here--just go ahead and sign in with the sign in link on the page, then fill out the information it asks for. 3. After you have created your account, you will want to name your blog. You can change the name of your blog whenever you want throughout your blogging experience, but changing your blog address (URL) isn't as easy. Pick an address that resembles what you want to blog about. If you click on "Check Availability" Blogger will let you know if the address you have picked is available. When you've got the address you want, go ahead and click on "Continue". 4. The next step is to choose your template. Go ahead and pick one that you like. The biggest difference in the templates is how they look, but if you want to get things more personalized and custom, then this won't make too much of a difference. My most recent blogs have been based on the "Simple Template", but you can pick whatever you want. 5. After you've picked a template and click on "Continue"---your blog is live at the address(URL) you've selected and you can go ahead and click on "Start Blogging"! This is the page where you will make each post. Here is a quick guide to the buttons and features you can use on this page. While editing you can select any text throughout your post and add certain features to that text by using many of these different options. You can also click and on pictures that you have added to your post and apply these features to them as well. 1. Undo your last edit 2. Redo your last edit 3. Font choice 4. Text size 5. Bold your text 6. Italicize your text 7. Underline your text 8. Strikethrough your text 9. Color of font 10. Highlight text and color of highlight 11. Make text into a link. Select the text you want to be a link then click here to choose where it will link to. You can also select images and make them into links. 12. Add an image. On the left you will see that you can select to upload an image from your computer, your blog, Picassa Web Albums, or a URL of an image you found. While one is uploading, you can go ahead and select more images from your computer by clicking on "Choose File"--as many as you like. The images will show up in the box when they are uploaded. Blogger just made this option so much more convenient! If you accidently delete a picture after you've inserted it onto your post, you can just go back to this option and your image will still be there to reselect. Also, after you insert your images, you can control the size of each image as well. Just click on your image and you will see the options that you can click on that appear below your image. Your blog must be updated for some of these picture options. 13. Add a video (you can insert a movie to upload from your computer, YouTube, your own YouTube videos). 14. Insert a jump break. This is if you want only part of your post to show. It will show up until the jump break is inserted and then give your readers the option to "Read More" You must activate it in the Settings tab (More of how to activate it in next week's post) 15. Text alignment or picture alignment 16. Add a numbered list 17. Add a bulleted list 18. Add a quote (this will separate the text you've selected from your paragraph and center it). 19. Remove formatting (select the text that you want the format of your text to no longer be there, such as no longer underlined or bold, etc.) 20. Check Spelling 21. If you click on "Post Options" some options will appear that will allow you to decide whether or not you want to allow viewers to comment on your post, customize some HTML options (you probably won't mess too much with this), and schedule your post to go live at a specific time. I love this last option because especially with this blog, I can make multiple posts and schedule them for the day that I am assigned to post on. After you are done with your post, but don't quite want it live yet, you can schedule your post and then hit publish post. It will save and tell you when your post will go live. 22. Click "Publish Post" when are finished with your post and want it to show up live on your blog (it will not show up live right away if you have it scheduled to appear at a different time) 23. Click "Save Now" periodically to save your post as you create it. If you don't finish your post right away, this saved post can be edited later. 24. Click "Preview" to see how your post will look on your blog without publishing it yet. 25. Here you can enter in labels that your post fits under such as "Summer", "Crafts", "Christmas", etc. This way you can create groups of posts that fit under certain labels. 26. Here is where you can access the HTML code of your post. You can insert any HTML code here that you might grab from any other site for a button, etc. If you click back to the "Compose" tab (Right next the the "Edit HTML" tab) after you have entered your code in under the "Edit HTML" tab, you will see how the code you pasted in is interpreted to show up on your blog. Most likely you won't have to use this too often if you consider yourself a beginner blogger. 27. Insert what you want your post to be titled. 6. After you have entered your post, you can go ahead and click on"Publish Post" and then view your blog. You will see your post live on your own new blog URL! ***If you are already a blogger but don't see some of the features listed here on your editing options, it's time to update your blog! Blogger just gave us new features ! First, go to your "Settings" tab. Then to "Basic". Scroll down until you get to "Select post editor" and select "Updated editor (Recommended)" I can personally attest to the sheer awesomeness of a printed blog!!! I use Blurb every year and have yet to be disappointed. It's such a great way to archive photos/stories/etc. Plus, it's saved on the Internet so that (Heaven forbid) if a flood or fire completely destroy all scrapbooks, journals, photos, other blog books, etc., all you have to do is order another one. LinkWithin Search This Blog Gabe's Gifts is a year long blanket drive through Project Linus that one of our contributors, Amanda, has started. We will be hosting a blanket party each last Monday of the Month to feature blankets made. Monthly giveaway drawings will be held for those who link up their projects. Please grab a button to help spread the word. Gift tags to send with your blanket donations can be found HERE. To find out where to send your blankets please contact Amanda at [email protected]. P.S. Leave a comment that you are following us--we'll follow you back! Kelly & Stephanee are looking to adopt! Grab a button and help spread the word! Or just click on the button to learn more about them! Welcome to This & That Creative, a blog for creative inspiration. We feature different blog authors and blog posts to inspire you and help with ideas for creative blogging, creative jewelry & accessories, creative sewing, creative home decor / design, creative culinary / baking / cooking, and party planning/ , basically anything creative! Thank you for stopping by!

White House Advisers’ Book: Trump Faces ‘Embedded Enemies’ In Government PALACE INTRIGUE Published Nov. 24, 2018 9:03PM ET Joshua Roberts In a blistering book set to be published on Tuesday, two close advisers to President Donald Trump write that his administration is lousy with “embedded enemies,” ranging from fair-weather Republicans to Democratic “swamp creatures” who seek to undermine the president’s agenda—and end his presidency. Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie, who are not employed at the White House but are close confidants of the president, write in Trump’s Enemies: How the Deep State Is Undermining the Presidency that opponents of Trump’s agenda, which they dub the “resistance,” includes James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Lisa Page, Peter Strzok and Sally Yates, and possibly White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. According to the Washington Post, which obtained a copy of the book, these individuals “attack the administration with a thousand cuts... in complete disregard to the millions of Americans who voted for Donald Trump.”

The two previously worked together on the 2015 film "Desierto" and have a planned Zorro reboot "Z" in the works. Gael García Bernal is reteaming with Jonas Cuarón and they’re heading for TV. Deadline reported on Friday that Showtime has made a pilot commitment to a new drama that will bring together García Bernal and series creator Cuarón for the first time since the latter’s 2015 thriller “Desierto.” The as-yet-untitled project will be based on Karla Cornejo Villavicencio’s book “Undocumented America,” which is due to be released next summer. García Bernal would play an undocumented immigrant who poses as an immigration officer to help rescue his wife from ICE custody. The Deadline story describes the series as “an emotional thriller about a man enmeshed in a dangerous double life; torn between his desire to help in any way possible and his family.” Immigration also formed a major part of the plot of “Desierto,” which saw García Bernal star as one person in a group of migrants trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. This would be Cuarón’s first TV effort, but García Bernal is no stranger to non-film work, having starred in four seasons of the Golden Globe-winning series “Mozart in the Jungle,” where he played a conductor based on the career of Gustavo Dudamel. Thorough Netflix viewers may also have seen García Bernal in the recent English-language remake of “The Kindergarten Teacher,” featuring fellow TV vet Maggie Gyllenhaal. Cuaron and García Bernal are also potentially teaming up on “Z,” a reimagining of the classic Zorro story that has also brought on Kiersey Clemons to co-star. It would be his third feature as a director, after previously working on the screenplay for “Gravity,” which he co-wrote with his father Alfonso. He also directed a companion short for “Gravity” called “Aningaaq,” told from the perspective of an Inuit fisherman who makes contact with Sandra Bullock’s astronaut character.

The difference between the two chips: the FX has a built-in dual-channel 128-bit DDR controller, while the 3200+ connects to a single-channel 64-bit memory bus. The latter works with unbuffered memory, the former with registered DIMMs. Beyond that, both have a single HyperTransport link, according to AMD documentation provided at the launch, just like the workstation-oriented Opteron 100. "From an architecture perspective, [the FX] has a lot of similarities with the Opteron 100," said Henri Richard, AMD's worldwide sales and marketing chief. We hear the pinouts are not the same, however. AMD claimed its own benchmarks show the FX-51 to be between ten and 20 per cent faster than a "competing 3.2GHz PC processor". The recently released Xeon MP-rebadged Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, perhaps? Alas no, just the vanilla version. The 3200+ runs between three and 22 per cent faster than the 3.2GHz Intel chip. But what of the EE? Said chairman Jerry Sanders: "There aren't any parts available, so it's hard to do an evaluation. But our simulation expectations has 'em beat six ways a Sunday." AMD said the chips had ushered in the age of "cinematic computing", which is odd, since we thought Nvidia had long since heralded that particularly era. But with the graphics chip maker on hand to promote the launch, staffers no doubt felt it impolite to mention their prior claim. And anyone who has seen a flick or two at the Reg's local fleapit will not necessarily welcome "cinema-quality computing". Think of all that week-old popcorn stuck to your keyboard. Urgh. Both AMD parts are fabbed using a nine-layer copper interconnects, low-k dielectric insulation and silicon on insulator technology. Both chips' power dissipation characteristics are identical, said Richard - opening the possibility for FX-based notebooks, aimed at gamers, in the not-too-distant future. "Technically it's very easy to integrate an Athlon FX into a desktop replacement-type [notebook]," he said. It's up to OEMs if they want to do that. Once again, AMD was only able to trot out four top-tier Athlon 64-based system vendors, HP, Fujitsu, Fujitsu-Siemens and Packard Bell. More than 60 manufacturers and system builders around the world will support the new chips, said AMD, but it could only list 29 of them among its launch partners (more if you list some of them more than once, as AMD has). Many vendors may choose to wait for the Q1 2004 arrival of 64-bit Windows XP, though Microsoft did release the beta 1 version today. Meanwhile, processor production volumes are ramping up, the company said, and it expects to ship "tens of thousands" of Athlon 64s and FXs by the end of the year. Going forward, it plans to accelerate production, particularly as it moves over to a 90nm process. By the second half of 2004, more than 50 per cent of AMD's output will be "64-bit enabled", said Sanders. He also said that while the company expects the Athlon 64 to cascade down over time into the lower reaches of the mainstream market, AMD will consistently pitch the FX as a top-of-the-line part, by phasing out older versions as new, faster ones come on stream. The 3200+ costs $417, the FX-51 $733. All prices are for batches of 1000. ®

Catherine Perry teaches writing for the City University of New York and is a published author. She has had a long-standing involvement with the arts and is currently studying Visual Culture Theory, concentrating on the intersection of text and image. Recollections of mass and Sunday brunch with the professional wrestling legend “Captain” Lou Albano (1933-2009) — professional wrestling legend and star of Cyndi Lauper videos — was what my grandmother called “a nice Italian boy.” Never mind that by the time she met him, he was in his 50s; and, that to an entire industry of professional wrestlers, being called “nice” would have been the kiss of death. None of that concerned my grandmother, who never saw Captain Lou at work. She just liked him because he praised her tortellini en brodo…. According to family lore, Captain Lou was introduced to us thanks to an encounter after hours at a local bar in our hometown of Carmel, NY, a bedroom community an hour north of New York City. He took one look at

Goldman Sachs considering online bank: Report New York, Dec 3 (DPA) New York-based bank Goldman Sachs is considering launching an online bank, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.The name of the bank and the details of the plans are still unknown, sources told the daily. Goldman Sachs already has about $20 billion in deposits, and attracting even more deposits would make it more stable, a valuable asset during the world financial crisis. Even though it is doing better than most of its rivals, Goldman Sachs is expected to report a net loss of about $2 billion later this month. That would be the firm’s first quarterly loss since going public in 1999, the daily reported. The possibility of opening an online bank surprised some analysts. “This move is pretty much the polar opposite of what you think about when you think about Goldman Sachs,” the report quoted Glenn Schorr, an analyst at UBS AG, as saying. “But one of the keys to their future is being able to fund their balance sheet, and if they and others can’t do it in traditional ways, it makes complete sense to explore other avenues.”

Brent Edwards' thoughts on innovation in business and science June 23, 2008 A World Champion Encounter Most people strive to be good at their jobs and hobbies, and this often requires a considerable amount of dedication, effort, and innate skill. To be great at these, however that is defined, is more difficult still. To be considered by one’s peers to be one of the best in that field is rarely achieved. To be known as the best in the world at something…well, that achievement is nearly incomprehensible. A month ago I played a game of chess against the current world champion in chess in his age division:12 and under. Daniel Naroditsky, who goes to school in the Bay Area, won the world championship in Turkey last fall. The achievement, the skill and effort required, of becoming a world champion in chess in any age bracket is mind-boggling. My game against him was less so. Herein are the details of that game. Daniel conducted a 17–person simul, where he played against 17 people at the same time. I was one of those 17 people. Playing against many people simultaneously is not a new concept; The great American player from the 1800s Morphy used to play blind simuls with regularity. It doesn’t take a world champion to be able to play a simul successfully, but if there are reasonably ranked players among the challengers, then such a contest can be interesting. One doesn’t play against a world champion chess player and expect to win (unless one is delusional or also ranked as a grandmaster). When playing against someone rated much higher than you in a simul, your best chance of success is for the higher-level player to offer you a draw if you give him a decent challenge; the higher-rated player would do this if he wants your game out of the way so that he can focus on other games that are more challenging. This was my goal. By the way, I also have hopes to hit a hole-in-one when I play golf, to have my luggage be the first one unloaded when I am waiting at an airport carousel, and to have celebrities talk to me with great interest when I see them in public places. Basically, expecting to win or draw against the world champion in chess is like expecting to beat Michael Jordan in a game of one-on-one. Back to the simul. The rules of a simul differ from regular competitive chess in that there is no clock dictating the amount of time allotted for moves. In a simul, you make your move when the champion appears in front of you—not before, and you certainly don’t continue to think about or hesitate in making your move once he appears before you. He then makes his move and proceeds to the next table, upon which the next nervous challenger must immediately make his move. Interestingly, the champion has no time constraint on his moves. After you make your move, he can think as long as he likes. Of course, he’s got other games to get to, so he usually doesn’t take too long. Also, the person in my simul is the world champion—how much time does he really need to decide how to respond to my castling? I can answer that, in fact: less than a second is how much time he needed. Before the simul began and the challengers were standing around waiting for instructions on how the event would be conducted, it was clear that the majority of the challengers were young kids—possibly Daniel’s classmates from his school but clearly not typical students: they all had that dead-stare in their eyes indicative of a well-honed and massively complex calculating machine behind them. These kids wouldn’t be going to go back home after the game to play hacky-sack, they would likely immediately reference several chess books from their library of similarly sounding titles (“Variations in the French Defense,” “Countering the Sicilian”) and study how they could have better played the opening before firing up the latest Fritz computer program for some quick games of blitz chess. Five of the adult challengers, including me, stood together before the event, nervousness in our body language. This group was clearly insecure about its age. There was a “please let at least one of the adults put in a good showing” attitude, not wanting our age to be proven irrelevant in this arena, our intellect crushed by a 12–year old. I’ve played chess competitively before (reaching a temporary Master’s rating, sort of…see the link), and one quickly realizes that age and ability do not have a high positive correlation. Sitting down against a 10–year old in a chess tournament, shaking their tiny limp hand at the beginning of the game, hearing their high-pitched “good luck,” facing them across the board as their head barely sticks up above the table, and having them proceed to suffocate the life out of your King while laying waste to your supporting pieces is a humbling experience. I was under no illusion about the fate of us adults, given that only one of us (not me) appeared to have had any experience with chess over the past few years: we would likely be among the first to relinquish our seats at the game for the observation gallery. The 17 chessboards were set up in a U-shaped table arrangement, allowing the champion to walk from board to board inside the U while the challengers sat in front of their board around the outside of the U. Looking at the game setups, I was surprised at first to see that all of the boards were arranged so that Daniel played as White on all of them. At the grandmaster level of competition, playing as White is a considerable advantage because White makes the first move, and the best that one typically hopes for when playing as Black is a draw (tie). Thus, I was surprised to see that the simul was set up to give Daniel the advantage of White. Even though he was playing against 17 people simultaneously, giving him White in all games seemed an unnecessary advantage for a world champion. After his first move, though, I realized why the sides had been arranged this way. We challengers sat at our tables and awaited the start. Daniel approached the first table, shook the challenger’s hand, and played Knight to f3. An unusual opening, and certainly a confusing one for a novice, who is used to seeing a pawn advance as the first move—usually the King’s or Queen’s. Daniel then moved to the second table, leaving the first challenger to ponder his response to this opening. At the second table, Daniel shook the challenger’s hand and played Knight to f3 again. He moved on to my table, whereupon he shook my hand and also played Knight to f3. Daniel in fact opened every game with this move. Now I saw the reason that he was playing as White. Doing so allowed him to keep some consistency among all of the games. Each one had the same starting point and therefore was a a little easier for him to adjust his thinking as he approached each board. Makes a lot of sense. At first, I had quite a lot of time to consider my moves. The rules were that a challenger had to make their move as soon as Daniel appeared in front of them. They couldn’t make their move before because Daniel needed to see what the move was. They couldn’t delay their move once Daniel showed up because that would hold up the whole process. At first, I had a whopping 2 minutes to consider my move between the time that Daniel left my board and he returned again, which was quite a bit of time to think about a move, particularly early in the game. Time passed quickly. As Black, I created a King’s Indian Defense, developing the pieces on the King’s side and being cautious with pawn movement in the center and the Queen side. Whenever Daniel appeared before me, I made my move, he thought for a second (perhaps thinking about a game 34 years ago that had produced this same position), made his move and walked on. It wasn’t long before I looked around and saw one of the challenger’s seats empty. The pieces had been put back to their starting position except for the Black King, which lay on its side in the center of the board, slain by Daniel. Victim number one: one of the adults. Mere minutes later, I saw the second victim extend his hand in defeat to the world champion. Another adult gone. As the position on my board started getting complicated (at least by my judgment), the time between Daniel’s appearances seemed to accelerate. I realized that as more players dropped out, there were fewer moves that Daniel had to make between moves in my game and thus I had less time to spend between my moves. With only 10 games in play, I figured that I’d have just over a minute between moves. If I made it to the final five, I’d have little more than half-a-minute. Time would get tighter the longer I played. For Daniel, however, the time he spent on his moves at my game remained the same. The game went on. I played it fairly safe, developing pieces and slowly acquiring territory on the Queen’s side while he built space on the King’s side. More players dropped out of the competition, more Kings lay dead in the center of their boards. I had no illusions that I was going to win this game. I also had no illusions that I would give him a good game. With half of the players gone now, I also had no illusions that he was going to offer me a draw in order to focus on more critical games. He was in it for the kill. Most of the time, Daniel watched my move, thought for a second, then made his. I considered it a minor victory each time he actually had to stop and think for 5, 10, 15 seconds about his response before making his move. One time, he actually put his hand up to his chin in contemplation! In the face of certain defeat, I took such minor satisfactions where I could. In chess, resigning doesn’t have the stigma that it does in other games. In fact, it is considered not only dignified but also good manners to resign if the game is clearly lost. Unlike most sports where one plays one’s hardest even if it is clear that there is no chance of winning, playing chess to the bitter end in a tournament is considered a waste of time and disrespectful of the person who won. This is in fact why the game ends on checkmate and not on the actual taking of the King—if there is no way to avoid the King being taken on the next move, then the game is over. While in casual games it’s fun to play to checkmate, that rarely happens in competitive chess (except in the movies, where pieces are also slammed on the board and moves are made with the speed of a boxing match). At the grandmaster level, the play is so precise that if a player gets a piece down then the game is over. Players will even resign when they get a pawn down and their opponent has a good board position; the skill level is so high that the slightest advantage is enough to guarantee a win. As my game progressed, I became a pawn down, then we exchanged pieces, then I lost a rook for a Knight and pawn—plenty to cause another grandmaster to resign, let alone a patzer like me. Yet, to resign at a slight disadvantage against a world champion would be absurd, because realistically I should have resigned after his first move were I to resign once I realized that I had no chance of winning. The point of this game was not to play until it was clear who would win—that point occurred even before the game started. So, to resign after being a pawn down was to pretend that losing a pawn was a critical turning point against the world champion: “Oh, now you have me, sir; your pawn advantage has tipped the scales to ensure you a win.” So, I wasn’t going to resign just because I knew I was going to lose. However, I wasn’t going to keep playing until he checkmated me either; to force a world champion to checkmate me would be an insult (“I’m sorry, you are going to have to prove that you can win with a K-Q-B-B-R against my K-N pair…”) I decided that I would resign when I got more than one piece down. As more challengers bowed out, Daniel’s appearances came quicker. With the time to ponder moves shortening and the game becoming more complex, I started to feel as if I had stalled into a death spiral. Daniel would appear, I would move, Daniel would spend 1–2 seconds considering what I had done (What was he thinking just then: Idiot? Book? How sad? That Hannah Montana is quite a talented singer?), Daniel would quickly make his move and walk away, then reappear seemingly seconds later. I no longer had enough time to assess the move choices that I had—I had to start doing partial analyses and taking my best guess. Soon, I made a mistake and he took my Rook. And then…and then… And then I saw it. Two moves later I would be able to fork his King and Rook! This was kind of move one giggles with anticipation of playing in a normal game, and I was going to do it against a world champion. I was going to put the world champion in CHECK! This move would simultaneously attack his King and Rook at the same time, so that when he moves his King to safety, I could safely take his Rook. This was my moment, far beyond any outcome that I had anticipated. A series of scenarios rushed through my head once I saw what I was going to do. “Check, sir,” I would say, calmly taking a pawn with my Knight while simultaneously attacking his King and Queen’s Rook. Or I would simply make the move, and he would look up into my eyes with appreciation, reach out to shake my hand and give me the game. Or, making an unforgettable spectacle out of it, I would suddenly rise up out of my chair with the palms of my hands slamming down flat on the table, snatch up my Knight and slam it down on his pawn’s space, knocking the pawn sideways into the board beside me, and growl as loudly as I could, “Check, punk!!” while glaring over the table and looming an easy two feet above Daniel’s head. With this last possibility, of course, I would have been immediately humiliated by his play on the following moves, assuming that the parents in the room didn’t throw me out of the building first. While fantasizing about how I would play my pending check move, Daniel suddenly appeared at my board. I reached forward, moved my Knight while simultaneously taking his pawn with the same hand; he paused for two seconds, moved his King to safety, and disappeared to the next table. Hmm, not the dramatic event I was expecting. The game lasted a few more moves but, as I said, the end result was a foregone conclusion. I made a couple more mistakes (that I knew of) and then resigned, embarrassed that I hadn’t resigned long ago. I reached my hand across the board, said “Good game,” got out of my chair and stepped back among the rest of the observers. As the organizer put the pieces on my board back to their starting position, except for the Black King which he laid on its side in the center of the board, I looked at all of the other boards similarly set. Two players remained, but it was a matter of minutes before those two also resigned. It was over: 17–0, a clean sweep. Everyone clapped for Daniel’s performance. I’m not sure what he thought about the whole event, but it was fun and thrilling for me to have the opportunity to play a world champion at their own game, even if the result was a foregone conclusion before the first move. Chess is a sea in which a gnat may drink and an elephant may bathe, says an ancient Indian proverb. I would say that I’ve slurped from it a little bit in my life, while Daniel is not just bathing but swimming in it and diving deeply. It was great to have been in the water however briefly as Daniel temporarily entered the shallow-end, taking a short rest from his deep-sea diving. 1 Comment The colourations, innovations and panaches wherever prada bags are offered at these web sites are easily incredible. prada sale features a unplayful straightaway after harking back planetary house northward america.prada uk is supplied in various screens out furthermore distinguishable sizes more often than not by right smart of bracelets. Yet notwithstanding among all intentions of attraction dedicated with each the world-wide-web retail price suppliers,prada vogue grace is one of the thwacking a person's. I am the Vice President for Research at Starkey Labs, the largest hearing device company in the US. I also run a center in Berkeley, CA where we conduct research on hearing, cognition, speech and innovative hearing aid technologies, and am a Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley.

The Ultimate Guide for Alternative Brides Rockstar Vendor Pirate Wedding in Toronto: Jackie & Y’Ves Jackie always knew she wanted a pirate themed wedding, even before she met Y’ves. So when it came to this couple saying “I do” there really was only one way they were going to do it! The wedding was held on The Kajama Tall Ship, docked at The Harbourfront Centre on Queens Quay West in Toronto. They had their ceremony on the deck at 12.30, they set sail at 1 ‘o clock and everyone de-boarded at 5.30. Guests were then invited to join them for post-wedding cocktails in the Watermark Lounge at the Radisson Admiral Hotel. The evening ended with a bit of a pirate pub crawl, hitting up the Amsterdam Brew Pub and then the Foggy Dew Irish Pub (where the couple met while they were both working there). Jackie wore a custom red and black corset from AE Clothing (on etsy) which she made her own by adding swing latch clasps, chains and jewelled skull beads. Y’Ves wore Blackbeard’s wardrobe from Medieval Collectibles. Most of their guests also got into the spirit by dressing up! “Ever since I was a child, I wanted to get married in a red dress”, explained Jackie. “As I became an adult, I knew I wanted something other than a traditional or destination wedding. Neither of us are traditional in so many ways. We chose children before marriage, we find 13 a lucky number, and we both love pirates! Why not have a pirate booze cruise? Instead of spending a ton on a traditional wedding, let’s have fun and get our guests to dress up! We knew we could use our outfits again for Halloween with the kids, and for future events.” “We played all rock, metal, and punk songs. We walked down the aisle to AWOL Nation’s ‘Sail’, signed the registry to Monster Truck’s ‘Seven Seas Blues’, danced our first dance to Guns n’ Roses ‘Patience’, and kicked off the reception to Led Zeppelin’s ‘The Ocean’.” “It was foggy and lightly raining”, she continued, “which made the sailing misty and authentic! My hair and make up became a mess, but I didn’t even mind. Go with the flow! The photos were bright and our eyes were open because we weren’t blinded by the sun. I love the contrast of the concrete jungle and the CN Tower ‘photo-bombing’ through the fog against the pirates on board. We didn’t have any planned photos or poses, just felt it in the moment. I loved dancing up high by the sails. The guest’s faces in all the photos are of pure joy and amazement. Their costumes were so fun, from DIY in the closet or dollar store, to high end rentals and custom creations.” “I loved our outfits and seeing what our guests wore. I loved it when we fired the cannons at passing vessels (which didn’t always work because the wick was too wet!) I loved dancing above everyone by the sails. I loved the look of love in my groom’s eyes as I came to him in the ceremony. I loved writing the ceremony!! I loved the table décor, as it was fun to collect piece-by-piece. I loved it all!”

AeroPress Coffee and Espresso Maker (80R08B) + 350 Micro Filters Amazon is offering the AeroPress Coffee and Espresso Maker + 350 Micro Filters (Model: 80R08B) for $25.99 – 13% off with free shipping. The secret to its flavorful coffee is ideal water temperature and faster brews, yielding a smooth flavor without bitterness. The whole process is micro-filtered to ensure a particle-free coffee, espresso, or latte. Its total-immersion system utilizes gentle air pressure to ensure the perfect brew. You can also travel with your compact Aeropress and prepare exquisite coffee without paying extravagant Starbucks prices. The Aeropress is easy to clean. Coffee enthusiasts simply gush over the Aeropress in the review section.

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[ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 113: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions.php on line 5312: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at [ROOT]/includes/functions.php:3925)[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions.php on line 5312: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at [ROOT]/includes/functions.php:3925)[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions.php on line 5312: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at [ROOT]/includes/functions.php:3925)[1.8] Error when collapsing feedlist (<< button) - Tiny Tiny RSS The bug was introduced when you added the floating title, short time before v1.8 was released. As soon as the floating title is shown (both combined views), the error is triggered when you collapse the feed list.Changing feeds hides the floating title => everything works fine.Scroll down to show the floating title => it's there again. Another side effect: The width of the headline frame won't be adjusted after collapsing the feed list. I don't think it's needed much anymore, there's a hotkey and you can adjust the column for whatever width which will be remembered. Also I don't think it's used much (it was broken for at least one milestone and nobody noticed) so I figured deemphasizing it further to clean up the toolbar is a good idea. You can still user-css enable it. Most used button on the toolbar here and regularly without a keyboard so 'c s' isn't really a replacement. I never considered other rss readers because they lacked the ability to collapse the feed list. TTRSS's toolbar has a lot of whitespace on it when feedlist is collapsed, keeping this button and having some nice native looking buttons for feed navigating, subscribing, etc. would be a better direction imo. The article_toolbar plugin adds this functionality but the buttons look tacked on as if they don't belong. This thread already existed when I started using ttrss so I didn't say anything about it and waited for a fix but noticed the problem within the first minute. Anyhow the button would be much less useful to me if it would save the state of the feedlist in a cookie like other rss readers are doing. In the future maybe?

Meet the Elders Our Elders are the back bone of the church. You may see them on a Sunday undertaking their duties, but behind the scenes a lot goes on! Throughout the week, an Elder is never far from the Church! Our Elders have a number of ‘functions’, which include… to see that worship is regularly offered and the sacraments duly administered, and generally to promote the welfare of the congregation; to ensure pastoral care of the congregation. to arrange for pulpit supply in a vacancy; to keep the roll of members and lists of names of adherents and children attached to the congregation. to be responsible for the institution and oversight of work among children and young people and of all organisations within the congregation; to call for the election of elders and advise on the number required; to consider the suitability of any applicant for recognition as a candidate for the ministry to recommend to the church meeting arrangements for the proper maintenance of buildings and the general oversight of all financial responsibilities of the local church; to act on behalf of the church meeting and bring concerns to the wider councils of the United Reformed Church Nick JonesOur Minister Jim FordChurch Treasurer Steve ChantlerChurch Secretary Dave LockChurch Elder Avril LockChurch Elder Dave DixsonChurch Elder Frances O'BrienChurch Elder Faith HardieChurch Elder Sheila WadhamsChurch Elder Jonathan GregsonChurch Elder Marion BodenChurch Elder Ray CraigChurch Elder Sue FletcherChurch Elder Will BoswellChurch Elder Jenny SmithChurch Elder Peter BrownChurch Elder Dave GwynnChurch Elder A Prayer Loving God, guide me now as I seek to find your way for me. Create in me a renewed dedication to your service. Set before me the example of Christ Jesus. Fill me with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. This I pray, trusting in your grace. Amen

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The use of wireless technology from Lectrosonics provided benefits for the recent production of the musical “Gypsy” by the University of Evansville Department of Theatre. “‘Gypsy’ is a story about vaudeville performers turning to burlesque to make a living,” explains Richard Ingraham, a Cleveland, OH-based free-lance sound designer operating under the name RBI Computers and Audio who was brought in to work with the production. “There’s a strip routine in the show and the main character—Gypsy—had the most revealing part. To make this work, we outfitted the actress with a Lectrosonics SM super-miniature transmitter, which was placed inside her bustier, or bra. “Fortunately, Lectrosonics offers the RM remote for this transmitter. With its ability to remotely adjust audio input gain, the RF operating frequency, lock/unlock the transmitter’s controls, and sleep mode on/off status, we had a high degree of ‘hands-free’ control, which was essential for this project. “The RM remote and the SM transmitter’s small size enabled the wireless system to go unnoticed while simultaneously facilitating a considerable amount of adjustment from a distance.” The wireless system count for the show consisted of six Lectrosonics SM transmitters, six SMD transmitters, and twelve LMa transmitters. On the receiving side of the equation, four Lectrosonics Venue VRMWB receiver mainframes—each fully stocked with six VRS receiver modules (for a 24-channel count)—were deployed. “In addition to the RM remote and the diminutive size of the SM and SMD transmitters, Lectrosonics sound quality is exceptional,” says Ingraham. “The company’s Digital Hybrid Wireless technology eliminates use of a compandor, which is common to competing wireless systems. The result is higher dynamic range and freedom from sonic artifacts. Similarly, the build quality is terrific. I’m also very fond of the Venue receiver’s battery monitor function that enables you to check how long the transmitter has been on. This handy feature enables you to monitor battery life, and this helped us immensely in terms of dealing with the logistics of ensuring battery longevity throughout the shows.”

Outside Magazine, May 1995 DispatchesAs NASA flounders, stargazing entrepreneurs look to bring outdoor pursuits to a planet near you. British übermum Alison Hargreaves attempts a female first on Everest. The self-proclaimed world's best ultrarunner tries to prove it at the Western States 100. A record-setting aviator turns Arctic explorer to fly home a downed WWII bomber. Plus: America's premier cycling race returns--shouldn't you be watching?; an unlikely hot-air balloon novice becomes the first to solo the Pacific; a fearless Frenchman hits 111 mph to claim a new mountain-bike speed mark; and more. The Wild FileDo crocodiles cry? How do you get a star named after you? Why do tornadoes hate trailer parks? DestinationsAlaska's wild parklands: a guide to tackling the vast, rugged preserves of the limitless Last Frontier. Also, ways to minimize dangers in the Great North and advice on traveling where roads are few. England by narrowboat: a four-mile-an-hour view from the lush inland waterways. Plus: mountain-biking, hiking, and fishing in Maine's Carrabassett Valley; the primordial greenery of northern California's Fern Canyon; working vacations in Borneo with the world's foremost orangutan expert; and more. ReviewAffordable suspension mountain bikes: seven worthy steeds that will put a little spring in your stroke without putting you in the poorhouse. Easy in, easy out: the best new off-road clipless pedals. Two-wheeler bric-a-brac: accessories for street and trail. The efficient angler: Bridger Mountain's Fishing Pack System. Plus: An in-the-ear amplifier that does for hearing nature what binoculars do for seeing it; Let the Mountains Talk, Let the Rivers Run, an environmental pep talk from David Brower; Moo, a new novel by Jane Smiley; and more. Plagues at the GateThey are virulent, microscopic menaces, diseases so deadly that they could swiftly destroy our nation's livestock and send the economy into a free fall--which leaves the government with the daunting task of keeping them from our shores. It's a battle being waged across the globe, and in the command center on tiny Plum Island, the folks in the lab coats are on red alert. By Charles Siebert Big Bass and the Men Who Love ThemTo the anglers who rise before dawn to ply Los Angeles's Castaic Lake, he is the grail in scales, the quickest way to turn a lifelong obsession into a lifelong payday. That's because Sow Belly is soon to be the largest largemouth ever landed--if one of the boys stalking the beast can just figure out where he's hiding. By Brad Wetzler Newtie, We Hardly Knew YeSurprisingly green as an eager young wonk, he's now making noises that have environmentalists quaking. But could we possibly be looking at a cuddly future with the new Speaker of the House? A nervous assessment. By Ned Martel Where the Deer and the Presidents PlayEavesdropping at the ranger desks of our national parks, where never is heard a discouraging word--but you might catch a perplexing question or two. By Debra Shore Night CallsAlong South Africa's Modder River, the last of the red-crested herons filled their lonely world. When it vanished, the father and daughter ghosted the midnights in search of its fleeting song. A short story by Lisa Fugard Fitness Special: May the Better VO2 Max WinThere is no stronger motivator than sibling rivalry--especially if you're training for a 15-mile race that's 12 weeks away. But what's the best way to prepare? A look at both the high- and low-tech ends of the fitness spectrum, where two very different trainers readied their charges to settle a fraternal score. By Todd and Tom BalfPlus: Expert insight into the Balfs' endurance, strength, nutrition, and psychology. By Sara Corbett and Dana Sullivan Our Mission To inspire active participation in the world outside through award-winning coverage of the sports, people, places, adventure, discoveries, health and fitness, gear and apparel, trends and events that make up an active lifestyle.

Native HDCP at nVidia and ATI Those hoping that the future graphic cards supporting HD-TV (High Definition TV) and being compliant with the HDCP encryption standard would stay easy-to-hack will have to forget about their dreams. Just one after the other, nVidia and ATI announced that they would not stay long with the graphic chipset + HDCP chipset solutions of today and would quickly bring integrated chipsets. The hopes of seeing one or two hackers finding a way to trick these cards to display full resolution 1080p HD-TV onto a display not including the HDCP interface will have to llok elsewhere. It seems that HDCP will not be circumvented this way (or not for long, if it happens).

Super Power Chia Bread (gluten-free) May 22, 2013Angela (Oh She Glows) by Angela (Oh She Glows) on May 22, 2013 Tomorrow, I’ll be flying from Toronto to Vancouver and then from Vancouver to Portland, on my merry way to the Vida Vegan Conference! I seriously can’t wait. In my typical fashion, I’ve been dealing with a lot of anxiety about this trip, but I’m sure I’ll be having too much fun to even notice it. I mean, come on – it’s Portland – only one of the most vegan friendly cities in the world! I’m looking forward to meeting the wonderful people behind many of the blogs I read each day. Of course, before all the fun happens the traveling has to take place. If I’m going to be traveling for 9-10 hours, I want to have something exciting to look forward to (and of course I mean healthy, great-tasting food). What is it about being trapped on a plane that makes me so hungry? With just a little preparation, I’ll be feasting like a queen. A good book, music, and in-flight TV never hurts either! This week I racked my brain to think of a new food to bring on the flights. At first, I thought of my Endurance Crackers, but then I decided they were slightly too delicate for travel. I played around with the recipe and this is what I came up with. I’m happy to say this power bread turned out exactly as I hoped. It’s bursting with chia seeds (1 tablespoon per slice!) and it also happens to be gluten and nut-free, making it friendly for many travelers. Best of all, it’s perfectly sturdy for travel. Plus, it’s only 5 minutes to prep which is a huge bonus, especially when getting ready for a flight. Just like my Endurance Crackers, you simply dump the ingredients into a bowl and stir in water. After that, I spread it into a 9-inch baking dish and baked it for 25 minutes. Now this is some quick and easy bread – ready in 30 minutes flat! It disappears just as quickly. Try it with all kinds of toppings. I personally love hummus, avocado, and Herbamare as well as almond butter and strawberry jam. Super Power Chia Bread Vegan, gluten-free, oil-free, nut-free, soy-free. Thick, hearty, and dense – this isn’t your average slice of bread! Packed with 9 grams of protein and over 7 grams of fibre per slice, this bread will keep you going for hours. 1. Preheat oven to 325F and line a 9-inch square pan with two pieces of parchment paper, one going each way. 2. Add rolled oats and buckwheat into a high-speed blender. Blend on highest speed until a fine flour forms. 3. Add all dry ingredients into a large bowl and stir well until combined. Stir in the water until combined. The mixture will be very watery and runny at first, but it will thicken up fairly quick. Scoop it into the pan and spread it out with a spatula as evenly as possible. You can use lightly wet hands to smooth it down if necessary. Sprinkle the bread with Herbamare or fine grain sea salt before going into the oven. 4. Bake at 325F for about 25 minutes, or until firm to the touch. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then lift it out and transfer it to a cooling rack for another 5-10 minutes. Slice and enjoy! 5. This bread keeps for 2-3 days max – any longer and it gets gummy in texture. I suggest freezing it for enduring freshness. I like to toast it straight from the freezer! Notes: 1) I made a batch without sunflower seeds and it still turned out great. I’m sure you can play around with the seeds (or even add nuts!) and reduce them if desired. 2) A reader successfully made a batch using brown rice flour and quinoa flour- I’m sure you can play around with the flours too. I hope this bread brightens up your own travels or busts you out of a lunch or breakfast rut. I’d love your feedback on this recipe if you try it out or make other variations. If you’d like to check out what I’m up to at the conference, you will most likely find me on Instagram documenting my journey. If you are attending the conference, I hope to meet you soon! Please come say hello! Your slices are so…geometrically perfect. I wish I had these when I used to fly back and forth from TO to Vancouver, they look delicious and travel-friendly! Have a great time at the conference, looking forward to reading your recap :) I tried a version using all raw buckwheat flour and it turned out, although the buckwheat made it a bit strange in texture (it gets a bit chalky white on top) but otherwise tasted fine! Im sure you could experiment with other flours too. I successfully made this recipe in my dehydrator…it was amazing…115 degrees for approx 4 hours…have to play with the time a little…could be a little moister…the flavor was incredible tho…great great recipe :) I am wondering this too as I’m going backpacking for a week. I think the trick is to spread them thinner, and get them really dry so there is no chance of spoilage. More like a cracker than a bread. I’ll let you know how it turns out! These. Look. Amazing. As a Celiac gal who does a lot of flying, these would be the perfect solution to my travel food woes! I can’t wait to whip these up, especially when the toppings involve avocados and hummus. (Two of the best foods known to man, IMHO.) This is such a cool recipe. I can’t wait to try it. I seems like it’d be awesome with a little goat cheese and avocado. Tho that totally de-veganizes it. But I’m only a vegetarian so it works for me! Thanks for the recipe! These look great, I’ll be trying them out very soon. If my kiddos approve, I’ll be sure to bring some along on our flight this summer from Ottawa to Calgary. Some of our current favorite in-flight snacks include apple slices, raisins and Lara bars. Those last snacks are bit expensive, but seeing as I have 3 little people to pack for and take care of, I allow myself this small indulgence :) I I bought the stuff to make this recipe today and didn’t realize that there were different types of seeds available (roasted, salted, etc). I bought the “raw” pumpkin and sunflower seeds and made a batch of “bread” with them and it turned out great. Angela, thank you for the recipe. It is wonderful and so healthy. I made some mushroom “caviar” to put on it but it would also be good with just about anything. 1/4″ inch makes for chewy bread bars, but I think if I spread it out thinner I could end up with more cracker-like substance. Angela, this is my first post here because I just found you, but THANK YOU for your recipes! This recipe looks great! I love chia seeds! Off topic – I picked up a book a few weeks ago. It is new, just released at the beginning of the year. I remember reading a post on your blog about IBS and various food allergies(?) causing health problems. I thought of you while reading this book. It is titled WomanCode by Alisa Vitti: it is about maintaining a lifestyle balanced around your hormones and monthly cycle through food, exercise, and overall well-being. I highly recommend you read this. It is very informative and it makes sense! Angela, I’m suuuuper excited to meet you in Portland! Okay, truth be told, I’m also anxious about meeting new people, but I was at the conference last time and it was a total love-Fest, everyone is so nice and fun. Safe travel, gorgeous lady! :) This bread looks great!! Love pumpkin seeds in any type of bread/cracker. One question though: may I ask what brand of chia seeds you usually buy? I am located in Toronto and have numerous grocery stores around me, but I’ve never shopped for chia seeds before and am not sure what’s the best brand or least expensive! TIA! I know this is late so it’ll probably not help you much, but I found some of the best prices on chiaseedsdirect.com They only sell chia seeds & almost always have a good sale going. I bought 12 lbs for USD 41.99 last month :) So excited that you’ll be at VVC! I am looking forward to meeting the people behind these amazing blogs/recipes! I am terrible about making food for the plane – I always end up getting icky energy bars. I doubt I’ll get around to making these for VVC – I haven’t even started packing yet (yikes!) – but I am traveling a lot in June and will definitely have to try them out! What a great snack for plane rides! My favorite food to pack for flights is easily a PB&J. A PB&J with your chia bread would be perfect because it packs such a nutritional punch! I’ll have to make some for my flight to New York this summer :) This recipe looks so creative and wholesome! I’d like to try it and have most of the ingredients on hand; just wondering if you think the ground chia I have would be acceptable, or if I should wait until I’ve replenished my supply of whole seeds. Oh Angela this is so exciting! Airplane food sucks and it is certainly not gluten free or vegan. I am really looking forward to making these since I will be traveling in the next couple of months. I just (last night) returned from a week in Europe and I packed an entire box of Larabars to keep in my purse for flights and emergency snacks. They were perfect but I wouldn’t mind something new for my next trip! I hear you about the anxiety before a trip as well. I finally decided to be kind to myself and went to the doctor hours before my flight. He prescribed meds to help with the anxiety to take as needed. Honestly it was just enough to know I had them in my purse in case I needed them. Looking forward to your posts on Portland! Safe travels! Traveling makes me so hungry too! This past week I packed a normal-sized lunch for an international flight, and it didn’t end up being nearly enough – I was still starving afterwards! Probably just the boredom :) This bread looks like just the thing to look forward to! I cannot wait to make these! They just jumped to the top of my recipe priority list. (The easy recipes always do, haha!) I recently began a gluten-free and vegan diet, so this bread is pretty exciting. Plus, I’m kind of obsessed with chia seeds. Do you think a less savory/slightly sweeter version of this recipe would work? Maybe increase the sweeter to two teaspoons and substitute cinnamon for the herbs? Hmmm. Thanks so much for that recipe. I’m on a detox right now and it was a lifesaver! I just made it for lunch and it was great. I didn’t have pumpkin seeds, so I doubled the sunflower seeds and it turned out great. This looks awesome! I’m going to Ireland and Scotland in a few weeks and wanted to find new recipes to try for the trip over. In Denver, our airport has a restaurant that makes awesome lemon hummus that I always get before a flight (as it’s the only real vegan option with protein). They serve it with veggies and pita chips (though they set the pita on the same cutting board with meat) so I ask for extra cucumbers and cornichons instead. I think I’ll make this bread and use it to dip in the hummus this time! I also hate to admit to this, but my favorite snack to eat while flying is gummy bears (they make vegan ones sweetened with agave but it’s still sugar). It’s the only time I really eat them but they’re just so good! Just made this delish bread – yum! Next time I’m going to try sreading it out into a circle (slightly thinner) and bake it on a pizza stone so it’s more like a cracker/pizza crust….will keep you posted… I just wanted to say how much I appreciate your candid mentioning of anxiety. When I first started struggling with anxiety, the shame I felt about it was almost as bad as the issue itself. Its so helpful and heartening to me to see a positive role model like yourself putting it out there that its something you deal with from time to time, and it makes me feel much less alone! I also think its brave of you. Have an amazing time at the conference Ange!! I can’t wait to hear all about it and I’m sure it’ll be a wonderful experience. Great job on this recipe. I’m addicted to avocado right now so that sounds like the perfect topper! :) This looks like some seriously healthy, good-for-you bread! I need to work this into the lineup! I’ve been into chia seeds again after not using them for 3-4 yrs..I dont know why, I just sort of forgot about them. This would be the perfect use for them! Angela, I’ve been following your blog for over a year now…and I’ve made many of your recipes…always a success (and I am a tough critic of recipes!). I’m going on a cruise tomorrow and I made the last minute energy bars, the gluten fee crackers, the happy trails adventure cookies and the endurance crackers. I had to comment when I read your entry about the crackers being too fragile for travel. I just layered them and the other crackers in a ziplock container and they look like they’ll be fine! My motheris gluten free and she is going to love all the snacks. Thanks again for making such a great blog with perfect recipes and great photography! Bon voyage!! I just made this bread but substituted cinnamon for the Herbs and added in some organic dried cranberries and a few chopped dates. SO GOOD!! Making it a sweeter version limits my possibilities for toppings, but I didn’t have any oregano or thyme on hand. The bread is absolutely delicious with almond butter. These look amazing! I will be heading to a camping road trip this weekend and can’t wait to make them. Also, welcome to Portland! I’m from here and am vegan but didn’t even know about the conference, so will look it up! I am so inspired by you! Thanks for all you do! Hello! I just made this bread and it taste delish but had a question about the mixture. Once you’ve added the water is the mixture supposed to be really runny? As in really, really runny? I decided to thicken it up with chickpea flour and cornstarch just in case I’d done something wrong, and it still came out nice and tasty! Hey Laura, it is runny at first and then it thickens up quickly from the chia seeds. I will clarify this in the recipe – either way it will turn out! Thanks for trying it and letting me know how it went! Just made some of your endurance crackers (again!) yesterday as they are our favorite crackers to have with hummus. We had a long flight to Mexico this winter and so I looked up some ideas for food I could make ahead and take on the plane with us. I made your endurance crackers, hummus, rice and lentil salad, a bowl of chopped up artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers and sun-dried tomatoes, a bag of cashews and raisins, and of course a bar of dark chocolate. It would have been plenty to get last us to Mexico, but we missed our connecting flight and had to stay in Houston over night. :( This looks amazing! I only wish it had been posted 2 weeks earlier- as I just got home from my travels- and after a few flights with airplane food, this would’ve been the most amazing thing to have EVER! Definitely bookmarking it for the next time I’m flying somewhere. Yumm! This was such a quick and easy recipe the kids decided to make it for their afternoon snack. They omitted the savory seasonings and then topped the finished product with a smear of fresh honey. Huge hit. Thank you! Looks perfect! Love the idea to include chia in the bread. We made some raw crackers the other day and loved them. Can´t wait t make new versions and this was the perfect inspiration! So thank you :) I love to pack dates and nuts. Take almost no space and filled with energy. Just made a batch and had it with my husband’s homemade hummus… Yum! I love every recipe I’ve ever tried of yours! I just started following you a few months ago, but I’ve already tried a dozen or so recipes… Not including my face that I’ve made several times already! Keep up the good work and good luck at your conference in Portland! Hehe my friends from Vancouver just went to Portland on a bachelorette weekend. They went out in dresses at night and people kept asking them “You girls going to prom?” So anticipate the casual wear, I guess? But I really want to check out that city, it honestly does sound amazing! Have fun on your trip! Since you are into being healthy, remember that you can opt out of the airport body scanners in the States and prevent unnecessary exposure to radiation. Canada does not use scanners that use radiation (the radiation ones have two walls). Microwaving food isn’t that good for you so why would you offer to microwave yourself?! Stay safe & ask for an alternative screening in the States. :) Just a question for anyone who might have the answer, tried googling but can’t seem to find it. I know if you are going to eat raw nuts/seeds you should soak them first in order for proper digestion…does this still hold true if you are going to be cooking them or does cooking them remove the enzyme inhibitors like soaking does? Hope this isn’t a silly question:) Thank you in advance! Wow. I just made this. I’ve been experimenting with gluten free recipes for a friend who is controlling a thyroid issue with diet (so far it’s working). This is delicious! I did not have garlic or onion powder, so I picked a baby garlic from the garden and a couple Egyptian Walking Onion leaves and ran them through my Vitamix blender with the water. I also used honey instead of sugar (not vegan, but better for people than sugar, locally grown, and the sugar industry abuses its workers). I just got some locally grown buckwheat flour a couple weeks ago and have been looking for things to make with it. So I scored on that count as well. I was too lazy to grind up my oats, so I used spelt flour and buckwheat flour. Technically not okay for Celiacs, I think (spelt), but it’s not a concern for me. My husband and I both like this bread a lot with guacamole. I’ll be playing with it, making variations for sure! Thanks. Just wondering what brand of chia seeds you use as I haven’t been able to find one that doesn’t say “may contain peanuts”. My son is severely allergic and I’d love to be able to make these! They look great. Thanks. This looks like a must-try! We’re traveling to Vancouver next month, from Chicago, with our 20-month-old, so I’m definitely trying to figure out how many non-messy healthy snacks I can cram in to a carry-on! Wow this looks like a perfect savory snack! A nice switch from sweet granola bars. I do love chia seeds, but on my budget they can become very expensive. Would this work if I reduced the chia to 1/4 cup and added more (cheaper) seeds? Either more sunflowr or pumpkin, or I was thinking maybe even some sesame seeds. And with this change, would the amount of water need to be reduced? Thanks for the help! Great recipe :) I tried this recipe over the weekend, but I left out the seeds completely. It looked good when it came out of the oven, but when I sliced into it later, it had a rather gummy texture. I’m guessing that’s not how it was supposed to be (?) I might give it another go, and this time follow the instructions properly. ;) Hi Angela. I did use all of the chia seeds called for. In thinking it over, though, it is true that seeds/nuts absorb liquid too (even though not nearly as much as chia or flax). So, leaving out a full cup was probably much more of a problem than I realized at the time. Now I really want to try it again with the sunflower and pumpkin seeds. :) Oh, these are SO good and SOOO quick and easy! I made them last night and used 1/4 cup sunflower seeds. After mixing them up I realized I didn’t have parchment paper or the pan I needed (ha!) so I put my Silpat on a baking sheet and spread the dough out (approximately 1/2″ thick) and baked for 25 minutes. They turned out perfectly delicious! Hi Angela! I see that the recipe calls for 1/2 cup oats that gets ground to flour. I have a package of oat flour and am wondering how much of that I could use so that I don’t have to grind my own. I looked through the comments and didn’t seen anyone already mention this. I can’t wait to make this, looks good! I just made this bread to relax as being in the kitchen on a boring, rainy night makes me smile. I also couldn’t wait to try this recipe out! I have one question….have you tried toasting it? I plan on taking a slice to school with me tomorrow, but I don’t know whether I should leave it as is or try toasting it. What do you think? BTW, for anyone wary of the make-your-own flours, I just ground mine up in a spice blender and it worked like magic! :) I cannot wait to try this bread as I am already a fan of the crackers ( and so are allof my friends that I have made them for). Do you know how much flour 1/2 cup of oats makes? i have some already ground oat flour I would like to use up first! Made these today and they are really good. Instead of soft (bread like), I would like to try to get them more crunchy like crackers. Do you think if I put them in a slow oven for awhile they might crisp up? (I’m thinking they would taste like Dr. Kracker..) I tried this with all purpose GF flour and buckwheat flour and the rest of the ingredients the same…came out great! I also tried a batch subbing slivered almonds for pepitas (since I ran out of pepitas) …and sprinkled some Nutritional yeast on top w/ salt before baking. Also awesome. Am thinking fennel seeds would be a nice topping too…What about a sweeter version with cinnamon and cardamom and cashews and raisins and coconut (topped with grilled pineapple)? The possibilities really are endless-I think the key is picking ingredients that won’t sink to the bottom of the batter and that don’t hold too much more water than the original ingredients….thank you so much for the inspiration! Thank you so much for this recipe! It was so amazing and turned out great! I was out of parchment paper, and afraid that it would stick – but it didn’t. I just might stop buying bread completely… this was this that easy, quick, healthy and delicious! I made this on Wednesday and WOW…it is AWESOME! Thanks for the great recipe!! I made your spicy rainbow rice and bean salad for dinner last night and it was pretty awesome too. I am sold for when the cookbook comes out! :) Hi Angela, I have been reading your blog for a while and always find it very inspiring. I can’t eat oates, so tried making the bread with 1/2 cup buckwheat flour and 1/4 cup coconut flour (and garden-fresh herbs and garlic!). I also baked it very thin on a cookie tray to get more of a crispy cracker which I am hoping will last out the week for snacks. Maybe. If I don’t eat it all in one sitting ;) It turned out great. Thank you! I made this using chickpea flour, quinoa flour, and lentil flour. I added in a little bit of nutritional yeast and accidentally forgot the sugar. I sprinkled more nutritional yeast and a tiny bit of salt on top. Aside from those modifications, I followed the recipe as written. The bread turned out fantastic! I’d never really heard of using lentil flour, but I decided to throw some lentils in my Magic Bullet and see what happened. Delicious and nutritious bread is what happened!! I topped mine with a black bean hummus-type spread and have had to make myself stop eating it all! Thanks for the wonderful recipe! Just made it today with rye instead if oats, without pumpkin seeds (didn’t have sny) and with a few extra seasonings including karaway seeds. This bread is amazing! And there is no clean-up! I am sold. I will be making a new one right before my upcoming long flight later this week! Thanks so much for such a great recipe! You are right – it is totally addictive. I can’t stop :) But it is sooooo good. I also toasted it today and it tasted gorgeous. Thanks again! I am also working hard on not focusing on calories so haven’t even looked at the nutritional info – the important thing is that it’s good for you. Just made this.. Subbed the oats with ground flax and left out the sunflower seed. Still tastes pretty amazing though.. I’m thinking one could add a bit of shredded zucchini to give it some more humidity.. I think I’ll try next time and report back… Anyways, thank you very much for this wonderful recipe Angela. Nora Tried drying the cooked bread in a 250D oven for about a 1/2 hour. They did crisp up nicely like crackers, but by the next day they were kind of chewy and tough(but still good!). I’d say, unless you are serving the crackers right away, stick with the original cooking time… HI Angela, I’m new to the world of gluten free and vegan, just around 6 months now GF & vegan….and find it pretty challenging at times. These are a delight! It took 5 minutes to measure and mix…then voila! Delicious and hearty. I’ll be packing these for work the next couple of days. Thanks for the inspiration and creative recipes! Thanks for a great recipe! I just made these with ground quinoa instead of the sunflower seeds, and 1/4 of a cup chia seeds & 1/4 of a cup ground flaxseeds instead of 1/2 a cup chia. (Chia is a bit expensive for me!!) The bit I snuck while slicing was really tasty, now to wait for trying them cold. Thanks again :) Hi Nadia, It could…but I’m not positive. I found the baked version to get gummy after a few days, so I would def. try dehydrating before your trip to test it out first. Let me know how it goes if you try it! Also, I’m sure if you got most of the water out it would avoid the gummy factor. Hi: Looks great and easy too. I’m not a huge fan of savoury breads, but love sweet ones. I was wondering about switching the spices for cinnamon, stevia and perhaps raisins in place of the sunflower seeds? Would that affect the baking time or or amounts of other ingredients, do you think? I love this recipe!!! Love the ingredients; love the result. I added a bit of baking powder and didn’t have any onion powder, but otherwise I followed it just as written. It was great for a sandwich with avocado and tomato. Even my two year old loved it. I can’t wait to play with it for different flavors. Thank you for the fabulous base recipe and idea. Thank you so much for this recipe, it is flawless and fantastic. I made another batch tonight, but split it into two tart pans (1 cup of batter each) flattened it out, and baked for only 14 minutes. Then topped with homemade garlic hummus, veggies (peppers, onions, cauliflower, artichoke hearts) from the fridge and broiled it 5-7 minutes, until browned. My 9 year old daughter calls it Hummus Pizza. I just have to say that this recipe is by far my favourite. Not only is it easy to make but it is so delicious and taste good with all the toppings you suggested. My only problem…….I cannot stop eating it!!! Thanks for an awesome recipe and website. Love your recipes!!! Thenk you so much for this recipe! I made it this morning following your recipe precisely, and it turned out delicious! My husband and I both teach fitness classes, so these will be the ideal non-sweet energy boost we often need between classes. I just found your blog, jumped up, made the Super Power Chia Bread, read “your story”, took the bread out . . . and am waiting for it to cool . . . . ! Want to eat it NOW. LOL. I am diabetic and have just given up wheat – so happy to find your blog and also happy for you that your life is now in balance. *bless* Update . . . next morning . . . Angela, I would not have believed it but when my other half came home last night he scoffed several slices of the Super Chia bread!! He loved it. It goes without saying that I loved it too. *swoon* This morning I had Chia pudding with four prunes and a touch of (real) vanilla essence soaked overnight in soy milk and warmed through. Thank you for these marvellous recipes, Angela. I think Chia is my new best friend. Now, if I could just convince the boy to give up wheat. . . I was so excited to make this recipe and finally got around to it tonight. While the flavours and texture of the bread are delicious, my bread actually stuck to the parchment paper. Nothing I couldn’t salvage, but just wondering if you might know why? I followed the recipe, but am wondering if maybe my oven is too hot or if I should have sprayed the parchment with olive oil beforehand. Any tips would be appreciated. I just made this bread last night and I am LOVING it! I gave up white, wheat flour after my weight loss surgery and I sometimes miss bread and this really hit the spot. I put a little avocado with veggies on it and I was in heaven! This is a staple in my kitchen from now on. I always make my own gluten free bread (only because the ones at the grocery store are too expensive). It was time to make another loaf, but I couldn’t find a new recipe that I wanted to make and didn’t feel like spending all the time on making bread. I decided to go simple and make this bread and I’m glad that I did. It has a wonderful texture and it’s full of flavor. I’ll definitely be making it again. However, I didn’t really like the texture of the pumpkin seeds. Would it still work to grind them up before adding? Thanks for the wonderful recipe! This recipe rules! I modified it a little bit. Added some hemp hearts and dehydrated it. I’ve been wanting to make raw bread for awhile but had no idea where to start! This was really easy, and tastes delicious. Thanks so much! Also, your site is amazing! I always enjoy looking around for new recipes to try :) I ADORE your blog! This recipe is actually amazing, I LOVED it when I made it for my trip to the states to shoot a wedding last weekend! I was wondering if you had made a sweeter version? I was thinking of replacing the spices with cinnamon & nutmeg, and throwing in some raisins. Do you think that would work? Thanks so much! Hey Jessica! So glad you enjoy it so much :) I havent tried a sweet version (yet!), but I think a reader left a comment recently and mentioned trying it (and liking it). I would give a quick check through the comments if you are interested. I think she mentioned using cinnamon too. When I try it out, I’ll probably sub 25% of the water for maple syrup and see how that is. Probably 1 teaspoon cinnamon or a bit less. Anyway, have fun with it and let me know how it goes! O-M-G!! Just made these and they are DELISH!! Mine didn’t turn out as pretty as yours but they taste amazing! I added 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes and didn’t have any seeds so used nuts in place of. I will be making more of these for my upcoming trip on Tuesday! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I made this using oat flour, buckwheat flour, cumin seeds instead of oregano, ground coriander instead of thyme, roasted garlic instead of the powders, added flax seeds, buttered the pan instead of parchment (it came out fine anyway) and then made skinny slices like little wands – put it in a 450 degree oven for 20 or so minutes until everything was dried out and toasty. The second time I made a double batch – now I can’t leave it alone!!! I just made a sweet version of these by omitting the onion, garlic and herbs and by adding an extra 1/2 tsp of sugar, approx. a tsp of cinnamon and approx. a tsp of vanilla. They are super yummy and will be perfect for my breakfast sandwich of almond butter and bananas. I have made this bread only twice with some modifications but it has always turned out delicious. First time I did not have chia so I used 2 tbsp of ground flax seed and also I skipped the onion and thyme and added 1 tsp of ground cumin (I am from the Czech Republic and our traditional bread is made with cumin, that´s how I got the idea :) and it was really good. The second time I wanted “the real bread” taste and no spices (I want to put some sweet spread on it:) so I used acorn flour instead of the buckwheat and only salt and sugar and it ended up just delicious better that any store bought flat bread, even my picky Italian boyfriend liked it ;). It will now be a real staple in our kitchen. Hey Gabriela, Thank you so much for sharing your trials with us! A few others have had success with sweet versions (and many like cinnamon added in too). I love how versatile it is and we make it here once a week now. Anyway, so glad you enjoy it too! May I ask if you bake this bread at 325 in a glass or metal pan? And have you used a convection oven for this bread? I am wondering if there needs to be time or temperature adjustments made for using a glass pan and or convection oven? Thank you! Loving your recipes! Hi Karen, I use a metal square pan (sometimes I spread out a double batch on a baking sheet too!) and I don’t use convection. It’s very versatile though so I’m sure it will work out. Just keep an eye on it and when it’s just firm remove it from the oven. I made these last night and they are sooo good :) perfect with avocado on top or nut butter or plain! How do you come up with these recipes? You’re definitely my favorite blogger :) looking forward to your book! Hi, even I am not vegan, I like to eat during the weak at least two days without meat. I prepared the oil free chocolate , zucchini walnut muffins and the spice lentil kale soup and they were delicious, thank you! I please I am trying to buy chia seeds but I read about the importance of the quality.. Which brand do you recommend me? I was looking in Whole food and no clue which to buy. Thank you! Angela– I recently found your blog and I love it! I made this bread today as well as your “perfect” veggie burgers. Both came out amazing– really fantastic textures and taste. I used 1/2 cup buckwheat flour and 1/4 cup whole wheat flour for the bread and it came out great. I also took your tips on freezing veggie burgers and have 5 in the freezer now for quick meals later! Thanks so much for your blog and your great recipes, I’ll definitely be making more of them very soon! I have made this bread several times – it is now a staple in my rotation! My daughter loves it even more she has named it ‘elvish bread’. I have to be sure I have a batch available for her when she comes to visit. I’ve made several variations using almond flour, coconut flour, garbanzo bean flour, I like to vary the herbs as well, but adding some rosemary is my favorite. Thanks for another great recipe and another bonding moment for this mom and her daughter! Dear Angela, First of all, I would like to thank you for this amazing recipe! I tried it last week and since then I made it 3 times already (2 times as written, which is new for me;). We were traveling last weekend and these were perfect snacks/breads to take with us for our long car trip. No one has mentioned this yet, but they also help bowel movements if there are any troubles with constipation (I apologize to report it here, but it works wonders:). As I mentioned above, I always change recipes, even the healthy ones, to make them healthier. This recipe does not require that. It is healthy, really healthy, without any changes. Also, it is versatile enough to try out different ingredients. I loved the “savory” version with my avocado and olives in the morning, but I wanted to try a “sweet” version with my nut butters. I kept the flour, chia, and seed ratios the same, but I used mix of quinoa and buckwheat flours, I added hemp seeds and zante currants instead of seeds, and I used cinnamon, ginger, all spice, nutmeg and cloves (gingerbread spices) instead of garlic and onion powders. The end result was amazing! I thought about adding a tablespoon of sweetener, but I did not and it really did not need it. All these warming spices and currants made it sweet enough to be eaten as a soft gingerbread cookie. I wanted to share this “sweet” combination with you since you asked for our experience, but seriously I cannot thank you enough for the recipe. It will be my to go recipe for healthy “flat bread”! All the best, I love this recipe……….I changed a few things; I didn’t really like the oregano, so I omitted that and used rosemary instead and some herbs de provence; also I used chopped walnuts in place of 1/2 of the pumpkin deeds. I just liked the taste better….I’ve made it three times and I thank you so much for the recipe. This bread is SO wonderful. Thank you, thank you, for sharing the recipe! I made my second batch today and I absolutely love it. I freeze it in individual portions, then toast in my toaster oven with nut butter (cashew butter this week) on top. Marvelous! LOVE THESE! Made them several times, customizing to my mood. Once left out garlic/onion powders for a more neutral taste. Once subbed coconut flour for the buckwheat flour. My fav tweak is to split the 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds into 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds & 1/4 cup sesame seeds. Thanks Angela for an awesome recipe! This looks so great! For whatever reason, for all the other goodies I’ve whipped us, I just haven’t tried any homemade breads (vegan, dehydrated or otherwise) yet (intimidation, maybe?). Anyway, I can’t wait to give this a try- but I’m wondering if you use the special “dry blade” container with your Vitamix? I’ve used the regular one to gently process oat flour, but learned it easily becomes pasty and sticks all in the bottom if you’re not careful, since it pulls the flour down to blend, instead up pushing it up to grind. Any tips? Thank you! Every day I see one of your posts in my inbox I get excited and can’t wait to see what you come up with next. Wow, this bread turned out so much better than I expected! These are so delicious. The flavor was savory, hearty, and quite satisfying. It’s a perfect snack on its own, but also paired well with my husband’s homemade hummus. I tried toasting it straight from the freezer like you suggested and it turned out well. I think I prefer it straight from the fridge though! I cut the bread into 4 pieces, then sliced each piece horizontally, and made a grilled cheese sandwich, but first turn the bread inside out……..so you grill the inside part instead of the outside…….add great cheese and whatever you like on a grilled cheese……..don’t forget some coconut oil spray on the pan or the bread……..so delicious!!! I am psyched to find this recipe! I was actually searching for seed bread, like Dave makes in the grocery store :) Previously, I have made your endurance cracker recipe many times, and dehydrated those, Fantastic! I tweaked the recipe a little, subtracted the onion, added soy and ginger and they’re to die for. My neighbor has a huge issue with onions, so I try to avoid those. Anyway, so glad to see that others have successfully dehyrated this recipe, but I might try baking it since it was the garlic in the crackers that made me want to keep the temps low. I love this recipe! I personally don’t even bake mine. I did the first time and, of course, it’s great. However, for my personal diet I don’t cook food much, so I have this sandwich raw. Every day w my homemade nut butter and either organic apricots, dates, or half a banana. My version of a PB&J. happy food for the brain. sustaining. & yum!! I made a batch of this bread this morning, using sorghum and buckwheat flour, and I really like it. I’m quite surprised at how good it is actually… And I love how easy it is to make! This will be my breakfast for the next while for sure. :) This looks amazing, although I don’t particularly care for buckwheat. What would you recommend I use to replace it? I know it’s important for the ingredients to stay together for the bread to be… well, bread, so I figured I’d try to find the best substitute. Thanks! I just tried making these and they are really good. I found the taste of thyme a little bit too strong, so I am going to try them without next time. It was my first time baking with chia seeds and the first time trying something on your site. I’m looking forward to more good recipes! Love. Love. Love this stuff. I cut it into bread sticks (with a pizza wheel) lay out on a tray and freeze. After they’re frozen I throw them in a ziplock and thaw individually as needed. I put them in the toaster oven and crisp them up making them more cracker-like than bread-like. O.M.G…… This stuff is soooo good. Always spread with hummus but I think I’ll try guac next time I make these. You have absolutely the best vegan/GR recipes, Angela! Thank you for sharing. I have been making this for a long time, I recently added some dried fruit to it (Mango, Apricot & Blueberries), I omitted the seasonings except for Salt & Sugar, OMG, mind blowing! It is a massive hit. Thanks so much for all your great recipes I have been wanting to try this recipe for a while, but I am trying to cut back on grains. I decided to try a grain free version and I am pleased to say it worked! I used almond flour in place of oat and coconut flour in place of buckwheat. Then I added dried goji berries and some flaked coconut. I increased the water by about 1/4 cup (since the coconut flour sucks up so much water). And I used blackstrap molasses instead of sugar and spiced it with ginger, cinnamon, and a little turmeric. The bread turned out delicious and holds together pretty nicely. I am taking some on my travels so I will have a healthy and filling gluten and grain free breakfast. What a great recipe Angela! I make this bread every Monday, and snack on it all week! I love the taste, and the texture, especially with homemade almond butter. Am looking forward to receiving my pre-ordered cookbook next month and ditching all my computer print off copies, now spattered with food! Take care, Angela! Super yummy! I added 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and doubled the garlic and onion powders and used dried sage for the herbs. I also added a dash of white pepper and substituted 1/6 cup of the water with 1/6 cup of olive oil. Next time I am going to try it with zata’ar as a seasoning and add some sesame seeds. Thanks for the great recipes and inspiration! I let the dough sit for 15 minutes while I negotiated a treaty between my lego obsessed boys. I think the resting time did the dough good because the water was absorbed even though I didn’t have chia in there. Sprinkled with more salt before baking. Baked for 25 minutes. This turned out really nicely – reminiscent of seeded wheat bread! Hi Angela, just a quick question… When you say “1/4 cup raw buckwheat groats, ground into a flour “, is it different from buckwheat flour? Why not just buckwheat flour? (Is it ground too much?) Thank you :) Isa OMG, just made these and I LOVE this recipe! I substituted the chias with flax seeds, left out the pumpkin seeds (didn’t have any) and cut back the water just a bit, and they turned out perfect! Just enjoyed some with banana slices and cinnamon, which may sound a bit weird for a savoury bread but I actually liked the combo! Thank you for a great recipe :) Hungry again several hours after an early dinner, I looked to this book for something healthy/nutritious and quick to pull together and power me through an evening at my desk. Enter Super Power Chia Bread: OMG. It is DIVINE. Fabulous flavor, nutty texture, tender, not at all crumbly – and heavenly with a generous smear of homemade butter and a sprinkling of nooch. Omni-turned-vegan-2-weeks-ago husband is marveling at this bread, even on its own/no butter, and I’m positively swooning over it in all its buttered/nooched glory. I kept re-checking the recipe to see if I were forgetting an ingredient, because there are so few – and how could these nuts and seeds and water turn into anything bread-like?! But it really did come together quickly, and was firm after the 25-min bake, as specified. Need someone to hide the rest from me…. Addictive! Loving the book! And really enjoying the nutrient-dense recipes, and how fabulously spectacular they can be (oil-free, processed sugar-free, gluten-free). I made this for the first time last night, and followed the recipe to the letter, except I split the dough in two and I mixed some nutritional yeast in half of it. Both breads turned out really good, but the nutritional yeast one was AWESOME – the ‘cheesiness’ went really well with the savoury herbs in the recipe. I wished I’d made the entire batch with nutritional yeast. Overall the bread turned out really good – it’s incredibly dense and filling but feels super healthy. So far I’ve tried it topped with avocado, coconut oil, and butter (I mean individually, not all at the same time) and all three were delicious. I’m going to try a sweet batch next time, with cinnamon and dried fruit of some sort. I made this last week but it came out bland and gummy. (Perhaps I undercooked it?) This week I omitted savory seasoning and added cinnamon, nutmeg, blueberries and hazelnuts. I spread it on a cookie sheet so not as thick as well. It is Amazing! I tried this over the weekend. It looked just like the picture and has an excellent taste. I toasted under the broker and smothered with hummus. I wanted hummus w/mashed avocado and red onion but the avocado was not ripe. Sooo good. This has a cracker-type taste to it. Not the texture because it’s thicker but if you smoothed this out into a bigger pan or cut down the recipe, I’m sure it would be just like a cracker. Excellent, somewhat versitle recipe. –Thank you! –I’m off to try the spelt flat bread next! These freeze beautifully. I put most of the slices in the freezer over a week ago and they are just like the day I made it. A minute under the broiler for each side and there you go. No gluey taste at all. You do not have to thaw before putting under broiler. Room temp. may have a different effect. Amazing! Thanks for such an easy recipe… made this today and ate a piece for breakfast with asparagus and smashed avocado with a squeeze of lemon. I used a 9in round cake pan because I just moved and can’t find my 8×8. The round pan worked great! ! I am already thinking this will work out with a sweeter spice mix. Like nutmeg, ,cardamom, & cinnamon! Hello Angela, After intending to make this bread for several months I just made my 1st batch. It is a wonderful recipe! I can see how versatile and flexible this recipe will be too. I have made many of your recipes since I discovered your blog last summer, not only has everything always turned out well but the flavours have always been fresh and unique. Thanks for all of the great food! I had just about given up making anything vegan / raw / GF etc that actually tasted nice. This was going to be my last attempt and so I wasn’t expecting much. As I spread it in the tray my doubts grew as the mixture stuck to the spoon, however a change of spoons and it spreqad easily. I still didn’t expect it to taste nice however to my surprise it tastes awesome! I can’t stop eating it! I will definitely be making it again. Thank you so much for this recipe you have made my day Hi Angela. I just wanted to thank you very much for such a wonderful site! I found your site after looking for something healthy to cook after being diagnosed with diabetes this year. I love how many of your = recipes are low-carb, low sugar, and yet super tasty! I made the quinoa patties, and this chia seed bread many times over. Thanks again for sharing all this. Best of luck with your new baby! xx Asako This was delicious, thanks so much for the inspiration! I added some baking powder, 1/4 cup almond flour, and subbed Herbs de Provence for oregano. No onion powder, double pumpkin seeds (no sunflower). It baked to a nice fluffy/creamy texture . Maybe not tough enough for travel, but perfectly suited to the Kalamata olive tapenade it met shortly after leaving the oven :) I always eat oatmeal in the mornings and just recently made a buckwheat/oat bread (which unfortunately didn’t turn out that well) and realized I really don’t like the typical oat taste in a savoury bread. This recipe looks very good though, so I’m willing to try if the oat flavour is masked by the other ingredients… Hi, I used your recipe for Super Power Chia Bread for a slightly altered version and added a link to your recipe to your post, I hope that’s okay! I absolutely adore your blog, you were part of my inspiration in starting a blog in the first place. This is a great recipe! Being on a Candida diet I substituted the sugar for stevia. I kept it at 1tsp, and it was just right. I also substituted the oats for 1/4 cup oat bran, 1/4 cup quinoa flour, and 1/8 cup golden flax meal. I did not have any sesame seeds on hand,so I substituted hemp seeds. I did add a little bit more water,not much maybe a couple of table spoons, until I felt the consistency seemed right. So delicious and by far the best “bread” I have had being on this diet. It will be a go to for me from now on. Thank you so much! Angela, Hubby and I LOVE this bread! It was one of the first recipes I made after becoming a whole-plant vegan last March. I make it every time we take a road trip, and pack hummus and crudités to go with it. That way we are set no matter what kind of food situation we encounter. The only change I make is that I substitute quinoa for the buckwheat, and finish it off with a generous sprinkle of Mrs. Dash Original Salt-Free Seasoning. Thank you so much! I love this recipe, I have made it several times and served it with different meals and snacks. Most recently, last night :), I served it with “10 spice vegetable soup with vegetable cream”. INCREDIBLE! I also love it with almond butter or avocado. Your book is really changing the way i do business in the kitchen. The recipes are flavourful, packed with delicious ingredients, and kid friendly. I especially love that “green leafies” are usually on the ingredient list. Have you created any dessert recipes made with kale or spinach? Just got your book and made these for hubby as he needs to pay more attention to his diet. We are not vegan but I make a lot of vegan and or raw vegan dishes since we are dairy and gluten free… Anyhow point is my kids LOVE these too :-) awesome fast recipes and I had all the ingredients lol thanks so much your book is awesome I make this recipe ALL THE TIME! Anytime we travel, by car or by air, I have to have this with us. My husband loves to share it with colleagues, and it always gets rave reviews. Thank you for being the BEST!! Amazing bread! I just made some and it’s fantastic! Thank you so much for this idea, I will make this time and time again. You’re right, it’s perfect for travel! I added Avocado to mine, but the ideas are endless. Hi! Bought your book recently and LOVE it! Even my husband is amazed at how much he has enjoyed some of the recipes – I think our favourite so far is the sweet potato and black bean Tortillas – they are still yummy even cold the next day too! Ok – so back to topic ;-) I just made the chia bread and sadly the parchment paper is totally stuck to the underside – the bread tasted like it still needed cooking a little longer so I gave it another 10 mins. I let it cool down but its still stick like glue. I can’t work out what I’m doing wrong as I followed the recipe exactly as instructed. The mixture did sit in the pan for about 15 mins before I put it in the oven – I don’t know if that could have made a difference? Thank you for your kind words! mm that is strange – I have never had that happen before! Are you sure it wasn’t WAX paper instead of parchment? Wax sticks like a mofo…lol. If that isn’t the case, then perhaps it was the “sitting” period…I’m not really sure! I hope it works better if you try it again. :) I’ve made this bread often and love it! I’m just wondering how I can make this a sweeter bread. I’m going to try two tsp maple syrup and some cinnamon in lieu of the garlic/onion combo. Any other ideas? Did they let u take them into the US? They are usually so strict with food when you get on planes to the States. I’d love to see a post about healthy snacks we can take on the plane when we go to the States that they will not confiscate. Finally a recipe for a gluten free bread which actually works and doesn’t taste foul. I just made another batch, this time with garlic and onion powder. It smells great and It in the oven now. Thank you. I recently was given a four tier pizza tin in metal stand for oven. They are round but I thought ideal for many flatbreads as they have a small lip and the mixture will not slide off! It would mean triangles but I still think it will become a useful tool and do the batches for the freezer and not waste the expensive fuel. (For me and the environment). Just wanted say that this recipe is so wonderfully delicious and versatile! My family has been trying to minimize bread in our day to day, so we’ve discovered that this makes a fabulous substitute when we season it and choose add ins to match our mealtime themes. To this end, we’ve experimented successfully with Italian (garlic, sundried tomato, olive) , Greek (olive, onion, lemon basil, feta–you get the idea), Mexican Chile, Indian Masala, and our daily fave, the “bring it on, breakfast blend.” (dried apricot, cranberry, currents, cinnamon, walnut). Hope this helps. Enjoy friends:) Hi Angela, Love this recipe. I substituted 1/2 tsp dill for the oregano and thyme. (I also used a pinch of salt since I’m reducing my salt.) Also, I used a 9 inch pie plate since I didn’t have the other size pan. Was great!!!! Thanks, How many pieces do you cut ? I was wondering how big to cut them to get the 9 grams… I cook for alot of folks with health issues and it really helps to have as much nutritional info as possible. So GLAD I found this recipe this morning. I used just 1/3 C of the sunflower and pumpkins seeds and used gf flour mix and teff flour instead of the oats. Came out great! Love all the ideas in the comments. Wonderful to have a gf bread without eggs, that isn’t made of rice or starch powders… :-) Sliced it up just as pretty as you did and topped with a broiled squash EVOO/garlic and parmesan cheese slab. Great for brunch! Thank you, thank you! Wow! I made this today, and not only was it super easy and quick, but it was also delish!! I used a blend of oregano, cumin, coriander, and a little garlic powder as the spices. I will be toasting it all week and slathering it with peanut butter and honey. Thanks for the great recipe!! I just made this… I doubled the recipe… I subbed the buckwheat with coconut flour… I was also listening to ‘Across the Universe’ soundtrack very loud… I think I made a mistake and added to much coconut flour so things were VERY dry when I first added water… I have a very thick bread that does not seem to be done in the middle… BUT it is still terribly delicious!!! So… It will be eaten just as it is!!! Thank you!!! (No, lesson not learned… I cook best when I have fun music playing super loud! I will continue to enjoy my music while cooking LOL) This recipe looks fantastic, my husband recently found out he is severely intolerant of dairy, gluten, and gliaden (found in oats) and have been working hard to find good recipes that will keep him full and we are really excited about this bread recipe. However, he can’t eat oats, is there a substitute I can use instead? Hey Britany, You may be able to swap the oat flour for another kind of flour, but I haven’t tried anything else before. If you do, please let me know how it goes! I wouldn’t suggest using more buckwheat as it’s quite dense. Hey Jay, Thanks so much for your kind words about my cookbook! So glad you’re enjoying it. As for subbing pre-ground buckwheat flour, I can’t see why it wouldn’t work. I would probably use 1/4 cup plus a teaspoon or two extra but haven’t tried it yet. I’d love to hear how it goes!

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Automatically retrieve titles from external links Topic Review (Newest First) 12-15-2012 12:07 AM cobalt327 With all due respect to Bogie's excellent dissertation (I'm a fan too), another option is to remove the lifters for cleaning one at a time, replacing each one when done cleaning before removing the next. The reason I say this, is I have sent the circlips flying off into the ozone on several occasions when disassembling/reassembling them- and that was w/the lifter out in front of me on a towel w/good lighting. If that happens and you're working on the lifter still in the engine, losing the clip would be easier to do and could even find its way into the hole at the end of the valley, the distributor hole or into an intake port, etc. Obviously those holes could be plugged up, but the whole thing is too much bother compared to simply removing them one at a time IMHO. This also gives you the opportunity to inspect the lifter foot for abnormal wear. I am stumped and hope someone can shed some light. I installed a SBC 350 that sat around for about 12 - 15 years and fired it up and had 65# of oil pressure. Everything seemed to be normal until I noticed there was no oil coming out of the rockers. I pulled the right bank pushrods and rockers to blow them out and noticed there was oil in the pushrods - most were clean. The hyd. lifters pumped up and I watched the pushrods rotate while cranking engine over. I even ran it for about 20 minutes by manually oiling the rockers to no avail. I substituted another distributor thinking the base may be too small and oil leaking by there - never started it but just cranked it and watched the rockers - nada! Doubt all the lifters went bad sitting and thought if the oil galley was blocked, at least some oil would come out of some of the rockers. Any ideas??? Thanks in advance, Stumped The lifters have a metering plate just under the pushrod cup, whether passages or bleed holes or both (several design approaches are used depending on the manufacturer) are very small and easily plugged. Oil left to sit actually will resin cure or the passages/holes became plugged with suspended dirt that settled. With care these can be cleaned. The lifter body does not need to be removed just the inner plunger. Remove the bail from the top of the lifter after removing the push rod. Take the plunger out putting it on a clean towel take the top apart (remove the push rod cup) typically there will be a disk with 1 to several tiny holes in it. The bottom of the push rod cup typically has a very small protrusion that the dist seats upon this may have an equally small passage in its side. Inspect all of this under magnification and clean carefully with a solvent like lacquer thinner. If there is a wear pattern in the disk reassemble it in the reverse position so any wear faces into the plunger's reservoir. Lubricate the parts with fresh oil and install them back into the lifter body they came out of. This process leaves the lobe and lifter match intact, but you must be careful not to mix internal parts of the lifters as well. Bogie 12-13-2012 06:22 PM delawarebill lifters.. there is a very small check valve at the bottom of the lifters . so back pushing oil i don't feel would have any effect.. IMHO... your gonna need to dig deeper now.. 12-13-2012 04:48 PM techinspector1 Quote: Originally Posted by Xgasser Upon reassembly and cranking engine over, I heard a "clank" and now oil pressure is only 35# - down from 65#. "Clank" would indicate to me that it's time to get the cherry picker out and roll the toobox over to your new project. 12-13-2012 11:55 AM boatbob2 No oil........ Hi,i would add 2 qts of trans fluid,( to engine oil)and run it for awhile (keeping an eye on temp guage) it is HI-Detergent oil,will clean up MOSTLY all crud,and it will oil lifters good... 12-12-2012 04:46 PM cobalt327 Quote: Originally Posted by Xgasser Thanks Bill for your input. I realize you don't needa lot of oil but I'm not getting any... except for three that barely dribbles out. It's not even enough to lube the rollers (Crane roller rockers) on the valve tips. I may end up pulling the lifters out and checking them. I was even thinking about trying a new set of lifters but hate to do that to the cam/lifter match. Getting desperate here... Have yiou tried adding/subtracting lifter preload to see if there a 'sweet spot' where they oil better? If you could adjust on them w/the engine running, that would show you pretty quickly if that was gonna help. Marvel mystery oil may loosen it up but without knowing the cause i think you should pull it down and go over it to be sure. things can rust very quickly with cast iron parts. 12-12-2012 09:27 AM Xgasser Quote: Originally Posted by Richiehd Id substitute some stock rockers, you said you have oil in the pushrods Yesterday I tried something someone suggested - shoot oil down the pushrod into the lifter to reverse flush it. Upon reassembly and cranking engine over, I heard a "clank" and now oil pressure is only 35# - down from 65#. Rev. flushing had no effect. I'm beginning to think a galley plug may've worked loose possibly behind the timing cover. Think I'll try and locate a stock pair of pushrods and rockers and try what you suggest before pulling the timing cover off... or engine out! Get back to basics! 12-12-2012 05:24 AM Richiehd Id substitute some stock rockers, you said you have oil in the pushrods 12-11-2012 07:52 PM Xgasser Thanks guys but this engine ran okay when I pulled it out years ago. Spun a cam bearing? Possible but don't know why it would or would cause that. I guess short of taking it apart, I won't really know. Man, this is confusing and I've talked with some pretty knowledgable people and they're stumped too. Thought I'd put the word out and see what I come up with. Never before in my life... Thanks again. 12-11-2012 07:35 PM gearheadslife you install all the soft plugs after it was cleaned when built.. sounds like that or the cam bearing holes are not lined up. 12-11-2012 07:20 PM Richiehd Just an idea, and maybe someone can help me here, but did you check pushrod length. Maybe the oil holes are covered up on the rocker end. You said they had oil in the pushrods. 12-11-2012 05:53 PM Xgasser Thanks Bill for your input. I realize you don't needa lot of oil but I'm not getting any... except for three that barely dribbles out. It's not even enough to lube the rollers (Crane roller rockers) on the valve tips. I may end up pulling the lifters out and checking them. I was even thinking about trying a new set of lifters but hate to do that to the cam/lifter match. Getting desperate here... 12-11-2012 03:35 PM delawarebill oiling sitting for that long u just may have plugs in the lifters from dirty oil or something... sometimes u really don't get oil squirting 3 ft out the rockers... i to have about 70# pressure and i don't have a ton of oil coming out. i think i can produce more tears from peeling an onion. u don't need alot of oil just nuff to oil the rockers. u may need to pull the intake and pull the lifters and tk them apart to clean.. very easy to do.. This thread has more than 15 replies. Click here to review the whole thread.

Federico García Lorca Gets Google Homepage Doodle García Lorca, executed by Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War, was known as a member of the Genration of '27. In addition to poetry, he wrote a number of plays, a film script, and opera. His work also inspired a great deal of poetry, music, theater, film and television by others. His list of poetry collections is as follows (via Wikipedia): Impresiones y paisajes (Impressions and Landscapes 1918) Libro de poemas (Book of Poems 1921) Poema del cante jondo (Poem of Deep Song; written in 1921 but not published until 1931) Suites (written between 1920 and 1923, published posthumously in 1983) Canciones (Songs written between 1921 and 1924, published in 1927) Romancero gitano (Gypsy Ballads 1928) Odes (written 1928) Poeta en Nueva York (written 1930 - published posthumously in 1940, first translation into English as The Poet in New York 1940)

One of the only NBA teams still carrying just 15 players, the Pelicans have added at least one more name to their training camp roster. Jim Eichenhofer of Pelicans.com reports (via Twitter) that Lazar Hayward will participate in camp with the club. Hayward, 26, was a first-round draft pick in 2010, but has yet to make a real impact in his limited NBA action. In 72 total games for the Timberwolves and Thunder, the 6'6" swingman has averaged 2.9 PPG and a 9.0 PER. The Pelicans may not be done adding players to their camp roster, since they still have four available spots on the roster. At the moment, the team has 13 players on guaranteed contracts, plus Lance Thomas on a partially guaranteed deal, and Hayward and Arinze Onuaku on non-guaranteed pacts.

Whats a Handshake Worth? By Jason Kulpa Most businesspeople would scoff at the idea of doing business based on a handshake. In todays litigious society, many deals that have been inked on paper and reviewed by teams of attorneys are still contested in bitter court battles. However, there are still a few stories of entrepreneurs doing the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do. Id like to think that Im one of those entrepreneurs. For more than four years, I owned Ad Authority, a business that helps other businesses reach millions of motivated consumers looking to acquire a product or service. After years of personal and professional success, I made the decision to sell the company. I was ready for a change of pace. After entertaining several offers, I finally found a buyer I could trust. On 10 April 2007, I signed the final documents for my business to be acquired by Morlex, a direct to consumer Internet marketing company. Signing those documents represented the end of an amazing journey for myself and my team— one that had continually tested our patience, skills and perseverance. In the beginning, my 10 employees took a chance on me and the company with only a verbal promise and a handshake. I promised to give them job security and a great environment in which to excel. When we started out in 2003, my staff shared a 600 square foot room with desks crammed together. They were barely able to move, let alone work comfortably. By and large, our inauspicious beginning was a 49-month-long journey across oceans of adversity. But I had assured everyone early on that if they stuck by me, they wouldnt regret it. As an entrepreneur, you’re only as good as your word. I intended to honor my promise. In January 2008, Morlex had officially committed to acquiring my company. At that same time, the financial markets went into a horrible slump. As a result, the purchasing process was delayed and the deal looked to be on the rocks. In return for our patience, Morlex granted me an extra 1.5 million shares of stock valued at around US$5 a share. I knew the value of the stock and was tremendously excited. I also knew the value of my team and how hard they had worked to get the company to this point. I had already built in a cash component amounting to nearly US$800,000 to be dispersed among my staff when the deal closed, but I really wanted to show my appreciation for their years of service. Remembering my handshake and promise, I decided not to keep a single share of the additional stock. Instead, I granted it—without any strings attached—to every full-time employee based on tenure. I had made a commitment to honor their perseverance, and I wasnt about to go back on my word. By relinquishing the additional stock, 14 employees shared more than US$8 million. They earned every penny of it with their trust and hard work. In the current realm of business, contracts are seemingly made to be broken. I come from a generation that when people shook your hand and looked you in the eyes, it was a deal. And that was all you needed. This experience taught me that to excel as an entrepreneur, and to maintain a productive and committed staff, I had to hold myself accountable to my own promises. The fundamentals of business would only get me so far and it would all be pointless if I didnt embody my own principles. Check out our website: http://www.undergroundelephant.com twitter.com/uelephant

Each year the Sacramento Banjo Band sponsors an annual banjo music festival known as Banjo-Rama. World class banjo stars are featured as soloists and in ensembles. Eddie Peabody, probably the most famous banjo player ever, performed at the very first Banjo-Rama in 1967, in the Governor’s Hall at the old California State Fairgrounds in Sacramento. These musicians are not just plucking chords like grandpa used to do on the back porch! They are genuine pros! Their fingers and hands are sizzling hot, moving faster than the eye can follow, playing everything from classical to popular music. You’ll be surprised and delighted at their imaginative arrangements, versatility, and precise execution. In addition to banjo virtuoso’s, there will be exciting west coast banjo bands and ragtime piano players. It’s quite a musical spectacle that could just as well have been named the banjo Olympics. This year’s Banjo-Rama will focus on participation – that’s why we’ve renamed it “Banjo-Jam-A-Rama.” There will be lots of opportuni ty to jam with your friends and the pros, and play for them if you wish! Primarily 4-string banjos are played at Banjo-Rama. Other banjo-compatible instruments are welcome at the jam sessions. We often have ukelele, tuba, bass, gut bucket, drum, clarinet, and occasionally even violin players participate. Banjo-Rama proceeds are a benefit for children’s charities in the Sacramento area. Be sure to attend this year’s Banjo-Rama. Amanda DeWilde, Sacramento Library’s Archivist of the Rare Books room and Megan Cooper Co-Producer of the Shaxspere project will be joining us on live wire to talk about the SHAXSPERE PROJECT. The Program is divided into two events: A panel meeting entitled: Did De Vere Write Shakespeare? The panel will beopen to the public to discuss the authorship of William Shakespeare at the South meeting room of the Sacramento Library, 828 I St., Sacramento, CA 95814 on Tuesday April 24, 2018 from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. California Stage/ Theater Creations will present 50 actors reading five plays from the “Fourth Folio”. Five plays thought to be written by Shakespeare for nearly 150 years. The Folio may be seen in the rare book room at the Main Sacramento library. We call this program The Lost Plays of Shakespeare.The readings will be held in the Wilkerson Theater in Midtown Sacramento located at 1725 25th street from April 25th to May 26, 2018 every Friday at 8:00 PM and every Saturday at 2:00 PM.

Professional Illustrator for hire My Social Media hang outs For those interested, here's all my primary social media locations. I use Instagram (@danveesenmeyer) and Twitter (@dveese) for posting the majority of my artwork. If you are interested in following me or my work, those are the two places to check out. While I am on Tumblr, I don't use it often and really only post LEGO NINJAGO related art there as Tumblr has a massive NINJAGO fan community. I am on Facebook but I do not use as often as Twitter or IG and I don't approve just anyone as "a friend”. Lastly, I can also be found on LINKEDIN but I only approve connections there with clients, industry colleagues and most people I do, have done or may do business with.

Building Code Information Review the Ohio Building Codes to ensure your project meets building code. The International Code Council is now providing the public with access to electronic versions of the applicable commercial and residential codes for the State of Ohio. The link is posted below:

Nevada City Summer Nights is a street fair where everyone is invited. Similar to the winter Victorian Christmas celebrations, the last 3 Wednesday evenings in July (July 15th, 22nd and 29th this year), downtown Nevada City is the place to be. The street fair includes art, music, entertainment, antique cars, belly dancers and more. So whether you’re shopping, enjoying a cool beverage, listening to music or watching the fire dancers (click here for more Be on Fire Tribe photos from last year), there’s something for everyone. For a full list of the entertainment, click here. Thanks to the Nevada City Chamber of Commerce for organizing this great, family friendly free event. What’s your favorite summer event? Post a comment and share. And there’s still time to enter the giveaway to the Sierra Stages show of The Producers, winner will be announced on Wednesday, July 22nd.

15 Easy Slow Cooker Recipes–Under 375 Calories! Just set-it-and-forget-it! So goes the appeal of the slow cooker and it just so happens to be the perfect time of year for it. Slow cooker meals are a great way to enjoy healthier home cooking whil.

Tropical Life in Hua Hin Condos Hua Hin Realestate | Hua Hin real estate and land When you plan to stay in Thailand for more than one week, it is a better idea to stay in Hua Hin condos than the hotels on this island. The major reason for this is because the price of Hua Hin condos is a lot cheaper. The downside to staying in Hua Hin condos is that there aren't usually very many amenities. It is more like your own private apartment instead. If you are planning a longer stay to this tropical resort island, then you should consider these points when looking for Hua Hin condos. The Variety in a Hua Hin Condo There is a lot you can choose from when it comes to Hua Hin condos. The kind of place you stay in depends on a lot of things. If you are planning on staying for only a month or two, you can stand up place that isn't fully up to par with your standards. If you want an even longer stay, then the options are more important. Try to choose a condo that is located in an area of this majestic village town that you will be spending most of your time in. If swimming and surfing are important to you, there are a lot of great Hua Hin condos on the beach. Make sure that you get Hua Hin condos that reflect all of your needs. A Hua Hin Condo for Every Price It is amazing how many Hua Hin condos there are in this town. The prices for these range from very cheap to very expensive. Even people with a fairly low income can afford some of the Hua Hin condos that are currently available. Make sure to weigh the fact that you'll likely be doing a lot of recreational activities when you are in Thailand before choosing the condo that's right for you. This could drastically affect how much you can afford in rent. By planning ahead, knowing what you need, and having a well prepared budget, you should be able to find the perfect place to stay among the many Hua Hin condos that Thailand has to offer. This will make your stay in this luxurious and tropical island a lot more manageable and exciting.

How Did Cracker Jack Become Synonymous with Baseball? Cracker Jacks and baseball have more history together than Nathan’s hot dogs do with this all-American sport. Nathan’s began with a 1916 hot dog stand on Coney Island by Nathan Handwerker, a Polish immigrant. Yet when Jack Norworth wrote the lyrics to “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” in 1908, he called out Cracker Jack. The molasses, peanut, and popcorn snack’s firm association with baseball is “undoubtedly the result” of the song, says Tim Wiles, the research director for the Baseball Hall of Fame and coauthor of Baseball’s Greatest Hit: The Story of Take Me Out to the Ball Game, which is still sung during the seventh-inning stretch at most games. Wiles tried to get inside Norworth’s head in his book, wondering: “Did Norworth work any back room deals with Cracker Jack so as to include them in the song? We don’t know. We do know that Cracker Jack rhymes with ‘never get back’ and for songwriters, it’s all about what rhymes.” The earliest evidence of Cracker Jack being sold at a ballgame is in 1896, says Wiles. It was shown in an ad on a scorecard for a game hosted by the Atlantic City Base Ball Club against the Cuban Giants. Cracker Jack was first sold at a Major League ballpark in 1907. So it already had a presence at games, and Norworth cemented that by including it in his song. Wikimedia Commons The confection was first introduced by F. W. Rueckheim in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Three years later, Rueckheim’s brother Louis tweaked the recipe, finding a way to keep the molasses-coated popcorn morsels from sticking together. “He showed it to a salesman who exclaimed, ‘That’s crackerjack!’ and that’s where the name comes from,” says Chris Kuechenmeister, director of public relations for Frito-Lay, which now owns Cracker Jack. (At the time, the term crackerjack was used colloquially to mean “something that is exceptionally fine or splendid” or “a person who is exceptionally skillful or expert,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary.) Prizes were added in 1912, and in 1914, the first baseball-themed prizes appeared: baseball cards in each box. Coat your popcorn and peanuts with molasses and caramel and then stuff it all into a nifty cone you make yourself. Just roll it up and tuck in a little toy, like the way they did 100 years ago. Get our Cracky Snacks recipe. 2. Honey Mustard Snack Mix Chowhound Transform pretzel sticks and bagel chips with a sprinkle of mustard powder and salt, made so much better with a drizzle of honey and butter. Get our Honey Mustard Snack Mix recipe. 3. Cocoa-Cayenne Popcorn Balls Chowhound There’s more to this than the title suggests, such as vanilla, orange zest and white vinegar. What?! Yep. You’ll need a candy thermometer too. Get our Cocoa-Cayenne Popcorn Balls recipe. 4. Tangy Ranch Cashews Chowhound There are a lot of common ingredients in this recipe, such as garlic powder and paprika. Then there are the citric acid and buttermilk powder. Look for those in the baking aisle of a well-stocked grocery store. Or go online. Get our Tangy Ranch Cashews recipe. 5. Caramel Corn Chowhound Make a gooey caramel sauce and the popcorn, then bake it and stir it every 15 minutes to get this treat. There’s a bit of salt in there too, balancing the sweetness. Get our Caramel Corn recipe.

email updates! Man O War Golf Club Like the famous racehorse that shares the course's name, Man O' War Golf Club is legendary, one of the best, and a ride you will never forget. Built in 1996 around a placid and pristine 80-acre lake that encompasses most of the course, watching out for the water is the best tip to a dry and drama-free round at Man O' War. This Dan Maples design takes full advantage of the natural lake to create a series of water hazards to put the lowest handicappers' games to a true test of skill.

Now Commenting On: Punto could be headed back to DL Punto could be headed back to DL CINCINNATI -- Nick Punto was not scheduled to travel with the Cardinals to New York following a 3-1 loss on Sunday, as the team sought another medical opinion on the utility infielder. Citing an anonymous source, the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported Sunday morning that Punto would return to the disabled list following Saturday night's game, when he sailed a throw over Albert Pujols' head in the eighth inning. Punto, who suffered ligament damage when he strained his right forearm in late May, said he had not been informed of any decision prior to Sunday's game, and the team had yet to make an announcement. Punto appeared as a pinch-hitter on Sunday, singling in the eighth inning. He did not remain in the game to play the field. "He's been seeing a doctor," manager Tony La Russa said before the game, "but I think [he needs] more of an exam, so we can get the most current information, make a decision." Punto returned from the DL on June 27, but in his first 11 games back he had only played second base. Before Saturday's game, Punto told La Russa that he could play on the left side of the infield, if needed. La Russa brought him in as a defensive replacement for third baseman David Freese, and his only throw resulted in a two-base error. Signed in the offseason for his defense, Punto has given the Cardinals' offense a boost, hitting .275 in 91 at-bats. "It's just the breaks that happen, but I feel bad for him," La Russa said. "Of course, he's got a career ahead of him, but we've got to keep going."

Our Services Graduate School Search The Office of Career Services is available to assist Ithaca College students and alumni with graduate school decisions. Our Peer Career Advisors are here to help you during drop-in hours or you may call the office to arrange an appointment with a career counselor. Five Important Steps Look at resources in our Career Library. We have publications such as the Peterson's Guide, Graduate Admissions Essays and Getting Into Grad School. Attend our annual Graduate School Fair in the Fall. This event provides you the opportunity to talk with representatives from a variety of graduate programs. Take a free practice GRE, LSAT, MCAT or GMAT during the Kaplan Practice Test . Stop by Career Services for more information and to sign up. Apply for a Kaplan Scholarship for a free Kaplan Prep course. Complete the form, email it to [email protected] or mail it to Career Services, 101 Muller Center. You can also pick up the application at our office. Have your graduate school essays critiqued by our staff. Library Resources We have numerous resources in our Career Library to help you search for a graduate program and to assist you in developing your materials. We also have a take away guide that you can pick up at our office or access by clicking on the Featured Document Grad School Search Quick Guide. On-Line Resources There are many excellent online resources available for free to assist in your graduate school search. Association of American Medical Colleges- information on the MCAT, applying to and financing med school, etc. *The MCAT is changing as of January 2015! Make sure you know which version of the test you register for* What are Entrance exams? Many graduate school programs require entrance exams, such as the GRE, GMAT, MCAT, or LSAT. The GRE, GMAT and MCAT are computer-based tests that are offered throughout the year. The LSAT is a paper-based exam offered four times a year. Read the Graduate Entrance Exams At-A-Glance handout for more information about each type of test. Am I required to take these exams? It depends. If applying to Law School or Medical School, the LSAT and MCAT are required as part of the applications. For other programs, it varies. Make sure you thoroughly research the graduate programs you are applying to and check if General GRE, GRE Subject, and/or GMAT scores are required. Not every program will ask for a test score. What is the GRE Subject Test? Since the General GRE test measures critical thinking and logical reasoning skills but not subject-specific content, the GRE subject test is a way to measure your knowledge of a particular subject area. A small number of programs require the GRE subject test. Ask the programs you are applying to if a GRE Subject Test is necessary for your application. GRE Subject Tests are paper-based and offered on specific dates during the year. Visit ets.org for more information on how to register and when and where to take the Subject Tests. Where and when is the GRE General Test offered? GRE General tests are administered at ETS testing centers. From Ithaca, the closest GRE testing locations are Vestal, NY, Syracuse, NY, and Rochester, NY. Visit ets.org to find a test center, view available test dates, and register for a test. When should I take the GRE and/or GMAT? If applying for fall admission into your graduate program, most application deadlines are anywhere from January to April. Therefore, most students typically take the GRE or GMAT exams in the fall semester of their senior year. When should I take the LSAT or MCAT? The timeline for applications to these programs are different from other graduate timelines. Typically, Law School applicants take the LSAT in October or June, and Medical School applicants take the MCAT in the summer months. How do I study or prepare for these exams? There are a wide variety of study materials to help you prepare. Ithaca College works with Kaplan Test Prep Services to offer practice tests, classes, and discounts to IC students. Some resources include online classes, books and CDs, private tutors and study groups.

Spartacus To Return To The Big Screen You know that famous scene that everyone knows when the Romans come looking for Spartacus and everyone stands up and says “I’m Spartacus!”? Well that’s what it’s increasingly feeling like with film and TV versions of the material. We’ve already had the multi-Oscar winning 1960 film where the iconic line comes from, a TV movie in 2004 with Goran Visnijc in the lead role and most recently the T&A bloodbath that was theSpartacus TV series and the spin off Gods Of The Arena. Given that the recent series bears a resemblance to a serialised 300, it’s not really a massive surprise to learn that 300 co-writer Michael B Gordon has pitched his own version of the tale to GK Films which will apparently stick more closely to its historical roots. The familiar basics will still be in place though with Sparts leading a slave revolt against the Romans between 73 and 71 BC only to be eventually put down by the Roman General Marcus Licinius Crassus. There’s a lot to live up to – Kubrick’s 1960 original remains the definitive work although Blood And Sand has proven that it can be taken in a different (bloodier) direction. More details as they come in.

With OOP, I would not object against a dependency between classes Invoice and Customer. In particular, adjusting a customer's balance on assigning an invoice to him is absolutely natural. Setting the invoice's state to "issued" in the same action flags it so assignment cannot be done twice - this action should be considered atomic/transactional. Also, I would not be surprised about an altered balance. This is simply OO design, so if I where clueless this means that I did not fully understand the design. Usually, a class is designed to support not only one use case but several - in contrast to methods (and functions). At this point, your FP-inexperienced reader has not adapted her mindset to FP, so you still need to convince her. In the sequel, she will feel pain in refactoring the example. The number of classes increases. As a programmer, she needs to care of many more things because the OO principle of encapsulation or information hiding is broken. And all this only to adhere to some obscure FP principles! I think you should do much more to convince her of the usefulness of these principles. Why make copies of a customer? Just to have them immutable? Of course, yes, but the OO mindset would be reluctant to follow you. Feeling pain to leave the way you're accustomed to is not a good condition to develop openness to different ways of thinking. I'm not sure if your refactoring of objects towards FP structures is really that easy to follow. At least I think the example is inappropriate because the classes you chose are in practice subject to persistence. In contrast, in FP the data is transformed from one generation into the next. So what's the point in having several generations of one customer? I don't want to say that FP cannot deal with persistence. However, in my mind a customer remains the same independently of his actual balance. You'd better have descriptions of real entities. Then you may argue that if a description changes then actually you've got a new version of the description. To make the point: In OOP, you use data to represent entities, in FP you're dealing with data which describes them. Probably using something people don't associate persistence with would do the job much better. What about processing messages? I'm a newbie to FP, the line that caught my eye was, "Feeling pain to leave the way you're accustomed to is not a good condition to develop openness to different ways of thinking." To me, I would what to know, What are the practical reasons for me to spend time learning FP, i.e., what can FP do that OO can't?? I need to decide, is this FP stuff worth my time, are there programs that would fall on their face if written in OO, versus FP? What kind of programs are they? If you don't answer this as soon as possible, the book will get put aside for a long time. But I like the style of writing. OK, let's go through the example, starting from an OO perspective. We have a customer with a balance, and an invoice with an amount of money to be issued. An invoice does not come into life by itself but expresses that the customer owes you the money for some reason at some point in time. The balance of the customer expresses the total of the money he owes you minus the money you owe him, again at that point in time. The invoice contributes to the balance as long as it has the state "issued" and not, e.g. "paid" or "revoked". Anyway, an invoice without a customer does not make sense. If you add the invoice to the customer's collection of invoices, you can access it via this collection. So the reference to the customer is implicitly given by the context. Otherwise, you'd need an explicit reference to the customer as part of the invoice. Issuing an invoice can be perfectly modeled by making it a transaction which a) sets the state of the invoice to "issued" and b) adjusts the balance of the customer accordingly. Now, you might argue that the balance as a field introduces redundancy into this model since, at any point in time, you could sum up the customer's invoices having status "issued" and subtract all what you're owing him at this moment. In OOP, this is would not be a transparent decision: You might hide the way you get the customer's balance by means of a getBalance() method which is implemented either by reading the balance field or else by calculating the value dynamically. Nethertheless, when issuing the invoice, in the first case you needed to update the balance field while in the second no action was required. Similarly, when changing the status, in the first case you'd need to adjust the balance again. Both options are legitimate, and usually, you would base your decision on some non-functional criteria. E.g. it might be too costly to retrieve all the customer's invoices with state "issued" plus the amount you owe him at a certain point in time. In this case, it would be more practical use a balance field in the customer object. Your gain in performance then is to be weighted against the expenses for maintaining redundancy, the risk of failure to do so, and so on. Having these observations in place, I'd like to see how an FP approach could influence that decision. Does it bring advantages? Anyway, from the domain view issuing an invoice has an intended side effect: It increases the customer's balance in favor of me, the issuer. This is independent of any programming language. After having issued the invoice I want the customer's balance to reflect this fact. Actually, the invoice is something which documents the "side effect", so this side effect is just the reason why I would issue an invoice - the side effect is the desired essential, not the invoice being issued (which comes more or less close to a log entry). Why then construct a function which avoids it? Moving the responsibility to the caller urges him to execute both actions explicitly: He's left now with two responsibilities. Then, we come close to a question posed in one of the later exercises: If an invoice is similar to a logging entry, is issuing it still essential? As the example evolves, we see a customer object in its initial state and then a different customer object which is altered after creation although its said to be immutable (its balance is set to the new amount - page 42, step 2). So what is the point with having these two customer objects which describe the same real entity with two different states? Which one of the two objects am I interested in? I hope you see that I don't argue at all against FP. Instead I'm arguing against an example which creates confusion instead of clearifying ideas. Playing an advocatus diaboli, I do this from an OOP point of view. No idea what FP is good for, so please convince me The weakness of the customer/invoice example becomes evident when suddenly another example falls from heaven - the shopping cart example. I really would prefer having an example which is appropriate to demonstrate all the principles equally and why they are advantageous. In the example, first I'd like to see a clear description of the realitiy it is modelling and which problem the code is intended to solve, second I'd like to see high quality OO code if OOP is to be a starting point. And then I'd like to see why an FP approach solves the problem more adequately as the OO approach.

Search Results The Salem witch hunt has entered our vocabulary as the very essence of injustice. Judge Samuel Sewall presided at these trials, passing harsh judgment on the condemned. But five years later, he publicly......

Week 2 of Ring ka King, TNA Wrestling's Indian company saw Matt Morgan win the tournament to crown the promotion's first Heavyweight Championship, the debut of the Knockouts in India, and a number of faces - both new and familiar - make in-ring appearances. Aao mere yaro (Come, my friends), let's check out what happened. Episode 3 – Feb 4, 2012 The show started off with Goodwill Ambassador Harbhajan Singh (the cricket star) and Commissioner Jazzy Lahoria giving a pep talk to the Indian stars of the show. They were interrupted by Sir Brutus Magnus, Sonjay Dutt, and Scott Steiner who told the locals that their quest to take over the company for “the boss” will come to fruition. Funny moment where Steiner calls Lahoria “white trash”. On the way to the ring, Steiner reached over the barricade and started physically assaulting some fans - crazy. Veera got the upper hand early on, actually getting the better of Steiner with some shoulder blocks. But Steiner had the experience edge, and when Veera tried to pull him back into the ring, Steiner snapped his neck on the top rope before taking over. The Indian Superman came back to life, hitting Steiner with some high impact slams and suplexes. But ultimately, Steiner dropped Veera with a face-busting DDT to get the pin and a berth in the finals. Cash is Luke Gallows/Festus doing a biker gimmick, while Broadway and Hollywood are James "Nunzio/Guido" Maritato and Joey Ryan, respectively. It’s neat to see these guys back in the ring again after not having them on TV in North America for some time. The cruiserweights started off really fast with some dazzling moves. Eventually, Cash and Jackson got tagged in and they just start a-pummelin’ each other. A nice big springboard dive over the top by Rave onto Broadway. Ion escaped a rollup attempt by Hollywood, and then hit the would-be movie star with a big DDT which left him prone for a 450 splash, after which he pinned him. After the match, Cash attacked and laid out all three of his opponents. He warned the entire roster not to mess with him, his bike or his colours. When Hollywood and Broadway tried to celebrate with him, he laid them out as well. This guy is a bad dude. Winners: Zema Ion, Jimmy Rave, and Roscoe Jackson Next came a sequence of backstage interviews. Matt Morgan warned everyone on the roster that he was the most dominant force in the company. Elsewhere, a mysterious man named Jwala said he would be debuting soon - the big scar on his face would seem to suggest he's been through some wars. And finally, Chavo Guerrero said he would be calling in a partner with a family pedigree equal to his in order to battle the Sheiks who attacked him last week. According to international reports, there was supposed to be another Adonis Lock challenge sequence in here, but it didn't air. Dutt started off defensively, rolling away every time Morgan came near him. Not as smart was his attempt to out-muscle Morgan, and soon the giant gained control. Magnus got caught trying to interfere, so the ref sent both him and Steiner back to the locker room. Morgan's aggressiveness cost him, when he tried for a Carbon Footprint in the corner, but Dutt moved out of the way, and the big man jammed his knee. Though Dutt worked on the knee, he couldn't keep Morgan grounded, and he fell victim to an overhead slam, a chokeslam, and a Carbon Footprint, which kept him down for three. Winner: Matt Morgan After the match, Steiner came to the ring, and the two tournament finalists stared each other down in the middle of the ring to end the show. Episode 4 – Feb 5, 2012 Match One: “The Future Legend” Alyssa Flash vs. Mickie James Great to see Flash (Cheerleader Melissa) back on TV - she's too good to not have a big league contract, hopefully this will pave the way for a return to regular North American TV. This match was far better than most matches that are shown on TV on a weekly basis - partly because they were given enough time to make the match interesting. Flash got the early advantage, but soon James knocked her silly with a running low dropkick to the face. Flash caught Mickie heading to the top, and slammed her down hard to the mat. There, she ramped things up, draping Mickie’s neck over the bottom rope and then stepping on her head to choke her. After that, Flash tied her up with a sweet looking wheelbarrow leglock crab, but Mickie was able to get to the ropes. James fired up, and after a couple of big clotheslines, headed back to the top for a super Thesz Press, but surprisingly only for a two-count. Flash hit a big Samoan Drop for two. She tried for another, but James blocked it, and hit a jumping DDT for the pin. Really good match. Winner: Mickie James Next up was the official weigh-ins for tonight’s Heavyweight Championship tournament finals. Steiner was hilarious, boasting about his 24.5 inch biceps throughout. After Morgan's stats were announced, he posed for the crowd, but was shoved hard by Steiner from behind. Referees and judges had to separate the two before things escalated further. Backstage, the Bollywood Boys said that they were looking forward to dancing to the ring, Bollywood style, when they compete in the Tag Team Championship tournament. As promised, Chavo’s partner was another member of a famous wrestling family in Hart, who looks bigger and better than he did while in WWE. Hart used his strength to toss around the Sheiks and he nearly got a quick pin in the opening seconds. Chavo fared well too, sending the Sheiks to the floor. There, they got into the faces of the fans, including tearing up the sign held up by a midget who was petitioning to get a tryout with the company. The little guy didn’t take too kindly to this, so he hopped the barricade and ran into the ring to challenge the Sheiks - security finally grabbed him and carried him out of the building. The comic distraction didn't faze the Sheiks, and they went back to punishing Chavo. A huge dropkick by Chavo buys him enough time to tag in Hart who took over in dominant fashion. He hit Abdul with a powerbomb, and Chavo immediately followed that up with a frog splash to get the pin. Winners: Chavo Guerrero and Bulldog Hart Backstage, the Pathane Pathe, an Indian tag team – think of two Indian guys who look like Big Bully Busick – said that they will be entering the Tag Team Championship tournament. The crowd was hot for this one, from Jeremy Borash's in-ring introductions. An early test of strength got broken up when Sonjay Dutt tried to interfere from the outside. To prevent such shenanigans, Commissioner Jazzy Lahoria called out some of the Indian wrestlers on the roster to even things up. Not having to worry about the guys on the floor allowed Morgan to take over, smashing Steiner with a big discus clothesline. A low blow later, though, and Steiner took over once again, landing his pushup elbow and a belly-to-belly suplex. Steiner hit a number of stomps and smashes, but then ate a boot when going for a big clothesline in the corner. Morgan caught his second wind, and avalanched Steiner before hitting a side slam. Another discus clothesline attempt got caught, and Steiner dropped him with a facebuster DDT. He then clamped on the Steiner Recliner, but Morgan’s reach allowed him to grab the ropes to break the hold. Morgan blocked a suplex attempt, bounced off the ropes and hit a huge Carbon Footprint that put Steiner down for the three, earning him the title. Winner, and new Ring ka King Champion: Matt Morgan After the match, Morgan thanked the crowd - in Hindi! - and then he and the Indian wrestlers celebrated the title win. Bob Kapur is suffering from a Super Bowl chicken wing overdose. Send him some Pepto Bismol coupons at [email protected].

Father God is Sovereign and We were made in Their Image – The Holy Bible says, “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So, God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them”” Genesis 1: 26-27. Tuesday, May 23, 2017 Prayer for Today: Tuesday, May 23, 2017 Prayer for Today: Tuesday, May 23, 2017 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ My Father God Who Art in Heaven and in Earth Residing Within, and Around Everyone and Everything Living, Moving, and Breathing Hallowed is Thy Name as the Most High God. Father God Today’s Special Prayer is for Everyone Who is Suffering Any Form of Illness and Disease Mentally, Physically, and Financially Please Assist Them and Heal Them according to Their Faith With Special Grace and Additional Support in Combination with the Faith of Other Believers. My Father and Lord Thanks for Providing Support to Them Via Family, Friends, Medical Facilities, and Any Other Support System that You have Provided Worldwide; and Thanks Especially for Blessing Each Person that is involved with Their Care. Father God I Thank You for Giving All of Us as Believers and *Spiritual Sojourners Another Chance to Honor You with the Gifts that You have made available through Our Personal and Professional Efforts.Thanks for Jesus Christ as Our Special Messiah and Advocate, and Our Special Healer, and Thanks Especially for His Love, and Sacrifice. Prayer is Universal and, I Thank YouEspecially for Your Holy Spirit as Our Major Teacher of Your Truth and Supporter as Well as Our Daily Comforter, Counselor and Guide. O’ Holy Father You are Our Greatest Blessing, and You are So Worthy of Our Praises, Blessed is Your Name; I Love You! Yes Thanks for Jesus as the Word and Your Holy Son, and Your Special Gift of the Holy Spirit, Plus Love, and Life for Us All. Father God I Thank You for giving All of Us another chance to Honor You with the Gifts that You have made available through Our Personal and Professional Efforts; Yes!!! Lord God of the Universe You is Awesome sofor Everyone Who is asking for a Physical, Mental, Spiritual, or Financial Healing; I Am Touching, and Agreeing with Them Via Cyberspace Mentally for a Healing By Our Combined Faiths. Finally, Thanks for Your Messages, Gifts of Love, Hope, and Truth Forever, and Most of All Thanks for Answering All the Prayers for Forgiveness, Healing, and Prosperity of All Your Children Worldwide Because All Things, and Peoples are Yours for Thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory for Ever and Ever, Amen, Amen, Amen and Amen… ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ *We are All Spiritual Sojourners… Yes!!! Our Father God is Spirit!!! You are A Spiritual Sojourner – Realize Your Worth!!! You are A Spiritual and Physical Being Made in God’s Image and You are Wonderfully Made: You Matter! "Stop living a negative and guilt-ridden life, complaining daily about what you do not have. Instead of complaining, start to live a positive, happy, and fulfilled life praising and thanking GOD for what you have... As a Spiritual Sojourner Realize Your Worth!!! You are A Spiritual and Physical Being Made in God’s Image and You Matter!!! Live Like You Do!!! Always Remember that Jesus Christ and God Loves You…You are Created in God’s Wonderful Image and You are Wonderfully made! Always Remember the Amazing Image Looking Back in Your Mirror Daily IS You And that Image is Your Gift from An Incredible God: Your Creator and Your Spiritual Father and He Loves You!!! Again Jesus Christ and God Loves You… You are a Winner as a Child of God and Believer so Keep the Faith and Keep Moving as You Embrace You and Others with Love and Forgiveness as We All Coexist in these Physical Bodies… We are All Spiritual Sojourners that Matter!!! Keep Your Eyes on the Prize of an Eternal Life with God!!!! Apostle John notes this: “And I saw the dead, great, and The Almighty God is Spirit –“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” John 4:24 NIV – Read More Commentary @ http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+4%3A23-24And More Commentary @http://www.godvine.com/bible/john/4-24As a Christian and Spiritual Believer, You Must Trust GOD! Christianity is Based on Faith and Father GOD is Our Faith. Father God Loves You! The Proof is Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit! Please Don't Let the Negativity of Others Affect Your Outlook on Life! A Relationship with Father God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit is the Best Thing that Will Ever Happen to You so Embrace it with Meditation and Prayer... Remember that your victorious life is via GOD, and not through anything or anyone else.Your successes are made via Father God’s abilities within you. We are nothing without Him but dust. Sure it seems like we are in control but we will never be in control. At the drop of a dime, death comes and we can never stop it. It is not up to us. According to the word of GOD in the Book of Acts, we have life and motion and existence in Him. Take a look at this verse: “Certainly, we live, move, and exist because of him. As some of your poets have said, 'We are God's children'” Acts 17:28.–More Commentary @http://biblehub.com/acts/17-28.htmPlus More @ http://embraceyourspiritualitylivefree.blogspot.com/And Finally Even More Here @ http://ibeatmybadhabitandaddiction.blogspot.com/2014/09/exerpt-from-part-one-god-is-spirit-my.html No comments: Post a Comment About Me I am Spiritual and I Love Embracing My Spirituality...I Love GOD and JESUS and All Other Living Things...The greatest thing that we will ever learn is to love and be loved in return (Eden Abhez)...My motto is:I love everyone, if you have a problem with me, it's your problem, I love you.Life is too Short to Sweat Stuff that I have Zero Control Over, Meaning You and Your Actions Toward Me.I Trust GOD and JESUS CHRIST, So Please Accept My Faith. I Accept Your Religious Faith, However, My Faith Is Inclusive of a Father God, Jesus Christ as His Holy Son, and the Holy Spirit, Because I Champion THEM as the True Keys to Life, Truth, and Physical Success!!! I Know that Our World is Big Enough for Everyone Within It to Be Successful in All Their Creative Abilities therefore,I Want to Share Your Joy when You are Successful;That is The Best Way to Live!!! So Daily I Pray for Much, Much Love and Positive Success for Everyone in Our World Daily, Negativity is a Bad Thing So...

Monthly Archives: March 2018 Our board director KK had a trip to the JiangXi province of China in February this year. He took the opportunity to visit 華光女子中學 (Wah Kwong Girls High School). VSSE has been sponsoring the meal fees of some Wah Kwong students for a number of years. KK found that the students were kind and polite, but the school building was in bad condition. Being not a prearranged visit, he was sure that he saw the real conditions of the school.

A Blog about all things Star Trek, Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, Outlander and a lot more sci-fi Sunday, June 20, 2010 More News on Being Human Series 3! Right from Being Human's creator Toby Whithouse himself, comes more news from the upcoming series 3 of the BBC Three hit supernatural drama. Coming from SFX Magazine again, here is what Whithouse revealed about series - or season - 3: “Season 3. Firstly I approve of our adoption of the American term ’season’ for what we used to call a ’series’. Even though in the States, as series really does last the the length of a season. Whereas over here our series’ are much shorter. I mean how many seasons in Britain last just 6 to 8 weeks?! Apart from summer, obviously. Anyway, usually I hate the way English has become so wantonly Americanised, but this I like. So carry on. “So. Season 3. “First I should say thank you to all of the fans and BH bloggers for sending us all those lovely goodwill messages. I notice I have started being referred to as Lord Toby. Again, this is something I approve of as I’ve been trying to get my family to call me that for years with little success. “But thanks to the fans for their messages. They were distributed amongst the cast and crew before the first readthrough and it was a genuinely lovely way to start proceedings. “Actually the readthrough was terrific. We’ve got our familiar much loved cast back, as well as some jaw-droppingly pant-wettingly exciting casting for a couple of guest characters. Proof of the success of the show became apparent in the casting sessions, when well-known actors – the level of actor way out of our league on series 1 and even series 2 – would come in and say ‘I’ve never seen the show, but my teenage son is a huge fan and he’d think this would be so cool if I was in it.’ That should be our motto. ‘Being Human: we make middle aged men look cool.’ “So we’ve started filming. I’m currently writing ep 8 (It was all a dream! Who knew!) and looking at he rushes of each day’s filming. It looks amazing. We’re using a new type of camera, you see, that gives each and every frame the most extraordinary depth and texture and colour. Producer-Phil likes to tell me all about it – the technology behind it, the practicalities of filming with it and so on – but as I keep telling him, I am WAY too artistic and pretty to understand or care. “But what can I tell you about season 3? You know me well enough to know that it won’t be anything useful. “There are some new werewolves. There are some new vampires. And there’s a something else. For years I’ve had people saying to me “You should put a witch/zombie/demon/banshee/warlock /goblin/fairy/pixie/angel in your show.” I think they’ve got Being Human mixed up with Dungeons and f**king Dragons. Anyway. I’ve always secretly planned to pop one of them in to an episode, and it finally happens in season 3. “We discover that the vampires have been doing something secret and staggeringly cruel to werewolves for decades. “Three have become four now, and in the next season they briefly become five. “And as I might have said before: in season one, the threat was supernatural. In season two, the threat was human. In season three, the threat comes from within.

Homeowners to Save $16 Million with Rejection of FAIR Plan’s Home Insurance Rate Increase BOSTON – After arguing that the FAIR Plan’s proposed home insurance rate increases for more than 150,000 Massachusetts families were excessive, Attorney General Martha Coakley announced that the Division of Insurance (DOI) rejected the rate request in a decision issued today. The decision saves homeowners from having to pay an additional $16 million in policy premiums. “Homeowners should not be required to pour their money right into the pockets of insurers,” AG Coakley said. “This is real money that can stay in homeowners’ pockets. We are pleased that the DOI recognized that the insurers’ proposal was excessive and would significantly harm Massachusetts ratepayers.” Jointly run by the state’s property insurance companies, the Massachusetts Property Insurance Underwriters Association (FAIR Plan), is a residual market designed to provide coverage at reasonable rates to homeowners who cannot obtain it in the open marketplace. This includes about 50,000 of families in urban areas, and 80,000 families on Cape Cod and other coastal communities, where insurance companies frequently decline to issue home insurance policies. The law requires that rates through the FAIR Plan are approved by the Commissioner of Insurance and are not excessive. The insurance industry sought the Commissioner’s permission to raise rates for the FAIR Plan by an average of 6.8 percent across the state, and by over 9 percent in the communities of New Bedford, the Cape and Islands, Lynn Worcester Springfield parts of Boston and parts of Suffolk and Hampshire counties. Despite its request for rate increases, the FAIR Plan has been steadily making money, which is uncommon for a residual market. During the six-year period from fiscal year 2007 through fiscal year 2012, the FAIR Plan profits amounted to over $250 million, or more than $40 million a year on average. In this proposal, the FAIR Plan requested its rate include a new ‘underwriting profit provision’ which would generate an additional $16 million in additional annual profit for the FAIR plan. Eliminating this additional profit request in the FAIR Plan’s proposal would eliminate the projected increase. After conducting extensive discovery, cross examining industry witnesses, utilizing its own experts, and working in conjunction with the Massachusetts State Rating Bureau (SRB), the AG’s Office formally asked the Commissioner to reject the FAIR Plan’s proposed rate hikes on Nov. 4, 2013. In addition to noting the FAIR Plan’s request for additional profits as improper, AG Coakley also argued that the rates should be rejected and reduced based on the insurer’s use of a hurricane model that has not been approved or tested for use in Massachusetts and on its use of flawed Massachusetts Property Insurance Underwriting Association (MPIUA) projections of future claim payments. AG Coakley also argued that the rates should be rejected because of the FAIR Plan’s excessive reinsurance expenses. In today’s decision the Commissioner of Insurance agreed with the AG’s arguments, noting that “the MPIUA has continued to utilize a hurricane model that has not been shown to produce results that meaningfully reflect the frequency and severity of storms that are correctly classified as hurricanes in Massachusetts, develop measures of vulnerability that are specific to Massachusetts, and quantify other factors…” In 2012, the AG’s Office successfully advocated to prevent two unprecedented rate increases sought by the FAIR Plan and the workers’ compensation insurance industry that saved both Massachusetts homeowners and employers more than $187 million. The case is being handled by Deputy Division Chief Monica Brookman, Assistant Attorneys General Peter Leight and Lydia French, as well as Mathematician Burt Feinberg and paralegal Erica Harmon, of Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Insurance and Financial Services Division.

Trinity Episcopal Church will host a Low Country Boil and Oyster Roast on Friday, Feb. 1. Appetizers at 5:30 p.m. and dinner at 6 p.m. Annual event sponsored by the Endowment Board. Tickets are $20 each and $35 per couple. Availabe at the church, Country Club Road at the Bypass.

The Latest George Soros George Soros has made another prediction on the overall economy. According to this Bloomberg article, George Soros says that the market conditions right now are very similar to 2008. This is a cause for fear for many people simply because George Soros was right the last time he made this prediction. He was one of the only people at that time before the crash of 2008 to say that the economy was starting to contract. Here are several reasons why 2016 is really similar to 2008 and some ways it is different. Stronger Jobs Market Perhaps the biggest difference between 2016 and 2008 is the fact that the job market is much stronger now. During that time, there were tens of thousands of jobs being lost every week. However, today the unemployment rate is one of the lowest we have seen in quite some time. This is an essential aspect of looking at the overall economy. Anyone who is looking to make an impact on the economy needs to look at the jobs market in general. There are many people who have been able to improve their economic position by landing a better job. However, there are also many people who say the jobs being created are low paying jobs. It will be interesting to see if the relative strength in the jobs market continues over the next couple of years. More National Debt The national debt of nations around the world is higher than it was just a couple of years ago. Almost without exception, nations around the world continue to borrow money at exceedingly higher rates. Anyone who is looking for reasons to be worried about the future of the economy can look to this as a cause for concern. No matter what happens in the economy, one day this debt will have to be paid back. The nations who have an extremely high debt load relative to GDP will be hard pressed to see this growth continue. The Prediction George Soros has been known over the years to make predictions on Bloomberg about the economy. He has many decades of experience in looking at financial markets and being able to see through all of the variables that impact the economy. Over the long term, George Soros has proven that he has a solid track record of success when it comes to predicting economic events. Anyone who wants to follow his impact can see various examples in history. If you are someone who is worried about another major economic event, it is vital for you to understand where he is coming from. George Soros sees the current economic environment as one that is really similar to 2008. There were few people who were saying that a major economic event was coming in 2008 much like now. Although this is no reason to panic, there has been a lot of relative weakness in places like China. Only time will tell if George Soros is correct in his prediction.

ABOUT THE ART Inspired by the recent announcement trailer of "Prometheus", the revival of the once great Alien franchise. This piece is my interpretation of the alien world on which the exploring team lands. I decided to depict a quiet scene prior to the discovery or action that will ultimately take place. My favorite part of the first film and the new trailer is the feeling of unknown; this opens a whole slew of questions without any answers. I find this to be the most exciting part of movies - anticipation. With that said, I leave you with further questions that hopefully add to the anticipation.

Is The Color of Hockey Changing? The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia are right around the corner. And among the many sports that we'll be watching is ice hockey. Historically, the sport of ice hockey has been dominated by white athletes. But players of minority backgrounds are increasingly thriving on the ice, and fans of all kinds of ethnic and racial backgrounds are showing up to hockey arenas as fans. William Douglas has created a blog in which he writes about minorities in hockey. The blog is called "The Color of Hockey." Bill joins me here in Washington, D.C. Welcome to the program. WILLIAM DOUGLAS: Thank you for having me. HEADLEE: So you've been playing hockey for a very long time. How long have you been playing? DOUGLAS: Since I was about 13, and I'm 55 now. So a good chunk of change. HEADLEE: Long time. DOUGLAS: Long time. HEADLEE: And for most of that time - your time on the ice - you were one of, if not the only, person of color. DOUGLAS: Usually the only or one of two or one of three. I played two years of Junior B hockey in Philadelphia and actually had a black teammate for one season. And then the rest of the time - a league that covered like four states - I was normally the only player of color. HEADLEE: You must have the same experience of - one of my friends is a paraglider and he's African-American - you must have the same experience where people - his black friends all the time saying what are you doing - that's not a black sport? DOUGLAS: Yes. It's interesting the responses that you get from within the black community - less so now than in the past - but it's sort of like, you know, why are you doing this? Or, you know, it's a white sport, why are you doing this? HEADLEE: Yeah. DOUGLAS: And from white people it's more often than not, wow, that's really interesting. HEADLEE: How'd you get into that? DOUGLAS: Exactly, exactly. Or you go to the rink and people are very nice to you and they're watching you get dressed to make sure you put the equipment on properly. HEADLEE: Oh, wow. DOUGLAS: But, you know, it's less of that now. HEADLEE: Well, so let's talk about how it's less of that. Why do you think now more people of color are getting interested in both watching and playing hockey? DOUGLAS: Well, I think a couple things have happened. I think part of it is you have more minorities becoming more affluent and moving out the suburbs. And kids are getting interested in hockey because they're assimilating. They're taking up the sport with their friends. HEADLEE: And it's offered at the schools, yeah. DOUGLAS: Their friends are playing. They'll go hang out at the local rink with their friends. And they just want to be part of a crowd and they pick that up. The other thing that's happening is throughout the U.S. and Canada, you have more and more programs that are - that have been formed to cater or to help direct minority kids or urban youth into hockey. Here, you have the Fort Dupont program in Washington, in the Anacostia section. It's been in existence for 35 years. And its mission has been to get more kids of color into hockey. And you do this by alleviating the obstacles. The obstacles being expense. HEADLEE: It's very expensive. DOUGLAS: It is very, very expensive. It's very expensive for ice time. The equipment can cost anywhere from $300 to several thousand dollars to dress a kid for hockey. HEADLEE: And don't forget all the travel. Many times when you're on a team, you're traveling long-distances. DOUGLAS: Correct. So these programs help lift the burden of that cost. And you've got - in the U.S. you've got almost 32 of these programs, and several more in Canada. HEADLEE: So what's the purpose of your blog? Is it just an outpouring of your passion for the sport? Or is there a deeper purpose? DOUGLAS: Both actually. You know, I love hockey. I've talked people's ears off about it over the years. My friends and my family have been very patient. Thank you, I love you all. But also the fact that it sort of hit me in 2012 that when Joel Ward of the Washington Capitals scored - he scored an overtime goal in Game 7 of a Stanley Cup playoff match against the Boston Bruins - you know, it was a very important goal. It was a pivotal moment. It knocked the Bruins out of the series. It let the Capitals advance. Almost seconds after he scored the goal, there were just deluges of really hateful tweets and e-mails from Bruins fans. Some of it was just really awful. It was bad enough that the Boston Bruins organization, Commissioner Gary Bettman of the National Hockey League had to put out a statement basically admonishing the fans. HEADLEE: We should say Ward is African-American. DOUGLAS: Correct. No, African-Canadian. HEADLEE: That's correct. DOUGLAS: That's the other thing about this - a lot of people sort of talk - well, there aren't African-Americans in hockey. There are a few African-Americans in hockey, most are Afro-Canadian. You have a few who are Afro-Swedish - from various parts of the world. So it's not just African-American. HEADLEE: All right, so for the hockey neophyte, what are we watching for? DOUGLAS: It's an interesting tournament that's going to happen because there's a lot of pressure on Russia because they're the home team. HEADLEE: Of course, and they've always had great players. DOUGLAS: They've had great players but they haven't been able to really put it together the last couple of Olympics. You have to watch Canada. There's a lot of pressure on Canada. The Canadians are sort of in a state of mourning because they had a major junior world championship tournament in Malmo, Sweden that was played in late December - early January. And the Canadians failed to win a medal in that competition, which was very, very stressful for the Canadian psyche. So they're looking at the Olympics for redemption. There's pressure on the United States as well. The U.S. did very well in the Vancouver games in 2010. They finished with a silver medal. They came very, very close to winning a gold, and they would very much like to do that. There is also pressure on the U.S... HEADLEE: We should mention, who won gold in 2010? DOUGLAS: That would be Canada. HEADLEE: Yeah. DOUGLAS: But there's also pressure on the U.S. and Canada because the Olympics are being held outside of North America. And they've never ever done well outside North America in international tournaments - largely because the ice surface is larger. So the U.S. and Canada have formed their Olympic teams, specifically, to address the issue of playing on a larger surface. HEADLEE: I almost feel as though the U.S. Olympic hockey team will be better off when people forget the miracle on ice. It's almost as though nothing will ever be as good as the miracle on ice. DOUGLAS: Well, that's a special moment. And that moment helped catapult U.S. hockey. So you can't really forget that moment because that moment made hockey a prime time entity in this country. That galvanized a country. It made people who maybe didn't look at the sport before look at it. So you can never forget that. The idea is to sort of get beyond it. HEADLEE: Right. DOUGLAS: You know, recognize it, but also, you know, use that as a springboard. And they've done that. One of the things that USA hockey is pleased about for this Olympics and for 2010 - the selection process for them was very, very difficult. They have a talented pool of players in the National Hockey League. There have a very talented pool of players coming up through the college ranks, through major junior hockey. Maybe two, three or four Olympics ago, you know, they could just automatically pick the Olympic team because there were so few good American players that were talented enough to compete. HEADLEE: Now they have a good problem. DOUGLAS: Now they have a wonderful problem. HEADLEE: All right, so we're going to be checking in with you as Sochi begins but any predictions? Is the U.S. going to medal this year? DOUGLAS: Good question. I think they will medal, I'm not quite sure it will be a gold medal. I think there might be a surprise. You know, we're so focused on the U.S. and Canada and Russia... HEADLEE: Yeah. DOUGLAS: But Finland and Sweden are very, very talented teams as well that could surprise. There's nothing that the Finns and the Swedes would like better than to win a gold medal on Russian soil. They have some history there... HEADLEE: Good point. DOUGLAS: ...That they would like to extract a little revenge on. HEADLEE: I don't know what you're talking about. DOUGLAS: So it's - the U.S. will likely medal, I'm not sure it will be gold. HEADLEE: William Douglas, creator of the blog "The Color of Hockey." Thanks for joining us. We'll touch base with you again.

[email protected] -- In the Civil Rights Justice system there are two sets of people: Those who are haters and those who fight back. These are their stories. Blink-Blink. Movies: KingCast.net and KingCast65 YouTube -- A NENPA member news and information journal. 06 February 2011 KingCast says on Superbowl Sunday, "Happy Birthday Bob Marley!" If Bob Marley were alive today he would be much more concerned about the abusive government of New Hampshire and how a rogue cop named Bruce McKay violated the Civil Rights of Liko Kenney and other Franconia residents than the results of Superbowl XLV. Here are the KingCast Bob Marley files and this is my favorite Bob Marley song of All Time, dig this rehearsal version as the cancer advanced :( Every man gotta right to decide his own destiny,And in this judgement there is no partiality.So arm in arms, with arms, we'll fight this little struggle,'Cause that's the only way we can overcome our little trouble....Set it up in-a Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe);Africans a-liberate Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe);Every man got a right to decide his own destiny. And here is the history of Kelly Ayotte's "hero" Bruce McKay violating Liko Kenney's Civil Rights on Superbowl Sunday, 2003. Be sure to watch the supplemental videos I forgot to put in the movie.

re-presenting representation through political portraiture Matthew Ivan Cherry – Cesar Conde – Patrick Earl Hammie February 2 – March 5, 2017 Artist's Reception: Thursday, February 7, 6:00 – 8:00 pm Can a portrait provide a sense of universal truth to a viewer in order to promote health or well-being or to the degree of saving a life? Can a painting promote a sense of community, a presence of fraternity and sisterhood or general camaraderie while challenging systematic or cultural injustices? Can art serve as a bastion of safety while acting as a civil “call to arms” or by simply alarming the general public to stand and take a stance? Impolite-ic Politics – is an exhibition of large-scale portrait paintings which bring to the forefront relevant political topics; such as police brutality, LGBTQ rights and religion, ethnic stereotypes, and gender role biases that polarize and plague our culture today. Impolite-ic Politics presents the work of three fine artists using portraiture as a genre to address global, social, political, and controversial issues to address heated topics regarding identity, diversity of ethnicity, sexuality, gender, racial profiling and police brutality, and the gender roles we attach to people of various races. The work is intended to push the envelope and dialogue on issues that continue to challenge people in today’s culture, – while still attempting to elevate and humanize the individuals depicted. Each artist has been independently producing a body of work with its own scope, measure, title and theme. For “Impolite-ic” Politics” the artwork from these artists have been united to bring awareness to a broader audience certain injustices while also elevating portraiture, painting, and narrative issues that each artist handles uniquely. (This exhibition will be accompanied by a student exhibition of various work selected from College of Art and Design students who similarly are using portraiture as a genre to form a dialogue around politically charged content relevant to student interests and issues.)

8PM THE ARCHITECTS – PETER FONDA COWBOY INDIAN BEAR – DOES ANYBODY SEE YOU OUT? THE GET UP KIDS – MASS PIKE TOWERS – GREY GRAVES THE NOISE FM – KEEP ME IN THE DARK SCRUFFY AND THE JANITORS – SHAKE IT OFF ANTENNAS UP – COMING ON BEAR FACE - PRODIGAL SONS MATT PRYOR – KIND OF GO TO PIECES ANTENNAS UP – PRETENDERS MIME GAME – YOU DO YOU

Total RecallTotal Recall is a look back at the history of video games through their characters, franchises, developers and trends. There was a PC game released in 1994 called Escstatica. It's notable for two things: it was scary, but it was also a technological marvel. It doesn't matter that the technology in question never really went anywhere. It was cool for the time, and this feature is all about looking back in time! Ecstatica was a third-person horror/action game in the vein of similar titles like Alone in the Dark and, though it came later, Resident Evil. Think pre-determined camera angles, cheap scares and inventory restrictions. Riding into a town in the dead of night, the player soon finds the place overrun by evil creatures. As you would, you spend the rest of the game clearing these beasts out, mostly by running around the place hitting them with a sword. Of course, it wasn't actually that scary; like more contemporary survival horror games, the tension is built mainly through increasing the player's vulnerability to attack and limiting their ability to carry things, not by any great feat of character design or writing. It was, however, saucy. There were punching monks. A minotaur ties you up at one point, and things get a little weird. Oh, and at one point, you see dangly little ellipsoid cocks. Advertisement It was also, like many of these pioneering 3D games, clumsy to control, with obstructive camera angles and sluggish animation response times making you feel like you were playing the game underwater. But Ecstatica is remembered more for its graphics than anything else, as it was part of a spirited, if short-lived movement in the mid-90s towards "ellipsoid" graphics. If you don't know what they are, you can see them in action in the clip to the left; rather than animate basic sprites or generate memory-consuming 3D polygons, ellipsoid technology generated "blobs", which were used to build character models. Advertisement They may not look like much in static images, but at the time they were thought to be revolutionary, allowing for incredibly fluid animation. And, for the time, they certainly were! The reason you didn't see many other games copy the style, though, was precisely because of the time the game was released. A few years earlier and the technology wasn't around. A few years later and PC performance, aided by the first generation of graphics cards, could handle proper polygons, which looked far more realistic. So it exists as a quirk of its era. A historical dead-end, never to be repeated. Ellipsoid technology was the zeppelin of the video games world. Advertisement Actually, that's slightly incorrect. The game was repeated, once, as in 1997 a sequel was released, which improved the graphics but not much else, the game evolving into more of an action title than something we'd now call survival horror.

Microsoft and Facebook Join Google in Begging the US to Slacken Data Transparency Rules Microsoft and Facebook have joined Google in complaining about the US government's privacy restrictions, asking US authorities to let them tell the public how many data requests they receive from security agencies. So we might be a bit less suspicious of them. Currently, Google, Microsoft, Facebook and the rest can't even tell the public how many requests for information they receive from government sources due to "nondisclosure obligations" put in place, leading to the rather suspicious sort of headlines we've seen of late. Microsoft, similarly to Google, has commented on the issue, saying: "Permitting greater transparency on the aggregate volume and scope of national security requests, including Fisa orders, would help the community understand and debate these important issues." And Facebook noted its dislike of the situation too, with a statement saying: "We would welcome the opportunity to provide a transparency report that allows us to share with those who use Facebook around the world a complete picture of the government requests we receive, and how we respond." [BBC, Reuters]

The star studded cast including Jack Black as Jesus Christ, Doogie Howser (I don't know his real name) and John C. Reilly come together to bring us this very funny musical entitled, Prop 8 - The Musical...

Dortmund: Borussia Dortmund's prolific forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has set himself some lofty targets for the football season and aims to match the scoring exploits of Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo and Barcelona talisman Lionel Messi. The Gabon international has already netted 20 goals in 17 appearances in all competitions so far this term and is now brimming with confidence. "If Cristiano Ronaldo can score 50 goals in one season, why should I not be able to do the same? I aim to become one of the best strikers in the world," he was quoted as saying by BBC on Thursday. "What am I missing? I have to remain consistent and continue on this path. I have to put in figures like this season after season, just like Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are doing." The 26-year-old said that he has come a long way as far as his goal-scoring skills are concerned. "I have improved a lot in front of goal and have become much more clinical. I have come a long way and it's nice to be rewarded now. But this is by no means the end just yet," Aubameyang said. Aubameyang joined Dortmund in 2013 from Ligue 1 side Saint-Etienne for a fee reported to be around 10 million pounds. His prolific record since has attracted plenty of admirers and his next move could be an even bigger one. Aubameyang, whose mother is Spanish, has been linked with Barcelona and while he insists he is "100 percent committed" to Dortmund for now, he is keeping one eye on the future. "After that contract I have this dream to play in Spain. I hope that will happen but when? I don't know," he said. "Lots of people think that the English Premier League would be good for me but my mum is Spanish and I really have that dream to play over there. After that maybe one day the English Premier League but for the moment I aim to one day play in Spain."

Covering books and digital resources across all fields of history Browse all Reviews The ratification of the 13th Amendment in December 1865 marked the crowning achievement in the history of American abolitionism. The sesquicentennial anniversary of this amendment has led to a recent avalanche of scholarship on the downfall of American slavery and the coming of freedom for more than four million slaves. Who abolished slavery? How was slavery abolished? It was hardly to be expected that the sesquicentennial might come and go without the Civil War’s most preeminent historian offering his thoughts on the subject, and James McPherson has not let us down. Not that The War that Forged a Nation is in any direct sense a comment on or reaction to the sesquicentennial; it is neither. We are now a generation into an ‘Atlantic turn’ in writing early American history. Jordan Landes and Abram C. Van Engen make welcome, but different, contributions through their arguments about emotions in Puritan New England and networking by London Quakers. The Devils We Know: Us and Them in America’s Raucous Political Culture brings together a fine selection of James A. Morone’s essays combining the two areas to which he has devoted the last 25 years of his career: American political thought and American political development. Scholars of contemporary religious history, of art history, and of the immigrant experience will find much to interest them in this fine volume from Samantha Baskind of Cleveland State University, Ohio. The cotton industry is fundamental to the development of global capitalism and broadly shaped the world we live in today. It is therefore important to realise the extent to which this depended on the militarisation of trade, massive land expropriation, genocide and slavery. The pejorative ‘Massachusetts liberal’ has been a staple of American political discourse for decades. Then-senator John Kerry, noted wind-surfer and Francophone, was dogged by the tag throughout his 2004 presidential campaign. The Presidency of Richard Nixon has stimulated much study from historians and political scientists mostly focusing upon the Vietnam War, ‘triangular diplomacy’ with China and the Soviet Union, Nixon’s partnership with Henry Kissinger and of course the Watergate scandal. In one of his last letters to his neighbor and confidant, Thomas Jefferson asked James Madison ‘to take care of me when dead’.(1) Jefferson, like most of the ‘founding fathers’ thought deeply about his legacy and place in history. He spent hours arranging his papers for posterity and composed a memoir of sorts, the ‘Anas’, in an effort to set the record straight.

Some older men on top singles dating sites are complaining there are not enough women registered on these Online personals sites. Older women, that is women over the age of 50, say they don’t register on these sites because men their own age are not interested in what they have to offer. They say that women their age are in limbo, and if there is a shortage of women on these sites it might be because younger women are looking for rich older men not the average guy recently divorced and looking to relive his youth. Divorced men don’t agree, in fact there have been comments stating that the reason that older women do not join these dating communities because they either lack confidence or it might be because of the hormonal changes that women go through after menopause. According to one man’s personal blog, It appears that the lack of estrogen may affect a woman’s need for male companionship. The truth may be a combination of both statements they don’t sign up for certain sites that senior men frequent because older men prefer to look for younger women, they find that older men do not appreciate sexual maturity or confidence and many older women are into a little experimentation. Regardless if they are widowed or divorced they aren’t going to sit home mourning for long. And they are not going to go to a seniors dating site to find love when there are plenty of younger men with Mrs Robinson fantasies and lesbian or bi curious sites to explore. In reality if women are looking for men their own age to date will ask their pastor, their friends and even their hairdresser but if they are looking for sex they will check out the online personals and the newspaper ads for hot and horny singles. Even the older woman that never married can find happiness online. They don’t have to worry about being called an old maid or a spinster.

July 8, 2008 Hold off the next time you grab a disposable bottle of water while picking up your coffee at Starbucks. Their Ethos water may economically benefit some peoples , but the bottle most definately HURTS. Turns out that most of the Styrofoam Jamba Juice cups and discarded flip-flops in the oceans are washed from land and not dumped by ocean going vessels as is the normal thinking according to the Algalita Marine Research Foundation. I became aware of this organization and it’s research while working on a new TV show recently that visited with a couple of their amazing scientists that are putting their lives at risk to make us aware of the trash we produce everyday. They are sailing into the ocean towards a texas sized patch of plastic soup that is referred to as the “Pacific trash gyre” or “plastic vortex”. The sailers and researchers heading this project, Marcus Eriksen and Joel Paschal, were featured on the green reality series called “Mario’s Greenhouse” with Actor and Director, Mario Van Peebles (Voom Networks). At the time of videotaping with them, they were still in the construction phase of their ocean going vessel affectionately named, Junk Raft, that departed from Los Angeles on June 2nd, 2008. From the official website: “Algalita staff set sail on “Junk,” a raft built on 15,000 plastic bottles. Their 2,100 mile journey will take them through the plastic-plagued Northern Pacific Gyre. Designed by Dr. Marcus Eriksen and Joel Paschal, the raft boasts an airplane fuselage, discarded fishing nets, a solar generator, and a wind turbine. This ambitious journey will bring further public attention to the plastic marine debris issue.” Eriksen and Paschal manage to upload blog entries and video from the middle of Pacific somehow. For this their blog, junkraft.blogspot.com, deserves a visit by all of us. It’s amazing stuff and you can read about their trip AND the massive trash gyre that you may have heard about on the news that their parent organization, The Algalita Marine Research Foundation, is given credit for finding. From a Starbucks document: “If only 50 customers a day in every store were to use reusable mugs, Starbucks would save 150,000 disposable paper cups daily. This equals 1.7 million pounds of paper, 3.7 million pounds of solid waste, and 150,000 trees a year.” In 2000 when this report was generated there were only 6500 stores worldwide. In 2007 there are 13,168 stores which means over 300,000 trees could be saved from landfills by BRINGING YOUR OWN CUP.

Worried about Bitcoin? George Soros is getting into it…. George Soros, a noted currency trader who called Bitcoin a “bubble” in January – is going to be trading cryptocurrencies! This is according to an article in Bloomberg, which has been getting a lot of play in the internet! Read it here: “Soros has already been indirectly betting on crypto. The firm amassed a stake in Overstock.com in the fourth quarter, making it the third-biggest shareholder of the discount e-commerce company. In August 2017 it became the first major retailer to accept digital currencies. The company had also planned to start an exchange for cryptocurrencies as well as offer digital coins that could trade on the platform. – Bloomberg Article“ Soros is a major Player in the Forex/currency markets, and his venture into Bitcoin shows that an old dog can learn new tricks! Mr. Soros is a shrewd investor and I suspect he sees a way to make some serious money off Cryptocurrency and businesses utilizing Cryptocurrency. The Founder of Overstock, Patrick M Byrne, has been outspoken about Bitcoin, Here is one of his talks: Patrick M. Byrne on “Why Cryptocurrencies matter” At this time I don’t own any Overstock.com stock, but I am going to keep an eye on it and consider investing if it dips. Mr. Soro’s entry into bitcoin is a welcome sign to this Bitcoin fancier, and I expect his investments will be a worthy foray into the cryptocurrency market. With Bitcoin entering it’s second decade of growth and volatility, this is an exciting time to play in the cryptocurrency sandbox, or just watch from the sidelines! Best of Luck to you, George Soros and Patrick M. Byrne! Thank you for reading my blog, and feel free to share! Best of luck with Bitcoin and all your investments! All rights reserved by Alan Chenkin & Primrose Path LLC. Remember to give credit to the author and any cited works. Some links are promoted so the author can maintain his Starbucks coffee habit. If you enjoyed this blog, please feel free to share .This Blog was Human-generated by the author, and not produced by a Russian blog Engine. If you enjoyed this blog, please feel free to share and send some bitcoin in appreciation to my Bitcoin Address:

Lifting a glass to 44 years as a drayman A drayman who has clocked up hundreds of thousands of miles delivering beer for one of the West's most famous breweries has retired after 44 years in the job. Trevor Blackford has brought beer to Swindon-based Arkell's pubs across the West since 1969 but enjoyed a pint after delivering his last barrel yesterday. He was joined by Ron Harper, who has retired as Arkell's signwriter for the past 14 years. Mr Harper has passed on his skills to apprentice Sara Bromley.

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Menu Tag Archives: sleepover This proves that I should always make “after the fact” posts, because despite being all geared up with my medical and workers comp projects, I ended up having Cassi come down and stay over last night… which was actually just the mental break that I needed from all of that stuff. 🙂 I mean, I did keep working on it as she was here, but with her as a distraction it kept it all from consuming my brain and occupying 100% of my thought cycles as I worked. 😳 But while she was here (among other progress) I got names, numbers, and addresses for every local doctor that may be accepting new patients, every local urgent care that appears to offer services greater than the “I skinned my knee” or “My butthole really itches” type stuff, and every oral surgeon in the area so I can get more serious about getting my remaining wisdom teefs cut out. 😬 I also got new info from BWC and my BWC Rx provider, so that stuff is in much better shape as well. And the pharmacy was also updated, so my meds might possibly, hopefully, maybe get filled in a more timely fashion. 🤨👨🏻‍⚕️ Now that I think about it, I probably got more done with her here than if she wasn’t. 🤨 And without getting twitchy. 🤷🏻‍♂️ She worked on several things that she needed to do as well, taking advantage of the relative peace and quiet here compared to her house full of family. 😌 Of course she gave her brain a break as well (the main point of her staying) by making and painting some picture frames, and catching up on the last few episodes of NCIS that she still had to watch on Netflix. 👱🏻‍♀️📺 I think Maven was even happy for the unexpected visit, ‘cuz she made up to Cassi way more than usual this time. 😸 We talked quite a bit about what’s going on with my health at the moment, along with all kinds of random thoughts that come along with that topic… so it was nice to be able to talk some of that stuff out with her. 👦🏻👱🏻‍♀️ I’m not exactly sure what the plan will be for tomorrow and Friday. 😐 Now that I’ve got all this info compiled I imagine I’ll start calling someone… meh… I’ll figure it out when that time gets here. I’m gonna stay in chill mode for the rest of the evening if possible. I took a couple of nights to myself after Genesee left the other day, and then apparently after subconsciously getting used to having someone here at the house – I decided to reach out to Cassi to see if she wanted to come stay for a night. (It actually ended up being two nights.) It had been a while since she had even been down here for a visit, let alone an overnighter, so she was more than happy to come on down. The first day and night were just lazy. 😏 Catching up with each other’s stuff, watching Netflix, and then her current passion/hobby is doing nails – so she brought all of her nail shit along with her to practice doing styles and designs as we sat there doing nothing. 💁🏻‍♀️🖐🏻🤚🏻 She even convinced me to give it a try myself, so I obliged and did the best that I could with my artwork. 🙄😅 (Shut up… I ain’t even embarrassed, but man was it tedious… lol) My “designs” even gave her some inspiration to work off of, so yay me. 😋 Like Genesee, Cassi is one of very few people that I can tolerate (and actually like having around) for extended periods of time, for whatever reason. Day two featured a quick run into town to get some pop and dinner, and we also stopped off at the thrift to grab a bag of clothes during their $5.00 sale. 😎 Day three, on the way to take Cassi back home, we had a short detour to go pick up Desiree and take her to the auto parts place. Someone put new brakes on her car but forgot a couple of bolts, so her car took a shit earlier that morning, requiring her to make a run for pieces parts. 😧😕 (I talked to her today though, and she said that it’s all better.) Even after hitting a couple more thrift stores in Columbus, I really didn’t come home with much of anything. A few shirts, some batteries, umm… 🤔 see… I can’t even remember if I got anything else, so it was obviously an unimpressive trip in that regard. I did get the new Samantha Fox autobiography, Forever, in the mail today when I woke up though, so I guess that’s my goody of the moment. (And proof that I eventually intend to make myself an effing book reader. 😄) So there ya have it. Basically a whole lot of nothin’ going on, but over the course of a few days there was just enough piddly shit that it seemed worthy of a blog entry. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Tags Share About the author Lady Jughead lives and writes in the city she loves and hates, Bombay. Without meaning to and harbouring mixed feelings about it (You’ll see the irony in just a bit), she’s forever wandering in the murkiness that exists between straight and gay, clear and clueless, butch and femme, cute and hot, and genius and insane. All of which leave her with a question that often occupies a significant portion of her cognitive capacity – is she Just Perfect or is she falling fast into the deep chasm of obscurity called Just Average? @S It’s never frightening for me. And it would be beautiful if that person ends up as yours. Not if you see them walking away into the sunset with someone else. Being in that place leaves me with so many feelings that after one point, I don’t know where one ends and the other begins. true true. But dear Lady J… think for a second like this: the very fact that someone had the ability to make you feel like this – that by itself is huge. Yes, it has its pain under the surface but see the immensity of the love for a moment – how rare and how wonderful for it to have come into your life even for as long as a heartbeat. No? Really? ok. Follow Gaysi Gaysi is a space where the Desi-Gay community comes together and shares personal stories, their triumphs and failures, their struggles and their dreams, their hopes and despair. And in doing so, gives other gaysis a sliver of hope too. More

MY 600 LB LIFE Gideon Yeakley shines with a brand new body–and a new baby girl Gideon Yeakley came to My 600 Lb Life in desperate straits. A guilt-wracked childhood, stemming from having to choose between his divorcing parents as a boy, led him to a weight of over 400 pounds at his high school graduation. The emotional eating that defined Gideon’s life only got worse following his mother’s death a few years later; by the time the My 600 Lb Life Giden Yeakley episode aired, Gideon weighed about 650 pounds. As viewers will recall, Gideon actually sunk into a *worse* depression following his successful bypass surgery: he was having no trouble sticking to his diet, but the greatly reduced caloric intake meant he was too lethargic and withdrawn to go out and about and look for work, as he’d intended to do. The strain on Gideon’s wife Kayleigh, and his seven-year-old son Jonathan, was palpable–and made worse by the fact that the family had uprooted from Oklahoma for the surgery: However, Gideon was down to 429 pounds by the end of the My 600 Lb Life Gideon Yeakley episode–meaning that, despite endless obstacles, he’d managed to lose a truly impressive 221 pounds, or 34% of his initial body weight. Since his episode aired last February, things have only continued to improve for Gideon. For one thing, he’s now small enough around for a child-sized Easter bunny to give him a wrap: In fact, per his last tweet–which was actually over a year ago–Gideon’s weight has continued to fall. At the time, he had lost approximately “half [his] starting weight”–or well over 300 pounds! (We should point out that although the My 600 Lb Life Gideon Yeakley episode listed his starting weight as 650 pounds, Gideon himself said it was actually 640, so there’s a little bit of a discrepancy. Still, it’s an incredible achievement, whether Gideon has lost 320 or 325 pounds!) And you’ve got to figure that Gideon would drop even farther if he chopped off his facial hair. Not that we’re suggesting he do so–Starcasm respects and appreciates a strong beard game: In even more exciting news, we’re happy to confirm that there is a new member of the Yeakley family! This past September, Gideon’s wife Kayleigh gave birth to the couple’s second child, a daughter named Frankie. We couldn’t find an exact birthday for Frankie, but Kayleigh shared this photo of her baby girl on September 27th, so the delivery likely happened sometime at the end of the month: Similarly, here’s a family photo that Kayleigh shared on September 10th. The image is notable for being one of the few Gideon Yeakley before-and-after photos that shows the My 600 Lb Life participant standing and offering a clear perspective on just how much weight he’s lost: Finally, we couldn’t resist this last embed. Here’s Gideon and Kayleigh’s birth announcement, featuring a smiling Jonathan, which they revealed last April: You can revisit the My 600 Lb Life Gideon Yeakley episode here. There’s no word yet on whether Gideon will be featured in the next batch of Where Are They Now? episodes, which currently expected to air in early 2019.

Most people don’t know it but there are over 700 different species of ants in the United Sates alone. One other crazy ant fact is that if you took the weight of all the ants in the world they would be more than all the weight of the humans in the world. Ants even...

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Chapter 590: Visiting Ling-Bao Hall Translator: Rain Editor: ChrissyLet alone how powerful Ye Nantian, the Great General was, the House of Ye had the power to wipe out Second Prince’s family in one day and their man could throw Second Prince down off the tower and defeat two great martial artists. Royal House didn’t have the capability to mess with them at all! If the king decided to turn against the House of Ye, he would certainly lose and be laughed at! … Ling-Bao Hall. Ye Xiao was lying on the bed after dealing with some small business. He was thinking of the day when Xiu of the Heavens would bring him more materials. He thought of the nine thousand more meteoric iron, and was filled with happiness… Suddenly… "The king is coming!" It was reported to the entire Ling-Bao Hall! Wan Zhenghao was shouting as loudly as he could. "Sweep the floor! Hurry! Damn it!" "This way! Here…" "There… There!" "You… Hey! Go get on that thing…" "You, you and you…" "Guards, marshals!" "Hurry up! For god’s sake! You assassins get the hell back to your rooms and sleep through it… You will be doomed if you got caught by the royal guards…" "Oh for fxck’s sake! I know you are assassins. You can pretend not, can’t you…" "Hurry! Red carpets…" "Clean it, you fool! Fxck! The front hall is still making deals… I will be damned…" Wan Zhenghao jumped up and down, busy like hell. He was a rich man. He was the richest man in the world! But apparently, he had never met a king so closely! He had received a king before, but it was in the auction. There were so many treasures on sale. The king came to the auction because he should, but he didn’t even say a word to Wan Zhenghao. Now, however, was different. The king came to his place on purpose. That was something he had never experienced before. Boss Wan really hadn’t seen a king so close before. This was record breaking. That was why he was particularly thrilled! It was like there was a clockwork in his butt, making him jump up and down in excitement. His fat face was all red. Wan Zhenghao was definitely better than any king in Land of Han-Yang on wealth, experience, knowledge and age. He could see a king with disdainfulness if he wanted, however, he was just too low. He wasn’t like the richest man in the world at all. He just heard that the king was coming for a visit, and he was so flattered, ready to suck up to the king. That was so low… After that, his excitement was forcibly suppressed down by somebody else. "What is it?" Feng Monarch frowned as he showed a dark face. He showed up at the stairs, looking down at those who were busy doing things with dissatisfaction. "Wan Zhenghao, what the hell are you doing? Are you insane?" Wan rushed over with excitement, talking incoherently, "Monarch, his majesty, his majesty is… is coming…" "So what? Is he an old friend to you whom you haven’t met in bed for a long time?" Feng Monarch looked down at him. "Urh…" Wan Zhenghao felt like he was thrown cold water on. He faltered. "No… I am not that kind." "No… Then why are you acting like you are sexually aroused?" Feng Monarch looked at him with disappointment. "As the boss of Ling-Bao Hall, you should be more sober and steady-going! Understand?" Boss Wan stared at him. He couldn’t believe it. "Monarch, that is the king we are talking about…" He thought maybe Feng Monarch mistook it. He kept emphasizing it, "The king! It’s the king of the Kingdom of Chen… Ahhh…" Feng Monarch took a long breath out and sighed. He looked at Wan Zhenghao with many emotions in the eyes such as ‘mud can never hold the wall’, ’this is so shameful’ and ‘how do I end up having you as my understrapper’. He sighed and said, "I know he is the king. He is the owner of this land. So what? What? Is he going to crown you or something?" Wan Zhenghao was shocked. "No." "Or maybe you want him to give you a chance to be an official?" "Urhh… Maybe he wants to, but I really don’t like it." "Or maybe he will give you money?" "Urh… It is always me giving him money. The kingdom is never going to give us money." "Is he going to swear brotherhood with you?" "Hmm… Maybe he wants to, but I don’t like it either." "Can he give you a wife?" "Maybe he can and he plans to, but I still don’t like it. I don’t need a wife. I don’t need it!" "Will he kill you if he feels offended by you?" "Not really. Even though he may want to, but he wouldn’t dare." "He is going to give you anything you need? What he can offer are things you don’t like. Then why are you so excited?" Ye Xiao looked at him and disappointedly said, "Look at your spiritless face! What the hell did you learn during all the years you have lived?" Wan Zhenghao was enlightened. He was shocked. He felt ashamed! He then gradually realized it. [That’s right. The king comes, so he does. It has nothing good to do to me. Why am I excited? What for?] "Wan Zhenghao, you are the boss of Ling-Bao Hall. You have lived over three thousand years! You are the richest man in the world. You have a group of assassins under your command, including the three top assassins in the league. Ling-Bao Hall has just posted the reward warrant with the biggest bounty in the history! You should stay higher than any king in this world! You must be sober! You must stay firm! You must be stable! Calm down! You are a great figure! Understand?" Feng Monarch was giving him a lesson. Wan Zhenghao was ashamed. He could only agree. "However, things should be done to greet our guest after all. You just need to pay attention to your self-status." Ye Xiao solemnly spoke, "A powerful man’s heart will not be influenced by anybody!" "Thanks for your guidance, Monarch!" Wan Zhenghao was convinced. … The king and his people finally arrived. The first feeling he had was, [Great Ling-Bao Hall indeed!] [So unique!] [The legendary place indeed!] Ling-Bao Hall was quiet and clean. Red carpets were on the floor, and business was paused for the visit. However, the people in it were all steady and calm. They were polite. But they didn’t seem thrilled at all, even when the king arrived! He couldn’t feel any greasiness at all. Only respect, but it stayed within the boundary of respect. The king praised in his mind. [This may be the only group of people I have ever seen who are so polite but not flattering in my country…] He looked over and suddenly got astonished by what he saw! He saw a giant fat guy stepping out from inside the hall. There should be a poem for this unbelievably fat guy. Realms In The Firmament is a Fantasy novels, some original, some translated from Chinese. Themes of heroism, of valor, of ascending to Immortality, of combat, of magic, of Eastern mythology and legends. Updated with awesome new content daily. Come join us for a relaxing read that will take you to brave new worlds! A paradise for readers!

We aspire to nurture artistic ability in people of all ages. We create a supportive, non-competitive, community-based environment in which all can strive for creative excellence. The Valhalla Fine Arts Society is a registered charitable organization . Educate We offer summer and after-school programs in music, theatre and dance to students of all ages, led by high quality instructors. Support Our bursary programs assist young people with the cost of studying music privately or taking part in our programming. Present We present performances throughout the year by youth, program alumni and professionals. Where we play . . . . . . . Connector. Beauty Overlooked by mountains on all sides, just far enough off the beaten path to remain relatively undiscovered, the little villages of New Denver and Silverton boast million-dollar views. Connector. Health Clean air, clean water, and a slower pace of life. You can breathe deeply here.

Tag Archives: Covid-19 It is generally acknowledged that New Zealand’s Covid-19 Strategy has been one of the most successful throughout the world in tackling the virus. Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand (pictured above), announced this week that the country’s health … Continue reading → All the flights and flight-inclusive holidays on this website are financially protected by the ATOL scheme under Silver Fern Holidays ATOL number 5305. When you pay you will be supplied with an ATOL Certificate. Please ask for it and check to ensure that everything you booked (flights, hotels and other services) is listed on it. Please see our booking conditions for further information or for more information about financial protection and the ATOL Certificate go to: www.atol.org.uk/ATOLCertificate.

Regional Winners 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize 30-Apr-2015 Commonwealth Writers announced the regional winners of the 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize on 28th April, 2015. The Prize provides a platform for writers from the 53 countries of the Commonwealth to inspire others by bringing compelling short stories to a wider audience. This year unpublished stories were entered by 4,000 writers from the five regions of the Commonwealth. The international judges reflect these regions: Leila Aboulela, (Africa), Bina Shah (Asia), Marina Endicott (Canada and Europe), Fred D’Aguiar (the Caribbean) and Witi Ihimaera (the Pacific). This year’s Chair, Romesh Gunesekera, said of the winning stories: ‘We had a strong short-list of stories from around the world that excited the judges and provoked a lively, stimulating set of discussions. The judges were looking for well-crafted stories that were compelling and original. The standards were high. We wanted stories that would engage us and make us rethink our notions of form, language and what mattered. The winning stories did all of that and more. Thank you writers.’ From the exuberant tone of ‘King of Settlement 4’, rooted in the language and place of Trinidad, to the beautifully written and evocative ‘Famished Eels’ set in Fiji but which crosses continents, these best of the prize entries show the diversity and range of stories across the Commonwealth. Events to celebrate the regional winners will be held in local venues and locations, relevant to the individual authors, across the world, including a Chinese restaurant in London, a book store in New Delhi and a literary centre in Minneapolis, USA. The regional winners will compete with each other to become the overall winner, which will be announced in London on 8 September. Further details of the authors and links to their winning stories can be found on the regional winners page. www.commonwealthwriters.org/2015-commonwealth-short-story-prize-regional-winners Commonwealth Writers has a partnership with Granta magazine which each year publishes some of the regional winners on Granta online. The 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize is part funded by the Sigrid Rausing Trust. Commonwealth Writers also has an association with the London-based literary and media agency Blake Friedmann, which will work with selected writers identified through the Prize.

Missouri Revised Statutes Chapter 214 Cemeteries Section 214.190 August 28, 2014 Cemetery not subject to execution, dower or partition--exception. 214.190. Lands or property, set apart as burial grounds, either for public or private use, and so recorded in the recorder's office of the county where such lands are situated, or any burial ground that may have been used as such for ten years shall not be subject to sale on execution, to dower, nor to compulsory partition; provided, that the lands so appropriated and set apart as a private burial ground shall not exceed one acre in area or one hundred dollars in value; and provided further, that nothing contained in this section shall be so construed as to exempt any such burial ground or cemetery property from being liable for special assessments for street improvements, when such assessment is levied by an incorporated city in this state.

Our system has found that you are using an ad-blocking browser add-on. We just wanted to let you know that our site content is, of course, available to you absolutely free of charge. Our ads are the only way we have to be able to bring you the latest high-quality content, which is written by professional journalists, with the help of editors, graphic designers, and our site production and I.T. staff, as well as many other talented people who work around the clock for this site. So, we ask you to add this site to your Ad Blocker’s "white list" or to simply disable your Ad Blocker while visiting this site. Bing and DuckDuckGo are both getting a boost in Apple's coming mobile and desktop operating systems, allowing the company to take traffic away from Google. On Monday, Apple revealed it would be moving away from Google as its default search provider and would replace it with Microsoft's Bing. The change will affect Spotlight on OS X Yosemite and all future versions of iOS starting with iOS 8. During last year's WWDC, Apple announced that it was switching to Bing for Siri's Web search but the impact on Google is much more significant with this year's update. Google is involved in many industries, but Search is still the source of much of its revenue, so any move against Search can cost Google millions. Changing the Default Starting with iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, almost all of Apple's devices will be using Bing as the default search engine in Spotlight, and it is possible that Safari could be changed to Bing in the future as well. Spotlight is getting an overall upgrade in both of the new operating systems as it will be used to search local files and the Web. Safari on Yosemite will also use Spotlight, which means that searches through the address bar should go through Bing rather than Google. Spotlight has been the default search tool on Mac computers for years and many people use it on a daily basis to find files that are on their computer. Now that Web search is enabled in Spotlight and will be utilizing Bing, Google will lose out on even more traffic. With Apple's increased focus on using Bing wherever it can, it also seems less plausible that Yahoo's rumored bid to become Safari's default search engine would be accepted. Safari will continue to default to Google for now but if that were to change, the momentum seems to be in the direction of Bing rather than Yahoo. Adding in DuckDuckGo Defaults will not change but Safari will be updated in iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite to support DuckDuckGo, the most well-known private search engine. If users want to manually enable DuckDuckGo, they can use it as the default search option, whereas before, there were only a few mainstream options available outside of Google. Letting people choose DuckDuckGo on their Macs, iPhones, iPads, and iPods will benefit both the search engine and users. DuckDuckGo received a large amount of attention in 2013 when people were looking for a secure and private alternative to Google. Now that switching to the service is easier, more people will have the option to protect their information and not have it used to sell advertisements. Integrating DuckDuckGo is yet another way that Apple is targeting Google as it provides yet one more way for people to avoid using Google Search. Plus, DuckDuckGo vows to not collect data for advertising purposes, whereas that is the primary way Google makes its money. Have been using ixQuick and Startpage for a while because I am allergic to Google's tracking. It is appalling to read that Apple can limit the choices of users of iDevices. Another good reason to stay away from the walled orchard.