τlag.
+Other metrics defined for this study are and . The first one represents the ratio between the wake deviation duration and the maneuver duration . The second represents the ratio between the advection velocity and the reference wind speed, where the advection velocity is defined as the ratio between the streamwise spacing Δx between the upstream WT model and the downstream location where the wake deviation is investigated (or where the downstream wind turbine model is located) and the delay between the start of the maneuver and the start of the wake deviation . In order to obtain intermediate information between the upstream WT wake deviation and the response in terms of thrust modification on the downstream WT, the same metrics were also calculated for the available wind power density at the downstream WT position (see Sect. 3.2).
+Figure 7Example of cycle-averaged thrust coefficient history during yaw maneuver for configuration HIT2a P2. Positive yaw variation (a) and negative yaw variation (b). Symbols: black line: Δγ*; blue line: ; red dotted line: ; fitted, black dashed line: start and end thresholds. Data are fitted for τ>τlag.
+All the metrics applied to the dynamic wake deviation of the upstream WT, and to the thrust variation in the downstream WT, are summarized in Tables 3 and 4, respectively. It is important to mention that for cases 10 and 11, the yaw maneuver speed was doubled in order to evaluate the influence of a speed-up.
+Table 3Dynamic wake deviation metrics.
+Download Print VersionDownload XLSX
+Table 4Dynamic thrust metrics.
+Download Print VersionDownload XLSX
+5.2 Transient durations
+The first parameter to analyze in order to characterize the dynamical consequences of the yaw maneuver is , since this parameter is useful to compare the duration of the yaw maneuver with the duration of the induced wake flow and load modifications. Figure 8 shows an intuitive visual way of analyzing ; by plotting and against the maneuver duration Δτm, values far from the diagonal line indicate a dynamic behavior of the wake deviation or of the thrust variation different than the yaw maneuver. If values are below the diagonal, the response to the maneuver is faster than the yaw maneuver duration; if values are above the diagonal, the response to the maneuver is slower than the maneuver duration. The results are classified according to the disc porosity level and the yaw maneuver direction. In general, wake deviation durations are all around the line, except for one outlier (case 11) where the difference can be explained by a higher RMSE for the fitting procedure (due to a more scattered wake center evolution). No significant difference between the wake dynamics and the yaw maneuver can be noticed, regardless of the disc porosity levels and the flow conditions. In contrast, thrust variation durations are in general lower than the yaw maneuver duration. The influence of the porosity level can be noticed, and in general, cases of negative yaw variation evolve faster than cases of positive yaw variation, especially for porosity level P1. Concerning the cases of higher yaw maneuver speed, no clear trend is visible on the effect of porosity and yaw maneuver. This may be due to the smaller number of cases analyzed, but generally a higher yaw maneuver speed does not seem to significantly impact the behavior of the downstream WT thrust variation.
+Figure 8(a) Wake deviation duration versus the yaw motion duration. (b) Thrust variation duration versus the yaw motion duration. Summary of all the treated cases. Symbols: ▴ positive yaw maneuver duration; ▾ negative yaw maneuver duration. Colors: red for porosity P1 and green for porosity P2.
+In Tables 3 and 4, the fitting coefficient c that represents the transient variation rate is given. There is a direct relationship between this parameter and the dimensionless transient durations Δθ*(τ) and deduced from thresholds (Sect. 5.1). This fitting parameter is not further exploited in the present study, but its robustness suggests that it could be used to set up dynamic models of the wake deviation or of the thrust variation.
+5.3 Transient starts and ends
+In order to obtain more detailed knowledge of the timing characteristics and the history of modification, it is important to check and for wake deviation, available wind power density and thrust variations, since values give information about the time delays before the upstream WT wake starts deflecting, before the available wind power density for the downstream WT is modified and then before the thrust applied to the downstream WT starts increasing. values inform about the delays necessary for the stabilization of all the variations in the final state.
+Figure 9 shows a summary of the time parameters, through a timeline representation for the wake deviation, the available wind power density and the thrust variations. The transient duration values are also shown in a parallel plot to facilitate reading. From the analysis of the aforementioned parameters, several conclusions on the wake dynamics can be drawn. In general, the wake deviation transient (green timelines) has a slightly shorter duration and starts later for the negative yaw variation than for the positive one. As explained in Sect. 5.1, a time delay between the start of the yaw maneuver and the wake deviation is expected since the wake deviation is observed at a certain downstream distance. Air mass needs time to travel from the upstream WT model to the downstream location of interest. This wake transport velocity, or advection velocity, is generally assessed as equal to the free-stream velocity Uref (Trujillo et al., 2011), but some previous studies also proposed a lower value due to the velocity deficit within the wake of 0.8Uref (Machefaux et al., 2015) or an average between the free-stream velocity and the wake speed (Bossanyi, 2018; Keck et al., 2014). This information is checked through the ratio reported in Table 3. The ratio is presently close to 1 for a positive yaw maneuver and around 0.8 for a negative yaw maneuver. A detailed analysis of timing parameters does not provide any evidence of a major effect of the porosity on the wake deviation behavior. Concerning the cases of higher yaw maneuver speed, no particular impact of the yaw maneuver speed on the wake response is visible. Theoretically, the fitting coefficient τ*lag lag (Tables 3 and 4) can be interpreted as a time delay before the transient starts. The relationship between this parameter and will be investigated in Sect. 5.4 together with the relation between c and the transient duration.
+Figure 9Timeline representation of the wake deviation, the available wind power density and the thrust variations for different porosity levels and flow conditions. For panels (a) and (b) the horizontal bar extremes represent the start and the end of the studied phenomenon. (a) Positive yaw maneuver main parameters. (b) Negative yaw maneuver main parameters. (c) Positive yaw maneuver duration. (d) Negative yaw maneuver duration. Colors are as follows. Green: values retrieved by the center wake position; black: values retrieved by the wind power density; red: values retrieved by the thrust variations; gray: expected yaw maneuver duration.
+Figure 9 also presents the transient parameters for the available wind power density deduced from the wake measurement by PIV at the downstream location where the second WT model will be installed (black timelines). Systematic differences in the timing parameters of this available wind power density compared to the wake center deviation are visible, with shorter starting time delays for the positive yaw maneuver and longer ones for the negative yaw maneuver. As this value is obtained by a space integration of the wake velocity, it illustrates that the modification of the overall wake velocity field can be different from the modification of the wake center position, which is a more local indicator and for which the range of deviation to be captured is very small. This available wind power density dynamics also illustrates how the incoming flow will dynamically impact the downstream WT model and modify its corresponding thrust. It was therefore expected that the thrust transient starts and ends (red timelines) will be systematically later than the available wind power ones. The additional time delay between both would represent the WT model response to the modification of the incoming flow. This trend is not verified in the present results since both situations can be observed. The reasoning was based on the hypothesis that the induction zone of the downstream WT model does not play a role in its dynamic process, which is clearly not true.
+The thrust variation starts later for a positive yaw maneuver than for a negative one. This trend is in opposition with the wake deviation behavior and contradicts the assumption that one can use the same time delay due to advection for the upstream WT wake deviation and for the downstream WT thrust variation.
+5.4 Interpretation of fitting law coefficients
+In this section, an evaluation of the fitting coefficients of the exponential law is done with respect to the timing parameters used for the transient analysis. In Fig. 10a, the wake deviation duration is plotted against the c coefficient of the fitting law for both positive and negative maneuver and porosity levels, while in Fig. 10b, the same analysis is done for the thrust variation duration . Generally c has a very clear correlation with the duration for both wake deviation and thrust variation cases. Indeed, it is possible to retrieve, by linear fitting imposing the fit law to pass through the origin, a linear relationship that links c to both wake deviation and thrust variation duration. This linear fitting was done separately for the wake deviation and thrust variation but led to the same slope of 0.93:
+where Δτ* is or the wake deviation duration either the thrust variation duration . These results confirm the robustness of the fit coefficient c, although the reason that c is constantly lower than the phenomenon duration has still to be investigated. In Fig. 11a, the start of the wake deviation is plotted against the coefficient of the exponential fitting laws for both positive and negative maneuver and porosity levels. In Fig. 11b, the same analysis is done for the start of the thrust variation. Several considerations on the coefficient can be made. Indeed, although a higher scatter than for the c coefficient can be observed, also shows a detectable trend. The thrust data seem to have lower scatter than the wake deviation data, and this could be related to the higher time resolution of the load measurements. There is generally a bias between the values that oscillate between 1 and 2 τ0. This could be partially attributed to the threshold value used for the determination.
+Figure 10(a) Wake deviation duration versus the c fitting coefficient of the exponential laws. (b) Thrust variation duration versus the c fitting coefficient of the exponential fitting laws. Summary of all the treated cases. Symbols: ▴ positive yaw maneuver duration; ▾ negative yaw maneuver duration. Colors: red for porosity P1 and green for porosity P2.
+Figure 11(a) Wake deviation start versus the fitting coefficient of the exponential laws. (b) Thrust variation start versus the fitting coefficient of the exponential laws. Summary of all the treated cases. Symbols: ▴ positive yaw maneuver duration; ▾ negative yaw maneuver duration. Colors: red for porosity P1 and green for porosity P2.
+In conclusion, the fitting laws implemented for the dynamic yaw conditions seem to be exploitable for a generalization of a law describing the transition phenomenon. In particular, the c coefficient has proven to be quite robust to be used in an empirical law to model the transient. Regarding the coefficient, although its physical signification is clear, its implementation in an empirical law demands more caution. Indeed, the measured values do not follow a trend as clear as the one observed for the duration coefficient. This is probably due to the specificity of this parameter, which is directly linked to the start of the phenomenon, and consequently it is more sensible to dispersion. Nevertheless, , being representative of advection, could be adjusted by making some simple advection hypothesis. The higher robustness of the c parameter, being representative of the transient duration, can probably be due to the fact that it better damps the scatter of and , which are generally concordant (both either overestimated or underestimated). At this stage, further exploitation of these data and studies have to be done in view of the implementation of an empirical model.
+The aerodynamic characterization of the wake of a wind turbine model and its effect on the load of a similar downstream wind turbine model consequent to a dynamic positive (misalignment scenario) or negative (realignment scenario) yaw variation were experimentally studied for different incoming flow conditions, Reynolds scales and induction factors by using porous discs. Wake deviation, available wind power or thrust variations were the main metrics estimated from PIV and aerodynamic load measurements. First, the wake deviation angle and the thrust coefficient of the downstream wind turbine model were analyzed as a function of different yaw angles in static conditions. Then, the duration, start and end of the temporal response of the metrics to a dynamic yaw variation were estimated and compared. The main results are summarized below. Overall results do not show any noticeable influence of the flow conditions (homogeneous isotropic flows or atmospheric boundary layer flow), or of the Reynolds scales on the static and dynamical properties of the different metrics. The influence of the degree of physical modeling of the wind turbine (porous disc versus rotating wind turbine model) on the results had not been studied since it was assumed that this feature does not play a major role in the yawed far-wake dynamics, but this question needs to be further investigated. Concerning the characterization of the magnitude of the wake deviation in static yaw conditions, results show that the wake deviation is 1 order of magnitude lower than the yaw increment and that the relationship between the wake deviation and the yaw angles is nonlinear as previously found in the literature. In the case of a higher porosity level, the thrust increment is much lower than in the case of lower porosity. However, while a relevant influence of the porosity on the wake deviation angle and thrust magnitude of the downstream wind turbine model is found in static conditions, no significant influence of porosity is observed in dynamic yaw variation conditions. On the other hand, in these conditions, the analysis of the three metrics reveals different temporal characteristics depending on whether yaw variation is positive or negative. In general, the wake deviation transient has slightly shorter duration and starts later for the negative yaw variation than for the positive one. A proper knowledge of such effects could help to determine the time necessary for the wake steering to totally develop. Conversely, the thrust variation starts later for the positive yaw maneuver than for the negative one. The influence of the yaw maneuver speed was tested, and doubling the yaw maneuver speed does not seem to influence the wake or load dynamics. Finally, the study shows that the same dynamical properties of the wake of the upstream wind turbine and load variation in the downstream wind turbine cannot be generalized to any yaw variation configurations and that the advection velocity should be assumed to be different according to the yaw maneuver direction. A first step in proposing fitting coefficients was made in order to support a dynamic model of the wake deviation or the thrust for positive or negative yaw variations. However, further development will be performed to confirm the reliability of the proposed models.
+Post-processed data can be made available upon request.
+SA, AL and NG co-supervised the PhD work of SM. SM contributed to the design of the experimental set-ups, conducted all experiments, and processed and analyzed all data. SM, SA, AL and NG contributed to the interpretation of the results. SM, SA and AL contributed to the manuscript writing.
+The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
+The present work is part of a PhD co-funded by Labex Caprysses and Engie.
+This research has been supported by Labex Caprysses (ANR-11-LABX-0006-01) and Engie SA.
+This paper was edited by Raúl Bayoán Cal and reviewed by Nicholas Hamilton and one anonymous referee.
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+Vetiver Systems Technology Dissemination and Adoption Issues
+Criss Juliard in his paper "Best Practices Establishing a National Vetiver Diffusion Program" (see TVN Newsletter #21) asks the question "If Vetiver Grass Technology is so simple, inexpensive and good for the health of the soil, why isn't it promoted more broadly on a national scale in the same way vaccinations are promoted to preserve an individual's health?"
+I would add "why do some farmers and engineers use the technology and others dont".
+These questions and others like them must be answered if we are to move ahead more rapidly with the application and use of Vetiver Systems as we now refer to a bundle of vetiver grass technologies.
+Criss Juliard continues "The answer is not related to the attractiveness of the technology, but to the challenge of dissemination".
+I agree.
+I would like to illustrate this challenge by some experiences good and bad.
+Thailand has done wonderful work in researching and demonstrating VS but it has not been used as widely as should be expected. Research in Thailand carried out by Suchart Montrekusol et al of the Graduate School Chiang Mai University, Thailand Faculty of Agriculture - Extension Department, titled "Farmers' Perception and Practices in Vetiver Grass Cultivation (Vetiveria zizanioides nash) for Soil and Water Conservation in Mae Rim District, Chiang Mai Province" had the following observations and conclusions:
+Most farmers applied integrated farming systems. 88% percent of the farmers accessed agricultural information through neighbors and television, while they received information on using vetiver grass for soil and water conservation from government extension workers.
+Farmers' knowledge and understanding of soil conservation and soil fertility were good. Their perception and understanding of soil and water conservation using vetiver grass were also at a good level.
+The problems identified included: inappropriate timing in delivery of vetiver seedlings, insufficient knowledge on vetiver grass field application, insufficient labor and equipment, and insufficient knowledge on the other uses of vetiver grass.
+This research suggests that the responsible government agency should transfer more knowledge on the use of VS and its application. Extension workers should visit farmers more often to participate in solving problem.
+The above confirms, as in other countries such as India and Indonesia, that most government extension services are not very motivated and are dependent on other arms of government to provide, in the case of VS, basic planting material to farmers. Additionally in all three countries soil conservation is the responsibility of specialized soil conservation departments who may or may not support VS, and if they do they tend to look rather narrowly at to its use and applications and fail to promote all the other valuable aspects of the technology, including, moisture conservation, fertility maintenance, mulching, forage, thatch, etc. There biggest failure is the inability to manage the supply of plant material.
+In contrast, in Zambia, the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) - - has been working with VS in the Eastern Province. CRWRC describes its program below.
+"The Government of Zambia introduced Vetiver grass to the Eastern Province of Zambia late in 1996, so to date we have had 4 growing seasons. The initial supply was managed by Agriculture Officers of the government, but one facilitator of the Reformed Church in Zambia's Planning and Development Department (RCZPDD) received 250 splits to establish a nursery where water was available. The nursery stock grew well and since that time the program has been giving vetiver splits to farmers from the nursery every year. In this specific location farmers only receive small amounts of vetiver and are responsible for propagating and replanting their own vetiver. In other areas that RCZPDD works, facilitators now network with government officers to get farmers larger amounts of around 5000 splits of vetiver.
+Because the program often introduces farmers to vetiver along side several other soil stabilizing and improvement techniques, it is difficult to assess the actual amount of improved maize yield that is due to vetiver. Vetiver is introduced and supplied to farmers only when contour bunds are properly measured and earthen contour ridges (of about 6 high) are constructed. Often this will encourage the farmer to change their plowing and planting lines to follow the contour. While weeding farmers often pile dirt along the row of the crop creating micro contour ridges. Farmers have been very happy with these techniques and have found little to no run-off, and increased moisture retention. In the past farmers reported that after a rain fall surface moisture could be gone in 1 to 3 days. With contour bunds, contour planting and ridging, farmers have found that surface moisture will be present for 1 to 3 weeks. This has makes a big difference, early in the growing season, when the rains are irregular. Farmers have found that having vetiver on the contour bunds stabilizes them, reduces labor intensive annual maintenance, and prevents them breaching at the time of heavy rain. (Few slopes are greater then 5 degrees.) We have found that if farmers plant vetiver on their contour bunds they are more likely to continue establishing contour bunds with vetiver.
+Although many more farmers have implemented contour bunds then have planted vetiver, we have found that if a farmer starts with vetiver he will be convinced of it, and will continue to plant it and will give splits to others as well. Farmers who experimented with vetiver in problem areas where erosion was a clear problem found that it takes about two years to become well established, but after that there will be little erosion and the former gullies will be filled in. One farmer had a wash out that was as deep as his leg. Now, four years latter you can't tell there was ever a problem. This farmer is convinced, and has been giving vetiver splits to fellow farmers to help them with problem areas. Farmers generally take splits from the existing band while leaving half of it there if they have no nursery. The original line will not be weakened much. Farmers have found that drought resistance (Zambia experiences 7 1/2 to 8 consecutive months with no rain) is not a problem if new splits are planted two months before the ends of the rains. Once established lack of moisture hasn't been a problem at all.
+Farmers have found that vetiver does need a bit of maintenance. Some farmers like to cut it back to 50cm, which can be done quite easily with a very sharp sickle at the beginning of the rainy season. In some cases this is done to take out the dead shoots and to stimulate new growth, in other cases it is done so the farmer can plant closer to the vetiver. Some farmers also see it as necessary to clean around the base of the plants at the end of the growing season. Grass fires are a big problem in Zambia so cleaning dead growth from the base of the plants could prevent the grass fires from burning established stands. However, farmers have reported that if a row of vetiver is burnt it will grow back again. No problems were found with vetiver spreading or causing other problems. Animals were reported to eat a bit of it, which appears not to harm either plant or animal. In the event that a plant does die out farmers have waited until the next rainy season to replant.
+While the idea of planting vetiver on contour bunds in Zambia is relatively new, contour bunds themselves are not. With vetiver becoming more available and with farmers understanding its potential we feel that contour bunds will become more permanent structure. In the past, with only earth structures contour bunds not only broke with excess water, but if they where not maintained for a year or two they virtually disappeared. With vetiver established on ridges, contour ridges will maintain themselves much better and become very permanent structures, encouraging other soil conservation and water retention techniques".
+The above appears to be a successful introduction of VS by an NGO after a government agency had taken the first introductory steps. Note the NGO actively works to bring plant material to participating farmers and is also working with the government conservation agency.
+Another example of NGO/community success with vetiver is LASOS in Mexico. In 1995, a small local group called Suelos Agua y Semillas de Oaxaca (SASO) found a source of vetiver grass near Oaxaca. SASO became an NGO called LASOS, A.C. in 1997, and with the help of the Comisión Oaxaqueña de Defensa Ecologica, started a programme for erosion control and soil restoration involving local farmers, communities, government and non-government organizations and researchers. Originally, SASO began the project with 40 plants and there are now more than 50 nurseries growing Vetiver grass throughout the state. Vetiver grass has been grown successfully in all the major soil and climate conditions of Oaxaca. Hedgerows are already beginning to form natural terraces and groups of women are cultivating vegetable gardens between the hedges. We have many other examples of this type of program, but in nearly every case success has occurred where NGOs and other agencies have worked together with farmer communities.
+The CGIAR research institutes have generally not shown much interest in VS. I am not sure why (perhaps "a not invented here" problem) and yet some individuals within these institutions have extended the technology significantly within their area of operation. Julio Algere - the ICRAF head in Peru after visiting Kenya and seeing vetivers potential and took the technology to Peru, he writes:
+You will not believe it but the 10 vetiver slips that I brought from Nairobi, Kenya, 5 years ago, and propagated in Yurimaguas, Peru (humid tropics) and distributed to many sites in Peru and are now used by many farmers in ecosystems from the sea level up to 4,000 m. above sea level. Most of the developments projects from the highlands (very sloping areas) are requesting the vetiveria and farmers from the tropics are supplying these material and they are getting very good economic benefits. Next phase of my research will be to combine agroforestry leguminous trees with vetiveria for double benefit, soil conservation and nutrient recycling in sloping areas of the high jungle of Peru."
+The extraordinary but sad thing is that ICRAF headquarters in Kenya appears to take no notice of the success of their own man!
+Criss Juliard, who developed a very effective vetiver program in Madagascar, summarizes what he considers the ingredients for successful VS dissemination:
+"Madagascar is a best-case experience where a need to protect roads, safeguard hillsides, and improve poor agricultural soils in a particular area helped catalyze and shape a broad-based, national vetiver dissemination program. This program appears to have led to the sustainability of the technology. The Madagascar approach evolved over a three-year period and consisted of actions that a) brought interested people and organizations together committed to vetiver, b) insured reliable and timely supply of vetiver plants to end-users, and c) applied vetiver technology according to site-specific needs. The approach was low cost, involved information campaigns, used demonstration sites for practical applications, and benefited from research and applications developed in other countries. Success can be attributed in part to close relationships with the four target groups in the vetiver communications and implementation plan: a) village associations, b) private producers, c) local elected officials, and d) professional organizations, ministries and donors. Lessons learned from the Madagascar program could prove useful to practitioners hoping to establish a broad-based and sustainable vetiver program elsewhere."
+Criss Juliard is highly sensitive to environmental needs and to groups working with the environment. He has a "green thumb" and is totally committed to the technology. I believe people like him can develop VS programs anywhere they work. He is a real vetiver champion just like Ed Balbarino of the Philippines, Liyu Xu of China, Alemu Mekonnen of Ethiopia, and the many other committed volunteers that have made vetiver work in communities.
+In recent years the engineering sector has become more interested in VS. This can be attributed to a number of factors. Diti Hengchaovanich, a Thai CEO of a Malaysian construction company, introduced VS to highway construction (following early demonstration by P.K.Yoon) for the stabilization of steep slopes on express ways in Malaysia. Hengchaovanich initiated research to better understand the tensile strength of vetiver roots and their impact on improving the shear strength of soil. This work attracted the interest of engineers particularly in Australia and China. Demonstrations by Paul Truong in Australia showed the effectiveness of vetiver on extreme soils, and following a workshop for Chinese highway engineers, VS came alive in south China.
+In South China 80% of all sediment flow is estimated to be point source from construction and mining sites. Liyu Xu, China Vetiver Network Coordinator, decided to focus his attention on the key agencies responsible for this construction, primarily highway, railroad, and municipal departments. He first focussed on highway engineers, and is now working with railroad engineers. This approach seems to have been successful as there are now many applications of VS being used on extreme sites in South China. In parallel, the Chinese private landscaping sector has become interested in vetiver and a number of companies are getting in to the VS business. They are learning fast, and in particular are learning that the production of large quantities of plant material is essential for a successful program, and also that quality VS application is very important.
+In El Salvador a commercial company, NOBS, has been very successful in promoting VS, particularly in the highway sector. Its success is a result of committed leadership, huge plant supplies, and a technology that is low cost and very effective.
+So where are we in the dissemination, promotion, adoption cycle? I think we are moving along quite well, and I believe we are about to enter a phase of an accelerated use of VS.
+Why?
+In conclusion the involvement by NGOs, and more lately the commercial sector has been very good for VS. NGOs generally have a comprehensive approach and supply leadership, advice and plant material to the communities that they work with. The commercial sector has profit motive as priority, and therefore will work hard to market the technology to potential users, particularly those in the construction and engineering industries. The commercial sector will also develop large vetiver nurseries for their own needs, as well as providing a plant supply source for start up NGO operations.
+Not all government vetiver initiatives have been a failure, the more successful are those linked to comprehensive development projects that provide both the technical advice and plant material to farmers, and where government policy makers and senior field staff are convinced of VS as a solution. Stand alone extension services (such as Training & Visit syatem) that provide advice but no inputs have generally not been very successful (India, Indonesia and Thailand). The best vetiver programs will be those that link government, NGOs and the commercial sector with the users that they serve backed by an initial supply of plant material.
+Dick Grimshaw, Bellingham. March 2001
+ one-shot angst version of my multi-chapter ficcie Bridge To My Heart (posted only on my website). Like the other one, it is an A/U ficcie and all the characters will be OOC (out-of-character). Kenshin finds a distraught young girl on a bridge. She is preparing to jump. Can he convince her not to jump before it is too late? A Bridge to my Heart (Angst Version), Romance/Angst Fanfiction by Gypsy-chan Enjoy! (Created by Gypsy-chan on 2/15/03, revised 7/2004, re-editied and posted 5/25/05)
+ANGST VERSION
+One dark and misty evening a beautiful young girl stood upon the highest bridge in Tokyo. The bridge overlooked the waters of Tokyo Harbor. The young raven haired girl stood on the opposite side of the guard railing with her arms looped around the underside of the railing. She seemed to be waiting for the right moment to let go. Unbeknownst to her, a man was watching from the shadows. He noticed how she leaned her body forward, carefully releasing one hand off the railing, before quickly regrasping it. The young girl did this several times as if she was torn between life or death. Finally, after an intense internal struggle, the young girl had made her decision. With eyes closed tightly, she inhaled deeply while slowly lifting her fingers one by one off the guard rail. The man who had been quietly observing her knew it was time to make his move.
+"It's a shame you know," the man uttered softly as he stepped under a dimly lit street lamp on the other side of the railing, "Over the years I've watched many young girls such as yourself throw their lives away on this very bridge." The man paused, shook his head and sighed, "It's always such a tragedy, that it is."
+The young girl suddenly tightened her grip on the railing and glared at the person intruding on her privacy. "What are you? Some kind of old pervert who likes to watch young girls jump off bridges?"
+The man smiled slightly. "No," he answered mildly, "I'm not a pervert and I can assure you that I don't get pleasure out of watching innocent people die. It does puzzle me, however, as to why a beautiful young girl like you would want to destroy your life. You look to be no more than 18 years of age. Surely your life can't be that bad."
+"What do you know about my life," snapped the girl. "Judging from your appearance, I'd say you're nothing but a penniless wanderer."
+"Ah yes," smiled the man, "but I'm not the one jumping am I."
+The young girl became flustered, frowning at him in response. "Go away! Can't you see I'm busy trying to jump!"
+"Well don't let me stop you. Please, go ahead and jump." He took his hand and gestured toward the icy waters below.
+"I will," scowled the young girl before turning her attention back to the waters thrashing loudly against the steel girders. She closed her eyes again and inhaled deeply in order to concentrate. The man quietly inched closer to the young girl.
+"Excuse me again Miss but I..."
+The girl snapped her eyes open in frustration.
+"What! What do you want this time!"
+"May I ask you a question? I was wondering what is troubling you?"
+The girl narrowed her eyes at the man. "Why do you want to know?"
+"I'm just curious as to what led you to this course of action."
+"My life sucks okay," she answered harshly. "It just sucks!"
+The man studied the young girl's face for a moment before speaking again.
+"Please tell me what you dislike about your life?"
+"Everything," she snapped. "My life is really screwed up and that's all I'm going to say. Now go away and leave me alone!"
+A cool silence ensued between them. The man glanced over to the girl again before turning his attention toward the clouds in the sky. He smiled as he watched several large billowy clouds drifting lazily across the moon. It reminded him of something from his childhood. He began relating his childhood experience aloud.
+"When I was a little boy, I use to have dreams about riding the clouds on a magic carpet. My mother used to tell me bedtime stories about Aladdin and his magic lamp. Once the stories were done, she would kiss my forehead and tell me to go to sleep. I only pretended to fall alseep so that she would leave the room. After she had left, I would quietly tip-toe to my closet and pull out my magic lamp. Actually, it was mother's old tea pot, but to me it was a magic lantern."
+A small smile appeared on the young girl's face as she continued listening to the man's story.
+"I would take my "magic lantern" and sit on the tatami mat by the window. The old worn out tatami mat served as my magic carpet. I wanted to be ready to fly when the genie appeared. After rubbing the magic lantern several times, I'd sit and wait patiently for the genie to come and grant my three wishes. I must have waited by the window for hours but the genie never came. By morning, I found myself safely tucked into my futon. I never remembered getting back into it though. When I got older, mother told me after she had left my room, she would hide in the darkness of the hallway to watch me. After I had fallen asleep, she quietly entered the room and tucked me back into my futon. She would then return my "magic lantern" and "magic carpet" to its proper place. I laughed after finding out what she had done."
+The girl let a small chuckle escape her lips as she kept attentive to what the man had to say.
+"Sometimes, while staring out into the clouds, I wondered if it were really possible to have our wishes granted." He paused briefly and shifted his eyes to the girl. "Tell me, if you were granted the power of having a wish come true, what would it be?"
+The young girl blinked twice in surprise to his question. "Huh?"
+"I said, if you could have anything you wished for, what would it be?"
+"What would I wish for," the young girl repeated softly.
+The man nodded. The girl began eyeing him suspiciously. "Hey... what are you? Some kind of guardian angel that goes around granting people wishes before they die or something?"
+The man shook his head and chuckled lightly. "No, I am definitely not an angel. See," he turned his back to her and pointed, "no wings."
+"So... who are you," the girl asked curiously.
+"I'm no one special," he stated simply. "I was just wondering if you had an opportunity to have whatever you wanted, what would you wish for, that's all."
+The young girl began to think deeply. "Hmm... What would I wish for? No one has ever asked me that before... Hmmm... Yes! I know what I want!" She turned back toward the man in ernst. "If I could have whatever I wanted, I would want to have my father back. Life was good when my father was alive. We had so much fun as a family. I loved my father so much." A single tear drop trickled down her cheek. "But then he died and everything changed."
+"I'm sorry to hear about your father. May I ask when did your father die?"
+"Four years ago," the girl answered with her head lowered, "when I was fourteen years old. It was very hard on mother and me back then. She had to work two jobs just to make ends meet. I really didn't mind being poor. We were still happy, but then things got worst."
+The man noticed the frown upon the young girl's face. "What happened... if you don't mind my asking."
+"Mother remarried," she answered sourly. "We lived in a bad neighborhood. We were robbed twice. Mother thought if she had a husband, we wouldn't be such easy targets. She married a big strong man named Hiruma Gohei. He was a horrible man. Gohei pretended to be nice while he was dating mother, but after the wedding, he turned out to be a real creep. He gambled and dranked all the time. I watched him sneak into my mother's purse, after she had fallen asleep and steal her hard earned money. Gohei would then sneak out of the house and gamble all her money away. Whenever he lost a bet at a poker game or the race track, he would come home drunk and beat mother. I tried to protect mother from him but she wouldn't allow me to. She would lock me in my room and go back and take all the beatings.
+One day, things went too far between them. Gohei saw my mother hiding the rent money. He demanded the rent money from her. She refused. The landlord had threatened to put us out if we were late with the rent one last time. Mother tried to explain that to Goehi, but he wouldn't listen. They got into a big argument. He finally wrestled the money out of her hand and left the house. Mother chased after him. She caught up with him in the middle of the street. They began arguing and fighting again. Unfortunately, the roads were very slippery that night due to the heavy rains. A man driving down the street suddenly loss control of his car and hit my mother and Gohei. Gohei suffered minor injuries whereas my mother was killed upon impact."
+Tears began to stream down the young girls cheeks. "Things has never been the same since mother died," the girl uttered sadly through her tears. "Gohei stopped drinking and gambling for a while. Mother's death apparently affected him in a small way. However, after the settlement money from the accident came in, Gohei reverted back to his former evil ways. He started drinking and gambling heavily. Within in a matter of months, he lost all the money from the settlement. Gohei began beating me, the same as he did mother. That creep went so far as to promise me out to a couple of his gambling buddies after losing several bets to them. I overheard him telling his disgusting friends that I wasn't his real daughter so he had no problem with letting his friends have sex with me as payment. I knew then that I couldn't stay in that house any longer. I hurried and grabbed all the money that I had secretly saved up and quietly snuck out my bedroom window. I ran as far away from my house as I could. It's been over three weeks now and I haven't gone back."
+The young girl turned to the man with tears in her eyes. "Don't you see," she sniffed, "I have no more money. If I go back, Gohei will beat me for running away and then sell me out to his friends to support his gambling habit. I have no where else to go. That's why I'm here," she sobbed, "I don't know what else to do."
+The man lowered his head. "That poor girl. She lived such a hard life."
+"I... I'm so sorry...," he started.
+"I don't need your pity Mister," she snapped, "I just want to be left alone!" She turned her head quickly so as to hide the fresh tears streaming down her face. The cool night wind whistled silently between the two lonely souls standing on the bridge. The man cast his eyes towards the moon.
+"I too have lived a horrible life," he uttered softly.
+The young girl turned her face slowly toward his. She sniffed quietly as she listened to him relate his story.
+"My father and I couldn't get along. My mother use to say that we were two of a kind," he said with a sad smile. "I wanted to join the local gang. I tried to convince father that the gang I was joining was to protect the neighborhood. Father said the gang was nothing but a bunch of street thugs. He began speaking negatively about my new found family. I became angry and pulled out a switchblade from my back pocket. As I pointed the razor blade into my father's face, I demanded he apologize for insulting my new family. I heard my mother crying in the background. She knew that neither of us would back down at that point. Father, being an experienced fighter, knocked the switchblade out of my hand and wrestled me to the floor. After the fight, father dragged me by the collar and threw me out of the house. As I lay bloodied and battered on the front lawn, father disowned me in front of all the neighbors and forbade me from ever returning home. Mother begged and pleaded for father to take me back. Father ordered her to go back inside the house and to stay quiet. He turned and took one last look at me before going back inside the house. From that look, I knew that I had really screwed things up with my parents. There was no turning back at that point.
+Life on the streets for a sixteen year old gang member was very hard. It was nothing like I thought it would be. I went many days without food and slept wherever I could find shelter. Our gang fought all the time. At first it was to protect the neighborhood, then it turned into something else. Whenever the gang became bored, they held fighting contests to see who among us was the strongest. Those were the worst times for me. I hated fighting against my blood brothers. But if I didn't, I would have been branded a coward. I was considered one of the strongest fighter, next to our leader, Saitou Hajime. I could take out most of the gang pretty easily. However, whenever I fought Saitou, it would end once he'd broken a couple of my ribs. Saitou Hajime was the strongest leader there was. The man was unbeatable."
+The young girl stared at him for a moment then hesitantly asked, "Is... Is that how you got that cross-shaped scar on your left cheek?"
+The man stared out into the dark night and shook his head as the brisk night winds whisked through his firey red hair.
+"No. My scar is a result of a fight I had with another powerful gang leader. His name was Shishio Makoto. I had never fought anyone like him before. Someone had started a rumor that I was trying to take his girl Komagata Yumi. Yumi was indeed beautiful in her own way, but I had my own girl at the time. Her name was Yukishiro Tomoe. Tomoe wasn't part of the gang I hung out with. I met her one day outside of one of the bars I frequented. I had gone into an alleyway to take a leak. As I finished, I heard footsteps approaching from behind. It was someone from Shishio's gang weilding a knife. His name was Katanagari Cho. He specialized in various forms of knife torture.
+We fought each other for what seemed like hours. Finally, I ended up stabbing him several times with his own knife. He wasn't dead, but he definitely wasn't going to be moving for a while. It was at that moment, I sniffed a faint scent of a woman's perfume. It smelled like White Plum, the fragrance only upper class girls wore. When I looked up, there she was. Tomoe was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. She had long black hair and skin that seemed to reflect the paleness of the moonlight. Her eyes were dull but yet caring. To me she was truly a quiet beauty.
+Without a word, Tomoe bent down and took her blue scarf off her neck and began wrapping my bloodied wrist. As I looked into her eyes, she simply stated, "You're bleeding." I had no words for her then. I just kept staring at the beautiful girl who was attending to my wounds and wondering why she was helping me. Never in my wildest dreams, would I have imagined an upper class girl like Tomoe would fall in love with a street thug like me. She seemed to be so perfect. However, after a few weeks of dating her I discovered Tomoe had a dark side. She kept it carefully hidden from her family. Tomoe liked frequenting bars, going to underground rave parties and hanging out with anyone who had a taste for trouble. I guess that's why she became attracted to me. She liked dating bad boys. Tomoe's family didn't know that I was part of a violent street gang. Whenever I went to visit her, I acted differently so as to make a good impression on her family. Her parents accepted me with open arms. However her brother, Yukishiro Enishi, could see right through me. He hated everything about me. It was he who set me up that fateful night."
+The man briefly touched his cross-scar as he continued on with what happened next.
+"Enishi told Shishio that I was trying to steal his girl. He had taken letters that I had written to Tomoe and altered them putting Yumi's name on them. When Shishio found out, he came after me with a vengence. We fought long and hard. Shishio was almost as strong as Saitou, however, Shishio fought dirty. In the middle of the fight, Shishio bit me on the neck and then sprayed a chemical mace into my eyes. I was blinded temporarily. Two of his gang members jumped me from behind and held me down. Shishio straddled over me and said, "Pretty boys always get the girls. Guess I'll have to fix that pretty face of yours so that you can be less attractive... like the rest of us ugly guys." Shishio grinned wickedly at me before snatching one of Cho's knives and carving this hideous scar on my face."
+The man traced the cross-shaped scar on his cheek, bringing tears to the young girl's eyes. After a moment of silence, the man went on to relate his story.
+"By the time Shishio had finished, I felt as if my whole face was on fire and covered in blood. I was in severe pain and agony. Shishio and his gang ran off leaving me on the streets to die. A short while later, Saitou had found out that I had been attacked. He and the rest of the gang came to where I layed. Instead of helping me up, Saitou just stood there glaring down at me while smoking his cigarette. After flicking the ashes of his cigarette over my body, he told me that he had received word from a reliable source of my fight with Shishio. He yelled down at me saying that I went against gang rules by trying to steal another gang member's girl. I tried to sit up and tell him it was all a lie but I was in too much pain.
+Saitou took out two letters from his pocket. He knelt down and shoved them in my face. He said that it was my handwriting and it was proof of me trying to steal Shishio's girl. He ripped the letters up and threw them at me. Saitou rose to his feet slowy and said the two words I thought I would never hear, "You're... Out." I was totally devasted. I was being kicked out by my blood brothers, my family.
+It was at that point that Okita Souji, Saitou's younger cousin, asked if he could teach me a lesson before they left. Saitou stood silent for a moment. He then slid his hand inside his top pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. After taking out a stalk, he dangled it on his bottom lip while reaching in his jean pant pocket for a lighter. He slowly lit the cigarette and took a long hard drag. As he exhaled the smoke, Saitou snapped the lid to the lighter closed as a means of signalling his cousin and the others to do as they wished. Hajime Saitou walked away leaving me at the mercy of Okita and the rest of the gang. They were quick to administer punishment. The gang began pounding thier fists into me saying that they were going to make me pay for disgracing Saitou's gang. By the time they had finished beating me, I had bruises and blood all over my body.
+I heard their jeers and rancid laughter as they ran off into the darkness. The gang I once viewed as family, had now disowned me in the same sense as my father. I had no where to go, no place to call home. I laid on the cold dark streets for hours praying for my death to come. The next thing I knew, I awoke in a hospital. I was told that I was found on the streets by a man named Seijurou Hiko. He was a former kendo instructor who devoted his time to reeducating troubled youths. When I was better, I was released in his custody. He took me off the streets and took care of me. My Shishou gave me a second chance at life."
+The young girl looked at him thoughtfully. "That poor man. He's had a hard life too."
+"What happened to your girlfriend? Did she try to find you?"
+The man shook his head and smiled sadly at the young girl. "Tomoe tried to find me, but I stayed hidden. I was too ashamed of having been beaten and of the ugly scar that was left on my face. Tomoe eventually married a really nice man by the name of Kiyosato Akira. The last I heard they had a beautiful little girl. I'm sure she looks like Tomoe." He paused for a moment to look down into the waters below. "In a way, everything worked out for the best. I always knew Tomoe deserved someone better than me."
+"How can you say that," the girl argued, "I'm sure you would have made her a good husband."
+The man turned to the young girl and met her concerned stare with a warm smile. "You're very nice to say that, but I'm not worthy of such kind words. When I was in the gang, I committed a lot of violent crimes. Beating up innocent people, while thinking all along I was doing the right thing. I don't deserve happiness."
+"Stop saying negative things like that," the girl scolded. "You are a good person. You deserve to be happy just like everyone else!"
+Warm violet eyes bore into a pool of sapphire. "What about yourself? Do you think you deserve happiness," he asked in response.
+The young girl froze. "Do I... deserve happiness?" She shook her head violently and began stuttering. "Wa... Wait a minute! I... We're... this is not about me," she finished lamely. The young girl turned her head abruptly from the man. A few drops of rain began to fall from the sky. The man looked up into the clouds.
+"It's beginning to rain. Shall we go before the rains become heavier." The young girl turned back to see the man extending his hand to her. She smiled sadly as she gazed into the depths of his warm violet eyes.
+"I know you think you can save me, but there's nothing left to save." Tears trickled down her cheeks as she turned her head away from his. "What is your name," he heard her asking.
+"Kenshin, Himura Kenshin," he replied softly.
+"My name is Kamiya Kaoru. Thank you for listening to my story. You sound like a person I would have wanted to know."
+"It's not too late," Kenshin replied as he inched closer, extending his hand up further to her. Kaoru shook her head and smiled sadly before pushing her body out and releasing her grip upon the railing. Kenshin stood in horror as he watched Kaoru's body falling downward. The loud crashing waves below signified that the young girl's body had made contact with the icy cold waters. He stared at his hand in disbelief. The hand that only moments ago was so close to saving her. But now, she was gone. Kenshin let out a blood curdling scream.
+"Noooooooo! I won't let it end like thiiisssss!"
+He jumped off the bridge and plunged his strong lean body into the depths of the Tokyo bay. The moment his flesh made impact with the icy waters, he felt a sharp stinging pain all over his body. Kenshin ignored the searing pain and continued in his search for Kaoru. He prayed hard that he would be able to reach her before it was too late.
+Kaoru felt her body falling deeper and deeper into the waters. My body… feels... so heavy…" She closed her eyes and let the darkness of the waters engulf her. "At last... I will have... peace... "
+When Kenshin finally spotted her, he realized it was too late. Her body had grown limp and was steadily falling downward. He swam into the direction Kaoru's body had been falling and wrapped his body around hers protectively. There was no warmth left inside her.
+"Why did you let go... I could have made you so happy..."
+Several tears escaped his eyes and began to mingle with the salty water. He glanced downward at the lifeless body still wrapped protectively into his arms.
+"I'm sorry that you had to live such a horrible life. But I do make this promise Miss Kaoru, I will not allow you to die alone."
+Kenshin closed his eyes and let himself be pulled downward into the cold dark watery grave with Kaoru.
+The next day, the bridge was closed off by the police. News had spread throughout the community of a man and teenaged girl who jumped off the bridge. There were some speculations that the two were lovers trapped into a forbidden love. No one was able to solve the mystery that surrounded their death. From that day forward, whenever young lovers crossed over the bridge, they would toss flowers into the waters for the fallen couple, wishing them happiness and eternal love.
+Author's Notes: Okay all you angst fic lovers, this was my first and last attempt at doing angst. I nearly cried my eyes off while writing this sad ending. I was so depressed. Also, I'm not advocating suicide here. I just wanted to write story with one of those tragic lover's endings that you read about in fairy tales. I hope it came out okay.
+Anyhoo, for all those who love happy endings (like me), please read the full version of this ficcie (seven complete chapters) on my website. There's a lot of action and romance in that one. (Bye!)
+.
+Las Vegas is a favorite vacation spot for folks looking for a couples getaway, gambling weekend, or to see one of many terrific shows. Or for foodies like me who like to try new restaurants.
+Flights and hotels can be expensive, especially at peak times. And if you gamble, you’ll have to factor that into your budget.
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+Here are ways to visit Las Vegas using Small Money!
+Flights to Las Vegas
+Link: Best Ways to Use Airline Miles for Domestic Award Tickets
+Most major US airlines fly to Las Vegas. So you’ve got plenty of options for award flights!
+If you’re considering transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards points for your flights, read my post on how to choose the best airline transfer partner for North American flights first!
+1. Alaska Airlines
+Link: Alaska Airlines Award Chart
+Alaska Airlines charges 10,000 to 25,000 Alaska Airlines miles for a round-trip coach award ticket within the continental US (including Alaska). The price of an award ticket depends on the distance flown.
+If you’re a short flight from Las Vegas, booking award flights on Alaska Airlines can be an very good deal! That said, I prefer using Alaska Airlines miles for expensive award flights on partners like Cathay Pacific.
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+2. American Airlines
+Link: Book American Airlines Award Flights Like a Pro
+Link: American Airlines Award Chart
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+Spending 25,000 miles might make sense if you’re a long distance from Las Vegas. But I’ll show you how to save miles & points if you’re a short flight away.
+3. British Airways
+Link: The Best Domestic Awards Using British Airways Avios Points
+Link: Wandering Aramean Avios Map – Las Vegas
+You can use British Airways Avios points to book domestic award flights on partners American Airlines and Alaska Airlines. And because they use a distance-based award chart, shorter flights cost fewer points.
+For example, flights under 1,151 miles cost just 7,500 British Airways Avios points one-way. Looking at Wandering Aramean’s Avios map, this includes flights between Las Vegas and:
+- Dallas
+- Los Angeles
+- Phoenix
+- Portland
+- Salt Lake City
+- Seattle
+And flights between 1,152 and 2,000 miles cost 10,000 British Airways Avios points one-way. This includes flights between Las Vegas and:
+- Chicago (O’Hare)
+- Charlotte
+Check out my post on all the ways to earn British Airways Avios points. But the quick version is you can transfer points into the British Airways program from cards like:
+- Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
+- Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card
+- The Platinum Card® from American Express
+- The Business Platinum® Card from American Express OPEN
+- Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express
+- Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express
+4. Delta
+Delta no longer publishes an award chart, but low-level award flights within the US typically cost 25,000 Delta miles.
+That said, sometimes Delta puts award flights on sale. For example, I found award flights between Seattle and Las Vegas for 13,000 Delta miles round-trip in January 2017.
+5. JetBlue
+Link: JetBlue Award Flights
+A Million Mile Secrets team member flew JetBlue from Long Beach to Las Vegas and had a terrific experience. He was able to watch the Major League Baseball All-Star Game on their complimentary entertainment system while enjoying free premium snacks.
+Remember, the price of a JetBlue award flight depends on the cost of a paid ticket. Folks in JetBlue focus cities may find JetBlue points particularly valuable.
+6. Southwest
+Link: How to Fly (Almost) Free for Two Years on Southwest
+Did you know Las Vegas is Southwest’s 3rd busiest airport? You’ll have plenty of convenient flight options!
+The price of a Southwest award flight is tied to the cost of a paid ticket. So when flights go on sale, award prices go down.
+And if you have the Southwest Companion Pass, you’ll get to Las Vegas even more cheaply! Because a friend or family member flies with you for almost free on paid and award tickets.
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+You can earn Southwest points with their cards. Or by transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Southwest from cards like Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Ink Business Preferred.
+7. United Airlines
+Link: United Airlines Award Chart
+Link: All the Ways to Earn United Airlines Miles
+There’s no shortage of ways to earn United Airlines miles. Like transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards points to United Airlines if you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Ink Business Preferred, or Chase Ink Plus or Ink Bold (no longer available) card.
+If your home airport is 700 miles or less from Las Vegas, you’ll pay 20,000 United Airlines miles for a round-trip coach award ticket. You can check Wandering Aramean’s 700 Mile Search Map to see which cities are within a 700 mile radius of Las Vegas!
+Otherwise, a round-trip coach award ticket on United Airlines costs 25,000 miles from anywhere in the US and Canada (except Hawaii and Alaska).
+8. Discount Airlines Like Allegiant Air, Frontier Airlines, and Spirit Airlines
+Don’t forget to check discount airlines like Allegiant Air, Frontier Airlines, and Spirit Airlines. They often have sales with very low fares. If you can find a deal, you may be better off paying for your flight and saving your miles for a different trip.
+But remember you’ll have a no-frills experience. And these airlines charge extra fees for large carry-on bags, checked bags, seat selection, and more. So be sure to pack light.
+Where to Stay in Las Vegas?
+You’re probably not going to Las Vegas for a little peace and quiet. 😉
+Most folks prefer to stay on The Strip — that’s where all the action takes place.
+Most major hotel chains have locations in Las Vegas, so you’ve got plenty of choices. I like using Hotel Hustle, which shows available award nights and compares the price of a paid room. Plus you can set alerts if award nights become available.
+Or check AwardMapper, which shows hotels you can book with points. Before I book any hotel, I always read TripAdvisor reviews.
+If you’re looking for a quieter or more local experience, Airbnb is great for affordable stays.
+That said, the best chains to consider if you want to stay in a glitzy casino hotel on the strip are Hyatt, IHG, and Starwood.
+1. Hyatt
+Hyatt is partners with M Life, the loyalty program for MGM Resorts, which owns some of the largest and most iconic hotels in Las Vegas. So you can use Hyatt points to stay at MGM hotels!
+When you’re a member of both Hyatt Gold Passport member and a M life, you get the benefits of both hotel chains when you stay at Hyatt and at M Life hotels in Las Vegas. Check out this post for instructions on how to match your Hyatt status to M Life.
+And if you have Discoverist status from the Chase Hyatt or United MileagePlus® Club Card, you can match your Hyatt status to M Life and get perks like free self-parking and discounts!
+MGM Resorts include some of the best hotels on The Strip:
+- Aria
+- Bellagio
+- Excalibur
+- Luxor
+- Mandalay Bay
+- MGM Grand
+- Mirage
+- Monte Carlo
+- New York New York
+- The Signature at MGM Grand
+- THEhotel at Mandalay Bay
+- Vdara
+You’ll pay 12,000 to 25,000 Hyatt points per night for these hotels. My friend usually stays at New York New York for 15,000 Hyatt points per night because he feels it’s the best value on The Strip. The hotel is very open, airy and modern, and the rooms are always chic and clean.
+Not to mention they have some great New York City dining options like Shake Shack and Gallagher’s Steakhouse.
+If you want to save Hyatt points and don’t mind being off The Strip (or prefer a quieter experience), the Hyatt Place Las Vegas costs just 8,000 Hyatt points per night.
+Note: Always check the paid rate for these hotels before you book with points. They’re often discounted, and you might be better off paying cash for your stay.
+One of my favorite uses of Chase Ultimate Rewards points is to transfer them to Hyatt! You can do that when you have cards such as Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Ink Business Preferred.
+2. IHG
+IHG hotels have 2 locations on The Strip:
+Both locations cost 60,000 IHG points per night, which is the highest level on IHG’s award chart.
+Depending on when you stay, you can often find rooms here for ~$250 to $300 per night. I’d rather save my IHG points for more expensive hotels. Or use them for discounted IHG PointBreaks nights at 5,000 IHG points per night.
+But if a stay here is on your bucket list, you could consider using points.
+3. Starwood
+Starwood has a handful of locations in Las Vegas, most of which are off The Strip.
+They’ve opened a new, trendy hotel called SLS Las Vegas, which starts at 10,000 Starwood points per night. My friend reports the hotel is a bit small, but the gorgeous design and upscale feel along with lots of celebrity-chef restaurants more than makes up for it.
+However, if you didn’t mind not being right on The Strip (or in a casino), Four Points by Sheraton Las Vegas East Flamingo at 3,000 to 4,000 Starwood points per night is a great bargain.
+Again, check the paid price before you book any Las Vegas hotel with points.
+You can earn Starwood points with the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express or Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express.
+A Different Way to Earn Free Stays – MyVegas
+MyVegas is a Facebook game affiliated with M Life where you earn loyalty coins for playing slot machines and table games — not unlike actual Las Vegas.
+You can then redeem these loyalty coins for complimentary hotel rooms, show tickets, and food and beverage credits. While they give you free points to play with, there are options to buy points (of course!). And you could end up losing money.
+A Million Mile Secrets team member redeemed 40,000 MyVegas loyalty coins for a free night at The Mirage (except the resort fee). He said occasionally he’ll play the blackjack tables on his phone when he’s waiting around. Over the last 3 years he’s redeemed over 5 free hotel rooms on the Las Vegas Strip for a few minutes a week of recreational play in his spare time.
+This isn’t my cup of tea, but if you like Facebook games and have free time (and enough discipline to not spend money on the app), this could be a good way to get free stuff in Las Vegas.
+What to Do in Las Vegas?
+Here are Small Money tips so you can save some cash for the slots:
+- Fountains of Bellagio: Watch this dazzling water show choreographed to classical and Broadway music. The show is completely free and runs every 15 to 30 minutes in the afternoons and evenings.
+- Drink for free, kinda: Casinos in the city offer complementary drinks to folks playing table games or slot machines. Playing a penny slot on the minimum bet will get you a little entertainment and a drink of your choosing.
+- High Roller: See stunning views of Vegas from the world’s tallest observation wheel. Buy tickets online to save $5+ and consider riding during the day to save $10+.
+- The Ultimate Free Thing: Take a picture with the sign! It’s located in the median at 5100 Las Vegas Boulevard South.
+Or check out Travel & Lesiure’s guide to 31 free things to do in Las Vegas.
+Bottom Line
+There are plenty of ways to get to (and stay in) Las Vegas to make your trip more affordable. And save your money for slots, shows, and buffets!
+Most major US airlines fly to Las Vegas, so it’s easy to fly there using airline miles. But flights to Las Vegas are often on sale, so check the paid price before you book with points!
+Hyatt hotels have great options on the strip through their partnership with MGM hotels. Or consider IHG and Starwood for centrally-located hotels.
+And folks who like online games can earn points with MyVegas, which only requires a Facebook account (and spare time) to rack-up loyalty points you can use for stays, shows, and other perks.
+Let me know if you have Small Money Las Vegas tips to share!
+I live in LA and my husband and I “play” MyVegas for a couple minutes every day. It took us about 3 months of more steady playing to rack up enough loyalty coins for free nights, etc. but it’s really no more time consuming than keeping track of credit card applications, miles, points, etc. We have never paid for chips. Just like a couple applying for separate credit cards, a couple can get an advantage of MyVegas. We go to Vegas using MyVegas twice per year and each time that’s 2 free hotel nights (Minus resort and parking fees. It was Aria last time.), 2 free Cirque tickets, and two free buffets or fancy cocktails in one of the really nice bars. With MyVegas you don’t need to waste SPG, Hyatt, etc points.
+1
+Shares 371
+What is it like to wish a vaccine-injured child? Well, some days, it’s like hell adhering a bad day. Some days, your child smears feces on the wall, into the carpet and throws it from a thin to a dense state the vents. Some days, your child is left on a school bus as antidote to three hours in the cold. Some days, your brat has diarrhea ten times that runs from a high to a low position their legs and covers their back. It’s a portion like hell on a bad epoch.
+My son David was diagnosed with autism in 2005 at the date of four. It wasn’t to the time when I was told to “be attentive to out-of-home-placement” that I pulled myself into junction and started thinking critically about his soundness.
+David was not born with autism. Logically, I knew in that place was a cause, but in the thick of caring for a severely disabled bantling, it was hard to stop pro~ed enough to think. I knew something triggered his autism and it wasn’t till I was faced with the survey of putting my son in a home that I was adroit to determine that cause.
+Discovering the Truth
+When I was told ~ means of two well-meaning professionals to mark out-of-home placement for David, he was at his rout. He was violent, self-injurious, nonverbal and would outcry bloody murder day and night notwithstanding no apparent reason.
+Because I could not transmit my son away, I was told the sole other option was to try manner meds. I had reservations about medicating a four year-antiquated, so I scheduled a pharmacology clinic where I would meet with a baby psychologist, child psychiatrist, David’s pediatrician and four other nursling development specialists. As required for the pharmacology clinic, I state in language David’s medical file in chronological direction, including the dates he was vaccinated.
+As I constrain the file in order, it became abundantly palpable vaccines had triggered his autism, of long duration diarrhea and changes in behavior. Although I was awestruck at the time, the sort of was to come in the years ahead would prove to be much added difficult than the initial realization that my son’s disability was caused by vaccines.
+In the days following this astonishing realization, I was plagued by united thought. The country I love with everything inside of me was the catalyst in my son’s detriment. My son, a son of the American Revolution, had been denied his obliging liberties by the one thing I thought would protect him: vaccines.
+Coping With Guilt, Grief, Anger, and Sadness
+The perception that my beautiful child was inconvenience unnecessarily was a second mourning. It could acquire been prevented. He could have had a advantage life.
+Then came the grief. The consuming, painful grief I felt for the forfeiture of his childhood. My boy, my spotless baby, had slipped into a earth of his own. I grieved the overthrow of him. At thirteen months, his pediatrician called him a “genius” inasmuch as he knew his alphabet, could allow numbers up to five and had a sound vocabulary for his age. All of that disappeared not beyond forty eight hours after his vaccines.
+If I hadn’t oblige his medical file in order, I would regard never known the antecedent. The original of my son’s regression into autism was vaccines that brought on the next wave of emotions; guilt.
+What had I done? I had taken my son to have existence vaccinated. He was healthy, he was thrifty and he was helpless. It was my responsibleness to protect him and I failed. I failed to peruse a vaccine package insert. If I had, I’d be in possession of known that the formulation of the DTaP vaccine they gave my son listed autism similar to an adverse reaction.
+If I had taken five minutes to versed in books an insert I’d have known that there were great risks involved but I didn’t. I didn’t be studious in books one word about vaccines before I took him in, held him into disgrace and allowed a stranger to permanently maltreat him.
+The guilt that comes with vaccine injury is profound. Why didn’t I achieve my homework? When did I be turned into so trusting of the government? Why didn’t I take the time to interpret up on something that was to be injected into my son? I was crippled ~ means of grief; after all, it was me who was supposed to harbor him from the bad in this world and I failed to do in the way that. [1]
+Then came the anger. I was in the same manner angry. I took David’s healing file to his pediatrician and obstruction him have it. Then I sat into disgrace with the other pediatrician in the customary duty and the nurse who had uttered to me during an office call upon, “What the hell is iniquity with this kid? What did you carry into practice to him?”
+I tore into as well-as; not only-but also; not only-but; not alone-but of them, leaving them both in tears. I purpose it would make me feel more intimate. see various meanings of good but it didn’t. Then I got out of tune at God. How could He allow this happen to my boy? Where was He?
+Next came verity, the reality that my son may in no degree get married, may never go to community, may never bathe himself. The fact of his future was incapacitating. Facing the realty that my once beautiful family was very lately a statistic was a tough rap.
+About eighty percent of couples who be in possession of a child with autism end up in disunite. My marriage, to the love of my life, was now nothing more than a statistic, a tell on a chart somewhere.
+Then came the gloominess. I felt so sad for David and his paltry brother Aidan. He’d missed gone ~ on fun, kisses from mom and dad, time spent reading and playing hand in hand because my life was no longer my avow. My life now belonged to caring against his vaccine-injured brother and he always came second to David’s unmediated needs.
+I was sad because I missed my friends, I missed subsistence able to work, I missed my family. I was missing out on life and in that place was no other way to be perceived , it was a very sad time despite us.
+The Truth About Vaccines
+After the emotions subsided and time was starting to make sound the wounds, I was left by the brutal and ugly truth. Vaccines didn’t fit trigger my son’s autism; they were triggering autism in the children round me.
+As the years go by, there are fewer children on the playground, fewer children at the amusement park, fewer children running around playing external part. Where are all the children? They are interior where their mom can keep them reliable. They are in therapy thirty hours per week. They are in residential manipulation facilities. They have autism.
+They repeat the truth is stranger than invention, and in this case, that is severe. We are taking our children to have existence vaccinated under the guise we are helping to obstruct disease, but in truth, we are seizure our healthy children to the pediatrician’s berth and leaving with chronically ill, disabled children.
+The truth has been the hardest part of this ramble. The truth is that our powers that be has known that vaccines increase the exposure to harm for autism, ADHD, tics and developmental delays since 2000.
+What the CDC Doesn’t Want Parents to Know
+In 2000, members of the CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) had a hostile encounter about recent data collected on children who were exposed to thimerosal in vaccines. The facts showed there was an increased dare to undertake for autism and other disabilities.
+Instead of reporting the data to the public, they altered it, by reason of three years, until it produced the results they wanted. My son was born in 2001; grant that they had the guts to discourse up, my boy and millions of American children would subsist healthy, but that is not the en~. [2]
+One in six American children at that time has a developmental disability. What execute those kids have in common? Not a great quantity, other than their vaccination status and exposing. to genetically modified foods (GMOs). [3]
+The augment in autism coincides with the grow in vaccines. In 1986, the treaty government passed a law exempting vaccine manufacturers from accountableness. Since then, the CDC schedule has increased from 20 vaccines by age eighteen to 72 vaccines by age 18. [4]
+They cannot have existence held responsible if you or your babe is injured or killed by a vaccine. Instead, there is taxpayer-funded pool of money that you can apply for allowing that you are injured. The maximum substance of compensation is $250,000 and the procedure takes years to settle.
+The wide majority of cases are dismissed and victims contain no compensation. Taxpayers pick up the tab as antidote to people who are disabled by vaccines. It’s a acquire-win for vaccine manufacturers, AKA pharmaceutical companies. They compose money off of the vaccine, they pass over money when you’re injured and privation pharmaceutical drugs and they have naught financial liability if you’re injured. It’s matter.
+Do members of the CDC, AAP and WHO discern vaccines cause autism? Of course they chouse. Why are they allowing this to take place? Who knows?
+Nico LaHood, the District Attorney according to San Antonio, Texas, recently came completely publicly and said vaccines triggered his son’s autism. He before-mentioned,
+“The malicious person and the unsubstantial person give you the same flow …The malicious person is severe to hurt you. The weak character is so weak they will lease the malicious person harm you and won’t warn you near it. The result is the corresponding; of like kind.”
+He is right. It doesn’t good sense if members of the CDC, AAP and WHO are mischievous or weak; we are getting the similar result. Our children’s health is essential ~ destroyed by the one thing meant to secure them, vaccines. [5]
+The Road to David’s Recovery
+So … what is life with a vaccine-injured chit like? It’s both heaven and hell.
+My son, through the grace of God, ~wards ten years of being gluten- and casein-unrestrained, with chelation and supplements, is very lately doing great. He is no longer high, he’s speaking now, he’s family and the most gentle, loving human frame I have ever met. He is one angel.
+The upside to knowing your babe is vaccine-injured is that grant that we know what caused it, we can cure it. Detox is key to recruiting from autism. The blessing of proficient your child is vaccine-injured is that it gives you a route map to recovery.
+If you make a clean sweep of the heavy metals from their body they were exposed to from vaccines, the chit will improve. If you repair the eviscerate from the damage caused by vaccines (and GMOs), the child’s soundness will improve as neurological and immune combination of parts to form a whole function is dependent upon gut hale condition.
+On the other hand, the highway to where we are now felt a fate like hell. I’m tired; I am 38 and be warmed like I’m a hundred years rich. His recovery has taken every supplemental penny we have and there are nay vacations and spa days in my cosmos, just repairing the damage vaccines did every one of those years ago.
+Conclusion
+The bitterness, guilt, anger and sadness never veritably leave your soul. Although David is acquisition better and I feel more confident than ever, the painful emotions arrive back from time to time whereas he says things like, “They took fifteen years from me, Mother. They did this to me.”
+They decide time heals all wounds and as long as our wounds are almost healed, we are to this time left with the truth and that is, my son was not born through autism. He suffered and lost his non-age to multi-billion dollar corporations.
+Living through vaccine injury is living with bemoan. A wise person learns from others’ mistakes; I possibility of good that by me sharing our travel, it will help other parents to count critically about vaccines. The guilt is with appearance of truth the worst part of it entirely; although it is not mine to transport, I still hold onto it.
+I confidence that parents do not make the like mistake I did and that they peruse vaccine package inserts and do a mouthful of research before vaccinating their infant. Although David is doing well and is the in the greatest degree loving, angelic, perfect person on Earth, this did not receive to be his story. He was not born with autism; he was injected with it.
+References:…Vaccines/ApprovedProducts/UCM101580.pdf
+CDC: 1 In 6 Kids Have A Developmental Disability
+Photo Credit
+Shares 371
+Grab some sticky-backed red and white felt and cut out the shapes of the Union Jack and the stars in our Southern Cross.
+
+esley Smith, LEED AP; Jim Turner; Jeanette Derby; Lawrence M. Kohn; Katie Parrish; Barbara Mannix
+Newsletter Designed By:
+Scoti Dodson
+In this issue:
+President's Message
+New ALA Capital Chapter Members
+Spotlight: HITT, Diamond Partner
+Message from ALA: Regional Title Change
+Spotlight: Hilltop, Gold Partner
+Recap: Doing More with LeSS
+Spotlight: Legal E, Gold Partner
+Our Community, Our Kids Update
+Office Operations Section Update
+President's Message: Cash in Your Membership Reward Points
+“Where change meets innovation” is how the ALA describes itself, and as the ALA goes so too should the Capital Chapter. A recent lunch N learn actually addressed that subject— how to make change happen effectively. In the legal field, change never comes easily and it always comes at a cost. But to stand still is to go backwards. We all know that! So, how do we become the innovator or, if we already are, how do we do it better?
+In a recent "pop-up" survey on-line, Chapter members participating said that the two most important reasons they are members of the ALA are for the educational benefits and the social opportunities the Chapter offers. So it is time to move forward and not stand still. Your EC promised we would listen to you, so here goes. In the next few weeks we will be sending you a survey. I promise it won’t take a lot of your time and I also promise that some lucky participants, randomly chosen, will receive gifts for their efforts. We want to know what you want us to do for you; what opportunities do you want us to provide? We will do our best to give you what you want.
+Thank you for entrusting us with managing your Chapter. I promise the entire leadership team will do its best to support your needs.
+Respectfully,
+Joe Berger
+New ALA Capital Chapter Members
+Kelly I Williams
+Office Administrator
+Quarles & Brady LLP
+1700 K St NW
+Suite 825
+Washington, DC 20006
+Machelle Proctor
+Secretarial Services Manager
+DLA Piper
+500 8th Street NW
+Washington, DC 20004
+HITT Spotlight: The New Open Door Policy - Building Fun Collaborative Work Places
+50, 60…..70 hour work weeks are becoming the rule as opposed to the exception. The complex modern work place demands greater flexibility and new thinking. How do we best optimize time spent in the office? How do we stay ahead of the curve? Attracting and retaining talent is more important than ever. In an effort to do so firms are distinguishing themselves by optimizing their existing space and adding new, fun and collaborative spaces.
+More With Less
+We all have to do more with less, whether it’s shrinking budgets, added responsibilities or taking on new roles. One way to do more with less is to optimize your work space by evaluating the existing areas to determine if they are being utilized to their full potential. Paper is taking up less space with the implementation of cloud computing and data centers. This allows for spaces allocated to records and filing to be downsized. Most firms are taking this opportunity to rethink recently freed spaces. Often times these spaces help suit their current needs and provide room for additional offices, collaborative spaces, meeting rooms, etc.
+Promote Collaboration
+In today’s work hard play hard society we tend to take for granted our day-to-day interactions. Collaboration is a vital way to promote synergy and inspiration amongst work groups; but you may be asking ‘how do I bring these groups together when they are separated by walls, floors, buildings and even countries?’ One trend we are seeing focuses on implementing collaborative work spaces. These areas are not traditional meeting rooms or even huddle/breakout areas. New collaborative spaces are mostly being built in centralized, high foot traffic locations. The spaces are designed with the end users and their desired functions in mind. Smart boards for training sessions, video conferencing for meetings and flat screen TVs for gatherings are linking people together by giving them a place to be together. Previously underutilized areas are being transformed with relatively low infrastructure cost, IT support and proper furniture coordination. Communicating with designers and contractors early is the key to success. Planning your work, then working your plan is the best way to get the most out of your space.
+Current Trends
+We are seeing fewer walls and traditional cubicles. This equates to fewer obstacles between people allowing for limitless communication and collaboration. The new normal is continuous glass walls lining corridors. This allows light to penetrate deep into core spaces. Natural light helps drive down energy costs and studies have shown that it increases productivity and general well-being. Operable partitions (folding walls) are still being utilized to demise space, but now we are seeing a movement towards glass operable walls. These new operable glass walls allow for greater transparency and openness. Full height cubicles have become all but extinct. Bulky cubes are being quickly replaced with shorter less encapsulated workstations.
+Building Fun Collaborative Work Places
+Building a fun, more collaborative workplace is not an abstract idea or concept. With a little bit of planning and creativity, spaces can be transformed virtually overnight. With proper budgeting, planning and execution, your firm can make changes to foster an environment that’s both fun and collaborative leading to higher productivity and increased employee retention. HITT welcomes the opportunity to partner with your firm to make the vision a reality. If you have any questions, comments or would like to discuss further, please do not hesitate to contact us.
+Wesley Smith, LEED AP
+Project Manager, Law Firms Division
+HITT Contracting, Inc.
+Messsage from ALA: Regional Title Change
+The ALA Board of Directors has changed the title of our Regional Officers to Regional Representatives. The change occurred after a review and restructuring of the roles of our Regional Leadership teams. The work of our Regional Leadership teams will now focus on leadership development of ALA members and communicating regularly with chapters to provide counsel, support and assistance on all areas of chapter management. This new Regional Representative designation will better reflect these roles.
+Hilltop Spotlight: Why is Local Technical Support Better for Your Law Firm?
+There are many things to take into consideration when choosing your next provider for technical support. While many managed service providers and consulting firms have similar skill sets, methodologies, and service offerings, having local techs and project managers sets Hilltop Consultants apart from our competition. Our roots in the DMV run deep.
+While many managed service providers and consulting firms have cut back on their local support staff, or have chosen to locate their helpdesks and project managers far outside of the DMV, Hilltop made the decision to double down on DC.
+Hilltop Consultants was born in the DC legal community. Our techs are never more than a few Metro stops, or a short cab ride a way. Our close proximity to our clients gives the ability to provide the most responsive I.T. Support 24x7x365. Hilltop knows that not all problems can, or should be solved remotely. Sometimes you just need a tech to come to the office and look over your shoulder, and help you with a problem. Our ability to dispatch a local technician the same business day, has contributed to our high level of customer satisfaction.
+We put a high value on customer satisfaction and your success
+.
+24x7 Local Support
+. Hilltop employs top network engineers that work on your IT issues until the problem is solved. None of your support calls are outsourced. You can count on Hilltop 24x7x365.
+Dedicated Network Engineer.
+Clients receive a dedicated network engineer that will continue working on any issues until the problem is solved. This alleviates any communication gaps that might occur when you are forced to work with multiple employees. With a local network engineer working on your issues through completion, we alleviate your stress of having to explain your issue over and over again.
+Phone Answered Within 60 Seconds.
+Time is money. We know your time is valuable and that is why we guarantee to answer your calls within 60 seconds-if not sooner.
+Hilltop takes pride in providing the most responsive IT services. Our experience and desire to exceed expectations is a priority.
+We take I.T. Seriously
+!
+Recap: Doing More with LeSS - Drive Profitability in Your Firm
+Joe Berger, Chapter President
+In a fast-moving and energetic presentation, Debbie Foster, managing partner of Affinity Consultants, covered more landscape on the subject of law firm management and working well in that environment than Sherman covered in Georgia.
+Her insights into driving profitability, clearly and concisely presented, were easy to understand and provided quite a number of "Ah Ha!" moments. Working well and profitably with others, getting buy-in on new processes, and effecting change were but a few of the areas she covered. If you are going to the ALA Conference in Toronto, be sure to catch her presentation there. In a 12 month period of very good lunch ‘N learns, her presentation was scored higher than any of the others we've had!
+Legal E Spotlight: Understanding Staffing Agencies Economics
+By Jeanette Derby
+For the second consecutive year, Legal E is very happy to be recognized as one of DC's best staffing providers according to the Readers’ Survey of
+Legal Times
+. It gives us great pride and inspiration to be honored for all of our hard work on behalf of the local legal community and we remain hopeful for the same success in the coming years for Legal E and for all staffing agencies specializing in the legal profession.
+With experience in the legal staffing industry spanning four decades and four recessions, this economic recovery is the most unusual and perplexing I have witnessed. Though there are many contradictory anecdotes of that time period, I can only go by my own experience. Legal E was negatively affected in 2009 by the economic downturn yet we bounced back quickly in early 2010 with contract placements and soon after came more direct hire opportunities. Reacting to our rapid growth and need for more staff and space, we opened our DC office in the Spring of 2010. As a trusted partner of our loyal client-base for many years, we understand that law firms must conserve staffing dollars by initially searching for candidates without the use of an agency. However, we also know that firms benefit greatly from the services provided by agencies in order to supplement their in-house efforts, expedite a difficult search, and even save money for their clients such as with hiring contract attorneys for document reviews. Client retention is about adding value. Law firms that take advantage of the contract-to-hire model, which often offers a “no fee” option after a set amount of hours, can show that adding value to the client relationship is a top priority. Agencies such as Legal E are happy to offer this service; however, at the end of the day, it may surprise many to know that it is not profitable for the agency. It has been my experience over the years that many misconceptions exist regarding staffing agency economics and how our industry makes a profit.
+Staffing agencies are not taking in immense profits from their contract hourly business. The reality is quite to the contrary. Agencies often operate on the same profit margins for decades while operational costs continually increase due to escalating regulatory costs, multi-jurisdiction taxes, typically the highest unemployment % rates in multiple jurisdictions, and unemployment benefit extensions. Legal E, for example, often experiences unemployment tax fees as high as 50% of what the contract employee has earned in gross wages while working through Legal E. When a contract employee’s assignment ends, it is considered a “layoff” by the multi-state unemployment offices; therefore, benefits are typically approved. Considering all contract positions are subject to end at some point, staffing agencies are usually responsible for funding part, or all, of the employee’s unemployment benefits for those that file unemployment claims. This leads to agencies frequently paying the highest available unemployment rates for each of the area’s jurisdictions. As a consequence, a growing percentage of temporary assignments become unprofitable to the agency’s bottom line. In addition, the staffing industry, largely made up of small businesses, is being faced with the complex task of navigating the new and ever-changing healthcare mandates (to include coverage of temporary employees who work for multiple agencies) which will likely prove to be a serious cost and administrative burden.
+In some cases, agencies, traditionally dedicated to legal, have branched out to attract a non-legal client base such as federal and local governments, corporations, associations, and non-profits. The effort to adapt to the changing economics of law firms has an added advantage as law firms look toward their corporate clients for inspiration with regard to office culture, organizational structure and hiring practices. For decades, the trend in law firms was to only consider traditional legal/law-firm experienced candidates for staff and management opportunities. More recently, a rising trend is to not only consider, but actively pursue non-legal staff and management candidates who can provide innovative ideas and processes born out of a corporate paradigm. Many law firms find that in-depth legal experience is not always indicative of success for their evolving needs and typically non-legal candidates are the more economical choice.
+For several years, Legal E has been serving the non-legal business community and recognizes the merging of industries including staff and management candidates. To acquire a full appreciation of a multitude of industries, Legal E has made a concerted effort to sponsor corporate-based associations, including the educational goals of their members, in order to gain knowledge of best practices and universally expand the expertise of our recruiters. Understanding how other industries approach staffing and restructuring has been an enlightening learning experience for all of us.
+As a supporter of ALA’s Capital Chapter since the 1980's, I have personally witnessed many changes that have been organic and extremely beneficial. As recipients of Legal Times
+Best of
+Legal and Litigation Staffing for the past few years, we are equally honored to support the educational initiatives of ALA Capital Chapter. Growth and educational advancement are the best examples of a reciprocal, results-oriented business community and we at Legal E are always grateful for the opportunity to contribute to these efforts.
+AUTHOR BIO
+Jeanette Derby, President of Legal E – Employment Partners,
+has specialized in legal staffing for well over 30 years. Throughout her career, Jeanette has been responsible for five successful start-up ventures in DC’s legal staffing industry. As an active supporter of ALA’s Capital Chapter since the mid-1980s, Jeanette is a sought after thought-leader and presenter on a myriad of human resources topics and legal staffing trends. In addition to receiving 2012 and 2013 DC’s
+Best of Legal Times
+awards for Litigation/Legal Staffing, Legal E is 100% woman-owned and WBENC certified. Jeanette attributes Legal E’s continued success to her amazing management team and staff in the company’s Washington, DC and Northern VA offices.
+Leadership is Key to Law Firm Prosperity
+By: Lawrence M. Kohn
+Leadership. It’s an essential part of any practice. If a law firm is to grow, prosper and keep up with shifting economic and social realities, solid leadership has to be in place. But unlike other essential lawyers’ skills, this one is not taught in law school. Lawyers learn to lead on the job.
+But can one learn to lead? Aren’t great leaders born, not made? Not necessarily. True, some people are “born” leaders, just as some people are “born” trial lawyers or “born” basketball players. But the vast majority of successful leaders aren’t “born.” They have acquired a set of skills available to anyone who cares to learn them; skills you can learn; skills that can be used to your personal advantage and that of your firm. You too can be a leader.
+So What Is Leadership Anyway
+Leadership is difficult to define simply because there are a great many leadership styles. We may think of the “great statesman” model – the Abraham Lincolns or Margaret Thatchers. Or the “entrepreneurial” model – the Lee Iacoccas or Sam Waltons. There are the “charismatic” leaders – the Martin Luther King, Jrs., or the Ghandis. And the “creative” leaders like Albert Einstein or Pablo Picasso. Very different people, very different styles. But there is one important commonality, which is the basis of all leadership. These diverse people are or were – each in his or her own way – inspirational and visionary. They had an idea for the future in which they believed and in which they convinced others to believe as well. That ability to dream and to inspire others to dream and work to make the dream come true is the basis of leadership. And it’s not something that requires a lucky dip in the gene pool. You can develop a vision for your law firm and inspire others to help you make it a reality.
+Introductory Law Firm Leadership
+Understand the fundamental task of leadership. Dwight Eisenhower defined leadership as “the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” Your job as a leader is to show people how they can get what they want at the same time you get what you want. Another word for this art is inspiration.
+Visualize yourself as a leader. Remember being a leader doesn’t require a senior partnership, a charismatic personality, or a reputation for brilliance. Just picture yourself as having an idea for your firm’s future and then successfully implementing that idea. Think of other occasions when you have taken charge – even of only yourself – and accomplished your goals. You’ve succeeded at other things, why not at leadership?
+Develop a specific dream. Where do you want to be in five years? In 10? Where do you want your law firm to be? What kind of clients do you wish to be servicing? What kind of image in the community do you wish to project? What kind of corporate culture do you wish to foster? How do you propose to achieve these goals? Write down your answers.
+Get passionate about your dream. Really passionate. Leaders are passionate people who believe deeply in what they’re doing; and that passion is part of what inspires others to believe in it too. Don’t expect the rest of the firm to be excited about the idea if your attitude says, “it might be nice someday to maybe have more corporate clients.”
+Demand excellence of yourself in all aspects of your work – especially in the part that relates to your dream. Remember the greeting card company that “cares enough to give the very best.” It’s inspiring to work with people who give their best. It encourages others to do the same and leads them to the conclusion: “If my partner is putting all this effort into the project, maybe it really is worthwhile.”
+Hone your skills. Give yourself a chance to develop your leadership skills on small projects. Become actively involved in some volunteer organization. Run the annual benefit, lead the retreat, chair the committee. Take courses in leadership and communications skills. This kind of in-the-trenches experience is invaluable for building your confidence and your image as a leader.
+Inspired Leadership
+Inspiration is fundamental to leadership, but how does one go about inspiring others? By acting in an inspirational way. Outstanding performance and passionate belief in your own vision are part of inspiration. But a leader also must:
+Be a listener. Find out about other people’s dreams. You’re not the only one with ideas for the future. Help the others in your firm to clarify their vision. Give them the sense that you share their dreams. Let them know that their dreams are worthwhile. Let them feel that you are working on their behalf.
+Be an enabler. You lead by helping others to be their best. Encourage others to perform well and instill self-confidence in them. Honest compliments on jobs well done and expressed belief in others’ ability is essential. People tend to live up to the expectations others have for them. If you expect excellence, chances are you’ll get it. Making others feel good about themselves makes them feel good about you too – and makes them more willing to work with you.
+Be a consensus builder. No two visions for your firm’s future will be exactly alike.
+Find the commonalities among visions. Sell your ideas on that basis. Turn the project into a win-win scenario. Show others how they get what they want when you get what you want.
+Instill a sense of hope. People have to believe that the future is possible, that the goal is achievable, that tomorrow will be better than today (especially when today isn’t particularly good). Hope grows with the knowledge that one’s aspirations have been heard and that someone else is working to help achieve these dreams.
+Getting The Job Done
+Once you have arrived at a common set of goals, break the vision down into small, manageable tasks. (If your job is to clear the forest, the first step is to identify one tree that needs to be trimmed.) Breaking the task down this way makes it seem more manageable and builds confidence – yours and your followers. It allows all of you to build on small successes. Then keep working. Expect that implementing your vision will take some time. Setbacks are inevitable. But keep at it. Allow for mistakes – both your own and those of others. Nobody’s perfect. Good leaders let their followers know that mistakes are learning experiences, not capital offenses. Patience and forgiveness are both characteristics of an admirable leadership style.
+Finally, the best advice for the would-be leaders is to reject procrastination. Avoid any excuse to delay. Don’t wait for another new year. Don’t wait for your trial to end. Don’t wait to be asked. Dream your dreams, create your plan, work on your skills, and then begin to make things happen.
+Lawrence M. Kohn is president of Kohn Communications, one of the oldest and largest firms specializing in coaching lawyers in rainmaking, leadership, mentoring and productivity - See more
+here
+.
+Our Community, Our Kids Update
+By: Katie Parrish, Robert Half Legal
+ALA Members are busy getting the word out about Our Community, Our Kids! The
+15th Annual 2014 Youth Law Fair: Stand Tall Against Alcohol and K2
+was our first opportunity to spread the word about OCOK and the Toni K. Allen Scholarship Fund directly to DC high school students. It was a great success!
+On Saturday March 22nd Beth Fowler (President of the ALA Capital Chapter Foundation), Jenna Carter (VP of Community Services, Elect), and I attended the 2014 Youth Law Fair at the DC Superior Court. The law fair aims to educate DC high school and middle school students on the legal process as well as raise awareness around alcohol and violence. The kids were able to take place in mock trial programs, attend sessions hosted by judges of the Superior Court, and learn about careers in the legal field.
+During the exhibit sessions Beth, Jenna, and I were able to directly talk to students, parents, teachers, and guidance counselors about the scholarship opportunities through OCOK and the Toni K. Allen Scholarship Fund. Not only were we able to discuss the students’ college and career goals with them, but we also received confirmation from teachers and guidance counselors that they will post our scholarship information in their schools and discuss the application process with their students.
+We are hoping that this is the first of many other outreach opportunities with OCOK and that each one will be just as successful! Not only are we planning to attend additional youth fairs in the future, but we are also planning on organizing college application workshops at local high schools, to include interview prep and resume writing courses. If you are interested in volunteering for the next youth fair or workshop, please contact Jenna Carter at
+jenna.carter@huschblackwell.com
+.
+OCOK helps college bound DC Public School students reach their career goals through mentorship and college scholarship opportunities. It also aims to educate students about opportunities in the legal field and promote and fund the Toni K. Allen Scholarship Fund.
+Office Operations Section Update
+In March the Office Operations Management section hosted Kastle Systems, a leading security services provider, to speak about the best practices in security for multi-office firms. Technology shifts and advances in recent years have changed how law firms approach acquiring and managing their security systems. Leading firms today are preparing to standardize security for consistency among all firm offices. Just like an accounting system for a firm, it doesn’t make economic or management sense to have an array of different systems from multiple varying parties. Bringing it all together holistically creates not only an easier job in managing a consistent security practice but also offers efficiencies and savings, which are goals for any firm today.
+Cloud-based security is just one trend motivating this new approach. By leveraging economies of scale of an expert outsourced firm like Kastle, new conveniences become possible. A central portal can be used to see, report on or control security protocols for any office from a single location streamlining the job, and the staff required, for administration. Administrators also gain contemporary capabilities such as doing their work from anywhere too – whether it’s unlocking a door for a partner from an ipad at home, or enrolling a visitor over their smart phone. One of the outcomes of standardization is a benefit that everyone seeks today. By bringing it together, people can use one single credential to access any space as opposed to carrying around dozens of cards or keys. Kastle serves nearly 80% of the top 200 law firms today – providing access control, video surveillance and monitoring as a service. The discussion at our recent ALA meeting provided insights into how companies can do more, more efficiently and more conveniently, than ever before. The changing landscape of technology makes it all possible. Kastle’s National Law Firm Director, Pat Howe, can be contacted at
+phowe@kastle.com
+or 703-247-0231. You can also visit
+for more information.
+A CRE Scam for Brokers
+This past Tuesday I received a call from a very timid person asking if I had and bank-owned listings and if I would like to obtain bank-owned listings. I could immediately tell something was fishy with this guys pitch. He was calling to promote a conference call the next day about obtaining REO listings. I gave the guy my email address to send the conference call-in number and access code. As soon as I hung up the phone I immediately thought I just made a huge mistake giving out my email address. I was hoping that this guy was not going to be some spammer that would litter my inbox for years to come. The truth about the caller’s intention was much more sinister and I can’t be totally sure that this “group” will not turn out to be spammers as well.
+Yesterday at 4:30 PM an associate and I called into the conference call to hear the “pitch”. The conference call was run by a guy named Ray McLaine (here is his Linkedin profile). We could immediately tell this Mr. McLaine was reciting a well-rehearsed presentation. Everything he spoke about was just scratching the surface of the topic of commercial real estate brokerage and his thoughts on the similarities between the residential REO market and the coming foreclosure market. There was no depth or demonstration of understanding of commercial real estate brokerage whatsoever. He was pitching the creation of a commercial REO broker’s association that he would oversee and manage. Some of his value propositions for membership in the association were as follows:
+- Members will greatly improve their chances of obtaining REO listings they will be preapproved to handle the requirements of managing REO transactions.
+- The first 50 members will be recognized as “Charter Members”.
+- Members will have co-ownership of 50 zip codes within a 20 mile radius of their location.
+- Members will enjoy access to decision makers at banks at association dinners, round-table discussions and conventions.
+- Members will receive REO coaching and training in REO best practices from the association.
+There was a second guy on the phone who I can only presume was Mr. McLaine’s co-conspirator. The second guy was asking questions like “What can we expect to receive as members of the association?” and “Will the memebrs have a say in the governance of the association?” The answer to the second question was my favorite. In short, members will have a say in a similar way as a corporate board of directors has a say in the running of a company; however, there will always be a “Master Member” with override decision making capabilities. Of course, Mr. McLaine would be the “Master Member”.
+Here is the good part. Membership in the association costs $1,495 for registration and $150 per month for dues. Charter members, of which there will only be 50, benefit from reduced fees of $995 for registration and $100 per month dues. Even better, those on the conference call would receive a further discount in registration of $200 taking registration costs down to $795 if we registered the same day or the next. What a gereat deal! His list of benefits ran on and on. Mr. McLaine has big plans for this association: an East Coast Commercial REO Convention, a West Coast Commercial REO Convention, 5 planned dinner meetings, etc.
+Mr. McLaine’s pitch was all form and no substance. It was almost as if he bought a how-to book from late-night TV on how to set up and manage a national association. In all, I have to say the best part of the pitch was his reference to his website. I have embedded a screen shot of the home page below. Needless to say, his site does not look very legitimate. See for yourself:
+Somehow, Mr. McClaine thinks he is going to convince at least 50 members to join his association called the Commercial REO Brokers Association. The association also has the outsranding domain name or you can just use the initials. Even using the special, special deal of $795 for initiation fees, Mr. McLaine is attmepting to raise at least $39,750. Not bad for a few days “work”. There is no use dancing around gently in commenting on this pitch. It is nothing more than a big scam.
+Anyone dumb enough to give this guy their credit card information deserves what they get. The sad part is I’m sure he will find a few overly eager brokers looking to get a leg up on their competition. I’m pretty sure this guy is scouring commercial real estate sites like Loopnet, NNNEx, Propertyline, etc. to obtain his call lists to generate participation in his conference calls. To me, this is nothing more than a phishing scam intended to make the creators a quick buck. I guess desperate times really do call for desperate measures.
+Did anyone else get this conference call proposal? If you did, let me know yout thoughts in the comments.
+Related Posts:
+- CREOBA Back In My Inbox – Please Go Away
+- Introducing CNRPA, an Attempt to Distinguish CREOBA’s Business Model
+- CREOBA Resorting to Shilling
+That is quite the scheme he is trying to rip people off with. The worst part is that he is playing off peoples emotions in a tough economic time like this; trying to promise the world to them, and really just taking their money. I'm glad you didn't fall for it though.
+Nice post. I'll make mention of it on squarefeetblog.com. The other big indicator is that his sign-up page asks for credit card information, but it isn't even a secure page!
+[...] at retailchatr has a post on an individual named Ray McLaine running around hitting up brokers and other industry [...]
+Good point. Thanks for the mention on squarefeetblog.com
+I think it is an interesting information that I heve been read, Thanks to let me write a comment in your page.
+Hazel
+I did one better I went to the dinner last night. What a joke, I had a vibe that this thing was a scam from the get go of unprofessionalism, but I went against my better instincts and attended. The minute this guy started speaking I could tell he was peddling his snake oil, the guy got some idea in the middle of the night and woke up and started an association. There is absolutely no value there, in fact I'm going to dispute the charges for my dinner on my credit card just based on principal. This guy shouldn't be allowed to sell anything. I feel like I was on an episode of Punkd or a skit on SNL… I have to give this guy credit he duped 280 REO agents out there to waster there time. I stayed for about 5 mins of his nonrehearsed speech of which he stumbled through a powerpoint presentation he must have made that night.
+This is Mark Barker. I am the Executive V.P. of the Commercial REO Brokers Assocaition (). I have been observing the anonymous comments for a while and now have decided that I need to respond.
+Please see my comments below. If anyone would like to contact me to discuss membership or the goals and objectives of this association, please contact either Herman Neuman, Membership Director or myself at (818) 483-1597
+Apparently after I left he had a 1/4 of the agents left then he invited his son up there who runs some coaching crap.. I've seen his son before he's another conman, after his son started talking another 1/2 the room emptied and before the end all the ripped off agents were outta there. Anything you have ot payfor that you haven't heard of or isn't established is crap and this certainly sets the bar for crap
+Interesting information you all… Appreciate the heads-up.
+I run a legitimate commercial real estate training and advisory company, and I received an email from this gentleman this morning asking me to contact him about possibly forming a strategic alliance and providing his association with some of our course materials for their convention.
+I'm not sure how legitimate this contact is, after reading your posts. I will connect with him tomorrow and post an update here for everyone. Hopefully that will add another datapoint for anyone else who might be looking to do business with the association.
+Look at the videos on the web site. Does the head of the organization exude the skills of a commercial real estate leader? Start and stop with his clip and blue collar meeting kick off and this is all the info you will need to pass judgement.
+[...] Real Estate REO Broker’s Association Scam February 12, 2009 Chris at retailchatr has a post on an individual named Ray McLaine running around hitting up brokers and other industry [...]
+They certainly sounded credible, at least based on their website. I am glad to have found your postings & updates
+I am Motelmat, I have been in commercial RE for 45 years and just in the brokerage of lodging properties for 36 years. I made the mistake of listiening to their hype and I joined and spent a total of about $1,200.00 now and so far all I got was a piece of bad piece of halibut at a dinner in San Matep. I tried to get involved in committees and other things and so far it has been nothing but BS. I just cancelled my membership, but please don't make the same mistake I did, They do not do anything. I thin they only want to get a bunch of members in and take monthly dues, but so far it is a completely farce.
+This is Mark Barker. I am the Executive V.P. of CREOBA. I would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight regarding Motelmat's account of his experience with CREOBA. #1 The dinner meeting was in San Francisco, not San Matep. #2 The fish was Salmon not Halibut. Motelmat did try to get involved on various committees, however, there was no room at this time for additional members. We did discuss with Motelmat, the opportunity to headup the new speciality of Hotel/Motel committee. It should be noted that Motelmat contemplated joining CREOBA for two to three weeks before he submitted his application for membership. It was assumed that he did his due dilligence during that time and recognized that the mission of CREOBA is and will always be networking, training, membership marketing and a general platform trading pertinent information concerning the emergining Commercial REO Foreclosure Sunami.
+Continued from above:
+In our membership teleconference with Real Capital Analytics and their Distressed Asset Radar Program, they indicate that in the last three months the total number of distressed commercial property has doubled from 50 billion dollars to just under 100 billion dollars. See attached link:… .
+We are a commercial reo assocation. It should also be noted, the two residential reo associations, REOMAC and NRBA are virtually closed to new members.
+Continued below
+Continued From Above:
+This is a recent comment from one of our current active members who has been thru the residential reo surge. Incidentially, this member is a PHD.
+My thoughts on this “topic” are: CREOBA is a NEW Association. I have NEVER heard them say my membership would result in a listing/sale of property; in fact information presented online (), via phone and at the Tampa, FL, dinner emphatically stated otherwise. My understanding is that ALL of us together; setting standards for Commercial REO Brokerage-can best obtain the highest level of performance for the industry. Much the same way the Appraisal Institute raised the bar for appraisal with their MAI designation.
+Currently there are no other groups in place to aim and achieve the goal of industry REO Commercial standards. CREOBA states they are forming, marketing and expanding to obtain this goal. For heaven’s sake the motto on their website home page is “Setting the Standards for Commercial REO/ORE Industry”. How could I possibly read that and get a belief that CREOBA is going to GIVE/GET me work?
+Continued Below
+Continued From Above
+After 15+ years in REO residential with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac I am aware that the Residential section has their standards and use only brokers who can perform AND the Asset Managers for Commercial REO are choosing to list with THOSE residential brokers instead of the standard cadre of commercial who are ignorant of what the standard operating procedures, key performance indicators, flexibility in meeting independent client needs are.
+As Commercial continues is decline, default and foreclosure spiral; let’s wake up and smell the coffee-either climb into the lifeboat, grab a bucket and start bailing with the rest of us or stay in the turbulent ocean, threading and gulping water, thrashing about hoping to cling to ANY debris.
+Continued Below
+Mark – Thanks for chiming in. It seems like you think that the "standards" adhered to by residential brokers is what will facilitate a successful commercial transaction. Good luck with that.
+Hi Chris: I think just the opposite. The standards in residential certainly do not apply to commercial transactions. Possibly you misread the comments from one of our esteemed members. We currently are setting new standards in conjuntion with input from the commercial financial community, holders of these toxic assets.
+In the end, it is a partnership!
+Thank you for your comments.
+Chris, I admire that you consider yourself a watchdog for the commercial brokers out there. If you really do profess to have an honest and objective perspective, why not truly investigate our intentions and goals instead of speculating and posting. Why not authenticate whether or not we are a scam or whether by working together as a team of trained professionals we can turn this association into a powerful force to promote and help our members survive the worst downturn of our lives. Almost 250 national members and rapidly growing.
+Not a lot of risk in making a phone call. You can even call me collect to reduce your exposure.
+I invite you to call me at (818) 483-1597 X 103.
+Sincerely,
+Mark Barker
+CREOBA
+Mark – You have an uphill battle ahead of you. The deck is stacked. Eerie recruiting approach, low barriers to entry in an industry with a notoriously low bar. Your Experts or "Masters," or "Product Heads," are weak and are not leaders in their verticals. President way over his head, has little presence, can't present and as a first impression, set's the stage for a poor experience. The growth will continue but Chris is correct, results have to be quickly posted or your organization will crumble like a house of cards.
+That said, you are courageous and have a vision, which I admire and respect.
+Mark – I don't consider myself a watchdog. I am just calling it like I see it. I don't need to look any further into your organization to see if it has merit. You just need to show results. Membership numbers are not results. Membership numbers are good for you and Ray but don't mean anything to your members. If anything, the more members you have the more watered down the designation – not that it isn't watered down anyway, since payment is all that is needed for qualification. You can't just sign up and write a check to be a CCIM (I know you guys may not know what CCIM is because it is a CRE based organization and you guys are rooted in residential real estate).
+As of today, how many of your 250 members have generated business as a direct result of membership in CREOBA? Let me answer that for you: Zero. Enough said.
+You guys may have the best intentions in the world but intention and results are two very different things.
+Chris
+The text commencing with After 15 years and ending with spooky email chain letters was sent to me and others by one of our members (not myself) who incidently, in addition to her vast experience, is a PHD. Just wanted to clairfy.
+Mark
+Contined From Above
+And on a personal mention-I am put off by any individual who signs only his name and who will not “man up” with his personal/business address and phone. Good grief, It might as well have been one of those spooky email chain letters!
+Maybe Motelmat outa get a room and give it a rest!
+If anyone wants to contact The Commercial REO Brokers Association and discuss membership or the goals and objectives of the association, Herman Neuman the Membership Director or myself Mark Barker, Executive V.P. can be reached at (818) 483-1597.
+[...] just what the CREOBA organization is and whether or not they have any credibility whatsoever. Since I found out about CREOBA I have been scratching my head wondering how these guys think they can start an organization that [...]
+Mark, I have not looked on here for a few weeks and I se you are slandering me now. I am Howard Mathews, a very successful hotel broker in Discovery Bay, CA. Minor thing but you are wrong about the meeting I attended it was at the Hyatt in Burlingame CA in the San Mateo Area, not San Francisco and it was halibut, not salmon so it shows you were not there. I am stil being charged monthly on my credit card even though I have cancelled my membership three times now and I have discussed it with you on the phone. From what I see CREOBA is collecting dues every month from all of its membres, but has not given out one successful or beneficial property lead on a distressed property to any member yet, but is stil charging monthly fees to everyone.
+Looks like CREOBA is a new type of Ponzi scheme to me, get members, collect fees and then monthly dues, don't produce anything worthwhile and make as much as you can and then go out of business.
+Howard Mathews 925 634 2299
+Note to everyone on this site. I just received an email from CREOBA that they are now refunding all of my original application fees as well as the 3 months of dues so at least they are acting ethically.
+Howard Mathews "Motelmat"
+Thanks Howard Mathews aka "Motelmat" for posting your experience with this CREOBA company.
+I am a residential real estate broker who is trying to not deplet my hard earning income to get into the REO sector and it has been very hard. I often hit walls one after another and really don't know what to do next. I do go on as many forums and blogs as possible to read other opinions and inputs as to how thing is going in the market. Nothing reliable yet, but that won't stop me. I will keep on trying.
+Again thank you for your input.
+Robin Tu 408-334-5597
+This, dear readers, will only be a short little review of a stunning meal I had here this week. Seeing that I only found out about my luck when a friend called me half an hour before the meal, I did not have my camera, which explains the absence of photos. For those, who will continue to read, you will be able to read about one of the most impressive meals I have had in London since my coming here in October last year.
+The Greenhouse is situated in the heart of Mayfair. When approaching the entrance, you walk through a little « garden », helping you step into a different world. This world doesn’t have much in common with the otherwise noisy, stressful and often tiring city that London is. Here, everything is peaceful, civilised, luxurious and made to give pleasure to the lucky diners. In some respect, Antonin Bonnet has used a lot of his old mentors (Bras) concepts. His kitchen is very different from other chefs’. You might enjoy a few courses, which don’t feature any stock based sauces, which use herbs, vegetables, grains in a most delightful way. Anyone who has been lucky enough to eat at Bras’ Laguiole restaurant, or knows one of his fantastic books, will know how natural this cooking is. There is no manicured carrot slice lying in the corner of a plate, nor is there much cream or butter. Both Bras and Bonnet use the purest, best products and serve them in a (relatively) simple way. What differs this cooking from, say Ceruttis (now Bardets) are the associations and the usage of « strange » sauces, products or unexpected combinations. A meal here might come as a complete surprise, as did mine, and might make you leave with only one desire: To go back and relive this experience.
+We started the meal with one of the most fascinating wines that exist, at least if you are such a Champagne fan as I am. Krug Grande Cuvee, which must be the most amazing « basic » cuvees one can think of absolutely blew me away. Such intensive taste is hardly common with any champagne I tasted so far. This really deserves its frightening price, as you will hardly forget it anytime soon! With it, we were served some basil spheres and crackers with goats cheese. The basil sphere had a very bright, refreshing flavour, the goats cheese provided some highly enjoyable saltiness and crunch. Fantastic way to start a meal (although that is more due to the Champagne than the amuses).
+The bread here is home made and very, very good. On offer today were four types: Olive, Lemon and Coffee (divine), tomatoe and a normal baguette. All were of very high quality but the service didn’t really want to give them away. I had to ask every time I needed another round, which shouldn’t really happen in a place of this standing. Butter was butter and very good. Don’t know if it was Bordier, but it was good enough to be eaten with the bread. This whole butter craze isn’t really for me, as I doubt that you will be able to tell the difference between the 5 or 6 best butters this world has on offer.
+The first course came directly after the first nibbles had been cleared. No amuse or anything of that sort, which makes me quite sad, as I always see the amuse as the one piece of the menu, in which the chef can let his creativity run wild. If one just came back from Europe, where places like Oud Sluis or Schloss Berg serve you a whole parade of stunning little creations, this seems especially dull.
+The first course made up for the lack of amuse I must say. Scottish lobster was barely cooked (mi-cuit) and served with grapefruit, Champagne jelly, different beets and a black sugar sauce. The lobster was cooked fantastically, no hint of chewiness, just a slight crunch, which makes the European lobster so special. There is nothing better than a well cooked European lobster and this was a fine beast. It also tasted very clean, fresh and fine which helped this dish considerably. With this very delicate lobster came a few cubes of slightly bittersweet grapefruit and the star of the dish: black sugar sauce. This is a little flashback to his time at Bras and is made out of the lobster’s head, butter, lemon zest and black sugar. 4 elements create a fantastic balance of a sweetness, iodine flavours and some toasted spice flavours. Such simplicity that gives you such an interesting result is rarely seen in any restaurant, especially in Britain. This really was a fantastic sauce, which went brilliantly well with the grapefruit, lobster and Champagne jelly. This was cooking that was very capable from a technical point of view, featured stunning products and used a highly inventive apporach in conception. I don’t know, if many London restaurants can claim all of these for their cuisine. Excellent.
+Following this, I had one of the chefs classics: Bresse Pigeon with baby spinach, pomme soufflee. The pigeon came perfectly cooked (rare) with a cream of the hearts and liver, some gently cooked spinach, a hearty pigeon jus and a side dish with a barbajuan of the pigeon thigh paired with a herb salad. Furthermore, we were served a little bowl of pommes soufflees. How could I have known that I was going to have one of the best dishes of my life today, when I woke up and only expected this to be another dull day in the LSE library preparing for the upcoming exams? Let me tell you, this was food the way I love it. Simple (not really, but by appearance and perception), perfectly executed and inventive at the same time. The pigeon had extremly intense flavour and the accompanying cream and jus only enhanced this gaminess to elevate it to another level. Just think about it, 4 elements on a plate can create such a rewarding experience. I would be lying if I’d say that this pigeon was any worse than those I had at Oud SLuis, ADPA, Sonnora or any other European 3* (haven’t had any at Bau, where that might change). The accompanying pommes were equally well made and are always a treat. The barbajuan was no worse and provided the dish with a very refined rustic element. In the whole, this dish incorporated every single element of the pigeon, to give the diner the full spectrum of the product he enjoys. It is such a pity if people just use the fancy breast and let the delicious offal go to the bin or anything. It simply is amazing what such a nasty bird can delivers if treated well. DIVINE. This is the kind of food I’d travel for, which must be the first time I can say something like that about any London restaurant.
+The dessert was very pleasant, but nothing special. A milk chocolate parfait sandwiched between caramel tuiles served with chocolate sorbet. Perfectly made, but rather uninspiring. Can’t argue, but can’t be moved by such a dessert. My companion had a much more interesting dish: A reinterpreted lemon tart with basil and a few thousand elements. This was more on the level of the rest of the meal.
+Petit fours are stunning though. The macarons were fantastic (had to ask for a second round of course!), the Coca Cola (?!) marshmallow was equally well made and the passion fruit chocolate praline was not the worst of mouthfuls neither.
+What can I say in retrospect? First, I came here expecting a pleasant meal not more. What I got instead was one of the most interesting and inspiring meals I had in London so far (which only consisted of 3 courses). The products seemed of such high quality that I could probably say they are close to the kind of stuff you might find in a continental 3* kitchen. After all, he uses Mieral as his poultry supplier, meat from the Aubrac, great seafood and top notch vegetables. Furthermore, the way these products are treated reflects the closeness to nature that makes Bras so remarkable. They are treated with utmost respect, to maximise the pleasure of the lucky bastard who ingurgitates these heavenly creations. Thirdly, the kitchen, if in the spirit of Bras, goes its own, distinct way, which is without doubt one of the most interesting ones in London (the other being Pascal Sanchez at Sketch and Claude Bosi at Hibiscus). In addition to these assets, they have one of the biggest cellars in Europe here (somewhere around 2000 positions) of very reasonably priced wines. Of course they won’t cost as little as in your local Tesco’s but that should be clear by now, to those who read this at least.
+But, seeing that it is a restaurant run by humans, it has its flaws. When we arrived, the service seemed a bit nonchalant, didn’t really seem to care about us. However, after a few minutes things changed and by the end of the meal it was perfect. The sommelier deserves to be mentioned, as he does have some very good wines by the glass which fit the kitchen perfectly. For instance, if you always fancied having some Chateau d’Yquem, you can have some here for 45£ a glass (1997), which sounds reasonable for me.
+The other thing they could get right is the amuse. It doesn’t cost much to serve a decent little plate of whatever you have lying around in the kitchen. Even if London restaurants often don’t really care about their amuses, a little effort would be very appreciated. The other food concern (if you can call it one) was the relatively boring dessert. In the end, it was just one dessert, so I can’t judge them on that. One more reason to be back as soon as possible!
+I don’t really see why Bonnet doesn’t have at least 2*. The restaurant is luxurious enough, the cellar is spectacular, the service (after some warming up) is great and most importantly: The kitchen is absolutely fantastic. If people like Wareing, Herland or Bosi get their 2* why doesn’t this place get them. All I can say, is that I will be back as quickly as possible!
+Étiquettes : Antonin Bonnet, London 1*, Michel Bras, The Greenhouse
+mai 20, 2009 à 3:12 |
+I was there last week and the food was excellent, but service was mediocre…
+See my review here:
+mai 20, 2009 à 6:21 |
+I agree on this. I was there a bit earlier than my friend and after having said that I’ll wait for her with an aperitif, nothing happened until my friend came (10mins or so later). Even then, no one offered us an aperitif. The start was a bit bumpy, but once we told them about our fascination for Bras’ cooking things got much better.
+Maybe it was also due to the fact that we spoke French, I don’t know.
+Anyway, even if the service was bad there, I’d still go again as it was too good to be missed.
+avril 21, 2010 à 10:39 |
+Green House
+about the krung NV you can have it a mach less in other restaurant i think is overpriced….the Head Sommelier Ronan is just great a star one of the best sommelier in London
+avril 22, 2010 à 11:07
+You’re right MAurizio, they are very good in pricing some of the wines by the glass, although other wines are rather expensive there. Ronan left the Greenhouse, which is certainly a great loss.
+mai 25, 2009 à 7:11 |
+I have eaten twice in the last 18 month at the greenhouse and no other restaurant in London have managed to bring me the kind of pleasure i had during both meal (tasting menu).
+i will be back again before the end of the year.
+mai 25, 2009 à 12:16 |
+you see, that’s what I think too. They are pretty damn good.
+If there is one restaurant in London that does deserve a second *, it is this one, so who knows, maybe next year’ll see some nice surprise?
+Raven led Three-Eyed Spider and less than a hundred of their people through a secret route. Only a dozen or so of them were actually equipped to fight – the rest were scientists who followed Three-Eyed Spider in his defection. Vengeance was forefront in the old man’s mind, but he wasn’t going to do it with the skeleton crew he had now.
+They were no threat to anyone, and escape was only more difficult the farther they went. The Blispterpeak mountains were a deadly and inhospitable place. If a handful of them made it out alive they would count themselves lucky.
+Even at considerable distance from Nucleus they could still feel the ground shake from explosions, and see lights flashing in the cloudy sky. Those were blasts from elysian warships, and the roar of defensive cannons from the city under the mountain.
+Three-Eyed Spider himself had been wounded in his conflict with Wolfblade. He sagged under his own weight, nursing his grievances with an angry and dismal countenance.
+For more than half his life the scientist had sacrificed for the Dark Atom, only to be cast away in the end like so much refuse! It was so unfair!
+You deserve to die for what you’ve done, Wolfblade!
+Suddenly they stopped as Raven drew to a halt. His angry red eyes glared at the path ahead, and in a cold voice he called out. “Show yourself!”
+One… two… three figures stepped out, then whole groups. A few moments later there were thousands people blocking the way forward.
+A frigid hand gripped Three-Eyed Spider’s heart. Even in the midst of all this, had Wolfblade sent people to hunt him down? No, that was impossible. These weren’t Dark Atom members… but who were they?
+Several figures stepped ahead of the battalion.
+The foremost among them was a young man with a bit of straw jutting from the side of his mouth. His left arm was covered in bandages, and an exorcist rod hang at his waist [1].It was obvious by the look of him that he was this group’s leader.
+Another was a heroic, albeit strangely expressionless man with inky black skin. His presence was odd, and looking at him one didn’t get the impression he was human at all. There was a distinct sense of death and destruction that followed him. Next was a man with a battleax that would have seemed huge except for the fact that it’s bearer was also far larger than average. The malicious looking fat man hefted his weapon, putting the etched runes along its surface on full display. Obviously his battleax was no typical tool of destruction.
+Aside from them there were also a young-ish looking man with a pale face and a thin sword, and a young boy carrying a gourd on his back.
+They traveled with a group of two or three thousand, who were obviously from two different camps. One group consisted of considerably rougher looking men, many of them mutated. The other was clearly well trained and equipped, with a white-haired swordsman standing at the fore.
+What an odd collection, the scientist thought.
+Squall didn’t pay any mind to Three-Eyed Spider or his insignificant party. Standing in the middle of the road, he raised his bandaged arm to his eyes and peered into the distance. “Ah… it looks like we’re early. We should wait for a while, let the two sides beat on each other for a time.”
+Although he was a new addition to the Highwaymen, Ravenous Tiger’s influence was perhaps just as weighty as Squall’s. He didn’t like having to take orders from a child, but he was afraid of whatever benefactor he represented. For the time being it was wiser to play the role of obedient henchman.
+Indeed Squall was young, but his time and experiences in the wilds had made him shrewd and ruthless.
+When word got out that war had erupted in the Blisterpeaks, he gave the command to make for the mountain range as quickly as possible. OF course now that they were here, according to Squall it wasn’t their place to get involved.
+Elysians, wastelanders, the Sanctum… it didn’t matter. They were all enemies.
+Skycloud was a given, an ancient foe to the wastelands. The Dark Atom was a wildcard with tremendous influence, which made them a threat. Once Boondock and Fishmonger’s Borough joined they had the strength to vie for control of the whole northern barrens. It was only a matter of time before they came into conflict with the Seekers. Saving them from destruction was like cutting off his own foot.
+The Sanctum of Judgment was a different sort of adversary. Putting aside the fact he razed Fishmonger’s Borough, the Crimson One’s goal was to unite the wastelands. This put him at odds with the Highwaymen. The bishop was a terrible foe, so if there was a chance that the elysians could take care of him and his people before Squall had to, then all the better.
+Ravenous Tiger finally turned his attention to Three-Eyed Spider and the other escapees. “Where are these rats scurrying off to? We should run them down and be on our way.”
+As he spoke his ax started to glow, eager for blood.
+Seeing the threat in the fat man’s posture Raven lifted his cyborg arm, ready to react. However Three-Eyed Spider quickly told him to stand down. They were outnumbered, and these strangers before them were strong. If they tried to fight they would certainly die. Instead he tried another tactic. “A moment, gentlemen!”
+Squall half-heartedly motioned for Ravenous Tiger to relax. “If you’re skulking around here it means you aren’t ordinary folk. Tell us who you are, then we’ll decide what to do with you.”
+“I am called Three-Eyed Spider, and I am the lead scientist of the Dark Atom!”
+“Lead scientist...”
+Squall’s eyes sparkled. A title like that certainly carried a lot of clout. The Dark Atom was the biggest Seeker organization in the wastelands, and if what this man said was true then he was a rare talent. Even without any fighting capability, he would not be a man to underestimate.
+Three-Eyed Spider was a tiger driven from his cave, and out in the open he was vulnerable. He dare not push his luck, and meeting this motley crew was potentially catastrophic. In order to save their lives he shared his tale, and in the process offered a way out for him and his people. “Obviously, you lot are not a typical group of hoodlums. We have fallen on hard times and have nowhere to turn. If you accept, my people and I would like to join your organization – with the stipulation, of course, that we are treated well and with respect.”
+Squall shared a wordless look with Ravenous Tiger. It was a great deal.
+Strong fighters were a dime a dozen out in the wastelands, but men like Three-Eyed Spider were rare. If the old scientist really was willing to join them, it would mean a great boon for their group’s development.
+“You are defectors. I represent the Highwaymen, and this man leads Fishmonger’s Borough. I’m sure you’ve heard of the Highwaymen and their recent growth. We’ve got the muscle. Fishmonger’s Borough is one of the richest towns in the wasteland. I’ve got people, and he’s got resources. If you choose to join us, we’d be a real threat to the current balance of power. Don’t you agree?”
+Three-Eyed Spider rejoiced. “Absolutely! Just as it should be.”
+So it was that a great mind of the Dark Atom defected to join a budding power of the wastelands. First Squall annexed the strength of Fishmonger’s Borough, now he had the aid of Three-Eyed Spider and his man Raven. The cards were increasingly being dealt in his favor. Radical expansion came with dangers of course, for both Ravenous Tiger and Three-Eyed Spider came with their own people. However there was no reward without risk, and though they might be hard to manage there were turbulent times ahead. Now was the time to consolidate strength.
+He would deal with those problems when they arose. For now it was enough to bring them into the fold.
+Three-Eyed Spider made a show of submitting to their direction. “I understand you were thinking of joining the battle. In my estimation, this would be unnecessary.”
+Squall didn’t understand. “What are you saying? You expect that the Dark Atom can withstand Skycloud’s assault? Word has spread and other wasteland groups will come, but they’re still a far ways off. They won’t be here in time, the Crimson Church and my people are all there is.”
+Three-Eyed Spider crooned a laugh. “The Dark Atom may be no match for the elysians, but do not expect them to be destroyed in a single attack. Everyone has underestimated them. The organization is almost a hundred years old, and the city under the mountain has existed for several centuries – do you honestly believe they have nothing else to aid them in their troubles?”
+“So you’re saying,” Squall interrupted, “that they still have a trump card to play.”
+“That’s right, two in fact, and either one is capable of annihilating their enemies. The only reason they haven’t used either yet is because they haven’t captured enough prey in their trap! Things will be different when enough elysian support troops and their mighty commanders arrive!”
+His assertions took everyone by surprise. The Dark Atom couldn’t be that audacious, even if they were twice the size. Were they expected to believe that with the power to wipe out the elysian army, they wouldn’t use it right away? Instead, they would take the risk of waiting for an even higher body count? It was ludicrous!
+Ravenous Tiger pressed for more information. “What tricks do they have up their sleeves?”
+Injured though he was, Three-Eyed Spider drew himself up with a regal air. Neither fast nor slow; neither rushed nor sluggish, he revealed the Dark Atom’s greatest secret. “The first is a weapon of the ancient times, forged in the zenith of humanity’s destruction. A nuclear weapon that, upon detonation, atomizes everything around. Nothing can survive. Nucleus was built deep underground to protect against destruction should one go off nearby.”
+The ancient people created weapons this powerful? And the Dark Atom had control of one?!
+Three-Eyed Spider went on. “The second is a defense system built into Nucleus during its construction. ‘Nirvana.’ If Nirvana is activated then everything within several tens of kilometers around the city will be destroyed. The valley they battle in is ground zero. That is why you mustn’t go – entering that valley would only lead to your inevitable destruction!”
+Both Squall and Ravenous felt a chill go up their spines. No wonder Nucleus had survived so long. Their defenses were as terrifying as they were incredible.
+Squall offered a slight bow toward the scholar. “We appreciate your guidance, elder. You’ve prevented us from making a mistake we would regret for eternity. In that case, what do you suggest we do?”
+“In this old man’s estimation, the chances of them using the atomic weapon are small. It is powerful, yes, but as far as I am aware the Dark Atom has only discovered one. If in a single use it doesn’t slay the likes of someone like General Skye or Governor Arcturus, then it would be a pity beyond measure. In addition, the weapon does not pick sides. Using it in your own territory would have dire consequences. It is far more likely they will choose to activate Nirvana!”
+Now that he was committed to Squall and his Highwaymen, Three-Eyed Spider held no information back. After all, in saving Squall’s life it was an investment in his own standing. Earn favor now, and later his counsel would be all the more welcome.
+“We establish ourselves in a valley stragglers are likely to pass through. Once Nirvana is activated, those who manage to escape will be forced to come our way, where we will be lying in wait. They will be unable to escape, and everything that comes through will be destroyed, be they elysian or wastelander.”
+“Good, good, yes! A fine plan.”
+Squall applauded the cunning scheme. If it all unfolded as he claimed, then they might be able to eliminate all of their foes in one fell strike without risk to themselves. Squall had to appreciate his luck. Fortune had decided that instead of being obliterated on a mountain side, the power of the entire wasteland might be delivered on a silver platter.
+1. Alright, considerable change here. From the beginning we’ve mistaken the phrase 驱魔棍for exorcist staff, when in fact it is actually more of a cudgel or mace. The confusion arises because the final character, 棍, can mean both a stick or rod, and a bludgeoning instrument. Especially in recent chapters – i.e. with Cloudhawk dual wielding them, and the fact that everyone wears them on their waists where a staff cannot be worn – it was clear that these are intended to be mace-like weapons, not staves. This is further confirmed by their size, as mentioned in chapter 36, where it is described as three feet. A staff would be closer to six, whereas many styles of medieval maces were between two and three feet in length. Looking back it makes quite a bit of sense. We’ll be using ‘rod’ as these are fairly slim weapons, almost baton-like. Henceforth I will be translating this weapon as intended, and eventually some heavy editing will be needed. One day, like some time before I die. Maybe.
+Tampa
+City Scorecard Rank
+Tampa, FL
+Tampa’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Plan, released in 2011, articulates some of the city’s energy-related activities for its internal government operations, however, the city does not have any overall energy or emissions reduction goals for its operations.
+Last updated: February 2017
+Tampa does not have an energy efficiency-related goal for its local government operations.
+Stringency
+N/A
+Progress
+N/A
+Reporting
+Tampa publicly releases annual sustainability reports detailing progress toward energy-related local government operations initiatives. In addition, Tampa publishes a variety of performance data on its Performance Measurement Dashboard. While this dashboard includes 2015/2016 municipal emissions data, it is uncertain that this data will be released on an annual basis. Tampa also releases several other sustainability reports.
+Last updated: January 2017
+Vehicle Fleets and Infrastructure
+Tampa does not have formal fuel efficiency requirements for their vehicles or energy-efficient vehicle procurement policies in place. Although this city is in the process of developing a technology based tracking program, currently there are no web-based GPS technologies available for fleet management.
+Note: For local fleet initiatives, policies listed must make a specific, mandatory requirement for increasing fleet efficiency. Local alternative-fuel vehicle procurement requirements that give a voluntary option to count efficient vehicles are thus not included.
+Public Lighting
+Tampa has not yet adopted a policy requiring efficient outdoor lighting, such as the International Dark-Sky Association’s Model Lighting Ordinance. A policy in Tampa’s Comprehensive Plan (Policy 40.1.7) calls for Tampa to pursue energy-saving options for exterior lighting of municipal buildings. Nevertheless, there are no formal efficiency focused lighting replacement programs in place in this city.
+New Buildings and Equipment
+Ordinance 17.5-203 requires all new construction of municipal buildings of at least 5,000 square feet to be built to LEED Silver standards. Renovations of existing municipal buildings must incorporate building materials recognized by the U.S. Green Building Council for their sustainable qualities and recycled products whenever possible. We did not find information regarding an energy efficiency procurement policy for equipment purchases.
+Last updated: April 2017
+Building Benchmarking and Retrofitting
+Tampa does not benchmark public building energy use through ENERGY STAR or a similar tool. Although Tampa has no comprehensive retrofit strategy for its municipal buildings in place, the City is currently undertaking energy efficient investments at the McKay Bay Waste to Energy facility.
+Public Employees
+Tampa allows city employees to use flexible schedules.
+Last updated: January 2017
+Green Tampa leads Tampa’s implementation of its community-wide energy efficiency initiatives.
+Last updated: January 2017
+The city’s Green Resolution formally adopted a goal proposed by Mayor Pam Iorio to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2025. Mayor Iorio originally proposed the goal in signing the U.S. Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement. The city has also established a goal to reduce community-wide energy use in the city by 38.6% below business as usual projections for the year 2025 as part of its Energy Efficiency and Conservation Plan. We could not confirm that the specific energy goal has been formally adopted by either executive order or city council resolution.
+The city releases Annual Sustainability Reports to track greenhouse gas emissions for city assets, but these reports do not contain an updated community-wide total. We are thus unable to determine if the city is on track to meet its targets.
+Last updated: January 2017
+The city’s Urban Forest Management Plan includes a goal of no net loss of tree canopy cover for the entire city and has also established individual neighborhood tree canopy goals for each of the city’s municipal districts.
+The city has adopted a private tree protection ordinance. The city also allows for cluster residential subdivision zoning that permanently protect land alongside dense residential development patterns as part of its Site Plan Zoning District Procedures Ordinance. The city has not adopted policies that require or incentive the use of low impact development (LID) techniques.
+Last updated: January 2017
+Tampa has some building sector initiatives to improve efficiency including upfront code support. The Construction Services Department manages the building energy code compliance and enforcement for the City of Tampa.
+Last Updated: January 2017
+Effective June 30, 2015, Florida law requires that residential and commercial buildings comply with the 5th Edition (2014) Florida Building Code, Energy Conservation. The 5th Edition (2014) Florida Building Code, Energy Conservation based on the 2012 IECC with amendments. The 6th Edition (2017) is on schedule to take effect on December 31, 2017. Cities are not permitted to adopt codes more stringent than the state codes. To learn more about Florida’s building energy codes, please visit the State Policy Database.
+Commercial
+Commercial construction in Tampa complies with the Florida codes. Tampa has not yet begun advocating for increased stringency in commercial building energy codes.
+Residential
+Residential construction in Tampa complies with the Florida codes. Tampa has not yet begun advocating for increased stringency in residential building energy codes.
+Last Updated: January 2017
+Tampa does not have internal staff dedicated solely to energy code compliance. The city requires building code officials to complete energy code training. Tampa has not made third-party plan review or performance testing mandatory for code compliance, nor has it established either as a voluntary code compliance option. Tampa provides upfront building energy code support through energy code workshops.
+Last Updated: January 2017
+Green Building Requirements
+Private commercial and residential buildings are not subject to green building requirements.
+Energy Audit and Retrofit Requirements
+Tampa does not yet require commercial or residential buildings to take energy efficiency actions such as energy audits or retro-commissioning.
+Incentives and Financing for Efficient Buildings
+Tampa offers expedited plan review for commercial construction which includes provisions for energy efficiency. Rebates are available to residential and commercial construction achieving the LEED standards. Homes built to the Florida Green Building Coalition standards also receive a rebate.
+Last Updated: January 2017
+Tampa Electric Company (TECO), an investor-owned utility (IOU) is the primary electric utility serving the City of Tampa. TECO Peoples Gas, an IOU, is Tampa’s primary natural gas utility. The State of Florida requires its utilities which post sales of 2,000 GWh or more to implement cost-effective energy efficiency programs and to conduct energy efficiency potential studies. Natural gas programs are required by orders and legislation. To learn more about the state-requirements for electric and gas efficiency, please visit the Florida page of the State Database.
+The City of Tampa Water Department is the municipal utility which provides drinking water, wastewater treatment, and stormwater management services to the City of Tampa.
+Last Updated: January 2017
+In 2015, according to TECO, they achieved 31,880 MWh in net incremental savings, representing 0.17% of retail sales. To achieve these savings, TECO spent $27,502,000 on electric efficiency programs in 2015, which equates to 1.37% of annual revenue. In 2015, TECO Peoples Gas reported spending $12,335,245 on natural gas efficiency programs, which is normalized to $37.76 per residential customer. TECO Peoples Gas did report savings on natural gas efficiency programs. Spending on electricity and natural gas represented in this section covers the entire Florida service territory, not just Tampa. TECO offers electric efficiency incentives and technical assistance to residential and commercial/industrial customers. TECO Peoples Gas similarly offers natural gas efficiency programs to residential and business customers.
+TECO and Hillsborough County School Board (HCSB) have joint energy efficiency goals. TECO and the HCSB have been collaborating to install thermal energy storage units, lighting retrofit upgrades, chiller units and solar window film. TECO and the HCSB meet monthly to discuss billing & usage patterns, potential energy projects, and conservation programs that could help support implementing energy projects and meeting their energy goals.
+TECO and the City of Tampa also have shared energy efficiency goals. The City of Tampa has an internal computer-aided tool they use to monitor controls and optimize performance of their electric operations. TECO’s Account Management team works closely with the City to ensure all their energy needs are addressed. The assigned account manager work as a liaison collaborating energy audits and promoting all conservation programs available.
+Last Updated: January 2017
+Low-Income Programs
+Tampa Electric Co. offers the Neighborhood Weatherization Program to qualified low-income residential customers. This program provides energy-efficient installations at no cost to the customer, and includes duct sealing, caulking, insulation, lighting fixtures, water heater wrap, water efficiency measures, and energy efficiency education materials, amongst others. The program targets high energy users and elderly households, and also streamlines implementation with the federal Weatherization Assistance Program. Tampa Electric participates with several civic and local organizations including Hillsborough County Neighborhood Service Centers, Rebuild Together Tampa Bay, and Paint Your Heart Out Tampa Bay.
+In 2015, according to Tampa Electric Co., it achieved 4,666 MWh in energy savings from its low-income programs, while spending $3,994,280 on its low-income efficiency portfolio. These programs served 7,912 low-income customers, with each household receiving an average of $505 and saving an average of 590 kWh.
+At this time, TECO Peoples Gas does not offer energy efficiency programs targeted at low-income customers.
+Multifamily Programs
+At this time, TECO and the TECO Peoples Gas do not offer energy efficiency programs targeted at multifamily properties.
+Last Updated: June 2017
+TECO has not yet committed to the Green Button or another online service to provide customers with their energy consumption data. If requested, TECO will provide Tampa’s building managers with automatic benchmarking data for use in Portfolio Manager. Also upon request, TECO will provide community aggregate energy usage data for public consumption for planning or program evaluation. At this time, the City of Tampa does not advocate to the state for improvements in data provision by the utilities.
+Last Updated: January 2017
+Water Efficiency
+The City of Tampa offers water efficiency programs independently of the energy utilities, such as water audits, plumbing fixture retrofits, rain sensors, irrigation system efficiency check-ups and other programs. These programs and general water usage is monitored by the Water Use Restrictions Enforcement Program. The city has a year-round restriction on water use for all water sources except reclaimed water inside the city limits.
+Energy Efficiency and Self-Generation
+Tampa does not currently have an energy efficiency goal set in place for water services. However, its Wastewater Department employs staggered starting of motor loads throughout their facilities to reduce transient power usage. Additionally, the City of Tampa Wastewater Department produces approximately 1.18 million kWh per month by burning the methane gas from the digesters in the cogeneration engines. This supplies 25% of the electricity consumed on-site.
+Green Stormwater Infrastructure
+The City of Tampa does not have a comprehensive green stormwater infrastructure plan, but the City did recently initiate a $251,000,000 capital project program that will include green infrastructure applications.
+Last Updated: January 2017
+The transportation authority serving the City of Tampa is The Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority. HART also provides the public transportation for the city and the broader metropolitan area, including bus and trolley service. The Planning Commission is the MPO in charge of conducting metropolitan transportation planning. Its area of jurisdiction encompasses Hillsborough, Tampa, and many surrounding cities and towns. The Transportation Division is the city agency charged with managing the city’s transportation network.
+Last updated: January 2017
+Tampa has neighborhood form-based codes for the Greater Seminole Heights Planning Areas, 40th Street, and Tampa Heights neighborhoods. The city allows one or more parking spaces per residential unit. There are no incentives available through the city to promote location efficiency.
+Last updated: January 2017
+Modal Share Targets
+Tampa has not yet developed targets to promote a modal shift in transportation.
+Car and Bicycle Sharing
+The car sharing services enterprise CarShare, and zipcar are now available in the city of Tampa. The city is served by a bikesharing program, Coast, with 34operable stations.
+Complete Streets
+Tampa adopted its complete streets policy in 2012, through Resolution No. 2814. The adoption of the guidelines encourages the inclusion of complete streets principles in all road construction and maintenance projects.
+Last updated: January 2017
+The HART transit system that serves Tampa received $80,173,663 in average annual funding from 2011-2015. This funding level is $26.95. Tampa’s Transit Connectivity Index value is 9, putting it in the fourth highest category (5-14) available in transit connectivity.
+Last updated: January 2017
+At this time, Tampa does not offer incentives for citizens to purchase hybrid, plug-in, or EV vehicles. There are no incentives available for the construction of commercial or private EV charging infrastructure. The city has 50 EV charging stations available for public use.
+Last updated: January 2017
+Sustainable freight plan
+Tampa does not have a sustainable freight transportation plan in place nor does the city has any policies that address freight efficiency.
+Smart freight
+Tampa does not employ an internet-based application or service to coordinate freight transport.
+Last updated: January 2017
+The city of Tampa has a comprehensive plan with an mobility element to provide multi-modal mobility with all mode of travel such as transit (bus, ferry and rail), cycling and walking. We did not find information on specific greenhouse gas or VMT reduction targets.
+Last updated: January 2017
+Tampa awards a density/FAR bonus for developers that provide 10% of a project’s dwelling units as affordable within a transit served area.
+Last updated: January 2017
+Due to Covid-19 precautions, some shows have had to cancel, often very close to the show date. I recommend that you check my listings close to the show dates in case any unforeseen changes or cancelations have occurred.
+**UNFORTUNATELY, THE BIRMINGHAM SHOW HAS BEEN CANCELED FOR 2021**
+I am leaving the post up in case anyone is checking for information.
+The Art Birmingham show is a staple of the Mother’s Day weekend in the Detroit area.
+Saturday, 10 am to 6 pm
+Sunday. 10 am to 5 pm
+There is lots of parking in the city lots surrounding the park.
+Free admission.
+For more info, visit the show website.
+For GPS use: 270 W Merrill St, Birmingham, MI 48009
+I will be participating in this new art festival in the Milwaukee area at The Bayshore Mall. More than 80 juried artists from across the country will be showcasing their work in a variety of different mediums.
+Free admission and parking.
+I will be in booth #205 on Bayshore, very close to the open garden in the center of the show.
+Hours are Saturday 10 am to 5 pm and Sunday 11 am to 5 pm.
+TO REGISTER FOR FREE EVENTBRITE TICKETS AHEAD OF THE SHOW, GO TO:
+GPS use 5800 N Bayshore Dr, Glendale, WI 53217
+For more info go to the show website.
+This art fair will take place on Walters Avenue in the Village Green Park in downtown Northbrook, IL
+Free admission and parking.
+I will be in booth #46.
+Hours are Saturday and Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm
+For more info go to the show website.
+TO REGISTER FOR FREE EVENTBRITE TICKETS AHEAD OF THE SHOW, GO TO:
+GPS use 1810 Walters Ave, Northbrook, IL 60062
+ART DONATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED AT THE SHOW TO BENEFIT THE CHICAGO FURNITURE BANK!
+Home is Where the HeART Is! truck, Saturday 10am-3pm.
+This will be my first year participating in this show, since it was canceled in 2020.
+On the Saturday of every Memorial Day Weekend, the City of Lafayette and the ‘Round the Fountain Art Fair Committee welcome you to the ‘Round the Fountain Art Fair, an annual destination location that features approximately 90 artists from around the nation, showcasing their talent and works in a variety of pieces and media.
+Proceeds from the fair support fine arts education in the five area public schools, after-hours arts programs, courthouse restoration projects, the restoration of the Marquis de Lafayette Fountain, outside lighting and seating, landscaping, and public art projects and installation.
+For more information, go to the show website: ‘Round the Fountain.
+Free admission and ample parking.
+Masks and social distancing are required by all attending the fair and these COVID safety protocols will be enforced.
+**UNFORTUNATELY, THIS EVENT WAS CANCELED BY THE PROMOTER.
+I am automatically re-invited for next year’s event.
+For more info, visit the Prairie Village Show Website
+The Art of Fire includes over 100 artists working in clay, glass and metal. The show features live glass blowing, metal working and more. Meet the artists, buy great art, and enjoy some music and hands on opportunities.
+The show takes place on Main Street in Downtown Royal Oak at 6th Street.
+Saturday, 10 am to 7 pm
+Sunday, 11 am to 5 pm
+For GPS use: 163 6th St. Royal Oak, MI 48067
+My booth number will be posted closer to the show.
+For more info, visit the show website.
+**UNFORTUNATELY, THE TALBOT STREET SHOW HAS BEEN CANCELED FOR 2021**
+I am leaving the post up in case anyone is checking for information.
+The Talbot Street Art Fair is recognized as one of the top art shows in the United States and is the oldest juried Art Fair in Central Indiana.
+The fair is located in the picturesque, historic Herron-Morton neighborhood on the near north-side of Indianapolis between 16th & 20th on Talbot St. The show is sponsored by a nonprofit organization working hard to promote exceptional art at the event and art scholarships to local schools and organizations.
+Saturday, 10 am to 6 pm
+Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm
+For more info and parking information, visit the show website.
+Free Admission.
+GPS use: 1600 N Talbott St, Indianapolis, IN 46202
+The 60th annual Grand Haven Art Festival will transform downtown Washington Avenue into a chic, art gallery where you can buy beautiful one-of-a-kind art work from your favorite artists. The festival will also feature kids activities and music.
+Saturday and Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm
+Free Admission
+For GPS use 200 Washington Ave, Grand Haven, MI 49417
+For more information, visit the show website.
+Chicago’s iconic Southport Corridor blooms to life, when Southport Art Fest takes over Waveland and Southport in July of 2021. Featured in TimeOut Chicago as one of the “Best Festivals in Town,” the event will feature an assorted mix of fine art, setting the environment for a picture-perfect Chicago neighborhood street festival., which has represented the residents and businesses of the unique and energetic neighborhood, in the heart of Lakeview since 1988.
+Admission is free.
+My booth information will be posted closer to the show.
+Saturday and Sunday, 10 am to 7 pm
+For more information, including parking and public transportation, please go to the show website.
+For GPS use: N Southport Ave & W Waveland Ave, Chicago, 60613
+I will be in Booth #ST511 on State Street near the Art Museum (same location as previous years), unless the layout changes.
+Thursday to Saturday, 10 am – 8 pm
+Sunday, noon – 6 pm
+The Annual Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair is one of four official partner fairs that comprise the award-winning and highly-respected Ann Arbor Art Fair. The Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair is a juried, fine art event featuring the members of the Guild of Artists & Artisans. It is located in the heart of Ann Arbor stretching from its charming downtown to the campus of the University of Michigan.
+Free Admission
+For more information on visiting the show including maps, parking, etc., visit the show website:
+Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair Site
+Geneva, a chic and charming historic town located on the Fox River, will celebrate its annual Fine Arts Fair again in 2021. Its prestigious reputation of offering a superb selection of fine art by renowned artists and cutting edge newcomers attracts beginning and avid art collectors. Presented by the Chamber of Commerce, the show is tucked among 100+ specialty shops located in Victorian-style homes and century-old buildings.
+The Geneva Arts Fair was voted #7 Best Art Fair in America by ArtFairCalendar.com in 2019!
+The show is Saturday and Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm.
+My booth number will be posted closer to the show.
+For GPS use 8 S. Third Street, Geneva, IL 60134
+The Annual Covington Art Fair in Fort Wayne, IN has grown into one of the best fine art fairs in the region. The show is set in one of the area’s most unique shopping destinations, Covington Plaza.
+Booth number to follow.
+Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm
+Sunday, 11 am to 4 pm
+GPS: 6382 W Jefferson Blvd, Fort Wayne, IN 46804
+The annual festival is located at Fowler Park – a beautiful location right next to Fowler Lake.
+My booth number will be posted closer to the event.
+Saturday & Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
+Oconomowoc Festival of The Arts website
+The Port Clinton Art Festival has been recognized as one of the most successful juried art festivals in the country and is currently rated one of the best in the country.
+The show surrounds the Port Clinton Square, on Central, 1st and 2nd Streets in downtown Highland Park
+GPS: 600 Central Avenue, Highland Park, Illinois 60035
+I will be in booth #418 on 1st Street (across from Sushi Badaya), same spot as last year.
+Saturday & Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
+$5 Suggested Donation for Admission, Free Parking
+For more information, visit the show website: Port Clinton Art Festival website
+The Third Ward Art Festival returns along Broadway Street between St. Paul and Menomonee streets in downtown Milwaukee.
+Saturday and Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm
+GPS use: 345 N. Broadway, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202
+Free and open to the public, the Third Ward Art Festival will showcase the work of more than 140 juried artists in a variety of mediums. In addition to the incredible artwork, the festival features live music and great food from on-site and neighboring restaurants. Fun art activities for kids make the Third Ward Art Festival a destination for art enthusiasts of all ages.
+For more info visit the show website.
+This is a one day show where everything in the show is under $100. I will have lots of my smaller work for sale at this show. There are many artists with fantastic work at great prices at this show. Lots of people do their early holiday shopping at this show!
+Sunday only, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
+$10 Admission at the gate.
+The Starving Artists’ Show is sponsored by the Mount Mary University Alumnae Association. Since 1969, the show has raised more than $1 million to support the university and students.
+Mount Mary Starving Artists’ show website
+2900 North Menomonee River Pkwy, Milwaukee, WI 53222-4597
+Patrons are able to pay by cash or credit card at the entry gates. There are no advanced tickets sales. Admission fees help to support Mount Mary student scholarships.
+Parking at the show is free. Parking is available on the Mount Mary campus and on nearby streets.
+The St. James Court Art Show® is a juried fine arts and fine crafts show held in the heart of historic Old Louisville among the country’s largest collection of Victorian homes.
+I will be in booth SJ 140 in the St. James Court part of the show.
+Show hours are Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
+Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
+Visit the show website for more information.
+The Belleville Art Fair on the Square show is normally held in May, but due to Covid-19 concerns, it has tentatively been rescheduled for October.
+Art on the Square is a juried fine art show located in beautiful downtown Belleville, Illinois. Since 2002 Art on the Square has consistently been ranked #1 and #2 in the nation by Art Fair Source Book.
+The show features some very fine artists. and takes place surrounding the Public Square in downtown Belleville at the intersection of Main Street and IL Hwy 159.
+My booth number will be posted closer to the event, but should be on Main Street in the Illinois artists area.
+Show hours (subject to change):
+Friday, 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.
+Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
+Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
+For more info or to purchase “Art Cash,” visit the Art on the Square website
+AGE OF AUTISM tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-1471178 2017-11-30T06:00:00-05:00 Original content and news about the autism epidemic from the perspective that autism is treatable. Anaylsis of current media treatment of autism and the environmental causes of autism. TypePad A Review of The Pharmacy Article on Shoulder Injury Resulting from Vaccine Administration tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201bb09db9a8e970d 2017-11-30T06:00:00-05:00 2017-11-30T06:00:00-05:00... Age of Autism Vaccines and Pregnancy tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201bb09d9080e970d 2017-11-21T06:00:00-05:00 2017-11-20T19:52:19-05:00 Note: I'm at an age where my friends kids are beginning to get married and have their own children. While, the girls' Dad and I will never have grandchildren thanks to autism, such is not the case for most AofA... Age of Autism Letter by Veteran Vaccine Researchers Warns of Multiple Vaccine Risks tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b8d2bf07e1970c 2017-11-17T06:03:00-05:00 2017-11-18T06:54:18-05:00 "So far the results have been consistent in indicating that it is better to receive a live vaccine after a non-live vaccine than a non-live after a live vaccine ... Hence, it could have major effects on mortality and morbidity... Age of Autism "Vaccines: What is there to be "Pro" About?" Laura Hayes to Weston A. Price Foundation Conference tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b7c9338077970b 2017-11-13T10:06:17-05:00 2017-11-13T10:06:17-05:00 Laura Hayes speaking at the Weston A Price Foundation a year ago Dear AoA Readers, I recently had the privilege and pleasure of attending and speaking at Weston A. Price Foundation's 17th Annual Wise Traditions Conference in Alabama (Nov. 10th-14th,... Age of Autism HPV Vaccine inventor Ian Frazer Backs UK’s “Jabs for the Boys” Lobbyist Group – Conflict of Interest? tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b7c93214a5970b 2017-11-09T06:00:00-05:00 2017-11-09T13:06:09-05:00 By Eileen Iorio After Peter Doshi’s recent exposé article in the British Medical Journal on how government agencies and vaccine manufacturers use grass roots organizations to push their vaccine agenda, I took a closer look at an upcoming decision about... Age of Autism Levi Quackenboss: How to Win Any Vaccine Debate tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201bb09d2e104970d 2017-11-02T05:59:00-04:00 2017-11-02T05:59:00-04:00 Note: Share this post by Levi Quackenboss far and wide. We look forward to Part Duh, er Deux... :) Levi never fails to hit the nail on the head! By Levi Quackenboss We’ve all heard the most common talking points... Age of Autism The US Government Believes That Flu Shots In Babies Are Safe, But Flu Shots On The Ground Is Terrorism. tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b8d2b2fc0d970c 2017-10-11T06:00:00-04:00 2017-10-10T14:48:27-04:00 By Ginger Taylor Shelley Hendrix, formerly of Autism Speaks, and currently with Unlocking Autism, shares her story of asking for a permit to protest vaccine safety in front of the Department of Health and Human Services building, by squirting a... Age of Autism Win a Copy of Vaccines A Reappraisal By Dr. Richard Moskowitz, MD tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201bb09c99ead970d 2017-10-04T06:00:00-04:00 2017-10-04T06:00:00-04:00 “This book is a masterpiece and a must-read for anyone with concerns about the safety and efficacy of vaccines.” —Stephanie Seneff, PhD, senior research scientist, MIT Leave a comment and enter to win a copy. New from Skyhorse Publishing. Buy... Age of Autism As The Pharma Money Turns: World Mercury Project Looks at CDC Thorsen Schendel Love Affair tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b8d2afab60970c 2017-09-30T05:59:00-04:00 2017-10-05T09:16:23-04:00 By... Age of Autism Pertussis Vax Speak: "Inability To Prevent Infections" aka FAILURE tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b8d2ae3611970c 2017-09-26T06:00:00-04:00 2017-09-26T06:23:25-04:00... Age of Autism The One Where Brian Deer Throws A Hissy Fit tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b8d2accc6d970c 2017-09-22T06:00:00-04:00 2017-09-21T12:50:39-04:00 By Ginger Taylor I am realizing that I need to narrow that down. The One Where Brian Deer Throws A Hissy Fit Threatening Miranda Baily For Saying That He Declined To Participate In Her Film, By Sending Her A Letter... Age of Autism Debut Day For Vaccines: A Reappraisal by Dr. Richard Moskowitz from Skyhorse Publishing tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201bb09c49c5d970d 2017-09-19T00:00:00-04:00 2017-09-19T00:00:00-04:00 Congratulations to Dr. Moskowitz on the debut of his new book Vaccine Reappraisal from Skyhorse Publishing at #1 in Vaccinations. Mary Holland wrote the foreword. Order your hardcover or Kindle edition today and don't forget to leave a review at... Age of Autism Rep Dana Criswell on The Opioid Epidemic and Childhood Vaccinations tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b7c9202c0d970b 2017-09-16T06:02:00-04:00 2017-09-16T06:02:00-04:00 Below is an article from Representative Dana Criswell of Mississippi. Opioid addiction and death and vaccine injury do not care what side of the aisle you sit on, or what flag you wave or what flag you burn or whether... Age of Autism Flu Vaccine and Miscarriage tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b7c91fc094970b 2017-09-14T05:59:00-04:00 2017-09-14T05:59:00-04:00 NOTE: We're pleased to see this dose of vaccine reality in the mainstream media. If there is an indication that flu shots plus swine flu may cause miscarriage, the ACOG (OB union) should immediately issue a harsh warning and moratorium... Age of Autism CDC Issues a Gag Order on CDC Employees tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b8d2a9e02b970c 2017-09-13T06:05:00-04:00 2017-09-13T06:14:07-04:00 By Ginger Taylor Axios has obtained an internal message from the CDC's public affairs officer, Jeffrey Lancashire, dated August 31, to all CDC employees. His directive to them was to stop talking to the media, “even for a simple data-related... Age of Autism Bergen West Pediatrics Charges $20 If You Decline a Vaccine They Want To Sell You tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201bb09c29fca970d 2017-09-13T06:00:00-04:00 2017-09-13T14:57:38-04:00 UPDATE: We've heard that this practice is denying the letter. It makes zero point zero sense that anyone would create a fake letter and post it to social media. The photo is at an angle as if snapped from the... Age of Autism Report Alleges Cover up of Infant Deaths Post Vaccination tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201bb09c03579970d 2017-09-07T05:59:00-04:00 2017-09-05T21:58:36-04:00,... Age of Autism Doctors Assumptions: Humiston, Boonstra, and Savoy Train Physicians on How To Fail tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b8d2a3d703970c 2017-09-06T06:01:00-04:00 2017-08-25T19:15:23-04:00 by Ginger Taylor On Friday, August 25th, a webinar was held, sponsored by Pfizer, called "Getting Parents to Yes! Vaccine Conversations That Work for Providers & Parents". "With parents consuming so much conflicting health information about their babies and children,... Age of Autism High-Risk HPV Type Replacement Follows HPV Vaccination tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201bb09b593fc970d 2017-08-04T06:04:00-04:00 2017-08-04T06:04:00-04:00 NOTE: Thanks to our friends at World Mercury Project for this excerpt. Please bookmark their site. By James Lyons-Weiler The number of studies that show that partial immunization via available HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccines is not only insufficient at reducing... Age of Autism Not Published In The British Medical Journal: 'Lies, Damn Lies And Statistics' tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b7c910d03d970b 2017-08-01T00:01:00-04:00 2017-07-31T20:41:33-04:00 By Jackie Fletcher In the controversy over compulsory vaccination this letter by Jackie Fletcher, director of JABS, remains unpublished. Given the British mainstream media's craven failure to report any of the issues over the vaccine lobby's moves to make vaccination... Age of Autism Offit And His Critics: Part Six tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201bb09b42007970d 2017-07-31T05:59:00-04:00 2017-07-31T05:59 Bill Nemitz and the Portland Press Herald’s disregard for reality poses a threat for all of us tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b7c90f540f970b 2017-07-26T06:00:00-04:00 2017-07-26T13:31:55-04:00 By Ginger Taylor The Portland Press Herald has been an Offit Outlet since 2014 when their "health" writer wrote his first hit piece on vaccine injury families, then three weeks later shared the stage with Paul Offit at the National... Age of Autism Another Rotavirus Vaccine Bites the Dust tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b7c90d57f0970b 2017-07-20T06:05:00-04:00 2017-07-20T06:05:00-04:00 Another Rotavirus Vaccine Bites the Dust: Rotavirus vaccine that increases diarrhea instead of reducing it By Jacob Puliyel MD Clinical trial of the new rotavirus vaccine from the Serum Institute of India shows that the vaccine increases the incidence of... Age of Autism Offit and Critics - Part Five tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b8d292a87e970c 2017-07-05T06:00:00-04:00 2017-07-05T06:00 We Know this Product Harms You - Take it Anyway. tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b8d291721f970c 2017-06-30T06:00:00-04:00 2017-06-30T06:17:06-04:00 Can you imagine another product in the United States of America where doctors would know that it hurts people - and not just a handful of people- teens and young adults females - and yet they continue to bludgeon and... Age of Autism Response to AMA’s Status Quo Vaccine Policy, Trumping Safety tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201bb09a95d84970d 2017-06-27T06:00:00-04:00 2017-06-27T06:00:00-04:00 The American Medical Association does not want a vaccine safety commission (as promised by President Trump during the election.) They are quite content with their industry based system of checks and imbalances. Read the full letter at the end of... Age of Autism Is “Delitigation” Associated with a Change in Product Safety? The Case of Vaccines tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201bb09a60444970d 2017-06-16T06:00:00-04:00 2017-06-16T06:00:00-04:00 NOTE: Congratulations to AofA friend Gayle DeLong of Baruch College on the publication of: Is “Delitigation” Associated with a Change in Product Safety? The Case of Vaccines ABSTRACT" This study investigates whether the threat of litigation induces firms to provide... Age of Autism Review: Vaccination Policy and the UK Government The Untold Truth tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b8d2888b5a970c 2017-06-02T05:00:00-04:00 2017-06-02T05:00:00-04:00... Age of Autism AAP: Contrariwise on Vaccine Contraindications tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b7c8fdf051970b 2017-06-01T06:00:00-04:00 2017-06-01T06:00:00-04:00 Credit: A. Gamondes NOTE: Can you make heads or tails of this missive on the AAP website about vaccine risks? Thanks to our Nancy Hokkanen for sharing the info. In short, AAP says, "Inject me," without regard for consequences. Tweedledumb... Age of Autism "You Can Never Really Say MMR Doesn't Cause Autism," Dr. Paul Offit tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b8d28646bc970c 2017-05-26T06:00:00-04:00 2017-05-26T06:00:00-04:00... Age of Autism Rachelle Cohen Wants You Dead, But You Are Not To Respond In Kind tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b7c8f8a928970b 2017-05-16T05:59:00-04:00 2017-05-16T14:11:22-04:00... Age of Autism Autism, Vaccination and Immigrants - Yet another Clear Correlation An Update tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201bb099b46dd970d 2017-05-15T05:59:00-04:00 2017-05-14T14:05:00-04:00 By Edward Yazbak MD A recent measles outbreak has recently been reported in Minnesota. According to the MN State Department of Health, there have been 51 confirmed measles cases (48 children and 3 adults) as of May 10, 2017. Forty... Age of Autism Pro Vax Manifesto tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b7c8f78f31970b 2017-05-13T06:00:00-04:00 2017-05-13T08:14:34-04:00 "I have never fully understood how stupid and absurd the vaccine industry's arguments defending the current vaccine program actually were until Brett Wilcox put them all together on one page. I can't believe how badly this country is being scammed.... Age of Autism STATEMENT FROM THE VACCINE SAFETY COUNCIL OF MINNESOTA tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b8d280be03970c 2017-05-09T12:04:55-04:00 2017-05-09T12:56:01-04:00 At the Vaccine Safety Council of Minnesota, we recognize the benefits of vaccines. We also recognize that vaccines carry risk. Parents deserve the right to free, prior and informed consent, which by definition includes the right to review the benefits... Age of Autism The Escalating Efforts to Silence Vaccine Safety Debate tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b7c8f618bd970b 2017-05-09T06:02:00-04:00 2017-05-08T14:14:55-04:00 Thank you to our friends at World Mercury Project for this share. By Alison Fujito It’s one thing to recommend something you believe in. It’s quite another to demand that everyone else believe in it as well. Add hostility, politics,... Age of Autism Politrician Richard Pan: Hero or Liar tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201bb09984a4e970d 2017-05-06T06:00:00-04:00 2017-05-07T12:58:32-04:00 Thanks to Joshua Coleman! Truth is the new black.... Buy a shirt today. Age of Autism VAERS, MMR and Megan tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b7c8f4109e970b 2017-05-03T06:00:00-04:00 2017-05-03T14:43:17-04:00 By Teresa Conrick Many people do not know that if you have a bad reaction to a vaccine -- an ADVERSE reaction -- there is a place to contact: VAERS The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) is a national... Age of Autism Offit and His Critics: Part 3 tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201bb0996bde1970d 2017-05-03T05:59:00-04:00 2017-05-02T15:15:46 CDC Kaiser Permanente Measles Experiment: An Anniversary to Remember But Not Worth Celebrating tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201bb0993f7f4970d 2017-04-24T06:30:29-04:00 2017-04-24T06:30:29-04:00 By Wayne Rohde Can I ask you the following three questions? Who are the targeted participants for US clinical trials of vaccines? Why does our government test vaccines that are 10 to 500 times the potency of licensed vaccines on... Age of Autism FDA’s Vaccine Safety Lie: Why Buildings Have Stricter Quality Controls than Pediatric Vaccine Trials tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b7c8ef4dc0970b 2017-04-20T06:00:00-04:00 2017-04-26T08:49:21-04:00... Age of Autism Offit and His Critics: Part 2 tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201bb0992a811970d 2017-04-20T05:35:00-04:00 2017-04-20T08:22:47-04:00 NOTE: We're bringing you this series, re-crafted for 2017, by Richard P. Milner of Public Affairs Media during Autism Action Month. Dr. Paul Offit has led the charge against any and all in our community, doctors, scientists, parents, educators, film... Age of Autism Robert Kennedy Discusses Shingles Vaccine Dangers tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b8d2779373970c 2017-04-14T05:59:00-04:00 2017-04-14T05:59:00-04:00 This video was on NBC, Channel King 5 in Washington. It's about the dangers of Merck's Zostavax shingles vaccine. It's not just about vaccines and autism. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Explains Potential Dangers of the Zostavax Shingles Vaccine Robert Kennedy:... Age of Autism 2017 Pediatric Vaccine Schedule Demands Copious Homework: The Truth About Vaccines Video Series Launches Just in Time tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b7c8ec7598970b 2017-04-12T06:02:00-04:00 2017-04-12T06:02:00-04:00 We hope you will sign up to watch this free video series about vaccination choice, safety, decisions that affect not just pregnant women and parents of infants and toddlers, but adults too, as new vaccines come down the pike at... Age of Autism Dr. Brian Hooker At the Revolution for Truth March 31 Rally tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b8d2765f38970c 2017-04-11T06:00:00-04:00 2017-04-11T06:00:00-04:00 Note: Thank you to Anne Dachel for transcribing this talk, and to Joshua Coleman for the video. ### Dr. Brian Hooker, the man who was contacted by CDC whistleblower William Thompson, spoke at the Revolution for Truth Rally in Washington... Age of Autism Sneak Peak: The Truth About Vaccines Series tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201bb098eabab970d 2017-04-10T06:00:00-04:00 2017-04-10T06:00:00-04:00 Here’s a sneak peek of The Truth About Vaccines, coming out on April 12th… Go here to watch the teaser preview This preview goes deeper on the exact topics they’ll be diving into with the new series. Ty Bollinger and... Age of Autism The Greatest Health Debate of the 21st Century? Truth About Vaccines Series Starts 4/12 tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b7c8e63298970b 2017-03-30T06:00:00-04:00 2017-03-30T07:16:19-04:00 NOTE: Age of Autism is pleased to share with our readers the pre-launch of "The Truth About Vaccines," a video seminar series that begins on April 12. TTAV features in depth interviews with some of the most trusted medical health... Age of Autism Laura Hayes: The Vaccine Myth An Issue of Trust tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201bb0982cf6c970d 2017-03-13T05:59:00-04:00 2017-03-13T05:59:00-04:00 On Sunday, February 12th our good friend Laura Hayes was part of an hour-long radio interview with Shawn Siegel on the topic of vaccinations. Fast forward to minute 14 to hear Laura and the interview. Special thanks to Joshua Coleman... Age of Autism Petition: Act To End Autism Epidemic & Implement Comprehensive Vaccine Safety Policy Reforms tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b8d265d3ba970c 2017-03-01T11:42:27-05:00 2017-03-01T12:25:46-05:00 Let’s end the autism epidemic and rein in America’s exploding vaccine schedule. Please sign and share the White House Petition on autism and vaccines today! When we reach 100,000 signatures, we will get a response from an administration we hope... Age of Autism First Peer-Reviewed Study of Vaccinated versus Unvaccinated Children (Censored by an International Scientific Journal) Now Public tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201bb097c46c0970d 2017-02-23T06:09:54-05:00 2017-02-23T14:40:57-05:00 By Kevin Barry Today, a groundbreaking new study of the overall health of vaccinated and unvaccinated children has been released to the public for the first time. The critically important new pilot study has been posted on line. The paper... Age of Autism Groundbreaking Yale Study Links Vaccines and Numerous Brain Disorders In Children tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8357f3f2969e201b8d25fe1b5970c 2017-02-14T06:00:00-05:00 2017-02-14T06:00:00-05:00... Age of Autism
+When, but recognizing and overcoming (at quite some cost, and with significant pain) the similar voices that are ready to join the chorus in the world. I always looked at the world in unusual ways, and was never cut out for academia, corporate life, standard religion, etc. I specialized in doing things that were adventurous to try to change my life and the bigger they got, the more helpful or disastrous they were. But sometimes they helped a lot. I had to define who I was, determine what the world was, alter the conception of my relation to the world, and ultimately decide what to do then.
+What I learned is that not only can I survive, but I can survive on pure ingenuity if I need to. I’m adept at starting things (I’m a founder), at taking things and altering them to be better or at least different (hacking them), and at building things (I’m a builder). Drop me on the streets of NYC naked and broke, and I will be running some kind of business in a month. Make me homeless in Texas, and I will have a job, car, and apartment in 3 months. I always keep contingency plans, and I always consider what to do in worst case scenarios, because then I don’t have to be afraid of them so much. As a result, I own a company with a stream of clients, am 50% owner in another operation, 40% owner in a startup, 20% owner in another going concern. And I’m mobile, liquid, and have a single debt which I’m tackling and no revolving debt. I have an accredited graduate degree I did 100% by distance learning, before that became so popular, and that tripled my income when I got it, but it’s not much of an academic accomplishment in itself – I keep it in a drawer with that parcel of the moon I bought out of the back of a comic book as a kid. It’s OK, but I don’t need the thing anymore unless I starve so badly I have to get a temporary corporate gig. No one checks my resume when I want to invest.
+I’m not bragging – I’m saying they were wrong. I’m not unable to tie my shoes. I remember when my father first told me I’d never be the guy who could change his own oil. I called him once after I rebuilt the carburetor on a truck (it fired up on the first pull), and he simply didn’t believe me. That was one of many pivotal moments. I don’t like calling them “lessons” – people in this evangelical culture are obsessed with taking away lessons, getting ‘messages’, and turning art and life into a Sunday School storybook and everything into ideology and philosophy. I don’t fit into that either, and never will. But it was one of the moments I understood that the message isn’t affected by proof to the contrary.
+I didn’t just build my livelihood, I built a discipline of art (though building from scratch has meant I’ve had to figure it out through many false starts and succeed through persistence), and I’ve built in a small way a means of impacting the world for good. I am able to care for people who can’t repay me and will never meet me and, for a man who was told as a child he’d never have any meaningful relationships with anyone, this is pretty important. I have changed lives, I have built a portion of the world of good, and I don’t feel proud of it – I feel relieved, alive, human. The voices that tell you that you can’t do anything, can’t connect with anyone, and have nothing to say, create, or contribute – they’re dehumanizing voices. When they’re backed up by the fundamental institutions of power and influence in the world – family, religion, college and corporation – it takes quite a lot of personal stamina to overcome them. But blessed his he who overcomes.
+I’m in the midst of making some significant changes in my life. And they’re costly, risky, and adventurous all at once. And I look back toward what is expected of me – that I fail – that I fall on my face and prove that I’m incapable of caring for myself and others, that maybe if someone is charitable toward me (demonstrating their worth, not mine), I’ll barely be able to eek out a living by pumping gas (there are honorable men who pump gas, so that’s their values talking, not mine – I’d like to send Charles Bukowski to have a brief chat with them, or Sixto Rodriguez – and I successfully ran a landscaping company for more than a decade while going to school, so I respect manual labour), but that certainly I’ll never do much more that matters.
+I remember being told that the things I cared about studying in school weren’t real and didn’t matter in the ‘real’ world – and that while I already had a degree in one of them. I remember getting met with surprise and disbelief when I had clients, with that same disbelief when I got my own health insurance, when I traveled Europe, when I did just about anything. See, even trying out the four keys of Middle Class life for a while – the house, the car, the career, the marriage (I was married) – didn’t change the myth. The new myth was that somehow those all merely fell in my lap by accident or that I finagled my way into them. And that told me that no measure of success handed to me by anyone else will ever satisfy them – let alone satisfy me. Fail to acknowledge when someone achieves your values and it exposes how bankrupt they really are – you never meant them in the first place – the goalpost keeps getting moved as you catch up to it – the real goal is convincing you that you can’t succeed, which is a way of saying you’ll never matter to anyone.
+I do matter to people. I matter to my clients and business partners, whose businesses make money because of me. I matter to my children overseas who eat, because I share the money that my Faith and ethos tells me is theirs, not mine. I do not share enough, to my lasting shame; I wish to get better. My goal is to one day make enough money to be able to give most of it away, or all of it, if I can live off of investments. I’m small time, but I want to get big time, for them. I think I can redeem myself by making my children those who the world abandons or deprives, because they’re me – just at a different time. And then there’s art. Art is a language that the people who taught me I’m nothing don’t speak. They can’t evaluate it. Ever taken something to an appraiser who says ‘this item can’t really be valued with any specific number’. Yeah, it’s like that. I’m not a stellar artist yet – I’m working on it. That’s another myth – that it doesn’t take time, dedication, and hard work – that you don’t have to trade things for it – you do. There are born artists who spit and it’s beautiful – but a lot of us pull our art out at the roots with pliers in order to show someone and make it real. I will do that, if need be. Does the art matter to people? I’d be insulting my one regular reader if I said ‘no’. So far, it has made a difference to at least a couple of people. When we know someone who is doing it, we feel a spur – we want to do it too, if it’s in us, and we begin to believe – believe that we can. We all have those voices that tell us we can’t – if you don’t, you don’t go outside – someone somewhere has said you suck and to do something ‘else’ – maybe it was you – you can’t escape yourself. But when someone close to you goes into motion, it looks more possible. Ask yourself if you’d make art if you weren’t surrounded by art, or if other artists weren’t in your life.
+The people who said “you can’t” all those years, were partly right. I’m not cut out for a cubicle or a box – I thrive in truly open environments that encourage and don’t punish free thinking – not just bigger boxes where “free thinking” is a motto but they still have orthodoxies you can’t transgress – if there are thought crimes, if I don’t get to truly consider all the options, if I can’t really explore whatever seems interesting to explore, creating along the way – then yeah, I don’t belong and I won’t succeed well there. I’m not a corporate guy – never was. I tried it – and it was Hell trying constantly to learn to ‘pass’. It’s not my context, and context is everything. I’m part owner in a company that has the underlying ethos that all the people in the world we label “freaks” can succeed in a conducive context – it’s the context that needs changing out, not the person who needs to be squashed to fit like a square peg in a round hole. It’s one of the reasons I fit there, but not the only reason. I can lead. I can found. I can build. I can run things. I can be the minister of propaganda guy that modifies and bends our message and the chief of intelligence that watches our back and continually scans potential competition. I’ve always been able to do these things, since I was a kid. I just didn’t always have a context. I started having one in 1992*, and have multiplied them since then, while making periodic runs at convention and finding that, no, it still isn’t for me.
+It’s interesting to me to watch examples of the old adage – eccentricity is for the rich; if you’re poor, you’re just crazy. The guys that make a ton of money and get famous – those that have achieved, in other words, one of the more standard measures of success in our culture – the sort of thing that gets the middle class wet – they can say these same things, and people will say “right on – that’s awesome – do it!” When you’re not there yet, it’s still “who do you think you are?” and “you’re weird and there’s no excuse for it”. This is why it’s essential for me to do bigger things. It’s because it’s all well and good to say “but those voices were wrong” and “anyone you have any business being around won’t be like that”. Yeah, they’re wrong, but they’re everywhere, and we are around them, and they make up the vast majority of everyone. They’re part of our pool for potential relationships of all kinds. Someone will say “I don’t believe that.” I’m not trading in your belief; I’m trading with my own life, and I can’t afford to stake it on ideology and wishes. I know what the world is; I’ve been under its knives. The truth is some of us will only make sense in the world a) doing the things we’re designed for and b) succeeding at them overwhelmingly and with a preponderance of success.
+In short, as a guy with a web site and invested in a few companies, I don’t make all that much sense. I am just here, just me, and just weird – perhaps bordering on eccentric. And it’s not enough. Not for me. To truly overcome, to overcome those voices, which are the voices that come out of the dark in horror stories, and to find the thing everyone really wants – to be accepted and loved – I have to do more. I have to overwhelmingly knock it out of the park. Comedians are my favorite examples. They were so often the cut ups in class – usually berated by authority figures – often taunted and beaten down by society at large, and they struggled (most still do) with depression – which is a very nice word compared to what it actually looks like (alcoholism, drug addiction, other self-destructive responses). But the ones whose names we’ve come to know, now they make sense in the world – now we get it – and they get it too. Now it’s like they locked into orbit and they’re bright shining novas in our lives. A lot of them are still depressed, because people still don’t really relate to them as human beings – they just want them to “do that drunken actress routine again” or “tell that one joke you do so well”. Fitting a slot has a price – it’s being a cog in a machine that doesn’t care about you.
+I imagine some story tellers feel exactly that way after a while. “Sign my book. Tell me another story.” but does anyone really know them. The wonderful thing is that art tends to be a home, and it receives you in a way that almost nothing else does. So for me, I’m not OK with just making art for art’s sake. Art is a concept. A good one, but still a concept. I want to fit. I want love and acceptance. I want welcome. I want home. I want all of it. And my life will *only* make sense, really, when I get there and know that it does, because other people around me know that it does. Some of us don’t get to live out the Pinocchio story. We don’t go from wooden child to real boy. We have to make a larger leap. This is what I intend to do. Whether I do it or not remains to be seen. But it’s my intent. I’ll do it or die trying to do it. There’s no retreat. That bridge was burned when I was born. The goal never really was merely ‘survival’ – which is the real lie in those people that kept moving the goal posts. Some of us can’t survive just by surviving. We have to thrive. We have to go past “real boy” to “oh my god, look at that boy!”
+And if I can’t get there, then I’ll die in motion, in the arc I’m making in the air, like a man I admired for how he died. My great grandfather. Don’t accuse me of being morbid – we all die – all of us are going to be food for worms – so we’d better plan it. We’ll die either wasting away or sitting around, or we’ll die doing something or at least trying to do it (which is doing it, in a sense – we just didn’t finish yet). Some of the artists I admire most left us with their best works unfinished. It’s not a sin or a crime. My great grandfather’s death is an icon for me in this way: he was a farmer. He wanted to die on his farm, doing the work of the farm. He wanted the meaning of his life to be expressed every second until the end. We found him at the woodpile, with the axe in his hand. He died cutting wood for the farm. And I swear that if I can, if I can, I will die at the woodpile, axe in hand. Only, my woodpile is something different than a farm. I am committed to striving continually, my whole life, of which there may be an awful lot left – maybe more than half, or not much at all (it’s that way for all of us), to reaching orbital velocity, to exiting the atmosphere of the banal, to soaring and becoming awesome.
+I fully expect someone to say “ah, this is unhealthy”. You listen to people and you realize that nobody knows what they’re talking about when they talk like that. Look at all the slogans artists post in social media – “nothing comes from striving”, “nothing comes unless you push”, “write from calm”, “write from rage, terror, passion” – they can’t make up their minds or form a coherent evaluation of anything. Even the people doing it can’t *really* tell you how they did it or how they’re doing it – they’re too close to it and it’s too personal. Read author’s works on creating author’s works, and there are gaping holes in what they’re telling you. It’s not like you can sit down at your desk, with that book open, and make a novel of your own. There’s a reason most of those authors wrote their advice book – 1. it was suggested by the publisher and they’re getting paid to, 2. it gets you off their backs – they’re tired of giving the same responses over and over to “how do you come up with your ideas?”Most of the people writing lots of books on how to write books aren’t writing many other books (e.g. novels the names of which we’ll recognize) at all. Advice is an industry. And I can’t help but notice a good lot of the purveyors of ‘mental and emotional health’ went into it because they were sick. Nothing wrong with that, but it means I don’t have to take the prevalent and self-contradictory wisdom as gospel, either. Besides, all I have to do is change the wording to something sloganish and familiar – “I want to go ‘From Good to Great” and suddenly everyone says “yeah, that’s correct – that’s the right direction.”
+Advice is usually garbage, because only you really know what you need to do, and only you can really dig it out and do it. Half of getting advice is trying to offload some of the mental burden onto someone else. Half of giving it is a surrogate for actually doing anything yourself. It’s why I write maxims, not aphorisms – I’m giving myself my own advice. There’s usually all kinds of ancillary advice – accepting non-acceptances – e.g. “It can be unhealthy to take it too far.” Yeah yeah, I plan to shoot for the stars, and die shooting for the stars. “But you need to accept if you don’t reach them or can’t.” Do I? Accept it for whom? Accept it why? So I can feel better, or so you can? Acceptance – isn’t that a stage in the mythical “grief process”? I’m not going to grieve – I’m going to build momentum and die in my race car in flames on the wall if I have to, but I’m driving this bitch toward victory if humanly possible. I may not make it, but only an almost certain loser covers himself by starting out with “I’ll just be happy and accepting if I don’t get a flat tire.” Jesus, what kind of competitor is that?
+Let’s change context again – football. Of all the football speeches in the locker room before the game, can you point at one that went “Try to win, but just accept it if you don’t. It’s OK. It’s not healthy to get so worked up and actually *need* to win the game.” See? Advice is dumb. Pretty much all advice. Context is everything. And the error of all these advisors is the same as the error of the voices of my childhood – you don’t think I can win or that if I do, it’s dumb luck not the result of hard ass work and refusing to flinch, to stop fighting or relent – you think I should *plan* on not winning, and you think there’s another option. You don’t get me at all – that’s what that means. And you don’t live in the world as I live in it – it’s not the same thing to you. That’s OK. I’m not blaming you – go be a real boy. But for me, it’s not enough to just have skin. It never could have been – it’s not arrogance – it’s that you’re not me, and mere survival leaves me dead, in my heart – the context in which I was born, into trial by fire, doesn’t leave mere survival as a survivable option. I need victory. I need to put back what was taken. I need to undo it all.
+I usually am labelled a diva, not just for these reasons – it’s a personality thing – it’s a fair label, I think. I’m a diva. But show me a diva that is designed to be obscure in *any* context. It kind of goes against the whole diva motif, doesn’t it? My best friend says I have “presence” – I walk into a room and people want to fight with me or play with me, but I ring a bell when I show up, unless I’m intentionally hiding out – even then I come off as that closed up guy who’s all hidden. I don’t mind if people make light of it by saying “diva”. I acknowledge it in good fun, and I even have a web site with ‘diva’ in the title. See my sparkles. But a diva just won’t blindly follow advice. I need trophies. I need ticker tape. I need streamers. You send me up on stage to get a Tony, an Oscar, a whatever – and I’m not going to say “I feel so humbled. This is so unexpected. I never would have thought. And gee whiz, it’s really everyone else who deserves it. I want to thank mom…” I’m going to say, “This is awesome! I want more.” You don’t survive being me without more. You don’t have a future as me without more. You can’t look up, raise your eyes at all, and look ahead without wanting more. Sure, I might look ridiculous now, because I’m not on your coffee table. I may never be, it’s true. But I want more. And last I checked, I’m not dead yet. So, I’m working on it.
+— I’ve been listening to vulnerability lately. This is my act of vulnerability for today. —
+* What happened in 1992? Well, first some background. I’d been dumped on the street at 17, after a rough and abusive childhood it’s too painful to recount. When I say “the street” I mean the worst ghetto in the city, gunshots keeping you company at night, your life threatened on a regular basis, and a state of seige between drug dealers, users, petty criminals, prostitutes, and the police, with the more hard hitting and immensely violent criminals on the fringes. No skills I could recognize, no prospects, no money. I did things that were not exactly in keeping with the law to get by and other things to make the pain go away. I got in deeper, because of a girl. Having given up on the world, I was planning to take it to the level of spectacular. Girls were my nemesis tho, a delightful yet agonizing one, and I got messed up in a cult for a while, because of another girl. I became a shooting star there, but I also started going to college. Education, art, and reading pulled me out of all of that stuff – I asked untidy questions and ceased to be immensely popular in that particular religious circuit. And yet escaping these three darker sides of humanity – abusive homes, criminal activity, and religious numbskullery – which all make interesting reactions to each other – just wasn’t enough, by itself. You don’t fix feeling that that nothing you do will change anything (inefficacious) and that no one will ever love you (valueless) quite so easily as just an exit. So in 1992, I was on the brink of a change – a major life alteration – I was trying to start my first grown up business (I’d started petit operations as a kid) but it was very fragile. I was alone, living in a hovel in a slum, unable to pay my bills, unable to buy the basics I needed to sell my services, and unable to keep clients without them. And girls – girls were breaking me up pretty badly. I felt alone, hopeless, and at an end. A change is always when I’m the most vulnerable. Everything is in flux, and you aren’t sure where the ground is. 1992, and I’m on the edge of my bed with a shotgun in my mouth, noting how surprisingly easy it is to reach the trigger. And that’s when a woman came and rescued me. I decided to make one last ditch effort to see a loophole. I had called her and asked if there was actually any reason she could think of, and it’d have to be a really good one, because I wasn’t going to get fooled, to go on. It had to pack substance – it had to be real. If she hadn’t come up with an answer, the trigger was right there. Instead, she told me to hold on, she was coming over. I hadn’t expected that – it was the bravest thing I’d ever seen a woman do. And it was the only time in my life anyone had swooped down and saved me from anything. I’d faced monsters and always alone. Hell, just the fact that there existed someone in the world that would come and get you, changed my perception of the possibilities of the world. She was a hero. She pulled the gun away, and took me out of there, and gave me my first vacation (ever), and she invested in my first business and helped me with everything from improving my diet to pursuing my own art. She helped me get a new place that was full of light and air. She encouraged me in school. She made me believe I never had to go back. I’ve had ups and downs since then. I didn’t stop doing big and adventurous things. I can’t say I’ve never emotionally revisited that hovel and that despair. There have been points in life that were abject pain. But it was a pivotal point. I haven’t seen her in many years, though I know she’s doing well and doing her own writing. But I still benefit from what she did. My best friend is a lot like that, now. I think everyone needs someone to help them see something of worth in oneself and the world of what’s possible, when it feels like there’s nothing possible or worth going on for. My friend has dutifully performed that task, of continually showing and reminding me, for countless years. And so, I exist now – if not in a completely solid realm of hope and beauty where everything is always love, peace, and joy – like a middle class New England Christmas with sweaters and warm macaroons – then at least in an icy ocean, where islands of those things sometimes offer me a place to stand. And for me, life is every day looking for a place to stand.
+What You Want To Believe In... Is People
+.
+Please visit this website for more info:
+.
+What
+Update: As of May 12, 2013, or Mother's Day, my previous work on the project summarized below is finished. With your help, we can make sure it works for you and people you care for. This website is here to share advice and so you can help me you feel happier with more people soon.
+I've been working on these issues by myself while casually supported by many, but I'm also happy to collaborate with others to help push ideas we agree on to a wider audience. Please get in touch as a fellow hard-working and compassionate person to discuss our options for everyone.
+It should be nice to meet you, which is better than not. Or, it should be nice to see people because you make each other happy even in passing. After spending two years interacting with millions in Toronto and Ottawa, I know it's possible because I've seen it and been it. Many of you too.
+Hundreds of people a day say hello because they appreciate my stance and independent efforts to help us relax, get along, respect each other and have more fun. This happens because everyone has similar issues and most liked what I was doing about them. So: I'm a certified expert.
+A fraction of the advice is on the following pages, including how men and women can consistently empower each other. People crowded into cities and hopped-up on fashion, fitness and fun can interact better, give and get more credit and feel happier seeing people in 3D than on TV.
+Strong women need strong men to help them feel special. I know this for a fact. This can happen if men and women understand what they want to believe in, or people and our ability to make each other happy. I want you to pay me to explain how and if you help me, I'll help you feel happy.
+Most people are smart, but many are having trouble confidently expressing themselves. Men and women need to consistently complement and compliment each other to feel good. Children need good role models. While there's obviously some confusion, my role is to help clarify things.
+The reason many ideas work is I'm reacting to new versions of the same issues that our favorite artists, writers, intellectuals and others worked on. Besides my own updates, I shared their ideas, sometimes literally, to make a big impact on our multicultural culture. It's been a lot of fun.
+People want to communicate better, especially non-verbally which is 90% of our interactions, in this singularity of sorts where we all feel silently connected and want to express ourselves and get credit for it. People saying less shouldn't screw up looking at others or trying to get looked at.
+Nobody should quickly try to trick others into seeing them scratch, wipe, pick, cough, sneeze, stalk, spazz, zombie, speed-up and freak others out. Women screw up femininity. Men screw up respect. Children copy them. It's not relaxed, relaxing or respectful. It's hard to get credit for it.
+We may be at a point in history where we lose our normal masculinity and femininity forever and get depressed, or strengthen and use it to make more of us feel happy. My goal is to help people keep this option while encouraging tolerance of different and well-planned lifestyle choices too.
+My strength is I kept an accepted alpha male archetype alive in public who reacted to what's happening and who found ways to deal with the root cause of our latest issues. I can re-set relationships between men and women so they can walk and talk with each other like men and women.
+While I've made mistakes, I've also re-written this website a few times, so I hope it's good enough to help me help you. We all know allegorical indications shouldn't dominate how we communicate, so if you can talk to me privately and compensate me fairly, then you'll feel better faster.
+This means I'll listen to individuals, couples and groups of men and/or women. As the most positive guy I know and a quick thinker, I'll quickly help you feel better about who you are, who you know, who you meet, what you have and what you can get. This is what I specialized in for you.
+Or:
+.
+Note: The following 750 words quickly summarizes the two years of self-financed work I did because I felt it was important to you, people you and I care about and the world we all live in. Lots of people can do other stuff I can do like sell, write, sing and more, but nobody else could do what I did as described below, which is why I had to do it. Since my ideas resonate with people in a multicultural culture, people worldwide are welcome to get in touch. Sometimes if you don't say enough people don't believe you, but if you say too much they don't want to, so get over it to get what you want instead. My plan is to get rich by making you happy. This sounds great as long as it works. So, get in touch and we'll feel happy it did.
+. Your Love...”
+Gentlemen: I’m a “Soldier” (Eminem) and we should “Talk” (Coldplay). All your girls can make you happy. Ask me how.
+Talk to you soon,
+Vij
+(aka Vijay, Vij, Jay or BK)
+647.781.1580
+wywtbi@gmail.com
+Helping you figure out...
+WhatYouWantToBelieveIn.com
+.
+Note 1:
+As the most positive person I know and someone who comfortably interacts with everyone everywhere and helps them relax, I'm meeting privately with individuals, couples and groups of men and women, or separately if you prefer, to discuss and deal with various issues that affect all of us.
+You can arrange meetings wherever you feel comfortable, or in houses, condos, meeting rooms, coffee shops, classrooms, bars, churches, on the phone or internet, in conference calls or wherever you want. I just want to make sure I can use my voice to convey both meaning and feeling.
+We can discuss how to deal with our normal cultural influences in more empowering ways so you can avoid negative impacts and stay positive.
+The reason I know this will work is because I think different, am the most confident communicator I know and have tested ideas out with many.
+Among other areas, guys can't get credit for acting like girls and girls can't get credit for spazzing out, so the root causes need to be addressed.
+Guys who take it seriously with pride can and are relaxing, while girls with a reason to spazz out like being threatened can. But otherwise... no.
+This behavior is being caused by communication and identity problems that I can help fix because I figured out what people want to do instead.
+All I ask is that you compensate me fairly. Since I've done a lot for free, or using my money to fund myself, I'm easy when it comes to low fees.
+For just $30 an hour I will speak to individuals, couples or any size group of men, women and children to help them appreciate each other more.
+The reason is after trying to reach as many people as possible informally, I'm now trying to reach as many as possible formally to finish this up.
+All you have to do is help turn me into someone who most people respect with the money and power I need to push ideas so you'll get respect.
+Instead of worrying about people, relationships, divorce, sex, love, kids, health, the future and more, I can give you empowering options instead.
+While some may recognize me from reacting in tough ways to people bothering me or others, they're often well-taken, so people decide to stop.
+Since nobody else was doing anything about this and I had to protect myself and others, I had to be strong enough to, but I'm really a big softy.
+I stay strong because even when I choose to avoid interacting with people bothering me, instead of thinking I'm rude, others just say hello better.
+This includes people scratching, wiping, picking, coughing and sneezing to talk, which I ignore because I find it unpleasant, so people just stop.
+What this probably means is people want to stop and switch to behavior that gets them more credit consistently which is what I make happen.
+Please keep in mind that anyone in the world is welcome to get in touch to discuss these issues with me if they're happening wherever you live.
+The reason I know many of these ideas will work worldwide is because Toronto has a multicultural population and everyone reacts to them well.
+Sometimes people are not as confident as they should be when it comes to how simple many of the solutions to their problems are and get a bit embarrassed that they didn't think of them on their own. However, people find advice everywhere and use what works, so it's better to consider it than not. One key is being able to speak freely and respect the answers you receive. This will happen when you pay for the advice you receive.
+All it takes is for you as an adult to decide to speak with another adult who learned a lot by interacting with many others, so it's perfectly normal. Just treat me like you would any other expert, or someone who you respect and listen to while still thinking for yourself and doing what you want.
+My background is I went from being a well-liked people-person, to working on understanding how the world works, to going back to being a people person who can help people deal with a world that many worry about by improving how we feel about each other. Since I'm used to coming up with solutions to our big problems because I think we need them, solving our smaller, similar and personal ones is not a problem for me or you.
+Other options include dealing with this allegorically using t-shirts, music, stand up comedy, a run for political office (eg. City Councilor or Mayor of Toronto) and more. I'm perfectly happy to put myself out there as long as I get help and it gets positive results for people as I've shown you.
+Finally, perhaps my advice will work for you or perhaps it won't. But, if you're looking for options to help you get along with more people more often, then I have some. You can do whatever you want with the advice you receive, including adapting it to share it with others who you know.
+Please feel free to get in touch with any questions or to book an appointment. All you have to do is ask. I'll listen to you, you listen to me, then do whatever you want. Once people are free from being unable to discuss their biggest problems then more of us will relax and feel much better.
+.
+Note 2: then.
+This keeps on happening, yet I know I stopped most stalking and more in downtown Toronto in September 2012, so. That was nice.
+This may mean they want their defacto lawyer and bodyguard to get in better than average shape and I can do that easily. While people have been nice for the last couple of years and I've had things like extra chicken in my shawarma, I also assume I was singled out specifically for the only thing they'd know me for. Or, after being self-financed, this is the first formal payment that I've received for my efforts over the last two years.
+Because this might keep happening. Being paid gives me credibility and effectively makes me a professional, or a relationship repairman who can help in many ways. I've said this to some people and they instantly react to me in better ways once they know that I'm getting paid for my efforts which helps them too.
+People say if you work hard at your hobby and you're good at it you can make a good living, while if you're great at it you can make a great living.
+Since nobody else I know of is doing anything about this stuff it's hard to judge, but I assume I'm doing a good job based on all the casual and positive responses I get. give people options to consider. I can do whatever it takes so I'm pretty easygoing about it.
+Please relax and consider your options. It's good to have them and to change any ego-destroying problems into a great time being had by all.
+.
+Please visit this website for more info:
+.
+.
+BUILD QUALITY AND MOVING MECHANISMS
+First and foremost, I’m extremely impressed with the overall construction and quality of the helmet and paintwork. I purchased the pearl white version and the hint of pearl glitter on the paintwork seem to scream “premium quality”. Applying a layer of wax (which I typically do to protect the helmet’s paint finish) makes the helmet very, very slippery to hold just by it’s painted surface. In fact, the paint finish on the Kabuto makes my former Lazer Corsica helmet look really cheap and “plastic-ky” by comparison.
+All three vents (front-top, rear-top and chin) worked very well with little play and feels extremely solid. The drop-down internal sun visor’s operation is smooth and continuous – and can not only be in the fully-opened or fully-closed positions, but also stays quite securely in any positions in between. Like many other reviews, I did wish that the internal sun visor would come down just a tiny tad bit lower. But in reality, this wasn’t an issue at all once I got used to it.
+Since this is my first flip-up helmet, the chin bar opening mechanism on the bottom left of the helmet didn’t bother me. Some riders may have preferred the chinbar release to be in the centre of the helmet. But I actually liked it to be at the side for 2 reasons. Firstly, it prevents accidental hit on the chin curtain, risk damaging it. Secondly, since the chinbar release is to the side, the visor opening tab is in the middle instead. I find myself opening up the visor far more frequently than opening up the chinbar. And so I appreciate that being in the middle, I can crack open the visor quite easily with either hands. Other flip-up’s such as the Shoei Neotec, has the chinbar release in the middle and the visor opening tab to the side.
+Speaking of chinbar release, I have 2 issues with it. First, there seem to be some plastic creak on the left hinge of the flip up mechanism. It squeaks every time I flip the chinbar up. This was quite easily solved with a small squirt of silicon lubricant into the hinge. Secondly, perhaps it’s still rather new, I found the chinbar occasionally difficult to lock down. When the helmet is on my head and the chinbar lifted, sometimes after moving the chinbar gently down, I’m still not sure if it’s locked down. As there seem to be no (or just a very soft) positive click, I would always double check if it’s indeed locked down by attempting to push it up again. Occasionally, I would find that the chinbar wasn’t locked down and manage to push it up. So, to reduce the occurrence of this, I now tend to “slam” the chinbar down, increasing the probability of it latching onto the lock mechanism.
+FIT, VENTILATION AND COMFORT
+I measured my head circumference to be 59cm and according to Kabuto’s sizing chart, I should fit a Large size Ibuki. I found this to be very accurate, and fit was snug and comfortable. I did have a very slight issue during the first week of use though. Because the cheek cushions were still very new, they will obviously feel a little tight (every brand new helmet will feel this way). And because I was enjoying it so much, I was quite literally smiling inside the helmet – which horizontally enlarges the area around the cheeks. Now this tight cheek cushions and smiling combination made my cheeks ache quite abit initially. So if you get yourself a new helmet, try not to smile too much when wearing it. =)
+The cushion material is made of moisture-wicking coolmax. Very comfortable and the areas in contact with skin really does feel cooler than my previous Lazer helmet. Overall, it feels plush and super comfortable.
+When it comes to ventilation, like many other reviews I’ve read, I could actually feel cool air running through the top of my head with the two top vents opened – a very refreshing experience indeed! Some online reviews claim that the chin vent is too small and does nothing. I had a slightly different experience. Between opening and closing the chin vents, I could feel some extra ventilation with the chin vents opened, and could definitely hear a very slight whistle (when opened). The chin curtain seals very nicely and helps prevent wind traveling up from the chin area – which then creates a problem here…
+VISION
+The inside of the helmet fogs up rather easily – especially in rain and high humidity environments. I initially didn’t install the included Pinlock insert and found the helmet to be difficult to use under rain due to the fogging up on the inside of the helmet. With the Pinlock insert installed, it beautifully prevents fogging – even in rain and very wet environments. While the Pinlock insert works magically during high humidity environments and is almost invisible in the day, I found that because of the introduction of the additional layer of moisture-absorbing pastic, night time use created some very distracting double reflections of lights. So I didn’t really like using the Pinlock insert.
+Horizontal field of view of the Ibuki is superb with very little blind spots. But I found the vertical field of view of my previous Lazer helmet to be superior to the Ibuki. That said, I noticed that the Lazer Corsica has an unusually large visor area and the Ibuki has a more “regular” visor area. While I could live with the Ibuki’s vertical field of view when the visor is either fully opened or fully closed, what I really disliked was the 1st “crack-open” position of the Ibuki’s visor. With the chin curtain on, and in humid environments, I had to occasionally “crack open” the visor to introduce some fresh air into the inside of the helmet as it gets very warm and humid inside. At this 1st “crack open” position, it’s difficult, if not impossible to read my speedometer at my normal riding position without having to tilt my head down a little. This is one area with the Lazer did very well.
+And in my experimentation, I chanced upon a combination that seem to solve ALL the above problems. Remove the Pinlock insert and remove the chin curtain. Without the Pinlock insert, I no longer experience double reflections when using the helmet at night. This also means it’s easier to clean the inside of the visor as the polycarbonate visor has a scratch resistant coating while the Pinlock insert is prone to scratch damages. But wait! What then about the fogging up issue?
+Now with the chin curtain removed, air flows a tad bit more freely from the chin area and upwards into the front cheeks, nose and mouth areas. This quickly removes the humid breadth during exhale, and I found that the inside of the visor won’t fog – even in super heavy rain (yes, I’ve ridden this configuration in one). Yes, my chin may get a little wet (who cares?), but that fresh, cool air in a super humid environment was refreshing and very, very welcomed! With the chin curtained removed, I no longer needed to crack open the visor for some cool air relief, which also meant that the helmet kept its waterproof seal. With all vents closed, chinbar down, and visor down, I was riding happily in the (heavy) rain and not a drop of water entered the INSIDE of the visor – yet still comfortably cool due to the air from the chin area hitting my chin and front cheeks.
+Also, I found this combination to be excellent riding in Singapore’s typically hot and humid weather. While the extra chin ventilation generated slightly higher noise levels (I always use ear plugs anyway), I found the cool air very welcoming and definitely added to the riding pleasure. And yes, I tested this combination on the Malaysia NSHW, let’s just say, at various speeds not only at the indicated 110kmph limit. Yes, it worked very well.
+OTHER FEATURES
+At 1771g for the large shell, the Kabuto Ibuki flip-up modular helmet – constructed with what Kabuto calls “advanced composite technology” – feels neither light nor heavy. It seem to have a nice balance on the head even with the chinbar opened.
+Unlike some lower end brands (or even some more expensive brands), Kabuto wind tunnel test their helmets. The patented “Wake Stabilizer” system seem to work very well. In my recent tour around Peninsular Malaysia, I intentionally tested this on my highway rides. Yes, I found that turning and tilting my head while traveling at highway speeds didn’t give me that “slap in the face” feel that I was so used to with my previous Lazer Corsica Z-Line that I used for my SE Asia tour. This makes clearing of water droplets on the visor exterior by head turning into the wind such a breeze (pun intended).
+CONCLUSION
+Overall, for a S$289 (USD 203) helmet that I picked up from RacingWorld Singapore during a sale (usual price S$578), I’d say the Kabuto Ibuki flip-up modular helmet provides an amazingly excellent value. I was almost on the verge of shelling out some S$600 on the Shoei Neotec, but the Kabuto gave me everything I wanted for less than half that price.
+Naise!
+4 thoughts on “Kabuto Ibuki Flip-up Modular Helmet Review”
+Hi, I’ve seen your review for both Lazer and this Ibuki. Can i assume that based on your experience, you would recommend Ibuki?
+When i just passed my 2b, i bought a Caberg but sold it right after a 10 mins ride as i was very new to riding. The helmet was considered quite heavy for me and i couldn’t exactly check my blindspot (yet) thus it was “safer” for me to use a half face helmet.
+After seeing your review, i figured i should invest a little more in a lighter weight modular (with the 50% promo).
+I would DEFINITELY recommend the Ibuki over the Lazer Corsica Z-Line without hesitation, if not for the excellent build quality of the Ibuki, then for poor quality (both in terms of the helmet itself, and the customer support – which I might explain in another post another time).
+Since you’ve tried the Caberg (Duke?), what didn’t you like about it? Extra weight and reduced visibility as compared to open-faced helmets is a given for modulars and full-faced – it’s just physics. In fact, at about 1633g for a large shell, the Caberg Duke is amongst the lightest flip-up modular helmets out there! And quite frankly, if you find that heavy for you, then the Ibuki will likely not please you.
+Back then I used caberg when I rode for barely 1 week. But I think I’m ready for a modular now.
+Will consider either caberg or ibuki. Thanks 🙂
+I’m not sure if the promotion is still on, but at 50% off, the Ibuki was quite a steal.
+Ladies and Gentlemen: I’m delighted to be here in Houston, the world’s energy capital. I would like to express my appreciation to CERA and Dan Yergin for inviting me to take part in this special occasion. My friend Dan is a great historian of the petroleum industry and an outstanding visionary when it comes to the future of energy.
+Ladies and Gentlemen: There is much talk these days about roadmaps. In the energy industry, the great uncertainty and risk we face as consumers and producers are generating talk of the need for both energy supply and demand roadmaps. Understandably, there has been great interest in Saudi. Arabia’s own roadmap, specifically our plans for adding capacity in both the upstream and the downstream. In light of this, I would like to share with you Saudi Arabia’s views about the energy future and the roadmap that outlines the journey on which we have embarked.
+As we all know from personal experience, roadmaps are invaluable tools for getting us from where we currently are to where we want to go. As the saying goes, “Whoever travels without a guide needs 200 years for a two-day journey.”
+Unfortunately for all of us, our energy future is not as well-defined or as clearly laid out as the maps that you can buy at your local gas station. The roadmap to our energy future is dynamic and evolving. We know that change is inevitable, but we are unsure of its pace. Challenges will arise and require adjustments along the way. Unforeseen events could create roadblocks requiring temporary detours.
+I want to begin by telling you what you won’t see in our roadmap: a forecast of oil prices. Predicting oil prices in a world of imperfect information is merely speculation. Past experience has repeatedly shown us that our ability to predict accurately the movement of oil prices is extremely limited and inconsistent. The fact is, none of us knows what the price of oil will be next month, next year or 10 years hence.
+Oil prices are the product of the complex interaction of numerous forces and the random events that operate daily in international oil markets. Our comprehension of these forces and how they affect prices is limited by lack of timely information and by incomplete understanding of the processes at work. The task is made all the more difficult by our inability to predict the unpredictable: those seemingly random, political, economic and natural events that can turn the status quo on its head.
+Instead of trying to guess where prices are headed, let us look at those forces that will shape the future of our industry. Furthering our understanding of these forces and their implications increases our knowledge of the road ahead.
+Let me first talk about where we currently are as an industry. Then I will offer my thoughts on where we are going, and the challenges along the way.
+Ours is an industry which has been blessed with an abundant and readily accessible resource that can be produced in large quantities at relatively low costs. It is therefore not surprising that we have operated for much of our history in an environment of abundance, where too much supply was chasing too little demand.
+As a result, the oil industry, more often than not, has faced the problem of managing excess capacity in the supply system. Today, we face a different environment, one where there are a myriad of constraints on supply. Those constraints are the product of the cyclical nature of investment patterns in the oil industry and the changing cost structure of oil supplies.
+In the early days of the industry, chaos, was more often than not, the rule of the day. New oil discoveries were plentiful as wildcatters, drawn by the prospects for instant wealth, rushed to cash in on the new “black gold.” In this get-rich-quick environment, there was little thought given to the limits of the resource base and to the sustainability of prevailing practices. Wells were drilled with impunity, without consideration for sound reservoir management The guiding force was short-term gain. Many fields were damaged and their long-term potential compromised.
+The watershed event was the discovery and development of the huge East Texas oil field in the early 1930s. Unrestricted production from this giant caused world oil prices to plummet and created chaos in the oil industry. A coalition of oilmen, scientists and public officials recognized that it was imperative to halt this self-destructive behavior.
+After a protracted political struggle, the Texas Railroad Commission was given the authority to pro-rate oil and gas production in the State of Texas, thereby restoring order to the industry. By limiting the production from each well in Texas, the Commission succeeded in supporting prices and conserving the state’s valuable resource.
+Fast forward to the postwar period and we see that the experiences of the early days of the US industry were being played out on the world stage. The giant oil finds of the 1950s and 1960s were no longer in the US, but primarily in the Middle East and Africa. But the results were similar to the US experience. Oil was plentiful and prices were depressed. There was no incentive for conservation and efficiency, a fact that would have a profound impact on the development of the post-World War II economic infrastructure.
+In this environment, oil use and the industry grew by leaps and bounds. The problem was that this rapid expansion of the industry, like those early days in Texas, was built upon an unsustainable price that did not reflect the true long-term value of a depleting resource.
+But unlike in Texas, there was no global Railroad Commission to step in to help conserve this valuable resource. That role fell to the members of OPEC, who assumed stewardship of their own petroleum resources in the 1960s and 1970s, and in doing so, gained control of a large portion of the world’s reserves.
+By the end of the 1960s it was becoming apparent that the low price environment of the 1950s and 1 960s was no longer sustainable. Demand was rising rapidly and spare crude oil production capacity was quickly diminishing. Pressure began to grow for prices to rise. From OPEC’s perspective, the longer prices remained “artificially” low the greater the waste of the resource base.
+The market was clear: Things could not continue on as they were. Higher prices were needed to encourage conservation and efficiency and to spur the development of new supply. Without such an adjustment, the oil market was headed for a so-called “train wreck.”
+The adjustment process in the early 1980s was both rapid and painful for the oil industry. Demand fell as inefficiency and waste were wrung out of the system. At the same time, higher prices encouraged the industry to bring to market previously undeveloped crude oil reserves.
+Unfortunately, the adjustment process brought on by higher prices was not precise and the pendulum swung back toward oversupply. With demand contracting and supply rising, the oil industry’s ability and desire to provide the market with refmed products far exceeded what consumers actually wanted. ‘The only way balance could be restored was through growth in demand and/or capacity reduction. There was no quick solution. In fact, it took almost 20 years. But spare capacity has now been removed from the system. So much so, that we can no longer accommodate a significant increase in demand without major new investments.
+Now I would like to turn to the future and share my thoughts on where we as an industry are headed.
+Some would say that the outlook for the oil industry is quite favorable: Prices are high, demand is growing, capacity across the supply chain is tight, and there appears to be no serious challenge to oil’s role as the dominant transportation fuel.
+Current conditions are positive, if one’s perspective is merely short-term. A healthy long-term market is one where demand and supply are in balance and there is sufficient spare capacity to ensure the system can handle’ unexpected surges in demand or disruptions to supply smoothly and without sharp price spikes. In my opinion, the current tight capacity conditions are not conducive to this outcome. In the current environment, market volatility is exacerbated. The lack of global spare capacity magnifies the price impact of relatively minor supply disruptions or demand surges.
+A healthy oil market in balance is one where prices benefit both consumers and producers. It is imperative that prices be high enough to provide sufficient return to producers, but not so high that they harm economic growth. When oil prices are too high or too low they become unsustainable. Oil prices should always provide an incentive to conserve and to use this valuable resource efficiently.
+The question facing the oil industry today is: Can it achieve a balanced market that both ensures a bright future for the industry while at the same time fulfilling the aspirations of the world’s people? I’m convinced the answer is “Yes,” because the two go hand in hand.
+We need each other. I believe the future of our industry is inextricably tied to mankind’s aspirations for a better way of life. Without this, our industry stagnates. In turn, I believe that the future economic well-being of the world’s people requires an oil industry that is vibrant with the capability of delivering the most cost-effective energy source known to mankind.
+We in the oil industry can and will provide the safe and clean energy products required to achieve these aspirations. But it will not happen without skill, effort and some good old fashioned entrepreneurial risk-taking. There is no denying that there are significant risks on both sides of the equation, demand and supply.
+I will now take a closer look at the major risks and hurdles that we are likely to face as we move forward. I will first discuss demand and then supply.
+On the demand side of the equation, the primary reason for optimism is the underlying long-term trend growth in the world economy. Aided and enhanced by globalization, experts expect three simple factors: population growth, productivity gains and the desire for a better life to continue to propel the world economic expansion in the coming years.
+A growing world economy is good for business. In fact, experts project rising economic activity to significantly boost oil demand in the coming years. But a crucial question is “By how much?” On this point the experts disagree, in part, because of their differing assumptions about the strength of the economic expansion and the rate of efficiency gains in energy use and the role of alternative fuels.
+At this time, oil appears to be well-positioned to capture its fair share of any increase in world energy demand. Given current and anticipated technologies it appears highly likely that oil will remain the fuel of choice in the transportation sector for many decades to come.
+While merely knowing that oil is going to remain important in the energy mix is crucial, and I might add gratifying, it is not enough for an industry with massive capital requirements. Projections of future demand are not merely number exercises, they are critical to our business. We in the oil industry face the prospect of undertaking long lead time mega-projects requiring massive commitments of capital with long payback periods. There is little room for error when one is dealing with projects on such a scale.
+A healthy oil industry will require that the growth in supply roughly matches the growth in demand, not only in the aggregate, but also in terms of specific products. Our knowledge of demand and its potential growth is probably the weakest link in our efforts to understand the future. The root of the problem is the inadequacy of existing data collection and analysis in much of the world. Good data is crucial for developing a baseline for projecting the future. In addition, our ability to know and predict the drivers of oil demand growth in many countries is weak at best.
+We believe better demand data and analytical capabilities are crucial to a smooth transition to the future. As I said previously, the industry is being asked to commit huge amounts of capital to meet the future energy needs of the world’s people. Unfortunately, we often are forced to do so with inaccurate or missing data on demand. I therefore wholeheartedly support efforts by consuming countries to develop energy demand roadmaps. The development of these roadmaps would help us all prepare for the future.
+To this point, my focus has been on the quantity of demand, but there is another aspect of demand, what I will call the quality of demand. It is just as crucial a driver of investment decisions as quantity. By every account, the demand for clean energy products will continue to rise in the coming years. We in the oil industry are strong supporters of a clean environment and we are investing large sums in research to make sure that our products meet the highest environmental standards.
+However, we need to provide these products to consumers at reasonable costs so that they are both economically and environmentally friendly. To do this, the industry requires certainty and rationality with regard to environmental mandates and product specifications. Constantly changing environmental standards or allowing a proliferation of product specifications will undermine industry efforts to provide products that are the most economically and environmentally beneficial to consumers
+More broadly speaking, I believe that we should not impoverish people in the name of a cleaner environment. There is an economic cost associated with improving the environment that must be borne by consumers. We must always strive to achieve our goals in a manner that is good for both the environment and the economic well-being of the world’s population. Lowering living standards or limiting peoples’ ability to rise out of poverty in order to improve the environment trades one potential health hazard for another.
+This is exactly what we would be doing by mandating, as some propose, that consumers forego using oil for some less efficient and more costly alternative that under normal circumstances could not meet the test of the market place. A more sensible approach is to improve the products that we use and the way we use them. That’s why we in Saudi Arabia, for example, are supporting efforts to research and develop carbon sequestration techniques and processes. We believe this is a superior approach because it can e effective in reducing. C02 concentrations in the atmosphere at substantially lower cost than would be required by a radical non-market-based approach like moving away from the use of hydrocarbons.
+We should also recognize that consuming government policies aimed at reducing oil demand create another element of uncertainty for producers This added risk is detrimental to timely investment decisions.
+Finally, before I turn to the supply, I would like to address one other demand uncertainty which lurks in the background. This uncertainty is technological innovation. It is potentially the most disruptive force we face. The risk is all the greater due to its unpredictability.
+The one thing we can be certain of is that humans will continue to innovate and create. It is in our nature. The potential impact on energy demand, on the fuels we use and how we use them is beyond compare. I am certain that one day we will innovate ourselves right out of our current hydrocarbon-based energy model. Today we use hydrocarbons, tomorrow who knows? The difficulty for the oil industry is that we cannot predict when and how fast the transition will occur. Currently, we do not see anything on the immediate horizon, but the potential for a major technological upheaval is always there.
+Even if the transition is still a long way off, we can expect technological innovations to continue to improve the efficiency of our energy use, making a valuable contribution to meeting our future energy needs. Governments can make a positive contribution to our energy future by promoting energy efficiency, not through the tax code, but by investing in research and development of new technologies.
+Now I want to turn our attention to the outlook for energy and oil supplies. There are the doubters out there who say that oil production is past its peak and that the industry will not be able to keep pace with the increases in demand.
+As I told the delegates at the recent World Petroleum Congress in South Africa, what we face is a deliverability problem, not a problem of availability. Deliverability is the capacity of the oil industry to develop, produce, refine, transport and deliver to consumers the energy they require in their daily lives. This is primarily an investment issue, whereas availability is a resource issue.
+With regard to availability of crude reserves, there is plenty of conventional oil left to be found and produced. My assessment is based on a careful analysis of USGS resource estimates and a conservative assumption about the likely positive impact of technological innovation and prices on finding and recovery rates. The future looks even brighter when one considers the vast quantities of unconventional oil reserves that exist.
+The power of technology is sometimes not given proper consideration. Let me offer a simple example which has great significance. Two months ago, I was in the Divided Zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, witnessing a demonstration of an experimental method to extract more oil from heavy petroleum fields. This process is called “steam injection.” It is expected to increase the recovery rate of heavy oil fields from about 6 percent to more than 40 percent. This represents the kind of innovation that holds great promise for meeting the world’s energy needs.
+Now I will turn my focus to Saudi Arabia and our plans for the future. Our overriding objective in the future is to continue to be a source of stability for world energy markets. To this end, we in the Kingdom are addressing the problem of deliverability head on. We are doing this by committing an unprecedented level of resources to projects aimed at increasing upstream and down stream capacity.
+In the upstream, Saudi Arabia is undertaking a very ambitious program to increase output capacity. Our plan for the next four years is to increase gradually our production capacity from the current level of 11 million barrels a day to 12.5 million. As a first step, we are currently bringing online an additional 300 thousand barrels per day of light crude from the Haradh field.
+In the downstream, Saudi Arabia is also doing its part to ease the refining capacity bottleneck by investing locally and internationally. We are planning to build two new grassroots joint venture export refineries -- one in Jubail on the Kingdom’s east coast and the other in Yanbu on the west coast. Each of these facilities will have a 400 thousand bpd capacity. We will also be expanding our Ras Tanura refinery, and are studying the possibility of transforming it into an integrated refining and petrochemical complex.
+We have already embarked on a similar expansion at our west-coast Rabigh Refinery, in partnership with Sumitomo Chemical in a $9 billion program to transform the existing facility into one of the world’s largest refining and petrochemical complexes. Upon completion in 2008, this refinery will be able to produce fuels that meet European and US market specifications.
+In addition, we are upgrading our existing Yanbu refinery to increase its complexity and boost capacity by 100 thousand bpd. As is the case with other refineries, we are also looking at petrochemical integration plans for that site.
+Our international downstream investments will also be substantial. For example, here in the US, Motiva is looking at expanding one of its Gulf Coast refineries by up to 300 thousand bpd.
+Our plans are even more ambitious in Asia. In China, we are partnering with ExxonMobil and Sinopec to expand an existing refinery in China’s Fujian Province, and to add petrochemical facilities to the complex. We are also working with Sinopec to study the possibility of partnering in a grassroots refinery in Qingdao, Shandong province.
+Our plans also include the possibility of building a new grassroots refinery in South Korea that would give us the ability to supply additional refined products to the Korean market and to fast- growing markets like China.
+Taken together, these projects mean that over the next five years, we will be boosting our total refining capacity by almost 50 percent, to some six million bid.
+As you can see, Saudi Arabia’s roadmap is an ambitious one. I am convinced that the investments we have and will undertake are crucial to future oil market stability.
+Finally, let me say, the challenges we face as an industry are significant, but by no means insurmountable. Our current limitations can be traced back to the period in the 1980s and 1990s when an oversupplied market provided inadequate incentives for continued investment in the global energy infrastructure. The market’s lack of vision has returned to haunt us. The challenges of the future are primarily an investment problem, not an oil resource availability issue. Given adequate levels of investment and continued technological innovation there is every reason to believe that the future of our industry is bright.
+We in Saudi Arabia are committed to achieving a well-supplied and stable oil market. However, the challenge is bigger than Saudi Arabia alone.
+In today’s global economy, there is no denying our interdependence. We no longer have the option to go it alone or to let the other guy solve the problem. We will all need to contribute to the success of our energy future. I am confident that producers and consumers will step forward and rise to the challenges ahead. Together, we can achieve a stable and secure oil market that fulfills the aspirations of the world’s people for a better way of life.
+Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
+Return
+guest post by Cameron Smith
+Consider these quotes:
+My thesis has been that one path to the construction of a non-trivial theory of complex systems is by way of a theory of hierarchy. Empirically, a large proportion of the complex systems we observe in nature exhibit hierarchic structure. On theoretical grounds we could expect complex systems to be hierarchies in a world in which complexity had to evolve from simplicity. – Herbert Simon, 1962
+(Many of the concepts that) have dominated scientific thinking for three hundred years, are based upon the understanding that at smaller and smaller scales—both in space and in time—physical systems become simple, smooth and without detail. A more careful articulation of these ideas would note that the fine scale structure of planets, materials and atoms is not without detail. However, for many problems, such detail becomes irrelevant at the larger scale. Since the details (become) irrelevant (at such larger scales), formulating theories in a way that assumes that the detail does not exist yields the same results as (theories that do not make this assumption). – Yaneer Bar-Yam
+Thoughts like these lead me to believe that, as a whole, we humans need to reassess some of our approaches to understanding. I’m not opposed to reductionism, but I think it would be useful to try to characterize those situations that might require something more than an exclusively reductionist approach. One way to do that is to break down some barriers that we’ve constructed between disciplines. So I’m here on Azimuth trying to help out this process.
+Indeed, Azimuth is just one of many endeavors people are beginning to work on that might just lead to the unification of humanity into a superorganism. Regardless of the external reality, a fear of climate change could have a unifying effect. And, if we humans are simply a set of constituents of the superorganism that is Earth’s biosphere, it appears we are its only candidate germ line. So, assuming we’d like our descendants to have a chance at existence in the universe, we need to figure out either how to keep this superorganism alive or help it reproduce.
+We each have to recognize our own individual limitations of time, commitment, and brainpower. So, I’m trying to limit my work to the study of biological evolution rather than conjuring up a ‘pet theory of everything’. However, I’m also trying not to let those disciplinary and institutional barriers limit the tools I find valuable, or the people I interact with.
+So, the more I’ve thought about the complexity of evolution (for now let’s just say ‘complexity’ = ‘anything humans don’t yet understand’), the more I’ve been driven to search for new languages. And in that search, I’ve been driven toward pure mathematics, where there are many exciting languages lurking around. Perhaps one of these languages has already obviated the need to invent new ideas to understand biological evolution… or perhaps an altogether new language needs to be constructed.
+The prospects of a general theory of evolution point to the same intellectual challenge that we see in the quote above from Bar-Yam: assuming we’d like to be able to consistently manipulate the universe, when can we neglect details and when can’t we?
+Consider the level of organization concept. Since different details of a system can be effectively ignored at different scales, our scientific theories have themselves become ‘stratified’:
+• G. L. Farre, The energetic structure of observation: a philosophical disquisition, American Behavioral Scientist 40 (May 1997), 717-728.
+In other words, science tends to be organized in ‘layers’. These layers have come to be conceived of as levels of organization, and each scientific theory tends to address only one of these levels (click the image to see the flash animation that ascends through many scales or levels):
+It might be useful to work explicitly on connecting theories that tell us about particular levels of organization in order to attempt to develop some theories that transcend levels of organization. One type of insight that could be gained from this approach is an understanding of the mutual development of bottom-up ostensibly mechanistic models of simple systems and top-down initially phenomenological models of complex ones.
+Simon has written an interesting discussion of the quasi-continuum that ranges from simple systems to complex ones:
+• H. A. Simon, The architecture of complexity, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 106 (1962), 467–482.
+But if we take an ideological perspective on science that says “let’s unify everything!” (scientific monism), a significant challenge is the development of a language able to unify our descriptions of simple and complex systems. Such a language might help communication among scientists who work with complex systems that apparently involve multiple levels of organization. Something like category theory may provide the nucleus of the framework necessary to formally address this challenge. But, in order to head in that direction, I’ll try out a few examples in a series of posts, albeit from the somewhat limited perspective of a biologist, from which some patterns might begin to surface.
+In this introductory post, I’ll try to set a basis for thinking about this tension between simple and complex systems without wading through any treatises on ‘complexity’. It will be remarkably imprecise, but I’ll try to describe the ways in which I think it provides a useful metaphor for thinking about how we humans have dealt with this simple ↔ complex tension in science.
+Another tack that I think could accomplish a similar goal, perhaps in a clearer way, would be to discuss fractals, power laws and maybe even renormalization. I might try that out in a later post if I get a little help from my new Azimuth friends, but I don’t think I’m qualified yet to do it alone.
+Simple and complex systems
+What is the organizational structure of the products of evolutionary processes? Herbert Simon provides a perspective that I find intuitive in his parable of two watchmakers.
+He argues that the systems containing modules that don’t instantaneously fall apart (‘stable intermediates’) and can be assembled hierarchically take less time to evolve complexity than systems that lack stable intermediates. Given a particular set of internal and environmental constraints that can only be satisfied by some relatively complex system, a hierarchically organized one will be capable of meeting those constraints with the fewest resources and in the least time (i.e. most efficiently). The constraints any system is subject to determine the types of structures that can form. If hierarchical organization is an unavoidable outcome of evolutionary processes, it should be possible to characterize the causes that lead to its emergence.
+Simon describes a property that some complex systems have in common, which he refers to as ‘near decomposability’:
+• H. A. Simon, Near decomposability and the speed of evolution, Industrial and Corporate Change 11 (June 2002), 587-599.
+A system is nearly decomposable if it’s made of parts that interact rather weakly with each other; these parts in turn being made of smaller parts with the same property.
+For example, suppose we have a system modelled by a first-order linear differential equation. To be concrete, consider the fictitious building imagined by Simon: the Mellon Institute, with 12 rooms. Suppose the temperature of the ith room at time t is
+. Of course most real systems seem to be nonlinear, but for the sake of this metaphor we can imagine that the temperatures of these rooms interact in a linear way, like this:
+where
+are some numbers. Suppose also that the matrix
+looks like this:
+For the sake of the metaphor I’m trudging through here, let’s also assume
+Then our system is nearly decomposable. Why? It has three ‘layers’, with two cells at the top level, each divided into two subcells, and each of these subdivided into three sub-subcells. The numbers of the rows and columns designate the cells, cells 1–6 and 7–12 constitute the two top-level subsystems, cells 1–3, 4–6, 7–9 and 10–12 the four second-level sub- systems. The interactions within the latter subsystems have intensity
+, those within the former two subsystems, intensity
+, and those between components of the largest subsystems, intensity
+. This is why Simon states that this matrix is in near-diagonal form. Another, probably more common, terminology for this would be near block diagonal form. This terminology is a bit sloppy, but it basically means that we have a square matrix whose diagonal entries are square matrices and all other elements are approximately zero. That ‘approximately’ there is what differentiates near block diagonal matrices from honest block diagonal matrices whose off diagonal matrix elements are precisely zero.
+This is a trivial system, but it illustrates that the near decomposability of the coefficient matrix allows these equations to be solved in a near hierarchical fashion. As an approximation, rather than simulating all the equations at once (e.g. all twelve in this example) one can take a recursive approach and solve the four systems of three equations (each of the blocks containing a‘s), and average the results to produce initial conditions for two systems of two equations with coefficients:
+and then average those results to produce initial conditions for a single system of two equations with coefficients:
+This example of simplification indicates that the study of a nearly decomposable systems system can be reduced to a series of smaller modules, which can be simulated in less computational time, if the error introduced in this approximation is tolerable. The degree to which this method saves time depends on the relationship between the size of the whole system and the size and number of hierarchical levels. However, as an example, given that the time complexity for matrix inversion (i.e. solving a system of linear equations) is
+, then the hierarchical decomposition would lead to an algorithm with time complexity
+where L is the number of levels in the decomposition. (For example, L=4 in the Mellon Institute, assuming the individual rooms are the lowest level).
+All of this deserves to be made much more precise. However, there are some potential metaphorical consequences for the evolution of complex systems:
+If we begin with a population of systems of comparable complexity, some of which are nearly decomposable and some of which are not, the nearly decomposable systems will, on average, increase their fitness through evolutionary processes much faster than the remaining systems, and will soon come to dominate the entire population. Notice that the claim is not that more complex systems will evolve more rapidly than less complex systems, but that, at any level of complexity, nearly decomposable systems will evolve much faster than systems of comparable complexity that are not nearly decomposable. – Herbert Simon, 2002
+The point I’d like to make is that in this system, the idea of switching back and forth between simple and complex perspectives is made explicit: we get a sort of conceptual parallax:
+In this simple case, the approximation that Simon suggests works well; however, for some other systems, it wouldn’t work at all. If we aren’t careful, we might even become victims of the Dunning-Kruger effect. In other words: if we don’t understand a system well from the start, we may overestimate how well we understand the limitations inherent to the simplifications we employ in studying it.
+But if we at least recognize the potential of falling victim to the Dunning-Kruger effect, we can vigilantly guard against it in trying to understand, for example, the currently paradoxical tension between ‘groups’ and ‘individuals’ that lies at the heart of evolutionary theory… and probably also the caricatures of evolution that breed social controversy.
+Keeping this in mind, my starting point in the next post in this series will be to provide some examples of hierarchical organization in biological systems. I’ll also set the stage for a discussion of evolution viewed as a dynamic process involving structural and functional transitions in hierarchical organization—or for the physicists out there, something like phase transitions!
+Before I disabled comments on this post over at Google+, Rob Seaman wrote:
+I replied:
+Thank you for your comments Rob. Could you explain a bit more about what you mean with respect to Shannon saying “why” hierarchies are a preferred type of organizational structure? I am familiar with information theory, but that is not completely clear to me.
+I can’t access the usual link right now to Shannon’s 1948 Bell Labs paper, so let me point to the web page () for an ongoing collaboration on astronomical data compression issues and tools. Recent progress in compression in astronomy has focused on hierarchical (“tiled”) data structures both for large image arrays and tabular column-major marshalling of databases.
+The Shannon entropy and compression are two sides of the same coin, of course. Perhaps I was being a bit glib – it’s just as reasonable to have Shannon say “what” and Kolmogorov say “why”. The point being that compression is the same thing as efficient representation, and efficiency most definitely doesn’t mean coughing up a single monolithic lump like an owl pellet.
+You are the second person to mention to me in the past week the potential connection between data compression and hierarchy theory. I will look into this in more detail than I have before.
+Regarding a link between data compression and hierarchy theory, you might look at a couple of our recent papers (empirical not theoretical) related to astronomical data compression:
+The first discusses the role of noise (see the appendix to relate this to entropy) and the second issues of quantization. I would think a robust hierarchical architecture will tend to have some fuzziness to it similar to lossy compression. (Subtractive dithering is a neat way to tame fuzziness.)
+There will be theoretical limits as placed by entropy to the efficiency that can be realized from any hierarchical scheme. There may be biases introduced as per quantization noise (aka “Sheppard’s corrections”).
+Note that it is simple to design an algorithm to achieve very high compression ratios – simply sort the values first (and many sort algorithms are intrinsically hierarchical). The hard part, of course, is decompression :-) …unless you preserve information conveying the original ordering. I wonder if the clever Burrows-Wheeler transform might have a hierarchical use.
+Thanks for those links to your papers Rob. I’ll probably have some questions as I try to wade through them.
+It seems there had been some confusion about my previous reply to this post, which was just containing the sentence:
+As John emailed me, people felt irritated by this reply and some even thought that my account may have been hacked. I don’t know whether my account is hacked, but the sentence “Gaddafi says hi” was from me. I also don’t know whether this is of interest or whether this makes things clearer (in fact John suggested to watch this movie), but here is my email reply to John’s email:
+I guess I started this. In my defense, I started it over on Google+. Not only does the real world have a way of knocking down even the most robust theoretical positions, but in this case it seems just a little – well – “enthusiastic” to assert that hierarchal systems are not only intrinsically more robust and evolve better, but they also freshen your breath.
+My personal design heroes are doyens of simplicity such as Henry Petroski, who wrote revelatory books about “The Pencil” and “The Toothpick”. Hierarchical architectures aren’t intrinsically good, rather they benefit from the ability to enhance more basic desirable qualities such as simplicity and robustness. A hierarchy is a hypothetical imperative for a particular project (until the system engineer does a trade-off study), while robustness is a categorical imperative for every project.
+The interested student of SF might compare and contrast the Watchmaker Moties of “The Mote in God’s Eye”, who construct artificial technology with no regard for hierarchical organization – with the depiction of Robert Hooke in the Baroque Cycle, revealing level after level of naturally evolved perfection with his microscope.
+Rudyard gets the last word:
+Rob wrote:
+I’m not sure about what’s meant by artificial technology since I don’t know that SF, but I find it also difficult to understand that hierarchical systems are automatically more robust.
+The sentence “The mote in God’s eye” reminds me of a poem by the modern german poet Micky Zickelig, its a quite silly and I can’t translate it, but its about (last) words:
+Zappeliga Rap
+Der Sepp, der zappte schon ganz zappelig
+in seinem Kopf herum
+Er suchte die Worte gar rappelig
+und fand sich ziemlich dumm
+Die Worte aber saßen kippelig
+und warteten sich wund
+bis Sepp dann lieber allzu hippelig
+ein Wort warf aus dem Mund
+Das Wort schwebte winzig und witzelig
+dem andern rein ins Ohr
+Dort tobte das Hirn – es war kitzelig
+für Sepp wars wohl ein Tor.
+I was similarly titillated by “hierarchy” – eg the societal interpretation, especially in conjunction with “robustness” – as armies are the epitome of social hierarchies and ostensibly formed to avert wars (“si vis pacem, para bellum”) but they regularly reveal less than robust control structures for the stated purpose (while simultaneously helping tyrannies).
+The topic may well belong under the umbrella of “saving the planet” but it is challenging to say the least, to interface it properly to Cameron Smith’s discussion. Not the proper frame, imo.
+…but maybe then just call for an explicit answer to the question : “what would most critically distinguish armies from cases of hierarchical organization most relevant to Cameron Smith’s title ?”
+Short of teleology, not obvious what defines “better evolution”. Is natural selection, red in tooth and claw, at its “best” when more or fewer individuals die? Presumably the point here is some sort of efficiency argument – that more changes can happen per generation, thus more closely tracing the waveform of change in the environment? Or would it rather be better to accommodate environmental drift by evolving insensitivity to the external changes? Both evolutionary strategies seem equally “good”.
+Jumping back to the software metaphor, it is certainly true that well separated (decomposable) interfaces permit independent development to occur simultaneously on different layers. One interesting aspect is that once the levels are separated different methodologies can be applied to different levels, e.g., kernel programmers and application developers may use different tools and engineering paradigms.
+Hi Rob. I think you are correct. This is definitely an efficiency argument. I have stated this explicitly here (and so has Herbert Simon in the papers of his I referenced):
+Rob wrote:
+There’s been a lot of work on the evolution of evolvability—I’d hope that some of the more theoretical work along these lines would try to tackle that question.
+Of the work I am aware of in this field, what I hope is that we will find out that the computational models that have been used to investigate evolvability and robustness are unnecessarily complicated. The reason I hope for this is that these models have not seemed to reveal, though many would disagree with me, clear, universal principles but are essentially as caveat-laden as most experiments in biology.
+Neat post. I’m looking forward to the next one. For those who haven’t seen it, the American Journal of Physics just published a Resource Letter in the August issue on Complex Systems by [M. E. J. Newman](). Unfortunately, it’s behind a pay wall and there doesn’t seem to be an arXiv version I can find. But for those with library access it might be worth checking out.
+Thank you for the link Dan. There were a few references there I hadn’t seen, and it’s nice to have this set organized in one place.
+Newman’s paper is here.
+It seems as though path is the salient feature, the path particular that emerges through the mutual accommodation of the Traveler and the Terrain. It is the dynamical integrity of the little knots in path (‘stable intermediates’) that knit it into more complex and enduring, hierarchical structures.
+What makes the equation particularly complex is that the Traveler is always part Terrain and the Terrain is always part Traveler.
+The utility of this metaphoric view may not be readily apparent, but it is very much rooted in earthy example.
+Thanks for your website.
+Hi Don. I think that is a very nice way of stating the problem. One thing I am interested in is trying to understand how we can formalize the notion you have beautifully described. If we can do this, we may be able to learn how to reliably manipulate complex systems.
+One of the more extensive dynamical “knots” affecting life on earth is an orbital mechanics that produces diurnal rhythms. It would be interesting to know how evolution would have been effected if one side of the earth always faced the sun.
+One documented feature of evolution is that organisms can begin at very different places and come to occupy the same ecological niche (forget the name for that). Seems like this is also true of concepts.
+It may be inelegant to ask, but clicking on my name here will bring up “Information: A Field Study”. Curious to know if it has any utility in this discussion. Regards.
+Don wrote:
+You might be talking about convergent evolution, which can lead distantly related organisms to adopt similar body forms:
+Convergent evolution gives rise to traits that are analogous rather than truly homologous. For example, wings have evolved separately several times:
+John, I confess that seeing your reply was like a second sunrise this morning, thank you. And yes convergent evolution is the term I was looking for, not so much as to similar internal body forms, but more in relation to the external ecological niche the organism occupies. The marsupial related sabre-toothed Thylacosmilus (“pouch sabre”) would be an example.
+In any case, my point was that there are instances where the evolution of ideas can begin in very different places and come to similar conceptual terrains. The ultimate goal is always the utility of being able to say with some certainty that “this” is like “that”, that this notion/equation/iconograph is in some measure congruent with whatever slice of creation is presently under the microscope.
+There is no escaping the truth that “one man’s ceiling is another man’s floor”. I don’t want to muddy the water here with spurious or sophomoric notions. My apology if that’s the case.
+I am drawn to this discussion by a line of inquiry that began literally shovel in hand, not much of a recommendation given the marvel of mathematical sophistication evident here. (While I have only a Braille-like appreciation of the rough textures of mathematical argument, I am truly in awe of its accomplishment and potential)
+Anyway the hand that held the shovel had also turned the pages of Howard T. Odum’s pioneering book on a general systems view of ecology, Environment, Power and Society, 1971 and one thing led to another. So now, knocking on the ceiling, I would like to offer some defense of my little sandbox treatise and make a case for its utility in this discussion:
+1) It has at least some heuristic utility as a model/parable that argues from work-a-day phenomenon to a graphic representation of the elemental ‘stitch’ in the complex weave of living systems.
+2) Whereas Herbert Simon uses the term ‘stable intermediates’ I have used the term ‘device’ (from the French root, ‘to divide’). This helps remind us that ‘stable intermediates’ have an integral energy regimen that is diverted and somewhat sequestered from larger energy dynamics and that, at least in biological systems, this diversion is accomplished by a particular material form or ‘device’.
+3) It’s a view that is richly hierarchical, a complex nested network of energy pathways and the turning points thereof.
+4) It has potential for the application of metrics and mathematical modeling.
+Well that’s as good as it gets. Not sure how far the present moment of Azimuth’s inquiry has moved beyond these ideas, but thanks for a place to put them forward. Regards.
+I’ve joined John Baez on his blog Azimuth. My first in a series of posts on hierarchical organization as an organizing principle of biological evolution showed up there today. My favorite part of this post is actually this quote from Carl Sagan linked to from the pale blue dot picture of the Earth …
+I’d be interested if anyone knows of serious work on ‘hierarchical near block-diagonal linear differential equations’ like the one Cameron presented here:
+where
+is nearly block diagonal, with each block being nearly block diagonal, etc.
+Because they’re linear, these equations are easy to study. But because they’re examples of hierarchical structures, there could be interesting questions to ask. For example: how well can you approximate their solutions by ignoring the lower levels of the hierarchy? How does information flow up and down the hierarchy? And so on.
+The particular equation Cameron discussed is a discretized version of the heat equation. Heat flows from room to room, but the rooms are organized in groups, which are organized in larger groups. So, the rooms are actually leaves of a tree: a tree that describes the hierarchical structure of the problem.
+I can imagine having studied this kind of equation already.
+John,
+I think this is related to the study of local computation. The computer science guys are interested in making the computations as efficient as possible and use ideas such as join trees and semi-ring algebra structures to group the valuations together. This is not approximation-based though
+In addition to WebHubTel’s comment, here’s one that may be too specific. For equations like the heat equation, one has The Fast Gauss Transform. The idea is that the key component is calculating the sum of the Gaussian interactions between a group of points and a different point. Because the gaussian function decays so quickly, one can divide the space into rectangular boxes and just need to sum up “close enough” boxes to get very, very accurate results. The other very clever trick is to note that one can approximate a Gaussian for small arguments with a few terms of its series expansion, then one can “shift” the series to a common variable getting a series again and then add them all together to get one function that is a very, very good approximation to the sum-of-gaussians. This function can be evaluated for many nearby points, and overall this is a signficant savings in computational effort.
+This generalises into what are called “fast multipole methods” for certain types of function (eg, another example that comes to mind is calculating gravitational motions of many, many bodies).
+However, this is based on exploiting full details of the interaction function in order to do “almost full accuracy” simulation, whereas I think Cameron’s problem is looking for more about high-level features of solutions.
+Other than Hierarchy this form suggests (to me) some form of locality, that is the fact that subsystems mostly interact only with neighbor subsystems. But i guess that Hierarchy must imply some kind of locality.
+Also i am seeing a growing interest in finding numerical efficient ways to solve differential equation in which the system matrices are sparse. Intuitively, sparsity could make it easier to distribute the simulation on parallel machines. But this is really not my area so i am not sure.
+That example with rooms reminded me asymptotic methods used to solve differential equations. As an introduction I can only suggest the Wikipedia article.
+This method is spread in hydrodynamics and as far as I know in kinetic theory. They yield approximate analytical solutions, often with a great accuracy. In hydrodynamics this
+is frequently take the form of
+and there is not necessarily only one
+and only two regions.
+Despite my irrational and weird dislike for differential equations in physics, I really was stunned by the power of the method of matched asymptotic expansions.
+You should take a look at this paper by McInerney and Farmer from Santa Fe.
+“The Role of Design Complexity in Technology
+Improvement”
+They are basically extending the ideas of Muth and Simon in interesting ways. I am trying to use these in my real job, because it is all about how to to a job faster and more efficiently. The basic tool is the Design Structure Matrix, which is the same thing as the rooms example.
+Another comment that may be too specific: again the key to numerically solving the exact “constant hierarchical block structured matrix” equation that Cameron posted is evaluating that matrix multiplying such a matrix by a vector, or evaluating a finite vector under a finite linear mapping. Now obviously a “co-ordinate-based” way of looking at this is that each component of the input vector results in a linear combination of the output basis vectors.
+So if we apply a 2-D discrete wavelet transform to the matrix, in this particular case the 2-D discrete Haar transform, “all” we’re doing is chosing a different (but common) basis for both the input space and the output spaces (which in a diff. eqn. happen to actually be the same). But in this “in-out” basis combination such a matrix will be very sparse (most of the entries will be 0). So if one knows anything useful about inferring phenomena in a set of sparse differential equations this can be transferred to this “constant hierarchical block structured matrix” system.
+This doesn’t directly address information flow up and down “detail scales”, but I bet people in the wavelet community have thought about it! (Ironically I didn’t initially think of this because with wavelets one often thinks about the boundaries between different regions as being important, whilst the description was in terms of the constantness being important apart from at some block boundaries.)
+One of the interesting discussions I am having covers the residence time of CO2 in the atmosphere. This could be just a definitional disagreement but the arguments range from a residence time of a few years with a thin-tail, to numbers ranging from 100’s to 1000’s of years with a fat power-law tail.
+The complexity arises from considerations of what exactly prevents the CO2 from settling back into a steady state. Is it the rarity of permanent sequestration sites? Or does the earth just adapt quickly through buffer zones?
+In case people are interested, I have been testing some of my ideas out on the ClimateEtc blog. It’s not for the weak-hearted though because the attacks come from all angles.
+The latest approach I have been trying is a sparse matrix of coupled rate equations which models slab layers as a compartment or box model.
+This is the last chart I offered up:
+CO2 residence time discussion thread
+“It might be useful to work explicitly on connecting theories that tell us about particular levels of organization in order to attempt to develop some theories that transcend levels of organization. ”
+I am looking forward to your next parts.
+Thank you Uwe. If it is even possible, this is an enormous task that I do not pretend to have the capacity to accomplish alone. Some might argue that statistical physics is an example where effective theories have been formulated that transcend multiple scales. I think this is true; however, it requires that the objects at each scale be treated as identical, even if distinguishable. Though objects can access different states within a set, they cannot access orthogonal state sets. It seems in biology we have an analog of phase transitions where some of the objects that coalesce to form an ensemble can access different state sets. I would like anyone with more expertise in statistical physics than I have to criticize this statement as I might be a Dunning-Kruger victim here.
+To what extent are hierarchies in biology defined by their energy spectrum? Must there be energy gaps between levels, where few interactions occur, for a hierarchy to exist? Or is this stretching the physics analogy too far?
+The watchmaker parable seems to argue that it’s more efficient to evolve a factory that mass produces watch parts, than to repeatedly evolve watch parts. For example both watchmakers bought metal for the gears, they didn’t make it themselves. This seems true in biology, I wonder what is the corresponding argument in physics!
+It’s interesting that you ask this Jon:
+I had stated it as such in an earlier version of this post that didn’t make the cut. The Farre paper I cite gives some insight on this, but is not focused on biology. My suspicion is that it is indeed “stretching the physics analogy too far.” One problem I see at hand is to figure out, if that is so, precisely why it is.
+If you want to read a philosopher on complex systems and robustness, then William Wimsatt is one of your best bets. In 2007 he brought out Re-Engineering Philosophy for Limited Beings: Piecewise Approximations to Reality, Cambridge: Harvard University Press. You can read chap. 10 here.
+Thank you very much David for this reference. I have heard of Wimsatt, but have not read his work. I would usually be vehemently opposed to such, but that book might be worth buying just for the cover! This reference also looks quite relevant to me:
+Wimsatt, W.C. Aggregate, composed, and evolved systems: Reductionistic heuristics as means to more holistic theories. Biology & Philosophy 21, 667-702 (2007).
+I am reminded to quote Leibniz via Chaitin in my attitude toward this type of work:
+…where I would expand mathematics to include science
+This continues to be an interesting thread that I’ve been returning to roughly daily. Speaking of diurnal effects, someone was musing about evolutionary trends on tidally locked planets. Readers may be interested to learn that a historic proposal to disconnect clocks world wide (UTC) from Earth rotation will be voted on in Geneva in January 2012. A meeting has been organized () to discuss the wide-ranging implications.
+Regarding connections between convergent evolution and hierarchical theory, it seems to me that the pictures provided by John likely represent two distinct paradigms of convergence. Wings are certainly analogous structures – just add insect wings to the pictures of the varying wing structures of the tetrapod reptiles, birds and mammals to see this. (Although the word “convergent” per se may be restricted to structures similar in appearance not function.)
+But convergence as in succulents may reflect deep similarities in genetic structuring as with the homeobox genes of Evo Devo. (Or if not succulents, perhaps other examples.) My knowledge here is that of a programmer reading Sean B Carroll’s excellent books, but the examples in those books of homologous functions and structures across widely separated species aligns well with similar computer science design issues. A change in the kernel can effect changes perceptible to users.
+The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum has a wonderful garden of convergent cacti and euphorbia. The ultimate top-level hierarchy on planet Earth over the past few hundred million years has been continental drift. Cactus are from the New World. Euphorbia primarily from Africa. I recommend this Ted talk for perspective, both large and small:
+The nanoscale can create emergent similarities on the macroscale. The petascale will in turn influence the evolution of the nanoscale – given enough time.
+There is a very interesting looking thesis that your posts keep reminding me of Rob.
+Mills, R. How micro-evolution can guide macro-evolution: multi-scale search via evolved modular variation. (2010).
+I would love to read it in detail if I can just make the time!
+Hi,
+I realize I am heaviiy necrotizing this post, but I wanted to share a recent thought. Since having read this post, I have been thinking about it in terms of categories as interfaces. You know, the thing about interfaces is that you can always cover an interface with another interface. Here is a thought about the simplest of all interfaces:
+An apparatus has knobs, buttons and a readout. Those things comprise an interface. Furthermore, this interface is itself a category in the sense that turning a knob is a structure preserving map of the interface. (Very technically, we start with a monoidal category and produce the category of internal comonoids and then, humorously, categories themselves are monads in this category…eek!).
+Turning the knob on your apparatus is a really complicated morphism. We generally liken it to a point in a 1-d manifold and also a field i.e. the real numbers. That’s way too much structure. Furthermore, there was a time in the history of our species when we had no apparatus at all. My feeling is that the apparatus has evolved over time and increased in complexity. At first, however, the apparatus was really simple.
+How simple? How about a category with just one morphism. How is that for simple?!
+So how do we interpret the category with just one morphism? Well, in the category of categories, the one morphism category is useful because any functor to it is a tool for saying “Hey! I have a transformation! Eh! There’s a transformation here!”. If we interpret the transformation as an event in our universe like the decoupling of EM radiation from the early cosmic soup, then our little one-morphism category is not very expressive. It only tells us that something happened. It does not tell us what happened.
+Anton Zeilinger gave a talk once in which he exressed resect for the succinctness of a finite physics based on detector clicks. Simply put, a click is an event. But a click is not quite an event in a one morphism category. A click is more like a noise that is at one time there and then not there. It is more like a category with two morphisms: “Noise on” and “Noise off”. These are transformations of the same object and they are also inverses of one another.
+So, what about our little one-morphism category? He seems somewhat more fundamental to the physics of causality. This category is like a pregnancy test. If the stick changes colour, then something happened. Otherwise, no baby. If the test changes colour, you throw it in the garbage and consider what to tell your husband.
+Now that you know what the one morphism category is used for, you can start to think of richer structure….more morphisms!
+For those of you who are really keen, you might consider the role of those categories that have no finite set of axioms, otherwise called locally finitely presentable.
+Thank you for sharing your thoughts here Bem. I don’t mean to be rude, but if you’d tell me who you are I’d like very much to continue this conversation perhaps outside of this comment thread. “Bem” doesn’t give me much to go on. You should be able to find my e-mail address if you click my name or if you are involved in the Azimuth forum we could discuss it there.
+It might not matter, but I’m not sure how you would define an interface. It seems to me that in the example you give you’re already looking at an interface that lies on top of a lot of other interfaces. That could just be due to something idiosyncratic in the manner that I conceptualize interfaces. If we dig down to what is physically being used to represent information in the device you have conceived, then I think we have to build a lot of interfaces on interfaces to get up to the point of knobs, buttons, and a readout.
+In any case, I think there are at least a few different ways to imagine representing functional hierarchies using categories. You could think of hierarchical levels as being limits or colimits within a particular category. This seems to be the approach of Ehresmann (Andrée not Charles). Another option I can imagine is to think about how higher order morphisms (e.g. functors or natural transformations) could emerge from lower order ones. The latter may involve defining a process operating on a category. Even if you start with something like a monoidal category where you can internally represent the interplay between serial and parallel processes it seems to also be necessary to define a meta-process that describes how those processes themselves evolve in time. If we define a meta-process a priori, however, then we cannot claim that it emerged from an implicit representation embedded in lower level processes. To me this sounds impossible on the surface, but without it we don’t have a very good intuitive match to our current understanding of biological evolution.
+Hey Cameron,
+My name is Ben Sprott and I have included my home page with this post. I am posting a few ideas at nforum. Is there a bio or complexity forum you like, as I am iterested in seeing what other bio people might be doing and we could start a thread there.
+Thank you for providing your coordinates Ben! I started a thread on the forum for us and anyone else who is interested to continue the discussion. I would continue here, but I prefer the convenient syntax over on the forum.
+Since you’re both already on the Azimuth Forum, I encourage you to talk about your ideas there! Or here – that’s fine too. Anyway, I’d like to listen in.
+Michael Polanyi
+Life’s Irreducible Structure
+Live mechanisms and information in DNA are boundary conditions with a sequence of boundaries above them
+Science, New Series, 160 (3834)
+June 21, 1968, 1308-1312.
+This article presents some ideas that are relevant to
+your topic.
+Thanks, I’ll take a look!
+1. Definitions
+Ticketing Platform:
+The platform of services available through the provided URL for the booking, processing, promotion and marketing of tickets for events.
+Organizer:
+The entity with whom OXYNADE enters into an agreement with respect to the use of the Ticketing Platform.
+User(s):
+The person(s) receiving from the Organizer a user name and a password to access the Organizer's Ticketing Platform account.
+Ticket Buyer(s):
+The person(s) who want(s) to buy tickets, buy(s) tickets or has/have bought tickets for events of the Organizer through the Ticketing Platform.
+General Terms and Conditions
+These General Terms and Conditions which apply to the use of the Ticketing Platform made by the Organizer and the User.
+Associated Services:
+Services provided by OXYNADE which are strictly associated to the exploitation and support of the Ticketing Platform.
+Ticket:
+An electronic or paper voucher granting admission to one of the Organizer’s events or venues in accordance with the settings made in the Ticketing Platform, and that the Ticket Buyer has paid for or received for free.
+eTicket:
+Electronic Ticket sent in the form of an electronic document, or printed out from the platform which has been made available to the Ticket Buyer, and that serves as an admission voucher to the event. An eTicket is usually personalized (shows the name of the Ticket Buyer); invitations are also considered as eTickets.
+Offline Ticket:
+A Ticket that is generated through the Ticketing Platform whether individually, whether in bulk. An Offline Ticket is never personalized (does not show the name of the Ticket Buyer).
+Booking Fee:
+The fee charged for the use of the Platform, typically expressed as a fee per Ticket. This Booking Fee may be charged directly to the Ticket Buyer.
+Transaction Fee:
+The fee related to the chosen online payment method used by the Ticket Buyer when ordering one or more Tickets.
+Online Shop:
+The website through which the Ticket Buyer can buy or book Tickets. This website can be stand-alone (via redirect) or integrated into the website of the Organizer.
+Order Form:
+Overall document drawn up by OXYNADE intended for the Organizer, stating all the contractual agreements and prices. If any provision of the Order Form differs from these General Terms and Conditions, the Order Form shall prevail.
+Customer Terms and Conditions:
+The General Terms and Conditions of use of the Ticketing Platform which apply to the Ticket Buyers and which should be explicitly accepted as such by the Ticket Buyers.
+Call Center:
+Telephone-based inbound selling facility provided to the Organizer at an additional fee.
+2. Applicability
+These Terms and Conditions, including the Appendices, shall apply to any use made by the Organizer of the Ticketing Platform and the Associated Services provided by OXYNADE. The terms and conditions of the Organizer and/or third party do not apply. By accepting these Terms and Conditions through the use of the Ticketing Platform or the signing of an Order Form, the Organizer enters into a binding agreement with OXYNADE (the "Agreement").
+OXYNADE refers to "OYNADE NV", with registered office in Ghent, Belgium, Sassevaartstraat 46/201, company number 0893.070.288, Register of Legal Entities Ghent and account number BE83 3631 2182 9515, BBRUBEBB.
+OXYNADE may change these General Terms and Conditions or the Appendices at any time. The Organizer has thirty days to contest these changes, after which the new terms and conditions shall be deemed to have been accepted by the Organizer. If the Organizer does not accept the new terms and conditions, OXYNADE reserves the right to terminate the service.
+During the term of the Agreement, the Organizer commits himself to not use any other platform but the Ticketing Platform for selling, booking or otherwise commercialize tickets.
+3. Ticketing Platform
+The Ticketing Platform shall enable the Organizer to create his own Online Shop through which Tickets for events can be sold. This Online Shop can be adapted according to parameters depending on the wishes of the Organizer. OXYNADE can provide the Organizer with support when creating and setting up his Online Shop.
+The Ticketing Platform supports the following ticket types (to be created by the Organizer):
+eTicket: these Tickets are sold online and the issuance and payment will be handled by OXYNADE in accordance with these General Terms and Conditions.
+Offline Ticket: these Tickets are sold offline and the issuance and payment will be handled by the Organizer.
+In order to avoid conflicts during the term of this Agreement (e.g. numbered seats sold twice), the Organizer shall:
+Not sell Tickets through any other online channel;
+Ensure that the processing of the Ticketing in the Ticketing Platform is accurate and up-to-date.
+A Booking Fee shall be charged for every Ticket.
+A Transaction Fee shall be charged for the eTickets only.
+No Transaction Fee shall be charged for Offline Tickets. OXYNADE does not intervene in the selling of those tickets and bears no responsibility in this respect. The handling of these Tickets is entirely performed by the Organizer.
+The Organizer acknowledges and accepts that it is technically impossible to achieve 100% availability of the Ticketing Platform. OXYNADE will nevertheless make every effort to ensure constant website availability. Events related to maintenance, security or capacity requirements, and/or events beyond the control of OXYNADE, such as disruptions in public communication networks, blackouts… may result in brief malfunctions or temporary suspensions of the services provided through the Ticketing Platform.
+The Organizer acknowledges and accepts that it is technically impossible to determine with absolute certainty whether the identity specified by the Ticket Buyers is correct. OXYNADE does not give any guarantee in this respect.
+4. Events
+The Organizer is solely responsible for the organization and implementation of the events for which he sells Tickets. The Organizer shall provide the Ticket Buyers with correct information on the events and provide them with all necessary support. The Organizer is solely responsible for this information as well as for any change, cancellation or other event that may have an impact on the event and the expectations of the Ticket Buyers. The Organizer acknowledges that by selling Tickets through the Ticketing Platform he creates a direct contractual relationship with the Ticket Buyers, whereby OXYNADE is no party.
+In case an event is cancelled, or in case the Tickets should be refunded or changed for any other reason, the Organizer shall be solely responsible and shall indemnify OXYNADE against all the negative consequences in this respect. The Organizer shall notify OXYNADE immediately of any event that may result into the cancellation or modification of the Tickets. At the request of the Organizer, OXYNADE may provide assistance in organizing the refund or modification. Such services will be subject to a separate quotation.
+The Ticketing Platform foresees a set of basic conditions that the Ticket Buyer must approve when purchasing a Ticket via the Organizer's Online Shop. These are general conditions determined by the Organizer which may be supplemented by special conditions to ensure that the selling of the Tickets through the Online Shop complies with all the applicable regulations for the selling of such Tickets in the countries in which they are provided.
+OXYNADE may adjust these basic conditions from time to time and shall notify the Organizer of this in due time.
+The Organizer shall never set his own Online Shop in such a way that the Ticket Buyers shall be able to purchase Tickets without being aware of (i) the Customer Terms and Conditions (Appendix1) and the privacy policy (Appendix 4) of OXYNADE, and without needing to approve both. The Organizer is solely responsible to ensure that these conditions are imposed in a binding way to the Ticket Buyers and that the ticketing complies with the applicable regulations. The Organizer is the sole party responsible to the Ticket Buyers. The Organizer shall properly inform the Ticket Buyers through the Online Shop that the order is a purchase obligation which cannot be revoked. The Organizer shall include within his special terms and conditions all necessary arrangements and conditions required in this particular case. The Organizer guarantees to comply with all applicable codes and standards.
+The Organizer shall accept the Tickets issued via the Ticketing Platform as admission voucher. The Organizer shall perform the access control on the basis of a guest list, via the list of issued barcodes, or through the validation application of OXYNADE used in combination with a scanner. The validation application can be downloaded via the Ticketing Platform. A scanner and the corresponding software can be rented or purchased from OXYNADE according to conditions to be agreed upon.
+5. Rental conditions
+OXYNADE provides the Organizer with the material (the "Material") for the duration specified in the Order Form. OXYNADE shall make de Material available for collection at its registered office or shall deliver it to the delivery address stated on the Order Form insofar as this service is listed therein. Installation, setting up or other services not expressly stated in the Order Form, will be considered as an Additional Service and will be charged at the usual rates of OXYNADE.
+The Organizer shall accept the Material upon receipt and report any defects. If no defects are reported, the Material is deemed to be delivered without defects.
+The Material remains the exclusive property of OXYNADE. The Organizer guarantees that OXYNADE's ownership indications shall not be removed from the Material. The Organizer shall take due care of the Material.
+The Organizer shall immediately inform OXYNADE if its assets or Material are seized or risk being seized, and ensures that the Material shall not be affected by these seizure measures.
+Unless otherwise expressly agreed upon in the Order Form, the Organizer must return the Material within three days to the registered office of OXYNADE. The Material shall be checked upon receipt. Defects and damages that were not listed on the delivery receipt at the time of delivery, are supposed to have been incurred during the rental period.
+Damaged or lost parts of the Material, including the costs to repair or replace them, will be charged to the Organizer at the rates that OXYNADE shall be applying at that moment. Damage includes, among other things: applying stickers; non-operating parts such as a screen, keyboard, battery...; non-functioning of the device...
+6. Promotion
+To the extent confirmed by an Order Form of OXYNADE, OXYNADE may provide as part of its services promotion activities for an event of the Organizer. Such promotion activities shall only be performed via online channels. OXYNADE shall make every effort to perform these activities in a professional manner, but does not give any guarantee in this respect. The Organizer acknowledges and agrees that he shall be solely responsible for the success of the event. OXYNADE makes no guarantee regarding the number of Ticket Buyers that may be reached via the Ticketing Platform and its related media channels (mailings, websites, banners...) and does not provide any guarantee regarding the minimum number of Tickets sold.
+The Organizer shall always mention the link to the ticketing on the event’s website.
+OXYNADE has the right to mention the name and logo of the event Organizer on its own websites and on those of its partners, as well as on any printed matter and/or other marketing and/or promotional material. OXYNADE may use for free, without having to pay, all the event related data (which includes, but is not limited to, the title, description, logo, pictures), and this both online and in printed matter. Within this context, the Organizer shall grant OXYNADE a free, non-exclusive license on all material used by the Organizer via the Ticketing Platform and ensures that this license shall not infringe rights of third parties.
+7. Call Center
+To the extent confirmed by an Order Form of OXYNADE, OXYNADE may provide as part of its services, Call Center facilities for an event of the Organizer.
+OXYNADE shall make any effort to provide the Call Center services in a professional manner, but does not give any guarantee in this respect. The Organizer acknowledges and agrees that he shall be solely responsible for the success of the event. OXYNADE makes no guarantee regarding the number of Ticket Buyers reached via the Ticketing Platform and the related Call Center channels, and does not provide any guarantee regarding the minimum number of Tickets sold. Neither does OXYNADE give any guarantee as to the information provided by the Call Center.
+If the Organizer decides to use the Call Center activities, the associated costs (premium rate phone number) must be explicitly mentioned, as stated in the Order Form. This requirement applies to all communication channels. The omission of this rate is severely punished by the Code of Ethics for telecommunications. Sanctions imposed as a result of non-compliance with this legislation will be charged to the Organizer.
+8. Prices and information
+As remuneration for its services, OXYNADE is entitled to a Booking Fee: a fee for each Ticket sold through the Ticketing Platform. This fee is charged to and paid by the Ticket Buyers, unless otherwise agreed in the Order Form.
+The price list for Transaction Fees is the one notified to the Organizer in the Order Form. All prices indicated by OXYNADE are exclusive of VAT, unless explicitly stated otherwise. OXYNADE may adjust this price list for Transaction Fees from time to time, provided that it gives notice to that effect not less than 60 days before these adjustments are made.
+Booking Fees and Transaction Fees that have been received by OXYNADE will never be refunded to the Organizer or the Ticket Buyers.
+The Organizer is responsible for the payment of the VAT and other taxes and duties applied on the Ticket prices.
+9. Payment and billing
+OXYNADE shall make a monthly payment to the Organizer every 7th day of the following month, unless otherwise agreed upon in the Order Form. The amount to be paid concerns the money of the sold Tickets that has effectively been deposited on the bank account of OXYNADE during the last month, minus the required Transaction Fees (settlement until 23h59m59s).
+In case refunds must be made for whatever reason, or if refunds are performed by payment institutions such as Visa, the Organizer will have to compensate OXYNADE for these payments. OXYNADE shall deduct these amounts automatically and monthly from the amounts due to the Organizer. OXYNADE shall draw up a statement and shall pay or charge the difference to the Organizer. The statement of OXYNADE is payable within five days after being sent by email.
+In the following cases, OXYNADE has the right to suspend the payouts to the Organizer until after the successful completion of the event:
+OXYNADE has reasons to doubt the good organization of the event and/or the creditworthiness of the Organizer;
+OXYNADE is unable to check the Organizer's registration at the Crossroads Enterprise Database, or this registration is ineffective because of a defect;
+The Organizer has not signed the written Order Form of OXYNADE.
+The invoice terms of OXYNADE shall apply to the invoices of OXYNADE (Appendix 2), unless otherwise specified in the Order Form. The invoices of OXYNADE shall be offset against amounts due to the Organizer.
+10. License
+OXYNADE grants the Organizer a transferable and non-exclusive license for the use of the Ticketing Platform. Under this license, this use may only be made online by the Users, solely for the needs of the Organizer and in accordance with the intended use of the Ticketing Platform.
+OXYNADE shall be entitled to terminate this license at any time, provided that there is no current ticketing ongoing for an event.
+The Organizer acknowledges that the Ticketing Platform is continuously improved by OXYNADE. The Organizer shall only have access to the last edited version of the Ticketing Platform. Each new version or update of the Ticketing Platform replaces the original or previous version as modified version, and shall therefore be subject to all the rights and obligations as stated in the General Terms and Conditions. During the updates, the Ticket Platform may be temporarily unavailable for the Organizer.
+11. Scope and limitation of the Associated Services provided by OXYNADE
+The Services provided by OXYNADE are strictly limited to all reasonable measures taken to ensure the functioning and availability of the Ticketing Platform and the Material. Services that are not listed in the Order Form, may be delivered by OXYNADE on a time and material basis according to the terms that are applicable at that moment.
+OXYNADE shall not check the text or content of the data processed by the Organizer through the Ticketing Platform.
+Within the limited scope of his license rights, the Organizer is free to make use of the Ticketing Platform and to use it in accordance with its purpose. Consequently, the Organizer shall assume full responsibility for the content that he processes while using the Ticketing Platform.
+12. Telephone and email support
+With respect to the use of the Ticketing Platform, OXYNADE shall provide telephone and email support to the best of its ability through its help desk. Requests for telephone and email support should be centralized through one designated person within the organization of the Organizer. The telephone and email support is available on working days from 9:00 am to 12:30 pm and from 1:30 pm until 5:30 pm (CET). "Working day" is defined as all days of the week, except Saturdays, Sundays and Belgian national holidays.
+13. Obligations and liability of the Organizer
+The Organizer may not grant access to the Ticketing Platform to persons who are not registered Users within the Ticketing Platform. The Organizer accepts full and unconditional responsibility for all operations carried out with the User accounts. The Organizer shall be liable for the confidentiality of his accounts, usernames and passwords; for access to his computer system; and for the acts or omissions of any party that uses an account of the Organizer.
+In the event that the Organizer determines or suspects abuse of his account information, the Organizer must change his passwords immediately.
+While organizing events and operating the Ticketing Platform, the Organizer must respect (i) all international, national, regional and local laws and regulations and (ii) all codes of ethics, internet regulations, policies and procedures.
+The Organizer agrees to never use the Ticketing Platform for illegal purposes or behavior that in any other way would be inappropriate. The Organizer may not process content (i) that is in any way unlawful, provocative, defamatory, illegal, threatening, or harmful or in any other way inappropriate; (ii) that he is not entitled to process in accordance to any law or contractual or fiduciary relationships; (iii) that constitutes an infringement of the rights of any third party, including – but not limited to – patent, trademark, business confidentiality and copyright.
+The Organizer may not use or render resources, software or routines that may impair other parties or the proper functioning of the Ticketing Platform, or might impose a disproportionately large load on the Ticketing Platform system.
+The Organizer accepts full liability for his accounts and agrees to defend, indemnify and hold harmless OXYNADE and its shareholders, directors, managers, employees, agents, dealers, advisers, parent companies, subsidiaries and affiliates, against all claims, liabilities, judgments, fines, taxes, costs and expenses (including reasonable attorney fees and costs) resulting from or in connection with the violation of these Terms and Conditions or the Appendices by the Organizer.
+14. Process of personal data
+The parties confirm at all times that they will comply with the general data protection regulation (GDPR).
+The Organizer acts as the controller and determines the purpose and the means for the processing. OXYNADE acts as processor under the terms of the processor agreement in Appendix 3.
+The Organizer confirms that he has the right to process the personal data and have them processed by OXYNADE. The Organizer accepts full liability for the processing of these data and agrees to defend, to indemnify and hold harmless OXYNADE and its shareholders, directors, managers, employees, agents, dealers, advisers, parent companies, subsidiaries and affiliates, against all claims, liabilities, judgments, fines, taxes, costs and expenses (including reasonable attorney fees and costs) resulting from or in connection with the violation of this article by the Organizer.
+The Organizer shall not use the data of the Ticket Buyers for purposes other than providing information about the event for which the Ticket Buyers have ordered Tickets.
+OXYNADE confirms that it shall respect the privacy of the Ticket Purchasers in accordance with its privacy and cookie policy in Appendix 4. The Organizer will communicate this correctly to the Ticket Buyers together with his own privacy and cookie policy and have it approved by Ticket Buyers.
+15. Property rights on the Ticketing Platform
+All intellectual property rights relating to the Ticketing Platform shall remain at all times the exclusive property of OXYNADE. They include the copyright on the structure, organization and full composition of the Ticketing Platform. All manuals, documentation and programs, whether available in a paper version or accessible by remote consultation, will remain confidential and the property of OXYNADE.
+The logos and names of OXYNADE and the Ticketing Platform are protected trademarks of OXYNADE. The Organizer may not use, copy, delete, or hide these trademarks without the express written permission of OXYNADE.
+The Organizer is forbidden to grant sublicenses or any other rights with respect to the Ticketing Platform.
+16. Confidentiality
+The Organizer acknowledges that all non-public information and/or data related to the Ticketing Platform, received from OXYNADE, are confidential and an important commercial asset for OXYNADE. The Organizer undertakes to keep this confidential information and/or data strictly confidential and commits himself to not disclose and/or communicate under any circumstances or any way this information to third parties, nor use this information and/or data for his own benefit without the express written permission of OXYNADE. The Organizer may only transmit or disclose the confidential information and/or data to those employees who absolutely need this information and/or data to use the Ticketing Platform and the Associated Services.
+17. Liability of OXYNADE
+OXYNADE shall use all reasonable efforts to ensure the proper functioning of the Ticketing Platform. OXYNADE declares that the Ticketing Platform was developed in a professional manner and in compliance with generally accepted industry standards. OXYNADE shall continue to improve the Ticketing Platform and ensures that the Ticketing Platform will at all times comply with these standards. However, OXYNADE does not guarantee that the Ticketing Platform will be entirely bug-free or error-free, nor that it will be continuously available or functioning without interruption.
+OXYNADE provides the Ticketing Platform "as is". OXYNADE does not guarantee that the functions of the Ticketing Platform meet the performance requirements of the Organizer or that the Ticketing Platform operates in accordance with his expectations. The Organizer accepts his responsibility for the selection of the Ticketing Platform, for the use he makes of it and for the results it allows to achieve. OXYNADE does not offer any express or implicit guarantee, and the warranty of fitness for a particular use is hereby excluded.
+OXYNADE can only be held liable for severe misconduct. It cannot be held liable when a defect or malfunction of the Ticketing Platform is due to (i) a defect in the software or hardware that is not caused by OXYNADE; (ii) changes or modifications that were made to the Ticketing Platform without permission of OXYNADE; (iii) failure of the Organizer to report a defect immediately, along with documentation and information relating to the circumstances of the defect.
+The Organizer understands that the Ticketing Platform is an online application. OXYNADE cannot be held responsible when a defect or malfunction of the Ticketing Platform is due to network or communication problems.
+OXYNADE is not liable to the Organizer or any third party for loss of profit or turnover; unsold tickets; loss of data; refunding of tickets; indirect, consequential or incidental damages, even if OXYNADE has been notified of the possibility of such losses or damages. In case of direct damage, and insofar compensation in kind is not possible, the liability of OXYNADE with respect to the Organizer shall never exceed the amount of the Booking Fees that OXYNADE has received for the Organizer’s tickets during the six months prior to the claim, with a maximum of € 5,000. The Organizer must take all necessary measures that may reasonably be expected to limit the damage.
+18. Liability of the Organizer
+Without prejudice to the other provisions of these General Terms and Conditions relating to the liability of the Organizer, the Organizer shall indemnify and hold harmless OXYNADE from and against all claims, damages, losses, costs, expenses, obligations, liabilities and legal actions, including but not limited to the interests and fines, reasonable attorney fees and costs, and any amounts that are paid to settle a claim, requirement or legal proceeding that would be brought against OXYNADE or that OXYNADE would undergo, and arises out of, results from or is connected with:
+(a) a failure to fulfill or a violation of any obligation stated in these General Terms and Conditions or Appendices;
+(b) claims of any nature submitted by a third party who suffers any damage resulting directly or indirectly from the activities of the Organizer in relation to or in connection with the use of Ticketing Platform made by the Organizer;
+(c) claims of any nature submitted by a third party who suffers any damage resulting directly or indirectly from the activities of the Organizer with regard to the organization and processing of events;
+(d) claims of any nature arising from the Ticketing activity of the Organizer;
+(e) the relationship between the Organizer and the Ticket Buyers.
+19. Termination of the Agreement
+The Agreement between the Parties is of indefinite duration, unless expressly otherwise agreed in writing. It may be terminated by both Parties by means of a registered letter taking into account a notice period of at least six months. The Agreement may be terminated at any time if the other Party is declared bankrupt, being dissolved or went into liquidation.
+In the case that OXYNADE observes an act or omission of the Organizer which, in the reasonable opinion of OXYNADE, could be a violation of these General Terms and Conditions or the Appendices, could directly or indirectly harm a third party, or could be inappropriate in any other way; or if a third party informs OXYNADE of a possible disadvantage, OXYNADE will contact the Organizer as soon as possible and in any event within 15 days in order to remedy the violation or the produced disadvantage.
+In extreme cases or in the event that the Organizer does not remedy the violation or the caused disadvantage in a timely manner, OXYNADE – at its sole discretion – shall be entitled to immediately and without notice, and without the intervention of Court (by operation of law), block or remove all content and/or terminate or suspend all licenses of the Organizer, without any refund of fees or any other compensation to the Organizer, and with full compensation to OXYNADE.
+In case OXYNADE interrupts the services, or if OXYNADE blocks the access of the Organizer to the Ticketing Platform because of this provision, the Organizer shall not be entitled to any compensation from OXYNADE for the damage he would have suffered as a result of this decision. If the Organizer contests the decision of OXYNADE before the Court and the result is favorable for OXYNADE, the Organizer shall reimburse the legal costs and expenses of OXYNADE, including all attorney’s fees.
+20. Force majeure
+Neither Party will be in default or otherwise liable for any delay or failure in performance of the Agreement if such delay or failure results from a cause which is independent of its reasonable control, including earthquakes, floods, fires, epidemic, riots, absence or delay of transport or communications; or from any act or omission by the other Party or by its employees, agents or contractors.
+21. Generalities
+If one or more provisions of these General Terms and Conditions and Appendices are declared void or unenforceable, the Organizer agrees that this fact does not cause the invalidity or impracticability of the remaining provisions, and that the Organizer and OXYNADE will do their utmost best to replace the provision in question by a valid and enforceable provision that, to the extent possible, shall meet the economic, business or any other purpose of this invalid or unenforceable provision.
+The mere fact that OXYNADE does not insist on, nor enforces the strict observance by the Organizer of any provision of these General Terms and Conditions and Appendices, cannot be interpreted as a renunciation or a waiver of the rights of OXYNADE, resulting from this provision, unless this is confirmed in writing.
+The rights and remedial actions conferred to OXYNADE under these General Terms and Conditions and Appendices, are complemental and do not deprive OXYNADE of any other right or remedial action that is legally conferred to OXYNADE. All such rights and remedial actions are cumulative and may be exercised separately or together.
+All notifications between OXYNADE and the Organizer will be in writing and in Dutch, French or English; if the notifications are sent by email, they are considered to be sent to the Organizer through the email address for notifications that was registered on the Ticketing Platform, and to OXYNADE through the email address .
+22. Applicable law and jurisdiction
+Any dispute of any kind that would result from the consultation and/or use of the Ticketing Platform shall be subject to Belgian law and to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of Ghent (Belgium).
+Appendices
+1. Customer Terms and Conditions of the Ticket Buyers
+2. Invoice Terms and Conditions of OXYNADE
+3. OXYNADE Personal Data Processing Agreement
+4. OXYNADE Privacy policy
+I am a technology policy professional. I have worked on technology issues in both federal and local government, as well as internationally, and will be starting my PhD in the subject this fall. This is an understandably vague topic, as it’s not as clearly-defined a field as finance, agriculture or health care. When I tell people I work in this field, they invariably ask: “Oh, like cybersecurity?” I don’t work in cybersecurity, but the question makes sense, as the topics of privacy and security are given far more media attention than any other technology topic. This is understandable, as there have been innumerable data breaches, disinformation campaigns and degradations of personal privacy. The modern Internet has been painted as a confusing and scary dystopia in which users struggle against faceless hackers, shifty governments, online harassment and other forces far beyond their comprehension or control. In this context, it’s no surprise that the technology issues with the greatest public focus emphasize stability and control. But the Internet is, has been and I’m confident will be much more than that. While online privacy, safety and security will always be important, I’m more drawn to policies that promote the positive consequences of computer and the Internet, and that will help them continue to evolve in the coming decades.
+When talking about the Internet, it’s helpful to understand its history and evolution into the technology we know it as today. First conceived of as an “intergalactic network” in 1962 by ARPA (now DARPA) chief JCR Licklider, the ARPANET was envisioned as a technology that could help researchers using large supercomputers to share research and technical resources more easily. It was developed by a small group of research institutions, including the University of California Los Angeles, the University of California Santa Barbara, the University of Utah and the Stanford Research Institute. Other research institutes soon followed, and by the early 70s not only had the ARPANET grown immensely, but it had also inspired many other similar types of computer networks such as the wireless ALOHAnet in Hawaii and the commercial Telenet. These networks were developed independently, and had no way to directly connect to one another. Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn, who had both been involved in early ARPANET development, collaborated to develop the Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), which connected these various networks into an internetwork. Although it faced some competition, TCP/IP soon became the de facto standard on every device connected to the network, which continues to this day. There were other developments throughout the 70s and 80s such as the Ethernet protocol, which most people know from its use in Internet connection cables, and the Domain Name System (DNS), which most people know today as browser addresses.
+Until this point, the Internet had been used almost exclusively among universities and research institutions, and in fact commercial activity was not allowed. But in the late 80s, with the increased prevalence of personal computers, Al Gore pushed for legislation to enhance computing and bring it to more people. Tim Berners-Lee’s also invented the Hypertext Markup Language while working at CERN, which paved the way for the World Wide Web. These developments helped to cause a marked shift in the use of the Internet from research to everyday browsing and commerce. While it was a great opportunity to spread information and connect people, the sudden re-purposing of a network designed for researchers to a wide variety of public use activities gave rise to all sorts of questions. Some of these questions led to policy responses, which were codified in legislation, such as the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, while others were considered but not acted upon. After all, the Internet was a nascent technology, and nobody wanted to “overlegislate” it, so they largely left the Internet’s development to the private sector. This reticence, however well-intentioned, had the effect of ossifying and some cases magnifying certain Internet policy issues, of which privacy and security is only one. There are many opportunities for new or improved policies that can help the Internet develop into a tool that is truly transformative for everyone.
+One topic particularly important topic is broadband access. For as much of a game-changer as the Internet has been, only a little over half of the world’s population has consistent access to it. Given how integrated the Internet has become to modern life, those without it lack a significant amount of information and capability in today’s world. Depending on exactly where those without Internet live, there are a variety of challenges to bringing them online. Sometimes the issues are technical: the ground isn’t conducive to laying cable, or nearby mountains block radio signals from cell towers. Sometimes they’re economic: these users can’t afford a subscription to broadband, or no broadband options exist in their area because it’s not profitable for an Internet provider to build one. And sometimes they’re legal: the local government is prohibited from building local Internet infrastructure of its own, or the national government withholds Internet access for political ends. Some countries are even threatening to cut themselves off from the global Internet in favor of a national “intranet,” in which government can control and monitor traffic flow in and out of their country. This is similar to China’s “great firewall,” in which it has erected a variety of national websites that mimic the functionality of the global ones: Renren takes the place of Facebook, Weibo stands in for Twitter, Youku Tudou instead of Youtube, and so on. Whatever the reasons that hold individuals back from participating in the global Internet, setting policies to encourage their participation will be a rising tide to lift all boats, as every new user can not only learn an extraordinary amount from the Internet, but contribute to it as well.
+The Internet has also provided innumerable opportunities for artists, creatives and generally anyone who has something they’d like to share. One does not need to look very far into YouTube, Wikipedia or even the open-source movement responsible for software like Linux to see examples of this. But certain aspects of our policy around intellectual property (IP) haven’t kept pace. In early policy deliberations about online content, existing IP law was held sacrosanct: if it’s illegal to distribute or sell unauthorized copies of a copyrighted work by hand, the lawmakers reasoned, why should it be any different online? Each unlawful copy made on the Internet, therefore, was to be treated the same as an unlawful physical copy. But that notion quickly fell apart: not only is it difficult to distinguish between what constitutes a “copy” from a technical perspective, the law simply isn’t enforceable at scale. As Vint Cerf once put it, “The Internet is a giant copying machine.” The solution was Digital Rights Management, or DRM, which was protective technology meant to prevent software or media files from being used unless the user could authorize it, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) made it illegal to break or circumvent it. But that too became unenforceable, especially when the DRM software was circumvented in countries outside the US and file-sharing programs like Napster and Bittorrent clients made distributing copyrighted works much easier. The Recording Industry Association of American took to suing individuals who had downloaded individual songs in the early 2000s, but the public optics of that didn’t play to their favor. These days, with streaming services like Netflix and Spotify, this has become less of an issue for music and media. However, the DMCA is still on the books, which actually makes it difficult to access older games and media with copy protection that the artist or publishing company no longer supports (occasionally official exemptions are carved out). This puts archivists and other enthusiasts of older media in a legal gray zone, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that a law passed over 20 years ago is becoming less and less relevant to our digital realities.
+This was certainly the case for Aaron Swartz, a programmer and Internet activist who first rose to fame by developing the Really Simple Syndication format and co-founding the reddit website. However, in 2011 he gained a more adverse kind of notoriety when he was arrested on charges of breaking and entering and violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. He had connected a computer to a closet on the MIT campus and batch-downloaded about 70 GB worth of papers from JSTOR, a digital library of academic journals. His exact motivations were never fully clear, but he was charged by federal prosecutors with a potential sentence of up to $1 million in fines and 35 years in prison. While no one denied that he broke the law, many felt that the charges were out of step with the crime. The prosecutors claim that Swartz stole (or, rather, downloaded) “millions of dollars” worth of property, but Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard professor and close friend of Swartz’s, wrote in his blog that “anyone who says that there is money to be made in a stash of ACADEMIC ARTICLES is either an idiot or a liar” (original emphasis maintained). Despite the support he was receiving, the trial took a significant financial and emotional toll on Swartz, and he eventually hung himself in his apartment in 2013. This tragedy threw the difference between the intent and application of the law into sharp relief, and it seems that we need a significant reconsideration of how digital intellectual property is conceived of and managed online. With the amount and variety of online information and content growing exponentially, users will need effective ways to access, analyze and understand it all. Laws and prosecutions that do not serve those interests will only hold the world back from what life and work on the Internet can be.
+A third important policy topic concerns nascent Internet and information technologies that are still in development and have not yet found a reliable place in our society. For example, various applications of virtual and augmented reality have existed in consumer applications for over a decade, but none have quite managed to reliably take hold enough to bring the benefits of that technology to consumers on a wide scale. Similarly, blockchain technology has been used in targeted applications such as cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and private resource pools within large companies and banks. However, the average person does not interact with blockchain technology on a daily basis, so for most of the world it is still emerging. The Internet of Things is starting to appear in wearable devices like smartwatches and on manufacturing lines within industrial companies, but like the Internet itself, the technology has the potential for many different applications, and will likely enhance many of the devices we interact with on a daily basis. Setting policy for such technologies can often be risky, as few people understand how they work, and they may often end up being used in contexts that were not originally anticipated. That said, the right kinds of policies can encourage speedier adoption of these helpful technologies, and even the development of altogether new ones. Policy often lags behind technology, but that’s less a consequence of policy itself and more the fashion in which policy is usually made. When an exciting new discovery or device is announced, policy is not usually discussed, but it is a crucial lever that we as a society can use to decide exactly how we want our new tools to serve us.
+No one can deny that our society is very different than it was 20 or even 10 years ago, and the pace of technology, along with all of the social interactions and consequences it has enabled, has been a significant influence on that. There are many important issues to consider, but perhaps the most crucial is who exactly we want to put in charge of our technology. The computing revolution, ARPANET and open-source movements were not spurred by corporate giants like Google or Apple. They came from public institutions like government, universities, research organizations and even people like you and me. In fact, during the early days of the Internet a “cyberlibertarian” culture emerged, which eschewed involvement of government, regulation or any other influence that might dampen the benefits of a free (as in free speech, not free beer) world wide web. Cyberlibertarian John Perry Barlow even published a “Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace” in 1996, declaring that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth.” It’s clear now that the web has taken a different turn than that which Barlow envisioned, but that doesn’t mean that we’ve lost total control. Most people in most places still have the ability to go to any website they wish, and it’s becoming easier to build something new, upload a video or carve out your own little corner of the web. If we care about the Internet as users, then we should be concerned about what kind of Internet we will have going forward. And if we don’t like where things are going, then we need to consider what every aspect of the Internet – not just privacy and security – should look like.
+The NHL’s term of the week, hockey fans, was “disclaimer of interest.’’ What, you came to “Pro Hockey Notes’’ to read about hockey? There is no stinkin’ hockey, and there hasn’t been any since the Kings won the Cup at the end of June (who’s counting?), and right now no one on either side of the tattered red line can say for sure if the NHL game is coming back in 2012-13.
+No one, by the way, includes commissioner Gary Bettman and union boss Donald Fehr. So while a million and one experts pontificate about the whys, wherefores, and howcomes of the CBA mess, those opinions amount to so many melted ice shavings. If the big boys don’t know, can’t say or won’t guess, then not even federal mediators can provide the answer — as was the case earlier this month when contract talks fell victim to the Zamboni’s scraper.
+As of noon Friday, the players’ union formally had the membership’s backing (by better than two-thirds majority vote) to inform the league that it no longer represented its players as a bargaining body, or agent. In the action-packed world of courtroom dealings, “disclaimer of interest’’ is sort of the quickie-divorce version of decertification.
+Related
+The key here is that the union, if it chooses, can enact the disclaimer by Jan. 2, hoping that league owners view it as a layer of potential chaos, perhaps a very costly one. Conventional wisdom, if such a thing remains, then would have the sides scurrying back to the table to finalize a new CBA.
+Will it work? Again, no one has a clue. If they tell you they do, then enjoy that view from the Brooklyn Bridge and that Bernie Madoff book, “Sure-shot Ways to Wealth and Influence.’’
+The added bit of nasty here is that the NHL headed to a New York courtroom days ahead of the union’s “disclaimer’’ vote with its own preemptive bag of tricks, filing both a lawsuit and a class-action complaint against the PA. Both moves were intended to thwart a union move either to disclaim or decertify — all of which the league views, according to one of its filings, as a means “to extract more favorable terms and conditions of employment.’’
+Will it work? Again, good luck to you, Charlie Finley and his Golden Seals. Rather than get facewashed by their own players in the courtroom, NHL owners jumped in there first with a suit and complaint. Good hustle. It could turn out to be false hustle, but footwork must always be applauded, don’t you think?
+If nothing else (and what do we have here other than nothing?), that Jan. 2 expiration date to enact the disclaimer puts some framework around a process that has been slowly bleeding since the sides began hashing through a new CBA at the end of July. Five months later, all we have is dark rinks, a lockout now in Day 99, and a bunch of high-priced suits and associated bloviating blowhards providing an in-game tutorial on labor law and failed collective bargaining. Hey, at least it comes at a price far less than a $112 loge ticket.
+The sides appeared very close to a deal in Manhattan Dec. 5 and 6, when Bettman and Fehr remained out of the room. The differences that should have been middled weeks before, after the league finally presented a real offer on Oct. 16, finally were middled. The game had a reasonable shot of resuming play this very weekend, or just after Christmas.
+But come the reckoning hour, it all dissolved again after the owners felt the players came back asking for more goodies when all they wanted the players to say was, “Where do we sign?’’
+For as close as both sides made everyone feel and/or believe they were on critical, core terms, it would appear to make little sense that the next two weeks didn’t produce a deal. In fact, Bettman, in a snit late on the evening of Dec. 6, stated that the owners’ offer was off the table. We don’t know if that’s true, because, well, the sides haven’t been back at the table.
+Meanwhile, the NHL announced on Thursday that all games have been wiped off the board through Jan. 14. Some two weeks prior, Bettman said anything short of a 48-game season would not be practical. In the first lockout of 1994-95, the 48-game regular season kicked off Jan. 20 and wrapped up May 3. So if the league is sticking to 48 games this time around, that means a window of, say, 72 hours around that Jan. 14 date is effectively a drop-dead period. Players would need 5-7 days to report, train, then drop the puck.
+As for the 2012-13 schedule that was released over the summer? Burn it. Like 1994-95, a 48-game season would not have clubs playing out of their respective conferences. With teams playing games virtually every other night for 3-4 months, both sides will want short trips, and extra games will have to be shoehorned into tight arena schedules.
+But that, folks, is getting way ahead of this still dysfunctional process. Headed into the weekend, the sides only had a body of incomplete work and not a single bargaining session scheduled on the calendar. By the hour, despite being far closer to a deal than they ever were during the lost season of 2004-05, this season creeps ever closer to being scrubbed.
+Perhaps most striking of all is that the most progress over the five months was made when both Bettman and Fehr stayed out of the room. No matter which side of the aisle one were on, that should be of significant concern. Leaders lead from the front, not the back. Both men are paid millions for their wisdom, guile, and in moments like this, simple ability to horsetrade. At this hour, they’ve both come up shockingly short of their job descriptions and their paychecks. If they wore uniforms with numbers on their backs, we’d be booing them straight out of town.
+Well represented
+GM checks in on prospects
+The World Junior Championship begins Wednesday in Ufa, Russia, and the Bruins have five prospects suiting up for various countries. The potential showstopper is Malcolm Subban, Boston’s top draft pick in June and likely Team Canada’s No. 1 puck-stopper for the 11-day tournament.
+“He’s had a great year,’’ said Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli. “His body of work speaks for itself, but in the last month he’s really stepped up. He’s really worked on his nutrition and that stuff, which wasn’t bad by any means, but we felt he could improve there.’’
+Subban, younger brother of Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban, was the 24th overall pick.
+“Tremendous lower-body power,’’ noted Chiarelli. “I saw him prior to a game in Halifax this year, just warming up outside the room as guys were playing soccer. He was warming up with these long strides and power lunges . . . and you see it when he’s in the net, just lightning fast from post to post.’’
+The Canadians also will be led by defenseman Dougie Hamilton, selected No. 9 overall by the Bruins in 2011. Featured in the Globe on Friday, Hamilton has a shot to make the Boston roster this year if the league gets back in business. Although Chiarelli cautions that the transition can be difficult, as it was the first year for rising star Tyler Seguin.
+“Yeah, because Seguin, you know, he had warts to start, too, and he is still working through those and he’s doing a good job with it,” said Chiarelli. “But it’s a man’s game. They are strong men playing this game. To come in as a young man, it can be humbling. You don’t want to over-tout somebody. We felt really good with Seguin and I feel really good with Dougie . . . but, you know, he’ll have an adjustment period on the speed and size of the guys.’’
+Chiarelli on the Bruins’ other prospects in the tourney:
+Anthony Camara (LW, Canada) — “I’ve seen him score some terrific goals by coming off the wing and driving the net. And he can agitate. He’s had a terrific year, and earned that spot. He played very well at [Team Canada’s camp] in Calgary. I’m not sure how much you’ll see him because he’s on the fourth line. But he will cause some disturbances with his skating, too. I’m happy he made the team. Knew he would be invited. But he’s had a good camp.’’
+Matt Grzelcyk (D, US) — “Going into the US camp he had real competition for the left-side, left-shooting defenseman spot. I’ve seen him play with BU three or four times this year and twice he was the best player on the ice.’’
+Alexander Khokhlachev (C, Russia) — “I sam him play a game in Sarnia [Ontario] with the Russian team and he must have blocked five shots. Played on their top line with [Nail] Yakupov [the Oilers’ No. 1 overall pick this year). And one of the shots he blocked was at the end of the game when they were up a goal. Took the shot off his face, and everyone thought maybe he broke his jaw or at least had a concussion. But he was fine, luckily. He’ll center their top line and I’d expect good things from him.’’
+ETC.
+Picture didn’t stay in Vegas
+Time for some of these guys to find a hobby. Winnipeg forward Evander Kane, with some idle hours in Vegas, posted a picture on Twitter that had him pretending to make a call to boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. The shot depicted Kane with stacks of dollars fashioned into a make-believe cellphone. Why not? In September, the kid signed a new deal with the Jets worth $31.5 million over six years. He’s young (21), talented, rich, and can call whomever he wants, but you can’t coach intelligence. With the league locked out, and lots of non-millionaires unable to work their NHL-related jobs, not a look that really worked. Brought to his senses, Kane quickly issued an apology.
+Loose pucks
+On Jan. 22, 1995, the Bruins’ opening game out of the NHL’s first lockout, Cam Neely posted a hat trick in a 4-1 win over the Flyers. It was also the start of the final season at the old Garden, with what was intended to be called the Shawmut Center being built within 9 inches of the old building’s back wall . . . The Devils defeated the Red Wings to win the ’95 Stanley Cup. Despite what some fans may think, there’s no asterisk on the Cup title. If the NHL and players can cobble together a new CBA, the focus will be what it always is— the playoffs and the Cup . . . Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli said he was disappointed that right wing Seth Griffith, Boston’s fifth-round pick in this year’s draft, was not invited to Team Canada’s camp for the World Juniors. “He’s been second or third in OHL scoring,’’ said Chiarelli. “But Canada divided their forwards into top six and bottom six, and they just didn’t feel he fit their bottom six. That’s the way it was explained to me and I accept it.” Headed into weekend play, Griffith had 58 points in 36 games with Dale Hunter’s London Knights . . . Bruins blue liner Johnny Boychuk remains with Red Bull Salzburg in Austria, but the club that brought Boston Marty Turco to the rescue (sort of) late last season has had trouble keeping NHLers in town. Last week, Blue Jacket Derick Brassard packed and left. Earlier, Tobias Enstrom and David Clarkson did the same. Meanwhile, Johnny Rocket has 5 points in eight games . . . At last look, Tyler Seguin’s numbers with Biel, Switzerland: 27 games with 24 goals and 38 points. That is a 115-point pace over an 82-game season . . . Welcome to the rink and Merry Christmas, Edison Anthony Shinzawa, born on Tuesday and said already to have treated sister Hannah and brother Wright to a stick salute.
+Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at dupont@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeKPD. Material from interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.
+FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF FAST DISSOLVING TABLETS OF AMLODIPINE BESYLATE BY USING HIBISCUS ROSA – SINENSIS MUCILAGE AND MODIFIED GUM KARAYAHTML Full Text
+FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF FAST DISSOLVING TABLETS OF AMLODIPINE BESYLATE BY USING HIBISCUS ROSA – SINENSIS MUCILAGE AND MODIFIED GUM KARAYA
+Sudheshnababu Sukhavasi* and V. Sai Kishore
+Department of Pharmaceutics, Bapatla College of Pharmacy, Bapatla-522101, Andhra Pradesh, India
+ABSTRACT
+In the present study, natural gums (Hibiscus rosa – sinensis mucilage and Modified gum karaya) was investigated as superdisintegrants for use in fast dissolving tablet formulations containing amlodipine besylate. Fast dissolving tablets of amlodipine besylate was formulated using different concentrations (2, 4, 6, 8, 10) of natural superdisintegrant viz; Hibiscus Rosa – sinensis mucilage and modified gum karaya. Prepared tablets were evaluated for thickness, hardness, friability, uniformity of weight, disintegration time, wetting time and dissolution study. The formulated tablets had good appearance and better drug release properties. The best formulation of Hibiscus rosa – sinensis mucilage (FHR5) and modified gum karaya (FMGK5) shows shorter disintegration time and shows 100% release is selected as optimized formulation. Hence, the present study revealed that this natural superdisintegrants (Hibiscus rosa – sinensis mucilage and modified gum karaya) showed better disintegrating property than the most widely used synthetic superdisintegrants. Studies showed that naturally obtained polymers are more beneficial without any side effects. Optimized formulation was subjected to stability studies as per ICH guidelines and it insignificant change in hardness, disintegration time and in vitro drug release.
+Disintegration time
+INTRODUCTION: 1-2.
+Fast dissolving drug delivery is rapidly gaining acceptance as an important new drug delivery technology. Fast dissolving formulation is popular as Novel Drug Delivery Systems because they are easy to administer and lead to better patient compliance. Paediatric and geriatric patient have difficulty in swallowing the conventional dosage forms these dosage forms dissolve or disintegrate in the oral cavity within a minute without the need of water or chewing.
+Fast dissolving tablets are also called as mouth-dissolving tablets, melt-in mouth tablets, Orodispersible tablets, rapimelts, porous tablets, quick dissolving etc. The advantages of fast dissolving dosage forms are increasingly being recognized in both industry and academia. The fast disintegrating tablets prepared by direct compression method, in general, are based on the action established by natural and synthetic superdisintegrants 3-6.
+Plant products serve as an alternative to synthetic products because of local accessibility, environment friendly nature and lower prices compared to imported synthetic products. Majority of investigations on natural polymers in drug delivery systems are centered on polysaccharides and proteins. Number of natural, synthetic and semi synthetic polymer materials is used in the various drug delivery systems. Recent trend towards the use of vegetable and non-toxic products demands the replacement of synthetic additives with natural one. The natural materials like gums, mucilages have been extensively used in the field of drug delivery for their easy availability and no side effects 7.
+In this study, natural substances like Hibiscus rosa – sinensis mucilage and modified gum karaya were used as superdisintegrants in the formulation of amlodipine besylate fast dissolving tablets.
+MATERIALS AND METHODS:
+Materials: Amlodipine besylate was received as a gift sample from ORCHID PHARMACEUTICALS. Hibiscus rosa – sinensis mucilage was obtained from local market. Mannitol, Magnesium stearate, Talc was obtained from S.D. FINE chemicals, Mumbai.
+Methods:
+Extraction of mucilage from Hibiscus rosa - sinensis: The fresh leaves of Hibiscus rosa - sinensis Linn. were collected, washed with water to remove dirt and debris, and dried. The powdered leaves were soaked in water for 5 6 h, boiled for 30 min, and kept aside for 1 h for complete release of the mucilage into water . The material was squeezed from an eight fold muslin cloth bag to remove the marc from the solution. Acetone was added to the filtrate to precipitate the mucilage in a quantity of three times the volume of the total filtrate. The mucilage was separated, dried in an oven at a temperature < 50oC, collected, dried powdered, passed through a sieve (number 80) , and stored for further use in desiccators 8.
+Preparation of modified gum karaya: Powdered gum was taken in a porcelain bowl and subjected of heating using sand bath for different time periods at different temperatures. The results of swelling capacity and viscosity studies revealed that the modified forms possessed swelling property similar to GK, but viscosity was decreased as a function of temperature and time period of heating. However, it was observed that GK samples were charred, when heated at 140oC. In the preparation of modified form of GK, no further change in viscosity of GK was observed by heating it at 120oC for more than 2h. Hence, these conditions of heating at 120oC for 2h were selected to prepare modified form of GK. The prepared modified form of GK was finally re-sieved (100 mesh) and stored in airtight container at 25oC 9.
+Standard calibration curve: Solutions ranging from 2 to 10µg/ml were prepared in 0.1N Hcl buffer (pH 1.2 fluid). Absorbance was measured for each solution at λmax of 361 nm, using Schimadzu UV spectrophoto-meter.
+Drug-excipient compatibility study by IR spectroscopy: The physico-chemical compatibility between Amlodipine besylate and the excipients used in the research was tested by IR spectroscopy using Perkin Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrophotometer. The samples were scanned under diffuse reflectance mold and graph was plotted by KBr pellet technique. The spectra were recorded in the wave number region between 4400cm-1 to 400cm-1. The individual spectra obtained for Amlodipine besylate, excipients were compared with the spectra of the physical mixture of Amlodipine besylate and excipients.
+Preparation of Fast Dissolving Tablets of Amlodipine Besylate: Fast dissolving tablets of amlodipine besylate was prepared by direct compression method. The drug and excipients were passed through sieve no.80 to ensure better mixing, natural superdisintegrants Hibiscus rosa – sinensis mucilage and Modified gum karaya were used in different proportions. The powders were compressed into tablets on tablet punching machine using 9mm punch and weight of the tablet is 200mg (Table 1).
+TABLE 1: COMPOSITION OF AMLODIPINE BESYLATE FAST DISSOLVING TABLETS
+EVALUATION:
+- Precompression Parameters:
+- Angle of Repose (θ): The friction forces in a loose powder can be measured by the angle of repose (θ)..
+- Bulk Density (Db): It is the ratio of total mass of powder to the bulk volume of powder. It will be measured by pouring the weight powder (passed through standard sieve # 20) into a measuring cylinder and initial weight will be noted.This initial volume is called the bulk volume. From this the bulk density will will be measured by tapping the powder for 750 times and the tapped volume will be noted, if the difference between these two volumes is less than 2%. If it is more than 2%, tapping will be continued for 1250 times and tapped volume will be noted. Tapping will be continued until the difference between successive volumes is less than 2 % (in a bulk density apparatus). It is expressed in g/ml and is given by,
+Dt = M / Vt
+Where, M is the mass of powder, Vt is the tapped volume of the powder.
+Powder Flow Properties: The flow properties were determined by;
+- Carr’s index (or) % compressibility: It indicates powder flow properties. It is expressed in percentage and is given by.
+I = Dt – Db / Dt × 100
+Where, Dt is the tapped density of the powder and Db is the bulk density of the powder.
+- Hausner’s Ratio: Hausner’s ratio is an indirect index of ease of powder flow. It is calculated by the following
+Hausner’s ratio = Dt / Db
+Where, Dt is the tapped density, Db is the bulk density.
+Lower Hausner’s ratio (<1.25) indicates better flow properties than higher ones (>1.25).
+- Postcompression parameters:
+- Thickness: Thickness will be measured by using Vernier callipers.
+- Hardness: The hardness of tablet will be measured by Monsanto hardness tester. The hardness is measured in terms of kg/cm2.
+- Drug content: Twenty tablets were powdered, and 10 mg equivalent weight of Amlodipine besylate in tablet powder was accurately weighed and transferred into a 100 ml volumetric flask. Initially, 5 ml methanol was added and shaken for 10 min. Then, the volume was made up to 100 ml with 0.1N Hcl buffer. The solution in the volumetric flask was filtered, diluted suitably and analyzed spectrophotometrically at 361 nm.
+- Uniformity of Weight: Twenty tablets were randomly selected from each formulation, individually weighed, the average weight and standard deviation was calculated.
+- Friability: Roche Friabilator was used to determine the friability. Pre weighed tablets were placed in Friabilator and rotated at a speed of 25 rpm for 4 minutes or up to 100 revolutions. The tablets are dropped from a distance of 6 inches in each revolution. The tablets were then reweighed after removal of fines and the percentage of weight loss was calculated.
+%Friability= Initial weight – Final weight X 100
+Initial weight
+- Wetting Time and Water Absorption Ratio: A piece of paper folded twice was kept in a Petri dish containing 6 ml of purified water. A tablet having a small amount of Rosaline dye powder on the upper surface was placed on the tissue paper. The time required to develop a red colour on the upper surface of the tablet was recorded as the wetting time. Test was done with the same procedure as that of wetting time. In this test initial weight of tablet was taken before placing on petri dish. After complete wetting the wetted tablet was then weighed. Water absorption ratio, R was determined using the equation:
+R = [(Wb – Wa)/Wb] × 100
+Where, Wa and Wb were the weights of the tablet before and after water absorption.
+- In vitro Dispersion Time: Tablet was added to 10 ml of phosphate buffer solution pH 6.8 (pH of saliva) at 37± 0.5°C. Time required for complete dispersion of tablet was measured.
+- In vitro Disintegration Test: The disintegration time was measured using disintegration test apparatus. One tablet was placed in each tube of the basket. The basket with the bottom surface made of a stainless-steel screen (mesh no.10) was immersed in water bah a 37 ± 2o The time required for complete disintegration of the tablet in each tube was determined using a stop watch. To be complied with the pharmacological standards, dispersible tablets must disintegrate within 3min when examined by the disintegration test for tablets.
+- In-vitro Dissolution Study: The release rate Amlodipine Besylate from fast dissolving tablets is determined using United State Pharmacopoeia (USP) XXIV dissolution testing apparatus II (paddle method). The dissolution test will be performed using 900 ml of pH 1.2 buffer(0.1N Hcl buffer), at 37± 0.50C and 50 rpm. A sample (5 ml) of the solution is withdrawn from the dissolution apparatus at regular intervals for 10 min. The samples are replaced with fresh dissolution medium of same quantity. The samples are filtered through a 0.45ì membrane filter. Absorbance of these solutions is measured at 361 nm using a Shimadzu UV/Vis double beam spectrophotometer. Cumulative percentage of drug release is calculated using an Equation obtained from a standard curve 10-12.
+- Stability Studies: The stability study of the tablets will be carried out according to ICH guidelines by storing tablets in stability chamber at 25±20oC / 60±5% RH and 40±20oC/75±5% RH for 3 months. The effects of temperature and time on the physical characteristics of the tablet are evaluated for assessing the stability of the prepared formulations. The different parameters that are to be studied are disintegration time, hardness, friability, drug content and dissolution rate 13.
+RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Fast dissolving tablets acts as a major role to eradicate different types of circumstantial attacks of various diseases in the market. Fast dissolving tablets are also called as mouth-dissolving tablets, melt-in mouth tablets, Orodispersible tablets, rapimelts, porous tablets, quick dissolving etc. Many patients, especially elderly find it difficult in swallowing tablets, capsules, fluids and thus do not comply with prescription, which results in high incidence of non-compliance oriented research has resulted in bringing out many safer and newer drug delivery systems. Significance of this drug delivery system includes ease administration, improved patient compliance, rapid onset of action and may offer an improved bioavailability, ideal for pediatric and geriatric patients and rapid onset of action.
+Fast dissolving tablets of amlodipine besylate were prepared by adding natural superdisintegrating agents i.e. Hibiscus rosa – sinensis mucilage and Modified gum karaya.
+IR spectra of Amlodipine besylate and its physical mixture with formulation excipients were determined using FT-IR. And found, there is no interaction between the drug and excipients (Fig. 1, 2, 3).
+FIG 1: IR SPECTRUM OF AMLODIPINE BESYLATE
+FIG 2: IR SPECTRUM OF DRUG + HIBISCUS ROSA – SINENSIS MUCILAGE
+FIG 3: IR SPECTRUM OF DRUG + MODIFIED GUM KARAYA
+The pre-compression parameters of all the formulations were depicted in the table 2. The angle of repose, bulk density, tapped density, Carr’s index and Hausner’s ratio shows good flowability in almost all the formulations resulting suitable for the preparation of Fast dissolving tablets.
+The prepared tablets were evaluated for different parameters and results were depicted below.
+TABLE 2: EVALUATION PARAMETERS OF AMLODIPINE BESYLATE FAST DISSOLVING TABLETS
+Thickness of the formulations FHR1 to FHR5 varied from 2.81±0.32 to 3.01±0.85 mm while of formulations FMGK1 to FMGK5 showed from 2.83±0.55 to 3.2±0.98 mm respectively. The hardness was uniformly maintained and it was found to be within 2.7±0.32 to 3.51±0.51kg/cm2. Percent friability was less than 1% in the entire formulations and the values obtained lies within 0.22±0.12 to 0.83 + 0.09 and found within the range only. The percentage weight variation for all the formulations are tabulated in Table 2. All the tablets passed weight variation test as the % weight variation was within the pharmacopoeial limits of ±7.5%. The percentage drug content of all the tablets was found to be between 99.31±0.41 to 101.31±0.25, which was within the acceptable limits.
+Tablets from each batch show immediate disintegration. Disintegration time decreases with increase in concentration of the disintegrants. Disintegration time was given in table 2. The rapid disintegration was seen in the formulation FHR5 containing Hibiscus rosa – sinensis mucilage as superdisintegrating agent. This is due to the rapid uptake of water from the medium, swelling and burst effect. Formulation FMGK5 of Modified gum karaya also shows rapid disintegration. As the concentration increases, the disintegration time decreases profoundly.
+The wetting time was rapid in all the formulations. Wetting is closely related to inner structure of tablets. This may be due to ability of swelling and also capacity of absorption of water. The results were depicted in the table 2. The water absorption ratio that is the uptaking of water was very fast and which that ratio found higher.
+Dissolution profile of the formulations FHR1, FHR2, FHR3, FHR4, FHR5 and formulations FMGK1, FMGK 2, FMGK 3, FMGK 4, and FMGK 5 is shown in Figure 4 & 5. As the concentration of the polymer increased there was decrease in the disintegration time and increase in dissolution of drug. 90% of the drug was released from the all the formulations within 15 minutes.
+From drug release, it was observed that increase in concentration of superdisintegrant increases the drug release. Therefore formulation FHR5 and FMGK5 was selected as the optimized formulation as it showed good release, good wetting property and good precompression and good post compression results. From the values obtained, it is proved that all the formulations FHR1 to FHR5 and FMGK1 to FMGK5 dissolution (release) of the drugs follows first order.
+FIG. 4: DISSOLUTION PROFILE OF H R FORMULATION
+FIG. 5: DISSOLUTION PROFILE OF MGK FORMULATION
+FIG. 6: DISSOLUTION PROFILE OF OPTIMIZED FORMULATIONS
+The optimized formulations FHR5 and FMGK5 were kept for accelerated stability and monitored for appearance, hardness, friability, drug content, in vitro dispersion time, wetting time and dissolution profile study and found to stable for all the different parameters (Fig. 6).
+REFERENCES:
+- Vineet Bhardwaj, Mayank Bansal and P.K. Sharma “Formulation and Evaluation of Fast Dissolving Tablets of Amlodipine Besylate Using Different Super Disintegrants and Camphor as Sublimating Agent” American-Eurasian Journal of Scientific Research 2010; 5 (4): 264-269.
+- Vineet Bhardwaj*, Vikesh Shukla, Narendra Goyal, Md Salim, PK Sharma “formulation and evaluation of fast disintegrating sublingual tablets of amlodipine besylate using different superdisintegrants” international journal of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences, 2010; vol 2(3), 82-89.
+- Chang RK, Guo X, Burnside B, Couch R. Fast dissolving tablets. Pharm Technol 2000; 24:52-8.
+- Bandari S, Mittapalli RK, Gannu R, Rao YM. Orodispersible tablets: An overview. Asian J Pharm. 2008; 2 Suppl 1:2-11.
+- Seager H. Drug delivery products and the zydis fast dissolving dosage forms, J Pharm Pharmacol 1998; 50 Suppl 4:375-82.
+- Masareddy, R.S., R.V. Kadia and F.V. Manvi. Development of mouth dissolving tablets of Clozapine using two different techniques. Indian J. Pharm. Sci., 2008;70(4): 526-8
+- Bharadia PD, Patel MM, Patel GC, Patel GN. “A preliminary investigation on sesbania gum as a Pharmaceutical Excipient”, Int J Pharma Excip., 2004; 3:99-102.
+- Halakatti Prabhu K, Omer Shaista, Gulgannavar Rajanna S, Patwari Pranesh K. Formulation And Evaluation Of Mouth Disintegrating Tablets Of Famotidine By Using Hibiscus rosa- sinensis Mucilage And Treated Agar. International Journal of Research in Ayurveda & Pharmacy. 1 (2); 2010: 497 – 505.
+- Murali Mohan Babu G.V, Prasad Ch. D.S, Ramana Murthy K.V. Evaluation of Modified Gum Karaya as Carrier for the Dissolution Enhancement of Poorly Water-Soluble Drug Nimodipine. International Journal of Pharmaceutics 2002. 234; 1-17.
+- Chowdary KP, Hemavathy R. Formulation and dissolution rate studies on dispersible tablets of ibuprofen. Indian J Pharm Sci. 2000; 63: 213-16.
+- Rizk S. Investigation on a new modified USP Xanthan with tablet disintegration properties. Drug Dev Ind Pharm 1997; 23: 19-26.
+- Mishra DN, Bindal M, Singh SK, Kumar SGV. Rapidly disintegrating oral tablets of Meloxicam. Indian Drugs. 2005; 42 Suppl 10: 685-87.
+- Natalie MC. Stability studies in overview of ICH Guidelines for Drug Products. Matrix Pharmaceutical Inc 1997.
+How to cite this article:
+SukhavasiS and Kishore VS: Formulation and Evaluation of Fast Dissolving Tablets of Amlodipine Besylate by Using Hibiscus rosa – sinensis Mucilage And Modified Gum Karaya .Int J Pharm Sci Res. 3(10); 3975-3982
+Article Information
+64
+3975-3982
+902KB
+876
+Ijpsr
+Sudheshnababu Sukhavasi* and V. Sai Kishore
+Department of Pharmaceutics, Bapatla College of Pharmacy, Bapatla-522101, Andhra Pradesh, India
+sudheshnababu@yahoo.com
+16 June, 2012
+18 August, 2012
+26 September, 2012
+01 October, 2012
+What’s really hiding in your deodorant? Find out how (and why) to switch to a non-toxic deodorant, with a simple homemade recipe and the safer alternatives you can find at the store!
+You know what stinks?
+Body odour.
+Body odour is not cool. No matter who you are. Smelly armpits and the resulting assault on the noses of those around you is definitely not cool.
+But you know what’s even worse?
+The dozens of harmful ingredients hiding in your conventional deodorant and anti-perspirant.
+Because that stuff? Can be pretty offensive as well.
+But before we go any further, we need to understand the difference between ‘deodorant’ and ‘anti-perspirant’.
+Deodorant means to “remove odours,” and anti-perspirant just means to “prevent perspiration or sweating.” Most conventional deodorants are actually a combination of these two products.
+However, have you ever stopped to think about why we’re all ok with the idea of preventing our bodies from sweating in the first place?
+Our bodies need to sweat!
+That’s right! Sweat is a natural bodily function. It regulates your body temperature, cleans your pores, and even helps to release toxins from your body.
+Sweat is also odorless and only takes on a smell when it mixes with the natural bacterial flora that’s on your skin. (Hint: A healthy diet with lots of probiotics and fermented foods can help balance that flora.)
+Did you know the average person has something like 2 MILLION sweat glands?
+When anti-perspirants are applied to the skin, they dissolve in your sweat and form a gel which sits on your skin and temporarily “plugs” your pores, blocking your sweat glands and preventing them from sweating.
+I don’t know about you, but I’m not comfortable with the idea of preventing my body from doing something that helps it to naturally regulate itself.
+So what’s up with those harmful ingredients?
+Depending on the brand of your deodorant, you may or may not even find a complete ingredients list on the back of the container. (The Household Products Database, from the National Library of Medicine, can help you track down a complete list of ingredients for most deodorants.)
+Photo courtesy: Clean Wal-Mart on Flickr
+So these are the main ingredients that I’m extra cautious about:
+Aluminum
+This is the main anti-perspirant ingredient, so it’s sole function is to stop sweat from reaching the surface of your skin.
+Aluminum accumulates in breast tissue, and researchers have found significantly higher aluminum content – particularly in the underarm region – in breast tissue of women with breast cancer (as compared to a control group of women without breast cancer). Because sweating helps remove aluminum from the body, the use of anti-perspirants prevents aluminum from being properly excreted from the body, leading to further accumulation. (source)
+Aluminum can also interfere with estrogen receptors in breast cancer cells, which is pretty concerning because estrogen plays a well-known role in breast cancer. (source)
+At the same time, however, a review of all studies that explored the connection between breast cancer risk and anti-perspirant use has come up short. The research seems to be inconclusive at best; it’s not a definite ‘yes,’ but it’s not a definite ‘no’ either. (source)
+Propylene Glycol
+Propylene glycol is a liquid that absorbs water (i.e.: your sweat) and maintains moisture. It’s also a penetration enhancer, which means it helps other chemicals enter the body more easily. Frequent exposure to propylene glycol can lead to skin irritation, especially for those with sensitive skin. (source)
+Fragrance
+This one is always fun to discuss because this term is so perfectly ambiguous, that manufacturers can put it on a label to describe any number of the more than 3,000 different chemicals that are known to be used in fragrance compounds!
+Most cosmetic and personal care products have this “ingredient” listed on their label; it might also be called parfum, perfume, or aroma.
+Artificial fragrances are well known now for being linked to a long list of health problems like allergies, chemical sensitivities, and reproductive and developmental issues. (source)
+What’s the solution?
+We’ve only discussed three ingredients here, but these alone should have you at least thinking about considering a safer alternative to your current deodorant.
+The good news is you’ve got options!
+Personally, I make my own deodorant at home with just a few simple ingredients.
+There’s no shortage of non-toxic deodorant recipes all over the internet. But for me, I knew I didn’t want to use a recipe that involved cooking the ingredients on the stove. Call me lazy, but I just wanted something that I could mix up quickly and use right away.
+Over the years, I’ve tweaked the recipe to my liking, and here’s what I use now.
+Non-Toxic Deodorant Recipe
+Surprisingly, it’s very easy to make yourself a non-toxic deodorant that actually works. So easy, in fact, that you can make it and use it in just about 5 minutes.
+This recipe requires no cooking, no waiting, and no cooling. Just mix it up, and you’re done.
+You need just four, simple ingredients:
+- coconut oil (skin-soothing) – buy it here
+- baking soda (odor fighting) – buy it here
+- arrowroot powder (wetness protection) – buy it here (or you can use cornstarch)
+- essential oils (optional, but highly recommended) – buy from Plant Therapy
+For the essential oils, I like to use lavender and rosemary (for the nice scent), and also tea tree oil (because it’s anti-bacterial), but you can use whatever scents you like. Vanilla, sage, bergamot, lime, and calendula are all great options.
+NOTE: Tea tree oil is a must for me. I’ve made the deodorant without tea tree before when I’d run out of it, and it just did not control odours very well for me. I later learned that the odour in our sweat is actually related to the bacteria in our body. So regardless of what other oils you use for scent, add a few drops of tea tree oil for odour protection and anti-bacterial action.
+Homemade Non-Toxic Deodorant
+Ingredients
+- 1/4 cup baking soda
+- 1/4 cup arrowroot powder ( or you can also use cornstarch)
+- 4-6 tablespoons coconut oil
+- 10-12 drops essential oil
+- An empty, clean deodorant stick or a glass jar with lid
+Instructions
+-, and add more. When it’s full, smooth the top with the back of a spoon.
+- Store in fridge to prevent melting.
+- Alternately, you can just store it in a glass jar on your counter and apply with fingertips.
+Notes
+Now you have 2 options for storage.
+Option 1: In the Fridge
+The first, which is what I do, is to spoon the mixture into an old, cleaned out deodorant stick. Just keep twisting it down, then spooning the mixture in, then twisting it down again, until it’s all in. Then just smooth out the top.
+… 😉
+Option 2: In the Bathroom
+Your other option is to just keep it in a small glass jar in your bathroom and apply it with your fingertips. You can also use a wooden craft stick or small wooden spoon. Not my preferred method at home, but a good option for travelling.
+Ready to make the switch? Read this first!
+Here’s something most people don’t talk about when it comes to switching to a non-toxic deodorant. If you’ve been using conventional aluminum-based anti-perspirants until now, and you want to switch to something without aluminum, your underarms will most likely go through a “detoxing” period.
+Your body will need some time to transition to your new deodorant, during which you may experience more odour/stink/funk. This is a normal process and shouldn’t last more than a couple weeks, although it’s different for everyone.
+Just push through this necessary period, do what you gotta do to stay fresh, and don’t give up! Once you’ve gotten over this hump, you’ll feel much better.
+A note for shaved underarms:
+Because shaving causes your hair follicles to temporarily become inflamed, applying any deodorant right after shaving is usually not a good idea. Even this homemade version can cause some irritation.
+So for the first day after shaving, if I’m staying home, I usually don’t put any deodorant. But if I’m going out, I just rub some coconut oil under my arms to help soothe the area and provide at least some odour protection. At the very least, you should wait a few hours after shaving before applying your deodorant.
+Another note on baking soda:
+Baking soda can be irritating for some people, and might cause redness, rash, or other skin issues. Because every body is different, with different skin types, and different chemistry, each body will react differently to the same product. friend who makes and sells her own products that might help point you in the right direction.
+All that being said, most other recipes you’ll find online require cooking/melting the ingredients together on the stove in a double boiler, which is different than the one shared here which requires no cooking at all.
+Where to buy essential oils
+You can find essential oils at any health food store that sells natural and organic products. My favourite and recommended brands are Plant Therapy.
+Not ready for the DIY?
+That’s cool. I feel you.
+Sometimes the whole keep-your-deodorant-in-the fridge thing can get kinda old. But when it really gets annoying? Whenever I need to travel! The softer consistency of this deodorant when at room temperature definitely makes it non-travel friendly.
+So what’s a girl to do? I used to make a small batch and keep it in a small glass jar with a tight lid, and just take that with me on my travels.
+And that works fine, but I still really miss the ease of the deodorant stick, without having to dip my fingers into a jar.
+But I finally – FINALLY! – found a store-bought deodorant with ingredients I can trust, and most importantly, it actually works!
+Schmidt’s deodorant is now my #1 most favourite and recommended non-toxic deodorant that you can buy either online or at most natural health food stores.
+Other options at the store/online:
+I’ve tried quite a few non-toxic deodorants before deciding to make my own (and eventually finding Schmidt’s). Most of them left me feeling too wet, or they didn’t last all day so I had to keep reapplying.
+That being said, I have found a few new brands with great ingredients and even better online reviews. I haven’t personally tried these, but this is the list of brands that I would feel comfortable with trying in the future:
+84 Comments
+I rate this recipe with a 5 if I can use a different carrier than coconut oil. I’m allergic to coconut oil. It causes my body to sweat excessively trying to rid my body of that toxin.
+Please let me know of another carrier that will work & I’ll gladly make/use this recipe!
+Oh no, so sorry you have issues with coconut oil. I know it doesn’t work for everyone. This specific recipe only works with coconut oil as it can stay fairly semi-solid at room temperature. Have you found a store-bought option that works for you instead maybe?
+I have been using milk of magnesia as a deodorant. The cheaper the better because we want the basic one with just magnesium and water. No sugar or flavor added. Shake well and rub on underarms, with cotton ball and let dry for few seconds. It also works really well to first let It thicken a few days on the counter in an open jar (evaporates the water). How does it work? Magnesium is a mineral so will not accumulate in your body Like aluminium and it is actually something your body can use. However when spread on the skin it does the job of preventing bacteria to develop in your armpit which is the cause of smell. You can scent it with essential oils if desired. Works wonders!!!
+My sister used to need prescription strength antiperspirant (really high amounts of aluminium) and now she swears by the milk of magnesia solution.
+Wow, I’ve never heard of this before! Thanks for sharing, Genevieve!
+Hi Sarah. As the others here, I share the desire to live a non-toxic life in a non-toxic home and that is why I am inclined to speak up and share something that I’ve recently discovered. I found a non-toxic external probiotic deodorant. I sprayed it on and said goodbye to rashy, burnt and sensitive underarms.
+Thanks for recommendation, Harish. I’ll have to check that out! Wish I could see the ingredients list though.
+Hi Sarah,
+Thank you for this info and recipe for toxic deodorant. May I ask if this DIY Deo can darken underarms? Most of the time I use lemon just scrub it on my underarm but it irrirate my skin and it darken more. Does it shows when we are wearing black clothes? By the way, your homemade cleaner like room spray is great and I’ve shared it to my mates at work. Thank you and stay cool bye.
+Your follower from Downunder,
+Grace
+Thanks, Grace! I haven’t had issues with darkening underarms, but that could just be my specific skin. I do believe some people can be sensitive to baking soda, so if you’ve had darkening in the past, I would probably not use this recipe. Also, if you use too much, it can show when wearing darker clothing. But I only use one swipe, which is enough, and I don’t have this problem.
+It works to use a lemon or lime wedge or juice. But ouch if you shave that day
+For years I’ve used hoist baking soda o my pits and it’s works so great. I’m careful not to rub it on, just pat it on. Cheap too.
+I can’t even do that 😭 i used it in my shoes once just sprinkled some in let it sit overnight and tapped it out and it made my feet dry completly out , they got so red and my skin cracked and inflamed so bad it was scary , and i have slightly sensitive skin but i will Always stay away from using baking soda on my skin. Thats great that it works for you tho!!
+I’m so sorry to hear that, Catherine, that’s gotta be rough!
+Awesome info! I’ve wanted so much to be rid of the usual deodorant/antiperspirant for some time but never had much luck with the natural types I’ve found. This recipe is definitely a keeper.
+Yay! I’m glad!
+Hello friend, great post!! I just recently made the switch myself (about 2 months ago) and I plan on making my own from now on but also wanted to have a pre-made (by someone else haha!) deodorant ready in case I ran out & didn’t have time to make a batch or what not. I checked out my local grocery store and they had the Schmidt’s Rose Vanilla deodorant on sale and OH MY GOSH it is AMAZING! I actually look forward to using it because it smells so good. They are pretty pricey (I saw on Amazon the same one for about $12, luckily my store had it on sale for about $8 I believe.) At first I did think this was ridiculous BUT I do have to say since these are not like regular deodorant you only need a teeny tiny amount. A few tips for any newbies to a butter-based deodorant like Schmidt’s that contain Shea Butter or Mango Butter etc. If it doesn’t seem to be applying well you want to think of it like you would a homemade batch of lotion bars. You have to put them on your skin & allow your body heat to melt the bar onto your skin right? Same for deodorants with butters. I didn’t realize this and found greasy stains all over my shirt lol. It came out very easily in the wash though luckily. Simply put the deodorant to your arm pit & leave it there for a moment until it glides smoothly on, also as I said you just need enough to thinly cover the surface area. Don’t go slathering it on (even though it feels great & you’ll want to!) So the $8 is justified I decided to have a fantastic scent that I can’t make at home (vanilla essential oil and rose are SO expensive!) And after 2 months of daily use I haven’t even made a dent. It will definitely last at LEAST 2x as long as regular deodorant but I’m guessing longer. I also read Geranium oil is a natural deodorizer so it’s awesome to add to your DIY deodorant if you like a floral scent. I can’t wait to try out this easy recipe!! Thanks so much!
+Tara, I love your enthusiasm! And totally agree with everything you said. Thanks for sharing those helpful tips, and OMG that rose vanilla deodorant is the greatest thing ever! <3
+I’m looking for a deodrant recipe without baking soda because it irritates my daughter’s arm pits and it makes my lymph nodes swell up. I have made deodrant without the baking soda but it doesn’t control odor. Do you have any ideas?
+Lily, totally understand and I know that’s an issue for a lot of people. Have you thought about maybe reducing the baking soda amount? friends who makes and sells her own products that might help point you in the right direction:
+Hope that helps!
+Hi Sarah,
+My wife has a company called Bee Real Products. She makes all natural skincare. Can I send you a sample of her deodorant? Maybe some of her other products? Her website is. Thanks for your time!
+Hey Keith,
+Can you please send me a message through my contact form? Thanks!
+I use Schmidt’s, too! Love their deodorant. Right now, I’m using the Rose and Vanilla. I was using the Charcoal and Magnesium, but I think that’s for men. LOL.
+Lol yay for Schmidt’s! I actually just bought the rose and vanilla – it smells divine!
+That’s interesting, Margie. Thanks for sharing!
+This is so helpful! I’ve never tried using a homemade deodorant, but I’ve tried plain baking soda and it really works!
+Yes, what is a little bit odd to me is keeping the deodorant in the fridge, haha, but I guess once you try it, it won’t feel that awkward. I was wondering, however, why the alternative recipe, the one with shea butter, would be okay to keep outside? Is it the shea butter who prevents it from melting? I can hardly wait to try it out! It would really be a great alternative to the commercial ones, who are harmful 🙁
+Yep, it’s the shea butter which keeps it from melting since shea butter is semi-solid at room temp. You can also add in a little beeswax to make it into a true solid. Good luck!
+I also love putting lemongrass essential oil in mine! It’s great for odors, love this recipe
+Sounds lovely! Will have to try that on time!
+I don’t prefer to use the ready-made items because they are full of chemicals and they leave side effects. I was looking for a deodorant, which I can prepare at home and I am glad that I found the method here.
+Thanks for sharing, I will surely try this!
+Great, best of luck Gloria!
+baking soda alters the PH of your body and breaking out in a rash is very common when using natural deodorants that contain baking soda….keep in mind that baking soda is baking soda. There isn’t one type that is more natural than another. Regardless of the production process, all sodium bicarbonate has the same chemical formula: Na2CO3 + CO2 + H2O → 2 NaHCO3 which is a mined soda ash.
+Even if it starts life as ‘a naturally mined soda ash’, it is NOT milder, gentler, less effective or a different grade of sodium bicarbonate. It has the same properties, the same chemical formula, the same strength, and can therefore be equally damaging.
+Also corn starch is usually made with GMO corn which some people are very sensitive to (like me)
+Most deodorant that is commercially and not naturally produced contains about 1% baking soda. However, most natural deodorants contain 23% or more – the recipe listed here is 33+%. And again, this alters the PH of your body and can cause rashes. I know my rash was epic and I almost went back to commercial deodorant. Then I learned that it’s possible to make natural deodorant without baking soda or arrowroot…..do a google search or PM me.
+This website and blog is amazing! and I’m super glad I found it. But sometimes, you gotta do a little extra research.
+Thanks for your insight, Molly – I really do appreciate it. You are right that you can make deodorant without baking soda or arrowroot, as is demonstrated by the dozens of other recipes out there. This recipe (and variations of it) is unique in that it doesn’t require any cooking/melting, and can be made up and used in about 5 minutes.
+With regards to baking soda’s high pH, you’re right – it can alter the pH of your body, but that also has a lot to do with each individual’s body chemistry and sensitivities. I’m so sorry that you endured such an awful rash, and I’m glad to hear that you’ve found an alternative that works better for your skin type. 🙂
+Hi Molly,
+Can you share your recipe? Does it control oder? I’m sensitive to baking soda but also have an odor issue.
+I am a male, 44, have been using aluminum-free deodorant for at least 3 years now with Tom’s of Maine. Before the switch I never had any trouble with odor under my arms. The Speed Stick brand I used always kept the smell at bay even if “life” prevented me from showering for 2 days I would STILL not have smelly pits. However, since I made the switch to Tom’s of Maine deodorant I am LUCKY if I get 10 hours of stink-free pits! I don’t even have anywhere CLOSE to the amount of physical activity I used to have yet I have this issue.
+If you can offer any suggestions to change the mix so that it will work better or well enough for a MAN’S ph I would appreciate it. Also, most men like the sweet spicy scents like those famous with the “Old Spice” brand. Is there an essential oil that would serve this purpose I could add to the mix and have it be as effective as I need? Men don’t like floral scents so if I/we can stay away from those scents that would be GREAT!! I am all about making my own of as much as possible so I am happy I found this. Thank you for sharing this.
+I totally get what you’re saying, Lee! For manly scent, you could use some clove essential oil, which I hear is pretty great for this. Other ideas are bergamot, ginger, nutmeg, and black pepper. But don’t forget the tea tree oil because that’s the main anti-stink oil. I ran out once and made it without the tea tree – bad idea lol.
+Hi! I love the idea of a more natural deodorant, but I worry that the coconut oil or shea butter will leave oily stains on my clothes. Have you had this problem? Also I’m concerned whether it will really contain my odor. I have VERY stinky armpits that develop strong odor just a couple hours after my shower! I need something STRONG. I think maybe the tea tree oil scent would be best for me, but again I worry about staining my clothes.
+Honestly, I haven’t had any problems with oil stains, but I don’t use too much to begin with – just 2 swipes and that’s it. I also don’t live somewhere that’s excruciatingly hot most of the year, so I’m not dealing with a crazy amount of sweat. I can say that it does work very well with odor, especially if you make sure to use tea tree oil, which helps curb bacteria (the main cause of odor). I ran out of tea tree oil once and decided to make it without it, and I definitely noticed a difference!
+You can purchase new empty deodorant tubs via amazon I did and they work great and no worries about any chemicals from the previous stuff having been in it
+Thanks, William!
+Agreed! Commercial deodorants are more dangerous than homemade ones. Aside from you made it yourself, you know the ingredients used and the health benefits you could get from it. I have been searching for diy recipes and finding your blog is a great answer. Thank you so much!
+Welcome, Lora! And thanks for your comment. 🙂
+Do you have an recommendations on other oils? Looking something for my husband and I don’t he would like lavender.
+Hey Jes, yep I can understand that (although my husband doesn’t mind it all. 🙂
+You can try other oils like sage, any of the citrus oils, any of the spicy oils, etc. Here’s a great post from my friend, Christina, that has a whole list of options for men:
+This works amazingly well! Ive never had a deoderant work so well as this. Seriously. Incredibly effective. I added some cocoa butter to keep it solid at room temp.
+I made this recipe for the stick deodorant and I love it! I reused some deodorant tubes but the little twist up thing isn’t making the deodorant to “twist up” how can I fix this?
+Hi Patricia,
+I’m assuming you’re having trouble with twisting it after it’s already been refrigerated? If it’s too hard and the twisty part isn’t budging, just let it warm up for a few minutes at room temperature until you’re able to twist it. Sometimes it’s a bit difficult to get it started, but once you’ve helped it along it should work find after that. Hope that helps!
+Salam Alikom, and happy ramadan,
+I am very happy to find your web site as I am trying to go natural since I had my first baby , actually I was looking for a natural wood cleaning spray recipe and I ended up here. I will for sure try some of your recipes…they look amazing.
+A little question, is it ok to use any kind of coconut oil or do you recommend an organic one? can’t really find the organic, and the one that costco sells seems good to me.
+Another question Sarah 🙂 , you said I am a teacher but will be homeschooling,…. I didn’t grow up is the US so I have no idea about the education system here, I think that my children will go to public schools, but I just want to have your personal insight on the subject, thank you
+Wa alaikum assalam Mina and Happy Ramadan to you and your family as well! 🙂
+I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying the blog and finding it useful. Mabrook on your first baby as well, I’m expecting our second baby any day now inshallah. 😉
+For the coconut oil, try to get the best quality that you can find. Organic, virgin coconut oil is best. I think I know which one you’re talking about that’s sold at Costco. If that’s all you can find, that should be ok. I use 2 different coconut oils in my home: one is the virgin coconut oil, which has the taste and smell of coconut (I use this for hair and skin, and this deodorant recipe), and the other kind is the cold-pressed oil, which has a neutral scent and taste (I use this one for cooking). For future reference, my favorite coconut oil brand is from Tropical Traditions (they sell both kinds).
+As for the homeschooling question, I’ll go ahead and email you, as it’s a topic that’s outside of the scope of this post. 😉
+Thank you Sarah for the info,
+Eid Mubarak in advance, and best wishes to you and your new baby, congratulations on this new addition to your family .
+Incha Alah every thing will be fine for you both.
+By the way I had my second daughter last January, you can imagine how busy I am with a 2 years , 6 months old).
+I didn’t receive the specific email about home schooling, I guess that you’re busy with Ramadan and getting ready to welcome your baby.
+Take care, fi Aman Allah inchaa Allah.
+I’ve been making my own deodorant with just bicarb and coconut oil since winter and it was the first thing I made of my own in an effort to go natural. I love it, it’s one of my favourite things and I’ll never go back to conventional deo
+That’s great, Selina! Deodorant was one of the very first things I made as well, and I’ve been using it for years!
+I use a piece of lime. cut a piece and rub underarms. Keep in fridge and clearly mark “Do not eat or use”
+Works for me. Have not had irritation or odor from perspiration.
+That’s interesting, Margie. Thanks for sharing!
+This is a great recipe, but… unless you’re buying aluminum-free baking soda (Bob’s Red Mill makes one) you’re still not avoiding the aluminum which seemed to have caused you alarm. Personally, I’m on the fence about the stuff, but I thought I’d share the info since you’re trying to steer clear of it. 🙂
+Hey Katie, thanks for commenting. It’s actually baking POWDER that contains aluminum, not baking soda. I’m not sure where this baking soda-aluminum myth started (Bec I’ve seen it everywhere!), but it’s just not true.
+I do use Bob’s Red Mill for my body care products because it’s all natural and mined right from the ground. For cleaning, though, I just use the cheap Arm and Hammer stuff (which actually goes through a chemical process before it becomes baking soda).
+So if you want to look for “aluminum free” make sure it’s the baking powder you use that has that on the label. 🙂
+Nice! Definitely going to try that!
+And to go along with this, I did a blog on my site about why ‘regular’ deodorants are so harmful and their awful ingredients. Feel free to take a look –
+Thanks Renee! I’ll take a look at it soon and probably add a link to your article at the end of my post. 🙂
+We live in the South. How well do homemade deodorants work in Summer heat & humidity? I’m assuming you’ll get sweat rings on your clothes, so that would be an adjustment, but do you get that chalky residue on sleeveless clothing that you do from many commercial deodorants?
+Hi Mrs. H.C.! I actually grew up in So. Florida, and although I don’t live there anymore, I do visit at least a few times a year; I actually just came back from spending 2 weeks with the family 🙂 The whole time I was there, I used nothing but this homemade deodorant. Although it didn’t completely keep me from sweating (after all, it’s not an antiperspirant), I definitely didn’t smell funky and there was no chalky residue on my shirts either. Keep in mind, when using this, you don’t need the 3-4 swipes that you do with commercial deodorants. Just a quick 1-2 swipes will do. Hope that helps!
+Great! Thanks. 🙂
+Very cool, sarah, thanks for sharing the link with me. If you really find this helps keep the odor at bay Im going to give it a try. I dont like the expensive price of the “all natural” deodorants, and agree with you that they dont always work as well as the conventional brands, BUT I prefer to buy products that do not test on animals (not to mention that dont have all the scary chemicals) so I think I just need to “woman up” and make my own!! Thanks!
+Oh, and do you think you can buy shea butter at the health food store, too? Where would you get that?
+Yep, shea butter, and pretty much EVERYTHING at the health food store.. I LOVE the health food store, can you tell? 🙂
+I wonder if you could melt the ingredients down to eliminate the grainy texture one of the readers mentioned? It might be easier to mix it up this way as well. Then cool slightly before adding to container and refrigerate? Any ideas if this would work or if heating it up would alter the ingredients unfavorably? Thanks! Also, any idea where I could get deodorant bottles (new)? Thanks!
+I’m not sure…the only thing that would really be melted down is the coconut oil. I can’t imagine how baking soda and corn starch would fair and if/how that would alter their composition. In all honesty, I don’t notice the graininess at all – once I rub the stick under my arms, the warmth of the body heat melts it on contact and I don’t feel a thing. If you’re concerned about graininess, I would try adding a little more coconut oil to achieve a smoother consistency. Either that, or to try the alternate recipe at the bottom of the post.
+As far as deodorant tubes, I just did a quick Google search, and found these:
+Hope that helps!
+I was just wondering, if you put a very small amount of paraffin (the kind you make candy with) would it help this stay solid at room temperature? I read what Lynn had said about the two different types of coconut oil, but I was just wondering. (is paraffin one of the things you are trying to avoid?)
+The kind used in candles has been shown to be a carcinogenic. I don’t know about the food grade kind (used in candies, etc.), but either way, it’s a petroleum-based product, which is not environmentally friendly or sustainable. So I would definitely stay away from paraffin.
+Very interested in trying this. I haven’t found a natural deodorant yet that really works, which makes me sad since I love natural and organic products. You really made my day with this recipe. I make soap on the side so curious to see what other butters work with this recipe. Seems like I will be experimenting in the kitchen this week!
+Budget Earth – How to Save Money on Groceries
+Great! I’m always interested in hearing how others have modified the recipe. Please do share your experiments with us 🙂
+I will! It may take me a week to get back since I can’t find any deodorant containers close to empty. I think I can order them from brambleberry or one of my other soap stuff suppliers. So very excited to try this!
+Budget Earth – How to Save Money on Groceries
+Hi Whitney, I’m so sorry you went through that! As I state in the post, some people are sensitive to cron starch and therefore arrowroot powder should be used. But I never heard that the baking soda could also be the culprit. Either way, the recipe is pretty lenient and lends itself very well to alterations. I would keep experimenting to find a mix that works for you. Good luck!
+Hey. So I found you from Pinterest! Super excited to try it out. I made it last night and I am testing it today at work. So far so good. I work in an autoparts store and we’ll be stocking the shelves today. I brought a sample sized version of my normal deodorant just in case but so far so good. 😛
+Oooh, a real live field test! I so want to hear a report back on your experience! 🙂 Glad its working so far!
+Lynn,
+I am interested in trying this recipe.
+Does the coconut oil stain clothing?
+Hi Jo, great question! I will add this to the post, but this is definitely a case of “less is more”. If you use too much, yes I have had it stain one of my shirts, although it did come out after a few washes. When you use this deodorant, just 1 or 2 swipes will do it. I was so used to applying commercial deodorant very liberally, but that’s not the case with this one.
+If you do have an event of stain you can use a grease cutting eo or if you use dawn dish soap a drop of that and work into a lather and rinse before washing
+Thanks for the tip, Amber!
+Trying this for the first time today but have a couple of thoughts. First, there are two different types of cocnut oil, 76 degree and 92 degree, based on what temperature it melts at. I’d recommend using the 92 degree melt coconut oil which should allow you to store it at room temperature versus in the ‘fridge. Brrr….that just sounds chilly. Also, it might be worth trying to melt some cocoa butter and adding it to it to firm it up at room temperature as well. Cocoa butter is great for the skin and also has a higher melting point, 93 – 100 degrees, and is also used in soaps as a hardener. Beeswax may also be good for the same reason. For those who shudder at the cost of essential oils I have read you can make your own by soaking orange and lemons peels etc in olive oil. I have yet to try this but it may be worth googling…
+Those are some very helpful tips, Lynn! Thanks so much for sharing 🙂
+Tried it, love it. Yeah, I think next time I’m going to try replacing 1 tablespoon of the coconut oil with cocoa butter or maybe 1.5 tablespoons. Great recipe, great odor control. Thanks for sharing it!
+Awesome! Yeah, please let me know how the cocoa butter works out. I’m totally up for variations 🙂
+You asked for it, you got it. I thought about this last night. One thing I didn’t like about this deodorant was the graininess of the baking soda. Hands down your recipe rocks for odor control. Baking soda obviously gives it that control and corn starch absorbs moisture. Coconut oil binds the two together and holds them to your skin. I’m out of cocoa butter but thanks to my soap and lotion making I have tons of shea butter. Shea butter is solid at room temperature, melts at body temperature, and is great for the skin. Using a coffee scoop, which is an 1/8 of a cup or 2 tablespoons, I made the following variation last night and really love it..
+Awesome! I’m going to add this recipe to the post, in case others want to try it. I know when I run out of my current batch – this stuff seriously takes forever to run out! – I’m going to try your shea butter recipe, as I have a brand new tub in my cabinet 🙂 Thanks for contributing, Lynn!
+I have a pre-made body powder that contains aluminum starch- actenyl- succinate, corn starch, aspartame, benzyle alcohol and menthyl iodine. I was wondering if anybody knows if it is alright to mix the above ingredients with the coconut oil to make deodarant? The powder already smells nice so I wouldn’t be adding any aroma to it…any help/suggestions would be appreciated:)
+Hi Kris,
+Personally, I would shy away from using the body powder, as a few of those ingredients I wouldn’t want anywhere near my underarms; namely, the aluminum and the alcohol. Also, the baking soda is a pretty important ingredient, as it provides the anti-odor properties. Hope that helps!
+Thanks David! Great minds think alike 🙂
+Winter 2006-2007
+DISTRICT OFFICE:
+3107 Kingsbridge Avenue, Bronx, New York 10463 • (718) 796-5345
+NORWOOD SATELLITE OFFICE:
+3450 Dekalb Avenue, Bronx, New York 10467 • (718) 882-4000, Ext. 353
+RIVERDALE SATELLITE OFFICE:
+3547 Johnson Avenue, Bronx, New York 10463 • (718) 796-5345
+Serving the communities of Kingsbridge, Norwood, Riverdale,
+Van Cortlandt Village, Wakefield and Woodlawn.
+Dear Constituent:
+As we approach a new year I am looking forward to accomplishing much in the 2007 legislative
+session. We will have a new governor who is committed to reform and to achieving many of the
+goals that have eluded us under the old regime. I am confident that Eliot Spitzer will be an ally
+in the Assembly majority’s longtime efforts to make major improvements in our education
+system. He has made it clear that he intends to strengthen and fix New York’s health care
+system. Unlike his predecessor, I am certain he will be a friend of higher education, both our
+public systems (SUNY and CUNY) and our private colleges.
+We face constant challenges in our district – and all too often the problems we face are caused
+by government. The closing of the Woodlawn firehouse is a prime example. But we face constant
+challenges when dealing with overdevelopment, lack of parking and other issues, in large part
+because some of our government agencies can’t seem to work with each other. Projects such
+as Con Edison’s plan to build a high voltage power line through the heart of Riverdale and
+Kingsbridge again demonstrate that our quality of life is continually under attack.
+My district office has helped thousands of people with every conceivable problem. We’ve had an
+upsurge this year in problems with landlords as well as countless complaints that require us to
+light a fire under the bureaucrats working in various governmental agencies in order to cut through
+red tape. My staff is excellent, and they all make things happen on behalf of my constituents.
+And, of course, everyone on my staff is a notary public – and we provide free notary service.
+Happy holidays and a healthy new year.
+Sincerely,
+Jeffrey Dinowitz
+Member of Assembly
+I worked for many years to prevent the construction of a giant water filtration plant in the
+northwest Bronx. Although we were successful in stopping this costly facility from being
+built in the Jerome Park Reservoir, we were ultimately unsuccessful in protecting Van
+Cortlandt Park from this project.
+With the exception of Congressman Eliot Engel, Councilman Oliver Koppell, State Senator
+Eric Schneiderman and myself, most Bronx elected officials support this mammoth
+construction project in Van Cortlandt Park. Among the reasons given were: it will provide
+hundreds and hundreds of jobs for Bronxites; Van Cortlandt Park would be cheaper to build
+in than the alternative location in Westchester; the Bronx would receive $200 million for park
+improvements.
+In fact, the jobs never materialized. Currently, only a few dozen Bronx residents have received
+jobs working on the project. As far as cost, it appears that the NYC Department of Environmental
+Protection (DEP) either lied about the costs or was simply not competent to give an accurate cost
+estimate. It now appears that the cost will be at least a billion dollars more than DEP told the
+people of New York. That’s scandalous. Furthermore, all of the parks that were to receive money
+will actually get less than originally promised.
+The next time a huge project comes before us, we should all remember that Commissioners and
+other government officials don’t always tell the truth, or simply aren’t as capable as we’d like them
+to be – and it’s up to your elected representatives to stand up for what is right and speak out on
+issues important to their constituents – and their constituents should remember to take appropriate
+action when their elected officials don’t do the right thing.
+Con Edison has come up with a really bad idea. They plan to install a high voltage, underground
+power line running from Yonkers to upper Manhattan. It would run through the heart of Riverdale,
+entering the Bronx at Riverdale Avenue and running down to Henry Hudson Parkway, then
+Riverdale Avenue again to West 230th Street to Broadway down through the Target shopping
+center into Manhattan.
+I recognize the need for this power, but I can’t imagine a worse route. The construction process
+would have a very negative effect on the businesses on Riverdale Avenue as well as the surrounding
+residences. All Riverdale Avenue parking might be eliminated during the construction process.
+The lower part of Riverdale Avenue, between West 235th and West 239th Streets is already the site
+of numerous construction projects. Further down Riverdale Avenue is the location of the street collapse
+of 2002, which took the City two and a half years to resolve. I would never suggest sticking some other
+community with this problem. That’s why I am working with other community leaders to recommend
+an alternative location. I have suggested the NYS Thruway/Deegan Expressway, a location which would
+not directly impact on residences or businesses.
+There’s still an opportunity for community members to express their views on this issue. The NYS Public
+Service Commission will hold a hearing, tentatively scheduled for Monday, January 22, 2007 from 6 p.m.
+to 9 p.m. at the Riverdale YM-YWHA (5625 Arlington Avenue.) Community residents and business
+owners should attend and speak out. If you would like to attend please call my office at (718) 796-5345
+prior to January 22 to confirm the date, time and place.
+I am pleased to report that dozens of people participated in the Bronx Citizens’ Court
+Monitoring Project’s recent observation of Bronx Housing Court. The Project, which is
+run in conjunction with my office, was founded by my predecessor, Oliver Koppell. We
+involve many volunteers from the community to observe and make suggestions with
+regard to how our courts work. Our volunteers go to the courts twice a year, each time
+observing a different court.
+It is important for judges, lawyers, litigants and others to know that there are citizens
+who are concerned about how our courts operate – and know that they are being
+watched. It is also important for average citizens to see what goes on in court and
+understand the system. I would encourage anyone interested in this to call my office
+to volunteer on this most important project.
+Our children continue to be cheated out of a real gifted and talented program in our public
+schools. In district 10 there is not one gifted and talented seat in the entire school district
+consisting of well over 40,000 students. In 1999, the last school board election, a slate
+committed to establishing a gifted and talented program won a massive victory with a
+record turnout, but the voters were thwarted by a superintendent who opposed such
+programs.
+District 10 is finally getting a gifted and talented program, but it will consist of only two first
+grade classes of 28 students each. We need programs in many of our schools, not just two,
+and for all grades. When the Department of Education (DOE) decided to create small schools
+within school buildings, they did so on a massive scale, so claims that they need to start off
+small do not ring true. It seems that when it comes to addressing the needs of gifted students,
+the ideologues at DOE are committed to mediocrity.
+Fighting for our Quality of Life
+My office constantly fights for issues affecting the quality of life of my constituents.
+Here are but a few examples:
+Putnam Avenue, after many months, is now a paved through-street thanks to the
+efforts of Assemblyman Dinowitz and tenant leader Cassandra Prentice. Tenants
+from the new buildings on Putnam Avenue recently joined together to celebrate
+finally having a paved street.
+We helped many residents of Knolls Crescent apply for various tax abatement
+programs such as SCRIE, SCHE, STAR and Veterans’ Exemption, all of which
+enable many of our neighbors to live affordably.
+Broken or missing fire hydrants is a source of many complaints. My staff, working
+with the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, arranged for the replacement
+of hydrants on Barnes Avenue in front of St. Frances of Rome school, and on
+West 231st Street off Palisade Avenue.
+My staff works with tenants and tenant associations throughout the district. One such
+building is 3801 Hudson Manor Terrace, where we are working to get the NYS Division
+of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) to require the landlord to correct the many,
+many violations and deteriorating conditions that have gone unaddressed. Hopefully in
+the new state administration DHCR will move more quickly when addressing the needs
+of tenants.
+Shortly after I requested a stop signs at West 261 and Liebig Avenue and at West 261st
+Street and Tyndall Avenue a serious accident took place. NYC DOT then complied with
+my request for the stop sign on Liebig Avenue. Now I am working on getting the sign on
+Tyndall Avenue.
+Both elevators were out at the same time (one was broken, one was being renovated) at
+3411 Irwin Avenue, but the repair on the broken elevator seemed to be taking forever in
+this 20-story building – that is until my office got city inspectors out there to move things
+along.
+The tree in front of a house on Liebig Avenue was literally at a 45 degree angle, hanging
+over a house, but the parks department said it was okay. I love trees, but when a tree is
+a safety hazard, it has to go, and this one had to go. After my office’s intervention with
+the Parks Department the unsafe tree was safely removed.
+Once again hundreds and hundreds of local residents received free flu shots from my annual
+flu shot program, which is co-sponsored by Councilman Koppell, State Senator Schneiderman
+and Congressman Engel. At some sites the shots were provided by New York Presbyterian
+Hospital and the Visiting Nurse Service. At others, Jacobi Medical Center and North Central
+Bronx Hospital provided the shots. Many thanks to Helen Morik, Vice President of Government
+and Community Affairs; Evelyn Torres and Kathy Olivo, outreach coordinators; Julio Batista,
+Coordinator of Community Relations and External Relations; Miriam Torres, Nurse Coordinator;
+Andy Nieto, Director of Community Health Outreach and Marketing, all from NYPH;
+Arthur Wagner, Executive Director of North Central Bronx Hospital; William C. Walsh,
+Network Senior Vice President; and Lydia Campoamor.
+Some Dinowitz Bills Which Became
+Dinowitz Laws in 2006
+Protecting Cell Phone Privacy
+State law did not specifically address the issue of cell phone privacy. Obtaining a cell
+phone user’s phone logs and then selling the list of incoming and outgoing calls was
+perfectly legal – until my bill was signed into law. Now it is illegal to sell, offer for sale,
+solicit or procure a consumer’s telephone records. As technology changes, so must
+the law.
+Protecting Veterans
+I am very pleased that my legislation to protect veterans was passed and signed into law
+this year. Many soldiers returning from active combat zones are experiencing adverse
+health effects from what many claim is exposure to depleted uranium (DU.) This legislation
+will help to provide treatment for returning soldiers who are experiencing problems because
+of exposure to DU and other hazardous materials. We must not only support our troops
+when they are overseas, but also when they return home.
+Fighting Underage Drinking
+As Chair of the Assembly Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse I passed legislation now
+signed into law to create an advisory council on underage drinking within the Executive
+Department. Because underage drinking has become such a huge problem, I felt it was crucial
+to provide necessary attention and focus and to work to ameliorate the problem. The council will
+collect and analyze information, conduct hearings, and make recommendations with respect to
+educational and training programs.
+Because of the large amount of construction in our community, the NYC DOT has often changed
+parking regulations to accommodate developers. That means that on a block where a building is
+going up, the DOT may put up signs prohibiting parking in places where residents are used to
+parking. But that’s not the only problem. I have received a number of complaints from people who
+parked legally but then were parked illegally because a sign was changed – and then they were
+given a parking ticket by traffic agents. THAT’S OUTRAGEOUS! Certainly DOT ought to put up
+notices on poles in advance of changing signs warning people, and traffic enforcement agents
+should have the good sense and decency to not hover, waiting to ticket everyone. If you have a
+similar experience, please call me at.s
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+Grammy award winning Columbian singer and songwriter Shakira is making her Hindi film debut with an Indian film called Kaali-The Warrior Goddess. The well known singer will make her grand entry in the Indian films playing the goddess 'Kali'. Karan Arora, the CEO of High Ground Entertainment Ltd. will be producing the movie starring Shakira. Arora was quoted saying that the movie will be a 3D motion film shot on CG. The full length two-hour-long Hindi movie will be shot either in London or in a city in Eastern Europe.
+See what the audience has to say about the Salman Khan and Sonakshi Sinha starrer film 'Dabangg'. For more such stories log onto :
+Watch the second part of the making of the song 'Munni Badnaam' in which Malaika Arora Khan speaks about the accident she met with while shooting for the song. For more such stories log onto :
+Watch the making of the song 'Munni Badnaam' from Arbaaz Khan's film 'Dabangg' starring Salman Khan and Sonakshi Sinha. For more such stories log onto :
+Salman Khan speaks about his upcoming film 'Dabangg', his dance with Malaika Arora in the film and whether he will make the sequel of 'Dabangg'
+Karan Johar's film 'We Are Family' which was to release with Salman Khan starrer 'Dabangg' will now release a week earlier. For more such gossips log onto :
+Salman Khan speaks about dancing with his sister-in-law in his upcoming film 'Dabangg' and working with Sonakshi Sinha. For more such gossips log onto :
+The song 'Chori Kiya Re Jiya' from 'Dabangg' is the first bollywood song to be shot at the Dubai Metro Station. For more such updates log onto :
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+i am so excited to feature one of my absolute favorite farmgirls here on the prairie today...
+tiffany {the fancy farmgirl} has been a constant source of inspiration for me...
+her photography and her art are simply stunning...
+i'm still on the hunt for a vintage prom dress so i too can be a fancy farmgirl... :0)
+so without further ado may i introduce a fancy farmgirl to you...
+I am so happy to be a guest here on the prairie today, and when Kristin and I spoke about it, I knew I should share something about the farm. Right now chickens are all the rage, and I want to show you the "pretty" about chickens, but I also want to talk about the real deal. How to raise them, what you need, and promote responsible chicken ownership.
+Please don't go out and buy some chickens just so you can have a pretty coop! :) Unfortunately, I have seen that happen a lot lately!
+It's all about the chickens. Yep, that's right, around here, if you are a chicken, you are automatically at the top of the pecking order. Yes, we love the donkeys, horses and dogs. BUT the HENS, they've got it made!
+Next week, my friend Heidi of the blog "Birds of a Feather " is holding a fun blog party called "Show me Your Coop". It is not too late to sign up for and participate in the party, and today here on Kristin's lovely blog , I am going to give you a sneak peek of my coop!! But be sure to join the party on the 15th of September to see my whole coop and everyone else’s!!
+Ready ??
+I own thirty chickens. Almost all of them are cochins, but I do also have silkies, frizzles, arauncanas and easter eggers. (For those of you who are not familiar with easter eggers, they are chickens who will lay either pink, blue or green eggs. Pastel eggs???? Yes, it is that cool!!!) All of my chickens with the exception of the araucanas and easter eggers have feathered feet, which I personally love. Chicken feet are ugly by nature, and by having their feet covered in pretty fluffy feathers is much nicer.
+This is my favorite chicken, Liberty. We thought he was a hen when he was a baby, and he turned out to be a rooster. Normally I don’t keep roosters, because sometimes they can be mean, and also because if you do, your eggs will be fertilized. Now this does not bother me, but for some people this is a bother. What that means is when you collect your eggs and eat them, you may notice a small red “dot” in the white of the egg next to the yolk. This is actually the rooster’s fertilization and if left to nest upon, the eggs will grow chicks. If you don’t want to eat fertilized eggs, don’t have a rooster! (of course, it really is no different from a regular egg, so there is no harm in eating them this way of course…)
+Liberty is a bantam cochin. This means he is much smaller than a regular chicken, and if he were a hen (as we originally thought) then he would lay much smaller eggs. Cochin is a breed of chicken known for it’s fluffy feathers and usually fluffy feet. Liberty certainly meets that criteria. Every time he bends over, his butt is so fluffy I just can’t stand it!
+
+So here’s a little background on what you need to raise your own chickens. First of all, I free range my chickens. They have over an acre to run around in, and free access in and out of their coop. I have trained them to lay their eggs in the coop. Chickens are very easily trainable, and one way to train them to lay in the coop is to put fake eggs in the nest boxes. You don’t need a nest box per chicken, in fact they will always share unless someone is setting on eggs. A good general rule, is one nest box per 3-4 hens.
+Chickens also need roost. This is in their nature, and they will be much happier if you provide this for them. They can fly up to the roost, or if you are like me, and clip your chickens wing, (sounds inhumane, but I will explain more in a minute) then you need to provide some way for them to get to the roost if it is up high if they cannot fly. I use a vintage ladder, which allows them to get to the roost, but also to use as a roost!
+Wing clipping. I do it. It does not hurt, it is equivalent to you or me getting a haircut. I do it because I have dogs who like to eat chicken dinner and I don’t want my beloved chickens to fly over the fence. To clip a chicken’s wing, you only need trim one wing. This throws them off balance, thus not being able to fly. You pull out their wing straight and carefully cut only the last ¼ of the wing tip feathers. Clipping a chicken’s wing also makes it much more accessible to predators, therefore I recommend that they always have a safe place to be locked up, especially at night!
+Chickens are by nature very stinky, and poop a lot. If you cannot free range your chickens, and must keep them cooped at all times, you will need to clean the coop on a daily basis depending upon how many chickens you have. It will get VERY messy, VERY quickly! Even my coop, where they only spend the night, needs to be cleaned bi-weekly or more. It is only this clean because of course I wanted to show it off all pretty! The coop also needs lots of ventilation. Chickens can die very easily and are susceptible to many diseases. Ok, now having told you all of this info, I want to tell you that having chickens is one of the most rewarding and fun experiences you can have. Having your own fresh eggs is amazing, and chickens make great pets. All of mine are very friendly, come when called and will eat out of your lap. And how can you resist this?
+Here’s a fun and interesting chicken tip :
+Not getting any eggs in the winter? Chickens need light to lay eggs. Leave a light on in your coop 24/7 in the winter to trick the chickens into thinking they need to lay!!
+Here are a few more sneak peeks at my coop, and thank you Kristin for having me as a guest today! Feel free to leave a comment here or email me with any chicken questions at tiffanykirchnerdixon@yahoo.com and be sure to join me on my blog on the 15th of September for the coop tour!!
+
+Xoxo, Tiffany
+tiffany girl...i really don't know how to *thank you* enough for doing such an amazing post...
+i cannot wait to see the rest of the coop!!
+right now you have me wishing i was an egg laying hen just so i could snuggle up under that fabulous chandie!! ;0)
+oh..did you happen to notice the cow picture hanging in her coop?!?!
+sigh...
+i think i need to move a coop renovation to the top of the husband's ever growing list! ;0)
+i hope you all enjoyed having tiffany here on the prairie and remember if you also have a coop you'd like to show off join heidi's "show me your coop" party by the 15th of september!!
+prairie hugs,
+prairie hugs,
+26 comments:
+Oh Kristin, thank you for this post! I am a city girl who deep down is a farm girl. My fiance asked me what I want for our wedding present and I told him "build me a chicken coup!" I love the araucanas and the porcelain bantams. I have had this file with specifications on what I want for years. And goodness, I hope mine looks like hers!
+Hi Tiffany,
+I'm so glad Kristin is featuring you on her blog! Yours is a new-to-me blog, and I'm so looking forward to checking it out. I LOVE your chicken coop!! It's the pretties darn chicken coop I've ever seen! My husband, kids, and I have been wanting to get chicken for a while now, but don't really know much about raising them. Thanks so much for all of the wonderful how-to information. It was so helpful! I only hope I can have a chicken coop as rockin' as yours some day... thanks for the inspiration!!
+Now I'm going to go check out your blog. ;o)
+Thanks, Kristin, for the introduction to Tiffany's blog and this wonderful feature!
+Have a great day!
+~ Jo :)
+oh my goodness........my hens need a serious makeover seeing that -
+and THAT is why we love Tiffany!!
+my hen house right now looks like the slums compared to that? was that crystal i saw?
+good gravy i have a lot of work to do!
+Wowsers!! I can't believe how cute she made her coop...
+Thank you thank you kristin!! I love being a guest on your blog, I had so much fun!! You are awesome girl!!
+xoxo, Tiffany
+LOVE it! Both of you gals are so Barn Chic Glamorous!!!!!!
+XO Sherry
+Glamarella Junk
+Hi Kristin! What a fun post today! I have always loved those fancy, feathery, girlie looking chickens and I learned so much about them today from Tiffany. I'd love to raise some chickens and have fresh eggs every day....but I would be so afraid that our local racoons and fox and coyotes would nab them---and there I would be - heartbroken, sobbing and a total basketcase. So...I'll just own them vicariously through Tiffany! lol! Thanks for the fun post!
+xoxo laurie@heavens-walk
+funny thing ..
+I added this wonder woman to may favorites a couple of days ago!!
+oh my ... I'm crushing over her style.
+I can't wait for the Coop De Tour! I enjoyed visiting your blog.
+tiffany!! that has GOT to be the most amazing chicken coop I've ever seen! And I love the pictures so much! I wish I could have chickens because it just sounds fun! I love the thought of a big bowl of pastel colored eggs but my husband won't go for it. This is just so awesome! (but isn't everything you do?)
+thanks for having tiffany post kristin! It is a fun one!
+ps your blog looks GORGEOUS!!!
+Hi Kristin - what a great post! I love the Fancy Farm Girl- she's awesome! and so are you!
+I love chickens-I spent alot of time on my Grandparents farm growing up - they had about a hundred chickens...maybe more..?? I hope one day I'll get to have a cute chicken coop to keep them all in too!
+Have a great day!
+Tamnmy :-)
+I love the idea of chickens...but I can't get past all the chicken poop.
+I'm working on it. I may just come around...
+Fun post! :)
+~*~I am LOVING the little mini chicken coop chandelier!!So cute..~*~*
+Amazing! I love the story, the pictures and the coop in all its sparkling goodness~
+one of the most enjoyable posts i've read!
+eehem..yeah! her coop is cleaner than my sons room! What a wonderful blog post...it only strengthens my desire to find and old farmhouse in the middle of no where and have chickens and goats. Thanks to you and Tiffany I have instructions if and when I ever get what I want :)
+Thanks Tiffany!
+Loved seeing inside the COOP miss tiff!! That chandelier is just too cute... oh my gosh, those chickens have it made!!
+Thanks for such a fun post ladies, xo Heather
+This was a great post full of fun! That coop looks perfect for a bunch of Diva hens! LOVE IT!
+G'day~Thanks for all the chicken info.I woud love to have some myself the Mr. not so much.~Enjoy Kim
+Just too adorable for words! Her hen house looks enchanting doesn't it? Amazingly talented lady.
+that is one beautiful and amazing chicken coop....love it and so glad you did a guest post...your pictures are terrific and love that you shared so much about it ~ I loved all the details
+xo
+So very excited to find your blog via Tiffany! What a wonderful place -- I look forward to coming back for a longer visit to read more! Thank you for sharing with all of us in blogland.
+All the best,
+Rosalyn-Sue
+I just found your blog, love your look. Your farmlife looks like my dream life! I have added you to my favs and have read back into your june post. As I get the time I read more. telling the girls I work with about the cool coups!! Check back with you later!
+A chandelier in the chicken coop ...now that's real Fancy Farmgirl style....love it!
+Mel's Cabin
+TIffany is just the best. I had the pleasure of being a houseguest of hers last year and her chicken coup is just AMAZING! Her entire house is amazing. SHe is such a sweetheart!
+Well I answered my own questions as to where the event was. I think next year we need to be traveling through WA about this time...you guys have awesome stuff up there!
+Thnaks for sharing. HAGD! Karen
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+Chord (music)
+A.
+Contents
+- 1 Definition and history
+- 2 Notation
+- 3 Characteristics
+- 4 Triads
+- 5 Seventh chords
+- 6 Extended chords
+- 7 Altered chords
+- 8 Added tone chords
+- 9 Suspended chords
+- 10 Borrowed chords
+- 11 References
+- 12 Sources
+- 13 Further reading
+- 14 External links
+Definition and history[edit].
+].
+Triads consist of three notes; the root or first note, the third, and the fifth.[26] For example, the C major scale consists of the notes C D E F G A B: a triad can be constructed on any note of such a major scale, and all are minor or major except the triad on the seventh or leading-tone, which is a diminished chord. A triad formed using the note C itself consists of C (the root note), E (the third note of the scale) and G (the fifth note of the scale). The interval from C to E is of four semitones, a major third, and so this triad is called C Major. A triad formed upon the same scale but with D as the root note, D (root), F (third), A (fifth), on the other hand, has only three semitones between the root and third and is called D minor, a minor triad.
+Notation[edit][edit] G (violin, viola, cello or double bass),[edit]
+included harpsichord, pipe organ and lute. Added numbers, symbols and accidentals beneath the staff indicate at the intervals to play, the numbers stand for the number of scale steps above the written note to play the figured notes;.[edit]
+Macro analysis is used by musicologists, music theorists and advanced university music students to analyze songs and pieces. Macro analysis uses upper-case and lower-case letters to indicate the roots of chords, followed by symbols that specify the chord quality.[28]
+Tabular notation[edit] letter indicating the root note (e.g. "C").
+- A symbol or abbreviation indicating the chord quality (e.g. major, maj, M or minor, min, m). Note: if no chord quality is specified, the chord is assumed to be a major triad by default, except in where the arranger uses the German-derived convention of as in CM7)
+- Symbols or abbreviations for altered fifths (e.g. diminished fifth, denoted as ♭5 or augmented fifth, denoted as ♯5).
+- An additional interval number (e.g. "add 13" or "add13"), in added tone chords. Thus "C7add13" instructs the performer to play a C7 chord (the individual notes C, E, G, B♭) plus an added 13th scale degree (the note A). Note: the thirteenth scale degree is just the sixth scale degree an octave higher.).
+None of these parts, except for the root, directly refer to the notes forming the chord, but to the intervals they form with respect to the root, for instance, Caug7 is formed by the notes C–E–G♯–B♭. However, its name and symbol refer only to the root note C, the augmented (fifth) interval from C to G♯, and the (minor) seventh interval from C to B♭. The interval from C to E (a major third) is inferred, as an augmented triad is inherently major.[29] A set of decoding rules is applied to deduce the missing information.
+Chord qualities are related with the qualities of the component intervals that define the chord, the main chord qualities are:
+- major and minor,
+- augmented, diminished, and half-diminished,
+- dominant seventh.
+Some of the symbols used for chord quality are similar to those used for interval quality:
+- m or min for minor,
+- M, ma, maj or no symbol for major,
+- aug or + for augmented,
+- dim or o for diminished. addition, however,
+- Δ is sometimes used for major,[30] instead of the standard M, or maj. In some jazz arrangements, the triangle symbols specifically indicates a major seventh,
+- − is sometimes used for minor, instead of the standard m, mi or min,
+- +, or aug, is used for augmented (A is not used),
+- o, °, dim, is used for diminished (d is not used),
+- ø, or Ø is used for half diminished; in some fake books, the abbreviation "m7(♭5)" is used as an equivalent symbol,
+- dom may be used for dominant 7th,
+- alt (or "alt dom") is used in jazz to indicate an altered dominant seventh chord (e.g., a dominant seventh chord with an added altered extension such as ♭9 and/or ♯11),
+- 7 is used for dominant 7th, that is a minor (flat) seventh above the root note (if no other information is provided; thus C7, A7, D7 and G7 all indicate dominant seventh chords. However, if "maj7" is indicated, this is a major seventh above the root),
+- 7(♭9) is used to indicate a dominant seven chord with a minor (flat) ninth (e.g., A7(♭9), which would contain an A7 chord, thus the notes A, C♯, E, G, plus B♭, the ♭9). Sometimes this chord is notated "7(−9)",
+- 9 is used for a ninth chord, which in jazz usually includes the dominant seventh as well, if it is a dominant chord. A ninth can also be requested for other chord qualities (e.g., Amaj9, which indicates a major seventh chord, the notes A, C♯, E, G♯, with an added ninth, which is a B; or Dm9, which indicates a D minor triad, thus the notes D, F, A, with an added ninth, the note E),
+- 13 indicates that the thirteenth is added to the chord. In jazz, when a number higher than 9 is used, it implies that several other lower numbers are played, thus for A13 (also indicated as "A13"), a pianist would play the third (C♯), the seventh (G), ninth (B) and thirteenth (F♯); the eleventh (in this case D) is normally omitted unless it is augmented (D♯). Roots and perfect fifths are commonly omitted from jazz chord voicings).
+- sus4 (or simply 4) indicates that the third is omitted and the fourth used instead. Other notes may be added to a sus4 chord, indicated with the word "add" and the scale degree (e.g., Asus4(add9) or Asus4(add7)).
+- sus2 (or simply 2) indicates that the third is omitted and the second (which may also be called the ninth) is used instead. As with "sus4", a "sus2" chord can have other scale degrees added (e.g., Asus2(add♭7) or Asus2(add4))
+- /C♯ bass or /C♯ indicates that a bass note other than the root should be played. For example, A/C♯ bass indicates that an A major, the "5" notation is not always used to indicate when power chords are used in rock. Determining when to play triads and when to use power chords may also come down to the preferences of the guitarist, bandleader or record producer. If a rock chord progression contains sequences with very rapid chord changes, some or all of these chords may be voiced as power chords (e.g., in the chord progression "C///|F///|G///|A♭ B♭ B C", the last bar in which there is one chord change per beat and the chords are chromatic would probably be voiced as power chords if performed by a hard rock guitarist).
+- 6/9 indicates a chord with the triad, with the sixth and ninth of the chord added
+- Unusual chords can be indicated with a sequence of scale degrees and indicated additions or omissions (e.g., C7(no5add9) would indicate C–E–B♭–D or F9(no7add13) would be F–A–C–G–D).
+Characteristics[edit][edit]
+Two-note combinations, whether referred to as chords or intervals, are called dyads..[31]).[32] A nonchord tone is a dissonant or unstable tone that lies outside the chord currently heard, though often resolving to a chord tone.[33]
+Scale degree[edit]
+In the key of C major the first degree of the scale, called the tonic, is the note C itself, so a C major chord, a triad built on the note C, may be called the one chord of that key and notated in Roman numerals as I. The same C major chord can be found in other scales: it forms chord III in the key of A minor (A–B–C) and chord IV in the key of G major (G–A–B–C). This numbering lets us see the job a chord is doing in the current key and tonality.
+Many analysts use lower-case Roman numerals to indicate minor triads and upper-case for major ones, of numerals indicate the root of the chord as a scale degree within a particular major key as follows:
+Inversion[edit]
+In the harmony of Western art music a chord is in root position when the tonic note is the lowest in the chord,".[34]
+Secundal, tertian, and quartal chords[edit]
+Many chords are a sequence of ascending,[36][edit]
+The notes of a chord form intervals with each of the other notes of the chord in combination. A 3-note chord has 3 of these harmonic intervals, a 4-note chord has 6, a 5-note chord has 10, a 6-note chord has 15,[37].[38].[edit]
+Triads, also called triadic chords, are tertian chords with three notes, the four basic triads are described below.
+Seventh chords[edit] one[edit]
+Extended chords are triads with further tertian notes added beyond the seventh: the ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth chords,[edit] [edit]
+An added tone chord is a triad chord with an added, non-tertian note, such as the commonly added sixth as well as,[41] the other group is inverted chords in which the interval of a sixth appears above a bass note that is not the root.[42] with the same added note. For example, the chord Cm6 contains the notes C-E♭-G-A; in chord notation, the sixth of either chord is always assumed a major sixth rather than a minor sixth, however a minor sixth interval may be indicated in the notation as, for example, "Cm(m6)", or Cmm6.).[43][edit]
+A suspended chord, or "sus chord" (sometimes wrongly thought to mean sustained
+play (help·info). Csus4 is sometimes written Csus since the sus4 is more common than the sus2.
+Borrowed chords[edit] C minor key.[edit]
+- ^". In L. Root, Deane. Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. (subscription required)
+- ^.
+- ^ Pen, Ronald (1992). Introduction to Music, p.81. McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0-07-038068-6. "In each case the note that forms the foundation pitch is called the root, the middle tone of the chord is designated the third (because it is separated by the interval of a third from the root), and the top tone is referred to as the fifth (because it is a fifth away from the root)."
+- ^.
+- ^ A minor augmented triad, C–E♭–G♯, is very rare (it is enharmonically equivalent to the first inversion of A♭ major) and would generally be described instead as an altered fifth (Cm♯5).
+- ^ The symbol Δ is ambiguous, as it is used by some as a synonym for M (e.g. CΔ = CM and CΔ7 = CM7), and by others as a synonym of M7 (e.g. CΔ = CM7).
+- ^
+- ^ Dufrenne, Mikel (1989). The Phenomenology of Aesthetic Experience, p. 253. ISBN 0-8101-0591-8.
+- ^[edit]
+-[edit]
+-–52.
+-[edit]
+Quotations related to Chord (music) at Wikiquote
+Media related to Chords at Wikimedia Commons
+• How to Interpret Chord Symbols
+Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
+Tuesday, May 23, 2017
+Back to news and opinion index page for links to archived stories | Commentary | Our YouTube page
+2017 Tour de France | 2017 Giro d'Italia
+Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. - Groucho Marx
+Tuesday, May 23 is the Giro's Queen stage, with three legendary climbs, the Mortirolo, Stelvio and Umbrail. Can maglia rosa Tom Dumoulin withstand the hammering Nairo Quintana and others have promised. This could go down as one of the Giro's legendary days of racing.
+A very daunting profile, to say the least.
+Here's the organizer's stage preview: Alpine queen stage with approx. 5,400 meters cumulative elevation gain. The course runs first on a mild climb heading to Edolo and then climbs up the Mortirolo from Monno (only one precedent in 1990). The parcours takes a pass
+And here's the Giro preview Nairo Quintana's Team Movistar's posted:
+The Movistar Team offers the most important quotes."
+Nairo Quintana at the start of stage 12
+."
+On the race leader Tom Dumoulin: )."
+Lotto-Soudal previews the upcoming Tour of Belgium:
+The day after tomorrow the 87th Belgium Tour kicks off. Five days long, the peloton will head across the country, from the coast to the Ardennes.
+On Wednesday the race starts in Lochristi and the finish lies in Knokke-Heist on De Wandelaar. An opportunity for sprinters. The second stage finishes in Moorslede, the previous years a host of the Belgium Tour for women. After ninety kilometres the riders will cross the finish a first time. After a second crossing of the finish line, the riders head towards Monteberg and Kemmelberg. Then they return to Moorslede. On Friday an individual time trial of 13.4 kilometres in Beveren is scheduled. The next day, a small version of Liège-Bastogne-Liège is waiting for the riders. The stage starts and finishes in Ans that day. There are eleven hills on the course, three in the last 25 kilometres: La Roche aux Faucons, Saint-Nicolas and Rue Naniot. The last hill lies at six kilometres from the finish. Sunday it’s a flat stage between Tienen and Tongeren.
+Seven of the eight Lotto Soudal riders at the start are Belgians. They will have to compete against a number of compatriots like Philippe Gilbert, Oliver Naesen, Jens Keukeleire and Wout Van Aert. Of course there are also opponents from abroad, such as three-time winner Tony Martin and Mathieu Van der Poel.
+Herman Frison, sports director Lotto Soudal: “The first stage is a sprint stage in theory, but you never know. There are only five WorldTour teams at the Belgium Tour and the other teams are always really keen to show themselves. If a large break gets away, then we definitely need to have someone in the group too. In case it is a sprint, Jens Debusschere is our man. Jürgen Roelandts, who will be riding his first race since Paris-Roubaix, will do the lead-out.”
+“The second stage is new. We ride through Heuvelland that day, including over the Kemmelberg. The riders do the ascent of the Kemmel with still forty kilometres to go, but it can always be a decisive moment. We will also need to be attentive for echelons. In that case there could be time gaps on GC. We have several guys who could do well on that stage. We have to perform as a team that day.”
+“The field will completely fall apart on Saturday. This stage and the time trial will normally determine the overall ranking. If we aren’t high on GC, we will need to attack. Jelle Vanendert could set a good result in Ans. Tiesj Benoot has just come back from altitude training camp in the Sierra Nevada, so we have to see how his body reacts.”
+Jurgen Roelandts will be at the start of the Tour of Belgium
+“We are aiming for a stage win and a good GC. Top five or top three should be possible and winning the GC would be great of course. The bonus seconds can definitely play a role in the battle for the overall victory. The Golden Kilometre (three bonus sprints during one kilometre, LTS) in the finales of the stages could be crucial, with a maximum of nine seconds that can be gained each day. This could make it exciting. Philippe Gilbert will be a main opponent, just like Tony Martin.”
+Line-up Lotto Soudal: Tiesj Benoot, Jens Debusschere, Nikolas Maes, Rémy Mertz, Jürgen Roelandts, Marcel Sieberg, Jelle Vanendert and Jelle Wallays.
+Sports directors: Herman Frison and Marc Wauters.
+Stages:
+- Stage 1 Wednesday 24 May Lochristi - Knokke-Heist (176.3 km)
+- Stage 2 Thursday 25 May: Knokke-Heist - Moorslede (189.7 km)
+- Stage 3 Friday 26 May: Beveren – Beveren (13.4 km) (ITT)
+- Stage 4 Saturday 27 May: Ans – Ans (184 km)
+- Stage 5 Sunday 28 May: Tienen – Tongeren (177 km)
+Team Sunweb's upcoming racing
+The team sent me this update:
+RACE PREVIEW: MAY 22 - 30:
+TOUR DES FJORDS (UCI 2.1)
+Team Sunweb line up at Tour des Fjords this Wednesday, May 24. Taking place over five stages, riders will cover 844 kilometres through the duration of the race. The first stage sees riders cover two categorised ascents, before what is likely to be a reduced bunch finish. A final climb at 40 kilometres from the finish on the second stage could cause some gaps in the overall standings. A fast finish is expected at stage three followed by a smaller group going through to the line on stage four. The final stage ends with a local circuit and could be a day for a breakaway or a bunch sprint finish.
+Team Sunweb coach Dirk Reuling (NED) said: "We start the race with hopes for day results, with Zico we have a guy that has a good sprint to so it will be good to see how he can do here. On top of that, we also have some opportunistic riders in Albert and Lennard that can surprise the bunch with attacks. This is Max's first race back after a period of sickness so we will see how things develop with him day by day."
+RACE: Tour des Fjords (UCI 2.1)
+DATE: 24-28/06/2017
+COACH: Dirk Reuling (NED)
+LINE-UP: Lennard Kämna (GER), Albert Timmer (NED), Zico Waeytens (BEL), Max Walscheid (GER)
+GOOIK-GERAARDSBERGEN-GOOIK (UCI 1.1)
+Nestled into the women's racing calendar in-between WorldTour events, Team Sunweb line up with a strong roster for Gooik-Geraardsbergen-Gooik in Belgium on Sunday, 28 May. At 136 kilometres riders have a variety of hilly terrain to contend with before an expected reduced bunch sprint finish. With Floortje Mackaij (NED) finishing inside the top 10 in last years edition, Team Sunweb will be looking for another solid result this year.
+Team Sunweb coach Hans Timmermans (NED) explained: "The parcours are exactly the same as last year so we go there with a good knowledge of the course. We saw earlier in the spring that these kind of 'classics' play to the team's strengths. The climbs of the Muur and the Bosberg are usually the most decisive parts of this race and we aim to still be there with good numbers to make it a hard final. We have race leaders in Ellen, Lucinda and Floortje who's form so far this season has demonstrated that they are more than capable of taking a good result on these kind of parcours. This is also Molly's first race back from injury, we are all looking forward to having her back in action."
+RACE: Gooik-Geraardsbergen-Gooik (UCI 1.1)
+DATE: 28/06/2017
+COACH: Hans Timmermans (NED)
+LINE-UP: Lucinda Brand (NED), Ellen van Dijk (NED), Floortje Mackaij (NED), Julia Soek (NED), Sabrina Stultiens (NED), Molly Weaver (GBR)
+PARIS-ROUBAIX U23 (UCI 1.2)
+Development Team Sunweb take to the start line of the U23 edition of Paris-Roubaix this Sunday, May 28. At 183 kilometres in length the race finishes at the iconic Roubaix velodrome and with various good results within the team here in previous years, Development Team Sunweb will be looking to implement all of their progress into a successful race. German U23 Champion Max Kanter will debut on Sunday in his new jersey.
+Team Sunweb coach Tom Veelers explained (NED): "The morale in the team is really high after Max's win of the German national championships on Sunday so we are really looking forward to racing this coming weekend. This will be Max's first time wearing his national championship stripes and the team will be keen to do the German jersey proud. The plan is to cover big breaks and be on the front in all of the important moments. We line-up with a couple of different options depending on how the race plays out. Joris and Nils are two guys that we think could do well here and we have a strong team behind them to support."
+RACE: Paris-Roubaix U23 (UCI 1.2)
+DATE: 28/06/2017
+COACH: Tom Veelers (NED)
+Back to news and opinion index page for links to archived stories | Commentary
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+Ottawa is viewed by many as a cold, bureaucratic government city. But peel away the layers of monotony and routine, and Ottawa's vibrant music and arts scene are undeniably vibrant. Ottawa today focuses on the best new music from Ottawa and beyond. Brought to you by Ottawa Explosion. Hosted by Emmanuel Sayer, and Engineered by Jordan Bell. Ottawa today focuses on the best new music from Ottawa and beyond.
+O
+Ottawa Fraudcast
+Fraudcast for the Ottawa Region
+O
+Ottawa Entrepreneurs
+O
+Ottawa Valley Vineyard Sermons
+Welcome to the OVV Podcast feed..
+C
+Centre for e-Learning at the University of Ottawa
+Discussions on a range of e-learning realted issues.
+A
+ANFG Ottawa Podcast
+Sermons by Pastor Ralph Dartey
+O
+Ottawa Theatre Confidential
+Hosted by local bons vivants Heather Marie Connors, Tania Levy, and Andrew Snowdon, Ottawa Theatre Confidential covers what's happening in the burgeoning Ottawa theatre scene. Tune in for discussions, interviews, and heated debates!
+O
+Ottawa Events Podcast
+A weekly audio summary of upcoming events listed on the Ottawa Events website ().
+O
+Ottawa Senators Nation
+For hockey lovers, but more in particular, those who bleed RED for the OTTAWA SENATORS! Tune in here for the latest SENS news and discussions! GO SENS GO!
+O
+Ottawa Valley Vineyard
+O
+Ottawa Public Law Tour
+A tour for walkers runners and cyclists around official Ottawa, narrated as a walking seminar on public law for uOttawa law students
+O
+Ottawa Senators Talk
+This Podcast was created using
+O
+Ottawa Senators Podcast
+The Ottawa Senators 10 and a Game podcast goes outside of the rink to talk with players about a myriad of non-hockey related topics.
+A
+All Nations Church Central Ottawa
+All Nations Church Central Ottawa, located in Ottawa, Canada, is a vibrant community of people devoted completely to Jesus Christ. He is our Saviour, our Healer, our Joy, and our Promise; everything we do is wrapped up in Him. Check us out at..
+O
+Ottawa International Animation Festival Podcast
+.
+Ian Mendes and Shawn Simpson bring their unique perspectives to the day in sports. All the big name guests and all the hot topics will be heard on The Drive.
+N
+News & Views with Rob Snow
+A show full of facts, opinions, and interviews plus Breaking News, Weather and everything you need to know while you’re at work or on the go.
+O
+Ottawa Folk Festival Robert Service Collection by SERVICE, Robert W. M ...
+Every weekday morning enter the bizarre world of sports and comedy with JR and Steve, featuring "insightful" sports commentary and pop culture updates.
+T
+The Docket
+Michael Spratt discusses the intersection of the law, the courts, and government. What our government does affects you. And check out our new Making a Murderer after show series. Check out more by Michael at:
+S
+Sens Post Game Show
+Sens Post Game Show
+T
+The Computer Radio Show
+This show takes a look at everything digital...our computers, our cell phones, our gizmos and gadgets that have become staples of our life. We love getting your emails, send us your questions and comments to computershow@cfra.com
+T
+The Chet Sellers & Luke Peristy Podcast
+@chet_sellers and @LukePeristy discuss the Ottawa Senators. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll nod in agreement.
+P
+Podcasts from the Cochrane Library
+3:22
++ Play Later
+✔ In Play Later
++ Lists3:22
+In their first year of life, babies are likely to receive many vaccinations, which are vital for public health. However, the experience can be painful and distressing for the babies and their parents. In a new Cochrane Review from October 2016, Denise Harrison from the University of Ottawa in Canada and colleagues examined the research into whe ...…
+T
+TGOR
+35:51
++ Play Later
+✔ In Play Later
++ Lists35:51. ...…
+H
+Hockey Feels
+Scores: Washington 5, Toronto 4 (Series tied 2-2) Ottawa 1, Boston 0 (Ottawa leads series 3-1) Minnesota 2, St. Louis 0 (St. Louis leads series 3-1) Anaheim 3, Calgary 1 (Anaheim wins series 4-0)
+T
+The Hockey Nuts Podcast
+1:54:53
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+✔ In Play Later
++ Lists1:54:53
+THN Episode 36 Headlines: Round 1 ...…
+N
+News & Views with Rob Snow
+1April 19, 201733:31
+33:31
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+✔ In Play Later
++ Lists33:31
+Rob Snow speaks with;- Norm Jack, CFRA news assignment director, about stories that the CFRA newsroom is covering.- Dean Brown, radio voice of the Ottawa Senators on TSN 1200, about the Senators big win and previewing tonight's game 4. - Sue Smith, Show Manager for the Fifty Five Plus Lifestyle Show.It being Wednesday, we take a look at the Can ...…
+O
+Out Of Ten Podcast
+1:57:38
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+On Episode 18 of Out Of Ten, we get back on the rails. The boys go over Sage’s tech woes, review Junofest in Ottawa, bad Bjork impressions, and get distracted by playoff hockey. Reviews include Spoon, Pharmakon, Father John Misty, Arca, Minus the Bear, Alexandra Savior, Future Islands, and The Chainsmokers. List of songs mentioned […] The post ...… ...…
+P
+Progressive Commentary Hour
+57:45
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++ Lists57:45
+CONVERSATIONS WITH REMARKABLE MINDS For Earth Day week – The wisdom of the forest in the time of rapid climate change and what we need to learn from nature in order to counter human greed and hubris If Jane Goodall is the ambassador for the animal kingdom, and Vandana Shiva is the ambassador for seeds, then Diana Beresford-Kroeger is unquestion ...…
+C
+Canadian Government Executive Radio
+14:52
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+In this special episode of CGE Radio, your host John Jones interviews the President of the International Cost Estimation and Analysis Association (ICEAA) Canada Chapter about their upcoming event in Ottawa on May 1-2, 2017. Learn why the event is of such great importance and how it can help you gather valuable CEUs in costing. For more informat ...…
+O
+Ottawa Valley Vineyard Sermons
+1The Empty Tomb36:13
+36:13
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++ Lists36:13
+Why Is the resurrection relevant? It's an amazing story, but what does it really mean?
+B
+Boston Sports Weekly
+49:50
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+✔ In Play Later
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+B key ...…
+C
+Cityscape Sessions
+1:00:00
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+A
+Afternoons with Rob Breakenridge
+17:08
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+Canada has a law prohibiting polygamy, but the first time it has ever been applied is in a trial starting today in Cranbrook BC. Carrisa Mathen is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Ottawa.
+S
+Sermon - Ottawa Chinese Bible Church
+50:51
++ Play Later
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+Read Acts 8:26-34. Three troubles that plague us: “beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.” ignorance guilt weakness Ignorance Of what to do: For there is a time and a way for everything, although man’s trouble lies heavy on him. 7 For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be? 8 No man has ...…!
+M
+My Comedy Week - Andrew Vaughan, Comedian.
+1:12:37
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+This week Andrew heads to the Westin hotel, home of the Halifax Yuk Yuk’s, to interview one of Canadas best comics, and friend, Alex Wood. They talk about the Ottawa comedy scene, recording a comedy album, how Toronto compares to a smaller scene, wrestling, turkey club sandwiches and somewhere in there Andrew reveals too much and “Marc Marons” ...…
+E
+Economics Detective Radio
+26:43
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+The Drive
+13:28
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+Former Redblacks QB Henry Burris joins The Drive to talk CFL free agency & what Ottawa has done on day 1.
+A
+Around the Diamond
+58:59
++ Play Later
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+On Episode 48 of Around the Diamond welcome two special guests in Jared Lemieux and Arizona Diamond Backs prospect Jazz Chisholm. To start off, I talk about how the people dont value the RBI and why it took Chris Carter so long to sign with an MLB club. I then welcome Ottawa Champions first base coach and former Ottawa Rapids outfielder Jared L ...…
+Q
+Queers, Questions and Cocktails: Gay LGBT pop culture trivia podcast
+...…
+M
+Medic2Medic Podcast
+1Tracy Levesque and Max31:57
+31:57
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+Episode 87:Tracy Levesque is a Paramedic in Ottawa,Canada where their EMS system responds to 120,000 calls a year. Tracy is a BLS Paramedic, What is BLS Paramedic? Tracy will let us know the answer during our conversation. After 26 years on the job, Tracy is breaking a new partner. Max is a Golden Retriever and is the only Therapy Dog in Canada ...… ...…
+R
+Rolland Chidiac Connects
+, an ...…
+N
+News & Views with Rob Snow
+1February 9th, 2017 -CALLS-1:06:17
+1:06:17
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+Rob takes your calls from 10-Noon on whether or not Ottawa should be a sanctuary city.
+T
+The Agenda with Steve Paikin (Video)
+16:38
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+President Trump's executive order on domestic safety, released last week, has "enormous" implications for the privacy of Canadians, according to the University of Ottawa's Michael Geist. He joins The Agenda to discuss what has changed and if information-sharing agreements between Canadian and American government agencies need to be reconsidered.…
+T
+The RV Podcast
+...…
+F
+First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa
+1Cupid's Conundrum25:51
+25:51
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+✔ In Play Later
++ Lists25:51
+As Valentine·s Day approaches, we are reminded of the joys of romantic love, which is wonderful. Yet, REAL love requires commitment and maturity to sustain a covenantal relationship once the flames of passion burn less brightly.
+C
+Calvary Baptist Church - Ottawa
+A
+Around the Diamond
+1Around The Diamond Epsiode 471:06:19
+1:06:19
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+✔ In Play Later
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+On Episode 47 of Around the Diamond we jump into many different topics. To start off the show, Michael Nellis joins me in studio to co-host the show along side guests Tao of Stieb and Bret Leuthner.To start off the show, Sportsnet's Tao of Stieb joins us to talk about the Blue Jays off-season needs going into spring training, his latest article ...…
+W
+World Hockey Report
+23:50
++ Play Later
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+I talk about some surprises in my own greatest players list, my new project, the all star game, Ottawa's jerseys and Ken Hitchcock. Questions? Comments? Go to the Facebook page the hockey history podcast. Want to show some love and increase your karma? Go to patreon.com/hockeyhistory and support the show financially. You can also contact me on ...…
+H
+Human Rights a Day
+2:36
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+✔ In Play Later
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+Gladys Strum, pioneer in Saskatchewan and Canadian politics, was born. Gladys Grace Mae Lamb was born on February 4, 1906 in Gladstone, Manitoba. At 16, she became a teacher in Saskatchewan, where she met her husband Warner Strum. Early in their marriage, Warner contracted tuberculosis and Gladys got an understanding of the deficiencies in Cana ...…
+S
+Sens Callups - Ottawa Senators Podcast
+1:47:54
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+✔ In Play Later
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+We’re finally back & end up summarizing 13% of the season. Guess what, everyone: 14 out of 18 points! Sens vs Pens 4-1W Sens vs Leafs 4-2L Sens @ Blues 6-4W Sens @ Blue Jackets 2-0W Sens @ Leafs 3-2SOW Sens vs Blue Jackets 6-5OTL Sens vs Washington 3-0W Sens vs Calgary 2-1OTL Sens @ Panthers 6-5L Sens @ Lightning 5-2W…
+B
+Business Innovators Radio
+32:17
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+✔ In Play Later
++ Lists32:17 ...…
+With the Rangers embroiled in a second-round Stanley Cup playoffs clash with the Capitals, center Derek Stepan took a shot at some Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby.
+Q: Have you envisioned holding the Cup?
+A: No, I haven’t. Obviously, I’ve always thought, like in the back of your head, “What would it be like?” How do you even try to feel that feeling. You see these guys like hold the Cups up when you were a kid watching it…the look on their faces. …How do I dream that? Like, you can’t, you have no idea what that feeling is. So I don’t really have like this specific dream, but you always dream about being there and being close, but I’ve never actually had one where I’ve been holding it.
+Q: Is there more belief on this team than there has been on previous?
+A: I wouldn’t say that it’s so much a belief as much as there is a drive. You always believe. But we have this drive now, this drive’s that pushing us to work to at least put ourselves in the spot to have a chance at what we had last year.
+Q: What is your mentality on the ice?
+A: You gotta try to keep your cool at all times, but within the game you get worked up, and you’re just different people. I always tell my wife, sometimes I take longer when I come out of the locker room after games, and I tell her, sometimes it takes a little bit to…I don’t want it carrying it over, and you don’t want to see that person that comes off the ice ’cause he’s so intense and trying to figure out this, that and the other thing and it’s too much, too much hockey for my wife. You have to be so mentally sharp when you play a game. Always. You gotta be talking hockey, you gotta be thinking hockey. So sometimes you have to take a little bit longer to shift down and get away from hockey and come into what’s going on in the world,
+Q: What drives you?
+A: You have to want to have success. Wanting to get better each day is something that kind of drives me. How can I get better today? And that’s something that I think you can look at as an individual and as a team. We go through a playoff series, how can we better than we were in Game 1? How can we be better than we were in Round 1? And I think that’s something that drives a lot of us.
+Q: What makes you unique as a hockey player?
+A: It’s tough to talk about yourself, but if you’re gonna do it, I think something that I feel has gotten me to where I am and where I’ve been able to stay is…my hockey IQ is kind of what keeps me around. I give a lot of credit to coaches, my dad, my grandparents, people that are around me to constantly teach me the game, and I just kept it and I kept it and [stored] it and learned from it and kept learning and learning.
+Q: Do you watch other centers around the league?
+A: Yeah, I try to a little bit.
+Q: Does anybody remind you of you?
+A: I’d like to say that I want to try to play maybe like a Patrice Bergeron. I don’t think I’m quite to that level, obviously, but I’d like to be able to play that way at some point in my career, and I think it’s a good goal to have is to try to get to his level.
+Q: How would you describe Rangers fans?
+A: Ranger fans are great! I still believe that MSG during the playoffs is one of the loudest buildings. I’ve played in a lot of loud buildings and Montreal competes with it close, but I like our fans better.
+Q: How would you describe the experience with the broken jaw?
+A: Ugh … gross.
+Q: How long was it before you were able to eat solid food?
+A: Six weeks. July Fourth was the first time I was able to eat food, and I had ribs with my family (chuckle).
+Q: Did you lose a lot of weight?
+A: When we finished the last day, I was probably 165 pounds. I’m usually 180-185. I wasn’t eating anything, I had like orzo pasta, which is like nothing, with shredded chicken mixed together and then NYC juice press. That was the hardest part is energy levels. There was no pain, a little bit of stiffness ’cause the swelling was draining into my neck, but nothing serious at all, the issue was energy levels. You just can’t fill your body up fast enough. Through the game, your spurts are so much shorter.
+Q: Did it affect you psychologically at all?
+A: No. Let me put it this way: It’s the first time I had to be put under, and I was really nervous about it. I didn’t know what to expect, and the docs did a fantastic job. Even after I left the hospital and the drugs wore off, I had no pain. There was no issues with my face.
+Q: You had a hat trick in your first game — Oct. 9, 2010 at Buffalo.
+A: It was hard to describe, even when I was there. It was hard to describe even being there.
+Q: Why didn’t New York scare you?
+A: The group of guys when I came here were awesome. … These guys made the city small for me.
+Q: Is there any difference between New York City and Hastings, Minn.?
+A: (Laugh) The one thing I always say, it’s so great for me to go back to Minnesota. Because New York is so … so much going on— and I love it, I love the city — but it’s nice to go back home and go to cabins and go to lakes and relax and enjoy. They are different, but I love both of ’em a lot.
+Q: It’s like opposite ends of the world, almost.
+A: It’s cornfields and farmers, and then you come out here, and taxicabs and horns and sirens (smile).
+Q: Your first visit to New York City was after you were drafted.
+A: I flew over the city and I looked at it and I was like … it’s not real … this is a fake place … there’s no way there’s this much going on in one city (smile). And then the traffic (chuckle) was a nightmare getting to where we had to get to, and I was like, “What is going on?”
+Q: You went to a Subway Series game at Shea Stadium?
+A: Even the old stadium was really cool.
+Q: Who were you rooting for, the Mets or the Yankees?
+A: I wasn’t sure yet. I didn’t know where to put my allegiance (laugh), I wasn’t sure. I didn’t want to get in trouble.
+Q: Do you root for one of them now?
+A: Yeah, I don’t know if I should say, I might get in trouble with you (smile).
+Q: Me? I don’t care who you root for.
+A: I like the Yankees.
+Q: Why?
+A: I don’t know, I just do. It’s just the team I chose.
+Q: Have you been to Yankee Stadium?
+A: Yes I have. Went last summer after I broke my jaw, we had a little down time, we went out there.
+Q: What did you think of Yankee Stadium?
+A: It’s awesome.
+Q: Did you tour the monuments?
+A: No, we were actually right behind home plate. … They had that restaurant underneath, it was top notch.
+Q: Who did you go with?
+A: I went with my wife and her brother. But Mac [Ryan McDonagh] and Bras [Derick Brassard] and Hags [Carl Hagelin] were at the game too, they just were in a different spot.
+Q: Are they Yankees fans too?
+A: See, here’s the issue though, is I’m probably a Twins fan. If I had to really choose, I’m probably gonna stick with the Minnesota Twins. It’s tough to do at times (smile), but yeah, the Minnesota Twins are my team. And same with Mac.
+Q: Did you have a favorite Yankee?
+A: I don’t have a favorite Yankee. I mean, obviously, [Derek] Jeter was cool to see. It was like his last hurrah last year, right? I like how the announcer [Bob Sheppard] … they have like a recording of someone saying next to the plate, “No. 2, Derek Jeter, No. 2.” He was the only guy that had that guy announcing, so that was cool.
+Q: Are you recognized in the city at all?
+A: It’s weird, once you get to playoff time, I think the beards, they kind of get at least people’s attention for half a second longer, but for the most part, no.
+Q: You like the fact that you are not.
+A: Yeah, it’s awesome not being known. It’s good to kind of be able to just blend in. That’s all you really want to do anyways, is just kind of go about your business.
+Q: Describe Martin St. Louis.
+A: He’s a guy that works extremely hard and never wants to stop talking hockey, and it’s so cool to see. He’s always giving you his insight and how he feels about it, and that’s not something everyone does. He’s one of our older guys, and at times he acts like one of our younger guys. And when he needs to be one of the older guys, he acts like the older guy.
+Q: J.T. Miller and Chris Kreider.
+A: Both of ’em can shoot the puck extremely hard. I think Kreider’s probably got him in speed. Both of ’em are physical. They’re both very similar in the way they play the game. J.T. can take faceoffs, that’s different. Kreids’ll be mad at me that I said that, but Kreids can take faceoffs too, but J.T.’s more of a natural centerman, Both of ’em have hockey IQ, they both can think the game. … Maybe J.T. has the edge there. I think J.T. — because he played a little bit of center — can kind of see the game a little bit different than Chris. But they’re very similar players.
+Q: Henrik Lundqvist.
+A: He competes so hard. He’s athletic. It’s weird to say that a goalie can think the game, but he sees the game from his net really well, and so he’s able to anticipate some plays and make some saves.
+Q: McDonagh and the captaincy.
+A: He’s always said that he never wanted to change when he got it. That’s what he first told me when he first got it: “I’m just gonna work to not change who I am,” and he hasn’t. He’s had to adapt to certain parts of his life because of the captaincy, making some decisions for the team, and there’s certain things that go along with it that he’s slowly shown that he can handle pretty much anything at this point. Not slowly — he had to learn quickly — but he had some veteran guys help him, and I think he’s handled it fantastic.
+Q: Dan Girardi.
+A: He’s a warrior. Half the time I don’t understand how he does what he does. He is able to block shots at all points, and still be fine. His body takes a beating at times, and he just always is happy-go-lucky about it, he’s not worried about. Defensively, he’s got one of the better sticks in the league, I think.
+Q: What’s your definition of a warrior?
+A: I don’t know what my definition is, but I’ll say Dan Girardi, how bout that?
+Q: Who are athletes in other sports you admire?
+A: I like watching golf. I try to golf as much as I can. I’m OK, I’m nothing special. … I’m a big Tiger [Woods] fan, like I want him to do well so bad every tournament. I want Tiger to get back. But right now … Rory [McIlroy] is fun to watch. I always like watching Phil [Mickelson]. Phil’s entertaining to watch. I think golfers in general are really cool. You talk about when you go on the golf course, how hard it is mentally to stay focused through 18, and then you have millions of people watching you, how sharp those guys have to be, it’s pretty impressive.
+Q: Who’s the best golfer on the team?
+A: I think it’s down between [Miller] and Kleiner. I think they’re both like 2s, maybe 3s. Kleiner’s like Steady Eddie and Millsy hits like incredible shots.
+Q: Any other athletes other than golf?
+A: We play fantasy football on the team, we have a league. I won it last year. This year we had Kreids. Mac won it the first year.
+Q: So you didn’t defend your championship.
+A: I did not. I had a good team, too, but fell apart in the playoffs. Had some wide receiver issues.
+Q: Who is your boyhood idol?
+A: When I grew up, we didn’t have a pro hockey team around. My dad [Brad Stepan] was a guy that played. He didn’t make it all the way, but he was drafted by the Rangers, played in Windsor. If we played a game, he always talked to me afterwards, I did develop a lot from him. If I’m gonna say one, it’s gotta be Big Brad.
+Q: How old we’re you when you decided you wanted to be an NHL player?
+A: I never looked up and said, “Hey, I want to be an NHLer.” My goal was always, “I want to play college hockey.” I watched college hockey all the time, and as I got older, it was more like, “I want someone to pay for my college.” You try to be realistic — that’s my goal, I want to get into the NHL, but let’s be realistic. … I can work hard enough to get myself a Division I scholarship. So that was my first step. And then, once I got to college, then it came a little more real after my freshman season.
+Q: Why did you pick Wisconsin over Minnesota
+A: I didn’t get recruited by Minnesota.
+Q: Did it bother you?
+A: Yeah, probably growing up. You ask Mac the same question, both of us: “Hey, let’s play at the University of Minnesota.” Mac even more so, he won Mr. Hockey for the high school hockey. At the time I wasn’t hurt by it ’cause I had other teams that were interested.
+Q: 2014 NFL defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt of the Texans wasn’t there was he?
+A: My freshman year J.J. Watt was there. ’Cause they had [Seahawks quarterback] Russell Wilson, they had [Broncos running back] Montee Ball, they had J.J. Watt, they went to the [2013] Rose Bowl and lost to Stanford.
+Q: You didn’t get to meet Watt or Wilson?
+A: I did not, but actually this summer, I might get a chance to [at a charity golf tournament].
+Q: Give me a scouting report on your wife.
+A: She comes from a basketball family, 5-11 — her brother’s 6-10. She played volleyball growing up. Probably could have played Division I, didn’t want to, just wanted to go to college. Both her dad and brother are big-time golfers, big-time hunters. She’s not against going up to cabins, and kind of slugging it out without showering and stuff like that, and she’s OK with me golfing, which is a good thing (laugh). She values family just like I do, so the fact that me and her brother and her dad get along so well, she loves that.
+Q: Favorite New York City things?
+A: We’ve done a lot of Broadway shows, we’ve seen ’em all for the most part. We love like restaurants and stuff like that. … To be able to order anything is fantastic, straight to your door (smile).
+Q: Five dinner guests?
+A: Dave Matthews, Will Ferrell, Chris Farley, Peyton Manning, Phil Mickelson.
+Q: Favorite movies?
+A: “Ace Ventura” Pet Detective,” I like the “Dark Knight” movies a lot. I was also big in all the “Lord of the Rings” and the “Hobbits.”
+Q: Favorite actors?
+A: Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart, Leo [DiCaprio].
+Q: Who’s the team comedian?
+A: [Keith] Yandle’s worked his way in to be one of the funnier guys on the team.
+Q: Funny as far as wisecracks?
+A: No, he’s just dry (smile).
+Q: Who else?
+A: I’ve been here a long time with Staalsy [Marc Staal] and G [Girardi], and those two guys always seem to have something to say to somebody at some point. Maybe they’re more of the peanut gallery, and they get the laughs out of people. [Mats Zuccarello is] another guy that he throws in his two cents. But I think those three guys kind of lead the room.
+Q: Favorite entertainer?
+A: Dave Matthews.
+Q: Favorite meal?
+A: During the year, I can eat any Italian food. But my favorite offseason meal, I really enjoy sushi.
+Q: Favorite sushi spot?
+A: Nobu.
+Q: How would you describe what it’s like being a New York Ranger?
+A: It’s hard to really describe, because even being in the NHL is hard to describe. And then you add on top an Original Six franchise that is in one of the greatest cities in the world, it’s really tough to describe. The thing is, I try to enjoy myself as much as I can knowing that there is pressure to play here. But if you can find a way to be part of a good team here, there’s no better place to be than New York City.
+Congratulations! The big day has come and gone and you've returned from your honeymoon. This is when the real marriage begins, with all the challenges and gratifications of everyday life. Even if a couple has lived together before the wedding, taking vows before family and friends is a turning point in a relationship. So, going forward, what will maximize your chances for a vibrant and successful marriage? Here are a few tips.
+(1) Think “we/ours”, not “I/mine”. OK, when it comes to finances, there may be compelling reasons to maintain some separate financial accounts, especially if this is a second marriage. This decision is complicated and should definitely be tailored to your own circumstances as a couple. For example, if there's child support being paid from an ex-spouse, if one of you has inherited assets from a family member prior to your marriage, if one of you is going to take on certain household expenses and your spouse is going to handle others—these are all good reasons to talk with your spouse about the arrangement in question and reach a decision that's acceptable to you both.
+That said, income permitting, it's advisable that both spouses have some amount of discretionary income. Whether this is spent on lunch out during the week, shopping, expenses related to a recreational activity (e.g., tennis, running shoes), or simply opening an individual savings account for future expenses or to add to retirement funds, it enables both spouses to feel that they have some financial “breathing room”. And while having to account for every penny spent in the discretionary fund defeats the purpose, both spouses need to be comfortable divulging how they spend their “walking around” money.
+The point is that you want a high level of transparency in your life together, and this includes what money comes in and how the money goes out. Each couple's circumstances are different and tend to become more complicated as children become part of the family and assets are accumulated. Anyone who has been through a divorce has experienced first-hand how vexing the task of agreeing on division of assets—not to mention custody and visitation issues—can be.
+(2) The same principle applies to the time a couple has and how it's allocated. If you think back to high school or college math, you may remember something called a “Venn diagram”. The simplest of these shows two overlapping circles, with the area of overlap varying in size. We can apply this type of thinking to how a couple spends time. So, for instance, if both members of the couple are working, the time and activities done for work are in the non-overlapping parts of the circles. If both participate in household chores, those activities are represented in the overlapping area.
+As you can imagine, what goes into the overlapping area (the couple) and what lies in the individual (non-overlapping) areas can become a matter for dispute and disagreement. Most mental health professionals would probably agree that it's important for a couple to have some shared interests, whether they be recreational (hiking, camping, working out, watching movies, etc.), social (playing trivia with others, entertaining, hosting an occasional “movie night” at their home, etc.), or spiritual (attending church, Bible study or prayer group, community volunteer work, etc.). Research has shown that couples who have some interests in common fare better than those who don't, even something as simple as enjoying TV time together.
+On the other hand, it's important to find a balance between shared activities and individual interests. If a couple enjoys playing golf together on the weekend—and child care and household responsibilities have been addressed—then a major component of the “shared activity” area of the diagram is in place. If, on the other hand, one spouse wants to play golf every Saturday and participate in tournaments on a regular basis, but the other spouse has no interest in that activity or is actively excluded, the potential for problems in the marriage is increased.
+Here's another example that I see frequently with couples. Let's take the example of a couple that has started a family and they agree that they want an at-home parent with the children. Perhaps the wife takes a break from her career, or she arranges to work from home part-time. And while they both are committed to being good parents, the stress of dealing with three children under the age of five, for example, can feel overwhelming at times. Continuing with this example, there are days when, by the time dad gets home from work, mom has had it with feeding, entertaining, wrangling three young active children. When he walks in the door, she's dressed in her workout clothes, tells him “They're yours; I've had them all day” and heads out for yoga, or a spin class and workout at the gym.
+Both these scenarios—the “golf widow” or the full-time mom escaping to the gym at night—point to a lack of balance in the couple's life. What might some other scenarios be that would support the relationship rather than drive a wedge into it? Perhaps “golf dad” decides that he can be satisfied with playing nine holes instead of eighteen, or playing every other Saturday. The time that's freed up can then be spent with doing something with his spouse or family. Perhaps “gym mom” decides it's better for all if she gets out of the house and goes in to her office a couple of days a week, and the children either have an in-home babysitter or go to daycare on those two days. In both cases, the couple can feel more supported by each other, but without having to totally forego a valued activity.
+(3) Cultivating a “partnership” mindset. Over time, it's easy for couples to become more combative and competitive with each other. Instead of viewing a spouse as a “teammate”, a husband or wife may begin to feel that his or her job is more demanding and difficult than the spouse's, for example; that he bears a disproportionate burden of the housework or cooking; that she would prefer to spend time with her friends than her husband; that he isn't interested in hearing about his wife's day and just wants to spend the entire evening in front of the TV.
+You get the picture. The list of examples is endless, but they all point to a potential problem in the marriage. That is, when one or both spouses feel they're trying to outdo each other, or that they're asked to bear a heavier burden in the relationship, or that they have to compete for a spouse's attention in the marriage, the likelihood of resentments developing and festering increases. When a couple is able to maintain a partnership mindset, they'll be better equipped to face the difficult times and the challenges that all marriages sooner or later encounter.
+(4) Ongoing communication. One of the most frequent complaints I hear when a couple is beginning therapy is that they “just don't know how to communicate.” In this situation, the first task is to help them specify exactly what they mean by that. For instance, do they just not talk with each other? Does one talk, but the other not respond? Are they not able to collaborate on problem-solving, negotiation, compromise, evaluation of solutions they've implemented to problems in the marriage? All of these fall under the umbrella term of “communication skills” and need to be part of a couple's relationship repertoire.
+While we certainly learn styles of communication in our family of origin—e.g., volatile exchanges or simply refusing to talk about problems—these styles aren't written in stone. With the help of a competent professional, they can be identified and modified. Yes, it takes some practice. We're talking about learning and substituting new habits for old ones. It takes time and effort to develop new “scripts” for addressing issues and problems effectively with a loved one, but it certainly can be done.
+(5) Keeping it “fresh.” One of the greatest challenges in a marriage is maintaining some level of novelty. After all, when you're in a brand new relationship, much of the exhilaration and excitement comes from the ongoing discovery of new things about the other person. In marriage, after a while, it's common to assume we know almost everything about our spouse—or at least everything that really matters.
+Granted, one of the positive things about a long-term committed relationship is the feeling of comfort and predictability that we develop. There is a sense of safety and security that is engendered when we spend day after day with someone, learn their habits and ways of doing things, and begin to rely on them being available to us as an emotional support.
+But that very sense of predictability and reliability can also lead to a feeling of stagnation, even boredom. And this is a point at which a couple is at higher risk for an affair, for example. So, rather than adding excitement to your life by adding an outside person, one can look for ways to make himself or herself more enticing to a partner. There is a wide variety of ways one can approach this. For example, you might decide to take a course at a local college or university. Perhaps you wanted to learn Italian or Russian when you were in college years ago, but never followed through. Your spouse may be very surprised and curious about this interest. Perhaps you decide to do volunteer work at an animal shelter, or to work with military veterans, or to help out with a ministry at your church.
+Clearly, the list of possibilities is endless. The point is that the more you can evolve and grow as an individual, the greater the interest your spouse is likely to have in you. It's a reminder that he or she still has many things to learn about you as a person, that novelty in the relationship is very much a possibility. And that's exciting to a spouse—it reminds him or her that there are still things to learn about you--and it fuels both interest and desire.
+(6) Relationship repair. In spite of our best efforts in a marriage, even the most committed and self-aware couples will experience what I call “relationship rupture” from time to time. These are tears or breaks in the fabric of the relationship. Some may be relatively minor, e.g., forgetting to take a spouse's car in for inspection when you've committed to do that, being late for a dinner date with friends. Others may be much more damaging to a relationship. An obvious example is inappropriate behavior with a third party, or even an affair.
+Every couple needs to have a repertoire of ways in which they can repair these ruptures. The goal is to try to avoid them in the first place. If you tend to forget certain commitments you made to your spouse (for example, the car inspection scenario), do what it takes to jog your memory. This might involve a calendar posted in a central place, notes on your cell phone, or a post-it note on the bathroom mirror. What matters is that it works for you.
+If you find that you tend to change plans you've made with your spouse in favor of another opportunity that arises, you need to honor your initial commitment. For example, if you've invited your wife to dinner Friday evening, but Friday morning one of the guys in the office says a group is going out for drinks after work, you need to honor your initial commitment. If your husband has asked you to ride around in the golf cart with him on Saturday, just for fun and some time together, but your girlfriends decide they want to go to the outlet mall that day, you need to honor the prior commitment to your husband.
+If, sadly, we're talking about a major betrayal of your spouse—such as an affair—this is a much more complicated, longer-term relational repair issue than any of the examples above. Your best course of action, if you truly want to rebuild your marriage, is to seek expert professional help and to understand that restoring trust is a long-term undertaking that requires patience and a willingness to be as transparent in your behavior as possible. There is no substitute for the time that it takes to rebuild a relationship after it's been severely damaged by secrecy and betrayal—but, with commitment, work, and time, it can be done.
+***Dr. Liz Currin is the author of “The Essential Guide to Surviving Infidelity: The Support You Need to Rebuild Trust and Reclaim Your Relationship“ (Alpha, a division of Penguin Books, New York, New York, 2012). While this book is geared toward helping couples recover from the trauma of infidelity, it also addresses how to cultivate healthy behaviors within your marriage.
+. But then, even at their all-time peak, in 2006 and 2007, in the wake of the preceding 2 seasons being the first one in which they ever won a postseason series and the first one in which they ever won a Pennant, they topped out at 37,000 seats, leaving them nearly. The Houston Greyhound station is at 2121 Main Street, a mile and a half from the ballpark.
+If you actually think it’s worth it to drive, get someone to go with you so you’ll have someone to talk to and one of you can drive while the other sleeps. You’ll be taking Interstate 78 across New Jersey and into Pennsylvania to Harrisburg, where you'll pick up Interstate 81 and take that through the narrow panhandles of Maryland and West Virginia, down the Appalachian spine of Virginia and into Tennessee, where you'll pick up Interstate 40, stay on that briefly until you reach Interstate 75, and take that until you reach Interstate 59, which will take you into Georgia briefly and then across Alabama and Mississippi, and into Louisiana, where you take Interstate 12 west outside New Orleans. Take that until you reach Interstate 10. Once in Texas, Exit 770 will get you to downtown Houston.
+If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and a half in New Jersey, 3 hours in Pennsylvania, 15 minutes in Maryland, half an hour in West Virginia, 5 and a half hours in Virginia, 3 hours and 45 minutes in Tennessee, half an hour in Georgia, 4 hours in Alabama, 2 hours and 45 minutes in Mississippi, 4 hours and 30 minutes in Louisiana and 2 hours in Texas. Including rest stops, and accounting for traffic,., on the stadium.
+This change in the stadium name, but not in the propensity for offense, led Yankee broadcaster John Sterling, during an Interleague game there, to tell partner Charlie Steiner, "You know, Charlie, I understand that, at Minute Maid Park, the balls are juiced." To which Steiner said, "Ah, that's just pulp fiction.".
+Food. Being a "Wild West"” city, you might expect Houston to have Western-themed stands with "real American food" at its ballpark. Being a Southern State, you might also expect to have barbecue. And you would be right on both counts. They have Tex-Mex food at Goya Latin Cafe and La Cantina at Section 119, El Real Fajita at 131, Kickin' Nachos at 114 and 427, Maverick Smokehouse at 124 and 410, Taqueria and Grille at 216, and Rosa's Cantina at 411 (almost certainly named for the place in the Marty Robbins song "El Paso," even if that is on the other side of the State).
+They work the train theme with All Aboard at 109, Union Station at 113, Dining Car Grill at 125, Whistle Stop Libations at 218 and Chew Chew Express at 416.
+There's also stands with baseball-themed names: Baseball Bar at 207 and Little Biggs Slider Cart at 111. Chinese food is at Larry's Big Bamboo at 118 and Little Bamboo at 422, and there are 5 Papa John's Pizza stands. And there are several Blue Bell Ice Cream stands.. They have made the postseason 9 times, but only won 1 Pennant, in 2005. Stanchions representing that Pennant, their NL Western Division titles of 1980 and '86, and their NL Central Division titles of 1997, '98, '99 and 2001 are on the left-field wall,) team video is available, and so is a CD of longtime Astro broadcaster Milo Hamilton (who is probably best known not for any of his Astros' calls but for calling Hank Aaron's 715th home run while with the Braves). But since the Astros have only been in 1 World Series (2005), and got swept in it, don't look for the official highlight video. The only way you'll see highlights of their 2005 Pennant run is on the anniversary DVD.
+As for books about the team, Sara Gilbert (not the Roseanne actress) has published a 50th Anniversary retrospective, with the not-very-imaginative title of The Story of the Houston Astros. Jose De Jesus Ortiz and former Astro catcher Brad Ausmus commemorated the 2005.
+Across Texas Avenue at Hamilton Street, opposite the home plate entrance, is -- yet another ordinary name -- Home Plate Bar and Grill. As far as I can tell, it's the only bar around the park with a baseball-themed name.
+A block down Hamilton, at Franklin Street, is a place with a much better name: Joystix. Sadly (if you're looking to have drinks and fun after the game), this is a place that sells old pinball machines and video games, not a 1980s nostalgia place (which would tie in with the Astros' most successful period until 1997), not a combination 1980s-style mall (or beach boardwalk) arcade and modern bar. It's probably just as well: Can you imagine the combination of Pac-Man and beer (or worse, Missile Command and whiskey)?.
+Sidelights. In 1965, the Astrodome opened, and was nicknamed "The Eighth Wonder of the World." It sure didn't seem like an exaggeration: The first roofed sports stadium in the world. (Supposedly, the Romans built stadia with canvas roofs, but that's hardly the same thing.) The Astros played there until 1999, and then moved into Enron Field/Minute Maid Park for the 2000 season. The AFL/NFL's Oilers played at the Astrodome from 1968 to 1996, when they moved to Tennessee to become the Titans.
+Once, the Astrodome was flashy enough to be the site of movies like The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training and Murder at the World Series. (Both in 1977. In the latter, the Astros, who had never yet gotten close to a Pennant, played the Series against the Oakland Athletics, who had just gotten fire-sold by owner Charlie Finley.) Reliant) Stadium hosted the Super Bowl (which was won by... Janet Jackson, I think), the Astrodome was used to film a high school football playoff for the film version of Friday Night Lights; the old Astros division title banners can be clearly seen.
+Today, though, the Astrodome seems, like the Republican Party that held a ridiculously bigoted Convention there in 1992, stuck in the past, and not just because they renominated failed President George H.W. Bush. The former Eighth Wonder of the World is now nicknamed the Lonely Landmark, and while it served as a shelter for people displaced from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, since 2008, when it was hit with numerous code violations, only maintenance workers and security guards have been allowed to enter. The stadium's future is not clear: Some officials are worried that demolishing it would damage the new stadium and other nearby structures..
+The Houston Oilers played at Jeppesen Stadium from 1960 to 1964. They won the 1960 AFL Championship Game there, won the 1961 title game on the road, and lost the 1962 title game there -- and, as the Oilers and the Tennessee Titans, haven't gone as far as the rules allowed them to since 1961. Built in 1942, it.
+The Oilers played the 1965, '66 and '67 seasons at Rice Stadium, home of Rice University. Although built in 1950 and probably already obsolete, it seated a lot more people than did the Astrodome, and so Super Bowl VIII was played there instead of the Astrodome in January 1974, and the Miami Dolphins won it -- and haven't won a Super Bowl since. It has been significantly renovated, and Rice still uses it. University Blvd. at Greenbriar Street, although the mailing address is 6100 S. Main Street. Number 700 bus.
+Before there were the Astros, or even the Colt .45's, there were the Houston Buffaloes. The Buffs played at Buffalo Stadium, a.k.a. Buff Stadium, for most of their history, from 1928 to 1961, when the Colt .45's made them obsolete.
+Wanting to lure in more customers, but also to beat the infamous Houston heat, lights were installed in 1930, 5 years before any major league park had them. The Buffs won 8 Texas League Pennants: 1928, 1931, 1940, 1947, 1951, 1954, 1956 and 1957. The stadium was at the southwest corner of Leeland Street & Cullen.
+Houston's version of New York's American Museum of Natural History is the Houston Museum of Natural Science, in Hermann Park, at Main Street and Hermann Park Drive. The Houston Museum of Fine Arts is at 1001 Bissonnet Street, just 5 blocks away. Both can be reached by the Number 700 bus.
+Of course, the name "Houston" is most connected with two things: Its namesake, the legendary Senator, Governor and war hero Sam Houston, and the Johnson Space Center, the NASA control center named after President Lyndon B. Johnson, who, as Senate Majority Leader, wrote the bill creating NASA and the Space Center, because he thought it would bring a lot of jobs and money to Houston (and he was right).
+Most historic sites relating to Sam, however, are not in the city that bears his name. As for reaching the Johnson Space Center, it's at 1601 NASA Parkway and Saturn Lane. The Number 249 bus goes there, so if you don't have a car, Houston, you won't have a problem.
+Although Houston is the post-Presidential home for George H.W. and Barbara Bush, his Presidential Library is at Texas A&M University, 100 miles away in College Station.
+入り口を狭くして太った人が入れないようにする計画
+イギリスで、「ファーストフード店は、入り口のドアの幅をもっと狭くして肥満の人達が入れないようにし、これ以上ジャンクフードを食べれないようにすべきだ。」と医者が文句を言っている。
+イギリス小児科医師協会のシモン・ミンコフ医師は、「食べすぎは健康に良くないのです。私は政府に、”狭い入り口プラン”を採用することにより、肥満すると大変なこと(面倒なこと）になるという事実を示して欲しいのです。」と話している。
+別の医師は、デブな人が入れないようにする理想的なドアの幅は３０cm以下だと主張している。また、国際肥満対策フォーラム委員のデビット・ハスラム医師は、「ウエストが男性で１０２cm、女性で８８cmを超えると、医学的に肥満していると言える。」と述べている。更に彼は、「僕は肥満している人達がファーストフード店に入れないようしているわけじゃないんだ・・・だって、ドライブスルーを利用したり、友達に頼んで買ってきてもらうことだってできるでしょ。」とも話している。
+一方、栄養学士ニコラス・キャンソンさんは、「医師がこんなばかげた計画を提案するなんて信じられない。これは肥満の人達への差別行為だわ。太ったのは全部彼ら自身の責任だと言われているようなものです。」と怒りをぶちまけている。
+大手ファーストフード店マクドナルドは、「障害を持った人はどうするのか？例えば車椅子の人とか、乳母車を曳いたお母さんはどうすれば良いのか？」と、やはりこの「狭き門」計画に対し困惑を隠せない。
+最後に「肥満人間の入店を規制するドアのデザイン」として、面白いデザインがあったので紹介しておきます。
+なんとリンボーダンスドア。これじゃあ、普通の人でも入���たくないかも。しかもこのデザインの説明に「入れるものなら、入って来い」と書いてありました。
+一応、このリンボードアはジョークですので、ホントに医師達がデザインしたものではありません。
+【英文記事】Slim doors to block fatties
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+The euro crisis There are all too many alternatives In the first of three pieces on Europe’s future, we look at Greece’s enraged howl of an election, which makes its eventual departure from the euro zone more likely See article
+Readers' comments
+Reader comments are listed below. Comments are currently closed and new comments are no longer being accepted.
+Sort:
+Greece cannot afford to stay in the Euro.
+Like in the Tremonti videogame,a monster after another.The "markets" will believe that after Greece it's up to Portugal,and so on.Ad maiora!
+Bad politicians, or bad policy? Is there anyone who could choose between these two? This is the dilemma greeks faced during recent elections.
+The results was not a vote against euro. I thing that all the greeks are prepare to make sucrifices, within a system of justice and equality, as the results of greek elections are not yet final.
+I am afraid that there is no 70% of Greeks in favor of the Euro currency. As you say in the article almost 70% of the votes in the elections went to parties blaming the IMF and its policies. When Greek people reply yes to polls about whether they want to stay in the euro or not they do so because they are thinking of the consequences. But when they are called to prove that they want to stay in the euro they go ahead and vote for Syriza, Independent Greeks, Golden Dawn, the Communist party and all other parties that say no to the IMF, consolidation measures and structural reforms. It is their right to do that, of course. But they should also ask all these parties for their alternative and solid plans in relation to the crisis. I haven't seen any.
+True, but there is no credible plan with the IMF 'salvation' package.
+Sell, sell, sell, get poorer, poorer poorer with no end in sight, while the deficit keeps growing. If that's a plan, I'd rather go with no plan.
+When the experts are seeing that they are creating “catch 22” situations with their austerity plans (sold into slavery) and creating growth? As the saying reveals; there are two things infinite... the universe... and people’s foolishness. We need to go away of the path of self destruction by abiding the Laws of Economics and start building-up an attitude of “loving our neighbours as oneself”. For your information Google “The World Monetary Order to Come”..
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+Quite - this thread (and this Article, and all the governmental responses) oozes emo-drama, and little else.
+The PIIGS are insolvent in the "cash-flow sense", to borrow from the language of bankruptcy law. Unfortunately, there is no international tribunal that can take control of the situation and compel a well thought-out plan of reorganization/debt-relief. So the matter is left to the chaotic impulses of the mobs and those pols who pander to them in every EZ country. The outcome of that process is predictably grim.
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+So, you admit your postings are aimed at convincing non-bankrupt countries to declare bankruptcy and line your pockets with money for "services rendered."
+The last thing we need is to get the lawyers and the sharks involved.
+Really, Milo - I consider myself among the most cynical of creatures that God has ever created, but I bow to you in that arena.
+Difficult as it may be, we must all make the effort to keep open minds if we are going to think our way of this problem. Reflexive responses and emotionally satisfying diatribes may play well to the mass audience, but they aren't the stuff of which an effective and fair solution can be crafted.
+That these countries are "insolvent" in the technical sense is clear, and saying it isn't so won't change that reality, Milo. Resolving cases of insolvent debtors is what the bankruptcy process has been doing for hundreds of years. There's a pool of experience there that can find a way out of this if invited to do so.
+And don't worry about the cost - even sharks have a sense of communal responsibility - maybe, in theory. In any case, one suspects the best of them will not expect to be paid for their contributions.
+I studied and later worked in Washington DC for almost a decade - and I have very clear ideas about Anglo-American lawyers (not to mention an arsenal of anti-lawyer jokes acquired during my years in North America).
+No, which countries are "insolvent" is not clear. The PIG countries yes, but international speculation is now pointed at Spain and Italy, attempting to push us into insolvency (the same is true for Slovenia at the moment).
+BTW, Italian sovereign debt is 60% financed by our own domestic sources - a statistic that is now rising. Therefore I will thank foreigners to stick their noses out of the contractual agreements existing between the Republic of Italy and its own private-law juridical persons/financiers/citizens.
+Italy has always paid its own debts and we will continue to pay our own debts faithfully. Our banks are the world's oldest, with many founded in the 1400's. They have weathered other crises, including war, hyperinflation, plague, foreign occupation, natural disasters, religious oppression and genocide, and we will weather the Euro-crisis also.
+"Physician Heal Thyself"
+Some time we'll have to swap lawyer jokes; few people have a lower opinion of lawyers as a group than other lawyers, though the reasons may differ. This part of your post catches the eye -
+"No, which countries are "insolvent" is not clear."
+Perhaps you have a different view, but according to orthodox usage, any country that needs non-commercial international transfers to discharge its international obligations as they become due is insolvent in the cash-flow sense. I'm pretty sure this test would pin the tail on Greece, Portugal and Spain. IDK about Italy and Ireland.
+Agree that we are eventually are going to make it to the other side of this financial killing-ground that Europe is navigating. It's really just a question of how much damage is inflicted in the process. The guys running the show now have made damn near every mistake in the book at least once, and some several times – they’re the ones who got Europe into this mess, right? Do you sincerely believe they have what it takes to see us safely through this? Are you willing to bet your financial life that they do?
+I agree with your analysis about mistakes. Definitely, the politicians need to be replaced. I spent 20 minutes chatting with Mario Draghi in front of a Washington DC steakhouse about 20 years ago, and I confess to having a weakness for the man: pleasant, unruffled, competent and confident - so I will defend him.
+According to the standard definition, Portugal, Ireland and Greece - although perhaps Portugal could return to private markets next year, providing that there WILL BE a private market in Euros...
+Spain still finances itself (just sold €2.9 billion at 12- and 18- months, 2.95% and 3.3% respectively, a few hours ago).
+Ditto for Italy.
+When I am in my calmer moments (we have all spent the last 3 days attached to the TV and internet here), I must admit that Spain and Italy are in little danger of being insolvent - that is, completely unable to place debt instruments on the market; we are in more likely danger of not being able to sell long-term bonds (10-years, for example).
+Have you heard that instead of white mice scientists have begun using lawyers for medical experiments?
+Apparently there are more of them around and you become less attached to them.
+Um ... yeah, and it keeps the PETA people off their backs too.
+Wonder how the bond auctions would have gone without the ECB and other GSEs/GLEs in buying with both hands? Even Greece managed to sell bonds a while back. So who bought them?
+Presumably mostly domestic institutions?
+Italy sold 3.5 billion at 3 years, with yields stable (from last month) at 3.9%. Coverage was healthy enough at 1.52X (mostly Italian investors through domestic savings institutions. We sold over half of our maturities/rollovers through April - over 200 billion. For the rest of the year we are selling about 20 billion monthly - not very much.
+Spain only has €45 billion to roll over for the rest of the year - 6 billion monthly. In a 1-trillion-euro economy this is not so much.
+And those "domestic institutions" - they're the ones on pass-thru life-support from the ECB, aren't they?
+In Italy's case, definitely not.
+In Spain's case, not yet... I think the commercial banks are in fairly good shape. The crisis - as in Germany - is with the local Savings & Loans - which were hitherto unregulated (oohhhh - that sounds familiar, eh? Yes, I was in Washington in 1988).
+I do not think the Savings Banks are big investors in Spanish bonds - their investments were tied up in real estate and they are being rapidly consolidated to raise core capital.
+Italy has been a rich country for a long time, and there are €8.6 trillion in aggregate private savings (6X gdp) floating around - in fact, much of the demand for German bonds, driving down yields and increasing the spreads, are actually coming from Italy: our financial system has around €250 billion of exposure to Germany.
+But should it be necessary to re-capitalise our banks, this is achieved easily enough - the problem (political) is the dilution of shareholder control, as the municipal foundations behind most of our banks are loathe to relinquish control. Unicredit for example was instructed by the European Banking Authority at the end of last year to raise €8 billion in new equity capital - 2 months later they had done that (with some help from Abu Dhabi).
+Or would "Drachma Queens" soon be more appropriate?
+Down with the euro!!!
+Please correct your graphics: in the previous elections there was no 50 seat-bonus for the party which came first, so PASOK's tally corresponds to its share of the vote.
+This very undemocratic bonus which gives the largest party 20% of the total seats (!!!) was voted by the New Democracy deputies when they were last in power. According to the relevant Greek law, this kinds of changes in the electoral law only apply in the second-to-next election.
+and none of the parties wanting less austerity state where the money will come from. It's a simple question can someone please ask them ? !
+As long as the banker scum rake in massive profits and bonuses at our expense, suffer austerity we will not.
+I might listen when you have hanged Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon for being dirty thieves. But not before.
+Banks ARE to blame for much of the problem , including their refusal to accept that their pay should reflect the mess they made ! However I think that it's also important to remember the following;
+- No one FORCED anyone to use their home as a source of inexhaustible income by constantly remortgaging. The banks made profits but many saw it as a legitimate form of income (DIY Ponsy scheme !)
+- Governments could have said to their electorate that it was important to keep some cash back for the eventual changes that would happen when 'readjustment' took place . Instead they borrowed against fictional equity to increase living standards and allowed consumers to do the same. Thus ignoring the cyclical nature of economics.
+- This increased living standard led people to believe that a world where a meal out was the norm and that the accumulation of needless items of clothing , electricals ," extra virgin olive oil" etc. was not only desirable but essential.
+In short most of us took some part in the disaster..
+Here is how the banker's game works:...
+mansoor h. khan
+Greeks have to choose between Euro and Drachma? Sorry banker stooges of the Economist, every country in Europe would be better off without the Euro. Only the thieving banks wouldn't be..
+The Euro is a dream world for speculator scum. Now countries are trapped in a situation where they cannot devalue, and gaining leverage by influencing only a handful of politicians or placing stooges in the one Central Bank (Draghi, Goldman Sachs parasite) is much easier. And the volumes are bigger too. Easier to get access to LTRO's and the likes, easier to get massive bailouts ad guarantees and socialization of losses.
+We in Netherlands and Germany didn't have such problems we have now before the wealth-destroying Euro (a banker project) was introduced. The Euro is our misfortune.
+If we promise to hang any banker that tries to bet against a currency, no such problems as you describe would happen. Parasites like Blankfiend and Jamie Demon need to be rooted out. Not praised because they are not geniuses they are thieving parasites.
+Putting such different countries in a currency unions was a terrible mistake...paralleling oddly subprime mortgages.
+The Euro allowed a lot of credit to flow to dangerous customers and viola. Only there will be no political will in the North to pay for it nor in the South to endure the pain of reform. It is dead
+just a matter of a few more elections.
+Alexis? a typical populist politician of the worst sort.
+I am afraid that the situation is worst than 6 May. A post-election Poll, organized by ALPHA TV, a major Greek TV Channel, on 10 May, shows that SYRIZA, (Mr Tsipras left coalition)this time, comes first with 27,7% (11% up from 6 May,) while the center right party, New Democracy comes second with 20,3% (1.5% up from 6May) and center left PASOK goes further down to 12,6 %.This means that the "rebell" is still strong, with unpredictable developments.
+That's not bad, that's good news! Finally people are waking up that our politicians are giving away our money to the bankers and are making laws on bankers orders. This must stop. To use a 20th century analogy, the people who voted 'rebel' are the resistance, the EU/IMF/bankers represent a certain Empire numbered between 2 and 4.
+We the resistance will finally win, let's hope Empire 'between 2 and 4' will go peacefully unlike its 20th century equivalent..
+We're giving money to banks, not bailing out Greece. Or rather, our treasonous politicians are giving money to banks, using Greece as intermediary.
+The Greek people are rebelling against enforced austerity measures same with Spanish and now French also. This anti-austerity rhetoric doing the rounds in the most indebted countries is quite remarkable in that the people of Europe seem to be working against themselves and their future. Austerity measures are there to correct the mistakes of the past. You can not move forward until you have dealt with historic issues and wipe the decks clean. Greed, complacency and a far too satiated hunger for debt financing have all come back to bite and the people of Europe are not willing to take their punishment. I wonder if all the people in Greece voting for Right wing parties and protesting against enforced government austerity measures always paid their taxes on time and in full every month?
+I wonder are the people of France willing to sacrifice their fairly standard 35 hour working week or lessen the power of their unions for want of a better future and the good of their country
+I wonder will the people of Ireland accept that the majority of them had a role to play in the property bubble that burst and vote Yes for the fiscal treaty.
+For the people of Europe this is all of our mess to deal with, if you are going to do the crime be willing to do the time.
+The bankers invented fraudulent products, came up with fraudulent loans, they committed the crime, they should be doing the time. Make Goldman Sachs suffer the losses!.
+It still does not change the tax income < government spending problem.
+While I do question if just austerity fixes the problem, change of status quo (tax, labour market, government spending) is necessary. And you know what, people who bought European debts is not only investment banks, many folks (including European) pension plans and bank saving also depends on stability of the financial markets...
+I agree with you Jeff. People don't want to take responsibility for past undue advantages and for having lived over their means.
+Not only are political rights granted under a democracy, but also responsibility for actions taken or inaction.
+European people are, in a immature way, electing governments that speak the langage of illusion and false promises, instead of waking up and facing reality now.
+Germany and Europe should not accept that behavior and force Greece out of the Euro zone in case it fails to accept austerity.
+The only solution.
+I guess the lazy fraudulent Greeks have stayed in Greece while the others have emigrated to better organized societies.
+May be. On the other hand:
+(1) WSJ:
+(2) Forbes:...
+Are you still convinced for your verdict?
+A good majority of Greeks know these words quite well... What should be taught in schools is "political oversight" and "political responsibility"....
+The problem in Greece is that: the educational system does not provide the suitable job for the right person. The majority of people doesn't like the job they are doing, because there were almost no chance, in their youth to got the qualifications they needed for what they are talended. I know that sound very odd, but that's it. The educational system does not support men and women with specific talends and specific areas of intelligence. So you can see a very intelligent woman to clean houses, and a very stupit one, to have a very important job in the public sector, just because her father knew a minister. Or, you can see someone with a univerciry deegre in economics to be very bad at it, and be very good at mechanical engineerings.
+In Greece is very difficult for someone to do the job he wants.
+Enough already you lying greedy socialist Greeks - GO be gone and leave the Euro and go back to your depreciating worthless drachma. Portugal, Spain, Italy and France and Belgium will soon join you in any case in leaving the Euro.?
+Britain is the only country that shares a nuclear strategy with the United States. Britain's opposition party has voted decisively to break that bond, and Michael Foot, who has worked for unilateral disarmament during his entire political career, is the head of that party.
+Americans have paid little attention to the fact that Foot -- formally the Leader of Her Majesty's Opposition -- is one of the most left-wing political leaders in Western Europe. He is certainly the only potential leader of a nuclear power who advocates abolishing his country's nuclear forces; he is also the only potential prime minister of a Common Market nation who favors withdrawal from the Common Market.
+For more than a generation, Britain's "special relationship" with the United States has been a central feature of the country's foreign policy. Yet Foot hasn't visited the United States since 1954, a fact he cheerfully dispenses without a hint that it might strike an American as remarkable.
+Michael Foot is, in most respects, the antithesis of a modern politician. He is, by trade, a writer (author of nine books), a white-maned socialist intellectual with the bearing and disposition of a university professor who, at age 69, could be nearing comfortable retirement -- a country life with his beloved wife Jill, his memoirs and his terrier, Dizzy (short for Disraeli, the 19th-century Conservative prime minister).
+Instead, Foot today rides astride the fractious cohabitation of trade unionists and grass-root radicals that dominate Labor. A gentle, rumpled, professorial type, he is a most unlikely standard bearer. Although his health is good, he told a British interviewer recently that one eye is "gone" as a result of shingles, "but I still can see perfectly well with the other."
+In British political circles, it is conventional wisdom to dismiss Foot's chances of leading his party to victory when a national election is called sometime in the next 18 months.
+Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Tories have been riding high in the polls since last spring's Falklands war. The new Social Democratic Party, in alliance with the Liberals, has skimmed off some of Labor's support among middle-class professionals repelled by the more radical features of Labor's programs. Foot's personal standing as leader, as measured in the polls, is low enough for there to be murmurings of a party coup to oust him.
+But it hasn't happened and, as The Economist observed recently, Foot is still "the second most likely person to be the next prime minister of Britain." The Economist compared Foot's chances to socialist leader Francois Mitterand's in 1980. Two years later, Mitterand was elected president of France.
+Foot's chances are enhanced by the fact that in Britain, a party's proportion of the total vote is irrelevant. Seats in parliament go to the winners in each individual constituency, and a constituency can be won with a 35 percent plurality in a three-way race. As a practical matter, the Laborites could come to power -- and Foot could become prime minister -- by winning the votes of 40 percent or less of the British electorate.
+Q: In your keynote speech to the recent Labor Party conference, you said, "Reaganism and Thatcherism threaten the world on a scale we have not known for generations." Why do you believe Ronald Reagan represents such a threat to Britain and the world?
+A: I think Reaganism represents a threat to us all. Just as Thatcherism represents a threat to us all because it is a fundamentally unsound economic theory being ruthlessly applied. What it has done here is greatly intensify the (effects) of the world depression. Undoubtedly it's added something like a million to the maybe 2 million unemployed we'd have here if it had just been left to the operation of the world slump.
+In my (parliamentary) constituency, our unemployment rate is now 23, 24, 25 percent. I reckon there will be quite a number of places in the United States which will be having experiences like that over the next year or so. How long Western societies can withstand without huge political commotions, unemployment of that scale, who knows? I can think of nothing more calculated to corrode Western societies than mass unemployment. . .
+Reagan's economics are inhibiting or injuring the possibility of economic recovery in many other countries. I agree with all the criticisms by Mitterand and the others against American policy. Reagan's attitude towards the Third World is also restricting the development of policy there. So as it effects the people in the United States, as it effects the people in Europe and as it effects the Third World, I think that Reagan economics are a menace to the world.
+Q: The Labor Party conference voted overwhelmingly for a unilateralist nuclear policy, to do away with Britain's nuclear weapons. What do you mean by that?
+A: Well, I believe that we in Britain should not proceed with the (planned deployment of U.S.) cruise or Pershing missiles. I am also opposed to proceeding with the (future purchase of U.S.) Trident (submarines and missiles). . . We want to move towards a non-nuclear defense program...
+Q: And the eviction of existing American bases?
+A: Yes that's right.
+Q: Do you support that?
+A: Well, I do indeed. But I believe that we should move to it on a sensible basis. I believe this country has the right to a nonnuclear policy. I think the more we explain it the more backing we will get in the country..
+Q: In the United States it is widely accepted that the Soviet Union represents the greatest danger to security in the world. Do you accept that?
+A: Well, I think they do in some respects, although I believe its a two-way business. The threat comes from the arms race itself. . .
+Q: So you tend to equate the two (superpowers)?
+A: I don't believe that the United States has done anything in recent times that compares with the Russian attitude towards Poland or the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. Although I'm strongly critical of the United States attitude towards El Salvador. I do believe that the United States contributes to the arms race just as the Soviets do. And in a sense, I think that over the past two or three years, the American attitude has contributed more fiercely to the arms race than the Soviet Union.
+Michael Foot is the product of a venerable political family. His father, Isaac, a member of parliament from Cornwall, was a Methodist and Liberal non-conformist who instilled in his seven children a passion for books and a personal commitment to "fight the good fight and keep the faith." Three of his brothers -- Dingle, Hugh and John -- also made prominent public careers.
+Undaunted by asthma and excema, Foot began his political career by exploiting his inherited penchant for oratory to become president of the Oxford Student Union. He was one of the organizers of the celebrated 1933 Oxford pacifist resolution that forswore under any circumstances a "fight for King and Country."
+But when war came he wrote a pamphlet called "Guilty Men" denouncing pacifism. Exposure to depression-era poverty in Liverpool turned him to socialism, though he never became a Marxist.
+After the war, as editor of Tribune, a perpetually broke, left-wing weekly that once had George Orwell as its literary editor, Foot was as firm in his anti-Stalinism as he was in his support for British socialism. He supported American intervention in Korea and the NATO Pact as "purely defensive." But Foot also accused the West of a "gross overestimate of Soviet strength" and said that the arms buildup was threatening Britain's economic recovery.
+Q: Is there any country today, or any point in the past, that you think should serve as a model for the Britain that you envision?
+A: The best example that I've seen of democratic socialism operating in this country was during the second world war. Then we ran Britain highly efficiently, got everybody into a job. It wasn't so difficult then to employ people who were disabled and in difficulties and all the rest of it. We wanted to use all their efforts and we found the money to do it. We also produced, I would have thought, probably more than any other country including Germany. We mobilized better. The conscription of labor was only a very small element of it.
+We also did what I think we ought to do on a far greater scale now, looking after the people who are worst hit. In the war, instead of saying because (the country) is in extreme circumstances you've got to cut the pay of the people who are worst off, they did the opposite. They increased the pensions, the social security. It was a democratic society with a common aim in which many of the class barriers were being broken down. Many of us thought we would never return to a society in which class barriers were rebuilt. Many of them have been. And many of those class barriers are the very things which have injured the community since.
+Q: What do you think are the best features of British life today?
+A: (After a long pause.) All over the country people live their lives primarily in democratic communities that they know they've got some control over. They've got identity with their towns and villages. Those identities are being attacked, assailed in some respects. But even so, there are still a whole range of democratic institutions which operate in this country and sustain it as a free country. People are not afraid of speaking and arguing and discussing and organizing together. They're becoming afraid now of this absolute curse that they're not going to get jobs. That's terrifying. . .
+I don't want to minimize the nature of the current situation. It is because of the strength of Britain's society that we are not overwhelmed by (our present troubles.)
+After years on the sidelines, Foot took a government job under Harold Wilson when Labor was returned to power in 1974. He became secretary for employment, a job in which he not surprisingly got along well with the unions but also impressed the civil servants and his cabinet colleagues with thoroughness and commitment. This was a time, he told friends, when he learned the limitations and constraints of power and the neccesities of compromise.
+When Wilson resigned in 1976, Foot was persuaded by his supporters to run for leader (had he won then, he'd have become prime minister). He came in second to James Callaghan. In 1980, after Tory Margaret Thatcher had defeated Callaghan, Foot ran again and won.
+The honeymoon was short. The Labor Party's factions became bitterly quarrelsome. Although Foot's election was clearly a victory for the party's left wing, shrill voices led by the ambitious Tony Benn began pressuring Foot from the left. Overtly Marixst or Trotskyite pressure groups stepped up activities in local party organizations. There were fights over control of the party apparatus and demands for more radical policies. In disgust, a score of MPs and Labor celebrities quit Labor to form the nucleus of the Social Democrats. In the Falklands war, Foot found himself in the position of limply supporting Thatcher.
+Foot was increasingly portrayed as the hapless victim of a party intent on self-destruction, lacking the clout or backbone to stanch the process. In a poignant interview with The London Sunday Times, Foot quoted Byron to explain how he felt: Here's a sigh for those who love me And a smile for those who hate And whatever sky's above me Here's a heart for every fate.
+But at the Labor Party conference in September, the party's annual get together, matters began to improve a bit. Benn declared complete loyalty to Foot. The Trotskyites were put on notice to get out and Foot won a warmmstanding ovation for his keynote speech. Still, 10 Downing Street is a long way off.
+Q: Why after a full distinguished career as a writer, a politician, journalist, why now in what some might describe as the autumn of you. Tr life, why take on the job of reviving this country?
+A: Anybody who engages in politics can't say he won't take the jobs there on offer. I don't think its possible to chuck your hand in. Politics in this country are going to be pretty exciting for the next five or six years. I think we can get a new Conservative government and if we do, they will be confirmed in their ideologies. If that happens its going to be a disastrous stay for Britain.
+NCLBA-- Title I -- IMPROVING THE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF THE DISADVANTAGED
+SEC. 1111 STATE PLANS
+(b) ACADEMIC STANDARDS, ACADEMIC ASSESSMENTS, AND ACCOUNTABILITY.-
+(1) CHALLENGING ACADEMIC STANDARDS.
+- (A) IN GENERAL..
+- (B) SAME STANDARDS.-The academic standards required by subparagraph (A) shall be the same academic standards that the State applies to all schools and children in the State.
+- (C) SUBJECTS..
+- (D) CHALLENGING ACADEMIC STANDARDS.-Standards under this paragraph shall include-
+- (i) challenging academic content standards in academic subjects that-
+- (I)specify what children are expected to know and be able to do;
+- (II)contain coherent and rigorous content; and
+- (III)encourage the teaching of advanced skills; and
+- (ii) challenging student academic achievement standards that-
+- (I)are aligned with the State's academic con-tent.
+- (E) INFORMATION.-For the subjects in which students will be served under this part, but for which a State is not required by subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C) to develop, and has not otherwise developed, such academic standards, the State plan shall describe a strategy for ensuring that students are taught the same knowledge and skills in such subjects and held to the same expectations as are all children.
+- (F) EXISTING STANDARDS.-Nothing in this part shall prohibit a State from revising, consistent with this section, any standard adopted under this part before or after the date of enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
+(2) ACCOUNTABILTY
+- (A) IN GENERAL.-
+- (i)be based on the academic standards and academic assessments adopted under paragraphs (1) and (3), and other academic indicators consistent with subparagraph (C)(vi) and (vii), and shall take into account the achievement of all public elementary school and secondary school students;
+- (ii)be the same accountability system the State uses for all public elementary schools and secondary schools or all local educational agencies in the State, except that public elementary schools, secondary schools, and local educational agencies not partici-pating under this part are not subject to the require-ments of section 1116; and
+- (iii)include sanctions and rewards, such as bonuses and recognition, the State will use to hold local educational agencies and public elementary schools and secondary schools accountable for student achievement and for ensuring that they make adequate yearly progress in accordance with the State's definition under subparagraphs (B) and (C).
+- (B) ADEQUATE YEARLY PROGRESS. agen-cies, and schools.
+- (C) DEFINITION.-'Adequate yearly progress' shall be defined by the State in a manner that-
+- described in paragraph (3);
+- ; except that disaggregation of data under subclause (II) shall not be required in a case in which the number of students in a category is insufficient to yield statistically reliable information or the results would reveal personally identifiable information about an individual student;
+- ; and
+- (vii) in accordance with subparagraph (D), at the State's discretion, may also include other academic indicators, as determined by the State for all public school students, measured separately for each group described in clause (v), such as achievement on additional State or locally administered assessments, decreases in grade-to-grade retention rates, attendance rates, and changes in the percentages of students completing gifted and talented, advanced placement, and college preparatory courses.
+- (D) REQUIREMENTS FOR OTHER INDICATORS.-In carrying out subparagraph (C)(vi) and (vii), the State-
+- (i) shall ensure that the indicators described in those provisions are valid and reliable, and are consistent with relevant, nationally recognized profes-sional and technical standards, if any; and
+- (ii) except as provided in subparagraph (I)(i), may not use those indicators to reduce the number of, or change, the schools that would otherwise be subject to school improvement, corrective action, or restructuring under section 1116 if those additional indicators were not used, but may use them to identify additional schools for school improvement or in need of corrective action or restructuring.
+- (E) STARTING POINT.). The starting point shall be, at a minimum, based on the higher of the percentage of students at the proficient level who are in-
+- (i) the State's lowest achieving group of students described in subparagraph (C)(v)(II); or
+- (ii) the school at the 20th percentile in the State, based on enrollment, among all schools ranked by the percentage of students at the proficient level.
+- (F)).
+- (G) MEASURABLE OBJECTIVES.-Each State shall establish statewide annual measurable objectives, pursuant to subparagraph (C)(v), for meeting the requirements of this paragraph, and which-
+- (i) shall be set separately for the assessments of mathematics and reading or language arts under subsection (a)(3);
+- (ii) shall be the same for all schools and local educational agencies in the State;
+- (iii) shall identify a single minimum percentage of students who are required to meet or exceed the proficient level on the academic assessments that applies separately to each group of students described in subparagraph (C)(v);
+- (iv) shall ensure that all students will meet or exceed the State's proficient level of academic achievement on the State assessments within the State's timeline under subparagraph (F); and
+- (v) may be the same for more than 1 year, subject to the requirements of subparagraph (H).
+- (H) INTERMEDIATE GOALS FOR ANNUAL YEARLY PROGRESS.-Each State shall establish intermediate goals for meeting the requirements, including the measurable objectives in subparagraph (G), of this paragraph and that shall-
+- (i) increase in equal increments over the period covered by the State's timeline under subparagraph (F);
+- (ii) provide for the first increase to occur in not more than 2 years; and
+- (iii) provide for each following increase to occur in not more than 3 years.
+- (I) ANNUAL IMPROVEMENT FOR SCHOOLS.-Each year, for a school to make adequate yearly progress under this paragraph-
+- (i) each group of students described in subparagraph (C)(v) must meet or exceed the objectives set by the State under subparagraph (G), except that if any group described in subparagraph (C)(v) does not meet those objectives in any particular year, the school shall be considered to have made adequate yearly progress if the percentage of students in that group who did not meet or exceed the proficient level of academic achievement on the State assessments under paragraph (3) for that year decreased by 10 percent of that percentage from the preceding school year and that group made progress on one or more of the academic indicators described in subparagraph (C)(vi) or (vii); and
+- (ii) not less than 95 percent of each group of students described in subparagraph (C)(v) who are enrolled in the school are required to take the assessments, consistent with paragraph (3)(C)(xi) and with accommodations, guidelines, and alternative assessments provided in the same manner as those provided under section 612(a)(17)(A) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and paragraph (3), on which adequate yearly progress is based (except that the 95 percent requirement described in this clause shall not apply in a case in which the number of students in a category is insufficient to yield statistically reliable information or the results would reveal personally identifiable information about an individual student).
+- (J) UNIFORM AVERAGING PROCEDURE.-For the purpose of determining whether schools are making adequate yearly progress, the State may establish a uniform procedure for averaging data which includes one or more of the following:
+- (i) The State may average data from the school year for which the determination is made with data from one or two school years immediately preceding that school year.
+- (ii) Until the assessments described in paragraph (3) are administered in such manner and time to allow for the implementation of the uniform procedure for averaging data described in clause (i), the State may use the academic assessments that were required under paragraph (3) as that paragraph was in effect on the day preceding the date of enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, provided that nothing in this clause shall be construed to undermine or delay the determination of adequate yearly progress, the requirements of section 1116, or the implementation of assessments under this section.
+- (iii) The State may use data across grades in a school.
+- (K) ACCOUNTABILITY FOR CHARTER SCHOOLS.-The accountability provisions under this Act shall be overseen for charter schools in accordance with State charter school law.
+ perform-ance of the State and of each local educational agency and school in the State in enabling all children to meet the State's challenging student academic achievement standards, except that no State shall be required to meet the requirements of this part relating to science assess-ments until the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year.
+- (B) USE OF ASSESSMENTS.-Each State educational agency may incorporate the data from the assessments under this paragraph into a State-developed longitudinal data system that links student test scores, length of enroll-ment,;
+- (v) involve multiple up-to-date measures of student academic achievement, including measures that assess higher-order thinking skills and understanding;
+- (vi)ii) at the discretion of the State, measure the proficiency of students in academic subjects not described in clauses (v), (vi), (vii) in which the State has adopted challenging academic content and academic achievement standards;
+- (viii));
+- (ix)i)ii) edu-cational agency or a school, such disaggregation shall not be required in a case in which the number of students in a category is insufficient to yield statistically reliable information or the results would reveal personally identifiable information about an individual student;
+- (xiii) be consistent with widely accepted professional testing standards, objectively measure academic achievement, knowledge, and skills, and be tests that do not evaluate or assess personal or family beliefs and attitudes, or publicly disclose personally identifiable information; and
+- (xiv) enable itemized score analyses to be produced and reported, consistent with clause (iii), to local educational agencies and schools, so that parents, teachers, principals, and administrators can interpret and address the specific academic needs of students as indicated by the students' achievement on assessment items.
+- (D) DEFERRAL.-A State may defer the commencement, or suspend the administration, but not cease the development, of the assessments described in this paragraph, that were not required prior to the date of enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, for 1 year for each year for which the amount appropriated for grants under section 6113(a)(2) is less than-
+- (i) $370,000,000 for fiscal year 2002;
+- (ii) $380,000,000 for fiscal year 2003;
+- (iii) $390,000,000 for fiscal year 2004; and
+- (iv) $400,000,000 for fiscal years 2005 through 2007.
+(4) SPECIAL RULE.- 1116 if such additional indicators were not used, but may be used to identify additional schools for school improvement or in need of corrective action or restructuring except as provided in paragraph (2)(I)(i).
+(5) STATE AUTHORITY.-
+If a State educational agency provides evidence, which is satisfactory to the Secretary, that neither the State educational agency nor any other State government official, agency, or entity has sufficient authority, under State law, to adopt curriculum content and student academic achievement standards, and academic assessments aligned with such academic standards, which will be applicable to all students enrolled in the State's public elementary schools and secondary schools, then the State educational agency may meet the requirements of this subsection by-
+- (A) adopting academic standards and academic assessments that meet the requirements of this subsection, on a statewide basis, and limiting their applicability to students served under this part; or
+- (B) adopting and implementing policies that ensure that each local educational agency in the State that receives grants under this part will adopt curriculum content and student academic achievement standards, and academic assessments aligned with such standards, which-
+- (i) meet all of the criteria in this subsection and any regulations regarding such standards and assessments that the Secretary may publish; and
+- (ii) are applicable to all students served by each such local educational agency.
+(6) LANGUAGE ASSESSMENTS.-.
+(7) ACADEMIC ASSESSMENTS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY.-.
+(8) REQUIREMENT.-
+Each State plan shall describe-
+- (A) how the State educational agency will assist each local educational agency and school affected by the State plan to develop the capacity to comply with each of the requirements of sections 1112(c)(1)(D), 1114(b), and 1115(c) that is applicable to such agency or school;
+- (B) how the State educational agency will assist each local educational agency and school affected by the State plan to provide additional educational assistance to individual students assessed as needing help to achieve the State's challenging academic achievement standards;
+- (C) the specific steps the State educational agency will take to ensure that both schoolwide programs and targeted assistance schools provide instruction by highly qualified instructional staff as required by sections 1114(b)(1)(C) and 1115(c)(1)(E), including;
+- (D) an assurance that the State educational agency will assist local educational agencies in developing or identifying high-quality effective curricula aligned with State academic achievement standards and how the State educational agency will disseminate such curricula to each local educational agency and school within the State; and
+- (E) such other factors the State educational agency determines appropriate to provide students an opportunity to achieve the knowledge and skills described in the chal-lenging academic content standards adopted by the State.
+(9) FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT.- 1116 and that request assistance with addressing major factors that have significantly affected the academic achievement of students in the local educational agency or schools served by such agency.
+(10) USE OF ACADEMIC ASSESSMENT RESULTS TO IMPROVE STUDENT ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT.-
+Each State plan shall describe how the State educational agency will ensure that the results of the State assessments described in paragraph (3)-
+- (A) will be promptly provided to local educational agencies, schools, and teachers in a manner that is clear and easy to understand, but not later than before the beginning of the next school year; and
+- (B) be used by those local educational agencies, schools, and teachers to improve the educational achieve-ment of individual students.
+
+Wonderful Purchase Strategies In Real Estate - 30 Mar 2019 09:02
+Your Peers Have Collected This Listing Of Tips About Real Estate Shelling out Only For You
+Even though market changes can certainly make the realm of real-estate committing considerably harrowing occasionally, it is actually easy to create large income because they are within the activity. To increase your riches probable by investing in properties, it really is essential to do your research. Start out with the recommendations listed below and not end discovering.
+Your standing is going to be of utmost importance if you venture into property assets. Therefore, you have to regularly maintain your promises and sustain total loyalty with your transactions. This affords you credibility with all the region and ensures customer loyalty from clients.
+Never ever invest your hard earned money into house you have not privately observed and examined. Retailers usually covers the price of examinations. Nonetheless, it is best to make use of an impartial contractor who seems to be not connected to either you or perhaps the retailer for the best effects. Get a document from somebody that is neutral.
+Employ a professional inspector to come out and see the house you're contemplating placing your money into. You might think you could just check out the property all by yourself to locate problems, but if you're not skilled you may skip several things. When problems are found, you should ensure to have some funds from the home or possess the owner remedy it for you.
+Once Helpful Advice Regarding How To Spend Money On Property begin, show patience. Your first real estate property investment deal could be more time ingesting than you expected. Perhaps the market conditions are certainly not great, or perhaps the buy terminology usually are not positive. You don't wish to be impatient alternatively, you would like to secure the right purchase. This could actually lose you cash in the long term. Wait for excellent possibility.
+Do not get in order to boost your property numbers. This may be a common behavior for newcomers, even so a lot more might not be much better. It is wise to hold the state of mind of good quality more than number. This helps make sure you are profitable at real-estate shelling out.
+If you purchase a home and have to make fixes, be skeptical of the installers who request profit move forward. You must not must pay prior to the effort is completed, and should you do, you operate the risk of acquiring ripped off. At least, never ever spend the money for full sum in advance.
+Don' This Article Has It All, From Ideas To Tricks About Real Estate Investing go with the first part of property you find when you're trying to find real estate property to place your dollars into. Most of the time you will find that you can find much better discounts if you appearance challenging for them. You don't wish to end up getting something only to discover a greater offer after shelling out your entire money something different.
+Location can easily make a massive difference within the income prospective of a property. You could find some invisible gems amid certain spots or investing in that beneficial property inside an region which is below desirable. Continue to keep spot as well as possible at heart.
+When assessing real-estate for investment, be sure to pick attributes that may compensate you a fair income importance on return. Remember that getting a property minimizes your water resources briefly. You would like to make certain to be able to rejuvenate them easily and amply. Understand that your money was earning in between 4 and 6 percent curiosity about the bank. Once you invest it, you must seek a larger give back.
+As you may expand your business of real-estate investing, make sure to broaden your system of relationships too. Everyone is frequently just as vital as components, simply because they can provide special expenditure provides before they grow to be offered to people. An expansive system can also provide options in offering which you would not have normally acknowledged about.
+Check out the authorities for any area that you are thinking about getting real-estate. There need to an official site created for the city. Try to find information with regard to area organizing which could have an effect on potential property prices. A town that is certainly developing might be a excellent investment.
+Don't go with the initial bit of home you find when you're looking for real-estate to put your dollars into. Many of the time you will notice that there are actually greater deals in the event you appear challenging for these people. You don't want to find yourself with one thing only to discover a better package right after investing all of your funds on something different.
+Be patient as committing undertakings aren't always fast to get rid of. That is why, you should have a backup strategy. You have to be gainfully hired at first. Abrupt expenses generally pop up whenever you individual property. With no steady revenue, it is possible to fall behind.
+Search for soaring Real Estate Property Ventures: Suggestions For Fulfillment in your wanted location. Would you see openings in which the spots are now being rented? The two main facts you should worry oneself with, depending on your needs. When turning, you should purchase very low. When you find yourself hiring, you wish to avoid around-inflating the rent.
+Screen each and every renter you come across. You will need to use a reliable renter to be in the perfect place. Don't just take any individual - do a credit verify. Your due diligence will ensure you have dependable renters.
+Don't spend more than you really can afford. In case your property can be a rental, make sure that one could nonetheless satisfy your month to month home loan payments regardless of whether one or two models rest empty. Wanting your hire earnings will cover all the expenses of the residence is just not practical.
+Will not sign any deals to acquire a piece of terrain before you decide to shop around carefully to verify the ownership in the property. Work with your personal surveyor to identify your property outlines evidently. This helps prevent misrepresentation of the piece of home available for purchase, and yes it mitigates any future problems.
+Don't disregard that income tax great things about real-estate expenditure. Put in place your real-estate assets in suitable LLC or S-corp lawful entities. Do this quite at the start of getting involved in real-estate shelling out. You are doing this very early to increase your long-term positive aspects and since the more time you wait the better challenging it receives to do this.
+Know moving because the real estate video game can be a difficult nut to crack. A Couple Of Bits Of Property Shelling out Guidance requires large danger, discussing abilities and long-term monetary stamina. Some qualities will help you build an income with no to small tension, and many this organization si demanding and cut-throat. You have to be prepared!
+Following knowing the information about real estate investing you know now, you might be in a better position to essentially get started. It's essential that you recognize everything in regards to the market place and the attributes you're thinking about to ensure that this becomes a productive business. It's time for you to develop that real estate stock portfolio now.
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+Acquiring The Most Out Of Your Real Estate Property Ass - 30 Mar 2019 05:40
+Receiving The Most From Your Real-estate Investments
+Are you looking to make a real-estate expenditure? In that case, you want your purchase to operate to your benefit. Over Real-estate Committing Information You Have To Know , many individuals have understood the beneficial effect property may have on their financial situation. Make smart real estate purchases by using this guidance.
+Analyze the marketplace before you spend money on property. You ought to perspective several properties and create a spreadsheet. Be sure to consist of details like costs, projected rent payments and spending budgets for maintenance. Retaining a spreadsheet of all of the pertinent information can assist you make the most efficient selections.
+Make sure to remain in a cushy niche market. This should help you to optimize the profits that you just make. If you are flipping properties, utilizing newbies or working with attributes with very low lower repayments, stick with what you know for achievement.
+Take the time to do investing, and remember to understand more about it. You might have to reduce routines that could cost you afterwards. Quitting your bowling league, as an example, could be something that has to occur for you to achieve success.
+Understand what the property's value within the local community is. Mortgage loans and rent in local neighborhoods can help you discover the home's importance superior to any fiscal assertion. Whenever you have a look at what is happening coming from a road stage, you can make a far more informed selection.
+Don't enable your emotions cloud your judgement. Selecting a property to buy should be a business choice, not an mental one particular. It may be easy to get mounted on a home or truly fall in love with a spot. Try and always look at stuff objectively. Check around for the very best deal with out receiving attached to the first few spots you gaze at.
+Well before excavating, obtain a specialist to be certain you can find no hidden outlines everywhere. There are Want To Make Funds Purchasing Real Estate Property? Try out These Tips! included in digging in many areas, and you also want to prevent house injuries.
+Should you be purchasing a great investment home, make sure you engage a good renovator. Usually, you are going to spend lots on fix bills. Additionally, your handyman should be capable of handling any right after-hrs emergencies which may develop within your lease house.
+Don't go with the initial piece of residence you come across when you're looking for real estate property to put your dollars into. The vast majority of time you will notice that there are actually much better bargains in the event you seem hard on their behalf. You don't desire to find yourself with one thing only to find an improved bargain right after investing your entire funds on something different.
+When determining real estate for investment, make sure you pick qualities that may compensate you a good funds worth on come back. Do not forget that purchasing Change Your Pursuit For Understanding Of Real Estate Property Committing In A Achievement decreases your fluid resources temporarily. You want to make sure so that you can replenish them quickly and amply. Do not forget that your money was earning between 4 and 6 percentage fascination with the bank. When you invest it, you must seek out a greater come back.
+Before making an investment in an residence, get information regarding the government in the area in which the property is located. The Internet is an excellent starting point. There you will discover area organizing particulars that will help you foresee how costs will certainly vary in the foreseeable future. An expanding town is usually a great purchase.
+Speak with good friends, loved ones or schoolmates that have knowledge about the organization and select their brains. This is usually a free source of info that can help you to create the very best strategy for your financial budget and ability. Attaining much more expertise is crucial in this organization to acquire an edge.
+Keep with an individual residence. It is actually tempting to visit all directly into boost earnings, but you can't begin like that. As an alternative, stay with a single. This will help you to find out and put together your own tactics. Gradually you'll be happy you started little.
+Know that you need an excellent crew to get involved in real estate investing. At a minimum, you require a Real estate professional, accountant as well as a legal professional you are able to all rely on. You could possibly even require an investor or even a get together of other brokers. Achieve out using your private connections to find people that is not going to disappoint you.
+Know a little bit concerning the community you will be acquiring in. If you are just thinking about buying low-cost properties, you could possibly in fact generate losses if you purchase a developing in a rundown place. Learn just as much as you are able to about the community prior to set money into a building there, and you can avoid deficits.
+When you wish to get some renters, make sure you display them in the correct way. Irresponsible tenants are going to result in residence problems and get behind on rent payments. Prior to accept any individual, get references if at all possible, and conduct a in depth check into their credit rating and legal history. This should help you ensure you have sensible renters.
+Don't bounce into real-estate expense while you're nevertheless wet powering the the ears. Familiarize yourself with individuals that are in the market and gain knowledge from their practical experience. Join real estate night clubs. Read through guides and check out websites that supply tips and data on real estate making an investment. Don't commit till you really know what you really are undertaking.
+Will not signal any deals to purchase a piece of land prior to deciding to do your research meticulously to verify the management of the terrain. Retain the services of your own surveyor to identify the home facial lines obviously. This prevents misrepresentation of the bit of residence available for sale, and it also mitigates any future issues.
+Try out purchasing in hefty home foreclosure regions provided you can manage to suspend on to the attributes for some time before reselling. These areas can come back, and those that purchase when the marketplace is lower can make lots of money. Keep in mind that it could take the time prior to it really is possible to market and recover your outlays.
+You should look at property like a long-term investment. When you offer, you will find selling charges you are liable for, for example the payment for your real-estate dealer. When your investment property failed to rise in importance much simply because you did not carry to it long enough, you might get a web loss when you aspect in make payment on payment.
+ Real-estate Expenditure: Guidelines For Your Beginner of people have received into property shelling out to increase their income. But, to ensure that this expense to reach your goals, it is vital that you undoubtedly comprehend information on. The article you read through on this page has given you suggestions which you can use once you get out there and commence working with real estate purchases.
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+Are You Seeking Assistance With Traveling? Take A Look - 29 Mar 2019 19:26
+Are You Currently Looking For Assistance With Vacation? Have A Look At These Post Below!
+Deciding on your upcoming journey vacation spot may not be simple. There are many things to consider the primary a single becoming, where do you need to go? However, wherever you opt to go, there isa common real truth you should deal with: venturing is stressful. This article will offer you some suggestions on lessening the stress and preventing issues.
+Travel luggage is often a sizeable dilemma whenever people journey. Even though it may appear like a smart idea to purchase your kids modest sizing suitcases, recall that they are eligible for an entire sizing bring-on on most significant atmosphere service providers. This additional baggage area may often help you save from checking another bit of luggage. This will save you from $25 to $50 on many airlines!
+Move when Searching For Vacation Guidance? Your Search Is Over! can. To help keep Vacation Made Simple - Suggestions To Assist In Your Travel Plans from puffiness and your important joints from getting aching, stand and walk when you receive a opportunity. On the plane, get up and check out the restroom or stroll the aisle, when every single hr. In case you have a layover, choose to take a number of laps of your terminal, as opposed to just sitting in your gate.
+When traveling, don't overlook that one could travel by coach to a lot of areas in Northern and Latin America. It may be a lot less high-priced than traveling by air which is generally reduced-pressure for your tourists. Traveling by tour bus has lost a great deal of its stigma lately, with many firms acquiring new cars as well as employing security officers to ride coupled.
+Use a checklist to assist you to load your basics. Generate this checklist both a couple of months to a 7 days just before your vacation. This will enable you to bring along only the things that you really need and it may also ensure that you is not going to keep nearly anything behind.
+When you plan to take flight and also have a incapacity, ensure that you get in touch with the air travel prior to deciding to buy your tickets to make sure that they may have certain requirements that you need. They won't determine if you don't tell them, phone ahead hence they are the best able to support you.
+Bargains that are available are in many cases constrained. You may sign up to receive emails from various organizations to discover once the offer is provided so you can get initial dibs on these deals. Join these emails for your favored hotels, leasing cars, airlines and a lot of alternative activities that can be done on holiday.
+As you program your getaway, think about utilizing the coach as an alternative to flying, traveling or having a workout. This process of vacation is pretty economical, and according to the person you reserve with, the tour bus fleets usually offer more recent versions that happen to be neat and appealing. Super Traveling Guidance To Assist You To Locate Greater Escapades consist of wi-fi entry.
+Bring a power strip along with you when you are out from the nation. This might appear to be a goofy idea to some, but in case you have an area with two outlets and you will have two cell phones, two laptop computers along with an Mp3 music player that requires re-charging, what would you like to do? Having a potential strip helps prevent these problems as well as, you will simply have to buy one adapter for foreign plugs.
+When traveling in another country, make certain to manage your health. Verify if you can find any vaccinations that you need just before steering apart, pack a great flow of any prescribed drugs you will need, and locate a hospital or medical professional close to your vacation spot, in the event of an emergency. Remaining Off Of The Outdone Pathway: Excellent Suggestions For Genuine Vacation will help you to concentrate on the surroundings and exciting, not being unwell.
+When picking travel luggage to get a vacation, black color isn't constantly far better. You desire so that you can effortlessly establish your suitcases when it comes off of the baggage carousel, so acquire baggage in the fun coloration like reddish colored or eco-friendly, provided you can. Should you already own black color luggage, add a exclusive ribbon or something that is colorful to symbol it as a yours. This will likely avoid any baggage blend-ups.
+Look up currency exchange charges well before touring so that you can budget your expenses. By knowing how a lot your money is definitely worth in other countries, you will have a better strategy regarding how wise to budget your holiday. This will increase your fun and minimize your bills.
+Study and prepare for any communication costs which you may have, with regards to computing while traveling. Understanding exactly where you will have use of Wi-Fi and what devices you have got to connect at your various locations, will make your trip much easier and steer clear of on the fly buys when you need to communicate.
+It is important to program your arrange for a leasing automobile ahead of time. This is because the price of a leasing auto increases rapidly in the event you delay until eleventh hour. Also, when you reach the leasing car firm, you will find a probability that they may be out of stock of autos.
+Invest in journey insurance! Most exclusive health insurance firms won't pay money for costs accrued exterior of your property region. Travel insurance plans are comparatively cheap, and should you get 3rd degree burns in Great britain or fall and break a bone tissue in Paris, it would produce a world of distinction when it comes time to cover all those health care expenditures. Do a search now, a lot of companies provide yearly multiple-journey insurance cheaper than €100.
+Ensure that the pursuits that you will do are covered under your vacation insurance policies. There are some travel insurance companies which will not include the easiest of activities yet others that can cover every one of them. Read through your policy fully in order to avoid not being protected.
+If you're going with a child, do not forget that it's not essential to bring along every single component of child equipment. Most accommodations will lend you a transportable crib when you request. Just about every restaurant which is kid helpful has great seating readily available. Packaging millions of pieces of equipment is weighty and awkward. Load up simply the necessities and you'll appreciate your trip more.
+Be sure you plan for layover time if you are travelling. Layovers will often last 8-10 to 16 time. You do not desire to find yourself hanging around that extended in the entrance for your upcoming air travel. Examine destinations around on the international airport, and go use a small free of charge-time entertaining.
+Travel is a special some time and might be a enjoyable encounter, specifically when you have superb advice like the versions above. Use the guidance previously mentioned to make certain you will have a clean, entertaining trip. Chill out and enjoy your amazing encounter ahead of time! The globe is really at the ft .. Just open it up!
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+Conclusion The Nervousness, Check This Out Write-up Abo - 28 Mar 2019 10:10
+Generating Money Away from Your Real-estate Ventures
+A great deal of folks are making good money purchasing real estate. Nevertheless, you also require the generate and self confidence for success or you just will not do a lot more than make do. Check this out post to learn up to you can before performing real estate committing.
+Recall that there are generally more fish in the sea. Believe You May Be Productive In Real Estate Market place? Attempt The Following Tips Initially is easy to get the heart establish with a particular home or bargain. However, if it one particular offer takes too much effort and energy, it is really not really a deal to begin with. Go forward and ensure We'll Response Your Urgent Queries About Real Estate Property Committing Today do not lose out on other great purchases around.
+Prior to deciding to hop into Contemplating Buying Real Estate? Read This -real estate expense, inform yourself. The important portion is always to accumulate all the suggestions and suggestions that work properly in the industry. Purchase many different Dvd videos and visit the library to learn guides on real estate to place yourself in the very best placement achievable.
+Be sure that you commit an excellent length of time to the business and researching the business as well. Which means you might need to cease several of your pastimes to enable you to just pay attention to this for a while. Placed your time and energy in and minimize the relaxing pursuits that you have on the side.
+Locate other buyers and talk with them. Get assistance from people with experience. It could be a great way to increase your personalized information. Search the web for folks who determine what they can be undertaking. Attempt joining some real estate property discussion boards to take part meetups.
+If you're planning to need to do some residence tasks on the residence, then you definitely need to make sure do you know what you're undertaking. When Purchasing Property The Right Way are done improper, it could possibly actually make your real-estate drop in value. It may be advisable to employ someone that knows how to fix the problems the house has.
+In order to make property investment a part of your wages, retain the qualities close up together. This will allow you to avoid major expenditures in petrol or time while you journey to your qualities. Additionally, it permits you to be a specialist because property area.
+Determine if there are actually each of the retailers and educational institutions that you'll require around the real estate that you're hoping to get to your family members. You don't wish to move to a place where you're not in close proximity to everywhere that you need to check out. It could charge you a lot in vacationing bills, so keep that in mind whenever you shift anyplace.
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+Know what you should look for in a house based on present tendencies in the marketplace. By way of example, if you're going to rent out the qualities you acquire, then it's advisable to have products which can be for solitary folks, that is a recent trend. Yet another illustration is to ensure any home you purchase has about three or higher bed rooms due to the fact it will be simpler for you to market or lease to people.
+If you are searching to buy a leasing home from the retailer, request to view his Plan E taxation type. That specific file will genuinely let you know what kind of cashflow you can anticipate through the home involved. Crunching the figures lets you know all that you should learn about whether or not to purchase.
+Keep away from buying real estate property in neighborhoods that happen to be awful. Know all there is to know regarding the area your would-be residence is in. Make sure you are extremely thorough when examining the location. In case the deal would seem way too very good to be real, it most likely is because of the very poor spot. These areas may result in problems to your residence.
+Will not get qualities which are based in bad or work-down places. Be aware of residence before buying it. Shop around. When a offer appears too great, that may imply it's situated in a poor local community. This may lead to troubles down the road when trying to sell the house.
+Several those people who are interested in selling and buying real-estate join real estate property groups, and you will way too! In this area, there are actually an increased concentration of individuals who would like to try the properties you have to offer you and/or who definitely have properties available that you may want. This really is a good way to community, talk about your business charge cards and fliers and promote your company.
+Consider adding business attributes for your expenditure objectives. Business attributes offer a prospect of rental fees which can be lasting and rather profitable. You can think about a strip shopping mall or enterprise sophisticated, providing you with a number of possibilities to increase your expenditure attributes.
+Before investing in a house to rent out, discover exactly what the average rental rates are in that area. An important to booking home quickly is just not prices it higher than other local rents, but using a rent that is similar to them. Tenants will not want to spend the money for greater price, and will also cost you dearly over time.
+Try and get the aid of professionals. Prior to putting in a bid with a home, talk to somebody proficient in real estate. Speak with a real estate agent or a real estate appraiser, for instance. That skilled help will assist you to create a clever choice.
+Make becoming by the due date important. Other people's time can be just as valuable as your own property, whether or not the individual in question is an additional trader, a licensed contractor or perhaps an agent. When you value their time, they are going to usually respect you as a individual as well as a company connect. Consequently, you could make lasting connections that gain your stop desired goals.
+Do your greatest to avoid completely new real estate brokers. You should use an individual with expertise when you want to get real-estate, because you will obtain the best prospects. This may only happen if you are using a real estate agent that is certainly effectively connected instead of one that is just starting. At the minimum, retain the services of an experienced company.
+You should not overpay for any purchase home you get. One of the better means of avoiding this can be to think about other equivalent properties in your community and discover whatever they have in fact marketed for. Not paying greater than the market value for that residence will help a lot to keep your real-estate expense rewarding.
+This post almost certainly making you really feel significantly less confused about property shelling out. By adhering to profitable strategies, anyone can be quite a accomplishment in actual residence. It's always wise to keep understanding these things, so always look for more assistance on the subject like what you've went above above.
- Comments: 0
+Strong Advice To help Dad and mom With Video Games - 27 Mar 2019 19:12
+Excellent Article About Video Games That Is simple To Follow Alongside
+Video games supply us a distinct world to get into and will be loads of enjoyable, however there is so rather more to it than that. It's good to know find out how to get probably the most from gaming, how to reach the following degree and how one can get better play out of your machine. Be taught that and more, with this article.
+Avoid chemical cleaners when cleaning off your sport disks. If a sport disc will not be taking part in, you may be tempted to use some form of glass or window cleaner on it. This might simply damage the disc further. Discover a smooth, dry cloth and rub the disc clean with it as an alternative.
+If you feel such as you focused your enemy spot on in a shooter and still missed, check what weapon you might be using. Similar to in real life, different weapons have different strengths and weaknesses. The weapon you might be utilizing might not have the brief distance required or the weapon recoil is actually placing you slightly off target.
+Don't waste time on the instruction manual. Study as you play. The sport will probably be rather more fascinating in the event you figure issues out as you go alongside. When you get annoyed, you always have the option of selecting up the handbook and flipping through it for help. Strive it yourself first, though.
+Customize your controls. Most games have superior settings that let you alter how the game is managed. Use these to your benefit. There is nothing that claims you should play with the sport's default settings. For instance, when you have develop into accustomed to jumping with one button and attacking with one other, and your new recreation makes use of the other - change it!
+Don't be afraid to lose. It's natural to want to play towards opponents who are at or below your talent level. In any case, it is no enjoyable to consistently lose! There's, nonetheless, a serious disadvantage to this strategy - there isn't any incentive to get higher. If you end up taking part in against people who find themselves better than you, you'll learn out of your mistakes and be on their level in no time.
+Don't be shy about downloading video games digitally! Whereas this distribution channel experienced a considerably rocky start, the kinks have been ironed out. At present, downloading your video games (legally) is a much faster and extra convenient approach to get entry to them. It's also a great method to hold onto them; with most reputable providers, you're allowed to download a game again and again. This makes it simple to get better from a pc meltdown without fussing with a bunch of DVD-ROMs.
+Sometimes a recreation will come out and then a bunch of downloadable content follows. If you want to save your money, then you could wish to look forward to some time. It's because there may be a model of the game that comes out later that features all of these items for a lower price. Don't get stuck paying for a bunch of extras that you might get on one disc later on!
+When enjoying video video games for long periods of time, it is best that you just periodically take a break. Addiction to video games is possible, which means it's essential to step away and regulate your play. Recreation taking part in should be fun. Ought to you are feeling that addiction is an issue, converse to a medical professional about help.
+If you're a father or mother and you need to know extra about what your kids are playing on their recreation systems, merely discover out the titles. If you go online, you can find out the ranking, some reviews, and some walkthroughs. These things will show you how to to know what your kids are entering into at each level.
+When shopping for video games in your youngsters, consider their interests. There are sufficient video games on the market now that your daughter, who likes ponies, can get a enjoyable sport simply as well as your son, who enjoys military video games. Browse the gaming store and ask the clerk for gaming recommendations for all interests.
+In case you have older video video games, you'll be able to trade them in. You'll be able to commerce them in for credit score. A Useful Article About Video Video games That gives Many Useful Suggestions is feasible to make use of the money you get from buying and selling older games to purchase new ones.
+Hold a video game tournament. These can be a lot of enjoyable for you and your gaming mates. You may both do this on-line, at your private home or at a good friend's place. Serve some enjoyable snacks and get as many individuals as you'll be able to involved. This is a good approach to enjoy your sport playing with associates.
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+ Advice To Assist You In Becoming A Video Game Pro have extra to offer your baby than just an opportunity to shoot issues. Strive selecting video games that educate your youngster something. For example, sports activities video games may also help your baby learn the principles for games, and how video games are played. Check out some critiques to seek out video games that supply a learning expertise instead of just senseless, repetitive motion.
+In case you are buying a recreation for a baby and do not know what sort of sport to choose, use the ESRB ranking on the case as a guide. The score system is not perfect. Get Your Video Game Questions Answered With These Simple Tips does provide you with a good idea concerning the content of a recreation. Even so, so you'll be able to guarantee the sport is age-applicable.
+Be very wary of all things free on the planet of on-line gaming. Most frequently, in case you are offered something for nothing, there will probably be a catch. Get The Video Game Assist you Seek With These Simple Ideas might be exposing your computer to malicious software program or opening up your wallet without even understanding it. Be smart and play it cool with game freebies!
+Social gathering video games make social gatherings a blast. While gaming is generally a solo pastime, it will also be a social activity. A celebration sport is a superb icebreaker, and can help relax and entertain your company. Be sure to select a get together sport that can appeal to your entire company.
+Gaming certain will be quite a lot of fun however it can be expensive and even dangerous to your machine if you do not get new material from trusted sources. Don't waste your time or threat your hardware on gimmicks and shady websites—use the tips from this text to safely get essentially the most out of your gaming.
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+Tips To Improve Your Shopping On The Internet Practical - 26 Mar 2019 08:38
+Creating Web Purchases: What You Ought To Know
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+When you want a selected object, the research can start on-line. Unfortunately, you may experience some higher charges and expensive shipping costs. You may find this away-placing. Use the ideas in the following paragraphs to help you get video game fit and healthy so you can start saving dollars as an alternative to throwing away it.
+If you are shopping online, you ought to only shop at trustworthy merchants. In the event the retailer lacks a good reputation, you may be looking for trouble. Many people have gotten their charge card and private information stolen from purchasing on below trustworthy websites. Be mindful and shield your personal information.
+Increase-examining your anti—computer virus defense to ensure it's entirely up-to-date is a great action to take before you begin online shopping. Shopping online is actually a hotbed for think sites. A lot of people build internet retailers simply to infect pcs with viruses. Ensure that you protect yourself prior to visiting an internet shop, regardless of whether it seems like really respected.
+If you're acquiring clothing or shoes or boots on the web, be cautious with all the sizing. Some products typically work small or larger than standard. Some shopping websites will publicize if an piece operates accurate to size. In case the internet site doesn't checklist anything about sizing, glimpse in the testimonials. In most cases, if an piece is running greater or small, the reviewers will let you know.
+To guard yourself use a charge card when shopping on the internet. The government has passed laws and regulations to shield customers in the event of scams. The total amount the buyer is responsible for is a mere $50.00 when compared with atm cards the location where the overall balance can be taken by internet hackers.
+When choosing apparel or shoes on-line, check about the site's refund policy. Because judging sizing can be tough by sheer guesstimation by yourself, you want to successfully can give back or exchange the item when it doesn't suit. Normally, utilize We Change Online Shopping Into Effective Financial savings -measure and graph or chart to find out your actual dimensions for your nation of starting point you might be acquiring from.
+It is best to order online with a credit card. Most bank cards feature a safety strategy in the event your facts are stolen. Your banking institution will most likely present you with your hard earned dollars in the event you obtained a awful merchandise with a credit card when you will completely rely on the owner to get your money back in the event you utilized a debit credit card.
+Be Online Shopping Ways To Save Your Funds for any e-mails you receive, even if they appear to be from the retailer you have confidence in. In no way select the link that directs you to an internet site besides usually the one you shopped on. Should you do, you could possibly grow to be susceptible to a gimmick. As opposed to simply clicking an email web page link, just go as much as your web browser and enter the web site you need to visit. It really is much less hazardous doing this.
+You need to know that excess items are sometimes called getting remodeled. Browse the description to see if it has been mended or is overstock. Searching for excess or applied merchandise can result in the invention of bargains.
+ Thinking About Performing Some Shopping On The Internet? Attempt These Concepts! are used by lots of on the internet sellers. Generally, cupcakes can disclose your online routines and a few personal information. Read through personal privacy policies before purchasing nearly anything online to discover just how a shop plans to use your details. If the website does not seem to be trustworthy, leave and go in other places.
+Be sure you look at not simply the item's true price, but additionally simply how much will probably be incurred for shipping. An item might cost some dollars much more at one particular web site, however, if they offer free freight, it could end up being less expensive all round. If shipping and delivery costs aren't shown in the beginning, you can check on them by commencing the checkout process. The shipping and delivery charge will probably be displayed ahead of the purchase is done.
+If you strategy to make a buy, check out testimonials initially. Even if your site you are getting from doesn't provide testimonials, check a web site like Amazon to view what other people are declaring. If you buy a product or service that has been analyzed improperly, you probable will have the identical final results.
+A great deal of sites specialize in comparison shopping. These internet websites will not directly sell merchandise but give consumers having a detailed set of diverse stores providing a product along with the price ranges. You should utilize this device to complete some price comparisons before figuring out where to find the product you require.
+Getting gifts and holiday shopping can be created so much easier using the web. You can buy an item and also have it transported towards the receiver of the email without having ever laving your own home. You can also decide to invest in a gift item-card to your web site you are aware has things that they will like. This will save you time and expense and be sure that the beneficiary will love your gift and thoughtfulness.
+Shopping online is popular as people understand that gas charges, traffic issues and also the frustration of traditional merchants might be averted. You may be thinking that shopping on the internet might cost much more as a consequence of shipping but should you do an actual gasoline, time and energy cost examination, you will be happily surprised.
+If you're planning to acquire some thing on the web, make sure that you're getting through a seller that's trustworthy. You may be disclosing your own personal fiscal information and facts and visa or mastercard amounts to such stores. In the event the internet site can not be trustworthy, the data could possibly be utilized in id theft. This will set you back a great deal of money and time.
+Use creative security passwords if you set up profiles. Steer clear of phrases and words and phrases that somebody else may possibly find out. Bank card phone numbers along with other info can be simply reached via shopping on the internet balances. Help it become as difficult as you can for will be thieves. Use unique passwords with letters, numbers and emblems in which feasible.
+ Use The Internet With Good results Through Our Great Assistance up on promotion sites which will send you warnings if vouchers of the favorite stores are available. This is certainly a terrific way to not neglect any bargains that you could make the most of. These offers normally can come in the form of an electronic promotion code beneficial to a limited time only. So, join warnings to make best use of them.
+By no means offer your sociable stability quantity when you are shopping online. Stay away from any websites which need this information to get from their store. You must not have to enter your SS number to generate a purchase. Delivering your Social Security quantity results in you prone to identity fraud.
+The information incorporated here will put you on the right path in relation to internet shopping. With these ideas at heart, it won't help you get extended to discover excellent discounts you just need to have. You can expect to conserve a great bit very quickly.
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+What You Ought To Understand About Real-estate Committi - 25 Mar 2019 05:25
+Excellent Purchase Techniques In Actual Property
+It may seem stunning to get involved with real estate property expense. You typically listen to of the that can buy properties and turn around and make lots of money off from them. Television networks usually cast the "flipper" lifestyle as extremely glamorous. Real estate property investing nevertheless isn't as easy, effective, or simple as it appears in multimedia. To have success at property making an investment, the original step is knowing the way it all works, as well as the pursuing report points out it to you.
+If you're considering making an investment in real-estate, you'll intend to make guaranteed to take time to find out all that you could and get time to offer to the organization part of it upon an on-going time frame. This may imply cutting a number of your projects time and energy to learn, however the long term benefits is going to be greater. Throw away Tried And True Real Estate Property Committing Suggestions or softball league that you get to to become a better buyer.
+Generally look at the community as a whole prior to deciding to put money into any residence there. Some communities are obviously a greater benefit as opposed to others. Location is obviously a very high priority, even beyond the attributes them selves.
+You would like to have assessed a neighborhood before making any investment acquisitions. Great local neighborhoods will give you a greater come back than rundown versions. Area is key, and it's what determines the significance.
+Continue to keep a couple of things at heart. First, don't pay excessive for the terrain. Next, don't shell out a lot of for your business. Check out the home beliefs your self and be sure the benefit is what you anticipate. You ought to be confident equally amounts are excellent before buying it.
+Recognize how much your time and effort is worth. You could take pleasure in rehabilitating properties, nevertheless is the quantity of labor required really worth your time and effort? Would you be better off searching for a less time consuming opportunity? Contract out what you are able. It may be beneficial to keep some time free of charge for the best important aspects of real estate making an investment.
+Tend not to make the supposition that property principles will invariably increase. Occasionally, you will lose money, that could expense you plenty. Guard your purchase by picking qualities that may very well easily generate a profit. The objective would be to generate benefit from the properties that you just purchase.
+A key aspect in real-estate investing is choosing the right spot. Real-estate Purchases: Tips And Tricks For Success of the home and other features could be modified. Even so, a home inside a poor region might not exactly market. Always do your homework over a house just before investing any cash.
+Make certain that the components you purchase are nearby. Because Excellent Expenditure Strategies In Real Real estate know the area, you aren't going for a step of religious beliefs that may not pay back. Your concerns are decreased once your house is close up on hand. The best way to take control of your property purchase is usually to reside nearby to help you handle things on your own.
+Don't feel that you always must pay this list price for a piece of house. A lot of the time an proprietor can certainly make the purchase price more than it must be mainly because they anticipate people in an attempt to make a deal together. Don't be scared to provide them a lesser offer because they might just provide you with that cash off of.
+When attemping to begin the next expense deal, generally avoid benefiting on your own completely out. You should make selections which are wise and allow you to have additional money so you're able to deal with expenses you weren't wanting. If you don't, you can expect to eventually get yourself in trouble.
+Will not get just to boost Your Quest Has Finished! This Information Has What You Must Learn About Real-estate Investing of properties. Numerous new traders try this and turn out faltering. Look into extensively before you decide to spend and think high quality around volume. This should help you to succeed in the long term.
+Talk to friends, family members or schoolmates that have know-how about this business and select their minds. This is often a free of charge source of info that will help you to produce the perfect strategy for your financial allowance and capability. Getting a lot more knowledge is crucial with this company to achieve a good edge.
+Make tiny assets instantly. A single mistake may be to wait patiently too long. Holding out will just decrease your revenue.
+Being an trader, be extremely particular concerning the attributes you can expect to purchase. Which means that even before you think about making a proposal, you take time to thoroughly examine the home. To become more around the harmless part, engage a skilled inspector to perform a stroll-through and ensure the house is structurally sound.
+Never surrender! Real estate investing will not be a straightforward issue to jump into. There's much to discover, and you ought to count on several bumps and bruises as you go along. Although with determination and greater skills from enjoying the video game, you'll become better and better at it.
+When the location you are looking at may have lots of openings or perhaps the city appears to be in decrease, stay away from it. Rather, invest your money in actual real estate situated in steady, properly-established, increasing metropolitan areas. In this way you can be sure your purchase will continue to grow in importance. Real-estate situated in a discouraged region is likely to cost dollars and lead to severe headaches.
+Think cautiously when participating in real estate expenditure. Don't look at a home for what amount of cash it can make you. As an alternative consider it at how much of your cash it will allow you to maintain. You would like the home value and hire cash flow to keep the overall investment of your respective portfolio that you just put in it.
+Understanding real-estate expenditure could be expensive in approaches than a single. You need to commit your time and energy by studying the nuances of the business. Also you can learn from your personal blunders, but that's the difficult technique of doing it. To protect yourself from problems, understand just as much as you can ahead of embarking after your real-estate undertakings.
+Real-estate investments have a lot to consider, but educating your self is the best way to go. You've produced a great begin with this article, but there's in no way excessive to understand! Recall the following tips and find out more before starting to purchase a fantastic and useful component of home.
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+Everything You Need To Learn About Real Estate Investin - 25 Mar 2019 04:43
+Actual Making an investment Recommendations That Could Make Positive Changes To Existence
+Real-estate shelling out can be something lots of people end up in so that they can generate profits. The sole thing you need to understand is basically that you will need specifics of this if not you could possibly end up losing on cash. Here you're going to get some tips to assist you, so read through them cautiously.
+You should know that standing is very important in relation to real estate. Explain to the truth and don't rest to consumers. Developing good partnerships with customers will also help to produce your own track record within a beneficial way.
+It is actually easy to get deals set up at no cost. Even so, often be cautious about carrying this out. Individuals totally free agreements might not exactly last in court. Alternatively, find the best legal professional and shell out somewhat to get the contracts carried out the correct way for you personally. You simply will not regret it.
+Factors to consider you spend some time to understand more about property shelling out. You might have to reduce pursuits that can set you back afterwards. Become a much better property trader by dedicating yourself to the job.
+Purchase an understanding of taxes laws and regulations and recent alterations. Taxation regulations are updated and amended routinely which means it depends on you to keep up with them. Sometimes the tax circumstance on a property can really in the trouble. When it appears to be arriving at thicker to deal with, look at a tax counselor.
+In order to get into real-estate shelling out, but do not possess enough dollars to acquire a sheet of house all on your own, do not fret. Have Real-estate And The Ways To Put Money Into It Correctly at property expense trusts. Running just like common cash, it is possible to make investments what resources available for you right into a bigger group of people pool but still make some cash off of property mortgage loans.
+By no means utilize your unexpected emergency save fund to get property. Make sure that you always spending budget to the best of your skill in terms of your real estate property purchase property. Ensure that you do not really feel a monetary crunch because of this.
+When you set up a good investment strategy, get another person to have a look at it. Even when the person is not an expert within the industry, they just might discuss things that just are not going to work. Real-estate And How To Put Money Into It Correctly , however, may help you modify your strategy to make it considerably better for your needs. They may also be able to speak to you about advertising also.
+Don't purchase a a lot less-than-best residence. Even though you're thinking it's an effective value, the home might be bound to you for a long time simply because no-one will want it. Commit a tad bit more to get something prime which will be a confident guess regarding getting a refund.
+Be described as a visionary in your real-estate transactions. You can create quick value where by essentially not any existed well before after some ingenuity and hard work. As an example, a quick fresh paint work can put a home in best condition for marketing, as can landscape design. A brief fixer-top can mean a brief and profitable selling!
+Don't commit all your cash on the specific obtain. It is essential to make good business choices to take care of costs you don't see coming. You'll eventually regret it if you don't try this.
+Don't anticipate to get rich over night in real real estate investment. On the other hand, it could take up to a several years for your purchases to really repay and a lot of a novice to the business forget to recognize this. With some exclusions, you need to be from the position to secure your qualities prior to seeing any major revenue.
+Be sure that you have of the budget as a way so that you can jump up on possibilities where by time is very important. You could miss out on the sale of lifetime should you hold off until you discover a property and THEN try to get loans and credit as a way. Getting the ability to act quickly usually is the distinction between an arrangement of a lifetime as well as an possibility misplaced.
+Know that you require an excellent crew to get involved with real-estate making an investment. At the very least, you need a Real estate agent, accountant plus a legal representative you are able to all trust. You could possibly even need a trader or perhaps a party of other brokers. Attain out using your personal connections to find people who will not let you down.
+Getting started with real-estate committing, you might want to get the best loans by purchasing a property for yourself and after that converting it into a hire. This way, you can make a smaller deposit and acquire greater phrases. You may work towards the house at your leisure and after that ret it all out when you are willing to progress. Utilize the rental revenue to reinvest in other attributes.
+Understand that investing in real estate may well not pay without delay. For that reason, it is crucial that you have the finances to finance your real estate ventures. It can be very best that you are functioning once you get started. Many expenses appear when you're investing and controlling home. When you don't have enough money arriving in, you will find on your own under the sea in a short time.
+Have a organization profile, and adhere to using it. Should you spend too much of your own personal money in a house, you could potentially lose money. This might make you simple on funds to spend your bills or take care of personalized demands. Handle this similar to a organization which means you don't chance shedding all of it.
+In real residence shelling out, you will have terrible times and happy times. Don't allow the lower factors make you wish to give up on real estate property. Just keep prolonged to get success. Consistently discover and give it your greatest work, and you will do well.
+Consider Real-estate Investing Is Enjoyable To Discover! if you check out offers of cheap terrain deals in one more status. The caliber of the property may not be as great as you may be thinking. Usually do not take someone's phrase for doing it. Should you be genuinely intent on buying it, you will have to travel out to view the territory on your own.
+Take into consideration almost everything you've acquired. Tricks And Tips On Making An Investment In Property are excited and able to proceed to go through much more regarding your new purchase choice. Investing in real estate property is incredibly preferred and can assist you develop substantial wealth. Have everything in line before you get started, and make sure you believe each choice through as you may build-up your profile.
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+Great Recommendations For Everyone Who Desires To Get M - 25 Mar 2019 02:24
+Change Oneself Right Into A Picture taking Pro Commencing Now
+Picture taking has countless opportunities in regards to what you can use, do, and tips on how to use it to your very own images. It can be exceptional to find somebody that will take images such as you, so why not benefit from that and produce images that be right for you along with your camera? This short article can assist you.
+Affect the direction of your camera's flash in order to avoid the look of red eye. When a display moves off specifically in line with someone's eyes, the end result can be reddish colored vision. Decreasing red-colored eye will improve the grade of your pictures and present your subject matter a far more practical look.
+Set up basic courses for your DSLR digicam. By environment a few of the fundamental principles before hand, you don't have to chaos along with them in case you want to get a photo in, in a simple period of time. As an alternative, you merely push the button and commence snapping shots.
+Try not to be also technical with your photographs. Sometimes it is better to get an eclectic direction rather than to shoot various run of the mill pictures. Also, try and apply the surroundings to your photos as much as possible if you wish to capture a far more personal and different depiction.
+When composing shots, establish your white equilibrium manually, rather than depending on the automated settings. Placing your white colored stability by hand gives you additional control across the comparison and frame of mind of your own picture. You possibly can make images look far more stark or more natural, and it's all under your control. Don't let the personal computer system decide how your pictures will look.
+Acquire images of folks anywhere you go. Constantly ask their consent initial. If Take Professional Pictures With These Suggestions are on a vacation and using a lot of pictures, you can reminisce their way later and reminisce about certain situations and times that happen to be unique. Frequently the folks inside the photos do not appear especially vital or apparent at the time you snap the image, the reason why you structure the shot in the first place will be clear if you think back their way. Make an effort to catch people who are just everyday.
+Get honest pictures. As an alternative to taking posed photos, consider taking pictures of your own issue with loved ones at the office or undertaking some thing they really like. Once your topic is cozy they are much more relaxed and you will definitely get some distinctive shots. This operates specifically nicely when attempting to photograph children.
+A great taking photos idea is usually to cease employing display. Outstanding Picture taking Methods For Enhancing Your Possible of people use flash when they consider images because they don't know any much better. Flash flattens everything out, producing an undesirable and synthetic take pictures of. Instead attempt to adhere to natural lighting when capturing your topics.
+Pay out mindful awareness of qualification when composing your photographs. Jumbled, untidy spaces can damage a graphic which will help prevent your subject from standing upright out. Also, including the smallest item in array of the snapshot could be a diversion, getting outside the central concentration. Constantly make a swift skim of the place or landscaping, then remove items which will detract from an normally best chance.
+A fantastic taking photos idea is to buy to understand an individual before getting a try of them. This can audio goofy but basically chatting to someone will give you a lot more information concerning how to record them. It can make the difference between possessing a real or common photograph.
+An incredible digital photography tip is to experience distinct camera lenses. An awesome lens you can attempt is definitely the fish vision zoom lens. Together with the sea food eyes camera lens you get a lot of great distortion all around the center of the image. It can make your photos far more interesting.
+Whenever using plants or plenty of natural subject material outside the house, try and take your pictures by using an overcast day time. It appears as if it wouldn't give enough lighting, but it really will shock you. This type of diffused lighting gets rid of any unwelcome shadows so that it is the right time to capture topics outside the house.
+When going anywhere new, get a solid idea of what things you need to be taking photos of. To have some ideas on how to begin, go to the nearest postcard carrier. Local subject matter and tourist attractions featured on postcards are most likely unique and distinctive ample to become worth your photo focus.
+Generally photographs, you will have to make deciding on a the best way to effectively reveal shows and shadows from the picture. Use picture enhancing software to get two images with each other to make them the right snapshot!
+Do stuff that you will usually feel to get nuts. Put a compact youngster in an adult size fireman's footwear, cap and layer. Toss a girl within a pool with floating rose petals using an attractive wedding gown. Get to Your Picture taking Desired goals With One Of These Suggestions are sure to catch the attention of the moving eyes and probable charm the audience.
+When you plan a streets picture taking vacation, think about the route that you will get just before making your home or accommodation. There are numerous stunning and different pictures to catch and making the effort to plan your option beforehand is going to make it simpler to get all the photos you desire.
+An important suggestion to consider with digital photography is to make sure that you by hand established your white colored equilibrium. This is significant since your camera will not constantly determine what white-colored is, despite the predetermined choices. Bring a white card with you and use it setting the white stability from the setting that you are currently taking pictures.
+A fantastic digital photography secret that will help you out is usually to objective lighting out of your subject matter. You don't usually have to objective lighting fixtures right in your subject. You may aim the lighting apart to generate a a lot more delicate and diffused light-weight. Do this next time you capture.
+Try and plan out what type of pictures you need ahead of time. Brainstorming regarding what shots you desire, can make it much easier to snap due to the fact you'll previously know in your head. Solid Taking photos Recommendations That Can Help You Be successful will make taking pictures sense far more substance and enjoyable.
+Isn't creating your very own digital photography principles loads of fun? When you have witnessed in this article, there are a lot of methods this can be done with no two tactics or cameras will deliver a similar final results. There are also a great deal of easy to customize possibilities that could deal with your expertise established and finances also.
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+Shield Oneself From Various Shopping On The Internet Po - 24 Mar 2019 07:13
+Excellent Information On Shopping Online: Obtain It In this article!
+It is true that cash probably can't acquire love. Money can purchase you all of the other things you need, even though. If you want to lower your expenses cash on those buys, you will need to start shopping on the web. Read these eyesight-starting tips and tricks to understand how you can preserve large today.
+Anytime you get involved in internet shopping, it is recommended to be on the lookout for online coupons. Most shops provide savings or shipping and delivery when you just know the particular program code. Yahoo a store label along with the term "voucher", so you should certainly find a number of. It is a great approach to conserving money although you're doing online shopping.
+When you benefit from the ease of recurrent shopping online, it's very important to keep changing the passwords you use for each and every account. Every couple of days roughly, form a new private data for your lender along with the purchasing web sites immediately. Use abstract phrases, put together with phone numbers and other unusual figures to the most potent passwords.
+If you would like get a utilized item on the internet, learn more about the seller very first. You ought to check out their profile and look for critiques created by other consumers who bought merchandise out of this owner. Usually do not be reluctant to contact the seller to inquire a few questions in regards to the merchandise you are interested in.
+When you shop commonly with a particular website or web store, it might be worth the cost to sign up for their e-mail upgrades which often have special offers and sales. This may result in price savings to suit your needs since you may obtain a discount around the product as well as free delivery, which may amount to larger price savings if you opt for in the web site usually.
+Find out the internet store's refund policy. In case you are thinking about making a obtain on something that you may want to profit, make sure you determine if returning the piece is surely an solution. Occasionally while you shop on-line, things are unable to be returned and you may not need to be saddled with an unwelcome piece.
+If you're seeking to think an excessive amount of about whether expedited shipping and delivery is worth it, be a bit more individual and decide on something diffrent. Regular delivery is not really as awful as it looks. The money protected inside two or three days can help you get more online!
+Never cable Concerning Internet Shopping, These Guidelines Genuinely Job to make a purchase on the web. It is a means of settlement that is used a whole lot by men and women planning to fraud you from your funds. Making use of credit cards is preferable as you can lodge a dispute when your object is rarely obtained. Electrical wiring the cash provides you with no form of safety.
+Have a look at internet site that offer comparison shopping, like Froogle. It's much easier to compare prices using one web site. You should look at the fact, nevertheless, which not all internet sites are included in the research. This is usually a great denote get started at if you want the ideal bargains.
+The price you are presented on an on the web buy is usually not the actual price you can expect to find yourself spending. As an example, income taxes, charges, and delivery prices are not extra on till the really conclusion of your have a look at procedure. Have a look at precisely what the final price will likely be prior to deciding whether or not to acquire some thing.
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+Consider performing your internet shopping on Tuesdays. History has demonstrated that lots of online retailers will submit some of their very best revenue on Tuesday. What you should have paid whole price for on Monday may be 50 % away from on Tuesday. Also, they are more prone to submit new items on that day.
+Bookmark your best merchants online. These internet sites can be held in one place to help you locate them. If you are taking benefit of web sites that share coupons or promo codes, bookmark them too. This will make it easy for you to get back to them very quickly.
+Read about the store's return guarantee. Often whenever you get online you will find a likelihood that you should come back or exchange a product or service. If that is something that could happen, find what the store's insurance policies are incredibly you may not turn out to be disappointed with an item you don't want.
+Generally Strategies For Finding Bargains In Online Shopping to determine if their are any vouchers readily available before completing your acquire. Numerous merchants offer savings, so check their deals web pages prior to buying anything at all. A discount totally free delivery will save you a ton of money especially if you are buying multiple items.
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+State of Origin Game III preview: The decider!
+Related coverage
+- State of Origin 2014 news
+- Rugby League news
+- State of Origin Results news
+- 2014 NRL pre-season trial games news
+The stage is set for an epic encounter when the NSW Blues and Queensland Maroons battle each other once again in State of Origin III at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane tomorrow night.
+Amongst the numerous subplots of the deciding match in the 2011 series, two stand out. The first revolves around NSW’s quest to break a five year losing streak. The second is Queensland’s desire to send Maroons legend Darren Lockyer out a winner.
+Only one thing is certain: one state’s heart is going to be broken.
+Fans both north and south of the border were guilty of unjustified arrogance after Game II. NSW supporters were a little too boisterous considering the Blues had essentially only won one game.
+Meanwhile, many Queenslanders failed to give NSW the respect they deserved. The general Maroon sentiment, led by Gorden Tallis, was, “We’ll win by 20 in Brisbane”.
+So, who’s going to win Game III? For the last time, we analyse the key match-ups.
+Coaches:
+Mal Meninga has presided over five series victories in a row. However, as harsh as it may be, in Origin football, you’re only as good as your last game, and Ricky Stuart’s tactics paid off in a big way in Sydney.
+Stuart’s decision to select a nimble and athletic forward pack proved to be a strategic masterstroke, and he has selected a similar side for the Origin decider.
+Meanwhile, Meninga’s tactical nous will be under the microscope, because he’ll need to have some answers for the NSW forward pack’s quickness. This game may very well answer the question of whether Mal is a great coach, or great manager.
+Edge: Queensland. Whatever his methods and tactics, you simply cannot ignore Meninga’s record at this level.
+Forwards:
+The game will again be determined by which forward pack can assert its dominance.
+Considering the personnel that each state has selected, the battle up front will once again come down to a question of size versus athleticism.
+In Game I, size prevailed, as Queensland’s monster pack dominated NSW and paved the way for a Maroons victory. In Game II, NSW’s collection of backrowers ran riot over the Maroon’s forward pack, making them look old and slow, thus chalking up a win for athleticism.
+It’s absolutely no coincidence that the forward battle is tied at one-all, as is the series.
+Edge: NSW. It’s hard to forget the Game II memories of Queensland’s forwards gasping for air as the NSW forwards ran them ragged. The tactic worked in Game II, and I see no reason why it won’t work again in Game III.
+Halves:
+In both games, the Blues halves have taken almost 30 minutes of football to settle into their roles, and get their kicking right. Considering the talent in the Queensland backline, NSW have been extremely lucky not to be trailing by double digits at halftime in both encounters.
+Whether its nerves, excitement or just poor execution, Soward and Pearce need to be in the game from the kick off, as I doubt Queensland will afford them the luxury of making early mistakes for three games in a row.
+Meanwhile, the much vaunted Queensland halves pairing has yet to dominate the series, particularly Johnathan Thurston, who was way down on his usual Maroons form in Sydney.
+Both Thurston and Lockyer were put under immense pressure in Game II, with Lockyer copping a few heavy hits whilst kicking the football. The Blues forwards will once again be after the Queensland halves, because they know Thurston and Lockyer hold the key to unleashing the potent Maroons backline.
+Edge: Queensland. Lockyer is one the best under-pressure footballers in rugby league history, and the stakes don’t get much higher than an Origin decider, in your farewell match. Only a brave man would bet against Lockyer.
+Fullbacks:
+It speaks volumes of Billy Slater’s ability that he can score the match-winning in try in Game I, then be one of Queensland’s better players in a losing effort in Game II, yet the Blues are still concerned about the potential for improvement in his game.
+Anthony Minichiello was a surprise choice as NSW fullback, but totally vindicated the selectors and coach Ricky Stuart’s faith by being one of the best players on the park in Sydney.
+His defensive positioning was excellent, and he played the support role in attack to perfection, leading to his match-winning try.
+Edge: Queensland. Whilst fullbacks rarely come head-to-head during a game, NSW can be confidently reassured that whilst Queensland win the fullback battle on paper, it’s closer than most would expect.
+Outside backs:
+The return from injury of Justin Hodges means the Maroons finally have their first-choice backline all fit and raring to go. And whilst Stuart is yet to confirm his side, I expect him to name Jennings and Hayne on the left hand side.
+Boyd, Inglis, Hodges and Yow Yeh versus Uate, Gasnier, Jennings and Hayne. If you’re not excited about this battle, you’re a corpse.
+Size, speed and skill are in abundance in both backlines, and one can only hope that both pairs of halves can get their backs some quality ball, and we can witness some of the best attacking talent in rugby league strut their stuff.
+Edge: Even. I’m genuinely excited about this match-up, and I simply cannot separate them. Both backlines ooze class and explosiveness.
+Benches:
+Watmough, Gidley and Lewis were all brilliant for the Blues in Game II. Each provided exactly what you’re after from a bench player: impact. Their influence ensured that NSW attacked the Maroons for the full 80 minutes, and Stuart will simply ask for more of the same in Game III.
+Meanwhile, Queensland received very little from their bench in Sydney, and I think coach Meninga needs to be a little more strategic in the use of his reserves.
+Cooper Cronk was brilliant in Game I, because Queensland used all four of their kicking options (Thurston, Lockyer, Smith and Cronk) to keep NSW guessing. Considering the pressure that NSW’s pack put on Thurston and Lockyer in Game II, it would be wise to utilise Cronk as a kicker again in Game III, as it’s virtually impossible to defensively attack four kickers.
+With NSW once again selecting a mobile forward pack, Meninga’s use of his bench forwards will prove crucial. He needs to ensure he substitutes players off before they get tired, because there is nowhere to hide and rest in Origin football at the best of times, let alone when the opposition has selected numerous athletic, speedy forwards.
+Edge: NSW. Watmough, Gidley and Lewis are the perfect bench players for Origin. Skilful, versatile and impactful. Perfect.
+The overall key to the game:
+Tactics. Queensland appear to have approached Game III thinking that they merely played poorly in Game II, and simply need to play better. Whilst that may be true, it’s also possibly not giving the Blues enough credit, particularly NSW’s strategy of picking a fast, mobile forward pack.
+By selecting Jacob Lillyman to replace David Taylor, the Maroons obviously still feel that they can win with size. However, I think Queensland made a massive error in leaving Dallas Johnson out of their side, as he would have been the perfect anecdote to NSW’s mobile forward pack, for three reasons:
+1. Whilst he’s not the quickest player in the league, Johnson is an absolute tackling machine, and in the past, he’s made the Maroons virtually impregnable in defence.
+2. Johnson’s never seems to tire, which was huge problem for the Maroons pack in Game II.
+3. And lastly, he brings plenty of intangibles to the Queensland side. Whether it’s playing 80 minutes despite serious injury, preventing a certain try, or making five tackles in one set, Johnson’s presence always seems to lift the Maroons.
+Defence, stamina and inspiration. Three qualities Dallas Johnson brings to the table and three qualities the Maroons lacked in Sydney.
+Queensland may very well rue not selecting Dallas Johnson.
+Prediction:
+NSW have momentum and confidence. Queensland are playing at home, and are supremely motivated to send Lockyer out a winner.
+Golden point anyone? NSW: 21, Qld: 20..
+Want to get involved with The Roar? We are currently looking for passionate NRL fans who would be interested in live blogging. If you think you would be right for the position, please get in contact with us.
+July 5th 2011 @ 2:32am
+Stu said | July 5th 2011 @ 2:32am | Report comment
+All the hype about the biggest game ever is coming from NSW. Ricky has succeeded in building the hype by throwing barbs, refusing to announce the team, question the refs, accusing QLD of dirty play (pot, kettle, black anyone) all this to try and unsettle QLD who are motivated to win the series and farewell one of the greats. How is this HUGE for NSW? Is 6 consecutive defeats that much worse than 5, or 4? NSW should be focussing on some self respect and modesty. The way the team and the press have raved on since game II, anyone would think they’ve won the series already. NSW have started poorly in both games this year and will be in trouble if they continue this tomorrow, QLD won’t take the foot off the gas this time. Remember NSW have only won 4 games in the past 5 years.
+–
+Comment left via The Roar’s iPhone app. Download The Roar’s iPhone App in the App Store here.
+July 5th 2011 @ 7:54am
+AT said | July 5th 2011 @ 7:54am | Report comment
+So there is no hype coming from Queensland? NSW are the ones that need to be modest? Queensland haven’t been playing mind games either? NSW should just give up, because there is no difference between losing 5 series or 6?
+You say NSW have started poorly in both games, but Queensland have played badly for entire both games.
+Get off the funny stuff and open both your eyes.
+July 5th 2011 @ 8:53am
+Gruff said | July 5th 2011 @ 8:53am | Report comment
+Queenslanders are so thick.
+From the minute that Stuart was named coach, the mind games began. Happy only to win one game, not picking players out of position, Queensland’s tactics, etc.
+I laughed it off and thought he was wasting his time. But our friends north of the border got sucked in, even Meninga saying Stuart has got under his skin.
+And now Stuart has a side that has no right being within 20 points of Queensland, on the verge of a series win.
+July 5th 2011 @ 3:24am
+Thomas said | July 5th 2011 @ 3:24am | Report comment
+Meninga isn’t a good coach, he’s just a figurehead, Stuart has the record at both origin national, and club level.
+July 5th 2011 @ 9:41am
+Ken said | July 5th 2011 @ 9:41am | Report comment
+Stuart has a great coaching record? Stuart’s coaching record at club level started out very successfully with Gould looking over his shoulder and Fittler as the captain – post ’04 though his record is abysmal, Cronulla circa 09 would have to be one of the most uncompetitive teams of the NRL era. As coach of Australia he lost the World Cup for the first time since ’72.
+Mal’s club record is even worse of course, but he has won 5 Origins in a row.
+Funnily enough I think both are fairly ordinary coaches in general that just happen to be well suited to the peculiar demands of SOO.
+July 5th 2011 @ 9:56am
+soapit said | July 5th 2011 @ 9:56am | Report comment
+but super coach bennet lost the 4 nations (pseudo world cup) a few years before that.
+also cronulla havent done anything for years so he’s not alone in struggling there.
+July 5th 2011 @ 12:17pm
+DJ said | July 5th 2011 @ 12:17pm | Report comment
+That would be the tri nations tournament something Bennet thought up to Improve International rugby league and it has now grown into a fournations tournament . They lost to NewZealand Which was Pretty much the start of NZ pulling off upsets against Australia in big matches like finals
+July 5th 2011 @ 4:29am
+richard said | July 5th 2011 @ 4:29am | Report comment
+i live in england and your state or origin series is the best in any sporting calander you can get . i would love to go and watch the matchs good luck to both teams it will be a battle .
+July 5th 2011 @ 7:58am
+Willy said | July 5th 2011 @ 7:58am | Report comment
+Not a bad week to live in Brisbane and have a Suncorp Stadium membership!
+Super Rugby Semi Final, State of Origin Decider, Super Rugby Final.
+What a week.
+July 5th 2011 @ 1:07pm
+Brett McKay said | July 5th 2011 @ 1:07pm | Report comment
+Willy, I had the same thought at about 9pm on Saturday….
+July 5th 2011 @ 8:10am
+Damo said | July 5th 2011 @ 8:10am | Report comment
+NSW are injury hit, overrated and paranoid about Queensland.
+Qld are better, at home, and have Locky in his last match.
+Tallis is right, maroons will win by 20.
+July 5th 2011 @ 10:39am
+Boydy said | July 5th 2011 @ 10:39am | Report comment
+I tell you what, being a New South Welshman living in Brisbane I’ve been hearing that a lot. Qld will win by 20. What I haven’t heard though is any Qldrs offering me, (a Blue s supporter), 19 and a half points start………. Talk’s cheap Qld. I can’t wait for the long list of excuses from disgruntled ‘Moron’ supporters in the Courier Mail on Thursday morning after Qld loose……. ha ha ha ha ha. GO NSW!
+July 5th 2011 @ 11:52am
+AT said | July 5th 2011 @ 11:52am | Report comment
+I know right? I can’t believe how arrogant the Qld’s are being. They’ve yet to play well in this series. The previous 5 years means nothing.
+July 5th 2011 @ 9:04am
+Stu said | July 5th 2011 @ 9:04am | Report comment
+How many NSW players have won Premierships? How Many Queenslanders? I’m pretty sure NSW have a good side, perhaps they are even favorites.
+–
+Comment left via The Roar’s iPhone app. Download The Roar’s iPhone App in the App Store here.
+July 5th 2011 @ 9:08am
+Gruff said | July 5th 2011 @ 9:08am | Report comment
+Queensland have won way more.
+Cancer Skin Cancer An Overview of Skin Cancer Print By Timothy DiChiara, PhD | Medically reviewed by a board-certified physician Updated January 21, 2019 Read More Skin Cancer Overview Symptoms Causes Diagnosis Treatment Prevention Show Article Table of Contents Your Skin Types Symptoms Causes and Risk Factors Diagnosis Treatments Prevention and Early Detection View All Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer diagnosed in the United States and can be broken down into squamous cell cancers, basal cell cancers, and melanomas, as well as some less common cancers. Symptoms may include a sore that doesn't heal, a new spot on the skin, or a mole that is changing. When doctors suspect a skin cancer during an exam, a biopsy is needed to make the diagnosis. Treatment options depend on the type and stage, with surgery to remove cancer being the most common approach. With melanomas and advanced squamous cell carcinomas, other treatments such as immunotherapy, chemotherapy, or radiation may be needed. Luckily, there are many simple things you can do to lower your risk. At the current time, skin cancer is considered an epidemic in the United States, accounting for 50 percent of all cancers. Roughly 80 percent of skin cancer-related deaths are due to melanoma. Your Skin Many people do not think of the skin as an organ, but like other organs, it has a discrete structure and many important functions. Since treatment options for skin cancer often depend on the depth of cancer, it's helpful to understand the three basic layers of the skin. Epidermis The epidermis is the top layer of skin and serves several functions, including protecting the interior of your body from the environment. Cells in this layer include the following, which give rise to the most common skin cancers—squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, and melanoma: Squamous cells lie just below the outer surface of the skin.Basal cells lie beneath the squamous layer and produce new skin cells.Melanocytes are located in the basal cell layer of the skin and produce melanin, the pigment that gives skin its color. Dermis The dermis is the middle layer of skin made up of collagen and elastin. It contains hair follicles, oil-producing glands (sebaceous glands), nerves, and blood vessels. Subcutaneous Tissues The subcutaneous tissue contains fat, connective tissue, and larger blood vessels; the amount of this tissue varies depending on a person's weight. Types There are three common types of skin cancer and more than 100 less common types. Together, basal cell carcinoma, and squamous cell carcinoma are referred to as non-melanoma skin cancers. Basal Cell Carcinoma Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common form of skin cancer, accounting for 75 percent to 80 percent of these cancers. The lifetime risk of developing a basal cell carcinoma is around 30 percent. It was once found mostly in middle-aged or older people, but is increasingly being found in younger people. It is the most common skin cancer among Hispanics. Basal cell carcinoma usually begins on areas exposed to the sun, such as the face, neck, and hands. It is a slow-growing cancer that rarely spreads to other parts of the body, but people with a history of BCC are at higher risk for getting a second case. The cancer originates in the basal cell layer of the epidermis (the stratum basale). The basal cells there mutate and begin to replicate uncontrollably. As the cancerous cells grow, they can spread into the dermis, nearby lymph nodes, and may eventually invade bones. If not treated, they can damage the surrounding tissue, causing disfigurement. Treatments are very effective when these cancers are found and treated promptly. Squamous Cell Carcinoma Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) accounts for 16 percent to 20 percent of skin cancers and occurs twice as often in men as in women. These are the most common type of skin cancers found in blacks. Unlike basal cell carcinomas, these cancers may spread (metastasize) if they become large. It usually occurs. Squamous cell carcinomas have the strongest association with sun exposure. Melanoma Melanoma is the most feared type of skin cancer. Though less common than basal cell and squamous cell cancer, it is responsible for the majority of deaths from the disease as a whole. Melanoma may arise in normal skin but often begins in an existing mole. It is found most frequently on the back in men, on the legs in women, and on the palms of the hands, soles of the feet, and under the fingernails or toenails of people of both sexes with darker skin colors. That said, these cancers may occur anywhere, including areas of the skin that have never been exposed to the sun. The incidence of melanoma has been rising dramatically in the United States for the last three decades. While melanoma in general is 20 times more common in whites, the incidence of cases that occur under the nails is similar for people of all skin color. In addition, the survival rate in those diagnosed is lower in blacks. The prognosis of melanoma is good when found early, but drops precipitously when it spreads to distant lymph nodes or organs, such as the bones, the lungs, the liver, and the brain. Newer treatments, however, are making a difference in survival, and even some advanced melanomas can now be controlled with these options. Rare Types The other types of cancer that can arise in the skin or skin-related structures are far less common. A few of these include: Merkel cell carcinoma: Merkel cell carcinomas are rare skin cancers most often found around the eye in middle-aged people. For unknown reasons, these cancers are increasing. They tend to be aggressive and spread rapidly to other parts of the body.Kaposi's sarcoma: This cancer is caused by the Kaposi sarcoma herpesvirus, and is usually found in people with HIV/AIDS or who are immunosuppressed for other reasons, such as an organ transplant. It presents as large red, blue, or brown splotches around the body along with swelling that can be severe. Fortunately, it often responds well to HIV medications.Sebaceous gland carcinoma: These cancers originate in sebaceous glands and occur most often in older women, around the eye.Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberance: These cancers begin as a hard nodule that originates in the dermis and spreads rapidly. They are related to a gene mutation that results in overproduction of a protein known as a platelet-derived growth factor. Skin Metastases and Other Cancers That Occur in the Skin Sometimes, cancers that arise in other areas of the body may spread (metastasize) to the skin. Cancers most commonly associated with skin metastases include breast cancer, colon cancer, and lung cancer. When other cancers spread to the skin they are not classified as skin cancer. In fact, though the cancer may now be affecting the skin, its cells are clearly identifiable as belonging to the instigating cancer when examined under a microscope. Treatment for the cancer at play, rather than skin cancer, is needed. Some examples of this include inflammatory breast cancer, which often begins with redness and a rash on the breast); Paget's disease, a form of breast cancer that begins on the skin of the nipples; and cutaneous T cell lymphomas (including mycosis fungoides and Sezary syndrome), which often begin as flat, red patches of skin that are extremely itchy. Symptoms Signs and symptoms of skin cancer may include any change that is noted on the skin, such as: A sore that doesn't healA mole that is changingScaly, crusty appearing lesionsPink, white, or flesh-colored lumps that appear dome-likeItching Some refer to the ABCDE (and F) mnemonic to help them recognize when a skin change could be skin cancer: A stands for asymmetry: A mole or sore that is asymmetric.B stands for borders. The borders of a melanoma may be irregular, notched, or blurry.C stands for color. Melanomas often have more than one color or hue.D stands for diameter. A mole that is larger than a pencil eraser is more likely to be a melanoma.E stands for either elevation or evolution. The mole may be elevated (often irregularly) and is often evolving (changing) over time.F: Though an unofficial qualifier, many add this to represent a skin change that is "funny" looking. What Are the Most Common Skin Cancer Symptoms? Causes and Risk Factors We don't know exactly what causes skin cancer, though we have identified several risk factors. Some of these include: Sun exposure (especially extensive and/or unprotected)Pale skinRed or blonde hairLight eyes (green or blue eyes)Skin that rarely tans and burns easilyFamily and/or personal history of skin cancerHaving one of several genetic syndromes, such as xeroderma pigmentosumHaving many moles (more than 50) or having atypical moles (nevi)Scars from burns or previous skin infectionsA weakened immune systemUse of some medical treatments and medications, such as radiation therapy for cancer and ultraviolet light for psoriasisFrequent exposure to chemicals such as tar and vinyl chlorideExposure to arsenic in drinking waterSmoking (increases the risk of squamous cell carcinoma) Causes and Risk Factors of Skin Cancer Diagnosis Diagnosing skin cancer begins with a careful history (paying attention to symptoms and risk factors) and a physical exam. Based on the appearance of the skin lesion, a doctor may recommend a biopsy, as it can sometimes be difficult to know whether an abnormality is cancer or not based on its visible appearance. This can be even more challenging in non-white populations. A biopsy can be done in one of several ways, including: Shave biopsy: The most common if a basal cell or squamous cell carcinoma is suspected), this procedure involves numbing the skin and shaving off a piece of the lesion. A punch biopsy may also be done.Incisional biopsy: An incision is made and part of an abnormality is removed to be viewed by a pathologist.Excisional biopsy: In this case, the entire abnormality is removed, along with an area of surrounding tissue, for a pathologist's evaluation. This is done if a melanoma is suspected. If a skin cancer (melanoma and sometimes squamous cell carcinoma) is advanced, further tests are done to stage the disease and search for the presence of metastases. These may include a sentinel node biopsy, CT scans, a PET scan, or other tests depending on the location of the skin cancer. How Skin Cancer Is Diagnosed Treatments The treatments for skin cancer will depend on many factors, such as the type of cancer, the size and depth, and more. Surgically removing the tumor is the most common treatment. A special surgery called Mohs surgery involves removing successive pieces of tissue and checking the margins for any evidence of cancer so that the least amount of surgery to completely remove the tumor is done. With melanomas, a large area of surrounding tissue is removed. For more advanced tumors that have spread to lymph nodes or other regions of the body, treatments such as immunotherapy, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and radiation therapy may be needed. What Are Your Skin Cancer Treatment Options? Prevention and Early Detection There are many things you can do to prevent skin cancer or at least reduce your risk. Being careful in the sun is important, but includes more than just wearing sunscreen; using other methods of protection (such as wearing clothing and hats, and avoiding mid-day sun) should be practiced as well. Some occupational exposures may increase risk, and gloves are recommended when working with many different chemicals and substances. Not all skin cancers can be prevented, and early detection then becomes the goal. Self-skin checks should be considered, especially for those who have any risk factors for the disease. Some people who have significant risk factors or genetic syndromes associated with a higher risk may want to consider regular visits with their dermatologist. Preventing Skin Cancer—and Catching It Early A Word From Verywell Roughly a third of people will develop some type of skin cancer in their lifetime. Being aware of the warning signs of the disease and knowing your risk factors is important in finding these cancers in their earliest and most curable stages. If you have any skin changes that concern you, don't wait—make an appointment to see your primary care doctor or dermatologist today. What Are the Most Common Skin Cancer (PDQ)—Health Professional Version. Updated 03/22/18. National Cancer Institute. Skin Cancer Treatment (PDQ)—Health Professional Version. Updated 01/01/18. Weller, Richard P. J. B., Hamish J.A. Hunter, and Margaret W. Mann. Clinical Dermatology. Chichester (West Sussex): John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2015. Print. Continue Reading
+his father and the trained nanny [...]. The nanny that Ricardo had insisted on from the moment she had given birth, making her feel useless and inadequate, in a way that must have contributed to her breakdown. (36)As the above quotation indicates, Lucy's abandonment of her child is ascribed to a temporary cause, and since "The doctors said that she was well again now" (18) there is no reason for the reader to believe it will affect her ability to be a "loving mother," a "good mother" in the future.
+What does one have to do, though, in order to qualify as a "good mother"? Lucy seems to convince her husband that she's a good mother at least in part by how she picks up the baby and changes his nappy:
+She almost laughed as she laid Marco on his back on the brightly coloured changing mat. This was something she knew how to do.and how she feeds him:
+'Let's get you cleaned up ...'
+Unfastening the sleep suit, removing the dirty nappy, cleaning, was the work of moments. And she enjoyed it - doing this simple task for her baby. Even when Marco waved his arms and legs wildly in the air, wriggling so that it was a struggle to get the nappy on and fastened, she couldn't hold back the soft chuckle of appreciation of his life and energy. Forgetting about the dark, watchful man behind her, she bent her head and blew a loud raspberry on his exposed stomach, revelling in its soft roundness, the uncontrollable giggles that burst from him in response. (115)
+She was looking down at Marco, laughing softly as the little boy squished his banana in his hand, obviously revelling in the mess he was making and the feel of it between his fingers. And Marco was watching her, his wide smile a beam of delight as he held up the sticky mess for her to see. (118)Obviously one has to interpret Lucy's happiness in these scenes in the context of her previous separation from her baby. Having feared she might never see him again, it's entirely understandable that she should feel delighted to have the opportunity to spend time with him. It's also important to remember that the book is about a heroine who had "Post-natal psychosis" (171). Nonetheless, what is depicted for the reader are scenes which present motherhood as a source of joy.
+The depiction of motherhood in Angela Thirkell's High Rising (1933) is rather different. In part this is because of the very different circumstances in which the two mothers find themselves, but I think it may also reflect different attitudes towards motherhood. It should also be noted that Thirkell's novel is more "romantic fiction" than "romance" since the central protagonist, Laura, is not involved in a romantic relationship (she does get involved in a bit of matchmaking for others). She's a forty-five year old author and widowed mother-of-four who, at the beginning of the novel, is collecting her youngest from boarding school. I wonder how many modern heroine-mothers would choose this option for their children? Clearly the many billionaire/sheik etc heroes could easily afford to educate their children this way, and some have been to boarding schools themselves. Maybe the ages of the children in romances play a part in how schooling choices are depicted in the genre, but I wonder if nowadays more people feel that children should stay with their parents. The heroine of Janet Evanovich's Smitten in fact broke up with her husband over this issue rather than over his infidelity:
+"It turned out we had different expectations about marriage. Paul expected me to close my eyes to constant indiscretions, and I expected him to be faithful to me."For Laura, and other mothers of her class and era, sending children to boarding school would have seemed entirely normal, and although she may wonder, "as she had often wondered with the three older boys, why one's offspring are under some kind of compulsion to alienate one's affections at first sight by their conceit, egotism, and appalling self-satisfaction" (4) she does love her sons. It seems unlikely, however, that she would respond with joy to a sticky mess, no matter how much a child was "revelling" in it. This is a woman who admits to feeling rather "exhausted" after bringing up so many children:
+"I'm sorry."
+Lizabeth waved it away. "Actually, I could have lived with that. What finally drove me out of the marriage was when he insisted that the boys go to boarding school. Paul had political ambitions. He wanted me to be a perfect hostess. He found the children to be a burden." (24)
+When for about. (21-22)And when she has finally got her son into his bed after his first day home for the holidays, she
+shut the door and reeled downstairs. [...] Oh, the exhaustingness of the healthy young! Laura had once offered to edit a book called Why I Hate my Children, but though Adrian Coates [her editor] had offered her every encouragement, and every mother of her acquaintance had offered to contribute, it had never taken shape. Perhaps, she thought, as she stood by Tony's bed an hour later, they wouldn't be so nice if they weren't so hateful.The ways in which heroes respond to mothers also vary. Amanda Vickery describes one depiction of motherhood thus:
+There lay her demon son, in abandoned repose. His cheeks, so cool and firm in the day, had turned to softest rose-petal jelly, and looked as if they might melt upon the pillow. His mouth was fit for poets to sing. His hands - spotlessly clean for a brief space - still had dimples where later bony knuckles would be [...] she tucked the bedclothes in, kissed her adorable hateful child, who never stirred, and turning out the light left the room. (39-40)
+When Samuel Richardson singled out the breast-feeding mother in Sir Charles Grandison (1753-4), one of the most popular novels of the century, he presented a traditional duty in a haze of beguiling limelight. Witness the scene when the once naughty Lady G. is surprised with her babe at the breast by her estranged husband:Heroes in modern romances may not express themselves in quite these words, or feel "rapture" of exactly the same kind, but they too often react extremely strongly to motherhood:Never was a man in greater rapture. For lady Gertrude had taught him to wish that a mother would be a mother: He Threw himself at my feet, clasping me and the little varlet together in his arms. Brute! said I, will you smother my Harriet - I was half-ashamed of my tenderness - Dear-est, dear-est, dear-est Lady G. - Shaking his head, between every dear and est, every muscle of his face working; how you transport me! - Never, never, never, saw I so delightful a sight! (Vickery 93-94)
+Her body was preparing itself for the birth of their baby and the thought of that was a massive turn-on. (Williams 107)There are, of course, plenty of romances involving pregnant heroines who become involved with a new man, but occasionally I've come across characters who would rather not begin a relationship with a woman who's a mother. In Janet Evanovich's Smitten, for example, the hero hesitates before kissing the heroine:
+'You're very sexy, pregnant,' he whispered.
+'No, I'm not.'
+'You are to me. [...] We men are simple creatures [...] Evidence of our virility can't help but prove satisfying. Call it a weird macho thing.' (Williams 108)
+He didn't want to come on too strong or too fast and frighten her away. And he didn't want to make working conditions awkward. And besides that, she was a mother. He'd never before been involved with a mother. In his eyes motherhood was in the same category as a PhD in physics. It was outside his sphere of knowledge. It was intimidating. And the thought of bedding someone's mother felt a smidgeon irreverent. Not enough to stop him, he thought ruefully. Just enough to slow him down. (17-18)The heroine herself seems to have some preconceptions about what is, or isn't, suitable for a mother to do, but by the end of the novel she appears to have revised at least some of them:
+She was in a suggestive position on the trunk when he returned. "Do you think this is undignified for a mother?"So, is this novel grappling with the madonna/whore dichotomy? According to Caroline Myra Pascoe:
+He pulled her panties down. "I think this is perfect for a mother." (176)
+Images of motherhood in western society have most often ignored maternal sexuality, notwithstanding the sleight of hand that this entails. Anne Summers in Damned Whores and God's Police noted:The modern romance genre, however, provides a reader with plenty of sexually active mothers and mothers-to-be. I suspect that the portrayal of mothers and children varies not just across time (and cultures, classes and many other social variables), but also across different genres. Jennifer Weiner, who writes women's fiction, thinks thatIt is conveniently forgotten that married women must have sexual intercourse in order to reproduce: a general Australian puritanism has managed to convince itself that mothers are not sexual creatures and female sexuality is either denied or relegated entirely to the Damned Whore stereotype.
+even though there are blogs and books and first-person essays about the everyday exhaustion and dreariness and frustration of motherhood, the prevailing cultural view is still that motherhood comes with this rose-tinged blissful glow.You might get rather a different view of children and childrearing from the horror genre, however. John Patterson at the Guardian suggests that
+The most interesting evil-kid movies seem to rise up from the subconscious of their creators. Stephen King has said that he wrote The Shining when he was drinking a lot to numb his bleakest feelings about family life, and evil and/or seriously scary kids proliferate across his work in that period: Danny and the chopped-up Grady Twins in The Shining; Drew Barrymore in Firestarter; the dead child in Pet Sematary; Isaac in Children Of The Corn. David Cronenberg had a five-year-old daughter when he made his 1979 gyno-horror movie The Brood, with its murderous mutant children, and David Lynch memorialised his complicated feelings about fatherhood with the monstrously deformed baby in Eraserhead. Whereas most kid-slaying horrors play nakedly to the taboo, these films have a sense of anxiety, dread and profound ambiguity about parenthood that often makes them richer as works of art.Those examples were all created by fathers, whereas romances are far more likely to be written by women. Is that just a coincidence? And does the romance genre, as a whole, represent motherhood and children in an idealised way or is it relatively realistic?
+-----------
+- Evanovich, Janet. Smitten. 1990. London: Bantam, 1991.
+- Pascoe, Caroline Myra. Screening Mothers: Representations of motherhood in Australian films from 1900 to 1988. PhD thesis. University of Sydney, 2006.
+- Thirkell, Angela. High Rising. 1933. Osney Mead, Oxford: Isis, 2000.
+- Vickery, Amanda. The Gentleman's Daughter: Women's Lives in Georgian England. New Haven: Yale UP, 1998.
+- Walker, Kate. Kept for Her Baby. Richmond, Surrey: Harlequin Mills & Boon, 2009.
+- Williams, Cathy. The Italian's One-Night Love-Child. Richmond, Surrey: Harlequin Mills & Boon, 2009.
+With thanks to Kate Walker for sending me a copy of Kept for Her Baby, Tumperkin for giving me The Italian's One-Night Love-Child, AgTigress for providing me with a copy of Smitten and Sunita, who recommended Angela Thirkell's novels. The illustration came from Wikimedia Commons.
+The other point about Kept for Her Baby is that those happy scenes you have quoted are in the first glow of the reunion with Marco after the fear that Lucy would never see him again. But they also come after a scene, which I belive from my research into post-natal psychosis (and the many responses to this book from sufferers of PND) is far more typical of this condition. One where the heroine, Lucy is desperately afraid to even go close to or touch her baby. It is something that almost tears her apart. This is the first reaction that her husband sees, and which affects his opinion of her as a woman who would abandon her baby.
+The start of the story, when Lucy left because of the fears and depression her condition caused, was also as a result of the exhaustion, depression and lack of 'rapture' in motherhood she felt then.
+So Lucy feels both responses to being a mother and I hoped to show in this book one more realistic side of being a mother is the problem of psot natal deprtession - which, at its worst becomes post-natal psychosis. At the end of the book, the hero and heroine will do the parenting together.
+Thanks, Kate. In many ways Kept for Her Baby certainly isn't typical of the depiction of motherhood in the romance genre. As I've mentioned in the past, in my experience of reading romances it's extremely rare to find romances which include heroines with mental health problems. I've never previously encountered a romance whose heroine has had postnatal psychosis.
+However, when I read "those happy scenes you have quoted [which] are in the first glow of the reunion with Marco" what struck me was that they recalled similar scenes in other romances I've read. In those romances the scenes were not intended to show any special "glow" but were presented as a normal scene of mother-child interaction.
+In other words, while the "glow" in your novel has a very specific context, in other novels the same kind of "glow" seems to be presented as a normal part of motherhood.
+I probably wasn't clear enough about that, and maybe it would have been better if I'd chosen a different romance to provide the examples of mother/baby interactions. It was just that Kept for Her Baby was the one that sparked my thinking about the issue, so I kept on using it.
+I also didn't say anything about the "bad mothers" in the romance genre. I seem to have been taking a lot for granted and assuming that my readers would fill in the gaps with their own knowledge of the genre. There are, of course, plenty of "bad mothers" in the genre, but in my experience they don't tend to be romance heroines.
+I think I was trying to fit a very large topic into too small a space and the result isn't entirely felicitous. Sorry.
+Just a very small point about the popularity of boarding schools amongst certain levels of British society in the Victorian period and earlier 20th century.
+Many people (especially Americans!) assume this was all about upper-middle-class Brits hating their young, but there was one rather common practical reason: Colonial service. Britain was then a major imperial power, and had nationals living in many remote regions of Africa and the Indian subcontinent. In families where the husband's job required such residence, the custom was for children to remain with the parents while young, and to have a local or British nanny, but at secondary school age, to be sent back to a school in Britain. This was regarded as essential to inculcate the required British education and cultural values (and to make contacts that would be useful in later life). Speaking fluent Urdu or Bengali was fine, but a British child needed also to learn Latin and read Shakespeare, or his future prospects in his own class would be ruined.
+I think the same sort of problem has arisen with American 'Army brats', but I think it is more often resolved by the setting up of American (or international) schools in the foreign countries concerned. In the Victorian days of the British Raj in India or colonial officials in African countries, British families were often far too isolated and thinly scattered in country districts for that to be a viable option. A child would have had to be sent away to school anyway, even if the school were in the colonial country, so why not back to Britain, to make contact with British relatives, and learn to experience the climate...
+The Durrell family (incl. Lawrence, literary novelist and Gerald, naturalist) was a typical Anglo-Indian family of an earlier generation: the mother was third-generation born in India British, a lover of Indian culture, a Hindi-speaker and expert curry cook. All the children were born in India, but the eldest (Lawrence) was packed off to England to school (which he detested) at the age of 11. (Because of the father's death, the other three children seem to have had no education to speak of, anywhere).
+Sorry, long digression. It is just one element in a subject that is, as you say Laura, a complex one.
+Thanks, Tigress, as you say there were practical reasons for that choice among families living overseas.
+Another thing that's occurred to me is that the way mothers and newborns are treated in hospitals has also changed. It was often the case that babies were taken away to nurseries, I think with the idea that this would give the mothers time to get some sleep and recuperate from having given birth. But nowadays in the UK that's not what happens. I went off and did a tiny amount of Googling (so what follows is the abstract of only one paper, not a distillation of much accumulated knowledge derived from a variety of sources):.
+Abstract of "Early Contact versus Separation: Effects on Mother-Infant Interaction One Year Later" by Ksenia1 Bystrova, Valentina Ivanova, Maigun Edhborg, Ann-Sofi Matthiesen, Anna-Berit Ransjö-Arvidson, Rifkat Mukhamedrakhimov, Kerstin Uvnäs-Moberg, Ann-Marie Widström. Birth 36.2 (2009): 97-109. [See Ingenta Connect.]
+So yes, it's a huge topic, and cultural, practical and biological factors interact in shaping expectations and outcomes.
+That's fascinating stuff. Of course home births were the norm in many regions and most social classes before the Second World War, but there would still have been some situations where the infant was spirited away by a nanny or nurse very soon after birth.
+There was that weird phase of childcare theory that started in the 30s in America and came over here for a while after the war -- the Truby King thing, where babies were only to be fed on a strict schedule, and not picked up just because they were howling.
+That, and the separate nurseries, would have suited 1950s hospitals in Britain, because they liked really, really strict rules (one reason why they were so clean, and nobody got hospital infections in those days).
+I am wandering! So many interesting thoughts.
+Truby King was from New Zealand, apparently.
+Gina King (not a relative of his, as far as I know) currently has a lot to say about routines and schedules for babies:
+Babies come in all shapes, sizes and temperaments and I think I can safely say I’ve seen them all – and there isn’t one who, in my experience, hasn’t benefited from following my routine. What I offer is real and practical advice on how to establish a good feeding and sleeping pattern from day one, so that you avoid months of sleepless nights, colic, excessive crying, feeding difficulties and many other problems that we are so often told are a normal part of parenting.
+She's not averse to leaving babies to.
+It's called "controlled crying" apparently. And we also currently have people telling parents that this is totally wrong:
+Controlled crying
+Experts tell new parents to leave their baby to cry so that they'll learn to go to sleep at the right time, but according to Leach, young babies don't have the mental equipment to do this. She says a baby who is left crying for long enough will eventually stop, but not because they have learnt to go to sleep happily alone, but because they're exhausted and have despaired of getting help.
+Being left to cry is stressful, and continued acute stress sets up a hormonal chain reaction that ultimately stimulates the adrenal glands into releasing the stress hormone Cortisol. Long continued or repeated crying can produce so much Cortisol that it is literally toxic to a baby's brain. (GMTV)
+Dr Sears advocates "attachment parenting," and he's very much in favour of carrying babies and co-sleeping with.
+Gina King and Dr Sears were the two main parenting experts I came across when I had a baby, but I'm sure there are plenty more.
+Yes, Truby King was a Kiwi, but I think it was in the USA that his methods became most popular in the 30s. Then of course Spock came along and changed all that later. Interesting that these debates still continue -- and that people really heed them. Throughout most of human history, mothers of young babies would simply have followed the traditions of their own communities, which varied.
+The one, huge factor that undermines all the generalisations is that babies are people, and people are not all the same; individual personality of both parent and child will affect the methods that work best in caring for the child. I think there is also an important difference between instinctive maternal feelings of love and protectiveness, and actual liking of one personality for another. There are plenty of parents who 'love' one or more of their children, but don't actually LIKE them all that much, don't understand a particular child's character or sympathise with his world-view. I suspect that that can start very early, and can give rise to life-long tensions.
+"Those examples were all created by fathers, whereas romances are far more likely to be written by women. Is that just a coincidence? And does the romance genre, as a whole, represent motherhood and children in an idealised way or is it relatively realistic?"
+I think it's probably horses for courses. More men write horror, I’m guessing. And I know more women write romance. The different expectations of each genre assign how the author can treat different subject matter. Which makes a romance author enduring school holidays, when there is anything but romantic thoughts swirling around your head, very envious of a horror writer!
+But yes, with the exception of books like Kate Walker's Kept for her Baby, motherhood is perhaps a little idealised. And there are a goodly number of reasons for that.
+The books - if we're talking category fiction - are short. Fifty thousand words in which to get a hero and heroine together, confront them with seemingly insurmountable odds, and get them to their happy ever after, or happy beginning, which is more often what it is. There is time for the hero and the heroine and what's happening between them. There is no space for complicated sub-plots and a cast of thousands.
+Secondly, romances are upbeat. They are, especially in the case of the Presents/Modern/Sexy line, all about fantasy and escapism. It's entertainment. For example, we don't see the heroine washing dishes. Our readers (and we writers!) get to do that all the time. Who wants to read about it?
+The same goes with babies/kids. Just as there is no space to detail real life with baby and those drudge days that never seem to end, (that is, unless it is crucial to the story line), the reader doesn't want to find pages detailing the day she's just had. There is no escapism in reading about real life. And the reader is fully aware of this. She knows this is fiction she's reading. But.
+You know, it’s really nice writing about the good stuff!
+"I think there is also an important difference between instinctive maternal feelings of love and protectiveness, and actual liking of one personality for another."
+I basically agree with you, but.
+The different expectations of each genre assign how the author can treat different subject matter.
+I'm sure you're right, and I suspect there are plenty of other romance conventions which I don't think about much, because I'm so used to them.
+It's entertainment. For example, we don't see the heroine washing dishes. Our readers (and we writers!) get to do that all the time. Who wants to read about it?
+Yes, but we do sometimes read about heroines cooking, and for me cooking is not entertainment! But perhaps I'm in a minority in feeling that way. I know TV cooking shows are very popular..
+I wonder if this is one of the reasons why some people really don't like romance: if you're someone for whom those "moments" bring back painful memories, romance isn't going to be entertaining or escapist, unless, as you suggest, you're a reader who enjoys imagining "how she’d wished it had been."
+For some people, depictions intended to recall "precious snapshots" or inspire happy fantasies, may instead recall feelings of disillusionment, inadequacy or pain. For example, quite a few of the criticisms I've read of the genre seem to come from people who don't believe that romantic love can last, and so I'd assume that for them romances may act as a reminder of their disillusionment and/or appear to be a genre which perpetuates what they consider to be a lie.
+This brings me back to a conclusion I've reached before, which is that readers differ widely from each other, not just in their personal experiences outside the fiction, but also in how they position themselves in relation to those texts (e.g. do they identify with a heroine, a hero, both, neither?) and what they hope to gain from reading (e.g. to have particular emotions evoked, to be intellectually stimulated, to be reassured, etc). An escapist story which delights someone who identifies with the heroine, might have the opposite effect on someone who contrasts herself with the heroine.
+"For some people, depictions intended to recall "precious snapshots" or inspire happy fantasies, may instead recall feelings of disillusionment, inadequacy or pain."
+Of course. Romance isn't trying to be everything to everyone. The fact of its huge worldwide sales means it's tapping into, indeed celebrating, universal emotions and experiences.
+If you don't like them ,the choice is easy. Just don't read the books.
+".
+That's a fair point, Laura. An adult can feel protective towards a small child or an animal who is completely unknown to him/her, just on principle.
+I agree with Ms. Money. Seems to me the point of romance fiction is to make the heroine an admirable representative of womanhood, which in most people's minds includes being a "good" mother. Even in the book cited, the implication seems to be that the heroine's abandoning her child was for the good of the child. Only by that action on the heroine's part could her image as a valid romance heroine be preserved. An unusual hook, though.
+dick
+"The fact of its huge worldwide sales means it's tapping into, indeed celebrating, universal emotions and experiences."
+I suppose it depends what you mean by "universal." Clearly not everyone experiences love and motherhood in the same way or feels the same emotions when they think about them.
+"If you don't like them ,the choice is easy. Just don't read the books."
+That solution would be the obvious one if the reader objected to any depiction of romantic love as something which can last a lifetime. Someone who found that objectionable would be likely to find all romances objectionable since they're all about romantic relationships which, either implicitly or explicitly, are shown to be permanent.
+However, other readers may really enjoy the central aspects of the genre (i.e. the focus on the development of a romantic relationship and the promise of a happy ending) but find a few issues/story types/character types problematic. In some cases the advice to "Just don't read the books" may still apply, if the reader can identify "the books" which she needs to avoid. Covers, titles, and blurbs often help with that.
+"Seems to me the point of romance fiction is to make the heroine an admirable representative of womanhood, which in most people's minds includes being a "good" mother."
+I don't agree with you that "the point of romance fiction is to make the heroine an admirable representative of womanhood," but thank you for summarising a view of womanhood which, when expressed implicitly or explicitly in some romances, might make them problematic/upsetting/offensive to some romance readers.
+Ms Money I wish:-))
+But thank you Dick. I'd refine what you wrote just a little and say the heroine has to be someone the reader can empathise with and a woman the reader can barrack for. She can be flawed - indeed she should be to be real - but our heroines don't, for example, go around speeding through school crossings or kicking cats.
+@T. Morey: Sorry about the typo; eyes and hands sometimes quarrel.
+@L. Vivanco: I'm puzzled. Why would an "admirable" heroine be "problematic, upsetting, or offensive" to any reader?
+dick
+Why would an "admirable" heroine be "problematic, upsetting, or offensive" to any reader?
+If the minimum standard for being "an admirable representative of womanhood [...] in most people's minds includes being a 'good' mother," then a book which adopts this standard necessarily implies that women who do not wish to become mothers, or who for other reasons do not become mothers, are in some way deficient and therefore not so admirable, and that mothers who do not reach the standard set for "good" motherhood are also deficient and therefore not so admirable.
+Women who are not mothers, women who are not perceived as "good mothers," and women who do not perceive themselves as "good mothers" are affected by prevailing cultural attitudes about motherhood:
+Scholars have found that nearly all childless women felt that they faced some disapproval from friends and family. Somers (1993) reported that childless women believed that they were viewed negatively on a variety of measures (seen as selfish, abnormal, immature, unfortunate, unnatural, unhappily married, irresponsible, maladjusted, unfulfilled, having a dislike of children). (Kelly 165)
+According to Maher and Saugeres,
+Dominant constructions of good mothering suggest that mothers need to be intensely focused on childrearing, and this construction of mothering may be seen as engendering guilt in women who mother and encouraging women without children to view mothering as an all-encompassing and potentially engulfing experience. (6-7)
+Edhborg et al, who studied "a sample of Swedish women reporting depressive symptoms at two months postpartum" (262) found that
+The women described many moral beliefs regarding the definition of a ‘‘good mother’’. A ‘‘good mother’’ would be happy when she got a healthy child, have patience with all her children, always think about the children before herself, and she would breastfeed her children. As a consequence of this belief, women felt guilt and like a ‘‘bad mother’’ if they were not immediately happy about the new child but instead wanted personal space and time for themselves. All mothers had expectations of breastfeeding their children and if they were not able to do it they felt as though they had failed as mothers. (264)
+Most people do not enjoy being made to feel guilt, or being made to feel that they are "selfish, abnormal, immature, unfortunate, unnatural, unhappily married, irresponsible, maladjusted, unfulfilled."
+I was assuming that a childless reader or one who does not conform to particular standard of what constitutes a "good" mother might therefore feel upset/offended/irritated if she found that her leisure reading echoed those prevailing social attitudes by having adopted a standard for what constitutes an "admirable" woman which implies that the reader herself is neither admirable nor good.
+----
+Edhborg, Maigun, Malin Friberg, Wendela Lundhi and Ann-Marie Widstrom. "‘Struggling with life’: Narratives from women with signs of postpartum depression." Scandinavian Journal of Public Health 33 (2005): 261–267.
+Kelly, Maura. "Women's Voluntary Childlessness: A Radical Rejection of Motherhood?" WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly 37.3 & 4 (2009): 157-172.
+Maher, JaneMaree and Lise Saugeres. "To be or not to be a mother?: Women negotiating cultural representations of mothering." Journal of Sociology 43 (2007): 5-21.
+This post made me think of Frankenstein, a horror novel of sorts written by a pregnant woman, which many people interpret as being in part about fear of having children (what if it's a monster?).
+I do think there's a lot of idealization of mothers/parenting in romance--at least when it comes to the hero and heroine (their own parents are often dreadful--so I don't know where h/h learn to be so good at it). I know that Dick thinks romances are all about procreating, but as only a half-decent parent, I find the constant idealization and insistence on epilogue babies tiresome.
+I've read a couple of historicals recently in which one partner had an illegitimate child that was immediately loved and accepted by the other (and vice versa). And some contemporaries where more or less the same thing happened. While I don't mind the creation of a new family unit as part of the HEA--better than a genre populated by evil step-parents and monstrous step-children--many of these endings have seemed overly simple, saccharine, and happy-clappy. It's odd that even in a novel where the hero and heroine's falling in love is depicted as gradual and conflict-ridden, the child is calling the new parent "daddy" in a week. I think it would be more truly respectful of the importance of the parent-child relationship to show the development of one more realistically.
+Finally, there've been a number of news stories lately about social science studies showing that having children does NOT make people happier overall--often the reverse, despite the moments of joy being a parent brings. Laura, I'm amazed by your ability to find and synthesize so many sources in your posts and comments. Vague allusions are all I'm up for.
+@L. Vivanco: That "admirable" includes being a "good" mother, doesn't limit it to that inclusion, I don't think. But even your citations suggest that most people do include that quality in womanhood. Those women who choose not be mothers surely knew the prevailing attitudes on the matter before the choice was made. And I also don't think romance fiction will change the idealization of the heroine as mother because some readers choose not to be mothers. By the HEA, most heroines of romance fiction either welcome the state or look forward eagerly to it.
+@Elizabeth:
+In real life, I would certainly agree that having children doesn't necessarily make people happier overall. One corner of my mind, though, holds to the idea that biological forces almost insist children result from a joining of male/female. And perhaps that insistence is part of the collective unconscious which many suppose affects us all.
+An aside: I've been reading Jayne Castle's futuristics in the past few weeks, and I was struck by the "principle of synergy" which runs throughout the series. That principle is a very near reiteration of the necessity of the idea underlying the yin/yang--balance (read HEA) is achieved when opposites are joined. Isn't that, at base, the subject of romance fiction?
+"Finally, there've been a number of news stories lately about social science studies showing that having children does NOT make people happier overall--often the reverse, despite the moments of joy being a parent brings."
+I saw an article just recently in New York Magazine which mentioned some of those findings. It made for interesting reading. Here are a couple of quotes from it:.
+and
+psychologists W. Keith Campbell and Jean Twenge [...],.” (from "All Joy and No Fun: Why parents hate parenting." by Jennifer Senior, published Jul 4, 2010)
+"Laura, I'm amazed by your ability to find and synthesize so many sources in your posts and comments. Vague allusions are all I'm up for."
+Thanks, Elizabeth. I do spend rather a lot of time online, which I can do because I'm a stay-at-home-parent. I suppose in order to qualify as a "good" mother I should really be baking cookies, painting a white picket fence etc. ;-)
+"That "admirable" includes being a "good" mother, doesn't limit it to that inclusion, I don't think. But even your citations suggest that most people do include that quality in womanhood."
+Indeed, many people do, and the quotations also show that prevalent cultural beliefs about motherhood, including unattainable ideals of "good" motherhood, cause problems for many women.
+"Those women who choose not be mothers surely knew the prevailing attitudes on the matter before the choice was made."
+Firstly, there are many women who have fertility problems or who do not become mothers due to other circumstances outwith their control, and who therefore do not make a "choice" not to have children. Secondly, when a woman has made a choice not to have children this does not in any way justify the sort of prejudice and discrimination many such women encounter:
+Dr Caroline Gatrell, a director at Lancaster University Management School, who has spent six years interviewing about 1,500 women, said: "Women who explicitly choose career over kids are often vilified at work and face enormously unjust treatment."
+In her new book, Embodying Women's Work, Gatrell reports that significant numbers of employers had admitted feeling that female employees who chose not to have children were lacking an "essential humanity". They viewed them "as cold, odd and somehow emotionally deficient in an almost dangerous way that leads to them being excluded from promotions that would place them in charge of others". ("If you're not a mother, you won't get on." Amelia Hill, The Observer, 17 May 2009)
+"I also don't think romance fiction will change the idealization of the heroine as mother because some readers choose not to be mothers."
+"Romance fiction" is not a sentient being, so there isn't a single entity which makes decisions about these issues. Of course there are general trends and expectations within the genre, but romances are written by individual authors, each with her or his own beliefs and experiences, and authors frequently push at the boundaries of genre conventions. Indeed, studies of the genre (I'm thinking in particular of jay Dixon's analysis of Mills & Boons) have found that there are often significant changes in the representation of heroines and heroes from one decade to the next.
+"By the HEA, most heroines of romance fiction either welcome the state or look forward eagerly to it."
+That may be so, but quite a few authors have already written romances in which the protagonists choose not to have children, or are unable to conceive children. A few of them are listed here.
+"balance (read HEA) is achieved when opposites are joined. Isn't that, at base, the subject of romance fiction?"
+No, I don't think so. I think the subject of romance novels is the establishment of romantic relationships which are expected to last.
+While the individuals involved in those relationships are highly unlikely to be identical (although I suppose that would be possible, e.g. in a speculative fiction romance with protagonists who'd been cloned), there's no requirement that they be opposites. I rather enjoy romances in which the protagonists discover their underlying similarities. Jennifer Crusie's suggested that "the opposite character traits give the romance crackle, but they’re only skin deep. When you reach the bones of the characters, the stuff that keeps them upright and moving through the story, you find that the lovers are actually two of a kind" (The Five Things I’ve Learned About Writing Romance from TV").
+I am wondering about something here based on this discussion about "parents" and their happiness in relation to children. Can anyone tell me about a"romance novel" that actually explores the father-child relation in terms of love--and how that kind of love then creates a stronger relationship between mother and father?
+"Can anyone tell me about a"romance novel" that actually explores the father-child relation in terms of love--and how that kind of love then creates a stronger relationship between mother and father?"
+If you mean children whose biological father and mother are the hero and heroine, there are the secret baby stories in which the hero doesn't know he's a father. He will often marry the heroine in order to get closer to the child, and that in turn brings him closer to the heroine.
+There are also widowed/divorced/separated single-parent fathers whose children bring them into contact with the heroine, who will then become a step-mother to the child/children. In that situation it could be that seeing the strength/development of the father-child bond makes the heroine feel more love for the hero.
+There are also single mothers whose children bring them into contact with a hero, who then becomes a step-father to the child/children. In these cases the relationship between the hero and the child could be something that makes the heroine feel well-disposed towards the hero.
+There are lots of romances with those scenarios.
+One aspect of the depiction of motherhood in the romance genre which I haven't mentioned so far, but which I think can be important in making explicit the importance placed on motherhood in defining "good" womanhood, is the figure of the hero's former wife or mistress, who refused to have children.
+If her choice to remain childless is associated with dishonesty, e.g. in the case of an ex-wife who tricks the hero by not mentioning her preference until after the marriage, or where her sole reason for remaining childfree is presented as a selfish one, then the result is to reinforce the idea that an admirable woman will want to become a mother.
+I think this figure is far less common in more recent romances, which perhaps suggests that hostility and distrust towards the childless-by-choice is perhaps getting a little less marked in the genre.
+"Can anyone tell me about a"romance novel" that actually explores the father-child relation in terms of love--and how that kind of love then creates a stronger relationship between mother and father?"
+If Laura doesn't mind, I'd like to make a wee suggestion here - for these stories, while I actually write for the Harlequin Presents/Modern/Sexy line, I'd really recommend the Harlequin Superromance, Harlequin American Romance and Silhouette Special Edition lines.
+They're the ones referred to as the Heart and Home lines, and they are so fabulous at those core emotional story lines set around the family as you seek. I believe the Superromance and Special Edition stories are a little longer than the Hq American and so offer a little more in terms of being able to delve into the family dynamics, with more time to draw out those so important inter-character threads there just isn't the word count in for shorter books.
+Then of course, there's the Harlequin Romance line which is just so rich in emotion, and again, offers so many great story lines like you are asking.
+I wish I could summon up a title, but I can't help you right now. But I know you'll find the kind of books you're looking for there.
+Hint if you're not upover: if you're Downunder, the Superromance and Special Edition lines are published by HM&B Australia as Special Moments. Hqn Romance is published as HM&B Sweet.
+Good luck!
+@L. Vivanco:
+That prevailing social attitudes can be prejudicial or discriminatory doesn't necessarily make those attitudes wrong, and if, as I somewhat tentatively posit, this particular attitude about motherhood is unconscious in origin, I'm doubtful it can be changed much. Nor can I see how idealization of motherhood in romance fictions equates to discrimination or prejudice. Rather it's one of those things which simply is, part and parcel of the savior heroine who brings redemptive domestication to the feral hero, qualitatively not much different from the dictum that love conquers all, which is surely one of the fundamentals of romance fiction. The influence of the cult of the Virgin, no doubt--the symbol of ultimate motherhood which brought redemption to the otherwise lost.
+Well, I intended--something I thought the mention of yin/yang would accomplish--that balance meant the perfection of the joining of opposite genders (which accords I think, to your "relationship expected to last"). Balance and the circle created by the yin/yang are created by similar oppositions.
+dick
+Thanks for the suggestions, Trish. I'm in the UK so I rarely see romances from the Harlequin American line, unfortunately. Across here the Superromance and Special Edition lines recently got merged into "Special Moments." There seem to be a lot of changes going on at M&B UK, actually, because in addition to planned changes to the covers and logo, I've seen hints that various lines are going to be redistributed into two new lines called Riva and Cherish. You probably know far more about that than I do, since you write for them. I wonder if the Riva line's going to have a somewhat more chick lit sort of feel, and if that will affect the depiction of heroines vis-a-vis motherhood.
+Anyway, your mention of the Romance/Sweet line reminded me of just a few of the novels in that line about single fathers. Three in which the heroines help strengthen the relationship between the children and their fathers, which in turn creates a stronger bond between the heroes and heroines are:
+Ally Blake's Meant-To-Be Mother, in which the father works from home in order to spend more time with his little boy.
+Natasha Oakley's Millionaire Dad: Wife Needed, in which the father has only just got custody of his young daughter and needs help communicating with her because he doesn't know sign language.
+Lucy Gordon's One Summer in Italy.
+I can think of a few single fathers in the Modern/Presents/Sexy line too. In Kathryn Ross's The Unmarried Father, the father is very competent. In Susan Napier's A Passionate Proposition the child's a teenager who's appeared rather unexpectedly but has previously had little or no contact with her father.
+"That prevailing social attitudes can be prejudicial or discriminatory doesn't necessarily make those attitudes wrong"
+Dick, I'm baffled. How can attitudes which are prejudiced and discriminatory not be wrong?
+"if, as I somewhat tentatively posit, this particular attitude about motherhood is unconscious in origin, I'm doubtful it can be changed much"
+I'm more hopeful about society's ability to change, given how many changes there have already been in recent decades. For example, it wasn't really that long ago that there was a huge stigma attached to illegitimacy and unmarried mothers, but nowadays the situation is very different.
+SuperRomance has a "miniseries" called "Single Father" (I think you could search that term at the eHarlequin site to see a list). The one I've read is His Secret Past by Ellen Hartman--I wouldn't say the (teenage) son brought the couple together, exactly, but the father/son relationship is important. I can think of some historical examples, but the existence of the child is, in some cases, a spoiler.
+Dick, I think I agree, at least partly, that the epilogue baby is part of the taming/domestication of the hero--all those rakes who become doting fathers (this is often really evident when previous couples are shown in later books of a historical series). And I think that reflects a fantasy or ideal that many women have, of a father more directly involved in raising children: something that IS happening--so I think this reflects a social change, not a long-standing social ideal. These fathers are often shown as primarily indulgent playmates, not disciplinarians and providers--they seem to me like 2000s dads, not 1950s dads, to put it superficially.
+It's not that I NEVER want to see this ending--I am, after all, happily married with children. It's just that I would like to see romances reflect the broader array of choices people make today about marriage, childbearing, and childrearing, and sometimes it feels like they are enforcing a PARTICULAR ideal of marriage and mother/parenthood, because that idea is represented so prevalently. I do NOT think romantic love must include these things (though I agree it's not surprising that cultural images of it often do).
+@L.Vivanco: Well, for example, I'm "prejudiced" against those who break vows, and would most likely discriminate against those who break them. I am also prejudiced about advertisements that are actually "cons," and I am definitely discriminatory in that regard. Are these prejudices wrong? Somehow, the word "prejudice" has taken on a pejorative sense that has little validity. Holding to moral and ethical beliefs and prejudice often go hand and in hand, in my thinking.
+Perhaps the prevailing idea that womanhood presupposes motherhood does create prejudice, but if indeed family is the foundation of society--as many of the sociologists who decry the prejudice against women who choose not to become mothers would probably agree--the prejudice is not necessarily wrong, any more than being prejudicial and discriminatory about dishonesty is surely not wrong.
+At times of course, prejudice, even about dishonesty, can lead one into erroneous discrimination, as may also happen, for example, when women who cannot conceive are lumped in with those who choose not to.
+dick
+@Elizabeth: Or perhaps it's the mythic power of fertility in any form that romance, because it must include a relationship, usually between a male and a female, draws on as unconsciously as society seems to hold that women should be mothers if they can be.
+Fertility, like motherhood, is a guarantee of the future, and ideas about it echo throughout our culture, from religion to economics. In the vast majority of cases, fertility requires contributions from two different sources. The embodiment of fertility is the child born from the union of the those two forces.
+If, as Krentz and her associates contend in "Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women," romance fiction has mythic overtones, this may be one of the most powerful.
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+Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien and City Council President David Moran have written to the governor expressing their displeasure with H5671 and asked him to veto it.
+"We certainly respect and appreciate the love of pit bulls and all dogs by the supporters of the bill. However, as public officials, we must do what is necessary to protect the health and welfare of the two- and four-legged residents of our city."
+if you live in rhode island, let the governor know that you would like him to veto the bill.
+Office of the Governor
+82 Smith Street
+Providence
+RI 02903-1196
+Phone: (401) 222-2080
+governor@governor.ri.gov
+“Years ago it was German Shepherds that were ‘bad’ dogs. Then it was Dobermans, then Rottweilers and today it is Pit Bulls. No specific breed of dog is intrinsically bad or vicious or dangerous.” PALANGIO
+State Rep THOMAS PALANGIO, a democrat and lead sponsor of the bill that reversed the state's ability to regulate pit bulldogs, despite the objections of animal control officers.
+i've never seen a politician so uncomfortable in his own skin. a person can get spoiled watching reptiles like DICK CHENEY and BILL CLINTON. it's easy to forget that some of these guys are not actually from mars. the very nervous PALANGIO seemed to do okay answering the questions but the split second he completed his answer he began a strange cycle of panic that repeated throughout the short interview. he seemed to exhale a huge sigh of relief, while thinking "okay, tom, you got through that one, maybe they haven't caught on yet that you are a complete idiot." then the reporter would start in with the next question and PALANGIO would inhale deeply and the look on his face seemed to be telling the viewer, "oh god, here comes another one. this time they're going to see that i am complete idiot. i don't know how much longer i can continue this charade."
+i love this interview with PALANGIO. he described why he returned to politics after leaving politics to become a full time lobbyist. he is concerned about his community losing some of its luster citing the foreclosure and abandoned housing problem. PALANGIO'S answer to breathing life back into his dying community: PIT BULLS! and who can blame him? blood is lustrous, but only when wet, not so much when dry. personally, i'd rather the house next to me was abandoned than continue to endure the mutants and the pit scum that currently occupy it.
+i was so fixated on mr. brylcreem and his nervous facial twitchings, i had a tough time following the interview, i had to watch it twice. i kept wondering about what qualified him for this job, what he did before becoming a professional sleazeball. slippery investment banker? bottom feeding lawyer? greasy mafia peon? my imagination ran wild but it was nothing compared to reality - used car salesman. LOL! i thought, that can't be true. yup, it's true. in fact, he was a used car salesman in trouble with the tax man. the PERFECT imbecile to carry the nutter torch.
+only me and 39 others have seen this interview and there is only one comment. it's a doozy.
+Isn't this the guy who was a lobbyist for Ciccilline? Man... this guy is the poster child for RI hacks... ask John Lombardi... he criticized this guy REPEATEDLY for being a no-show even while lobbying.. no one could ever find the guy! I wonder where he golfs? Need a good laugh? This dude is actually a "USED CAR DEALER"... no joke! LOL
+back to the serious issue of intrinsically dangerous dogs. YES, Rep PALANGIO, some dogs ARE intrinsically dangerous. pit bulldogs are unique in the mayhem they create; jumping out of 2nd story windows, breaking into homes, jumping into cars, ONE dog mauling multiple victims. in london last year, ONE pit bull put FIVE cops in the hospital. more recently and much closer to your home, ONE pit bull again put FIVE people in the hospital. should have listened to those animal control officers.
+43 comments:
+Rep. Palangio looks like the kind of guy that needs to be "incentivized" to action. Wonder what he got and who paid him? And will he mind that lustrous blood on his hands?
+"Finocchio said that before Pawtucket banned pit bulls in 2004 RISPCA regularly convened vicious dog hearings for pit bulls corralled in Pawtucket...."
+Yep, "incentivized" Those pin stripes don't grow on trees!
+Hopefully someone with maulers moved in next door to him and a neighborly 'yard accident' ensues. This seems to be the only way our 'officials' learn anything. That or buy them off. Never listen to experts or your constituents when a greenback or special interest group shows up.
+I'm trying to get a handle on this guy... a used car salesman with facial twitches that would severely inhibit his ability to close a deal. Would you buy a used car from this guy? Time for a career change!
+He gets himself elected to the state legislature where he learns the ins and outs of lobbyists. This looks like a great gig for a former used car salesman, money, behind the scene deals, peddling influence, perfect job!
+He leaves the legislature for a full time opportunity as a professional lobbyist. After this experience at buying votes our boy realizes that there is a bucket of money in a return to the legislature.
+The residents of this district must be fools...
+Don't know which rock you turned over to find this uniquely revolting political creature, Dawn, but thanks for shining a light on him.
+The "legislature/lobbyist revolving door" definitely goes round and round...but I doubt this sleaze could hack it in lobbying. Lobbying is like PR, but the people usually have better education. This guy couldn't smoothtalk his way out of a wet paper bag.
+And w/Lucy, I noticed that obnoxious pinstripe suit and the hairdo and necktie. Sopranos extra, all the way. He should move to New Jersey. Trenton is full of these D-bags.
+it is a astonishing to me that this guy could succeed in any field, which is probably why this fuck up went back into politics.
+the views are up to 47. maybe i should start a change.org petition to raise the viewership. palangio will be looking for a rock to hide under if this went viral. obtw LEDY, i have a copy and will upload if needed. in fact, i could make gifs of his between questions repeating panic cycles. lol.
+This man is an excellent example of crazy face.
+I so glad you put this sell-out fighting dog lobbyist on your page. I wonder who can look at the attacks happening day after day and think, "We need to ban BSL!"
+I mean, WTF? The dog fighters have deeper pockets and are more tantalizing than a few, several, many dead kids.
+Chihuahuas are way more deadly.
+"years ago it was german sheppards, then dobermans then ...."
+i am so frickin tired of hearing this b.s. ....dont these morons have any original thoughts on anything ? i lived through the seventies and eighties and i dont remember this , were ppl being slaughered by shepards and dobies ?
+Freaky. Politician/used car salesman... I think politicians are worse. At least with a car salesman you may buy a car that doesn't run well, that does suck, but you bought it. With a pol, you get worlds of shit and you may not have even voted for the pos. A politician fits him to a tee.
+Quoting Merritt Clifton:%.
+crazy face. i have to remember that one.
+i think the rescue angels have much more disposable income.
+sputnick, thanks for those old statistics. it certainly puts things in perspective.
+snarky, during 1980's, "the decade of the doberman" pit bulls and their mixes killed 45 people, dobermans killed 8. these numbers are from karen delise's rag "Fatal Attacks", so the numbers could be even worse for pibble. she has an awful lot of dogs listed as mixed breed or unknown.
+He's a low rent whore who was cheap to buy. The lobbies that buy people like this want them stupid and corrupt because they are much easier to control that way. It's not the rescue angels buying guys like this. It's the breeders and the dog fighters. That's where the money is, and I wouldn't be surprised to see some agriculture money in there too via Rick Berman. Berman's life is buying off guys like this.
+Danya, could you provide a direct link to the Clifton article this info came from? I know many animal advocates who need to read it.
+Even Ebay and Facebook are in the dog fighting game these days. Maybe they gave him some money. Zuckerberg might have a special lobbying fund for game dog breeders, who knows? You think Zuckerberg or Ebay contribute any of the money he makes from these people to the victims? The following guy has been selling vicious game bred dogs on both those websites for at least the past 5 years. He specializes in the extra violent ones. The ones that try to kill each other as puppies. THIS is the kind of person this used car dealer Palangio is working for too (as well as the AKC/UKC breeders, and girls and housewife rescue angels with Best Friends and the rest). Dirty illegal money that was never reported and no taxes paid, but people like this shove money at people like Palangio.
+"sire is red boy jocko old family red yellow John dam is Jeep niggerrina no dog fighters these Dogs we're breed for game long wind hard mouths these are your idea hog hunting weight pulling or guard choice is yours four males seven females these dogs are awesome and a must see they vary in colors some white Buck skin tiger stripes with rednoses one all white with rednose these dogs are so game that sooner or later they will have to be seperated contact Christal or knowledge due to the economy. Im willing to drop the price yes my dogs are wormed and have their shots I've been breeding dogs for 7 years strong and will stand by any dog I sell to see the history of my past Dogs check me out on Facebook willie Scott serious dogman and dogwoman"
+As you can see that guy is in Missouri, where the puppy mill breeders are right in there with the game dog breeders protecting the business. The puppy mill breeders are legislators. Nathan Winograd's breeder friends were also right in there with this Jason Smith opposing puppy mill regulations. Don't want to disrupt those game dogmen! The average American has no idea all this is going on but they see the results in the blood and mayhem in their yards and streets.
+At this point the fighting dog breeders are probably state legislators!
+that guy sure looks slimy , even for a politician . maybe hes just not very photogenic and figures only pit people would like him .
+Holy Gotham! This guy looks like he's being tag teamed by Batman and Robin! POW!! BAMMO! SOCKO!!.....OOOF....
+PIIIIIIIIT BUUUU..UUUUUL......UH..UGH..¡¡¡!!!!?★*★¿?!!
+I apologize for acting the fool, I can't keep up with such smart people, however, will keep reading! I won't intrude anymore till I actually have an intelligent thought! As you were! Carry on! Good stuff, always.
+Um...before I go...why are pit bull people so concerned with the color of their dog's nose? Red-nose pit, blue-nose pit, it sounds like the ghastly illustrations to an STD manual. Anybody......?
+SadFalada please keep commenting. I'm laughing my ass off.
+I have no idea why the nose color obsession either.
+Palangio is working for the dog fighters. That's who he represents with this, making it easier to run the sdog fighting operations. Did they promise him a cut?
+They probably gave him the pick of the litter - like TS. ;)
+This guy has too many tells to be undercover. Just imagine...
+"Oh dammit, they're on to me. Quick make a different face. Ok ok that isn't working... try a different one. No not that one you idiot!"
+LOL SF - Palangio looks exactly like cesar romano as the joker - down to the pin stripe suit!
+Looks like even with all your pleading you still lost.
+Seems like, as usual, the majority of folks with common sense disagreed with you...
+I missed where the public got an opportunity to vote on this law... Oh, that's because they didn't. Anytime BSL measures are voted on - instead of buying out a slimy politician to ramrod it through - the "folks with common sense" vote against pit bulls. Go check out the latest Miami vote if you want to see what people think of shitbulls.
+But keep on supporting dog fighting and millions of euthanized pit bulls - and all the animals they kill. You're all doing such a great job regulating yourselves. Thumbs up!
+Why do you want to own a creature that kills its own kind and is so disloyal that it sends its owners to the hospital on average every 4 days?
+This loyal pit bull protected his owner from a child giving her a death hug. When the owner intervened, the people pleasin' loyalist doggie in the world, turned on his owner and sent her to the hospital along with the child.
+Note the nutter in the comments saying how loyal pits are. She either has a massive reading comprehension problem or didn't read the whole story.
+Does he have some kind of neurological disorder?
+if greed cowardice and stupidity are neurological disorders then definitely.
+a guide to reading palangio's face :-)
+So funny! I also think Mr Bill (SNL) could reveal a few things.
+Thanks much, Opalina! Dawn gave me an excellent explanation, much the same, earlier.
+Coincidentally, I have a 19 year old "seashell pastel" tortie kitty named---Opalina!
+Opalina, red nosed bulldogs I'd simply a color description like red and white, brindled etcetera. The trait was at one time mostly found within the older pure families although it can occur as a trait in any bloodlines encompassing the old lines. It really means nothing. Blue nosed dogs on the other hand were produced by crossing bulldogs with Italian mastiffs who's normal coat color is a smoke blue as is the skin including nose and ear leathers. No one in the fighting fancy would have one, they were created for looks alone as a bigger and more "impressive " dog. There was never a fighting line of blue coated bulldog. Check out the "Razor" line dogs online then look at say Bert Sorrel's dogs. You'll see the difference immediately.
+SadFalada, would she be named after "The Ghost of Opalina" perchance? :)
+One thing I do know is that, to me, no matter the nose color, pits are freaking ugly!!!
+Regretfully, no, much more predictable, my young niece named her after, in her words, "A fairy jewel"
+Also, the most brilliant description of pit bulls comes from Dawn's friend --"a dump truck"! a perfect melding of almost literal description plus hilarious metaphor as to both their use and their associations!
+"The Ghost of Opalina" is a book about the ghost of a cat that entertains the new family children that have moved into the house she haunts, with tales of the previous families' antics. Great book!
+Tropical, I managed to get google result for a Diane Jessup page, where she talks about Bert Sorrels and her dog Dirk. OMG. That's all I gotta say! I'm sure this is not new to you veterans, but it had my jaw hanging, but at least she admits they are first and foremost fighting dogs.
+Plus, I noticed how many pit bull forums he is on. Man, I bet that would be some good reading!
+Opalina, he's a fascinating guy who's been around forever. You should be able to access interviews with him and articles by him through Google. Ralph Greenwood and Randy Fox might be interesting reads for you as well.
+also google joannie winchester tatonka kennels. she is bert's ex wife and many dogmen consider her to have surpassed bert sorrels as a breeder of quality "bulldogs".
+i do LOVE the way jessup always calls them BULLDOGS.
+and i get a kick out the names that she chooses: DREAD, GRIP, FREAKSHOW and DIRK. a dirk is a weapon.
+i accidentally deleted my own explanation a couple of days ago instead of the comment above it that someone had deleted.
+state rep who thinks he is superman,,,, first ill say homosexual... he has a young guy that works with him ...drives a green Tahoe known to sleep in his car lot with him. very strange.dries around with no license due to a drunk driving because he claims he is a state rep an can not be touched... has no permits on the construction work being done on his house next door an in car lot. loves anti depressants .. just look at him that's a easy call... an for an animal activists the word is while is dog is doped up on Benadryl him an his nightly vistor/employee/daddies boy are sniffing back on some white stuff,while making videos!!! disgrace to rhode island.....thief scumbag an worst of all a liar..
+Nearby points of interest
+- Distance: 0.46mi
+- Distance: 0.53mi
+- Distance: 0.79mi
+- Distance: 0.82mi
+- Distance: 0.46mi
+- Distance: 0.53mi
+- Distance: 0.79mi
+- Distance: 0.82mi
+Nearby points of interest
+- Distance: 0.46mi
+- Distance: 0.53mi
+- Distance: 0.79mi
+- Distance: 0.82mi
+- Distance: 0.46mi
+- Distance: 0.53mi
+- Distance: 0.79mi
+- Distance: 0.82mi
+About Benihana -.
+Alpharetta, GA 30022:
+North Point Pkwy
+Dress Code:
+Casual Dress
+Price Range:
+$30 and under
+Payment Options
+AMEX, Carte Blanche, Diners Club, Discover, JCB, MasterCard, Visa
+Phone Number:
+(678) 461-8440
+Website:
+Additional:
+Bar/Lounge, Beer, Full Bar, Non-Smoking, - Alpharetta Ratings and Reviews
+food
+4.2
+service
+3.4
+ambience
+3.7
+value
+3.5
+Noise
+Moderate
+This location seems to always be understaffed. It's understandable that some days a couple people may call out and leave the restaurant short-handed, but that's not the case here. They are constantly short-handed. I dine here frequently and it is almost never a good experience in terms of service. However, the food is always great!
+The service was horrible it was 1 waiter to 3 tables the worst experience ever I will not return nor do I recommend this restaurant. Please keep in my mind I visited on a Wednesday afternoon with a reservation and still waited 35min before being seated and an additional 45 min to eat!
+The chef was great. Very entertaining and fun. Our grandkids really liked him.
+Food was pretty good.
+Our server was rushing us through the whole thing, though. Right after we got our food she asked if we wanted to go boxes.
+Ten minutes later she asked if the kids wanted dessert. It was very uncomfortable.
+My husband and I were in the area and stopped for lunch. The host recommended the express lunch and stated that it would talk half the time that hibachi would. Boy was he wrong. The service seemed much longer. It took quite a while. When our food finally came it was cold. My rice was hard and the veggies were lifeless. Our waiter, Steven was overwhelme, but very courteous. Solo disappointed.
+The tables at this location are much too small for the number of people that's being seated. We were seated elbow to elbow.....very uncomfortable since you're dining with strangers. Every time I moved or they moved, we were constantly saying, "oh, excuse me...oh I'm sorry...Oh no problem...it's very tight seating"....". That's why I think it's better if you're with a group that you ALL know each other, then on a date. When the chef started cooking our meals, there was not enough room for all the dishes. The sauce bowls were on top of each other(some declined the sauce because there was no room to put it),and once we added in our dinner plates it was really congested . Too tight and uncomfortable! The girl that waited on us was not very friendly either, no smile, very abrupt, & asked questions as if you were "up to something"! The chef did a good job & the food was good.
+We had to wait 15-20 minutes for our table even though we had a reservation. They were very understaffed when we visited. There were only two servers on the floor and the one we had was very slow. We waited a long time for our sushi roll and had to remind her. Then it took quite a while to get refills. We also had to wait a long time to pay once the meal was over. The manager was on the floor but was barely helping his staff.
+Extremely horrible experience.. The host wouldn't seat my party of 3 that I made a reservation for because the third guests was running late..
+The waitress was clueless.. not attentive at all.
+The cook over cooked the food.. Calamari over cooked, steak over cooked..
+It took a total of 2 hours to complete that table and this was during lunch..
+Lunch duet is $14.80. Waitress brings bill for $17.80. When asked why it wasn't $14.80, the waitress said she assumed I wanted the premium steak and that's what she placed the order for.. manager comes out and takes $2 off, which still isn't the correct price.. Total disaster!
+Always fun but it was a Bday special, it was supposed to include Sherbet etc. there was another Bday person at our table too. Neither got but we didn't bother asking to get it because we knew the service would be so slow to get around to it and we were there on a work night. There must be a staffing problem. Looked as if and the service was as if you were way under staffed? Our food and drink orders appeared to be taken by the manager not wait staff and we had to sit and wait until a cook chef at our table could get there. We noticed the table across from waited even much longer. Additional wait to get our bill to leave. I'm assuming the short staff was because we were there on a Monday night. If this had been a full house weekend it would have been unmanageable I'm sure. Otherwise, the experience was fun and the food was good as always. Thank you.
+We were treated to a splendid time for three children and five adults celebrating my two year old grandson's birthday. We were lucky to have a chef with an engaging personality and a server who made sure we had everything we wanted. Highly recommended for Sunday lunch.
+My husband and I ordered the jumbo shrimp along with their chicken fried rice. Delicious, will return and order it again. Our chef was outstanding , cooking everything just the way we liked it. We also enjoyed having a conversation with him. Asking how long he has been a chef, you could tell he loved his job. The waitress was very sweet too. The management stopped by our table, making sure we were enjoying everything. He was from Chicago so he made us feel at home. It was my birthday and they made me feel special. Go to Benihana you won’t be disappointed.
+Benihanas changed their prices. I had the teriyaki steak and a pina colada and boyfriend had the chicken and rice and our bill was $87.00!!! And we aren't cheap skates we travel the world and have been to all kinds of restaurants both cheap and expensive and we just a) been to benihanas before at other locations and it's never been that much and b) we would've went somewhere nicer if we were going to spend $100.
+Worst experience ever! I usually go to this location for my birthday every year but never again. Our server and the service was the absolute worst. She never came back to the table for anything. We had to tell her we didn't get our soup after the cook had already put other food on our plates. We asked for water, never got it. Our cook had to keep leaving the grill to do the servers job since she didn't do it. Never got the green tea or ice cream. The next time we saw our server was when she was bringing to go trays to us that no one asked for.
+I will start by saying we have never had a good experience at this location but somehow we manage to make our way back. This particular night my fiancé and I made a reservation and we're sat immediately upon our arrival....BUT WE SAT 20 minutes without being greeted by ANYONE. I had to make my drink at the table since the bartender put I double jack and ginger ale in separate glasses where my fiancé had to hunt someone down for an extra glass and lime. The couple at the table with us waited an extremely long time for their drinks from the bar. I'm normally lenient when it comes to service since i am in the industry but each and every time I am disappointed here.
+On to the food. My soup was barely warmed as was everyone else's at the table. New soup was brought out finally. I will say our chef was beyond amazing which was about the only good thing I can say about the experience. O and the kid at our table was cute......
+Quality of food taste is very good and prices high - min $100 for 3 w/o alcohol. Service and staff workers are w/o experience. Always a miss match. Hostess and wait staff are fast food quality while menu prices are white table. Customer expectations should be low. We are always disappointed. Food taste is good but we will only go on a special occasion once a year it is still our sons favorite place for now anyway. A real shame. I think people would make this a regular sludge in their monthly dining out if staff and experience were as good as the food.
+There was a time where I would have HIGHLY recommended this Benihana location but NO LONGER!!! This was awful. I am not sure what has happened but it is no longer a go to place for us. We will now drive to the Buckhead or Downtown Atlanta location. Service was not good because our poor server had to many tables to handle. She was sweet but couldn't give her best to all the tables she was manning. The chef was adequate. The food he prepared did have good flavor but again there was something missing. Sorry that it has changed.
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+This final part of the story tells all about some of our special finds. And be forewarned that this post is long. Way, way long. : )
+I've already talked about my motherlode of Blue Heaven dinnerware in Part 1. But here's the picture again!
+I must confess....I had never seen Blue Heaven until I came across this set. I fell instantly in love with its very cool, 50s atomic graphics. So I bought all 87 pieces of it. I plan to sell some in my menzocollection online shop in the near future....the pieces I can bear to part with, anyway.
+I calculated that Replacements.com charged $694 for the same ones when I bought mine.
+I did not pay $694. : ) I paid about 20% of that. Shhhhhh!
+On to other fantastic finds of mine!
+That's just like the metal dollhouse I had when I was a child of the 70s! They were all the rage. I paid $12....which probably isn't much more than what they cost back then! I've filled it with vintage, plastic doll furniture, of course. My toddler and I play *house* quite a bit. So what if it has a few metal prongs that kinda sorta stick out....they won't leave any scratches on him that a bit of Neosporin and a tetanus shot can't cure. : )
+And the child's guitar! I bought that from a dealer for $35, so it cost only a little less than what I would expect to find in an antiques store. He loves it....and has serenaded me quite a few times since then.
+The next item up that is not for sale is........an incredible pair of rooster bowls!!! Well, they are sans rooster, but who cares. (No, I didn't pay $10 for the pink one!)
+The rooster bowl is probably the item I have searched for the most in the last few years. And I couldn't find one online because I had nothing to go on other than "rooster bowl."
+The one we had when I was a kid looked exactly like this, except it had a rooster on a weather vane at the bottom of the bowl. My sister couldn't remember it at all, but the image of that bowl was permanently deposited into my memory bank. And I found 2 of them....but no rooster.
+But not to worry - soon after our trip, my sister found one - with the rooster - at her local Goodwill store for......drumroll, please......69 cents!!!
+So speaking of bowls.....I found 14 gumbo bowls! And bought all of them. Alot of them were $2-4 a bowl, but I did pay $35 for 1 of them....simply because it was only the 2nd one I found and was afraid that I wouldn't be able to find any more. Silly me.
+Okay, so these are actually called vegetable bowls. But that's the size every Cajun I know uses to eat gumbo. And if you've ever had a Cajun-cooked gumbo, you know why! Chicken and sausage.....or shrimp......or seafood.....or just plain, ol' okra - no other dish in the world can beat it.
+But the gumbo has to be cooked by a Bayou Cajun - man or woman....which means someone who grew up within 30 miles or so of Bayou Lafourche, meandering from Donaldsonville to Grand Isle.
+I grew up within a 1/2 mile. Just sayin.....
+Anyway, I've been on a quest for *gumbo bowls* ever since we bought the small house in my hometown that's right next door to the house I grew up in (my previous blog posts here and here). Now, they couldn't be just any kind of gumbo bowl. They also had to be what I call *grandma bowls* - the kind that looks like what your grandma would have owned. And if they had a chip or 2 on the rim....all the better. I wanted 25 of them total, which I now have for the house. Not to say that I'll be able to resist buying more, of course, because I really ought to have more of them here in Houston.
+Another special thing I found at the Yard Sale is this complete set of 50s/60s spun aluminum canisters! I paid $30 for the set, and I'm keeping every single piece.
+There's a theme here.....pretty much each of the things I'm showing you duplicates cool things we had in my childhood home. : ) But all I seem to remember of our set of canisters was the cake plate. I had no idea there were all these pieces also. I even have a grease pot!
+Here's a photo of the 1st set of stuff I bought at the Yard Sale...from the very 1st booth I walked into.
+That little pin dish at the bottom is a duplicate of one I have that once belonged to my great aunt. Her name was Philomène (a French name meaning *loved one*).
+But she was known to everyone in town (and beyond) simply as Maman. That's a French word for mom. She never had kids of her own, but she was a mom to all. And the very, very best of one. And I was lucky enough to have her in my family, and to grow up right across the street from her. (What can I say....everyone lives next door to everyone else in small towns!)
+So my set like this that I got from Maman has 2 of the pin dishes and a covered box. It used to sit atop her bedroom dresser, and it now sits atop mine. These were popular in the 20s and 30s - and included bud vases in this style. I'm always on the lookout for more of the pin dishes.
+And....I wish everyone could grow up with a Maman in their life.
+Now...this pink lamb and this green fish were supposed to be a pink fish.
+They were supposed to be this pink fish, which is currently available in OliveVintage's store on Etsy.
+Isn't it cool! I have one just like it - a gift from my sister a few years ago when she came across it at an antiques fair. And....of course it's one just like the one my mom used to have. : ) My mom's pink fish was originally bought by my dad in the 50s for his mom on Mother's Day. After she passed away, it was given back to my dad. Because it was hollow, it served as our *junk drawer* for years. None of us remember what happened to it, though. Mine is proudly and prominently displayed in the center of my dining room buffet.
+Anyway....a certain witty nephew of mine (one of my sister's sons) facetiously said that he wanted us to get him a big, pink fish from our trip. Well, despite our best efforts, we couldn't find a pink fish.
+But we did find a pink lamb and a green fish. And the pink lamb even comes with its own *junk drawer*!
+And he has been the proud owner of both ever since. And, I might add, he recently acquired a big, blue fish of his own. His wife has one, and she added it to their combined stuff after their recent marriage. I think it and the pink fish are fraternal twins.
+So their blue fish and pink lamb and green fish are living together quite contentedly in their new home. And proudly and prominantly displayed, of course.
+So enough about my stuff. My sister managed to snag this set of genuine D.H. Holmes crab bowls!
+This purchase gave both of us goosebumps.
+Back in the late 70s/early 80s, my sister's sister-in-law gave her a set of 4 of these D.H. Holmes crab bowls. Since then, 3 of them had broken, so she was down to 1 bowl. Well, D.H. Holmes was a landmark New Orleans department store that has long since closed. If you've ever read the novel, A Confederacy of Dunces, you know about meeting your friends and family "under the clock at D.H. Holmes." The building is now home to a Ritz-Carlton Hotel, so that gives you an idea of the past grandeur of our beloved D.H. Holmes.
+Anyway....duplicates of the crab bowls were nowhere to be found since the store's closing.
+Except, that is, on the top of Signal Mountain, Tennessee! Goodness knows how they ended up there. What was so ironic was that my sister and I were in side-by-side booths at the Firehouse spot on Day 2, and she spotted the crab bowls in her booth at the exact same time I spotted my spun aluminum canisters in my booth. So she comes to my booth saying, "Come here, come here!" and I was saying, "No, come here, come here!"
+And the even more ironic part of this is that we weren't even supposed to be at the Firehouse spot. That was our last stop the evening of Day 1, and practically all vendors had closed up for the day....except the guy with one of my rooster bowls. Since we had made very little progress distance-wise that day, we came *thisclose* to skipping the Firehouse spot on the morning of Day 2. We debated back and forth. No, let's not. Yeah, let's go. No, let's not. But it looked like a big one. Okay, let's go.
+So yeah, we both had goosebumps that day, to go with my kitchen canisters and her crab bowls.
+Have I lost you yet? Okay, good. Almost at the end of the post, I promise. : )
+Let's see. I've already told the story in one of my other posts about our trio of old pitchforks. And I should also mention that I got a set of 10 of those 50s/60s aluminum glasses for 80 cents a glass....something we also had when I was a kid.
+Then there is the story of "Dunlap, The Duck" - and here's a picture:
+He's actually not a duck, but a newly handcarved Canadian Goose. But Dunlap, The Duck sounds better than Dunlap, The Goose. It's an alliteration thing.
+The owners of the The Wild Goose, "Sis" and her husband, Mason, were at one of our stops at the Yard Sale. Their work is truly amazing, and they both learned their techniques from Sis's father.
+And the best (and ironic) part of Dunlap's story is that he was carved out of....genuine Louisiana cypress! Sis and Mason use "sinker logs" - logs that sank underwater years ago in rivers that were used to float logs to sawmills downstream. Dunlap came out of the Ouachita River in north Louisiana.
+By the way, he is named Dunlap in honor of the small town along the route that we were bound and determined to get to by the end of our trip....and it didn't look at all like that was going to happen toward the end of Day 2, as we had accomplished only about 15 miles in 2 whole days at that point. But we put on our blinders and drove! And we made it to Dunlap! So Dunlap, The Duck, who is proudly and prominently displayed on my sister's foyer table, is a heartwarming reminder of our sister trip and the incredible fun we had.
+And here are a few other great items that were for sale along our route (not to mention the handmade goat's milk soap for $2 a bar!)....some pickled goodies and a $12 little, red wagon.
+And back in Houston that Sunday night, the little guitar found its permanent home.
+I highly recommend that you make the trip, too. Cross fingers. : )
+Those dishes are all so beautiful, especially the top set!! So awesome that you didn't pay so much for them :)
+hi there, I found you in the Etsy forum and I am loving your blog. I love the gumbo bowls!!!! I followed you to come back later and read more. Nice to meet you!
+*also lives in La.
+Thanks for reading!
+I'm finding it really hard to part with any of the Blue Heaven dishes. I figure that I can cover several walls of my kitchen with the ones I don't use!
+Yay, another Louisianian! Once I got the idea of having grandma gumbo bowls, I was a woman possessed! : )
+Hey, your blue heaven dishes look real good. I have a question. When my grandmother passed away I found an entire blue heaven set. I really love them and would love to keep them and use them. The only thing I have questions about is can they be used in the microwave? Are they safe to eat off? Some of the dishes looks like it has pitting or a tiny rust looking substance on some of the plates which worries me a little. any insight would be helpful thanks!
+Laura, just wanted you to know, I found 32 pieces of the D.H. Holmes dishes at an estate sale in Calhoun, LA! I am now downsizing and will not be able to keep them. Having a hard time pricing them, do you have any idea based on what you paid for yours?
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+Picasso’s Women: Relationships and Representation
+It is said that behind every great man there is a patient woman. For Pablo Picasso there were many, but they weren’t always patient. Over his career he entertained six long-term relationships whose infamous characters and stories are tightly woven into his work. It is impossible to study Picasso’s oeuvre without taking a closer look at the evolution of the representation of women in his paintings and sculptures. Between the years of 1918 and 1935, as he waltzed from his wife Olga, to his mistress Marie-Therese, to his distraction Dora Maar, the depiction of women in his paintings under go many metamorphoses. Giant Greco-roman figures became tortured deconstructed carcasses and later were reborn as sleeping beauties. Despite the variety of dispositions, however, throughout the progression the women remain posed objects under observation, never ascending to the status of an autonomous subject. For Picasso, his women were his. There was no easier guarantee of possession than to immortalize them in his paintings.
+1918: The Beginning: Olga
+Seven Ballerina, Pablo Picasso, 1919, paper 62.2 x 50 cm, Musée Picasso, Paris, France
+In 1916, the midst of the cubist artistic regime in Paris, Picasso was approached by Jean Cocteau to work on Diaghilev’s latest Russian Ballet Parade. In accepting this project, despite rampant criticism from his fellow artists, Picasso made his official departure from Cubism. Not only was this a new leaf in his art but a new chapter in his life, for it is in Parade that he will meet his future wife Olga Koklova. Between the multiple runs of Parade and when Olga and Picasso married in 1918 we find many depictions of ballerinas in his work. But they are hardly the dainty delicate figures often used to represent dancers. Seven Ballerinas (1919), for example, is a drawing based on a picture of the Russian ballerina’s, in which Olga is positioned front and center. Their bodies are large, beefy and cumbersome. Their hands are heavy and masculine yet their poses are traditionally serene and graceful. This counterintuitive depiction of dancers will set the stage for his complete inversion in The Dance. But before he make the jump to those mutilated figures, he continued to add weight and testosterone to his women as seen in Seated Woman (1920). Here the body is made even bigger and more hulking. By alluding to Greco-Roman style, the she seemed to be amassed from stone. A nearly identical representation occurs in Three Women at a Fountain (1921) where, although in motion, the women are as dynamic as statues.
+His bulking and distortion of the feminine form in this post cubist period can be seen in his work as early as 1918 in The Bathers. In a setting that demands leisure and comfort, the three women are contorted and precarious. They are again brutish rather than sexy. Whispers of Guernica originate here in the standing figure’s violently twisted neck.
+The Bathers, Pablo Picasso, 1918, Oil on canvas, 26.3 x 21.7 cm
+Seated Woman, Pablo Picasso, 1920, Oil on Canvas
+Three Women at a Fountain, Pablo Picasso, 1921, Oil on Canvas, 203.9 x 174 cm
+Picasso at Jean Le Pins, 1924, Photography by Man Rey.
+Where are is this masculinity coming from? One wonders when comparing them to Matisse’s voluptuous odalisques of the same period. Perhaps his was Picasso’s preference for large women. Perhaps it was Olga’s pregnancy in 1920 and the birth of his son in 1921, the period that marks the deterioration of their relationship. In which case perhaps the weight of the relationship was bearing heavily upon him, no longer carefree and fun, it had become heavy and tormenting. Whatever the reason may be, it is hard not to find Picasso’s likeness within these figures. His barrel chest and full round facial features are nearly identical to that of the Seated Woman. Implanting himself in these portraits can be seen as a assertion of his perceived dominance or vanity. As if to say, “This painting may be of you, but it’s really about me.”
+1925: The Breakdown: Three Dancers and The Crucifixion
+Three Dancers, Pablo Picasso, 1925, Oil on Canvas, 215 x 142cm
+If the ballerinas of 1918 were a counter intuitive exploration, the Three Dancers are an antithesis, “a vivid and dramatic rearrangement of the human figure.” (Timothy Hilton, Picasso) Here the dancers are aggressive, sharp and dismantled, everything but graceful. All are in simultaneous agony and celebration. Pain and pleasure, much like that of the relationship with his own dancer. His palette is hot and harsh as if bursting with every kind of passion, tragic and triumphant. “The calm and the replete poise of the figures the women and classical youths are replaced by emaciated, tortured figures that might be of either sex.” (Timothy Hilton, Picasso) This is an expressionist piece, that marks the beginning of phase commonly known as “the attack on the human figure”, and directly channels the experience of his current relationship with Olga. At this time, their son Paulo now 3, she had become an increasing source of unhappiness and irritation in his life. Born into the lower echelon of Russian nobility, Olga assumed when she married Pablo, at that time on the lower echelon of Artistic nobility, they would lead a “soft, pampered, upper-crust life.” (Francoise Gilot, My life with Pablo) But Pablo, dedicated to his art and his life style, maintained his vie boheme and remained independent. On a visit to his mother in Barcelona before their marriage she warned Olga against the marriage, “[Don’t] do it under any conditions. I don’t believe any woman could be happy with my son. He’s available for himself but for no one else.” ( Francoise Gilot, My Life with Picasso) Stubborn and determined Olga continued to attempt to pull Pablo to her will, a crusade we can imagine only pulled her closer into Pablo’s force field of control.
+(Left) Seated Woman, Pablo Picasso, 1927, Oil on Canvas
+(Right) Large Nude in a Red Arm Chair, Pablo Picasso, 1929, Oil on Canvas,
+By 1927 Picasso is no longer giving her the luxury of a backbone, she is rather a wailing pile of flesh and genitalia as in Large Nude in a Red Arm Chair (1927). “We very often find that the figure, in these paintings, is looped in and trapped by the very line which defines it.” (Timothy Hilton, Picasso, 164) This practice is true of Seated Woman (Olga) (1927) as well as Three Dancers (1925). Perhaps this representation should come as no surprise because, after all, it was Picasso who defined Olga. Or rather he held the line that could either bind her to him or let go of and unravel her. And so he did, in 1935 when he left her for his mistress Marie Therese and his new born child Maya.
+But this split did not come before perhaps the most agonized of paints during their relationship. In 1930 he chooses a traditional subject infinitely visited in the history of art and western civilization; a crucifixion. Despite the unavoidable religious connotation of the subject, Picasso himself was not religious, in face he was an atheist. If not Christ, who then is being crucified? The same wailing open mouth we see in The Large Nude in a Red Arm Chair (1927) appears here as well. But here, it more strongly resembles the form of a praying mantis, an insect known for the female eating its mate alive after sexual intercourse. Is the figure on the cross a wailing female? Or a crucified Picasso being eaten alive by his mate?
+La Crucifixion, Pablo Picasso, 1930, Oil on Canvas, 50 x 65.5 cm
+1931: The Dream: Marie Therese
+Woman with Yellow Hair, Pablo Picasso, 1931, Oil on Canvas
+Beginning in 1931 we begin to see a more supple gentle figure dominating his work, a sleeping beauty at peace. Picasso met Marie Therese Walter in 1930 on the street in Paris when she was just 17 years old. “Je suis Picasso,” he told her “vous et moi, allons faire de grandes choses ensemble” (Picasso, 1930) and thus began their affair. With an arresting face, Grecian profile, and full athletic build she was Picasso’s idea of perfection. Not only physically perfect, but psychologically as well. “She was the luminous dream of youth, always in the background but always within reach that nourished his work.” (Francoise Gilot, My Life with Picasso) In Marie Therese Picasso could escape from the public life, the intellectual life and most of all his life (with Olga) and all was calm because she was an escape. The first portrait of her is hardly a portrait at all, but rather a still life with a secret subtext. Great Still Life of a Pedestal Table (1931) is blooming with soft joyous colors, as stark contrast from the firey reds of The Crucifixion. Within the rounded forms of the table, vase, and fruit we see Marie Therese’s form emerge. The two pieces of fruit on the table can be either her eyes or breasts, as the tables legs become her limbs. The red crooked form on the right resembles the bent elbow she often rests her drowsy head on in later portraits like Woman with Yellow Hair. She is always represented in a beautiful light, but she is also always being watched over. She is on his terms. He watches her as she dreams because she is his dream, not the other way around. We see this in The Mirror (1932) she is being watched over from two angles, the reflection of her broad shoulders in the mirror behind her, and from Picassos gaze as he paints her. She is his from all angles. “She was a dream and the reality was someone else. He continued to love her because he hadn’t taken possession of her.” (Francoise Gilot, My Life with Picasso) Her portraits are composed whimsically as if she is always at risk of a night breeze blowing her away. As in anything too good to be true, the perfection is fleeting and delicate, prone to evaporate into thin air.
+(Left) Great Still Life on a Pedestal Table, Pablo Picasso, 1931, Oil on Canvas.
+(Right) The Mirror, Pablo Picasso, 1932, Oil on Canvas
+1937: The War: Marie Therese and Dora Maar.
+Though unable to official divorce her without forfeiting half of his work, Picasso left Olga in 1935 and their separation allowed for Marie Therese to finally assumed publically the premier place in his heart. But it wasn’t long after they were freed from the secrecy of the affair that the reality of their relationship began to set in. Now that she was fully his, in his possession, and she was no longer a dream or imaginary. The mundane inherent difficulties of relationships arrived- fatherhood, responsibilities, jealousy, misunderstanding- difficulties he had formerly been able to avoid in his double life. At this point he needed another distraction, and so entered Dora Maar in the same year. While Marie Therese was gentle, passive and obedient, Dora was intelligent, bold, and head strong. A photographer herself, Picasso took a great interest in her as “someone he could carry on a conversation with.” (Picasso, My Life With Picasso)
+Picasso painted many portraits of his two lovers, each with their own distinct style. Often the two women are depicted together as in Seated Woman in Front of a Window (1937) to represent the simultaneous presence they had on his life during that time. In these portraits Marie Therese maintains her round, lyrical form but her unhappiness and jealousy of this period tint the figure more sober shades of blue and green. Dora Maar is usually represented by wild colors, and angular jagged shapes.
+(Left Crying Woman (Dora Maar), Pablo Picasso, 1937, Oil on Canvas
+(Right) Sleeping by the Shutters (Marie Therese), Pablo Picasso, 1936, Oil on Canvas
+As one can imagine, the two women did not take lightly to sharing a lover and a great conflict arose between them. Far from disrupting Picasso, this constant friction stimulated him creatively. “This phase of his painting, which seems to alternate between happiness and unhappiness, needed them both for completeness.” (Francoise Gilot, My Life with Picasso) He enjoyed the dichotomy of the two women’s personalities and enjoyed even more the intoxicating power he had over them.
+“I remember one day while I was painting Guernica… Dora Maar was with me. Marie Therese dropped in and she found Dora there, she grew angry and said to her, “I have a child by this man. It’s my place to be here with him. You can leave right now.” Dora said, “ I have as much reason as you have to be here. I haven’t borne him a child but I don’t see what difference it makes.” I kept on painting and they kept on arguing. decided I had no interest in making a decision. I was satisfied with things as they were. I told him they’d have to fight it out themselves. So they began to wrestle. It’s one of my choicest memories.”
+-Pablo Picasso
+Guernica, Pablo Picasso, 1937, Oil on Canvas
+Guernica was historically painted in response to the bombing of Guernica, Basque country by the Germans and Italians during the Spanish Civil War. But it also can be seen as an expressionist representation of the war going on 7 Rue des Grands Augustins. The large female head flowing out the window is clearly Marie Therese and Dora Maar, as she often was, is the “wailing woman.” And there in the corner we is Picasso, the shorting bull. In Guernica, we see his progression of women parading and trampling over the dismembered bodies on the ground. The experiments and representations he chose 17 years prior continue to appear. The distorted immense female form of the Olga days is present in the bottom right. The violent neck twist of Three Bathers (1920) gives the wailing women her despair. The looping lines that make up the horse’s figure in the middle, are the very same that formerly defines Olga. Marie Therese face is still beautiful, albeit quite unhappy.
+Had it not been for the impatient women in Picasso’s life many of his best and most revolution works would not exist. They entertained him, bore him children, went mad for him, fought over him, lived for him. Far from doting, affectionate and romantic, it is clear Picasso his believed his role in the relationship to be that of the possessor. The women forfeited their autonomy upon falling in love, but they sold their souls when he painted them. In his paintings he owned them by immortalizing their likenesses and temperaments through his gaze. Known to be a collector of objects and things that inspired him, Picasso collected women. Until his death they all remained an active presence in his life because he kept them there, tugging on the lines he once defined them with and never setting them free.
+Welcome to a new year (and a new decade!) and a fresh opportunity to turn over a new leaf. Many of us will make new year’s resolutions, deciding to be happier, healthier, smarter, or wealthier by the end of the year. A few will succeed at their resolutions, but many more will not.
+What usually ends up happening after making those resolutions is that we take massive action and white-knuckle it through those first few weeks. We make ourselves do things we probably really don’t want to do, only to eventually (in our own minds, at least) fail miserably at what we were trying to achieve.
+So, how do we NOT do that? How do we develop new daily healthy habits that are helpful, easy, and feel natural? And better yet, help us to end the year in triumph rather than failure?
+In this article, we’ll share with you some helpful information put forward by James Clear, author of the popular book Atomic Habits [1]. Clear is also the creator of the esteemed Habits Academy and an authority on creating workable healthy daily habits.
+He has some excellent suggestions to help us bring healthy habits into our lives without tremendous effort or “white knuckles.” It’s all about helping us get onto a new trajectory and enabling us to achieve our goals, whatever they are.
+Habits, Goals & Systems
+What is a Habit?
+A habit is a behavior or a routine that’s performed on a regular, and in many instances, an automatic basis. A habit is a mental shortcut that you’ve learned, and can be good for you, or not-so-good for you.
+It’s been said that the quality of our lives depends upon the quality of our habits. Stick to the same habits you’ve always had, and you’ll end up with the same results you’ve always gotten. Believe it or not, 40% to 50% of our daily actions are done out of habit!
+What’s Your Goal?
+If you wish to make an improvement in your life, you must first decide upon your goal, the direction you wish to head. It doesn’t work to simply have a goal, however. You also need a system with which to attain that goal.
+A System Will Get You to Your Goal
+A system is all about the series of steps that will help you attain your goal and create that new healthy habit. Once you decide upon your goal, then you need to forget about the goal and instead focus on the system that will get you there.
+Clear states “You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.” So, the system is an important part of reaching a goal, but the steps don’t need to be huge. In fact, it’s better if they aren’t.
+Small, Incremental Improvements Are the Key to Creating Healthy Living Habits
+No doubt you’ve noticed that acquiring a healthy habit can be difficult, so in the beginning, it’s important to start small. By implementing a system of continuous small improvements, you will get to the goal you desire.
+For instance, if you want to start running to improve your health, rather than going for a 60-minute run (which might be difficult to start with), just start out running for 10 minutes. Instead of aiming for 25 daily pushups, start with five really good ones. Making small, incremental improvements on a daily basis is better and more sustainable than massive action.
+In fact, starting small and keeping with it for a year can mean that by getting only one percent better each day for one year (at whatever you’re working on) by the end of the year you will be 37 times better at what you’re doing! That’s a notable improvement.
+Master the habit of showing up and doing what you need to do on a consistent basis. The most effective change comes little by little, day by day.
+Beware of Letting Your Healthy Habits Slide
+This can work both ways, so you need to be vigilant of the choices you’re making. Making a choice that is a tiny one percent better or one percent worse might seem insignificant in that moment, but over a span of time can mean the difference between achieving your goal or completely missing it.
+Be aware, too, of not allowing a bad habit to sneak in. Otherwise, before you know it, your forward movement can completely stop. Procrastination is one of those bad habits and allows a decline in daily habits enough that it can completely wreck your initial goal quickly.
+Who Do You Want to Be?
+One of the reasons it can be difficult to change habits is that we go about it in the wrong way. Author Clear says that rather than focusing on the goal you want to achieve, it helps immensely to focus instead upon who you wish to become once you’ve attained that goal.
+It’s a subtle but powerful shift in thinking: being a person who WANTS a thing, versus being a person who IS that thing. For example, your goal might be to learn a new instrument. But in order to do so, it helps to think of yourself as a musician.
+This can require a change of beliefs about yourself. For instance, if you wish to make more money but deep down you fundamentally believe you can’t do it, or are unworthy of more money, guess what? Your belief about yourself will be what comes true.
+The person who deeply believes there are no good partners out there will never attract a healthy relationship. The kid who believes he’s horrible at math will find it quite difficult to improve his math scores.
+If you have negative beliefs, this can get in the way of your attainment of a goal. This happens because there’s internal pressure from your subconscious mind to maintain a self-image and to behave in a way that’s consistent with your core beliefs.
+It’s quite difficult to change your habits if you never change the underlying beliefs that have led to your past behavior. In order to unlearn those old beliefs, you must continually edit your core beliefs.
+Are You Proud of Your Healthy Habits?
+In his book [1], Clear shares that the more pride you have in a particular aspect of your identity, the more motivated you will be to maintain the habits associated with that identity. You might start a new habit, but the real reason that you’ll stick with it is that it becomes a part of your identity.
+The Feedback Loop
+Once you’ve decided upon who you wish to become, then you must prove it to yourself that you are that someone. You do this by creating small wins. This is where you take those small, incremental steps toward being that person (and eventually achieving that goal).
+Your daily habits shape who you are, just as who you are shapes your daily habits. It’s all one big, continuous feedback loop.
+The Four Laws of Behavior Change
+According to James Clear, there are four laws of behavior change that are fundamental when trying to create a new healthy habit. If any of these four things are lacking, you may not be as successful with goal attainment as you might wish.
+#1. Make it Obvious
+Having good intentions is not enough to form a new habit, because it’s all too easy to ignore good intention. When you make a plan to begin a new habit, you need to schedule time for it and decide how you’ll go about it and THEN TAKE THE STEPS to do it at the appointed time.
+Studies have shown that people who make a specific plan for when and where they will perform a new habit are more likely to do just that. Leaving it up to chance and hoping to remember to do the thing simply doesn’t work.
+Put this on a piece of paper or say it aloud: “I will [whatever you wish to do] at [time] in [location].” Then follow through and don’t let things stand in the way. Clear says “Give your new habits a time and a space to live in the world.”
+#2. Make it Attractive
+Pairing the new healthy habit you wish to acquire with something you already need to do helps you to remember to do it. Or you could pair the new habit with something you really enjoy. Do the harder task first and use the enjoyable thing as the pay-off.
+#3. Make it Easy
+Make the new habit as easy as possible to perform, thus reducing the chances you will ignore it or forget it or think it’s too much trouble.
+Prepare your environment ahead of time to reduce the chance of failure, automate things wherever you can, and implement those small steps that lead to performing the new habit.
+#4. Make it Satisfying
+Pleasure teaches the brain that a particular behavior is worth remembering and repeating. Positive emotions help us to cultivate a new habit, so make practicing your new healthy habit as pleasurable as possible. If you need to, give yourself a small reward immediately after you perform the new habit.
+15 Ways to Make Your Healthy Habits More Likely to Stick
+Drawing upon some of the many wonderful tips provided in Atomic Habits [1], here are 15 great ideas that will help you stick with the new healthy living habits you want to bring into your life this year.
+1 – Habit Stacking. Make a list of the daily habits you perform each and every day. For instance, get out of bed, make a cup of coffee, take a shower, get dressed – all of the habitual things that you do on a daily basis.
+Next, think about the new habit you want to start. Identify a current habit from your list that you already do daily and plan to perform the new habit right next to the current habit. Called habit stacking, this helps you to remember to make time for the new habit.
+For instance, if you want to meditate more, choose to do it right before or right after something else you do like after eating your lunch, or after you have brushed your teeth but before going to bed. See the specificity there? If your new habit plan isn’t vague about when/where it will occur, it is more likely to be carried out.
+2 – Timing is Important. Be sure to consider when you’re scheduling your new habit to occur. If you wish to schedule more time for meditation, for instance, it helps to schedule it at a time when the house is quieter and you’re less likely to be disrupted.
+3 – Visual Cues. When starting a new habit, you’re more likely to remember it if you place more visual cues around your environment. For instance, if you want to start drinking more water, fill up bottles or glasses with water and place them at various points around your home.
+If you want to read more, keep the book(s) in a highly visible spot. If you want to eat more fruit, have it sitting out in a bowl (and put the chocolate away). The habits you stick with usually require multiple visual cues.
+4 – Create a Space for the New Habit. Sometimes it’s easier to begin a new habit in a new environment. For instance, if you want to begin doing yoga, turn an unused corner of your house into an attractive place to do yoga. If you want to begin writing, get a small desk and place on it all of the things you’ll need to do that task. Over time, a small change in context can lead to bigger changes in behavior.
+5 – Reduce Exposure to Cues for Bad Habits. If you’re trying to break a bad habit, figure out what is causing the bad habit to occur. Once you’ve figured out the cue for the bad habit to occur, reduce your exposure to what’s causing it. For instance, hanging out with your friends at the local bar is a bad place to be if you’re trying to stop drinking. Spend less time in a tempting situation.
+If you can’t get any work done because you’re distracted by the bleeps created by social media, put your phone into another room while you work, or turn it off. Rather than trying to over-ride your willpower, you’re optimizing your environment which is an easier thing to do.
+6 – Make Your New Habit Attractive. Habits are driven by a neurotransmitter known as dopamine. If you want to increase the odds that you’ll continue with a healthy habit, you need to make it attractive; even irresistible.
+The most highly habit-forming actions like gambling, taking drugs, and eating junk food are driven by dopamine. And studies have shown it’s the anticipation of pleasure, rather than the actual reward, that releases dopamine and gets us to take action.
+In order to make your new healthy habit more attractive, you need to associate it with something pleasurable. For instance, if you want to lose weight, you could decide to only watch your favorite TV show while riding a stationary bike.
+7 – Join Others Who Are Doing What You Wish to Do. We are, as humans, like pack animals. We do better in herds, and we tend to soak up the qualities and talents of those we run with. If you wish to bring about a particular change in your habits, you have a better chance if you spend time around others doing that thing as well.
+For instance, if you want to begin running, do it with a friend who’s into running. If you want to learn about classical music, join a classical music appreciation group.
+You can take it one step farther by finding a group to which you wish to belong that has an additional thing in common with you. For instance, you want to read more and you love historical fiction, so join a historical fiction book club. Or say you want to learn gardening and you also admire bonsai, so join a bonsai club.
+8 – Adopt a Positive Mindset. Rather than thinking “I have to” in relation to your new healthy habit, think “I get to.” Instead of thinking “I have to exercise now,” try thinking “I get to exercise now.” This helps you to make a subtle mind shift and reframe the thought to something more positive. Positivity reinforces your desire to achieve that goal.
+9 – Make the New Habit Easy. The less energy that is required to perform a new habit, the more likely it is that you’ll stick with it. For instance, prior to starting a weight loss plan, make up a menu for one week of meals. Then make a shopping list for all of the things you will require to make those meals.
+Do the grocery shopping from your list and ensure that you only have healthy food on hand. If all of that is too difficult and you can afford it, sign up for a food delivery service that will only deliver ultra-healthy food to you. It’s all about creating a path of least resistance for that new healthy living habit you’re trying to adopt.
+10 – Create a Ritual. Rather than trying to perfect your habit right at the start, do something easy to begin the habit on a regular basis. You have to standardize before you can optimize.
+For example, the easy part of going for a run would be putting on your running shoes. That leads to a natural progression of you going out the door and actually going on that run. If you want to write a book, show up at your desk at the same time every day, sit down, take a deep breath and focus your mind. That’s the easy part, then the natural progression is choosing your words and starting to write.
+James Clear says the more that you ritualize the start of the process, the more likely it is that you will slip into that state of deep focus required to do great things.
+This helps to reinforce the identity you’re trying to create and you’re not worried about writing the book. You’re simply focusing on being the type of person who shows up at a certain time each day to write. Make it easy to start out, then the rest will follow.
+11 – Make a Bad Habit Impossible (or at least difficult). If you’re trying to quit a bad habit, make the habit impossible. For instance, if you’re trying to stop gambling, ask to be banned at the casino you go to, as well as any online gambling websites you might visit.
+If you’re trying to eat healthier at lunchtime, pack a healthy lunch and leave the money or cards in your wallet at home. If you want to stop smoking, stop buying cigarettes and tell your friends not to give you any, no matter what.
+If you want to go to bed earlier, have a timer installed on any devices that keep you up late, like the internet router or the television. When the device goes off, go to bed.
+12 – Reward a Non-Action. If all you’re doing with your new habit is resisting temptation, like not buying that pair of beautiful new shoes or not smoking that cigarette, it can be hard to feel satisfied, which is what the brain wants.
+A solution to that problem is to make the non-action more satisfying. When you pass up making a purchase, deposit the same amount of money you would have spent into your savings account. Didn’t buy that pack of cigarettes? Put that money into the savings account. Walked away from the cinnamon roll? Ditto. Save for something you really want – like a great vacation or a new car – whatever is motivating to you.
+13 – Track Your Progress. The simplest way is to get a calendar and place a mark on each day that you’ve performed the new habit. Do it as soon as you’ve completed it so that you don’t forget.
+Tracking your progress visually is very helpful as it’s obvious to see whether or not you’ve been keeping up with your good intentions to create this new habit.
+If you’re trying to read more, keep a diary of the books you’ve read. If you’re trying to improve your volume of sales calls at work, make a logbook of each and every sales call you make. If you’re trying to lose weight, keep a food diary and list everything you’ve eaten in it (that can be very confronting and it helps keep you honest).
+Studies have shown that people who keep a daily food diary lose twice as much weight as those who do not. It reduces the chances of mindless snacking. Since you don’t want to write down “ice cream” or “cinnamon roll” in your tracker you’re less likely to eat it!
+Tracking a habit is also a visual signal that we’re moving forward with our goal; that we’re getting closer to the person we wish to become. This is one of the reasons that devices such as the Fitbit® are so enormously popular.
+14 – Don’t Miss Twice. If you miss a day or session of performing your new habit, just get back on track the next day – or as soon as you can if illness or an emergency intervenes.
+Missing occasionally won’t start you down the road to failure but not getting back on track immediately certainly will. Even if you feel you’re performing the new habit badly, or less optimally than you normally do, that’s not the end of the world. The important thing is that you show up and make an effort.
+15 – Take on an Accountability Partner. If you want a really good way to prevent bad habits from taking place and ensure you get to your goals, it helps to get an accountability partner and create a habit contract. We tend to repeat bad habits because they serve us in some way, but if a speedy punishment results from the bad habit, we’re very much less likely to repeat it.
+Then get yourself an accountability partner or two. Decide upon the “punishment” you’ll receive if you don’t reach your goals, such as paying the other person a sum of money, or taking them out to an expensive, lavish dinner. You could also forego a planned vacation or resolve to purchase no new clothes for six months.
+You get to decide the consequence. Then put all of this into a contract (the habit contract) and make sure your accountability partner has a copy and is prepared to enforce it. This can be a remarkably effective tool to get you to stick with your healthy habits!
+The Goldilocks Rule of Habit Formation
+While you’re setting yourself up for success with your goals, it’s good to be aware of the Goldilocks Rule. This states that people experience the most motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities – about four percent beyond their current ability. Not too hard, not too easy.
+It’s good to make the new habit as easy as you can to perform so that you stick with it, but don’t stop there. Continue to advance, to stretch yourself in small ways so that progress is being made and you’re constantly improving.
+Finally, don’t try to create a habit that goes against your grain. Just because someone tells you that you need to begin doing something, if it doesn’t resonate with you or if the very idea of it fills you with dismay, don’t go there! Choose a healthy habit that best suits you and your interests.
+New habits need to be enjoyable and have a good payoff for you if you’re to stick by them. Be creative! Thoughtful preparation towards achieving your new healthy habit is clearly beneficial and sets you up for success. Good luck with whatever you’re wanting to achieve in 2020 and beyond!
+Organixx Daily Detox combines 6 key superfood ingredients to support your body’s natural detox response system for improved immunity & health.
+
+The Braves Caravan is touring the Southeast, getting the fans pumped for the 2011 season! I'm pretty sure they put together the Peachtree City group of players just for me (haha), because look at all my fave guys who were in attendance! The order of the autograph table was bullpen coach Eddie Perez, assistant GM Bruce Manno, Nate McLouth, Jonny Venters, David Ross, and Brian McCann. No, Nate wasn't one of my faves before Thursday. Do I like him much better now? Yes!
+Alison and I decided to tell our story conversation-style -- it's fun to read this way occasionally, right? :) Here we go!
+La: Yeah, that was pretty nuts. But at the same time, I still wasn't surprised. But I was mostly cranky, I think. There were an AWFUL lot of children around...
+Lauren: There were people at the front of the line in camp chairs. I wanted to ask how long they'd been there, but we didn't. We just wanted to go stand in the line. I brought magazines, but we spent most of the time in line talking to people we knew and watching the kids climb the trees and poke each other with sticks. How were all those kids out of school? ;)
+Lauren: on time!
+Alison: I really did quit paying attention after a while
+Lauren: They're weird. I was all "don't-touch-me" body language, clutching my bag very strangely in front of me and not making eye-to-ball-head contact with him so he wouldn't rub all up on me like he was doing with every other lady down the line.
+Alison: Yeah... the rubbing... yeesh
+Lauren: Hee.
+Alison: But Lauren... we were like... few of the only chicks there who weren't MOMS or clearly teenagers.
+Lauren: It's true. We were of-age and we didn't have kids with us.
+Alison: I mean, the prospects told us we were 22. Totally of-age. And totally no kids.
+Lauren: And we weren't dressed sexy ;) There were a few who walked past us in mile-high boots - they made me laugh. The Braves aren't going to see your boots, and you're going to be standing in line for 3 hours. (Not you, Crista. Your boots looked comfy. I mean stiletto boots.)
+Ok, back to Homer for a second? it's a new guy in the costume. He was much more... erm... flamboyant than the Homer last year
+Alison: yes... jeez. The rubbing. Like... he was RUBBING my back when he hugged me.
+I was like... "Do I know you? Is that Braiken (a very awesome friend of mine) in there? Because if it's not, then I don't want any of this, thanks."
+I was like... "Do I know you? Is that Braiken (a very awesome friend of mine) in there? Because if it's not, then I don't want any of this, thanks."
+Lauren: I was both amused at and grossed out for you. Sorry. :)
+Alison: well, luckily, it didn't last that long because he moved RIGHT ON TO CRISTA.
+Lauren: So we finally got into Publix around 5pm. The line moved very fast once it started moving, which made me wonder if we'd have time to say more than "hi, how are ya" to the boys. They made us go in numerical order, which means Alison was in front of me.
+Alison: Well. That's all I DID end up saying, really, because I basically lost all powers of conversation by the time we got up there. In my defense, I was tired! I got two and a half hours of sleep, and then went to class, and then went to Peachtree City to stand in line. I can't help it if it's automatic Waitress Mode!
+Eddie saw me, and gave the biggest grin. "Heeeeeeyy!! Haven't seen you in a loooong time! How've you been? Doing ok?" I think Eddie was the only one with whom I talked normally. Seriously. It was a toothy grin. OBVS I had to grin back really big too. So I handed him the hat that Lauren gave me because I didn't get anything for the boys to sign because I have no brain, and he said, "Why didn't you bring any of the balls I gave you?" And I looked at him really sheepishly and babbled some excuse. I think it involved class, and coming on a whim, and forgot... but he just mock shook his head at me like he was disappointed, and signed the hat. AND THEN HE GAVE ME SOMETHING ELSE!
+EVEN THOUGH THE RULES SAID, "nope, one item, only"
+Eddie <3s his girls.
+Alison: I was like, "THANKS SO MUCH AWESOME!"
+Lauren: I handed Eddie my tin baseball sign and also slipped him one of his baseball cards from 2000. He asked how I'd been and I said something like, "Fine birthday buddy, how 'bout you?" The line was moving really fast and so I was going to keep moving, not talk too much, but he was all, "Here, I want you to have one of these too," and signed one of the 8x10 pics for me too. As I slid to Bruce Manno (assistant GM, had no idea who he was, honestly), Eddie said, "Your grandma..."
+Alison: He was SO sweet. <3 Eddie forever.
+Lauren: I looked back at him surprised, and looked at Alison, then looked back at Eddie again and smiled, "you remembered that?" I wasn't at a few big games at the end of the season because my grammy hadn't been doing so well and I was taking care of some family things, and when Eddie had asked Alison where I was, she told him. I was really touched that he remembered. :) What a sweetheart. I told him she's doing okay, and thanked him for remembering.
+Alison: So after our Braves assistant GM (who looked so uncomfortable, poor thing) it was Nate. We were going tag-team tease Nate about his hair, and tell him that I call him Mighty Mouse. Mighty Mouse because he's normal-man-sized... but that's ok, because he can fly and packs a mean punch. I think it's a GREAT nickname.
+Lauren: His hair was so California Ken.
+Alison: dude.
+RIGHT?
+Lauren: :D
+But you went into waitress mode... ;)
+He was surprisingly nice. We were a little thrown off by that.
+Alison: Oh, I don't know.
+Lauren: OK, I was!
+Alison: I wasn't really thrown off, by that... I think you were expecting him to be mean/defensive... hahah
+I didn't expect him to be nice or not nice... I expected "machine signing item" (honestly, for all of them)
+and then I looked at his hair
+and he looked up at me
+and actually looked up and smiled
+and our rhythm had been thrown off by sweet Eddie
+Lauren: I expected "machine" at the best. I didn't expect him to be so friendly (in a nice way, not in a pervy way).
+Alison: and I went directly into WAITRESS MODE because he actually asked me how I was before I said anything at all!
+Lauren: Doesn't that throw us off?
+Alison: yes and I said, "I'm great, how about you? How was your day?"
+(it was SO bad, you guys. Seriously. Waitress Mode. I'm surprised I didn't ask them if they'd like anything to drink.)
+Lauren: :D
+Alison: er... what I could get them to drink while they looked at the menu. hahaha
+My greeting was, "Hi Nate, nice hair!" with a big grin.
+Alison: I was with Jonny at this point, and we both heard
+and I looked at him glance over at Nate with this smirk.
+(his eyes also darted up at you, btw)
+Lauren: and my tiny bit of snark whooshed right over Nate's head, but Jonny got it. I'm pretty sure he's overheard me be a little snarky before, though.
+Alison: ha! Poor Nate. He was SO earnest and SO friendly. I really like him now. I like that he speaks Spanish to the Latin players (and is good enough to give INTERVIEWS IN SPANISH) and I like that he was SO nice to us.
+Lauren: I told him we saw pics of his hair on the internet, and he’s all, WHERE?!
+Alison: Finally, I told him it was on Twitter. And that Lauren needed to stop teasing him and making him self-conscious
+Lauren: I wasn't! Well, maybe a little. He didn't seem to mind; he was having fun! They have to get tired of "hi how are you. hi how are you." over and over. I told him the Braves put a pic up. :)
+Alison: So Jonny looked at me, and said hi with a funny little half-grin. I literally looked for dip. And I said, "hi there!" very brightly. Like i said, I was done, by that point. Waitress mode, all the way down the line, after Eddie. It's Nate's fault, you know. Threw me off, and me being so tired... To be honest, I wasn't really paying that much attention to Jonny and me talking because I was listening in on the Nate conversation. But I didn't have anything fun to say to Jonny. Should have told him that his socks are awesome. And given him a doodle.
+HAHAHAHAHA
+That's what I should have done!
+doh!
+Lauren: Yes!
+Alison: My Jonny doodle for Jonny. A BMac doodle for BMac... and everybody else gets pictures of awesome. Alison... you have no brains. it's too late now!!!!!!!!!!!!
+When I handed him the baseball, I didn't remember to tell him why I wanted him to sign that particular ball. He had tossed it to me at a game, and he signed his name on it so tiny.
+Apparently I went from really jokey with Nate to really quiet with Jonny. He asked how I was doing and I asked how his off-season was. I don't remember much else...
+Oh, I asked if he had a nice off-season, and you said he said it was "real relaxing", but I don't remember hearing that
+Alison: oh that's right
+I did hear him say that!
+"It was good, real relaxing."
+I feel like I heard more with Jonny, but I can't remember
+So... Rossy now? I moved on from Jonny and said, "Hi!" and he looked up with his swimmy-ness and kinda mirrored my very perky "Hi!" I'm telling you. WAITRESS.
+Lauren: Heh.
+Alison: and I said, "how've you been? Long day?" and he said something non committal to the long day bit, but said that he has been doing great. Seriously should have just gone ahead and taken his drink order, sheesh. I think I stammered.
+Oh! I did stammer with Nate! I forgot about that because I was staring at his hair
+and I asked him to sign my non-existent ball when he had my hat in his hands.
+and smirked a little (not mean), like, "yeah, they're the same thing." and I said, "I know. You throw hats just as well as balls, right?" and he laughed at me. I cannot believe I forgot that. :)
+Lauren: "you throw hats as well as balls"
+lol
+[snipped convo] wait, you know what?
+you talk about BMac first
+because they tag-teamed me
+Alison: hahah
+Rossy finished signing my hat, and handed it back to me with a smile, and looked over at Lauren and I was looking at Lauren too like whoo. Soon, I can sit down! (yeah, right)
+Lauren: you could have sat down!
+Alison: I know, but I'm ridiculous
+BMac looked over at me, expectantly and blinkily
+Lauren: Mac really had the cutes dialed up
+Alison: head cocked to the side, baby blues flashing, expectant smile
+and fuzzy head.
+HAHAHAHAH
+Lauren: so fuzzy
+Alison: I handed my hat to Mac, who then went from expectant smile to BIG smile
+and ... dang it, I'm boring.
+I said, "hi!" as brightly as I could. “How's it going?” "It's going really well, thanks! How about you?" "Awesome. I'm doing awesome. Thanks for signing my hat!" Waitress Mode Alison is so boring.
+That's really it. I was done at that point.
+Lauren: You breezed through Rossy & Mac while I was still with Jonny because when I got to Rossy, you were finished! So BMac was talking to me at the same time as Rossy - fine by me! <3
+Alison: Honestly, after I got to Jonny, it was full on Waitress Mode and I just didn't have the energy to think of anything funny to say.
+Lauren: Aww. Well, I greeted him with, "Hey Rossy, you look tired..." (he did!) He simultaneously smiled and gave me this weird look and goes, "You're calling me by my nickname and I don't know yours. What's your nickname?" And Mac grinned and chimed in, "Yeah, what should we call you?"
+Alison: hahaha, so funny
+Lauren: And I laughed, "I don't really have one..." You said I said that really quietly - I did, because my immediate family has a nickname for me that no one else calls me, and I was hoping they weren't trying to get me to say "Braves Love". Eesh.
+Mac goes, "We should give you one!" and Rossy's like, "Yes, let's give her one..." and they went back and forth for a second before Rossy's like, "We're just going to call you 'Awesome".
+Alison: haha: YES
+I laughed so hard.
+Lauren: Mac: "Me too! He's so handsome!" Alison and I and the Braves reps next to Mac were dying. They kept going back and forth about how hot Javy is. It was great. Mac was smiling so big - really had the charm dialed up. It was so fun.
+Alison: you forgot that I said "he got to it first" ;)
+Lauren: You did say that - that Javy "got to it first".
+Alison: HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH
+Ridiculous
+Lauren: Mac LOVED that
+Alison: see, I have moments of snarkiness
+Lauren: of course you do!
+Alison: I was trying to get out at this point, I think
+hahah
+Lauren: I thanked Mac and Rossy, told them to have a great rest of the day, and we ducked around the corner and were immediately stopped by a guy in a black Braves Vision shirt.
+Alison: I was horrified when he was like, "can we do an interview with you on camera?"
+"what, now??"
+and LAUREN goes, "No, do it!! It'll be fun, do it!"
+and I'm like, "but... but..."
+Lauren: I'm a bit of an instigator. ;) but only for fun things!
+So somehow, we ended up filming a little interview - together - and you may or may not see us on the jumbotron at the Ted this summer. We'll see what happens.
+Then I ducked over and resumed chatting with a couple of the Tomahawk Team members, Jennifer and Katie. We'd seen them earlier in the line outside and I'd met Jennifer last year at the stadium. They are both so nice and fun to talk with!
+Alison: And in the meantime, I think we both realized that no one took any pictures, so I nominated myself to go take photos.
+I ran into a pretty sweet fan who was standing near the door hoping that she'd be able to talk her way into getting an autograph. She had JUST found out about the caravan that day.
+Lauren: Because you're awesome.
+Alison: So I snuck pictures while I talked to her about cameras, photography, music, concert venues, and baseball players being totally rad.
+Lauren: We had to bust up the party pretty quickly as the boys left. The TTGirls ran off with the bus and everyone flooded out pretty quickly.
+You kinda tried to take some pictures... ;)
+Alison: hahaha
+I did
+they were blurry and terrible
+Lauren: Well, the boys were leaving! People were clapping and cheering!
+Alison: Jonny and Rossy saw me talking to that cute little chicky, the hopeful one!
+Alison: Jonny and Rossy saw me talking to that cute little chicky, the hopeful one!
+they were both like, "oh, curious"
+Lauren: Right, but you said in the car you weren't sure if they knew we were there together? But you were really tired in the car. ;)
+Alison: because as you can see, I didn't get to snap any good shots, and you know how I am about photos.
+well, I still don't know that ROSSY knows we were together.
+Lauren: So they were hustled out pretty quickly.
+Alison: I attempted to take photos of the boys as they left. It was impossible to get any good shots.
+Lauren: They're so fast!
+Alison: and Jonny made me uncomfortable.
+not like
+oh... pervy
+me: he's not pervy!
+Alison: but like "camera, stop"
+I didn't say he was pervy...
+Lauren: Some of the boys are more comfortable with cameras than others. Some pose. ;) Some avoid.
+Alison: maybe
+Lauren: Anyway, I think we had a super-fun time. SUPER FUN.
+Alison: we did
+Lauren: And we might go back soon. We'll see. :)
+--------------------------------------------------------
+Here are some links from the day...
+WSBtv covers both events of the day - make sure you click the pic in the top left to see the photo gallery!
+Braves FB album
+--------------------------------------------------------
+Our full photo album
+Some of Alison's especially great pics of the boys...
+10 comments:
+Soooo jealous of you guys! (and I do love the conversation format- way fun!) One day, I swear I will make it to Atlanta and get to see it with my own eyes :D
+Aww, don't be jealous! Think of all the Cali stadiums you've been to that I haven't! :)
+sadly, that number is only...well, I guess it's 4. Wow. Didn't even realize it was that many (and all to see the Braves, of course :D ) BUT YOU GOT TO TALK TO MAC!
+HEY NOW!
+I'm sixteen :P
+Anyways,
+I had a blast.
+Before and after everything that happened with Homer. :D
+(Even though it was pretty awesome :P)
+And thank you, my boots were very comfortable,
+considering how long I had been standing :D.
+AWESOME!
+:D
+Except for one.
+Ahem.
+CA, you're a grown-up. You can move wherever you want. ;)
+Crista, you were too cute with Homer! It's a new guy in the costume, yes?
+Amanda, I don't blame you. :)
+The conversation format makes it feel like we're there with you. And boy I wish I had been. Great stuff, girls! And the last pic of Mac just makes me so happy. Could he be any more freaking adorable?
+I'm not so sure, actually.
+I've noticed that he acts differently at the Pre-Season stuff and actually at games.
+But maybe that's just me :D
+RE: Homer, because I was avoiding eye contact I... hmm... how can I say this. It was a very different body shape (overall) in the "uniform". Maybe they have more than one Homer, I don't know. :)
+FL, glad you liked it! We had so much fun. :)
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+Along with The service forum, MyThemeShop has added a collection of 45 video tutorials teaching the basics of WordPress, how to use the MyThemeShop goods, as well as how to use some favorite non-MyThemeShop plugins. These videos are accessible via the Tutorial tab.
+And, if You’re still not able after posting to the support forum to fix your issue, important stuff: its products’ quality and choice. We’ll begin by studying MyThemeShop’s core product range: WordPress themes.
+The MyThemeShop collection consists 83 premium themes, and 16 ones. Premium WordPress Themes Indonesia
+THEME FEATURES
+MyThemeShop Themes were created with usability in mind, and each motif ships using a market-leading motif options panel from which you are able to control the theme’s settings, import arbitrary content (to get your website looking like the demo you watched when you purchased the motif ), or dip into its many customisation choices.
+It’s Worth taking a moment to discuss the full extent of those options, making the topics versatile.
+For a Begin, each motif has support for colors that are unlimited and the entire catalog of Google net fonts — over 600. Maybe more importantly, all themes offer unlimited background options: such as a variety of built-in background layouts, the aforementioned unlimited colors, and also the option to upload a custom background image.
+The Themes are fairly feature-rich too. There’s built in advertising management, buttons that were stylish and lightweight, and contact form performance included with each theme. All topics come with support for the entire selection of MyThemeShop shortcodes, letting you incorporate eye-catching design elements to your website easily.
+Most Importantly, though, is that this is a clean, lightweight, and robust code underneath all. What’s more, to ensure that your website is as visitor-friendly as you possibly can, all topics boast a fully mobile responsive layout, lightning-quick load times, and cross-browser compatibility.
+Another Bonus: each theme has a narrated video tutorial, also MyThemeShop offers round-the-clock support that will assist you out of any tight spots you might experience (more about this later).
+CHOOSING THEMES
+The Themes are split across four classes:
+- Magazine themes (39 available)
+- Website themes (41 available)
+- WooCommerce topics (17 available)
+- Business topics (9 available)
+Searching To get a motif is simple, and that the MyThemeShop website has plenty of features that will give you a hand. To begin with, you can look for themes in each of the four classes we have just listed, and there’s another category for free and assorted themes. Or, if you would prefer, you can start by searching for a keyword. Premium WordPress Themes Indonesia
+All Themes include a preview to help you get an concept of the plan. These previews come in rows of three by default, but, if you’d like a slightly larger preview, you can pick rows of two. There’s also a filter which allows you form the themes by popularity or release date.
+Maybe Most helpful of all is that MyThemeShop lets you select which features you need on your theme. Features are selected from a list, and any motif that fails to meet with your criteria is dropped from the search page. There are nine options (and you can pick more than one):
+- Two column
+- Three column
+- AdSense optimised
+- Complete width
+- Fixed header
+- HTML5/CSS3
+- Responsive
+- Slider
+- Translation ready
+When You have found a motif you like the appearance of, you could click through to the motif’s product page. Here, you are going to be able to read more about the theme’s main attributes, plus you will find an notion of the subject’s popularity — every theme includes a community rating from five.
+As you’d Expect from one of the theme sellers every theme comes with its own demo.
+Before You buy a theme, I would strongly recommend spending a few minutes researching this demonstration. You’ll be able to sample the motif’s layouts, try out different customisation options, and find a general idea of how the theme looks and performs.
+Most Popular MyThemeShop Topics
+To give You a flavor of the visual quality of these topics, let’s take a little time it has to offer. No sales figures are made available, therefore we’re expecting the’popularity’ search function . (Note: Click a screenshot to be taken directly to the subject’s demonstration page.)
+SCHEMA (BLOG/ECOMMERCE THEME)
+From Social media to the search engines, Schema is a site tailored for dominating the SERPs — achieved by a carefully designed, SEO-optimized layout. The subject is also fast, with website speed an important ranking element. The website uses a stylish-yet-simple layout, also it comes packaged with inspection performance and advertising management. For an SEO-focused theme named Schema, the motif, of course, adds the necessary Schema markup which powers Google wealthy snippets.
+SOCIALLYVIRAL (MAGAZINE/BLOG THEME)
+Social Traffic is consistently growing, and sites have popped up feeding off societal traffic. If you are searching to construct a viral social website,)
+Best is a gorgeous, easy, and clean WordPress magazine motif. Even though Many magazine topics end up looking too cluttered, Best stays organized throughout — it is clearly defined sections make your website simple for people to navigate. As you’d expect in the magazine motif, there’s also plenty of dedicated widgets; vivid, colorful social sharing buttons; and built-in review functionality. Premium WordPress Themes Indonesia
+ONEPAGE (BUSINESS THEME)
+OnePage supports a stunning full-screen slider over The fold, catching traffic’ attentions immediately. It’s largely a company theme, supporting dedicated staff, portfolio, customer, testimonials, and pricing segments — all of which look extremely professional and extend trendy parallax effects. The theme also looks great when kitted out in its alternative blogging skin.
+POINTPRO
+PointPro is just another stylish, professional motif, this Time coming in three variations — shop, blog, and business. The company template is particularly eye-catching, using a tidy, organized layout complementing lots of pictures — there is an image slider, thumbnails, and gallery functionality, too. The motif gives you loads of versatility, with wallpapers that are unlimited colors, and custom sidebars.
+MyThemeShop Plugins
+As well As themes, MyThemeShop additionally has 20 WordPress plugins, including 12 premium (at $29 each) and eight free.
+All these Plugins permit you to add quite specific functionality to your website, such as telling bars, time-to-read quotes and coming soon pages.
+You can Search for plugins in precisely the same way as topics, however, because plugins vary in regard to their capabilities, the plugin pages are the areas.
+Each Plugin page has a very long list of the plugin’s features, providing you with a clear indication of what it can (or can not ) do. You will also see a user evaluation, and there is a useful presentation for every plugin so you can see each one in action.
+Most Popular MyThemeShop Plugins
+Since There are fewer plugins compared to themes, let’s run down the three MyThemeShop WordPress plugins. I supply a succinct summary of what each plugin can do.
+MEGA MENU
+WP Mega Menus adds beautiful, interactive menus into your website. The menus that are mega arrive allow you to add images, and packed with choices. These menus are a prominent and stunning design feature for your site, plus they make it simple to navigate.
+WP SUBSCRIBE PRO
+WP Subscribe Pro enables you to exhibit stylish popups and Subscription boxes to cultivate your list. This plugin boasts lots of design options to play , and support for exit intent technology. You can even incorporate WP Subscribe Pro such as MailChimp, AWeber and, needless to say, together with the email marketing autoresponder services.
+WP REVIEW PRO
+As the Name suggests, WP Review Guru adds review performance to any WordPress website. This allows you speed goods in style, utilizing a range of evaluation systems and customisation options. The plugin adds your review posts, which induces Google’s rich snippets functionality and the schema markup. (Note: Recently featured in our best inspection plugin roundup.) Premium WordPress Themes Indonesia
+MyThemeShop Cost
+With this Many competitors can MyThemeShop’s theme and plug costs pile up? Let’s look at the item rates.
+MyThemeShop Functions a flat pricing structure — any theme will set you back a predetermined $59, with plugins. This is a typical price for plugins and themes, and on a par with major marketplaces like CodeCanyon and ThemeForest.
+Should you Want access an membership account costs $167 annually. You’ll get access to client support and 20 plugins, as well as most of 99 themes and full access.
+Membership Is more expensive than that of some of the other own favour is the fact that membership licences allow the goods to be used in an unlimited number of sites — which makes them ideal for agencies and freelancers. And, by buying the licence as stated you receive ongoing support — support which extends to your customer websites. (Note: We’ll get into this later on in the report.)
+What is More, an membership will also give you access to some products released by MyThemeShop to the length of your subscription.
+MyThemeShop Does a good job of releasing new products every couple of weeks — with more than 30 releases in 2015.
+Summary
+Overall, MyThemeShop is among the WordPress clubs round — it delivers an impressive range. Throw in an excellent, flexible selection of plugins and support that is ongoing, and it is not hard to see why more than 300,000 customers have taken the plunge and become MyThemeShop customers.
+You may Be wondering whether you should purchase themes on an individual basis, or as a job lot as part of their’club’ subscription. That depends.
+Should you Construct lots of sites — perhaps as a creative service or a freelance programmer — then the club membership is sure to be the most appealing option. This package will give you access to impress your customers, and each one comes loaded with customisation options so you can tailor a site to a client’s liking.
+If, You’re an individual building a site, the decision is a bit more difficult. You’ll save money by purchasing one theme; on the other, paying to get a club membership allows your site to be tested by you until you find the right one. Premium WordPress Themes Indonesia
+The Yearly membership reflects the best value, and more than holds its own when compared for 20 specialist plugins and 99 quality topics is an absolute steal!
+.]]>
+Admire this beautiful sunset from a private beach on the Okahuiti Creek at Waiheke Island. Overlooking the entrance of the bay are these two twins islands named Sisters, they great people coming and leaving the island with the ferry from Kennedy Point and bring a lot of inspiration to the local people. Curiosity: there is a wine locally produced which share the name with these two guardians of the bay! We are talking about Sisters from Passage Rock Vineyard, a lovely Bordeaux style with smooth texture and long reflecting the soils and sunshine that out Waiheke island sites express.]]>
+It has been a long and quite rainy Winter but, finally, the good season is taking over and immediately the sky looks more blue! Nothing better than a walk on the white sand of Oneroa beach in the morning, and if the tide is low you can even reach little Oneroa, a really cosy beach just East of Oneroa.
+Put on your walking shoes and jump on the next ferry to Waiheke Island to Discover the beauty of the Island.]]>
+Surrounded by the blue waters of the Hauraki Gulf and halfway between Auckland City and the Coromandel Peninsula, Waiheke is both island community and holiday resort.
+By 2005 Waiheke Island had reached 90% of its residential capacity (13,000 people under existing subdivision), and consultation on a second major village had begun.
+A decision was expected within two years, and the village was expected to grow up over five to ten years. Today, Ostend Village has the function in the retail servicing market by virtue of its central position, it's our local CBD!
+Town centres such as Oneroa won't be allowed to spread too much. The city council has no preconceived population number for the island. Rather than trying to make it like everywhere else, they are, according to the planning department, "trying to maximize the good things about Waiheke and the opportunities like the wonderful wineries and beaches."
+The city council wants to maintain green 'rural belts' - with lower density housing - between each of the existing villages, rather than allowing the villages to merge into one.
+The planning department has acknowledged that land prices - which jumped 71% between 1998 and 2004, don't even want to mention the increase for the last couple of years - Waiheke increasingly becomes the domain of 'monied people'.
+]]>]]>
+The island of Waiheke lies 17 kilometres east of Auckland and 15 kilometres west of Coromandel in the Hauraki Gulf, belonging to the North Island of New Zealand. It is the largest of the 40 or so island within the Gulf and has 96 kilometres of coastline.
+It was known as Te Motuarairoa, the long sheltering island - the name bestowed over 600 years ago by the crew of the great Maori canoe Te Arawa, who beached at Rangihoua. In the mid - 14th Century, a Te Arawa chieftain built a Pa on Maori Hill overlooking Onetangi and renamed the island after himself. Te Motunui-o-Kahu, the great island of Kahu. By about 1800 it was known as 'Waiheke' cascading waters and/or ebbing water - perhaps a reference to the importance of the local freshwater supplies - most likely in part to the Europeans, who found it easier to pronounce.
+Waiheke is about 92 square kilometres in area, measuring 25 kilometres long and 20 kilometres across at its widest point. The island comprises 9,324 hectares and has 40 kilometres of beaches, 24 kilometres of tidal flats, 14 kilometres of reserves and 100 kilometres of freehold.]]>
+Every two years takes place on Waiheke Island one of the most important artistic events nationwide: Sculpture on the Gulf.
+The last exposition has been just at the beginning of this year from the 27 January until the 19 February and more than 30 artists from all over the country displayed their art pieces along a beautiful walk facing Te Miro Bay and Matiatia Bay on the Hauraki Gulf. Just by itself, the walk is a natural opera that generously gifts amazing eye shots on the bays around, framed by the luxurious vegetation of Waiheke Island.
+The 2015's event reached the 35th place in the New York Times 100 top things to see and even this year has been reconfirmed at the same place with almost 100k visitors.
+Now that you are aware put a note on your agenda for late February 2019 and come to Discover the overwhelming artistic side of Waiheke Island during the next Sculpture on the Gulf event.]]>
+This beauty is one of the oldest Pohutukawa trees on Waiheke Island and is the symbol of the oldest vineyard on the Island. Today we take a look at Goldie Estate.
+Originally named Goldwater Estate, this vineyard was the pioneering project of Kim and Jeanette Goldwater that, in 1978, open the frontiers of winegrowing on Waiheke Island. In 2010 the Goldwater family donated the vineyard at Auckland University so that the students of Wine Science Postgraduate Programme could have a real taste of the wine production industry.
+The majestic Pohutukawa is located on top of the hill where Goldie Estate is located and, as a king, it looks over the whole property with wisdom.
+Goldie is facing the Putiki Bay that influence, with its particular microclimate, the production of wine and the peculiarities of the wines made in here.
+Cooperation with the scientific research of Auckland University and the special climate of this location are the key points to allowed Goldie to be a producer of some of the most iconic wines on the Island.
+Jump on our tour and find out more about the best wineries on Waiheke.]]>
+There is some sort of magic on Waiheke Island and some places show it better than others. Shelly beach is one of those! Located on the South West side of the Island, facing the Okahuiti Creek on a beautiful little bay called Putaki Bay, Shelly beach is a lovely and very cosy beach exposed to South where is really rare to find tourists, and guess what? The beach is totally made of cockle shells.
+Normally the water in this area is crystal clear and almost no waves at all. During the sunset, the sun rays hit from the side of the beach and you can enjoy the games of light coming through the leafs and branches of some pohutukawa trees along the seaside.
+Come and Admire the magic of Waiheke with us on your next private tour.]]>.]]>
+This beautiful decorated metal compass lay on top of a massive carved stone on the highest lookout point on the west side of Waiheke Island.
+From this spot you can enjoy a beautiful 360° view on almost the whole west Waiheke including: Whakanewha, Rocky Bay, Onetangi Sport Park, Anzac Bay, Causeway, Kennedy Point, Palm Beach, Nani Island and Onetangi Beach. Not only the view is breathtaking, sliding down the rope on top of the vines on the local Zip Line should make your adrenaline raise for a while, and it's just 2 steps away! After all of this maybe you should use some relax, good food and a glass of wine and our friends from Peacock Sky Vineyard have right what you need!
+If your are looking for an adventure check the Experience section and add some fun to your holiday on Waiheke.]]>
+There are a whole lot of passions that you can feed on Sunday and one of those surely is art! Maybe you didn't know but Waiheke Island is home of more than 100 artists, which means more than 10% of the permanent residents have inspiration! In the 60's the Island became a destination for hippies from all over the world, because of the freedom and the beautiful surrounding that is the truly substance of Waiheke, ever since they made Waiheke their house and open sky art gallery, and many other artists have joined them from that moment on. Wherever you go you have really high chances to come across a work of art, simple as finding stars in the sky during the night. One of the huge exponent of the Waiheke artistic movement is Gabriella Lewenz.
+Born and raised in Greece with a short experience in Pakistan before moving to America in her teens, Gabriella is an American who moved to Waiheke in 1997 with her family, here they built Casale di Terra that you can see in the first picture. This is actually her house, art studio and art gallery. If inspiration is what you are looking for check the Inspire section and let us take you into the Casale di Terra and many other amusing locations to feed your artistic side.]]>
+The weekend is finally upon us and seems like is going to be a beautiful sunny and warn Wintery weekend, excellent to be spent around some of the New Zealand's most exclusives vineyards right here on Waiheke Island. The vines you can see in the pictures are located in the middle of the Onetangi Valley, home of at least 6 of the most representative vineyards of the Island. The composition of the soil, the exposure and the particular if not uniques micro climatic conditions in this area creates the perfect terroir for the production of some astonishing examples of Bordeaux Style. The Savour section of the New Zealand Premium Tour's website is to celebrate Waiheke's wines and cellar doors. Send us an email if you want to know more about it or if you want to book your tour and you will get to try it yourself!]]>
+Today we take a look at Whakanewha. This is the second longest beach on Waiheke after Onetangi beach. Unlike Onetangi beach this one is extremely quiet, so quiet that a multiplicity of bird species picked the slice of land between the sea and the water stream, that run for hundreds meters along the sea edge, as a perfect bird nesting revenue! All this area is protected with fences but you are more that welcome to have a walk around the fence and admire the different bird species building the house for the next generation to come. Take a look at the Discovery section or contact us to know more about the itineraries to discover the wild side of Waiheke Island.]]>
+Do you miss summer? I think you do and so do we! We are waiting to enjoy the amazing flavour of the garden vegetables served in some of the most exclusive boutique vineyards of the Island. Poderi Crisci showed these beautiful pumpkins at the end of this summer, the creativity and the expert hands of the Chef turned them in art served at the table for the unique Italian long lunch! An experience that you cannot miss when you visit Waiheke Island. Poderi Crisci and others boutique restaurants are our recommended food destinations for your lunch or dinner during our tours. Find out more about in our Taste section or get in touch with us so we can tailor-make your tour according to your personal taste.]]>
+The cold winter is still generous and warm in colours during the sunset. Some hidden locations from our Admire selection can give you the best feeling and will leave a beautiful memory in your mind of your Waiheke Experience. Get in touch on the Contact section and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.]]>
+Enjoy the beach walk on a sunny day in winter. The beautiful view is always here.
+]]>
+index match multiple results As the title suggests Im looking to do an Index/Match in multiples sheets but to also return multiple results.I was wondering if there was a way to do this with multiple values in multiple sheets ? Combining the two formulas in some way ? Index match multiple values. Which is equal to lookup value. thenjan , . Cells, and formulas to perform lookup value innov . multiple matchesApr several excelexcels vlookup with sample data . if thehi there, im using . index match excel tutorial, are multiple results for duplicate search stringsi. excel index match multiple criteria pivot table check multiple. lookup value with multiple criteria excel juggler.how to return multiple values using vlookup in excel get digital. excel index match function instead of vlookup formula examples. Obtaining Multiple Results Using Index/Match Functions. match multiple criteria ina range from multiple criteria multiplet.Match / Index multiple criteria return multiple results. Use the Index function to return multiple values a list. Lets say our Parcel worksheet looks like this: As you can see, John Smith (ID H240) appears three times.But what should be the last match results in NUM. Hope this makes sense, but please take a look at the attached for a better explanation. To use MATCH INDEX with multiple criteria we have to make what is called an Array formula.MATCH feeds the location to the INDEX function. Then INDEX transforms this location into a result. It is important to define styles beforehand in the sample document as styles define the appearance of text elements throughout your document and styles allow for quick changes throughout your excel index match multiple criteria multiple results document. Home. Internet Technology Excel: Index Match Multiple Results Not working?On sheet 2 i have a time line with the day of the month, and am using index match formula to try and pull through the supplier which matches that day - like so Is there some sort of Exclude function that will allow me to use the same formula without producing the same result as the cell above it?Similar Threads. Match / Index multiple criteria return multiple results. As the title suggests Im looking to do an Index/Match in multiples sheets but to also return multiple results.I was wondering if there was a way to do this with multiple values in multiple sheets ? Combining the two formulas in some way ? Index/Match with multiple criteria AND multiple results Index/Match and Array help - [] document.write() I thjink youre looking for something like this How To Return Multiple Index/Match with multiple criteria AND multiple results - Source: How To Return Multiple Match Values in Excel Using INDEX-MATCH or VLOOKUP Therefore I need a three criteria search that retrieves the multiple unsolved A multiple criteria match with multiple results Tried index/ match Index Match, Concatenate multiple results - Mr Excel — Ive got a decent background on VLOOKUP CONCATENATE, but apparently those 2 fall short of exactly what Im looking to do (Im pretty sure I n. I have a table containing monster names in row 1. Below there are colors in each row. I need a formula that is looking in row 2 for "green" and for every match it should print the related monster name separated by comma. I am trying to use the index, match formula to display the top ten results for the year for ozone concentration. There may be more than one day with the exact same concentration. My problem is for those days that have the exact same use index match to find result from multiple columns and rows-1.Using INDEX and MATCH to Retrieve Excel Data. Index/Sumproduct or Index/ Match for Multiple Criteria Lookups? Im trying to concat multiple results from an index match into one cell. Here is an example data set Im working with: My desired results: As you can see, Im trying to find all customers where the data is 4/12/2017. I then want to combine them into one string in another cell. Learn how to use Excels INDEX MATCH with multiple criteria, looking up a result value based on multiple columns. I have trouble using the INDEX MATCH with multiple criteria.Hi, By using Index and Match formula how we can get Multiple result. Example: Row Labels Sum of Catches7 Dnyaneshwar Vaidya 2 Rohan Handibag 1 Farhan Nehari 2 Sandip Ghule 1. How to vlookup with multiple criteria using index and, Other posts in this series. how to vlookup with multiple criteria using index and match faster multiple criteria lookups with vlookup and concatenate. Vba Index Match Multiple Results - excelisfun - youtube. Obtaining Multiple Results Using Index/Match Functions.MATCH Multiple Criteria Return Previous / Penultimate Match. match multiple criteria ina range from multiple criteria multiplet. But if press F2 followed by F9 it shows me the proper result for that column.Vlookup/index/match with two datasets on two sheets. Index and Match multiple columns and find answer for 3rd in Excel. Index/Match with multiple results My index match formula is: but this only returns the first result, in some cases there are multiple results Index Match Functions Has anyone ever combined the Index and Match functions to do lookups?Tax formula tests for multiple filing statuses and income amounts A formula tests for three ranges of income levels for five filing statuses depending upon the results, the taxpayer will receive a tax I have an index match formula like soi.e. Client A. Next, i need to be able to produce multiple results, so i need to repeat this formula down several rows on my spreadsheet and each time return the next largest value (without showing duplicates). Index/Match multiple results in multiple sheets.Index/Match multiple columns in Excel. How to sort and arrange this excel sheet based on the matching results? Finding the next result from a MATCH. Testing multiple INDEX/MATCH results without looking at them.I need to identify each column header and then test it against another set of criteria without actually showing the results. Reverse VLookup (Index Match) To Return Multiple Values Based On Single Lookup CriteriaIndex Match Not Returning Any Results?Sum Index Results Matching Multiple Criteria I need the result values to be listed from the bottom - upwards as shown in the picture. Here is my index match formula i am using, i only need to show each supplier / unique value onceVlookup and Index Match with multiple criteria in Excel. Change the first MATCH function to something like this: MATCH(1,INDEX(([Name]DATARANGE[Name])([Year]DATARANGE[Year]),0),0). So as part of your whole formula that would be this. Im trying to pick up multiple results using index and match and from that create another index and match to pick multiple results.Im also not sure how to do if there more than 10 results to show up in one cell and then replicate the same to pick individually. Auto-suggest helps you quickly narrow down your search results by suggesting possible matches as you type.INDEX MATCH MATCH N/A Error. Tanisha Perry-Warner in Formulas and Functions on 02-13-2018. If you need to use two or more conditions to match a specific piece of data, youre out of luck. Fortunately, Excel has a pair of functions called INDEX and MATCH that can help produce the same results as VLOOKUP with multiple criteria. I have created a successful INDEX MATCH statement using Boolean logic that returns the correct value. Unfortunately it returns only the first value it finds but I want it to find all of the correct values in column B and sum them together. Image Result For Index Match Concatenate Multiple Results.If your Excel .Concatenate multiple results from an index match. INDEX / MATCH for Multiple Match Lookups.The bottom image contains the formula results. Whats going on in the formulas above? MATCH Looks up a values position with a range. Index match multiple results - Page 1 of about 62,400,000 results. Document Search. It works fine, but I need another formula to show the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and so on results in other cells. See also questions close to this topic.So far my solution has been to use indexmatch to find something on both sheets. INDEX MATCH, Multiple Results. Heres my dilemma. I have 3 columns C (Date), D (Text), E (Text) I need to populate all occurrences where C is within 40 days and either D or E match the target text F7. Look up with multiple criteria using INDEX MATCH. In the Excel VLOOKUP tutorial, I demonstrated a formula example to do a vlookup with multiple criteria.If everything is done correctly, you will get a result similar to what you see in the screenshot below: Download INDEX /MATCH with multiple Index Match Multiple Results. Not Found. indexing January 03,2018 0. I have created a successful INDEX MATCH statement using Boolean logic that returns the correct value.Using Multiple Solr Analyser in the same Schema. Sum: 8 Diff: 2 Agena Agena allows functions to return multiple values Tested with Agena 2 9 5 Win32 define a function returning three values. Index match multiple results sum. Is there a harder working team in Excel, MATCH These functions work beautifully together INDEX MATCH multiple criteria not working (N/A). Excel index match: If date week number matches date? Excel Index Match: If returns no result, run another index match? As the title suggests Im looking to do an Index/Match in multiples sheets but to also return multiple results.I was wondering if there was a way to do this with multiple values in multiple sheets ? Combining the two formulas in some way ? INDEX(DATARANGE,MATCH([Name],DATARANGE[Name],0),MATCH("Total 1",DATARANGE[Headers],0)). The problem I am having is the result of adding multiple years of data to my 1st data set. As the title suggests Im looking to do an Index/Match in multiples sheets but to also return multiple results.I was wondering if there was a way to do this with multiple values in multiple sheets ? Combining the two formulas in some way ? Concatenate multiple INDEX/MATCH results. Looking for a way to concatenate multiple values that are returned by a lookup or index/match function. I have a column of dates, and a column of statuses. Advanced excel training chennai microsoft excel, advanced excel training chennai taught microsoft certified trainers 1948 16 hours program 4 sundays covering core fundamentals excel. Related Post : Index match concatenate multiple results mr excel. Next, i need to be able to produce multiple results, so i need to repeat this formula down several rows on my spreadsheet and each time return the next largest value (without showing duplicates).| Recommendindexing - Index and Match Multiple Criteria in Excel. related notesfolder icon maker pc free downloadge capital bank st paul mnbajrangi bhaijaan mp4 songs download pagalworldxperia z3 compact battery replacementinstall os x el capitan.app virtualboxfastest ways to get rich quickaudio file fifty shades of greyboxhead zombie wars multiplayer hacked
+Details:
+Director: Carol Reed
+Producer: Carol Reed
+Writer: Graham Greene
+Cast: Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, Trevor Howard, Bernard Lee
+Studio: London Film Productions
+Year: 1949
+Why I DVRed This: So The Third Man is pretty much the definition of a classic movie. I’ve seen it probably five times and always try to come back to it every few years. Interestingly, I actually had it DVRed the last time TCM put it on, but my DVR erased it. Luckily, TCM seems to agree with me that it is a classic film and re-shows The Third Man nearly as regularly as HBO plays The Devil Wears Prada. While I might have chosen to DVR the film in any case, I was especially drawn to it recently because I have been talking about going to Vienna just because there’s a really cool-looking hotel and a great opera hall there (and I am one of those people… those people who like opera). Also, in Vienna, you can visit a museum dedicated to the film (and post-war Vienna as a whole)! That sounds fun.
+Presentation on TCM: The Third Man was shown as part of TCM’s annual 31 Days of Oscar. The films shown the same night as The Third Man were connected like a before-and-after puzzle. Love Letters was shown before The Third Man and was connected by Joseph Cotten starring in both films, while The Fallen Idol was shown after The Third Man and was connected by sharing the same writer and director. Ben Mankiewicz introduced The Third Man as the film in which Cotten “gives perhaps his finest performance” before he discussed the director Carol Reed getting an Oscar nomination for his “stylish and inventive shot selections.” Though Reed did not win an award for best director that year, Robert Krasker received the Oscar for black and white cinematography for his work on the film.
+After the film, Ben Mankiewicz came out again and discussed the film’s ending. He said, interestingly enough, that Graham Greene wanted the film to end with a happy ending, but that the executive producer (David O. Selznick) wanted a more “nuanced” ending. Mankiewicz also added the interesting tidbit that, at the last minute, Orson Welles refused to go through an actual Viennese sewer, so the film’s climax had to be filmed on a soundstage in London. I was delighted to get not one but two appearances from a TCM host, a rarity for the films I tend to DVR.
+Synopsis: Holly Martins (Cotten), a broke Western writer, arrives in postwar Vienna as a guest of his childhood friend Harry Lime (Welles). However, when he arrives, Lime is dead! Martin begins to investigate the death and discovers that there was a “third man” (LIKE THE TITLE) present at the death. He runs into trouble from the investigating British officer, Major Calloway (Howard) and begins a love affair with Lime’s lover, Anna (Valli).
+Analysis (contains spoilers): So longtime readers of this blog (all—maybe—three of you?) may recognize that I have a bit of an obsession with filmic subjectivity. I like when we see things from perspectives in which it’s clear there is a narrator even though the film itself is not “narrated.” Well, readers rejoice! The Third Man has both a narrator AND extreme subjectivity.
+But then again, the narrator isn’t really a narrator. Rather, it’s merely a voice at the beginning of the film who frames the story and explains the rules of the diegetic world—how Vienna is divided into four zones, how the black market dictates all, and how, all that being said, Vienna doesn’t look much worse than any other postwar European city. The narrator never returns to the film after he introduces it, but he does make it clear that it is from his vantage point that we will see the story. Indeed, the narrator’s voice is that of Carol Reed, the film’s director, so the film truly is from his perspective. He announces to us that he “was going to tell [the audience] about Holly Martins, an American. Came all the way here to visit a friend of his. The name was Lime, Harry Lime.” Reed announces that he is in control and has chosen the story he wants to tell, and his narration further makes it clear that we will only see things from his perspective. Thus, we will not see “the old Vienna before the war with its Strauss music, its glamor and easy charm” because he never knew it, as “Constantinople suited [him] better.” This is a bit of an in joke, as the story he tells us is certainly Byzantine, but it also reminds us that the world of the film is one based purely on how Vienna is now, not how it was. And as much as we may want to explore the old Vienna, we can’t, for Reed wants us hear the story of Harry Lime. While all films present the stories their directors wish to tell, few overtly announce their directors’ control in the opening montage, but of course few movies are as clearly framed by their directors as The Third Man is. Luckily, Reed was at his peak as a director when he made it (he even sacrificed his health for the film, forgoing sleep with the help of stimulants to catch even the best b-roll footage), so his subjectivity makes for a terrific film-viewing experience.
+The Third Man is meticulously crafted, and every aspect of it is crafted toward the vantage point of Reed. The zither score kicks in whenever Reed wants us to recognize something or have connections (between scenes, between ideas) made. And the cinematography is diegetic as well, as we do not see imitations of life in any way but instead shot structure that shows us how Reed wants us to see the film. Thus, so much of the film is shot with these fun, tilted camera angles. They help remind us that everything we see in the film is itself slanted and abnormal, showing us how Reed wants us to see the story while also offering his point of view that all the world is atilt after being destabilized by World War II.
+Indeed much of the film is “about” the condition of the postwar world. The story was conceived by Graham Greene, who wrote a book called The Third Man alongside the screenplay (the novella was written as a treatment for the screenplay, but it was released alongside the movie, like a high literary equivalent of Burger King selling a Jurassic Park comic book). In Greene’s original story, Martins and Lime are British instead of American, but the story works better with Americans (especially when those Americans are played by two great actors with a rich history together, not unlike that of Martins and Lime). After all, with Americans, The Third Man seems more prescient. In the decades after the war, Vienna became something like a microcosmic America through the accident of American mass culture which impacted Austrian culture way more than any direct American foreign policy did (what the Austrian historian Reinhold Wagnleiter calls the switch from “the Monroe Doctrine to the Marilyn Monroe Doctrine”). Austrian youth ended up obsessed with jazz and—later—rock and roll records, American books, and especially American movies. The result was that Austria as a whole became essentially an American mall for a few decades. Thus, for The Third Man, it only makes sense that it would be an American dictating the terms of the marketplace in Vienna!
+More than all that, though, the film shows that the postwar world lacks moral clarity. And this is the struggle for Martins. He sees Lime as a childhood hero and friend, but the postwar Lime is a snake, selling often fatal, diluted black market penicillin to the needy of Vienna. Martins cannot believe it, in part because he and Lime are living in totally different worlds. Martins is a Western writer, and he seems to want to believe in the ideals of that genre: that there is an ordered world that can conquer and tame a rugged frontier as long as one man is brave enough, strong enough, and convicted enough to do so. Lime, on the other hand, sees the world as a warzone and recognizes that the entities in charge do no think in terms of right and wrong, of life and death. He tells Martins:
+“Nobody thinks in terms of human beings. Governments don’t. Why should we? They talk about the people and the proletariat; I talk about the suckers and the mugs — it’s the same thing.”
+Martins counters that Lime used to believe in God, and he challenges Lime to confront the reality of the victims his drug-stretching scheme has made. Martins is still thinking in simplistic terms of good and evil, right and wrong, truth and justice. Lime is beyond that. He is a man of shadows and deceit, trying to take advantage of a destroyed world. And he occupies a (to Martins) foreign new vantage point in which he distances himself from his deed and sees his victims as merely dots seen from above the world.
+Of course, the way Martins sees the victims is from his own vantage point, one rooted in outmoded ideals. Reed masterfully captures these separate vantage points filmically. When we see Martins, his shadow often precedes him and, as in most film noirs, towers over him. It is as though Martins’ rigid belief system and mythic understanding of the world are a burden on him and weigh down every aspect of his being. He cannot possibly understand the truth about his friend because he cannot possibly see past his own shadow, his own beliefs. Lime, on the other hand, successfully navigates the crevices. When we first see Lime, Martins is drunk and unable to see into the shadows. Lime, however, is watching a cat do just as he does—walk between worlds of light and dark with complete immunity. When Welles’s face ends up perfectly lit, he looks natural and comfortable as Reed’s own vantage point—the camera—zooms in. We see instantly how charming Lime can be if forced into the light (in part because he’s played by an iconic and charismatic star), but we also see how successful this character is at hiding in the darkness on the edges of the world. Lime lives and flourishes in the liminal spaces created by the destabilization of Vienna, a city that itself has four internal borders now due to the occupation zones, and Lime works them all, using the underground sewer system as his own highway.
+In addition to the cracks between worlds, The Third Man shows the main world as a dizzying place. We see, for instance, Martins and others navigate a series of spiral staircases, and Martins literally spins around when he first sees Lime. But only Lime seems able to navigate these spinning realities. He is, of course, the only one truly 100% aware that he faked his own death, so the reveal that he is alive is not a reveal to him. But he also physically controls the world by being able to make a path in the shadows and the circles. It’s no wonder he makes his big speech and first face-to-face conversation with Martins aboard a Ferris Wheel, a contraption that both towers over the world and spins. Totally comfortable in the rotating amusement park attraction, he points down to the tiny people below, dots at that vantage point, and asks if anyone could care about a dot disappearing. Martins is sickened by it because of the romance he writes about and believes in, and he is naturally sickened by Lime’s request that Martins see the world his way and be cut in on the scheme. But really he just can’t see how Limes can view the dots as anything other than humans just as he cannot understand how anyone can manage the dizzying realities of Vienna. In another way, though, he cannot understand how someone can be so good in some ways (Lime is charming even while discussing dead children) and so bad in others.
+This is an American conflict. It is the battle between what is right and what is real, but it is also a battle between the lies Americans believe about their country and the realities Americans refuse to recognize. Martins believes in the legends and the myths, but Lime is a new type of American who recognizes what America is to become—a nation on the rise because of an ability to dominate a world off center through tricks, capitalism, and ruthlessness. Lime tells Martins that “the world doesn’t make any heroes outside of your stories,” and that’s ultimately Martins’ problem: He doesn’t recognize that the world is not what it is in his Westerns. While that world might never have existed, it certainly doesn’t exist now, not in Vienna.
+Interestingly, though, Martins clings to that certainty of the old ways, especially when he is in the center of the world and not in those liminal crevices on the outskirts of the frames. It is interesting that Martins (and the audience) gets his facts about Lime in a montage. He learns a ton, but we learn nothing but the basic fact—that Lime is running black market drugs. We accept the truth because Martins does after getting hard evidence (photos, fingerprints, drug samples) that we only see in passing. Thus, Martins gets some tangible evidence and hard facts, where we only get subjective realities. But for Martins, everything he knows about Lime is now up in the air, as he cannot rectify the Lime he remembers from youth with the Lime he know has hard facts about in Vienna. Anna, who I have failed to mention up to now, although she is a fascinating character worthy of much analysis, tells Martins that “a person doesn’t change because you find out more,” but for Martins, everything has changed. He realizes he needs to help put a stop to Lime’s scheme and that do so he’ll have to enter the shadows to ultimately kill Lime.
+And that death is a remarkable scene. Lime is chased through the sewers of Vienna and shot at from a distance by the British. He fires back into darkness, shooting a man cowardly rather than heroically. Martins is the final pursuer, and he would likely prefer to either not kill Lime at all or to at least kill him in a dignified way like would be done in a Western. Instead, he shoots Lime in the back while Lime dangles from a ladder. The look in Lime’s eyes when Martins is about to shoot him is incredible. It’s a look of sadness and shame but also a smirk. In a sense, it gives satisfaction that his attempts to bargain with his moral ambiguity are ultimately failures—he knows he’s a coward who shoots at enemies in the dark and gets shot in the back. But in another sense, the scene seems to show Lime smiling because Martins has finally gotten his hands dirty and entered the modern world.
+Regardless, the world of The Third Man is a dizzying world of liminal spaces in which certainties are proven to not exist and in which bad things happen. Writing at the LA Review of Books, Martin Zirulnik refers to two Viennas, one that is comically ironic, and “one that exists in the margins of what’s presented on-screen, the one that only just eludes viewing… [and is] a truly miserable and humorless place.” This humor idea brings up the final thing I found particularly interesting on this latest viewing of The Third Man. For a dark dark dark movie, it really is a ton of fun. There’s a delightful mirrored structure (the film starts with Lime’s death and ends with it), a hauntingly upbeat zither score, some of the best lines ever in cinema (including the famed cuckoo clock speech that Welles claims to have written, although he also claims to have written all his dialogue in the film), a fascinating mystery, surprising twists, comic scenes, suspense, great acting, great shots, and really great pacing.
+And finally, I love the shot at the end. Martins gets out of the car and stands cool, like a cowboy hero, to wait for Anna. She walks and walks and walks, and then walks right past him. Interestingly, the shot is long and stable—it is one of the only long shots in the film that is focused and centered and not askew—and suggests that the world is once again stable for Martins. He no longer will have moral dilemmas such as recognizing his friend as a killer, but he still has to face the consequences of killing Lime and ruining Anna’s life. She could run away with Martins and save herself, but she has avoided facing the reality of Lime’s evil, so why should she start dealing with his or Martin’s evil after Lime’s death? The touch of evil is now on Martin, and so there are consequences for his dabbling in the corners and the sewers.
+So Lime was right after all—there are no heroes in the real world.
+Should I Have DVRed This On TCM: Um, obviously. I think I could watch this film a thousand more times and notice a thousand more interesting details or topics of analysis. It’s truly a classic.
+Do Indo western dresses for girls need any introduction? We don’t think so, Indo western dresses for female are getting huge popularity and acceptance, you must have heard and probably seen the celebs appearing in these amazing outfits quite frequently.
+We are living in amazing time, and Indo western dresses for girls and women are a gift of the modern times to the women who love fashion and dress up to express.
+We can all agree on the fact that what we wear reflects out the state of mind and our personal style statement.
+Indo western dresses for ladies is a union of the best of both worlds, blending the grace of the Indian ethnic outfits with the style and glamour of western dresses.
+There is no doubt why women are raving about these beauties, Indo western dresses have a lot of oomph and uniqueness to them. And the amazing part is that you can accessories and style it in any way you want, there are no fixed rules, so girls you don’t need to worry about a fashion police or a fashion nazi. Just use your imagination and creativity and be an absolute diva.
+Most of the Indo western dresses for girls suits all body types, as you read it right! The silhouette and cuts of most of the outfits are like that they accentuate almost all body types.
+Today we have conjured up the list of some really unique and trendy dresses that you can wear on any occasion and flaunt your style!
+1) Low-High straight kurta:
+A slight twist to the hemline has made a simple kurta so fun and trendy.
+How to style: Instead of pairing it with simple churidars or leggings, team it up with trendy bottoms like a Palazzo, Cigarette pants and for a hip look, try with the dhoti or tulip/petal pants. For heavier look, wear it with a skirt.
+When to wear: There is no restriction when to wear this outfit, the right choice of the bottom will do the magic for you with this kurta particularly.
+You can wear it for office, day out and for some special occasions also accessorized with some chunky statement jewelry.
+Who can wear: Women with thick legs and heavy lower body, pair this kurta with loose bottoms like palazzo or straight pants, and low flair skirt.
+Women who have apple body type can wear this indo western dress with palazzos, parallel pants, and skirts except for churidars
+Women with straight body type to create curve should wear it with skirt or palazzos.
+Low-High kurta with a skirt is quite dressy, the blue color and the jewelry attached has made it so different than a regular straight kurti!
+2. Asymmetric hemline Kurtis:
+Asymmetric hemlines kurtas are the hottest Indo western dresses for girls of this season. Transform your desi look with these lively and fun Indo western outfits. Not only straight Kurtis, Anarkali dresses can also have asymmetric hemlines making them more stylish and different if that is what you are seeking, so for these dresses.
+How to style: Wear your cotton asymmetric kurtas with Kolhapuri or Gladiator sandals for a chic style. Also, try some oxidized jewelry to give it a complete look.
+When to wear: Suitable for a casual party and meet up, college and office going girls can also wear for a change. Silk, satin fabric kurtis are great for evening parties or get together.
+3) Shirt style kurti:
+This kurtis are a must have if you don’t have in your wardrobe yet. Versatile, stylish, graceful and sophisticated, this kurtis are an absolute favorite of women of all ages. From a perfect go-to dress to an extremely glam look, you can create any look you want with this kurtis.
+These Indo western dresses for girls are highly popular among the working women at present.
+How to style: College going girls can style it with ripped denim for a funky look and working women can go for pants or churidars for a semi-formal look.
+Also, team up with matching stoles and flat footwear.
+When to wear: As you are reading, this style of kurtis are all-purpose except for the occasions like wedding or festivals where you prefer more ethnic and heavy looking outfit.
+Who can wear: Suitable for women with all body types, women with apple body try to pair it up with loose bottoms to achieve proportion.
+4. Long Kurti with drapes
+These not so recent indo western style for girls are simply stunning, you must have seen Sonam Kapoor flaunting this beauty like a diva, who she is without any doubt.
+This Indo western outfit for girls is perfect for that lazy day when you don’t want any hassle and still look trendy with this cowl draped kurti.
+How to style: You don’t need much with these kurtis as they are pretty bold in style, but for more drama add silver or copper necklace and handcuffs.
+When to wear: Perfect for the gala, cocktail events and can also be for a casual day outing or small events.
+Who can wear: This is a gem when it comes to who can wear, women of any body type can don this beauty! It’s a perfect Indo western dress for all body shape girls.
+5) Ethnic jackets with denim
+Adding Ethnic jackets to your western outfit is the smartest way to light up the whole look, to make your own style statement noticeable.
+You can choose jackets of any length; long jackets for more drama, short jackets for a funky and youthful look. This is a multi-purpose Indo western dress for girls and women.
+How to style: We think its style on a budget, take out your ethnic jackets and team it up with your denim for a glamorous chic look.
+When to wear: These Indo western dresses for women are best for any occasion and evening parties or events.
+Who can wear: These Indo western dresses for ladies suits all body types.
+6. Jackets with dress
+Save your money by reusing the old western dresses that you are bored of wearing and create a unique indo western outfit for females by adding ethnic embellished jackets to them. All you need is little creativity and imagination to achieve extremely stylish yet classy look!
+How to style: Well Jacket in itself is here an important accessory, add some pieces of junk jewelry complimenting the whole indo western look.
+When to wear: Best for evening parties or casual meet up.
+Who can wear: Jackets are for every woman out there.
+7) Anarkali Gowns
+These are absolute favorites, and we are sure it is a favorite of all the ladies out there. Again a great blend of east and west, Anarkali gowns are classy, stylish and simply stunning Indo western dresses for girls!
+How to style: Big statement earrings and stilettos are sufficient to complete your classy look.
+When to wear: Anarkali Indo western style Gowns are perfect for any special occasion like wedding ceremonies, festivals and also for cocktail parties!
+Who can wear: Anarkali gowns accentuates every body type, adorn this perfect beauty and feel nothing less than a princess!
+8) Long Anarkali dress styled with Jacket
+Anarkali suit is an attire that is for everyone, you just feel magical like a princess. Anarkali jackets take this feeling to another level. For more dressy and heavier look, go for a jacket contrasting or matching but complimenting your Anarkali which will Give it a perfect Indo western dress look.
+How to style: To avoid overdoing your look, choose the jewelry as per the occasion.
+When to wear: Suitable for Indian festivals and other occasions, brides can also choose to wear this Indo western dress for women on mehendi, sangeet, even on engagement.
+Who can wear: Women of all age group and body type can wear it.
+9) Casual shirt with Silk skirt
+Thanks to designer Gaurang Shah for reigniting the love and opulence of silk again. Many celebs have been sporting this unique combination of casual shirt and silk or banarsi skirt. These chic style Indo western dresses for girls will get you tons of compliments as soon as you enter any event.
+How to style: Junk or bold statement jewelry with a statement clutch will complete the look!
+When to wear: Great choice for festivals and for a wedding guest as well as for the sister of a bride or groom.
+Who can wear: This Indo western Suits the women of all body types as the silhouette create the illusion of a curve.
+10) Kurtis with capes
+Capes, once a part of military dress ensemble have become a popular fashion accessory, and now its Indian wear is also under the spell as how a majestic look a cape create.
+Capes have increased the number of choices and given us the reason to be more stylish and gorgeous. There are capes with Anarkali, straight kurtis and also with sarees. There is no limit how you can play with this amazing Indo western dress for girls.
+How to style: Go for big traditional or statement earring and avoid wearing chunky neck pieces.
+When to wear: Capes are a trendy piece of the outfit, they are good for a casual hangout and also for weddings and festivals.
+Who can wear: Women with heavy bust try to get the right size and design of the cape. It’s a great option for women with a pear shape body to create balance.
+11) Short Anarkali with Denim
+Short or knee-length Anarkali with denim is a great way to restyle your look and reuse your old forgotten Anarkali to create a dashing Indo western dress for girls.
+How to style: Keep the accessories minimal with this outfit idea. Studs and a sling bag will do the job for you!
+When to wear: Best Indo western for college going girls to bring the freshness in their regular outfit, day outing and meet up.
+Who can wear: As Anarkali suits every body type, any women or girl with any body type can wear it.
+12) Dhoti style skirt with top
+Dhoti style skirt or bottom with a fitted crop top or blouse is one of the bold and edgy outfit ideas. This sensuous Indo western outfit will turn every head wherever you go, this indo western look is for the quirky queens!
+How to style: Depending on the blouse, decide the accessories, don’t go overboard! Mojris, flats, and kolhapuris are one of the best ways to style this Indo western outfit for girls.
+When to wear: This outfit is great for a bride to wear on different wedding ceremonies as well as for her bridesmaid or sisters.
+Who can wear: Just be little smart and careful with this silhouette, women with apple shape body might want to wear it with a jacket and so the women with pear shape body to downplay the areas they don’t want to call the attention. Women with straight body type can wear it without the jacket. Design of top or blouse also makes a lot of difference to bring out the proportion.
+V- neckline, off shoulder is great for the pear shape body while women with apple shape body try to avoid tops or blouse that adds the volume to the upper body.
+13) Dhoti Sarees
+We just can’t get enough of these absolutely stunning sarees that are wooing the modern women with its style and glamorous look.
+Another unique and perky choice for those who want to wear saree with a twist. Pants with dhoti saree is another stunning version of this Indo western attire. It’s just a fashion on fleek!
+How to style: To keep the style sleek, contemporary pieces of jewelry are the best.
+When to wear: Suitable for any special occasion.
+Who can wear: Undoubtedly women of all type can adorn this beauty!
+14) Saree Anarkali
+This design of Anarkali is a smart creation with the attached dupatta and a draping like a saree, This is an exclusive indo western dress for women and can be bought from Vasansi Jaipur only.
+How to style: There is no rule to how to style it, anything that matches and compliments your dress would be perfect.
+When to wear: Perfect for brides, sister of the bride and the wedding guest to have something different
+Who can wear: This is for all lovely ladies out there but not for oversized!
+15) Long Kurti with Palazzo
+Long Kurtis with Palazzo is a great Indo western outfit idea for girls that is being sported by women of all age group and from all walks of life lately. These loose fitting pants are comfortable and also has a style factor.
+How to style: Type of kurta decides the whole look with the Palazzo, though kurtis of all length go with the Palazzo.
+When to wear: Palazzo is gradually becoming the staple, you can wear it for any occasion or event.
+Who can wear: Palazzo is for everyone, they conceal the heavy butts and thighs and also bring proportion to the women with apple figure.
+16) Salwar Jumpsuits
+Salwar style jumpsuits are the bohemian looking very cool indo western outfit. Women who keep seeking something different must try this hippy and exotic outfit.
+How to style: There is not much required with this outfit, however, you can go for some quirky jewelry.
+When to wear: This funky dress is suitable for family and friends gathering, a themed party, day outing.
+Who can wear: Although it suits all the body types, just pay little attention to the neckline before buying it.
+So these were 16 unique and trendy Indo western dresses for girls of 2018, comment down your views about these dresses.
+(Circulation. 2000;102:1027.)
+© 2000 American Heart Association, Inc.
+From the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center (M.H.H., J.D.Z., J.A.J., C.J.S., K.R., R.L.P.), Dallas, Tex, and Department of Integrative Physiology (J.F.E., M.L.S.), University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth.
+Correspondence to Mohamed H. Hamdan, MD, Dallas VA Medical Center, Division of Cardiology (111A), 4500 S Lancaster Road, Dallas, TX 75216. E-mail Hamdan{at}ryburn.swmed.edu
+Methods and ResultsThirteenLV-based pacing results in improved hemodynamics and a decrease in SNA compared with RV pacing in patients with LV dysfunction regardless of the QRS duration.
+Key Words: heart failure pacing nervous system, autonomic
+Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to compare BV pacing with right ventricular (RV) and left ventricular (LV) pacing in patients with depressed ejection fraction. Arterial blood pressure (BP), central venous pressure (CVP), and muscle sympathetic nerve activity (SNA) with microneurography were measured during sinus rhythm and single-site and multisite pacing at rates slightly above normal sinus rhythm. We hypothesized that BV pacing results in improved hemodynamics and a decrease in sympathetic activity compared with single-site pacing.
+Experimental Protocol
+After acceptable recordings of SNA were obtained, the following protocol was performed. Arterial BP, CVP, and sympathetic neural responses to 3 minutes of pacing were recorded during right atrial (RA)-RV, RA-LV, and RA-BV pacing. The sequence was chosen at random with a 1-minute recovery time and a 1-minute repeat baseline value obtained between each pacing mode.
+Electrophysiological Studies
+Patients were studied in the drug-free postabsorptive state after informed consent was obtained. Three quadripolar catheters were inserted percutaneously and positioned in the high lateral RA, RV apex, and across the tricuspid valve for His-bundle recording. Next, a 2.5F multipolar catheter (Cardima Inc) was introduced from the femoral vein via a guiding catheter and positioned in the lateral cardiac vein for LV pacing. Atrial and ventricular pacing thresholds were then measured, and pacing was performed at twice diastolic pacing threshold.
+Measurements
+Efferent, postganglionic muscle SNA was recorded from the right peroneal nerve as previously described. Briefly, a sterile microelectrode was inserted into a fascicle of the peroneal nerve near the fibular head. The nerve signals were amplified, filtered (70 to 2000 Hz), rectified, and discriminated. Raw nerve signals were integrated (time constant 0.05 s) to produce a mean voltage display for quantitative analysis. Muscle sympathetic neural bursts during sinus rhythm were readily recognized by their tight temporal relationship to the sinus cardiac cycle, their increasing frequency during Valsalva maneuvers, the occurrence of large bursts accompanying premature ventricular beats, and their failure to respond to arousal stimuli or stroking of the skin. The SNA was quantified as the total activity derived from the sum of the area of the SNA bursts for a given time period. Area was used for these analyses because compared with the burst amplitude, it more appropriately reflects the changes in SNA associated with the wide variations in arterial BP that can occur during ventricular pacing. Arterial BP was directly recorded with a 5F catheter inserted into the right femoral artery. CVP was continuously recorded with a catheter placed in the right atrium via the right femoral vein. Heart rate (HR) was derived from continuous ECG recording of at least 2 leads (typically leads II and V1).
+Statistics
+All data sets were tested for normality with a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Group comparisons of RV, LV, and BV pacing were performed with a 1-way ANOVA with a repeated measure design. When main effect differences were obtained, post hoc comparisons were performed with a Tukeys multiple range test to distinguish individual differences between pacing conditions. A rank sum test was used for post hoc comparisons in which normality failed. A linear regression was used to assess the relation of QRS duration to the difference between LV and BV pacing for each variable. For all analyses, significance was set at an
+level of 0.05.
+Hemodynamic Changes During RV, LV, and BV
+Pacing
+Figure 1
+illustrates a sample
+tracing of arterial BP, CVP, and the integrated neurogram
+for SNA during each pacing mode. Arterial BPs were slightly
+higher during both LV and BV pacing compared with RV pacing. The
+average hemodynamic data for all patients (n=13) during
+each pacing mode are summarized in Figure 2
+. Both LV (151±7/85±3 mm Hg) and
+BV (151±6/85±3 mm Hg) pacing resulted in arterial
+BPs that were greater (P<0.05) than during RV pacing
+(146±7/82±3 mm Hg). There were no differences in CVP among all
+pacing modes (P=0.27).
+Sympathetic Activity During RV, LV, and BV Pacing
+The normal pulse synchrony of SNA bursts was maintained under all conditions (Figure 1
+).The average data during each pacing mode
+are summarized in Figure 3
+. The
+sympathetic neural responses were a mirror image of the
+arterial BP responses. SNA was significantly less
+(P<0.02) during both LV (606±35 U) and BV (582±41 U)
+pacing compared with RV pacing (685±32 U) (P<0.02).
+However, BV pacing was not significantly less than LV pacing
+(P=0.56).
+Correlation Between QRS Duration and
+Hemodynamic/Sympathetic Neural Responses
+The patient population demonstrated a wide range of QRS durations (from 94 to 188 ms). Although the mean data for the patient group as a whole did not differ between LV and BV pacing, on inspection of individual data, there appeared to be some possible differences between LV and BV pacing when patients with a narrow QRS were compared with those with a wide QRS. Therefore, each hemodynamic variable and SNA were correlated against QRS duration to determine whether differences between LV and BV pacing may exist in some patients. Figure 4
+illustrates the linear
+regression analysis between QRS duration and the difference
+between LV and BV pacing for mean BP (top) and SNA (bottom). Similar
+results were obtained for systolic and diastolic
+BPs. For each variable, there was a trend toward narrow QRS
+durations with a lower mean BP and higher SNA during LV pacing compared
+with during BV pacing; however, the correlation coefficient values
+(range 0.42 to 0.49) were not statistically significant
+(P=0.08 to 0.14).
+Dual Chamber Pacing as a Treatment of Congestive Heart
+Failure
+The usefulness of physiological dual chamber pacing with a short AV delay in patients with congestive heart failure was tested more than a decade ago. Brecker et al9 demonstrated that in selected patients with shortened diastolic filling times, AV synchronous pacing with a short AV delay improved cardiac output and exercise duration. Pacing in these patients was associated with an increase in diastolic filling time and a reduction in presystolic mitral or tricuspid regurgitation, or both. Similarly, Nishimura et al10 showed that DDD pacing could significantly improve cardiac performance in patients with a long PR interval and evidence of AV dyssynchrony in the left heart. These results, however, were soon challenged by other studies that showed no improvement or even a decrease in cardiac performance with DDD pacing. Innes et al1 tested the effect of AV synchronous pacing with an AV delay of 60 and 100 ms in 12 patients with stable heart failure. Pacing increased diastolic filling time but reduced the stroke volume and cardiac index. Linde et al2 studied the long-term effect of AV synchronous pacing in 10 patients with NYHA class III or IV heart failure. Despite optimization of the AV delay with Doppler echocardiographic measurements, consistent improvement in stroke volume and cardiac output was observed in only 1 patient. The interest in conventional short AV delay DDD pacing in patients with heart failure waned as the result of a double-blinded randomized study that showed no immediate improvement in hemodynamics and no long-term change in ejection fraction or NYHA functional class.11 With failure of conventional DDD pacing to show consistent improvement in hemodynamics in these patients, the interest has shifted to BV pacing.
+Effect of BV Pacing Versus RV Pacing on Hemodynamics
+The mechanisms via which BV pacing is thought to improve cardiac function include the following: (1) a decrease in mitral regurgitation, (2) an increase in filling time, (3) optimization of left-sided mechanical AV delay, and (4) normalization of ventricular electrical activation. In patients with mild to moderate congestive heart failure, BV pacing has been shown to acutely improve global systolic ventricular function, presumably by improving coordination of segmental ventricular contraction.12 In patients with intraventricular conduction delay, it is suggested that BV pacing restores the normal activation pattern, resulting in a decrease in mitral regurgitation and an improvement in effective preload.13 Although some studies have considered the effect of BV pacing in patients with depressed ejection fraction, comparison between BV pacing and RV pacing has been assessed in only a few studies.5 6 12 14 Cazeau et al5 compared the hemodynamic effects of BV pacing with those of RV pacing in 8 patients with widened QRS and end-stage heart failure. Regardless of the AV delay, BV pacing was superior to RV pacing, resulting in a higher cardiac output and a decrease in pulmonary capillary wedge pressure and mean V-wave amplitude. Leclercq et al6 assessed the acute hemodynamic effects of BV pacing in 18 patients with severe congestive heart failure and major intraventricular conduction delay (QRS 170±37 ms). With AAI pacing used as a reference, this acute hemodynamic study demonstrated that BV DDD pacing significantly improved cardiac index compared with intrinsic conduction and single-site RV DDD pacing.
+Our findings are consistent with those of these previous studies. Compared with RV pacing, BV pacing resulted in a significantly higher arterial BP with no significant change in CVP. This improvement was seen regardless of the presence or absence of intraventricular conduction delay. Thus, BV pacing was consistently superior to RV pacing.
+Effect on Hemodynamics of BV Pacing Versus LV
+Pacing
+With the superiority of BV pacing compared with RV pacing, the question emerged of whether the same hemodynamic improvement can be observed with LV pacing alone. Few studies have addressed this question by comparing the effect of LV pacing alone with that of BV pacing or baseline sinus rhythm in patients with severe heart failure.8 12 14 15 Blanc et al8 compared the acute hemodynamic changes associated with (1) RV apex or RV outflow tract pacing, (2) LV pacing, or (3) RV apex and LV pacing combined. Twenty-three patients with NYHA class III or IV, pulmonary capillary wedge pressure of >15 mm Hg, and either first-degree AV block or bundle-branch block (or both) were enrolled. Pacing from different ventricular sites was performed in either VDD mode (AVI 100 ms) or VVI mode in patients with atrial fibrillation. BV pacing resulted in higher systolic BP, lower pulmonary capillary wedge pressure, and lower V-wave amplitude than either baseline or RV pacing. Interestingly, the results with LV pacing alone were similar to those obtained with BV pacing. Kass et al15 measured aortic and LV pressures in 18 patients with heart failure during VDD pacing at varying sites and AV delays. LV and BV pacing enhanced systolic BPs in patients with LV dysfunction and intraventricular conduction delay. In addition, the authors demonstrated that these changes were primarily the result of a direct improvement in LV systolic function with minimal changes in diastolic filling pressures or relaxation. Recently, Auricchio et al14 showed that BV and LV pacing increased maximum LV pressure and pulse pressure more than RV pacing in patients with congestive heart failure and wide surface QRS. Furthermore, these changes were more significant with LV pacing than with BV pacing.
+Our results are similar to those of these previous studies. In patients with depressed ejection fraction and intraventricular conduction delay, LV pacing resulted in hemodynamic changes similar to those obtained with BV pacing. In addition, we found that patients without intraventricular conduction delay are also likely to benefit from LV pacing alone. We do not find this surprising because the beneficial effects of LV-based pacing are not limited to normalization of ventricular electrical activation but also include an increase in filling time, optimization of left-side mechanical atrioventricular delay, and a decrease in mitral regurgitation. However, our findings suggest that the beneficial effect of LV pacing alone tended to decrease as the QRS duration decreased, suggesting that patients with a wider QRS duration are more likely to benefit equally from LV and BV pacing, whereas those with a narrow QRS duration may benefit more from BV pacing.
+Sympathetic Activity in Congestive Heart Failure
+Sympathetic activity is increased in patients with congestive heart failure. This is evidenced by elevated levels of circulating norepinephrine levels16 17 18 and increases in adrenergic nerve outflow, as measured with microneurography.19 The cause of this increase is thought to be in part secondary to abnormal baroreflex control of adrenergic outflow from the central nervous system. Patients with heart failure have been shown to have a blunted HR response and a reflex increase in forearm vascular resistance during tilt-table testing.20 21 Although the increase in sympathetic activity may play a compensatory role early during the disease process, chronic adrenergic activation is recognized as a contributor to the vicious cycle that promotes progression of the disease through multiple effects, including increased afterload, exertion of a direct toxic effect on the failing myocardium, increased myocardial oxygen demand, and triggered ventricular arrhythmias. Indeed, elevated plasma norepinephrine levels have been shown to correlate with cardiac mortality rates and are a better prognostic predictor than ejection fraction.22 It is not clear, however, whether this is a cause of death or simply a marker of the underlying cardiac disease.
+The adverse effect of adrenergic stimulation prompted the use of ß-blocker therapy in patients with congestive heart failure. In the present study, we sought to compare the effects of single-site and multisite pacing on sympathetic outflow in patients with LV dysfunction. A reduction in sympathetic activity with a given pacing mode would provide an additional method of interrupting the deleterious cycle that is facilitated by increased sympathetic activity in patients with heart failure.
+Effect of Pacing on Sympathetic Activity
+Saxon et al23 recently showed a decrease in serum norepinephrine levels after 12 weeks of BV pacing in patients with congestive heart failure and conduction delay. This decrease was noted only in 21 patients with baseline norepinephrine levels of >800 pg/mL. The authors explained these findings with the positive inotropic effect of BV pacing in these patients. To our knowledge, this is the only study that assessed the effect of chronic BV pacing on serum catecholamine levels in patients with congestive heart failure.
+The purpose of the present study was to compare BV pacing with single-site pacing in patients with LV dysfunction. We did not, therefore, compare BV pacing with sinus rhythm. Our results indicate for the first time that acute BV and LV pacing reduces sympathetic activity compared with RV pacing in patients with LV dysfunction regardless of the QRS duration. Although not statistically significant, a comparison of the differences between BV and LV pacing and the QRS duration revealed a correlation with r=0.42. This correlation suggests that the narrower the QRS, the greater is the benefit of BV pacing relative to LV pacing. On the other hand, the wider the QRS, the smaller is the difference and the more likely patients are to benefit equally from LV and BV pacing. Nevertheless, these data suggest that there may be a modest advantage to BV pacing compared with LV pacing alone, particularly in patients with narrow QRS durations.
+We believe the changes in SNA are the result of the changes in arterial BP. The decrease in SNA during LV and BV pacing compared with RV pacing occurred in the setting of an increase in arterial BP, suggesting an arterial baroreflexmediated sympathoexcitation. Another possible mechanism for the decrease in sympathetic activity is a direct effect of pacing on the cardiopulmonary baroreceptors resulting in increased cardioinhibition and thus a decrease in peripheral sympathetic activity. We believe this is very unlikely because RA filling pressures were similar in all three pacing modes.
+Clinical Implications
+If the hemodynamic and autonomic changes noted with acute pacing prove to be present with chronic pacing, then LV-based pacing should be offered to patients with LV dysfunction and an indication for chronic pacing. In addition to the hemodynamic improvement, the decrease in sympathetic activity may have an impact on mortality rate in these patients. As previously discussed, elevated levels of serum norepinephrine levels have been shown to correlate with mortality rates in patients with congestive heart failure. Therefore, a decrease in sympathetic activity, which has been shown to correlate with serum norepinephrine levels, may result in improved survival rates. This hypothesis must be tested in prospective studies that assess the long-term benefits of LV-based pacing.
+Study Limitations
+This study has limitations. First, pacing was performed at a rate slightly faster than sinus rhythm, and therefore our findings may not be present during an atrium-sensed/ventricle-paced mode. We think this is unlikely, and we believe our method is a better one because it allowed a direct comparison between single-site and multisite pacing while avoiding the spontaneous variations in HR commonly seen during DDD or VDD pacing. Second, our results were obtained with an AV interval of 100 ms and may not be present with a shorter or longer AV delay. The duration of the AV interval during pacing has been shown to be an important variable that modulates the hemodynamic outcome. We chose an AV interval of 100 ms to avoid competition with intrinsic conduction, and we cannot exclude the possibility that a different PR interval may have yielded different results. Finally, it should be emphasized that the current findings are the result of acute pacing, and the same conclusions may not be true with chronic pacing. This study, however, provides the basis for an evaluation of the chronic effect of multisite pacing on sympathetic activity in patients with congestive heart failure.
+Received September 8, 1999; revision received March 7, 2000; accepted March 27, 2000.
+2. Linde C, Gadler F, Edner M, et al. Results of atrioventricular synchronous pacing with optimized delay in patients with severe congestive heart failure. Am J Cardiol. 1995;75:919923.[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
+3. Gold M, Feliciano Z, Gottlieb SS, et al. Dual-chamber pacing with a short atrioventricular delay in congestive heart failure: a randomized study. J Am Coll Cardiol. 1995;26:967973.[Abstract]
+4. Gras D, Mabo P, Tang T, et al. Multisite pacing as a supplemental treatment of congestive heart failure: preliminary results of the Medtronic Inc. InSync Study. PACE. 1998;21:22492255.
+5. Cazeau S, Ritter P, Lazarus A, et al. Multisite pacing for end-stage heart failure: early experience. PACE. 1996;19:17481757.
+6.
+Leclercq C, Cazeau S, Breton HL, et al. Acute
+hemodynamic effects of biventricular DDD
+pacing in patients with end-stage heart failure. J Am Coll
+Cardiol. 1998;32:18251831.
+7. Prinzen FW, Van Oosterhout MFM, Vanagt WYR, et al. Optimization of ventricular function by improving the activation sequence during ventricular pacing. PACE. 1998;21:22562260.
+8.
+Blanc J, Etienne Y, Gilard M, et al. Evaluation of
+different ventricular pacing sites in patients with severe
+heart failure: results of an acute hemodynamic study.
+Circulation. 1997;96:32733277.
+9. Brecker SJD, Xiao HB, Sparrow J, et al. Effects of dual chamber pacing with short AV delay in dilated cardiomyopathy. Lancet. 1992;340:13081312.[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
+10. Nishimura RA, Hayes DL, Holmes DRJ, et al. Mechanism of hemodynamic improvement by dual-chamber pacing for severe left ventricular dysfunction: an acute Doppler and catheterization study. J Am Coll Cardiol. 1995;25:281288.[Abstract]
+11. Gold MR, Feliciano Z, Gottlieb SS, et al. Dual-chamber pacing with a short atrioventricular delay in congestive heart failure: a randomized study. J Am Coll Cardiol. 1995;26:967973.
+12. Saxon LA, Kerwin WF, Cahalan MK, et al. Acute effects of intraoperative multisite ventricular pacing on left ventricular function and activation/contraction sequence in patients with depressed ventricular function. J Cardiovascular Electrophysiol. 1998;9:1321.[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
+13. Aurcchio A, Salo RW. Acute hemodynamic improvement by pacing in patients with severe congestive heart failure. PACE. 1997;20:313324.
+14.
+Auricchio A, Stellbrink C, Block M, et al. Effect of
+pacing chamber and atrioventricular delay on acute
+systolic function of paced patients with congestive heart
+failure. Circulation. 1999;99:29933001.
+15.
+Kass DA, Chen CH, Curry C, et al. Improved left
+ventricular mechanics from acute VDD pacing in patients
+with dilated cardiomyopathy and
+ventricular conduction delay. Circulation. 1999;99:15671573.
+16. Thomas JA, Marks BH. Plasma norepinephrine in congestive heart failure. Am J Cardiol. 1978;41:233243.[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
+17. Francis GS, Goldsmith SR, Levine TB. The neurohumoral axis in congestive heart failure. Ann Intern Med. 1984;101:370377.
+18. Viquerate CE, Daly P, Swedberg K. Endogenous catecholamine levels in chronic heart failure: relation to the severity of hemodynamic abnormalities. Am J Med. 1985;78:455460.[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
+19.
+Leimbach WNJ, Wallin G, Victor RG. Direct evidence from
+intrarenal recordings for increased central sympathetic outflow
+in patients with heart failure. Circulation. 1986;73:913919.
+20. Goldsmith SR, Francis GS, Levine TB, et al. Regional blood flow response to orthostasis in patients with congestive heart failure. J Am Coll Cardiol. 1983;1:13911395.[Abstract]
+21. Kubo SH, Cody RJ. Circulatory autoregulation in chronic congestive heart failure: responses to head-up tilt in 41 patients. Am J Cardiol. 1983;52:512518.[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
+22.
+Cleland JGF, Dargie HJ, Ford I. Mortality in heart
+failure: clinical variables of prognostic value. Br
+Heart J. 1987;58:57282.
+23. Saxon LA, DeMarco T, Chatterjee K, et al. Chronic biventricular pacing decreases serum norepinephrine in dilated heart failure patients with the greatest sympathetic activation at baseline. PACE. April 1999;22(suppl):830. Abstract 519.
+This article has been cited by other articles:
+I have an ongoing email thread with another SaaS app developer about how social networks are closing access to their data, APIs, and members, and its impact on third party apps such as Triberr. The discussion primarily focuses on Twitter, but applies to the other social networks and the Big G(oogle). Since it’s relevant to both the SaaS industry and our users, and drives business decisions for many apps, I wanted to share my thoughts and predictions.
+We have a love / hate relationship with Twitter. Our app relies heavily on it (a bit too much in my opinion). Even after questionable moves this past year such as removing share counts, it seems like the company is really making an effort to find its footing again in 2017. In fact, they recently gave their abuse policy a much-needed refresh, which will help in repairing its damaged reputation. Unfortunately, that doesn’t do much for the bottom line.
+Something’s up with Twitter – whether it be good, bad, or ugly. I can’t pinpoint exactly what’ll transpire this year but Twitter did make some positive moves last year such as:
+- Loosening the 140 character limit (ex: replies, photos, links, and usernames do not count towards the limit)
+- Moments – Moments allows us to collect and curate Tweets to tell stories
+- Twitter Polls
+- Launching Engagement
+Whether or not the above changes will help Twitter make more money and grow is yet to be determined. In the end, the metrics that will matter to investors will be growing the user base, MAUs (monthly active users), and profitability.
+While such updates are well received by its user base, the following series of actions are concerning:
+Twitter is For Sale
+There was a lot of buzz in September 2016 when Twitter was for sale and several large companies were mentioned as suitors. Unfortunately, none of the companies were interested enough to make an offer – Google, Facebook, Apple, Disney, Salesforce, Verizon, Comcast. They all passed on a potential acquisition. No surprise – $18 billion for a company no one wants to buy is unjustifiable. Given its lack of growth and concerns about future earnings potential, the share price slid back to pre-rumor numbers.
+Whine about Vine
+In October 2016, Twitter announced it would be shutting down Vine – the entire social video network. It seems some influencers tried to save Vine, but to no avail. In my opinion, Vine could’ve been Twitter’s answer to Snapchat, YouTube, and Instagram, but it wasn’t executed well nor in a timely manner. Circumstances! As influencer marketing starts to become a channel for most brands, Vine is no more and their users previously driving billions of views have reluctantly shifted their audience to the competitors.
+Layoffs
+It’s always sad to hear about layoffs at any company. However, for Twitter, layoffs were inevitable after finding no buyers. It wasn’t shocking that Twitter had to layoff hundreds of their employees at the end of 2016, and lost some key personnel in the process. Unfortunately, it’s a necessary evil for sustainability and profitability as they admitted at the end of Q3-2016.
+“The restructuring allows us to continue to fully fund our highest priorities, while eliminating investment in non-core areas and driving greater efficiency,”
+The downsizing in Q4-2016 impacted 9% of its staff across sales, partnerships and marketing efforts. The hashtag – #TwitterLayoffs – may be quiet at the moment, but I think the hashtag will resurface again in 2017… sad 🙁
+Twitter Dashboard Shutdown
+On January 11, Twitter announced it will shutdown Twitter Dashboard – a tool used to manage business accounts – which gives businesses a suite of tools to track tweets, schedule posts, access analytics, monitor tweets about their brand or other keywords and more. With no alternate mentioned, the tool will officially shutdown in a few days on Feburary 3rd, 2017.
+Why is this important? It was a tool specifically for businesses – ya know, actual companies with money to spend and advertise. Unfortunately, there just wasn’t enough traction to justify its continued maintenance and support. Worth noting is that it had only been launched 6 months prior to the shutdown announcement which should provide some insight into how quickly priorities changed in such a short timeframe at a massive company.
+Fabric and Crashlytics
+On January 18, Twitter quietly sold Fabric and Crashlytics to Google. These tools were used by developers to build better apps, understand their users, and grow their business. While it’s not a big deal for regular users, the sale signals Twitter’s lack of interest in maintaining or growing its developer ecosystem.
+Say Goodbye to the Buy Button
+Launched in 2014, you may have recently noticed the Buy Button is disappearing. Last year, Twitter disbanded their commerce team which made it clear that no further development was expected on the Buy Button. Now, it’s official. It pains me to see a revenue-generating feature being removed, but Twitter plans on focusing on action-based marketing such as website conversions and lead generation. I’m not entirely sure this will work in the noisy Twitter-sphere.
+Periscope
+Silence. Periscope lets you explore the world through the eyes of somebody else. Unfortunately, I rarely hear anyone talk about Periscope so I believe it’s going by the wayside soon to join Vine. Hopefully, it surprises me, and everyone else, and becomes a smash hit. I just don’t see it happening given the chronological pattern of events in the Twitter portfolio.
+Closing Access to Data
+Historically, Twitter does not have a great reputation with developer community. I’ve personally worked on applications that leveraged Twitter’s API only to find functionality suddenly unavailable or new limits imposed resulting in devaluing our apps. Here’s a summary of Twitter’s 10 year struggle with developer relations. Most notable are the removal of share counts, handling of oAuth updates, and the lack of analytics data for third party developers (unless you’re willing to pay thousands per month to Gnip for access). However, I don’t blame them for gradually being protective about their data as other social networks have done exactly the same by closing off parts of their APIs to only approved partners or apps. Still keen on developing on the Twitter API?
+In my opinion, social networks will continue to create a moat to prevent third parties from accessing their data which equates to less and less apps built on these platforms. The big social networks want to own your time! For example, Facebook has 50 minutes of your time – every day! And they certainly do not want you spending it on third party apps.
+Why is this important to you?
+Since these networks have reached critical mass, there’s an obvious pattern and desire to build a moat around their network. This begs the question what will happen to third party apps that rely on these social networks?
+- Instagram already shunned developers at the onset by closing off most actions via its API to control the user experience. If you’re a startup focused on Instagram, you’re already dealing with a closed API that does not allow directly pushing posts to Instagram (must be done via their app).
+- Twitter removed shared counts and access to analytics data and puts it behind an enterprise subscription nobody can afford.
+- Facebook is tightening its API with regular releases each further limiting developers or requiring special permissions / app reviews.
+- As one user said: Facebook is “following in the footsteps of Instagram and Twitter in limiting data outflow when it no longer benefits them.”
+- Snapchat laid down the law on third party apps a while back.
+The writing’s on the wall.
+If you’re a company that depends on the social APIs, are you comfortable knowing the big networks can limit or close access at any time? I’m not. As developers, we have to be careful how much reliance our apps have on these companies. Users helped grow these giant social networks to the their current size and scale. Now that they’ve reached critical mass, they don’t need us. Therefore, we need to be careful not to put all our eggs in one basket.
+If you’re building an online presence, the question to ask is who really owns it?
+If you’re an influencer or blogger, does the demise of a single platform impact your earnings potential or traffic significantly? A million or many thousands of followers on any platform on the brink of disappearing is worrisome. The effort to build such an audience is time consuming and requires commitment.
+Bottom line: Take steps towards owning your online presence and community (cough cough, ** tribe **).
+I’d love to hear your thoughts on how much you’ve invested into Twitter? and do you continue to do so?
+Amazon, Please Help!
+I believe that of all the companies that would be a worthy buyer, Amazon has the resources and ecosystem to actually do something with Twitter. Given their reach is already extending into a variety of areas:
+- Media and Partnerships – The rollout of Amazon Prime Video competes directly with Netflix, and Twitter can help. Additionally, Twitter’s streaming and advertising partnerships with NFL and other giants can be leveraged by Amazon for all sorts of cross-marketing fun.
+- Advertising – Other than their main site, Amazon doesn’t have a strong advertising channel to compete with Google and Facebook. Twitter could be that chip.
+- Social – Amazon has no social presence whatsoever. Playing catch up to Facebook’s platform + Messenger, Google and Google+, and Microsoft + LinkedIn will not be fun starting from ground zero.
+- News Content – From a news standpoint, Jeff Bezos owns Washington Post and it’s making progress going digital and growing subscribers. Twitter can provide a nice boost to solidify hockey stick growth.
+It may sound ridiculous but I truly believe this acquisition would be a win-win.
+Final Thoughts
+Overall, whatever decisions Twitter makes this year will either make or break the company. I’m hoping it finds its stride and starts making money – after all, 10 years is long enough to figure it out. Better yet, Amazon can play hero and saves them from bankruptcy. On the bright side, the fact that Twitter is going to be a much friendlier place this year is a great way to start 2017.
+Let me know your thoughts below, and let’s all hope that Twitter perseveres through these rough times.
+
+Home › Forums › Dinosaur Related Discussions › Dinosaur/J News & Discussions › Anyone got the Bug dvd?
+- This topic has 13 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 5 months ago by
+Obseqio.
+- AuthorPosts
+King TubbyParticipant
+Murph OWNS that gig!
+Great sound mix all around, but especially on the drums. It’s a far superior dvd to the Middle East one, I’d say, even though that one’s quite good.
+I haven’t watched the whole thing yet, but I must agree the sound on it is amazing. I got it on blu-ray, looks awesome! I was in the front row, so I’m excited to see myself. I can assure you that standing in front of J, the bass was not as audible live as it is on the dvd. Give you an appreciation for the mixing they did on this.
+I’ll have to go back and try to look at it objectively. Right now I’m too psyched about being in it. I’ll have to look at the over all meaning of this show, they performed ‘Bug’ in its entirety was it a good idea? Where doe it rank on Dinosaur Jr. shows?
+There’s no questioning J’s musicianship. The mixing brings to light Murph and Lou’s playing as well. It allows you to see what they’re all doing up there and again it sounds pretty good so far. I’ll have to come back and revisit this.
+Glad to hear its better than the middle east – I’m sure it was made to be raw & it does have a ‘being there’ feel – But I’ve got better sound on my phone from a gig! 🙂
+Can’t wait to get mine, comes out on Monday 05th here(uk), Plus excited for the first dino blu-ray.
+I think the DVD sounds brilliant. I have actually had it on in the background while I work a few times over the last week. Also thought the fan interviews were really good, maybe even better than the ones with HR
+AnnastefkaParticipant
+I’m thinking the Middle East one was the one that was sort of colorized all the way right? I just got so tired of seeing that “colorized” thing…I remember thinking, yikes, I’m done after just a few songs. Oh, and Murph without a shirt? Am I remembering right? yikes. Although I think Murph probably looks better without a shirt on than I do, still….My South American Mother in Law hammered it into me (not that had to be hammered in, I grew up in an uppity Southern house where men always had to wear an undershirt)….Men should NEVER appear without their shirts on in front of anyone other than their wives…period.
+She says in her Latin accent it is “deese-cut-sting” and “ab-whore-rant” ….and if you see that type of man, you can tell right away “he is from lower class upbringing” and “he will be unable to provide you with anything….money, a home, or anything.” you never let my little grandsons walk around without a shirt on….ever” “but Tita, he’s only two years old!” “It doesn’t matter”…….Yes..that was a conversation that I had with my Aries Mother-in-law about my child walking around in his own yard….(more than 4 acres at that time) without a shirt. God Bless, she is now near the end of her life and other than the nurses who come by three days a week, I’m her primary care giver…and I love to push the envelope with her and make her laugh. I’ve watched soccer games with her at her house and said…OMG, look it’s Fernando Torres with his shirt off…look, look how the hair from his navel goes right down inside his soccer shorts! Just thinking about where that navel hair line leads is making me feel all tingly in my private parts. I’ve heard Fernando makes $40 million a year, you think he can provide for a family? You know, I do believe, I remember, when I first knew I was in love with your son…..he had on a pair of white pants that hung real low and he had no shirt on…I had come to his house in the morning as he was just getting dressed. At that time we were still just friends (I worked for him, and rode to work with him)….I told her, his pants were hanging so low that I could see a triangle patch of black hair at the end of his navel line and it kind of turned me on. He had a bagel cooking in the toaster for breakfast and he gave me half of his bagel and we ended up fucking right there in the kitchen before we moved to the bedroom…..cream cheese and all. I’ve again written more here then I did in my journal. Today, I wrote in my journal that life sucks today but sucks less than yesterday because I had an unusual bout of diarrhea yesterday which seems to have gone away today. Yay, I can’t talk too much about guitar pedals but can share diarrhea and cream cheese stories. Can’t wait to see the “Bug” stuff and good for Murph….it’s about time he shinned!
+I very much enjoy reading your posts, Annastefka; shinne on!
+I haven’t bought the Bug dvd yet but plan to after reading the positive reviews here. The Bug show at the Fillmore a couple of months ago was pretty awesome, here’s hoping the dvd is as great.
+I’ve got it and it’s awesome. In my opinion, it’s the closest anyone has come to capturing the live atmosphere. The video footage varies from crisp HD down to low frame rate fuzz, generally hand-held and a bit shaky, changing dramatically as it cuts from one view to another. In a good way though; It reinforces the idea that it’s made “by the fans, for the fans”. Some go for wide shots and others give us extreme close-ups good enough to work out the fingering of riffs or freeze-frame and take stock of J’s latest pedal purchases. The sound is excellent throughout. Performance-wise, they are really on the ball; Just the right point between giving a close replica of the original album and making it sound alive, natural and laid back.
+I borrowed both the BluRay and DVD from Lovefilm to work out whether it was worth buying the BluRay, and I’d say it is. Some parts you’ll see no difference, but there are moments of awesome clarity where the BD pays off.
+As has been said above, this is an entirely different beast to the Middle East. That had one play and left me disappointed. I’ve had this one a matter of days and it has already had multiple viewings.
+Simon.
+I’ll give everyone some low-down with this DVD. There were some additional ‘non-fan’ filmers. Not a bad thing, but just wanted to make a mention of it. One of them was Philipp Virus, the same guy who directed and filmed the Middle East DVD. He and I filmed in the press-pit (right in front of the band). I was on Lou’s side, Philipp on J’s. Near the end, Dave Markey even filmed from our location a bit. Another thing to mention: 3 of the ‘fans’ had their own professional equipment and heavy duty tripods. Another non-fan’s professional set-up was used from the far back balcony spot. Everyone used HD equipment (I used a Sony store-bought camera). I made the most of the times I’d seen the band before, and wanted to highlight Lou and Murph as much as possible. Sometimes I’d pan over to J, just when I knew a good part was coming up (like his wah-wah part on “Yeah We Know”). The club itself really helped by having some great lighting – not the same scenario with the Middle East (which is much more of a bare bones place). I never understood why the Middle East was chosen to make a legit DVD, but I do like that one since it’s from the same year they reunited. I’m glad to have helped make the BUG DVD enjoyable.
+Philipp Virus is also J’s brother in law and is making a documentary on J that I hope sees the light of day at some point.
+I agree 100% about the Blu-Ray. TOTALLY worth it. Actually, it is the only BR I own after having a player for a few months. priorities.
+You guys all did an amazing job and I think the fan questions were better than the Rollins ones. It may have been the atmosphere around them but it was great.
+Thanks for sharing some insight into how it was to be a part of it @gkay44 !
+freakboy1610Participant
+Has anyone had any problems with the Blur Ray? I got mine a couple of weeks ago and it froze at random during the show footage and only the fan interviews wqould play out of the bonus stuff. Sent it back to HMV and got a replacement today but now none of the bonus features will play!! It’s still a great show and I prefer it to the Middle East DVD.
+My Blu ray is ok and UK…..i worked at HMV about 12 years ago… If anyone sent a complaint to head office they would send out a £20 voucher … If you can be arsed!?
+Just watching it again, the show is so awesome ! Looks like Murph thinks it’s the end of the world in December 2012…..
+Blood from a stone on the questions! But hey they wouldn’t be so cool if it wasn’t .
+A good bonus would have been them doing liar 🙂
+freakboy1610 said: Has anyone had any problems with the Blur Ray?
+Hmmm… I borrowed the Blu Ray from Lovefilm and I *did* have some playback problems, but put that down to the very old PS3 I was playing it on (which I rarely use for Blu Ray, hence no idea whether it’s generally reliable). Perhaps that disc was also dodgy.
+I got the DVD and yes the sound is brilliant. The only reason I got the DVD was so I could rip the audio an put it on my iPod. Priorities.
+I noticed that when they play ‘Don’t’ J’s soundman gives him another Tobaccoburst Jazzmaster with white knobs and pickup covers. I didn’t even notice that at the show and I was right in front of him, but it begs the question, “Why didn;t he use the cream color guitar?” Must have been promoting the Squire JMJM
+-)
+At this point, it’s very hard to say that the Cardinals are much more than a .500 team. Lately, they’ve had trouble even being that, sitting a game under right now after nine games that were against teams that, before they played the Cards, under .500 themselves. While that is skewed a bit due to the sweep by the Braves, a team that remade themselves at the deadline and now is in second place in their division and just two games out to boot, you’d still think that a team that at one time had postseason dreams could muster up something better than 4-5 in that span.
+If I’m looking at things right, the Cardinals haven’t been even two games above break even since June 16, right at the end of that Marlins sweep that was one of the only highlights in June. That was game 68. St. Louis will play game 112 tonight. That’s 43 games where they’ve gone 20-23. It’s hard to write off close to a third of the season as a small sample size. While we may have not thought this was a .500 team going into the season (it would be disappointing if PECOTA finally got the Cardinals right), it’s safe to say that this is a .500 team now.
+When the division gap is 10 1/2 games and the wild card gap is 8 1/2, you start looking for other things if you want to stay interested in the baseball season. For me this week it’s going to be the roster machinations. Jack Flaherty and Miles Mikolas are very close to returning. Flaherty will probably pitch the last game in this Pittsburgh series while Mikolas may return to the club, may have another rehab start. If I were to guess, I’d say that the fact the team isn’t putting a huge push on, the fact that Mikolas wasn’t completely sharp in his outing on Sunday, and the roster issues will combine to give him another start in the minors.
+However, they’ll both be up eventually. Daniel Ponce de Leon was also in this category, but yesterday the Cardinals made that move by swapping him with Kwang Hyun Kim, who will be on the injured list for a while. Baseball tends to find a way to solve some of these problems, which is something we usually say in spring training but also applies to the rest of the season. Before that move, it looked like the Cardinals were going to need to clear three spots on the 26-man roster and two spots on the 40-man, since currently Flaherty and Mikolas are on the 60-day IL and as such do not take up 40-man room. Given the makeup of the roster, it could have required three people to be released or passed through waivers, but the Kim injury saved somebody’s job, most likely.
+When you look at the 40-man, there are some options. T.J. Zeuch has only been in the organization a couple of minutes and gave up four runs in 1.2 innings in his only outing. There was talk that he’d be a hot commodity when he was released from Toronto, though, so perhaps they wouldn’t want to risk exposing him to waivers. Even if they did, they’d still have to send someone from St. Louis to Memphis to make room for Flaherty and the only person that really has options is Lars Nootbaar, which would weaken the bench even more.
+You start then thinking about Justin Miller and Luis Garcia, two guys who came over as DFAs and have seen limited use since they came to St. Louis. Miller has thrown 11 innings since June 15. He’s got a 7.07 ERA but the runs come in bunches. He’s made 18 appearances and been charged with a run (actually multiple runs–he’s never had just a single tally) in just five of them. He’s not throwing important innings, of course, but he’s not given up a run in his last 4.1 innings. Still, with the roster crunch, I’d expect them to let him go.
+Garcia is perhaps a different story. We just saw Mike Shildt turn to Garcia after Kim left the game Saturday after four innings and Garcia threw two scoreless frames with three strikeouts. He’s only had eight outings with the team but after giving up runs in his first three appearances, he’s not allowed anything in his last five. Garcia seems to intrigue the team a little more than Miller does, which means I don’t believe they’d like to put him on waivers.
+But if not him, who? (You can see why I believe they’ll hold off on Mikolas as long as possible.) Do they let Jon Lester take another start then cut their losses, even after giving up Lane Thomas for him? (Thomas is 5 for 13 with a home run with Washington’s AAA team, though I doubt that plays a factor.) I have trouble seeing them cut bait on either Lester or Happ so quickly after trading for them. If they’d picked them up off the waiver wire, maybe, but given the cost and effort to get them here, I think they are probably here for a bit.
+It’s starting to be a small list without them, though. Most of the people you could see them releasing–Seth Elledge, Patron Pitcher of the Blog Brandon Waddell if he wasn’t still on the COVID IL, maybe Johan Quezada–are in the minor leagues and still don’t help with your major league situation. It seems very unlikely, even though they aren’t using him all that often, that they’d release Andrew Miller. T.J. McFarland and Wade LeBlanc have done exceptional jobs and aren’t likely to go anywhere this season.
+I am going to find it very interesting to see how they navigate these waters. Probably more so than on-the-field results. You would like to think that, with a lot of games against Pittsburgh over the next month, they could at least end August perhaps five games up. We’ll see if they can reach that modest goal or if they’ll find a way to continue trading wins and losses.
+(Apparently so interested that I’ve written a second consecutive post on it. This is what happens when I let a few days go by, I forget what I’ve already said!)
+RECAP
+Wednesday (7-4 loss vs. Atlanta)
+Hero: Nolan Arenado. You’d have hoped that his three-run homer in the first would have set the tone, but sadly it didn’t hold up.
+Goat: Giovanny Gallegos. It was a bit of a tossup between him and Ryan Helsley, but Gallegos’s uncharacteristic blowup late was impossible to come back from. Three runs in the eighth of a tie game will lose it for you almost every time.
+Notes: Helsley, entrusted with a one run lead, struck out the first guy he faced, then gave up a hit and a home run to lose that lead and wound up being replaced before the inning was over….all that wasted a nice debut by J.A. Happ, who allowed two runs in five innings. He gave up a home run to Jorge Solar, but that just made him a true Cardinal….Luis Garcia closed this one out with 1.1 scoreless innings. Again, lower leverage, but right now he seems to bring something to the team….nobody but Arenado had more than two hits and Paul Goldschmidt was the only other person to drive in a run….Yadier Molina went 0-4 and left four on base….the “leading Tommy Edman off against lefties” makes some sense, but between Tuesday and Wednesday Edman went 0-8.
+Thursday (8-4 loss vs. Atlanta)
+Hero: Wade LeBlanc. Two runs in six innings should win you some games. LeBlanc only allowed three hits, though he also walked three batters.
+Goat: Alex Reyes. A hit by pitch and four walks, the last three of which forced in a run. We’ve talked a lot about Reyes’s control issues, but that was the most glaring example you’ll ever see.
+Notes: For the second straight night, Giovanny Gallegos gave up three runs, two on his own and one when Reyes went walking everyone. With two outs, he allowed a single to Freddie Freeman then was one strike away from getting out of it with the lead intact before allowing a bomb to Austin Riley. I saw where Derrick Goold said in his chat this week that he doesn’t feel like Gallegos and Reyes are overused given how often they go without pitching when the Cardinals aren’t winning and there’s a good point there. However, Gallegos is on pace for more innings than he’s ever thrown and that’s not counting coming off the abbreviated 2020. I wouldn’t be surprised if a little fatigue sets in on both of these guys down the stretch, especially if with the softer schedule they get turned to often with leads….Justin Miller did walk in the fourth run, which of course wasn’t charged to him and didn’t show in the discussion above, but he got the last out to end the nightmare….two hits each for Paul Goldschmidt and Tyler O’Neill. In fact, six of the eight hits for the Cardinals came from 2-5 in the lineup and two of the RBI came from there, but it just wasn’t quite synced up enough for a big night.
+Friday (4-2 win vs. Kansas City)
+Hero: Tyler O’Neill. 4-4 with a double, a home run, two runs, and an RBI. That’ll help the cause right there.
+Goat: Tommy Edman. The attempt to lead him off reaches 0-12 and two strikeouts in this 0-4.
+Notes: Another classic Adam Wainwright outing as he went seven innings and gave up two runs, working out of occasional trouble to keep the Cards in the lead….with Giovanny Gallegos off limits, T.J. McFarland took the eighth and did a great job, then Alex Reyes went back out there for the ninth and had a 1-2-3 inning. Mike Shildt loves to get players back up on that horse….Paul Goldschmidt with two hits, including a home run….10 strikeouts for Cardinal batters, which stands out as they’ve been pretty good about keeping it under double digits it feels like.
+Saturday (5-2 win vs. Kansas City)
+Hero: Luis Garcia. In his biggest opportunity yet, protecting a one run lead in the middle innings, Garcia struck out three, allowed no runs in two innings, and picked up the win to boot.
+Goat: Tyler O’Neill. The pendulum came back sharply on O’Neill as he went 0-4 with three strikeouts and didn’t look good at all at the plate.
+Notes: The bottom of the lineup did most of the damage as Paul DeJong and Tommy Edman both had two hits, with DeJong adding a walk and scoring two runs….Nolan Arenado hit his 22nd home run….it looks like a line drive in the boxscore, as the saying goes, but Yadier Molina’s one hit was a bloop that got lost in the sun but accounted for two runs….Ryan Helsley started an inning and didn’t blow up, which was a nice change….Giovanny Gallegos got back on track with a scoreless inning that netted him his second save.
+Sunday (6-5 loss vs. Kansas City)
+Hero: Dylan Carlson. He led off the bottom of the first with a home run and chipped in another hit and RBI later on.
+Goat: Jon Lester. It was a better start than last time, but it got away from him as he allowed five runs in 2.1 innings after starting the game with three scoreless.
+Notes: Sending Alex Reyes back out there after a two hour rain delay was not the move I would have made, but I don’t necessarily think that made the difference in the ballgame. It was runners at second and third after Paul Goldschmidt’s throwing error before the delay, so it would have been difficult for anyone to work out of that unscathed. Still, how much did Reyes have to throw to stay loose? I imagine it won’t matter since yesterday was the off day but that’s just more wear on the arm….nice to see a rally, even if it was against a lesser bullpen. Finally the Cards got some value out of Greg Holland….two hits each from the first three batters in the lineup and all five of the RBI came from there. More of that and the offense won’t cause quite as much heartburn.
+Barnacles are one of the most successful groups of crustaceans that
+occur from the tropics to the poles, and from the intertidal to deep sea
+environments (Fertl
+and Newman 2009). At first glance, they seem to lack any resemblance to other
+familiar forms of crustaceans but a closer look on the barnacles reveals their crustacean
+affinities. Although they have been mistaken as birds’ eggs and molluscs by
+early naturalists, their true nature as crustaceans has been deciphered since
+1829 (Anderson
+1994). The barnacle was later aptly described by Louis Agassiz as a “shrimp-like
+animal, standing on its head in a limestone house and kicking food into its
+mouth” (Rainbow
+2011).
+The barnacles are classified within the subclass Cirripedia and
+they differ from other crustaceans by being sessile and attached to substrates
+as adults (Darwin
+1851). Thoracicans are the most common cirripedes and they are divided
+into the acorn barnacles (Sessilia) and stalked barnacles (Pedunculata) (Harris et al.
+2000). Most balanomorphan sessile barnacles are found on non-living
+substrates such as rocks and artificial structures, but some are epizoic
+species that attach to plants and animals (Pérez-Losada et al. 2014).
+Amphibalanus amphitrite (=Balanus amphitrite) (Pitombo 2004; Carlton
+and Newman 2009), is an intertidal barnacle that has been extensively
+used as a model organism for the study of intertidal ecology and larval
+settlement due to their well-known fouling properties (De Gregoris et al. 2011).
+Coronula diadema (Linnaeus 1767), on the other hand, is a widely studied
+epizoic sessile barnacle that occurs only on cetaceans (Hayashi 2012). Although all
+sessile barnacles share a common bauplan, the obligate epibionts have evolved
+some structural and functional modifications to allow them to adapt to their
+mode of life (Anderson
+1994). The distinct characters between a conventional intertidal and an
+obligate epibiotic barnacle will thus be compared using these two
+representative species found within the Coral Sea.
+The externally visible structures of a sessile barnacle include the
+shell and the operculum which together form a receptacle that encloses the body
+of the animal (Figure 1) (Darwin 1854). The shell includes a membranous or calcareous
+basis that cements onto the substratum, and the compartments (i.e. wall plates)
+that can either be 8, 6, or 4 in number or in some cases, all fused together into
+one piece (Pérez-Losada
+et al. 2014).
+The plate at the posterior end is called the carina whereas the opposite
+plate is called the rostrum (Figure 2) (Darwin 1854). The ones at the sides are
+the lateral plates with the pair located closest to the rostrum referred to as
+the rostro-laterals, and the pair located closest to the carina referred to as
+the carino-laterals (Darwin 1854). Each plate is made up of a paries (i.e.
+wall of the plate) with alae or radii lining the edges. The ala is the side of
+the plate that is overlapped by the radius of the adjoining plate (Figure 1) (Darwin 1854).
+The operculum sits in the opening of the shell and it is attached
+to the shell via an opercular membrane (Darwin 1854). It consists of the left and
+right opercular valves with each valve consisting of a scutum at the
+rostral-end and a tergum at the carinal-end, that works together as a
+functional unit (Figure 2) (Darwin 1854). The cirri which is encompassed within
+the shell can protrude out into the water column to filter feed when the
+opercular valves are open but when the valves are closed, the shell becomes
+watertight which prevents desiccation when the animal is exposed at low tides
+and protects the animal from predators (Crisp and Bourget 1985).
+Amphibalanus amphitrite
+A. amphitrite has a calcareous basis and its cone-shaped
+shell is made up of 6 smooth wall plates (Darwin 1854). This is because the
+rostro-laterals have fused with the rostrum forming a single plate (Figure 3).
+The shell of this barnacle can either be steep or depressed and the orifice can
+range from being diamond-shaped to rounded-trigonal in shape (Figure 4A). This
+barnacle is generally white or light grey in colour with purple or
+pinkish-brown longitudinal stripes that can either be at equal distances from
+one another or arranged in a way that leaves large white spaces between the
+stripes (Darwin
+1854). A. amphitrite is small, and it usually grows up to about
+1cm in height and 2cm in width (Newman and Abbott 1980). It is, however, often
+mistaken with A. reticulatus as they both show very similar longitudinal
+stripes, but unlike the former species (Newman and Abbott 1980), the latter one
+has a net-like appearance as it also has transverse stripes that crosses the
+longitudinal stripes (Figure 4).
+Coronula diadema
+The crown-shaped shell of C. diadema also consists
+of the same 6 wall plates (Hayashi 2011). It has transverse ridges on the
+surface of its plates, especially at the lower portion, and spaced out groups of
+raised, convex longitudinal ribs (Figure 5) (Darwin 1854). The orifice of
+this barnacle is hexagonal in shape and it is larger than the membranous basis (Hayashi 2011).
+The scuta are located at the rostral end but the terga are either absent or
+rudimentary (Darwin
+1854). Due to constant submersion in water unlike the intertidal
+barnacles, the operculum has become reduced as it does not need to shut them
+tightly for desiccation prevention (Hayashi et al. 2013). This barnacle can grow
+up to about 6cm in height and 8.5cm wide (Newman and Abbott 1980).
+A. amphitrite is most widely found in the intertidal zone
+of coastal habitats but it can also occur down to a depth of 18m in estuarine
+and bay environments (Newman and Abbott 1980). It generally attaches to
+hard substrates such as rocks, mangroves, shells, and various man-made
+structures (e.g. ship hulls, jetty pilings, sea walls) (Kim et al. 2019). Albeit
+rare and unusual, A. amphitrite can sometimes be an epibiont and it has recently
+been reported for the first time to occur on a few American crocodiles (Crocodylus
+acutus) in Mexico (Quijano-Scheggia et al. 2012).
+C. diadema is most commonly associated with the humpback
+whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) and it can be found attached to the
+head, ventral pleates, flippers, genital slits and the tail of almost all
+humpbacks (Fertl
+and Newman 2009; Hayashi 2011). However, it has also been found on blue
+whales (Balaenoptera musculus), fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus),
+right whales (Eubalaena australis and Eubalaena glacialis), sperm
+whales (Physeter macrocephalus), and northern bottlenose whales (Hyperoodon
+ampullatus) (Hayashi 2012).
+Amphibalanus amphitrite: Zonation
+The zonation pattern of intertidal organisms at the jetty pilings
+of Dunwich has been previously described by Eertman and Hailstone (1988). In
+their study, A. amphitrite were mostly found in the supralittoral fringe
+and upper midlittoral zone while various gastropod species (limpets,
+conniwinks, clusterwinks, whelks) and chitons were found from the midlittoral
+zone to the infralittoral fringe. Hairy mussels were the bottommost species and
+rock oysters were found covering the entire pile surface (Eertman and
+Hailstone 1988). These patterns were thought to be shaped by the
+physicochemical conditions (e.g. light, temperature, wave action) at that
+region although biotic pressures such as interspecific competition for space
+and predation by predatory gastropods such as whelks may also play a role in the
+distribution of those species (Tomanek 2002; Fairweather 1988).
+C. diadema- Symbiosis
+C. diadema are barnacles that form a symbiosis with cetaceans,
+particularly the humpback whales (Fertl and Newman 2009). Although they are sometimes
+referred to as ectoparasites (Hermosilla et al. 2015), they are commensal as
+they do not obtain any nutrients from their host nor do they appear to harm
+them (Félix
+et al. 2006). That said, they attach to the whales by gripping tightly
+onto their epidermis (Newman and Abbott 1980; Anderson 1994) and thus
+severe infestations by these barnacles may result in irritations of host skin (Carwardine 2020).
+They hold on so firmly that pitted scars are generally left on the skin of the
+host after the barnacles are shed or removed from it (Hermosilla et al. 2015).
+Although C. diadema do not feed on whales, they benefit by getting
+a free ride on these hosts as they filter feed on the plankton in the water
+column (Carwardine
+2020). As the humpback whales swim from a plankton-laden patch to
+another for feeding, these epibiotic barnacles that travel with them are exploiting
+those patches for feeding as well (Newman and Abbott 1980). Predator avoidance is another
+benefit conferred upon those barnacles as whales are not often attacked by
+predators (Ford
+and Reeves 2008). Nonetheless, living on a nektonic animal probably also
+makes them a difficult target to be preyed upon by potential predators.
+The swimming efficiency of humpback whales can be impacted by heavy
+infestations of C. diadema (Carwardine 2020). Interestingly, a humpback whale can
+have as much as 450kg of Coronula barnacles attached on them (Newman and Abbott
+1980). These sessile barnacles often become the substrate for various
+stalked barnacles which further affects the hydrodynamics of the whales (Newman and Abbott
+1980; Félix et al. 2006). However, whales can remove some of
+these barnacles from their body through intensive breaching and by repeatedly
+slapping their flippers and tail at the surface of water (Félix et al.
+2006). These sessile barnacles can also benefit the humpback whales as
+they are often used as armours or weapons (“brass-knuckles”) in male
+competitions and to defend themselves against attacks by their predators such
+as sharks and killer whales (Ford and Reeves 2008).
+As crustaceans, barnacles carry out copulation and internal
+fertilisation but distinct from the others, barnacles are sessile as adults and
+thus cannot move around to seek mates (Kelly and Sanford 2010). Consequently,
+they have evolved extremely long penes, each capable of extending up to eight
+times its body width (Darwin 1854). The penis length, however, is phenotypically
+plastic and barnacles have been found to possess longer penes at lower
+densities (Neufeld
+2011).
+A. amphitrite and C. diadema are both cross-fertilising
+simultaneous hermaphrodites (Callan 1941; De Gregoris et al. 2011). During
+mating, hydraulic pressure is generated to extend the penis of a functional
+male (Neufeld
+and Rankine 2012). The extended penis then moves around and begin to
+search for a functional female starting from the carinal end and slowly moving
+360°
+around its body (Figure 6). When the searching penis touches a ‘female’, it
+penetrates the operculum and seminal fluid is then ejaculated into the mantle
+cavity of the ‘female’ (Anderson 1994).
+Seminal fluid within the mantle cavity of the ‘female’ stimulates
+the release of eggs into the oviducal sacs where fertilisation occurs, and the
+sacs are then moved to each side of the prosoma forming the egg lamellae where
+embryos develop (Anderson 1994). At the end of embryonic development, the
+embryos have developed into nauplii, but they are still held within the egg
+membrane. When hatching occurs, the membrane ruptures and nauplii larvae are
+released into the water column (Anderson 1994).
+The breeding of A. amphitrite is lowest in autumn (April to
+June) and peaks in spring and summer (September to February) (Anderson and
+Egan 1986). Unlike A. amphitrite which breeds all year long, the
+breeding of C. diadema is thought to be synchronised with the breeding
+season of the whales (Newman and Abbott 1980). As whales migrate to warmer
+waters each year for breeding, the increase in temperature causes the adult
+barnacles to die and drop off from the whales and they are then replaced by new
+barnacle recruits (Félix et al. 2006). By releasing their larvae when all
+whales aggregate to mate, the barnacles can also increase their chance of
+settlement as their basibionts (i.e. host substrates) are rather patchy in the
+open ocean (Thiel
+2015).
+The larvae of both A. amphitrite and C. diadema
+released into the water column undergo five moults and develop through six
+planktotrophic naupliar stages before metamorphosing into a single
+lecithotrophic cyprid stage (Anderson and Egan 1986; Thiel 2015). The nauplius,
+however, only starts to feed after stage II (Anderson 1994).
+A nauplius has a pair of antennules, antennae and mandibles that
+are lined by setae and their locomotion is achieved through movements of these
+limbs and beatings of setae (Figure 7). Apart from the antennules, the other
+two pairs of limbs are used to capture and transfer food such as flagellates
+and diatoms to the mouth for ingestion (Anderson 1994).
+The final nauplius then moults into a bivalved cyprid larva which
+then settles and undergo post-settlement metamorphosis into a juvenile (Anderson
+1994). The general form and function of the nauplii remain similar throughout
+the six stages but cyprids are morphologically and functionally different from
+the nauplii (Figure 8). The naupliar stages are generally the dispersal stages
+whereas the cyprid larva is more important in locating a suitable substrate
+for settlement and metamorphosis (Anderson 1994).
+The swimming cyprid larva then settles onto the substrate and walks
+around on its antennules to search for a suitable spot for permanent attachment
+(Anderson 1994). A. amphitrite often settle in places where conspecific
+adults are present as the adults release a protein complex that induces the
+settlement of cyprid (Nogata and Matsumura 2005). For C. diadema,
+however, a cue released from the host tissue induces them to settle on the whale
+epidermis (Nogata
+and Matsumura 2005).
+When a suitable spot is found, cement is secreted from the cement glands
+through the tips of the antennules to adhere the cyprid larva permanently onto
+the substrate (Anderson 1994). Following that, a single highly complex
+post-settlement metamorphosis occurs which rapidly transform the cyprid larva
+into a juvenile barnacle (Anderson 1994).
+During metamorphosis, the epidermis separates from the carapace
+and the muscles of the antennules start to contract which pushes the compound
+eyes and the antennules against the substrate (Maruzzo et al. 2012).
+The body is then raised upwards (i.e. rotates 90°) and the carapace, thorax,
+compound eyes and cuticle of the antennules are then shed off, transforming the
+larva into a bag-shaped juvenile (Figure 9). The shell plates then begin to
+form, and the juvenile eventually takes on the shape of an adult barnacle (Maruzzo et al.
+2012). The juvenile then grows into an adult through several moults, but the
+calcareous shell is not shed during moulting and it gets incrementally larger
+in size overtime (Pérez-Losada et al. 2008)
+The feeding appendages of all cirripedes include six pairs of
+biramous cirri but in both A. amphitrite and C. diadema, cirri I
+to III have been modified into short maxillipeds (Anderson 1994). Therefore, only
+three pairs of the posterior-most cirri (cirri IV to VI) have retained the long
+rami which form the cup-shaped cirral fan that protrude out into the water
+column (Figure 10). The cirral fan functions to capture larger food particles (e.g.
+phytoplankton, zooplankton and meroplanktonic larvae) which are then
+manipulated and transferred to the mouthparts by the maxillipeds in a complex way
+(Video 1) (Crisp
+and Southward 1961). The rhythmic beating of the cirral fan creates a
+water flow through the mantle cavity and smaller food particles (e.g. bacteria)
+that are not caught by the cirral fan can then be captured by the setae of
+cirri I to III and transferred to the mouth for ingestion (Crisp and
+Southward 1961).
+Video 1. This video shows how a barnacle uses its
+cirral fan to feed.
+The alimentary canal of A. amphitrite and C. diadema
+consists of a cuticular-lined foregut, a midgut, and a cuticular-lined hindgut
+(Anderson 1994). Pancreatic glands and midgut caeca are often found attached to
+the anterior region of the midgut (Figure 11) (Anderson 1994). The midgut is also
+lined by a peritrophic membrane which acts as a barrier to protect its
+epithelium from abrasion by food (Eisemann and Binnington 1994).
+Before the food is chewed and swallowed by a barnacle, it gets
+mixed with secretions that are released from suboesophageal and labial glands
+which bind and lubricate the food (Rainbow 1984). After being swallowed, the food passes
+through the foregut but remains relatively unchanged as it enters the midgut
+(Anderson 1994). When food enters the midgut, it gets broken down by digestive
+enzymes that are released from the pancreatic glands (Rainbow 1984). The nutrients
+are then absorbed along the midgut and the at the midgut caeca (Rainbow 1984).
+The indigestible food forms the faecal pellets that are passed to the hindgut
+upon contraction of the posterior midgut and they are then discharged from the
+anus (Anderson 1994).
+Barnacles possess a pair of excretory organs known as the
+maxillary glands that are situated on either side of the foregut (Figure 12) (White and Walker
+1981). These glands open to the outside of the body through pores that
+are found at the base of the second maxillae (Rainbow 1984). Each of those
+glands consists of an end-sac that lies within the haemolymph sinus, an
+efferent duct, and a terminal duct that leads to the outside (Figure 12)
+(Anderson 1994).
+The epithelium of the end-sac filters the haemolymph, leading to
+the formation of primary urine (White and Walker 1981). This primary urine or
+ultrafiltrate is then modified by the end-sac cells and then passed through to
+the efferent duct where it becomes further modified. Proteins within the
+ultrafiltrate are broken down by end-sac cells and those breakdown products are
+then reabsorbed by the efferent duct cells and sent back to the haemolymph (White and Walker
+1981). The efferent duct also functions to store urine as well (like a
+bladder), and contractions of muscles surrounding the efferent duct help to
+expel the urine through the terminal duct to the outside of the body (White and Walker
+1981).
+All barnacles can respire through the whole surface of their body,
+including their cirri and lining of the mantle cavity as these parts are
+well-circulated by haemolymph (Anderson 1994). However, balanomorphs also have
+a pair of highly vascularised branchiae (‘gills’) formed from simple folds of
+the mantle wall to increase the surface area for gas exchange (Figure 13) (Rainbow 1984).
+The rhythmic beating of the cirri creates water flow into the mantle cavity and
+that helps to ventilate the branchiae as well as other surfaces within the
+mantle cavity (Video 2) (Anderson 1994).
+Video 2. Whilst feeding, the beating movements by the
+cirri create water flow into the mantle cavity.
+As an intertidal balanoid, A. amphitrite have a specialised
+adaptation to enable them to survive emersion during low tides (Anderson 1994).
+During low tides, they expel water from their mantle cavity and replace that
+with a bubble of air to facilitate gas exchange between respiratory surfaces
+and the surrounding air (Anderson 1994). A small opening called the micropyle
+is held open to allow for the diffusion of gas to occur (Rainbow 1984). During
+a very hot or windy day, however, the micropyle is closed to prevent
+desiccation and they will then carry out anaerobic respiration until they are
+re-immersed again (Rainbow 1984).
+C. diadema, on the other hand, have the largest
+branchiae of all cirripedes (Cornwall 1924). It probably evolved to meet their high
+oxygen demand as they travel with the whales during their migration across the
+warm tropical oceans (Cornwall 1926). Warm waters generally contain less
+oxygen than cold waters, but increased metabolism associated with higher
+temperatures causes the barnacles to need more oxygen (Cornwall 1926). Thus, the
+large branchiae could have evolved as an adaptation to increase their oxygen
+uptake (Cornwall
+1926).
+The blood (haemolymph) circulation of balanomorph barnacles is
+highly complex and it involves the flow of haemolymph through various sinuses
+and vessels (Rainbow 1984). From the basal vessel, the haemolymph first
+circulates through the mantle and the shell (Burnett 1977). It is then passed
+from all parts of the mantle to the branchiae to ventilate them. Following
+that, the haemolymph enters the body and is supplied to all body parts through a
+distributive circulation (Burnett 1977). In the return or peripheral-collecting
+circulation, the haemolymph then collects in the rostral sinus and finally
+returns to the basal vessel (Figure 14) (Burnett 1977).
+The rostral sinus acts as the functional heart (or ‘blood pump’)
+of the barnacles (Southward 1987). However, it was suggested that the rostral
+muscles are too weak for this pumping action and instead, it is the regular
+contractions of prosomal muscles that drives the circulation (Southward 1987).
+Haemolymph of barnacles is extremely important as it has replaced the use of
+muscles for the extension of opercular valves, cirri, thorax and penis
+(Anderson 1994). Nonetheless, barnacles do possess many muscles that are highly
+crucial such as those that are used for opercular clamp-down (to close the
+operculum) and movements of various body parts (Anderson 1994).
+A. amphitrite is a cosmopolitan species found from tropical
+to warm temperate oceans (De Gregoris et al. 2011). It is thought to
+originate from southwestern Pacific and Indian Oceans, but it has dispersed
+throughout the world through ballast water of ships (Figure 15) (Kim et al.
+2019).
+C. diadema is also found worldwide and it is an
+epipelagic species (Figure 16) (Lozano-Cortés and Londoño-Cruz 2013). Although it is mainly
+found on whales, specimens can be collected at whales’ breeding sites when they
+are shed and washed ashore (Newman and Abbott 1980).
+The first thoracicans were the stalked barnacles and they
+originated in the Early Carboniferous period (~340Ma) (Pérez-Losada et al. 2008).
+These barnacles possess a capitulum in which the body and cirri are held, and a
+peduncle (i.e. stalk) that attaches the capitulum to the substrate (Newman and
+Abbott 1980). The sessile barnacles evolved from stalked barnacles in
+the Upper Jurassic (~161.8Ma) (Pérez-Losada et al. 2014). They have lost
+their peduncle and their capitulum becomes directly attached though a broad
+basis to the substrate (Newman and Abbott 1980). During the evolution, the
+sessile barnacles have also acquired a rigid calcareous shell and it was
+hypothesised that the change from stalked to sessile forms were due to an
+increase in predation pressure (Southward 1987). The lost of peduncle, however,
+happened twice, rendering the Sessilia non-monophyletic (Figure 17) (Pérez-Losada et
+al. 2008).
+Although some suggest that the most speciose Balanomorpha evolved
+after the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event (~65Ma) (Buckeridge 2012), many
+studies suggest that balanomorphs have already appeared in the Lower Cretaceous
+(139.6Ma) (Pérez-Losada
+et al. 2008; Pérez-Losada et al. 2014). By the Paleocene
+(~60.9Ma), most balanomorphans (Chthamaloidea, Tetraclitoidea, Coronuloidea,
+Balanoidea) had already appeared, with the Chthamaloidea being the oldest and
+the Balanoidea being the youngest (Pérez-Losada et al. 2014).
+Coronuloidea is monophyletic and that suggests that the evolution
+of epizoic barnacles that attach on marine vertebrates happened only once (Hayashi et al.
+2013). The evolution of these, however, is not well-studied.
+Nonetheless, molecular studies have confirmed the basal position of Chelonibia
+within Coronuloidea (Hayashi et al. 2013). The relatively older Chelonibia
+species have been found attached on other crustaceans, turtles, sirenians and
+even on mooring ropes and hulls of ships (Frazier and Margaritoulis 1990). Collareta
+et al. (2016) suggested that the Coronulidae (whale barnacles) evolved
+from Chelonibia. They proposed that Chelonibia widened its host
+habits from turtle shells to the callosities of cetaceans in the Pliocene and
+adaptation to this new substrate (whale skin) has led to the evolution and
+radiation of the Coronulidae (Collareta et al. 2016).
+It is important to note that the
+systematic relationships within thoracican barnacles remain unresolved and most
+nodes of a recently constructed thecostracan phylogeny (‘Barnacle Tree of
+Life’) are polytomous (Ewers-Saucedo et al. 2019). Despite that, the
+currently used systematics and taxonomy for A. amphitrite and C.
+diadema are summarised in Figure 18.
+Amphibalanus amphitrite
+There are no conservation efforts being taken to conserve A. amphitrite.
+Instead, efforts are mainly focused on the prevention of their fouling as it is
+a major biofouling species worldwide (Ramsay et al. 2008). This is
+because biofouling on ship hulls can increase drag and lead to higher fuel
+consumption (Ramsay
+et al. 2008).
+Although A. amphitrite is not protected, they are
+threatened by ocean acidification as they have a calcareous shell. McDonald et
+al. (2009) showed that A. amphitrite can increase their
+calcification at lower pH but despite the compensatory calcification, their
+walls are still significantly weaker which makes them more vulnerable to
+predators.
+Plastic pollution can also affect A. amphitrite as plastic
+leachates have been shown to inhibit the settlement of cyprid larvae (Li et al.
+2015). Additionally, nanoplastics can be bioaccumulated inside barnacle
+larvae through to the juvenile form, and they are likely to persist in adult
+barnacles which will impact their growth and reproduction (Bhargava et
+al. 2018).
+Similarly, C. diadema is not being conserved. However, there
+are many conservation efforts to protect cetaceans (Cooke 2018). Thus, the
+barnacles probably also receive protection as their host species are protected.
+As its survival is dependent on its host, threats that may lead to the demise
+of whales (e.g. plastic pollution, anthropogenic noise, overhunting) will
+consequently impact these barnacles (Buckeridge 2012).
+I would like to thank Sandie Degnan, Bernie Degnan, tutors and lab
+staff of BIOL3211 at the University of Queensland for making this project
+possible. Photos of Amphibalanus species used and videos of barnacle
+feeding were all taken by Sandie, Bernie and the tutors. I am also deeply
+grateful for the help with species identification by Andrew Hosie, the curator
+of crustacea and worms from Western Australian Museum.
+Anderson, D.,
+and Egan, E. (1986). Larval development of Balanus amphitrite Darwin and
+Balanus variegatus Darwin (Cirripedia, Balanidae) from New South Wales,
+Australia. Crustaceana 51, 188-207.
+Anderson, D.
+(1994). ‘Barnacles.’ 1st Edn. (Chapman & Hall: London.)
+Bhargava, S.,
+Lee, S.S.C., Ying, L.S.M., Neo, M.L., Lay-Ming Teo, S., and Valiyaveettil, S.
+(2018) Fate of nanoplastics in marine larvae: a case study using barnacles, Amphibalanus
+Amphitrite. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 6, 6932-6940.
+Brusca, R., Moore, W., and Shuster,
+S. (2016). ‘Invertebrates.’ 3rd Edn. (Sinauer Associates Inc.: Sunderland, MA.)
+Buckeridge,
+J. (2012). Opportunism and the resilience of barnacles (Cirripedia: Thoracica) to
+environmental change. Integrative Zoology 7, 137-146.
+Buckeridge,
+J., and Newman,.
+Burnett, B. (1977). Blood
+circulation in the balanomorph barnacle, Megabalanus californicus
+(Pilsbry). Journal of Morphology 153, 299-306.
+Callan, H.
+(1941). Determination of sex in Scalpellum. Nature 148, 258-258.
+Carlton, J.,
+and Newman, W. (2009). Reply to Clare And Høeg 2008. Balanus amphitrite
+Or Amphibalanus amphitrite? A note on barnacle nomenclature. Biofouling
+25, 77-80.
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+M. (2020). ‘Handbook of whales, dolphins and porpoises.’ (Bloomsbury Wildlife:
+London.)
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+Bosselaers, M., and Bianucci, G. (2016). Jumping from turtles to whales: a
+Pliocene fossil record depicts an ancient dispersal of Chelonibia on
+Mysticetes. Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia 122,
+35-44.
+Cooke, J.G.
+2018. ‘Megaptera novaeangliae. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
+2018: e.T13006A50362794.’ Available at. [accessed 27
+May 2020].
+Cornwall, I.
+(1924). Notes on West American whale barnacles. Proceedings of the
+California Academy of Sciences 13, 421-431.
+Cornwall,
+F.G.S. I. (1926). No. 23: Some North Pacific whale barnacles. Contributions
+to Canadian Biology and Fisheries 3, 501-517.
+Crisp, D.,
+and Southward, A. (1961). Different types of cirral activity of barnacles. Philosophical
+Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B 243, 271-307.
+Crisp, D, and
+Bourget, E. (1985). Growth in barnacles. Advances in Marine Biology 22,
+199-244.
+Darwin, C.
+(1851). ‘A monograph on the sub-class Cirripedia.’ (Ray Society Pubications:
+London.)
+Darwin, C.
+(1854). ‘A monograph on the sub-class cirripedia.’ (Ray Society Publications: New
+York.)
+De Gregoris,
+T., Rupp, O., Klages, S., Knaust, F., Bekel, T., Kube, M., Burgess, J., Arnone,
+M., Goesmann, A., Reinhardt, R., and Clare, A. (2011). Deep sequencing of
+naupliar-, cyprid- and adult-specific normalised expressed sequence tag (EST) libraries
+of the acorn barnacle Balanus amphitrite. Biofouling 27, 367-374.
+Eertman, R.,
+and Hailstone, T. (1988). Zonation of intertidal epifauna on jetty piles in
+Moreton Bay, Queensland. Journal of the Malacological Society of Australia
+9, 11-18.
+Eisemann, C.,
+and Binnington, K. (1994). The peritrophic membrane: its formation, structure,
+chemical composition and permeability in relation to vaccination against
+ectoparasitic arthropods. International Journal for Parasitology 24,
+15-26.
+Ewers-Saucedo,
+C., Owen, C., Pérez-Losada, M., Høeg, J., Glenner, H., Chan, B., and Crandall,
+K. (2019). Towards a Barnacle Tree of Life: integrating diverse phylogenetic
+efforts into a comprehensive hypothesis of thecostracan evolution. PeerJ
+7 e7387.
+Fairweather,
+P. (1988). Correlations of predatory whelks with intertidal prey at several
+scales of space and time. Marine Ecology Progress Series 45, 237-243.
+Félix, F.,
+Bearson, B., and Falconí, J. (2006). Epizoic barnacles removed from the skin of
+a humpback whale after a period of intense surface activity. Marine Mammal
+Science 22, 979-984.
+Fertl, D.,
+and Newman, W.A. (2009). Barnacles. In ‘Encyclopedia of marine mammals’. (Eds
+W. Perrin, B. Würsig, and J. Thewissen.) pp. 75-77. (Academic: London, UK.)
+Ford, J.,
+and Reeves, R. (2008). Fight or flight: antipredator strategies of baleen
+whales. Mammal Review 38, 50-86.
+GBIF (2019). ‘Amphibalanus amphitrite
+Darwin, 1854 in GBIF Secretariat. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy.’ Available at [accessed 28 May 2020].
+GBIF (2019). ‘Coronula diadema
+(Linnaeus, 1767) in GBIF Secretariat. GBIF Backbone
+Taxonomy.’ Available at [accessed
+28 May 2020].
+Frazier, J.,
+and Margaritoulis, D. (1990). The occurrence of the barnacle, Chelonibia
+patula (Ranzani, 1818), on an inanimate substratum (Cirripedia, Thoracica).
+Crustaceana 59, 213-218.
+Harris, D.
+J., Maxson, L., Braithwaite, L., and Crandall, K. (2000). Phylogeny of the
+thoracican barnacles based on 18s rDNA sequences. Journal of Crustacean
+Biology 20, 393-398.
+Hayashi, R.
+(2011). Atlas of the barnacles on marine vertebrates in japanese waters
+including taxonomic review of superfamily Coronuloidea (Cirripedia: Thoracica).
+Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 92,
+107-127.
+Hayashi, R.
+(2012). A checklist of turtle and whale barnacles (Cirripedia: Thoracica:
+Coronuloidea). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United
+Kingdom 93, 143-182.
+Hayashi, R.,
+Chan, B., Simon-Blecher, N., Watanabe, H., Guy-Haim, T., Yonezawa, T., Levy, Y.,
+Shuto, T., and Achituv, Y. (2013). Phylogenetic position and evolutionary
+history of the turtle and whale barnacles (Cirripedia: Balanomorpha:
+Coronuloidea). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 67, 9-14.
+Hermosilla,
+C., Silva, L., Prieto, R., Kleinertz, S., Taubert, A., and Silva,.
+Kelly, M.,
+and Sanford, E. (2010). The evolution of mating systems in barnacles. Journal
+of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 392, 37-45.
+Kim, J., Kim,
+H., Kim, H., Chan, B., Kang, S., and Kim, W. (2019). Draft genome assembly of a
+fouling barnacle, Amphibalanus amphitrite (Darwin, 1854): the first
+reference genome for Thecostraca. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 7,
+e00465.
+Li, H.,
+Getzinger, G., Ferguson, P., Orihuela, B., Zhu, M., and Rittschof, D. (2015). Effects
+of toxic leachate from commercial plastics on larval survival and settlement of
+the barnacle Amphibalanus amphitrite. Environmental Science & Technology
+50, 924-931.
+Linnaeus, C. (1767). ‘Systema
+naturae.’ (Cramer, Weinheim.)
+Lozano-Cortés,
+D., and Londoño-Cruz, E. (2013). Checklist of barnacles (Crustacea; Cirripedia:
+Thoracica) from the Colombian Pacific. Marine Biodiversity 43, 463-471.
+Maruzzo, D.,
+Aldred, N., Clare, A., and Høeg, J. (2012). Metamorphosis in the cirripede
+crustacean Balanus amphitrite. PLoS ONE 7, e37408.
+McDonald, M.,
+McClintock, J., Amsler, C., Rittschof, D., Angus, R., Orihuela, B., and Lutostanski,
+K. (2009). Effects of ocean acidification over the life history of the barnacle
+Amphibalanus amphitrite. Marine Ecology Progress Series 385,
+179-187.
+Neufeld, C.
+(2011). Modular phenotypic plasticity: divergent responses of barnacle penis
+and feeding leg form to variation in density and wave-exposure. Journal of
+Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution 316B,
+254-262.
+Neufeld, C.,
+and Rankine, C. (2012). Cuticle and muscle variation underlying phenotypic
+plasticity in barnacle feeding leg and penis form. Invertebrate Biology 131,
+96-109.
+Newman,
+W.A., and Abbott, D.P. (1980). Cirripedia: the barnacle. In ‘Intertidal
+invertebrates of California’. (Eds R. Morris, D. Abbott, and E. Haderlie.) pp.
+504-534. (Stanford University Press: Stanford, California.)
+Nogata, Y.,
+and Matsumura, K. (2005). Larval development and settlement of a whale barnacle.
+Biology Letters 2, 92-93.
+Pérez-Losada,
+M., Harp, M., Høeg, J., Achituv, Y., Jones, D., Watanabe, H., and Crandall, K.
+(2008). The tempo and mode of barnacle evolution. Molecular Phylogenetics
+and Evolution 46, 328-346.
+Pérez-Losada,
+M., Høeg, J., Simon-Blecher, N., Achituv, Y., Jones, D., and Crandall, K.
+(2014). Molecular phylogeny, systematics and morphological evolution of the
+acorn barnacles (Thoracica: Sessilia: Balanomorpha). Molecular Phylogenetics
+and Evolution 81, 147-158.
+Petrunina,
+A., Neretina, T., Mugue, N., and Kolbasov, G. (2013). Tantulocarida Versus
+Thecostraca: inside or outside? First attempts to resolve phylogenetic position
+of tantulocarida using gene sequences. Journal of Zoological Systematics and
+Evolutionary Research 52, 100-108.
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+(2004). Phylogenetic analysis of the Balanidae (Cirripedia, Balanomorpha). Zoologica
+Scripta 33, 261-276.
+Quijano-Scheggia,
+S., Reyes-Herrera, E., Gaviño-Rodríguez, J., García-García, M., and Escobedo-Galván,
+A. (2012). Occurrence of Amphibalanus amphitrite (Darwin, 1854)
+(Cirripedia, Balanidae) on Crocodylus acutus (Reptilia, Crocodylia)
+in Colima, Mexico. Crustaceana 85, 1145-1148.
+Rainbow, P.
+(1984). An introduction to the biology of British littoral barnacles. Field
+Studies 6, 1-51.
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+(2011). Charles Darwin and marine biology. Marine Ecology 32, 130-134.
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+mechanics of the barnacle Balanus amphitrite (=Amphibalanus
+Amphitrite). Biofouling 24, 109-118.
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+(1987). ‘Barnacle biology.’ (A. A. Balkema Publishers: Rotterdam.)
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+concepts. Integrative and Comparative Biology 42, 771-775.
+White, K.,
+and Walker, G. (1981). The barnacle excretory organ. Journal of the Marine
+Biological Association of the United Kingdom 61, 529-547.
+Music….
+Music by Bweinh! — Incorruptible.”.
+Bweinh! Soundtrack — Sara Groves
+Every weekend, a different Bweinh!tributor will discuss a song or songwriter that inspires or interests them. Read the first nine soundtrack entries here.
+The Other Side of Something
+Sara Groves is one of my all-time favorite singers; she’s an excellent singer and lyricist. Her lyrics are simple, yet in places provocatively deep. She writes about fights with her husband, funny songs with her kids, then hits you with amazing rewrites of old hymns. And she sings of freedom — one of my favorite subjects — and about getting stuck and unstuck and the processes involved, in case you need more than a placebo in your current walk. She’s brutally honest in her self-assessments at times; maybe that’s why she’s found the freedom that she has.
+I was introduced to her at, of all places, a dear, dear friend’s funeral — Tim Grant. One of his daughters shared a story that day of how he had driven out to Rochester a few weeks earlier to bring her Sara’s Conversations CD because of how much it had affected him. He even kept calling her, all the way back to Watertown, to see what she thought of it. Even with that testimonial she was not overly impressed, although it did grow on her a bit.
+When circumstances turned out as they did, she felt it was something we all should hear. So she played it. I loved it and looked for it right away. This was early winter, and when I relayed the story at Christmas, my sister-in-law mentioned that Sara actually attends their (mega)church! She told us how she was a school teacher, how “Conversations” came out of her many talks with a fellow teacher, and how she’d made the decision to quit teaching for a Christian recording career just recently. I felt so connected! First because of Tim, then because of Don and Jan actually going to church with her.
+The CD I chose to talk about here was her fourth, “The Other Side of Something.” I believe it was birthed out of her deliverance experiences — either personal or ministerial. This is another connection because my husband and I work in this ministry in our church. I recognized her revelatory tone in “The One Thing I Know.” I know what she’s talking about when she says, “The clouds just parted, on a corner of my life, and I can see for miles. And the things I was stuck on, the things I thought would never change, they just broke open wide.” When God healed my fear, I had no idea where it went, I just knew it was gone. And with this song, she manages to connect even more with me, making her feel like an old friend I haven’t met yet.
+The last thing I really like about her style is that she’s really in the Word. She sings about real characters and places, exploring and comparing her struggles with Jeremiah and Job, finding both strength and camaraderie with her brothers. Sometimes we think of our struggles as unique to today, and of the Bible as just stories, but she sees the Scripture as real-life practical help. It gives her hope and strength, which she in turn shares with us. And when she gets to heaven she’s going looking for Job, because she’s got some questions for him — like he’s an old friend, along the lines of Rich Mullins or Tim Grant perhaps? I love it. I just love it.
+If you haven’t listened to this CD, give it a listen; I even have an extra copy if you need it.
+And thanks for the tip, Tim. I miss you, friend.
+Bweinh! Soundtrack — Barenaked Ladies
+Every weekend, a different Bweinh!tributor will discuss a song or songwriter that inspires or interests them. Read the first eight soundtrack entries here.
+I’ll admit it. I was introduced to the music of the Barenaked Ladies by that New York lotto commercial where average people (just like you and me!) sing about what they’d do if they had a million dollars. Buying cars, houses, and just being rich. At the time, my father had the largest music collection of anyone I knew, and he was very familiar with the group that had written and performed the song originally. He introduced me to the full version, which was not only about cars and houses but also about Kraft dinner and pre-wrapped sausages.
+From that first listen, I was hooked. Sure, the version in the commercial was nice to listen to, but the things that average, boring people were singing their hearts out about buying with their winnings were average, boring things. The full version was much more fun, and told a story about the potential use of vast amounts of wealth that I could relate to during my youth, namely squandering it on “the fanciest Dijon ketchups.” It even had a pun in it.
+In a broader sense, I suppose that’s why BNL is near the top of my list of preferred artists. Their music isn’t so dense and esoteric that I can’t relate to it, but it also still sounds as though the group actually enjoys writing and singing it. In a word, it’s fun. (The full text of this article was originally going to be one sentence about how much fun BNL is, but we in the stable of Bweinh!tributors are paid by the word, or so I’m told.) Sure, some of their music slithers its way into Lotto and car commercials, but it still doesn’t sound anything like another boy band trying to churn out another hit single about how its collective girlfriend left forever to be with someone new. Sniff, sniff.
+For one quick example, take “Be My Yoko Ono.” In the words of Wikipedia, “in the song the narrator explains that he would be willing to give up everything to be with the person he loves by comparing their relationship to the one between Yoko Ono and John Lennon.” Certainly unique, and enjoyable enough to merit a listen. Barenaked Ladies: still one of the best things ever to come out of Canada.
+Bweinh! Soundtrack — Aaron Sprinkle
+Every weekend, a different Bweinh!tributor will discuss a song or songwriter that inspires or interests them. Read the first seven soundtrack entries here.
+I still remember the day during my freshman year that one of my roommates, Erin, burst into the room giggling with a CD in her hand. “Look, look at this guy’s name!” Robin (my other roommate) and I examined the CD. It was Lackluster by Aaron Sprinkle, and it had a big brown fish on its powder blue cover.
+“Sprinkle?” I said. “That’s unfortunate. You would think he would change his name to sell more records.”
+Erin giggled some more and nodded. “It was only five dollars at the Campus Store, so I had to get it.” She put the CD in, placing it in the annals of roomie history and forever cementing in our hearts a love for Aaron Sprinkle. This man with a ridiculous name was good. He reminded me of Elliott Smith, minus the emo lyrics and eventual suicide. Sprinkle is happy, and even “Colorblind” (a song to an ex-girlfriend who left him, took everything and ruined his reputation) features a friendly harmonica and an upbeat tempo.
+My roommates and I fell in love with him. On the first night of snow, which both Robin and Erin considered my first real snow, Erin turned on “Sweeter than Me,” a soft, meandering song about an elderly woman losing her mind. It was a perfect first snow, staring out the window with two dear friends and listening to “You’re much sweeter than me by far:” Perhaps what was even better about Aaron Sprinkle was that he was the only artist we were aware of who would sing a song about someone suffering with Alzheimer’s.
+We later learned that Sprinkle, currently employed with Tooth and Nail Records as a record producer, not only sang and played guitar for his album, but also did much of the bass, keyboards, programming, percussion, mixing and production.
+Talented doesn’t quite seem to capture him.
+Bweinh! Soundtrack — Michael Card
+Every weekend, a different Bweinh!tributor will discuss a song or songwriter that inspires or interests them. Read the first six soundtrack entries here.
+Those of you who know me well know that I like music that sounds authentic. It could be almost any genre, as long as it feels pure and grounded somehow. I also like a clever turn of a phrase, and informed, nuanced lyrics.
+So it may be somewhat surprising that I hadn’t really listened to Michael Card before I won a cassette tape copy of his “Poiema” album from a radio show at Houghton. If I’m not mistaken, the show was hosted by Bweinh!’s very own Josh Jones and his roommate, Hubie Hostetter. (If I’m mistaken, guys, I’m sorry–it’s been 8-9 yrs.)
+I fell in love right away. Now I own a lot of Card’s music, and still have a lot more to collect. Of all his work, I’ve grown to like his album with John Michael Talbot, “Brother to Brother,” the best. Here, the two perform duets of the songs that each wrote independently. Card took quite a hit in the evangelical community for this album; many canceled concerts and wrote harsh letters decrying him as one who compromised and sold out. But for Card, it was a chance to work with a musical hero as well as someone he admired in the faith. The step looks downright prophetic today, as evangelicals and Catholics continue to discover areas of common concern and ministry while still maintaining sharp differences.
+My favorite Michael Card song is “In the Wilderness.” It is a meditation on how God calls his children to “wilderness times”–painful times in our lives that we cannot understand. But he believes that God calls us to those wilderness times to shape us and change us more radically than any other way can.
+It is reminiscent of the idea of the “Dark Night of the Soul,” as St. John of the Cross put it: we are given times of suffering in order that we might learn to love God and not merely the things God gives us. God is so good at giving gifts that we often fall in love with the gifts and forget the Giver. When the gifts are removed, only the Giver remains and we are thus trained to love the Giver more completely and fully.
+Bweinh! Soundtrack — Rich Mullins
+Every weekend, a different Bweinh!tributor will discuss a song or songwriter that inspires or interests them. Read the first five soundtrack entries here.
+The Day The Music Came Alive Again
+It was the mid-’90s. Michael W. Smith had wimped out on national TV, doing everything he could to avoid being seen as a Christian artist. Amy Grant whined in a Good Housekeeping interview about missing all the good parties in college because she was a Christian (this was before she dumped her husband for a country singer). Dion DiMucci followed Bob Dylan’s lead and returned to secular music, Michael English had an affair with the girl from First Call, and Sandy Patty took up with her backup singer. I wasn’t yet mature enough to view these as fallen soldiers on the front lines, so I just despised them all, and called them “Temporary Christian Artists.”
+So I turned off the radio, I put away the tapes, and the music died.
+All that survived was my wife’s music, which consisted mainly of a whiny guy named Rich Mullins whose tapes droned on endlessly whenever we got in the car. She played it too low for me to hear well, so I just endured it — until one day when I heard the end of Jacob and Two Women and asked my daughter, “What the heck is he talking about? Who stole the moon and must be made to pay for it?”
+“I don’t know,” she replied.
+“And her friends say ‘My, that’s tragic,’ and she says…’Especially for him…’?”
+“Especially for the moon…” My 8-year-old daughter corrected me.
+“Oh… especially for the moon. And that’s the world as best as I can remember it? What is with this music your mom lets you listen to?”
+She just stared back at me.
+She didn’t have any answers either, but together Rachel, Philip and I set out to figure out what that song was about. We never did find out, but we found Rich Mullins, and music meant something to me again. At first it was the beauty of The River, by far the loveliest piece of music I had ever heard. Then it was Jacob and Two Women and Boy Like Me/Man Like You. I was hooked.
+And the more I read, the more I found out about Rich himself. He lived what he preached and sang. He never saw his large royalty checks; they went to an independent ministry that paid him only what the average guy in America was making. He sang barefoot in work shirts and blue jeans. He started a group called Kid Brothers of St. Frank, named after Francis of Assisi, where they took an oath of poverty, chastity and the third thing that always goes with those — they lived their faith.
+He singlehandedly ended my self-imposed exile from music and gave me back something I had loved and lost.
+Bweinh! Soundtrack — Keith Green.
+Bweinh! Soundtrack — Crash Test Dummies
+Every weekend, a different Bweinh!tributor will discuss a song or songwriter that inspires or interests them. Read the first three soundtrack entries here, here, and here.
+Growing up, my parents discouraged listening to secular music, concerned about the influence of the negative themes so prevalent in the genre. There wasn’t any radio play in our house, and I didn’t own my first album until I was sixteen. That was the year my best friend lived with us, and he convinced my brother and me that the three of us should join Columbia House together. We could each get three free albums up front, and then each be on the hook for one additional album in the future.
+I knew next to nothing about music at the time, and simply picked groups that produced one song I remembered liking. Through this blind dart throwing, I ended up with a cassette that would help shape my taste in musical style, vocal quality, and lyrical ingenuity. In fact, I ended up with one of the best albums you’ve probably never heard — God Shuffled His Feet by the Crash Test Dummies.
+You may remember their one hit, “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm.” At the time, this song led me to believe that, if nothing else, they were a safe choice with no swearing or explicit content. And there was just something about them that caught my interest.
+Their lead singer has an incredibly unique voice, so unusually deep that a few years later Steve theorized that perhaps the reason they never had another hit was that he had died of lung cancer. Although there was lyrical support for this theory (“How come I just smoke and smoke and smoke, and curse every butt I spit out?” ; “I’ve had my lungs checked out with X-rays” ; “Maybe I can change the test results that I will get back”), it was decidedly untrue. His voice was unlike anything else I’d heard, captivating, resonating, and decidedly non-pop.
+The music relies heavily on acoustic guitar and piano (two of my favorites), and alternates between haunting and happy, with a sound all its own. But what sets the album apart the most are the lyrics. Sometimes they were just plain goofy, but ultimately, this was an album that made me think, that made me question. They covered everything from the pretentiousness of art (“Which should be my favorite paintings?”) to unexpectedly running into an ex (“Like catching a sniff of tequila in the morning, but I’ll try — try to keep my food down”) to psychics (“Would she keep it secret if death stood before me?”).
+While they’re clearly not a Christian band, several lyrics suggest a level of Biblical knowledge. My favorite example is the title track, a twist on the creation story. While not meant to be consistent with the Biblical account (God creates blankets and sits in the shade having a picnic with his newly created people), there are many other allusions. At one point the people question God: “If your eye got poked out in this life, would it be waiting up in heaven with your wife?” This reminds me of the Pharisees questioning Jesus about a woman who married several brothers who all died, trying to trick Him. In the song, after God answers the question with an unrelated story, the people still don’t understand, asking, “Was that a parable or a very subtle joke?” The band continues this struggle to understand in a more serious vein in other songs with lyrics like, “Why does God cause things like tornadoes and train wrecks?,” and “When everything seems nicely planned out, well the human race will come and smack your face.”
+With this last sentiment I actually couldn’t agree more. We as humans have done a great job messing up the world. Like the Crash Test Dummies, this often leaves me with lots of questions and uncertainty. But this album has also reminded me how glad I am that even when I don’t have all the answers, I know the one who does.
+I know the Truth.
+Bweinh! Soundtrack — Death Cab for Cutie
+Every weekend, a different Bweinh!tributor will discuss a song or songwriter that inspires or interests them. Read the last two soundtrack entries here and here.
+Disclaimer: As a man living in modern American society I can, without taking too many liberties, uninhibitedly offer constructive criticism to the collective members of that elite fraternity.
+The most obvious unifying characteristic among most men in our society is a simple one — insecurity. The kid who drives a truck with tires taller than he is and tailgates minivans on the interstate. The middle-manager who throws over his family for an attractive secretary, showing the world he’s “still got it.” The twentysomething who takes perverse pride in the number of girls he can manipulate into falling for him. The business man who’ll stop at nothing to get his piece, just to stay ahead of the Joneses.
+Take a look at the advertisers paying for any television programming with a largely male audience. Alcohol, a noted social disinhibitor, playing a large role in the happiness of attractive men, with strong hairlines, frolicking with generously-endowed women in sunny locations. Bobs ranging from Dole to Smilin’, and other pillars of virility, announce that you can get the better of your advanced age, questionable exercise regime and poor dietary habits. And historically, cigarettes — a product designed, on first use, to command some measure of respect from others. These are our birthright as American men in our society.
+And this song our anthem.
+A lonely, soothing piano intro begins, coaxing us into the melody. The simple theme repeats, gaining momentum and complexity as the strains pour out of the secondhand speakers we’ll replace with those Bose numbers we’ll save up for after we get a new muffler on the Duster. A pause, then a simple, soft, yet strangely driving beat ushers in lead vocalist Ben Gibbard’s revealing first verse’s lyrics.
+You may tire of me as our December sun is setting
+‘Cause
+As a man young in years, you may not think these words speak to me in particular. But I am also a fellow referred to by many since my 20th year as “Ol’ Tom,” who styled his hair with a Bic in a pointless race with heredity for a time, six times, and half a time. I feel a strong sense of kinship with the song’s imaginary protagonist.
+‘Cause now we say good night from our own separate sides
+Like brothers on a hotel bed
+Some of us run from it, into the welcoming arms of Coors, Corvettes, and Cialis. Some fight it with arduous exercise, wheatgrass shakes, and ginkgo biloba. And some embrace it, as I have. I am a man, not Hollywood and Madison Avenue’s version of one, and I proudly take my place among my fellows.
+Won’t you join me? We’ll all scoot over; I’m sure there’s room for one more.
+Bweinh! Soundtrack — Billy Joe Royal
+Read last week’s soundtrack entry here.
+I grew up along the cherry-blossomed banks of blacktop in our nation’s capital. It was a typical urban upbringing; the ice cream trucks were rigged up with bullet-proof glass and there was always a willing stray dog to feed some of that ice cream. My first home was a brick building in line with an endless row of others just like it, a dirty red river that ran on and on
+into the ocean of the setting sun. The only thing that seemed to differentiate our brick home from the others was that it was a parsonage. This difference only amplified itself as I grew older, till I realized this difference was the most fundamental of them all.
+Besides being a Sunday-schooled lad named “Job” in a decidedly non-Christian environment, I was all city boy. I could swear and moonwalk, I could hear the car that would interrupt our street football game before I could see it, and my mom worried about my four siblings and me to the point that she put us in God’s hands and hoped for the best.
+Despite being so urban our home really only picked up two radio stations — Q107, which played rap and other “edgy” music, and Magic 104, the oldies station. Naturally, we patronized Q107 with extreme prejudice, as the Beastie Boys fought for their right to party and the Sugar Hill Gang decided to bang bang the boogie, say up jumped the boogie to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat. We engaged this music and its culture with reckless, giddy abandon until one of my brothers explained to my parents that “they just didn’t understand” — quoting a young Fresh Prince. This brought a very fast, very sound and very thorough end to our Q107 days. It was announced over a very somber meal that we would no longer be allowed to frequent the most northern end of the dial because it had begun to poison our minds. Although there was much protest, the oldies era was thus ushered in.
+I remember being violently reluctant at first, feeling like I was committing some form of adultery by listening to the Four Tops harmonize, or Sly and the Family Stone jive. But I remember, with equal violence, the day I caved. It was a hot summer day — they all were in Washington; hot, I mean — when Billy Joe Royal banjoed his way onto the airwaves to explain through folk melody the tale of his pained love. Even at my tender age I could sympathize, and immediately, with this man’s alienation, and his high self-esteem in the face of such ridicule.
+People put me down ’cause
+That’s the side of town I was born in
+I love her she loves me but I don’t fit in her society
+Lord have mercy on the boy from down in the boondocks
+There’s something really special about this song. Its mix of sadness and defiance is totally disarming; it musically captures a mood in a manner most other songs could only hope to emulate. The echo of the slide guitar and the fully enunciated southern twang in his voice make you feel like you’re walking in the Bayou at dusk, swatting away mosquitoes and flexing away a hard day’s work, listening to your friend’s woes.
+It’s a perfect song.
+I began listening to Magic 104 just to hear it again and again, and in the interim, soaked up Paul Revere and the Raiders, the Rolling Stones, the Tremeloes, and Simon and Garfunkel, until they too began to fill my conscience with a deeper love for instrumentation and lyrical cohesiveness. It’s been a weird, if somewhat predictable, path since then as I’ve gone on to fall in love with alternative rock and her British Isle-infused melodies and melancholy.
+But I trace the whole journey back to one song that unlocked the gates to an entirely different world, one song, that — whenever I hear it — demands my entire artistic taste fall on bended knee. The hero who broke me free from the shackles of simple beats and inane rhymes and led me into the full, flush garden of real artistic talent.
+Billy Joe Royal, you are that just that to my ears.
+Royalty.
+Bweinh! Soundtrack — Randy Newman.
+Chapter 1 - Creating Your First Course
+There’s no better way to learn than by getting your feet wet, so we’re getting you started building a course right away! In Chapter 1, you’ll learn the basics of your Thinkific Admin dashboard, how to create a course landing page, how to add your course content (and upload everything with our bulk importer), and how to set a course price or payment plan so you can get paid (and make it rain). You will also learn some handy customization tricks, like changing your landing page URL, personalizing your course card, and collecting customer testimonials and reviews for your course. Finally, you get to press the big green button and publish your first course!
+Chapter 2 - Setting Up Your Course Site
+Once you’ve created your courses, it’s time to set up and brand your course site! In Chapter 2, you’ll learn how to make a course site landing page, how to categorize your courses, add additional pages to your course site, and customize the signup form. You can also bring your unique flavor to your course site by branding it (logo and colors oh my!), changing the main site URL, and customizing the navigation bar. We want to make sure your Thinkific site is 100% you.
+Chapter 3 - Marketing Your First Course
+Chapter 3 is all about course marketing. Coming up with marketing strategies might sound intimidating, but Thinkific has all the tools you need to build a successful marketing plan. In this chapter you’ll learn how to use coupons to offer discounts on your courses, create sales widgets to sell your courses, set up affiliates to promote for you, and integrate your system with third party tools. You’ll also learn how to share the wealth (literally) by splitting revenue with other instructors or content creators in your courses.
+Chapter 4 - Managing Your Site’s Users
+Once students are enrolled in your courses, you’ll need to communicate with them efficiently. Chapter 4 teaches you how to manage your site’s users. We’ll show you how to create instructor profiles, view student profiles, enroll new users in your courses, export lists of site users, and send mass and automated emails. You can also be your students’ personal cheerleader by viewing their progress through your courses with progress reports.
+Chapter 5 - Managing Your Site’s Content
+Chapter 5 teaches you how to manage your course site and course content. We’ll show you how to manage the videos in your video library as well as how to view analytics to see how people are interacting with the content. You will also learn how to export quiz and survey answers and handle publication requests from course administrators.
+Chapter 6 - The Thinkific Student Experience
+Your students are the heart and soul of your course, so in this final chapter we’re making sure you understand the ins and outs of the student experience. Learn how students navigate through your course site, how they log in and sign up for your courses, and how they manage their own student accounts. We also show you how your course admins use Thinkific and how they request permission from you to create, edit, and publish courses.
+Did that sound like a lot of information?
+No worries, because we guide you step by step through the entire process until you’re a Thinkific course creation wizard. All that’s left to do now is enroll in this course!
+Ready to Learn?Enroll Now
+Very clear, concise and practical
+Well done! You really know what you are talking about Aaron!
+EXACTLY what I needed!
+Excellent presentation by Aaron. Lots of good information to absorb. I hope you have a great support team to work me through my first online course! Thank you, Bob
+Well done! You really know what you are talking about Aaron! by Aaron. Lots of good information to absorb. I hope you have a great support team to work me through my first online course! Thank you, Bob
+I have been waiting for a site like this. Everything you need to start your course is right at your fingertips. I can't wait to get started and get my first course up and running.
+I'm just considering possible course writing, but this is a very impressive site. It is intuitive and user-friendly and has an amazing array of features. Thanks for the course content. I plan to continue casual exploration and idea forming for a w...
+This site does far more than expected. I am excited to start my first online course. I hope that while i am setting it up that i will be able to go back and look at the videos because it is a lot to take in! Thanks for this. The videos were easy t...
+All the content was well explained. I'm positive it should be a breeze creating my new site.
+Great info and how it covers everything. I love the 2x speed option!
+Brilliant presentation and easy to follow with the lecturer.
+This course covers all aspects of the Thinkific platform. Very informative and a valuable resource for those just getting started.
+AWESOME X1000! Your site, your course, and everything about it is incredible! Thank you so much for all of the hard work, and dedication you have put into building this business/site! You have thought of everything, and I cannot wait to promote Th...
+This platform can do so much... I am so glad I started here before I purchased other tools and a website. The walkthrough was excellent and I am excited about getting started! Well done Thinkific!
+this was extremely helpful to me. I may run through sections of it again to be sure I have what I need, but I learned enough to give me confidence I can do this.
+This was an excellent class. Thank you!
+Easy to follow, explains the technical bits in simple language, which I appreciate.
+This is a great walk through of all the elements required to get started with Thinkific. I'm really looking forward to getting started on my first online course as now I can concentrate on the content and not worry about the techy stuff that sits...
+This course provides very clear and concise explanations about how creating and managing a course works on Thinkific. Obviously, besides introducing all the features, one goal of this course is to demonstrate how clear and straightforward it is to...
+Thank you Greg! Your short course on how to use Thinkific was very comprehensive. In delivering the course you also modeled how new teachers can use the tools Thinkific has. Well done.
+After looking at many different types of content delivery systems, as well as methods to provide students with the best possible experience, Thinkific has created the best of both worlds. Not only that, but the way their staff works with you throu...
+Absolutely loved the quick, in-depth coverage and info. It made me want to dig in and start right away. Outstanding all the way!
+Very thorough and helped me accelerate getting familiar with the platform :)
+Easy to digest and most importantly, easy to understand and apply.
+Greg, this whole idea, website, demos are fantastic. Very user-friendly. I can really do this! Thank you. This is just what I was looking for this morning. To be able to put a starting class out online easily, affordably with straight forward opt...
+I enjoyed the training videos - they were short, easy to view and clear. A great intro to Thinkific and all it can do. I'm buzzing with ideas and I can't wait to get started creating and publishing my courses.
+This platform is really refreshing. After wrestling with another lms that really restricted me on content amount, type, duration, etc with crazy and ridiculous rules, Thinkific is a breath of fresh air! I look forward to using this site for a long...
+Thank you for the course on Features! Will get me off to a great start!
+Thanks for this concise exploration of all the Thinkific features. It is thorough and easy to follow.
+Very informative and easy to follow.
+Let's fire all the bureaucrat teachers and professors. E-learning forever!
+Great introduction to Thinkific! Thanks!
+Clear, felt easy to complete and the simplicity of the program is so compelling I signed up immediately. Cant wait to start using it! Thanks again. Elisabeth Manning, Fertile Living and Conscious Conception
+I enjoyed this course overview. Straightforward and to the point. Looking forward to starting my on-line courses - finally!
+I watched this while still in the Free version moments before making the jump to the paid version. Although I was feeling about 95% sure this was the platform for me (down to thinkific and teachable) -- this thorough walk through sealed the deal. ...
+I found your tutorials to be very clear, concise and helpful. I'm very impressed with your product, thoroughness and customer service thus far. I'm looking forwarding to having Thinkific be part of my business team. Lisa
+This is the outlet i was looking for. Thank you.
+Really enjoyed to feature videos. So glad you emailed me to view them. I should be all set getting things set up with your software. Very well done!
+As a non technical person, it is easy for me to hit bumps in the road when learning to use a new system. I love that this course is set out so step by step and it will be easy to come back and find what I need to know if and when I get stuck. Than...
+I'm a solopreneur getting ready to soft launch my first revenue-generating course. The intro module to using thinkific; the features of this platform are priceless! Thank you, thank you, thank you! :)
+Easy to understand and follow. I enjoy the functionality that allows me to be in control of the content of my course. What really excites me is the ability to develop a personal relationship with my students without restriction.
+A little long but gives you everything you need
+Perfect intro to thinkific which looks great. The course was just how I like them - fast, to the point, well presented and easy to follow. Good work
+Just getting started, but this is great.
+Very helpful in providing the background information needed to use thinkific. Videos are short and to the point which is good.
+Enjoyed the intro course. Videos were detailed but short; walkthroughs were easy to understand and follow; and Greg was credible. I like how animation was used between the modules and this a standard feature for all sites versus a customization.
+I am so thankful for this tutorial. It was very clear and straight to the point. I believe the sky is the limit from here. Thanks Thinkific!
+Well done on the course. Straightforward and easy to understand. Jon
+This course gave me a really quick overview of how Thinkific works. The only thing that I‘m missing so far is the fast forward button within lessons. Sometime this comes really handy while listening to a course/lesson. Especially when you th...
+Creating a course about their own platform is an awesome way to demonstrate the details of what one can do with Thinkific. Now time for me to start building. Appreciated. -Bob O
+Very informative and easy to follow. Thanks very much.
+I've been comparing various websites that offer services similar to this one over the last few days... and the quality (or lack thereof) of training materials in the various sites was beginning to depress me! With these videos I feel fairly confid...
+Thank you, that overview was probably the most to the point, jammed packed yet simple to follow and understand I think I've ever experienced. I'm not overwhelmed and feel very confident about using this platform. Thank you!
+Thanks for the quick run through of all the features. I'll be going back several times to each part of this until I understand more thoroughly, but I appreciate having this resource right off the bat.
+I have been getting quotes from different web developers to build me a website with a course platform. So far my the quotes have come back everywhere from $2000 - 5000. Going through the "How to use Thinkific" Course, I bel...
+i have thought about online teaching for sometime but i have been apprehensive about this for lack of knowledge and often high costs involved. However this system seems really good to me and the support is fantastic the course video really has exp...
+The presentation was easy to follow, simple & straight to the point!
+Hello, This was a great easy review course, gave me some understanding on how everything works. Thanks so much Coach Nye
+Very straight forward with clarity. Much useful information which I intend to return to as I continue. Thanks
+Exactly as it should be--now we'll see how it works as an author!
+When I shop for tech programs, support is on the top of my criteria list. I am just beginning at Thinkific, so these tutorials are helpful and put a good face on your support department! Thank you!
+I thank you team thinkific .. this was something i was looking for my online school. Loved your site features. This course gave me a quick overview explained in a very easy to understand way.
+I really enjoyed the course. It provides an excellent overview and is a good reminder of the great capabilities offered by Thinkific. Fast-paced and to the point. Very useful...well done, Greg.
+I really enjoyed working through the series of short videos that demonstrate all the great features of thinkific.
+Excellent overview of the system - seeing how to build it as well as what the experience of a student is - nice!
+This course is great if you're just getting started or if you've been wondering about some of their various features. I learned a lot, it was set up well and I'm now more confident in course creation. I definitely recommend this course!
+Greg grabs you by the hand and pulls you through the vortex in to his world of the Thinkific Dashboard. The possibilities seem limitless and I can't wait to get in to even more of the details!
+This is such a great introduction to Thinkific and all of its features. I am not technically savvy person and I understood the basics! Thanks Greg
+>.
+- SC.edu
+- About
+- Our Leadership
+- President Harris Pastides
+- Speeches, Remarks and Editorials
+- Remarks to the House Ways & Means Higher Education Sub-Committee
+Remarks to the House Ways & Means Higher Education Sub-Committee
+January 23, 2018
+Good afternoon Chairman Cole, Ms. Cobb-Hunter, Mr. Finlay, and Mr. Sottile. I also extend my greetings to all members who have joined us here this afternoon (Rep Jefferson, Brandon, Newton).
+I would like to introduce Mr. Hugh Mobley of Lancaster and Mr Thad Westbrook of Lexington from our Board of Trustees who have joined us today; our USC Columbia Student Body President Ross Lordo; as well as our Chancellors, campus deans, and senior members of my administration, some of whom you will hear from later.
+Mr. Chairman, we’re pleased to be at our first hearing with you at the committee helm. Generally, I begin these meetings by recounting the stellar achievements by our students and faculty, or highlighting our latest partnership with a South Carolina company, or recent successes of our athletic teams.
+However, with new committee membership, I want to make the most efficient use of your time by simply beginning with an honest and frank discussion…one that hopefully resets.
+Which are:
+- We can hold tuition flat for South Carolinians
+- We can educate even more South Carolinians
+- We can educate even more African-Americans and more minorities
+- We can continue to create more programs that meet the employment needs of the state
+- We can continue our push for excellence
+However, we need your help to make these commitments a reality.
+And this is what we need from you:
+- Resume state investment in state-owned assets and infrastructure through a capital bond bill for higher education
+- Enact regulatory reform that allows universities to establish auxiliary authorities with limited scope.
+- Establish baseline in-state student funding levels for the regional, comprehensive and research sectors. Why should high achieving colleges be funded at lower levels just because the state funding formula was abandoned 15 years ago.
+- Develop a new funding model that rewards institutions for helping to meet the needs of the state
+- Increase investment in state funded need-based financial aid that would reduce debt for students from low-income families
+These are tall orders but this is where our efforts need to be focused. You dealt with roads and bridges last year. Today I ask you to deal with South Carolina’s bridge to the future.
+South Carolina needs even more college graduates. 70,000 more above current graduation rates … We need more teachers, health care workers, engineers, accountants, programmers, entrepreneurs and executives to meet the needs of business and industry in our state.
+Now let me tell you why…
+South Carolina needs even more college graduates. 70,000 more above current graduation rates according to a study from our Darla Moore School of Business:
+We need more teachers, health care workers, engineers, accountants, programmers, entrepreneurs and executives to meet the needs of business and industry in our state. We need them as badly as we needed better roads and bridges.
+I know we can do it. But USC can’t do it alone. We can’t simply will it to happen.
+We need the General Assembly to help us. And we certainly don’t need the CHE making it more difficult. We need a collaborative environment, not a combative one.
+We are being falsely accused of excessive spending and restricting access to South Carolinians by the Commission on Higher Education, an organization that should be an informed, collaborative partner and an advocate for higher education, as they always have been before.
+So let me be clear. There is no excessive spending. We are not restricting access and affordability for South Carolinians. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth..
+Make no mistake, it hasn’t been easy to increase enrollment of South Carolinians. The number of high school graduates is shrinking—and it’s expected to continue to do so for several years to come.
+Moreover, only a small percentage are college-ready. According to the ACT, about 15% of all South Carolina high school graduates are college-ready in the four basic subject areas: English, reading, math and science. 15%! Even more concerning is that only 6% of African-American high school graduates are prepared for college.
+Today, the USC System enrolls more South Carolinians than at any other point in our history. There are more than 34,000 South Carolinians enrolled across the system, nearly 20,000 of whom are on the Columbia campus.
+By state policy, we can’t provide remedial education courses. So, if students aren’t prepared coming out of high school, we can’t enroll them.
+Not only are we not allowed to provide the courses they need, it would be morally irresponsible to enroll them knowing it would be a challenge for them to graduate on time. Students who do not graduate in four or fewer years, pile on more debt.
+Despite public policy challenges and a lack of state funding, USC has excelled as a System. USC is growing enrollments of South Carolinians, African-Americans and other minority students in spite of absent public policy and a lack of public funding that makes those goals extremely difficult.
+Columbia alone enrolls 1,000 more South Carolinians than it did in 2008. As a system, we enroll nearly 3,000 more South Carolinians than we did 10 years ago.
+90% of all South Carolina applicants to USC Columbia are given the opportunity to enroll in one of our programs: General Admission, Honors College, Capstone Scholars or Gamecock Gateway.
+Since 2008, there is a positive growth trend in the number of African-Americans on our campuses.
+Undergraduate African-American enrollment on the Columbia campus has grown by nearly 350 students since 2008,.
+As a system, USC is currently enrolling more African-American and minority students than at any point in history. USC is proud of the progress made and pledges to do more.
+As important, USC educates more African-Americans than any other institution in the state.
+And let’s talk about our non-resident population, we can’t get to 70,000 more graduates without them.
+As a system, USC is currently enrolling more African-American and minority students than at any point in history. USC is proud of the progress made and pledges to do more.
+Yes, it is true we’ve grown the non-resident population significantly, please know that the increased revenue helps make up for what the state no longer provides.
+Non-residents help us keep costs down for South Carolinian. At USC Columbia, non-resident tuition is the #1 source of revenue, grants and contracts is #2, resident tuition is #3, auxiliary services is #4 and state appropriations is #5.
+Non-resident students provide $5.7 million a year in scholarships for resident students and non-residents shoulder more of the cost of building new facilities, about $9 million per year more.
+Finally, after aid, South Carolina undergraduates.
+Access and affordability are two factors that must be considered, the third is opportunity. USC is giving students the opportunity to succeed.
+The Brookings Institute has lauded USC for creating social mobility for our graduates.
+The Education Trust commended us for improving graduation rates for minority students.
+Here are the numbers behind those two incredible recognitions:
+- According to our most recent post-graduation survey, 87% of May 2016 USC Columbia graduates were employed or enrolled in grad school. Of those who were employed, the average salary was $45,486—higher than the state average for bachelor’s degree holders.
+- USC Columbia’s six-year graduation rate (73.2%) is among the highest in the nation, particularly for public institutions, exceeding the national average by nearly 20%.
+- USC Columbia’s six-year graduation rate for African-Americans is 70% while the national average is 35%.
+- USC graduates more African-American students than 97% of all institutions in the country, is #1 in South Carolina and #1 among public SEC institutions in the graduation rate of African-American student.
+A USC degree doesn’t just make a difference, it makes the difference.
+- South Carolina residents with a bachelor’s degree earn on average $43,712 per year, 70% more than those with a high school diploma. A bachelor’s degree holder will earn $1 million more over a lifetime than someone without a college degree.
+- In South Carolina, the unemployment rate for a bachelor’s degree holder is 3.5% and the poverty rate is 4.3%. For a high school graduate, those rates are 10.2% and 16.4% respectively.)
+Despite all of these incredible successes, we’ve been conservative, efficient and creative—good stewards of taxpayer money and the tuition dollars from our students.
+We’ve cut programs, postponed investments in new programs, and done more with less across the board. In fact, we’ve been so efficient with our funds that per student expenditures surpassed 2008 levels for the first time last year.
+A USC degree doesn’t just make a difference, it makes the difference.
+We’ve cut 53 academic programs in the past 10 years.
+We made major decisions about outsourcing. IT is a great example of this—outsourcing support for many enterprise computer applications to IBM and transferring 60 employees from USC to IBM.
+All the while we have earned national recognition for efficiency. We have been recognized by Forbes, Princeton Review, Money Magazine, US News & World Report and Kiplinger as being very efficient and a good value, but it has also challenged our pursuit of excellence and strained our ability to rein in tuition for South Carolinians.
+This year we announced a 3% across the board reduction to all unit budgets on the Columbia campus. That money is being reinvested in academic and program excellence that will ensure our relevancy and impact on behalf of our students and the state.
+We simply cannot continue to drive up costs with unfunded mandates, fail to maintain the physical infrastructure, and continue burdensome and duplicative regulation.
+In 2018, the number one issue facing higher education in South Carolina is state funding.
+Let me repeat that.
+In 2018, the number one issue facing higher education in South Carolina is state funding.
+In fact, since 2008, South Carolina has suffered the 4th largest cuts to higher education in the nation. Nearly 40% of our funding vanished, practically overnight, and while other state agencies have had their funding restored—many above their 2008 funding levels—the General Assembly has not invested in higher education. While there have been small amounts of sporadic funding, there has been no comprehensive or long-term solution. There is no funding model, no funding formula, and worse, no meaningful or comprehensive dialogue.
+The average sticker price at public institutions in South Carolina is among the highest in the nation and the General Assembly, holds the key to tuition.
+Let me give you an example: healthcare and pension increases—not covered by the state— force us to raise revenue from our students.
+Since 2008, South Carolina has suffered the 4th largest cuts to higher education in the nation. Nearly 40% of our funding vanished, practically overnight, and while other state agencies have had their funding restored … the General Assembly has not invested in higher education.
+From FY2008 to FY2018, the USC System has had more than $76.6 million in unfunded mandates. The revenue to cover those costs comes from one source, increased tuition. In fact, across the system the known retirement impact and expected health insurance impact from the budget submitted by Governor McMaster is $5.6 million for the system.
+USC Columbia has the lowest base state appropriation in the Southeastern Conference and USC Columbia receives less money per student than Clemson from the General Assembly. You may not know that our comprehensive campuses receive less per student than other institutions in their sector and most of our Palmetto College campuses receive less per student than the technical colleges.
+In fact, as neighboring states in the Southeast including Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky and Tennessee, and others throughout the nation have invested billions in higher education infrastructure and operational support, South Carolina has done nothing.
+Despite these funding challenges, with keen vision and professional management, we have become a destination of choice for more South Carolinians than any other institution in our state and as important, a destination of choice for the nation’s brightest students.
+Today, USC is.
+We award nearly half of all public institution degrees in the state. It’s gratifying to know that nearly 95,000 degrees have been conferred under my presidency.
+In addition, we are the state’s most comprehensive health sciences research and education entity and we are growing the state’s economy through partnerships with companies like Boeing, IBM, Siemens and Samsung.
+But it still isn’t enough. Together, we must do more. More to provide access, maintain affordability, create opportunity and boost our state’s economy. We must move past short-term requests to long-term solutions. Our state and our students deserve and demand it.
+So let’s work together. Let’s find a way to forge a pathway forward.
+Now, I’ll be happy to take questions or turn it over to my colleagues from each of our campuses for them to present the information you have requested.
+Together, we must do more. More to provide access, maintain affordability, create opportunity and boost our state’s economy. We must move past short-term requests to long-term solutions. Our state and our students deserve and demand it.
+COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 94/33/EC of 22 June 1994 on the protection of young people at workTHE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
+Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 118a thereof,
+Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (1),
+Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (2),
+Acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 189c of the Treaty (3),
+Whereas Article 118a of the Treaty provides that the Council shall adopt, by means of directives, minimum requirements to encourage improvements, especially in the working environment, as regards the health and safety of workers;
+Whereas, under that Article, such directives must avoid imposing administrative, financial and legal constraints in a way which would hold back the creation and development of small and medium-sized undertakings;
+Whereas points 20 and 22 of the Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers, adopted by the European Council in Strasbourg on 9 December 1989, state that:
+'20. Without prejudice to such rules as may be more favourable to young people, in particular those ensuring their preparation for work through vocational training, and subject to derogations limited to certain light work, the minimum employment age must not be lower than the minimum school-leaving age and, in any case, not lower than 15 years;
+22. Appropriate measures must be taken to adjust labour regulations applicable to young workers so that their specific development and vocational training and access to employment needs are met.
+The duration of work must, in particular, be limited - without it being possible to circumvent this limitation through recourse to overtime - and night work prohibited in the case of workers of under eighteen years of age, save in the case of certain jobs laid down in national legislation or regulations.';
+Whereas account should be taken of the principles of the International Labour Organization regarding the protection of young people at work, including those relating to the minimum age for access to employment or work;
+Whereas, in this Resolution on child labour (4), the European Parliament summarized the various aspects of work by young people and stressed its effects on their health, safety and physical and intellectual development, and pointed to the need to adopt a Directive harmonizing national legislation in the field;
+Whereas Article 15 of Council Directive 89/391/EEC of 12 June 1989 on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health of workers at work (5) provides that particularly sensitive risk groups must be protected against the dangers which specifically affect them;
+Whereas children and adolescents must be considered specific risk groups, and measures must be taken with regard to their safety and health;
+Whereas the vulnerability of children calls for Member States to prohibit their employment and ensure that the minimum working or employment age is not lower than the minimum age at which compulsory schooling as imposed by national law ends or 15 years in any event; whereas derogations from the prohibition on child labour may be admitted only in special cases and under the conditions stipulated in this Directive; whereas, under no circumstances, may such derogations be detrimental to regular school attendance or prevent children benefiting fully from their education;
+Whereas, in view of the nature of the transition from childhood to adult life, work by adolescents should be strictly regulated and protected;
+Whereas every employer should guarantee young people working conditions appropriate to their age;
+Whereas employers should implement the measures necessary to protect the safety and health of young people on the basis on an assessment of work-related hazards to the young;
+Whereas Member States should protect young people against any specific risks arising from their lack of experience, absence of awareness of existing or potential risks, or from their immaturity;
+Whereas Member States should therefore prohibit the employment of young people for the work specified by this Directive;
+Whereas the adoption of specific minimal requirements in respect of the organization of working time is likely to improve working conditions for young people;
+Whereas the maximum working time of young people should be strictly limited and night work by young people should be prohibited, with the exception of certain jobs specified by national legislation or rules;
+Whereas Member States should take the appropriate measures to ensure that the working time of adolescents receiving school education does not adversely affect their ability to benefit from that education;
+Whereas time spent on training by young persons working under a theoretical and/or practical combined work/training scheme or an in-plant work-experience should be counted as working time;
+Whereas, in order to ensure the safety and health of young people, the latter should be granted minimum daily, weekly and annual periods of rest and adequate breaks;
+Whereas, with respect to the weekly rest period, due account should be taken of the diversity of cultural, ethnic, religious and other factors prevailing in the Member States; whereas in particular, it is ultimately for each Member State to decide whether Sunday should be included in the weekly rest period, and if so to what extent;
+Whereas appropriate work experience may contribute to the aim of preparing young people for adult working and social life, provided it is ensured that any harm to their safety, health and development is avoided;
+Whereas, although derogations from the bans and limitations imposed by this Directive would appear indispensable for certain activities or particular situations, applications thereof must not prejudice the principles underlying the established protection system;
+Whereas this Directive constitutes a tangible step towards developing the social dimension of the internal market;
+Whereas the application in practice of the system of protection laid down by this Directive will require that Member States implement a system of effective and proportionate measures;
+Whereas the implementation of some provisions of this Directive poses particular problems for one Member State with regard to its system of protection for young people at work; whereas that Member State should therefore be allowed to refrain from implementing the relevant provisions for a suitable period,
+HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:
+SECTION I
+Article 1
+Purpose
+1..
+2. Member States ensure that work by adolescents is strictly regulated and protected under the conditions laid down in this Directive.
+3. Member States shall ensure in general that employers guarantee that young people have working conditions which suit their age.
+They shall ensure that young people are protected against economic exploitation and against any work likely to harm their safety, health or physical, mental, moral or social development or to jeopardize their education.
+Article 2
+Scope
+1. This Directive shall apply to any person under 18 years of age having an employment contract or an employment relationship defined by the law in force in a Member State and/or governed by the law in force in a Member State.
+2. Member States may make legislative or regulatory provision for this Directive not to apply, within the limits and under the conditions which they set by legislative or regulatory provision, to occasional work or short-term work involving:
+(a) domestic service in a privat household, or
+(b) work regarded as not being harmful, damaging or dangerous to young people in a family undertaking.
+Article 3
+Definitons
+For the purposes of this Directive:
+(a) 'young person' shall mean any person under 18 years of age referred to in Article 2 (1);
+(b) 'child' shall mean any young person of less than 15 years of age or who is still subject to compulsory full-time schooling under national law;
+(c) 'adolescent' shall mean any young person of at least 15 years of age but less than 18 years of age who is no longer subject to compulsory full-time schooling under national law;
+(d) 'light work' shall mean all work which, on account of the inherent nature of the tasks which it involves and the particular conditions under which they are performed:
+(i) is not likely to be harmful to the safety, health or development of children, and
+(ii) is not such as to be harmful to their attendance at school, their participation in vocational guidance or training programmes approved by the competent authority or their capacity to benefit from the instruction received;
+(e) 'working time' shall mean any period during which the young person is at work, at the employer's disposal and carrying out his activity or duties in accordance with national legislation and/or practice;
+(f) 'rest period' shall mean any period which is not working time.
+Article 4
+Prohibition of work by children
+1. Member States shall adopt the measures necessary to prohibit work by children.
+2. Taking into account the objectives set out in Article 1, Member States may make legislative or regulatory provision for the prohibition of work by children not to apply to:
+(a) children pursuing the activities set out in Article 5;
+(b) children of at least 14 years of age working under a combined work/training scheme or an in-plant work-experience scheme, provided that such work is done in accordance with the conditions laid down by the competent authority;
+(c) children of at least 14 years of age performing light work other than that covered by Article 5; light work other than that covered by Article 5 may, however, be performed by children of 13 years of age for a limited number of hours per week in the case of categories of work determined by national legislation.
+3. Member States that make use of the opinion referred to in paragraph 2 (c) shall determine, subject to the provisions of this Directive, the working conditions relating to the light work in question.
+Article 5
+Cultural or similar activities
+1. The employment of children for the purposes of performance in cultural, artistic, sports or advertising activities shall be subject to prior authorization to be given by the competent authority in individual cases.
+2. Member States shall by legislative or regulatory provision lay down the working conditions for children in the cases referred to in paragraph 1 and the details of the prior authorization procedure, on condition that the activities:
+(i) are not likely to be harmful to the safety, health or development of children, and
+(ii) are not such as to be harmful to their attendance at school, their participation in vocational guidance or training programmes approved by the competent authority or their capacity to benefit from the instruction received.
+3. By way of derogation from the procedure laid down in paragraph 1, in the case of children of at least 13 years of age, Member States may authorize, by legislative or regulatory provision, in accordance with conditions which they shall determine, the employment of children for the purposes of performance in cultural, artistic, sports or advertising activities.
+4. The Member States which have a specific authorization system for modelling agencies with regard to the activities of children may retain that system.
+SECTION II
+Article 6
+General obligations on employers
+1. Without prejudice to Article 4 (1), the employer shall adopt the measures necessary to protect the safety and health of young people, taking particular account of the specific risks referred to in Article 7 (1).
+2. The employer shall implement the measures provided for in paragraph 1 on the basis of an assessment of the hazards to young people in connection with their work.
+The assessment must be made before young people begin work and when there is any major change in working conditions and must pay particular attention to the following points:
+(a) the fitting-out and layout of the workplace and the workstation;
+(b) the nature, degree and duration of exposure to physical, biological and chemical agents;
+(c) the form, range and use of work equipment, in particular agents, machines, apparatus and devices, and the way in which they are handled;
+(d) the arrangement of work processes and operations and the way in which these are combined (organization of work);
+(e) the level of training and instruction given to young people.
+Where this assessment shows that there is a risk to the safety, the physical or mental health or development of young people, an appropriate free assessment and monitoring of their health shall be provided at regular intervals without prejudice to Directive 89/391/EEC.
+The free health assessment and monitoring may form part of a national health system.
+3. The employer shall inform young people of possible risks and of all measures adopted concerning their safety and health.
+Furthermore, he shall inform the legal representatives of children of possible risks and of all measures adopted concerning children's safety and health.
+4. The employer shall involve the protective and preventive services referred to in Article 7 of Directive 89/391/EEC in the planning, implementation and monitoring of the safety and health conditions applicable to young people.
+Article 7
+Vulnerability of young people - Prohibition of work
+1. Member States shall ensure that young people are protected from any specific risks to their safety, health and development which are a consequence of their lack of experience, of absence of awareness of existing or potential risks or of the fact that young people have not yet fully matured.
+2. Without prejudice to Article 4 (1), Member States shall to this end prohibit the employment of young people for:
+(a) work which is objectively beyond their phyiscal or psychological capacity;
+(b) work involving harmful exposure to agents which are toxic, carcinogenic, cause heritable genetic damage, or harm to the unborn child or which in any other way chronically affect human health;
+(c) work involving harmful exposure to radiation;
+(d) work involving the risk of accidents which it may be assumed cannot be recognized or avoided by young persons owing to their insufficient attention to safety or lack of experience or training; or
+(e) work in which there is a risk to health from extreme cold or heat, or from noise or vibration.
+Work which is likely to entail specific risks for young people within the meaning of paragraph 1 includes:
+- work involving harmful exposure to the physical, biological and chemical agents referred to in point I of the Annex, and
+- processes and work referred to in point II of the Annex.
+3. Member States may, by legislative or regulatory provision, authorize derogations from paragraph 2 in the case of adolescents where such derogations are indispensable for their vocational training, provided that protection of their safety and health is ensured by the fact that the work is performed under the supervision of a competent person within the meaning of Article 7 of Directive 89/391/EEC and provided that the protection afforded by that Directive is guaranteed.
+SECTION III
+Article 8
+Working time
+1. Member States which make use of the option in Article 4 (2) (b) or (c) shall adopt the measures necessary to limit the working time of children to:
+(a) eight hours a day and 40 hours a week for work performed under a combined work/training scheme or an in-plant work-experience scheme;
+(b) two hours on a school day and 12 hours a week for work performed in term-time outside the hours fixed for school attendance, provided that this is not prohibited by national legislation and/or practice;
+in no circumstances may the daily working time exceed seven hours; this limit may be raised to eight hours in the case of children who have reached the age of 15;
+(c) seven hours a day and 35 hours a week for work performed during a period of at least a week when school is not operating; these limits may be raised to eight hours a day and 40 hours a week in the case of chidren who have reached the age of 15;
+(d) seven hours a day and 35 hours a week for light work performed by children no longer subject to compulsory full-time schooling under national law.
+2. Member States shall adopt the measures necessary to limit the working time of adolescents to eight hours a day and 40 hours a week.
+3. The time spent on training by a young person working under a theoretical and/or practical combined work/training scheme or an in-plant work-experience scheme shall be counted as working time.
+4. Where a young person is employed by more than one employer, working days and working time shall be cumulative.
+5. Member States may, by legislative or regulatory provision, authorize derogations from paragraph 1 (a) and paragraph 2 either by way of exception or where there are objective grounds for so doing.
+Member States shall, by legislative or regulatory provision, determine the conditions, limits and procedure for implementing such derogations.
+Article 9
+Night work
+1. (a) Member States which make use of the option in Article 4 (2) (b) or (c) shall adopt the measures necessary to prohibit work by children between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.
+(b) Member States shall adopt the measures necessary to prohibit work by adolescents either between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. or between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.
+2. (a) Member States may, by legislative or regulatory provision, authorize work by adolescents in specific areas of activity during the period in which night work is prohibited as referred to in paragraph 1 (b).
+In that event, Member States shall take appropriate measures to ensure that the adolescent is supervised by an adult where such supervision is necessary for the adolescent's protection.
+(b) If point (a) is applied, work shall continue to be prohibited between midnight and 4 a.m.
+However, Member States may, by legislative or regulatory provision, authorize work by adolescents during the period in which night work is prohibited in the following cases, where there are objective grounds for so doing and provided that adolescents are allowed suitable compensatory rest time and that the objectives set out in Article 1 are not called into question:
+- work performed in the shipping or fisheries sectors;
+- work performed in the context of the armed forces or the police;
+- work performed in hospitals or similar establishments;
+- cultural, artistic, sports or advertising activities.
+3. Prior to any assignment to night work and at regular intervals thereafter, adolescents shall be entitled to a free assessment of their health and capacities, unless the work they do during the period during which work is prohibited is of an exceptional nature.
+Article 10
+Rest period
+1. (a) Member States which make use of the option in Article 4 (2) (b) or (c) shall adopt the measures necessary to ensure that, for each 24-hour period, children are entitled to a minimum rest period of 14 consecutive hours.
+(b) Member States shall adopt the measures necessary to ensure that, for each 24-hour period, adolescents are entitled to a minimum rest period of 12 consecutive hours.
+2. Member States shall adopt the measures necessary to ensure that, for each seven-day period:
+- children in respect of whom they have made use of the option in Article 4 (2) (b) or (c), and
+- adolescents
+are entitled to a minimum rest period of two days, which shall be consecutive if possible.
+Where justified by technical or organization reasons, the minimum rest period may be reduced, but may in no circumstances be less than 36 consecutive hours.
+The minimum rest period referred to in the first and second subparagraphs shall in principle include Sunday.
+3. Member States may, by legislative or regulatory provision, provide for the minimum rest periods referred to in pargraphs 1 and 2 to be interrupted in the case of activities involving periods of work that are split up over the day or are of short duration.
+4. Member States may make legislative or regulatory provision for derogations from paragraph 1 (b) and paragraph 2 in respect of adolescents in the following cases, where there are objective grounds for so doing and provided that they are granted appropriate compensatory rest time and that the objetives set out in Article 1 are not called into question:
+.
+Article 11
+Annual rest
+Member States which make use of the option referred to in Article 4 (2) (b) or (c) shall see to it that a period free of any work is included, as far as possible, in the school holidays of children subject to compulsory full-time schooling under national law.
+Article 12
+Breaks
+Member States shall adopt the measures necessary to ensure that, where daily working time is more than four and a half hours, young people are entitled to a break of at least 30 minutes, which shall be consecutive if possible.
+Article 13
+Work by adolescents in the event of force majeure
+Member States may, by legislative or regulatory provision, authorize derogations from Article 8 (2), Article 9 (1) (b), Article 10 (1) (b) and, in the case of adolescents, Article 12, for work in the circumstances referred to in Article 5 (4) of Directive 89/391/EEC, provided that such work is of a temporary nature and must be performed immediately, that adult workers are not available and that the adolescents are allowed equivalent compensatory rest time within the following three weeks.
+SECTION IV
+Article 14
+Measures
+Each Member State shall lay down any necessary measures to be applied in the event of failure to comply with the provisions adopted in order to implement this Directive; such measures must be effective and proportionate.
+Article 15
+Adaptation of the Annex
+Adaptations of a strictly technical nature to the Annex in the light of technical progress, changes in international rules or specifications and advances in knowledge in the field covered by this Directive shall be adopted in accordance with the procedure provided for in Article 17 of Directive 89/391/EEC.
+Article 16
+Non-reducing clause
+Without prejudice to the right of Member States to develop, in the light of changing circumstances, different provisions on the protection of young people, as long as the minimum requirements provided for by this Directive are complied with, the implementation of this Directive shall not constitute valid grounds for reducing the general level of protection afforded to young people.
+Article 17
+Final provisions
+1. (a) Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive not later than 22 June 1996 or ensure, by that date at the latest, that the two sides of industry introduce the requisite provisions by means of collective agreements, with Member States being required to make all the necessary provisions to enable them at all times to guarantee the results laid down by this Directive.
+(b) The United Kingdom may refrain from implementing the first subparagraph of Article 8 (1) (b) with regard to the provision relating to the maximum weekly working time, and also Article 8(2) and Article 9 (1) (b) and (2) for a period of four years from the date specified in subparagraph (a).
+The Commission shall submit a report on the effects of this provision.
+The Council, acting in accordance with the conditions laid down by the Treaty, shall decide whether this period should be extended.
+(c) Member States shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof.
+2. When Member States adopt the measures referred to in paragraph 1, such measures shall contain a reference to this Directive or shall be accompanied by such reference on the occasion of their official publication. The methods of making such reference shall be laid down by Member States.
+3. Member States shall communicate to the Commission the texts of the main provisions of national law which they have already adopted or adopt in the field governed by this Directive.
+4. Member States shall report to the Commission every five years on the practical implementation of the provisions of this Directive, indicating the viewpoints of the two sides of industry.
+The Commission shall inform the European Parliament, the Council and the Economic and Social Committee thereof.
+5. The Commission shall periodically submit to the European Parliament, the Council and the Economic and Social Committee a report on the application of this Directive taking into account pargraphs 1, 2, 3 and 4.
+Article 18
+This Directive is addressed to the Member States.
+Done at Luxembourg, 22 June 1994.
+For the Council
+The President
+E. YIANNOPOULOS
+(1) OJ No C 84, 4. 4. 1992, p. 7.(2) OJ No C 313, 30. 11. 1992, p. 70.(3) Opinion of the European Parliament of 17 December 1992 (OJ No C 21, 25. 1. 1993, p. 167). Council Common Position of 23 November 1993 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and Decision of the European Parliament of 9 March 1994 (OJ No C 91, 28. 3. 1994, p. 89).(4) OJ No C 190, 20. 7. 1987, p. 44.(5) OJ No L 183, 29. 6. 1989, p. 1.
+ANNEX
+Non-exhaustive list of agents, processes and work (Article 7(2), second subparagraph) I. Agents 1. Physical agents
+(a) lonizing radiation;
+(b) Work in a high-pressure atmosphere, e. g. in pressurized containers, diving.
+2. Biological agents
+(a) Biological agents belonging to groups 3 and 4 within the meaning of Article 2 (d) of Council Directive 90/679/EEC of 26 November 1990 on the protection of workers from risks related to exposure to biological agents at work (Seventh individual Directive within the meaning of Article 16(1) of Directive 89/391/EEC) (1).
+3. Chemical agents
+(a) Substances and preparations classified according to Council Directive 67/548/EEC of 27 June 1967 on the approximation of laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to the classification, packaging and labelling of dangerous substances (2) with amendments and Council Directive 88/379/EEC of 7 June 1988 on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States relating to the classification, packaging and labelling of dangerous preparations (3) as toxic (T), very toxic (Tx), corrosive (C) or explosive (E);
+(b) Substances and preparations classified according to Directives 67/548/EEC and 88/379/EEC as harmful (Xn) and with one or more of the following risk phrases:
+- danger of very serious irreversible effects (R39),
+- possible risk of irreversible effects (R40),
+- may cause sensitization by inhalation (R42),
+- may cause sensitization by skin contact (R43),
+- may cause cancer (R45),
+- may cause heritable genetic damage (R46),
+- danger of serious damage to health by prolonged exposure (R48),
+- may impair fertility (R60),
+- may cause harm to the unborn child (R61);
+(c) Substances and preparations classified according to Directives 67/548/EEC and 88/379/EEC as irritant (Xi) and with one or more of the following risk phrases:
+- highly flammable (R12);
+- may cause sensitization by inhalation (R42),
+- may cause sensitization by skin contact (R43),
+(d) Substances and preparations referred to Article 2 (c) of Council Directive 90/394/EEC of 28 June 1990 on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to carcinogens at work (Sixth individual Directive within the meaning of Article 16(1) of Directive 89/391/EEC; (4)
+(e) Lead and compounds thereof, inasmuch as the agents in question are absorbable by the human organism;
+(f) Asbestos.
+II. Processes and work 1. Processes at work referred to in Annex I to Directive 90/394/EEC.
+2. Manufacture and handling of devices, fireworks or other objects containing explosives.
+3. Work with fierce of poisonous animals.
+4. Animal slaughtering on an industrial scale.
+5. Work involving the handling of equipment for the production, storage or application of compressed, liquified or dissolved gases.
+6. Work with vats, tanks, reservoirs or carboys containing chemical agents referred to in 1.3.
+7. Work involving a risk of structural collapse.
+8. Work involving high-voltage electrical hazards.
+9. Work the pace of which is determined by machinery and involving payment by results.
+(1) OJ No L 374, 31. 12. 1990, p. 1.(2) OJ No 196, 16. 8. 1967, p. 1. Directive as last amended by Directive 93/679/EEC (OJ No L 268, 29. 10. 1993, p. 71).(3) OJ No L 187, 16. 7. 1988, p. 14. Directive as last amended by Directive 93/18/EEC (OJ No L 104, 29. 4. 1993, p. 46).(4) OJ No L 196, 26. 7. 1990, p. 1.
+‘Warcraft’ and ‘The Great Gatsby’ cinematographer – Simon Duggan – In Conversation
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+Hi Film Folk,
+Today we bring you another In Conversation.
+This time with the talented cinematographer behind Warcraft – and Oscar-winning The Great Gatsby – Simon Duggan!
+Tell us a little bit about your background? Were you from a creativity-encouraging family? How did you get your “foot in the door” in the film industry?
+I had an interest in photography as a teen. My high school in Australia had one of the first Film and Television courses which gave me an idea of the options available.
+My father was in the advertising business and he managed to get me a few interviews starting with a position in a Post House as a Tape operator. They assumed I had little interest and told me I had no future in the Film Industry.
+Finally I landed a job with a commercial film studio based in Sydney. Starting as an assistant in the camera department I worked my way up and – after several years –was shooting commercials.
+It was a great training experience as the company employed a full time film crew, we had full editorial and projection room. The crew would make a point of watching projected film dailies from the previous day’s shoot every morning.
+You’re originally from New Zealand – have you spent time working on local projects? Do you have an overview of the film industry in New Zealand nowadays?
+I left New Zealand as a two-year-old so Australia has been my home for most of my life. I often go back for commercial work. As well as servicing larger budget international films they make some great original feature films with some great home grown stories.
+I have have filmed quite a few feature productions in Australia including, The Interview, “Garage Days”, “Knowing” for Dir Alex Proyas, “The Great Gatsby” with Dir Baz Luhrmann and most recently Dir Mel Gibsons “Hacksaw Ridge”.
+Australia has great film crews and currently filming is Director Ridley Scott’s Alien sequel and Thor Ragnarok with New Zealand Dir Taika Waititi as well as several other Independent Australian films.
+Working on Warcraft – how long was the prep and how long was the shoot?
+It was a long prep of about 12 weeks and 18 weeks of shooting.
+Director Duncan Jones was very much about being faithful to the established design of the Warcraft franchise. The detail that went into the production design by Gavin Bouquet was incredible. Many cues were taken from the design of the game, one element in particular was that the physical sets and environments were built to double the normal human scale.
+A lot of time was spent working out how to squeeze everything into the stages and then how to light them with very little space left in the perms of the stages. There are also many lighting gags associated with the different spells that are cast by the characters. A lot of testing went into this.
+The shoot went very smoothly and I attribute it to a thorough prep time.
+What percentage of the shoot was exterior and what percentage in the studio?
+It was about 90 percent on stage as we needed the control for Lighting continuity and VFX requirements such as witness tracking cameras. The impact of any bad weather would have been a major issue.
+What was the biggest challenge? The most exciting parts/sequences?
+One of the most challenging set ups was “Elwynn Forest” built for many of the fight and chase sequences. We built a forest featuring scaled up trees with girths of about 12’ in diameter on a stage the size of a football field. We had dozens of horses galloping through the set at times.
+We couldn’t set this up on an exterior location as the weather was a problem. We had to achieve this on stage for continuity of light and so that the Visual Effects team could set up 200 witness cameras placed to track every movement of the actors who were to be transformed into “Orcs” as well as the onset filming cameras which each had antennas attached sending back exact coordinates and angle information.
+The lighting challenge was massive as we wanted streaming sunlight through the tree canopies without the light sources being in shot. We decided on thousands of small Par Lamps all in parallel surrounding the perimeter of the whole set high up in the perms of the stage. We then used dimmer boards to make quick lighting changes throughout the whole set.
+Warcraft was shot on an ARRI Alexa XT Plus — what was special about the way you shot this one in comparison to other movies?
+I used the Alexa in Full Sensor mode giving VFX a higher definition image to work with.
+The camera and the actors playing the CG characters had tracking sensors attached and we were able to feed the CG characters in real time into the camera operators eyepiece.
+The operator could simply switch between the real actor and his CG character to check physical size and position in frame of the CG character as it was almost twice the size.
+You’re a DoP with a proven record of VFX/SFX projects (incl. shooting native 3D for The Great Gatsby) could you describe how this might work on the day? Do you find the deeper we go into the CG world the harder it is to combine that with photographing real life items in the same scene?
+It often surprises people how much is filmed in camera, most of the time on a CG-heavy film the actors are on a stage with a built set so they feel comfortable within the space they are performing. Green screen is often there just to extend the backgrounds.
+The Great Gatsby and Warcraft had some of the largest set builds I have filmed and the actors were mostly contained within a physical set. There was almost always a physical dimension, color, tone and lighting reference behind the actors.
+But yes at times when you only have a character in front of green screen it is harder to light and create a sense of mood when the background is fluorescent green.
+And what’s your basic shoot day from wake up to sleep time involve?
+The larger VFX films require a lot of pre-production with story boards and previs for complex scenes. With a long prep the crew and cast are familiar with what we are trying to achieve well before we start shooting. This makes the shooting process so much faster as most script issues have been addressed well before the shoot day.
+We’ll start with a block through with the actors and send them back to makeup. Lighting trims will start and grip, camera and VFX will set up. It’s then a couple of rehearsals and we are shooting. The process then keeps repeating itself.
+While shooting, the Director is being fed an HD image that I have applied a color grade to. The quality of the image is so good that it’s very seldom directors and crew want to spend another couple of hours at the end of the day watching dailies.
+I do miss watching the dailies with the director and crew as it was a time to watch through everything closely and communicate ideas or make changes. It’s now the time where the director often goes straight to editorial and starts working on the cut.
+Where do you see the next technological development taking place with cameras or projection?
+Digital cameras are becoming smaller with even greater resolution and light sensitivity and camera platforms are becoming more refined and inventive such as the use of Drones for aerial work and specialised cranes, tracking vehicles and stabilised heads.
+Projection systems are getting better with new units that can screen Dolby Vision which gives a much higher dynamic range with contrast, brightness and color information.
+What are some of the shots/sequences/scenes in your past projects that you’re most proud of? Or that were the most challenging and satisfying at the end?
+I don’t really think in terms of scenes in a film when it comes to most satisfying but rather how a film comes together as a whole in regards to the mood, lighting atmosphere and camera movement.
+Every film requires a different treatment using different lighting and camera approaches to suit the plot, characters and setting of a film. It’s always rewarding once the film is finished to see that everything has come together as imagined.
+“The Great Gatsby” is a good example. We went in shooting with real 3D stereo cameras. It was our first experience with the 3D medium and quite a challenge on many levels including the bulkiness of the camera systems and attention to VFX requirements but we were able to achieve a very heightened visual film with a freedom of camera movement and great performances throughout.
+You’ve worked several times with Alex Proyas, twice with Len Wiseman – What are the key elements to building a successful working relationship between a Cinematographer and Director?
+Its about building great communication and trust with your director, sharing a common creative viewpoint from the start of a project and being able to create the imagery that the director envisions throughout.
+I try and be well prepared for shoot days when it comes to a lighting plan that enables quick adjustments that gives the director as much flexibility and shooting time with the actors. Simply put, the director will come back to you if he is happy with your work on his last film.
+What would you say are the common traits shared by all great directors?
+The best directors are great story tellers and absolutely passionate about their films. Their research, script development and casting are brilliant. Their judgement on performances and camera are crucial to making a great film, never making compromises.
+They are generally great communicators with everyone involved.
+You must have watched scores of performances. What separates good acting from bad or good acting from great?
+I enjoy it when there is great chemistry between the cast but that is no guarantee of great performances. It really depends on the roles they are playing.
+On some films the actors choose to detach themselves from each other to create tension. Some are method and stay in their character on and off screen for the run of the film. Some actors can turn their film character on and off like a switch.
+They all have their differences yet most great performances are born out of a great script with amazing characters.
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+What piece of advice would you offer to aspiring cinematographers looking to follow in your footsteps?
+Once you have decided you are passionate about the industry the early days are all about observing as much as you can, watching as much cinema as you can. Digital cameras are very accessible now so it’s much easier to go out and get experience shooting your own material.
+A great way to make contact with established cinematographers is by joining the local Cinematography Society as a student or junior member, this will give you contact with all the members and open up opportunities for work experience.
+Once the opportunity comes where you are on a film set its really important to watch how the whole crew works as a team, observing how they make creative decisions and how they go about achieving them.
+I’ve seen a few young DPs who have not yet realised that its a collaboration with the whole crew that gets you the imagery you are after.
+Name 5-10 films that you think are great examples of cinematography/personal favourites you’d recommend to filmmakers?
+The films that made a biggest impression on me were films I saw in my youth, mostly produced in the ’70s and ’80s, especially the ones where the cinematography and lighting had an impact on me;
+The Godfather, 1900, The Conformist, Raging Bull, Blade Runner, Angel Heart, Alien, The Right Stuff, The Last Emperor, Se7en.
+Thank you, Simon!
+RELATED ARTICLE: Read our interview with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas cinematographer Nicola Pecorini
+RELATED ARTICLE: Read our interview with High Rise cinematographer Laurie Rose
+“While the US has taken only 100 days to see through Trump’s “alternative reality” (though perhaps not through Trump himself), almost nobody in Britain is even questioning the alternative reality of Brexit.”
+In other words, although both the US and UK succumbed to right wing populism, the US is strongly resisting while the UK has given up doing so. He contrasts the reaction of business to Trump and Brexit. “US businesses started lobbying immediately to block any Trump policies that threatened their economic interests” which has “removed Trump’s main protectionist threat.” In contrast .”
+One reaction that many will have is that while US elections are 4 year affairs, a referendum was meant to be ‘for a generation’. If the Leave vote had been 60% or more, I might have some sympathy with this view. But the narrow victory coupled with uncertainty about what Brexit actually entails means that the argument for a vote after negotiations conclude is compelling. But only around 30% of people support being allowed a second vote. In contrast, currently 56% of US voters disapprove of Donald Trump.
+You could say this is because Donald Trump has done plenty of things for US voters to get angry about, whereas Brexit has not happened. I would put the point rather differently. The problems with Trump are visible to everyone. You just need to read his tweets! The costs of Brexit are economic and less clear to everyone. For example the depreciation immediately after Brexit was very visible, but you needed some knowledge of economics to know that this would mean lower living standards for everyone living in the UK.
+This gets translated into how each are handled in the media. The New York Times and the Washington Post are in the front line against Trump, while if you want information on how Brexit is damaging the economy you will find plenty of it in the Financial Times. But that negative news does not normally make it into the broadcast media, because the broadcast media has decided that the Brexit debate is over. The reason it has done that is the real reason why the UK appears to have given in to Brexit, which is the Labour party.
+It is difficult to get ideas discussed in a sustained way in the broadcast media unless one of the two major political parties is pushing it (see, for example, opposition to austerity before Corbyn). In contrast to the Democrats, who have been unified in their opposition to Trump, Labour have accepted Hard Brexit. It would be unfair to dump the whole responsibility for Labour’s Brexit U-turn on Jeremy Corbyn. Many Labour MPs pushed in the same direction because they thought it would gain them votes: austerity appeasement all over again. I think a strong leader who believed in EU membership could have overcome that, but Corbyn’s preferences were different.
+As a result, we have had a general election supposedly about who will be best at negotiating Brexit without any discussion of Brexit itself. Despite the LibDems best efforts, there has been no discussion of all the events since the referendum which indicate bad times ahead, as outlined by Ian Dunt. There has been endless discussion about how taxes and spending might change under Labour or the Conservatives, but none about the elephant in the room: the cuts or tax increases that Brexit and lower immigration will require. There is a hope, expressed by Bill Keegan, that today’s vote may lead to a hung parliament, which in turn might just lead to a second referendum, but it is a very slim hope.
+It may also be the only hope. George Eaton may well be right that Labour’s decision to back a Hard Brexit has helped them in this election. The danger is that Labour will draw the lesson that this will be true in 2022 as well, and their new leader (if there is a new leader) will also commit to hard Brexit. Again the austerity mistake will be repeated: assuming the electorate's attitudes will remain unchanged. If that happens, we may well see in four years time a rejuvenated US with a Democrat in the White House and Republicans routed because of their association with Trump, but a UK entering a long period of relative decline and isolation because it gave in to right wing populism.
+A significant reason for the acquiescence is because huge chunks of the media have been working hard to silence those who may disagree.
+Between the two prongs of "you must respect the Will Of The People" and calling people "traitors", "saboteurs" and "Enemies Of The People", a lot of people are doing the typical British thing and are not wanting to cause a fuss.
+At the risk of invoking Godwin's Law, this is pretty much like what was seen in 1930s Germany.
+As an American I agree on the first point. We still have the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post (as a Washingtonian I find it too conservative on local issues, but that's another story), etc. But these are major national newspapers. TV is different. The local stations are increasingly owned by Sinclair Broadcasting, a pretty right company out of Baltimore. But the major networks are reasonably objective. Not cable news, and all those yakking "experts" debating on screen.
+But what is scary is the disconnect between facts and non-fact. E.g., there was an op-ed in the W. Post yesterday by the publisher of a small newspaper in Ohio that had endorsed Trump. He commented that most newspapers in the states that Trump won didn't endorse him, and that was a comment on the disconnection of newspapers from their communities. I'd argue it was a disconnect of the populace from being connected to reality.
+You fail to see the blindingly obvious.
+Trump is an individual not a "system". If Trump were to die today the political and electoral system would remain the same; Pence would take over and it would be back to business as usual.People are criticizing Trump the individual not the office of POTUS.
+Without wishing to state the obvious Brexit has not yet happened so how can people pass judgement on it and push back against it? If you were writing this blog in 2037 then it might make some sense because it would have happened and we could see the result, as we can see the result of 44 years of EU membership.How can people push back against something that has not yet happened and which, in any case, a majority voted for only a few months ago? It is a nonsense and what is more obvious nonsense.
+Also we had a referendum at which a majority acquiesced to Brexit and this The mechanism of a referendum) is part of our system; if we overturn this we overturn part of our system, quite a different matter from questioning an individual. When you criticize Corbyn you criticize him not the system of parliamentary democracy.
+Referenda are not, and never have been, part of the UK system
+It's quite obvious that referenda are not part of the UK system and never have been.
+Yes Labour's acquiescence on Hard Brexit (and in 2015 on Austerity) is lamentable.
+I'm afraid your optimism on a Republican rout in 2020 is unfounded. Right-wing populism is not based on rational voting.
+I think the real hope in the US is impeachment. The resistance in the US isn't from the Democrats, but from the Judiciary.
+What we're seeing is that the US constitution is better designed than that in the UK.
+Impeachment isn't done by the judiciary but by Congress. A House majority must convict him, even though Republicans have most seats. Then two-thirds of the Senate must convict him. But Republicans have a majority. The party would have to turn on him, for its own reasons, not because Democrats say so.
+And so what will happen? Mike Pence president. Do you like him so much? It will be Turtleman aka Mitch McConnell who will be pulling the strings. Same crazy GOP senators who approved the likes of Pruitt and Mnuchin ("foreclosure king"). The only hope is the midterms.
+Impeachment won't happen. It's too hard. It paralyzes the Legislative Branch from doing anything else. While because of how legislative districts are drawn to favor conservative and rural interests, it will still be tough for Democrats to take the House next year, but I am hopeful. We will get an indication if Jon Ossoff manages to win in Georgia on 6/20.
+Your point about the system is apt. I wrote a piece after the election commenting that people focusing on Pres. Trump was misplaced, the big issue being the control of the Exec. and both Legislative branches by the same party. I didn't realize though how tenuous that control was, because of the hard right in the House in particular. You'd think they'd be accomplishing a lot, but they aren't, because of a real lack of policy heft.
+"only around 30% of people support being allowed a second vote. In contrast, currently 56% of US voters disapprove of Donald Trump". Oh come on! Disapproval of Trump doesn't mean wanting to have another election today!
+Polling also shows that in a rematch, Trump would still beat Clinton but by a larger margin. Not comparable to the Brexit vote.
+An interesting piece, though I feel you might need to pay attention to the media landscape of the United Kingdom as well.
+Can you even begin to imagine the press and their reporting if Labour came out against Brexit? There is no acceptable outlet for 'remain' in the widely accepted media. I don't believe Labour's acquiescence has caused this - rather the distorted nature of the media market in the United Kingdom.
+I have never commented on your blog before, but enjoy reading it all the time - so thank you in advance.
+Trump is not an individual. He's the direct product of the Republican Party. He won their primary and has strong support across their legislative base despite both errors and scandal.
+I agree with Magnus that democratic resistance to Trump has been weak with some democrats voting for Trumps nominees. Impeachment though is a legislative, not judicial process.
+You describe our broadcast media in effect as politically bipartisan rather than being nonpartisan.
+Until the BBC has its charter changed to force it to reflect university peer review we will continue to see its counter-enlightenment buckling to the politics of conservatism.
+I would argue that there is no difference in reaction between the UK and the US. While voters may despair over Trump's election, I am not aware of any significant group declaring his presidency to be illegitimate. It's the same with Brexit. The democratic result was for Brexit and, accepting the argument that another vote should be held would spur calls for a third vote and so on. It is simpler and possibly fairer to accept it. While there are plenty of arguments for why voters should not have voted for Brexit or why they may have been mislead, blame should be cast on parliament for having allowed such a significant shift from the status quo to require only 50% majority, and on election legislation (so parliament again) for allowing campaigners to lie and mislead. Unfortunately there is insufficient evidence, as far as I'm aware, for the referendum being labelled illegitimate. In fact, I wonder whether the only way to determine that illegitimacy would be to hold another referendum; but doing so would be to assume the illegitmacy prior to verification! That would surely set a bad precedent?
+The Judiciary has no involvement in the impeachment process, other than the Chief Justice holding the gavel if it comes to a Senate trial. The resistance is from the fact that the House and Senate are wholly controlled by the Republican Party, and they dare not oppose Trump for fear of losing their primary elections to his supporters.
+If our Constitution were better designed than the UK's, Trump wouldn't even *be* President. He lost by several million votes!
+What do you mean with labour's support of a hard brexit? Corbyn said clearly, in response to Theresa May, that no deal was in fact a bad deal. Isn't it, along with his commitment to clarify the status of EU residents immediately and unilaterally, a clear indication that he would pursue a soft brexit?
+lol. The US has not "resisted" Trump. This is a deep flaw in thinking by people who are accustomed to a Parliamentary system. In the USA, the government is designed so that legislation takes far longer to pass that in a Parliamentary system. Getting legislation through two separate houses of Congress, each with their own rules, is a lot like herding 276 cats. Even on items where there is widespread consensus, getting something passed in 100 days is extremely optimistic.
+Don't gauge legislative progress by what you read in the headlines. Progress on legislation in Congress is very often non-linear. A lot of people including top Senate staffers say it won't happen, until suddenly a consensus bill emerges. Many if not most times Senators are "resisting," simply to get something for their own district in the bill.
+I do expect Congress to move the tax system to a territorial tax system, despite the pleadings of retailers. Yes, they will rename "border adjustment" to "territorial system" to sell it, so that groups like the Heritage foundation can change their mind. But its the same thing.
+The only thing I agree with from Kaletsky is that the US is pragmatic. Generally because of the checks and balances we have, and the fact that the Constitution locks us into a two-party system, voters vote for "direction" not "destination." Voters are accustomed to politicians not getting their every wish. For Example, typical Trump voters I talk to don't really expect a concrete wall on the border, especially the 1200 miles where there is a river, but they will expect significantly tighter border security. The reality is that Trump sold himself as a right-wing populist, but policy wise behind the scenes he is barely a Republican. Voters are not dumb, they know this. In fact, many are counting on him not achieving all his extreme goals. Americans are fond of checks and balances, and very often split tickets and vote for a Republican governor (or President) and Democratic local representative, for precisely that reason.
+Democrats are making a huge mistake going far left socialist. That is not where the country is. 33 of the 50 states have Republican governors. They are confusing American's penchant for checks and balances with the fact that generally the country wants lower taxes, less regulation, more infrastructure (without higher taxes) and stronger border security. They will get walloped when the time comes.
+With respect to Labour, and my MP is Thangom, I would like to see it undertake a gradual withdraw from its stance on Brexit. Neither, do I believe trying to out hard Brexit the Conservatives will serve well either. With some hindsight, and Prometheus has in the past not been a friend of Labour's policy makers, it can chose those aspects it pushes for, or rejects, in the knowledge that most will turn out to be disastrous for Britain, and that this will be evident by the time of the next general election.
+Dear Proessor,
+Both countries use the English language, noted for its inaccuracies and double meanings. Use German, or Dutch if you must.
+Oh hey there Internet Peoples! As I write this, it’s coming up on midnight, and I’m cosied up in bed, suckling delicious rhubarb and custard sweeties, whilst my wee fingers tap away noisily on the keyboard. I should probably be sleeping, but meh, I already had a nap today.
+So as many of you will already know, I lived in France, near Paris. And I was kind of “done” with France- I was so happy to be home, and I had no desire in my heart to go back. However, I’d already organised a little trip to Paris with a couple of the cute girlies I work with, and so just over a month after my emotional “Goodbye, Paris!” speech to the Facebook world, I was, yet again, on cheeky wee Easyjet flight on my way back…
+Here I am, once again, sharing my French adventures with you. It feels a little like déjà vu, don’t you think?
+It has to be said here at the beginning that when we left Northern Ireland, the weather was INSANELY beautiful. Like, 25 degrees, sun splitting the stones, pale Irish people melting like whippy ice cream kind of heat. And we abandoned that heat to head to a very, VERY flooded Paris.
+Thursday 2nd June: We left an unusually sunny Belfast and, after a quick lunch of paninis and cocktails, we were off on yet another #TourGuidesOnTour adventure- this time, a little further afield than Portrush…
+As we landed in Charles de Gaulle, the woman sitting next to us on the plane warned us that the flooding was getting so bad in central Paris, the RER C was going to be shut down. I think we were just so excited to be in Paris, we didn’t even care about the rising level of the Seine, nor did we understand just how bad the flooding was at that stage!
+We made our way through the functioning metro lines to get into the Montmartre area where we were staying. Our hostel, the Regent, was incredibly well located, and rather cosy. We opted for a three-person private dorm, and I’m so glad we did- we had the most fantastic view of the Sacré Coeur, my favourite church in all the world! Better yet, it was lit up every night, and you could see it watching over the city through the hazy, tattered blinds.
+The first night was really awash- we were sleepy from travelling, and so we needed food, any food, as quickly as possible. A few club sandwiches and a croque monsieur later, we had just about enough energy to visit the Champs Elysees, which is best seen at night. The humid metro and the faint smell of pee was bringing it all back to me; ah, Paris, how I had missed you!
+We managed to do a little bit of damage in Sephora; face masks were purchased, seeing as it was a girly holiday, as were a few other bits and bobs. After an hour of parousing the aisles, it was almost half 11, and so we headed off back to the hostel, but not before we took some gorgeous pictures of the Arc de Triomphe in all it’s splendour.
+Friday 3rd June: WE HAD BREAKFAST IN THE AMELIE CAFE! Croissants, pain au chocolat, coffee and orange juice galore! Afterwards, we had a mission on our hands. A mission to get to the Galeries Lafayette, where we spent an hour absorbing the absolute magic and splendour of it all. That is one lovely flipping roof, let me tell you that. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again- it should be one of your first stops in Paris. That view from the top, when you see the Eiffel Tower for the first time, takes your breath away. They also had a really cool billboard on display, so we may have had a little photo shoot…
+I can’t begin to describe how lovely it was to be a tourist. Like, I was there for over seven months, but I became one of them, a non-French Parisienne, and so I couldn’t be seen to be taking pictures of absolutely everything, nor could I wear a garish Paris jumper. But that was all about to change!
+We did a little tour of the Opera house, which was something I’d always wanted to do, but never had the time. It was beautiful- golden, shiny and lush. The costumes on display were oh so stunning. Afterwards, we mozied around the area, before agreeing that we should go to the place we’d all been DYING to visit- the Ladurée Royale cafe. Things didn’t really go as well as we’d hoped, however, as the staff were SO NASTY and rude, all over a little misunderstanding about us wanting a dessert, not lunch. We’d been so so excited, and they made us feel very small and awkward. My Paris pro tip is to AVOID that particular cafe, and opt for the one on the Champs Elysees instead, where they’re absolutely lovely.
+That being said, they make a really good mille-feuille…
+After our disappointing* trip to Laduree, we went on the “Paris Eye”, which was decorated for the Euros. Each cabin was adorned with an image of someone’s face, and each face had been painted with a flag representing the different countries which were playing. In our chit chat with the guy letting people on and off the carriages, he found out we were from N.I., and he almost lost his mind with excitement when we actually ended up getting the Irish carriage. Every time we did a loop and drove past him, he punched the air and shouted “IRLANDE!” Absolute bae.
+A short walk up towards the closed Louvre (closed because of the flooding), we then made our way towards the Seine. It was only at this stage, when we realised just how bad the flooding was. The water level had risen up so much, there was only enough room for the tiny police boats to get under the bridge. Parisians had lined the river in their thousands to watch the water swish past, and as someone who knows Paris well, I completely understood. The horrific novelty of it was mesmerising.
+We pulled ourselves away, and headed off to Shakespeare and Co. I LOVE that place; it does my purse no good, but my soul very well. We did a little bit of shopping, before popping into their super cute cafe, which I would recommend highly! Afterwards, we were on a mission to find the “Rue des Irlandais”, basically, the “Irish street”. A 20 minute wander and a lovely Frenchman later, we found it, and had our perfect photo op. We wandered through an area I didn’t know, which was the most magical thing- there really is nothing like being a “flaneuse” 😉
+That night, we had apricot jam crepes for dinner, and chatted into the wee hours. Oh, I do love girly sleepovers!
+Saturday 4th June: We had originally planned for this to be our “Versailles” day, but we learned that because of the RER being down, and various other trains being down, there was no way to get there. So, we had another day of just revisiting places, wandering and strolling and making the most of the dry weather. We spent some time shopping in a metro station mall, before heading back to the Champs Elysees. Whilst wandering around Sephora (we just love make up, okay?!) a woman approached us, and asked if we’d like to be part of a free make up tutorial. A make up class? On one of the fanciest streets in Paris? Yes please! It was with Make Up Revolution, and they basically gave us the advice, and we applied the make up. Personally, I really like it- I do love a good spot of strobing! I even walked away with a little highlighter, which is just the most BEAUTIFUL colour ever. (I also bought an UD Eyeliner called “whiskey”, PERFECT for a tour guide like me!)
+After lunch, we went back to the Montmartre area, where we found the “Je t’aime” wall. I had wanted to go there for aaaaaaaaaaages, and I was SO EXCITED to have finally found it! It was as cute and lovely as I’d hoped, and we spent a few minute identifying the English, French, other languages…
+This was quickly followed by a trip up several thousand steps to the Sacre Coeur. It was as peaceful and beautiful as I’d remembered, and we all spent about twenty minutes in the pews, reflecting, absorbing.
+That night, we had planned to go out, all glammed up, but we were all exhausted. Sooooooo instead, we got a cheap bottle of champagne, a McDonalds take out, got into our jammies, and had our last Paris meal on the floor of our hostel. It was one of the cutest things we’ve ever done!
+Sunday 5th June: Our last day! We had fresh croissants and coffee in the morning, followed by a trip to Père Lachaise, the famous cemetery. We saw the graves of Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison, which was a fabulous experience. If you’re planning on going here, take a good few hours out of your day, and more importantly, take a map! it is HUGE.
+That is about it, folks! Going back to Paris made me happy. Ever since I came home from my Year Abroad, I’d had this kind of sick feeling in my stomach every time I thought of France; I kept associating it with my anxiety which got so out of control while I was living there. But now, thankfully, I have all of these great new memories with my girls to look back on, and Paris is a good memory again!
+Thank you for reading, as always, you lovely humans.
+A Bientôt!
+Amber xx
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+22/09/2017 | Gary Hartley | Energy and water efficiency at home | Renewable Heat Incentive, RHI, financial support
+The domestic RHI is the government scheme to get more people installing green heating technologies in their homes.
+For those considering installing a ground-source heat pump (GSHP), air-source heat pump (ASHP) or a wood-burning central heating system (biomass), it may be time to consider it a little more seriously, as tariff payments for using those technologies are going up.
+Annual payments are rising. A typical house with a biomass system could see an increase from £700-£1,195 to £1,190-£1,635. For air-source heat pumps, it’s a rise from £870-£940 to £1,140-£1,235, while for ground-source heat pump models there’s a smaller increase, from £2,355-£2,555 to £2,380-£2,585.
+These calculations are based on average-sized four bedroom houses with 250mm of loft insulation, cavity wall insulation, and solid wall insulation for properties with heat pumps. Cavity and loft insulation, of course, being essential for getting the best performance out of a green heating system.
+The changes have come about following a government consultation on domestic RHI, which aimed to give more certainty to the renewable heat market and improve value for money and consumer support.
+Renewable heating technologies are by no means cheap to install. Biomass heating typically costs from £8,000 to £15,000 to install. Typical air-source heat pumps are in the £6-8,000 range, but can cost significantly more for larger models. Ground-source models, which require the installation of a ground loop as well as the pump itself, cost around £10-18,000.
+With this in mind, the new tariffs offered through the Renewable Heat Incentive could make the paybacks more attractive. It’s also good news for anyone who applied to install a technology through the scheme since 14 December 2016, as the increase will automatically apply to them too.
+Energy Saving Trust Analyst, Aled Stephens (pictured), said: “A tariff increase makes investing in renewable heating more lucrative. As we’ve seen in the past, such as with solar PV under the Feed-in Tariffs, when tariffs have been high there has been an increase in the number of installations.
+“It’s also likely that the cost of these renewable heating systems will come down in the longer term due to the increased demand.”
+But the changes aren’t just about tariff increases. Payments are calculated based on the annual heat demand of properties as stated on their Energy Performance Certificate (EPC), and there will also now be a limit placed on annual heat demand for these technologies.
+For biomass, that will be 25,000 kWh, for air-source heat pumps 20,000, and ground source pumps 30,000. To put these figures into perspective, the typical household uses around 80 per cent of its energy on space heating and water heating, which would be around 13,000kWh.
+Aled explained: “The heat demand caps are quite a bit higher than the typical domestic heat demand, so it’s unlikely that most typical households heat demands will reach the limit.
+“However, the heat demand limits may affect some larger and less energy efficient households. You can check the heat demand on your EPC to know the amount that you will be paid under the RHI.”
+Getting the most out of solar electricity
+Grids just keep getting greener
+Energy efficiency: an underrated resource of our age
+It’s notable that tariffs for solar thermal technology have stayed the same. Aled thinks this is logical.
+He said: “Tariff support is already high for solar thermal, at 20.06p per kilowatt hour. The government consulted on how to change the tariff, even considering whether to remove support for solar thermal altogether.
+“Following the consultation it was determined that they should continue to support the technology, as they realised it has the potential to incentivise more installations and drive the cost down further than was previously thought.”
+Later this year, or early next, further changes are on the way. There will a new requirement for electricity metering on heat pumps, so that consumers can better understand how their technology is performing. Changes to how tariffs decrease as technologies become cheaper over time will also be announced.
+When considering how good an investment renewable heat technologies might be, it’s important to also consider the potential fuel bill savings. The savings vary considerably depending on what fuel you’re replacing.
+For example, installing a biomass system will save you money if you replace a coal fired system, an old gas boiler or old electric heating system – the latter could see an annual £400 to 800 saving in heating bills. However, it’s unlikely to be a money-saving option if replacing a modern gas or oil boiler. Likewise, with heat pumps, replacing older and electric systems is usually the best route to considerable cuts in energy bills.
+Aled added: “The changes reflect the Government’s recognition that heat pumps and biomass heating are important technologies in the transition to low carbon heat, particularly in areas that are not on the gas grid.
+“When you’re considering return on investment for renewable heating options, along with the cost of the technology, a lot depends on the household heat demand and current heating system.”
+“It’s also likely that the
+“It’s also likely that the cost of these renewable heating systems will come down in the longer term due to the increased demand.” That didn’t work with the Solar PV. The only thing that made the costs drop was the dramatic reduction in the FIT
+Does the revision mean that
+Does the revision mean that solar thermal with a thermal store (and other heat source inputs including biomass) now qualified for the RHI?
+Commissioning a Domestic
+Commissioning a Domestic Energy Assessor, or even better a Green Deal Adviser, to carry out a thorough top to bottom energy assessment of your home, accessing every room and loft spaces, resulting in an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is a wise first step if you are wondering if renewable heating could be right for your property, and what this might mean in terms of investment cost for your particular home, and the financial return on your investment from the Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive. Some Advisers, especially those who do much work with renewables, will be able to explain what this means for you - tailored to your occupancy of your home, and your use of energy. The heat demand figures in an EPC are relevant - for space and water heating - the new higher tariffs will be more lucrative for smaller homes, but generally the new limits will limit the RHI for larger homes - and note that it is only the renewable proportion of energy used to run the new heating systems that are used to calculate the RHI (not what you will read on the EPC heat demand section!) nextGenergy can explain this further when working on your home survey and will re-cap when issuing your Advice Report.
+If your property already generates electricity, having an additional meter fitted to measure the quantity in kWhs of your own unused renewable electricity that your property is exporting to the grid currently. Is data that is easy to get - also very relevant when reviewing how much of your own on-site energy is available to assist with linking into helping power an efficient inverter-driven heat pump system for example, and if you already have a hot water tank fitted with an immersion, then surplus energy at any time of the solar generating daylight hours, could be diverting unused on-site generated energy to the hot water tank, giving the new heat pump system less work to do. It usually works out best to consider the whole picture of technology integration for compounded benefits - and to form a plan - again an experienced Adviser's input from the outset, is well worth it.
+This Adviser has learned much herself, having a meter installed in her home to measure unused on-site energy generated by solar panels generating electricity. We have chosen to divert that energy into storage for our own use - not a battery for the house, one of those is not needed - we use the hot water tank, and this family's electric cars - and we still have 6% of our own energy unused, and exporting to the grid when then hot water tank is full. If you would like to read more about this case study, then please look up the Energy Saving Trust's Green Homes Network for the home in Glenrothes with ref SE 583, or there's a bit more written about it on the National Energy Foundation's SuperHomes website. Happy to answer any queries about getting renewables working optimally for your household.
+Shirley Paterson
+Domestic Energy Assessor & Green Deal Adviser
+nextGenergy
+Hi there V Glover-Ward,
+Hi there V Glover-Ward,
+Thanks for getting in touch. We've spoken with Aled (pictured above) who has advised the following:
+“The eligibility requirements have not changed. Solar thermal continues to be eligible for the RHI only if it is producing domestic hot water for a domestic property. Biomass and heat pumps continue to be eligible if they provide space heating, or space and domestic hot water heating. Space heating must be delivered using a liquid medium, such as through a radiator.”
+We hope this helps.
+-
+EST Team
+Disappointed that our March
+Disappointed that our March 2015 ASHP will not see the increase.
+Is it still a good idea and
+Is it still a good idea and profitable to install solar panels?
+Is all of this solar heating
+Is all of this solar heating being installed in council houses,we use electric and hot water too,could you please find out if and when soled power is going to be installed in the ng177np area,like the council houses in Nottingham.
+I have a solar pv
+I have a solar pv installation and it’s registered for FIT payments. I have solar thermal but it is not registered. I have a logwood burning biomass 25kw boiler with 1000 litre accumulator that heats a 5+ bed house but it’s not registered. And of course a wood burning stove in the lounge.
+Can I register my biomass and my solar thermal for payments. If they needed a component upgrade to conform fine. Anyone any thoughts please.
+Just for info I buy a small tank of heating oil every year and have an elec bill per month of £45, until I switch that is. I probably get £1000 in FIT payments each year.
+I am about to install a
+I am about to install a Gasification Wood burning stove with back boiler to replace my existing Clearview stove, to run the central heating and heat the hot water. I decided to try to be greener with my energy use, as I already have Solar panels. I did some research and found that the Walltherm Gasification boiler, with 93% efficiency ,was the best option. The cost is around £10,000, a big investment, especially as I am retired. I understand from the manufacturer that this boiler stove is classed as a Biomass boiler, as It only burns wood. So please tell me, is this boiler stove, part of the RHI payment scheme. If not, why is this so! Please explain to me, for what reason or reasons this is not entitled to RHI, if you cannot answer this question please refer me to some one who can. Regards Geoff Fordyce.
+I have a dry source heat pump
+I have a dry source heat pump system it’s a total waste of money
+Sitting here in my living room with this so called state of the art system with a wool jumper on and my wife with a shawl round her neck just to keep warm a bloody lot of money for nothing
+Hi there and thanks for
+Hi there and thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. One of our energy experts has provided answers to a couple of your questions:
+Shirin
+Solar water heating has always had long payback periods when considered in purely financial terms. You will need to make your own assessment of whether it is worthwhile for you, based on expected savings and the installation price your installer quotes. You can get an independent estimate of your savings and RHI payments by going to.
+David Thomas
+If you own your own property, it is up to you to decide whether to install any renewable heating system, and to pay someone to do this if you decide to go ahead. There is no scheme in place to install a system for you. The RHI is there to provide some support to those who decide to install a system.
+If you rent your property from the council, or from any other landlord, then it is up to the landlord to decide whether to install a renewable heating system in your home. You will need to speak to your landlord to see if they have any plans for your home.
+Tony
+To be eligible for the domestic RHI, you must submit an application within 12 months of the first commissioning date of the system. If you installed your solar thermal system and/or your log boiler less than 12 months ago, and you meet the other criteria for the scheme, then you could submit a potentially successful application now. If they were installed more than 121 months ago then you can no longer apply.
+The log stove is not eligible, irrespective of installation date.
+Geoffrey Fordyce
+Log stoves are not an eligible technology for the RHI, with or without back boilers. Log boilers are eligible but, for the purposes of the RHI, a log boiler is defined as a boiler that heats the property only through providing hot water to a heat distribution system, whereas a stove heats the room it is in directly. All eligible products for the RHI can be found on the Product Eligibility list on the Ofgem website.
+Thanks,
+EST Team
+>>."
+Prior art (Score:5, Insightful)
+10000BC, caves.
+Re:Prior art (Score:4, Funny)
+Re: (Score:3)
+And not at all obvious.
+Re:Prior art, then how about this (Score:2)
+Re: (Score:1)
+Re: (Score:2)
+No.
+Everyone replying seriously is whooshed. I wasn't serious. I RTFA after posting, knowing the title was a hyperbole.
+Re: (Score:3)
+Prior, Schmior.
+The patent, as shown by the myriad other examples given before, is BLOODY FUCKING OBVIOUS and never should have been granted if the US patent office were not goddamn overworked and judged on the "metric" of how many patents they grant each year.
+Re: (Score:3)
+Oh come on. You know that you are supposed to defer to the PTO [slashdot.org] because of their superior knowledge!!!
+Re: (Score:2)
+Change accessing website, to accessing content and themed text adds hundreds of thousands of movie titles, music titles and TV titles to the list of prior art. So it should immediately be obvious where the idea was stolen from and it only be about for more than a century.
+Re:Prior art, more recent and more applicable (Score:3)
+Re: (Score:2)
+10000BC, caves.
+Re: (Score:2)
+Well, you could call Morgs third cousin Glock a "computer", because he is the only one in the tribe capable of counting to five.
+Then a wall or a stone tablet would be a "computer-readable medium".
+And cute little Gnuutna could be classified as a "processor", because she processes all the meat the men hunt, and Morg and Glock can give her instructions to lure members of other tribes into the nets they have constructed over at specific sides of the cave, which would then basically be "performing a method for a
+Re: (Score:2)
+coca cola.
+many other websites.
+it's just another example of google being evil for sake of being evil and wasting investors money for the sake of not knowing what else to patent. I mean, this will not help android with it's patent troubles or are they going to cross license this? it's a funny novelty, but ehm, they shouldn't waste time on using lawyers for that, googles done enough of funny stuff.
+also, for giggles, go check localised google home pages (for
+.sk for example) and then think.. did these guys hire
+sigh. (Score:3)
+very heavy sigh.
+Re: (Score:3)
+very heavy sigh.
+Indeed. I googled stupid patents [google.com] and it came up with 1,530,000 results. When I change it to stupid patents google [google.com] I get 5,440,000 results. Hmmm, I wonder what that's about?
+Re: (Score:1)
+I guess things like your comment would show up only under the latter search.
+Re: (Score:1)
+It's about you sounding pretty dumb.......the words are queried by 'OR''s not 'AND''S.....so those extra 3mil+ words contained the word 'GOOGLE'.......
+Re: (Score:2)
+Searching for "+stupid +patents +google" (making them all "ands") gives 733000 results.
+:p
+Pants. (Score:2)
+I misread
+.. and here to tell you that "stupid pants google" gives 13,800,000 results.
+Re: (Score:2)
+Actually at the time of this comment "stupid pants google" only returns 3 results. 2 are from facebook, and the third is the comment I'm replying to now.
+Another example:
+Re: (Score:2)
+I think something along the line of:
+"All Patents Are Stupid"
+"But Some Are More Stupid Than Others"
+Re: (Score:1)
+More like a facepalm for sighing. Google doesnt' sue for patents, they just use them to protect themselves. So I wouldn't worry about them so much as oh, you know, microsoft, oracle, apple? duh.
+Re: (Score:2)
+Re: (Score:2)
+Are you afraid to breathe because someone might patent it? That's a microsoft response.
+Google hasn't sued anyone for patents, they don't need to. Get over the fucking FUD.
+Re: (Score:2)
+Re: (Score:2)
+Re: (Score:2)
+I too would like confirmation on this assertion. Can it be said that Google has never initiated a law suit a party over patents? Can anyone refute this claim? (I know, proving a negative... so I am seeking a positive to disprove a negative)
+Also, do we have any word or statement from Google that they will not sue another party for patent infringement?
+Re: (Score:2)
+Are you a republican? they'd be proud of that kind of logic.
+Let's try it this way, which has already been proven: has google sued anyone over patents?
+Your focus is on fear, and thus idiotic.
+hint: no.
+Re: (Score:2)
+What would be even better is if even Google didn't get the patent. Then Google didn't have to not sue anybody.
+I've been doing holiday flavoured themes (including logo's) for my own website(s) long before I ever touched Google, and I got the idea from other sites that have been doing this far before. Perhaps some of these sites were the inspiration for Google to do the same with their own logo.
+Either way the PLATO prior-art proves Google is in the wrong. The only honorable thing Google can do now is to relea
+Re: (Score:2)
+You have no idea. I help administrate/develop a couple of websites and I was asked to start cycling out the background and logo depending on the holiday and time of year.
+This patent is so fucking stupid it's ridiculous. Now Google is the only one that gets to do that? Really?
+Mind blowing stupidity. Now I have to inform several website owners of the patent when they ask this so they are at least informed of possible patent infringement.
+Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
+The blame does not lie with Google. It does not lie with the unholy lawyers that would be (are) parasites on humanity by abusing the patent.
+The blame DOES lie with the USPTO. They should have shredded the application, put in a box, shit in the box, and sent it back to Google.
+I don't blame a child when they get into trouble doing something stupid that was condoned, supervised, and encouraged by the parents. I blame the parents.
+****
+If Google really was doing this for our benefit as part of their Do No Evil
+Ridiculous. (Score:2)
+Re:Ridiculous. (Score:4, Insightful)
+So, did you read the patent claims, or just the typically misleading
+/. summary?
+Re: (Score:2)
+So, did you read the patent claims, or just the typically misleading
+/. summary?
+I agree I did, then read the actual patent claims: agree with the grandparents conclusion. Ridiculous.
+How original (Score:2)
+Re: (Score:3).
+Re: (Score:2)
+If penalties for perjury on patent applications were even half decent that would actually be a good idea.
+Re: (Score:2).
+You forgot "on the Internet".
+All ideas are patentable if you add, "On the Internet" to them. It's like a game...
+Re: (Score:2)
+Yeah, so? It never stopped any of the various computer related patents.
+10 years (Score:2)
+Aren't patents supposed to be for ideas that aren't obvious?
+Filing: 2001
+Granting: 2011
+Obviously it wasn't that obvious.
+Re: (Score:2)
+Re: (Score:2)
+Filing: 2001 Granting: 2011
+You think ten years is a long time? Back in the Dialup days of the 80s (35 years ago) it was common for BBSes to change their logos to celebrate holidays. For example "TNT BBS" might suddenly become "Turkey and Tater Tots" BBS for a day. Google's idea is no more original than multitasking, or multiple screening desktops.
+And were those logos links, or were they just ascii text? Did they have "one or more animated images"? Were search results associated with the logo? Could the user select the logo and receive a customized document related to the holiday?
+I remember the dialup days of the 80s, too, and also remember that they were only 25 years ago.. They were few and far between, but they existed.
+I remember the 80s too, and if you think the 80s weren't prior art, you're being disingenuous.
+No, not disingenuous at all... Respectfully, you don't understand what prior art means. Yes, the 80s are prior art - there was art, yes, and it was prior, yes, so it's prior art. The question is whether there's one item of art - one publication or other record - that fully anticipates each and every element of the claimed invention. That's anticipatory prior art, and frankly, there was nothing in the 80s that did that.
+Alternately, there are many items you mention that taught or suggested different elements
+Re: (Score:2)
+> But was anyone animated BBS logos using ansi.sys?
+If you never saw an animated BBS logo/login screen then you really didn't use BBSes, did you? That was one of the main points of ansi.sys - to provide animation. Come on, seriously, if you deny this, I can probably dig through Facebook and find an old WWIV/Telegard/Renegade BBS operator to tell you you're full of it.
+WWIVnet was full of ansi animation.
+>And does the user get the MOTD in response to clicking on an animated BBS logo,
+How is "clicking on
+Re: (Score:2)
+The obviousness part is usually handled by the courts, not by the USPTO.
+Lately they've done a great job. The most recent Supreme Court precedent says that it has to be non-obvious in the context of wanting to achieve the same result.
+So if you apply that here, it would have to be non-obvious in the context of wanting to change the logo on special events.
+It has received derision from some here that the court left open the possibility of business method patents, but they didn't give any examples and seemed ske
+Re: (Score:2)
+Oh, Really [slashdot.org]?
+The feds don't seem to agree:
+If they take away recourse to the courts, then they better get the obviousness part sorted out before they grant the bloody thing. Because, as it stands right now, you can pa
+Re: (Score:2)
+Because a backwater of the executive branch keeps asking the court to change it's mind and let them do whatever they want, doesn't tell us anything about, or contradict, precedent.
+Re: (Score:2)
+I hope you're right, I really do. But, I really have visions of the Solicitor General establishing a new precedent saying that the USPTO's decisions should be final.
+That would be bad.
+Re: (Score:2)
+That's not who establishes precedent.
+Re: (Score:2)
+Sorry, yes. I'm hoping the courtswon't use the amicus brief to establish a new precedent that sides with the solicitor general that says the USPTO shouldn't be second guessed by a jury.
+For more specific legal advice, contact a lawyer.
+;-)
+Re: (Score:2)
+."
+It comes off as really inflammatory until the third or fourth time you read it. He doesn't say take the jury out of the equation, he is advocating that the standard the jury should use in overruling the Patent Office should be "clear and convincing evidence standard" instead of the "preponderance standard" that Microsoft is arguing should be applied.
+Re: (Score:2)
+Ah
+... evidentiary standards and what constitutes proof ... not what I was really thinking that was saying at all.
+Then I
+Re: (Score:3)
+Self defence? (Score:3)
+Have hyper-litigious, like Microsoft, created an environment where every silly idea must be patented just out of self defence?
+If Google did not patent this, Microsoft would have; then Microsoft would have sued Google over it's use.
+Re: (Score:2)
+If Google did not patent this, Microsoft would have; then Microsoft would have sued Google over it's use.
+People still have this delusion that Google is not evil. Amazing.
+Are you ignorant? .
+Google may not be perfect, but Microsoft's IP litigation is in a class by itself.
+Re: .
+I didn't say anything at all in Microsoft's defense.
+Google may not be perfect, but Microsoft's IP litigation is in a class by itself.
+Again, I'm not making any claims about Microsoft. I'm simply expressing amazement that people still see Google as this benevolent entity that only ever acts in the public's best interest (or at worst, defensively, as you seemed to imply) Google is a publicly traded multi-national corporation that is driven by the need to expand markets and increase revenue. If they did not see monetary value in this "invention", they would not have applied for the patent,
+Re: (Score:2)
+Strawman. Nobody ever claimed it was altruistic. OP claimed it was defensive.
+Re: (Score:2)
+Re: (Score:2)
+But still necessary. If you want change, you need to change the system. Preventing companies from taking up defensive patents just means they're more likely to get sued. The problem's not with Google's behaviour, it's with the system that requires that behaviour.
+Re: (Score:2)
+Re: (Score:2)
+Examples? Had a quick look, but didn't see any examples of Google suing for patent violation. All I could find were articles about Google being sued, or Google suing to overturn other companies' patents.
+Re: (Score:2)
+BTW, on the topic of defensive patents, look up what happened to Amazon's 1-click patents on Slashdot. I read that MS's patents filed before 1996 or so was intended to be defensive too, but one of them was invoked in the B&N lawsuits.
+Re: (Score:2)
+Microsoft is a moderate sort of evil. Apple, now Apple is pure evil.
+That's why they've had so much difficulty producing a white iPhone. They'd build them, and they'd all turn black due to Apple's evilness.
+Re: (Score:2)
+Re: (Score:1)
+Have hyper-litigious, like Microsoft, created an environment where every silly idea must be patented just out of self defence?
+If Google did not patent this, Microsoft would have; then Microsoft would have sued Google over it's use.
+What makes you think Microsoft has anything to do with this? I mean, come on.... We have a story about google patenting something stupid and somehow it is Microsoft's fault?
+Re: (Score:2)
+What makes you think Microsoft has anything to do with this? I mean, come on.... We have a story about google patenting something stupid and somehow it is Microsoft's fault?
+I said companies like Microsoft. Amazon, Apple, Paul Allan, and others play the same game. I guess MS came to mind because of MS silly patent lawsuits against Android device makers.
+Re: (Score:2)
+This started with the statement by walterbyrd was (sic):
+Have hyper-litigious, like Microsoft, created an environment where every silly idea must be patented just out of self defence?
+If Google did not patent this, Microsoft would have; then Microsoft would have sued Google over it's use.
+I would argue that Microsoft has had it's share of stupid lawsuits, but that's not really the point. Yes, like any other company in the United States with the trademark and patent laws there, they are hyper-litigious. I do not think invoking them as an example was meant to imply any sort of hierarchy of hyper-litigiousness. If I were to make a statement saying "Have untrustworthy people, like X, created an environment where..." I do not mean that only
+Next Up (Score:2)
+CC.
+christmas (Score:1)
+Great... (Score:3)
+Google just patented the Message of the Day...
+idiocracy tag? (Score:1)
+Why doesn't every post about the USPTO automatically have an "idiocracy" tag?
+Re: (Score:2)
+The idiocracy mainly comes about from Slashdotters who don't know (a) how patents work or (b) how to examine patent applications.
+The USPTO is hiring. If you think you can make a difference, and you're a US citizen with at least a Bachelor's in an engineering field, and you can relocate to the Alexandria, Virginia, area, you might consider applying.
+Re: (Score:1)
+Why I am a huge advocate of patent reform is this worth giving up my pay check for? Can, I just do it part time like if I reviewed work for journals. How much does a USPTO officer get paid?
+Re: (Score:3)
+Caveat and mea culpa: I just checked the website at [usptocareers.gov] , and it turns out that the job vacancies are currently closed. Probably something to do with Congress still not passing a real budget, and the USPTO doesn't want to have people relocate to NOVA if the government is just going to shut down immediately afterwards. Hiring will undoubtedly start again once the budget situation is resolved, especially if Congress also passes the patent reform bill that would give the USPTO fee-s
+Re: (Score:2)
+And if you spend too much time searching and searching for things that are extremely obscure in the prior art, you won't make production.
+That sounds like the problem, right there. If I can approve a patent and move on and get 1 point, or search, search and search then deny a patent and get 1 point, guess how I'm going to play the game.
+Patents should be for extraordinary stuff. Denying a patent should at least get you a party with cake and ice cream. (:-)
+There should be bonuses for every successful search and denied patent.
+If the Patent office relies on case law to deny patents, then that's another big problem. Most obvious stuff th
+Re: (Score:2)
+Re: (Score:2)
+If the Patent office relies on case law to deny patents, then that's another big problem.
+For the most part, this means in a general sense. Case law isn't usually relied upon for the specifics of a rejection, but rather for the underlying framework to support the logic behind a rejection. The most basic example is the Supreme Court's decision in KSR v. Teleflex, which reinforces earlier case law set forth in Graham v. John Deere, which established the factual inquiries required for determining obviousness:
+1. Determine the scope and content of the prior art (i.e., conduct a search of the prior
+Re: (Score:2)
+The USPTO is hiring. If you think you can make a difference...
+I sincerely doubt they are hiring people who think they can make a difference. More like people willing to cope with the backlog for 10-15 years.
+Perks include: "Meet Our Customers" Junkets, Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays. And Taco Tuesdays.
+Slashdot will be in violation (Score:2)
+Slashdot will be in violation of this patent in about a week and a half
+:)
+Re: (Score:3)
+IBM also files lots of dubious patents (Score:1)
+Does IBM use those patents to harass competitors? (Score:2)
+Does IBM use those to patents to file frivolous lawsuits all of time? Does IBM aggressively use those patents for to harass and intimidate it's competitors?
+If IBM does not do those things, then I would think that is a very significant difference between IBM, and Microsoft.
+Read the claims (Score:1)
+The patent is very narrow and specific, and is unlikely to be useful in court. For example: the doodle needs to be based on a standard company logo, as opposed to a logo for a product or service, or other image. The new logo must be created to reflect a special event. It has to modify the original standard company logo, and it must include one or more animated images. There must be a link or search results associated with the image, which are triggered by selecting the image, and they must be related to the
+Dangerous Patent (Score:2)
+In any patent litigation, the inventor(s) of a patent can be deposed by the defendants. In this particular patent, the other side can force Sergey Brin to sit in front of a video camera for hours and answer all manner of questions about Google Co. The relevance of those questions is given a lot of latitude. Then, that video and a transcript become public documents in the lawsuit.
+This is not something Google wants to do.
+Don't be evil... ok (Score:2)
+But what the hell is this?
+How about don't be ridiculous too?
+Re:Don't be evil - google is not being evil (Score:2)
+Unlike MS, Google is not actually filing harassment lawsuits against it's competitors.
+When Google starts doing that, then it may be fair to call google actions evil.
+Holy Shit I Hate that Fucking Thing (Score:2)
+It being patented is just doubly stupid.
+So if I have enough money (Score:2)
+I could just come up with "if user does this, then something is done when sensing a users action, which entices the user to perform an action, which leads that person to some place of my choice.
+SO can I patent this
+Say I have an e-commerce site and the lowest profit margin I need to make is 30% on each sale/item.
+A user at my sites selects one or more items and when all those item(s), minus the shipping cost come out to 30%+ profit margin the shopping cart software then gives the user free shipping (also not
+coalition for patent fairness (Score:2)
+So... (Score:2)
+What would it take for the USPTO to reject a patent application (one which includes the phrase "on a computer")?
+Re: (Score:2)
+Re: (Score:2)
+Compoopter.
+Special events, indeed. (Score:2)
+So, they patented a KISS doll for corporate logos.
+The summary made me think Google patented oekaki. Now that would've made me mad.
+Re: (Score:2)
+Re: (Score:2)
+No, it only covers special event logos.
+Re: (Score:3)
+It's actually even narrower than merely a special event logo. The first claim covers special event logos that includes one or more animated images. The claims only covers their animated and their interactive doodles, but doesn't cover doodles of just static images. Thus, their Pacman doodle is covered, but their July 4th doodle consisting of a painting isn't.
+Not that it isn't still pretty bad. It's a dumb patent, but it's also really narrow.
+Re:evil? No, not yet. (Score:2)
+Any tech company, especially a tech company that Microsoft is specifically targeting for legal harassment; would be stupid not to arm itself with every silly patent it could dream up.
+Big difference between MS and Google - at least so far - Google is not using silly patents to harass it's competitors; which is more than Microsoft can say.
+Just filing a patent is not necessarily evil, even if the patent is silly.
+Re: (Score:2)
+..... i'm a former examiner and i've come across many, many outrageous applications. this one isn't all that absurd though.
+Oh, now that's scary!
+These scrumptious peanut butter chocolate half moon cookies showcase the greatest flavor combination in the dessert world: peanut butter and chocolate. Use this simple homemade peanut butter cookie recipe and dip halfway into a rich and fudge-like chocolate coating. The cookies are sweet, a little salty, chewy and soft-baked with slightly crisp edges.
+The recipe is slightly adapted from King Arthur Baking Company The Essential Cookie Companion cookbook, a must-have book in any cookie lover’s kitchen!.
+If you’re a baker, surely you’re familiar with King Arthur Baking Company. I’ve used their signature flour exclusively in my kitchen for ages– and I’m not being compensated for this post or to say this– I’m truly a huge fan and follow their blog closely. Their recipes are trusted, their products are high quality, and their baking inspiration is aplenty.
+King Arthur Baking Company The Essential Cookie Companion
+They recently published a newly revised and updated cookbook called The Essential Cookie Companion. I’ve had the original version of this giant book for years and this newly revised version provides a fresh spin with over 400 cookie recipes that are approachable for beginners and experts alike. Yes… 400! I was even lucky enough to author a blurb for this beauty:
+“When it comes to recipes, you can trust King Arthur Baking Company to deliver the very best―and The Essential Cookie Companion is no exception. Bakers of any skill level will appreciate the in-depth instructions. The successful, freshly baked cookies are, of course, a delicious bonus!” – ME!
+It’s just a really great cookbook to have in your collection because it covers a vast range of cookie recipes including entire chapters on sugar cookies, oatmeal cookies, biscotti, shortbread, peanut butter cookies, and brownies plus chapters for bar cookies, drop cookies, roll-out cookies, shaped cookies, no-bake cookies, and more. Not all of the cookie recipes have photos to go with them, but there are many illustrations depicting specific steps plus a lengthy Getting Started section explaining techniques, tools, how to create thoughtful cookie packages, an ingredient weight chart, and more. All of the recipes include weight + volume ingredient measurements. I especially love the Create-a-Cookies on page 365 and used Peanut Chocolate Half Moons on page 68 for today’s recipe.
+Today’s new cookie recipe is adapted from the cookbook. The process and ingredients are exactly the same only I chill the cookie dough for 1 hour to prevent over-spreading and added more chocolate to the topping.
+Tell Me About These Peanut Butter Chocolate Half Moon Cookies
+- Flavor: Enjoy peanut butter, peanuts, and chocolate in these sweet and slightly salty brown sugared cookies. The recipe says you can use add-ins such as peanut butter chips, butterscotch morsels, chocolate chips, or a combination. I actually opted for dry-roasted peanuts to really amp up the peanut flavor. They also provided a little crunch to the finished cookie.
+- Texture: If you avoid over-baking, the peanut butter chocolate half moons are soft and chewy with slightly crisp edges. The chocolate coating, made from chocolate, butter, and a little corn syrup, is rich and fudge-like. I love that the chocolate isn’t just melted chocolate– it’s a soft fudge icing and eventually sets.
+- Ease: This is an easy 1 bowl cookie dough without any fussy steps. Shaping the cookie dough is as simple as dropping it on a lined baking sheet by the tablespoonful. Do not roll the dough in your hands because I tried that and the cookies over-spread. Coating half of the cookies in chocolate requires you to dip them. When it comes to cookie decorating, that’s certainly easy!
+- Time: The recipe in the book does not require you to chill the cookie dough, but I found a 1 hour chill in the refrigerator helpful for the cookies to hold shape. The rest of the cookie recipe moves very quickly. Bake the cookies at 375°F (191°C), a slightly higher temperature than some cookie recipes to help set the shape quickly.
+Quick Overview: How to Make Peanut Butter Chocolate Half Moons
+The cookie dough comes together in just 1 mixing bowl. The butter and brown sugar are creamed with salt, baking soda, and vanilla extract. I found it interesting to cream the butter and brown sugar with these other ingredients, but understand that this is to evenly distribute those flavors and leavening in this 1 bowl dough. After that, add the egg and peanut butter one at a time and finally, beat in the flour and your add-in. Expect a super soft and creamy dough. Cover and chill for 1 hour before baking the cookies.
+Chocolate Icing
+You need pure baking chocolate or high-quality chocolate chips, softened butter, and a little corn syrup. The butter and corn syrup give the icing flexibility so it sets into a soft and thick fudgy consistency vs a hard chocolate coating. It’s wonderfully rich and 1 batch of these peanut chocolate half moons didn’t even last a day with a crew of taste testers.
+- They’re almost like a peanut butter version of black and white cookies and a frosted version of peanut butter chocolate swirl cookies. These peanut butter chocolate cookies also deserve a shout out for all the peanut butter + chocolate lovers out there. So many cookies, so little time!
+I had some extra peanuts nearby so I chopped and sprinkled them on top of the chocolate while it was still wet. That’s completely optional but makes a pretty finishing touch. You could also add flaky sea salt (so good here!).
+I hope you enjoy these beautiful peanut butter chocolate half moons and if you have a moment, check out The Essential Cookie Companion!Print
+Peanut Butter Chocolate Half Moons
+- Prep Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes (includes chilling)
+- Cook Time: 10 minutes
+- Total Time: 3 hours, 30 minutes (includes icing setting time)
+- Yield: 30 cookies 1x
+- Category: Cookies
+- Method: Baking
+- Cuisine: American
+Description
+These peanut butter chocolate half moons combine soft and chewy peanut butter cookies with a fudge-like chocolate icing. The recipe is slightly adapted from King Arthur Baking Company The Essential Cookie Companion cookbook.
+Ingredients
+Cookies
+- 1/2 cup (8 Tablespoons; 1 stick; 113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
+- 1 cup (213g) packed light or dark brown sugar
+- 1/4 teaspoon salt
+- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
+- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
+- 1 large egg, at room temperature
+- 1/2 cup (135g) peanut butter, creamy or chunky*
+- 1 cup (120g) unbleached all-purpose flour
+- 1 cup (170g) peanuts, peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, or chocolate chips, or a combination*
+Chocolate Icing
+- two 4-ounce semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate bars (226g total), chopped (about 1 and 1/2 cups)*
+- 2 Tablespoons (28g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
+- 2 Tablespoons (40g) light corn syrup
+- optional garnish: flaky sea salt or finely chopped peanuts
+Instructions
+- Make the cookies: In a large mixing bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter, brown sugar, salt, vanilla, and baking soda on medium-high speed. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine. Add the egg and beat until light and fluffy. Add the peanut butter, beating until well blended. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine. Beat in the flour and peanuts/chips on low speed until the dough is cohesive. Dough will be soft and creamy.
+- Cover cookie dough and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour and up to 3 days before baking. If chilling for longer than 2 hours, allow the dough to sit at room temperature for at least 20-30 minutes before baking.
+- Towards the end of chill time, preheat oven to 375°F (191°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
+- Drop the dough by the Tablespoonful onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake the cookies for 9-10 minutes or until very lightly browned around the edges. Cookies will appear very soft, but will become chewy and slightly crispy as they cool. Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
+- Make the icing: In a double boiler, melt the chocolate and butter together stirring constantly over low heat. OR microwave in a medium heat-proof bowl in 20 second increments, stirring after each until completely melted. Stirring is essential as the butter/chocolate may separate otherwise. Once smooth, remove from heat and stir in the corn syrup. Dip half of each cooled cookie into the chocolate (to make a half-moon effect) and, if desired, lightly sprinkle crushed peanuts or flaky sea salt on the chocolate. Return the cookies to the cooling rack to set, about 1-2 hours. Feel free to place cookies in the refrigerator to speed up the setting time.
+- Dipped cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
+Notes
+- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Baked cookies with or without chocolate icing freeze well up to three months. Though I don’t recommend rolling this dough into balls and baking (just drop by the Tablespoonful as instructed), you can roll the dough into 1 Tablespoon balls and freeze them for up to three months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Here’s how to freeze cookie dough.
+- Peanut Butter: You can use creamy or crunchy peanut butter in this cookie recipe. I tested with natural and non-natural varieties and both worked.
+- Peanuts or Other Add-Ins: I used salted dry-roasted peanuts as the add-in in this cookie dough. You can use unsalted and/or raw peanuts if desired. Instead you can use any of the listed add-ins including peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, or chocolate chips. Or use a combination totalling 1 cup.
+- Chocolate: You can certainly use 1 and 1/2 cups (or anywhere between 220-270g) high quality chocolate chips, but I love using chopped baking chocolate. Baking chocolate is sold in the baking aisle as 4 ounce bars, so you need 2. Feel free to use semi-sweet or bittersweet.
+- Adapted from King Arthur Baking Company The Essential Cookie Companion. The recipe is wonderful and found on page 68 in the cookbook. I added a chill time which helps make slightly thicker cookies as pictured. I also reduced the corn syrup in the icing and added 1/2 cup extra chocolate to the icing so it makes a little more. (I dip the cookies heavily!) This printable recipe includes those 2 small changes. A little garnish of crushed peanuts or sea salt is optional.
+Keywords: peanut butter chocolate half moon cookies
+Reader Questions and Reviews
+These were a hit with my family. I followed your directions for the ganache and it is thick! Is there any way to thin the chocolate after it’s already been made according to the recipe?
+★★★★
+Hi Meg, We are glad your family enjoyed these! If your chocolate is too thick, it’s possible it simply cooled down too much before dipping. If you try again you can try keeping it over very low heat until you are finished dipping your cookies to make it easier.
+These cookies are absolutely delicious and a big hit at a recent family gathering. My chocolate was too thick though. It was more of a scoop than a dip. No one else noticed (or cared) but I’m curious as to why that happened. The only difference was that I substituted organic blue agave for the corn syrup. I will definitely make these again even if I never solve the thickness problem. I highly recommend!
+★★★★★
+Second time making these and not disappointed . So delicious and so easy to combination of peanuts and chocolate is perfect! Made them smaller this time as I am gifting them along with other goodies for Valentine’s!
+★★★★★
+These. Are. Yummy!
+This recipe was amazing! I added some marshmallows to the batter with the chocolate chips. The gooey marshmallows were an amazing addition!
+★★★★★
+Usually love all of your recipies – was unfortunately disappointed in this one. The cookies were great but the icing wasn’t. I tried multiple times & read the comments for tips. The icing is way too thick and won’t stick to the cookies at all. It needs to be adjusted. Having to give these to a friend without the icing.
+★★
+Since I started baking during COVID. I’ve used only sallys website for my Baking fun! But yeah looks like I’m not the only one who had issues with the chocolate. I wasted so much chocolate trying to get it to work but it kept separating. Googling solutions it seems it’s rare to mix the two because the moisture causes problems. After wasting chocolate, I ended up just melting chocolate only and dipping the cookie in that, no butter or syrup. If that’s from the original review. I don’t think thats good for your average baker. Because when I tried chocolate no butter, when I added the syrup it messed up too. So if you’re having trouble I’d say, just melt the chocolate alone.
+★★
+I had the same chocolate issues! The first recipe I’ve ever had any issues with from Sally. I also ended up just using melted chocolate and that worked great! The cookies themselves were delicious and super soft.
+The cookies themselves are great!
+But,,,,,,,,,,, I too had issues with the chocolate seizing up. TWICE.
+I followed the directions exactly, so not sure what I did wrong. 🙁
+★★★★
+Hi Lynda! Did you use pure baking chocolate? Any tiny bit of water in the bowl will cause the chocolate to seize. Make sure to use a very clean and dry bowl to make the chocolate icing.
+I love your recipes Sally!
+I am tracking my food intake and was wondering where I can find the nutritional information for your recipes?
+Hi Noula! buy peanut butter from my local farmers market that is ground peanuts only, nothing else. Do you think this will work in this recipe?
+Hi Rebecca, we did test this recipe with both natural and processed peanut butter and both worked. Your cookies will be more crumbly with the peanut butter you mention.
+the BRASS PROJECT
+Call for Proposals
+2020 Results
+We are excited to announce our 2020 call for proposals winners! Submissions were evaluated by Brass Project members and our composer in residence, Saad Haddad. These new works will be premiered throughout our 2020/2021 season.
+Zvony Nagy-Top Prize
+Proposal
+Zvony Nagy's proposal is inspired by the Emma Lazarus poem "The New Colossus", which is engraved at the base of the Statue of Liberty. "Being born in Croatia, and having immigrated to the United States, the Lazarus poem strongly resonates with me". By exploring the themes of home, belonging, and the American dream through musical and artistic lenses, Zvony will create a multi-layered work whose evocative narrative will unfold the lines of the poem. "As an immigrant calling America my home, through music and poetry I want to ask a question, namely—has humanity not always been in a state of migration, thus making all of us migrants in our right?"
+Biography
+Zvony Nagy is a Croatian-born American composer based in Texas. He composes acoustic, choral, electroacoustic, and multimedia music. His compositions are informed by cognitive and computer sciences of music and are shaped by technology, spirituality, and social issues. His compositions also employ computer-assisted processes for music composition, notation, and analysis, as well as self-referential and dynamic systems, along with more intuitive approaches to compositional techniques and processes.
+Nagy is the recipient of the first prize in the Cremona Music Yamaha Disklavier Competition, Seattle Symphony Composition Prize, the Iron Composer Award, and the Swan Prize in Music Composition. His music is released on PARMA Recordings, Albany Records, and MSR Classics He serves on the music faculty at Tarleton State University (Texas A&M), and he holds a Doctor of Music in Composition degree from Northwestern University. For more information, visit
+Proposal
+Nell's proposal is inspired by the visionary abstract paintings of early 20th century Swedish mystic, Hilma af Klint. "When I first saw Klint's works at the Guggenheim Museum's retrospective over a year ago (the museum's most highly-attended exhibition ever), I had a powerful and immediate impulse to match the unique timbres and characteristics of brass instruments with the vibrant colors and dynamic imagery of Klint's paintings." Structured into 3-4 brief, contrasting movements that would each respond to one of the several sub-series from Klint's Paintings for the Temple—for example, Evolution, The Swan, or The Tree of Knowledge. Each of these sub-series is characterized by a distinctive color palette and a set of symbols or recurring visual devices. Performances could be accompanied by video projections, timed to the music and featuring the paintings that inspired each movement.
+Biography
+Nell Shaw Cohen evokes visual art, landscapes, and the lives of mavericks in her lyrical works for the concert hall, stage, and digital media. Her commissions have included Houston Grand Opera, Boston Choral Ensemble, Skylark Vocal Ensemble, and Montage Music Society. Her operas have had workshops with Fort Worth Opera, American Opera Projects, New Dramatists, New York University, and University of New Mexico. She’s been Artist-in-Residence at the Brush Creek Foundation and Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and she’s an alumna of AOP’s Composers & the Voice and New Dramatists Composer-Librettist Studio. Her honors include the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Arts Award and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Prize from the International Alliance for Women in Music. As Director of LandscapeMusic.org, an international composers' network, she advocates for music inspired by nature and place. Cohen studied at NYU and New England Conservatory and lives in Brooklyn, NY. Learn more at nellshawcohen.com.
+Nell Cohen
+William Cooper
+Proposal
+William's proposal is to compose a piece in several movements that takes the form of abstract contrapuntal variations, inspired by the consort music of Tallis, Byrd, and Gibbons, while also continuing to explore the elements of polytonal harmony, and blurred, altered recapitulation "that I have been experimenting with in my recent works". "I strongly believe that the most beautiful brass writing treats the brass vocally, and contrapuntally. This goes back to some of the earliest notated brass music by Gabrielli, Praetorius, Monteverdi et. alia, and, I believe, is resuscitated in the music dramas of Richard Wagner."
+Biography
+William David Cooper is a composer, conductor and organist based in Boston, MA. His two-act opera Hagar and Ishmael has been featured by Fort Worth Opera, West Edge Opera, and the National Opera Association, and has been praised by the San Francisco Chronicle for its “richly soaring vocal lines.” His Requiem was commissioned by St. Peter’s Church, NYC, and his choral music has also been performed by The New York Virtuoso Singers, and C4. He has received awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Prize and ASCAP, and fellowships from the Aspen Music Festival, the Composers Conference, Brush Creek, I-Park, Ucross and VCCA. An alumnus of UC Davis and the Juilliard School, Cooper serves on the faculty of the Walnut Hill School for the Arts, and as organist and choirmaster at St. James Episcopal Church in New London, CT.
+Florence Maunders
+Proposal
+"I feel there’s a lot to be angry about at the moment, a lot of angry faces shouting angry words at each other, a lot of angry rhetoric from all sides of the political and cultural spectrum. Anger can be a really positive force though - it can motivate people to get up and fight against injustice, to challenge the system, to bring down the enemies of freedom…" Florence wants to explore the feelings of anger and alienation that everyday people feel within their own communities when they feel challenged by change - the anger experienced by those seen as “different” or “outsiders” - as “unwanted immigrants” or “you’re sort ain’t welcome here” - and wants to do so using the words of the people on both sides as projected text, and as an electronic soundtrack in which we will hear people speak in their own (angry) words.
+Biography
+Florence Anna Maunders is rapidly gaining a reputation for exciting, original and appealing compositions. Much of her
+output explores the ideas of synthesis, fusion and transformation. In particular she draws extensively from her background
+and experience as a producer of electronic dance music, her many years of performing as a jazz pianist & her abiding
+fascination with the melodies, rhythms and techniques of the music of the Middle East & the Punjab. In all of her work there
+is a strong feeling of pulse and "dance-ability". Flori completed her undergraduate studies at the RNCM with Anthony Gilbert, Adam Gorb, Robin Walker & Simon Holt, and then developed a career as an educator, conductor, performer, EDM producer and composer. In recent years composition has become her main focus, although she continues to direct a number of choirs and orchestras, and performs and teaches regularly. She has worked with orchestras, choirs, soloists and ensembles too numerous to list, and her music has been frequently performed across the UK, Europe and the USA. Some selected highlights for 2020 include performances with the Ligeti Quartet (Leeds), London Contemporary Chamber Orchestra, Bromley Symphony Orchestra, a solo piano piece in Carnegie Hall (NYC), two premieres of new pieces commissioned by Amiee Johnson (Belfast), a performance by Ensemble Black Pencil (Amsterdam) and Red Note Ensemble (Glasgow) as well as solo pieces for Matt Farthing (percussion) and Carla Rees (Bass Flute). Later in the year Flori will be resident at the Vale of Glamorgan Festival where two of her pieces will be premiered. For more details check out her website:
+Matthew Langford
+Proposal
+"There are three stages of twilight before evening- civil, nautical, and astronomical twilight. This piece, "Nightfall", will mirror these three stages in addition to evening as the fourth section. Musical changes of color, light, and texture will come from changes in combinations of modes, triads, orchestration, and other musical material. I will compose this piece with a blend of multiple contemporary and impressionistic compositional techniques as well as some of my own that I have been exploring over the last year. My structuring of this piece is partly inspired by the work of Arvo Pärt, the philosophical world of tintinnabuli, and a number of his specific compositional techniques: working with combinations of modes and triads as a way of mapping out and structuring a piece on micro and macro levels. I am currently exploring further, or perhaps in a different way, the spaces between these modes and triads. My process for composing this piece will involve watching a large number of sunsets while freely writing single lines of music in the moment. Free writing single lines of music is a daily discipline I have adopted and one I have found allows me to enter into a contemplative state of being."
+Biography
+Matthew W. Langford is a composer and trumpet player based in Denver, Colorado. Drawn to the nuance and complexities he sees in nature and in people, Langford’s compositional styles blend elements of both impressionism and expressionism to create worlds of sound and meaning that relate deeply with the human subconscious experience of the world. Some of his current compositional explorations involve transitional space, light and color play, and an unusual attention to how sound fills its environment. Langford holds a Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music and he is the Founder of Remnants Collaborative Arts. He resides west of Denver in Lakewood, Colorado with his wife, violist Nicole Langford.
+Updates and information.
+Friday, January 06, 2006
+Not to get anyone's hopes up, but this site might just be back to normal now. This post is for DirectNic.com that fucked me as a registrar. So, if you're thinking about using DirectNic.com to register anything at all (And I do mean ANYTHING) please, please, PLEASE reconsider. Not only do they overcharge for domain registration, DNS, and any other of the handfuls of crap they offer, but they screw you over on domain transfers. That's the reason TKC has been down for the last day or so. They messed up the expiration date for the domain they wouldn't allow me to transfer it. Talk about a bunch of cocks.
+So, as soon as my 60 days of registration is up with these Ninja Turd-holes, I'm going to attempt again to transfer. Wish me luck!
+Oh yeah, don't forget to check out the TKC Gallery and the TKC Forums.
+Enjoy your stay and FUCK DIRECTNIC.COM
+Regards!
+Saturday, December 31, 2005
+Granted this will be a short post. But, just to let all know, we've been moving from server to server lately and all SHOULD be good now. If you happen to have any issues, please feel free to post in the TKC Forums or email me to get your problems resolved.
+The sooner the better being as others might have the same issue and are probably too shy to say anything (Or just don't care). So, if we can get any errors fixed before anything becomes a serious problem, it would be great.
+With all of that in mind, enjoy your visit to TKC Networks. Bleh!
+Tuesday, September 20, 2005
+Well, as you may have probably heard, it's been one hell of a week for my friends, family and myself. Besides dealing with the standard weekly bullshit that comes at a fairly consistent pace and makes the weeks suck enough to begin with, I had to deal with a whole new type of shit heap. I've posted pictures which you can view by clicking the images below or going to the TKCNet Gallery. The first set of images are what started off the weekend. I was just informed that my good friend Jared Dunnahoo had just passed away and was feeling a bit down to say the least. So, after a night of work at the office, I go home, turn on the television and not even 10 minutes later the owner of the Resturaunt next door to my office calls and tells me about a car that ran into it. So, I'm thinking, "Hrmm.. What kind of sick joke is this?". Turns out, it was no joke. I ended up having to stay in the office ALL FUCKING NIGHT to make sure no sneaky bastards got in through the broken windows to steal any of my stuff.
+So, this takes us to the second set of wonderful images below. The fact I was up all night in the office made the trip to Alamosa for my buddie's funeral the next morning absolutely horrific. Not only was it hotter than two squirrels fucking in a wool sock, but it was as long as we had anticipated (L-O-N-G). But, it turn out to be a good trip none the less. I got to meet plenty of people I hadn't had the chance to meet before. Plus, getting to see your friend go away for the last time is better than not seeing him at all...
+Enjoy the images, folks. As usual, any feedback can be made on the TKCNet Forums or by sending me email.
+Until next time...
+Friday, August 12, 2005
+Ah yes. The first post since February! Can you believe that horse crap?! Sheesh. Talk about falling off.
+To begin, I'm just updating because no one has in so painfully long that I was developing some sort of antipostophobia (I'm sure that's not a real word. But, I'll submit it to urbandictionary.com at some point). The web site has changed a lot lately so I'm waiting to hear about the results. In the mean time, I'm going to add a few more people to the blogger list just to keep things moving. You see, once you and your friends begin aging like everyone else, you all begin to get "busy". Busy with work, busy with looking for work, busy with a significant other, etc... Being this "busy" seriously cuts down on the time you once used to get yourself involved in some good old fashioned Tom Foolery. But alas, in the end, there is no time for anything. Especially web updates or keeping others informed. Not to mention keeping the site viewers the least bit entertained. Pfft.
+Anyhow, keep your eyes peeled for new posts by new blogger members. If, by chance, you feel you could donate worth while blogs to TKC, feel free to contact myself or any of the other TKCNet officials (Hah!) by email. Or you could simply use the TKC Forums to contact us.
+I think I'll stop now.
+Thanks for visiting.
+Monday, February 21, 2005
+Hunter S. Thompson is one of a handful of authors who has had a profound impact on me. He willingly participated in a number of crazy things that would easily have made an average man pray for death; so maybe his decision to take his life tonight is an indication we aren't doing too damned well. I hope there's something better out there for you, you old bastard.
+Tuesday, February 08, 2005
+In reading a review of Seth Macfarlane's newest addition to the Family Guy Empire, "American Dad," which debuted on Fox after the Super Bowl, one side-comment the reviewer made instantly dissolved his credibility. "It helps if you're actually being amused with clever writing and subversively intelligent wit," the critic says, "as with 'The Simpsons' or, more coarsely and raucously, 'South Park.'"
+I grew up watching "The Simpsons." Our generation could, in arguably many ways, be coined "The Simpsons Generation." The other day, I heard a preview for the next new episode and was surprised at how maternal Marge's nagging voice sounds to me after all these years; how oddly comforting it is. That does not, however, make up for the fact that "The Simpsons" is not quality programming anymore, and it is consistently getting worse. The writing is hardly clever and there is absolutely not a bit of intelligent wit about it. The episode directly following the Super Bowl, prior to the "American Dad" pilot, is a prime example. Granted, new scenarios and themes for the Simpson family must be challenging to conjure up, but cheap whacks at "The Passion of the Christ" are simply not funny anymore, especially when they're executed in unfunny ways to begin with. Furthermore, in that single episode they cover a carnival game challenge between Bart and Homer, who performs a victory dance that is uploaded onto the internet and subsequently downloaded by a football player who employs Homer to choreograph various celebratory dances for him, which sparks a slew of other sports stars to petition Homer to choreograph victory dances for them (each of which we get to watch), and finally Homer is contacted to design the Super Bowl's halftime show. Oh wait, then there's the other half of the episode, in which Ned directs a movie chronicling Cain's slaying of Abel (including a beaten-to-death and now hardly palatable crack on gay marriage rights). The movie is premiered and everyone loves it, despite its gore, except, of course, for Marge. Mr. Burns, seeing an opportunity to gain some profit, finances another of Ned's films, which includes even more gore, and Marge wins her battle as Burns decides funding religious epics is not for him. Ned then persuades Homer to do a Christian-themed halftime show, which is unanimously booed by the audience.
+I think I've pinpointed the three most apparent shortcomings of the show. First, and most obvious, the writers are simply not as good as they were in the Conan O'Brien days. Second, the episodes have lost their focus; they bounce around too much, which makes it nearly impossible to really care about the outcome of each show. The last really fantastic and nearly flawless episode (and there have been many in the past), I would argue, was the one in which Phish guest-starred and Homer got hooked on medicinal marijuana. Its excellence can be attributed, I think, to these elements: every joke operated within the theme of the episode, it commented extremely well on the nature of potheads, the humor was off-the-wall, making it memorable and quotable, and one main thread drove the story along to keep viewers interested in the episode's outcome. Presently, "The Simpsons" has fallen into the funk that "The Drew Carey" show existed in: the writers think of a moderately funny situation that culminates in a subpar joke and then move on to the next moderately funny situation and subpar joke. Which ties loosely into my third point: "The Simpsons" has lost the touch of reality it once so gracefully utilized. Medicinal marijuana, the first time your parents met, your town's monorail: these are things many of us have dealt with or discussed. The reality of the situations in some of the older shows allowed for major growth in the characters over the span of very few minutes, and episodes had the ability to be not only funny, but romantic, nostalgic, dramatic, and just plain nice.
+This once unparalleled way to spend Sunday night has lost its way, and we, as hard-working American viewers who deserve quality in our entertainment, need to stop acting like we don't notice and get active, or else it'll turn right into another Jar-Jar Binks situation damn quick.
+I ended up ranting, so I don't mind if you didn't read this or didn't read all of it. To sum up, "The Simpsons" is not all that good anymore and it's getting worse every season. I'd like to read your thoughts. Please comment.
+Wednesday, December 08, 2004
+Sorry, in making that last post, I severely messed up the aesthetics of the site. You see, my picture is larger than the space provided in this part of the blog, where the archived posts take up the right side of the table. To make up for my outrageous error: aksjdf sdkfj sdkjf slkdf slkdf lsjd fkjs dkjalksjdfoei jalmvokijuoeiwjflk voiusvi sxcjklx ciouxj cviux coviux cvoiux coivux coivu xoicu vxoicu voxiuc oviuwekljflak;djflk asdjklf ewklj wlkejr wlkjer lwkje flksdj fklvxj cvlkxj klsudfoia wenmfkjzsovic sjdlkfnmwlk sdoif jasnlkdfnwlkjnflk scvix cvlkjsd fkjawe foiuwef skjdv xncvlksud foiwejmfkl sjdflkjsd fxiopcvuxic vxlkcj vwkdjflkd jflksd fklsj dlkxjc vioxcuvo ixcuovi xocivu xocivu xcikvj slkdjf we rmwner,mnw eok sdflkjsd oixucv lwkeljr weklr smjdf sdfnm,xc vlkxjc isoudf wjer lkwjdfoiscufklxcjv xkv sldkjf nwemnsd lfsjdflk jkds fkajsd fksljd fskjdf skjdf lskjdfaoi;efjlkvmcxj voisdjf sodioiweu rwkljer woiuxc oivxjlk jowieurw eroiu soixuv xocjv oweur weoiruw eroi cxvoiux ocviuxocv oxicv oier wlkjr mnnakjs dlkf io xclkv sdnmfsl, dfsdfnwlkejr slkdjf xkljv xlckvj sdf. Thank you.
+July 6, 2020, by Brigitte Nerlich
+Bubbles: A short history up with the concept of ‘bubble’. It was then taken up enthusiastically by Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister, and subsequently became a model for other countries. In this blog post I want to tell the story of how the bubbles spread. But, of course, this is only scratching the very surface…
+A life-affirming idea
+The article indicated by Gareth appeared in the Otago Bulletin Board – a news website maintained by the University of Otago. It says that “Dr Tristram Ingham, a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Medicine at the University of Otago, Wellington, developed the concept [of bubble] while advising the Ministry of Health on the COVID-19 response for the disability sector”.
+What he and his co-workers wanted to do was to capture “the imagination of both the Prime Minister and the nation, and help[ed] frame life under Alert Levels 4 and 3 more positively”. This was the time when social/physical distancing became a new mode of life around the world, but as Ingham said: “We didn’t want at risk communities to be passive recipients of their fate. The methods had to be around empowering individuals and whānau [an extended family or community of related families who live together in the same area] to have control over their own life and situations for self-preservation.”
+This empowering and life-affirmative aspect of ‘bubbles’ is something I hadn’t really appreciated until reading this article.
+The familiarity of bubbles
+But why bubbles? As Ingham pointed out: .”
+As we say in metaphor circles, bubbles are a rich and familiar ‘source’ domain that can be easily mapped onto an abstract ‘target’ domain, such as pandemic risk management, and lead to new ways of thinking, talking and acting.
+As Peter Adams pointed out in an article for the University of Auckland: “We are very familiar with the behaviour of bubbles: they froth on the ocean, they slide down the dishes, and they glide by on those summer afternoons when children form them with detergent and plastic hoops. The use of bubbles here conjures up an image of me and my loved ones floating around inside a transparent membrane that separates my group out from others and protects us from unwanted intrusion.”
+Viral bubbles
+The concept went viral and spread around the world. I wanted to follow this spread a bit and therefore looked at the news database Nexis to see how it went. This was not easy, as ‘bubble’, even with ‘AND covid’ ‘OR coronavirus’ brought tens of thousands of hits. So I narrowed the search to ‘bubble AND social group AND covid OR coronavirus’ and that, finally, gave me 82 hits that I could look at in diachronic order. I also looked for ‘Jacinda Ardern AND bubble’ just to see when New Zealand first talked about this. And supplemented it all with some incidental finds on the internet….not the neatest search I have ever done!
+Creativity and flexibility
+Bubbles as metaphors have been around for a long time and have been used in various contexts, from rumours bubbling up, to the south sea bubble, to social media bubbles which, we are all told, are not good for us. However, in the context of the pandemic, bubbles became more ‘real’ in a sense. Bubbles came to stand for what some call ‘micro-communities’ (Indian Express June 5, 2020).
+Here is one visual representation I found, probably originating in China, but I can’t find the artist and here are many more.
+The word bubbles attracted lots of other words and so we got : social bubbles, quarantine bubbles, home-bubbles, iso-bubbles (Sydney Morning Herald, 2 June), travel bubbles, bubbles mates, support bubbles, school bubbles, year-group bubbles, class bubbles – even quaranteam as a synonym for bubble, invented in March by a British couple quarantining in South Korea (Mirror, 7 March). In the United States, a synonym of bubbles was ‘pods’, it seems, although it seems that the concept, although spreading informally, was never part of a formal policy, as it was in other countries more keen on social distancing and isolation.
+It should also be stressed that bubbles do not only encourage linguistic creativity, they are also flexible and adaptive enough to allow for changing uses over time. As an article in Slate pointed out on 6 May: “What makes the bubble idea an effective communication tool is not just its simplicity but also its ability to morph along with changing regulations. As New Zealand now moves into a lighter stage of restrictions, the concept of the bubble is adjusting with it. Under the more relaxed alert Level 3, New Zealand authorities are allowing bubbles to slowly open.”
+Let’s start at the beginning.
+March
+The end of March, when New Zealand went into strict lockdown, seems to have been the time when bubbles first became a thing in New Zealand. As Peter Adams described in his article from which I already quoted above: “On March 23, when declaring the lockdown, Ardern said, ‘We have a window of opportunity to break the chain of community transmission.’ Her reference to ‘windows’ and ‘chains’ make use of common metaphors, perhaps too common to register specifically in our minds. However, in her next daily briefing she floated another more specific metaphor. We heard her encourage us to, ‘stick to your bubble,’ and ‘you can’t spend time with other people outside of your bubble’. […] By whatever process Ardern and her team came up with the bubble metaphor, during the course of the next two months it has proved a very effective way of communicating some key understandings.”
+We now know by what process they came up with the concept! Let’s now look more closely at how it spread through time and space.
+It seems that ‘bubbles’ first appeared in the news in an article on 24 March in The New Zealand Herald quoting Jacinda Ardern. At the same time, in a complementary article, one of New Zealand’s foremost pandemic communicators, Dr Siouxsie Wiles, answered questions (she also produced the imaged featured above, which is part of a famous gif).
+The article said: “She reiterated Jacinda Ardern’s words of seeing our household ‘as our bubble’ and stay within that bubble. Wiles says there are exceptions to the ‘one household, one bubble’ guideline, such as parents with shared custody of children. Those two households can be considered one bubble.… You can help people out but ‘do not enter their bubble’. The exception is for people who live alone, who can have a ‘buddy system’ set up with someone else who lives alone. They can enter each other’s ‘bubbles’.”
+Like ‘lockdown’, ‘bubbles’ are rooted in the conceptual metaphor of a ‘container’. A container metaphor is an ontological metaphor in which some concept is represented as having an inside and an outside, and as capable of holding something else. But bubbles and lockdown are quite different, of course. Lockdown conjured up images of prison, entrapment and house arrest, of crime and punishment, while bubbles conjure up images of (fragile) protection, responsibility and mutual support. Both play an important role in the ‘containment’ of a pandemic disease.
+April
+On 5 April, when Boris Johnson was admitted to hospital with Covid-19, bubbles were talked about in The Guardian here in the UK: “Before the lockdown, Ms Ardern asked Kiwis to ‘apply common sense’ and shrink down their social group to ‘a small group of individuals who are part of your bubble… the bubble you must maintain’ for the month.” That article was reproduced in many newspapers which also reported on a New Zealand ‘bonk ban’….
+On 15 April, the MailOnline used the concept when listing 275 ways of slowing the spread of the virus devised by a team at the University of Cambridge: “’Focus on constraining ‘long connections between people in different social groups who seldom or rarely interact (e.g. people with a shared hobby or interest rather than short connections between people in similar social groups who regularly interact with one another (e.g. close family, colleagues, close friends),’ the report authors write. They go on to suggest governments might ‘Ask people to identify their bubble – being everyone they live with or must have contact with during ‘lockdown’- and ask people to stay as much as possible within their bubble, ‘a piece of advice they apparently borrowed from New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden. ‘Making this happen will be up to the people responsible for every element of society,’ said Professor Sutherland.”
+From end of April bubbles appeared in newspaper headlines, and puns emerged around ‘burst bubbles’ etc. The concept was becoming mainstream in the UK, Canada, the US, Belgium etc. but with varying degrees of formal or policy endorsement. The small sample of articles I looked at did not contain any press coverage from the United States.
+May
+In early May, when bubbles became more and more popular, various disadvantages of bubbles were discussed, for example, interestingly, on Fox News (3 May): “MCDOWELL: …The Belgian government is toying with an idea that can help limit the pandemic. It would allow people to form social bubbles of 10 people maximum, no overlapping with other groups. … GUTFELD: This is a bad idea because it’ll cause social signaling. Like oh, hey, guys, I can’t see you tonight. I’m in Bret Baier’s bubble. […] You know, everybody’s going to be humble bragging about what bubble they’re in. And then how do families divvy up a bubble if you got like three kids. It’s going to be a new kind of disaster, domestic strife.”
+There were some social dilemmas around bubbles, as discussed in the New York Times, but I don’t think it was as bad as that.
+June
+On 5 June The Telegraph (again, one should add, interestingly!) even wrote about how to decline a bubble invitation: “Those who dreamt up the idea of social bubbles clearly had no consideration for the chaos that would ensue. ‘If you decline to be in someone’s social bubble, you run the risk of not being included in anyone’s social group,’ says Harrold. ‘If an offer comes along, and it’s people you feel comfortable with, you’ve got to accept it.’ He advises that it can be helpful to think of the social bubble as an official contract; sign up, try it out, and leave if it’s not working for you.”
+June was the month when bubbles became mainstream. And empirical studies of bubbles were undertaken at the University of Oxford, the London School of Economics and at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
+On Wednesday 10 June, Boris Johnson made an announcement that adults who lived alone would be allowed to form a “support bubble” with another household. However, it seems this was not a straightforward ‘we follow the science’ decision. As reported in The Guardian, scientists were ambivalent, it seems: “Other Sage documents point to the extreme concern scientists had about the introduction of social bubbles whereby households could meet up to form small social groups. In mid-May, the experts urged ‘strong caution’ over bringing in bubbles when other distancing measures had only just been lifted.”
+There is thus a difference between New Zealand and the UK. In the former, bubbles were part of the lockdown policy right from the start, in the latter they were part of a gradual easing of lockdown policy. This was the case in most countries, such as Belgium and also Canada where people began to talk about ‘double bubbles’ in June., as in this picture of dining pods (and here is a different one featured by CNN; and and older version of a bubble tent in care homes in Germany)!
+At the moment the following rules apply when going out for a drink, as reported by The Sun on 4 July: “Punters who meet indoors can only meet in groups of up to two households or support bubbles. Outdoor meet ups should only take place in groups of up to 2 households (or support bubbles), or a group of 6 people from any number of households.”
+Bubbles, bubbles…
+Since Jacinda Ardern first told New Zealanders to form their own bubbles, the bubble has gone the way of all good viral concepts. As Dr Ingham, it’s inventor, said: .” So we now got meta-bubbles and this post is one of them, I am afraid to say.
+Added 28 August: An interesting discussion on bubbles initiated by Alice Roberts on Twitter – in the US they are called ‘pods’ it seems. Are school bubbles ‘monster bubbles‘?
+Image: Wikimedia Commons, part of a gif by Siouxsie Wiles and Toby Morris
+[…] It says that “Dr Tristram Ingham, a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Medicine at the University of Otago, Wellington, developed the concept [of bubble] while advising the Ministry of Health on the COVID-19 response for the disability sector”. via […]
+Most together.
+The reality is that not all essential oils are created equal, and most oils are not safe enough to use when pregnant. The only grade safe and effective enough to inhale, apply topically, and to ingest is authentic therapeutic grade. This means they were planted, harvested, distilled, tested, and bottled with the intention of being used medicinally. Unfortunately, because our country considers oils to be “perfumes” only and does not (yet?) recognize them medicinally, there are no labeling laws for them. Thus, many essential oil companies claim “100% organic/Therapeutic/Wild Crafted/Pure, etc” but truly, they are adultered with additives such as alcohol and other caustic ingredients meant to extend the batch but aren’t required to be listed on the label. In fact, only about 2% of the oils found in the US today are true therapeutic grade!
+To make sure you have an authentic therapeutic grade oil, seek out a knowledgeable Aromatherapist, or research the company you are considering to see if they own their own farms, perform on-site and third party testing, and have strict potency and purity standards. Unfortunately for our convenience, most adultered oils are found in health food stores as there is much room for retail mark-up for “junk” oils, so make sure to do thorough research online.
+Now, for the fun stuff! How exactly can you use therapeutic essential oils, you ask? Any way you want to – if you have a truly therapeutic grade oil, of course! There are three main ways to use therapeutic grade (“TG” from now on) oils. First, you can diffuse them into the air with an ultra-sonic, cold air diffuser. This nifty machine atomizes the oil molecules along with cold water and propels them into the air without damaging their medicinal constituents. Burning a candle under oil will destroy its therapeutic value and leave you with a smoky, resin-like substance. Ick! Make sure to never heat your oils. Second, you can apply TG oils directly to your skin or the skin of your infant, toddler, or great-grandma! TG oils are pure, and they are generally gentle enough even for sensitive skin. As a cautionary act, dilute a drop of oil to a tablespoon of organic, food-grade vegetable oil when applying to little ones or to sensitive areas. Also, the bottoms of the feet are a great spot to apply a “warm” oil such as peppermint or cinnamon-based oil blends. One thing to note as well is that essential oils do not contain proteins or polypeptides, thus they cannot produce allergic reactions. If skin reddening does occur, simply add vegetable oil to slow down the absorption as the oils will detoxify skin that has been exposed to petrochemicals.
+The third most common way to use TG oils is to ingest them. They can be dropped into a vegetable-based capsule and swallowed, dropped in some honey or on some bread, or added to your water, tea, or even your favorite meal! One of my favorite oils to add to my water is grapefruit because it is a gentle detoxifier and it aids in the elimination of fat in the body. Just for the record, two other ways that TG oils can be used, though less common, are vaginally (on organic tampons) and in suppositories (mixed with a carrier oil).
+*A few things we do not do: make sure to keep oils out of ears and eyes as they can sting, but will not damage your hearing or sight. Also, citrus oils, like the fruit they come from, tend to ripen our skin in the sun (it will create a dark tan in the spot where it was applied), so do not apply them to exposed areas when you know you will be outside for an extended amount of time. Beyond that, there is much controversy, like I mentioned, about using oils during pregnancy, but it really comes down to oil quality and your personal comfort level. If you are using authentic TG oils with common sense, you will be fine. As Jane Buckle, Ph.D., R.N., states in her book Clinical Aromatherapy: Essential Oils in Practice, “There are no records of abnormal fetuses or aborted fetuses due to the normal use of essential oils, either by inhalation or topical application. There are no records of a few drops of essential oils taken by mouth causing any problem either.” Go with your gut, but know that TG oils are used safely by countless pregnant women around the world.
+Now that we’ve covered how to use TG essential oils, the next step is to learn about what we can do with them. As you may know, there are many essential oils – well over 150 different types. So, in order to avoid overwhelming you, I am going to cover nine of the most versatile and practical oils for use during pregnancy, childbirth, and for family use post-partum. The information I will share with you is from testimonials from women in my own life as well as my studies, which include this wonderful little reference book that I highly recommend for anyone looking to add TG oils to their pregnancy and parenting: Gentle Babies: Essential Oils and Natural Remedies for Pregnancy, Childbirth and Infant Care by Debra Raybern, N.D., M.H., C.N.C., I.C.A.
+These nine oils are what I call the “Dr. Mom essentials” as they offer a wide array of uses and can act as a travel-size go-to first aid kit that never leaves your purse or diaper bag. They aren’t too overwhelming and are a great way to get accustomed to using oils in an “every-day” sense, rather than just as air fresheners.
+- Lavender: The “mother” of all oils, lavender is known for its ability to promote tissue regeneration and speed wound healing. Lavender is great for any and all skin conditions. Antiseptic, antifungal, analgesic, antitumoral, anti-inflammatory and anti-histamine, lavender can also be used for preventing and addressing stretch marks as well as scarring from caesarians, diaper rash, cuts, scrapes, burns, blisters, fever, allergies, cradle cap, blocked tear ducts, teething pains, and ear aches.
+- Peppermint: High in menthol, peppermint is anti-inflammatory, antitumoral, antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, and pain-relieving. One of the most versatile oils, peppermint is well known for soothing the digestive system and helping to curb appetite, while promoting alertness and mental clarity. Great for morning sickness, heartburn, stomachaches, constipation, fever, colic, headaches, high blood pressure, muscles aches and discomfort, breech and other pregnancy discomforts.
+- Lemon: Rich in limonene (which has been extensively studied for its ability to combat tumor growth in over 50 clinical studies!), lemon is antitumoral, antiseptic and immune-stimulating. With an invigorating fragrance, it is known for giving clarity of thought and purpose, while being uplifting to mood. Lemon is useful for coughing, mucus, immune support, flu/cold, ph balance, and for reducing water retention. Kids love this oil!
+- Frankincense: The “father” of all oils, Frankincense has been “used to treat every conceivable ill known to man.” The holy anointing oil, frankincense was valued more than gold in ancient times. Prized for its antitumoral, immune-stimulating, antidepressant and muscle relaxing properties, it is widely used in the treatment of depression, cancer, respiratory infections and inflammation. Frankincense can be used for anointing at birth, as well as colds/flu, pneumonia, blisters, preventing and addressing stretch marks, infections, head bumps, healing the umbilical cord stump, and respiratory issues.
+- Anti-Microbial Blend: Effective against MRSA, this highly antibacterial and antiviral blend has been studied by Weber State University to destroy 99.96% of airborne pathogens when diffused into the air for 12 minutes. It can also be used for boosting the immune system preventatively, viral infections, bacterial infections, anti-fungal, anti-mold, sore throats, cough or colds, whole-home cleaning, diaper pails, changing table, and nursery sanitation.
+- Pain Relief Blend: Used to reduce pain and inflammation, improve circulation and accelerate healing, it is great for swelling and discomfort from sprains and strains, muscle cramps and bruising. It also offers fast relief for headaches, bumps/bruises, stuffy noses, and backaches.
+- Balancing Blend: Balancing to the energies and alignment of the body, it is known to instill feelings of courage, confidence and self-esteem. Wonderful during birth as it relaxes the central nervous system. This blend is also great for backaches and calming, as well as for anti-viral and anti-bacterial use.
+- Relaxing Blend: Calming and balancing to children and adults, it is wonderful when diffused and can be added to the water during water births. It can also be used for anxiety, temper tantrums, sleeping, and ADD/ADHD issues.
+- Purifying Blend: An effective and all-natural bug repellant, it is also well known for cleansing the air and neutralizing even the most pungent odors. Highly antibacterial, it can also be used to disinfect cuts, scrapes and insect bites. It is also very helpful for earaches, cuts and scrapes, and respiratory conditions.
+My goal is to educate moms and dads to a point that they feel confident in using Therapeutic Grade oils during pregnancy, the birthing experiencing, and in everyday family’s life. Remember: trust your gut, use common sense, and know that oils are wonderful, time-tested alternatives for you and your family.
+Alina Piccone,B.A., L.M.T., H.H.C., I.C.A., is an Internationally Certified Aromatherapist in Sarasota, FL. Her passion is educating the community about the benefits of therapeutic grade essential oils. Learn more at her website.
+ ...
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+Sit back, relax, and spend time with friends and family watching movies, playing games, or just chatting with the Abbyson Hunter 6 Piece Sectional. Made for your comfort, the high-resiliency 2.0 density foam cushioning wrapped in Dacron fill and no-sag sinuous spring construction provides great support and a plush seating area you and your guests will love. Its strong and durable kiln-dried hardwood frame is upholstered in 40-percent PU leather and 60-percent polyester which adds a luxurious air to the sectional while being exceptionally easy to clean and maintain. ...
+Accent your new relaxed living room with a versatile seating unit in the Acme Furniture Saul Velvet Power Motion Sectional Sofa. This wide, L-shaped sectional is supported by a long-lasting wood and metal frame. The outermost armchairs are fitted with a convenient push-button recline that lets you adjust the angle to your comfort level. Also incorporated is a console unit, featuring a flip-top storage area for snacks and remotes. Two cup-holders and two USB charge-ports are also built into the console. Lush foam pads the piece, upholstered in premium ....
+Configure your living room however you choose with the J&M Furniture Lego 7 Piece Sectional Sofa Set. For designer flexibility, all pieces in this seven-piece modular sectional sofa set are finished on all sides. They have a comfortably modern look and are upholstered in easy-care bonded leather. To make this sectional yours, choose from the available upholstery colors.
+Have it all - comfort and fashion - with the Moroni Milo Sectional Sofa. Equipped with a Pirelli webbing seating deck for long-term performance, this sectional sofa is the last word in luxury owing it to the premium Italian leather upholstery. Kiln-dried hardwoods compose the frame, with high-density foam cushioning for lasting comfort. Upscale and endlessly sophisticated, this sectional sofa truly delivers. Angled wooden legs are subtly tapered and treated to a brown finish.
+Dimensions
+Make movie night the best night of the week with the Milton Greens Stars Emerald Sectional with 3 Recliners and Console. This cozy sectional includes three manual recliners. It also features stainless steel cupholders and console storage for your remotes and magazines. A sturdy wood frame and durable fabric upholstery ensure lasting performance.
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+Feel cozy and cradled when you lounge on this Emerald Home Repose Sectional Sofa. It's composed of a sofa and chaise. Each part of this sectional rests on a durable wood frame and boasts smooth fabric upholstery. This sectional sofa boasts plush pillow backs and roll arms for maximum comfort.
+A curvaceous shape and velvet upholstery make the Meridian Furniture Inc Serpentine Upholstered Sectional Sofa a modern twist on Hollywood Regency style. This sectional sofa extends over fourteen and one-half feet, ensuring enough room to accommodate a party. Crossed steel legs in gleaming gold elevate the look. It's upholstered in velvet and offered in your choice of available colors.
+The Emerald Home Analiese Chofa Sectional will ensure plenty of comfortable seating for your household while enhancing your room’s contemporary style. This sectional features artisan-worthy craftsmanship complemented by versatile beige upholstery. It includes a stylish chaise in its design, so you can put your feet up to enjoy your latest read. Feature it in your living room or family room to complete your space.
+Don't settle for an attractive sofa that's hard and uncomfortable: the Christies Home Living Ron 2 Piece Upholstered Leather Sectional Sofa provides you with a deeply padded surface and a look that's thoroughly modern. The frame of this L-shaped sectional is supported by fine hardwood solids with bun feet. Plentiful high-density foam is used to stuff the frame and cushions, upholstered in brown leather. The headrests feature an adjustable ratcheting mechanisms while the chaise arm lets you stretch out and luxuriate..
+There's something so satisfying about sharp lines and solid, contrasting colors. The Nathaniel Home Edward Bonded Leather Sofa Sectional represents the best of these traits, providing a tantalizing contemporary foundation to built your next living room around. The L-shaped sectional is built from kiln-dried hardwoods with tapered block feet, and is padded with high-density foam for ultimate comfort. Choose from available two-tone color options to make it yours..
+The Evan 3 Piece Leather Sectional Sofa provides you with everything you need for a sophisticated furniture set-up. This sleek three-piece set includes a comfortable sofa, square-shaped ottoman, and a chic chaise all finished in a rich espresso color. Create your own custom configuration to make this stunning set perfectly fit in your modern home.
+Sectional Dimensions:
+Assemble and re-assemble the J&M Furniture Lego 6 Piece Sectional Sofa Set at will. Each piece in this six-piece modular sectional sofa is finished on all sides, allowing you designer flexibility. Pieces have a contemporary look and are upholstered in easy-care bonded leather. Customize this sectional by choosing from the available upholstery color options. ...
+Revamp your space in one fell swoop with the Modway Engage 5 Piece Sectional Sofa Set. Mid-century styling is fashionable, polished, and inviting in this sectional sofa set where trim tailoring meets plush cushioning. Clean-lined, wooden-legged pieces coordinate in your choice of upholstery colors, with subtle button tufting completing the look. This set includes an armchair and ottoman along with an L-shaped sectional composed of two loveseats (right-arm and left-arm) and a corner unit.
+Dimensions.
+The Chic Home Julian PU Leather Left Facing Sectional Sofa is a dashing centerpiece to your casual modern den, lounge, or living room décor. This sectional has a left-facing, L-shaped wood frame and foam-padded arms, backs, and seats are upholstered with polyurethane leather. Block metal legs support the piece, finished in polished gold. The leather comes with a diamond-tufted design. Choose among the available color options..
+Embrace the simplicity of inviting mid-century style with the Modway Engage Right Facing Sectional Sofa. Crafted to exceed your expectations and make down time feel extra festive and luxurious, this sectional set includes a right-arm chaise and a left-arm loveseat that nestle together to create seating space for two or three. Put your feet up with the chaise, or cop a seat on the end if you're just pulling on your shoes or popping by for a moment. Large dual cushions are relaxation-ready with subtle button tufting. Four rubberwood ...
+Ensure all of your family and guests have a comfortable seat at parties and holidays with the Chic Home Julian Velvet Left Facing Sectional Sofa. This L-shaped sectional has a wood frame on metal block legs finished in a polished gold. The foam-padded sofa features rolled armrests and a rolled backrest all at the same height. It's upholstered in luxurious velvet and accented with diamond tufting. Choose from the available fabric colors..
+The Chic Home Julian Velvet Right Facing Sectional Sofa provide a glamorous, classical centerpiece for your living room or lounge. This sectional has a right-facing design supported by a durable wood frame. The sofa sits on block metal legs finished in polished gold. It's padded with foam and features rolled armrests and back. Luxurious velvet in your choice of available color upholsters the sectional, tufted with buttons in a diamond pattern.
+Lend your living room lush primary seating with the Chic Home Julian PU Leather Right Facing Sectional Sofa. This L-shaped sectional features a wood frame perched on block metal legs that are finished in a polished gold. The seats have classical rolled backrests and armrests at the same height, all padded with high-density foam. Polyurethane leather upholsters the sectional with diamond-tufted along the back and bench seats. Choose your favorite fabric color from the available options.
+Relax and kick back in style with the Chic Teak 6 Piece West Palm Sectional Sofa Set out on your patio. This sectional sofa comes with three corner sections, two armless sections, and an ottoman so everyone can put up their feet. Featuring a solid hardwood frame covered in banana leaf wicker, this sectional boasts a gray finish that will complement any decorating style. Equipped with cream-colored, pillow-top cushions, this sofa is ready to brave the outdoors. No assembly required.
+Dimensions:
+Invite the whole family over for a movie night while relaxing on the Edloe Finch Furniture Co Harlow 2 Piece Sectional Sofa. This sectional comes in your choice of available right- or left-facing orientation to best fit your living room space. High-density foam padding offers plenty of comfort and support, as well the removable, reversible cushions filled with down feathers.
+The sofa is covered in your choice of available upholstery fabric and the tapered steel legs have a brushed gold finish for a little bit of glam. The flared ...
+Why Guillaume Latendresse won’t make the Canadiens
+Sorry to all Guillaume Latendresse fans, specifically Fracophones and the French media, but Guillaume Latendresse will definitely not be a Montreal Canadien this year.
+It’s been one year since Guillaume Latendresse had a strong training camp with the Canadiens sparking talk that the Canadiens would have an 18 year old make their roster. He didn’t make it then and he won’t make it this year either.
+What has happend in one year?
+Other than multiple concussions, a poor Junior season and an even worse World Junior Championship going against him, this year’s team is even harder to crack.
+If anything his play has decreased in quality while the competition around him gets better.
+He’s a one dimensional player who would compete for a spot that is already full two times over.
+If a rookie does crack the team it won’t be in a power forward role and in the unlikely event it is in a scoring role, expect Andrei Kostitsyn or even Mikhail Grabovski to get a chance before Guillaume.
+Guillaume Latendresse might be a very good Hab one day but it won’t be soon and rightfully so. Allow him to develop and improve.
+There’s no need to rush.
+September 14, 2006 at 3:59 pm
+I agree, although I think Latendress has a good career ahead of him, I think it might be best to send him back to Juniors for one more season. No need to rush him. Playing only a couple of minutes a game in Montreal won’t help his development. In the Juniors he will play lots of minutes which will help him improve.
+September 14, 2006 at 4:56 pm
+Lafreniere the problem is not the small amount of minutes he will play with the canadiens, the problem is that Guillaume might become a great player if he proves what he has in the tank…He might not take Junior leaugue’s game too serious, he might be more concern about his upcoming career with the canadiens.
+If we don’t select him this year then he might lose confidence and then [ you guys know what this will result into]. The worse thing can happen to a player is lost of confidence.
+And I don’t want this to happen to him…We should give him a chance and afer all we won’t lose much placing him on fourth line and giving Murray or this other dude playing his role to another team for free or maybe for a late draft pick!
+September 14, 2006 at 5:11 pm
+I hate to say it but it is probably true.
+September 14, 2006 at 6:08 pm
+The blogster here is 100% correct. Guillaume Latendresse is definetly not ready for the big time.
+He had concussion problems last year and just recently in the World Junior camp, he immaturly took his demotion last season and looked absolutly terrible. Some people are starting to think the it was Derrick Brassard that made Guillaume look good and not the other way around. He was brutal in Drummondville and looked like a train wreck in the WJT.
+He needs to improve in the defensive end, needs to gain some maturity which he obviously lacks, maybe he should spend some time with Chipchura who is the future captain of the franchise, and he needs to be more consistent and show the ability to stay healthy.
+I think that instead of sulking and playing terribly like he did last year after being cut, he should pull a Robbie Schremp. Go down to the QMJHL and lead the league in scoring and goals. Be the dominant force he should be and put the Habs in the same predicament the Oilers are in right now. Show Bob Gainey that your too good to be in Junior and give him no excuses to send you back down.
+If that happens then the Habs will have to potential point leaders in their respective leagues and Memorial Cup contenders in Latendresse and Andrei’s little brother Sergei Kotstitsyn.
+But Guillaume needs to have a dominating season this year otherwise he may never sway the opinion which I share: that he’s just another Eric Lindros.
+September 14, 2006 at 6:58 pm
+Ouch. If I recall correctly, Lindross, though a pantywaist whiner, WAS a dominant force his first couple years in the NHL. Then Eric proved he was no Mark Messier (“I guarentee a win”). Lantendresse can gain confidence by dominating Juniors and making the most of any opportunity he gets.
+September 14, 2006 at 7:06 pm
+Injuries are something you can’t control. If Guillaume had many injuries then I would say it was his badluck! What counts is the style of game he plays and Montreal needs really badly a player of his caliber.
+September 14, 2006 at 7:10 pm
+I just wish they give him ONE chance
+September 14, 2006 at 7:37 pm
+well jack its seem to me that i have heard this song and dance before.Do you know a player named jason spezza who everyone wanted him to make the team in ottawa at a young age but coach martin sent him down to the ahl for development.Now it seems to had been the best thing for him so i think him losing his confidence from not making the team is a bunch of b.s.I wouldnt even be surprised if he doesnt make it next year either.A full year in hamilton will make a big difference.
+September 14, 2006 at 7:58 pm
+PACTUM SERVA:
+I totally agree with you! Maybe a year in Hamilton would give him more energy since he must be tired after being stuck with those Knights for about 2-3 years (I think)…He will probably show more of what he got.After all anyone that plays for the junior league after 2-3 or even 4 years must get tired and bored of tieing their laces again the next year in the changing room when all their friends are gone…(I’m not being specific..)
+September 14, 2006 at 11:06 pm
+Agreed. As much as the blinded/biased French media in Montreal would want otherwise, Latendresse is clearly not going to be the prospect who makes the big team this year. He will return to Drummondville (not Hamilton) for a fourth season.
+JT, If as you say, he is either at risk of not taking junior hockey seriously and/or losing confidence because he doesn’t get his own way then he really shouldn’t wear the Habs uniform EVER.
+Here’s hoping that GL can actually prove himself at the Junior Hockey level, but I agree with some who imply it’s not looking so good for him right now. There are many, many more prospects ahead of him that are starting to shine. Latendresse has not even got in the queue comprised of hungry prospects yet.
+Don’t get me wrong. We are all rooting for him, I am sure, but he cannot just have it, he has to earn it.
+September 14, 2006 at 11:12 pm
+Oh, JT:
+Just FYI…
+The Bulldogs are the name of the Hamilton team.
+Latendresse plays for the Drummondville Voltigeurs.
+The Knights are an OHL team that play in London.
+September 15, 2006 at 1:02 am
+Rob i knew that guy would be going back to his junior team this year but i meant a year in hamiton would serve him good next year.There is no need to rush him
+September 15, 2006 at 7:44 am
+Therre you go ‘voltigeurs’ the name just dropped off my head! Thanks for informing me Rob!
+September 15, 2006 at 10:41 am
+I really don’t believe there are any spots right now for any young forwarsd to crack the big club. However the camp is a good spot to impress because there will be opportunities early in the season for these young kids to come up and play with the big boys. If there is a spot up front I think Kyle Chipchura might be a match to fill in a role on one of the Habs’ bottom two lines.
+Back on D there is at least one spot to and I think the No. 1 candidate to fill that spot is Jean-Philippe Cote, who played eight games with the Canadiens last season and didn’t look out of place at all.
+September 15, 2006 at 11:11 am
+PACTUM:
+I agree with you, and was not meaning to correct anything that you had said. You are probably dead on in the point that you have made that Latendresse will neither make the Habs’ roster either this year or next. I think after his upcoming year with the Drummondville Voltigeurs, he will likely be promoted to the Hamilton Bulldogs for 2007-2008. He may even get to play a few games with the big team in 2007-2008 if he shows that he can compete in the AHL. Right now, a bunch of other guys are currently pushing him out of the queue of deserving a shot with the Canadiens (the two Kostitsyn brothers, Grabovski, Chipchura, D’Agostini, etc.) I doubt that he would even be in the top 10 prospects that have a chance of making the team this year as you have to throw a few defensemen in their too.
+September 15, 2006 at 11:22 am
+Thanks rob i couldnt agree more with you on that.My bet would be on kostitsyn but it would be no surprise to me if grabovski made it this kid is good and has proved he can play with men.Should be an interesting camp.Cant wait intill tuedays preseason game
+September 15, 2006 at 11:29 am
+While we are talking about prospects who deserve a shot at the bigs more than Latendresse. Why doesn’t the French media in Montreal take some pressure off Latendresse by talking about some of the other Quebec born prospects who are looking pretty good right now? Like Sorel’s Mathieu Aubin, a 6’2″ centre, who had 47 goals-56 assists-103 points in the QMJHL last year or Gatineau’s Mathieu Carle, a defenseman, who had 69 points in 67 games in the QMJHL. Both of these French players had more points (8 and 7 respectively) for the Habs than Latendresse (6) did in the recent prospect’s tournament held in Toronto.
+September 15, 2006 at 12:46 pm
+I agree with you all that Latendresse isn’t ready for the big leagues. I think by the end of last training camp he got caught up his own hype and it was a tremendous let-down for him to be shipped back.
+If (and I emphasize IF…) he has another great camp, like last season, they should at least sent him to Hamilton to learn to play with the big(ger) boys.
+To just fire him back to junior simply because he’s eligible could also be a mistake, possibly a step back-ward in his development.
+Its all contingent on what he brings to this training camp.
+Anyway, I’m with Riley, I’d like to see Chipchura…he definietly a Blue Chip prospect.
+September 15, 2006 at 2:22 pm
+Good comments and stats, Rob. I think Cote has the best shot at the lineup this year. I know there have been a lot of complaints about no superstar players on the roster, but I beg to differ. Markov, Samsonov, and Kovalev are big names in this league (they’re just not Canadian). However, look at the depth on all four lines and in the minors (thin on defense, though). The cup wont come to Montreal this year, but we are playoff material, and the future hasn’t looked this good in a decade or more.
+Tuesday.
+Bring it.
+September 15, 2006 at 5:48 pm
+Who this dude posting comments under my name???
+WTF????
+Go get your own name dude(#18)
+September 15, 2006 at 6:10 pm
+I guess the majority(or all) of you guys want Guillaume to stay in the minor league! And whatever you guys said makes sense! Doens’t anyone think that if we join Guillaume to our organization he will improve?
+September 15, 2006 at 6:25 pm
+Is there any chances he will make it? An if he can how would he? What does he has to do with this very limited time left ?
+September 15, 2006 at 6:26 pm
+Is there any chances he will make it? And if he can how would he? What does he has to do with this very limited time left before the season starts?*
+September 16, 2006 at 12:59 pm
+No, JT, there is absolutely NO WAY Latendresse will make it to either the Habs or the Bulldogs this year. He is already listed as #22 in the line-up for the 2006-2007 Drummondville Voltigeurs. Check out their website if you don’t believe me. QMJHL teams sign their players to contracts, and do not give up their players that easily. There is no panic/reason to get Latendresse into the Habs line up for this year; he is definitely not ready for the big time (period.) We wouldn’t even be having this debate if his name didn’t start with La!
+September 16, 2006 at 1:31 pm
+Wait JT. There is one way that GL can make the fourth line, and have Downey’s (the other guy) spot as you have said. If during an exhibition game against Boston, he squares off with Zdeno Chara and makes it look like Downey did in this video. Have a look:
+If he can do that, I will gladly take back all that I have said about him, and he is welcome to play for the Habs.
+September 16, 2006 at 2:54 pm
+NOt looking good
+September 18, 2006 at 6:10 pm
+It is obvious that you have no idea what you are talking about when it comes to Latendresse. Yes he had a awfull world Junior tournament and a bad beginning. He did not have a awfull season. In 55 games, he raked up 43 goals and 45 assist. Yeah, i guess thats really bad. Having over a point a game on average and playing with the critical media in Montreal and the intence emotions he whent threw at the end of last years camp and beginning of his junior season.
+Anyways, i went to all the pratices in Pierrefond and during the simulated games, he was playing better than the other rookies. He scored a sniper of a goal and was raking up the checks. But i guess you think that andrei Kostitsyn, Grabovski they did not show much intensity. I like chipchura but he did not have the timing yet.
+I would like to see someone that is able to hit ad score at the same time. If Latendresse cracks the team he will have the best teachers in the game. On n’a besoin de quelqu’un qui frappe pis qui est capable de se battre dans les coins. That is me quoting the Tigre.
+September 26, 2006 at 4:09 am
+HAHAHAHAHAHA
+You english habs fans (I’ll start saying that since you started your article talking about the francophones and french media) are pitifull when it comes to judging Quebec’s hockey talent.
+I personally think Latendresse was ready to play in the nhl last year and the only reason he didn’t was because he was trying to join the Habs, a long-time proven organisation that doesn’t trust young talents. Now Guillaume had a good junior season (88 points in 55 games as mentioned by another writer)and you could expect the kid to be a little shaken for not making the big team.
+Now you wrote your comment on september 14th without giving the player a chance to prove his ambitions on his second try-out.
+Just for that, I think your comment shows a great lack of unprofessionalism added to a hint of racism.
+Yes the french Québécois are strongly hoping to see one of theirs becoming a great player for the team because they need a bond like Patrick Roy was. Why should the english Québécois or other english fans be angry or unhappy about it?
+That’s just so disapointing and gives me another reason to cheer for Latendresse and hope to see the kid prove all of you how wrong you are and how unpleasant it is to read your awful mis-judged comments.
+September 26, 2006 at 4:18 am
+One more thing,
+I’m pretty much convinced that wathever Latendresse does to win a spot with the habs, you’ll never admit you were wrong.
+You’ll find any other racist reason to avoid facing the fact that you should stop writing about young french Québec players since the language and culture barrier blinds you.
+September 26, 2006 at 9:49 am
+No one is angry or unhappy.
+I’d like nothing more than Latendresse to make the team. As long as he deserves it and not cause he’s pressured by the media and then becomes a flop.
+He’s got potential to be a very good player.
+If his name was ‘Mike Smith’ do you think any of the french media or 99% of 110% would talk about him relentlessly? Would you have even posted this?
+Why don’t I see you commenting about Mike Johnson or Sergei Samsonov? Are you racist against Russians and Canadians?
+Disagree all you want, I welcome that.
+But
+If you really wanna get into ‘racism and unprofessionalism’ open Le Journal or watch 110%. Last time I watched Jean Perron called the Canadiens ‘faggots’ for not hurting Justin Williams after Koivu’s eye injury.
+But I guess beleiving Latendresse can still develop more is much worse than that!
+September 29, 2006 at 11:30 am
+Wow, were you ever dead wrong.
+September 29, 2006 at 5:56 pm
+Yes TheGreatNate!
+I’ll back that up by saying : Wrong from the first word to the last one.
+Oh, before I forget, nothing personal but i’ll rewrite your first paragraph to update it.
+Sorry to all (ANTI-)Guillaume Latendresse fans, specifically (English) Fracophones and the (English Media) French media, but Guillaume Latendresse will definitely … BE a Montreal Canadien this year.
+Keep it up!
+And good season to all the Habs fans!!!
+Gui gui gui gui gui gui gui gui gui gui gui gui gui gui gui gui!!!!!!!!
+January 17, 2007 at 9:03 am
+There is last nights lost to Vancouver is the sole reason why Guimauve latender should of been sharpening skates for the players on the Canadiens farm team instead of signing him to a $850,000 US a year contract. They should of given him a few games not a full fledged contract and to play on the first line to boot which he is barely good enough a third or fourth line. Then they have the gall to put the blame on Garth Murray yet he is one one the hardest workers on the team now they put him on waivers.
+Yes it is all about finding a French superstar since they haven’t had one in donkey’s ages it’s been so loang I can’t remember who the last one was. If only the Canadians would stop wasting their energy looking for the next Beliveau and consentrate on finding the best players wheither it’s French, German even Iraqi
+That’s why the French Media goes gaga over the Martin Brodeur’s, the media puts so much pressure on the Canadiens it not funny anymore. When they win games the French media treats the players like gods watch out though if they lose because the players especially the English ones are lazy scumbags and should be traded for a French player.
+if anything it’s Latender that should be benched now we will see if he will be next game I hope Carbono saw how bad latender was. When you make a pass it should be on the stick not in the players skate or behind the player this has been one of latender major faults he doesn’t know how to make a pass.
+July 20, 2008 at 6:39 pm
+I had the fortunate opportunity to sharpen G.T’s skates a couple of weeks ago and if all the Habs skates are in the same condition no wonder his performance is suffering. His right skate was heel pithched 3 32′s of an inch and the profile was 13′ the cut was 3/8′s of an inch. and out of square by 4/10ths
+the left one was even worse. I don’t care how good, or how much potential a player has, this kind of thing can break any player. Good luck GT have a great season and keep it up “Guy if you are reading this you have a problem here!”
+Aviation Industry Takes Positive Step in Ensuring Biofuels Deliver on Promise of Sustainability
+Posted March 12, 2013 in Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
+The aviation industry has made reducing carbon emissions and moving away from fossil fuels key strategic priorities. A number of airlines are now entering the biofuel marketplace, working to source, develop, and invest in biofuel supplies. This is a significant step in the right direction, especially since an effort to promote unconventional fossil fuels like coal-to-liquids (CTL) and tar sands—which, without expensive controls, produce nearly double the carbon pollution as conventional fuel and are associated with significant negative environmental impacts—would surely damage brand value and undermine corporate stewardship.
+But not all biofuels are created equal. Responsibly produced biofuels have the potential to offer a low-carbon and broadly sustainable alternative to conventional jet fuels. But poorly sourced biofuels can likewise damage brand value once their environmental impacts become clear. The aviation industry’s purchasing power and ability to impact the biofuel supply chain implies a special responsibility to use sustainable biofuels and rigorous sustainability certification to verify those biofuels as such.
+To assess the current state of aviation biofuel sustainability certification, and to support the use of certification in the aviation fuel supply chain, NRDC has created its inaugural Aviation Biofuel Sustainability Survey. The survey provides analysis focused on airlines that have used, or are making public claims of plans to use, biofuels in their operations, and evaluates them on their actions to use and promote sustainably produced biofuels.
+Our survey looked at five key areas of airline activity related to the use and development of sustainably certified biofuels:
+- Membership in sustainability standards organizations or other relevant groups working to promote sustainability certification in aviation biofuel development;
+- Public commitments to the use of sustainability certification in biofuel sourcing;
+- Disclosure of biofuel use, sustainable biofuel use, and the percentage of sustainable-certified biofuels used relative to total biofuel use;
+- Monitoring and disclosure of the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions profile of the biofuels sourced;
+- Actions taken to determine the indirect land use change (ILUC) impacts of the biofuels sourced, and engagement in efforts to better understand, manage and avoid ILUC in biofuel production (indirect land use change occurs, for example, when a crop used for biofuel displaces other crops, like soybeans. This in turn, causes farmers in other countries, such as Brazil, to cut down rainforests to grow soybeans and fill the demand. For more information see my colleague Nathanael’s post here.)
+The survey also illuminates five key areas that the aviation industry should address moving forward:
+- It is important that airlines send clear market signals now, notifying current or potential suppliers of the importance of sustainability certification. Failure to engage today and send clear signals risks exposure for all parties in the future once these supplies begin to scale.
+- Airlines should make a public commitment to source 100% certified sustainable biofuel by 2015, or as soon as they initiate biofuel purchases if this occurs later than 2015. The Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (RSB) is an international, multi-stakeholder standard organization that has developed a feedstock and technology neutral global standard for biofuel sustainability, covering all aspects of the supply chain. It is the only fully-qualified biofuels standard of the ISEAL Alliance, an international organization that helps to ensure best practices in standards organizations and certifications systems. As a global and robust standard, we believe it is the premier biofuels certification standard available in the market today and recommend its principal use in aviation biofuel sourcing.
+- Airlines should be transparent about the volumes, greenhouse gas profile, and sustainable-certification used in aviation biofuel sourcing.
+- Airlines intending to use biofuels should join the RSB and become directly engaged members. As large volume buyers with a direct stake in the quality and credibility of the sustainability standards applied to their fuel supply chains, airlines should be more directly engaged.
+- The Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group (SAFUG) member airlines have played a leadership role—and sent a positive market signal—by indicating their early support for the RSB; however, the RSB is now operational, generating certifications and winning government recognition. It is important for SAFUG members to now take the next logical step and commit to using RSB sustainability certification for their procurement of biofuels if they are to prompt real market development, solidify their leadership position, and reap the benefits of their early commitments.
+The aviation biofuel industry is only just emerging, but the pace of activity toward commercializing these fuels is accelerating. Over just the last few days we’ve had announcements by SkyNRG regarding their recent RSB certification and KLM regarding their plans to use sustainable biofuel from SkyNRG on a regular basis from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. These flights will be running partially on used cooking oil—a waste product—that has been processed into fuel with the same characteristics as petroleum-based jet fuel. These are positive signs that the industry is moving in the right direction.