‘Dragon Quest Builders 2’ Is a Giant To-Do List, and I Love It
It's better than the original in nearly every way.
by Cameron Kunzelman
Jul 11 2019, 7:02pm
All screenshots courtesy Square-Enix.
Dragon Quest Builders 2 is cute. Dragon Quest Builders 2 is simple. Dragon Quest Builders 2 is the game that I’ve been playing until 1 AM all week, completing “just one more task” before bed. If this is a measure of whether or not a game is good, then the game is excellent.
Following on from the first game of the series, Dragon Quest Builders 2 is a third-person crafting game that puts you in the shoes of a little Builder who is working through a ruined world trying to put things right again. It’s got more than a hint of a Minecraft vibe, and it asks you to travel around talking to people, doing quests, and building small townships where those people can live and those quests can have a major impact.
One of the reasons that I’ve been able to really tuck in to Builders 2 is that it is substantially more complex than the first game. I remember the distinct feeling I had when I realized that there was a second “world” to the original Builders: fatigue. While that game’s areas were distinct from each other, their basic core was so similar that your first couple hours were always basically grinding. The game simply didn’t have enough interlocked working parts to make me want to do that grind.
In contrast to that, I’ve spent a little shy of 40 hours in Builders 2 and I think that I’m somewhere around halfway through the game. I’ve experienced three different islands, and each of them has had enough novelty to them that I’ve gotten sucked into a task-completing vortex that I can’t quite shake. One minute I’m building a bath so that everyone in town can enjoy the warmth of a tub of water. The next I am building bunkhouses for my growing and appreciative population. Or I’m making a forge for a blacksmith or a kitchen for a chef. I learn the rooms, learn the desires of my people, and wow do they clap for me when I fulfill those desires. I took a break while writing this to go back and play for another hour. That’s where I’m at with this game. That’s the kind of hooks it has in me.
My compulsion to continue playing has something to do with some core principles at the heart of Dragon Quest Builders 2. On the one hand, it is fulfilling to do tasks that generate a benefit for someone else. It feels good to be nice. On the other hand, splitting objectives up into their smallest possible form as a way of accomplishing a big task is the most efficient and least stressful way to accomplish that larger project
Builders 2 excels at combining these two things. With a fairly limited set of verbs—build item, place item, destroy item—the game builds into this excellent crescendo of a dozen little denizens who put things in front of me to do for them. I am constantly chasing the warm and fuzzy feelings of these pseudo-Sims clapping and cheering for me because I grew an oak tree. I did a thing they needed, or didn’t need but ended up liking, and it made their life better. They’re into it.
It also means that I have a hard time cutting myself off from the game because it always feels like I am in the middle of a task. Each thing you do, after all, is part of the journey toward something. So I have to be honest when I say that, much like Crusader Kings II or Rise to Ruins, this is a game that can get away from me. I lose the hours.
I’ve talked about complexity, good feelings, and small tasks. Talking about the game in these abstracts is simply my attempt to pull all of these things apart to try to get some language for what Builders 2 is doing to and for me on a mechanical level. It is surprisingly hard to talk about these abstract ideas, because each little piece is like a fractal that contains a whole other subset of interlocked feelings and impulses inside of it. The story is in lock-step with the mechanical progression. The items you find and the items you need and the way you use them all follow through, buttery smooth, from each other. The game’s design is extremely elegant, and that elegance makes it difficult to split it apart into its various pieces.
The simple fact is that all of this constructing, demolishing, harvesting, and gathering is nested inside of a big story that asks big questions about the nature of creation and destruction and dwells on how communities come together and break apart. The first major hours-long mission centers on repairing the Deitree, a forest god or spirit thing that protects the denizens of the farming-focused Furrowfield Island, and that quest both teaches the player how farming works and takes long pauses to listen to other characters talk about their religious conversion away from the destruction cult called the Children of Hargon. It’s weird, and unlike many other crafting-oriented games, Builders 2 gives these other characters a lot of time to talk, breathe, and develop.
And so the full experience of Dragon Quest Builders 2 is getting small missions to make new kinds of food or explore new parts of a massive underground mine, and then doing those. Then you use the materials you’ve discovered to create new furniture or new types of room decoration. Then you build new rooms, or add onto rooms you already have, and make the denizens of your small town happier. You can spend that happiness to increase their abilities, and then they start cooking and building the things you ask them to do for you. It all spirals up, quickly, and goes from being Minecraft to being something like a combination of Dwarf Fortress and Animal Crossing. You start taking thirty minutes to make very, very fancy bathrooms or private apartments for each of your townspeople. Shit gets out of hand.
For all the thrill of it, there are also downsides. There have been times during my 40 hours where I have felt like I was simply treading water and rehearsing the cycle of fulfilling build requests and inventing new items for the sake of it. There have been truly cringeworthy story moments that hearken back to some of my problems with Dragon Quest XI.
The B-plot of the second island, Khrumbul-Dun, is particularly gross and weird: The town has a central bar operated by an older man and his daughter Babs. Everyone in the town, and I mean everyone, is constantly talking about how much they are attracted to this girl. The town metalworker, a much older man named Magrog, even says this during a discussion of who will win her heart: “That lass has looked up to me since she was a babbling baby. There’s only one fella in Babs’s eyes—Magrog, the mighty master of metalworking!” Eventually she puts on the traditional Dragon Quest bunny suit to get all these dudes hyped to mine metal and coal all day long. While the game walks a line around agency for her (she does, in fact, want to become a bar dancer like her mother), you also have to sit through so much leering text about her and her clothes and her shower and her private bedroom and everything else these miners want you to do.
So sometimes when you’re getting all this non-player character dialogue, it’s awesome because you’re learning about the world and the people who came before you and the reason that Builders are rare in this world. And other times it’s this vehicle for this legacy retrograde Dragon Quest content that I don’t care for even a little bit. But it is all part and parcel of this firehose of narrative that is strung together via small tasks that build into big mechanical and plot movements.
There is one character who is a more consistent part of your journey than the many NPCs that flitter through your stories and settlements, and it speaks to the complexity of Dragon Quest Builders 2 that I’ve made it all the way down to the end of this review without really talking about him, since he’s one of the selling points of this game. His name is Malroth, and he joins your self-named player character as both a constant ally in battle and as someone to help you smash and collect materials. I liked having him around because he cut my raw material gathering time in half, and he’s very solid in a scrap. Narratively, Malroth cannot create, he can only destroy, and from the outset there is both a loving alliance and a clear brooding weight between the player and the destroyer. He keeps trying to create things, and he keeps failing. It moves in predictable directions.
There’s also a multiplayer mode, but I did not get a chance to experiment with it during the review period because I was too invested in the Isle of Awakening, the game’s pseudo-sandbox where you can take all the things you learn on the various islands and bring them home to your own paradise. (That, too, is pretty cool.)
Dragon Quest Builders 2 is a big bundle of different mechanics and feelings. It rarely feels overwhelming, but it is a game that is definitely willing to give the player hundreds of potential items and directions and allow them to go wild with it. If you’re in it for plot, and you can stand the bad stuff, then it clicks right along. If you’re not, you can skip right through all of it without missing any of the basic beats. It’s a game that does not fundamentally change after hour two, but it does manage to take up as much time as you’ll put into it. Depending on how much you’re like me, that can get dangerous.
Overall, I am deeply impressed with how Builders 2 iterates on the original. I can’t think of anything that I thought the first game should have that isn’t here, and as soon as I am done writing this I am going to dive back into the game so that I can learn more recipes, experiment with more rooms, and generally just fall deeper into the vortex that is this weird game. There really is nothing else quite like it.
Have thoughts? Swing by the Waypoint forums to share them!


BT broadband has announced that they now have an amazing 3.5 million Wi-Fi hotspot across the UK and Ireland, giving you even more freedom away from your home hub. This gives BT Total Broadband customers free and unlimited access to the one of the largest Wi-Fi networks in the world, with a whopping 380,000 hotspots in London alone.
Awesome news coming through, as you can now receive 6 months free Spotify premium when you order a Virgin Media bundle for a limited time. Simply order an XL or XXL bundle pack before the end of Saturday 31st March 2012, to enjoy this amazing online offer. Spotify Premium really is the bee’s knees when it comes to listening to music, I personally could’t live without it, and is worth £9.99 a month, so that’s a saving of nearly £60!
Sky Broadband is offering up an amazing new year deal that will certainly put a spring in your step for 2012. For a very limited time, you can now enjoy Sky’s totally unlimited broadband at half the price for a full 12 months, amazing value! Simply order online before the end of Thursday 16th February 2012 to take advantage of this superb money saving offer.
The convergence of the personal computer and the television is nearly complete. It took a while, and it would seem puzzling to the casual observer why the two technologies remained incompatible for so long. When the first PCs started to become commonplace, they used the same cathode ray tube displays as TVs from that time.


We are in uncharted political waters with the British exit from the EU.
At Enviresearch, we still feel as European as ever. We are utterly committed to our European partners: clients and service providers. We will work closely with them in order to ensure that we continue to provide a seemless quality of service during this period of transition. As the nature of chemical legislation becomes clear we will adapt our service to ensure that the whole industry receives the best possible support whether your are aiming for compliance within the EU, the UK or in any other state in the European Economic Area.


As a follow up to its recently launched ‘Never say Never’ corporate campaign, Keystone Bank has embarked on a promo to reward its loyal customers.
Tagged the Keystone Daily Awuf Promo, the initiative is developed to reward the teeming loyal customers of the bank and to encourage saving culture among Nigerians. The promotion, which will run from August 1, 2012 to October 31, 2012, is open to existing customers; both active and dormant account holders and new customers. Keystone Awuf promo offers multiple benefits to all customers who participate during the period.
The Executive Director, Retail Banking, Mrs. Yvonne Isichei stated that “the promo is designed to give back to our esteemed customers as Keystone Bank marks one year of providing innovative and best-in-class services”.
She also hinted that activities during the savings promo would include daily cash gifts for 20 qualifying customers, instant gift items for all new customers and reactivated accounts. At the grand finale regional draw, three lucky customers would drive away with one brand new 14-seater bus each, while four customers per branch would receive consolation prizes. The consolation prizes are Generators, Rechargeable Fans, Satellite TV decoders and DVD players.
Speaking further on the promo, Mrs. Isichei confirmed that “the decision to give out buses was informed by Keystone Bank’s mission to empower the low and middle income earners of the economy. We expect that winners of these busses will put them to profitable entrepreneurial use.


On November 6th, people from across the country voted in their state’s Midterm Elections. Up for vote were 34 Senate seats, all of the seats in the House, and 36 gubernatorial seats. The Republicans have 53 seats in the Senate, 199 in the house, and 25 governors. The Democrats have 45 Senate seats, 223 house seats, and 23 governors. The other two Senate seats, which are the Florida and the Mississippi, are both leaning Republican as are the other two gubernatorial races. In the House, 6 seats are leaning Republican and 4 are leaning Democrat. This means that the Republicans have a majority in the Senate and will most likely have a majority among governors, whereas the Democrats have the majority in the House.
Just looking at the numbers, this would not seem to be a win for the Republicans as they lost the House, which they recently controlled. However, if you look at previous elections, this is a victory for them. In 2010, which was the first midterm election under President Obama, the Democrats lost 6 senate seats and 63 house seats. In 2002, however, the Republicans kept both Houses under President Bush. This makes sense, given the political climate at the time and the war just beginning in Afghanistan. In 1994, during President Clinton’s first term, the Democrats lost 9 Senate seats and also lost 54 House seats. Given the history of first-term midterm elections, President Trump gaining seats in one of the chambers is a victory for the Republicans. Also, keeping the Senate is arguably more important than keeping the House. With control of the Senate, Trump can get his court appointments confirmed. The biggest problems with not having control of the House is the possibility of impeachment and a block of any future tax cuts. However, Trump has already gotten his big tax cut through, so he isn’t looking to do another one very soon. Also, impeachment isn’t a problem because the Senate has to remove the President from office, which won’t happen with a Republican Senate. Keeping the Senate will be more important for Trump than keeping the House because he can still get his appointments confirmed by the Senate.
This is why this was a victory of the Republicans. They beat history and gained a few seats in the Senate. However, they lost the House. The was a lesser evil for Trump, because he can do more with a Republican Senate than a Republican House. Even though the Democrats gained the House, this year was not a victory for them. It was still a decent election for them, because they took control of one of the chambers, but the Republicans still got what they needed to achieve their goals.
The House – With California’s 21st Congressional District, the last undecided race of the 2018 midterms, and the vast majority of election wins certified, the numbers are in: Democrats gained 39 House seats, securing a solid 234-seat majority for the next session. Central to their victory was the political shift among sparsely populated suburban areas that voted solidly Republican in 2016, delivering a net Democratic gain of 15 seats. Likewise, densely populated suburban districts that voted solidly Democrat in 2016 shifted more Democratic, with 12 more seats flipping. Overall, the shift was most profound in districts that voted for Romney and Trump in previous elections, accounting for one-third of Democratic pickups – a sharp rebuke of Republican policies that have ostracized many independent and conservative voters alike.
The Senate – In the Senate, Democrats fared better than expected, losing only 2 seats for a 53-seat Republican majority against a brutal electoral map: 74% of senate seats up for election were held by Democrats, the most seats any non-presidential party had to defend in midterms since 1914. In addition, Democrats overperformed in nearly every state, beating even partisan leans of 25+ points in states that voted overwhelmingly for Trump, like West Virginia – which he had previously won with a 36% margin.
The Voters – Both parties’ bases were highly motivated, with voter turnout increasing nearly 10% from the 40% national average; in Texas alone, voter turnout increased 14% to 46% total. Democrat Beto O’Rourke came to within 3 points of Republican Ted Cruz by winning over burgeoning urban voters that already, in five counties alone, encompass 43% of Texas’ population. The combination of high urban population growth and continued high voter turnout is projected to make Texas a swing state by 2024, and much more competitive in 2020, when Senator John Cornyn’s seat is up for election.
The Future – The recent news about Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation into alleged Russian interference and current Democratic control of the House and its Judiciary Committee suggest more conflict ahead. It is necessary among Democratic and Independent voters to protect the Special Counsel – himself a lifelong Republican, former Marine, and 12-year FBI director – from executive interference. However, many Americans expect legislative gridlock in the coming session to stall policy-making at a time when national debt interest, accruing faster due to a recent tax overhaul and spending bill, will surpass defense spending. Moreover, the international status quo increasingly demands unified action.
My Opinion – Keeping in mind the above, the American people have delivered their most resounding verdict yet on the current status quo – one of bitterness, partisanship, and sociopolitical division ordained by populist demagoguery – by voting for checks and balance, rule of law, and reason in candidates professing different views than a Republican contingent that seems bent on abandoning its foundations of fiscal responsibility and constitutionality for political expediency, all the while championing the burning effigy of moral integrity. Its base, the Great Silent Majority of working-class, suburban, law-abiding taxpayers readily abandoned the vitriol and incessant scandals ushered in by this administration in favor of either tepid enthusiasm or the Democratic party. At a time when both parties are becoming more radical, and younger generations are expressing apathy or disdain for the democratic process, the solution is not to set fire to the opposing camp – calling upon an army of horrors, “trigger-words,” slippery slopes, or straw men – but to recognize the true enemy of any self-governing people: fear itself.


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Mumbai, Oct 13 : National Award-winning appearance artist Sabyasachi Mukherjee says red is one of the best ill-fitted and able colours for all Indian women.
“They can try a few shades of red on them continuing in advanced of the mirror and depending on the chicken caliber of her skin, she can acquisition the best accouterment for herself,” Sabyasachi told IANS here.
Meanwhile, the ace designer’s cast – House of Sabyasachi – collaborated with the corrective cast L’Oreal Paris India to actualize a blithe appropriate composition band that offers 10 altered shades of lipsticks forth with one mascara and eyeliner.
Actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is the face of the brand. They formed calm for the collection. Earlier also, they had collaborated for films like “Raavan”, “Guzaarish” and fabricated several accessible appearances, including the Cannes Blur Anniversary red carpet.
He is one of the designers who is befitting the acceptable fabrics like Khadi and methods like bandhani, gotawork, block press and duke dyeing animate through his work.
Since he loves repeating the acceptable designs and present them in a accordant address to accumulate the belief of Indian appearance alive, don’t such repetitions bind him from experimenting?
Sabyasachi had his aboriginal blur airing with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s “Black” and connected alive with Rani Mukherji in films like “Baabul” and “Laaga Chunari Mein Daag”, and additionally dressed some of the icons in films “Paa”, “No One Killed Jessica” and “English Vinglish”.
It is absolutely absorbing to beam that the man who expresses his adroitness in the absolute busy and affecting address in his design, consistently dresses up in monochrome.
“I adore minimalism and ‘maximalism’ at the aforementioned time. I adore a lot of Indian textile, antiquity, jewellery etc but in my claimed style, I like simplicity. I appetite to accumulate my claimed apparel anatomic because I biking a lot. I accumulate cutting atramentous and white so that I don’t accept to accumulate alteration my apparel all the time,” Sabyasachi said.
“Also I like classics, so if article looks acceptable on me, I am blessed to abrasion it every day of my life,” he added.


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Wildlife & Biodiversity

A sniff to save

It can detect a person buried under six metres of snow. Pervez Cama, who travelled to the Swiss Alps, traces the history of St Bernard, a dog groomed to rescue travellers, and now part of popular culture

Last Updated: Friday 16 December 2016 | 12:11:51 PM

I was on an unusual mission in the snowy landscape of the Swiss Alps: to discover the history and antecedence of one of the world’s most popular dogs, the St Bernard. When we began our ascent, we were enchanted by the quintessential Swiss alpine scenery with its precipitous and thickly wooded hills, massive vertical rock faces and pretty, flower-decked wooden cottages. However, this was a difficult journey in inhospitable environs.

The final stretch of the road up the mountain was long, circuitous and seemingly endless. Every turn revealed a desolate landscape dominated by rocky terrain and boulders. All around, the characteristic jagged peaks of the lofty Swiss Alps kissed the sky. It looked daunting even from the comfortable ambience of our vehicle. Centuries ago, during winter, it would have been forbidding for a traveller to negotiate this treacherous mountain road from Martigny in Switzerland to Aosta in Italy.

The road finally opened out and a simple signboard announced that we had reached our destination—the Col du Grand St Bernard, a pass a height of about 2,470 metres. This is the oldest pass in the western Alps, and importantly, this is also the location of an ancient monastery on the border of the two countries—Switzerland and Italy—where monks live their pious lives. Ahead lies a lake, bordered by sheer stony walls that culminate in a line of intimidating tooth-like peaks, and beyond which, the road traverses the equally intimidating slopes that descend into Italy.

In 57 BC, Julius Caesar was looking for a shorter route from Gaul to Italy, and Caesar’s son, Augustus, ultimately proved triumphant over the belligerent Gallic tribes occupying the pass, crowning his victory by building a colony on the Italian side, called Aosta in his honour. A plaque announces that Napoleon and his army had marched through this road in 1800, enroute to Italy. A large statue of St Bernard of Menthon, the patron saint of the Alps, watches over this bleak landscape. He founded this monastery in 1049.

Such inhospitable surroundings naturally promoted austere living and spiritual leanings amongst his monastic order, and there were God’s subjects to be cared for as the harsh winter conditions caused many travelers to flounder and lose their lives with nine metres of deep snow and temperatures of —30°C. To assist in rescuing and guiding people through dangerous snowstorms, the monks developed a special breed of dog, known today to the world as the St Bernard.

Intelligent guardians

The earliest record of this breed being used at the monastery dates back to paintings drawn in1690. The heroic dogs proved their mettle for about 200 years by helping the monks to save nearly 2,000 people exhausted and stranded in the mountain snows, right up to the 19th century. It is said that they could detect a person buried under six metres of snow.

Their massive and strong bodies could bulldoze a path through the snow, their huge paws helped in digging deep and their keen senses led people to safety. The last documented rescue occurred in 1955. A legendary dog, Barry, is estimated to have saved more than 40 lives, and his embalmed body is still preserved in the National History Museum of Bern, Switzerland.

But many dogs lost their lives due to avalanches. Incredibly, as the story goes, the younger dogs received little training from the monks and mostly learnt their search and rescue duties by accompanying the older dogs. Popular legend portrays the St Bernard going to the rescue missions with a barrel of brandy around its neck. But that is a fallacy as the monks used to actually strap packs of food and water around its back to revive travellers smothered beneath the snow.

Reigning as the national dog of Switzerland, the St Bernard dog is believed to have a common ancestor in the Alpine Mastiff, along with the English Mastiff and the Swiss Mountain Dog, a big breed raised by farmers and the pastoral community in Switzerland. The dogs themselves have evolved over the years into their present form after being crossed with several other large molosser type breeds and are related to the mastiff group of dogs. Terrible winter avalanches in the early 1800s obliterated many fine dogs in the line of rescue duty, and the remnants were mated with the New-foundland dogs, which led to the development of heavy fur.

Majestic beings

Old portraits reveal that the old working rescue dogs of the hospice looked different and had a smaller size than the current giant dogs, which are the result of breeding designed to enhance the breed’s majestic appearance and attractiveness. Their current dimensions are big and may range upwards of 70 cm in height and between 65 and 140 kg in weight. Modern day St Bernards can be both long and short haired and are popular worldwide because they are family dogs. Aptly nick named “babysitters”, they are eager to look after people, especially children, in their homes. They are gentle and friendly, and have been captured in various movies such as Beethoven and its sequels. The dogs require constant grooming and large spaces, and are known to harbour eye, bone and heart ailments that can run up steep medical bills.

Some monks still reside at the monastery, while others visit it as a spiritual retreat. However, modern transport and a tunnel constructed below the mountain in 1964 made the dogs redundant. So the Barry Foundation in Switzerland purchased the dogs from the monks and established breeding kennels in 2004. The dogs are taken out by their handlers to interact with people and their sociable nature ensures much cuddling and thrills tourists.

But the dogs no longer patrol the frigid paths in the icy temperatures of winter for they are shifted to the ancient Roman town of Martigny during these months. During summer, the lonely crags resonate with the deep throated calls of the giant St Bernards. It was the pass that created the dogs, and today, they have saved the pass from fading into the shadows of history. Their legend still endures.

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Some people simply prefer libraries to study but they always resent being unable to eat and drink inside, at coffee shops, on the other hand, students are deprived of the encouraging atmosphere generated by being surrounded by books while studying. For those looking to combine the qualities of a library and a coffee shop, Sankofa, as both a bookstore and a cafe, is certainly there to check out. Amazing food and coffee, internet connection, convenient tables and power outlets… Just a perfect gem on 2714 Georgia Avenue near Howard University. Open all days from 09:00 a.m. to late evening.
Three chairs and a table at Sankofa Video, Books & Cafe. Photo: Yelp / Nellie F.
Plenty of tables, both inside and on the patio, power outlets and a free internet service on top of some of the best sandwiches and coffee you could find in all of D.C. are what Heat Da Spot delivers to our list. It is also hard to match the friendliness of the owner and the staff, just complementing the home feel of the cozy place. Five stars on Yelp will, by no means, be a surprise after your first visit to this Ethiopian diner. On 3213 Georgia Avenue, Heat Da Spot is open all days of the week.
An inside view of Heat Da Spot with a group of customers. Photo: Vidhika B.
In the same neighborhood as Heat Da Spot, Colony Club stands out with a significantly more spacious area, both in and outdoors. The owner has furnished the place to accomodate students of all ages, with many large tables and outlets available for those looking to study. The availability of a free and strong Wi-Fi connection makes it just easier to benefit from multiple resources while doing that. And when you feel like taking a short break from your material, the ping pong table upstairs could offer a rather joyful one. Besides, there is no chance you would regret the food or coffee you would be served here. Just make sure you drop by before noon on Fridays and Saturdays when it closes at 12:00 a.m.
Granted, this is not as big as the Colony Club but offers just the calm environment you would need while studying. Plus, their freshly baked pastries and coffee are simply something to return to, not to mention the convenient patio, which would probably be better for studying since Spring is just around the corner now. On 1926 17th Street, Three Fifty Bakery and Coffee Bar opens as early as 7:00 a.m. all work days and serves till 7:00 p.m. The working hours are slightly shorter on weekends.
When the word ‘coffee’ is pronounced, there are only a few countries to be automatically remembered by most people and Ethiopia is certainly one of them. Originally hailing from the Eastern African country, the owner of Sidamo has done but all to make this place nearly perfect for those willing to study. In walking distance from the Union Station, this cozy coffee shop, too, offers its customers a fine Wi-Fi connection. Just remember to ask for the credentials at the register. And you better arrive sooner than later in the day in order not to be disappointed seeing a packed room inside. Little courtyard in the back, though, might still be a lifesaver.


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The New Jersey Supreme Court has unanimously held that private claims for contribution made pursuant to the New Jersey Spill Compensation and Control Act (the “Spill Act”), N.J.S.A. 58:10-23.11f(a)(2)(a) are not subject to the general six-year statute of limitations contained in N.J.S.A. 2A:14-1.
Morristown Assoc. v. Grant Oil Co., (A-38-13) (073248) (January 26, 2015). This decision leaves the door open for contribution plaintiffs to file suit against all parties who may have contributed to contamination, regardless of how long ago their contribution occurred.
In Morristown Associates, the owner of a multi-tenant shopping center in Morristown, New Jersey leased property to a dry cleaning business, which had an underground storage tank (“UST”) to store fuel oil for its boiler. Around 1988, deterioration of the UST caused fuel oil to leak into the soil and groundwater. The leak, however, was not discovered until 2003 when a monitoring well near the UST revealed the contamination. Id. at 7.
Following the discovery of the contamination, plaintiff, the owner of the shopping center, began to remediate the property and later brought claims for contribution against the owner of the dry cleaning business, as well as the oil companies who provided fuel oil for the UST. Id. at 7. Under the Spill Act, a party who cleans up contamination has a right of contribution against other responsible parties. N.J.S.A. 58:10-23.11f(a)(2)(a). The purpose of a contribution claim is to help ensure that parties do not pay more than their fair share of cleanup costs, especially when they are only responsible for a small portion of a site’s overall contamination.
Despite the absence of a specific limitation period in the Spill Act, the trial court ultimately applied the general six-year statute of limitations for injury to real property to the private claims for contribution, and found that the owner’s claims were time-barred. Id. at 9; see N.J.S.A. 2A:14-1. On appeal, the Appellate Division affirmed the trial court’s ruling, relying in part on prior precedent that general statute of limitations are “applicable when particular statutes did not set forth a specific limitation period.” Id. at 10-11.
For potentially responsible parties, this decision confirms that no matter how much time passes, a party can be subject to a contribution claim.
If you are involved in the cleanup of a contaminated site with multiple potential responsible parties and have questions regarding a contribution claim, please contact Heidi Minuskin, Deborah Kelly or Michelle Murphy.
1While the trial court found, in the context of evaluating the applicability of the discovery rule, that a property owner has an affirmative obligation to investigate its property for all potential areas of concern when they are put on reasonable notice, the Supreme Court did not address this issue. The timing of when contamination is discovered is now moot since there is no statute of limitations for contribution claims.


Somaliland – With support from Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KS-Relief), IOM is building up the institutional capacity of immigration and coastguard officials in Somaliland who are at the forefront of the humanitarian response to help thousands of migrants and refugees fleeing the conflict in Yemen.
The support includes an eight-day training workshop for 30 immigration and coastguard officers – monitored by five senior government officials – which kicked off on 22 October 2016. The selected coastguard officials work in Zailac, Hargeisa, Maydh, and Berbera. The immigration officers are based in Hargeisa and Berbera.
The senior officials include the Deputy Regional Governor of Sahil Region, the Mayor of the District of Berbera and Berbera’s Immigration Department Officer.
The training focuses on increasing the capacity of relevant government officials in protection, awareness and data management of Yemeni refugees, Somali returnees and migrants from Yemen. After the training, IOM will donate office and communications equipment to Somaliland’s Berbera immigration office.
By the end of the training, the participants will have gained vital skills in protection of vulnerable groups, how to respond to individual and mass arrivals, and in data collection, storage and management.
“Many coast guards and immigration officers across Somalia are trained on the job. Given the limited funding available to the government for continuous professional development, support from KS-Relief is vital in ensuring that vulnerable families fleeing the conflict in Yemen are treated in a dignified and humane manner. IOM deeply appreciates this ongoing support,” said Gerard Waite, IOM Somalia Chief of Mission.
The training is part of a USD 10 million project that will benefit almost 20,000 people who have to date fled to Somalia from war-torn Yemen. It is being implemented by the IOM and UNHCR, in close coordination with the Somalia Task Force on the Yemen Situation, and respective regional and local authorities.


Art & Music ›
Wall O' Sound Staff
Ed Girling, Director of Bands
(egirling@eccc.edu/601-481-4395)
Ed Girling is in his seventh year at East Central Community College. In addition to his work as Director of Bands, he is the director for the drum line and front ensemble, Girling also serves as the applied percussion instructor and director of the ECCC Percussion Ensemble.
Girling has been teaching band and music in Mississippi for 37 years. He previously served as director at Forest High School (2005-2010); Scott Central (1995-2004), where he received STAR Teacher honors in 1998; Stringer (1994-95); Neshoba Central (1991-94); Manchester Academy (1988-1991); Cleveland (1987-88), North Sunflower Academy in Drew (1985-87); and Yazoo City (1982-86).
Girling has served as a clinic and contest judge, as a band clinician, and as a guest conductor. He has experience in organizing and administering clinics and contests. He is also a music arranger and composer and has served as a percussionist for various music groups.
Girling served two years as the director for the Scott County Honor Band which received superior ratings in concert and sight reading. He has also served as a director of several musicals in addition to performing in numerous theatrical productions.
He is a former president of the East Central Mississippi Band Directors’ Association and the Mississippi Private School Association. Girling is also a Past President for the Mississippi Junior and Community College Band Association (MJCCBA). He is a longtime member of the Mississippi Bandmasters Association and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (Theta Upsilon) and the Percussive Arts society.
A graduate of Pass Christian High School, Girling holds bachelor's and master's degrees in Music Education and a bachelor's degree in Percussion Performance from Delta State University in Cleveland.
Jeff Sorey, Assistant Director of Bands
(jsorey@eccc.edu/601-635-6306)
Jeff Sorey is the assistant band director at East Central Community College.
Sorey has more than 30 years experience as a band director having served as director of bands and assistant director of bands with the Huntington Independent School District in Huntington, Texas, prior to joining ECCC in 2017. His experience also includes stints at Indianola Academy, Northeast Jones High School and Loyd Star Attendance Center, as well as additional schools in Texas.
He received his bachelor’s degree in music education from Delta State University and a master’s degree in music from New Mexico State University. He is a graduate of Newton High School and Jones County Junior College.
Sorey assists with the college’s Wall O’ Sound Marching Band as well as the concert band and other instrumental ensembles.


Chairman of the Board of Directors of EP Produzione S.p.A.and Fiume Santo S.p.A.
Graduate in International Management at the Economics Faculty of Prague University and in Finance & Investments at Rotterdam School of Management (Netherlands).
Started his professional career in 2009, in the Financial Services Risk Management division of Ernst & Young. From 2011 to 2013 worked at Unicredit Management Consultancy.
In 2013 he joined Energetický a Prumyslový Holding dealing with gas (SPP) and electricity (SSE-Distribucia) distribution in Slovakia and managing the Group’s financial risk.
Since 2015 Peter Cernák has followed the activities of the companies in the EPH Group in Italy, as Member of the Board of Directors and as CFO (until 29th April 2019) of EP Produzione S.p.A. and Fiume Santo S.p.A.
Luca Alippi
CEO of EP Produzione S.p.A. and Fiume Santo S.p.A.
Chief Executive Officer of EP Produzione Centrale Livorno Ferraris S.p.A. and of Ergosud S.p.A. A graduate in engineering from Milan Polytechnic, Luca Alippi has held executive positions in a number of energy companies, working both in generation/wholesale and in the retail market.
General Manager of E.ON Energia S.p.A. (electricity and gas sales to business and residential customers) from 2011 to June 2015.
From May 2015 to June 2015 Chief Executive Officer of E.ON Produzione S.p.A.
In E.ON since 2000, Luca Alippi set up and led the first companies in Italy dedicated to selling electricity and developing generation capacity.
Chief Executive Officer of Bayernwerk Italia S.p.A. (entry into Italy of the German utility at the start of the liberalisation of energy markets), 1999-2000. Roland Berger Consulting (various strategic and organisational consulting projects, also in the energy sector), 1991 to 1999.
Pirelli Pneumatici SpA, 1989-1991.
Chairman of AIGET (Italian Association of Energy Wholesalers and Traders) for 2 mandates, from 2005 to 2009.
Member of the Consultative Committee of Terna S.p.A. from 2006 to 2008.
Since 2016 Member of the Strategic Committee of Assoelettrica.
Marco Arcelli
Member of the Board of Directors of EP Produzione S.p.A. and Fiume Santo S.p.A.
Graduated from the University of Genoa in Mechanical Engineering and from Harvard’s Advanced Management Program, Marco Arcelli is Business Development Director of EPH Group and Head of EP New Energy. From 2001 to 2016 he was at Enel covering different roles: Executive Vice President Upstream Gas (2009-2016); Head of Business Development and Operations Support; CEO of Slovénske Elektrárne (2005-2007); President and CEO of Enel North America (2003-2005).
Prior to Enel he held several positions in project & construction management, dispute resolution, sales and business development for large infrastructure projects in energy, airports, transport systems at General Electric and O’Brien-Kreitzberg. He is also a visiting professor at IESE on energy and management.
Since April 2018, Marco is member of the Board of Directors of EP Produzione S.p.A. and Fiume Santo S.p.A..
Marek Spurný
Marek Spurný is a member of the Board of Directors of EPH, Head of the Group’s Legal Office and member of the corporate sector of various subsidiaries.
Since December 2004 he has worked for J&T Group, which subsequently moved its corporate investments into EPH as from 2009.
Born in 1974, he graduated in 1998 at the Law Faculty of the Palacky University Olomouc, in the Czech Republic. After a year’s experience in a local legal office, he worked for the legal department of the Commission of Czech Securities, the government regulator which supervises the capital market.
In November 2000 he was appointed Head of the Commission of the Department for the Issue of Securities, which supervises and regulates binding offers to acquire securities, takeover bids, disclosure obligations for listed companies, prevention of insider trading, cooperation with EU counterparts in the field, etc.
In addition, he represented the Czech Republic on the CESR-Fin (a sub-committee of the Committee of European Securities Regulators for financial reporting). He is also one of the co-authors of the national Code of Corporate Governance based on the principles of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
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// author: Jannik Strötgen
// email: stroetgen@uni-hd.de
// resources automatically created; see our EMNLP 2015 paper for details:
// https://aclweb.org/anthology/D/D15/D15-1063.pdf
//
// english: "one","1"
"එක","1"
// english: "two","2"
"දෙක","2"
// english: "three","3"
"තුන","3"
// english: "four","4"
"හතර","4"
// english: "five","5"
"පහ","5"
// english: "six","6"
"හය","6"
// english: "seven","7"
"හත","7"
// english: "eight","8"
"අට","8"
// english: "nine","9"
"නවය","9"
// english: "ten","10"
"දහය","10"
// english: "eleven","11"
"එකොළහ","11"
// english: "twelve","12"
"දොළහ","12"
// english: "thirteen","13"
"දහතුන","13"
// english: "fourteen","14"
"දහහතර","14"
// english: "fifteen","15"
"පහළොව","15"
// english: "sixteen","16"
"දහසය","16"
// english: "seventeen","17"
"දහහත","17"
// english: "eighteen","18"
"දහඅට","18"
// english: "nineteen","19"
"දහනවය","19"
// english: "twenty","20"
"විස්ස","20"
// english: "thirty","30"
"තිහ","30"


"A suicide bomber struck in the Afghan capital early Monday morning, targeting a bus full of foreign security contractors. At least 14 people were killed and eight others wounded, said Sediq Seddiqi, spokesman for Afghanistan's Interior Ministry. The majority of the victims were citizens of Nepal, he added. ... The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a text message sent to media organizations." (06/20/16)

"NATO allies will likely agree next month to extend the Afghanistan training mission and keep troops in all four sections of the country next year, a senior NATO diplomat said Wednesday, leaving the door open for the U.S. to maintain current troops levels if the Obama administration decides it's necessary. Under current plans, the U.S. will cut its troop numbers from 9,800 to 5,500 by the end of 2016. But in the face of a resurgent Taliban, former commanders have urged President Barack Obama to keep 9,800 there into next year." (06/15/16)

"Afghan and Pakistani forces clashed in an escalation of tensions between the neighbouring countries, killing at least three people and forcing the closure of the main border crossing, officials said Tuesday. The fighting erupted along the Torkham border on Sunday night and continued erratically over the next two days, apparently after Afghan forces objected to the construction of a gate on the Pakistani side." (06/14/16)

"The Afghan Taliban confirmed on Wednesday that their leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a U.S. drone strike last week and that they have appointed a successor -- a scholar known for extremist views who is unlikely to back a peace process with Kabul. The announcement came as a suicide bomber struck a minibus carrying court employees in the Afghan capital, killing at least 11 people, an official said. The Taliban promptly claimed responsibility for the attack." (05/25/16)

"After all these months of investigation, CENTCOM concluded 'this tragic incident was caused by a combination of human errors, compounded by process and equipment failures.' This is the same thing the Pentagon said after their initial investigation in November. And nearly seven months after the attack on the hospital in Kunduz, the official narrative still 'rests on the idea that the attacking warplane had taken off without [access to] a no-strike list, then had to dodge a non-existent missile, never corrected its targeting systems, and when ordered to attack a target at empty coordinates, chose to attack the 'closest large building' even though it was out of view of the troops who claimed to be under attack.'" [text, Flash audio or MP3] (05/01/16)

"Ever since the U.S. last October bombed a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Kunduz, Afghanistan, the U.S. vehemently denied guilt while acting exactly like a guilty party would. First, it changed its story repeatedly. Then, it blocked every effort -- including repeated demands from MSF -- to have an independent investigation determine what really happened. ... the U.S. military is about to release a report that, so predictably, exonerates itself from all guilt; it was, of course, all just a terribly tragic mistake." (04/39/16)

"At least seven people were killed and more than 300 people were injured after an explosion rocked Kabul, Afghanistan on Tuesday morning, according to the country's health ministry. A suicide car bomber caused the explosion, said Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi. The attack targeted the office of a security team that works to protect the government's VIPs, an Afghan police official said. The Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, the group said in a statement." (04/19/16)

"An increasing number of Afghan civilians are killed and injured at the hands of government forces fighting extremist groups, according to the UN. A report released on Sunday, documenting the first three months of 2016, shows a 70% rise in civilian casualties caused by pro-government forces, with 127 killed and 242 wounded. A total of 600 civilians were killed and 1,343 injured during that period, a 2% increase in total casualties but a 13% drop in fatalities. A growing proportion of those civilians are women and children. This year, one-third of civilian casualties have been children, a 29% jump from last year." (04/17/16)

"As many as eight police official[s] were Thursday killed when a group of armed people attacked police convoy in Afghanistan’s Takhar province. ... None of the insurgent groups, including those associated with Taliban, have claimed responsibility for the attack." (04/14/16)

"A suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed at least six civilians and wounded 22 on today when he detonated near a clinic and a school during a police chase in eastern Afghanistan, officials said. The incident occurred in Parwan province, northwest of capital Kabul, provincial police chief for Parwan Mohammad Zaman Mamozai told AFP. 'We had been tipped off he was coming, he intended to target a police base, but when he found himself being chased by police, he detonated himself in an area close to a school and clinic,' Mamozai said." (04/05/16)

"The Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility for firing three rockets at the country's parliamentary compound Monday. Lawmakers said no one was injured and there was only minor damage from the rockets, which struck around the time top law enforcement officials were giving a security briefing to politicians." (03/28/16)

"A senior American general has proposed resuming offensive strikes against the Taliban, exposing a rift between the military and senior administration officials over the U.S. role in the war in Afghanistan, according to military officials. Senior Pentagon officials complained that Gen. John F. Campbell, who commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan until earlier this month, broke with standard military procedure when he forwarded his proposal in recent weeks directly to the White House without the backing of Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter. Campbell said he followed normal procedures in submitting his recommendations, which could draw the United States back into a broader air campaign against the Taliban." (03/14/16)

"In the fourth attack since 2007, heavily-armed terrorists, including suicide bombers, today struck the Indian Consulate in Afghanistan's Jalalabad city, killing nine persons including an Afghan security personnel and causing damage to the chancery. External Affairs Ministry in New Delhi said all Indians in the mission were safe and six terrorists, who carried out the attack, were dead. While two terrorists blew themselves up, four militants were killed by the Afghan National Police." (03/02/16)

"A suicide bomber targeting a police commander killed at least 13 people on Monday, including nine civilians, in Afghanistan's northern Parwan province, an official said. The attack happened near a clinic and a bazaar, said Gen Zaman Mamozai, the provincial police chief. Four local police were among those killed, and another 19 people, including 17 civilians, were wounded, he said." (02/22/16)

"Jeb Bush says that his brother 'kept us safe.' Trump, on the other hand, points out the obvious: that the 9/11 attacks, which occurred when George W. was president, was not exactly 'keeping us safe.' But what Jeb is obviously referring to is 7-year aftermath of the 9/11 attacks while his brother was president. Since there were no further 9/11s, Jeb is suggesting, that shows that his brother W. 'kept us safe.' What Trump has failed to point out and what Jeb fails to recognize, however, is that Bush's decisions to invade Afghanistan and Iraq, along with his much-vaunted 'war on terrorism,' actually made America much less safe, owing to the never-ending threat of terrorist retaliation arising from the anger and rage those invasions produced, along with their subsequent long-term occupations." (02/16/16)

"A rogue Afghan policeman drugged his colleagues before shooting five of them dead, officials said Thursday, the latest in a series of 'insider attacks' which have blighted pro-government forces battling the Taliban. The incident took place Wednesday night at a checkpoint where 13 policemen were posted in southern Kandahar province, scene of some of the heaviest fighting between the Western-backed government and the Taliban in recent years. The attacker was later shot dead by police from a nearby checkpoint who approached after hearing the firing." (02/11/16)

"At least three people were killed and 14 wounded on Monday when a suicide bomber attacked a bus filled with Afghan army personnel in northern Afghanistan, officials said. The blast occurred just before 8 a.m. in Dehdadi district, not far from the Balkh provincial capital of Mazar-i-Sharif, according to a statement by the Ministry of Defense. ... The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing in a statement released online." (02/08/16)

"A Taliban suicide bomber struck a police base in central Kabul Monday, killing at least nine people just days before a fresh round of international talks aimed at reviving dialogue with the Islamist group. Scores of people were also wounded in the bombing at the entrance of the base, which left several bodies and charred debris strewn around the area. The attack comes amid the Taliban's unprecedented winter offensive despite a renewed push to restart formal peace talks." (02/01/16)

"A bomb targeting TV station workers in the Afghan capital killed at least seven people and wounded more than two dozen others Wednesday, officials said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast near the Russian embassy, though the Taliban has previously threatened journalists from Tolo TV, the target of the attack. Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told NBC News a bomber in a Toyota targeted a minibus carrying employees of a Tolo-owned production company." (01/20/16)

"The Afghan military sustained twice as many losses in the last year as U.S. forces killed in the entire 13 years of war in Afghanistan. And the pace of casualties is escalating, suggesting that the Taliban is stronger than the Pentagon and mainstream media have ever let on -- in fact, the country is a house of cards experts say is destined to fall. Just this week, the Associated Press reported that upwards of 40 percent of Afghan security forces are 'ghosts' -- soldiers and police who exist on the books but are otherwise nowhere to be found. With current maps showing the Taliban holding more territory than at any time since 2001, and ISIS moving in to make a play for their turf, confidence that a 'national' army can defend Afghanistan on its own is at an all-time low." (01/20/16)

"A suicide bombing at the guest house of a local official has left at least 13 people dead in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad. The late Sunday morning attack saw the attacker detonate his explosives inside a compound belonging to Obaidullah Shinwari, a member of Nangarhar's provincial council. The attack marks the second bombing in Jalalabad in less than a week. As with last week's attack, the Taliban denied any role in Sunday's bombing." (01/17/16)

"Seven members of the Afghan security forces were killed Wednesday after unidentified gunmen attacked the Pakistani consulate in a volatile eastern province, an official said on Wednesday. Attaullah Khyogani, spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province, said another seven security forces personnel were injured in during the attack, which began when a suicide bomber detonated explosives outside the consulate in the provincial capital Jalalabad. ... According to the French news agency AFP, ISIS claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attack." (01/13/16)

"One U.S. soldier was killed and two wounded during a joint U.S.-Afghan Special Operations mission in Marjah, Afghanistan, Tuesday, with fighting still continuing, the Pentagon announced. A U.S. official told CNN that a quick reaction force has been launched in an effort to rescue those forces on the ground in Marjah. The official could not say where the force was launched from or how many people were involved." (01/05/16)

"Six American service members were killed Monday in a suicide bombing during a patrol outside a U.S. base north of Kabul, in the largest U.S. loss of life from an attack this year, according to a senior Defense official. The patrol of U.S. troops was targeted by a motorcyclist carrying a bomb. In addition to the servicemembers killed, three were injured, according to NATO command headquarters in Afghanistan. The attack occurred outside a sprawling U.S. airbase in Bagram, located 34 miles north of Kabul. The senior Defense official who confirmed that all six dead were Americans was not authorized to speak publicly." (12/21/15)

"Afghan security forces on Wednesday battled Taliban militants who stormed the airport complex in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar in an attack that killed 37 civilians, officials said. The attack began when more than a dozen assailants, reportedly wearing the uniforms of Afghan security forces, stormed the complex Tuesday evening. The airport serves as a base for U.S. forces and CIA operations in southern Afghanistan, and is also used by Afghan forces." (12/09/15)


The Can Makers, the industry trade body representing manufacturers of beverage cans in the UK, will sponsor the first ever Can Bar to appear at SIBA BeerX, 16-19 March 2017.
The Can Bar will be based in the “Festival of Beer Brewers’ Yard” and will feature more than 65 different independent beer brands in a can.
Martin will also be delivering a presentation on Thursday 16th March in the Beer Garden on the importance of can design. It with focus on the rise in bold, colourful can designs, with which brewers have found fresh ways to connect with audiences and celebrate their creations. The Can Makers will explore the possibilities the can presents to brands and explain how brewers can best take advantage of its 360 degree canvas.


Our colleague Will Rogers, most recently the Bacevich Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), is moving on to serve as military legislative assistant to Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii. As such, we would like to take this opportunity to highlight some of the excellent work he has done for CNAS. Will’s contributions at CNAS included, among other leadership activities, articles in a number of their high-quality analytical products.
Will was also the editor and contributor to CNAS’ Natural Security Blog, which we have spent many days and nights reading and learning from.
Will Rogers will most certainly be missed in his CNAS capacity. But we imagine he will be contributing to this space for years to come, and look forward to hearing more from him!
By Caitlin Werrell and Francesco Femia in climate and security on April 11, 2013 .


Students and researchers from Iran can apply to thousands of academic opportunities worldwide to enhance their academic abilities in vast number of scientific disciplines. Scholarships for the citizens of Iran are announced by universities, foundations, state and private international agencies. Summer schools to which citizens of Iran are eligible to apply are organized around the world in all disciplines. Conferences and workshops that students, scientists, scholars and researchers from Iran can attend are available on armacad.info and are updated every day. All students from Iran can always find the best international scholarships to continue their education abroad in BA, MA or PhD levels.


• Photocopy your chosen pattern.
• Place the photocopied pattern over a piece of stiff card of your chosen colour.
• Prick your pattern through the photocopied pattern and card (using a pin or similar fine tool with your pricking mat).
• Start sewing from the reverse, anchoring your thread with a small piece of adhesive tape.
• Sew the design using the stitching distances indicated on each pattern. Different stitches may be used – see example diagrams.
• Once stitched, you can greatly reduce the appearance of any large holes by placing your card face down on a hard surface and gently rubbing the back of a teaspoon across the stitch work.
• Attach your design to a folded card of your chosen colour using double sided tape and decorate with peel-offs and 3D Designs of your choice.
This stitch is used to cover straight distances between A and B. To create a more effective line, use double thread or stitch the line twice.
This stitch is used for filling circles. The thread radiates out from a hole in the centre of the circle and in through a hole on the outer edge of the circle, back out from the central hole and back in though the next hole along the outer edge of the circle. Keep working in a clockwise direction until the circle is complete.
This process is repeated to the end of the line.
This stitch is mainly used to fill leaves or half circles. The thread comes out from the hole offset to the lower end of the pattern and in through a hole at the outer edge of the pattern, out through the offset hole and in through the next hole on the outer edge. Continue in a clockwise direction until the pattern is complete.
Continue until you have completed the circle with each hole used twice.
Once you have completed the numbers 1 thru 7 – your final stitching lines are 1 to 8 on both sides to cover the holes.


When I started this blog, I had no idea if anyone would read it or be interested in what I have to say. Now, 11,000+ hits later, I seem to have a bit of a following.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for commenting.
To those who have blogs of their own: thank you for writing and sharing your journey with me.
There were 386 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 709 MB. That’s about a picture per day.
The busiest day of the year was August 3rd with 496 views. The most popular post that day was What bereaved parents want you to know (but may not say).
In 2014, there were 88 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 118 posts.
February 7, 2015 in Miscellaneous Thoughts.
You are welcome Kathleen. I have enjoyed your post.
But I couldn’t read the original post though I would have dearly loved to. Only open to members of this site ?
I’m not sure what the problem is. All my posts are “public”. So sorry.


Aside from pumpkin, apple is another undeniably fall flavor favorite and that includes apple butter. Sweet, tart and insanely yummy, apple butter is perfect to add on biscuits, pancakes, crepes, pork chops, ice cream, these apple butter rolls… or just eat it by the spoonful. I won’t tell!
Place the peeled, cored and sliced apples in your slow cooker. In a bowl, whisk together the sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt. Sprinkle over the apples and stir to coat. Cook the apple mixture on low for 10 hours.
After 10 hours, stir in the vanilla and break up any large chunks of apple. Replace lid and cook an additional 2 hours. If you want a thicker apple butter, leave the lid ajar so the steam can escape. Puree the apple mixture using an immersion blender or food processor. If you’d like it thicker, you can leave in the slow cooker on low for longer, otherwise let it cool and then transfer to jars.
Keep in the fridge for up to two weeks or freeze. Enjoy!


We live in a world where more and more people are getting into health and fitness and exercise is a big part of and. Most of us who want to exercise do it at the gym and this takes quite a lot of effort, discipline and money and because of this, you need to make sure that the work you put in is effective. Even though any exercise is good if you want to truly maximise the effects you need to do it the right way. Here are a few tips to help you out.
Cardio is something we need to do in order to lose weight but it’s something almost everyone hates. It tends to be boring and long and for people living a fast-paced life, this is not the best way to exercise. High intensity interval training ( HIIT for short) is one of the most effective ways to do cardio. It’s short but extremely hard and more effective when compared to normal cardio so you will get more out of the time you spend.
If you are someone lifting weights as part of your workout go as heavy as you can. Sticking in the 5-8 rep range is considered to be the best as this puts your muscles under more strain the weights that will allow you to do 10 – 12 reps. However, you need to be careful and know your limit when doing this as the heavier you go the more dangerous it can become.
This is one of the most important things you can do but most people ignore it. Over time our bodies get used to the exercises we do and they tend to decrease the effectiveness. Because of this, it’s important that you change your work out from time to time. Six weeks is a good interval for you. You can repeat some exercises but try to change the majority as this will challenge your body more. On the other hand, it can also make things fresh and interesting.
No matter how much you work out the food you eat can have a huge impact on your health and wellbeing and you need to make sure that you look into these things. A healthy diet and good sleep are vital for a healthy body.
Going to the gym and working out is a lot of effort so you need to make sure that you get the most out of it. Follow these tips and you will be able to make things happen.


There has been no shortage of speculation on the fate of HBO's popular fantasy drama -- which can now claim to have the most Emmy nominations this year. There's a growing concern that the show will catch up to "Game of Thrones" author George R.R. Martin before he completes the sixth installment in the series.

But HBO bosses Richard Plepler and Michael Lombardo told reporters Thursday during the network's session at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in Beverly Hills that viewers need not stress.

George is an integral part of the creative team on this," said Lombardo, HBO's president of programming. "Every step, every movie is being choreographed very closely with him after next year. We will have to figure it out with George if his book isn't finished."

Plepler, HBO's chairman and chief executive, added: "We are not talking about ending the show within the next two years."

And in case it requires triple assurance:

"We are not talking about ending the show within the next two seasons."


What is the Research Credit?
Tech Advances Drive Manufacturing Investments back to U.S.
By Brian Lefever|2019-01-16T10:27:13-06:00November 17th, 2017|News|
Manufacturing at long last is enjoying a revitalization in the U.S. as companies from around the world invest in the country’s operations – a key development in President Donald Trump’s quest to make America great again.
But presidential policies may not be the primary driver of the manufacturing shift back to the U.S. – and an industrial return isn’t expected to create nearly the same number of jobs that factory floors maintained in decades past.
It appears to be technological innovations, rather than policies or an availability of labor, driving the manufacturing renaissance. And with operational advances extending well beyond the reaches of Silicon Valley and into Rust Belt communities in the Northeast and Midwest, many believe the country is well-positioned to be a leader in advanced manufacturing for years to come.
“The reason is, candidly, it’s less about the manufacturing people. It’s more about the technology,” Mike Marusic, COO of Sharp Electronics, said Wednesday during an event hosted by Bloomberg.
Marusic said Sharp is one of several companies that has chosen to increase investment in the U.S. rather than seeking out “traditional manufacturing places” like China and Thailand in recent years.
Other companies include medical device manufacturer Insulet – which broke ground last month on a new central Massachusetts facility that’s expected to bring hundreds of jobs to the area after spending several years operating a production outfit in China – and General Electric, which has tweaked investment plans in recent years to funnel more resources into U.S. facilities rather than in countries with historically lower labor costs like Mexico and China.
Even Foxconn, a Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer that helps assemble popular products like iPhones, recently announced plans to build a Wisconsin facility and develop operations in the U.S., despite its proximity to what have historically been considered countries with cheap labor.
The Reshoring Initiative advocacy group estimates 338,000 jobs migrated to the U.S. from overseas between 2010 and 2016. The country on net is estimated to have gained 25,000 manufacturing positions last year – meaning more jobs returned to the U.S. than were offshored in 2016 for the first net gain in years.
At the heart of this revitalization, Marusic said, is the wave of technological advancements and the rise of the internet of things within the U.S., or the trend toward household items like coffeemakers or refrigerators carrying internet connectivity and data-tracking capabilities.
As 5G mobile and wireless networks become the norm domestically and local researchers make more progress toward developing artificial intelligence capabilities that could revolutionize both industrial processes and consumer interactions, Marusic said America’s vibrant tech and startup scene puts it in a great position to attract manufacturing companies of the future.
“That will change, kind of, how information is moved around,” he said. “We’re seeing it more come this way into the U.S. than to traditional manufacturing places.”
But the return of manufacturing work hasn’t necessarily equated to the return of manufacturing jobs. Industrial output has been strong during the past year, and exports have perked up as economies around the world wake back up from several years of economic malaise.
And yet manufacturing payrolls in the U.S. have grown by less than 900,000 – less than 8 percent – during the past seven years. Over that same period, America’s total number of employed workers expanded by nearly 16.3 million – or 12.5 percent.
As “smarter” factories and more advanced industrial processes become the norm, fewer workers will be needed to do the same amount of work – reshaping entire industries and the skills required to be a manufacturer.
“I think that will certainly be a trend that opens up a new series of questions that companies have to deal with,” Shelly Swanback, the group operating officer at Accenture Digital, said Wednesday. “It totally changes the game in terms of where you want to do that and the workforce that you need to have.”
Marusic and Swanback were joined on Wednesday by several panels of experts who laid out exactly what makes America’s digital economy competitive and what to expect going forward.
Several of those present highlighted the relative leniency with which U.S. regulators treat the storage and transmission of vast stores of consumer data. Europe, comparatively, is much more strict about the handling of consumers’ personal information.
The testing and development of smart toasters, refrigerators and digital devices in the home, for example, would be much harder to carry out in a country with more hefty regulatory burdens than in the U.S.
“Europe is very, very restrictive of where the data goes,” Marusic said, noting that the U.S. is well positioned because “technology has to remain in certain regions because it’s all data-driven” and may be appealing to companies in ways Europe is not.
That’s not to say the U.S. doesn’t face international competition on the innovation front. France was one of a handful of nations not typically known for its innovation and startup culture to be praised at Wednesday’s event, along with nations like Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.
“Dubai, their whole mantra is they want to be the happiest place in the world. So everything they do is around that,” Swanback said. “They tend to be a place that can make investments that have a little bit of a longer term [impact]. … It’s powerful [for innovation] when you can make some of those investments and experiment without that immediate return.”
Source: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2017-10-25/tech-advances-drive-manufacturing-investments-back-to-us
Author: Andrew Soergel
About the Author: Brian Lefever
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MLK and Rosa Parks. Paris, 2016.
In other words, after having marked, through strikes or abstention, the void that their absence from social life would deepen, those who define themselves as “heirs of colonial immigration” and “victims of racist speeches and acts whose structural character makes them a system” will reappear to “occupy the place”, claiming “equality and dignity for all”. I hope that this original initiative will be a success, and here is why.
The language she uses, that of “political anti-racism”, will certainly not be unanimously accepted. But it is right, making the voice of those who suffer daily from the violence of racism in our “country of human rights” heard loud and clear. It can be endorsed by anyone, citizen or resident, who wants to join or support them out of solidarity and concern for the common future.
In addition, there are intersections with other forms of discrimination, particularly class and gender. That is why we must be careful about simplifications. I am not enthusiastic about the opposition between “racialized” people, amalgamated into a single group, and a “white privilege”, which is very random from one place or country to another, whose invocation may also favour the “identity” policies that are now galloping in Europe and the United States.
But these precautions must not prevent us from naming the process of ubiquitous racialization: segregation of certain populations, discrimination against individuals because of their colour or origin, and finally dehumanization of entire groups through the denial of their history and the denigration of their cultures.
Above all, the multiplicity of forms of racism is nowadays subject to a triple over-determination that concentrates and intensifies it to the intolerable: by the way in which the neoliberal state implements the “population law” of globalized capitalism, playing off against each other all forms of precariousness, nomadic and sedentary; by the imposition of ethnocultural stereotypes in our postcolonial society, maintaining stigmatizations that resemble the old ones to be mistaken. Because it must be said, the French Republic has never learned the necessary lessons from decolonization, either in its foreign policy or in its perception of its own people.
Should we, therefore, talk about state racism? I am convinced that this is necessary, beyond partial equivalents such as “systemic racism” and “institutional racism”, which do not really point to strategic responsibility.
Yes, state racism can exist and flourish, spreading throughout the population, even when it is not officialized (although there are abuses on this side in France, as shown by the laws of exception against manifestations of membership of Islam). It is sufficient, and this is decisive, for the state to tolerate or justify violence by its constituted bodies (in particular the police) against populations identified by their “facies” or by their “specific dangerousness”, and for it systematically to refrain, in the name of liberalism or even “equality of citizens”, from implementing policies that would attack what a prime minister once dared to name “a territorial, social and ethnic apartheid”, as its principles would nevertheless require.
This is a crucial point. It shows that the anti-racist struggle, which must be constantly mobilized against the state or its representatives, must also be conducted within the state, in the broad sense that organizes and institutes all social relations.
That is why an initiative like the Rosa Parks must be supported by associations, activists and elected officials and converge with their own efforts inherited from the democratic tradition, internationalism and anti-colonialist struggles, even if the invention of the common language and the sharing of responsibilities are not easy.
Perhaps this will allow us to correct the terrible “slip-up” represented by the recent decision to remove from the constitution, not (as has been said or believed) “the notion of race”, but the prescription of equality “without distinction of race”.
The Collective’s initiative is political in fact, and in several ways: by the radicality of its criticism of the racist system that affects entire populations in our country; by the creativity it shows and the impetus it can give to multiple resistances; by the hand it extends, in the name of equality, to all those affected by precariousness and threatened by the authoritarian abuses of power.
Not to mention the shift towards the concrete that it could make within a public debate that was going in circles in the duel between sovereignists and Europeans.
Adapted from Avec les “Rosa Parks”, contre le racisme d’État. Translated from the French. Photograph courtesy of Jeanne Menjoulet. Published under a Creative Commons license.


After a successful weekend of online NFL betting, sportsbook US players are ready to find the best NFL bets to make on Week 2’s matchups. Generally speaking, the NFL saves the best matchups for Sunday night and this weekend’s SNF matchup is a rematch of last year’s NFC Championship game. Naturally, there are some great offshore sportsbook lines to take advantage of.
Anybody placing sportsbook bets during last year’s playoffs can vividly recall the NFC Championship match between the Green Bay Packers and the Atlanta Falcons: a back and forth shootout that ended in an Atlanta landslide. The Packers’ defense had plagued them all season long and it came up short for them once again when they needed it most.
It was a game for the ages and this weekend’s matchup is sure to come through. Considering how lopsided the scoreboard was at the end of the previous meeting between these two, sportsbook US players can expect the betting lines to come out in favor of Matt Ryan and company. However, there might be some good action available on the Packers.
The Falcons opened up the 2017 season by traveling to the Windy City and taking on the Chicago Bears. Atlanta was able to gain 372 yards of total offense on the day, but it still felt like it was a lackluster performance from an offense consisting of Ryan, Julio Jones and Devonta Freeman. Nevertheless, the Falcons came out on top decisively 23-17.
Matt Ryan performed like his usual self, finishing the day with 321 yards, a single touchdown and a passer rating of 116.1. The running game struggled to gain momentum, only putting up 68 yards on 23 carries. Against the Packers, Ryan should have no problem carving up a secondary that hasn’t seen much improvement since last year.
The Packers had a tough challenge right off the bat: taking on the Seattle Seahawks. Luckily for the Pack, they got the benefit of enjoying home field advantage in that contest. Green Bay’s offense struggled early in the day but finished extremely strong, posting 2 touchdowns and a field goal in their final 3 possessions of the game.
Aaron Rodgers had a mediocre day by his standards: 311 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 interception and a 61.1 QBR. The running game was better than expected as they would finish the day with a total of 84 yards and an average of 3 yards per run attempt. It should be noted that the Packers defense forced a sack-fumble that was the tipping point in the game.
Best Sportsbook Bets to Make: As aforementioned, the Packers defense is still relatively the same and it wouldn’t be wise to expect Matt Ryan to have an off day this Sunday. That said, there’s enough value on the Packers straight-up to consider backing Rodgers in his revenge tour to Atlanta. On top of that, Green Bay had little difficulty scoring on the Seahawks – widely considered to be one of the best defenses in pro football, so this will definitely be a shootout.


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Our Orbis model will be limited to 45 ties. With its elegant design and understated connection to one of cinema’s greatest style icons, we are certain it will become a favourite.


Friday, February 09, 2007

Burns Supper leftovers: a savoury leek souffle

Photos updated in September 2008

I realised last week that 'thick leeks' in Scotland must be much smaller than 'thick leeks' in Estonia. Otherwise I wouldn't have ended up with so many leeks after making the cock-a-leekie soup for Burns Supper. Sue Lawrence's recipe prescribed 6 'long, thick leeks', which I dutifully bought. However, after halving and rinsing and slicing just three of these monster leeks, I realised I already had more than enough. As I didn't use all the leeks I had bought for the soup course, then I had lots of leftover leeks after the party. Suddenly I remembered a recipe for a leek souffle on the Danish Arla site, which I had bookmarked a while ago. I adapted a little, resulting in a savoury souffle made of a simple bechamel sauce and sliced leeks - easy and different.

Halve the leeks, rinse and slice thinly.Heat the butter in a saucepan, add the flour and stir until combined. Add milk, little by little, stirring thoroughly to avoid lumps. Bring to a simmer and cook for a few minutes until the sauce thickens.Cool a little, stir in egg yolks, one at a time. Season with salt and pepper, add leeks and most of the grated cheese.Whisk the egg whites until thick and fluffy, fold gently to the rest of the ingredients.Pour into a greased 3-litre oven dish, sprinkle with some cheese and bake at 175 Celsius for about 55 minutes, watching it puff up nicely.

The leek souffle should be served straight after coming out of the oven, as it collapses slightly when cooling down. Makes a lovely side dish to some grilled meat, or as a vegetarian main course.

If you want to know what I did with the leftover neeps&tatties, then you have to come back next week:)

6 comments:

rachel
said...

I am SOOOOOO making this souffle this week. I've been eating a lot of pasta lately and making my own pasta sauces (with varying ingredients, but always leeks, at least). I love leeks, and this should mix up my mid-week menu nicely.

Rachel - it was rather leek-heavy, so if you like leeks, you'll like this:)

Johanna - thanks! You've just reminded me that I should sign up for an organic veggie box (at least until the summer, when I'll rely on our mums:)

Jeanne - don't worry - it wasn't one of those really light and fluffy souffles, as there were so many leeks (and though it did collapse a little when I took it out of the oven, then the leeks kept it in shape:) I really liked the dish!


Have you been keeping up with FSJ’s weekly video tutorials on YouTube? Each week we come to you live from the FSJ studio to share cardmaking ideas and tutorials that are sure to jumpstart your creativity – and we bet you’ll learn something new too! Today, let’s take a look at one of our recent Tips, Tools and Techniques videos which focuses on using stencils and modeling paste.
This gorgeous birthday card features shades of blue PanPastel blended over the polka dots. The modeling paste picks up more of the PanPastel, creating the darker shading on the dots. This is such an easy technique – but makes such a big impact!
The second card features the modeling paste polka dots on a Cool Pool panel of cardstock. But after it dried, Kim added some Cool Pool ink over the top. In this case, the modeling paste doesn’t pick up as much color, so this darkened just the background in a dreamy under-the-sea sort of way!
Lastly, Kim added her stencil back on to mask some of the beautiful background, and added Jane Davenport’s Scallop Shell Squid Ink over the top of the stencil. This allowed her to target just the dots with the extra layer of ink.
You DEFINITELY need to watch this video and then try these coloring variations with modeling paste and stencils. Then, be sure to subscribe to FSJ’s YouTube channel so you don’t miss a single video! You’ll also find our videos live on FSJ’s Facebook page. T3, (Tools, Tips and Techniques) airs live each Tuesday evening.


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Banks are now beginning to heavily invest in blockchain applications in an effort to cut costs, streamline back-office processes, and reduce the risk of fraud. According to the chief executives of ING and BBVA, the technology has the potential to revolutionise the global banking industry.
Other major members of the financial sector are also beginning to reap the benefits of blockchain. UBS and IBM are currently involved in Batavia, the blockchain-based global trade finance platform, and PwC recently unveiled a blockchain audit service.
Nonetheless, many remain reluctant to fully engage with the technology. Last October, UBS warned that bitcoin exists in a “speculative bubble”, and CEO of the bank, Sergio Ermotti, reiterated this belief in his declaration that he is “not necessarily” an advocate of cryptocurrencies.
Ermotti asserts that blockchain technology has the potential to “transform the cost base” of the finance industry “in the next 5 to 10 years.” The major banks are endeavouring to stay relevant, but only time will tell whether the somewhat unfamiliar technology will thrive in a financial sector that remains somewhat dubious towards blockchain.


I am able to create an instance but get the "Failed to connect to server (code: 1006) when try to connect to the console of my Cirros based instance.
my_ip parameter in /ect/nova/nova.conf on controller node was set to the wrong IP address. It was set to the management IP address of the compute node by mistake. I changed it to the management IP address of the controller node and now it is working.
Remove sign "$" in [vnc] section . Nova.conf syntax is different from bash scripting.
Getting this error message Error: Failed to launch instance "VM1": Please try again later [Error: No valid host was found. ].


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