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Summer reading with children
<|fim_middle|>www.havesippywilltravel.com. For more reviews of toys and games, visit http://www.parentsatplay.com/ | By Armin Brott and Samantha Feuss Tribune News Service
(TNS) — We all know about the dreaded "summer brain drain," when students forget a lot of what they learned during the previous school year and have to spend the first few months of the new year catching up. You can help your kids turn that brain drain into a brain gain by encouraging reading over the summer. Here are some recent books that will not only capture children's attention, but also encourage them to read even more.
— "Weird but True USA" (National Geographic Kids)
This fascinating book contains 300 unusual facts about the states that make up the USA. For example, California scientists modeled a solar cell after a fly's eye, Jell-O is the official state snack of Utah, and Nutty Narrows Bridge in Longview, Washington was built so squirrels can safely cross a busy road. Ages 8-12. Under $7.
— "Explorer Academy" (National Geographic)
Kids (and curious adults) learn about cracking codes, from the ancient to the most modern, from simple letter replacement (A=Z, Q=L, etc.) and Morse code to semaphores and pigpen grids (you'll have to read the book to find out what that is). Ages 8-12. About $9.
— "Amelia Earhart Pioneer of the Sky" (James Buckley, Jr. and Kelly Tindall)
In a time when women rarely drove cars, Amelia Earhart flew a plane across the Atlantic Ocean — by herself. She also set dozens of other aviation records and is one of the most famous missing persons in history. This graphic novel explores Earhart's life, accomplishments, and the many theories surrounding her disappearance. Ages 8-12 Under $10.
— "Take Your Pet to School Day" (Linda Ashman and Suzanne Kaufman)
Most schools have a "no pets" rule. But what would happen if some clever animals hacked into a school's computer and changed that rule? The answer plays out in this cute book, where pets join their children in the library, art class, the cafeteria, and more. The results are predictable — and hilarious. Ages 3-7. About $12.
— "The Very Short, Entirely True History of Unicorns" (Sarah Laskow and Sam Beck)
Unicorns may not be real (or are they?) but they've been the subject of speculation and mystery for thousands of years. Readers young and old will learn about unicorns as they've appeared throughout history and in nearly every recorded culture. Beautifully illustrated with photos and drawings. Ages 8-12. Under $10.
— "Duel at Araulen — Ranger's Apprentice: The Royal Ranger, Book 3" (John Flanagan)
Fans of Flanagan's Ranger's Apprentice series were understandably disappointed when the series wrapped in 2013. But they were just as understandably excited when the original hero, Will Treaty, began training his own apprentice, Maddie, in a new series, "The Ranger's Apprentice," which launched in 2018. In this third volume, Maddie has to rescue her father and his men, who are trapped and surrounded by enemy soldiers. Ages 10 and up. Under $13.
— "This Beach is Loud!" and "Nope. Never. Not for Me!" (Samantha Cotterill)
Samantha Cotterill, who describes herself as being on the autism spectrum, has written a series of books for "wonderfully sensitive kids." Her goal is to allow kids to recognize themselves in a playful, fun, yet therapeutic way, without labels. These books are not only great for kids, but they also allow parents to step into their children's worlds and see things from their point of view. Ages 3-7. About $12.
— Armin and Samantha are the authors of the popular parenting blogs: http://www.mrdad.com and http:// | 827 |
19-25 Inch Storm Total, What Lies Ahead?
We picked up 19 inches in total at the top of Squaw and 25 inches at the top of Alpine from the Storm over the weekend. We even picked up 14-18 inches at the base.
Cold air is in place behind the snow we saw over the weekend. There will be another reinforcing shot of cold air Wednesday that will keep the cold air in place with highs in the 3<|fim_middle|> to star the week. That could bring another chance for scattered snow showers, but again we aren't expecting much in the way of snowfall accumulations. We are watching for the next snow storm but right now it looks to be about10 days out. | 0's through the end of the week. There is a chance for a few snow showers with the passing of the cold front, but not expecting more than a dusting.
A ridge of high pressure building in by the weekend should bring continued dry weather and sun for next weekend with some milder air and highs into the 40's.
The week of the 5th there may be another reinforcing shot of cold air | 85 |
2022 BMW CCA Club Racing National Award Winners
Chairman, January 20, 2023 January 20, 2023 , Uncategorized, 0
The 2022 BMW CCA Club Racing Rookie of the Year Award is sponsored by Tony Salloum's V<|fim_middle|> and is presented to the Club Racing rookie BMW racer earning the most points for the year and is awarded to Rick Black. Rick is an April 2022 BimmerWorld Club Race School graduate who campaigned in B Modified in his 2011 E92 M2. Rick gathered up 173 National event points on the way to gaining this RoY recognition.
The 2022 Glenn Lucas Memorial Award, presented to the Club Racer who most represents the Spirit of Club Racing both on and off the track is awarded to Wayne Dobson. Wayne joined the BMW CCA in 2007, graduating from our BimmerWorld sponsored school at Mosport in May 2011. He received his race license in 2012 and has enjoyed considerable success in the IS class over the years, consistently achieving podium placement in BMW Club Racing's National rankings.
As most know, Wayne has led our much-admired BimmerWorld BMW CCA Club Race School program since 2021 and has been a regular member of Club Racing instructing community for many years. He is recognized for his ability to generously share what is important with our members, both on and off the track.
Wayne is also a member of the Club Racing Licensing team, and over the past few seasons has also volunteered his time to help deliver many of our most memorable race events, joining our stewards to ensure our drivers enjoy safe, competitive, exciting races.
Wayne's ongoing efforts to help improve and advance our racing program made his selection by the National Stewards as the 2022 Glen Lucas Memorial Award winner an easy decision.
Our BMW CCA Club Racing annual Driver awards are both accompanied by a $1000 monetary recognition.
Congratulations to Rick and Wayne!
Club Racing Rules Organization Update2022 National Podium Winners | AC Motorsports | 3 |
Q: How to you external functions and variables in MatLab App Designer I am trying to create a Matlab GUI using the app designer for a project. I got the program working without the gui but<|fim_middle|> work, however, when I trying reference the specific variable within the function such as proj8(x_der); it say the variable is unrecognized.
A: There is several possibilities can be done like using global variable and such. But, global variable not recomended and may cause problem later on.
More proper way is setting up variable within the function as a output variable if I correctly understand your question.
[ref_variable] = proj8(input_var)
Just in case you need to plot a plot using certain variable within function, directly use plot command from within function will also work.
| need to make one. Is it possible to call functions and specific variables within those functions that are in their own separate .m files into the app's callback code? if so how would I be able to do this?
I tried directly referencing the functions which | 51 |
You can be tempted, for example to go away off the jobs you have taken to earn additional money whilst at school. Simply ensure that your references understand they could be reached. They are a very important part of the choosing procedure along with employers request them to get quite a few explanations. You would like the page to appear full and appropriately plotted.<|fim_middle|>, rather than just how you're going to meet certain essentials of a company. Take care of your own email the same as you would any other bit of small business correspondence. Possessing a pay letter can be on the list of absolute most stress inducing facets of this search. Besides this, your cover letter might even make it in the hands of the individual you addressed it ! Putting an objective statement in the peak of one's resume won't assist you to receive an industry occupation. | In the event you've got a lot of pages, it will not necessarily help you. You are able to use a sample reference page for helpful information. When it sees a CV, they will probably have to hunt to find the information they want, as it's not targeted to certain companies or tasks. Your CV is the very first possiblity to promote your self, as well as in many instances, your only chance to get a very first impression. If you ascertain you have to submit a CV, keep in mind that while there are no particular formatting guidelines, you ought to use common sense to create a document which is comprehensive and effectively structured. Don't forget whenever you're earning your CV that the employers possess a great deal of unique candidates also you've got to create the gap in a way or another. If you should be utilizing a CV to apply to get a job in another state, it is crucial to learn more about the format shared within that state. The most important portions of one's CV ought to be in the exact first 50% of the page. Employers want to comprehend that which you've done. Utilizing a CV as soon as the employer wishes a resume is definitely a situation. With punctuation mistakes, he or she is going to feel that you do not know just how to create, which you're perhaps not focused and you do not possess plenty of motivation to get the job. Furthermore, do not neglect to definitely reveal your own CV to additional folks, members of your family members and friends until you ship it into the employer to check whether or not they like the visual. Many employers may wish to comprehend your flair in your private living. That you really don't require a possible employer trying to find advice. To begin the restart, arrange the advice you have to incorporate. About the reverse side, you shouldn't leave details that you think will be useful to obtain the task. Just remember to verify you have got each of the appropriate touch specifics. In the event you wish to relocate to get work, you most likely already know it is most effective to leave your present address your restart. Adding the erroneous matters or overly lots of things to a resume will probably help you save you from having the business job that you just want. Perhaps you are searching for a summer job or internship, or perchance a college or scholarship program usually requires you to add a restart. Your resume includes an aim rather than the expert summary Target statements clarify your own demands | 500 |
Zaha Hadid Architects is strengthening its executive team with the appointment of Mouzhan Majidi. Majidi, an architect, has enjoyed a distinguished career of 27 years with Foster and Partners and was Chief Executive for the last seven years, leading the company through a period of outstanding global growth<|fim_middle|> and design sensitivity that is so important to our creative studio," explains Zaha Hadid. "This is a key step in the evolution of our practice, now in its fourth decade with our growing portfolio of diverse and exciting projects worldwide, and is important for our long-term strategy."
"I am very excited to join Zaha Hadid Architects next year, and very much look forward to working with Zaha, Patrik and the team to contribute to the company's continued success," said Mouzhan Majidi. "I have always admired the innovation and beauty of their work and its growing global impact. It's a privilege to be part of this amazing team." | .
Majidi will be working closely with Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher, leading ZHA's next stage as one of the world's most successful architectural practices, operating across all continents and project typologies. Majidi will join ZHA in Spring 2015.
"I am delighted that Mouzhan will be joining us. He brings a unique balance of strong management and leadership skills with architectural | 85 |
<|fim_middle|> away, WTOK reported. There were no reports of injuries.
Mayor Percy Bland said the cave-in appears to be over the site of a former city culvert, according to WTOK. Crews will begin trying to remove some of the cars Monday, the mayor added.
While the event was first blamed on a sinkhole, Dr. Greg Easson of the University of Mississippi's Geology and Geological Engineering Department said that's not accurate. Easson told CNN sinkholes are the result of a natural process involving the erosion of limestone bedrock due to underground water movement, but what occurred in Meridian was the collapse of a culvert or underwater drain due to the new construction in the area.
Craig Hoffman, a spokesman for International House of Pancakes, told CNN the company is happy no one got hurt.
"The cause of the sinkhole is still under investigation, and our primary concern continues to be the safety of our guests and team members," Hoffman said. "The restaurant will remain closed until all necessary repairs have been completed."
CNN's Tony Marco contributed to this report. | IHOP 'sinkhole' swallows at least 12 cars
Updated: 3:39 PM EST Nov 9, 2015
(CNN) -- A large "sinkhole" opened in a new IHOP restaurant parking lot in Meridian, Mississippi, over the weekend, swallowing as many as 12 cars, according to CNN affiliate WTOK.The asphalt gave way Saturday evening, leaving a huge hole estimated to be about 35-feet wide, 375-feet long and 30-feet deep, authorities said.Emergency officials roped off the area to keep people away, WTOK reported. There were no reports of injuries.Mayor Percy Bland said the cave-in appears to be over the site of a former city culvert, according to WTOK. Crews will begin trying to remove some of the cars Monday, the mayor added.While the event was first blamed on a sinkhole, Dr. Greg Easson of the University of Mississippi's Geology and Geological Engineering Department said that's not accurate. Easson told CNN sinkholes are the result of a natural process involving the erosion of limestone bedrock due to underground water movement, but what occurred in Meridian was the collapse of a culvert or underwater drain due to the new construction in the area.Craig Hoffman, a spokesman for International House of Pancakes, told CNN the company is happy no one got hurt."The cause of the sinkhole is still under investigation, and our primary concern continues to be the safety of our guests and team members," Hoffman said. "The restaurant will remain closed until all necessary repairs have been completed." CNN's Tony Marco contributed to this report. The-CNN-Wire
(CNN) -- A large "sinkhole" opened in a new IHOP restaurant parking lot in Meridian, Mississippi, over the weekend, swallowing as many as 12 cars, according to CNN affiliate WTOK.
The asphalt gave way Saturday evening, leaving a huge hole estimated to be about 35-feet wide, 375-feet long and 30-feet deep, authorities said.
Emergency officials roped off the area to keep people | 449 |
The season of records continues. From the Chicago Cubs breaking their 108-year championship drought, to our "non-drought" of record rainfall in August, to the recent balmy days in early November, we have been both blessed and challenged as far as records are concerned.
While our year got off to a difficult and challenging beginning with the rain and flooding, our two soccer teams advanced into the second round of the respective NCAA Division III soccer tournaments; unfortunately their seasons ended after that second tournament game. Despite having to play some "home games" on the road, both the women's and men's teams fought through these early challenges to take the Iowa Conference titles. Congratulations to both teams!
I led and moderated a Campus and Community Safety Town Hall on November 9. Through the fall semester, I had been in conversation with our Student Senate about several safety issues that affect our community both on and off campus. While Decorah is a relatively safe community, to quote our director of campus security and safety, "we are not immune to the issues of the broader world." As we work to educate students regarding prevention, take continual steps to improve campus security, and to respond to incidents that do occur, we always remind ourselves to remain attentive and vigilant.
When incidents and crimes occur, many of us feel as though the ground has shaken underneath our feet. Our sense of comfort and security can be questioned. We want answers. Why did this happen? Who is responsible for these actions? What can we/I do? Perhaps you have wrestled with such questions in your home community. For us it a process of looking inward to our community and to ourselves as well as ensuring our relationships with local law enforcement are strong. These are vital ingredients to maintaining a safe environment.
Students are concerned not only about their physical safety but we also attend to their emotional and social safety. We recently came through one of the most negative and in many regards, dispiriting election seasons. For our students, many of whom had the opportunity to vote in their first presidential election, this season continued the tenor of civil discourse that has been present throughout their entire lives. There are few if any good models for them to look to see problem-solving, confidence-building, and shared understanding and appreciation at work. We know for some students the days after the election brought feelings of uncertainty, insecurity, and generalized anxiety. Two days after the election, several departments and programs sponsored a post-election brunch, providing an opportunity for students to process the election.
Looking inward to our community, we can see evidence of how this special community provides a spark of hope for the present and future. I am not naïve enough to believe we have no issues or challenges in our community, but we are positioned well to address both the local challenges and those that lie beyond.
As we work together to attend to our overall safety, it is clear students are meaningfully engaged in their community. They seek ways to identify solutions, are receptive to ideas, and want to move the community forward. The Student Senate sponsored the Campus and Community Safety Town Hall and we had a conversation about safety improvement efforts on campus over the past several years. We also heard from both our director of campus safety and security and a Decorah police officer regarding personal safety, prevention tips, and why<|fim_middle|> uncertainty. As I watch and learn of incidents of intolerance happening at other college campuses, we have been fortunate to move forward without similar responses on campus. One of our first-year student senators remarked to me how he felt blessed to be at Luther and was proud of our community's response. He further commented he has friends at three other Iowa institutions that all reported a much different environment. Again, I am not foolish to believe nothing will happen on our campus, but this community does offer something special. And, we need to remain vigilant in relation to incidents of bias that may occur in our community and support students and allies affected when they occur. Simply, that is living our mission.
Perhaps it was in the deepest moment of our fall semester that I saw this specialness arise. I have been so appreciative of the many colleagues and students who helped to shepherd us forward following Bjorn Norderhaug's accidental death in late September. His classmates, professors, and staff who knew him all rose to bring forth his spirit and energy for all to remember. Our response team - Student Life, College Ministries, Counseling Service, and our communications team - worked closely with one another, Bjorn's family, and the community to provide necessary and timely resources and information.
Moving together quickly, we all experienced something profound. Indeed, this community is special. It is resilient. It is hopeful. Bjorn's friends, classmates, teammates, fraternity brothers, faculty, and staff came together in the hundreds for an evening vigil in the Center for Faith and Life the same day we learned of his death. The following week, the Inter-Greek Council offered a memorial service for Bjorn in the Center for the Arts featuring music, prayers, and community. Bjorn's family was present for the memorial and it was one of the most special experiences I have witnessed.
Ideally, we do not move through difficult times alone. In the worst of times, we hopefully can find ourselves blessed to be part of a community - a community that rises to the needs of its members. I have seen this through this fall semester. I experienced it when my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer only three months into my first fall semester working at Luther. Whether teams battling through disruption to their practice and competition schedules, students helping local families with flood damage, college faculty and staff helping and supporting students, or students discovering how they can and do make a difference for one another - Luther College is an amazing place. We may not always experience this on a daily basis or reflect on it often enough and it sometimes takes difficulty and tragedy to illuminate what is present.
With Thanksgiving upon us, I simply give thanks for this wonderfully resilient, hopeful community of students, faculty, and staff and all those who support them near and far. | reporting incidents and crimes is important. Additionally, we had the opportunity to engage in questions with those in attendance. Valuable information was shared and we anticipate we will hold a similar town hall in the spring semester.
One of the students who attended the town hall approached me afterward and thanked me for sharing in detail all the safety measures Luther has taken. She realized she had taken many of them for granted. More specifically, many of the measures have simply become part of the rhythm of her experience at Luther. Her feedback was appreciated and it's a reminder we can do more to educate students on our safety infrastructure while we continue to find ways to maintain and improve our safety and security.
With the election complete, we found many students struggling with the meaning of the outcome. Whether a student supported one of the two major candidates or one of the third-party candidates, the post-election environment has brought an atmosphere of unease and | 182 |
Building their passions and potential.
Friends Academy teachers and parents have one powerful shared goal: everything we do is for our students. And for their future.
With the depth and challenge of a Friends Academy education, our graduates move on to secondary day and boarding schools as responsible citizens, academic scholars, and creative souls. They are known for writing well, speaking confidently, solving problems, giving back, fostering compassion, and innovating freely. They succeed at universities and colleges throughout the country, and fully live out their potential.
Friends alumni report being well prepared academically for high school.
Writer, painter, and curator he is the Director and Founder of the Cuttyhunk Island Writers' Residency, and the Lead Curator at Dedee Shattuck Gallery. Ben has taught in the US and abroad and has received fellowships for writing and painting from many prestigious institutions. Ben's writing has appeared in many publications including the Harvard Review, The New Republic, The Paris Review Daily, The Common, Salon.com, and Lit Hub. His paintings have been exhibited at the New Bedford Art Museum, Sloane Merrill Gallery (Boston), The Harrison Gallery, Greylock Gallery (Williamstown, MA), Julie Heller Gallery (Provincetown), Carol Craven Gallery (West Tisbury), and the Dedee Shattuck Gallery (Westport, MA).
Friends Academy has impacted my life in more ways than I can even put into words. FA gave me many lifelong friends; people who have seen me grow and helped me become who I am. FA also built my educational foundation, which gave me the tools I needed to succeed academically and professionally. I also learned basic life skills while at FA, such as how to write letters, how to write checks, and how to type correctly. These are all<|fim_middle|> the Sally Borden Program here at Friends Academy.
Jackie Starrett '07 graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 2015 with a BS in Biomedical Engineering. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Experimental Pathology at Yale University and Yale Cancer Center, studying lung cancer biology and response and resistance to novel therapeutics. She is passionate about cancer outreach, and during Summer 2015 rode a bicycle across the country to raise money and awareness with the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults with fellow FA alumna Megan Morrow.
Jackie (left) and Megan (right) during a 4K for Cancer bike ride at Badlands National Park. | skills I still use today. Most importantly, FA taught me the value and importance of community.
Bill's visionary work in education over the past six decades has impacted thousands of students, teachers and parents. As the Head of Wheeler in Providence for 23 years, he started the Hamilton School at Wheeler, Providence's Breakthrough, and the AERIE program. Bill was key in developing other start ups as well: Our Sisters' School in New Bedford; the Hope Graham Program at Bancroft School and | 110 |
In recognition of their outstanding contributions to the advancement of science and human progress through pioneering, collaborative and innovative research, the 2018 NOMIS Distinguished Scientist and Scholar Award was presented to Didier Fassin, Victoria Orphan and Don W. Cleveland (pictured above, l-r) on Oct. 4, 2018.
Their groundbreaking work in anthropology (Fassin), geobiology (Orphan) and neurobiology (Cleveland) is paving the way for new discoveries not only in their respective fields of study but also in neighboring disciplines.
The NOMIS award gala held at the Gottlieb-Duttweiler-Institute (GDI) in Rüschlikon, Switzerland, brought together a group of over 150 NOMIS researchers and partners, including top scientists and scholars, representatives of world-renowned research institutes, and research benefactors, to honor the awardees<|fim_middle|> together in symbiosis to regulate greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by consuming methane as their primary source of carbon. | ' scientific achievements. The award recipients were announced earlier this year.
Another tenet of the NOMIS award is the willingness of the researchers to share their work and insights openly. Celebrating this notion, each of the 2018 awardees presented their research at prominent Swiss universities prior to the award ceremony.
Cleveland's Oct. 3 lecture at ETH Zurich, "Designer DNA drugs for neurodegenerative disease," revealed how he and his team are working to treat diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer's disease. Designer DNA drugs can be used to block the activity in the nervous system of any target gene. Cleveland's work has enabled, for example, the reversal of Huntington's disease.
Fassin and Orphan presented their research at the University of Zurich on Oct. 4. Ellen Hertz, president of the Swiss Anthropological Association, introduced Fassin by saying, "Anthropologists agree on almost nothing, but we agree on this [NOMIS] nomination." Fassin's lecture, "A new age of anxiety? Rethinking crises in the contemporary world," shed light on the different ways in which the sense of crisis that is ubiquitous in today's world can be viewed. This ongoing work will pose questions such as, who benefits from crises and what are their motivations? and what does the naming of a crisis authorize and what does it censure?
Orphan's lecture, "Understanding the microbial networks that shape life and biogeochemistry of our oceans," virtually transported the audience to the ocean floor, where Orphan and her team are examining the interactions of the rich microbial life in deep-sea sediment with the environment. Microbes outweigh all 7.6 billion people and every other animal on the planet by 63 to one, with most of them residing in the ocean. She and her team have shown that some of these microbes work | 385 |
Motor Industry
Subaru's XV is a curvy crossover with capability to the fore
It's noticeably curvier and styled more dynamically than its predecessor
Enda Mullen
Subarus have always appealed to a curious mix of buyers in the UK - everything from boy racers to the country set and somewhere in between those people who regularly tow large objects like boats, caravans and horseboxes.
Despite the marque's acknowledged reputation for engineering excellence and four-wheel drive prowess the Subaru brand has never quite taken off this side of the Atlantic in the same way it has in the US.
From a personal perspective it's always been a marque I've had a fondness for and characteristics like capability and ruggedness underpinned by a simple sense of style have enduring appeal.
While it's unlikely Subaru sales are going to soar imminently in the UK its new XV should find some favour in the fast-growing crossover market.
Unlike Subaru's more boxy estates and SUVs the XV is very much in the curvy crossover category, rather like an elevated large hatchback.
It's certainly curvier and styled a little more dynamically than its predecessor, launched in 2012, though the overall design blueprint is essentially the same.
Differences include more chrome, a more steeply raked windscreen and a lower roofline to the rear which imbues it with more of a coupe kind of look.
The latest XV is also larger in pretty much every respect, the main benefit being a roomier cabin.
It's based on Subaru's new global platform, which represents a hefty investment and promises increased stiffness and improved handling.
Latest XC6<|fim_middle|> place an advert or family notice here. | 0 at the heart of Volvo's SUV line-up
On the inside the XV has an open and well-appointed cabin. I notched-up quite a few miles in it - many on the motorway - and it's certainly a comfortable place to be from a driver's perspective, particularly on a long journey.
As far as switchgear and instrumentation are concerned they still have that rugged and utilitarian Subaru look and feel but everything is very intuitive and easy to use.
The new eight-inch touchscreen is impressive and though it might lack the sophistication of the kind of technology found in many of its rivals, it actually seems rather modern and with-it for a Subaru. Android Auto and Apple CarPlay compatibility is another new addition.
Perhaps surprisingly there's no diesel engine option for the XV this time round, just a choice of two Boxer petrol units (1.6-litre and 2.0-litre).
Ghibli winds up Maserati sales
There's also no manual gearbox available and both engines are mated to a continuously variable transmission (CVT).
Normally the absence of a diesel might be a cause for concern but given the ongoing diesel backlash this might not work to Subaru's disadvantage.
As one might expect both are smooth units but no turbocharging means neither are particularly potent.
Bentley's first diesel - you'll be amazed how far it can go
That said I found the 2.0-litre unit in this car to be a capable performer overall and while it won't make for B road cornering thrills it felt very at home cruising on the motorway and the adaptive cruise control did much to enhance the long distance driving experience.
Safety features include EyeSight driver assistance technology, which uses cameras to scan the road for potential hazards, working in tandem with the cruise control. Added reassurance comes courtesy of automatic emergency braking and lane keep assist.
Should you wish to take the XV off-road it would put many rival crossovers to shame.
The latest X-Mode symmetrical all-wheel drive technology is now fitted to the XV and it also has the kind of ground clearance (22cm) you'd find on many larger SUVs.
There are SE and SE Premium trim levels. While both are generously equipped if you want a built-in satellite navigation system you'll need to opt for SE Premium.
The higher-specced version also comes with other extras including leather upholstery, a sunroof and a powered driver's seat.
FAST FACTS: Subaru XV 2.0i SE Premium Lineartronic
Price: £28,495
Mechanical: 156ps, 1,995cc, 4cyl petrol engine driving four wheels via automatic gearbox
Max speed: 120mph
0-62mph: 10.4 seconds
Combined mpg: 40.9
Insurance group: 22
CO2 emissions: 155g/km
BiK rating: 32%
Warranty: 5yrs/100,000 miles
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Search for jobs, motors and property, or | 672 |
Hybrid Projects
Hybrid Wind Rarinco and Solar Punta del Viento
Both developments combined have a total power output of 300 MW dc and they represent FRV's first hybrid solar-wind project as well as the company's first project in the Andean country.
The hybrid project is split between two sites – a solar power plant in the north of the country and a wind plant in the south.
Located 25km west of the town of Los Angeles in Chile, Rarinco is a 198 MW dc wind project that will be connected to the National Electric System (SEN). Together with Punta del Viento, a 145 MW PV Project located in the region of Coquimbo, once completed they will power over 350,00<|fim_middle|>Annual production
1 390 Hectares
387 338 t/year
CO2 Avoided
Households supplied
Operation date
Community value
Both plants will create employment during construction and they will attract investment to their regions as well as contribute to local commerce. Solar Punta del Viento has signed an agreement with several local social organizations to contribute to the community's sustainable development and given its reduced use of land, Wind Rarinco will still enable the normal functioning of the agricultural activities taking place around the site.
InsightsSolar energy
FRV awarded 540 GWh in Chile
La Solanilla
Trujillo, Extremadura / Spain | 0 homes with clean energy, all year round.
Wind Rarinco and Solar Punta del Viento will use the latest technology to capture the energy of the wind and the sun and transform it into electricity which will then be distributed through the national network.
The Project is currently under development. It is expected that construction operations start by mid 2021 and that the plants will be under operation 24 months later. Once under operation Wind Rarinco and Solar Punta del Viento will have a life span of 30 years.
343 MW DC
944 727 MWH/year
| 128 |
2014-11-10<|fim_middle|> lessons learned from Iraq and Afghanistan and the shifting leadership style needed to deal with al-Qaida and terrorist organizations.
"Lessons from Leaders: Breaking the Mold," part of the Politico series, was held at Bank of America in Washington, D.C.
General Stanley McChrystal (Ret.) and J.D. Crouch II discussed leadership strategies. They assessed their own leadership styles and provided recommendations for creating effective leadership in the military and in politics. Mr. Crouch, was interviewed by Susan Glasser. He discussed President Bush's leadership style during the surge in the war in Iraq, when he was deputy national security adviser, as well as his own approach as the president and chief executive officer of the United Service Organizations (USO). Former Iraq and Afghanistan War Commander General Stanley McChrystal was interviewed by Jim VandeHei. He discussed lessons learned from Iraq and Afghanistan and the shifting leadership style needed to deal with al-Qaida and terrorist organizations. | T20:51:42-05:00https://images.c-span.org/Files/667/20141110213058001_hd.jpgGeneral Stanley McChrystal (Ret.) and J.D. Crouch II discussed leadership strategies. They assessed their own leadership styles and provided recommendations for creating effective leadership in the military and in politics. Mr. Crouch, was interviewed by Susan Glasser. He discussed President Bush's leadership style during the surge in the war in Iraq, when he was deputy national security adviser, as well as his own approach as the president and chief executive officer of the United Service Organizations (USO). Former Iraq and Afghanistan War Commander General Stanley McChrystal was interviewed by Jim VandeHei. He discussed | 166 |
Union really is incredible<|fim_middle|> newer iPads, iPhones, and iPod touches. It costs $3.99. | . If all it did was let you stack two images and apply a blend-mode to them, it would be worth the $2 price, it's so well designed and easy to use. But there's more.
You can also add and blend color layers and gradients, and you can mask out parts of the image, removing a sky, say, to replace it with another picture. This is done with a magic wand tool that auto-masks an area you tap, and then refines the selection with a simple slider. It's easy and effective, and you can clean up any edges quickly by painting with your fingers.
Rotating, scaling and everything else is dead easy, and you can also flatten your image and then add another layer.
Once done, save the result, share it from the app or send it off to another app for further tweaking. And all for $2. You should probably just go get it right now.
Move over FarmVille, Candy Crush and all those other freemium games whose developers (presumably) sleep on top of a pile of money with beautiful ladies in it — we may have a new contender for app overlord of 2014.
Blizzard's turn-based iPad game Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft was released on Thursday (17 April 2014), but already it's the No. 1 most downloaded game in 36 countries, and the most downloaded app overall in 34 countries.
According to analyst Sterne Agee, the game will likely rake in $30 million in revenue this year alone.
Like the other titles mentioned above, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is free to play, but includes in-app purchases.
An iPhone version is set to follow later this year, and will only open up the game's revenue streams further.
Is Monument Valley The Most Visually Stunning iOS Game Of The Year?
Launched today, Monument Valley looks to combine the gameplay of hit indie game Fez with the brain-twisting art of M.C. Escher.
As can be seen from the above trailer it looks stunningly beautiful, and with developers Ustwo (the team responsible for Whale Trail and Blip Blup) behind it, hopefully the gameplay will be every bit as great. The trailer depicts Princess Ida climbing through landscapes of shifting geometric shapes, optical illusions, and hidden paths — all the while avoiding and outsmarting the enigmatic Crow People.
Monument Valley is available for | 500 |
Rolling hills, very few tourists, warming Tuscan food, breathtaking views and unique wines — these were some of the highlights of our stay in Montepulciano – a small town in the province of Siena, Italy. We had been to Tuscany before but hadn't been to Montepulciano, so this time we were excited to see a new region and relax after the two weeks we spent in bustling Rome.
We found out our car had a slow leak in one of the tires about 2 hours into our journey and that the tire was almost flat.
Yes, an Italian on a scooter flagged us down and managed to communicate that to us in Italian (no English).
No, we had no idea what to do – we were in the middle of nowhere and the car didn't have a spare.
Meanwhile, while getting to our Montepulciano B&B….
Yes, we almost drove off a cliff on a tiny, unpaved Tuscan road.
No, the car didn't fall off the cliff.
Yes, the back wheel of the car was hanging off the cliff.
No, somehow we didn't think to look back before we reversed.
We stayed at the Relais San Bruno, one of the most beautiful B&B style hotels I've every stayed at. The grounds were huge, we got our own private "villa," and the entire place just felt meant for relaxing.
It was also super close to the town (but far enough away that you felt secluded), so it was the best of both worlds. The owners were great, really helpful and gave awesome recommendations on restaurants and wineries to visit.
Our first night in Montepulciano, we had dinner at La Grotta, one of the best restaurants in the region. The service was impeccable, and they have an outdoor garden that is wonderful for dining in the summer.
We started with their warm, house made garlic and walnut breads (to die for). Then I had the Tuscan tomato soup with garlic, bread and basil – a classic Tuscan dish where the bread is used to thicken the soup.
It reminded me of a deconstructed bruschetta — the flavors just exploded in your mouth.
The husband ordered the steamed soft egg topped with shaved pecorino cheese and shaved fresh truffles.
Our entrees: "Irregular" home made pasta with tomato, garlic and swiss chard.
And the Aubergine alla parmigiana – grilled zucchini, and spinach with garlic.
This is not your typical eggplant parmesan. The eggplant was SUPER thinly sliced, layered with tomatoes and baked with mozzarella in the oven. It was served with the zucchini also shaved in thin slices and the spinach on the side. Filling but not heavy.
And finally, for dessert – Bitter chocolate terrine with English cream.
How happy do those sunflowers look? I still can't get over how they turn and face the sun throughout the day – so cool!
We also saw some expansive wildflower fields and farmland.
At times it felt like we were in a painting.
In the town of Montepulciano, we found one tiny restaurant that happened to have really delicious food. It was called La Dolce Vita Enoteca: a wine bar/restaurant where we grabbed dinner one night.
I was surprised at how flavorful and fresh the food tasted – and they had some great wines too!
We had the Bruschetta – which in Italy is like nothing you've ever tasted.
And bruschetta with pecorino, prunes, and honey.
Simple but flavorful – a true Tuscan meal.
Our visit to the coppersmith.
Yes, that's right, a real-life coppersmith.
He is the sweetest person we have ever met.
He speaks no English – he talks to you in Italian but somehow through gestures and broken understanding it's very easy to communicate! He is just genuinely interested in meeting people and learning about them.
When he met me and the husband, he wanted to create a little bronze plate commemorating our anniversary – it's something he and his wife had done for themselves over 50 years ago (yes, they've been married for 50 years and are the cutest couple ever). The shop is a little hole in the wall off the main piazza in Montepulciano. It's not touristy at all – you would totally miss it if you didn't look hard for it! Oh and the best part, for the plate he made us – he didn't charge for it at all – we realized that it's just his way of meeting new people and forming relationships – so cool.
He does have an actual shop, which his wife runs (he called her the "Finance Minister" – ha!) We ended up buying a beautiful bronze pot from them that is now displayed on one of our bookshelves. And we have our copper plate to match. Such an interesting and unique experience that we just happened to stumble across!
Another highlight of our visit was an outdoor Symphony / concert that we were able to watch one night (due to a music festival that happened to be going on while we were staying in town).
It also ended up being an unusually cold/foggy night, which just made for even more great scenic photos of the town.
The next day, we headed to Avignonesi winery for what turned out to be an almost all-day wine tour and 5 course lunch. Avignonesi is the only organic/biodynamic-certified winery in the region – and they showed us all of the measures they take to make sure their wine is free from all pesticides, contaminants, etc.
It really made me respect their winemaking process.
Montepulciano is known for its Vino Nobiles, while Montalcino is famous for Brunellos. Avignonesi, of course, makes Vino Nobiles, among a selection of many other wines (Cabernets, Merlots, Malvasia, Chardonnay, and Vin Santo to name a few).
We were impressed with their wines and the grounds – they took the time to show us how their wine is made, what factors they consider when recommending varietals, pairing with food<|fim_middle|> long to spend in Montepulciano?
Thanks so much Don! What a great idea to stay at a language school in Montepulciano – that will be an amazing experience! I don't think 2 weeks is too long – honestly I feel like I could hang out in that region forever – not because there's a lot "to do," but more because it is beautiful, relaxing, and has delicious food/wine. Have a wonderful trip!!
Hi Porcelina!! Thank you so much for your kind words 🙂 I'm so glad you are enjoying my blog – it's great to meet you! And yes! You must go to Tuscany — we could have spent weeks there if we had the time. Stay well! | , etc.
After our wine tour, we headed to lunch in their outdoor dining room facing the vineyards.
This was like the meal that kept on giving.
Our First Course: A fresh salad with goat cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, yellow peppers, salt and pepper. The vegetables were so fresh and crispy it felt like they had been brought from the garden that morning.
Second course: A cool summer soup with tomatoes and green peppers served with paprika grilled bread (gaspacho style).
Third course: Homemade maltagliati pasta with vegetable sauce and saffron from Val d'Orcia (the sauce was made from pureed veggies, seasoned with saffron, and tossed with the pasta).
Fourth course: A broad bean and red pepper flan served on a puree of pecorino and red pepper sauce.
I'm not usually a fan of flan, and I had never had a savory flan before, but this was actually pretty good. It was somewhat one-note but still really well made.
Dessert #1 was the provociazone: A mini tasting plate with Vin Santo pairings: dark chocolate truffle with ginger, fresh raspberry sorbet served on a super thin biscuit, a walnut cookie, a caramelized slice of super thin orange, goat cheese cream with poppy seeds, a leaf of fried sage, and a salted fresh caramel.
Dessert #2: Pineapple carpaccio marinated in a dry martini and served with homemade coconut ice cream.
The Vin Santo was so cool – it's such a heavily reduced wine that it takes 10 years to make, and it literally coats the outside of the glass.
Needless to say, after that meal we were full for the rest of the day!
The next morning we headed to Montalcino, where we visited Casanova di Neri winery. The wines were excellent, but the winery itself had horrible service. It was like they didn't even care that you were there. I'd recommend just going to a tasting shop and trying some of their wines – not worth visiting the actual winery.
Montalcino itself is a cute little town that's worth exploring.
We also found an awesome bakery where the husband had to get a slice of cheesecake.
On the way back from Montalcino we couldn't get enough of the rolling Tuscan hills.
Totally worth the hike up the hill for the view.
On our last day in Tuscany, we ventured over to Pienza: the most picturesque small town you will ever see.
They are famous for their Pecorino cheese.
We had dinner at this tiny restaurant run by an old couple: Ristorante Il Rossellino. If you ever are in Pienza, you HAVE to eat here.
It's located in Piazza di Spagna, but it's so tiny you really have to search for it to find it. The inside of the restaurant literally has 4 tables, and the kitchen. In the summer, they put some tables outside to accommodate more people, but in total I'd say about 10-12 people can dine here every night.
Our appetizers were an Asparagus souffle over a pecorino cheese sauce.
And an eggplant and mozzarella layered dish over a tomato/olive oil puree.
I know, the eggplant dish looks kind of gross, but I promise it tasted amazing. The souffle was good too, although it was a little too eggy for my tastes (the husband really liked it though).
Then came our star dish for the night: gnocchi made with fresh truffles, shaved right over the top.
I have never had gnocchi that tasted this good in my life.
And can you just take a look at the truffles?
We also had a homemade tagliatelle with a fresh tomato sauce. Still delicious but nothing compared to those truffles. The husband and I came home still thinking about those truffles.
Dessert was out of control. First we had a warm, chocolate souffle with chocolate fudge inside.
It was about the most perfect chocolate "lava" type cake I've had.
Then we had a warm, pastry-esque cake with strawberries. Filled with a fresh vanilla custard, served on top of an orange sauce.
Might be one of the best desserts we have ever had in our lives.
It disappeared in approximately 5 seconds.
When we were done with dinner we had a chance to talk with the owner and cook, Enzo. He had come out between each course to check on us and to show us the food he was cooking before he cooked it. It was like eating at someone's (gourmet, 5 star) house. After dinner we thanked him for the delicious meal and took a picture with him. He was the best.
After that night we packed our bags and headed to Salina, one of the Aeolian Islands, and our last destination in our month-long Italy trip! But before that we did get a chance to drive through the Tuscan hills on our way to the airport, one last time.
Wonderful blog! Nice job, Anjali. I am passing this on to my wife. We love to visit Italy, but have never visited the Montepulciano area before – and that will now change! Thank you!
Oh, my goodness! I just happened upon your blog – it's awesome. Thank you! A friend and I are going to be in Tuscany for 3-4 days in late September. It is crazy trying to decide where to stay, eat, sightsee! Your information has been quite helpful. Thanks again.
Thanks so much Barb!! So glad this post was helpful for you as you planned your trip to Tuscany! You will have an absolutely amazing time – September is a great time to go and it's such a gorgeous region!
Hello Anjali, please do not update your post as you were right, Montepulciano believe me (or check on wikipedia 😉 ) has nothing to do with the Chianti region neither geographically nor historically or, more important, as wine production area. Montepulciano is located between Valdichiana and Valdorcia regions, about 80 km south of Gaiole in Chianti (considered the heart of Chianti). Montepulciano has its own wine denomination (DOCG) called Vino Nobile or Rosso di Montepulciano, nothing to do with Chianti DOGC. Said that, both regions and wines are excellent.
Haha! Thanks for the tip Giacmo! 🙂 That is great to know!
Just came across your blog as we are going to stay for a month at a villa in the hills just below Montepulciano. Just wanted to correct your statement that having stayed in the chianti region before, you wanted to try another area of Tuscany. Correction: Montepulciano is in the HEART of the chianti region! So you had two lovely stays in the same region of Tuscany.
Good catch! Thanks Rosemary – I have updated my post!! 🙂 Have a great time during your stay in Montepulciano!
Hello Anjali, I just came across your blog, it's wonderful, and NOW I am psyched to go to Montepulciano at the il Sasso Italian Language school as well as enjoy the eateries you mentioned. I am going in September and looking for a place to stay near the heart of town and school. My wife and I were hoping to find a room with a balcony for the two weeks. Do you know of a place or a person to contact? Thanks again for the informative blog!
Hi Nicholas! Aw yay!! You guys are going to have an amazing time 🙂 If you guys want a room with a balcony (and you're ok with being on the first level) – then the place we stayed at in Montepulciano would work really well for you! They have individual mini cabins, and each cabin has a little front porch/garden/balcony type area where you can sit out and relax. But since most of the cabins are one level, the porch is just on the main floor. If you wanted to find a room in a house or something like that I'd try airbnb! Hope that helps, and have a great time!
Hi! I came across this blog post in a search of all things Montepulciano. We are debating about spending 4 nights in either Montalcino or Montepulciano. Based on you seeing both, which would you recommend basing our stay in?
Hi Rachel! Honestly you can't really go wrong with either one. It depends on what kind of experience you want. We chose Montepulciano because we really loved the hotel we stayed at (I think there are more hotel options in Montepulciano), and because their downtown is a little bigger so there would be more things to do / more food options in the town itself. Also it's more central and closer to the highway so you have easier access to the other towns. Since we stayed in Montepulciano, I'm obviously biased towards that 🙂 Montalcino is also beautiful, but it's smaller and quieter and there's less to do in the town itself – so it has more of a "sleepy" feel. But I'd just look into both and choose the one that best fits what you're looking for! Hope that helps!
I'm a huge fan of Frances Mayes' Under The Tuscan Sun, and went on to read all her books. It is my dream to visit Tuscany at least once in my lifetime, and this post only served to add fuel to that fire! 🙂 I hope we do make it some time! Gorgeous pics!
I enjoyed reading your blog on Tuscany. Do you remember the name of the honey shop or where it was located? We are visiting in a few weeks. We are also going to Avignonesi per your suggestion. So excited! Thanks!
Hi Laura! I'm so excited that you're going to Montepulciano! You are going to love it. And I can't wait for you to try the experience at Avignonesi! It is absolutely amazing. For the honey shop — honestly, I wish I could remember the name of it but I don't :/ but, since Montalcino is a really small town, I'm pretty sure if you just walked around for a while you'd bump into the honey shop. Hope you have an amazing time!!
Hi Gina! This was in July – the middle of summer! It was beautiful honestly – I'd highly recommend going at that time of the year!
After reading Anjali's blog last year I spent two weeks in Montepulciano at the il Sasso Italian Language school. That was in April and the weather then was so great. The small city is perched up high and the views are just spectacular. The 'city' is quite small and walking around, while a bit up-and-down, is great fun. Lots to see, places to stop at and very picturesque. The surrounding area too, like Cortona, is also well worth spending time in. I loved it all.
Hi – just a passing comment. Also found your blog by accident but so glad that I did! Just had to leave a comment to say thanks for this great info. Will definitely be using your recommendations whilst we're in the area.
Oh great! I'm so glad this post was helpful to you!
Omg that's amazing!! I'm so happy to hear that – you will love Montepulciano! Have a great trip Coral!
Like some of these others, I found your blog accidentally, doing a search for "outdoor restaurant Montepulciano." I'm still a year away from my trip (a friend says the two best things about a trip are planning it and remembering it) and we're going to spend a day in the Montepulciano/Pienza area, and I'm going to have to plan to dine at Ristorante il Rossellino. What a fabulous meal you had! And that kind of interaction with owner/chef would be so special. Thanks for the excellent report and the beautiful pictures.
Hi Robin! That's so cool how you came across my blog, and I'm so glad you found this post helpful! And yes – you must go visit Ristorante il Rossellino – it really was a special experience. You're going to have a wonderful time – I'm so excited for you!
We just got to Montepulciano today and this blog came up in a restaurant search. It's fantastic – thoroughly impressed. Thanks for the advice – we're going to try La Grotta tomorrow!!!
Just stumbled across your blog and absolutely love it. You have an excellent writing style and such great photos. We are actually considering staying at the Regais in Montepulciano in June and wanted to ask you what studio you stayed in? Is it the one facing the woods?
Hi Shruti! It's so great to "meet" you! I'm so glad you are enjoying my blog 🙂 So we stayed in the room facing the little garden outside the breakfast area. It was right next to the pool. We didn't stay in one of the cottages or suites — ours was just one of the regular rooms (king sized bed, bathroom with jacuzzi tub). Hope that helps! Enjoy your trip!! We absolutely loved Montepulciano!
I'm in total agreement! I've just completed two weeks at the language school there [il Sasso] and just loved it. The view from my rooms out east meant I greeted the sun every morning …. and almost every morning and evening I took a photo out of the window … I have a whole collection titled "East of Montepulciano". The changing light, small smoke columns, mist/fog in the valleys, with the mountain ranges disappearing in the distance …. just magic. Just be aware …. the "Monte" in Montepulciano, naturally, means "mountain"…. and in Montepulciano there are generally only two directions, "su e giu" … UP & DOWN.
Its a wonderful place full of great people … Spend a while there, shop at the same shops, practice your shaky Italian and the people just warm tp you. I'll be back.
I'm planning a stay in Montepulciano at a language school, classes each weekday morning. Is two weeks too | 3,013 |
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Built In Honors Enigma in Prestigious 2023 Best Places To Work Awards
Enigma recognized among best U.S. Startups and fully remote workplaces. Enigma was named to Built In's top lists in three categories: U.S. Best Startups to Work For, Fully Remote Best Startups to Work For, and Fully Remote Best Places to Work
NEW YORK, Jan. 11, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Built In today announced that Enigma, a data science company that provides comprehensive intelligence about the financial health and identity of every U.S. business, was honored in its 2023 Best Places To Work Awards across three categories. Specifically, Enigma earned a place on lists for U.S. Best Startups to Work For, Fully Remote Best Startups to Work For, and Fully Remote Best Places to Work. The annual awards program includes U.S. companies of all sizes, across remote, hybrid and on-site environments.
"We're honored to make the Built In list for the second year running," says Stephanie Spiegel, VP of People at Enigma. "Our remote-first culture and transparent, equitable approach to total rewards reflects how much we value our people and their essential role in delivering on our mission: get more worthy small businesses access to the capital and resources they need to grow and thrive."
<|fim_middle|> following tech hubs: Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Colorado, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington DC.
Madeline Ross, Enigma, 1 201.485.6153, press@enigma.com
SOURCE Enigma
LifeNet Health saves record number of lives through organ donation in 2022
IAC Monthly Metrics Available on Company Website
GSE Solutions Receives Contract to Develop and Support Hydrogen Plant Model for NuScale Power | The award continues a trend of growth and momentum for Enigma. Over the past two years, the data science company, which was recently named to the Inc. Best in Business 2022 list, has grown its customers by 500%, helping them better serve U.S. small businesses.
To learn more about Enigma's compensation philosophy, read the recent blog post. Browse current career opportunities at enigma.com/careers/openings.
Built In determines the winners of Best Places to Work based on an algorithm, using company data about compensation and benefits. To reflect the benefits candidates are searching for more frequently on Built In, the program also weighs criteria like remote and flexible work opportunities, programs for DEI and other people-first cultural offerings.
"It's my honor to congratulate this year's Best Places to Work winners," says Sheridan Orr, Chief Marketing Officer, Built In. "These exemplary companies understand their people are their most valuable asset, and they've stepped up to meet the modern professional's new expectations, including the desire to work for companies that deliver purpose, growth and inclusion. These winners set the stage for a human-centered future of work, and we can't wait to see that future unfold."
ABOUT ENIGMA
Enigma provides comprehensive intelligence about the identity and financial health of small and medium businesses across the United States. By engineering better data from hundreds of public and third-party sources, they tell the complete story of every business, so that companies of every size can access the financial services they need to grow and thrive. Leading organizations from the world's largest banks to tomorrow's unicorns use Enigma's data to better serve their small and medium business customers. To learn more visit enigma.com.
ABOUT BUILT IN
Built In is creating the largest platform for technology professionals globally. Monthly, millions of the industry's most in-demand professionals visit the site from across the world. They rely on our platform to stay ahead of tech trends and news, learn skills to accelerate their careers and find opportunities at companies whose values they share. Built In also serves 2,000 customers, innovative companies ranging from startups to those in the Fortune 500. By putting their stories in front of our uniquely engaged audience, we help them hire otherwise hard-to-reach tech professionals. http://www.builtin.com
ABOUT BUILT IN'S BEST PLACES TO WORK
Built In's esteemed Best Places to Work Awards, now in its fifth year, honor companies across numerous categories: 100 Best Places to Work, 50 Best Startup Places to Work, 100 Best Midsize Places to Work, 100 Best Large Places to Work and Editor's Choice: 100 Best Hybrid Places to Work. The program honors companies – remote, hybrid and in-office – with the best total rewards packages across the U.S. and in the | 582 |
French Academy of Sciences 2002.
Maxim Kontsevich has established a reputation in pure mathematics and theoretical physics, with influential ideas and deep insights. He has been influenced by the work of Richard Feynmann<|fim_middle|>.
Maxim Kontsevich (born 25 August 1964) is professor at the Institute des Hautes Etudes Scientific (I.H.E.S) in France. | and Edward Witten. Kontsevich is an expert in the so-called "string theory" and in quantum field theory. He made his name with contributions to four problems of geometry. He was able to prove a conjecture of Witten and demonstrate the mathematical equivalence of two models of so-called quantum gravitation. The quantum theory of gravity is an intermediate step towards a complete unified theory. It harmonizes physical theories of the macrocosm (mass attraction) and the microcosm (forces between elementary particles). Another result of Kontsevich relates to knot theory. Knots mean exactly the same thing for mathematicians as for everyone else, except that the two ends of the rope are always jointed together. A key question in knot theory is, which of the various knots are equivalent? Or in other words, which knots can be twisted and turned to produce another knot without the use of scissors? This question was raised at the beginning of the 20th century, but it is still unanswered. It is not even clear which knots can be undone, that is, classifying all knots. They would be assigned a number or function, with equivalent knots having the same number. Knots which are not equivalent must have different numbers. However, such a characterization of knots has not yet been achieved. Kontsevich has found the best "knot invariant" so far. Although knot theory is part of pure mathematics, there seem to be scientific applications. Knot structures occur in cosmology, statistical mechanics and genetics | 307 |
Look at what YOU did! Please click HERE to watch and listen to the video - amazing, simply amazing. I am so moved. You gave from your heart and helped beloved and HOMELESS pets in need! What a WONDERFUL LOVING THING Kelee Katillac accomplished with the help and generosity of all of YOU.
AND you can continue helping simply by leaving a comment about the video on Kelee's Pet Parade Party post! Each comment left before October 1st will raise an extra dollar for these very special pets.
So would you PRETTY PRETTY PLEASE with lots of sugar on top leave a comment over HERE (click on the word HERE) for Maggie & me, and for her brother Marley - our love that my son adopted from the SPCA seven years ago AND for ALL of the furbabies in need. ONE COMMENT = ONE DOLLAR. Let's see how much WE can raise TODAY!!! I already left my comment over there this morning.
Maggie and I thank you SO much for being a part of something so incredibly beautiful. We LOVE you!
*edited to add that we now have until October 2 to leave comments and earn dollars for the homeless pets! Awesome!!
My First Ever Guest Blogger!
We shopped, we ate, we chatted, and YES, we thrifted! And she is definitely the yard sale queen of all queens! And she is as cute as a button as she goes about her wheelin' & dealin' too!
But Rhoda's talents do not stop there. Along with being a fabulous cook, she is also a talented decorator. I have asked her to share her beautiful dining room with us today.
So, Dear Daisy Cottage family, please welcome Rhoda as our first guest blogger!!
When my friend, Kim, asked me to guest post for her, I was absolutely delighted. I mentioned before that Kim is the reason I started blogging in the first place. After she started her blog, I began to stop by and visit her and she encouraged me to start my own. ME, blog? I had no idea what I was doing, but it sounded like it might be fun, so I started and the rest is history. I took to it like a duck in water. And I love to share all things home with the many wonderful ladies out there who also love their homes and want to make them comfortable for their families. And doing it on a budget is topmost in my mind always, when I'm getting things done around the house.
Last spring, I painted my dining room in Sherwin Williams Antique White. It had been a pretty deep and dramatic red, which I loved for a long time, but I started longing for a lighter and airier feel, especially with my dark mahogany furniture in that room. I adore the lighter color and am so happy I made the change.
I've share on my blog many times about my love of white dishes and started a creamware (poor man's version of English ironstone) and it grew from my yardsale and thrifting jaunts fairly quickly.
I filled up my shelves and still have room for a few more.
White tureens have been a favorite to collect too and I've found several of these at yardsales.
When I did my makeover<|fim_middle|>'ve had the pleasure of visiting Kim in person at Daisy Cottage and let me tell you, it was a treat I'll never get over. That sweet doggie, Maggie, made me feel right at home too. Kim, if you ever get to Birmingham, you have a personal invitation to my house too.
Thank you Rhoda SO much for spending time with us and thank you for ALL that you share every day on your gorgeous blog! I can't imagine being in Blogland without YOU!
So,this one is for you!
P.S. WooHoo - Jaybird - WHERE ARE YOU?????
I am really ready to put the umbrellas away and bring home the pumpkins and sweep the leaves!
I hope you have a wonderful Monday! Please come back tomorrow as one of my dearest blogging friends will be doing a special guest post for me!!
Thank you SO much for EVERYTHING! Thank you for celebrating my blog anniversary with me and thank you for your wonderful and generous comments! Thank you for sharing about YOUR own home-sweet-homes! I love how much YOU love your homes - this truly makes my heart sing!
And sweet Jaybird, YOU won my giveaway!
the computer which brings me YOUR home!!
Have a good week...I'm lookin' forward to "seeing" you later.
Please email me your mailing addy and your box will be on its' way to you! Thank you so much!
I thought I'd share these DELICIOUS chocolate chip cookies with you that my friend Chrissy made.
See Chrissy - I CAN share!
Yes, our dining room chandy has gone green! One recent Saturday I sent my hubby to Lowe's for a few things that we were needing around the house and I asked him to pick out a can of green spray paint for the chandelier. He called me from the store and said there were several greens and was afraid to pick one himself - thinking that he'd pick the wrong one or something. Poor man. I told him that any green he would pick would be fine.
He is SO proud because the chandy DOES look great!!
But I don't think it will surprise him... after all, he is married to me and lives in Daisy Cottage.
Happy weekend everyone! I love you much and here's to our sharing more days TOGETHER - from my home to YOURS.
She's trying SO hard to stay awake until midnight when we use the Random Generator to pick the winner of our Anniversary Giveaway.
But she just can't do it. She is literally snoring on my lap as I type.
We'll be back tomorrow when we announce our winner. Until then .. | in here, I also did a redo on these buffet lamps and covered the old shades with burlap and had them monogrammed. That really added some punch to the new look.
A mirror from Tuesday AM has been with me for a few years and was a good bargain too.
The centerpiece is a simple Italian white cakeplate I picked up for a great deal at TJ Maxx, one of my favorite shopping spots, along with Homegoods. The cloche was also found at TJ Maxx and was on deep discount because of a small chip on the edge. A cluster of faux pears from a yardsale are casually placed underneath.
So, I set out this thrifty place setting with my new to me brown transferware. Placemats are yardsale finds, as well as that beautiful set of silver plated flatware. I scored the whole 16 piece plate setting of the flatware for $100 at an estate sale. It's tucked away in it's own little case and I hope I get to use it soon. We don't do a lot of sit down formal dinners at our house, but I sure do love it.
My niece did the monogram napkins for me.
So, I hope you'll remember that putting together a room doesn't have to cost a fortune. All of my rooms have been decorated with love and patience and each piece collected one by one. And you know what? It's a lot of fun to do it that way, not to mention cost effective. I'm a real yardsale lover and know the potential of finding great things out there, so I encourage shopping that way on my blog. Lots of women are newly discovering the thrill of shopping at yardsales and estate sales. I know I sure have enjoyed it so much!
Thank you, Kim for letting me come by Daisy Cottage again. Ladies, I | 380 |
As original equipment manufacturers in the heavy equipment industry continue to demand ever more stringent requirements from their suppliers, aqueous parts washing specialist MecWash Systems Ltd has been able to help US-based Stewart Manufacturing not only meet these higher standards but also expand its production facility.
Manufacturing and quality engineers at the machining house in Hermansville, Michigan, needed to take action after one of their best customers ratcheted up the cleanliness requirements for a family of cast iron turbo bearing housings that Stewart manufactures for them.
The tighter cleanliness specifications meant that particles over 500 microns were no longer acceptable, gravimetric weight gain would be restricted to 25 milligrams, and no amount of abrasive material, in this case residual honing grit, would be allowed at all.
Bill Westbrook, North American Operations Manager for MecWash (pictured below), explained: "Where ten years ago particle sizes of 1,000<|fim_middle|> MecWash Midi continued, however, Stewart's business with their customer continued to expand and this led them to instead purchase a MecWash Maxi," Bill added.
The Maxi retains all of the high performance of the Midi, but is constructed with a much larger cleaning chamber, one that measures 24"H x 24"W x 40"L. As the customer gave Stewart more and more business, it was the MecWash Maxi that Stewart now needed in order to keep up with these expanding production requirements.
Managing Director of MecWash, John Pattison, explains: "Critical to successfully cleaning these cast iron bearing housings was the requirement to be able to hold them firmly in place during the full rotation for the entire cleaning cycle. For this, MecWash designed four different purpose-built holding fixtures that would securely retain bearing housings measuring several different diameters.
"For the smallest housing, the MecWash Maxi cleans 26 housings on two fixtures per 15-minute cleaning cycle. For the largest, the Maxi cleans 12 housings on two fixtures per 15-minute cycle. Across the different housings diameters, the Maxi can clean an average of 84 turbo bearing housings per hour.
"Due to the Maxi's high performance and huge cleaning capacity, we were able to offer Stewart a system that could both achieve their customer's cleanliness requirements and surpass Stewart's desired goal to be able to clean up to 80 turbo bearing housings per hour," he added.
The MecWash Maxi was installed and commissioned in Stewart's manufacturing facility a year ago and, since that time, it has been cleaning turbo bearing housings on every shift virtually non-stop. | microns captured in a millipore patch test might have been acceptable, today it is not uncommon for heavy equipment OEMs to demand maximum particle sizes of 500 microns or even less as this customer required, as well as the new gravimetric limits on components that are critical to the fuel, oil, and airflow inside of engines, pumps, and compressors.
"Before the customer made these changes to its cleanliness requirements, Stewart had cleaned these turbo bearing housings after honing inside a spray cabinet washer in a 15-minute cleaning cycle.
"However, this cycle time was inexact because often the spray washer did not successfully clean the parts in a single cycle. Thus, the bearing housings were often rewashed in a second 15-minute process," he added.
Engineers at Stewart recognised that it frequently took two wash cycles to clean these housings in their spray cabinet and, now faced with much more stringent cleanliness requirements, they realised they needed a high-performance cleaning system to keep pace with production demands.
They were looking for a system that could flood every drilled passage of the various housings multiple times during a cleaning cycle and one that could engage powerful ultrasonics to evacuate cast iron filings and all grit retained in the bearing housings after the honing process.
Stewart Manufacturing's own customer purchased a MecWash aqueous parts cleaning system back in 2012 and was happy to recommend the UK-based company's cleaning machines as offering a perfect solution to meet their changing and demanding needs.
Bill Westbrook added: "At first, Stewart were interested in buying a MecWash Midi which they believed would achieve their cleaning throughput and also meet the new cleanliness requirements.
"The MecWash Midi is a highly versatile, aqueous single chamber rotational cleaning system that features ultrasonic flood wash and rinse, immersion wash and rinse, spray wash and rinse, hot air dry, and vacuum dry to evaporate any retained water in small blind holes of components with more complex geometries. Stewart's family of cast iron bearing housings did have blind holes, so a vacuum dry function was going to be an important part of an effective cleaning process.
"As discussions about the | 443 |
Buzzard Creek
Google Earth Placemark with Features
Cite Volcano Profile
Alaska Volcano Observatory (Link to Buzzard Creek)
Tuff ring(s)
1050 BCE
Volcanic Region
Primary Volcano Type
Last Known Eruption
64.062°N
148.433°W
Latest Activity Reports
Bulletin Reports
Synonyms & Subfeatures
Eruptive History
Deformation History
Emission History
Map Holdings
The Global Volcanism Program has no activity reports for Buzzard Creek.
The Global Volcanism Program has no Weekly Reports available for Buzzard Creek.
The Global Volcanism Program has no Bulletin Reports available for Buzzard Creek.
The Global Volcanism Program has no synonyms or subfeatures listed for Buzzard Creek.
Volcano Number
Longitude 315001
830 m / 2723 ft
Volcano Types
Rock Types
Basalt / Picro-Basalt
Tectonic Setting
Subduction zone
Continental crust (> 25 km)
Within 5 km
Within 100 km 0
Two Holocene tuff rings form craters 300 and 66 m wide near the headwaters of Buzzard Creek at the northern foot of the central Alaska Range NE of the town of Healy along the Parks Highway. Both contain small lakes, and the smaller ring is about 200 m SE of the larger one. The total volume of ejecta, most of which is accessory material, probably does not exceed 0.001 km3. The ejecta overlies young glacial terraces that correlate with a glacial stage that ended about 10,000 years ago, and radiocarbon dates give an age for the eruption that formed the tuff rings of about 3000 years. This minor volcanic feature lies along trend with the Aleutian arc, but is located 320 km NE of its nearest Holocene neighbor, Hayes volcano, and lies directly over the northernmost corner of the subducting Pacific Plate.
The following references have all been used during the compilation of data for this volcano, it is not a comprehensive bibliography.
Wood C A, Kienle J (eds), 1990. Volcanoes of North America. Cambridge, England: Cambridge Univ Press, 354 p.
There is data available for 1 Holocene eruptive periods.
Eruption Certainty
Activity Area or Unit
1050 BCE (?) Unknown Confirmed 2 Radiocarbon (uncorrected)
There is no Deformation History data available for Buzzard Creek.
There is no Emissions History data available for Buzzard Creek.
A small lake partially fills a 300-m-wide tuff ring, the larger of two craters at Buzzard Creek. The two craters formed during phreatomagmatic eruptions about 3,000 years ago. The Buzzard Creek craters lie 320 km NE of their nearest neighbor in the Aleutian arc, Hayes volcano.
Photo by Chris Nye (Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys, Alaska Volcano Observatory). Moderate explosive eruptions radiocarbon dated at about 3,000 years ago formed two tuff rings in the central Alaska Range. A 300-m-wide ejecta blanket can be traced 1.6 km from the larger vent, seen in this photo. Ejecta on the crater rim consists of about 80% country rock fragments, with only 20% juvenile basaltic fragments. A geologist in a red jacket (right) and a helicopter (beyond the trees on the left side of the lake) on the crater rim, provide scale.
Photo by Chris Nye (Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys, Alaska Volcano Observatory).
GVP Map Holdings
The maps shown below have been scanned from the GVP map archives and include the volcano on this page. Clicking on the small images will load the full 300 dpi map. Very small-scale maps (such as world maps) are not included. The maps database originated over 30 years ago, but was only recently updated and connected to our main database. We welcome users to tell us if they see incorrect information or other problems with the maps; please use the Contact GVP link at the bottom of the page to send us email.
Title: Canada, United States
Publisher: DMA Aerospace Center
Country: United States, Canada
Series: ONC
Map Type: Topographic
Scale: 1:1,000,000
Title: Map Showing Distribution, Composition, and Age of Late Cenozoic Volcanic Craters in Alaska
Publisher: US Geological Survey
Series: Misc Investigations
Map Type: Geology
Title: Jet Navigation Chart AK/ Canada
Series: JNC
Map Type: Navigation
Smithsonian Sample Collections Database
There are no samples for Buzzard Creek in the Smithsonian's NMNH Department of Mineral Sciences Rock and Ore collection.
Alaska Volcano Observatory (Link to Buzzard Creek) The Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) is a joint program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAFGI), and the State of Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys (ADGGS). AVO was formed in 1988, and uses federal, state, and university resources to monitor and study Alaska's hazardous volcanoes, to predict and record eruptive activity, and to mitigate volcanic hazards to life and property.
Volcanic Hazard Maps The IAVCEI Commission on Volcanic Hazards and Risk has a Volcanic Hazard Maps database designed to serve as a resource for hazard mappers (or other interested parties) to explore how common issues in hazard map development have been addressed at different volcanoes, in different countries, for different hazards, and for different intended audiences. In addition to the comprehensive, searchable Volcanic Hazard Maps Database, this website contains information about diversity of volcanic hazard maps, illustrated using examples from the database. This site is for educational purposes related to volcanic hazard maps. Hazard maps found on this website should not be used for emergency purposes. For the most recent, official hazard map for a particular volcano, please seek out the proper institutional authorities on the matter.
MIROVA Middle InfraRed Observation of Volcanic Activity (MIROVA) is a near real time volcanic hot-spot detection system based on the analysis of MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) data. In particular, MIROVA uses the Middle InfraRed Radiation (MIR), measured over target volcanoes, in order to detect, locate and measure the heat radiation sourced from<|fim_middle|>VE) database of the Volcano Global Risk Identification and Analysis Project (VOGRIPA).
EarthChem EarthChem develops and maintains databases, software, and services that support the preservation, discovery, access and analysis of geochemical data, and facilitate their integration with the broad array of other available earth science parameters. EarthChem is operated by a joint team of disciplinary scientists, data scientists, data managers and information technology developers who are part of the NSF-funded data facility Integrated Earth Data Applications (IEDA). IEDA is a collaborative effort of EarthChem and the Marine Geoscience Data System (MGDS). | volcanic activity.
MODVOLC Thermal Alerts Using infrared satellite Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data, scientists at the Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawai'i, developed an automated system called MODVOLC to map thermal hot-spots in near real time. For each MODIS image, the algorithm automatically scans each 1 km pixel within it to check for high-temperature hot-spots. When one is found the date, time, location, and intensity are recorded. MODIS looks at every square km of the Earth every 48 hours, once during the day and once during the night, and the presence of two MODIS sensors in space allows at least four hot-spot observations every two days. Each day updated global maps are compiled to display the locations of all hot spots detected in the previous 24 hours. There is a drop-down list with volcano names which allow users to 'zoom-in' and examine the distribution of hot-spots at a variety of spatial scales.
Sentinel Hub Playground
Sentinel Hub EO Browser The Sentinel Hub Playground provides a quick look at any Sentinel-2 image in any combination of the bands and enhanced with image effects; Landsat 8, DEM and MODIS are also available. Sentinel Hub is an engine for processing of petabytes of satellite data. It is opening the doors for machine learning and helping hundreds of application developers worldwide. It makes Sentinel, Landsat, and other Earth observation imagery easily accessible for browsing, visualization and analysis. Sentinel Hub is operated by Sinergise
IRIS seismic stations/networks Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) Data Services map showing the location of seismic stations from all available networks (permanent or temporary) within a radius of 0.18° (about 20 km at mid-latitudes) from the given location of Buzzard Creek. Users can customize a variety of filters and options in the left panel. Note that if there are no stations are known the map will default to show the entire world with a "No data matched request" error notice.
UNAVCO GPS/GNSS stations Geodetic Data Services map from UNAVCO showing the location of GPS/GNSS stations from all available networks (permanent or temporary) within a radius of 20 km from the given location of Buzzard Creek. Users can customize the data search based on station or network names, location, and time window. Requires Adobe Flash Player.
DECADE Data The DECADE portal, still in the developmental stage, serves as an example of the proposed interoperability between The Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program, the Mapping Gas Emissions (MaGa) Database, and the EarthChem Geochemical Portal. The Deep Earth Carbon Degassing (DECADE) initiative seeks to use new and established technologies to determine accurate global fluxes of volcanic CO2 to the atmosphere, but installing CO2 monitoring networks on 20 of the world's 150 most actively degassing volcanoes. The group uses related laboratory-based studies (direct gas sampling and analysis, melt inclusions) to provide new data for direct degassing of deep earth carbon to the atmosphere.
WOVOdat
Single Volcano View
Temporal Evolution of Unrest
Side by Side Volcanoes WOVOdat is a database of volcanic unrest; instrumentally and visually recorded changes in seismicity, ground deformation, gas emission, and other parameters from their normal baselines. It is sponsored by the World Organization of Volcano Observatories (WOVO) and presently hosted at the Earth Observatory of Singapore.
Large Eruptions of Buzzard Creek Information about large Quaternary eruptions (VEI >= 4) is cataloged in the Large Magnitude Explosive Volcanic Eruptions (LaME | 769 |
E-Cigs Have A Million Times More Cancer-Causing Chemicals Than Polluted Air – Hong Kong Study
March 10, 2016 March 9, 2016 by Dane Arr
According to a new study out of Hong Kong, China, the chemicals most commonly included in e-cigarettes contain more cancer-causing substances than polluted air. The researchers also discovered that a type of flame retardant used in the devices themselves can affect the body's reproductive system, which could also lead to cancer.
The study analyzed thirteen different electronic cigarettes that were sold on the Chinese market, and found that the level of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which is a by-product of burning petroleum, ranged from 2.9 to 504.5 nanograms per milliliter.
According to Dr. Chung Shan-shan, an assistant professor in the Baptist University's Biology Department:
"[Level of PAHs] in e-cigarettes is at least one million times more than roadside air in Hong Kong. . . . Even though we don't know the exact number of e-cigarettes one should take, not to mention that many of the carcinogenic effects are cumulative, I don't think there is a safe margin. (source)
This story broke when the South China Morning Post reported it last week, and now the Honk Kong Council on Smoking and Health, which commissioned the study, is calling for a ban on e-cigarettes as soon as possible. They wouldn't be the first country to do so, as more than a dozen countries have already made a similar move.
The study, however, has not come without criticism.
According to Dr Konstantino's, a researcher at Onassis Cardiac Surgery Greece, Department of Pharmacology, at the University of Patras:
The story says that e-cigarettes are "a million times" more harmful than outdoor air. I was intrigued to see what kind of a story that was, and once again I was shocked. Not only it is another story far distanced from the truth but, if the statement of an assistant professor of biology is accurately reported, it is a complete disgrace for the scientist, the department and the university. . . .
There are only two possibilities: either the scientists have no idea about what they are talking about, or they are deliberately misinforming the public and the regulators. Even worse, they are creating panic to vapers (the vast majority of whom are former smokers), with the risk of making them relapse to smoking. This is a typical case of gross misinformation and extremely poor science. Literally, a public health disgrace… The reporters of this "study" (not authors, because there is no published study) need to immediately apologize to the public for creating this story out of nothing.
You can read more of what he had to<|fim_middle|>:
9 Natural Ways To Quit Smoking
To see what happens to your body when you quit smoking click HERE.
Determining the underlying emotional problems that lead to addiction is also crucial to recovery. Beyond just the commonly citied biological factors, research suggests that our environment, or our perception of our environment, leads us to these habits. THIS article that we recently published explores this idea in-depth.
From Collective Evolution
Categories Event Support Groups, Healing, News, Technology Post navigation
Psychotronic Firewalls against Public Truth
A Man Built A Gold Pyramid In Illinois & Found Remarkable Energy | say HERE.
More Recent Research On E-Cigs
A recent study published by researchers at the University of California's San Diego School of Medicine and Veterans Affairs reported results which suggest that e-cigarettes are "toxic to human airway cells, suppress immune defences and alter inflammation, while at the same time boosting boosting bacterial virulence."
"This study shows that e-cigarette vapor is not benign – at high doses it can directly kill lung cells, which is frightening. We already knew that inhaling heated chemicals, including the e-liquid ingredients nicotine and propylene glycol, couldn't possibly be good for you. This work confirms that inhalation of e-cigarette vapor daily leads to changes in the inflammatory milieu inside the airways." – Senior author Laura E. Crotty Alexander, MD (source)
The key messages from their study, which was published a couple of days ago in the Journal of Molecular Medicine, are the following:
Acute exposure to e-cigarette vapor (EV) is cytotoxic to airway cells in vitro
Acute exposure to EV decreases macrophage and neutrophil antimicrobial function
Inhalation of EV alters immunomodulating cytokines in the airways of mice
Inhalation of EV leads to increased markers of inflammation in BAL and serum
Staphylococcus aureus become more virulent when exposed to EV
These findings were actually reported a couple of years ago, but now, the same results have proven true with mice.
"Inflammatory markers — signs of full-body inflammation — in the airways and blood of mice that inhaled e-cigarette vapors for one hour a day, five days a week, for four weeks were elevated by 10 percent compared to unexposed mice. . . . Some of the changes we have found in mice are also found in the airways and blood of conventional cigarette smokers, while others are found in humans with cancer or inflammatory lung diseases." (source)
The researchers did mention that although they cannot provide a link to a specific disease, reports of acute toxicities discovered in the lab are enough to have them believing that e-cigarettes "will cause disease in the end." The study also shows how, when exposed to bacteria, e-cigarette vapor was more harmful in a mouse model of pneumonia.
Last month, Harvard University published a study linking e-cigarettes to lung disease (you can read their press release here). Apparently, in developers' efforts to remove the combustion element of smoking, they neglected to consider the other potential health hazards posed by the use of this device (or, at the very least, those concerns were heavily overshadowed). Researchers have discovered that the danger lies in the chemical flavourings used in e-cigarettes – more specifically, Diacetyl, a flavorings chemical that the university maintains can lead to severe respiratory disease. The chemical is found in more than 75 percent of flavoured electronic cigarettes, alongside two other related and potentially harmful compounds used to produce flavours that appeal to a variety of young people, such as cotton candy.
Are They Still A Better Option Than Smoking? Does A 'Healthy' Alternative To Smoking Even Exist?
According to Armando Peruga, Programme Manager of the World Health Organisations (WHO) Tobacco Free Initiative:
Some research programmes are already under way but given that e-cigarettes have been popular in the last four or five years, research has barely started and it's early days yet. It would take about five or 10 years before we have evidence that could change the current picture. (source)
We contacted the lead author about this study, and she offered these comments:
My personal bias is that I want to make sure that vaping e-cigarettes is safe for my patients, and if it isn't, to be able to counsel them appropriately about risks and benefits of smoking cigarettes vs. vaping e-cigarettes. I truly hope that e-cigarettes are significantly safer than cigarettes! And so far, it looks like that could be possible.
It is difficult to say whether they are a better option or if they do actually help people quit smoking. The truth is, both could be dangerous, and perhaps e-cigarettes are a better alternative. But perhaps it's really just choosing between the worst of two evils. Even if e-cigarettes are a safer alternative, there is nothing wrong with outlining the risks of their use. Furthermore, I do know that there are other, natural methods that can be used to quit smoking.
Greenmedinfo.com is a great place to start your research, and it's worth the effort – while many things can be conquered with the application of a little willpower, sometimes kicking substances that your brain craves requires more than just willpower, and a little asistance. You can check out this article below for starters; I hope it helps if you are trying to quit | 968 |
Canelo Alvarez to fight junior middleweight titlist Liam Smith
ByDan Rafael
Boxing fans already knew they would not get the fight they wanted this fall: a middleweight title fight between lineal champion Canelo Alvarez and unified titleholder Gennady Golovkin.
What they'll get is a fight that nobody asked for.
Alvarez will drop down to junior middleweight and challenge titleholder Liam Smith on Sept. 17 in the main event on an HBO PPV card, Alvarez promoter Golden Boy and Smith promoter Frank Warren announced Friday.
The site of the fight has not been finalized, but Golden Boy is in talks with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones about having the fight at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and the MGM Grand in Las Vegas has already made a strong bid to host the fight.
"I am very pleased to announce my next fight against Liam Smith, a tremendous fighter with real knockout power, and the WBO junior middleweight world title owner," Alvarez said. "I have no doubt that this fight will be give and take, which will fill the expectations of the fans, and I will work with all the enthusiasm as I always do to get the upper hand on Sept. 17."
Mexico's Alvarez, a former unified junior middleweight titleholder, has been fighting at his preferred weight of 155 pounds, one over the junior middleweight division limit. He has fought his last five fights at 155, including when he won the middleweight title from Miguel Cotto in November.
Now he is going to drop the extra pound to challenge England's Smith (23-0-1, 13 KOs), a 27-year-old who will be making his third title defense but who is a complete unknown outside of his home region.
"I am delighted to get the opportunity to defend my world title against the biggest name in world boxing and to headline in the U.S., which is a dream I have had since I started in the sport of boxing," Smith said. "This fight allows me to make my name in the U.S. and show just how good I am, and this is the big stage that will enable me to do that. I am confident of winning this fight and returning to the great city of Liverpool with my belt still around my waist."
Earlier this week, Golden Boy vice president Eric Gomez and K2 Promotions' managing director Tom Loeffler met in Los Angeles to talk about the timing of Alvarez-Golovkin, perhaps the most anticipated fight in boxing.
Besides his world titles, Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs) also owned an interim title that made him Alvarez's mandatory challenger. Although Golovkin wanted the fight immediately, he agreed that they would each have interim bouts and then meet in the fall, with Alvarez ostensibly building himself up to the 160-pound middleweight limit -- although obviously not right away, because he will fight Smith at 154.
Golovkin knocked out Dominic Wade in the second round on April 23, and Alvarez drilled Amir Khan in the sixth round on May 7. But soon after, Alvarez vacated his sanctioning organization title, thus avoiding the deadline to make the mandatory fight. Golovkin was handed the full title, but the sides continued to talk.
This week, they agreed to wait until the fall of 2017, though Golovkin's side did so grudgingly. Each fighter will have at least two more interim fights, possibly three, and must keep winning.
That leaves Golden Boy the task of trying to sell a<|fim_middle|> opportunity to defend his WBO title against Alvarez," Warren said. "This is a fantastic chance for Liam to showcase his talent in such a high-profile fight. He believes, as do I, that he has the tools to beat Alvarez and stake his own claim to be the world's best."
SPORTS ESPN GENNADY GOLOVKIN GGG CANELO ALVAREZ LIAM SMITH NEWS UK-BOXING TITLIST OSCAR DE-LA-HOYA BOXING TITLEHOLDER JUNIOR MIDDLEWEIGHT GOLDEN BOY | marginal matchup for Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 KOs) on pay-per-view in September, on the traditional pay-per-view weekend of Mexican Independence Day, against an unknown opponent and heavy underdog in Smith.
"This fight will be a slugfest between two heavy hitters, and I have little doubt that it will end with a 10-count," said Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya, who many believe does not want to make the Alvarez-Golovkin fight because Alvarez is his company's cash cow. "Canelo is the biggest star in our sport today, and with a victory on Sept. 17, at the age of just 26 [in July] he can add yet another chapter to his already-incredible career."
Smith comes from a fighting family -- his three brothers are also professional fighters. Callum is an undefeated super middleweight contender, Stephen is a former junior lightweight world title challenger and top-10 contender and Paul is a former two-time super middleweight world title challenger.
Liam Smith won a vacant world title by seventh-round knockout of John Thompson in October. He has made two defenses: a seventh-round knockout of Jimmy Kilrain Kelly in December and a second-round stoppage of Predrag Radosevic on June 4. Golden Boy and Warren were already in discussions for the Alvarez fight at that point, so Smith went into the Radosevic bout knowing how important a win was.
"Liam grabbed the | 301 |
St Patrick's Weekend Beer Festival
Bishopthorpe Sports and Social Club will be holding its 3rd Annual St Patricks Day Beer Festival on the weekend of March 15th and 16th.
There will be 2 ciders and 12 real ales to try, all at £3 a pint, or try tasting the lot with 1/3rd pint tasters for just a pound. Brewers taking part include Whale Ale Co (<|fim_middle|>2 noon on the Saturday until midnight, with all the days sporting action on the TVs and big screen. The Club is proud to announce that for the second year running it has won the CAMRA York branch Club of the Year, and representatives from CAMRA will be making a presentation on the Saturday afternoon.
Sunday once again starts at midday, with musical entertainment from 3pm by Pat McGarry of Bogus Brothers fame. Get down early for a seat to see this popular performer.
FREE ENTRY ALL WEEKEND – ALL WELCOME.
Follow us on twitter @BishClub or like us on Facebook – Bishopthorpe Sports and Social Club.
For further information you can email the Club on bishopthorpeclub@gmail.com or telephone 01904 707185.
Storms Shake Victorian Bishopthorpe
We have all been exercised about the weather in recent months – and why wouldn't we be? Heavy rain, floods and strong winds have taken their toll and the press avidly report the terrible consequences. However, nothing is new, as 19th century newspapers illustrate. They provide a glimpse into the lives of our local predecessors who experienced many frightening and damaging storms.
On Monday, 7 January 1839, for example, the intense cold heralded snow, rain and wind which, during the night, blew into "a perfect hurricane". The citizens of York rose early and witnessed a scene of destruction: tiles, slates, chimneys, spars, bricks, glass and spouts flew about the streets. The Minster sustained much damage; slates were blown from the north transept which almost uncovered the roof; and glass was lost from the Five Sisters window. To go out was physically dangerous but those who did crouched down and kept close to the sides of the buildings. An eight-year-old boy lost his life in St. Andrewgate when the roof collapsed onto his bed and a two-year-old boy was crushed to death at his home in Walmgate.
There was no loss of life in Bishopthorpe but the Palace grounds were reported to be a scene of desolation "difficult to describe". The magnificent avenue of lime trees was badly damaged; a superb Huntingdon willow at the head of the fish pond was destroyed ("said to be the finest in the kingdom"); and many lofty trees including majestic elms and a larch were left with their roots in the air. The Palace itself was spared too much damage, but the bell turret on the gateway was hurled down and shattered. The village suffered lightly in comparison with the exception of the Archbishop's hay shed; the circular pillars supporting it had "shivered to pieces".
Just a few months earlier in September 1838 a terrific thunderstorm had shaken the neighbourhood. On that occasion, the atmosphere was sultry and close. The storm was so fierce that the horses pulling the mail coach near Tadcaster took fright causing the vehicle to swerve and overturn. A few minutes later, and within a hundred yards, a similar incident occurred with a stage coach full of passengers on its way to York. Fortunately no one was badly injured. Meanwhile, at Bishopthorpe, lightning struck the house of Mr. Horner, penetrating the roof, breaking windows, and singeing the hair of his child.
On an unseasonably cold Whit Monday in 1860, the livelihoods of many farmers and market gardeners were badly affected following a dreadful hurricane. Orchards in full bloom were stripped and vegetable crops ruined; recently clipped sheep were lost because of the piercing cold. Once again in Bishopthorpe, elm, birch and fir trees were levelled to the ground taking younger growth with them. The road to York became impassable while Mr. Smallwood's plantation by the hauling path next to the Palace was "annihilated".
These are just some examples of the high winds and storms that affected Victorian Bishopthorpe and York. Violent weather conditions, as reported in the weekly provincial newspapers, reveal appalling circumstances from which it must have taken a long time to recover. And remember – they did not have the 'benefit' of severe weather warnings and forecasts!
Linda Haywood
Leeds Intelligencer, Saturday, 1 September 1838, p8.
York Herald, Saturday, 12 January 1839, p4.
Yorkshire Gazette, Saturday, 2 June 1860, p4.
Yorkshire Herald, Saturday, 2 June 1860, p11.
Posted in History | Warwickshire), Twickenham Brewery (Surrey), Dancing Duck (Derby), Penpont Brewery (Cornwall), Burton Bridge Brewery (Staffordshire), Castle Rock Brewery (Nottingham), Clarks (Wakefield), Great Newsome (Hull) and more locally Black Sheep and Treboom who will be brewing a one-off special beer.
The Festival starts at 1 | 79 |
Previous yoga experience suggested but not required.
Sequences can be modified to accommodate anyone.
Pent<|fim_middle|> the banks of the Hudson River in the Catskills, is home to an open-hearted Episcopal Benedictine community. A beautiful place to enter a time of prayer, reflection, renewal, and recreation. Their cook is a graduate of the "other CIA". | ecost and Mother's Day are on the same day this year. This calls for dancing with the spirit, celebrating the feminine, and exploring feminine images of God: wind, wisdom, and the love itself that binds lover and beloved. We will integrate our bodies and Spirits in worship: aligning the body through postures, and praying the body through posture sequences to sung prayers. Yoga can help us slow down to deep rhythms of the body and breath to create a quiet home for the mind in meditation.
We will enter the the mystery, power, and rhythm of the body through yoga, chanting with the monks, Taize chant, walking the labyrinth, and mindful eating of delicious food prepared by a chef from the Culinary Institute of America.
You are invited to come on Wednesday, a day early to enter the silence more deeply. On Wednesday evening and Thursday morning we will enjoy gentle yoga and mindful eating. On Thursday afternoon, weather permitting, we will go for a mindful walk at the beautiful, peaceful lake in the John Burroughs Sanctuary near by. Others will join us on Thursday at supper.
nestled on twenty-six magnificent acres on | 229 |
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In the dropdown list of Profile button on the bottom of the program, choose MP4 as the output format. Or you can select your media player compatible MP4 format as your output format. For example, you can set iPad MPEG-4 video (mp4) format to fit your iPad. After that, you are allowed to set the output settings to perfect your video. This powerful FLV to MP4 converting software provides the function of adjusting both video settings, like Encoder, Bit | 250 |
Every season, a mid-tier starting pitcher jumps into the top 10 for good. Aaron Nola is the best bet to be that pitcher in 2018.
The starting pitchers ranked between about 14th and about 25th always comprise one of the most interesting groups of players at any position every season. They aren't quite top-tier pitchers, but they're all off the board within the first 75 to 80 picks of a typical draft. They aren't elite, but some of them clearly have that potential, and all of them look like, at worst, pitchers that can slot at or near the top of fantasy rotations.
Every season, at least one pitcher from this group breaks out, and places himself among the top-10 players at his<|fim_middle|>-round pick (seventh overall) who flew through the minors, making it from High-A to the bigs in barely more than a calendar year. He has enjoyed two seasons of success, both of which have hinted at a breakout but were also interrupted by injury. He is the 17th starting pitcher off the board in a typical draft, right in the same range as Arrieta and deGrom in 2015, Syndergaard in 2016, and Carrasco last year. Nola is ready to etch his name next to those four. He is 2018's Breakout Ace. | position for at least the next few seasons. In 2015, it was Jake Arrieta and Jacob deGrom. In 2016, Noah Syndergaard jumped from the high teens to an easy SP1, and even though he made just seven starts due to injury last season, he's right back among heady company this year. It's still too early to say who last year's climber will be, but Carlos Carrasco looks like a strong early candidate. It's not necessarily a guarantee, but fantasy owners would be wise to bet on one of those early-middle round pitchers making the leap this season. With that in mind, I'll be going after Aaron Nola in all my drafts and auctions.
Nola made clear strides in 2017, his second full year in the majors. He made 27 starts and tossed 168 innings, pitching to a 3.54 ERA, 1.21 WHIP and 3.27 FIP with 184 strikeouts. His walk rate ticked up from 2016, but was still a manageable 7.1%, tied with Max Scherzer, deGrom and Ervin Santana for 24th best among qualified starters. He offset that gain with a larger one, by percentage points, in strikeout rate, jumping to 26.6%. That was good enough for 14th in the majors, sandwiched between Zack Greinke and Jose Quintana.
Despite the undeniably strong year, there was a lingering feeling at the end of the season that Nola left some production on the table. He was, quite simply, anywhere between average and bad for most of the first three months of the year. First, he missed a month from late April through late May with a lower back strain, an injury he suffered in his third start of the season, in which he allowed four runs in five innings. It took him some time to get going once he returned, and he went into his second-to-last start of June with a 4.76 ERA, 1.35 WHIP and 47 strikeouts in 51 innings.
Nola's season turned around that June afternoon in Philadelphia. He tossed 7 1/3 innings of one-run ball, allowing four hits and two walks while striking out nine. Over his next 10 starts, he amassed a 1.71 ERA, 0.99 WHIP and 78 strikeouts in 68 1/3 innings. He hit a bit of a speed bump in late August and early September, but his post-back injury numbers still looked like what we'd expect from a starter on the cusp of greatness: Nola made 18 starts from late June through the end of the season, totaling a 3.00 ERA, 1.15 WHIP and 137 strikeouts against 33 walks in 117 innings.
The underlying numbers suggest that greatness is coming. Nola induced whiffs on 10.8% of his pitches, better than Justin Verlander and Carlos Martinez. He controlled damage on balls in play, as well, racking up a 21.6% soft-hit rate that was eighth-best in the league, just ahead of Stephen Strasburg, Jon Lester and deGrom. He kept the ball in the yard, with HR/FB and HR/9 ratios that were both comfortably better than league average. In fact, his 0.96 HR/9 was better than all but 13 qualified starters. To recap, in two seasons, Nola has established a high strikeout floor while teasing elite whiff ability; has been stingy with free passes; has placed among the top-10 starting pitchers in creating soft contact; and, in an era of booming power numbers, has been one of the harder pitchers to take deep.
Nola is now entering his age-25 season. He's a former first | 835 |
Atlasaurus imelakei (gr. "reptil Atlas gigante") es la única especie conocida del género extinto Atlasaurus de dinosaurio saurópodo bra<|fim_middle|>-web (en alemán)
Brachiosauridae
Dinosaurios del Jurásico
Dinosaurios de África | quiosáurido, que vivió a mediados del período Jurásico, hace aproximadamente entre 165 millones de años, en el Calloviense, en lo que es hoy África. Sus restos fueron encontrados por Monbaron, Russell y Taquet en 1999 en la Formación Tiougguit de los Montes Atlas en la Provincia de Azilal, Marruecos al norte de África.Su nombre genérico proviene de Titan Atlas que sostenía el cielo sobre sus espaldas, y del árabe Imelake que significa gigante.
Siendo un saurópodo relativamente basal fue en un principio colocado dentro de Cetiosaurus como C. mogrebiensis cuando fue descubierto en 1981. Atlasaurus parece esta cercano a Brachiosaurus y a otros saurópodos relacionados debido a similitudes de su columna vertebral y miembros. A diferencia de Brachiosaurus, se estima que su espalda media 3,04 metros suponiendo 12 vértebras dorsales, con un gran cráneo, cuello corto, con al menos 13 vértebras más uniformes en el largo que en el Brachiosaurus, una cola larga y miembros posteriores más alargados, la razón entre el humero y fémur: 0,99 y de ulna y tibia: 1,15. La mandíbula inferior media alrededor de 69 centímetros de largo; el cuello 3,86 metros; humero de 1,95 metros; fémur 2 metros; con un largo total estimado de 17 metros y un peso de 22,5 toneladas. Los dientes tenían forma de cuchara con denticulos.
Referencias
Véase también
Anexo: Géneros válidos de dinosaurios
Enlaces externos
Atlasaurus dentro de Macronaria en The Thescelsosaurus (en inglés)
Ficha e imagen de Atlasaurus en Dinosaurier | 468 |
Flavored Ghee can be used a delicious and dairy-free alternative to butter if you are suffering from a casein sensitivity, or want to eliminate dairy from your diet. Ghee is a form of clarified butter and is commonly used in India and other countries in Central and South Asia. To create g<|fim_middle|>, coconut sugar, egg powder, tapioca flour, leavening, vanilla beans and kosher salt…all you need to add is water! Delicious with our Honey Ghee.
Toast? Paleo Toast? It's true. Just try Evolve's Paleo Bread, toasted and topped with any of our Ghees. It's the ultimate on-the go breakfast! For a protein-rich version, use the Sundried Tomato Ghee and top with a fried egg. | hee, butter is heated until all but trace amounts of lactose and casein are removed, while the beneficial vitamins A, D, E and K2 remain.
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When you're on the go in the morning, you need a fast meal that won't break your diet. Evolve Paleo Pantry is here to offer a few quick Paleo breakfast ideas to help get you energized and out the door!
The ultimate quick breakfast, cereal is always a great go-to. Try Evolve Paleo Pantry's Honey Cinnamon Cereal or Strawberry Chocolate Cereal. Both are 100% Paleo and perfect with a splash of almond milk.
Pancakes might seem like a leisurely weekend meal, but with Evolve's Paleo Pancake Mix, you can have fresh, fluffy pancakes in minutes! The mix includes combines almond flour | 270 |
Jamie Sasson is a Venezuelan actress and model who has worked in theater and TV since the age of eight and is currently living in Miami.
Among her latest works are the role of Paula Uriarte in Corazón Valiente, a Telemundo Studios production, and Erinnia in Erinnia, a series of interactive videos produced as an advertising and branding project for Fiat<|fim_middle|>ich, Switzerland; then in one of her trips to Caracas she became part of the theater company Contrajuego's second workshop for actors, and she had the experience of acting in a classical play, of which she became a recurrent actress when subsequent visits to Caracas took place. Her next step is to work in Madrid as a model and continue acting in shows like El Comisario, Telecinco.
Sasson went back to Venezuela, where she was the face of different advertising campaigns and started working in theater plays such as La Última Pasión del Cine and Cortocircuito and became part of Televen's soap opera El Gato Tuerto.
After that experience she went to Colombia and became "Erinnia" in the Internet project "Erinnia". Subsequently she moved to Miami and participated in the soap opera Corazón Valiente of Telemundo network.
References
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Venezuelan stage actresses
Venezuelan television actresses
Place of birth missing (living people)
Venezuelan expatriates in the United States
Expatriate actresses in the United States | .
Career
At the age of eight Sasson started to study acting in Caracas, Venezuela, in a workshop for children at the Ateneo de Caracas, where she performed her first theater play at the Sala Ana Julia Rojas. Soon after she obtained a scholarship at the voice and dancing school Las Voces Blancas de Elisa Soteldo.
Due to the lack of permanent acting schools for children, her mother created an acting and dancing school and theater company for children, first located at the Rafael Guinand Theater and then at the Teatro Chacaíto, where Sasson spent years not only studying, but also working at the academy's plays and was invited to participate in theatrical productions with other theater companies for children.
Sasson moved to Europe with her family, where she continued with her secondary school studies and focused on her dancing training with Mario Kitt in Zür | 179 |
Br J Pharmacol. 2011 Dec;164(7):1767-79. doi: 10.1111/j.1476-5381.2010.01177.x.
The ABCG family of membrane-associated transporters: you don't have to be big to be mighty.
Kerr ID1, Haider AJ, Gelissen IC.
School of Biomedical Sciences, Queen's Medical Centre, University of Nottingham, Nottingham. ian.kerr@nottingham.ac.uk
Along with many other mammalian ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters, members of the ABCG group are involved in the regulated transport of hydrophobic compounds across cellular membranes. In humans, five ABCG family members have been identified, encoding proteins ranging from 638 to 678 amino acids in length. All five have been the subject of intensive investigation to better understand their physiological roles, expression patterns, interactions with substrates and inhibitors, and regulation at both the transcript and protein level. The principal substrates for at least four of the ABCG proteins are endogenous and dietary lipids, with ABCG1 implicated in particular in the export of cholesterol, and ABCG5 and G8 forming a functional heterodimer responsible for plant sterol elimination from the body. ABCG2 has a much broader substrate specificity and its ability to transport numerous diverse pharmaceuticals has implications for the absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity (ADMETOx) profile of these compounds. ABCG2 is one of at least three so-called multidrug resistant ABC transporters expressed in humans, and its activity is associated with decreased efficacy of anti-cancer agents in several carcinomas. In addition to its role in cancer, ABCG2 also plays a role in the normal physiological transport of urate and haem, the implications of which are described. We summarize here data on all five human ABCG transporters and provide a current perspective on their roles in human health and disease.
© 2011 The Authors. British Journal of Pharmacology © 2011 The British Pharmacological Society.
10.1111/j.1476-5381.2010.01177.x
Architecture of human ABC proteins. Each of the five subfamilies of human ABC proteins involved in transmembrane transport is listed at the top of a panel with the number of members identified in the human genome in parenthesis. The transmembrane architecture is then shown in<|fim_middle|>Principal functions of human ABCG transporters. Major functions of several transport systems as described in the text. Clockwise from top left: ABCG2 homodimer (blue) exports drugs into capillary lumen, preventing their crossing the blood–brain barrier. The reverse cholesterol transport pathway in macrophages – ABCA1 (black) activity results in formation of spherical or discoid HDL particles, which are then substrates for cholesterol export by ABCG1 homodimer (purple). A less well understood pathway involving cholesterol transport in the brain is proposed for ABCG4. ABCG2 (blue) in the proximal tubule expels urate into the kidney lumen. ABCG5/G8 (orange/red) in the small intestine prevent plant sterol absorption. ABCG5/G5 (orange/red) combine with ABCB4 (grey) in biliary lipid secretion.
Publication types, MeSH terms, Substance
ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters/genetics
ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters/metabolism*
Drug Resistance, Multiple
Drug Resistance, Neoplasm
Neoplasms/drug therapy
Neoplasms/metabolism
Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide
ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters
ABCG8 gene - Genetics Home Reference
ABCG subfamily - overview and references - Guide to Pharmacology | schematic fashion, with the N- and C-terminus of the primary sequence indicated. The approximate position of the membrane is denoted by a dotted line. Where members of a subfamily show different architectures (e.g. ABCB and ABCC), two alternatives are shown for illustrative purposes. Several ABCA proteins are distinct in having large extracellular domains not seen in any other ABC protein sequences (and with no homology to other known sequences).Underneath each topology diagram the spectrum of substrates (where characterized) is indicated, followed by the size range of the proteins (in amino acids; a.a.), followed by the highest resolution structural data obtained to date. For more information refer to other review articles in this series. The two non-transport associated families ABCE (1 member) and ABCF (2 members) are not shown here for clarity.
The ABCG family of membrane-associated transporters: you don't have to be big to be mighty
Br J Pharmacol. 2011 Dec;164(7):1767-1779.
| 223 |
TAUNTON — It was another win for the Bristol-Plymouth girls volleyball team.
The Craftsmen improved their record to<|fim_middle|>2; 7-4-2 in SCC) blanked league opponent Fairhaven.
Carleigh Hall and Julia Tavares each scored a pair of goals in the victory for D-R. Jillian Hughes also netted a goal.
Meghan Reed had three saves in net for the shutout.
The Falcons host Bourne in a crossover game today.
The Trojans (14-2) rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat league opponent Dartmouth.
Nikki Arnold,Cavino and Abby Fratalia each had an assist. Bethany Dunk made 10 saves in net.
The Trojans travel to East Bridgewater today.
The Tigers lost to league opponent OA in a makeup game.
Taunton host Mansfield today at 6:30 p.m.
Abigail Hines scored with seven minutes remaining to lift the Raiders (11-2-2) over league opponent Case.
Isabel Charest also scored a goal. Brooke Sullivan chipped in with an assist.
Amber Holt had five saves in net for the win.
The Raiders (2-13-2; 2-10-2 in SCC) tied their game with league opponent Case.
Chris Araujo had seven saves in net for SB.
The Trojans were blanked by non-league opponent Dartmouth.
Tyler Demeral, Brendan Garrity and Jack Fortune each had strong games for B-R. | 11-6 on Wednesday after sweeping three straight sets — 25-18, 25-10 and 25-20 — to take a 3-0 decision over Norfolk Aggie at Bristol-Plymouth Regional Technical school.
Jasmine Iraola had three kill shots and four aces for B-P. Sariah Dyer finished with eight kill shots and four digs. Brenna Pierce collected eight digs, six kill shots and an ace. Lydia Ducharme contributed nine digs, 13 assists and an ace.
The Craftsmen host Westport on Monday.
The Lancers (10-8) clinched a berth in state tournament after beating non-league opponent Dedham in three straight sets —25-15, 27-25 and 25-22.
The playoff-bound Tigers (8-6-4) won their regular season finale against league opponent Mansfield.
Alana Tavares scored a goal and had an assist for Taunton in the win. Jillian Pagliuca, Hannah Blackwell and Cierra Bartel also scored goals. Lauren Torres chipped in with a pair of assists.
Emma Sheehan had five saves in net for the victory.
The Tigers await the tournament seeding on Monday.
The Falcons (12-4- | 275 |
Project Gutenberg Australia
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Title: Found and Lost
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Found and Lost
And he sold his birth-right unto Jacob.
Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles.
--GEN. xxv.33, 34.
...So! I let fall the curtain; he was dead. For at least half an hour I had stood there with the manuscript in my hand, watching that face settling in its last stillness, watching the finger of the Composer smoothing out the deeply furrowed lines on cheek and forehead,--the faint recollection of the light that had perhaps burned behind his childish eyes struggling up through the swarthy cheek, as if to clear the last world's-dust from the atmosphere surrounding the man who had just refound his youth. His head rested on his hand,--and so satisfied and content was his quiet attitude, that he looked as if resting from a long, wearisome piece of work he was glad to have finished. I don't know how it was, but I thought, oddly enough, in connection with him, of a little school-fellow of mine years ago, who one day, in his eagerness to prove that he could jump farther than some of his companions, upset an inkstand over his prize essay, and, overcome with mortification, disappointment, and vexation, burst into tears, hastily scratched his name from the list of competitors, and then rushed out of doors to tear his ruined essay into fragments; and we found him that afternoon lying on the grass, with his head on his hand, just as he lay now, having sobbed himself to sleep.
I dropped the curtains of the bed, drew those of the window more closely, to exclude the shrill winter wind that was blowing the slant sleet against the clattering window-panes, broke up the lump of cannel coal in the grate into a bright blaze that subsided into a warm, steady glow of heat and light, drew an arm-chair and a little table up to the cheerful fire, and sat down to read the manuscript which the quiet man behind the curtains had given me. Why shouldn't I (I was his physician) make myself as comfortable as possible at two o'clock of a stormy winter night, in a house that contained but two persons beside my German patient,--a half-stupid servingman, doubtless already asleep down-stairs, and myself? This is what I read that night, with the comfortable fire on one side, and Death, holding strange colloquy with the fitful, screaming, moaning wind, on the other. As I wish simply to relate what has happened to me, (thus the manuscript began,) what I attempted, in what I sinned, and how I failed, I deem no introduction or genealogies necessary to the first part of my life. I was an only child of parents who were passionately fond of me,--the more, perhaps, because an accident that had happened to me in my childhood rendered me for some years a partial invalid. One day, (I was about five years old then,) a gentleman paid a visit to my father, riding a splendid Arabian horse. Upon dismounting, he tied the horse near the steps of the piazza instead of the horseblock, so that I found I was just upon the level with the stirrup, standing at a certain elevation. Half as an experiment, to try whether I could touch the horse without his starting, I managed to get my foot into the stirrup, and so mounted upon his back. The horse, feeling the light burden, did start, broke from his fastening, and sped away with me on his back at the top of his speed. He ran several miles without stopping, and finished by pitching me off his back upon the ground, in leaping a fence. This fall produced some disease of the spine, which clung to me till I was twelve years old, when it was almost miraculously cured by an itinerant Arab physician. He was generally pronounced to be a quack, but he certainly effected many wonderful cures, mine among others.
I had always been an imaginative child; and my long-continued sedentary life compelling me (a welcome compulsion) to reading as my chief occupation and amusement, I acquired much knowledge beyond my years.
My reading generally had one peculiar tone: a certain kind of mystery was an essential ingredient in the fascination that books which I considered interesting had for me. My earliest fairy tales were not those unexciting stories in which the good genius appears at the beginning of the book, endowing the hero with such an invincible talisman that suspense is banished from the reader's mind, too well enabled to foresee the triumph at the end; but stories of long, painful quests after hidden treasure,--mysterious enchantments thrown around certain persons by witch or wizard, drawing the subject in charmed circles nearer and nearer to his royal or ruinous destiny,--strange spells cast upon bewitched houses or places, that could be removed only by the one hand appointed by Fate. So I pored over the misty legends of the San Grail, and the sweet story of "The Sleeping Beauty," as my first literature; and as the rough years of practical boyhood trooped up to elbow my dreaming childhood out of existence, I fed the same hunger for the hidden and mysterious with Detective-Police stories, Captain Kidd's voyages, and wild tales of wrecks on the Spanish Main, of those vessels of fabulous wealth that strewed the deep sea's lap with gems (so the stories ran) of lustre almost rare enough to light the paths to their secret hiding-places.
But in the last year of my captivity as an invalid a new pleasure fell into my hands. I discovered my first book of travels in my father's library, and as with a magical key unlocked the gate of an enchanted realm of wondrous and ceaseless beauty. It was Sir John Mandeville who introduced me to this field of exhaustless delight; not a very trustworthy guide, it must be confessed,--but my knowledge at that time was too limited to check the boundless faith I reposed in his narrative. It was such an astonishment to discover that men, black-coated and black-trousered men, such as I saw in crowds every day in the street from my sofa-corner, (we had moved to the city shortly after my accident,) had actually broken away from that steady stream of people, and had traversed countries as wild and unknown as the lands in the Nibelungen Lied, that my respect for the race rose amazingly. I scanned eagerly the sleek, complacent faces of the portly burghers, or those of the threadbare schoolmasters, thinned like carving-knives by perpetual sharpening on the steel of Latin syntax, in search of men who could have dared the ghastly terrors of the North with Ross or Parry, or the scorching jungles of the Equator with Burckhardt and Park. Cut off for so long a time from actual contact with the outside world, I could better imagine the brooding stillness of the Great Desert, I could more easily picture the weird ice-palaces of the Pole, waiting, waiting forever in awful state, like the deserted halls of the Walhalla for their slain gods to return, than many of the common street-scenes in my own city, which I had only vaguely heard mentioned.
I followed the footsteps of the Great Seekers over the wastes, the untrodden paths of the world; I tracked Columbus across the pathless Atlantic,--heard, with Balboa, the "wave of the loud--roaring ocean break upon the long shore, and the vast sea of the Pacific forever crash on the beach,"--gazed with Cortes on the temples of the Sun in the startling Mexican empire,--or wandered with Pizarro through the silver-lined palaces of Peru. But a secret affection drew me to the mysterious regions of the East and South,--towards Arabia, the wild Ishmael bequeathing sworded Korans and subtile Aristotles as legacies to the sons of the freed-woman,--to solemn Egypt, riddle of nations, the vast silent, impenetrable mystery of the world. By continual pondering over the footsteps of the Seekers, the Sought-for seemed to grow to vast proportions, and the Found to shrink to inappreciable littleness. For me, over the dreary ice-plains of the Poles, over the profound bosom of Africa, the far-stretching steppes of Asia, and the rocky wilds of America, a great silence brooded, and in the unexplored void faint footfalls could be heard here and there, threading their way in the darkness. But while the longing to plunge, myself, into these dim regions of expectation grew more intense each day, the prison-chains that had always bound me still kept their habitual hold upon me, even after my recovery. I dreamt not of making even the vaguest plans for undertaking explorations myself. So I read and dreamt, filling my room with wild African or monotonous Egyptian scenery, until I was almost weaned from ordinary Occidental life.
I passed four blissful years in this happy dream-life, and then it was abruptly brought to an end by the death of my father and mother almost simultaneously by an epidemic fever prevailing in the neighborhood. I was away from home at a bachelor uncle's at the time, and so was unexpectedly thrown on his hands, an orphan, penniless, except in the possession of the small house my father had owned in the country before our removal to the city, and to be provided for. My uncle placed me in a mercantile house to learn business, and, after exercising some slight supervision over me a few months, left me entirely to my own resources. As, however, he had previously taken care that these resources should be sufficient, I got along very well upon them, was regularly promoted, and in the space of six years, at the age of twenty-one, was in a rather responsible situation in the house, with a good salary. But my whole attention could not be absorbed in the dull routine of business, my most precious hours were devoted to reading, in which I still pursued my old childish track of speculation, with the difference that I exchanged Sinbad's valley of diamonds for Arabia Petraea, Sir John Mandeville for Herodotus, and Robinson Crusoe for Belzoni and Burckhardt. Whether my interest in these Oriental studies arose from the fact of the house being concerned in the importation of the products of the Indies, or whether from the secret attraction that had drawn me Eastward since my earliest childhood, as if the Arab doctor had bewitched in curing me, I cannot say; probably it was the former, especially as the India business became gradually more and more intrusted to my hands.
Shortly after my twenty-first birthday, I received a note from my uncle, from whom I had not heard for a year or two, informing me that my father's house, which he had kept rented for me during the first years of my minority, had been without a tenant for a year, and, as I had now come of age, I had better go down to D--and take possession of it. This letter, touching upon a long train of associations and recollections, awoke an intense longing in me to revisit the home of my childhood, and meet those phantom shapes that had woven that spell in those dreaming years, which I sometimes thought I felt even now. So I obtained a short leave of absence, and started the next morning in the coach for D--.
It was what is called a "raw morning," for what reason I know not, for such days are really elaborated with the most exquisite finish. A soft gray mist hugged the country in a chilly embrace, while a fine rain fell as noiselessly as snow, upon soaked ground, drenched trees, and peevish houses. There is always a sense of wonder about a mist. The outlines of what we consider our hardest tangibilities are melted away by it into the airiest dream--sketches, our most positive and glaring facts are blankly blotted out, and a fresh, clean sheet left for some new fantasy to be written upon it, as groundless as the rest; our solid land dissolves in cloud, and cloud assumes the stability of land. For, after all, the only really tangible thing we possess is man's Will; and let the presence and action of that be withdrawn but for a few moments, and that mysterious Something which we vainly endeavor to push off into the Void by our pompous nothings of brick and plaster and stone closes down upon us with the descending sky, writing Delendum on all behind us, Unknown on all before. At that time, the only actual Now, that stands between these two infinite blanks, becomes identical with the mind itself, independent of accidents of situation or circumstance; and the mind thus becoming boldly prominent, amidst the fading away of physical things, stamps its own character upon its shadowy surroundings, moulding the supple universe to the shape of its emotions and feelings.
I was the only inside passenger, and there was nothing to check the entire surrender of my mind to all ghostly influence. So I lay stretched upon the cushions, staring blankly into the dense gray fog closing up all trace of our travelled road, or watching the light edges of the trailing mist curl coyly around the roofs of houses and then settle grimly all over them, the fantastic shapes of trees or carts distorted and magnified through the mist, the lofty outlines of some darker cloud stalking solemnly here and there, like enormous dumb overseers faithfully superintending the work of annihilation. The monotonous patter of the rain-drops upon the wet pavement or muddy roads, blending with the low whining of the wind and the steady rumble of the coach-wheels, seemed to make a kind of witch-chant, that wove with braided sound a weird spell about me, a charm fating me for some service, I knew not what. That chant moaned, it wailed, it whispered, it sang gloriously, it bound, it drowned me, it lapped me in an inextricable stream of misty murmuring, till I was perplexed, bewildered, enchanted. I felt surprised at myself, when, at the end of the day's journey, I carried my bag to the hotel, and ate my supper there as usual,--and felt natural again only when, having obtained the key of my house, I sallied forth in the dim twilight to make it my promised visit.
I found the place, as I had expected, in a state of utter desolation. A year's silence had removed it so far from the noisy stream of life that flowed by it, that I felt, as I pushed at the rusty door-lock, as if I were passing into some old garret of Time, where he had thrown forgotten rubbish too worn-out and antiquated for present use. A strong scent of musk greeted me at my entrance, which I found came from a box of it that had been broken upon the hall-floor. I had stowed it away (it was a favorite perfume with me, because it was so associated with my Arabian Nights' stories) upon a ledge over the door, where it had rested undisturbed while the house was tenanted, and had been now probably dislodged by rats. But I half fancied that this odor which impregnated the air of the whole house was the essence of that atmosphere in which, as a child, I had communicated with Burckhardt and Belzoni,--and that, expelled by the solid, practical, Occidental atmosphere of the last few years, it had flowed back again, in these last silent months, in anticipation of my return.
Like a prudent householder, I made the tour of the house with a light I had provided myself with, and mentally made memoranda of repairs, alterations, etc., for rendering it habitable. My last visit was to be to the garret, where many of my books yet remained. As I passed once more through the parlor, on my way thither, a ray of light from my raised lamp fell upon the wall that I had thought blank, and a majestic face started suddenly from the darkness. So sudden was the apparition, that for the moment I was startled, till I remembered that there had formerly been a picture in that place, and I stopped to examine it. It was a head of the Sphinx. The calm, grand face was partially averted, so that the sorrowful eyes, almost betraying the aching secret which the still lips kept sacred, were hidden,--only the slight, tender droop in the corner of the mouth told what their expression might be. Around, forever stretched the endless sands,--the mystery of life found in the heart of death. That mournful, eternal face gave me a strange feeling of weariness and helplessness. I felt as if I had already pressed eagerly to the other side of the head, still only to find the voiceless lips and mute eyes. Strange tears sprang to my eyes; I hastily brushed them away, and, leaving the Sphinx, mounted to my garret.
But the riddle followed me. I sat down on the floor, beside a box of books, and somewhat listlessly began pulling it over to examine the contents. The first book I took hold of was a little worn volume of Herodotus that had belonged to my father. I opened it; and as if it, too, were a link in the chain of influences which I half felt was being forged around me, it opened at the first part of "Euterpe," where Herodotus is speculating upon the phenomena of the Nile. Twenty-two hundred years,--I thought,--and we are still wondering, the Sphinx is still silent, and we yet in the darkness! Alas, if this riddle be insoluble, how can we hope to find the clue to deeper problems? If there are places on our little earth whither our feet cannot go, curtains that our hands cannot withdraw, how can we expect to track paths through realms of thought,--how to voyage in those airy, impalpable regions whose existence we are sure of only while we are there voyaging?
"Nilus in extremum fugit perterritus orbem Occuluitque caput, quod adhuc latet." Lost through reckless presumption, might not earnest humility recover that mysterious lurking-place? Might not one, by devoted toil, by utter self-sacrifice, with eyes purified by long searching from worldly and selfish pollution,--might not such a one tear away the veil of centuries, and, even though dying in the attempt, gain one look into this arcanum? Might not I?--The unutterable thought thrilled me and left me speechless, even in thinking. I strained my forehead against the darkness, as if I could grind the secret from the void air. Then I experienced the following mental sensation,--which, being purely mental, I cannot describe precisely as it was, but will translate it as nearly as possible into the language of physical phenomena.
It was as if my mind--or, rather, whatever that passive substratum is that underlies our volition and more truly represents ourselves--were a still lake, lying quiet and indifferent. Presently the sense of some coming Presence sent a breathing ripple over its waters; and immediately afterward it felt a sweep as of trailing garments, and two arms were thrown around it, and it was pressed against a "life-giving bosom," whose vivifying warmth interpenetrating the whole body of the lake, its waters rose, moved by a mighty influence, in the direction of that retreating Presence; and again, though nothing was seen, I felt surely whither was that direction. It was NILE-WARD. I knew, with the absolute certainty of intuition, that henceforth I was one of the kletoi, the chosen,--selected from thousands of ages, millions of people, for this one destiny. Henceforth a sharp dividing-line cut me off from all others: their appointment was to trade, navigate, eat and drink, marry and give in marriage, and the rest; mine was to discover the Source of the Nile. Hither had all the threads of my life been converging for many years; they had now reached their focus, and henceforth their course was fixed.
I was scarcely surprised the next day at receiving a letter from my employers appointing me to a situation as supercargo of a merchant-vessel bound on a three-years' voyage to America and China,--in returning thence, to sail up the Mediterranean, and stop at Alexandria. I immediately wrote an acceptance, and then busied myself about obtaining a three-years' tenant for my house. As the house was desirable and well-situated, this business was soon arranged; and then, as I had nothing further to do in the village, I left it for the last time, as it proved, and returned to the city,--whence, after a fortnight of preparation, I set sail on my eventful enterprise. Although our voyage was filled with incident that in another place would be interesting enough to relate, yet here I must omit all mention of it, and, passing over three years, resume my narrative at Alexandria, where I left the vessel, and finally broke away from mercantile life.
From Alexandria I travelled to Cairo, where I intended to hire a servant and a boat, for I wished to try the water-passage in preference to the land. The cheapness of labor and food rendered it no difficult matter to obtain my boat and provision it for a long voyage,--for how long I did not tell the Egyptian servant whom I hired to attend me. A certain feeling of fatality caused me to make no attempt at disguise, although disguise was then much more necessary than it has been since: I openly avowed my purpose of travelling on the Nile for pleasure, as a private European. My accoutrements were simple and few. Arms, of course, I carried, and the actual necessaries for subsistence; but I entirely forgot to prepare for sketching, scientific surveys, etc. My whole mind was possessed with one idea: to see, to discover;--plans for turning my discoveries to account were totally foreign to my thoughts.
So, on the 6th of November, 1824, we set sail. I had been waiting three years to arrive at this starting-point,--my whole life, indeed, had been dumbly turning towards it,--yet now I commenced it with a coolness and tranquillity far exceeding that I had possessed on many comparatively trifling occasions. It is often so. We are borne along on the current like drift-wood, and, spying jutting rocks or tremendous cataracts ahead, fancy, "Here we shall be stranded, there buoyed up, there dashed in pieces over those falls,"--but, for all that, we glide over those threatened catastrophes in a very commonplace manner, and are aware of what we have been passing only upon looking back at them. So no one sees the great light shining from Heaven,--for the people are blear--eyed, and Saul is blinded. But as I left Cairo in the greatening distance, floating onward to the heart of the mysterious river, I floated also into the twin current of thought, that, flowing full and impetuous from the shores of the peopled Mediterranean, follows the silent river, and tracks it to its hidden lurking-place in the blank desert. Onward, past the breathless sands of the Libyan Desert, past the hundred-gated Thebes, past the stone guardians of Abou-Simbel, waiting in majestic patience for their spell of silence to be broken,--onward. It struck me curiously to come to the cataract, and be obliged to leave my boat at the foot of the first fall, and hire another above the second,--a forcible reminder that I was travelling backwards, from the circumference to the centre from which that circumference had been produced, faintly feeling my way along a tide of phenomena to the noumenon supporting them. So we always progress: from arithmetic to geometry, from observation to science, from practice to theory, and play with edged tools long before we know what knives mean. For, like Hop-o'-my-Thumb and his brothers, we are driven out early in the morning to the edge of the forest, and are obliged to grope our way back to the little house whence we come, by the crumbs dropped on the road. Alack! how often the birds have eaten our bread, and we are captured by the giant lying in wait!
On we swept, leaving behind the burning rocks and dreary sands of Egypt and Lower Nubia, the green woods and thick acacias of Dongola, the distant pyramids of Mount Birkel, and the ruins of Meroe, just discovered footmarks of Ancient Ethiopia descending the Nile to bequeathe her glory and civilization to Egypt. At Old Dongola, my companion was very anxious that we should strike across the country to Shendy, to avoid the great curve of the Nile through Ethiopia. He found the sail somewhat tedious, as I could speak but little Egyptian, which I had picked up in scraps,--he, no German or English. I managed to overrule his objections, however, as I could not bear to leave any part of the river unvisited; so we continued the water-route to the junction of the Blue and the White Nile, where I resolved to remain a week, before continuing my route. The inhabitants regarded us with some suspicion, but our inoffensive appearance so far conquered their fears that they were prevailed upon to give us some information about the country, and to furnish us with a fresh supply of rice, wheat, and dourra, in exchange for beads and bright-colored cloth, which I had brought with me for the purpose of such traffic, if it should be necessary. Bruce's discovery of the source of the Blue Nile, fifty years before, prevented the necessity of indecision in regard to my route, and so completely was I absorbed in the one object of my journey, that the magnificent scenery and ruins along the Blue Nile, which had so fascinated Cailliaud, presented few allurements for me.
My stay was rather longer than I had anticipated, as it was found necessary to make some repairs upon the boat, and, inwardly fretting at each hour's delay, I was eager to seize the first opportunity for starting again. On the 1st of March, I made a fresh beginning for the more unknown and probably more perilous portion of my voyage, having been about four months in ascending from Cairo. As my voyage had commenced about the abatement of the sickly season, I had experienced no inconvenience from the climate, and it was in good spirits that I resumed my journey. For several days we sailed with little eventful occurring,--floating on under the cloudless sky, rippling a long white line through the widening surface of the ever-flowing river, through floating beds of glistening lotus-flowers, past undulating ramparts of foliage and winged ambak-blossoms guarding the shores scaled by adventurous vines that triumphantly waved their banners of white and purple and yellow from the summit, winding amid bowery islands studding the broad stream like gems, smoothly stemming the rolling flood of the river, flowing, ever flowing,--lurking in the cool shade of the dense mimosa forests, gliding noiselessly past the trodden lairs of hippopotami and lions, slushing through the reeds swaying to and fro in the green water, still borne along against the silent current of the mysterious river, flowing, ever flowing.
We had now arrived at the land of the Dinkas, where the river, by broadening too much upon a low country, had become partially devoured by marsh and reeds, and our progress was very slow, tediously dragging over a sea of water and grass. I had become a little tired of my complete loneliness, and was almost longing for some collision with the tribes of savages that throng the shore, when the incident occurred that determined my whole future life. One morning, about seven o'clock, when the hot sun had already begun to rob the day of the delicious freshness lingering around the tropical night, we happened to be passing a tract of firmer land than we had met with for some time, and I directed the vessel towards the shore, to gather some of the brilliant lotus--flowers that fringed the banks. As we neared the land, I threw my gun, without which I never left the boat, on the bank, preparatory to leaping out, when I was startled by hearing a loud, cheery voice exclaim in English,--"Hilloa! not so fast, if you please!"--and first the head and then the sturdy shoulders of a white man raised themselves slowly from the low shrubbery by which they were surrounded. He looked at us for a minute or two, and nodded with a contented air that perplexed me exceedingly.
"So," he said, "you have come at last; I am tired of waiting for you;" and he began to collect his gun, knife, etc., which were lying on the ground beside him.
"And who are you," I returned, "who lie in wait for me? I think, Sir, you have the advantage."
Here the stranger interrupted me with a hearty laugh.
"My dear fellow," he cried, "you are entirely mistaken. The technical advantage that you attribute to me is an error, as I do not have the honor of knowing your name, though you may know mine without<|fim_middle|>The world suffers too much now from overcrowded population to permit a man to claim standing-room three thousand years after his death,--especially when the claim is for some acres apiece, as in the case of these pyramid-builders. Will you go back with me?"
I declined for various reasons, not all very clear even to myself; but I was convinced that his peculiar enticements were the cause of our failure, and I hated him unreasonably for it. I longed to get rid of him, and of his influence over me. Fool that I was! I was the sinner, and not he; for he could not see, because he was born blind, while I fell with my eyes open. I still held on to the vague hope, that, were I alone, I might again find that mysterious lake; for I knew I had not dreamed. So we parted.
But we two (my servant and I) were not left long alone in the Desert. The next day a party of natives surprised us, and, after some desperate fighting, we were taken prisoners, sold as slaves from tribe to tribe into the interior, and at length fell into the hands of some traders on the western coast, who gave us our freedom. Unwilling, however, to return home without some definite success, I made several voyages in a merchant-vessel. But I was born for one purpose; failing in that, I had nothing further to live for. The core of my life was touched at that fatal river, and a subtile disease has eaten it out till nothing but the rind is left. A wave, gathering to the full its mighty strength, had upreared itself for a moment majestically above its fellows,--falling, its scattered spray can only impotently sprinkle the dull, dreary shore. Broken and nerveless, I can only wait the lifting of the curtain, quietly wondering if a failure be always irretrievable,--if a prize once lost can never again be found.
This site is full of FREE ebooks - Project Gutenberg Australia | further preface,--Frederick Herndon; and the real advantage which I wish to avail myself of, a boat, is obviously on your side. The long and the short of it is," he added, (composedly extricating himself from the brushwood,) "that, travelling up in this direction for discovery and that sort of thing, you know, I heard at Sennaar that a white man with an Egyptian servant had just left the town, and were going in my direction in a boat. So I resolved to overtake them, and with their, or your, permission, join company. But they, or you, kept just in advance, and it was only by dint of a forced march in the night that I passed you. I learned at the last Dinka village that no such party had been yet seen, and concluded to await your arrival here, where I pitched my tent a day and a night waiting for you. I am heartily glad to see you, I assure you."
With this explanation, the stranger made a spring, and leaped upon the yacht.
"Upon my word," said I, still bewildered by his sudden appearance, "you are very unceremonious."
"That," he rejoined, "is a way we Americans have. We cannot stop to palaver. What would become of our manifest destiny? But since you are so kind, I will call my Egyptian. Times are changed since we were bondsmen in Egypt, have they not? Ah, I forgot,--you are not an American, and therefore cannot claim even our remote connection with the Ten Lost Tribes." Then raising his voice, "Here, Ibrahim!"
Again a face, but this time a swarthy one, emerged from behind a bush, and in answer to a few directions in his own dialect the man came down to the boat, threw in the tent and some other articles of traveller's furniture, and sprang in with the nonchalance of his master.
A little recovered from my first surprise, I seized the opportunity of a little delay in getting the boat adrift again to examine my new companion. He was standing carelessly upon the little deck of the vessel where he had first entered, and the strong morning light fell full upon his well-knit figure and apparently handsome face. The forehead was rather low, prominent above the eyebrows, and with keen, hollow temples, but deficient both in comprehensiveness and ideality. The hazel eyes were brilliant, but restless and shallow,--the mouth of good size, but with few curves, and perhaps a little too close for so young a face. The well-cut nose and chin, and clean fine outline of face, the self-reliant pose of the neck and confident set of the shoulders characterized him as decisive and energetic, while the pleasant and rather boyish smile that lighted up his face dispelled presently the peculiarly hard expression I had at first found in analyzing it. Whether it was the hard, shrewd light from which all the tender and delicate grace of the early morning had departed, I knew not; but it struck me that I could not find a particle of shade in his whole appearance. I seemed at once to take him in, as one sees the whole of a sunny country where there are no woods or mountains or valleys. And, in fact, I never did find any,--never any cool recesses in his character; and as no sudden depths ever opened in his eyes, so nothing was ever left to be revealed in his character;--like them, it could be sounded at once. That picture of him, standing there on my deck, with an indefinite expression of belonging to the place, as he would have belonged on his own hearth-rug at home, often recurred to me, again to be renewed and confirmed.
And thus carelessly was swept into my path, as a stray waif, that man who would in one little moment change my whole life! It is always so. Our life sweeps onward like a river, brushing in here a little sand, there a few rushes, till the accumulated drift--wood chokes the current, or some larger tree falling across it turns it into a new channel.
I had been so long unaccustomed to company that I found it quite a pleasant change to have some one to talk to; some one to sympathize with I neither wanted nor expected; I certainly did not find such a one in my new acquaintance. For the first two or three days I simply regarded him with the sort of wondering curiosity with which we examine a new natural phenomenon of any sort. His perfect self-possession and coolness, the nil-admirari and nil-agitariatmosphere which surrounded him, excited my admiration at first, till I discovered that it arose, not from the composure of a mind too deep-rooted to be swayed by external circumstances, but rather from a peculiar hardness and unimpressibility of temperament that kept him on the same level all the time. He had been born at a certain temperature, and still preserved it, from a sort of vis inertiae of constitution. This impenetrability had the effect of a somewhat buoyant disposition, not because he could be buoyed on the tide of any strong emotion, but because few things could disturb or excite him. Unable to grasp the significance of anything outside of himself and his attributes, he took immense pride in stamping his character, his nationality, his practicality, upon every series of circumstances by which he was surrounded: he sailed up the Nile as if it were the Mississippi; although a well-enough-informed man, he practically ignored the importance of any city anterior to the Plymouth Settlement, or at least to London, which had the honor of sending colonists to New England; and he would have discussed American politics in the heart of Africa, had not my ignorance upon the topic generally excluded it from our conversation. He had what is most wrongly termed an exceedingly practical mind,--that is, not one that appreciates the practical existence and value of thought as such, considering that a praxis, but a mind that denied the existence of a thought until it had become realized in visible action.
"'The end of a man is an action, and not a thought, though it be the noblest,' as Carlyle has well written," he triumphantly quoted to me, as leaning over the little railing of the yacht, watching, at least I was, the smooth, green water gliding under the clean-cutting keel, we had been talking earnestly for some time. "A thought has value only as it is a potential action; if the action be abortive, the thought is as useless as a crank that fails to move an engine-wheel."
"Then, if action is the wheel, and thought only the crank, what does the body of your engine represent? For what purpose are your wheels turning? For the sake of merely moving?"
"No," said he, "moving to promote another action, and that another,--and--so on ad infinitum."
"Then you leave out of your scheme a real engine, with a journey to accomplish, and an end to arrive at; for so wheels would only move wheels, and there would be an endless chain of machinery, with no plan, no object for its existence. Does not the very necessity we feel of having a reason for the existence, the operation of anything, a large plan in which to gather up all ravelled threads of various objects, proclaim thought as the final end, the real thing, of which action, more especially human action, is but the inadequate visible expression? What kinds of action does Carlyle mean, that are to be the wheels for our obedient thoughts to set in motion? Hand, arm, leg, foot action? These are all our operative machinery. Does he mean that our 'noblest thought' is to be chained as a galley-slave to these, to give them means for working a channel through which motive power may be poured in upon them? Are we to think that our fingers and feet may move and so we live, or they to run for our thought, and we live to think?"
"Supposing we are," said Herndon, "what practical good results from knowing it? Action for action's sake, or for thinking's sake, is still action, and all that we have to look out for. What business have the brakemen at the wheels with the destiny of the train? Their business is simply to lock and unlock the wheels; so that their end is in the wheels, and not in the train."
"A somewhat dreary end," I said, half to myself. "The whole world, then, must content itself with spinning one blind action out of another; which means that we must continually alter or displace something, merely to be able to displace and alter something else."
"On the contrary, we exchange vague, speculative mystifications for definite, tangible fact. In America we have too much reality, too many iron and steam facts, to waste much time over mere thinking. That, Sir, does for a sleepy old country, begging your pardon, like yours; but for one that has the world's destiny in its hands,--that is laying iron footpaths from the Atlantic to the Pacific for future civilization to take an evening stroll along to see the sun set,--that is converting black wool into white cotton, to clothe the inhabitants of Borrioboolagha,--that is trading, farming, electing, governing, fighting, annexing, destroying, building, puffing, blowing, steaming, racing, as our young two-hundred-year-old is,--we must work, we must act, and think afterwards. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might."
"And what," I said, "when hand-and-foot-action shall have ceased? will you then allow some play for thought-action?"
"We have no time to think of that," he returned, walking away, and thus stopping our conversation.
The man was consistent in his theory, at least. Having exalted physical motion (or action) to the place he did, he refused to see that the action he prized was more valuable through the thought it developed; consequently he reduced all actions to the same level, and prided himself upon stripping a deed of all its marvellousness or majesty. He did uncommon things in such a matter-of-fact way that he made them common by the performance. The faint spiritual double which I found lurking behind his steel and iron he either solidified with his metallic touch or pertinaciously denied its existence.
"Plato was a fool," he said, "to talk of an ideal table; for, supposing he could see it, and prove its existence, what good could it do? You can neither eat off it, nor iron on it, nor do anything else with it; so, for all practical purposes, a pine table serves perfectly well without hunting after the ideal. I want something that I can go up to, and know it is there by seeing and touching."
"But," said I, "does not that very susceptibility to bodily contact remove the table to an indefinite distance from you? If we can see and handle a thing, and yet not be able to hold that subtile property of generic existence, by which, one table being made, an infinite class is created, so real that tables may actually be modelled on it, and yet so indefinite that you cannot get your hand on any table or collection of tables and say, 'It is here,'--if we can be absolutely conscious that we see the table, and yet have no idea how its image reflected on our retina can produce that absolute consciousness, does not the table grow dim and misty, and slip far away out of reach, of apprehension, much more of comprehension?"
"Stuff!" cried my companion. "If your metaphysics lead to proving that a board that I am touching with my hand is not there, I'll say, as I have already said, 'Throw (meta)physics to the dogs! I'll none of it!' A fine preparation for living in a material world, where we have to live in matter, by matter, and for matter, to wind one's self up in a snarl that puts matter out of reach, and leaves us with nothing to live in, or by, or for! Now you, for instance, are not content with this poor old Nile as it stands, but must go fussing and wondering and mystifying about it till you have positively nothing of a river left. I look at the water, the banks, the trees growing on them, the islands in which we get occasionally entangled: here, at least, I have a real, substantial river,--not equal for navigation to the Ohio or Mississippi, but still very fair.--Confound these flies!" he added, parenthetically, making a vigorous plunge at a dark cloud of the little pests that were closing down upon us.
"Then you see nothing strange and solemn in this wonderful stream? nothing in the weird civilization crouching at the feet, vainly looking to the head of its master hidden in the clouds? nothing in the echoing footsteps of nations passing down its banks to their destiny? nothing in the solemn, unbroken silence brooding over the fountain whence sprang this marvellous river, to bear precious gifts to thousands and millions, and again retreat unknown? Is there no mystery in unsolved questions, no wonder in miracles, no awe in inapproachability?"
"I see," said he, steadily, "that a river of some thousand miles long has run through a country peopled by contented, or ignorant, or barbarous people, none of whom, of course, would take the slightest interest in tracing the river; that the dangers that have guarded the marvellous secret, as you call it, are not intrinsic to the secret itself, but are purely accidental and contingent. There is no more reason why the source of the Nile should not be found than that of the Connecticut; so I do not see that it is really at all inapproachable or awful."
"What in the world, Herndon," cried I, in desperation, "what in the name of common sense ever induced you to set out on this expedition? What do you want to discover the source of the Nile for?"
He answered with the ready air of one who has long ago made up his mind confidently on the subject he is going to speak about.
"It has long been evident to me, that civilization, flowing in a return current from America, must penetrate into Africa, and turn its immense natural advantages to such account, that it shall become the seat of the most flourishing and important empires of the earth. These, however, should be consolidated, and not split up into multitudinous missionary stations. If a stream of immigration could be started from the eastern side, up the Nile for instance, penetrating to the interior, it might meet the increased tide of a kindred nature from the west, and uniting somewhere in the middle of Soudan, the central point of action, the capital city could be founded there, as a heart for the country, and a complete system of circulation be established. By this method of entering the country at both sides simultaneously, of course its complete subjugation could be accomplished in half the time that it would take for a body of emigrants, however large, to make headway from the western coast alone. About the source of the Nile I intend to mark out the site for my city, and then"--
"And call it," I added, "Herndonville."
"Perhaps," he said, gravely. "At all events, my name will be inseparably connected with the enterprise; and if I can get the steamboat started during my lifetime, I shall make a comfortable fortune from the speculation."
"What a gigantic scheme!" I exclaimed.
"Ah," he said, complacently, "we Americans don't stick at trifles."
"Oh, marvellous practical genius of America!" I cried, "to eclipse Herodotus and Diodorus, not to mention Bruce and Cailliaud, and inscribe Herndonville on the arcanum of the Innermost! If the Americans should discover the origin of evil, they would run up penitentiaries all over the country, modelled to suit 'practical purposes.'"
"I think that would pay," said Herndon, reflectively.
But though I then stopped the conversation, yet I felt its influence afterwards. The divine enthusiasm for knowing, that had inspired me for the last three years, and had left no room for any other thought in connection with the discovery,--this enthusiasm felt chilled and deadened. I felt reproached that I had not thought of founding a Pottsville or Jenkinsville, and my grand purpose seemed small and vague and indefinite. The vivid, living thoughts that had enkindled me fell back cold and lifeless into the tedious, reedy water. For we had now reached the immense shallow lake that Werne has since described, and the scenery had become flat and monotonous, as if in sympathy with the low, marshy place to which my mind had been driven. The intricate windings of the river, after we had passed the lake, rendered the navigation very slow and difficult; and the swarms of flies, that plagued us for the first time seriously, brought petty annoyances to view more forcibly than we had experienced in all our voyage before.
After some days' pushing in this way, now driven by a strong head wind almost back from our course, again, by a sudden change, carried rapidly many miles on our journey,--after some days of this sailing, we arrived at a long, low reef of rocks. The water here became so shallow and boisterous that further attempt at sailing was impossible, and we determined to take our boat to pieces as much as we could, and carry it with us, while we walked along the shore of the river. I concluded, from the marked depression in the ground we had just passed, that there must be a corresponding elevation about here, to give the water a sufficient head to pass over the high ground below; and the almost cataract appearance of the river added strength to my hypothesis. We were all four armed to the teeth, and the natives had shown themselves, hitherto, either so friendly or so indifferent that we did not have much apprehension on account of personal safety. So we set out with beating hearts. Our path was exceedingly difficult to traverse, leading chiefly among low trees and over the sharp stones that had rolled from the river,--now close by the noisy stream, which babbled and foamed as if it had gone mad,--now creeping on our knees through bushes, matted with thick, twining vines,--now wading across an open morass,--now in mimosa woods, or slipping in and out of the feathery dhelb-palms.
Since our conversation spoken of above, Herndon and I had talked little with each other, and now usually spoke merely of the incidents of the journey, the obstacles, etc.; we scarcely mentioned that for which we were both longing with intense desire, and the very thoughts of which made my heart beat quicker and the blood rush to my face. One day we came to a place where the river made a bend of about two miles and then passed almost parallel to our point of view. I proposed to Herndon that he should pursue the course of the river, and that I would strike a little way back into the country, and make a short cut across to the other side of the bend, where he and the men would stop, pitch our night-tent, and wait for me. Herndon assented, and we parted. The low fields around us changed, as I went on, to firm, hard, rising ground, that gradually became sandy and arid. The luxuriant vegetation that clung around the banks of the river seemed to be dried up little by little, until only a few dusty bushes and thorn--acacias studded in clumps a great, sandy, and rocky tract of country, which rolled monotonously back from the river border with a steadily increasing elevation. A sandy plain never gives me a sense of real substance; it always seems as if it must be merely a covering for something,--a sheet thrown over the bed where a dead man is lying. And especially here did this broad, trackless, seemingly boundless desert face me with its blank negation, like the old obstinate "No" which Nature always returns at first to your eager questioning. It provoked me, this staring reticence of the scenery, and stimulated me to a sort of dogged exertion. I think I walked steadily for about three hours over the jagged rocks and burning sands, interspersed with a few patches of straggling grass,--all the time up hill, with never a valley to vary the monotonous climbing,--until the bushes began to thicken in about the same manner as they had thinned into the desert, the grass and herbage herded closer together under my feet, and, beating off the ravenous sand, gradually expelled the last trace of it, a few tall trees strayed timidly among the lower shrubbery, growing more and more thickly, till I found myself at the border of an apparently extensive forest. The contrast was great between the view before and behind me. Behind lay the road I had achieved, the monotonous, toilsome, wearisome desert, the dry, formal introduction, as it were, to my coming journey. Before, long, cool vistas opened green through delicious shades,--a track seemed to be almost made over the soft grass, that wound in and out among the trees, and lost itself in interminable mazes. I plunged into the profound depths of the still forest, and confidently followed for path the first open space in which I found myself.
It was a strangely still wood for the tropics,--no chattering parroquets, no screaming magpies, none of the sneering, gibing dissonances that I had been accustomed to,--all was silent, and yet intensely living. I fancied that the noble trees took pleasure in growing, they were so energized with life in every leaf. I noticed another peculiarity,--there was little underbrush, little of the luxuriance of vines and creepers, which is so striking in an African forest. Parasitic-life, luxurious idleness, seemed impossible here; the atmosphere was too sacred, too solemn, for the fantastic ribaldry of scarlet runners, of flaunting yellow streamers. The lofty boughs interlaced in arches overhead, and the vast dim aisles opened far down in the tender gloom of the wood and faded slowly away in the distance. And every little spray of leaves that tossed airily in the pleasant breeze, every slender branch swaying gently in the wind, every young sapling pushing its childish head panting for light through the mass of greenery and quivering with golden sunbeams, every trunk of aged tree gray with moss and lichens, every tuft of flowers, seemed thrilled and vivified by some wonderful knowledge which it held secret, some consciousness of boundless, inexhaustible existence, some music of infinite unexplored thought concealing treasures of unlimited action. And it was the knowledge, the consciousness, that it was unlimited which seemed to give such elastic energy to this strange forest. But at all events, it was such a relief to find the everlasting negation of the desert nullified, that my dogged resolution insensibly changed to an irrepressible enthusiasm, which bore me lightly along, scarcely sensible of fatigue.
The ascent had become so much steeper, and parts of the forest seemed to slope off into such sudden declivities and even precipices, that I concluded I was ascending a mountain, and, from the length of time I had been in the forest, I judged that it must be of considerable height. The wood suddenly broke off as it had begun, and, emerging from the cool shade, I found myself in a complete wilderness of rock. Rocks of enormous size were thrown about in apparently the wildest confusion, on the side of what I now perceived to be a high mountain. How near the summit I was I had no means of determining, as huge boulders blocked up the view at a few paces ahead. I had had about eight hours' tramp, with scarcely any cessation; yet now my excitement was too great to allow me to pause to eat or rest. I was anxious to press on, and determine that day the secret which I was convinced lay entombed in this sepulchre. So again I pressed onward,--this time more slowly,--having to pick my way among the bits of jagged granite filling up terraces sliced out of the mountain, around enormous rocks projecting across my path,--overhanging precipices that sheered straight down into dark abysses, (I must have verged round to a different side from that I came up on,)--creeping through narrow passages formed by the junction of two immense boulders. Tearing my hands with the sharp corners of the rocks, I climbed in vain hope of at last seeing the summit. Still rocks piled on rocks faced my wearied eyes, vainly striving to pierce through some chink or cranny into the space behind them. Still rocks, rocks, rocks, against whose adamantine sides my feeble will dashed restlessly and impotently. My eyeballs almost burst, as it seemed, in the intense effort to strain through those stone prison-walls. And by one of those curious links of association by which two distant scenes are united as one, I seemed again to be sitting in my garret, striving to pierce the darkness for an answer to the question then raised, and at the same moment passed over me, like the sweep of angels' wings, the consciousness of that Presence which had there infolded me. And with that consciousness, the eager, irritated waves of excitement died away, and there was a calm, in which I no longer beat like a caged beast against the never-ending rocks, but, borne irresistibly along in the strong current of a mighty, still emotion, pressed on with a certainty that left no room for excitement, because none for doubt. And so I came upon it. Swinging round one more rock, hanging over a breathless precipice, and landing upon the summit of the mountain, I beheld it stretched at my feet: a lake about five miles in circumference, bedded like an eye in the naked, bony rock surrounding it, with quiet rippling waters placidly smiling in the level rays of the afternoon sun,--the Unfathomable Secret, the Mystery of Ages, the long sought for, the Source of the Nile.
For, from a broad cleft in the rocks, the water hurled itself out of its hiding-place, and, dashing down over its rocky bed, rushed impetuous over the sloping country, till, its force being spent, it waded tediously through the slushing reeds of the hill--land again, and so rolled down to sea. For, while I stood there, it seemed as if my vision were preternaturally sharpened, and I followed the bright river in its course, through the alternating marsh and desert,--through the land where Zeus went banqueting among the blameless Ethiopians,--through the land where the African princes watched from afar the destruction of Cambyses's army,--past Meroe, Thebes, Cairo; bearing upon its heaving bosom anon the cradle of Moses, the gay vessels of the inundation festivals, the stately processions of the mystic priesthood, the gorgeous barge of Cleopatra, the victorious trireme of Antony, the screaming vessels of fighting soldiers, the stealthy boats of Christian monks, the glittering, changing, flashing tumult of thousands of years of life,--ever flowing, ever ebbing, with the mystic river, on whose surface it seethed and bubbled. And the germ of all this vast varying scene lay quietly hidden in the wonderful lake at my feet. But human life is always composed of inverted cones, whose bases, upturned to the eye, present a vast area, diversified with countless phenomena; but when the screen that closes upon them a little below the surface is removed, we shall be able to trace the many-lined figures, each to its simple apex,--one little point containing the essence and secret of the whole. Once or twice in the course of a lifetime are a few men permitted to catch a glimpse of these awful Beginnings,--to touch for a minute the knot where all the tangled threads ravel themselves out smoothly. I had found such a place,--had had such an ineffable vision,--and overwhelmed with tremendous awe, I sank on my knees, lost in GOD.
After a little while, as far as I can recollect, I rose and began to take the customary observations, marked the road by which I had come up the mountain, and planned a route for rejoining Herndon. But ere long all subordinate thoughts and actions seemed to be swallowed up in the great tide of thought and feeling that overmastered me. I scarcely remember anything from the time when the lake first burst upon my view, till I met Herndon again. But I know, that, as the day was nearly spent, I was obliged to give up the attempt to travel back that night, especially as I now began to feel the exhaustion attendant upon my long journey and fasting. I could not have slept among those rocks, eternal guardians of the mighty secret. The absence of all breathing, transitory existence but my own rendered it too solemn for me to dare to intrude there. So I went back to the forest, (I returned much quicker than I had come,) ate some supper, and, wrapped in a blanket I had brought with me, went to sleep under the arching branches of a tree. I have as little recollection of my next day's journey, except that I defined a diagonal and thus avoided the bend. I found Herndon waiting in front of the tent, rather impatient for my arrival.
"Halloo, old fellow!" he shouted, jumping up at seeing me, "I was really getting scared about you. Where have you been? What have you seen? What are our chances? Have you had any adventures? killed any lions, or anything? By-the-by, I had a narrow escape with one yesterday. Capital shot; but prudence is the better part of valor, you know. But, really," he said again, apparently struck by my abstraction of manner, "what have you seen?"
"I have found the source of the Nile," I said, simply.
Is it not strange, that, when we have a great thing to say, we are always compelled to speak so simply in monosyllables? Perhaps this, too, is an example of the law that continually reduces many to one,--the unity giving the substance of the plurality; but as the heroes of the "Iliad" were obliged to repeat the messages of the gods literatim, so we must say a great thing as it comes to us, by itself. It is curious to me now, that I was not the least excited in announcing the discovery,--not because I did not feel the force of it, but because my mind was so filled, so to speak, so saturated, with the idea, that it was perfectly even with itself, though raised to an immensely higher level. In smaller minds an idea seizes upon one part of them, thus inequalizing it with the rest, and so, throwing them off their balance, they are literally de-ranged (or disarranged) with excitement. It was so with Herndon. For a minute he stared at me in stupefied astonishment, and then burst into a torrent of incoherent congratulations.
"Why, Zeitzer!" he cried, "you are the lucky man, after all. Why, your fortune's made,--you'll be the greatest man of the age. You must come to America; that is the place for appreciating such things. You'll have a Common-Council dinner in Boston, and a procession in New York. Your book will sell like wildfire. You'll be a lion of the first magnitude. Just think! The Man who discovered the Source of the Nile!"
I stood bewildered, like one suddenly awakened from sleep. The unusual excitement in one generally so self-possessed and indifferent as my companion made me wonder sufficiently; but these allusions to my greatness, my prospects, completely astounded me. What had I done,--I who had been chosen, and led step by step, with little interference of my own, to this end? What did this talk of noise and clamorous notoriety mean?
"To think," Herndon ran on, "that you should have beaten me, after all! that you should have first seen, first drunk of, first bathed in"--
"Drunk of! bathed in!" I repeated, mechanically. "Herndon, are you crazy? Would I dare to profane the sacred fountain?"
He made no reply, unless a quizzical smile might be considered as such,--but drew me within the tent, out of hearing of the two Egyptians, and bade me give an account of my adventures. When I had finished,--
"This is grand!" he exclaimed. "Now, if you will share the benefits of this discovery with me, I will halve the cost of starting that steamboat I spoke of, and our plan will soon be afloat. I shouldn't wonder, now, if one might not, in order to start the town, get up some kind of a little summer-pavilion there, on the top of the mountain,--something on the plan of the Tip-Top House at Mount Washington, you know,--hang the stars and stripes off the roof, if you're not particular, and call it The Teuton--American. That would give you your rightful priority, you see. By the beard of the Prophet, as they say in Cairo, the thing would take!"
I laughed heartily at this idea, and tried, at first in jest, then earnestly, to make him understand I had no such plans in connection with my discovery; that I only wanted to extend the amount of knowledge in the world,--not the number of ice-cream pavilions. I offered to let him take the whole affair into his own hands,--cost, profit, and all. I wanted nothing to do with it. But he was too honest, as he thought, for that, and still talked and argued,--giving his most visionary plans a definite, tangible shape and substance by a certain process of metallicizing, until they had not merely elbowed away the last shadow of doubt, but had effectually taken possession of the whole ground, and seemed to be the only consequences possible upon such a discovery. My dislike to personal traffic in the sublimities of truth began to waver. I felt keenly the force of the argument which Herndon used repeatedly, that, if I did not thus claim the monopoly, (he talked almost as if I had invented something,) some one else would, and so injustice be added to what I had termed vulgarity. I felt that I must prevent injustice, at least. Besides, what should I have to show for all my trouble, (ah! little had I thought of "I" or my trouble a short time ago!)--what should I have gained, after all,--nay, what would there be gained for any one,--if I merely announced my discovery, without--starting the steamboat? And though I did feebly query whether I should be equally bound to establish a communication, with pecuniary emolument, to the North Pole, in case I discovered that, his remark, that this was the Nile, and had nothing to do with the North Pole, was so forcible and pertinent, that I felt ashamed of my suggestion; and upon second thought, that idea of the dinner and procession really had a good deal in it. I had been in New York, and knew the length of Broadway; and at the recollection, felt flattered by the thought of being conveyed in an open chariot drawn by four or even eight horses, with nodding plumes, (literal ones for the horses,--only metaphorical ones for me,) past those stately buildings fluttering with handkerchiefs, and through streets black with people thronging to see the man who had solved the riddle of Africa. And then it would be pleasant, too, to make a neat little speech to the Common Council,--letting the brave show catch its own tail in its mouth, by proving, that, if America did not achieve everything, she could appreciate--yes, appreciate was the word--those who did. Yes, this would be a fitting consummation; I would do it.
But, ah! how dim became the vision of that quiet lake on the summit of the mountain! How that vivid lightning-revelation faded into obscurity! Was Pharaoh again ascending his fatal chariot?
The next day we started for the ascent. We determined to follow the course of the river backwards around the bend and set out from my former starting-point, as any other course might lead us into a hopeless dilemma. We had no difficulty in finding the sandy plain, and soon reached landmarks which I was sure were on the right road; but a tramp of six or eight hours--still in the road I had passed before--brought us no nearer to our goal. In short, we wandered three days in that desert, utterly in vain. My heart sunk within me at every failure; with sickening anxiety I scanned the horizon at every point, but nothing was visible but stunted bushes and white pebbles glistening in the glaring sand.
The fourth day came,--and Herndon at last stopped short, and said, in his steady, immobile voice,--
"Zeitzer, you must have made this grand discovery in your dreams. There is no Nile up this way,--and our water-skins are almost dry. We had better return and follow up the course of the river where we left it. If we again fail, I shall return to Egypt to carry out my plan for converting the Pyramids into ice-houses. They are excellently well adapted for the purpose, and in that country a good supply of ice is a desideratum. Indeed, if my plan meets with half the success it deserves, the antiquaries two centuries hence will conclude that ice was the original use of those structures."
"Shade of Cheops, forbid!" I exclaimed.
"Cheops be hanged!" returned my irreverent companion. " | 8,058 |
A pre-prodcution PDF version can be found here. Enjoy.
Many researchers have argued that cursor tracking data can provide enhance ways to learn about website visitors. One of the most difficult<|fim_middle|> task is performed in two distinct visits to the site. Teleportation is more frequent at the 1st and 3rd visits, which confirms this hypothesis (Figure 2, bottom).
Multitasking exists, as many sites are visited and revisited during a session. Multitasking influences the way users access sites, and this depends on the type of site.
This work was done in collaboration with Janette Lehmann, Georges Dupret and Ricardo Baeza-Yates. More details about the study can be found in Online Multitasking and User Engagement, ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM 2013), 27 October – 1 November 2013, San Francisco, USA.
Photo credits: D&D (Creative Commons BY). | website performance metrics to accurately measure is user engagement, generally defined as the amount of attention and time visitors are willing to spend on a given website and how likely they are to return. Engagement is usually described as a combination of various characteristics. Many of these are difficult to measure, for example, focused attention and affect. These would traditionally be measured using physiological sensors (e.g. gaze tracking) or surveys. However, it may be possible that this information could be gathered through an analysis of cursor data.
This work presents a study that asked participants to complete tasks on live websites using their own hardware in their natural environment. For each website two interfaces were created: one that would appear as normal and one that was intended to be aesthetically unappealing, as shown below. The participants, who were recruited through a crowd-sourcing platform, were tracked as they used modified variants of the Wikipedia and BBC News websites. There were asked to complete reading and information-finding tasks.
The aim of the study was to explore how cursor tracking data might tell us more about the user than could be measured using traditional means. The study explored several metrics that might be used when carrying out cursor tracking analyses. The results showed that it was possible to differentiate between users reading content and users looking for information based on cursor data. They also showed that the user's hardware could be predicted from cursor movements alone. However, no relationship between cursor data and engagement was found. The implications of these results, from the impact on web analytics to the design of experiments to assess user engagement, are discussed.
This study demonstrates that designing experiments to obtain reliable insights about user engagement and its measurement remains challenging. Not finding a signal may not necessary means that the signal does not exist, but that some of the metrics used were not the correct ones. In hindsight, this is what we believe happened. The cursor metrics were not the right ones to differentiate between the levels of engagement experience as examined in this work. Indeed, recent work showed that more complex mouse movement metrics did correlate with some engagement metrics.
David Warnock and Mounia Lalmas. An Exploration of Cursor tracking Data. ArXiv e-prints, February 2015.
Ioannis Arapakis, Mounia Lalmas Lalmas and George Valkanas. Understanding Within-Content Engagement through Pattern Analysis of Mouse Gestures, 23rd International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM), November 2014.
We often access several sites within an online session. We may perform one main task (when we plan a holiday, we often compare offers from different travel sites, go to a review site to check hotels), or several totally unrelated tasks in parallel (responding to an email while reading news). Both are what we call online multitasking. We are interested in the extent to which multitasking occurs, and whether we can identify patterns.
Our dataset consists of one month of anonymised interaction data from a sample of 2.5 millions users who gave their consent to provide browsing data through a toolbar. We selected 760 sites, which we categorised according to the type of services they offer. Examples of services include mail, news, social network, shopping, search, and sometimes cater to different audiences (for example, news about sport, tech and finance). Our dataset contains 41 million sessions, where a session ends if more than 30 minutes have elapsed between two successive page views. Finally, continuous page views of the same site are merged to form a site visit.
How much multitasking in a session?
On average, 10.20 distinct sites are visited within a session, and for 22% of the visits the site was accessed previously during the session. More sites are visited and revisited as the session length increases. Short sessions have on average 3.01 distinct sites with a revisitation rate of 0.10. By contrast, long sessions have on average 9.62 different visited sites with a revisitation rate of 0.22.
We focus on four categories of sites: news (finance), news (tech), social media, and mail. We extract for each category a random sample of 10,000 sessions. As shown in Figure 1 below, the sites with the highest number of visits within a session belong to the social media category (average of 2.28), whereas news (tech) sites are the least revisited sites (average of 1.76). The other two categories have on average 2.09 visits per session.
Figure 1: Site visit characteristics for four categories of sites: (Left) Distribution of time between visits; and (Right) Average and standard deviation of number of visits and time between visits.
What happens between the visits to a site?
mail sites have the highest absence time, 6.86 minutes on average.
However, the media of the distributions of the absence time across all categories of sites is less than 1 minute, and this for all categories. That is, many sites are revisited after a short break. We speculate that a short break corresponds to an interruption of the task being performed by the user (on the site), whereas a longer break indicates that the user is returning to the site to perform a new task.
How do users switch between sites?
backpaging: using the back button on the browser, or when several tabs or windows are ope and the user returns to one of them).
The way users revisit sites varies depending on the session length. Teleporting and hyperlinking are the most important mechanisms to re-access a site during short sessions (30% teleporting and 52% hyperlinking for short sessions), whereas backpaging becomes more predominant in longer sessions. Tabs or the back button are often used to revisit a site.
Figure 2: (Top) Visit patterns described by the average time spent on the site at the ith visit in a session. (Bottom) Usage of navigation types described by the proportion of each navigation type at the ith visit in a session.
We also look at how users access a site at each revisit, for the four categories of sites. This is shown in Figure 2 (bottom).
For all four categories of sites, the first visit is often through teleportation. Accessing a site in this manner indicates a high level of engagement, in particular in terms of loyalty, with the site, since users are likely to have bookmarked the site at some previous interaction with it. In our dataset, teleportation is more frequently used to access news (tech) sites than news (finance) sites.
After the first visit, backpaging is increasingly used to access a site. This is an indication that users leave the site by opening a new tab or window, and then return to the site later to continue whatever they were doing on the site.
However, in general, users still revisit a site mostly through hyperlinking, suggesting that links still have an important role in directing users to a site. In our dataset, news (finance) sites are mostly accessed through links; users are directed to sites of this category via a link.
The time spent on social media sites increases at each revisit (a case of increased attention). The opposite is observed for mail sites (a case of decreased attention). A possible explanation is that, for mail sites, there are less messages to read in subsequent visits, whereas for social media sites, users have more time to spend on them eventually because the other tasks they were doing are getting finished.
News (finance) is an example of category for which neither a lower or higher dwell time is observed at each subsequent revisit (a case of constant attention). We hypothesise that each visit corresponds either to a new task or a user following some evolving piece of information such as checking the latest stock price figures.
The time spent on news (tech) sites at each revisit is fluctuating. Either no patterns exist or the pattern is complex, and cannot easily be described (a case of complex attention). However, when looking at the first two visits or the last two visits, in both cases, more time is spent in each second visit. This may indicate that the visits belong to two different tasks, and each | 1,677 |
Here is a quick overview of the main steps to closing down, dissolving and winding up a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation under Delaware law.
if your nonprofit doesn't have members, by a vote of the governing body.
Under the first method, the governing body first must adopt the resolution to dissolve and then submit it to the members. The members then generally meet and vote to approve the resolution.
Under the second method, members approve the resolution by unanimous written consent. In these cases, no action by the governing body is necessary.
Make sure to properly record the resolution to dissolve and plan of distribution, as well as the governing body's votes and members' votes or written consents, if any. You'll need this information for filings with the state and the IRS.
the names and addresses of your nonprofit's directors and officers.
A blank form for the certificate of dissolution ("CERTIFICATE OF DISSOLUTION OF NON-STOCK CORPORATION (SECTION 2<|fim_middle|>, by Stephen Fishman (Nolo), go to the IRS website, or consult with a tax professional.
Dissolution will not stop lawsuits started by or against your nonprofit before dissolution. Moreover, new legal actions can still be started by or against your nonprofit up to three years after dissolution.
In addition, your certificate of incorporation or bylaws may contain rules that apply instead of, or along with, state law. You are strongly encouraged to consult with a lawyer to obtain additional information on these and other points. | 76 (a)") is available for download from the DOC website. There is a minimum $204 filing fee.
After your nonprofit has formally authorized dissolution, it continues to exist only for the purpose of taking care of certain final matters that, collectively, are known as "winding up" the company. Winding up is largely about paying off any debts and then distributing any remaining assets, but there may also be other tasks involved. Generally speaking, you can only distribute money and property after you have paid off all of your nonprofit's debts. In addition, after all debts are paid, a dissolving 501(c)(3) organization must distribute its remaining assets for tax-exempt purposes. In practice, this usually means distributing assets to one or more other 501(c)(3) organizations. Other requirements for distributions, including items contained in your plan of distribution, may also apply. If you have any questions, you should consult with a lawyer.
One other part of winding up your dissolved nonprofit involves giving notice to creditors and other claimants. Giving notice is optional. However, doing so will help limit your liability and also allow you to more safely make final distributions of remaining assets. Giving notice requires both publication in a newspaper and mailings to all known claimants.
For federal tax purposes, you'll need to file IRS Form 990 or IRS Form 990-EZ. You must include a completed Schedule N (Liquidation, Termination, Dissolution, or Significant Disposition of Assets), as well as copies of your certificate of dissolution, resolution to dissolve, and plan of distribution. When completing Form 990 or Form 990-EZ, you'll need to check the "Terminated" box in the header area on Page 1 of the return. For additional guidance, check out Every Nonprofit's Tax Guide | 381 |
Fantastic home on a large pie lot facing onto a quiet family friendly cul-de-sac in the sought after community of Varsity. Main floor boasts spacious living room with custom built-ins and large picture window allowing for loads of natural light. Adjacent kitchen showcases quartz counters and stainless-steel appliances. Breakfast nook has rear patio door leading out onto the two-tier west facing deck. Flex space leading from the kitchen to the dining room is ideal for an office or potential butlers' pantry. Laundry is conveniently located on the main<|fim_middle|> transit and amenities and only minutes from Silver Springs golf course. view it today. | level. Upper level offers three bedrooms with master bedroom having a lavish four-piece ensuite and walk-in closet. Fully finished basement includes a fourth bedroom, four-piece bathroom and large rec room. Double front attached heated garage. Ideally located just steps from | 48 |
Being plant-based, means falling in love with sauces. All the sauces.
Tomato-based, bean-based, cashew-based, tahini-based, nooch-based, miso-based, veggie-based… endless bases of sauciness.
<|fim_middle|>, ready to be best friends with anything that calls for cheese. Pizza, pasta, veggies, nachos, you name it!
Use it for dipping, drizzling, spreading... anything! Pizza, pasta, cracker plates, or saucin' anything up! | Today's all about this cashew raw vegan hollandaise.
It's time to cure those creamy cravings with total satisfaction by drizzling this stuff over any savoury dish to create a culinary masterpiece.
With just 7 ingredients and a blender, you'll be on your way to sauce o'clock, saucy heaven, 10 on the sauce-o-meter, 100% sauciness… You get it.
Cashews are packed with minerals, and dietary monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats to help the body absorb the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and vitamin K and produce fatty acids needed for yo' brain!
NO DAIRY – this is a big plus. Typical hollandaise has a whole lotta butter and eggs. Replacing these two with cashews will help you prevent cancer, inflammation, acidity, weight gain and animal suffering 🙂 Go nuts.
This week's email was all about NYC vegan goodness and Main Street Vegan !
The good ol' days of broccoli and cheese sauce are making a comeback, this time in the form of this next-level raw vegan cashew cheese sauce.
Totally nostalgic…who's with me on that?
In the attempt to get me to eat those veggies in any way possible… cheese sauce, and sometimes mayo, made it onto the plate beside those greens.
It worked like a dream, just like this new & improved eat-yo-veggies cashew cheese hack will.
Something special happens to broccoli when it's paired with a creamy, tangy, cheesy sauce. Dip away with all the other veggies, and you're easily munching away on greens like their goin' outta style.
I'm all about the sauce.
If you're looking for a veggie-based cheese sauce option, check out this Mind-Blowing Nut-Free cheese sauce recipe I posted not too long ago.
Either one is perfect for a colourful side dish for a holiday like……. Easter!
Cashews are packed with healthy fats (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated) to help the absorption of the fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and vitamin K) found in the nutrient-dense greens. Plus, these healthy fats help brain development and memory!
Nutritional Yeast (NOOCH) is a vegan's best friend. Not only does it taste cheesy, but it also is packed with Vitamin B12 (which comes from microorganisms in soil), the one nutrient that you might be lacking in on a vegan diet.
Turmeric is a magical ingredient. Not only does it change any recipe into a smashingly colourful dish, but it's also one of the most powerful anti-inflammatory ingredients out there. Add a bit of pepper to increase the bioavailability of the curcumin in the turmeric by 2000%!
Answer that cheese craving with this super easy vegan cheese sauce | 582 |
Set in the beautiful village of Arisaig in the Highlands of Scotland, the Astley Hall is an old traditional ceilidh hall,<|fim_middle|> provided by different local groups - last year we helped them raise nearly £6000 for their own funds.
We are also the venue for a number of wedding receptions throughout the year. Couples who decide to get hitched on a beach or in the beauty of the Highlands find the Hall is ideal for a wedding meal or buffet followed by a dance. Advice can be given on caterers, bands - even where to get a personally designed 'Arisaig' ring! | built in 1893 by renowned architect Philip Webb, one of the fathers of the Arts and Crafts Movement. It is the only building in Scotland still as he designed it.
In 2000 it was renovated and now has 21st Century facilities, complete access and a hearing loop. There is a stage and the Hall can seat 118.
A varied programme thoughout the year includes music concerts of all genres, dances, ceilidhs and drama. Refreshments on offer during intervals. The hall is open between performances on enquiry.
Every month from May to September we run a Produce Fair which has on offer local plants, vegetables, herbs, etc plus a wide range of hand made crafts. Lunches are | 150 |
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Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Dracula's throne room redone in 3D with raytracing
Home » word wide » What The Last<|fim_middle|> secret to the cure, and now the adventure can begin.
In the case of The Walking Dead, after careful consideration, it's fair to say the cause of the virus really doesn't matter. For the most part, the walkers have always been fairly cut and dry: they want to eat you, they gravitate toward noise and you can kill them with a blow to the head. Only in season 11 did we learn that the walkers might be evolving (something that was hinted at all the way back in the first season) but the show has always focused on people trying to survive and not so much about people finding a cure.
After so many years in the TWD fandom, while I didn't have a problem spending so much time in the dark about the origins of the outbreak on The Walking Dead, I don't think I want to do it again. I like answers. I like having a few edges of a new TV show's puzzle set for me so that I know where to start. The Walking Dead blazed a trail for so many genre shows that followed, but I appreciate that The Last of Us opted for answers instead of leaving so many unanswered questions behind.
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Britney Spears on Thursday asked the public and her fans to respect her privacy after … | of Us does that The Walking Dead never did
What The Last of Us does that The Walking Dead never did
The Last of Us has a very different starting point. HBO has another big hit on its hands with The Last of Us, a post-apocalyptic survival story based on a video game of the same name. It follows in the footsteps of The Walking Dead, which continues to amble on even though the main show ended in 2022, but has several new spinoffs in the works. Though they're both set in bleak wastelands filled with zombies, The Last of Us did one thing that The Walking Dead never did. Spoilers for The Last of Us below!
When The Walking Dead premiered on Halloween Night in 2010, horror fans tuned in to see Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) wake up in a hospital bed, alone. That alone could be the basis of a horror series, but it turns out something far more sinister was afoot. Rick soon discovered that something horrible happened while he was in a coma. There were no signs of the living, but the dead were walking. It was unlike anything ever seen before on TV and the show quickly dominated primetime ratings.
When we first meet Joel (Pedro Pascal) in The Last of Us, he's a single dad raising a daughter in 2003 when the world turns upside down overnight. The show's main story takes place two decades after the fall, with humans trying to survive in an uncertain world where threats are hiding around every corner, and even below the ground. Both shows have a lot in common, but there's one thing that truly separates them: The Last of Us offers clues about what led to the breakdown of civilization while The Walking Dead never revealed the cause of the virus. During The Last of Us episode 1, two scientists discuss pandemics on a talk show and one warns that the world would be devastated if the cordyceps fungus ever managed to jump the evolutionary pond to infect humans.
In episode 2, aptly titled "Infected," a scientist (Christine Hakim) is called to Jakarta to consult on a possible human transmission of cordyceps. It turns out that person worked at the world's largest flour mill, where other people were infected by "patient zero." Eagle-eyed fans noticed that neither Joel nor his daughter Sarah ate anything with flour in them in the pilot episode despite talk of pancakes, birthday cake and biscuits. Flour, as it turns out, was the key to spreading the cordyceps fungus all over the world. Co-creator Craig Mazin told Variety (opens in new tab)that he and Neil Druckmann provide clues about what caused the outbreak. "We are absolutely talking about — there is the world's largest flour mill in Jakarta — so that's a fine theory and I think people should keep running with it."
After 11 seasons of The Walking Dead, we're no closer to learning what happened in those days and weeks while Rick Grimes was in the coma. At the end of season 1, the only surviving scientist at the CDC whispers something in Rick's ear moments before blowing the facility sky high. In season 2, Rick finally makes a chilling confession about what he learned: the virus is already in everyone. You don't have to be bitten; everyone will turn upon dying. But…why? How?
The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman famously maintained he'd never reveal the cause of the outbreak, though he joked about the cause being space spores. Fear the Walking Dead, the first TWD spinoff, offered fans a brief glimpse of what life was like leading up to the turn. The post-credit scenes during The Walking Dead: World Beyond series finale hinted that whatever caused the outbreak originated in a French laboratory, which makes the new Daryl Dixon spinoff's setting — France — even more intriguing.
As a longtime fan of The Walking Dead and a newcomer to The Last of Us, I appreciate that The Last of Us provides insight as to the cause of the outbreak. The fungus-faced clickers are terrifying enough, but the idea that the cordyceps fungus is able to connect them all through underground tendrils, thereby creating a single consciousness, is downright chilling. Whether you've played the game or not, you understand the why and, roughly, the how. Ellie (Bella Ramsey) might hold the | 896 |
IMPAQ International opened its new business operations in downtown Oakland, CA to continue expansion of its west coast presence and accommodate for anticipated growth.
A quasi-experimental evaluation study of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions (NFWS) Social Innovation Fund (SIF) conducted by IMPAQ International, LLC is highlighted in a report recently released by the White House.
Dr. Jacob M. Benus, Executive Vice President and Director of Research at IMPAQ, recently presented a paper at a White House conference to discuss the value of low-cost Randomized Controlled<|fim_middle|> federally approved list of select providers of IT services and solutions. | Trials (RCTs) and their ability to effectively drive social spending. The conference was hosted by the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy. As one of four presenters of illustrative examples of Low Cost RCT's producing policy-important findings, Dr. Benus presented a workforce development project that IMPAQ conducted for the U.S.
IMPAQ International is pleased to announce that it has been awarded the Research, Measurement, Assessment, Design and Analysis (RMADA) indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently posted IMPAQ International's report - Using Workforce Data Quality Databases to Develop and Improve Consumer Report Card Systems – on its website. Contracted by DOL's Chief Evaluation Office (CEO), IMPAQ and its partners, New Horizons Economic Research and the Urban Institute, conducted a study to understand the connections between the Workforce Data Quality Initiative (WDQI) and state efforts to develop Consumer Report Card Systems (CRCSs).
IMPAQ International, a research, evaluation, technical assistance and technology solutions firm with offices in Columbia, MD, Washington, DC and Oakland, CA announced today that it has been awarded the United States GSA IT Schedule 70 contract as a small business. IT Schedule 70 is the largest, most widely used acquisition vehicle in the Federal Government. Under the contract, IMPAQ joins a | 316 |
I didn't want the blog to be<|fim_middle|> for the workshops on August 17-18, 2013 are up on the Century Ballroom website. The pre-registration price is a bargain for a whole weekend of instruction and a bonus hip hop class from Albir. I know how lovely the summer has been, just think how much more fun it will be to spend a whole weekend doing kizomba.
There's a lot coming up in the next two weeks! Don't let August blow by without enjoying at least one if not all these lovely opportunities to dance. | just about events and activities so I'm starting to share some kizomba dance related musings based on what I've learned, what I've been asked, what people talk about, basically anything dance related.
I'm often asked to teach follows how to be great follows and to define the skills that are needed in order to participate in this dance and contribute to its buttery, smooth silkiness.
There is no one set formula that I can give.
I believe that to dance well, independent of the role we take as a lead or follow, we must each discover two key things. The first is how we move: what our own abilities are to make our body move and how we express what we feel through movements. The second is how we listen and respond to music. For follows, this is tied to how well we listen and respond to the leads we dance with. For leads, the equivalent would be how to communicate movement to follows and then how to listen to their response and use it in the dance.
It is also important to embrace our individuality and how we are all different. I love this aspect of social dancing: that we each can express our individuality as part of a partnership. Whether you dance alone to music or with another dance partner, the possibilities and outcomes of a dance can be limitless. When you start to own your own dancing and expression, what you bring to every dance is a unique opportunity for a wonderful connection. The reason I love kizomba so much is that the barrier to experiencing that sweet spot in connection is relatively easy to overcome as a new dancer, as long as you're not afraid of getting close to someone.
So while I can give you things you can work on and suggest ways to improve your skills and listening as a follow, the bottom line is that you need to take responsibility for your own movements, then embrace your individuality and celebrate the partnership while you're dancing withe someone.
How do I move? Get to know your body and how it moves. What does it mean to stay balanced? Improve and get to know you range of motion: should, hips, chest, arms, legs, etc. What does it take to move with control and balance? Can I isolate my movements? Can I make them sharp, soft, etc.? Can I stop? What's my best pose? These are just a few questions to answer.
How do I Listen? Partner dancing as a follow involves understanding how to communicate with your lead in the context of the dance. What is my lead telling me withe movements I feel? What am I paying attention to? How do I use physical touch and what I feel when my partner moves to understand what I need to do: when to step and where?
How do I Translate? How do I take what my lead is telling me and translate that to movement? How can I tell him what I've heard?
How do I Respond? I've heard what my lead has said and translated the movements, now how can I tell my lead that I've heard what he has to say and finish the movement with my own voice.
I'll elaborate on each point in future posts - else this post might become a little novelette.
When all is said and done, I recommend that you relax, breathe, enter every dance as an new opportunity to connect and then let go of the outcome. Assuming you know and are learning the basic language of the dance, then trust yourself and your partner and when you give in to the dance and listen and respond, the results will be beautiful (independent of being perfect). If not, the dance is only a few minutes long, there will always be another dance to make things better.
... and even if you don't know the basic language of the dance, if you want to enjoy your dance and are open to listening and responding that makes all the difference.
Well, its August already and I don't know about you but I have no idea where July went!
Jay and I just wrapped up a Kizomba 2 series at the Century Ballroom and Dennis Richards and I will be starting a four week Kizomba Fundamentals series on Thursday 8/8 from 7:30 pm to 8:45 pm. You can still register at www.centuryballroom.com or stop by on Thursday and join the class.
We also just finished teaching the Kizomba Flash Mob Choreography at the Century Ballroom this past Friday August 2. Here's a sneak peek as the class did a practice run to wrap up.
If you want to learn the choreography there's another chance to do that this weekend AND take part in the next Kizomba Flash Mob the following day!
Saturday August 10 - Kizomba Flash Mob Choreography at Belltown Dance Studio.
Sunday August 11 - FLASH MOB!!!! Join us outside at Pier 59. Details can be found on the facebook event. Don't forget to join the Kizomba Seattle Flash Mob group where you can find more about the flash mob, see the choreography and breakdown and find out about future mobs.
We had such an awesome turn out for the Kizomba First Friday Dance this past August 2 too! Lots of new dancers and veterans returning to dance. What a lovely night with Maurycy Markowski providing wonderful music for us all the dance to.
In less than 2 weeks we get to welcome Albir Rojas and Sara Lopez back to Seattle for a full weekend of workshops and dancing! Registration | 1,118 |
Phoenix City Council meets to discuss future of Phoenix Suns arena
Posted: 3:39 PM, Nov 14, 2018
By: Shane Dale , Mike Pelton
The Phoenix City Council met in a closed-door executive session Wednesday to discuss the future of Talking Stick Resort Arena, home of the Phoenix Suns.
The city owns the arena, which the Suns have called home since the 1992-93 season. But in July of last year, Suns owner Robert Sarver said the team either needs a new arena, or renovations to the existing one.
"We have no choice but to do one of those two because as you know, our arena's becoming outdated," he said, noting TSR Arena is one of the NBA's oldest active venues. "We have to have an NBA-quality facility. I know that. I think the City of Phoenix knows that. So, we have no choice but to get one of those two things done."
Council members, as well as the Suns, declined to comment on the details of Wednesday's session.
Daniel Barrett and Kevin Kelley attended the<|fim_middle|> the conversation to keep the Phoenix Suns at home, but we need to prioritize putting Phoenicians first."
Valenzuela said he is optimistic that the Suns and the city can come to an agreement that will benefit the city's business owners and taxpayers.
"We cannot walk away from discussions and just abandon a multi-million-dollar city-owned facility, leave it to rot and kill thousands of jobs and the positive economic impact it has on both our city and the region," he said in a statement. "Many of our downtown Phoenix businesses, including small, family-owned businesses, will be harmed if we lose one of our critical anchors.
"For too long, taxpayers have been expected to foot practically the entire bill for sports venues. We need to bring stakeholders together, which these discussions are doing, in order to develop the new model I envision that will take the burden off our taxpayers. So, I am pleased these discussions are underway and I intend to be a part of those discussions as Mayor."
The Suns' arena contract with the city runs through 2032, but the team could opt out as soon as 2022 if certain criteria are met, Phoenix Communications Director Julie Watters confirmed.
"The city considers the arena an important asset to the downtown. Since 1992 the city of Phoenix has been a proud partner of the Suns and we value that relationship," Watters said in a statement.
Last year, Sarver said staying in downtown Phoenix is his No. 1 preference.
"I'm looking at different options here within the Valley. First priority is downtown Phoenix, but if that's not something the city wants to do, I've got to look somewhere else," he said. "We're getting to that point where we've got to start getting something done."
The Suns might not be the only team looking to leave downtown Phoenix in the next few years. In May, the Arizona Diamondbacks agreed to a restructured contract with the Maricopa County Stadium District Board of Directors that would allow them to leave downtown Phoenix as soon as 2022, provided a new stadium is built within Maricopa County. | session. Both men represented the owners of the two newest publicly-owned arenas in the NBA, the Phoenix Business Journal reported .
Kate Gallego, one of the candidates in the Phoenix mayoral race, is wary about spending a significant amount of money on arena renovations. Gallego will face Daniel Valenzuela in a runoff election in March.
"The city of Phoenix has many pressing needs in areas such as public safety and fighting homelessness. Spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a huge renovation for the Phoenix Suns is not a priority for me," Gallego said in a statement. "The city has limited resources and needs to make smart decisions. As Phoenix mayor, I'd welcome | 136 |
A Grief Observed is a book by C. S. Lewis about his grief after the death of his wife, Joy Davidman. After three years of marriage, Lewis' wife died of cancer and he experienced immense grief. The book is divided into four parts reflecting and his anger and sorrow, as well as questions of faith, memory, God and theodicy (the question of why bad things<|fim_middle|> is even possible within the realm of human existence on earth.
Based on a personal journal he kept, Lewis refers to his wife as "H" throughout this series of reflections, and reveals that she had died from cancer only three years after their marriage. The book is extremely candid, and it details the anger and bewilderment he had felt towards God after H's death, as well as his impressions of life without her.
The period of his bereavement was marked by a process of moving in and out of various stages of grief and remembrance, and it becomes obvious that it heavily influenced his spirituality. In fact, Lewis ultimately comes to a revolutionary redefinition of his own characterisation of God: experiencing gratitude for having received and experienced the gift of a true love.
The book is divided into four parts, each headed with a Roman numeral, and each a collection of excerpts from his journals documenting scattered impressions and his continuously evolving state of mind. | happen if there is an all-powerful God who is good).
A Grief Observed explores the processes which the human brain and mind undergo over the course of grieving. The book questions the nature of grief, and whether or not returning to normalcy thereafter | 51 |
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'I'm Going To Hold Eversource's Feet To The Fire,' Says Lamont Who Tours Danbury, Westport
Zak Failla
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Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, right, and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal touring Danbury following the storm. Photo Credit: Twitter
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COVID-19: Connecticut Vacc<|fim_middle|> emergency all the way."
Eversource President of Regional Electric Operations Craig Hallstrom said that crews have restored power to more than 80,000 in the past 24 hours and expect restoration to be "substantially complete" by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 11.
Hallstrom noted that in the process of restoring power to all those affected by Isaias, some customers may lose power as a necessary step to allow crews to safely make needed repairs to restore service to many more customers.
"We know how urgently customers need their power restored, especially right now given the pandemic and hot summer weather, and we are making significant progress," Hallstrom said. "Our crews and the thousands of out-of-state crews working alongside them have done a tremendous job under difficult conditions – working in the heat while abiding by social distancing and pandemic safety protocols.
"The field crews and thousands of support personnel working behind the scenes are committed to staying on the job until every customer has their power back."
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Lawmakers in Connecticut are threatening to bring the heat on Eversource its slow response to Tropical Storm Isaias.
As of 4:30 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 10, 69,166 of Eversource's 1,281,332 Connecticut customers were still reporting outages six days after the storm struck. UI was still responding to 492 reported outages that were affecting 1,429 of the customer's 337,496 customers.
"We have a serious situation developing at the Glen Apartments on Memorial Drive," Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton said. "Still no power. Many residents there are elderly and/or disabled. So far Eversource has not responded to our pleas to restore service and there are no trucks on scene."
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont has called in the Connecticut and National Guard in to help clear roads and pathways to allow utility crews to make necessary repairs more expeditiously. He also announced that he has also had discussions with President Donald Trump about an Emergency Declaration and receiving financial support.
"This schedule of restorations for our cities and towns should act as deadlines, with a clear goal of getting power and air conditioning back sooner," Lamont posted on social media. "I expect and demand that Eversource act with urgency over the coming days."
While touring Danbury and Westport, two of the hardest-hit areas in Connecticut, to survey the damage done, Lamont said that he's going to hold the utility companies accountable.
"We're going to hold Eversource's feet to the fire until they get every single person back up and operating," Lamont said during a news conference outside Danbury High School attended by United States Sen. Richard Blumenthal, and Boughton. "This is an emergency and we are going to treat it like an | 408 |
Unexpected path led Colorado woman to serve
• Published on January 18, 2021 • Last modified on March 8, 2021
Avila and Puma, who has his own Instagram page, @pumacaninecouncil.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - City Council Member Yolanda Avila says she had three strikes against her when she decided to run for local office: "being a woman, being Mexican-American, and being blind."
Though each, she said, provides its own obstacles, "I wouldn't trade it for anything. The challenge, and working through it — the reward is even bigger at the other end."
This reward has been tangible for Avila and her constituents, who live in southeast Colorado Springs in what she calls "overlooked" neighborhoods. Avila has fought for local infrastructure improvements, increases in accessibility, and more robust public transportation.
Recipe for Change
Colorado Springs City Council Member Avila pairs passion with voice.
"I have such a sense of purpose serving the Colorado Springs community and my district," she said. "Things have been moving forward for us, and I'm so grateful. There's truly no place I'd rather be."
Yet it's not what she expected.
Avila was diagnosed in 1998 with retinitis pigmentosa.
"I was told the prognosis was complete blindness. I kind of lost it," said Avila in an interview in Council chambers with Rocky Mountain PBS. "I was thinking, what am I going to do? What can a blind person do? All I could see was a loss."
Yolanda was working as a criminal defense investigator in Orange County, Calif., when she received her health news.
"It was the job of my dreams. I was so happy," said Avila. "I could not wait to go to work in the morning. And I was getting promoted. I was moving up."
For several years, Avila struggled as her vision deteriorated. She feared her boss's reaction to her condition, and that she'd lose her occupation — her livelihood. What's more, her job offered a direct connection to public service — and her sense of connection to her community.
When she did tell her employer she was losing her eyesight, her workplace was beyond supportive, Avila said. Her boss facilitated a role change to shift her responsibilities. Avila adapted from working predominantly in the field as an investigator to a more internal role.
She soon found a passion helping to reunite children who had been separated from their parents because of allegations of abuse or neglect. When Avila began this work, 80% of parents were losing parental rights once their children were initially removed from the home, she said, and only 20% regained family status. By the time she retired, Avila said, this statistic had flipped.
If allegations led to deportation because of parents' undocumented status<|fim_middle|>17.
This time, Avila won.
"What I've learned is, sometimes people's sight is a distraction. They're looking at everything around them, and not listening to what's going on. I am truly listening."
As a Council Member, Avila continues to take on change in improving public transit accessibility and routes, and addressing food deserts, health, and homelessness. Fellow Councilors, she said, can be less than empathetic.
"With a lot of these things, if they haven't been in that situation, they just don't understand," Avila said. "Like how they will only go so far with plans for transit — because many have never even been on a city bus. They just don't know what it's like."
She says she sees the issues as reflecting leadership's priorities — and it's not about funding.
"The resources are there," Avila said. "It's not about money. And people in my district don't even ask, because they don't feel as valued. They don't know that they deserve everything that the rest of the city has."
Avila is committed to making sure her community knows their value. She aspires to listen deeply with resolution and focus.
"Ever since I was little, I could feel the energy in the room," said Avila. "What I've learned is, sometimes people's sight is a distraction. They're looking at everything around them, and not listening to what's going on. I am truly listening."
Avila has been welcomed as a leader by the Colorado Springs community, providing a hopeful, vibrant, and experiential perspective on Council. In 2020, the Colorado Springs Women's Foundation and Pikes Peak Women honored Avila's contributions with an event in her honor. Avila was also named a 2020 Colorado Springs Woman of Influence.
"One has to speak out. Speak up, suit up, show up," said Avila. "You might think that what you're doing isn't important. It is. It is so important, whatever it is. I encourage people to step into their own power. If there's anything I can do to support any woman who wants to run for office, please give me a call."
And never feel limited by an unanticipated path.
"I don't think I would be here if everything had turned out as I had planned," Avila said. "I think being back in Colorado Springs is a calling. And I couldn't be happier."
A post shared by Puma COS Council Guide Dog (@pumacaninecouncil) | , "their parental rights were being immediately terminated," Avila said, "because there was no possibility of creating a case plan to address the issues that brought the family into the system in the first place. There was no avenue in place to reunite parents and their kids. More and more kids were ending up in the system."
Avila worked with the Mexican consulate, social workers, and attorneys to form a plan for deported parents to be able to reunite with their children.
"That is the best work I ever did," said Avila.
The work was close to her heart.
Her father, born and raised in Garden City, Kansas, was one of 14 children, and working class. Her mother was born and raised in Ario de Rosales, Michoacán, one of eight children, and wealthy.
In 1933, when her father was 18, America reinstated "Mexican round-ups," Avila said, deporting not just immigrant workers, but also American citizens with Mexican heritage. "And so my dad, the youngest kids, and my grandparents were deported from Kansas to Mexico — even though they were all American citizens."
Her father had just graduated high school. He found himself "sent back" to a place he'd never lived. Now a resident of Mexico, he attended a teacher's college with the hopes of working in education. There, he met Avila's mother.
And in 1944, more than a decade later, her father got a different letter from the United States — a draft notice. Seeing it as a chance for opportunity, he answered the call, bringing his wife and eldest two children back to Garden City, Kansas.
"My dad was drafted into the Army," said Avila. "He went to serve in World War II and on to serve in the Korean War."
Not only did Avila never know her father had been deported before she was born — it was a family secret she stumbled upon by chance.
"I was attending Colorado College studying U.S.-Mexico relations. I was reading about the deportations and the round ups that happened during the Depression. I went to go visit my parents that night, and I said, 'Hey, did you know they deported American citizens that were Mexican Americans?' And my dad got this really serious look on his face. And my mom looked at me and said, 'De digo despues.'" Which means, "I'll tell you later."
"Nobody knew," she said. "I think it was important for him to prove that he was American. He was born and raised here."
Avila came to Colorado Springs at the age of three in 1958 when her father was stationed in Fort Carson. Seeing the mountain peak, her mother was reminded of her childhood home in Mexico. "She told my father, "This is where I want to live," said Avila.
"I truly grew up in a bilingual household. My dad didn't want us to have an accent, so he only spoke English to us. And my mother only spoke Spanish to us," Avila said.
Her mother involved herself in the Colorado Springs community, helping to organize festivals, strengthening the local Latino scene, and teaching traditional dance. Avila grew up performing throughout the state, including the Colorado State Fair, and in Kansas and Mexico.
Her mother taught traditional dance, and Avila grew up performing throughout Colorado Springs.
Her elementary, middle, and high school years, she said, "were tough. The students would tell me to go back to where I came from," she said.
When visiting Mexico, her mother's family laughed at her Spanish, calling her "gringa." "You're not one of us," was the message.
"Growing up in America, it's like I wasn't American, but in Mexico, I wasn't Mexican. It was tough."
Avila grew up understanding the uniqueness of her multi-faceted heritage through cultural traditions. "I realized I am both American and Mexican, and I'm going to take the best of both worlds and combine them," she said. "I became very proud of being Mexican-American."
Still, discrimination was everywhere. As a child in Kansas, for example, her family could not swim in the community swimming pool until the day before the water was changed.
"Half of my family is lighter complected, green eyed, and the other part is really dark," said Avila. "In the theater, they would break up the family. The darker ones had to sit in the balcony, and the lighter complected kids could sit in the orchestra seats."
This was hard for her mother to bear.
"She refused to be treated less than," said Avila.
After retiring in 2011, Avila returned to Colorado Springs to be near her mother.
Her homecoming was bittersweet. Though she'd missed home, Avila noticed a stark contrast between the crosswalks and public transportation of California, and the five-days-a-week, limited bus schedule of Colorado Springs. In short, she could no longer rely on public transportation.
"The nearest public bus stop to my house is over a mile away, and inaccessible," said Avila. "If I call the local mobility service, I wait about forty minutes. I have to justify why I need a ride. I think, 'If I'm going through this, and I am capable, and I am who I am… then other people must really be struggling.'"
Almost inherently, Avila became a passionate voice for public transportation accessibility. Together with a coalition, relentless education, and petitions, she helped overhaul the curb and crosswalk protocol of Colorado Springs. The buses went from running five days a week, to seven.
When the City responded to the transit needs, "I though, wow, that's really something," said Avila. "We really made something happen. And I thought, if I were to run for office, I would have an even bigger voice for improving transit."
Avila ran for an At-Large Council seat in 2015. She says she didn't know much about campaigns, and had difficulty filling out all the requests for platform information from public interest groups and organizations. It was frustrating, she said, to participate in forums and media requests, which were also not always accessible. And to get there, she was often taking public transportation with her companion service dog Puma. "I was completely out of my realm," she said. "Once, when I got off the bus and got home, I cried. I thought, 'How am I going to do this?'"
Friends, family, and the community encouraged her to continue — despite having no campaign manager.
Avila persisted.
"I said to myself, 'Yolanda, you have to let people know that you're just as capable. It's just going to look a little different,'" she said.
Avila lost the first election. She began preparing to run for her District seat in 20 | 1,426 |
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Fly from London to Zurich today. From Zurich, travel first to Chur before transferring to the chocolate box village of Tiefencastel where you check into your hotel before dinner.
Spend today at leisure in Tiefencastel. The Church of St. Stefan is listed as a Swiss heritage site, as the first mention of the building goes back as early as 1343. In 1650 it was rebuilt and expanded by the Capuchin monks, and at this time it was adorned with the extensive wood carvings and paintings you can still see today. Alternatively, as the town is situated within Parc Ela, Switzerland's largest Natural Park, there are plenty of marked walks in the area, all set amongst stunning scenery. Otherwise why not visit the Albula Railway Museum in nearby Bergun? You can enjoy 5<|fim_middle|> using your Rail Discoveries Tailor-Made Swiss Card. The Swiss rail network is renowned for being amongst the most efficient and well run in the world; combined with Switzerland's fantastic scenery there is never a lack of places to discover by rail.
Enjoy another free day in which to make the most of your surroundings and take advantage of discounted fares using your Rail Discoveries Tailor-Made Swiss Card. The Swiss rail network is renowned for being amongst the most efficient and well run in the world; combined with Switzerland's fantastic scenery there is never a lack of places to discover by rail.
After breakfast, transfer to Basel airport for your homeward flight. | 0% fares on local transport with your Rail Discoveries Tailor-Made Swiss Card.
Enjoy another free day on Day 6, in which to make the most of your surroundings and take advantage of discounted fares | 42 |
Little Reptiles and How to Draw a Hamster
In a new artistic video by Amanda Joy, Surf Guru author Doug Dorst reads his story "Little Reptiles," and creepy crawlies start to come out of the woodworks (well, background).
In another artistic video, Richard<|fim_middle|>-twists for Citrus County author John Brandon", in The Saint Petersburg Times, takes a look at the development of John Brandon's literary career and writing addiction. | Yates author Tao Lin discusses his forthcoming iPhone app called "North American Hamsters," which features 60 hamsters who give advice. Also included: the story behind the rodent fetish, and a demonstration on how to draw a hamster.
A National Post Q&A with Lin calls him a "literary hustler" because of his "tireless" self-promotion and impressive collection of followers.
Riverfront Times has a brief Q&A with Adam Levin, author of the massive tome The Instructions. Asked whether he wanted the book to be so long, Levin admits: "I had no plan when I started writing. It developed in such a way, and the I wrote till I was done."
"True life plot | 146 |
My heart wanted a glass of armagnac.
Today I'm wrapping up the Florida vacation photos. We're starting with Sunday, October 5 at EPCOT. My sister made reservations for Teh Smitten and me at the always nice French bistro. I<|fim_middle|> next year. I think that sounds like a very good idea.
Just kidding. Disney is a lovely place. Teh Smitten and I had a good time. The time spent at Disney was a bit hectic but the latter part of the week at Treasure Island was perfectly slow. Rides were ridden, wine was tasted, and I spent a lot of dough on trading pins for the rugrats. Also, Teh Smit and I were well-reminded that kids are a major responsibility that neither of us are prepared to undertake.
I finished TWO books. Christopher Moore's A Dirty Job was delightful. The Gatecrasher? A rubbish beach read with an abhorrent heroine. Also, I don't tan anymore. I just get sun poisoning. As an unrepentant ginger, Teh Smitten also suffered a bit. My family is moving to Miami over Thanksgiving and I no longer tan. W. T. F? Future vacations will be spent in non-sunny and cool locales.
I discovered that my niece – at the age of three – has a very dark side. She tells very scary bedtime stories, punctuating her tales of BIG HUGE SPIDERS with giggles and breathy "and THEN…!"s. She will also get you beers from the fridge and feed you m&m's with glee. In short, she is awesome and if she was easy (both my niece and nephew are awful at meals) to take out for meals Teh Smitten and I might be more interested in procreation instead of our comfortably dissolute ways. My nephew is much better behaved when we can get him away from his parents, and Smit and I spent a nice part of the day taking him on various rides at WDW.
The niece, even though she is gorgeous, is also a big goof. This might save her from being one of those vapid beautiful people later in life. She has a special "sassy" pose.
More to come. I haven't even gotten to my camera yet or the delightful meals (sans children) we had.
Oh, blessed time-wasters. The VP debate is making me cringe, so I'm going to focus on fun stuff.
Your secret name is pink.
The animal which symbolizes you is brad pitt.
The color of your soul is cold.
The celebrity you most resemble is 12pm.
Your special pain or illness is circle.
Your most important time of day is chocolate.
The shape of your life is Q-yurt.
And the flavor which identifies you most is platypus.
Please go now and post your results in the comments! | had steak (with some lovely escalloped potatoes and haricots vert) and Smit had the duck.
We had cocktails before and after dinner and wines with. Do I recall what we drank? No. I have new respect for people who can keep track of what they drink at EPCOT's wine and food festival. It rained on us a good bit – it was all we could do to hold a drink while wearing these vile Disney ponchos.
Thankfully, it cleared up a bit after dinner and we got to watch the fireworks on the way out. We also discovered that my niece has a thing for world music. EPCOT was blasting this celtic jam with a disco backbeat and the girl was working it over by the German pavilion!
After all the drinking, we drank some more.
The next day, we celebrated my birthday at one of the restaurants at the Japanese pavilion. My sister LOVES her some Japanese steak house action. This resulted in certain humiliations. I heard that people celebrating their birthdays at Disney were provided extra fun things – like special birthday desserts. Well, the fine folks sang me happy birthday and provided a very nice napolean and planted this awesome hat on me.
I really don't know what I was thinking aside from "more sake please". I'm not just blushing in this photo – that would be sunburn.
When I was five, the family took a trip to Disneyland where Chip and Dale inflicted much damage to my hair. The Animal Kingdom's version was much kinder to my niece and Dale flirted with me, which was disturbing.
The time spent at Treasure Island was pretty relaxing, and Teh Smitten and I managed to do a fair bit of exploring around St. Petersburg. One day we went to the Florida Orange Groves Inc & Winery and tried a bunch of their fruit wines. It sounds odd, but I really liked their tomato wine – would have made an interesting bloody mary. We picked up a bottle of their Hurricane Class 5 white sangria and drank it at the beach, and brought home a bottle of the dry blueberry wine. Most of the wines are very sweet – they seem to be marketed to people who don't really like wine. I'm an equal opportunity drinker, so whatever. Afterwards, we grabbed lunch at Ted Peters Famous Smoked Fish restaurant. I'm not a huge fan, but its been there for 50 years or so, had a ton of character and great German potato salad.
The sister and the fam headed back on Saturday, so Teh Smitten and I went to the Dali Museum for a little culture.
Later that day, we went to Ybor City to have dinner at the famed Columbia Restaurant – it boasts that it is the largest Spanish restaurant in all of North America. It was a great experience! Ybor City is pretty, and the restaurant consumes an entire city block. We ate in the lovely bar area. I think there was a wedding reception and two large events going on in that place that night.
We had calamari, scallops, mussels with chorizo, crab and chicken croquetas, perfect Cuban bread, wine, port and Teh Smitten tried a glass of that Japanese whisky – Suntory's Yamazaki (it was very nice). For dessert, white chocolate bread pudding topped with rum sauce. It was amazing. The service was outstanding. That experience was so much more than I had expected it would be.
They also have a gift shop where they sell their own hand-rolled cigars. Teh Smitten picked up a bourbon soaked cigar to enjoy at some point.
And now I dream of the next vacation. Teh Smitten wants to go to the Cocktail Convention in New Orleans | 758 |
Drama of the Week
The National: Episode 1
Politics and theatre do battle in the fight to establish a successful National Theatre.
by Sarah Wooley
1963. Sir Laurence Olivier becomes the first Artistic Director of the National Theatre. But there are many political battles ahead, not least with his lieutenant, the critic Kenneth Tynan
Sir Laurence Olivier . . . Robert Glenister
Kenneth Tynan . . . John Heffernan
Lord Chandos . . . Michael Pennington
Cecil Tennant . . . Neil McCaul
Diana Boddington . . . Scarlett Courtney
Stephen Arlen . . . Will Kirk
Harry . . . Rick Warden
Neville . . . Greg<|fim_middle|> is involved in WW1.
Exercise your imagination with some of the best writers and actors on radio. | Jones
Peter O'Toole . . . Jonny Holden
Reporter . . . Clive Hayward
Directed by Marc Beeby
The first of three dramas about the birth of the National Theatre. Funded at huge cost to the taxpayer, the "theatre to end all theatres" was front page news in its early years. Running it was a high stakes political business as much as it was an artistic one. Never before had one theatre been the focus for such relentless national debate about the relationship between the arts, government, press and the public.
From its inception at the Old Vic to the opening of the Olivier Theatre in the National's eventual home at the South Bank, from the fall of Macmillan to the rise of Thatcher, the series follows the legendary players in a fast-moving, entertaining saga. Big personalities clash and ambition, greed and power fight with artistic integrity and wider cultural responsibilities.
Writer Sarah Wooley has an impressive record of dynamic, character-driven factual drama including 'A Nice Little Holiday' about John Osborne, 'Victim', about Dirk Bogarde and the making of the film of the same name, and 'Fifteen' about Andy Warhol.
See all episodes from Drama of the Week
Download: The Unforgiven
Trouble erupts as a serial killer launches a huge legal appeal against his conviction.
Download: Home Front
Characters on the home front try to maintain normality while Britain | 289 |
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Things to<|fim_middle|>roufamd.com.
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Nyack Sparkles with Holiday Fun!
From Thanksgiving through New Year's Day, Nyack shimmers with the sights and sounds of the holiday season, with glittering lights and festive shop windows, plus eclectic stores and restaurants, and the best nightlife in Rockland County.
Nyack's gift to you: FREE PARKING village-wide every weekend from Thanksgiving through December 29th! (Saturday 12:00am to Sunday 11:59pm)
Nyack is the perfect place to shop for distinctive gifts for everyone on your list. It all kicks off on November 24 with Small Business Saturday and the annual Made by Hand Arts and Crafts Fair. Parking will be FREE throughout the village during Thanksgiving weekend (November 22-25), courtesy of Village Hall.
View our directory of retail shops here. Make sure your visit includes a meal at one of our delicious restaurants!
For more unique shopping opportunities, be sure to check out the Indoor Street Fair & Gift Gallery on December 2, and Rockland Center for the Arts' Affordable Art & Pottery Bazaar from December 9-23. And remember to fill your holiday table with treats from the Nyack Farmer's Market, which remains outdoors every Thursday through the end of December, before moving to the Nyack Center in January. Throughout the month of December, many of Nyack's shops will be open extended hours, with holiday specials and in-store events.
Add some sparkle to your season at our annual tree lighting celebration, Holiday Lights of Nyack, on December 1. Then surround yourself with the sounds of the season with Grace Music's 49th Annual Messiah Sing and the Nyack Center's Music & Readings in a Holiday Spirit on December 9, Sing We Enchanted Holiday Concert on December 14, Rockland Choral Society's Gazing at the Stars on December 15, and The Bossy Frog Winter Holiday Extravaganza on December 28.
Make Nyack your destination for festive holiday celebration all season long, and see for yourself why Nyack is Art & Soul on the Hudson. Pick up your Nyack Map & Guide at shops and restaurants throughout the village.
Women Rock - 4 Plays by Rockland Playwrights
ArtsRock presents Movie Music History with Elliott Forrest
An Evening with Christopher Tignor
Panel Discussion – Artists and Intellectuals of South Mountain Road
Cupid's Couples Cooking Class
Art & Soul in Nyack Blog
Human in Nature: The Art & Wit of Rodney Smith at Edward Hopper House Museum
The Edward Hopper House Museum is pleased to present Human in Nature: The Art & Wit of Rodney Smith, from December 7th, 2019 to March 8th, 2020. The exhibition features 20 black & white and color photographs, illustrating Smith's enduring love of nature. Smith's magical images are instantly recognizable for the way they combine surrealism, style and humor, in the first…
Nyack Glitters with Holiday Delights!
From Thanksgiving through New Year's Day, Nyack shimmers with the sights and sounds of the holiday season, with glittering lights and festive shop windows, plus eclectic stores and restaurants, and the best nightlife in Rockland County. Nyack's gift to you: FREE PARKING in Nyack's Main Street parking lots every weekend from Thanksgiving through December 22nd! (Saturday 12:00am to Sunday 11:59pm)…
The Path on the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge
One of the most anticipated features of the new Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge is its dedicated shared-use path, which will provide new access for cyclists and pedestrians to cross the Hudson River, offering an exciting new recreational opportunity in Rockland and Westchester counties. When completed in late 2019, wayfarers will enjoy a 12-foot wide path located on the northern side of the westbound span of the new…
About Visit Nyack, Inc.
Copyright © 2016 Visit Nyack, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | 845-535-5046 | Custom Web Development
PHOTO CREDIT: Thank you to Dr. Arnold Roufa for generously allowing us to use his
beautiful photographs. View his work online at www. | 913 |
Home › Geopolitics › The Latest In Russia-Pakistan Relations: Baby Steps Or Something Bigger?
The Latest In Russia-Pakistan Relations: Baby Steps Or Something Bigger?
Pakistan's objective national interests are best served by retaining its recently improved relations with Russia while simultaneously improving its troubled ties with the US. Neither should occur at the expense of the other since a balance between them is the most optimal scenario. The two latest developments suggest that the new authorities are seriously considering this pragmatic course of action but might have yet to decide on how to proceed.
Russian-Pakistani relations have dominated the discourse in that South Asian state since former Prime Minister Imran Khan claimed that the US ousted him in early April as punishment for his independent foreign policy, particularly its Russian dimension. The new authorities, however, insist that their no-confidence motion against him was constitutional and therefore legal. Whatever side of the debate one stands on, there's no denying that bilateral ties have been politicized after the latest events. There's speculation that the new authorities led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif might even consider slowing down the pace of their country's previously rapid rapprochement with Russia as part of a quid pro quo for repairing Pakistan's troubled ties with the US.
Two recent developments indicate that Russia is sincerely interested in continuing its close cooperation with Pakistan despite the scandal that accompanied the new authorities' rise to power. Their ties have thus far been characterized by joint anti-terrorist drills, political coordination in Afghanistan, and negotiations over agricultural and energy cooperation. They're mutually beneficial and not aimed against any third parties. Moscow's position towards all of its partners is that their relations should always be free from any external influences. In the context of ties with Islamabad, this means that the Kremlin expects that the possible improvement of Pakistani-American ties won't negatively impact on Pakistani-Russian ones.
Observers should keep this in mind when interpreting the report from The Express Tribune claiming that President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Sharif have quietly exchanged letters expressing their mutual desire to continue comprehensively cooperating with one another. That Pakistani outlet is regarded as a credible source of information so its report shouldn't be dismissed out of hand. It claimed that a senior foreign office official from their country spoke to them on the condition of anonymity to reveal that "Putin expressed the desire to deepen cooperation between the two countries. PM Shehbaz wrote back to Putin thanking him for his felicitation message and expressed similar sentiments on bilateral ties between the two countries as well as cooperation on Afghanistan."
If true, then it's a promising development which might put to rest some of the suspicions that the new authorities are operating under US influence or might even be completely controlled by the declining unipolar hegemon. The second event worth considering in this context is the Russian Embassy in Pakistan's tweet on Thursday that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov congratulated Bilawal Bhutto on his appointment as the new Foreign Minister. They also wrote that "High level of bilateral relations and readiness to further interaction to benefit the two friendly nations noted in message. Lavrov said would be glad to see his Pakistani counterpart in Moscow." This confirms Russia's sincere interest in continuing to closely cooperate with Pakistan and adds credence to The Express Tribune's report.
Analysing both developments back-to-back, it certainly seems like the new authorities are receptive to Russia's recent outreaches. The reported exchange of letters between their leaders and Foreign Minister Lavrov's public invitation to his Pakistani counterpart to visit Moscow suggest at the very least that baby steps are being taken to keep their ties on track despite the scandalous context in which they're being practiced following early April's change of government and the former premier's speculation about the reason behind his ouster. This is a positive development that should be celebrated by both sides, but it would of course be best if these are actually signs of something bigger that might be in the works between them.
To explain, bilateral relations are extremely promising and have the exciting potential to truly develop into a comprehensive strategic partnership with time. For that to happen, though, they must absolutely remain on track and mustn't be slowed down whatsoever at all no matter how much the US might pressure Pakistan to do so. Pakistan's objective national interests are best served by retaining its recently improved relations with Russia while simultaneously improving its troubled ties with the US. Neither should occur at the expense of the other since a balance between them is the most optimal scenario. The two latest developments suggest that the new authorities are seriously considering this pragmatic<|fim_middle|> Pakistan might have to compromise on as a quid pro quo for improving ties with the US. Nevertheless, it's still a positive step in the right direction that baby steps are at least being taken to ensure that relations with Russia aren't harmed by what just transpired in the country. It remains to be seen whether the pace of their previously rapid rapprochement with Russia will continue, but it doesn't look like their prior progress will be reversed barring some unexpected development. That being the case, Pakistan should be praised for not abandoning the Russian vector of its grand strategy, which will hopefully continue to strengthen.
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Categories: Geopolitics, International Affairs
Tags: Geopolitics, Pakistan, Russia
ہم نے گلشن کے تحفظ کی قسم کھائی ہے | course of action but might have yet to decide on how to proceed.
That's somewhat understandable considering how politicized relations with Russia have become due to the scandal surrounding the recent change of government and speculation about what | 41 |
Year Abroad: Barcelona Trip Part #1 – british. foodie. dreamer.
So I'm writing this part at half-past one in the morning on the Saturday night as we've had such a busy day and one of our roommates is snoring. And I want to throw something at him. But I won't, of course… My friend Rob has ear plugs. So he can't hear a thing. And I'm guessing this guy's friend is already asleep. Therefore, I need a miracle to sleep. Until I eventually get too tired at about three in the morning… As that's an hour and a half away. The throwing idea seems very tempting right now. In order to restrain myself (I'm just being dramatic now), I'll scribble about this wonderful mini city break.
Halloween! I left Madrid yesterday at two o'clock, and after a seven and a half hour bus journey, I arrived at Barcelona Sants. Rob was kindly waiting for me there as he was bonkers enough to get an overnight bus and had arrived at half five that morning… —OKAY THE SNORING IS SO LOUD.— Once I pulled my suitcase off the coach, got on the boiling hot metro, we arrived at our hostel called Hello BCN, and it's pretty awesome. Well kept, organised and not aesthetically boring. It's also in a really good location, very close to the metro stop Parel-lels and is a stone throw (by someone with a<|fim_middle|> headed on our way to see the Gaudi house, called Casa Battló.
In order to get there, we walked up the lovely the long famous street, La Rambla, taking pictures and catching up on life (yay!) and ended up walking the whole way to the incredible building. (We were originally going to catch the metro. As Rob's answer to my question, "how long do you think that will take?" every time I point a map is "40 minutes?" and I no longer believe he knows how long it takes to get anywhere! Kidding.. but Barcelona is not that big for everything to be 40 minutes apart! Hehe!) We took a selfie in front of the Gaudi house (who wouldn't?) and then got on the metro to go to the Sagrada Familia. But I am telling you, Rob is pants at being the tourist guide. Not that I should rely on him, but I trust that he takes us where we need to go. But no, we got on the wrong line going in the wrong direction… Two wrongs really don't make a right…! Thus we ended up deciding to take a detour to the Arc du Triomph.
Following our little mishap, we stopped for lunch at a Chinese place that we came across as we walked in the direction of the Sagrada. It seemed a bit dodgy but actually, the food was really good! We had soups to start, then I had some dumplings and a meat dish with some rice. And Rob ordered spicy tofu and prawn noodles. His tongue was burning for a while…. Once he recovered we continued on with our day. After the Sagrada, we walked south. It was just so lovely. No picture nor words can describe it. Just us, ambling along wittering in spanglish, it's not cold, the sun is shining and there are beautiful buildings around us.
In the end, we arrived at the Park. And it had the most beautiful fountain in it. Probably the best thing about Barcelona. Here's a pic, but it doesn't justify its beauty! | good arm) away from La Rambla.
We ended up getting pretty tipsy/drunk on that Friday night on very good sangria. Consequently, we had hurting heads this morning… But we have managed to pack so much in! We pretty much sorted ourselves out by half ten on Saturday morning and ambled in the direction of La Rambla. Once there we found a really nice chic (I think anyway) restaurant and had breakfast. Then | 89 |
Getting started and wondering what to test? This article outlines a top 10 list of the most common, relatively simple experiments that people run as they're getting started with Optimizely Classic. It also provides you with guidance on how to build them on your own site.
For each experiment, we'll share the story of someone who wants to use A/B testing to improve the user experience on his or her website and an experiment idea to test out the hypotheses. The ideas and implementation details are intended to be adaptable and to help kick-start your own testing opportunities. We'll also link to relevant Knowledge Base articles if you'd like to expand on what you learn here.
Have a question about getting your experiment up and running? Head over to the Optimizely Community and join the discussion.
This month, John is promoting a new product that he feels will be a hit. The ad for this new product is currently poorly highlighted and appears as one of the many promo boxes on the homepage. John speculates that adding a promotional banner site-wide will increase the click-through rate and purchase conversions.
First, determine where the banner would fit best on your site.
Then, work with your creative team to design a promotional image that is the correct dimensions and is in line with your site's style guide.
Once you have the banner ready to go, open up the Optimizely Classic editor and load one of the pages where you'd like the new image to appear.
Click the relevant location (in this case we will add the banner above the top navigation) and select Insert Image. You have the option to enter the URL of the new image, or upload the image right from your desktop.
Once the image is on the page, you can use the Move and Resize feature to fine-tune the element's location and sizing.
To ensure that your experiment runs site-wide, click Options > URL Targeting and set the URL targeting condition to be a substring match for yourdomain.com. A substring match will allow the experiment to run on any page that contains the string "yourdomain.com" (which should be every page on your site.) Note: you can use this targeting concept for any experiments that require a site-wide change.
To make sure your experiment is tracking goals that are meaningful, set up a click goal on the banner itself, a pageview goal on the promotional product's cart page, and pageview goal on the purchase confirmation page. The results of your experiment will prove once and for all if the addition of a site-wide promotional banner ads value to the customer's experience.
Joe has a theory that he can increase the click through rate on his "Add to Cart" CTA by testing out different versions of the button's language and color.
What do you think will cause visitors to respond positively to the "Add to Cart" CTA? Does text outperform symbols? Does a short CTA outperform a more detailed CTA? Does red outperform blue? Brainstorm some ideas with your team and put your predictions to the test.
Load one of your product pages into the editor and select the CTA button. Choose Edit Element > Edit Style > Color and Background to modify the background color of the button.
For your second variation, click the CTA again and choose Edit Text to modify the copy. Note: if your buttons are images and are not created with CSS properties, then you will have to click on the image and swap it out for the new, updated image.
Set up a click goal on the CTA so you can accurately determine which button is generating the highest number of clicks. It would also be smart to set up a pageview goal on the purchase confirmation page so you can measure how the changes are impacting overall conversions.
For additional details on the results of the Fab.com experiment that tested different CTAs, check out our customer story here. You can also check out our blog post on CTA optimization here.
Kate has recently found that a large number of visitors are reaching the "Cart Review" and then bouncing. She thinks she can increase the percentage of visitors who progress to the next stage in the funnel by adding a second "Proceed to Checkout" button above the product table. This will ensure that the CTA always appears both above and below the fold.
For this experiment, you will need to add a new button that functions in the same way as your original button. You may want to contact your technical team to attain the exact HTML needed to duplicate the button and make it fully functional.
Load the cart page into the editor. Before adding the new HTML, it's a best practice to identify the correct container (i.e. the correct <div> element) for the button. You can do this using the Select Container feature. Specific positioning will ensure that your button does not end up floating in an undesirable location on the page.
Once you have the correct container selected, use the Insert HTML feature to add your new button in the appropriate position.
To set your experiment's targeting conditions, click Options > URL Targeting and add the relevant URL. In most cases, a simple match to your cart's URL will work.
To measure the performance of your test and confidently determine whether additional CTAs add value to your checkout flow, you will need to add goals to your experiment.
To add a click goal to your new button, click on the CTA and select Track Clicks from the dropdown menu. This will pop up a Goal Dialog that will let you give the<|fim_middle|> add the relevant parameter's name and value.
Set up a click goal on the landing page's Call To Action so you can confidently measure whether the original or customized version drives more conversions.
Mark relies heavily on landing pages to generate leads for his sales team. He believes that changing the order and increasing the size of his input fields will increase conversions and result in more leads.
To get started with this experiment, load your landing page into the editor.
The Edit Style feature lets you easily make changes to the background color, border size, text font etc.
The Dimensions tab allows you to change the height and width of the input field. Once you have finished adjusting the size and coloring of your input fields, click the text titles and repeat the process.
With a little jQuery know-how, you can save some time and modify the styling of all of the input fields at once.
To change the order of input fields, simply click the field you'd like to move and select Rearrange from the dropdown menu. You will be able to drag this field into the desired location and the other input fields will adjust accordingly.
Click Options > URL Targeting to set up the URL targeting conditions for this experiment. Since your experiment should only run on one page, a simple match to the landing page URL will do the trick.
How will you confidently determine whether the larger input fields and new order had an effect on sign-ups? Set a click goal on the "Sign up" CTA so you can track which version generated a higher click-through rate.
If you would like to collect more granular data, you can set up custom events that track when visitors begin typing in a specific input field. Custom events such as this one will allow you to evaluate whether a certain field is generating dropoff.
Learn to build a test that streamlines the fields in your leadgen form, step-by-step.
Allison's site offers free shipping on all online orders. Currently the "Free shipping" value proposition is hidden below the product description. Allison believes adding "Free shipping" text adjacent to the "Add to Cart" button will increase clicks on the CTA as well as increase overall purchase conversions.
Emphasizing free shipping on your product pages is a great way alleviate fears of extra charges. On product pages, it's crucial that you are able to turn a visitor's purchase intention into action; details can make all the difference.
Load one of your product pages into the editor.
Click the space right above the "Add to Cart" CTA, select Insert Text, and type the desired promotional message.
Once the free shipping text has been added to the page, you can modify the styling and position as necessary by using Edit Style, Move and Resize, or Rearrange.
Ideally, the experiment will run on all product pages to ensure a large sample size and to ensure consistency across the site. Click Options > URL Targeting and use a substring match to meet the needs of your test.
To accurately measure the success of this experiment, it will be important to add a click goal for the "Add to Cart" CTA and to add a pageview goal on the purchase confirmation page. For this experiment, it would also be interesting to track revenue in order to deduce whether highlighting free shipping increases overall revenue.
For additional details and ideas, check out our blog article on emphasizing the return policy.
Tell us about your experiment successes and see how others are seeing success with Optimizely in the Optimizely Community. | goal a name and adjust the goal settings.
Be sure to also add the original button to the goal (a single goal can track clicks on multiple elements). This will give you a comprehensive view of clicks on a "Proceed to Checkout" button, rather than just clicks on one button or the other.
Greg thinks that the navigation bar within his checkout funnel is distracting to customers. He believes he can increase the number of successful conversions by keeping visitors on the page and removing the navigation bar.
To get started with this test, load the first checkout page of your funnel into the editor.
Click the navigation bar and choose Select Container from the dropdown menu. You will be able to choose the appropriate container that selects the entire navigation bar, rather than just one of the tab elements. Now, click Remove > Remove element from page.
Feel free to repeat this process for any banners or icons that appear in the header and may be a potential distractor.
As a baseline metric, it is beneficial to add click goals to the navigation bar elements in the Original version. Be sure to set up a pageview goal on the purchase confirmation page so you can confidently determine whether a clutter-free checkout funnel is better for your bottom line.
Tommy's product page lists three different subscription types that start from the cheapest on the left and increase in price as you move to the right. There is also a "best-deal" banner on the cheapest subscription. Tommy has a hypothesis that by removing the "best-deal" banner and rearranging the subscription types so that the most expensive subscription is on the left, he will be able to increase revenue.
Load the product page into the editor and select the column with the most expensive pricing structure.
Make sure to use the Select Container feature to grab the entire element.
Then, click Rearrange and drag the column so it moves all the way to the left. (Note: be sure to avoid using the "Move and Resize" feature to do this.) You will see the other two columns adjust accordingly.
Do the same thing for the column with the cheapest pricing structure, but move it all the way to the right.
Click the "best deal" banner image and hide it using the Remove feature.
Tommy only needs this experiment to run on the pricing page. Click Options > URL Targeting and set the targeting to be a simple match to the appropriate URL.
The key metric for determining success of the experiment here will be revenue. You can add revenue tracking to your experiment.
To track engagement with the page, it is also recommended that you create click goals on each of the subscription levels.
Ricky has a hypothesis that increasing the size of the breadcrumbs on his product pages will allow his customers to navigate more easily between different pages to find the item they want, and will ultimately increase purchases as a result.
Breadcumbs are designed to help users navigate between products and categories. On your site, identify which groupings of pages use breadcrumbs and identify how specific the navigation levels can get.
Within the editor, click the breadcrumbs text and use "Select Container" to make sure you are changing the font size of all the possible levels at once, rather than just one product name.
Click Edit Element > Edit Style > Text > Font Size and adjust the font size to be a few pixels larger.
Importantly, this experiment should run on all the pages that you identified earlier. In Ricky's case, he needs to set the URL targeting to match all of his product pages. In most cases, a substring match will work but Regular Expressions or Custom Tags can also come in handy if your URLs contain dynamic product names/IDs.
To track the performance of a larger font size, add a click goal to the breadcrumb elements and to the "Add to Cart" buttons. There may be other relevant clicks goals you wish to create that will help to deduce whether the size of the breadcrumbs have an effect on user interaction.
Finally, don't forget to set up a pageview goal on your confirmation page so you can easily determine how the test is impacting your high-level objectives.
Pam knows that her site adds a unique cookie to a visitor who has read more than 2 articles on a certain topic. Pam hypothesizes that she can increase engagement on the site and increase click-through rates on articles if she can customize the homepage based on a reader's preferences. As an example, Pam would like to feature a hero banner that highlights an article related to entrepreneurship for visitors who frequently browse articles related to this topic.
To save time, Pam wants to run a proof-of-concept experiment and isolate only her most common article topic. She has decided that she will test personalizing the homepage for visitors who have an interest in the environment.
Load the homepage into the editor and swap out the main image with the new, personalized image. To do this, simply click the image and select Change Image from the dropdown menu. As a future experiment idea, Pam has noted that she also wants to test personalizing the recommended content to match the reader's interest area.
How will Pam ensure that only visitors with the "environment" cookie are seeing the updated image? She does not want to show an image featuring endangered animals to her readers who have no interest in this topic. Optimizely allows you to target an experiment based on a variety of conditions known to be true about the visitor -- one of these options is cookie targeting.
Click the Audiences button, then Create New Audience. In the Audiences menu, drag Cookie into the Audience Conditions section and add the relevant cookie's name and value.
As goals for the experiment, set up a click goal on the homepage banner to effectively determine whether personalized content drives more clicks on high-value areas.
Wesley is a marketing manager who has been tasked with optimizing paid search campaigns. He is currently running 2 campaigns that are advertising his company's new e-book. Each of these campaigns are using slightly different messaging to target different groups of people and interest areas. Wesley believes he can increase conversions on the e-book landing page by customizing the header, sub-header and call to action copy to match a specific ad's messaging (rather than use a generic landing page for all ads).
To get started, you will first need to identify how visitors arriving from each ad campaign can be differentiated from one another. In Wesley's case, he has created unique utm_campaign names that will be associated with the ads.
The easiest way to set up this test is to create 2 separate experiments -- one for each campaign.
Load your landing page loaded into the editor, click on the header and select Edit Text from the dropdown menu.
Customize the copy to match the specific campaign's messaging. Do the same for any other content on the page that you'd like to modify. For this particular experiment, Wesley is going to focus on the discounted price.
Repeat this process for your second ad campaign.
How will Wesley ensure that the correct traffic sees the experiment? He does not want a visitor who clicked on an ad featuring a discount to land on a page that completely downplays the price.
You can specify an audience for an experiment using a variety of conditions known to be true about the visitor -- one of these options is query string parameter targeting. Click Audiences > Create New Audience and | 1,466 |
Last weekend, my local yarn shop<|fim_middle|> you come from? | This Is Knit, organised a workshop on Shetland Lace with Gudrun Johnson. The class was really interesting. Gudrun began by explaining the construction used in Shetland lace, and then as we began work on our garter triangle, explained the history behind it. I found this really fascinating, it's such an integral part of their heritage. I found some photos on the Shetland museum and archives website if you're interested in seeing some historical examples. I love learning more about the history of knitting, it helps me feel connected to the past and particularly to the generations of my family who would have knitted to supplement their income.
As the workshop progressed we added to the body of our shawls and then added an edging. This is a mini version of Gudrun's design Flukra and it's really beautiful, with lace losenges. She recommended a pure wool yarn so I chose Shetland 2ply Jumper Weight in pink. Hmm, I don't think I'll be knitting with pure wool again, I'm all about the soft yarns, mmmm alpaca. But anyway….
I didn't get my shawl finished during the class but decided to finish it at home. Initially I thought I might frame it, as a piece of yarny art (and I think I'll still do that with another lace swatch). But when it was blocked I realised it was the perfect size for my dog Mia. She loves dressing up. So now it's her shawl and she loves it.
I hope Gudrun doesn't mind me putting her beautiful design on my dog. I think it's super cute on Mia and she got so much attention in the park today wearing it. I'm still going to knit some Shetland lace for myself. I've chosen Loren, especially after seeing this beautiful version on the This Is Knit blog. Isn't it beautiful?
Have you ever knit a Shetland lace shawl? Or have a knitting tradition where | 412 |
The breakfast room addition is surrounded by landscaped terraces and topped by a standing-seam copper roof.
BEFORE: The addition replaces a drab patio at the back of the house.
The new kitchen has a raised ceiling to accommodate taller cabinets by Wood-Mode.
A long island with a custom<|fim_middle|> area, this was the next step in bringing the family together," says Assuncao.
Cathy Applefeld Olson is a writer in Alexandria, Virginia. Photographer Kenneth M. Wyner is based in Takoma Park, Maryland.
RENOVATION ARCHITECTURE: RUI PONTE, AIA, LEED AP, Ponte Mellor Architects, Bethesda, Maryland. RENOVATION CONTRACTOR: JEAN ASSUNCAO, president; BILL RAMBO, project manager, Edgemoor Custom Builders, Bethesda, Maryland. INTERIOR DESIGN: ALEXANDER BAER, Jenkins Baer Associates, Baltimore, Maryland. LANDSCAPING: CHAPEL VALLEY LANDSCAPE COMPANY, Woodbine, Maryland. | concrete countertop provides a gathering spot.
The new breakfast room is offset by golden-hued walls.
Too many cooks in the kitchen? Not for a Maryland couple with two young daughters, who transformed their bland galley kitchen into a spacious, warm and light-filled space that fosters family time and casual entertaining. The project, which was implemented by Edgemoor Custom Builders, not only reconfigured the existing kitchen to accommodate state-of-the-art appliances and a generous island, but also saw the addition of an elegant new breakfast room.
Bobby Caras of Multi-Systems, Inc., also worked some magic behind the walls, with the installation of a Control 4 integrated audio/video and lighting system. "The kitchen is such a gathering | 148 |
Mario Garcia Torres's "Cover Letter"<|fim_middle|> processes human excrement.
Although the slide projections presented here may prove fascinating to those with a penchant for curiosities in art history (myself included), they collapse under their contextual insensitivity and lack of perspicacity. Why present a slide projection in 2011 if the obsolescence of that technology is nary considered? Can this format still prove relevant to shedding insight on the contemporary condition of the artist, or does it just symbol a form of retro-aesthetic posturing? How is it possible that institutional critique has become resolutely a-political? Perhaps such contemporary manifestations of institutional critique seem ultimately empty in the hermetic art world agora that is now the Lower East Side.
Karen Archey is editor of e-flux conversations and an art critic and curator living in Berlin. | at Itinerant, 45 Orchard St, New York
April 23–May 8, 2011
Itinerant, New York
View of, "Cover Letter", at Itinerant, 45 Orchard St, New York, 2011. Left: Mario Garcia Torres's Cover Letter, 2011. 35mm slide installation. Dimensions variable. Right: Mario Garcia Torres, What Doesn't Kill You Makes you Stronger, 2007. 35mm slide installation. Dimensions variable. Photo by John Berens. All images courtesy of Itinerant.
The Lower East Side is a strange place. Imagine the area a mere three years ago: as the financial crisis loomed, galleries such as Invisible-Exports, Lisa Cooley and Rachel Uffner joined or replaced the efforts of veteran spaces Orchard, CANADA, and Reena Spaulings, casting the gallery district as a more critically-minded alternative to the overtly market-driven slickness of Chelsea. Soon after, as real estate prices fell further and the traction of Orchard Street grew, near-hobbyist boutique galleries popped up and faded, transforming the area into a sort of strip mall for affordable art. One usually vacant space on Orchard Street—which used to house a gallery whose title was writ in Comic Sans and sold National Geographic-style photographs of tigers and elephants—recently contained the pop-up exhibition "Cover Letter" by conceptual artist Mario Garcia Torres. Appropriately titled "Itinerant," the exhibition project is spearheaded by two blue-chip gallery directors, Rose Lord of Marian Goodman and Mari Spirito of 303 Gallery.
"Cover Letter" comprises two slide projections: a new work sharing the exhibition's title and an older work, What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger, from 2007. The series of slides in Cover Letter tracks Garcia Torres assembling a bouquet while a letter of application to become the director of the Kunsthalle Bern subscripts the picture plane. The artist comes off as somewhat poetic and entirely sincere, "I have persistently thought about…the meanings and political implications behind the ways art is produced and exhibited. I deem this the fundamental knowledge needed to run an institution like the Kunsthalle Bern."
Rather than send the search committee a real bouquet of flowers, Garcia Torres says, he is sending it in the form of these slides. And what of the bouquet? The contradistinction between the bourgeois, leisure-steeped symbol of the floral bouquet with the strange, when-pigs-fly sentiment of a young Mexican artist applying for a director's position at a major cultural institution brings to mind unfortunate hierarchies of labor and authority in the art world, and specifically the tragically invisible labor permeating both it and the highly corrupt floral industry. Perhaps directly referent, such an analogy was actually made decades before in Martha Rosler's 1974 Flower Fields in which illegal Mexican day laborers working in the flower fields along California's Highway 5 were filmed from a car window.
Perhaps more straightforward is Garcia Torres's What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger, a slide presentation about the mythology surrounding Martin Kippenberger's short-lived Museum of Modern Art on the Greek island Syros. Kippenberger initiated the project in 1993, taking over the skeleton-like building by inviting a gaggle of international artists to stage events, including Stephen Prina, Cosima von Bonin, and Christopher Williams. Their exploits were generally ignored by tourists and Syros locals, and the project was abandoned after Kippenberger's death from liver cancer four years later in 1997. The building now somewhat ironically | 758 |
When driving home with my wife and 1 year old daughter I noticed some hesitation on normal acceleration. So I did a WOT in 2nd gear and man my car did not like that. It start to misfire really bad. So I continued on home and within 2 block of getting there I lost at least 90% of my power. I barely could get the car in the garage. My ScanGaugeII was not picking up any error code so that was not a good sign. Also, my car smelled like sulfur.
I call up my friend Erik that owns I.P.M. Auto Service here in Redmond and ask him if he could bring the Vag-com over. After a quick scan it showed that cylinder 6 was the only one misfiring. We took out the spark plug and it looked just fine. So we swapped in a old OEM coil pack that I had kept just in case. Fired up the S4 and it was running fine.<|fim_middle|> was able to get something fixed in under a hour and at no cost.
What's odd is that all of my coil packs were replaced 2 years ago/30,000 miles so they are not old at all. They are the Beru brand so maybe the quality is not that great. Hopefully the rest of them are ok and stay that way for a while. | First time I | 3 |
Walsh, Cardona pay visit to Franklin Institute
U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh and Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona visited Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology (BFIT) Friday to celebrate the school's model of teaching, which focuses on<|fim_middle|> as technology develops and the need for greener infrastructure production increases.
From a labor perspective, Walsh said the efforts are both on training workers in emerging industries and on retraining workers now in fossil fuel jobs.
"The tricky part about the clean energy space is that there are some careers that are just starting up, so we have to try and get in early, but we're also looking at the transitional energy spaces, where coal miners are coal miners today, and they're going to be transitioning, where refiners are refiners today, they're going to change," Walsh said. "So, we're working on also creating a pathway for transition for workers that are in these fields now, so they don't have to quit there. They can be reskilled and retrained and brought up to speed pretty quickly. But we're working on both of those phases."
Francis said that it is especially important to do that work in the local community.
"We know that 90% of our students are going to stay right here," Francis said. "They're from here, they're going to stay here, and we just want a lot more students and a lot more attention on the fact that tech and trade education is absolutely connected to sustainability and to green jobs."
Walsh also highlighted BFIT's Early College Program, which connects high school students with opportunities to take college classes or get a head start on a degree through BFIT, citing those sorts of connections as one of several priorities for investing in the country's education system.
Cardona noted that programs like the one at BFIT that connects high school students with college opportunities are also important to open doors to a more diverse student population.
"For so many students, they look at college as too far away, 'I can't do that.' For the first-generation college students, like I was, if you don't have those experiences, you might not see in yourself the ability to be successful there. So when I say we need to evolve our high schools, every high school in this country needs to have an early college experience program to give our students an opportunity to see what they can be, even when they don't dream that high."
That sense of wide-reaching opportunity is common at BFIT, Francis said.
"It's not where you start, but it's where you go," she said. "We always say, 'Start here, go anywhere.'"
Both secretaries cited diversity as a priority for students and teachers, especially in STEM education.
"We've got to change what STEM looks like; there are not enough Black and brown students in STEM, there are not enough girls in STEM. We've got to change that," Cardona said. "We're hitting that head-on, and we want to make sure that we also look at diversifying the teachers in STEM, right? Looking at our partners that are in the field that want to go into teaching and saying, 'Look, you have an engineering degree, have you ever considered becoming a teacher?'"
Walsh said this is especially important with concerns across the country about a worker shortage.
"As a country, if we don't get on the ball and really change the way we think of STEM and teach STEM, and don't get more people interested in it — kids of color, African American, Latino, women — we think we have a worker shortage now in this country? We're going to have a huge worker shortage," Walsh said.
Walsh said that event attendees were "sitting in the model" to tackle all those challenges nationwide. Cardona, too, said he thinks BFIT is doing it right.
"I know when I leave here, I'm going to think about this school and think about, 'How can we get models like this across the country?'" Cardona said.
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'The Negro Motorist Green Book' exhibition opens at Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie, Illinois in time for Black History Month
Zoni Girls is a black-owned business embracing skate culture and fashion
Disabled Black Teen With No Use of His Arms Uses His Mouth to Draw | partnering and collaborating with other educational institutions.
During a moderated conversation at the event with BFIT President Aisha Francis, Walsh and Cardona praised the school's efforts and educational model, aimed to connect students to employers. They also described the program's connections to efforts the Biden administration is pushing nationally, especially focused on equitable access to education and climate resilience.
Cardona said schools like BFIT represent the Biden administration's national aims by focusing on partnerships outside of the school.
(l-r) Aisha Francis, president of Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology, and Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona listen as Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh discusses pairing education and employment in secondary and higher education. PHOTO: AVERY BLEICHFELD
"Schools that are going to thrive, that are going to succeed, are schools that are doing what you're doing: intentional collaboration with high schools, intentional collaboration with four-year schools, intentional collaboration with workforce partners — and I saw that today," Cardona said.
Walsh said that work is especially important when it comes to engaging communities of color. BFIT reports that 74% of its students are students of color and 57% are first-generation college students.
"If you follow them home, the areas that they live in, there's not many opportunities for them to go down the street and jump into a corporation because the corporations aren't there," Walsh said. "What we have to do is be really focused and intentional about partnering with [BFIT], partnering with community colleges all across the country, partnering with employers across the country."
They also focused on the need for innovation in jobs and education, | 329 |
MIKE WALTON
S<|fim_middle|> the opportunity to perform with internationally known artists Eddie Daniels, Donny McCaslin, Duffy Jackson and Joey Defrancesco. He also took great advantage of the local music scene in Atlanta regularly attending the weekly jam sessions and performances of local artists. Mike graduated with his masters May of 2014.
Mike Walton currently resides in Atlanta GA where he performs regularly with the Joe Gransden big band and Russell Gunn's Blackhawk quintet as well as working on his own projects and writing original music. During is down time, Mike Walton enjoys being a geek. He is especially a huge fan of Star Wars and Star Trek. He also enjoys scale model building , reading a good book or watching documentaries. Most of all he enjoys spending time with his closest friends both human and Dog | AXOPHONIST/MUSIC TEACHER
Mike Walton's journey into musi c began at the age of 10 when he began playing alto saxophone. Inspired by the music he heard in the soundtracks of his favorite movies Mike joined the band in middle school. While he did enjoy being in the band, it wasn't until his junior year in high school that he began to realize that he wanted to have a career in music. Also during his junior year, Mike began taking private lessons from educator and Jazz saxophonist, Kenyon Carter who introduced Mike to jazz music and other saxophonist who would become life long influences in his musical growth.
After high school, Mike attended Valdosta State University where he studied with Carey Brague. He also began studying writing and arranging from David Springfield. While in Valdosta, Mike began playing in the local bars sitting in with rock and funk groups before forming a fusion band with his friends. He gained much experience and began gigging in his third year at VSU including forming his own quartet and performing weekly at a local restaurant. Mike earned his bachelors degree in music performance in 2010.
After graduating from VSU, Mike Walton took time off from school to work on his playing and get more gigging experience. However, he found little opportunity in his home town and decided to enroll at Georgia State University for his masters degree in jazz studies. He continued to hone his skills under the direction of Mace Hibbard as well as Gordon Vernick and Kevin Bales. While attending GSU, Mike Walton had | 323 |
" All leaders share responsibility and accountability for their organisation's culture and therefore must be in tune to prevent potential breaches."
For corporate leaders, identifying a potential breach of culture is challenging because touch points tend to be structured and contained to their own teams. But according to research by Korn Ferry in consultation with senior executives and directors, all leaders share responsibility and accountability for their organisation's culture - and must be in tune.
Below are 10 checks companies can use to get a strong understanding of culture and avert harm.
The appointment of a CEO will determine the culture of the organisation. Candidate assessments should explore character along with previous experience and reputation.
A 'god-like' CEO should set off warning bells. Command and control is out, bringing people on the journey is in. How the CEO values and demonstrates culture should be a key performance indicator.
Do you know the kind of culture required to drive the strategy of your organisation and was the strategy created in the context of culture? Is culture enmeshed in how the organisation goes about achieving its goals? Is it measured?
The answer to all these questions should be yes.
Is the executive team accessible to people at lower levels? Look for hierarchical clues pointing to a closed door at executive level. Does the organisation have a diverse executive team? When an executive team looks the same, chances are they will think the same.
Diversity of gender, ethnicity, experience, education and ideas is good for culture, performance and governance.
Start talking about culture to fellow leaders, the CEO, executives and employees. Can they articulate it? Is everyone on the same cultural page?
This is not about reciting values, it is about knowing the hard-wiring of the organisation. Try to meet employees in diverse roles and ask them what they think works well and what doesn't.
If<|fim_middle|> interviewed 13 business leaders who serve on boards in Australia to gain their insights on the strengths and weaknesses in organisational culture.
We sought to understand where these leaders think responsibility for culture belongs and how boards and executives can work together to ensure that the culture set at the top permeates throughout an organisation.
Below are the areas of greatest importance when it comes to a strong culture nominated by these leaders.
Are the reward systems at your company financially driven, behaviour driven or both? Who is valued more—the sales executive who exceeded targets during a recession or the employee who revealed there was a breach of culture that could have hurt the brand?
People's behaviour will directly correlate to what is most valued and rewarded. | your intuition tells you something isn't quite right, explore it and see where it takes you. It may be nothing. Or it may be your years of experience telling you there is a problem.
Is there a formal whistle-blower program? What is the process when an employee needs to speak up? Most importantly, how are whistle-blowers treated?
Ensure you have access to whistle-blower reports and that you are aware of the process.
Subcultures can be difficult to identify and challenging to change, particularly if toxic subcultures are thriving in high-performing parts of the business.
They can derail your entire strategy and must be disrupted, even when it results in financial loss. Commitment to culture is also measured by what you say no to.
Look for inconsistencies in media reporting between what you read and what you know. Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter reveal much about the supply chain, customer service and brand awareness. Follow the company on your social media platforms and closely review social-media monitoring reports.
Phone the call centre, make an inquiry, visit a shop. Experiencing the organisation as a customer will reveal things about the culture you may not learn in your normal leadership role.
Be forensic in your review of employee engagement surveys and HR data. Red flags will show where there are consistent issues every year, where there is low morale, high turnover or pockets in the organisation where results are at odds with the overall picture.
How can culture be strengthened?
The Korn Ferry Institute | 300 |
Powers Art Center
Powers Art CenterPowers Art CenterPowers Art Center
A showcase of Jasper johns' works on paper
The Powers Art Center is a memorial to the life of John G. Powers and will showcase Jasper Johns' works on paper. In honor of his desire to bring art to everyone, the Powers Art Center is open to the public free of charge. While Jasper Johns' is the primary artist featured, visitors will also have the opportunity view other artists as part of the former John and Kimiko Powers art collection during rotating exhibits.
Monday through Thursday 10:00 AM to<|fim_middle|> Springs: Take Highway 82 toward Carbondale. After the light, stay in the left lane and just after 1 mile there will be a deceleration lane on the left leading to the left turn to Powers Art Center.
From Aspen: Take Highway 82 toward Carbondale past CR 103 and just past mile marker 13 on the right will be the entrance to Powers Art Center.
ALERT: During the winter season we close when there is extreme weather. Please call ahead to confirm the Museum is open.
13110 Hwy 82, Carbondale, CO 81623, us
Copyright © 2018 Powers Art Center - All Rights Reserved. | 3:00 PM
POWERS ART CENTER WILL REOPEN: June 15th, with a new Exhibit, "Celebrating Jasper Johns", a retrospective to honor Jasper Johns and celebrate his 90th Birthday.
While we are looking forward to welcoming the community, we will be observing the CDC and Colorado state COVID-19 guidelines. Masks will be required and social distancing will be facilitated by limiting the number of visitors inside to 10.
During the winter season the Powers Art Center will close if there is a severe storm. Please call ahead to confirm hours.
Please contact Melissa English, Director, for additional information.
Carbondale, Colorado 81623
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From Glenwood | 162 |
Just started College this year. Not going to use real names. so X university, my bio professor XXXX is terrible. just curious how to go about teaching my self biology. I say this because he well go over something, and not its background. say protein synthesis, this is all he has to say about it "The DNA base sequence codes for the primary sequence of amino acids on proteins" i just dont understand how he has a job. and he goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on, about nothing. He is very unclear on what he discusses and is terrible at trying to explain answers on quizes or tests. I talk to him but its like talking to a wall, no people or communication skills.
get a good book, form a study group, have fun...no seriously don't be bummed out by profs.
well yesterday we took our first exam I did better than everyone I talked to other than one person and I got a C. I guess I'll just be teaching my self from here on out on this quarter.
Getting a group together and teaching each other biology is a fun and good idea (just try and keep it down in the room that you reserve for your meetings). Ahh, good times. Someone has to be the leader though and do alot of motivating at times (baked cookies was my speciality for motivation). The hour right after lecture was<|fim_middle|>ion this in your comments. Get the most you can out of the class (even if its not much) and keep an eye on the syllabuss. Withe the guideline of what you need to learn, study your textbook and look up the sections online. It's amazing how much one can learn from youtube alone. | what we did. Then we could complain for 10 minutes or so, and then try to unravel what the heck the prof was trying to teach us.
i tried one study group and your right someone does have to be the leader. and it looks like its me lol. so cookie work eh? well i might try that. today went a lot better we went over Gycolysis,and krebs cycle. finally something that is easy to understand. thanks for the input I really think the study group is going to be a good idea...except that we all live about 20-30min away from each other lol...after class will probly be the best time. i'll fill you guys in on how its going in after the next exam.
When the time comes for teacher evaluation, be sure to met | 166 |
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City of Taylor
Staff's Best Books of 2022
Check out this recommended list of books that TCL staff loved in 2022, who knows, you might just meet your new favorite of 2023!
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
A solitary case-worker is assigned to an orphanage for magical children, and unfortunately, sinister secrets. Will he find family or the end of the world?
Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley
Mounting murders, an FBI investigation and an indigenous Ojibwe teen collide in Firekeeper's Daughter, where the final question is "How far would you go for your community?"
All the Living and the Dead: From Embalmers to Executioners, an Exploration of the People Who Have Made Death Their Life's Work by Hayley Campbell
While the title of this book is dark, All the Living and the Dead, is not a book about gorey details, ghosts and fear. It is in fact, a book written for the living remaining and an exploration of grieving and the dignity of people even in death.
The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
Even good intentions can turn vicious and fatal in The Lost Apothecary. From suspicious murders in the 1700s to the rainy present day streets of London, some secrets (and poisons) can't stay hidden.
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
Nature has memory, and unfortunately for four Blackfeet Nation friends, some<|fim_middle|>. Dreaming of Flight begins with grief and distance, but as 11-year-old Stewie finds, connection particularly with his elderly friend, Marylin, can change immovable grief to feelings of belonging and camaraderie.
New Printing System is Now Available
Fiction, Recommendations, Teens
Perfect Teen Reads for Pride Month | things are never forgotten. Past mistakes and supernatural revenge lurk in the pages of The Only Good Indians.
Library Wars: Love & War by Kiiro Yumi
Step into a future world, where an army of librarians sworn to protect books, wages a crusade to stop them from disappearing from the world's shelves. As it turns out, being on the Library Forces requires more than a long reading list, and military training is of the essence. Who will win out: the freedom to read or an authoritarian government bent on restricting it?
The family upstairs by Lisa Jewell
Three individuals, an orphan returning home at last, and a street musician and her friend, are about to converge on a dilapidated townhouse in the Chelsea neighborhood of London, and each has a connection to the mysterious home. While one is looking for answers, the two others are trying to protect their own secrets from emerging from a house with plenty of secrets to tell.
Alive At the End Of The World by Saeed Jones
This book of poetry balances the reader on a tipping point toward the apocalypse and collective redemption. However, betrayal, both private and public, has a way of sending people over the edge, but what if the edge isn't what we think?
The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede
This book recounts the true story of humanity's light in the face of utter chaos and tragedy. It tells the tale of the people of Gander, Canada, who rallied around passengers grounded on an emergency stop there during the 9/11 attacks. Theirs is a story of friendship and kindness.
Dreaming of Flight by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Strong and deep friendships have no bounds, especially that of age and time | 362 |
by Mary Cosmo, Esquire.In Environmental, Florida Water, Fraking, Land Use, The Clean Water Act.
It's only the first day of a legal fight over oil drilling in Collier County and conversations are already heated.
Protestors from two groups are trying to convince a judge to block the Dan A. Hughes Company from drilling near houses in Golden Gate Estates.
This is the biggest hurdle they've faced so far in this battle. There is no jury — just a state judge who will rule on whether to allow the drilling.
"My reaction is I'm worried. I'm worried that the information that should be there is not there<|fim_middle|> planning and proven track record. Read more click here: Special hearing for proposed oil drilling begins.
Next Next post: Can I Amend (fix) my Petition or Complaint? | ," said Matt Schwartz, South Florida Wildlands Association.
Oil can mean big profit, but some claim searching for it comes with dangers like hydrogen sulfide gas leaks.
"Accidents will happen. We are not prepared. We meaning the people who live in the area and the responders are not prepared," said Joe Mule, President of Preserve Our Paradise.
Today an administrative judge listened to eight hours of tedious testimony.
"The experts that Dan A. Hughes will provide will be the only experts with mud on their hands, on the ground, oil and gas industry experience," said a representative for Dan A. Hughes Company.
First up, the oil company focused on its research, | 134 |
¡Adiós!
YavorD
That's a bit bittersweet. Just after he got his biggest win.. I still remember his emotion in Roubaix.
On the bright side though, he'll be able to enjoy the rest of his life.
Good luck in future, Sonny.
Reactions: gunara, RedheadDane, Sandisfan and 1 other person
Van der Poel retires
David I assume?
GenericBoonenFan said:
I'm not saying I deliberately posted it like this to see if I could shock people.
I'm also not saying that I didn't!
Reactions: perico and Sandisfan
I found a one-day old article in which he contemplates retiring but says he hasn't decided anything yet.
I came across an article in Danish, then I googled, and found the article linked-to in my post above.
Reactions: Wyndbrook and Sandisfan
Can someone tell me what happened to Ilnur Zakarin? why is he retiring now? or maybe 33 years is enough. But maybe he started later his cycling career and didn't feel like he lasted what he should have.
https://www.revistamundociclistico.com/2022/ilustres-ciclistas-que-se-despiden-de-la-elite-ciclistica-internacional/
Here's an article about his initial decision to retire at the end of the season:
Ilnur Zakarin will retire at end of 2022 - VeloNews.com
And here's one about his decision - Gazprom related - to quit mid-season:
Ilnur Zakarin calls it quits: 'I'm ready to move on' - VeloNews.com
Reactions: Sandisfan and Escarabajo
So, Cyril Lemoine is set to retire on April 10th. However, I have a suspicion it might happen a bit earlier than planned...
Cyril Lemoine (procyclingstats.com)
And yes, I'm pretty sure it's April 10th, not October 4th. PCS has their entire list of retirees listed using the weird US dating formula. Besides it would make sense if his last - planned/hoped-for - race was PR.
Reactions: Sandisfan and Ilmaestro99
Ricco'
Pierre Rolland ends his professional career.
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Bolder
Ricco' said:
Solid career with some really big results in big races. He was great in the 2011 tour. Seemed like he really liked riding a bike.
Reactions: gunara, Sandisfan, TourOfSardinia and 1 other person
Rolland was 4th at the Giro d'Italia. I think he actually is an overachiever due to the fact that he always raced aggressively and created chances. Could've ridden anonymously for 9th place on gc instead. But he played his cards very well. Especially in 2011 & 2014.
Reactions: Sandisfan, TourOfSardinia, StryderHells and 2 others
staubsauger said:
Frome what I understand about the way he trained and the opportunities he took, he was not an overachiever
Yeah, weird to call him overachiever. The expectations after TdF2011 were so high for him.
Reactions: Bolder
Ilmaestro99 said:
Wasn't that just Vaughthers typical bragging around? Which eventually was nonsense as Rolland didn't improve at all with his super modern science training scheme.
Reactions: Sandisfan and Roku
Finishing 4th on Giro seems too much for him. However, it was a very weird edition with some questionable outcomes (Val Martello).
Apart from that, I think his resume is quite on line with<|fim_middle|>nce, Schonberger and hopefully a couple of other riders get a spot, but still it is only 20%
And I just decided to compile a list of riders whose career died with B&B:
This year:
Morice, Rolland, Hivert, and Lemoine; has he officially decided to end his career now, as opposed to after PR next year, or is PCS just making an educated guess?
Last year:
N. Bagioli, Backaert, Van Genechten, Reza, and De Backer (I guess you could say they lost some... backing...)
Courteille, Vichot, Boeckmans, Slagter, and J. Turgis
Lammertink, Bagot, Fournier, and Müller
Corbel, and T. Turgis.
Of course, in some cases - like the unfortunate Turgis brothers - there were obvious reasons. But, yeah... that's quite a lot of riders retiring after a stint with the team.
Moving to Garmin was the worst move of his career
Xandres Vervloesem decided to quit cycling at the age of 22. Lost the love for cycling at DSM, and when upon going back to Lotto, he crashed in his first two pro races, that was the final straw. He never got over that mentally.
Another rider ruined by DSM...
Steels forced to retire after his crash at the Six-Day in Gent.
Though, I can't figure out whether it's because of the injuries substained in the crash, or because being injured meant he could't really go prove himself to potential future teams.
Reactions: Samu Cuenca and Sandisfan
Roku said:
I feel this post is very much written with the perspective of hindsight. His 4th overall in the Giro felt quite natural at the time. A bit unfortunate for him that he didn't focus on the Tour that year (he did it with a Giro GC campaign in his legs) because that could have been his one realistic chance for a podium. He was pretty strong in the Tour the year after as well, and there was always a feeling of unfulfilled potential with Rolland until then. You got some Iban Mayo vibes when he failed to put a good GC together in the Tour year after year. It wasn't until after he moved to Garmin in 2016 at the age of 29 and didn't perform that everyone more or less gave up on believing in him as a GC rider.
Latest: Extinction
Latest: Bonimenier | what you could expect from Rolland (a fringe 2nd Tier climber with a penchant for breaks -rather than hunting low key Top-10- and very poor TT skills).
He managed to take iconic wins on TdF (Alpe D'Huez, Toussuire), a couple of low Top-10 on TdF, and even a Giro stage on his early declining years.
(I thought i had send this post, but apparently stayed as draft)
Vanbilsen retires. He cites injuries and operations as the main reasons.
He's happy with what he achieved citing his combativity award in the 10th stage of the 2015 TdF and his victory in Dwars door het Hageland as his main achievements.
Reactions: StryderHells, Sandisfan, Ilmaestro99 and 1 other person
Funny it came out after I enquired about him yesterday.
He also won La Marseillaise which was usually the opening race of European Calendar.
Reactions: StryderHells and GenericBoonenFan
An interesting statistic about B&B. Out of almost 50 different riders that have been in the squad along its existence, as of now, only 5 managed to get a contract (CT -professional, not amateur/elite-2-, PCT or WT) when leaving the team: Coquard, Manzin, Pacher, Koretzky and Mozzato.
Will probably jump up to 10 or so when Bonnamour, Laure | 320 |
The Escapades of Jam and Lam: Goodbye Philippines!
Jerome-- We had a few more days in the Philippines after our expedition with Tao. We spent most of our time in El Nido relaxing, kayaking, and meeting up with friends from the boat.
Dinner on the beach with friends from Tao: Mikael,<|fim_middle|> Philippines. Everyone seemed very happy and we never felt like anyone ever tried to take advantage of us because we were tourists. Getting around was easy and most people spoke at least a little English. Even with a full month in the Philippines I feel like we only scratched the surface of what the Philippines has to offer. We'd love to return some day... And with direct flights from San Fransisco to Manila, hopefully it'll be sooner rather than later! | Johanna, Jennie and James.
We took a 5:30 AM bus from El Nido to Sebang. Sebang is home to the Underground River, a UNESCO world heritage site. It was pretty interesting, but I was a bit disappointed at how regimented the tour was... Boats continuously bring groups of 10 guests at a time for a 30 minute / 1.5 km tour of the cave. The guides have named some of the rock formations based on faint resemblances ("this one looks like corn, that one looks like a cucumber..."). Overall it just seemed like a very long way to go for such a short visit. I did enjoy the monkeys and monitor lizards that hang around outside the cave though! One monkey snatched someone's iphone and brought it up a tree! After snapping a picture with it, it dropped the phone, and I believe someone caught it.
Monkey munching on a flower.
Monkey with the phone can be seen in the center oh this photo.
And that was it for the Philippines! We boarded a plane the next day from Puerto Princesa to Kota Kinabalu, on the eastern Malaysian side of Borneo!
Overall, we really enjoyed our time in the | 252 |
Day Trips.... Where would you like to go today?
Or, perhaps a chance to swim from the boat and just 'chill out', or maybe a special trip for the youngsters - we can always also drop in on the water sports centre for a couple of hours!
Or, how about a trip all 'Around the Island of Paros', stopping to swim, take in a cold drink or two and calling into Piso Livadi for lunch; before going onto Anti-Paros and back to Naoussa Bay for a final swim and a sundowner?
How about visiting Sifnos? Ever been to Serifos?
Or, for a slightly longer day, Folegandros, or the unspoilt beauty of Iraklia and Schinoussa.... or swimming in the Blue Lagoon?
What about diving off the boat into some of the clearest water anywhere?
As an added bonus, the youngsters will love using the passerelle as a diving board, or maybe getting you to walk the plank instead!?
We can also tie in with the water sports companies in Naoussa Bay for few really special hours.
We can do half day trips as well!
Whatever your choice we will work with you to make your perfect day.
For Day Trips the Yachtmaster & Skipper, Mike Earl, is assisted by his very able Crew Maria, or Loukas who<|fim_middle|> miles. | is from Paros and has a wealth of knowledge about the islands.
For all trips we provide free beverages, water, soft drinks, beers and wine, but for lunch we generally like to be near a good restaurant, or taverna, where you can take your pick of the local specialities.
We try to make the Day Trips the best deal we can, so the motor yacht costs €690.00 Euro for the day, regardless of he number of guests and we only charge you for the miles travelled and the diesel used (read from the instruments). So if you go further, it costs more, but you know that you are only paying for what is actually used.
Unfortunately the EC no longer allows duty free diesel for small commercial vessels so diesel for us is the same as you would pay at the filling station. With rising oil prices in Greece we anticipate a price of €1.60 per litre in 2019 (subject to change).
'Giulietta II' is fuel efficient, but at her cruising speed she still consumes 6.5 litres of diesel per nautical mile, but this does include running the generator to keep the drinks and you cool.
That an all in price for the yacht for the 7 hour day for €1,587 for up to 10 Guests.
But don't worry, we will always give you a very accurate estimate in advance and warn you if you are going over the estimate by changing the itinerary. You can of course call us at any time for guidance on the cost of a particular trip, transfer, or charter.
If we think it's too windy, or the sea is going to be too uncomfortable, we won't carry you. If it's at all possible we will try and arrange another day.We want you to enjoy the day, not to see it as an ordeal! For locally booked trips we ask for payment on the day, with a reservation fee as a deposit. If the weather really doesn't play ball it won't have cost you anything, but the deposit..... maybe next year?
** We can also arrange embarkation from nearby Naxos and Mykonos, but there will a repositioning charge for the additional diesel | 454 |
Twelve-year-old hunter Nannette Carrier runs away from<|fim_middle|> accept help from his grandafther's troubled immigrant horse farm worker, Jorge. Each of the four characters confronts his or her own personal demons as they struggle to find their place within the circle of life from which no one ultimately can escape.
Lynch, Hayley, "The Hunter's Moon" (2016). LSU Master's Theses. 918. | home to fulfill an unfinished task for her recently deceased father. She is soon joined by an unexpected traveling companion, and as they trek across central Kentucky, one trial after another complicates their trip. Meanwhile, recovering alcoholic and perpetual disappointment Calum Goff attempts to redeem himself by finding Nannette and proving to Colonel David Slone that he is qualified to become a game warden. The Colonel has problems of his own, as political pressure builds on him to find the runaway and her companion before tragedy strikes. Against his better judgement, the Colonel must accept help from Calum, who in turn must | 120 |
Alex Guarnaschelli's Simple Yet Tearful Tribute To Angela Lansbury
DFree/Shutterstock
By Justina Huddleston/Oct. 11, 2022 8:43 pm EST
Social media is reacting Tuesday to the heartbreaking death of Angela Lansbury. The British television, film, and broadway star was 96 years old when she died on October 11 just five days away from her birthday,<|fim_middle|>ies in London" from the Broadway musical "Sweeney Todd."
If you're feeling down about Lansbury's death, perhaps you can raise a glass to her with the surprising beverage that she credited with keeping her young in her honor. | according to a family statement (via Broadway World).
Lansbury wasn't just beloved by those she worked with in entertainment. Her reach even extended into the world of food and cooking. Lansbury herself once penned a book on exercise and diet that includes menu suggestions (via Amazon), and even released a home workout video called "Positive Moves" (via Comet Over Hollywood). She's inspired other cooks, too: One food blogger wrote a cookbook, "Murder, She Cooked," that was published in September 2022 and features recipes inspired by Lansbury and her co-stars on "Murder, She Wrote."
Now that the star has passed, some notable names from the food world are paying their respects on social media, including one "Iron Chef" alumna whose remembrance was short but sweet.
Twitter mourned with Alex Guarnaschelli
As always happens when a beloved cultural icon dies, people took to social media to share their sadness — and who could be more beloved to pop culture than Angela Lansbury for her performance as Mrs. Potts in "Beauty and the Beast?" Chef Alex Guarnaschelli, star of "Alex vs America" and "Iron Chef," had this to say: "I love Angela Lansbury. Rest In Peace," shared the chef on Twitter.
Guarnaschelli wasn't the only Food Network star who was mourning the death of Lansbury. Chef Andrew Zimmern also remembered the star on Twitter, saying, "may her memory be a blessing to her family and friends," and Guarnaschelli's own fans also shared their condolences. "I'm with you. I love Dame Lansbury. She was SO GREAT! She will be missed," said one person, while another user shared a clip of Lansbury's memorable performance of "The Worst P | 371 |
Home<|fim_middle|> | Business News
Dow Jones Industrial Average hits 20,000 for first time ever
© Lucas Jackson © Reuters
The US premier stock index the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit the 20,000 point milestone for the first time on hopes US President Donald Trump's administration will boost infrastructure spending.
The index came close to reaching the historical high on January 6, as investors were inspired by pro-growth policies and tax cuts from Trump.
"A seminal moment. It is just a number but it is a big number, it is certainly a flashy number," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Group in Bedford Hills, New York, as quoted by Reuters.
Global markets steady as Trump takes oath of office
"There is a real belief that Trump is real, he has been extremely active these first couple of days of the presidency and a change may happen faster than people had thought," he added.
The new record sees the Dow up 1,667 points since Trump's victory in November. Wall Street expects President Trump to slash taxes, boost investment in US industry and cut regulation.
The surge in US stocks was preceded by Trump's signing of two executive orders to back the construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines, rolling back President Barack Obama's pivot to renewable energy.
"It's time dust off those Dow 20k hats again, because the Trump rally is well and truly back on," said Neil Wilson, senior market analyst at ETX Capital before the opening bell.
"We are clearly seeing a pro-business administration that is minded to action," Wilson added. | 326 |
How does this answer all my deepest desires? Well, it doesn't… but it certainly makes my job a lot easier!
I have one of those other mops — you know, the kind that requires pads and refill bottles and such. My husband was able to rig the top of the bottle so that I could pour my own cleaning solution in there, but it was a rather messy endeavor, and I still had those nasty pads to contend with.
— it doesn't require batteries!
THANK<|fim_middle|> mop that works!
O, this is great! I've never seen it here! Succes.
It has made clean up a whole lot nicer!!!! | YOU! Thank you, Rubbermaid, for coming up with a mop that addresses all the complaints I had with my other mop!
There is a $4 coupon floating around out there as well, so you can pick up one of these for about $21. Some of the reviews I've seen said that it stopped working after 3-4 months, but I'm hoping that's just a fluke.
For now, however, I am so happy to have a | 95 |
CorEnergy Declares Common and Preferred Dividends, Schedules Results Release for Third Quarter 2020
By: CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust, Inc. via Business Wire News Releases
CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust, Inc. (NYSE: CORR, CORRPrA) ("CorEnergy" or the "Company") announced today that its Board of Directors declared a third quarter 2020 dividend of $0.05 per share for its common stock, consistent with the preceding quarter. The dividend is payable on November 30, 2020, to shareholders of record on November 16, 2020.
The Board of Directors also declared a cash dividend of $0.4609375 per depositary share for the Company's 7.375% Series A Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock. The preferred stock dividend, which equates to an annual dividend payment of $1.84375 per depositary share, is payable on November 30, 2020, to shareholders of record on November 16, 2020.
Dave Schulte, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said: "We have invested time, energy and resources in diligence and negotiation toward our goal of acquiring new assets. While we would like to provide additional updates, these efforts require careful evaluation, patience and limited public communication until such time as we can announce the outcomes to our stockholders. We are also working to address the rent due at our GIGS asset, although those efforts were slowed by events in the quarter, including multiple hurricanes and related shut-ins. Based upon our efforts to date, the board has again supported management's recommendation to pay the regular preferred dividend and a common dividend of $0.05 in the third quarter."
Common stock dividends will be paid entirely in cash, pending the Company's DRIP registration statement being available, as described in our periodic SEC filings.
Third Quarter 2020 Results Release Date
The Company also announced today that it will report earnings results for its third quarter, ended September 30, 2020, on November 2, 2<|fim_middle|> from operators of our assets, primarily under triple-net participating leases and from long term customer contracts. For more information, please visit corenergy.reit.
This press release contains certain statements that may include "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are "forward-looking statements." Although CorEnergy believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, they do involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties, and these expectations may prove to be incorrect. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including those discussed in CorEnergy's reports that are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Other than as required by law, CorEnergy does not assume a duty to update any forward-looking statement. In particular, any distribution paid in the future to our stockholders will depend on the actual performance of CorEnergy, its costs of leverage and other operating expenses and will be subject to the approval of CorEnergy's Board of Directors and compliance with leverage covenants.
Source: CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust, Inc.
CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust, Inc.
Debbie Hagen or Matt Kreps
877-699-CORR (2677)
info@corenergy.reit
Corenergy Infrastructure TR IN [Corr/Pa] Corenergy Infrastructure Trust Inc | 020.
CorEnergy will host a conference call on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, at 1:00 p.m. Central Time to discuss its financial results. Please dial into the call at +1-201-689-8035 at least five minutes prior to the scheduled start time. The call will also be webcast in a listen-only format. A link to the webcast will be accessible at corenergy.reit.
A replay of the call will be available until 1:00 p.m. Central Time on December 3, 2020, by dialing +1-919-882-2331. The Conference ID is 58666. A replay of the conference call will also be available on the Company's website.
About CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust, Inc.
CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust, Inc. (NYSE: CORR, CORRPrA), is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns critical energy assets, such as pipelines, storage terminals, and transmission and distribution assets. We receive long-term contracted revenue | 238 |
The numbers speak for themselves. In the heart of "Music City<|fim_middle|> While we strive to be successful, as demonstrated by our combined record of 74-41-5 over the past five seasons, we are above all else committed to truly enjoying the experience.
Want to be a 'Dore?
Applying to, accepted by, or enrolled at Vanderbilt University and interested in playing hockey? We would love to connect with you! Just fill out our Player Inquiry form and one of our club officers will reply with information about such things as scheduling, fees, and expectations for the upcoming season.
We appreciate your interest in the club and look forward to hopefully seeing you next season, whether in the stands or on the ice! | ," prospective students will find in Vanderbilt University an academic institution that combines its 50 degree programs and 5 Nobel laureates on staff with nearly 400 different student organizations and a coveted spot in the SEC, the country's most prestigious athletic conference. It is a haven for those who are looking to maximize their collegiate experiences both personally and academically en route to rich and fulfilling careers focused on a range of disciplines and industries.
It is also a great place to play hockey.
The Vanderbilt Commodores Ice Hockey team is a DIII men's club program affiliated with the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) and the Southeastern Collegiate Hockey Conference (SECHC). Founded in 1976, VU hockey maintains a distinct personality relative to its peer institutions in the southeast region in that the students are largely responsible for managing the program. Ours is a culture of builders, and for the right student athletes who are looking to build a lasting legacy during their undergraduate experiences, our Vanderbilt hockey program would be a perfect fit for you.
To support the team's officers in their efforts, a host of coaches, faculty advisers, and parent sponsors dedicate huge amounts of time to ensure seamless organization both on and off the ice. As evidenced by events such as the "Interstate Face Off Series," the club's annual tilt versus a regional rival played at Bridgestone Arena, home of the Nashville Predators, and the annual College Hockey Scholar Shootout tournament which features six clubs all ranked in the top-50 academically in the country, we pride ourselves on running a tightly organized program that is also insanely creative and fun. | 332 |
Fellowship Bible Church - Thoughts on a New Song, "Reckless Love"
For the past few weeks, we've begun introducing a new song, "Reckless Love" by Cory Asbury. I was a little uncomfortable with singing this song with our congregation because of the use of the word "reckless" in reference to the love of God. By definition, "reckless" means "marked by lack of proper caution: careless of consequences." This strict definition does not apply to God. He is well-aware of the consequences of every action and every decision He makes. He makes decisions with a complete understanding of all the facts of a given situation before it has even happened<|fim_middle|> it because of the differences between its denotation and connotation? Absolutely. However, I think the song proclaims some great truth, and it's worth giving it some explanation so that we can sing it with a proper understanding. | . There is nothing that surprises Him. There is no true "risk" with God, because He knows the outcome. He is not careless, but ultimately care-full, considering every aspect of everything He does, and by extension, everything that everyone does.
[The synonyms] adventurous, venturesome, daring, daredevil, rash, reckless, foolhardy mean exposing oneself to danger more than required by good sense. adventurous implies a willingness to accept risks but not necessarily imprudence.
I think this is the connotation that is being linked to "reckless" more often nowadays, as in the idea of "reckless abandon." It implies putting oneself in harm's way, knowingly accepting the risks associated with it. This understanding of the word makes it more palatable to me. The Father knew full well that sending His only begotten Son in the flesh would result in His death on the cross to save sinners, yet He proceeded – willing to accept the pain because of His great love for us. The cross is, indeed, the clearest picture we have of God's love for us (Rom. 5:8).
Jesus left the 99 and laid down His own life for the sake of the one lost sheep (Lk. 15:3-7). Jesus became our substitute so that we could be reconciled to the Father, justified, redeemed, adopted as sons and daughters of God, and ultimately glorified together with Him. Rather than understanding the word "reckless" on its own, I think the phrase can and should be understood as a whole: "reckless love." God loved His enemies, and sent His only Son to die for them, and adopted them as His sons and daughters. This surely appears to be foolishness in the world's view, but the "foolishness of God is wiser than men" (1 Cor. 1:25 ESV), and His ways are not our ways.
Do I wish the writer chose a word with less controversy around | 409 |
This is a really exciting opportunity for people who have experience of arthritis whether personal or via family and friends – AND for those willing to learn – to provide peer support<|fim_middle|> of these times, to suit volunteer.
← Help make Cowley Road Carnival Happen! | to others living with arthritis.
For a few hours each week – or less regularly if required – you will be helping us to run drop-ins in the West Berkshire area: currently Central Reading, Pangbourne, Wokingham, Caversham and Newbury. You can choose your local area and we will be adding new areas, so please do get in touch.
You will be supported by Arthritis Care staff at every drop in and we will make sure you are confident and comfortable before you start in your role.
Arthritis Care is the UK's largest organisation working with and for all people with arthritis. We are a membership organisation with a network of local branches and groups throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Our vision is a world where people with arthritis can lead full and active lives.
Our purpose is to empower people with arthritis through support and information, ensuring their voices are heard and their conditions more effectively managed.
If you're friendly, helpful and approachable then you are just what we need. If you enjoy getting out and about in your local community we would love to hear from you.
Ideally someone who has experience with arthritis whether personal or via family and friends – AND for those willing to learn – who would like to meet and provide support and information for others living with the condition.
Mon-Fri AM&PM: ANY | 269 |
The Kids () is a 2015 Taiwanese drama film written and directed by Sunny Yu. It stars Wu Chien-ho and Wen Chen-ling as teenage parents who must find a way to provide for their baby.
Plot
Sixteen-year-old Bao-li falls in love with older student Jia-jia. After<|fim_middle|> child for whom they can not afford to provide. Though they at first are able to survive with the help of friends and family, Bao-li turns to robbery when his mother gambles away their savings.
Cast
Wu Chien-ho as Bao-li
Wen Chen-ling as Jia-jia
Yang Chi as Bao-li's mother
Bi Zhi Gang as Uncle Liu
Shirley Chien as Aunty Liu
Kao Meng Chieh
May Hong as A-qin
Lawrence Ko as Zhe-wei
Yang Jing as Zhang-qing
Roger Huang as Jia-jia's father
Production
The film was based on true events. Writer-director Sunny Yu says that she made to film to understand how a young father could be pressured into robbing people to support his family.
Release
The international premiere was at the Tokyo International Film Festival, where it competed in the Asian Future competition.
Reception
Richard Kuipers of Variety called it "an engaging and convincing drama" with good acting, directing, and scoring.
References
External links
2015 films
2015 drama films
Taiwanese drama films
2010s Mandarin-language films
Teenage pregnancy in film | they begin dating, Jia-jia becomes pregnant and gives birth to a | 15 |
I was never in the blog thing till one day an old pal, a literate and a writer bumped into me and asked me to own a blog. And I was baffled by his suggestion. How could I? I had never "written" anything of substance except what I did in my office. I wasn't prepared to jump into the literary stride. But he was insistent and asked me to WRITE.
So I sat down and started thinking what should I write about. I wasn't into much reading so I could not write book reviews nor I was in the company of people that I could be inspired to write. So my guru came to my rescue and asked me to write a travelogue. Well this I could do since I had traveled a lot and knew so many places. So I became a blogger – a novice in the field and a tiny frog in the big pond. And I started with a blog on Karachi – since the earliest memories in my memory chip were those of Karachi. And then I wrote on – not as a writer but as a learner. And all along my mentor was at my back – bucking me up to write more. One day I received a SMS from him which read, "Did anyone ever tell you that you write very good? Start writing for newspapers." I knew he<|fim_middle|> to clarify emerging queries. And may be wants an obedient subject whom he can summon anytime and give a few more tips.
And those who read my blog, shouldn't be surprised to know the name of my guru (rather they would have already guessed so) – yeah right: he is none other than SAJS of Doodh Patti fame. | didn't mean it, as it was just a fillip on my shoulder to continue.
And now I write, and whenever there is a problem or lack of ideas, I refer back to my guru who doesn't mind the time of my call and is always willing to render a helping hand. And I am writing.
So my advice to those, who are hesitating of not initiating a blog for the same apprehensions that I had once, to sit on their computer and start punching in whatever comes to their mind. It may be a few lines in the beginning but these would surely grow. And one day like me, will have some 80+ posts. And their blogs would continue to swell. And if an advice is needed, who best would be to approach? A friend who really want you to write 9and is not jealous about it).
Recently, I was in Lahore and I called on my guru and had a marathon session on how to improve the layout of my blog, its substance and its traffic. Much went much above me, but a few tips were good enough for the day that I equipped myself and came back and implemented those. But he is not happy. He says even when I belong to Lahore, why I am settling in Islamabad? I know the reason. He wants to reduce my telephone bill that eats up my wallet by calling him every now and then | 279 |
Quark Expeditions Launches Technologically-Advanced Polar Vessel 'Ultramarine'
May 2<|fim_middle|>ly | 0, 2020 November 3, 2021 Christopher Pacheco
Quark Expeditions has announced that the company is launching the new game-changer technologically-advanced polar vessel 'Ultramarine'. The company has launched the polar vessel 'Ultramarine' in a traditional ceremony. During the ceremony, the company also honored the Brodosplit ship-building team for their endless efforts and dedication for the project.
President Quark Expeditions, Andrew White said, "Today's launch ceremony is a time-honored shipyard tradition. That very moment when 'ship first meets water' is a major milestone for any vessel. The sound of Ultramarine's hull entering the water from slipway No. 2 into Supaval Bay signified we're one step closer to exploring the polar regions on this game-changing ship."
"But, of course, it's not just any ship that we're celebrating today—but a ship built specifically for polar exploration. Ultramarine will be an unrivalled operational base for exploring the polar regions in ways never thought possible," Andrew White further added.
"While the star of today is Ultramarine, the ceremony also honors a cast of people without whom this vessel would never exist: the Brodosplit shipyard team. "Following a tradition that goes back to earlier times, a shipyard godmother—different from the godmother who eventually christens the ship—is chosen for this 'working launch," Andrew White continued.
Senior Vice President Operations for Quark Expeditions, Malcolm Ellis said, "The launch of any ship is complex and once underway, uncontrolled until the vessel is attached to tugs standing by. The total time involved from trigger release until the vessel is stopped in the water is little more than a minute or two."
"Yet, the potential for damage in that time period is greater than at any time during the ship's many years of service. The stress placed on a vessel during launch is probably the highest it will experience in its lifetime. No rehearsal is possible," Malcolm Ellis continued.
Stock News Alert: Realty Income Corporation (NYSE:O)
Turning Technologies Acquires Knowb | 436 |
The<|fim_middle|> Byrne, Thomas McEnery. | U12 footballers traveled to UL on Saturday morning last for an all-County blitz. This gave us an opportunity to play against teams we had not met before. We had three games against Ballybricken/Bohermore, Ballybrown and Ahane. We had a panel of nineteen players and with the games being 11 a side there was a lot of juggling to get every player plenty of game time. The team played excellent football, displaying all the skills of Gaelic football like high fielding, accurate kicking, scoring, hand passing and tackling. We won our first game comfortably, lost our second game well and very narrowly lost our third game as the players tired against opposition who were playing their first game of the day. With all the chopping and changing, our excellent goalkeeper Colin Broderick was the only player to play every minute of every game. It is hard to single anyone out but there were exceptional displays from Alex McEldowney, Michael Tierney and Eoin O' Shea and overall we were very pleased with the team's performances as they gave their loyal band of supporters plenty to cheer about. Training continues on Wednesday night at 6.30p.m. Panel: Colin Broderick, Eoin Sheahan, Alex McEldowney, Eoin O' Shea, Danny Brady, Pierce O' Brien, Andrew O' Riordan, Michael Tierney, Gavin Ambrose, Luke Gleeson, Sarah O' Connor, Jack Hunt, Aidan Curry, TJ Hunt, Paraic Enright, Brandon Finucane, Dermot Pierse, Adam | 328 |
Cow Comfort Test
Ivor Davey - Dairy Housing and Design - (+44) 07751 050158
Ivor Davey trained as an Animal Scientist, specialising in Agriculture. From 2000 to 2015, Ivor worked for Wilson Agriculture and was fundamental in establishing the Wilson brand throughout the UK and Europe. CowPlan was set up in 2014, and fully trading in April 2015 when Ivor Davey left Wilson Ag and started working with CowPlan full time.
Ivor has been known for his creative building designs and attention to detail for a long time. The focus on what the business needs now, and where it will be in the future has been key to long term planning. Ivor puts the customer first, and works with the farm's existing and future needs for all plans. This has helped many<|fim_middle|> developed a passion for robotic milk units, and is well known with the major manufacturers for designing buildings for all milk robot options. This has lead to being a regular speaker at 'Robot Planning Seminars' throughout the UK, and speaking at other events such as RIDBA open days, the national UK Dairy day and many open farm events.
CowPlan are expanding the staff team, and recently we have employed CAD specialist and sales and support staff to help build the business. With these team members and Ivor's guidance we can help you by simply supplying great cubicle and/or mattress systems, or look at a variety of designs for new buildings. Alternatively, a full buildings review may be required in order to create a long term business infrastructure strategy.
CowPlan is also a member of RIDBA. RIDBA membership is a mark of quality and identifies companies as part of an elite group of professional and reputable market leaders.
About CowPlan.pdf
CowPlan product flyer
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© 2020 by CowPlan Ltd. Company No: 09130773
Cow Plan Ltd. South West UK
CowPlan - farm presentation | UK dairy farmers consider renovating existing buildings, or new builds.
Over the years, Ivor has | 20 |
GET FREE BACKPACKS AUG. 9 & 11
YWCA Central Alabama Family Resource Center has helped make back-to-school a bit better for more than 20 Birmingham-area families. FRC provided in-depth support for families participating in the A-RESET (Alabama Resources for Enrichment Self-Sufficiency Employability and Training), TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), and CREW (Creating Responsible Employed Working) teens programs and for residents in Woodlawn and surrounding areas.
YWCA has been hard at work shopping to provide essential clothing, school supplies and classroom health and safety items for adolescents and teens headed back to school and college. This effort follows FRC's recent Woodlawn community block party<|fim_middle|> reserve a backpack, email frc@ywcabham.org or call 205-949-5550.
PrevPreviousGet Free Backpacks Aug. 9 & 11
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FRC Case Manager Jalen Wilson | where more than 400 families, individuals, vendors, and partners gathered, and families received backpacks, free food and community resources,
A limited number of backpacks are still available for pick up 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday, Aug. 9 and Wednesday, Aug. 11 by appointment only. To | 69 |
Home » Governor breaks ground for rail station
<|fim_middle|> head or the tail of the route," Torres said. "I'm glad we are a part of history and the Rail Runner will be treated with respect and pride."
Although many people were involved in making the project a reality, Torres said, "It's the folks behind the scenes who do the work."
Calls from all over have come in asking if this is the Belen that is on the commuter Rail Runner route, Torres said. "We haven't had that many calls in a long time."
Torres invited people who live further north to come down to Belen's Winter Snow Queen Festival and he said, in turn, Valencia County residents will go to Bernalillo County for such events as the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.
"We'll all become that much closer together," he said. He added that, at the Belen Model Train display at the Harvey House Museum, the
Rail Runner has been running for months — "although space is limited," he said.
Twin Mountain Construction will build the station's platform, which should take about two months to construct.
"This is a brand new transportation alternative that will not only serve the people of the area for years to come, but also spur important economic growth and development," Lawrence Rael, executive director of the Mid-Region Council of Governments, said in a press release. | Governor breaks ground for rail station
By Jackie Schlotfeldt – News-Bulletin.com
With the sound of passing freight trains sometimes interrupting the ceremony, Gov. Bill Richardson and local leaders broke ground for the new Rail Runner commuter station in Belen Tuesday afternoon. The Rail Runner Express is scheduled to begin running from Belen to Bernalillo this summer.
"We are making history today in Belen," Richardson said. "Belen's population has grown and so has New Mexico's. That's why we need a world class rail system to match what we've become — a vibrant and fast growing state." Richardson noted that Belen has a history of rail service and rail workers that goes back a long time. "We are investing in New Mexico's future," he said. "It's the wave of the future."
The Belen station is one of nine scheduled to be built along the Rail Runner route. The first phase will cost $50 million, which includes five locomotives and 10 passenger cars, as well as the stations.
"This is a historic day for transportation in Belen," Richardson said. "It's like going back to the future. It will be a fast, clean and affordable way to travel."
The Belen station will be located at the end of De Soto Avenue and will have approximately 220 parking spaces.
Mayor Ronnie Torres said he was glad to be a part of the new commuter rail. "I see people from Bernalillo here, and I don't care if we're (Belen) considered the | 319 |
In his book, Smarter Than You Think: How Technology Is Changing Our Minds For The Better, Clive Thompson talks about the emergence of important new digital literacies. He asks the question of what it means to be literate in a world where our relationship with digital technologies is omnipresent.
According to Internet Live Stats, a highly recognized developer of visual statistics, over 3 billion people around the world use the Internet on a daily basis basis. Almost 2.5 million emails are sent every second. 5.5 million videos are viewed on YouTube every minute, and 165 million people query Google every hour ("Internet Live Stats," n.d.) A massive amount of data is exchanged on the Internet each second. We used to query libraries for knowledge and information, but now we query powerful search engines instead.
In order to make sense of the information and data we produce every second, we need a new set of skills – new literacies. The art of searching or finding is an emerging digital literacy.
In chapter 5 of Thompson book, The Art of Finding, three important ideas stood<|fim_middle|> talks about the term 'spaced repetition' in reference to a digital tool he uses to help him remember content in the books he has read. Amazon's Kindle app has the function to send reminders in the form of emails, which contain the important information you highlight in the book. These daily reminders follow an instruction strategy names spaced repetition. Spaced repetition works on the principle that we forget things over time, but this can be overcome if we review material on a regular basis. Amazon's Daily Review is a unique solution to the problem of reading a book once and subsequently losing knowledge over time.
The question of whether technology is making us smarter or dumber is somewhat irrelevant. Digital technologies are already integrated into every aspect of daily life. We must find ways to embrace these technologies to our betterment. Howard Rheingold is focussed on using technology to make use smarter. He asks the question, "What if humans could build electronic tools that leverage our ability to think, communicate, and cooperate?" (Rheingold, 2012) Perhaps we can harness new technologies to help us become more socially conscious and extend and augment the capabilities of our incredible minds?
Some might say that our creativity may be negatively affected by the digital tools we embrace for our most creative work. If I am to be honest, I am easily distracted when working online. It is too easy for me to get sidetracked on a topic while browsing online. If I am not checking my Twitter feed, then I easily succumb to cross-checking something I have just read with another source online, and before I know it, half an hour has passed.
Most of my eureka moments happen not when I am directly thinking about an area of research, but when I am cycling to work, or out for a run. Thompson explains that research suggests that if the content we are reading is meaningful to us, then we will remember it. If it's not, we are likely to forget. From an educator's perspective this brings us back to the age-old problem of attention, and how to create learning opportunities that are meaningful to students. As learners access digital tools in schools more and more, educators have an obligation to teach strategies to combat distractions while working online. It turns out that the self-regulated learning skills required to be a successful offline learner are the same ones required to be successful online.
Thompson, C. (2014). Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing our Minds for the Better. New York: The Penguin Group. | out.
With Petabytes of data being generated and transferred every hour through the Internet, a mass of data and information is produced. Those who can develop the skills to search, extract, and make meaningful sense of the data will be more literate than those who cannot. Developing accurate search techniques can be developed at an early age and should be taught in all k-12 schools. Google has realized the importance of effective and efficient searching and offers two excellent video tutorials on power-searching. If we choose not to embrace new digital literacies or equip our learners with a new set of tools we are doing them a disservice, and from a global perspective we may be inadvertently leaving them behind.
With a massive amount of content being created and shared every hour, I find it almost unthinkable to reread a book or re-watch a video. Like Thompson suggests in this chapter, I invariably end up skimming over the content, unable to comprehend at a deep level, but able to get the gist of the topic. In my defense, I make copious notes but the reality is unless I develop methods to organize, store, and retrieve that information for later use, I am a less active learner. As we create and store more and more data that helps us navigate our daily lives, the more important powerful search techniques will become.
The ability to store information in our mind suffers when cognitive load demands tax the capacity our limited working memory. Computers and the plethora of digital tools can help alleviate this problem. Those who use embrace digital tools to augment their mind/memory will be more literate than those who cannot. The freed-up cognitive effort of 'outsourcing' some of the mind's most strenuous tasks to computers and technology allows more time for learning to occur. Research suggests that digital tools can enhance or work and our lives (Thompson, 2014) Without an app to save articles from the web, filter that content for specific information, and organize in a way that is meaningful for me, my life would be less organized. I would also miss countless meetings without the convenience of entering them into my calendar, setting a reminder, and then essentially forgetting about them.
Thompson | 439 |
Applying history to present day events and ideas
George Bartholick and how he fixed the Pike Place Market
The recent completion of the Pike Place Market $70 million infrastructure replacement project is now done and the market looks fit and hardy, proving that the market at 105 years, is really the new 50.
It was all done just in time for the start of the cruise ship season and the crowds of tourists that come in the summer, crowds I don't necessarily like but support fully because they benefit the city and my many friends who work in the market and because the place is such an American treasure we simply have to share it without too much complaint.
The remodel made me much more aware of the many changes in the market that somehow slide into the place and seem old on their second day. Except the pig, the brass piggy bank at the market's entrance under the clock, which has been under the clock since 1986. I still feel highly Seattle when I say "meet you under the clock" and have tried to stick to that description for many years. The pig has changed the whole thing around and when I email "meet you under the clock" I get a response that says "why don't we meet at the pig?" followed by a Smiley Face emoticon.
I love the gum wall, something that just showed up and must drive the health department crazy. Another is the bierstube that Uli's Sausages created. I went in the other day and had a spicy Italian sandwich and a brew and felt pretty good about where I was sitting and what I was doing.
The Pike Place Market After Its Completion
UW Collections
While there, I asked myself if George Bartholick would have thought the place a good idea. George was the architect and planner we entrusted with the complete structural remaking of the market beginning in 1974 and who completed the job six years later in 1980. It is one of the great historic preservation jobs of its time and remains a great one today. Little was known about how the market had been constructed or how the damage from fires and earthquakes had been repaired, if they had. Record keeping had been sloppy, plans and documentation often absent. The original construction was done in haste and on the cheap.
Its reconstruction was not. The project had a lot of surprises and all those surprises cost a lot of money. Planners in the Department of Community Development took to calling the project "Our Vietnam." They also worried whether the investment would truly pay off. When the renovation started, 80% of the market was not rented.
Seattle PI
George explained to me once that he had essentially put a new backbone of steel running north and south of the main market structure. To that, he added steel ribs running east to west. The buildings were attached and hung on that basic structure.
It was a bohemian place that he took on and he put back largely unchanged, still bohemian, however updated, and with a backbone of steel. He often won credit for checking his considerable ego at the door and putting the market back pretty much as it was physically. He had no control what happened to the spaces he remade, but they seem to fit today.
Courtesy of Robin Bartholick
George is the little guy to the right of the
George was able to do what he did, in part, because he was a bona fide bohemian himself. He grew up in Bellingham, the son of a shoe shop owner who liked to do things up right, like building a giant, mobile shoe that was a mainstay in the little par<|fim_middle|>4)
Cascadia (17)
Children of the West (3)
Family Stories (2)
Firsts (2)
Heroism (10)
Our Great City (25)
The Environment (5)
Thomas Jefferson Hampson's Civil War Memoir (6)
Walking Through Seattle (2)
The Ku Klux Klan and My Grandmother's House in Vernonia
The Death of CBS Correspondent George Syvertsen, Wells Hangen and Cambodia's Most Dangerous Year For Journalists
Portlandia, 1954
Taking Care of the Dead On D-Day and the German Quest for its Missing Sons, All Day Every Day.
Cleaning Up the Mess at Hanford
How long will it take to clean up the Chernobyl mess and put it away?
Vanport City and the flood that washed it away
Tusko the elephant and other sadness
Columbia Basin Reclamation Project
Scott Calhoun's Hotel
Woodinville: The Wine Country Next Door
George Bartholick and how he fixed the Pike Place ...
Finding Charley Royer
Living With Garbage | ades that popped up around Bellingham, like the Tulalip Days Parade.
George was just the right age to join the greatest generation's great quest, serving as a navigator on B-24 bombers making up the 446th Bomb Group. He guided his aircraft, the I Hope So! to Dresden the night of February 13, 1945, the night it was destroyed, the night some of Europe's finest architecture collapsed into the firestorm.
George is kneeling on camera right
Getting the airplane back was the biggest problem for the young navigators of the time, like George. After crossing the Atlantic on the Queen Mary, The 446th Bomb Group deployed in England in November of 1943 and finished in April of 1945. In their first missions, beginning the last two weeks of December, 1943, 31 crew were killed during six bombing runs over Germany, mostly over Bremen. In January, February and March of 1945, the war resistance on the ground was waning but the crews flew nearly every day into seas of flak. George would have seen the new Messerschmitt jets the Germans built and deployed late in the war, their appearance is noted in the logs of the 446th. I knew George pretty well and he never talked to me about this part of his life, though I certainly wish he had.
He came back to the University of Washington, got an architecture degree there and headed back to Europe where he worked over the next six years in Holland, Sweden and Switzerland. He also exercised his skill in drawing.
In 1953, George showed up one day at the Paris home of Alex Trocchi, a Scottish writer and one of the founders of the literary magazine Merlin, the first magazine to publish Pablo Neruda and Samuel Beckett and frequently Henry Miller. It was highly competitive with The Paris Review and Trocchi was among the first of the Beat Generation.
George had drawn several panels showing Crusader soldiers and Muslim soldiers fighting with a red cloth as their banner. At the end of the panel, all the soldiers on each side were dead and only the red cloth remained. It got into the magazine along with a piece of criticism by Beckett, then almost completely unknown to American readers.
George was very tall, had a full head of gray hair and expansive eyebrows. I've never seen bigger. He frequently wore black and in the winter he would wear a black wool cape, attached 19th century style at the neck, over his suit.
George kept odd hours, working most of the night and then sleeping through the morning, arriving at the market for breakfast about one o'clock. His staff had been working since early in the morning and would prepare materials for his review. While a supportive and kind man, George could be picky and demanding. He wanted things done right, but mainly he worked for the joy of it and the relationships he found at work.
Sometimes his staff would play tricks on George, like designing an apartment that had a shared medicine cabinet with the unit next door, mocking a commercial for Right Guard Deoderant then receiving heavy play on televised sporting events. George would take home such plans, discover the joke, and glow with the knowledge he had hired some fine, clever people but who had to be watched.
He liked to say about the market project that it was like a forester restoring a mountain meadow, "If he does it right, no one will know that he was there."
We entrusted George with three of western Washington's most important institutions. The market, of course, is probably the most visible, but his first great project was Western Washington State College where he was the campus planner and architect from 1963-1979 and, with legendary state senator Barney Goltz, was largely responsible for one of the state's most lovely college campuses, a sculpture park long before we got one in Seattle. As the campus architect and planner, George always had a commission for some of the state's best architects like Fred Bassetti and Ibsen Nelsen, as well as for the artists they liked. A Bellingham native, George also provided the emotional and technical energy necessary to save the old falling down City Hall, now the amazing Whatcom County Museum.
The third project was his most controversial and one he considered a failure, though, on reflection, it was just the start of a process that led to a great outcome, today's Woodland Park Zoo.
Zoo on the left, Aurora Avenue and
Lower Woodland Park
A Nova Scotian named Guy Phinney built an estate around his home at the top of the hill overlooking Green Lake and surrounded it with 90 acres of trails, landscaping, a band stand, a bathing beach and a few deer and other exotics, all connected by his own, private trolley car. There already was a zoo in Seattle, privately owned, in the Leschi neighborhood, where a trolley line, a casino, a bathing beach and a few animals behind fences lured Seattle residents to the new real estate
opportunities looking out over Lake Washington.
The city annexed the Phinney property when it annexed Fremont, in 1891, and finally bought Phinney's estate in 1900 for $100,000, causing a fire storm of complaints about purchasing a rich man's private park, now known as Woodland Park and located so far from Seattle.
When the Olmsted brothers started work on the comprehensive parks plan in 1903, they were delighted to include this property into their plan and added some playfields along the Green Lake side of the park and thought it a good idea to expand its tiny zoo with 'hardy animals.'
After the lots had been sold in Leschi, the developers thought to gift the animals from their zoo to the city's collection. Other acquisitions followed, often through gifting. One of the largest acquisitions was Tusko, the elephant thought to be the largest elephant in captivity. Tusko died after creating a great drama in Seattle, being seized by Mayor John Dore and dispatched to the Woodland Park Zoo until the city was paid for his up-keep by the deadbeat owner who, some said, was plotting to kill Tusko and stuff him for a museum.
Tusko in 1933
While a diversion from our story, Tusko requires some of our attention. Tusko was known to have a temper and if you had been treated like Tusko, you'd have a temper too. By 1933, the biggest elephant in captivity had been sold by a legitimate circus to a series of small time operators who would show up at local events with Tusko and his size as the attraction.
Tusko was well-known in the Northwest because, eleven years previous, the animal had gone crazy in Sedro-Woolley where he threw his trainer, took off through town where he broke up a street dance and continued on a 30 mile, two-day rampage destroying cars, a couple of barns and many utility poles before he came upon a still outside the town in the woods where he ate all of the fermenting sour mash and calmed down. I'm not sure about the still but the Bellingham Herald was and it remains part of the lore. Everybody knew Tusko.
Later, while with his small time torturers were exhibiting him in Portland over Christmas of 1931, Tusko began ripping up his tent and stood triumphant among the debris with all but one of his tethers broken. Jack O'Grady and Sleepy Gray, who had bought Tusko for his feed bill at the Oregon State Fair, where he had been abandoned, quickly called police. The police chief, Leon Jenkins, decided on the spot to shoot Tusko and assembled several officers to do the deed. However, Portland Mayor George Baker wouldn't have it and ordered the police to holster their weapons. The Mayor had in mind keeping the elephant for the Portland Zoo, but as in so many events in Tusko's last years, it all fell through. Tusko, the biggest unwanted elephant in the world, soldiered on.
While in Seattle in '33, Tusko got the attention of another mayor, John Dore, who waded into a controversy and a comedy of errors that left the elephant stranded in downtown Seattle with the city feeding him.
Then Dore heard that his owner planned to shoot the animal, stuff and sell him. That was enough for Dore. He seized the animal for non-payment of feed and proposed taking him to the zoo, which authorities ultimately did, closing down streets along the way and walking Tusko up to the zoo.
Just as they got Tusko settled and, after 80,000 visitors came to the zoo to see him, the zoo started a campaign raise the money to keep him fed and in a decent shelter. Weeks later, Tusko laid down on his side and died of a blood clot to his lungs.
Just to the south of the zoo the George Washington Bridge was being built, a high level crossing of Lake Union. It was, until 1932, a kind of bridge to nowhere as citizens had Seattle's very first freeway fight over what they then called a 'speedway' through Woodland Park. The speedway would turn out to be Aurora Avenue North and it would, save for a a trio of small and little used bridges, divide the park into Upper Woodland and Lower Woodland after an initiative to abandon the speedway project died.
These two events motivated George Bartholick. The horrible treatment given animals by most zoos – sterile cages, restraints, nothing to break the monotony of imprisonment – and the division of Woodland Park by Aurora Avenue moved George to weave those two unrelated events into a singular theme that George saw as the centerpiece of his zoo project. He wanted to cross Aurora with a superlative, glass covered zoo exhibit and that would create room for expansion of the zoo into Lower Woodland Park where animals could have more room for natural living spaces.
Aurora Avenue
Rather than solve the divisions created by Aurora, George's plan made them sharper. The fact that this really cool idea doubled the budget was a problem and the recreation interests, seeing a major encroachment, organized. And a woman named Benella Caminiti, who George could never understand because she both worked at the Washington Primate Research Center and hated zoos, became involved and became a powerful opponent. Passionate and tireless, Caminiti ultimately got George's plan to the Seattle ballot where it was defeated. The zoo director, an interesting and creative businessman whose own passion was a world class zoo, resigned.
George was devastated, but as things happen, a young man named David Hancocks, who was part of a consulting team brought in after the election, became director of the zoo and soon created a natural space in which lowland African Gorillas could live much more normally and still be seen closely. The exhibit was fantastic and put the zoo on the international map. It also became the standard for further exhibits at the zoo that respected the animals. Other exhibits followed, the African Savannah, Asian Primates and a New England Marsh followed. Ultimately, the zoo's exhibits won county-wide financial support and gave it the resources to set out on another series of terrific exhibits that mark it as one of the fine zoos in the world.
George got to see many of the changes to the zoo and they made him less bitter about his zoo plan. He moved on to the Pike Place Market Project and made his great mark there and was famous everywhere for his skill at historic preservation.
He moved about – teaching in Mexico, fixing buildings in Mt. Zion Monument Park and finally back to Bellingham, where he died, in 1998.
I figured that George would have thought Uli's place fit into the market because it was simple and fun with no pretense. Like so many places in the market it is a hole in the wall that shows off a fine surprise when you enter. I also figured it would be terrific to have George be able to see how the market fits into the plans for the new waterfront, with a kind of cascading connection down from the top of the hillside, where the market sits with its steel backbone, down to the waterfront. George would have something to say about it and would know viscerally what it might do or not do for the market.
I thought about another beer at Uli's but decided against it and made my way through the market, buying peonies and early raspberries, all the time wishing that George would have made that play on Aurora Avenue and wondering who in the future will rise up to his cause and unite Woodland Park once again.
Topics: Heroism
Bob Royer is a native Oregonian who adopted the state of Washington in 1965. He serves on the Board of Historylink and is a partner at Gallatin Public Affairs. Bob lives in Seattle with his wife Barbara.
Boy's Life ( | 2,701 |
I had an amazing job in the financial services industry and worked with incredible people, but something was missing. I had real-world responsibilities like everyone else, but I really wanted to do something I was passionate about. Life's challenges began to stack up: the financial crisis, a divorce and many of my close friends getting laid off from their corporate jobs. Through these experiences I was determined to gain control over my own fate.
Many successful companies started this way. Instagram founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger worked nights and weekends on their photo sharing app. Their initial foray into the market was an app that was similar to Foursquare, where you would check into locations. However, it was not getting traction. They ended up changing their model to photography only and it became the success we know today. Having a day job gives you the time and flexibility to hone your business model and create a product that will be commercially feasible.
There are a number of advantages to this approach. One is that you are less likely to need to take out loans, as you can proportion some of your income toward building your business. Secondly, you are less likely to give up valuable equity to investors as well. For me, I wanted 100 percent control of my company! While I might have had to put in more hours than if I had a partner, I now have the freedom and flexibility I craved.
Lastly, it is estimated that only 39 percent of small businesses make money over the course of their lifetime. This is an important statistic to take into account when launching your new business. It's very challenging to survive the ups and downs of the initial years without a stable source of income, so you should plan your yearly budget accordingly.
The British billionaire and adventurer Richard Branson is a master at protecting his downside risk. He is also a<|fim_middle|> was working on a separate core business.
I was very fortunate to have had a great job. However, my long-term goals shifted to living my passions. You will go through tough times starting your business and I won't lie -- it is incredibly hard. It was my love and passion for my business idea that made it successful. While the hours were long, it did not feel like work. Find something that you love enough so that you won't mind spending your free time on it.
Many people say they don't know where to start to launch their business. It's all too overwhelming for them. Just put one step in front of the other. Baby steps are the key! Come up with the name of your company. Work on your company logo. These will get things rolling. The next steps unfold one after another. When you look back one year later you will be amazed at what you achieved with just a few hours of extra work per day.
There is no guarantee that your startup will be successful, so keep working hard at your day job. Aside from the steady income and security it provides, you will still have an opportunity to grow and learn each day and you can apply these lessons to your own business. I was fortunate to work for an incredible manager who had a deep understanding of risk management, marketing and sales. This helped me tremendously in building my business. Learn as much as you can at your day job.
You're not likely to know everything from the start. I am a big proponent of bringing in support, such as mentors and coaches, to help on your entrepreneurial journey. Having other opinions will help reveal things that you might miss. This is the key to breaking through to new heights. I learned this the hard way. After my company launched I was having a very difficult time with sales. While I was determined to make my company succeed, I was trying to do it all by myself. I realized that if I did not change myself then I would fail. I then brought in coaches and mentors and asked them to take a hard look at me. I asked them to help me change. It wasn't long after that the sales started to come in. My advice to you is to seek out help. It can make all the difference.
The day I quit my banking job, I left to run a thriving entity. Because I built up my company on the side I did not have to take a leap of faith. Take your time and only leave your day job when you feel fully comfortable. Building my business has been one of the greatest adventures of my life. Every day, I get to do what I love. I did it all by playing it smart, minimizing my risk, and thinking long-term. | big supporter of the approach of starting a new business on the side. You may not have realized it, but many of his businesses, like Virgin Records and Virgin Atlantic Airways, started out as side projects while he | 42 |
Sunbathing next to the Aspe river on a hot summer day!
It's time to feed our greedy chickens!
A chateau in the Pyrenees with activities for all ages!
Looking for a holiday destination with plenty to do onsite?
Look no further - Fontaines d'Escot is perfect for you!
Private riverbanks along the beautiful Aspe river,<|fim_middle|> either in our B&B Suites (breakfast included, evening meals on reservation) or in our self catering gites. | perfect for sunbathing and for swimming on hot Summer days.
Nearby walking paths, including Saint James way that links all the villages of the Aspe valley.
Fronton (playing wall) to play Basque pelota, a typical sport of the south west of France - we provide the equipment for free!
Reading the books and the magazines that are at your disposal (in French and in English).
➔ For more information please check out our property plan.
Our property is big enough for families and groups but also for people looking for tranquility!
You can choose to stay | 115 |
Add ImageMirror Pond Pale Ale by Deschutes Brewery, Inc.
Chill hazen dark yellow with a slight bronzed tone to its body, thin dense white foamy top reached a finger high before fading quickly down to whispy fringe and thin collar, lacing in spots and tiny strings.
Aroma is of Cascade hops moslty, grassy and floral, yet sweet with some fruity notions of malts inbetween.
Taste intially hoppy with slight citrus and grass, fades off to a sweet middle of bready thick malts<|fim_middle|> them but it is a solid pale ale. This is a very well balanced pale ale.
This is a damn good well balanced beer. great clean nose(citrus) smoooth finish ahhh. Can't buy deschutes products in the land of lincoln.. | then dries out to a lingering bittersweet hoppiness that keeps a touch of zing on the tongue. Good finish with lingering hop spice and resin oils sticking well but light and nonabrasive.
Feel is close to a medium body, albiet somewhat on the lighter side, still has some creamy, slick and quiet carbonation, and a dry, slightly spicey hop finish. Very drinkable, very soothing, a bit on the malty side, but the hops partake a good balance in its finish to make up for it.
12 oz bottle thanks to the great Wetpaperbag who sent this sucker to me. Poured into a nonic pint.
A: Pours a honey colored yellowish brown that has a bit of haze to it. Got a good finger of head with this beer but it didn't have too much retention, receeding quickly. Not much carbonation action going on in here. This beer looks good but it just seems a bit boring in appearance. Ah well.
S: Aroma is of some pretty nice sweet hops character. Nice caramel hints and sweetness from the malt. It even has a touch of a sweet cider presence to it. It is a very subtle aroma, but pleasing. Nice and simple. Very nice.
T: Really nice malt character here first and foremost. Sweetness and a touch of caramel going on here. Hops are there but are really subdued and not bitter at all. Nice sweet and floral hops instead of in your face hops. A really nice balance going here in the basic ingredients. There are also some fruit flavors in there as well in the form of light cherries and apple flavors. Very nice.
M: This brew is on the light side of medium in body, I am not fully convince it is medium in body. This is not a bad thing for this beer though. A bit thin but carbonation is crisp, making this beer a thirst quencher. Easy to drink and finishes pretty clean. Very nice.
D: This is a really tasty beer. It is simple and it works for this beer. Its smells and tastes are very accessible and in no way overwhelming. This is an easily sessionable brew that has some flavor to it. This beer is easy to put down and does the job. Very nice indeed.
Received in a recent trade with russpowell, thanks for the big ol' boxes Russ! Mirror Pond Pale is a polished copper bordering on orange with a good deal of fine particulate suspended throughout. A finger and a half worth of cotton white head formed on the pour but quickly dropped to a skim coat with not much more of a ring. The head leaves some patchy lacing but nothing out of the ordinary.
There's a good deal of toasted grains right off the bat, I even get some dry but muted nuttiness. The hop additions bring about a decent amount of orange oils with a little grassiness and earthiness in the background. Very balanced pale ale, unfortunately I'd enjoy a little more hoppiness.
The flavor rolls right along with the aroma. Toasted grains with a slight drizzling of caramel frame the orange oil hoppiness with grassiness here and there throughout. Mirror Pond is a very balanced pale ale, just not really my style. A good pale none the less.
There's good body on this beer. Medium bodied with a smooth somewhat creamy mouthfeel. The carbonation is soft and pleasant.
Mirror Pond is easy to put down. Something you don't really have to think about but that's enjoyable to put away.
Deschutes brews some quality beer. This isn't one of my favorites from | 740 |
Heritage. Culture. Travel. Money and career. Being a world citizen.
Your family roots are in the "old country"
SRJC is where you need to be!
Do you have questions about specialized courses or how things work in Foreign Languages here at the SRJC? The link FAQ, located on the left-side menu, may provide possible answers; or click on Contacts for phone numbers and emails of our staff who will gladly assist you.
The mission of the Modern and Classical Languages Department is to provide quality instruction to students intending to transfer to a four-year college or university, students pursuing an associate degree or certificate, and students seeking personal enrichment. This mission supports the global and multicultural goals of the<|fim_middle|> to choose a class offered this semester. | College by promoting understanding of and respect for other nations and cultures, and providing students with a foundation in international history and culture that enables them to pursue their educational and personal goals. International language and culture courses provide a unique opportunity to enrich one's ability to understand oneself and communicate with others.
We therefore combine a grammar-based approach with communicative language teaching techniques that integrate cultural competency into the various skills that form the basis for language acquisition and utilization.
Browse our language program pages to decide which language fits your needs. Then either pick up the Catalog or visit our department's virtual catalog | 114 |
M<|fim_middle|> feature | ikayla Lane, "I'll Fly Away" single art photo credit: Lady Daze Creative & Photography/courtesy of Adkins Publicity
Mikayla Lane releases her version of beloved gospel hymn 'I'll Fly Away'
Fri, Dec 9th 2022 02:30 pm
Emerging songstress Mikayla Lane has released her "sweet-sounding version" of the beloved gospel hymn, "I'll Fly Away," and the accompanying music video.
To stream and download "I'll Fly Away," click here.
" 'I'll Fly Away'" has been a favorite of mine since I was a little girl, and I've covered it for as long as I can remember," Mikayla shared. "It was an easy decision to select this song as a favorite cover to record. It's been even more special getting to meet and know Jackson Brumley, the son of writer Albert Brumley, during the recording process."
Mikayla recently launched her exclusive line of high-end western fashion, The Mikayla Lane Collection, which features handbags custom made by Alamo Saddlery in Del Rio, Texas. She will host a pop-up shop showcasing her new brand on Jan. 25 at The Showroom Nashville. For more information, visit mikaylalanecollection.com.
Additionally, Mikayla made her "Song Suffragettes" showcase debut at The Listening Room Cafe in Nashville on Aug. 29. Her newest single, "Ambush," was released on July 29 and debuted at No. 1 on OneRPM's "Country Bound" playlist on Spotify, and also landed on CMT's "The Round Up" playlist on Spotify and Apple Music. Written by Mikayla and John Conrad and produced by Jimmy Ritchey (Jake Owen, Clay Walker, Mark Chesnutt), "Ambush" "brings a spunky, cowgirl-themed tale of unexpected love on the range and offers up a western-esque vibe."
More About Mikayla Lane
Per her team:
Seventeen-year-old Mikayla is ambitious and driven – traits branded by her upbringing, lifestyle, personality and passions. With heart, vision and talent beyond her years, she knows what she wants and she is determined to chase her dream.
Her pursuit began early on: Mikayla was just 13 when she earned a spot on Blake Shelton's OIe Red talent roster, which originated in Shelton's hometown of Tishomingo, Oklahoma – Mikayla's home state. She has become a staple at the venue in Tishomingo and has appeared on the Ole Red stages in Nashville, Gatlinburg and Orlando. The country music starlet has become a "fan-favorite" at a variety of notable venues, including Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa, where she opened for Jon Wolfe. She is the venue's youngest supporting act to date.
The songstress has written and co-produced a catalog of original tunes. As a tween, Mikayla recorded and released her debut EP, "Rooftop Nights," and has since released seven studio recordings. She co-wrote and co-produced the single "Superman," recorded in her bedroom and now approaching 80,000 streams, along with the corresponding music video, which premiered on CMT.com in October 2020. Mikayla also co-wrote and co-produced the single, "Drive" in 2021 and the track catapulted to the Top 10 on Spotify's "New Music Nashville."
In September 2021, Mikayla introduced her sophomore recording project, "Miles From Nowhere," featuring four originals that embrace her western lifestyle. In keeping with family tradition and their mutual passion for rodeo and the lifestyle, Mikayla was recently named as the official spokesperson for the nation's largest youth rodeo, the Vegas Tuffest Junior World Championship.
To keep up with Mikayla, follow her on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Spotify.
Entertainment On Stage | 842 |
Transportation route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Not to be confused with Santa Fe Rail Trail or Santa Fe River Trail.
For other uses, see Santa Fe Trail (disambiguation).
Map of the Santa Fe Trail
Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado
Santa Fe National Historic Trail
The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century transportation route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico.[1][2][3][4] Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, the trail served as a vital commercial highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880. Santa Fe was near the end of the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, which carried trade from Mexico City.
The route skirted the northern edge and crossed the north-western corner of Comancheria, the territory of the Comanches, who demanded compensation for granting passage to the trail, and represented another market for American traders. Comanche raiding farther south in Mexico isolated New Mexico, making it more dependent on the American trade, and provided the Comanches with a steady supply of horses for sale. By the 1840s, trail traffic along the Arkansas Valley was so heavy that bison herds could not reach important seasonal grazing land, contributing to their collapse, which in turn hastened the decline of Comanche power in the region.[5]
The American army used the trail route in 1846 for the invasion of New Mexico during the Mexican–American War.[6]
After the U.S. acquisition of the Southwest ending the war, the trail helped open the region to U.S. economic development and settlement, playing a vital role in the expansion of the U.S. into the lands it had acquired. The road route is commemorated today by the National Park Service as the Santa Fe National Historic Trail. A highway route that roughly follows the trail's path through the entire length of Kansas, the southeast corner of Colorado and northern New Mexico has been designated as the Santa Fe Trail National Scenic Byway.
1.1 North–South trade
1.2 Importance of Santa Fe
1.3 Conflict between Texas and Mexico
2 Mother of the railroad
3 Route
4 Challenges
5 Historic preservation
6 Notable features
Find sources: "Santa Fe Trail" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Arrival of the caravan at Santa Fe, lithograph published c.1844
Former U.S. Army outpost on the Santa Fe Trail, now a rest area on I-25 in northern New Mexico
The Santa Fe Trail was a transportation route opened by the Spaniards at the end of the 18th century and used afterwards by the Americans in the 19th century, crossing the southwest of North America connecting Independence, Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The French explorer Pedro Vial pioneered the route in 1792 and the Santa Fe Trail was established in 1822 to take advantage of new trade opportunities with Mexico, which had just won independence from Spain in the Mexican War of Independence. The trail was used to haul manufactured goods from the state of Missouri in the United States to Santa Fe, which was in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Mexico.[7]
The wagon trains followed various emigrant trails to points west as people responded to the opportunity to hold free land, and as the political philosophy of Manifest Destiny dominated national political discussions. Connecting riverboat port cities and their wagon train outfitters to western destinations, the trail was a fundamentally important trade route, carrying manufactured products from the central plains of United States to the trail head towns St. Joseph and Independence, Missouri. In the 1820s–30s, it was also sporadically important in the reverse trade, carrying foods and supplies to the fur trappers and mountain men opening the remote Northwest, especially in the interior Northwest: Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and Montana, connecting via mule trail (trapper's trails) to points north to supply the lucrative overland fur trade.
North–South trade[edit]
Santa Fe was near the northern terminus of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, which led overland from Mexico City to San Juan Pueblo, New Mexico.
The limited trade traffic transited the site that would become Fort Bent in Colorado (directly on the Santa Fe Trail) and the short-lived trading fort (name, owner, management, dates all uncertain) that sat astride the Trapper's Trail and Oregon Trail junction point. This post was only eight miles east of the site of Fort John (now Ft. Laramie) (ca. 1833) on what became the Oregon Trail (1832–34).[8] The lost fort was on the same site where Fort Bernard was later founded (1866) in the eastern Oregon Country (Wyoming). That Fort Bernard ran cargo mule trains to the Santa Fe is historically certain. The earlier Fort and its traders are less certain, suggesting that they might have been independents and not employees of the large fur companies. Regardless of the lack of explicit documents, it is known the light trading with Mexico used the trail and Trapper's Trail.
Importance of Santa Fe[edit]
Map of the Republic of Texas showing lands claimed by Texas after 1836 and present-day outline of New Mexico on the boundaries of 1836–1845
In 1825, the merchant Manuel Escudero of Chihuahua was commissioned by New Mexico governor Bartolome Baca to negotiate in Washington for opening U.S. borders to traders from Mexico. Beginning in 1826, prominent aristocratic families of New Mexicans, such as the Chávezes, Armijos, Pereas and Oteros entered into the commerce along the trail, such that by 1843, traders from New Mexico and Chihuahua had become the majority of traders involved in the traffic of goods over the Santa Fe Trail.[9]
In 1835, Mexico City had sent Albino Pérez to govern the department of New Mexico as Jefe Politico (political chief or governor) and as commanding military officer. In 1837, the forces of Rio Arriba (the upper Rio Grande, i.e., northern New Mexico) rebelled against Pérez' enforcement of the recent Mexican constitution, new revenue laws taxing Santa Fe commerce and entertainment, and the large grants of New Mexico land to wealthy Mexicans. New Mexicans had grown to appreciate the relative freedoms of a frontier, remote from Mexico City. The rebels defeated and executed governor Albino Perez,<|fim_middle|> Mill, Cimarron Plaza and Well)
Philmont Scout Ranch
Cimarron Route
Kiowa National Grassland
Joint route
Fort Union National Monument
Pecos National Historical Park
De Vargas Street House, "Oldest House in the USA"
Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area
MO: Jackson County Historic Places
KS: Johnson County Historic Places
OK: Cimarron County Historic Places
NM: Colfax County Historic Places
Oregon-California Trails Association
Related National Park Units
Santa Fe Trail Remains
Santa Fe Trail Museum, part of the Trinidad History Museum
Santa Fe Trail Historical Park in El Monte, California
Trailside Center museum in Kansas City, Missouri
Great Santa Fe Trail Horse Race Endurance Ride
Scenic byways in the United States
Tree in the Trail
^ Duffus, Robert (1930). The Santa Fe Trail. Longmans, Green And Co.
^ "A History of the Santa Fe Trail". santafetrail.org. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
^ "Old Franklin, Missouri & the Start of the Santa Fe Trail". legendsofamerica.com. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
^ Switzler, William F. (1882). History of Boone County. St. Louis: Western Historical Company.
^ Hämäläinen, Pekka (2008). The Comanche Empire. Yale University Press. pp. 159–160. ISBN 978-0-300-12654-9.
^ Magoffin, Susan Shelby; Lamar, Howard R (1982). Drumm, Stella Madeleine (ed.). Down the Santa Fe Trail and Into Mexico: The Diary of Susan Shelby Magoffin, 1846–1847. Copyright 1926, 1962 by Yale University Press. USA: Univ. of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-8116-5.
^ Peters, Arthur King (1996-06-01). Seven trails West. Abbeville Press. p. 55.
^ Founding date after the Battle of Pierre's Hole from consequent discovery of South Pass (1832) providing the last key bit of needed navigable landscape by the Astorians. The majority of the road was well known to the American Fur Company since 1808.
^ a b c d Marc Simmons, Murder on the Santa Fe Trail: an International Incident, 1843 The University of Texas El Paso (1987)
^ Ray John de Aragon, Padre Martinez and Bishop Lamy Pan American Publishing Company (1978)
^ Kendall, George (1884). "Narrative of the Texan Santa Fé Expedition - Wikiquote". en.wikiquote.org. Retrieved 2017-10-25.
^ Hyslop, Stephen Garrison (2001-12-31). Bound for Santa Fe: The Road to New Mexico and the American Conquest, 1806-1848. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 9780806133898.
^ "Kansas: A Encyclopedia of State History". Archived from the original on November 17, 2005.
^ "REPUBLIC OF TEXAS | The Handbook of Texas Online| Texas State Historical Association (TSHA)". Tshaonline.org. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
^ "Aerial Photos Topo Maps of Santa Fe Trail Ruts and Sites". Retrieved 2007-12-28.
^ a b Duffus, R. (1972). The Santa Fe Trail. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 978-0-8263-0235-9.
^ a b Vestal, Stanley (1996). The Old Santa Fe Trail. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-9615-2.
^ a b Stocking, Hobart (1971). The Road to Santa Fe. New York: Hastings House Publishers. ISBN 978-0-8038-6314-9.
^ Samuel Gance, Anton ou la trajectoire d'un père, L'Harmattan, Paris, 2013. p.115.
^ Gallagher, Joseph J., Alice Edwards, Lachlan F. Blair, and Hugh Davidson (March 8, 1993). "National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Nomination Form: Historic Resources of the Santa Fe Trail, 1821–1880" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-04-10. CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ "National Historic Landmarks Program (NHL): Santa Fe Trail Remains". Archived from the original on May 1, 2015. Retrieved 2007-04-10.
^ a b c d Santa Fe trail, Official Map and Guide; National Park Service; Harpers Ferry, West Virginia; 1997
O'Brien, William (2014). Merchants of Independence: International Trade on the Santa Fe Trail, 1827-1860. Truman State University Press. ISBN 978-1612480909. ; 224 pages.
Unrau, William (2013). Indians, Alcohol, and the Roads to Taos and Santa Fe. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0700619146. ; 208 pages.
Peters, Arthur (1996). Seven Trails West. Abbeville Press. ISBN 978-0789206787. ; 252 pages.
Watson, Douglas (1931). The Santa Fe Trail to California, 1849-1852. E. and R. Grabhorn. ; 272 pages.
Duffus, Robert (1930). The Santa Fe Trail. Longmans, Green And Co. ; 283 pages.
Brigham, Lalla (1921). The Story of Council Grove on the Santa Fe Trail. ; 168 pages.
Cordry, Almira (1915). The Story of the Marking of the Santa Fe Trail by the Daughters of the American Revolution in Kansas and the State of Kansas. Crane and Co. ; 162 pages.
Multiple Editors (1910). Along the Old Trail: a History of the Old and a Story of the New Santa Fe Trail. Tucker Vernon Co. ; 190 pages.
Gregg, Josiah (1844). Commerce of the Prairies: The Journal of a Santa Fe Trader - Volume 2. H.G. Langley. ; 318 pages.
Franzwa, Gregory (1989). Maps of the Santa Fe Trail. Patrice Press. ISBN 978-0935284683. ; 196 pages.
NPS (1990). Santa Fe National Historic Trail: Comprehensive Management and Use Plan Map Supplement. National Park Service. ; 121 pages.
KSHS (1911). Santa Fe Trail: Brief Summary of the Santa Fe Trail through Kansas. Kansas State Historical Society. ; 21 pages.
Santa Fe Trailat Deep web's sister projects
Definitions from Wiktionary
Media from Wikimedia Commons
News from Wikinews
Texts from Wikisource
Travel guide from Wikivoyage
Resources from Wikiversity
Santa Fe National Historic Trail (National Park Service)
Santa Fe Trail Center
Santa Fe Trail Research
Santa Fe Trail Research Site Aerial Photo Tour of the Santa Fe Trail
Access documents, photographs, and other primary sources on Kansas Memory, the Kansas State Historical Society's digital portal
New Mexico Santa Fe Trail National Scenic Byway
Glorieta and Raton Passes: Gateways to the Southwest, a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan
Pioneer Trails from US Land Surveys
Oklahoma Digital Maps: Digital Collections of Oklahoma and Indian Territory
U.S. National Trails System
National Geologic Trail
Ice Age Floods Trail
National Historic Trails
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California Trail
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Juan Bautista de Anza Trail
Nez Perce Trail
Pony Express Trail
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Natural surface trails
Ala Kahakai Trail
Iditarod Trail
Captain John Smith Chesapeake Trail
Lewis and Clark Trail (motor, land, and water)
Overmountain Victory Trail (motor and land)
Star-Spangled Banner Trail (motor and water)
Washington–Rochambeau Revolutionary Route (motor and water)
National Scenic Trails
Natchez Trace Trail
Potomac Heritage Trail
National Water Trails
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Bronx River Blueway
Chattahoochee River Water Trail
Hudson River Greenway Water Trail
Island Loop Route
Mississippi National River and Recreation Area Water Trail
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Missouri National Recreational River Water Trail
Okefenokee Wilderness Canoe Trails
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Architectural style categories
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National Historic Preservation Act of 1966
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Historic trails and roads in Colorado
Roads on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado
Roads on the National Register of Historic Places in Missouri
Roads on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico
Roads on the National Register of Historic Places in Oklahoma
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Articles needing additional references from October 2017 | but were later ousted by the forces of Rio Abajo (the lower Rio Grande, or southern New Mexico) led by Manuel Armijo.[10]
Conflict between Texas and Mexico[edit]
The Republic of Texas claimed Santa Fe as part of the territory north and east of the Rio Grande claimed by both Mexico and Texas following its secession from Mexico in 1836.
In 1841, a small military and trading expedition departed from Austin, Texas representing the Republic of Texas and their president Mirabeau B. Lamar. Their aim was to persuade the people of Santa Fe and New Mexico to relinquish control over the territory under dispute with Mexico, and over the associated Santa Fe Trail commerce. Having knowledge of the recent political disturbances, they believed that they might be welcomed by the rebellious faction in New Mexico. Known as the Texan Santa Fe Expedition, the Texans encountered many difficulties and were subsequently captured by governor Armijo's Mexican army under less than honest negotiations. They were then subjected to harsh and austere treatment during a tortuous forced march to Mexico City, for trial and imprisonment.[11]
In 1842, Colonel William A. Christy wrote the president of Texas, Sam Houston, requesting support for a scheme by Charles Warfield to raise forces to overthrow the Mexican provinces of New Mexico and Chihuahua and return half of the spoils to the Republic of Texas. Sam Houston agreed, with the provision that the operation be held under the strictest secrecy. Charles was made a colonel and attempted to raise volunteers in Texas, St. Louis, and the southern Rockies for a Warfield Expedition. He recruited John McDaniel and a small band of men in the proximate vicinity of St. Louis, giving McDaniel the rank of a Texas captain. After Charles headed toward the Rockies with a companion, McDaniel led a robbery in the April, 1843 (in present-day Rice County, Kansas) of a sparsely manned Santa Fe Trail trading caravan, resulting in the murder of its leader Antonio José Chávez, the son of a former governor Francisco Xavier Chávez of New Mexico.[12][13] It was reported that Warfield was unaware of the crime, which later resulted in the execution of McDaniel and one accomplice, and in the imprisonment of those participants whom U.S. authorities were able to hunt down. The news media reported that Americans and Mexicans were outraged by the crime. Local merchants and citizens at the U.S. end of the Santa Fe Trail demanded justice and a return to the stable commerce that their economy had grown to depend upon.[9]
After the murder of Chávez, Warfield began limited military hostilities using recruits from the southern Rockies. He made an unprovoked attack on Mexican troops outside of Mora, New Mexico, leaving five dead. Warfield's horses were lost in Wagon Mound to the Mexican forces which had made chase, and after reaching Bent's Fort on foot, Warfield's men disbanded. In February, 1843 Colonel Jacob Snively had received a commission to intercept Mexican caravans along the Santa Fe Trail, similar to the commission received by Warfield the year prior. After disbanding the volunteers under his command, Warfield located and joined the 190 man Texas "Battalion of Invincibles," under the command of Snively. New Mexico governor Manuel Armijo led Mexican troops out of Santa Fe for the protection of the incoming caravans, but after the Invincibles wiped out an advanced party led by Captain Ventura Lovato, the governor retreated. Following this battle, Snively's force was reduced to little over 100 men due to resignations.[9] The Snively Expedition plan was to plunder Mexican merchant caravans on territory claimed by Texas, in retaliation for recent Texian executions and Mexican invasions, but it was quickly arrested and disarmed by United States escorting troops.[14] Captain Philip St. George Cooke allowed the Invincibles to return to Texas after disarming them.[9]
Mother of the railroad[edit]
Find sources: "Santa Fe Trail" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Connections along the Santa Fe Railroad, showing the principal regular stops on the AT&SF mainline, including cattle drive destinations such as Dodge City. It is no accident that most of those Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexican towns were also first serviced by the Santa Fe Trail.
In 1863, with all the political bickering over railroad legislation, entrepreneurs opened their pockets and set their sights on the American Southwest leading to the gradual construction east to west of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway; the name eponymously reflecting the intentions of the founders, the expected eastern terminus to be in Atchison, Kansas.
Inside Kansas, the AT&SF roadbed roughly paralleled the Santa Fe Trail west of Topeka as it expanded between 1868 and 1874. When a railroad bridge was built across the Missouri River to connect eastern markets to the Dodge City cattle trail and Colorado coal mines, the railroad spurred the growth of Kansas City, Missouri. Building the railway so that it extended westwards to destinations in and beyond the New Mexico border was delayed and kept the fledgling railroad gasping for cash. In a move to bootstrap their own base market, the railway began offering packaged "Shopping Excursion deals" to potential buyers desiring to look over a real estate parcel. The railroad began to discount such trips to visit its land offices and gave back the ticket price as part of the purchase price, if a sale was concluded.
The railroad's sale of its land granted by congress fostered growth of new towns and businesses along its route, which generated railway traffic and revenues. With this financial base, the railway extended west, gradually adding new connections through rougher west country along the western Trail. With the development of rail transport, traffic on the Trail soon dropped to merely local trade. In a sense, after World War I the trail was reborn; by the 1920s it gradually became paved automobile roads.
Route[edit]
Santa Fe Trail highway sign in Cimarron, New Mexico
End of the Santa Fe Trail marker on the Plaza in Santa Fe, New Mexico
The eastern end of the trail was in the central Missouri town of Franklin on the north bank of the Missouri River. The route across Missouri first used by Becknell followed portions of the existing Osage Trace and the Medicine Trails. West of Franklin, the trail crossed the Missouri near Arrow Rock, after which it followed roughly the route of present-day U.S. Route 24. It passed north of Marshall, through Lexington to Fort Osage, then to Independence. Independence was also one of the historic "jumping off points" for the Oregon and California Trails.
West of Independence, it roughly followed the route of U.S. Route 56 from near the town of Olathe to the western border of Kansas. It enters Colorado, cutting across the southeast corner of the state before entering New Mexico. The section of the trail between Independence and Olathe was also used by immigrants on the California and Oregon Trails, which branched off to the northwest near Gardner, Kansas.
From Olathe, the trail passed through the towns of Baldwin City, Burlingame, and Council Grove, then swung west of McPherson to the town of Lyons. West of Lyons the trail followed nearly the route of present-day Highway 56 to Great Bend. Ruts in the earth made from the trail are still visible in several locations (Ralph's Ruts are visible in aerial photos at (38°21′35″N 98°25′20″W / 38.35959264°N 98.42225502°W / 38.35959264; -98.42225502).[15] At Great Bend, the trail encountered the Arkansas River. Branches of the trail followed both sides of the river upstream to Dodge City and Garden City.
Historical trails of Colorado
Goodnight–Loving Trail
Old Spanish Trail
Overland Trail
Smoky Hill Trail
South Platte Trail
Taos Mountain Trail
Trapper's Trail
Ute Pass Wagon Road
West of Garden City in southwestern Kansas the trail splits into two branches. One of the branches, called the Mountain Route or the Upper Crossing follows the Purgatoire River from La Junta upstream to Trinidad then south through the Raton Pass into New Mexico. [16]:93[17]:133
The other main branch, called the Cimarron Cutoff or Cimarron Crossing or Middle Crossing[16]:93[17]:133[18]:144 cut southwest across the Cimarron Desert (also known as the Waterscrape or La Jornada[18]:148) to the valley of the Cimarron River near the town of Ulysses and Elkhart then continued toward Boise City, Oklahoma, to Clayton, New Mexico, joining up with northern branch at Fort Union. This route was generally very hazardous because it had very little water.[19] In fact, the Cimarron River was one of the only sources of water along this branch of the trail.
From Watrous, the reunited branches continued southward to Santa Fe. Part of this route has been designated a National Scenic Byway.
Santa Fe Trail Ruts at Fort Union
Travelers faced many hardships along the Santa Fe Trail. The trail was a challenging 900 miles (1,400 km) of arid plains, desert, and mountains. The natural climate was and is continental: very hot and dry summers, coupled with long and bitterly cold winters. Freshwater was scarce, and the high steppe-like plains are nearly treeless. Water flows in the Pecos, Arkansas, Cimarron, and Canadian rivers that drain the region vary by 90 or more percent in their flows during an average year. Also on this trail, unlike the Oregon trail, there was a serious danger of Native American attacks, for neither the Comanches nor the Apaches of the southern high plains tolerated trespassers. In 1825, Congress voted for federal protection for the Santa Fe Trail, even though much of it lay in the Mexican territory. Lack of food and water also made the trail very risky. Weather conditions, like huge lightning storms, gave the travelers even more difficulty. If a storm developed, there was often no place to take shelter and the livestock could get spooked. Rattlesnakes often posed a threat, and many people died due to snakebites. The caravan size increased later on to prevent Native American raids. The travelers also packed more oxen instead of mules because the Native Americans did not want to risk raiding the caravans only for some oxen.
Historic preservation[edit]
Segments of this trail in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[20] In Missouri, this includes the 85th and Manchester "Three Trails" Trail Segment, Arrow Rock Ferry Landing, Santa Fe Trail-Grand Pass Trail Segments, and Santa Fe Trail-Saline County Trail Segments. The longest clearly identifiable section of the trail, Santa Fe Trail Remains, near Dodge City, Kansas, is listed as a National Historic Landmark.[21] In Colorado, Santa Fe Trail Mountain Route--Bent's New Fort is included on the National Register.
Notable features[edit]
Santa Fe Trail marker in Coolidge, Kansas
Santa Fe Trail Ruts west of Larned, Kansas
Santa Fe Trail marker at the Cuerno Verde Rest Area, Colorado
Missouri[22]
Arrow Rock (Arrow Rock Landing, Santa Fe Spring, Huston Tavern)
Harvey Spring/Weinrich Ruts
Independence (Santa Fe trail Ruts, Lower Independence (Blue Mills) Landing, Upper Independence (Wayne City) Landing.
Kansas City (Westport Landing)
Kansas[22]
Kansas City (Shawnee Mission, Big Blue River Crossing)
Council Grove (Kaw Mission, Neosho River Crossing, Hermit's Cave, Last Chance Store, Council Oak, Post Office Oak)
Fort Larned National Historic Site
Fort Dodge (Jackson's Grove and Island, Santa Fe Trail Ruts, Middle Crossing, Point of Rocks, Fort Atkinson Site)
Mountain Route towards Colorado
Arkansas River Crossing
Colorado[22]
Mountain Route
Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site
Raton Pass
Cimarron Route thru Kansas towards Oklahoma
Cimarron River
Cimarron National Grassland
New Mexico[22]
Clifton House
Cimarron (Aztec | 2,707 |
With Valentine's Day just around the corner, many people will be looking for something romantic, elegant and fun to do with their loved ones or friends. Perhaps an enjoyable evening of dinner and dancing, or an indulgent afternoon of sampling chocolate with your partner would be good. Colorado has both, and indeed much more to offer.
Brayla Weddings and Events, in collaboration with Master Chef Jamie Faulker, are hosting an indulgent, romantic evening. Couples are invited to treat themselves to a traditional French seven-course red meal with wine pairings from executive chef, Jamie Faulker, complete with after-dinner dancing in<|fim_middle|>, opening their doors and welcoming you with sweet treats — many of which are homemade.
The event is organized by Cañon City Music Blossom Festival and has been known to sell out tickets. Availability is limited. Tickets will provide entrance to the Chocolate Lovers Headquarters where guests will receive Chocolate Walk supplies. Guests will be guided by a map and signs in front of participating merchants and can visit the "Sweet Stops" collecting something chocolate-themed at each location. The starting point of the walk will be at Maggie's Candy Kitchen and Bakery in downtown Cañon City, 1326 Main St., Cañon City. Tickets cost $15 each or $25 per couple and can be purchased online at http://www.ccblossomfestival.com/cc/. | the heart of Colorado Springs.
Availability is limited and tickets should be booked in advance. Some of the courses on this spectacular menu will include lobster claws, salmon and lamb. The meal will be served between 7-9 p.m. with after dinner dancing from 9-11 p.m. The event will take place at Brayla Weddings and Events Feb. 16 from 5:30-11:30 p.m.
For those with a more conservative budget, a chocolate-oriented tour is a superb low cost and thoughtful alternative.
Valentine's Day has become almost synonymous with indulgence and in this case, it takes the form of delicious chocolate samples. Cañon City will host its annual Chocolate Lovers Walk Feb. 9 from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Participants can enjoy the beautiful, historic downtown area and sample chocolates from the many merchants who work year-round to bring unique items to local residents. Over 40 merchants will attend | 205 |
This icebreaker game draws people out with questions that are just revealing enough, but not too personal.
How well do you really know your friends? Sure, they've trusted you with their deepest hopes and darkest secrets. But do you know whether they'd rather be a gir<|fim_middle|>Wish I hadn't bought this game.
Unfortunately it proved to be boring. We already know each other well and there is no challenge.
I enjoy using this with anyone: friends, family, home groups. | affe or a dolphin? If they've ever been to the grocery store in their pajamas? Ami Baio's 500-card party game uses intel like that to spark conversation under the guise of competition.
Each card bears a different incomplete short statement, ranging from relatively superficial, "I know your favorite color is _____" to more sensitive, "I know it's easy/hard for you to talk about your feelings". Players take turns choosing a card and a player to read it to, guessing how they'd answer. Technically, victory belongs to one player, but really, as soon as the laughs, surprises, and anecdotes begin, everyone's a winner. Designed in Portland, Oregon. Made in China.
Portland, Oregon's Ami Baio is a closet poetry writer, animal lover, vegan, former massage therapist/personal trainer, and current CrossFit enthusiast. She generally believes in saving the world through good conversation and cake. Ami didn't intend to be a game designer, but when the idea for You Think You Know Me came to her, she ran with it. It was inspired by the friends she follows on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, the people who follow her, and the lives that all of us have projected online. She wanted her game to challenge what we thought we knew about our friends, and in the process, deepen our relationships with them. "My hope is that You Think You Know Me will bring people together to talk and to laugh, to connect and to see each other in new ways, and maybe see themselves in new ways. I know that's a tall order, but that would be amazing."
Well my husband and I haven't played this yet, but my sister, my mom, and I had a great time with it. Some cards develop serious conversations but also a lot of laughs!!
Game best used with people who don't really know each other, as family the questions were too easy. We found a way to laugh thru it but wouldn't recommend it for people you know well.
Family seemed to enjoy it!
I already posted this above.
I backed this game on Kickstarter and I'm so happy to see it doing well! It's a really great game to use to get to know your friends even better, and I couldn't reccomend it more!
We can't stop playing this game!
I love how many ways we've played this game. It's always surprising, whether I just grab a few cards to take to dinner to play while we wait for our food, or when we go deep playing for hours. It always gets us thinking, laughing, and talking. Very clever.
| 536 |
GCC Students to Receive Refunds for Purchase of Parking Permits
GCC Confirms Remote<|fim_middle|> a larger building out on Santa Monica Boulevard and Abril Printing was born."
Then, after the introduction of the Abril Bookstore by Yeretzian, actress and playwright Lory Tatoulian began her "Everything you need to know about Armenians" lecture, which was wrapped in comedy and wit.
Tatoulian has performed her comedic one-woman shows across the United States, which include "Autosapiens," "Sketched," and "Sitting Twisted, Talking Straight," which had its off-Broadway debut in 2003.
As Tatoulian took the stage, she began by saying, "[Performing] this is quite different for me because I'm always doing a character. So for the past two months, I've stuffed my brain with 10,000 years of Armenian history and now I'm going to have a cathartic moment and just spew it all over you, okay?"
She continued her act by teaching some Armenian words, culture, history, food and more – albeit in her own fashion.
The day continued on with a tribute to Hovhannes Toumanian, who is regarded as "The Poet of All Armenians." Three of his folk tales, "The End of Evil," "The Death of Kikos" and "One Drop of Honey" were brought to life by Arena Productions, a multicultural community group.
Then Gor Mkitarian, lead guitarist of the rock band Lavi Eli, provided a sing-a-long for some Armenian folk songs. Mkitarian launched his solo career in 2001 and has released six albums since.
Afterwards, Ouhi Uluhogian, a story teller and performance artist, performed a movie screening of "The Human Comedy," a novel written by William Saroyan, who was born in Fresno in 1908. In 1966, Saroyan founded the William Saroyan Foundation for the preservation of his literary archives.
As the evening passed by, the "Writing from Fresno" segment took stage and the two Armenian-American authors from Fresno, Mark Arax and Aris Janigian, talked about how the city of Fresno inspired them to write.
In addition to the Fresno segment, Janice Stevens and Pat Hunter, author and illustrator of "William Sorayan: Places in Time," shared their thoughts on Fresno and how it inspired Saroyan to write.
Saturday ended with "The Evening Hour," a play by writer Aram Saroyan, son of William Saroyan.
The first act of the play took place in an apartment in London in the summer of 1966, and then 30 years later in the second act. It is about a father who has trouble parenting his two hippie kids.
Aram Saroyan was awarded the 2008 William Carlos Williams Award for his latest book, "Complete Minimal Poems," a complete anthology of his poetry of the '60s.
On Sunday, the festivities continued by starting the day off with the "Armenian Miniature Art Workshop," presented by Seeroon Yeretzian, the mother of Abril Bookstore owner Aron Yeretzian.
Yeretzian's paintings mostly depict Christian subjects. In her art workshop, she explained the meaning of symbols, such as the pomegranate and the peacock, giving the opportunity for others to paint their own ornate letter.
Yeretzian described how she first got started with painting.
"Illuminated manuscripts, it's the story of Christ in the Bible," Yeretzian explained. "I started studying the old art from the 7th Century to the inventing of print. These were manually done paintings. When I started doing that, I wanted to bring whatever is Christian into my paintings. I do cards every year; I also do large paintings about homeless people, crucified women, and social paintings."
"I have even done the Latin alphabet in Armenian style," Yeretzian said. "All cultures that are Christian and that have painted the Bible by hand have decorated ornate initials."
Following the art workshop was "Armenian Folklore, Alive!" The age-old Armenian folklore was presented by Alidz Agbabian, a storyteller and author who specializes in Armenian and Middle Eastern traditions.
Soon afterwards, Sarkis Balmanoukian presented the "Armenian Architecture" segment which focused on the architectural wonders of Armenia. Balmanoukian is an architect and scholar of Armenian architecture.
As the day moved forward, Lory Bedikian (poet and columnist), Lilly Thomassian (playwright), Vahe Berberian (playwright and novelist), Garrnik Galstian (poet and critic) and Arpi Sarafian (who teaches English language and literature at Cal State L.A.) all presented an author panel discussion, answering the question as to what defines a piece of writing as American, Armenian or English literature and whether it is language, ethnicity, place of origin, or subject matter that defines it.
Following that segment, "The Daredevils of Sassoun," an epic story consisting of four acts took stage. Performed by Peter Cowe and Anahid Halabi, the story was handed down in the same manner it has been passed down for 11 centuries. Cowe is the Naregatsi professor of Armenian language and culture at UCLA and Halabi is a founding member of the Lark Musical Society.
The ABRINK event finally came to a close on Sunday night with the "Piano Works of Armenian Composers" segment presented by Armenian composer Vatche Mankerian.
On the note of having ABRINK next year, Yeretzian commented, "Yeah, I would like to. It depends on how this event goes."
Isiah Reyes, staff reporter
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Armenian Cultural Festival Has Modern Edge
Isiah Reyes
Armenian food, dancing and storytelling were enjoyed by many people at the "ABRINK: Festival of Armenian Literature and Culture," hosted at Glendale Central Library's auditorium on Saturday and Sunday.
The ABRINK event was hosted by Abril, a bookstore that specializes in selling Armenian books, music, videos, cards, posters and gifts. Abril celebrated its 30th anniversary by hosting an event-filled weekend which included Armenian literature, theater, film, music, art, dance, performances, workshops, lectures and discussions.
Arno Yeretzian, the event director and producer of ABRINK and manager of Abril Bookstore, explained the importance of the event.
"Basically, we have a big population of Armenians in Glendale, so this is a way for people to come in and get to learn a little more about us," Yeretzian said. "Everyone's going to learn something from each segment."
Beginning on Saturday at 10 a.m., the evening started with an Armenian dance lesson taught by Ari Libaridian, a graduate of Pepperdine University with a bachelor's degree in theatre arts.
"I think [ABRINK] is important because it brings in outsiders and makes them part of the Armenian culture and it lets them learn more about it," Libaridian said. "You only hear so much from people and you don't know what it's actually about, but it's a huge culture with a lot to give to society."
"Dancing is our way of telling our story and it keeps our culture going and going," Libaridian said.
Yeretzian then gave an introduction after the dancing segment. He explained that the name Abril was first coined in 1977 as the name of the first magazine in Los Angeles to be written in Armenian.
"Along with the name came the image of the Abril tree and the first issue of 'Abril' came out in April of 1977," Yeretzian said. "The magazine was a great success. The subscriptions came flowing in. With my father, Harut, being the editor, he wrote most of the articles and prepared the layout. 'Abril' was published in a tiny office on Sunset."
"The Yeretzian brothers decided that it would be more worthwhile to the efforts to purchase their own press, rather than send their magazine out to printing," Yeretzian continued. "And so, towards the end of 1977, they moved into | 546 |
The Fox Racing V2 Preme Motocross Helmet is part of the latest Fox Racing collection.
The Fox V2 Helmet is expertly crafted inside and out, providing reliable protection and a graphically stunning design. The helmet exceeds both 22.05 and D.O.T certifications. A fiberglass shell provides durability, and a dual density EPS liner offers trustworthy defense should you end up taking a soil sample. The MX helmet has exceptional ventilation to prevent overheating<|fim_middle|> motocross helmet won't do you any good if it's sliding around on your head.
View all Fox Racing Motocross Helmets. View all Motocross Helmets. | on warm days at the track. Ten intake and four exhaust vents provide fresh air and allow heat to escape. This system supplies cooling relief from the smoldering heat. By designing the helmet with 3 shells and 4 EPS dimensions and offering six helmet sizes - ranging from XS through 2XL - Fox Racing ensure you find your exact fit. An accurate fit is paramount because a | 77 |
Het Bohrmagneton is in de natuurkunde een<|fim_middle|> baanimpulsmoment L in het laagste Bohrniveau gelijk is aan ħ. Deze afleiding heeft slechts historisch interesse omdat voor de grondtoestand geldt dat L = 0.
Voetnoten
Magnetisme
Grootheid
Atoomfysica | atomaire eenheid voor magnetisch dipoolmoment. In het SI-stelsel wordt de waarde uitgedrukt als
waarin e de elementaire lading is, de constante van Dirac, en de massa van het elektron.
Vaak past het beter de waarde aan te geven in elektronvolt per tesla; de waarde is dan
Het belang van deze natuurconstante is dat ze slechts ongeveer een promille verschilt van het magnetisch moment van een vrij elektron ten gevolge van spin. De magnetisering van ferromagnetische materialen kan worden aangegeven in bohrmagneton per atoom; zo is de verzadigingsmagnetisering van ijzer bijvoorbeeld 2,2 μB/atom.
Historisch
Volgens het atoommodel van Bohr is er in de grondtoestand van het waterstofatoom een elektrische stroom rond de atoomkern. De stroom is volgens dat model gelijk aan de elementaire lading vermenigvuldigd met het aantal keren dat de lading per seconde rondgaat. Deze frequentie wordt gegeven door de snelheid gedeeld door de omtrek. Het magnetische moment is de stroom vermenigvuldigd met de oppervlakte van de baan:
omdat het | 302 |
The Well-Spoken Thesaurus
The Most Powerful Ways to Say Everyday Words and Phrases (Gifts for Writers, Authors, English Teachers<|fim_middle|>"How absolutely fascinating." — The Fayetteville Observer
"This is your guide to eloquence — replacing ordinary words with extraordinary ones that take your writing to new heights. " — Gotham Writer's Workshop
You're reviewing:The Well-Spoken Thesaurus | )
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The ultimate guide on how to speak eloquently, including 200 well-spoken alternatives to common words and phrases.
If you've ever fumbled while trying to use a big word ('lofty word,' 'pretentious word') to impress a crowd, you know what it's like to ('know what it is to') be poorly spoken. The fear of mispronouncing or misusing complex words is real and leaves many of us consigned to the lower levels ('lower reaches,' 'lower echelons') of the English language.
The secret to eloquence, however, lies in simplicity—the ability to use ordinary words in extraordinary ways.
The Well-Spoken Thesaurus is your guide to eloquence, featuring lessons from some of the most articulate speakers of our past and present. While a common thesaurus provides only synonyms as mere word-for-word equivalents, The Well-Spoken Thesaurus is filled with ('awash in,' 'instilled with,' 'dense with,' 'rich in') dynamic reinventions of standard words and phrases.
Lessons from history's greatest writers and speakers, including:
Barbara Kingsolver
The Well-Spoken Thesaurus is the ultimate vocabulary builder for adults seeking to improve their vocabulary and speak better.
"In this unconventional, easy-to-use thesaurus, Heehler, a degree student at the Harvard Extension School, invites the reader to speak like an academic without sounding like one." — Book News
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| 314 |
Casa K Beach House is a bright, spacious, and airy 2000+ sq ft home built on a 1/2 acre. It is the perfect home for large or small groups (accommodates up to 10 people). On the main floor (2nd level) there is a Master Suite (with a/c, balcony access, ocean view and a private bathroom), a Junior Suite (with a/c, jungle views and a shared bathroom), and a loft (with two double beds and a shared bathroom). The ground floor (1st level) has two rooms each with a set of bunk beds and a bathroom. There<|fim_middle|> of the Caribbean! | is hot water available throughout the house, a safe and WIFI. There is a large storage area for all your gear, as well as a washer and dryer. There is also a kayak and hammocks for your use.
The house offers a relaxing living area with plenty of sitting room for all, as well as a large balcony with majestic ocean and island views. There is also a small balcony in the back to enjoy the alluring jungle scene. While sitting on the balconies, one can be serenaded by the ocean waves and jungle noises (birds, howler monkeys, tree frogs, etc). The balconies are perfect spots for enjoying the surrounding landscape filled with tropical foliage (plants, flowers and fruit trees) which draws a variety of tropical birds.
The house is located in a peaceful setting just outside of town, and is close enough to easily enjoy the local charm of Bocas Town. There are three full service restaurants close to the house, and many more just minutes away by taxi. It is a pleasant, culture immersing 45-60 minute walk to the center of Bocas Town.
This home offers a spacious, comfortable and relaxing location to hang out, but also provides a secure home base while you explore all the area has to offer – exploring Isla Colon and surrounding islands: hiking, swimming, boogie boarding, surfing, taking a catamaran tour, snorkeling/diving, sampling local cuisine, shopping, taking Spanish lessons, going on a tour of the Botanical Garden, viewing wildlife, fishing, horseback riding, looking for shells, etc.
Upon arrival in Bocas del Toro, property management staff can help arrange taxis for transportation and grocery shopping, as well as tours, and any other services you may be interested in.
This house is perfect for those who want to kick back and relax in a place where the untouched tropical rain forest meets the crystal blue waters | 387 |
Hi friends! So, I have 4 females who normally get along fine. Two old ones (1.5 - 2 years, not exactly sure bc I adopted them), and two that are about 5 months old. One of my oldies is very elderly and just clearly slower and more feeble than the others due to her age. I've noticed that<|fim_middle|> on the old girl.
This is clearly territorial behavior, right? Is there anything I can do to lessen the need for baby mouse to be so mean? She isn't even the dominant mouse, she is maybe #2 in the pecking order. Thanks for any help or suggestions.
Aaw, sorry to hear your older lady is having a hard time. I think you're right, it sounds like territorial behaviour. Maybe you're cleaning things so well that it smells like neutral territory and for whatever reason your younger mouse thinks they need to establish the pecking order again.
Just curious, do you clean the cage and all the items in it on the same day? I'm wondering if it'd help to make sure the cage still smells like home after cage cleaning day. So you could take out and clean one item at a time, or you could clean them all together but on a different day that you clean the actual cage. You could give all items a sniff and pick a couple to not clean that week . Similarly when you clean the cage, maybe you could find a handful of clean-ish looking litter and nesting material and let them keep that? Hopefully if it still smells like their territory after cage cleaning, the younger mouse might calm down a bit. I'd certainly give it a shot for the next couple of cage cleans and see if that affects anything at all.
Actually, only about half of the toys get cleaned regularly at a time. I use a lot of wood pieces and soak them after a few cleanings, but they mostly get a quick shake and are put right back in. So it's not a super sterile/neutral environment when they come back in. I do change the placement of everything just to make their home more exciting.
But that's a really good idea with the litter and nesting material. I can keep some scoops that are not too dirty and sprinkle it over the top of the clean stuff. Hopefully that will make a difference and help her calm down. Thank you! | one of the baby mice has started to bully her after their cage cleaning every week. For 2 or 3 days she is really mean (no blood, but lots of squealing and scrambling), and then it calms down and they get along fine. But now I dread cleaning because I know it puts so much stress | 65 |
Myanmar's Farmers and their Smartphones
A dispatch from an Internet revolution in progress
Originally published by: The Atlantic
For six weeks in October and November 2015, just before Myanmar held its landmark elections, I joined a team of design ethnographers in the countryside interviewing forty farmers about smartphones. A design ethnographer is someone who studies how culture and technology interact. A common mistake in building products is to base them on assumptions around how a technology might be adopted. The goal of in-field interviewing in design ethnography is to undermine these assumptions, to be able to design tools and products aligned with actual observed use cases and needs.
Myanmar is especially fertile ground for this kind of work. Until recently the military junta had imposed artificial caps on access to smartphones and SIM cards. Many of the farmers we spoke with had never owned a smartphone before. The villages were often without running water or electricity, but they buzzed with newly minted cell towers and strong 3G signals. For them, everything networked was new.
Almost all of the farmers we spoke with were Facebook users. None had heard of Twitter. How they used Facebook was not dissimilar to how many of us in the West see and think of Twitter: as a source of news, a place where you can follow your interests. The majority, however, didn't see the social platform as a place to be particularly social or to connect with and stay up to date on comings and goings within their villages.
Field team
What follows are a series of diary entries and<|fim_middle|> Lwin, now follows him on Facebook. I hunt U Tun Lwin down, follow him too, in solidarity, although I'm pretty sure I know what tomorrow's weather will be.
This essay, originally published January 2016 by The Atlantic. Thoughts? Email me@craigmod.com.
Let's Talk About Margins
We're making a book. The margins are important. Do you know how important?
Let's Fly
How to survive air travel
Hack the Cover
Book covers in a digital world | notes culled from our interviews. The interview teams were composed of three or four people: a translator, a photographer, a notetaker, and sometimes a facilitator.
Farmer #1
Our first farmer! Thirty-eight years old. Owns fifteen acres of paddy. Has a great head of hair and an 8-year-old daughter. We're seated atop a raised platform in a makeshift shed in the middle of one of his rice fields. It's only late morning but the sun outside burns atomic hot. Even the shade is unbearable. Everyone is drenched in sweat. Everything around us is bathed in a golden glow of light reflecting off unharvested paddy.
Walking to the fields
Okekan is a town northwest of Yangon. The drive takes three to six hours, mostly on the wrong side of pockmarked roads. It's just big enough for a half-kilometer strip of restaurants and shops, a small market, and a tiny hotel. There are rice fields in every direction. Our first farmer's village is on the edge of town.
The farmer brought his nephews. They arrive to our shed on 50cc motorbikes. Our arrival is clearly an event. Smiles and hospitality abound. They hand us bottles of water and I feel a relief that maybe our interview request isn't quite as burdensome as imagined.
Everyone has a smartphone. One Samsung, one from a mysterious company called "Honor," two Huawei. (We'll later realize: Honor is owned by Huawei.) Apple simply doesn't exist in the fields of Myanmar. China dominates. Samsung comes in second to those who can afford to splurge on the brand as a premium. But the more we probe, the less justifiable the Samsung premium becomes. The Chinese phones are cheap but capable. I wonder if this makes Negroponte happy. His one laptop-per-child dream was never fully realized but one smartphone-per-human—far more capable and sensible than a laptop, in many ways—has most certainly arrived. I take notes. We photograph. Get in close, have them pose with their phones. They're proud. All the phones clock in under the equivalent of one hundred U.S. dollars.
Gathering around the phone
We ask about data. It's much cheaper now than a year ago, they say. The telcos operate on pre-paid systems. Nobody has a credit card. Everyone buys top-up from top-up shops, scratches off complex serial numbers printed in a small font, types them with special network codes into their phone dialers in a way that feels steampunkish, like they're divining data. They feel each megabyte. For about 10 U.S. cents you can purchase 25MB of data. If you buy in bulk (although almost nobody does) you can get 2GB of data for 11,900 Myanmar Kyat or about $9.20 USD. Most farmers grab data on their scratch cards in 1,000 or 3,000 or 5,000 Kyat chunks. How long it lasts depends on the user. For some 3,000 Kyats gets them through the month. For others, it lasts only a few days.
We ask about apps. One nephew says he uses Viber to text with friends and family who are outside of the village. But if he can meet in person, he goes to talk in person. He says he uses his smartphone mainly for phone calls, which are still simpler and faster than texting.
The lead farmer mentions Facebook and the others fall in. Facebook! Yes yes! They use Facebook every day. They feel that spending data on Facebook is a worthwhile investment. In fact, check this out, says one nephew. He wants to show us a Facebook post. He's thrilled. Earlier, he said to us, lelthamar asit—Like any real farmer, I know the land. And so we wonder: What will he show us? A new farming technique? News about the upcoming election? Analysis on its impact on farmers? He shows us: A cow with five legs. He laughs. Amazing, no? Have you ever seen such a thing?
The team I was part of was run by Studio D Radiodurans (or "Studio D" for short), "a research, design, and strategy consultancy," who have been collaborating for the last two years with Proximity Designs, a Yangon-based social enterprise. Proximity's impact work is focused primarily on farming and helping farmers. They've served over 731,000 rural households as of December 2015—impacting about 3.66 million people.
Proximity builds hardware products within an impressive four-story warehouse in the industrial South Dagon section of Yangon. The first floor is showered in sparks from water-pump frame welding and drip-irrigation assembly. The second floor is full of workers assembling treadle pumps. The third floor houses their product-design lab, recently focused on solar-pump design, testing, and production. And the fourth floor performs quality-control checks on water storage sacks that balloon up like carnival attractions.
The foot-treadle part of the treadle pumps are constructed out of readily available and easily replaceable planks and ropes and are worked like a Stairmaster at the gym. Except instead of burning calories, they flood fields with water and create food. And Proximity's solar pumps — launched just last October after years of research and development as part of a joint project with students at the Stanford d.school — are not only beautifully engineered and designed, they're among the most affordable in the world. They sell for about $350 and pump roughly fifty liters of water per minute.
Solar pump launch party poster
Proximity is unique (and lauded) because they approach their impact work with a "design thinking" mindset. Their mantra is to be in the field, get close to the people for whom they are designing, use ethnography to locate "unmet needs," and iterate through product tests quickly. They have a vast country-wide network of field staff that are often working one-on-one with farmers or villages, helping them implement the products they've developed, all the while sending a constant stream of feedback to the home office in Yangon.
That Studio D is so easily able to line up a few dozen interviews reveals the remarkable trust that Proximity has spent years building up. The value of their work is not just in impacting farmers, but connecting them to the world at large.
While Proximity has mastered hardware and rural relationships, the company doesn't have much experience with software. And so the crux of this Studio D and Proximity collaboration is to remedy that, to assess the current state of Myanmar farmer smartphone fluency and network access, and figure out how to leverage it for maximum impact.
Farmer #10
Our tenth farmer: thirty-five years old, owner of fourteen acres, educated to the fourth grade. He grows summer paddy and winter paddy. Has three kids. Owns his house—a hut, really—with a dark dirt floor and beautifully textured bamboo thatch walls that let in soft shafts of afternoon light.
We're not supposed to judge but I can't help it. He has kind eyes, and an open face, not like Farmer Number Two who felt lost, tormented, didn't want to be a farmer but was pushed into being a farmer. No, Farmer Number Ten loves farming, loves paddy, loves his family. I feel this. I write in my notebook: I am a horrible, biased researcher.
Family in their home
His 6-year-old daughter beams at us from the corner, her grandmother stands behind with a stern, suspicious look on her face. This is understandable. I'm also suspicious. Of us, not them.
The village still lacks electricity although they've pooled funds and a dozen newly planted metal-power poles dot the fields, waiting to be wired up. Through our interpreter I ask, Where do you charge? Farmer Number Ten points to a car battery hanging in the corner onto which familiar USB wires are spliced. He chuckles. I chuckle. Take note.
We ask about apps. The farmer uses Viber and Facebook. He says he chats with a few friends on Facebook but mainly people he doesn't know. Most of his Facebook friends are strangers. He tells us his brother installed the app for him, and set up his account. He doesn't know the email address that was used. He gets most of his news from Facebook. The election looms and he loves the political updates. He's excited but worries about the effect on the price of paddy. He uses Facebook to track rallies. Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy has tremendous presence in these rural areas. We see and hear trucks with jerry-rigged amps and speakers blasting political songs at an almost constant clip.
Farmer with smartphone
Farmer Number Ten tells us he used to use radio for news but no more. He says he hasn't turned the radio on in years. Other news apps—like one called TZ—use too much data. He's data conscious. He uses Facebook mostly at night when the internet is fastest, and cheapest. Night data clocks in at 5 Kyat/MB, afternoon data 6 Kyat/MB.
The farmer's phone is several years old. He purchased it used. The screen is scratched and small but everything works. I realize then that smartphone tech crossed the Good Enough threshold years ago. Everything else is icing on the cake.
Myanmar is a country of farmers. Fifty three million citizens, approximately thirty million of whom are farmers. Many of them are now coming online. Rushing online, really. Because of the military junta, mobile SIM cards in Myanmar have historically been prohibitively expensive. In 2014, the cost of a SIM card dropped from about $2,000 USD to $200 USD and then once again, to $1.50 USD. Mobile shops were swarmed.
A Subscriber Identity Module, or SIM card, is a bit of silicon inscribed with a unique and encrypted serial number. From that unique number stems access — to the network, to information, to the ability to coordinate. The military junta wanted to limit access. As the country has opened up, so have its airwaves and access to access itself.
Farmer in his home
… with his phone
The Myanmar telecommunications industry was wholly government controlled until recently. Now there's competition, choices. Five years ago you had one choice: Myanmar Post and Telecommunications (MPT). A farmer can now choose from MPT or Telenor or Oredoo. Cell towers sprout wildly — matte-steel contraptions in the middle of rice plots running off their own electricity, their electronic brains housed in small, padlocked refrigerated boxes behind fences that surround the towers. Often the only refrigerators for miles. Micro dots of chill within otherwise vast landscapes of broil.
Mobile Shop #1
Mobile-shop-owner number one. No acres. Male. Early twenties, extremely skinny. We arrive as a skeleton crew of two as to appear less imposing, less formal. It's just my hyper-talkative Myanmar colleague and me. In ethnographic design-research parlance this is an ad-hoc interview, i.e., unplanned. We broke off from the rest of the crew and went rogue when we realized we were hungry for context, hungry to talk to the people who sell the phones to the farmers. We learned about this mobile shop from Farmer Number Eight. He said his cousin ran it.
Screen for sale
We reach the shop in the town of Kyaukse without helmets on the backs of motorcycles. Kyaukse is formidable, located in the Mandalay region of the country, with a population of around 700,000 and a number of photo studios, mobile-phone shops, dozens of restaurants and guest houses. The city has a bustling and energetic, almost frantic, dusty southeast Asian vibe. Our pop-up, temporary research studio is located in town but the farms we visit all sit miles away. And so we're constantly on the backs of motorcycles, riding sometimes for an hour or more to get to the fields and houses of those with whom we've scheduled interviews.
Back in the town, the shop we're taken to is miniscule. A single, thin room wedged between some tea shops on a busy side street. Less shop, more shack. Sells mainly used phones. Dozens of replacement screens sit in glass cases like jewelry.
We approach the shop owner. He doesn't know what we're talking about. Doesn't know this so-called Farmer Number Eight. They're definitely not cousins. Not even acquaintances. But my colleague is disarming in a humble, honest way. He's not salt-of-the-earth like some of our other crew members (he's been to college, has never worked a farm) but he's present and genuine. One of a kind. Obviously harmless. And so the mobile-shop owner acquiesces. Agrees to drink coffee with us for ten minutes. Who are these clowns, I imagine him thinking.
We're taken across the street, upstairs into a dark room. The windows are blacked out. The few lamps are dim, flickering. Feels hostage-esque. Two coffee-shop employees stand in the shadows in the corner and stare until we order espressos. Then stare some more after another staff delivers them. I take note: Is this how it ends? In a tiny room with bad espresso? And then I'm reminded of a Jan Chipchase—the founder of Studio D—quote: You're only on track in field work if you feel a bit threatened. Or something like that.
The mobile-shop owner is twenty-five. He holds the only iPhone we'll see in six weeks. It's clearly a point of pride. I ask simple questions and my chatty colleague translates them into impossibly long monologues.
"Do you get paid to install apps?" I ask. Five minutes later my colleague finishes translating and the mobile shop owner laughs and says, "No." Nobody gets paid to install apps.
Facebook is the most popular app, he says. Nine out of ten people who come into the shop want Facebook. Ten months ago SIM prices dropped, data prices dropped, interest in Facebook jumped. I take note. Only half the people who come into the shop already have a Facebook account. The other half don't know how to make one. I do that for them, he says. I am the account maker.
And what about other apps? He mentions a news app called TZ. Once popular, now less so. He brushes his hand aside and says it's too data hungry. Everyone is data sensitive he says and reiterates: Facebook. Nobody needs a special app for their interests. Just search for your interest on Facebook. Facebook is the Internet.
Does anyone use Google Play or an app store?
No. No credit cards. No email addresses. Anyway, downloaded installs eat data. Everyone installs apps using Zapya, an app-sharing app. Makes a local network. Everyone nearby connects to it. Allows groups to send data—apps, videos, music—back and forth without using bandwidth. I take note: All apps hand copies of other apps. No official distribution channels in use.
There is a phrase repeated over and over again during my time in Myanmar: From no power to solar, from no banks to digital currencies, from no computers and no internet to capable smartphones with fast 3G connections. It is the mantra of consultants working in these emergent economies. And these emergent economies have one colossal advantage over the entrenched and techno-gluttonous west: There is little incumbency.
There is, however, instability—in government and currency. It's one of the reasons why a country like Myanmar is just now getting these connections, these devices. The instability significantly increases risk for outside investors and companies. But the residual effect of that instability is a lack of incumbency and traditional infrastructure. And so there is no incumbent electric giant monopolizing rural areas to fight against solar, there is no incumbent bank which will lobby against bitcoin, there are no expectations about how a computer should work, how a digital book should feel. There is only hunger and curiosity. And so there is a wild and distinct freedom to the feeling of working in places like this. It is what intoxicates these consultants. You have seen and lived within a future, and believe—must believe—you can help bring some better version of it to light here. A place like Myanmar is a wireless mulligan. A chance to get things right in a way that we couldn't or can't now in our incumbent-laden latticeworks back home.
Mobile-phone-shop two. A woman. Woman! I take note. Underline. Circle. Finally. Have been talking only with men.
This shop is also an ad-hoc discovery. We were energized, wanted to go deeper after the first interview. Rode that high you get after an unexpected and insightful conversation a bit further into Kyaukse and found this second shop.
My motorcycle driver follows us inside. I realize now this one considers himself the leader. He wants us to do well, but his method of help is intimidation. He stands in the middle of the shop with a cigarette dangling from his mouth and stares at the four female employees. As if this will goad them into opening up to us. He's wearing Vietnam War era American infantry helmet, high-waist khakis, a leather jacket. His teeth are stained a deep red from all the betel nut he chews. The overall effect is Luciferous. Everyone looks worried. I whisper to my joyful colleague, Uhm, hey man, you gotta tell him to wait outside. Colleague confers and motorcycle man's face shifts to shame and dejection as he slinks out. Everyone sighs.
This second mobile-shop manager is extremely patient. We give her the creative code name: Patient Phone Shop Woman. In ethnographic-design research everyone gets a code name. She wears a polo shirt with a tiny Yahoo! logo and sits with us on stools in the middle of the shop. There are no customers. We talk for ninety minutes. Does the shop get paid to install apps? Nope, but they rent part of the shop to Samsung. She points to an empty booth along the wall, shrugs, says, Day off.
What are the most popular apps? She does not hesitate in response: Facebook. And then, Viber, Zapya, MP3s, and videos. Ten out of ten people ask for Facebook, she says. Everyone wants Facebook. Farmers know Facebook. All know to ask for it. But, how? How do they know to ask? Because everyone has it, she says. I take note: Who is patient zero?
Are any apps pre-installed?
No. This shop is only a hardware shop. She waves her hand. We look: The shop is LED bright, white, full of glass cases of Chinese phones and an empty Samsung booth. It's about four times the size of the last shop. Very clinical, very official feeling. Each employee stands at the ready in matching Yahoo! uniforms.
Once a farmer buys a phone we bring them next door, she says. Next door is the software shop.
Our eyes widen. Can we see? Can you take us to this software shop? Of course she can.
We walk across a small road and enter a space opposite the hardware shop. The software shop is like a small, damp cave bathed in flickering fluorescence with a Bladerunner workbench behind three small teller booths. The purpose of the software shop is repairs and installs and reinstalls and consultations. The shop is now empty but sometimes it teems, and there is a waiting bench along one wall, stacks of worn binders atop a coffee table in front of it. The binders are full of song titles, movie titles, each with an ID code. The pages are worn, dirty, torn. Sometimes many wait, Patient Phone Shop Woman says. People choose music and videos while waiting. Zapya'd after. Always Zapya. I take note: Whole economies upon Zapya.
The workbench, app installer
Behind the dirty counter sits a young man. He is the master consultant who performs OS upgrades and installs basic bundles of apps for farmers. Apps to install are chosen by popularity or need or request, he says. We ask if he's paid to install certain apps and he says no. (We are incredulous, cannot believe there is no app-install shadow economy!) Patient Phone Shop Woman smiles a smile: Told you so.
Master consultant says most customers come in and declare: I don't know anything about mobile phones. You're the expert. You install what you think is good.
But Facebook is most popular? Yes. Everyone wants? Everyone. Do people have email addresses? No. He makes the email addresses. Has a stack of pre-made Facebook accounts at the ready. He pre-installs the app and pre-loads friends. Facebook is for news, he says. Popular now but maybe not popular in six months. But for now, he installs it on every phone.
I take note: The masses are fickle everywhere. The notion of a 1:1 mapping of Real Identity to Facebook Identity doesn't seem to exist.
Does anyone know of Twitter? Maybe two in ten customers. They might ask for it but he doesn't know what to do on Twitter. Doesn't know how to use it. It's not part of my standard app-install bundle, he says. Patient Phone Shop Woman also doesn't know how to use Twitter, doesn't see a point.
Viber is used to chat with friends, they say. Good for group chat. New app, Tango is good for video calls with family abroad. Many Myanmar people work in Singapore, they say.
As we're leaving I connect two and two and realize the shop itself is called Yahoo! Just before we say goodbye, I ask Patient Phone Shop Woman if she knows what Yahoo! is. Oh, yes, she says. Yahoo! is an exclamation of joy. I smile, take note.
The expectations for a Facebook experience are shaped by the cultural expectations brought to the table. No farmer we spoke to had explicit or calcified expectations—they had not joined Facebook ten years ago or five years ago or even two years ago. They had not been indoctrinated into whatever it is Facebook thinks it is. Or what Facebook wants us to think it is. For them, it is a malleable tool. And they have made it into what they want: Largely a news reader. A relatively bandwidth efficient way to read about topics that interest them (the weather, Buddhism, pretty girls in swimsuits).
The Farmers don't use their real names ("I used my son's name," Farmer fourteen told us. Why? "Because it's a good name!" he said smiling and patting his 1-year-old son on the head.) They don't have email addresses and so often don't know their logins. If they get logged out they have someone—often the village Facebook guru—make them a new account. "Friends" on Facebook are friends only because the application calls them friends in the interface. The language of our apps shapes our expectations of our apps, but when the language isn't your own, isn't localized, that authority is undermined. "Friends" become something else entirely—random avatars who share an affinity for news stories you happen to stumble across. There is a fluidity to the Myanmar Farmer Facebook experience, one that makes me a little jealous. I feel a bit too locked into the rigidity of our western Facebook expectations. Those Farmers in Myanmar have what feels like a more native fluency than those of us supposedly well versed. Than those of us who say we know what we're doing.
And yet I can't help but wonder why Twitter fails to gain traction. It's simpler. It consumes less bandwidth. It's model is more minimal, the interface far less complicated. Facebook is a caricature of an interface—the equivalent of the space shuttle, all buttons and dials and switches, so many of which have nothing to do with the core user experience. And yet, these Myanmar farmers wade through the muck, compelled by information hunger.
But Facebook has a compelling advantage over other news apps or even Twitter: The content of many posts and news items live inside Facebook itself. There are external links, but most of the article summaries and photos are self contained. As Facebook continues to ramp up their Instant Articles—special versions of web articles that are leaner, load more quickly, and are Facebook optimized—the amount of content that lives in Facebook will only increase. For those who are data sensitive, this is a clear virtue. One certainly worth whatever learning curve may come with the platform.
Twitter recently announced that it will allow up to 10,000 characters "below" the tweet. If critical news can live inside of Twitter, in a fundamentally less bandwidth intensive and a simpler model than even Facebook, then the popular interest may shift. There is no explicit brand loyalty amongst these farmers.
Pop-up Ethnographic Design Research Studio, Okekan, day 36
Two Myanmar men are dancing in the grass, bringing down long pieces of bamboo hard against the ground. They hop, lithe, graceful in the tall grass next to the pond. I take a break from note transcription and photo editing, stand, watch the men. I ask Lauren Serota, the leader of our ethnographic-design research team, what they are doing. She doesn't know. They are precise and nimble, nearly naked. We stare. I look at my smartphone weather report. The 3G connection in our rural pop-up studio is strong. Stronger than in the city. Almost double the speed of Yangon. The Real Feel™ is a billion degrees in the sun today. The phone just says: Give up.
We're sweat soaked in the shade. The electricity has cut out again. A man whose name I consistently mishear as Muhammad is supposed to come and start some mysterious generator for us. The fans are dead. Everywhere there are bugs. So many bugs upon everything, everyone. Multiplying as twilight falls. And yet the men in the grass dance! In the sun! They stop. One reaches down, gingerly, and lifts a fifteen-foot water snake by the head. It's still alive, writhing. They take it around the corner, behind a wall, and fry it into a curry. I return to my notes. Farmer Number Fifteen loves the famous Myanmar weatherman U Tun | 5,504 |
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