text stringlengths 108 684k | id stringlengths 47 47 | dump stringclasses 7 values | url stringlengths 14 2.32k | date stringlengths 20 20 | file_path stringlengths 125 140 | language stringclasses 1 value | language_score float64 0.65 1 | token_count int64 36 158k |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A Gentle Introduction to Context Managers
By: Aly Sivji
Date: June 8, 2017, 6 p.m.
We've all used context managers provided by the Python Standard Library to read from/write to a file. Have you ever wondered what was happening underneath the hood when you used a with statement? This talk will explore context managers, discuss various use cases, and show you how to implement a context manager to manage MongoDB connections. | <urn:uuid:1a61b42b-eebf-413c-b585-13c6e92a8273> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.chipy.org/meetings/topics/past/230/ | 2019-07-24T06:39:42Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195531106.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20190724061728-20190724083728-00118.warc.gz | en | 0.907881 | 93 |
When, why and how you should conduct an IP audit.
Your most valuable business assets may be your intellectual property rights—trademarks, copyrights (or design rights in Europe), trade secrets and patents. If given appropriate attention, those rights can add to your bottom line and be valuable to your business. Therefore, in certain circumstances, businesses should seriously consider auditing their intellectual property rights.
When you should conduct an Intellectual Property audit
It makes sense to audit the state of your intellectual property protection in at least the following circumstances:
Return on Investment. If you want to maximize return on investment, it can be eye-opening to inventory the IP assets you already paid to establish, and to brainstorm about how they can be put to better use, or perhaps even be licensed for extra income.
Acquisition or Sale. If you are buying or selling an ownership interest in a business, or its assets, the status of IP protection can affect the price.
Financing. If you are seeking or offering financing, IP rights can be an important part of the collateral.
Investors. A potential investor will want to confirm that the company’s IP rights are in order.
Representations and Warranties. In licenses or other contracts involving IP rights, you have to know what representations and warranties are appropriate.
How long an IP audit takes and what it costs
Timing. Plan ahead. The time needed for due diligence is typically underestimated. Further, it can be useful to get the information early because some information may affect the terms of any pending deal or the company's business plans.
Cost. Disbursements for searches and their analysis can be a major cost—the wider the range of countries, marks, inventions and copyrights, the greater the expense. It is important to tailor the scope of the audit to the business reasons for doing it.
What information to audit
An IP audit should be focused on the information needed to make informed business decisions. If time and money are no object, you should make a thorough investigation of all possible IP rights. But, you can focus the audit on what is truly needed. Here are some guidelines:
Trademarks. Which marks are important, and which are secondary? Are there plans to expand to other goods, services or countries? Are there important marks that have not been registered? Should some registrations be allowed to lapse?
Copyrights. What computer software, packaging materials, advertising materials, websites, instruction manuals, and other copyrightable items are important? If any of them were created by outside vendors, are there appropriate agreements to assure the company's ownership? Are there any contract restrictions that may limit future uses?
Patents and Trade Secrets. What technology is material to the current or planned business? Should any patent applications be filed? Are there appropriate confidentiality measures in place to protect trade secret rights?
Domain names. Is there a list of all relevant domain name registrations? Are they all registered in the name of the company? Should they be consolidated with a single domain name registrar? Are there new domain names that should be registered or existing ones that should be allowed to lapse?
How the IP audit is conducted
All audits start with intellectual property schedules, which should be prepared as early as possible. Further searches can confirm whether or not appropriate rights have been obtained, official filings have been made, and whether there are any outstanding liens or contract restrictions that may have an adverse impact.
After you determine which items of intellectual property, in which countries, are material to the company's present and anticipated business, you may considering auditing these records:
-Trademark Office records
-Copyright Office records
-Patent Office records
-Domain name registrations
-Lien searches in Secretary of State offices and County Clerk offices
-Licenses to and from third parties
-Office policy statements and employee agreements
-Independent contractor agreements
-Litigations and contested proceedings
-Settlements and consent agreements
-Catalogs showing unregistered marks, logos and inventions
Who should conduct the IP audit?
It is advisable to use experienced counsel to help determine the scope of the audit, to order the searches and to interpret the results.
For further information about intellectual property audits contact your CLL attorney or William M. Borchard.
This ON MY MIND™ Blog post © 2015 by Cowan, Liebowitz & Latman, P.C., New York, NY.
Suggest topics for future Blog posts to firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:f8271a7f-3ec9-4218-8bbb-4fc484bbd225> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.cll.com/OnMyMindBlog/Auditing_intellectual_property_assets | 2019-07-24T07:20:56Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195531106.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20190724061728-20190724083728-00118.warc.gz | en | 0.912461 | 924 |
How UK knew evidence was obtained under torture: Shaker Aamer's dramatic police statement reveals Britain must have known about chilling methods
- Shaker Aamer told Scotland Yard that British intelligence officers were present during the questioning of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi
- al-Libi was the informant who 'revealed' Saddam Hussain's alleged WMDs
- After he was questioned, al-Libi was later moved to Egypt in a coffin
- Aamer first met al-Libi at Bagram where they were both badly beaten
Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi (pictured) was the informant who ‘revealed’ Saddam Hussein’s alleged chemical and gas weapons of mass destruction (WMD)
The dramatic police statement of Shaker Aamer leads to one especially damning conclusion: that Britain must have known so-called intelligence that was used to justify the war in Iraq was based on evidence obtained under torture. This conclusion will have grave implications for Tony Blair, his former Ministers, MI6, the Chilcot Inquiry and Scotland Yard.
It also gives a chilling insight into why Aamer has been held so long in Guantanamo.
His vivid testimony to Scotland Yard includes key sections about a prisoner held with him at Bagram US Air Force base in Afghanistan. He was Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi – the informant who ‘revealed’ Saddam Hussein’s alleged chemical and gas weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and links to Al Qaeda.
Aamer told Yard detectives that two British intelligence officers were present when Al-Libi was being abused, and when he was later rendered to Egypt – extraordinarily, in a coffin. It was in Egypt that Al-Libi falsely claimed that Saddam’s Iraq had supplied chemical and biological weapons to Al Qaeda terrorists, and trained them in their use. He ‘confessed’ all this after being locked in a tiny cage for more than 80 hours, and then being severely beaten.
This evidence was seen as so crucial that President Bush used it in a high-profile speech in Ohio.
He told the US people that America knew Al Qaeda had been ‘planning for chemical and biological attacks’ with Iraqi assistance and added: ‘We’ve learned that Iraq has trained Al Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases.’ This was all based on Al-Libi’s ‘intelligence’.
Scroll down for video:
Last year a report by the US Senate intelligence committee confirmed that Al-Libi’s false assertions were cited again by Secretary of State Colin Powell when he made a last-ditch, unsuccessful attempt to persuade the UN Security Council to back the Iraq invasion in February 2003
Aamer told the Yard detectives how he was brought into a Bagram interrogation room where Al-Libi was present, tied to a chair. The interrogators apparently hoped that each man would give up information about the other, perhaps in the hope of securing more favourable treatment
Top Pentagon officials made similar claims and named Al-Libi personally in background, ‘off the record’ briefings to reporters.
Last year a report by the US Senate intelligence committee confirmed that Al-Libi’s false assertions were cited again by Secretary of State Colin Powell when he made a last-ditch, unsuccessful attempt to persuade the UN Security Council to back the Iraq invasion in February 2003.
Although Blair did not cite Al-Libi’s claims directly, he repeatedly justified the pending war by warning of the risk that Saddam would give WMD to terrorists.
Aamer first met Al-Libi while both men were being brutalised and interrogated at Bagram in January 2002.
His statement to the police says that two UK intelligence officers were present at Bagram while this was happening – and were working closely with their American counterparts.
Aamer told the Yard detectives how he was brought into a Bagram interrogation room where Al-Libi was present, tied to a chair. The interrogators apparently hoped that each man would give up information about the other, perhaps in the hope of securing more favourable treatment.
Aamer first met Al-Libi while both men were being brutalised and interrogated at Bagram in January 2002
Aamer told Yard detectives that two British intelligence officers were present when Al-Libi was being abused, and when he was later rendered to Egypt – extraordinarily, in a coffin
Aamer’s police statement says: ‘I was a witness to the torture of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi in Bagram. His case seems to me to be particularly important, and my witnessing of it particularly relevant to my on-going detention.’ He adds: ‘Because he was detained in November 2001, and I was one of the first five other prisoners in Bagram where he was being held, I was in a rather unique position as a witness to what was going on with him.
‘He was there being abused at the same time I was. He was there being abused when the British came there.
‘Indeed, I was taken into the room in the Bagram detention facility where he was being held. Clearly the fact that I was a witness to all this does not make the US want to let me free, for fear that I may be a witness to one of the most colossal mistakes of all those made in the last eleven years.’
Since making his police statement, Aamer has given further details to his lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith. He told The Mail on Sunday that from his nearby cage, Aamer saw a coffin being taken into the interrogation room where he had seen Al-Libi.
HOW BUSH USED 'FACTS'
Here is George W. Bush’s crucial sabre-rattling speech based on Al-Libi’s flawed evidence:
‘Some Al Qaeda leaders who fled Afghanistan went to Iraq. These include one very senior Al Qaeda leader who received medical treatment in Baghdad this year, and who has been associated with planning for chemical and biological attacks. We’ve learned that Iraq has trained Al Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases.’
...And this is what Colin Powell told the UN based on the same intelligence:
‘I can trace the story of a senior terrorist operative telling how Iraq provided training in [WMD] weapons to Al Qaeda. This senior terrorist was responsible for one of Al Qaeda’s training camps in Afghanistan. He says Bin Laden…did not believe that Al Qaeda labs in Afghanistan were capable enough to manufacture chemical or biological agents. They needed to go somewhere else. They had to look outside of Afghanistan for help…they went to Iraq.
‘The support that describes included Iraq offering chemical or biological weapons training for two Al Qaeda associates beginning in December 2000.’
Later, he saw the coffin being taken out, and assumed the prisoner had died. Other sources – of whom Aamer was unaware – have said that when Al-Libi was taken to Egypt from Bagram, he was shipped out of the base in a coffin.
Stafford Smith added that Aamer’s witnessing of these events may well be the real reason why his release from Guantanamo has been delayed for so long: he was first cleared for freedom in 2007.
‘Al-Libi’s torture and its disastrous consequences amount to the single most embarrassing event in the history of the war on terror,’ the lawyer said.
Al-Libi’s treatment later is further evidence of the scale of the intelligence fiasco, Stafford Smith said.
After leaving Egypt, he was held in other secret CIA prisons until 2006, but then was rendered to Colonel Gaddafi’s Libya and jailed. He died there in prison in 2009.
According to a newspaper owned by Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam, he committed suicide, but because he was a devout Muslim, many consider this unlikely. ‘He was probably murdered,’ Stafford Smith said. ‘For some, this was a very convenient outcome.’
Only one aspect of this is graver for all interested parties: Aamer is set to elaborate even more on what he knows when he is finally released.
Most watched News videos
- Two drivers bring traffic to a standstill as they come to blows
- Imam Qasim Khan rants about 'evil' of homosexuality on Peace TV
- Teenage thug punches Matalan security guard in the face
- Gunman struggles with jammed weapon while trying to shoot woman
- Kensington Palace share new photos of Prince George
- The uncontacted Awá's tribe whose lives are threatened by loggers
- The moment Skoda driver speeds through 'grave-blessing' service
- Shocking moment great white shark jumps out and eats family's catch
- Heroic dogs stop deadly cobra from entering home as baby slept
- Shocking moment Brit knocks out rapper Future's 'bodyguard'
- Hong Kong protests: Shock as pregnant woman is knocked to the ground
- 'Weeping' dog walked 125 miles through Russian forests back to owner | <urn:uuid:73e0ac2d-98f5-4ad5-864e-300e2650c427> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3259059/How-UK-knew-evidence-obtained-torture-Shaker-Aamer-s-dramatic-police-statement-reveals-Britain-known-chilling-methods.html | 2019-07-24T07:36:49Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195531106.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20190724061728-20190724083728-00118.warc.gz | en | 0.980312 | 1,901 |
Oral Surgery in Aurora, IL
Oral surgery is a very common and can remedy a variety of dental problems. Tooth loss and wisdom tooth extraction are just two of the many ailments that can be treated with oral surgery.
An oral surgeon is required for the safe completion of any surgical procedure that takes place. An oral surgeon is very skilled, experienced, and specialized to offer you the most comfortable and highest quality services possible. Our oral surgeons are accompanied by hygienists, assistants, and dentists as needed to ensure the best patient outcome.
If you’re a candidate for oral surgery due to a dental problem, such as wisdom teeth that need to be removed or a lost tooth that needs to be replaced, our staff would be happy to walk you through the process of your proposed treatment plan so that you can get back to your day-to-day life with a healthy, happy smile.
Depending on what oral surgery you require, the recovery period can last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. Your oral surgeon will be able to advise you on the proposed treatment plan and what it will entail. They can also answer any questions you may have pertaining to numbing, sedation, or your recovery. Some treatments require some follow-up treatment or maintenance, which your dentist will discuss with you prior to your surgery.
Are you experiencing an ailment such as a missing tooth, arriving wisdom teeth, or something else that may require oral surgery? Our professional and caring staff will lay all your choices out for you so that you can make an informed decision and achieve a healthy, beautiful smile. | <urn:uuid:d993a206-cf17-45b5-99d5-76f49305d903> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.dentalandbracesaurora.com/services/oral-surgery/ | 2019-07-24T06:26:31Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195531106.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20190724061728-20190724083728-00118.warc.gz | en | 0.961317 | 327 |
An 18-month transition will transform Mount Vernon College, which GW has financially controlled since October 1996, into a part of GW.
The 122 year-old women’s college in the picturesque northwest edge of the District will become the George Washington University at Mount Vernon College by June 30, 1999.
GW became affiliated with MVC last October, when it assumed responsibility for the financially struggling college’s $6.5 million debt to Georgetown University.
The college continued to run as an independent institution, with GW chipping in to repair aging facilities and rebuild MVC’s infrastructure.
“MVC had been deteriorating,” said GW Director of Public Affairs Mike Freedman. “Part of our responsibility was improving the infrastructure and creating stability.”
Along with the financial help GW President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg “made a commitment to give us a chance to make it (financially) on our own .GW gave us some time,” MVC Interim President Grae Baxter said.
But to continue to operate independently, the women’s college would need to pass certain benchmarks, Baxter said.
Primarily the institution would need to eliminate its deficit by June 1998. Baxter said this will not be feasible. And enrollment would need to be at 800 for fiscal viability, according to the September GW Faculty Senate meeting minutes. But the enrollment stands at about 553.
“It is clear to everyone that we can not make it on our own,” Baxter said.
Thus, MVC trustees “approved in principle the elements of a plan” to incorporate the women’s college into GW, according to a letter sent to students by Baxter Dec. 23, the day of the trustees’ meeting.
The plan said juniors and seniors must complete Mount Vernon College requirements and earn degrees through the college by May ’98 and ’99.
MVC coursework will not be offered past the spring semester of ’99 and students already have started taking courses at GW this semester.
These students may choose to show the affiliation with GW on their diplomas. And through the Elizabeth J. Somers Masters Degree Fellowship program, MVC students will be eligible for 50 percent discounts to enroll in GW masters’ programs.
Current MVC graduate students must complete their coursework by June 1999 when the college will cease to exist as a separate institution.
Furthermore, these two graduating classes and other alumnae of MVC can become alumnae of GW because their alma mater is now connected to GW, Baxter said.
In addition, MVC freshmen and sophomores are eligible to transfer to GW for the ’98-’99 academic year and have the option to apply for housing at the Foggy Bottom campus. Freshmen GW women can opt to begin their college careers living on the Mount Vernon campus instead of Foggy Bottom.
For incoming students the MVC campus also will offer three exclusive programs: women and power, entrepreneurial leadership for women, and women and design.
Faculty and staff members will be “phased out” during the 18-month transition, according to the Washington Post.
But Sylvia Benatti, an MVC alumna and coordinator of the MVC career services and study abroad office, said she hopes that GW has the insight to see what an asset it would be to keep these professors on the campus.
The new developments and the previous affiliation with GW have caused women on the close-knit campus a higher degree of anxiety than most anticipated, students said.
“The mental stress we had is something (GW) doesn’t even know about,” MVC freshman Mahwish Bajwa said. The uncertainty of the college’s future forced students to undergo the application process again.
“I don’t think those who are responsible are doing a good job informing us,” MVC sophomore Jennifer Dawson said.
But Baxter said, “I have been absolutely meticulous about being open and honest.”
One student leader said, “We have not had any real answers and we are given just enough information (from the administration) to keep us quiet so we don’t cause trouble.”
Benatti said that as a staff member, she did feel some frustration because she did not know until December what the affiliation between GW and MVC entailed. But she said that the nature of the negotiation inherently deterred disclosure of specifics.
MVC junior Katie Reidy said this lack of communication is a new element on their campus. She noted pertinent concerns such as the shuttle service between the two campuses and the availability of the GWorld card to MVC students have not been addressed.
“Students are being brushed aside,” Reidy said. “The bureaucracy is taking over and the administration is being very secretive.”
In the midst of this perceived information deficiency, a fear has arisen that not only will GW take over the land but also the students.
Bajwa, as well as other students, admits the financial and academic support of GW will be a blessing to MVC. But the University can benefit not only from additional grassy space, but also from the proactive spirit of the women’s college, she said.
GW should, therefore, maintain the mission to specifically focus on women on the campus, Bajwa said.
“The bad thing would be if (GW) starts disgracing our identity, going back on its promise and betraying our trust,” Bajwa said. | <urn:uuid:9cfb39b6-9fb1-425b-ac7a-e3e5154aac07> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.gwhatchet.com/1998/01/12/trustees-incorporate-mvc-into-university-community/ | 2019-07-24T08:12:49Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195531106.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20190724061728-20190724083728-00118.warc.gz | en | 0.966197 | 1,155 |
UPDATED: It remains unclear whether the uptick of Mauna Loa activity is connected with the Kilauea eruption, said HVO scientist-in-chief Tina Neal.
Today’s increase in the Mauna Loa alert level — from “normal” to “advisory” — came just over one year after it was downgraded from advisory to normal in June 2018.
While Neal said it is understandable to link the 2018 alert downgrade to the beginning of the Kilauea eruption, which began the previous month, she added that the link between the two volcanic systems is not yet clear.
Historically, Neal said there is evidence that when activity at one volcano increases, activity at the other decreases. However, there is “not a perfect correlation” between the two, she said.
Volcanic activity at Mauna Loa has been increasing for some time, Neal said, but there was no particular inciting incident that led to the increase in alert level.
“There’s no crystal bright line a volcano has to pass,” Neal said. “We’re mostly looking for a sustained rate of change.”
Neal confirmed that a magnitude 3.7 earthquake that occured Monday evening on Kilauea’s south flank was unrelated to the alert level increase.
The increased activity at Mauna Loa may cast light onto how the Kilauea eruption affected Mauna Loa, Neal said, although there is a hypothesis that the deformation caused by the eruption may have relieved some of the pressure on Mauna Loa. If that is true, Neal said, then it may take longer for Mauna Loa to erupt again.
“It will erupt someday,” Neal said. “So people should be prepared.”
To that end, Neal said HVO will return to putting out weekly updates on the volcano’s activity.
PREVIOUSLY: The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory has raised the alert level for Mauna Loa from “normal” to “advisory” following increased seismic activity.
The volcano has demonstrated higher rates of earthquakes and ground deformation than considered normal since October 2018, with HVO stations recording an average of at least 50 minor quakes per week and ground deformation similar to the volcano’s previous period of higher activity, which ended in 2018.
HVO also raised the aviation color code — which warns about ash-based hazards for aircraft — from green to yellow, indicating that the volcano displays signs of unrest, but without any detected emission of ash.
A statement from observatory emphasized that the higher alert level does not mean that an eruption is imminent and that the increased activity is not a cause for alarm. The previous period of higher activity lasted for four years at an “advisory”-level alert status without an eruption.
However, the statement also advised communities on Mauna Loa’s flanks to remain prepared. While the volcano would be expected to reveal more signs of activity for days or weeks preceding an eruption, it is possible for that timeframe to last only days or hours.
HVO geologists have discussed raising the alert level for several months since the increased seismicity began last year. | <urn:uuid:f030d857-7cf1-41aa-99b3-da595e38b1a0> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2019/07/02/hawaii-news/hvo-raises-mauna-loa-alert-level-to-advisory/ | 2019-07-24T07:14:52Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195531106.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20190724061728-20190724083728-00118.warc.gz | en | 0.958264 | 677 |
Thriller about a former preacher, now a professional gambler, who heads down New Mexico way to visit an old buddy, only for him to be killed. It is not long before the Preacher is ... See full summary »
Things aren't looking so good for television clown Banana's career, and the fact that his estranged wife, Suzi, has just been arrested for assaulting his girlfriend, Lily, just serves to compound Banana's despair.
Set in nineteenth-century New Orleans, the story depicts the gens de couleur libre, or the Free People of Colour, a dazzling yet damned class caught between the world of white privilege and black oppression.
Laura Elliott's quiet life in the wilderness of Desolation Sound is shattered when her old friend, Elizabeth, comes to visit. Laura learns that her husband has been having an affair with ... See full summary »
Special Agent Jennifer Beck is a intrepid FBI agent who is assigned to solve the case of a multimillionaire couple missing daughter. As the clues begin to reveal themselves, Beck, who has a... See full summary »
Powers Boothe and Jennfer Beals both came close becoming stars but just didn't quite make it. Maybe because they were involved with too many "B" movies like this with dumb dialog and a lot of gratuitous sex, although it's obvious they used a stand-in for Beals on the sex scenes.
They play two immoral people and the film tries to make a good person out of Beals near the end, but that was ludicrous since the woman was anything but "good." The best thing the film had going for it were several interesting twists and some good suspense in parts. I'll give it a couple of stars for that, especially the beginning which was very good. Unfortunately, the rest of the film couldn't live up to the exciting opening scene.
13 of 13 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
| Report this | <urn:uuid:809a4ef2-9c6b-4a38-b278-766308b7c31d> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0152573/ | 2019-07-24T06:23:17Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195531106.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20190724061728-20190724083728-00118.warc.gz | en | 0.961995 | 404 |
“There is momentum in Finland-India relations”
From growing interest among Finnish businesses in India to greater tourism flow from India to Finland, plenty of bilateral action is happening on either side. Besides, trade flow is improving and with a few more likely agreements in place soon, volumes are expected to go up significantly. Ambassador Nina Vaskunlahti who has completed two years in India spoke to Editor and Publisher SayantanChakravarty on a range of subjects highlighting India-Finland relations
Interview with H.E. Ms Nina Vaskunlahti, Ambassador of Finland to India
According to the Global Happiness Index 2018, Finland is the happiest nation in the world. It is also among the most peaceful nations in the world. What factors would you say contribute to the happiness quotient of Finland? | <urn:uuid:41d4a13f-e9df-4136-bc20-099ff4c36222> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.indiaempire.com/article/81559/there_is_momentum_in_finlandindia_relations | 2019-07-24T07:44:54Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195531106.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20190724061728-20190724083728-00118.warc.gz | en | 0.936509 | 166 |
In determining the Avogadro constant, the preferred method has been to use one of the high-precision spheres fabricated here at the ACPO. These come in the form of a highly polished 1 kg single crystal silicon sphere, fabricated with a roundness in range of 60 nm.
The nominal diameter of a 1 kg Si sphere is 93.6 mm. In order to obtain an accuracy of 0.01 ppm in volume, the diameter must be known to a range of 0.6 nm. In other words, within one atom spacing.
Such high accuracy requires specialised equipment and one such procedure is by optical interferometry using a precision etalon through a stabilised laser light. The measurements are sensitive to many parameters, particularly to those of temperature and pressure. An instability within the range of 2 mK would be sufficient to cause the silicon to expand by more than the allowable uncertainty. The refractive index of air (and hence the wavelength of the light) is sensitive to the surrounding air pressure. It is therefore necessary to carry out the measurements in a controlled environment.
Corrections must be applied for surface impurities such as oxides and absorbed water. Typically, silicon has an oxide layer 3 to 4 nm thick, which is a mixture of SiO and SiO2. It is also possible for the surface to absorb some monolayers of water. Since much of the absorbed water is removed in a vacuum, a number of the key measurements are made in a vacuum environment. A further correction must then be applied for the difference in bulk modulus between the air and vacuum.
The Avogadro Project | <urn:uuid:e7e3bdff-57b1-4741-8232-81eb908083b0> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.jwz.org/blog/2011/02/the-roundest-object-in-the-world/ | 2019-07-24T06:27:06Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195531106.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20190724061728-20190724083728-00118.warc.gz | en | 0.939088 | 330 |
Liverpool FC has released the following information regarding away ticket sales for the Champions League match against Red Star Belgrade at the Rajko Mitic Stadium on Tuesday November 6.
The club has received an allocation of 2000 tickets for supporters to purchase.
LFC has also received a further allocation of 200 top category seats that, in line with UEFA guidelines, will be used as part of the players' allocation, the club’s UEFA Youth League team’s players and staff, travelling club staff and VIPs.
The club would also like to remind supporters that important safety information for supporters travelling to Belgrade will be provided in the lead up to the game. The information provided is in conjunction with Serbian authorities and LFC club Officials, and we strongly advise that you follow all the information and instructions given.
Supporters without a ticket are urged not to travel.
Kenny Dalglish, Stand Executive Box holders, Premium Level and Centenary Club members should contact the Hospitality Department on 0151 264 2222, option 2.
Wheelchair-disabled supporters should register their interest no later than 12pm BST on Thursday October 18.
ALL OTHER SUPPORTERS
The below sales will take place ONLINE only and you may have to queue at times.
Tickets will be available to season ticket holders, Official Members and Fan Card holders based on attendance at SSC Napoli (03.10.18), AS Roma (02.05.18), Manchester City (10.04.18), FC Porto (14.02.18), Sevilla (21.11.17), Maribor (17.10.17), Spartak Moscow (26.09.17).
Attendance at six or more games: From 8.15am BST on Friday October 19 until 10.45am on Monday October 22.
Supporters are guaranteed a ticket during this sale and can purchase one ticket per person, up to a maximum of 10 (ten) tickets per transaction.
The following sales will then take place on a first come, first served basis and supporters can purchase one ticket per person up to a maximum of four tickets per transaction.
Attendance at five or more games: From 11am BST until 1.45pm on Monday October 22.
LFC expects tickets to sell out during this sale but if tickets remain, the following sale will take place:
Attendance at four or more games: From 2pm BST on Monday October 22.
Please keep checking here for further sale updates.
DETAILS TO BE PROVIDED AT TIME OF BOOKING
The following information is required for every supporter travelling. If someone else is travelling using your season ticket, Member Card or Fan Card, their details must be provided when making the booking.
We will not be able to make any changes once you have made your purchase.
DELIVERY/COLLECTION OF TICKETS
Please select one of the following options before proceeding to checkout:
Tickets will be held for collection at ANFIELD ONLY.
Collection dates will be updated here.
Tickets should be collected before 12pm GMT on Friday November 2.
2. UK POST
UK-based supporters: Tickets will be sent by special delivery to the registered address of the person making the booking, at a charge of £5.65. Royal Mail will send a tracking number to the email address registered on our ticketing system.
3. OVERSEAS POST
Non-UK-based supporters: We will not be facilitating collections in Belgrade. Tickets will be sent via DHL to the registered address of the person making the booking, at a charge of £12.46.
There will be no duplicate tickets for this fixture.
For a step by step guide to purchasing tickets online, please click here.
For AWAY SUPPORT INFORMATION, click here.
For GENERAL INFORMATION, click here. | <urn:uuid:ed5a6960-9d9c-4dec-934e-6247f6aef533> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/tickets/321084-liverpool-red-star-belgrade-tickets-champions-league | 2019-07-24T07:07:21Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195531106.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20190724061728-20190724083728-00118.warc.gz | en | 0.904654 | 794 |
Macon-Bibb County commissioners voted 8-1 Tuesday to use leftover money from the construction of three fire stations and spend it on the new animal shelter and the tennis center at Tattnall Square Park.
The fire stations were built with money from a special purpose local option sales tax, but because those projects came in about $635,000 under budget, commissioners are allowed to use the leftover money for other projects on the SPLOST list that are facing increased costs.
That means the allocation for the Tattnall Square Park tennis center jumps from $500,000 to $700,000, while the money budgeted for the new Macon-Bibb County Animal Welfare shelter increases from $3 million to nearly $3.44 million.
Commissioner Elaine Lucas cast the lone dissenting vote.
Lucas also was the only “no” vote when commissioners approved a resolution to allow NewTown Macon to use a city-owned parking deck at 448 Mulberry St. for an outdoor “pop-up” concert at a future date. The concert won’t cost taxpayers any money, because NewTown is picking up the cost as a way of drawing people downtown to promote local businesses.
Lucas said she thought the deal amounted to the city giving a “gratuity” to NewTown. If the measure was approved, she said before the vote, then future groups wanting to promote downtown concerts should get the same consideration.
Commissioners Gary Bechtel and Al Tillman noted that since NewTown would be insuring the event, it meant the city only needed to provide permission to use the parking deck for the concert.
Also Tuesday, commissioners unanimously approved:
Giving Macon-Bibb County Mayor Robert Reichert authority to execute a payment in lieu of rent with the Georgia Department of Human Services for $1.25 million for office space located at 456 Oglethorpe St.;
Appointing Derrick M. Catlett, Jean M. Bragg and Valerie Bradley and reappointing Martha E. Carter, Helen M. Weathers, Charles A. Jay, Diane A. Newton, Melinda D. Robinson-Moffett, Theresa L. Robinson, Mark A. Stevens, Charlotte Woody and Carolyn M. Crayton to the Keep Macon-Bibb Beautiful Commission;
Giving Reichert the authority to execute an agreement with the Georgia Department of Transportation for the installation of a roundabout at the intersection of Ga. 22/U.S. 80 -- also known as Eisenhower Parkway -- and Knoxville Road.
To contact writer Phillip Ramati, call 744-4334. | <urn:uuid:25fd973b-1140-4146-8557-a7fe15f02c67> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.macon.com/news/politics-government/article30140754.html | 2019-07-24T06:58:43Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195531106.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20190724061728-20190724083728-00118.warc.gz | en | 0.92685 | 549 |
I have managed to accumulate another $3,400 towards my annual investment goal and this year I was paid a small bonus at work. After a few small presents I decided to invest it all (around $10,000).
The portfolio changes:
↓ Emerging market securities were down 1,5%
↓ The energy company stock is down about 3,7%
↑ Cash contribution of $13,400 | <urn:uuid:c521e420-62b9-49ae-9ef5-5585b59dcdc1> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.niterainbow.com/2012/02/ | 2019-07-24T06:29:26Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195531106.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20190724061728-20190724083728-00118.warc.gz | en | 0.979617 | 85 |
Is there anything better than a summer picnic? With our willow picnic hamper, you'll be ready to head to the beach, the park or the woods at a moment's notice!
This stunning picnic hamper has everything you need for a relaxed lunch or dinner for four. There are four china plates, four wine glasses, a set of stainless steel cutlery, a bottle opener, and a handy removable cool bag.
Each item is secured within the gorgeous woven willow basket with faux leather fastenings so that nothing goes awry!
All you need to do is gather delicious treats and choose your next picnic spot, whether it's a relaxed lunch or a delightfully summery date night. Don't forget the bubbles!
Material: Willow exterior, with a fabric lining and leather accents.
- Mainland UK Express delivery: £5.75 per order
- FREE for orders over £75
- For outlying UK and Europe, please click here.
- This item will be despatched by courier and will require a signature on delivery.
- If you know you will be out, it is very easy to change delivery address during checkout!
Believers in slow living and
the art of "just enough"
Copyright © 2019 Nordic House Ltd. All Rights Reserved | The Sight Centre, Newham Road, Truro, Cornwall, TR1 2DP | VAT 925 9960 76 | <urn:uuid:6bdf1b22-0487-462c-a19f-e6ccd515c963> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.nordichouse.co.uk/willow-picnic-hamper-p-3604.html | 2019-07-24T07:25:00Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195531106.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20190724061728-20190724083728-00118.warc.gz | en | 0.884252 | 291 |
Sometimes packing is the hardest part of vacation. It’s hard to choose what to pack, especially when you have no idea what you really want to wear! There’s so many questions that probably run through your head while you pack, too. How many outfits do I need?
We have been watching families come and go for years, so we know exactly what you need to pack, and exactly which items people tend to forget. We don’t want packing to stress you out, so use our list to double-check your bag before you load them in the car!
What to Pack for the Car
Any documents you will need to check in to your Gatlinburg cabin rental. It is best to pack these items somewhere in the car, so you don’t have to dig through your suitcases to find everything.
Sunglasses or hats. Even in the winter months, the sun shines bright in the mountains. This way, no one in the car has to deal with sunlight in their eyes.
If you’re on a long car ride, keep kids entertained with games, music and books. Headphones are great for road trips, so the kids can listen to their own music while you drive.
Snacks are perfect for car rides. Pack a few things to munch on, and keep them handy. Anything that isn’t eaten in the car will be perfect for keeping in your cabin rental in Gatlinburg. With snacks comes trash, so make sure you have a small trash bag and maybe even some baby wipes for keeping small hands clean.
If you plan to make any stops along the way, you may want to have your camera on hand. If you’re coming to Gatlinburg from the Cherokee, NC side of the mountain, you will have a beautiful drive along Newfound Gap Road. There’s many pull offs, so you can get out of the car to stretch your legs and take a few beautiful pictures of the Great Smoky Mountains, too.
What to Pack in Your Suitcase
Make sure to pack plenty of weather-appropriate clothes for your trip. If you are planning on hiking, you’ll want to have hiking boots and a backpack for your trip. Click this link for more information about hiking in the Smoky Mountains: https://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/hiking.htm
Don’t forget your swimsuit either. Many cabins have hot tubs or swimming pool access, and it’s a great way to relax at the end of the day.
Many people forget to pack the chargers for their electronics. If you forget your chargers, they can cost anywhere from $10-$20 at a convenience store. That’s an easy cost to avoid, too.
Our cabins come equipped with a washer and dryer, so pack detergent and dryer sheets if you plan to do a couple of loads of laundry.
List of Extra Items to Pack
- Bug spray
- First aid kit
- Paper products
- Case of water
- Picnic basket and blanket
- Cooking oil
- Roasting sticks for roasting marshmallows in a fire pit
- Movies for the DVD player
- Matches and lighters
Luckily, when you stay with Parkside Cabin Rentals, you won’t have to worry about packing too much for your stay. There’s already linens, dishes, cookware and utensils available in your cabin rental. Many of the cabins come with extra appliances like toasters and coffee makers, too.
Of course, it’s always better to pack a few extra items than to not have enough. Just make sure you don’t overpack too much, or you will have too much to carry around!
If you’re looking for the ultimate relaxation experience, take a look at all of our affordable Gatlinburg cabin rentals. Then give us a call at (866) 808-7525. Our vacation rental experts will be happy to help you plan your trip! | <urn:uuid:edb55811-9014-41ca-bfc2-749691339c2d> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.parksidecabinrentals.com/blog/over-20-things-you-will-probably-forget-pack-your-gatlinburg-cabin-vacation/ | 2019-07-24T06:55:29Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195531106.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20190724061728-20190724083728-00118.warc.gz | en | 0.937798 | 853 |
Team Red, White and Blue
Team Red, White & Blue (Team RWB) is a veteran support nonprofit organization whose vision is to increase the connectivity between America's combat veterans and people in their communities. We use exercise as a medium to bring people together (running, triathlon, Crossfit, yoga, hiking, etc...) We also provide personal assistance/coaching for veterans who want to get back into shape.
Our mission is to enrich the lives of America's veterans by connecting them to people in their community through physical and social activity. Join the Team for free today!http://teamrwb.org/get-involved/join-the-team | <urn:uuid:ee3726a9-1661-4330-b76a-54027a81dab2> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.texvet.org/resources/rwb-team-red-white-and-blue-san-angelo | 2019-07-24T07:43:14Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195531106.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20190724061728-20190724083728-00118.warc.gz | en | 0.952152 | 135 |
Is the Grass Really Greener on the Other Side?
If you’re regularly tempted to say ‘the grass is always greener’ when you compare your situation with others’ then read on.
How do you feel when someone seems to have a better deal than you do? Angry? Jealous? Frustrated? As if you’re searching for something that’s eluding you? And does feeling this way help at all? These are all negative and time consuming emotions, so how can you help yourself to a more constructive frame of mind?
The American writer and clergyman Robert Fulghum pointed out that the grass isn’t greener on the other side of the fence, it’s greener when you water it.
Here are 2 things you can do to have beautiful green grass of your own and stop peeping enviously over the fence.
1. Apply ‘What if?’
Step out of yourself for a moment and look at your life through the eyes of a stranger. List all the great things you see in your life and all you have to be grateful for.
This includes all the things you take for granted like your health, home, family, job etc.
Now apply ‘what if’ to each of those things. What if you didn’t have a home? Didn’t have a family? Didn’t have the good health you have? Even if your home/family/health aren’t perfect (and nobody’s is), without all that you’re grateful for life probably wouldn’t be very green.
This exercise helps us to realise how green the grass is on this side of the fence.
If your gratitude list is a long one that’s great. If you find yourself looking about for things to be thankful for, consider those in the poorest neighbourhoods, those without homes, without a job, loving parents, safety, food or clean water or people living in war zones.
2. Water the grass.
When we look at someone else’s situation and think it looks better than our own, we need to remember that no one lives a charmed life – not even the celebrities we see on TV.
If your greenery isn’t as green as you want it to be it’s time to think about what you can do to change that. Are there little tweaks here and there or big changes you need to make?
Start by making a (realistic) wish list of changes you want to make then think about strategies to make these happen.
So the moral of the tale is, don’t wish for greener grass – start watering and weeding what you have! | <urn:uuid:f2d3885d-0340-4d61-8772-c61841e14789> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.theemf.org/how-to-make-a-better-life-is-the-grass-greener/ | 2019-07-24T06:21:36Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195531106.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20190724061728-20190724083728-00118.warc.gz | en | 0.928163 | 571 |
Board of Trustees are charged with the management of our church property. Those who join this board are often involved in providing for the repair and maintenance of our building and grounds. They also do financial planning for the annual budget and the long range needs of our facilities.
The Board seeks those who have some on site, hands on, task oriented gifts, skills and abilities. It also looks for people with a mature and responsible business sense who are dedicated to the life and work of the church in terms of its physical resources.
In early Christian communities those who were elected to assist in the worship and service ministries of the church were known as Deacons. Here at TUCC our Deacons are charged with promoting the fellowship life of the church as well as assisting in worship planning in the life of the church.
Deacons plan the fellowship hour after worship and serve several dinners during the year they are also active in the preparation and serving of communion, ministries of pastoral care, the visitation of members, providing for music, ushers, acolytes, greeters, and flowers at worship services.
If you have a concern for worship and/or are handy in the kitchen this board may be of interest to you.
As you might expect, this board provides for the educational programs of our church. In doing so they plan programming, seek out Teachers for our Sunday School, look at Curriculum, Materials and other Resources as well as provide for special programs of nurture and witness in the community. If you have gifts which help children and others to grow in their faith, have some enthusiasm, new ideas and/or leadership abilities, this board’s for you!
Time to Think Summer Camp
All youth and adults planning to attend church camp this summer should get their registration forms completed and sent in as soon as possible. Camps fill up quickly and are on a first come, first served basis. Several camping opportunities are available through both the United Methodist and American Baptist camping facilities. If you plan to go to camp and have not yet received camp material in the mail, please contact the church office (696-8066) for camp registration forms. You can also register on-line for our United Methodist camps at…www.aldersgateNY.org and www.casowasco.org. To register for our American Baptist camps you can register on-line at: ww.abc-nys.org/camps. A registration form can be downloaded and printed for easy registration by mail. Most camp registrations require a fee of $75 to accompany each camp registration form.
Remember, the one who sows abundantly will reap abundantly, each of us should give not simply out of duty or grudgingly for God loves one who gives from the abundance of a cheerful heart and God the Great Giver is able to supply all that you need. Cor. 9: 6-8
Our board believes that every Christian is called to be a good steward, or one who takes care of the good gifts God has given. Our talents and abilities, our health, wealth and resources are the concerns of this board of the church. Our board is charged with promoting the stewardship of the congregation’s talents and resources. Therefore we provide for an annual stewardship drive, as well as oversee memorials and bequests.
Mission and Outreach
This board seeks to plan for programs of outreach to the community and knowledge of Christian mission around the world. It prepares and promotes the annual mission budget and oversees local outreach projects such as the Fisherman’s Net. This board also works with the pastor in promoting the image of the church and in reaching out and giving welcome to new members.
If you are a person committed to the ministry of the Church beyond its walls and are enthused about our churches life and mission then you might want to know more about serving on this board.
You are the people of God... clothe yourselves then in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience - be tolerant and forgive one another, just as God has forgiven you. And to these qualities add Love which binds our lives together in unity of spirit. Col.12-14
This board is responsible for the care and keeping of those who work with us and for us as a congregation. Our main goal is to provide quality ongoing communication between our pastor, our staff and our people. We meet each month in order to continue to build faithful lines of communication between Pastor and people. | <urn:uuid:fff8af1e-883a-4d9b-a3ad-a0c6ca351f1c> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.tullychurch.org/leadership | 2019-07-24T07:01:48Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195531106.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20190724061728-20190724083728-00118.warc.gz | en | 0.965903 | 913 |
Revelatory new footage appears to show a Bigfoot-esque creature near a hiking trail in California.
The bizarre moment the unidentified animal was seen swinging through trees was caught on video by Jake Gardiner, who works at La Crescenta in Los Angeles County, close to the site.
He said he felt something was watching him around the woods, revealing to KTLA:
At first I heard a bunch of strange noises in the trees. Figured it was just some types of bird or something like that.
One problem: birds aren’t big ape-like bastards. Jake then decided to get out his phone and record what he was witnessing.
You can definitely see a torso and four limbs moving around and swinging around. It’s a pretty obvious kind of motion.
Authorities over at the Department of Fish and Wildlife reckon the animal could be a breed of great ape which could cause potentially heinous danger to the public.
Spokesman Andrew Hughan told KTLA:
We think that it’s a pretty good possibility that it is some kind of ape.
These animals are incredibly strong. And they can very easily kill or seriously injure a person because – if it turns out to be an ape – this animal is scared, hungry, out of its element.
People import the animals as illegal exotic pets. Now, that’s not great, but what happens is the animals can get out of control and they either escape or they get too unruly and the owners just let them go.
Do you think this if bigfoot? Do you think there is a bigfoot? If so, how many are there? They all seem to look different and display contradictive levels of athletic ability. Take a look at his vintage sighting of ‘bigfoot’ caught on film. He’s just walking. Not arsed over trees.
We all love an urban legend, though, don’t we? I’m holding out. | <urn:uuid:b2d21330-c2fc-488c-ae2d-9dd9b57ca038> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.unilad.co.uk/news/police-warning-after-deadly-bigfoot-creature-caught-on-camera/ | 2019-07-24T06:33:11Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195531106.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20190724061728-20190724083728-00118.warc.gz | en | 0.965924 | 406 |
HIP92024 is the reference name for the star in the Hipparcos Star Catalogue. The Id of the star in the Henry Draper catalogue is HD172555.
More details on objects' alternative names can be found at Star Names .
The location of the main sequence star in the night sky is determined by the Right Ascension (R.A.) and Declination (Dec.), these are equivalent to the Longitude and Latitude on the Earth. The Right Ascension is how far expressed in time (hh:mm:ss) the star is along the celestial equator. If the R.A. is positive then its eastwards. The Declination is how far north or south the object is compared to the celestial equator and is expressed in degrees. For HD 172555, the location is 18h 45m 26.86 and -64° 52` 15.2 .
All stars like planets orbit round a central spot, in the case of planets, its the central star such as the Sun. In the case of a star, its the galactic centre. The constellations that we see today will be different than they were 50,000 years ago or 50,000 years from now. Proper Motion details the movements of these stars and are measured in milliarcseconds. The star is moving -149.48 ± 0.14 milliarcseconds/year towards the north and 32.40 ± 0.19 milliarcseconds/year east if we saw them in the horizon.
The Radial Velocity, that is the speed at which the star is moving away/towards the Sun is 2.00 km/s with an error of about 4.20 km/s . When the value is negative then the star and the Sun are getting closer to one another, likewise, a positive number means that two stars are moving away. Its nothing to fear as the stars are so far apart, they won't collide in our life-time, if ever.
Luminosity is the amount of energy that a star pumps out and its relative to the amount that our star, the Sun gives out. The figure of 8.29 that I have given is based on the value in the Simbad Hipparcos Extended Catalogue at the University of Strasbourg from 2012.
HD 172555 has a spectral type of A7V. This means the star is a blue main sequence star. The star has a B-V Colour Index of 0.19 which means the star's temperature has been calculated using information from Morgans @ Uni.edu at being 7,827 Kelvin.
Radius has been calculated as being 1.64 times bigger than the Sun. The Sun's radius is 695,800km, therefore the star's radius is an estimated 1,143,333.98.km. If you need the diameter of the star, you just need to multiple the radius by 2. However with the 2007 release of updated Hipparcos files, the radius is now calculated at being round 1.61. The figure is derived at by using the formula from SDSS and has been known to produce widely incorrect figures. The star's Iron Abundance is 0.07 with an error value of 9.99 Fe/H with the Sun has a value of 1 to put it into context.
HD 172555 has an apparent magnitude of 4.78 which is how bright we see the star from Earth. Apparent Magnitude is also known as Visual Magnitude. If you used the 1997 Parallax value, you would get an absolute magnitude of 2.45 If you used the 2007 Parallax value, you would get an absolute magnitude of 2.50. Magnitude, whether it be apparent/visual or absolute magnitude is measured by a number, the smaller the number, the brighter the Star is. Our own Sun is the brightest star and therefore has the lowest of all magnitudes, -26.74. A faint star will have a high number.
Using the original Hipparcos data that was released in 1997, the parallax to the star was given as 34.21 which gave the calculated distance to HD 172555 as 95.34 light years away from Earth or 29.23 parsecs. It would take a spaceship travelling at the speed of light, 95.34 years to get there. We don't have the technology or spaceship that can carry people over that distance yet.
In 2007, Hipparcos data was revised with a new parallax of 35.03 which put HD 172555 at a distance of 93.11 light years or 28.55 parsecs. It should not be taken as though the star is moving closer or further away from us. It is purely that the distance was recalculated.
Using the 2007 distance, the star is roughly 5,888,819.18 Astronomical Units from the Earth/Sun give or take a few. An Astronomical Unit is the distance between Earth and the Sun. The number of A.U. is the number of times that the star is from the Earth compared to the Sun.
The star's Galacto-Centric Distance is 7,377.00 Parsecs or 24,061.07 Light Years. The Galacto-Centric Distance is the distance from the star to the Centre of the Galaxy which is Sagittarius A*.
The source of the information if it has a Hip I.D. is from Simbad, the Hipparcos data library based at the University at Strasbourg, France. Hipparcos was a E.S.A. satellite operation launched in 1989 for four years. The items in red are values that I've calculated so they could well be wrong. Information regarding Metallicity and/or Mass is from the E.U. Exoplanets. The information was obtained as of 12th Feb 2017.
|Primary / Proper / Traditional Name||HD 172555|
|Alternative Names||HD 172555, HIP 92024|
|Constellation's Main Star||No|
|Multiple Star System||No / Unknown|
|Star Type||Main Sequence Dwarf Star|
|Absolute Magnitude||2.45 / 2.50|
|Visual / Apparent Magnitude||4.78|
|Naked Eye Visible||Yes - Magnitudes|
|Right Ascension (R.A.)||18h 45m 26.86|
|Declination (Dec.)||-64° 52` 15.2|
|Galactic Latitude||-23.76 degrees|
|Galactic Longitude||330.57 degrees|
|1997 Distance from Earth||34.21 Parallax (milliarcseconds)|
|95.34 Light Years|
|2007 Distance from Earth||35.03 Parallax (milliarcseconds)|
|93.11 Light Years|
|5,888,819.18 Astronomical Units|
|Galacto-Centric Distance||24,061.07 Light Years / 7,377.00 Parsecs|
|Proper Motion Dec.||-149.48 ± 0.14 milliarcseconds/year|
|Proper Motion RA.||32.40 ± 0.19 milliarcseconds/year|
|Radial Velocity||2.00 ± 4.20 km/s|
|Iron Abundance||0.07 ± 9.99 Fe/H|
|Stellar Luminosity (Lsun)||8.29|
|Radius (x the Sun)||1.61|
|Effective Temperature||7,827 Kelvin|
There's no register feature and no need to give an email address if you don't need to. All messages will be reviewed before being displayed. Comments may be merged or altered slightly such as if an email address is given in the main body of the comment.
You can decline to give a name which if that is the case, the comment will be attributed to a random star. A name is preferred even if its a random made up one by yourself. | <urn:uuid:453e4adb-cda2-48ce-94a6-053829bc0607> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.universeguide.com/star/hd172555 | 2019-07-24T06:42:29Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195531106.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20190724061728-20190724083728-00118.warc.gz | en | 0.911318 | 1,678 |
Now showing items 1-2 of 2
The economic lot-sizing problem with perishable items and consumption order preference
(Elsevier Science Bv, 2015-08-01)
We consider the economic lot-sizing problem with perishable items (ELS-PI), where each item has a deterministic expiration date. Although all items in stock are equivalent regardless of procurement or expiration date, we ...
The two-level economic lot sizing problem with perishable items
We present an economic lot sizing model of a supply chain for the procurement and distribution of a perishable item. We assume that the consumers always buy the item that lasts longer. We show that determining optimal ... | <urn:uuid:2d9a1e22-ce6f-49fa-af52-36699fcadff3> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | http://acikerisim.isikun.edu.tr/xmlui/handle/11729/41/discover?filtertype=subject&filter_relational_operator=equals&filter=Complexity+analysis | 2019-07-16T23:27:05Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.81493 | 138 |
>Ok, so I’ve finally implemented and debugged a second type of control in FindPeaks… It’s different, and it seems to be more sensitive, requiring less assumptions to be made about the data set itself.
What it needs, now, is some testing. Is anyone out there willing to try a novel form of control on a dataset that they have? (I won’t promise it’s flawless, but hey, it’s open source, and I’m willing to bug fix anything people find.)
If you do, let me know, and I’ll tell you how to activate it. Let the testing begin! | <urn:uuid:c9065a4f-f10b-4da5-9dd1-59c3dec3bc18> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | http://blog.fejes.ca/?p=1367 | 2019-07-16T23:19:00Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.919192 | 141 |
We are all beginning the countdown to Christmas now. On the Historical Romance authors we are going to have a Christmas story that all the writers will write for you. You can get into this site through the links on my website if you don't know it.
Monday, 27 November 2006
I have just sent off my latest Regency to M&B and now I am having fun making book trailers for friends. I have made a couple of them so far and the first will have a link on my website. I may put some links on for you another night but I am waiting for one of them to load. I have to make sure it works as it should before putting it on, because I don't want to be stuck trying to take it off.
I was going to tell you about June Francis. She lives in Liverpool and writes wonderful sagas set there. One of my favourites is called Coming Home to Liverpool, but she has written so many more lovely books. If you don't know of her you should look for her books at the library, though you might be lucky enough to buy her in paperback. She writes about wonderful charachters and her writing is warm and has its own charm.
The book shown tonight is the third in my Civil War series from Severn House. It is available from libraries or from amazon.
I think that is enough for this evening. Love to you all, Linda
Posted by Linda Sole at 11:48
Thursday, 23 November 2006
I have just changed to Internet Explorer 7 and it has created problems with my blog! I did the first little bit on my laptop and it kept clicking off, but now I have managed to get in on the desktop - hurrah!
I wanted to tell you about Too Hot To Handle. This is my first ebook and is with Triskelion. It is the story of Sylvie and Rafe. He is handsome, a little arrogant and a business man on a mission. Sylvie is beautiful but she has been hurt. when they first meet there is a mutual attraction, but it is not until they are in Paris that the affair becomes too hot to handle. It seems that they were made for each other, but then Sylvie discovers something that makes her think Rafe is using her. Will they be able to sort out their problems or is their love affair doomed to failure?
that really is all for tonight.Linda
Posted by Linda Sole at 10:28
Today I finished my latest book. That makes eight for the year! Now I am going to take a break and start getting Christmas presents ready for a large extended family.
My ebook is called Too Hot to Handle and I will tell you more about it next time. I am having problems with the blog this evening.
Posted by Linda Sole at 10:13
Monday, 20 November 2006
I was going to tell you about my new venture as Anne Ireland, but I shall leave that for another day. This morning I received a parcel from my publisher which was very pleasing. It contained three copies of a German translation of A Perfect Knight. I had not had a German translation for a while so that was exciting, but it is very satisifying that it should be the Banewulf Dynasty. This series has now been published in seven countries, including Greece, America, France and Italy. The French covers were absolutely fantastic but the German is very good too. I have been counting back and I am not sure exactly how many, but I think there have been over thirty foreign rights this year, which is fantastic. I really feel that at last I am getting somewhere. I have had some really nice comments from readers lately and that is what it is all about. It is the reason I write, to give as much pleasure as writing gives me.
Next time I will tell you about the new venture and soon I am going to write about June Francis and her books.
Love to you all, Linda/Anne
Posted by Linda Sole at 13:17
Saturday, 18 November 2006
The sun is just coming out as I write this and we are about to drive down to the sea. We like to look at the sea even though it may be too cold for a walk on the front if the wind is bitter as it often is at this time of year, but we have to go anyway, because something needs fixing at the sea house.
I just want to tell you about Paula Marshall. We met atHMB when the Steepwood series was coming up, and became friends during the period when all the authors were phoning each other to check on various things. the series had to follow on book by book, each author revealing a piece of the background mystery while writing their own story. Paula and I chatted a lot on the phone and continued friends until she became very ill last Christmas. I miss her calls because we talked about things that interested us both, mainly writing, though Paul was a fount of knowledge on all kinds of things.
She was writing a regency, which I do not think will ever be finished unfortunately, but she wrote over forty books, which have been published. One of my favourites was An Improper Duenna, but there were so many more. She wrote two of the Steepwood books, as we all did, and she also wrote two of a Tudor quartet that I shared with her. Her books were an inspiration and I think her publisher must miss her contribution.
Next time, I will tell you about my book as Anne Ireland. It is an ebook, a first in this medium for me. Love to all, Linda
PS the pic with 29% off came from amazon. I don't know if the offer is still on. It may be and these books all have wonderful covers - worth collecting the set?
Posted by Linda Sole at 00:14
Tuesday, 14 November 2006
This is the cover of the first of a Civil War Trilogy that I wrote for Severn House. It was published in hard back and then in paperback, and the third book has recently come out in hardback.
At the moment I am working on more regencies for Mills & Boon, but I had proofs come this morning and so they have to take priority now until they are finished, hence the busy day. The morning spent typing new stuff, the afternoon devoted to correcting proofs.
I wanted to tell you about some new ventures. The first is my crime series with Severn House. I am very excited about this, because I haven't done anything quite like it before. It is what you might call cosy crime set in villages mostly in the twenties. Sarah Beaufort and Larch Meadows are amateur sleuths who team up with an ex Scotland Yard Inspector to solve the murders - some of which are far from cosy. I am hoping that this will develop into at least a trilogy and perhaps more. The first book will be published in hardback in Febuary 2007.
My next venture is contemporary in ebook for Triskelion. I do not know yet when this will be available, but it is rather fun learning all the new stuff that this technology requires. The title is Too Hot To Handle, and I'll tell you more about it nearer the time.
Next time I post I want to tell you about one of my writing friends. I am going to start with Paula Marshall, because she is such a wonderful writer of Regency and historical books.
Love to you all, Linda
Posted by Linda Sole at 05:33
Monday, 13 November 2006
It took me ages to get back in this morning, but I finally got here. Well, this is me sitting by a pool in Spain. I thrive on sunshine and some of my best work gets done there - at least so my editor says.
My first blog was about my Linda Sole books, but this time I want to tell you about my books for Mills & Boon as Anne Herries. I have been writing for them for some years, though I took a break to do mainstream for a while, which is when Lovers & Sinners got written. I went back to them after a few years and have been writing more and more ever since. Under various names it is more than seventy books published now, and I am still as enthusiastic about every book I write.
I have written well over thirty of my books as Anne Herries. A Damnable rogue won the RNA Romance Prize for 2004, which was a wonderful feeling for me. It may not be the Oscars but I was close to tears just the same and made a very emotional speech. My sister was sitting beside me and almost strangled me when it was announced. I think she was almost more excited than me! Since then I've increased my output for Mills and Boon and am now writing 4/5 books a year. My latest are the Hellfire Trilogy, the first of which comes out in paperback this December, though it is already for sale on the Net.
Next time, I will tell you about new ventures, and in the future I want to talk to you about books I love, and authors I admire. So it isn't all going to be about me. I hope you will join me here sometimes. Love to you all, Linda
Posted by Linda Sole at 01:52
Sunday, 12 November 2006
Hello everyone. I have opened this blog so that I can talk to my readers and hopefully lots of other people about my books and those of authors I like and admire. Some of the authors will be friends, and some will be just authors I have picked after reading a book they have written.
First of all let me tell you about myself. I write as Linda Sole, Anne Herries and coming soon Triskelion. the Linda sole books go back some years. The first one was Lovers& Sinners, which was successful for Century. However, I now write for Severn House as Linda Sole and my latest book with them is Wish Down the Moon, which is third in a trilogy called the Country House Series.
Tomorrow I will tell you about my Anne Herries books and then I'll go on to write about some favourite authors. Bye for now, Linda | <urn:uuid:408eb459-ea4e-4c69-8a18-80f2a81eb185> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | http://booksfromlindasole.blogspot.com/2006/11/ | 2019-07-16T22:47:59Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.988071 | 2,097 |
Martin Smith Responds To Selling-Out Claims
Last modified: 08 Jul 1999
Lead singer Martin Smith has written a moving statement to all the band's fans, followers and music critics. He examines claims that the band are ready to sell out to the mainstream culture and reassures the fans that the band are stronger than ever in their faith.
Martin says "...we are passionate about 'opening up the doors' and letting people be aware of our music and spirituality. It is truly the mezzanine floor for us, and to go back to what we were doing musically would feel uncomfortable and bring death to the creativity, not perhaps for a few years but definitely in the future. The flip-side is that our dream of mainstream 'success' is not here either, and perhaps it is not possible with the values and morals we hold, BUT, something inside of us tells us to keep going. For some we have slipped from 4th gear to 2nd, but I can assure you that this car has barely left the garage. We've got a new engine under the bonnet called Mezzamorphis and we're not backing down. It's time for the freeway. It's time to overtake." | <urn:uuid:4e3efd75-c5d2-45b7-aa42-d2956b83a70f> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | http://delirious.org.uk/document.php?id=196 | 2019-07-16T22:59:13Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.974657 | 245 |
Professional Leather Upholstery Cleaning Services in East London, UK
Leather furniture sets are expensive and valued and make a brave statement before your visitors. Leather couches and chairs are high priced, especially furniture sets made of exotic leathers or designer pieces. Various types of leather require different cleaning methods and we strongly recommend our customers not to use home cleansers that can damage the upholstery and end up costing a lot of money. Instead, we can offer to our customers expert advice, technical expertise and top level professional leather sofa cleaning with no risk of damage or alteration involved. Book in advance and save up to 30%!
Trust the professionals at Sofa Cleanic to take care of your favorite leather furniture. Our high quality upholstery cleaning service will remove spots, bad smells, and allergens while protecting and conditioning the expensive leather of your furniture. We will completely renew the color and the sheen of your favorite leather upholstered furniture. With the help of our professional care the useful life your living room set is prolonged and you are going to avoid high replacement costs. Your leather sofa and armchairs will be once again pleasing to look at as they add style and class to your interior. Call 020 3769-6715 for a no obligation quotation!
Our Leather Couch Cleaning protocol follows several steps:
- We examine your leather furniture for stains, odors, mold, and dust.
- Before we start work we are going to test on a tiny patch of the material to make sure its structure and color are going to withstand the treatment. Because different leather manufacturers use different production technologies and chemicals, it is vitally important to employ suitable cleaning methods for your furniture. Our experienced technicians will select the safest and most efficient way to clean your sofa.
- The couch and other pieces are vacuumed on all sides for removal of all hard particles, lint and dust stuck in between creases and under the cushions.
- The leather surface is then spot treated and blotted using a special agent and a clean cloth.
- We inspect the finished work for any oversights or imperfections before declaring the job done.
We, at Sofa Cleanic in East London, have made a commitment to our customers:
We dedicate our efforts and expertise to make sure that you, our clients, are always satisfied. We value your business and we want you to return back to us every time. We guarantee you will be thrilled with the new look of your living room set!
We, Sofa Cleanic in East London, are able to efficiently take care of any type of leather sofa cleaning request as our cleaning technicians are thoroughly trained and have adequate earlier experience in this extremely delicate field. We train our cleaners to determine the kind of leather, the kind of soilage or damage and to administer the most appropriate and sparing cleaning method in order to deliver great results every time. We do achieve outstanding cleaning results for all kinds of leather including aniline, semi aniline, top coat or pigmented leather, oil and wax pull up leather, bi-cast and two tone leather and more. Book in advance & get up to 30% discount!
Our entire leather sofa cleaning job is performed on site and we use modern professional grade machines. We do not dismantle or take the furniture set to a different location. Call our competent operators through 020 3769-6715 phone!
There are two main factors that lead to deterioration and damage of the leather upholstery - everyday use and the frequent treatment with unsuitable cleaning ways and means on a regular basis. Aging and general wear and tear are not reversible, however they can give the furniture a fancy authentic look. However, regular treatment with inappropriate chemical agents onto the leather is likely to make it brittle, chaffing, and peeling.
We, Sofa Cleanic in East London, are here to help you take care of your expensive living room set. We offer best quality leather sofa cleaning services without the heavy price . We want to give you the enjoyment of having nice looking sofa and armchairs without paying a fortune. Book in advance & save up to 30%!
Our standard leather cleaning service is priced to fit your budget. We are going to discuss any problem circumstances with your furniture before we commence work.
We, at Sofa Cleanic, provide reliable and affordable cleaning solutions for people demanding the best service or simply short on time. Contact us today and ask for a free estimate. We will be happy to book a service at date and time convenient for you. Call Sofa Cleanic for a quotation! | <urn:uuid:822356c7-3033-4611-8c4c-c1180a7dfc1f> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | http://east-london.sofacleanic.co.uk/leather-sofa-cleaning.html | 2019-07-16T22:49:12Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.931763 | 935 |
ZAGREB: Branko Ištvančić, (The Ghost in the Swamp) finished shooting The Bridge at the End of the World, a thriller produced by Irena Skorić through Artizana Film in coproduction with the Croatian Radiotelevision, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Heft Production, and Serbia’s Cinematographer's House/Kinematografska Kuća.
The Bridge at the End of the World/ Most na kraju svijeta written by Josip Mlakić is set in a Croatian village near the Bosnian border in the late 90s where a police officer Filip (Aleksandar Bogdanovic) searches for a missing old man in a region where Bosnian Croats live in Croatian Serbs’ houses.
“This film, besides the war repercussions, tackles in a dramatic way the complex attempt of the reconciliation of the Croats and the Serbs, focusing on the little people’s destinies in the chaotic times that have caught hold of the area,” the director noted.
Shooting took six weeks. The cast includes Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian actors Aleksandar Bogdanović, Boro Stjepanović, Sanja Radišić, Slobodan Ćustić and Slaven Knezović.
The budget is around 1m EUR, Skorić told FNE, but will be finalized after postproduction financing expected in September 2013.The project is supported by Croatian Audiovisual Centre, the Ministry of Culture of Republic of Serbia and the Film Foundation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. | <urn:uuid:ee543d28-8410-409e-884e-2b8670d95c53> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | http://filmneweurope.com/news/croatia-news/item/105055-production-the-bridge-at-the-end-of-the-world-moves-into-postproduction | 2019-07-16T22:30:26Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.90334 | 356 |
You are not logged in. Please login or register.
Any issues with Epic? Please reach out to us!! Get help here and or reach out to us via Twitter, Facebook or Email. We're always here to help. Thank you for your support!
We're EpicBrowser on Twitter
and on Facebook
. Email our Founder directly with questions as well: alok at hiddenreflex dot com
Welcome to Stewartmulty's profile
- Real name: Stewartmulty
- From: Madagascar
- Registered: 2019-06-15
- Last post: Never
- Posts: 0 | <urn:uuid:e7827f67-0656-407c-a154-5dbd3d913b0e> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | http://forum.epicbrowser.com/profile.php?id=8315 | 2019-07-16T22:57:00Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.845627 | 123 |
So now I finally have a reason to ditch this 5-year-old computer and get something a bit more modern. I'm going to drag my computing kicking and screaming into this decade, before it runs out.
So, my question in two parts:
Firstly, where should I buy it? Newegg doesn't ship internationally. Is there an equivalent Australian store?
Alternatively, Google found this mob... are they any good?
A friend has linked me to staticICE, which I'll keep an eye on. [/edit]
If I do buy from Newegg and get it shipped, will I still need to buy the PSU local? Or will the ones from the States handle the voltage/frequency difference? (They typically mention 240V on the pages, and the photos look like they use the same connector, but I figure I'll ask to be safe).
Secondly, the parts list...
Things that can be salvaged from my current computer (the shorter list):
3 IDE hard drives of assorted sizes
1GiB RAM (2x512MiB... if that's worth keeping)
Keyboard and mouse (only just bought them a couple of days ago... previous ones had a dodgy R key and dead wheel, respectively... didn't get to use them before the computer died)
A cheap watercooling system (though the block wouldn't fit on a newer CPU socket, I'd need a new one if I wanted to keep using this)
The case (though I wouldn't say no to a new one)
Um, the speakers work, I guess? Maybe one of the system fans?
Things I want:
More RAM, say up to 4GiB
Monitor of some kind, ideally LCD (my CRT is on its last legs, and is goddamn heavy)
Most of my ideas about what sort of features I want are things that I'm pretty sure are standard by now... I'd be like the guy who goes into the electronics store and asks how much extra it'd be to get a video machine that can read DVDs. I imagine it's hard to get a computer lately that doesn't support things like SATA, PCIe, 64-bit, virtualisation... (well, SATA's a bit of an exaggeration, my old computer supported it... I tried it out when I bought it, but it was still new, and Linux's support for it was spotty and didn't include my controller, so I gave it up and never got around to trying it again).
But still, what requirements I do have:
- Linux must support it, reasonably well.
- I'd like to be able to use all of my existing HDDs... but I gather that motherboards with 4 IDE channels are hard to come by these days. Do they make IDE expansion cards? Any new HDDs I buy will be SATA, because I'm not that insane.
- I'm not an avid PC gamer... though I do play games occasionally, usually I just stick with the consoles. I'd like a reasonable graphics card, but it doesn't have to be top-of-the-line. To give a point of comparison, my current computer sports a second-hand GeForce FX 5500 (bought when my previous card gave up the ghost and I had to chase down a replacement AGP card off an eBay that was already flooded with PCIe), and while I would like something with more grunt, it's not exactly holding me back much. The most graphics intensive games I've played in the last few years were in the Orange Box. I have no problems with turning the graphics levels down to Low should I break with tradition and buy a state-of-the-edge game. Basically, what I'm saying is: not just onboard graphics plz, most anything else OK. Ideally with a second video port, should I look into getting a second monitor in the future.
- CPU speed, though, I'd love to kick up a few notches. It seems I'm always hitting that limit with one thing or another.
- All the boring stuff on the motherboard - audio, Ethernet... unless having them separate is cheaper somehow.
- Have I forgotten anything?
I haven't thought about budget, and I don't really have a feel for how much money will buy... so I'll just throw out "a grand US" (possibly not including the monitor), and work from there.
So... suggestions? And remember, I'm a mod, so any bad advice might get you banned. (Nah, I'm just kidding. Maybe.) | <urn:uuid:02a1060f-72ba-48ef-a7ca-1cc392f29693> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=41235&p=1643061 | 2019-07-16T23:41:48Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.975603 | 938 |
"Pictures or images tell me much more than words."
MIRIAM B.C. · PHOTOGRAPHER
I try to convey to others how I feel when I see something that excites me.
But that also means that if I'm not in the right mood then it's reflected in my photographs.
It would be nice to capture every moment with my reflex camera. In my opinion, however, not all moments arouse emotions that I want to remember, or transmit.
"There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer."
MIRIAM B.C • PHOTOGRAPHER
I really like nature and animals. When these are there... I can't resist.
I also very much enjoy experimenting new techniques and ways of photographing.
Being a lover of landscapes, I take advantage of my every journey both near, for example going for a walk with my dog, as well as in distant countries.
In recent years I had the opportunity to undertake several interesting trips to America. Now I often travel to South Africa, where nature and animals are definitely not lacking.
Dogs are (wo)man's best friends. It is thanks to my dogs that every day I go outdoors for a walk, where I can see all the beauties that surround me.
In South Africa there are lots of animals, including elephants, which since I was a child have sparked my sympathy. | <urn:uuid:5ab25321-d7d1-4af4-8922-81d3a5489330> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | http://miriambc.com/?page_id=1977 | 2019-07-16T22:20:59Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.975277 | 298 |
Thursday, May 10, 2007
The Source of Thoughts
That’s what Maharishi wanted us to say, back in 1971, as he instructed us on lecturing about meditation. It was his way of introducing what he called “The Source of Thought,” or the Absolute.
He said that people don’t know where thoughts come from, but they will agree that they come from somewhere… “somewhere deep inside.”
That was the first time I ever considered where my thoughts came from. I’d always simply assumed that thoughts just came out of my brain, the actual gray matter and electrical activity.
Maharishi got me to take a closer look. And it was then I realized that I had no idea where my thoughts came from; except perhaps as some knee-jerk reaction to outside events, though clearly, not every thing that crossed my mind was simply a reaction to the world.
Some thoughts seemed to come unbidden.
I simply seemed to “come up” with some thoughts.
Maharishi said that thoughts arose in the mind like a bubble from the depths of the ocean. They burst upon the surface of the ocean and the conscious thinking level. But there are all these antecedent levels, tiny, tiny bubbles and unconscious thoughts "deep inside."
All this came jumping into memory recently as I listened to Byron Katie on a CD of “Loving What Is.”
She had this to say about thoughts and where they come from:
One day I noticed I was not breathing.
Then to my amazement I noticed that I wasn’t thinking, that I was actually being thought, and that thinking wasn’t personal. You wouldn’t wake up in the morning and say to yourself, “I won’t think today.” It’s too late. You’re already thinking.
Thoughts just appear.
They come out of Nothing and they go back to Nothing like clouds moving across the empty sky.
They come to pass, not to stay.
There is no harm in them until we attach to them, as if they were true.
No one has ever been able to control his thinking, although people may tell you the story of how they have.
Thoughts are like the breeze, or the leaves of the trees, or raindrops falling.
They appear like that and through inquiry we can make friends with them.
Would you argue with a raindrop?
Raindrops aren’t personal and neither are thoughts. ….
How can you not think about something?
It’s thinking you.
Thought appears or it doesn’t.
It’s just amazing that you think (after how many years) that you can control your thinking.
Can you control the wind too?
What about the Ocean?
Let’s stop the waves.
[You can’t stop the waves.] Except when you’re asleep they stop.
No thoughts - no waves…
So it seems to me thoughts arise in our mind from somewhere deep inside, from something that controls Nature.
I think Katie would call that God.
She used the word Nothing.
That’s a Zen thing, Nothing. (I made the “N” a capital)
Maharishi called it the Absolute, or Everything.
By whatever name you give it, thoughts come from beyond the little, conscious self .
(I made that “s” the lower case.) | <urn:uuid:c84a9652-0711-41eb-a739-6535d6e6f61b> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | http://patriciabralley.blogspot.com/2007/05/source-of-thoughts.html | 2019-07-16T22:28:35Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.968258 | 743 |
We Are The Industry Leaders In Self Storage Metal Building Solutions.
Let The Rabco Corporation use our experienced team to help make your self storage or metal building project more successful from the very beginning.
There are three ingredients to success....We bring them all together.
We strive to design simple, secure, low maintenance self storage facilities by accepting nothing less than supplying the best metal building products and providing the best service. When it comes to top quality suppliers, there is no better choice than The Rabco Corporation.
We understand the importance of minimizing self storage development costs, and we’re experts at building attractive, low maintenance self storage building systems and metal building facilities. But, at The Rabco Corporation, we also focus on an even larger goal – maximizing site utilization for the best possible return on your self storage investment.
When it comes to innovative self storage metal building systems, there can only be one industry leader. With a commitment to the highest quality, service and materials and over 20 years of experience in supplying self storage industry needs, The Rabco Corporation is an easy choice. | <urn:uuid:267b1dbc-03b0-40d1-b23b-2cf24b403a64> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | http://rabco.com/ | 2019-07-16T22:20:33Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.893714 | 220 |
Wed, 30 September 2015
These days things are more out of control than they were before the banking crash. More derivatives are in the market, more risky trading is being done and no one is paying attention. Meanwhile China has built a housing prison for themselves by over-speculating on housing, resulting in “ghost-cities”. This week we talk to Chris Martensen about China, the coming crash and water, yes… water. | <urn:uuid:ee8bb7b9-da81-4508-a83a-e7fee5b89f78> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | http://richdadradio.libsyn.com/webpage/2015/09/30 | 2019-07-16T22:29:02Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.97987 | 92 |
Figure H.1 Process maturity framework
The use of the PMF in the assessment of Service Management processes relies on an appreciation of the IT Organization Growth Model. The maturity of the Service Management processes is heavily dependent on the stage of growth of the IT organization as a whole. It is difficult, if not impossible, to develop the maturity of the Service Management processes beyond the maturity and capability of the overall IT organization. The maturity of the IT organization is not just dependent on the maturity of the Service Management processes. Each level requires a change of a combination of elements in order to be fully effective. Therefore a review of processes will require an assessment to be completed against the five areas of:
· Vision and steering
These are the five areas described within the PMF for assessing process maturity. The major characteristics of each level of the PMF are as follows.
Initial (Level 1)
The process has been recognized but there is little or no process management activity and it is allocated no importance, resources or focus within the organization. This level can also be described as ‘ad hoc’ or occasionally even ‘chaotic’.
Table H.1 PMF Level 1: initial
Repeatable (Level 2)
The process has been recognized and is allocated little importance, resource or focus within the operation. Generally activities related to the process are uncoordinated, irregular, without direction and are directed towards process effectiveness.
Table H.2 PMF Level 2: repeatable
Defined (Level 3)
The process has been recognized and is documented but there is no formal agreement, acceptance or recognition of its role within the IT operation as a whole. However, the process has a process owner, formal objectives and targets with allocated resources, and is focused on the efficiency as well as the effectiveness of the process. Reports and results are stored for future reference.
Table H.3 PMF Level 3: defined
Managed (Level 4)
The process has now been fully recognized and accepted throughout IT. It is service focused and has objectives and targets that are based on business objectives and goals. The process is fully defined, managed and has become proactive, with documented, established interfaces and dependencies with other IT process.
Table H.4 PMF Level 4: managed | <urn:uuid:dc2ff454-371d-4824-926d-265b45fbc9d9> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | http://sdamzavas.net/1-1223.html | 2019-07-16T23:06:38Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.956264 | 463 |
country kitchen canister set farmhouse sets canisters coffee sugar containers hearts stars caniste.
Month: December 2018
amber emergency light bars white cob strobe bar vigilante series traffic advisor o parish kitchen compare prices on.
black slipcover for recliner reclining couch covers slipcovers alluring new navy cover sofa oversized chair alluri.
safety railing for bed details about dream on me sleigh toddler design with 2 rails solid wood cherry.
wire feed aluminum welding selecting the right welder spool gun and filler for success at home.
luggage carriers with wheels pet on cat life wheeled travel carrier one size back pack for large dogs. | <urn:uuid:97f3c9ff-93d0-409b-bc99-9f7fb34792b7> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | http://soulcode.me/2018/12/ | 2019-07-16T22:39:44Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.825913 | 132 |
This week on Hold 322… Marvel jumps on the Archie bandwagon, but are stand up guys for a 4 year-old kid. Dan Harmon gets fired from Community… why are we talking about Community? They talk about comic books. The GI Joe movie runs scared from the Avengers all the way to March. Jeff asks what DC properties could be turned into the next great DC movie series. We have three panel reads this week… three!
All this and Amazing Spider-Man! Face front true-believers, it’s Hold 322! | <urn:uuid:0a10acae-8535-4e85-80a8-399223adc19c> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | http://thecomicbookpodcast.com/2012/05/29/issue-33-unresolved-confliction/ | 2019-07-16T22:42:54Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.931885 | 110 |
Workshop on violence geared for Latinx
Hanncel Sanchez recently formed the nonprofit Mujeres in Action (MiA)—Women in Action—to educate and advocate for the Latinx—a gender inclusive term for Latina and Latino—community about violence against women and children in a culturally and linguistically appropriate way.
She is partnering with Lutheran Community Services (LCS) and the YWCA on a presentation, "Breaking the Silence: Violence in the Family"— "Rompe el Silencio: Violencia en la Familia"—from 6 to 8 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 26 at the Philanthropy Center, 1020 W. Riverside Ave.
It is co-sponsored by the Hispanic Business and Professional Association.
The keynote speaker is Gloria Ochoa-Bruck, director of multicultural affairs for the City of Spokane.
Workshop leaders are an immigration attorney at the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, an LCS representative, a YWCA domestic violence advocate and a survivor.
Hanncel was 13 when she came with her parents from Venezuela in 2002, first living with family in New York City and then moving to Orlando, Fla. Her father was a roofer, and her mother cleaned vacation villas.
For Christmas 2013, she and her husband participated when their church, Iglesia el Calvario, gathered gifts for children and women at a women's shelter.
"I was amazed that such a small gesture would bring such joy to children and mothers," said Hanncel.
After graduating from high school in 2007, she received funding for a year-and-a half of tuition at Seminole State College in Sanford, Fla.
Realizing she and her siblings had no future in Florida, she sold her cleaning business, her husband sold his landscaping business, and they moved in 2014 with her family to Seattle, where the Latino Educational Achievement Project (LEAP) helped her sister and brother qualify for college tuition.
In 2015, also through LEAP, she received funding for tuition at Eastern Washington University. Her parents and siblings stayed in Seattle. She started in February 2016 at Eastern Washington University's Women and Gender Studies program.
Hanncel did a research project on sexual assault. In 2017. she gave a presentation at a conference in Utah and began volunteering with LCS on victim sexual assault and domestic violence as a crime victim advocate.
"Sexual assault is about power, not about how someone dresses," she said.
Learning that few Latinx victims came to LCS or the YWCA, Hanncel, who graduates next spring, began a research project on what keeps people from seeking help.
"There is a taboo to talk about gender violence and sexual assault," she said, adding that immigration status and lack of Spanish resources are other factors.
"God put people in my path," she said, of LCS, the YWCA and the Comunidad Cristiana de Spokane in Spokane Valley.
In January, she and her husband began attending the church and connecting with more than 200 others in the Latinx community.
Hanncel, who works part-time as a caregiver, is also active in advocating for immigrant rights.
"I feel called by God to be a voice for the voiceless," she said.
For information, or email firstname.lastname@example.org.
Copyright@ The Fig Tree, September, 2018 | <urn:uuid:0f952b6f-5d5a-4b7d-a2a0-3ba54928f5f6> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | http://thefigtree.org/sept18/090518latinxworkshop.html | 2019-07-16T23:19:58Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.968607 | 696 |
For week one, we’re going to…ARMENIA…
Ar-bloody-menia indeed. We put all 50 countries into a randomiser and that’s the first bloody one it spits out. We know nothing about Armenia! In fact, most of our European knowledge comes from Eurovision – for example, I did know that Armenia did very well last year, and a quick gaze at Wiki reveals they came in fourth. We don’t mind admitting that we love Eurovision – the spectacle, the nonsense, the screaming gay men – and that’s just us in our living room. We’d love to go, but the desire to go to Eurovision is always tempered by a slight hint of embarrassment and the fear of being broadcast in full HD on BBC One wobbling about in the crowd with our bumholes blaring from all the amyl nitrates in the air. Plus, I can’t dance. I really can’t. I was going to come up with a funny euphemism for my dancing but in all honesty, it’s been described as a fat bloke trying to dance – all tilting and grand shifts of weight. Just awful. It’s like my body is sponsored by Mathmos. I’m like the Herald of Free Enterprise leaving dock. Oh I managed to get my euphemisms in after all!
A little tale that made me titter yesterday – my parents have been in The Gambia building schools and granting wishes and introducing the good Gambian folks to the joys of Lambert and his Butler, and it just so happens that my dad’s (Chris) birthday fell when they were over there. My mum arranged for a cake to be made and iced and it was brought out to much fanfare and stifled hilarity – iced on the top of the cake was HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRIST. Now my dad HAS had a few nails put through his hand but that’s through lapses of judgement during DIY, not out of Christian malice. Parents did say it was absolutely amazing seeing people with so very little being happy. I’m sure there is a moral lesson in there, but as I’m a bourgeois pig, I don’t see it. Anyway…
Tonight’s recipe is Armenian Bulgar Salad – and I never know how to pronounce bulgar so I always have to whisper it in hushed tones in the supermarket lest people think I’m being tasteless. It’s delicious, like a tomatoey variant on my tabbouleh recipe from a while back, and would do lovely for a lunch. As long as you don’t mind your breath smelling like a hot fart later on.
to make syn free tomato bulgar salad, you’ll need:
ingredients: simple. A tiny drop or two of olive oil, a large chopped red onion, 1 tbsp of tomato paste, 1/2tsp of cumin, 1tbsp of chilli sauce, tin of chopped tomatoes, 250g of bulgar wheat and a bit of salt. I also added spring onions because I’m crazy-mad. Parsley for sprinkling.
to make syn free tomato bulgar salad, you should:
recipe: saute the onion until it’s nice and soft. Take your time here. Add the cumin, puree and hot sauce and stir. Add the tomatoes and salt, then stir for three minutes on a simmer. Try the sauce – if it needs a bit more acidity, chuck in some lemon juice. Now take it off the heat, throw in the bulger wheat, stir, add chopped spring onions and then put the lid on. After 30 minutes it’ll have swollen and dried a little – and trust me, it’s bloody delicious. Serve it with chops if you like but it works just as a lunch.
tip: this freezes very well – stick it in a freezer bag portioned out and then take it out when you need it. Or, more realistically, you’ll put it in there and forget about it forever.
extra-easy: well – no, not on its own, but if you served it with a salad of superfree food you’d be alright. Mind it does have tomatoes and onions in there…
Off to bed! | <urn:uuid:b6d6898e-0cdd-42db-b9d1-8173928a697f> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | http://twochubbycubs.com/2015/02/03/syn-free-tomato-bulgar-salad/ | 2019-07-16T23:32:35Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.946842 | 914 |
Gibson Park Avenue, Belfast, BT6.
Based in Gibson Park Avenue, Belfast, Cregagh Sports Club is a business.
Tell Belfast about your experience of Cregagh Sports Club...
There are no reviews for this listing yet. Why not be the first person to write a review?
Cregagh Sports Club is in Gibson Park Avenue, Belfast. You can view a list of neighbouring businesses by going to the Gibson Park Avenue page.
If you would like a list of other sports clubs & associations sports, leisure, entertainment listings throughout Belfast, please visit the Sports Clubs and Associations section of this website.
Map showing business location in Gibson Park Avenue
Note: the pin is positioned at the postcode centre, and may not correspond with the precise location of Gibson Park Avenue. | <urn:uuid:cc2a1e02-77a4-44fc-beda-dcdbaa1b91bb> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | http://www.belfastdirectory.co.uk/info/2436/ | 2019-07-16T22:34:50Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.921436 | 164 |
Watching motion pictures at house is changing into increasingly more standard. Today, many individuals want watching motion pictures at residence to the theatre.
What are the benefits? The choices out there at on-line rental web sites has modified viewing habits much more. On-line leases permits film lovers to decide on motion pictures from the consolation of their very own properties with out even leaving the home. They’ll additionally keep away from journey prices (is that they reside removed from the shop) and the inconvenience of ready in queues on the retailer stream complet.
Many corporations that will let you hire on-line do not cost overdue charges or restrict the period of time you may maintain the film. That is helpful for many who have restricted time. You possibly can hire motion pictures, watch them whenever you like and never fear about late charges.
On-line membership plans are very fairly priced and the standard ones will let you maintain 1, 2 or three motion pictures at one time. These plans sometimes price $eight.99, $13.99 and $16.99 monthly. This protects cash in comparison with renting from a retailer.
How do you hire motion pictures on-line? To hire motion pictures on-line, all you want is a month-to-month membership charge. Motion pictures will be simply returned and shipped my mail. Members maintain an ongoing listing of titles they’d wish to see. The following film in your listing is shipped out as soon as the previ | <urn:uuid:f76d74e4-8e15-4707-ae18-d605c4732f7c> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | http://www.bicentenario1812.com/renting-motion-pictures-on-line-vs-from-a-retailer-how-do-you-save-cash/ | 2019-07-16T23:14:30Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.943319 | 302 |
Definitions of Thesis Writing
When you are finished writing, you can return and look about your results to make sure your argument and your thesis coincide. It is the result of a lengthy thinking process. In other words, it should be a roadmap to the rest of the essay.
The regime’s violence isn’t ideological. If you’ve been instructed to have a stance on a single side of a controversial issue, you’ll need to compose an argument essay. The idea of prohibition on a widespread item was demonstrated to not do the job.
WHEN questions center on timing or history. If your assignment asks you to have a position or produce a claim about a subject, you might need to convey that position how to indent an essay or claim in a thesis statement close to the commencement of your draft. The topic, nevertheless, is an overall idea of the essay.
The average challenge a student will face is largely because of the deficiency of pre-preparation of the thesis. The very first thing which you should do is to define your essay type. The sole thing you have to do is that select a superior topic and create the outline of the paper.
If you’re feeling trapped and have zero idea how to force yourself to work on your dissertation, the very first thing you should do is to learn the explanations for why it’s so tricky for you. When it has to do with composing an academic paper or only a very simple essay, the simple thing which you should do is to decide on a proper major goal and statement which you wish to verify. Putting together a detailed thesis in finance isn’t an easy feat especially when you have to gather blog link information, analyze the data you’ve got on hand, and from that point, write the content of your thesis and making certain it is suitably formatted to make it appear professional.
Before you embark on the writing procedure, you must get an argument you wish to explore. Reflective writing differs from other sorts of academic writing since it doesn’t require (usually) that you just cite sources. There are several cheap customized essay writing companies.
What You Should Do to Find Out About Thesis Writing Before You’re Left Behind
Starting from Wikipedia helps you receive a grip about it. Chicago style isn’t very hard to understand. however, it is extremely tricky to read entire manual of the style. 2D animation is still predominantly utilized in internet education and in certain cartoons.
It becomes really problematic for them to deal with all academic tasks at an identical moment. Rather than wasting a lot of time to discover an appropriate one to contrast it is extremely prudent to work out the ideal statement. If you don’t feel just like you have the time to write essays all on your own, we will give you a hand, any instance of the day, seven days weekly.
Proofreading will be achieved with outstanding quality in the particular time due to the efficiency http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00028295/00164 of our fragment check correctors. Outlining a schedule for your writing may also help to organize the procedure and show you the sum of work that has not yet been accomplished. It is not easy to write all the academic works punctually and to acquire decent score in all assignment papers.
What Does Thesis Writing Mean?
First, it must be arguable. It is a key component of your essay or paper. Writing a thesis might be the most rigorous thing that you do in your academic journey.
All the big creative writing websites supply the thesis generator software as the most widely used study programs. Also, you can purchase research paper from our services. As soon as your research plan was approved, you can concentrate on your PhD dissertation.
A top institute for thesis guarantees that the information a student required needs to be presented in an orderly and uniform way. Actually, it’s the important part of a research since it will help to recognize the research problem and offers information that the research is already exist but will need to have further studies. When students read through an increasing number of information or rather thesis examples, they’d be in a position to choose far better topics and hence compose a better thesis.
You will also receive total support once it comes to PhD dissertation. Stress shouldn’t be your friend. Study skills are just the many skills you have to have the ability to study effectively.
Therefore, if you’re facing problems with PhD dissertation, you can surely contact the personalised professionals and find the required help. As soon as you have submitted the paper you won’t have any chance to correct it. Locate the ideal writing firm in the business which could support you in your thesis preparation. | <urn:uuid:a8fe4c84-b129-4679-877c-124784c29ddf> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | http://www.eim.com.do/the-mystery-of-thesis-writing-that-nobody-is-discussing/ | 2019-07-16T23:10:39Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.942825 | 980 |
The year 2003 heralded increased changes in international travel as the world faced a new age characterized by “global terrorism,” and war in the Persian Gulf between the United States of America and Iraq became a reality. While the JTB devised strategies to counter the effects that this “war on terror” which began in March 2003, would have on the industry, the Board was also experiencing changes of its own as it again embarked on a programme of restructuring.
Following the General Elections of October 2002, a new Minister was appointed with portfolio responsibility for Industry and Tourism. Paul Pennicook assumed the Director of Tourism position, effective March 3, 2003. In 2004 the baton of Chairman of the JTB was passed to Dennis Morrison. Messers Morrison and Pennicook would continue in their respective positions until Basil Smith took over the Director’s chair on November 1, 2006. With the General Elections of September 3, 2007 a new Minister was appointed and as of October 25, 2007 John Lynch was selected as Chairman of the JTB with Earl Jarrett as Deputy.To maximize its effectiveness, the Board undertook a comprehensive review to “improve organizational structure, operations and efficiency.” The ultimate aim was to produce a “lean, aggressive, creative, collaborative and technology based” organization. The “main marketing functions” of the JTB were now “to be centralized in the Board’s Corporate Headquarters in Kingston”. Among the number of “key positions” introduced was a “specialist officer with responsibility for tour operators.”There was a reduction in the number of local JTB offices although a presence was be maintained in the resort areas. The Montego Bay office was “strengthened” and given the responsibility for “directing the activities of marketing personnel across the island”.The number of JTB offices overseas was also reduced to three with one each in the United States of America, Canada and the United Kingdom. In the USA, the office was located in South Florida to maintain important linkages with consumers and the trade. While some sales personnel were retained, they agreed to “operate from home.”
The JTB established a new sub-committee to assess projects related to special events to determine their suitability for the organization’s support, as with a more focused approach the decision was taken to “leave the matter of actual events development to our private sector partners.”In October 2003, the JTB once again changed public relations agencies following a review. “Ruder Finn” was appointed to lead the charge for the Americas while “Financial Dynamics International” (FDI) was appointed in the UK / Europe. The theme of the latter’s campaign was “Jamaica, Take Another Look.”Through the Ruder Finn led “Genius of Jamaica” campaign the opportunity was taken to highlight the island’s fine arts, music, literary and performing arts, cuisine, among other areas. The Genius of Jamaica campaign “sought to reach affluent markets; identify key niches, manage Jamaica’s reputation” and overall, showcase the best of Jamaica.At the same time, the Board maintained a high level of visibility in the marketplace through vigorous advertising, public relations and promotional campaigns in an effort to encourage travel to Jamaica. One of its main areas of focus was the Hispanic American market which was recognized as an important growth area for the island. Over 100 million viewers were exposed to Jamaica via Urban Latino TV (ULTV) in July of 2003 as the station was persuaded to shoot its pilot in Jamaica.During the last week of June 2003, radio stations from across North America with a listening audience of over 200 million were hosted for a ‘live’ radio remote from Ocho Rios. Forays were also made into the Dutch market, another area of promise for Jamaica.In expanding its “aggressive and targeted multi-media approach” the JTB for the first time used cinema advertising to reach an audience of over 7.4 million moviegoers in four major US cities during the months of August and September in 108 theatres with 700 screens.The Board also awarded a contract in March 2002 for the complete re-design of its website, which was re-named www.visitjamaica.com and launched March 20, 2003. The new website was now intended to become a “showpiece for Jamaica.” An Intranet portal was also opened for the JTB and this facilitated information delivery company-wide. Designed by the development firm, Motivo, the website was taken over by the Board, which in April 2004 entered an agreement with Independent Software Technology (IST) USA, Inc. to develop and implement a direct marketing campaign to boost tourist arrivals. They were expected to deliver over one million “unique visits to the JTB website with the goal of generating actual visits to the island” in two years.In its continued programme for small hotels, the JTB also facilitated an OAS / USAID sponsored “Small Tourism Enterprise Project Centre” by providing accommodations for this facility at the JTB Ocho Rios office.In 2003 the Marcella Martinez award was announced by then Director of Tourism Paul Pennicook in recognition of the tourism stalwart’s contribution to the promotion of the industry in the region.Another record year for Jamaica’s tourism was again achieved in 2003 when the island, for the first time in its history welcomed over one million cruise ship passengers. Stopover visitors numbered 1,350,285, a 6.6% increase over 2002 with total estimated earnings at US$1,336 million.During 2004, the JTB also completed its restructuring exercises. The new structure comprised four main offices headed by a Deputy Director (Miami, USA) and three regional directors (Toronto, Canada, London, UK/Europe and Montego Bay). Both the Director of Tourism and a Deputy Director continued to operate from the Board’s corporate headquarters in Kingston which now had three main departments: Corporate Services; Finance and Marketing.
Foote Cone Belding (FCB) retained the account as the JTB’s advertising agency with a three-year contract beginning on May 1, 2004.Crime and violence were major concerns and Hurricane Ivan which swept across the island in September 2004 prompted the JTB, the Ministry of Industry and Tourism and other tourism partners to employ a number of crisis management strategies, including vigorous public relations, sales and marketing campaigns to overcome these challenges.Through its award-winning “Once You Go … You Know” campaign, which would continue until 2013, the JTB sought to respond to the needs of modern visitors for whom Jamaica’s art, culture, cuisine, and unique experiences as a people, could provide the total vacation experience many sought. The island’s first major online advertising campaign was launched n November 2004 to “build out the Once You Go … You Know” campaign. Digital units were placed on Expedia and Travelocity and expanded to other sites in January and February 2005.In 2004 the “revamped” and re-launched “Meet the People” programme became central to the marketing of “Undiscovered Jamaica,” a programme through which the JTB also promoted the island’s rich diversity and uniqueness.Plans were also laid for the JTB’s 50th anniversary celebrations in 2005-2006 as this milestone was seen as an opportunity to launch major sales and promotional initiatives for the period.In an effort to encourage visitors to re-think their concept of the island, Jamaica’s advertising campaign platform in 2004 emphasised the message, “Jamaica offers so much more than sun, sand and sea.”
Seeking to make inroads into the In Latin American market, the JTB appointed Global Marketing and Sales (GMS) to represent them in the areas of marketing, sales and public relations in the region. Aggressive sales, public relations and marketing tactics were also employed in Canada and the UK/Europe to increase awareness, improve Jamaica’s image and heighten its profile.There were also initiatives to create a more visible footprint for Jamaica’s tourism in the Asia through the revitalization of the Japanese market and a more concentrated endeavour in China. In Japan, Marketing Garden was employed to position Jamaica as a “compelling choice” for travelling Japanese; while in China, Jamaica was granted “Approved Destination Status” in February 2005, paving the way for more focused and persistent initiatives.The work in Japan was rewarded with success in 2004, when for the first time since 1995; there was a boost in arrivals with 4,430 visitors recorded for an increase of 5.9 % when compared to the 4,182 in 2003.There were also initiatives to grow the Caribbean market and in this regard, travel agents from the Caribbean, including Jamaica, were for the first time targeted for the annual Jamaica Product Exchange (JAPEX) trade show. Twenty attended, of which ten were Jamaicans.Jamaica also hosted the Caribbean Hotel Association’s (CHA) Caribbean Marketplace, considered the “most important tourism marketing event of the year for the region, in Montego Bay in January 9-11, 2005 for over 2, 000 buyer and supplier delegates. It was the second time the event was held in Jamaica and the English-speaking Caribbean and the first time since 1985.Growth in stopover arrivals was also recorded for UK (7.9%); from the European region (10.7%); and the Caribbean (9.4%). However, there was a decline of 2% in the Latin American market.While total stopover arrivals for 2004 grew by 4.8% to 1,414,786, there was a decline in cruise ship passenger arrivals by 2.9% for a total of 1,099,773 over the 1,132,596 of 2003. Despite this decline, 2004
marked the second time in Jamaica’s history that cruise passengers exceeded the one million mark. Other records were broken for that year with hotel room occupancy increasing by 3.5 percentage points to 61.4% over the 57.9% in 2003, making it the first time since 1995 that hotel room occupancy averaged in the 60’s.Gross visitor expenditure in 2004 amounted to US 1,437 million for an increase of 6.4% over the US$1,351 million for 2003. There was an increase of 1.6% in direct employment in the tourism sector over the period to 30,999 over the 30,512 recorded in 2003. In 2005/2006 the Jamaica Tourist Board marked its golden anniversary as a leader in Caribbean tourism. The celebrations started with the unveiling of the JTB’s 50th anniversary logo and a media event in Kingston on April 5 as well as other activities across the island including a 50th anniversary Golf Invitational in October 2005. A “Jamaica Night at the Appollo” was hosted by then Prime Minister P.J. Patterson to which a number of United States government, industry, media, trade and other officials were invited.The Board continued to heighten its visibility through various initiatives including an extended “Genius of Jamaica” public relations campaign aimed at enhancing the profile of the national carrier Air Jamaica; increasing awareness and boosting visitor arrivals.In August 2005, tourism officials undertook a number of marketing strategies following “five consecutive monthly declines as well as reduction in the fall season forward bookings that threatened the projected 8% increase in visitor arrivals.” This was also a year for hurricanes. As part of the response, there was a re-launch of Air Jamaica’s airfare promotions which was tied to the JTB’s 50th anniversary marketing strategy and the fly-in of 1,000-2,000 travel agents from the USA to Jamaica.With the increased effort, history was created in 2005 with the USA recording its first ever millionth visitor to Jamaica. There was a total increase of 6.2% from the American market with 1,058,317 visitors making the USA Jamaica’s largest inbound market by arrivals.Overall, the tourism market rebounded to produce total stopover arrivals in 2005 of 1,478,663 for an increase of 4.5% over the 1,414,786 of 2004. Gross visitor expenditure for the year was an estimated US$1,545 million for an increase of 7.5% compared with the US$1,437 million earned in 2004.
With Paul Pennicook demitting the Director of Tourism office in June 2006, Donald Dawson was appointed to act in the position from June 1, 2006 – October 31, 2006. Basil Smith was subsequently appointed on November 1, 2006.The year also saw changes in the Board’s public relations operations for the UK and Ireland with McCluskey International succeeding Financial Dynamics International (FDI) as the JTB”s public relations agency with a three-year contract spanning March 1, 2007 – February 28, 2010. The main focus of McCluskey’s campaign, “Discover Your Own Jamaica … Discover Yourself in Jamaica” was to attract new visitors and encourage repeat visits to the island.The growth pattern continued as 2006 was also a “phenomenal year” in tourism. May to December marked the first time in any summer period that stopover arrivals surpassed the one million mark with 1,079,071, an increase of 12.4% over the 960,116 for the summer of 2005. This growth was attributed to a number of factors including: additional air seats from new airlines to the island; expansion into new routes by existing carriers; the new hotel rooms that came on stream during the latter half of 2005 and the fact that the active hurricane season re-directed additional visitors to Jamaica.Positive growth was also recorded in the Canadian market with an increase of 31.4%; the USA market with an increase of 12.5% and 70% of market share; the UK with an increase in arrivals of 9.5%; the Caribbean with an 11.4% increase and Latin America, which after a five year decline, saw visitor arrivals increasing by 3.7% moving from 8,428 in 2005 to 11,101 in 2007. The improvement in arrivals from Latin America was partially credited to the presence of the new Spanish hotels on the island. Arrivals from Japan, however, showed a decline of 12.8% compared to 2005.To increase its presence in the Asian market, the JTB continued its association with China Business Network whose services were hired in China in 2005. In 2006, the JTB also participated, for the first time, in the World Travel Fair in Shanghai from March 30 – April 2 and the Beijing International Travel and Tourism Market from April 2-5.Overall, there was another record performance in visitor arrivals in 2006 as Jamaica had its best year ever with 200,242 more stopovers than in 2005 for a total of 1.68 million stopover arrivals, a 13.5% increase over 2005. There was also a 17.7% increase in cruise passenger arrivals with 1.336 million against the 1.136 in 2005. This marked the fourth consecutive time that Jamaica recorded over a million cruise passengers. Estimated gross visitor expenditure was US$1.871 million, a 21.1% increase over the previous year.This growth was attributed to intensified sales, marketing and public relations activities as well as attempts to make greater inroads into new markets including India, China and Ireland. The 2007 staging of the Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean, with the opening ceremony scheduled for Jamaica, also provided marketing opportunities for the island such as the “Jamrock Meets Shamrock” initiative in Ireland.
To improve cruise ship passenger arrivals, the Port Authority of Jamaica in November 2006, signed a five-year contract valued at US$16.5 million with Royal Caribbean Cruise Limited (RCCL) which guaranteed that the RCCL would provide a minimum of 2.3 million cruise passengers to Jamaica over the next five years.In June 2006 the Freedom of the Seas, the world’s largest and most modern cruise ship made its inaugural visit to Jamaica with a stop in Montego Bay.The period 2007/2008 was not without its obstacles. The continuing presence of international terrorism, a global recession, fuel shortages; the introduction of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), “a passport requirement for travel to the USA that affected US residents and citizens”; the rise in crime and violence; hurricanes and the outbreak of Dengue Fever and Malaria locally, were major concerns that urged the JTB, the Ministry of Industry and Tourism and other tourism partners to employ a number of crisis management strategies.The General Elections on October 25, 2007 also ushered in a new government. John Lynch was appointed Board Chairman with Earl Jarrett as Deputy. JTB also undertook another review of its organizational structure and staffing in 2007.Jamaica’s first ever mobile campaign was launched in 2007 with weather.com and in July 2007 the JTB launched the Tourism Information Publishing site (TIPS), a new information portal created to provide tourism related information and facts on the JTB to be accessed at www.jtbonline.com. The JTB’s official site www.visitjamaica.com was also rebuilt and re-launched in 2008.In May 2007, Jamaica became the first destination outside of the USA to host the Annual Incentive International, bringing 160 top incentive buyers to Montego Bay. The celebration in the early part of 2008 of the 100th anniversary of James Bond creator Ian Fleming, as well as the visit in March 2008 of HRH the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall provided promotional and publicity opportunities for Jamaica.With crisis and issues management strategies in place and the implementing vigorous sales, marketing and public relations campaigns; growth in the accommodations sub-sector and improvement in airlift, Jamaica would, by the end of 2007/2008, better its 2006 figures for stopover arrivals.There was significant growth in some emerging markets with a 160% increase in arrivals from India; 12.8% from Europe; 9.6% from Latin America and 12.5% from the Caribbean. Overall, stopover arrivals for 2007/2008 increased by 1.1% to reach 1,696,931 although cruise passenger arrivals declined by 11.8% to 1,179,504.By the end of 2007, the tourism sector provided direct employment for an estimated 34,834 persons over the 33,598 recorded for 2006. Estimated visitor expenditure was US$1,910 million, a 2.1% increase over the previous year. Over 2,000 hotel rooms were added between 2004 and 2007.From 2003-2007 the JTB /Jamaica’s leadership and performance in Caribbean tourism were recognized with numerous awards in various areas of the industry. In 2006, for example, Jamaica was named the World’s Leading Cruise Destination at the 13th annual World Travel Awards held in the Turks and Caicos Islands. This marked the first time in the history of the awards that this special honour was being conferred on Jamaica. Over the period, Jamaica was also repeatedly recognized as the Caribbean’s Leading Destination; the Caribbean’s Leading Cruise Destination; and the JTB was awarded for being the Caribbean’s Leading Tourist and Convention Bureau.In over 50 years of operation, a resilient and creative JTB, one of the most respected tourist boards in the business, consistently set high standards for Jamaica. Despite the vicissitudes of the industry, the Board helped to make tourism a leading contributor to the Jamaican economy and brand JAMAICA one of the most recognised in the industry, with the island among the world’s most popular warm weather destinations. | <urn:uuid:d9c6bd0b-5ad3-4ef8-9604-8dd3ea2d3d05> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | http://www.jtbonline.org/jtb/once-you-go-you-know/ | 2019-07-16T22:37:05Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.968463 | 4,087 |
On 4th July 2019, Department of Finance, School of Business in coordination with its club, the Independent Beta Elites, arranged an industrial tour at a new project sight of ABC Limited. The tour was arranged for the students of Finance department to give them an understanding of current scenario of the real estate industry. The session began with an overview on the current scenario of real estate industry by Md. Fahad Noor, Senior Lecturer, IUB and D.N Chatterjee, Chief Operating Officer, ABC Ltd. The session was followed by discussion and questions and answer session with students. Furthermore, the students were very excited to be able to have a firsthand knowledge in the making of the one of the biggest project of ABC limited, The OASIS. The project started on September, 2017 and is supposed to be completed by 2022. The Department of Finance is very thankful for the hospitality and knowledge dissemination by the ABC Ltd. Most importantly The Department of Finance, School of Business deeply appreciates the encouragement and support by Mr. Rashed Chowdhury, the former Chairman, IUB Board of Trustee and Chairman of ABC building products limited for giving such amazing opportunity. | <urn:uuid:9fc77e54-ce6b-4902-8a13-c13f0fa34a50> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | http://www.sb.iub.edu.bd/?p=7494 | 2019-07-16T23:20:04Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.972263 | 236 |
Well, the board is either fixed, or it's going to run terribly. Cross your fingers and hope for the best. I'm at my technical limit right now.
Search found 4 matches
Search found 4 matches • Page 1 of 1
- Sat Dec 02, 2017 9:09 pm
- Forum: Military Pistols General Topics
- Topic: Sarco has 1911 kits again.
- Replies: 1
- Views: 2237 | <urn:uuid:cb039b42-ff34-4853-8833-0dfca3fdb57c> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | http://www.surplusrifleforum.com/search.php?author_id=738&sr=posts& | 2019-07-16T22:36:46Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.927739 | 92 |
"You give them something to eat" – Jesus of Nazareth
Thursday, June 29
One of the greatest joys for me while working at 5 Loaves Farm has been to experience the seasons in a whole new way. I have been able to watch the farm at its peak in the end of last summer, see the plants slowly fade and wither in the late fall and winter, then watch as the green and life is brought back into the farm in the spring and early summer.
Throughout the last couple months photographer, Liesl Keyser, has been visiting 5 Loaves Farm, documenting this process, preparing for the opening of her art show on Friday, July 7th at Buffalo Big Print. Liesl and Buffalo Big Print have decided to use this event not only as an opportunity to connect people with urban agriculture and the process of gardening, but also as a fundraiser for 5 Loaves Farm.
The show will feature photography from the farm, focusing on the beauty of the farm while highlighting its transformational process. This process of course does not happen without a great deal of work on the part of the farm staff, yet it never ceases to amaze me how we can transplant a few small leaves and watch them grow into a broccoli plant, or cover a seed with dirt and it can transform itself into a beet. The natural process of life and growth is something truly amazing to witness.
Liesl has been able to capture the transformation the farm undergoes as it transitions from winter, through spring, and into summer. The black raspberries (not without a little help) have changed from a tangled briar patch, to a pruned set of bushes preparing to yield fruit within the next couple weeks. The strawberries, once buried under snow, have already been producing sweet berries and a few varieties are even beginning to slow down their production. The garlic plants, planted in the fall and waiting underground all winter, have grown to over 3 ft!
It has become incredibly important for me to notice and watch and remain in awe of the process and growth of the farm. I try not to just take for granted the way the chard and kale continue to grow each week, even after we harvest them; the ways the beets are beginning to poke up out of the ground; the peas which continue to grow on the vines; the mulberry tree which continues to produce a surprising number of berries!
Through having Liesl on the farm taking pictures, it has taught me to slow down and notice these little moments and characteristics of each plant and vegetable. I can often think of the big picture of the farm and think back to when it was buried in snow months ago, but lately I have found great joy in slowing down and looking at the farm in snapshots.
This means just taking a moment to stop, to notice, and to appreciate. To see the beauty of a honey bee landing on a black raspberry flower and appreciate the impact of that act. To see watermelon sprouts popping out of a manure pile and see the hope paralleled in our own lives. Perhaps this looks like taking a moment to appreciate the cabbage you are cooking up, the tiny seed it started as, and the caring hands which tended it until in arrived in your kitchen.
Poet, environmental activist, and farmer, Wendell Berry, encourages us in a similar way in his reflection on sabbath: “Sabbath observance invites us to stop. It invites us to rest. Its asks us to notice that while we rest, the world continues without our help. It invites us to delight in the world’s beauty and abundance”.
Perhaps we can take the time to take small sabbaths during the day. Instead of wishing that the onions were ready to harvest, noticing the abundance of cooking greens and spring mix now. Instead of wishing the prunes would ripen faster, take a moment to think back on the tree, unpruned and without leaves in the middle of the winter and how its begun to produce fruit in its own way and time. Taking a moment to stop and reflect on how the vegetables continue to grow. | <urn:uuid:dfa51c0b-7f84-4b82-a7f7-311f9ad77104> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://5loavesfarm.org/2017/06/29/thursday-june-29/ | 2019-07-16T23:40:33Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.965805 | 840 |
Is homeownership as a young adult in 2018 unachievable? Most likely, consensus opinion would overwhelmingly say that yes; young adult homeownership in the current housing market is unachievable. Recent statistics support their argument as according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the homeownership rate of young adults less than 35 years old is currently at its lowest rate since 1982. It is obvious that less and fewer young adults are investing in homeownership.
In this post-real estate boom era, young adults are frightened at the idea of owning property. Regardless, homeownership as a young adult is still a very much achievable feat when the right steps are taken. If you are under 25 and looking to become a homeowner, here are some important tips and advice to consider.
Prepare Financially in Advance
Preparing financially in advance may seem like a very obvious, no-brainer tip to include here. However, exactly how you prepare financially may be a huge difference in whether homeownership is an achievable goal for you.
Perhaps the most important step towards preparing financially is learning how to budget your funds accordingly. Forecasting all of your expenses, short-term and annually is a great start! No matter your current income, learning to spend modestly and to live on less can be an enormous step in the right direction.
Another vital tip to prepare financially would be to keep an eye on your credit score. When the time comes for loans and mortgages, your credit will of course be extremely important. In the meantime, consider developing habits to ensure your credit stays in the right place.
Develop Market Knowledge
In contrast to preparing financially in advance, developing market knowledge may not have been on your radar of things to know. Developing market knowledge of the area in which you plan to buy a home will be essential towards your long-term preparation. Exactly how much homes are listing and selling for in your area of interest should be identified. Whether these rates are falling or increasing is significant information. The more you know about the area in which to plan to buy, the better opportunity you have to plan successfully.
Determine How Much You Can Afford
Lastly, consider determining exactly how much you can afford and the price point in which you would like to buy. After developing some market knowledge, you should have a fairly decent idea of the amount of money needed for the sort of home you intend to purchase. When determining your price point, good advice to remember is to never stretch or overspend on your first home. It’s really common to purchase a home in which you can hardly afford and view it as a capital investment. However, this isn’t feasible as moving forward it would become rather difficult to save for other needs or fulfill your expenses. Not to mention if there ever happened to be a shift in income, circumstances could get rough.
In the current housing market of 2018, homeownership as young adult may seem like a daunting, nearly impossible feat. And while it is true that fewer young adults are investing in owning a home, it’s certainly not impossible to own a home as a young adult. If you are under 25 and looking to become a homeowner in your near future, being committed to the process and your preparation you will surely succeed in your goal. | <urn:uuid:e79e7b75-2bb7-485e-91c3-2ad296a95eed> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://adorable-home.com/smart-home/advice-if-youre-under-25-looking-to-become-homeowner-61773 | 2019-07-16T22:16:09Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.971911 | 670 |
A federal District Court judge recently ruled that banning the lawful possession of firearms by Public Housing residents is unconstitutional.
In a case brought against the East St. Louis Housing Authority (ESLHA), a Public Housing resident claimed that ESLHA’s restriction against tenants having firearms in their units violated her Second Amendment rights. The case was brought by the Second Amendment Foundation and the Illinois State Rifle Association on behalf of the resident.
Listed in court documents as N. Doe, she cited the need to have a gun for safety and self-defense. She had been abused by her ex-husband while he was on parole after serving time for murder. He had also threatened to kill her and her children. She had also been sexually assaulted in her home by a family acquaintance. The assault was halted when one of her children confronted the attacker with her gun. Doe’s weapon was properly registered. She had received training and education in the safe use of firearms and held a valid Illinois Firearms Owner ID card.
ESLHA’s Public Housing lease contained a clause banning possession of firearms. The lease clause stated that, “residents are not to display, use or possess or allow members of (Doe’s) household or guest to display, use or possess any firearms (operable or inoperable)…anywhere on the property of the authority.” Violation of this clause could result in the housing authority terminating the lease. Doe had come to Public Housing after health issues in her family had brought them on hard times. She feared for losing her affordable housing unit because of her possession of the gun.
The suit contends that the ban discriminates against poor people, denying them the same right to bear arms that is enjoyed by those who can afford private housing. District Court Judge Phil Gilbert ruled that ESLHA cannot deny, through rules or regulations, a tenant’s right to lawfully own a firearm. Judge Gilbert said that, “Among whatever else, the Second Amendment protects the rights of a law-abiding individual to possess functional firearms in his or her home for lawful purposes, most notably for self-defense and defense of family.”
HUD provides no guidance on the issue of firearms in Public Housing, relying on Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) to follow state and local requirements. Many PHAs choose reasonable regulation. Typically, this means that they place restrictions on firearms in common areas. At the same time, residents are allowed to lawfully keep firearms in their rental units and transport them appropriately when taken out of the home.
Although the Second Amendment provides the right to bear arms, it does not keep private property owners from restricting the presence of guns. For example, many shopkeepers post signs banning guns from their stores. Unless a state explicitly prohibits landlords from banning firearms, they can restrict any activity they want as long as it is not in violation of federal civil rights and fair housing laws. Some states, like Tennessee, explicitly allow landlords to restrict the possession of guns on their properties. Others, like Minnesota, forbid landlords from banning legal possession of firearms.
Landlords who accept Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers are accountable to state and local laws on gun possession. Because of the variations between states, there are many places where Section 8 voucher holders may not be able to keep firearms in their apartments. Some states, however, have taken steps requiring Section 8 landlords to allow residents to lawfully keep firearms. In 2016, Maine passed a law that forbids landlords who accept Section 8 vouchers from barring firearms kept lawfully by tenants. It not only applies to private landlords accepting Section 8 vouchers, but to virtually all publicly assisted housing in the state.
Housing authorities and private property owners that receive housing subsidies have an interest in maintaining safe living environments for their residents. At the same time, low-income residents have the same constitutional rights as wealthier households. Low-income renters who own firearms should check with the housing authority or property owner about gun possession rules before taking an apartment. You can also ask your local legal services office about state and local laws relating to keeping firearms in a rental property. | <urn:uuid:1238998c-cc89-4563-8ac0-5f976016c0df> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://affordablehousingonline.com/blog/federal-court-overturns-gun-bans-public-housing/ | 2019-07-16T23:02:44Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.972933 | 833 |
Was Guccifer 2.0 actually a DNC operative?
By Frank Parlato
The Daily Beast recently published a story on the debate over the identity of Guccifer 2.0. It appears that in their view and the view of others, Guccifer 2.0 is a Russian asset who hacked the DNC servers — in possible collusion with Trump adviser Roger Stone.
Artvoice respectfully disagrees.
Any fair and informed analysis suggests the identity of Guccifer 2.0 remains unknown.
Borrowing from the known record, from statements of Guccifer 2.0, and from Roger Stone, and others, it becomes apparent that it is not publicly known who Guccifer 2.0 is and that there is no evidence that Stone’s communications with Guccifer 2.0 had anything to do with the publication of the DNC emails.
The following report borrows heavily from an earlier report by Stone himself, and has been vetted and verified by this publication.
Was it a hack or a leak of the DNC computers?
The Nation magazine reported on a study issued by Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), a group of former high-level US intelligence officials, who concluded that, “There was no hack of the Democratic National Committee’s system … not by the Russians and not by anyone else.”
If it was not a hack, then what was it?
It might have been a leak; a download executed locally with a memory key or a similarly portable data storage device. In short, it might be an inside job, done by someone with access to the DNC’s system, that led to the publication of a large store of documents on WikiLeaks prior to the presidential election in 2016.
If this is true, it appears that Guccifer 2.0 is not a Russian hacker, but possibly might be an operative of the Democratic party. To understand the subtleties of this, it will be helpful to undertake a brief historical review:
Julian Assange of Wikileaks announced on an ITV televised interview that “We have upcoming leaks in relation to Hillary Clinton which are … pending publication.”
At this point, the DNC and the Clinton Campaign knew [or should have known] a damage control campaign would be required immediately.
The DNC released a statement explaining they discovered that their servers had been hacked. Among documents they claimed were stolen were document[s] related to “Trump Opposition Research”.
The DNC, however, refused to hand over their alleged ‘hacked server’ to the FBI for a forensic investigation, claiming their private firm, Crowd Strike Inc., certified that it was ‘Russian hacking.’
None of this was made public at the time.
What was made public was a report wherein the DNC’s computer security experts, Crowd Strike claimed they found malware on the DNC server known to be used by Russian hackers, during an investigation a month earlier [May 2016.] They reported on June 14 that the malware was injected by Russians but provided no detailed specifics of their evidence.
Suddenly a person or persons, using the name Guccifer 2.0, appeared online and claimed to be a Romanian hacker responsible for the DNC hack. Guccifer 2.0 confirmed the DNC statement of being hacked and claimed to be the source for Wikileaks.
Guccifer 2.0 posted five documents with ‘Russian Metadata Fingerprints’, the first was the “Trump Opposition Research” which the DNC had announced the previous day as having been stolen from DNC computers.
Either Guccifer 2.0 got this info from hacking, or possibly from the DNC itself.
Either way, the first document leaked by Guccifer 2.0 was anti-Trump information.
Just hours after Guccifer 2.0 made its announcement, Gawker, The Smoking Gun, and ArsTechnica published articles focused not on the hacking, but on the Trump opposition file.
Gawker, ThreatConnect, and The Smoking Gun published articles that suggested “hacked” DNC data contained personal donor information including “names, emails, and cell phone numbers”.
Guccifer 2.0 announced it had documents from the DNC network, including financial reports and donor personal data including “names, emails, and private cell phone numbers.”
Guccifer 2.0, posting that it is the lone hacker of the DNC, promised a dossier on Hillary Clinton from the DNC.
Guccifer 2.0 released a blog entry titled “Dossier on Hillary Clinton from the DNC”, which was in reality nothing more than links to already circulated and non-classified documents related to the DNC and Hillary Clinton, an essentially benign publication and not the result of a recent hack or leak.
Wikileaks began publishing the real DNC emails. The fallout led to resignations of top DNC officials and gave the world an unsightly, inside look at the real Hillary Clinton and the party that was bent on getting her elected over Bernie Sanders in contravention to their primary rules.
Guccifer 2.0 again took credit for hacking the DNC computers.
Later that day, Guccifer 2.0 posted it would speak to anyone over Direct Message on Twitter.
VICE journalist Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai published an article based on an interview with Guccifer 2.0 entitled “Why Does DNC Hacker ‘Guccifer 2.0’ Talk Like This?” It included language analysis assessments from three experts. The experts could not make a definitive conclusion of the nationality of Guccifer 2.0, although some sentences of Guccifer 2.0 were in perfect English.
Over the next few days Guccifer 2.0 created a Guccifer 2.0 FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) blog post and made a point to wish everyone a happy Independence Day on the 4th of July.
DNC computer tech worker Seth Rich was murdered. There is much controversy surrounding his death and no suspect has been yet apprehended.
Within days, articles from Vocative, The Hill, ThreatConnect, TAIA Global, and The Smoking Gun announced that Guccifer 2.0 is likely a Russian, perhaps even Russian government-affiliated.
Roger Stone published on Breitbart News that Guccifer 2.0 was not a Russian hacker and, based on Guccifer 2.0’s statements, was likely responsible for the hack of the DNC. [Stone later revised his opinion. He now believes there was no hacking done by the Russians, or anyone else. Stone believes that the information Wikileaks published was leaked, not hacked.]
Evidently in response to Stone’s Breitbart article, Guccifer 2.0 tweeted “@RogerJStoneJr thanks that u believe in the real #Guccifer2” .
Twitter suspended Guccifer 2.0’s account.
Stone Tweeted in protest of the suspension.
When Guccifer 2.0 was reinstated by Twitter, Stone offered congratulations in his first private communication to Guccifer 2.0 via Twitter Direct Message. This first communication with Guccifer 2.0 was weeks after Wikileaks posted the DNC-Clinton material.
Stone says his congratulatory message to Guccifer 2.0 was not based only on his opposition to censorship, but for another good reason: Whether it came from Romanians, Russians, or Seth Rich – what Wikileaks published was the truth.
Truth trumps its source?
The import of the leaks – which is often forgotten – is that the American people were able to get a true, inside view of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. For that reason, the American public should be grateful to whoever provided this material.
In the end it shined a light on Hillary Clinton that enabled American voters to make a more informed assessment of her qualifications and fitness to be president of the USA.
Some might argue – that truth is not interference in any election – regardless of who gives it to us. It is lies that can be interference – for all, everyone wants the truth, however it is offered.
In this case the DNC covered up their interference in the Democratic primary in favor of Hillary Clinton. Wikileaks published the truth. We do not know who provided the truth to Wikileaks.
In any event, two Twitter Direct Message communication threads exist between Guccifer 2.0 and Roger Stone. They occurred on August 15 and August 17. These conversations were revealed to the public by Stone himself and are by any – even the most biased standard – completely innocuous.
An additional attempt was made by Guccifer 2.0 to have a third Twitter Direct Message conversation with Roger Stone on September 9th.
Stone’s part of the conversation consisted of a request to re-post a link, which Guccifer 2.0 agreed to do. [Stone regularly re-Tweets requests of correspondents on Twitter or Facebook to get his messages and writings out, he said.]
Guccifer 2.0 released the NGP/VAN zip file, which became the source of a series of debunking exercises, the results of which are discussed later in this article.
Over the next couple of months, Guccifer 2.0 released documents it claimed it obtained through hacks and “exploits” including a dossier on Democratic Congressman Ben Ray Lujan. That dossier proved to be harmless.
Guccifer 2.0 then claimed it hacked the Clinton Foundation and posted documents Guccifer 2.0 claimed came from the hack. All the files Guccifer 2.0 posted turned out to be from previous leaks or from public domain documents.
A few days before the 2016 US Presidential Election, Guccifer 2.0 – making its last post of the year – offered to be a hacker poll watcher on election day.
Donald Trump defeated Hilllary Clinton in the presidential election.
Guccifer 2.0’s account was dark until January 12th, 2017, more than two months after the election.
Guccifer’s errant claims
Throughout the course of Guccifer 2.0’s public communications, it made a variety of claims. These claims should be investigated in detail before we move on to motive and intent, as well as conflicting evidence.
Guccifer 2.0’s most substantive claim was that it hacked the DNC’s servers.
Guccifer 2.0 stated in its VICE interview that it breached the server using a “Zero-day exploit of NGP-VAN.”
While the report from ThreatConnect made the assessment that Guccifer 2.0 is a collective of Russians, the same report revealed facts that debunk Guccifer 2.0’s claims, including that it hacked the DNC server.
Guccifer 2.0 claimed it used an unknown software vulnerability of a COMPANY (not a product), whose products have no direct connection to the DNC LAN, to bypass the DNC LAN security devices, and access the DNC server.
Let me explain a couple of tech terms for readers unfamiliar with the terminology in order for anyone to understand that Guccifer 2.0 by its statements either did not hack the DNC computer or lied about its methodology.
Briefly: A Local Area Network (LAN) is a group of computers connected together by hard wires or Wi-Fi connections. A group of computers on a LAN can communicate with each other, but with no other computers or computer networks (including the internet) unless going through a security device or gateway.
These security devices are called Firewalls, and can be hardware, software, or both.
The DNC server [which was allegedly hacked] sits inside DNC headquarters in Washington, D.C.. Any communication with the DNC server must go through the DNC LAN, and, if coming from the internet, through the DNC security devices and/or gateways.
The tech that helps make this possible for the DNC comes from NGP VAN an American IT consulting, online fundraising and media technology company based out of Washington, D.C.
NGP VAN uses web-based tools that allow organizations to leverage technology to meet their goals.
The Wall Street Journal said, “NGP VAN is something of a secret weapon for the Democratic Party and the labor unions and progressive groups that use it.”
The primary products from NGP-Van are MiniVan, a mobile canvasing tool for voter contact and data collection, VoteBuilder, a campaign persuasion and get-out-the vote web tool, and NGP, a web based platform for digital engagement tracking, fundraising, and compliance reporting.
NGP is used by nearly every Democratic campaign running for federal office, is a set of web-based applications, and is hosted on NGP-Van servers and controlled by NGP Van in their own facilities.
All of NGP systems are web-based and therefore have zero direct interaction with the DNC LAN.
A Zero-Day exploit is a software vulnerability that is unknown to those most interested in mitigating vulnerability, including the vulnerable software creators.
Hackers exploit vulnerabilities to adversely affect the target computers, programs, data, and if possible, gain access to the wider LAN [Local Area Network.]
This is what Guccifer 2.0 claims it did.
And it is for this reason that ThreatConnect correctly discredits the breach by saying “As it stands now, none of the Guccifer 2.0 breach details can be independently verified.”
Another dubious Guccifer 2.0 claim
The second most important claim by Guccifer 2.0 was that it was the source of the DNC emails published by WikiLeaks.
Guccifer 2.0 made a point to mention Wikileaks during what seems to be its purposeful destruction of its own reputation on October 4th, 2016, when it did not post any interesting data with the excuse the databases were “too large. I’m looking for a better way to release them now.”
The “better way” never came; no further data was released by Guccifer 2.0.
Guccifer 2.0 made these claims 73 days after the last large data dump came from Wikileaks, which Guccifer said it sourced.
Guccifer 2.0’s Clinton Foundation hack claim was also discredited after it was discovered that all the files Guccifer 2.0 claims it hacked then posted turned out to be from previous leaks or public documents.
Ultimately, Guccifer 2.0 never produced anything from the Clinton Foundation verifying a hack, neither has the Clinton Foundation admitted to being hacked.
To this day, there is nothing independently verifying Guccifer 2.0’s claims that it hacked the DNC servers.
Assange has his own version
Julian Assange has stated repeatedly that the emails were leaked, rather than hacked, in contradiction to Guccifer 2.0’s claims.
Speaking of Seth Rich, in a YouTube interview with Assange, from which the except below was extracted, Assange points at least indirectly to the possibility that Seth Rich was the DNC leaker [not hacker].
“Whistleblowers go to significant efforts to get us material, and often very significant risks. There’s a twenty-seven-year-old, works for the DNC, shot in the back, murdered [Seth Rich], just two weeks ago, for unknown reasons, as he was walking down the street in Washington, so-“
“That was just a robbery, I believe, wasn’t it?”
“No, there’s no finding. So-“
“What are you suggesting? What are you suggesting?”
“I’m suggesting that our sources take risks, and they are, they become concerned to see things occurring like that-“
“But was he one of your sources? I mean-“
‘We don’t comment on our sources-“
‘So, why make the suggestion? About a young guy being shot on the streets of Washington?’
“Because we have to understand how high the stakes are. In the United States. And that our sources, are…face serious risks, that’s why they come to us, to protect their anonymity.
“But it’s quite something to suggest a murder, that’s basically what you’re doing.”
Well, others have suggested that. We are investigating to understand what happened, in that situation, with Seth Rich. I think it is a concerning situation, there’s not a conclusion yet, we wouldn’t be willing to state a conclusion, but we are concerned about it. More importantly, a variety of Wikileaks sources are concerned when that kind of thing happens.”
What is it Assange is saying?
If there was no hack of the DNC, then information may have been downloaded to something as simple as a thumb drive and spirited out the back door– by perhaps the late Seth Rich.
It is likely Rich would’ve known of the DNC’s ongoing effort to deprive Sen. Bernie Sanders of an honest competitive primary by manipulating party activities to help Hillary.
Now that we’ve examined some of the technical aspects of Guccifer 2.0’s claims, let’s investigate what we know about Guccifer 2.0’s persona.
Guccifer 2.0 claims to be Romanian. Media reports have selectively focused on various facts to support their assertion that Guccifer 2.0 is Russian. Each fact seems to have been created by calculated choices made by Guccifer 2.0 itself.
Guccifer 2.0 could have named its computer account anything, but opted to name it after the founder of the Soviet Secret Police.
Guccifer 2.0 didn’t have to create, then save documents to encode a Russian name into the document Metadata. But Guccifer 2.0 chose to do so.
Smart hackers are good at covering their steps or revealing what they want others to find as clues.
A talented hacker would not use his home country IP address, unless he or she wanted his or her national origin identified, but Guccifer 2.0 chose a Russian VPN service.
Guccifer 2.0 could have used an encrypted email service but chose instead to use a public web-based email service that forwarded its Russian VPN IP address.
All of these choices, when put together, seem to show Guccifer 2.0 was either utterly inept, or made a conscious decision to make it appear that it is Russian.
The import of Guccifer 2.0
Aside from self-promoted, unverified claims, Guccifer 2.0’s actions seems to have had very little impact on anything or anybody.
Guccifer 2.0 released no new ‘secret’ documents, with the exception of the apparent leaking of a couple of hundred email addresses and contact numbers for Democrat donors- which is – it should be pointed out – data that is readily available to the DNC.
Is Guccifer 2.0 an American?
When Roger Stone testified for the House Intelligence Committee, several members insisted that an analysis of Guccifer 2.0’s speech pattern indicated ‘he’ is Russian.
But this is the same Intelligence community that perpetuated the bogus claim that Guccifer 2.0 left Russian markers on some computer servers.
More on speech patterns of Guccifer 2.0
Some however are less convinced that language analysis is, in this case, even possible since Guccifer 2.0 may be any number of writers going online.
Guccifer 2.0’s use of “told”, “tell”, “say”, “said”, and definite/indefinite article use, as well as command of prepositions, expose that at least one individual writing as Guccifer 2.0 might be someone who speaks English so well that he or she could be American.
The terminology and phrasing that has been used in much of Guccifer 2.0’s informal communications also points to a native English speaker clumsily and irregularly using a hokey fake Russian accent reminiscent of a bad Hollywood movie.
One June 2016 Guccifer 2.0 post states: “I … decided not to put all eggs in one basket. Moreover, other cases weren’t so successful and didn’t bring me the glory.”
Russian Fingerprints pointed out as evidence that Guccifer 2.0 must be Russian
After the claim that Guccifer 2.0 is Russian based on the use of online language, there is the so-called Russian fingerprints – the ‘Russian Metadata’ documents.
What is intriguing about this is that the fingerprints appears to be mistakes or blunders made by Guccifer 2.0.
One striking oddity is that, in some documents, specifically the ones that had been created/opened and saved to inject the “Russian Metadata’ into the file, another piece of metadata was also injected:
“Created by Warren Flood on 15th of June at 13:38”
Modified byФеликс Эдмундович on 15th of June at 14:08
Who is Warren Flood?
We want to be clear: We are not accusing Warren Flood of conducting any acts attributed to Guccifer 2.0. An analysis of writings attributed to Warren Flood, compared to those of Guccifer 2.0, show subtle, but marked differences suggesting the pieces were written by different individuals.
What the data does suggest, however, is that files were manipulated on a computer where Warren Flood’s account was logged in when that computer had Microsoft Word installed.
Such computers existed at the time of the Guccifer 2.0 activity at the White House and members of Vice President Joe Biden’s staff.
Back to Flood. Who is he and how could he have installed software on a White House computer?
It turns out that Flood, according to his LinkedIn profile, currently works at Bright Blue Data LLC, a firm that specializes in progressive political data. His past work history, however, is more telling: Obama for America, Democratic National Committee, and The White House – Executive Office of the President.
He was Joe Biden’s technical director and had access to the physical White House as well as the DNC HQ Building in Washington D.C.
While we have no way to ascertain if Flood was the author, it is almost certain that someone used a PC or laptop that Flood had previously installed Microsoft Word onto, while he was working at his previous jobs.
Whoever created the Trump Opposition File that Guccifer 2.0 provided to the media would have had to have access to former (current at the time) White House or Joe Biden staff computers.
What it clearly is not, is Russian.
A Spin to Protect from Assange?
Going back to June 12th, when Julian Assange announced that WikiLeaks would be releasing Clinton’s emails, Hillary was under FBI investigation. Trump was bashing her use of her private email server while his supporters chanted “Lock Her Up! Lock Her Up!” at Trump rallies.
The DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign were in a desperate position.
They needed something that would call into question the reputation of Wikileaks. Like an on-time delivery, Guccifer 2.0 appears, attaching itself to Wikileaks, even as Wikileaks disavows it repeatedly.
Coincidentally, the most inflammatory piece of data that Guccifer 2.0 releases is the Trump Opposition Report, something that moved the narrative away from Clinton’s email crimes, into Russian prostitute urine fantasies.
This was exceedingly convenient for the DNC.
The only ones to factually have had access to the DNC servers are members, contractors, consultants, and employees of the DNC. Once such person was Seth Rich. Rich was murdered on July 10th. No verified hacks or leaks of the scale of the Wikileaks DNC data dump occurred after his death.
Using Occam’s Razor, [i.e. when presented with competing hypothetical answers to a problem, one should select the one that makes the fewest assumptions] reviewing intent, capacity for execution, beneficiaries, and losers, we can see that the DNC itself stood most to gain from Guccifer 2.0’s existence and activities.
Would a real hacker stop a couple of days before Hillary’s loss?
As Stone said, while some have before bought into technobabble that they did not fully understand and took at face value the mainstream media’s claim that Guccifer 2.0 was a Russian hacker, others are inclined to believe it was another dirty trick from the DNC’s bag of dirty tricks, and are guessing they are not done yet.
The true identity of Guccifer 2.0 remains to be determined and may forever be a mystery. | <urn:uuid:72058063-a36d-4362-91fd-e4e4b90a318c> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://artvoice.com/2018/03/27/debunking-false-claim-guccifer-2-0-definitely-russian-asset/ | 2019-07-16T22:23:02Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.96059 | 5,234 |
I think it’s safe to say that most of us like to make money. Who wouldn’t? The more money we make, the closer we are to achieving our financial goals, provided we save it.
So clearly, as we’ve explored here, income is important. From paying bills, to building an emergency fund, all the way to saving for retirement, we need income. The thing is, I think many people pay attention to only type of income, while not thinking of the others. Let’s explore three types of income here:
Income from Work
One can call this job income, salary income, or perhaps more broadly – earned income. Regardless, this is money that you are actively working for.
This income is easiest to obtain when we’re younger. Frankly, when I was younger, it was really the only income I thought about. It was all about finding a job, and making money. Naturally, this is the path most people end up taking, even though some January have trouble finding work in this economy.
Anyway, this doesn’t have to come from a job. It can also come from being self-employed or from running a business. Whatever the case, it’s money that you can earn quite easily, depending on your standards as well as your goals. If you want to make a minimum or low wage job, you don’t require a whole lot of monetary investment to get these jobs. If you want a better job – and more importantly, a career – it usually requires an investment of money and time in a college education. In many cases, it might require graduate school as well.
I think that this is the foundation of our finances for most our life, and it’s also the source of other types of income.
This type of income comes from assets that own. Generally, we have purchased these, or invested in them. This can include stocks, and capital gains from them. It can also include money such as interest income on checking accounts – no matter how minuscule! It could also include real estate income, and other alternative sources.
The thing is, in order to get investment income, we have to make money first, right? How do you invest in stocks unless you have money to invest? So we must make money, and then save it. Once we have saved enough, we can get decent cash flow from investment income.
I think passive income is not as clear cut as many people think. Just to pick out one example, some folks might call blogging income passive income. Well, you still have to keep on producing content as well as engage your readers. If you stop writing, and stop interacting, any income won’t last long. Bottom line is you have to work for it.
The thing is, I think that income which is passive, or near-passive, really entails very little work. Januarybe this is royalty income, or rent money you earn as a landlord after paying someone else to manage a property. What it comes down to is this involves making money with little current effort on your part.
The line between passive and investment income might be gray in some cases. I like the concept of passive income, because who wouldn’t like incoming cash flow with very little effort! But either way, both investment income and passive income can be really great to have later in life. If it could help reach the goal of financial freedom, all the better!
Thoughts on all 3 income types
Realistically, we can’t work forever, regardless of the overly optimistic thoughts of too many people. So we need to first work to earn money, and then make sure we save it. Then, we can invest this money, earn good rates of return, and grow our nest egg. Ultimately, such income can provide us with cash flow later in life when working is more difficult or less of an option. To the extent that we can have passive income, all the better!
I’m still in the working and saving phase
Readers, do you ever think about income types, and how it might require earned income to get other income sources? What income sources do you count on now, and what do you hope to have in the future? | <urn:uuid:a9957e1c-e679-462f-bd62-612abe0a490a> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://axismundi.biz/3-types-of-income/ | 2019-07-16T22:30:43Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.97585 | 884 |
The Base Camp is at the Bromont Equestrian Olympic Park.
All departures and arrivals are at – 450, Chemin de Gaspé, Bromont, QC
The Bromont Ultra is administered by a non-profit organization called Évènements UltraDon. The mission of this organization is to encourage community and social involvement through physical activity and philanthropy.
Contact us for more information! email@example.com | <urn:uuid:d330d8cb-a7ac-413a-83ca-522136aab627> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://bromontultra.com/en/contact/ | 2019-07-16T22:56:33Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.836096 | 92 |
Game developer and official Gaming Evangelist at Amazon Jesse Freeman, recently released a new “pay what you want” title to indie game marketplace itch.io. Freeman fused elements from classic JRPGs, Minesweeper, and modern twitch mechanics to create his newest game Dragon Sweeper. Available now for Windows and Mac OSX, Dragon Sweeper is designed for players who prefer short play sessions, classic GameBoy styled graphics, and randomly generated levels.
When a randomly generated island is created it appears fairly plain at first. Each level is composed of a grid like system where each section must be clicked on to be revealed or explored, a style reminiscent of Minesweeper. Instead of mines that explode, players uncover monster lairs, towns, and other landmarks familiar to fantasy RPGs. The goal is to rid the land of monsters and ultimately defeat the dragon that lives on the island. Three different hero classes are available to choose from each with unique special attacks. Maps can be completed in a relatively short amount of time with each taking about 5-15 minutes. While maybe not the next hardcore gaming experience Freeman claims, “It’s the perfect game to play during short breaks, boring meetings, or when you don’t have time to spend 40+ hours XP grinding in your mother’s basement.”
The title also offers additional modes that can make the game easier or more difficult to suit player taste. Full combat mode allows monsters to attack when too much time has gone by since gamers took their last action. Those wanting a more casual experience can stick to training sessions. High scores are recorded, and since his latest update controller functionality has been improved upon. While the title is “pay what you want,” Freeman is sure to explain that only those who pay $0.50 or more will be notified when new versions have been implemented.
This is certainly not Freeman’s first project, in fact he even offers his own training sessions, development kits, and game art packages on his personal website. Interested players or developers can even watch him create updates to Dragon Sweeper on his Twitch channel most weekdays. He also maintains a series of courses through Lynda.com revolved around game development tools like Unity 5, Unity 2D, and HTML5. Not stopping there he has even written several books again focused on Unity, and HTML5 programing for game development. He even put some his more popular game projects on his website for people to play for free. All the titles are simple games made in HTML5, some of which he uses as examples in his lessons and courses.
Dragon Sweeper also has a community website where Freeman is hoping players will report glitches, bugs, and errors as they come up, while also contributing their thoughts on what sorts of added content they would like to see in the game. For additional details on Dragon Sweeper make sure to check out the official itch.io page. Those who want to read more into Freeman’s Lynda.com lessons, tutorials, books, or game development kits should check out his official website. | <urn:uuid:bf62b968-225a-4158-a0b8-245be1b3772a> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://byteclay.com/game-development-teacher-jesse-freeman-releases-new-title/ | 2019-07-16T22:18:55Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.968102 | 630 |
I’ve obviously been out of commission. It’s that time of year again and this girl works hard for her money. Anywho, I will play catch up and post some quickie blurbs until I’m caught up.
For all my New York friends or those of you who will be in that area on August 12th, I think you should totally check out the New York Stock Exchange party they’re throwing to showcase their newly renovated trading floor. If I lived in NYC, I would so be there bopping to the rock band and schmoozing with a bunch of market dweebs. I mean, come on. A party at the NYSE! From the emails I’ve been getting it looks like they’re hurting for people. Hard to believe. Recession. Free food. Alcohol. NYSE. | <urn:uuid:c5999a88-cdfc-4414-bece-d8b6ba3fbe4b> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://catherinegacad.com/2010/07/19/nyc-party/ | 2019-07-16T23:27:13Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.968452 | 178 |
New motherhood is a big emotional rollercoaster for so many women. Just ask the greatest athlete in the world, Serena Williams.
Williams recently took to Twitter to ask her followers some friendly mothering advice when it comes to breastfeeding. Williams and husband, Alexis Ohanian, welcomed their daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. just three months ago but it seems that the prospect of no longer breastfeeding is making Williams emotional.
How long did you breastfeed? Is it weird that I get emotional when I even just think about when it’s time to stop? pic.twitter.com/YOz4oeIajH
— Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) December 6, 2017
The tennis superstar received over a thousand responses from women all over the world. Words of encouragement and advice. Some women said 1-2 years, some only did for the first couple of months before they stopped producing enough milk.
Little Alexis is just as precious and cute as she can be and Williams seems to be navigating the new waters of motherhood by being open about her questions, uncertainty, and emotions.
So many of the people who commented told her it was incredibly normal for her to be emotional about the prospect of stopping. Whether she needs to get back to work and constantly having to pump seems untenable or for some other reason, it’s completely fine for her to be feeling specific emotions around the many stages of motherhood.
The hormonal changes that a new mother goes through during the first year is constantly ebbing and flowing. New moms get emotional about many different things and it’s all completely normal and to be expected. With such intense hormonal flux, emotional variances are more than common.
Williams has already been back in the gym training and her post-baby body is enviable. There’s no telling when she plans on getting back to the court full time but it seems that for now, training, in conjunction with breastfeeding, is working out really well for her waistline!
Williams is having quite the whirlwind end of the year, she just got back from her honeymoon with new hubby, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, after tying the knot a couple of weeks ago. | <urn:uuid:060a1021-d742-4069-b22f-b2359d8cecfa> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://celebrityinsider.org/serena-williams-admits-that-shes-already-emotional-about-the-thought-of-no-longer-breast-feeding-daughter-alexis-93546/ | 2019-07-16T22:38:10Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.973802 | 457 |
All the laughs you can handleFriday and Saturday night is comedy night in Shoreditch. Actually, every night is comedy night at Shoreditch's Comedy Cafe, but these two days are extra special. Headliner Martin Davies will send your sides into orbit with his wickedly good punchlines, while Kate Lucas impress you with her comedy style. Throw in sizzling standup from Jamali plus live music and you've got the makings of a kick-ass evening.
Over 18s only. Please note that acts are subject to change without notice. Grab a Dinner + Show ticket to tuck into some Korean-style cuisine from Jubo. | <urn:uuid:4eea660e-17f0-4148-a27b-0c912b527d86> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://checkout.timeout.com/london/live-comedy-show-martin-davies-kate-lucas-jamali-36855/ | 2019-07-16T22:53:38Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.948229 | 132 |
Digital re-enablement pilot programme which allows older people to return home sooner from hospital with the support of a multidisciplinary team of stakeholders i.e. friendly call services, volunteers and primary care teams. Volunteers on the project will be rewarded credits for their time which they can later redeem for support services they require.
An adjustable, ‘smart’ compression device for venous leg ulcers (VLUs)
Jinga Patient and Doctors Applications (Jinga Snap); A secure, mobile image platform, enabling the safe sharing and transfer of imaging between a Radiology department and its patients, referring clinicians and other Jinga sites.
Zendra Health have lowered the barrier to Digital Health by developing a solution that allows healthcare professionals build digital care pathways and collect health data quickly, easily and cost-effectively.
Think Biosolution’s QuasaR Continuous Monitoring Platform periodically tracks patient’s vitals and motion, and the dashboard automatically tags and summaries clinically important events.
Patient Engagement Platform. Platform to facilitate, simplify and streamline waiting list management and validation whilst also incorporating an appointment booking module to aid in maximising clinic utilisation and increase patient access through online booking.
Developing a new medical device for treating recurrent pleural effusions in late-stage cancer patients.
Meeting the ever increasing demand for Home Care. Online platform, which gives greater choice to carers. Enables families to directly select carers and also allows carers flexibility in working. Reduces costs of carers.
Solutions company based in Dundalk focussed on supporting independent living at home and within the community. Products encourage better care of patients in the community, social inclusion for seniors and those at risk of social isolation and loneliness.
Prototype practice management system for Allied Health Professionals. The activity captured would include patient records, referrals between services, accommodation usage, scheduling, and valid practitioner activity statistics.
ePX/print stickers for drug Kardex, eliminates illegible prescribing.
Orthotic device for tx of Diabetic foot ulcers.
Determination of bacterial and infection contamination in any environment. Using a tiered technology approach including DNA Next Generation Sequencing techniques, can isolate, quantify and report any bacterial or infectious contamination to customers in a bespoke, weekly or monthly overview.
AI diabetic retinopathy screening tool
Specifically established for the purpose of marketing and distributing the EM360™ Electrostatic Application System in Ireland.
Mobile educational app for CF patients/carers
B2B comms portal.video consultation and secure messaging product aimed at psychiatrists, psychologists, counsellors and psychotherapists who would like to offer their clients the option of blending face-to-face and online therapy.
Resonance is a software application which will schedule and managing all requests for CT scans from ED to ward.
Patient engagement platform. Evidence based personalised self management package initially targeting the treatment of knee patients from early stage self-managed OA conservative plans to TKR
In-app ‘Virtual Assistant’ or ‘Chatbot’ that can communicate with a hospital’s EMR using the latest HL7 FHIR protocol. Doctors and nurses can store clinical images and data from their smartphone direct to the EMR and intelligently receive patient data and alerts from hospital systems at the point of care.
Gripwear garment to enhance mobility of patients.
Denture Cleaning, Labelling and Denture Bank services
Solution to improve medical reconciliation (medrec) using an App that interfaces with the electronic health record.
Works with the Health sector to bring decontamination technology under one point of contact. Surfacide provides an evidence-based, automated UV-C MULTI hard surface disinfection system that data indicates eradicates multi-drug resistant organisms including C. diff, MRSA, VRE, CRE and Acinetobacte | <urn:uuid:ec64f239-bbf3-4928-a0f9-9276778bee27> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://hih.ie/engage/national-call-class-of-2019/ | 2019-07-16T22:35:18Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.8923 | 801 |
Which country is most supportive of free-market principles?
No, it’s not America. Nor is it Canada or Great Britain or Japan.
In fact, according to a recent poll from the international firm GlobeScan, the nation that most agrees with the statement, “The free enterprise system and free market economy is the best system on which to base the future of the world” is: (drum roll, please!)
China, the largest of the Communist countries. Seventy-four percent of the people polled in that country agreed with that statement.
And which country do you think was most skeptical of free-market principles?
France. OK, no surprise there. In fact, with only 36 percent agreeing, it’s almost hostile to a market economy.
GlobeScan, which partnered with the Program on International Policy Attitudes of the University of Maryland, polled nearly 21,000 people in 20 nations.
Surprised — about China, that is? (Who is ever surprised by what the French say?)
Maybe we shouldn’t be. The Chinese have found that moving quickly from a planned economy toward a free market economy can take a country from poverty to prosperity in no time. By contrast, young people in France are rioting over a proposed law that would allow employers to actually fire workers less than 26 years old. As it is now, French employers avoid hiring young workers because companies are virtually prohibited by law from firing them. Chairman Mao couldn’t have asked for more.
The result is a 23 percent jobless rate in France among those under age 26. If businesses had the option to fire indolent, incompetent or unnecessary young workers, the risks associated with hiring people 25 and younger would diminish, as would the jobless rate.
Another surprise. Which country was the second most supportive of the free market system?
The Phillipines, where 73 percent believe in the power of free enterprise, compared to 71 percent in the U.S.
So, the Chinese are defending capitalism; and the French are defending, well, communism.
At least now you know why investment capital is flowing to China — and fleeing France.
TaxBytes is a product of the Institute for Policy Innovation.
Sign up to the Human Events newsletter | <urn:uuid:04e04951-3da7-4eef-9eff-643236138125> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://humanevents.com/2006/04/12/which-country-believes-in-free-markets-not-who-youd-think/ | 2019-07-16T23:02:07Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.959064 | 468 |
Alpha Flight #29-66, Annual #1-2 (December 1985 – January 1989)
Written by Bill Mantlo (#29-62, 64-66, Annual #1-2), James D. Hudnall (#63)
Pencilled by Mike Mignola (#29-31, 47), Jon Bogdanove (#32), Sal Buscema (#33-34), Dave Ross (#35-44), June Brigman (#45-46, 49-50, 52, Annual #2), Craig Brasfield (#47), Steve Purcell (#47), Terry Shoemaker (#48), Jim Lee (#51, 53, 55-62, 64), Hugh Haynes (#54, 63, 65-66), Larry Stroman (Annual #1)
Inked by Gerry Talaoc (#29-38, 66, Annual #1), Whilce Portacio (#39-47, 49-54), Terry Austin (#47), Steve Leialoha (#48), Hilary Barta (#48), Tony DeZuniga (#55-57), Al Milgrom (#58-62, 64-65), Mike Gustovich (#63), Don Hudson (#63), Bob McLeod (Annual #2)
Colour by Bob Sharen (#29-47, 49-53, 55-66, Annual #1-2), Glynis Oliver (#48), Gregory Wright (#54)
Spoilers (from thirty to thirty-four years ago)
I remember being pretty upset that John Byrne left Alpha Flight with issue twenty-eight, but I was also curious to see what the incoming creative team of Bill Mantlo (whose Micronauts was a favourite of mine) and Mike Mignola (who didn’t stick around for long) were going to do with these characters. From what I remember, Mantlo (who ended up staying for over three years) made this a much more conventional comic, with a centralized team, a headquarters, and more interaction with American heroes.
I remember some cool things, like putting Heather into the Guardian suit, but giving her more edge by having her bring back the Vindicator name, introducing Lady Deathstrike to the world, making Walter into Wanda Langkowski, and making Madison Jeffries a member of the team. I also remember some questionable stuff, like introducing Purple Girl, and some kind of terrible things, like creating that kid who can turn into different stages of his evolution (I don’t remember his name).
I also remember that the art on this title varied wildly at times, and that Jim Lee got his Marvel start on Alpha Flight. Overall, are these good comics? I guess we’re going to find out. This is going to be a long one.
Let’s look at who turned up in the title:
- Box (Roger Bochs; #29-46, Annual #1)
- Puck (Eugene Milton Judd; #29-46, 48-50, 59-60, Annual #1)
- Vindicator (as Heather Hudson #29-31, as Vindicator #32-66, Annual #1-2)
- Northstar (Jean-Paul Beaubier; #29-46, 48-50, Annual #1)
- Aurora (Jeanne-Marie Beaubier; #29-46, 48-50, 64, Annual #1)
- Shaman (Michael Twoyoungmen; #29-31, 34-42, 44-45, Annual #1)
- Box (as Madison Jeffries #29-36, 39-45, Annual #1, as Box #46, 48-66, Annual #2)
- Snowbird (Narya; #29-31, 33-42, 44-45, 64, Annual #1)
- Marrina (#33-35, 37-40, 61)
- Talisman (Elizabeth Twoyoungmen; #35, 37-39)
- Sasquatch (Wanda Langkowski; #45-46, 48-62, 64-66, Annual #2)
- Purple Girl (Kara Killgrave; #42-46, 48-62, 64-66, Annual #2)
- Manikin (Whitman Knapp; #50-62, 64-66, Annual #2)
- Goblyn (#54-62, 64-66)
- Laura Dean (#54-58, 60-62, 64-66)
- Scramble (#30, 48)
- Deadly Ernest (#30-31)
- Razer (#32, 50)
- Attuma (#33-39)
- Lady Deathstrike (#33-34)
- Lord Dara (of Atlantis; #35)
- Pestilence (Captain FR Crozier; #36-38, 44-45)
- Kariooq the Corrupter (Great Beast; #38, 55, 64)
- Tundra (Great Beast; #38, 55, 64)
- Ranaq, the Devourer (Great Beast; #38)
- Tolomaq (Great Beast; #38, 55, 64)
- Kolomaq (Great Beast; #38)
- Somon the Artificer (Great Beast; #38, 55, 64)
- Marrina’s Plodex mate (#40)
- The Auctioneer (#42)
- Mentallo (#43)
- Sentinels (#43)
- Sebastian Shaw (#43)
- Box (Roger Bochs; #46, 48)
- Alien trees (#47)
- Omega (the amalgam of Scramble and Roger Bochs; #48-49)
- Loki (#50)
- Bedlam (#53)
- Freakout (Derangers; #53)
- Janus (Derangers; #53)
- Breakdown (Derangers; #53)
- Goblyn (Derangers; #53)
- The Dreamqueen (#56-60, 64)
- Bedlamites (#56)
- Purple Man (#62)
- China Force (#66)
- Gilded Lily (Annual #1)
- Diablo (Annual #1)
- The Hulk (#29)
- Nemesis (#31)
- Storm (Ororo Munroe, X-Men; #33, 61)
- Colossus (Piotr Rasputin, X-Men; #33, 61)
- Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner, X-Men; #33)
- Wolverine (Logan, X-Men; #33-34, 52-53, 61)
- Magneto (Magnus, X-Men; #33)
- Shadowcat (Kitty Pryde, X-Men; #33)
- Phoenix (Rachel Summers, X-Men; #33)
- Rogue (X-Men; #33, 61)
- Byrrah (#36, 38-40)
- Black Knight (Dane Whitman, Avengers; #36, 39, 61)
- The Sub-Mariner (Namor; #36-40, 61)
- Hercules (Avengers; #36, 39)
- Dr. Strange (#36)
- Wasp (Janet Van Dyne, Avengers; #39)
- Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau, Avengers; #39, 61)
- Captain America (Steve Rogers, Avengers; #39)
- Lord Vashti (#40)
- Purple Girl (Kara Killgrave; #41)
- Manikin (Dr. Whitman Knapp; #49)
- Jade Dragon (#59-61, 64-66)
- The High Lama (#59-60)
- Brian Mulroney (Prime Minister of Canada; #60)
- The Human Torch (Johnny Storm, Fantastic Four; #61)
- Crystal (Fantastic Four; #61)
- Ms. Marvel (Sharon Ventura, Fantastic Four; #61)
- The Thing (Ben Grimm, Fantastic Four; #61)
- She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters, Avengers; #61)
- Thor (Avengers; #61)
- Dr. Druid (Anthony Druid, Avengers; #61)
- Dazzler (Alison Blaire, X-Men; #61)
- Havok (Alex Summers, X-Men; #61)
- Longshot (X-Men; #61)
- Psylocke (Betsy Braddock, X-Men; #61)
- Bill Mantlo (#66)
- Gary Cody (head of Department H; #29-30, 39, 51-52, Annual #2)
- Douglas Thompson (Snowbird’s boyfriend; #30-31, 33-39, 44-45)
- Scramble (Lionel Jeffries; #31, 43-46)
- Shaman’s grandfather (#31, 34-35)
- Eaglet (Shaman’s familiar; #35-36)
- Nelvanna (#36-37, 45, 64)
- Hodiak (#36-37, 45, 64)
- Turoq, the Shaper of Life (#36-37, 45, 64)
- Elizabeth Twoyoungmen (the depowered Talisman; #41, 62, 64-
- Dr. Whitman Knapp (Scramble’s assistant; #43-46, 48)
- Veronica Langkowski (Walter’s ex-wife; #59, 61, 64)
- Susan Dean (Laura and Goblyn’s mother; #61)
- Darby Dean (Laura and Goblyn’s father; #61)
Let’s take a look at what happened in these books, with some commentary as we go:
- The new creative team gets off to a rough start with a first issue that is stuffed with exposition and a need to recap just about everything that’s ever happened in the series. The Hulk smashes through Box’s chest, causing Roger to freak out that he can never phase out of the robot. Puck starts to distract the Hulk to provide time for some exposition. Madison Jeffries works to fix Box while Aurora realizes that Walter is probably dead, giving Northstar cause to worry for her sanity. He claims this is what he feared when she started her relationship with Walter, but I guess he doesn’t mean that his consciousness would be lost in a dimensional crossroads and cause the team to have to fight the Hulk. Puck keeps bouncing around while Hulk wrecks the lab, and Heather gets upset that Puck told her to keep back, worrying that she doesn’t have any powers (although neither does Puck). Shaman can’t help because he’s lost his faith in himself, and therefore can no longer access his mystic pouch. Hulk finally breaks through a wall, collapsing it on Puck. Hulk wants to go home to the desert, but Heather jumps on him. Northstar empathises with his sister and starts to cry. Hulk shakes off Heather and Puck and jumps away. Heather tries to rally the team, but Northstar acts like a jerk until Aurora says she wants vengeance. Jeffries has finished fixing Box, and Roger has to give a big speech before agreeing to help fight the Hulk. Michael again talks about his lack of courage. The team (without Shaman or Jeffries) flies off to find the Hulk. Jeffries says something about knowing someone who can fix bodies the way he can fix machines. Shaman sends a call for help to someone. The team finds the Hulk, who is wrecking Vancouver, and engages in battle, while Heather feels good about her leadership. The tides turn, and Hulk rips off Box’s leg. The twins try to combine their powers, but learn that after Walter experimented on Aurora, their powers now cancel out when they touch one another. Hulk comes for Heather, but just then, Snowbird arrives (having been called by Shaman), and turns into Sasquatch/Tanaraq again to fight him. The military arrives, and Hulk decides to flee. Snowbird follows him to the border, and then turns back. The team is feeling bad again, so Snowbird gives a long speech about how necessary Alpha Flight is. As she finishes, Gary Cody emerges from a helicopter, complimenting her speech (which I guess he was able to hear over the rotors as he landed?). He explains that he’s just come from Ottawa (in a helicopter?) to tell them that Department H has been refunded and that he’s in charge of it. Everyone agrees to stay on as Alpha Flight, including Madison Jeffries (Shaman’s not there), and Heather worries that she won’t be able to maintain their loyalty as leader.
- So Department H has taken over and renovated Walter’s great-aunt’s place on the extreme western side of Canada, all before informing the team that they were back. As the team moves in, Heather and Gary Cody talk some more about how independent the team is going to be, while Heather thinks about her doubts, and worries about the other members of the team. A cable connecting a large piece of equipment to a helicopter snaps, and while Alpha tries to clear the soldiers out from under it, Northstar and Aurora touch and negate their powers. Box catches the stuff, but it breaks apart, leaving it to Jeffries to transmute all the pieces into harmless flying toys (I guess we’ve already retconned away the thing that said he could only turn metal and electronics into parts that mimic his body). We are given a tour of the new headquarters, including a detailed floor plan, and then Bochs gets into it with some suit who wants to know what all his technology does. Heather challenges the degree to which the team is independent, and Cody backs her up. Once Jeffries has put all the equipment back together, he makes an off-hand remark about his brother that piques Heather’s interest. Shaman has been staying with Snowbird and Doug up north, but now he needs to go on his own path to try to recover his courage and abilities. After he leaves, Snowbird tells Doug that she wants to follow him; Doug wants to go with her. At the Alpha Mansion, Heather watches her teammates, as Aurora and Northstar feel sorry for themselves, and Puck tosses in his sleep. She finds that Bochs and Jeffries are rebuilding the Guardian suit, and at first she is angry, but then she calms down. She goes to the computer room to look through Jeffries’s file, and discovers that he has a younger brother, a doctor, in Montreal. She takes the team’s sole “omniship” and goes to the hospital where she believes he works. It turns out, he’s a patient, kept in total isolation from everyone. She is the first to visit him in years. When his room is opened, he lunges, and manages to touch her hand through the mask he wears, then identifies himself as Scramble. Alpha Flight, having seen Heather leave, and discovering that she was looking up Lionel Jeffries, followed her and somehow made it from the coast of BC to Montreal in an hour (it’s more than a six hour flight in a commercial jet). They discover a mass of misshapen and hideous creatures coming out of the hospital, and quickly figure out they are patients and staff deformed by Scramble. Jeffries explains that he and his brother fought in Vietnam, where they tried to use their abilities of transmutation for good, but Lionel lost it when he tried to bring some dead soldiers back to life. The team finds Heather, horribly disfigured, and Puck stays with her (Aurora notices how sweetly he speaks to her) while the rest keep looking for Scramble. Aurora begins to revert to Jeanne-Marie, while Box has to fight a creature made up of many people merged into one. Madison finds his brother in the morgue, trying to raise the dead again, and they fight. Madison forces Lionel’s hands onto his own head, thereby making it possible for Lionel to fix his brain and end his own madness. After fixing everyone, Lionel thanks Heather and asks for forgiveness. In the morgue, one body, properly put back together, gets up and walks off.
- Deadly Ernest is alive again, and walking naked through a rough part of Montreal. He kills a man to get his clothes, and walks around in leathers, thinking about how many people he’s going to kill. Nemesis is back, standing on a statue of Jacques Cartier and yelling at the night about how she is going to kill Ernest again. Alpha Flight prepare to leave Montreal, and are saying goodbye to Lionel, who intends to return to his medical practice now that his sanity is restored. Puck is wracked by pain, but doesn’t want Lionel to help him. An ambulance brings the dead guy that Ernest killed to the hospital, and when Lionel tries to help him, he describes his condition in a way that is familiar to Northstar. A hospital official informs the team that a body is missing from the morgue, and identifies it as Ernest St. Ives, who the twins know is Deadly Ernest. Far to the north, Snowbird and Doug are trying to track Shaman, but have lost him in a snowstorm. Snowbird decides to fly Doug out of it, but is wracked by pain and drops Doug. They decide to head to Alpha Flight so she can be examined (although Shaman would be the best person to examine her, really). He, meanwhile, finds his old cabin, although that’s not where it’s supposed to be, and inside it, finds his grandfather’s skull, which tries to talk some sense into him. Michael asks it to help him get his power back, and then the now-naked Shaman disappears. Alpha Flight prepares to go looking for Ernest, which means that first Northstar has to suggest that Heather stick around, and then Aurora and Northstar retell their Ernest story. Jeffries, circling in the Omnijet, somehow picks up Nemesis’s sword on radar. Nemesis is having a hard time finding Ernest, and then realizes it’s because he’s in the Metro, the Montreal subway system. He kills a man on a platform, and then Alpha and Nemesis all show up. We learn that his powers work on Box (whose bulk pins down Nemesis), and then Ernest is able to grab and kill the twins. He covers his death-dealing hands and grabs Heather to use as a hostage when Nemesis frees herself. Ernest takes Heather into the train tunnel, and Nemesis, realizing she can keep the heroes alive if she stays with them, gives her sword to Puck. He wrestles with the idea of killing Ernest, which he’d promised Guardian never to do again, but also feels that he would kill for Heather. The mystic energy of the sword also makes his pain worse than normal, but when he sees Heather, he attacks Ernest and slices him. He cuts off one of his hands, and while continuing to wrestle with his conscience, slices his head right off when he realizes he has to save Heather, who is now unconscious, from an oncoming train. Weirdly, Ernest is still alive, and coming after Puck, who then lops off the other hand. The trains crushes him, and Puck then uses the sword to absorb his remaining life energy off-panel. He and Heather return to the station, and Nemesis restores Jean-Paul, Aurora, Box, and the other guy to life. She then explains that she was Ernest’s daughter, and that she’s kept herself alive through mysticism and science so that she can finally rid the world of him. She crumbles into dust, leaving the sword behind. This was Mignola’s last issue, although he stuck around for covers for a while. His interiors are almost recognizable as his work, although the covers show clear signs of the artist he would become.
- Jon Bogdanove drew this issue, and answers the question of why Mignola didn’t look like Mignola – Gerry Talaoc must have been a very strong inker, as I almost couldn’t tell that the art had switched (and really, there is no similarity between Bogdanove and Mignola). Heather surprises Puck in the team’s new Danger Room, because she is wearing the new Guardian armor that Jeffries and Boch were building. Puck thought she was looking for self-defense training, and is not in a hurry to train her to get herself killed. Heather feels more confident, and starts using the suit with ease. Jeffries runs the Danger Room, using his powers to test Heather’s control, while Bochs monitors. Puck is wracked with pain again, and refers to his pain as “he”, which is a little odd. He tries to get Heather to take things seriously, and something knocks her glasses off. Practically blind, she’s not able to see some heat-seeking missiles, but by turning off her suit and letting Puck catch her, she avoids them. Puck is angry with her, and so she says she’ll get someone else to train her. Bochs hands her her prescription sunglasses, which have been altered to work with her battlesuit, and she leaves. Bochs offers to help Puck (although I’m not sure with what) and he snaps at him. Puck is wracked with pain again, and thinks about how he is in love with Heather, and how it’s tempting to just stop fighting his pain. A black cloud forms above him. On the roof, Aurora and Jean-Paul talk for a bit, and are surprised to see Heather fly off in the Guardian suit. Just after that, a massive black cloud blows through the roof, and takes the form of a large cloudy Arabic-themed mystical villain calling himself Razer. Jeffries and Bochs are checking out the Box robot (which has now been painted blue/gray, matching the way it’s been portrayed on the last few covers). Hearing and sensing that something is wrong, Bochs merges with Box and heads to the roof, where he sees the twins fighting Razer. When Razer’s sword hits Northstar, he collapses in pain and shrinks some. The same thing happens to Box. Puck emerges from the elevator shaft onto the roof, only he’s six-foot-six now, and visibly aged. He explains to Jeffries that he was born in 1914, and that as a thief and adventurer in the 30s, he tried to steal the Black Blade of Baghdad. When he touched it, he released Razer, a malevolent spirit, and in order to trap it, had to absorb it into his body, which became dwarven, and in constant pain. Now that he’s free of Razer, he is worried about his advanced age, realizing that the creature had kept him alive for a long time. He coordinates the twins so that Aurora’s light will cause Razer pain, and makes the decision to trap the evil being again. He grabs the Black Blade and slices it into his own skull, so that he becomes a dwarf again, and so Razer is trapped.
- Sal Buscema drew this issue, and while Talaoc’s inks are pretty dominant, it’s recognizably Buscema’s art. Heather flies south over Quebec (which is very far from where she was in British Columbia last issue), and as she flies, she thinks about how she wants help learning to use her new suit. Somehow she ends up over Nova Scotia and the Atlantic Ocean, which Mantlo thinks is south of Quebec (it isn’t), and she happens to fly right over Marrina, who is kind of monstrous, and being followed by an Atlantean vessel. For a moment, Marrina thinks that Namor is looking for her, but in reality, it is Attuma looking to capture her as bait for Namor. Hiding in the depths, Marrina feels pain in her abdomen and starts screaming. Also screaming is Snowbird, who is in Doug’s place, being examined by a regular doctor. He doesn’t know how to help her, but administers a sedative to help her calm down. Snowbird gets angry, morphs through a number of shapes, and then falls asleep. Doug doesn’t notice that Alpha Flight is calling him, as they are trying to figure out where Heather has gone. Jean-Paul keeps casting aspersions at Heather’s ability to lead, and Box decides to use a built-in tracker to find her. Puck is unhappy that he didn’t help her, and decides to go to her, having figured out where she’s likely gone, and feeling ready to declare his love. Heather, meanwhile, has crossed the border and is approaching Westchester County, where she looks for Wolverine. The X-Men are about to head into the city to take in the opera (seriously?) and suspect that the flying person is attacking them. Logan yells for them to stop, but Magneto (this is the time when he was headmaster of the school) has already attacked, messing up the suit’s electro-magnetic field. This same thing makes it impossible for Nightcrawler to teleport her down, so Rogue flies up to get her. Logan is protective, so the rest of the team leaves him behind. A boat full of Japanese people is tracking some kind of signal, and the new villain Lady Deathstrike (in her first appearance as such) reveals herself as being behind all this. Logan drives around with Heather (I’m not sure why) and when she asks for him to teach her, his reaction is similar to everyone else’s. She gets mad, but Logan calms her down and promises to help. They remember how Logan interrupted Heather and Mac’s honeymoon by attacking them, and how they both shot him. They took him to their cabin to help him recover, and Mac went for help, leaving Heather alone with the feral madman. When he came to, he saw his claws for the first time (this was retconned away long ago) and freaked out. She comforted him. Logan explains how he left the Hudsons when he realized that Heather saw him as a child, and that’s why he went into the Canadian Secret Service and then the X-Men. They talk about power and how to fight, and while they talk, Logan changes into his Wolverine suit, and then lets Heather know they are surrounded by swordsmen. Deathstrike says she wants what was stolen from her.
- Puck has taken the omnijet and is tracking Heather with it. He calls Alpha to apologize to them, explaining that he wants to go declare his love for Heather, and that he’s figured out she’s gone to Wolverine. Bochs is reminded to phase out of his robot, and when he does, he hears an intruder alert. For some reason, he is the only one that goes to investigate, in his wheelchair, and it turns out that Douglas has brought Snowbird, who is quite ill, there for help. He also mentions that they are now married. Shaman talks to the ghost of his grandfather, who sends him on a quest for power. In Westchester, Deathstrike and her samurai have Wolverine and Heather surrounded. Eventually, Deathstrike explains that she’s there for Logan’s adamantium-laced bones, believing they are the product of her father’s research. She gives a long talk recapping Daredevil #196-200, and then filling in the long history of her father, Lord Dark Wind, and how he came up with the adamantium process only to have it stolen from him. While they talk, Heather remembers a time before she married Mac, when she saw a file on his desk about the bonding process. She begins to suspect that Mac was responsible for experimenting on Logan, and that he purposely let Logan find them on their honeymoon. Finally, the fight begins, and Deathstrike orders her men to kill Heather, and to maybe take Logan alive. They fight, but Logan has them run to separate them and maybe avoid killing the men. Heather decides on the name Vindicator for herself, and does well in the fight. Logan starts to feel her berserker rage coming on, and has trouble fighting Deathstrike, who is using an electromagnetic sword that is as hard as his claws. Puck arrives in the jet, and unable to see clearly what’s happening, deduces that the electromagnetic signature his sensors read is Heather (it isn’t), and ends up knocking down Wolverine with the jet. Deathstrike cuts the jet to pieces, but Puck bails in time. Heather slams Deathstrike into a tree, and shatters her sword with shields. With Puck and Wolverine beside her, she asks if they still feel the need to protect her, while I guess Deathstrike just waits to be arrested. Marrina is still pursued by Attuma, and slows down when she feels pain again. They capture her.
- Fellow Torontonian Dave Ross came on as the new regular penciller with issue thirty-five. Ross has been a mainstay of Toronto comic cons, and it seems I got this issue signed by him back in 1989, which I don’t really remember, but now think is pretty cool. Marrina is being held captive by Attuma in Atlantis. Attuma talks with Lord Dara, recapping recent events that have put him in charge of the undersea kingdom, and explaining why he is holding her as bait for the missing Namor. Marrina continues to feel pain in her abdomen. Heather is flying back to BC with Puck (a distance of 3000 miles), and she’s feeling pretty good about how she did in the fight with Lady Deathstrike. At the same time, she’s still convinced that her dead husband manipulated her and Logan, and is responsible for torturing him and making him into Wolverine. She also thinks about why she can’t reciprocate Puck’s love for her until she gets over this distrust of Mac. Puck, meanwhile, feels like he’s offered Heather his heart and been rejected, assuming it’s because of his diminutive size. When they arrive at Tamarind Island, Puck doesn’t want to be carried by her anymore, and bounds in looking for their guests (there’s a seaplane moored outside). They find Doug Thompson sitting on a couch by the front door, who explains that he’s married Snowbird, and that she’s not well. The rest of the team is in the infirmary, where Snowbird is tied down and screaming, showing her “true fires”. She asks for Shaman’s help, and then starts morphing through the various shapes she can assume. Aurora has to tranquilize her, and everyone wonders where Shaman might be. We see the Michael is walking through the barrenlands, where he encounters, and has to run from a herd of spirit caribou. He jumps a chasm, but gets attacked by spirit mosquitoes, and dives into a river, where a giant spirit fish eats him. He cuts his way out after the fish goes over a waterfall (despite the fact that the narration at the beginning of this scene talks about the flatness of the Arctic tundra. He’s attacked by a pack of wolves (spirit wolves or real?) and manages to kill them all. It begins to snow, and he takes shelter in a large stone cairn. Inside, he finds his daughter, Talisman, waiting for him. She’s still angry with him, but gives him a staff and some clothing. His grandfather’s spirit arrives and gives him an eagle crest, a hat that looks to be modelled on totem pole art (that would have nothing to do with the Sarcee). Putting all this stuff on, he claims he will help his daughter regain her humanity and take off her tiara. Talisman reanimates the skeletons of long-dead Vikings around them, who apparently stole these items of power from the Sarcee (this makes zero historical sense, given the geography of Canada). Shaman’s new helm comes to life – it’s Eaglet, his new familiar. He uses the staff to blow away the cairn, exposing them all to the blizzard. He uses the powers of the staff to grow some vines, and to animate some man-shaped stone cairns, to defeat the skeletons. It’s not clear where Talisman went. Back at Mansion Alpha, Snowbird has adopted many forms at once, which looks painful. Shaman suddenly appears, there to examine Snowbird.
- Snowbird hunts a rabbit, but after eating it, still feels sick and in pain. Doug Thompson’s personality shifts in this issue, as he calls Shaman “Indian” as an insult, and suggests he’s incapable of treating her problems. Shaman reveals that he believes Snowbird is pregnant, although Doug doesn’t believe that’s possible as they’ve only been married two weeks (maybe someone needs to explain things to Doug). She shows up, looking about eight months pregnant. Byrrah, the Atlantean, gains entrance into the old submarine tunnels leading to Avengers Mansion where he has a brief fight with the Black Knight (who has weird helmet wings that are not contemporaneous with his appearance in Avengers at this time). Namor arrives and accuses Byrrah of treachery, but his cousin explains how Attuma has taken over Atlantis, and is holding Namor’s alien betrothed prisoner. Namor, enraged, apparently quits the Avengers (according to the narration, but not his dialogue) and rejects Black Knight and Hercules’s offers of help to go free Marrina. Puck tells Doug the story of how Snowbird was born, and Doug, true to his new personality, calls him a midget and says he doesn’t want the unborn baby. Shaman continues to examine Narya, and Bochs and Jeffries build him a sonogram using Jeffries’s powers in a new way. Shaman then retreats to a room full of Native artifacts (I don’t think he’d ever been to the mansion before, so that’s weird), and explains to Heather how he must now implore spirits to help him instead of commanding them, as his daughter can. He believes he needs to take Narya to a place of power to give birth, and gets confirmation from the house spirits, who are a little mischievous, that Mansion Alpha is not built on a place of power. Next he consults with the gods, Hodiak, Nelvana, and Shaper of Life, who reject Narya because she refused to return to them. Finally, he calls in Doctor Strange for a consult on finding a place of power, and he helps Michael and Heather locate an island to the north. In the short time they were gone, Doug decided to take his wife away, and now stands on the dock next to his floatplane, holding a gun on the team. Aurora disarms him, and he talks about how Michael has failed his daughter before relenting and deciding to trust him. The team leaves in their Omnijet (which we last saw wrecked in Westchester County, but that’s okay). Under the ground at their destination, a being calling himself Pestilence awaits their coming; the narration tells us that he’s somehow tricked Strange and Shaman.
- Mantlo digs into Canadian history at the start of issue thirty-seven, tapping into the mythology behind the Franklin expedition and the two ships lost in Arctic ice in the 1840s. In this telling, a second man, Captain FR Crozier, a doctor and chief science officer, stayed with the ships when Franklin and his party struck out on foot after months of being trapped in pack ice. Crozier led his group a few months later, and as they started to die off one by one due to exposure and starvation, he drank a potion that would slow his body and mimic death, until the summer sun would revive him. Unfortunately, his men buried him, not knowing he was still alive, and so he lay under the permafrost for a hundred and fifty years, slowly going mad. Alpha Flight, minus Mr. Jeffries, fly north, led by a magnetic spirit, to the place of power where Snowbird can give birth. Aurora shows off her new insulated outfit, and flirts with Roger before going outside the jet to join her brother and the wind spirit helping them along. They come across Talisman, who is floating in the air waiting for them. She joins her father on the jet, and tells him, in front of Narya and Doug, that she’s there to watch him fail. They arrive at the rocky island they’ve identified as a good birthplace, and Talisman keeps taking shots at Shaman, making it clear that she wants to make him look bad in front of his peers. Doug sees the gods – Nelvana, Kodiak, and the newly-named Turoq the Shaper (who was, last issue, referred to as nameless), who offer Snowbird one last chance to join them, but she turns them away. Tapping into the local power, Snowbird’s baby’s lifeforce appears as a beam of green and yellow light, which attracts the attention of Crozier, below. Large leech creatures come out of the earth and begin to drain that lifeforce. Northstar gets stuck in the oozing ground, while Aurora, touching a leech, has her arm covered by maggots. Box begins to rust up, and a swarm of flies surround Vindicator. Puck falls through the ice. When Shaman calls on some spirits to help, Talisman forbids it, explaining that she wants Shaman to fail before she saves the day. The unborn child becomes Crozier, who refers to himself as Pestilence. He explains that he’s taken over the baby’s body, and is corrupting him. He turns Shaman into an old man, and at that point, Talisman decides to step up, however because Pestilence isn’t a spirit, she has no power over him. He rips her tiara off her, painfully, and starts to choke her. Shaman looks at the tiara, and thinks that someone will have to put it on and become the new binder of souls. Attuma is pleased, and Marrina devastated, to learn that Namor is approaching Atlantis.
- Namor arrives in Atlantis and immediately starts fighting Attuma’s hordes, surprised that the people are not taking his side. Attuma rants a lot, and asks the people who they’d rather have ruling over them – Namor and the monstrous Marrina, or him. They take Attuma’s side, and Namor finally listens to Byrrah and decides that he needs outside help. They retreat, with Namor planning on getting help from the Avengers. He sends Byrrah to locate Alpha Flight. Alpha, meanwhile, is still in bad shape in the fight against Pestilence. Shaman thinks his way through a recap, and then considers putting on the tiara and becoming Talisman himself. He thinks he could destroy Pestilence, but then would be trading his child’s life for that of Snowbird’s. Vindicator figures out how to get through the flies that surround her, and surveys what’s going on. She heads for Pestilence, who takes on the guise of James Hudson. It doesn’t work against her, so she hits him, freeing Elizabeth from his grip. She apologizes to Shaman. Puck, who has been under the ice for a while now, manages to pull Pestilence into the freezing water. Heather uses the reprieve to help free her teammates, and Michael and Elizabeth debate who should don the tiara. Snowbird’s baby appears to be floating in front of them, but it’s actually Pestilence, trying to trick them. Snowbird takes on the form of Sasquatch, which gives Pestilence the idea of conjuring all of the other Great Beasts and taking control of Snowbird. Alpha fights them, while Michael decides to put the tiara on and become the new Talisman. This makes Elizabeth, who has regained her humanity, very sad. Michael banishes the Beasts, and returns Snowbird’s self-control. She attacks Pestilence, raking him with her claws. It looks like she is going to kill him, but he uses his powers to retreat into the Earth. Snowbird returns to her human form, while Elizabeth declares her love for her father. The team decides there’s nothing more they can do there, but vow to deal with Pestilence and hopefully rescue Snowbird’s child. As the team returns to the mansion, Byrrah arrives (having swum from the Atlantic Ocean somehow).
- Knowing, as they approach their home, that there is an intruder around, Heather sends Aurora, Northstar, and Puck to scout. Puck finds Byrrah, who insults his size, and tells him that Namor has sent him. The team gathers to learn what’s going on, and when Snowbird says they should go help their teammate, Doug gets upset, expecting her to go looking for Pestilence. Snowbird is upset that she’s been made fully mortal, and refers to Doug and their baby as mistakes, which causes him to storm off. Heather worries that going to Atlantis might cause an international incident, and the sudden appearance of Gary Cody on a viewscreen reveals that the government has been spying on the team. Heather gets angry, reminding him that their deal is that the government stays out of their business, and blasts the video monitor, telling the team they are going to Atlantis. On the new Omnijet that Bochs and Jeffries built, Heather worries that her team is tired. Jeffries reveals that Byrrah was once Namor’s enemy, but he explains that he hates having Attuma on the throne. Jeffries builds everyone who needs it a deep sea pressure suit. The Omnijet is hit by some missiles, and Jeffries saves everyone by turning it into a large raft. Some Atlanteans attack, and the team holds them off. A large vessel comes flying out of the water, knocking Jeffries into the ocean, and we learn that he can’t swim. Shaman saves him, and Jeffries thinks about how he didn’t make himself a suit because of his fear of water. Puck also can’t swim, but wants to stay in the fight. The team does well against the Atlanteans, causing Puck to think about what a good leader Heather has been. He rides on Snowbird, who has turned herself into a whale, and thinks about how her new mortality has made it possible for her to leave Canadian territory, but he worries that she might have a death wish. The team thinks they see more Atlanteans moving towards them, but it’s actually Namor and the Avengers (Captains America and Marvel, Wasp, Hercules, and the Black Knight). They chat for a bit, confirm it was Namor and Hercules who destroyed the vessel that fired on them, and decide to work together. Namor makes it clear that he’s not looking to depose Attuma – he feels that his people made their decision and he will respect it – but intends to free Marrina. This earns him more respect from Byrrah, as the teams head towards Atlantis and fight even more Atlanteans. Attuma and Namor fight while Northstar frees Marrina. Everyone is surrounded by Atlanteans, and Attuma orders their death. This story is concluded in Avengers #272.
- Apparently, at the end of Avengers #272, Marrina fled her friends and lover. Now, Namor is searching for her, with Alpha behind him. Heather sends Jean-Paul to follow him, and we learn that Namor has quit the Avengers, and that Roger, at some point during the battle, phased out of his Box robot, and contracted the bends before phasing back in. It looks like he’s going to have to stay inside the robot, which upsets Aurora. Jeffries joins the team in a sub he built, and warns them that he can see “something else” approaching on sonar. As Jean-Paul follows Namor, he thinks about his love for his sister. Namor ignores him, and then dismisses him, and the rest of the team catches up. Marrina is convinced that she is pregnant after her meeting with her Plodex mate, and worries that her progeny could destroy or take over the Earth. When Namor finds her, she explains why she’s ashamed. Alpha arrives, and they debate what to do. Marrina wants to be killed, and Heather agrees. Their argument ends when the mate arrives, in full monstrous form, and everyone begins to fight it. The team comes to conclusion that both aliens have to die, and Namor begins to fight them. At that, Marrina thinks about her past on Earth, and finds that the physical changes that she’s undergone disappear, which enrages the mate. The team, with Namor, work together to kill the mate, and come around Marrina, who has chosen humanity over her alien nature. It turns out she was never pregnant, but was in a state of receptivity, which has now ended. Namor takes everyone to his undersea villa, where they find a number of Atlanteans waiting for them. Expecting a fight, they are pleased to learn that Byrrah has brought a number of Namor’s loyal subjects there, including Vashti, and they decide to name their new kingdom Deluvia. Namor and Marrina get married and everyone seems happy for a change.
- Annual #1 looks like it fits in here, except for the fact that it doesn’t acknowledge Roger’s bends. A spirit, which we soon learn belongs to Gilded Lily, finds itself alive within the walls and machinery of Mansion Alpha. The team has dinner together, where Aurora flirts with Roger, Michael acts aloof, and Jean-Paul is difficult. Lily’s spirit explores the house, confused by all that has changed, and learns from Alpha’s computer how she died, and that Diablo is still alive and imprisoned in New York state. She conjures an electrical element and sends it over the phone line to free her former lover, and to bring him there. The team figures out something’s going on with their home, and start to investigate. Recognizing his powers, Lily sequesters and incapacitates Jeffries. She traps Judd and Michael in an elevator, and traps Jean-Paul in a hallway. Heather finds Narya outside, and when the ground swallows Heather, Narya takes on the form of Sasquatch to free her. They are locked out of the mansion and can’t get in. Roger and Aurora are at the pool, and the Box robot topples, almost crushing Aurora, and pinning Roger in the pool. Aurora becomes trapped in a mirror, with Lily intending to take over her body. Box emerges from the pool, and is surprised to run into Diablo. Lily traps Box in the walls, and leads Diablo to her lab, where she is able to manifest her physical appearance. She gives Diablo back his costume, and we get a recap of their relationship. Diablo is unhappy to learn that he’s going to be facing superheroes, and decides he doesn’t want to live forever with Lily, which enrages her, and allows Alpha to slip out of her various traps. Diablo and Lily disappear, and go to a secret cavern beneath the house. There, Lily appears in a dark mirror, clutching Aurora by the throat. She wants Diablo to help her take over Aurora’s body, but when he sees Alpha coming for him, he panics. Lily creates a dust storm that Heather overcomes. Diablo agrees to betray Lily to avoid a beatdown. Lily manages to grab his immortality potion through the mirror, but this influx of light allows Aurora to regain control of herself. She snatches the potion, and guessing that things are not what they seem, force feeds it to Lily, who turns to dust again. Aurora frees herself from the mirror. Later, the team passes Diablo over to some Mounties who are going to extradite him.
- Issue forty-one opens in Etobicoke, the strange nether-region of Toronto responsible for the Ford brothers. Kara, a thirteen year old girl, returns home very early in the morning, freaking out because her skin suddenly turned purple while she was at a party. Her mother reveals this has something to do with her father. At Mansion Alpha, the team has convened for a meeting, even though they are all very tired from their recent battles. Heather suggests that Madison Jeffries be made an official member of the team to replace Marrina (which is all odd, because she’s been gone a long time, and he’s always there already, and I’d assumed he was part of the team). Everyone agrees, although Shaman abstains, as he doesn’t really care. Elizabeth worries about how the Talisman tiara is affecting him, and Aurora takes a jab at Jean-Paul about him enjoying having “attractively-dressed men about” that is definitely foreshadowing. Jean-Paul announces that he is going to take a leave of absence to resume his skiing career (and because he’s uncomfortable watching Aurora flirt with the now robot-bound Roger Bochs). Aurora accuses him of cheating while skiing, and he gets mad, explaining he’s only going to compete in exhibition races. A week later, we see that Kara has run away, and is now in Alberta, where she’s gone to see Jean-Paul, her crush, race. He enjoys his race, and is surrounded by fans. Kara starts to realize that it makes no sense to introduce herself to him, and hides in a bathroom. A girl knocks on the door, and Kara tells her to go jump off a cliff. The girl promptly turns purple and walks away. Kara thinks about what her mother told her – that her father is the American supervillain Purple Man, who forced her mother to marry him. After he fell in love with her, he released her, and she fled to Toronto, not knowing she was pregnant with Kara. Now that Kara has hit puberty, it seems her mutant abilities have emerged. The girl from before jumps off a cliff, and Jean-Paul flies to save her. Kara realizes she is responsible for this. The crowd accuses Jean-Paul of cheating, now that they know he’s Northstar, and he decides to quit skiing forever. Kara stops him to talk to him, and when he blows her off, she takes control of him, trying to make him into her boyfriend (the age difference here is very creepy). She tells him she wants exotic flowers, and he flies off with her in his arms. They fly to a tropical island, where he gives her orchids. She gets him to go swimming with her, and when he submerges his head, he regains control of himself (and loses his purple hue). A crocodile approaches Kara, and she takes control of Jean-Paul again, so he’ll save her. After he does this, using a speed-created waterspout, he stands in a waterfall so she can’t affect him. She explains her powers, and declares her love for Jean-Paul. He explains how inappropriate it is for her to control someone she loves, and she promises to not control him again. He echoes James Hudson’s words to him, offering to take her to Alpha Flight, but then makes an odd comment about it being better for him to leave her there than to force her to choose as he did. Thinking he’s going to leave, she tells him to stop, taking control of him again by mistake. She tells him to take her to Alpha Flight.
- Kara and Jean-Paul, who is still purple, are surrounded by the rest of Alpha, who are not very happy (although Puck is making jokes). Kara explains how her powers worked, and orders him to soak his head, so he’d be restored to normal. Weirdly, as Jean-Paul is recovering, Aurora decides to get upset at Roger for still being trapped in his robot body. He leaves, and then Jeffries gives her a hard time for being mean to him. Heather returns conversation to what to do with Kara, and the issue of training her is raised. Northstar objects, comparing being under the sway of her power to being raped (which Heather uses as an opportunity to say something homophobic). Jean-Paul can’t finish his thoughts, because he suffers from a coughing fit. Michael starts to run down options of what to do with her, but lists killing her as an early choice. She freaks out and has the team freeze where they are. Jeffries talks to Roger about his bends, and turns the Box robot into a specialized depressurization chamber, designed so he can phase out but remain at the correct pressure, so the nitrogen in his system doesn’t burst and kill him. The problem is that Jeffries had to guess at the correct pressure, and when Roger phases out, he is wracked with pain. As Jeffries prepares to help him, Kara shows up and takes control of him, leaving Roger on his own. Jeffries takes her in the Omnijet, and heads to Toronto. Later, Alpha recovers from her powers, and find Roger passed out in the pressure chamber. Vindicator leaves with Northstar and Puck to track Kara and Jeffries down, and Vindicator thinks that Aurora doesn’t love Roger at all. The omnijet lands outside Toronto, and still in Kara’s thrall, Jeffries turns it into a car and drives her until they hit traffic on the Gardner (this book is feeling kind of authentic right about now), so Jeffries has it fly downtown. Kara uses her powers to go on a shopping spree and have a good time. Eventually she takes Jeffries to her mom’s place, and her mom is not happy with her. They leave, and are approached by someone calling himself the Auctioneer, who offers to make Kara rich. She gets in the car, and is immediately trapped and gassed with a mist that will make her susceptible to the Auctioneer’s control. Later, he holds an auction for advanced weapons (his customers are criminals and unsavory world leaders). The Auctioneer controls Kara into controlling Madison into making weapons. Kara, unable to help herself, comes to a realization of how terrible she has been. Vindicator and the others find the Omnijet/roadster and begin looking for Kara. The Auctioneer puts KAra in a special ziplock bag, which blocks her pheromones, and shows that he’s captured her mother. Of course, being blocked causes Jeffries to get free, and he makes a bunch of weapons to protect himself. He also sets off fireworks (I don’t know why) that brings Vindicator and her squad running. They take out the Auctioneer’s people, and we learn that Jean-Paul received a scratch on his arm and is bleeding. The Auctioneer tries to leave with Kara, but her plastic bag prison is ripped, and she tells him to drop dead. He falls, but isn’t actually dead. The team returns to Mansion Alpha (on the other side of the continent) with Kara and her mom. Roger is still unconscious, and they need Kara to use her powers to wake him and have him phase back into his robot. After that, Jeffries suggests that the team revitalize Beta Flight, and make Kara their first trainee. Neither Shaman nor Jean-Paul are sure this is the right move.
- In Washington state, it appears that a power-neutralizing helmet worn by the villain Mentallo is causing him extreme pain. A doctor who thinks that preventing mutants from using their abilities could kill them goes to help him, and is taken over by him. Mentallo escapes from prison, and orders the kidnapped doctor to drive north. A squad of four Sentinels are dispatched to retrieve Mentallo, against the wishes of the engineer who designed these special stealth Sentinels. After crossing the border, the Sentinels become camouflaged. Alpha Flight (minus Shaman and Snowbird) are flying in their Omnijet when Box goes nuts after Aurora is apparently mean to him (we don’t see their interaction), and starts trashing the jet. The team tries to restrain him, but Jean-Paul pisses him off. Kara tries to use her powers to calm him, but instead he turns on her, causing Heather to blast him and knock some pieces off the ship. She flies to stop them from falling on anyone while Aurora rejects and then blinds Box. He starts trashing things even more, so finally Mr. Jeffries has to step in and immobolize his friend. The jet is about to crash, so Jeffries turns it into a weird one-wheeled vehicle. The team heads to the New Life Clinic, a big medical facility now run by Jeffries’s brother Lionel, who was previously Scramble. They are hoping that Lionel can cure Roger of the bends. The Sentinels continue to hunt for Mentallo, but because of their stealth tech, they can only detect him when he uses his powers. The people who sent him begin to worry about what will happen if they are found in Canada, and the engineer decides to call in Sebastian Shaw, who owns the company. Mentallo finds himself at Expo ‘86 in Vancouver, and uses his powers on someone, alerting the Sentinels. They become visible and land in the middle of the Expo. Shaw shows up and is angry. Alpha Flight hears about what’s happening, and leaving Jeffries and Kara with Box, fly off. Mentallo takes control of a crowd to hold off the Sentinels – they cannot attack if it will harm humans. Mentallo has a woman kill herself to further prove his point to the robots. Alpha shows up and enter the fray. Vindicator sends Puck to take out Mentallo, while the rest enage the robots. Northstar wonders why the robots don’t see him as a mutant, and then starts coughing again. They manage to take down Northstar and Aurora, while Mentallo gains control of Puck. Jeffries shows up in the Omnijet, and is surprised to see that Kara has stowed away. Jeffries jumps out of the jet, concerned about Heather, and uses his powers to take apart a Sentinel, making some of it into a flying suit for himself. Kara aims the jet at another Sentinel, while a third targets her. She jumps out, and manages to make two of them collide, destroying them. Kara feels conflicted about using her powers, while Vindicator and Jeffries take out the last Sentinel. Heather is surprised to feel a certain way about Jeffries. Mentallo sends his crowd after Kara, but she takes control of them, having them capture Mentallo. We see that Puck is badly hurt, and needs to see Scramble; Puck feels useless and like he’s let Heather down.
- Alpha, including a healed Puck, but without Roger Bochs, return to Mansion Alpha to find a message, in the form of images of Shaman and Snowbird, coming from Michael’s medicine pouch. It urges them to come to a place called Burial Butte, where they have located Pestilence. Madison tells Kara to stay behind, and after they fly off, the shrunken-down Smart Alec emerges from the pouch. In Vancouver, Scramble works to heal Roger, who is not all that grateful, given that he’s still crippled and worried that Aurora won’t love him. Scramble suggests he can fix him. Alpha arrives in the Northern town, and find the residents all dead, and rats everywhere. They find Doug Thompson, who is dying from a plague. He explains how he tracked down Pestilence, hoping to save his son, and was made sick. He tells them that Snowbird and Shaman showed up and didn’t even try to help him; he makes Alpha promise to save his son. The team heads into the mines where Pestilence was last seen, and they split up when the tunnel branches off. Jeffries is attacked by creatures out of the Aliens movies, while Puck is trapped in a cave-in. Aurora and Northstar talk about Jean-Paul’s worsening cough, and the injury he received last issue, which is not healing. When they are attacked by rats, they touch, cancelling out their powers. In the dark, Aurora’s fears take over. Vindicator is confronted by her dead husband, who plays on her doubts. When she blasts him, he takes the form of Wolverine, followed by Puck, and finally by Jeffries. Heather realizes that Pestilence is playing with her fears and doubts, and blasts him, not knowing that Puck was somewhere behind her. She has to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, which he makes a joke about. Aurora finds Jeffries, and helps him fight off the coal-based aliens. Aurora makes a move on Jeffries, which he rejects. Northstar, still coughing, finds the chamber where Shaman, controlling Snowbird in her Sasquatch form, tries to fight against Pestilence. Northstar intervenes, worried that Snowbird will end up killing her own baby, but the now-heartless Shaman doesn’t care. Pestilence draws strength from the decay inside Jean-Paul (by kissing him on the forehead). The rest of the team arrives, and Heather insists they can stop Pestilence without killing anyone. Shaman frees Snowbird from his control, and the team moves on Pestilence. He makes Aurora old, and makes Puck afraid that he will release Razer from within him. Vindicator blasts at him, but he takes on the form of an infant to get her to stop. Snowbird goes to her baby, but Pestilence realizes that he can manipulate her to do his bidding. He knows that if his body is killed, his spirit will be free. Shaman points out that the baby’s purity is weakening and destroying Pestilence. Heather wants to stop Snowbird from killing the baby, but she hesitates. Snowbird does kill him, and Vindicator in turn blasts Snowbird (still in her Sasquatch form), killing her. We see Pestilence’s spirit go free. Later, the team returns home with the bodies of Doug, Snowbird, and the baby in body bags, which upsets Kara. Vindicator goes off on her own to cry, not realizing that she’s being watched by tiny Smart Alec.
- June Brigman is the new artist on this book. I remember really liking her realistic figures in Power Pack, and being excited to see her on this book. The team assembles to bury Snowbird (still in her Sasquatch form), Doug, and their baby. Heather clarifies some things that I kind of missed last issue (perhaps I wasn’t paying attention), thinking about how she had to kill Snowbird, who was under Pestilence’s control, before that spirit could inhabit her Sasquatch form. Heather feels guilty and sad, and Puck wants to comfort her, but she turns to Jeffries instead, which makes him feel old and small. Kara also feels bad, despite not knowing any of the deceased, and they comfort her. Jean-Paul points out this is their second time mourning Sasquatch, which prompts Aurora to remember their time together, while Jean-Paul keeps coughing and worrying about the disease Pestilence referred to as being inside him. The three gods that make up Snowbird’s family appear, and Shaman argues for them to forgive her. Her spirit is offered a place in paradise, but she refuses it unless the spirits of Doug and their child come with her. They agree, which also appeases Heather’s guilt. Shaman tells the team he is going to leave them, since as the Talisman now, it is unacceptable to him that Heather gave him orders. Returning to their mansion the team sees that a New Life boat is docked, giving them hope that Roger has returned. Aurora realizes she was only toying with Roger. Lionel Jeffries, and his assistant Dr. Knapp, who is named for the first time, greet everyone. Roger phases out of Bochs, revealing a new thinner body and legs, thanks to Lionel’s powers. Aurora is very excited by this new body, and they head upstairs. Lionel and Knapp, who waves at Kara, who is only thirteen, leave, and no one notices the tiny Smart Alec under some furniture. That night, Snowbird’s Sasquatch form rises from her grave. Heather is wool gathering some more when she notices tiny Smart Alec and tries to smash him with a lamp. She catches him, and we see he’s trying to talk to her when the Sasquatch form busts through the wall. It tosses Heather against the wall, causing her to drop Smart Alec. The team assembles in their sleepwear, and Box is seen fighting Sasquatch. This is a surprise, as Roger and Aurora are the last to join them. Everyone realizes that it’s actually Walter Langkowski in the Box robot, having gotten there from Smart Alec’s mindless body. They are also surprised to learn that it’s Pestilence in the Sasquatch form. Heather despairs, while some of the rest of the team try to enter the fight. Kara’s powers don’t work, and everyone sees that Sasquatch is stronger than Box. Heather tells Walter to hold on to Pestilence, and he channels the robot’s power into the beast. At the same time that Pestilence flees the Sasquatch body, Heather tosses Shaman’s medicine pouch at him, and Pestilence is drawn into the void within. Walter, meanwhile, has transferred his consciousness back into Sasquatch, which makes Aurora really happy (and Roger pretty upset). Sasquatch reverts back to human form, but it is Narya’s form he inhabits now, not his old body, which surprises everyone.
- The team is at the New Life Clinic again, hoping Scramble can turn Snowbird’s body male so Walter can be himself. It seems most important to Aurora. There is a lot of exposition, and then Roger gets upset that Aurora is choosing Walter/Wanda over him. Scramble tries to change Walter’s body, but it doesn’t work. Knapp suggests it’s because Walter’s body is that of a shapeshifter demigoddess, and that is accepted by everyone but Aurora, who flies off. Bochs jumps in his robot and goes after her. The rest of the team return to their Omnijet and head home as well. Knapp suggests to Scramble that there’s something wrong with Bochs – we could see that he had lesions on his new limbs – and Scramble threatens to transmute him. Aurora rejects Roger again in mid-air. Later, Heather updates her files and then spies on her team. Aurora and Puck speak briefly, mostly about how much Aurora focuses on herself. Walter and Jean-Paul speak briefly (between his coughs) about how he preferred him as a man too. Heather sees Kara go to Jeffries for homework help, and thinks about how she is starting to like him a lot. In his room, Roger scratches his legs and gets angry at how he thinks he’s been played by Aurora and the others. In her bed, Aurora fights to control her fear of the dark. Suddenly, Box busts through her wall and grabs her. The rest of the team comes running at the noise, and finds Box doing his best King Kong imitation, holding Aurora at the top of the stairs, threatening to hurt her (she has passed out I guess). Kara tries to use her powers to calm him, and he kicks her down the stairs. This upsets Jeffries. Roger mentions how they’ve been friends since the “Institution” (which contradicts/retcons earlier issues when they barely knew each other). Puck grabs Aurora away, while Sasquatch grabs Roger. Puck thinks about how he, Roger, and Madison were at a place called the Clinic for Socially Maladjusted Super-Beings, which makes no sense since he and Roger aren’t super-beings. Aurora has retreated into a delusional version of Jeanne-Marie, while Roger and Walter’s fight gets more violent. Roger shocks Walter unconscious, leaving it to Heather to start blasting at her friend. He swats her aside, which really angers Jeffries, who starts using machinery in the floor to block the robot. Puck realizes that Jeffries loves Heather too and takes time to feel sorry for himself again. Jeffries tries to get Box to calm down, and talks about how Roger used to be delusional and paranoid at this institution, and reminds him how James Hudson helped both of them find direction. Roger continues to attack, so finally Madison turns his powers on him, phasing into the Box robot and kicking Roger out of it. We see that his legs are looking worse than before, and Roger accuses Madison of always planning on replacing him. Madison walks away from him.
- Issue forty-six is the first to have a Statement of Ownership (unless I just missed earlier ones, but I was watching for them). Alpha Flight is listed as having an average press run of 384 000 copies, with average newsstand returns of 142 000. These are incredible numbers.
- Issue forty-seven is odd, as it features only Heather, and has art by three pencillers, Craig Brasfield, Mike Mignola, and Steve Purcell, and also has Terry Austin joining Whilce Portacio on inks. It feels like a fill-in issue, yet fits in continuity perfectly, and is written by Bill Mantlo. An alien seedpod falls from space and lands in the baseball mitt of a kid in Heather’s hometown, Haysboro Alberta. The pod opens, and branches reach along the kid’s arm; he is compelled to walk into the nearby forest. Heather is flying towards Haysboro, reminiscing about how her parents cut off ties to her, upset when she chose to elope with Mac. They opposed his working for the government, and after they met Logan, were convinced that he would get Heather killed. Now they’ve called her home, and Heather feels convicted – she had wanted to help get Roger psychiatric help. Her mother catches her before she can cover her battle suit, and it looks like they are going to go over old arguments, but then her dad comes out, and they talk about why they called her. It turns out that a number of children have gone missing, and they want Vindicator’s help. She’s annoyed at first, thinking this is something better suited to the authorities, but she learns that they’ve found nothing. Heather and her dad are driving around when they find a kid’s bike near the woods. As Heather flies around looking for her, her dad picks up a seedpod, and is covered in wood, and joined by other tree aliens (not Groot, though). Heather returns, and is herself attacked by a couple of seedpods, which aren’t able to penetrate her electromagnetic field. She wonders where her father is. Back at the McNeil home, Heather’s mom is with the missing girl’s mother with some cops, and they hear the girl and Mr. McNeil calling from the backyard. It turns out there are tree aliens in the yard, and the cops aren’t able to stop them from advancing. Heather arrives and realizes that the locals are still inside the tree aliens. She blasts them anyway, thinking that she has to stop them from spreading, and despite the fact that it sounds like the humans are burning. She is able to rescue one kid by dumping the burning alien in a koi pond, and realizes that the wooden shells are being used to protect the aliens. She burns them all, and then douses them all, rescuing everyone. It looks like a happy ending, but there is one seedpod still sitting on the lawn…
- Terry Shoemaker was the artist on issue forty-eight, with Steve Leialoha and Hilary Barta ending Whilce Portacio’s run as inker. At Mansion Alpha, the reduced Alpha team, with Purple Girl, stand around the ranting Roger Bochs. They have him in a water-filled tank, and it appears his legs have all but disappeared, and his chubbiness has returned. Bochs keeps calling Aurora a tramp, and raging at everyone, especially Madison Jeffries. The team’s changes cause Heather to doubt herself as leader again, and to feel like she can only count on Jeffries. Things get heated, and Jeffries, in the Box robot, ends up fighting with Northstar. After Sasquatch and Heather calm things down, Jeffries suggests taking Roger to see Scramble again. Heather has misgivings, but allows this to go to a vote. Later, the team takes Roger to New Life, where Scramble suggests he can’t fix Roger’s madness, as he doesn’t have a template for sanity for him. Scramble is judgemental of Heather’s distrust of him, but takes Roger to his secret lab with Madison and Dr. Knapp accompanying him. The team is stuck hanging out waiting, and that leads to both Aurora and Kara worrying about claustrophobia, and to Puck feeling worthless again. Scramble ends up explaining to his brother that he has been using the flesh of corpses to cure his patients, and it becomes clear that he’s still crazy. He transmutes Madison so he can’t escape, and talks about creating a race of new creatures he calls the Omega; he hopes to use Alpha’s powers to help with this. Dr. Knapp turns on his boss, and Scramble reveals that Knapp has some kind of genetic potential in him; he turns him kind of gooey, and approaches Roger, offering to combine bodies with him, so the combination of Scramble’s powers and Roger’s mind can be more powerful. Jean-Paul slips away from his teammates, finally ready to ask Scramble to cure his cough and whatever disease is within him. Aurora follows, and finds a room where Scramble has been keeping some bizarre patients in glass jars. Northstar is attacked by some creature, and returns to the rest of the team, warning them. Omega, the combined body of Lionel Jeffries and Roger Bochs announces itself, and attacks. Heather authorizes deadly force, but Omega appears more powerful, eventually taking down the whole team except for Kara (who doesn’t use her powers for some reason), and Aurora, who’s not there. Madison, still hobbled by the changes wrought upon him, tries to reach Knapp to wake up his powers, and he sees something happening to the young doctor.
- Knapp starts to glow, and three other beings appear to issue forth from him – a protoplasmic blob, a caveman, and a tall lanky version of Knapp with circuitry on his leg and clothes. There’s a lot of exposition from the lanky guy, who Knapp calls Highbrow, and we figure out that these are different evolutionary manifestations of Knapp. The caveman tosses the still deformed Jeffries at the Box robot, allowing him to phase inside. As he prepares to go help Alpha, the others appear to teleport. The team is fighting against Omega, but Puck gets grabbed in a tendril, Northstar starts choking and coughing, and Aurora is still missing, leaving Heather to wonder how they can win. She tries to get Purple Girl to use her powers, but she hesitates, and Omega grabs her, gagging her. Sasquatch and Vindicator don’t have much luck, but then Box shows up with Knapp and his other selves in tow. The Caveman works to free Sasquatch, while Box distracts Omega, and Knapp himself works to free Kara. She’s not breathing so he gives her mouth-to-mouth, and Jeffries suggests there’s more to it (remember, Kara is 13!). Jeffries also calls him Manikin, and that’s not explained at all, which is weird. Jeffries transforms the Box robot into a totally new configuration (already seen on the last issue’s cover), and starts fighting Omega directly. Heather starts to help him, and Highbrow notices that Omega is getting weaker. Roger Bochs fights to regain some control, emerging as a face on the creature’s chest, but the Scramble part of the mix lobotomizes him. Jeffries blasts Omega, but Omega survives and starts ranting. Kara tells him to shut up, and takes control of him. She has him cure Jeffries. Heather is surprised by how misshapen Jeffries is, and talks about how much pain he must have been in, causing Puck to get bitter and selfish again. Kara orders Jeffries fixed, and then has him explain that Roger Bochs is truly dead. The team can’t decide what to do with Omega, so Jeffries gets back into the Box robot and blasts him to pieces. He then turns and walks away. Jean-Paul reminds them that Aurora is missing, and then is wracked by coughs again. He explains that Pestilence has accelerated an existing condition, and he collapses. Elsewhere, Aurora sits in the dark in a room full of smashed containment tubes (it looks different from it did last issue, but it’s the same place where we saw her before). She sits and repeats a rhyme – the one about the bird flying over the cuckoo’s nest, which I guess is meant to make it clear that she’s crazy.
- I didn’t reread the X-Men/Alpha Flight miniseries for this column (different set of boxes), so this issue relied on some pretty old memories. The team, concerned for both Northstar’s health and Aurora’s sanity, decided to go to the place where that miniseries was set, hoping to find the firefountain, a magical stream of energy that heals. They find a rose growing out of the northern Quebec tundra, which they see as a good sign. Box decides to dig, and finds a massive underground cavern, which houses an ancient Viking village. He calls the team down, but Aurora freaks out about the darkness and then conquers her fear out of concern for Jean-Paul. Loki watches all of this (he was the villain in the X-Men/Alpha Flight series) and remembers that Those Who Sit Above ruled that he couldn’t act against these heroes. Loki starts thinking about loopholes while the team descends. Back at Mansion Alpha, Purple Girl is alone with Manikin, Beta Flight’s newest recruit, and they decide they should cuddle, and perhaps do more. It’s worth pointing out again that Kara is thirteen! The team locates the place where the firefountain was, but it’s not there. Aurora flies through the shaft it was located in, while the narration identifies her as Jeanne-Marie Baptiste, not Beaubier. She finds a giant seal at the bottom of the shaft, and the team decides to open it based on the good feelings Aurora gets from the runes, and Puck’s beliefs in faeries (he’s determined to be cured of his dwarfism so that Heather will love him, even though he’d age a lot). Inside, they find more darkness. Loki makes the seal close behind them, and then makes Jean-Paul very thirsty. Aurora decides to stay with him, and suggests that the others go on without them. She pours some water into Jean-Paul’s mouth. The rest of the team finds the firefountain, but it’s made of black light. Loki narrates that they are in Svartalfheim, and he sends dark elves to fight them. During the battle, Puck falls off a causeway and into the firefountain, which restores his height, but also frees Razer. Puck appears to fall to his death. Loki reveals himself to the twins, and then forces some of the same water down Aurora’s throat. They dream of their father, also misnamed as a Baptiste. He was studying folklore, and found an elf barrow, full of elves. He captured one, Danae, who fell in love with him and bore him twins. Other elves attacked them, wanting to take her home, and caused the car crash that killed her. They ignored the babies and the dying father. Jean-Paul and Aurora come to realize that they are half-elf, and Loki explains that their exposure to the human world is what is killing and driving them mad, respectively. He says that the only way they can be cured is through exposure to pure elf light. Aurora decides to use her light to cure Jean-Paul, although that burns out all of her powers. Some elflings carry Aurora away. The rest of Alpha continue to fight elves, and are next attacked by Razer, whose presence they see as proof of Puck’s death. His sword shrinks Box and Vindicator, but the light coming off the newly arrived Northstar holds him back. The team retreats, and Heather orders the seal closed, even though that means leaving Aurora behind. She welds it shut, against Northstar’s wishes. After as they stand around on the surface, Northstar announces his wish to depart. He flies into the sky, and is welcomed through a shining gateway by other elves. The team leaves. Loki is summoned by Those Who Sit Above in Shadow, who question his actions. He reveals that he has left Aurora, her mind and memories wiped, at a monastery or something. He also reveals that he left the now tall and older Puck in Tibet, and that Puck is good with that. Those Who Sit send Loki back to Asgard, but they lie and send him through a door to Svartalfheim, where Razer is waiting for him. As the Omnijet flies home, Heather weeps for the losses the team has suffered.
- Issue fifty-one was Jim Lee’s first Marvel comic. I was surprised to see that he signed my copy, although I have no memory of ever meeting him. I wonder if it was at a signing he did before he became so big. The issue opens with Alpha (which is now just Vindicator, Box, an Sasquatch) and Beta Flight (Purple Girl and Manikin) defending Tamarind Island from a massive military invasion. Heather decides to put the team on the offensive, leaving Kara and Whitman to look after themselves. Heather begins to clear attackers in the air, while Madison starts taking out ground forces and reinforcements coming in from the sea. Wanda turns her attention to the tanks. Ground troops surround Beta Flight, so Kara is able to use her powers to turn them against soldiers further afield. Some helicopters target them, allowing the uncontrolled soldiers to use masks to protect themselves from Kara’s powers. Whitman splits into his four selves, and gets them out of a jam. Whitman even defends himself from a soldier. The team routs the invaders, and celebrate their win. It’s only then that we learn that this was a training and evaluation exercise, overseen by Gary Cody. He congratulates the team, and praises Heather’s leadership; she maintains that her current team is more powerful and functional than Mac’s ever was. They retire to the mansion, where Gary is surprised to see that Madison runs the Box robot, and that Walter is now a woman. After the rest of the team leaves, he again praises Heather, who in turn calls him out for the bugging of their headquarters. She leaves Gary to wait while she bathes. He reminisces about how he and Mac built the first team, and Beta and Gamma Flights, and how he managed to bring the team back into contact with the government. Madison chats with him a bit, and Cody heads into the computer room, where he downloads all their information onto a special disc. When he leaves that room, the team has gathered. Heather apologizes for forgetting what a good friend he’s been, and they all praise him. This is the last monthly issue that was available on the newsstands; with issue fifty-two, the series became direct market and subscription only.
- Annual #2 fits between issues 51 and 52. A Canadian research station, manned by three men and one woman, has been established in Antarctica to look for sources of geothermal energy. The crew engage in some banter when a sudden earthquake alerts them to trouble. A vent has formed, sending steam through the ice, and causing their surroundings to melt and slide into the sea. The scientists are surprised to see dinosaurs and cavemen emerge from the vent. They attack the men and take the woman with them. Later, a rescue ship is surprised to find dead dinosaurs; they learn from the single survivor that the woman was taken. A few days later, Alpha Flight, Vindicator and Sasquatch, flying in Box, are headed to the Antarctic to try to rescue the woman. Heather remembers how Gary Cody called and asked them for help with this, and we get a bit more of her self-doubt. The team spies a volcano erupting at the south pole, which causes an electric storm. Lightning strikes Box, knocking him out. As he crashes, Heather heads out of his jetform to fight off some pteradons. Heather is hit by lightning too, which shorts out her Vindicator battlesuit, and causes painful feedback. She falls into the vent, landing in a tropical jungle. Box crashes, but he and Sasquatch are fine on the ice fields. They get into a fight with a tyrannosaurus rex. Vindicator wakes up to learn that she doesn’t know where she is, or who she is. She fights off a snake, a saber tooth tiger, and a caveman in short order. She figures that she’s not from this world, but is determined to survive. Some days later, Box and Sasquatch are digging through the Antarctic ice. In that time, Heather has cut her battlesuit into a bathing suit, and has taken to wearing a garland of vine around her head. She finds a city, where she sees other cavemen preparing to sacrifice three misfits – differently-shaped members of their tribe. This reminds her of something, so she works to rescue them. She frees them and leads them to the space she’s been living. At the same time, Box and Sasquatch finally break through, arriving in the underground tropical world (where no one discusses light sources). They find the village that Heather has just fought her way out of, and discover the missing scientist. At Heather’s hideaway, she tries to communicate with her three new friends. Some days later, she speaks their language fluently, and learns that after Terminus destroyed the Savage Land, these people made their way to this underground land, where these three were changed by the geothermal energies. Scouting, they learn that enemies are about to attack the village, and they go to help out, despite being hated by the villagers. During the fight, Heather fires off her gauntlet. Box notices the discharge (he must have the “Find My Battlesuit” app), and he and Sasquatch join the fight. Heather is hit on the head, and is a bit delirious, but then comes back to her proper mind and memories. She helps her new friends make amends with their village, and then heads home with her team and the scientist.
- Gary Cody is standing in the old Department H facility (drawn by June Brigman to look exactly as it did in the first issue of Alpha Flight when John Byrne drew it). He’s wearing a ridiculous “portaputer” – basically a cross between the trays worn by cigarette girls in old cartoons and a computer. He’s using it to go through the data he found in the Alphanex computers. We see a flashback of James Hudson talking to himself about wanting to help Canada. We also see the argument between Mac and Logan when he left to become Wolverine. Gary continues to narrate the history of Department H, and then uses the computer to show him an earlier scene, when Mac took Logan to see a secret lab. Mac had developed a device to track down latent superhumans, and his first test subject was a convicted murderer from Nova Scotia. He’s done some kind of experiment on the guy, and now he’s lying wrapped like a mummy on a table; Mac intended to train him to use his powers for good, but Logan was sceptical. Having this data, Cody goes to the secret door to this lab, and within finds a large cocoon, which no one knows about. He is intrigued by the idea of being able to manufacture superhumans, and begins to touch the control pad. On Tamarind Island, Heather swims in the strait, and thinks about how her life has changed since Mac died (it’s the anniversary of his death). Kara and Whitman watch her and flirt with one another. Box watches them, is concerned for a moment about the decade or more in age difference between them (at this point, Kara is either still thirteen or fourteen), but decides that he trusts Whitman. Madison emerges from Box and swims out to Heather; they kiss. Wanda watches this from the Mansion’s porch (there is a lot of watching each other going on) and thinks about how comfortable she feels as a woman now. Back at the old Dept. H, we see that the cocoon has opened, that a hole has been opened in the wall, and that Gary Cody lies either dead or brainless. A light starts flashing on the control panel, which sets off a phone call somewhere. The phone is answered by Logan, who hears the recorded voice of Mac telling him that Bedlam is free (good thing Logan answered the phone at the X-Mansion…).
- Wolverine arrives at Mansion Alpha to find it utterly destroyed. Exploring the wreckage, he finds a compact piece of technology – the Box robot – which grows to its regular size. Madison phases out, and Logan helps him come to his senses. He explains that the team was training the Beta Flight members, and that as their session ended, they were attacked by Bedlam the Brain Blast, who immediately took control of everyone but Box, who was tossed out of the mansion in Bedlam’s original attack. When he returned, Bedlam tried to take him over, so Jeffries hid his mind in the robot. Logan explains that Bedlam is after revenge. In a complex in the Arctic Circle, we see that Bedlam has Alpha prisoner, along with four other people. He pools their minds, and in a forty-panel grid, we get to see the origins of the Alphans and Betans, and learn that all the other people there are the ones that escaped from Scramble’s lab, and were then captured by Bedlam. Bedlam learns that Mac is dead, and we see how Guardian and Wolverine were able to capture him before. Bedlam reveals that Gary Cody stole Alpha’s data, angering Heather. Next, he pits the team against his other prisoners, who he calls the Derangers (Freakout, Breakdown, Janus, and Goblyn), controlling their fight so he can see who is strongest. They fight for a bit, while Box and Wolverine approach in an airplane. Logan explains how he was angry with Mac for creating Bedlam, and that’s why he left Department H. He also makes it clear, when Madison figures out that Logan had feelings for Heather, that he supports their current relationship. Bedlam blasts their plane, but they’ve prepared for this. Madison gets them safely to the ground, and, to avoid Bedlam’s control, has buried his consciousness in the robot. At the same time, Logan has given in to his berserker rage. Inside, Wanda figures out that the best way to stop Freakout is to turn to her human form. Kara gets Goblyn to help get Janus off of Manikin, while Heather and Kara work together to shut down Breakdown. Bedlam can’t control them all at once, so they maneuver Freakout into fighting him, while Goblyn and Vindicator attack together. Box and Wolverine show up, and Bedlam picks up Heather’s thoughts about Mac being responsible for Wolverine’s creation. While he acknowledges that she is wrong (creating some guilt in her mind for not better trusting Mac), he uses her supposition to distract Wolverine. Bedlam turns Logan on Box, giving Heather space to figure out how she can override his commands and turn her suit against him. They fight, and Heather manages to blast his head off, freeing everyone from his control. Goblyn rushes out into the Arctic. Box lets them know their mansion is destroyed, and Wolverine suggests that they take over Bedlam’s facilities (this appeals to Heather, who is furious at Cody’s betrayal). Logan says goodbye, and gets teleported home by Egghead (who was formerly called Highbrow). Heather and Madison embrace.
- Goblyn sits outside Bedlam’s base in the Arctic, cold, but unwilling to head back inside where Alpha is. She is afraid to return to her usual world, as that would put Laura Dean at risk. Inside, Box, Sasquatch, and Manikin work to seal off the facility, which has become very cold since Bedlam died. The rest of the Derangers are dead, and there is a short discussion of making this place their new base. Kara recaps her life story, and worries about Goblyn, who she wants to go rescue from the cold. Alpha heads out to look for her, splitting up and using bracelets made by Box to help find her. Kara and Whitman remain inside, where Whitman comforts Kara. Goblyn attacks Sasquatch, blinding her. Next, Vindicator finds Laura Dean, half frozen, but when she goes to her, she swaps places with Goblyn, who attacks Heather. Box locates Goblyn and brings her back to the base, but Goblyn starts ripping him apart, causing great pain for Madison. When Whitman goes to help Madison, Kara inadvertently freezes him with her powers, allowing Goblyn to cut him. Heather finds the blind Sasquatch, and they begin to head back to base together. Goblyn corners Kara, who, when she attempts to use her power on her, ends up being inside her head. We learn that Goblyn and Laura are twins, and that Goblyn’s monstrous appearance was discovered in utero. Their father being an anti-mutant bigot, he agrees to a medical procedure where radiation would be used to kill the monstrous twin. Inside the wound, Laura maneuvered to protect her, and somehow absorbed her. When Laura was born, she was autistic, and lived on her own until Scramble found her. Goblyn attacks Kara, but Kara decides to be direct with her, offering no resistance, and showing emotion. This gets Goblyn to stop, but just then the rest of Alpha busts in, leading to more fighting. Kara stops everyone from killing Goblyn, who flees into the facility. They find her, and Kara protects her from Vindicator’s blast, taking the hit herself. This makes it clear to Goblyn that Kara will protect her, and Kara is happy that she understands that.
- Heather chats with Wanda, who is having some trouble adjusting to the changes that have happened in her life. They also talk about how Goblyn and Laura Dean have been inducted to Beta Flight, and how they are stuck at Bedlam’s complex until the storm clears (apparently no one remembers that Highbrow can teleport). Heather informs Madison and Whitman that she doesn’t want to stay there, although they show her how they can adapt the place to be quite useful, given Madison’s powers. Whitman explains how they have an unlimited supply of fish, seeing as they are above the ocean. Kara tries to talk with Laura, who makes reference to their world as the Deadworld, and reveals that when they trade places, Laura goes to Liveworld. When she and Kara touch, she is able to transport her there, but Goblyn blocks her from entering what looks like a surrealistic landscape. Outside, in the Arctic storm, Sasquatch begins moving around the ice and rock to make a strange landscape. She hears a voice, and is joined by Tundra; apparently he has created a portal for the Great Beasts to come through. They are quickly joined by Somon the Artificer, Kariooq the Corruptor, and Tolomaq the Fire Beast. They want Sasquatch to return to them, but she resists, and they toss her into the complex. The Beasts attack, but by thinking quickly, Vindicator is able to take out both Tolomaq and Kariooq with one move. Box begins to fight against Tundra, while Sasquatch squares off with Somon. Manikin attacks, and Somon psychically kills all four of his beings at once. Kara tries to get Laura to trade places with Goblyn, but it only works when she is directly threatened. Sasquatch appears to kill Somon, while Vindicator and Box fight Tundra. Tundra steps on Kara and Laura, and when he lifts his foot, Goblyn is there to fight him. Madison transmutes the entire Bedlam complex into a gigantic Box robot to better fight the massive Tundra. The rest of the team enters the giant robot, but Tundra just keeps growing. Sasquatch points out that he’s mostly made of ice, and that a giant blast would melt him. Sasquatch suggests that Madison convert the Box robot to energy to do this, but Heather worries that will kill them all. Madison does it anyway, and the issue ends on a smoking, empty crater.
- In the aftermath of the explosion, Madison turned the Box robot into a giant spaceship, and sent it flying through space (it doesn’t look like too much of its mass was converted into energy, as it’s still huge). Box is screaming, and the team has no idea how to calm things down. Goblyn starts freaking out, and Heather and Wanda have to try to stop her from causing damage to Box. Heather seems pretty bigoted towards Goblyn, referring to her as an animal. Goblyn runs away, and Wanda suspects she’s heading towards Box’s ‘brain’. They begin to search for her, while Whitman and his other selves all feel terrible from being stabbed by Somon. He absorbs his other selves, and immediately feels better. Goblyn discovers a chamber where a bunch of monstrous fish things swim in large tanks. She cuts one open, and at the same time, Heather and Wanda find themselves attacked by creatures that resemble a mix of the fish things and the aliens in Aliens. In Liveworld, Kara and Laura hang out together. Laura explains that Liveworld makes her feel safe, but as she says that, we see that she is being watched by someone through a crystal ball. Sasquatch figures out that the creatures attacking her and Heather are Bedlamites – things created by Bedlam that they didn’t find when they searched the complex. Whitman wants to start fixing Box, and the robot pulls him through a tube to its brain, which has a tumor on it, and is being attacked by Bedlamites. Goblyn busts into the chamber, and helps Whitman. The problem is, she starts shredding the tumor, releasing more Bedlamites. Heather hears Box scream and comes into the same chamber. She takes out the Bedlamites, and then wants to blast Goblyn to keep her from damaging Madison. Whitman stops her, reminding her that Kara is somewhere inside her. Heather traps Goblyn in a plasma bubble, and then starts blasting away at the remaining Bedlamites on the brain. Next she blasts the tumor, but that reveals that it’s tendrils have reached throughout the inside of the brain. Whitman guides Heather in removing a number of the malignancies. Next, she has to take out a central mass, but they are afraid it will damage Madison’s personality. He appears to Heather and tells her to take the risk. No one remembers that Manikin’s Proto self could just dissolve the tumor, but that’s okay. Heather takes her shot, the whole spaceship screams, and then its internal defenses kick in, destroying the last of the Bedlamites, and helping Wanda. The team makes its way to the bridge, where Box has formed a chair for Heather, which she kisses. Whitman reminds everyone that his love is still inside Goblyn, and Madison sets course to return to Earth.
- The Boxship is landing on an alien world to take on some minerals that can be converted to fuel. The landing on this barren world is a rough one, but the team makes it through. Wanda comments on how this world is like Earth was before a spark of energy created life. Madison phases out to make out with Heather. Whitman gets jealous and starts asking Goblyn where Kara, who is apparently now his girlfriend, is. Goblyn takes a swipe at him, causing him to call forth his other selves. Heather blasts Goblyn, which earns her a lecture from Madison about her biases. On Liveworld, Kara and Laura continue to hang out and provide a lot of exposition. Laura admits that there are some scary things on Liveworld, but that Goblyn always swaps places with her when they come near. On cue, Goblyn swaps with her, and we see a being welcoming her home, and asking if Goblyn can take her with her some time, so she can have a new world to conquer. Whitman is happy to see Kara back. The team looks out the Boxship to see a storm start, and Madison begins the drilling process he needs. Heather thinks about how Alpha is homeless. Madison’s refueled and prepares to blast off, but the Boxship is held fast by crystal growths that weren’t there before. Sasquatch suspects these might be new life, but since it’s growing all over the ship, they see it as a threat. Madison makes everyone protective suits and they head out. Laura tries to get them to understand the new life, but they ignore her and start blasting away at it. They are surprised to see that the crystals “bleed” when smashed. Kara tries to use her powers to control the crystals (despite the fact that her powers are pheromone based and she’s in a spacesuit), and the new shared consciousness aspect to her abilities causes her some pain. Believing her to be in danger, Laura swaps places with Goblyn, and Kara ends up mindlinking with her too. Heather and Manikin are surprised to see that Goblyn saved Kara from being impaled. Goblyn starts to communicate with the crystals through purring at them, and they withdraw from the Boxship. Kara explains that Goblyn figured things out, and Heather calls her an animal again (I’m not sure why Kara hasn’t just explained that she’s a mutant). The ship is able to take off, and Heather, who once nursed the feral Logan back to sanity, promises to try to help understand Goblyn. The team is concerned that Laura has not returned, now that they are out of danger (despite the fact that they were also out of danger at the beginning of the issue when Goblyn stuck around). We see that the Dreamqueen is using magic to keep Laura in Liveworld.
- The Boxship is still flying through space, and it’s beginning to look like the team is lost. They are worried that Box might run out of mass (since he’s still using it for fuel) and strand them in space, but they don’t seem concerned about the fact that they wouldn’t have any food. Wanda decides that the route to Earth might be in Box’s computer’s memory (although really, is there a computer when he’s the living robot?). They start to take him apart to get to his memory banks, but Goblyn starts acting up. In Liveworld, Laura is attacked by a flower and ends up the captive of the Dreamqueen, who tells her that she wants her to show her how to leave Liveworld. Laura claims that only Goblyn controls the transference when she’s in danger, so the Dreamqueen puts her in danger. Heather acts all speciesist against Goblyn again, so Kara tries to tap into her mind again using her powers. This ends up knocking them into the Boxchair just as Sasquatch tries to program the route to Earth into Box. Somehow, all these connected mindmerged people cause the Boxship to end up in Liveworld, where they are about to crash into a floating island. Heather uses her suit’s power to change course, but then they crash into another one. Goblyn runs off, on Laura’s trail, while Kara finds Sasquatch and all of Manikin’s selves. Box emerges from the wrecked Boxship, and they find Heather, possibly unconscious but trapped behind her suit’s forceshields. Goblyn tracks Laura to the Dreamqueen’s castle. The Dreamqueen is explaining to Laura that she has always protected Goblyn, as the only other truly living creature in the realm, but now she wants Goblyn to take her to Earth. To frighten Laura, she has creatures with her parents’ faces approach her, and Goblyn drops through a window and starts shredding them. The Dreamqueen is surprised to see both sisters together, and realizes that there are others in her world. When Goblyn bites her, all of Liveworld starts to storm. The team starts to follow Goblyn’s tracks, while the Dreamqueen gathers a large army to force her to help her.
- The Statement of Ownership for this year (1987?) lists an average press run of 347 000, with average newsstand returns of 144 000.
- Issue fifty-nine opens in Northern China, where Puck, now tall and in his mid-seventies, has been travelling to a remote lamasery, where he’s heard there is a doorway to other worlds. As he approaches, so does a troop of Chinese soldiers, who are there to shut down the peaceful monks. One of the soldiers, named Dei Guan, has doubts, caused by the fact that the Maoist regime caused his parent’s deaths. Judd watches from a nearby mountain slope, very aware of the fact that his aged body can’t do anything to help out. The soldiers open fire on the monks, who somehow turn their bullets into flowers. Next they create a forcefield around them, but the commander calls in an air strike, which kills some of them. Judd has some explosives with him, which he sets on the slope and explodes, hoping it can distract the Chinese. The commander sees this as proof of the monk’s intentions, and orders their mass execution. As the fighting continues, Judd slips through the forcefield using a trick he knows, and makes his way to the lamasery. The Chinese commander calls on Dei Guan, who we learn, has the ability to turn himself into a large dragon, called the Jade Dragon. He is able to bust through the forceshield. We learn that he was given his abilities by a geomancer, and signed up for the army having few other options. On Tamarind Island, a boat arrives with a man and a veiled woman. They talk about how, since Walter Langkowski died, the island should belong to her. They are challenged by Canadian soldiers, and the man, a lawyer, argues that the island does not belong to the Canadian government. The woman reveals herself to be Veronica Langkowski, Walter’s widow. Judd breaks into the lamasery by smashing a window, and finds himself in front of the High Lama. He explains that he wants to travel to a new world, and the lama dismisses him as being selfish. The lama explains that it’s better to live to transcend the wheel of life. Jade Dragon interrupts them, and sees Judd’s presence there as proof that the lama is conspiring with foreign spies. Judd tries to fight the Dragon, and when it is about to blast him, the Lama jumps in front of him, burning to death. This upsets the Jade Dragon, who busts out of the lamasery to tell the commander that the lama is dead. When Jade Dragon sees that the rest of the monks are about to be killed, he turns on his fellow soldiers. The lama appears to Judd, thanking him for helping him to leave life and reach enlightenment. He offers the chance to travel to another world, and shows him Alpha Flight fighting the Dreamqueen in Liveworld. Judd hesitates, wanting a fresh start somewhere else, but then chooses to help his friends. Suddenly, the Dreamqueen, her legions, and Alpha Flight find themselves in the courtyard where the Chinese commander blames Jade Dragon for this mess.
- The Soviets react to news that the Chinese are massing troops near their border, which in turn upsets the Americans. They call Canada when their satellite shows Alpha Flight in the mix, which upsets Brian Mulroney, Canada’s Prime Minister. The Jade Dragon pushes the Chinese military out of the lamasery, sealing it behind a wall of flames, which causes the commander to call for more reinforcements. Mulroney is not happy that they can’t get Alpha out of there, and everyone worries that this event might lead to a war. In China, Alpha fights against the Dreamqueen’s dream warriors, who apparently don’t even exist but are just dream figments that can hurt them. The High Lama, now a glowing figure who isn’t there, watches the fight thinking about Alpha’s heroics. Puck cradles and protects the unconscious Heather. Jade Dragon enters the fight, helping Alpha as he sees that they are protecting the priests (I thought they were monks before). Laura Dean is about to be attacked, but Goblyn comes to her aid. Box notices that the monks/priests (okay, apparently the word is interchangeable) can’t be touched by the dream warriors (is it worth pointing out that in the late 80s and early 90s, Toronto was home to a hiphop group called the Dream Warriors, and that’s all I can think of reading this?), and recognizes that they don’t exist, but can still be hurt by them. The Dreamqueen learns about Alpha’s history, while Puck speaks with the High Lama. At his urging, Puck begins to meditate, and sees that the dream warriors aren’t real. The High Lama tells him to defeat the Dreamqueen by returning her to her own world. Laura figures out that she has interdimensional powers, which is how she protected Goblyn in the womb, and her eyes begin to light up. At the same time, Puck comes cartwheeling through the battle and pushes the Dreamqueen through the still-open portal to Liveworld. As he holds her, Laura uses her power to close the portal. Puck tells her to not worry about him, and Laura closes off the portal. Box rushes to Heather, who is being healed by the High Lama. The team is happy to be together and back on Earth, and the High Lama teleports them away (along with the Jade Dragon). The Chinese commander receives a call to withdraw, to stave off the larger conflict, which in turn causes the Soviets to back down. Mulroney is happy to hear that things are calm again, but he, being the good Progressive Conservative PM that he is, wants Alpha to pay still.
- Issue sixty-one is the first in Marvel’s version of the New Format. The price went up by $0.50 an issue in Canada, but the paper quality improved, and the story was longer, so it was all good. Vindicator and Box are at Parliament Hill for a hearing into Alpha’s activities in China, and things seem pretty combative from the beginning. Heather quiets her government-appointed attorney and accuses the government of sending Bedlam to destroy them. Wanda, Kara, Whitman, Laura, and Goblyn are wandering Ottawa while the hearing is broadcast everywhere, drawing crowds on the streets. They were staying in a hotel on the government’s dime, but felt the need to get out (Goblyn is in a baby carriage). We see that Jade Dragon is also present for the hearing, and Heather recaps the last few issues. The others enter a bar that Puck used to work at (although when we saw him working in a bar in the early issues, it was in Toronto). A politician named Laughton angers Heather into blasting at his desk, which plays into his hands, as he’s trying to depict Alpha as a threat to the country. Heather is mainly angry about how her team was spied on, and the politicians have different ideas as to what the team should be. Somewhere in the US, Laura’s parents, Susan and Darby, watch the hearings and see their daughter. Wanda and the others attract the attention of some barflies, and Kara sends them away using her powers. When Wanda tries to pay for their food with Walter’s credit card, they draw even more attention to themselves. Laughton suggests that villains only come to Canada because of Alpha Flight. Wanda turns to Sasquatch to quiet things down at the bar, and they leave, not sure what to do about money. At the hearing, Heather insists that the team does not want the government’s money. Wanda remembers that she/Walter is rich, but when she goes to the bank to withdraw some of Walter’s money, she is not allowed. This turns into a scene when she turns to Sasquatch, and Kara has to use her powers to get her to calm down. It looks like Wanda, who goes around dressed for jazzercise, is getting a cold. We see that the hearing is being watched by the Fantastic Four (in it’s weird sharp Thing, Ms. Thing era), the Avengers (in the Doctor Druid era), and the X-Men (from the Outback). Heather makes clear that the team is going to continue to defend Canada, but without governmental assistance. Wanda gets angry to learn that all of her money is tied up in Walter’s will, even though Walter’s not exactly dead. When Kara and Whitman begin to make other plans for their lives, Wanda drags them to see her wife. The government pushes again for Alpha to be under its control, and this causes the Jade Dragon to go off, seeing as he had been in a similar situation. This really angers Laughton. Heather finally puts her foot down and refuses all governmental intervention. Laughton makes an effort to appeal to Madison, who, in his Box robot, crushes the man’s hand. They offer to take Jade Dragon with them, but he refuses. Outside the Parliament Building, Heather confesses that she figured Walter’s fortune could keep them afloat, and then she kind of proposes to Jeffries. Wanda leads the others to one of her former mansions (although as Walter he’d always lived in Vancouver before). Veronica, his ex-wife, doesn’t recognize him (for obvious reasons) but Wanda proves she is really Walter. At that, Veronica says that she’s keeping the fortune and slams the door in Wanda’s face.
- Zebediah Killgrave, the Purple Man, rises from his grave after being killed in the Emperor Doom graphic novel, and decides to come after his daughter. He commands other corpses to come with him. Kara wakes up from this dream, and we learn that she’s back at her mom’s place, with Laura and Goblyn staying with her. Her mom comes to comfort her, and Kara narrates the story of the last few days. When Heather and Madison joined the rest of Alpha Flight after turning down government funding, they learned that Wanda is unable to access her fortune. They were set upon by a pack of reporters, and used their powers to turn them away. Wanda referenced an upcoming court date, where she hoped to regain her fortune (I’m not sure when that would have gotten set up), and Whitman said he’s planning on leaving the team. Heather announced that the team would have to break up. Later, the gather at a train station to say goodbye to Kara, Laura, and Goblyn. As the train pulled away, Heather promised her an invite to their wedding. Kara found it hard to get back into the routine of normal life at her mom’s place, especially since the neighbourhood kids were all mean to her. Her mom received notice that Killgrave, her father, was dead, and it made her mom happy. Kara went to Killgrave’s grave (really, though, why is he buried in Toronto, and who would have erected such an elaborate gravestone for him?), where she kept calling him ‘daddy’ (very creepy), and stated that she wished he was still alive. In the present, Kara and her mom are surprised when Killgrave busts into their home, clearly still dead but conscious. Killgrave’s ability to control minds isn’t working. Goblyn attacks the corpses that are with him (just like in Kara’s dream), while Kara orders her mother and Laura away. She returns to help Goblyn, and argue with her dead father, who hates her because she’s alive. Kara tries to run from him, when it’s clear that her powers won’t work on him. It looks like the other corpses stop working once Killgrave is away from them, so Goblyn starts to track Kara. Kara is at a gas station, and Killgrave in trying to kill her, is attacked by Goblyn, who also manages to spill gasoline everywhere. Kara lights a spark and sets her dead father on fire. She hugs Goblyn as Killgrave burns. In the Yukon, Elizabeth Twoyoungmen works at an archaeological dig. She feels a surge of power, and doesn’t notice that some glowing stones are rising behind her.
- Issue sixty-three was a bit of a fill-in issue, written James Hudnall and drawn by Hugh Haynes. I’ll write more about Hudnall, who just passed away recently, in my next column, as he took over writing the book after Mantlo; I wonder if this issue was a try-out. It opens with Madison Jeffries recapping his first appearance in Alpha Flight, when Roger Bochs hired him to help him (and mentions that they didn’t know each other, which is contrary to Mantlo’s earlier assertion that they’d spent time in an institute together). Two years ago, a man named Ted Larkin wrote a computer virus and uploaded it off a 5 ¼” floppy disk to his computer. Later, he used a suitcase modem thing to place it into a bank’s computers, where it would skim money for him. Jeffries narrates how he ended up taking over the Box robot from Roger. Today, Larkin lives in luxury in Colorado, but is starting to wonder what would happen if his virus made its way into any computer systems not belonging to a bank. At the same time, in Kansas, a military guy arranges a money transfer to a bank. They notice that the transfer takes longer than it should, but don’t have time to check their computer systems, as they have to network later with a “Canadian superhero”. In Ottawa, Heather and Madison have moved into the house where Heather used to live with Mac. Madison has put together a command centre in the basement. He merges with his armor to complete a data transfer he’s arranged with the US military, to help Alpha Flight better understand various threats. Heather looks in on him, and finds that Box has taken on a more sinister appearance. Box hits Heather and then busts through the wall to get outside (despite the fact that we just learned this was the basement). Heather is knocked out for a while, and decides she needs to go after Madison. Madison, meanwhile, finds himself trapped in the Box robot. He turns his watch into a translator, just as the robot crosses the US border and a flight of fighter jets are scrambled to stop it. The computer virus has gained sentience, and explains that since its mission is to transfer “units” to its creator, and it hasn’t been able to find “units” of money in its last location, it is now using Box to return there and transfer nuclear units. It allows Madison outside vision to help it destroy the jets. Madison refuses, and the robot downs the jets, although the pilots survive. Madison keeps trying to fight the virus. It approaches a base in North Dakota and goes after nuclear missiles there. Madison phases out, and looks for ways to defeat the virus, which is kept busy by the soldiers and their mech suits. Madison heads into a bunker to find enough metal for his purposes. He creates a new Box robot, which blasts the old one, destroying it. He explains to the command that he’s a superhero, and then heads back towards Canada. He worries that he hurt Heather, just as she flies towards him. A missile is fired from a networked launcher, and sent towards Larkin’s home. In Russia, a spy reports on what happened, and pulls out a massive reel-to-reel he stole containing new Air Force computer programs.
- Wanda is in a probate court in Ottawa, in her Sasquatch form, petitioning to have her/Walter’s will declared invalid, because she’s still alive. Veronica, her “widow” is contesting this action, although she whispers to Wanda that she knows he’s really Walter. Wanda almost punches her, causing her to get admonished by the surrogate (I guess judges don’t rule in cases like this?). Veronica’s lawyer brings out a machine Walter invented to scan him, and it declares him male, female, human, and non-human at once. Wanda agrees to a polygraph test, which leads to a detailed recap of his life and times in a variety of bodies. The surrogate heads to her chambers to deliberate, and finds there someone from National Security, who makes it clear that the government does not want Wanda to fund Alpha Flight. In Etobicoke (which a text box calls a suburb of Canada, instead of Toronto), Kara and Laura rush to catch their school bus. Kara uses her powers to keep the driver from driving away from them, and it’s clear that all the kids are afraid of her. Whitman is at a hospital in BC, and uses his powers to convince a recalcitrant kid to get the surgery he needs. Madison returns to Heather’s parents’ place in Haysboro (so much for them living in Ottawa last issue), and mistakes Heather’s sister Becky for her. Heather and Madison make out in the yard, with her parents watching. In Ottawa, Dei Guan is interrogated as to whether or not he wants to defect. He gets angry and turns into Jade Dragon; he is being surveilled by at least three people who speak in Chinese, and talk about killing him if he is a traitor to China. Waiting for the surrogate to return, Wanda has a bit of a fit, and suddenly eight figures bust out of her – four of the Great Beasts, and Snowbird and the three gods she lives with. They begin to fight in the courtroom, and both sides insist that Sasquatch join them. As people flee the courthouse, a nun walks towards the chaos. Sasquatch doesn’t want to help either side, but when Somon the Artificer starts choking Veronica, she gets angry. Things go black for Wanda, and she is confused, but then she feels the nun’s hands on her head, and the darkness goes away. Sasquatch takes out all of the Great Beasts, but then rejects Nelvanna and the other gods. She also rejects Veronica, giving her his money, and says her past has no more claim on her. Wanda leaves the court, and sees the nun who helped her – it’s Aurora! She reminds Wanda that she’s turned away from her past, and explains that she herself has joined a holy order and uses her powers only rarely, to help the sick. As she leaves, Sasquatch cries. Elsewhere, Elizabeth notices the rock formation in the middle of her archeological dig, and figures there’s something inside it. The last panel shows a laughing Dreamqueen, suggesting that’s what’s in there.
- Madison dreams that he’s being attacked by his brother, Scramble, and Roger Bochs. He wakes up at Heather’s parents’ place. The next day, Madison and Heather head into town to pick out Heather’s wedding dress. She tells him that she’s heard from Kara – she and Laura are at the same school (it says the same class, but that doesn’t make sense due to their age difference), and we see that Goblyn is jealous, and that Kara sometimes uses her powers on her bullies. Whitman also called Heather to say that he’s doing well at his new hospital. They don’t know where Sasquatch is, but we see her in snowy mountains. Jade Dragon has had enough of being followed by soldiers, and turns into his dragon form, prompting the shadowy figures from before to move in on him. Heather and Madison’s trip is interrupted by a collapsed bridge; people say a giant robot attacked it. Later, as Heather tries on dresses, Madison falls asleep, and again dreams of Scramble fighting him and attacking an orphanage. Later, after they get home, Heather and Madison hear reports on the radio of an attack on an orphanage, and they head there. Heather works to save people from the fire, while Madison spots what looks like Box’s footprint in the mud. Heather tries to get Madison help, first trying to get ahold of Elizabeth Twoyoungmen, and then later agreeing to take him to talk to the family’s priest. As they drive, Madison thinks about the guilt he feels over taking the Box robot from Bochs, and for killing him and his brother. He dreams again, and sees an amalgam of the Box robot and Scramble threaten to kill Heather. He wakes up shouting, and then transmutes their car into Box, and tries to smash Heather. Box looks more like Scramble than usual, and they begin to fight. Heather figures out that Madison is not really in control, and has to save a passenger jet from missiles the robot fired at it. Box gets the drop on her, and is about to smash her, but Madison phases out to protect her. He begins to fight the robot, and again ends up standing over Heather’s fallen form as Box is about to hit her. Madison has a bit of a breakthrough, and realizes that he’s somehow been fighting his guilty subconscious. He suspects that something is at play here, but doesn’t say what it is. He ends up back in control again. Later, Heather and Madison visit Roger and Lionel’s graves (convenient that they are buried together, although it’s not clear where this would be). Madison feels in control of his issues. Elizabeth has drawn a glow around the cairn that she’s been digging up, but no one else sees the glow in reality.
- In Bill Mantlo’s last issue, he borrows a page from Grant Morrison’s book, a full year and a half before Morrison appeared in Animal Man #26. The issue opens with a text box announcing that an Alphan would die in this issue, but Whitman, who is at his hospital job, challenges the narrator, decrying the way in which the writer has put him and his friends through so much heartache and pain for pure entertainment (basically, this is Animal Man #26, without the accolades). Whitman gets Highbrow to reveal Bill Mantlo at his word processor, and shows that he knows that Mantlo’s script calls for Heather to blast Proto, and therefore kill all of Manikin’s later selves. Whitman refuses to play along. At the same time, in Alberta, Heather is very upset in advance of her wedding, and claims that she cannot take off the battlesuit that she’s been wearing non-stop for the last few issues. Madison, not knowing about this drama, gets the mail and reads a letter from Kara in which she tells them what happened with the dead Purple Man, including her suspicions that it might not have happened after all. This causes Madison to reflect on his recent problems, as well as Sasquatch’s battle with the Great Beasts; he suspects that the team is under some sort of sustained magical attack. He sees Heather fly off in a rage, and jumps into the Box robot to go after her. Somewhere remote, Sasquatch wanders through the woods and thinks about her problems. While smashing stuff, she discovers a rich vein of gold (seriously). Dei Guan is being taken somewhere when his armed guards are attacked. He transforms into Jade Dragon, and is confronted by four beings calling themselves China Force, and giving him a choice to join them or die. Vindicator busts into Whitman’s hospital, having just flown halfway across the continent, and is calling for him. Madison is right behind her, and no one explains why Heather would need a doctor to help her get out of her costume instead of the transmuter who helped design it. Whitman hides, not prepared to risk his death, and Heather tries to avoid Madison. When he tries to help her still, she blasts him through a wall, right into Whitman. Madison phases out of the robot and tries to help Heather, and she blasts him again. Finally, Whitman decides to act, and sends his other selves into the fray, but he himself takes off with Proto. Heather follows, and corners Whitman, who keeps talking about the writer’s intent for the scene. Finally, Proto drops onto Heather, and dissolves her control helmet, and it turns out that everything is fine. Whitman starts to suspect that something else is going on, and comes close to suspecting the Dreamqueen’s involvement, but the narrator wipes his memory.
And that’s the end of Mantlo’s lengthy run of thirty-seven issues and two annuals. I’m pretty sure he’s the longest-lasting writer to ever work on Alpha Flight, and while he made some very memorable changes to the characters, this run isn’t really talked about much or remembered for much more than putting Heather in the Vindicator costume, and debuting Jim Lee at Marvel.
I’m not sure how much this run deserves recognition. It has some great moments in it (the early issues are pretty good, and the Pestilence stuff is kind of great), but as the team shrunk, the book kind of fell into a bit of a quagmire, creatively. I like that Mantlo decided to bring back the Beta Flight concept, but the characters that he created for that part of the team (Purple Girl, Manikin, Laura, and Goblyn) are generally kind of terrible or uninteresting. Alpha’s embrace of governmental support, followed by their divorce from it, didn’t do much for me. I also don’t like the retcons placed on Northstar and Aurora’s backstories, nor the way in which Shaman and Talisman got written out. I did like the way Snowbird was killed off though, and love what was done with Sasquatch.
One thing that stood out to me was the shift in focus away from Alpha as Canada’s superteam, as the regional character that John Byrne built into the book was eroded into stories that had the team making commutes equivalent to the distance from Chicago to LA in no time at all. It often felt like the “Canadianness” of this book was handled with lip service, but I’ll also admit that I am more sensitive to this than most readers would have been. It is cool that Prime Minister Brian Mulroney showed up though, and Lee drew his likeness quite well.
I find it interesting that, after Byrne put so much time into making Alpha Flight into a very fluid understanding of what it means to be a superteam, that Mantlo would immediately reverse those changes, and make them Canada’s Avengers for a while. Later, he dismantled them again, and left it kind of unclear how this team operates best – as a defunded group of individuals spread across a vast country, or as a traditional team where everyone lives in the same awesome mansion.
I’m not sure how planned Mantlo’s departure from the title was, but I did like the way he began setting up the return of the Dreamqueen in his last issues, even bringing Elizabeth Twoyoungmen back into the mix in a limited capacity. I feel like he made it easy for James Hudnall to step in and take over.
As this book is full of characters that didn’t appear elsewhere, Mantlo had the freedom to make major changes to them as he saw fit. Like I did last time, I’d like to talk about each of these characters individually for a bit.
Vindicator – This is the character that changed the most from Byrne’s run. There, Heather was a civilian, yet leader of the team. Her desire to participate more makes sense, but once she puts the battlesuit on, and hangs out with Logan for the span of one battle, she’s suddenly a capable fighter and master of using a suit so technical and complicated that it killed its first owner. Reading these issues in quick succession, her status as a badass feels a little rushed. Also rushed is the way in which her emotions changed over Mantlo’s run. It did feel like she was destined to enter a relationship with Puck, but her sudden swerve to falling in love with Madison was unexpected and felt very forced. With time, it began to make sense, but its early days could have been handled better. What I really didn’t like was the way in which Heather treated Goblyn like a rabid animal, instead of a mutant human preteen girl who lived most of her life in a fantasy land. The depth of her reaction to the girl was way too strong, and out of character considering how Heather had previously shown empathy to Marrina.
Box (Madison) – It’s weird how Madison changed from a shy version of Ben Grimm in Byrne’s hands to the backbone of the team. His Box armor was a huge improvement on Bochs’s version, and I like the flexibility his powers give him with it. I’m surprised that Jeffries hasn’t been used more in other comics, save his appearances as part of the X-Club in semi-recent X-Men comics.
Sasquatch – I think that the changes that Mantlo had Walter/Wanda go through were pretty ground-breaking and interesting, and are something that I wish he’d given more screentime to. I can understand why, in the late 80s, we didn’t see Wanda experimenting with her sexuality and trying to figure out who she is as a woman, but there’s a lot here that could have been explored. She kind of became a supporting character for much of this run, and that’s a shame.
Purple Girl – I remember being much more annoyed with Kara when I first read this run than I was this time around. I do have problems with her supposedly only being thirteen when we first meet her, as she spends much of her time in this book in love with a guy who must be in his mid-twenties. There are more than a few places where Kara makes declarative statements that really should have triggered her powers, but didn’t. Really, she goes months without using them, and then later her powers somehow cause her to meld minds with only some characters? She’s got the type of powerset that requires careful attention by writers and editors, and that didn’t really happen here.
Manikin – This has to be one of the dumber characters of this period, not just in this book, but in comics in general. Did we ever find out why his superhero name is manikin? I fear it’s a cute way of saying he has “many kin.” His other selves never really show much personality, and he usually just stands around in his ugly yellow suit providing exposition and macking on a girl half his age. I’m not surprised he’s spent the last twenty years in limbo.
Laura Dean – Maybe it’s progressive that this book was depicting characters with autism in the Rain Man era, but I’m not sure that Mantlo knew much about ASD at the time. Also, after Goblyn and her manage to coexist in our world (which, really, is something that should have been remarked upon more), she more or less becomes a neurotypical character, whose autism is never mentioned again. Neither are her parents, who showed up in one issue…
Goblyn – Similarly, Goblyn is a bit of a problem. There’s not a lot of potential there, but we also never get a clear understanding of her intelligence. Everyone is very quick to dismiss her as an animal, but we know that she’s Laura’s twin and therefore human. More needed to be done to make her a more compelling character I feel.
Puck – Puck’s entire arc in this series is strange. The revelation that he’s been holding on to the demonic Razer for decades, and that’s why he’s a dwarf, is strange. I also didn’t like the way that his happy-go-lucky character that Byrne established as the true heart of the team turned into a self-pitying liability in almost every issue before he was written out. Even when he’s brought back to receive a more noble ending, it kind of grated. I much preferred Eugene the way Byrne portrayed him, and felt that his was among the most jarring of changes.
Northstar – Likewise, I hated the fact that Mantlo retconned an elven origin for Jean-Paul and Jeanne-Marie. I do like that Mantlo continued with the suggestions that Jean-Paul was gay, although some of Heather’s remarks to him bordered on the homophobic. The progression of his disease, and the way that his pride forced him to hide it, was cool, but then written away too quickly, along with him.
Aurora – Conversely, I was okay with the way that Mantlo largely ignored Aurora’s problems, until it became a little too late for her. The suggestion towards the end of the run that she’d found peace in the Church was interesting, and felt true to the character.
Shaman – Shaman really got the short end of the stick in Mantlo’s run. I liked that he’d lost his confidence at the end of Byrne’s run, and that that stopped him from being able to access his powers, but then he got the ridiculous upgraded outfit, and the ability to communicate with spirits. The worst idea (which quickly got dropped) was Eaglet, his eagle familiar that lived inside a west coast style hat. Leaving aside that it was culturally unacceptable and not representative of a grasslands culture, Eaglet was just a bad character. After Michael put on the Talisman, and became completely heartless, it was probably a mercy to get rid of him, but I did miss him in this book.
Talisman – I hated the way Mantlo portrayed Elizabeth as angry, jealous, and very childish. She was a favourite of mine in Byrne’s run, and then she was just gone from this one. It was also probably a mercy, and I remember getting pretty excited when she returned in a bunch of cameos.
Snowbird – I think Byrne said all there was to say about Snowbird, and that she became a lot more interesting once she was dead and Walter was in her body. I’m not sure why her hair turned from a more conventional blonde to white at that point, but whatever.
Box (Roger) – It’s a shame that the first paraplegic hero I can think of got killed off so quickly, after losing his mind. Roger was kind of cool, and so unconventional a hero, that I wish his story had lasted longer.
Mantlo’s run featured an impressive and wide array of artists. Mike Mignola didn’t last very long with the book, but his issues are memorable. It’s cool to see how he used them to work on elements that later became synonymous with his name. I liked Dave Ross’s run a lot, and felt that it was in his hands that the book became recognizably Canadian again. Ross does not get enough attention for being as good as he is. I also liked what June Brigman brought to the book.
Of course, the biggest name here is Jim Lee, who drew an impressive eleven issues (today that would take him three years!). You can see his style develop and change over the course of those issues, and in his covers and splash pages, show the earliest iteration of the superstar he would later become. I remember his name building buzz when he launched Punisher War Journal, before making his way to X-Men and changing history. What I found really cool about these issues is that every one of my copies were signed by him, and I don’t even remember ever meeting him.
Before wrapping up this ridiculously long column, I want to take a moment or two to talk about Bill Mantlo. While today he gets remembered most for his work on the Hulk, and for creating Rocket Raccoon, it was his work on a pair of licensed Marvel titles that I most fondly remember. I think his Micronauts is one of the best comics I ever read (and will be the subject of a future column, if I can ever get to that longbox). I also loved tracking down issues of his ROM as a kid, and think that his non-traditional superhero books were just fantastic. His Alpha Flight is good, but those comics are just so great.
Mantlo was in an accident in 1992, and has required extensive care ever since. The comics industry lost an important voice at that time. Just as I was getting ready to wrap up this column, I saw a story on Bleeding Cool about how his brother has launched a GoFundMe page, as he’s put himself deeply into debt to maintain his brother’s care. If you ever enjoyed any of his comics, I urge you to consider making a donation here.
After Mantlo left the title, it was taken over by James Hudnall, and I remember becoming a big fan of this run, which had the team face the Dreamqueen again, and then Llan the Sorcerer. I remember enjoying the art, which was unconventional at the time, and the inclusion of Diamond Lil in the team. We’ll see how it stands up next time, which I promise, will be a much shorter column.
If you’d like to see the archives of all of my retro review columns, click here.
If you’d like to read any of the stories I talk about here, you are going to have to do some longbox digging – they haven’t been collected.
Tags: Alpha Flight, Marvel, Retro Reviews | <urn:uuid:a8813570-39a1-462c-ad03-7adb66394d1f> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://insidepulse.com/2019/04/30/retro-reviews-alpha-flight-29-66-by-mantlo-mignola-ross-lee-brigman-others-for-marvel-comics/ | 2019-07-16T22:26:29Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.974356 | 30,581 |
Clinical Experienced (non manager) jobs in London (Greater)
Broaden your search
Refine your search
Found 4 jobs
Join this truly innovative and inclusive organisation as a Non-Executive Director and continue our journey from CQC ‘Good’ to CQC ‘Outstanding’.
An exciting opportunity for an experienced and ambitious manager to lead the organisation at a time of strategic review and systems upgrading.
You will be supporting major Procurement projects whilst also providing core Procurement advice across smaller projects.
CW+ (charity of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) is seeking a Communications Assistant to help raise the profile of the charity.
The Safe Practice Officer is responsible for ensuring that BAcC members are aware of, understand, and adhere to the Code of Safe Practice.
Nursing Times is looking for a talented editor with experience of editing clinical/scientific content to join its award-winning team | <urn:uuid:4caae242-deeb-443a-b17d-2ce8d4b5f6ce> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://jobs.theguardian.com/jobs/clinical/experienced-non-manager-/london-greater-/ | 2019-07-17T00:03:23Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.89713 | 197 |
An invigorating dog walk along the East River soothes the soul and eases the mind when its overloaded with negative stimuli brought on by life’s external forces – and then compounded by its confluence of the many modes of communication (or lack thereof.)
So a vigorous stroll and an afternoon coffee often does the trick to assist in dealing with today’s (M)asses and its vexing effect it can have on those of us who truly want to understand and properly communicate.
This is not an angry rant, but observations, questions and pondering.
Is anybody else tired of the social media vagaries from the mundane minds (which will never cease to amaze me)?
Believe me, you’re not as good as you think you are at “being understood” if you don’t take your time, think, then properly and succinctly express thoughts or communicate your ideas.
How some people manage to function (and communicate) in daily life is beyond me.
Here’s a hint: using complete sentences would be a good start.
Oh, and the world doesn’t revolve around you and your vaguely expressed thoughts; and (most of us) on social media still can’t read minds.
So spell it out if you want help/concern/response.
Give us a reference point. Toss us more than a monosyllable clue. Especially if you’re complaining about something…
And complaining about things over which we have no control is futile and a little negative too (if not properly expressed)
Like bitching about the weather.
What can you do about it? Nothing.
My dog and I love Autumn. And we love winter too. We really dig Springtime, but aren’t too keen on the heat and humidity of summer.
But to some negative nellies with whom I chat think I’m a schmuck because I enjoy cool, gray, rainy days…really?
I think NYC looks great when its a little gloomy.
You like what you like, and I like what I like. It’s all good as far as I’m concerned. Let’s enjoy it all.
But let’s look at it for what it is when it comes to weather today. Seventy degrees in November in NYC ain’t normal.
You see, I don’t think it’s normal to have “summer-like temperatures” in F’n November. Especially in The Big Apple.
It’s the end of November, which means December is fast approaching, which means it’s winter; so it’s going to be colder in the majority of areas around the country (most of which is a temperate zone).
And yes, it may even snow. Oh no!! Snow!! People freak and go bananas and buy toilet paper, milk, bread, (and wine and cannoli.)
So if I happen to enjoy cloudy and cool days, it doesn’t mean I am against you or your way of life or impugning your family name.
Have at it. Give it a think. “Horses for courses” is an apropos idiom.
Some people dig cold climes, others dig hot.
But think about heat in the winter.
You bitch about global warming during the summer but celebrate its (negative) effects when it’s actually supposed to be cold.
…Even the F’n meteorologists whine about it “getting ugly” out there with the drop in temperatures…and lament the coming of winter.
And some even say “I’m sorry it’s going to be ‘bad weather’ out there for you.”
…Yea,right. Like you can control it.
Stop getting angry/upset/surprised when it’s “cold in November.” It’s supposed to be!
Well, I happen to like autumn AND winter…and appreciate its cold and blustery days.
It doesn’t bother me if you don’t like it. I don’t take offence. But don’t bust balls when someone opposes your meteorologic viewpoint.
Maybe if we stop taking every bloody thing so personally, the world would be a little less hectic and a little more tolerant of opposing viewpoints.
Now if you’ll excuse me, the dog and I are going to bundle-up, go for a walk, and appreciate the joys of Winter. | <urn:uuid:5284226f-abe8-4d96-8b56-0e17d82cfb86> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://joeduley.net/for-the-love-of-winter/ | 2019-07-16T22:47:11Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.926263 | 968 |
Lawsuits stemming from a 2013 Taylor Swift concert are back in the news stemming from a judge ruling on Friday that a key piece of evidence will be hidden from the public. Billboard reports that a photo which allegedly shows Swift being groped by Denver-based radio D.J. David Mueller. In 2015, Mueller sued Swift for costing him his job, claiming that the groping allegations were false and unfairly got him fired two days after the concert. Swift countersued for assault and battery a month later, pledging to donate any proceeds from the lawsuit to charity.
Swift’s lawyers argued that “it is all but assured that the photograph will be shared for scandalous and prurient interests” if it was released publicly, and the judge agreed. All other evidence in the case has not been sealed.
In her deposition as part of the lawsuit, Swift testified that “Right as the moment came for us to pose for the photo, [Mueller] took his hand and put it up my dress and grabbed onto my ass cheek and no matter how much I scooted over it was still there.” In other words? “It was completely intentional, I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life.” Swift also described her emotional response to the incident:
I remember being frantic, distressed, feeling violated in a way I had never experienced before. A meet-and-greet is supposed to be a situation where you’re thanking people for coming, you’re supposed to be welcoming people into your home, which is the arena for that day, and for someone to violate that hospitality in that way, I was completely stunned.
Swift’s lawyers have also tried to get Mueller’s case dismissed, arguing that she did not intentionally involve herself in his contractual issues. | <urn:uuid:90345444-c930-4ce0-9bda-71ea6779becf> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://lawandcrime.com/celebrity/taylor-swift-i-remember-being-frantic-distressed-feeling-violated-by-groper/ | 2019-07-16T23:02:16Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.984977 | 377 |
Phishing scams are email messages that ask you to send or confirm sensitive information like your login ID and passphrase, bank or credit account numbers, or PINs. They often threaten to close your account. These scams sometimes ask the reader to visit a website to provide this information and the messages often appear to come from an organization you trust. They may even claim to be from UC Davis and ask for your username and password. These emails are not legitimate.
An example of a typical phishing email:
UC Davis (and most legitimate institutions) will never ask you to confirm or verify your computing account by providing your password via telephone or email.
Email requests that ask you to reply to an email or visit a non-campus affiliated website to confirm or verify your account by providing your password are phishing scams. DO NOT RESPOND TO THESE REQUESTS - even if they appear to come from an email address ending with "ucdavis.edu" or direct you to what appears to be a UCD website. In many cases a link will appear to be directing you to a legitimate address, but if you hold your cursor over the link you will see that the link address title is different from what appears in the actual link address (see illustration below), and may lead you to a malicious website. Do not follow links you cannot verify.
There is no need to forward phishing emails to BML IT, however, if you accidentally respond to a phishing scam where you reveal any account information, please alert us so that we can advise you whom to contact.
To learn more about phishing scams and how to differentiate these from legitimate emails see the UC Davis Anti-phishing Campaign. | <urn:uuid:7e7914c9-a23b-4c52-8a64-b9aa08dd6b28> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://marinescience.ucdavis.edu/bml/facilities/it/instructions/phishing-scams | 2019-07-16T22:30:55Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.927714 | 344 |
- by Dave Jenniss
- Music by Élise Boucher-DeGonzague
- Directed by Pier Rodier
a Vox Theatre (Ottawa) and Ondinnock (Montreal) co-production
co-presented with Zones Théâtrales
Remembering his mother each night before he sleeps, young Mokatek recounts his day to the brightest star in the sky, the North Star. But one night, under the full moon of the summer solstice, Mokatek realizes that the star has disappeared.
So begins a journey that will test his courage and strength with every step. Along the way, Mokatek is guided by the spirits of sounds and animals that move him ever closer to his own origins and the land.
Combining puppetry, songs and dance, Mokatek et l’étoile disparue will awaken you to the beauty and wealth of Indigenous languages.
Recommended for children ages 2-6 and their families. | <urn:uuid:c20f82a6-faa5-423f-96b2-9b4c3d03422e> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://nac-cna.ca/en/event/22151 | 2019-07-16T23:22:06Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.941176 | 210 |
Sweat trickled down Wendy Birdsall’s face as she stumbled into the classroom, cardboard box in one hand and a heavy hanger in another.
“I am so nervous,” she said, wiping her face. Her graduation gown took up an entire chair next to her. Her backpack was so full she could barely zip it.
Birdsall won’t finish her bachelor’s degree in applied physiology and sport management until the end of summer. But she recently found out she’d get to participate in graduation Friday.
That was the same day as her four-hour anthropology class, but fortunately the professor let the students out early.
Birdsall rushed to Southern Methodist University’s Catholic Campus Ministry to change out of her leggings and T-shirt and into a blue dress she got on sale at Sam’s Club.
The average age of SMU’s undergrads is 20.
Birdsall is 43.
SMU students’ median family income is close to $200,000, The New York Times says.
Birdsall overcame homelessness, sexual assault and drug addiction before enrolling at SMU in 2015. She gotscholarships, delivered sandwiches for more than 25 hours a week and took out “lots and lots” of student loans.
But Friday was her equalizer — a chance to blend in with her gowned classmates.
“I’ve always been either positively or negatively outside the box, but being part of just everybody else inside the box, the inclusion in that situation was nice,” she said.
Drugs, arrests and a turnaround
Birdsall’s parents divorced when she was 14. Within two years, she was homeless after her mother kicked her out.
Birdsall stayed in friends’ living rooms for a while, but eventually she dropped out of school and took a job at a nightclub in Arlington.
She stayed high for stretches and racked up felony arrests for assault, drug possession and car theft, to name a few. Her loved ones worried the police would call one day to tell them she’d overdosed in a motel room.
One night in 2006, Birdsall was arguing with her boyfriend when a stranger drove up and offered her a ride, she said. He drove her to a wooded area and sexually assaulted her before she managed to escape. Police arrested a convicted rapist in connection with the attack last year.
The News usually doesn’t identify victims of sexual assault, but Birdsall said she wanted to encourage other survivors to come forward.
“I was a victim, but I’m not a victim anymore,” she said.
In 2007, she checked herself into the Nexus Recovery Center, a substance rehabilitation facility for girls and women.
“I realized that living the life I was living, I was never going to have anything,” she said in a 2015 interview with The News. “I was going to end up dead in the street someday or locked up in prison on a life sentence.”
Her path to recovery wasn’t smooth. It included a drug relapse and a 2009 shoplifting arrest. The self-proclaimed atheist walked out of jail a Christian.
She won her El Centro College professors over with her development and enthusiasm.
When The News profiled Birdsall in 2015, she was working two jobs, pledging at a sorority and attending school full-time at SMU. She was 41 but she felt as though she were in her 20s, living the life she could’ve had much sooner if she hadn’t turned to drugs.
Many of her classmates didn’t know about her background. But after The News‘ article was published, people often stopped her on campus to tell her how much she had inspired them.
“To be the person where I came from and how far I’ve come, sometimes I feel like somebody’s going to pinch me
and say, ‘Girl, wake up, you’re dreaming,'” she said.
She says she has learned a lot from the highs and lows of the past three years.
She has figured out that to manage her attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, she needs to sit at the front of the classroom so she won’t be as distracted by classmates clicking away on their computers or checking their phones.
There was a point last semester when Birdsall wasn’t sure she’d get to graduate. She was on the verge of failing a class, which would have meant delaying graduation — and she couldn’t afford another semester at SMU.
During spring break she called her boss at the sandwich shop to tell him she needed a few months off, and she dropped one class to salvage her grades in others.
She said she probably would’ve flunked out without encouragement and guidance from her professors and fellow students.
“Maybe it’s just the SMU bubble, I don’t know, but the community here has really helped me nurture myself and be OK with who I am,” Birdsall said.
Getting dressed Friday in the Catholic Center, Birdsall had many of the typical questions of a soon-to-be graduate: What side does the tassel hang on? How many pins will hold the cap in place? Heels or flats?
But there was another challenge.
Her aunt, her daughter, two friends from her street days, a couple who once taught her social skills and an ex-boyfriend’s parents whom she calls Mom and Dad were all coming to graduation. Many of them hadn’t met in person.
How would Birdsall get everyone in one place for introductions?
“I’m nervous. I shouldn’t be nervous, right?” she said as she walked to McFarlin Auditorium in baby pink and white sneakers she’d change out of later.
But at McFarlin, she was Wendy again. Energetic, youthful Wendy who hugged classmates and professors and joked that makeup and heels weren’t really her thing.
The graduation announcer happened to be one of her former professors. Most graduates handed him their pronounciation cards and continued walking to get their diplomas.
But when it was Birdsall’s turn, he gave her a rare hug before she walked across the stage. Other professors who know her felt the same pride.
“It was very important to me to see her walk across that stage,” said Lynn Romejko Jacobs, chairwoman of applied physiology and wellness and one of Birdsall’s mentors. “To see Wendy come across, it was like oh my gosh. ‘Come on girl, you can do it. Come on, come on.'”
The attention continued after the ceremony, but from the people who’ve been in Birdsall’s life the longest.
Melissa Knighten, who brought her baby boy to the graduation, said Birdsall helped her out of her drug addiction and encouraged her to enroll in college.
“I’m just excited that she had the courage to overcome the past,” Knighten said, tearing up. “She didn’t let that hold her back and she decided that she wanted to do something with her life.”
By Friday evening, the most stressful part of Birdsall’s day was over. Her aunt and longtime friends were sitting on a couch on campus, exchanging stories about her.
Birdsall slipped off her heels and let out a deep sigh as her feet touched the cold tiles.
She didn’t feel nervous anymore. All she wanted was a glass of wine and some time alone to catch up on her anthropology homework.
View the original article: | <urn:uuid:8a4ee992-0f5c-4454-b95f-b5e027a1b2a9> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://operationcleanrecovery.com/at-43-a-rape-survivor-and-former-drug-addict-gets-to-be-inside-the-box-at-her-smu-graduation/ | 2019-07-16T22:22:27Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.979041 | 1,643 |
Diadent Paper Point For ProT
Sizes #F1, F2 & F3
Pack of 60 Points
Bulk prices available. Want more than 2 units? For customized prices - click here
Order and Delivery Details
Free delivery for orders above ₹1000. Add ₹100 otherwise.
Readily available - Ships usually within 1-2 days
PB Recommended Quantity: 8 | <urn:uuid:939b3bba-02c0-4b11-a536-4bcd5b424baa> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://pinkblue.in/diadent-paper-point-for-protaper.html | 2019-07-16T22:41:04Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.777212 | 84 |
Yet another side-channel attack on smartphones: “Hearing your touch: A new acoustic side channel on smartphones,” by Ilia Shumailov, Laurent Simon, Jeff Yan, and Ross Anderson.
Abstract: We present the first acoustic side-channel attack that recovers what users type on the virtual keyboard of their touch-screen smartphone or tablet. When a user taps the screen with a finger, the tap generates a sound wave that propagates on the screen surface and in the air. We found the device’s microphone(s) can recover this wave and “hear” the finger’s touch, and the wave’s distortions are characteristic of the tap’s location on the screen. Hence, by recording audio through the built-in microphone(s), a malicious app can infer text as the user enters it on their device. We evaluate the effectiveness of the attack with 45 participants in a real-world environment on an Android tablet and an Android smartphone. For the tablet, we recover 61% of 200 4-digit PIN-codes within 20 attempts, even if the model is not trained with the victim’s data. For the smartphone, we recover 9 words of size 7-13 letters with 50 attempts in a common side-channel attack benchmark. Our results suggest that it not always sufficient to rely on isolation mechanisms such as TrustZone to protect user input. We propose and discuss hardware, operating-system and application-level mechanisms to block this attack more effectively. Mobile devices may need a richer capability model, a more user-friendly notification system for sensor usage and a more thorough evaluation of the information leaked by the underlying hardware.
*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Schneier on Security authored by Bruce Schneier. Read the original post at: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2019/04/recovering_smar.html | <urn:uuid:2baa0cbc-2cd2-49f6-9bef-e2e062d39efa> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://securityboulevard.com/2019/04/recovering-smartphone-typing-from-microphone-sounds/ | 2019-07-16T22:34:57Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.869754 | 397 |
It’s a good thing we (as in, yours truly) are not famous.
We’d make a boorish celebrity, the type that sends staff on stupid errands, e.g. “Bring me a truckload of M&M’s – and don’t come back until the yellow ones have been picked out!”
You know the type.
But once in a while a genuinely decent human being will become famous, and won’t let fame wreak havoc with their character.
At least, that’s the impression we received from reading Ann Blyth: Actress, Singer, Star, the soon-to-be-released biography by Jacqueline T. Lynch.
Ann Blyth chronicles the career of a woman who was once considered to be the finest actress of her generation.
She was also rather famous in her day. It surprised us to learn that in 1951, Blyth was receiving about 2,000 letters a month from American servicemen. This amounted to three-quarters of her monthly mail (approx. 2,600 letters per month).
Blyth was popular with US troops due to her visits to Army bases, a practice she began as a teenager during World War II. Blyth lent her talents to non-profit organizations throughout her life, in between her work in movies, television, radio, theatre – and raising five children.
Although she suffered two great tragedies in her teen years and struggled to keep her private life private, Blyth never seemed to become bitter. After her film career had long ended, she said tactfully, “People’s memories are quite short. You always have to keep reminding them of what you can do.” (Ann Blyth, p. 292)
Lynch’s book does just that; it reminds us of what Blyth can do.
One thing we appreciate about Lynch’s research is the focus on Blyth’s career. There are no sordid, tell-all interviews. This book is about a woman Making It in Hollywood.
And what a career! Blyth starred with some of the biggest names in the biz, including William Powell, Burt Lancaster, Charles Boyer and Robert Montgomery.
Perhaps her most famous co-star was Joan Crawford in the 1945 film noir, Mildred Pierce. This is the film that made Ann Blyth a star and won her an Oscar nomination.
Lynch’s book is organized and well-written – and has plenty of amusing observations – but when it comes to describing Blyth’s movies, Lynch’s writing sparkles.
“Mildred Pierce (1945) is a film that should be shown to people who say they don’t like to watch black and white movies,” writes Lynch. “The cinematography here is so good that it is a living thing quite apart from the story and the acting performances, and yet the black and white photography here enhances both…” (p. 79)
The analysis of Blyth’s performance as the amoral Veda is our favourite part of the book. Indeed, Lynch’s insightful review has made us see the film in a new light, even though we’ve watched it dozens of times.
Blyth’s career included far more than her turn as Veda in Mildred Pierce. She appeared in 33 movies in 13 years, including MGM’s first CinemaScope musical, Rose Marie (1954). Lynch’s reviews of these films are notable because she puts things in context for us. If a film doesn’t work, Lynch explains why – which makes us want to watch it anyway.
Happily, this biography includes Blyth’s radio appearances. Some biographers don’t devote much time to an actor’s radio work, but the diligent Lynch has not forgotten this part of Blyth’s career.
With such an impressive resumé, the question becomes: How come Ann Blyth isn’t more famous today?
Hopefully, Lynch’s biography will change that, and bring renewed interest in the talented Blyth. We suspect this is a book you’ll want to pick up.
Ann Blyth: Actress, Singer, Star will be available June 18, 2015. You can enter daily contests to win Ann Blyth memorabilia on Lynch’s site, Another Old Movie Blog, until June 18.
Note: The author sent us an advance reading copy for reviewing. | <urn:uuid:d3d1ab4c-d365-4461-ba1b-11d6324296b2> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://silverscreenings.org/2015/06/04/who-on-earth-was-ann-blyth/ | 2019-07-16T23:13:14Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.963541 | 971 |
Asia Cup: India Beat Bangladesh By 3 Wickets To Retain Title
India registered a last-ball finish to beat Bangladesh by three wickets in the Asia Cup 2018 final at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Friday.
Liton Das and Mehidy Hasan posted a 120-run opening wicket stand to get Bangladesh off to a flyer. (All images courtesy: AFP)
Bangladesh opener Liton Das scored his maiden ODI century.
Kedar Jadhav again provided India with crucial breakthroughs.
Kuldeep Yadav was the pick of the Indian bowlers, taking three wickets for 45 runs.
Captain and opener Rohit Sharma began the chase on a cautious note for India.
India lost Shikhar Dhawan early in the chase of 223.
MS Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik forged a 54-run fourth wicket stand to get India back in the game.
Karthik fell to Mahmudullah but Dhoni carried on to take India closer.
However, Dhoni was dismissed for 36 by Mustafizur as Bangladesh put themselves back in contention.
Kedar Jadhav received medical attention before he retired hurt for 19.
Ravidra Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar Kumar formed a crucial partnership to take India to the brink.
Kedar Jadhav returned to the field and took India past the finishing line for a memorable win. | <urn:uuid:a2cd8ac7-4068-4075-9b65-1b886a7f4ecb> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://sports.ndtv.com/asia-cup-2018/photos/asia-cup-india-beat-bangladesh-by-3-wickets-to-retain-title-96472 | 2019-07-16T22:24:22Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.915985 | 293 |
Whether you enjoy autumn or prefer summer or winter, try to think of specific images, or sounds, tastes, etc. that distinguish one season from the other. Which season do you prefer? What actions do you carry out when one shifts to the other? Do you gladly dust off the pumpkin spice seasoning when autumn rolls around? Are you excited to unearth your favorite sweaters from their cardboard boxes? Or do you sadly touch a portrait of a loved one you lost in autumn? What sort of attitude do you want to encourage the reader to take about the season? Consider using anaphora and turn it into a refrain, like Zagajewski does with Try to Praise the Mutilated World. | <urn:uuid:55cae27f-8b06-405b-a43c-3a58d68d72f9> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://stjewell.com/2017/12/02/attitude-toward-autumn/ | 2019-07-16T22:28:40Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.925795 | 141 |
This section provides instructions for suspending a deployment. A deployment can only be suspended on a device if the device imaging request has started but has not yet finished, and the deployment has not expired or been terminated.
A device imaging solution may not support suspending a deployment. For more information about suspending a deployment with a specific device imaging solution, see the documentation provided by the device manufacturer.
In Configuration Manager Console, under System Center Configuration Manager, expand Computer Management, expand Embedded Device Management, expand Device Imaging, and then click Deployments.
Right-click the name of the deployment that you want to suspend, and then click Suspend.
The deployment is now listed as Suspended on the Device Imaging home page. | <urn:uuid:dd542b8e-f3e4-4b9b-9917-a4446338a44e> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://systemscenter.ru/wedm2011.en/html/gg749249.htm | 2019-07-16T23:25:45Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.90317 | 145 |
At last, Boris Johnson got it right and deserves to be admired for speaking against the ghastly garment, which is even abhorred by many Muslims themselves.
Prime Minister Theresa May should follow Denmark and ban those who cover their faces in public. Let’s face it, the burka is a hostile garment which should have been banned from Western countries ages ago.
Religion or not, whoever permits the wearing of the burka in public shows how backwards and uncivilised he can be.
CommentsComments powered by Disqus
Do not have an account?Sign Up | <urn:uuid:ba83109d-39e4-4e30-9332-48f6a90a8f43> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/use-of-burka.687006 | 2019-07-16T22:33:33Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.958654 | 118 |
Hello From California
Hello Everyone! I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I am retired from the transportation industry. I've taken up woodworking, including speaker building, to prevent my brain turning into oatmeal from lack of use.
I've recently finished building the DINAS. I'll post photos in another thread. My congrats to Nick and Joe on creating speakers with an incredible sound. They are truly a treat for my ears. Nick - thanks for answering my questions so quickly.
I'm currently working on plans for an entertainment center to hold my music collection and eventually a tube amp and music server. There will be more speakers!
My name is Phil
Greetings Phil! We are so glad to have you! I must say, your Dinas as a site to hold. I absolutely love them. If you don't mind, I would love to post some of your pictures on Instagram. I know Joe would love to see them as well. I wish I lived closer, I would love to see them in person. You are a true woodworker, that is for sure. But it looks like Pa, is a little too far for me. We look forward to seeing your entertainment center. Feel free to share a build log. I know, I would love to see that. | <urn:uuid:2a09ca4f-3a19-4a82-bf88-0b157796cccd> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://toidsdiyaudio.com/community/introduce-yourself/hello-from-california/ | 2019-07-16T22:37:14Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.96955 | 265 |
Tobey Maguire is turning to “Cardboard” with some help from Fox Animation, WedgeWorks and graphic novelist Doug TenNapel.
Fox is optioning the recently published Graphix tome for its WedgeWorks banner to develop. Maguire’s shingle Material Pictures, TenNapel and the Gotham Group would exec produce. Chris Wedge will also produce.
TenNapel’s book follows an impoverished widower who gives a disappointing birthday present to his young son– a cardboard box. Making the best out of a bad situation, they turn the box into a boxer named Bill that magically comes to life, attracting the attention of a neighborhood bully with evil plans.
WedgeWorks helmer Chris Wedge (“Ice Age”) has an eye towards directing the film. A source close to the project says Maguire, who voiced the lead in WB’s “Cats & Dogs,” may have the option of voicing one of the main roles if the project moves forward.
Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios are now in post-production on Wedge’s “Epic,” a 3D CG-animated action-adventure film due in May 2013.
“Great Gatsby” star Maguire is attached to play Bobby Fisher in the biopic “Pawn Sacrifice” and produce via his Material Pictures.
Other TenNapel projects in development include “Ghostopolis” at Disney and “Monster Zoo” at Paramount.
Maguire is repped by WME, Management 360 and Hansen Jacobson. TenNapel is repped by the Gotham Group and Nelson, Davis, Wetzstein. Wedge is repped by UTA and Nancy Newhouse-Porter of Newhouse / Porter / Hubbard. The Gotham Group is repped by CAA and George Davis and Joel Vanderkloot of Nelson, Davis, Wetzstein. | <urn:uuid:02db21df-7e2a-46c1-92c4-51a3ac0c454e> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://variety.com/2012/film/news/tobey-maguire-fox-draw-cardboard-1118058948/ | 2019-07-16T22:52:05Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.912145 | 410 |
The Times reports on Chambers extremism cases - Jun 2017
David Evans QC has very considerable experience in Public Inquiries and has worked on some of the highest profile Inquiries in recent years.
- Litvinenko Inquiry 2015: for MOD and Atomic Weapons Establishment.
- Al-Sweady Inquiry 2013: for MOD.
- Baha Mousa Inquiry 2009-2011: for MOD.
- Strangeways Inquiry: Counsel to the Inquiry.
- Ladbroke Grove Rail Inquiry: for the Train Operating Companies.
Martin Downs in new Radicalisation Judgment about protecting older children and vulnerable adults - Apr 2017
Marina Wheeler QC in Public Interest Immunity & Radicalisation case - Apr 2017
David Evans QC successful in application to allow disclosure to the Security Service - Oct 2016
David Evans QC wins perinatal cerebral palsy damage case - Jun 2016
Four Members of 1COR involved in the Public Inquiry into the death of Alexander Litvinenko - Jan 2015
New Appointments to the Attorney General’s A, B and C Panels – February 2012 - Feb 2012
Team of four from 1COR in Supreme Court win in nuclear testing limitation case - Mar 2012
Court of Appeal victory for Ministry of Defence in Atomic Veterans case - Dec 2010 | <urn:uuid:8a1b036c-77bb-4648-a3e0-77e880fbf51e> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.1cor.com/london/barristers/david-evans-qc/public-inquiries=practice-areas/ | 2019-07-16T22:52:32Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.852773 | 254 |
Five surprising things damaging your teeth
We all know the importance of daily brushing and flossing, and many of us are familiar with habits that put our teeth at risk, such as eating sugary foods or grinding our teeth. However, there are many foods and habits that seem safe, but are actually quite harmful for your teeth.
I’ve pulled my list of top five surprising things that can damage your teeth:
- Bread – When it comes to avoiding sugary foods, most of us think about eliminating candies and sweets – bread is likely not on the list. But most breads are chock full of sugar due to the yeast and carbohydrates. Processed white bread is the worst because it contains a lot of added sugar in addition to those that occur naturally. Check the label before purchasing bread, and be sure to avoid loaves with added sugar.
- Using your teeth as tools – We’ve all had that moment when we desperately need scissors but just can’t seem to find a pair. So instead, we use our teeth to gnaw open a package. If this is a regular habit, it can wear down your teeth and jaw bone, and in severe cases, lead to jaw bone misalignment. Though a hard habit to break, consider keeping extra scissors around for the sake of your teeth.
- Swimming pools – You wouldn’t think splashing around in the pool is harmful for your teeth. However, the chlorine in pools can wear away enamel, making your teeth more prone to damage. Try to keep your mouth closed during swim time, and lightly brush your teeth after a visit to the pool.
- Over-brushing – Of course, brushing your teeth is critical for good health. However, there is such a thing as over-brushing. If you brush your teeth more than three times a day, you may wear away the enamel. Aim to brush your teeth two to three times each day and your teeth will be clean, but not bare. You can also try this easy trick – hold your tooth brush with two fingers (your thumb and pointer or middle finger). This will prevent you from applying too much pressure when you brush and reduce enamel erosion!
- Teeth whitening – Whitening your teeth isn’t bad for them, but the overuse of at-home kits can be harmful. Chemicals in whitening formulas not only weaken your teeth’s enamel, but can also cause damage to your gums. If you’d like to whiten your teeth, consult with your dentist on what is the best option for you.
For more information on keeping your teeth healthy, visit the American Dental Association website | <urn:uuid:36637144-f587-47a1-af29-8e734cf02966> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.ahealthiermichigan.org/2013/03/07/five-surprising-things-damaging-your-teeth/ | 2019-07-16T22:58:36Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.951899 | 555 |
Every December, tens of thousands of researchers, clinicians, and health-care stakeholders gather for the American Society of Hematology’s (ASH) annual meeting. More than a year’s worth of effort ensures that the meeting goes off without a hitch, and there’s a legion of dedicated ASH staff and volunteers working behind the scenes who make it look easy.
ASH Clinical News spoke with William Reed, senior director of meetings and community engagement at ASH, for a look at the backstage work that happens before the annual meeting.
When does planning begin for the annual meeting?
A common misperception is that the ASH meetings team works on one annual meeting per year. The reality is that we work on multiple years simultaneously, and planning each annual meeting is a continuum. For instance, my task list today includes items for the 2017 annual meeting, the 2018 annual meeting, and even a couple regarding the 2023 annual meeting.
An event of this size, magnitude, and importance requires serious advance planning, starting with choosing the location. The ASH annual meeting brings more than 25,000 people to its host city, which means the city must have an entire convention center available and enough hotels to house all of us. Basically, we need to buy out the whole town. If portions of that city are unavailable – if another organization has booked a meeting at the same time, for example – it’s not feasible for us to meet there.
“Maybe I’m an adrenaline junkie, but it’s exciting for me to watch the numbers of registrants climb.”
Can you give readers an idea of an individual annual meeting cycle?
Each cycle of an annual meeting is dictated by a timeline contained in a thousand-page document outlining a couple thousand milestones and a million details. The trick is to tackle the tasks that can be crossed off the list early in the cycle to avoid everything stacking up in November.
It all happens in a disciplined, orderly fashion; there are certain intervals of organized chaos, but that’s what makes it fun.
How many people are working on the annual meeting at any given time?
The ASH meetings department comprises five people, but we hire consultants (as many as 300) who work under our direction. Outsourcing portions of the workload lets us expand and contract our labor force as needed throughout the year.
ASH staff closely manages the quality of the annual meeting to ensure that what is being arranged is going to work for our audience of hematologists.
What is the most exciting part of planning the annual meeting?
By far, it’s the opening day of registration and housing. It’s great to see the enthusiasm in attendees of our meeting. I have spoken with hematologists who arrange their schedules so they are at their computer at exactly 11:00 a.m. (Eastern time) on the day in July when registration opens to register and book a hotel as close to the convention center as possible.
We want it to be a smooth, positive experience for everyone, so opening day is an ‘all hands on deck’ scenario. People are on the front lines handling phone calls and our IT, communications, and meetings teams are glued to their computer screens to monitor the registration process in real time.
We want to know how many people are coming to the site, where they are in their progress, and the time they are spending at each step of the process, so that we can ask ourselves, Is that an acceptable amount of time? Are people bogged down at a certain step? Can we tweak something to improve the performance of the site?
Some people stress out in that situation. Maybe I’m an adrenaline junkie, but it’s exciting for me to watch the numbers of registrants climb.
What do you wish people knew about planning the annual meeting?
I wish our attendees could see everything that goes on behind the curtain at the annual meeting, particularly in the general session room, where the plenary sessions are held. There is a fascinating, miniature city of technicians, lighting specialists, and audio engineers back there. The amount of equipment and effort that goes into just that one session room is pretty impressive.
ASH staff arrive at the meeting long before attendees, in time to watch the convention center go from a cement-floor warehouse to a decorated convention and exhibition space. The loading dock alone is a logistical masterpiece: 150 semi-trucks deliver 1.25 million pounds of freight, audio-visual equipment, furniture, and more, on a precisely orchestrated schedule.
During your tenure in the ASH meetings department, have there been any narrowly avoided, logistical disasters?
It is our duty to protect the safety and wellness of 25,000 people over a five-day period, so we have a complete emergency-preparedness and crisis-management plan that we review and update every year according to the meeting location. We continuously do scenario planning so that, if a crisis occurs, we already know what to do.
Our job is to fix anything that comes up before it affects the experience of an attendee. Usually that means dealing with unexpected travel changes. We can have a great meeting planned, but if people can’t get there – either because of flight delays getting into the city or transportation problems around the convention center – we’re in trouble.
Planning for that requires some investigative work by the meetings team. We check for local events occurring during our meeting weekend that we weren’t notified of during the site-selection phase. There may be a sporting event, a marathon, or – because our meeting is in December – a Christmas parade that will shut down the streets our shuttle buses are taking. That’s a problem.
The last time the meeting took place in New Orleans, we were prepared for one parade and traffic congestion around a Saints football game. Then we discovered a second, surprise parade scheduled for the same day. Suddenly, we had to scramble to find a different route on the fly.
We also need to make sure our speakers arrive so that people have something to watch! The ASH meetings team has the speaker roster and their travel itineraries. On the first days of the meeting, we are double-checking everything: Did they arrive in the city? Did they check into their hotels? Did they upload their presentations to the system? Then, in each session room, a staff member is assigned to find everyone who’s scheduled to speak and make sure they are where they need to be.
One year, when weather caused flight delays and cancellations, one of our keynote speakers went missing. About 15 minutes before he was supposed to go on stage, we still didn’t know if he was in the city! We put out an all-points-bulletin for anyone who could spot this person in a crowd and, luckily, we found him just in time. I cannot confirm or deny this statement, but I may have had to straighten his tie as I pushed him out on the stage.
There’s always down-to-the-wire fun and excitement, and we just try to be prepared to handle it.
In those situations, I always think about my mother: Her purse seemingly held everything you would ever need. If a rattlesnake bit you, she would have a remedy for it. During the annual meeting, I end up playing that same role. My suit pockets are packed with all of this “in-case-of-emergency” stuff. I start the meeting with a big supply of ASH lapel pins in my pockets to give to any of our ASH officers, but the pins always seem to disappear by the end of the meeting. I guess they make good souvenirs!
“[Everything] happens in a disciplined, orderly fashion; there are certain intervals of organized chaos, but that’s what makes it fun.”
How is the annual meeting program developed?
Pulling off an event as large as the ASH annual meeting takes a village. ASH has an incredible group of volunteer leaders that work throughout the year to put together the program. The president proposes topics, speakers, and themes; our Scientific and Educational Affairs Committees propose sessions; and our abstract reviewers score more than 6,000 abstracts. (For an in-depth look at this process, see “A Rehash of the ASH Dash”). All of this is reviewed and recommended by the Program Committee, then approved by the Executive Committee.
In September, the abstract notification process generates another wave of registration, as more than 4,000 people are informed that they are going to present in a poster or oral session. It’s almost like another opening day.
Everyone works at a quicker pace once those invitations go out because the finish line is in sight. People assume that our busiest time is October and November – right before the annual meeting – but, at that point, the game plan is already implemented and we’re just locking down last-minute details. We’re even starting to change gears and look at the big details of next year’s meeting.
How do you decide which session appears in which room?
For most attendees, this may seem easier than it really is. With so much great science to present, the reality is that everyone will need to make some tough decisions on which sessions to attend.
Volunteers guide staff regarding which topics will be popular, and we try to minimize occurrences when an attendee will want to be in two or three session rooms at the same time. We look at historical attendance to predict which session should go in which room based upon the room’s capacity. Again, we make an educated guess at the size requirements. But in the end, people make decisions in the moment about which session they want to attend. We could control session attendance with precision and efficiency if we forced everyone to make their selections in advance and issue tickets, but our members like the freedom to change course. Webcasts are very popular for those who want to watch sessions they could not attend.
The safety of our attendees is our priority, so we follow the defined capacity of each room according to the local fire marshal, who is on site to monitor crowd sizes. ASH has adjacent overflow rooms available if necessary. At the beginning of each session, staff members are closely watching the occupancy levels, and, when we reach 60 percent, everyone is poised to open the overflow room. This triggers changes to the location on digital signs, the mobile app, etc.
Can you give us a sneak peek at anything new for this year’s meeting?
This year, we’re rolling out something new to help attendees on site: Amazon Alexa technology. Devices will be located around the convention center, each preloaded with our own searchable, annual meeting–specific database. If someone needs to search for an abstract or the location of a session room, all they have to do is ask Alexa. The system will also alert us if it doesn’t have an answer to someone’s question and we can update the database accordingly.
This is helpful for attendees and our meetings team, because, rather than hearing about an issue after the meeting, we can find a solution in real-time.
What session are you most looking forward to at this year’s meeting?
My favorite – and this is true of every annual meeting – is the Best of ASH Session, which is created by the meeting co-chairs during the meeting. For me, the appeal is two-fold: I love to hear the key takeaways from the meeting and it’s usually the first time I can sit down and listen to the content; on a personal level, it is the first sign that the end of the meeting is winding down. Seeing that session come together is exhilarating, but it’s also a time for reflection.
What happens when the annual meeting ends?
After one meeting ends, we look ahead to the next, and that includes seeing what we can do better. We push ourselves to improve every year. There is no such thing as a perfect meeting at this scale, but we want to come as close to perfect as we can. We do a series of debriefs to figure out what went well and where we can improve.
That’s emblematic of how ASH operates with everything, but, because the ASH meeting is on such a large scale, one improvement could have an immediate impact on tens of thousands of people.
Every year, our team goes through a little emotional comedown on Tuesday afternoon when the annual meeting is complete. We put our heart and soul into something for an entire year, and take personal pride in making it happen. At the end of the day, though, all the work is about ASH’s mission to help hematologists conquer blood diseases worldwide.
What do you love about the annual meeting?
The foundation of our annual meeting is providing our audience the best science in the world. It takes extremely careful planning to bring it to our audience, yet we also like to surprise and delight attendees with more social or whimsical touches so that people go back home inspired. We can’t lose sight of the fact that, amongst a gazillion details, the annual meeting is all about advancing the science, improving the lives of patients, and helping hematologists go back to their clinics or labs re-energized.
A Rehash of the ASH Dash
On the day of the ASH Annual Meeting abstract submission deadline, thousands of authors sit down at their laptops to submit their abstracts for inclusion in the annual meeting. That process involves (but is not limited to) finding misplaced log-in info; tracking down errant statistician reports; editing and re-editing introductions and conclusions to fit within the 3,800-character limit; and filling out the appropriate author names, affiliations, and disclosures – all before the clock strikes midnight (Pacific time, of course).
If everything goes smoothly, authors can expect an automatically generated confirmation message from the abstract management system and can breathe a sigh of relief.
That’s where the “ASH dash” for authors ends, but, for ASH meetings staff, the race has just begun. In eight weeks, ASH staff and hundreds of volunteer reviewers sift through more than 6,000 submissions to create the final abstract line-up.
How exactly does this happen? Communication, time tracking, and dedication, according to Joanna Robertson, senior manager of annual meeting publications at ASH. Ms. Robertson spoke with ASH Clinical News to give readers a glimpse into how abstracts are selected, who reviews them, and why procrastination doesn’t pay.
What one thing would you like readers to know about the abstract submission process?
Most people wait until the last minute to start their submission. I don’t think they know that they can start their submission at any time and update it throughout the submission period. Entering a lengthy author list takes time – especially on the last day when the system is busy – so why not start early, even if the authorship isn’t finalized? The only hard-and-fast rule is that it must be completed by 11:59 p.m. Pacific time on the closing date.
We try to help anybody who contacted us about technical difficulties on the night the submission window closes, but we cannot accept abstracts that are emailed to us after the site closes. People call us days after the deadline, asking for an extension, sometimes crying because they might get fired because they didn’t submit in time. Our hearts bleed for them but, unfortunately, we cannot make exceptions for people who did not contact us before the deadline.
If I could tell authors having last-minute trouble one thing, it would be, “Please talk to us!”
We know what the abstract submission process looks like from the author perspective, but how does it look from the staff perspective?
The day that the site opens is a drop in the bucket. In any given year, we might receive one completed abstract submission during the first week of the submission window, and maybe a couple dozen more by the end of the third week. Our busiest, all hands-on-deck time is the last three days before the submission site closes. That’s when we’re getting 1,000 to 3,000 abstract submissions started each day.
On those three days, we’re fielding hundreds of emails and phone calls from people working through the submission process. My colleague and I monitor the “abstracts inbox” until midnight (Eastern time) of the closing date, in alternating, four-hour shifts to make sure we’re staying on top of queries.
Our tech support team also is available to answer log-in questions, and our membership team is working to check authors’ membership status and to process payments of back dues for people who need to reactivate their membership. It keeps us on our toes.
How are reviewers chosen?
With 61 categories to review (and a few categories so large that they are divided between two review teams), we need 65 six-person review teams, for a total of 390 reviewers. Reviewers are nominated by reviewers from previous years or by self-nomination. We update our review team rosters every year. We only require that the lead reviewer of each team served in the previous year so we have an experienced leader.
We average 1,500 nominees every year. After researching nominees’ recent publications, affiliation, location, career level, and other factors, we present the ASH Secretary, Robert Brodsky, MD, with the complete list of nominees. He will then review the list and assemble 65 balanced, ideal “dream teams.”
How do you pull everything off?
It works because of Excel spreadsheets, down-to-the-minute time tracking, and our VIPs – the reviewers who volunteer their time, knowledge, and expertise to help make our meeting great.
Can you walk us through what happens after the abstract submission site closes?
Once the abstract submission site closes, we get down to business. The selection process is composed of a carefully plotted series of events that is outlined in an eight-page spreadsheet, and each step is allotted a certain amount of time.
- Days 1-2: We clean up the abstract management system, running several in-depth reports to identify any incomplete abstracts, duplicate submissions, or abstracts without payment, and contact the authors to give them an opportunity to resolve the issue.
- Days 2-12: Our volunteer review teams score their assigned abstracts. Reviewers are blinded to the authors’ names and institutions. They can enter comments or recuse themselves because of conflicts of interest, and all of that is considered when the scores are aggregated. During this period, our staff monitor their inboxes 24/7 to make sure the process is running smoothly.
- Days 13-19: Over a series of 65 conference calls, each team, along with 48 ASH staff trained to monitor the calls, decides how to fill the presentation slots awarded to their categories. Because we strive for geographic diversity on our review teams, that can mean random call times. I’ve had staff wake up for calls at 4:00 a.m.; I just did one at 11:00 p.m. for this year’s meeting.On these calls, the review teams consider each abstract’s average score and decide which will be oral, poster, or online-only presentations.
- Days 20-35: After another round of clean-up, we deliver the results to the ASH Secretary, who has 10 days to review approximately 400 abstracts that require his attention to ensure all ASH policies are being followed.
- Days 36-44: Once we enter the Secretary’s decisions into the system and identify replacement abstracts where necessary, the ASH Program Committee begins their work. In the week prior to their mid-September meeting (held at ASH headquarters in Washington, DC), the committee members review the proposed sessions to ensure they are balanced. At the meeting, the program committee selects the plenary abstracts and discusses any concerns before finally approving the abstracts program. Their recommendations then go to the Executive Committee for final approval.
- Days 45-59: Once the Program Committee and the Executive Committee approve the annual meeting program, we start notifying authors, beginning with the plenary abstracts. We spend the next two weeks preparing the accepted abstracts; this includes processing abstract withdrawals, checking for time conflicts for the presenters, working around schedules of anyone who can’t work on certain days due to a religious conflict, running multiple conflict reports, assigning abstracts their final numbers, and a thousand other contingencies. We check and recheck our decisions, rescheduling them as we need to, and then lock the program down. Then, and only then, can we send notifications. | <urn:uuid:f8456770-576e-4b7a-a186-965a1fc8692a> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.ashclinicalnews.org/features/behind-scenes-look-ash-annual-meeting/ | 2019-07-16T22:59:37Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.953398 | 4,357 |
Located in the heart of St. George Island, One St. George is the place to stay for a perfect little getaway! Built in 2006, it's modern elegance surrounds you in this exquisitely decorated condo overlooking the Gulf of Mexico and the St. George Island Lighthouse. Multiple sets of french doors open out to the tiled balcony where you can watch dolphins play and enjoy amazing sunsets. Inside you will be spoiled by the granite counter-tops, sub-zero appliances, bamboo flooring, flat screen TV's in each room, rain head showers, and luxurious furnishings. Outside, you're surrounded by shops, galleries, restaurants and are only steps away from the beach boardwalk located next to the Lighthouse.
Property information provided by the REALTOR'S® Association of Franklin and Gulf Counties, Inc. IDX information is provided exclusively for consumers' personal, non-commercial use, and may not be used for any purpose other than to identify prospective properties consumers may be interested in purchasing. This data is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed accurate by the MLS. | <urn:uuid:1d3140a7-d447-47a0-b14c-fc9c85544a99> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.bjsmiley.com/listing/300993-112-franklin-blvd-st-george-island-fl-32328/ | 2019-07-16T23:00:42Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.936063 | 220 |
Bundle with Spectrum in Almont, MI
- 125+ channels w/ FREE HD channels
- Download speeds starting at 100 Mbps
- NO CONTRACTS
Spectrum services not yet available in all areas, please call to determine availability.
Spectrum Internet Delivers a Reliably Fast Connection in Almont, MI
Why should you have to live with DSL Internet service when high speed Internet from Spectrum is faster? You deserve faster download speeds for your music, pictures, and movies, which means you need to order Spectrum Internet® today. With Spectrum Internet in Almont, you get average download speeds of approximately 100 Mbps.
On Demand from Spectrum Puts TV on Your Schedule
On Demand from Spectrum gives you the power to watch the shows you want, whenever you want. With On Demand from Spectrum, you'll never miss that special program again. When you take advantage of a DVR, you can record an entire series or the big game, and even skip through commercials to get back to the action. Over 520 Almont residents are already enjoying the freedom that comes from On Demand. Call Spectrum and improve your television experience today.
Equipment may vary.
Spectrum in Almont, MI Puts You in Control
Are you tired of missing your favorite team or an exciting replay? Spectrum has the answer. If you're tired of missing crucial sports moments, you can rest easy: a DVR from Spectrum TV® will keep you in the middle of all the action all season long. Spectrum cable packages and DVR lets you watch college football, NBA games, or any of your favorite sporting events when and where you want. You are in control with Spectrum. With Spectrum and DVR service in Almont, sports fans rule!
Spectrum TV® Keeps Almont Entertained
It's time to get the most value from your entertainment dollar while watching your favorite shows, movies, and sporting events. Chances are that yours is one of the 875 homes in Almont with an HDTV. If so, then it's time to switch to Spectrum and get HD programming delivered to your living room. Spectrum TV® deals bring you:
- Movies, shows, and sports in HD
- Special offers for Almont residents
- The option to rewind and watch your favorite scenes
- The ability to fast forward through commercials
With Spectrum, you'll feel like your right in the middle of the track with Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick fighting for position. See the latest movies or catch up on your favorite TV series. It's all possible with Spectrum. It's time to watch TV how it's meant to be seen—with amazing HD quality.
Almont, MI Turns to Spectrum Internet® for a High Speed Connection
Today's modern family needs an Internet provider able to match their pace. Even if your husband is downloading a movie, your son is playing a game, and your daughter is watching her favorite new video, you can count on Spectrum's high speed Internet to keep everyone happy. Spectrum offers robust bandwidth and speeds up to 100 Mbps, so it's not hard to figure out why nearly 4 million people trust Spectrum as their high speed Internet provider. And when you call today you'll get access to over 3,500 live sports events with ESPN3 from Spectrum Internet.
Save a Bundle with Spectrum in Almont, MI
Who knew you could find more time in the day by bundling your TV, Internet and phone? You don't have to worry about multiple bills or tracking services when you bundle with Spectrum. Bundling offers convenience, plus you'll be saving money along the way. Did you know that nearly 770 households in your area already bundle? Now it's time for you to take advantage of the promotions in your area designed for convenience and saving you money. | <urn:uuid:bbbac088-fe84-42cc-a5e1-53f6b0bc91e8> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.cabletv.com/charter/mi/almont | 2019-07-16T22:24:38Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.93141 | 772 |
Stephanie Gatschet's Height
5ft 4 (162.6 cm)
American Actress from tv series The Guiding Light. On Her website
she states 'I'm 5ft 4'.
Stephanie with Christina Lind
Photos by PR Photos
Add a Comment1 comments
Average Guess (2 Votes)
5ft 4in (162.6cm)
Sandy Cowell said on 1/Jan/19
Stephanie doesn't seem bothered that her friend is a couple of inches taller than her 5ft4, and why should she be? Hey, I think blondes look great in blue and brunettes are supercool in red, and that makes the above picture music to my eyes!
Heights are barefeet estimates, derived from quotations, official websites, agency resumes, in person encounters with actors at conventions and pictures/films.
Other vital statistics like weight, shoe or bra size measurements have been sourced from newspapers, books, resumes or social media.
Celebrity Fan Photos and Agency Pictures of stars are © to their respective owners. | <urn:uuid:5cd5a38a-3bc6-4957-bd63-d73d9979c55e> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.celebheights.com/s/Stephanie-Gatschet-2919.html | 2019-07-16T23:11:28Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.934615 | 223 |
Clive Peeters (ASX: CPR) has attributed positive news about its recent fund misappropriation scandal, and a series of cost reductions, to the fact that its stock price has jumped nearly 45% since last Friday.
CPR stock had been trading at $0.29 on Thursday, but surged 13.8% on Friday, and another 25.8% on Monday. The stock has today risen a further 1.2% to $0.42.
The electronics retailer’s stock was rocked by scandal in August, when it revealed that a member of the company allegedly misappropriated $19.3 million in funds.
But in response to an ASX price query, the company said it has since informed the market that it is likely to recover the losses from the sell-down of properties which had been acquired out of the funds. Clive Peeters has also told the market that its insurance is likely to cover the misappropriations.
CPR has also managed cost reductions of $38 million and inventory reduction of $23 million. The company also recently announced the launch of its online business.
Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers. | <urn:uuid:752d764b-4b3a-4d6e-8333-ed9b79f54cea> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.cio.com.au/article/447382/cpr_attributes_stock_surge_good_news_payroll_scandal/?utm_medium=rss&utm_source=tagfeed | 2019-07-16T22:23:19Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.987133 | 262 |
The devil is to blame for the divisions and scandals currently rocking the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis says.
“(The Church must be) saved from the attacks of the malign one, the great accuser and at the same time be made ever more aware of its guilt, its mistakes, and abuses committed in the present and the past,” Francis said.
Since he was elected in 2013, Francis has made clear that he believes the devil to be real.
"We should not think of the devil as a myth, a representation, a symbol, a figure of speech or an idea. This mistake would lead us to let down our guard, to grow careless and end up more vulnerable," he wrote in the document.
The Church has recently been hit by one sexual abuse scandal after another, from Germany, to the United States, to Chile.
Francis' use of the term 'the great accuser' to describe Satan hit a raw nerve with one of the pope's harshest conservative critics, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the Vatican's former ambassador to Washington.
Francis is so convinced that Satan is ultimately to blame for both the sexual abuse scandals and the divisions within the Church that he has enlisted the aid of a spiritual big gun - St Michael the Archangel.
Catholics are being asked to recite the rosary daily in October and conclude it with a prayer to St Michael that was said after Mass until 1964 but then fell into disuse.
The prayer reads: "St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our defence against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
"May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of heavenly hosts, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan, and all evil spirits, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls."
Watch our videos on YouTube
See our photos on Instagram
Find old stories in our online Archives
Search for jobs, motors and property, or place an advert or family notice here | <urn:uuid:6bd170d6-ac26-4a15-8ca2-1dd285ef2049> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/uk-world-news/pope-francis-blames-devil-15258404 | 2019-07-16T22:38:32Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.963153 | 420 |
I read an article the other day over at Project Manager Planet. This work by Herman Mehling was titled "Project Manager or Project Leaders - What's in a title?" It's a simple enough question but can have a complicated answer. Herman points out that, for some, the titles are virtually synonymous. What can be confusing about the English language, at times, is different words can sometimes have the same meanings. In this instance, that is not the case. These are not synonyms!
Upon reviewing the PMBOK on the word, I found an uncanny absence. It's really only mentioned a few times in the entire book!
Page 26 Project Managers...this high profile role requires
flexibility, good judgment, strong leadership and negotiation skills, and a solid knowledge of project management practices.
Successful projects require strong leadership skills. Leadership is important through all phases of the project life cycle. It is especially important to communicate the vision and inspire the project team to achieve high performance.
Page 417 Appendix G
Leadership involves focusing the efforts of a group of people toward a common goal and enabling them to work as a team. In general terms, leadership is the ability to get things done through others. Respect and trust, rather than fear and submission, are the key elements of effective leadership. Although important throughout all project phases, effective leadership is critical during the beginning phases of the project when the emphasis is on communication vision and motivating and inspiring project participants to achieve high performance....
If it states on page 240 that successful projects require strong leadership skills, why is it not more thoroughly listed in the 4th edition? If it's critical in the beginning phases, as listed on page 417, why is it not detailed? Since "expert judgment" is listed as a tool & technique throughout the body of knowledge, I think PMI missed an opportunity to include "acts of leadership". Perhaps we should start by renaming the 4th PMI process group from Monitoring & Controlling" to maybe include & Inspiring.
Thoughts on the topic?
Image Source: Flickr James @NZ | <urn:uuid:47037f40-b252-44f9-aa21-17bf9e33fe58> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.derekhuether.com/blog/2010/08/05/pmbok-and-detailing-leadership | 2019-07-16T23:25:56Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.956642 | 425 |
Making a MASH enquiry (for professionals)
An enquiry should be made to the MASH when you have safeguarding concerns that may require children’s social care involvement.
Before making an enquiry
Before making a MASH enquiry you need to consider if the child or young person’s needs can be met by services from within your own agency, or by other professionals already involved with the family. You can contact the Early Response Service for support and guidance about the Devon Assessment Framework.
We know that it is sometimes difficult to decide the appropriate point of intervention. To help you to determine levels of need when making your own assessment we have developed some multi-agency threshold descriptors.
If you are a professional, before making the enquiry you should always inform the parent of your concerns and that you will be making a MASH enquiry and whenever possible seek their consent, except where a child is considered to be at risk of harm and you believe that seeking parental consent may increase this risk.
If you are unsure about thresholds or seeking consent please seek advice from your line manager.
When to make an enquiry
Enquiries should be made when your assessment (including DAF) has identified needs which can only be met through specialist services at Level 3 – acute. In some cases, multiple identified needs under Level 2 – complex (using the threshold matrices) will need specialist services.
You can talk about this with social care practice managers based in the MASH and any decision reached should be clearly recorded by the agencies involved.
How to make an enquiry
Complete the multi-agency enquiry form in as much detail as possible. The information you provide will support threshold decisions and contribute to a single assessment or DAF if this has not been done already.
If you believe that urgent action is needed because, for example, a child is in immediate danger or needs accommodation, phone the MASH on 0345 155 1071 and give as much information as you can. Your information will be passed immediately to a manager who will decide the action needed and will normally respond to you within one hour. You must follow up your telephone call by sending a completed referral from to the MASH within 48 hours. Email the form to email@example.com.
After you have raised an enquiry about a child
If you have raised an enquiry with MASH you should always give the parents or carers of the child a copy of the factsheet. Parents should always be given this information when an enquiry has been made unless it’s a serious child protection concern and doing so would put the child at risk. | <urn:uuid:6373cab3-7159-4775-914e-2a6e749ff4d6> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.devon.gov.uk/educationandfamilies/child-protection/making-a-mash-enquiry | 2019-07-16T22:43:14Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.949204 | 543 |
Set against the backdrop of an old Milanese seminary, Suzuki's Sonic Pendulum installation is made up of three structures supporting 30 pendulums.
Each pendulum is equipped with a speaker playing a calming ambient bassline, while artificial intelligence modulates sounds that are being made in the space – creating an "ever-evolving, meditative calming atmosphere".
"Whilst continuously generating a calming ambient sound and bassline atmosphere, the algorithm processes disturbances around the space, generated by the crowd themselves," said the designer, who worked alongside car brand Audi to realise the installation.
"While gently modulating the sound coming from speakers through doppler effect, it is also a visual representation of a dream: a systematised mess, with moments of order emerging from the chaos," he added.
Through its soft, fluid movements and immersive soundscape, Suzuki hoped the Sonic Pendulum installation would create a relaxing environment for visitors caught up in the Milan design week hubbub.
"These refined human modulations will create a relaxing environment so that visitors stay for longer, temporarily escaping the hubbub of the Salone in a meditative environment," he said.
"The generated frequencies and sounds will allow the audience to enter into a meditative state, an experience the scholars in this space have been cultivating for hundreds of years."
Sound is a recurring theme throughout Suzuki's work, with his previous projects ranging from a radio made from a circuit board that looks like the London tube map to a vinyl globe that plays folk music and national anthems as a needle passes over it.
His Sonic Pendulum installation will be on show in Milan from 4 to 9 April at Corso Venezia 11. | <urn:uuid:3f6ce5a1-38bd-40f0-acb1-89df057b9159> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.dezeen.com/2017/04/05/yuri-suzuki-giant-sonic-pendulum-installation-courtyard-seminary-milan-design-week/ | 2019-07-16T23:19:45Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.943327 | 345 |
Smartphones are now responsible for the majority of photos that are taken. The downside is that over time these photos take up a lot of room. Throw in videos, time-lapses, burst shots, snaps, and uncompressed RAW files, and you can easily fill up your device. Users don’t always edit, back up, or delete their photos, turning their phones into digital graveyards. If you want to archive your photos to use later, then you want to make sure you know how to back them up on a computer. Learn how to transfer photos from an Android phone to a PC eight different ways, so you can offload those photos even when there’s no cord handy. (Are you an iOS user? See our guide on transferring photos from an iPhone.)
One of the best features of Android is its mostly unfettered access to the USB file system. The fact that you can simply plug your phone into your computer using the included USB cable makes it easy to download any and all images and drag them into any desktop app or your file system for safekeeping. We find this to be the easiest, most foolproof method, and the only downside is that you need a computer and your charging cable handy.
If you’re using Windows, the USB connection auto-prompts will present you with options for managing the device as soon as it’s connected. With Windows 10, you can also open Photos, then choose Import > From a USB Device to choose what images to add to the photo-management program.
There’s also the drag and drop option. Go to File Explorer and choose your device from the list under This PC on the left side of the screen. Next, find the location of your photos on your device. It’s probably the file labeled Pictures, Camera or DCIM. If you store your photos on a memory card, then you’ll choose Card. From there, select the photos you would like to move to your PC, then drag them to your Photos folder in the Quick Access folders on the left of the screen. This will copy the photos to the folder, but won’t delete the ones on your phone.
If you’re on a Mac, there are a few options, one being the Android File Transfer program. We have a handy guide for transferring any type of file from your Android phone to your Mac.
Google Drive’s backup service is by far the simplest method for both backing up your photos and subsequently getting them off your Android phone. The service comes standard on almost all Android phones and works quietly in the background, uploading your files to your Google Drive for easy access on other devices. Synced photos are stored privately, too, meaning you don’t have to worry about any embarrassing photos winding up in the wrong hands, but they’re easily and quickly accessible from within your Google Drive.
In the Google Drive app, press the menu button or icon, then open the Settings menu. Find the Google Photos option and turn on the auto add. Here, you can set the auto backup to be on or off, as well as change the settings that correspond to it. In order to access and download your synced photos, open your Google Drive. Your photos are stored in a private folder labeled Google Photos. Open that folder, and you can browse and download your photos directly to your desktop. Your photos will also be added to Google Photos using this method.
If you don’t want to enable syncing, you can also upload individual files from your phone to your drive. Open your phone’s photo gallery, open a picture, then tap the Share button. From there, you will be able to select from multiple sharing options. Tap the Google Drive icon, and the files will be uploaded. Once uploaded, the picture can be accessed via Google Drive.
Keep in mind, however, that any files uploaded to your Google Drive will take up your allotted storage space. Therefore, you may want to periodically clean out your drive or opt for a more robust storage plan.
Google Photos works in a similar fashion to Google Drive; in fact, the user interface and experience is nearly identical because both share Google’s Material Design language. Of course, Google Photos is strictly for stowing photos and videos, while Google Drive handles all types of files. If your utmost concern is backing up images, then Google Photos might be the better solution. It’s free, storage is unlimited (so long as you don’t use the “original” file size option), and, unlike Google Drive, it doesn’t impact your allotted amount of free storage. Google has also recently improved performance, meaning Photos is now twice as fast.
There are other big benefits to the app, too. Google Photos offers an array of useful tools that allow you to edit and share your creations, or automatically group photos and videos into collections. The service can also cast content to a Chromecast, keep your photos private unless specified, and perform smart searches using machine learning. The “assistant” can even create fun projects with your images, such as slideshows, collages, panoramas, and animations. Best of all, you can access your photos from almost any device, not only those running Android.
The service supports JPEG, TIFF, RAW, WEBP, and GIFs that are at least 256 pixels, as well as a dozen different video file types including MP4 and MOV. The free storage option does downsample those files at a slightly lower quality, however. Images are still pretty high resolution, so it’s fine for most people, but if you really want to keep the entirety of the file intact, you’ll want to upload individually to Google Drive and have those photos count against your storage limits.
Google Photos is also simple to set up and use. Once you connect it to your Google ID, the app will upload any new content automatically. If you don’t have an unlimited data plan, just make sure you set Google Photos to only sync when your phone is connected to a Wi-Fi network, which can be done by accessing the Settings menu in the top-right corner of the app.
Unlike the iPhone, many Android devices let you expand storage via a MicroSD card. With a large-capacity card inserted, you could set supported photo apps to save content directly to the card instead of your phone’s internal storage. This is particularly useful if you purchased a 16GB or 32GB device, which, if you’re an avid shooter, will fill up in no time. Save the internal memory for applications and use the MicroSD card for storage. But remember, don’t leave the photos sitting on the card — transfer them to your computer. Check out our guide on using MicroSD cards on Android devices for more information.
What if your Android device lacks support for MicroSD? In this case, the Leef Access MicroSD reader is awesome for transferring photos between devices while expanding the storage space on your phone. The tiny dongle plugs into your phone’s Micro USB port, while the other end functions as a MicroSD card reader and a slot for secondary storage. Once a card is inserted, you can use most file-management apps to copy photos (or any files, for that matter) to the card. If you use a high-speed MicroSD card, the transfer process from phone to the card is relatively quick. You could also use USB On-the-Go; read more about it in the section of this article on External Storage.
Like Google Drive, another option is the popular Dropbox app for Android, a free utility that automatically syncs files and photos with the cloud-based server, so you can easily access them anywhere. The Dropbox App is available via the Google Play store.
Once you’ve downloaded the Dropbox app, you have to either log in to your existing account or make a new one. Either in settings or at the top of the photos and media tab, select Turn on Camera Upload to access the settings that govern what photos get backed up automatically, and whether you want them backed up on cellular data or only over Wi-Fi.
Microsoft’s OneDrive is another similar option to consider.
A group of former Microsoft engineers, who just so happen to be photo enthusiasts, got together and created Mylio. Billed as a “memory organizer,” the service lets mobile users backup their photos for free. Mylio lets you sync up to 12 Android or iOS devices, and offers in-device photo editing, along with the ability to work with JPEG, TIFF, PNG, and RAW files. The concept behind Mylio is similar to Google Photos, but while the latter targets casual photographers, Mylio seems to skew toward enthusiasts. We think Google Photos offers more features for everyday shooting, but if you work with high-quality files, Mylio is a great companion to Google Photos.
Email and sharing
It isn’t the most elegant solution, but if you only need to transfer over an image or two, and you only do it sporadically, then you can easily use your email. This is also a good way to send images to a PC that isn’t connected to your Google Drive or other cloud accounts, such as a work computer. Depending on your email provider, the exact process may vary, but it’s a simple process no matter which app you use. Compose a new email, and enter your email address as the recipient.
Tap on the Menu button to bring up a context menu, and then select Attach File to add a picture to your email. If you’re in Gmail, you can capture a photo right from that menu.
Send the email, and a few short minutes later, you will see the email pop up in your inbox for you to open from another phone or your computer. Note that you are sending a large file and some email services have a limit on the file size you can send.
Sometimes, nothing else will do besides a reliable external storage device. As connectivity in smartphones increases, so do your options for connecting to different storage methods.
One nice thing about Android is its support for external storage, which owes much to a USB protocol called USB On-the-Go (OTG). You can plug in a standard external USB hard drive — the kind you’d use with a laptop or desktop machine — and add a ton of storage for offloading photos and videos, particularly 4K and RAW files. You will need a USB OTG-to-Micro USB adapter, however. Also, keep in mind that not all Android devices support USB OTG; to find out if yours does, use the Easy OTG Checker app.
If your phone doesn’t support USB OTG, another useful option is a portable flash drive (aka a thumbdrive) that is designed to connect directly to a phone via the Micro USB or USB Type-C port. These products include SanDisk’s Ultra Dual Drive m3.0 or Ultra USB Type-C Flash Drive.
Taking a ton of photos? Western Digital’s My Passport Wireless SSD packs tons of storage, wireless connectivity, and portability into a single package. With Wi-Fi, you can connect your Android device to the drive (via the WD My Cloud app) and easily copy photos over. There’s a built-in SD card slot, too, which allows you to back up the photos from your digital camera without a computer. | <urn:uuid:0663e787-5009-41bc-a3ff-11a95726476a> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.digitaltrends.com/photography/best-ways-get-photos-android/ | 2019-07-16T23:20:21Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.91047 | 2,392 |
As my story “Look Who’s Curing Cancer” describes, IBM’s World Community Grid is a project of breathtaking scope and ambition. The idea couldn’t be simpler: Let scientists use available downtime on computers to perform math that helps accelerate cancer, AIDS, and other public health breakthroughs. Using algorithms, researchers design virtual experiments to assess up to millions of molecules that could lead to an effective drug. This is astronomically more than they can test by doing physical experiments in the lab.
Cool use of our free computers, huh? More than half a million people around the world think so. That’s how many volunteers the project has.
At one point while interviewing IBM vice president Robin Wilner, I asked, “What does the grid look like, you know, on your computer?”
Awkward pause. “You haven’t joined yet?” she said. “Can I scold you?”
No need. I promptly joined to experience the grid firsthand. Whenever I took a break from writing my story, my computer was busy doing research on muscular dystrophy, childhood cancer, and AIDS.
Now it’s my turn to ask Fast Company readers: What do you mean you haven’t joined yet? There’s a Fast Company team on the WCG site. Sign up today. This minute. We’re not above scolding.
It only takes a few minutes. Click here. You download a program that runs in the background and performs a few limited functions: it identifies when your computer isn’t being used, crunches the algorithms it’s assigned, and reports the calculations back to IBM.
You can select a specific project, like cancer, or let the grid assign whatever needs to be done that day. When you launch the application, called Boinc, click on “tasks” and then “show graphics” to get a specific window showing more details about the test your computer is conducting.
Don’t worry, you don’t have to use your computer any differently. And it doesn’t slow your machine down. I often forget that my laptop is contributing to the grid, because it works when I’m not. For WCG, computer downtime is everything from the few seconds when you pick up the phone and stop typing to the hour when you’re out grabbing lunch. Or you can leave your computer on overnight. The software only uses 60 percent of the computing power on a machine, so it operates efficiently.
Once you join, you’ll notice that WCG loves stats. IBM keeps track of your donated computing time and that of your team. The site tallies points, awards badges, and ranks members and teams, in addition to sending out research updates. People get passionate about their contribution, adding multiple computers at work or at home to WCG, recruiting friends and coworkers.
Now there’s something we’d like to see spread: grid fever. | <urn:uuid:a528ea25-a9b1-48d2-800c-117367fc05f7> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.fastcompany.com/1632122/todays-fast-company-assignment-do-cancer-research-your-sleep | 2019-07-16T22:38:12Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.927377 | 634 |
Conscious Parenting Practice Group
An online practice group to help you grow alongside your children.
Facilitated by Caroline Griswold and Alejandra Siroka
You’ve come to conscious parenting classes or workshops and learned a lot. You’re working on bringing more consciousness to your parenting every day.
As your kid(s) grow, you run into new challenges, and you’re not always sure how to meet them in alignment with your parenting vision and values.
Sometimes you have questions you don’t know how to answer—or who to ask about. Social media groups may help from time to time, but often you are pointed in conflicting directions. Where do you go for sound advice? How do you find a group of like-minded parents now that your child is no longer a baby?
The good news is that such a group exists now! My teaching partner Alejandra Siroka and I are facilitating it, and we welcome you to be a part of it.
Join our Conscious Parenting Practice Group!
HOW IT WORKS
This practice group is a four-part series of monthly video calls.
We will gather once a month for four months. You will show up in this group from your home via computer, tablet, or phone through Zoom, a videoconference platform.
We will connect for an hour and a half once a month and practice how to apply conscious parenting skills in your specific parenting situations.
We’ll start with a common theme and work on situations that arise from the participants of the group.
In each session, you’ll receive coaching from Alejandra and me and interact with other parents in break-out groups.
Your kids are growing, and so can your conscious parenting skills!
This practice group is for you if you have attended a class or workshop with Caroline Griswold and/or Alejandra Siroka, or have worked with either of us one-on-one and you want to:
integrate what you learned as your children grow;
gain a deeper understanding of how to communicate authentically with your children, co-parent, and other caregivers;
ask questions about your specific situation and child(ren);
practice using conscious communication tools in context; and
belong to and learn from a group of like-minded parents.
* If you attended other compatible workshops or classes and would like to explore the possibility of joining the group, contact me. We’ll set a time for a phone chat to see if the group would be a fit for you.
4 sessions of interactive practice
Answers to your questions
Coaching from Caroline and Alejandra
An audio recording of each session for you to download and keep
Conscious parenting tools and practices
The opportunity to share and learn with and from other like-minded parents
This practice group will meet once a month on four Thursdays from July – October 2019, from 7:30 PM–9:00 PM Pacific.
Session #1 Thursday, July 18, 2019
Session #2 Thursday, August 15, 2019
Session #3 Thursday, September 26, 2019
Session #4 Thursday, October 24, 2019
We will connect via Zoom, a videoconference platform that allows us to hear and see each other live and break into smaller groups. You will be given a link to enter the practice group once you register.
$29 per session
$99 for all 4 sessions
Caroline Griswold is a respectful-parenting educator and coach. She helps parents find greater joy and connection with their children and grow into their parenting with grace, insight, and humor. She is passionate about bringing more ease and confidence to parenting, and facilitating respectful communication between parents and babies from birth. A lifelong educator, Caroline was inspired to pursue certification in Magda Gerber’s Educaring® Approach, or RIE® (www.rie.org) after experiencing how this respectful parenting approach transformed her relationships with her son and partner.
Alejandra Siroka, M.A. has devoted her life to the study and exploration of language and communication. She believes bringing consciousness to our communication is essential on the path of transformation and a fulfilling life. Her passion is to help people communicate authentically to develop thriving human relationships and live in alignment with their values. She founded Language Alchemy, a transformative process that involves mindful communication skills, empathic self-inquiry and the recognition and dissolution of unhelpful communication patterns. You can learn more about her at www.languagealchemy.com.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What do I need to connect via Zoom?
You need a device that can connect to the internet and that has a microphone, speaker, and camera. You can use your computer, laptop, tablet, or mobile phone.
How do I prepare for each week?
Email Alejandra and Caroline by Monday the week we have a session if you have a parenting question.
Check you have the Zoom link a few minutes before the start time. (You will receive an email with the link before every session.)
Make sure you are in a quiet, stationary place with enough light.
Enter the group a couple of minutes before the start time.
Have a nice cup of tea or water with you.
Have a pen and journal or notebook ready.
Ask those around you to leave you interruption-free until the end of our time together.
How much time do I need to devote each session?
Our time together is 90 minutes each session. You will also need a couple of minutes before to get ready.
What happens if I sign up for all 4 sessions and I miss one?
You will receive an audio recording of each session. If you miss a session, you can listen to it at a later time.
Can I share the recordings with others?
To respect the privacy of the group members, we require that you do not share the recordings with anybody.
What’s your refund policy?
The online practice group is non-refundable because you will receive all the recordings once you sign up. If unexpected serious extenuating circumstances occur and prevent you from listening to the recordings, contact us and we’ll explore what to do together.
Any other questions? Contact me. | <urn:uuid:018d4ea8-7f6c-4850-8506-35f95517c748> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.fertilegroundparenting.com/conscious-parenting-practice-group | 2019-07-16T22:33:40Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.923437 | 1,310 |
Suzanne Black supplied a lot of The List’s reviews this year, which is to the magazine’s credit. Unusually for a reviewer Black doesn’t linger too long over any particular detail and gives the performer, the material and the vibe in the room sufficient explanation.
Black often goes to some lengths to explain how much she enjoyed something only to award it three stars. You would expect a duo who “manage to create a state of incantatory unexpectedness” [Gravity Boots] to be something rather special, but no. Three stars. Her comment that Damian Clark’s energy “makes the hour seem funnier than it actually is” seems particularly parsimonious. It takes a very jaded reviewer to ask people to stop enjoying themselves for a moment and take the material apart.
Black, for the most part, is reasonable and accepting of the many small errors that can strike any show. Her main fault is to bring too much baggage along: Katie Goodman’s successes were, apparently “tempered by an irony-free number about MILFs that ignores feminist criticism of the acronym.” Er, what? Such tongue-tied appraisals dog Black’s work, which is also let down by juvenile non-nouns like ‘stalwart’ and ‘cohort’ (please just say ‘performer’ or ‘friend’ if that’s what you mean). If Black would make a friend of Mister Plain English, she could be one of the better reviewers on the Fringe | <urn:uuid:46412efb-0963-4de0-8e3d-903482400436> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.fringepig.co.uk/suzanne-black/ | 2019-07-16T22:36:51Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.943805 | 331 |
6809 Via Locanda Av 0
$5,499, 5 Beds 5 Baths 4,608 Sqft .46 Acres 3 Garages
About This Property
Beautiful house on half acre lot with heated Pool and Spa. PRICE LISTED IS FOR TRADITIONAL 12 MONTH LEASE RENT ONLY. UTILITIES ADDITIONAL. This is a fully and completely furnished turnkey property.
BBQ Area, CC&RS, Gated, Lease Considered, Security System, Separate RV Parking, Tennis Courts
Attached, Auto Door Opener(s), Entryto House, Finished Interior
Heated Pool, Inground-Private, Pool/Spa Combo, Waterfall
Blinds, Ceiling Fan(s), Shutters, Windows Coverings Throughout
Energy Star Appliances, Microwave, Water Conditioner
2 or More Central Units, Central, Energy Star Rated, High Efficiency HVAC, Programmable Thermostat
Dogrun, Private Yard, Secured Entry
6809 Via Locanda Av 0, 102 - North (MLS® #1603984) Property History
Property Listed by: Khalid Zaman of Alternative Real Estate
The data relating to real estate for sale on this web site comes in part from the INTERNET DATA EXCHANGE Program of the Greater Las Vegas Association of REALTORS® MLS. Real estate listings held by brokerage firms other than this site owner are marked with the IDX logo.
The information being provided is for the consumers' personal, non-commercial use and may not be used for any purpose other than to identify prospective properties consumers may be interested in purchasing.
Copyright 2019 of the Greater Las Vegas Association of REALTORS® MLS. All rights reserved.
GLVAR deems information reliable but not guaranteed. | <urn:uuid:9c8885f5-86a0-4e4f-b09f-520a266945db> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.greatlasvegashomes.com/listing/1603984-6809-via-locanda-av-0-102-north-nv-89131/ | 2019-07-16T22:40:43Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.762052 | 376 |
The Importance Of Online Customer Reviews [Infographic]
- Posted in Infographics
How important are customer reviews to shoppers? Very important, as it turns out. The fact is, 90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business. And 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
We’ve got many more fun, interesting facts that’ll help you see why your customer review is so important to other shoppers! Check out our infographic, “The Importance Of Online Customer Reviews”, to read more facts. Enjoy!
Infographic by- Invesp conversion optimizaion
To Publish this Image on your Blog or Website . Copy this code
For nearly 9 in 10 consumers, an online review is as important as a personal recommendation.
Customers are likely to spend 31% more on a business with “excellent” reviews.
72% say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more
92% of users will use a local business if it has at least a 4-star rating
72% of consumers will take action only after reading a positive review
Reliability (27%), expertise (21%) & professionalism (18%) are the most important reputation traits for a local business
Estimated Number Of Online Reviews Customers Read Before Trusting A Business
Estimated number of reviews %age 0 8% 1 3% 2-3 24% 4-6 32% 7-10 18% 11-20 8% 21-30 3% 31-40 1% 41-50 1% 51+ 2%
86% of people will hesitate to purchase from a business that has negative online reviews.
On average, a one-star increase on Yelp leads to a 5 to 9% increase in a business’s revenue. At the same time, a single negative review can cost a business about 30 customers.
The number of reviews posted every minute by Yelp users is 26,380
The percentage of Yelp users that have made a purchase at a business they found on Yelp is 98%
The percentage of Yelp users that visit Yelp because they intend to make a purchase is 80%
How To Deal With Negative Reviews
When you receive a negative review, here’s what you should do:
- Respond Promptly
- Be real and admit your mistakes
- Correct inaccuracies
- Highlight your strengths
- Write like a person, not a corporation
- Take it offline
- Provide restitution if it’s warranted
- Ask loyal customers to share their experiences
- Be consistent
- Understand How Rating and Review Sites Work
Khalid Saleh is CEO and co-founder of Invesp. He is the co-author of Amazon.com bestselling book: “Conversion Optimization: The Art and Science of Converting Visitors into Customers.”
Khalid is an in-demand speaker who has presented at such industry events as SMX, SES, PubCon, Emetrics, ACCM and DMA, among others.
Join 25,000+ Marketing Professionals
If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to the Invesp blog feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. or,receive weekly updates by email:
The Art and Science of Converting Prospects to Customers
By Khalid Saleh and Ayat Shukairy
- What is the impact of a page on the site conversion rate?
- Stop confusing usability with conversion
- Beware of mind games
- My thoughts on Basecamp new head of marketing position
- The Importance of Sale Follow Ups – Statistics and Trends
- Buy Online Pick Up In Store – Statistics and Trends [Infographic]
- The Importance of Cross Selling and E-commerce Product Recommendations – Statistics and Trends [Infographic]
- Millennial Online Shopping Habits – Statistics and Trends [Infographic]
- The State of Local Digital Ad Spending – Statistics and Trends
- Understand The Magic of ‘Habit’ | <urn:uuid:e648c794-9d7d-48ef-a966-a2d4d4e3034c> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.invespcro.com/blog/the-importance-of-online-customer-reviews-infographic/ | 2019-07-16T22:47:16Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.897785 | 827 |
UFC lightweights are out there and are legitimately afraid of Khabib Nurmagomedov. Why shouldn’t they be? The dude is terrifying. However, it’s mainly the wrestling of Khabib that strikes fear in the hearts of the division. UFC lightweight, Kevin Lee, says that Khabib has nothing that he hasn’t seen before and he sees holes in Khabib’s game.
However, everyone says that about Khabib until they are in the cage with him getting mauled like a bear on a bunny. Lee needs to not be thinking too far ahead, as he’s facing Al Iaquinta this weekend. Al already beat Lee in 2014 so Lee has an uphill battle from the get-go. The last thing he should be talking about is what’s next. | <urn:uuid:f10c3dbb-a730-409b-acbe-c333617e6730> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.mikeswick.com/tag/khabib-nurmagomedov/ | 2019-07-16T22:57:14Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.971198 | 175 |
A 36-year-old Indian man has been arrested in Nepal for illegally operating call bypass on international calls that caused a loss of millions of rupees to the Himalayan nation's telecom department, police said on Sunday.
Khursed Ansari, a resident of Sunauli in Uttar Pradesh, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation of Nepal Police from Kathmandu on charges of operating call bypass, a statement issued by the Nepal Police said.
The police also recovered a laptop, a 4G device, routers and 16 SIM cards from the accused, the statement said.
Police have initiated further investigation into the matter after taking Ansari in custody.
Get Breaking news, live coverage, and Latest News from India and around the world on NDTV.com. Catch all the Live TV action on NDTV 24x7 and NDTV India. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and Instagram for latest news and live news updates. | <urn:uuid:3518b71d-c686-4652-9587-ed62131a6621> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/kathmandu-nepal-uttar-pradesh-man-arrested-in-nepal-for-running-illegal-call-bypass-scam-2046917?ndtv_related | 2019-07-16T23:01:20Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.925515 | 192 |
The Zomba Senior Resident Magistrate court has sentenced a 26 year old man Zipangani Naminga to 6 years Imprisonment with Hard Labour (IHL) after being found guilty for an offence of child trafficking.
The court heard from Eastern Region Prosecution Inspector Superintendent Patrick Chambuluka who represented the state that the convict between 16th and 19th July, 2018 at Mayaka Trading Centre in the district of Zomba attempted to traffic two teenagers Jonathan Edison (14) and Yanjanani Edison (16) to the neighbouring Republic of Mozambique.
The purpose was for the two teenagers to get employed in the farms without the consent of their parents or guardians; which is contrary to section 21(1)(a) of Trafficking in Persons Act number 3 of 2015 as read with section 15.
Chambuluka said the convict was arrested by members of the general public who later handed him to Mayaka Police Unit.
The convict pleaded guilty to the charges leveled against him and the court convicted him on his own plea of guilty.
In his submission before sentence, the RPI Superintendent Chambuluka pleaded with the court to impose a stiffer sentence considering the nature of the office.
He said what the convict did really placed the victims life in danger as they were exposed to all forms of inhuman treatment.
He further said that it is unfortunate that despite the interventions the government and nongovernmental organizations are putting in place in the fight against human trafficking, there are some people like the convict who are being retrogressive.
He therefore asked the court to impose a stiffer custodial sentence so that it should be a lesson to him and would be offenders.
But in mitigation, the convict pleaded for forgiveness saying that he was not aware that what he was doing was an offence and that he has a family to look after.
Passing his judgement on 27th July, 2018, his worship Senior Resident Magistrate Rodrick Michongwe concurred with the state on the need to impose a stiffer sentence saying that what the convict did really placed the victims’ life in danger.
He therefore sentenced him to 6 years imprisonment with hard labour on each of the two counts but the sentences are to run concurrently.
Zipangani Naminga comes from Chisawa village, in the area of Traditional Authority Chikowi in Zomba district while the victims are from Makaisa village, Traditional Authority M’biza in the same district of Zomba.Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV : | <urn:uuid:343d8723-0da4-4851-a525-2d2ad67c57a0> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.nyasatimes.com/six-years-jail-for-child-trafficking/ | 2019-07-16T22:18:01Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.976565 | 521 |
The latest version of Samsung Octopus FRP Tool allows users to perform repairs for smartphone operations for major Samsung smart devices. These operation fixes are as follows.
Samsung Octopus FRP Tool Fixes:
- Flash – You can flash your mobile device with the help of Octopus FRP Tool.
- Unlock – You can unlock the FRP by using Octopus FRP Tool.
- Repairing – You can repair the software of your Samsung Device with the help of Octopus FRP Tool.
- Now, at present, the Octopus FRP tool is one of the super simple and easiest to get solutions for Samsung devices on the Internet. Users can easily download the Samsung Octopus FRP tool to get rid of basic problems.
Samsung Octopus FRP Tool:
The Octopus Samsung FRP tool has a wide range of functions and can be run on Samsung’s famous equipment. This feature is more popular than Samsung Galaxy devices
1- Samsung Galaxy J2
2- Samsung Galaxy J3
3- Samsung Galaxy J5
4- Samsung Galaxy J7
5- Samsung Galaxy A3
6- Samsung Galaxy A5
7- Samsung Galaxy A7
8- Samsung Galaxy S6
9- Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge
10- Samsung Galaxy S7
11- Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
12- Samsung Galaxy S8
13- Samsung Galaxy S8 Edge
Whats new in octopus samsung,
The Octopus Samsung FRP tool is multi-language and supports multiple languages, which is why it is one of the most famous Samsung FRP tools on the Internet. In addition to multi-language capabilities, the tool has many other features. It supports a variety of Android operating systems from KitKat to Nougat and higher. The Samsung Octopus FRP tool supports all of this.
Here you can download the complete version of Samsung Octopus FRP Tool. This version has been tested and verified by the pc9x Authorities that’s why to feel free to download.
In fact, this software “The latest version of the Octopus FRP tool” is free and great support software. The software has been widely used by many smartphone manufacturers for factory reset protection. Currently, the following vendors are using this software
Not only do these well-known vendors use the Octopus FRP Tool, but there are other vendors that use the Android OS as their operating system and embed this feature. This is the easiest way to bypass Google account verification. You can bypass Google Account verification from any Android device with the latest version of the Octopus FRP Tool.
Main Features of Octopus FRP Tool:
The Complete list of Octopus FRP latest Version 2018 is given below.
- Unlocking Samsung Devices
- Repair IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity)
- Read Codes
- Read and Write complete flash
- Support Flash via USB.
- Read and write NVM
- Read and write EEPROM
- Edit Languages for Samsung Devices.
- Format FS.
- Read and Write Security Features.
- Factory Reset.
- Hard Reset.
- Read, Write, and Repair TA.
- Info Read
- Read EFS
- Repair Wi-Fi Address for the Samsung device.
- Repair Screen Lock
- Flash Dump Memory of RAM
Here, we have the full version of the Samsung tool to bypass FRP protection. Click the download button to start downloading the latest version of the Samsung Octopus FRP Tool 2018. | <urn:uuid:aa3f31c9-5c4f-4dcb-983a-aedf48e4b6ba> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.pc9x.com/samsung-octopus-frp-tool-free-download/ | 2019-07-16T23:30:17Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.801525 | 728 |
I've been running on a treadmill for quite some time and would like to begin running outside. What's the best way to make this transition? Every time I attempt to run outside I find I get tired more easily and am not able to run like I can on a treadmill. Also, I live in Florida and it's scorching hot for the next few months. Is it better to keep my runs on the treadmill for now until it cools down some? – Melissa
Melissa, I understand your struggle: I run in the heat in Florida about every month during my enjoyable running retreats on the panhandle. Things could be worse, though. I’ve e-coached runners in places like Singapore and Panama. Here are several ways to deal with the heat:
1.Start your run on the treadmill. After your warmup, run for 10 minutes indoors.
2.Walk outdoors and run for 3-5 minutes.
3.Your outdoor pace should be 1-2 minutes per mile slower than your indoor pace.
4.Come back indoors for another 5-to-10-minute segment.
5.Keep repeating until the workout is over.
6.Over the next few months, gradually increase the amount of running outdoors.
7.Insert a 1-minute walk break after 1-2 minutes of outdoor running
Be sure to read how to deal with the heat in one of my books for many more tips and suggestions.
You can do it!
Olympian Jeff Galloway has helped thousands of runners achieve their goals through his e-coaching, Galloway Programs across the U.S., retreats, half day running schools, books, and individual consultations. For more information on this topic or Jeff's programs, visit JeffGalloway.com. | <urn:uuid:a633f68c-0581-49da-b1a0-7048f4eab9ff> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.runnersworld.com/training/a20790475/how-should-i-transition-from-treadmill-to-outdoors/ | 2019-07-16T22:53:32Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.947707 | 368 |
Beyond the horror of Tuesday's attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon lie the vexing issues of who is responsible and how a now-battered United States can battle terrorism. Anthony Lake, who served as National Security Advisor during President Bill Clinton's first term, tells Salon the culprit is likely Osama bin Laden -- and a missile defense system won't stop him.
Do you think Osama bin Laden is responsible for this carnage?
Obviously it would be premature to say so, but it fits his M.O. You'll recall, for example, the embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam were carried out almost simultaneously.
So it bears his signature?
You can't know that and you don't want to go off half-cocked. That's a good starting point for the investigation.
Could bin Laden's organization perform such complicated terrorist attacks alone, without any state sponsor of terrorism?
You can speculate endlessly about that. Whether or not it turns out to be the work of Osama bin Laden, there ought to be the most vigorous possible action against any government or state that offers sanctuary to terrorism -- as the Taliban has been offering bin Laden. We need to try to put together a global effort against terrorism and use, as a reminder of that, the coalition that President George Bush put together after the invasion of Kuwait.
Does today's tragedy show that we really aren't prepared to handle something like this in the U.S.?
The government had made a start in the last few years at getting better organized, but it's only a beginning. There are so many targets, especially the vulnerabilities of our computers and critical infrastructure that uses computers. What I hope is that we will use our horror and anger in ways that will first lead us to think a little differently about threats to our national security and then to act more vigorously.
Do you think our priorities have been misplaced?
We have devoted a huge amount of newspaper space and space on talk shows to debating national missile defense. We ought to have been spending equal amounts of time and thought on how to combat terrorism and put more resources into the defense of our homeland against threats like this.
There has been disappointment as to how the budget cuts have affected the intelligence community. Has the war against terrorism been affected?
I don't know whether we cut too much. But I do know its getting more and more difficult, for example, with the explosion of fiber optics and other means of communication, to monitor the communications of terrorists and criminal groups. If we're going to be serious about this, we're going to need to increase our spending on those kind of activities just as much as we think about missile defense or more conventional forms of combat.
The point is that we are at war. There is one group out there trying to kill Americans right now. That is not the North Koreans with their missiles. So I think when we can pin responsibility on some group there has to be an American response, but we also need to have a more strategic view and try to use this horrible catastrophe to help form a global alliance for a global war against terrorism.
Do today's events demonstrate that we have already lost the war against terrorism here in the United States?
This is going to be a long war. That's why we need a strategy. | <urn:uuid:3dfd2c53-3d5c-40c6-b5c4-ea789104fcd7> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.salon.com/2001/09/12/lake/ | 2019-07-16T22:46:37Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.973756 | 673 |
What a way to go.
A+ for effort.
Another twist to the story.
How the mighty have fallen.
Smoke 'em up Johnny.
Getting rid of the old ball and chain.
These two are the absolute worst.
That's not how you take it.
Well he does look a bit creepy doesn't he?
Sick Chirpse presents a handy how-to for when the sads just won't go away. | <urn:uuid:4a5ea83e-c699-483c-8513-00854a610fa7> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.sickchirpse.com/tag/medication/ | 2019-07-16T22:47:56Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.905052 | 96 |
UK General Election 2015 – A Reaction
Last night I flitted between the BBC and Channel 4’s coverage of the election results, although only till about midnight.
When I first saw these I didn’t give them much credence, nor did the twitter stream that commented on them. I only saw a couple of very cautious positive comments at that point. Most twitter commenters rubbished the exit polls.
After weeks of not much change in the opinion polls it seemed unlikely that the Conservatives would have suddenly gained momentum and Labour lost it. The SNP prediction also seemed extreme.
I’m writing this on the train platform and there are only 18 seats left to declare. The exit polls look very accurate indeed. From running neck and neck for weeks the Conservatives seemed to have stolen 3 points from Labour to give them a 6 percentile lead. They also look like they might just scrape an overall majority. They’ve got 317 seats right now and need only 6 more to get a working majority, so it’s very likely.
What does it mean?
Well it means we’re going to get five years of single party government by the Conservatives. We’ll know for sure how much they care and exactly where the policy positions they adopt come from. Big questions are whether the NHS will survive until 2020 and also will the economy recover properly?
There will be stronger calls for electoral reform, both from 56 SNP members in Parliament and also from the over five million that voted Green and UKIP and so far have 2 MPs against the 1.1 million that voted SNP and got 56 MPs.
There is also a lesson that the electorate seem to prefer majority government to a coalition. Although there may be a better explanation for the sudden Conservative surge to a small overall majority. Some of this is probably a failure on the part of the Labour party to campaign effectively.
There really wasn’t enough between the parties, and Ed Miliband didn’t do enough to refute the Conservatives lines blaming Labour for the economy. Given that the depression was caused by a global banking crisis, which economists are clear on, it seems unfair to blame the government of the day for it. Also the Labour party seemed not to capitalise on the aspects of the coalition government performance in the last five years that the public might have seen as unacceptable. e.g. Atos declaring people fit for work who died within days of the assessment; the 2012 Border Force problems caused by cutting budgets too far; or cuts to the social care budget catapulting the NHS into a permanent state of crisis; not to mention the view that George Osborne‘s management of the economy has delayed the recovery.
Anyway. Democracy has happened and we need to live with our new government for the next five years. If you don’t like it feel free to complain if you voted yesterday. Whether you voted or not the next opportunity you get will be in 2020. Start campaigning now… | <urn:uuid:e4b6a2f2-8629-4357-9092-caf032a66f23> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.themself.org/2015/05/uk-general-election-2015-a-reaction/ | 2019-07-16T22:26:29Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.967357 | 603 |
She is the wife of one of the biggest stars on the planet, Denzel Washington, and the mother of rising star and verified hunk John David Washington. Now Pauletta Washington is ready to claim her own star.
The actress, who celebrated her 66th birthday in September, is appearing in the Billie Holiday Theatre production of Autumn, in Brooklyn, N.Y. On opening night of the play, her son, who stars in Ballers, had high praise for her.
"I love my mother. The fact that she sacrificed so much to raise four children, and as she has got back into acting, I am so proud. Everything she does encouraged and pushes me to be the best and do more," John David Washington tells The Root.
Autumn, which runs this week through Sunday, is a political drama that touches on issues of gentrification, class and race wars, as well as family and the ties that bind. While it's been 18 years since Washington appeared in the film Beloved, the actress has taken on a few other roles since then and has no less than three other projects this year.
Pauletta Washington sat down with The Root to talk about her play, career, family and why she's rooting for her husband's new movie, Fences, in the race for Oscar gold.
The Root: What drew you to this play Autumn?
Pauletta Washington: Doing this role is a gift; it's wonderful because of our playwright, Richard Wesley, who is brilliant, and I had the privilege of taking part in the first staged reading. I love the play, and Richard has really worked on it and now, I feel, has a masterpiece. It's very rare that you get material that rolls off your tongue, that contains so much substance, and this one does.
TR: When it comes to acting, you have a lot going on right now. How did you get to this point?
PW: When I became an empty nester, maybe it’s been seven years now, I got back on the scene, and a lot of people weren't aware that I was on the scene. Before I left, my career was very, very active. If it's a story that I feel is exciting and necessary, those are really motivating factors for me. Autumn is politically based, but it's a human story behind the politics. I play Melissa, the first lady to a mayor of an [unnamed] large city, and it's so representative of so many women behind powerful men.
TR: Did you shape it after someone you know, for example, Michelle Obama?
PW: I would say it was a combination of several women. Firstly, my mother and her position in our house. Growing up [in Newton, N.C.], my father was the principal of a huge school. So him being in that position and seeing how my mother handled it, she was really a big influence on this role. Then there was Colin Powell's wife, Alma, along with the first lady and other first ladies. She's a quiet storm, she's in the public eye, but you know good and well, behind the scenes, he's a powerful man, and my being in that position of having a man that's powerful in his genre, I understand that position as a woman.
TR: You are the quiet storm, the strong woman behind that powerful man, Denzel Washington. How much give-and-take is there in your relationship, and how much support is there between the two of you when it comes to work and acting?
PW: First of all, Michelle Obama, and any woman behind an influential man, has always been there. Maybe the public, and the media, is now saying we recognize you, but take it from me, I've been on the scene a long time. When Denzel first started, I was right there, but there was no focus on me. But there's been no less presence in his life and in my life than now. As you climb, you grow deeper in the foundation, so it makes our foundation deeper.
TR: How do you sustain your relationship?
PW: It's all spiritual, it's all based on God. I'm limited as a human being, and when you look at certain situations, it's very bleak. Or at least it appears that way, but then I seek spiritual counseling. My inner circle of people are like-minded, so we strengthen each other.
TR: You spend a lot of time strengthening others. In fact, you are responsible for making sure Omari Hardwick had a roof over his head instead of sleeping in his car early in his acting career.
PW: Actually, Omari was a godsend for me because the school John David attended had very few minorities. So he came home one day, and he was very excited, he said, "Mom I met our substitute teacher today, and he was a black man." So I suggested he bring him over, and I loved him.
At the time, Omari was young, and from that day, he just became attached to our family. He also became like a big brother to John David and prepared him for the NFL. That proverb, "It takes a village," that's for real. Omari is so humble, he didn't tell me that he was living in his car at one point, and when I found out, we helped him out. When he really started working and had money, he paid us back.
TR: When your children decided they wanted to go into the acting world, did they come to you and say, "This is what I want to do. What do you think?"
PW: I was praying and hoping that none of them wanted to be actors. I think it's in their blood. The only requirement was they had to go to college. My oldest daughter, Katia, graduated from Yale with a history major. My oldest son, John David, went to Morehouse. My baby girl, Olivia, went to NYU for acting. My baby boy, Malcolm, went to UPenn and started out finance but ended up in theater because he loved the history of theater and film. Now he just graduated from AFI as a director, and he's working with Spike Lee on Netflix's She's Gotta Have It.
TR: Do you think this year we won't see #OscarsSoWhite trending thanks to several amazing films, including your husband's own, Fences?
PW: It starts with the script, the casting, the directors. When you think about my husband's career, short of Spike Lee's films, the roles were not written for black people. Philadelphia was not written for a black lawyer. Man on Fire and even Training Day, not really. But because of the choices that were made by whoever it was, the directors, the casting director, it started there. We have to open those windows and give us more opportunities. We need writers, we need to tell stories that include minority people, and then we won't have this discussion about “Oscar so white.”
TR: And Fences?
PW: I saw Fences; it’s a beautiful story, and the talent in it just gave me chills. I am very proud of my husband, both behind the camera and in front of the camera, and Viola Davis. It’s just amazing. | <urn:uuid:a8e05781-4bc9-425b-a45c-a92f5a2b813f> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.theroot.com/a-star-in-her-own-right-pauletta-washington-on-being-a-1790857550 | 2019-07-16T22:21:01Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.989065 | 1,542 |
A conversation with SELC's program directors Ricardo Nuñez and Yassi Eskandari-Qajar about the where the sharing economy is at and where SELC believes it should be going. One listener replied after the show, "Gettin to call in to the SELC folks. It does not get any better than that. Thank you."
Listen to the show here, starting at minute 33:13. | <urn:uuid:4f676f8c-1e01-4ac9-ad64-ce58d11359e7> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.theselc.org/grassroots_versus_corporatized_sharing_economy_a_conversation_on_kpfa_radio | 2019-07-16T22:54:41Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.940602 | 89 |
Dare to Compare: 2019 Toyota Tacoma vs 2019 Nissan Frontier
If you need the convenience and capability of a truck but don’t want to give up good fuel economy and maneuverability in small spaces, a midsize pickup is just what you need. At first glance, the 2019 Nissan Frontier might seem like an attractive choice thanks to its relatively low starting price, but closer inspection reveals that it simply doesn’t stand up to top competitors such as the 2019 Toyota Tacoma.
The Toyota Tacoma entered its current generation in 2016 with a major overhaul from its predecessor. It’s rugged but not intimidating; modern but not futuristic. It’s a good-looking truck that looks at home anywhere, from the worksite to the city. The Nissan Frontier, on the other hand, hasn’t had a major redesign since 2005, and its age shows. If you care about the way your truck makes you look, you might want to stay away from the Frontier.
Engines & Capability
Both trucks are offered with a four-cylinder engine and a V6 engine, but those in the 2019 Nissan Frontier are nothing to write home about. The 2019 Toyota Tacoma’s four-cylinder makes more power than the Frontier’s four-cylinder, and its V6 also makes more power than the Frontier’s V6. Additionally, both Toyota engines are more efficient than both Nissan engines; in fact, the most efficient of the bunch — the Toyota V6 — is also the most capable of them all with a towing capacity of 6,800 pounds.
The 2019 Toyota Tacoma comes with all of the toys and safety tech we’ve come to expect from any modern Toyota vehicle, such as an advanced Entune® touch-screen infotainment system and the Toyota Safety Sense®-P suite of active safety technologies that includes adaptive cruise control, front automatic emergency braking, and more. Meanwhile, the 2019 Nissan Frontier’s tech is as outdated as the rest of the truck — a touchscreen system isn’t even standard, and safety tech is virtually nonexistent.
Between the 2019 Toyota Tacoma and the 2019 Nissan Frontier, we think it’s obvious which truck any prospective truck owner should buy: the Tacoma. Test drive it today at Toyota of Gastonia — we think you’ll agree with our assessment! | <urn:uuid:18a9d63b-4241-4ecf-9d22-d951f9165841> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.toyotaofgastonia.com/dare-to-compare-2019-toyota-tacoma-vs-2019-nissan-frontier-gastonia-nc/ | 2019-07-16T22:20:20Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.934005 | 483 |
Your Cart Is Empty
Scrapwood Wood Effect Porcelain Tiles
The intense, refined appeal of re-used wood in a porcelain tile.
Antislip R10 A+B for floors & walls, heavy traffic areas ideal for all intended uses including homes & public & commercial areas subject to wear from intensive foot traffic, such as hotels & spas, bars & restaurants, airports, offices, shopping malls, schools, museums, hospitals, sports centres etc.
Bending Strength, Frost Resistance, Chemical Resistance, Stain Resistance, Single Thickness.
Delivery approx 10-21 days from order.
Finish: Natural Matt, Rectified, V3 High Variation.
Size: 20x120cm 9.5mm thick
|Room||Kitchen, Living, Bathroom|
|Sqm per box||1.44|
|Price per sqm||38.98|
Shipping: United Kingdom and Europe only | <urn:uuid:63df5200-1415-4c5b-94e8-89fb62cc36c7> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.varcurn.co.uk/shop/scrapwood-wind-natural-matt/scrapwood-wind-20x120cm-95mm-thick-1.html | 2019-07-16T23:28:28Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.772459 | 196 |
Visitors seeking resorts in the Phoenix and Scottsdale areas will find a range of amenities within The McCormick Scottsdale. Discover the best of the Phoenix area with unique resort offerings including comfortable accommodations, Lakeside dining, golf at McCormick Ranch, Lakeside Outdoor Heated Pool, recreational activities for all guests and complimentary parking.
- Swimming Pool
- Room Service
- Valet parking
- Internet Access
- Close to City Centre
- Volley Ball
Where is itConveniently located on a lake in North-Central Scottsdale. Within 3 miles of Downtown Scottsdale, Old Town, Fashion Square mall, Scottsdale Quarter and Spring Training baseball Fields.
125 guest rooms and suites on 3 floors in 1 building with 1 lift. All with private balcony/terrace, 40” HD TV, air-conditioning, tea/coffee maker, mini-fridge, hairdryer, iron and board. Standard Rooms have with spectacular views of Camelback Mountain, with 1 king-size bed or 2 double beds, sleeping maximum 4 adults.
Deluxe King Mountain View Rooms are located along the tranquil shores of Camelback Lake with 1 king-size bed, sleeping maximum 2 adults.
Pinon Grill, Diamondbacks Bar and Grill and Coyotes Cabana bar. Lake-front heated swimming pool, tennis and volleyball courts, water sports* including fishing, boating, paddle boats and canoes, 36-hole Championship golf*, spa services at Gainey Village*. Room service*. WiFi*. Self-parking and valet parking*.
*Denotes local charge.
All rooms are non-smoking, however there are designated smoking areas throughout the resort.
Please note: A resort fee is included in the hotel rate and includes the following benefits:
- Fitness center access
- Sporting facilities or equipment
- Shuttle service
- Internet access
- In-room coffee
Resort fee, tax and inclusions are subject to change - please see hotel check-in for current inclusions available to you upon arrival. | <urn:uuid:4567ef80-b5c3-4b72-a691-b1edc60cd6f5> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | https://www.virginholidays.co.uk/destinations/usa/arizona/scottsdale/mccormick-scottsdale-browse | 2019-07-16T23:14:03Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195524972.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190716221441-20190717003441-00158.warc.gz | en | 0.906169 | 421 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.