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Live life to the fullest is experiencing it and travel offers a stimulating experience that will positively overwhelm, shock, and surprise you. There are 195 countries in the world to visit, but not all are hospitable. When visiting a new place your safety should be on top priority and an informed traveler can reduce the risks. Consult your country’s Foreign Affairs Department for travel advisory, talk to friends that have traveled to the destination, and your travel agent.
If you are traveling to a new place outsmart the tourist muggers and frauds with these safety tips. | {
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HAYS, KS -- Student accommodations have been a major focus at Fort Hays State University this academic year with the construction of new campus apartments and the announcement of renovation of the Memorial Union.
? Renovation to the Union is planned because the building is in major need of upgrading and modernization,? said Bill Smriga (SMREE-guh), director of the Memorial Union. ?It's a well maintained building, but it's been somewhat dormant. The renovation will definitely bring the building back to life and attract students and others to the Union more often.?
Smriga said another reason for renovation is to update the infrastructure. Much of the heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, plumbing and electrical systems are the same since the Union was originally built in 1958. The building will get modern, energy-efficient windows, doors and a new roof. As Smriga put it, ?There?s a lot of things to the ?fabric? of the building that will receive attention.?
Each of the three levels of the Memorial Union will be renovated.
The lower level will be entirely remodeled and will house the new student activities area called Cody Commons, as well as the student organization offices, Student Health Center, a computer cyber center with wireless access throughout the building, part of the University Bookstore and a deli food outlet.
Next to the food court on the first floor, a large opening will allow access to a staircase leading downstairs to Cody Commons and the tables, chairs and lounge seating areas. Cody Commons will also house a stage, tiered seating, TV monitors, and a surround-sound system.
" When we toured other campuses' unions, we didn't see anything as nice as what we've got planned for Union lower level," Smriga said. "It will be very cool."
Cody Commons is named after a building that served the university as a dining hall before it was torn down for expansion of the present day Memorial Union. The new activities area will be named in honor of the former Cody Commons because it will stand in the same location as the original building.
The first floor will house a newly designed food court, the ?Grab-N-Go? convenience store, Tiger Cove, The Student Service Center, Commerce Bank, University Mail Center and Sunset Lounge. A new elevator will be built near the stairwell on the southeast end of the Union.
One major addition will be an atrium in the new reception lobby.
? It will be a much more attractive entrance from the west side of the building than the current entrance, Smriga said. ?We?re envisioning a two-story atrium, with a multi-level canopy leading from the doors to the sidewalk.?
An architect's rendering of the atrium and final floor plans will be presented to Smriga and the Union renovation committee on March 29.
With Commerce Bank's former location serving as a new meeting room, the only other changes to the second floor will be renovation of the union administrative offices and ID card office.
Changes will also be made to the outside of the building. New sidewalks will allow easier access to the union and outside seating areas will be added. The east patio will be aesthetically and functionally revamped to include patio furniture, plants and more electrical outlets.
? Right now, we have to run extension cords out of our windows for many events happening in the Quad,? Smriga said.
Renovation is estimated at $7.2 million by the architects. Construction will begin in October and is expected to be complete by Spring, 2007.
To help fund the renovation, the Student Government Association (SGA) conducted a successful referendum in November, 2003 to increase student fees, asking students to pay $6 per credit hour for the Union?s renovation bonds. Additional funding will come from the Union reserve fund, University reserves and contributions from the University Bookstore and Chartwells Food Service.
During the renovation, Smriga said, the Union will operate as normally as possible.
" We're going to keep the building open and operate with as little interference to meetings, dinners and special events as possible," he said. "That's going to be our challenge -- to maintain consistent service throughout the renovation. Much of the second floor will not be renovated, so most of the meetings and banquets should occur without interference. There will be days when the construction activity will be noisy, or the water or electricity will be disrupted, but we plan to closely coordinate the renovation work with our meeting and event schedule."
Smriga has regularly met with the Union Renovation Committee (a committee of students, faculty and staff), with Dana Cunningham, director of facilities planning, and with the architects to review the renovation plans. The group is expected to discuss the final floor plans and atrium when they are submitted at the end of the month.
Renovation progress will be documented on a three-panel bulletin board underneath the stairwell in Sunset Lounge as well as on an upcoming Web site. Currently, the bulletin board displays highlights from the new layout, news clips and floor plans for all three levels.
Smriga said he wants to keep people as informed as possible about the process in order to minimize confusion and allow groups to plan around the construction schedule.
" We'll have to be creative in what we do to accommodate the needs of people who want to use the building," Smriga said. "There will be a lot of interesting changes happening to this building, but the results will be well worth it!? | {
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Angel Altered Tin
Hello and welcome to the new year! I hope everone had lovely holidays filled with love and warmth. I know I had. Our family is sort of starting a tradition. Each year we will give each other one handmade gift, along with the bought one(s). Next few posts I will be showing you some of my handmade holiday gifts!
The first one I want to share is the altered tin I made for my mum. She loves angels and wants to put up a little angel altar in her bedroom. When she saw the Mermaid Altered Tin I made for my friend Flava, she hinted {not so subtly} that she would love an angel themed one, so that’s what I did!
I covered the lid of the tin in white pearl fimo and used a stamp roller to get the reliëf of the leaves. The wing was made with the same colour clay, then I added the swirls and tiny feathers in pure white and pastel blue. This was my first time attempting something like this, so I’m quite proud of how it turned out.
My mum has a pinterest board filled with angels, so I borrowed some of the styles she liked and drew this angel. I wanted to make it look a bit like stained glass, so I added minimum shadows but used a bunch of muted blue tones. Again coloured with letraset markers of course.
This quote is from Mary Jac, which I found through the google machine. I’m playing around with hand lettering so this was an awesome opportunity to practice! First I drew a muted rainbow in the background and stamped a few feathers with light blue ink. Then I added the lettering.
The stone is a blue agate, which I painted on with acrylics. I blended a very soft purple and green with white to get the colours in the wings. The lines were added later with a Staedtler fineliner.
Last, but certainly not least, a small prayer chain. The ‘skirt’ of the angel is made with acrylic flower beads while her head is genuine rosequarts. The little heart shaped pendant is the same one I tried to draw inside the tin.
She absolutely loved it and I loved making it! These little altar/altared tins are so much fun and so relaxing.
Well, my pretties, I will see you soon with more handmade holiday stuff! | {
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19 Sections 4 and 15 come into force on a day or days to be fixed by order of the Governor in Council.
The information on this page is current as ofFebruary 20, 2019
The coming into force provisions in LEGISinfo are excerpted from the text of the bill as introduced and given first reading. The information is not updated to reflect amendments made to bills during the legislative process. Where an Act comes into force on a day or days to be fixed by order of the Governor in Council, additional dates of commencement are added once an order is issued. Where an Act or a provision thereof is silent as to its commencement, it comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent. | {
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Clementine is the second installment set in Cherie Priest’s “Clockwork Century” world. It is a world where the American Civil War still continues, great and terrible machines are being made and the city of Seattle, Washington is walled in and quarantined.
Clementine picks up the story of Croggon Hainey, a runaway slave who years before stole a Union war dirigible he renamed the Clementine. The Clementine is stolen so Hainey sets off in another stolen airship to try to recapture the Clementine and a race across the country, from Seattle, Washington to Louisville, Kentucky is on.
As Hainey races to recapture the Clementine, Maria Isabella Boyd, better known as “Belle” Boyd, a former Confederate spy has just gone to work for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, her job, to make sure the Clementine makes it safely to her destination. She’s given the information that Hainey, a man wanted by the Confederacy Belle used to serve, is hot on the Clementine's tail. Belle is given a free hand to deal with Hainey any way she wants, including turning him over to her former pals within the Confederate Army.
Clementine is a really good read, although I didn’t like it as much as the first Clockwork Century novel Boneshaker. There is plenty of action in Clementine, but I didn’t feel as though there was enough tension in the book. It’s there in places, but it builds and releases coming to only a moderate climax at the end of the book. I personally prefer novels that continue to build their tension throughout the book without any of the periodic drop-offs that I experienced while reading Clementine.
I really enjoyed the characters in Clementine and the interplay that takes place between them. I was already slightly acquainted with Croggon Hainey through Boneshaker. To me he is the Civil War equivalent of a Rambo, rushing in guns blazing saying to hell with the consequences. He knows he wants his ship back and he’ll run over anyone or anything that gets in his way.
Clementine is worth the time it takes to read it. It’s relatively short. It’s fun and it’s a definite must read if you are a fan of Priest and her Clockwork Century world....more | {
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Thursday, May 15, 2014
Today we announced that Tom Clancy's The
Division will be available in 2015 for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.
Working on The Division is a once in a lifetime opportunity for all of us at
Massive, Reflections, and Red Storm Entertainment. We are creating something we
are really proud of and we don't want to compromise on quality. We are going to
release the game when it's ready.
We want to thank you again for the exceptional ongoing support. Community is at
the heart of what we are doing and we’re very much designing the game with you
in mind, so your involvement means a lot to us.
The production is getting stronger every day and we can't wait to show you what
we’ve been up to at this year’s E3. :)
In celebration of our Barbarian Invasion
Patch, Chivalry: Medieval Warfare and Chivalry: Deadliest Warrior will be
FREE for the May 15th - 18th weekend starting at 1pm EST! In addition
to being free, new players can purchase both Chivalry: Medieval Warfare and
Chivalry: Deadliest Warrior on SALE for 75% off!! Check it out now on
STEAM!
Full Control announces Steam
Early Access to Jagged
Alliance Flashback is now available, allowing the chance to play this
upcoming Jagged Alliance prequel before development is complete, presuming this
doesn't trigger any temporal abnormalities. "The launch of Jagged Alliance:
Flashback on Steam Early Access is a significant milestone in our vision to
bring back the beloved turn-based franchise to its roots," said Thomas Lund, CEO
of Full Control. "We're excited to launch the game on Steam Early Access and
can't wait to see what the Jagged Alliance community will build with the
Editor." The game is due for full release later this year, and here's word on
the version that's currently available:
A unique mix of deep turn-based
tactics, role-playing and squad management, Jagged Alliance: Flashback is set on
the fictional Caribbean Island of San Hermanos in the late 1980’s.
An elected president - “The Prince”, uses his military forces to halt a
rebellious group attempting to overthrow his regime. Powerless against his
organised military forces, the leader of the rebellion is arrested and the
insurgents quickly dissolve. Arriving on San Hermanos, the players first mission
is to help the rebel leader escape from prison, before things take a turn for
the worse.
Steam News announces the
release of Heavy Bullets
via Early Access, offering a randomized first-person shooter which is also
available through other digital distributors. Here's the announcement explaining
the game:
Through the dark art of video game publishing, Devolver Digital
has teamed up with nom de plume Terri Vellimann and the surprisingly handsome
musician Doseone (Samurai Gunn) to launch the procedurally generated FPS Heavy
Bullets on Steam Early Access. The debut game from Brazilian developer Terri
Vellimann is available now as a pretty damned polished beta and the community is
invited to provide feedback and suggestions through the last two months of
development. American musician/producer/rapper/gentleman Doseone is providing
the score and sound design for Heavy Bullets and will be posting works in
progress and streaming music sessions to give the community an insight into his
process.
Heavy Bullets arms the player with a simple yet stylish revolver and six
devastatingly plump bullets with the goal of resetting the security mainframe to
restore order and reap the rewards of a job well done. To succeed in the game,
players will need to move carefully and make smart use of their bullets, items,
and the environment as rushing into new areas is the fastest way to get killed
in the untamed wild of the neon corridors.
Casual Brothers announces they are ready to play pull-my-finger with the
Steam release of Orc
Attack: Flatulent Rebellion, as their co-op action game that brings biological
warfare to the dungeon. "We’ve been working diligently over the last few months
to bring Orc Attack to PC players worldwide," said Nacho Sanchez, co-developer,
Casual Brothers. "New improvements to the camera system and frame rate, plus
added Steam Achievements, will enable players of all ages to pull off all sorts
of gaseous farts, burps, and combos to their hearts’ desire." Here's the deal on
the game:
In Orc Attack: Flatulent Rebellion, Orcs have become victims of
brutal Human expansion, as people are carelessly polluting the environment. Now,
four trained Orc heroes are retaliating with a not-so-silent yet very deadly
plan. In either single-player or up to four-player co-op, gamers will take on
the role of Orcs, each wielding a unique gaseous ability, taking the fight to
the Humans in a stinky, fart-filled romp.
Players will enjoy a variety of gameplay features, including two different
gameplay modes: The Magic Mode, in which Orcs perform magical spells with
devastating effects on their enemies; and The Dirty Mode, in which Orcs produce
vile and dangerous gasses creating explosions and other devastating effects on
their enemies.
The War,the Game website announces
War, the Game has now commenced, as the global strategy game is now
available through Desura.
Here's word:
In 'War, the Game' players take the role of a supreme
commander directing armies across the entire globe. Players must use their wits
to defeat cunning AI in many realistic locations across the globe. 'War, the
Game' is a real time strategy game that takes inspiration from board games such
as Axis & Allies, Risk and Diplomacy. The controls are simple and the game rules
are straightforward. This game is easy to learn but difficult to master.
The
Bethesda Blog now offers a
"House of the Rising Sun"
launch trailer from Wolfenstein: The New Order, the upcoming alternate-history shooter, proving
that accordions can ruin almost any musical composition. Speaking of the new
Wolfenstein, there's a lengthy preview of the game on
Polygon (thanks nin) with a detailed look at the game and the tough times
its developer, Machine Games, suffered through before landing the project. Continue here to read the full story.
Ubisoft officially announces Far Cry 4, saying the open world
first-person shooter sequel is coming to Windows, Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, and
PS3 on November 18th in North America and November 20th in other territories.
The Far Cry website is already offering
preorders, which include a free upgrade to the Limited Edition. They promise
more details at E3, and in the meantime, here's the announcement, which confirms
the Himalayan setting revealed earlier
this year by Eurogamer:
Today, Ubisoft announced Far Cry 4, an
open-world, first-person shooter that delivers the most expansive and immersive
Far Cry experience ever. Far Cry 4 will be available November 18 in the US and
November 20 in the EMEA territories for PlayStation 4® computer entertainment
system, PlayStation® 3 computer entertainment system, Xbox One, the all-in-one
games and entertainment system, Xbox 360 games and entertainment system from
Microsoft and Windows PC.
Development on Far Cry 4 is being led by Ubisoft Montreal in collaboration with
Red Storm Entertainment, a Ubisoft studio, Ubisoft Toronto, Ubisoft Shanghai,
and Ubisoft Kiev.
In Far Cry 4, players find themselves in Kyrat, a breathtaking, perilous and
wild region of the Himalayas struggling under the regime of a despotic
self-appointed king. Using a vast array of weapons, vehicles and animals,
players will write their own story across an exotic open-world landscape.
“Following the success of Far Cry 3, we wanted to take the franchise to the next
level and create a game that will surprise players and exceed fans’
expectations,” said Dan Hay, Executive Producer. “Given the unique setting, we
feel Far Cry 4 will stand out as a top first-person shooter and we’re eager to
reveal more about the game in the coming months.”
Customers who pre-order Far Cry 4 receive a free upgrade to the Limited Edition
which includes Hurk’s Redemption, a series of three action-packed single-player
missions featuring the popular character Hurk from Far Cry 3’s DLC. The Limited
Edition also includes Hurk’s signature harpoon gun called “The Impaler”. The
pre-order is now available at all major retailers.
3D Realms and Interceptor Entertainment announce Bombshell, an
Unreal-engine third-person action game coming to PCs and PlayStation 4. This is
the culmination of their second teaser
countdown after their previous
tease that prompted
a lawsuit after it
turned out to be for a new Duke Nukem game. This new announcement seems to skirt
the issue of Duke rights by using the name of the female character that was at
one time intended as Duke's sidekick in Duke Nukem Forever. They plan on
unveiling more on this at E3, here's a
Bombshell reveal trailer,
and here's word on the game:
From the creators of 2013’s Rise of the Triad comes Bombshell, a top-down action
role-playing game for PC and PlayStation 4. Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison
strong-arms her way across 4 planets in an Unreal Engine-powered galactic
adventure to the save the U.S. President from an apocalyptic alien threat. With
out-of-this-world enemies, a never-before-seen arsenal of devastating weaponry
and a variety genre-crossing mechanics, Bombshell is set to completely blow you
away.
Italian site
GamesVillage.it has word that Crytek will be showing two new games at the
imminent E3 expo. There are few details yet other than the titles, one game is
called Arena of Fate, which they say is a PC-only multiplayer game, and
the second is called Grave Project.
1C Company now offers the official release of Men of War: Assault Squad 2,
the World War II real-time strategy sequel. The game has been in Early Access
since February, and was
last
planned for release in March, though no explanation of the delay is provided.
The game is available as a standard or a deluxe edition,
this launch trailer
shows it off, and here's word on what to expect:
Men of War: Assault Squad
2 features new single player style skirmish modes that take players from extreme
tank combat to deadly sniper stealth missions. Commanders can now faceoff
against opponents on various new multiplayer 1v1 – 4v4 maps.
This new Assault Squad game brings significant game engine and visual
improvements as well, with special attention paid to ones that were highly
requested by the players. These included items such as advanced multi-core
support, advanced shader technology, interface and AI improvements, as well as
added camouflage depending on season/map, fully updated inventory items with new
graphics and updated vehicles, sound improvements, Steam multiplayer and much
more.
Paradox Interactive announces the release of the Shieldmaiden "mini-expansion"
for War of the Vikings, which will add female warriors to Fatshark's
melee combat game, accommodating female players and legions of
virtual cross-dressers. This is being offered for free alongside a new paid DLC pack
that adds character customization options, though there will be no bikini armor
or boob physics involved. "Out of all of the research and study that went into
designing War of the Vikings, the history surrounding shieldmaidens was some of
the most fascinating and controversial," said Gordon Van Dyke, Executive
Producer for Paradox’s War series. "Our design reflects the preparations that
any warrior, male or female, would have made for battle: practical protection,
not sexualized fantasy. We’ve saved the physics for the combat, where it
belongs." Here's more:
Paradox Interactive today announced the addition of
female characters to War of the Vikings, the close quarter combat game developed
by Fatshark. The “Shieldmaiden” mini-expansion adds the highly anticipated
option to play as female combatants in a new pre-defined class for both the
Viking and Saxon factions, with designs inspired by history and real-world
accounts of brave warrior women, and comes at no cost to all players. This
update launches alongside a new DLC package that adds a wealth of customization
options to the new female warriors – absurd and nonsensical ‘boob armor’ not
included. Owners of the of the Blood Eagle and Valhalla editions of the game
will have this customization DLC already included, base game owners can purchase
the customization DLC for $4.99.
The Shieldmaiden mini-expansion for War of the Vikings also gives all players
access to new maps, new weapons, and the ability to use a female face for all
existing classes.
Today is that
fast food workers strike people have been talking about. I guess I've been
supporting this for years, as I don't do the fast food thing. On the other hand,
I'm pretty sure I managed to eat so many Big Macs and Whoppers as a younger man
that I will have to live to around 150 before my abstinence will actually impact
these company's bottom lines. | {
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You ought to be able to switch to the Text (HTML) editor and remove extraneous spaces. However, more important is understanding what's creating them. Are you copying and pasting text form somewhere else into posts?
Posts > All Posts, change all your latest posts to Draft, click Update, change them back to Published, click Update again. (You can edit all of them at once: tick the square in front of their titles then select Edit from the Bulk Actions dropdown and click Apply.)
Are you saying that the images are not being uploaded into your blog? If you don't upload them into posts then they will not be on WordPress.com servers. If they are not hosted on WordPress.com servers or on third party servers like photobucket or flickr then they will disappear from the posts. Exactly where are these images hosted?
I believe you could be creating the gaps when you copy and paste the images. I also believe that you don't understand what you are doing. In the post you linked to above you linked to a book cover. That image is on Amazon servers and by not capturing a copy of it first and uploading to your own computer and then uploading it into WordPress.com servers what you are doing is called "hotlinking" ie. you are sucking up Amazon bandwidth without paying for it.
I use the recommendations thing that WordPress has where it recommends photos and lets you automatically insert them. I assumed since that was a WordPress item that the photos were okay. The rest of my images I link via URL using the WordPress URL uploader. I can try strictly saving and uploading/uploading via URL from now on if that seems to be the issue.
I use the instructions at the second link I posted for you. When it comes to issue like these gaps justpi (Panos) is the Volunteer who fathoms what's going on with the code and how to fix it. I'm hoping he will enter this thread and help you. | {
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Google Trends for Websites
If you’re a site owner, webmaster, SEO, or otherwise have an interest in website metrics, I think you’re going to like Google Trends for Websites. It’s almost as addictive to me as Google Maps is for, you know, normal people. 🙂 You’re probably familiar with regular Google Trends, which lets you see trends in how people search for difference phrases such as full moon or skiing vs. swimming. Here’s the graph of how often people search for “full moon,” for example:
Those spikes correspond nicely to when full moons actually happen. Now you can do similar fun things with sites. Here’s a simple example with my site, mattcutts.com:
As you can see, Trends will try to estimate the number of visitors to my site over time. (The product is free, but you have to sign in if you want to get estimated numbers — otherwise you see the graph but not the number estimates.) There’s other good info too, though. See the graph below, for example:
This is saying that people who visited mattcutts.com also visited searchmarketingexpo.com and sphinn.com. You can “surf” related sites just by clicking around. You can also see what else people searched for. And you can even enter in two sites, separated by commas, to compare the estimated number of visitors between the sites:
It’s a lot of fun, especially if website metrics is your cup of tea. You can read the official blog post or Barry Schwartz did a write-up as well. The comments are pointing out that some sites might not have much/any data. I think that that’s mainly because there’s a minimum threshold of traffic before Trends is willing to show statistics for a site — bear in mind that this is a launch on Google Labs. But you can still do some fun analysis with Trends for Websites, even though it’s in Google Labs. And it is free, so give it a try.
Is there any information on how the data is collected, Matt? Some site data I’ve tried just seems extremely inconsistent with other traffic-estimator tools out there that I’ve used. Still a great idea for Google to offer up this information, though. Very handy, even just from an estimation standpoint.
Sorry to change the subject (and not follow that webmasters url but I doubt there’s any answer to this over there) but did Google do a pagerank update or something along those lines this past week? My inbound traffic from Google plummeted Tuesday and Wednesday and my site just lost like 2/3rd’s of its overall traffic (yet I’m still very well indexed.)
I’ve maintained a stable level for almost a full year and if this was a PR update, it literally just killed my site.
Never thought to use it to track websites. I also check it out just to see the fluctuation of a niche, but this looks pretty effective too. Closely inline with what Alexa does, but with a different angle.
netmeg, if you sign in, the Y-axis of the traffic graph will have estimated numbers; otherwise it won’t. I’m not positive why they want people to sign in to get numbers — maybe to prevent abuse or scraping?
Craig Graue and Greg, there’s some info about that in the FAQ. They say:
Trends for Websites combines information from a variety of sources, such as aggregated Google search data, aggregated opt-in anonymous Google Analytics data, opt-in consumer panel data, and other third-party market research. The data is aggregated over millions of users, powered by computer algorithms, and doesn’t contain personally identifiable information. Additionally, Google Trends for Websites only shows results for sites that receive a significant amount of traffic, and enforces minimum thresholds for inclusion in the tool.
Greg, you might also want to read why I personally am skeptical of data from the toolbar, especially as any kind of signal. As far as how this compares to other services like Compete/Quantcast/Alexa/Comscore/Hitwise/Nielsen/whatever, I think most people will try several services and eventually choose the service that they like the best. My personal opinion again, but I think it’s good to have different companies all tackling metrics, because you get a better feel for the possible range of answers.
Glad if it proves helpful, Tom Lynch. 🙂
Paul William Tenny, I don’t think that there’s been a PageRank update in the last couple months. Is it the site linked to from your comment?
Jojo, I asked about that myself. Personally, I’d love to get as much data as possible, even data about various Google properties. My guess is that they were worried that people would take the traffic estimates as some sort of forward-looking guidance and possibly misinterpret it. Bear in mind that it is a Google Labs launch, so consider it an early-stage feature. I passed that feedback on though.
Morris Rosenthal, I don’t know how often they update the data. For my site it seemed to be things from the last month or so.
dan horton seo, I thought you might like this. Now you’ve got something you could blog about on a slow day. 🙂
Lukas Stuber, is there an example site that blocks Google but where we’re showing data? If so, let me know and I’ll pass the example on.
Paul William Tenny, I don’t think that there’s been a PageRank update in the last couple months. Is it the site linked to from your comment?
It is, and if it’s not a PR update or something along those lines, then I’m fairly stumped here. A friend of my site told me she saw sudden drop off in traffic for her site as well and there’s nothing we share in common — I run Moveable Type on shared hosting, she’s on Blogspot. I’ve never seen a near 70% loss in traffic in a 48-hour period like this and the overwhelming source for it is/used to be Google.
I saw nothing in the webmaster tools that would indicate that I’ve been dropped from the index or penalized for any reason and a drop like this has never happened before so it’s not just streaky traffic. But if it’s not a PR update either, then I’m sorry for distracting you from the topic of Trends (which I find very nifty, btw.) I just don’t see how it could be anything else.
Hey matt !! I suppose this is confidential data !! If companies like: Compete, Hitwise, Quantcast, Comscore, Alexa, Nielsen. … etc as u had mentioned in your above comment gives data .. they also gives data for there company .. .. i.e … You can see alexa info for alexa.com .. But we cant see Google.com data on Google trends ..
Is there something to block a site from Google Trends ? As I have some b2b clients with me and they will never like to share there data this way !!
Ankit, I don’t think any of those services (Compete, Quantcast, etc.) provide an opt-out for websites right now, so to make the product useful (even on Labs), I don’t think that there’s an explicit opt-out right now. If a site is not in Google or gets below a certain threshold of traffic then it won’t be shown though.
“My guess is that they were worried that people would take the traffic estimates as some sort of forward-looking guidance and possibly misinterpret it.”
So, they should misinterpret the traffic estimates from yahoo.com or msn.com, but not from google.com or google.de? That is not an logical explanation. 😉
For that site that lost most of its Google refered traffic,… Try changing some anchor texts of the menu and/or add some new links in the left column or any other place that will show these links in all pages. Then wait for most pages to get indexed and see what happens.
(in case she recently added a whole bunch of new links to the site, advice her to take them out and wait for it to get reindexed as well and see what happens.)
Hmm, the head of Google’s web spam team links to a site on his personal Blog that is *taking money for selling links for PageRank*, I point the fact out and Matt deletes MY post *leaving the link there* ???????
You did exactly the same when I pointed out the fact the Google sponsors conferences where black hat tricks are taught.
Come on Matt, pretending the Google left hand is not fighting the Google right hand doesn’t make it so.
Please correct me if i am wrong, but doesn’t Google Trends measure search volume only? Why would anyone use Google Trends this way other than to see how many times a URL has been typed in as a search query? The reason I bring this up is because it appears that since you have posted this there have been allot of web masters confusing “search volume” and “web traffic”.
Yea; I might have had some privacy concerns for some of my clients, but so far I can’t get anything to actually show any traffic except for my fireworks site, and that’s only for a short time every June/July.
Nice feature, but it needs work. It’s wrong for all sites I checked (always like 75% less visitors than the site has according to analytics) or it doesn’t have data which is in most cases because a site seems to need at least 5000 visitors per day before it shows any data.
Most brick & morter sites don’t have that many visitors. At least not in Brazil.
I was skeptical, especially about the also visited feature which sound very big brother. But since there seems to be a high threshold of visits before a site is listed it does not invade privacy.
One thing that I cannot figure out is in the Also searched for column there are multiple bars for each search term. Is it comparing all the web sites for the most common search term from all user of all the web sites?
A nice feature for sure, but as mentioned above it’s significantly understating visitors vs analytics. I guess the trends team can’t use analytics data 1 because of privacy and 2 because then the data sources wouldn’t be consistent across the sites (as some won’t have analytics on them). Handy toy though.
I have to say, for those sites that do show data, it is GREAT. This makes it very easy to show the results of our SEO. Finally something that doesn’t require people to login to analytics or other statistics software for which you have to first give an explanation of all the stuff that they´re showing.
Please don’t make it work for small sites!. If I wanted to make my traffic stats public to the world I’d publish them on my own site thank you very much. This needs an opt-out provision (without opting out of being indexed) quite badly. As someone put it in another thread on this subject “Do No Evil”? ha!
Google trends looks like a nice tool, but unfortunately, when I type in my sites and my competitors’ sites, the graph has no labels on the Y axis, so I can’t really see the number of daily unique visitors. 🙁
Matt – catching up on your posts via RSS and wanted to mention something I haven’t seen you post about… if you have, forgive me.
Heard a story on NPR’s Marketplace (evening edition) on June 24 re: Google will soon kick off Ad Planner, helping its advertisers by providing a marketing assessment/audience measurement and making unbiased recommendations as to where to best spend their ad dollars. Commentary came from reporter Media Week’s Mike Shields; can you give us Google’s comment?
Here’s a link to the story that ran:http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/06/24/online_ads/
I have used Google trends more than google keyword/adword tool. I have been successful in SEO with Google insights and some other tools also.Geographic, year wise trends shows good reuslts with god traffic.One can select some 2 words phrases and few one word keyword to get permanent good traffic for your website. | {
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Police and British Prime Minister Theresa May named Salman Abedi, 22, the day after the terror attack at a concert by US pop star Ariana Grande in Manchester Arena.
People light candles set up in front of floral tributes in Albert Square in Manchester on May 23 in solidarity with those killed and injured in the terror attack at the Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena.(AFP Photo)
Salman Abedi, the suicide bomber who killed 22 people in an attack on a pop concert in Manchester, was a business student who dropped out of university.
Born to a devoutly Islamic Libyan family in Britain’s third biggest city, newspapers said he was known to the security services and the Financial Times said he had turned to radical Islam in recent years.
Abedi, 22, worshipped at a suburban mosque, where his father was a well-known face who sometimes performed the call to prayer.
He was named by police and Prime Minister Theresa May the day after the deadly attack, which also left dozens wounded, on the concert by US pop star Ariana Grande, who has a large teenage girl following.
“The perpetrator was Salman Ramadan Abedi, who was born and brought up in Britain,” May said, condemning his actions as “callous and cowardly”.
Abedi’s family have lived in the Fallowfield area of south Manchester for at least 10 years, according to The Daily Telegraph newspaper.
Armed police raided an address in the modestly well-to-do area on Tuesday, carrying out a controlled explosion to gain entry.
A 23-year-old man was also arrested in the south of the city in connection with the attack.
Fallowfield resident Peter Jones, 53, described the area as “quiet and safe”.
Jones told AFP that he was “shocked” and “surprised” when he heard that the suspect was from there.
Media reports said Abedi’s parents fled Libya to escape the regime of former dictator Moamer Kadhafi.
Around 16,000 Libyans live in Britain and Manchester is home to the largest community, according to the BBC. It was a focus of celebrations when the Kadhafi regime fell in 2011.
Reports said the suicide bomber was the second youngest of four children, including another son and one daughter.
One member of Manchester’s Libyan community told The Guardian newspaper: “He was such a quiet boy, always very respectful towards me.
“His brother Ismael is outgoing, but Salman was very quiet. He is such an unlikely person to have done this.”
Abedi had recently returned from Libya, according to The Times newspaper’s front page Wednesday, which cited a school friend as saying he left three weeks ago and returned in the last few days.
Police said they were urgently seeking to establish whether Abedi worked alone, or acted as part of a larger network.
Abedi’s family were closely linked to the Didsbury Mosque, a Victorian former Methodist chapel in a leafy suburb that was bought in 1967 by donors from the Syrian Arab community.
His father Ramadan had sometimes performed the call to prayer and his brother Ismael had been a volunteer.
One senior figure from the mosque however, Mohammed Saeed, told The Guardian that when he once gave a sermon denouncing terror, Abedi stared him down.
“Salman showed me a face of hate after that sermon,” Mohammed Saeed said of the 2015 encounter.
“He was showing me hatred.”
Abedi began studying business and management at Salford University in Manchester in 2014, a source told the Press Association news agency, but he dropped out after two years and did not complete his degree.
He did not live in university accommodation, had not been in any trouble at the university, was not on any radar for pastoral or social care and was not known to have participated in any university societies.
It is understood Abedi never met with the university’s resident imam.
Abedi used an improvised explosive device, apparently packed with metal, to massacre concertgoers and end his own life.
Citing CCTV footage recovered by detectives, The Times reported Abedi had placed the device in a suitcase which he set on the ground before it detonated. | {
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Inspection of Airport Hydrant Systems
INTRODUCTION
Airport hydrant systems must be regularly inspected for corrosion and the condition of their pipes assessed. The testing and pre-commissioning of jet-fuel pipeline systems for the aviation industry is a critical operation that must be carried out by specialist contractors to ensure a clean supply of fuel to aircraft.
Applus+ has developed customised technology for the inspection of airport hydrant system fuel lines, meaning that most of an airport’s difficult-to-inspect pipelines are now inspectable. These inspections provide quantitative data on the basis of which the asset owner can make sound decisions.
The Applus+ technology, involving pipeline inspection tools (PIT), ultrasonic techniques and corrosion mapping, is unmatched in terms of coverage, detectability and manoeuvrability to overcome common pipeline challenges, such as short-radius bends (1D back-to-back bend radius), unbarred full-bore offtakes and diameter changes. Thin-walled pipelines can also be measured, as this new technology can measure a remaining wall of just 1.5 mm thick.
By removing a flanged spool piece in the pipeline, such as a valve, the inspection system can be inserted and retrieved from the pipeline. With this service, our clients can assure the integrity of their hydrant systems without interfering with their day-to-day operations or requiring unwanted system shutdowns.
There are tailormade inspection systems available for each part of the hydrant fuel infrastructure. Following an inspection, the client will receive a report containing detailed information about dents, remaining wall thickness, damaged inner liners, etc.
These inspections can be performed regularly, following the inspection and maintenance programme, on all parts of the airport hydrant system with a view to ensuring safety, detecting and better understanding degradation processes and assessing the remaining life of the system.
TARGET CUSTOMERS
An airport hydrant system can be inspected at any stage of its life cycle.
Inspections involve the full lines running from the storage facilities to the manholes near the airport gates, including the following assets:
Risers
Piping vaults
Hydrant fuel lines
Jet fuel
Tank farms
Runways
Aprons
KEY CUSTOMER BENEFITS
By partnering with Applus+ for the inspection of their airport hydrant systems, our clients will benefit by:
Ensuring the safety of their systems
Detecting system degradation in a timely manner, thereby enabling targeted repair and maintenance work to be carried out and avoiding the need for full system replacement
Accurately assessing the remaining life of the system
Reducing system downtime and maintaining productivity, with the resultant cost savings | {
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Huckabee speaks to more than 1,000 in Ocala
Mike Huckabee speaks to a large crowd at the First Baptist Church on Southeast Maricamp Road in Ocala on Monday. Huckabee is a former GOP presidential candidate and a current TV and radio host.
Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Star-Banner
By Carlos E. MedinaCorrespondent
Published: Monday, October 8, 2012 at 10:55 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, October 8, 2012 at 11:16 p.m.
OCALA - More than 1,000 people gathered Monday night at First Baptist Church of Ocala to hear former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee deliver a message tailored to Christian voters.
Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for president in 2008, never mentioned Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney or President Barack Obama, a Democrat, by name.
The gathering, however, was billed as a Romney/Paul Ryan sanctioned campaign event.
He never even mentioned the two major political parties, but rather focused on how Christian voters should vote in line with their core moral values and how Christians who feel they should not focus on political ideology need to get involved in the process.
"I still find that there are people who believe if we are Christian believers we should keep our focus on heaven and not worry about elections. Let me tell you why I think you are wrong ... If we choose to sit it out then we really can't say anything about the kind of government that we get," said Huckabee, who is a former Baptist pastor.
Huckabee went on to say Christian voters should vote their beliefs.
"Again I am not here to take a position for one party or another, and I am not here to advocate for the election or defeat of a candidate, but I'll tell you one thing, I will not extend my vote and support for someone who does not believe that at the moment of conception a human life has been created," Huckabee said to loud applause.
Romney has called himself "pro-life," Obama has identified himself more with the "pro-choice" position.
Huckabee also reiterated his stance that marriage should be between a man and a woman. Romney shares a similar belief, while Obama recently came out in support of gay marriage. The former governor argued that when Christians turn away from politics or the entertainment industry or from other "corrupt" areas of society, things only get worse. Instead, they should pray that moral people enter those institutions to make them better.
"We should be running to it. We should be like firemen with a hose," he said.
Afterwards, the reviews were positive for Huckabee's message.
"I like how he mixed it with humor. It goes a long way to make people listen and for them to really understand what he says," said Susan Galvagnie.
Betty Edwards said she liked that Huckabee did not mention either candidate by name.
"I was pleasantly surprised that he did that. He wanted each of us to realize that as citizens we have a responsibility to vote and as Christians we have a moral conscience to do what is right. I think that was very impressive," she said.
<p>OCALA - More than 1,000 people gathered Monday night at First Baptist Church of Ocala to hear former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee deliver a message tailored to Christian voters.</p><p>Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for president in 2008, never mentioned Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney or President Barack Obama, a Democrat, by name.</p><p>The gathering, however, was billed as a Romney/Paul Ryan sanctioned campaign event.</p><p>He never even mentioned the two major political parties, but rather focused on how Christian voters should vote in line with their core moral values and how Christians who feel they should not focus on political ideology need to get involved in the process.</p><p>"I still find that there are people who believe if we are Christian believers we should keep our focus on heaven and not worry about elections. Let me tell you why I think you are wrong ... If we choose to sit it out then we really can't say anything about the kind of government that we get," said Huckabee, who is a former Baptist pastor.</p><p>Huckabee went on to say Christian voters should vote their beliefs.</p><p>"Again I am not here to take a position for one party or another, and I am not here to advocate for the election or defeat of a candidate, but I'll tell you one thing, I will not extend my vote and support for someone who does not believe that at the moment of conception a human life has been created," Huckabee said to loud applause.</p><p>Romney has called himself "pro-life," Obama has identified himself more with the "pro-choice" position.</p><p>Huckabee also reiterated his stance that marriage should be between a man and a woman. Romney shares a similar belief, while Obama recently came out in support of gay marriage. The former governor argued that when Christians turn away from politics or the entertainment industry or from other "corrupt" areas of society, things only get worse. Instead, they should pray that moral people enter those institutions to make them better.</p><p>"We should be running to it. We should be like firemen with a hose," he said.</p><p>Afterwards, the reviews were positive for Huckabee's message.</p><p>"I like how he mixed it with humor. It goes a long way to make people listen and for them to really understand what he says," said Susan Galvagnie.</p><p>Betty Edwards said she liked that Huckabee did not mention either candidate by name.</p><p>"I was pleasantly surprised that he did that. He wanted each of us to realize that as citizens we have a responsibility to vote and as Christians we have a moral conscience to do what is right. I think that was very impressive," she said.</p> | {
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Sweet twink gays actively suck each other dicks then are engaged anal sex with each other. Their big elastic cocks push into an ass each other and then plentifully cum on backs and in a mouth. So look and you will not be sorry!
January, 18 2011
The pleasant young gay twink lay on one side as I was attached to his bum and have confidently pushed the baloney to him in ass. The twink smoothly play with cock while I rigidly fucked his bum. He groaned and asked to fuck him more strongly and more strongly. He dreamt that every day through his ass passed tens raised dicks. It was necessary for him to satisfy all friends every day:) | {
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... the leading crafts, such as derusting by sandblast treatment, flame plating,purging, etc. triple axles LPG tank semitrailer Second, the customers can choose the high quality of China-made or imported...
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...LPG Steel CylinderRFQ For LPG conversion systems on bi-fuel cars; And can be widely used on truck, forklift, motorcycle, help-move-vehicle and other cars. When LPG tank sold, generally it's required to be... | {
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Manufactured June of 2009 is in fair to good condition. Runs good. has a few minor age related things. Lamp wire needs to be reattached. Shifter is one position out of place. Otherwise a good used machine. $1700 cost...
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Jonathan Dos Santos (Barcelona )– Not called for the 2-2 draw against PSG in the Champions League. Made his way on to the pitch in the 51st minute during the 5-0 win against Mallorca. Next: 4/13 La Liga. Next: PSG 4/10 UCL; Real Zaragoza 4/14 La Liga
Here’s a picture that Jonathan Dos Santos posted via his twitter account after the game.
via @jona2santos
Carlos Vela (Real Sociedad)– Vela returned to the field for 66th minutes during the 4-2 win against Malaga. He scored a goal in the 21st minute. Next: Rayo 4/14 La Liga | {
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Park Tool CT-4.3 Master Mechanic Chain Tool
The CT-4.3 is a powerful, precise tool that quickly and accurately removes and installs chain pins. Specially designed to work with the tight tolerances and narrow profiles of 10 and 11-speed chains, and most high quality derailleur chains. Without a doubt the most accurate chain tool Park Tool has ever built! | {
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"A Patronus is a kind of positive force, and for the wizard who can conjure one, it works something like a shield, with the Dementor feeding on it, rather than him. In order for it to work, you need to think of a memory. Not just any memory, a very happy memory, a very powerful memory… Allow it to fill you up... lose yourself in it... then speak the incantation "Expecto Patronum"."
The Patronus Charm is a charm that evokes a partially-tangible, positive energy force known as a Patronus (pl. Patronuses[2]). Patronuses are also called spirit guardians[3][1] though this may only refer to corporeal Patronuses. It is primarily designed for defence against otherwise unbeatable Dark creatures like Dementors and Lethifolds, though there are other uses such as messaging.
To successfully cast the Patronus Charm one must muster a happy memory (the happier the memory, the more powerful and tangible the Patronus will be) and incant "Expecto Patronum". It is unknown if there are any other elements required in casting, such as physical gestures (aside from drawing and pointing the wand forward prior to or during incantation).
The happy memory one requires when casting does not necessarily have to be a specific moment in your past. Arguably more important than content, is how the memory or thought makes you feel now. Harry Potter, for instance, is often seen to produce his more powerful patronuses when he his merely thinking of the people he loves. In 1993, for example, when Harry watches Sirius and his past self being attacked by Dementors, he believes is about to see his father: filled with this thought and love for his father, he is able to produce a corporeal patronus to fight off the many Dementors. Harry also often thinks of his friends Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger and produces successful Patronuses. One time Harry also used the thought of Dolores Umbridge being sacked to produce a patronus for his Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. Harry uses his love and happiness, evoked from thinking of his friends and family, to produce a patronus, rather than having to remember emotions felt in the past.
Difficulty
The Patronus Charm is widely regarded as advanced magic (so much so that its not even taught in Charms on the Hogwarts curriculum). It is a very complex charm and many qualified wizards and witches have trouble with it. In fact, Harry Potter is one of the youngest known wizards able to cast a Patronus; he was taught how to do so in 1993 at the age of thirteen by Remus Lupin[4]. In a Dumbledore's Army lesson, Harry taught the members how to use the charm. Some were even successful in casting a corporeal form, though Harry said this might be because there was no Dementor to make them frightened[5]. However, some members were later shown to be able to cast corporeal Patronuses in the presence of Dementors[6].
Amelia Bones and potential members of the D.A. were all very impressed when Harry Potter revealed that he could cast not only a Patronus Charm but a corporeal one to boot, which is notably more difficult than casting an incorporeal one. Given that the success of the charm is directly reliant on the caster retaining a particular mental state the Charm is more difficult to cast in emotionally trying circumstances. For instance, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger all had difficulty casting their Patronuses when under the negative influence of Salazar Slytherin's Locket, one of Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes, and after witnessing the death of Fred Weasley in battle[6]. This feature of the Charm is particularly unfortunate since the Charm's primary use is to defend against Dementors, Dark creatures specifically equipped to mentally unhinge people (and hence is partly why it is regarded as such advanced, difficult magic).
Self-confidence may also play an important role in casting the spell. In 1994 Harry is able to cast the spell successfully, driving off a large number of Dementors (which according to Severus Snape is only achievable by a very powerful wizard) thus saving Sirius and a younger version of himself, seemingly without recalling a happy memory, when he realizes that he has already done it. Although Harry could have had a "happy memory" upon realizing that he had saved all three of their lives.
The Patronus
A successfully conjured Patronus can take two forms: non-corporeal or corporeal, and both types vary greatly in their appearances and strength.
Non-corporeal
Harry, casting a non-corporeal, shield Patronus.
A non-corporeal Patronus is one which does not resemble any living creature and has few distinguishing features (if any). Non-corporeal Patronuses resemble a burst of vapour or smoke without any clearly defined form shooting from the tip of the wand. While they may be partially effective at halting dementors (but not repelling them), non-corporeal Patronuses are not "fully-fledged" Patronuses, and are regarded as a more primitive or weaker version of the true Charm.
Corporeal
A corporeal Patronus is one that is completely and fully formed and takes the shape of a bright-white, translucent animal. A corporeal Patronus takes the form of an animal, like Animagus forms, that reflect the personality of the caster. They are, however, subject to change if the caster goes through an emotional upheaval of some sort. For example, Nymphadora Tonks's Patronus changed from its previous form to that of a four-legged creature which others guessed was a werewolf because then it would reflect her love of Remus Lupin, himself a werewolf[5].
Harry casting a Patronus Charm when he is attacked in Little Whinging
Another example is Severus Snape, whose Patronus was that of a doe, the same as Lily Evans, though this may have been the case all along rather than a change from its original form, as Snape was in love with Lily for most of his life. If a wizard is an Animagus and can summon a corporeal Patronus, the two may take the same form, as was the case for Minerva McGonagall and James Potter[6]. Most Patronuses take the form of an ordinary animal, but magical creatures, such as Albus Dumbledore's phoenix Patronus, are not uncommon. The corporeal patronus is also better at repelling Dementors.
Uses
There are two known uses for the Patronus charm. The first and main use of the Patronus is to drive off certain Dark creatures such as Dementors and Lethifolds, and is the only known charm that will work against them. As Dementors feed on happy memories to render humans to drown in sorrow and sadness, the Patronus acts as a shield of sorts, of which the Dementor would try to feed off of instead - the Patronus is comprised exclusively of positive feelings and cannot comprehend negative emotion, so the Dementor's influence cannot harm it.
Harry casting a Patronus during the Hunt for Horcruxes
The other use was devised by Albus Dumbledore, who invented a way of using the Patronus (corporeal and non) as a means of communication. They can deliver messages, speaking with the voice of the caster. This source of communication is believed to be exclusive to the members of the Order of the Phoenix. Using the Patronus for communication offers great advantages in security, as Patronuses identify the caster and are Dark-proof.[5] A good example of this was when Minerva McGonagall used her feline Patronus to call for help to the other heads of houses in 1998 when she found out Harry Potter had returned to Hogwarts in search of Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem. Multiple Patronuses can be cast for communication, as McGonagall was able to create three. Another is when Severus Snape used his Patronus to lead Harry Potter to a pool in the Forest of Dean in 1997, where he had laid Godric Gryffindor's Sword for Harry to retrieve.
Etymology
Patronus means "protector", "guardian", or simply "patron" in Latin, specifically reflecting the entire role that the Patronus Charm plays. In archaic Latin, it meant "father", which is very interesting, considering that Harry Potter's Patronus is the same as his father's Patronus and Animagus form, a stag. The Latin word exspecto or expecto means "I look out for" or "I wait for", thus the charm's incantation roughly translates into "I await a protector."
His magical familiar, Fawkes, was a phoenix. Also he used it in 1995 as a message to Hagrid when Krum was stunned. It was described as "a ghostly bird that flew off in the direction of Hagrid's house".
While interrogating Muggle-borns at a trial, she had cast a Patronus to ward the Dementors from the prosecutors. Her favourite animal, as shown by the many plates with cats on them in her office. She was able to cast the Patronus due to her affinity with the locketHorcrux's evil influence.
The form of Tonks' Patronus changed in 1996. It became a werewolf due to her love for Remus Lupin, though Harry Potter and Hermione Granger initially believed it was a black dog, triggered by the death of her second cousin Sirius Black (whose Animagus form was a black dog). Changes of Patronus are rare and usually caused by devastating life traumas. Occasionally when a witch and a wizard are married, their Patronuses will match each other (most likely because the witch/wizard's happy thought will be that of their spouse).
Behind the scenes
Both the Patronuses of James Potter and Minerva McGonagall match their respective Animagi form. These are the only characters whose Patronus and Animagus forms are known. It is uncertain whether all Patronuses will match the form of the Animagus, but so far, an instance of differing forms has not been revealed.
In the video game adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the more moderate Expecto Patronum is a ball of light (before cast, a white ring goes up Harry's arm and if it reaches top of the wand, Harry has to try the spell again) and is used only to attack Dementors. At the climax of the game, a stag (Harry's Patronus) jumps out of the wand to drive away all the Dementors nearby attacking Harry and Sirius.
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, Dolores Umbridge's Patronus seems to emanate a shield that keeps the Dementors separated from everyone in the courtroom. In addition, Kingsley Shacklebolt's Patronus is described in the novel as taking the form of a lynx, however in the film it is depicted as a shimmering comet of light from which springs silvery images of witches and wizards screaming in terror as Kingsley's voice details the death of Scrimgeour and the fall of the Ministry.
In an interview, J. K. Rowling stated that the happy memory that would produce the strongest Patronus for her would be the births of any of her three children, though a close fourth would be when she learned that Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was going to be published.[11] She has also stated that she'd like for her patronus to be an otter, like Hermione's, but she has a feeling it might actually be a large dog.[10] Additionally, in a 2000 interview, she stated that the Patronus charm was her favourite spell in the series so far.[12]
Although Lupin provides most of the information within the books about the Patronus Charm, his Patronus is never identified.
Luna Lovegood's hare Patronus is possibly a reference to the moon rabbit, a figure in East Asian mythology.
There was a noted change in appearance of Patronuses in general in the Order of the Phoenix movie. In movies 5-8, Patronuses very wispy and airy, while in the third film they looks more substantial, solid and brighter.
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, during the infiltration of the Ministry of Magic, Umbridge's Patronus was very clearly seen several times in the same scene and often looked less like a cat and more like a reanimated, feline corpse, with the skeletal features visible. This is odd for a Patronus (they usually look quite 'alive' and well) and its twisted form may be a nod to both Umbridge's nature and the circumstances under which it was cast. | {
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Eager for the Big East
Coming to you a little late this morning after some technical difficulties, but we’re up and running again.
From the mother ship this morning, our account of Ole Miss basketball and what the Rebels have learned in their 5-0 start.
– PA
By Parrish Alford
Daily Journal
OXFORD – Off to a 5-0 start and producing some good numbers along the way, Ole Miss is test itself against a different level of team.
That chances comes Saturday at 1 p.m., against Rutgers at Tad Smith Coliseum as part of the Big East-SEC Challenge.
“We haven’t played the hardest of teams, and we know that,” senior forward Murphy Holloway said.
The Rebels are fifth nationally in scoring offense and 88.4 points a game and lead the nation in margin of victory at 33.2 points a game.
But that’s come against a schedule of lightweights, and times are changing.
After Rutgers the Rebels will face their first road game against Middle Tennessee State, a solid mid-major from the Sun Belt Conference that beat Ole Miss on a neutral floor last December in Southaven.
Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy calls the Rebels’ play “satisfactory” through the first five games, most recently a 91-45 win over Lipscomb last Friday.
“I think we’ve done what we’re supposed to do,” he said. “Now it’s time to take the next step and Saturday gives us that opportunity.”
Opportunity may be about to change for some players. The Rebels have 11 of their 14 players on the roster averaging double-figure minutes. That’s been made possible in part because reserve post player Demarco Cox missed the first three games, and freshman Derrick Millinghaus, a backup point guard, has missed two games.
Millinghaus, out with a knee injury, is expected back prior to the team’s west coast and Hawaii road trip over Christmas.
Kennedy announces no plan to drastically alter his playing rotation but hints that it could be whittled down soon.
“We’ve been able to spread the minutes, which was one of our goals early. I wouldn’t be surprised if the guys I’ve played to this point all get in the game. The extent they stay in the game will be determined by how they produce,” he said. “It hasn’t been just one guy or two guys.”
It has been a lot about Marshall Henderson, the junior college transfer shooting guard, who leads the team with 17 points a game in spite of recent shooting woes.
Holloway, the reigning SEC player of the week, is averaging 15.8 points and 9.4 rebounds, while Nick Williams is adding 10.2 points a game.
Sophomore point guard Jarvis Summers has 18 assists and only three turnovers.
“We’ve learned how to play together, learning to play with a good 3-point shooter like Marshall, and knowing what everybody can do,” Holloway said. | {
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Attention VW Golf buyers!
Buyers wanting a Volkswagen Golf with a small petrol engine had better get in quick – VW has halted production of some of the most popular engine variants in the range.
Our two favourite versions, the 120bhp 1.4 TSI and the 113bhp 1.6 FSI, are no longer available to factory order - that means you can't tailor them to your own bespoke specifications.
However, if you're a bit more flexible on the paint colour and the options fitted, Volkswagen says you can still buy these engines from stock reserves – cars that have already been built, but not bought.
That leaves the Golf range with a choice of just three petrol engines that you can order from scratch.
There's the 79bhp 1.4, which is hideously underpowered. There are another two versions of the 1.4 TSI engine (giving either 138bhp or 168bhp), and although they are much, much better, they make the Golf way too expensive.
1.9 TDI now cheaperTo compensate for the huge gap left in the range, Volkswagen has dropped the price of the 105bhp 1.9 diesel version.
Prices now start at £14,305. The rest of the diesel range remains the same. There's a non-turbo 2.0 with 74bhp, and two 2.0 turbodiesels that give either 138bhp or 168bhp.
There's more bad news for fans of sporty Golfs – production has also been halted on the excellent GTI and R32 hot hatch versions. Again, you can buy them from Volkswagen's stock, but no more factory orders are being taken.
The Golf's engine range shouldn't suffer these gaps for too long, however, because the new Mk VI six Golf is due to arrive at the end of the year. | {
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I don't like Kate having cancer at all, mainly because I fear that it's their way of axing Lauren Koslow. The character of Daniel is a joke and a bust, and it appalls me the way they have Kate in this random corner just secluded as if she's his own personal story prop. Hate it! Meanwhile, can we please bring back her inner power-hungry bitch side? What happened to her wardrobe? The Kate I'm seeing now just doesn't even feel like the Kate I knew eight years ago.
ITA agree with this. i think they destroyed SC initially with all the 'world-famous' doctor propping and surfer dude talk. pairing him with chelsea was pretty much the final nail in the coffin. i'm not interested in his romance with kate, because frankly, he's already been set up as a total douchebag who targets ill women patients to sleep with. how am i supposed to root for him, even though he's finally in a an appropriate relationship? in a word, i can't.
Now, if they would EXPLORE this particular syndrome he's got and USE it, then they'd have a story...this targeting ill women. I mean, so many viewers note this (according to boards)...why not take it and run with it and give us a Daniel story with a background we can sink our teeth into? But..........no.
ICAM. I couldn't figure out why Date bothers me so much since Daniel is finally in an appropriate relationship. But you nailed it.
And you're right. If they actually address this issue, it would make a great story. But that would mean giving up on Daniel as a "hero." And I don't see them doing that.
Although I would hate for the actor to lose his job, I wish they would just write off Daniel Jonas. I think he's been a complete waste of time. It's not the actor's fault; it's that the writers have made a total mess of his character from day one. There are still interesting things they could do with him, but I don't care. Cure Kate, send Daniel off to some surfer's paradise, and give her a story with someone who deserves her. | {
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Social Media
Wikipedia's New Love Button Will Let You Send Kittens or Beer to Others
Wikipedia will launch a "Love" button next week that will let users send their messages of appreciation to other users through virtual cats, beer and more.
The experimental feature, called WikiLove, is scheduled to make its debut on the English version of Wikipedia on June 29. The goal of the product, according to a blog post by the Wikimedia Foundation, is to encourage more users to edit and engage with more articles by providing positive reinforcement.
"The drive for quality and reliability has led to the development of sophisticated automation mechanisms that aid in socializing new users to Wikipedia’s norms, policies and conventions," the company explained in its announcement. "The act of expressing appreciation for other users, by contrast, is a largely manual effort. Whether it’s welcoming new users, inviting users to participate in specific topics or discussions, recognizing effort using barnstars and trophies, or just sending a whimsical note, expressing appreciation is not an activity that is facilitated by the software — in spite of its known importance for people’s likelihood to want to edit."
The WikiLove feature is relatively straightforward and simple. Starting next week, a heart icon will appear next to the watchlist star icon on user pages. Clicking it will bring up the WikiLove menu, where users can send their appreciation to someone by sending them a virtual gift and a quick note. Barnstars (think of them like Foursquare badges), Beer and Kittens are the primary WikiLove gifts a user can send, but users also have the option to create their own.
Once a user sends someone a little WikiLove, an update appears on his or her user talk page, where messages and photos of "A beer for you!" or "A kitten for you!" could potentially flood it.
The addition of this simple feature makes a lot of sense. Wikipedia is currently dominated by a very small group of editors, and its future depends on getting more people to participate in the article creation and editing process. Wikipedia's research has concluded that there has been an increase in warnings and criticism and a decrease in praise over the years, a troubling trend to say the least.
While the feature won't be launching for another week, you can try it out on the Wikimedia prototype site if you want to play around with WikiLove a couple days early.
Mashable
is a global, multi-platform media and entertainment company. Powered by its own proprietary technology, Mashable is the go-to source for tech, digital culture and entertainment content for its dedicated and influential audience around the globe. | {
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Blackjack has not been one of the favorites in Los Vegas Casinos due to small margins and tiny percentage. It could have even disappeared in the 1980’s when notorious MIT Blackjack Team was at their pomp.
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Pages
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Don't You Love Surprises LIVE Giveaway!!! GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED
I'm feeling bad about not posting yesterday and I want to make it up to you. I have decided to host a "Live" Giveaway. Here is how this works. To win, start posting as many comments to this post as you wish. Each comment has to answer any of the following:
1. What would you change about my blog?
2. What do you like or love about my blog?
3. What would you like to see more of on my blog?
4. Is there anything you would like me to add to my blog?
5. Is there anything you would like me to stop posting on my blog?
Okay, you can make as many comments as you like, but your comments have to answer any or all of the questions listed above. I want to make my blog better for you - therefore I need you to tell me what you want.
Some time today (it's a surprise) I will use Random.org to chose a random comment. The winner will be announced both on twitter and here on my blog. Feel free to tweet about this too.
I bet you are wondering what you are going to win, but I'm not telling you. I will tell you it is a $25 gift certificate - but you won't know to where until it is over.SURPRISE!!!
I love your I Hate Meatloaf Recipe, i hate meatloaf too and hate to cook it, i cant wait to try yours out it actually looks like something i might enjoy! And i'm sure my hubs would love it too!!! Also i think you have a really cute header and button!!!
I would love to see more recipes! I am learning how to ocok, because i did not know my way around a kitchen until i got married and am still new too it, but i love to find new recipes and try them out!!
I think the pink background is very pretty, but I don't think it says "you"You have such a warm caring personality, the plain pink is not you. It needs to show your personality. Like in the backgrounds I sent you the other day. :)
I love your blog.. its so colorful, i love reading it. I would agree maybe the only thing i would change is like the person above me suggests is just a pic :) That and more posts! :) Your blog is what i want mine to be :D
Just to clarify a little bit, I'd love to see more giveaways for dog/cat lovers. There's a ton out there for kids/babies/moms but dogs/cats..not so much. I see you have 3 of your own (so do I) so I'd love to win some great products for pets, too.
I like the format of your whole blog. It's easy to navigate throughout it, and I like your colors. Like the pink in the background is light enough so that it looks nice but at the same time it's really easy to read everything. Also, on your sidebar I love your SassyMom button! | {
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2. As is customary around this time of year, the bubble is essentially a Rorshach test. Essentially every team has a middling RPI, SOS, 2-3 good wins, and a blah loss. I won't argue adamantly for any of my bubble teams (or against teams that just missed) - that will mostly be sorted out over the next 8 weeks, anyways.
3. One of my largest discrepancies from the Bracket Matrix (bracketmatrix.com) is Alabama - they have seven Column 1 + 2 wins, including 2-2 vs Column 1, more than any other team near the cutline.
4. If this bracket were the real thing, I'd imagine there would be more than a couple pool entrants who would take three or even four 4-seeds to the Final Four. Hell of a (storied) group with Kansas, Xavier, Kentucky, and North Carolina.
5. On the other hand, this group of 12- and 13-seeds looks positively frightening. Of course, most of them will probably lose in their conference tournaments, as is annual custom, and I'll cry softly into a pillow as the auto-bid pool dilutes itself.
6. I still have Notre Dame clinging tenuously to their spot in the bracket - they've maintained enough respectability despite currently missing Matt Farrell and Bonzie Colson (that UNC win would have been sweet, though). Minnesota, on the other hand, has not, having just gotten blitzed by a combined 57 points in their last two games (and they've lost their last three).
That's all for now, we hope to have periodic updates to this in the lead-up to Selection Sunday. | {
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Katikkiro Charles Peter Mayiga has released his third book titled Uganda: 7-Key Transformation Idea where he offers solutions to transform Uganda and Africa generally from the third world to the first one.
His other two books are King on the Throne; the Story of the Restoration of the Kingdom of Buganda, and Buganda ku Ntikko. Both these two books were centred on Buganda Kingdom. The new book looks at Uganda and offers solutions to its development challenges.
Written in a conversational tone with tons of humour and everyday examples, Katikkiro Mayiga identifies the rule of law, good governance, health, education, agriculture, public infrastructure and the settlement of the Buganda question as key areas that need be tackled to transform the country.
“This book is a conversation I wish to share with you because, together, we must find solutions to the endemic problems of ignorance, poverty and disease in our country, Uganda,” Mayiga writes. “It contains my views on laws, politics, institutions, management, social issues, culture, and economics, all of which, and more, can turn into tools of transformation,” he adds.
On the rule of law, Mayiga says that “the community that does not have a reliable and effective judicial system is always restive and can never enjoy a peaceful environment.”
He adds that the precursor to economic stimulation and growth is the belief that the state is possessed of institutions that can prevent lawlessness or that can address injustices whenever they occur. A serious investor will be keen to invest in a country where he knows rules are respected and they apply to everybody.
Mayiga further argues that the emancipation of Uganda will be through agriculture, animal husbandry, and commerce as the bedrock to a sustainable economy. With good governance, other areas like tourism and industrialisation will fall in place to propel the growth further ahead. “The people must be educated, to be able to appreciate this, but also to implement the requisite plans,” he explains.
Transformation of a community requires that all efforts must be geared towards a singular objective or focus, he says. “If our comparative advantage is agriculture – which it actually is – then enhancement of the citizens’ capital base must be related to agriculture. In that sense, the ‘assistance’ that is envisaged under the SACCO schemes must be to promote particular agro-based activities,” he explains.
Marketing is identified as another tenet that spurs economic growth. “It broadens the public’s awareness for any item, hence boosting sales. Good sales translate into earnings and growth. If anyone realises values from whatever they do, they will do it over and over again,” Mayiga argues.
The major problem is the absence of a systematic marketing mechanism, he argues. A farmer with a 10-bag harvest cannot deliver them on his own, let alone knowing about the availability of demand for them elsewhere.
Mayiga identifies federalism as key in solving the Buganda question and lead the country to the true path of transformation. “Federalism decongests the centre, and enables each region to pick its development priorities but within the overall national policy guidelines. Today, unlike in the past when regions had a bigger stake in management of public issues, development is concentrated in and around Kampala,” he writes.
The book is already available at Aristoc Bookshop, Bulange Building Reception, Buganda Shop at Muganzirwazza, and Majestic Brands offices at Bulange, Mengo at Shs40,000.
For further information, contact Denis Jjuuko on 0758111409. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | {
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There is no term I dislike more, and none that gets my proverbial hackles up more than “the greater good.” I hear it a lot in Pagan circles. I hear it a lot in the interfaith circles in which I move and work too. In both cases, it’s used almost inevitably as a universal panacea when the speaker is about to abrogate any sense of personal responsibility. Again and again, I’ve seen it used as a justification for moral cowardice. Again and again I’ve seen it used not only to excuse thoughtlessness or laziness, but to grant such questionable behaviors the moral high ground. Not only do I consider this term nine times out of ten a moral cop-out, but I also consider it an incredibly dangerous sensibility, one that can be used –and historically has been used—to justify incredible cruelties.(1)
We live in a society that does not encourage personal challenge. It does not encourage anyone to live an examined life. Instead, we’re encouraged –by the media, by the Christian dominated culture, by our corporate sponsors (yes I’m being sarcastic) to stay numb and dumb. We live in a culture that raises personal mediocrity to a high art. Worst of all, we live in a culture that, courtesy of the new age movement, fetishizes ‘feeling’ over personal obligations, and un-thought-out pleasure over any sense of personal responsibility. All of this (and more) contributes to the moral laxity that all too often creeps into our communities, so much so that not challenging ourselves to moral excellence has become the norm. I remember years ago, a Heathen man and kindred leader telling me most avidly that it was “ok” to be “mediocre.” He believed it too. I was appalled.
Before going any further, I think it is important that I define my use of certain terms like ‘moral” and ‘virtue.” The word “morality” comes from the Latin and implies something about one’s conduct or manner of behaving.(2) This has evolved into a branch of philosophy dealing with questions of good and evil, right and wrong. Ethics is related to morality in that it examines and categorizes various concepts of morality, the nature of right and wrong, the origins of moral theories, and the ways in which a moral decision might be reached. Ethics are, to my mind, the practical application of moral principles. ‘Virtue’ also comes from the Latin and refers to specific qualities of moral excellence as well as the ongoing process of their development.(3) In no way am I using either term to refer to sexual repression or social prudery, as I have occasionally heard them misused. In my use of both ‘morality’ and ‘virtue,’ I am specifically referring to the development of one’s character.
That being said, the questions inherent in the use of the term ‘the greater good’ are most definitely moral ones. Who gets to determine what that greater good is? About whose greater good are we talking? To whom do the benefits of this greater good go? My colleague Sarenth put it thusly:
“The Greater Good is usually not; it is, in fact, an appeal to the lowest common denominator in that it neither challenges individuals in terms of personal responsibility, nor does it hold larger society accountable for securing its own Good, as this Good is balanced on the back of a few who may never see the benefits of their sacrifice.”(4)
Whenever I hear someone allude to ‘the greater good” – and oddly enough, in interfaith settings at least, I often hear it said in prayers. In Pagan settings, it tends to come up in magic or energy work, particularly healing work and I can think of no worse places in which to abrogate personal responsibility—I grow very wary. It is a facile term, one that is far, far too easy to use and therein lies precisely its danger.
When I hear someone claim “the greater good” as the excuse for their decision (or more often their lack of one), I also know that I am very likely dealing with someone who, while inevitably well-meaning, has not yet shaken themselves free of the monotheistic paradigm, the paradigm that gave us colonialism, the doctrine of discovery, and endless bloodshed. Why? Well, talking about the greater good presupposes that there is a singularity, in other words one greater good. That is not too far from the belief that there is one and only one true way. It presupposes a tremendous arrogance on the part of the one making the decision as to what the greater good might be – often unconscious arrogance, but arrogance nonetheless. Who gets to determine this? Who or what is going to be sacrificed?
I’ve also found that quite often the real motivation is fear. One will do or not do a thing in order to maintain the status quo, to keep themselves from personal discomfort, or from having to make a clear-cut decision in a given situation. It does not matter what decision is morally correct, convenience takes precedence. In our spiritual lives this can come up in many surprising small ways. Perhaps you are a Pagan woman whose devotion to the Gods requires dressing a certain way, or doing a particular ritual one day a week. Perhaps your boyfriend objects to the time this takes away from him. What do you do? (my answer: bye bye boyfriend). Perhaps you are in school and you see someone being harassed because they are gay, or overweight, or unpopular, or a particular ethnicity. What do you do? Do you speak up or stay silent and by your silence collaborate with the bullying? Someone asks you if you’re Pagan. You are. What do you say? Do you have the courage and commitment to claim that space publicly for yourself?
I hadn’t ever really conceptualized this until quite recently. I’m going to go off on a tangent for a moment, but have no fear, it will lead me back to the point at hand, I promise. Lately, several times in fact over the past month, women have come to me in some way, shape, or form asking my advice over what to do if their boyfriends or spouses didn’t approve of their religion or certain practices in their religion. My point of view is simple: I am committed to my Gods and ancestors. This is the central facet of my life. Anyone coming into my life, or wishing to be part of it had best understand that. If someone makes it an issue, or in any way gets between me and my spiritual Work, or causes me to expend unnecessary emotional energy on the matter, they will be out of my life post haste. I have lived by this rule for over twenty years. After all, one is either committed to one’s Gods or one is not; and if one is, then there is no excuse for allowing one’s practices to be compromised. In every instance, the woman in question thanked me and complimented my strength but it was clear that she did not think she could ever find it in herself to do the same, even if she wanted to do so. In every instance I was deeply bothered by this well meaning and sincere compliment. It was only recently that I realized why.
It’s not a question of strength.
It has nothing to do with being strong. It’s a matter of commitment and choosing to hold to one’s personal (and spiritual) commitments every day. It’s personal choice nothing more. Moreover, to dismiss it as “strength,” in the way that these women did –with the emotional overtones that said very clearly that it was beyond their ability to conceive of such “strength” within themselves (because they did not conceive of themselves as strong, which is heartbreaking in and of itself) -- is to place the very idea of personal commitment and yes, personal strength outside of one’s personal potentiality. It is to deny that one could possibly be strong and/or committed to something too. It makes these qualities something that others do. That is very sad. In part though, I think this comes from the expectation that strength, courage, moral excellence, and any other virtue that one could possibly mention, are inborn graces, suddenly springing up in a person’s character whole and in full bloom when nothing could be further from the truth.
Instead, qualities like personal strength are born out of very small, every-day, seemingly very mundane choices. They are developed and honed through constant effort and mindfulness. They are exercised through attention to the small choices that each one of us has to make every day. They’re polished through failure and learning how to come back to center afterwards; and they exist always in an agonistic exchange with their opposite: one who has courage knows terror all the time, one who is strong, daily confronts weakness, the most compassionate person might struggle with depression or the urge to wall oneself off to the pain of the world. Strength doesn’t just happen; it’s the result of years of making those small and seemingly insignificant choices in ways that lead toward a greater sense of one’s capabilities and personal commitments. There is nothing grand about it. It’s choosing to get up and do that weekly ritual when you are tired and inconvenienced. It’s choosing to not buy from X brand, owned by fundamentalist Christians, it’s choosing to make that phone call to the friend fighting with cancer, even though you feel awkward and uncomfortable and don’t know what to say. It’s something that everyone can aspire to, which does not, I might add, translate into it being something that is easy to acquire.
I also think that this love affair with the idea of the greater good stems from a deep discomfort with conflict. One can speak of the greater good and of leaving things to the greater good or of doing this ‘for the greater good of all’ without feeling as though one has made any challenging decision. It removes the possibility that any conflict might arise as a direct consequence of taking a particular stand or making a particular choice. Lack of decision becomes the de facto decision. In the interfaith community particularly I see this cropping up a great deal. There’s an underlying discomfort with taking a clearly defined moral stance outside of something akin to ‘love and light for all.’ Conflict and disagreement, which can be powerfully fertile ground from which new ideas and shared endeavors might grow, is eschewed out of a fear that it might mean “being judgmental.” Taking a moral stance on any issue at all is viewed as being unfairly judgmental and as such is discouraged on a very deep, fundamental level; all of which leads to moral impotence.
I very strongly believe that our Gods and ancestors call us to make a stand…large or small, we are called upon to be people of substance. Sometimes this means making the uncomfortable or inconvenient or terrifying choices because they are the morally correct choices to make. This means being willing to take a moral stance and yes, to make a personal judgment. One can do that without expecting that everyone else will follow suit: one can believe a thing passionately, without demanding that every other person bow down and believe the same (this, by the way, is one of the essential differences between monotheism and polytheism). One can be judgmental without being cruel.
Is there ever a time when one must consider ‘the greater good’ beyond the abstract? I believe so. Warriors confront it, but they don’t call it ‘the greater good.’ They call it ‘awful necessity.’ In this vein Gandhi led his people in revolt against the governing power and transformed a nation. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and many other brave men and women bucked the status quo and in some cases laid down their lives for the greater good of their people. Winston Churchill allowed British cities to be bombed shortly before D-Day taking no measures to move people to safety. Why? Because had he taken preventive measures, he would have revealed to the Germans that the allies had broken their codes and plans for D-day would have been for naught and the war might have dragged on far, far longer costing thousands more lives. He made the decision to stay mute, and continue plans for the offensive that helped end the war, in service to the greater good. One might question what all of these instances have in common. They have very little if anything to do with one’s personal comfort. They are in no way self-serving and that is the key. Of course, this presuppose that one knows oneself well enough to acknowledge one’s deepest motivations, and to know when one is in fact being self-serving. But that is part of our spiritual work too, part of what I believe we are each obligated to explore. It goes back to that maxim said to have been carved above the entrance to the temple of Delphi: know thyself. No one said this task was easy.
Notes:
The American government thought it was serving ‘the greater good’ when it tore Native American children away from their parents and enslaved them in Christianizing schools : “kill the Indian to save the man” was the saying of choice. Charlemagne surely thought he was serving the greater good when he slaughtered my Saxon ancestors for refusing to convert to Christianity. The “pro-life” man who shoots a doctor for providing care to women certain thinks he’s serving the greater good too.
I hope that my readers will forgive the unfortunate brevity of this particular column. I’ve had precious little time to sit down and write this week, and only now, barely a handful of hours before it’s due, am I sitting down to write my second “F” column. This week’s column, thanks to a number of conversations that I’ve been having over the past few days with my students, deals with one of (in my opinion) the most magnificent of the Elemental Powers: fire.
In addition to honoring the Holy Powers and reverencing the ancestors, the polytheistic traditions of our pre-Christian forebears, traditions that we are working very hard to restore and renew very often had one other important component in common: honoring the elemental forces. In Western metaphysical traditions, occultism, Wicca, and many branches of Paganism, the primary Elemental tribes are Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. (My tradition would also include Ice as one of the fundamental elements, different at its very core, in its nature, and in the way that one must interact with it from water). These were the forces that sustained and continually transformed our world and to which we owed a measure of respect and gratitude. Sadly, this awareness of the importance of this ongoing, reciprocal relationship is one of the many crucial things lost during the conversation to monotheism, and we have yet to recover from that loss. It’s one thing to say that the earth is alive after all but quite another to really comprehend what that means in a way that impacts every single second and aspect of one’s life. But we’ll get to that in a bit.
When we deal with the Elemental Powers in contemporary polytheisms, unlike in the culture in which our ancestors lived and loved and worshipped, it is painfully easy to forget that these Powers are living, sentient, elder Beings. Part of the issue is that we rarely, if ever, are exposed in our lives to the full force of any of the primal elements. Very few of us live the type of life that is immediately and glaringly dependent on their regard. It’s easy in our world to take as our model for any given Elemental Power, only that to which we have direct access, to think only of the gentlest, tamest, most civilized and human-friendly facet of any given element when we engage in our ritual praxis. Thus when we honor fire, we may think only of the candle flame or hearth-fire; when we honor water, it is with a bowl or chalice of water, or we light incense for air, and so forth. There’s nothing inherently wrong about this, so long as one understands that the Elemental Powers are so much more. Fire is not just the hearth-fire that gives warmth and light, but also the raging wildfire that devours the forest and maybe your home as well. It’s the inferno that steals the lives of the brave. It’s lava and the volcano blast that has buried cities and changed the course of civilizations, it’s electricity, and lightening, and the vibrant power of the sun. It has a thousand faces of which we know only a handful, and the same holds true with water. Water isn’t just the chalice of tap water, but the tsunami. Earth isn’t just the soil that nourishes the seed but also the earthquake that destroys a city. Air isn’t just that which we breathe, but also the fury of the hurricane gale and everything in between. Nor should there be any moral judgment on any of these manifestations. They simply are part and parcel of these magnificent beings. . It’s important to keep that all in mind, in part because the Elemental Powers were not brought into existence to pander to us, or to make us comfortable, and pretending that only the civilized aspects of an element exist does not and cannot make it so. It can lead to a certain spiritual complaisance.
While this week’s article is about fire, in the greater sense, however, it’s about what it means to live as an animist, knowing that every tree, every stone, every flicker of fire, every breath of the wind is alive, sentient, and ancient. That knowledge changes everything.
First of all, fire was absolutely essential to our ancestors. Without fire we very likely would never have made it out of the Neolithic era. Partnering with fire enabled us to cook our food, develop crafts like pottery, glass-work, and metal-work and lay the foundations for building civilization. Fire governs the arts of war too, but when it is channeled and engaged with properly, it is tremendously creative and positive in the blessings it bestows. Without fire, our ancestors would have died during the last ice-age. Fire sustained us as a species.
Moreover, in my tradition at least, we did not have to steal fire. It was given to us, part and parcel of how the worlds were made. The nation of fire chose to partner with us from the very beginning. My sister works in animation and a couple of years ago she introduced me to an animated series called “The Last Airbender.” While I found the rather dogged pacifism of the main character annoying (it was a children’s series for Nickelodeon after all), I found the theory of the elements quite sound. Moreover, in the series, the writers refer to the earth nation, fire nation, air nation, and water nation. I heard that and thought “Yeah. Exactly.” So I am shamelessly stealing this, though prior to this I would often refer to them as ‘tribes.’ I like using “nation” to describe them. Why? The term ‘nation’ implies a conscious unity of force and self-identification. Moreover, it implies a cohesive culture, language, and cultural awareness. It also, perhaps most importantly, emphasizes both the independence and the sentience of these Beings. To my way of thinking, ‘nation’ is precisely the appropriate term. (For those with kids, by the way, the animated series the “Last Airbender” is very Pagan friendly. Avoid Shyamalan’s movie like the plague). But I digress.
At its metaphysical core, fire is one of our most primal conduits to our ancestors. Every fire that we light, every fire that we encounter, every fire that *is* remains part of that first fire kindled by our very oldest ancestor. It is part of every fire that was and every fire that will be. The elementals powers are always in constant communication with each other. They do not cease to exist simply because they cease to be in our world. In many respects, the Elemental Powers are our eldest ancestors, existing as they did before humanity and sustaining us as they do. From a cosmological perspective within the Northern Tradition, they definitely hold this honored position. Acknowledging that and working that knowledge into one’s practices is the first step in re-awakening to the type of animism by which our ancestors lived. It’s the first step in healing a thread long sundered, the first step in restoring an awesome and important responsibility that our ancestors so long ago understood.
I was giving a workshop recently on Northern Tradition shamanism, and, while shamanism is not accessible to everyone (it’s a vocation and calling—one is taken up and owned by Gods or spirits), there are some techniques that everyone can safely do and maybe even should be doing (ancestor veneration being a definite should, in my opinion). I had promised at the start of the class to teach a couple of these techniques so that everyone present could take something practical home with them that they would then have the option of incorporating into their personal practices. The last thing that I talked about was honoring the Elements. I didn’t give any specific techniques. Instead, I talked to the class about how the world was alive and aware. The fire, wind, water, earth, soil itself, grass, trees, mountains, and every single stone was alive and aware. Understand that and the specific techniques will follow.
Because really, once you realize, truly realize to the very core of your being that everything is alive, everything is awake, everything is sentient, your relationship with everything in your world can change. It changes the way that one chooses to engage with the world and everyone and everything in it.
Elements act according to their natures. Therefore I will praise fire for the beauty, strength, warmth, and terror it bestows. I will praise it for sustaining our ancestors. I will praise it for its brightness. I will praise it for its heat. I will praise it for carrying our offerings to the Gods. Hail to fire who consecrates. Hail to fire who renders holy all that it encircles. Hail to fire, who illuminates the way of the dead. Hail to fire who unlocks ancestral memory. I will honor fire. I will set out offerings to this glorious nation. May it always and ever be praised.
I have two links of note for my readers today. Firstly, Rev. Allyson Szabo, Hellenic correspondent for the Keene Examiner interviewed me on the topic of prayer. I was very pleased with how the interview came out and Allyson asked some very insightful questions. That link may be found here:
the book itself may be found at www.asphodelpress.com or www.amazon.com. that's probably all for today, folks, but stay tuned for this week's Pagan Blog Project post (friday) and in the meantime, have a wonderful Ostara/Eostre celebration.
My adopted mother used to say that ‘fear is never a good motivator.’? While she was correct, I often advise both myself and my clients that, on the other hand, fear can be an excellent teacher. In fact, it is often the first and most fierce ‘teacher’ that many of us will encounter, one that dogs us again and again throughout our lives. The question is, whether and how well one learns to work with fear, and to use it, without bearing one’s neck to its bite.
I think that, amongst other things, this is the essence of warrior work. It’s also an aspect of warrior work that everyone can, in some way, touch and incorporate into their lives. We all had ancestors who were warriors after all and we’re here because of them. Our lines survived because of those men and women who made the hard and often violent choices, and in doing so, learned to stare down fear. We’re here because of those men and women who, whether they wanted to or not, learned to dance with fear. If they can do it, each and every one of us, warrior or no, can learn to do the same.
Most of us from my generation who were into sci-fi as children are familiar with the series “Dune.” I actually never saw the movie, but I did come across the following mantra against fear when I read the book (apologies to Dune fans if I’m misquoting slightly. I haven’t read the book in a very long time and I don’t have a copy on hand). Not only did I find it excellent advice when I first read it, but its wisdom has stayed with me through the years. So, with apologies to Frank Herbert:
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
I remember it having only read the book once, at least twenty five years ago, which gives you some idea of how powerful I found this. In fact, I think this little mantra very neatly encapsulates the ‘medicine’ of fear: it has the capacity to show us our truest selves.
Nowhere is this more fully expressed than in the realm of the spiritual.
In some respects, fear is a biological, evolutionary response. It’s our first warning that something is amiss, that danger threatens. In animals and humans alike, fear often leads to a ‘fight or flight’ response. In a situation of active, actual danger that’s the appropriate response. It’s a survival mechanism. In spiritual terms however, we all too often take that very natural survival mechanism and use it to reinforce our prejudices, stereotypes, to strengthen the walls of the neat little restrictive boxes into which we’ve placed ourselves (or sometimes by circumstances allowed ourselves to be placed). We use it to avoid growth…which can be terrifying. We use it to avoid engagement with the Holy Powers, which can lead to tremendous, unavoidable change in every part of our lives. We use it as an excuse. We use it to avoid the consequences of spiritual commitments and obligations. Most of all, and saddest of all, we use it to avoid becoming fully realized human beings.
This isn’t just a spiritual phenomenon. How many people do you know who avoid doing something—something they may really want to do (be it going on a trip that involves plane travel, or going on a date, or going back to school, or trying for a particular job) because they are afraid? Fear tells us to evaluate a situation and then provides us with an opportunity to stretch ourselves and to grow. In the most difficult situations it also provides us with an opportunity to find our courage and develop our characters in unexpected and sometimes glorious ways. It can reveal our potentiality. It should never, ever, ever be used to limit who we are and who we have the potential to become. This is a misunderstanding of its medicine, though it is, given our society, an understandable one.
We live in a world replete with an amazing degree of moral cowardice and ennui. It’s to be expected that our communities have inherited that as well. Most of all, in our society women are raised nourished on fear. We drink it in with our mother’s milk and I’m not just talking about fear for one’s physical safety. I cannot begin to count the number of students and clients –inevitably women--I have had who have struggled spiritually because of this: they were being called to greater, more deeply rooted commitment to the Gods and wanted it with everything in themselves, and yet fought against it equally strongly. Why? Because they were afraid: afraid that they would become too independent and thus be perceived as unfeminine, afraid that their mates would leave them, afraid that their lives would change, afraid that they would have to be responsible for themselves in ways they’d never had to be before, afraid of being different, afraid people would dislike them, be angry at them, not approve, afraid that they would not be strong enough to stand against that disapproval or to make the journey; afraid…for all of this and a thousand other reasons; and all too often rather than acknowledge and face that fear, they gave in to it and allowed limitation to dictate their spiritual lives (in ways which I’m sure mirrored their mundane lives--the shadow side I suppose of the metaphysical maxim “as above, so below”). I find that tremendously sad.
I will admit, steeped in warrior medicine as I am, it is not something that I fully comprehend on a personal level. Fear is a warrior’s constant companion. I am afraid every day of my life in some way sometimes over things I can control and sometimes over things I can’t, but one learns early on to deal with it and move beyond it. It simply is and like pain, often irrelevant to doing the task at hand. I have long deplored our society’s idolization of emotional responses as a reason to do or not do a thing but nowhere more than here. What’s more, I do not know how to minister well to those who stubbornly and knowingly cling to fear and who fear becoming anything but weak. I do not know what it is like to be in that skin and my heart goes out to people of any gender who struggle with this; because I have come to see fear as a tremendous ally, a blessing in disguise.
Fear is the herald of courage and courage is an absolutely necessary component for a truly engaged spiritual life. It is in no way the absence of fear. Rather it exists in that liminal space with fear, forever partnered. One of the first things that spiritual work asks is that we willingly explore the power of the space these two things share, both within ourselves and without as well. Fear teaches us that we are stronger than we think. It hones that strength from which so many other spiritual virtues flow. It allows us to live productive, whole lives spiritually and otherwise. It teaches us commitment, perhaps to ourselves most of all.
What’s more, personal virtues like courage don’t spring forth fully evolved out of nothing. We are not born with them. Not even those of us who carry warrior medicine are born with them! These things must be cultivated, carefully challenge by challenge, day by day, year by year. In this way, they weave their unfolding ever more fully into the fabric of one’s life. There is tremendous security in learning to overcome the stranglehold fear can take on one’s spirit: once you have done so, once you know that the world will not end and you will survive in the face of your most frightening fear it loses its power and you are free. It is a powerful thing to learn what will not break you. (That is actually one of the mysteries of ordeal).
Strength and courage are cultivated through facing and overcoming small daily challenges. That holds true in one’s spiritual life just as much as in the most mundane of activities. Engaged spirituality begins with a certain surrender, with opening up, with consciously sought out vulnerability. That is terrifying, perhaps the most terrifying thing a person will ever do. It’s also an ongoing act of commitment that requires tremendous, ongoing courage. In this way, living an authentic devotional life requires one to taste, at least a little, of warrior medicine; because commitment is difficult and learning to trust the Gods is difficult, and having those deeply sacred moments of direct interaction can be terrifying. It changes everything. Most of all, it changes us and how we fit into the lives we had before we embarked upon this road. Sometimes it changes us in ways that cannot easily be undone (nor should they be).
I should point out that reclaiming our indigenous traditions takes tremendous courage in our world. Becoming Pagan or Heathen takes tremendous courage. It violates the Christian dominated status-quo. Developing a relationship with the Gods takes tremendous courage. It often meets with violent opposition in our religious communities (as counter-intuitive as that may seem). I always tell my clients: you have tasted courage before in your life. Be proud of that. It is no small thing at all.
In fact, gythia K.C. Hulsman (in speaking of Heathenry) pointed out to me recently that “ours is a religion wherein we're told that we ought to be proud in our actions and choices. We’re told that we should be truthful and frithful in our community dealings. Yet how many are fearful of sharing their personal practices?” She’s right too. Every week I get emails thanking me for my work, explaining how much it helped the writer spiritually but ending with “please don’t tell anyone I contacted you. I’m afraid of the response I’d get from my community.” Worse, more than once, I have had people contact me telling me they were giving up on the community because of the hostility to engaged spirituality. This is a travesty.
It is, however, a reality we must deal with: sometimes our communities are the biggest blockages to spirituality that we will face. In such situations, staying the course can require tremendous courage. Moreover sometimes the challenge occurs even closer to home: sometimes the first spiritual challenge we face (after shaking off the mental and spiritual chains of monotheistic dominance) happens in our homes, with loved ones: parents, spouses, friends. Sometimes we must work to be very strong when those we love object to our spiritual practices and even attempt to interfere. People often think that courage is developed by the big things, expansive once-in-a-life-time happenings when in reality, it’s the everyday grind where we find our deepest challenges. We don’t have to look far; fear dogs us.
Moreover, I think the Gods and ancestors challenge us. I think They challenge us to grow, to evolve, to become stronger, more fully developed human beings. They challenge us over and over at each new point in our spiritual life and how we respond to those challenges determines how useful we shall be to Them. It determines where we will be taken from that point on. It determines what blessings we are able to accept.
The secret is to not stop when you have made one small step forward but to persevere and keep going further and deeper. Hanging above my desk, I have a couple of quotes, both by Eleanor Roosevelt:
“We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face... we must do that which we think we cannot do.”
She also said that ‘what is to give light must endure burning.’ She was right too. Fire purifies. It hones. It anneals. So does working through fear. It is essential. There is no spiritual growth without it.
As of today, March 15, 2012, I (Galina Krasskova) am taking over as gythia (priest) of Ironwood Kindred (IWK). IWK will become, along with Urdabrunnr kindred, part of my spiritual House, with all the rights and obligations that entails. For members, not much will change, save that the primary administrative locus of the group has shifted to NY state. Etinmoot will still occur thanks to the gracious hospitality of Cauldron Farm in MA (the announcement of dates and programming is due to go up on the IWK site shortly) and Loki and Angurboda remain the Patron Gods of the kindred.
Running a kindred (or coven, or iseum, lyceum, or ile) is hard and grueling work. I would like to extend my appreciation and thanks to gythia Elizabeth Vongvisith, who not only founded IWK, but ran it efficiently and well for seven years. That is no mean feat. I’d also like to recognize and acknowledge her wisdom in knowing when it was time to say goodbye. Knowing when to step down is one of the hardest graces a priest/ess will ever be called upon to cultivate. Priestcraft is difficult. I was taught many years ago when I was first ordained that the average life of a priest/ess is about five years—if one is lucky. After that, if one doesn’t take a break, one might well be pushing burnout. I have found, in over twenty years of practice, that to be, largely true. With that said, Elizabeth has earned recognition for both her dedication and commitment. She will remain a valued member of IWK and I tip my proverbial hat to her.
Anyone with any questions should contact me at tamyris at earthlink.net. Those interested in learning more about IWK may see this site: http://ironwoodkindred.wordpress.com/ (this site will eventually be edited and updated to reflect the change in leadership). Those interested in learning more about Urdabrunnr Kindred should see http://urda.seika.org/.
Please note, both kindreds maintain a ‘no assholes allowed’ policy. Those interested in harassing, whining, moaning, complaining, or slandering us about our inclusion of the Jotnar in our devotional work are quite respectfully encouraged to piss off. Inflammatory emails will be summarily deleted. Threats will be reported to the police. Have a nice day.
I am very happy to announce that bibliotheca alexandrina has released its newest devotional: "Queen of the Sacred Way," a devotional anthology to Persephone.
I know many of my readers have been waiting for this one for a long time. (for those wondering at my involvement, it is very, very minimal: I have one small piece in the book, a poem written close to twenty years ago.) This promises to be a beautiful offering to the Hellenic Goddess of the Underworld. So check it out folks. i'm waiting with baited breath for their upcoming Hermes devotional. :)
"Queen of the Sacred Way" may be found here: http://neosalexandria.org/bibliotheca-alexandrina/current-titles/queen-of-the-sacred-way-a-devotional-anthology-in-honor-of-persephone/
this tells you where and how to order. It will be on amazon.com soon, but (as I well know from my own publishing exploits) they can take a few weeks to update their online catalog. Congrats, to those of you involved in the collecting, editing, and publishing. This is a beautiful book.
By happy coincidence, just as we’re coming to the letter ‘E’ in the Pagan Blog Project, we’re also drawing close to Eostre. This is the Pagan and Heathen celebration A) of the spring equinox and the coming of warm weather and lighter days and B) the Goddesses of spring and renewal, among them Eostre who gave Her name not only to our celebration (also sometimes called Ostara after another Goddess of spring, Who might be the same Goddess as Eostre but with a different regional name or Who might be a completely separate Deity) but to the Christian Easter as well. (Come on folks, did you really think the eggs and bunnies had anything to do with Jesus?). Moreover, spring equinox is one of the three holy tides that we know for sure were celebrated throughout Northern Europe. Other holidays might vary from region to region, tribe to tribe, but these three remained consistent (the other two being the Solstices).
Until very recently, I never gave much though to Eostre. I considered it a “lesser” holiday and would often allow it to pass with the most minimal of observance. I far preferred the cold season, the time from Winternights in October through Yule, the time when the Wild Hunt was said to ride, the time given over the ancestors, the Mothers, and Odin. All of that changed, however, when I moved out of New York City. Suddenly, I found myself ensconced in the seasonal rhythms. I found myself unable to ignore the cycles of the land, the feel of the soil as it prepared for winter slumber, and moreover as it began to awaken in the spring. It was all around me and as I now had a parcel of land for which I was responsible, I began to sit up and take notice. With that miniature epiphany, I found myself coming to crave Eostre with a deep physical and spiritual ache. I began to long for this holy tide and suddenly it didn’t seem ‘lesser’ at all. Suddenly it seemed crucial, valuable, a doorway marking the transition between death and rebirth, winter and summer, darkness and light, fallow and fertile. Suddenly my entire relationship to this Goddess, this celebration, and this time of year was transformed.
Eostre really is a magical time. Its power lies in part in its liminality. The equinoxes are liminal times: the earth is neither fully awakened nor still fully asleep. They mark periods of transition, of awakening, of initiation. They mark the passage through a place, a time, a state of being that is neither one thing nor the other and such places are tremendously important for us spiritually and emotionally. They are the places wherein we are given the opportunity to open up and grow a little ourselves, to move beyond our baggage, to reach out and, since we are speaking of things associated with the spring equinox, to embrace the light. They give us a chance to reawaken our passions and reorder our priorities. Liminal times and places not only provide a chance to drink deeply of the sacred, but they allow us the opportunity to remake ourselves: our hearts, our minds, our spirits, in the wake of that sacred drink as we go forth, through the passage of the holy tide, into new life, new birth, new growth and hopefully, greater awareness. Moreover, Eostre being what it is, we can do so with joy because over and above anything else, this is a holy tide resplendent with joy.
You can feel the potentiality bubbling up in the land, like laughter too long impishly suppressed. You can feel it in the life that is bursting into flower everywhere at this time. It’s palpable if one stops long enough to listen; and to feel. Eostre is all about sensation—a riotous exaltation of the senses and our capacity to enjoy them. It’s about taking that pause, that breath, and it’s also about blessing the creativity – the fertility not necessarily of body, though that is certainly part of this season, but of mind, heart, and spirit. This holy tide is about opening up and stretching our wings after the enforced constraint of winter. It’s about the grace of being alive, awake, and capable of feeling joy. It’s about sensuality---however one chooses to express or embrace it, Eostre is, in some very deep way, about sensuality, a glorious celebration of the sensorium which, after the fallow time of winter, has the chance to glory in the gifts brought in the wake of the brightening land.
The spring equinox also knits together two very disparate seasonal experiences. It stands holding a place between the fallow, resting cold of winter and the burgeoning heat of summer. It’s a doorway between barrenness and fertility, always leaning toward the latter as the fall equinox leans toward the quiet pause of the former. Here, the elegance of autumn is replaced by unbounded delight of spring. There’s a momentum awakened and unleashed here that reaches its apex at midsummer. There’s a drive, a joyous exuberance.
We have several Deities traditionally associated with this time. The first, of course is Eostre and Her continental cousin Ostara. Then of course there is Hreðe, of Whom I’ve written of quite recently on my blog (http://krasskova.weebly.com/1/post/2012/02/adorations-to-hree.html), and finally we have the moon God Mani and the Sun Goddess Sunna. Given that Eostre proper is a day when light and darkness are equally balanced, it’s quite appropriate to give special honors to our celestial Deities too. Folks wanting to learn more about these two Deities can look here: http://krasskova.weebly.com/the-house-of-the-moon.htmlor check out my book “Day Star and Whirling Wheel,” available here: http://www.asphodelpress.com/devotionals.html. I’m afraid, other than a few sparse references in the surviving sources, there’s not much else out there about these Deities. Still, that shouldn’t stop us from honoring Them. In fact, it provides a great impetus to throwing ourselves into celebration of these Holy Powers unburdened as we are by any artificial constraints of ‘lore.’
I’ve also written about Ostara/Eostre before. Those articles can be found, in no particular order here:
In the meantime, with Eostre less than two weeks away, I leave you with a series of Adorations to this most delightful of Goddesses.
28 Adorations to Eostre
I adore You, Goddess of spring. I adore You, Goddess of the wet and fertile field. I adore You, Ever-brightening Dawn. I adore You, Who hides Your mysteries in liminal places. I adore You, Rebirth. I adore You, Renewal. I adore You, aching tug of awakening hungers. I adore You, Goddess of adolescence. I adore You, Goddess of bursting bloom. I adore You, Goddess of the new season. I adore You, Goddess of New Growth. I adore You, Who awakens the womb of the earth. I adore You, Who brings fertility. I adore You, laughing dawnlight. I adore You, who looses the hare. I adore You, Who quickens the belly. I adore you. Who fills the egg with life. I adore You, Holder of all potentiality. I adore You, Who opens the passage from winter to summer. I adore You, Whose gentle caress causes winter to yield its sway. I adore You, Who sweeps away the cold with a kiss of light. I adore You, Alluring One. I adore You, Who delights in the rising cock. I adore You, Who delights in the wet cunt. I adore You, Goddess of playful delight. I adore You, friend of Mani. I adore You, friend of Sunna. I adore You, Eostre.
May You be hailed at this time, as cold turns to warmth, darkness to light, winter to summer, fallow land to fertile growth.
And to all my readers, may this coming holy tide, Eostre, Ostara, the Spring Equinox, be kind to you all. May it fill your homes and hearts with joy and may the works of your hands prosper. Happy Eostre.
(the picture below is by Mary Ann Glass. The eggs were painted by her mother, Evelyn Tron Glass. Holiday cards with this image are available. The photographer may be contacted at http://maryannglassphotos.blogspot.com/).
If you would like to show your support and appreciation for the work that I and House Sankofa are doing, there are several things you can do. 1. Buy my books. You can find a list of my current publications here: http://amzn.to/YtlrLq. This takes you to an amazon page listing my books.
2. Have me do a divination for you, or order a gift-certificate for a friend. 3. Have me write a prayer or series of Adorations for the Deity of your choice. I take commissions $15/prayer. Money goes toward offerings and shrine maintenance. 4. Buy something from my marketplace page. 5. Make a donation via paypal. I have an account at tamyris at earthlink.net. Thank you. *******Galina and her kindred donate quarterly to The Big Sur Land Trust. See the links page. | {
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Produce
The avocado market remains well supported. Demand is surging this week for the upcoming Super Bowl. Further, there was little to no growth in avocado imports from Mexico last week. History suggests that avocado prices may remain firm. The Hass 48 count avocado market has averaged flat to higher during February six of the last nine years. Tomato supplies from Mexico remain deficient. U.S. tomato imports last week were 15.5% less than prior year. Tomato supplies are expected to improve soon. Tomato prices have averaged below January during February in six of the last eight years.
Grains
The soybean oil and palm oil futures markets have fallen sharply during the last week due in a large part to consumption concerns in Asia. The coronavirus has dampened celebration events and food consumption for the Chinese New Year holiday. There could be more downside potential in food oil prices in the near term.
Dairy
The spot butter market this week is the lowest in 39-months. Per the USDA, butter inventories in December were 5.9% larger than the prior year, but it was the smallest build for the month since 2016. Butter prices may still fall in the near term, but some long-term forward buying can be considered. The cheese markets are experiencing weakness, but cheese block prices are still inflated for January. Domestic cheese stocks on December 31st were down 2.2% from 2018 and it was the largest drawdown for the month since 1987, signaling solid usage. This year’s seasonal price declines for cheese may be tame.
Beef
Mid-January packer production schedules surprised the industry, with beef output last week jumping 2.5% over the previous week and were 7.3% more than last year. Wholesale beef sales are robust, with movement in the more deferred time frames remaining the most active. Despite the recent sell-off on the live-cattle futures, anticipate beef merchandising to remain active into the late-winter and early-spring. Seasonally, beef prices are expected to move mostly sideways into mid-February before escalating into the early spring, but this year’s seasonal upside development could be here earlier than history has shown.
Pork
Pork production last week was up 9.4% (wow) and was 9.9% over last year. Packers are likely pulling on hogs to fill schedules, but we’re not looking for the strong year-over-year output gains to continue. Still, amid larger production, wholesale pork prices are rising, with bellies and hams leading the way. The USDA pork cutout is up more than 13% (yoy), but larger supplies may pressure prices lower later this year (Q4). Anticipate U.S. pork export interest to be robust, but the current coronavirus problem is casting some doubt on those expectations.
Poultry
Chicken production remains robust, with chickens processed recently up 4% (yoy), but heavier bird weights have boosted ready-to-cook supplies, with the 6-week production total up 8% from last year. While data continues to suggest that near-term broiler production schedules will remain robust, producer margins are starting to fade amid struggling breast meat prices. In fact, breast meat prices have been fading counter seasonally throughout early 2020, and this week was the lowest for any week in Q1 since at least 2000. Longer-term contracting could be considered. Upside price action for wings and leg quarters have slowed, but strength should resume deeper into the winter.
Seafood
The salmon markets have been firm during the last several weeks due in part to smaller imports from Chile. During November, total U.S. salmon imports were up 2.1% from prior year with farmed filet imports up just .1%. Total salmon (10.7%) and salmon filet (5.4%) imports from Chile during the month were both lower than 2018. U.S. salmon imports could improve in the coming months. This may temper any seasonal upside in prices.
Oil
The petroleum markets are under selling pressure due largely to the coronavirus outbreak mostly in China, which is tempering petroleum demand, and flight schedules have been reduced. Expect more volatility in the petroleum markets. | {
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Posted
by
samzenpuson Monday February 26, 2007 @03:58PM
from the get-cooking dept.
honestpuck writes "When reading the foreword of Rails Cookbook I felt a strong kinship with Zed Shaw, I too have fond memories of the first edition of Perl Cookbook and the way I relied on it once I'd taken the training wheels off. Since that one I have relied on several of the O'Reilly Cookbook series. It is only when I discard the early tutorial and dive in the deep end with a "cookbook" on my desk that I really start to learn proficiency." Read the rest of honestpuck's review.
Rails Cookbook
author
Rob Orsini
pages
514
publisher
O'Reilly
rating
7
reviewer
honestpuck
ISBN
0596527314
summary
for programmers who know something about web development but are early in their use of Rails,
I felt timorous and unsure when I finished Agile Web Development with Rails, a marvelous tutorial that introduced me to my first real web development framework (I must have enjoyed it, I just bought the second edition). Since I have volunteered to develop a fairly large and complex web application in Rails I awaited the arrival of my copy of Rails Cookbook with hopeful anticipation and bated breath.
Rob Orsini, his fellow contributors (15 in all) and the team at O'Reilly have once again delivered. Compared to the previous titles in the series I've owned Rails Cookbook seems to have fewer recipes but as it is tackling an entire application framework and some serious issues, some of the solutions and discussions run a lot longer. The book is targeted at programmers who know something about web development but are early in their use of Rails, though it should be helpful to all Rails developers.
The book starts with tackling issues of installation and getting development tools installed in the first two chapters. Despite already deploying a couple of simple Rails apps I found that there was the odd useful tip in these chapters. The book then covers each of the three main sections of Rails; Active Record, Action View and Action Controller. The rest of the book goes on with large chapters on testing, Javascript, debugging, performance and hosting and deployment. Along the way it also covers REST, Action Mailer, security, plug-ins and graphics.
The extremely large section on Active Record was to me the most useful. I seem to spend an inordinate percentage of my Rails coding time with Active Record and it contains a large part of Rails power so I appreciated the size of this chapter. By contrast the chapter on graphics is almost entirely unread.
It seems obvious that this book should be compared to Pragmatic's Rails Recipes. The first point of difference is that Rails Cookbook covers installation and setup. The second point is that is 'Recipes' covers Rails 1.1 while 'Cookbook' targets the brand new Rails 1.2. As a project fairly new on the scene Rails is a fast moving target so the six months between the two books makes a difference. Both books have excellent coverage of the various aspects of Rails, with a great deal of overlap. 'Recipes' has more, shorter pieces while 'Cookbook' tends towards longer pieces with more discussion. 'Cookbook' is also more general, with more recipes more likely to be useful in every Rails project you write.
The style is different between the two. Here Cookbook comes off second best, it feels as though tightly edited by a number of hands and ends up lacking personality; functional but cold compared to Recipes. The writing, however, is good. It's easily read, at times it feels like a good textbook. The layout is clean, it is easy to find the information you need from each recipe when you want.
With almost all "cookbook" style books I seem to be left feeling that a number of the recipes are just a little too obvious and covered well in beginner tutorials. There is some of this in Rails Cookbook, most notably the first two chapters, but overall the book will be useful to any beginner to intermediate Rails programmer. Personally I had a couple of moments where I read a tip and wanted to scream as it demonstrated and explained in a few short sentences and half a page of code what had taken me hours to discover for myself.
The "Cookbook" series all seem to be books worth the price and shelf space. This one is no exception. I'd give it three out of five with an extra half for its timely information on Rails 1.2 and would recommend it for all Rails programmers from the absolute beginner through to all but the most experienced. If you already have a copy of 'Recipes' and are happy with it then you might want to stick with that till either volume is updated for the next major revision of Rails, otherwise you will almost certainly appreciate a copy of Rails Cookbook.
Then you'll _never_ touch Python!I have a co-worker who loves it and whenever I say something like, "I'm going to write a small program around a few syscalls and some low level bit twiddling in C" his response is always "Oh, you know Python can do that, right? And it'll be faster!"
It actually looks like a decent language, but he's turned me off to it (and it seems to grab a lot of the things I don't like from perl [disclaimer: I like perl] and very few of the ones that I do). I'll learn it sometime, but I
I'm a geek who uses technology in the service of the arts, but I've never been a programmer. Can anyone recommend a language in which I can learn the basics of programming, but is still powerful enough for me to do useful things? I'm comfortable with a soldering iron and piano, but the mysteries of writing code have always been outside my ken.I don't want to become a professional, I'd just like to do know what to do when I have to write a script and make simple web apps. The only real programmers I know
......... no, seriously, help this guy out. I'm not about to recommend PERL or Java or SQL, even though that's really all I'm semi-literate in.
And out of those, only java might come close to the requirements. I'd like to know what you guys recommend as well
C'mon, I was just about to recommend Java. It's a good language to start off with since there's a ton of information out there, it's a flexable language that you can use for tons of different use cases, and it's a good introduction to OO programming, which if you're starting from scratch, is the way I'd go. I would stay away from stuff like PERL and PHP since the former is just an explosion at the punctuation factory, and the latter could help instill bad practices from the get-go since it's so easy to h
I'd like to append that perl is a good language to work for people who are heavy command line users. It was origionally designed as bash+, and it still fills that niche quite well. It's OO is truly horrid though, and for the one who was asking, I'd agree, perl is bad for him.
Python's definitely a good fit. It's not my favorite language in the world, but it's got sensible syntax that isn't too alien (the indent thing really won't bite you unless you have a really crappy editor or you copy and paste code). And it also has loads of libraries, good support for all major platforms (OSX support is so-so, but pyobjc is nice), and a lot of people who can help you out (#python on irc.freenode.net for example).
Here's the bad part: there's virtually no decent introductory programming texts for python or most other languages. Most of them tacitly assume you know some other language and gloss over basic things like structuring a program with control flow, functional (de)composition, and proper use of objects, or they make a hash out of trying to introduce them. To that end, I'd really recommend Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (aka SICP) as a learning text, but dear lord is it tedious and didactic. It's also going to teach you an abstract way of thinking that doesn't really map to python's practical structures (i.e. you're never going to use tail recursion generally, let alone an amb operator).
I really love smalltalk for playing around with programming, not so much for the language itself (it's just okay) but for the way that you don't think about "compiling" or "modules" so much as you just have objects that you fiddle around with, and your changes just happen. Unfortunately, Squeak is such a poorly-documented disastrous hodgepodge that I can't recommend it to new programmers.
So it's kind of a desert out there for decent introductory texts, but a language with good community support and mostly helpful people will be a big boost, and python does stand out.
I don't want you to think I asked the question and don't appreciate your taking the time to respond. I'm looking for some python books now. I guess I need some kind of compiler or libraries or something, so I'm going to search those out right now. Say, do I need to work in Linux to write python? I don't mind, I've got a machine around here I can use for Linux. I was waiting for the UbuntuStudio anyway, so I will have such a system soon.
Python works great on windows as well as any unix. I recommend unix systems in general for development, but it's mostly a matter of using what you're comfortable with. Most tutorials are going to assume you're on Linux. And I see you've already discovered where you can get the interpreter from python.org. Ubuntu comes with python, but not necessarily a full install -- you'll probably want to install python2.5 from apt anyway.
Here's a dopey question: I've got to use my Windows system for music and video production. I will set up an Ubuntu box next weekend, but I'm between projects and would like to spend some time playing with Python.If I install Python and the Win32all library and an IDE (maybe Boaconstrictor or one of those), there won't anything that runs using resources when I'm not actually working with Python, right? I mean, there won't be any libraries or little thingies running in the background that will take resourc
Python won't install any extra daemons or services out of the box, and no python package you install is going to do that either. The only additional resource it'll suck up is disk space.Boa Constructor is actually pretty awful. PyDev for Eclipse is decent -- yeah, it's a Java IDE, but it's a good plugin. Now THAT will eat resources when you run it. For a lighter alternative, you can always use emacs if you can get used to its weirdness, and it has a great python mode (never thought I'd call emacs slim).
Idle comes bundled with the Windows installer. I use that all the time. It is pretty simple, a colourized text editor mostly, but it doesn't have the pokey feel of Eclipse. About my only complaint about Idle is that it doesn't have any line numbering down the left side of the window. Instead the line numbers are in the lower right corner in a box which makes me look away from my code. It might be just me though.An good intro to Idle follows:http://hkn.eecs.berkeley.edu/~dyoo/python/idle_int ro/index.html [berkeley.edu]
The answer is of course Ruby. You can start with Chris Pine's Learn to Program [pine.fm] which walks you through the basics of Ruby programming, or for a more psychedelic way of learning programming there is always Why's poignant guide to ruby [poignantguide.net]. Then when you get advanced enough (you've read the pickaxe and possibly the ruby way) you can start working on the bi-weekly Ruby Quiz [rubyquiz.com]./ruby fanboy
Ruby or Python are probably the best places to start; they're not going to be suitable for every type of programming you do, but they might teach you some good habits before you learn other languages with horrific syntax and dangerous pointers, and you can get going very quickly.For Ruby, there's Chris Pine's Learn to Program [pine.fm] or Why the Lucky Stiff's Poignant Guide to Ruby [poignantguide.net] which is whimsical, but does pretty much the same thing, or just go to Try Ruby [hobix.com] and type help.
Go straight to Objective C on OS X. Apple's development tools (e.g. XCode with Interface Builder, free) make it pretty easy to get started and the language is well established so you can find books, etc. More importantly, you'll be programming in an environment with first-rate multimedia support.
I held off learning python for almost two years for this very reason (meeting someone who was slightly too enthusiastic in their advocacy). Turns out though that it actually *is* quite a nifty language;)
People don't make a big enough fuss about the interactive interpreter, partly because it's hard to describe why it's so useful. Try it out though, starting with diveintopython.org.
Make Rails Thread safe so the only option isn't to run multiple applications sucking up even more memory and I might be inclined to think it is a useful framework. WTF?! No I don't want to run a "pack of mongrels" or more than one FCGI process. Give me a break.Rails is awesome for developers (cause it's easy) but from a system and resource POV it's atrocious. And I thought I'd never find something that I disliked as much as PHP (due to security concerns, again, don't get me wrong, it has it's place).
I think this has been reviewed once or twice before on Slashdot... but I digress.
I agree that this is a fantastic book, as it shows you some incredibly slick stuff you can do using Rails. But unless you already have somewhat of an understanding of Ruby then I'd strongly recommend getting a separate reference book just for Ruby by itself. O'Reilly makes one of those, too.:)
> then I'd strongly recommend getting a separate> reference book just for Ruby by itself.
The Ruby Way [amazon.com] is an excellent book for that, plus, the author, Hal Fulton, is a nice guy. And his RubyForge user account name [rubyforge.org] is "hal9000", for which he gets additional points.
I had this book for about 26 hours before I returned it, I was deeply displeased by the repetition from the existing work, Rails Recipes. All the cookbook entries about model relationships, polymorphic associations, etc, were lifted straight from Rails Recipes, right down to using Magazines, Readers and Subscriptions as the example objects.
And, while the book has a shiny "Rails 1.2" badge on the cover, very little of it had anything to do with Rails 1.2 whatsoever, there were only a handful of recipes in the very back which dealt with the new features.
Plus, was it really necessary to burn 3 pages talking about how to join a discussion group of fellow Rails developers? If you're a web developer and you can't find an online community to discuss the language/framework, you need more help than Rob's book is able to offer...
Jaredbpd,
I am sorry to disappoint you but nothing was lifted from Rails Recipes. I would like to find you a recipe that mixes join models and polymorphism in Rails Recipe. I wrote the last 2 recipes in that chapter and that code is taken straight out (in simplified form) from one of my applications. I actually wrote the join model and polymorphism one and then I was asked to write one just about polymorphism as introduction to the concepts. The editor thought that my recipe was a little too advanced.
Also, that blog post has a ton of errors. Here's one: If you want to write a Web application in Ruby, there is only one solution. Only one. Ruby on Rails. Hm, about about Camping [hobix.com] or Nitro [nitroproject.org]?
Rails scales perfectly well, just the same as any other share-nothing approach.
You don't think the fact that people naturally think imperatively and not functionally has no bearing on the situation?When it's the difference between lisp, which was marginally easier to develop with once you understood it, or cobol, which was easier to understand, but harder to develop with once you knew it, which do you think people would choose?
Cobol more than nine times out of ten...and with the increase in coders, there was an increase in available code. Pathways to solve common problems were made a
I don't know how people "naturally" think; for me grokking functional programming was one of those eureka! moments and it really felt natural. I still write a lot of functional stuff even in procedural/OO languages; Ruby lends itself well to that. But I agree with your larger point. One of the things that really blew me away about RoR was seeing someone implement a really good declarative security mechanism [writertopia.com] in about 300 lines. The Java version (JAAS) is an entire library that I never was able to fully figur
Yes, the algorithm is confusing. However, the C version is longer, but not *that* much longer. It also doesn't have any comically-long symbol names like multiple-value-bind. Granted, that's not an intrinsic problem with Lisp, only with ANSI Common Lisp, but prefix math is also difficult for humans to deal with. I don't know if it would be any easier if we learned math that way from the start, but I suspect it's just not how the human brain works.I like Lisp and Paul Graham's essays almost had me won over, b
I read that almost a year ago and its a great post. I agree with most of it yet still use Rails everyday. Notice in it he's giving an opinion about the future of Rails. However right now, its an amazingly productive framework to develop in if you're targeting startup web applications.To me the development tools for Rails is like a holy grail. Coming from.NET and Windows, switching all mac for Rails has given me a sort of coding nirvana that I didnt think possible. Developing code, writing tests, reusing ge
First let me disclose I that I have worked with Java web appsusing Kiva, JRun, ATG Dynamo, Tomcat, Websphere, Spring Framework, JSEE. I havealso worked Perl+CGI, a smattering of cold fusion, plain old php,drupal, cakephp (rails like php framework).I am currently working on deploying a rails app.So what is my take on Ruby/Rails?
Briefly here are the pros/cons as I see it:
pros:
1) Ruby feels good to program in. Like Perl,PHP, or LISP you can
layout data using the language itself. S
I own both titles ("Rails Recipes" by Chad Fowler) and IMO neither does a great job -- there's nothing in this book not already covered by the definitive DT/DHH Agile Rails Development book. About the only redeeming value was the information on Mongrel and the detailed instructions to get Rails installed and running on all the different platforms.Speaking of which, though, the devoting of a good chunk of paper real estate to installation, seems to be space better left for meatier topics. Especially on a top | {
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Wearables have quickly become our generation’s water purifiers. If you are over 35, you know what I’m talking about. Everyone had one. Or two. Or three, and they all ended up in your garage. Loads of promise, but in practice, not a lot of use. While the iWatch is getting all the recent news cycle attention, a recent global patent filing by Google promises to turn wearables into something that can really make a difference in our lives: A wrist-worn watch that fights cancer. And the healthcare and tech community is taking notice.
According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the filing entitled Nanoparticle Phoresis” indicates a watch that could destroy cancer cells in a person’s blood by automatically modifying or destroying one or more targets in the blood that have an adverse health effect, e.g. by destroying enzymes, hormones, proteins, cells and other things that can adversely affect a person’s health.
Google X has been aiming at life sciences moonshots, and this is no exception. If successful, it figures to shift the paradigm in how cancer is treated. So how would it work?
Well, given that Google X recently revealed that it was developing a pill that could detect cancer cells by “painting” the cells with nanoparticles, making them magnetic, the idea of the watch could be to draw in those magnetic particles – and the cells that they are attached to – via the bloodstream to the wrist and the watch destroys them. | {
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} |
Monday, April 25, 2016
Can BMW Fend Off The Charge of the Tesla Model 3? Part 2
In last week's post, we looked at the impact that Tesla's Model S has had on the sales of competing vehicles in the large luxury segment in the US. That set the table for the question of whether or not the Model 3 can have equal or perhaps even greater success in the entry level, premium segment when it hits the streets sometime in the end of 2017 or early 2018. That segment has been owned by BMW's 3-Series for decades, and BMW isn't going to just give it up without a fight.
But what exactly can they do? The Model 3 has captured the imagination of the public and Tesla has received over 400,000 reservations in the first three weeks since the reservation process has opened. That staggering number has undoubtedly caused a few sleepless nights for product planners of various OEMs. In fact, if we look at theory of Diffusion of Innovations, the interest in the Model 3 would absolutely prove that the electric vehicle market has now moved beyond the innovators and early adopters, and we are now well into the early majority phase. That's good news for Tesla, but is BMW also ready to capitalize on the inevitable market shift we are witnessing?
The short answer is yes, they absolutely can. In fact they are probably positioned better than any other OEM to do so because of the tremendous investment that they have made in BMW i. They've poured billions into the i division, and it wasn't just for the i3 and i8. Lessons learned working with CFRP, aluminum and a variety of sustainable materials and manufacturing processes will be carried into future plug-ins. In fact, it's doubtful any auto manufacturer has spent more restructuring the company in preparation for the shift to electrics, than BMW has over the past seven years. However, the remarkable Model 3 reservation list probably indicates that they need to accelerate their EV programs and bring some vehicles to market a little sooner than they might have planned if they want to minimize defection from the brand. The good news for BMW is that Tesla can have a million reservations, and that won't mean they can actually make the cars fast enough to satisfy demand. In fact, every car Tesla has released so far has has been delayed, and even when they initially "launch" the vehicle, it takes them 4 to 6 months before they are making them in serious volume and the first few months of production are usually plagued with quality issues.
The Tesla's Model 3 is predicted to launch in late 2017
So even if Tesla does manage to have a few ceremonial Model 3 deliveries in late 2017 as promised, they probably won't be making them in volume much before the summer of 2018, and I highly doubt they will deliver more than 30,000 to 40,000 Model 3s before the end of 2018. By the time 2019 rolls around, Tesla will likely have any initial quality issues worked out and will be able to begin really producing the vehicle in high volume. So BMW has about three years to produce a vehicle to compete in this segment which will curb mass defection from the loyal 3-Series following, as well as keep the BMW name synonymous with innovation, performance and sustainability.
Does BMW have a vehicle in development that can compete in this class that has already been green-lighted for production? Yes they do, the 2020 i5. We've all read an assortment of i5 predictions from various "BMW insiders" ranging from it being a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, to an EV with a range extender. If BMW is serious about competing in this space than it shouldn't be either. The i5 needs to be a long range electric vehicle, there's no need to mess around with range extenders or fuel cells. The remainder of this post is purely my thoughts and predictions on what BMW should and could do to remain a leader in the industry. I have nothing concrete to base these opinions on, and everything you read below is purely speculative.
The cornerstone of the BMW i will be the 2020 i5 which will launch in mid 2019 with the following specs:
So why doesn't BMW bring the i5 to market sooner and beat Tesla to the punch? Is it because they don't think the market is ready, or they just don't believe in long range electric cars just yet? The answer to both of those questions is no. It's all about the batteries. Tesla knows this, and refused to wait for the market to bring cutting edge battery cells to them. Instead they are building what will be the largest battery factory in the world, to supply their cars with the best batteries as soon as they are available. BMW, along with the rest of the OEMs, will rely on third party suppliers for their battery cells. It's too early to tell which strategy is best, but once the Gigafactory is operational, it should provide Tesla with the advantage of having the best cells available and at a lower cost, but that has not yet been proven.
Why 2019? That's because Samsung SDI, BMW's battery partner is scheduled to bring to market their next generation lithium ion battery cell sometime in 2019. These new cells have been described by Samsung as the "Low Height Pack" cell generation because they aren't nearly as tall as the batteries currently used in the i3 which will allow for a lower seating position. However, the real progress is in the specific energy of the cells and the cost. The current i3 uses 60Ah cells that are believed to have a specific energy of 130 Wh/kg. The 2017 i3 is rumored to be using the latest Samsung SDI cells that are the same physical size as the 60Ah cells, but are 94Ah with a specific energy of about 190 Wh/kg. These new cells are going to increase the i3's range from 81 miles per charge to about 120 MPC. However that still isn't good enough for the long range Model 3 competitor that the i5 needs to be. The 2020 i5 will use Samsung's Low Height Pack cells that are estimated to be about 125Ah with a specific energy of about 250Wh/kg, nearly double the energy density of what the current i3 batteries have and cost less than the current 60Ah cells do. These cells will allow BMW to stuff a 78.75kWh battery pack in the i5 and still keep the weight under 4,000lbs.
A Samsung SDI rep holding their new "Low Height Pack" cells which won't be available until 2019. Notice the energy rating is not listed on the cell as it is on the other batteries on display. Also note the low height as compared to the 94Ah cell on the left. That 94Ah cell is rumored to be in the 2017 BMW i3, and is the same physical size as the 60Ah cell used in current i3s.
The i5's battery pack I'm designing would consist of 14 modules, each containing 12 battery cells for a total of 168 cells. If BMW allows 90% of the pack to be available, that means 70kWh of usable energy and an EPA range of about 245 miles per charge. It will also accept up to 150kW of DC power and utilize the emerging network of 150kW DC fast chargers that, by then, will begin being funded by members of the CharIn EV association. The network will be minuscule compared to Tesla's Supercharger network, and Tesla still has a huge advantage there, but at least customers will see a path to what someday could rival the Supercharger network, which currently doesn't exist. I'm not even ruling out a partnership with Tesla, where the other OEMs pay Tesla to install 150kW CCS stations at every Supercharger location. After all, at Audi's 2014 LA Auto Show press conference, the automaker promised they would have a network of 150kW DC Fast charge stations installed and operational before they launch the 2019 e-tron Quattro. How else could they accomplish that?
The i3's battery tray
Granted, even if BMW hits the mark with the i5, the Model 3 is going to be a widely popular vehicle as long as Tesla can manage to deliver what they have promised. However, a strong competitor from BMW like what the i5 has the potential to be, can limit the number of sales the Model 3 takes from BMW in this segment. The i5 will cost more than the Model 3, starting at $49,990. However the standard i5 will be better optioned than the standard Model 3, and I believe a loaded Model 3 will end up costing around $60K anyway. Therefore the average purchase price of the two cars may only be $6,000 to $8,000 apart.
That said, the i5 isn't the only plug they'll have in 2020. By then BMW's entire array of models will offer PHEV options. They already sell the X5 40e plus the 330e, and by the end of the year will have the 740e in showrooms. Sometime in 2017 the 540e will be added to the iPerformance PHEV line. These are all very competent PHEVs, and the reviews have been very positive with regards to the driving experience they offer. The only problem I have with these cars is the AER. None of these vehicles boast an EPA range of even fifteen miles per charge, and I just don't find that acceptable in 2016. If BMW wants customers to see the value in paying more for the plug in version of any car in their line, it has to deliver an electric range that can save them a reasonable amount in fuel to offset the couple thousand dollars extra the vehicle costs, and 13 miles of electric range just doesn't do it.
BMW now calls the PHEV line that comes from their conventionally powered vehicles "iPerformance"
BMW needs to upgrade the batteries in their PHEVs to the higher density cells coming to market now, and then again in 2019. If BMW were to use the higher energy cells available later this year, the AER of their iPerformance PHEVs would jump up to about 20 miles per charge without increasing the battery's physical size or weight. Then, in 2019 when the 125Ah cells are available, they can bring the 2nd generation PHEVs to market with a boost to 30 - 40 miles of electric range. This won't satisfy the hardcore EV aficionado, but there will be plenty of people looking to buy their first plug in. These people aren't ready for a 100% electric car, and a PHEV with a respectable AER will bring them (or keep them loyal) to the brand.
The final piece of the puzzle is the 2nd generation i3. Using Samsung's Low Height pack 125Ah cells means BMW can offer a 48kWh i3 which would most likely have about a 180 mile electric range. I expect BMW to stick with the range extender option when the 2nd generation i3 is released so the choices will be the 180 mile BEV and a REx that has about 325 miles of combined range, and both versions will charge at 150kW like the i5. I also expect it to have the functionality to turn the REx on manually when the operator wishes, because BMW will have worked out the issues with CARB and the BEVx designation which is why the current i3's range extender is restricted from using the built in Hold SOC Mode that European i3 owners get to use. Expect the gen 2 i3 to be slightly larger than the current model, and I'm betting BMW will replace the rear coach doors with conventionally opening ones. They will also figure out how to add a third seat in the back. BMW will improve the drivetrain efficiency as well as add about 20 hp and 25 left of torque. 0 to 60 times for the BEV will be in the mid 6 second range.
BMW will bring the MINI Rocketman BEV to market in 2018
One last prediction. In 2018 BMW will introduce the MINI Rocketman and it will be available in pure BEV and use many of the i3's components. It will have about a 100 mile range and at launch be available only as a hardtop. However, the following model year it will also be offered in convertible trim, finally giving the EV faithful an attractive and sporty electric ragtop offering.
While BMW's i5 will be the Model 3's direct competitor, I believe it's going to take an entire portfolio of plug-ins for BMW to remain competitive in the ever expanding plug-in market. While BMW absolutely needs a flagship long distance pure EV, there is no one size fits all in the automobile industry, and the plug-in market is no exception. This is one area where BMW has a clear advantage over Tesla. By 2020, BMW will have no less than seven models with plugs in their showrooms, and most likely that number may actually be closer to ten models. If the incredible amount of reservations the Model 3 has amassed has proven anything, it's that the public is absolutely ready for compelling electric vehicle options. Tesla has captured the imagination of the world. They've proven that it can indeed be done and people want to support them for doing so. Your move BMW.
35 comments:
I would like to see a REx option on the future i5 though, because it still give you such a great amount of flexibility. If any deals or agreements with Tesla's SC network can be made, then the necessity might not exist to the same extent. I'm not holding my breath on this one though.
As you are aware, the charging network situation here in Europe is different. Ecotricity is a provider of 106 free, reliable CCS charging stations in the UK right now and I am hoping this will double over the next 2-3 years.
One major drawback I see is the change of minds that is still necessary in BMW garages. In conversations I have with long-serving BMW employees at dealerships, I find that many still don't take the EV move by their product manufacturer seriously. They're still in love with the classic models and would rather see BMW produce 100 refined grilles for a ICE 7 series than spend any time on a plug-in car. This shift will take longer than we all think.
A second big aspect of the Tesla allure is the software focus. This obviously starts with OTA upgrades and moves all the way through to the overall experience of their cars. As an i3 owner for just over a year, I am stunned how difficult it is to report to BMW i even the simplest bug with their iRemote app or the ConnectedDrive site. User experience, testing, design... there are so many opportunities for other manufacturers with software heritage to trump here. Just as Tesla has to step up to the mark and deliver a lot of cars by 2018, BMW has an equally gigantic task of moving the needle not only on their BMW i offerings, but also in terms of software end user mindedness.
Another entertaining and thoughtful article, Tom! I hope your predictions are well-founded, but I'm not optimistic. Had Herbert Diess been named CEO instead of Krüger, BMW i would be coming into its own. Instead, BMW's petrolheads have taken over, driving out the EV-enthusiasts in the company. BMW is marching into the future with its eyes firmly focused on the past.
Your render of the i5 looks to be based on the Active Tourer PHEV, a car I like a lot (well, except for the gasoline engine :-) I would have deleted the black hood, and the i3's "running stream" rear side window treatment, especially now that the Bolt has copied it.
If BMW was really serious about electric cars, it would have brought the Active Tourer PHEV to the U.S.; it could have exposed people to daily electric driving, who are not quite ready to abandon their ICE. The Active Tourer is lower, lighter, sleeker, more efficient, and sportier than the X1, while having the same utility as the X1. The AT's electric 4WD system is also far superior to the X1's mechanical 4WD. But BMW is still too dogmatic to offer anything in the U.S. that isn't macho-ICE.
I haven't read anything in the last year about BMW's "plans" for electrification that gives any indication they are actually moving ahead. They are steadfastly resisting, offering only vague statements about the next decade. As you know, I have offered hopeful suggestions about the path that BMW i could and should take to advance its groundbreaking early progress, but to no avail. I've now given up on BMW, and am waiting patiently for my dual-motor Model 3.
Great article, Tom. As the comment above notes, BMW has to also adopt to the way things are done in the group sourced environment to consolidate its current advantages. While you may have insight due to your access, and you've previously noted that input from the Active E group was well listened to, BMW has to reach back to its endusers and engage more. The iconceirge has to step up its game, the dealerships have to be a part of this shift or all the best intentions won't bear fruit in the failure to execute.
Transitioning to that will prove as much a challenge to BMW as becoming a mass market manufacturer (that's reaching out to a lower end market segment) that Tesla is attempting to do. Its an opportunity that they have to actively remediate, more than in the i3 rollouts and ongoing support.
Keep the thoughtful articles coming, it is always a treat to read informed information, and not just fan boy blathering so common these days.
Great insights and speculation into BMW's near-term approach. I wondered about one thing though:
"These cells will allow BMW to stuff a 78.75kWh battery pack in the i5 and still keep the weight at about 4,000lbs."
Are they really going to field the i5 at 4000 lbs? Seems pretty astonishing considering that they've spent so much energy bringing CFRP to the i3--which weighs in at 2/3rds of that.
I'm not really in love with the styling of the i3--though I drive a peculiar-looking Leaf so I imagine I'm not one to talk. I think the process of converting electrics to mass-market appeal involves muting a lot of what I see as nonsensical design flairs at this point. (If only the Model X hadn't added gullwing doors we might see more of them on the road...) To that end, "the rest" have much to learn from Tesla. BMW would do itself a favor by not forcing its loyalists to choose a Jetson's mobile simply because they're used to BMW and they're ready to drive an electric. The saying "different strokes for different folks" cuts both ways: half the population might love the styling, but if half hates it, as a company it's going to require a lot more effort to eke out your market share in the new world of electrics when there aren't just "standard" choices elsewhere, but beautiful ones.
The only other comment I have is I think your projections for Model 3 manufacturing are overly pessimistic (or optimistic, as a BMW enthusiast.) This is one area I've constantly lamented about EV enthusiasts and manufacturers alike--something akin to infighting within the small-but-growing EV crowd. It isn't exactly that--but to me it's the antithesis of the concept "a rising tide lifts all boats."
BMW is not "doomed" by Tesla in any respect. As you've pointed out, BMW is probably more ready than any other OEM for the world-changing revolution of electrics. As ready as Tesla? I think that's doubtful regardless of cash reserves or manufacturing capacity. If Tesla only produces 30-40,000 Model 3's in 2018, it would be a disaster, and it could spell doom for the company. But it's terribly unlikely, in my view, that it turns out to be so few.
Based on their current manufacturing trend, Tesla is likely to produce at least 75,000 cars in 2017. This figure is hampered a good deal by the lengthier and more complicated production sequence of the Model X. A figure of 100-125k cars built in 2018 seems a fairly reasonable estimate, and that would likely include a 50-60% share of Model 3's. On the low side, 50,000 with the possibility of almost 70k produced, 2018.
This sets aside entirely the possibility (likelihood, in my view) of Tesla partnering with an OEM manufacturer to build components of the Model 3 chassis. Such an arrangement wouldn't likely impact production as early as 2018, but it's hard to believe Tesla isn't considering an option like this given that they have an idea of what their most ambitious projections could yield and they also know the wolves are starting to come for their heels.
My estimate for 2018 production of the Model 3 is thus roughly double what yours is. 60-75,000 is to me a more reasonable estimate.
Elon Musk has recently reaffirmed Tesla's target to produce 80,000 to 90,000 Model S and X cars during 2016 (after a slow start due to the Model X introduction), so saying Tesla is likely to produce at least 75,000 cars during 2017 seems quite a bit on the low side.
If you could post where Elon is quoted to have said this--better yet where he reaffirmed it--it would be helpful. As of this moment, their trajectory is to 80,452 cars in 2016 based on their last five quarterly production figures, and Q1 of '16 has been less than stellar at 14,820 cars, so they have some catching up to do in order to average 25% more cars per quarter for the rest of the year than they have ever made at peak production. They have the demand, certainly, but demand hasn't been the question.
My comment was made to establish a lowest bound; to put reasonable figures on the table. I have no doubt that they’ll exceed 75,000 cars next year, but to make guesstimates significantly higher than that for a lower bound is foolish. There’s no doubt the figure will drop somewhere in the 75-100k range, and if anything begins to restrict that number it will be a modest transition of demand from purchasing an S or an X to purchasing a ‘3, as might well be expected. No one anticipates a glut of ‘3s to become available until at least Q1 or Q2 of 2018, and essentially that means we’re saying the same thing.
This is a press release from April 4: http://ir.teslamotors.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=963460 Tesla is having a Q&A on 1st quarter results and outlook on May 4 at 2:30 p.m. PT which will be live webcast on Tesla's investor page.
Deliveries doesn't equal production. And Tom's number are not pessimistic. I think 30K-40K M3 for the first year would be very surprising. it's a new platform, new tooling, new components, 100% new. If Tesla produce 20K-25K it will already be an accomplishment, so when Tom's make his prediction, he actually give more credit to Tesla to overcome 1rst year production issues and ramp up. And it's not like Tesla made its name on its capacity to meet delivery dates.
While I don't drive a leaf, and Im not a BMW fan per say.. I came to BMW because I liked the design of the i3.... just saying some of us actually like it. That said, I'm more in-love with electric than BMW, and my dealer is firmly cementing my feelings, so Im unlikely to buy a second BMW unless its a worthwhile upgrade.
When I first saw the i3, I said what the heck is that. But now owning one, I have totally falling in love with it. Both in looks and the typical BMW driving fell. No matter where I go, people stop to look and talk about the car. When the 2017s come out, I will be a family of two i3s. Note: I also own a BMW M6 which now is only driven once a week, as ev vehicles are the future, which is now here. And what I am saving in gasoline is making the payments on the i3
When I first saw the i3, I said what the heck is that. But now owning one, I have totally falling in love with it. Both in looks and the typical BMW driving fell. No matter where I go, people stop to look and talk about the car. When the 2017s come out, I will be a family of two i3s. Note: I also own a BMW M6 which now is only driven once a week, as ev vehicles are the future, which is now here. And what I am saving in gasoline is making the payments on the i3
Great post Tom, as some as mentionned, I believe the i5 will also have a REX option. It may only be offer in limited area where the charging infrastructure isn't as developped, but it will be available.
If BMW can bring the i5 in 2019 (not in pre-sale, but actual sales) they will be in a good position. If you look at other premium brands (Audi, Mercedes, Cadillac, Lexus, Infiniti...) They are the only one with an active programme producing EV cars. All the others are still in planning mode (Porche is the odd one as they do have something but in a very limited AER).
Another great incisive post Tom. I really hope BMW's strategy follows your thinking and they don't have any wobbles about really committing to the full EV design,technology and engineering vision. I remember reading Johanna Quandt's obituary in The Times which said she was a passionate advocate for electric vehicles and championed the i programme. I hope her children are exercising the same influence on the BMW Board.
Hi Tom - thanks for the great article! Hope BMWBlog will also cover this one (but they might be a bit afraid of reactions from Munich!)Two questions/comments I would like to share:1. Do you think 2019 is going to be early enough? I have strong doubts, especially after the recent announcement in Germany of the EV purchasing incentive of up to € 4K. This will be good for about 300-500 K (PH)EVs but excluding expensive models (above € 60K). So BMW would only have its PHEVs and the i3 basically. I guess Nissan/Renault, Kia and VW will take the lion share of this. The incentive will end somewhere in 2019 (€ 1.2 billion cap).2. I think BMW also has to make its future EVs more energy efficient. I am saying that owning an i3 BEV, which does consume little energy in absolute terms, but not necessarily so good given its size and weight. With the Tesla Model 3 coming in at less than 60 kWh gross battery size, it will likely have 50 kWh net available. My i3 gets usually 19.5 kWh available. Using EPA rating (estimated 215 miles for Model 3), the Model 3 would get more miles than the current i3 per kWh. And that for a bigger, heavier, sportier car with a larger battery - while the i3 is using CFRP and aluminium only. BMW could probably gain more by making the car/drivetrain more efficient than by using expensive CFRP/aluminium.
But I have to agree with Chris Llana that the outlook for BMW is not very good - so many BMW i folks leaving seems to indicate they are disappointed in the EV strategy of the company. Confirming what we have seen from the outside as well. Not showing the next BMW i model/concept in the anniversary year is a bad signal - it could mean BMW will not last another 100 years!
Good comment as always Tom. Your suppositions have the benefit of conversations with the movers and shakers at BMW. Bearing in mind that we now know the new i3 battery is 6 months early I would hope that both i3 v2 and i5 are available at least 6 months before your forecast.
Good comment as always Tom. Your suppositions have the benefit of conversations with the movers and shakers at BMW. Bearing in mind that we now know the new i3 battery is 6 months early I would hope that both i3 v2 and i5 are available at least 6 months before your forecast.
First, an an experienced corporate marketing person, I think we should all consider Tom's post to be a calculated leak by BMW to try to blunt some of the Model 3 hype. I suspect there is less speculation and more informed knowledge that Tom is able to admit. But moving on...
Second, no matter how you much you discount Tesla, BMW Is playing catch up in a big way and they are very late to the party.
The Model S consumes .06 Wh/lb/mi, the i3 consumes .09 Wh/lb/mi. The Model S is dramatically more efficient than the i3, which allows them to avoid spending money on carbon fiber. BMW has very limited expertise in producing EVs, they are building up staff and expertise in electric propulsion, but the numbers tell the story. They are not making a very efficient car today, nor are they making it any volume. And the i3 has had its share of recalls and engineering problems (I just had my engine mounts replaced).
More importantly, BMW (et al) are still acting like this is an engineering problem to be solved. It's not, it's a system problem, an element of which is vehicle engineering. BMW is way behind, if not entirely blind to the software engineering, dealer network and charging network issues. An i5 BEV will find very few CCS chargers once it leaves either coast, and 150kW CCS chargers to feed that i5 are a pure fantasy. BMW dealers, as other people have mentioned, have not embraced the i3, it's a CARB compliance car, sort of a nuisance, not a "real" BMW. My dealer only has an i3 mechanic in the shop 3 days a week, less than 5 miles from a fully staffed Tesla service center.
Tom's scenario is entirely dependent on Samsung delivering in volume, on time. Tesla is already producing batteries in its Nevada factory, low volume PowerWall products to be sure, but is way ahead of anyone else. And Tesla's factory is close to a proven supply of lithium in Nevada, that's not the case in South Korea. Ship lithium to South Korea, then batteries to Germany, then cars to the US. Tesla ships lithium across Nevada, and batteries from Nevada to California. Which supply chain sounds better?
VW had to cheat to make its diesel's compliant, and diesel's have been part of its business for many decades. Mitsubishi just did its mea culpa on fuel economy. Don't be surprised if there are others.
I hope BMW is at least moderately successful, competition is good, but history is not on the side of major corporations making big transitions.
No way Jose. Even assuming that your .06 Wh/lb/mi vs. .09 Wh/lb/mi is correct (which is a weird metric - I've never seen it mentioned before), that would be due to the MS aerodynamic advantage, which is a function of the type of car, not any intrinsic technological superiority. The i3 is the most efficient car on the market today, and that is a fact.
Weight is generally considered bad and to avoid, so why should more of it - everything else being equal - improve the efficiency measure (as in your equation), unless you consider it to be a proxy of something else of value? Size maybe, but then why not use interior volume instead?
The i3 specs say 36.9 cf of cargo space with the seat down, and let's add 1 cf for the frunk to make it 37.9, though the i3 frunk is pretty much worthless.
The Model S reports 63.4 cf with the seat down, including 5.3 in a very useful frunk.
If we call the front seats equal in volume, that's a gift to the i3 because the Model S has much more volume in the front seats.
My i3 reports an average of 4.3 mi/kWh, or 232 wh/mi. Today I drove just under 100 miles in the Model S, with outside temp in the mid-80's so the AC was running the entire time, a mix of freeway (70-75mph) and country roads and reported 282 wh/mi. Another gift to the i3 because with the AC running the i3 range drops about 8%.
So based on volume:
i3 = 232 / 37.9 = 6.12 wh/cfModel S = 282 / 63.4 = 4.45 wh/cf
I3 / Model S = 137% of the power per cubic foot of volume.
I like my i3 and currently plan to lease a 2018 when my 2014 lease is up. But BMW needs to use at least 30% less energy to be equivalent to Tesla, and they’ve already played the carbon card. The BMW drive train is just significantly less efficient than a Tesla.
Russ, these are interesting numbers and I do not question them. However, back to my original point, how does that prove Tesla's superior *drivetrain* efficiency, and not simply better aerodynamics? That's all I am saying.
How fast will 40 KWs get you on the motorway -- 70 / 80mph?Use the REx for cruising and the battery for acceleration?Set the REx cut in to 50% charge on long journeys?Set the REx cut in to 30% charge day to day.Real world 70 mile range on batteries only.Real world as in battery life.
more important than the car is the charging network. range, looks, cost are all secondary for widespread adoption. I can drive in my Model S almost anywhere in the USA today, and it only will get much better in the next year. I have a model 3 on order. Without a supercharging network only very few BMW EV's will be sold. Black swan events are quite dramatic for the incumbents. Motorola (phones), Nokia, and Blackberry are just a few of the large players of gadgets on history's list of destruction. Nikon and Cannon make great digital cameras, but they had to fully dedicate themselves to the transition. Can BMW? I say the odds are less than 50%, I hope they do, they make great cars, I had a BMW M3 prior to the Tesla...
How fast will 40 KWs get you on the motorway -- 70 / 80mph?Use the REx for cruising and the battery for acceleration?Set the REx cut in to 50% charge on long journeys?Set the REx cut in to 30% charge day to day.Real world 70 mile range on batteries only.Real world as in battery life.
"The i5 will cost more than the Model 3, starting at $49,990. However the standard i5 will be better optioned than the standard Model 3, and I believe a loaded Model 3 will end up costing around $60K anyway. Therefore the average purchase price of the two cars may only be $6,000 to $8,000 apart."
How will it be better optioned that the Tesla Model 3? That is very hard to imagine given that Tesla's innovation is currently unrivaled. Also, a completely max'd out Model 3 MAY cost close to your $60K number, but the majority of them will sell for much less. The model 3 is better looking (IMO), has a better range, will be out much sooner and most importantly has an existing charging network. BMW has a long, long way to go...if they can even catch up at this point.
BMW (and any other manufacturer for that matter) is better off getting in line to purchase the batteries from Tesla and going from there.
Lastly, Tesla owners don't want anything with a gas engine. That said, while BMW may have close to 10 cars with a plug - only a few of those would be considered a competitor of any Tesla vehicle.
One might find it hard to single out a name as the best since both BMW and Tesla are two close competitors. Tesla's Model S, undoubtedly, hit the market hard and now there is a speculation whether Tesla could break its own record in the entry level premium segment when its Model 3 will hit the market in 2017 or 2018. Let the time to decide! Tesla also claims that it has received bulk reservations, which definitely worries its rivals. Yes, I am quite sure that BMW will bring something new to take on the model, however, the market shift takes time. The German player might launch 2020 i5 in 2019.
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cannabisnews.com: White House Watch: THC Madness
White House Watch: THC Madness
Posted by FoM on December 08, 2001 at 11:06:59 PT
By Ann McFeatters
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
And now, for something completely different, to borrow a phrase from Monty Python. The three earnest young men burdened with plastic bags came to the office bearing food. Pretzels with seeds. A snack bar. An energy bar. Tortilla chips.Never mind the caloric sin. We're talking serious evil here. Or so the government says.
Unless you are an avid reader of the Federal Register and perused the tiny print of almost undecipherable bureaucratese on pages 51,539 through 51,544, you might have missed it -- but the government has returned to normal.The Drug Enforcement Administration, under the direction of Asa Hutchinson, the former GOP congressman from Arkansas, has announced rules to ban certain brands of a wide variety of foods -- "beer, cheese, coffee, corn chips, energy drink, flour, ice cream, snack bars, salad oil, soda and veggie burgers" -- if they contain trace amounts of THC.THC, as those who came to the age of majority in the 1960s know well, is tetrahydrocannabinols. As DEA succinctly explains: "That's the hallucinogenic substance in marijuana that causes the psychoactive effect or high."The THC found in certain brands of the above-mentioned food comes from hempseeds and hempseed oil, popular with some so-called "natural food" manufacturers because they are high in protein and serve as a fatty acid supplement -- "good fats" that doctors like. But DEA says such foods are now controlled substances illegal for everyone. Makers of foods with hempseeds or oil, with $5 million in annual sales, argue that the amount of THC is so infinitesimal that inhumanly high consumption of them would be required to get high. They liken it to getting a buzz from eating the opiate-containing poppy seeds on bagels or the alcohol in orange juice.But the Controlled Substances Act says that any consumption of THC is forbidden. And any food that contains it is no longer to be sold, distributed or eaten.Says the DEA: "If you wish to err on the side of caution, you may freely dispose of the product. As stated in the rules that DEA published on Oct. 9, 2001, anyone who has purchased a food or beverage product that contains THC has 120 days (until Feb. 6, 2002) to dispose of the product without penalty under federal law."After Feb. 6, it will be illegal to sell or import any hemp-containing foods.The DEA, in its wisdom, notes that bird seed with cannabis seeds, clothing such as hats, shirt and shoes, cosmetics, lotion, paper, rope, twine and, yes, shampoo and soap, which also can contain hemp, are not illegal. "Based on the information currently available, DEA believes that [such products] do not cause THC to enter the human body and are therefore legal."Confronted with the thought that the government's investing time, money and energy in such a campaign during a time of war is, possibly, ridiculous, Hutchinson says, "Many Americans do not know that hemp and marijuana are both parts of the same plant and that hemp cannot be produced without producing marijuana."Not surprisingly, supporters of food with hempseed oil have gone to court, beseeching the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to block the DEA rule. DEA says it is permitted to issue the ban on THC-laced products without a formal rule-making procedure although the public may comment until Dec. 10. "It's like the judge announcing the verdict before the trial," complained John Young, a lawyer for the hemp-food lawsuit, to the National Law Journal.Groups which are applauding the DEA's action, such as the conservative Family Research Council, say food with hempseeds sends a pro-drug message to children and is camouflage for a campaign to legalize marijuana.The other day, confronted by a man in Florida who said the government was not responding to his needs, President Bush muttered, "I can't stand bureaucracy."Bush remembered the cameras were rolling and said that he appreciated "the hard-working people who care enough to work for the government. But what I don't like is systems that get so cumbersome that those who are trying to help you don't get the product out."In the course of writing this, I have munched on the 120-calorie corn chips, the 220-calorie pretzels and devoured the 170-calorie snack bar. In truth, I feel nothing but my waistband.And a curious desire to watch "Monty Python's Flying Circus."Note: The drug war blunders on: The DEA is cracking down on hempseed oil in tortilla chips. Ann McFeatters is National Bureau chief for the Post-Gazette and The Blade of Toledo, Ohio. Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA)Author: Ann McFeattersPublished: Sunday, December 9, 2001Copyright: 2001 PG PublishingContact: letters post-gazette.comWebsite: http://www.post-gazette.com/Related Articles & Web Site:FTE's Hemp Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/hls.htmHemp Policy is Put To The Taste Testhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11516.shtmlProtesters Say Hemp is Food Not Drugshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11514.shtmlCannabis University Promotes Hemphttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11509.shtml
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Comment #18 posted by goneposthole on December 10, 2001 at 07:52:45 PT
Government going, going, gone
"The time to speak up has passed. Now is the time for senseless bickering."
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #17 posted by qqqq on December 10, 2001 at 03:02:58 PT
more..personal,off topic ramblings
...I cannot believe,,that we continue to bomb Afghanistan!.......Have we met any resistance?....NO....Are we somehow still justified in pummeling the SHIT out of possible "targets"??????...what,,is our "goal",to kill bin Laden,,with thousands of tons of bombs,at a cost of over SIX BILLION DOLLARS?????.....I think this is LUNACY at its finest!...It's like trying to kill a mosquito,,with a 12 gauge shotgun,,,,it's like trying to get rid of a housefly,with a sledgehammer,,,,and the US governments military persual of of some Arab,is nothing less than sheer IDIOCY!!!......I mean,,,GIMME A FREAKIN BREAK!!!!!!.....WAKE FREEKIN' UP!!!!..How long until some people start to open their eyes,and realize what is going on!...We have spent way over 6 billion dollars,in some sort of absurd retaliatory hunt for "bin Laden",,"Al Queada",,and "Taliban" ,,in what has been labeled a "War on Terror"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!and,,much to my chagrinned amazement,apparently the entire populace of the US citizenry,has been successfully BRAINWASHED,,into thinking this is normal,justified,and necessary!.....flocks of sheeple have been convinced to rally around our new ASSHOLE government,as they pummel Afghanistan,like some neanderthal schoolyard bully beating the shit out of some wimp!....The longer it goes on,,,the harder it is to believe!,,,and there are still millions of American Sheeple,who continue to blindly accept all this as normal,and necessary.......I hope some government security asshole snooper-pig is reading this,,because if you are,,,go ahead and track me down,and lock me up!..I am a proud and strong,and true American Patriot,,and anyone who would be a part of trying to censor me,or try to incarcerate me,,is a TRAITOR!....just because uncle sam signs your paycheck,,doesnt mean you have anything to do with being an American!,,heck,come to think of it,if uncle sam wanted to cut me some nice beefy checks,I might even join the united we stand team,(Bush/Ashcroft/Bennett in 2004!)..yikes....The American government has little to do with patriotism nowdays! ....In fact,,,not many people know,,but the real Uncle Sam was born in Norway,and came to the states on a whaling ship,,and he met up with Betsy Ross in Nantucket,,and they had a cheap,rum induced,one night fling,,and spawned an illegitimate love-child son,,who grew up to be that familiar American icon,who later came to be known as Colonel Sanders,of Kentucky fried chicken fame...........
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Comment #16 posted by dddd on December 09, 2001 at 23:09:30 PT
Hi FoM
Wow...Corrie Ten Boom...I read her writings years ago,,and she is truly inspirational...when we read about stuff that people like her went through,,it makes having to hide to smoke weed,not seem that bad...there's always a bright side to almost everything,no matter how bad things may seem.....lol....dddd...Yes,,,I believe we are "headed for a fall",,,in fact,,I feel quite safe,in predicting that the coming year is going to be even stranger than this one..............Looking at the stars,can actually bring one down to earth,,like Corrie Ten Boom,,the main thing of life on earth,is how we treat people every day...Love is stronger than death,,,and niceness and goodness kicks evils' ass,,if not in this life,,then in the one that awaits.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #15 posted by FoM on December 09, 2001 at 22:05:36 PT
Hi dddd
Glad you had a good time in the high desert. You said a lot in your comment. It is a sad state of affairs how it is going in the USA. I find peace going out and throwing the ball for the dog. At night looking at the stars and how in order everything seems up there. Peace is something that no one can take from you. Corrie Ten Boom was a Christian lady who hide the Jews and she was at peace in all she did even though her life was seriously jeopardised. I pray that our Nation might be Blessed but I don't think we have been good enough to deserve a Blessing speaking on a spiritual level. I hope no one minds. Why should we as a Nation not suffer like other people have? Why do some of our leaders think we are better then any other Nation or Country? I just don't know. Today an army helicopter flew over and what a strange feeling since we haven't seen many planes even though they practice out here doing maneuvers. They haven't since 9-11. There's an old expression. Pride cometh before a fall. I wonder if we are headed for a big fall.
PS: Good to have you back safe and sound.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #14 posted by dddd on December 09, 2001 at 20:51:57 PT
back to reality
...I spent the weekend camping at Joshua Tree National Monument.It's a very special place in the high desert of Southern California.It was quite cold ,especially at night,(elevation 5000 ft),,,but it's so beautiful,that the cold doesnt matter.At night,the galactic shine of the stars is quite astoundingly awesome.You can see galaxies with the naked eye....seeing it,is enough to make even the bitterest of hardcore atheiests think twice about questioning the reality of God....and,speakin' of God,,,,,the four hour drive from LA to get out there,is mostly along the same 4 and 6 lane freeway that leads to Palm Springs.It is lined with billboards and perpetually clogged with traffic.....I am to the point of sheer disgust,in seeing the masses of brainwashed sheeple with flags in their cars,and "God bless America",,United we stand" bumper stickers,,, but what really enraged me,,was to see that uncle sam has been buying up billboard space to convey his bullshit of false unity....huge billboards with "United we stand,and "God bless America",line the freeway .....think about it.."God bless America",,,is that asking God to bless America,,or telling him to do so? ..Perhaps if God refuses to bless America,Bush,and Ashcroft will consider him a terrorist,and bomb him,,and seize his assets???....furthermore,,,why should God bless America?I cant think of too many things that the Amerika,as represented by its' government,has done that it would deserve to be "blessed" for..?In fact,,it would be a blessing,if God would topple the beastly republicrat Evil Empire,,but that wont happen.. ...The Amerikan government of today,is starting to look alot like a Charles Manson,,it has persuaded millions of innocent people rally behind its' murder and mayhem,under a created illusion that somehow god is walking around in a red white and blue robe,waving a flag. ..
...OK,,,to finally say a few things about the article....The absurdity of prohibition is really disturbing to begin with,,,but it really goes over the edge with the grotesque ban on hemp products.It's almost like they are seeing how far they can go,or what they can get away with,,,and it's becoming increasingly clear,,that they can get away with dam near anything nowdays.....after all,,the hemp ban issue appears somewhat insignificant,when compared to the brutal gang-rape of the Constitution.......and,,like I keep saying,,the only way they are able to pull all this shit off,,is because they control the press.......... And speakin' of the press,,,notice,,the latest silly ploy,is the false issue concerning;"The Liberal biased media"...What a pile of crap!...what a roose,,,what a masterful decoy,to further fake out the flocks.....dddd
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Comment #13 posted by FoM on December 09, 2001 at 20:33:13 PT
News Brief from The Associated Press
Topless Women Draw Attention to Issues
December 9, 2001, 10:00 AM
By AP Staff
A group of women bared their chests in downtown Eugene to protest the effects of pesticides on their children and fight for legal hemp production.
The four women, who called themselves Mother Bares, said Saturday they were also protesting against multinational conglomerates and U.S. military action in Afghanistan.
"This is the mother energy that's coming out right now," said protester Eileen Erdelt.
Police Sgt. Terry Fitzpatrick said state law does not specifically prohibit women from going topless in public.
Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press
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Comment #12 posted by Elfman_420 on December 09, 2001 at 13:33:47 PT
Asa, Asa, Asa....
"Many Americans do not know that hemp and marijuana are both parts of the same plant and that hemp cannot be produced without producing marijuana."No Asa!!!! Many Americans think that hemp and marijuana are the same exact thing and that it is possible to get high from a hemp plant.That is why all of the pro-hemp articles have to state every single time towards the beginning "The hemp plant is from the same family as the marijuana plant, but does not contain enough of the active ingredient THC to get a person high."
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Comment #11 posted by boppy on December 09, 2001 at 08:22:49 PT
I should proof read more closely...
I meant to say "those who fought desegregation..." Sheesh! My apologies!
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Comment #10 posted by boppy on December 09, 2001 at 08:15:46 PT
It all reminds me of a time...
The DEA's attitude and the sheep who agree with them reminds me of the groups of people who fought segregation in the late 50's and early 60's. Their positions were absolutely indefensible and rooted simply in hate. That's exactly what we are encountering here. Blind, ignorant hate. In 1937 when Henry Anslinger who was head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics contended that cannabis caused users to commit violence and other aggressive crimes and maintained that it provoked black men to molest white women, what were those opinions based on? Facts or hate? The FBN offered no proof of these claims. Did he sound like he was well informed or just perpetuating rascism and class war? The DEA is not to far removed from the attitudes of 1937.
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Comment #9 posted by The GCW on December 09, 2001 at 05:38:16 PT
Would Jefferson, Kill these people responsible?
Thomas Jefferson is quoted: "Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth and protection of the country."
Bush mutters.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #8 posted by E_Johnson on December 09, 2001 at 00:00:31 PT
We are a population in captivity
That song resonates with me now. I guess the Old Testament makes a whole different kind of story when you experience it from the end of a campaign to wipe you out.There is a campaign to wipe out a certain culture in America, this is what the hemp food ban is all about, it's direct cultural and political warfare against citizens of a particular group.I mean, this is Berlin in the thirties and we are the Jews.Drug Free America -- that slogan doesn't worry people who are conscious of the Nazi dream of a Final Solution to the people whose culture bothered them so much?It's no surpise that Germany is deciding that marijuana prohibition is a waste of time. They understand the true cost of waging these kinds of wars. They taught themselves that the really hard way.But in America, we are in captivity, we are walking in bondage, and it's good to look to the history of people who survived a very long time in that beleaguered state.And we have to keep singing our songs of freedom in that strange land as we walk.Even in modern society, one can learn from ancient people.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #7 posted by goneposthole on December 08, 2001 at 19:34:31 PT
I don't know
who is red, white, yellow, brown or black and I don't care. I do know that green is the color we all support. Green green. It's green they say on the far side of the hillGreen, green, it's green they say where the grass is greener, still.Bob Seger:"Like a rock""And I stood arrow straight
unemcumbered by the way of all these hustlers and their schemes"I stood proud, I stood tall, high above it all
I still believed in my dreamsLike a rock"
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #6 posted by MysticRevelation on December 08, 2001 at 17:22:22 PT
Had a thought.
Then sang that song.
There's no turning back.
I sang out loud.
I sang that song again.Thanks E Johnson.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #5 posted by E_Johnson on December 08, 2001 at 15:50:45 PT
Music I'm playing today
By the rivers of Babylon,
Where he sat down,
And there he wept
When he remembered Zion. Twas the wicked carried us away in captivity,
Required from us a song,
How can we sing King Alpha's song
In a strange land? Twas the wicked carried us away in captivity,
Required from us a song,
How can we sing King Alpha's song
In a strange land? Sing it out loud
Sing the song of freedom brothers
Sing the song of freedom sisters
We got to walk in bondage
We got to shout the song of freedom now So, let the words of our mouth
And the meditations of our heart
Be acceptable in Thy sight.
Oh, verai! So, let the words of our mouth
And the meditations of our heart
Be acceptable in Thy sight.
Oh, verai! We got to sing it together
Everyone of us!
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #4 posted by Dark Star on December 08, 2001 at 14:41:37 PT
What if?
What if someone has a hemp hat, and breaks their Marinol capsule on it and licks their hat? Is their hat then illegal because it put THC in their body?If there is any justice in this world, or the next, there are going to be a great number of current politicians taking up space in hell.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #3 posted by Lehder on December 08, 2001 at 13:44:44 PT
Sink the Mayflower
Read today's editorial at Counter Punch, High-Tech Puritanism by John Chuckman, for a very good perspective on US history and current policies. Our international and domestic persecutions spring from the same mind set that impelled the hateful intolerance for others by the original American Puritans. America has never been a free or democratic country, and only time and massive immigration will bring change.http://www.counterpunch.org/
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #2 posted by E_Johnson on December 08, 2001 at 12:54:10 PT
In praise of our enemies
Between Ashcroft and Hutchinson, public respect for the DEA is going into the toilet as it never has before.Adding Walters to the mix is only going to make things get worse for them. The Republican leadership clearly has a very bad disconnect from the American public on drug policy, the Bush administration is clearly controlled by the tiny minority of Drug Free pressure group extremists left in America.By 2004, after two more years of the leadership of this Drug Free Triumvirate, I expect that the DEA will have almost no public respect left in America, and the Democrats will be free to run whole hog with that in the election.And then Washington will be a different place for the DEA than it has been in the last several decades.If the people in this agency cannot realize that they are on a mission of self-destruction with this hemp food ban, then God bless them and let them continue on their foolish prideful path.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #1 posted by E_Johnson on December 08, 2001 at 12:43:29 PT
Agit prop theater by Mullah Ashcroft
If I had hired an agit-prop theater company to perform an absurdist drama on all of the potentially ridiculous consequences of marijuana prohibition, I could not have found any revolutionary agit-prop troupe in the WORLD that could have put together a more absurd and shocking performance this the one starring the DEA, directed by Mullah Ashcroft and his sidekick, Osama Bin Hutchinson.Their revolutionary performance of "Why the Schedule I status of marijuana is absurd" is breaking new ground in educatiing ordinary citizens about the Controlled Subsatcnes Acr and the power it has to intrude into human dignity and defeat the everyday instincts of basic morality and ethics in this country.
[ Post Comment ]
Post Comment | {
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} |
Hello! Glad to be here again! Thanx for visiting my entry and good luck to you!
This is the first fast sketch, just to capture the whole idea.
My Image will show a struggle/fight between a human and an alien kid on a schoolyard. The whole scene is set on some colonized planet. My intention was(is) to depict a human alien-interaction in a rather non-standard but still trivial manner.
I hope you like it and am looking forward to your comments. :)
Vatrobot
04-04-2008, 12:14 PM
Think-Update: I've decided to make this one in 3D and not as a paintjob... I whish myself luck ;)
I started colouring the first sketch just to make it look better, but doing this I realized that there is no way I colud make this one in 3D on time, so I made up my mind again and will finish it as a paintjob... And beacuse it was too much fun using my new tablet the way it should actualy be used ;)
Well I was pretty busy with some regular projects last week and there is more work coming on. This is good for my business, but bad for this image. I still believe I'll manage to finish it, but it's not going to be a good example of nice workflow and time-management for sure... sigh. :sad:
Here is a rather minor update. My biggest achievement last week was that I've finaly found "my" painting-technique, so everything should go faster now. Well, it must anyway... tic-tac-tic-tac... :wip:
CGTalk Moderation
04-27-2008, 06:05 PM
This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum. | {
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You will be able to tell by the photos here that these are not actresses, these events have not been staged, those are genuine ENF reactions from the girls who clearly didn't plan to lose their bra and panties on that occassion. Non Nude Update — 19th August Today we've got a Nice Non Nude Collection for you, it'll take a while to list this out but here goes, not in order. British Girls Gone Bad. We also hate this porn site. Kari Sweets New Uncensored Pics | {
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} |
BARRE — With a new digital flood insurance rate map for Washington County finally scheduled to go into effect in March, folks with flood insurance questions will have several opportunities to get them answered starting next month.
A series of public meetings will be held throughout the county starting Jan. 8 in Waterbury and wrapping up in Montpelier on Feb. 5. There will be five meetings in all, and each will focus on the newly revised flood hazard maps and the insurance options available for structures that may be affected by the updated designations.
Countywide, roughly 200 structures have been identified for the first time as being at a high risk of damage by flooding, and their owners may benefit by getting flood insurance before the new map goes into effect March 19.
Residential property owners who buy flood insurance before the map change can benefit from a more gradual increase in their insurance costs. They are eligible for low-cost “preferred-risk policies” that can be renewed twice before insurance increases to the full cost.
An average flood insurance policy for property in a high-risk area currently costs around $1,400 a year for $170,000 in coverage.
In many cases obtaining insurance for properties in those areas isn’t optional. Federal law requires lenders to be sure that mortgages on structures in the flood hazard area are insured for their known flood risk.
While the flood hazard area is expanding in some areas, it is contracting in others. Countywide, roughly 500 properties are expected to drop out of the high-risk area, though that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to drop flood insurance. Owners of property outside the flood hazard area will benefit from lower available flood insurance premiums.
The upcoming public information meetings are open to all and will be held on Tuesday and Thursday nights.
The first meeting will be at 7 p.m. at Thatcher Brook Primary School in Waterbury on Jan. 8.
The venue will shift to Barre’s Alumni Hall on Jan. 17 at 7 p.m., Brown Public Library in Northfield on Jan. 22 at 7 p.m., the Old Schoolhouse Common in Marshfield on Jan. 31 at 7 p.m., and Memorial Room at City Hall in Montpelier on Feb. 5 at 6 p.m.
The new maps for Washington County have been in final form for some time, but their implementation was delayed while officials in Barre exhausted their ability to appeal the flood hazard boundaries in their community.
Barre officials were concerned with a significant — and unwarranted, they believed — expansion of the flood hazard area on and around a 1,900-foot section of North Main Street. Dozens of properties will be affected by the new designation, which creates insurance obligations and imposes rigid restrictions on any development. | {
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Lavelle Family & Cosmetic Dentistry was founded in Prospect, KY., in 1979 by Dr. Paul Lavelle. Dr. Abby Lavelle Staffieri recently joined his practice, bringing with her a passion and emphasis in cosmetic dentistry.
Dentist 40059 | Oral Hygiene at Work
Do you brush your teeth after lunch? If you’re one of the millions of people who work outside the home, chances are you don’t have the time or resources to brush during the day. However, not being able to brush doesn’t mean you can’t protect your teeth at work.
Grab a drink of water. When you finish eating, get a drink of water. Swish the water around in your mouth, then spit or swallow it. Water helps to remove small particles of food that can remain on your teeth after your meal or snack.
Chew sugarless gum. There are certain types of sugarless gum that are approved by the American Dental Association (ADA) as good for your oral health. The reason for this is that chewing stimulates the production of saliva in your mouth. That saliva washes away food particles and helps to neutralize acids on your teeth.
Limit time drinking coffee or soda. Coffee, soda, tea, and many other beverages contain high levels of sugars and acids. The more time you spend sipping your drink, the longer your teeth are exposed to these sources of decay. Instead of spending an hour taking small swallows, drink quickly to limit exposure, then rinse your mouth or switch to water to help counteract the effects.
Brush and floss when you can. Try to keep to a regular routine of good oral hygiene practices when you are at home. Brush at least twice daily, for two full minutes each time. Floss or use an interdental cleaner of your choice once a day. Keep your recommended appointments to have your teeth cleaned and evaluated by our team.
Taking care of your teeth doesn’t have to interrupt your workday. Keeping these simple tips in mind can help protect your mouth from tooth decay, periodontal disease, and other oral health issues. | {
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} |
Jenks Football Coach Allan Trimble was honored Saturday at the Mabee Center. "A Night of Legacy" celebrated the 13-time State Champion's incredible career and served as a fundraiser for his battle with ALS. Click Here for Video | {
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GST rates decided on 1211 items, except gold
Addressing a news conference at Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC) in Srinagar after attending the 14th GST council meeting, Jaitley said, "It is for J&K and its assembly to decide what they want to do and I am sure they will take an appropriate decision".
As widely reported, essential items have either been kept out of the purview of the tax or assigned the lowest rate.
The cost of energy generation is likely to come down as the tax incidence on coal will come down to 5% from about 11% now.
The complete details will be available in the public domain after the said meeting concludes on Friday. He said J-K, which is the only state enjoying special taxation powers, will make necessary changes to pass the GST bill, which is billed as the biggest tax reform in the history of independent India.
Rates for household goods like soaps at 18 percent and durables such as cars at 28 percent.
While frozen meat will attract a GST of 12 per cent, Ayurvedic or homeopathy medicines, agarbatti, umbrella, electric vehicles and mobile phone manufacturing will be taxed at 12 per cent.
Some food items like coffee and edible oil will be taxed at a rate of 5 percent, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said.
Commenting on the GST Council's deliberations, a senior tax analyst said the rates announced were along expected lines. Coal is now taxed at 11.69 per cent. "Another aspect encountered and accepted by most of the GST countries lies in the statistic that GST will be inflationary, especially if the effective tax rate is higher than what prevailed before".
The council finalised tax rates on 80-90 percent of items under the four-slab structure.
"Cereals will be in exempt list".
The council also approved most of the draft rules relating to the new tax that would push businesses to upgrade their infrastructure for filing tax returns under the new system. But what is to be done with packaged and branded food that has to be separately decided.
The Finance Minister said the GST is perhaps India's largest and most significant tax reform, the report added. "We are now part of the national policy making which will be recorded in the history", he said.
"Of several commodities, we have consciously brought down the tax".
"We are banking on hope that under GST, evasion will be checked and buoyancy will go up", the minister said.
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Perhaps you don't understand the subtle difference between "wish" and "wishes". You, like all us other conservatives are nuance-difficient, but please don't take anything for the condition...it's actually a GOOD thing! :p
I love that sidewalk salutation one. 3 more for my C & H vault! My favorite of the bunch is still the shark one: "that guy's a goner"! | {
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"foundations built on sand"
I am glad to see that I have (unintentionally) triggered a discussion about
the usefulness of semantic methods. I think that is an important point. For me
it is evident from the following few examples less of engineering style than
the ones provided up to now
1) ML was developed triggered by "foundational" work on PCF
(at least that's how it appears to me from my fairly incomplete
record of history)
2) purely mathematically motivated work on "Normalization by Evaluation" (NbE)
was found interesting by the partial evaluation community (O.Danvy could
say much more about it); for sake of completeness I should add that NbE
was invented by Schwichtenberg and Berger for very practical purposes,
namely using the Scheme interpreter for performing normalisation;
such an interaction of theory and practice seems to be the ideal case and
it's rather the exception than the rule, I am afraid
3) type theoretic work using semantical methode was done my M.Hofmann to
manufacture type systems guaranteeing certain complexity behaviours;
similar results were obtained by syntactical methods by Schwichtenberg,
Bellantoni and Niggl.
This last example also brings to the point that one NEED not insist on
denotational methods, also operational or proof-theoretic methods definitely
can do the job. Just sometimes denotational methods are more concise and,
therefore, much easier to grasp.
This brings me back to my original question concerning translation of SOOL
to META + F_{sub,rec,state}. From my point of view everything would be ok
if the target language F_{sub,rec,state} were endowed with an appropriate
operational semantics. I haven't seen such work and it is not contained in the
FOOL book. Some of it is sketched there but operational semantics of state
isn't dealt with at all and that's what I consider most critical.
As I understand the main theorem is that
(Sound) if t : A in SOOL then [|t|] : [|A|] in META
this definitely should be accompanied by a proof that
(Refl) if [|t|] doesn't give rise to a run time error
then t doesn't give rise to a run time error
This second property is rather assumed than proved. That's my impression
though I really might be mistaken as I didn't read everything in detail.
In any case I don't insist on denotational models though I definitely prefer
them when available. Also operational methods may allow one to find
conceptually clear invariants (`a la logical relations) that allow one to
guarantee the absence of some undesired effects.
Thomas | {
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Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol V:
Epistle XXIX.
Argument.-The Roman Church Declares Its Judgment Concerning the Lapsed to Be in Agreement with the Carthaginian Decrees. Any Indulgence Shown to the Lapsed is Required to Be in Accordance with the Law of the Gospel. That the Peace Granted by the Confessors Depends Only Upon Grace and Good-Will, is Manifest from the Fact that the Lapsed are Referred to the Bishops. The Seditious Demand for Peace Made by Felicissimus is to Be Attributed to Faction.
1. The presbyters and deacons abiding at Rome, to Father2 Cyprian, greeting. When, beloved brother, we carefully read your letter which you had sent by Fortunatus the sub-deacon, we were smitten with a double sorrow, and disordered with a twofold grief, that there was not any rest given to you in such necessities of the persecution, and that the unreasonable petulance of the lapsed brethren was declared to be carried even to a dangerous boldness of expression. But although those things which we have spoken of severely afflicted us and our spirit, yet your rigour and the severity that you have used, according to the proper discipline, moderates the so heavy load of our grief, in that you rightly restrain the wickedness of some, and, by your exhortation to repentance, show the legitimate way of salvation That they should have wished to hurry to such an extreme as this, we are indeed considerably surprised; as that with such urgency, and at so unseasonable and bitter a time, being in so great and excessive a sin, they should not so much ask for, as claim, peace for themselves; nay, should say that they already have it in heaven. If they have it, why do they ask for what they possess? But if, by the very fact that they are asking for it, it is proved that they have it not, wherefore do they not accept the judgment of those from whom they have thought fit to ask for the peace, which they certainly have not got? But if they think that they have from any other source the prerogative of communion, let them try to compare it with the Gospel, that so at length it may abundantly avail them, if it is not out of harmony with the Gospel law. But on what principle can that give Gospel communion which seems to be established contrary to Gospel truth? For since every prerogative contemplates the privilege of association, precisely on the assumption of its not being out of harmony with the will of Him with whom it seeks to be associated; then, because this is alien from His will with whom it seeks to be associated, it must of necessity lose the indulgence and privilege of the association.
2. Let them, then, see what it is they are trying to do in this matter. For if they say that the Gospel has established one decree, but the martyrs have established another; then they, setting the martyrs at variance with the Gospel, will be in danger on both sides. For, on the one hand, the majesty of the Gospel will already appear shattered and cast down, if it can be overcome by the novelty of another decree; and, on the other, the glorious crown of confession will be taken from the heads of the martyrs, if they be not found to have attained it by the observation of that Gospel whence they become martyrs; so that, reasonably, no one should be more careful to determine nothing contrary to the Gospel, than he who strives to receive the name of martyr from the Gospel. We should like, besides, to be informed of this: if martyrs become martyrs for no other reason than that by not sacrificing they may keep the peace of the Church even to the shedding of their own blood, lest, overcome by the suffering of the torture, by losing peace, they might lose salvation; on what principle do they think that the salvation, which if they had sacrificed they thought that they should not have, was to be given to those who are said to have sacrificed; although they ought to maintain that law in others. which they themselves appear to have held before their own eyes? In which thing we observe that they have put forward against their own cause the very thing which they thought made for them. For if the martyrs thought that peace was to be granted to them, why did not they themselves grant it? Why did they think that, as they themselves say, they were to be referred to the bishops? For he who orders a thing to be done, can assuredly do that which he orders to be done. But, as we understand, nay, as the case itself speaks and proclaims, the most holy martyrs thought that a proper measure of modesty and of truth must be observed on both sides. For as they were urged by many, in remitting them to the bishop they conceived that they would consult their own modesty so as to be no further disquieted; and in themselves not holding communion with them, they judged that the purity of the Gospel law ought to be maintained unimpaired.
3. But of your charity, brother, never desist from soothing the spirits of the lapsed and affording to the erring the medicine of truth, although the temper of the sick is wont to reject the kind offices of those who would heal them. This wound of the lapsed is as yet fresh, and the sore is still rising into a tumour; and therefore we are certain, that when, in the course of more protracted time, that urgency of theirs shall have worn out, they will love that very delay which refers them to a faithful medicine; if only there be not those who arm them for their own danger, and, instructing them perversely, demand on their behalf, instead of the salutary remedies of delay, the fatal poisons of a premature communion. For we do not believe, that without the instigation of certain persons they would all have dared so petulantly to claim peace for themselves. We know the faith of the Carthaginian church,3 we know her training, we know her humility; whence also we have marvelled that we should observe certain things somewhat rudely suggested against you by letter, although we have often become aware of your mutual love and charity, in many illustrations of reciprocal affection of one another. It is time, therefore, that they should repent of their fault, that they should prove their grief for their lapse, that they should show modesty, that they should manifest humility, that they should exhibit some shame, that, by their submission, they should appeal to God's clemency for themselves, and by due honour for4 God's priest should draw forth upon themselves the divine mercy. How vastly better would have been the letters of these men themselves, if the prayers of those who stood fast had been aided by their own humility! since that which is asked for is more easily obtained, when he for whom it is asked is worthy, that what is asked should be obtained.
4. In respect, however, of Privatus of Lambesa, you have acted as you usually do, in desiring to inform us of the matter, as being an object of anxiety; for it becomes us all to watch for the body of the whole Church, whose members are scattered through every various province.5 But the deceitfulness of that crafty man could not be hid from us even before we had your letters; for previously, when from the company of that very wickedness a certain Futurus came, a standard-bearer of Privatus, and was desirous of fraudulently obtaining letters from us, we were neither ignorant who he was, nor did he get the letters which he wanted. We bid you heartily farewell in the Lord. | {
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Bird Checklists of the United States
Gulf Islands National Seashore
Ocean Springs, Mississippi
Gulf Breeze, Florida
The National Seashore comprises several diverse ecological communities which
attract a wide variety of bird life. The offshore barrier islands consist of
open beaches, dunes, freshwater marshes and wooded areas. On the mainland, also,
are freshwater marshes, salt marshes and wooded areas which offer wildlife habitats.
More than 280 species of birds have been identified within the boundaries
of Gulf Islands National Seashore, since its establishment in January 1971.
This list reflects information gathered inside park boundaries and in neighboring
areas by park staff and local observers. New information in subsequent years
will no doubt add to this list. Please report unusual or new sightings to
the Interpretation Division.
c - common: 5-25 individuals per day
u - uncommon: several individuals per day or less
o - occasional: one individual per season or less
r - rare: has occurred within the area at least once since 1965
Some species have abundance information shown by state | {
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Smart way to stop a power surge
As huge power surges are expected to become more common, a coalition of energy providers want to build a 'smart grid' to store power
At 12.40pm on April 29, a power surge rocked the national grid as the nation tore itself from television coverage of the royal wedding. The 2,400MW electric jolt — the fourth biggest ever — was equivalent to nearly 1m kettles being switched on.
Such surges could become more common over the next few years. The problems caused by peaks and troughs in demand for power will be amplified by unpredictable swings in the amount of power being generated.
It is one thing to harness the wind’s power but it is extremely difficult to predict when it will blow. The same is true of solar energy, and many types of marine power.
A new heavyweight coalition of energy providers and technology giants reckons it has the answer. Its members want to build a “smart grid” to smooth demand and supply. Without it, Britain faces a serious risk of blackouts. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Bungalow - $1,295.00
(All prices include $1,295.00 base amount)
About This Event
Our ‘Initiation to Shamanistic Ayahuasca’ is a great way for one to start their healing journey that has never experienced any sacred medicinal plants. This would also be a great place to start for someone that has some apprehensions about engaging in shamanistic practices. The 7-day retreat will still be a strong for healing purposes with 3 powerful ceremonies.
3 Ayahuasca Ceremonies
Ajo Sacha Welcome Bath
Shared Jungle Tambo * w/ Bath
All Meals, Water, Tea
One-on-One Daily Integration Support with Trained Facilitator During Retreat
Individual Meeting with Shaman’s
Harvesting and Cooking Ayahuasca Medicine on site
Post-program Counseling for Integration
Guided Meditations
Laundry Service
Gifts and Educational Items
Guided Jungle Tour “Camino de Tigre”
Transportation pick Up/Return to Iquitos
Ajo Sacha Diet (+$350)
Sapo/Kambo Ceremony (+$100)
I have traveled all over the world, and I have never been to a place with such RAW BEAUTY. Simply breathtaking!
- Paul L. (Dubai),
Thank you so much for giving me my life back.
- Robin O. (Norway),
The POWER of the MEDICINE is beyond imagination!
- Fabian C. (Switzerland),
So much care and attention to detail has gone into ensuring that we are best positioned to truly immerse ourselves in the great work. I am so happy I found you!
- Jeff A. (USA),
I was totally blown away by the beauty, power and life changing experience at Rainforest Healing Center.
- Chris L. (Australia),
The mother of the jungle gave me an opportunity for a DEEP SPIRITUAL journey. My soul loved it!
- Anita M. (Canada),
I felt like I was unplugging out of the Matrix and lucid dreaming in an Avatar-like environment while feeling the CONNECTEDNESS of all life.
- David D. (Holland),
My time at Rainforest Healing Center was nothing short of AMAZING!
- Lee C. (Thailand),
Each person who steps foot on that sacred ground will be FOREVER CHANGED.
- Michael (Atlanta, GA),
Venue Highlights
The Rainforest Healing Center is based on a parcel of land (160 acres / 65 hectares) of pristine, virgin Amazonian rainforest on Kilometer 45.5 of the Iquitos/Nauta Carretera (highway).
This rainforest backdrop breathes life and healing energy into every soul who enters this sacred space. One can receive healing benefits just from being in this part of the rainforest as it is saturated with over 110 documented species of healing medicinal plants including the Mother Vine herself.
Along our varied paths, guests are immersed in a tropical Eden where they can witness numerous varieties of sparkling butterflies including our resident colony of Blue Morphos, chattering monkeys, curious sloths, and various other jungle life. The hum and vibration of the forest is felt throughout the space, welcoming you back to nature’s incredible beauty and grace.
Throughout the property runs a stream (called a ‘quebrada’ in Spanish) that also boasts potent healing powers. Rain trickles down from the upper canopy of the forest, passing through many more layers of dense jungle growth, collecting its healing properties from all the medicinal plants on its way to the vegetation and roots below. Forest soils filter this frequent rainfall into the crisp and clean ‘quebrada’ that meanders through the center. Our guests bathe in this healing flow and receive love from each plant that the rain has touched on its journey to the stream.
As a small and intimate healing center, we’ve designed the property to create the optimal environment for self-reflection, introspection, growth, healing, and deep awakening. We deeply honor our connection with Mother Earth and therefore utilize renewable resources whenever possible. We are powered almost entirely by solar energy, compost, and Love, far away from the distractions of Western culture and technology.
Ayahuasca ceremonies will be held in the Maloca (ceremonial hut), which was constructed by a master carpenter and architect from Pucallpa and is a powerful and beautiful space.
Accommodations
Your retreat investment covers room and board. We’ve built seven Tambos (mosquito-screened, palm frond or corrugated metal roof huts) on the property. Five of the Tambos sleep two people, with the other two sleeping three. Tambos are furnished with writing desks for reflection and hammocks for relaxing when space allows.
Each of our Tambos is hand-crafted with love in carefully selected locations to provide a quiet and cozy place for guests to relax and reconnect with themselves and nature. The jungle radiates through these beautiful Tambos, and creates a unique and unforgettable experience. Each Tambo offers solar power for lighting, its own bathing area, and compostable toilets to cycle nutrients back into the land.
While they are rustic, we’ve designed them to be very comfortable and enjoyable. It’s important to understand that you will be sleeping in the jungle and life’s wild hums and vibrations will be ever-present. In time, you’ll find the jungle sounds to be a living white noise machine that will help you fall asleep.
Amenities
Kitchen
Hot Tub
Coffee/Tea
House Keeping
Menu Types
Vegan
Vegetarian
Pescetarian
Meat
Organic
Gluten Free
Dairy Free
Menu/Cuisine
Guests will enjoy three healthy and balanced meals a day. On ceremony days, guests participating in the ceremony will have breakfast and lunch, but no dinner. This restriction helps ensure that your stomach is empty by the time ceremony participants drink the Medicine. This allows your body to absorb the Medicine fully and efficiently, and also reduce the amount of materials thrown up if your purging includes vomiting.
Master Plant Isolation Diets will be on a stricter, blander meal schedule that is prepared and brought to your Tambo to reduce interactions with other people.
We DO NOT serve pork, salt, coffee, or sugar. We strive to feed everyone according to their needs and we don’t want anyone hungry or frustrated. We do request that you adhere to this diet; it greatly improves Ayahuasca’s ability to work effectively and efficiently during ceremony.
Directions
The traditional route is to fly into Lima, and then take a domestic Peruvian flight on either Star Peru or Peruvian Airlines to Iquitos.
You’ll want to plan to stay at least one night before your retreat or course start date. The Amazon is a very different place and takes a little adjustment. Having the time to relax, clean up, and get prepared for your journey is a great pleasure. Plus, you can visit one of the many wonderful cafes with WiFi to let your family know that you’re alive and well!
Our staff will meet you in Iquitos at a pre-determined location (typically Dawn on the Amazon or Chef Paz), date, and time. From there, we’ll take you to Rainforest Healing Center, which is located one hour’s drive from Iquitos on the highway Iquitos—Nauta. From the highway the walk is ~3.5km (approx. 40-mins to 1-hour) through some amazing jungle on a wide and friendly path. If it has rained you will need rubber boots since the path can get quite muddy. You can buy these in Iquitos at the Belen market for roughly 20 soles, or purchase them online prior to your trip. We also encourage people to leave their boots after their stay for use by families in need.
Please use bags that can be carried on the shoulders of our workers, e.g back packs, shoulder bags (no suitcases). If you are unable to walk this distance due to medical reasons please inform our staff in advance so that other arrangements can be made.
About the
Venue and Teacher
Welcome to Rainforest Healing Center! We are an Ayahuasca and Master Plant diet retreat center, specializing in the individualized care and small group retreats, located in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon. What Makes Our Center Different -- Personalized Healing ProgramsAt Rainforest Healing Center, we offer the opportunity to transform your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual lives through healing. A crucial part of healing lies in the facilitation process. While our shamans guide the energies of the ceremonies, purify your physical and energetic bodies, expand your consciousness and guide your spiritual growth, our facilitators work to guide and support you throughout this transformative process. During your stay with us, our experienced and qualified facilitators function as bridges between you, the shamans and the plants to guide and support you in your journey of transformative healing. Our services are tailored to your individual needs and personalized to the types of healing you are seeking. Our facilitators and shamans will work with you through one-on-one sessions to best meet your personal needs.On your first day, our facilitators will have a one-on-one session with you about what you came to heal. You will then sit down with our shamans who will prescribe additional remedies such as floral baths, plant baths, and remedial massages to prepare you for a ceremony, correct physical misalignments as well as align your energies.On ceremony days, you will have one-on-one intention setting sessions with our facilitators to help you focus your intention. Our Facilitators are trained to guide and challenge you to seek the innermost truths of your being and to uncover the layers of familial, cultural and societal conditioning to access the deepest core of your being.On the days after ceremonies, the facilitators will have one-on-one processing sessions with you to help you make sense of the powerful physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and visual experiences you have had during your ayahuasca experience, to make connections and to relate what the medicine has shown you to the healing you are undertaking.We pride ourselves on the amount of time, energy and care we devote to each guest to that we can successfully fill our mission of healing our planet, one cosmic brother and sister at a time.This rainforest backdrop breathes life and healing energy into every soul who enters this sacred space. One can receive healing benefits just from being in this part of the rainforest as it is home to over 110+ documented species of healing medicinal plants. Along our varied paths, guests are immersed in a tropical Eden where they can witness several colonies of sparkling butterflies, chattering monkeys, curious sloths, and other jungle animals. The hum and vibration of the forest are felt throughout the space, welcoming you to slow down and relax into nature’s incredible beauty and grace.The property has a stream or ‘quebrada’ as known in Spanish, that has potent healing powers as well. Rain trickles down from the upper canopy of the forest, passing through many more layers of dense jungle growth, collecting its healing properties from all the medicinal plants as it reaches the vegetation and roots below. Forest soils filter this almost daily rainfall into the crisp and clean ‘quebrada’ that meanders through the center. Our guests bathe in this healing flow and receive love from each plant that the rain has touched when they enjoy their bucket showers.Since we are a small private boutique medicinal plant healing retreat center, we’ve designed the property to create an optimal environment for self-reflection, introspection, growth, healing, and awakening on a very deep level. Each of our Tambos (jungle bungalows) were handcrafted, built, and located with love to provide a quiet yet cozy place for guests to relax and ‘tap back into’ their true essence (nature). The jungle radiates through these beautiful Tambos, and creates a unique and unforgettable experience.We deeply honor our connection with the land that we call home and therefore utilize renewable resources whenever possible. We run completely on solar, compost, and love, far away from the distractions of Western culture and technology. We do our best to farm as much vegetation and protein as we possibly can directly from the land and include them in our ‘dietas’ (ceremonial diets for purification and healing). Each Tambo includes solar power, very comfortable bedding, a showering area, and a compostable restroom to cycle nutrients back into the farm.Through our retreats, we guide guests in aiding their own healing process with one-on-one individualized care. By cleansing and detoxifying the physical body, releasing emotional blockages and toxins, the Ayahuasca and Master Plants of the rainforest help the individual achieve deep realizations and higher states of consciousness. This process can sometimes be challenging, so our experienced shaman and facilitators have the deepest compassion, patience, and love to support our guests while healing. We understand that in healing oneself we are also healing, raising the vibration of, and reuniting humankind. So, we are eternally grateful to you for doing your part of the work!“There is no EPIDURAL for SPIRITUAL BIRTH.” – Linda V. (Australia)Our vision for Rainforest Healing Center is guided by our intention to help others access the healing and tremendous gifts that each of us here at Rainforest Healing Center have received through our work with Ayahuasca and the Master Plants of the jungle. Our goal is a simple one: we want to honor those gifts by making these medicines available, in a safe and intimate way, to others. What sets us apart from other centers is the private and boutique approach we have taken. We screen applicants carefully and only allow up to 10 guests per retreat. We provide private (single or shared) occupancy Tambos to allow guests to receive an intimate yet comfortable stay whether they are on an Ayahuasca retreat or Master Plant Isolation Diet.
ESTEBAN SHANEN MESTA
Esteban started walking with a sacred medicine with this grandfather, Olivero Garcia Shanen who was a respected healer in his community. With his grandfather, Esteban learned with sacred rituals of ayahuasca. At 17, he was initiated to conduct ceremonies jointly with his grandfather. At 24, his grandfather died and Esteban became the official ‘curandero’ or healer of his community
Esteban has done various rigorous Master Plant Diets; Chiric Sanango, Bobinsana, Huayruro, Kamalanga, Uchu Sanango, Chuchuhuasi, Remo Caspi, Ayahuma, Ajo Sacha, Huara Caspi, Pinion Colorado, and the legendary master tree Nihue Rao.
OLINDA NETE AVE
Olinda was introduced into the world of medicinal plants at a very early age, due to the fact that her mother was the ‘curandera’ healer of their community. Olinda has vast memories of people seeking her mother to cure ailments ranging from snake bites to cancer. When Olinda turned 16 years old her mother instead that she would need to pass all the information from their lineage so that Olindo would be able to continue to heal the family and the community. When Olinda was 35 years old, her mother passed away.
She decided to continue the family tradition and to do that she started to do some intense Master Plant Diets; Chiric Sanango, Bobinsana, Pinion Negro, Ajo Sacha, Chullachaqui Caspi, Remo Caspi, Palo Sangre, Punga, Capriona, Tortuga.
Reviews
To review this event, visit the page for the venue or retreat leaders (above).
In light of the very recent suicide that took place at this center by one of their staff members, I would like to warn any would-be guests about attending here.
I used to work at this center a few years ago (I also attended for nearly 3 weeks as a guest). The owner displays many, MANY traits of a sociopath. He emotionally abused his staff (as well as engaging in sex with several of them). The work environment was degrading in so many ways with hardly any time for adequate sleep or self-care, but we all loved the jungle and the medicine which kept us tethered there despite the obvious abuse. I encourage more people to come forward with what they saw because I know there are a lot of other people who witnessed the darkness there.
Why am I only now coming forward? Because I just found out that a facilitator at RHC has recently stabbed himself to death there and I can’t keep quiet anymore. I will probably be personally attacked for this comment, and I am shaking as I write this… but sometimes you have to speak out, no matter how hard it is. Wishing peace to this soul and his family…
If you would like confirmation about what I have written here and additional infomation, please check out the center’s facebook page and read the comments on my review.
STAY AWAY. This center just had a death. And it's absolutely heartbreaking that the death was a facillitator who committed suicide DURING a ceremony. There are numerous stories coming out now on facebook now and already floating around in the ayahuasca community about the owner, Omar Gomez (an alias by the way. His real name is William Feldman), and his emotional and sexual abuse of staff and guests. I myself was briefly a staff member before I left in disgust.
He reaches out to female guests after retreats and tries to lure them to his home for visits and has tragically slept with many of them. This is taking advantage of women still under the influence of ayahuasca.
That a facillitator committed suicide during a ceremony speaks volumes as to the lack of safety, screening and competence happening at Rainforest Healing Center. I feel so much compassion and grief for that poor young man's family. What happened to him was in no way his fault.
I had thought about Ayahuasca for years, I know one of the founders of RHC so when I felt it was my time, there was no question on where I would go. I had no idea how lucky I was! I’ve heard horror stories of bad experiences at other retreats and I can only imagine how hard it must be to make a decision based on online reviews and pictures! All I can say is that this is your place! You can stop looking! There are so many wonderful things to say but overall the feeling of love and instant family is what was so surprising to me. I felt safe and cared for in every way. I was given so much individual attention but also time and space to myself to reflect and process. The facilitators Freddy & Nelson genuinely love and support you every step of the way! They listen, offer advice and are extremely knowledgeable and intuitive. They suggest books to read and help you with your intention for ceremonies. I don’t think I could’ve done this without them???????? Kristina is the on-site manager but she is so much more than that! She also offers Kambo and is extremely knowledgeable with that process. She just brings a sweetness to the place:)
Then there are the Shaman… If you ever considered working with Ayahuasca without a shaman please reconsider! Being in the jungle and having the shaman guide you and sing to you during the ceremonies was such a huge part of my experience and journey! They know what they’re doing, they communicate with the spirit and work on every person individually. They work so incredibly hard and are so sweet, happy, gentle and kind. They hug you like you are family and tell you they love you and you feel it. These are not things that can be simulated or faked. This boutique center has a maximum of 8 people to give the best care and attention to everyone. The facilities are somewhat rustic (you are in the jungle) but extremely comfortable and private. It felt rather luxurious compared to what I was expecting ☺️
This is by far the best gift I have ever given myself! I only went for 7 days but I’m already trying to plan my next visit. I made huge progress in just 3 ceremonies but I can’t wait to dive in deeper and learn more!
P.S. the food was delicious!????
I spent a week at the Rainforest Healing Centre, and did three ayahuasca ceremonies. I was quite sceptical before I arrived, but by the time I left, I was in love with the place, and the wonderful staff who work there.⠀
The food, the accommodation, the jungle scenery, the shamans and the support and help given by the facilitators was all top notch. Ten out of ten from me!
I just finished a week retreat at Rainforest Healing Centre in Iquitos, and it was the most amazing, profound, magical, enlightening, emotional, liberating, loving, connecting, intense, relieving, healing, learning, experience of my life.
The shamans, Esteban & Linda, are two lovely elders, a husband and wife couple, from the Shipibo tradition (originally from Pucallpa). They both have open and loving energies, and spend time with each individual person in each ceremony to help them through their journey and emotions, while singing Icaros to them personally, and using their hands to heal and massage if there is a need. They both also sing different Icaros simultaneously throughout the entire ceremony, which sounds magical. I feel extremely lucky to have had the chance to experience their ceremonies, and I now understand how important the shamans are for the process, and the human need for spirituality and connectedness (I was a spiritual skeptic before I came here).
The facilitators, Freddie and Nelson, were amazing too, so much love, support, openness, experience, and non-judgment, they do a lot to help and guide you, and create a safe space for everyone. Kristina also does a lot in the background to make sure the centre running smoothly, and brings a lovely energy to the place, and Rhaya was very helpful in the registration process and preparing for the retreat.
The centre is surrounded by rainforest, so you really feel in touch with nature while you’re there, which enhances the experience; seeing, smelling, hearing the jungle. You also stay your own personal tambo/hut to chill and process your emotions and thoughts freely and in private, without being surrounded by others, as you can’t see or hear other people from your tambo through the forest, so you can really focus on your own journey.
The retreat groups are no more than 8 participants too, so it’s really intimate and you’re not distracted or overwhelmed by many other people’s energies, and you really have time to connect with everyone, including the shamans, facilitators, and other people attending the centre.
I was able to work through a number of my fears and anxieties while there, and gained a lot of insight and knowledge, but it would have been better to stay longer, three ceremonies feels like you’re just getting into it. I’m already planning my next trip out there for a longer period of time.
Going there was the most positive, life changing, and loving thing, I’ve ever done for myself. I got things out of it that I didn’t even know I needed. I would HIGHLY recommend the Rainforest Healing Centre, what a magical place.
Stop looking, because you've found the right place...
It was an intense and profound experience, in the safest environment possible. The jungle surrounds you with it beauty, while you have the right amount of time by yourself to reflex on your Ayahuasca experiences.
Its hard to put it all into words....
Just go and you will feel it is my advise. So much hearth space and love surrounds everything about this place, the facilitators are truly amazing and the Shamans truly magical.
Just go, I promise you that you will not regret it one second.
The Rainforest Healing Center is home. I spent a long time in the process of deciding where I wanted to attend my first Ayahuasca retreat but something kept bringing my back to the RHC, I felt its warmth even through the words and pages online. So I took the leap and am infinitely grateful because of it!! My experience is tough to quantify in words but the people at the center and the space they create and hold is magic for such deep healing. I felt safe, guided, cared for, loved and for the week I spent there it became home. I did three ceremonies and each time was able to really dive deep into my intention with the help of the staff who really became such beautiful family! They were catalysts for such growth and self-reflection and to me, were guides pushing me in the right direction back to myself always respecting the gentle nature of the work. It can be an overwhelming process working with medicine like this but never did I feel I didn’t have guidance. I was also empowered to use my own guidance system and felt lovingly shown how to step into my independence. Because of the intimacy of such a small group we too became medicine for each other, family forever. Love and care are poured into everything, the massively nourishing meals, the integration talks, the helpful tips, and the medicine as its being provided. Everything so well thought out from the day to day activity to the sacredness and attention put into the ceremonies that my only focus was put on why I was there. My healing. The space is beautifully built, peaceful, secluded yet wild and free! It flows with the wild of the jungle and creates a natural, harmonious, freeing, heart filed way of being! The accommodations were so comfortable and I was given my own space for reflection, feeling held and secure yet free and independent with my time to my own. The RHC is home, it is a beautiful sacred space for medicine work. I am grateful for all of the staff, the shamans, the love poured into every piece and part of their mission and for their deep respect and honor of the vine and the traditions. I am forever changed by my Ayahuasca experience with this center and cannot wait to return!! I love you guys!!Thank you for guiding in opening my heart and expanding my mind!
I'm sitting down to write this review with a full heart. I have just returned from my first experience with ayahuasca through a 7 day retreat with Rainforest Healing Center and I would like to say a couple things to anyone who is looking to make a decision on where to do the same. Ayahuasca is a powerful medicine that should not be taken lightly and can change your life in many different ways. RHC does the best possible job at respecting this and doing everything in their power to promote healing during your journey. If you're looking to drink ayahuasca, you've found your place.
The communication and information given before leaving for the retreat is outstanding. RHC gives you so much support and so many tools to prepare you for the transformation to come. With recommendations for time in Iquitos, suggestions on prices so you don't get ripped off, recommendations for nice hotels, they have you feeling comfortable and confident leaving for Peru. The facilities are as good as you could hope for in the Amazon. Truly amazing spaces for relaxing, reflecting, processing. Someone is always available to talk to. The common area and kitchen is warm and inviting and allows you to relax in times of healing. The attention to needs and care is unmatched.
The main thing that stands out about this facility is the love. You create a family when you come to RHC. Everyone of the facilitators makes you feel loved and are there to listen and reflect with you. I don't know what my experience with ayahuasca would have been without these amazing people to lead me through the process. I am so grateful for what these beautiful souls have created and even more grateful for opening it up to those who need it. I would give 100 stars to Rainforest Healing Center if I could. 10/10. Just amazing.
It has been a few months since I was in the jungle. I wanted to wait to write this to share what has changed for me as a result of this beautiful experience and connection.
Firstly I felt the Rainforest Healing Centre (RHC) is a sacred, safe space - where all of the workers/healers are protective, loving, respectful and know there stuff. The jungle is breath-taking, wild and free, just being there allowed me the space and time to focus on what is important. At the centre the water and food is clean and fresh, detoxing. The centre feels like home and especially with the dogs and cats and a monkey running around :-)
I had two ceremonies with the Master Vine. Both times the ceremony space (due to the facilitators and healers), was safe and contained, very reassuring. I also did a Master Plant Diet with Bobinsana, wow! The experience of connecting with these plants and allowing for support and transformation was like nothing I have ever felt. They have allowed me to see different possibilities to situations that were previously thought and felt helpless to change or think differently about. This has been the best gift I have ever received.
Since being back a situation that dominated my life (in a negative way), has resolved. I believe this is because I was finally able to allow it to, after my experience in the Jungle. I have also resolved a few bad daily habits that were making me unhealthy. Being able to reset in the Jungle helped me to break the cord to these habits just enough to make the change.
Of course it has not been all smooth sailing and I have gone back and forth with some other bad habits (especially in times of stress). But the lessons from the retreat are not far from my mind. I know that I have something within that I did not have before. So I can keep moving forward and changing what I need to. After the retreat I have also reached out to RHC and received the support I needed which helped me to refocus.
I would recommend this incredible place to anyone who wants to go. I hope I am lucky enough to go back again. Forever Grateful xx Jasmine.
After my 11 day retreat in the Rainforest Hearing Center I have no doubts for plan medicine. I went there scared, angry, confused, tired, exhausted almost giving up on life from all the damage & pain experienced since I have memory. After being sexually assaulted by different family members from my mothers side, Mentally and physically broken by my own father was enough for my whole being to know that this is not how life should be for anyone. I kept everything to my self for 21 years, bubbling, heating up and getting heavier I had to take a quick decision for my self and thats when a really good friend had shared about her experience in this magical place. The energy that surrounds the facility is extremely safe and the employee are truly respectful & helpful. I did 5 ceremonies and 3 of them gave me exactly what i needed physically to get over all the mental damages and traumas. In the first ceremony I was being naive and waiting to feel the medicine after a full cup, but my body was being resistant. Heather nicely told me “you came here to do to work with the medicine if you do not feel her you need to drink a second time to fully work with her” which helped me for my next ceremony. Being alone became natural when noticing that I am part of everything.
During the days it was super important for me to not be dependent on any company from others as I wanted to be more independent and love my self, enjoy my self for who I am. Ayahuasca helped me find more than I was expecting. She let me understand how staying in the past is throwing your present away and not fully enjoying it to the fullest. The second ceremony was my first glimpse of life as she physically made me feel how she put me apart and fix every part of my heart and body putting me carefully together without hurting. After that night I felt how little by little i was giving me self love by reading, showering more often, writing and not truly thinking of what happen to me in a negative expression. Last and most important letting go of that horrible past that almost end my life in 2014-2015. I was dancing every morning in my tabu and still dance in my home. Feeding my self the right way at the right time and expressing my love for being alive and brave enough to take this journey.
Anne such a beautiful soul she truly help me understand so much of life. She’s extremely loving and can be rough when you need it { I mean this in the most helpful way. sometimes we need to hear the truth from a different perspective that is not yours} she guide me and basically gave me more therapy using such a beautiful vocabulary where you are able understand and reflect. Heathers energy also helped me in such a different way i felt very comfortable because of her honesty with life experiences. She read my tarot cards and also discussed all my dreams for 11 days!!! I went to RHC for plant medicine and left with a two beautiful friendship that i hope it last forever. The staff was so loving and caring. Olinda and Esteban gave me all the attention that i needed because i was lucky to be in a very small group and had 3 wonderful ceremonies alone. I was grateful for the food and for the creek shower every day where butterflies flew around me constantly making me smile and forgetting about everything.
Coming back to my reality being grateful for everything that has happen and for all the things that lead me to this wonderful center and plant medicine. I love my self more than ever and now I can truly focus in my life and Partner who has been supporting me since day one. Its hard work and I know from the day I left the center my choices have change for the better!
I had the sweet opportunity to meet and connect with Omar it wasn’t long yet I know our paths will cross again in the near future. He was caring and loving I truly can’t wait to see him again.
I can truly sit here give you 1000 reason why everyone in their lifetime should visit this facility yet i can’t find not one reason on why should you not. Plant medicine is so powerful and enlightening. Clean and REAL but you will only deserve it when you are truly ready to do the work to accept all your flaws and to become a better person for yourself.
I feel free, light & Happy with my decision! Still apologizing to my self & my body for all those years i spent hurting.
Thank you Ayahuasca, Rainforest Healing Center and Omar for allowing this place to feel safe for the ones that truly need safety.
You will always be part of my heart and journey because of you I can see life for what it is…. BEAUTIFUL
Seriously, your search is over. This place is home; there is simply no other way to put it. This was my first time working with Aya, but I doubt that I will ever work with another centre. Every facet of this place is so incredibly full of love and respect on the highest of levels and this absolutely made my [first] experience with the Vine.
I can honestly say that my experience with Chakra - the land and all of the people involved here - was just as, if not more so, healing as my experience with the actual plants. I've spent a long time pondering this review largely because I don't feel that human words are an adequate expression of the gratitude that I have for these people and this place. It’s all I can do to resist booking my plane ticket back “home” again, lol.
From the first point of contact, you can tell just how deeply everyone at Chakra cares about your wellbeing on all levels; expect to be thoroughly questioned about all aspects of your health/life to ensure that you are the right fit for this place and in a good space to do this kind of work, if the application wasn't already clear on that! Every member of their team treats you with the most genuine love and respect from day one, even the workers.
This is not just a retreat, you become part of a family that just keeps growing. You are being initiated into a very heart-centred way of being. This place is authentic and deep integrity is at the heart of all the work they do which helps you to let go and trust in your experience on a deeper level, which is so incredibly important. Here, you are held every step of the way while also empowered to find/utilize your own power and independence within this work. We had time with our facilitator pre and post-ceremonies to help thoughtfully prepare for and integrate our work - this was so helpful and they’re definitely doing this right. Same thing goes for the small groups; this allows you to connect more intimately with your fellow humans and your experience. These things were SO key.
Everyone here holds a deep place in my heart - Omar, Viviana, the workers, the fellow retreat participants - and I won't go into details but a special shoutout to Eddy and Cristina....wow. These two really have a special way of bridging the gap between professionalism/guidance and friendship. Feeling like I had friends holding my hand along this journey was so very helpful.
Even afterwards I had found myself in a tough spot on a few levels and I reached back out to Chakra…let’s just say that they helped me more than I ever could have imagined simply out of the goodness of their hearts - again, especially Cris and Eddy. So much wow.
I could go on for ages talking about how beyond amazing this place is but instead I’ll finish up with a little blurb on the amazing land and our accommodations. Man, what absolute paradise. It was definitely a trek traveling between our tambos and meals, etc., but the walk really helps you to appreciate the healing beauty of the jungle around you. You’re situated out in the middle of the womb of Mother Earth in all her glory. For being out in the jungle, your home for the retreat is unbelievable luxury and peace. Being in the midst of the beautiful chaos of the forest will lull you to sleep every night.
Long story, short… Just jump. You will be supported. Sending all reading this so much love on your journey.
My experience at the Rainforest Healing Center was profound.
First there is a Connection with the jungle and all the energy and beauty possesses. At the same ntime you also disconnect from the outside world of social media, internet and distraction. This alone is worth the price of admission.
You feel like your in another time and place yet there are enough comforts like nice sleeping tambos, private bathing and toilets, clean drinking water, lights ( tambos) and good healthy meals. There is even a bathtub which can be filled with herbs and flowers as you gaze at the stars. It took me a few days to really acclimate to the jungle, especially at night. It’s an otherworldly experience listening to the jungle and it’s night sounds.
The Maloca( where ceremonies take place) is a work of art, built by a master Maloca builder. You can feel the spiritual energy and is a perfect conducive place for inner work.
The Shamans Olinda and Estaban ( husband &wife) are blessed with inner abilities and are there to watch , heal and diagnose the plant energy’s. Their presence is key to having a good and healing journey.
The staff are all there to assist you in making sure you needs are met both on a comfort level as well as an emotional/ spiritual level.
Now of course it’s the Medicine I came for, but without a set and setting I believe, and many people much wiser than me also agree, is the key to unlocking the wisdom of Mother Aya.
If you come with Intention, Love, openness and an Active Imagination you will discover, and heal.
I highly recommend Rainforest Healing Center as your place to connect.
Peace and Love to all, Namaste.
It's been two weeks now, since I left Rainforest Healing Center after an eleven day Ayahuasca retreat.
My husband and I also did Ajo Sacha and Kambo. With all my heart I can say this: If you are a novice and are seriously thinking about doing Ayahuasca, then I recommend doing it here. I felt completely secure and taken care of, down to the smallest details. Because the truly important tings for such a serious endeavor are taken care of with such depth and dedication, with LOVE in other words, by everyone at RHC- even the tough moments which are inevitable when one is serious about self healing- became so meaningful and rich.
Just the place itself, deep inside the jungle felt like such a help. Under the canopy of trees and plants, the sounds and life of everything that surrounds you there are in fact helpers :) I had my own tambo and loved it. I slept like a baby. The bed was very comfortable and the mosquito netting worked perfectly- in fact I didn't get a single bite my whole stay! Almost weird. The compost WC, the bucket baths- ok, I'm Norwegian and used to simple cabin life with no running water and compost wc- but I can honestly say it was a luxury, very peaceful. The food is prepared with the obvious ayahuasca dieta- restrictions in the lovely kitchen/casa, and the cook does a great job. Writing a review of this place is bit strange, because I feel so much love and gratitude towards the whole staff who made it all possible, because this beautiful place truly deserves its name Rainforest H e a l I n g Center. The dedication of the facilitators and shamans was something the whole group, my husband and I most definitely included, were struck by. We had the luck to participate in the harvesting of chacruna leaves; and partake in the whole process of making the ayahuasca brew we used in ceremony, to replanting the Mother Vine the next day.
The ceremonies were conducted with the utmost feeling of respect and care. Pre ceremony we all had intention settings one- on- one with our facilitator. I mustn't gush too much; suffice to say I'm still stunned by how much that helped the whole experience and my personal healing. The solo processing after each ceremony was equally important for understanding and integrating the experiences. Highest quality support are words that can be used to describe this. The shamans... a whole little book could be written about them. Straight people! Totally dedicated, totally natural. They led the ceremonies like the great Maestro and Maestra they are. They even led the 'Camino del Tigre' jungle walk and showed us incredible plants. Their knowledge is vast and so is their humor!
The Ajo Sacha and Kambo ceremonies were such a great additional help, each in their unique way. I'm a kambo lover for life now,
I miss RHC. I will always cherish it and what I experienced and learned. I hope I can come back.
Thank you! Thank you Omar, Christina, Anne, Heather... for each being and smile and gesture. Thank you to the staff! Thank you to the dogs and cats and the monkey- and to the majesty herself: The jungle.
This is truly a special gem on this planet! I went to the Rainforest Healing Center back in March on a recommendation from a friend. With ayahuasca being so popular these days, it was really important for me to find a place where i could have the most authentic healing experience. From the very start, upon my arrival, everyone was extremely caring. The group was small and everyone was there to resolve something in their lives. Prior to my trip i started speaking to Omar for quite some time. His dedication and guidance was so helpful and i really felt he was doing everything from his heart. I was very impressed with the amount of information, guidance and dialogue i received. He went out of his way to be there for us in any capacity. I felt comfortable and ready to embark on this important journey. The RHC is really made out of love and everyone involved is there because they believe in the healing power of the vine and other plants. There is a deep respect for nature and a careful selection of who they work with, what you eat, and the sessions you have. We had the most incredible shaman couple who gave their hearts into every ceremony with such power and compassion, its hard to describe. I cannot imagine a better place for such an important and delicate experience. i will definitely be back and i highly recommend it to anyone interested in a true healing experience.
with great gratitude,
magda
I could spend hours writing about how incredibly breathtaking, loving and refreshing the entire process and experience was from the moment I made first contact with the staff at the Rainforest Healing Center until the present day-weeks after my return.
Love, gratitude and kindness is at the center of it all! They truly are involved with every individual as well as the group as a whole. Your comfort, security and well-being are their top priority. From the beginning stages of the “pre-purge” to the day you leave the center, and even beyond, they are there for you in every possible way; from the cleanliness, maintenance of the property, quality of food, friendliness of every staff member (seen and unseen i.e. laundry and housekeeping) and even the animals living there, I felt like I was with a loving family.
You CAN NOT go wrong by choosing the Rainforest Healing Center. Not only is the cost great, but the value far exceeds what you would expect.
If you’re reading this, look no further. You will feel at peace, make connections to last a lifetime and walk away only to leave a piece of your heart there.
5 star service and experience.
To any of the staff reading this, much love and gratitude.
My time at the Rainforest Healing Centre was quite literally life changing.
There isn't much more to be added onto that statement really; the profoundness of life, the gratitude to the earth.. the love of all living things are all learned here.
I really do hope you give yourself this gift and find this place.
You'll thank yourself forever.
You are probably reading this review because you have decided to work with a vary powerful medicine and you know this will be a life changing experience so you want to make sure you are choosing the right place. I can almost read your mind .... will these guys rip me off, will the Shaman be a genuine curadero, will I be left alone to face it all.... Well you can stop searching now, you have found it! The RHC is a place were you will feel safe, looked after and loved ..... super loved. I did the 11 days retreat in March 2018 and these guys changed my life.
The shamans I worked with were absolutely amazing, very knowledgable, loving, approachable and at times very funny. The staff , from facilitators to the cook, amazing!!! loving, caring people to say the least. I miss you all and thank you again for all your help. Eddy, Cristina, Cody you have taught me so much and I can never thank you enough. The place itself is beautiful and super well looked after. Conservation is a number 1 priority. This is what made me love RHC even more.
One piece of advice, trust them and follow their instructions. They know what they are talking about and only want the best for you.
RHC you are the best!
Choosing to attend the Rainforest Healing Center has been one the greatest gifts I have ever given myself and also has been one of the most incredible experiences of my life. The healing center is located smack dab in the middle of the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest and is a sight to behold. The sights, the smells, the feelings of awe and oneness with nature are difficult to describe in words. The staff went above and beyond in working with us and helping us and guiding us through the process of working with plant medicine and working on ourselves. They treated us with so much kindness, compassion and love and they truly gave themselves to us in order to facilitate our own healing. I am still in awe at the generosity and selflessness that my facilitators showed to me and the group.
The Healing center is aptly named and it truly has helped me in dealing with and coming to terms with many issues that have plagued me for my entire life such as issues pertaining to self love, fear and insecurity. It is a perfect and safe space to unplug from the modern world and go inside and do the deep cleaning work that is required if one wants to unburden themselves from the things that are no longer serving them in life. I could not recommend this healing center enough and I will forever be in deep gratitude to Omar, Eddie, the Shamans and the guests who truly helped me open my heart to the love and beauty that is in everyone of us and that surrounds us at all times.
With much love and gratitude in my heart,
James
I highly recommend Chakra Alegria de Amor AKA the Rainforest Healing Center to my friends, to my family (parents, grandparents, you name it!!!), and - of course - to you! I attended an 11-day retreat, and every step of the process before, during, and after has led me closer to self and to source. After decades of suffering from C-PTSD, I learned to release ALL symptoms. No more panic attacks, night terrors, or avoidance behaviors… just a deep sense of self-acceptance, forgiveness, and safety. Oh - and community!!! The shaman and his apprentice check on my daily, the guests from my retreat cheer me on whenever I need support with integrating, and the administrators continue showing and sharing their love and support. Now, one week after my retreat, many people (coworkers, peers, and even strangers) tell me, “You look so happy!!” Though the joy is palpable, that was never the point. I just wanted to feel *human* - and, fortunately, that was exactly what I needed (all guests get what they need). This healing center will make sure that your body, mind, and spirit are loved and protected. You will have countless opportunities for practicing sustainability, leading your own healing, respecting plants and animals, and compassionately witnessing yourself and others. Thanks to this healing center’s facilitators and plant medicines, I am proudly pursuing a heart-centered approach to life, and death, and everything in between ????.
The entire team at Rainforest Healing Centre went above and beyond during the 11 day Ayahuasca Retreat. Rather than feeling like a guest, it felt like I was apart of a big family.
The healing, awareness, and removal of blocks that I experienced during ceremony was so profound that I've been inspired to one day right a book. If I could describe the retreat in one line, "50 years of deep therapy in 5 ceremonies" would sum it all up. It’s been almost a week since I last drank and the effects of the medicine is still unfolding. It feels like there has been a huge weight lifted off my soul and I can fully breath to my capacity.
The Shaman, Don Joel was a 70+ y/o humble man who went out of his way to heal us with extra plant medicines, sacred baths, and special healing rituals. It was a nice bonus that was unexpected. We even got to be apart of the harvesting and brewing of the medicine.
The facilitators Esadora & Karin, made me feel safe and protected in the extreme jungle environment. What sets RHC apart is their intention setting and post ceremony integration meetings with the facilitator. Sometimes it felt like "1000 bricks” were dropped on my head and I had no idea what just happened. It was nice express my deepest insights, insecurities, and even doubts with someone who I fully trusted.
The supporting team made sure the tambos (huts) were clean and filtered water jugs filled. The tambos were nestled deep in the jungle for a truly authentic, peaceful and private jungle experience. A big thank you goes out to the extra helpers and chefs that kept us fed on the Aya-dieta and made sure the days went by smoothly.
I highly recommend RHC to anyone who is seeking deep healing and a transformation on a soul level. I loved the small and intimate feeling of the retreat. After participating in the small group setting (8ppl), I don't know if I would ever go back to big groups of 25. I left the centre with a big smile, and I’m going to miss everyone!
-Eddy Phimphrachanh
Hi there,
It’s been a little over a month ago now since I have left Rainforest Healing Center. This is a very aptly named. These people are serious about healing!
For instance there are free bi weekly integration meetings for past guests over the internet. That are very helpful in helping to adjust to our busy lives back home.
I won’t write much about the amazing facilities and staff, as they are just fantastic and already well-described in other guests’ reviews.
Everything is very professionally run by people who genuinely care and love what they are doing, something that really shows. I was really fortunately to receive a very generous family discount, otherwise I would not have been able to attend. Despite this, my opinion is in no way affected by this very kind act. This alone shows to me that this place is set up for helping people and not as a money maker. It shows in all the details of the centre.
The one word that keeps popping up to describe RHC is ‘sincere'.
For a place as alien and challenging to city slickers as the jungle can be, great efforts have been made by the staff to make it as comfortable as it can get. It still is no 5-star luxurious resort and it will never be that. It’s arguably a far richer experience than that! I personally had no issues being comfortable whatsoever.
I have attended the 11-day ayahuasca retreat with added Ajo Sacha dieta for integration purposes. All I can say that it has done more for me than years of trying to find help for my issues (a mix of generalised anxiety, mild burnout and PTSD) here in the West, which I felt is just not available. And where the standard suggestion always seems to be to take some antidepressants, which I have always kindly declined.
Deep down inside I knew that the root of my issues was trauma, regardless if it was caused by others or myself while being in a less conscious state. I had enough of these issues hampering my ability to live a full and satisfying life based on my own terms. I realised I had to go deep inside and get a more complete understanding of my condition and being.
For me the retreat was the way. It is like the reset button has been pressed and I can start rebuilding myself anew—not being hampered by old trauma, and with greater awareness and consciousness. This is the real work that needs to be done and still is ongoing. And although the healing centre could/would never claim that they can heal, for legal reasons, take my word for it that it really does. Thanks to my time in the jungle I have managed to kick unhealthy habits such as drinking too much alcohol and caffeine, having a poor diet, and not exercising.
I fully realise that I have been given this fantastic opportunity to change my life for the better and am now able to take full responsibility for my own well-being, something that I was not able to do to this extent before. This in itself has been very empowering. I am really grateful for this whole experience and am already able to experience moments of deep happiness and inner peace that I had never imagined possible.
In hindsight it is the best investment in myself that I could have ever made. Even at full price it would have been.
I have attended RHC last May and I went for a 10 days retreat.
the place is absolutely amazing. you're surrounded by beautiful, big trees and plants. There's an atmosphere of peace and tranquility. The whole area is absolutely safe day and night so there's nothing to worry about really.
I cannot be grateful enough about the Ayahuasca experience. I felt so much better once I left. But I have to admit it , I realised its wonderful benefits in full only when i returned home, back to the everyday life.
Mother ayahuasca helped me reconnecting with who i really am and with people too.
She helped getting rid that strong ego I built over the years,and a lot of my fears.
I feel more positive towards life. I am more grounded and focused, more compassionate and caring with people.
The ceremonies in the Maloca are magical in the real sense. every ceremony is different and the outcome varies all the times, but I can guarantee is for the good and the best for you. The Shaman is a humble man and the Icaros he did sing boosted the whole experience during the ceremonies. He doesn't talk much but he definitely knows what he is doing. :)
I am glad the centre hosts a few people only. And this is one of the reason why I picked RHC.
The facilitators played an important role. They supported me and the rest of the group by planning individual meetings to talk about the intentions, the way we felt , the ceremony feedback, suggestions and more.
The food was simple, delicious as well as nutritious. it was beyond my expectations!
Thanks Omar for building this beautiful healing centre and a big thanks to the facilitators ,especially Eren and Muri.
They made sure we had a great stay. and that's what happened.
So far, the best experience of my life.
Much love.
I cannot speak highly enough about this center and the people who work there. I was guided and supported from the moment I had my interview to attend the retreat in July. I had various issues with my flights from being delayed to being cancelled, but Karin and the team never let me feel alone. They were communicating with me the whole time to make sure I arrived safely. This helped to start the retreat off on a good note for me. We all lived like a family, no one was more superior than the other. We were all one.
The center is so beautifully organized and built. The huts were very spacious and comfortable. There was enough space for you to put your stuff away and an amazing bed to sleep on too.
There is a lot of space for you to have 'me' time with a beautiful view and the sound of the jungle...the jungle really does not sleep! The toilet and bath facilities are great considering you are in the middle of the jungle. And the flower bath just topped up the day.
The ceremonies were so beautifully organised and managed. As this was my first time with Ayhuaska, I was nervous and anxious however the meetings I had with the facilitators before and after the ceremonies helped me to relax, accept, understand and surrender. I also participated in the Sapo/Kambo ceremony whilst I was there. I would have liked to see more ceremonies with other plant medicines such as Cacao and San Pedro. But I believe this is something they are looking at right now.
I would definitely go back to this centre again, and next time I do, I will do an isolation retreat.
I did two Ayahuasca ceremonies in the Netherlands and two in Portugal. In June this year I went for the first time to Peru to do a ten day Ayahuasca retreat with 5 ceremonies at RHC Chakra Alegria.
Both, Netherlands and Portugal, was a nice experience for me but only after Peru I really understand what Ayahuasca can do for you and how powerful this medicine is. It is comparing amateur football with Champions League!
RHC wants to heal people and that’s why they will only accept maximum 8 guests so that every person can get the full attention of the manager, it’s staff and the Shaman.
The location is perfect, each Tambo stands alone while they’re spread over the property. A bucket shower is like a blessing, your day will start happy! ???? Because of the more than 120 plants on the domain, the water is from an unheard quality, your hair will feel softer, your skin looks better.
It’s not easy to prepare a good and delicious meal with the restrictions of the Aya diet but at RHC they manage to do so, food is of good quality and it is tasty.
I want to say once more: ‘Thank you very much Murielle’
Murielle is the manager at RHC and she is a fantastic person, dedicated her life to help others.
She travelled throughout the world, has passed her exam at the University of Life Cum Laude and in my opinion, that makes her the perfect person to run RHC and help the guests.
The Shaman was not only a nice person but also very professional, His brew was of high quality and he led the ceremonies in a very good way. Once the ceremony is finished, between midnight and 1 am, everyone sleeps in the Maloca, the Shaman and one of the staff will sleep there as well, so they will not leave you alone. As you can see at RHC they really care about you!
The rest of the staff and the volunteers, all nice and friendly people, all there to help you, also a big thank you to all of you.
And don’t forget Karin, she’s the one you will meet first via Skype. I spoke to her for 1 ½ hour, I immediately had a good feeling and no doubts about the quality of RHC. Thank you as well.
Conclusion: If you’re serious about healing and looking for a professional center I can recommend RHC Chakra Alegria with confidence and with all my heart. You don’t have to look any further.
I was in the isolation tambo, I was bathed in the love and light. I can see so many spirituality from the deep of the jungles. I can feel them touch me and my body, they are dancing and smoke the smudging that I can smell them. It is very peacefulness and love, the jungles have bought me into healing and peace. And during in my kambo frog, my third eye exploded and brung the beauty out of jungle that left me in awestruck of their beautiful. I want to be lost into their dreams of jungles with the ancestors and the kingdom. Ayahuasca drink that healed and bought me out of my childhood death that won't let me go, I have been fought for long time. The mother of vine broken the chain and bounded me from the death. I have been freed from the virus since age two. I have been transformed from kambo frog, uchu Sanango and ayahuasca. I feel so wholeness and I am!
Just booked flights for my 2nd trip back over (from Australia) for this December coming. Considering my 1st stay with you was only 6 months ago, in December 2016, clearly I can’t wait to get back. Last time I was lucky enough to travel over with my bestie and this time I get to bring my partner as well.
Knowing what the healing space at Chakra Alegria De Amor has challenged and nourished within me, I feel grateful to be returning again and paying it (the love, light and healing) forward so soon.
Anyway, in my revived excitement about returning, I felt compelled to revisit and reread your website… through the eyes of a now past guest… and I can tell you it kicked me right in the feels. Why? Because what you write about Chakra Alegria De Amor and how you portray it to be, is actually the truth. How beautiful is that?! See you lot again soon! xx
I was fortunate enough to have spent a whole month at RHC because my best friend Karin is a team member there. For the first two weeks I was there as a volunteer, helping getting the center ready for the next group. During this time I had my private tambo, which was fantastic! The location of Tambo de Luz is spectacular because you look down on the rainforest and the bathing area is just mind-blowing. You’re in the middle of pristine rainforest and especially towards dusk you can feel peace descend on the forest and the daytime creatures make room for the nocturnal creatures. This changing of the guards takes a good hour in which there is tremendous peace, which gave me a feeling of deep connection with nature and myself.
I also want to tell you a little bit about my retreat. I was with a really nice group of people, very intimate, which was perfect for me. In Holland I had participated in a few large ceremonies of over 40 people but I quickly realised that this wasn’t for me at all. So the intimate group size and the feeling of brother and sisterhood you have with your fellow retreat-goers and the staff is priceless.
The facilitator Muri helped me set my intentions for each ceremony. I couldn’t have wished for a more loving person to walk me through my journey!! We had an amazing connection and she recognised many of the things I was dealing with, so she was a great support. Setting an intention before going into ceremony was a new experience for me, and I wished I had known about the importance of it before. In ceremony, it helped me a lot to direct my attention to the issues I wanted to work on. When I purged, I knew exactly what I was purging, which helped me heal my issues much more deeply. The shaman was another essential factor in my experience at the center. I felt a very strong connection with him, which was enhanced when I lay next to him in ceremony twice. Listening to his icaros released an array of emotions in me; comfort, joy, the feeling of being held, but also the push I needed to purge. His venteadas, or private sessions with me in ceremony, were so powerful! They would induce another wave of release in my ceremony.
I wholeheartedly recommend RHC as a safe, warm and breathtakingly beautiful center in the middle of the Amazon. The staff and shaman are very loving and were always there for me. I am going back this year to continue my healing journey in this home away from home!
We absolutely loved our time here. The jungle is a special place and the people here are too. We were treated with respect and true kindness through out our time here. The people here truly care about you and your healing. You will receive one on one guidance throughout your process. I found this to be invaluable; starting from before we arrived in Peru to after our retreat. You are an individual, going through a unique experience and the people at Chakra Alegria understand that and will be there to support you during your journey. Would recommend and would return.
Have been back a week now from spending 11 days in the Jungle at Chakra Alegria De Amor, aka Rainforest Healing Center. I've scanned the other reviews here, and wholly endorse their enthusiasm. I've considered myself almost a professional skeptic most of my life. I was concerned at the time, cost, and various forms of self-denial that this trip would require; mostly concerned that it would amount to chasing rainbows. But desperation drove me to give it a try... and it was all I (the inner me, beneath the skeptic that has run my life) had hoped. In short, it was really, really (REALLY) hard, and so worth it. The people, (Eren, Muri, Omar, Juan) were amazingly genuine, open, caring, and insightful. It wasn't just singing kum-ba-ya; was real, transformative, work. I have a hard time seeing how a club-med version could deliver the same. Also- the small group size they have at one time was... wonderful. We weren't cattle, or 'patients'; we had time to get to know each other, and the staff, which in turn allowed for impactful relationships to form. I'm so thankful to Omar for creating this space, and to Eren, Muri, and Juan for... sharing themselves. They say it's a non-profit, and it clearly clearly is. It's a labor of love for them all, and it shows. If you go, you'll be challenged, but if you're really seeking healing, and are open to it, you won't be disappointed. I know in our group, we all have come away knowing this: We were in the right place.
Professional, safe, supportive and genuine. Those four words would be my summary of my 10 day retreat at the Rainforest Healing Center (Chakra Alegría de Amor, Joy of Love Farm) in December 2016. Highly recommended.
Even though I am a somewhat naïve person in regard to either therapy or hallucinogens, this experience was profoundly beneficial. Whilst an individual journey, I am thankful for the participant selection process also as I met some truly wonderful people.
The setting of the Peruvian Amazon is idyllic surrounded by more shades of green than you thought possible to house the fluro-blue butterflies, Mojo the colorful parrot etc etc. Other reviewers have described the carefully thought through facilities, which are accurate.
Small groups of eight people maximum allow a personal connection with staff and the shaman. I have heard of other groups where the participants number into the teens or even twenties; I find it hard to understand how there can be any personal connection or personal support with such a large group of people.
The information provided beforehand, whilst not overwhelming, was plentiful and allowed for good preparation. The journey starts when you sign up, not when you turn up. However, once arriving in the middle of the jungle the team very patiently re-iterated the most important information which was key for anyone who felt in unfamiliar territory, either physically in the jungle, or mentally for such an experience. The team offer follow-up afterwards.
It is not a free-ride. People who take ayahuasca can be referred to as 'pasajeros' or passengers, but that is only during the ceremonies. Whilst a magical experience, there are no magic wands with instant solutions, be prepared for some tough mental work. Good setting of intentions is vital, but beware that you may get different answers than what you expect. All extremely positive.
Initially I had been very nervous about making this trip and what my experience might be like. Karin the administrator who interviewed me before I arrived was very helpful and walked me through my uneasiness and what I could expect once there and did her best to quell any fears that I had. But still for me an unknown which could not match what my imagination could conjuour up and did at times play somersaults in my head. I knew we were somewhere special, when after about an hour’s hike through the jungle’s muddy path we arrived at the Chakra Alegría de Amor healing Forest. Before entering we were smudged on the boundary of the centre. The retreat for me started the moment I first went into the Malloka to discuss my intentions. I felt an energy, presence, vibration? I’m not sure what really, because I struggle with these concepts generally. We were looked after and nothing was too much for the people who ran the centre, I would especially really like to thank Christina, Muriel they continously gave so much of themselves to us. Our tambo’s were amazing 360 degrees of jungle views and sounds, bathing in the jungle was an experience I will always hold in my memory. I don’t think I could have found a way to improve the experience. I came here to work on myself and that was the most difficult part, however the hard work was supported so lovingly by the facilitators and the Shaman who’s icaros was enchanting. He also took us into the jungle to find out about the plant medicines and what they were used for. I went for the 7 days as an introduction course, which consisted of 3 ceremonies. I felt contained and very safe here and my ayahausca journey has just begun and I will be going back again as soon as I can for a longer visit to continue where I left off.
There simply aren't enough superlatives to describe Chakra Alegria de Amor and the beautiful people who run it. My wife and I went there for an Ayahuasca retreat as the focal point of our honeymoon in Peru, to help us heal past pain and prepare for the rest of our lives together, hopefully as parents in the near future. We are forever changed by the amazing experiences we had there.
The CAA team couldn't have been more helpful with their online resources in the months prior to going on retreat. Karin in particular was a source of many gratefully-received pieces of advice, and her recommendation of Hotel La Casona was a very good one for the overnight stay in Iquitos, prior to entering the jungle.
Right from the moment we arrived at CAA, and throughout our time there, we felt loved, safe and protected by everyone (everyone being Christian, Cristina, Eren, Juanita, Karin, Muriel, our host Omar, the jungle workers, the jungle Herself and the omnipresent Mother Ayahuasca). The whole experience was magical and cleansing. The people of CAA work so hard to make it the best possible spiritual journey for the guests, with love at the core of everything they do. They are crusaders of light and wisdom with hearts of pure gold.
The land is treated with the highest regard, and the Mother Vine is re-planted abundantly in place of that which is harvested. The medicine is brewed and blessed with love.
The ceremonies themselves are carried out with the utmost respect and integrity. The facilitators genuinely care, and are always there when needed during ceremony. Christian, the shaman, is truly incredible. He has a great wealth of knowledge, experience, and insight. His ritual practices are time-honoured and beautiful, as are his icaros. He has a humble and jovial personality too.
The medicine is potent and I am still processing everything I went through. Suffice to say I feel my personal healing has been accelerated and I have been shown some profound truths.
Ajo Sacha was available as an optional extra, again administered with maximum respect for the medicine and its tradition. Kambo was offered and lovingly applied by Cristina. Lou and I love our Kambo scars! They're a reminder of an amazing journey, both inner and outer. The center also provides Chiric Sanango and Uchu Sanango dietas.
The food, lovingly prepared by the naturally maternal Juanita, was delicious.
The tambos are a delight to stay in! The connectedness with nature is unparalleled and the bucket showers are the most refreshing imaginable.
I would recommend CAA to EVERYBODY, and would also say that it's a fantastic place at which to volunteer. We met Jimbo while we were there, a volunteer and traveler by trade, who was very happy in his work, and was yet another amazingly friendly, kind and helpful presence.
Thank you again, CAA. All of you. Lou and I think you're amazing. We're deeply grateful and always will be.
I could not have asked for a more safe place and for better guidance as I received at my stay in the Rainforest Healing Center, Chakra Alegría de Amor. Going through the experience with Ayahuasca can be the hardest thing you'll ever have to do. So for me I am forever great full for the support, guidance and unlimited love I received during my stay. Not holding back by saying I could not have done the healing I did with (Ayahuasca, kambo and Ajo Sacha) without the wonderful people that work there. So much gratitude and love to every single one. The safety it gives you when everyone that works there knows your name. The intimacy by being a small group so everyone will get noticed, and can be taken care off in the best way possible was so vital to my healing. I hope who ever reads this will have a beautiful and safe journey, Pachamama will guide you with all her love
It was simply such a blesssing to have found the Rainforest Healing Centre. Making my way to the other side of the planet for this pilgrimage literally took years of preparation, consideration and saving. Originally, I had intended on going to another, well known, retreat. However, once I was in the position to make the decision, something made me look even further than I already had. I am so glad that I did. Amidst all of the other recommendations from North American friends (for whom the distance is not so vast) and internet adverstisements there was something about this place that just had me inquire.
From the first conversation with the intake administrator to the first day at the retreat to finally leaving 18 days later (it was an extended stay), the intention and the integrity of the staff involved with this centre really resonated with me. I, and my partner who also attended, felt comtpletely safe and perfectly cared for the whole time. The facilities are very basic but are just what is needed. The food was very simple, healthy, prepared with love and amazing! We still try to emulate a couple of the meals at home. The centre keeps the groups small in number. This provides for a very personal and intimate space where each person's experience, and their safety, can be optimised.
The Rainforest Healing Centre and all of the people involved there are an absolute blessing. We are so very grateful for having had the opportunity conduct our cleansing, grounding, re-setting and healing with them at their beautiful centre.
eep inside the Amazon Jungle, there resides a special place some may call it paradise,. Where all are welcome and treated with the same love and respect and this place is called “Chakra Alegría De Amor”.
What makes this place so special is the staff, the care and attention the love is unparalleled and from the bottom of my heart I cannot thank you enough.
The Ayahuasca retreat with Rebecca Sharman is truly magical and a unique experience, you will never find any experience like it, this is a hidden gem not to be missed.
2 Sharmen’s, the balance of female and male energies, singing Ikaros together in perfect linguistic harmony.
I highly recommend Chakra Alegría De Amor, a place of mystical beauty, love, amazement, animals, true deep healing and a connection you have never felt before. As the transformative energies, cleanse and heal you into a new version of yourself.
- See more at: http://openmindtrips.com/retreats/peru/loreto/iquitos-1/chakra-alegria-de-amor/#reviews
When I decided to go to Peru I spoke with several friends who had been on retreats before, but I wanted my journey to be my own. I wanted to find a center for myself, where it would be a clean slate without any expectations. I found CAA online, and I will admit I was a bit nervous about going. It looked wonderful, but I had never worked with Ayahuasca before, and it felt like taking a huge leap of faith to trust a place and the people there without hearing firsthand that I should. But I took that leap, and I am eternally grateful that I did.
The first thing I really appreciated was the screening process. It gave me confidence that the staff at CAA was as interested in making sure I was a good fit for the center as I was about them. It also helped create the amazing family that I ended up sharing my experience with. Other centers don't have a screening process. You just have to hope that you end up with a group of people with whom you are compatible. But CAA takes that extra step to ensure that you're going to be with like-minded people; ones who are there to share their journey with you and support each other along the way. That is exactly the kind of group I ended up with as a result. Plus, Karin is wonderful :) She was so kind and genuine during our interview, and I knew that if the rest of the staff was anything like her that I had chosen the right place.
I won't go into details about my personal journey while I was there, because everyone's is unique and hearing about my work with the Vine isn't what will help you learn about CAA. I will say that my work was often very difficult for me, and I am so grateful that the staff at CAA is who they are. I don't know that the experience would have been what is was for me if I didn't have them. Yes, the journey is an individual one, and ultimately the work to be done was my own. That's why I appreciate Omar, Matt, and Cristina so much. They allowed me to do the work myself- and pushed me to do it when I needed it- but supported me the whole time. They had such an incredible balance between them as a team. There was softness and compassion, yet they held me accountable and didn't let me off the hook. They were there to hold my hand when I needed it, and there to support me from afar when I didn't. I truly felt like they cared about my experience. When I triumphed, they triumphed.
One of the things I loved about Omar's approach to the experience, was the incorporation of processing. Working with Mother Ayahuasca can be an extremely intense experience, and I think it is incredibly helpful to be able to process the thoughts and feelings that come up with others. Again, the journey is an individual one at the end of the day. It was important that we all spent time processing on our own. And we did. We were encouraged to spend time on our own and given all the time we needed to do so. But I also think it can be beneficial to work through stuff with other people. Omar, Matt, and Cristina, were always available to talk about things with us. And happy to do so. I never felt like a burden when I asked to speak with them. They were all incredibly patient and spent as much time with us as we needed. I am so grateful for their openness and kindness.
In addition to having an amazing team of facilitators, I couldn't have asked for a better curandero. Pedro is one of the kindest souls I have ever met. He is so calm and comforting. He wasn't removed from us like I know some others can be. He spent time with us. He laughed with us. I felt so safe during ceremony knowing he was there to guide us. He also has the best smile I have ever seen and his laugh will make your heart smile.
One of my other favorite things about the experience at CAA (there are a million), is that we were involved in every part of making the Medicine. We picked Chacruna leaves, we beat the vine, we cooked the medicine together, putting everything together by hand. We even got to plant new vine for future generations. It really helped me connect to the process and made the experience that much more meaningful. We did all of those things with Pedro, so it helped us connect with him as well. Omar taught us about the medicine and sat with it with us. Matt even sang to it with us :) Cristina helped us plant the vine. They were there for every part of the process. It was awesome that they were all so involved in our experience.
I wasn't worried about the facility itself, though I give that the highest marks as well. The tambos were incredibly nice and well-kept. The food that our wonderful and awesomely smiley chef, Juanita, prepared for us every day was delicious and nourishing. The staff was so helpful and friendly. They work so hard and always do it with a smile. And the jungle is just beautiful.
I will never forget my experience at CAA- I carry it in my heart every day. I am so grateful to everyone there for sharing my journey with me. And I can't wait to go back :)
So much love to you all!!
I had never done Ayahuasca before and I'm so glad I chose to have this life enhancing experience at Rainforest Healing Center. I was exploring Ayahuasca because, though I felt I had made tremendous self- awareness progress through my bi- weekly therapy, the occasional yoga class I showed up frazzled and late for, and the sea of self help books I would purchase during torturous layovers at the airport, I was still in a lot of pain and inherently knew I had some healing to do. I'm a very busy 40 year old female executive, and I mention that, because my work identity made it a difficult decision to commit to this trip. Was I going to come back a crazy tree-hugging hippie? I'm far too busy for that. Will I release horrible demons and regress to an angry teenager? That sounded dreadful. I was scared, so safety and legitimacy were my top concerns. The rainforest healing center was, in fact, safe, professional, and very high-touch. I'm so happy with the compassionate staff. Their encouragement and reassurance enabled me to work with the ayahuasca knowing I was in good hands.
My 5 recommendations
1. Don't be scared, just go to Rainforest Healing Center. They'll guide you, just get there.
2. The experience may be hard work for you, and you may feel scared or exhausted, but keep going! I did and I'm better for it!
3. It's the jungle, not a resort, "one with nature" takes on a new meaning. Bring enough clothes to wear clean things and bring bug repellent.
4. Try to recognize your ego beforehand, you're going to need to admit it is there, in order to kick it to the curb, so the medicine can work best.
5. Spend time with the staff. They are amazing people. Their mission to combat addiction, depression, and help literally everyone with anything, is real! Don't take ayahuasca with just anyone, at Rainforest Healing Center, they are the real deal, go there, you'll see.
Thank you for reading my review. I hope you make this investment like I did. It makes me happy just to think of you going to The Rainforest Healing Center. You can do it!
I spent 6 of the most life changing, memorable days of my life at the Rain Forest Healing Center in March, 2016. For my first Ayahuasca experience I spent months researching the many retreat centers in Peru. One of the biggest deciding factors in choosing the RFHC was that they only have groups of 10 or fewer at any one time. I am a 53 year old professional women and I wanted my experience to feel very personal. I didn't want to be one of a much larger group. Omar, Cristina and Mat treat you like you're family. They care for you every step of your journey. During ceremony they're at your side if you need them, always close by. After ceremony they are 100% available to talk, cry, laugh no matter how much your need to hash through your thoughts and feelings, they're there.....their support is amazing. Our Shaman, Christian was absolutely wonderful. His Icaros are incredibly powerful and you will never forget the beautiful sound of them. I came away feeling powerful, full of love and my heart is more open than I ever thought possible. I feel my experience was as strong as it was because of the staff. At all times I felt safe, loved and protected. This journey has just begun, I cannot wait to return to continue it with the loving, caring souls of the Rain Forest Healing Center. Thank you Omar, Cristina and Matt.....much, much love!!
Hola! I'm from Ukraine living in Dubai... Just came back from 7 days retreat in rainforest and would like to share my experience..
This is a magic place created with love and care.. Nature is amazing and completely dicnect you from this reality.. But also people.. All of them are big magic ayahuasca family and they are spreading their love on everyone) shearing their kindness support care generosity..
Very important how Matt Omar and Christina are taking care and helping to all guests..during ceremonies and even after (when you need a guidance to help you understand everything what happened with you)..
And how powerful and carying is Shaman! It's unbelievable..????
My ceremonies were amazing..I had a great experience which is hard to describe with words... There are different ways how ayahuasca is healing and teaching you..she knows what is better for everyone and giving her wisdom and magic generously.. I'm so impressed with atmosphere and still in my dreams I'm coming back to the jungles and feel connection with mother Aya...
Thank you so much..for everything you've done and keep doing..
Wish you more and more love inspiration and positive energy..
With love
Antonina????????????
I did a 7 day ayahuasca retreat in January 2016 at Rainforest Healing Center in Iquitos (Chakra Alegría de Amor, The Joy of Love Farm). I had a great experience and highly recommend it. It was my first time, whereas some of my fellow students have done it before, and we all agreed it was an amazing journey. Omar, Christina, and Matt are experienced, caring professionals with a true commitment to guiding their students along the healing process. The shaman Cesar, and his apprentice Jenny, are strong and gentle practitioners of ayahuasca and provided powerful ceremonies for us.
Choosing the right healing center is critical for a good experience with ayahuasca so I signed up for Rainforest Healing Center based on a recommendation from a friend I made at a 10 day silent meditation retreat (Vipassana) in Thailand two months ago.
The staff provided excellent support and guidance throughout the entire process. From their informative website, to the Skype interview process with the administrator Karin in Amsterdam (critical for screening out people who would be disruptive, disrespectful, or just looking for a recreational drug experience), their comprehensive pre-departure briefing materials (covering the dieta, the agenda, the facilities, and other frequently asked questions), to guiding us during the ceremonies (reminding us to focus on our intentions, focus on what we were purging), to helping us process our visions the morning after the ceremonies. The information provided was not only comprehensive but also timely (Karin seemed to anticipate when we'd have what questions). The center reminded us several times that they were still available to us as a resource even after we left, they referred to us as being part of their family and we are encouraged to reach out for more guidance on how to implement the wisdom imparted to us by Mother Ayahuasca.
I did not opt for the ajo sacha but a few in my group did.
The groups are generally limited to 8 participants but my retreat had 10 people, due to overwhelming demand and also Omar's interest in bringing the ayahuasca healing to as many people as possible. Because the screening process results in like-minded, sincere and committed classmates, I was happy there were 10 of us.
The tambos are very large and clean, and the toilet and bathing facilities were also clean and comfortable. The food was good despite the heavy dietary restrictions. Juanita cooks and also does laundry. Leo did a great job looking after our tambos and porting our bags.
The only unpleasant experience I would report would be the mosquitoes, but, well that's the Amazon. Bring double or triple the amount of repellent and after-bite than you think you'd need. The 3 kilometer hike through the jungle to the campus wasn't fun either but most others enjoyed it.
Christina, 34
San Francisco, California
If you’re currently looking for an Ayahuasca retreat, stop looking. You’ve found the right place. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience at the Rainforest Healing Center. Thanks to Karin, Omar, the shamans Pedro and Cesar, Juanita, and the rest of the crew, my life was changed. Trust me, this is the real deal. No tricks here, just unconditional love, respect, and a deep connection with the medicine.
That being said, there’s a reason you found out about Ayahuasca and the Rainforest Healing Center. Trust your gut and go with your intuition. I didn’t find this healing center until last minute, and it was by far the best decision I’ve ever made in my life.
The healing center is absolutely gorgeous! It’s far from town in the middle of the jungle, which is perfect for meditation and connecting with nature. You’ll only find positive energy and love here. The fresh food, hospitality, and everything else are out of this world. It makes for an unforgettable experience! Prices are more than reasonable compared to other retreats, and everything was done professionally with love and care. I felt safe and well taken care of while I was there.
I participated in three ceremonies between December 14-20th, 2015. I learned more than I would in ten lifetimes. By the end of it all, I was cleansed of all the negative energy that affected me before. And the effects are still with me weeks later. I’m happy, more grounded with myself and Earth, more calm, and at peace. I have a new perspective on life. When things get rough, I’m always reminded that everything is going to be okay. Mother Ayahuasca will heal you, and guide you to a better life. Afterwords, the last half of the healing process is up to you.
If you’re ready to change your life for the better, go for it. You won’t regret it.
I’m so grateful for my experience. A huge thanks to Pedro for helping me as much as he did. And a special thanks to Omar and Don Kucho!!! But that’s another story. :)
Much love,
Richard
I recently did 5 Ayahuasca ceremonies and an 8 day dieta of Chirik Sanango at this center, and had a life altering healing experience. The center has a serious and respectful approach, the staff provide helpful guidance about what to expect and also help you process and integrate your experiences. The food tastes great, especially considering it's prepared without salt. The shaman was very helpful, talented and definitely 'the real deal'. The setting was also very powerful with the jungle all around me as I was very cozy in my beautiful tambo. All in all an unforgettable experience...
I learned so much from this center. The owner was friendly and informative with the integration. The staff was wonderful, and I felt safe with the shaman and curandera. I recommend this center for those who are serious about getting healed.
I don’t really know were to start. But the first thing that pops in my head when I think about our experience at Chakra Alegria de Amor (Rainforest healing center) is: WOW..that it was the best thing that happened to me in 3 years of travelling, and even one of the best things in my life. If you are searching around on the web for the perfect Ayahuasca retreat, stop searching further, because you have found it!
When we arrived in Peru a month ago (October 2015). I could not stop thinking about Ayahuasca. I felt an extremely strong urge to do it. I intensely felt I needed this.
Of course I was a bit afraid and nervous. You hear and read so many scary stories about other people’s experiences and about dodgy shamans and centers. So I spend a few days researching on the web. Than I found Chakra Alegria de Amor and knew right away this was the place for me to go. An animal rescue center, small retreat groups, English speaking people, Permaculture farm, Jungle huts and an experienced Shaman, this is what I wanted.
I emailed back and forth with the Lovely administrator Karin (Who is Dutch like me). She answered all questions really quickly and told me everything I needed to know. We were lucky enough that there we two spaces available for the following week and so we started the Ayahuasca diet straight away.
Omar picked us up from Iquitos and together with the other participant we made our way to the Jungle. I felt comfortable straight away because of Omars caring and funny personality. His workers even helped me carrying my bag to the retreat. Which is about a 45min walk into the jungle.
We were greeted by Gaja the dog, Mojo the bird and Zoey the monkey, who became my new best friend during our stay.
Everyone got their own private tamboo, which are placed isolated in the jungle. From the main area, you walk for about 10 mins over beautiful paths to get there. The tamboos are so cool. In the middle of the rainforest, with your own bucket/stream to wash yourself. Surrounded by huge butterflies, bright colored frogs, monkeys and noisy insects.
Thanks to Juanita we got delicious Ayahusca diet food 3 times a day (2x on Ceremony days). She is such a friendly and caring woman, and even massaged me one day after the ceremony when my muscles felt tense.
There were two shamans that led the ceremonies. The first two ceremonies Ceassar helpt us healing. In the third ceremony Pedro assisted him as well.
I am so grateful for both of them. They really knew what they are doing and take the healing very seriously. Ceassars Icaros are the best ever! I could not stop dancing during the ceremonies, even though I was laying on my mat.
And then Omar..You can see the passion in him to help other people. I don’t know how he does it. How he can listen to everyone’s problems day in and day out, always knows an answer to questions and gives perfect advice to every problem.
We became good friends during our stay and I hope we will stay this forever.
The ceremonies were sometimes quit intense for me and Omar or Charlene (the volunteer) were always there to help out, talk to me when needed or help people going to the toilet. I definitely got some important insights out of the ceremonies. In one of them I felt as happy as I never felt before, ever in my life. Happy about myself, happy about others, happy about life in general. In others I had to learn how to let go, stop trying to control life and trust in the universe.
I am super grateful to everyone who made the experience so unforgettable and I hope I can come back in the future to take the healing to the next level and maybe do one of their Master plant diets.
Like I said before this is the best place to go to if you are looking to get to know more about yourself, heal and change in a very positive way.
Thanks everyone!
Xxx Thaila
Last month I was lucky enough to go to the Chakra Alegria de Amor - Rainforest Healing Centre.
I had initially done a lot of research into which centre to go to and from the reviews and overall information from the site I sensed a good vibe about this centre and I must admit I am really happy with my decision.
I decided to go on the 10-day retreat and what I got from the experience was more than I could have ever imagined. To describe an experience as profound can possibly be seen as an exaggeration, however I had received a lot of healing, dealt with a lot of personal BS that has been holding me back for most of my adult life, and learnt some things that I was not expecting.
The retreat is well run and I felt reassured after talks about the medicine pre-ceremony, all early concerns and fears were put aside, being that this was my first experience with Ayahuasca I felt relaxed being at this centre. The medicine was highly respected here and in no way did this place offer an 'Ayahuasca-Tourist' experience for people to just 'trip out'. Everyone participating seemed to be there with good intentions and this seemed supported by Omar and his team.
The ceremonies, performed by Pedro were beautiful, all whilst feeling safe throughout. The aftercare and one-to-one chats offered by Omar were personal and reassuringly comforting whilst trying to process the mental download from the medicine. The information I received from the ceremonies was shocking and liberating at the same time. Omar was very supportive I was able to make some sense of the whole experience through talking to someone who has also benefited from the medicine himself.
I enjoyed time with the group I was at the retreat with and it was nice to be doing the ceremonies in a small group, this was one of the main reasons for me choosing this retreat as it would allow for a more personal experience and assistance which I thought was super important.
Considering we were all in the middle of the jungle the accommodation was great and offered a comfortable resting place pre and post ceremony. The food served by the sweet Juanita was pleasantly tasty, considering the diet we have been on for the retreat, we were well looked after and personally I really enjoyed the food.
It would be hard for me not to recommend Chakra Alegria de Amor as I got so much from my visit. I went with deeply personal reasons and feel that I got more than I could have ever expected, I am by no way healed but I have made a huge step towards self acceptance and understanding of my problems. The centre definitely helped me in getting these results. From my first interactions with Karin regarding the 10-day retreat I had a good sense that the centre had a personal approach and this was true to the end of the retreat.
The whole experience has been positively life changing. I am hoping to continue the positivity whilst still processing the information given to me from Mother Vine.
If you have been considering taking Ayahuasca to help with personal healing and looking for a centre has become overwhelming, I believe you can put trust in this place, just like so many others have too.
Many thanks to Omar and the team.
Chakra Alegria de Amor is a sacred spot in the heart of the Rainforest. Not only is the land itself blessed with native medicinal plant life, but the dedicated staff ensures its ongoing growth and respects its powers for traditional healing and ceremonial purposes. The center's beautifully eco-manicured grounds make it possible to be completely immersed in the physical beauty and spirit of the jungle while ensuring the safety and comfort of their guests. While everyone attending should be on a personal journey for self (re)discovery, the support and care I received from the staff and fellow 'retreaters' was invaluable and endearing beyond expectations...I loved the challenges and awakenings I experienced so much that although I initially signed up for the 3 ceremony retreat package, I ended up staying longer to participate in 5 ceremonies!
My intention for heading to Rainforest Healing Center Chakra Alegria de Amor (RFHC) was very clear. I had for as long as I can remember been hampered by a deep seated existential fear. Despite well over a decade of intentional work to clear past charges this was one that stubbornly refused to budge.
It was when I started to realise how instrumental this fear was in catalysing so many of my fearful actions, reeking havoc in my relationships, that I decided enough was enough. Around that time I was conveniently presented with information on Ayahuasca and after doing some research came across and booked into RFHC. 2 weeks later I was on my way to Peru.
Well, I didn't have to wait long to get stuck into it. My first ceremony proved to be a very powerful and transformative experience. I literally went to the hell in my mind. It was a challenging experience but at some point I saw how I had been carrying a deep seated belief from early childhood that should I act or not act in certain ways I would indeed go to ‘so called’ hell. The hell I had created in my mind was not something that could be survived hence the fear. This knowledge had of course been suppressed and forgotten many years ago. So the fear had continued to work away undermining pretty much anything I chose to do or not do. Until NOW!!! I am finally free of it.
Over the last few years one of the most perplexing questions I have struggled with was the question of what are my deepest wishes. What is that I most deeply long for. I asked this question during a ceremony but it is only now on writing this piece that the answer has dropped in. I long to be able to honour the quiet and often simple truth that sits in me. I long to be able to express myself, from this place, as truthfully and wholeheartedly as possible without limiting myself to avoid the disapproval of others.
I have always had a tendency to withdraw, so desperately in fear of attracting criticism I sealed off my inner world from my outer one. Inwardly a venturer into world of the mind, discovering and releasing identities but outwardly in denial of this new found space. And yet I was wondering why I lacked passion and a sense of purpose in my life. I was simply too afraid to embrace a way of living that so went against everything that I had been conditioned to believe. Though it sounds perhaps far fetched, the truth was that I felt mortally threatened by the disfavour of others. And so I rarely spoke my deeper truth. I rarely told people what I truly thought. I held back and lived in the shadows of life. When the ayahuasca showed me the hell in my mind I was terrified. But then I moved through it. And it didn't kill me. I survived and I now know it isn't real. My expressions can no longer mortally threaten me.
I am so incredibly grateful for these healing gifts. The power of working with Ayahuasca supported by such a dedicated Shaman duo of Pedro and Rossita has, I am convinced, saved me years of more traditional spiritual work in uncovering these unconscious beliefs and dissolving the associated emotional charges.
The RFHC is a indeed set on sacred land. Despite being set in virgin rain forest I never felt in anyway threatened by the setting and the creatures that exist there. Bathing each day in the pure healing waters of a forest stream, being lulled to sleep by the forest symphony and witnessing the clarity of the stars in a place where ambient light is an unknown. Just 3 of many rich experiences that supported the unfolding of my healing journey at RFHC.
None of this would have been possible without Omar, his connection to mother ayahuasca and that huge heart of his. The moment I looked into his eyes when we met in Iquitos prior to heading off I knew that I was in very good hands. He has no hesitation in putting you straight should you be heading off-course which is a blessing. Omar has built an excellent team or rather extended family of smiling, open hearted helpers including the lovely Junita who prepared the most delicious food you could hope for especially given that salt, oil, dairy and spices are off limits for the ayahuasca diet. Amongst his RFHC close family are one very cheeky and tactile orphaned capucchino monkey Zoe and a rescued Macaw called Mojo.
Pedro, the ayahauscero with he milky blue eyes, displays an extraordinary level of dedication to serving participants. I’m not sure when he sleeps because he appeared in the middle of the night on several occasions with healing remedies and on ceremony nights he worked late into the night attending to our needs. Thank you Pedro!
And Rossita, I cannot stop smiling when I catch sight of her. She’s been working with ayahuasca since she was 13, trained by her mother as she has trained her daughter and is training her grand children. Her Icaro’s dramatically opened the space of my experiences particularly when I was feeling challenged. Despite being in her years she seems to retain the purity and innocence of a young child along with the wisdom and stature that her long experience gives her. Thank you Rossita!
Thank you Omar!!! for creating this incredible healing sanctuary, offering me your open heart and your friendship. And thank you to each of your team for their part in making the experience at RFHC such a success.
Big Love
William
I had MyJourneyToMyself with 10 days of Ayahuasca & 8 days of Chiric Sanango Master Plant Isolation Diet @ this beautiful magical place Chakra Alegría de Amor Rainforest Healing Center in Iquitos Peru.
These three weeks have been the most sacred & profound of my life. I am completely transformed. I dived deep into my heart, healed everything I needed to heal & I am reborn.
Endless gratitude & love from the bottom of my heart to
- Omar for the creation & managing of this magical healing center Chakra Alegria De Amor at the sacred location in the Jungle with the beautiful comfortable tambos, the organization of the trip with so much care & attention to all the details, for the conversations & support during my hard times.
- Angel Tiffany for supporting & encouraging with her being at all times, for her big heart & unconditional care.
- Huanita for cooking delicious healthy food with so much love - inspiring me to start cooking (was having big resistance to cooking always!) and to finding the love to nurture myself. Not to forget her latina musica was exactly what I needed.
- All the helpers who kept everything in order and being always very kind and helpful.
- Beautiful Shaman Soul Rosita for her powerful icaros & support during the ceremonies and her peaceful presence.
- The Shaman Pedro for his vast plant wisdom, the ceremonies, his powerful icaros and for being always there for me with so much unconditional love, care & dedication.
- The Jungle for all its magnificence, love & teachings, its beauty, magic, peace & providing us all the sacred plants for our healing.
These Plant Spirits: La Medicina Mama Ayahuasca & Dr. Chiric Sanango have transformed me beyond my wildest expectations.
Words are not able to express this strong healing which happened holistically on all levels deep down to the cellular level.
I felt & experienced & understood my pain, suffering & negativity and could release it all and leave it all behind.
I found Myself & have gained immense understanding about Myself, life and the Universe: such a huge learning experience.
I had never felt so much gratitude in my life. I was bathing in gratitude and divine love.
I am so endlessly grateful that The Mother Vine, La Medicina called me. Love You.
It was the scariest, hardest, most exhausting & demanding work I have done on myself facing all what was deep down within me & at the same time the most precious divine experience of unconditional love & self-love, bliss, peace and freedom. Not only during the ceremonies, as well as during the entire time there - the learning and expanding was ongoing, as well as after I came back home. The evolvement never ends. And the spirit remains within me.
For the first time in my life I am falling in love with myself, my life and have the knowingness that I am transformed, healed.
I forgave everyone, I let go all negativity, suffering and limitations.
Love is our BIRTHRIGHT!
Endless Gratitude & Love,
Semiha
This is a beautiful and sacred (and very safe!) environment to do deep healing work, while surrounded by pristine jungle, staying in comfortable tambos, and cared for by true healers. I can't say enough about the shaman, Pedro, who is such a beautiful soul. I felt so cared for and I carry my sacred experiences of this retreat in my heart and soul. I highly recommend Chakre Alegria de Amor to anyone ready to undertake a life transforming journey.
Where you'll understand and feel the true meaning of unconditional love...
There are not enough words to describe the experience that I lived through Mother Ayahuasca at CAA. You got to live it to feel it...And one thing I know for sure and I'll sing it to the seven seas...it was definitely the best and most intense experience of my life :)
How did I end up at CAA? I actually got lost, had a blackout and woke up there...hehe just kidding! Well, you can browse and research online for a long long time and you'll find tons of different places with nice reviews that will leave you confused and indecisive about where to go...It is a life changing experience so there is a certain pressure about choosing the right place...and that's why I waited forl the right moment and trust me, you'll know when it comes ;)
For years I had been hearing and reading articles about Ayahuasca, even Al Jazeera talked about it! Then one day, I saw that a friend of mine had posted pictures on his Facebook about Ayahuasca and his stay at CAA and I thought the world was gonna end! He's one of the most logical and skeptical people I've ever met, so I contacted him straight away and we met. So this was the moment when I knew, where it felt right. He didn't have to convince me to hard, everything he was saying was making perfect sense to me and next thing I knew, I followed my gut feeling and there I was on a airplane (actually 3) on my way to Iquitos and about to know the true meaning of unconditional love.
He told me that I could trust the centre and everyone working there with my eyes wide shut and so I did. They make you feel like you belong there and their genuine interest in helping you is so obvious that only leaves space for you to focus on your healing and nothing else. Loved the fact that I was in the middle of the Amazon and surrounded by nature...you feel connected to everything and everybody...Food is amazing there and everything is done as natural as possible. The centre also doesn't take more than 8 people for retreat which is great...
When you decide to experience Ayahuasca is very important to feel safe and supported, as what you'll be going through can be compared to the biggest and wildest rollercoaster. At CAA you always have hands to support you and be there for you at your darkest moment...I had and I'll be eternally thankful for that...
It's not just a business, it's a group of people trying to make the difference and genuinely helping us all in the best way they can. They also have the cutest and sweetest dog ever...beautiful Gaia...miss her so much :( There's also Luna, the cat, but I'm more of a dog person.
I was very sad when I had to leave and come back to reality after 10 days...got in there with a heavy backpack (literally and figuratively) but left lighter than ever! I had never felt so much love and happiness like I felt there and many of my deep hounds were healed, specially my depression...obviously you are always learning and changing and healing is always needed throughout your life...otherwise we would all be perfect and I haven't met anyone else who's perfect besides me ;) hehe joking again!
I made a new family there that I know I'll always be able to count on and we'll be eternally connected, no matter where we'll be. Don't be afraid and follow your instinct...
"The night is at its darkest just before the dawn".
Coming from the corporate world completely lost and desperate, I found exactly what I was looking for and more: the spiritual healing, guidance, acceptance, love & light. The place is full of positive energy, Pedro the shaman was so kind, helpful and knowledgeable, the food was excellent and the staff were super friendly. I can't wait to go back and I would highly recommend to everyone!
Wow, where to begin on Chakra Alegria De Amor,
First of all this was not my first ayahuasca retreat centre, but it will definitely be the last. That's not to say i won't be going back to Peru, but i believe i've found "the one" in this centre, it's shaman Pedro, and it's owner/facilitator Omar. My other ayahuasca experiences had been somewhat useful in changing the direction of my life but i had begun to lose faith that the medicine could help me with my emotional, and psychological problems (depersonalisation disorder). This place fully restored that faith and then some. Omar is a beautiful soul and a down to earth dude who is just as much up for a good laugh as he is for a deep conversation about the progress of your healing, he's now a friend for life. Pedro the shaman is one of the most beautiful uplifting characters i've ever met in my life, I was skeptical at first because he is a young shaman (in his 30's) and everybody's idea of a stereotypical top shaman is some 80 year old Peruvian who's been working with the medicine from an early age.
Pedro blew all of my previous shaman's out of the water, with the loving, light, youthful, caring and playful way that he conducts a ceremony. it really is beautiful. and no matter whether i can get back to Peru or not in this lifetime, I'll have fond memories of that man and his icaros with me forever. The centre itself is also something to behold, a little more off the beaten path than most, it resides it virgin jungle and the scenery around the tambos is breathtaking and a perfect compliment to the healing process. Your shower consists of running spring water contained in a stream that had been built to go past all of the tambos, using this living water to bathe in daily invigorates the body and soul, and further helps you connect with the beauty around you. The Maloka is amazing, and the food is light, healthy and fantastic (i comfortably lost about 8kg in my 3 week stay). The centre also offers unique options in the way of isolation diets using sanango plants, and ajo sacha diets all of which are harvested right on the property. I myself completed a Chiric Sanango dieta, which was the toughest and most rewarding mission i've ever undertaken in my life. I implore whoever reads this to do the same if you read the outlines of the diet and believe that you're up to it...
So to save myself going on about the place for hours i'll just cut it short here and beg you to do yourself and everyone that you hold close in your life a favour, come to this place, and go back home the human being that you've always known you could be. You'll reach your human potential here i can tell you that much for sure
Ryan (Osito) from Australia :)
Rainforest Healing Center is absolutely GORGEOUS! There are Blue Morpho butterflies everywhere! Each Tambo (hut) is very comfortable with large double beds. No laying on a dirty mat for this girl! I slept so well! The food is so FRESH and DELICIOUS! I want to cook like that at home! My ceremonies were intense but MAGICAL! I walked out feeling a new sense of peace and clarity. I looked in the mirror and my eyes were clearer and I was glowing from within!
I highly recommend this center for Sanango Isolation Diets, a few fellow guests raved about them... We made our own Ayahuasca from the property and we replanted some too! I couldn't have asked for a better experience.
Thank you Omar and friends! I will be back!!!
Chakra Allegria de Amor is a great retreat to have your healing. I was looking to do an isolation diet and it ticked all the boxes. Its got a perfect balance of comfort to closeness to the jungle. For example it does not have a nice pool, which no-one really needs, but each tambo has its own private stream to have a shower in. All tambos are isolated and you have to walk a 100 yards at least to get to one. Omar and Pedro do things as they should be done. Don't expect spiritual tourism, expect proper healing.
I was unsure about the place originally, but I met Omar in person in Iquitos and he suggested I go to the retreat that night, see everything for myself and then decide and pay if I am convinced.
I ended up doing uchu sanango diet, probably one of the hardest ones. And Pedro looked after me for all these 8 days. I was unsure about Pedro at first but towards the end I realised that he is what a true healer should be -- tough enough to fight the condition you have, but empathetic enough to provide the required support.
The final ceremony was amazing. The medicine did not seem to work at all up until I thought the ceremony has ended. I thought Pedro fell asleep and that would be it. But in the end I have had the most powerful purge of my life and then I realised that Pedro was actually expecting it. He was visibly uplifted by what has happened and proud that the healing was complete. So don't expect him to give up on you until you get what you came here for!
The Rainforest Healing Center is operated with such commitment to the land, the medicine, the animals and plants that inhabit it and the way in which medicine is offered. All of the lodging are beautifully constructed and the lay out shows so much presence and dedication to a place like no other. I could tell you my story of being there and the wonderful people I met there but each person writes there own story and it is best to just say that this center is small and selective.
I looked for months for a center that felt like it held the energy I was looking for. I did not want to be in a club med jungle, I wanted to be in a respected well stewarded rainforest retreat taking baths in real water, rainforest water and melting into the myriad sounds and experiences of what is rapidly disappearing from the area and the world. Hope to go back soon. I spent a total of 21 days there in October of 2014. I loved all of the people I met there and that the medicine actually grew on the land. Beautiful.
I travelled to the Rainforest Healing Center last year, seeking healing from a broken relationship, and found all that I was looking for and much more. This center is non profit, and run for the right reasons - to facilitate healing, with love and compassion. It is built into the rainforest, with great respect for the rainforest and the environment, and with emphasis on sustainability. The medicine is grown and harvested on site, and they replant more than they use.
I worked with Pedro and Luisa whilst I stayed there, and they are everything I had hoped for, genuine healers with love in their hearts. The ceremonies are taken very seriously with safety and protection a priority. I have heard many horror stories about bad shaman, and poorly run retreats, and I can safely say from my experiences there that this is a safe and genuine place, and I would recommend it to anyone. This center is the real deal, not built for Ayahuasca tourists, but for those looking to really work with themselves and the medicine. It is completely off the grid, and as such is a very authentic experience, allowing us to get back in touch with nature, and ourselves.
Highly recommended, with love! I will certainly be returning!
Thank you!
Why Retreat?
We asked people why they go on retreat, here's what they said:
To give my ego a break from all these construction projects.
Layth
Retreat Guru's Vision
We believe human beings are innately wise, strong and kind. This wisdom, although not always experienced, is always present. Going on retreat is a beautiful way to reconnect to our basic sanity and health. Our aspiration at Retreat Guru is to inspire people to experience authentic retreats and reconnect with their innate wisdom, strength and kindness. | {
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Typographic Variants
Metallophile Sp8 Light Set is a faithful facsimile of an 8 point sans serif typeface as set on a 1940s vintage hot metal typesetting machine and printed on coated paper stock. The effect is very different from its modern cousins, which are drawn more rigidly, and use only one design for all sizes. Metallophile Sp 8 is best if used at or near 8 points. Metallophile Sp8 Light Set attributes include sans serif, geometric, retro, rough, and distressed.
Ascenderfonts.com has the finest, high quality fonts available for instant download. Brought to you by the font experts at Monotype Imaging, you will find a great selection of TrueType fonts and OpenType fonts from licensed type designers and foundries. | {
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1.27.2017
Basic Eyeshadow Placement Guide
This is a general beginner's guide for my go-to shadow placement. I would like to emphasize that using fewer products is an option, however I think for a beginner, it actually makes sense to use more colors and blend less. The fewer colors you use, the more active blending you have to do, and that is the part where practice/skill are important. If you are frustrated with your blending abilities, try using a few extra colors instead of trying to just blend two disparate shades together.
Eyeshadows You Need:
Keep in mind these items are named as generically as possible- I want you to be able to make any color look with this guide, not just a matching orange one.
HIGHLIGHT SHADOW- I prefer a satin-pearl finish in a shade close to my own skintone.
SKINTONE SHADOW- matching your eyelid/eye area skin (sometimes called a "base" shadow you can substitute translucent face powder for this step as well.)
CREASE COLOR #2- soft, blendable, and only slightly darker than the above shade- I use MAC Soft Brown which is a very feathery, sheer warm orangey brown. If you're cool toned I suggest a taupey, cooler brown or gray with a similar feather-light texture and matte finish. This is used to soften the borders and help blend.
MAIN COLOR- looking at the shadow look you want to achieve, what is the "main" color that people would associate your look with? Mine for the above pic is a saturated burnt orange. Ok so I need 1 matte single shadow in that shade- orange.
SUPPORT COLOR- you're going to need a matte background player here that is harmonious with the color scheme but helps soften the edges of the MAIN COLOR. In my case, I need something harmonious with orange so I chose mustard yellow. If you're using a dark green you might use a matte lighter khaki. Anything that's a "happy medium" between the main, noticeable color you're using and your own skintone. If you're using a bright teal in the crease you should choose a grayish blue. If bright pink, choose a peachy shade. Something that splits the difference of colorful and natural.
DARK COLOR- next you'll need something that jibes with the MAIN COLOR (orange here) but has a strong contrast- in this case if I chose a deeper orange, it would just get muddy. Those shades are too similar. So I chose dark chestnut brown. If you're using blue, choose dark navy. If you're using dark purple, choose black. Light purple, choose burgundy or plum. Etc. You have to make sure that the main crease color you're using is at least 3-4 shades brighter/lighter than this, otherwise you'll end up creating less definition and a muddy mess.
MATTE BLACK self-explanatory- use this bad boy mixed with the above dark color to get the ABSOLUTE darkest point for blending. Also if you don't have a dark enough color to use for the last bullet point, you can just mix your main crease color with this black to get a darker in-between version.
Brushes You Need:
MAC 239- or any other dense-but-slightly-fluffy shadow brush. You don't want a stiff, paddle brush, but you don't want anything with loose bristles. The MAC 239 is my definite favorite but Zoeva makes a similar one that should get the job done.
CREASE BRUSH- MAC 217 or similar. Hakuhodo makes a similar brush that works as well (some people like it better, I don't) and Coastal Scents makes a really cheap, not great, but PASSABLE version for a few bucks. I like to use a goat hair bristle brush for this step because the texture makes it good for quick blending. Softer bristles (like squirrel or synthetic) can sometimes be too gentle.
PENCIL BRUSH- Pencil brushes are almost all the same. The only one I've tried (cheap or expensive) that was no good was the ELF one with the white handle. All that's required here is a very stiff, short, pointed brush.
MINI CREASE BRUSH- here's the one where I'm sorry to say you have to splurge- the Hakuhodo J5529 is just the best. It's small, slightly floppy and soft, and blends your the small outer crease/v area without muddying all the colors together. I don't have a cheaper dupe in mind and this is one where I've found that spending money helps. I was hopeless at outer v work until I owned this brush and the 217. Also it is different from the MAC 217 so you will need something different for these purposes.
FLUFFY BRUSH- anything in the same vein as the MAC 224, but for this I've found most cheap brands do serviceable versions.
Application Steps:
First apply your primer followed by your SKINTONE SHADOW from lashline all the way up to brow using your shadow packing brush.
Using MAC 217 (or dupe) and your CREASE COLOR #1, sketch a very soft arch that defines the "outer perimeter" where your shadow won't go past. At this point, you wouldn't really know there was eyeshadow there unless you were right up in the mirror. DOn't worry if it looks very subtle right now- it's meant to!
Using same MAC 217 and your CREASE COLOR #2, go over that soft arch to reinforce the perimeter, both visually, and in your own mind so that you start to build the muscle memory of where your shadow should go. This is training for the next time you do it, and the next time after that.
Using (still the same) MAC 217, first apply the SUPPORT COLOR in firm short strokes. Do not go outside your border but focus on getting the color dense. You don't need to cover your lid, just go slightly down onto your lid and above your crease up to the perimeter you laid out.
Now using MAC 217 apply the MAIN COLOR overlapping the SUPPORT COLOR but do not go all the way up to the edge. Build the color to the saturation you like, and don't worry about your unfinished lid or the edges yet. You should start to see some nice things happening with the main crease/support color border blending itself naturally. This is easier than just using your main color and trying to work it gradually so it blends into your skin by itself.
Then with your pencil brush, dip into your DARK COLOR and "stamp" your outer V area using the side of the pencil brush. First stamp a short line/chunk that follows the angle of the outside edge of your eyeball. Then re-dip and stamp a mirror reflection of that line, that follows and extends your lashline. That will look like an unfinished, chunky V shape. Do not blend with the pencil brush and don't sketch back and forth. Just stamp once, twice, you're done with that.
Repeat the V-stamp step with more dark shadow and pencil brush, then repeat the next step and blend a bit more. You will see a gradient start to appear as you take it a bit too dark, then soften, then a bit darker, then softened again. If it is still looking too harsh, blend more. If it looks too soft and muddy, repeat the V-stamp and then blend less this time.
Now take your same MINI CREASE BRUSH but this time with your MAIN COLOR and go over just the edges of your outer V dark shade. If your outer V shade looks too light, go over it with your pencil brush and a hint of black, only in the place where the outer point of your V meets.
Blend the outer corner with small circular motions and your mini crease brush but do not attempt to make all the colors blend into one big swath- they need to be separated or you won't get that sharp v shape.
Using your MAC 224 or similar domed fluffy brush, dip it into your CREASE COLOR #2 and buff the edges (JUST THE EDGES) of your outermost perimeter with it to marry it with your skintone. If you've gotten a blotchy border or gone too far, you can soften with your SKINTONE BASE shade
Using your MAC 239, press the MAIN SHADOW allover the lid, allowing it to overlap with the same color you buffer into the crease, and joining with your upper lashline. If you are interested in creating a shimmery look, the process above will have created a "base" and you can pat a shimmer or satin shade just on the lid that shares its hue with the MAIN SHADOW.
Dab your HIGHLIGHT SHADOW into the innermost corner of your eyes. Using your fluffiest crease brush, lightly apply just under the arch of your brow.
This is my favorite shadow look as it can be done with basically any color theme. It works well in daytime or nighttime, and changing up the colors and finish can create a more or less dramatic effect. I have used the above technique/guide to create a dark neutral smoky version and a shimmery green version, pictured below so you can see that, while basic, this placement technique can still be interesting if you play with colors and textures.
3 comments:
hallo, just stalking your blog late at night, so glad to find it. so many good reads. commenting to thank you for this one particularly - i'm enjoying diy-ing my own palettes from depotted shadows/singles, but i need a more structured tonal spine for my frankenpalettes to hit my sweetspot where the shadows offer enough color variety but are supportive of each other. your list on shadows gives me some well articulated structural guidelines to work off~ have been shooting in the dark with only my intuition and pre-existing palette patterns for too long! looking fwd to incorporating this info to improve my frankenpalettes futher tailored to my own style >:)
Hi Rose! Thank you for the compliment!! I think that term- "structured tonal spine" is ABSOLUTELY what I aim for with my shadow collection. I try not to buy too many things that deviate from my main themes...small branches are ok but no big departures out of the blue (no pun intended as a blue eyeshadow phobic person.) | {
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Around 3 a.m., a BMW SUV traveling northbound on South Capitol Street struck a flower planter protecting the South Capitol Street and D Street, according to the United States Capitol Police crash team.
"As a result of striking the flower planter, the vehicle was propelled airborne and struck a tree on the southwest curbside of the United States Capitol Police secure access travel lanes where it ultimately came to rest," police said in a written statement to WESH 2.
Police said Hunter B. Harries was the only person in the car at the time of the crash. He was taken to a local hospital, where he died.
Harries is from McLean, Virginia, police said. Police are asking anyone with information about the case to call (202) 727-9099.
Dear Rollins Community-I am deeply saddened to share with you that we have recently learned that Hunter Harries, one of our students, was in a car accident and passed away yesterday. Our healing thoughts and prayers are with the Harries family and friends during this difficult time.I hope we can come together to begin our own healing process as a community. I will send out information regarding an upcoming campus memorial service as those details are confirmed.Warmly-Mamta | {
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Worst holiday ever
We are here now wishing we wasn't the water has been off all day and we are told it w ill be back in 10 minutes. But the y still keep the bar and restaurant open even though the toilets are full .our room supposed to be superior has non functioning sink and bath plugs the bath tap does not function properly the loo seat is cheap and loose the built in radio does not work and the curtains are in shreds give it a miss I wish I had.
Date of stay: September 2017
Room tip: Dont have room 401 it has a bad veiw and is noisy
Trip type: Travelled with family
Cleanliness
Service
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The hotel was really dirty the beach was not cleaned ...and the food all inclusive? 3 menuies and nowhere was not written what you eat so alergics didnt knew what are they eating...disaster!!! The toilet didnt flash really bid dissapintment never will go there again!!!!
Date of stay: August 2017
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
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2 Thank tamikaa334
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
I don't know where to start. Since the day we arrived there was no water at all, let alone hot water. We had to complaint every day. The food had no varaity at all. Table clothes we always found dirty. Wi-Fi very poor connection it was difficult to contact with family. I dont think i will visit this place anymore. All the stars where removed, because the building is as old as 1980's. It hasn't been reconstructed since then. Very very very disopoined.
Date of stay: August 2017
Trip type: Travelled with friends
Ask Reading An E about Hotel Lydia's Beach
5 Thank Reading An E
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
We stayed at the hotel on a package deal from an agency for 4 nights.Where do i start?The sheets and towels were only changed once in 5 days and even then because we insisted and specifially asked at the reception.The small face towel in the bathroom was in poor shape from the start and was never changed.We even left it on the ground on purpose but they never changed it.Food wise, not a lot of variety and very poor quality. Pool was not clean, smelly, and with dead insects floating around.The only good thing there was the hotel staff which was always willing to help and with a very positive attitude.I honestly dont know where this hotel gets the 4 stars from..
Date of stay: July 2017
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Ask enfrid i about Hotel Lydia's Beach
9 Thank enfrid i
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
The interior design was awful, like 70's. Faucet didn't work well and Good wasn't good at all and food selection was so small. At the evening when I tried to sleep, I felt sick because of that food. Also beds were so hard. So I stay awake almost all night. I cried. Soundproofing didn't work properly. What a nightmare! I don't recommend.
Date of stay: July 2017
Ask Odyssey682973 about Hotel Lydia's Beach
4 Thank Odyssey682973
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
Lydia Hotel Beach, is the greate greate hotel, with all the tipe of places, with the gardem, pool, the beach bar, with the nice intertaiment things in the hotel area. Very kind of private beach. Colorfull flowers. Very close to the Lefkada old town. greate hospitality. i hope to comme there as soon as possible is.
Date of stay: June 2016
Trip type: Travelled with family
Sleep Quality
Rooms
Service
Ask dashohotel about Hotel Lydia's Beach
Thank dashohotel
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC | {
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2015 Mitsubishi Lancer Review
2015 Mitsubishi Lancer Overview
2015 Mitsubishi Lancer will likely consolidate all renovated at this time, we also publish the cross. There are a number associated with information regarding the modern era by car, but it is supposed to get almost no different from its precursor. Dangerous aggressive collections have a slim LED lights are clearly tilted certainly will not cease to exist. Entire body associated with Mitsubishi Lancer ended up being surprisingly mixed because only realize Japanese. Your managers understand ensures that the period of time that does not completely disappear from the sporting aspect with the powerful generation. Some information on the management by the company have not been submitted for the reason that the car is not alone, but technically presented with almost any display car on earth.
2015 Mitsubishi Lancer Design Interior
2015 Mitsubishi Lancer just got to meet the expectations and discover a whole new look. True quality with all the important components will always provide. You will find reviews of large amounts of problems are usually renewed. Since the controls, which usually in most countries, are made of leather, a new head unit, touch screen to watch completely new ac, Bluetooth wireless, for example .. style of relevance 2015 Mitsubishi Lancer ES CVT will probably injected Mountain Begin helps run the LKS style will probably rampacked with parking sensors, surveillance cameras, welding, metal trolley wheels associated with sixteen ins and others. If you choose to opt for a sports car edition of the race will help 6.1 inch touch screen head unit with some quality speakers, digital camera with iPod Touch knonekcija. Of course, you can explore options for all.
2015 Mitsubishi Lancer Engine and Price
2015 Mitsubishi Lancer also, now comes to market with the possibility of electric motor or a hybrid variant of the vehicle. Two coupled electric motor and gasoline engine 2.0 liters. Gas consumption would certainly matrix around 1.8L / 100km with emissions of carbon dioxide of about 50g/km. For many who keep each of our dynamic, real power can easily decide journey, which can reach a speed of about 64 km/h. Obviously, we have a clean oil with the 4-cylinder diesel engines. It is in relation to most of what is considered exactly what responsibilities equipment work 2015 Mitsubishi Lancer.
2015 Mitsubishi Lancer will probably find some of the main opportunities abroad display car. To be held in mid-summer. For those that most of these factors, the price of the car is not only, but felt, and it is not just introduced. For many who are usually expected to buy this remains to hope that it will eventually be too high. | {
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Latest information
Every tournament
July 3 2013
12:56 PM
Ryan Palmer will be joining our weekly PGA TOUR Insiders Google+ Hangout today at 2:30 p.m. ET, live from The Greenbrier Classic. Palmer, who will have New Orleans Saints Head Coach Sean Payton on the bag this week at The Old White TPC, will be previewing course conditions and answering fan questions during the Hangout, which can be streamed live here on the TOUR Report.
You can submit a question for Palmer in the comments below or on Twitter, using #PGATOURchat.
To see all of the PGA TOUR's Hangouts with TOUR players, fans and media, click here. | {
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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
@ iNauonal
eograpnic society
natural ioior rnotograpln n)y r-Ucwi L,.
w isnera
RED TOMAHAWK, THE NEMESIS OF SITTING BULL
This Cheyenne River Sioux was rear guard of the Indian police who in 1890 arrested the leading
figure in the famous battle commonly called the Custer Massacre. It was Red Tomahawk's shot
which is believed to have killed instantly the notorious Sitting Bull, when he attempted to escape.
The fan was formerly carried in the Sun Dance, no longer given in its old form.
XII | {
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RESEARCH AND BRIEFINGS
Marsh’s 2018 Communications, Media and Technology Risk Study
I am pleased to announce the release of Marsh’s 2018 Communications, Media, and Technology Risk Study. This report is based on more than 200 survey responses from risk professionals and other executives from CMT sectors globally. We thank all of those who participated in this year’s survey.
Over the past year, the speed of technology innovation kept its blistering pace. Companies have no choice but to keep up or risk dropping to the back of the pack — and eventually out of the race altogether.
Pushed on by a data-driven economy and the ubiquity of technology in society, CMT companies are meeting the challenges by taking a hard look at their traditional way of doing business. This is causing a major shift in business strategy and operating models within sectors and subsectors as CMT companies strive to stay current with consumer demands.
If you have any comments or questions about the results or our interpretations, please drop me a line at the address below or reach out to your Marsh representative. You can also send us a Tweet to @MarshGlobal using the hashtag #MarshCMTRisk. | {
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No deal in sight two days before Gaza cease-fire expires; Hamas says Egyptian proposal unacceptable, threatens to renew fighting; Israel says they have yet to agree to a proposal.
Israeli and Palestinian teams are set to restart indirect Gaza cease-fire talks in Cairo on Sunday, with Hamas saying the Egyptian proposal on the table is unacceptable and threatening to renew fighting, and Israel saying quiet and security will be restored “one way or another.”
Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas representative in Lebanon, said none of the proposals presented to the Palestinians meet their demands.
Offers made to the Palestinian delegation in Cairo do not meet the aspirations of the people, Hamdan, Hamas’s head of foreign affairs, said.
Israel “must accept the conditions of the Palestinian people or face a long war of attrition,” he said in speech before students in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.
During the talks, the Palestinian delegation faced attempts to “break its unity,” he claimed.
Izzat al-Risheq, a Hamas member of the Palestinian delegation, said Egypt’s latest proposals were “unacceptable.”
The Qatar-based official said the Palestinians did not and will not accept the offers made to them.
“The Palestinian delegation has affirmed its rejection of any formula that does not meet the demands of the Palestinian people,” Risheq said.
“Many of the issues offered by the Egyptians are unacceptable.”
He said consultations were continuing among Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PLO factions to reach an agreement over a final position toward the indirect negotiations with Israel.
Another Hamas official, Musa Abu Marzouk, also sounded defiant over the weekend. “Those who were victorious will not comply with the occupation’s conditions,” Abu Marzouk said in a Facebook post.
He claimed that Hamas won the war because it prevented the IDF from entering the Gaza Strip and forced it to withdraw before the ceasefire.
In Jerusalem, meanwhile, government officials took the Hamas statements in stride, with one official saying Israel did not get excited when Hamas spokesmen were saying on Friday that a deal was just around the corner, and was not getting excited now.
The five-day cease-fire will expire at midnight on Monday.
“We will not agree to any arrangement that does not take into account Israel’s security interests,” one government official said. “They remain our primary focus. The goals of Operation Protective Edge remain the same: long-term quiet and security. And this will be achieved either diplomatically, militarily or through a combination of both.”
The official defined Israel’s security interests as a cessation of all rocket fire, preventing rearmament in Gaza, and no new tunnels.
The Israeli delegation to Cairo is made up entirely of security officials, and the diplomatic officials said the directive Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gave them was not to compromise on the country’s security interests.
Israel, the official said, has not agreed up to this point to any proposal, and will only agree to understandings if they they answer Israel’s security concerns.
The eight-member security cabinet met on both Thursday and Friday to discuss the negotiations and the situation in the Gaza Strip, but no decisions were made public.
There are two overarching models on the table: a negotiated agreement, as was done after Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012; or a unilateral Israeli cessation of hostilities not anchored in any agreement, but resting instead on deterrence – as was the model put into play after Operation Cast Lead in 2009.
Israel, the official said, is remaining prepared for any contingency, “well aware” that Hamas could violate the truce at any time.
“If they do, we will be ready to respond if need be,” he said.
Meanwhile, Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan denied his movement has agreed to postpone the discussion over its demand for an airport and seaport in Gaza – a demand included in the latest Egyptian proposal for a long-term cease-fire.
Bassam al-Salhi of the Palestinian People’s Party and a member of the team at the Cairo talks, said the chances of reaching a long-term cease-fire with Israel were “not great.”
He accused Israel of using the talks to “organize and reproduce the siege on the Gaza Strip in a different way.”
Azzam al-Ahmed of Fatah, head of the delegation, said the Palestinian leadership was expected to hold a meeting in Ramallah on Saturday night to discuss efforts to achieve a long-term truce.
Progress had been achieved during the talks over some issues, while differences remained over others, such as the airport and seaport and the release of Palestinian prisoners, he said.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had made a clear decision that the issue of disarming Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip is nonnegotiable, Ahmed said. | {
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Homeobox genes are short (about 180 base pairs) extremely ancient,highly conserved and are shared across the animal kingdom. More than100 homeobox genes are known. These genes also called Master Controlgenes, control the formation of eyes, hearts, limbs etc across theanimal kingdom.For example the eye across the animal phylum was believed tohave evolved at least 40 times, however, a single Master Control Genecalled Pax 6 has been responsible for the development of eyes infruit flies (Drosophilia) further research found that the same geneor a homeologue was found to control the development of eyes invertebrates including zebra fish, squid, mice and all animals testedincluding humans. The discoverer of these genes, Professor WalterGehring was met with considerable resistance by his peers. So, In anexperiment he took the Pax 6 gene from a mouse and placed it in variousparts ofthe fruit fly, Drosopholia, what appeared was eyes, not mouseeyes, but the multi-fascited eyes of the fruit fly. So, a mouse Pax 6Gene controlled the formation of fly eyes in a fly.
www.youris.com/Health/Genetics/One_Gene_One_Vision.kl
It has been shown that another Master Control Gene called Tinman, (afterTinman movie charcter in the Wizare of OZ.) is responsible for theformation of all types of hearts from the fruit fly nK2 homeobox tohumans. In humans this gene for unknown reasons is said to be ahomologue labled NkX2-5 homeobox gene. Yet these genes had to be presentand highly functional during the Cambrian expansion.https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Tinman%20genehttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gtr/genes/3227/What is not very well understood is exactly how these homeobox geneswork. But they are said to be played by upstream genes which selectthe sections of the homeobox genes which in turn switch on genesthat cascade downstream which express the type of eye, heart, as wellas other body organ and parts. More than 100 of these master controlgenes are knownhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hox_gene
As a long term religious non-believer it it became difficult toturn a blind eye on the possible engineering concept show bythis obvious long term Hox genes which are virtually unchangedfrom the Cambrian and no doubt before the so called Cambrianexplosion. This, to me. is clearly a case of appearance of highlyfunctional and set genes long before they were needed for theCambrian radiation. And they remain highly conserved (anotherterm for fixed) to the present day and in common across the animal kingdom.
Post by Bob WardlawHomeobox genes are short (about 180 base pairs) extremely ancient,highly conserved and are shared across the animal kingdom. More than 100homeobox genes are known. These genes also called Master Control genes,control the formation of eyes, hearts, limbs etc across the animalkingdom.For example the eye across the animal phylum was believed to haveevolved at least 40 times, however, a single Master Control Gene calledPax 6 has been responsible for the development of eyes in fruit flies(Drosophilia) further research found that the same gene or a homeologuewas found to control the development of eyes in vertebrates includingzebra fish, squid, mice and all animals tested including humans. Thediscoverer of these genes, Professor Walter Gehring was met withconsiderable resistance by his peers. So, In an experiment he took thePax 6 gene from a mouse and placed it in various parts ofthe fruit fly,Drosopholia, what appeared was eyes, not mouse eyes, but themulti-fascited eyes of the fruit fly. So, a mouse Pax 6 Gene controlledthe formation of fly eyes in a fly.www.youris.com/Health/Genetics/One_Gene_One_Vision.klIt has been shown that another Master Control Gene called Tinman, (afterTinman movie charcter in the Wizare of OZ.) is responsible for theformation of all types of hearts from the fruit fly nK2 homeobox tohumans. In humans this gene for unknown reasons is said to be ahomologue labled NkX2-5 homeobox gene. Yet these genes had to be presentand highly functional during the Cambrian expansion.https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Tinman%20genehttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gtr/genes/3227/What is not very well understood is exactly how these homeobox geneswork. But they are said to be played by upstream genes which select thesections of the homeobox genes which in turn switch on genes thatcascade downstream which express the type of eye, heart, as well asother body organ and parts. More than 100 of these master control genesare knownhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hox_geneAs a long term religious non-believer it it became difficult to turn ablind eye on the possible engineering concept show by this obvious longterm Hox genes which are virtually unchanged from the Cambrian and nodoubt before the so called Cambrian explosion. This, to me. is clearly acase of appearance of highly functional and set genes long before theywere needed for the Cambrian radiation. And they remain highly conserved(another term for fixed) to the present day and in common across theanimal kingdom.
That's a basic feature of evolution: if something works, it is retained,and built upon.
--MarkA
We hang petty theives, and appoint the great theives to public office-- Aesop
Post by Bob WardlawHomeobox genes are short (about 180 base pairs) extremely ancient,highly conserved and are shared across the animal kingdom. More than 100homeobox genes are known. These genes also called Master Control genes,control the formation of eyes, hearts, limbs etc across the animalkingdom.For example the eye across the animal phylum was believed to haveevolved at least 40 times, however, a single Master Control Gene calledPax 6 has been responsible for the development of eyes in fruit flies(Drosophilia) further research found that the same gene or a homeologuewas found to control the development of eyes in vertebrates includingzebra fish, squid, mice and all animals tested including humans. Thediscoverer of these genes, Professor Walter Gehring was met withconsiderable resistance by his peers. So, In an experiment he took thePax 6 gene from a mouse and placed it in various parts ofthe fruit fly,Drosopholia, what appeared was eyes, not mouse eyes, but themulti-fascited eyes of the fruit fly. So, a mouse Pax 6 Gene controlledthe formation of fly eyes in a fly.www.youris.com/Health/Genetics/One_Gene_One_Vision.klIt has been shown that another Master Control Gene called Tinman, (afterTinman movie charcter in the Wizare of OZ.) is responsible for theformation of all types of hearts from the fruit fly nK2 homeobox tohumans. In humans this gene for unknown reasons is said to be ahomologue labled NkX2-5 homeobox gene. Yet these genes had to be presentand highly functional during the Cambrian expansion.https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Tinman%20genehttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gtr/genes/3227/What is not very well understood is exactly how these homeobox geneswork. But they are said to be played by upstream genes which select thesections of the homeobox genes which in turn switch on genes thatcascade downstream which express the type of eye, heart, as well asother body organ and parts. More than 100 of these master control genesare knownhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hox_geneAs a long term religious non-believer it it became difficult to turn ablind eye on the possible engineering concept show by this obvious longterm Hox genes which are virtually unchanged from the Cambrian and nodoubt before the so called Cambrian explosion. This, to me. is clearly acase of appearance of highly functional and set genes long before theywere needed for the Cambrian radiation. And they remain highly conserved(another term for fixed) to the present day and in common across theanimal kingdom.
That's a basic feature of evolution: if something works, it is retained,and built upon.
As you must have noted I posed this matter as a question. It's beenpointed out before that evidence is sometimes subjective.People can observe the same yet arrive at different conclusions. You maysee this as supporting evolution whereas another could see this asevidence of design by a supernatural designer. I see both sides,however, I tend to be agnostic regarding the meaning. Your are rightevolution does use and improve on whatever works.
Post by Bob WardlawHomeobox genes are short (about 180 base pairs) extremely ancient,highly conserved and are shared across the animal kingdom. More than 100homeobox genes are known. These genes also called Master Control genes,control the formation of eyes, hearts, limbs etc across the animalkingdom.For example the eye across the animal phylum was believed to haveevolved at least 40 times, however, a single Master Control Gene calledPax 6 has been responsible for the development of eyes in fruit flies(Drosophilia) further research found that the same gene or a homeologuewas found to control the development of eyes in vertebrates includingzebra fish, squid, mice and all animals tested including humans. Thediscoverer of these genes, Professor Walter Gehring was met withconsiderable resistance by his peers. So, In an experiment he took thePax 6 gene from a mouse and placed it in various parts ofthe fruit fly,Drosopholia, what appeared was eyes, not mouse eyes, but themulti-fascited eyes of the fruit fly. So, a mouse Pax 6 Gene controlledthe formation of fly eyes in a fly.www.youris.com/Health/Genetics/One_Gene_One_Vision.klIt has been shown that another Master Control Gene called Tinman, (afterTinman movie charcter in the Wizare of OZ.) is responsible for theformation of all types of hearts from the fruit fly nK2 homeobox tohumans. In humans this gene for unknown reasons is said to be ahomologue labled NkX2-5 homeobox gene. Yet these genes had to be presentand highly functional during the Cambrian expansion. >https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Tinman%20gene >https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gtr/genes/3227/ > >What is not very well understood is exactly how these homeobox geneswork. But they are said to be played by upstream genes which select thesections of the homeobox genes which in turn switch on genes thatcascade downstream which express the type of eye, heart, as well asother body organ and parts. More than 100 of these master control genesare known >https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hox_geneAs a long term religious non-believer it it became difficult to turn ablind eye on the possible engineering concept show by this obvious longterm Hox genes which are virtually unchanged from the Cambrian and nodoubt before the so called Cambrian explosion. This, to me. is clearly acase of appearance of highly functional and set genes long before theywere needed for the Cambrian radiation. And they remain highly conserved(another term for fixed) to the present day and in common across theanimal kingdom.
That's a basic feature of evolution: if something works, it is retained,and built upon.
As you must have noted I posed this matter as a question. It's beenpointed out before that evidence is sometimes subjective.People can observe the same yet arrive at different conclusions. You maysee this as supporting evolution whereas another could see this asevidence of design by a supernatural designer. I see both sides,however, I tend to be agnostic regarding the meaning. Your are rightevolution does use and improve on whatever works.
This shows that evolution is not falsifiable. It's so broad and elasticthat any newly discovered evidence can be fitted within the theory.Indeed there is no limits that any evidence can be outside the limits.
Post by Bob WardlawHomeobox genes are short (about 180 base pairs) extremely ancient,highly conserved and are shared across the animal kingdom. More than100 homeobox genes are known. These genes also called Master Controlgenes, control the formation of eyes, hearts, limbs etc across theanimal kingdom.For example the eye across the animal phylum was believed to haveevolved at least 40 times, however, a single Master Control Genecalled Pax 6 has been responsible for the development of eyes in fruitflies (Drosophilia) further research found that the same gene or ahomeologue was found to control the development of eyes in vertebratesincluding zebra fish, squid, mice and all animals tested includinghumans. The discoverer of these genes, Professor Walter Gehring wasmet with considerable resistance by his peers. So, In an experiment hetook the Pax 6 gene from a mouse and placed it in various parts ofthefruit fly, Drosopholia, what appeared was eyes, not mouse eyes, butthe multi-fascited eyes of the fruit fly. So, a mouse Pax 6 Genecontrolled the formation of fly eyes in a fly.www.youris.com/Health/Genetics/One_Gene_One_Vision.klIt has been shown that another Master Control Gene called Tinman,(after Tinman movie charcter in the Wizare of OZ.) is responsible forthe formation of all types of hearts from the fruit fly nK2 homeoboxto humans. In humans this gene for unknown reasons is said to be ahomologue labled NkX2-5 homeobox gene. Yet these genes had to bepresent and highly functional during the Cambrian expansion.https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Tinman%20genehttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gtr/genes/3227/What is not very well understood is exactly how these homeobox geneswork. But they are said to be played by upstream genes which selectthe sections of the homeobox genes which in turn switch on genes thatcascade downstream which express the type of eye, heart, as well asother body organ and parts. More than 100 of these master controlgenes are knownhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hox_geneAs a long term religious non-believer it it became difficult to turn ablind eye on the possible engineering concept show by this obviouslong term Hox genes which are virtually unchanged from the Cambrianand no doubt before the so called Cambrian explosion. This, to me. isclearly a case of appearance of highly functional and set genes longbefore they were needed for the Cambrian radiation. And they remainhighly conserved (another term for fixed) to the present day and incommon across the animal kingdom.
That's a basic feature of evolution: if something works, it is retained,and built upon.
As you must have noted I posed this matter as a question. It's beenpointed out before that evidence is sometimes subjective.People can observe the same yet arrive at different conclusions. You maysee this as supporting evolution whereas another could see this asevidence of design by a supernatural designer. I see both sides,however, I tend to be agnostic regarding the meaning. Your are rightevolution does use and improve on whatever works.
Those who point to a supernatural designer consistently ignore theelephant in the room: what are the properties of the designer? How didit arise? Keep in mind that the hallmark of science is explaining theworkings of the natural world WITHOUT invoking magical forces or beings.That is why invoking a supernatural designer is no different from anyother religion, and is clearly NOT science.
--MarkA
We hang petty thieves, and appoint the great thieves to public office-- Aesop
Post by Bob WardlawHomeobox genes are short (about 180 base pairs) extremely ancient,highly conserved and are shared across the animal kingdom. More than100 homeobox genes are known. These genes also called Master Controlgenes, control the formation of eyes, hearts, limbs etc across theanimal kingdom.For example the eye across the animal phylum was believed to haveevolved at least 40 times, however, a single Master Control Genecalled Pax 6 has been responsible for the development of eyes in fruitflies (Drosophilia) further research found that the same gene or ahomeologue was found to control the development of eyes in vertebratesincluding zebra fish, squid, mice and all animals tested includinghumans. The discoverer of these genes, Professor Walter Gehring wasmet with considerable resistance by his peers. So, In an experiment hetook the Pax 6 gene from a mouse and placed it in various parts ofthefruit fly, Drosopholia, what appeared was eyes, not mouse eyes, butthe multi-fascited eyes of the fruit fly. So, a mouse Pax 6 Genecontrolled the formation of fly eyes in a fly.www.youris.com/Health/Genetics/One_Gene_One_Vision.klIt has been shown that another Master Control Gene called Tinman,(after Tinman movie charcter in the Wizare of OZ.) is responsible forthe formation of all types of hearts from the fruit fly nK2 homeoboxto humans. In humans this gene for unknown reasons is said to be ahomologue labled NkX2-5 homeobox gene. Yet these genes had to bepresent and highly functional during the Cambrian expansion.https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Tinman%20genehttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gtr/genes/3227/What is not very well understood is exactly how these homeobox geneswork. But they are said to be played by upstream genes which selectthe sections of the homeobox genes which in turn switch on genes thatcascade downstream which express the type of eye, heart, as well asother body organ and parts. More than 100 of these master controlgenes are knownhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hox_geneAs a long term religious non-believer it it became difficult to turn ablind eye on the possible engineering concept show by this obviouslong term Hox genes which are virtually unchanged from the Cambrianand no doubt before the so called Cambrian explosion. This, to me. isclearly a case of appearance of highly functional and set genes longbefore they were needed for the Cambrian radiation. And they remainhighly conserved (another term for fixed) to the present day and incommon across the animal kingdom.
That's a basic feature of evolution: if something works, it is retained,and built upon.
As you must have noted I posed this matter as a question. It's beenpointed out before that evidence is sometimes subjective.People can observe the same yet arrive at different conclusions. You may
They don't. Religious loonies twist it to fit their beliefs. And whenobjective, real world research shows t heir beliefs are wrong, theyignore it.
Post by Bob Wardlawhowever, I tend to be agnostic regarding the meaning. Your are rightevolution does use and improve on whatever works.
Those who point to a supernatural designer consistently ignore theelephant in the room: what are the properties of the designer? How didit arise? Keep in mind that the hallmark of science is explaining theworkings of the natural world WITHOUT invoking magical forces or beings.That is why invoking a supernatural designer is no different from anyother religion, and is clearly NOT science.
If there were actually any evidence for one, science would haveinvestigated it and incorporated the results into the global knowledgebase - and it would have gone down that route.
As far as science is concerned, unless and until somebody providesobjective justification for a designer, there is nothing there.
Post by Bob WardlawHomeobox genes are short (about 180 base pairs) extremely ancient,highly conserved and are shared across the animal kingdom. More than100 homeobox genes are known. These genes also called Master Controlgenes, control the formation of eyes, hearts, limbs etc across theanimal kingdom.For example the eye across the animal phylum was believed to haveevolved at least 40 times, however, a single Master Control Genecalled Pax 6 has been responsible for the development of eyes in fruitflies (Drosophilia) further research found that the same gene or ahomeologue was found to control the development of eyes in vertebratesincluding zebra fish, squid, mice and all animals tested includinghumans. The discoverer of these genes, Professor Walter Gehring wasmet with considerable resistance by his peers. So, In an experiment hetook the Pax 6 gene from a mouse and placed it in various parts ofthefruit fly, Drosopholia, what appeared was eyes, not mouse eyes, butthe multi-fascited eyes of the fruit fly. So, a mouse Pax 6 Genecontrolled the formation of fly eyes in a fly.www.youris.com/Health/Genetics/One_Gene_One_Vision.klIt has been shown that another Master Control Gene called Tinman,(after Tinman movie charcter in the Wizare of OZ.) is responsible forthe formation of all types of hearts from the fruit fly nK2 homeoboxto humans. In humans this gene for unknown reasons is said to be ahomologue labled NkX2-5 homeobox gene. Yet these genes had to bepresent and highly functional during the Cambrian expansion.https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Tinman%20genehttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gtr/genes/3227/What is not very well understood is exactly how these homeobox geneswork. But they are said to be played by upstream genes which selectthe sections of the homeobox genes which in turn switch on genes thatcascade downstream which express the type of eye, heart, as well asother body organ and parts. More than 100 of these master controlgenes are knownhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hox_geneAs a long term religious non-believer it it became difficult to turn ablind eye on the possible engineering concept show by this obviouslong term Hox genes which are virtually unchanged from the Cambrianand no doubt before the so called Cambrian explosion. This, to me. isclearly a case of appearance of highly functional and set genes longbefore they were needed for the Cambrian radiation. And they remainhighly conserved (another term for fixed) to the present day and incommon across the animal kingdom.
That's a basic feature of evolution: if something works, it is retained,and built upon.
As you must have noted I posed this matter as a question. It's beenpointed out before that evidence is sometimes subjective.People can observe the same yet arrive at different conclusions. You maysee this as supporting evolution whereas another could see this asevidence of design by a supernatural designer. I see both sides,however, I tend to be agnostic regarding the meaning. Your are rightevolution does use and improve on whatever works.
Those who point to a supernatural designer consistently ignore theelephant in the room: what are the properties of the designer? How didit arise?
Thanks for your interest in God. God, as a spirit, has only spiritualproperties. The spiritual has too many properties. I have a simplifiedlist in my signature. You can check it out. It should be able to satisfyyour curiosity for a time.
The spiritual existence of God is nothing like our physical existence.Our physical existence has a beginning and ending. God's spiritualexistence, however, has no beginning and ending. It's the eternalincorruptible existence. So God does not have to arise since he hasalways existed.
Keep in mind that the hallmark of science is explaining the
Post by MarkAworkings of the natural world WITHOUT invoking magical forces or beings.That is why invoking a supernatural designer is no different from anyother religion, and is clearly NOT science.
Since the natural world is created by God, God can always be natural aswell as super natural. To God, there is no difference. The difference isonly the result of our limited ability to understand God's boundlesswisdom. So the problem is with us instead of God.
Why did he wait for half of forever to get over before turning thelights on?
God never left the world to leave us alone. He simply didn't want toshow himself when the human race had abandoned him. Your Bible quoteabout God not showing his face actually proves it.
You'd claim that "God knows everything". Then he'd know that showinghimself would allow even reasonable people to believe in him.
"Not showing himself" is more consistent with a nonexistent God thanwith an omniscient God.
BTW, That omniscient God would also know EXACTLY why I don't believe inhim, and what he could do about it. Doing that would requireinfinitesimal power. He continues to not do it. Why should I worry aboutHIS failing?
Why did he wait for half of forever to get over before turning thelights on?
God never left the world to leave us alone. He simply didn't want toshow himself when the human race had abandoned him. Your Bible quoteabout God not showing his face actually proves it.
IOW you are saying that since the human race abandoned God, he abondonedthe human race. I remember from the past that God was sorry he had mademan. And it repented him. But IMO this doesn't speak highly of God.
Post by Bob WardlawHomeobox genes are short (about 180 base pairs) extremely ancient,highly conserved and are shared across the animal kingdom. More than100 homeobox genes are known. These genes also called Master Controlgenes, control the formation of eyes, hearts, limbs etc across theanimal kingdom.For example the eye across the animal phylum was believed to haveevolved at least 40 times, however, a single Master Control Genecalled Pax 6 has been responsible for the development of eyes in fruitflies (Drosophilia) further research found that the same gene or ahomeologue was found to control the development of eyes in vertebratesincluding zebra fish, squid, mice and all animals tested includinghumans. The discoverer of these genes, Professor Walter Gehring wasmet with considerable resistance by his peers. So, In an experiment hetook the Pax 6 gene from a mouse and placed it in various parts ofthefruit fly, Drosopholia, what appeared was eyes, not mouse eyes, butthe multi-fascited eyes of the fruit fly. So, a mouse Pax 6 Genecontrolled the formation of fly eyes in a fly.www.youris.com/Health/Genetics/One_Gene_One_Vision.klIt has been shown that another Master Control Gene called Tinman,(after Tinman movie charcter in the Wizare of OZ.) is responsible forthe formation of all types of hearts from the fruit fly nK2 homeoboxto humans. In humans this gene for unknown reasons is said to be ahomologue labled NkX2-5 homeobox gene. Yet these genes had to bepresent and highly functional during the Cambrian expansion. >https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Tinman%20gene >https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gtr/genes/3227/ > >What is not very well understood is exactly how these homeobox geneswork. But they are said to be played by upstream genes which selectthe sections of the homeobox genes which in turn switch on genes thatcascade downstream which express the type of eye, heart, as well asother body organ and parts. More than 100 of these master controlgenes are known >https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hox_geneAs a long term religious non-believer it it became difficult to turn ablind eye on the possible engineering concept show by this obviouslong term Hox genes which are virtually unchanged from the Cambrianand no doubt before the so called Cambrian explosion. This, to me. isclearly a case of appearance of highly functional and set genes longbefore they were needed for the Cambrian radiation. And they remainhighly conserved (another term for fixed) to the present day and incommon across the animal kingdom.
That's a basic feature of evolution: if something works, it is retained,and built upon.
As you must have noted I posed this matter as a question. It's beenpointed out before that evidence is sometimes subjective.People can observe the same yet arrive at different conclusions. You maysee this as supporting evolution whereas another could see this asevidence of design by a supernatural designer. I see both sides,however, I tend to be agnostic regarding the meaning. Your are rightevolution does use and improve on whatever works.
Those who point to a supernatural designer consistently ignore theelephant in the room: what are the properties of the designer? How didit arise?
Thanks for your interest in God. God, as a spirit, has only spiritualproperties. The spiritual has too many properties. I have a simplifiedlist in my signature. You can check it out. It should be able to satisfyyour curiosity for a time.The spiritual existence of God is nothing like our physical existence.Our physical existence has a beginning and ending. God's spiritualexistence, however, has no beginning and ending. It's the eternalincorruptible existence. So God does not have to arise since he hasalways existed. Keep in mind that the hallmark of science is explaining the
Post by MarkAworkings of the natural world WITHOUT invoking magical forces or beings.That is why invoking a supernatural designer is no different from anyother religion, and is clearly NOT science.
Since the natural world is created by God, God can always be natural aswell as super natural. To God, there is no difference. The difference isonly the result of our limited ability to understand God's boundlesswisdom. So the problem is with us instead of God.
Fact is, if you accept the notion that evidence is unnecessary todemonstrate the existence of God then faith by itself is insufficient,Over the years I've seen people on this and other NGs post pointingto what could be seen as evidence: which could be seen as evidenceimplying a foward thinking intelligent creator deity. The discovery ofhomeobox genes is one solid example. For two reasons:1) they are ancient, yet called "highly conserved" (fixed) by professional.They had to be in existence before the Cambrian explosion, yet remainhighly conserved to the present. One can argue from some hypothesisthat they had to evolve. And so, this is in keeping with Darwin'stheory. But where is the evidence?2) These homeobox genes are basically universal in that every animal sofar tested has the same homeobox genes: even to the extent that a mousePax6 gene was substituted in a fruit fly and the mouse gene controlledthe development of multi-phasited fly eye on the wing of this fly.There is no justification for denying the reality of the appearance ofthese genes before they were needed. These genes are extremely ancientsufficently perfect to be highly conserved (unchanged).
There may be a naturalistic explanation for this, but none come acrossas better than the opinion that homeobox genes are the product ofintelligence. I think any open mind can recognize this possibility.I do not know of any possible better evidence of Gods existence thanthese homeobox genes.
This has rendered my agnostic. I think there must be a naturalisticexplanation that better explains this than intelligence, but I'veyet to find it.
Post by MarkAThose who point to a supernatural designer consistently ignore theelephant in the room: what are the properties of the designer? How didit arise? Keep in mind that the hallmark of science is explaining theworkings of the natural world WITHOUT invoking magical forces or beings.That is why invoking a supernatural designer is no different from anyother religion, and is clearly NOT science.
From what we have observed, intelligence must be preceded by at least13 billion years of time.
Post by Bob WardlawHomeobox genes are short (about 180 base pairs) extremely ancient,highly conserved and are shared across the animal kingdom. More than100 homeobox genes are known. These genes also called Master Controlgenes, control the formation of eyes, hearts, limbs etc across theanimal kingdom.For example the eye across the animal phylum was believed to haveevolved at least 40 times, however, a single Master Control Genecalled Pax 6 has been responsible for the development of eyes in fruitflies (Drosophilia) further research found that the same gene or ahomeologue was found to control the development of eyes in vertebratesincluding zebra fish, squid, mice and all animals tested includinghumans. The discoverer of these genes, Professor Walter Gehring wasmet with considerable resistance by his peers. So, In an experiment hetook the Pax 6 gene from a mouse and placed it in various parts ofthefruit fly, Drosopholia, what appeared was eyes, not mouse eyes, butthe multi-fascited eyes of the fruit fly. So, a mouse Pax 6 Genecontrolled the formation of fly eyes in a fly.www.youris.com/Health/Genetics/One_Gene_One_Vision.klIt has been shown that another Master Control Gene called Tinman,(after Tinman movie charcter in the Wizare of OZ.) is responsible forthe formation of all types of hearts from the fruit fly nK2 homeoboxto humans. In humans this gene for unknown reasons is said to be ahomologue labled NkX2-5 homeobox gene. Yet these genes had to bepresent and highly functional during the Cambrian expansion.https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Tinman%20genehttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gtr/genes/3227/What is not very well understood is exactly how these homeobox geneswork. But they are said to be played by upstream genes which selectthe sections of the homeobox genes which in turn switch on genes thatcascade downstream which express the type of eye, heart, as well asother body organ and parts. More than 100 of these master controlgenes are knownhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hox_geneAs a long term religious non-believer it it became difficult to turn ablind eye on the possible engineering concept show by this obviouslong term Hox genes which are virtually unchanged from the Cambrianand no doubt before the so called Cambrian explosion. This, to me. isclearly a case of appearance of highly functional and set genes longbefore they were needed for the Cambrian radiation. And they remainhighly conserved (another term for fixed) to the present day and incommon across the animal kingdom.
That's a basic feature of evolution: if something works, it is retained,and built upon.
As you must have noted I posed this matter as a question. It's beenpointed out before that evidence is sometimes subjective.People can observe the same yet arrive at different conclusions. You maysee this as supporting evolution whereas another could see this asevidence of design by a supernatural designer. I see both sides,however, I tend to be agnostic regarding the meaning. Your are rightevolution does use and improve on whatever works.
Those who point to a supernatural designer consistently ignore theelephant in the room: what are the properties of the designer? How didit arise?
For two reasons, it doesn't matter how this supernatural deity arose:As in the case of evolution, how life arose is not pertinent to thevalidity of evolution. Abiogenesis and evolution are two differentscientific disciplines.We might have created life in a test tube, but how life actuallystarted, it's unfortunate, but doubtful we will ever reallyknow.As in the case of the universe, scientist, before the discovery of theBig Bang, thought the universe was always the same, eternal with nobeginning and no end. Even Albert Einstein and Fred Hoyle believed this.Dr. Hoyle attempted to give the eternal universe a scientific basis byadvancing his "steady state theory". The "how" did the universe arisewas not pertinent. It didn't matter to the observations scientist weremaking before the Big Bang discovery.
It's the same with the design in the universe. Where there might bedesign, how the designer arose is not pertinent to design. To argue it'ssomehow different is hypocrisy.
Keep in mind that the hallmark of science is explaining the
Post by MarkAworkings of the natural world WITHOUT invoking magical forces or beings.
I agree with this comment. Scientist prefer to think of nature aswithin the confines of a scientific inquiry. This way everythingevery force and every action is under sciences and the "authority" ofscience. Whatever is deemed outside the realm of scientific inquiryand understanding is deemed non-scientific, superstition or magic.So, your expression here, while true, is just a modern philosophicalstance _advanced_ by philosophers of science and accepted by certainscientist and individuals who think of themselves as "thinkers andrationalist".
Post by MarkAThat is why invoking a supernatural designer is no different from anyother religion, and is clearly NOT science.
I totally agree with you it's not science. And neither is it necessaryto invoke a supernatural designer. There is no way, at present timeto know who, what or how design occurred. Perhaps it was evolutionby mutations and natural select over vast periods of time. But somepeople disagree with this. And they are within their rights and theyhave the right to defend their views when challenged or denounced, butdo not have the right to try forcing their views on others.
Many early scientist were religious people whose religion did notalter, effect or influence their scientific experiments or research.I would point to Priest such as Gregor Mendel. He followed thescientific method in his experiments with peas: he is considered to bethe father of genetics.Another was Carl Linnaeus, a christian who believed that since Godcreated the world, it was possible to understand God's wisdom bystudying His creation. This is the man who gave us the current method ofclassification of organisms.Isaac Newton a Catholic who determined the force of gravity and gave uscalculus.Another Priest was Georges Lemaitre an astronomer who first saw inEinstein's theory of relativity and found his math showed universesexpansion and predicted a beginning which he called the Primal atom. Hegave us the (Big Bang theory, but Fred Hoyle sarcastically called itthe Big Bang.There were numerous Christians who are known as the fathers or mothersof many of the scientific disciplines we know today. While they usedthe scientific method they did not reject their religion. Neither didthey turn to their religion when engaging in scientific activities.
It might be intereisting to note that the modern scientific method inEurope was further developed by a Roger Bacon, a Franciscan frar whoturned to ancient Greek, ohilospher and Muslem scientist to furtherdevelop the scientific method.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Bacon
Another founder of the modern scientific method was Francis Bacon adevout Anglican and the father of induction.www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/scholarsandscientists/francis-bacon.html
So based on the significance contributions to science, it's obvious thatreligion is not a hinderance to science.
Post by Bob WardlawAnd they are within their rights and theyhave the right to defend their views when challenged or denounced, butdo not have the right to try forcing their views on others.Isaac Newton a Catholic
Nope. Nominally Church of England, in his heart of heartssomeone the Anglican "heretics' would consider a heretic.
Post by Bob WardlawAnother founder of the modern scientific method was Francis Bacon adevout Anglican and the father of induction.www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/scholarsandscientists/francis-bacon.htmlSo based on the significance contributions to science, it's obvious thatreligion is not a hinderance to science.
Neither is it a hindrance. :)
A religious person can have a scientific mindset, at the expense of thekind of immanent ghod that many fundamentalists insist on, the onewho answers your prayer that your corn flakes didn't wilt in the milkwhen breakfast got interrupted by your need to head to the LittleFundies' room and tinkle. It is most consonant with the Deist's"Cosmic Watchmaker" model of ghod.
Occam's razor continues to reduce the areas needed for this ghodof the gaps to tinker with, as we learn more about the universe.
Post by Bob WardlawAnd they are within their rights and theyhave the right to defend their views when challenged or denounced, butdo not have the right to try forcing their views on others.Isaac Newton a Catholic
Nope. Nominally Church of England, in his heart of heartssomeone the Anglican "heretics' would consider a heretic.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Isaac_Newton
Post by Bob WardlawAnother founder of the modern scientific method was Francis Bacon adevout Anglican and the father of induction.www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/scholarsandscientists/francis-bacon.htmlSo based on the significance contributions to science, it's obvious thatreligion is not a hinderance to science.
Neither is it a hindrance. :)A religious person can have a scientific mindset, at the expense of thekind of immanent ghod that many fundamentalists insist on, the onewho answers your prayer that your corn flakes didn't wilt in the milkwhen breakfast got interrupted by your need to head to the LittleFundies' room and tinkle. It is most consonant with the Deist's"Cosmic Watchmaker" model of ghod.Occam's razor continues to reduce the areas needed for this ghodof the gaps to tinker with, as we learn more about the universe.Take the logic to its inevitable conclusion.
There is nothing in this response that addresses anything I believeor that I wrote. | {
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Brian Mundell
Drafted in the 7th round (197th overall) by the Colorado Rockies in 2015 (signed for $185,000)
Mundell cracked 11 home runs in 2013 as a freshman for the Mustangs, mostly as a DH but at times as a catcher. He had hit just nine home runs in the following two seasons, though, and moved down the defensive spectrum to first base. Mundell has the bat speed to hit good fastballs, though, with plus raw power that he doesn't get to consistently. He had some hamstring issues that slowed him early in the season. | {
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Introduction
In the early morning of April 15, 1865, Abraham Lincoln succumbed to a gunshot wound to the head, and became the first United States president to be assassinated. While the president and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, were taking in the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., John Wilkes Booth entered the Presidential box where they were seated and fired one shot. In one terrifying instant, most of the nation was left griefstricken and without a leader.
Booth, a famous actor, knew the theatre's staff and floorplan very well, and went in and out of its room throughout that fateful day, planning his attack. He viewed Lincoln as a most vile tyrant. Certainly, Lincoln was an "enemy" to Booth's beloved South, whom had just conceded the brutal Civil War on April 9. Booth felt killing Abraham Lincoln was not only going to give much-needed relief to the Confederate army and government was they could regroup and continue to the Southern struggle, but he felt it was his destiny.
With this website, I hope to give you a sufficient, albeit brief, look at Booth and that night and that gunshot which forever changed the United States of America.
For a much more comprehensive and insightful look at the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, I suggest reading Edward Steers, Jr.'s Blood on the Moon (The University Press of Kentucky), which offers in incredible detail the events leading up to, during, and after that night at Ford's Theatre.
- Chad Smith
This lithograph depicts John Wilkes Booth jumping to the stage of Ford's Theatre after shooting President Lincoln: | {
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disappearing text
has anybody else noticed a problem wiith text disappearing? I start to reply to a thread and sometimes if i pause to look what I've typed the txt i have just written vanishes before my eyes! Its not doing it on anything else but A-S.net!!
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About US
Our community has been around for many years and pride ourselves on offering unbiased, critical discussion among people of all different backgrounds. We are working every day to make sure our community is one of the best. | {
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Arrest report: Seahawks' Lane admitted to using marijuana before driving
Seattle Seahawks cornerback Jeremy Lane registered a blood-alcohol-content level well under the legal limit but admitted to having smoked marijuana before he was pulled over early Sunday morning, leading to his arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence, according to a Washington State Patrol incident report.
Lane was pulled over on Mercer Island just east of Seattle after his 2006 Dodge Charger was clocked traveling 80 mph in a 60 mph zone, according to the report, which was obtained by ESPN. The arresting patrolman said he observed the vehicle drifting and changing lanes without signaling. Lane's vehicle also had its hazard lights on.
The patrolman wrote in the report that there "was a strong odor of burnt marijuana inside the vehicle" when Lane rolled down the window and that he could smell "a moderate odor of intoxicants emanating from Lane in the open air" once the cornerback stepped out of his vehicle. Lane said he hadn't been drinking and that he had smoked marijuana about three hours earlier, according to the report.
The Seahawks' Jeremy Lane told Washington State Patrol when he was pulled over that he hadn't been drinking and that he had smoked marijuana about three hours earlier, according to an incident report. Michael Zito/AP for Panini
The patrolman noted that Lane's eyes were watery and bloodshot and that his speech was slow and slurred. Lane showed possible signs of impairment on all three of the field sobriety tests he underwent, according to the report. He agreed to take a breath test and registered a BAC of .039. The legal limit in Washington State is .08.
The patrolman wrote, "I explained to Lane several times throughout our contact that he was under arrest because of his driving ability, performance on the Standardized Field Sobriety Tests, and admission to smoking marijuana led me to believe that he was impaired by a combination of alcohol and marijuana."
The report states Lane expressed concern over being arrested on suspicion of DUI and that he didn't want people thinking he was drunk, with Lane quoted as saying, "This time I was more high than anything."
After being taken to Overlake Hospital for a blood draw, Lane was booked into King County Jail and was released almost four hours later on his own recognizance, according to the report and jail records.
Lane, 27, is one of the Seahawks' longest-tenured players, having been drafted in the sixth round in 2012 out of Northwestern State in Louisiana. He was Seattle's primary nickelback from 2014 to 2016 and made 21 starts, including six this past season at cornerback.
However, the Seahawks benched him twice in 2017, first after he began the season as the starter at right cornerback and then after he took over on the left side following Richard Sherman's season-ending Achilles injury. In between those benchings, the Seahawks traded Lane to the Houston Texans only to get him back because of a failed physical.
He is scheduled to make $6 million in salary and count $7.25 million against the cap in each of the remaining two seasons on his contract. Those costs plus Lane's down 2017 season have led to the belief that he's unlikely to remain with Seattle in 2018. | {
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Oakfield Surgery relocating to new premises
Posted on 14 Jul 2017
Important Information Regarding Oakfield Surgery
Dear Patients,
Your GP surgery is relocating to new premises from Monday 12th June 2017
With effect from Monday 12th June 2017, Oakfield Surgery (21 High Street, Penge, London, SE20 7HJ) and The Park Practice (113 Anerley Road, London SE20 8AJ) will be relocating to Oaks Park Medical Centre (17 Oakfield Road, London SE20 8QA). As you will be aware, this relocation has been planned for some time and now we are pleased to confirm that the new premises is ready. Although the practices will be moving to the same site, the surgeries will remain separate. There will be no change to the practice doctors, staff or services – all will move to the new location.
The Park Practice and Oakfield Surgery very much hope that you will continue to be registered there. If you wish to remain with your current practice, you do not need to take any action. Your medical records will be securely transferred to the new location.
However, all patients have the choice to register with another practice if they wish. If you choose to find another practice, you should contact the practice directly and ask staff to register you. The practice will need to check that you live within its catchment area. You can find a surgery near you using the NHS Choices website at http://www.nhs.uk/Service-Search/GP/LocationSearch/4 or you can call the NHS Customer Helpline on 0300 311 2233.
If you have any questions about the move, please contact Oakfield Surgery on 020 8776 6514 or the Park Practice on 020 8778 8027. | {
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£39.95
£45.00Now £27.00
Our collection of base layers are customised to keep sweat to a minimum to keep you active whilst out and about, with a superior polyester design for your comfort and versatile for all outdoor pursuits. For colder occasions, the microfleece range is the ideal base layer to keep you in control. | {
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Getting started with genre fiction – Rappler
Getting started with genre fictionRapplerThere was a time when this delineation of books was a form of classist separation (remnants of which are still present today). These entertaining tales with clear genres were called genre fiction, while the so-called “high-brow” stories were labeled … | {
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Articles, Videos & Podcasts
Saffron Improves the Effectiveness of Antidepressant Medications
In a recent study, published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, the addition of saffron to standard pharmaceutical antidepressants was investigated in people suffering from depression.
Forty adults diagnosed with depression were randomly allocated into one of two groups. One group received a pharmaceutical antidepressant plus crocin capsules (a major component from the spice saffron) while the other group received a pharmaceutical antidepressant plus placebo capsules. This was a double-blind study, which meant that neither the researchers nor participants knew which group they were allocated into.
After 4 weeks of treatment, people on the antidepressant plus crocin capsules experienced significantly greater improvements in mood, compared to the antidepressant and placebo treated group. The crocin group experienced a 42% reduction in depressive symptoms after 4 weeks, whereas the placebo group only experienced a 16% reduction in depressive symptoms. People on the crocin capsules also reported greater reductions in anxiety and several other mental health symptoms.
This is the first study investigating the effects of treating depressed individuals with saffron and pharmaceutical antidepressants. The positive findings mean that people on antidepressants could potentially be treated with lower-dose antidepressants meaning a lower likelihood of side effects. Antidepressants are commonly associated with side effects which often increase in severity with higher doses. Further research is required to replicate this study with a larger sample size, but it provides further validation for the antidepressant effects of saffron. | {
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LNDR
Summit Jacket
£145.00
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This LNDR Summit Jacket is moisture wicking to keep you cool. It is seam-free and uses antibacterial silver technology yarns to keep you fresh for longer. It is cut for a close fit to reduce any resistance during a workout, while the circular knit allows for superior flexibility and support. Contrasting panels of differing deniers create panels of ventilation and compression. The best part? You'll look good working that Frame
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Amazing Bird Feeder House On Pole
By Doug SpinkaPosted on October 25, 2017October 23, 2017Amazing Bird Feeder House On Pole February 2018
Bird Feeder House On Pole – This Amazing Bird Feeder House On Pole photos was upload on October, 25 2017 by Doug Spinka. Here latest Bird Feeder House On Pole wallpapers collection. Download other photos about Bird Feeder House On Pole in our other reviews. Click on images to print Amazing Bird Feeder House On Pole in high resolution. | {
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STEREOPHONICS frontman Kelly Jones is one person who won't be tuning in to this year's I'm A Celebrity...
STEREOPHONICS frontman Kelly Jones is one person who won't be tuning in to this year's I'm A Celebrity...
The pint-sized crooner said: "Reality is s**t. That's why everyone wants to watch telly in the first place. It doesn't make any sense. And now we've got John Lydon going on it."
Speaking to Real Radio in an interview to be aired over Easter, Kelly said he doubted whether he would ever resort to a celeb soap.
He said: "I hope not. I wouldn't want anyone to see me in 17 years' time - I would like to be a hermit with a big beard, smoking something. I can't think of anything worse than being followed round, particularly with people who haven't got a clue, who you haven't anything in common with." | {
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Työn tila
...I'm offering $10 for someone who can create a logofor my business card. I want the initials B and A to be combined in capital letters. In a navy blue colour maybe mixed with white. No fancy letters, it's for a professional business so a font that stand out. I've attached a picture of the sort of combined letter look I'...
I need someone to create a logofor my new company matching our industry and what we do along with icon sets to reuse in emails, etc. Need business card template created as well.
Looking at blue gradients.
For the icons, flat and no skeomorphisms
Company name is Brokers Virtual
Look and feel: Light, strong, expansive, virtual.
We already have a logo, but would like to improve somehow or even redesign it all together, only if the design is right, see attached files for existing logo and logo icon.
Name: City Glitz
Description: Men's & Women's Designer Fashion Store
Website: [kirjaudu nähdäksesi URL:n]
The logo has to be:
- Simple
- Modern
- Flat
- San...
Create a logofor a bridal business that is professional, in high quality and is one-of-a-kind, which means there will be no copying other companies logos or stealing copyrighted work.
You must know Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator
Be creative and show previous work
Name of company is Sara Marie
Needs to be Done within 1 hour
All bids higher than 10
Here are the guidelines of the set up we give we give with all the files.
For each agent joining We Invest, we will provide you 4 pictures (‘’portrait’’, ‘’panneau’’, ‘’site 1’’, ‘’site2’’) and an info card containing his/her name & surname, phone number, email address and IPI number.
These ...
...Kapono and my business name is MandarinMoon and I am a polymer clay artist looking to create a brand and expand my business from a part time business/hobby to a full fledged business. If you search MandarinMoon (all one word) on flickr, deviantART and facebook, you can get a sense of my style and what I do.
I am looking for a simple logo that i...
1. What is the exact name you would like used in your logo design? Duke and Pearl Brew Shop. Are there any acceptable abbreviations of the above? If so, detail. D&P Brew Shop
2. What is your mission statement, slogan or motto? Duke and Pearl regally supporting the palates for Coffee, Beer and Wine with Bulldog attitude. Do you want that included
Design a logofor our client's business. You have to be able to create unlimited concepts with no to little input, do research to come up with a great concept and deliver revisions until our client is happy without any extra costs. Client want the logo in the following formats: AI, PSD, JPG and TIFF. All rights must be transferred to our client.
New business needs logo. As many revisions as necessary. Supports booking appointments for services in beauty, massage, skin care, hair style, spa, etc
* The logo name starts with 3 G's - must be able to provide designs that reflect 3 G's
* Can create a unique and creative design.
* No placeholder bids. Please bid the amount that are was willi...
I am looking for a graphic designer to create a logofor a brand called “No Bullshit Medicine”. Within the design, I would like for the Rod of Asclepius to be included which is the correct medicine symbol.
The brand revolves around Dr. Ivan Rusilko, owner of the business called Lifestyle Medicine. The website for this busin...
Looking for a designer to create media for a Dog Training Studio. Items included, but not limited to will be logo and business card, banner (like for FB page and/or for use on a webpage), several matching postcards each with a different service (for now: obedience, trick training, nosework, board&train daycamp)
This dog training studio ...
...designers guide to creating a logo design brief
by IAN PAGET on 08/02/2015 in LOGO DESIGN
Unless you plan to create your own projects and work for yourself, in almost all cases when designing a logo you will need to work with other people. This includes people who are just starting a business, to those who have run businesses ...
...drone photography, video and mapping business as a second job. I already have a logo. I now am looking for someone to create a short 2-3 second animation with my logo that I can use at the start of my videos and on my website. I currently have two animation ideas (you can see my logo at [kirjaudu nähdäksesi URL:n]) 1. The logo...
...have the design of this site in AI format already with all the fonts. You can take the pieces of it from that file and use it to create the site template in Wordpress format. We have the logo and some images too. Thus, there's no graphic design necessary here.
Finally, here's a short list of what's required:
* CMS programming (PHP, WordPress);
* eCommerce
I am looking for someone to design a modern minimal logo and Icon.
Would like a few different initial design concepts. I must own copyrights (ownership document to be provided), and be royalty free. Require source files, vector, high res, 3D mockup, logo transparency, and opportunity for unlimited revisions.
Business is health and fitness geared
...am starting a business and am importing products, one of our products is the Mexican sugar skull. I would like to create a colourful logo to go with our product. Attached are three examples of the product for some inspiration. Our companies name is xotrade and I would like this name somewhere on the logo. I have drawn an example logo and attached that
...have the design of this site in AI format already with all the fonts. You can take the pieces of it from that file and use it to create the site template in Wordpress format. We have the logo and some images too. Thus, there's no graphic design necessary here.
Finally, here's a short list of what's required:
* CMS programming (PHP, WordPress);
* User
...our old designs and how the logos were used.
Attached are our new logos and new style guides.
For DL’s brochures and office marketing material we still have a degree of lenience but I like the clean look idea.
Remax has opted for a clean look with the logo ideally suited to a white background.
I like this idea so want to set a standard that all future
I am looking for someone to design a modern minimal logo and Icon. Business geared toward female consumers.
Would like a few different initial design concepts. I must own copyrights (ownership document to be provided), and be royalty free. Require source files, vector, high res, 3D mockup, logo transparency, and opportunity for unlimited revisions
...shop (to buy logo creation, business cards and other services linked to a Stripe account)
You need to develop and create the website on a private server before uploading live because we have an existing website that we can't put offline
Add plugins like messenger chat or online direct chat
Activecampaign listing
Instagram and Facebook feed
For all the others
...I need a logo. Something that will screen on both big and little screen before the start of the film. It will also be used on business cards, social media and the website. The name is Red Widow, so effective Red Widow films however I am mainly after something with just Red Widow. Words, pictures, I have no idea what I am actually hoping for, I do like
...
Our business Name is "Clever Advice"and our slogan is "Independent Mortgage Brokers"
We need a logo/slogan design. To help you understand us a bit more please see below:
What we do:
- Mortgage and Insurance company (Financial Products)
What we are looking for:
- A professional logo
- Sleek
- Clean
- Classic
- No...
Sariis Estates is looking to create a new logo based on these values and are looking for very creative individuals to come up with ideas for a new Company Logo
We are open to suggestions and promote creativity which is why the briefing will on the actual logo will be minimal.
Our only requirements are that the logo must be able to be easily a...
Are you able to create video's like this? [kirjaudu nähdäksesi URL:n]
It took me 20-30 mins to learn and 30 minutes to create a 30 second video
Login details - (login, click on video tutorial and watch the third video to see how to create the 3d avatar video's)
[kirjaudu nähdäksesi URL:n]
[Removed by Freelancer.com Admin]marketing!
My plan
...
we need a custom name logo design for a client of ours.
He is about to start a personal brand in personal development and business consulting. Online courses, teaching, personal brand development, this kind of area.
Since he steps up with his name as his personal brand his brand logo is what we need.
The logo consists of his name which
...100 percent finished. I will make the milestone no issue. I have had to many people take my money and just not finsih.. Type I understand the job.. If you have read this and understand my requiremnts
The most important ones that need to be finished first are
1. I have three businesses who I would like for you to take the information from their website
I will not release until the job is 100 percent finished. I will make the milestone no issue. I have had to many people take my money and just not finsih..
The most important ones that need to be finished first are
1. I have three businesses who I would like for you to take the information from their website and automatically update it on my website
I need a logo design for a business I am starting. The business itself is doing video documentaries of microbreweries and brewpubs. The documentaries will be almost like a TV show and will have the same feel as the Travel Channel's Man VS Food show. I already have a general logo design in mind but I am not a graphic designer and I don't know how to
Hi Guys,
I am looking for a competent designer to create me a logo that will represent my delivery system. It's extremely similar to businesses such as deliveroo; foodora; and uber eats.
I intend however to only be delivering fresh food from local business in the south west of france; and see where things go from there/
The colour scheeme is
Kaleidoscope Concepts is an importer of new and innovative brands into the UK. We manage sales, marketing, logistics , PR, Social media and distribution for new and exciting brands looking to launch into the UK market we need a new website to highlight these key skills, our story and our past successes.
Kaleidoscope Website:
Objectives:
• Help existing
...Graphic forLogo/T shirt design can be above or beside the name. Since we will be using this forbusiness, no copyrighted or generic stock images please. I notice several different designers using same images not their creation. anyone can copy and paste. We want someone to "Design, Create, be artistic". Thanks
I am looking for quick
Hello, I am a creating a new business called "International Social Media Strategy Gang" and I would like to create a logo. The look and feel of the logo is supposed to feel like a gang, an exclusive club. So, I would like you to look at the inspiration images and create something which suits a "gang" feel. I'd like it to include social me...
I need some help with creating a high impact video for our training event. I have already created the script and done a voiceover - now I need your help add any royalty free images/video and some kinetic text. Appropriate background music would also be cool. Creative keys are yours!
Voiceover transcript is as follows with my initial thoughts on
Hi there,
We already have the logo idea we want for our company Utopian Market but we need to now create it and improve it (see attached file).
So we ask you to recreates it with the same idea but a different style.
The changes we want are :
1) It should be with colors
2) It should be more related to a SuperMarket and more welcoming. At the moment
To createlogo of a company which is an Accounting firm. The name of the company is "DKD Chartered Accountants". This is the exact wording. The logo should be text based or its can be mix of some icon and text. There is no restrictions of choosing style and color but the logo should be simple and elegant. You can have a look at the logo of
...to design and build it. Hello;
My name is Robin Carter.
I have formed a company called “ The education sportswear company”
I am seeking the help of a web developer to create a very special website that is unique to my needs. I am aiming to start up an ecommerce website that is both functional and interactive. I have created a list of some key features
Need logo adjustments
* Old logo font with new logo design,
* need logo word coat in solid colour not faded colour
* the words under Perth`s roof and gutter restoration specialists to be same as old logo but with no red colour in words
* need logo in all file formats to use on a mixture of brochures and web
* need log for facebook, letter he...
Hello, I am looking for someone to create a logofor my business. It should consist of the name and with a mermaid (see attachment). The mermaid may be done in a very simple, minimalistic way, as an outline and preferably no color, it does not have to be identical as the original but rather simplified. It important to keep the mermaid with the house
GOING AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT ROUTE BUT THANK YOU FOR THE PREVIOUS ENTIRES!
NAME OF THE COMPANY, "THE OUTDOOR MOVIE EXPERIENCE"
THINK DISTRESSED VINTAGE CAMP PATCH AND INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING TO CREATE "THE OUTDOOR MOVIE EXPERIENCE" VIGNETTE:
*OUTDOOR MOVIE SCREEN IS THE MAIN FOCUS WITH COUNTDOWN GRAPHIC ON THE SCREEN FEATURING THE NUMBER 3(INCLUDE
Project Description
Please no designs using any logos like this: [kirjaudu nähdäksesi URL:n]
No "V-Man," no "plus sign," no "ecg/ekg" symbol, no generic monograms.
We're looking for some to create a logofor a CPR and First Aid training company, named "Critical Response Skills.&q...
...self-taught, I'm a fan of design, cinema, coffee, sudoku and cultural trips. I am an entrepreneur and investor, I have a degree in Business Administration and I have a Masters degree in Marketing.
Objective: to create a virtual store to undertake sales of imported physical objects in Brazil that reflect global purchasing trends. The brand needs to | {
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} |
More Like This
Preview
In the nineteenth century, there was a close correlation between literary characterization and the scientific study of human personality. In the literary development of character in the nineteenth century, the depths, recesses, and intricacies made possible by such self-alienation, rather than Mill's integrity, became the model for what it was to be a character. For psychology and literature alike in this period, Hamlet is crucial. Dickens's Little Dorrit come in the middle of this period, in returning to the model of Hamlet that had been crucial to Goethe and Coleridge and would be again for...
In the nineteenth century, there was a close correlation between literary characterization and the scientific study of human personality. In the literary development of character in the nineteenth century, the depths, recesses, and intricacies made possible by such self-alienation, rather than Mill's integrity, became the model for what it was to be a character. For psychology and literature alike in this period, Hamlet is crucial. Dickens's Little Dorrit come in the middle of this period, in returning to the model of Hamlet that had been crucial to Goethe and Coleridge and would be again for Freud and Joyce, significantly inflects both the literary genre of the novel of development and the larger cultural sense of how to understand a character. Dickens provides a focus for thinking about the process by which the modern sense of character was brought into existence through — not by — Shakespeare. | {
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Forty kilometres west of Australia's hottest town of Marble Bar is the North Pole... the North Pole Dome to be precise.
It's a rocky area that attracts scientists and geologists from around the world as they search not only for ancient rocks but early forms of life on Earth. Stromatolites and micobacteria fossils have been found, but a more recent discovery is even more exciting.
Dr David Wacey of University of West Australia is part of an international team that's found an ecosystem of single celled bacteria that has pushed back the age of life to 3.5 billion years old.
"What we've found may be the earliest evidence of life on earth," Dr Wacey says.
"It's hard to get your head around that it's 3.5 billion years old. It's just a crazy number."
The discovery is also helpful to the search for life on other planets, because the traces left by these primitive cells can be seen with the naked eye. Thus the Mars Rover for example could send back pictures of the ecosystem which could be compared to the microbial ecosystem found in the Pilbara.
Dr Wacey says the world was a tough place to survive in, no oxygen, lots of methane, and oceans at 70 degrees. | {
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World
With wildfires continuing to rage in Russia and the situation worsening in flood-hit Pakistan, the European Union is once again being criticized for its uncoordinated approach to international crisis management.
Critics say the EU needs a unified response to disasters
After the earthquake which hit Haiti in January this year, a number of European officials called on the EU to create a European emergency force to react as a single body to international crisis situations. The EU came under fire for its lack of cohesion with critics lamenting the missed opportunity for the bloc to show its solidarity and project its image as a major player on the world stage.
Eight months on from Haiti, the EU has yet to create a single emergency reaction force or aid fund and as such is running the risk of being labelled weak and inefficient again.
Over the weekend, French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for the establishment of an EU disasters rapid reaction force in a letter to EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.
Sarkozy said that amid such natural catastrophes as the Russian wildfires and the Pakistan floods, "we must take the necessary measures and build a real EU reaction force ... that draws on the resources of the member states."
Creation of single EU body at the mercy of national interests
"There has been a discussion about creating a European civilian response body for emergency situations but it all comes down to the national members states," Fabrice Pothier, European bureau chief for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Deutsche Welle.
It's difficult to get member states to rally round the EU flag
"So far they have failed to find a way to bring all the necessary personnel together - such as police, fire fighters and the judiciary. Europe has this capability but you have to start at the national level when coordinating this. Of course, when it doesn't happen, it's all the fault of Brussels."
"The problem, firstly, is one of political will," he added. "It's a hard sell for national governments to ask their people to provide resources for Brussels. There's also a problem arising from the fact that each member state has its own strategies and they want to put their own flag in the ground, not that of the EU."
"The Lisbon Treaty requires the EU to 'promote consistency in international civil-protection work'," Dr. Sven Grimm from the German Development Institute told Deutsche Welle. "I am not sure that this requires a single body. While a clear setting would facilitate speedy coordination, the rapidness of response - and the scope of it - is ultimately a question of political will and priorities, not so much of whether or not to have a single body."
The current EU crisis response tool, the Community Mechanism for Civil Protection, organised through the Monitoring and Information Center of the European Commission's aid directorate, acts as a coordinating body for the many individual relief efforts launched by EU member states.
The mission statement for the Community Mechanism for Civil Protection states that EU assistance will be provided on request of the country affected by the emergency and that the primary responsibility for dealing with the immediate effects of the disaster lies with the country where it has occurred.
EU says efforts on hold until Russia asks for help
Individual EU states have sent help to fire-ravaged Russia
In Russia's case, the EU says that the mechanism hasn't been triggered because Moscow has not asked for Europe's help. The Kremlin has been committed to showing that it can handle the wildfire situation on its own, even though its efforts to date have led to scathing criticism from within Russia itself.
"The EU needs to get smarter when it comes to cooperation," Pothier said. "It shouldn't strive to replace national initiatives and emergency crisis teams but it should get better at connecting them."
In contrast to the Russian stance, Pakistan, however, has asked for help in dealing with the deteriorating situation brought on by severe flooding in north western and central regions of the country. | {
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no title
Rumblings xtra: Items that didn't make print edition
By: Bob Hunter
The Columbus Dispatch - July 05, 2013 09:34 AM
Former Ohio State assistant coach Brandon Miller is reportedly one of the two
leading candidates for the Butler head coaching position following the hiring of coach Brad Stevens
by the Boston Celtics. Miller was an assistant on Stevens’ staff and initial reports had
Butler trying to fill the vacancy quickly and noted that the school’s three current assistant –
Miller, Michael Lewis and Terry Johnson -- were among those to be given serious consideration.
The Indianapolis Star later reported that a source at Butler indicated that Miller and
current Michigan assistant coach LaVall Jordan are now the leading candidates.
Miller joined Stevens’ staff from Illinois when
Associate Head Coach Matthew Graves left to become head coach at South Alabama in March. That
brought him to Butler, where he was a top player on Butler's teams. He started all 97 games in his
career and was the point guard for the 2003 Butler team that reached the Sweet 16 – the Bulldogs'
first such appearance in 41 years.
OSU coach Thad Matta was the Bulldogs’ head coach for
one of those years. Miller began his coaching career as a video intern under Matta at Xavier and
later became an assistant coach at Butler for one season (2007-08) under Stevens, after two seasons
as Matta’s director of basketball operations and one as video coordinator at OSU. He returned as a
full-time assistant on Matta’s OSU staff in 2009 and served for three seasons, before joining
former Matta assistant John Groce at Illinois.
Homer Bailey idolized Texas legend Nolan Ryan while growing up in the Lone Star
state, but that isn’t the reason that the Reds’ pitcher wears his number. After throwing his second
no-hitter this week – Ryan has seven of them during his Hall of Fame career – Bailey told MLB.com
that he wanted either No. 21 or 22 (the numbers he wore in the minors) when he was first called up
to Cincinnati in 2007.
"I wear it because of Stowe," Bailey said, referring to
Reds clubhouse manager Rick Stowe. "He gave it to me."
Stowe gave it to him because first baseman Scott
Hatteberg wore No. 21 and first-base coach Billy Hatcher had 22 when Bailey came up. Ryan had worn
No. 34 for both the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros from 1980-93.
"Texas boy,” Stowe said. “I gave him 34 for
that."
Bailey and Ryan are among 31 major league pitchers to
throw multiple no-hitters.
Defensive tackle Matt Elam, the nation’s No. 10 prospect according 247Sports.com,
received 182 letters in a single day last week – from Kentucky. Elam, a 6-foot-6, 360-pounder
fromElizabethtown, Ky., who lists UK, Ohio State, Alabama,
Louisville and Notre Dame among his favorites, told the Courier-Journal of Louisville that he
normally receives 10-20 recruiting letters a day. He said that Kentucky sent him 69 one day last
spring and that Alabama has sent him 30 letters at a time.
He told the paper that 182 made an impression --
UK coach Mark Stoops tweeted that “those are all the reasons why you should pick UK” -- but
admitted he hadn’t opened all of them.
“I just love that they want me and I’m very high on
their list,” Elam said.
He plans to announce his college choice in January at
the U.S. Army All-American Bowl at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
The Buckeyes didn’t make the top 10 list of teams with the most future NBA talent
that was compiled by ESPN’s Jeff Goodman. Goodman wrote that the Kentucky is a clear No. 1, but
ranked Michigan State second and Michigan No. 5.
Goodman wrote: “Both Adreian Payne and Gary Harris
returned to school, and could be lottery picks in 2014. The Spartans also have point guard Keith
Appling, along with strong, athletic wing Branden Dawson and skilled forward Denzel Valentine --
who will all make money playing the game after they finish college.” | {
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Related Whitepapers
Mattersight and ID Analytics, a provider of consumer risk management, today announced an agreement to enhance predictive fraud analytics at call centers.
As part of the deal, ID Analytics will incorporate Mattersight's speech and behavioral analytics technology into future products.
Mattersight's Fraud Analytics solution is designed to identify fraudsters conducting illicit activity through the contact center by recording customer calls and automatically analyzing every second of every recorded interaction, using millions of proprietary algorithms and unique behavioral models. The output of this analysis is hundreds of data attributes on every interaction, including the following:
The Fraud Analytics solution leverages these data attributes in predictive models that score every recorded call for the percentage likelihood each caller is a fraudster. Mattersight also leverages a database of known fraudsters' voiceprints that callers are compared against to identify repeat fraudster activity.
"Mattersight's cutting-edge voice biometrics, linguistic algorithms, and our predictive analytics capabilities, combined with the power of our ID Network, will allow us to not only improve fraud detection rates, but also to reduce the amount of friction that good customers experience when subjected to cumbersome authentication activities," said George Gelly, chief product officer, ID Analytics, in a statement.
"ID Analytics brings a wealth of credibility and knowledge in the consumer risk management space, and we're excited to partner with them and leverage our unique technology to address the voice-facilitated fraud market," said Kelly Conway, president and CEO of Mattersight, in a statement. "This application and partnership further demonstrates the breadth and power of our algorithms and analytics." | {
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Explanation: Quasars
(QUASi-stellAR objects) lie near the edge of the observable
Universe.
Discovered in 1963,
astronomers
were astounded that such objects could be
visible across billions of light-years, as this implies
they must emit prodigious
amounts of energy.
Where does
the
energy come from?
Many believe the quasar's central engine is a giant black hole
fueled by tremendous amounts of infalling gas, dust, and stars.
This
gallery of quasar portraits from the Hubble Space
Telescope offers a look at their local neighborhoods: the quasars themselves
appear as the bright star-like objects with
diffraction spikes.
The
images in the center and right hand columns reveal quasars
associated with disrupted colliding and merging galaxies
which should provide
plenty
of debris to feed a hungry
black
hole. | {
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} |
MP minister who threatened officer held
PUBLISHED ON: November 11, 2008 | Duration: 1 min, 17 sec
The minister who threatened an election officer in Madhya Pradesh was arrested on Tuesday and may end up spending several days in prison. But he didn't appear too unhappy and may be hoping for sympathy votes in the election. A policeman chased Madhya Pradesh Minister Tukoji Rao Pawar and arrested him before he could surrender in an apparent campaign-stunt. | {
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} |
Canada
Legal pot border questions
The Canadian Press -
Feb 7, 2018 / 6:39 am | Story:
218282
Photo: The Canadian Press
American officials have been quietly raising questions about whether Canada's marijuana legalization might slow traffic at the border, and are being told by their northern neighbours there's no reason that should happen.
The issue has come up in phone calls between high-level officials and again in passing this week during a first face-to-face encounter between Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale and his U.S. counterpart, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
It hasn't been contentious, he said.
''The only thing they say is, 'Will this cause lineups?'" Goodale said in an interview.
''And our answer is: 'Not unless you change your procedures. And there's no reason for you to change your procedures.' Because the law with respect to the border hasn't changed one iota.''
He said it came up briefly on the tail end of the meeting with Nielsen and in past phone conversations. Federal officials say there has been no attempt to pressure Canada — that the U.S. has expressed respect for Canada's sovereign decisions.
It's a far cry from the conversation of the early 2000s.
At that time, the Bush administration strenuously argued against marijuana decriminalization. And in the wake of the 9-11 attacks, public figures in both countries expressed alarm over anything that might cause additional border checks and worsen delays for cargo shipments.
Now the U.S. has nine states with legal marijuana and numerous others that have decriminalized it. The border is more sophisticated. And the Canadian view is that there's no reason for traffic snags — because it's just as illegal to transport pot across the border as it ever was.
"They do (raise it). Because they know the Canadian law is changing,'' Goodale said.
"They're saying they don't anticipate any great change. But I think there is some concern that Canadian law is changing, and does that cause them to behave in a different way. The answer should be no." | {
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} |
Cancer Bats - 100 Grand Canyon
All the kids are bridge burning, throwing up their namesAll the heads are street learning, stepping up their gameI'll write the world, hey, heyI'll write itI'll write the world, hey, heyI'll write itWrite it yeah, write it allAll the city radiating not in this for the gainsAll this is communicating its own kinds of fameEverything will work out, everything's fineI the blacklisted cutting life with the red outlinesI the blacklisted running life with the red outlines, I'm goneEverything fallsWhat I'm saying, lostWorlds the same, yeahEverything breaksBreakdown, everything breaks, it all breaks down for meBreakdown, everything breaks, it all breaks down for meAll the kids are still bombing, throwing up their namesRight on, the heads will keep it coming, that'll never changeI'll write the world, hey, hey, I'll write itI'll write the world, hey, hey, I'll write itHey, hey, hey, write it | {
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} |
Monday, July 09, 2007
Fair use and abuse... The Bell Shakespeare Company's Othello
UPDATE: I've added my Herald Sun review of Othello at the end of this post.
I am taking the inexcusable liberty of purloining a review from another blog. It comes from a pseudonymous commenter at Nicholas Pickard's blog, Arts Journalist. It was posted in response to Pickard's largely positive review of the Sydney season of The Bell Shakespeare Company's Othello.
Why have I 'nicked' it? Cos it's well written, strongly argued and too good to be buried in a comments thread.
I thought the production was very interesting and enjoyed it a lot – perhaps in spite of its rather profound performance shortcomings.
Blair's performance seemed to me to be one where he adopted [perhaps was directed to adopt] a few postures/physical positions to try & overcome what I have come to see as his habitual physical patterns as an actor.
What you refer to as “mesmerising movement that verges on ancient ritual and dance” I saw as his typically uncontrolled physicality – though its incidence was much reduced by the adoption of a series of straight-jacket poses – hands held tight behind back etc. I have always found his lack of discipline in this area very distracting. It removes from his work the clarity that good storytelling requires.
His usual lip smacking and chewing remained and his eye flutters repeated through the show seemingly without rhyme or reason. I was in the front row so this may have not been so obvious further off. Some have interpreted these gestures as a ‘preview’ of the last scene’s fit – but if that was how they were intended I found them very unconvincing – poorly placed and ignored by everyone else witnessing them.
To drive another nail in, I felt that he was often unable to make sense of the verse as the emotion increased.
Other drawbacks from my perspective were Walsman’s droning voiced Desdamona – which flattened all poetry to nothingness - perhaps big spaces are too much for her vocal technique to maintain the flexibility required for poetic language and my final whinge is about Wren’s performance as Cassio, which felt to me to come from the ‘aw-gee-shucks’ school of acting.[A personal prejudice perhaps.] It seems quite common for characters of that type to be played as if they’ve had an intellect bypass. Surely the character is more interesting the more dimensions they have.
That said – none of these things stopped me enjoying the show and Graham’s Iago was engaging and charming, Butel’s Roderigo a fabulous, frenzied madness of love and lust and Chris Ryan a fascinating presence – was his white face a ‘shadow’ of Othello’s black one? Was he conscience to both Othello and Iago? Was he us – the witness to the destruction of a great man? All of these I hope.
Stunning lights and the use of the oil drums to add percussive punctuations were other successful elements to a show that was either moderately well directed or brilliantly directed [depending on your theory of how Potts handled Blair’s performance].
Finally, though there was fascination there wasn’t much emotion to the experience. Thus the focus of the play moved from Othello to Iago. One colleague’s reflection that I found interesting was that it turned the play into one about a liar who, for their own gratification, leads a credulous dupe to their doom. Which really makes it a play for our times. The next election will test that theory.
N.B. All punctuation, spelling and brackets as per the original comment.
For the record, here's my review of the Melbourne premiere in May. An edited version of this review ran in the Herald Sun on Tuesday, June 5, 2007.
If only Shakespeare had lavished as much time on the plot of Othello has he did its individual speeches... It has a slasher story that would embarrass an Italian opera impresario. But, love it or hate it, Othello is a more-than-usually responsive play. It's a chessboard of intrigue and powerplay.
In Marion Potts' lean and hungry production, Iago is the King of the board. All others are his pawns. But Potts hasn't quite nutted out Iago's motivation. He hates "the moor". But, why?
Traditionally, Iago is older and far more experienced than the young General. He's bitter and vengeful that he's been overlooked while his younger, dark-skinned rival has advanced speedily through the ranks.
Here, Iago (Marcus Graham) is younger, subtler -- and definitely craftier -- than his grizzled Othello (Wayne Blair). And his malignant hatred is unexplained. Though not unbelievable.
One aspect of the play that is brilliantly realised is the racism of the first act. Brabantio (Bob Baines) reacts to the loss of his daughter to Othello as a Klansman might. He accuses Othello of practicing on Desdemona (Leeanna Walsman) "with foul charms" and abusing her delicate youth "with drugs or minerals.."
Yet Othello's failure to get steamed up in this scene makes his jealous rage in the latter acts seem all the more bizarre and irrational.
Marcus Graham is charismatic and utterly compelling as Iago. He could charm serpents with his voice. And he has the moves to match. There is a strong emphasis on spidery -- almost martial -- movement throughout the production. It draws us into the weave of the drama and holds us tight.
On first night, the tension ebbed in the final act; focus was lost when it should have been at its sharpest. Leeanna Walsman wasn't at her usual brilliant best -- she sounded congested.
But this is a better than average Othello and one that should improve over the next few days.
About Me
2011 is my 25th year as an arts writer and critic, mostly of performing arts. And it’s my first year as Melbourne theatre critic for The Australian. I’ve also had long spells with the Financial Review (including a heady few years reviewing nationally), the Herald Sun (reviewing theatre and ballet), The Big Issue (as arts and literary editor) and The Melbourne Times, where it all began. I’ve also had some shorter spells with The Age: as contemporary dance writer then as their first ‘fringe’ critic.
In another life, I lectured in information and communication technology. And English.
I'm currently a member of the Green Room Awards Association's dance panel, which I have also chaired. I'm also on the selection panel of the Australian Dance Awards 2010-2014. In 2009, I helped decide the Telstra Ballet Dancer of the Year award. | {
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Saturday, 13 July 2013
Dreams Unlimited™ Sun Fresh Eau de Toilette | Review
The Body Shop is most well known for its skincare range, most notably its body butters. I have their body butters and scrubs and love them, however, I had never tried out any of their fragrances. I spotted this one recently and was in love with the bottle design and the scent. It's hard to describe, but to me, this smells like summer in a bottle.
Scent: According to The BodyShop:
"This summery fragrance is a blend of neroli blossom and refreshing watermelon notes. It is vibrant, energising and as refreshing as a splash in the ocean."
There is also added sea spray and fruity watermelon. Personally, I love this combination and I do find it to be a very refreshing scent. I like spraying this on really hot days as I find it really cools me down.
Lasting Power: This is an Eau de Toilette so the scent and the staying power isn't as good as that of an Eau de Parfum, however I find this lasts around 4 hours on me which isn't too bad for an Eau de Toilette.The bottle is small and light so it is portable if you wished to carry it around with you.
Packaging: I really love this packaging, the gradient from blue to yellow reminds me of the summer and being by the ocean. The packaging shows that this is a summer scent. The bottle isn't too heavy too so I don't feel like I'm scared I'll drop it every time I use it. It is also a 50ml size which is pretty good for the price as the standard size for fragrances is around 30ml.
Would I repurchase?: I really like this scent, but for me it is definitely a summer scent so I would only really wear this in the summer, and would choose something else for the winter.For the summer, I do really like this and will continue to wear it, particularly on hot days. | {
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When you return to Intuit® ProConnect™ Tax Online (PTO, formerly Intuit Tax Online) this season, you’ll notice that there are some new options in the navigation menu. There is a new category called View Type and there are two choices,...
Although tax season is right around the corner, the Intuit® ProConnect™ Tax Online team is busy working on these new time-saving features coming soon for tax year 2016. Split View: While entering data, you can quickly view the implications on...
Intuit® is on a mission to eradicate non-value added work, including simple data entry, repetitive administrative tasks and mindless drudgery. The new Client Connection Suite is the first step in this journey. For decades, Intuit and its competitors have invested...
The views expressed on this site are those of the authors, and not necessarily those of Intuit. Third-party authors may have received compensation for their time and services. This site does not provide legal, financial, accounting or tax advice. The content on this site is “as is” and carries no warranties. Intuit does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy, reliability, and completeness of the content on this site. After 90 days, comments are closed on posts. Intuit may, but has no obligation to, monitor comments. Comments that include profanity or abusive language will not be posted. | {
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Character Analysis Nat Pearl
Nat’s name suggests the word natty, a term for impressively up-to-date and sharp dress, but it is also a term applicable to a slick personality, and the name of Pearl suggests smoothness and financial ambition. Nat is a brilliant law student, but he seems to regard education only as the foundation for material success, a success which would be encumbered by marriage to a poor girl. Nat is quick to recognize that Helen is reading a classic novel on the subway, and he has a veneer of culture, but his intelligence does not include humanistic values, as does Helen’s.
Nat is a manipulator and he is preparing for a profession well suited to such a role; He is a cool exploiter and has the lack of candor necessary for such operations. He has told his father that Helen expects too much from him, but in talking to Helen he persists in claiming ignorance about her reasons for denying attentions to him. Nat’s struggles to leave the neighborhood and to enjoy a better life are based on his father’s successful betting, his own cool intelligence, and his sharp eye for opportunities. If Ward Minogue represents the immoral elements in Frank and the Bobers’ world, Nat may be said to represent the amoral elements. | {
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Order 10 or more for bulk rates:*
In Leading With Wisdom, Jann Freed takes the several years she spent interviewing more than 100 respected leaders, and distills their advice into eight practices that underpin leaders who connect and inspire others to achieve high performance. She takes the words of heavyweights such as Warren Bennis, Peter Senge, Stephen Covey, Marshall Goldsmith, Peter Block, and Margaret Wheatley, and presents their insights on what works and what doesn’t. Each chapter concludes with a practical application section that details ways to integrate the concepts into workshops and personal development.
Use the workshop and personal development suggestions to apply the eight practices into your daily life.
Learn from the words and personal stories of highly respected leaders.
Integrate the best of yourself and your life into your daily tasks and roles.
This book is for anyone in a position of influence in an organization, or those who train these individuals. It’s also for those who feel they are drowning in information, but starving for wisdom about what behaviors nurture people, organizations, and communities at large. Discussing her research process with these experts, Jann says, "When I asked about leadership—they told me about life." This book helps leaders integrate the best of themselves and their lives into the tasks and roles of leaders.
Jann E. Freed, is a Leadership Development and Change Management Consultant with the Genysys Group. She primarily works with individuals and businesses in the Midwest to transition
—to get from where they are to where they want to be. She has worked with companies such as Wells Fargo, Principal Financial Group, Vermeer Manufacturing, Nationwide, and Meredith Corporation. She is professor emerita of business management and the former Mark and Kay De Cook Endowed Chair in Leadership and Character Development at Central College in Pella, Iowa where she joined the faculty in 1981. She earned her PhD from Iowa State University, MBA at Drake University, and undergraduate degree in business management from Central College. She is the co-author of four books
—three on continuous improvement in higher education and a book on learner-centered assessment on college campuses. You can learn more about Jann at www.JannFreed.com.
There are leadership practices and there are leadership practices, but not all of them matter. Jann Freed, in her relentless research over several years, has gathered the wisdom, insights, and practices of leaders she has identified as 'sages,' and has distilled from all that material the things that really matter in leadership. I only wish I'd had this book when I was a young manager trying to be a leader. Read this, then give a copy to every aspiring leader you know, as well as to those who are in leadership positions but haven't figured out yet what really matters.
Christina Baldwin
Author of Storycatcher, Making Sense of our Lives through the Power and Practice of Stories and The Circle Way: A Leader in Every Chair (with Ann Linnea)
Leading With Wisdom is a welcome addition to the thinking of millions of Boomers who are at the turning point of their generational life: from leading the pack of doing to leading the pack of reflecting. This book will help today's 55-75 year olds support the generations we are mentoring. No matter where you fall in the spectrum of professional life, Jann Freed’s thoughtful research and stories will inform and inspire.
Richard Leider
Author of Repacking Your Bags and The Power of Purpose
Through enlightening interviews and wise commentary, Jann Freed reveals the secrets of great leadership and shows us a path to purposeful sage-ing. A profoundly relevant book for every leader today.
Margaret J. Wheatley
Author of many books, most recently: So Far From Home: Lost and Found in Our Brave New World.
This book is exactly what we need to find our way during this chaotic and troubling time. Other cultures have always relied on wisdom keepers—those elders who have lived with awareness and discernment. It's time for us to realize that we cannot survive without such wisdom—wisdom that is always simple, clear, and eternally true.
Judi Neal
Author of Edgewalkers: People and Organizations that Take Risks, Build Bridges, and Break New Ground and Enlightened Organizations: Four Gateways to Spirit at Work
If you read the business headlines, it is easy to believe that wisdom is sorely lacking in our leaders and organizations, and that it is desperately needed. It is true that greater wisdom is desperately needed. And this book is full of wisdom from leadership sages, wisdom you can use immediately in your own leadership, because it’s been there in you all along. It is a book of hope and inspiration. Jann Freed’s stories and research give you the courage to live your deepest principles and to embrace these eight powerful, meaningful and effective leadership practices. We all need to be living in alignment with these, wherever we show up. That would be heaven on earth.
Peter Block
Author of Flawless Consulting: A Guide for Getting Your Expertise Used and Community: The Structure of Belonging
I can easily recommend Jann’s book as it is a vote for restoring our humanity. This is much needed in this instrumental world, especially among those concerned with leadership. The book is also written with a light and flowing touch which offers the ideas in a very accessible way. | {
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China marks Chairman Mao's sports slogan
BEIJING - Tens of thousands of citizens took part in various sports activities around China on Sunday to mark the 60th anniversary of late Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong's classic sports slogan for physical exercises nationwide.
China's State Councilor Liu Yandong takes part in a run to mark the 60th anniversary of late Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong's classic sports slogan in Beijing on June 10, 2012. [Photo/Asianewsphoto]
The slogan of "Promoting physical culture and sports; strengthening the people's physique" set by Chairman Mao in 1952, still looks practicable in the country, which has witnessed a great leap from shortage of sports facilities and national weak physique.
From "sick man of Asia" to the top on the Olympic gold medal list, China presents the world with the progress it has made in both promoting national fitness and training athletic talents.
In Beijing, tens of thousands of citizens from all walks of life on Sunday had a fun run at the Olympic Green where the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube, the two landmark venues of the 2008 Games, were located.
People in the Chinese capital also marked the anniversary by competing in the tournament for the ninth edition of China's broadcast callisthenics.
The radio callisthenics is always broadcasted in middle school, college, social units, park and so on, where people do exercises to music during the studying or working break.
"Doing the exercises twice usually needs 10 minutes and is equal to the effect of a medium-level sports," said Zhang Ping, an expert with the designing group of the callisthenics.
In Shanghai, superstars Yao Ming and Liu Xiang and other famous sports celebrities like former soccer star Fan Zhiyi and table tennis player Wang Liqin joined their local men in the city's inaugural Citizens' Games.
The fitness-oriented games will feature 50 sports covering 2,399 events and involve millions of Shanghainese in the coming five months.
In Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, tens of thousands of citizens took part in a walking race to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the slogan.
Zhao Rongfu, the director of the Hangzhou Sports Bureau, said the city has held the similar walking race event many times in the past two years and he hoped the activity can attract more people into the National Fitness Program.
"The only aim of the walk is to let people take part in sports and be healthy," said Zhao.
Getting more of China's 1.3 billion people involved in sports was one of the legacy aims of the Beijing Olympics, where China topped the medals table with 51 golds.
The National Fitness Program was started at this background and the Chinese people began to pay more attention to the popularity of sports and fun of sports instead of the results of competitions.
Copyright 1995 - 2010 . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. | {
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Strathcona County Opposes AltaLink Cooking Lake Transmission Line
Strathcona County will be formally intervening in an upcoming Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) hearing on AltaLink’s proposed Cooking Lake 138 kV Transmission Line (Sherwood Park News). The County opposes AltaLink’s preferred route through Strathcona County because residents located near this route don’t want a new high voltage power line close to their homes, and because the new line would run right through the heart of the Beaver Hills Moraine.
The Beaver Hills Moraine area covers more than 1,500 square kilometres of unique knob-and-kettle glacial moraine, and includes Elk Island National Park, the Cooking Lake-Blackfoot Provincial Recreation Area, Cooking Lake Environmentally Significant Area, Ducks Unlimited McFadden Lake Wetland Conservation Project, Bretona Pond Wetland Complex and numerous additional recognized natural areas. If the new power line is built along AltaLink’s preferred route in Strathcona County, it would run right through the Ducks Unlimited McFadden Lake Wetland Conservation Project, Cooking Lake Environmentally Significant Area and Bretona Pond Wetland Complex.
With respect to AltaLink’s preferred route for their proposed new Cooking Lake line, Strathcona County Councillor Vic Bidzinski said, “I looked at all the routes, and I think this is one of the worst routes they could have picked.” RETA could not agree more, because AltaLink’s preferred route is longer, would require many more towers, is more expensive, and would affect about 125 more homes within 800 metres of the line than AltaLink’s alternate route. As well, AltaLink’s preferred route runs right through numerous environmentally sensitive protected areas, runs over the Cooking Lake Cemetery, and runs too close to the Cooking Lake Airport, the hamlet of South Cooking Lake and St. Luke Catholic School.
Unfortunately, AltaLink and the AUC have a long-standing habit of not letting the facts get in the way when it comes to the siting of overhead high voltage transmission lines in Alberta. Many of AltaLink’s transmission lines in our province have been built where they have the most negative environmental, adjacent property value, health, safety and aesthetic impacts.
For more information on AltaLink’s proposed Cooking Lake Transmission Line, see this link.
When it can be clearly proven that specific new high voltage power lines are necessary, RETA continues to advocate for the burying of these lines because all of the negative impacts of overhead lines are eliminated or minimized. | {
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Children With Cancer Denied Treatment Due To Shutdown
Tags
For every week the government is closed, 10 children with cancer will be denied access to clinical trials, according to a spokesman for the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“There are four new protocols [clinical trials] ready to start next week, and they won’t be starting during the shutdown if we’re still shut down,” John Burklow told ABCNews.com.
The NIH has put 75 percent of its 14,700 employees on indefinite leave. The 1,400 clinical trials currently in progress will continue, but new trials that would include 200 people — 10 of them kids with cancer — will have to be delayed until the government funds the institution.
“Just to be clear, we aren’t turning patients away permanently — we would be delaying their admission, since we are not enrolling new patients at this time,” Burklow told AFP.
As both Republicans and Democrats seek to blame each other for the government shutdown, the conservative media has been playing up the spectacle of veterans being denied access to the World War II Memorial in Washington D.C. Monuments were kept open during the last government shutdown — however, that was before the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
In addition to the estimated $300-million-a-day hit to our economy, 800,000 federal workers are not getting their paychecks, and the loss of access to national parks, medical research, disease prevention and food safety are areas where the public may feel the direct impact of the government shutdown.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) furloughed 9,000 employees and cut back on the flu vaccination program.
“The vast majority of the CDC is actively in the process of shutting down,” CDC spokeswoman Barbara Reynolds said. “We’ve gotten really good at trying to find outbreaks, but our strong network is getting weaker. … This is spotty.”
While the Affordable Care Act’s open enrollment has not been delayed, the standoff over funding the law is still threatening the health of Americans in ways that will only get worse as the impasse continues. | {
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Complementary and Alternative Medicine
The terms "complementary" and "alternative" are sometimes used to refer to non-traditional methods of diagnosing, preventing, or treating cancer or its symptoms. Here you'll find general information to help you better understand what these terms mean and how to decide if using them is right for you. You'll also find a wealth of information on specific complementary and alternative treatments, grouped into the five categories below.
You may hear about alternative or complementary methods to prevent, diagnose, or treat cancer or its symptoms. Learn about what these terms mean and find information to help you think through the issues to make the most informed and safest decision possible.
Dietary supplements include things like vitamins, minerals, herbs, or products made from plants, animal parts, algae, seafood, or yeasts. The information here can help you learn more about dietary supplements so you can make a more informed decision about using them safely.
You may have just heard about a new or alternative form of cancer treatment. Before you put your time, your body, and your money on the line, learn more about what you are looking at so you can decide if it's worth it.
In your quest to be healthy, you may hear about something that you are told can reduce your risk of cancer -- a new way you haven't heard about before. It sounds like a good idea, and you may want to try it. Before you put your body and money on the line, find out more about it.
Even though placebos are not active medicines, they seem to help some patients. The effects of placebos may occur because the patient believes in the substance, the treatment, or the doctor. Even if a person feels better after taking a placebo, it doesn't mean the person's illness or symptoms were not real.
More Information on Complementary and Alternative Medicine
For reliable information on specific complementary and alternative methods, please see the following websites:
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday introduced a short-term spending bill to fund the government through February 8, 2019 in an effort to avert a partial government shutdown this week.
In remarks on the Senate floor, McConnell said that the measure, known as a continuing resolution, would “ensure continuous funding for the federal government,” and would “provide the resources necessary to continue normal operations through February the 8th.”
If the short-term measure is approved by both chambers of Congress, it would head to President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature and prevent a partial government shutdown.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, the current no. 2 highest-ranking Senate Republican, predicted on Wednesday that the President will sign the stop-gap funding measure.
Congress is currently in a race against the clock to prevent a partial shutdown when funding expires for several key government agencies at midnight on Friday.
McConnell’s proposal has the backing of the top congressional Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.
Pelosi, the House Democratic leader who is poised to reclaim the speaker’s gavel in the new Congress, said Wednesday afternoon that she supported the measure.
“This is a missed opportunity to pass full-year funding bills now,” Pelosi said in a statement. “However, Democrats will be ready to fully, responsibly fund our government in January, and we will support this continuing resolution.”
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer sounded optimistic that a shutdown could be averted in remarks on the Senate floor on Wednesday in which he similarly said that Democrats would support the stop-gap funding measure.
“Yesterday we made some progress,” he said, adding, “Thankfully, President Trump appears to have backed down from his position for billions in direct appropriations for a border wall.”
Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill have made clear they don’t want a shutdown, but had been at an impasse over the President’s demand for $5 billion in funding for his long-promised wall at the US-Mexico border.
Democrats have made clear that figure is a non-starter for them and any spending bill would need at least some Democratic votes to pass in the Senate.
But on Tuesday, the White House appeared to step away from the brink of a shutdown.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Tuesday morning during an interview with Fox News that, “We have other ways that we can get to that $5 billion (for a border wall).”
Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus and other conservative allies of the President plan to give brief speeches on the House floor Wednesday night, however, urging Trump not to abandon his quest for border wall funding.
They include: Mark Meadows of North Carolina, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Steve Pearce of New Mexico, Jody Hice of Georgia, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Morgan Griffith of Virginia.
Despite opposition from the Freedom Caucus, however, the House should still have the votes to still pass the continuing resolution, assuming most, if not all, Democrats support it, since it has Pelosi’s blessing.
This story has been updated and will continue to update with additional developments Wednesday. | {
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With the Galaxy Watch 4G¹, connected exclusively on EE, you’re free to roam wi...With the Galaxy Watch 4G¹, connected exclusively on EE, you’re free to roam without your smartphone, while still staying connected to everything love. Take calls, receive messages and get notifications using the same number and data plan as your phone....more
Trade in and get an instant evaluation to see how much you can get off for a l...Trade in and get an instant evaluation to see how much you can get off for a limited time only. Save up to £90 on your new Galaxy device when you trade in your old one. Choose the old device you're trading in Please enter your IMEI number Apply the...more
Buy the best Michael kors rose gold watch Watches when you compare prices and read Michael kors rose gold watch Watches reviews at Bizrate.co.uk. Shop for Michael kors rose gold watch Watches at Bizrate.co.uk you can compare models and prices from hundreds of of Bizrate.co.uk shopper certified Jewellery & Watches stores. Looking for a discount price on Michael kors rose gold watch Watches? Bizrate.co.uk has the information and product reviews to help you find the best deal for you. | {
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Going the Distance to Attract Marathon Customers
36,000 runners are expected to take part in the London marathon this weekend, with additional security deployed following the Boston marathon bombings. Andrew Potter speaks to the CEO of ASICS Europe about the business of running.
http://archive.delmarvanow.com/VideoNetwork/2312861696001/Going-the-Distance-to-Attract-Marathon-Customershttp://cdn.newslook.com/c7/c756172c5430b1c0aba0fae9c0ddb344/mp4_low/c756172c5430b1c0aba0fae9c0ddb344-mp4_low.mp4http://archive.delmarvanow.com/VideoNetwork/2312861696001/Going-the-Distance-to-Attract-Marathon-Customershttp://cdn.newslook.com/c7/c756172c5430b1c0aba0fae9c0ddb344/images/frame_0009.jpgGoing the Distance to Attract Marathon Customers36,000 runners are expected to take part in the London marathon this weekend, with additional security deployed following the Boston marathon bombings. Andrew Potter speaks to the CEO of ASICS Europe about the business of running.1Alistair CameronMo FarahAsics CorporationFinancesportsnewslookUnited KingdomLondon02:23 | {
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Panera Pink Ribbon Bagel Supports Breast Cancer Awareness
In Yakima, almost 350 women get diagnosed each year with a form of breast cancer.
Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of death in women, and in 2018 it's estimated that among US women, there will be 266,120 new cases of invasive breast cancer detected. The symphony will also have oncologists give testimonials and will show video interviews from community members about their breast cancer stories.
"DelDOT knows the importance of supporting breast cancer awareness".
Some women who have no family history of breast cancer might feel like they can skip their mammograms.
Published in Breast CancerResearch, the Markey study determined the role collagen XIII plays in breast cancer progression. For those women considered at high risk for breast cancer, it's important to learn about early testing, possibly beginning in one's 30s.
Say no to smoking- Smoking doesn't only cause lung cancer but also affects the breast. The survey was conducted amongst women across urban Indian cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Bhopal and Chandigarh.
Incidence of breast cancer in the United States has decreased since the year 2000 and death rates have also decreased. However, metastatic cancer cells are resistant to anoikis, which allows them to circulate the body and begin growing in other organs.
"I am proud to be able to play a part in the fight for awareness and funding by making our already-stunning Smith Street bridge even more eye-catching, all month long". The survey reveals that 2 out of 3 women were unaware of the simple self-examination that can help them detect the disease at an early stage.
The survey found that around 70% of the respondents were unaware of the different treatments for cancer.
Breast cancer doesn't just affect women.
The National Breast Cancer Foundation was established in 1994, and has since invested more than $160 million in more than 500 research projects investigating the disease. On all private insurance plans, as well as Medicare, mammograms are free. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and doctors recommend women over a certain age to get annual exams.
"As a pan-European airline flying on over 1000 routes we have a fantastic opportunity to help make a real difference, raise awareness and support the vital work that both of these organisations do". This will help women be better financially prepared in case of an uncertainty.
Cancer has been a word commonly thrown around in my family. Various studies have claimed that smoking may cause breast cancer. In addition, all breast cancer survivors are invited to the exclusive Survivor Happy Hour provided by The Antoon Hospitality Group beginning at 4:30pm. Cancer has been a common staple within the past decade and has affected countless lives.
Pentagon grounds global fleet of F-35s after crash
Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, raised questions on the troubles still facing the F-35 program and its readiness rate of about 65 percent. The US government's accountability office estimates all costs associated with the project will amount to one trillion dollars. 10/12/2018
Google Plus shut down: Here’s all you need to know
The Google Plus data potentially exposed includes names, email addresses, occupations, dates of birth, genders and profile photos. Google says that there was no evidence that the information was misused, but that a total of 438 apps had access. 10/11/2018
Dow sinks 800 as tech companies decline
The CAC 40 in France dropped 2.1 percent, Germany's DAX lost 2.2 percent and the FTSE 100 in London fell 1.3 percent. Apple and Amazon, the two most valuable companies in the S&P 500 , each had their worst day in 2½ years. 10/11/2018
Kanye West at the White House hugs, talks with Trump
His monologue was laden with praise for Mr Trump , who he described as a father figure on "his hero's journey ". "Well if he doesn't then he gets overruled by me, because I make the decisions, he doesn't", Trump said . 10/11/2018
Samsung plans to bring 4 cameras to its Galaxy A9 Star Pro
As for the internal storage , both the variants ship with 128GB that can be expanded up to 512GB with a microSD card. The second sensor is a telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom, f/2.4 aperture and 10-megapixel resolution. 10/11/2018
Grieving bride cries on grave of dead fiancé on their 'wedding day'
Murphy was one of five firefighters from IN honored at the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Service on Sunday IN Washington. Her fiancé, Kendall Murphy, was killed in November 2017 while responding to a crash scene in Daviess County, Fox 59 reported . 10/11/2018
Trump, Kim considering four locations for next summit
Kang's comments are likely to increase speculation that Washington was not fully on board before Seoul signed the agreement. In her remarks to the Washington Post, Kang also differed with the U.S. view on the denuclearization process. 10/11/2018
Polio-Like Condition in Kids on Rise Again in US
This does not include all of the 14 cases announced by Colorado, as some of those cases were confirmed after September 30. Since August 2014, when the CDC began tracking the illness more closely, the agency has reported 362 cases . 10/11/2018 | {
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Privacy Policy
This privacy policy has been compiled to better serve those who are concerned with how their Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is being used online.
PII, as used in privacy law and information security, is information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person, or to identify an individual in context.
Please read our privacy policy carefully to get a clear understanding of how we collect, use, protect or otherwise handle your Personally Identifiable Information in accordance with our website.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, feel free to contact us.
Data Controller.
The controller of personal data is Wayne Whitty, who owns and operates LolSided.com. Wayne Whitty is based in the Republic of Ireland.
If you wish to make a query about our personal data processing or if you wish to obtain information on the processing of your personal data, please use one of the contact options on our contact page.
What personal information do we collect from the people that visit our app?
We do not keep a long-term record of personally identifiable information.
Our app is built in such a way that storing your Facebook information in a database would be completely unnecessary.
If you have taken any of our quizzes in the past, then you can rest assured that we have not kept a database record of any of your personally identifiable information.
The only reason we would ever keep a record of your personally identifiable information is if we believe that your account activity is abnormal or you are suspected of violating our Terms of Service.
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We do NOT sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. If you agree to provide us with access to your name, gender, etc, that information remains with LolSided.com and it is never transferred to a third-party.
Temporary PII storage.
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If you forget to click on the "Log Out" button, your session data will be automatically expired and removed from our server after a short period of time.
If we cache your profile picture for performance reasons, that profile picture is saved and named in such a way that it is not linked to the rest of your personal information.
If we do cache your profile picture, it is for the sole intention of speeding up the time that it takes us to provide you with a quiz result.
If you do not share any of our results, cached profile pictures are automatically removed from our server within an hour after they have first been cached.
If you do share one of our results, your cached profile picture may be stored for roughly 45 days. This image is stored in such a way that it is not linked to your name or the rest of your personally identifiable information.
In certain cases, LolSided.com may log Facebook IDs, IP addresses or names for the purpose of generating statistics and identifying user behavior. These log files are temporary and are automatically deleted by our servers after a couple of days.
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We use your information to provide you with personalized Facebook results.
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We only request data and permissions that our app requires to generate results.
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For more information on what Facebook information we request, please see our article on Facebook Permissions.
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Library materials are intended for educational, historical, and research purposes. These materials may be protected under U.S. Copyright Law which governs the making of photocopies or reproductions of any kind of copyrighted material. Library staff is unaware of any copyrights held or pending on any material in the library’s collections; however, the responsibility for determining appropriate use of an item resides with the patron. | {
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Carpet tile is a very versatile, easy-to-install floor covering. The pieces come in pre-cut squares, so there’s no need to bother with measuring a room for a piece of rolled carpet, trying to unroll the carpet, trying to install it while keeping it from rolling back up, measuring, cutting, fitting around doors…all the things that are involved with using broadloom carpet.
Most carpet tile is literally “peel and stick.” There’s a little more involved than that, but it’s still very easy to handle the carpet pieces. Even those that require applying adhesive to the sub-flooring are still fairly easy to install.
Carpet tile works well in children’s bedrooms, playrooms, family rooms and other areas of the house. You can choose from one color that matches an overall color scheme, or from several colors, which allow you to form patterns.
As mentioned earlier, installing carpet tile is fairly easy. Here’s how to do it:
1. Assemble your tools. You’ll need the following:
A tape measure and pencil
Tools for removing baseboards and doors, as well as a small saw for “notching” doorframes
A utility knife (“box cutter”), carpet trimmer tool or other cutting tool.
A chalk line or some string.
An adhesive spreader if your carpet doesn’t have “peel and stick” adhesive.
2. Remove baseboards and doors. This makes installation of carpet tile even easier. Then, make a “notch” in the door trim by sawing off a thin strip so that the carpet tile will fit snugly against the wall. Remove only enough wood to allow you to slip the edge of the carpet tile underneath.
3. Now, you’re ready to begin measuring the room. You may think you can just throw down carpet tile pieces indiscriminately, but the truth is you can’t. You have to do some measuring. It’s really simple, though.
* You just find the center of the room by measuring each wall in the room, from corner to corner, for its length. Record that number, and divide it by two.
* Then, find that number on the tape measure, and mark that spot on each wall. You want your mark to be very low on the wall as you’ll need to be able to get to it later in the measuring and laying process.
4. It’s time to determine where your first piece of carpet tile will go.
* If your carpet squares box does not give the dimensions of each square, you’ll need to determine that. Use your tape measure to find the width of the square and divide that number by two. Make a pencil mark at that point at the top of the carpet square.
* Now, take your piece of tile that you measured and place it on the wall. Line up your tile’s center mark with the wall’s center mark. Then, mark the wall at each of the tile’s corners.
* Do this for all four walls in the room. Don’t forget to make your marks low on the wall.
* After you’ve made all your marks, take a chalk line and snap it so that you have marks on the floor going from one wall to the other across the room and one wall to another down the length of the room. Or, take string and attach it to the marks on the walls. You want to have an “x” shape on the floor. The middle of the “x” is where you will lay your first carpet square.
5. You’re actually ready to lay your first square of carpet, but you’re not ready to install it permanently yet, so don’t put down any adhesive or remove any protective backing from “peel and stick” tile. Rather, take your first carpet square and position it so that the center of the square is on the center of your “x” mark.
* If you are working with only one color, go ahead and lay the remaining pieces, again without removing any backing or using any adhesive, working from the center piece of carpet out to the walls.
6. If you’re going to have a pattern, now is the time to lay it out. Take the remaining carpet squares, again with no adhesive applied or with the protective backing still in place, and lay them out in your desired pattern. Work from the center piece out towards the walls.
* It’s actually a good idea to lay a few pieces, then step back and look at your design to make sure it’s right. Because you haven’t permanently attached the squares yet, it’s easy to pick them up and rearrange them as needed.
7. After all pieces have been laid, but again before permanently installing them, use the utility knife or carpet trimmer to trim the carpet around your door “notches”, along walls where they do not fit exactly, and other places that require trimming. Be careful to cut only as much as is needed to make it fit.
8. Now, you’re finally ready to install the carpet tiles permanently. Either peel off the protective backing and press the tiles down firmly, or apply adhesive and let it dry according to the manufacturer’s directions.
* If you are using adhesive, go ahead and apply enough for about three or four tiles. It can be drying as you lay other tiles. Just don’t do it too soon or it will dry before you’re ready to lay the other pieces. If you’re afraid this will happen, just apply adhesive and lay one piece at a time.
Once you have finished permanently installing the carpet tiles, give the squares some time to “set up” before walking on them or putting furniture or other items on them. Also, take care when putting things in the room not to tear the carpet squares or catch them to where they come “unstuck.” | {
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Elgi equipments to buy 100% stake in US-based Pattons Inc
Patton Inc. is more than 60 years old and had achieved over $30 mn sales for the first time in 2007-08. (Reuters)
SummaryPatton Inc. is more than 60 years old and had achieved over $30 mn sales for the first time in 2007-08.
Air compressor manufacturer Elgi Equipments will buy 100 per cent stake in North Carolina-based Pattin's Inc for an undisclosed sum.
"The Board of Directors of the company at its meeting held on November 28, 2012 has given approval for acquisition of 100 per cent share capital of Patton's Inc.," the company today said in a BSE filing.
Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Pattons Inc.
is engaged in the distribution and service of industrial and medical compressors with presence in South-Eastern part of the United States. Patton Inc. is more than 60 years old and had achieved over $30 million sales for the first time in 2007-08. But, the latest figures are not known.
"The acquisition is being made through its newly incorporated subsidiary, Elgi Compressors USA Inc," Elgi said. | {
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This is the talk I gave at Dragon*Con last year, which was itself an expansion on the talk I gave at TAM9. It’s about how to use emotions to your advantage when trying to promote a cause. I talk about Prop 8, the importance of social justice in getting people to like atheists, and how to be a dick in an effective way.
If you go here, there is a little place that says GuestCode where you can put in the following: thx1138 This will take you to my pitch, which you can then watch and rate.
You can also mock my marginal public speaking skills and how weird the pitch of my voice is in real life versus how it sounds in my head. I mean, you don’t know that, but trust me. I will also not talk about how I blink one eye more than the other and talk about of one side of my mouth more than the other. Because, you don’t care. | {
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Ibis Budget Lyon Confluence
Ibis Budget Lyon Centre Confluence Hotel is a budget venue within a 30-minute walk from the center of Lyon.
The Confluence Museum is located 1250 meters from the property and Halle Tony Garnier is 1350 meters away.
Ibis Budget Lyon Centre Confluence Hotel provides 84 guestrooms appointed with individual climate control, a laptop-size safe, a personal computer, an iron with ironing board and a stereo system for a pleasant stay in Lyon. Bathrooms are fitted with a shower, a hairdryer and complimentary toiletries.
Le Bistrot D'auguste pampers guests with eclectic, French, European and Vegetarian dishes and lies within 50 meters of the property.
The nearest metro station is Place Jean Jaurès, situated 650 meters from the hotel. It will take 30 minutes to get to Saint Exupéry airport by car.
Guests can make use of a storage room, an elevator and a vending machine on site.
Ibis Budget Lyon Centre Confluence Hotel is a budget venue within a 30-minute walk from the center of Lyon.
The Confluence Museum is located 1250 meters from the property and Halle Tony Garnier is 1350 meters away.
Ibis Budget Lyon Centre Confluence Hotel provides 84 guestrooms appointed with individual climate control, a laptop-size safe, a personal computer, an iron with ironing board and a stereo system for a pleasant stay in Lyon. Bathrooms are fitted with a shower, a hairdryer and complimentary toiletries.
Le Bistrot D'auguste pampers guests with eclectic, French, European and Vegetarian dishes and lies within 50 meters of the property.
The nearest metro station is Place Jean Jaurès, situated 650 meters from the hotel. It will take 30 minutes to get to Saint Exupéry airport by car.
Guests can make use of a storage room, an elevator and a vending machine on site.
Rooms & Availability
Ibis Budget Lyon Centre Confluence Hotel provides 84 guestrooms appointed with individual climate control, a laptop-size safe, a personal computer, an iron with ironing board and a stereo system for a pleasant stay in Lyon. Bathrooms are fitted with a shower, a hairdryer and complimentary toiletries. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
The line between state-owned Gazprom and the Russian state is often blurry. The monopoly's primary activity is selling natural gas in Europe at market rates to subsidize energy prices domestically. Several board members wear two hats and also work in government; for example, Dmitri A. Medvedev, the hand-picked successor of President Vladimir V. Putin, is chairman of Gazprom.
You thought that you knew where I was and whenBut it looks like they've been foolin' you again,You thought that you'd got me all staked outBut baby looks like I've been breaking outI'm a dark horseRunning on a dark race courseI'm a blue moonSince I stepped from out of the wombI've been a cool jerkLooking for the sourceI'm a dark horse.You thought you had got me in your gripBaby looks like you was not so smartAnd I became too slippery for youBut let me say that was nothing new.I'm a dark horseI thought that you knew it all alongUntil you started getting me not rightSeems as if you heard a little lateBut I warned you whenWe both were at the starting gateI'm a dark horse
North America as we know it has changed dramatically since November 4, 2008.
First came the election of an unknown; a man only whose globalist elite masters know where he was born and in which direction he will be taking the liberty-loving United States of America.
Less than one month later, the proud Dominion of Canada is being laid siege to by an opposition-led coalition of the left. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, elected with an increased number of seats only six weeks ago, has a date with destiny at 9:30 this morning.
A beleaguered looking Harper, who addressed Canadians last night on television, promised to use "every legal means" to stop the Opposition's move to unseat his minority Conservative government next week. It is his only means to end the threat of this overnight attempt at Government-by-Coalition.
In other words, Harper will be asking the governor general this morning to suspend Parliament until next month--giving him time to come up with the stimulus package, his power-lusting opponents not his electors, say he hasn't delivered quickly enough.
Were it not for this drastic change in power for which nobody voted, it would have been laughable that New Democrat Leader Jack Layton, the man called "the Barack Obama of Canada" by colleagues, had tried unsuccessfully to horn in for his "cut of the television air time pie". (GlobeandMail.com, Dec. 3, 2008).
History is being rewritten before our very eyes by the Socialists of two nations.
Long after we're all gone, what has happened in a short time-span before Christmas 2008 will surely give pause to the historians.
In more temperate times, the historians would be forgiven for mistaking the latest James Bond film Quantum of Solace detailing the work of a moviedom George Soros and Maurice Strong as art imitating real life.
But only in the movies and not in real life do dramatic things happen overnight.
In reality, what has happened here and in the United States was long in the making.
Gradually over time, we elected politicians who cared not for the ecosystem of country Constitutions in comparison to their power lust. Somehow we didn't seem to notice when government no longer worked for us, but us for them.
The average person was kept too busy coming up with the rent or the mortgage, too busy wondering why their children were learning not reading, writing and arithmetic, but how to become effective global citizens.
Politicians elected each term, by and large, got worse and worse until we reached a stage where they came not with altruism and leadership guiding their moral compass, but with teams of lawyers who could trash constitutions no matter how noble or time-honoured.
Along the way, we one day reached the level where civic politicians got to be very high handed. Instead of us being able to tell them to return from federal and international issues to take out the garbage, they told us to take out the garbage, and to put it in an increasing assembly of recycling bins.
The only real "change" politicians made manifest is the one where they no longer choose to hide their true intentions. The rats in the farmers' barns no longer dive for cover in the loft when the farmer comes in.
They stand there boldly ready to attack the farmer and anyone else who questions their self-imposed authority.
It has reached a tipping point where politicians no longer feel a duty to serve the people, but only themselves and each other.
They are just like the "robber barons", the term Wikipedia says that "revived in the 19th century in the United States as a reference to businessman and bankers who dominated their respected industries and amassed huge personal fortunes, typically as a direct result of pursuing various anti-competitive or unfair business practices."
One long ago day, Government went out and began funding environmentalists, not true-at-heart ones who conserve the land against urban blight and pollution, but radical environmentalists like Greenpeace, who over time became as rich and powerful as any of the robber barons.
Governments caved into environmentalist demands on eminent domain issues that confiscated land on the glib alibi it was to protect endangered species, never recognizing human beings as endangered species.
Government catered more and more to the environmentalists and the unions that cheered them on until the car industry could no longer manufacture "gas-guzzling SUVs" and was driven along the road to the dead end of bankruptcy.
Meanwhile, our politicians skipped off into a safe zone where they are no longer held accountable, morphing us into a global economy where decisions are made globally. "Think globally, act locally" became the mantra of the moment decades ago. That "safe area" they ran to includes the model of the European Union, whose administrators choose to keep going when members ask them to slow down because they don't understand what they are even voting on.
The little people who matter most watched the protest movement abandon the arena. When it mattered most for them to be there, they had scattered.
In Canada, we face the lies of Government-by-Coalition. In the US, what has been described as "the first Coalition President in 75 years".
Both lie to the people of both nations.
The debut of Barack Obama has nothing to do with the colour of his skin, or even the station in his life. The world is not kind enough to produce political miracles. Obama's decent brother, George Hussein Onyango, struggling in poverty back in Kenya is living proof of that.
"Canada's Barack Obama" Jack Layton offers no true change for Canadians, his long record as a self-serving career politicians proves it.
Beyond both these arrogant activists, we all find out too late that the North American Union is just another term for One World Government.
Socialism, advocated by both Obama and Layton, has sucked the soul out of humanity wherever it was ever attempted, but that's the road North America is now careening down.
Heaven help the people of both betrayed nations.
Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, and Glenn Beck.
With the multiplicity of terrorist attacks perpetrated recently by deviant and fanatic individuals, the General Secretariat of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has noticed a tendency of a section of the media, to interpose the word "Islam" in reporting these incidences.
Who you gonna believe, Tovarich Dhimmi? Your own eyes, or the peaceful, tolerant, compassionate General Secretariat of the OIC?
Sometimes when facing common troubleWhen whole town is screwedWe become actually humanAct like Prometheus wouldSuddenly there is more humorAnd a party tabor stylePeople ringing one another"Yo man, how was your blackout?"Suddenly there is more musicMade with the buckets in the parkGirls are dancing with the flashlightsI got only one guitar!And you see brothers and sistersAll engaged in sport of helpMaking merry out of nothingLike in refugee campOh yeah Oh no, it doesn't have to be soIt is possible any time anywhereEven without any doughOh yeah Oh no, it doesn't have to be soForces of the creative mind are unstoppable!And you think, All right, now peopleThey have finally woked upBut as soon as the trouble overWatch them take another napNobody is making merryOnly trotting scared of bossEverybody's making hurryFor some old forgotten causeBut one thing is surely eternalIt's condition of a manWho don't know where he is goingWho don't know where does he standWho's dream power is corked bottlePut away in dry dark placeWho's youth power is well buriedUnder propaganda wavesWho's dream life is in oppositionWith the life he leads todayWho's beaten down in believingIt just kinda goes this way!Oh no, it doesn't have to be soForces of the creative mind are unstoppable!
A frightening youth movement evolves in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. To the proximate north of the Jewish homeland goosesteps a graduating class of saluting young Muslim men adorned in disarming Boy Scout like uniforms, known as Mahdi Scouts, weaned on the fundamentalist Jew despising hatred of Hizbullah, pictured on the front page of the November 21st edition of the New York Times in an article entitled ‘To Fuel Quest, Hizbullah Harnesses Youth Piety’
The Shiite-dominated government in Iraq is driving out many leaders of Sunni citizen patrols, the groups of former insurgents who joined the American payroll and have been a major pillar in the decline in violence around the nation.
I watched him speak yesterday- Dude does not inspire any confidence, that I can tell ya. The voo in his doo is markedly pliable....subservient, nervous... obedient. Not good. Not a leader. We're on our own in this insane world, so prepare yourselves
Chevron In the White HouseThe left will be so conflicted over Jones - since he is so pro-Pali, they should love him....and yet ..... because of the Chevron connection they object.... and here they are STILL missing the deeper points.... idiots.
In light of the Islamophobic and hate-filled programming on WBT 1110 AM’s Jeff Katz show, a boycott is being called for all advertisers that have a financial relationship with Jeff Katz. Since the arrival of Jeff Katz at WBT there seems to be a move to profit off ignorance and hate at the expense of the Muslim Community. We are calling on people of faith, conscience and decency to boycott those that financially support this purveyor of hate. The boycott can be enacted by signing this petition on-line (or paper), and/or calling the businesses and not shopping with the advertisers. This petition is being sponsored by the Islamic Political Party of America (IPPA) and is inspired by the U.N.’s ‘Stop the Hate’ campaign.
Two olive branches buried by a Minoan-era eruption of the volcano on the island of Thera (modern-day Santorini) have enabled precise radiocarbon dating of the catastrophe to 1613 BC, with an error margin of plus or minus 10 years, according to two researchers who presented conclusions of their previously published research during an event on Tuesday at the Danish Archaeological Institute of Athens.
Thothmes I became Pharaoh in Egypt and ruled 22 years. He first invaded Asia.
A little over half of Israel's 215 years in Egypt had passed.
Amram and Jochebed married. (Circa 1589 B.C.)
Miriam was born to Amram and Jochebed. (Circa. 1580 B.C.) Miraim became a prophetess and leader in the Israelite exodus.
Thothmes II became Pharaoh of Egypt and reigned 13 years.
Atlas, the Astronomer, came on the scene. (1588 B.C.)
Aaron was born to Amram and Jochebed. (1574 B. C.) Aaron lived 123 years and fathered four children. It was through Aaron's line that the Levitical priesthood was founded.
Hatasu became Queen of Egypt (daughter of Thothmes) and reigned 20 years. (It is said she wore men's clothing).
Moses was born to Amarm and Jochebed and was adopted into the Egyptian royal court. At the age of 12 he was taken to live with the Egyptian royal family. (Troy, Athens and Thebes were founded during the days of Moses.) (1571 B.C.)
Cecrops, from Egypt, founded Athens. (1556 B.C.)
Thothmes III, The Great, became Pharoah of Egypt and reigned 40 years. As Egypt's greatest conqueror Thothmes III, became known as "The Egyptian Alexander." He adorned Egypt with magnificent temples and works of art and erected the New York Obelisk. "Egypt was at her climax, under Thothmes III. His conquests embraced the then known world of Arabia, Syria, Assyria, Babylonia, Phoenicia, Armenia, Asia Minor, the Isles of the Daniai (probably in the Archipelago), Cyprus, Ethiopia, Libya and Nubia." Dr. Birch.
Scamander founded the kingdom of Troy. Homer immortalized its history. (1546 B.C.)
Joshua, son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, was born. Joshua lived 110 years and became the leader of Israel after Moses' death. (1536 B.C.)
Just weeks after President George W Bush signed the Order creating a new US military command dedicated to Africa, AFRICOM, events on the mineral-rich continent have erupted that suggest a major agenda of the incoming Barack Obama presidency to focus US resources, military and other, on dealing with the Democratic Republic of Congo, the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea, the oil-rich Darfur region of southern Sudan and increasingly the Somali "pirate threat" to sea lanes in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.
A cobalt bomb, a type of salted bomb, is a nuclear weapon originally proposed by physicist Leó Szilárd, who suggested that it would be capable of destroying all life on Earth. The weapon's tamper would be made of ordinary cobalt metal, which would be transmuted into the radioactive isotope 60Co, producing deadly fallout.
Under investigation is how American surveillance of the area, now under the control of the 82nd Airborne Division, failed to spot villagers entering the testing site with heavy vehicles to dismantle three of the poles, or towers, for scrap, leaving heavy tire tracks in the desert.
One of the cobalt capsules was found by American troops on Oct. 6 lying in the yard of a villager's house in Amiriya, less than 15 feet from the outdoor clay oven the family used to bake bread.
The second capsule was found partly buried about 75 feet from a house in Shamiya, just east of Amiriya and about 10 miles north of the nuclear testing site, in a position where it, too, would have been approached by family members and neighbors. Along with the capsules, parts of the giant testing poles were found, dismantled for scrap metal.
Why is the Department of Defense creating the command? Africa is growing in military, strategic and economic importance in global affairs. However, many nations on the African continent continue to rely on the international community for assistance with security concerns. From the U.S. perspective, it makes strategic sense to help build the capability for African partners, and organizations such as the Africa Standby Force, to take the lead in establishing a secure environment. This security will, in turn, set the groundwork for increased political stability and economic growth.
Every day blood is being spilled in the diamond fields of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and nobody in the international community is even talking about it. In the capital Kinshasa, the government is able to announce, unchallenged, its commitment to an international system aimed at breaking the links between the diamond trade and human rights violations,(2) while in Mbuji-Mayi, the hub of the country's diamond industry, serious abuses directly connected to the diamond trade are occurring on a daily basis, largely unchecked.
So, yesterday I told you that an ADDITIONAL 20K in troops would be stationed IN AMERICA shortly.... and yet no one reacted to that. I found that very interesting. ADDITIONAL because as I have told you many times before, "Urban Warrior" troops were deployed here in October to zero notice.... Here's a piece from CNN's Lou Dobbs Show on it followed by other stuff the video maker found pertinent:
Two years ago, I and others called attention to a dangerous provision slipped into an omnibus appropriation bill. The provision gave the President of the United States the unprecedented power to deploy the U.S. military for domestic duty within the United States as he sees fit.
For years I have warned that great evils often begin with the murder of Jews, and therefore non-Jews who dismiss Jew-hatred (aka anti-Semitism, aka anti-Zionism), will learn too late that Jew- and Israel-haters only begin with Jews but never end with them. When Israeli Jews were almost the only targets of Muslim terrorists, the world dismissed it as a Jewish or Israeli problem. Then it became an American and European and Filipino and Thai and Indonesian and Hindu problem.
The New York Times theorized that Chabad House may have been an "accidental hostage scene." The BBC initially chose to hide the Jewish character of the target by describing it as just "an office building." Al Jazeera refused to show Chabad House as the site of the carnage. Some Western media outlets unsympathetically labeled victims there as "ultra-Orthodox" or "missionaries."
Contrary to these fantasies, the all-too-obvious truth is now being confirmed:
* The Times of India reported that some of the terrorists, claiming to be Malaysian students, rented nearby space in order to scout out Chabad.
* The Indian doctor who conducted the post-mortems related in a shaken voice that: "Of all the bodies, the Israeli victims bore the maximum torture marks. It was clear that they were killed on the 26th [the first day of the attacks] itself. It was obvious that they were tied up and tortured before they were killed."
* The only captured terrorist, Ajmal Kamal, confessed under interrogation that his fellow murderers were specifically ordered to target the Jews killed at Chabad.
It's not only close India-Israeli ties that the terrorists wanted to destroy. It's likely that Mumbai's age-old history of hospitality to Jews made the Nariman-Chabad House a strategic target.
A Cooperation Framework on an important initiative in the field of health titled "Reaching every mother and baby in the OIC with emergency care" has been signed between the OIC General Secretariat and the USA today on December 1, 2008.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
“The United Nations was, in major part, America’s creation,” declared Susan Rice, President-elect Obama’s nominee as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations at a news conference on Monday. This is true if you consider a communist and Soviet agent, U.N. founder Alger Hiss, to be truly “American.” But that is quite a stretch. This kind of gaffe is never highlighted by our media because it is something that is repeated often by those attempting to justify continued U.S. participation in the corrupt United Nations.
Needless to say, Rice never mentioned that the U.N. is the “House that Hiss built.” But that is what it was, and what it remains.
What’s more, it is still infested with anti-American intelligence agents and foreign spies. Rice should read Comrade J, based on interviews with Sergei Tretyakov, the former Russian spymaster based at the U.N. The book describes the United Nations as a major base of espionage operations for Russia in the U.S.
Rice may be reluctant to read the book because of the fact that her Brookings Institution colleague, Strobe Talbott, is named in it as having been “a special unofficial contact” of the Russian intelligence agency, the SVR, when he was Deputy Secretary of State in the Clinton Administration. Talbott had been in charge of Russian affairs, and Rice had been Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. They worked closely together, as Talbott concedes.
Michelle Obama is to receive this £20,000 thank you from her husband for her support during the election. The Harmony ring is made of rhodium - the world's most expensive metal --and encrusted with diamonds. It is being hastily made by Italian designer Giovanni Bosco in time for January's inauguration ceremony. Only about 25 tons of rhodium are mined each year, mostly in South Africa, and as a result its price is typically around £5,000 an ounce.
The Flying Camel
Arebel's Diary
BabbaZed Vinyl Cultessa 2012
BabbaZee Repenthouse Pet 1982
Should GOD reward you on your terms then, when you refuse to repent? You must decide, not I... So, tell me what you know... ~ Job 34:33
"You surrender in your own name. Leave me out of it. "
Obey & Endure
No matter how many times I explain to people that I understand that they feel lost and helpless and betrayed by their leaders in the face of the Jihad, that I understand deeply that these are the only people that you perceive to be "standing up to jihad" - no matter how much irrefutable information I give you that many of these so called anti jihadists are just as bad as the jihad itself - You will turn the blind eye out of expedience, out of fear, out of laziness, out of shallowness of moral character, out of stupidity, out of tribal affiliation, out of complacency, out of ignorance, out of vanity, out of hatred.... take your pick. In any event you will chose to stay blind. Let those who have eyes, see:
This Notta Blahhhg Has Been Approved By The Elderbunny Of Zion
TO DONATE VIA PAYPAL CLICK THE ICON BELOW:
If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
~ Leviticus 20:13
Next time someone tries to shove some Homo Stultus dogma down your throat it would please me very much if you would use the following links to express your disinterest in their Darwingelical Dawkins Da'Wa.... | {
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Rainbow Dash My Little Pony T-Shirt
Is your all-consuming passion in life to fly fast? Then you'll love our Rainbow Dash My Little Pony T-Shirt! This blue graphic tee features a doe-eyed Rainbow Dash on the front and her rainbow rear end on the back. Made of 100% cotton, our Rainbow Dash My Little Pony T-Shirt keeps you cool when you're having some casual fun with your pony pals and non-pony friends! | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
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