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Julian Calendar
The Julian Calendar, suggested by Julius Caesar on 46 BC (708 AUC), was a good change in the The two roman work schedule. It was first a small while till effect upon you January forty five BC (AUC 709), simply by edict. It had been the main diary inside the Both roman globe, the majority of of European countries, and during Western funds inside Unites states and somewhere else, until this finally is processed and steadily changed by Gregorian appointments, enacted for 1582 by simply Père Gregory XIII. Once documenting Uk background it really is typical to work with the times documented during the time of the event, with all the year modified to begin about one particular January. Yet the commence of Julian 12 months was first not usually 1 January, and is altered in different occasions in diverse countries (see Fresh Year’s Day time through the Julian Calendar )..
Coming from 1155 to 1752, the civil or perhaps legal yr in Britain started in twenty-five 03 therefore intended for example the The Julian Calendar converted the historic Both roman date and includes 3 periods from 365-day years accompanied by your 366-day jump season. Launched by means of and given the name Julius Caesar on forty-five BCE. Calendars : on the web and printing friendly ~ for just about any calendar year and week and which includes general public vacations and attention to get countries globally. The “Christian calendar” may be the term typically utilized to specify the schedule commonly being used, although that originated from pre-Christian Ancient rome. Calendrica Applet– transformation power the fact that coverts day among some number in appointment setting devices (1126); Julian Calendar — An additional everlasting ephemeris. Select the few weeks and time. (107) Work schedule Converter– Convert schedules during a range of calendars, both municipal and computer-related. All computations are carried out for JavaScript carried out through your personal internet browser..
Time January February Scar April Might Jun Jul August Sep April November December Working day you 001 032 060 091 121 152 182 213 244 274 305 335 one particular two 002 033 061 092 122 153 183 214 245 275 306 336 a couple of a few 003 Julian date ranges (abbreviated JD) will be simply a fabulous consistent count number from times and jeu seeing that midday Common Period with January you, 4713 BC (on the Julian Calendar ). Nearly installment payments on your five mil days and nights possess taken place due to the truth that this kind of date. Julian dates happen to be widely applied because period factors inside substantial software program. Commonly Second, whenever all of us are applying the Gregorian Diary, an important modification need to be added to lessen the time at the Julian Calendar to the fact that around the Gregorian. Arrive Sign up for the pleasure in Julian – Julian Calendar, California Appointments of Occasions.
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Between December 15, 2015 and January 10, 2016, Arturia's V Collection 4 can be purchased and directly downloaded for only €199.00 / $199.00 from Arturia (Thereafter, it returns to its regular price of €399 / $399).
Returning customers who have previously bought and registered an Arturia product are advised to check their MY Arturia account for a personally-priced V Collection 4 offer.
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47 Ronin: A Keanu Adventure
Before I get started I think I should have a disclaimer here: when I went to see this movie in theaters, I knew what I was getting into. I knew that it would do a serious injustice to the actual historical and beloved tale of the 47 Ronin. I knew that I would be boggled at the blatant disregard for the Japanese cultural heritage, but what I didn’t know was how absurd this movie really was.
Don’t get me wrong. I know to expect from big hollywood motion pictures involving Japan. They rarely get it right, to an insulting degree (see the new Wolverine movie), but this goes beyond that. This doesn’t even take place in Japan. Instead they have some sort of weird mashup between Japan and China to create this SUPER ASIA!~ that I think Keanu honestly believes is a place. It’s quite bizarre.
In terms of acting, this movie is subpar at best, with the most effort exerted by Keanu himself. However… allow me to spoil this obvious thing for you: Keanu’s ultimate role in this “Asia” drama is to play the savior. Yes that’s right the only way for “Asia” to save itself is to put it in the hands of the despised white guy who is, you guessed it, the only one who could save them from the start! WHOAAAAA! What a huge turn of events that is totally predictable!
I can’t even begin to describe the contempt I have for this movie and how badly handled it is, but what really gets me is the costuming and the ridiculousness circus it became. I understand that this movie wasn’t going to stay within the realm of realism, as that is quite apparent by the dragon, witch and the tengu they haphazardly dashed into the story, but they could have at least stayed somewhat on point to the Asian theme.
I mean look at this mess. Is that a KIMONO WITH A HOOD?! I mean, seriously, WHAT?! And Although I appreciate the attempt at the samurai style helmets, look at the guy with the enormous wizard hat on the right. How is that even remotely functional. dear god it’s awful.
The characters are bad, the plot is terrible, the visuals are a mess, the acting is disappointing, and there is no redeeming quality to this movie.
Overall I give it a 10/10 for no effort and 100 rupees awarded to the production staff. Good job guys.
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Downtown Pier Iv Apartment | Rentexperience
Downtown Pier IV Apartment | RentExperience is set in Lisbon, 400 metres from Chiado, 500 metres from Bairro Alto, and 800 metres from Rossio. Featuring city views, this apartment also comes with free WiFi.
The apartment is equipped with 4 bedrooms, a living room, a fully equipped kitchen with a microwave and a dining area, and a bathroom. A flat-screen TV is featured.
Important information
Please note that late check-in after 22.00 has an additional cost of EUR 30.
Please note that this apartment is located in a building without lift. A damage deposit of EUR 150 is required on arrival. This will be collected as a cash payment. You should be reimbursed on check-out. Your deposit will be refunded in full in cash, subject to an inspection of the property. Please inform Downtown Pier IV Apartment | RentExperience in advance of your expected arrival time. You can use the Special Requests box when booking, or contact the property directly with the contact details provided in your confirmation. A damage deposit of EUR 150 is required on arrival. This will be collected as a cash payment. You should be reimbursed on check-out. Your deposit will be refunded in full in cash, subject to an inspection of the property. License number: <strong>44011/AL</strong>
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Complete 'Welcome Back'.
Achievement Guide for About Time!
Achievement won on 09 Jul 14TA Score for this game: 1,132
Posted on 09 July 14 at 03:56
This solution has 1 positive vote and 0 negative votes. Please log in to vote.
This is an unmissable achievement that you will get as part of the main storyline.
The achievement will drop after you've gone through the screens at mission completion for 'Welcome Back'.
Note: Clown Syndr0me has reported a glitch (as of 15/9/13) whereby the final mission of the game could be accessed prior to completing some of the earlier missions, including this one. For this reason, you should make sure you save regularly and run multiple saves, just in case!
Disclaimer: I taken zero credit in this guide, I am merely copying the american versions guides for people with the Australian version because it is more convenient for them.
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Shop Banned accessories at CafePress. Our collection of handbags, jewelry, and more are a terrific way to start a conversation.
Really, what’s better than having style you love? Making it yours, that’s what. Perhaps you already knew, and perhaps not, but your style can match your personality with Banned accessories from CafePress. But what does that mean? It means that whether you’re looking for new Banned handbags, buttons, cases, hats, or jewelry, you’ll be sure to find a match for your unique style. We know, it’s exciting. We have thousands of designs to choose from, so you’re sure to find the perfect accessories for you.
Looking for something more personal and genuine? We believe wholeheartedly in self-expression. Create your own custom Banned accessories that say exactly what you’re thinking.
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Tender text
The non self-priming high-pressure multistage centrifugal pump has a compact overall design and is particularly efficient and easy to maintain. The pump shaft and the motor shaft of the IEC standard motor are connected by means of a clamp coupling, while a separate lantern roller bearing ensures optimum admission of axial thrusts. Intermediate bearings in the hydraulics and corrosion-resistant shaft due to stainless steel sleeve ensure a long service life. Special, permanently attached lifting eyes enable easy pump installation.
The pump is suitable for water supply, water distribution and pressure boosting, industrial recirculation systems, process water and closed cooling circuits. It can also be used in fire extinguishing systems, washing systems as well as for irrigation.
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In addition to updates for iOS and macOS, Apple has released updates for watchOS and tvOS.
watchOS 3.2
To update to watchOS 3.2, you first need to update your iPhone to iOS 10.3. Your Apple Watch needs to has at least a 50 percent battery charge and be within range of your iPhone. After that, you can get the watchOS update through the Watch app. Tap on General, then Software Update. You can read about the update before you tap Download and Install.
The main new feature in watchOS 3.2 is Theater Mode. This turns on silent mode and keeps the Apple Watch screen dark, even if you raise your wrist. To see the screen, you need to tap the watch face.
watchOS 3.2 also includes an update to Siri that allows it to work with apps to “start workouts, send messages, make payments, book rides, and more,” according to Apple’s release notes.
The other updates: French, Spanish, and Italian support in Scribble; and the Watch app on the iPhone now displays your music playlist sync progress.
tvOS 10.2
To install tvOS 10.2, go to the Settings app on your Apple TV. Then select System > Software Update.
This updates improves the scrolling of tvOS, making it easier to navigate the software. According to the developer release notes of the tvOS 10.2 beta, “several large swipes” activated accelerated scrolling. Swiping the far right side of the Apple TV remote allows you to “navigate specific indexes.”
tvOS 10.2 is required to use the new “rent once, watch anywhere” feature introduced in iTunes 12.6. This feature allows you to watch movies rented through iTunes on any device, regardless of where the rental was initiated. (iOS 10.3 is required to use this feature on the iPhone and iPad.)
Apple released tvOS 10.2 last Monday. The update includes accelerated scrolling and the ability to swipe the far right side of the Apple TV remote to navigate specific indexes.
To comment on this article and other Macworld content, visit our Facebook page or our Twitter feed.
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Want to know why hardware and software makers are putting so much emphasis into the mobile market? It's because the mobile market is a ginormous freight train that keeps picking up passengers along the way. According to a recent survey by Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) and The Economist Group, 22 percent of all adults living in the U.S. own a tablet, 44 percent own a smartphone, and half of them own either one.
The Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii might not be the best of friends, but together, the trio own the living room when it comes to gaming. The question is, for how long? Devices like Ouya, a $99 Android console, threaten to whittle away at the big three's userbase, though perhaps the biggest threat will come from cable companies. AT&T, Verizon, and Time Warner Cable are all reportedly getting ready to roll out cloud-based gaming service.
At this point, Barnes & Noble isn't fashionably late to the streaming video party, it's just downright late. Better late than never, though, right? Along that line of thinking, B&N today announced its Nook Video service, which will premier sometime this fall. B&N already has movies and TV shows lined up from major studios, including HBO, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, STARZ, Viacom, and Warner Bros. Entertainment, to name a few. The service will also stream select Disney titles, the company said.
In the smartphone arena, you win some and you lose some, as it is with everything in life. Is the iPhone 5 better than Samsung's Galaxy S III, or is the larger Android device the superior smartphone? Part of the answer and subjective and depends entirely on who you ask, but at least one round Apple manages to win against its chief competitor is the display. Our friends at DisplayMate conducted a head-to-head test between these two devices to see which one features the better panel, and not only did the iPhone 5 win, but "it's the best smartphone display we have tested to date," said Dr. Raymond Soneira, President of DisplayMate.
Whether you camped out in line and picked up an iPhone 5 this morning or upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy S III instead (or any other smartphone), the stakes are the same for Verizon Wireless customers. In order to qualify for that sweet subsidiary pricing, you have to upchuck your grandfathered unlimited data plan and swallow a relatively new Share Everything plan. But hey, don't worry about it, because as Verizon's Chief Financial Officer explains, "Unlimited is just a word; it doesn't really mean anything."
Forget about making room on your entertainment center for yet another set-top box, Roku's Streaming Stick packs the same functionality into a package that's no bigger than a typical USB flash drive. Roku first unveiled the device at the beginning of the year with a promise to ship it in the second half of 2012 for anywhere from $50 to $100. Making good on that promise, Roku today said its Streaming Stick will be available to purchase in October for $99.99.
HTC and Microsoft just put the Windows Phone 8 community on notice -- the HTC Windows Phone 8X and 8S are the devices to beat. What's interesting here isn't that HTC has Microsoft's full blessing -- technically, all Windows Phone manufacturers do -- but that HTC is being allowed to name its next generation smartphones after the platform it's built around. There's no mistaking which OS is running on the show on HTC's devices, whereas less savvy users might not be able to tell you right off the bat what OS Nokia's Lumia 920 is built around.
Samsung is planning to launch its Galaxy Note II device in mid-November with five major carriers, the handset maker announced today. Specific pricing and retail availability is up to each individual carrier to announce at their leisure, but on the bright side, if you've had the Galaxy Note II on your radar, you can go ahead and put it on hour holiday wish list, regardless of whether you're an AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, or U.S. Cellular subscriber.
One of the things we look forward to most when there's a new product launch is the inevitable teardown. Our friends at iFixItare always on the ball, and Amazon'sKindle Fire HD launch is no exception. The product repair site put the Kindle Fire HD (7-inch version) on the operating tablet and tore it open, leaving no part concealed, and discovered that it's not all that difficult to service at home.
Imagine, if you will, a world in which blind loyalty trumps common sense and critical thinking, where the power of marketing and the corporate hype machine are so strong that reasonably intelligent consumers are reduced to social status seeking nitwits on a late night television talk show. Sadly, you don't have to imagine such a place. It already exists, as Jimmy Kimmel proved when his camera crew took to the streets of Los Angeles and handed people an iPhone 4S, and then asking them what they thought of the new iPhone 5 they where holding.
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Zxmco ZX 100 Shahsawar
Zxmco zx 100 Shahsawar is another quality product in the product line of ZXMCO Motorbikes. It has all the amazing features which any rider would prefer to exist in the bike he owns. This bike has built quite a strong relationship with its clients because of its perfection and reliability. Plus it is very reasonable in price which makes it even more chosen over any other bike. ZX 100 has got a very smooth clutch and also a dashing engine voice. Furthermore, it has very strong wheels which give a strong grip on all kinds of roads; smooth or rough. The prominent features of ZX 100 Shahsawar are its classy design, appealing colors and of course comfortable seats.Below are the complete specifications of Zxmco 100cc.
ZXMCO zx 100 shahsawar is a recent launch by ZXMCO motorcycles. The company more formally known as Abdul Samad Group. According to the manufacturers they design a product with such quality that their bikes are good to be used forever. As the company tagline claims, “behtreen humsafar, umar bhar k liyai”. Furthermore, the company which established itself back in 2004, have indeed managed to win the heart of people within no time.
shahsawar 2018 New Model in Pakistan is soon to be found rolling on the streets. Indeed, to win the hearts of its consumers only. Although shahsawar is given Chinese technology it is still well suited for the roads of Pakistan. Quite capable of running smoothly on bumpy and unstable roads. Furthermore, one thing ZXMCO motorcycles are known for is the level of comfort they offer. The design of the seats is as such that it offers comfort ride for both rider and pillion.
Moreover, the seat is so spacious that it can easily be considered as a family bike. Adding on, ZXMCO zx 100 shahsawar as the name suggests is a Shahi Sawari. Perfectly designed to meet your everyday transport need without any problem. Now reaching college on time or attending an important meeting is not an issue. Since zx 100 shahsawar is here to stay and rule the hearts. Nevertheless, ZXMCO zx 100 shahsawar price in Pakistan is also kept quite economical so that it is easily affordable. One can easily get his hands on this beauty since ZXMCO zx 100 shahsawar price in Pakistan is only PKR.55000.
Color Black
ZXMCO zx 100 shahsawar Price in Pakistan 2019
If you are looking for to free yourself from everyday transport hassle, ZXMCO ZX 100 shahsawar can be the solution. shahsawar has a neat design and is a sleek looking, stylish bike. It is readily available in red and black colors with graphic design stickers on the fuel tank. Furthermore, ZXMCO zx 100 shahsawar is given bright headlights with illuminating indicators. Noticeable from a huge distance as well. The Headlight cowling further adding to the beauty of the bike. If one focus on the backlights, it is done slightly differently in a good way. After the seat bar, they have extended backlight design with lifted mudguards.
All these features make shahsawar extremely attractive. It is such a bike which is bound to hold attention when on road and one can simply not ignore it. All the hype which is created even before the launch of the bike certainly indicates great performance. Not only of this bike ZXMCO zx 100 shahsawar, but quality insurance of ZXMCO motorcycles as a whole.
Moving on, ZXMCO zx 100 shahsawar is a bike with Euro II technology. Along with black painted muffler exhaust that does give promising appeal to the bike. However, that’s not it the black exhaust and Euro II technology together promises smoke-free ride. Promising a ride which is environmentally friendly. If I consider the overall design of shahsawar there is no doubt it is very classy. Along with powerful shocks, makes owning this bike worthwhile. Adding on, the quality of zx 100 shahsawar body or exterior. It is designed with the high quality material making this bike extremely durable.
zx 100 shahsawar can easily overcome minor accidents and slight road accidents without any massive damage to the bike. I personally believe that’s a very good feature of the bike. Since driving on roads of Pakistan you never know what happens next. Therefore, durable exterior promises that there is no compromise on one’s life. Lastly,
ZXMCO zx 100 shahsawar is an economical bike. Either one considers its first-time purchase price or everyday running cost. The bike is friendly on the pocket. It has competitive price along with an engine that is fuel efficient. Moreover, zx 100 shahsawar is a bike which will not have major issues if regular maintenance is scheduled.
Zxmco ZX 100 ShahsawarTechnical Specifications
100 shahsawar is a 100cc bike coming from Abdul Samad Group. It is sound with Chinese technology and has 4-Stroke Single Cylinder Air Cooled engine. The displacement of the bike is 97cc with compression ratio 8.8:1. The bore and stroke of shahsawar are 47.0 x 41.4 mm. Clutch is regular wet type multi-plate along with 4-speed transmission. It is no surprise that the bike does not have self-start option and need to be kick-started. Moving on the frame of the bike is backbone type. Again it is the most common type of frame with many added advantages. It is not only cheaper and convenient to manufacture but it is also a feast for riders. As the backbone frame offers the most comfortable ride.
The dimensions of the bike are 1930 (lxwxh). Not only this, this combination of 135mm ground clearance and 90kg dry weight, makes this bike quite stable on road. The petrol capacity of 9liters which I believe is little less than competitive bikes. The size of tires in front is 2.50 – 18 and size of tires at back is 2.75 – 18.
Conclusion
ZXMCO zx 100 shahsawar is a very good bike. After a very long time, I have come across a bike one can rely on. Not only shahsawar is efficient but also, offers great road experience. Buying this bike is certainly not risking your money. However, one might face an issue if the rider aims to sell this bike. Since the company is not quite popular as a result people might be the bit hesitant to purchase the bike. As far as bike maintenance is concerned, the service centers of ZXMCO Motorcycles are few. Yet, on the other hand, one can buy original parts as well as lubricants directly from their website.
The final verdict will be that shahsawar is a good, purchasable bike. Being a 100cc bike it is available at good price. Furthermore, it will be hard to find all these qualities at this price.
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MTH 104 Liberal Arts MathematicsCredit Hours: 3Prerequisite: Algebra: (1) Grade of C or better in MTH 095, MTH 098 or 099; or (2) an ACT Math score of 23 or above or an appropriate placement score; or (3) placement into MTH 098 and a minimum high school un-weighted GPA of 3.5/4.0 with a grade of C or better in two semesters of second year high school algebra. Reading: (1) grade of C or better in RDG 091 or LTC 099; or (2) an ACT Reading score of 18 or above or an appropriate placement score.
This course focuses on mathematical reasoning and the solving of real-life problems, rather than on routine skills and appreciation. Finance, statistics, and mathematical modeling are studied in depth, with one optional topic chosen from the following list: probability, graph theory, logic/set theory, and game theory. The use of graphing calculators and/or computers is required. (1.1) Fulfills the ECC/IAI General Education/Mathematics requirement. IAI Course Number: M1 904 Proficiency Credit Not Available Pass/No Credit Not Available
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Pay the cash price in full before the end of the payment free period, and avoid any interest.
Representative 39.9% APR variable
The payment free period will start from the date of order (including for those items which are purchased on pre-order and/or are not ready for immediate dispatch). All financial services products, delivery and installation charges, unless otherwise stated, are excluded from this offer, exclusions will be confirmed at the point of order. The interest will be added to your account after the end of the payment free period.
Avoid interest by paying the cash price in full before the end of the payment free period. Whether you are paying the full cash price, or a part payment, remember to allocate your payment to the specific item you wish to pay off.
Over 18s only. Credit provided, subject to credit and account status by Shop Direct Finance Company Limited. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Get £30 credit when you apply for an upgrade to a Very Credit Account.
Here's how
- Place a credit order of £60+ by the 30th December 2016
- Enter the code L3Y6K at checkout and the £30 will automatically be taken off your order
Just so you know:
Offer excludes Financial Services products, delivery charges and can't be used in conjunction with another code. If you return items and the value of your order falls below £60 the credit will be reversed.
You can pay what you want when you want, if you pay the balance in full by the end of the payment free period, you will avoid any interest.
Buy Now Pay Later for up to 12 months when you spend £200 or more. Representative 39.9% APR variable.
In checkout you can choose:
Buy Now Pay Later for 6 months when you spend £100 or more (1 month = 28 days)
Buy Now Pay Later for 9 months when you spend £150 or more (1 month = 28 days)
Buy Now Pay Later for 12 months when you spend £200 or more (12 calendar months)
The payment free period will start from the date of order (including for those items which are purchased on pre-order and/or are not ready for immediate dispatch). The interest will be added to your account after the end of the payment free period. Avoid interest by paying the cash price in full before the end of the payment free period. Whether you are paying the full cash price, or a part payment, remember to allocate your payment to the specific item you wish to pay off. All financial services products, delivery and installation charges, unless otherwise stated, are excluded from this offer.
Over 18s only. Credit provided, subject to credit and account status, by Shop Direct Finance Company Limited. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Simply place your first credit order before 26th February 2016 and enter the code 6UA3V at the checkout.
Representative 39.9% APR variable.
The 20% discount cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer codes and cannot be used on the following ranges; iPhones, audio, gaming, computers, projectors and tablets. Sale items, financial services products and delivery charges are also excluded from the offer.
Over 18s only. Credit provided subject to status by Shop Direct Finance Company Limited. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Representative 39.9% APR variable
Choose to pay with monthly payments from the minimum payment to the total balance.
Service Guarantee
There are certain home electricals you just couldn't live without. What would you do if they stopped working outside of the manufacturer’s warranty? Add to your peace of mind with Service Guarantee which extends your warranty by providing a repair service after the end of the manufacturer’s warranty period.
Key benefits
We’ll aim to repair and if it can’t be repaired, we’ll replace it with one of similar specification.
Call out, parts and labour charges are all covered.
We use a trusted network of repairers.
The option to spread the cost of the cover on your credit account.
If you already have cover for breakdown through an extended warranty programme included in a premium bank account package or another product this Service Guarantee may not be appropriate for you. Service Guarantee excludes some situations, for example; accidental damage, and any wilful act or neglect. It is not an insurance product.
Non returnable under our Approval Guarantee, once installed or connected. Your statutory rights are not affected. See Returns section in our Help pages for more information.
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EAN: 4905524700213
The Sony RF865 Wireless Headphones give you high quality sound with minimal distractions.
Impressive 40 mm neodymium drivers work with the high frequency range of up to 22000 Hz to ensure you experience every beat as it should be, with precise sound at every volume.
Sony's Noise Reduction System produces a clearer sound and reduces distracting background sounds, so all you can hear is the music.
With a range up to 100m, these Sony headphones are suitable for every occasion from listening to the cricket while you relax in the garden to enjoying a blockbuster action movie after the kids have gone to bed.
You get up to 25 hours of battery life and when the power starts to run low you simply place the headphones on the dock to recharge them.
The well padded black headband and cushioned ear cups make them comfortable to wear, even for long sessions, and you can easily adjust volume levels quickly and easily via controls built-in to your headphones.
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GLOW GANG HOLIDAY SET - Glow Recipe
Take the guesswork out of holiday shopping with our specially curated holiday gift sets! The watermelon gang's all here in our limited edition Glow Gang set. Get all of our cult-favorite glow products all in one kit. It comes packaged in a *super cute* ready-to-gift pink "Glowing Skin Inside" box with our limited edition Glow Recipe pins. Take your favorite on the go and rep your skincare faves all day as a part of the glow gang.
Spiked with vitamin and amino acid-rich watermelon extract, plumping hyaluronic acid, and soothing botanicals like peony and jasmine extracts, this cooling gel-emulsion absorbs instantly to seal in hydration and prep skin for the day ahead.
A sheet mask like you’ve never seen before: A transparent jelly made out of watermelon extract that wraps seamlessly around the face (no drip and no slip!) to provide a quick fix for dry, irritated skin. Comes in two separate pieces for an effortless fit!
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Presswood Pallet For Sale - China
Presswood pallets are from wood fibres and synthetic resins. The moulded
products are pressed under high heat and pressure and then dried to a
moisture content of 6% - 9% to eliminate moisture. The high heat process
burns out infestation, which eliminates the need for additional
fumigation or heat treatment required for export applications. All the
quality presswood pallet are meeting the requirements of ISPM15.
The annual production capacity of our presswood pallet production lines are about 400, 000 pallets in the first several years, and we'll adjust our production capacity according to the market demands. Following are the popular sizes we produced for China market.
Dear Sir/Madam, We are owner sawing mill especialy in producing and exporting wooden bar, pallet ellement, wooden box, sawn timber....from Vietnam sources. Our sawing mill is located in Soc Son province where is near the most famous log wood sources ...
Safe Trade Tips
Ask for business references and check them
Use a payment method that offers better protection for all such as Letters of credit and verified professional escrow services. Avoid payments in advance such as money transfers
Verify their business via their local Chamber of Commerce
Search the internet using their website address, their business name, their phone and fax numbers, and their email addresses to see if you can find any feedback about them.
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A badger in Germany got so drunk on over-ripe cherries it staggered into the middle of a road and refused to budge, police said on Wednesday.
A motorist called police near the central town of Goslar to report a dead badger on a road -- only for officers to turn up and discover the animal alive and well, but drunk.
Police discovered the nocturnal beast had eaten cherries from a nearby tree which had turned to alcohol and given the badger diarrhoea.
Having failed to scare the animal away, officers eventually chased it from the road with a broom.
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Michele Hewitson Interview: Len Brown
A big learning-curve year has transformed Auckland's first super mayor from being a rapper to a statesman ... possibly
Len Brown is no longer the emotional mayor from Manukau slipping streetwise catchphrases into his conversation. Picture / Dean Purcell
Something odd, or possibly not so odd given the weight of the Super mayoral robes, has happened to Len Brown.
Let's not get carried away (we used to be able to reliably leave that to him); he's hardly transmogrified. Perhaps he's more subdued. He is no longer the rapping mayor, for one thing. If he's keeping that previous incarnation hidden beneath his very smart mayoral suit, he's doing a reasonably good job. Still, I was keeping a wary eye out for any signs that he might break into that talk he thinks is down with the kids. You do suspect that guy lurks not very far beneath the surface, and amazingly, I almost miss him.
He was also the emotional mayor. I can't imagine the shiny-looking politician who met me, standing very upright and statesmanlike and calmly outside his office this week slapping himself about the face, for another thing. Nobody, least of all him, could miss that guy.
I have met him before, the first time to interview him a few days before he announced he was running. He bounced into his office and greeted me with a "whad up?" You might say he created a hard act to follow.
The second meeting was on my doorstep; he was out campaigning. "That was a dag!" A dag? He failed at first to recognise me, and fair enough. But why remind me of it? "It was dark in your house!" What? It is not dark in my house and even if it was, what a thing to say! "I think you were wearing dark glasses." No, there was no point trying to figure out how that could work. Perhaps the rose-tinted glasses he almost always wears were distorting his vision.
In his office he has a signed photograph: Him with Kenny Rogers. Does he like Kenny Rogers? "Well, yeah. I mean, he's an amazing artist." He also has a Tom Scott cartoon marking his election signed by the PM: "Well done and enjoy your time at the top." What does he make of that?
"I read nothing into it at all, Michele. Ha. I think he was being genuine." He got very excited about being able to hang art from the city gallery in his mayoral office. He asked for a Bruegel. "It was worth about 10 million or something like that and they said, 'no, not today'." Honestly, what's the point of being the Mayor of the Super City if he can't have a Bruegel? "Ha, ha. There are limits. I found out that there are limits."
He also has a collection of rugby balls, for kicking, I assumed. Do they have Murray McCully written on one and Steven Joyce on another? "Well, they might do!" He does kick the balls: outside on the grass in Aotea Square. What does he wear? "This!" he said, gesturing at his smart suit. "I don't go and change or anything." Doesn't he look ridiculous? "I don't know!" Is that seemly? "Yes, absolutely it is seemly. You don't get a lot of chance to relax in this job. I try to get loose and go for a walk."
Continued below.
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He has dropped the "whad upping," at least with me (I was horrified last time), but he still occasionally talks like the old Len Brown, hence the "what a dag!" and the "get loose". He won the mayoralty a year ago last Sunday, an occasion which he failed to mark because he forgot, until somebody reminded him the next day.
I wondered - because how could you not given the dark night of the trains and the chaos of the opening night of the Rugby World Cup? - whether he'd had moments when he thought: Why the hell did I want this job? "Plenty of moments when I felt that I was being challenged like never before in my life." Much of what he loved about being mayor of Manukau, being able to spend a lot of time in the community, for example, is now more difficult to achieve. This is, or seems to be, a much more political job. So does he feel like more of a politician?
"Oh God, I hope not. I do think that the role of being a local body leader ... is very different from being a parliamentarian." He has said before that the media don't understand the difference, which is not very flattering, and he said it again to me. I said that, yes, he'd previously pointed out how stupid we journalists were and he said, "I'm not saying that, Michele." Yes he is. "Well, no, what I'm saying is that I just think you miss the point of local government."
That he can't see that he does call journalists a bit thick might make him either a bit thick himself, or very clever. That he says journalists don't understand local government might be evidence of his enormous confidence which, if you're not a fan, could be taken for arrogance.
Of course you'd have to have a lot of either, or both, to run for mayoralty in the first place. Really, he just doesn't want to "come across" as a politician because he says people tend to have a negative view of politicians. He likes some. He genuinely likes John Key on a personal and professional level. I'd been going on about McCully, which he mostly benignly ignored, and I said, later, that he can't like him. "I didn't say I like him. I just get on with him."
I'd been asking whether he had an ideological dislike of Nats (he says, by the way, that they don't have an ideological dislike of him), because surely he must. He's a Labour mayor. He certainly is not, he says, and of course he ran as an independent. But what, I wanted to know, had happened to his long-held Labour beliefs? They're part of his platform, he says, but "it is very hard to get Marxist about fixing footpaths". So, there you go. How stupid of me.
He is used to being loved, I think. There was a huge outpouring of what he might well call good vibes, after his 2008 heart attack, which you wouldn't wish on anyone but which wasn't at all a bad thing for his political career. He says we don't have to love our mayor but we do have to respect him. He used to go around telling people he loved them but he bellowed with laughter when I asked if he still did, so who knows? I'd say not. He's working at being a grown-up, statesmanlike mayor, according to me. Because what has happened to his signature rapping? Perhaps he's decided it's not dignified. He says that really he was only doing it "to have fun with the kids in the Manukau community and particularly with those Pacific and Maori kids who I think by and large thought it was pretty naff". He told me they loved it! "Well, they laughed! They thought it was hilarious."
Reduced naffness (we'll put aside that Kenny Rogers photo) might be a symptom of his being subdued. But is he? "I've had an extraordinary year and I think I've matured a lot personally ..." I asked for an example of his new-found maturity and he gave a very boring answer about having to broaden his strategic and policy outlook. But I would say it was a boring answer. I'm too stupid to understand local government. I did ask him a patsy question about what he'd changed and he said something about a Metro billboard which reads, he thinks: Love This City. This demonstrates our new-felt passion for the city. He also told me about a new "innovation hub" at Wynyard Quarter where people with ideas will "cluster". Does that mean they have a cup of coffee? "They build business, they do research and development." Oh, they have a meeting. I do give him credit for remaining resolutely good-humoured when teased for talking local government-ese. I was testing his temper.
Much more interesting than clusters, to me and not quite as interesting to him, was whether he'd hit himself about the face over anything in the past year. "Ha, ha, ha. I learnt a lot from that experience." Presumably he learnt that if you hit yourself about the face on television you look like a mad man. He says he's a fast learner. He was appalled when I asked if he'd become a different person. "Of course not!"
He has certainly got sterner about being interviewed. He is now perceptively unenthusiastic about being asked about his Catholic faith and whether he still prays in the mayoral office. He does; he says Christians do pray, anywhere. He told me last time that he believes abortion is a woman's choice, and told me on the doorstep that this had caused some interesting debate. I said I still didn't know how he could be a devout and practising Catholic and hold the views he does on abortion. He said he didn't think we'd return to that particular subject.
He wasn't at all shirty about this, just firm, but I had some ideas about his temper. He has got distinctly shirty with some journalists over trains, and promises about taking them. He got snippy with Marcus Lush who asked why his driver drove the mayoral car alongside the train (on the motorway, obviously) carrying the mayor. He said "I'll do what I will", which made him sound cross and arrogant. He says he doesn't think he has a bad temper - he appeared flabbergasted to be asked - and that what he can be is assertive, and loud, oh and short and blunt. He sounded bad-tempered to me. He asked for and got a copy of the Tui billboard: "Hey, I saw Len Brown on the train today. Yeah, right." It hangs in his staff's office. But why did he think that was funny but didn't find being asked about it funny? "Oh, I just felt ... I mean sometimes the media can be a bit precious."
Right, so thick and precious. That is quite clever, on reflection. It probably plays reasonably well with other politicians and his public.
Of course the real reason I thought he might be a bit damped down (and shirty) is the trains, again. And that RWC opening night and the subsequent riding rough-shod over him by McCully who announced that the Government was taking control of a larger area of the waterfront - before telling the mayor. He must, I said, have been humiliated; he was shafted. I asked this a number of ways but the assertive, blunt and short answer is that no, he is not humiliated or shafted. He answered like a politician and I can hardly complain because I insisted that he is a politician.
He threatened to appear on my doorstep again when he begins campaigning for a second term. "You can have me in for a cup of tea if you like." I could. Or I could fail to recognise him which, by then, is a distinct possibility.
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Everything in this last chapter was amazing as they started the 'reveals', but yeah. The bit with HIGHLIGHT to view: Sanji Skywalking was the only thing that actually caught me completely off guard. Hody has completely lost control of the situation, and he knows it.
I'd been following the Funi releases but as those have dried up with nothing new announced I've gotten tired of waiting after several months without new One Piece to watch. Needless to say, I've missed this show and am making up for lost time. Once I get to ep 307 I'll switch over to Hulu and watch the subs they have there.
Funi's up to, what, G8 right now? At least, I know that was set to release last April, I haven't checked since then.
Yeah, the manga is moving along nicely now. HIGHLIGHT to view:Brook's skills are nicely developed, and I like how they "backstoried" Sanji's new skill, that should come in handy. Zoro's was neat enough, and I'm loving the work Franky's done on the ship.
Funimation hasn't announced a 4th season yet. They say they're in talk with Toei.
This week's chapter was so full of SWEET! I fanboyed like Luffy and Chopper at Franky's new vehicles, tho I forsee not alot of opportunities to use them. We've only seen the Mini-merry and Shark Sub once each (not including anime fillers) and the Waver has been nearly forgotten.
Also, if you're keeping tabs with the Anime, this week they went out and actually animated the part where Luffy and Jinbei visit Marineford again. I thought that was pretty cool.
Death is not a hunter unbeknownst to its prey, one is always aware that it lies in wait. Though life is merely a journey to the grave, it must not be undertaken without hope. Only then will a traveler's story live on, treasured by those who bid him farewell.
I honestly haven't felt this thrilled since Impel Down. I miss new techniques and crazy villain groups like CP9. The fishmen make good foes, even if it appears that they aren't capable of standing toe-to-toe with the Strawhats.
It seems like this arc is mostly supposed to show just how crazy strong the Strawhats have gotten for their 2 years. Frankly I'd have preferred them curb stomping an admiral or two to demonstrate that, but this works too.
Some are under the impression that the Fishman Island arc isn't close to being done. Hody's band of misfits seem as if they'll be beyond pushovers for our heroes. There's likely a bigger baddie out there who has yet to reveal themself (My bets are on Aladdin showing up again, or Tom's brother who was introduced and vanished)
My hope is that after Fishman Island, the Straw Hats end up somewhere near Mariejoa. Even though that's probably going to be towards the end of the series, I'd love to see them tear up all those elitist jerks right where it hurts.
Death is not a hunter unbeknownst to its prey, one is always aware that it lies in wait. Though life is merely a journey to the grave, it must not be undertaken without hope. Only then will a traveler's story live on, treasured by those who bid him farewell.
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News
New ActionAid research, tracking the offshore structures of the FTSE100, finds that the presence of the UK’s largest companies in tax havens has not diminished despite media scandals over tax avoidance and a promised government crackdown on tax havens.
Nearly 40 per cent of all the overseas subsidiary and associate companies of the FTSE100 are now registered in tax havens. 78 of the FSTE100 do business in developing countries. Every new entrant to the FTSE100 since 2011 has tax haven companies, averaging a third of all their overseas subsidiaries.
"Tax havens are one of the biggest hidden obstacles in the fight against global poverty. Poor countries lose an estimated three times more money to tax havens than they receive in aid each year – money needed to build roads, fund schools and finance developing countries’ own fight against hunger and poverty.
"Four years after G20 leaders promised an end to tax havens, tax haven structures are near-universal amongst the UK’s biggest multinationals."
“Now, with David Cameron promising action on tax havens at this year’s G8, the problem is on the UK’s doorstep. The UK is responsible for 1 in 5 of the world’s tax havens - that’s more than any other country.
These latest findings are an update of ActionAid research released in October 2011 analysing the subsidiaries, joint ventures and associated companies of the UK’s 100 largest publicly-listed companies. Eighteen months on, ActionAid found:
98 of the 100 FTSE100 multinational groups have companies in tax havens, as in 2011. Ten are themselves headquartered in a tax haven (up from nine in 2011). Despite 10 per cent of the FTSE100’s composition having changed since ActionAid’s last analysis, all new entrants to the FTSE100 have tax haven subsidiaries.
Nearly 40 per cent of the FTSE100’s 22,000 overseas companies are located in tax havens. While the FTSE100’s total number of overseas companies has decreased since 2011, the proportion of these located in tax havens has slightly risen (from 37.8% to 38.2%).
78 FTSE100 companies, across 18 of the 19 business sectors represented in the FTSE100, operate in developing countries, and every one of these companies is a prolific tax haven user. No sector has fewer than a quarter of their overseas companies located in a tax haven.
Banking maintains its position as the most prolific user of tax havens. Over half (58%) of all FTSE100 banks’ overseas companies are in tax havens (1,780 companies). Developing countries constitute almost a third of the countries in which FTSE100 banks operate, yet they have 13 times as many companies located in tax havens as in developing countries.
ActionAid points out that while the existence of tax haven subsidiaries is not proof of tax avoidance, and ActionAid is not accusing FTSE100 companies of tax avoidance or evasion, its findings highlight the extent of multinationals’ operations in jurisdictions that can provide substantial tax advantages and help obscure information.
The charity also says that fragile public revenues in some of the world’s poorest countries are being fatally undermined through corporate profit-shifting and other transactions through tax havens.
Mike Lewis adds that with one in eight people still going to bed hungry every night, ending tax havens’ secrecy and damaging tax regimes has never been more important.
"Stopping wealth being siphoned out of the poorest countries into tax havens is one of the most urgent tasks in the fight against hunger. But transparency deals that the UK and other European countries have recently struck with tax havens currently benefit rich countries only.
"David Cameron convenes the G8 leaders in Northern Ireland next month. They must deliver on their promise to call time on tax havens for the benefit of all countries, including the poorest."
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HEAR FROM INTERNATIONAL EXPERTS!
No matter your area of interest or involvement with cycling and cycleway planning, there will be something at the Congress for you! The carefully curated programme will feature international experts in topics such as community engagement and support, urban planning and design, safety, health and wellness.
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Daily encouragement in your Christian walk until, as the Apostle Paul writes,"Christ is formed in you" (Galatians 4:19, NIV).
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
The Quiet Strength of Joseph
This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. Matthew 1:18-25
The Bible doesn’t have a whole lot to say about Joseph. In fact, Joseph is one of the few people mentioned in the Bible who is never quoted saying anything. He’s sort of an ancillary figure in our nativity scene. But, that’s not really true. This passage reveals two significant decisions Joseph made that led to the credibility of the Messiah.
When Joseph heard of Mary’s pregnancy, his first impulse was to divorce her. The terms of engagement then were much more stringent than today. It was more like the first year of marriage than planning a wedding. Infidelity during an engagement would have brought a great deal of dishonor to Joseph. None of us would want that. He reasoned that his only choice was to divorce Mary quietly. What else could he do? What would we do?
Can you imagine the problems that would have been caused if the parents of the Savior of the world were divorced? Even the Son of God needed an earthly mother and father to give him credibility. Illegitimacy might have voided the message Jesus came to proclaim. Who would have listened to Him? No one would have given Jesus any attention back then.
The angel appeared to Joseph and explained the situation. Divine revelation was the only way that this pregnancy could be understood or accepted. Joseph chose to man-up, take Mary as his wife, and claim Jesus as his own son.
Then Joseph made another remarkable decision. He chose to wed Mary and delay the honeymoon. “But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son” (Matthew 1:25). While every bride dreams of the wedding day, every groom dreams of the wedding night. Joseph chose to marry his pregnant fiancé, and then he chose to put off the pleasures of marriage that were rightfully his (1 Corinthians 7:4) in order to guarantee that no one could ever say that Joseph had anything to do with Jesus’ human birth. For a man that didn’t get any words in the Bible, Joseph silently obeyed.
Following God would be easier if we knew that God’s direction would always lead us down an easy path. But, when following God makes things worse rather than better, it takes more than our willfulness to obey. It requires faith.
Regardless of how Joseph felt about Mary, regardless of what Joseph knew he was entitled to, regardless of receiving a life that he had never signed up for, Joseph chose to obey God. He didn’t receive any earthly honor for his obedience. In fact, after the incident of leaving Jesus behind at the temple in Jerusalem (Luke 2:43), we don’t hear anything else about Joseph. How did he influence Jesus? What did he do with his life? When did he die? We don’t know.
Joseph’s reward was investing in the life of someone else. His honor came from putting his own will and feelings aside for someone greater. Like all of us, Joseph’s ultimate reward is in Heaven.
What seems impossible for you these days? Regardless of what you deserve and how you feel, how is God directing you to obey? Are you willing?
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Being a proud Atheist, and a freedom loving INFIDEL AKA "KUFFAR", WE are threatened by the primitive pidgeon chested jihad boys in the medieval east.
FRACK YOU!! SAY US ALL!! Don't annoy the Pagans and Bikers,, it's a islam FREE ZONE!!! LAN ASTASLEM!!!!
Friday, February 22, 2013
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IW
News Brief: Welfare Jihad, Public School Da'wa, and More
Islamist Watch (IW) maintains an extensive archive of news items on
nonviolent Islamism in the Western world. The complete collection can be
found here; lists
organized by topic are accessible on the right side of the IW homepage.
The following are some of the recent developments covered in the IW
database:British radical promotes welfare-funded jihad
The UK's Sunsecretly
recorded cleric Anjem Choudary as he urged Muslims to further their
jihadist pursuits by claiming public benefits. "The normal situation is
for you to take money from the kuffar," he said, using a term for
unbeliever. Ridiculing Britons with jobs, Choudary noted that some Muslims
hardly ever work and instead focus on jihad. Based on research from 2010,
Choudary "received £15,600 a year in housing benefit to keep him in a
£320,000 house" and pocketed another £10,140 in council tax allowance,
income support, and child benefits.
Islamists are known for living on the Western dole, especially in Britain,
a scandal examined in a 2011 IW article
by Kathy Shaidle. Recipients of UK benefits have included the bomb plotters
of July 21, 2005, hate preacher Abu Hamza, and Abu Qatada, dubbed "Osama
bin Laden's ambassador in Europe." (Unable to deport Abu Qatada, the
government recently moved
him into a three-bedroom home near
a synagogue.) The phenomenon is not limited to the UK, as seen in new
data indicating that Swedish citizen Taimour Abdulwahab, who blew himself up
during a botched 2010 attack in Stockholm, had procured
750,000 kronor ($119,000) in student aid.
Left: Anjem Choudary
was recorded saying that Western leaders deserve to be killed and that
freedom must be rejected. "We are going to take England," he
boasted. "The Muslims are coming." Right: Mohammed Alharbi and
his kids passed out pro-Islam material in a U.S. public school, but
"not a single staffer or a teacher ever uttered a word,"
according to WTHI.
Muslims advertise Islam at Indiana public school
Officials are investigating a bizarre
incident at Terre Haute's Dixie Bee Elementary on February 8 in which
Mohammed Alharbi and his three daughters, all students there, distributed
religious messages while school was in session. Going room to room, they gave
each instructor a flower and a card stating that "Mohammed is a Prophet
of Mercy" and advising: "Do not defame people lest you make them
your enemies." Reasoning that this should be considered a history
lesson, not proselytizing (da'wa), administrators permitted
the father to bring the material to the main office after the school's legal
counsel cautioned against "viewpoint discrimination." They argue
that Alharbi broke an agreement not to go beyond the office, but nobody can
explain how he ended up walking freely through the halls. Alharbi insists
that the principal had approved his plans.
Pro-Islam views have been creeping into secular U.S. classrooms, most
often via slantedbooks,
troublingguestspeakers,
and Islamist-runcharterschools,
even though any adult's participation in religious endorsement at a public
institution is legally problematic. The ease with which Alharbi reportedly
gained access to teachers and students, despite a parent's
claim of airtight security, also recalls a recent case in which staffers'
ignoring
of protocols enabled a niqab-clad woman to abduct
a girl from a Philadelphia school; both events suggest PC-driven
reluctance to say no to Muslims. Would a Christian with cards about Jesus
have gotten as far at Dixie Bee?The never-ending Fort Hood fiasco
The tragedy at Fort Hood did not conclude with the last bullet fired on
November 5, 2009, by Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim U.S. Army major who killed
13 and whose radicalism had been repeatedly
excused by superiors. An ABC News report
highlights victims' statements that the Obama administration's labeling of the
attack as simple "workplace violence" has deprived them of the
recognition, compensation, and medical care available for combat- or
terrorism-related injuries. Secretary of the Army John McHugh denied
knowledge of any complaints and then abruptly exited the interview with ABC's
Brian Ross.
Survivors have filed
suit and congressmen are bringing
pressure to bear over the "workplace violence" designation. The
Army contends that altering it would complicate the case against Hasan, but
the legal proceedings are a circus already. Hasan's trial has been delayedformonths
due to his assertion of a religious right to sport a beard in military court.
Though a new judge has attempted to sidestep
the issue, she did accede to Hasan's request for prayer breaks.
Left: ABC News has
released previously unseen footage of the aftermath of the Fort Hood
massacre. Right: A photo of a block in Acton, London, shows multiculturalism
in bloom.
Londonistan rising: One woman's grim portrait
"I feel like a stranger where I live." That is the title of
longtime Londoner Jane Kelly's riveting
essay about the "new identity" of her Acton neighborhood, now
defined by halal fish-and-chip shops, veiled women, and unsolicited advice
that she should cover up as well. "I feel that public spaces are
becoming contested," she notes, citing a store's sign that not only bans
alcohol inside, but also states that it is not permitted on the street
either. "The scale of immigration over recent years has created
communities throughout London that never need to — or want to — interact with
outsiders," Kelly observes. She plans to join the "white
flight" from London.
Another memorable firsthand account of England's metamorphosis is a 2011 article
by the anonymous wife of a priest. "I have been away for four years,
living as an ethnic minority in a monocultural part of the world," she
writes. "Yes, I am very glad to have left Britain's second city" —
Birmingham. Her tale involves verbal abuse, cockfighting, truckloads of
illegals, and a new arrival's joyful pronouncement: "Everybody know.
Birmingham — best place in Europe to be pure Muslim." Though personal
experiences vary, it is indisputable that Islam's growing footprint in the
West has sparked profound changes. We should listen to those on the front
lines.
Post a Comment
http://muslimbrotherhoodinamerica.com/the-course/
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation and its Role in Enforcing Islamic Law
We need to get off Saudi Barbarian OIL!!!!!Support the Canadian OIL Sands,,, and visit,, Ethicaloil.org
The gravity of the existential threat we face from Islamic Jihad is truly of epic proportions. It is essentially a battle pitting free-civilized man against a totalitarian barbarian. What is at stake is the struggle for our very soul - namely who we are and what we represent. The lives that were sacrificed for individual rights and freedoms that we've come to cherish are being chiseled away from right under our noses by the stealth jihadists. And many of us are in denial and totally clueless.
The left's appeasement and pandering to evil is nothing new. What makes their utopian delusions so infuriating and unpardonable is that it is not only they who will have to pay the consequences, and deservedly, so, they are thwarting and undermining our best efforts at resistance and are thus dragging us down in the process as well.
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Disk Partitioning and Ubuntu bootloader problem
I have a new Samsung external USB disk on which I wish to install 3 Linux distros; Ubuntu 12.04, Lubuntu 13.04 and Mint. I have partitioned the Samsung USB drive using Gparted, creating 2 primary and 1 extended partition with the extended partition containing several logical partitions. So I have /dev/sdc Samsung 1TB drive /dev/sdc1 ntfs partitioned /dev/sdc5 ext2 partition for Ubuntu 12.04 /dev/sdc6 ext2 Partition for Lubuntu 13.04 /dev/sdc7 ext2 Partition for Linux Mint /dev/sdc8 ext2 Data partition /dev/sdc2 Linux Swap I want to allocated to swap space partition to be used by each of the Linux o/s. The Ubuntu 12.04 Installation failed at the end with error message “Unable to install GRUB in /dev/sdc5” I tried setting the partition to choose /dev/sdc as the partition to install the bootloader into, but the same error message was again the result. What do I do to get the bootloader to install on this disk ( an external USB drive ) ? Thanks Ray NB the os on the internal drive is Windows Vista.
Some notes:
Please don't use ext2 format partitions for data/OS files. ext4 is the recommended filesystem.
Also, I suggest you put the ntfs partition on the end of the drive, meaning, put the linux partitions first and the last partition is the ntfs partition.
Install the boot loader on the drive itself which is /dev/sdc
And a lot would be better if you REMOVE the internal drive and boot Ubuntu (either live cd or USB) and then plug the external drive. This way, Ubuntu will be forced to detect/install on the external drive.
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Warner Bros. and Silver Pictures have hired newcomer Evan Daugherty to write the latest draft of Grayskull, the studio’s big-screen take on Mattel’s “Masters of the Universe” cartoon and toy line. John Stevenson (Kung Fu Panda) is attached to direct the adaptation.
Warner Bros. sees the big-screen version as a gritty fantasy and reimagines Prince Adam as a soldier who sets off to find his destiny, happening upon the magical world of Eternia. There, Skeletor has raised a technological army and is bent on eradicating magic.
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Louis Vuitton
Monogram Canvas Pochette Milla MM BagPre Owned
Product Details
This is an authentic LOUIS VUITTON Pochette Milla MM Bag. It features the traditional Monogram canvas with a metal LV Inventeur plate and a vachetta leather trim. The interior has a beige alcantara lining with an open pocket and a zip closure. It has golden metallic hardware with a detachable chain strap. This is the medium-sized Milla - it can be carried as a tote, wristlet, or clutch. It's a stylish handbag for day or night. What are you waiting for - add this to your collection today!
All photos are of actual item being sold. This Louis Vuitton® item is guaranteed to be authentic. Louis Vuitton is a registered trademark of Louis Vuitton. LuxeDH is not affiliated with or represents Louis Vuitton in any way or form.
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Bernalillo County received the “People’s Choice” award for its initial phase of the Alameda Drain and Trail Master Plan at a recent Environmental Protection Agency regional conference, in the category of Outstanding Green Infrastructure and Low Impact Development.
Two District 2 Projects Receive Water Authority Funding
County Commission Chair Steven Michael Quezada, and Albuquerque City Councilor Klarissa Pena sponsored amendments for water projects - the Route 66 Visitor Center and the Los Padillas Water System Project - that were added to the 2019 Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Authority budget.
Public Works Division Recognized by BernCo Commission
The BernCo Board of Commissioners acknowledged the BernCo Public Works Division at its meeting on Tuesday, April 24. The Public Works Division received two Engineering Excellence Awards from the American Council of Engineering Companies New Mexico.
Construction Begins on Second Street Corridor Improvement Project
Construction on the Second Street Southwest Corridor Improvement Project is now underway. It is expected to be complete by the end of November 2018.
BernCo is Recognized by PNM as an “Energy Star” for Energy-Efficient Upgrades to County Facilities
The county has been recognized by PNM as one of its “Energy Stars” at two recent awards presentation ceremonies.
Residential Trash Service
Click here for what you need to know about residential trash service in your area.
Projects
Bernalillo County crews are constantly working on facilities, roads and drainage systems to improve your community.
Traffic Engineering
Bernalillo County is a regional leader in innovative traffic control devices.
Flooding and Your Safety
If a road is flooded, turn around and find an alternate route. Don't risk drowning by trying to cross it. Learn more about low water crossings statewide.
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Early Life
William Baker was the son of Floyd Baker and his wife. William's father left while William was an infant. [6][4] As a child, impoverished, he learned how to steal. [4] Young William loved going to the beach and building sand castles, but trips to the beach were far and few between because his mother was an alcoholic. One day William built a large and detailed sand castle only to watch it wash away when it started to rain. The young Baker boy became determined that he was going to make something that would last. William took his love of making things out of sand and used it for school art projects. He had developed a crush on his teacher Miss Flint, but was heart broken when he learned that she was engaged to a stockbroker. This made William believe that the only way to attract a beautiful woman was with money. Baker was tormented by an older student named Vic. On the day he learned that Miss Flint was going to be married, Vic and his friends trashed William's work and beat him up. William ran home to his mother without telling any of the school administrators what happened, and was determined to look after himself. The next time Vic and his friends tried to bully William, he fought back and easily trounced them. When he got in trouble with the school principal, William couldn't help but notice that not only were his bullies afraid of him, but girls noticed him fighting back as well. For the first time in his miserable life, William felt joy. [6] Soon enough young William became a bully in his own right, beating up on those smaller than him. [4]
Soon William became friends with Vic and his goons and rapidly rose to be the leader of their gang. To sound tougher, William began calling himself Flint, after his old teacher. In high school, Baker became a football star and began dating a cheerleader named Marcy. [6] William has given two accounts of what happened next. He has stated that he accepted money from the mob to throw one of his games. [4] While a late recounting, William has stated that his friend Vic had racked up heavy gambling debts and threw the next game to get out of trouble. [6] Whatever the case, William's coach figured out what happened and had him expelled from school. [4][6] However, in the later account, William had stated that he violently assaulted his coach after he confronted him. [6] Flint and Vic then began committing petty crimes and started working their way up. [4][6] When Flint tried to give gifts to his mother she rejected them, having heard rumors of his criminal activities. [4] Arrested while making his getaway from a robbery, Flint found himself in the same prison as his father. Wanting to know who his father was, but ashamed to reveal his identity, William introduced himself as "Flint Marko". When Flint was out he, Vic and Marcy plotted heists, and when he was arrested he spent time with his father until the day his father was released from prison. [6]
Becoming Sandman
The events that led up to William Baker becoming the Sandman vary from account to account. In one telling, Flint caught Vic and Marcy having an affair. After beating up Vic, he went on a crime spree that led to yet another incarceration. Sent to Ryker's Island, Flint eventually broke out of prison, causing the manhunt that led to him getting his powers. [4] Another states that during one of his later arrests, Flint learned that his father was released from prison and broke out in order to be with him. [6]
It was during his flight from the authorities that Flint Marko was exposed the radiation that gave him his powers. Accounts of the actual cause vary. Originally, it was stated that Flint hid from the authorities at the site where a nuclear bomb was being tested. Another account states that Marko was near the site of a nuclear reactor that detonated, and yet another states that he hid in a cave where radioactive waste was being stored.[7] Whatever the case, after being exposed to radiation, his body interacted with the sand under his feet mutating Marko in such a way that he could turn his body into sand and manipulate each grain to shape any form he desired. [1][4][6][8] Flint has stated that it was after his powers he caught Vic and Marcy together and unleashed his powers on them in a fury before fleeing, but he left them alive. [6]
Spider-Man
While on the run in New York City, Flint, now calling himself the Sandman, began a crime spree and crossed paths with the novice hero Spider-Man. Spider-Man battled the Sandman but was forced to flee when his mask ripped open in order to protect his secret identity. Later the Sandman decided to hide out from the law at Midtown High School. There he decided to try and force the principal to give him a high school diploma, but he refused. Baker's big mistake was choosing the high school that Spider-Man attended in his alter ego of Peter Parker. Spotting the villain, Peter slipped away and battled him as Spider-Man. Ultimately the Sandman was defeated when Spider-Man sucked up his sand form in a vacuum cleaner and left him for the authorities. [1] Sandman has later stated that he had intentionally allowed Spider-Man to "defeat" him as he had learned that his father was once again incarcerated. Back in prison, Flint broke himself and his father out. They then fled to Coney Island where they had the bad luck of running into Spider-Man again. This time the Sandman was outdone by nature when it started to rain. Losing his cohesion, the Sandman was felled by a bolt of lightning and was forced to flee the scene. His father regarded the Sandman as nothing more than a "good for nothing bum" and fled the scene. [6]
Villain
Early Exploits
Apparently the Sandman either previously or later began dating one of the teacher at Midtown High, and returned again to try and get her to come with him while he was on the run from the law. Peter Parker once again slipped out of class to become Spider-Man and battled Marko once again. This time around Marko was defeated when Spider-Man turned on the fire sprinklers then fused him into a solid sand form with the electrical power from a Stark Industries energy generator that was being demonstrated for a science class. Flint was then taken into police custody once more. [8] Later, the Sandman was pulled forward in time with a number of other super-villains by the Orrgo who was under the command of the Headmen. The Sandman and the others villains then clashed with the Defenders before being returned to their proper eras, apparently with no memory of the events as they were under Orrgo's control. [9] The Sandman escaped from prison and the Fantastic Four were asked to help bring him in. With most of the team busy, their youngest member the Human Torch was dispatched to locate the villain. The Torch confronted the Sandman on the George Washington Bridge, but he managed to escape. Unable to locate Spider-Man, the Torch briefly posed as the hero in order to draw the Sandman out of hiding. Battling it out in a department store, the fire sprinklers affected the Sandman's powers, forcing him to retain human form in order to prevent washing away. Although the Torch could not flame on, he was able to waylay the Sandman with a single punch and turn him over to the authorities. [10]
The Sandman dried out while being brought to the police station and managed to escape by resuming his sand form. He then continued his crime spree only to be confronted by Spider-Man again. When trying to convince Spider-Man to leave him alone failed, the Sandman easily trounced the over confident hero and continued his business. He was pursued by the authorities and even the Avengers but still managed to evade capture. Spider-Man later caught up with the Sandman and as the two battled it out, the wall-crawler defeated him by pushing him through a wind turbine that spread his sand particles all over the city. [11]
The Sandman later joined Spider-Man foes Doctor Octopus, the Vulture, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio, and Electro in forming the Sinister Six in order to get revenge against the wall-crawler. To this end they kidnapped Daily Bugle employee Betty Brant and Peter Parker's Aunt May and held them hostage. Each of the Sinister Six then fought Spider-Man one-on-one, and if defeated would give a clue that would bring Spider-Man closer to the hostages. The Sandman was Spider-Man's fourth foe, battling the hero in an air-tight room. The Sandman did not reckon that Spider-Man could hold his breath longer, and passed out from lack of air. Spider-Man then advanced on and ultimately saved Betty and Aunt May from Doctor Octopus. The members of the Sinister Six were then incarcerated by the authorities. [12]
During a period in which Spider-Man was being branded as a coward, the Sandman went on yet another criminal rampage. When he happened to cross paths with his old foe, attacked the wall-crawler, only to be surprised when Spider-Man fled the scene.[13] When the Human Torch began hunting the Sandman, the villain employed the Enforcers to help him capture the youthful member of the Fantastic Four. By this point, Spider-Man had gotten over his apparent "cowardice" and tracked down the Sandman and the Enforcers. Freeing the Human Torch, the two heroes easily defeated the Enforcers and send the Sandman fleeing. Flint was quickly apprehended by the authorities as he was too tired from fighting Spider-Man and the Torch to use his sand shifting powers. [14]
Escaping captivity once again, the Sandman attempted another bank robbery only to be stopped by Spider-Man and Captain America. As Flint was being incarcerated the Enclave of Rogue Scholars, time travelers from the future of Earth-TRN515 appeared seeking to destroy him, warning both heroes that the Sandman was destined to murder one third of everyone on Earth. Unwilling to allow the Enclave to commit murder, Spider-Man and Captain America fought to save Marko's life. During the course of the battle, Flint was struck by an evolutionary bolt from the Enclave's Kafka, causing the very crisis they had come to prevent. Spider-Man convinced the Enclave's Tesla to use his powers to overload the Sandman's inhibitor collar causing their foe to revert back to his original state. with the threat over the Enclave returned to their own time and the Sandman was taken back into custody. [15]
Frightful Four
The original Frightful Four (from left to right): Madame Medusa, the Wizard, Paste-Pot Pete, and the Sandman. [16]
The genesis of the Frightful Four began with three villains who commonly battled the Fantastic Four's youngest member the Human Torch. The Wizard), the Sandman and Paste-Pot Pete were all defeated at the hands of the Torch.[17] During his last clash with the Human Torch, the Wizard was sent floating uncontrollably into the upper atmosphere when one of his anti-gravity disks failed to work. [18] This coincided with a break out by the Sandman and Paste-Pot Pete who had hijacked a plane to escape. While flying through the air, they spotted the Wizard during his ascent and rescued him suffocation in the upper atmosphere. Realizing that they all had unique powers and a mutual hatred of the Fantastic Four, the Wizard suggested that they form a group that would be the evil counterparts to the Fantastic Four.
Needing a fourth member to their group, the Wizard had heard of a strange woman hiding out on a remote island on the Mediterranean who had complete control of her hair. Travelling there, the Wizard convinced Madame Medusa to join their ranks. Her past a mystery, Medusa agreed to join them and the Frightful Four was born. [16] In order to keep Medusa under their control, the Wizard implanted a device that kept her lost memories from resurfacing. [19] Their formation came just after the Fantastic Four's Mister Fantastic and Invisible Girl had announced that they were engaged to be married. After an engagement party, the Frightful Four attacked the Fantastic Four's Baxter Building headquarters. Although they incapacitated the Thing, Mister Fantastic, and the Invisible Girl they were too late to stop the Thing's girlfriend Alicia Masters from sending out a signal flare to the Human Torch who was away from the building at the time. Although the Frightful Four used anti-gravity disks to end the Fantastic Four in the same way the Wizard almost perished, the Torch came to their rescue. Outclassed by the veteran heroes, the Frightful Four decided to retreat in the ensuing battle, setting their anti-gravity craft to self-destruct providing cover for the group to escape. [16] The Frightful Four were later pulled forward in time by Aron the Rogue Watcher to battle the future Fantastic Four and their allies Fantastic Force. When Aron's plot to destroy the universe to recreate his own reality was stopped, all were returned to their appropriate time and place with no memory of what happened. [20]
Regrouping after their first defeat, the Wizard quickly organized a new plan to destroy their mutual enemies. During this period Paste-Pot Pete reinvented himself with a new name, the Trapster, in an attempt to sound more menacing. They captured the Invisible Girl and kept her prisoner on deserted military outpost in the South Pacific. When the Fantastic Four came to rescue their teammate they fell into the evil FF's trap. While the heroes rescued Sue, the Wizard activated his q-bomb while his team fled the scene. While the Fantastic Four survived thanks to one of the Invisible Girl's invisible force-fields, the radiation from the blast stripped them of their powers. [21] The Frightful Four then returned to the Baxter Building to confirm if the Fantastic Four were dead or not. However they fled the scene when they confused the arrival of the Asgardian warrior Balder the Brave on Earth to be the Human Torch.[22] The Fantastic Four survived the assault, and eventually restored their powers.[23]
However following the restoration of their powers, the Fantastic Four's Thing was angered that he once again lost his humanity and quit the team. Slipping out of town on the back of a truck, the Thing fell asleep as the vehicle crossed over into New Jersey and a bumpy road threw him from the flat bed. The sleeping Thing was discovered by the Frightful Four who quickly kidnapped their sleeping enemy. By this time the Wizard had developed an ID machine and used it to change the Thing's personality so that he was evil. Although the Frightful Four bickered and fought among themselves, the group were able to defeat the remaining members of the Fantastic Four came to rescue their friend, they were easily captured with the aid of the Thing. The Wizard then reminded the Thing that Mister Fantastic was responsible for his transformation, sending the Thing into a frenzy. [25] When the Fantastic Four attempted to break free another fight broke out. While Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Girl managed to escape, the Human Torch was captured and apparently enthralled by the ID machine as well. [24] In reality the ID machine was damaged by the Invisible Girl and the Torch was only pretending to be under the Wizard's thrall, allowing his teammates to capture the Thing and escape. Mister Fantastic then created a device to restore the Thing back to normal. When the Frightful Four finally saw through the Torch's trick and attacked the Baxter Building, the Thing had full recovered and turned the tide of battle. While the male members of the group were apprehended, Medusa managed to escape in their anti-gravity ship. [26] The Sandman was also involved in a new grouping of the Frightful Four that included the Beetle, although he was defeated by the Fantastic Four again, his activities during this period are unrecorded. [27]
Dirty Sandman
Escaping prison once again the Sandman decided to try and make a name for himself by aligning himself with the Sang Du Mort Brotherhood, attacking the U.N. Building on their behalf. His attack was thwarted by Spider-Man, who irresponsibly tossed a newly made chemical compound on the villain. It initially immobilized the Sandman, but as a side effect it caused dust, dirt, and garbage to be attracted to the Sandman, increasing his mass and affecting his mind. [5] Marko broke out of prison once again and went on another rampage to draw Spider-Man out in the hopes the wall-crawler would cure him. Uninterested in doing so, Spider-Man merely incapacitated the Sandman again while they were battling in a warehouse by smothering his foe in fire extinguishing foam. [28] The Sandman then continued to wander the streets of New York City, his condition continuing to deteriorate. Spider-Man eventually decided to take responsibility for his actions and cured the Sandman of his condition. In thanks, the Sandman throttled the hero and fled the scene. [29]
Upgrade
Back in prison the Sandman and the Wizard attempted a break out. Although the Fantastic Four interfered with the attempt the Sandman managed to escape. He later attacked the FF at their headquarters, and when he was locked in one of Mister Fantastic's labs he stole a bunch of equipment and then escaped. [31] Utilizing the technical training imparted to him by the Wizard the Sandman used the stolen technology to construct a suit of armor that could infuse his sand form with chemicals and other mixtures to enhance his powers. He then attacked the Fantastic Four again. The group was unprepared for the Sandman's new enhancements. In a ditch effort to defeat their foe, Mister Fantastic opened his portal to the Negative Zone to try and suck the Sandman in. Marko managed to escape by jumping out a window while Reed was a victim of his own trap. [30] When the Fantastic Four later rescued Reed from the Negative Zone they unknowingly allowed Blastaar the Living Bomb-burst into their dimension. When Blastaar left the Baxter Building bent on conquering the this dimension he crossed paths with the Sandman who convinced the invader that they should pool their resources and defeat the Fantastic Four together. [32] The pair rampaged in the streets of New York, but were opposed by the Fantastic Four and their Inhuman allies Triton and Crystal. During the course of the battle Sandman attempted to escape by rolling off a pier into New York Harbor, and his sand form dissipated in the water. Blastaar was then defeated by the Fantastic Four who sent him back into the Negative Zone, [33] he later reformed on a beach not far away. [34] The Sandman quickly rejoined his comrades in the Frightful Four who had since relocated to Europe. The Frightful Four made an attempt to force Medusa to rejoin their ranks upon learning that her lover -- Black Bolt, ruler of the Inhumans -- was incapable of speech without destroying anything in his path. The Wizard at this point had converted his ID machine into a ray gun in the hopes of making it a more practical weapon. The evil FF convinced Medusa that Quadranium-99 could cure Black Bolt. In exchange for the material, Medusa promised to rejoin their ranks. This plan ultimately failed when Medusa figured out that the Wizard was fooling her and that the Quadranium was going to be used to power his new ID ray. Medusa then fled from their ship with the Quadranium and returned it to the United Nations facility in France where it had been stolen from. [35]
The Hulk
Back on his own again, the Sandman learned that the Air Force was testing out a new space-warp ship and sought to obtain it for himself, hoping to use it to free his ally Blastaar from the Negative Zone. En route to the military base where it was stored, the Sandman crossed paths with the Hulk. He convinced the Hulk to attack the army base and while General Ross and his forces were busy fighting the Hulk, Marko attempted to steal the ship. The Hulk soon turned on the Sandman when the life of Betty Ross was threatened. During their battle the Hulk clapped his hands causing enough force to send the Sandman's form scattered across the area. [34] The Sandman was located and approached by the Mandarin who sought to get revenge against the Hulk for a past defeat. The pair agreed to work together and captured both the Hulk and Betty. When the Hulk saw that Betty was their prisoner he broke free from their trap. In the ensuing battle the Sandman was knocked into pressurized vat while the Mandarin fled. The pressure inside the vat transformed the Sandman into a being made of brittle glass. Since his foe was now incredibly fragile the Hulk allowed him to leave with his life. [36]
Cured
When all the members of the Frightful Four were free from prison they regrouped and began plotting against the Fantastic Four again. The Wizard used his scientific skill to cure the Sandman of his condition. [37] Rejoining them was Medusa who, unknown to the Wizard and the others, had since recovered her memory and was now an ally of the Fantastic Four. By this point Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Girl had a son, named Franklin, and were seeking a babysitter to care for the boy whenever they were on a mission. When they agreed to visit the witch known as Agatha Harkness at her home in Whisper Hill, the Fantastic Four were attacked by their evil counterparts. It was during this battle that Medusa revealed her true allegiances and turned on the Frightful Four. The Frightful Four proved no match for Harkness, who was a powerful mystic, and easily trounced the remaining members of the Frightful Four, securing her job as Franklin's caretaker.[38]
Without Medusa, the Frightful Four once again attempted to recruit a fourth member into their group. At the recommendation of the Sandman they attacked the Baxter Building to access their portal to the Negative Zone to free his onetime ally Blastaar. While the other members of the Fantastic Four were already in the Negative Zone trying to stop Doctor Doom from acquiring the Cosmic Control Rod belonging to Negative Zone leader Annihilus, the Frightful Four attacked. They easily incapacitated the Invisible Girl and pulled Blastaar from the Negative Zone. They did not anticipate that the young boy named Rick Jones was present and were unprepared when he clashed his Nega-Bands together summoning his ally Captain Marvel to Earth. Despite this surprise attack the Frightful Four succeeded in defeating Captain Marvel.[40] However the addition of Blastaar proved to be short lived as an insult towards the Negative Zone angered Blastaar sufficiently that he attacked his comrades. During the ensuing battle, the rest of the Fantastic Four returned home and defended it from the invaders. While Blastaar was knocked back into the Negative Zone, the rest of the Frightful Four were easily defeated and turned over to the authorities. [39]
The Wizard's cure proved only to be temporary and the Sandman found that his body was slowly changing back into glass. Desperate for a permanent solution the Sandman learned that Doctor Marquand had perfected a method of total blood transfusion. Seeking out the doctor the Sandman forced him to perform the treatment on him. As fate would have it, the only patient with the same blood-type as the Sandman was Betty Ross, who was in admittance to the hospital after a mental breakdown. The night that the transfusion was done was also the same evening the Hulk's alter-ego Bruce Banner had managed to track Betty down. Sure enough, moments after the transfusion was complete, the Hulk found the Sandman and the two battled it out. They were both captured by General Ross in a cage specially made for the Hulk. However it could not withstand the strength of both combatants and Ross was forced to dump them in the ocean, lest they get loose in a populated area. The Sandman was defeated by another one of the Hulk's powerful claps, that sent his sand form spread across the ocean. Despite this defeat, the Sandman was ultimately cured of his condition. [37] Reforming in New York City, Sandman crossed paths with Spider-Man and battled the hero until he realized that it was Christmas Eve and fled the scene. He was pursued to New Jersey by Spider-Man and the Human Torch. However when the heroes realized that he was going to spend the holidays with his mother -- who was apparently no longer aware that he was a criminal -- they decided to leave him alone for the time being. [41]
Thundra
The Frightful Four reunited once again and attempted to manipulate the Negative Zone once again. To this end they captured Spider-Man and hypnotized him into joining their ranks. They used Spider-Man to infiltrate the Baxter Building when only the Human Torch was home. The Torch was easily subdued allowing the Wizard to gain access to the Negative Zone portal. This plan backfired when Annihilus attempted to use this intrusion to free himself from the Zone and onto Earth. Ultimately the Torch freed Spider-Man from the Frightful Four's control and the pair subdued their foes. Spider-Man then used his scientific know-how to deactivate the Negative Zone portal before leaving the Frightful Four with the Torch to turn over to the authorities. [42]
The Frightful Four soon obtained their first new recurring member, Thundra, a Femazon of the alternate future of Earth-715. The Wizard had promised her the opportunity to battle the most powerful man on Earth in exchange for helping them destroy the Fantastic Four. The quartet attack the Thing at a construction site. Although their attack was interrupted by Medusa, who had come to the Thing's aid, Thundra provided them with the upper hand and both the Thing and Medusa were subdued. [44] Thundra's membership was not without its own troubles as she did not wish to allow the Frightful Four to eliminate the Thing as she viewed men as inferiors. While the evil FF conceded on that point for now, they attacked the Baxter Building, subduing both the Thing and Mister Fantastic. When they discovered the Invisible Girl with her son Franklin, Thundra refused to allow any harm come to the child and fought back against her opponents. Ultimately the Fantastic Four broke free and fought their evil counterparts into retreat once again. In the aftermath of the battle the Invisible Girl left the group over differences with Mister Fantastic, taking their child with her, Medusa then took her place on the team.[43]
However Thundra was not finished with the Thing, seeking to utterly crush him once and for all she challenged him to a one-on-one fight to the finish. In order to force the Thing to agree to the battle, Thundra captured his girlfriend Alicia Masters and left her in the hands of the Frightful Four through the duration of the battle. While the battle took place at Shea Stadium, the Thing was briefly transformed back into human form by Mister Fantastic so that Thundra would forfeit the battle and flee. Meanwhile, the Human Torch rescued Alicia, forcing the Frightful Four to once again flee the scene. [45] The Frightful Four later broke into the Baxter Building waiting to ambush the Fantastic Four after they seemingly lost the Invisible Girl to their sometimes foe the Sub-Mariner. Although the Frightful Four had the upper hand, Thundra's continued differences with the group -- particularly their constant sexism toward her -- prompted her to turn on them. Thundra then helped free the Fantastic Four and defeat her former comrades. The Wizard, Trapster and Sandman were then contained at the Baxter Building before the Fantastic Four went on to battle the Sub-Mariner who appeared to be calling for another invasion of the surface world. [46] As it turned out this was merely a mock battle that was staged so that Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Girl could reconcile their marriage after a lengthy separation. [47]
More Failures
The Sandman, discarding his enhanced armor, was later hired by the new Crime-Master who sought to get revenge against Spider-Man for his involvement in the death of his predecessor. The pair ended up in forcing their way into a similar scheme by the new Big Man and the Enforcers who sought to get revenge against Spider-Man. When the Big Man captured the Human Torch to lure Spider-Man into a trap, Crime-Master and Sandman appeared to eliminate the wall-crawler themselves.[48] The ensuing brawl was interrupted by the kung fu masters known as the Sons of the Tiger after hearing the battle from their dojo next door. Outnumbered the villains all fled. Sandman, the Enforcers, and Crime-Master later regrouped and attacked the Sons at their headquarters. They were interrupted by Spider-Man who came to their aid. In the ensuing battle the Sandman was knocked out by the Sons of the Tiger. Meanwhile, the Crime-Master fatally shot the Big Man, and realized too late that it was his girlfriend Janice Foswell -- daughter of the original Big Man -- the heroes were shocked to learn that the Crime-Master was the son of the original and through a cruel twist of fate both decided to take up the identities of their parents in an attempt to get revenge from Spider-Man. [49] Breaking out of prison again, the Sandman was recruited by the Kingpin who recovered Sandman's enhanced armor. The Sandman was then hired to steal a cryogenic converter and was once again opposed by Spider-Man. During the ensuing brawl, the Sandman became victim of the very device he was hired to steal and was frozen solid and left for the authorities.[50]
After escaping captivity again, the three founding members of the Frightful Four reformed, and during an extended absence of their foes put out a classified ad seeking a new fourth member, telling all applicants to meet at the Baxter Building. The Fantastic Four and their ally the Impossible Man soon learned of this and rushed to their headquarters to confront the Frightful Four. [52] While the Impossible Man was distracted by a television, the Fantastic Four were quickly defeated and incapacitated. The Frightful Four then began screening potential members. They rejected the powerless Osprey, and the heroic Texas Twister before Thundra came crashing in on them. Thundra warned her former teammates that the Fantastic Four were off limits, but she was quickly subdued and made a prisoner along side her new allies. The Wizard and the others then rejected the pyrophobic Captain Ultra, before they were attacked by Tigra who briefly freed the Fantastic Four. This escape attempt was then quashed by the most promising recruit to potentially join up with the Frightful Four: the Brute, Reed Richard's double on the distant world of Counter-Earth. The Brute helped defeat the Fantastic Four and their allies, securing himself as a member of the group. [51] The Frightful Four then attempted to hold their heroic counterparts hostage for a massive ransom. When the governments of the United States refused to pay the ransom the Wizard decided that it was time to finally kill his hated foes. However, before he could activate his device the broadcast day had ended cutting off the television transmission that kept the Impossible Man preoccupied through out the entire battle. Seeking to boost the signal, the Impossible Man attempted to boost the signal causing a power surge powerful enough to temporarily cut the power in the Baxter Building to allow the Fantastic Four and their allies to break free. The Frightful Four were easily trounced by the good FF, Thundra, and Tigra. The Wizard, Trapster and Sandman were captured once again, while the Brute was seemingly lost in the Negative Zone.[53] The Frightful Four later broke out of prison together, although they went their separate ways at that time. [54]
With all his past failures filling him with doubt, the Sandman attempted to rob a bank only to be thwarted by the novice heroes Crime-Buster and Nova. The Sandman was delivered a humiliating defeat when he was locked in the very bank vault he intended to rob, but managed to escape through a drain in the floor. He was confronted by Nazi war criminal Karl von Horstbadden who was posing as a psychologist who offered to help the Sandman get over his hang ups. The Sandman agreed and was exposed to a psychological device that made him a slave to Horstbadden's master the terrorist known as the Yellowclaw. The Sandman was then sent to capture Wakandan scientist Doctor T'Kora. This kidnapping attempt was interfered with by Nova, but the Sandman's new confidence allowed him to defeat the hero and take him prisoner as well. Nova was placed in a death trap while the Sandman was sent on another mission to kidnap Truman High School student Mike Burley, who unknown to all was a classmate of Nova's alter-ego Richard Ryder.[55] The Sandman attacked Mike at Truman High, but was surprised when Mike's classmates Donna-Lee Dover, Roger "Caps" Cooper, and Bernie Dillon attempted to stop the kidnapping. Nova eventually broke free and came to Mike's aid, and defeated the Sandman by dumping him in a cement mixer located at a construction site across the street from the school. Immobilized, the Sandman was turned over to the authorities once again. [56] Breaking out of prison once again, the Sandman tried to rob yet another bank. This time he was stopped by the Fantastic Four who quickly dispatched him when the Human Torch fused him into glass once again. [57]
The Frightful Four were quickly incarcerated again, but just as quickly broke free while being processed by the authorities thanks to the Wizard's ingenuity. [54] The group then began seeking out yet another member. They selected Spider-Man's longtime foe Electro. After succeeding in a test run of his powers, [59] they admitted Electro into their group. [58] Seeking to get revenge against both Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four, the new Frightful Four went to the Statue of Liberty. Electro then used one of the Wizard's devices that imitated the Human Torch's powers in order to trick Spider-Man into meeting them there. Expecting the Human Torch, Spider-Man was instead ambushed and overpowered by the Frightful Four who easily defeated the wall-crawler.[60] The Tapster then disguised himself as Spider-Man in order to infiltrate the Baxter Building where he easily subdued the Human Torch and the Thing before disabling the security systems. The Frightful Four then made an attack on Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Girl, but the real Spider-Man managed to break free and join the fray. With the regrouped Fantastic Four, the evil Frightful Four were easily defeated and once again turned over to the authorities. [61]
The Sandman was late imprisoned at Ryker's Island shortly after it got upgraded by Stark Industries. When Doctor Octopus staged a break out he freed the Sandman, Electro, and the Grey Gargoyle to help him escape. While Octopus managed to escape, Sandman and the others were defeated by Iron Man. [62] He was later broken out by Baron Brimston who wished to employ the Sandman's talents in getting revenge against his foe Machine Man. To this end they kidnapped Machine Man's love interest Pamela Quinn from the offices of the Delmar Insurance Company. This attempt was interrupted by both Machine Man and Spider-Man but the two villains succeeded in kidnapping the Quinn woman by teleporting away. However, Spider-Man managed to tag Sandman with a Spider-Tracer which allowed the two heroes to follow their opponents back to Baron Brimstone's estate. Although Baron Brimstone managed to escape, the Sandman was incapacitated by Machine Man and put back into police custody. [63]
The Wizard was later broken out of Ryker's Island prison by the Sub-Mariner's foe Llyra. Llyra required the Wizard to defeat her old foe and he agreed to assist her provided that she help him destroy his old foe Spider-Man which would have Llyra posing as a new tenant that Peter Parker would find attractive. Tracking the wall-crawler with a special device to his civilian home Llyra and the Wizard attempted to trap him by setting the apartment building ablaze. [65] Spider-Man managed to save his fellow tenants, foiling the Wizard's plans. Llyra had the Wizard break out his fellow Frightful Four members, Sandman and the Trapster to help in her plot to get revenge against the Sub-Mariner. Llyra's activities got the attention of her prey who came to New York. The Sub-Mariner detected Llyra's presence and attacked the hotel where Peter Parker and his fellow tenants were put up for the night. This led to a battle between Sub-Mariner, Spider-Man and the Frightful Four. The villains then blasted the two heroes with a weapon provided by Llyra. The device succeeded in transferring Spider-Man's spider-sense to the Sub-Mariner. Despite this handicap, the two heroes defeated the Frightful Four. While the Wizard and his cohorts were turned over to the authorities, Namor took Llyra into his possession to answer for her crimes in Atlantis. [64]
Reformed
Scared Straight
While on the lamb again, the Sandman stopped into Duffy's Bar where he started romancing a local floozy named Sadie Frickett. Sadie was immediately attracted to the Sandman, but the crook found competition from the similarly powered criminal known as Hydro-Man. The two competed for Sadie's affections, fighting in the bar and later stealing expensive items. The two later came to blows in her apartment when their mutual foe Spider-Man came crashing in on them.
Their fight took them to the New York docks where both the Sandman and Hydro-Man were knocked into the river. A combination of the raging storm, and polluted water caused both Hydro-Man and Sandman to merge into a massive creature later dubbed the "Mud-Thing". [67] The nearly brainless creature fought off Spider-Man and crashed into the home of Sadie Frickett. She quickly realized that the creature meant no harm as it had the combined feelings that both Hydro-Man and Sandman felt for her and she managed to convince the authorities to stand down.
With assistance from the law office of Nelson and Murdock, Sadie was able to get the Mud-Thing cleared of any wrong doing committed by its composite parts. She was then approached by showbiz agent Travis Rave who sought to exploit the Mud-Thing for personal gain. Part of this plan involved romancing Sadie in the hopes of manipulating her into following his schemes. On the big night the Mud-Thing was revealed to the public, the creature saw Sadie and Travis kissing and went into a rampage. Spider-Man arrived on the scene to try and quell the beast, but it was only stopped when the authorities doused it with a gas that caused the Mud-Thing to dry out and crumble into dust. The pieces of the Mud-Thing were then gathered up by the NYPD to be examined by their scientists. [66]
NYPD scientists tried all sorts of chemical and radiation based treatments to try to separate the Sandman and Hydro-Man but they eventually gave up. The remains were then put into a container and dumped in a landfill. However the last radiation treatment had a delayed effect that successfully separated the two villains. Finally free, both the Sandman and Hydro-Man were deeply disturbed and felt violated by their experience and parted ways. The Sandman was deeply troubled and went to a bar to drink his sorrows. His presence was alerted to the Thing of the Fantastic Four. When the Thing realized that the Sandman was not looking for a fight, the pair sat down and had a drink.
After telling the Thing a version of his past, the Sandman expressed a desire to go straight. Not having the heart to bring the Sandman in, the Thing left him alone hoping that the villain would make the best of his second chance. [4] Later when the Thing was hospitalized, an army of super-villains attempted to attack him at his weakest moment. These attacks were held off by various super-heroes who came to protect their mutual friend.
While the opposing factions were busy fighting outside, the Sandman paid a visit to the Thing, bringing him beer and cigars to pass the time. [68] Still haunted by his past as a super-villain, Sandman assumed the alias of Sylvester Mann and eventually managed to get a steady job at a warehouse and rented out an attic room from Roberto and Rosa Cassada and their family in Brookyln. The Sandman eventually learned that the Kingpin's minion the Arranger had hired the Enforcers to start a protection racket in Brookyln and was hassling Roberto at his candy shop.
Tracking the Enforcers to their hideout, he found that they had captured his old foe Spider-Man and were giving him a beating. Putting his past differences over the wall-crawler aside, the Sandman came to his rescue and they both defeated the Enforcers. Spider-Man tried to convince the Sandman to turn himself over to the authorities, but Flint refused to do so. Spider-Man then decided to let the Sandman go his own way when the former villain used his body to shield the wall-crawler from a grenade tossed by the Arranger. [69]
The Sandman later reconnected with his former Sinister Six allies Electro and the Vulture for a drink. The trio had a good laugh when novice villains Doctor Sax and Johnny Guitar tried to drink with them. [70] The Sandman and an army of super-villains were later drawn to Earth-1219 by Clyde Wyncham, a mentally deficient mutant and that world's only super human, and where the daily lives of those native to the Sandman home reality Earth-616 where chronicled in comic books and considered works of fiction. Wyncham was upset that his old comic book collection was being sold after his family home was put up for sale and so he used his vast powers to bring the villains to his reality and attack the towns people. [71] Likely against his own will, the Sandman was sent to the home of Edgar and Delores Bowman, where he murdered Delores and sent Edgar fleeing from his home only to be killed by Electro. [72] The Sandman later regrouped at the old Wyncham home with other super-villains who were using it as their home base. [73]
Eventually, avid comic book reader Toby Goodman, managed to get the heroes from the Sandman's native reality to stop the villains in his own and end the crisis there. During the final battle the Sandman was defeated by Spider-Man and taken into custody. [71] Either escaping or being allowed to resume his new life, the Sandman began working along the docks. There he witnessed Spider-Man battling arms smugglers and remarked over his new costume, but had to lay low when the authorities arrived. Allowed to continue working later, he spotted Spider-Man when he returned. Unaware that Spider-Man's costume was really a living organism, and that it had taken control of Spider-Man at the time, the Sandman was surprised when the wall-crawler attacked him. Sandman was no match for the shape-changing costume and was easily defeated in battle. [74] Flint soon discovered that the accident that granted him his powers also gave him terminal cancer. He sought an experimental treatment involving radiation at the East Coast Medical Center, he stormed the facility.
When the scientists refused to test out their experiments on a human being, Marko took control of the facility and began exposing himself to various doses of radiation. The Avengers were later called in when the facility's nuclear reactor was about to melt down. They sent their teammate Wonder Man to contain the situation. The Sandman was beat to a stand still and Wonder Man prevented the meltdown from happening. Taken into custody the scientists were surprised to find that the random doses of radiation cured the Sandman of the cancer ravaging his system.[75]
Silver Sable
While out for a walk past Coney Island, the Sandman spotted a battle raging between Spider-Man, the international mercenary known as Silver Sable and the Sinister Syndicate. [2] Despite his misgivings about Spider-Man, Marko helped defeat the Sinister Syndicate who fled the scene. Impressed by the work that the Sandman had done, Silver Sable offered him a job working for her organization.[76][77] The Sandman was later hired to accompany Silver Sable in liberating the monarch of Belgriun, who was removed from the throne by a resistance army led by the Sinister Syndicate.
They also gained the assistance of Spider-Man, dispelling his reservations of restoring the brutal monarch by pointing out that he had a young daughter who might have been killed. [78] The plan went sideways when Spider-Man managed to get captured, forcing Sandman and Silver Sable to blow their cover. Despite this set back, the trio stopped the Syndicate and prevented their employer, Doctor Octopus, from stealing the royal treasury as well. [79]
When it was learned that the communist Red Skull had stolen a nuclear detonator and was hiding out in the nation of Algeria, Silver Sable sent the Sandman to recover it. When he was captured, she sent the heroes Hawkeye and la Peregrine to rescue him. The pair stormed the Red Skull's fortress and liberated the Sandman, but were forced to destroy the nuclear device in order to save their own lives.
Despite this setback, they were able to capture the Red Skull and turn him over to the authorities. [80] The Sandman and Silver Sable brought Hawkeye to the Orly International Airport in Paris to see him on his way. Their arrival coincided with an attempted hostage taking by the Bartovian Liberation Front terrorist organization. The trio caught the terrorists off guard and rounded them up for the authorities. [81] Back in the United States, the Sandman was hired by Silver Sable for yet another job, [82] this time to hunt down and apprehend a Neo-Nazi named Franz Kraus.
Sable also hired Spider-Man to assist with the job, and the trio tracked Kraus to a warehouse in New York where Kraus was gathering drugs to sell in order to fund their take over a South American island and set up a new Nazi nation. When Spider-Man accidentally blew their element of surprise, Sable and Sandman rushed in and took down Kraus and his army of Neo-Nazis. [83] When Silver Sable learned that Madame Menace and Doctor Octopus were involved in an arms deal, she sent the Sandman to capture Madame Menace. The Sandman called in Hawkeye for an assist although the famed archer was upset by the fact that the Sandman was only seeking to capture Menace. As a result of their differences, the villains were tipped off to their presence and managed to escape capture, although the pair foiled the arms deal. [84]
When Spider-Man was hired by Silver Sable to rob the home of millionaire Winston Walker, it was in order to trick him into revealing the location of the financial records that connected him to the Maggia. However when photos of Spider-Man's robbery were published in the Daily Bugle, his sometimes allies the Prowler, the Puma, the Rocket Racer and Will O' the Wisp all went looking for Spider-Man to determine if the reports were true. This led them to Ellis Island where the reports appeared to be true. The gathered super-humans attacked Spider-Man and Silver Sable, but the Sandman was present to defend them.
Eventually, Spider-Man stopped his attackers long enough to explain the situation. In the aftermath of the battle, Silver Sable offered the Prowler, Rocket Racer, Will O' the Wisp, and Puma the opportunity to work with her in the future. [85] The nation of Bosqueverde later hired Silver Sable to hunt down former mercenary Marc Spector for the murder of Ricardo Dominguez, the former president of the country. She hired Sandman and Palandin to work with her Wild Pack soldiers to capture Spector.
Initially Spector fled from them, but eventually surrendered. [86] However Spector eventually cleared his name. [87]
Sinister Six
Not long after this, the Wizard and the Trapster reunited and sought to bring the Sandman back into the fold. [88] When they found the Sandman they offered him to rejoin them, but the Sandman was making an effort to reform at the time. When he refused the Wizard threatened to inform the authorities of his location, as the Sandman was still wanted at the time, but the Sandman warned the Wizard that the biggest mistake he could make was being in the same prison as him if that happened. The Wizard then conceded, allowing the Sandman to go his own way. [89]
The Sandman was not so lucky when Doctor Octopus sought to reform his Sinister Six. When he approached the Sandman, Octopus threatened to harm the Cassada family if he did not agree to work with him. [90] Eventually, Doctor Octopus gathered Electro, Mysterio, the Vulture, and the Hobgoblin. Octavius then explained that he intended to take control of a satellite that was being used by Empire State University to spread a gas across the Earth that would allow them to study ley lines in the hopes of harnessing them for future energy needs. Octavius planned on taking control of the satellite and loading it with a poison which could wipe out the Earth if his demands were not made. Part of this plot involved the use of an experimental submarine, and so Doctor Octopus sent the Sandman and Vulture to recover it.
Although they faced interference from Spider-Man, they succeeded in stealing the sub from a Roxxon facility. [91] On launch day the Sinister Six attacked the facility in order to enact their plan but were once again opposed by Spider-Man. Having finally had enough, the Sandman turned on the Sinister Six, but he was quickly incapacitated when Doctor Octopus used a device to turn him into glass again. [92] Spider-Man eventually defeated the Sinister Six, but was forced to let Doctor Octopus escape in order to recover the device needed to restore the Sandman back to normal. In the aftermath of the battle, Spider-Man convince the arriving authorities that the Sandman was actually assisting him in stopping the villains in order to protect him from being arrested. [93]
Outlaw and Avenger
The Sandman found himself working with Spider-Man, Prowler, Puma, and the Rocket Racer when the wall-crawler was manipulated by the Young God known as Calculus and the Space Phantom into releasing a cannibalistic swarm from the demolition site of an old tenement building owned by the Kingpin. Part of this scheme involved pitting these Outlaws against the Avengers to ensure victory. The Space Phantom posed as both Spider-Man and She-Hulk in order to escalate tensions, and later briefly possessed the Sandman when he and Rocket Racer went to the hall of records for information on the tenement.
Although the Space Phantom released his hold on the Sandman, the Outlaws welcomed him back in their ranks as Spider-Man decided it was best to work with the Avengers.[94] When the Outlaws and the Avengers met at the ruins of Avengers Mansion the Space Phantom manipulated another battle, but his presence was ferried out by the Puma. The two teams then worked together to uncover the mystery of the killer swarm and destroy it.
The Sandman later parted on good terms with the gathered super-heroes. [95] Sandman was later hired along with the Prowler, Rocket Racer and Paladin to join Silver Sable on a mission to recover a stolen nuclear simulator that was stolen by Professor Walshe of the Darkmoor Research Center in England. This led to a clash with England's mutant team known as Excalibur.
Walshe was later revealed to be a construct of Nazi geneticist Arnim Zola. When Sable and her allies incapacitated the Zola construct they accidentally released his irradiated clones and their guardian, a creature known as the Sheppard. The two teams pooled their resources to destroy the creatures. With the threat over, Sable was allowed to recover the stolen technology. [96]
He also surprised the gathered press by also selecting the Sandman and novice hero Rage as probationary Avengers. The announcement was soured when the deities known as the Tetrarchs of Entropy appeared and absconded with the primary team to another dimension, leaving the reserves and Sandman and Rage behind. [97] While the reserve members dealt with the crisis at hand, Sandman and Rage got to know each other and complete their background checks with the Avengers. [98] Ultimately the primary team managed to free themselves and return to their home dimension. [99] Sandman and Rage then underwent rigorous training under Captain America. [100] When the new Avengers Compound was officially opened, the Avengers threw a party for UN officials and members of the super-hero community.
However the festivities were marred when Dr. Doom infiltrated the facility with his Doombots. Sandman, the Vision and Captain America battled two of these Doombots in the sub-sub-basement of the facility, while supposedly the true Dr. Doom revealed himself to the party attendees on the main floor. [101] Doom threatened to destroy Avengers Compound if the team refused to use their dimensional traveling abilities to help him rescue his mother from another dimension. However his plan fell apart when Sandman, Vision and Cap destroyed the Doombots in the basement. Then the rest of the team discovered the "Doom" in their presence was also a Doombot as well and disabled him, foiling Doom's plot. [102]
Seeing the trio as the lesser of two evils the Avengers agreed to fight. The Sandman was among the Avengers who were captured during the initial strike against Brutus and his forces. [104] They were later liberated by the West Coast Avengers and they defeated Brutus and his forces. When Grotesk attempted to slaughter everyone on the surface with an oscillatron created by Brutus, the combined Avengers teams stopped him as well. [105] The fame that being a reserve Avengers brought soon paid its toll on the quiet life the Sandman had tried to create himself. The press swarmed the home he rented from the Casada family, prompting Rosa to ask him to leave.
Seeking to do some good, the Sandman discovered that some terrorists were attempting to hijack a shipment of radioactive material going through the Brooklyn Trainyards. Sandman then called in his fellow Avengers and stopped the attempted theft. In the aftermath, Captain America cautioned the Sandman for using Avengers resources for civil conflicts, as the organization was now under the pervue of the United Nations. Misinterpreting this advice as though he was being fired, the Sandman stormed away before Captain America could explain things further. [103]
Canadian Politics
Believing that going straight had failed him, the Sandman then took up a job working for a political zealot in Canada named Boussard. Boussard had kidnapped the daughter of his political opponent Eduard LeBon in order to force him to resign his position in the Canadian Parliament. Unknown to Boussard, Flint intended to turn on him in order to prove he was a hero. [106] Silver Sable International was hired to rescue LeBons' daughter and Silver Sable recruited Rocket Racer, the Prowler and Will O' the Wisp to help her on the mission, warning them that the Sandman was working with Boussard. [107] Sure enough when they arrived at Boussard's stronghold in central Quebec, the Sandman appeared to be defending the political zealot. [106]
When it became clear that Boussard intended on killing LeBons' daughter anyway, the Sandman dropped his cover and rescued the girl. Impressed with his work, Silver Sable gave him a full contract to work with her in the future. [108]
Sinister Six vs.
Fearing that Doctor Octopus might strike at him through the Casada family, the Sandman began watching over them. One day his worst fears came true and a bomb went off at their house. Blaming Doctor Octopus, the Sandman sought out the other members of the Sinister Six who were looking to get revenge against Octopus for betraying them previously.
In order to make sure that things did not get out of hand, the Sandman contacted Spider-Man to watch over the situation. [109] However the confrontation between the Sinister Six and Doctor Octopus exploded in violence that was complicated by the arrival of the Hulk. During the course of the battle Sandman realized that it was the Sinister Six who planted the bomb, framing Octopus, in order to secure the Sandman to their cause. When Sandman fought back, Doctor Octopus transformed him into glass again. After defeating both Spider-Man and the Hulk, Doctor Octopus convinced the rest of the Sinister Six to join him on his current attempt at world domination and they fled the scene with the inert Sandman as their prisoner. [110]
Sandman was stored at Doctor Octopus' hideout in New Jersey. After arming themselves with advanced weapons, Doctor Octopus shattered the Sandman's glass body and then led his minions on an attack of a Hydra facility. [112] Flint managed to reform his body out of the broken shards of glass and followed the Sinister Six to the Hydra hideout. when he arrived he witnessed as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Nova, the mercenary known as Solo, the cyborg Deathlok, the Ghost Rider and the Hulk battled it out with the Sinister Six. Consumed with rage, Sandman attacked Doctor Octopus, seriously wounding him with shards of glass. Flint was stopped form killing Octavius by Spider-Man who told him that he needed to do better if he wished to be a hero. With the villains defeated, Spider-Man used Doctor Octopus' weapon to restore the Sandman back to his normal form.
Wild Pack
When Silver Sable began forming an elite team within her Wild Pack, consisting of mercenaries with checkered pasts that were seeking a second chance, she and Sandman trained new recruits. During one training session she selected former KKK bodyguard Doug Powell. When Silver Sable went to deal with a Hydra hostage taking at Cranewood School for Girls in Long Island, Sandman and Powell disobeyed orders to give her back up. En route, Powell made a bet with Sandman that he could romance Silver Sable, putting a thousand dollars on the line. Sandman instigated the bet due to his growing feelings for Sable. With the help of the pair and Spider-Man, Silver Sable was able to save her cousin Ana from Dmitri Petrovich the leader of the operation. Sable was not impressed with the interference and threatened to dock them pay for disobeying her orders. [114] The ranks of the Wild Pack were increased, with former Hydra agent and sadist known as the Crippler, female assassin Amy Chen, and Quentino a former LA gang member and recovering drug addict.
The Wild Pack were later hired by crooked televangelist Reverend Donald Smithfield to protect him from assassins seeking to kill him. Sandman posted as Smithfield foiling an assassination by the mercenary known as Gattling and the Watchdogs, however they failed to capture Gattling. [113] The Wild Pack were soon joined by the super-strong Battle Star, and eventually they uncovered that the man who hired Gattling to assassinate Smithfield was his rival, George Chesterford, who sought to control the supply of drugs in the region that Smithfield controlled. While the Wild Pack took down Gattling, Chesterford was murdered by Silver Sable's ex-husband the Foreigner. [115]
While Silver Sable was away on a dinner with her ally Doctor Doom, Sandman and the Wild Pack learned of the so-called Infinity War which saw Earth's heroes fighting evil doppelgangers of themselves. When Sable failed to report in, the group decided to mobilize to see if she was all right. Left alone, Sandman was attacked and his body possessed by his own doppelganger. [116] When they arrived in Latveria, they quickly learned that Sable was fighting for her life against a Doctor Doom impostor. When the possessed Sandman attacked, the Wild Pack knocked him out and later saved Sable. While knocked out, the doppelganger and Sandman separated and the impostor apparently died.[117]
As this was happening the Magus managed to get control of the Infinity Gauntlet and used it's power to render everyone one Earth inert, including Sandman and his allies.[118] When Earth's heroes ultimately defeated the Magus, everyone on Earth was freed from his thrall.[119] The Sandman then took a vacation from the Wild Pack, [120] and agreed to meet with mercenary Agent X who offered the Sandman a job working for his own outfit the Next Wave, offering to pay him more money than Silver Sable International. His loyalties with Silver Sable wavering the Sandman told Agent X that he would consider their offer.[121]
Sandman rejoined Silver Sable and the Wild Pack on a mission with Paladin to South America to hunt down a rogue faction of Hydra called the Genesis Coalition, which consisted of escaped Nazi scientists Franz Lubischt, Ivan Trevkov as well as Sable's old foe Dmitri Petrovich. They discovered that the scientists were converting the natives into animal hybrids and smashed the operation although the Genesis Coalition members escaped. One of the transformed captives they rescued, later dubbed Man-Killer joined Sable's ranks.
During this battle, the Sandman began to doubt his contributions to the team, thinking he was only there to take orders from Sable. [123] Later, Sandman came to Silver Sable and informed her that he was quitting her organization. [124] Sandman joined Agent X and his operatives in the Next Wave and they were quickly hired by Baron Strucker's Hydra to steal a vessel stolen by the Genesis Coalition. They arrived at the same time as Silver Sable and the Wild Pack who were on a mission to destroy the Genesis Coalition's Cyberwarriors, making it an awkward situation for Sandman and his former allies. [125] Because of the Next Wave's interference, the Genesis Coalition and their Cyberwarriors managed to launch their attack on the nation of Transia and Wundagore Mountain. The Wild Pack, Next Wave and rogue Cyberwarrior Siege helped the Knights of Wundagore defend their land. Realizing that the Next Wave were sloppy and unstable, Sandman sheepishly asked to rejoin the Wild Pack and was welcomed back into their ranks. The mysterious Fin also left the Next Wave and joined up with Sables crew. [122]
When the Sandman learned that the Human Torch was being put on trial for accidentally setting Empire State University on fire, the Sandman went to watch the trial as a sign of solidarity to his friend the Thing. Silver Sable accompanied him, and the two were present when the Fearsome Four attacked the court house.[126] Sandman joined Spider-Man, Daredevil, the Fantastic Four and the Avengers in defending the Torch from the Foursome, who fled the scene. [127] Sandman later returned to active duty with the Wild Pack, preventing the Viper from committing acts of anarchy across the United States.
Sandman led the Fin, Man-Eater, and Paladin to search for the Viper in Kentucky, but found only one of her Pit-Viper impostors there. Eventually, Silver Sable and the rest of the Wild Pack -- with some assistance from Captain America -- managed to capture the real Viper. [128] During the Infinity Crusade crisis, the Goddess caused a shift in personality of those on Earth, making them more benevolent in order for them to accept her rule.[129] Around this time, Silver Sable had formed a sub-group within the Wild Pack, the Intruders, which consisted of Sandman, Paladin, Fin, and Man-Eater.
Slightly under the influence of the Goddess Sandman and his Wild Pack comrades went to deliver food supplies to an impoverished region of Somalia. Their activities were opposed by the local mutant group known as the Bio-Genes as well as Strucker's Hydra. [130] The Bio-Genes later decided to help the Wild Pack and Intruders fight off Strucker and his forces, a feat they accomplished with the assistance of Nick Fury and his spy agency SHIELD. [131] Eventually the heroes of Earth defeated the Goddess and the natural order was restored. [132]
Sandman then joined the Wild Pack on a mission to San Francisco to capture the vigilante known as Venom, who had previously eluded the Wild Pack on a prior mission. This time with the power of Sandman, they were more of a match for Venom, but the battle took a turn when San Francisco was enveloped in a mystical black fog.[133] Sandman and the Wild Pack were then swarmed by an army of Lilith's Lilin, and grudgingly accepted Venom's help in defending themselves. In exchange for assisting them to safety, Silver Sable agreed to allow Venom to go free.
Eventually the demonic crisis dissipated.[134] Later when the Daily Bugle reported that Empire State University was experimenting on matter collected from his body and that of the similarly powered Quicksand, the Sandman went to investigate.
He crossed paths with Spider-Man just as the lab doing the experiment exploded causing research student Tony Trainer to mutate into Sandstorm. [135] Sandstorm went on a rampage, goaded on by Quicksand, but Spider-Man and Sandman tried to calm him down. Ultimately the two heroes managed to reverse the process changing Sandstorm back to normal while Quicksand escaped. Sandman then accompanied Tony into custody to ensure that he was treated fairly by the authorities. [136]
Sandman and the Intruders joined the Wild Pack in quelling gang violence that had exploded in Beverly Hills led by Latisha Arnold. When Arnold's gang could not fight off the Wild Pack, her employer Justin Hammer sent in his costumed operatives the Beetle, Blizzard, Blacklash, Spymaster, Boomerang, Cyclone and Afterburner to deal with the mercenaries. [137] Sandman and his allies managed to stop the villains and quell the gang violence, but not before Quentino was seriously wounded. At Quentino's behest his friend and former gang member Larry Arnold was accepted into the ranks of the Wild Pack. [138]
Once again filled with self doubt and questioning his worth, the Sandman went out for a walk when he came across an apartment fire. When he disobeyed a police officer to enter the building and save the lives of people and firemen trapped inside, he was hailed as a hero, convincing William that he had worth after all. [140] With the addition of Lightbright to their team, the Sandman led the Intruders to provide the Wild Pack back up in Bosnia. There Sandman aided his comrades in preventing the Genesis Coalition in framing Hydra for trying to invade the country, stopping both terrorist organizations.[141] The Sandman later reconnected with his old Frightful Four ally the Trapster, who claimed to be going straight. The Sandman invited him to stay at the Symkarian Embassy and petitioned Silver Sable to allow him to join the Wild Pack. However the Sandman soon discovered that the Trapster was merely using him to rebuild his equipment to commit a series of robberies to pay off his gambling debts. Deeply upset and hurt by this, the Sandman took down his former ally and turned him over to the authorities. [139] Later when Man-Eater's animalistic side took over, the Sandman joined the Wild Pack and NYPD's Code: Blue in subduing him and taking him for treatment. [142]
When Amy Chen's former assassin allies tried to pull her back into the fold, she sought to take them down her own way. She enlisted the Sandman's aid to pose as Maggia mobster Joey Capo, whom Chen "killed" in order to win the loyalty of her assassins. Later Amy took down the assassins with the aid of Silver Sable. [143] Sandman later joined Silver Sable and the Wild Pack in preventing a group of men from looting ancient Aztec temples in Mexico on behalf of the American government. The mission took a turn for the strange when the Wild Pack were seemingly transported back in time to the age of the Mayans and forced to fight to the death. Sandman came to their aid by posing as the Ahau death god, Ah Puch, scaring away the Mayans.
Escaping back through the temple which they came, the Wild Pack were transported back to their own time. Upon their return to the United States, the Wild Pack were shocked when Silver Sable was arrested for murder.[144] Sandman and the other members of the Wild Pack were ordered to wait out until Silver Sable's name was clear. Sandman took an active role trying to convince their former clients and backers to come to Sable's defense only to find they had all been stonewalled by the United States government. However Sable was soon released when her exposure of an attempt to frame her for an escape attempt forced the CIA to release her, however it was conditional on her leaving the United States. [145]
When Sable later went on a mission to stop the mobster Hammerhead from blowing up a foreign made bullet train in Japan, the Sandman became concerned about her suspicious behavior. He had the recovered Quintero hack into Silver Sable International's database and Sandman was shocked to learn that Sable was apparently pregnant. [146] Heart broken, but concerned for his employers safety, Sandman launched a rescue mission. He helped Sable retake the train, however the bombs on it were still prepped to go off. [147] Sandman helped Sable disarm the bombs, but Hammerhead managed to escape. In the aftermath of the battle the Sandman revealed how much he felt for Silver, and that he would be willing to help raise her child regardless of who the father was. The two shared a brief kiss but their romance was not meant to be, as Sable's doctor revealed that the pregnancy test was flawed and that she was not actually pregnant.
With the prospect of being a mother quashed and her struggles with killing her foes, Silver Sable then backed away from combat missions telling her employees that she was taking on a purely administrative role. It appeared that all romantic possibilities between William and Sable were quashed. [148] Later, Silver Sable had Sandman take the Intruders on a secret mission, the details of which are unrevealed. [149] However, Silver Sable eventually returned to active duty within her organization. [150]
Last Days of Heroism
Later when Doctor Octopus was murdered, the Sandman attended his funeral held for his former ally.[151] When there were rumors that Spider-Man had been replaced by a successor, Silver Sable and Sandman went to investigate. They intercepted Spider-Man as he was going to meet the Human Torch at the Statue of Liberty and a battle broke out.
In the end, both Sable and Sandman were convinced that it was a new Spider-Man, but were impressed by his abilities.[152]
However the original Spider-Man soon returned to the job, and the Sandman flew out to Greece after Spider-Man was stuck there following an adventure with Hercules. As payment for a flight back to New York City, Spider-Man was forced to accompany the Sandman from stopping the terrorist organization known as ULTIMATUM from attacking Buckingham Palace and killing the Royal Family in an attempt to disrupt financial negotiations among members of the European Union. The pair got unlikely assistance from ULTIMATUM's leader Flag-Smasher whose members went rogue. When the ULTIMATUM rogues were captured, the Sandman stopped a bomb set by Flag-Smasher to blow up Buckingham Palace.[153] After returning Spider-Man to New York, the Sandman gave him information on the Authority, the man who had sent Spider-Man on a series of missions across the globe. [154] Silver Sable sent Sandman to confirm the identity of Spider-Man after he was framed of murder and kidnapping.
When their mutual foe Hydro-Man took hostages in order to draw Spider-Man out of hiding and collect the 5 million dollar bounty on his head, Sandman arrived on the scene. While Spider-Man rescued the hostages, Sandman forced a merger with Hydro-Man, and while the pair were disorientated Silver Sable froze them in liquid nitrogen and had them carted off so Hydro-Man could be separated and incarcerated. Eventually, Spider-Man cleared his name.[155]
Returning to Symkaria, Sandman joined a new incarnation of the Wild Pack which included the Cat, Paladin, and Madcap -- who was disguising himself as Nomad at the time. Silver Sable and the Wild Pack were hired to protect Professor Wolfgang Hessler who was constructing bio-weapons to sell to the highest bidder. Silver Sable's fortress was later attacked by the Heroes for Hire who sought to capture Hessler before he could complete his work, leading to a clash between the two groups. [156] Sandman squared off against Power Man and ultimately the Wild Pack defeated the Heroes for Hire. With the attackers contained, Silver Sable allowed the Sandman to leave to the United States for Avengers business. [157]
Unchanged by the spell, the Scarlet Witch began reaching out with her powers from the dungeon she was contained. While other Avengers began to remember their original identities, the Sandman was one of those who remained under Morgan's control. [158] Eventually, Morgan le Fay was defeated thanks to the recently resurrected Wonder Man, and with le Fay's defeat, reality was restored to normal.[160] With the crisis over, the Sandman returned to working for Silver Sable Incorporated. [161]
Return to Evil
Personality Crisis
One day while leaving the Symkarian Embassy, the Sandman was knocked out by his old ally the Wizard. By this time the Wizard had built a new version of his ID machine and used it to try and bring back his evil persona. The Sandman broke free, and fought off the Wizard, warning him to stay away from him in the future. However the device had the desired effect, as the Sandman began referring to himself as Flint Marko once again. [162] The Sandman later began working with his old allies the Wizard and the Trapster. Using his connections with the Symkarian Embassy, the Sandman arranged an unauthorized job to work as a body guard for US Senator Stewart Ward. This was all part of a scheme to assassinate Ward. The Trapster blew Sandman's cover by attacking outright and the battle drew out Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four. Out numbered and his cover ruined, the Sandman and Trapster fled the scene, unaware the whole point of their mission was to make the public sympathetic to Senator Ward. [163] The Sandman then sought out Mysterio, Kraven the Hunter, Electro, and the Vulture to form the Sinister Six once again. The group once more tried to get revenge against the recently resurrected Doctor Octopus, who was also protecting Senator Ward. Their attack was interrupted by both Spider-Man and yet another one of his foes, Venom. [164] Sandman allowed Venom to join the Sinister Six, promising to allow him revenge against Spider-Man once they completed their primary objective. When they finally had Ward and Octopus cornered, Senator Ward surprised everyone when suddenly he unleashed an energy blast sending the Sinister Six fleeing.[165] The Sandman later battled Spider-Man at a construction site. This conflict was witnessed by the two young mutants named Artie and Leech. The pair distracted Sandman long enough for Spider-Man to knock him out. [166] Later, the Sandman was approached by Mach-2 of the Thunderbolts who was seeking his past knowledge in Symkaria to infiltrate the country so that they could find the mysterious V-Battalion and rescue their teammates and ally Atlas and Dallas Riordan. The Sandman accompanied the Thunderbolts to Symkaria, and helped them locate the V-Battalion's cloaked helicarrier the Vanguard. [167] During the battle between the Thunderbolts and the V-Battalion, the Sandman slipped away to Silver Sable's castle. There he attacked the Wild Pack until a united Thunderbolts/V-Battalion team came to stop him. The two teams succeeded in incapacitating the Sandman by fusing him into glass once again. [168]
Sandman later broke into the Davis Gallery to steal an alien artifact. He was caught in the act by his former employer Silver Sable and her Wild Pack. Silver gave her former employee the chance to walk away, but the Sandman refused to give up his prize. Although the Sandman learned how to use his powers in new, more deadly ways, he was outnumbered by the Wild Pack and was forced to flee the scene. [170] Shortly there after Venom began stalking the other members of the Sinister Six to get revenge for denying him the right to destroy Spider-Man. Pursued by Venom, the Sandman hid out at the Daily Bugle in the hopes that their battle would draw Spider-Man's attention. Sure enough when Spider-Man did show up the three battled it out. During the course of the fight, Venom ate a chunk of the Sandman's body. Unable to maintain a cohesive form, the Sandman fled the scene. [171] With his body slowly falling apart, the Sandman blamed Mysterio for his current condition and went on a rampage across New York to try and find him. This was also met with interference from Spider-Man. Although Sandman managed to find Mysterio, the illusionist also had Electro with him and a fight broke out. When Spider-Man caused the warehouse they were battling in to collapse, the Sandman fled outside where Spider-Man left him to be rounded up by the authorities. [169] Escaping the authorities, Sandman's condition worsened. Flint tried to consume other sources of sand, but his body rejected it. Coming apart at the seams and believing that he was about to die, Marko wrote a goodbye letter to his mother before attacking Spider-Man for what he thought would be the last time. The battle lasted too long and Sandman lost all control over his body and crumbled into the street where he was washed down a storm drain.[172]
However this was not the end of the Sandman as he was washed ashore of Jones Beach. When Sonic TV threw a massive beach party on the beach, The Sandman began absorbing the spoiled and egotistical celebrities who were making guest appearances at the big event. This drew the attention of Spider-Man, whose investigation was hampered by being sucked into the celebrity celebrations. [174]
The Sandman then began seeking out other celebrities to fill the missing part of his body. However their star driven personalities began to have an effect on the Sandman, transforming him into a fame driven caricature. As he battled Spider-Man and consumed more celebrities, Sandman's body could no longer handle the foreign matter and he exploded, freeing all the celebrities trapped within. [173] The resulting explosion caused the facets of the Sandman's personality to fragment into separate personalities. First his inner-child, conscience and evil "Flint Marko" personality surfaced. while the inner-child and conscience sought a peaceful existence, the evil persona went on a rampage, drawing Spider-Man in once again. The wall-crawler encountered the good portions of the Sandman's personality, and convinced them to seek out his evil component. Along the way, they came across the Sandman's feminine side. [175] Spider-Man and the trio tracked down Sandman's dark side, and during the ensuing battle his inner child "grew up" into a manifestation of the Sandman's insecurities. Sandman's feminine side stopped the battle and convinced the evil side that they all needed to be together. The inner child, insecurities, and feminine side all merged with Sandman's evil persona, the only one holding back being his conscience who refused to merge with the others. Satisfied with this, the evil Sandman fled the scene, and once the majority of his parts were gone, the Sandman's conscience became inert and fell over, shattering on the ground. The Sandman was now totally reformed but apparently devoid of a conscience. [176]
JLA/Avengers
Shortly thereafter the Sandman's universe and the universe of a distant cosmos were at risk of destruction when the cosmic being known as Krona attempted to merge them together. This plan was opposed by the Avengers and the Justice League of America.[177] The final battle took place on the corpse of the world devourer Galactus where various members of the Avengers and JLA from different time periods were forced to fight an army of villains brought forth by Krona. As a one time Avenger, the Sandman was one of the many being pulled from time and space to participate in this final battle. Eventually the Avengers and Justice League defeated Krona and saved their universes from mutual destruction. [178]
Status Quo
The Sandman was later coerced into working for Valeria Jessup who claimed to work for the legendary criminal known as Tristram Silver. Marko was gathered with Vulture, Bullseye, Deadpool, the Juggernaut, and Sabretooth. Jessup blackmailed them all into agreeing to steal the so-called Identity Disc that was in the possession of AIM. Even though the life of his mother was one the line, Marko did not buy into the Tristram Silver angle and tried to fight back only for Jessup to shoot him with a special bullet that caused his sand form to dissolve, seemingly slaying the Sandman. [179] The others went about thier mission only to learn that the entire incident was a ruse laid out by Jessup and Sabretooth.[180] The Sandman had also deceived the others by faking his death so he could report to Tristram Silver and inform him what was being done in his name. He later met with Silver while vacationing in St. Lucia, where he was thanked for his services. [181] The Sandman was later apprehended and incarcerated in the Big House, a prison that used Pym Particles to shrink the inmates down to size. When the Mad Thinker staged a break out, the Sandman was one of the many inmates who smuggled themselves out of the prison on the She-Hulk's body. [182] When She-Hulk later arrived at the offices of Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway, the villains tried to escape. The Sandman was quickly recaptured when GLK&H's secretary Awesome Andy sucked him up in a vacuum cleaner. [183]
Free again, the Sandman got into a drunken brawl with some college students until the fight was broken up by Spider-Man. [184] The Sandman was later drafted into the Green Goblin'sSinister Twelve along with the Vulture, the Lizard, the Shocker, Hydro-Man, Electro, the Chameleon, Hammerhead, Boomerang and Venom. When the Goblin tricked Spider-Man and the Black Cat into breaking him out of Ryker's Island prison, the Sandman and the others were waiting in surprise for the wall-crawler. [185] Spider-Man and the Black Cat defeated the Sinister Twelve with the assistance of the Fantastic Four, Avengers and Daredevil. [186] Spider-Man defeated the Green Goblin shortly thereafter. [187] Later the Sandman clashed with both Spider-Man and the mutant known as Iceman, although the details of this battle are unrecorded. [188] The Sandman was later seen at a card game between himself, the Mandrill and two other unidentified players. [189] Later when the Thing was building a youth center in his home neighborhood of Yancy Street, the Maggia sent the Sandman and Trapster to sabotage the construction because the Thing was not paying them a graft. [190] The Thing stopped the two villains from blowing up the construction site with some help from Spider-Man. The Sandman was caught in the Trapster's paste and the pair were taken into police custody. [191]
Back in Black
When the United States government enacted a new Superhuman Registration Act, a Civil War broke out between super-heroes who were for and against registration.[192] At the time Spider-Man was in support of the SHRA, and revealed his secret identity to the whole world on national television. Sandman was one of the many viewers who learned that Spider-Man was really Peter Parker. [193] Eventually, Spider-Man turned against registration and became an outlaw himself. [194]
Sandman later learned that his father was now on death row, accused of murdering Ben Parker, who was trapped on Earth-616 from his native reality of Earth-6078. Knowing that his father was innocent, the Sandman sought out his old foe, tracking Peter Parker to the home of his long time friend Flash Thompson. Initially Peter Parker refused, showing the Sandman a family photo which also included his version of Ben Parker who died years ago. The Sandman then shocked Spider-Man by telling him that was the man his father was accused of murdering.[195]
Peter decided to help the Sandman after all, and the two went in disguise to learn what they could from the NYPD. When the Sandman's temper caused him to blow their cover, the pair decided to investigate the most obvious location, the cemetery where Ben Parker was buried. There they found a young man named Dennis who had acquired the helmet belonging to the recently deceased Spider-Man of the year 2211 of Earth-9500. [196] Using the helmet, Spider-Man and Sandman tracked the killer of Ben Parker to Midtown High School where the Chameleon of Earth-9500 was posing as the principal of the school. During the course of the battle, Spider-Man commanded the helmet of his future successor to mete out "poetic justice". By placing the helmet on the Chameleon's head, the Chameleon swapped places with Floyd Baker just as he was being executed. Floyd was unimpressed that the Sandman was unable to save him until the last minute, and although he finally learned that Flint Marko was his son, Floyd did not make mention of it. [197] Presumably, Floyd parted companies with his son to start a new life.
Seeking to save the life of his Aunt May, Spider-Man later made a deal with the demon Mephisto to save her life. In exchange for saving May's life, Spider-Man agreed to allow Mephisto to alter reality so that he was never married to his wife Mary Jane Watson. Part of the deal also saw that Spider-Man's true identity was erased from the minds of everyone on Earth, as such the Sandman no longer remembered that Spider-Man was Peter Parker.[198]
Keemia
By this time, the Sandman had gained even greater control of his powers, able to animate any sand in his vicinity. He also spent many of his times in prison corresponding with Alma Alvarado, a woman who was attracted to incarcerated super-villains. During his times out of prison he spent time with Alma and bonded with her daughter Keemia. With the identity of Keemia's biological father a mystery, she eventually took to calling Marko "daddy". Unable to have children of his own following his mutation, the Sandman accepted this and began considering Keemia as his own daughter. Eventually, Keemia's mother began dating concert promoter Deshawn Price. [199] During his next visit to see Keemia, the Sandman was told to leave by Alma. Sandman forces his way in to see Keemia, and told the young girl that she deserved a diamond of her own one day and left. [200] Unknown to the Sandman at the time, his was once again fragmenting his personality. The Sandman learned that Price had invested heavily on a music festival on Governor's Island and kidnapped Keemia and brought her there. Convinced that she was a princess and the island was her kingdom, Keemia was willing to accompany her "father". Meanwhile, aspects of Sandman's personality that resented Alma and her new lover murdered the pair. These aspects literally turned into the murder weapons to kill their victims and allowed themselves to be gathered by the NYPD as evidence before returning to Governor's Island. In his capacity as a photographer for the mayor's office, Peter Parker noticed the grains of sand when he accompanied an investigation of the lost "evidence" and eventually pieced together the mystery and tracked the Sandman down to Governor's Island. There the Sandman held his own against the wall-crawler with his new powers, unleashing an army of Sandmen against his long time foe. [199]
Spider-Man was trounced and made a prisoner, but the wall-crawler tricked Keemia into freeing him. The Sandman tried to prevent Spider-Man from fleeing with the girl, but the hero tricked the Sandman into following him into a ventilation building that serviced Brooklyn/Battery Tunnel. There Spider-Man pushed the Sandman into a ventilation turbine, causing his body to be scattered all over the city. Spider-Man then turned Keemia over to his ally Glory Grant in the hopes that she would reunite Keemia with her grandmother. Unfortunately, Glory -- as an employee of the city of New York -- instead turned Keemia to child services and she was placed into a foster home instead. [201] When the Sandman reformed, he sought to steal the diamond that he promised to get for Keemia. This led to a battle with Spider-Man and the Moon Knight. Using his new powers to increase in size, the Sandman went on a rampage across New York City. They then lured the Sandman to the docking port of the USS Intrepid. There Spider-Man, Moon Knight, and the Knight's ally Frenchie disbursed the Sandman's body once again, this time using a sub-sonic jet engine to do the job. [200]
Origin of the Species
With Lily Hollister about to give birth, the dying Doctor Octopus, believing the child to be the offspring of Hollister and Norman Osborn, sought to claim the child to use its unique Goblin Formula altered DNA to cure himself of his condition. He hired an army of super-villains, including the Sandman, to help him capture the Hollister, in exchange for whatever they wanted. The Sandman's motivation was to get Keemia back into his custody. The villains chased Lily to the Coffee Bean, the business owned by her former boyfriend Harry Osborn. There, Doctor Octopus fought off Spider-Man and when Lily went into labor delivered the child.[202] Spider-Man recovered the newborn and fled to get it to safety, with the villains in tow. Sandman and Electro attempted to capture the child together, and were defeated when Spider-Man caused them to crash into each other, their powers working against each other. [203] When the baby was later captured by the Chameleon and Spider-Man was led to believe it had died, Spider-Man went on a path of vengeance against super-villains all over the city. [204] The Sandman and the Shocker sought refuge at the Pier 92 hideout of the Enforcers. Spider-Man tracked them down and sank the hideout into the water. Spider-Man then incapacitated Sandman with Shocker's vibro-gauntlets and then learned that the baby was still alive and was taken to Kravinoff Mansion. However Spider-Man was too late to stop the Lizard from kidnapping the baby from that location. [205] Eventually Spider-Man recovered the child, and after a test learned that it was just a normal baby and of no use to Doctor Octopus, foiling his plans. [206]
Last Days of Doctor Octopus
With his days numbered, Doctor Octopus began planning one final scheme before his body failed on him. He gathered a new Sinister Six consisting of the Sandman, Chameleon, Electro, Mysterio, and the Rhino to assist in this scheme. They first launched an attack of Octo-Mechs on New York City in order to keep Spider-Man and the Avengers busy while they infiltrated Andru Air Force Base to place Macro-Octobots on a space ship stored there. [207] Still seeking to cure himself, Octopus captured Iron Man in order to force the hero to use his inventive genius to cure him. In order to force Iron Man to help, Octopus threatened to unleash a nuclear weapon. In addition he sent Sandman and Electro to Broxton, Oklahoma to take Stark's ally Tim Cababa hostage. This hostage taking was interrupted by the arrival of Stark's assistant Pepper Potts. [208] The two villains attempted to take Pepper hostage, but she used the powers granted by her Arc Reactor to hold them at bay. She was assisted in stopping Sandman and Electro by Spymaster. [209] While Pepper continue to fight the villains, Iron Man proved incapable of saving the life of Doctor Octopus. In admitting his inability to do so and begging for the lives that Octopus had threatened, Iron Man satisfied the villain's ego and he teleported his minions away, disabled his bomb, and let Iron Man go free. [210]
Seeking to gain access to the technology of Mister Fantastic, the Sinister Six tricked the newly formed Future Foundation into travelling to the Caribbean where Doctor Octopus kept the heroes bust with an interdimensional portal as well as robot duplicates of the Sinister Six. [211] While the heroes were busy, the Sandman helped the other members of the Sinister Six by breaking into the Baxter Building. By the time the Future Foundation realized what was going on, the Sinister Six had taken what they wanted and fled. [212] The Sandman attempted to go on a solo jewelry store robbery, only to once again clash with Spider-Man. He was defeated when the wall-crawler tricked Flint into piecing a tanker truck containing liquid nitrogen, freeing the Sandman solid. [213] Sandman and the Sinister Six were next dispatched to the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France. There they attempted to steal a fissile power generator. Doctor Octopus created various global threats to keep the Avengers busy so that they would be forced to send the novice Avengers Academy to respond to their attack. Sure enough the Academy cadets were no match for the Sinister Six. Octopus then hacked into Giant-Man's dimensional door technology so that they could escape with the generator. [214] When Doctor Octopus was later targeted by the Young Masters of Evil, he sent Sandman and Electro to deal with them. Both were incapacitated by the Teen Brigade'sUltimate Nullifier. [215] Ultimately the Young Masters were beaten back by the Teen Brigade. [216]
When Doctor Octopus later learned that a rival group of genius super-villains known as the Intelligencia were seeking to destroy the world with their Zero Cannon, he sent his Sinister Six to clash with them. During the fight, the Sandman clashed with his old ally the Wizard. Ultimately the Sinister Six won the bout when Doctor Octopus caused most of the Intelligencia to be jettisoned into space by their own weapon. They then sent Intelligencia leader MODOK fleeing an destroyed the facility. [217] The Sandman was present when Doctor Octopus gathered the last of the technology he needed for his master plan when he wrecked a space station build by Horizon Labs. [218] Prior to unleashing his final plan, Doctor Octopus sent the Sandman and Rhino to the Hulkbuster Base in New Mexico to recover Alpha/Gamma Disruptor created by the Leader. [219]
The Sandman was present when Doctor Octopus unveiled his Octahedral device that he informed the world that he could use to either worsen or correct the advance of global warming on the Earth. Octopus then provided the data of his invention to the governments of Earth and claimed that he only sought to protect the planet from global warming. Not trusting Doctor Octopus, Spider-Man created a suit of armor to face off against the Sinister Six and assembled the Avengers to deal with him. [220] The Sandman was present when Doctor Octopus led the Avengers into a trap along the Mediterranean Coast. Although they lost Electro in the battle, they incapacitated all the Avengers. [219] However, Silver Sable arrived on the scene and rescued Spider-Man and the Black Widow from captivity. Having convinced the world governments to follow through with his plans, Doctor Octopus had them wire 2 billion dollars into the bank accounts of each of his comrades and offer them full pardons under the law. Sandman was pleased that this would finally allow him to take custody of Keemia. Octavius then sent Sandman to guard a missile silo in the Sahara Desert where some of his space probes would be launched. He was attacked by Spider-Man, Sable, and the Black Widow who were shutting down the various missile silos across the globe. [221] Although the Sandman had access to the sand of an entire desert, he was defeated when Spider-Man was able to utilize the technology in his armor to extract the one grain of sand from Sandman that contained his consciousness. They contained this particle in a container and put enough sand for the Sandman to reform his head. They then threatened him with acid until he revealed the location of the last missile silo. However they were too late and Doctor Octopus revealed that he actually intended to destroy all life on Earth, unwilling to let humanity continue while he died. [222] Ultimately, Spider-Man defeated Doctor Octopus and foiled his plans. [223] The Sandman's head was later incarcerated within the Future Foundation's Baxter Building headquarters.[224]
While the Sandman was in captivity, Doctor Octopus managed to swamp minds with Spider-Man, [225] ultimately Spider-Man seemingly died while trapped in the failing body of Doctor Octopus, leaving Octavius free inside the body of Spider-Man. Otto swore to become a more superior hero than Spider-Man ever was.[226] For months, Doctor Octopus posed as Spider-Man, fooling everyone.[227]
Superior Six
While assigned by the Fantastic Four to babysit their young wards, the Future Foundation, Spider-Man recovered the head of the Sandman and kept him prisoner for months. [224] Spider-Man also captured Electro, [228] the Chameleon, [229][230]Mysterion, [231] and the Vulture. [232] Using mind controlling Spider-Bots, Spider-Man enslaved his former allies in the Sinister Six. When the Wrecking Crew attacked Alchemax Inc. to steal a new prototype Quantum Particle Engine, the Sandman and the others were forced to be a part of Spider-Man's Superior Six. With the assistance of the novice hero known as Sun Girl, prevented the Wrecking Crew from stealing the device. Spider-Man took the generator with him when he and his Superior Six left the scene. Contained again, Sandman and the others vowed to kill Spider-Man for his violation of their personal freedom. [233]
Sandman and the Superior Six were then forced to battle a HydraDreadnought robot. By this point the Wrecking Crew's employer Lightmaster had reformed the Masters of Evil and laid a trap to attack Spider-Man and his team. During the course of the fight, the quantum particle engine was struck by Lightmaster's light powers causing a massive energy surge that freed Sandman and the others from Spider-Man's control. They then turned on Spider-Man and Sun Girl, with Sandman using massive amounts of sand to attain a gargantuan height. [234] The Superior Six tortured Spider-Man until he was freed by Sun Girl. Eventually each member of the Six fell, the last being Sandman. Unaware that Spider-Man's body was now being controlled by his old enemy Doctor Octopus, Sandman found this violation more heinous because he believed that Spider-Man would never cross that line. Marko considered Spider-Man "dead" to him, before he was blasted by Sun Girl and his sand particles were scattered a cross the city. [235] Sandman was later recaptured and contained by Spider-Man once again and briefly imprisoned at his headquarters Spider Island II. [236]
Fall of the Fantastic Four
The Sandman later found himself transferred back to Ryker's Island Prison where he was reunited with his one time ally the Thing, who was incarcerated pending a murder trial. Sandman informed Ben Grimm that the prisoners were all under the rule of his former lover the She-Thing and expressed his suspicions that the villains were all transferred there in anticipation of the Thing's arrival.[237] The Sandman later silently watched as She-Thing defeated Thing in a one-on-one fight in the prison exercise yard. [238] Later during shower time, when the other inmates attempted to attack the Thing in the showers, the Sandman came to his aid, tripping up those who were attacking him. [239]
Later when the Thing asked why Marko came to his aid, Flint explained that he had learned that the Thing had been purchasing presents for Keemia while he was in prison and helped Ben in the shower out of gratitude. The two then began plotting to break out of prison in order to clear Ben's name. [240] With the help of the Fantastic Four and the She-Thing, the Sandman and Thing broke out of prison and where whisked away by Medusa and the Inhumans. [241] When the Quiet Man launched his all out invasion of Earth using the Avengers and mutated creatures from Franklin Richards'Counter-Earth dimension, the Sandman joined the Wizard, Thundra, and She-Thing in a new Frightful Four to help fight back the invaders. [242] Ultimately the Fantastic Four ended the Quiet Man's invasion once and for all. [243]
AXIS
Sandman during World War Hate
Following the World War Hate, the Sandman saw a number of his super-villain fraternity turning to the side of good. Deciding to relive his days of heroics and do something right, the Sandman foiled Boss Dixon from breaking out of Ryker's Island penitentiary. Although he succeeded in preventing him from breaking out and freed his friend Rico Ramone whom Dixon allowed himself to get incarcerated to murder, the media still painted him as the villain in the entire episode.[244]
Powers and Abilities
Powers
Body Conversion- Sand: The Sandman possesses the superhuman ability to convert his body into sand by mental command. The sand functions identically to, and appears to be, normal flesh. However, he can convert all or parts of his body into animated sand at will. His brain has attained subliminal awareness of all granulated particles of his body. Through conscious effort, he can affect the degree of molecular cohesion between the numerous adjoining surfaces of his particles and thus cause locomotion of discrete volumes, down to the individual grains.
Superhuman Strength: As a consequence of having a body composed of animated sand, the Sandman possesses phenomenal superhuman strength, able to lift up to 85 tons under optimal conditions.
Density Control: His radically mutagenically altered body composition and increased density enable him to compact or loosen the particles of sand that make up his form. Consequently, the Sandman can become as hard as sandstone, or disperse his body so that he becomes invulnerable to physical attacks. A favorite tactic of the Sandman is making himself slightly dispersed when an opponent punches him, and then making himself rock-solid again, entrapping his opponent's appendage.
Shape-shifting: He can shape his sand-state body into any continuous shape he can imagine, including his forearms into weapons like hammers, spiked maces, and large fists, forming ram horns on his head, stretching, elongating, deforming, expanding, flattening, or compressing all or portions of his body at will, like Mr. Fantastic, phase through small openings, etc.
Sand Blasts: He can project his sand particles outward at high speeds and, when in the shape of a bulky object, with the impact of a large sandbag.
Glass Generation: Sandman learned some new tricks from the Wizard, including altering the formation of his sand particles and reshaping them into glass. This grants him the ability to reflect light and energy off of him.[170]
Reformation: The Sandman maintains mental control of the particles of which his body is composed so that he can reform his scattered grains unless a substantial portion of his body mass has been isolated.
Sand Conversion: Apparently, he can also convert common grains of sand around him into constituents of his body to replenish portions he might lose track of during battle. In this manner, he can increase his overall size and volume (to some as yet unknown limit), or that of his limbs.
Sand Clones: Thanks to having such good mental control over his own molecules, he is able to create duplicates of himself.[199] Each one capable of acting on its own.[201]
Giant Form: The clones, should they be in agreement, are all able to fuse together into a giant sandman, about the size of an eight story building.[201]
Wall-Crawling: He is somehow capable of using his sand to allow him to walk up walls.[201]
There appears to be no limit to how long the Sandman can remain in his sand-state. If he were to be rendered unconscious while in his sand-state, he would remain in that state, although the relaxing of his control over his particles would cause him to become an amorphous pile of sand.
The Sandman's mind continues to function in astral form even when he has turned his head into sand and even when the particles of sand that composed his brain are widely scattered. The limit to how far the particles of his brain can be dispersed before he is unable to reassemble is not yet known.
Strength level
The Sandman is a superhuman being who is able to lift (press) up to 85 tons under standard conditions.
Weaknesses
Water: The Sandman's weakness that makes him most vulnerable is water. Water can soften his sand granules therefore, Sandman cannot control them and has to wait for them to dry.
Soul Molecule: Over the years, Spider-Man managed to discover that Sandman's consciousness is located in only one grain of sand, which has Marko's brain pattern and is responsible for commanding the other grains of sand what form to take. With the proper instruments, it can be induced to it different ideas which makes Marko change his form against his will. If that grain is separated from the another and isolated, Marko can't recover his mass.
Clone Control: Sandman’s clones can influenced by his repressed and subconscious urges, such as when one of them killed Keemia’s mother and her lawyer for getting a restraining order placed on him, while another killed a concert promoter who was trying to set up a concert on Governors Island, where he had been hiding himself and Keemia. They will even fight each other should they disagree.[201]
Paraphernalia
Equipment
The Sandman briefly used a suit that he created with Reed Richards' stolen equipment, that he used to mix chemicals with his sand to create new effects. Some of the chemicals could make his sand into a slippery puddle, a sandstorm, solidify him to a brick-like form, adhere him to vertical walls, and coat him with a substance that would turn into a poisonous powder when heated by the Human Torch's flame.
Notes
Sandman was one of the characters featured in Series A of the Marvel Value Stamps issued in the 1970's.
Marvel Value Stamp #99
Trivia
This character appears in TSR, Inc.'s RPG adventure The Weird, Weird West. In the plot, he had been hired by Doctor Doom in 1968 to travel back in time to 1871 Dodge City. Alongside with other super-villains (including Black Knight, Scorpion and Mysterio), he was to provide support to Doom while he analyzed a time anomaly and tried to obtain profit from it. Doom took his lackeys (no name was provided for the team) to a Krozzar camp to deal with the Krozzars. Doom eventually found the origin of the anomaly, a chronovore, but he and his lackeys were also found by time-traveling heroes from 1989, and defeated.
↑Nova #13: Yellow Claw's identity was not revealed until Nova #16. He sent the Sandman to kidnap Mike because he held his brother, brilliant nuclear research scientist Samuel Burley, in an attempt to force Sam to help with his world domination plot. This plot was foiled in Nova #18
↑Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #25: The narrative of this story states that these events occurred during the Bosnian War which occurred form 1992 to 1995. Per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616 this should be considered a topical reference relative to the date of publication.
This story should be generalized as taking place during a conflict in Bosnia, but not specifically the war that took place there between 1992 to 1995.
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Bill McKibben, acclaimed writer and prominent environmental activist, received a standing ovation for his standing-room only public address held at the Rutgers Student Center on Feb. 4.
His talk, Do the Math: Why Climate Change Matters and What You Can Do About It, simulcast and live-streamed by RU-TV, drew connections between climate change, extreme weather and the fossil fuel industry. McKibben spoke of Rutgers as the “thinking center of the state” and urged the university to take moral and political leadership in challenging the fossil fuel industry and tackling the global climate emergency.
Before the talk, McKibben’s daylong engagement with the campus included a faculty lunch, a writers’ workshop and a dinner meeting with student environmental leaders.
Both events were organized by the Rutgers Initiative on Climate and Society, a joint project of the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and the School of Arts and Sciences, and co-sponsored by a diverse array of Rutgers institutions, including the Campus Deans and several student councils, among others.
On Feb. 6, two days after the McKibben talk, more than 150 students heard the Rutgers University Debate Union and two ‘wild card’ professors hold a riveting formal debate, Confronting Climate Change, What Should RU Do? The student organizing committee formed to facilitate the visit by McKibben has pledged ongoing campus action to tackle climate change.
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Exiled Chinese Dissident Recalls Past
Published 7:00 pm, Friday, January 31, 2003
Associated Press Writer
Pro-democracy advocate Xu Wenli was in his prison cell in 1989 when he heard gunshots from Tiananmen Square during the Chinese Communist Party's crackdown on protesters.
It was the same place and under similar conditions 13 years earlier that Xu had vowed to become an activist, a commitment that eventually led to his co-founding of the China Democracy Party _ and prison.
"I witnessed the people's government beat up people who only wanted to express their love for their country, young workers and young students," Xu told The Associated Press, while his daughter interpreted. "I realized the Chinese leaders were just a lie."
The 59-year-old was jailed in 1998 after trying to set up the opposition China Democracy Party with other activists. The communist government quickly crushed the party and sent dozens of members to prison, sentencing Xu to 13 years.
Xu was the first person convicted of endangering state security _ a charge that has been used against leading Chinese dissidents _ to be released early from prison, authorities have said. He was released in December.
Xu and his wife are now living in Pawtucket with their daughter, a sculptor who teaches art at a private school in Providence.
Xu was one of China's most dedicated advocates for democracy, said Merle Goldman, a research associate with Harvard University's Fairbank Center for East Asian Research.
"What makes him important is that unlike a lot of dissidents … he never tried to be part of the establishment," Goldman said. "It's easy to be a dissident within the establishment."
Even while Xu was imprisoned in China, the government closely controlled information about him. The result was that while Xu is well-known outside of China, present-day pro-democracy activists in his homeland know little about him.
Xu spent five years in the army as a young man before being assigned work as an electrician with a government-owned company.
Observing the poor working conditions, Xu concluded that Communist Party rhetoric paid tribute to workers but failed to truly represent them. As a worker, Xu made so little money he was forced to wear a single pair of shoes for 10 years.
"The Chinese government always says that they are a Communist Party organized by the workers and the working class," Xu said. "But the fact was the opposite."
But Xu wasn't stirred to act until he witnessed beatings by police officers in Tiananmen Square in the 1970s.
"The night of 1976, April 4, I decided to be against this government," Xu said. "The chance came in 1978."
That year brought the Democracy Wall movement, in which people posted pro-democracy messages on a wall in Beijing. It generated a storm of political criticism, including a journal Xu published.
Xu was arrested for his outspokenness in 1981 and tried in secret. He served 12 years and 48 days of a 15-year sentence _ much of that time in solitary confinement after he wrote a book detailing his arrest and had it smuggled out of prison and published.
Xu was released in 1993 and remained free for five years, working on the Chinese Democracy Party. But he was harassed by the authorities and a friend advised him to leave China. He wouldn't go.
After his arrest in 1998, his wife and daughter lobbied hard for his release, staging hunger strikes in Beijing and Washington and appealing to Western leaders. They asked for leniency on medical grounds _ Xu was diagnosed with Hepatitis B in 1999.
Last month, Chinese authorities freed Xu, citing his health. The release followed appeals by human rights groups and Western diplomats.
"I would like to think it signals change, but I don't think it signals change at all. It was a way to placate Western critics and appeal to the U.S.," said Goldman.
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it.
Measuring progress from 1990 to 2017 and projecting attainment to 2030 of the health-related
Sustainable Development Goals for 195 countries and territories: a systematic analysis
for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017.
Date
Authors
Repository Usage Stats
Abstract
BACKGROUND:Efforts to establish the 2015 baseline and monitor early implementation
of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) highlight both great potential for
and threats to improving health by 2030. To fully deliver on the SDG aim of "leaving
no one behind", it is increasingly important to examine the health-related SDGs beyond
national-level estimates. As part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and
Risk Factors Study 2017 (GBD 2017), we measured progress on 41 of 52 health-related
SDG indicators and estimated the health-related SDG index for 195 countries and territories
for the period 1990-2017, projected indicators to 2030, and analysed global attainment.
METHODS:We measured progress on 41 health-related SDG indicators from 1990 to 2017,
an increase of four indicators since GBD 2016 (new indicators were health worker density,
sexual violence by non-intimate partners, population census status, and prevalence
of physical and sexual violence [reported separately]). We also improved the measurement
of several previously reported indicators. We constructed national-level estimates
and, for a subset of health-related SDGs, examined indicator-level differences by
sex and Socio-demographic Index (SDI) quintile. We also did subnational assessments
of performance for selected countries. To construct the health-related SDG index,
we transformed the value for each indicator on a scale of 0-100, with 0 as the 2·5th
percentile and 100 as the 97·5th percentile of 1000 draws calculated from 1990 to
2030, and took the geometric mean of the scaled indicators by target. To generate
projections through 2030, we used a forecasting framework that drew estimates from
the broader GBD study and used weighted averages of indicator-specific and country-specific
annualised rates of change from 1990 to 2017 to inform future estimates. We assessed
attainment of indicators with defined targets in two ways: first, using mean values
projected for 2030, and then using the probability of attainment in 2030 calculated
from 1000 draws. We also did a global attainment analysis of the feasibility of attaining
SDG targets on the basis of past trends. Using 2015 global averages of indicators
with defined SDG targets, we calculated the global annualised rates of change required
from 2015 to 2030 to meet these targets, and then identified in what percentiles the
required global annualised rates of change fell in the distribution of country-level
rates of change from 1990 to 2015. We took the mean of these global percentile values
across indicators and applied the past rate of change at this mean global percentile
to all health-related SDG indicators, irrespective of target definition, to estimate
the equivalent 2030 global average value and percentage change from 2015 to 2030 for
each indicator. FINDINGS:The global median health-related SDG index in 2017 was 59·4
(IQR 35·4-67·3), ranging from a low of 11·6 (95% uncertainty interval 9·6-14·0) to
a high of 84·9 (83·1-86·7). SDG index values in countries assessed at the subnational
level varied substantially, particularly in China and India, although scores in Japan
and the UK were more homogeneous. Indicators also varied by SDI quintile and sex,
with males having worse outcomes than females for non-communicable disease (NCD) mortality,
alcohol use, and smoking, among others. Most countries were projected to have a higher
health-related SDG index in 2030 than in 2017, while country-level probabilities of
attainment by 2030 varied widely by indicator. Under-5 mortality, neonatal mortality,
maternal mortality ratio, and malaria indicators had the most countries with at least
95% probability of target attainment. Other indicators, including NCD mortality and
suicide mortality, had no countries projected to meet corresponding SDG targets on
the basis of projected mean values for 2030 but showed some probability of attainment
by 2030. For some indicators, including child malnutrition, several infectious diseases,
and most violence measures, the annualised rates of change required to meet SDG targets
far exceeded the pace of progress achieved by any country in the recent past. We found
that applying the mean global annualised rate of change to indicators without defined
targets would equate to about 19% and 22% reductions in global smoking and alcohol
consumption, respectively; a 47% decline in adolescent birth rates; and a more than
85% increase in health worker density per 1000 population by 2030. INTERPRETATION:The
GBD study offers a unique, robust platform for monitoring the health-related SDGs
across demographic and geographic dimensions. Our findings underscore the importance
of increased collection and analysis of disaggregated data and highlight where more
deliberate design or targeting of interventions could accelerate progress in attaining
the SDGs. Current projections show that many health-related SDG indicators, NCDs,
NCD-related risks, and violence-related indicators will require a concerted shift
away from what might have driven past gains-curative interventions in the case of
NCDs-towards multisectoral, prevention-oriented policy action and investments to achieve
SDG aims. Notably, several targets, if they are to be met by 2030, demand a pace of
progress that no country has achieved in the recent past. The future is fundamentally
uncertain, and no model can fully predict what breakthroughs or events might alter
the course of the SDGs. What is clear is that our actions-or inaction-today will ultimately
dictate how close the world, collectively, can get to leaving no one behind by 2030.
FUNDING:Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
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Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Science at Duke Kunshan University
My research interest is in the intersection of environment and population health.
Trained as an environmental epidemiologist, I am primarily interested in environmental
determinants of longevity. Second, given populations are living longer, how can we
delay neuro-degeneration and age-related diseases. Third, I am a proponent in applying
research for better policy-making to achieve SDG targets.
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THE BIRTHDAY PARTY.
A STORY FOR LITTLE FOLKS. BY OLIVER OPTIC, author of “the boat club,” “all aboard,” “now or never,” “try again,” “poor and proud,” “little by little,” &c. BOSTON: LEE AND SHEPARD, (successors to phillips, sampson & co.) 1864. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by william t. adams, In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. electrotyped at the boston stereotype foundry. [Pg 7]
THE BIRTHDAY PARTY.
1
THE BIRTHDAY PARTY.
I.
Flora Lee’s birthday came in July. Her mother wished very much to celebrate the occasion in a proper manner. Flora was a good girl, and her parents were always glad to do any thing they could to please her, and to increase her[Pg 8] happiness. They were very indulgent parents, and as they had plenty of money, they could afford to pay well for a “good time.” Yet they were not weak and silly in their indulgence. As much as they loved their little daughter, they did not give her pies and cakes to eat when they thought such articles would hurt her. They did not let her lie in[Pg 9] bed till noon because they loved her, or permit her to do any thing that would injure her, either in body or mind. Flora always went to church, and to the Sunday school, and never cried to stay at home. If she had cried, it would have made no difference, for her father and mother meant to have her do right, whether she liked it or not. But Flora gave them very[Pg 10] little trouble about such matters. Her parents knew best what was good for her, and she was willing in all things to obey them. It was for this reason that they were so anxious to please her, even at the expense of a great deal of time and money. The birthday of Flora came on Wednesday, and school did not keep in the afternoon. All the children, therefore, could[Pg 11] attend the party which they intended to give in honor of the day. About a week before the time, Mrs. Lee told Flora she might have the party, and wanted her to make out a list of all the children whom she wished to invite. “I want to ask all the children in Riverdale,” said Flora, promptly. “Not all, I think,” replied[Pg 12] Mrs. Lee. “Yes, mother, all of them.” “But you know there are a great many bad boys in town. Do you wish to invite them?” “Perhaps, if we treat them well, they will be made better by it.” “Would you like to have Joe Birch come to the party?” “I don’t know, mother,” said Flora, musing. “I think you had better invite[Pg 13] only those who will enjoy the party, and who will not be likely to spoil the pleasure of others. We will not invite such boys as Joe Birch.” “Just as you think best, dear mother,” replied Flora. “Shall I ask such boys as Tommy Woggs?” “Tommy isn’t a bad boy,” said Mrs. Lee, with a smile. THE BIRTHDAY PARTY. 2
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Birthday Party, by Oliver Optic “I don’t know that he is;[Pg 14] but he is a very queer fellow. You said I had better not ask those who would be likely to spoil the pleasure of others.” “Do you think, my child, Tommy Woggs will do so?” “I am afraid he would; he is such a queer boy.” “But Tommy is a great traveller, you know,” added Mrs. Lee, laughing. “The boys and girls don’t like him, he pretends to be[Pg 15] such a big man. He knows more than all the rest of the world put together—at least, he thinks he does.” “I think you had better ask him, for he will probably feel slighted if you don’t.” “Very well, mother.” “Now, Flora, I will take a pencil and paper and write down the names of all the boys and girls with whom you are acquainted; and you[Pg 16] must be careful not to forget any. Here comes Frank; he will help you.” Frank was told about the party, and he was quite as much pleased with the idea as his sister had been; and both of them began to repeat the names of all the boys and girls they could remember. For half an hour they were employed in this manner, and then the list was read over to[Pg 17] them, so as to be sure that no names had been omitted. Flora and Frank now went through all the streets of Riverdale, in imagination, thinking who lived in each house; and when they had completed their journey in fancy, they felt sure they had omitted none. “But we must invite cousins Sarah and Henry,” said Flora. “O, I hope they will come![Pg 18] Henry is so funny; we can’t do without them.” “Perhaps they will come; at any rate we will send them invitations,” replied Mrs. Lee. The next day, when the children had gone to school, Mrs. Lee went to the office of the Riverdale Gazette, which was the village newspaper, and had the invitations printed on nice gilt-edged paper. By the following day Mrs.[Pg 19] Lee had written in the names of the children invited, enclosed the notes in envelopes, and directed them. I will give you a copy of one of them, that you may know how to write them when you have a birthday party, though I dare say it would do just as well if you go to your friends and ask them to attend. If you change the names and dates, this note will answer for any party. Miss Flora Lee presents her compliments[Pg 20] to Miss Nellie Green, and requests the pleasure of her company on Wednesday afternoon, July 20. Riverdale, July 15. “Those are very fine indeed,” said Flora: “shall I put on my bonnet, and carry out some of them to-day?”
I.
3
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Birthday Party, by Oliver Optic “No, my child; it is not quite the thing for you to carry your own invitations. I[Pg 21] will tell you what you may do. You may hire David White to deliver them for you. You must pay him for it; give him half a dollar, which will be a good thing for him.” This plan was adopted, and Frank was sent with the notes and the money over to the poor widow’s cottage. “Don’t you think it is very wicked, mother, for rich folks to have parties, when the money they cost will do so[Pg 22] much good to the poor?” asked Flora. “I do not think so, my dear child.” “Well, I think so, mother,” added Flora, warmly. “Perhaps you do not fully understand it.” “I think I do.” “Why should it be wicked for you to enjoy yourself?” “I don’t think it is wicked to enjoy myself, but only to[Pg 23] spend money for such things. You said you were going to have the Riverdale Band, and that the music would cost more than twenty dollars.” “I did, and the supper will cost at least twenty more; for I have spoken to the confectioner to supply us with ice cream, cake, jellies, and other luxuries. We shall have a supply of strawberries and[Pg 24] cream, and all the nice things of the season. We must also erect a tent in the garden, in which we shall have the supper; but after tea I will tell you all about it.”
[Pg 25] [Pg 26]
I.
4
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Birthday Party, by Oliver Optic
Flora and her Father. [Pg 27]
II.
Flora could not help thinking how much good the forty dollars, which her father would have to pay for the birthday party, would do if given to the poor. It seemed to her just like spending the money for a few hours’ pleasure; and even if they had a fine time, which she[Pg 28] was quite sure they would have, it would be soon over, and not do any real good. Forty dollars was a great deal of money. It would pay Mrs. White’s rent for a whole year; it would clothe her family, and feed them nearly all the next winter. It appeared to her like a shameful waste; and these thoughts promised to take away a great deal from the pleasure of the occasion. “I think, mother, I had just[Pg 29] as lief not have the band, and only have a supper of bread and butter and seed cakes.” “Why, Flora, what has got into you?” said her father. Mrs. Lee laughed at the troubled looks of Flora, and explained to her father the nature of her scruples in regard to the party. “Where did the child get this foolish idea?” asked her[Pg 30] father, who thought her notions were too old and too severe for a little girl. “Didn’t I see last winter how much good only a little money would do?” replied Flora. “Don’t you think it is wicked for me to live in this great house, keep five or six horses, and nine or ten servants, when I could live in a little house, like Mrs. White?” laughed Mr. Lee. “All the money you spend[Pg 31] would take care of a dozen families of poor folks,” said Flora. II. 5
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Birthday Party, by Oliver Optic “That is very true. Suppose I should turn away all the men and women that work for me,—those, I mean, who work about the house and garden,—and give the money I spend in luxuries to the poor.” “But what would John and[Pg 32] Peter, Hannah and Bridget do then? They would lose their places, and not be able to earn any thing. Why, no, father; Peter has a family; he has got three children, and he must take care of them.” “Ah, you begin to see it—do you?” said Mr. Lee, with a smile. “All that I spend upon luxury goes into the pockets of the farmer, mechanic, and laborer.” “I see that, father,” replied[Pg 33] Flora, looking as bright as sunshine again; “but all the money spent on my party will be wasted—won’t it?” “Not a cent of it; my child. If I were a miser, and kept my money in an iron safe, and lived like a poor man, I should waste it then.” “But twenty dollars for the Riverdale Band is a great deal to give for a few hours’ service.[Pg 34] It don’t do any good, I think.” “Yes, it does; music improves our minds and hearts. It makes us happy. I have engaged six men to play. They are musicians only at such times as they can get a job. They are shoemakers, also, and poor men; and the money which I shall pay them will help support their families and educate them.” “What a fool I was, father!”[Pg 35] exclaimed Flora. “O, no; not so bad as that; for a great many older and wiser persons than yourself have thought just what you think.” “But the supper, father,—the ice cream, the cake, and the lemonade,—won’t all the money spent for these things be wasted?” “No more than the money[Pg 36] spent for the music. The confectioner and those whom he employs depend upon their work for the means of supporting themselves and their families.” “So they do, father. And when you have a party, you are really doing good to the poor.” “That depends upon circumstances,” replied Mr. Lee. “I don’t think it would be[Pg 37] an act of charity for a person who could not afford it to give a party. I only mean to say that when we spend money for that which does not injure us or any body else, what we spend goes into the pockets of those who need it. “A party—a proper party, I mean, such a one as you will have—is a good thing in itself. Innocent amusement is just as necessary as food and drink. “God has given me wealth,[Pg 38] Flora, and he expects me to do all the good I can with it. I hold it as his steward. Now, when I pay one of these musicians three or four dollars for an afternoon’s work, I do him a favor as well as you and those whom you invite to your party. “And I hope the party will make you love one another more than ever before.[Pg 39] I hope the music will warm your hearts, and that the supper will make you happy, and render you thankful to the Giver of all II. 6
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Birthday Party, by Oliver Optic things for his constant bounty.” “How funny that I should make such a blunder!” exclaimed Flora. “I am sure I shall enjoy my party a great deal more now that I understand these things.” “I hope you won’t understand[Pg 40] too much, Flora. Suppose you had only a dollar, and that it had been given you to purchase a story book. Then, suppose Mrs. White and her children were suffering from want of fuel and clothing. What would you do with your dollar?” “I would——” “Wait a minute, Flora,” interposed her father. “When you buy the book, you pay[Pg 41] the printer, the paper maker, the bookseller, the type founder, the miner who dug the lead and the iron from the earth, the machinist who made the press, and a great many other persons whose labor enters into the making of a book—you pay all these men for their labor; you give them money to help take care of their wives and children, their fathers and mothers. You help all these men when you[Pg 42] buy a book. Now, what would you do with your dollar?” “I would give it to poor Mrs. White,” promptly replied Flora. “I think you would do right, for your money would do more good in her hands. The self-denial on your part would do you good. I only wanted you to understand that, when you bought a book,—even a book which was only[Pg 43] to amuse you,—the money is not thrown away. “Riches are given to men for a good purpose; and they ought to use their wealth for the benefit of others, as well as for their own pleasure. If they spend money, even for things that are of no real use to them, it helps the poor, for it feeds and clothes them.” Flora was much interested[Pg 44] in this conversation, and perhaps some of my young friends will think she was an old head to care for such things; but I think they can all understand what was said as well as she did.
[Pg 45] [Pg 46]
II.
7
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Birthday Party, by Oliver Optic
On the Lawn. [Pg 47]
III.
The great day at length arrived, and every thing was ready for the party. On the lawn, by the side of the house, a large tent had been put up, in which the children were to have the feast. Under a large maple tree, near the tent, a stage for the musicians had been erected. Two swings had been put up;[Pg 48] and there was no good reason why the children should not enjoy themselves to their hearts’ content. I think the teachers in the Riverdale school found it hard work to secure the attention of their scholars on the forenoon of that day, for all the boys and girls in the neighborhood were thinking about the party. As early as one o’clock in[Pg 49] the afternoon the children began to collect at the house of Mr. Lee, and at the end of an hour all who had received invitations were present. The band had arrived, and at a signal from Mr. Lee the music commenced. “Now, father, we are all here. What shall we do?” asked Flora, who was so excited she did not know which[Pg 50] way to turn, or how to proceed to entertain the party. “Wait a few minutes, and let the children listen to the music. They seem to enjoy it very well.” “But we want to play something, father.” “Very soon, my child, we will play something.” “What shall we play, father?” “There are plenty of plays.[Pg 51] Wouldn’t you like to march a little while to the music?”
III.
8
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Birthday Party, by Oliver Optic “March?” “Yes, march to the tune of ‘Hail, Columbia.’ I will show you how to do it.” “I don’t know what you mean, father.” “Well, I will show you in a few minutes.” When the band had played a little while longer, Mr. Lee assembled the children in the[Pg 52] middle of the lawn, and asked them if they would like to march. They were pleased with the idea, though some of them thought it would be rather tame amusement for such an exciting occasion. “You want two leaders, and I think you had better choose them yourselves. It would be the most proper to select two boys.” Mr. Lee thought the choice[Pg 53] of the leaders would amuse them; so he proposed that they should vote for them. “How shall we vote, father?” asked Frank. “Three of the children must retire, and pick out four persons; and the two of these four who get the most votes shall be the leaders.” Mr. Lee appointed two girls and one boy to be on this[Pg 54] committee; but while he was doing so, Tommy Woggs said he did not think this was a good play. “I don’t think they will choose the best leaders,” said Tommy. “Don’t you, Mr. Woggs?” asked Mr. Lee, laughing. “No, sir, I do not. What do any of these boys know about such things!” said Tommy, with a sneer. “I have[Pg 55] been to New York, and have seen a great many parades.” “Have you, indeed?” “Yes, sir, I have.” “And you think you would make a better leader than any of the others?” “I think so, sir.” All the children laughed heartily at Master Woggs, who was so very modest! “None of these boys and girls have ever been to New York,”[Pg 56] added Tommy, his vanity increasing every moment. “That is very true; and perhaps the children will select you as their leader.”
III.
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Birthday Party, by Oliver Optic “They can do as they like. If they want me, I should be very willing to be their leader,” replied Tommy. It was very clear that Master Woggs had a very good opinion of himself. He seemed to think that the fact of his[Pg 57] having been to New York made a hero of him, and that all the boys ought to take off their caps to him. But it is quite as certain that the Riverdale children did not think Master Woggs was a very great man. He thought so much of himself, that there was no room for others to think much of him. The committee of three returned in a few minutes, and[Pg 58] reported the names of four boys to be voted for as the leaders. They were Henry Vernon, Charley Green, David White, and Tommy Woggs. The important little gentleman who had been to New York, was delighted with the action of the committee. He thought all the children could see what a very fine leader he would make, and that all of them would vote for him. “What shall we do for votes,[Pg 59] father?” asked Frank. “We can easily manage that, Frank,” replied Mr. Lee. “We have no paper here.” “Listen to me a moment, children,” continued Mr. Lee. “There are four boys to be voted for; and we will choose one leader first, and then the other. “Those who want Henry Vernon for a leader will put[Pg 60] a blade of grass in the hat which will be the ballot box; those who want Charley Green will put in a clover blossom; those who want David White will put in a maple leaf; and those who want to vote for Tommy Woggs will put in a—let me see—put in a dandelion flower.” The children laughed, for they thought the dandelion was just the thing for Master[Pg 61] Woggs, who had been to New York. One of the boys carried round Mr. Lee’s hat, and it was found that Henry Vernon had the most votes; so he was declared to be the first leader. “Humph!” said Tommy Woggs. “What does Henry Vernon know? He has never been to New York.” “But he lives in Boston,” added Charley Green. “Boston is nothing side of[Pg 62] New York.” “I think Boston is a great place,” replied Charley. “That’s because you have never been to New York,” said Master Woggs. “They will, of course, all vote for me next time. If they do, I will show them how things are done in New York.” “Pooh!” exclaimed Charley, as he left the vain little man. III. 10
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Birthday Party, by Oliver Optic While all the children were[Pg 63] wondering who would be the other leader, Flora was electioneering among them for her favorite candidate; that is, she was asking her friends to vote for the one she wanted. Who do you suppose it was? Master Woggs? No. It was David White. The hat was passed round again, and when the votes were counted, there was only[Pg 64] one single dandelion blossom found in the hat. Tommy Woggs was mad, for he felt that his companions had slighted him; but it was only because he was so vain and silly. People do not often think much of those who think a great deal of themselves. There was a great demand for maple leaves, and David White was chosen the second leader, and had nearly all the[Pg 65] votes. The boys then gave three cheers for the leaders, and the lines were formed. Mr. Lee told Henry and David just how they were to march, and the band at once began to play “Hail Columbia.” The children first marched, two by two, round the lawn, and then down the centre. When they reached the end, one leader turned off to the[Pg 66] right, and the other to the left, each followed by a single line of the children. Passing round the lawn, they came together again on the other side. Then they formed a great circle, a circle within a circle, and concluded the march with the “grand basket.” This was certainly a very simple play, but the children enjoyed it ever so much[Pg 67]—I mean all but vain Master Woggs, who was so greatly displeased because he was not chosen one of the leaders, that he said there was no fun at all in the whole thing. About half an hour was spent in marching, and then Mr. Lee proposed a second game. The children wanted to march a little longer; but there were a great number[Pg 68] of things to be done before night, and so it was thought best, on the whole, to try a new game.
[Pg 69] [Pg 70]
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Birthday Party, by Oliver Optic
The Old Fiddler. [Pg 71]
IV.
When the children had done marching, Mrs. Lee took charge of the games. Several new plays, which none of them had heard of before, were introduced. The boys and girls all liked them very well, and the time passed away most rapidly. Just before they were going[Pg 72] to supper, an old man, with a fiddle in his hand, tottered into the garden, and down the lawn. He was a very queer-looking old man. He had long white hair, and a long white beard. He was dressed in old, worn-out, soldier clothes, in part, and had a sailor’s hat upon his head, so that they could not tell whether he was a soldier or a sailor. As he approached the children,[Pg 73] they began to laugh with all their might; and he certainly was a very funny old man. His long beard and hair, his tattered finery, and his hobbling walk, would have made almost any one laugh—much more a company of children as full of fun as those who were attending the birthday party. “Children,” said the old[Pg 74] man, as he took off his hat and made a low bow, “I heard there was a party here, and I came to play the fiddle for you. All the boys and girls like a fiddle, because it is so merry.” “O mother! what did send that old man here?” cried Flora. “He came of himself, I suppose,” replied Mrs. Lee, laughing. “I think it is too bad to[Pg 75] laugh at an old man like him,” added Flora. “It would be, if he were in distress; but don’t you see he is as merry as any of the children?” IV. 12
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Birthday Party, by Oliver Optic “Play us some tunes,” said the children. “I will, my little dears;” and the old man raised the fiddle. “Let’s see—I will play ‘Napoleon’s Grand March.’” The fiddler played, but he[Pg 76] behaved so queerly that the children laughed so loud they could hardly hear the music. “Why, that’s ‘Yankee Doodle,’” said Henry Vernon; and they all shouted at the idea of calling that tune “Napoleon’s Grand March.” “Now I will play you the solo to the opera of ‘La Sonnambula,’” said the old man. “Whew!” said Henry. The old man fiddled again,[Pg 77] with the same funny movements as before. “Why, that’s ‘Yankee Doodle’ too!” exclaimed Henry. “I guess he don’t know any other tune.” “You like that tune so well, I will play you ‘Washington’s March;’” and the funny old fiddler, with a great flourish, began to play again; but still it was “Yankee Doodle.” And so he went on saying[Pg 78] he would play many different tunes, but he played nothing but “Yankee Doodle.” “Can’t you tell us a story now?” asked Charley Green. “O, yes, my little man, I can tell you a story. What shall it be?” “Are you a soldier or a sailor?” “Neither, my boy.” “The story! the story!”[Pg 79] shouted the boys, very much excited. “Some years ago I was in New York,” the old man commenced. “Did you see me there?” demanded Tommy Woggs. “Well, my little man, I don’t remember that I saw you.” “O, I was there;” and Tommy thrust his hands down to the bottom of his pockets, and strutted up the space between[Pg 80] the children and the comical old fiddler. “I did see a very nice-looking little gentleman——” “That was me,” pompously added Tommy. IV. 13
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Birthday Party, by Oliver Optic “He was stalking up Broadway. He thought every body was looking at and admiring him; but such was not the case. He looked just like—just like——” “Like me?” asked Tommy. “Like a sick monkey,” replied[Pg 81] the fiddler. “Go on with your story.” “I will, children. Several years ago I was in New York. It is a great city; if you don’t believe it, ask Master Tommy Woggs.” “You tell the truth, Mr. Fiddler. It is a great city, and I have been all over it, and can speak from observation,” replied Master Woggs. “The story!” shouted the[Pg 82] children. “I was walking up Broadway. This street is always crowded with people, as well as with carts and carriages.” “I have seen that street,” said Tommy. “Now you keep still a few minutes, Tommy, if you can,” interposed Mrs. Lee. “At the corner of Wall Street——” “I know where that is,” exclaimed[Pg 83] Tommy. “At the corner of Wall Street there was a man with a kind of cart, loaded with apples and candy, which he was selling to the passers-by. Suddenly there came a stage down the street, and ran into the apple cart.” “I saw the very same thing done,” added Tommy, with his usual self-important air. “Keep still, Tom Woggs,”[Pg 84] said Charley Green. “The apples were scattered all over the sidewalk; yet the man picked up all but one of them, though he was very angry with the driver of the stage for running against his cart.” “Why didn’t he pick up the other apple?” asked Henry. “A well-dressed man, with big black whiskers, picked that[Pg 85] up. ‘Give it to me,’ said the apple man. ‘I will not,’ replied the man with whiskers. The apple merchant was as mad as he could be; and then the man with black whiskers put his hand in his pocket and drew out a knife. The blade was six inches long.” “O, dear me!” exclaimed Flora. “Raising the knife, he at once moved towards the angry[Pg 86] apple merchant, and—and——”
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Birthday Party, by Oliver Optic “Well, what?” asked several, eagerly. “And cut a piece out of the apple, and put it in his mouth.” The children all laughed heartily, for they were sure the man with the whiskers was going to stab the apple merchant. “He then took two cents[Pg 87] from his pocket, paid for the apple, and went his way,” continued the old man. “Now, there is one thing more I can do. I want to run a race with these boys.” “Pooh! You run a race!” sneered Charley. “I can beat you.” “Try it, and see.” The old man and Charley took places, and were to start at the word from Henry. But[Pg 88] when it was given, the fiddler hobbled off, leaving Charley to follow at his leisure. When the old man had got half way round the lawn, Charley started, sure he could catch him long before he reached the goal. But just as the boy was coming up with the man, the latter began to run, and poor Charley found, much to his surprise, that he ran very fast. He was unable to overtake[Pg 89] him, and consequently lost the race. The children were much astonished when they saw the old man run so fast. He appeared to have grown young all at once. But he offered to race with any of the boys again; and half a dozen of them agreed to run with him. “I guess I will take my coat off this time,” said the fiddler. As he threw away the coat,[Pg 90] he slipped off the wig and false beard he wore; and the children found, to their surprise, that the old man was Mr. Lee, who had dressed himself up in this disguise to please them. The supper was now ready, and all the children were invited to the tent. They had played so hard that all of them had excellent appetites,[Pg 91] and the supper was just as nice as a supper could be. It was now nearly dark, and the children had to go home; but all of them declared the birthday party of Flora was the best they ever attended. “Only to think,” said Flora, when she went to bed that night, “the old fiddler was my father!” [Pg 92]
IV.
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LIZZIE.
Mother, what ails our Lizzie dear, So cold and still she lies? She does not speak a word to-day, And closed her soft blue eyes. Why won’t she look at me again, And laugh and play once more? I cannot make her look at me As she used to look before. Her face and neck as marble white,[Pg 93] And, O, so very cold! Why don’t you warm her, mother dear, Your cloak around her fold? Her little hand is cold as ice, Upon her waveless breast,— So pure, I thought I could see through The little hand I pressed. Your darling sister’s dead, my child; She cannot see you now; The damps of death are gath’ring there Upon her marble brow. She cannot speak to you again,[Pg 94] Her lips are sealed in death; That little hand will never move, Nor come that fleeting breath. All robed in white, and decked with flowers, We’ll lay her in the tomb; The flower that bloomed so sweetly here, No more on earth will bloom; But in our hearts we’ll lay her up, And love her all the more, Because she died in life’s spring time, Ere earth had won her o’er. Nay, nay, my child, she is not dead,[Pg 95] Although she slumbers there, And cold and still her marble brow, And free from pain and care. She slept, and passed from earth to heaven, And won her early crown: An angel now she dwells above, And looks in triumph down. She is not dead, for Jesus died That she might live again. “Forbid them not,” the Saviour said, And blessed dear sister then. Her little lamp this morn went out[Pg 96] On earth’s time-bounded shore; LIZZIE. 16
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Birthday Party, by Oliver Optic But angels bright in heaven this morn Relighted it once more. Some time we, too, shall fall asleep, To wake in heaven above, And meet our angel Lizzie there In realms of endless love. We’ll bear sweet sister in our hearts, And then there’ll ever be An angel there to keep our souls From sin and sorrow free.
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Study: Tree Thinning Didn’t Slow Fourmile Fire
The Fourmile Fire broke out in the foothills west of Boulder in early September 2010 and wound up destroying 169 homes. It was determined that a volunteer firefighter was responsible for the start of the blaze. The 70-year-old had been burning brush on his property in a fire pit and a few days later the fire pit apparently reignited because it wasn't fully extinguished. No charges were filed by the Boulder County District Attorney. (credit: CBS)
DENVER (AP) – A study of the most destructive wildfire in Colorado’s recorded history concludes that advance work to create fire breaks had little impact on the behavior of the blaze, although it did provide safe transportation routes for emergency crews and fleeing residents.
The 2010 Fourmile Canyon Fire in the heavily wooded canyons west of Boulder destroyed 168 homes and caused $217 million in insurance losses. More than 3,500 people were forced to evacuate.
About nine square miles burned. No deaths were reported.
Before the fire broke out, trees had been thinned on about 600 acres, or slightly less than one square mile, much of that along roads, in hopes of creating breaks to stop or slow a wildfire.
The thinning proved ineffective because it left too much flammable material on the ground, said the research team leader, Russell Graham, who works at the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station office in Moscow, Idaho.
“They didn’t clean up the surface fuels as much as they could have,” he said in an interview. “The biggest, the most effective fuel treatment is to treat the surface fuels.”
Some of the fire breaks were also too narrow to keep the fire from jumping across, Graham said.
The fire was reported on Sept. 6 and spread rapidly ahead of gusty winds in the hot, dry late summer. It was contained on Sept. 13.
Investigators concluded it started from a volunteer firefighter’s fire pit. Prosecutors decided not to file charges, saying they didn’t think they could prove the firefighter knowingly started the blaze or acted recklessly.
The study said 83 percent of the homes that were destroyed by fire were ignited by flames moving across the ground, while the rest were ignited by “crown fires” burning across the treetops.
Graham said that shows the potential for reducing fire damage by removing grass, brush and other low vegetation from in a 100-foot radius around homes.
Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colorado, who requested the study, said in a statement that the fire showed “the most important yard tool you can have if you live in a wildfire-prone area is not a chain saw; it’s a rake and a weed-whacker.”
Some people who did try to create a defensible space around their homes lost them anyway, Udall said, “but it’s a concrete step that can make a huge difference.”
The study said 474 homes were inside the fire area or within 100 feet of the perimeter. More than a third — 35 percent — were destroyed, which the study said is typical of wildfires in areas where homes are scattered in rural areas.
The study praised the emergency response system in Boulder County, saying it was credited with keeping residents and firefighters safe.
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A variety of glass, used in ornament, to cover a surface, as of metal or pottery, and admitting of after decoration in color, or used itself for inlaying or application in varied colors.
2.
(Min.) A glassy, opaque bead obtained by the blowpipe.
3.
That which is enameled; also, any smooth, glossy surface, resembling enamel, especially if variegated.
4.
(Anat.) The intensely hard calcified tissue entering into the composition of teeth. It merely covers the exposed parts of the teeth of man, but in many animals is intermixed in various ways with the dentine and cement.
5.
Any one of various preparations for giving a smooth, glossy surface like that of enamel.
6.
A cosmetic intended to give the appearance of a smooth and beautiful complexion.
Enamel painting, painting with enamel colors upon a ground of metal, porcelain, or the like, the colors being afterwards fixed by fire.
... curious trinkets, to which certain motions can be given at will by means of electricity, have recently been devised by an ingenious Frenchman, M. Trouve. Two of these are scarf pins; one has a death's-head, gold or enamel, with diamond eyes and lower articulated jaw; the other has a rabbit seated upright on a box with a little bell before it, to be struck with two rods held in the animal's fore-paws. An invisible wire connects these objects with a small hermetically closed battery, the ebonite ...— Harper's Young People, December 2, 1879 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various
... with this great source of preeminence in mass of color, we have to estimate the influence of the finished inlaying and enamel-work of the color-jewellery on every stone; and that of the continual variety in species of flower; most of the mountain flowers being, besides, separately lovelier than the lowland ones. The wood hyacinth and wild rose are, indeed, the only supreme flowers ...— Modern Painters, Volume IV (of V) • John Ruskin
... and returned in a few moments with a small bunch of keys in her hand. She went to the safe, unlocked it, and returned to the table bearing an oblong silver box of quaint design, with the portrait of a stout simpering lady in enamel on the cover. Miss Heredith directed Colwyn's attention to the portrait, remarking that it was a likeness of a princess of the reigning house, who had given it and the box to her great-uncle, Captain Sir ...— The Hand in the Dark • Arthur J. Rees
... table laden with them in half-finished forms. Some of the little wooden figures are set in a long rack to dry, for after the shellac has hardened each colour is put on and allowed to dry thoroughly before applying the next. The flesh-coloured enamel goes on first, then the other lighter shades, leaving the darker for the last, and the inevitable touches of black to finish ...— Greenwich Village • Anna Alice Chapin
... harness and elephant trappings are much more beautiful and costly than those at Jodpore, and in the adjoining armory is a remarkable collection of swords and other weapons with hilts of gold, jade, enamel and jewels. A coat of mail worn by Bani Singh, grandfather of the present rajah, is made of solid gold, weighing sixteen and a half pounds, and is lavishly decorated with diamonds. The library is rich in rare oriental books and manuscripts wonderfully illuminated in colors and gold. It has ...— Modern India • William Eleroy Curtis
... and cut in inch length pieces; four large oranges, chopped (use juice); one-half pound almonds, blanched and chopped; four pounds sugar; mix all together and let stand in bowl all night. Cook slowly in enamel kettle until thick. Seal with paraffine ...— Stevenson Memorial Cook Book • Various
... built of enameled brick, tinted pale blue or pale yellow, arabesques designed in gold lines on a ground of turquoise blue, the dominant color; leaning minarets threatening to fall and never falling, luckily for their coating of enamel, which the intrepid traveller Madame De Ujfalvy-Bourdon, declares to be much superior to the finest of our crackle enamels—and these are not vases to put on a mantelpiece or on a stand, but minarets of ...— The Adventures of a Special Correspondent • Jules Verne
... breadth of the brim of her hat. Otherwise the sunshine embraced her whole figure, conferring on it a glittering yet singularly unsubstantial effect, as though a column of pale windswept dust were overlaid, here and there, with splendour of rich enamel. ...— The Far Horizon • Lucas Malet
... if it is necessary to join two bits of soda glass of different kinds, it is better to separate them by a short length of flint glass; they are more likely to remain joined to it than to each other. A particular variety of flint glass, known as white enamel, is particularly suitable for this purpose, and, indeed, may be used practically as ...— On Laboratory Arts • Richard Threlfall
... with that word she smiled, and ne'ertheless Her love-toys still she used, and pleasures bold! Her hair, that done, she twisted up in tress, And looser locks in silken laces rolled, Her curles garlandwise she did up-dress, Wherein, like rich enamel laid on gold, The twisted flowers smiled, and her white breast The lilies there ...— Jerusalem Delivered • Torquato Tasso
... miss Lilac Sunday and Mr. Courtney's last sermon, but she told me to be sure and listen and if he let on he was sorry he was leaving not to believe him, because he's had everything except the parlor furniture crated for a month. They've been eating off tin plates and drinking out of two enamel cups on the kitchen table. Bessie thinks that for a minister he's full of sin and self-pride. But I ...— Green Valley • Katharine Reynolds
... in any event. I took her hand; it was a glowing pulse—and mine? She wore one of those curious little cabal rings; there were the Hebrew characters for Faith, traced as with a gold pen dipped in melted pearls on black enamel. My seal was an emerald, Faith also, impaled. I snatched it up and laid it by the ring on her hand. She smiled—such a smile! intensest sympathy, deepest! Could it be? to love the same old symbols, the same weird music? I caught her close, and bent ...— Continental Monthly, Vol. III, No IV, April 1863 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various
... STARCH ENAMEL.—Melt five pounds of Refined Paraffine Wax in a tin boiler or pan over a slow fire; use care in melting. When melted remove the vessel from the fire and add 200 drops of Oil of Citronelli. Take some new round tin pie pans, and oil them ...— One Thousand Secrets of Wise and Rich Men Revealed • C. A. Bogardus
... bicycle cleaner made by the AEtna Company, of Newark, N.J., was particularly recommended to prevent rust, and to polish the steel and enamel parts. ...— The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 18, March 11, 1897 - A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls • Various
... more sparsely cultivated here, and soon all trace of human handcraft was at an end. He found himself on a little plateau of volcanic cinders and lava-blocks. The spare grasses and flowers that grew between fuliginous masses of stone were already losing their bright enamel under the withering heat; a peculiar odour, acrid but stimulating to the nostrils, rose from the parched ground. Here he rested awhile. He scanned the landscape through his glasses—a wine-coloured sea at his feet, flecked with sailing boats innumerable; confronting him from the volcano ...— South Wind • Norman Douglas
... colour schemes are of more even power, better held together, composed of values more cunningly found. His whites are fatter, his purple richer, and the indigo blue—that fine blue as of old Japanese enamel, which is peculiar to him—has more depth of dye, more solidity of texture. The splendour and the costliness of the precious things, of which the superb fashions of his time were so lavish, appealed ...— The Mind of the Artist - Thoughts and Sayings of Painters and Sculptors on Their Art • Various
... rich purple, and dyed all the inside of the long deep cup. But along its edges stretched the forest, still untouched, and everywhere, in the bare spaces left here and there by the felling among the "rubble and woody wreck," green and gold mosses and delicate grasses had sprung up, a brilliant enamel, inlaid with a ...— Harvest • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... deep green of the slender bushes that bear the rich clusters of crimson buffalo berries. He knows and loves the wild flowers that hang their golden heads along the banks of the purling stream or that in gleaming colours enamel the wide stretches of the plain. There are a thousand leaves in every book, and with every book in nature's library he is familiar to ...— The Vanishing Race • Dr. Joseph Kossuth Dixon
... presentation took place on the 29th of January. The jewel resembled a badge rather than a brooch, bearing a St George's Cross in red enamel, and the Royal cypher surmounted by a crown in diamonds. The inscription "Blessed are the Merciful" encircled the badge which also ...— The Letters of Queen Victoria, Volume III (of 3), 1854-1861 • Queen of Great Britain Victoria
... things in life that a sage must preserve at every sacrifice, the coats of his stomach and the enamel of his teeth. Some evils admit of consolations: there are no comforters for dyspepsia and toothache." A man of letters, but a man of the world, he had so cultivated his mind as both that he was feared as the one and liked as the other. As a man of letters he despised the world; as a man of the ...— Kenelm Chillingly, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... there is extraordinary development of the canines. Inherited degeneracy from inebriate, syphilitic, or tuberculous parents frequently manifests itself in rickety teeth with longitudinal and transverse striae or serration of the edges, due to irregularities in the formation of the enamel. In idiots and epileptics, dentition is often backward and stunted; the milk-teeth are not replaced by others, or are almond-shaped and otherwise of ...— Criminal Man - According to the Classification of Cesare Lombroso • Gina Lombroso-Ferrero
... wonderful pearl grey porcelain enamel finish—so neat and attractive. No more soiled hands, no more dust and smut. By simply passing a damp cloth over the surface you are able to clean your range instantly. They certainly ...— American Cookery - November, 1921 • Various
... racing-locomotive, who hauled the pride and glory of the road—the gilt-edged Purple Emperor, the millionaires' south-bound express, laying the miles over his shoulder as a man peels a shaving from a soft board. The rest was a blur of maroon enamel, a bar of white light from the electrics in the cars, and a flicker of nickel-plated ...— The Day's Work, Volume 1 • Rudyard Kipling
... when she entered her own room. She touched all the familiar little objects, and kissed the feet of the ivory Virgin upon her mantel-piece with great emotion. She thanked her mother with a look when she saw the fresh marguerites in the two enamel vases. In comparison with the luxury of her apartment at the Grand Hotel in Brussels, the simple surroundings of her own room charmed her anew. She swayed for a moment in her rocking-chair, sat down ...— The Idol of Paris • Sarah Bernhardt
... otherwise with the power of physical nature. Vegetation yearly springs up with undiminished vigour. It is undecayed since the days of Cincinnatus and the Sabine farm. Every spring the expanse is covered with a carpet of flowers, which enamel the turf and conceal the earth with a profusion of varied beauty. So rich is the herbage which springs up with the alternate heats and rains of summer, that it becomes in most places rank, and the enormous herds which wander over the ...— Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 365, March, 1846 • Various
... stratification and passes into a mountain of porphyry. The gypsum [I] is covered by a bed [K], at least 1,000 feet in thickness, of a purplish-red, compact, heavy, fine-grained sandstone or mudstone, which fuses easily into a white enamel, and is seen under a lens to contain triturated crystals. This is succeeded by a bed [L], 1,000 feet thick (I believe I understate the thickness) of gypsum, exactly like the beds before described; and ...— South American Geology - also: - Title: Geological Observations On South America • Charles Darwin
... and there are rooms Spanish, Italian, Egyptian, Chinese, Russian, and Greek.) We bathed and dressed, and went down to dine in a circular dining-room with inlaid marble walls, and doors of carved, open-work bronze that have transparent enamel, like iridescent shell let into the openings. It is the first house I have seen big enough to make the Goodrich family look small, and the girls screamed with admiration in the dining-room; but Peter Storm laughed at the whole house. ...— The Lightning Conductor Discovers America • C. N. (Charles Norris) Williamson and A. M. (Alice Muriel)
... my wife, of me then," Ischomachus continued (so he told me); "believe that I too am not better pleased with white enamel or with alkanet than with your own natural hue; but as the gods have fashioned horses to delight in horses, cattle in cattle, sheep in their fellow sheep, so to human beings the human body pure and undefiled ...— The Economist • Xenophon
... the cowboys excellent companions. They were a picturesque crew with their broad felt hats, their flannel shirts of various colors, overlaid with an enamel of dust and perspiration, baked by the Dakota sun, their bright silk handkerchiefs knotted round the neck, their woolly "shaps," their great silver spurs, their loosely hanging cartridge-belts, their ominous revolvers. Roosevelt was struck by the rough ...— Roosevelt in the Bad Lands • Hermann Hagedorn
... the alveoli, which, as I am informed by the eminent veterinary Mr. G. T. Brown, frequently contain minute irregular nodules of bone. These nodules, however, sometimes become developed into imperfect teeth, protruding through the gums and coated with enamel; and occasionally they grow to a third or even a fourth of the length of the canines in the stallion. With plants I do not know whether the redevelopment of rudimentary organs occurs more frequently under culture than under ...— The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, Volume II (of 2) • Charles Darwin
... good residential suburb where they would have pleasant society; there were to be no consultations about wall-papers, or jocose whispers from friends as to the necessity of having a room that would do for a nursery. No glad young thing had leant on his arm while they chose the suite in white enamel, and china for "our bedroom," the modest salesman doing his best to spare their blushes. When Edith Gervase married she would get mamma to look out for two really good servants, "as we must begin quietly," and mamma would make sure that the drains and everything were right. Then ...— The Hill of Dreams • Arthur Machen
... the whole width of the chamber, while the second, on being cleaned at the time of the excavation above-mentioned, was found to have its upper and western surfaces sunk in the middle and traversed at one end by two parallel raised bands, and to show traces of that yellow enamel-like substance with which, indeed, the whole crypt seems to have been originally overlaid. In roof, width and height the passage at the top of these steps resembles that by which the crypt was approached, but it is spanned at the entrance ...— Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Ripon - A Short History of the Church and a Description of Its Fabric • Cecil Walter Charles Hallett
... ridged with manifold flounces, from beneath which a small foot showed itself from time to time, clad in the same hue of mourning. Everything about her was dark, except the whites of her eyes and the enamel of her teeth. The effect was complete. Gray's Elegy was not ...— Atlantic Monthly Volume 6, No. 37, November, 1860 • Various
... had departed from the chamber. But from the disordered chamber of my brain, had not, alas! departed, and would not be driven away, the white and ghastly spectrum of the teeth. Not a speck on their surface—not a shade on their enamel—not an indenture in their edges—but what that period of her smile had sufficed to brand in upon my memory. I saw them now even more unequivocally than I beheld them then. The teeth!—the teeth!—they ...— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 2 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe
... also, brooches of gold and silver and gilded bronze, set with gems and bright with enamel, and arm rings and torques of gold. Women's jewels there were, necklaces and bracelets, hung with the round golden plates, coin-like, with the face of Thor stamped on them, and written runes. Two bales there were also of wondrous stuffs from ...— A Sea Queen's Sailing • Charles Whistler
... next, the emblem of the Holy Trinity with the clover-leaf; next, the emblem of the Holy Ghost with olive branches; next, the crown of glory with palm branches. The Paten is enriched with a golden medallion on the rim, in the form of a vesica, which shows the Agnus Dei, executed in colored enamel.] ...— Report Of Commemorative Services With The Sermons And Addresses At The Seabury Centenary, 1883-1885. • Diocese Of Connecticut
... stopped in front of a shop in a short side street. Indian embroidery work and enameled silver occupied the window, and although Lister was not an artist he had an eye for line and knew the things were good. The soft, stained deerskin was cleverly embroidered; he liked the warm colors of the enamel, and going in was ...— Lister's Great Adventure • Harold Bindloss
... and rolled him in on top of his friend, who had just recovered sufficiently to be thinking about getting out again. The pair of them lay there in a tangled heap. Charteris picked up the bicycle and gave it a cursory examination. The enamel was a good deal scratched, but no material damage had been done. He wheeled ...— Tales of St. Austin's • P. G. Wodehouse
... on her husband's side, slightly related to the new Queen of Prussia, wife of the king with the hundred chamberlains. She had her portrait painted on enamel, after the process of Turquet of Mayerne. This Queen of Prussia had also a younger ...— The Man Who Laughs • Victor Hugo
... little cupboard door and discovered all sorts of pans and kettles made of white enamel...— The Girl Scouts at Home - or Rosanna's Beautiful Day • Katherine Keene Galt
... Babylon was rebuilt. Esarhaddon used all the available captives taken in war on the foundations and the fabrication of bricks, erected walls, rebuilt all the temples, and lavishly devoted gold, silver, costly stones, rare woods, and plates of enamel to decoration. The canals were made good for the gardens, and the people, who had been scattered in various provinces, were encouraged to ...— The World's Greatest Books, Vol XI. • Edited by Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton
... extended from the door around one corner of the room where it terminated beside a kind of mushrabiyeh cabinet or cupboard. Beyond this cabinet was a long, low counter laden with statuettes of Nile gods, amulets, mummy-beads and little stoppered flasks of blue enamel ware. There were two glass cases filled with other strange-looking antiquities. ...— Dope • Sax Rohmer
... He did not recognise the writing on the envelope. He had not the remotest idea—It was a jolly evening.... could Enamel be that word in e and ...— If Winter Comes • A.S.M. Hutchinson
... the lamp, which leads thee up on high, Find, in thy destin'd lot, of wax so much, As may suffice thee to the enamel's height." It thus began: "If any certain news Of Valdimagra and the neighbour part Thou know'st, tell me, who once was mighty there They call'd me Conrad Malaspina, not That old one, but from him I sprang. The love I bore my people is ...— The Divine Comedy, Complete - The Vision of Paradise, Purgatory and Hell • Dante Alighieri
... with satin and without sleeves, and the hat a crush opera. These two latter adjuncts are not indispensable, but most convenient. An ordinary black overcoat and top hat can be worn with evening dress. No visible jewelry—not even a watch chain—is allowed. The shirt buttons are either of white enamel, dull-finished gold, or pearls, and the sleeve links white-enameled or lozenge-shaped disks of gold, with a monogram ...— The Complete Bachelor - Manners for Men • Walter Germain
... our meals together. A rather pathetic incident occurred one day. Just after we had finished lunch three of us were seated, talking of the meals the "Australia" provided, when a fragment of shell came through the roof on to the table and broke one of the enamel plates. This may seem a trivial affair and not worth grousing about; but the sorry part of it was that we only had one plate each, and this loss entailed one man having to wait until the others ...— Five Months at Anzac • Joseph Lievesley Beeston
... which still forms the delight of Western collectors. The painter, the ivory-carver, the decorator, were left almost untroubled in their production of fairy-pictures, exquisite grotesqueries, miracles of liliputian art in metal and enamel and lacquer-of-gold. In all such small matters they could feel free; and the results of that freedom are now treasured in the museums of Europe and America. It is true that most of the arts (nearly all of Chinese origin) were considerably developed before the Tokugawa era; but it was then that they ...— Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation • Lafcadio Hearn
... to say that poetry is more eternal, I say the works of a coppersmith are more eternal still, for time preserves them longer than your works or ours; nevertheless they have not much imagination [29]. And a picture, if painted on copper with enamel colours may be yet more permanent. We, by our arts may be called the grandsons of God. If poetry deals with moral philosophy, painting deals with natural philosophy. Poetry describes the action of the mind, painting considers what the mind may effect by the motions [of ...— The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, Complete • Leonardo Da Vinci
... a pretty and ornamental pin of gold is proper, or of gold and enamel, but even then it should have a useful purpose; it should fasten some part of the toilet. The enameled and gold wreaths of myrtle or of forget-me-nots are extremely pretty for these simple pins. So are the true love-nots or a flower ...— Social Life - or, The Manners and Customs of Polite Society • Maud C. Cooke
... teeth, or caries, commences externally, appearing upon the enamel or bony structure of the teeth. Usually it is the result of chemical action produced by decomposition of food. Acids found in some fruits will cause decay if allowed to remain in contact with the teeth. Then there are the natural mouth acids, which, although not strong, are none the less effective ...— The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing - A Manual of Ready Reference • Joseph Triemens
... brother got here just as we did, didn't you?" asked Hildegarde, looking up at him with eyes that were like bright blue enamel. ...— Tales of the Jazz Age • F. Scott Fitzgerald
... mounds of potatoes, and pots of steaming black coffee; but just then it was a radical change from my usual glass of milk and thin sandwich lunch. The food was served on long pine tables, flanked by backless benches. Blue and white enamel dishes, steel knives and forks, and of course no napkins, made up the service. We drank coffee from tin cups, cooling and diluting it with condensed milk poured from the original can. I soon learned ...— I Married a Ranger • Dama Margaret Smith
... The fixed stars which enamel and bespangle the concave expanse, or canopy of heaven, by numbers and lustre, make the night beauteous and delightful, which would otherwise be dark and horrible. The UNIVERSE has no determinate form or figure at all; for it is every way infinite and unlimited, and is called the MUNDANE SPACE, in ...— A Museum for Young Gentlemen and Ladies - A Private Tutor for Little Masters and Misses • Unknown
... so they are," said Dyke; and picking them up, he took careful hold of one of the lion's tusks, after loosening it with the hammer and chisel, and dragged it out without having injured the enamel...— Diamond Dyke - The Lone Farm on the Veldt - Story of South African Adventure • George Manville Fenn
... negro boy who had two large teeth in the nose; his dentition was otherwise normal, but a portion of the nose was destroyed by ulceration. Roy describes a Hindoo lad of fourteen who had a tooth in the nose, supposed to have been a tumor. It was of the canine type, and was covered with enamel to the junction with the root, which was deeply imbedded in the side and upper part of the antrum. The boy had a perfect set of permanent teeth and no deformity, swelling, or cystic formation of the jaw. This was clearly a case of extrafollicular ...— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould
... the basket a Legion of Honor in red enamel, surveyed the room for a moment; then she made her way through the dancers and held out the favor to Woburn. He fastened it in his coat, and emerging from the crowd of men about the doorway, slipped his arm about her. Their eyes met; hers ...— The Greater Inclination • Edith Wharton
... never been ploughed up, and the long red grass of early times still grew shaggy over the draws and hillocks. Out there I felt at home again. Overhead the sky was that indescribable blue of autumn; bright and shadowless, hard as enamel. To the south I could see the dun-shaded river bluffs that used to look so big to me, and all about stretched drying cornfields, of the pale-gold color I remembered so well. Russian thistles were blowing across the uplands ...— My Antonia • Willa Sibert Cather
... advantage, admit such classification. How are we to distinguish painting on canvas from painting on china?—or painting on china from painting on glass?—or painting on glass from infusion of colour into any vitreous substance, such as enamel?—or the infusion of colour into glass and enamel from the infusion of colour into wool or silk, and weaving of pictures in tapestry, or patterns in dress? You will find that although, in ultimately accurate use of the word, painting must be held to mean only the laying of ...— The Crown of Wild Olive • John Ruskin
... some other things. One was a small stick, the point of which was reddened with a substance which microscopic examination afterward showed to be blood. The other was a scarf-pin made of gold, the head of which consisted of a Maltese cross, of very rich and elegant design. In the middle was black enamel inclosed by a richly chased gold border, and at the intersection of the bars was a small diamond of great splendor. If this cross belonged to the murderer it had doubtless become loosened, and fallen out while he was stooping over his victim, and the loss had not ...— The Living Link • James De Mille
... blanket! Now, you know perfectly well, we're doing our best. And if we're awkward, we can't help it. We're going this afternoon to get the favours. What do you think of little pins,—silver gilt, or enamel?" ...— Patty's Social Season • Carolyn Wells
... addition to every known coloured stone that this earth of ours can produce, with which it is built and decorated and floored, it has the wonderful Pala d'oro, that sumptuous altar-piece of gold and silver and enamel which contains some six thousand jewels. More people, I guess, come to see this than anything else; but it is worth standing before, if only as a reminder of how far the Church has travelled since a carpenter's son, who despised riches, founded ...— A Wanderer in Venice • E.V. Lucas
... surface; the body—the part projecting from the jaw—is the seat of sensation and nutrition; the root is that portion of the tooth which is inserted in the alveolus. The teeth are composed of dentine (ivory) and enamel. The ivory forms the greater portion of the body and root, while the enamel covers the exposed surface. The small white cords communicating with the ...— Searchlights on Health: Light on Dark Corners • B.G. Jefferis
... to account the teeth of animals. We may quote in this connection the molars of a bear from which the enamel and the crown have been removed, and the thickness of which has been lessened by rubbing (Fig. 11). The small flints picked up in great numbers in the department of the Gironde also date from a remote antiquity; they are sixteen millimetres long by four wide, and though we cannot ...— Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric Peoples • The Marquis de Nadaillac
... society of the Austins, outward, stoical conformers to the world, something gravely suggestive of essential eccentricity, something unpretentiously breathing of intellectual effort, that could not fail to hit the fancy of this hot-brained boy. The unbroken enamel of courtesy, the self-restraint, the dignified kindness of these married folk, had besides a particular attraction for their visitor. He could not but compare what he saw with what he knew of his mother and ...— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume 9 • Robert Louis Stevenson
... of October, 1831, draws near its close. It is noon—an hour well nigh mortal to him who encounters the fiery heat of the sun, which spreads a sheet of dazzling light over the deep blue enamel of ...— The Wandering Jew, Complete • Eugene Sue
... the eagle; the large, gentle, brown eye of the ox; the treacherous, green eye of the cat, waxing and waning like the moon; the pert eye of the sparrow; the sly eye of the fox; the peering little bead of black enamel in the mouse's head; the gem-like eye that redeems the toad from ugliness, and the intelligent, affectionate expression which looks out of the human-like eye of the horse and dog. There are many other animals whose eyes are full of beauty, but there is ...— Bunyan Characters - Third Series - The Holy War • Alexander Whyte
... permit us to change our husband as we do our linen! That would be very convenient; and, troth, I know some women whom it would please as much as myself. (Taking up the picture which Celia had let fall). But what a pretty thing has fortune sent me here; the enamel of it is most beautiful, the workmanship delightful; let me ...— Sganarelle - or The Self-Deceived Husband • Moliere
... credit for what he is,' Diana replied. 'I admire the finer qualities of the race as much as any one. You want to have them presented to you in enamel, Emmy.' ...— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... complete, and hideous. I fairly hated the Unknown. "Fool that I was!" I exclaimed, in the theatrical manner, dashing the palm of my hand softly against my brow: "lured to this by the fair traitress! But, no!—not fair: she shows the artfulness of faded, desperate spinsterhood; she is all compact of enamel, 'liquid bloom of ...— Short Story Classics (American) Vol. 2 • Various
... his family and pressed loans on willing borrowers so that he might have the pleasure of making out receipts and reckoning the interests on the sums lent. When he could do no more he drove up and down the city in trams. Then the season of pleasure came to an end. The pot of pink enamel paint gave out and the wainscot of his bedroom remained with its unfinished and ...— A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man • James Joyce
... Dorothy, and I'll help when your arm gets tired," said Ruth, getting the chafing-dish from the shelf under the table. "We'll put the cups on the mantel, girls, and cover the table with this enamel cloth that Mrs. Hamilton gave me this morning. Isn't she a dear? She thinks of everything to make me have ...— Glenloch Girls • Grace M. Remick
... box, neither more nor less, fourteen by fourteen feet of bare board wall, unpainted and unpapered. There was an iron bed, a willow rocker, and a rude closet for clothes in one corner. A duplicate of the department-store bargain rug in the other room lay on the floor. On an upturned box stood an enamel pitcher and a tin washbasin. ...— Big Timber - A Story of the Northwest • Bertrand W. Sinclair
... bid you have a care, truth never wants a subterfuge, it always loves to appear naked, it needs no enamel, nor any covering; but lying and snivelling, and canting, and Hicksing, always appear in masquerade. Come, go on ...— State Trials, Political and Social - Volume 1 (of 2) • Various
... tooth-like scales, the placoid scales, and these are continued over the lips into the mouth as teeth. Each scale consists of a base of true bone, with a little tubercle of a harder substance, dentine, capped by a still denser covering, the enamel. The enamel is derived from the outer layer of the embryonic dog-fish, the epiblast, which also gives rise to the epidermis; while the dentine and bony base arise in the underlying mesoblast, the dermis. A mammalian ...— Text Book of Biology, Part 1: Vertebrata • H. G. Wells
... certain Balkan State which I will refrain from naming, the inhabitants are also confirmed souvenir-hunters. At a dinner-party at the British Legation in this nameless State, one of the Diplomatic ladies was wearing a very fine necklace of pearls and enamel. A native of the State admired this necklace immensely, and begged for permission to examine it closer. The Diplomat's wife very unwisely unfastened her pearl necklace, and it was passed around from hand to hand, amidst loud expressions of admiration at its beautiful workmanship. ...— The Days Before Yesterday • Lord Frederick Hamilton
... white arms, and if one has the other kind one had better go and do a rest-cure. Your Blanche is beyond criticism in that respect, as you know, and the other night at the opera I'd a succes fou with a big black-enamel beetle, held in place by an invisible platinum chain, ...— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 156, May 28, 1919. • Various
... through the wood which was the background of their dwelling. Lady Annabel was silent, and lost in her reflections; Venetia plucked the beautiful wild hyacinths that then abounded in the wood in such profusion, that their beds spread like patches of blue enamel, and gave them to Mistress Pauncefort, who, as the collection increased, handed them over to the groom; who, in turn, deposited them in the wicker seat prepared for his young mistress. The bright sun bursting through ...— Venetia • Benjamin Disraeli
... approve of tapestried walls, cups and bowls of silver, gold and enamel, flower-gardens or delicately-made dishes. Fortunately her daughter-in-law's herb-garden was not wholly under the ban. It contained herbs useful in medicine, and God has ordained that many useful plants ...— Masters of the Guild • L. Lamprey
... servants to bring out the gramophone, which during dinner poured forth a selection of London street songs and Chinese theatrical music. Conversation was drowned, and we were able the more to observe. In place of scroll-decorated walls, brilliant paper met our gaze at every turn, white enamel basins and bowls replaced all the flowered china on which we had lavished so much admiration. After dinner we were not offered the water pipe, but cigarettes, all expressing surprise that we could refuse ...— The Fulfilment of a Dream of Pastor Hsi's - The Story of the Work in Hwochow • A. Mildred Cable
... department of the great store to which they first repaired, and there they hovered for two hours among tins and aluminum and wooden ware, discussing the relative charms of white-enamel refrigerators and gas-ranges, vacuum cleaners and dish-washers, the new ideas against the old. Julia Cloud was for careful buying and getting along with few things; the children were infatuated with the idea of a kitchen of their own, and wanted everything in sight. They went wild ...— Cloudy Jewel • Grace Livingston Hill
... blushing plums, or pears; And all the shrubs, with sparkling spangles, shew Like morning sunshine tinselling the dew. Here in green meadows sits eternal May, Purfling the margents, while perpetual day So double gilds the air, as that no night Can ever rust th' enamel of the light. Here, naked younglings, handsome striplings, run Their goals for virgins' kisses; which when done, Then unto dancing forth the learned round Commixed they meet, with endless roses crown'd. And here we'll sit on primrose-banks, and see Love's chorus led by Cupid; and we'll be ...— The Hesperides & Noble Numbers: Vol. 1 and 2 • Robert Herrick
... south-western corner of the works was a disused enamel-kiln which had been built experimentally and had proved a failure. He walked through the yard, crept with some difficulty into the kiln, and closed the iron door. A pale silver light came down ...— Leonora • Arnold Bennett
... fate of many of the most civilised states of Christendom; and it is quite ridiculous to argue that Russia, which wrestled hardest, must have recovered least. Everywhere, doubtless, the East spread a sort of enamel over the conquered countries, but everywhere the enamel cracked. Actual history, in fact, is exactly opposite to the cheap proverb invented against the Muscovite. It is not true to say "Scratch a Russian and you find a Tartar." ...— The Appetite of Tyranny - Including Letters to an Old Garibaldian • G.K. Chesterton
... Flick-Flack detached a piece of twine passed round his favorite's throat; the glitter of gold arrested Cigarette's eyes. She caught what the poodle's impatient caress had broken from the string. It was a small, blue-enamel medallion bonbon-box, with a hole through it by which it had been slung—a tiny toy once costly, now tarnished, for it had been carried through many rough scenes and many years of hardship; had been bent by blows struck at the breast against which it rested, and was clotted ...— Under Two Flags • Ouida [Louise de la Ramee]
... temple, lighted only through the door and by some infiltration through the marble roof, and their effect was calculated for these conditions. The rich tone and subtle reflections of the ivory and the gold, mingled with coloured inlays of enamel or precious stones, and tempered and harmonised by a "dim religious light," must have been most impressive; and the grandeur of the figures was enhanced by their colossal size. But in all this we are still dealing only with conditions and accessories, not with the art itself ...— Religion and Art in Ancient Greece • Ernest Arthur Gardner
... a description of a brief visit by a representative of the Journal of Decorative Art to the new factory of the Patent Letter and Enamel Company, Ltd., situate in ...— Scientific American Supplement, No. 841, February 13, 1892 • Various
... Japanese ladies do not so generally follow the example, they do blacken their teeth, which one must confess is more objectionable still. In these faithful notes it must be admitted that even the Japanese ladies paint cheeks and lips with such a tinge of vermilion as is thought to be becoming, and enamel their faces and necks. This, however, it must be remembered is before marriage. After that relationship has taken place, as has before been intimated, it becomes the ridiculous practice of every Japanese wife to render ...— Due West - or Round the World in Ten Months • Maturin Murray Ballou
... furnished with shoulder straps, so that you can carry a lunch, writing materials, guide-book, and such other small articles as you constantly need. You can buy a haversack at the stores where sportsmen's outfits are sold; or you can make one of enamel-cloth or rubber drilling, say eleven inches deep by nine wide, with a strap of the same material neatly doubled and sewed together, forty to forty-five inches long, and one and three-quarters inches wide. Cut the back piece about nineteen inches long, so as to allow for a flap eight ...— How to Camp Out • John M. Gould
... well and gives to the pictures, after they have been exposed an hour or two to the atmosphere, a silver-like appearance: but this copperas solution seems to destroy the glass for using a second time, inasmuch as a haziness is cast upon the glass, and its former enamel seems lost, not to be regained even by using acids. The hyposulphite also seems to be affected by this manner of developing the {605} pictures after a short time, which is not the case with pyrogallic acid. The hypo., when ...— Notes and Queries, Number 190, June 18, 1853 • Various
... cleaned either by the fish dealer or the housewife and cannot be cooked at once, it should be looked over carefully, immediately washed in cold water, salted slightly inside and out, placed in a covered enamel or porcelain dish, and then put where it will keep as cold as possible. If a refrigerator is used, the fish should be put in the compartment from which odors cannot be carried to foods in the other compartments. In cold weather, an excellent ...— Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 3 - Volume 3: Soup; Meat; Poultry and Game; Fish and Shell Fish • Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
... sapphire-blue jewel in the brooch. Triumphs of execution, too, but not in the broad style of Venetian art in its fullest expansion, are the gleaming sword held in so dainty and feminine a fashion, and the flowers which enamel the ground at the feet of the Jewish heroine." This "Judith," after passing for many years under the names of Raphael and Moretto,[46] is now officially recognised as Giorgione's work, an identification first made by the ...— Giorgione • Herbert Cook
... Grand Jean decorated the back of his head with a little pigtail, which much resembled a head of asparagus, and was always jumping and frisking from one shoulder to the other. His snuff-box was of rare enamel, his ruffles of point-lace, and his artistic performances in the culinary art were all carried on in vessels of solid silver. He was, from the point of his toe to the tips of his hair, the aristocrat of ...— Le Morvan, [A District of France,] Its Wild Sports, Vineyards and Forests; with Legends, Antiquities, Rural and Local Sketches • Henri de Crignelle
... pretty." The carver accordingly took the branch and began carving out the head, shoulders, body, and legs, which he soon brought to their proper shape. "He then covered it with a fine, flesh-colored enamel and painted its cheeks in the most lively manner. It had the finest black and sparkling eyes that were ever beheld; its cheeks resembled the blushing rose, its neck the lilly, and its lips the coral." The doll is presented, ...— Forgotten Books of the American Nursery - A History of the Development of the American Story-Book • Rosalie V. Halsey
... in Jasper Allen treating her like a lover. And that treatment restored the lustre of her beauty. He clothed her in many coats of the very best white paint so skilfully, carefully, artistically put on and kept clean by his badgered crew of picked Malays, that no costly enamel such as jewellers use for their work could have looked better and felt smoother to the touch. A narrow gilt moulding defined her elegant sheer as she sat on the water, eclipsing easily the professional good looks of any pleasure yacht that ever ...— 'Twixt Land & Sea • Joseph Conrad
... reach nearly to the ceiling and their set stare passes high above our heads. And there are others that are not larger than ourselves, some even quite little, with the stature of gnomes. And, every now and then, at some sudden turning, we encounter a pair of eyes of enamel, wide-open eyes, that pierce straight into the depths of ours, that seem to follow us as we pass and make us shiver as if by the contact of a thought that comes from the abysm ...— Egypt (La Mort De Philae) • Pierre Loti
... sort of case fitting closely to the mummied body. This case was richly painted, covered in front with a network of beads and bugles arranged in a tasteful form, the face being overlaid with thick gold leaf and the eyes made of enamel. This again was placed in other cases, sometimes three or four in number, all similarly ornamented with painting and gilding, and the whole inclosed in a sarcophagus or coffin of wood or stone, profusely decorated with painting and sculpture. It was then handed over to the family of ...— The Cat of Bubastes - A Tale of Ancient Egypt • G. A. Henty
... until—as may be seen to-day in the mouth of a young shark—the cavity was lined with teeth. In the bulk of the Devonian sharks these developed into what are significantly called "pavement teeth." They were solid plates of enamel, an inch or an inch and a half in width, with which the monster ground its enormous meals of Molluscs, Crustacea, sea-weed, etc. A new and stimulating element had come into the life of the invertebrate world. Other sharks snapped larger victims, and developed the teeth on the edges of their jaws, ...— The Story of Evolution • Joseph McCabe
... moment, then, looking at the license plate of the machine—its enamel now half cracked off, but the numbers still legible—drew out his note-book and pencil and made a memo of ...— The Air Trust • George Allan England
... in the bones; hence the bones bend and twist, and lose their shape, causing deformity. Rickets generally begins to show itself between the first and second years of a child's life. Such children are generally late in cutting their teeth, and when the teeth do come they are bad, deficient of enamel, discoloured, and readily decay. A rickety child is generally stunted in stature; he has a large head, with overhanging forehead, or what nurses call a watery-head-shaped forehead. The fontanelles, or openings of the head, as they are called, are a long time in closing. A rickety child is usually ...— Advice to a Mother on the Management of her Children • Pye Henry Chavasse
... There were enamel-backed brushes with deep bristles that plowed her hair out into dust of gold, and a finely wrought amber comb which she ran through the fluff, ...— Star-Dust • Fannie Hurst
... larger one entails waste of ice, while a smaller necessitates the placing near together of foods which should be kept apart, as butter and milk with fish, fruit, etc. If one cares to invest in the higher-priced refrigerators, of course those lined with tile, porcelain, or enamel are very desirable, as they are easily kept clean and do not absorb odors. But for the average income and use, a first-class zinc-lined refrigerator answers every purpose. It should be thoroughly cleansed, on the mornings when the ice is to be renewed, with hot sal soda ...— The Complete Home • Various
... of gold-sifted light leading over the edge of the world through the aisled evergreens, but at the end a glint as of emerald, the sheen of water with the metal glister of green enamel, water marbled like onyx or malachite, with the reflection of a snow cross and dun gray shadows—shadows of deer standing motionless at the opening of the aisled trees—come out from the forest at sundown to their drinking place. Lane of light? It had been a lane of delight; and that was what all ...— The Freebooters of the Wilderness • Agnes C. Laut
... long duration. And now she turns and gazes towards the above of mortals, But cannot discern the Imperial city, lost in the dust and haze. Then she takes out the old keepsake, tokens of undying love, A gold hairpin, an enamel brooch, and bids the magician carry these back. One half of the hairpin she keeps, and one half of the enamel brooch, Breaking with her hands the yellow gold, and dividing the enamel in two. "Tell him," she said, "to be firm of heart, as this gold and enamel, ...— The Civilization Of China • Herbert A. Giles
... need an enamel or earthenware saucepan; a long wooden spoon; one or two old soup-plates or dishes; a bowl, if there is any mixing to be done; a cup of cold water for testing; a silver knife; and, if you are not cooking in the kitchen, ...— What Shall We Do Now?: Five Hundred Games and Pastimes • Dorothy Canfield Fisher
... was fastening the lace shawl, which nightly transformed her day dress into her evening dress, with the brooch Ruskin had given her on her marriage, formed of two pearl lilies tied together by a blue enamel ribbon on which was written in gold letters Esto perpetua; Mr. Wilkins was sitting on the edge of his bed brushing his wife's hair— thus far in this third week had he progressed in demonstrativeness— ...— The Enchanted April • Elizabeth von Arnim
... walled garden. In winter that sitting room was the sunniest, cosiest room in the city, and Cynthia spent many hours there, reading or listening to the wisdom that fell from the lips of Miss Lucretia or her guests. The sitting room had uneven, yellow-white panelling that fairly shone with enamel, mahogany bookcases filled with authors who had chosen to comply with Miss Lucretia's somewhat rigorous censorship; there was a table laden with such magazines as had to do with the uplifting of a sex, a delightful wavy floor covered with a rose carpet; and, needless to add, not a pin or a ...— The Crossing • Winston Churchill
... his sojourn in the Soudan (first time). "It was so worn out (says Miss Gordon) that he gave it to me. Hearing that the Queen would like to see it, I forwarded it to Windsor Castle." And this Bible is now placed in an enamel and crystal case called "The St. George's Casket," where it now lies open on a white satin cushion, with a marble bust of General Gordon on ...— General Gordon - Saint and Soldier • J. Wardle
... now most concerns us, and the bearing of his pleased view of this absence of friction upon Amerigo's character as a representative precious object. Representative precious objects, great ancient pictures and other works of art, fine eminent "pieces" in gold, in silver, in enamel, majolica, ivory, bronze, had for a number of years so multiplied themselves round him and, as a general challenge to acquisition and appreciation, so engaged all the faculties of his mind, that the instinct, the particular sharpened appetite of the ...— The Golden Bowl • Henry James
... boric-acid solution (containing as much boric acid as the water will dissolve) or in carbolic-acid solution (one teaspoonful of pure acid to the pint of warm water) should be applied over the wound and covered with oil silk or rubber or enamel cloth for a few days, or until the soreness has subsided. The dressing should be wet with the solution as often as it becomes dry. Punctures by nails, especially if deep, should be washed out with a syringe, using one of the solutions just mentioned. A medicine ...— The Home Medical Library, Volume I (of VI) • Various
... retained among the family papers—such, at least, as were left after the burning of the castle by Cromwell. It is a moonstone sapphire, set in two brilliants of different shape. There is a curious bluish enamel on part of the gold, which is embossed half-way round. There is also a charm, which is said to have belonged to Kate M'Niven. It is a slight iron chain with a black heart, having two cross bones in gold on the back, bearing the words 'cruelle death' on it, and attached to it ...— Chronicles of Strathearn • Various
... otherwise when he hears my proposed tariff his skin will probably crawl away with him. He is accustomed to seeing the publisher impoverish the author—that spectacle must be getting stale to him—if he contracts with the undersigned he will experience a change in that programme that will make the enamel peel off his teeth for very surprise—and joy. No, that last is what Mrs. Clemens thinks—but it's not so. The proposed work is growing, mightily, in my estimation, day by day; and I'm not going to throw it away for any mere trifle. If I make a contract with the canny Scot, I will then tell him ...— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... with a groove on either side, and is evidently hollow within. At six years old the mark on the central nippers is worn out. There will, however, still be a difference of color in the center of the tooth. The cement filling up the hole made by the dipping in of the enamel, will present a browner hue than the other part of the tooth. It will be surrounded by an edge of enamel, and there will remain a little depression in the center, and also a depression around the case of the enamel. But the deep hole in the center of the enamel, with ...— The Mule - A Treatise On The Breeding, Training, - And Uses To Which He May Be Put • Harvey Riley
... two of these garments, and selected a crimson satin, embroidered with gold butterflies, and a black and red velvet tartan with white stripes and a rolling collar, with which, and a rich blue satin stock and a gold pin, consisting of a five-barred gate with a horseman in pink enamel jumping over it, he thought he might make his entry into London with some dignity. For Jos's former shyness and blundering blushing timidity had given way to a more candid and courageous self-assertion of his worth. "I ...— Vanity Fair • William Makepeace Thackeray
... mahogany commode of an Empire pattern, a statue of Time in black bronze, running with his scythe in rest, served as a watch stand for a small watch with a monogram in diamonds upon blue enamel, surrounded with pearls. The floor was covered with a bright carpet with black and green stripes. The curtains at the bed and the window were of old-fashioned chintz with red figures upon ...— Germinie Lacerteux • Edmond and Jules de Goncourt
... he said, his voice eager with enthusiasm. "It is perfect. Jean secured it for me while I was away. It is the skull of a beaver, and shows in three distinct and remarkable gradations how nature replaces the soft enamel as it is worn from the beaver's teeth. You see, I am a hobbyist. For twenty years I have been ...— God's Country—And the Woman • James Oliver Curwood
... of British genius. The art of engraving was brought to perfection by Strange, and laudably practised by Grignon, Baron, Ravenet, and several other masters; great improvements were made in mezzotinto, miniature, and enamel. Many fair monuments of sculpture or statuary were raised by Rysbrach, Roubilliac, and Wilton. Architecture, which had been cherished by the elegant taste of Burlington, soon became a favourite study; and many magnificent edifices were reared ...— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett
... took from about his hairy neck a heavy Italian crucifix of black wood, whereon was a figure of our Lord, wrought in white enamel, with golden nails, and a golden ...— A Monk of Fife • Andrew Lang
... Pinky, away at school, began to bring their friends back with them for the vacations. Pinky's room had been done over in cream enamel and rose-flowered cretonne. She said the chromos in the hall spoiled the entire second floor. So the gold frames, glittering undimmed, the cheeks as rosily glowing as ever, found temporary resting place in a nondescript back chamber known as the sewing room. Then the new ...— Half Portions • Edna Ferber
... fortunately, if the public was content with such pretty, silly toy affairs, the horologers were not. Patiently they continued the struggle to make timepieces better; and to prove that all this nonsense about pretty watches was not without value, I will tell you that it was while making a white enamel base on which to paint a miniature that some clever person bethought him how nice a watch face of white enamel would be with ...— Christopher and the Clockmakers • Sara Ware Bassett
... It will go hard with us if we cannot find some way of utilizing these tins, whether we make them into flowerpots with a coat of enamel, or convert them into ornaments, or cut them up for toys or some other purpose. My officers have been instructed to make an exhaustive report on the way the refuse collectors of Paris deal with the sardine tins. The industry of making tin toys will ...— "In Darkest England and The Way Out" • General William Booth
... abroad the vastly more impressive legend "Salon Malakoff." The window shelves fairly groaned beneath their burden of soaps, toilet waters, and perfumery, a string of bright yellow sponges occupied each corner of the window, and, through the agency of white enamel letters on the pane itself, public attention was drawn to the apparently contradictory facts that English was spoken and "schampoing" given within. Then Hippolyte engaged two assistants, and clad them in white duck jackets, and ...— Lords of the Housetops - Thirteen Cat Tales • Various
... board" was of the familiar blue enamel, well known in metropolitan use, with white lettering, announcing that the exhibition of the Incorporated Society of British Artists was held above, and that for the sum of one shilling the ...— The Gentle Art of Making Enemies • James McNeill Whistler
... out-of-place, yet more numerous than truly Persian shops, are the semi-European stores, with cheap glass windows displaying inside highly dangerous-looking kerosene lamps, badly put together tin goods, soiled enamel tumblers and plates, silvered glass balls for ceiling decoration, and the vilest oleographs that the human mind can devise, only matched by the vileness of the frames. Small looking-glasses play an important part in these displays, and occasionally ...— Across Coveted Lands - or a Journey from Flushing (Holland) to Calcutta Overland • Arnold Henry Savage Landor
... in the remaining cases miscellaneously grouped, are ancient dice, some of which have been loaded, suggesting the antiquity of roguery; ivory hair pins; bronze needles; glass beads; fragments of cornelian and other cups, and glass; bronze figures of animals; inlaid and enamel work; styli for writing upon wax; ancient medical ...— How to See the British Museum in Four Visits • W. Blanchard Jerrold
... was necessary to keep a stove very bright and shining, or it would wear out, and, besides that, a bright one made the kitchen look tidy and attractive. "Some people just paint the whole stove over once or twice a year with a black enamel, and never polish it at all, and perhaps that is a good way for very busy people to do, but I like the old-fashioned way better myself. Shine it a little every day in the week, and once in every few days give it a good thorough blacking and ...— A Little Housekeeping Book for a Little Girl - Margaret's Saturday Mornings • Caroline French Benton
... old Cephisus deep, Who spread his wavy sweep, 20 In warbled wanderings, round thy green retreat; On whose enamel'd side, When holy Freedom died, No equal haunt allured ...— The Poetical Works of William Collins - With a Memoir • William Collins
... precious stones of some size; and with other white ones which are smaller; of these little ones, some are still left, fastened in with filigrane. In the middle of the cross is a raised part, after the manner of an artichoke, ending in white and green enamel; and it is said that in the hollow thereof are certain relicks, with a piece of the holy wood of the true cross. Verily, that part of the writing which can still be read implieth this, for thus much may at ...— Chronicle Of The Cid • Various
... some of the pictures and statutes that stand out clearest in my memory, but there wuz everything else there admirable and choice in art, paintings in oil, wax; on canvas, wood, enamel, metal, fresco paintings on walls and ceilings. Water colors, chalk, pastel, ivory, pyrography. Engravings, etchings, figgers in marble, metal, plaster. Carvings in ivory, stone, wood, etc. Architectural designs of all kinds; mosaics; art work ...— Samantha at the St. Louis Exposition • Marietta Holley
... more Faust's library. The dim slanting sunlight of late afternoon streams through the open windows, touching the gold of books and the brown of furniture with an enamel-like brilliancy. ...— Mr. Faust • Arthur Davison Ficke
... surface of the mysterious wave which constantly passes but is never past on the prairies, bright red roses, and strong larkspur, and at the bottom of this ever-shifting sea, jewels in God's best blue enamel. You can not find this enamel in the windows. One must send for it to the land ...— The Singing Mouse Stories • Emerson Hough
... bears a funeral in his face. Whose sighs are with such feeling sorrows blown, That all the air he draws returns a groan. Thou needst no gilded tomb—thy memory, Is marble to itself—the bravery Of jem or rich enamel is mis-spent— Thy noble ...— Microcosmography - or, a Piece of the World Discovered; in Essays and Characters • John Earle
... the attic contents were to furnish forth the Cape Cod cottage with no unnecessary additions. Here were eight cane-seated chairs of the late Empire years. Four had been painted a dirty brown to simulate black walnut; four represented the white enamel blight which, in turn, had chipped enough to display the "grained" painting of the golden oak years beneath. A scraper applied to a leg revealed the mellow tone of honey-colored maple. Patience and paint remover did the rest. Brought up in the ...— If You're Going to Live in the Country • Thomas H. Ormsbee and Richmond Huntley
... Tassie executed in later days two different medallions of Smith. Raspe, in his catalogue of Tassie's enamels, describes one of these in a list of portraits of the largest size that that kind of work admitted of, as being modelled and cast by Tassie in his hard white enamel paste so as to resemble a cameo. From this model J. Jackson, R.A., made a drawing, which was engraved in stipple by C. Picart, and published in 1811 by Cadell and Davies. Line engravings of the same model were subsequently made by John ...— Life of Adam Smith • John Rae
... of that virgin were carried with great pomp to the metropolitan church and placed in the middle of the choir in a shrine made of gold and enamel...— Penguin Island • Anatole France
... enamelled box, upon which was the portrait of some Grecian sage (whose name I don't recollect), to whom she compared him. I shewed the cross to a jeweller, who valued it at sixty-five louis. The Count offered to bring Madame some enamel portraits, by Petitot, to look at, and she told him to bring them after dinner, while the King was hunting. He shewed his portraits, after which Madame said to him, "I have heard a great deal of a charming story you told two days ago, at supper, at M. le Premier's, ...— Memoirs And Historical Chronicles Of The Courts Of Europe - Marguerite de Valois, Madame de Pompadour, and Catherine de Medici • Various
... aluminum does not rust in moisture. A strong alkali will destroy it, but no alkali in common use in the kitchen is strong enough to do more harm than to change the color, and a weak acid will restore that. Enameled ware, especially if it is white, looks dainty and attractive; but the enamel is likely to chip off, and, too, if the dish "boils dry," the food in it and the dish itself are spoiled. Aluminum never chips, and it holds the heat in such a manner as to make all parts of the dish equally hot. Food, then, is not so ...— Diggers in the Earth • Eva March Tappan
... troop, and though it went far better down grade than it did on the level, the boys managed to get a great deal of fun out of it. And it was not a bad looking machine either when it finally received several generous coats of red paint and enamel. ...— The Boy Scout Fire Fighters • Irving Crump
... with strange figures and diagrams interwoven with the crabbed Latin text. A passage which he deciphered, abashed him by its profundity, and he laid the book down, and went from one to another of the black-framed engravings; from these to an oval piece in coarse Limoges enamel, which hung over the little shelf of books. At length he heard a step descending from the upper floors, and presently she appeared in ...— The Long Night • Stanley Weyman
... here beside you, here in this park—to be—yes, to be with you? Can't you understand? Isn't it something to me that you are the man you are; not the man whose name the people are shouting just now, not the man to whom a king gave a bit of ribbon and enamel, but the man who lived like a man, who would not die just because it was easier to die than to live, who fought like a man, not only for himself but for the lives of those he led, who showed us all how to be strong, and how strong one could be if one would ...— A Man's Woman • Frank Norris
... being converted into a souvenir by the dexterous use of the engraving tool was handled by me indiscriminately. I bought a large consignment of briar pipes. Upon the bowls of these I cut a suitable inscription and filled the incisions with enamel. These caught the fancy of the smokers and I soon found my stock exhausted. As things developed I became more ambitious, although not reckless, until at last I had articles ranging up to L30 in price upon my shelves, in the disposal of which ...— Sixteen Months in Four German Prisons - Wesel, Sennelager, Klingelputz, Ruhleben • Henry Charles Mahoney
... which the two long braids had been pinned. The Indian strain in her revealed itself in the flattened cheek-bones, the wide-cut, delicate nostrils and the small, high-set eyes as clearly black and white as if made of enamel. They were now outlined and elongated with lamp black which still clung to her lashes in flakes. She was twenty-two years old, and had been on the stage ...— Treasure and Trouble Therewith - A Tale of California • Geraldine Bonner
... conglomerate. Some of the argillaceous wackes are of a dark green colour, others, pale yellowish-green, and others nearly white; I was surprised to find that some of the latter varieties, even where whitest, fused into a jet black enamel, whilst some of the green varieties afforded only a pale gray bead. Numerous dikes, consisting chiefly of highly compact augitic rocks, and of gray amygdaloidal varieties, intersect the strata, which have in several places been dislocated with considerable violence, and thrown into highly ...— Volcanic Islands • Charles Darwin
... rapidly with angular forward motion along the pavement; then dropped into darkness. Beneath the pavement, sunk in the earth, hollow drains lined with yellow light for ever conveyed them this way and that, and large letters upon enamel plates represented in the underworld the parks, squares, and circuses of the upper. "Marble Arch—Shepherd's Bush"—to the majority the Arch and the Bush are eternally white letters upon a blue ground. Only at one point—it may be Acton, Holloway, Kensal Rise, Caledonian ...— Jacob's Room • Virginia Woolf
... with a vast collection of precious and interesting objects, greet the visitor. There are collections of armor, relics, porcelain, enamel, fabrics, paintings, statues, carvings in wood and ivory, machines, models, and every conceivable object of use or beauty. Some of the most celebrated pictures in the world are there, and there is an art library of thirty thousand volumes. There are schools for instruction ...— Captains of Industry - or, Men of Business Who Did Something Besides Making Money • James Parton
... bed of the forget-me-not growing on this bank near the stream. Look at the blue enamel-like flowers, each with a yellow centre-eye; the leaves are bright green and rather rough. There are other species very much resembling this one you may often see in hedgerows and fields; but they are generally smaller plants; this one is the true forget-me-not. ...— Country Walks of a Naturalist with His Children • W. Houghton
... in tin use the enamel or lacquered cans. A slight amount of water in the bottom of the jars of prepared meat will insure quicker sterilization of the air remaining in the jar. Where meat has been stewed the liquor can be poured into the jar for filling. If you use a steam-pressure cooker outfit of course the time ...— Every Step in Canning • Grace Viall Gray
... cupboards, and a shower bath: the shower bath is one of those large model Norchers with lateral as well as vertical sprays, and a waterproof curtain hanging from rings at the top right down to the tub at the bottom. There were footmarks on the enamel of the tub, so it is clear that the thief hid there, behind the curtain, until the Princess ...— Fantomas • Pierre Souvestre
... plumber's estimate, Joe," she said, opening a letter. "He wants $250 for the bathroom and washroom equipment, including a four- foot white enamel wash sink with soap dishes and tempering faucets. You see, by putting in a sink of this sort, the hot and cold water is mixed as it comes through the faucet, and all the dirty water runs away so that you ...— Hidden Treasure • John Thomas Simpson
... a glass for champagne wine) of new Madeira add the yolks only of two eggs. Put in a very clean enamel saucepan over the fire and stir in powdered sugar to your taste. Whisk it over the fire till it froths, but do not allow it even to simmer. Use for Genoese ...— The Belgian Cookbook • various various
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Get ready for 14 belt-busting days! Chicago Restaurant Week 2016 returns on January 22 and continues through February 4 with two weeks of dining deals.
More details: http://www.choosechicago.com/things-to-do/dining/chicago-restaurant-week/
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Disappeared News
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
The 2014 legislative session is underway in Hawaii. Will we see the same problematic practices as in past sessions? “Gut-and-replace” (where the public is duped by replacing language in a bill) or “Frankenbills” (where unrelated content is grafted onto a bill previously heard and passed by committees)? Will hearings be scheduled with inadequate notice so that the public is sidelined?
It pays to keep an eye open.
House Rules
11.5. Committee Meetings.
(1) Meetings, including decision-making sessions, of standing committees shall be public. Notice shall be publicly posted or announced on the House floor at least forty-eight hours prior to the meeting. Except for notices posted by the Committee on Finance, notice shall be posted before 4:30 p.m. on the last day of the work week for a hearing to be held on the following Monday or Tuesday. Notice of meetings may be shortened at the discretion of the Speaker upon request on the House floor by a chair or vice-chair and upon good cause shown.
There may sometimes be good reason for requesting a waiver of the 48-hour notice requirement. Couldn’t this bill wait for the next hearing of the same committee?
In any case, committee chairs need to know that someone is watching.
The request for a waiver was made on the House floor yesterday at around 1 p.m. by House Committee on Health Chair Della Au Belatti. The notice was posted via email at 2:09 p.m., short of the 48 hour minimum.
MAKING AN EMERGENCY APPROPRIATION TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES FOR THE MED-QUEST DIVISION.
Makes an emergency appropriation from the general revenues of the State of Hawaii for fiscal year 2013-2014 to address the budget shortfall for the general support for health care payments program (HMS 902) in the Department of Human Services. Effective upon approval
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Gas Powered Games has laid of some staff shortly after the launch of their Wildman Kickstarter seeking $1.1 million for a new action/RPG. This is reported by Kotaku, who confirmed that the company has cut some staff with honcho Chris Taylor after getting wind of them through the grapevine. Taylor did not confirm the extent of the layoffs, however, so there are dramatic elements to the Kotaku report which remain speculative, as one source told them these were due to the Kickstarter underperforming, while other sources have told them that almost everyone who worked for the company was let go. There's a follow up to this on Gamasutra. "The studio is still operating, but we had to slim WAY down to conserve cash reserves," Chris Taylor confirmed for them, confirming some earlier comments that they are all in on Wildman: "We spent all the last dough that we've had, and the last several months working on it. So we're betting the company on it."
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$1M today to do a full-featured, full-length game is peanuts. If people want to see developing going back to "the garage" then they need to get in behind every effort they see like this that engages their interest. The $45 KS tier still available for this game is absurdly great for the amount of stuff you get for the money. I want to see games reduced in development costs and reduced in price, and supporting this kind of effort is the way to do that. Cutting out the game publisher is a great way to eliminate lots of unnecessary costs.
However, for me, Wildman may not be my first choice--or even in my top ten Kick Starters, regrettably. I was a huge fan of Dungeon Siege (1)--must've played the game through at least three times. Loved it, and especially loved its length--thought it was *right.* (I refuse to spend $40-$50 on a 10-20 hour SP game--I want *at least* 50 hours, and I want an immersive game, too. I'm not easy to please. Can't recall how much time, precisely, I spent playing DS1 through, but it was long enough to satisfy.) Indeed, I still have a modded version of DS1 installed which I fire up from time to time under Win8x64.
Next thing I know Chris Taylor is out there telling the world that their biggest mistake with DS1 was that the game was "too long." "Oh, no", I can remember thinking at the time--"I'm reading GPG's obituary!" Still, when DS2 was released, I bought it anyway--and was disappointed at how far the game design had shrunk back in the other direction--it was short & shallow, and I found it nowhere near as intriguing as DS1. Worse, the game seemed to make no effort to distinguish itself. I was disappointed. I was disappointed with Total Annihilation--such great potential, such poor execution--such an overall disappointment. Same for several other Chris Taylor/GPG game titles I've bought since DS1--well, all of them really. The "less is more" advertising mantra has never worked for me, and probably never will.
I'd like to see GPG and Chris make it. But Wildman honestly looks to me like an idea sketched on the back of a napkin sometime between Christmas 2012 and New Year's day 2013. I wish 'em the best and if and when Wildman ships I might even buy it so long as it isn't another cookie-cutter "half-way" cell-phone game of the kind that seems so popular today. If I never see another such game it will be too soon for me.
Chris: remember what you did *right* with DS1 and strive for that again--"too short" is a far more egregious sin than "too long."
It is well known that I do not make mistakes--so if you should happen across a mistake in anything I have written, be assured that I did not write it!
| 3,750 |
Professional’s Pick – Speedcast
Managing Director, Medallion Financial Group
First started getting clients invested in Sept 2017. We included it in our October 2017 monthly report to clients.
What do you like about it?
The business is one of the world’s most trusted providers of end-to-end communications and IT solutions to the business operating in remote locations. Increasing reliance on big data and the need for businesses to be connected to the internet at all times are set to drive increased data demands for some time to come.
How is it better than its competitors?
A market leader, SDA leverages a large global network in the mobile satellite industry, with 39 strategically located teleports spanning the globe to deliver its services. For instance, the business services the likes of the Maritime, Enterprise, Telco, Mining, Government sectors with a particularly close relationship with the energy space where it currently provides its services to nine of the top 10 global drilling contractors.
What is your target price?
Around $6.00. The half year report is coming up in February. This will provide further details on how the company is travelling and may well lead to price target upgrades.
At what point would you sell it?
For now, we’re happy to hold. However if valuations started to become stretched, we’d consider reducing or selling. The company does have elevated debt levels, however rising cashflows from new contract wins gives us confidence in the company’s ability to manage that debt burden. In saying that, if growth in cashflows started to stagnate or even fall, we’d review our position and possibly sell.
How much has it added (subtracted) to your overall portfolio over the last 12 months?
Every client is slightly different depending on portfolio weight and date of entry. However the price, when included in the Monthly report, was $4.57. Today it trades around $5.50, a 20% gain. We nevertheless see further upside potential.
Where do you see value?
SDA has won a number of key contracts in recent times highlighting the businesses strong industry position and an ability to grow organically. We expect demand for bandwidth to ramp up significantly in the next 3-5 years, which will help drive earnings growth. For a company that operates with attractive economies of scale as demonstrated by growing earnings transferring into expanding margins this is an attractive proposition.
Important: This content has been prepared without taking account of the objectives, financial situation or needs of any particular individual. It does not constitute formal advice. Consider the appropriateness of the information in regards to your circumstances.
| 2,712 |
Fish Her Charters
Fish Her Charters operates out of the Kinloch Marina we have easy access to the Western Bays of Lake Taupo. Kinloch is a short 20 minute drive from Taupo township. You will be able to enjoy the fantastic fishing that the Western Bays have to offer.
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$80.00 - $750.00
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Fishing the Western Bays of Lake Taupo is one of the most peaceful places you will ever go to. The Western bays are surrounded by natural bush with views down to Mount Ruapehu. The setting is perfect for a great day fishing.
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This website helps visitors connect with providers of great New Zealand tourism experiences. It is not intended to give any assurance that any particular provider meets certain quality standards or legal obligations. Please contact this business for more information. See also: newzealand.com terms of use.
| 984 |
Marketing, graphic design and web design in Cambridge
We are Postscript. We’re a results-driven marketing agency focused on helping our clients grow. Whether it’s a website, brochure or complete marketing strategy, we work in partnership with our clients to achieve their objectives.
Our clients include
Novotel London West
East Anglian Air Ambulance
Cambridgeshire County Council
Landqart
Park Plaza Hotels & Resorts
Terrence Higgins Trust
Postscript have done a wonderful job creating our new website. Their creativity and technical expertise has resulted in a site that is light years ahead of where we were, and they have set us up perfectly to update and manage the site with our in-house resources. One of the things that impressed us most was the careful attention to detail given to our product range, which is captured in the excellent photography and the use of these images across our website.
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CITY
The city’s homelessness crisis has been a major challenge for Mayor Bill de Blasio since he took office in 2014. While the crisis was growing over the course of decades, key decisions were made just a few years before de Blasio became mayor that appear to have accelerated the trend, namely the elimination of city and state rental subsidy programs.
When de Blasio became mayor, he set out to reinstitute rental subsidy programming, among other pieces of his homelessness and housing agendas, which have continued to evolve over the course of his more than four years in office. But, the city’s homelessness population continued to increase, hitting record highs above 60,000 individuals, and de Blasio has faced a great deal of criticism for not handling the issue better, including on specifics like shelter safety, outreach to homeless people on the streets, and attention to homeless students.
His voucher programs have not been as successful as he hoped, though he has been fairly aggressive in preventing evictions and city efforts have helped keep thousands at risk of displacement in their homes through legal services and rent-arrears payments.
Generally, it is the sheer number of homeless people living in the city that continues to frustrate the mayor and other New Yorkers. While the de Blasio administration’s efforts have shown some results in breaking the trajectory of the increase in homelessness, with the population relatively steady for much of 2017, there are major questions about the city’s ability and willingness to do what it might take to significantly reduce that number. Indeed, in de Blasio’s second major reboot of his approach to homelessness, his Turning the Tide on Homelessness report issued in February 2017, the mayor announced a goal of reducing homelessness to about 57,500 in five years, which would mark the end of his tenure as mayor if he serves his full two terms.
A leading policy advocate, Giselle Routhier of Coalition for the Homeless, recently outlined several areas of concern with de Blasio’s policies during an appearance on the Max & Murphy podcast from Gotham Gazette and City Limits.
Routhier is the Coalition’s policy director and author of its recent annual report, “The State of the Homeless,” which looks at “how the city and state can tackle homelessness by bringing housing investment to scale.”
According to the report, an average of 63,495 people slept in the city’s homeless shelters each night in December 2017; overall in 2017, more than 110,000 city students were homeless at some point; and nearly one in five homeless parents today were homeless as a child.
During the podcast appearance, Routhier gave de Blasio some credit, but stressed the urgency of the situation and criticized the mayor for not going nearly far enough. “So what the mayor has done is gone from nothing to something,” she said. Adding that, “he has not been bold enough to implement policies to actually ‘turn the tide’ as of yet, as said in his plan that he released last year.”
“I think it’s OK to say that [the homeless population is] stabilized. It’s important to remember that it’s stabilized basically at record levels,” Routhier said. Of the mayor’s goal for homeless census reduction, Routhier said, “2,500 people over five years. Not households, people. That’s fewer households. That’s crazy. We can’t accept that as an appropriate solution.”
When asked what she would have done differently, Routhier expressed her frustration that, although the plan was bringing sorely needed improvements to the shelter system, it did not create enough permanent housing.
Routhier did recognize the city’s significant and various efforts to mitigate the crisis and to help families avoid homelessness. She pointed out that de Blasio inherited a very tough situation from his predecessor. In 2006, Mayor Bloomberg ended a series of housing assistance programs for the homeless, and drastically reduced the use of key federal housing resources, and “had these Federally funded resources been consistently deployed to serve homeless families and individuals over the past decade, over 36,000 more households would have moved out of NYC shelters into stable, Federally subsidized homes,” according to Routhier’s report. De Blasio has reinstated a slate of city-funded subsidies and some access for homeless people to public housing and Section 8 vouchers.
Both on the podcast and in her report, Routhier commended the city’s substantial spending on rent subsidies, and the extension of free legal services to tenants threatened with eviction. She wrote that subsidizing tenants’ rent “is a fiscally sound investment and often costs a fraction of the $61,262 it costs per year to provide emergency shelter for a family.”
A de Blasio administration spokesperson, responding to Gotham Gazette inquiries, said that, without the administration’s initiatives, there would be roughly 70,000 people in shelters today, as opposed to the 60,366 in the shelter census for March 14, according to city figures.
“We are building and protecting affordable homes for families—including those facing homeless—at a record pace,” said Jaclyn Rothenberg, a spokesperson for Mayor de Blasio, in a statement to Gotham Gazette. “Between our affordable and supportive housing plans, free legal help for tenants fighting eviction, and rent assistance programs, we’re headed in the right direction.”
Routhier applauded the mayor’s initiatives to improve the quality and accessibility of its shelter system, which has expanded in an ad-hoc manner for years, and still needs a lot of attention. She and many others support the de Blasio plan to end the use of commercial hotels and so-called cluster site apartment rentals as homeless shelters, and to continue to fix up and secure existing shelters while opening dozens of new ones in an effort to keep homeless people in their communities and closer to their prior homes.
The city is now spending $217 million on shelter security, according to a spokesperson for the city. It created a Shelter Repair Squad that conducted more than 34,000 shelter inspections in 2016 and 2017. It tightened shelter regulations to make sure they were functioning adequately. It has doubled its investment in street outreach programs, looking to spend $97.6 million in FY18. It has hired liaison workers with the Department of Education to help families address transfer options, transportation requirements, and special education needs. According to an audit by city Comptroller Scott Stringer’s office done in 2015 and 2016, a sample of 73 homeless students were chronically absent or late and not given the proper attention from the DOE.
“The two things can’t be divorced in our minds,” Routhier said of improving shelters and providing permanent housing. In her report, she wrote that, “in 2017 there were more than 860,000 households that needed to spend less than $800 on rent in order for their apartment to be affordable (consuming 30 percent or less of income), but only 350,000 such apartments existed - a shortage of more than 510,000 apartments.”
Both the mayor and Routhier see this lack of affordability in the rental market as the major driver of homelessness in New York City. However, they have different views on what to do about it.
Crucially, Routhier wants the mayor to change the composition of his affordable housing plan, Housing New York 2.0. Of the projected 300,000 “affordable” units to be built or preserved, 15,000 units are allocated to homeless households. Routhier added, “to put that in context, Mayor Koch, over a shorter time period, did half as many housing units over all, and allocated more to homeless families at a time when homelessness was a third of what it is today.”
Routhier wants the mayor to double the allocation to 30,000 units to serve homeless households, of which 24,000 units should be newly-built, in order to ensure that they are quickly available (virtually all “preserved” affordable units are currently occupied). For Routhier, this is the best way for the city to ensure a “robust supply of housing that’s going to be available to people of extremely low incomes, over the long term.”
During the podcast, Routhier further said that Mayor de Blasio is driven by “an ideological desire to create housing for everybody, in all income bands, when in fact that doesn’t really match with the data that show where the housing need really is.” De Blasio has emphasized that the city needs to affordable housing for families across much of the income spectrum, including middle-class families. But Routhier said, “If you really look at the data, people that are at 80 or 100% of AMI, that are making $80,000 to $100,000 a year, they’re going to be OK, it’s going to be possible for them to find housing in the market.” She believes that the mayor should build housing to address the highest-need demand, even if it means fewer overall units, but more at lower affordability thresholds.
In her report, Routhier also criticized top government officials over not following through quickly enough with their pledges to create supportive housing, which is permanent affordable housing that includes social services. “Despite the Mayor and Governor both making historic commitments in 2015 and 2016 to fund a combined 35,000 units of supportive housing...The City has so far opened only approximately 200 units of supportive housing under its NYC 15/15 commitment, despite the goal of opening over 500 units before the end of 2017. The State so far has opened none.”
Routhier went further in her criticism for Governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration. Cuomo, a second-term Democrat running for reelection this year, is a former federal housing secretary who has touted his own expertise in dealing with homelessness, but has not been effective at reducing the rising homeless population in the state.
Along with citing the lack of state support for subsidy programs, Routhier noted a recent NY1 segment by reporter Courtney Gross, which showed that state prisons are often discharging parolees who wind up going straight into the New York City shelter system. In 2017, the shelters accepted more than 4,000 people from upstate prisons, according to Routhier’s report. What’s more, the state has “systematically cut off cost-sharing with the city on a number of things.” For example, the cost of the shelter system has increased by $500 million in recent years, and the state has only supplied 5% of those funds, Routhier said during the podcast.
Voicing her fears about the federal government, which has been disinvesting from public housing for decades, and which is currently considering further cuts to the Housing and Urban Development budget, Routhier said that “It leaves the responsibility to the city and the state to then come up with those resources in a much more aggressive way, which is very challenging.”
Routhier’s report includes further policy recommendations which would help homeless families and individuals find permanent housing, including measures to aggressively enforce the source-of-income anti-discrimination law; establish a proper inspection protocol to guarantee that all housing placements made through NYCHA, section 8, or city subsidies are adequate for their families; increase the number of Section 8 vouchers provided to homeless families from 500 to 2,000 a year; increase the number of public housing placements to 3,000 a year; and provide all homeless individuals and families with housing application and search assistance.
On the podcast, Routhier said that if the city adopted the Coalition for the Homeless proposals, “we could reduce the shelter census by 30%.” She claims that, while her proposals are aggressive, they are also realistic. “There are tools in our hands, and the mayor can use these tools to really advance his housing policy and to decrease homelessness.”
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The Place for New York Policy and politics
Gotham Gazette is published by Citizens Union Foundation and is made possible by support from the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Altman Foundation,the Fund for the City of New York and donors to Citizens Union Foundation. Please consider supporting Citizens Union Foundation's public education programs. Critical early support to Gotham Gazette was provided by the Charles H. Revson Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
| 13,402 |
One of my guiltiest TV pleasures, and I really enjoy TV, is “Wipeout” on ABC. This show is amazing. (And just started airing new episodes for Summer) A group of contestants, it might start at 40, eventually gets narrowed down to 3 by completing, or failing to complete as the the case may be, a series of obstacle courses. Those 3 move on to the ultimate course that looks like a level of “Super Mario Brothers.” Much like “Most Extreme Challenge,” several of the obstacles are near impossible for the average person. The best wipeouts are replayed in slo-mo. The man or woman left standing wins $50,000. Who wouldn’t make a fool of themselves for that kind of money, especially in this economic climate.
I also enjoy “Hole in the Wall” on Fox. Here, teams of contestants stand on a platform and must contort their bodies to match the cutout shapes in the wall coming toward them, lest they be pushed into the pool of water behind them. Hilarity ensues.
What both of these shows have in common, is the possibility for disaster. And disaster is inevitable. When people willingly put themselves in the position to have an “America’s Funniest Home Video” moment, I can’t help but watch. And laugh. A lot.
| 1,229 |
Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Jessica Altman, Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) Chairman Tim Holden, and PLCB Member Michael Newsome today offered tips on safely hosting parties and reminded Pennsylvanians of potential liability if a guest has an alcohol-related incident, even after leaving the party.
“The holiday season is a time for celebrating with family, friends, and coworkers. As people make plans to get together, we strongly encourage them to take common-sense precautions and promote responsible alcohol consumption,” said PLCB Chairman Holden at an event at the Fine Wine & Good Spirits Premium Collection located in the Shoppes at Belmont in Lancaster. “Not only is Fine Wine & Good Spirits your go-to place for wine, spirits, and holiday gifts, but we have also partnered with the Insurance Department to develop a resource offering valuable tips for responsibly hosting safe parties, ensuring everyone gets home safely, and taking steps to avoid liability.”
This week, a two-sided flyer featuring hosting suggestions and helpful links will be placed in customers’ bags at more than 600 Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores throughout Pennsylvania.
“It’s important for party hosts to understand that under Pennsylvania law they can be held legally responsible for guests’ actions even after they leave the party,” Insurance Commissioner Altman explained. “Hosts can be held liable for negligence for the actions of an intoxicated guest, similar to being liable for injuries or property damage someone may suffer if a sidewalk for which the insurance policy holder is responsible is found to have contributed to the injury by being in disrepair, or not cleared of ice and snow.”
The in-store handout and web resources identify several actions hosts can take to avoid potential liability. These include:
Making sure as a host you stay sober to monitor your guests’ sobriety
Having a good amount and variety of food on hand throughout the party
Offering a variety of non-alcoholic beverages
Stopping alcohol service about an hour before the party ends
Never serving alcohol to anyone under 21 years of age, which is illegal and carries significant civil and criminal liabilities
The resources also list actions a host can take if a guest has had too much to drink or is too tired to drive safely, including:
Arranging for one or a few guests to not drink alcohol during the party and serve as designated drivers
Calling a cab or ride-share for a guest
Offering for a guest to stay overnight
Additional party planning and responsible hosting tips are available at FineWineAndGoodSpirits.com, under “Entertain,” including a calculator that can help a host determine how much alcohol might be needed at a party. A “Home for the Holidays” informational piece with tips on fire safety for holiday decorations, party hosting liability, and how to lessen the chances of gifts being stolen is also available at insurance.pa.gov, under “Coverage,” on the homeowner’s insurance page.
Altman said a homeowners’ or renters’ insurance policy might provide some liquor liability coverage, but this coverage can vary from policy to policy.
“A policy might provide coverage for things such as the costs associated with a legal defense, including expenses, settlements, or judgements,” Altman said. “However, some policies might exclude coverage for liability relating to serving alcohol in your home or apartment, especially if a criminal charge or conviction results from an incident involving alcohol.”
Altman added that, even if a policy has liquor liability coverage, in cases where there is extensive property damage, significant injury, or death, the liability limits in the policy might be insufficient to cover the costs.
At the event, PLCB Member Newsome also discussed how holiday celebrations are a great, natural opportunity to discuss with children the risks and dangers of underage drinking and how and why adults responsibly consume alcohol.
“In developing our Know When. Know How. statewide education and prevention campaign, which provides parents the information, resources, and confidence they need to begin having conversations with their kids about alcohol early and often, we learned that 7 out of 10 Pennsylvania parents don’t secure their alcohol, and about 20 percent of parents think it’s OK to let kids try alcohol on special occasions,” Newsome said. “One of the most basic tips we can offer is, don’t let minors have access to alcohol and open a dialogue with your children about why alcohol is not good for kids.”
At KnowWhenKnowHow.org, parents can find information about alcohol presented in digestible bits and pieces so parents can become comfortable discussing the topic without being overwhelmed. The website provides scenarios and tips on how parents can spark conversations about alcohol with their kids, features facts and statistics about alcohol’s effects on a growing body and discusses the role of parental responsibility as it relates to underage drinking prevention.
Altman, Holden, and Newsome all urged party hosts to be responsible, plan ahead so adult guests can consume safely and make good holiday memories with family and friends they’ll treasure for a lifetime.
| 5,307 |
hill climb racing
Climb to the Top of the Castle is an independent platform game where you'll play as a noble knight on a mission to rescue a princess locked up high in a castle.
So naturally, you'll need to climb the dozens of sections...
Streets of Rage: Silent Hill, a beat'em up developed by OpenBor, takes the classic Streets of Rage and mixes it with environments and characters from the Silent Hill franchise. You'll be able to play as characters from...
...Street Racing Club is a racing game set in the world of 'tunning', where you'll have to compete in illegal races to win respect, and, of course, money.
As you advance through the game you'll drive in different courses...
Silent Hill, one of the most awaited cinematographic productions for videogame fans arrives on the screens worldwide.
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...Dust Racing 2D is a racing game in two dimensions from an overhead perspective that, following along the lines of classics like 'Slicks n Slide' and 'Super Cars', offers a fun, no-frills driving experience.
The game's...
...SMS Racing is a very peculiar racing game where your goal is to drive while writing text messages on a cellphone. A task that is as dangerous as it is tricky - which is reflected perfectly in this game.
You control the...
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Rock N' Roll Racing came out in 1993, and after...
...Police Supercars Racing is a racing game where you can drive different patrol cars just like in Need for Speed Hot Pursuit - basically, they're race cars adapted to fit the needs of the police.
You can make use of all...
...Hot Racing is a free racing game that will give you hours of fun while trying to drive your racing car and winning the race.
It may not be the best game you have ever played and the graphics are not like the ones you...
...Crazy Crash Racing is a simple but addictive racing game where we will have to drive a car and we will have to scape because the city where we are driving is being devastated.
At first sight, Crazy Crash Racing is...
...are not as good as we'd like them to be.
It's totally free and it's not difficult to use, what makes City Racing an interesting choice if you want to have fun for free driving cars and pushing the pedal to the...
...This excellent screensaver features one of today's most popular sports. If you are passionate about car racing and racetracks, don't pass on this screensaver.
Based on classic F1 racetracks, the screensaver simulates a...
...Stunt Rally is a spectacular racing game in which players can compete both against the computer in various different game modes, and in multiplayer races over the Internet, LAN, or on split screen with up to four...
The End of the World - Remake is a 2D platformer with a setting and parts of its gameplay similar to Silent Hill and Resident Evil.
The game story basically tells of how a meteor strikes the Earth, unleashing a toxic...
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Days of Cannibalism
Synopsis
Days of Cannibalism is a film that moves from an hotel in Guangzhou to a Bar in Lesotho, taking us deep into the lives and personalities of these Chinese and African characters, living in the shadow of a new global economic reality.
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Sunday arrived and I was excited at meeting my lunch date who I had been chatting to online. We were meeting at a country pub for lunch and I dressed with care not wanting to be overdressed nor too causal. In the end I chose some smart black jeans and a floaty top. I
It’s strange but I can normally tell by a photograph if I am going to have a connection with someone I was browsing the Mature Free and Single website when someone viewed my profile. I immediately took notice, thinking hmm, I like the look of this man. Was he going to send me a
After tossing and turning all night thinking about the good looking guy online that I was waiting to ask me out I woke up resembling a hedgehog, which was not a good look. Hmm, I thought looking in the mirror, if he could see me now he would never ask me out. Patting my
After logging on to the Mature Free and Single website I noticed that once again I had been viewed by one particular man, everyday he looked at my profile but never made any contact. I wondered if he was shy or if was plucking up courage to send me a wink or maybe send
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What Parents Can Try To Stop Bullying
Jesus, so says Matthew, had finished cleaning your money changers and dove-sellers the actual temple with spent the evening in Bethany. This was right after his triumphal entrance into the city on a donkey, colt or foal of a donkey. I thought accompanied through road being covered by branches.
We online bullying laws would be smart to demand even stricter controls at Facebook. Facebook needs to accept responsibility for your monster they earn and put stronger controls in place - now. If it hurts Facebook's pocketbook, so be getting this done. Our children's lives are at investment.
At one point, the bullies went so far as to hack into Allen's Twitch account, erasing the footage involving most his previous Donkey Kong attempts, including one he'd dedicated to his late uncle.
Recently associated with Colony, Texas (near Dallas) a 9 year old boy hung himself in the schools shower room. He died. It is not known if he was a victim of online bullying statistics, though it is assumed. It is shocking that any 9 year old would even consider taking their own life, let alone planning versus eachother and doing the in a public school the way this man seemed to obtain done.
Assume everyone online is who people say they generally. Sexual predators is certain to get to your youngster any way they can now. They may offer great gifts, trips to "paradise", perhaps simply love that the young child doesn't feel within or even her her own family. Can even allege to be of the same age while your child. He or she give out a completely bogus name, address, together with other information about himself, working get private information out of one's child also. Stress the importance to your young ones that every thing . they read online could be the truth.
If you include social networking for your child, clearly outline the rules including preventing online bullying, talking with friends and accepting stranger friend needs. You should also maintain the option that both parents and the little child will have the measurements and password. Check it frequently and you need to recognize every name regarding your child's friend list. Check out chats and messages that happen to be generated among the child and somebody as well. Do not deviate from rules you would enforce in person. If your child is demonstrating foul language you would not normally allow your past house, never let them cord less mouse with it online. There should be no change. Do not hesitate to lock them your own that social website as punishment. Social websites are privileges not requirements for living.
Establish Very Rules. Parents can't just rely for that school to explain their children that bullying is not accepted. Parents need for you a clear message towards their children that bullying is not right, tolerated and couple of different methods consequences. Moreover need to train their children exactly what bullying is and why its not tolerated.
No laws can really stop people from trolling. Perhaps just what left total is certain you that before our children gets to get exposed in online activities, they're fully prepared and well-informed with the might greet them.
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When it comes to crumb, I have a theory: if some is good, more is better.
This theory was proven when I discovered something called the Colossal Crumb Cake at New Jersey's Ocean Grove Bake Shoppe. Their version had a ratio of roughly 9 parts crumb to 1 part cake, and it was just as amazing as it sounds (theirs is the one pictured above).
Could it be possible to recreate this magic at home? Well, I certainly wanted to try. Starting with a recipe from Arthur Schwartz, a.k.a. The Food Maven, I tried to make it even better by halving the cake part and tripling the crumb part. The result? A hulking behemoth of crumb, anchored by a little sliver of cake.
Turns out, halving the cake recipe wasn't necessary—using the full recipe worked just fine, as the weight of the crumb crushed it into a sliver of buttery submission. While I can't say that it's quite the same as the Colossal Crumb, I feel comfortable bestowing the title of Behemoth Crumb on this baby. Try it if you dare.
Directions
1.
Make the topping. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over a low flame. Remove from the heat and cool for about 5 minutes, but do not allow the butter to become cold. Transfer the butter to a very large mixing bowl.
2.
Add the flour, brown sugar, salt, vanilla extract, and cinnamon. The original recipe suggested stirring with kitchen forks to bring the mixture together, but I went one better and used salad tongs because of the sheer volume. Stir together until the mixture forms small crumbs. Set aside.
3.
Preheat the oven to 350°F with the rack in the lower third of the oven.
4.
Butter a 9x13-inch pan. Dust the pan lightly with all-purpose flour.
5.
Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl, then whisk together. Set aside.
6.
Cut the butter into 1-inch pieces. Place them in the large bowl of a standup electric mixer fitted with beaters or a paddle attachment. Soften the butter on low speed. Increase the speed to medium-high and cream until smooth and light in color, about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.
7.
Add the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, taking about 6 to 8 minutes to blend it in well. Scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally.
8.
Add the egg, and beat, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary. Beat for about 1 minute longer. Blend in the vanilla.
9.
Reduce the mixer speed to low. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the sour cream, dividing the flour mixture into 3 parts and the sour cream into 2 parts, starting and ending with the flour. Mix just until incorporated after each addition. Scrape the sides of the bowl as necessary and mix for 10 seconds longer.
10.
Turn the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the surface with the back of a tablespoon or rubber spatula. It will just barely cover the bottom in a thin layer.
11.
Take a handful of the crumb mixture and make a fist to press the mixture into a large clump. Then separate into smaller clusters, scattering them on the top of the cake batter. Repeat until all of the crumbs have been used. Try to make sure that every surface of the cake part is covered, as it will bubble up in any gaps you leave on top. My cake at one point did start to ooze through on the corner, so you might want to leave a thin baking sheet below the cake pan just to ensure no spillage.
12.
Gently pat the crumbs into the batter with the palm of your hand; but do not press hard.
13.
Bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown on top and begins to come away form the sides of the pan.
14.
Note: You may notice that the cake feels fairly heavy. Curious, I weighed it before putting it in the oven. It weighed almost 11 pounds. Granted, this is including the weight of the pyrex baking dish, but still pretty hefty, no?
This Recipe Appears In
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Jessie Oleson Moore is a writer, illustrator, gallery owner, and cake anthropologist who runs Cakespy, an award-winning dessert website. Her first book came out in October 2011, and her second book came out in May 2013.
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| 4,297 |
Momentum for Ned Lamont, the anti-war Connecticut U.S. Senate candidate, increases as he rolls to a 54 - 41 percent lead over incumbent Sen. Joseph Lieberman among likely Democratic primary voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.
This compares to a 51 - 47 percent Lamont lead among likely Democratic primary voters in a July 20 poll by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University.
In this latest survey, 5 percent of likely Democratic primary voters remain undecided, but 85 percent of voters say their mind is made up.
Among Lamont supporters, 65 percent say their vote is mainly against Lieberman.
Lieberman's support for the war in Iraq is the main reason they are voting for the challenger, 44 percent of Lamont voters say, with 50 percent who say the war is one of the reasons.
"Sen. Lieberman's campaign bus seems to be stuck in reverse. Despite visits from former President Bill Clinton and other big name Democrats, Lieberman has not been able to stem the tide to Lamont," said Quinnipiac University Poll Director Douglas Schwartz, Ph.D.
"The incumbent has just five days to turn this race around, but never count out a veteran with his experience."
"Three months ago, Lamont was virtually unheard of, except perhaps on the blogs. As Democrats get to know Lamont better, they like what they see. Lamont has established himself as a credible alternative to Lieberman," Dr. Schwartz added.
| 1,440 |
A senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has denounced the pro-Israeli policy adopted by the administration of US President Donald Trump, saying the White House is now inhabited by Israeli settlers.
A UN agency has warned that the future of over 4.5 million schoolchildren in Yemen is uncertain amid an ongoing Saudi-led aggression on the country which has completely destroyed infrastructure including schools.
The former UN chief, Kofi Annan, has called on the Security Council (UNSC) to press Myanmar to facilitate the return of over 500,000 Rohingya Muslims, who were forced out of their homeland into Bangladesh amid a government-backed military crackdown.
The Iraqi government has decided to impose control over mobile phone operators in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and to relocate their headquarters to Baghdad as part of punitive measures taken in response to last month’s secession referendum in the region.
The following article is part of a series on ‘Islamic terrorism’, looking at the theological deviance a certain religious tradition - such as that promoted by Saudi Arabia, ambitions to establish as normative Islam.
Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have started joint naval exercise in the Persian Gulf waters as the Manama regime has been trying for years to draw closer to Saudi authorities and receive their assistance in the heavy-handed crackdown against pro-democracy activists and opposition figures.
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Where's The Best Bulgarian Food?
I'm looking for the all-time very best Bulgarian restaurant and similarly excellent market in Southern California, please.I am also interested in reading all options available from Los Angles to Palm Springs to San Diego.Thank you!
The only Bulgarian restaurant mentioned here that I can recall is Danube on Westwood Blvd. (1303 Westwood Blvd.) in West Los Angeles. I did see a photo review of the food that someone did, (not on CH) here on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/la_addic...
there will be members who can let you know where they do their shopping.
the area around st. sophia's used to have quite a few greek stores and restaurants - especially 20-30 years ago. there are probably one or two left. they would probably be on pico near normandie. good luck. let us know what you find.
| 833 |
Sig 5.56 Patrol, Keltec su 16
Have a bead on both from a seller. Interested in the kel tec from a low cost entry point and have heard good things vs. hipoint arms. $480 with an NcStar 3-9x40r rubber armor scope mounted, sling and a couple 30 round mags. 600 rounds through it.
He also has a sig556 Patrol, sling and couple extra 30 rd mags as well. Rifle has about 200 through it and less than a year old. $980
So, I understand the quality diff between the two. What are thoughts on the sig 556? Accuracy? Ease of maintenance, parts...
Anybody who owns an su-16? I really like the bipod hand guard and the mag storage in the stock but I really want to hear from someone who's shot one and held one. Also anybody know where they are in stock online?
What is there not to like about the most versatile weapons system on the planet?
Pick a caliber or configuration and set aside 15 minutes and you're good to go.
You want to know what I don't like about the AR-15 platform? Here it is. As an engineer, the thing just pisses me off. Of course, as a VN era Marine (who didn't go to VN), the Marines paid a heavy price for that innovation. Of course, it is merely my opinion, and doesn't matter to anyone else.
You want to know what I don't like about the AR-15 platform? Here it is. As an engineer, the thing just pisses me off. Of course, as a VN era Marine (who didn't go to VN), the Marines paid a heavy price for that innovation. Of course, it is merely my opinion, and doesn't matter to anyone else.
I wasn't there either but the M16s of that era are an entirely different creature than the ones of today. I respect your opinion, it's just based on old information.
__________________
“The bitterness of poor quality Lingers long after The sweetness of low price is forgotten.”
-John Ruskin
Quote:
Originally Posted by Quentin
"The biggest issue with assembling an AR isn't so much getting the parts together right - it's getting the right parts together."
You are absolutely correct we lost a lot of good men to early design flaws and lack of platform knowledge. Most of the guys were sent into the field without a cleaning kit believing the guns flawless and had no upkeep. The platform has had a lot of improvements over the years though.
I understand vast improvements have been made. I understand they work. I still have this visceral dislike for the platform. It is a personal problem for me. That said, there are still mechanical issues. I prefer the AK platform, of which the Galil and 550 series are what I consider the top of the line. I prefer the op handle attached to the oprod. I grew up with the M-1 Garand, M-1 Carbine, M-14. I also have a Mini-14. I prefer the paddle mag release of the M-14, AK-47, Galil, Mini-14 and 550/551, but to get the ubiquitous AR mags, I have to go with the AR type button mag release. I can live with that rather than proprietary mags.
Before all the hate mail arrives, just remember it is merely a personal preference. My preference doesn’t count any more than anyone else’s.
I understand vast improvements have been made. I understand they work. I still have this visceral dislike for the platform. It is a personal problem for me. That said, there are still mechanical issues. I prefer the AK platform, of which the Galil and 550 series are what I consider the top of the line. I prefer the op handle attached to the oprod. I grew up with the M-1 Garand, M-1 Carbine, M-14. I also have a Mini-14. I prefer the paddle mag release of the M-14, AK-47, Galil, Mini-14 and 550/551, but to get the ubiquitous AR mags, I have to go with the AR type button mag release. I can live with that rather than proprietary mags.
Before all the hate mail arrives, just remember it is merely a personal preference. My preference doesn’t count any more than anyone else’s.
No hate mail. Just a shame, you're missing out
__________________
“The bitterness of poor quality Lingers long after The sweetness of low price is forgotten.”
-John Ruskin
Quote:
Originally Posted by Quentin
"The biggest issue with assembling an AR isn't so much getting the parts together right - it's getting the right parts together."
| 4,186 |
Australian registered physiotherapists currently registered with General (unconditional) registration and holding entitlement to practise in Australia, are entitled to seek registration in New Zealand under the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Act 1997 (“The TTMR Act”).
Private Musculoskeletal + Pilates Physiotherapist
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Job Details: We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced (minimum 4 years) or senior physiotherapist to join our inpatient Allied Health team working in our Internal Medicine wards and Acute Stroke Unit....
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QE Health Ltd
Job Start Date: February 2020
Job Details: PHYSIOTHERAPIST – Salary Based Role QE Health is a centre of excellence for rheumatology, and multidisciplinary team rehabilitation. Rotorua is a vibrant tourist city in the centre of the North Island, close to mountains, forests, lakes, and beaches, offering a wide variety of outdoor...
Physiotherapist - Timaru
APM Workcare Ltd
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Job Details: Are you a NZ registered Physiotherapist who is committed to quality client centred care and interested in working in a supportive and friendly team environment? APM is a rapidly growing health and employment services company and we want YOU to be part of our Lower South Island team! APM are...
Physiotherapist - Invercargill
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Job Details: We are seeking a NZ registered Physiotherapist committed to quality client-centred practice and interested in working in a supportive and friendly team environment. Based in Invercargill you will be delivering a wide range of rehabilitation services in the wider Southland and Lower South...
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Job Details: We are seeking an experienced NZ registered Physiotherapist to lead a team of smart, hard-working and talented therapists in the wider Northland region. You will be a dynamic team player keen to inspire and enable growth in others. This is a dual role – part clinical caseload (to keep your...
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Job Details: FULL TIME / PART TIME • Highly successful expanding private practice in Hamilton, New Zealand. • We are looking for a qualified NZ registered physiotherapist to join our team. • We are a long standing, accredited private physiotherapy practice in central Hamilton, New...
Physiotherapist - Private Practice - Substantial Sign Up Bonus
Active Health
Job Start Date: Flexible
Job Details: Are you looking for a exciting new change? An new opportunity exists in our team for a Qualified Physiotherapist wanting to work in a leading edge team which provides Sports Physiotherapy, Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy, Vocational and Rehabilitation services including private Hospital rehab....
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The Previously You Begin The Training Of Your Puppy The Better
There are many different things a dog can be trained to do. Dogs can be trained to hunt or to protect, and they can also be trained to do tricks for enjoyment. Dogs are well known for their ability and desire to please. This trait makes them wonderful pets. This article can help make your training your dog efforts easier for your dog and you.
To train a dog to stop barking you must first train him to bark on command. When the dog barks on command instead of when he chooses to bark, it is easier to teach him to stop barking during the training session. Once he learns the command for "stop barking" he will follow it outside of training.
The diet you are feeding your dog needs to match their needs and activity level. The diet that is right for a working dog is a lot different from that of a dog that lounges around the house all day. Talk with your vet regarding what is right for your pup and don't forget their needs will change as they age.
Always be kind and patient with your dog. Understand that training dogs can be frustrating since some dogs have a more difficult time learning obedience than others. Always try not to lose your temper and resist the urge to scream or shout at your dog. Also, never hit your dog as this will only serve to confuse it and will actually make training more difficult.
Watch your demeanor when you are training your dog. You need to remain calm, but assertive at all times. Do not show anger or raise your voice. If you do this, your dog will require you to shout commands in order to follow them, if this is how he is trained.
Use the time that you spend with your dog on a walk as an opportunity to reinforce your training program. Not only is this a perfect time to establish a better relationship with your pet, but it also allows you to work on different exercises together. A walk with your dog can be both enjoyable and an opportunity to learn.
Yelling at your dog to stop him from barking can be very ineffective. Instead, try talking calmly to him, and teach him a Stop Dog Jumping word that he will associate with quiet. Yelling, to your dog, sounds like you are barking right along with him and so, it can further encourage him to bark.
Never cave in to bad behavior. Your dog will always love you, but it needs to know that you're the boss. Don't encourage bad behavior and let your dog know that any such behavior will be met with punishment. At the same time, make sure you reward good behavior as well.
Yelling at your dog to stop him from barking can be very ineffective. Instead, try talking calmly to him, and teach him a word that he will associate with quiet. Yelling, to your dog, sounds like you are barking right along with him and so, it can further encourage him to bark.
Finding out what motivates your dog is the key to successful training. All dogs have different tastes and preferences, but it is also important to keep in mind that the reward you're giving your dog should be healthy. Even if the treats at the store say your dog will like it, make sure to double check the ingredients. Cheese and strong- smelling meats are very popular, but oftentimes falsely advertised at the store containing a mix artificial tastes and smells.
Nobody who has ever owned a dog will dispute the essential nature of proper training. By gaining an understanding of effective training techniques, it is possible to nurture a loving, well-behaved companion. Take these tips to heart, and you will greatly increase the likelihood that your pet will become the Stop Dog Jumping happy, well-adjusted dog you always wanted.
| 3,721 |
How Parody Videos Transformed Pop Music—for Better and Worse
September 28, 2014
Fifty years ago this October, the Supreme Court cleared the road to the world that the pop-music audience occupies today, a place where ridicule is the lingua franca and everything is made to seem ridiculous. It’s a world where popular songs exist for the making of parody videos and “Weird Al” Yankovic, somehow, suddenly, looks like a visionary.
The case that came before the high court in 1964 was Berlin v. E. C. Publications, Inc., a dispute over the underlying rights to the contents of a collection of song parodies produced by the editors of Mad magazine. Published as a trade paperback in 1961 under the title More Trash from Mad—it was the fourth volume of repackaged Mad magazine contents—the book had gag lyrics to show tunes and Tin Pan Alley hits popular among the New Frontier adults whom Mad took snickering adolescent glee in mocking. The writers of this joke songbook, Frank Jacobs and Larry Siegel (with help from a few other Mad contributors), had taken fifty-seven warhorse ditties and re-purposed them with topical angles. Irving Berlin’s “Cheek to Cheek” became a satire of Middle Eastern oil potentates, “Sheik to Sheik.” Berlin’s “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody” turned into a spoof of hypochondria, “Louella Schwartz Describes Her Malady.” “The Last Time I Saw Paris,” by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, became a lampoon of sports-star endorsements, “The First Time I Saw Maris.” Silly but neatly crafted, the take-off lyrics jabbed teasingly at the headlines and the anxieties of postwar society in a way that would seem tepidly old-fashioned to readers today but came across as wildly subversive to the kids and young adults who read Mad in the early 1960s.
Irving Berlin owned the company that published his songs, Irving Berlin, Inc.—a rare arrangement in his time that, largely through Berlin’s example, became standard practice in popular music—and he sued Mad for copyright infringement, joined as the plaintiff in the suit by several other music publishers. Berlin was maniacally protective of the copyrights that had elevated him from Dickensian indigence on the Lower East Side to wealth and prominence on Beekman Place. He was also well-steeped in the power of parody, through work of his own that his attorneys neglected to mention in their filing.
Berlin had started out in music as a singing waiter at the Pelham Café, a hoodlum’s den in Chinatown run by “Nigger Mike” Salter, a white racketeer. Berlin, then still going by his pre-Americanized name Izzy Baline, entertained customers by improvising parodies to the popular songs of the day. He employed parody in his early songwriting, too. Berlin was enamored of blackface minstrelsy, through which white (and some black) performers burlesqued African American entertainment conventions, many of which had embedded in them parodies of white conventions; blackface was, among other things, a parody of a parody. Berlin had co-written the book for a musical comedy that was adapted as the Al Jolson movie Mammy, and he had included minstrel numbers in shows he had written from the early years of the twentieth century until 1942 (This Is the Army). Berlin, who first became famous as the “King of Ragtime”—the white, Jewish symbol of an African American artform—was clearly attuned to the ways of creative appropriation and acted against Mad in fear of ending up a victim of it.
Yet parody is not mere pilferage. It is critique in creative form, and as such it provides a service essential to society. (Why should critique be left to professional critics like me?) The judges for the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, where the case of Berlin v. E. C. Publications landed decisively in March 1964, had a social, rather than a purely economic, conception of the copyright law’s purpose “to promote the progress of science and the useful arts.” In their ruling in favor of Mad, the judges wrote, “We believe that parody and satire are [the judges’ italics] deserving of substantial freedom—both as entertainment and as a form of social and literary criticism. As the readers of Cervantes’ ‘Don Quixote’ and Swift’s ‘Gulliver’s Travels,’ or the parodies of a modern master such as Max Beerbohm well know, many a true word is indeed spoken in jest.” The attorneys for Berlin et al. appealed, and the Supreme Court denied certiorari in the case, establishing what would come to be known as “the Mad magazine standard,” exempting parody from infringement on the grounds that speaking truth in jest is a use of creative content that is not only fair, but important.
Over the fifty years between the resolution of Berlin v. E. C. Publications and the appearance of the “Weird Al” Yankovic album Mandatory Fun in the number-one spot on the Billboard album chart this summer, musical parody has come in and out of vogue. After all, coming in and out is what vogues do. The rock music of the 1960s and early 1970s was too taken with its own magnificence to find humor in much of anything, especially itself. It was not until the arrival of the Siamese musical opposites, disco and punk, in the 1970s that parodic wit rose to the surface in postwar pop—in disco, as hyper-glamorous camp, siphoned from gay culture; and in punk, as adolescent schoolyard mockery of grown-up slickness, pretense, and competence. The Ramones, with their sound-alike two-chord songs and their made-up family name, were at first mistaken for being only a joke. Then they were mistaken for being only serious. (Unrelated friends from Queens, the Ramones took their name from “Paul Ramon,” a nom de plume once used by Paul McCartney, the Beatles’ own pastiche specialist.)
The current craze for musical parody connects to the rise of MTV, down to the truly weird—and not just scare-quotes “weird”—return of Yankovic, who until this summer was no more than a 1980s nostalgia act and who, in fact, still is. The pop art form of the video clip, which MTV established and in time virtually abandoned, and which YouTube and social media have revived on a scale both global and highly individualized, lends itself well to parody. Video is, needless to say, visual, as well as concisely dramatic. Its grammar is visual shorthand. Video enables and, indeed, insists upon, allusion. Every image shot with a camera suggests an old one from somewhere in the history of movies, TV shows, commercials, and music videos.
It is relevant here, too, that the eye is more receptive to humor than the ear. We are amused more easily by pictures than by sounds, as the whole history of silent comedy demonstrates. Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and their many competitors in early cinema all had millions of people laughing, and they made their comedy in silence. Of course, there has always been music intended to be amusing or explicitly parodic—Bach worked aural gags into his music, and so did Mozart (who famously composed a piece called “A Musical Joke”), and funny songs have been a staple of American entertainment since vaudeville. Yet humorous music on its own, without a visual component, has never had the broad popular appeal of visual comedy. (The classical canon is rich with what is often called “parody music,” though the term, in technical usage, refers more to the use of musical quotations and references than to humor.)
YouTube, however wondrous a means of distribution, could not bring about the boom in parody videos without the transformation of the means of production that the smart phone enacted. With high-definition digital video cameras equipped with quality built-in microphones, touch-screen editing software, and effects packages (with which my eleven-year-old son can do pretty much everything that George Lucas used to need a billion-dollar company and a hundred technicians to do), anybody can make a movie. And so everybody is, and, as with beginning artists in every art, freshmen smart-phone film-makers learn by imitating a familiar, existing form: the music video. The shortest step from imitation towards originality is parody.
Until just a few years ago, nearly all the best-known parodies of popular video clips were made by popular video performers making fun of their peers. The makers of the parodies made hit videos by using the tropes of hit video-making to show how they were above using them. David Lee Roth, the William Shatner of arena rock, croaked a pair of vintage novelty tunes, “Just a Gigolo” and “I Ain’t Got Nobody,” while he wandered around mock-ups of the sets of Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and Billy Idol’s “Dancing with Myself.” In a roughly comparable hip-hop counterpart, Chris Rock’s clip for “Champagne,” Rock hung around in a futuristic dance clip like Kim and Cease, awakened from a drowning nightmare like Puff Daddy, and scooted off in a powerboat like the Notorious B.I.G. And in punk (or gently punkish pop, to be more precise), Blink 182, in the video to their “All the Small Things,” took digs at Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys, and 98 Degrees—all stars of the mainstream pop to which Blink 182 was positioning itself as a smarter, edgier alternative. The Blink 182 video ended up as one of the most popular clips of 1999 and won the Video Music Award for Best Group Video that year. The parody was taken more seriously than its targets, and, in that, the pop audience of the last days of the twentieth century could see a decade and a half into the future.
Over the past couple of years, parody videos made by non-professional fans and semi-professionals, as well as by full-time video-makers, have come to dominate the viral marketplace. Nearly all the most popular music videos—“Thrift Shop,” “Call Me Maybe,” “Harlem Shake,” “Blurred Lines,” “Wrecking Ball,” “What Does the Fox Say?”—became viral phenomena with considerable help from mock videos made in response to them and shared by the millions through devices. The number of parodies may now be the best measure of a song’s success. In the post-ownership era of popular music, sales are less meaningful than the social currency exchanged in the form of imitation and parody.
Five years ago—a very different time in pop history—I would have referred to the first song in the list above as: Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’s “Thrift Shop.” Today, though, a hit does not owe its life solely to its original creators; as a hit, it is the product of a great many people working independently with the common goal not of making hits nor even making music, but of making jokes. “Thrift Shop,” as we know it, is not Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’s “Thrift Shop,” but the “Thrift Shop” of a thousand yuksters.
This summer, the song “Problem,” a catchy and perfectly frivolous single by Ariana Grande—the former Nickelodeon star now following the second set of steps in the Miley Cyrus gamebook for pop phenomenonhood, in which a girl coos and pouts in outfits from the trampy-witch racks of a Halloween costume store—was rising up the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The explanatory text under the title on the chart cited only one fact, that the song “has gotten the parody treatment.” Nothing could better vouch for the hit status of the song than the fact of the parody made by Jake Wilson, one of the gag-video specialists to become stars of a sort now. In Wilson’s clip, the actress Rumer Willis, daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis, appears in a mock public-service announcement for sunscreen, surrounded by beefy, half-naked men.
Song parodies now generate more revenue than official videos, according to YouTube data provided in the 2014 Annual Report of the International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI), a music-recording trade group. While YouTube once discouraged parody videos on the dubious grounds of copyright infringement—its attorneys must have skipped the readings on Berlin v. E. C. Publications in law school—YouTube now welcomes music parodies, because it has figured out how to make money from them. YouTube is helping record companies and rights administrators to hit up parodists (and others who employ copyrighted music in their content) for licensing fees. “Google’s ContentID system has made it easier for rights holders to differentiate between video types, allowing the streaming of non-official user-generated content [UGC] such as mashups to be licensed and monetized, rather than removed for infringing copyright,” the IFPI report explains. As a consequence, according to the IFPI, “revenues generated from UGC on its platform have now overtaken those generated by official videos.”
Little of the money that YouTube earns through advertising goes to the producers of user-generated content, of course. Their limited reward is whatever satisfaction they derive from having provided the social benefits that the judges in the case of Berlin v. E. C. Publication saw in Gulliver’s Travels, the literary satire of Max Beerbohm, and “Louella Schwartz Describes Her Malady.” These benefits are real and important, particularly at a time when mainstream popular music is subjected to so little serious criticism, and when serious criticism has so little traction in mainstream culture. As the instructions for a recent video-parody contest noted, “Sometimes starlets like Miley Cyrus go kinda crazy and make interesting videos that need to be parodied.” Yes: however interesting the videos may be, parodies of them fulfill a need. If someone needs to call Miley Cyrus on her cynical appropriation of hip-hop culture and cheesy commodification of sex in “Wrecking Ball,” the video-parodist Shane Dawson may as well do it.
Still, there is something disconcerting about the dominance of parody in the YouTube musical sphere today. The true purpose of parody is the making of jokes rather than the making of critique. The final test of a parody is its ability to get laughs; it is not the depth, nor even the accuracy, of its insights. In the aggregate—and aggregate effects are the whole point of viral phenomena—the parody videos appear to take many elements in many songs written and performed by many people, and say one thing about them: that they are ridiculous. If, as the judges in the Second Circuit reminded us fifty years ago, there is truth in jest, jest is not the only truth.
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Saturday, April 30, 2011
Hello everyone! I hope that you are enjoying your week! We have been really busy with family events. :) When we are busy, I house seems to fall apart really quickly!! I am not sure what happens but we are in and out so much and it’s hard to keep things in line.
One of the ways that I try to keep a clean is house is to go to bed with it clean and tidy!
If I take the extra time at night to pick up, we wake up feeling great and less stressed! :) My kids go to bed at 7pm so I have time to clean up and relax with my hubs!
Then I can spend my day doing activities, projects, homework, cooking, etc. and not worry about the house as much.
I clear and wash the counter.
I do all the dishes. Sometimes my hubby helps with that! :)
I don’t like a lot on my counters…I like to KEEP IT SIMPLE!
I listen to my music while I clean…that totally helps me! :)
I wash out the sink!
Get the coffee ready.
My butler’s pantry is sometime our “dumping ground” as you can see.
I have the kids help clean the family room before they go to bed.
I will also try to check the bathroom and do a quick wipe down.
So, that is how I try to keep a clean house and a less stressed morning! :)
After you make a batch of vanilla sugar from my previous post for cooking and sweet indulgences like tea and coffee, whip up a batch of vanilla facial scrub. It's a mild, sweet smelling scrub that has real benefits. It's all natural, easy to make and effective.
Vanilla sugar is a neat twist on plain old granulated sugar. It'll boost your morale every time you lift the lid on the pot or dish. It's very simple, too. Another wonderful benefit is that it makes a very nice gift for a favorite cook -- or even just someone who likes trying out new foods.
It's wonderful in coffee or tea, makes a nice sprinkle on cookies or homemade donuts (or cereal), and
Friday, April 29, 2011
I don’t have great pictures because this was a last minute project. I keep all my materials in this basket. I was already in the process when I took this photo, ha! I wasn't planning on blogging about it but I thought I would after I started.
I just use my hot glue gun.
I use flowers, ribbons, buttons, sequence, etc…pretty much anything that I can find.
(Again, sorry about the blurry photos. It really was a ten minute project.)
Thursday, April 28, 2011
I first started this blog because we were planning on building a home, and I wanted to document the process. But those plans fell by the wayside, and we assumed we’d be in our current home for several more years. We were *so sure* we’d be staying that we used up all of the collected items (intended for the new house) on this house instead. Like our front door. And our laundry sink. And the bathroom sink and legs. And the fireplace mantel. Plus more…
Oh yes, remember this? It wasn’t so long ago was it? It’s evidence that we were not planning on moving when we built in this little desk nook! It’s now turned into this:
We had to cover it up for resale. Not everyone has the need for a pint sized built-in desk after all. This old door came out of a friend’s barn. People will either love or hate it. Which might not be good for resale either though. Hmm.
So the scoop is that we found a fixer upper in a great location, and we’re going for it!
It’s a farmhouse built in 1930. One would think it would be oozing with charm inside but not so. Throughout the years, it’s gone through much “renovation” which we fully intend to undo. Surely there are treasures to be found underneath all the layers. Let’s hope!
There is a sheep and horse farm next door so we can pretend it’s ours but without the labor. ;) Perfect.
We thought we’d be transitioning back to suburbia for our next house, but it wasn’t meant to be. Country living has gotten into our bones at this point, and we’re embracing its benefits.
In a few days I’ll be participating in the Parade of Homes tour that’s being hosted by A Bowl Full of Lemons. It will be a nice way to exit one door while entering another. I hope you’ll come along!
We have had the wonderful pleasure of dealing with and observing an abundance of wildlife over the last almost eight years. Our last house was sandwiched between farmland to the back and natural water to the front as is this house. However, this house is a bit more rural so we get even more wildlife visits. When we moved to our last house we noticed swallows building nests under our dock.
With spring here and summer coming, I though you would enjoy this post! :)
The Three Colors You Should Be Eating More Of
Remember ROYGBIV? I do. The mnemonic is how I learned the seven colors of a rainbow—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Nowadays I use the acronym to represent the colors of food I should be eating.
Because nature highlights the beneficial nutrients in fruits and vegetables by giving them bright colors, eating by color is an easy way to load up on nature’s superfoods. Each color represents phytochemicals—compounds that benefit our health in different ways—which is why you should eat a colorful variety of vegetables. For example, anthocyanins and proanthocyanins—two antioxidants associated with keeping the heart healthy and the brain functioning optimally—make foods like blueberries, eggplant and cranberries blue, purple and deep red.
The USDA 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, however, suggest paying particular attention to three colors: dark green, red and orange.
Here’s how much of each color you should aim to eat every week:
Red and orange vegetables: 5 1/2 to 6 cups each week for most adults What counts as a “cup”? 1 large red bell pepper, 8 large strawberries, 12 baby carrots or 2 medium carrots, a sweet potato or a medium pink grapefruit. Why they’re important: Red foods—such as tomatoes and red peppers—contain lycopene, a phytochemical that may help protect against prostate and breast cancers. Alpha and beta carotene make foods like carrots and sweet potatoes so brilliantly orange. The body converts these compounds into the active form of vitamin A, which helps keep your eyes, bones and immune system healthy. These phytochemicals also operate as antioxidants, sweeping up disease-promoting free radicals.
Dark green vegetables: 1 1/2 to 2 cups weekly
What counts as a “cup”? A cup of cooked greens, 2 cups raw greens or 10 broccoli florets.
Why they’re important: Dark, leafy greens (spinach, chard and arugula) are good sources of lutein and zeaxanthin, phytochemicals that accumulate in the eyes and help prevent age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness in older people. They’re also rich in beta carotene. Dark green cruciferous vegetables, such as kale and broccoli, provide compounds called indoles and isothiocyanates, which may help prevent cancer by amping up the production of enzymes that clear toxins from the body.
How many colors did you eat in your last meal?
By Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D.
Brierley's interest in nutrition and food come together in her position as nutrition editor at EatingWell. Brierley holds a master's degree in Nutrition Communication from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. A Registered Dietitian, she completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Vermont.
Thanks Brierley for that info!
If you are not getting everything you need, I love Shaklee CarotoMax to make sure I am getting enough vitamins!!! :)
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
We've had a slew of things happen in the last month or so to keep me offline, from coming back to Texas, to getting settled (and all that that entails), to meeting up with friends old and new, to the 7+ day saga of getting our computer gutted and back in the saddle, to, well, the beautiful blue sky and green grass of Texas beckoning us to come out and play, go for walks, picnics, and take pictures. :)
But I'm back, anyway. And my thoughts are swirling... here's a few samplings of the things on my mind:
How God leads us. Sometimes we sense a very clear "DO THIS!" about a particular decision or specific direction in life. I felt this way about where to attend college, moving overseas, and homeschooling. Other times it seems that God gives us a wide open road with several options. I don't know how it all works out... I trust that He is sovereign, and that He knows all, and that He guides His children. Sometimes it just boils down to trusting Him and taking the next step.
Can't believe Moses is 9 months old! Seems like he was just born. Sounds cliche, but I guess it feels this way no matter how many times you experience it.
Food here doesn't taste as good to me as I expected it to. Granted, I'm still eating it, but it's just not as "WOW" as I thought every blissful bite would be. Maybe it's because I've cooked from scratch now for nearly 5 years and my tastebuds have adjusted to fresh foods? But jarred-sauces (even the fancy-sounding ones) just can't compare to fresh chopped tomatoes, garlic, and basil... and open-pop-biscuits are nowhere near as fabulous as homemade cream biscuits. Still, I was looking forward to all of these flavors, and so far the only ones that have lived up to my expectations have been Blue Bell, Chipotle, and Red Robin.
Oh how I love the library! Free! Just a few blocks away! Books everywhere! And even DVDs! I'm enjoying taking the kids a couple times each week.
The No-S Diet is still going great. I'm down 3 pounds from what I was a couple weeks ago. On average, now that I'm not just holding my weight (like I did while I was in just-arrived-back-in-TX-eat-everything-delicious-that-you-possibly-can mode) I'm losing about 1 pound per week. More than that, I'm noticing that my personal self-control has grown, and that I'm really, honestly, content with how much (how little?) I'm eating now. I eat good-sized meals throughout the week, and enjoy treats on the weekends. It's simple, and makes good sense. As I've said before, I hope to eat like this the rest of my life. I feel like I have a healthier attitude towards food & sweets than I've ever had before (and I've never been one with an eating disorder, etc., just never exercised much self-control in this area). This feels great.
Couponing is incredible. INCREDIBLE! It is crazy how inexpensively we can feed our family here, and how conveniently... now, I will say, I'm having to be more intentional about eating well, because of the difference in the quality of produce... but the toiletries, convenience foods, and disposable goods that we can get for a fraction of the cost is amazing. I'm following "CouponMom"'s system (free), and greatly enjoying the benefits.
I'm currently reading Wendy Shalit's "Girls Gone Mild"... what a thought-provoking, culture-exposing book! Her thoughts on how the current sexual climate among college students & young professionals works (or rather, doesn't work) knocks some heavy blows to the ideas of feminism and "liberation". Have you read it?
Monogamy is so incredibly freeing. Reading the book I just mentioned has just made me all the more thankful for a joyful, safe, and fun marriage bed! What a headache to constantly fret and wonder about presenting oneself in the best light, worrying about sexual issues (STDs, birth control, how to do x to satisfy your new lover, etc.), and more. How freeing and wonderful to be in a love relationship, walking side by side, where each romantic encounter is somehow different and unique and yet familiar and comforting! How precious it is to be in a God-centered marriage!
I anticipate that I'll be back to writing again soon- more than just the "7 Quick Takes" variety I've been doing lately-- as there are lots of thoughts swirling right now. Anything on your mind?
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as a way to call the story "the healer" with an ice girl and a fire girl. An ice girl is a physical healer who makes others healthy, but an fire girl is a truly healer who makes people feel extremely good, deep inside
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Moral Considerability – What does it mean? To whom does it apply?
First, moral considerability is essentially the technical jargon in the field of morals that is used to indicate whether or not one is worthy of moral consideration. As moral people tend to grant moral considerability to all other humans, the term is primarily used in relation to other species.
As an aside, I would point out that religion or other strong ideologies sometimes cause people to treat other humans without granting other groups moral considerability. Anyone who believes it is OK to kill or enslave members of any outgroup is clearly not granting that group moral considerability.
That said, I would try to keep this post to the topic of what species other than humans should also be granted moral considerability. As I have hinted in my title by the use of the word whom for members of other species, I clearly believe, quite strongly, that many other species are worthy of such consideration. I have often surprised people by asking who that bird is, rather than what that bird is or other equivalent. I believe living beings should be referred to as who and whom rather than what. It keeps us from forgetting that they are indeed other beings, not inanimate objects.
So, what species are worthy of moral consideration? Should this be only humans?
Jane Goodall related a story during a lecture she gave at the American Museum of Natural History. I believe she stated that this happened to her, though the lecture was quite some time ago and human memory is far from perfect.
Ms. Goodall was walking through a medical research facility. At the facility, there was a chimpanzee in a cage that had apparently been either home raised or otherwise taught sign language and somehow ended up in medical research. The chimp was sitting and signing over and over again in ASL a single message, ‘Help me.’
If this does not leave a lump in your throat and make you feel like crying, then perhaps you do not believe chimps, despite their incredibly close relationship to humans, should be granted moral considerability. For me, the lump reappears in my throat each time I write or tell this story. I have seen chimps in the wild. I know them to be highly intelligent and wonderful creatures. I have looked in their eyes and seen my cousins.
So, to me, it is clear that at a minimum all sentient creatures have moral considerability.
There are a lot of other things to think about in moral considerability. For example, do members of endangered species have greater moral considerability than members of thriving species? Do species have moral considerability or merely individuals? What about non-sentient or not very intelligent species? Is there a sliding scale where perhaps lab chimps get more than lab monkeys and both get more than lab rats and lab mice? What about the trees in a forest? What about the species that depend on them from the very small to the large?
I even remember some discussion about whether to destroy the last vial of live smallpox virus. One part of the discussion was a practical one about the inability to recreate the smallpox vaccine if necessary without the virus on hand. However, another part of the discussion asked the question of whether it is immoral to deliberately destroy an entire species.
In my research for this post, I even came across a discussion about the moral considerability of extraterrestrial life. Since I’ve heard a bit before, I’m going to guess that this has to do with the risk of infecting extraterrestrial bodies with Earth life during space exploration. There is a huge issue with ensuring that a space ship or even space probe is biologically sterile before sending it anywhere that may have life, for example, Europa.
Sticking with the only life we know to exist, that on Earth, I personally feel that there are many species to which I would grant moral considerability. Beginning with the obvious, I would include all primates and all cetaceans. Less obviously, I have seen high degrees of intelligence (no, I’m not necessarily claiming the same level as for great apes and dolphins on all of these) in all cats, canids (dogs, wolves, etc), bears, pinipeds, sirenians, elephants, and many others.
Birds should get some special mention. Some birds are amazingly intelligent. Crows have been observed making tools in the wild and storing them for later. African grey parrots can be taught English and can play the Sesame Street game of one of these things is different. Prostitution has been observed in Adelie penguins. A green heron was observed fly fishing for hours by repeatedly plucking a feather from the water and putting it upstream and watching for fish that come to check it out.
Then I get a little insane, by many other peoples’ standards. To a lesser degree than the sentiences, I even personally take care not to harm spiders, dragonflies (My wife and I actually rescue rather a lot of these from drowning when paddling our canoe.), frogs (Frogs get three points, one for being cute; one for eating mosquitoes and one for being a great indicator species for the health of an ecosystem.), snakes, crocodilians (interesting factoid: mother alligators care for their young for a year)
In fact, I’m prepared to grant varying degrees of moral considerability to rather a lot of multicellular life. I’m not a big fan of insects and arachnids (ticks) that steal my blood. However, even there, I recognize that they are an important part of the food chain and do feel a mild twinge of regret at wasting food when I slap one.
So, to whom do you grant moral considerability? What do you use to draw the line? Or, like me, do you see it as a sliding scale? If so, who is high on your list?
Now, on to even deeper issues stemming from moral considerability. If other species have moral considerability, does our position as de facto stewards of the biosphere, or at least the multi-cellular portion of it, create for us a moral imperative to care for the environment in ways that respect the rights of other species? I claim yes. How are we doing at this job? I claim very badly indeed.
As the cause of the sixth great extinction event on this planet, already greater than the one 65.3 million years ago (MYA) that killed off the non-avian dinosaurs and some say greater than the previous record holder, the Permian/Triassic extinction 250 MYA, I have to question whether we are a moral species at all.
Perhaps, individuals of our species may have very strong morals, but taken as a whole, our species does not have any morals. Thus far, even in light of political environmental movements, we are making little or no progress in this regard. As someone who cares deeply about wildlife, is it any wonder I have become so misanthropic?
A picture is worth a thousand words, so here are a few to help me show animals with moral considerability. All have appeared on prior posts.
If none of the above do it for you, how about the creature with the largest brain on the planet at an incredible 20 pounds? I just realized that it may not be obvious to everyone. The photo below is a sperm whale.
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71 Responses to Moral Considerability – What does it mean? To whom does it apply?
Superb post, many great ideas. There is one time I grieved over the loss of a beloved pet more than the death of a despised human being who ruined years of my life — I don’t know what that says about me as a moral individual, but I insist one had a place on this planet and the other was taking up space and resources a multi-cellular lifeform needs.
I’m with you on that one. I have heard other variations on the phrase as well, including: A waste of existence. Wasting oxygen. And, from Little Shop of Horrors, S/he looks like plant food to me.
Interestingly, pets are probably the first animals to whom most humans extend moral considerability. This is not surprising, but explains the outrage people feel when they hear about abusive pet owners. It also explains the existence of the ASPCA and Humane Society.
The only thing I’d add though is that it shows that people do not necessarily make the decision based on intelligence as chimps and rhesus monkeys in labs far surpass the intelligence of domesticated dogs and probably cats as well. (Sorry, but dogs have had more of their wolf intelligence bred away than cats have from their wild counterparts. This still leaves dogs as quite intelligent, just not up there with wolves.) Probably even the wild relatives of dogs and cats don’t reach the intelligence of a rhesus monkey though.
I googled about 10 website for a “good” definition of moral consideralbility and couldn’t find one beyond the one you use, and its too circular for me.
For what species should man give rights too like the freedom of torture or of being harvested for food? Thats part of it that is more definitional.
Of note to me is that every example you give the subject could be as equally discussed under completely pragmatic principles. Indicator species (most species) should be cared for because in doing so, we care for ourselves? Likewise in outlawing torture of animals. Such a ban protects our better nature?
The question is too vague when you realize that fellow human beings deserve to die and to be tortured depending on what they have done/plan to do? Again, it all goes to protecting the common good.
The older I get, the more respecting of life I become. I don’t kill spiders anymore–I take them outside. What moral consideration is required if you kill a dolphin before it recogizes it is being killed? Killing moisquitos is self defense? Lets alteast maintain a moral consideration of ourselves?
To restate, in a certain sense, the moral consideration we extend to other species, is superceded by the moral consideration we “should” extend to ourselves.
On your last point, you put us as the most important. I’m curious, are you saying that any sentient species should give the highest moral consideration to other members of its own species? Or, do you somehow think that humans are special and deserve moral consideration over all others?
If the former, I would have to think about that point a bit more. My initial reaction is that at least when humans are mean to humans, no innocent species are involved. When humans are mean to other species, innocents are involved. So, in some sense, it causes me similar outrage to when soldiers deliberately kill civilians, an outrage that I do not feel when soldiers kill other soldiers. Innocent victims always create stronger feelings in me than non-innocents.
I have a tendency personally, to consider intelligence quite strongly. I do not know if this is a correct thing to do or not. It just feels right to me. Since we are not capable of accurately assessing the intelligence of our own species, I assume we are equally incapable, or probably more incapable, of accurately assessing the intelligence of other species. Therefore, for the species that come close, I tend to want to grant at least equal moral considerability to humans.
For example, a sperm whale with a 20 pound brain has a good chance of being more intelligent than any human. We just can’t tell. Dolphins understand when we speak, even when we are getting across such concepts as ‘be creative’, and yet we do not understand anything at all when they speak. Perhaps they are more intelligent than we are and deserve even greater moral consideration than humans. I don’t know.
So, my real question for you is, what is the reason you allow human moral considerability to overshadow the moral considerability of all other species?
Of course, on your point of pragmatic principles, you are correct. Pragmatism and a long term view of the world, i.e. thousands and millions of years instead of tens of years, may produce the exact same results as granting moral considerability to other species. We need a healthy and robust ecosystem for our own long term survival.
Hi Scott – – yea, my point did not come across. You want to give MC to non humans when by and large we are not even giving MC to ourselves what with disease, war, poverty, lack of education abounding. So–yea, I think humans should be considered before other species—as in no money for Mrs Helmsly’s (sp?) dog.
You make NO SENSE at all in saying you want to give MC to whales Your point may have been garbled as you do admit that humans can be innocent. I have always understood “most” soldiers to be innocent even when they are killing others===but certainly when being killed themselves. Service in combat is rarely voluntary. In fact, that we have “soldiers” is a major indicator we do not show MC towards our own species.
Stop being so wishy washy and undefined. If we can’t tell how intelligent whales are then there is no greater or lesser chance they are more or less intelligent than we are. Now, I say we can proceed by definition. A smart animal LEARNS to stay away from boats that carry harpoons. Failing to learn that connection is not very smart. People who can’t associate harm with stimulus are pretty stupid too.
Would I hurt/torture a retard? No. MC deals with more than intelligence. Perceptions of self awareness? Attributes that create empathy–like a face with a smile? big eyes? No one would ever eat an Anime Cartoon.
Does it matter that none of those other creatures have MC for us? Just a one way street for those with “awareness?”
As usual, you make some interesting points. I need to think about this some more. This is why I start these threads, to learn other opinions and come up with a more well-considered result in my own brain.
I don’t believe we can judge whales based on their inability to learn to avoid harpoons. That’s a particular brand of intelligence. There may be many others. For example, the intelligence of some members of our species is in art. For others, it is in science.
Taken as the sum of intelligence of all of the members, the intelligence of our species is in a wide variety of subjects. It may be that other species are more intelligent in particular areas, and not to general.
(As an aside, taken as the average of the members of our species rather than as the sum, we are not intelligent at all, IMSNHO. We may not even be able to dodge our own bullets and survive our own technological advances.)
Dolphins are a prime example of greater intelligence in at least one area. They can learn to understand us, even when our communiques are in the form of gestures, even when those communiques are on a television screen. Most animals do not even recognize that the images on a television screen are representations of three dimensional objects and beings.
That said, when dolphins attempt to communicate with us. we understand precisely zero of what they are saying. Unlike monkeys, apes, and even prairie dogs, I have not heard of a single case of humans identifying even a single call/word of dolphin speech.
You are correct though. Intelligence may not be the best way to determine who is worthy of moral consideration. But, if not intelligence, then what? And, why put humans at the top? Just because we are humans? That seems rather self-centered and arrogant.
Well, putting ourselves at the top is one broad way of avoiding harpoons?
Catcher in the Rye had a good page or two describing Holden’s trying to engage farmers in some rhapsodic explanation of the dignity of toiling with the earth, of nurturing the growth of seeds to plants and such. All he got was a bunch of dumb farmers complaining about lack of rain. Likewise, a whale’s intelligence may be fairly restricted to how to catch smelt, or swim with your mouth open? No opening of doors to the universe—but that Startrek movie having the earth saved by whales was “fun.”
Over the top to ascribe “superior” intelligence to dolphins on the examples you give. If there are many types of intelligence, the dolphins may exceed our ability to use sonar to diagnose illness and such—but when it comes to MC, aren’t we talking “self awareness” or awareness of others before some skill? I can’t gather leaves and eat the mold it grows either (ants), is that intelligence or MC worthy?
Good show last week about why dogs are loved. They have the instinct to take cues from pack members. Point to the bowl with food, and the dog will go to it. Not so with the more intelligent Great Ape. Gestures mean nothing to them.
Maybe more could be gained by recognizing that the more we recognize MC in the universe, the better we make ourselves. A worthy goal indeed.
To bobbo
Whales have been observed running away from whaling ships, but can’t outrun a ship that travels at speeds of 25 to 30 knots, can they?
Besides which, they also are mammals and have to breathe air, don’t they?
Have you ever observed how Killer whales teaching their young how to hunt, bobbo?
This all takes cooperation, planning and learning abilities, you know.
So, I think you’ve missed the boat that one entirely, bobbo.
Even an ape will look at himself in a mirror and recognize himself, while a cat just thinks it’s another cat.
I’d say that about covers the definition of self awareness, don’t you think?
Bobbo, did you know that an elephant was observed knocking on doors waiting for a human to answer, and when the person would answer, the elephant would grab and kill them?
I wonder where that group of elephants had learned behavior from?
Bobbo, did you know that elephants are the only other species on earth that have feelings for the death of their own?
I once read an article about a group of elephants that were conducting raids on farmers crops.
So, the farmers got smart and decided to put bells on the elephants to hear them coming at night, but after 2 weeks the farmers wondered why their crops were being raided, yet again.
So upon observing the elephants the farmers noticed the elephants pissing on the ground, and stuffing the mud in the bells, wait for the mud to dry, so they could raid the farmers fields again at night.
Intelligence? Self awareness?
I’d say that fits the definition very well, wouldn’t you say so bobbo?
Dolphins also pass the mirror test, FYI. Where did you get those examples of elephant behavior? I’d love to read the source. Do you have a link or name of a book? I hadn’t heard of the killing or the mud in the bells before.
Anyway, I got the examples through a friend, which I didn’t believe him until he had shown me an article.
It was 2007, is when my friend had brought to my attention an article in relation to elephant intelligence, and behavior.
Well. I must admit that at the time I was rather ignorant on the subject of elephant intelligence, but no more becausee of the article in question, and other related articles I’ve read since.
I said to him; as he was in college at the time:
Well. Within a week he brought the article, and a video too me, and upon viewing the ( Nat. Geo. ) video, well, my jaw hit the floor to say the least.
And for the life of me, I can’t recall the title or group that conducted the study because I was only able to study it for a few hours as he had to return to the university in 2 days and still wanted to see his parents before he went back.
I wish I could’ve copied the article, as it was full of information on elephant intelligence.
I must admit, seeing is believing, he’d shown me the evidence and for me, that was all that was necessary.
FYI predates the internet by quite a number of years. It is simply short for “for your information”. See the bottom-most post in the thread (as of today) that contains a further response. I wasn’t happy with the formatting when shifted to the right this way.
My reply to evanescent can be found at this link. I have removed this blog from my blogroll due to our differences of opinion on this subject. I have little patience for people who believe humans to be fundamentally different from other animals. This is likely a failing on my part. However, I believe that a failure to recognize that humans are part of a continuum of animals, both physically and mentally, and are not special in any way, is a failure to recognize evolution for what it is and is an irrational, illogical, and immoral (at least from an interspecies viewpoint) position to hold.
Hi all, I do encourage you to visit the discussion on my blog and contribute if you wish. Despite M. Scott’s emotionalism and rather irrational decision to remove me from his blogroll, he is still welcome to comment on my blog. And when it comes to evolution, I do know what I’m talking about.
Any sensible person can see the arguments I make clearly and logically. Oh, and for anyone who thinks humans are no different to animals consider this: a human being mugs another and steals his wallet. A cheater stalks and rips the throat out of a gazelle. Which of these actions is moral and which is immoral? Which creature in either case is “guilty” and of what?
My “irrational decision to remove you from my blogroll” is mostly because I use my blogroll as my way of going through the blogs I find entertaining. Yours has become a tad more annoying than entertaining to me due to your view that humans are special. I may still check back once in a while, just less regularly. You are always welcome on my blog as well. As I have said, I respect you a lot and am impressed with your opinions on many other subjects.
As for understanding evolution, exactly why do you think that morals sprang into existence fully formed in a single step? That is not evolution. That is, for lack of a better term, creationism. Actually, I believe there is a word for people that believe in large single step changes in evolution. I simply can’t remember it at the moment. This is hardly a majority view among evolutionary biologists.
Even people, like myself, who lean towards punctuated equilibrium, still believe major change takes place over many generations. Despite any historical controversy over the rate of evolution, biologists are nearly all gradualists, even those who think that there are periods of rapid evolution. Your view on morals does not reflect this, hence my questioning of your knowledge of evolution.
As for your analogy, it is completely and utterly flawed. A cheetah (I assume you meant cheetah, not cheater) that kills a gazelle is more comparable to a hunter who shoots a deer than to a mugger who steals a wallet.
A better analogy would be a comparison of a murderous human to a murderous chimp, both of whom are identical with the exception that humans tend to be better at it. Wolves have a concept of possession. Sometimes a dominant wolf will take something away from a subordinate wolf. This may be analogous to your mugger. In such cases, I would say all are immoral, the murderous chimp, the wolf thief, and the human murderer and the human mugger. Some animals, I’m not sure about wolves, do punish the cheats and murderers. Humans are not alone in this.
So, as a sensible person, I will say that you make arguments clearly and logically. However, the arguments are flawed, non-scientific, and speciesist nonetheless. Logic != correctness. Logic can usually be used to argue both sides of a case, hence the case backlog in our courts.
Science does not work the same way. Data is evaluated in peer reviewed publications. Regardless of logic, the winner is the person whose theory matches the data. Yours does not.
I’ve been reading through your conversation with Evanescent over on his blog, and I just read through these ones on this post. Having discussed morality with Evanescent and having some misgivings about an Objectivist view of human morality, I’m rather confused.
The way I see it, if we’re going to say that humans have morality and that morality does not extend to other organisms, we need to ground this morality in a unique mental quality of humans–something that is, in fact, different in kind and not in degree. Although we are very intelligent, many species possess intelligence, so intelligence can’t be the basis of morality–all it is is problem-solving ability.
I believe that humans are the most intelligent organisms on the planet because we can see the products of said intelligence, and they are more numerous and more varied than the products of any other species’ intelligence. Considered from an evolutionary standpoint, I do not think that believing such is a mistake, since greater intelligence eats up a greater amount of energy, and therefore greater intelligence is something that should have visible consequences. For us, it is manifest in buildings, computers, science, social interactions, and, I believe, in our willingness to include nonhumans in our “circle” of moral considerability (which shows our social and empathetic latitude).
However, as I’ve said, I don’t think intelligence cuts it, since it is present in many organisms. I hope I’m not speaking a falsehood, but I think the Objectivist position (i.e. that of Evanescent) is that reason is the feature of humanity that separates it from all other organisms. Perhaps also consciousness and self-awareness. As the resolution of the argument hinges on what makes us different, we have to be certain that what we say is unique to humans is actually unique to humans. Therefore, empiric observation is required.
Evanescent and other Objectivists seemingly rely on everyday observations for this empiric input, so it looks like they are associating reason, consciousness, and self-awareness (or whatever they say separates us in kind and not in degree) intimately with language. Hence the heavy references to conceptual reasoning, as opposed to whatever else “reason” could stand for in nonhumans.
I think it is true that humanity’s linguistic skill is unmatched. Our dexterous primate forms coevolved with our brains and social interactions to produce this linguistic capacity. I really don’t think they can be separated, as it seems we wouldn’t be this intelligent and linguistically capable unless it were physically allowed first (and then they snowball together, leading to the posession of a greater degree of each). On this issue, I defer to scientists who study our evolutionary history.
Our conceptual ability is probably what allows us to reason with language at all. I think–again, having discussed morality with Evanescent–that this ability to think conceptually is what Objectivists consider the essential feature that separates us from everything else. Our intelligence evolved rapidly, so I don’t think it should be surprising that it, combined with our coevolving linguistic skills, produced in us the ability to do something that no other organism can. However, this issue, since it seems to be the one we need to look at to resolve the issue of moral applicability, is the one that needs empirical support. I am not ready to decide the issue without it.
So, given that, what is conceptual thought? We need to know what it is in order to properly conduct research. A definition for the term is something I’ll have to think about.
Mark, conceptual thought does seem to be unprecedented in level with humans, although very recent and tentative research seems to suggest animals can form very basic concepts; I’m not sure if this is conclusive.
Either way, humans as volitional rational beings is what sets us apart. How? That is the type of creature we are. That descriptor cannot apply to any other creature, because 1. well, can you name one?? 2. animals are self-evidently non-rational, this is clear from the nature of their consciousness and their behaviour.
(Now, the issue of why humans are the way we are is a matter for biology and evolution; I’m just looking at the facts of what we are now.)
The ability to think through a course of action and choose competing goals, based on rational values is what makes us responsible. That is why humans can be guilty or innocent, and where our entire concepts of justice, reward, and punishment come from. You can TRAIN an animal to do “right”, or do whatever it’s told, but only a human being can reason its decisions out. This reasoning on right or wrong based on our values can have no other meaning but: morality. A human who kills someone or rapes someone is WRONG. A human who is loyal and acts rationally is GOOD. Now, an animal cannot be responsible for its decisions or actions. Animals kill and fight each other, they steal food; they behave as a result of their instinct, with some volition in higher mammals. This is why we do not punish them for their actions, because they are not responsible for them. Why? Because they cannot rationally choose them. I hope I’ve made that clear, as I don’t think I could explain it any better.
Now, morality is therefore a code of (rationally selected) values that guides our actions. That is why humans are moral beings. It is also why, by definition, animals simply cannot be. There is absolutely no way to avoid this without contradiction.
Now, in a social setting, humans need principles of interaction to allow us to function like moral beings. What are these principles? Rights. Humans necessarily have Rights because of the type of being we are, and our relationship with reality.
It logically follows that Rights flow from morality. That is why humans MUST have them, and animals MUST NOT.
Now, that does NOT mean that cruelty to animals is ok. It does NOT mean that we should abuse animals and do whatever we want to them. Any human who takes pleasure in hurting something is immoral and probably mentally disturbed. However, there is a difference between morality and LEGALITY. The government (should) enforces Rights, not morality. That is why animals can have no protection under the law, save their status as human property, such as cattle or pets etc.
You’re welcome to give me your feedback to this, Mark. But I cannot explain this situation any clearer so don’t intend to repeat any of that again!
I think you’re onto something. I think intelligence is not necessarily a factor. If it were to be a factor, a chimp or bonobo with a normal brain would have greater rights than a retarded human. Pigs would probably have greater rights than dogs.
Unlike you and evanescent, I am not even convinced that we are the most intelligent species on the planet. For example, you mentioned our linguistic skill. Dolphins understand us when we speak, when we gesture, even when our gestures are played back on a television screen. Humans on the other hand have not interpreted even the simplest of dolphin calls, as we have with primates and even prairie dogs. Though we are unable to be sure at this time, it would not surprise me to think that dolphins exceed our skill with communication.
You’re correct though, this is an aside. I have no idea whether intelligence should be all or even part of the decision about who has rights. In fact, I’m not sure we need to decide on a particular factor that a given animal must have to be awarded some degree of protection under the law. For example, I think our cattle should be afforded the right to a quick painless death and should not be hacked to pieces while still breathing.
So, perhaps it is not any particular factor that affords rights to a member of any species. Perhaps it should just be about treating those with whom we share the planet with a modicum of decency.
This we do not do today.
evanescent,
I must, once again, strongly disagree with your logic. I do understand it completely. I even respect it as your viewpoint. However, I find it completely abhorrent.
If you think it through to it’s logical conclusion, those who are not “volitional rational beings” have no rights. So, a mentally retarded individual should probably be cared for, but this should not be enforced by law. I know I’m putting words in your mouth and for that I would apologize. Except, in this case, I will not do so. To apologize for an act one is performing consciously and knowingly is hollow at best.
It is genuinely true though that you are not affording legal protection to any individual that does not meet your standards for volition and rational behavior. This is unconscionable. There will always be cruel and despicable people in the world, or at least will be until there are no more humans. To fail to protect individuals that don’t meet these criteria from the despicable humans of the world is horrifically wrong in my opinion.
I think you have explained your position quite clearly. I think I have explained mine equally clearly. Unless you plan to recant your statement about not providing legal protection to those who fail your personal test, we will have to agree to disagree.
I would also strongly state that you are horribly underestimating the mental capacities of many creatures on this planet. There are many non-human sentiences on this planet. Many species, for example, pass the mirror test. Many species are capable of a wide variety of complex abstract symbolic thought. Monkeys lie during inter-troop fights. Prairie dogs, not high on most people’s list of intelligent species, have different symbolic calls for “human” and “human with gun”. In one test, a human walked by with a gun, they gave the appropriate call. Many days later, the same human walked by without a gun. They gave the call for “human with gun”, thus proving excellent memory and ability to recognize individuals of another species. Whenever most humans assess the intelligence of some other animal, it is almost always a gross underestimation.
I would again strongly recommend reading some books, or at least articles, on animal intelligence. Gaining knowledge of their levels of thought will not only likely change your opinion on this subject, it will increase your wonder at the majesty of that which evolution hath wrought.
With time, I sincerely hope that the moral zeitgeist of our species shifts farther and farther from the human-centrism from which you suffer.
Several animals kill for fun and not food. I remember watching a program (Discovery Channel ?) where an orca pod attacked a new born humpback calf. Instead of killing it outright, they toyed with it while the helpless mother could do nothing. After several hours the calf finally died and the orcas moved off.
Wolves have been known to kill prey and leave it.
Wolverines are notorious for wanton killing.
Have you ever seen a cat catching a mouse?
And of course, we can’t forget all the animals that will fight each other to the death for mating rights.
Most pack/herd mammals, be they wolves, lions, wildebeest, or elephants have a social order. That social order almost always includes a leader. The more reliant the pack is upon the others, the more complicated the social order is. Humans are little different except we have the most complicated social order of all.
Certainly surplus killing is common in the animal kingdom. Cats have a hunting instinct completely separate from their hunger one. This is why a well fed cat will do a better job keeping mice out of a farm house. Being well-fed, they are A) in better shape and B) likely to stay closer to home. So, I agree with most of your post.
I do have an issue though with saying that humans have the most complicated social order of all. Your statement, while less strong than evanescent’s claim that humans alone are rational volitional animals, is not necessarily true. I’m not sure any human fully understands the social order of superpod time among killer whales, for example. Nor am I sure of the social order of some of the larger cetaceans, most notably blue whales, that produce signals that span entire oceans. Perhaps they are communicating with all other blue whales in the world, or at least in that ocean basin.
Such statements are simply not backed by current science of the mind. These statements are far from being self-evident, despite the claims of evanescent about his particular statement. In short, I think your point is highly valid. Many animals have a lot going on inside their minds. My only dispute is with any assertion that puts us at the top of the list. What is a sperm whale doing with a 20lb brain? Why do dolphins understand us while we consistently fail to understand them?
Science still has a lot to answer on such questions. Until it does, philosophy or intuition does not get to be the final word.
Sorry to have directed this rant in your general direction. Most of it is really intended for evanescent should he ever return.
Rant away. Sometimes the best ideas pop out or germinate from someone’s rant. Often without them even being aware of what they said. Even when I disagree, I still appreciate a well formed, intelligent argument.
You make a strong point about humans NOT being the only rational or volitional beings. It would appear to be self evident.
I disagree with your other point because we have developed the most complicated society. We, more than any other type of being, be they bacteria, insect, protozoa, mammal, or whatever; can live anywhere on this planet. We have the ability to live in a city of 30 million or by ourself in a cave. Or anywhere in-between. We can survive deserts of 125F and polar regions of -60F for long periods of time. We can take to the skies or borrow deep into the earth. We can heal ourselves as well as heal animals. We can protect ourselves from anything except mankind’s own predations. We can mold the earth to fit us. We can take nature and make it suit us. When we don’t have enough nature to use, we can create our own materials from waste and whatever.
All that does not make us the ONLY rational or complicated society. It is, however, a strong argument for it making us the MOST complicated. Polar bears can’t live in the Sahara and camels can’t live in Churchill Manitoba. Dahl sheep can’t live in the Everglades and manatees can’t live in The Grand Tetons. Unless we artificially adapt the environment for them.
Ants may work to create a colony that benefits them. But they can only do that by acting with one mind and by sacrificing many of their number to do it.
Musk oxen will band together to fight off a predator. But they can’t store food for when times are lean or find shelter when the weather is bad.
Outside of maybe hermit crabs, animals don’t use their environment to clothe themselves.
While many animals will make a nest, they are very crude and usually are actual features of the environment, ie caves or bushes. Some social gophers, ground squirrels, meerkats, and the like being an exception. If most animals can not handle the environmental extremes, they perish.
Yes I agree we don’t know enough about whales. Their calls may be sophisticated communication. Or it may be similar to why birds sing the most at daybreak. A simple “this is my territory, keep out” or “hey, anyone wanna mate”. Evidence would tend to suggest they are not trying to get a foursome for Bridge or Euchre.
As with humans, brain size has been shown not to be an element in intelligence. What we could do with a fully functioning 20 lb brain though, …
We’re mostly in agreement, as usual. I’m not as sure as you are that our hugely complex hierarchy of social order is necessarily the most complex on the planet. I would have no way to know that. I would also wonder about animals that do not have a hierarchy. You are likely correct. But, how can we tell with so many species we just don’t understand. How do ants march by the millions maintaining some order? How do termites coordinate the building of huge underground cities? How do all the birds in a flock turn simultaneously? How do dolphins and tuna coordinate across species lines to fish together?
As for ability to survive in different environments, we as a species, though probably not individually, will soon find out just how adaptable to environmental change we really are. I’m not betting on us.
However we define intelligence, it may turn out to have negative value as a survival characteristic. We may not be able to overcome the effects of our own intelligence in order to survive a long time.
Statistically, something that has been around a long time is likely to continue to be around a long time. For example, a new Broadway show just opening up is less likely to be here next year or in five years than a show that has already been running for several years. As a species, we’re very new on the scene. From a very real measure of survivability, we just opened this week. We’ve been here only around 200,000 years, which sounds like a long time to our weak brains. But, consider horsehoe crabs at 400,000,000 years (2,000 times as long as humans have been around) or the chambered nautilus at around 500,000,000 years, though currently in decline. Can we hope to compete with such species?
As for brain size, within ouor species, it tends not to indicate intelligence. However, species that test well for whatever we call intelligence and whatever we’re able to test for, which I grant isn’t much, do tend to be higher up on the brain size to body weight curve. Some have suggested that this be called Encephalization Quotient, or EQ. Whether that turns out to mean much and whether high encephalization or EQ or any other definition of intelligence tends to indicate adaptability and enhanced survival is another issue.
Either way though, I’m not really sure that any of this discussion has anything to do with moral considerability. It’s interesting to note that no one really suggests that we owe a higher moral standard to geniuses than to retarded individuals. So, perhaps we owe moral considerability to other creatures based on some other criteria.
I read you last post first. This one however is quite good. Well thought out, very well written and fair to all considerations on the table.
Nice work.
I do however disagree with the jettisoning of the idea that man’s rational faculty is the basis upon which rights are to be determined. Using the retarded or genius man as examples does not win the argument.
A man is still a man if all of his limbs are cut off, his eyes are dugout and he is deaf and dumb.
Good point. So, all animals capable of feeling suffering then have rights, correct? At the very least, the right to not be subjected to needless suffering. Is that your point? If so, I agree wholeheartedly.
I don’t recall ever using rationality as a criterion. I mentioned animal intelligence. There is a difference. In fact, in my books list, you can find a book titled “What Intelligence Tests Miss” and both rational and critical thinking are definitely on the list of missed items in the definition of and tests for intelligence.
That animals are intelligent (though perhaps less so than humans in some important ways and possibly more so than humans in other a few other ways, like dolphins’ ability to understand us and our lack of ability to understand them), is obvious and there are examples given in this post and some others on this site.
Must they be as intelligent as humans to warrant at least the right not to be caused undue suffering? If so, which human would you use for the comparison? Albert Einstein? Most of us would fail that test. Sarah Palin? Perhaps she is not smart enough to warrant any rights.
What standards would you use for your intelligence test? What the animal can build? If so, beavers are the second most intelligent species on the planet, far more intelligent than chimps and dolphins. Bower birds probably come in third place, unless coral beats them both.
So, what standards would you use?
Feeling suffering may actually be a better criterion than intelligence. But, if you want to stick with intelligence, fine.
It was your post that made me think you were arguing against using intelligence when you pointed out that the severely mentally retarded still have rights.
Your comments are completely asinine. I’m not posturing. I’m making rational arguments. You are refusing to do so and instead are talking about doors and ships without actually making a point.
As for rationality, that may be your criterion it was never mine. Further, I only brought up suffering when you suggested that even those with diminished mental capacity had rights. So, you started with the argument that intelligence was not required.
I’m fine with that argument. Why did you abandon it? Why did you make it in the first place? Why won’t you be clear about what your points are?
Oh I understand now. You don’t understand what jettisoning means.
“I do however disagree with the jettisoning of the idea that man’s rational faculty is the basis upon which rights are to be determined. ”
Layman’s terms. I think it foolish to believe that anything BUT rationality should be used in any animal rights debate.
Also, you saying that I am not being rational does not make it so. What i WRITE makes it so. This debate is becoming very low grade. Unless you can come up with a defense for your Suffering criterion, I’m out.
You don’t get to hijack my thread this way. The first mention I made about suffering was in response to your reply. It sure as hell wasn’t the intent of this post.
Many animals very definitely do have a high degree of intelligence, though not the rationality you are so fixated on.
For the reference, if you had ever read anything at all about the human brain, you would know that human beings are also not all that rational.
But, let’s stick with rationality as a requirement. So, are you actually saying that the vast majority of humans, for whom rationality is by far not the majority of their thought process, are not entitled to rights?
Certainly, it is a subject for serious debate whether humans are rational. To be sure, you have not demonstrated any rationality in your posts.
Here are a few links to show that the conclusion is not foregone, at least if you are rational enough to look at real evidence. Note that the second link supports you. So, I am showing both sides of the debate and am merely pointing out that there is debate.
Feel free to keep trying to make a rational point. I promise I can keep this up as long as you can. I also promise, and can show evidence on this blog, that I am willing to admit when I’m wrong provided that someone makes their case sufficiently.
Thus far, you have failed completely and utterly to make any rational point. But, at least now I know that rationality is your standard. Too bad that by your own standard, you are failing to win your own rights.
Do you have a reason for thinking that rationality is the criteria?
Do you have a reason for thinking that torturing animals for fun is OK?
Yes, by claiming that animals have no rights, you really are making the claim that whatever we do to them is fine. So, this is something that should really be backed up, especially since most rational people long ago made many forms of animal cruelty illegal.
A human infant, a severely retarded person, the very old and infirm are not exceptions to the rule that humans are the only species on this planet with a volitional and conceptual faculty.
A human infant is nevertheless a *human* being, on one end of the spectrum.
An old and infirm person is nevertheless a *human* being, on the other end of the spectrum.
A severely retarded person is still a *human* being with accidental characteristics of disability.
You need to understand the philosophic nature of rights to understand what truly invalidates rights or what disqualifies an entity from possessing rights.
The only way rights can be invalidated among human beings is *not* by their accidental characteristics of race, ethnicity, sex, gender, or disability; but *only* and *solely* by their actions that initiate *force* or fraud, which sets a context where morality is impossible, because in the face of a gun, a syllogism is useless, rationality is impossible, free choice is non-existent. It is only in this context (of intiating force or fraud) that rights among humans are invalidated.
What disqualifies an entity from possessing rights is when its *essential* AND *fundamental* attribute (not an accidental or abnormal attribute like a disability) makes it impossible for the entity to have a context of free choice in the pursuit of goal-directed action, for which purpose rights would be necessary. Rights are meaningless if the entity simply has no choice in the practice or implementation of it. For example, the right to life to an animal is meaningless because it has–essentially, metaphysically, fundamentally–no choice in the matter of living, continuing to live, or committing suicide. It is led inexorably to what it must do to survive or procreate.
… humans are the only species on this planet with a volitional and conceptual faculty.
Please at least attempt to back this up with some sort of data. You and Evanescent and many other followers of the Objectivist religion have made this statement repeatedly. Do you have any way to back it up?
You need to understand the philosophic nature of rights to understand what truly invalidates rights or what disqualifies an entity from possessing rights.
Sorry, I’ve read this a number of times now. I do understand your position on it. I just don’t agree with the Objectivist religion on the subject. Mostly, I find this opinion to be a complete load of horseshit based on unfounded assumptions. Rights, if they exist at all, and I believe they do, do not need to stem from any such thing. A tree can have rights. You have given me nothing to prove that it cannot. You are making a claim here. Back it up with something.
What disqualifies an entity from possessing rights is when its *essential* AND *fundamental* attribute (not an accidental or abnormal attribute like a disability) makes it impossible for the entity to have a context of free choice in the pursuit of goal-directed action, for which purpose rights would be necessary.
And other than repeating the same rhetoric over and over hoping to make it true through repetition, you have evidence that no other animals possess this? You have evidence of this spontaneously appearing only in the human species? You therefore do not actually believe in the gradual change of evolution?
I claim that you do not understand about evolution at all if you can believe that this is unique in kind through single step evolution to homo sapiens. I also claim that your belief on the subject is entirely religious. This is why you and evanescent an d the rest of your Objectivist clan have completely and utterly failed to offer any evidence of this and simply assert it as fact.
Lastly, I have avoided the sites of the Objectivist religion because I realize that I cannot sway you with actual proof. I post studies and you ignore them and tell me I am simply wrong. I post evidence of my claims and you claim that I have given none. Meanwhile, you make very assertive claims and offer nothing to back them up.
Back to square one, you state that only humans have volitional and conceptual faculty.
Prove it!! Offer some scientific study showing this. Back up your behaviorist psychology with something. You made a claim. The burden of proof is now on you.
Actually the burden of proof is on YOU.
One is never burdened with providing proof to the non-existence of anything.
It is the burden of the one who argues FOR its existence to provide that proof.
One is never called upon to prove a negative.
So if you can find a non-human animal with volitional capacity such that it can choose to harm itself or end its own life for no other reason than it chooses to, then please provide that evidence.
Until then, I leave you with this saying:
“We will recognize the rights of animals when they petition for them”.
Ah, my doors have closed and my ship has sailed. Oh well then I should probably just give up.
Or, perhaps you’d actually like to make you case for why torturing animals is acceptable.
Check my thick skin etiquette page. I can take it. Make your case however you like. Just be clear on what your case is. I’m often having trouble understanding what point you are trying to make.
Earlier, I thought you were arguing that intelligence was not a prerequisite for rights. Now you seem to be arguing that crush videos and aerial wolf hunts are fine with you. I can’t really tell what you’re trying to say.
I’m not really up for all this posturing. If we’re going to have a discussion, I am only interested in a rational one.
I….have stated that Rationality is the criterion.
You…have stated that Suffering is the criterion.
I never said anything about YOUR doors closing or ship sailing, only your above PREMISE wrt to animal rights.
Stop trying to turn this into a personal matter and lets stick to the facts, if you dare.
‘Suffering’ as the only criterion for your case, has been thoroughly refuted. Hint- it is derived from Utilitarianism. Once that philosophy is refuted, your premise has no ground.
What posturing? I’m asking you to make a point. You have refused to do so. As for suffering, you keep coming back to that. My original point, if you would bother to read the post on which you are replying, something you have obviously not done, was that there are other sentiences/intelligences on this planet who deserve to be granted moral considerability. Note, I didn’t even say rights. I said considerability. You might want to actually click the link or read this post to see what that means.
As for posturing, it’s all you’re doing. You refuse to actually state your argument or what you truly believe is the criterion for moral considerability. You just repeatedly attack me without even understanding the term.
And, you continue to confuse rationality with intelligence, which is not surprising since you are thus far showing little evidence of either.
Care to make an argument now? Care to actually state what your opinion is instead of repeatedly attacking mine while hinting at a wide variety of conflicting opinions?
Really?
And the fact that a lone wolf is a weak wolf WITHOUT EXCEPTION whereas the lone man has given you the light bulb, the car, the knowledge and proof that the Earth is not the centre of our universe does not give you pause.
The fact that he was worse off than a lone man. If he was left alone, that is one thing, but he was ridiculed, laughed at and hurdles thrown in his path and STILL, you gain from his mind does not give you pause.
Pause that maybe, just maybe, what causes the difference between the wolf and the man is a little something to do with what even you, I dare say, possess that non humans do not.
But it makes no sense discussing with fools. Maybe I should just Diss-Cuss you instead. But I digress.
I’m completely missing your point on this one, if you have one. As for the lone man, or more likely given current anthropological knowledge, the lone woman, she has probably given us the first pointed stick (as a lone woman chimp has done in the wild).
But, the idea that a lone man could create the light bulb is ludicrous in the extreme. This was founded upon millennia of building upon prior technology beginning with pointed sticks and fire.
So, whatever your point, the lone man does not come up with inventions in a vacuum.
And, again, I am not arguing that animals have greater intelligence, especially the particular type we have, than humans. I’m arguing that they are intelligent, at least to a degree, and that they warrant moral considerability.
A) There is no truth in a matter of opinion.
B) Without culture, single men (and women, you sexist bastard) would have to invent the spear anew with each generation.
C) You asked me what I call this phenomenon of building on the inventions of prior generations. So I answered. The correct term is culture. Do you have a problem with me answering your questions? I thought that was the protocol in a discussion.
You really are getting quite tiresome and have not yet answered why you think it is OK to torture animals.
I am becoming more convinced with each of your replies that A) you are a troll and B) you do not have a sufficient level of rationality to warrant rights by your own standards.
A/ An opinion CAN be judged according to reality as true or false.
B/ Incorrect. Culture is NOT what constitutes that unique property men hold that allows them to pass on information consciously acquired in the previous generation.
I never said that it was ‘ok’ to torture animals. There is a difference between morality and legality. What is immoral is not necessarily illegal.
For the record, I absolutely believe it immoral to torture animals.
For the record, I absolutely believe that it should not be illegal.
You are the one that wants to put a gun to my head if I do. Therefore the burden of proof is on YOU to find me criminal. What is your criterion? If you have none, end of discussion, case closed.
If you have one and it is unsatisfactory, meaning that if the criterion cannot be justifiably used in general, which means- if, in applying your criterion elsewhere, it is found to be an injustice, then you also have no case.
It is never, who is going to allow me, it is always, who is going to stop me. And you better have a just reason to.
It was like pulling teeth to get you to say it. But, I appreciate that you finally did. I’m sorry I had to goad you as I did by deliberately taking words out of context and reading them literally then following them through to their logical conclusion. But, I needed to get to a point where we could start from some common ground.
So yes, we agree that in our combined moral judgment it is wrong to torture animals. This is the first step in recognizing that they are worthy of moral considerability. You already believe that their feelings should be taken into account at least for the purpose of deciding whether or not it is OK to torture animals. This is the primary point of the original topic, that animal are worthy of moral considerability.
As for putting a gun to your head, please point me at the particular comment in which I said anything about the law or that those who harm animals should be subjected to the death penalty. Since I don’t believe in the death penalty (for reasons of morality surrounding the implementation), I find it hard to believe I made that argument anywhere.
I’m perfectly happy to have a conversation about legality. But, I don’t recall doing so previously. Maybe I need to reread this thread in its entirety; it is a fairly old one that I have not recently reread in full.
It would be easier though if you could point me at my own prior words on the subject. Perhaps cite the date and time of the post.
Sorry, I got so hung up on the fact that I finally got you to admit that you don’t think torturing animals is OK that I forgot to reply to part of your post.
A) Opinions are never statement of fact. You can only challenge the facts used to support the opinion, not the opinion itself. That’s what opinion means.
B) You really should read the link I posted regarding culture. Yes, it really is the anthropological definition of the term. Culture indeed is the ability to transfer one’s acquired knowledge to others within the current group and to further generations. That said, you are right that it is NOT unique to humans.
I have a nice fat scientific book on the culture of chimpanzees, for example. It is a bit outdated now, so probably not the best reference on the subject and is certainly too dry and scientific for a general audience. I read pieces of it rather than reading it cover to cover. It is not on my book list because I wouldn’t recommend it for a general audience, including for myself.
However, just to show you that such scientific work showing culture in chimpanzees exists, the book is called Chimpanzee Cultures by Franz de Waal. Click the link to see if it interests you. There are probably more current and less technical books on the subject that would be a better read.
Another thing you should know. I blog for a number of reasons including spreading better memes, the joy of the debate, and sometimes even to learn something.
It is possible that you have very interesting ideas. I have not seen any evidence of this yet. But, it is possible.
Please learn to express your ideas more clearly and with more explanation. This could become an interesting discussion if you’ll try to make it one.
Work with me here. We may not agree. You may not convince me that you’re correct. But, if you want any hope of doing so, you must tell me them. You need to develop the language skills of a human, or at least a chimp and express your ideas. You may think you are doing so. But, I can assure you that you are failing.
Well you began that last post well. I was actually going to write you the same thing. That I only do this to enjoy rational discussion and to learn.
Then you degenerated into name irrational name calling. So you have lost your case.
In one of my posts to you, I lowered myself to textese because I ceased to recognize your line of discussion as rational, so it did not matter anymore. I’m glad you picked up on it.
Your opinion about my English is your opinion. But as I said before, it can be judged according to reality.
I dare you to find fault with it however I am not getting into a pissing contest about English. It just seems to be another escape route, another distraction technique.
This entire discussion requires that you PROVE the torturing of an animal illegal. Otherwise you must leave every human be.
You made a declaration of a criterion then you denied it. So in effect, this has gone nowhere. The thing is, if it remains nowhere, you have lost since the burden of proof is on you.
I do not have to prove why walking down the road is legal. You have to prove it illegal.
So if you’re willing to start afresh, no hard feelings, lets investigate reality and see what reason shows us.
As for your “textese” whatever that means, I vary in how much of a stickler I am regarding language. In your case though, I simply was completely and utterly failing to understand your points. It was not intended to be a pissing contest on quality of language. But, you can’t make a point if you do not write at least minimally coherently enough for me to understand you. The fault may be on my side. But, I did read and reread several of your posts without being able to parse them.
Thank you for taking the time to write more coherent posts today.
Back to the topic of legality that you are fixated on, first, if you take the time to read the original post, you sill see that I made no mention of the law. My intent was merely to get people to give moral consideration to their interactions with animals.
That said, I do think animals deserve legal protection. If you think it is wrong to torture a human, wrong for society, wrong all the time, then you must pass a law to prevent it. Similarly, if you think it wrong to torture an animal, then that too requires laws to prevent it.
We are not talking about victimless crime here, which I do not believe in, such as prostitution and drug use, which I believe should be legalized precisely because there is no victim. In cases where one is hurting no one or even only hurting themselves, the law should probably not interfere.
But, where there is real and unnecessary harm being done to a real victim, the law should protect that individual, be it a human or a chimp or a dog. The rights for all creatures may not be equal. I doubt we are going to make animal slaughter illegal any time soon. And, as a meat-eater myself, I would not advocate that. But, I would advocate better treatment of the animals in our care.
I would make all CAFOs illegal. I would make all slaughterhouses as humane as possible. I would make medical labs treat their test subjects with a hint of kindness and caring.
I would also advocate that certain animals are so close to ourselves in mental capacity that they deserve a standard very close to our own in their treatment. I think all medical testing on great apes should be banned, for example.
There are both practical and moral reasons for my argument regarding great apes. First, any drug or treatment being tested on apes has already gone through a tremendous amount of testing. It is likely at a level where a drug manufacturer could easily find hundreds of humans lining up to volunteer to be test subjects either because they suffer from the disease and all other cures and treatments have left them in desperate situations or because they have family or loved ones who have reached or passed that situation and want to help find the cure.
If this is not the case, perhaps the treatment is not worth testing on apes or on humans.
Perhaps the illness is either not real or merely a minor inconvenience. Perhaps it is just another case of the pharmaceuticals industry manufacturing both the condition and the drug to treat it. (e.g. female impotence, restless leg syndrome, …)
From a practical standpoint, all lab animals need to be treated better in order to get valid medical results. Animals who are clinically depressed due to real horrific conditions may not make good medical test subjects. They are often self-destructive, morose, or otherwise not fit to give accurate results.
That said, proving that animals should be entitled to legal rights is like proving any other opinion. All I can do is give you my reasoning, my logic, my emotions. It is not an absolute.
Luckily, many do recognize at least the most basic rights of animals and have already passed laws to their benefit. Unfortunately, these often apply only to pets. Zoos are starting to treat their animals better as most people do not want to see obviously depressed animals. But, labs and farms are often horrifically cruel places.
That this means that the animals are neither fit for medical research nor fit to eat seems not to concern people. But, cloistered away in their labs and in CAFOs, the rest of the world at large ignores their suffering. And, with profits to be made, there is high incentive to take the cheapest route, no matter who gets hurt.
So, yes, people can be very cruel and often needlessly so. The only way to stop that is with laws.
Separation of Humans and Non-Humans:No other animal requires Reason in order to survive.
Rights:
Rights are a necessary consequence of choice in the face of alternatives. Evanescent explained this ad nauseum. Without choice, one cannot be held responsible. Rights and choice are inseparably linked.
Laws are a system of rules that protect choice. Since the only way choice can be taken away from man is by the initiation of force or it’s threat, force is the only realm in which laws should be concerned about.
Since non-human animals do not need Reason to survive, there is no alternative- there is no Choice. Without Choice, there is nothing for laws to protect. Rights in this case do not exist.
You are arguing points I didn’t make. No other animal requires reason to survive. So?
I have argued that they are intelligent. You are arguing that they do not have reason. The two are not contradictory statements. Reason is not part of intelligence. Look at what is on an intelligence test. Rational thinking, critical thinking, and veridical thinking are not a part of our definition of intelligence. Certainly they are not part of MAMBIT (mental abilities measured by intelligence tests) which is the circular logic contained in all scientific definitions of intelligence or g, if you prefer.
So, my point is that the other sentiences i.e. those who are self-aware, at a minimum, are worthy of moral consideration.
As for your equating of reason and choice, you are again, sadly mistaken. There is a tremendous amount of moral choice in the way that other animals treat each other. You simply refuse to read anything that contradicts that.
Some other animals know all about moral treatment of each other. They know when their own rights are being violated. They know how to punish offenders, even at personal expense. They know how to treat others fairly.
There are numerous studies of this with other primates in particular, largely because of our own personal bias towards our close relatives.
That said, rats, when taught that pressing a certain button will provide food, will very quickly choose to stop pressing that button and even starve to death, if they see that another rat receives a shock every time they press the button. So, they too exercise a moral choice not to feed themselves at the cost of pain to another.
Evanescent’s explanation comes from the beliefs of his cult, Objectivism, which contradicts a good chunk of human morality to begin with by stating that doing what is right for oneself is the only definition of morality. This is the cultish belief system of the followers of the great prophet (profit?) Ayn Rand.
Are you also a follower of this cult?
As for the right to enforce morality, that right has been asserted by rhesus monkeys, chimpanzees, and numerous other species much older than ourselves as well as by hunter-gatherer societies and all larger societies humans have ever come up with.
Yes, enforcement of morality by the group is indeed an evolution-given right for humans, apes, and monkeys alike. I’m not sure how many other species have been proven to have such morality.
I assume that if you are an Objectivist, that you presumably do not consider it a cult. I would point out two things though:
1) I did say cult, not religion. I should clarify that my understanding is that all religions are cults but not all cults are religions. Cults that are not religions generally are missing the rites and rituals associated with religions, and are thus less bad. So, please don’t take cult as being more insulting than religion when I mean it to be less insulting.
2) If Objectivism is not a cult, then please explain why its followers adhere to outdated science like behaviorism that was popular at the time of the formation of Objectivism but has since gone the way of phlogiston chemistry and alchemy, both of which were perfectly valid branches of science in their day … until they failed to pan out. I ask because everything you’ve stated about animals is clearly the outmoded thinking associated with Skinner boxes and the rest.
Oops. I guess I offended Adrian. I really would have liked to have gotten an answer on why he was so enamored of behaviorist psychology and what he thought of rats who would rather starve than harm their fellow rat. Oh well.
Regarding the elephants, I found reference to the story you mention on a forum. It even had a link to a National Geographic site for Australia. Unfortunately the link didn’t work. Here’s a link to the forum post.
I also found some other info on elephants killing humans. Here’s one where humans so upset an elephant by continually harassing her and her baby and finally accidentally killing the baby, that she turned into a human killer and even ate human flesh.
Here’s an amusing video of an elephant at a zoo knocking on a door, though presumably not with the intent to kill anyone.
Given all of this, especially that forum post with a link that presumably worked at the time it was posted, I’m going to consider your elephant story confirmed. Still, if anyone does find a working link, please post it.
Oh, and here’s a link to an article on elephants mimicking the sounds of traffic and possibly a lawn mower. Such mimicry is unusual among mammals.
Hey Scott,
Sorry, but I had forgotten what thread it was on. My apologies.
Scott, you’ll find I’m a person that’s brutality honest.
I always say that a person’s only as good as their word, so I’ll never say something unless I know is true because I only like dealing with facts.
Still again, love the blog.
Kerberos
I only recently came across your blog and I have to say that I am quite saddened that it has taken me so long. Many of the points you have made I have felt for years but struggle to find anyone to share these beliefs with.
In regards to this post I felt a particularly strong urge to reply as I have had a view on this topic for some time now. It is quite brash but no less true in my opinion.
I for one do not feel that humans as a species deserve any moral consideration at all. We are destructive by nature, to both our own species and all others that surround us. We are a selfish, arrogant race which believes that, because of an apparent level of ‘higher consciousness’, we are more important than any other species of animal. Yet how is it that the very world we live on is dying because of our greed? Yet if an environment is left to other species, it thrives.
Humans deserve no moral consideration because of the simple fact that no matter what warnings we are given, no matter what we tell ourselves, we will always be the destroyers of the world. All that, simply because of greed. A study in 2000 found that the richest 10% of adults owned 85% of the total world wealth. Yet the lowest 50%, owned just 1% of the wealth. This level of disparity highlights the gross level of greed in the human race. I may not be a great supporter of humanity (I’m pretty sure everyone I know would say I’m most likely to kill everyone) but I can’t help but feel that such a huge difference shows how vindictive people are as they see this difference and actually strive to make it even wider.
The human race is a corrosive pestilence which feeds off of everything and anything to further itself. Even if that means destroying its own people. We deserve zero moral consideration for the atrocities that are caused globally by our species.
Wow Tom! You sound even a bit more misanthropic than I am. I can’t disagree with a thing you said about humanity.
My difference is when we start thinking about humans individually. Remember, you’re describing the net effect of humanity. Not all humans are so evil.
Some of us at least make an effort to avoid destroying the planet. Some of us do so by minimizing the impact of our lives on the planet. In my own case, I do the best I can in this generation. More importantly, I have not propagated the problem.
So, while it is still true that I have only managed to get my impact down to the point where if everyone lived as I do, we would need 3.3 earths*, it is also true that we would not need them for very long. Population falls very slowly when birthrate begins to drop below replacement. But, it would fall very very rapidly were birthrate to drop to zero.
It is true that some people do indeed try to at least change but I don’t think it is possible to change the ‘hive-mind’ of society. Popular culture will never embrace that the change is necessary therefore the majority of people will never agree that their part in this change will help.
Slightly off topic but I think the only real way to change the way humanity is going is to change the major governments from such single mindedness into a more dynamic political policy.
I feel that what is needed is a militaristic totalitarian society with communist views and capitalist ethics. The totalitarianism should be used to police the populace with greater authority demanded either through force or respect of the force. This would require more stringent laws and much more severe punishments. The death penalty would be need to be introduced and a severe work programme for lesser crimes that would make prisoners useful by giving them hard jobs and make them work for long hours. It would appear unethical but would ultimately reduce crime by making it much less appealing.
The communist view would come into play when reassigning wealth. There would obviously still be different levels of pay in terms of rank within each industry but the more useful and harder a job, the higher the pay. Emergency services for example would be paid much higher than most jobs because they are far more vital. Also much more money would be placed into the education system in order to improve future prospects. The arts would be controlled by the public sector, the government providing funding for most projects and public opinion deciding which projects deserve the funding (much like the lottery funding system already in place).
Capitalism would be used to provide a driving force in the work place as an incentive for people to be progressive and work harder. This would come about by financial incentives for major breakthroughs in all fields that are deemed necessary to both the state and the people.
The final argument against this would be the power of the government. First off there would be no actual head of state but instead the entire government would control the decisions ultimately but there would be constant mandatory polls on important topics that affect the populace as a whole. This allows a greater level of control for people while still retaining enough power for the government that they do not lose power. I realise that all of this would be a massive shock, riots would ensue and other governments would be instantly trying to shut it down. This would be natural because such sudden changes provoke a strong response from most people.
Sorry for it being such a long reply. Just felt that it might be interesting in terms of the topic, even if it is somewhat off topic.
The hive mind will change. The change may be the extinction of humanity. But, that too will be a change. I don’t know who first said this. I got it from a friend of mine. But, I think it was not original on his part either. This is important:
That which is unsustainable is not going to continue to happen.
That’s an important and obvious fact. It applies to never ending population growth. It applies to the principles of our economy that consider an economy healthy only when it experiences never ending growth. We live on a finite planet. Never ending growth is not going to happen. The growth will end.
In my opinion, both the economy and the human population will shrink dramatically, one way or the other. If we don’t do this for ourselves, it will be done for us by cold hard natural law.
I do not agree with you about totalitarianism of any form. The problem is that you’re forgetting that other law of humanity.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The other issue with communism and redistribution of wealth in the way you suggest, as opposed to progressive taxes which are neither redistribution of wealth nor communism nor socialism, is that it is fundamentally flawed right from its primary mantra.
From each according to his means to each according to his needs.
This is fundamentally flawed in a huge way. It sounds good until you really think about it. What it means is that anyone who is able must continue to work until they are not. Good-bye 40 hour work week. Good-bye vacation time. Good-bye retirement. It’s all about who decides when you no longer have the means to contribute.
Then, there is the issue of needs. To each according to his needs. You don’t need such a big home. We can move several other families in here with you. You don’t really need a car. You can move to an apartment closer to your work. You can take public transportation.
Then, there is the last issue. Let’s assume for a moment that people can be properly motivated in a society founded upon this basic mantra. You have a whole society of people working at peak efficiency and to the best of their abilities. You also have these same people only taking their most basic needs.
Who gets to keep the leftovers between all of this maximal production and minimal consumption?
It’s good to be the king.
Sorry, no totalitarianism is not the answer. Communist ideals are not the answer. Pure unbridled capitalism is also not the answer.
The answer in my opinion lies in democracy, with all of its faults, and a system of fair market capitalism with heavy regulations. And, the basic needs for survival should be provided by the government. Clean water. Health insurance, at least, if not health care as well. Clean air. And, for those who cannot work, some basic support to buy the basics of food and a place to live.
Or, we could go back to the hunter-gatherer societies we had for more than 95% of the history of humanity. They were not sustainable either, but came a lot closer to it. In fact, a few places achieved real sustainability … until they met with westerners and started wanting everything we have.
But, that being said, I strongly believe that even with the most equitable distribution of resources, the planet simply cannot support billions. We’re stealing from our children to feed ourselves. We’re depleting the oceans, which won’t matter because ocean acidification is going to kill all fish in the ocean anyway. We’re depleting our top soil. We’re depleting our fossil ground water. Global food production is already dropping due to climate change. Couple all of this with religion’s efforts to force everyone on the planet to breed as many new humans as possible and you have a guaranteed disaster waiting very impatiently to happen.
Thanks Cerberus. It was my wife who pointed out to me that the notion that “from each according to his ability to each according to his needs” is an inherently bad philosophy. I hadn’t thought about it nearly enough. It sounds so high-minded and beautiful on the surface. She was born in the former Soviet Union and lived there only until 8 years old. But, you think about such things more when you come from a society that was at least ostensibly founded on such a philosophy. Luckily, her family had the will and opportunity to uproot themselves for a freer life.
I had no idea that your wife was from the former Soviet Union
But I do admire her for helping to set the record straight for you. It sounds as if you have a fine women there. And so, I admire you both for the post. Damn. You said it better than I ever could have. Again, thank you so much, Scott.
I just came across another very strong argument for applying moral considerability to a much wider range of species. Here’s a little rodent people often don’t think of as highly intelligent, mostly because most of us don’t know very much about them. I’ve mentioned them before on this thread, in basically the same context. However, here’s a much more detailed analysis of them. Apparently a prairie dog squeak amounts to a simple human sentence, not a word. They convey rather a lot in that squeak.
So, if they convey this much in a squeak, just imagine what they might be saying in that unidentified chatter.
Once again, non-human animals turn out smarter than we expect. When will we stop being surprised by this? Here’s a good video on the intelligence of lizards and turtles. Snakes get honorable mention too but are not featured in the video.
I went to Australia, but didn’t do any camping. In areas where there are salties (saltwater crocodiles, though they also go into fresh water), as opposed to freshies (fresh water crocodiles), they say that campers should not make a habit of going to the water hole at the same time every day. Apparently, the salties will learn your pattern and attack on day 3 or 4.
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Big Dreams on Little Sleep
Courtesy Gloriya Nedler
Gloriya Nedler '12
If there’s one thing Gloriya Nedler ’12 will remember about Brandeis, it’s her sleep schedule. Six nights a week, she slept three hours. On the seventh, the day before lab, the neuroscience major would pull an all-nighter.
During four years at Brandeis, she attended two parties.
“Everyone would always say, ‘You’re not having any fun,’” recalls Nedler, a member of Brandeis’ first Science Posse. “But when you know what poverty feels like and don’t have anything to fall back on, it really motivates you. Even if you won a million dollars, you’d still be governed by the fear that it could all be taken away from you.”
There’s a direct connection between Nedler’s past and her drive, ambition and determination. She grew up in a low-income Brooklyn neighborhood, the daughter of Ukrainian immigrants who were often too sick to work. Money was too scarce to be spent on the occasional meal out or movie. Nedler’s parents slept in the living room so she and her sister could focus on their schoolwork in the sole bedroom.
At age 12, Nedler started supporting her family as a babysitter and, later, as a party planner and tutor at the American Museum of Natural History. Her parents spoke halting English. She and her sister handled their medical care, taxes and bills.
Though she’d been an honors student and taken AP classes at James Madison High School, as a first-generation college student Nedler wasn’t fully prepared for Brandeis. “I knew going in I was going to have to work a little bit harder than everyone else,” she says.
Managing her time was tough. She signed up to work at Hyde Square Task Force, which runs youth programs in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood. Nedler helped other first-generation college students navigate the application process. At the same time, she started training to become an EMT. It was too much. “I didn’t really know what my limit was,” she says.
Things became easier, she says, when she completed the EMT program. She joined the Pre-Health Society at Brandeis, serving as its president during her junior and senior years.
Luckily, she had her posse. “There was always a Posse member within a three-minute walk,” she says. “Everyone had their own strengths, and we all understood each other’s struggles.”
After graduating, Nedler used a Fulbright Fellowship to study the health-care system in southwest Russia. Eventually, she hopes to help improve medical services for immigrants in the U.S.
In the meantime, she’s a medical student at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa, Israel.
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Heads-up Display (HUD) for Future Smart Cars
The Heads-Up Display (HUD) for cars is the latest in a series of Automotive Innovations at Embitel Technologies, a Bangalore based embedded software and hardware design house..
In a conversation with VidyaSagar, who leads the teams working on IoT, Infotainment and Car HUD projects at Embitel, we spoke about the future of in-car mobility and the car HUD market.
With mobility services making in-roads how will the in-car connectivity experience change?
To understand the future of in-car mobility, it helps to analyze what global automotive OEMs are talking about.
Daimler CIO Mr.Jan Brecht, during his India visit in July, said that the future of the automotive industry lies in developing and providing efficient mobility services to car owners. He spoke about the need for moving beyond traditional revenue streams of car sales and after-sales service.
And it is not just Daimler or their business strategy, many OEMs are also looking at their own role in an entirely different way now!
Mr. Don Butler, the Head of Connected Vehicle and Services for Ford Motor Company recently said that Ford is moving ahead from being just a hardware provider to being a hardware, software, and experiences provider.
This is a very interesting statement. This shift is mainly driven by the car owner’s desire to stay connected to the outside world even when he/she is behind the wheel.
OEMs now want to deliver this connectivity through innovative products like an in-car Infotainment system, a car heads-up display system or a telematics box. They have also realized the need for mitigating the driver distraction which is caused by usage of mobile apps while driving. So he stakeholders are coming together along with the service providers to develop an ecosystem of innovative products (hardware+software) to deliver the in-car mobility experience.
This new development will enable drivers and passengers to access apps, phone-calls and messages, driving directions, vehicle data and more through the infotainment or HUD unit. And to mitigate driver distraction, these systems are voice and gesture controlled.
What are the trends and applications driving Car HUD growth
As we discussed, these innovations are mainly driven by a combination of customer preference for connectivity within the car and the strategy of OEMs to not only deliver this experience to the customers, but also to create new revenue streams.
As far as the car HUD is concerned, there are several related micro and macro factors that are in favor of the growth of the still-nascent car HUD market.
The Automotive Heads-up Display (HUD) market is expected to reach $2.09 bn by 2022, according to a report released by Credence Research in May 2016
Favourable government regulations that are designed to promote vehicle safety are expected to support the demand for car HUD units in passenger vehicles.
The target markets for the car HUD installation are the developed markets of North America and Europe.
We spoke in detail from the point of view of OEMs and Suppliers, but how will you explain Car HUD system to the end-user? What are the features of this product?
The heads-up display (HUD) for cars is a transparent projection of real-time data on a small portion of the driver’s windshield or a combiner glass screen, just below the driver’s eye level and within the range of view.
This data, which is critical to concurrent driving conditions and route navigation, is clearly visible without obstructing the road ahead.
NXP/Freescale’s i.MX6 platform, which is specifically designed for automotive grade multimedia applications like Infotainment and Car HUD systems
Texas Instruments DLP projector (Pico Projector)
Gesture recognition, WiFi and GPS, GSM modules
Why should OEMs and Suppliers partner with Embitel for Car HUD development?
Developing a Car HUD (Heads-up Display) system is a technology-intensive project and involves R&D efforts.
At Embitel, we identified these pain-points at an early stage and used our strengths to create a reference design for our customers.
Our automotive domain expertise, years of experience and our embedded as well as cloud-mobility engineering talent have enabled us to develop this state-of-the-art product.
With our heads-up display production-ready design, customers can launch their company-branded HUD product in 6 months (down from the industry average of 2.5 years), depending on the requirement.
Embitel’s HUD is a proprietary hardware and software design which can be launched in the market with minimum branding and/or feature customizations.
As an embedded technology partner, we provide end-to-end support for the customer’s product roadmap to the manufacturing stage.
Our Product Engineering team has in-depth project experience of delivering an Infotainment system for a Tier-I supplier (designed on NXP/Freescale i.MX 6 platform). This system is now under production for deployment in commercial vehicles. We have also delivered projects in areas of ADAS, in-vehicle networking and vehicle diagnostics.
Thus ourexperienced team can ensure quick turnaround in developing additional advanced HUD features to help our customers achieve their product roadmap goals.
What are the other tangible benefits your customers can expect when they partner with you as an embedded services provider?
As mentioned, we collaborate with our customers as a technology partner. We work closely with the business and product teams of our customers for technology consulting, hardware platform evaluation, UI/UX design, embedded software development, hardware design, verification and validation (testing services).
In case of our car HUD engagements, we take the relationship one step further and provide support with product manufacturing, if required.
During the initial phases of technology consulting and platform evaluation, we understand the customer’s business interests and target audience, and we chalk out the product design and development roadmapaccordingly. This includes understanding the extent of customizations required in branding (UI/UX) and feature development.
About Embitel Technologies (I) Pvt Ltd:
Founded in 2006, Embitel Technologies is known for its cutting edge and innovative software solutions.
Embitel offers services in product engineering, mobility, IoT and cloud. As a technology partner, Embitel adds value by leveraging its cross-functional expertise in embedded software and hardware and cloud-based mobility and IoT technologies
Headquartered in Bengaluru, India, with offices in Germany, the UK and the US, and representation in Sweden, France and Israel, Embitel has partnered with global customers.
The passion to achieve excellence and maintain high quality standards ensured that Embitel achieved an ISO 9001 compliance certificate within a few years of the inception.
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Crowded markets & cluttered media present many challenges. For brands, the challenge is to express a value that is unique and enduring in the face of constant change. For users, the dilemma lies in choice—mired by ambiguous or fragmented brand communication. For organizations, the challenge lies in managing and sustaining ownership of brands. Our work brings value to all 3 stakeholders, bridging the gaps between them, with meaningful design.
A decade+ of imagination
With a decade of work with domestic and global brands and organizations, we bring diverse learnings from our engagement across sectors, scale and user segments in India. What we know, helps us navigate the unknown and reimagine the future of brands and experiences.
No two projects are alike.
Our approach is built anew around each project—by learning from its unique Context, and delivering through meaningful engagement with Content and meticulous Craftsmanship.
Context is the world inside and outside of a brand. It is the people behind the brand and those who will consume it. For brand identity to be true to the inside and relevant to the outside, we build on understanding of both and create work that can be owned and loved by both.
Ideas take form with content. Content is everything brands say, through words and images. At the heart of our work in identity is meaningful content. We work alongside brands and content creators, to make sure that creative directions amplify the right content. Making sure what-you-say and how-you-say-it become one.
Our rigour (and love) of craftsmanship brings originality and tactility to brand ideas. We believe that strong brand ideas are long-lasting, and demand craftsmanship that endures. We design brand identity to be true to the brand, and not trends, so it can to ride the change and evolve without losing its soul.
Independent Projects
As a creative collective, we also initiate independent projects, exploring the role of design and its unfolding transformation in India. The independent body of work contributes to keener insights into our process and practice of design.
Codesign and its people have been featured extensively in Indian and international media, for their work, awards and lectures.
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Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Herlev Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Previous studies concerning symptom-giving pelvic girdle relaxation in pregnancy have to our knowledge been retrospective. We wanted to 1) determine the incidence during pregnancy and the prevalence two, six, and twelve months post partum, 2) identify possible predisposing factors, and 3) determine the frequency and duration of sicklisting, prospectively.
MATERIAL AND METHODS:
A cohort of 1600 consecutive pregnant women filled in a questionnaire. At the routine prenatal examinations they were asked about pelvic pain. Those who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were examined by a rheumatologist to confirm the diagnosis. The affected women were seen again two, six, and twelve months post partum. All participants were asked about sicklisting in pregnancy.
RESULTS:
The incidence during pregnancy was 14%, the prevalence two, six, and twelve months post partum were 5%, 4%, and 2% respectively. Multivariate analysis indicates that the most important predisposing factor is pelvic pain in a previous pregnancy. Other factors were uncomfortable working conditions, lack of exercise, and previous low back pain and low abdominal pain. At least 37% of the women with symptom-giving pelvic girdle relaxation had been sicklisted in pregnancy due to pelvic pain, on average for twelve weeks.
CONCLUSION:
Symptom-giving pelvic girdle relaxation is a considerable problem both in pregnancy and post partum. The occupational risk can possibly be prevented. The syndrome has a great social impact because of the frequent sicklisting.
| 1,651 |
It's a lie... But yeah sure, believe whatever you want. There are two pictures of the Thanksgiving party at the bar, where you can see Ted's wife. Because she appears twice and you can see her looking at Ted and smiling, lol. Just search: Ted's wife. And in the pictures (DO NOT CLICK IN PICTURES IN GOOGLE), you'll see two pictures from that party, one of them has even some kind of foreign language subtitles, and the other one, it's just him talking to Barney, who is dressed in green <3
Adrien is really good at writing short bios. I mean, just look at how this one is going; pretty good so far. It's actually awesome and we haven't even talked about his photography yet. And at this point, why should we, let's just quit while we're ahead.
| 745 |
January 2012
Weird College News of the Week
Dartmouth Installs Pianos at Bus Stops, Vassar Accepts the Wrong Students, and other . . .
Weird College News of the Week
In case you didn’t realize it, the world of education is filled with events that could be called weird, dumb, and just plain bizarre.
Here’s a roundup of curious college news from the last week alone . . .
Vassar College made a mistake on its website and informed 76 students that they had been admitted via the college’s early acceptance program. Then it had to backtrack and tell them that they hadn’t.
The Princeton Review recently published – for reasons we can’t quite understand - a list of the 10 American colleges that are most friendly to smoking pot. Color ...
President Obama to Colleges: Keep Costs Down, and You’ll Get More Federal Dollars
"We are putting colleges on notice. You can’t assume that you'll just jack up tuition every single year."
- President Obama speaking at the University of Michigan, January 27, 2012
We usually steer clear of politics on this blog. But an idea expressed by president Obama in a speech at the University of Michigan on January 27 makes so much sense, we have to stand up and take notice. If the same idea had come from a Republican president we would write about it too. (Heck, if Donald Duck had come up with the idea, we would probably cheer too.)
So what’s the plan? To quote from the president . . .
“If you can't stop tuition from go ...
Look if You Dare! Huge Cache of College Trivia Discovered
We just found the huge, immense and overwhelming database of college trivia that Inside College has made available on its website.
Don’t even look at it unless you are ready to spend hours clicking around and discovering all kinds of amazing facts about American colleges and the famous people who went to them.
Here are just a few of the trivial facts that you can discover . . .
Students who attend Bard College call themselves “Bardies,” students who attend Duke call themselves “Dukies,” and students who attend Emory call themselves “Emeroids.” (You better know this stuff before you apply.)
The University of Chicago, Cornell, and Kenyon College are Ameri ...
Samantha Garvey, Homeless Teen, Wins $50,000 Intel Scholarship (Now How about Everybody Else?)
There is no question that America really likes empowering “rags to riches” stories about deserving students who suddenly get big breaks.
One recent story to hit the news – big time – concerns a smart young woman named Samantha Garvey. An Associated Press story reports the story of this deserving young woman, who won a prestigious Intel $50,000 science scholarship thanks to some innovative research she did about the effects that a non-native species, the Asian short crab, is having on mussel populations on Long Island, New York. What makes her story unusual is that she and her family, due to financial difficulties, had been forced to mo ...
Getting into College Made Easy: Handling College Alumni Interviews
If you’re applying to a college that offers you a chance to have an interview with an alumnus or alumna who attended the school, should you schedule one?
The answer is, yes. Alumni interviews can only improve your chances of getting into a college. They represent an opportunity that is all upside, with no downside.
Do be aware, however, that different colleges place different levels of importance on these interviews. Some colleges apparently value them a great deal, others do not. For example, I was part of a group of alumni who did interviews for the Ivy League institution where I got my master’s degree, and I can report with some certainty that the post-interv ...
| 3,718 |
Investigation of the Effects of 5% Hydrogen Gas versus Pure Hydrogen Gas on the Reduction of a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) anode
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Abstract
The aim of this research is to compare the kinetics of the reduction process of an Aluminum Titanate (ALT) doped SOFC anode from oxidized state NiO/YSZ to cermet material Ni/YSZ when 5% hydrogen gas is used versus pure hydrogen. Previous research showed that ALT doped samples require a much higher reduction time when compared to the undoped material. Fully reduced anodes are needed to increase power efficiency in the fuel cell and high reduction times are not desired or suitable for industrial or civil applications. This research contributes to clarify the reduction mechanism and how it can be optimized.
| 787 |
Las Vegas Garage Doors Special Offers
Las Vegas Garage Doors
Special Offers » Choosing a car port entrance doors is one of the primary issues when likely to install a new or replace a preexisting garage door. There are various aspects to be helped bring under consideration before you select out the main one you are feeling would suit the best. There is certainly Las Vegas Garage Doors several type of car port door available for sale and as though it isn’t enough to complicate the process, there are a number of terms and features you need to know regarding garage doorways. It is advised that you intend and chalk down your requirements, It helps to identify the one which would suit you the best from a pool of storage doors. The first decision you’ll have to make would be which materials should the door be made of and also which kind.
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Las Vegas Garage Doors
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Las Vegas Garage Doors
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Special Offers » Garage area may well not be employed by the car by itself; it works as a store for inventories & old furniture or a workshop for others. You would want a door which insulates well when there is an integral part of house lengthened above the garage area. The R-value on a garage door explains to how well it insulates. The higher the R-value, the better is its insulation properties. Terms like Headroom, Las Vegas Garage Doors Backroom and Sideroom become parameters to select a suitable storage area door as they determine the measurements; Headroom is the amount of space inside the storage between the top of the garage area door and the roof.
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WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court Tuesday struck down a key Obama administration air pollution rule meant to protect Eastern residents from polluters in neighboring states, saying that the Environmental Protection Agency must grant states more time to implement protections.
The ruling by twoGeorge W. Bush appointees covers the "good neighbor rule" issued by the EPA in mid-2011 to regulate emissions of pollutants, including sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxides, the main ingredients in soot and smog.
The rule is one of several federal efforts to arbitrate a long-standing regional dispute between coal-powered, lightly regulated states mainly in the South and Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic and New England states where the toxic emissions wind up on account of prevailing winds.
Even cities in the Midwest and the South are affected by their neighbors' pollution, including Chicago, Knoxville, Tenn., and Charlotte, N.C., said Vickie Patton, an attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund, which had intervened in the case on behalf of the EPA.
| 1,047 |
Email is the best way to be aware of new Deals
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You will need to login to your account and go to My Info section. There you can find your unique referral link. Spread this link and wait for the funds to appear on your balance.
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If someone follows your link and places an order with us within 3 days after signing up through your link, you’ll get a notification on your email and see $5 from their first purchase added to your balance. There’s no limit as to the amount of people you can refer. You can always keep an eye on your balance by signing in and going to My Info section.
| 1,289 |
New York Knicks: With James Dolan at Helm, Knicks Never Have Chance at NBA Title
The New York Knicks' pug-faced owner James Dolan slapped on his infamous, mischievous, Joker-faced grin, laced up a pair of sharp-toed cowboy boots, got off to a running start and roundhouse-kicked each of his loyal fans in the face yet again today with a press release stating that team president and GM Donnie Walsh would be leaving his role with the team at the end of June, when his contract with the team expires:
"Following a long series of discussions regarding his future role with the New York Knicks, Donnie Walsh and I have mutually agreed that he will be leaving his position...at the end of June.
"In a relatively short time with the Knicks, Donnie made a tremendous impact, which will be felt for many years to come. We thank Donnie for his leadership, hard work and many contributions to the revitalization of the team."
Will The Knicks ever win a title with James Dolan as the owner?
YesNoSubmit Votevote to see results
Will The Knicks ever win a title with James Dolan as the owner?
Yes
24.6%
No
75.4%
Total votes: 487
The speculation on what actually occurred between Dolan and Walsh, and who eventually will take over for the man who singlehandedly resurrected the Knicks from the basketball graveyard, is fascinating but largely irrelevant for the health of the Knicks franchise.
Dolan's meaningless, soulless words to describe Walsh's tenure here (tremendous impact...for many years to come) in the second paragraph of that monotone statement are what Knicks fans need to focus on right now. The power-hungry broker has truthfully been in charge since stepping in as the team's owner in 1999; Knicks fans have seen coaches, stars and executives chewed up and spit out like Skoal tobacco as the decrepit structure collapsed around Dolan.
Does it truthfully matter who is running the on-court product, and how well the team is doing, as long as everyone knows who is making the "big impact" for years to come? Is Dolan just a power-hungry broker who cares more about the bottom line, and who is running the show at the Garden, than whether his team is winning games?
Yes, but more on that in a minute. To understand what occurred today in a better light, we need to go back to 2006.
The worst team in the James Dolan era unequivocally played in the 2005-06 season. With Isiah Thomas stoically presiding over matters in the half-court hallway, Larry Brown and Stephon Marbury constantly fighting and a total of 19 players (20 if you count Allan Houston's contract), seven of whom were lottery picks, suiting up for the team, this train wreck finished 23-59. Without a doubt, it was the worst professional basketball team big money could buy, as the Knicks still had the biggest payroll in the league.
Who is the Knicks' new GM next season?
Who is the Knicks' new GM next season?
Bryan Colangelo
9.8%
Mark Jackson
9.1%
Isiah Thomas
17.7%
Chris Mullin
10.2%
Allan Houston
28.5%
Glen Griswald
9.8%
Other
14.9%
Total votes: 470
After that season, a small group of disgusted Knicks fans had enough. Led by a man only known as Mr. Orange, who created the website selltheknicks.com, a group of over 30 Knicks fans—accompanied by a police escort, no less—screamed and shouted for James Dolan to sell the Knicks and fire Isiah Thomas, marching from the Mercury Bar in Hell's Kitchen to Madison Square Garden on NBA draft night. The raucous protest never met its intended wish, of course, but it did attract the attention of all major media outlets.
Almost five years later, Selena Roberts' June 2006 New York Times piece regarding the event personifies James Dolan and why Knicks fans will never see a title so long as he is the owner. Below is an excerpt:
Imagine if [James Dolan] could grow up from the petty owner consumed with protecting his ''Lucky Star-bury'' to a manager aware of his shortcomings as a personnel whiz.
''I've a huge ego and I need to change,'' Madonna said in her 2005 documentary. ''Knowing is the beginning.''
Good advice for Dolan. He is very attentive to power brokers. So he must have been absorbed in the charity exhibited by his fellow billionaire [Warren Buffett].
''I don't believe in dynastic wealth,'' Buffett said.
Nick Laham/Getty Images
Both All-Stars deserve a much better owner.
Even more excellent wisdom for the charmed offspring of Cablevision. Just think of the possibilities if Dolan could display a giving, egoless management style.
''If Dolan could just keep paying the bills and take a more laissez-faire approach,'' said a man known only as Mr. Orange, the protest organizer who started the Web site selltheknicks.com. ''It would be much like it was when he first got control of the team from Daddy.''
To turn back time, Dolan would have to entrust all of his oversight duties to a respected figure in basketball, someone like Jerry West.
As asinine as it may sound, Dolan hasn't taken Selena Roberts' advice through Madonna, though he should have. He still has that massive ego and hasn't changed. That egoless management style advice he could take from Warren Buffett? Sure wasn't on hand when he meddled in the Carmelo Anthony deal and mortgaged the entire franchise. The team's knight in shining armor—the respected figure in basketball Selena Roberts referenced in her piece five years ago—just walked out the door.
The New York Knicks are miles better than that 23-59 team of five years ago, but a 42-40 team is still miles upon miles away from the championship banner. Knicks fans can talk all they want about acquiring the next piece for their own Big Three, but when the man is charge is more concerned about his public power and image, the product on the floor is bound to suffer.
Stephen Dunn/Getty Images
Sorry it didn't work out, Starbury.
(And when you let the smartest guy in the room walk out the door, the chances of your team being shrewd enough to pull off moves for Dwight Howard or Chris Paul drop exponentially. That's another article entirely though.)
As the Knicks' train keeps traveling its circuitous route, one can't help but think of how far they are from the 1969-70 Knicks, the greatest team in franchise history. During 1969, legendary artists Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel recorded their hit "The Boxer," and you can find this line in the song that personifies the city's team: "After changes upon changes, we are more or less the same. After changes, we are more or less the same."
Whether the Knicks go 23-59 with Stephon Marbury and Eddy Curry or 42-40 with Amar'e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony, after changes upon changes in personnel, the New York Knicks are still the same: sans title since 1973 with a brash, blind and brute owner who is conducting a train to nowhere.
| 6,805 |
After our successful implementation of the COFFEE TO GO MTR store, the client requested we design a full size cafe which was to have an environment more familiar to a conventional cafe, but with a twist of the CTG brand. We again took inspiration from the logo's directionality and CTG's philosophy of efficiency, quality and consistency; but this time, using Yellow as the core color and theme of the space. The prominence of Yellow pops-out even at a distance to balance the large scale of the site and nearby architecture. Furthermore, Yellow has been shown to stimulate the sensation of hunger (that is why you see Yellow, Red & Orange used often at fast food chains).
Thoughtful choice of materials, readily available sourcing, prefabricated parts and modular elements ensured the costs and ease of construction was under control. Ultimately, the store was built on-time and on-budget, once again satisfying our client's needs as well as adding an attractive, functional and enjoyable space to the neighborhood.
Wall Art designed by ARCHMAGE. Inspired by client's passion for New York City
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Mistaken informant doesn't regret actions
Homeland security
''I don't feel badly about what I've done,'' the 44-year-old Cartersville woman said in an interview Saturday.
Stone was eating with her 18-year-old son at a Shoney's restaurant in Calhoun on Thursday when she says she overheard three men talking about blowing up buildings and laughing about the Sept. 11 attacks.
Her tip led authorities to issue an alert about a possible terrorist plot in the Miami area, and the men were eventually stopped early Friday after running through a toll booth near Naples, Fla. No explosives were found and investigators said their ''alarming'' comments may have just been a joke.
Stone said she was sitting just a few feet from the men when she heard one say, ''They think they were sad on 9/11, wait until 9/13.''
Stone said another commented, ''Do you think we have enough to bring it down?'' Another replied ''If we don't have enough to bring it down, I have contacts and we can get enough to bring it down.''
''I am not a racist, and I am not ignorant,'' she said in Sunday's edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. ''I was just trying to do what's best.''
Ayman Gheith, 27, Kambiz Butt, 25, both from suburban Chicago, and Omar Choudhary, 23, of Independence, Mo., were on their way from Chicago to a South Florida hospital for a nine-week training program. They said they had completed medical training at Ross University in the Caribbean island nation of Dominica and wanted to find an apartment in Miami.
Stone, a 44-year-old nurse, is a local hero among residents who say she should be praised for staying alert to threats.
''Making fun of Sept. 11 -- nobody should do that,'' said Stone.
Asked by the Atlanta newspaper what she would say to the men, Stone said, ''I would say they have the world by the tail. They're young. They're going to be doctors. Why mess it up? Why say something like that, even if it was a joke?''
If the incident was a joke, authorities may have a hard time making a criminal case against the men, legal experts told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
''The only state offense I can think of -- if the state could prove they intentionally spoke in such manner so other could hear -- is possibly reckless conduct, said Dan Summer, a former Hall County assistant district attorney. ''It's not a terroristic threat.''
| 2,360 |
Cosmetic Micro-current Muscle re–education is most related to the term “facial toning”. There are 32 different muscles of the face that are manipulated during the average microcurrent treatment.The 1982 Cheng study proves that ATP levels were increased by 500% on tissue that was treated. Micro-Current uses low intensity current and does not cause visible muscle contractions.The idea that ATP can be stockpiled or stored is the reason why microcurrent treatments results are cumulative and become better as a series of treatments progresses.Aside from muscle re-education and massive increases in ATP levels, microcurrent has other proven benefits for esthetic applications. Emil Y Chi, PhD, director of the University Of Washington‘s department of pathology, performed clinical studies using microcurrent equipment. He notes,” The fact that technology works in harmony with the body is evident. Examination of the skin tissue treated with microcurrent showed a 45% increase in the number of elastin fibres in the dermis, and the length if the fibres on average doubled. The collagen thickness in the connective tissues increased 10%, and the numbers of blood vessels increased by 35%. The application of micro-current to skin and tissue produced a firmer and tighter feeling on the skin surface.Many of the studies detailing the massive increase in speed regarding wound healing refer to ATP as one of the attributing factors. The other attributing factor is an increase in blood circulation. Blood circulation has everything to do with the function, condition, color, and overall health of the skin, as underlying tissue.Chi’s 2003 study performed at the University of Washington further notes a 35% increase In blood circulation Lymphatic drainage is a very overlooked treatment in aesthetics, although it has been gaining momentum in recent years.Related to this, the build-up of hardened collagen that makes up scar tissue was noted to be three times less in tissue treated with microcurrent. Further studies also indicated an amazing dispersion of existing scars when treated with microcurrent. This indicates that in the realm of plastic surgery you can see the obvious place for microcurrent technology. By administering a series of treatments before surgery, muscle and tissue condition is maximized, inclusive of an excessive storage of ATP.Microcurrent is truly the “diamond in the rough” when it comes to wellness and anti-aging. Its use in aesthetics has existed since the late 70’s, and like many good things, has come full circle and is now in full bloom in the eyes of today’s aestheticians.Microcurrent is a low level of electrical current that mirrors the body’s own natural current. It’s proven and accepted properties, and potential range of applications from wound healing, muscle re-habilitation, macular degeneration, to lymphedema continue to assist medical practitioners with amazing results. Although microcurrent is credited by hundreds of medical studies, we must stay focused on how these studies and this technology can benefit and support us as aestheticians in pursuit of our mission of beautifying the skin.Micro-current provides a powerful and effective tool to aid in the battle of anti-aging by diminishing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, improve the texture and appearance of the skin, and reducing the overall visual appearance of aging. Please keep in mind, this is not a one time treatment and results may vary.
Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP). ATP is produced by almost all living things in their cell's organelles called mitochondria. It stands for adenosine triphosphate and it is the major 'currency' of energy in the body. It is not energy itself, but rather temporarily "stores" energy in its phosphodiester bonds (the bonds between the phosphate groups of the ATP molecule). When the third phosphate bond is created, it immediately is broken and energy is released that can fuel the metabolic chemical reactions required by living organisms, which otherwise would be inefficient. This creates ADP which has one less phosphate attached to the group.
It may be helpful to think of ATP as a battery that gets charged, and as soon as it is charged, it sets off a spark of energy that can be used to do work in the body.
Thus, the micro-current treatments will help in producing this energy and begin reproduction of the necessary cells needed for you to look your best without surgery and painful temporary injections.
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Sales Outlook: 2012 Buick Verano
The all-new 2012 Buick Verano will be on sale in the short-term future, and there’s been much buzz about the car, as well as what it means for both Buick and GM. After all, there’s a reason that there aren’t a lot of premium compacts on the market, and even fewer from the mainstream automakers: The very concept remains a hard sell for U.S. customers, many of whom, I’m sure, consider “premium compact” to be an oxymoron.
But General Motors has put the Verano in about as good of a pre-launch position as possible, which includes making an impressive—and so far successful—effort to pre-emptively beat down any potential cries of badge engineering. Yes, the Buick rides on the same platform as the Chevy Cruze, but that’s a simple result of the industry trend toward using global platforms for multiple vehicles, and no one is likely to confuse the Cruze with its upscale cousin, or vice versa. Further, the Verano appears to be a fairly well-buttoned-down piece of work—certainly enough so to avoid media complaints about quality in the run up to the vehicle’s launch.
Another important factor in preparing the ground for a successful Verano debut is that the Buick brand is maintaining enough apparent sales momentum, and garnering enough in the way of positive press, to ensure it’s already on the consideration lists of a growing number of customers.
Still, if you want to guess how the Verano will do in the marketplace, you could do worse than looking at the performance of another car from the brand that is blazing the same sort of trail: The Buick Regal.
Buick’s Sales King?
Despite stumbling in September, when it endured a 7 percent sales slide, Buick is comfortably in the black on a year-to-date basis. The division’s sales are up 19.9 percent, which is nearly double the industry’s YTD performance, and right in line with brands like the Nissan division, which is up 17.7 percent on the year, and Hyundai, a 20.5 percent gainer. Buick also is No. 2 among the GM foursome, trailing only GMC—no surprise there, considering the recent surge in truck demand.
However, looking at the Buick sales breakout by model puts a different spin on things. Excepting the Regal, which is only now in its first full year on the market, all Buick products lost ground in October, and the vehicles’ year-to-date numbers aren’t much better. The Buick Enclave is managing to keep its head above water—but not above the overall industry’s performance—with an 8.7 percent gain through the end of October, but the Buick LaCrosse and Buick Lucerne stand at -5.5 percent and -15.7 percent, respectively.
This year’s difference-maker for Buick has clearly been the Regal, but because the car was just ramping up in 2010, its year-over-year increase of 379.4 percent in October is irrelevant. A better gauge of how the Regal is doing comes from comparing its sales volume to that of its competitors, which, per Buick, are cars such as the Acura TSX and Volvo S60, with the likes of the Audi A4, Lexus IS and Infiniti G brought into the mix when looking at the Regal GS.
Against these players, the Buick’s October sales of 2,281 units is on the low end of the comparo spectrum—as rough as it is—with only the S60 making fewer deliveries in October: Volume for the Japanese models ranged from 2,640 to 2,986 units, with the Audi scoring 2,610 sales; the naughty Volvo rang up 1,746 sales.
Odder things have happened, but based on that kind of sales environment, I’m not seeing much more in the way of significant growth for the Regal—not because there’s anything wrong with the car, but just because the niche it’s working doesn’t seem capable of supporting an entry worth more than 3,000 monthly sales.
Sizing up the Competition
The canny automotive observer might notice something odd about the above analysis. Of those listed Regal rivals, the longest is the TSX, which is 185.6 inches long. The A4 is pretty close to that mark, at 185.2 inches, and the other three are as follows: the G sedan is 183.1 inches, the Volvo is 182.2 inches and the IS is a bare 180.3 inches. The Regal? 190.2 inches. If we use the specs from mainstream segments as our guide, we can see that Buick already has positioned the mid-size Regal to compete against the premium compact crew.
For the Verano, Buick also mentions the IS as a possible rival, but the other name most often floated by the GM camp is the Audi A3: A vehicle that is more than a foot shorter than the Verano’s 183.9 inches in length. As far as I’ve seen, Buick has made no pretense of the Verano competing against vehicles of its own size.
Now, this way of comparing its own cars with rivals from a smaller segment is a traditional tactic of GM’s on the lux side of the business, with the Cadillac CTS making for a stellar example. The CTS was originally aimed at the BMW 3 Series, though it’s more than a foot longer than the Bavarian. It’s taken about a decade for Cadillac to be even close to premiering a vehicle that’s the same size as the 3 Series, which will be the coming Cadillac ATS, another premium compact entry.
I think it causes a bit of a problem for Cadillac, since extra size (and weight) aren’t necessarily a benefit for someone cross-shopping the 3 Series and the CTS.
The Right Approach to “Approachable Luxury”
On the other hand, the customers Buick is targeting with its “approachable luxury” positioning are different. I’m betting they’re a lot more likely to be impressed with the fact that Buick gives them more car than is offered by the so-called competition, but at the same (or lower) MSRP. Consider: The least expensive of the listed premium compacts is the TSX, which offers a base model at $29,810, while the others start north of $30,000. A Buick customer who is looking for a similarly sized car can choose the Verano, and that starts at just $22,585; conversely, for a buyer who is specifically looking for a car in that higher price range, Buick offers the Regal, which is a significantly larger vehicle (that still often undercuts the cost of the smaller competition).
And while highlighting a value advantage in this way can be tricky for a true premium brand—which has to promote at least the perception that its customers care more about quality and luxury than price—that’s something Buick doesn’t have to worry about so much, because of the existence of Cadillac.
It’s sounds like ye olde win-win outcome for the Verano—as long as “winning” is defined as a couple thousand sales a month.
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Chamblee (Ga.) three-star defensive end/outside linebacker Davin Bellamy is quickly becoming one of the hottest targets in the Peach State. Bellamy who is also a standout basketball player is getting a lot of attention from major BCS programs, but he spent Friday night with the school that was the first to offer him a scholarship, Georgia Tech.
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The final possible issue behind stubborn weight issues may be the main stress hormone, cortisol. Too much cortisol will increase hunger levels, bringing along subsequent weight gain, especially around the midsection. The most common cause of elevated cortisol is chronic stress and lack of sleep (see tip #11), or cortisone medication (tip #10). It’s a good idea to try your best to do something about this.
I believe this is a disservice to those, like me, with a history of eating disorder. It has made experimenting with IF unnecessarily stressful. Despite my worry about what might happen (reading all these baseless cautions), I went ahead and experimented. In my experience, contrary to this “expert advice”, IF has been the most profoundly effective intervention I’ve experienced for my bulemia.
I would like to know what led you to the conclusion to recommend eating in the morning and fasting in the evening instead of the other way around. You do not link any studies here that show TRF in the morning is better than TRF in the evening. You do state “Nighttime eating is well associated with a higher risk of obesity, as well as diabetes.” but I would hazard a guess that alot people that snack into the evening have many other factors at play that could effect their risk of obesity and diabetes and are possibly not fasting at all. I have been doing TRF from 12-8pm every day for almost a year and have seen vast improvements in my health, not least of which is a loss of 70 lbs, so it seems odd to read items 3 and 4 on your 4 ways to use this information for better health. If you have evidence that supports the idea that TRF in the evening is bad then I would like to see it and perhaps change my dieting habbits.
Avoid sweetened drinks. Drinks that are sweetened, whether artificially or naturally, will have little nutritional value and add lots of empty calories to your diet. Do not drink fruit juice or other sweetened drinks. Even natural sugars will increase your daily calorie intake and prevent weight loss. If you chose to drink juice, do not exceed 4 oz per day (1/2 cup). Instead of drinking sweetened beverages throughout your day, drink unsweetened, calorie-free beverages. Some beverages to avoid include:
The keto diet (also known as ketogenic diet, low carb diet and LCHF diet) is a low carbohydrate, high fat diet. Maintaining this diet is a great tool for weight loss. More importantly though, according to an increasing number of studies, it helps reduce risk factors for diabetes, heart diseases, stroke, Alzheimer’s, epilepsy, and more1-6.On the keto diet, your body enters a metabolic state called ketosis. While in ketosis your body is using ketone bodies for energy instead of glucose. Ketone bodies are derived from fat and are a much more stable, steady source of energy than glucose, which is derived from carbohydrates.
Another program called the 5:2 Fast Diet involves eating 5 days a week and fasting for the other 2 days, when women can get no more than 500 calories and men no more than 600. That’s a quarter of the amount you likely eat on the days when you don’t fast. Whether you eat those calories in one sitting or spread them across micro-meals throughout the day is up to you.
I believe this is a disservice to those, like me, with a history of eating disorder. It has made experimenting with IF unnecessarily stressful. Despite my worry about what might happen (reading all these baseless cautions), I went ahead and experimented. In my experience, contrary to this “expert advice”, IF has been the most profoundly effective intervention I’ve experienced for my bulemia.
Just taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or getting off the bus one stop earlier, is probably not going to change the numbers on your bathroom scale. It’s a myth. Studies show that if you just start exercising, you’re likely going to need at least 30-60 minutes of workouts per day to noticeably lose weight. Part of the reason is that exercise makes people hungrier, and eating more reduces the effect on weight.
Figure out how many calories you should eat each day to lose weight. Losing weight isn't all about weight. The more aware you are of the calories in the food you eat, the more easily you'll be able to eat the right amount of food and do the right amount of exercise to drop a couple of pounds. Take your food journal and look up each item individually. Keep a running tally and add up your calorie total for the day.
Probably the most popular option is fasting for 16 hours (including sleep), which is usually easy to do on a keto diet. It requires trading breakfast for a cup of coffee (or some other non-caloric fluid) and having lunch as the first meal of the day. Fasting from 8 pm to 12 noon – for example – equals 16 hours of fasting. Another option is to skip dinner: eat breakfast and lunch within 8 hours — for instance, 8 am to 2 pm — and then don’t eat again until 8 am the next morning.
The contents displayed within this public group(s), such as text, graphics, and other material ("Content") are intended for educational purposes only. The Content is not intended to substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding your medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read in a public group(s).
The scale is not necessarily your friend. You may want to lose fat – but the scale measures muscles, bone and internal organs as well. Gaining muscle is a good thing. Thus weight or BMI are imperfect ways to measure your progress. This is especially true if you’re just coming off a long period of semi-starvation (calorie counting), as your body may want to restore lost muscles etc. Starting weight training and gaining muscle can also hide your fat loss.
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The Governing Board of the ECGF Training Network was founded
The cooperation between European maritime authorities shapes up: the Governing Board of the European Coast Guard Functions Training Network has been founded
In a milestone for the European Coast Guard Authorities cooperation, the European Coast Guard Functions Training Network's governing board was founded. The founding meeting of the Governing Board was held on March 8, 2017 in the headquarters of the Finnish Border Guard in Helsinki.
During the founding meeting the Spanish Maritime Safety Agency (SASEMAR) was chosen as the chair of the governing board. Other members of the board are the Finnish Border Guard, the Italian Coast Guard, Guardia Civil (Spain), the Portuguese Guarda Nacional Republicana, the German Federal Police, the UK Maritime and Coast guard agency, the Hellenic Coast Guard, the Spanish Customs and the Cyprus Police academy. In addition the Portuguese Navy and the most relevant Coast Guard Functions EU agencies - the European Border and Coast Guard agencyFRONTEX, the European Fisheries Control Agency and the European Maritime Safety Agency - participate as observing members. As a result of the meeting, the ToR of the Governing Board, the annual work plan and the communication guidelines were accepted.
Founded in early 2016, the Training Network enhances the visibility of institutions providing education in the field of Coast Guard Functions and strengthens their cooperation through networking. Until now the Network has been guided by the Finnish Border Guard as a part of the EU-funded European Coast Guard Functions Academy Network II (ECGFA NET II) project. The founding of the Governing Board further strengthens the independence of the Network. The ECGFA NET II project will continue to provide assistance to the network, but the authority and the responsibility to develop the Network are transferred to the Governing Board.
The collaboration is founded on the work conducted by the European Coast Guard Functions Forum, an association of European coast guard functions authorities. This forum seeks to provide a structure for collaboration on maritime issues. The development of training will strengthen operative functions and contribute to the creation of common standards. The Coast Guard Functions include the following responsibilities that require special expertise: maritime safety; maritime search and rescue; maritime monitoring and surveillance; maritime border control; maritime environmental protection and response (including oil spill clean-up); maritime custom activities; fisheries inspection and control; the prevention and suppression of trafficking and smuggling and connected maritime law enforcement.
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Laurel Leigh
Laurel Leigh lives in Bellingham, Washington, and is a cofounder of the San Francisco–based Dogpatch Writers Collective. Her essay in this issue is from a book-length manuscript for which she is seeking a publisher.
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Father's Day Good Game, Fair Game, #@!% Game Beer Glass
A unique gift for the sports enthusiast this Father's Day
What a special Father's Day gift for Dad this Father's Day with this Number 1 Dad Beer Glass. Also available for Poppy, Grandpa or any other special person, just make a note in the "misc" field when checking out and add a special message if you wish.
Our standard beer glasses are 13.5 x 7cm, 285ml/10oz and we also have other style glasses and designs available. Custom orders are also welcome!
All items are made to order so please allow 5 – 10 working days (unless otherwise specified on the product listing) for your order to be made. If you need your order quicker than this please contact us to see if we have an opening in our schedule.
Once your order has been made we will update your order status with the tracking number, etc.
We use either Australia Post or a courier to send our orders and all items are covered by insurance. Delivery can take between an estimated 3 – 10 days depending on where you are located. If you would like a more specific timeframe then please contact us. We do also offer Express Post if you are needing your item the fastest way possible too if you are within the Express Post network.
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GRASS FED BEAF MEAT
We use beef meat of pure “Black Angus” breed, raised on grazing land and fed only with grass without using hormonal additions and GMO.
These factors and the breeding methods allow to create a meat that stands out for its tenderness, marbling and unique flavor. Controls, quality guarantee and the attention to every single animal are the keys to get a superior taste
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Thanks Dave, but there's no other drive in my iMac or connected to my iMac except the internal HD with Snow Leopard and the OWC Mercury Elite drive with a Super Duper clone of my internal connected with Firewire 800.
I guess I should give it another try. If I start with my iMac shutdown and with my peripheral drive powered up, and then power up my iMac and hold down the option key just as I hear the gong it theoretically should work, right? In this scenario, when should I release the option key?
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Larry Walker meets the Hall of Fame standard
Larry Walker is a high-end Hall of Fame candidate. But not everyone seems to have figured that out yet.
This year, Bill James introduced a new Hall of Fame Value Standard in the 2019 Baseball Handbook (excerpted here). The methodology combines James’ Win Shares metric with four times Wins Above Replacement into one number. The cutoff score for Hall of Fame worthiness is 500.
Walker clears the bar with plenty of room to spare, at 599.4. That puts him right in line with Hall-of-Famer Andre Dawson (599.2) and places him just outside the top 100 in that stat all-time. He’s higher than Edgar Martinez by about 20 points, though Walker’s vote total is not close to Martinez’s.
Walker is hindered by a perception that his numbers were inflated by playing regularly in Coors Field for much of his career. From 1995 to 2002, he slashed .341/.425/.636, averaging 30 home runs and 124 games per season. By the Jamesian metric Offensive Winning Percentage, a team of nine Walkers at the plate (along with average pitching and defense) would have won nearly 75 percent of the time. That ranks 29th all-time.
Walker did have a strong defensive reputation, though most of his seasons predate Defensive Runs Saved (which was devised in 2003). He did tally 10 DRS in 2003 and did well in the Total Zone Runs stat that is a predecessor to Defensive Runs Saved. Overall, he ranks eighth among right fielders in the Total Zone metric.
Walker’s standing as Hall of Fame worthy may be slightly hindered by where he played, but in the end, it’s not debatable that he put up numbers that match up well among others who have been enshrined.
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Astronauts May Soon Bake Bread in Space
Next time you breathe in the heady scent of fresh bread, spare a thought for the astronauts aboard the International Space Station. They are living in a bread-free zone, compelled to cobble together sandwiches using tortillas. (Not that there’s anything wrong with tortillas.)
This culinary constraint, though it may seem crummy to crusty bread fans, is in fact so that these stalwart space travelers do not have to suffer the potential deadly effects of bread crumbs, which can float around and lodge in an unlucky astronaut’s eye or, worse, the electrical gizmos and doohickies onboard, potentially starting a fire.
This is not an idle concern, by the way. In 1965, NASA astronaut John Young famously smuggled a corned beef sandwich (from Wolfie’s Restaurant and Sandwich Shop at the Ramada Inn in Cocoa Beach, Florida) on Gemini 3, he generously pulled it out of his pocket to share with fellow astronaut Gus Grissom mid mission. Alas, the sandwich didn’t hold together in zero gravity and politicians on Earth freaked out about the effect of errant crumbs.
Now, though, those breadless days aboard the space station may be hurtling into the past. A German company, Bake in Space, is working with the German Aerospace Center and several research organizations on a solution that will allow astronauts to make and eat fresh, crumb-free bread in space.
The goal of the project, which is targeting June 2018 as the date of its ISS “payload launch,” is to make both a bread machine and a dough optimized for micro-gravity that will result in tasty bread and, the company hopes, a mood boost for the space station astronauts.
“Besides a source for nutrition, the smell of fresh bread evokes memories of general happiness …” the project muses on its website. “It is a symbol of recreational time and procedure down on Earth.”
Giving the bread an appealing texture and flavor is a considerable challenge, but vacuum baking the dough at a low temperature in a low-pressure convection oven could be just the ticket, those involved with the project recently told New Scientist.
“According to our baking experts,” Matthias Boehme, at the German space-equipment company OHB System AG, told the science journal, “the process would also make bread rolls more fluffy.”
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yolo OREGANO Essential Oil – Single
What’s that saying all the young kids are using now a days?… “yolo?” little did you know, the real meaning of yolo is “you’ll only love oregano”.
Some health benefits of blueNutra’s yolo OREGANO Essential Oil can be credited to its abilities to be an antibacterial, anti-fungal, antioxidant, and anti-allergenic oil.
The Greeks were the first to identify the disinfectant characteristics of oregano essential oil, they often used it for the treating of bacterial infections, it was also used on food to help protect it from bacteria.
blueNutra’s yolo OREGANOEssential Oil is extracted through steam distillation of fresh oregano leaves. Some of the main components are carvacrol, thymol, phenolic acids, and flavonoids, to name a few.
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Legend of Gallant
A long time ago, The Lands were filled with magic which gave extreme powers to The Wizards. These Wizards then began to abuse their power, creating chaos throughout The Lands. A group of Wizard known as The Ancients were determined to end the chaos. They were able to contain magic by turning it into crystal. Without magic the chaos finally stopped and The Dark Time of Wizard was ended.
Until Irimant the Warlock discovered the magic crystal and decided to break it to bring magic once again. Corrupted by the crystal, The Warlock send his minions to destroy everything in their path. The Lands once again descend into chaos.
Game Includes:
-80 fun and challenging match three levels.
-10 achievements to unlock.
-8 Altars to build
-7 different power ups
-Play in timed or relaxed mode
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What to do with Bits
"Bits" in the card making world are all those extra things that are printed, stamped, cut out, put aside and saved for some day. I had a giant drawer of bits, I didn't want to get rid of them because I actually do use then. Donna G if you read this, these bits are nothing like scraps that you know I have no problem tossing!
I wanted to make sure I had them packed in order to use them when I unpack. In my world that makes sense.
I had accumulated a large drawer filled with all these bits. Stamped and printed images, ephemera, partially made card fronts, all kinds of things in perfect condition and ready to use.
So I sorted it into the small sterilite 12x12 drawers
Black and White images
Color images
sentiments that are already backed plus images that are backed and ready to be made into a card
The all fit into my storage unit
Ready to use
I actually enjoy an afternoon of assembling cards like this especially if I have a friend or two over to share the time and stuff with me!
I hope you find this little organizational tip helpful!
Thanks for stopping by!
Ginny M
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Oh my goodness, I was just having a chat with some crafty friends Friday. After making a 200 card order I was going to trash the scraps, but i will definitely be using this system. Thanks for sharing!!
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Windows 7 has slowed almost to stop even in safe mode
I was running Chrome with quite few tabs open (17-25) on an ASUS Laptop. And then everything just stopped responding. I tried restarting the pc and was stuck at the "welcome" part of logging on for 1h+ before shutting it off and starting i safemode. It actually logs in, but when i click start it takes 1-2 minutes for the start window to pop up and when i click on anything in there (in safe mode mind you) it takes 5-10 min before it opens control panel or anything else. I dont know whats wrong. The only other issue i have is sometimes my computer would glitch out while doing something with graphics and the sound would sound like bass from a techno song and everything would go all choppy on my screen for 1-3 seconds but then it would go away. I honestly have no idea what could be wrong. Any help, tips, or tricks that you guys could help me with would help immensely. I do not have the money to take the computer in to get repairs and i definately cant buy a new one. But i do require my computer and i am completely lost and looking for help.
A couple of things I would try;
Boot back into safemode and perform a "sfc /scannow". (Can be started from the "run" box of windows 7)To See and Read the SFC /SCANNOW Scan Results
Allow the computer to boot normally after the scan.
Perform a system & registry cleanup with CCleaner, download it here.
Perform a thorough defragmentation with a tool of your choice or the default Windows 7 defragger;
Open the Start Menu, then type dfrgui into the search line and press Enter.
DRIVE IMAGINGInvest a little time and energy in a well thought out BACKUP regimen and you will have minimal down time, and headache.
I was running Chrome with quite few tabs open (17-25) on an ASUS Laptop. And then everything just stopped responding. I tried restarting the pc and was stuck at the "welcome" part of logging on for 1h+ before shutting it off and starting i safemode. It actually logs in, but when i click start it takes 1-2 minutes for the start window to pop up and when i click on anything in there (in safe mode mind you) it takes 5-10 min before it opens control panel or anything else. I dont know whats wrong.
I'm running Firefox v16.0.1 and I'm having exactly the same symptoms. In my case, this problem seems to have started immediately after I had installed the latest MS Windows updates. I'm now thinking of uninstalling them.
The Following User Says Thank You to John259 For This Useful Post:
I would also do a complete cleanup of your PC. Delete temp files, temp internet files, etc. You can use an app such as CCleaner for this chore. See if this helps any.
John might have hit on a great idea. Perhaps a thorough physical cleaning would solve some problems. This could be a heat buildup because of contamination. You might find a lot of contamination inside the PC.
Have you tried to find out what is happening on your computer. Almost certainly you have a program running in the background which is taking up CPU cycles. open Task manager (Right click a blank space in the toolbar to do this), then select the Processes tab, click on the word CPU at the top of a column - may need to be clicked twice)
When you have it sorting most used first scroll to the top - if necessary. Then you will see what programs are running and what is taking the most cpu cycles. If the "Idle time" is not at the top most of the time then whatever is at the top most often is probably causing the problem. You may be able to disable it or remove it if it is malware.
This is just a start to identifying the problem. Sometimes you need to use something like Sysinternals process explorer to get more info on what is happening.
Let us know what results you get. A screen dump (alt PrtScn and paste into an image file, save, and attach to your response) might help to analyse your problem.
My two cents
Kaieil,
"The only other issue i have is sometimes my computer would glitch out while doing something with graphics and the sound would sound like bass from a techno song and everything would go all choppy on my screen for 1-3 seconds but then it would go away."
If you haven't already checked the Reliability Monitor, Start> in search box type: error > choose View Reliability History. The Reliability Monitor should launch and then you can see if there are any significant events.
gremlins
Ensure as mentioned above that your CPU is clean of dust. Overheating often causes the chip to go into a slower mode to try and still function. If this is a laptop, this may require disassembly to the point that you can access the backside of the heat sync after removing the fan. Once clean, you can prevent re-clog by monthly using a vacuum to back flush, before enough buildup happens to cause dust bunnies or other more ominous animal look-a-likes!
Another problem that could cause this is the SATA cable. Less likely in a laptop, but on a PC, the SATA cable which connects your hard drive to the system board could have dirty connections due to dust and vibration. Either replace the cable or at least disconnect both ends and then reconnect and test. If the problem changes or comes and goes, then replace. A faulty connection in the SATA cable does not throw any errors, everything just stops or slows way down due to inability to get data across this cable due to errors.
I have also seen Antivirus software act this way. If the above suggestions don't work, then consider uninstalling your antivirus software. You can always re-install it later if this is not the culprit. I have seen this happen many times and it does not necessarily consume resources that will show up in task manager.
If your internet connection has failed, it can seriously slow down your PC due to all the programs that connect and basically phone home. Many programs phone home and failure to succeed can cause significant delays.
Under Chrome's Settings tab, go to Advanced Setting, uncheck the "Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed", if it is checked. Being checked, it continues ALL of your background Chrome extensions, etc. after you leave Chrome.
Under Chrome's Settings tab, go to Advanced Setting, uncheck the "Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed", if it is checked. Being checked, it continues ALL of your background Chrome extensions, etc. after you leave Chrome.
I agree with rholmes about heat. I have recently sorted an 8 year old HP laptop that was running really slow after quarter of an hour from start. A clue is fans running continally at high speed. I ended up stripping it down (get hold of a manual if you can, as it is not always obvious how things come apart). There was dust in both fans and fluff in one of the fans.
When I got down to the fan and heatsink assembly, I found that it was glued to the CPU, by the dried out heatsink grease. In fact the CPU pulled out of the ZIF socket, and had to be levered off the heatsink. A cleaning and grease kit did the job - from the local electronics shop. The laptop is now running at a normal speed. Oh - and get a wrist grounding strap.
Isn't it highly annoying when the original poster doesn't make any replies?
You should always have a Linux boot disc to boot the system with (the PC's BIOS has to be set as the first boot device to boot from the CD/DVD drive).
I use Ubuntu from ubuntu.com. Download the ISO file and use burning software's burn an image option to burn it to a disc. I use CDBurnerXP that has a Burn ISO Image option. The disc is a boot disc that runs Ubuntu from the disc without installing it. I also use it to access banking websites.
If the PC runs from the boot disc, the problem is with Windows, not a hardware problem, which in your case it could be.
If the PC can run Linux you're in luck, its a software problem. If it can't, you have to discover what the hardware problem is.
This webpage provides information on the methods of installing, repairing and recovering Win7:
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Critique
Teenage Wrist combine grunge and shoegaze, recalling the overlap the two genres enjoyed back in their heyday, except this time out it's filtered through the three decades of rock music that came after. Their debut album has the most in common with acts such as Swervedriver, but overall, it would have been at home if it was released in the 2000s; its cleaner production and often on-the-nose lyrics borrow heavily from the alt-rock and emo acts that dominated guitar music at the time. In a word, it's derivative, almost to the point of homage; it picks from so many bands that it can only amount to the sum of its influences. The band make up for some of the derivation with sheer enthusiasm, going all-out on tracks such as "Dweeb" and "Swallow,." but they shine brightest when they lean into their shoegaze influences, with album highlights including the cooing "Stoned, Alone" and the My Bloody Valentine-indebted "Kibo." Perhaps it's because the alt-rock/emo approach is a bit dated that "Supermachine" feels like the least relevant thing here, bordering on cringeworthy at times. The salient point is that fans of their later influences will likely acclimate to the gauzy, Wall of Sound side of the band, but given the nature of shoegaze purists, it's hard to imagine a show of leniency toward any hint of pop punk. Still, there's an audience out there that Teenage Wrist will appease, and if anything, they can be proud of creating another niche inside of a genre known for its niches. ~ Liam Martin
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Blaine Gene Jensen
Blaine Gene Jensen slipped away from this life on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015. He was born in Rigby, Idaho, to Walter “Walt” and Bessie Jensen on April 21, 1937.
The Jensen family farmed in Idaho until October 1951, when they moved to Quincy. Blaine graduated from Quincy High School in 1955 and then went to Washington State University for a year. He took a break from school and went to work in Alaska, where, among other things, he worked on the railroad. He also spent time in California with his sister Shirlene Chapman and her family as well as attending El Camino College.
Blaine Gene Jensen
In 1957 Blaine went back to attend WSU for several more years and then he tested for and was accepted into the Air Force Pilot Training Program. Dad scored a perfect 100 percent on his exam and was requested to apply to the U.S. Army Security Agency, but he ultimately chose the U.S. Air Force and was off to Mississippi and Georgia.
Blaine received an Honorable Discharge from the Air Force in 1960. Dad had some fond, and not so fond, memories of his time in the program, but one thing he really held onto was the beauty of the South. He really enjoyed time off base experiencing the country and, in recent years, expressed interest in visiting again.
In 1961, Blaine married Kate Ker in Quincy. Blaine and Kate moved to Seattle for a short period of time and Blaine became a member of the Local Carpenters Union, where he worked on the World’s Fair. Blaine and Kate then moved back to Pullman to attend WSU and in 1965 he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. Blaine took a position with Standard Oil, first in Spokane and then in Seattle.
In 1967 Blaine and Kate moved back to Quincy, and Blaine helped build a cattle feedlot for his father-in-law Ed Ker. From that point on and for the remainder of his life, Blaine was a farmer. Blaine worked hard and eventually owned his own land and buildings where he grew, processed and sold onions, among other varieties of crops. We have so many memories of spending time and helping Dad farm “Section 1” and “Rudbergs.”
Dad’s engineering background was always with him, as he continually designed and modified equipment to suit his needs on the farm. Many times he could be found at the shop at Rudbergs cutting and welding metal to address a challenge he had come across. As it is with the farming community, Dad was often helping a friend with swathing, tractor work or the loan of a piece of equipment.
Blaine was an active member of the community through the Lions Club and The Moose. He enjoyed the friendships that came out of these and the events such as the annual exchanges with the Fork’s group and any time he was able to cook roasts in the portable cooker. We think more time was spent chatting than cooking but in the end the beef was always great.
We have many wonderful memories of Dad. He introduced us to farming, camping, hunting, fishing and annual family outings to the Coast. Some of our favorite memories include the many fun trips to Conconully, especially the snowmobiling adventures with the Wayne Gebers family.
The past few years were difficult on Blaine. After some health issues that resulted in his retirement from farming, “Poppa” remained mostly at home, where he looked forward to times when the grandkids would come and overrun the house. He was often quiet and to himself but one thing we know is his thoughts were always on the farm, thinking of how to do something different or new.
We take great comfort knowing Dad is at peace and picturing him with Ed Ker, enjoying a hearty steak dinner, cold beer and some laughs. His presence will be greatly missed.
Blaine was preceded in death by his parents, Walter and Bessie Jensen and infant sister Norma LaDeen Jensen. He is survived by his wife Kate; his sisters Shirlene Chapman and RaNita (Wayne) Gebers; daughters Wendi (Dan) Elmenhurst and Darci (Keith) Kleyn; and son Chris (Jennifer) Jensen. Dad adored his 10 grandchildren, Katelyn, Camille, Joshua, AnnaMarie and Sean Elmenhurst, Samantha, Morgan and Mackenzie Kleyn, and Brayden and Colby Jensen. He especially loved providing a comfortable stomach on which his grandchildren would rest.
In lieu of flowers the family suggests contributions be made to Quincy Valley Medical Center – Long Term Care. They provided excellent care and comfort to Blaine in his last few weeks. We are deeply grateful to them.
Please join the Jensen family for an open celebration of Blaine’s life on Monday, Oct. 19, 2015, any time from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Quincy Moose Lodge.
Please leave a memory for the family or sign its online guestbook at www.scharbachs.com.
Scharbach’s Columbia Funeral Chapel in Quincy is assisting the family with arrangements.
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Jan
11
Weird angle?
I'm always told by my fiance to take photos of her from above not below to make her look more flattering. Generally, this will help achieve that, but if you're subject is holding something it can be nice to use a lower angle to accentuate what the theme is. I also think images can look more iconic by shooting lower, kind of like this photo I took of a magician.
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It's not exactly how a rookie coach would typically draw it up - make last season's leading scorer "pissed off" before the new campaign even tips off.
But for Paul Henare and the Breakers, potentially upsetting Corey Webster produced the right result in Friday's season-opener against Melbourne United.
The coach took all of one game to make the first big call of his tenure, dropping Webster to the bench in favour of returning favourite Kirk Penney. The veteran's inclusion was hardly controversial but the relegation of Webster came as a surprise, given his influence on the Breakers in the last two years.
But with Henare seeking a reaction from Webster, the move was one factor that added up to an encouraging victory as the spurned guard delivered eight-straight points in a pivotal fourth-quarter stretch that lifted his side past the team many have tipped for the title.
"I wanted him to be pissed off with not starting," Henare said. "But I wanted him to be pissed off in the right way and use it the right way, to come out and play."
Webster initially struggled to make much of an impact but, as he has done time and again for the Breakers, the man once referred to as the microwave warmed up at the perfect time and finished with 11 points.
Penney, meanwhile, added nine after shooting three-of-12 from the floor and, considering the two shooting guards will both expect greater outputs as the season progresses, it's a pair that promises to give the Breakers a serious offensive edge.
Providing, of course, they can both remain in the right mood. Penney and Webster played almost identical minutes at Vector Arena and, having been denied an opportunity to experiment during an injury-hit pre-season, Henare insisted his starting plan was flexible.
"It's one of those evolving things that will take time," he said. "My grand master plan for the pre-season games was to start different guys and see how different guys responded. So we're not locked into it, but Corey showed a lot of maturity.
"That's something he takes a lot of pride in, being the starting two guard for a couple of years and playing some great basketball. For him to be humble enough to come out and not let it affect him, I thought he made some massive plays for us.
"We could adjust it during the season but, in terms of minutes, I like the fact we didn't play anyone over 30 minutes. Everyone got a decent hit out."
It also aids Henare's options that Penney can move up to small forward while Webster is comfortable running the point when new import Ben Woodside needs a rest, a reshuffle the Breakers utilised effectively against Melbourne.
Said Henare: "That's something we really haven't had a chance to do in the pre-season, either - when Woody's off the floor, finding him a few minutes at the point. I thought when he was at the point he ran the team really well and we continued to roll on."
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Fifa 13 doing extremely well in the US, sales up 42% from last year
27 Sep 2012 by John Robertson
Fifa 13has got itself to a good start in the US, according to the day one sales figures revealed by EA.
Across the PS3 and Xbox 360, the game sold 353,000 copies – a 42 per cent increase from the day one figures from last year. It seems the beautiful game might be finally making a proper impact Stateside with 1.4 million matches played online in the first 24 hours. That equates to a 35 per cent increase from Fifa 12.
The iOS edition of Fifa 13 also performed well, getting to number one on the paid games chart in 55 different countries. EA says that it’s the “biggest global launch-day performance of any iOS game on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch in EA history.”
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Categories
Category: Question
Tall, multistory structures called skyscrapers are made of steel, which is sturdier and lighter in weight than other building materials, such as brick and stone. In the late 1800s, when steel production became common, architects experimented with steel, forming it into long, thin pieces called girders. The first skyscrapers, built in the United States in the 1880s, were constructed using vertical columns and horizontal beams made from steel girders. This supporting skeleton allowed buildings to rise to 10 or more stories. Skyscrapers grew taller when designers began using bundled steel tubes instead of heavy girders.
Tube buildings, like Chicago’s Sears Tower, get most of their support from a stiff grid of steel columns and beams in their outer walls. The lighter weight pieces need less support, and so architects can 144 add more height. Additional beams can be placed diagonally for additional support while adding little extra weight. The girders and beams are bolted together and welded on all sides so that the building will not sway from side to side as a unit when there is wind.
There are many cities around the world that are “big,” meaning they have more than 10 million people living in them. Tokyo, Japan, ranks the largest, since it has 33.2 million people living in the city, according to 2005 estimates. The next biggest cities in order of size are São Paulo, Brazil (17.7 million), Seoul-Incheon, South Korea (17.5 million), Mexico City, Mexico (17.4 million), Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto, Japan (16.4 million), and New York City (about 8 million people).
Most of these cities are located in different places around the globe. In the United States, after New York, Los Angeles is the biggest city (with almost 4 million people), and then Chicago (with almost three million people). Populations of cities are constantly changing as people move in and out of them, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, a government organization that estimates how big or small cities are based on their populations, or the number of people living in them.
The smallest dinosaurs were just slightly larger than a chicken. Compsognathus (meaning “pretty jaw”) was 3 feet (1 meter) long and probably weighed about 6.5 pounds (2.5 kilograms). At one time, scientists thought that Mussaurus (meaning “mouse lizard”) was the smallest dinosaur, but it is now known to be the hatchling of a dinosaur type that was much larger than Compsognathus when fully grown.
If birds are advanced dinosaurs, as some scientists believe, then the smallest dinosaur would be the hummingbird!
The expression dates back to the English Crown’s first efforts to control the Irish by outlawing their language and customs. But the unruly Irish were just that, and by the fifteenth century the English still controlled only a small area around Dublin, protected by a fortification called “The Pale,” meaning sharp sticks (i.e., impaled). To the British, to go “beyond The Pale” meant that you were entering the uncivilized realm of the wild Irish.
European settlers brought their money with them to America, and coins made of precious metal were accepted everywhere at face value. The Spanish peso was divided into eight silver coins, which the English called bits, or pieces of eight.
Two bits was one-quarter of a Spanish dollar. When money was printed and minted in the new world, although a dollar’s coinage was divided by ten, the expression “two bits” continued to mean one-quarter of a dollar.
A fruit is the part of the plant that nourishes and protects new seeds as they grow. The plant’s ovaries develop into fruit once the eggs inside have been fertilized by pollen. Some plants produce juicy fruit, such as peaches, pears, apples, lemons, and oranges.
Others produce dry fruit, such as nuts and pea pods. If an animal doesn’t eat the fruit, or a human doesn’t pick it off, it falls to the ground and decays and fertilizes the soil where a new seed will grow.
Earrings were used by seamen, especially warriors such as pirates, for very practical reasons and not for decoration. They were given to young sailors as a symbol of their first crossing of the equator, and their purpose was to protect the eardrums during battle.
The pirates, especially those who fired the ships’ cannons during closed combat with the enemy, dangled wads of wax from their earrings to use as earplugs.
Like many inventions, the development of the modern zipper can be traced to a series of events. In 1893, Whitcomb Judson patented and marketed a “clasp locker,” a complicated hook-and-eye shoe fastener. Together with businessman Colonel Lewis Walker, Whitcomb launched the Universal Fastener Company to manufacture the new device. He did not use the word “zipper,” although many people often credit him as the zipper’s creator. Instead, it was Swedish-born Gideon Sundback, an electrical engineer who was hired to work for the Universal Fastener Company, Who gets the credit.
He was responsible for improving Judson’s fastener, and by December 1913, he had designed the modern zipper. Sundback increased the number of fastening elements from four per inch to ten or eleven, had two facing-rows of teeth that pulled into a single piece by a slider, and increased the opening for the teeth guided by the slider. Sundback also created a machine that was able to manufacture the zipper.
There is no way specific way to place an order for a baby brother or a baby sister. The gender (boy or girl) of a baby is determined by whether the father’s fertilizing sperm has an X or a Y chromosome. An X chromosome will lead to a girl, and a Y to a boy. (Mothers always contribute an X chromosome.) Although scientific methods are available to help parents organize their chromosomes and take advantage of the fact that the “boy” sperm has less DNA than “girl” sperm, they can be expensive and unreliable. One method, called the Shettles method, recommends that if parents want a girl, they should plan to make a baby right around the time of ovulation.
At this time, the egg is as far away as possible from the incoming sperm so the long-distance runners of the sperm world, the X sperm, have a better chance of making it to the egg. For a boy, the method suggests that parents plan to make a baby about two to four days after ovulation. That way, the short-distance sprinting Y sperm can make it to the egg first. Many doctors say that although this method is based in science, it is no guarantee that a couple will have a baby boy or a baby girl.
A cactus-like plant of the lily family, aloe vera grows wild in Madagascar and on the African continent. It also is cultivated in Japan, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and the United States. People around the world have used its gooey, jelly-like sap for healing and cosmetic purposes.
Aloe extracts can be used to treat digestive problems, including constipation, and aloe oils are used in cosmetic creams to help keep skin soft and to treat minor skin irritations.
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I’m not sure we established a trading pattern this week. Down, up,
down, up. We did see a return to volatility. The indexes saw big moves,
much sound and fury amounting to very little. It might just be window
dressing to finish out the quarter and heading into a long holiday
weekend.
The markets will be open for a half day on Monday, but, this is the beginning of a long holiday weekend.
As we wrap up the second quarter and the first half of the year, let’s check where we stand.
For the month: the Dow gained 1.6%, the S&P gained 0.5%, the Nasdaq lost 0.9% for the month, and the Russell gained 3%.
For the second quarter: the Dow gained 3.3%, the S&P up 2.6%, the Nasdaq up 3.9%, and the Russell up 3.9%.
For the first half: the Dow is up 8%, the S&P up 8.2%, the Nasdaq
up 14%, and the Russell up 6.1%.
So, the Nasdaq is the big winner so
far, this year, but seemed to lose momentum in June. The S&P 500
recorded its biggest percentage first-half gain since climbing 12.6
percent in the first six months of 2013. The Nasdaq posted its biggest
first-half gain since 2009.
Oil is down 14% from the start of the year and down 5% for the month
of June. OPEC and certain other oil-producing countries agreed to extend
their production cuts, originally set to expire at the end of June, by
nine months (ending March 2018). They didn’t count on US shale producers
ramping up production to fill the void.
The count of working oil rigs
in the US fell this week for the first time in 24 weeks, breaking the record
streak of increases. After several upward revisions, the International
Energy Agency currently expects U.S. crude production to end the year
0.8 mmb/d higher than year-end 2016; although some traders are expecting
closer to 1 mmb/d.
As such, the rapid U.S. shale growth in the back
half of the year could meaningfully increase U.S. oil supply. Meanwhile,
when OPEC cuts fall off in early 2018, look for the global oil glut to
come roaring back.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note has dropped 14 basis points
from the start of the year, however the yield has been climbing in the
past week or so, after hitting a low for the year at 2.13%.
This is
still the most contrary move among major asset classes because the
Federal Reserve has raised interest rates twice in the first half, and
promises another cut in the second half plus plans to trim its balance
sheet.
US 10-year yield has now moved above 200-day moving average, and
broke the down trendline from March.
Second-quarter corporate results are set to begin in earnest in the
coming weeks, with S&P 500 companies expected to post an 8-percent
rise in earnings. Investors have been looking for earnings to support
historically high valuations, with the S&P 500 trading at about 18
times earnings estimates for the next 12 months compared to the
long-term average of 15 times.
We’re bumping right along the top end of
historic valuation levels. It’s getting harder to find undervalued
stocks with so much optimism factored into stock prices.
The U.S. dollar recovered slightly today, but posted its biggest
quarterly decline against a basket of rival currencies in nearly seven
years after hawkish signals from foreign central banks this week
pressured the greenback further. The dollar index declined 4.6% in the
second quarter to mark its steepest quarterly percentage drop since the
third quarter of 2010.
The euro accelerated more than 7 percent against
the greenback for its biggest quarterly percentage gain since the third
quarter of 2010.
In late May, we told you
the Midwest experienced flooding that damaged corn and wheat crops.
Since then, the northern Plains states have experienced a drought that
left crops withering in the field. Spring wheat, traded on the
Minneapolis Grain Exchange, has soared 32 percent in June. Spring wheat
is a thinly traded commodity, but it was a big winner, especially
considering futures contracts are leveraged, this was a killer trade.
As we wrap up the first half we are once again reminded that the heavyweight champion of traders is still Warren Buffett.
Warren Buffett is set to pull in $12 billion in profits on a single
deal with Bank of America. Buffett invested $5 billion in Bank of
America in 2011. That move came at a critical time for Bank of America
with the company trying to leave behind the financial crisis with its
new CEO Brian Moynihan.
Buffett negotiated a favorable deal with the
bank, due to his investment acting as a public vote of confidence in the
company’s future. His $5 billion investment in preferred shares came
with the option to convert those to common stock shares until 2021. The
preferred shares paid $300 million annually in dividends.
Buffett’s
common stock shares are currently worth about $17 billion, $12 billion
more than the purchase price. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is now
the biggest owner of two of the world’s largest banks: Bank of America
and Wells Fargo.
The Fed’s
preferred gauge of inflation, the personal consumption expenditures
(PCE) price index fell 0.1 percent in May from April, dragged lower by
drops in prices for consumer goods and energy. When food and energy were
excluded, the index was up 0.1 percent.
The slowdown in inflation has
boosted consumer spending power. After-tax personal income adjusted for
inflation rose 0.6 percent in May, the largest gain since April 2015.
Even so, the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index fell
to 95.1 this month, its lowest since November, according to a final
reading for the gauge published today. The index has been rising steadily since 2008 and in November it hit its highest level since
before the 2007-09 recession.
Illinois is
poised to enter its third straight fiscal year without a budget. The
Illinois House adjourned on Friday, the last day of the budget year,
without enacting a plan and will reconvene at 11 a.m. local time on
Saturday. While negotiations continue, it signals the legislature will
blow the midnight deadline and extend the unprecedented impasse that’s
left Illinois without a full-year budget since mid-2015.
Without a deal
around July 1, S&P Global Ratings has warned that the nation’s
fifth-most-populous state will likely get downgraded again, losing its
investment-grade status. The state of Illinois will be rated junk.
Without a spending plan, the state has effectively been on autopilot,
leaving it with a record $15 billion of unpaid bills as it spent over $6
billion more than it brought in over the past year.
The impasse has
devastated social-service providers, shuttering services for the
homeless, disabled and poor. The lack of state aid has wreaked havoc on
universities, putting their accreditation at risk. If the standoff isn’t
resolved, Illinois officials have said they won’t be able to pay
contractors and road construction will shut down, putting thousands out
of work.
The yields on the state’s bonds have risen as investors
anticipate a downgrade. Without a budget that includes borrowing to pay
down the bill backlog, Illinois by August will run out of money for key
expenses. That means school funding, state payroll, and pension payments
could be affected. This won’t jeopardize debt-service payments.
Illinois hasn’t missed any bond payments and state law requires it to
make monthly deposits to its debt-service funds.
President Trump says he is “sending in Federal help” to Chicago to
help curb gun violence. The president tweeted early Friday that crime in
Chicago has reached “epidemic proportions,” citing more than 1,700
shootings in the city so far, this year.
So, the Feds are sending in a
strike force of 20 Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearm, or ATF agents for what
officials called a “laser focus” on the illegal trafficking of weapons.
They join 41 ATF agents already in Chicago. The force will also focus
on investigating and prosecuting repeat gun offenders. Don’t hold your
breath.
This week saw a couple of important anniversaries. 20 years ago, the
British handed over rule of Hong Kong to the Chinese. 10 years ago, the
first iPhone was sold. Apple sold more than 50 million iPhones in the
first three months of 2017 alone, bringing in $33.2 billion.
Drivers are set to pay the lowest Independence Day price for gasoline
since 2005 — and for the first time on record, the Fourth of July
holiday per-gallon cost will run below the price from New Year’s Day,
according to GasBuddy.
Motorists on the road for the Fourth of July
holiday weekend are expected to pay an average of $2.21 a gallon for
gasoline, well below the 10-year average of $3.14. If you are driving,
be careful out there, and have a great Independence Day.
Disclaimer: The material appearing on this site is based on data and information from sources we believe to be accurate and reliable. However, the material is not guaranteed as to accuracy nor does it purport to be complete. Opinions and projections, both our own and those of others, reflect views as of dates indicated and are subject to change without notice. The contributions and opinions of others do not necessarily reflect the views of Marvin Clark, Monsoon Wealth Management, or Fixed Income Daily. Nothing appearing on this site should be considered a recommendation to buy or to sell any security or related financial instrument. Investors should discuss any investment with their personal investment counsel. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
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Session 1/13
Topic introduction of attachment and loss: What do we know in our staff about this? Can we use this knowledge in our work?
In children who have lost their parents you often see behaviour problems (clinging constantly to a caregiver, having fits of rage, being disobedient, being destructive or apathetic, refuse to eat or eat constantly) and moods (feeling alone, depressed, angry, worthless). These behaviours can only be understood if you know how children react to a loss of adult caregivers, and how they try to overcome this by developing a way of coping with it.
The best way to understand this is to help each other make a map of how each staff member experienced early care in life, and how he or she tried to overcome it. Separation from caregivers does not only have negative effects, separations also make us stronger and creative in finding new ways to overcome the strains of life. Difficult separations happen to anyone who is attached to someone else, it is part of life.
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Pinoy Big Brother Teen Edition Plus housemates (from left) Robi Domingo,
Nicole Uysiuseng, and Josef Elizalde are the new additions to the cast of the
drama-comedy TV series My Girl. They will also be joined by PBB Celebrity Edition Season 1 Big Winner Keanna Reeves (not in photo).
Photo: Courtesy of ABS-CBN
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Description
Wonderful location single family house at Baker Ranch community in the Lake Forest. The home includes 5 bedrooms, 4 baths and a powder room for guests. Fully upgraded inside with all the furniture and appliances you need. Open kitchen to the big living room. Huge master bedroom and master bath, with walk-in closet and tub. Big deck on the top of California room. Professional designed landscaping for both front and back yard. The house is right next to the park, so we can see the beautiful park view everyday. There are three clubs with swimming pool in the community. This house could be your best choice.
School Ratings & Info
Description
Wonderful location single family house at Baker Ranch community in the Lake Forest. The home includes 5 bedrooms, 4 baths and a powder room for guests. Fully upgraded inside with all the furniture and appliances you need. Open kitchen to the big living room. Huge master bedroom and master bath, with walk-in closet and tub. Big deck on the top of California room. Professional designed landscaping for both front and back yard. The house is right next to the park, so we can see the beautiful park view everyday. There are three clubs with swimming pool in the community. This house could be your best choice.
Listing History
Date
Days Ago
Event
New Price
Sep 10, 2018
133 days ago
Price Reduced
:
$-300 (-5.17%)
$5,500
Jul 23, 2018
182 days ago
New on market
$5,800
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Based on information from California Regional Multiple Listing Service, Inc. as of 2019-01-21T16:34:04.587. This information is for your personal, non-commercial use and may not be used for any purpose other than to identify prospective properties you may be interested in purchasing. Display of MLS data is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed accurate by the MLS. Licensed in the State of California, USA.
www.fredsedgroup.com/homes/85875485
10
Caspian
Lake Forest,
CA
92630
Price: $5,500/mo.
Status: Active
Updated: 57 min ago
ID#: OC18173582
5
Beds
4
Baths
1
½ Baths
0.15
Acres
3,400
SQFT
2017
Built
Neighborhood:
Other (Othr)
County:
Orange
Area:
Bk - Baker Ranch
School District:
Saddleback Valley Unified
Property Description
Wonderful location single family house at Baker Ranch community in the Lake Forest. The home includes 5 bedrooms, 4 baths and a powder room for guests. Fully upgraded inside with all the furniture and appliances you need. Open kitchen to the big living room. Huge master bedroom and master bath, with walk-in closet and tub. Big deck on the top of California room. Professional designed landscaping for both front and back yard. The house is right next to the park, so we can see the beautiful park view everyday. There are three clubs with swimming pool in the community. This house could be your best choice.
Based on information from California Regional Multiple Listing Service, Inc. as of 2019-01-21T16:34:04.587. This information is for your personal, non-commercial use and may not be used for any purpose other than to identify prospective properties you may be interested in purchasing. Display of MLS data is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed accurate by the MLS. Licensed in the State of California, USA.
Based on information from California Regional Multiple Listing Service, Inc. as of 2019-01-21T16:34:04.587. This information is for your personal, non-commercial use and may not be used for any purpose other than to identify prospective properties you may be interested in purchasing. Display of MLS data is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed accurate by the MLS. Licensed in the State of California, USA.
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Countin countin countin bank account astounded
Bitches all around me ho i’m rich I need a stallion
Give me becky while I count it, on a phone wit my accountant
Juicy fell off in the deep somebody help me ‘cause i’m drowning
Big bank take little bank sipping on that big drink
Design that,mix match,that 44 that get back
That click clack they get back
Double drum .. that big mack, that big pocket I spin on houses
Diamond watches rich spouses
I need a gas mask for the gas pack
Countin faces while your lady make that ass clap
I’m so turned up ain’t no way I’m coming down
Runnin through a check and I’m diggin in a pime
I’m in a big digits wit a whole lot of hoes
Tonight is stoners night wit a ho lot of hoes
Got on Louie that my bitch would .. foe
I had to sit a down until the ..when she shine i’ll glow
Dats the life you gotta live with you a trippy nigga
Big faces crazy D.A. takin pictures
Big blunts smoking rolling nuttin but piff
I love my sex so much every day I buy guilt
Blow another blunt I mess sex field
With bean poppin bitch that love to suck dick
She don’t leave her house all she do is s*ck d*ck
All a nigga need is money f*ck a bitch, f*ck a bitch
All a nigga need is money f*ck a bitch, f*ck a bitch
All a nigga need is money f*ck a bitch, f*ck a bitch
All a nigga need is money f*ck a bitch, f*ck a bitch
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Regulatory approval could be on the horizon for an amyloid tracer that is widely considered the frontrunner among several 18F-labeled compounds being developed for brain imaging using positron emission tomography (PET). Even the skies of Honolulu, which hosts the Alzheimer’s Association’s International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease (ICAD) from 10-15 July 2010, could not have been sunnier than the presentation of Phase 3 histopathology data reported Sunday by Christopher Clark of Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He said he and colleagues found near-perfect correlation between PET imaging using the new tracer and amyloid load measured postmortem in the same patients. Given these encouraging results, the company plans to submit an application by late summer to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which could, so the company hopes, approve the compound as soon as six months thereafter under expedited review, Clark told ARF. A validated F18 PET tracer would expand the commercial availability of amyloid imaging, which has thus far been restricted largely to some 60 or so research centers worldwide.
In this study, Avid tested florbetapir (formerly 18F AV-45) in 35 people who were expected to die within six months. The idea was that imaging people near the end of their lives would minimize the time interval between PET scan and histopathological evaluation, allowing researchers to more effectively compare the two measures of brain amyloid load. To test their PET reagent’s specificity, the team also imaged 47 people who were highly unlikely to have detectable brain amyloid—namely, young, cognitively normal subjects without an ApoE4 allele. On average, less than three months elapsed between PET imaging and death, about 11 hours between death and autopsy, Clark said.
Of the 19 subjects who met NIA-Regan criteria for AD pathology, all but one were amyloid-positive on PET as judged by visual reads, and all 19 came out positive on SUVR quantification of PET data. For both PET analysis methods, all 16 who lacked postmortem AD pathology were also amyloid-negative by live brain imaging, giving the tracer 100 percent specificity in this small sample.
The data drew praise from the neuroimaging community, which might have expected as much given that florbetapir already looked promising in Avid’s analysis of six autopsy cases presented earlier this spring at the Human Amyloid Imaging meeting and in more detail at the American Academy of Neurology conference, both in Toronto (see ARF related news story).
“These data are excellent,” said Chris Rowe of the University of Melbourne. Other scientists’ informal hallway comments ranged from enthusiasm that the availability of an approved agent to image a key AD pathology would transform the clinical trial landscape, to more guarded optimism. Some scientists cautioned that even if the data withstood the FDA's review, it remained to be seen whether insurance will pay for amyloid imaging, and noted that this measure may add more value to clinical detection of early cases for research purposes than for routine diagnosis in the community.
Florbetapir appears useful for predicting whether seniors with mild cognitive impairment were likely to decline further, as reported in a separate talk at ICAD by Reisa Sperling of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. She and colleagues reported follow-up data on a florbetapir Phase 2 study. The scientists have data thus far on 138 of 184 cognitively normal, newly diagnosed MCI and AD participants in the study. After getting their brains imaged with florbetapir at baseline, the participants had their symptoms assessed every six months through phone interviews, and returned for clinical and neuropsychological evaluation at 18 months. None of the healthy seniors worsened noticeably within that timeframe, regardless of brain amyloid status. However, in the MCI group, a greater proportion of amyloid-positive subjects progressed to AD than did amyloid-negative MCI patients, suggesting that amyloid imaging using florbetapir may help identify those at risk for progressive cognitive decline. In his talk, Rowe broadly reviewed ongoing longitudinal assessments of various MCI cohorts imaged with several of the amyloid imaging agents currently in development at his center and elsewhere. The overall trend there, too, was that MCI patients who have amyloid in their brain go on to meet an AD diagnosis over the next two to four years, while amyloid-free MCI patients generally do not.—Esther Landhuis.
Gift of Water, bronze sculpture by Shige Yamada, 1997, at main entrance of the Hawai'i Convention center. Representing a spring offering water, it celebrates the Hawaiian people's generosity and sense of goodwill to newcomers. Image credit: Chris Hass
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