While I wouldn't necessarily call this book the definitive guide, it's a fairly thorough guide to the basics involved in a magical practice. The author addresses a wide variety of subjects from protection to astral travel, from working with faeries to doing the necessary banishing and cleansing after all the magical work is done.
Though it's become something of a buzzword in today's alternative spirituality circles, sacred geometry remains one of the least understood of the ancient occult arts. Too many recent presentations of the subject either zoom off into New Age platitudes or end up tangled in a web of exotic speculations about flying saucers, extraterrestrial reptiles, and the like. Both of these can be entertaining at times, granted, but neither one has much to do with the subtle meditative disciplines of traditional sacred geometry.
Most readers and, as far as I know, all authors agree that publishers now and then really need to be spanked. Among the offenses that justify such action putting a bad title on a good book ranks high. Additional swats are earned when the title is not only bad but misleading; when the cover art also leads potential readers to think they are holding a dull book on a familiar subject, rather than an excellent book on a subject most people in the Western world don't know from Lao Tsu's ox, it's definitely time to take the publisher to the woodshed.
Ever since a handful of Middle Eastern visionaries started proclaiming that their messiah was going to show up and teach those rotten Babylonians a thing or two, the end of the world has been a hot topic. There's always a background hum of catastrophic predictions moving through the crawlspaces of our collective imagination, but every so often one becomes the apocalypse du jour.
This book is an adventure into the world of tasseography, but author Caroline Dow not only endeavors to teach us all about tea leaf reading, but also about the rich culture of tea around the world, tea etiquette, how to brew a perfect pot, using unique tea blends and much, much more.
As a diehard tea fan myself, I was very curious as to what Dow had to say. In her introduction, Dow starts by briefly outlining leaf-reading history, starting with its heyday in Victorian times. She follows this with some personal anecdotes, which are present throughout the book, along with an explanation on how tea leaf reading works.


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Little River Band Is "Reminiscing" With New Reissues Of Four Classic Albums
Friday night I was late, I was walking you home, we got down to the gate, and I was dreaming of the night…would it turn out right?
With those conversational lyrics to the song "Reminiscing," The Little River Band finally saw their commercial breakthrough in 1978. The catchy, soft-rock track came from the Australian group's fourth album, Sleeper Catcher; largely on the strength of the single, it also became the LRB's first U.S. platinum selling LP. Cherry Red's recent Lemon label is hoping that you, too, are ready to start reminiscing about the Little River Band. Lemon has just reissued four early albums on two new 2-CD sets.
After Hours/Diamantina Cocktail brings together two 1976 albums from the LRB. The first featured Beebe Birtles (lead vocals/guitar), Ric Formosa (guitar), Graeham Goble (lead vocals/guitar), Roger McLachlan (bass), Derek Pellicci (drums/percussion) and Glenn Shorrock (lead vocals/guitar). The band's sound amalgamated numerous influences; Shorrock came from country rockers Axiom, Goble from folk-rockers Allison Gros and Mississippi, the latter of which also featured Birtles and Pellicci. When they formed the Little River Band, it was expressly with the goal of cracking the lucrative American market. Hence, the sound was somewhat reminiscent of The Eagles or Lowell George's Little Feat, though frequently with more orchestration (brass and strings). You'll even hear a touch of Eagle Joe Walsh's delivery in the LRB's vocals. Back home, The Little River Band also was seen as an antidote to the glam-rock prevailing at the time on the Australian charts.
After Hours followed the 1975 debut Little River Band. The debut had earned the LRB a minor U.S. hit (No. 28) with "It's a Long Way There" from Little River Band, and a couple more songs charted at home in Australia, but the group clearly had a long way to go. For the band-produced After Hours, songwriting duties were again split among its members. Birtles' "Every Day of My Life" became an Australian hit, but the album initially wasn't even released in America. Following the release down under, Formosa and McLachlan departed the band, with David John Briggs (guitar) and George McArdle (bass) replacing them for Diamantina Cocktail. (For those wondering, the album was named after a drink consisting of rum, condensed milk, and the egg of an emu!) Linda Ronstadt's producer John Boylan joined the team, and the changes apparently paid off. Shorrock's "Help is on the Way" and Briggs' "Happy Anniversary" both made an impression in the U.S., going Top 20 and establishing the Little River Band.
Here's where the story gets complicated: Capitol in the U.S. initially passed on After Hours, and found Diamantina not strong enough. The label's solution was to take five tracks from the former and four from the latter, and release them under the Diamantina Cocktail name. Of the After Hours tracks, the new band line-up re-recorded "Days on the Road" (in part) and "Take Me Home" (in full) and the other songs were remixed. It wasn't until 1980, following the success of "Reminiscing," that the two albums' remaining tracks were compiled by Capitol under the name…After Hours! Lemon's new reissue preserves the original Australian versions of these two albums.
After the jump: a look at Sleeper Catcher/First Under the Wire!
Posted in Little River Band, News, Reissues

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PAGE CONTENTS 1 min read.
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Visualization of molecular biology: The LANA tether
Vaibhav Jain and Rolf Renne
aDepartment of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610;
bUF Health Cancer Center, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610;
cUF Genetics Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610
PNAS May 8, 2018 115 (19) 4816-4818; first published April 24, 2018; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1804797115
Vaibhav Jain
Rolf Renne
The latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA) plays a central role in the biology and pathogenesis of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS)-associated herpesvirus (KSHV). Both classical and endemic KS in HIV-infected individuals and two lymphoproliferative diseases are associated with KSHV. During the latent phase of the viral life cycle in dividing tumor cells, the LANA protein ensures that viral genomes persist by supporting both the initiation of DNA replication and segregation of viral episomes (nonintegrated circular viral genomes) into daughter cells. Arguably, interrupting these complex LANA-dependent processes could be one of the most promising antiviral and antitumor therapeutic strategies. Hence, studying the molecular and cell biological details of LANA's host/viral protein and chromatin interactions has been a focus in a number of laboratories since 1996. In PNAS, Grant et al. (1) propose an intriguing model of the architectural superstructure of LANA multimers bound to the terminal repeats (TRs) of KSHV genomes by applying superresolution microscopy in combination with computational modeling.
Shortly after KSHV was discovered in KS lesions and primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) cells had been identified as a source for KS virus, reports described characteristic nuclear speckles that were observed by immunofluorescence when staining PEL cells with sera from patients who were PCR-positive for KSHV (2⇓–4). Soon after, cloning and sequencing of the complete KSHV genome and identification of the major KSHV latency-associated genes, in combination with transfection experiments, revealed that LANA encoded by ORF73 is the antigen that reacts with KSHV-positive patient antisera to give rise to "LANA speckles" (5, 6). To date, detection of LANA speckles is the gold standard for KSHV diagnostics (7). LANA is a large 220- to 240-kDa nuclear protein that interacts with many host cellular proteins involved in DNA replication and transcriptional regulation (8). For this discussion, we focus on the role of LANA with respect to genome persistence during latency. The first evidence that KSHV LANA, like EBNA1 from the related human tumor virus Epstein–Barr virus (EBV), is responsible for genome segregation came in 1999, when it was demonstrated that plasmids containing TR sequences were stably segregated in cells expressing LANA (9, 10). Multiple groups identified the TR sequences as cis-regulatory elements essential for both the initiation of DNA replication and the segregation of TR-containing plasmids during mitosis. The LANA C-terminal domain was mapped and shown to bind to two LANA binding sites (LBS1 and LBS2) in a cooperative manner (11). Next, elegant structural and genetic approaches demonstrated that an 18-aa-long N-terminal peptide specifically interacts with the H2A/H2B histone interface, and that this interaction is required for episomal segregation (12). The model that arose from these molecular studies is that LANA binds to the viral TR sequences via its C-terminal DNA binding domain in a highly sequence-specific manner, while tethering viral episomes to host chromatin through interaction of the LANA N-terminal domain with histones. In other words, LANA forms a "tether" or "bridge" between viral and host chromatin. As described above, many molecular details are now known.
The Challenges of Unraveling the LANA Tether
When imaging the structure of the LANA tether in the context of infected cells, many challenges and hurdles exist. For one, only recently have X-ray crystallographic data revealed the structure of the C-terminal DNA binding domain (less than 25% of LANA), either bound or unbound to TR sequences. These data revealed a third, previously overlooked, binding site for LANA, termed LBS3, adjacent to LBS1 and LBS2 (13⇓⇓–16). To the best of our knowledge, no crystals have been obtained for full-length LANA. Second, KSHV-infected cells contain many episomes, each containing between 21 and 45 801-bp TR sequences; each TR contains three LBSs. Third, it is important to note that both viral DNA and host DNA are fully chromatinized and additionally carry specific epigenetic modifications that dictate both transcriptional status and chromatin accessibility.
Facing these challenging circumstances, the Kedes laboratory focused on applying high-resolution imaging techniques to gather structural insight about the LANA tether. They began in 2006, using flow cytometry analysis of LANA epifluorescence in primary infected B cells in combination with qPCR to demonstrate that each LANA speckle is composed of LANA molecules bound to a single viral episome, thereby taking out one of the many stoichiometric variables (17). In this collaborative study between Kedes and Smith and their coworkers (1), direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (dSTORM) is applied to generate a 3D architectural model of one-half of the LANA tether consisting of LANA molecules bound to different numbers of TR sequences either in the context of viral infection or in cells transfected with TR-containing plasmids and a LANA expression construct. Using this platform in combination with elegant genetic tools, they make several key observations that are based on imaging of photons emitted from specific antibodies that stain full-length LANA. First, they show that each tether has specific dimensions in two different cell types infected with the same virus strain. Imaging cells transfected with different copy numbers of TRs (2, 8, or 21) showed linear scaling with LANA binding, suggesting that all TRs are occupied by LANA. By integrating previously published data on the dimensions of active versus transcriptionally suppressed chromatin, they determine that those TR regions between occupied LANA binding sites that are nucleosome-associated show the characteristics of active chromatin. This latter finding is in agreement with studies demonstrating active chromatin region at TRs, but in contrast to studies that identified repressive chromatin remodelers at TRs (11, 18). To construct an overall model of the LANA tether in infected cells, many observations based on the two-TR tether structure are incorporated and integrated with many of the above-described molecular details, such as the bending of DNA by LANA, and the proposed coil-coil domain of the central domain, which will have an impact on the overall tether architecture. To structurally interrogate this domain, a LANA-specific antibody recognizing 22 potential epitopes within the central region was used for imaging. However, if the central LANA domain folded as a coiled-coil, only three of these epitopes should be accessible for antibody binding, which was confirmed by the observed dSTORM signals. Putting it all together, Grant et al. (1) simulate a large number of different models by varying LANA occupancy across LBS1, LBS2, and LBS3; the linkage between the LANA N terminus and C terminus as a coiled-coil domain; and the X-ray crystal structures observed for the C terminus, and, importantly, the angle between LANA tethers in the two-TR model by phasing 10 nucleotides along 360° of the DNA helix. The calculations result in a model with full LANA occupancy at each TR and phase 8 for the two-TR model. Interestingly, when analyzing infected cells with multiple TRs, the phasing varies between different TR tethers. In summary, as indicated in the title, the combination of dSTORM and computational modeling resulted in a beautiful model that integrates dSTORM data with many previous in vitro observations, and therefore lets us "see" the underlying molecular biology of the LANA tether.
This working model provides a significant step toward addressing additional open questions. For example, how can these studies extend to the other half of the LANA tether to host chromatin? Additionally, a number of proteins, including BRD4, have been proposed to be part of the tether, and recent imaging data on episomes have suggested diversity or clustering during cell divisions between EBV and KSHV episomes (14, 16, 19, 20). These issues could be addressed by applying dSTORM to EBV-infected cells. Furthermore, dSTORM can be extended to multiple color channels, thereby allowing the simultaneous staining of LANA plus BRD4, and by using modalities to stain viral DNA, for example, with custom-designed zinc fingers. Additional structural insight may come from applying cryoelectron microscopy, whose resolution is constantly improving, and which recently has resolved molecular interactions within viral capsids and even ribonucleotide protein complexes of large RNA virus polymerases (21, 22). We are confident that we will have the opportunity to see the next generation of the LANA tether in action in the near future.
↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: rrenne{at}ufl.edu.
Author contributions: V.J. and R.R. wrote the paper.
See companion article on page 4992.
Published under the PNAS license.
Grant MJ,
Loftus MS,
Stoja AP,
Kedes DH,
Smith MM
(2018) Superresolution microscopy reveals structural mechanisms driving the nanoarchitecture of a viral chromatin tether. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 115:4992–4997.
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(1996) KSHV antibodies among Americans, Italians and Ugandans with and without Kaposi's sarcoma. Nat Med 2:925–928.
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(1995) Detection of Kaposi sarcoma associated herpesvirus in peripheral blood of HIV-infected individuals and progression to Kaposi's sarcoma. Lancet 346:799–802.
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(2014) KSHV LANA–The master regulator of KSHV latency. Viruses 6:4961–4998.
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(2002) Latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA) cooperatively binds to two sites within the terminal repeat, and both sites contribute to the ability of LANA to suppress transcription and to facilitate DNA replication. J Biol Chem 277:27401–27411.
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(2006) The nucleosomal surface as a docking station for Kaposi's sarcoma herpesvirus LANA. Science 311:856–861.
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(2015) The 3D structure of Kaposi sarcoma herpesvirus LANA C-terminal domain bound to DNA. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 112:6694–6699.
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(2013) Crystal structure of the gamma-2 herpesvirus LANA DNA binding domain identifies charged surface residues which impact viral latency. PLoS Pathog 9:e1003673.
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You are going to email the following Visualization of molecular biology: The LANA tether
Vaibhav Jain, Rolf Renne
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences May 2018, 115 (19) 4816-4818; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1804797115
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Superresolution microscopy reveals structural mechanisms driving the nanoarchitecture of a viral chromatin tether
- Apr 02, 2018


Sound the Emergency Podcast Klaxon. A late-night update after a ludicrous 24 hours. MPs take back control of Brexit, but just as they do that Theresa May tries to seize the initiative by volunteering to throw herself under her own bus.
Back my deal and I'll quit, says the Prime Minister. And just as her Tory MPs are slowly falling into line, the DUP turn her down again, and we're back to square one.
Which makes those indicative votes in the Commons even more important. Luckily, Joy Lo Dico, columnist from the Evening Standard, is on standby to explain what it meant.
We start the long process of assessing the likely rivals for the soon-to-be vacant (maybe) Tory leadership too.
It's a Christmas miracle. The implosion of Government is cancelled. Well, delayed. For a bit. But probably not long.
Theresa May confronts inevitable defeat in the Commons by cancelling a vote she promised would not be cancelling, and scurrying off to Brussels to renegotiate a deal she promised would not be renegotiated. Strong and stable.
We work through the madness of the last 24 hours, the increasingly loud questions facing Jeremy Corbyn, and the frankly unanswerable poser of what happens next.
Has any senior minister ever been so openly defiant of their boss, and not been sacked? We ask how Boris Johnson's managed to cling on as Foreign Secretary, and wonder when Theresa May will bow to the inevitable and fire him.
Meanwhile, the Tories try to engage with the young folk on instagram, with varying levels of success. We assess their tech-savvy, and wonder who on earth ever talks about a "doggo".
Plus another Labour MP departs the Commons, as the party's big outdoor festival heads towards apparent failure.
And could Nigel Farage really be about to join the DUP?


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In 1924, recognizing the need for an improved way to protect low pressure steam heating boilers, Everett Nicholas McDonnell, in collaboration with Pat Miller, formed McDonnell & Miller (M&M). Its first products were automatic boiler water feeders for low pressure steam boilers. The company prospered, and during the 1930s it developed many products that are still used today, including a patented cold feed valve, and a quick hook-up fitting that made the valve very easy to install.
In the mid 1930s, new boilers with automatic burners created the need for a safety device that would turn off the burner if a low water condition developed. This led to the development of M&M's low water cut-off product line for hot water and steam boilers. By the end of the decade, code authorities were mandating that pressure boilers be protected with some type of low water sensing device.
Pent-up consumer demand after World War II led to updates in automatic heating equipment. M&M reaped the benefits of this demand, and built a new factory in the late 1940s. Manufacturing, though considerably modernized, still takes place in this facility today.
M&M built its first flow switch in the 1930s for use in steam locomotives. Sales declined with the passing of the steam locomotive, but in the early 1950s, new market opportunities arose in commercial and industrial air conditioning to prevent a freeze-up of the chiller. Many new flow switch models were added, additional markets developed, and M&M created one of the broadest flow switch lines in the world.
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DMU has been identified as the best university in the country for helping students find highly skilled work or further study by higher education experts Wonkhe, and 96.7 percent of DMU graduates from summer 2017 are now in work or further study, according to the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education 2016-17 report.
If you want to know more before you pay us a visit, take a look at our new TV advert. It follows our students and graduates as they push themselves to succeed, by challenging convention and daring to be fearless. You can also see exclusive backstage scenes and stories.
Choosing a university is an important decision, that's why we invite you to visit DMU and see for yourself what we have to offer. With current students on hand to share their personal experience and tutors to discuss our superb range of courses, DMU Open Days are a game changer when it comes to finding for the right university for you.


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MLB power rankings for July 2022
We're just a week out from the All-Star Game and every club has played at least half of its games for 2022. So what better time for a mid-season check-up and my first edition of MLB power rankings for 2022?
The way I see it, there are six tiers of teams at this time. There are the front-runners, the World Series contenders, flawed competitors that are working through kinks who could soon become World Series contenders, bubble teams, the teams that are down but not out, and the clear deadline sellers. Each team could move up or move down from the tier I currently have them in by the next time I update my power rankings (likely in August). These rankings are merely a snapshot of where these teams stand right now. In fact, I expect some to move up and some to move down by the next power rankings I release. There are some teams that I would buy stock in, and others I would sell now, while I can. All records and stats are that of July 8.
The Front-Runners
1) New York Yankees (60-23, 14.5 game-lead in AL East, +176 Run Differential) — How can you NOT put the Bronx Bombers on top? They have baseball's best record, despite playing in baseball's toughest division. 14.5 games separate the distance between them and the next best team in the AL East. To put that into perspective, there's a slimmer margin between the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers and the dismal Pittsburgh Pirates (12.5 games). A season ago, the Yankees were 29th in Defensive Runs Saved (-41). After shaking up their roster and bringing in plus-defenders Jose Trevino, Rafael Kiner-Falefa and Josh Donaldson, the impact has been felt: the Yankees are first in DRS in 2022 at 57, a +98 difference from a year ago! They have the best record in baseball to show for it.
Executive Brian Cashman seems to have assembled the perfect alchemy of his team. When I watch the Yankees night in and night out, I see a team that gets up for every game, can hang 10+ runs on any given night, and a team that looks like they're having a blast while doing so. It will be interesting to see what Cashman does at the deadline, because I myself would be slightly hesitant to mess with what seems to be a near-perfect mix.
2) Houston Astros (54-28, 13 game-lead in AL West, +93 DIFF) — The Astros have had the Yankees' number for the better part of the last half-decade. But could this year be different? It certainly could be. They recently split a 4-game series in New York, and played a singular makeup game in Houston which the Astros took. The Astros own a 3-2 edge. Their pitching has been remarkable, and their offensive performance has established validity to their recent success, which will be forever stained by controversy.
The World Series Contenders
3) Los Angeles Dodgers (53-29, 6 game-lead in NL West, +146 DIFF) — Let's make one thing clear. Though the Yankees and Astros have established themselves as "front-runners", this is far from a two-team race. The Dodgers are once again the class of the National League, even with Walker Buehler on the 60-day DL and despite being without Mookie Betts and Clayton Kershaw for extended periods. Tony Gonsolin is pitching like a Cy Young, and could get the start at Dodger Stadium in the All-Star Game next week.
4) New York Mets (52-31, 3.5 game lead in NL East, +74 DIFF) — The Mets were running away with the division, and though the Braves have since closed the gap, the Mets have still played very well without Jacob deGrom. Max Scherzer's return is coming at the right time, as this division race looks like it could be a photo finish.
5) Atlanta Braves (49-35, 3.5 GB in NL East, +60 DIFF) — The Braves are back, and with Ronald Acuna Jr. returning to right field, they look much better than they did a year ago at this point. It's amazing how they continue to maximize on players and get stellar contributions from players like 23 year-old Spencer Strider (2.60 ERA), who has been excellent pitching out of both the rotation and the bullpen this season.
6) San Diego Padres (48-36, 6 GB in NL West, +49 DIFF) — Two weeks ago, the Padres were tied for the NL West lead with the Dodgers. Suddenly, they're six games back. That happened quickly. The Padres are 4-9 over their last 13. There's still more than enough time to right the ship, but the Padres have yet to put together a full, competitive 162-game season in the AJ Preller era. The Padres got off to a nice start in 2019, but ended up finishing 70-92. The club put together a fantastic 2020, albeit a COVID-shortened 60-game season. Despite being 15 games above .500 entering August, the Padres finished 79-83 in 2021. We'll make note of this skid, but for now, take a look at the greater picture. For the first two and a half months of 2022, they were right there with the Dodgers in a pretty competitive division.
Working Through Kinks, But Strong Competitors
7) Tampa Bay Rays (45-37, 14.5 GB in AL East, +25 DIFF) — The Rays and Red Sox both appear to be getting ready for takeoff. The Red Sox are hot right now and it feels like Tampa is about to go on a run of their own. The Rays have taken both series' between the division foes thus far, including snagging 2 of 3 in Boston earlier this week, so we'll give them the edge for now.
8) Boston Red Sox (45-38, 15 GB in AL East, +52 DIFF) — On May 8, Boston was 10-19. Over the last two months, they're 35-19 and have been one of the best clubs in baseball. Michael Wacha has been a revelation for them (2.69 ERA through 70.1 IP this season).
9) St. Louis Cardinals (45-40, 2.5 GB in NL Central, +54 DIFF) — The Brewers may have a two-game lead over the Cardinals, but I'm still a believer in the Cardinals. The two teams have played three four-game series up to this point (two in Milwaukee) and split each of them. They're a dead-even 6-6 vs. each other. But the Cardinals have a better run-differential by 20 runs and a deep lineup I feel like I can trust. Having said all of this, I've been slightly disappointed by the performance of both clubs this season. A good team that plays 54 games vs. the lowly Cubs, Reds and Pirates should have one of the best records in the National League. There are four teams outside of the NL Central with better records than the Cards and Brewcrew. Just 12.5 games separate the Brewers and Pirates/Cubs.
10) Milwaukee Brewers (47-37, 2.5 game-lead in NL Central, +34 DIFF) — The Brewers' lineup bashes but doesn't hit for contact. Their rotation has taken a step backwards from last year, but remains effective. Their bullpen is lights-out. If the Brewers were to add a pair of difference-making bats to their lineup at the deadline, it would greatly raise their ceiling in my eyes. As constructed now, there isn't a big bat that I truly fear in the clutch with runners on base.
11) Toronto Blue Jays (45-39, 15.5 GB in AL East, +14 DIFF) — The darling team that seemingly everybody picked to win the American League this year is good, but not great. They took off in the second half of 2021, though. So perhaps they're going to go on a run of their own soon.
12) Philadelphia Phillies (44-39, 8 GB in NL East, +57 DIFF) — The Phillies are hot, but I'm still a skeptic. The club struggled vs. a tough schedule in May and feasted on a much more favorable schedule in June. They're still a poor defensive team (-21 DRS) and now could be without Bryce Harper for the remainder of the season. Still, it's worth noting that the Rob Thomson era is off to a great start (21-10) and the Phillies would make the playoffs if the season ended today.
13) Minnesota Twins (47-38, 4.5 game-lead in AL Central, +52 DIFF) — The Twins have a good team, but how much should we trust an AL Central champion come postseason? No AL Central team has won a postseason series since the Indians' World Series run in 2016. That's significant. It's difficult to judge how good AL Central teams are given their division. The Twins are 18-21 vs. teams with winning records.
The Bubble Teams
14) Seattle Mariners (42-42, 13 GB in AL West, +17 DIFF) — We often use the term "bubble teams" when referring to teams that are right on the fence of the NCAA Tournament field. Are they in, or are they out? In this case, we'll apply the term "bubble teams" to teams that are slightly outside of the postseason field right now, and their seasons could dramatically swing in either a positive or negative direction. The Mariners are a perfect example. After a rough May, pressure was starting to mount towards executive Jerry DiPoto and manager Scott Servais. The Mariners are starting to heat up: many of their promising young players are beginning to shine, and they've won 13 of their last 16. Julio Rodriguez is the runaway leader for AL Rookie of the Year. Earlier this week, he became the fastest player (81 games) in MLB history to reach 15+ home runs and 20+ stolen bases in his career. Ty France should be the AL's starting first baseman in the All-Star Game, and Logan Gilbert belongs in the game too.
I'm buying stock in the Mariners. Some of y'all may have sold early; that's fine. I'll buy. The Mariners are on the up and playing in perhaps the weakest division in baseball. Oh, and 2020 AL Rookie of the Year Kyle Lewis is hoping to return by the end of the month. I haven't given up on him!
15) San Francisco Giants (41-40, 11.5 GB in NL West, +20 DIFF) — The Giants had a team that greatly overperformed last year to the tune of 107 wins. They're a quality team and could stay in the mix for a wild card spot, or they could choose to sell at the deadline. They're not far out right now, so I could really see them swinging in either direction. I thought they'd sell each of the last two years but didn't, so my guess is they make some moves and attempt to replicate a 2021 Braves-like run in the second half.
16) Cleveland Guardians (40-40, 4.5 GB in AL Central, -16 DIFF) — The Guardians have been one of the most pleasant surprises of the 2022 season, but is their luck starting to run out? Maybe. They haven't been playing their best baseball since their hot streak a few weeks ago. But just 4.5 games back of the division lead in the AL Central tells me that there's a lot of baseball still to be played. I wouldn't be surprised if they're a half a game out of first two weeks from now.
17) Baltimore Orioles (40-44, 20.5 GB in AL East, -20 DIFF) — The Orioles are just four games out of the final AL Wild Card spot. Last year, they won 52 games total. They're eight wins shy of matching their win total from a season ago, and it's only July 8. Who saw that coming? Baltimore is becoming one of my favorite MLB.tv watches on a nightly basis. Like Seattle, there are a lot of very intriguing young pieces. Starting pitchers Tyler Wells and Dean Kremer have shown a lot of promise.
18) Miami Marlins (39-42, 12 GB in NL East, +2 DIFF) — Sandy Alcantara is the best pitcher in baseball right now. The Marlins are another team I'd buy stock in. Maybe not for this year, but Baltimore and Miami are in a similar spot. Both teams are several years deep into a long-term rebuild, and now fans are starting to see the fruits of their labor. Despite playing in competitive divisions, both teams have taken a leap this year, and are on a nice trajectory heading into 2023.
Down, But Not Out
19) Chicago White Sox (39-42, 6 GB in AL Central, -45 DIFF) — The White Sox are the most disappointing team in baseball this season by a long shot. They're not out of it quite yet, but if their lackluster performance persists for another month, I would seriously consider selling at the deadline, if I was GM Rick Hahn. The Sox might want to follow the Yankees' blueprint for 2023: shake up the roster and improve defensively.
At age 35, first baseman Jose Abreu will be a free agent this winter. Perhaps the Sox should consider shopping him at the deadline, so they can get something in return for him, and allow 24 year-old Andrew Vaughn to take the reigns at first base. Vaughn is a natural first baseman. This would give the Sox a chance to improve defensively by moving Vaughn out of the outfield.
20) Texas Rangers (37-43, 16 GB in AL West, +10 DIFF) — The Rangers are right around where I expected them to be, and they're on a trajectory to finish around where I expected them to finish (75 wins).
21) Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (38-46, 17 GB in AL West, -14 DIFF) — Every year, people talk themselves into the Angels. I don't know why people haven't learned their lesson yet. Ohtani and Trout can only do so much.
22) Detroit Tigers (35-47, 10.5 GB in AL Central, -82 DIFF) — Winners of five straight, the Tigers are playing their best baseball thus far. They still have a steep climb in front of them to get back to .500, but Detroit is finally playing like the team many believed they would be this year.
The Deadline Sellers
23) Arizona Diamondbacks (37-46, 16.5 GB in NL West, -44 DIFF) — The Diamondbacks have improved significantly from a year ago, when they finished a league-worst 52-110. They're still far from the playoffs. Expect them to sell. Zach Davies and David Peralta will be nice gets for teams that don't want to pay top-dollar for Frankie Montas and Andrew Benintendi.
24) Colorado Rockies (36-47, 17.5 GB in NL West, -73 DIFF) — The Rockies are a below-average team, but Kris Bryant's return should give them a nice jolt. I expected Bryant to be an MVP candidate in 2022. He just hit his first home run of the season the other night, after missing over two months with a back injury. 8 games back of the Wild Card, I don't see the Rockies vying for a playoff spot in 2022, but Bryant is going to be a key guy to watch. Will he put the first three months of the season in the rearview, and return to All-Star form, or will his back problems nag for the remainder of the season, diminishing his performance and putting him back on the shelf? It will probably be a good indicator of what the Rockies have in KB for the next seven years.
25) Chicago Cubs (34-49, 12.5 GB in NL Central, -64 DIFF) — The Cubs were looking worse than Pittsburgh and Cincinnati until recently. Now, they're winners of their last four series, including road wins over the Cardinals and Brewers, and a home series against the Red Sox.
The Cubs will be clear sellers at the deadline. If the Cubs were keeping Willson Contreras, they would have extended him by now. David Robertson, Mychal Givens and Scott Effross are all tradeable bullpen pieces, and the front office will also have a chance to sell high on Ian Happ, who's having a career year, and might make the All-Star team. The Cubs are a long ways from competing and have a number of talented outfielders in their pipeline. It makes more sense to clear space and give rookies Seiya Suzuki, Nelson Velazquez and Christopher Morel everyday reps in the outfield. Jason Heyward could be designated for assignment at some point too.
The most encouraging sign for Cubs fans is that Nico Hoerner has remained healthy for most of the year and appears to be a franchise shortstop to build around. Hoerner leads all shortstops with 11 DRS and is hitting .300 with 7 steals.
26) Pittsburgh Pirates (34-49, 12.5 GB in NL Central, -131 DIFF) — The Pirates aren't good, but they're not horrible either. The Buccos won't contend, but the fans have enough reason to keep their TV's on. They locked up Ke'Bryan Hayes for eight years and recently called up Oneil Cruz. Cruz reminds me a bit of early-Yasiel Puig with his raw talent, strength and athleticism. He's a human highlight reel. In his major league premier, he clocked the hardest thrown infield ball on a throw to first base (96.7 mph). A 6-foot-7 shortstop? This guy is must-see TV!
27) Kansas City Royals (30-51, 15 GB in AL Central, -102 DIFF) — Andrew Benintendi will likely be the best outfielder available on the market. Just how long is this rebuild going to last, though?
28) Cincinnati Reds (29-54, 17.5 GB in NL Central, -103 DIFF) — Injuries will kill a team with no depth. That's the story of the 2022 Reds.
29) Washington Nationals (30-55, 23 GB in NL East, -130 DIFF) — The rebuild had to come eventually. After a remarkable eight-year run (2012-2019), the Nationals are back to reloading. DC fans were so blessed to have a competitive team for close to a decade, that they may have forgotten what the Nationals of the late-2000s looked like. The Nationals have a good chance of landing the no. 1 overall pick for the first time since they selected Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg with the no. 1 pick in back-to-back drafts in 2009 and 2010.
30) Oakland A's (28-56, 27 GB in AL West, -111 DIFF) — The A's haven't lost 100 games in a single season since 1979. Even when they're selling off parts, their team typically isn't horrible. Oakland has the worst record in baseball and is on pace to finish 54-108. Meanwhile, their most attractive trade piece — Frankie Montas — is out indefinitely with shoulder inflammation. The A's just can't catch a break.
If you missed it, catch my MLB All-Star selections!
For more sports and entertainment analysis, follow me on Twitter @JackVitaShow, and subscribe to the Jack Vita Show on iTunes or wherever podcasts are found. You can also find me on Facebook and Instagram.
(Image via John Minchillo/Associated Press)


text:
A Box of Matches
by Nicholson Baker
Mistaking Triteness for Profundity
by Shaun Smith
Imagine a smooth round boulder about four feet across, with one-third of its diameter embedded in the earth. Over this boulder lies a sturdy wooden board, say eight feet long, six inches wide, an inch thick. You now have a children's toy, a see-saw. In geometry this formation is called a tangent, "a straight line touching a curve or curved surface so that it meets it at a point but does not intersect it at that point," as defined by the Canadian Oxford English Dictionary.
From this geometrical model we derive the metaphorical tangent: "diverging from a previous course of...thought," again the Canadian O.E.D. The word tangent comes from the Latin tangere, meaning touch. Like that board on the boulder, the metaphorical tangent touches, but does not intersect, its main subject.
Reading Nicholson Baker's sixth novel, A Box of Matches, one searches so futilely amongst tangents for the book's main subject that it is tempting to say this novel is all board and no boulder�but not quite.
Here is the novel's "plot": for reasons never made clear, Emmett, a 44-year-old editor of medical textbooks living in rural New England with his wife and two school-aged children, rises at 4 a.m. for thirty-three consecutive days to light a fire in the hearth and type his thoughts into a laptop while his world still sleeps.
That's all folks. During this vigil, which derives its duration from the number of matches in a box, nothing even remotely extraordinary happens. Each sitting is presented in a chapter and introduced with a similar statement: "Good morning, it's 4:52 a.m." The time varies slightly each day. Emmett then often comments on the fire he has built and from there goes off on tangents which approximate personal essays. His subjects are whatever appears to come to mind�holes in socks, haircuts, how we recognize change, belly-button lint, his family's pet duck, paper towels, ants, the nature of beauty, how to pick up underwear with your toes.
If the plot graph for a conventional novel is a caricature of a mountainscape, showing a small flat plain (introduction) leading to a steep incline (rising conflict) which ends abruptly (climax) and angles sharply downward (denouement), then the graph of A Box of Matches is a prairie, a flat line. Emmett encounters no significant conflict, internal or external.
Elsewhere, Baker has shown himself�in essays, for instance, on lumber, model airplanes and library-card catalogues�to be fascinated by the incidental in modern society. When Baker's slim novel Vox was called a "meaningless little fingernail pairing" by Stephen King (he of the doorstopper tome), Baker famously redressed in The New Yorker with a brilliant essay on fingernail clippers. Like E.B. White and G.K. Chesterton, Baker has the true essayist's gift of being able to speak directly, and entertainingly, about that which is seen laterally.
Unfortunately Emmett does not, or not always, or not enough. Emmett is an Everyman, formed to be average. His observations are quaint, mildly emotional, sometimes funny, sometimes saccharine. He is concerned but not passionate, earnest but not driven. Hemingway wrote, "[T]he supposed dark hours of the soul when it is always three o'clock in the morning are a man's best hours." Emmett usually sleeps through those hours. The only glimpse we get of his motivation to now wake and peer into the antediluvian darkness comes when he recalls a novel in which a ship-bound character "goes up on deck because he wants 'a lungful of storm.'" Says Emmett: "That's what I want�a lungful of storm."
But no storm or deluge arrives. One of the book's most telling passages falls as Emmett explains what a cord of wood is. "It takes on an air of permanency," he writes, "like a stone wall�so finished seeming that you hesitate before pulling from it the first few logs for burning." That's no generic "you". The fact that Emmett is explaining what a cord of wood is speaks volumes about who Baker figures will be reading this book. Emmett is the archetypal liberal, middle-class, quasi-academic returned, only recently, to the country because he senses that somewhere along the road to wealth he has dropped some things of real value. He is Thoreau in Gore-Tex and a minivan; to him a cord of wood is an art work, not a life necessity. The magazine Money once ran an ad showing the interior of a rustic French farmhouse with the tag line, "The things money can buy." Emmett buys his firewood from contractors. He has a barn (restored also by contractors) but no livestock. For his birthday Emmett's wife gives him an axe which he doesn't know how to use. That pet duck would be meat in another home. This is "rustic lite", peasantry without the hardship.
It is impossible to ignore the political. Baker doesn't tell us why Emmett wants his "lungful of storm." He merely sets him up as a sort of realist exercise in middle-aged ennui. But Emmett, personally likeable in his milquetoast way, but politically contemptible for his complacency, is too realistic. He is boring, as is his situation. So his little human soul is stirring. So he's going to wake up early for a month and type. Is he capable of real introspection, of transformation? We are not to know because he is situated in a narrative context denuded of anything that might assail his character. It is much easier to marvel at a storm from the comfort of a warm house than if, say, you are faced with sleeping in that storm. Baker, it seems, would have us overlook Emmett's charlatanism.
But this, of course, is like criticizing a chicken for not being a condor. Baker wrote this book to exact specifications. Human nature abhors a narrative vacuum and Baker, no amateur, must know we are going to look for story. By not having one, he takes refuge behind any questions we might have about our need to reassess our idea of The Novel. Meanwhile, Emmett is free to act as stand-in for Baker's musings on the incidental.
"One of the joys of life, I think," writes Emmett, "is trying to decipher the name on a gravestone as it is transmitted through the dense foliage of blue-green gravestone lichen." This observation, encrusted with its own somewhat dense "poetic" foliage, represents the sort of stuff that forms the very substance of this book.
Here's another: "...if you open the dishwasher and you aren't sure at a glance whether the dishes in it are clean or dirty, you can know their status for certain by checking to see whether the mugs hold these cupped pools, since when you upend a mug and put it in the cage, it may be wet, but there won't be water collected in its concavity because you will have carried it to the dishwasher right side up..."
Fascinating, what? In the works of better writers�Saul Bellow, John Cheever, even sometimes Stephen King�such details are throwaways, recognized as incidental and treated as such to give texture and shading to stories. In other words, they are part of storytelling, not storytelling itself.
Northrop Frye taught us that literature is a mode of transference. "[T]he serious good writer," Frye wrote, "releases his experiences and emotions from himself and incorporates them into literature." The symbolic centre of A Box of Matches, the "boulder", if you will, to its metaphorical tangents, is the fire Emmett lights each morning. "Life burns," Baker is pedantically warning us, "so don't miss it." Regardless of how unsuccessfully A Box of Matches toys with storytelling convention, one has to question seriously whether this sort of puerile "pop-zen" sentiment does not better belong in a greeting card.
Is it the little things in life that matter? Who knows? But by having an emotional core that mistakes the trite for the profound, A Box of Matches certainly, and ironically, belies its own philosophy. Here's one little thing that may be missed without consequence. Better to go play on a see-saw.	�


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At Perfect Ten, those aren't just words, they are the rules we live by.


ADDO is a forward-thinking company that offers innovative training programs to a broad network of professionals in the planning and development industry. ADDO's programs support and connect town planners, local and state government planners, architects, designers, property developers and investors. They foster innovation, networks and understanding. They connect research with practice, and put groundbreaking ideas into practice.
ADDO takes its name from a Latin term, which can be interpreted variously to mean 'to add', 'to teach', 'to join', 'to give' and 'to inspire'. The company is led by John Glossop, and informed by a wealth of experience in planning and consulting. John and his team are developing a range of creative and adaptive training modules, suitable for both groups and individuals in the government and private sectors. ADDO provides a rigorous and exciting learning environment. ADDO is independent, and dedicated to providing an exceptional service. ADDO believes in knowledge connecting professionals.
John is the company's primary trainer and the man you will meet to discuss your training needs.
John's passion for good planning informs and infuses the content of the training modules he develops and fuels his energetic mode of delivery.
Cecilia has overall responsibility for the company's revenue and cost elements. She also oversees the company's marketing and sales functions and day-to-day operations of the business. She brings to her role extensive experience in a range of disciplines, and particular expertise in the development of curriculums, core competencies, and assessment materials.
Cecilia's qualifications include a Certificate 4 in Workplace Training and Assessment, Project Management and a Masters in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from Swinburne University.
She has facilitated a range of training programs within the public sector, and played a key role in the conduct of the Planet program courses, developed and run by ADDO.
Cecilia's inimitable organisational skills are instrumental in the structuring of ADDO's clear, engaging and innovative programs.
Matthew is a qualified town planner and experienced trainer. His strong academic record is complemented by diverse experience in the private sector. Matthew is a great communicator. He is able to share ideas clearly and succinctly with a broad audience. His fresh, honest approach, and his hard work and commitment, have seen him emerge as a leader in his field. His contributions to ADDO include the development of content, the presentation of training programs and product research.
Addo works closely with Maddocks Lawyers to prepare and deliver training programs. Addo values its relationship with Maddocks and acknowledges its ongoing contribution to planning training.


Jean-Claude Auger, an anthropologist, was traveling alone across the Spanish Sahara (Rio de Oro) in 1960 when he came across a child. The boy walked on all fours, but occasionally assumed an upright gait, suggesting to Auger that he was abandoned or lost at about seven or eight months, having already learnt to stand. He habitually twitched his muscles, scalp, nose and ears, much like the rest of the herd, in response to the slightest noise. He appeared to be herbivorous apart from the occasional agama lizard or worm when plant life was lacking. His teeth edges were level like those of a herbivorous animal. In 1966, an unsuccessful attempt was made to catch the boy in a net suspended from a helicopter; unlike most of the feral children, the gazelle boy was never removed from his wild companions.
Oxana Malaya (born November 1983) was found as an 8-year-old feral child in Ukraine, having lived most of her life in the company of dogs. She found it difficult to master language. Oxana's alcoholic parents were unable to care for her. They lived in an impoverished area where there were wild dogs roaming the streets. She lived in a dog kennel behind her house where she was cared for by dogs and learned their behaviours and mannerisms. She growled, barked and crouched like a wild dog, sniffed at her food before she ate it, and was found to have acquired extremely acute senses of hearing, smell, and sight.
The most recent case of Mowgli Syndrome was that of a seven-year-old boy who was rescued by Russian healthcare workers after being discovered living in a small apartment with his mother and cages filled with dozens of birds. One of his rescuers said that his mother treated him like another pet. While he was never physically harmed, she simply never spoke to him. "He just chirps and when realising that he is not understood, starts to wave hands in the way birds winnow wings," she reported.


In the mid-1980's LSWA obtained state funding under the Massachusetts Clean Lakes Program to begin a water quality study. Under this program, lake associations could apply for grants to complete water quality improvement projects.
In 1984 State agencies began collecting water quality data for the Lake Singletary watershed.
In 1988 Clean Lakes Program funding and work on the study stopped.
In 1989 Members of the Association raised the necessary funds from our membership to complete the diagnostic study. LSWA contracted with IEP, Inc. to complete the Diagnostic Study of Singletary Lake, completed in January 1991.
The most important aspects of the study were identifying the primary sources of nutrients for Lake Singletary and proposing objectives for a subsequent Lake Management Plan to provide a long-term strategy to protect Lake Singletary's water quality.


If you are looking for free Bible software for your computer the SWORD Project has programs for multiple platforms such as MacSword for the Mac. The latest program to be released is PocketSword for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. It is a free app and additional Bibles and commentaries can be download. After downloading the program can be used to read the Bible without an internet connection.


I'm a bit early this morning, got some general living going on later that would cause me not to get my last Guest Designer Spot card posted until to late in the day.The challenge this week at Creative Inspirations is: Monochrome. Very easy to choose one color and various shades of that color to create some stunning cards. So hop over to check out what the Design Team has come up with to inspire all of us.
It's hard to believe that the month of February is almost gone. It has been so much fun having my cards featured with the rest of the Design Team on CreativeInspirations this month. One of my goals is to be on a Design Team and since I've already accomplished a couple of goals on my list I'm thinking I might get up enough courage and apply later on this year if some Design Team calls come open. Thanks to the gals at Creative Inspirations for choosing me for the month of February. My card is so appropriate for all the gloomy weather that's been going on all over the world, but as the inside says,"Blue Skies Ahead."
Just a quick bit of clapping. Yesterday after posting about surprises when I went over to The Play Date Cafe to enter my card in the current challenge I found out I had been picked for 1st prize from the previous challenge--Clapping--and I had won 5 sets of digi stamps from Stamps For Life over at Crazy 4 Challenges--More Clapping! The clapping is kind of for myself, but in actuallity I'm clapping for all the wonderful sponsors who generously supply these great prizes for the challenges.
I'm going to enter my card in a couple of other challenges today.
Pile It On! challenge for this week is Get Well Soon and even though my card doesn't say Get Well, when we're not feeling well it's still nice to hear that blue skies are ahead.
Humble Pie challenge for this week is One Type of Embellishment, so my one lone little ribbon qualifies for that.
Thanks again to all who come and view my artistic endeavors and leave such encouraging comments, they are very much appreciated.
Supplies: Card Blank Blue textured card stock 5 1/4" Square, Papers: Stampin Up-Sweet Slumber Specialty Designer Series, CTMH, Stamps: Stampin Up-Font of You, Printworks-Q004 Caring Thoughts, Ink: CTMH-Z2160 Twilight, Ribbon-FX Hobby Lobby, pop dots.
simple and SO very cute! love it, Bev!
with regards to the comment you left - that paper on Melanie's card is the brand new Origins from BasicGrey. we're all head over heels in LOVE with it!
I love this! So simple and elegant. The ribbon on the umbrella is perfect. Thanks for joining us at Humble Pie this week.
This card is beautiful. Just perfect. Thank you for playing with Pile It On! this week. Hope you join us again.
Stunning little simple card! Love it! Thanks for playing with us at Humble Pie!
Wonderful card sweetie! Love your monochrome card!
Wonderful card, Bev!! I love the blue monochromatic color scheme and I think it is perfect for a get well card with that umbrella and the cute sentiment. So happy to have you joining in the fun with Pile it On this week.
Congrats on all the great recognition you've been getting lately and best of luck in your future DT bids! I think we'll be seeing you on a premier DT soon!


text:
DAM Creative
Instructor Highlight
William James Aylward's Three Views of American Clipper Ships in 19th-century New York
Library Digitizes Maxfield Parrish Letters
Inside Look: Washington Bridge, New York City
Broken Borders, Billowing Smoke: Orientalism in Errol Le Cain's Illustration for Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp
Inside Look: Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon's Ventnor, Isle of Wight (1856) and "the Garden of England"
Walter Crane
Inside Look: Myth and Legacy in Howard Pyle's The Flying Dutchman (1900)
Howard Pyle's Samuel Nimmy. Questions, Answers, and More Questions
John Ruskin Letters Gift
The Politics in Politics and Paint – Barbara Bodichon and Social Reform in Victorian Britain
The Ghost Print
Deep in a box in the works-on-paper vault, lies a ghost print, and it may not be the only one. There could be other ghost prints here. Many museums have them in storage. Our ghost print isn't terrifying, but it is kind of strange. And it's a perfect entrée into one of my favorite print processes, the monotype.
Night Scene #1, 1907. Mary Smyth Perkins (1875–1931). Monotype, plate: 7 × 5 1/4 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Gift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1979. DAM 1979-125.
Night Scene #2, 1907, Mary Smyth Perkins (1875–1931). Monotype, plate: 7 × 5 1/4 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Gift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1979. DAM 1979-126.
Dark Garden #1, 1999. Mary Page Evans (born 1937). Monotype, composition: 44 × 44 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 2013. © Mary Page Evans. DAM 2013-25.
Dark Garden #2, 1999. Mary Page Evans (born 1937). Monotype, composition: 44 × 44 inches. Private Collection. © Mary Page Evans.
A monotype is a one-of-a-kind image that is painted (often with printer's ink) onto a smooth flat surface, usually a metal printing plate, and then transferred by pressure onto paper, leaving a reversed image of the original picture. Although the monotype process is not designed to print multiple copies, an artist can print "ghost" images, each one paler than the last, if sufficient ink remains on the plate. This is how Mary Smyth Perkins produced Night Scene #1 and its ghost Night Scene #2 in 1907. Indeed, the only reason we know that it's a ghost print is because we have both versions. Perkins, a student of Robert Henri, made this print of cows in a landscape at John Sloan's studio, after dinner in the company of the Sloans, Henri, and George Luks. Several prints survive from this congenial evening.
In the 1880s, the monotype method had been revived by the French Impressionists and taken up by American painters including William Merritt Chase and John Singer Sargent. Making monotypes became quite popular among American and European artists in the decades that followed. Since Sloan (an avid printmaker) had a press and all the supplies required, his studio became the ideal place for his friends to experiment with the medium. On various evenings in 1907 and 1915 Sloan made monotypes with Perkins, Luks, Henri, Randall Davey, and the young Stuart Davis, among others.
Even without the ghostly element, monotype printing may seem like a strange undertaking, and only a handful of artists ever take it up seriously. Why paint something on a plate just to print it in reverse, only once? However, due to the variations in thickness of the ink and the reversal of the image, the monotype can be altogether different from the drawing on the plate. As the art critic William A. Coffin suggested in his 1897 essay on monotypes for The Century Magazine: "Sometimes the accidental effects add much to the beauty of the printed picture."
One hundred years later, contemporary painter Mary Page Evans echoed Coffin's assessment in contemporary language, explaining that "there are marks you can only get from printmaking…and surprises, things you don't see until you print." Evans made massive monotypes at Gravity Press in 1999, and in 2012 the Museum featured two of them in her retrospective exhibition here: Dark Garden #1 and Dark Garden #2. Evans made adjustments between the first print (now in the Museum's collection) and the ghost (private collection)—moving elements on the surface and adjusting color, creating two very different prints with the same matrix.
Heather Campbell Coyle
Curator of American Art


A tour of the city with stops at Notre Dame Cathedral, the Municipal Post Office, the War Remnants Museum, Cu Chi Tunnel, and the Can Gio Mangrove Forest is no longer enough for many visitors. "We have just met tourists' needs only, and do not present what we have to foreign visitors yet," said a tourism industry official.
The cruise ships land for only few hours. Some tourists prepare their own meals rather than enjoy Vietnamese food. What benefit do we get from this situation? It is unfortunate that they have left rubbish that we have to clean up. How can it be that a rich visitor lands on Phu Quoc Island and spends only one dollar for a bottle of mineral water?
The guests in the five-star Caravelle Hotel are often here strictly for business. They usually spend their weekends in Singapore or Thailand, said a member of the management board of the hotel.
Malaysia attracts a great number of tourists although its only tourist destination is the Petronas Twin Towers. Viet Nam has several attractions, but local travel agencies dare not dream of seeing a more than 6 million visitors in 2010, added Mr. Nguyen Van My, director of Lua Viet Tourist Company.
The number of international visitors who arrived in the city by air in the first four months of 2008 is slightly increased. Yet the number of tourists from traditional markets like Japan and Australia has decreased by 10 percent.
The primary reason is the price boom. Viet Nam now cost more expensive than other countries in the region. There is lack of both entertainment areas and new attractions in the city, said Mrs Nguyen Thi Khanh, head of travel section of the city's Tourism Department.
The government gave the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism official permission to advertise the country's most popular tourist attractions on CNN television last year. Three months of daily 30-second commercials in peak viewing hours cost VND4 billion (US$250,000). However, the results were not good.
In fact, the tourism potential of the city has not been promoted. The city should focus on creating one or two new tourist products every year instead of offering a mass of services that are later cancelled.


Each of the luxuriously furnished suites could be your cozy home during the holidays or a weekend vacation. Total capacity 584 beds ( 324 regular + 260 additional) , Total capacity of twin beds (109 beds in 43 suites).
The staff (apart from the reception) do not speak English, they don't smile and are not "kind".
The cleaning services are substandard. The food (breakfast and restaurant) offers big portions and is plentiful but not very high quality.
we stayed here as a group of 17 and the hotel was perfect, accommodation was much higher standard comparing to others i have stayed in around there.


Yep that's about the right attention span.
Liked all the confused expressions, btw!
Love that her ringtone is the song used for the attempted crossover comic from a while back.
So who is the certain someone getting a b-day gift Shana is speaking of?
Wait a minute! They are actually talking to each other with their phones?!?
It's not that Caitlin paused the fight to talk with Shana, that's 6 year old logic, and it can't be argued, no matter how hard you try.
OK, Lei, Leona, and Brielle, do you now understand who's the master? cause it ain't any of you!
The clear answer is DQ7. That's like a 100 hours of serious gameplay vs. a sports game she'll probably get over in a few weeks.
I feel that. I love my sports titles for like a week but after that I start to lose interest.
You should pick up the new Shin Megami Tensei 4 Apocalypse. I've been playing it and it's really quite good.
This is from a different characters perspective, so you don't have the samurai nonsense on full display. The events of 4 are referenced, pretty heavily truthfully, but it seems a lot more akin to Nocturne than 4.
What a cute Shana too!


These Ping Pong Rules outline and the rules and regulations of the game of Ping Pong.
Before starting a game of Ping-Pong it is worth remembering that whilst Ping-Pong is played in a relatively small area it does require a certain amount of physical exertion. Warming up and stretching is, therefore, essential to avoid potential injury. Also make sure there is adequate lighting and enough room around the table to move freely.
Service is usually decided with a coin toss or with a player hiding the ball in one of his/her hands and asking his/her opponent to guess which hand hides the concealed ball. The 'winner' of each of either of these random decider is given the option of either serving first or asking his/her opponent to serve first and choosing which end of the table to play from.
In game play, the player who is serving commences the point. Standing at his/her end of the table and holding the ball in one hand (above table height) and the bat in the other, the player must toss the ball vertically in the air (without spin and at least 16cm) before hitting the ball causing it to bounce once in his/her half of the table and again in his/her opponent's half of the table. If the ball strikes the net and does not hit the opponent's half of the table then a fault is called and the opponent is awarded a point. If, however, the ball strikes the net and goes onto hit the opponent's side of the table then 'let' is called and the service must be retaken. A player may commit any number of lets without penalty or his/her opponent being awarded any points. If the service is 'good' then the opponent must return the ball before it bounces on his/her side of the table a second time.


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Rochester, Mich. – Nov. 17, 2010 – The Rochester Downtown Development Authority (DDA) announces the return of the Kris Kringle Market to Downtown Rochester, Dec. 3-5, 2010. After a year hiatus, the Kris Kringle Market has a new location, on W. Fourth Street between Main and Walnut, and will now coincide with both The Big, Bright Light Show and Greater Rochester Hometown Christmas Parade.
The Kris Kringle Market, presented by Renewal by Andersen, is inspired by the 700 year-old tradition of the European Christmas Market, and visitors can enjoy the food, shopping, entertainment and ambience of this open-air, holiday market.
Offerings include a majority of Michigan-made goods, including hand-crafted gifts, ornaments, fresh holiday greens, baked goods, specialty foods and much more.
Kids attending the Market can visit with Santa Claus on Friday from 6:00-8:00 pm and Saturday from 1:00-4:00 pm. Also, on Friday and Saturday, kids may create their own paper lantern and then take part in the Lantern Parade (sponsored by Michigan Schools & Government Credit Union) at 6:30 pm on Saturday. At 6:00 pm on Saturday, prior to the Lantern Parade, there will be a St. Martin's Day children's play. There also will be a gingerbread playhouse available throughout the weekend for photo opportunities.
Musical entertainment will be provided throughout the event by the students of Rochester Conservatory of Music, Reuther Middle School and Jennifer Kincer Catallo.
"With one-of-a kind shopping, food and drink, musical entertainment and great gifts for the holidays, this community-wide event will become part of your holiday tradition," commented Nancy Voges, marketing coordinator for the Rochester DDA.
The Kris Kringle Market is presented by Renewal by Andersen, and sponsored by Michigan Schools and Government Credit Union and the Rochester DDA. It will be held on Friday, Dec. 3, 6:00-9:00 pm; Saturday, Dec. 4 from noon to 9:00 pm; and Sunday, Dec. 5, 11:00-5:00 pm, on W. Fourth between Main & Walnut in Downtown Rochester.
For more information about the Kris Kringle Market, please visit www.DowntownRochesterMI.com or contact the Rochester DDA office at 248/656-0060.


The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, on Wednesday, borrowed the words of former president Goodluck Jonathan, during a build-up to the 2015 presidential elections.
Speaking at the signing of the National Peace Accord at the International Conference Centre, ICC, in Abuja, Mr Atiku said that his ambition does not worth the life of any Nigerian.
"May I use this opportunity to renew my profound gratitude, firstly to my party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and then to General Abdulsalami Abubakar and members of the Peace Committee for their tireless enthusiasm, dedication, and passion towards ensuring the success of this Peace Accord Process," he said.
"Our gathering here today clearly demonstrates the importance of the upcoming elections as well as how our democracy has matured, not only to our people, but also to the international community whose solidarity, Nigeria's democracy has benefited from.
"In this context, I appeal once again to every staff and the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and the Nigeria Police Force, to be fair arbiters in the upcoming elections while letting neutrality prevail.
"In conclusion, I appeal once again, to our citizens, to go out and cast their votes for the candidates of their choice, to be peaceful at all times, and confident in our democracy, its institutions and processes.
"So, please go out this Saturday to vote for your future and the future of our great nation. May God bless you and God bless Nigeria".


Today Prime Capital AG has announced the closing of Project Nordlicht (Nordlicht), an onshore wind power project with 281.4 MW in aggregate, located near the city of Tromsø in northern Norway. Nordlicht is the largest onshore renewable energy project in Europe this year that reached financial close. It will supply energy equivalent of the yearly consumption of approx. 50.000 Norwegian households.
Prime Capital AG developed and structured the investment together with Norsk Miljøkraft, a local Norwegian developer, as well as with Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (Siemens Gamesa). Prime Capital will manage the project on behalf of the investors, Ärzteversorgung Westfalen-Lippe and Siemens Financial Services, via a long-term asset management contract.
Nordlicht, which comprises Kvitfjell and Raudfjell wind parks, has secured an attractive long-term power off-take agreement with a leading global aluminium supplier, which for the first time includes a guarantee by the Norwegian export credit guarantee agency GIEK with a rating of AAA. Electricity certificates will be marketed under a long-term service agreement with a large Norwegian utility company. These agreements help ensure that Nordlicht will generate attractive and sustainable earnings for Ärzteversorgung Westfalen-Lippe and Siemens Financial Services.
Nordlicht bears some unique features: the deployment of 67 wind turbines from Siemens Gamesa with 4.2 MW each using direct drive technology and the latest de-icing technology. The turbines will be operated under a long-term service contract.
Nordlicht marks the first direct equity onshore wind investment for Ärzteversorgung Westfalen-Lippe; Prime Capital already manages a significant portfolio of wind and hydro assets, both in Germany as well as across Northern Europe.
Debt financing is provided by DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Frankfurt, which includes inter alia funding by Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW).
Construction of the project has started with completion planned in 2019.
Prime Capital AG is an independent financial services provider and asset management firm, focusing on institutional clients. The company specializes in Alternative Investments, in particular in Absolute Return, Infrastructure Investments and Private Debt. The company also provides holistic asset management outsourcing. Prime Capital was founded in 2006 and currently employs 65 people in Frankfurt, Luxembourg and London. The company's regulators are BaFin in Germany, CSSF in Luxembourg and FCA in the UK. As of July 2017, Prime Capital has approximately EUR 10.1 billion Assets under Management, managed on various platforms.
The Ärzteversorgung Westfalen-Lippe (ÄVWL) is an institution of the Medical Association of Westphalia-Lippe and is one of Germany's largest occupational pension funds. With assets under management of €13.0 billion at present ÄVWL is responsible for the old-age security of more than 56,000 members and retirees. For more information, see www.aevwl.de/en/home/.
Siemens Financial Services (SFS) invests equity in large infrastructure projects worldwide concentrating on projects in which Siemens plays a key technological role in construction, operation or maintenance – usually as a general contractor or supplier of core components. SFS possesses extensive experience in the development and structuring of major international projects, excellent access to the global capital markets, in-depth expert knowledge in the relevant industry sectors and an international presence through Siemens' global network.


How can I help my child at home?
IDCS has been transitioning to the Common Core over the past couple of years. You have no doubt noticed changes in your child's school and home work. Common Core standards encourage depth, rather than breadth, in mastering topics. It also emphasizes a student's ability to analyze and explain their answers rather than simply knowing how to come up with the correct ones.
Teaching things like fractions, division and other math essentials may look really different from how parents (and teachers!) learned it. Teachers often present the concepts differently, sometimes incorporating unfamiliar timelines and drawn-out charts and models. Sometimes it may look like math is being made more complicated, when really we're teaching students to deeply understand the concepts that underlie traditional algorithms.
HOW CAN I SUPPORT MY CHILD IN LEARNING THE NEW MATH STANDARDS?
If you're a parent of a school-aged child in the United States, you've no doubt heard of the Common Core standards. These standards aim to better prepare students from kindergarten through 12th grade for higher education and career success.
While some aspects of the Common Core are new, many are not.
children in high school still have to learn to solve equations.
Indeed, there is a greater focus on these core topics than was typical of state standards before the Common Core.
This brings us to what IS new. To put it simply: the standards expect students to understand what they are doing so they are able to use and apply mathematics when they leave the classroom.
Who doesn't want their children to think about what they are doing? Teachers and parents have been aiming for this for years. We tell them, "Think about what you're doing!" in other situations all the time: as they're crossing the street, as they're learning to play an instrument, as they're making an important decision. Now teachers and parents are supported by standards that lay out clear and coherent trajectories toward building a better understanding of mathematics, so children are less likely to lose their skills after graduation.
For example, many of today's parents learned to add whole numbers by using the so-called standard algorithm: lining numbers up vertically and adding each column, carrying when necessary. This traditional method is still required by Common Core. But how many of today's parents understand why it works? If you learned this way, it's likely that the "how" of doing the calculation has been drilled into your head, but the "why" has been lost. Knowledge not supported by understanding is fragile.
Today, through the standards, kids learn mental strategies for addition and subtraction that help them use the standard algorithm with common sense about how those operations work. For example, it wouldn't make sense to use the standard algorithm to subtract 998 from 1001, when you can see that 1001 is 3 more than 998, so 1001 – 998 = 3. Mental strategies based on understanding make procedural knowledge flexible, applicable to other disciplines and situations.
As a result of the math standards, you can expect to see your child learn a better balance between procedural fluency (the "how") and conceptual understanding (the "why"), so that she will develop the ability to apply mathematics in solving all kinds of problems. And that's a skill that will serve your child for the rest of her life.
The Common Core standards are not curriculum. Curriculum is what teachers actually follow, or do, in the classroom, and what students do at home. The standards are a part of the IDCS Curriculum, but the curriculum also includes unit progressions, activities, and materials that support the learning of the standards. Standards simply say what we want students to learn. Common Core establishes a set of goals for learning.
Through the standards, your child will be able to explain the math, not just "do the math." For example, through the standards, students will now understand how our number system is based on ten, with the digits in a two-digit number telling you the number of tens and the number of ones. This goes well beyond being able to simply read and say the number out loud, or to point to the "tens digit." It means being able to break the number up in ways that are useful for addition or for other operations. You can also expect your child to be able to explain how she knows what she knows, show how she thought about an answer through drawings and models, and choose different strategies for different problems.
The math problems that you remember are still important. Chances are, you'll also see some new strategies and styles of questions. You might want to ask your child's teacher about these problems, or check out the resources below. I've included some links to videos that demonstrate how to use some of the new strategies and models that are frequently used in Common Core Math. There is also a link to a "Mathematical Models" handbook that explains and gives examples of many of the new models used throughout the various grade levels.
The Common Core standards are both old and new. As a parent, you should expect many things from these standards, but above all you should expect your child to reap the benefits of what's new.
Designate a spot for doing homework. Select the spot with your child to help him or her to feel that this is a place to focus and work, rather than a place of punishment.
Designate a specific time for homework.
Be available so your child knows that you're interested. Help to focus your child to get him or her started.
Assist your child where necessary, without taking over the work as your own. Let the teacher know if you notice your child is struggling with an assignment.
While helping your child with homework, remember that process is more important than product. Put another way, it's more important that you focus on helping your child learn "how" to complete the assignment rather than getting the "right" answer. We need to help our children learn to use resources, solve problems and arrive at answers. Answers are often proof of learning, but they are not the learning itself.


We're on a mission to redefine the role of business.
In 2011 I started my first business, WeAreTheFuture aged 17 from a high school classroom in Scotland, with a mission to inspire and connect entrepreneurs from around the world.
Over five years we worked with over 5,000 entrepreneurs delivering global summits and programmes in Edinburgh, London, Berlin, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong and Shenzhen, partnering with global brands.
In 2017, aged 23 I cofounded FutureX with a mission to redefine the role of business.
We are working with purpose driven entrepreneurs, corporates and governments to create scaleable and profitable businesses, that make values and purpose a core part of their growth strategy.


When the secret of visualizing your dream car isn't "magically" manifesting itself, maybe it's about time you took a look inside and took matters in your own hands. Do you go through each day, feeling as though there should be so much more to life? Have you ever come to the conclusion that you deserve or want more out of life than what you've been getting? The Power of Life Mastery is a no-nonsense formula for creating long-lasting and measurable change. You'll learn how to surpass perceived limitations and step into your inborn capacity for greatness. It is a straightforward and easy-to-understand guide to getting the very best out your life.
Anthony Rizk is an expert in the science of personal transformation. He has helped thousands of people realize their full potentials. He has combined some of the most powerful mental techniques available into a clear-cut system that you can use to take your life to the next level.
The Power of Life Mastery is an explosive course in accelerated learning and personal mastery that really works. You'll learn how to end self-sabotage and release your full potential, by applying proven strategies for maximizing your results. It covers a step-by-step, comprehensive training program in creating outstanding breakthroughs in every area of your life.
will uncover time-tested and proven strategies for getting much more of what you want, and less of what you don't.
In The Power of Life Mastery are the secret keys to living a 'Life by Design;" those little-known distinctions that make all the difference. It is your passport to happiness, well-being and personal fulfillment. So, hold on tight and prepare for the ride of your life.


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20.09.2002 08:32 (Updated: 26.08.2021 15:39)
Why does Joe Biden joke about evacuation from Afghanistan?
World » Americas
Assistants to US President Joe Biden cut his joke about the evacuation of US military from Afghanistan.
During a press conference, a reporter asked Biden, whether he had a plan in case US soldiers remain in Kabul after the deadline for their evacuation set by the Taliban* (August 31). In response, Biden smiled and uttered the words that the viewers of the broadcast did not hear, because the audio recording was abruptly cut off.
According to participants of the press conference, Biden smiled and said:
"You will be the first person I call."
The response to the question drew harsh reactions from several members of the US House of Representatives.
"SICK! When Biden's asked what he'll do if Americans are TRAPPED in Afghanistan after 8/31, he LAUGHS then his handlers cut off the audio. This is all one big joke to him. THIS IS NOT FUNNY! He needs to RESIGN immediately!" Republican Ronnie Jackson expressed his indignation on Twitter.
Another Republican congressman, Jim Jordan, wrote:
"President Trump wouldn't leave Americans behind. America first!"
"600,000 weapons 75,000 vehicles 208 planes All paid for by you. All left behind in Afghanistan for the Taliban by Joe Biden," he also tweeted.
Republican Senator Lindsay Graham earlier said that Biden needs to be impeached for capitulating to the Taliban*. According to the politician, through the fault of the American president, thousands of Afghans who collaborated with the US army, as well as some of the Americans, were abandoned in Kabul. Graham called Biden's move "most dishonorable thing a Commander-in-Chief has done in modern times."
On August 23, Biden announced a possible pushback of the evacuation deadline. The Taliban* responded by warning that an untimely US withdrawal from Afghanistan would entail a military response.
*terrorist organization, banned in Russia
Editor: Dmitry Sudakov


The TMT (Teaching Medical Translation) research project is under the direction of Prof. Joachim Kornelius. Its primary objective is to develop the cooperative translation method and learner strategies for acquiring medical terminology in the fields of translation studies, as well as for American and German medical students in the preclinical phase of medical school, all within a case-based learning context.
An additional objective is to develop multimedia learning tools for terminology and medical knowledge that are structured for purposes of encoding (text production), for use by translators, interpreters, and medical students. These tools are to be integrated into terminology management and CAT (computer-aided translation) systems.
Partners in this collaborative team include the Indiana University School of Medicine in the U.S.A. (Prof. Patrick Bankston, Director of Northwest Center for Medical Education, Indiana University Northwest Campus in Gary and Prof. Carl Marfurt) and the Institute for the History of Medicine at the University of Heidelberg (Prof. Wolfgang Eckart, Director of medicine as a supplementary subject for Students of the Seminar for Translation and Interpreting).
Dr. Anne Kimmes, Dipl.-Übers., M.A.
Dr. John Stewart, B.A., M.A.


PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte has approved the recommendation of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and Department of Tourism (DoT) to close Boracay for six months starting April 26.
The President announced his decision during the Cabinet meeting at Malacañang on Wednesday evening, April 4.
"Boracay closed for six months effective 26 April," Presidential Spokesperson Herminio Harry L. Roque, Jr. said in a social media post.
"Calamity funds will be activated to tide affected workers over," the Palace official added.
The closure of the island from entry of local and foreign tourists is to give way to its rehabilitation.


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Green Building Institute Partners with Supply Chain Sustainability School
Green Building Institute | 21 Jun 2020
The Green Building Institute has formed a partnership with the Supply Chain Sustainability School to share ideas, networks and educational resources.
The Supply Chain Sustainability School of Australia is a not-for-profit initiative that aims to create more sustainable supply chains for the property, construction and infrastructure industries in Australia. Launched in 2015, it is a free learning environment, upskilling those working within, or aspiring to work within, the built environment sector. They help to build a clever, collaborative and competitive built environment through increasing knowledge and competency of social, environmental and economic sustainability.
"We are pleased to be partnering with Supply Chain Sustainability School to provide expertise to technical committees or advisory boards, and to make our award-winning training platform and content available to the SSCS partners and students" said GBI Managing Director Daniel Wurm. "The transition to sustainability that our industry urgently needs can only be achieved by the sharing of knowledge by leaders."
The School is a collaboration between clients, contractors and suppliers who have a mutual interest in building the skills of their supply chain. Since the School launched in 2015, it has grown steadily from just 8 founding Partners, 200 Members and 10 learning modules. Now, the School boasts 30 Partners, 1,684 Member companies, 2,698 registered users and there have been over 4,300 learning resource views.
GBI will promoting and supporting SCSS events over the coming months in capital cities and has created a dedicated on-line portal for Supply Chain Sustainability School members.
"Our courses build upon the skill sets and micro-credentials that professionals can achieve through the SCSS. It's a natural fit. Our courses make available another 1500 resources to companies and organisations that are looking to upskill their staff in sustainability".
Find out more about the Supply Chain Sustainability School
Are you a SCSS member? Access the Green Building Institute's dedicated portal for SCSS members
Articles Events Press Releases


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Asturian refers to something related to Asturias, in northern Spain:

 Asturians, the people of that region
 Asturian language
 Asturian cuisine, cuisine of the Asturias region of Spain

See also
 Asturian culture of the Epipalaeolithic or Mesolithic Stone Age
 Asturcón, also known as an Asturian pony

Language and nationality disambiguation pages

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


I decided to update my desktop picture today to reflect the change of the season. What do you think?
The picture is a piece of original digital art by my friend Steven Albert. It a background from the animated film Balto, which Steven worked on.
In case you are curious, the icons in my menu bar represent Meteorologist, Adium (with the 1Up menu bar icon xtra), GrowlTunes, Library Books, iScrobbler, Spaces, Time Machine, Bluetooth, AirPort, Battery, iStat Menus Time & Date and Spotlight.
My dock has Finder, Safari, Firefox, Adium (with a Darth Vader icon xtra that doesn't appear to be available any more), iChat, Mail, Tweetdeck, Address Book, Stickies, NeoOffice, OpenOffice.org, Text Wrangler, Text Edit, iTunes, FrostWire, Transmission, CyberDuck, iPhoto, System Preferences, Terminal, Activity Monitor, Console, Network Utility, AirPort Utility, Disk Utility, my downloads folder and the Trash.


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