Famous for its painter's community, Ubud is special in more ways than one. It has its own magic, and its particularly beautiful surroundings and gracious way of life have drawn celebrities and artists from all over the world in recent decades; some have even adopted Ubud as their own home.
If I have to describe Ubud Bali in one word I would say "idyllic". Despite the large numbers of tourists visiting this little village with streets that are too narrow for touring buses, Ubud has been able to maintain its traditional life. It is the meditation capital of Bali, many people come here purely to recharge their batteries from the past paced western life, here you just surrender to the energies and let go.
Ubud has been voted the top city in SE Asia in January 2010 by the Condé Nast Traveler, it is not hard to see why; everywhere you look is paradise with dense verdant green jungles, myriads of rice fields and beautiful tropical gardens. Here Balinese men and women still place offerings gracefully on the side of the road and on temples; every day you will see them riding beautifully dressed on motor scooters to temples and ceremonies while holding colourful woven baskets, sometimes you can witness even a whole family on a bike.
This is not a village where you should be up and running...the order of the day is to RELAX and live in the NOW. It is more a place where you'll want to stroll around or just sit with a book and watch the colourful and delightful pictures pass by. If you can't resist some action though, there is the Monkey Forest where you'll be greeted by the many Macaque monkeys, they are quite friendly but please do not touch them or smile as they take this as a sign of aggression and will bite you. It's a must to visit Ubud markets which is a maze of shops that sell everything a traveller in Bali can imagine…and more, but bargain hard.
The village is surrounded by fertile land which has resulted in the beautiful rice field terraces, especially in Tegallang where you always find in travel and photo books on Bali. This is also an ideal location to explore the terraces yourself and take beautiful pictures while standing in the middle of the fields. In the past the rice fields and ideal irrigation systems have provided the people with a surplus in rice yields. With time to spare the king of Sukawati ordered the rice farmers to dedicate their time on paintings for temples and palaces.
Ubud is an ideal place to walk around, especially if you check out the small streets and alleys on the side of every road. They lead you to amazing places such as rice fields, river valleys, temples and Balinese living court yards. Ubud Bali has three big main roads which are all one way-streets. So you will definitely drive through them regularly if you are finding your way through Ubud by car, bike or motor scooter. The busiest and one of the longest is the Monkey Forest Road. This road starts in the south when you come into Ubud and ends all the way in the north at the crowded Ubud Market. This street has many shops, restaurants and places to stay. The many alleys (gang) on both sides of the road are passages to tucked away hotels (many cheap homestays), spas and restaurants.
Jalan Raya Ubud is a road that crosses Monkey Forest Road in the center of Ubud Bali. To the left, this road leads you to the Campuhan area. Within these sacred grounds you can start a rice field walk that goes on further north of Ubud to the ancient-looking villa complex Ibah. Another road that you'll certainly come across is Jalan Hanoman. Like Monkey Forest Road, this street is long and it has many restaurants, hotels and homestays, it is also filled with funky little shops. Going towards Monkey Forest Rd, Jalan Hanoman comes to a fork, the right veers off to Monkey Forest Rd, whilst to the left is still Jalan Hanoman and goes on passing the ARMA museum then becomes Jalan Raya Pengosekan that takes you on to Lutundoh village.
Ubud is relatively small so if you have the time you can easily walk around and see a lot. The streets and footpaths are a little bumpy, occasionally you might find a hole or two or a loose pavement so be careful (Hati Hati) of your footing. However look out for the colourful offerings which are placed along the streets and in front of shops. You can easily crush them with your feet while window shopping which is insulting to the Balinese. Along Monkey Forest Road there are many bicycle and motor scooter rentals, usually the price drops the longer you rent them. Before you hop on, check the profile of the tyres are still good. It can get really slippery when it rains. An accident is the last thing you need during your well-deserved holidays.
Everywhere in town you will find many private drivers sitting in the shade of a tree only to jump up when you come in sight. Instantly they will make this driving movement with their hands and at the same time wiggle a little with their body. 'Transportation...?' is the first thing they say. If you reply with: 'No thank you...' ot 'Tidak Teramikasi' (pronounced as 'tear out my car seat'), you can immediately expect the next question 'How about tomorrow...yes?' They are harmless but can get on your nerves after passing dozen of them within minutes. But if you are considering touring around for a day then a private driver is what you need. Check out if you like their car and then bargain for a price that suits you. Usually it is around Rp.500,000 per day (8 hours) including a chatty driver and fuel.
The Ubud Clinic, 24H (0361-974911) can be found on the west-side of Jalan Raya before the Campuhan bridge and here bilingual staff are also available.
Ubud is full of all types of restaurants and cafes. After just a couple of meters you will bump into one again. So no chance of getting hungry here... There is a mixed choice of restaurants such as the classy modern looking restaurants, restaurants that only serve organic food and drinks or restaurants that have a gorgeous garden where you can sit on a big pillow on the floor. But there are also the basic ones (but always with some nice decoration) that just offer you what you're looking for good food.
Below is a list of recommended Restaurants & cafes; it gives you at taste of what you can find in Ubud. Image opposite is Warung Schnitzel.
NOTE: When visiting temples be aware that you should wear long pants or a sarong with a selendang tied around the waist (men and women). Whilst you can take your own every major temple has selendangs to borrow for a small donation. It is extremely bad form (in fact it's taboo) for women who are menstruating to enter a temple.


text:
Democracy of the dead
What is democracy of the dead? No, it has nothing to do with zombies voting Democrat. Although recently a dead dog did receive a voter registration form. What I'm referring to comes from that emir of aphorisms, G.K. Chesterton. Consider this idea from Orthodoxy (also available as a free PDF):
Tradition may be defined as an extension of the franchise. Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.
That those many souls who came before us might not have been complete fools is a refreshing perspective in our age of progress for progress' sake.
Chesterton–himself now among the dead–enriches our idea of tradition with literary wit. Meanwhile, Thomas Sowell provides us a more rigorous understanding, by way of broad philosophical survey in A Conflict of Visions. Looking to English arch-conservative Edmund Burke, Sowell posits "the constrained vision" : a philosophy that directs human society to seek "cultural distillations of knowledge" within the confines of a "tested body of experience." The idea is not a mere impulse to conserve tradition, but an acknowledgement that wisdom flows down naturally and systemically through culture, from one generation to the next. Between Chesterton's democracy of the dead and Sowell's constrained vision, we glimpse what may be the most appropriate definition of conservatism.
Not everyone is so fond of tradition. There are those invested in seeing each generation break free from the tyrannical chains of its ancestors. Consider this inscription at the Jefferson Memorial:
I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.
Progressives should be quite fond of Thomas Jefferson's thinking here. He speaks of humanity's "progress" and how it will "advance" from a "barbarous" state. Just as he took scissors to his least favorite parts of the Bible, there are those today all too eager to make their own redactions to the traditional moral fabric. Take New Atheist Sam Harris.
In a 2011 debate on the foundations of morality, Harris dismisses the God of the Bible as a mere "Iron Age god of war." His epochal delineation recalls the popular formulation that certain Abrahamic belief systems may have been tolerable enough for goat herders or a pastoral society, but are utterly unsuitable for our modern age. A bit later in the same debate, Harris insists that anyone today could come up with a moral code superior to the Mosaic law if given five minutes' thought. So much for his estimation of past wisdom.
Whether inspired by the Enlightenment or the New Atheists, there's no question modernist arguments hold serious sway over the contemporary mind. But postmodern sensibility won't tolerate the sweeping assumptions. For all the aspersions the modernist might cast on the dead of generations past, the postmodernist would be right to call him "judgmental."
The critique is rooted in history. From gas chamber genocide to the threat of thermonuclear annihilation, the distinctives of the twentieth century disabuse us of the naivete that mankind is steadily rising above some past state of barbarity. To characterize people long-gone as "barbarous" or less thoughtful than those living today is to ignore a twin loss of epistemic and moral confidence the world has yet to recover from.
Where does that leave us? We were never without hope. Harris' debate opponent, philosopher and Christian apologist William Lane Craig insists on the way: backward, not forward. Modernity is overly confident in its presuppositions. Postmodernity is quite useful at deconstructing worldviews, but not so helpful with building up a shared body of knowledge. If we want to access the lasting truths about human existence, how to live, and how society was meant to be, we need to recover a premodern worldview.
Just think. We're all here kicking and alive today. All those dead and buried folks of past generations must have gotten something right.
Filed under All posts, Apologetics, Political Cartoons Tagged with cartoons, Christianity, G.K. Chesterton, politics, postmodernism, Sam Harris, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Sowell, William Lane Craig
Responding to Income Inequality
A recent study by Norton and Ariely on wealth inequality in the United States has generated a bit of buzz in the past few weeks. The media and public response has been predictable: an overblown amen chorus finding our wealth inequality to be a grave problem. But the real peril flows less from the inequality itself than the implicit and perennially popular redistribution impulse that follows.
The study invites dangerous thinking by asking participants to indulge their Rawlsian side and imagine an equitable income distribution. They find that even wealthy and Republican respondents conceive of an ideal distribution being much more equal than it is now. Surely the study is fine empirical work, but what are the normative implications? What ought we do about it?
Sadly, popular dissatisfaction with wealth inequality is rife for political exploitation, especially given the undying misconception of a fixed economic pie. On this view, wealth is a pie that can be divided, but cannot grow. Our economy is a zero-sum game. If Jack becomes rich, it must have come at the expense of Jill. Justice then would be to confiscate Jack's excess slices of pie and give them back to Jill as an entitlement. This is what President Obama essentially endorsed when he told "Joe the Plumber" that we need to "spread the wealth around." The need for activist government has been the mainstay of the Democratic party for decades. But when politicians are the middle men for our collective wealth, they naturally exploit it for their gain, at the cost of simplicity and consistency. Vote-getting tools like earmarks and tax exemptions only make our economy more muddled, unpredictable, and subject to political patronage. This hurts wealthy and poor alike.
The destructive nature of zero-sum and redistributionist thinking is no surprise given they are at odds with classical economics. Take the foundational idea that voluntary transactions between rational agents generates new wealth. If this is true, it undermines the narrative that American wealth is an economic injustice built on stolen land, slave labor, and gunboat diplomacy. It robs the progressive, technocratic welfare state of its raison d'etre. So can a solution to wealth inequality really be found in classical economics?
David Brooks recently shed some light on the divide between economic libertarians and statists by explaining his own identification with "epistemological modesty." He sees the European enlightenment as split between hyper-rationalizing French like Descartes and Rousseau and intellectually modest Scots like Adam Smith and David Hume. I find this to agree with Thomas Sowell's concept of the "unconstrained" and "constrained" visions. On the one hand are those who believe the world is totally knowable and perfectible, and they trust that educated elites will guide us into a technocratic utopia. On the other, there are those who believe our ability to understand and shape society are limited. They trust in traditional institutions–church, family, free markets–as generational accumulations of human wisdom. All things being equal, it would be better to work with what our predecessors have left us than to rebuild our society according to a radical vision.
If we reject the temptation of technocratic utopias, we will find that the traditional institution of the free market provides the best way to distribute goods and services. Using government or some other centralized agency to circumvent the market will only yield bread lines and corruption. The Scottish or "constrained" approach not only maximizes societal utility, it is just in limiting economic activity to voluntary transactions.
So if redistributing wealth through legislation is counterproductive and unjust, what can be done to improve the American situation? Strengthen the free market by shrinking and simplifying government. More predictable markets that are less subject to political manipulation will make fairer playing fields. And we can increase social mobility a couple of ways. One would be to end unions' status as exclusive cartels of labor. Consumer and business loans can lower barriers to market entry, but market criteria must rest on the basis of merit rather than need. Ultimately, hashing these policy particulars is not as useful as promoting the cultural understanding that progress comes less from centralized political pushes than from individual initiative that works within our traditional institutions.
Filed under All posts Tagged with Adam Smith, David Brooks, David Hume, Descartes, epistemological modesty, income distribution, Joe the Plumber, John Rawls, Rousseau, The Conflict of Visions, Thomas Sowell, wealth inequality
Rule of Law, Rule of Gut
The BP oil spill has provided a chance to clearly delineate between two worldviews vying for our political discernment: the visions of the liberal Left and the conservative Right. In responding to Republican House representative Joe Barton's double-apology gaffe, President Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said as much. And while Emanuel is correct in observing that two governing philosophies are at stake this November, it would be an error to take his class warfare bait. The choice is not between wise, compassionate Democrats and corrupt, cozy-with-big-business Republicans. To the contrary, this November is a chance to dump destructive Democratic impulses to rule from the gut, and empower a new, conservative Republican leadership that values rule based on law.
The rhetoric of emergency is the greatest pitfall of the Democrats' liberal governing philosophy. In times of crisis like the BP oil spill, inflammatory rhetorical appeals come naturally to them. At the onset of the oil spill, Democratic strategist James Carville cried out "We're dying here!" In a recent attempt to capitalize on Barton's apology blunder, Vice President Joe Biden chided that "people are drowning." As a tool of political persuasion, the appeal to emergency is dangerous. It preys on raw emotions, leading to the loosening of purse strings and easing the approval of impractical and downright harmful policies. Recall that appeals to emergency during the Great Depression ushered in the New Deal. Among the many blunders under the aegis of enlightened activism, the federal government paid farmers to wastefully slaughter their livestock, denying food to the hungry for the sake of stabilizing food prices.
Having lived through Bolshevik brutalism as well as America's New Deal fiascos, Ayn Rand warned in her brilliant polemic Atlas Shrugged that appeals to emergency inevitably empower either unsavory autocrats or unreasoning incompetents. The Left's Rule of Gut is all the more dangerous given their inscrutable devotion to the cult of the political savior. Whether as youth admiringly looking upon the iconic visage of revolutionary Che Guevara, or as older generations fondly recalling fireside-chatter FDR, Democrats and their Leftist base turn not to reasonable stewards of power, but at the gut level dream of charismatic, decisive deliverers of salvation. Perhaps it is only slightly more tragic for a banana republic to produce a Castro or Chavez than it is for the United States to beget a starry-eyed bungler like Carter or Obama.
What then stands as an antidote to the twin appeals of emergency and charismatic deliverance? Many people dismiss today's conservative movement out-of-hand because they buy the idea that Republicans are beholden to big business and that conservatives are under the undue influence of social "wedge" issues. But while the political Left relies on emotional appeal to further a hazy end of "progress" shared by the political bedfellows of victimhood, American conservatives look to widely-established and long-standing traditions as the means to preserve national well-being. Broadly considered, these traditions share the spirit of and are inclusive of the Rule of Law.
The decisive factor in favor of conservatism may be the question of ends and means. Not only are the ends of the Left mistaken, the means of achieving their ends leave us vulnerable to the imperfections of alliance-wrangling. As Thomas Sowell effectively notes in Conflict of Visions, the ends are paramount to the Left, but the means are the key focus of conservatives. With an aim to preserving the integrity of process rather than seeking to guarantee a specific result outright, the conservative vision offers the greatest chance of behavioral accountability from our leaders. Conservative constituents demand fidelity to function, but liberal politicians, supposing a backdrop of knock-down, drag-out class war, must satisfy their constituents' identity-based grievances by any means necessary. And more often then not, the sausage-making that begets vaunted progress for the Left is deleterious to the national interest.
Its a paradox that those on the Left, who seek change by Rule of Gut, will always remain unsatisfied by their side's inability to effect the immediate gratification they seek. But we, whether at the election polls or in the course of day-to-day life, can avoid that frustration by choosing to live under the Rule of Law instead of the Rule of Gut.
Filed under All posts Tagged with An Rand, Atlas Shrugged, Che Guevara, class warfare, FDR, identity politics, James Carville, Joe Barton, Joe Biden, Rahm Emanuel, The Conflict of Visions, the New Deal, the Rule of Law, Thomas Sowell, victmhood, wedge issue

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
New Delhi: European military systems firm Thales and India's missile-maker Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) have signed a teaming agreement to partner on the STARStreak air defence system for the South Asian nation, with support for this tie-up from India and the United Kingdom governments. The teaming agreement was […]
MBDA offers 'make in India' solutions to Indian Navy
(Editor's Note: This is a 'By Invitation' article written by European missile maker MBDA's India General Delegate. The article was first published in the Dec. 2020 print edition of Defence.Capital magazine.) By Boris Solomiac As the Indian Navy patrols the seas, it knows it has excellence at its […]
Amidst China conflict, India buys Spike, Spice missiles from Israel for offensive capability
By N. C. Bipindra New Delhi: India has bought a "small quantity" of the Israeli SPICE 2000 stand-off missiles and the Spike anti-tank guided missiles earlier this month to meet its immediate requirement, amidst a military face-off with China in the Ladakh border. The quantity purchased of the […]
Interview: Third aircraft carrier critical security imperative, economically prudent: Admiral Karambir Singh (Part-2)
India's Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Karambir Singh tells Defence.Capital editor N. C. Bipindra in this Part-2 of an exclusive interaction earlier this month that India's national interests, including security interests, are intrinsically linked to the seas and extend across the vast seascape of the Indo-Pacific. Q. The […]
Interview: India Navy modernisation driven by focus on combat readiness: Admiral Karambir Singh (Part 1)
India's Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Karambir Singh tells Defence.Capital editor N. C. Bipindra in this Part 1 of an exclusive interaction earlier this month that the Indian Navy's modernisation focus is based on 'Ordnance on Target' as an important measure of combat effectiveness; and acquisition of mission-capable […]
12-year promise & 2-year effort at ski-jump help Boeing amplify combat jet pitch for future $8-billion India Navy tender
By N. C. Bipindra New Delhi: Fulfilling a 12-year-old commitment and a two-year rigorous testing, American aerospace and defence major Boeing Co. today said it has "proved" its F/A-18 combat jet can operate off a ski-jump ramp, giving a boost to its pitch for a possible 57-aircraft Indian […]
Indian Navy battle readiness depends on new technologies, acquisitions
By defence.capital on December 16, 2020 • ( 2 Comments )
By Ayaskant Das New Delhi: The need for artificial intelligence and unmanned systems in maritime surveillance is being increasingly felt because of the regularity with which the indigenous ship-building industry is delivering platforms to the Indian Navy. The increase in the inventory of platforms with the navy comes […]
India Navy gains heft with warship that seeks and sinks China submarines
New Delhi: India today inducted its fourth anti-submarine warfare warship in six years, shoring up navy's fighting capabilities against underwater threats, primarily from China's submarines that have sneaked too close to its territorial waters in the recent years. Indian Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane commissioned INS Kavaratti, […]
India-made weapons, systems ready for air force induction
By defence.capital on October 11, 2020 • ( 3 Comments )
By Atul Kumar The Indian Air Force (IAF), the fourth largest in the world, presently operates an air fleet that integrates over 95 per cent of foreign-designed aircraft and weapon systems. Besides, it has been suffering from a massive aircraft shortage, including fixed-wing combat jets, trainers (both intermediate […]
Air power will be key to victory in any future conflict: India air force chief
By defence.capital on October 5, 2020 • ( Leave a comment )
New Delhi: The air force's role would the key to India's victory in any future conflict with its immediate adversaries, Indian Air Force's Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria today said. He was clearly referring to India's nuclear-armed rivals in the region, China and Pakistan. Here are […]
With eye on China-Pakistan, India ready to buy 30 armed drones from United States
New Delhi: With an eye on China and Pakistan, India is all set to place an order for 30 armed drones for nearly $3 billion from the United States, in a deal that will be the first for American firm General Atomics from the South Asian giant. Indian-American […]
India Navy in quandary over amphibious warship project, considers fresh tender
By defence.capital on July 14, 2020 • ( 2 Comments )
By N. C. Bipindra New Delhi: The precarious situation that one of India's private shipyards finds itself over its debts has put the navy in a quandary over how to proceed with a Rs 20,000-crore ($2.65-billion) tender for building four amphibious warships. One of the options being considered […]
India moves 15,000 army troopers closer to China border in Ladakh
By N. C. Bipindra New Delhi: India has mobilised around 15,000 army soldiers, along with battle tanks, artillery guns and air defence missile units, to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, to ward off any offensive action by China. The mobilisation, the largest since the […]
Modi says no territory lost in India-China border clash
By defence.capital on June 19, 2020 • ( 1 Comment )
By Amit Agnihotri New Delhi: India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi today clarified the nation had lost no territory to China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, amidst a continuing border face-off between the militaries of nuclear-armed Asian neighbors. Indian Army had lost 20 of […]
This is Big: 49 per cent FDI to continue for 'Strategic Partnership' projects: India official
By defence.capital on May 30, 2020 • ( Leave a comment )
New Delhi: India's top officer responsible for defence acquisition has just dropped the bomb: The recently announced hike in the country's Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) norms to 74 per cent will not apply to the Strategic Partnership programmes that the armed forces are pursuing. This is big — […]


I have noticed that one of the reasons Chiropractic has not gotten as far as it should of have by now is that Chiropractors are their own worst enemies.
I say that because I recently had a Chiropractor here in New York attack an article that was written by someone about there success with treatment. The patient happened to be a child that was reffered in by a ENT and was having horrible ear infections. I am a Chiropractor and the only thing that I treat is Spinal misalignment. The patient had a horrible misalignment of the upper cervical spine and when adjusted the ear infections got beter, did I treat the child for ear infections? No! I only treat spinal misalignments. Why would another Chiropractor do this? I think it has allot to do with jealously and plain stupidity.


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20th Anniversary Paul Simon Poster | Paul Simon Public Policy Institute | SIU
Institute in the News
20th Anniversary Paul Simon Poster
> For the Media
> 20th Anniversary Paul Simon Poster
Rex Parker's "Integrity" Poster Celebrates 20th Anniversary of Paul Simon Public Policy Institute
Carbondale, Illinois USA — Southern Illinois University Carbondale's Paul Simon Public Policy Institute has announced the recent acquisition of Rex Parker's Paul Simon "Integrity" Poster.
The Paul Simon "Integrity" Poster depicts a resolute Paul Simon behind his trusted Royal typewriter, with his signature bow tie and beaming smile. In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, other visual elements in the poster highlight the Senator's passion for journalism, foreign policy and politics.
"We are delighted that Rex Parker has created this wonderful tribute to Paul Simon's memory in time for the 20th anniversary of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute. It will displayed in a place of honor here at the Institute for the enjoyment and education of our many visitors," said Interim Director Jak Tichenor.
"In 2002 I finally got to meet Paul Simon, while organizing a breakfast event in my current town of Park Ridge, where he was the special guest of honor. Retired from politics, Mr. Simon still drew a bipartisan, overflowing crowd. The elder statesman shook every hand, took all the selfies and delivered a great speech," said Parker. "It was so inspiring I decided to run for city council. I won the race and got the chance to improve people's lives through public service."
"I humbly hope the "Integrity" Poster captures Paul Simon's boundless energy for life and is an inspiration for a new generation of public service," added Parker.
About Artist Rex Parker
Rex Parker is an American artist, designer and illustrator based at his award-winning design firm in the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge, Illinois. His graphically bold, icon-infused artworks include the "Games On!" poster series for Chicago's Olympic bid, the mid-century road trip "Route 66 Rocks" poster series, and the dynamic, Deco-inspired poster series for the Park Ridge Civic Orchestra. Rex's work is on display at number of Museums and Libraries across the United States including the William Morris Society Museum at Kelmscott House in London, England. To learn more about the artist and view his works, visit rexparkerdesign.com or contact rex@rexparkerdesign.com.


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Our team has a wealth of experience in international removals and will be on hand to help you with every step of the move. We can arrange for shipping or air freight and also have storage facilities if you need to keep some things back while you get everything sorted out at your overseas destination.
If you're thinking about moving your business, we can also help with this. Relocations and expansions are frequently taken on by the team at Britannia Lanes and we'd be happy to help with your business removal. We'll arrange to pack your office equipment up and shred any documentation if you need it as well.
For more information or to get a quote, give us a call on 01179 811220, email bristol@britannialanes.co.uk or fill out the Quick Quote box on the right. We'll be happy to help you out with every step of your move, from the initial planning to the unpacking at the other end.


Hey Buddy!, I found this information for you: "Style + Pitch Workshop, 17 April at Projects, Brighton". Here is the website link: https://www.welovehomeblog.com/2019/04/style-pitch-workshop-17-april-at-projects-brighton/. Thank you.


Do you know West Java in Indonesia? There is a huge Mountain called Tangkuban Perahu. Tangkuban perahu is a volcano, 25 kilometers north of Bandung direction of Lembang. Its location is in between Sagalaherang village, Sagalaherang district, Subang regency and Cikole village, Lembang district, Bandung regency. Mount Tangkuban Perahu - Volcano in West Java near of Bandung city. This is Bandung's most famous tourist volcano just 28 km north of the city. This volcano offers many places to see and explore. Whether we look into the huge crater or hike down into it, stroll through the forest on its slopes, or simply enjoy the splendid panoramic scenery.
Mt. Tangkuban Perahu is an interesting destination that everyone in the Bandung area is fond of visiting. When seen from Bandung, Mt. Tangkuban Perahu has a distinctive shape, like an upside down boat. Tangkuban Perahu means, in fact, "up-turned boat" This peculiar shape has stimulated the fantasy of the Sundanese people from early times as expressed in the Legend of Sangkuriang. Geologically, Mt. Tangkuban Perahu has played a significant role in the development of Parahyangan highlands. Eruptions have contributed immensely to the hills north of Bandung through lava flowing into the valleys and hardening into rock, thus forming big cliffs over which waterfalls leap. Likewise, mud flows have formed a semi-circular cone of gentle gradient (what geologists call "a fan"), which is now a mass that blocked the valley of the ancient Citarum River near present day in Padalarang (some 18 km west of Bandung), this caused a lake to form covering the whole Bandung plain.
Tangkuban Perahu is a volcano with three craters into which areas tourists can walk through. These three craters are: Kawah Ratu ("Queen Crater"), Kawah Domas ("Domas Crater"), and Kawah Upas ("Upas Crater"). Tourists can go down into the Domas Crater where exist many hot geysers in which they can boil eggs. Though the mountain appears peaceful, mild eruptions occurred in 1969, when Kawah Ratu spewed ash and barrages 500 m high. As recently as September 1992 it was closed to the public for a few days because unusually high seismic activity leads volcanologist to fear a new eruption. On the mountain's northern flank is an area called Death Valley, so named for its frequent accumulation of poisonous gases. On a reasonably clear day, from Kawah Ratu, the main crater, we can see not only the mountain range to the east, with Mt. Bukittunggul as its highest peak (2,209 m), but also two other in a northeasterly direction. The lower and nearer one is Mt. Tampomas (1,684 m) just north of Sumedang some 40 km away. To the right and about 90 km away is Mt. Ciremai close to Cirebon on the north coast. At 3,078 m, Mt. Ciremai is West Java's tallest mountain. At the foot of Mt. Tangkuban Perahu we see the Ciater tea plantation covering the rolling hills. Farther to the left are the northern coastal plains of Java, and on an extremely clear day we may even be able to see the Java Sea beyond.
Kawah Ratu, which means "Queen's Crater", is today just a big gray hole, which sometimes has a pool of water at its center. Poisonous gases sometimes accumulate in Kawah Ratu, thus making it somewhat of a risk to descend to the crater floor. Beyond the saddled shaped depression on the far side of Kawah Ratu is the still active Kawah Upas, the oldest crater on the mountain. On the very far western cliff we see a spot where all vegetation has been destroyed by constantly rising sulfurous vapors. On the crater walls, note the various layers of material consisting of rock, sand, and pebbles. Overtime, new craters have formed again and again in a rather consistent shift from west to east. The most well known of these is the Domas crater, but also there are other smaller ones in jungle on the mountain's northeastern flank. Facilities in Tangkuban Perahu Crater are comfortable parking area, souvenir kiosks, and restaurants.


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Q: Finding the Highest and Lowest in the entered 10 numbers i made a code recently on our class but i couldn't understand what i really did. do i have problems with my logic because i cant understand the Double.MIN_VALUE and the Double.MAX_VALUE.
import java.util.Scanner;
public class Exer32_HighestLowest
{
    public static void main(String args[])
    {
        Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);
        double highest =Double.MIN_VALUE;
        double lowest =Double.MAX_VALUE;
        double num= 0;
        for(int i=0; i<10; i++)
        {
            System.out.println("Enter your score");
            num = sc.nextDouble();
            if (num > highest)
            {
                highest = num;
            }
            if(num < lowest)
            {
                lowest = num;
            }
        }
        System.out.println("The Highest Score is: "+highest);
        System.out.println("The Lowest Score is: "+lowest);
    }
}

A: Double.MIN_VALUE:
A constant holding the smallest positive nonzero value of type double.
Double.MAX_VALUE:
A constant holding the largest positive finite value of type double.
You can check here for more details: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/lang/Double.html

A: For double highest = Double.MIN_VALUE;, instead use -Double.MAX_VALUE. Note the '-' sign.
And for :
if (num > highest)
        {
            highest = num;
        }

Use:
highest = Math.max(highest, num)
lowest = Math.min(lowest, num)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


E. H. Brogan is a graduate of the University of Delaware with a B.A. in English. You can read her poetry at places like Cider Press Review, Bop Dead City, FLAPPERHOUSE, the Sandy River Review, and Red Paint Hill. You can read her prose in PRIMITIVE magazine. Her house is built of unread books, and she pronounces it REE-see's PEE-sees. Tweet @wheresmsbrogan and @comics_by_e.h.brogan on Instagram for more.


Saving a series to your Practice is easy with an Alo Moves Membership!
1. Search for the series in the search bar to find the series you'd like to save (or explore our content by heading to our 'series' tab).
2. When you have found the series you would like to save, click on the series to access the main page.
3. Once you are on the series page, go ahead and scroll down to locate the black button below the instructor name that says "Save to my Practice". Click the "save" button. It should then read "Saved to My Practice", and you will be able to find your new series in your Practice here!


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THE AMITY AFFLICTION – This Could Be Heartbreak
Posted on August 30, 2016 by KC Stanfield
The Amity Affliction arguably found their stride and nailed their sound with Let The Ocean Take Me. So This Could Be Heartbreak is a great opportunity to experiment a bit with their sound in order to prevent their sound from getting tired, a common problem with metalcore. To some degree, The Amity Affliction succeeded, and the album is a welcome addition to the band's discography.
The record kicks things off with its best song, I Bring The Weather With Me. It takes almost every fantastic element of Let The Ocean Take Me and even tosses in a guitar solo. It's the only one on the album and it's a technique the band should use more often in their future songs.
Guitar work in general seems to be more noticeable, but this is a double-edged sword. It makes songs more distinguished, but some of the riffs can clash with message. Both the title track and Some Friends have an upbeat tempo similar to something in a pop-punk song. They're still solid songs, but it can hamper the solemn lyrics.
On the flip side, there's All Fucked Up. On top of giving a nod to Never Alone, it incorporates some acoustic guitar work. It's a fantastic song that slows the album's pace just enough to give the you a refreshing breather until Fight My Regret picks up the pace again.
Like The Amity Affliction's previous work, This Could Be Heartbreak uses bleak lyrics to set their melancholy tone. This tone contrasts beautifully when they shift to a more positive message like at the end of Nightmare, which makes for quite the hopeful chaser to some of the more depressing songs. This is a band you feel, and they translate emotion into music extraordinarily well.
There is a bit of dry spell in middle of the album. Nightmare, Tearing Me Apart and OMGIMY fell a little too close to the vest. They're not bad songs, just safe. Some more experimentation would have been appreciated. However, the last few songs on This Could Be Heartbreak have some particularly heavy breakdowns for The Amity Affliction, which fans of the genre should appreciate.
This Could Be Heartbreak is a wonderful album even if it can't quite reach the level of their previous release. Fans of The Amity Affliction and metalcore in general will have more than enough to enjoy. It may not be for those metal elitists who like technical instruments above all else, but it's worth a listen to those with an open mind.
Website – http://www.theamityaffliction.net/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/theamityafflictionofficial/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/amityaffliction
I Bring The Weather With Me music video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCXyN09DT9o
This Could Be Heartbreak music video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NOqg9pK4R8
THE AMITY AFFLICTION Return With 'This Could Be Heartbreak'
TORPEDOHEAD – Greetings From Heartbreak Key
LA Based Rock N Soul Group Sugar Fly Release Lead Track "Heartbreak City"
BURIED IN VERONA – Vultures Above, Lions Below


text:
Mahwah-Ramsey
Mahwah-Ramsey Daily Voice serves Mahwah & Ramsey
serves Allendale, Ho-Ho-Kus, Midland Park, Saddle River, Upper Saddle River & Waldwick
Wyckoff-Franklin Lakes
serves Franklin Lakes, Oakland & Wyckoff
Murder, Rape Charges Dropped In Rutherford Woman's Beating Death After Judge Rejects DNA Proof
Rafael Camey, Karen Splettstoesser Photo Credit: PASSAIC COUNTY PROSECUTOR
Fairview Ambulance Corps Gone, Holy Name Medical Center Takes...
Roselle Park Police Mourn Off-Duty Officer Who Authorities Sa...
Murder and rape charges were dropped against a Guatemalan national accused of killing a 50-year-old Rutherford woman more than six years ago after a judge refused to allow prosecutors to use DNA evidence against him.
Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes said she had no choice, leaving the family of Karen Splettstoesser without justice.
Rafael Camey is now in the hands of federal immigration officials who are expected to deport him.
The issue bounced around the court system before coming to a halt last month.
Superior Court Judge Marilyn C. Clark initially granted a defense request during the preparation for Camey's trial to keep jurors from hearing the results of a DNA swab that she said Passaic police illegally obtained from him.
The state Appellate Division rejected a bid by the prosecutor's office to overturn Clark's decision, as did the New Jersey state Supreme Court.
The higher court sent a request by the state to take a new DNA swab from the undocumented immigrant back to Paterson.
Last month, Superior Court Judge Sohail Mohammed denied it "based on the improper conduct of police in obtaining the original sample," Valdes said Monday.
Splettstoesser's brutally beaten body was found near a riverbank behind a ShopRite on Eighth Street on Sept. 30, 2013.
Camey, then 38, was taken into custody nearly three weeks later after a fellow prostitute told a city police detective that she'd seen him with Splettstoesser the night before.
The hooker -- identified in court papers as "Tina" -- referred to "Katie" Splettstoesser as "the new girl on the block" and said she'd been choked by Camey herself during a trick.
A lab analysis on the swab that city police got from Camey matched DNA that authorities said was found on her body.
Prosecutors subsequently charged Camey with murder, felony murder and rape.
"The Passaic County Prosecutor's Office has aggressively pursued its legal right to appeal the decision of Judge Clark to suppress the evidence in this case," Valdes said. "While we respectfully disagree with Judge Clark's and Judge Mohammed's decisions we of course respect the opinions and the process that produced those outcomes.
"In sum, the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office has determined that, considering the totality of the circumstances, the dismissal of the charges is required," she said.
Fair Lawn Chief Pharmacist From Mahwah Admits Multi-Million-D...
Bergen County Nurse Lives Double Life As Instagram 'Foodie'
Driver OK In Route 17 Ramsey Rollover
Mahwah-Ramsey Daily Voice!
Serves Mahwah & Ramsey


Elder Financial Stockbroker & Securities Fraud - Evans Law Firm, Inc.
Financial advisors, stockbrokers, and investment managers and advisors are bound to certain ethical codes and duties. As trusted financial services professionals, their conduct is overseen and monitored by the Financial Industry Regulatory Agency (FINRA). FINRA prescribes and maintains rules and regulations that stockbrokers and other financial professionals must follow by law. For example, FINRA Rule 2111 states that any brokerage firm or affiliated individual must "have a reasonable basis to believe that a recommended transaction or investment strategy involving a security or securities is suitable for the customer, based on the information obtained through the reasonable diligence of the member of associated person to ascertain the customer's investment profile" (emphasis added).
Yet despite this, many financial professionals attempt to skirt these rules, to the detriment of elder and senior victims of securities fraud. Seniors fall prey to scams and schemes because they trust investment advisors to keep the seniors' best interests at heart. While there certainly exist trusted and ethical financial advisors, it is important to be aware of those who privilege profit over the suitability of their clients' investments.
The California securities and stockholder fraud lawyers at The Evans Law Firm handle FINRA securities arbitrations on behalf of senior victims of securities abuse and fraudulent sales of securities – including variable annuities.
mismanagement (negligence or failure to act in accordance with the standard of care), negligent supervision by brokerage firms, and brokerage malpractice.
As demonstrated by the arbitrations and litigation brought by the Evans Law Firm, it is essential to regularly monitor your investments and ensure that your finances are in order. If possible, retain independent advice, and be on the look-out for anything suspicious. If you or a loved one have suffered a loss of income or savings from fraudulent investments and the stock market, you may be eligible to bring a lawsuit or enter arbitration.
For a free and confidential consultation regarding FINRA/NASD Securities Arbitration Cases or other instances of financial elder abuse, contact the California securities and stockbroker fraud lawyers at info@evanslaw.com or call 415-441-8669.


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Varsity boys' and girls' basketball works hard to achieve success
Adam Staudinger, Asst. Web Editor-in-Chief
With this years basketball season coming to an end, many people look at the final results of both the boys' and girls' Varsity teams and their coaches' strategies for success. Both Head Coaches Ryan Carroll of the girls' team and John Moffitt of the boys' team have different strategies to achieve their goals.
"We have a regular routine that we do and some drills that are done pretty consistently," said Carroll. "We try to mix in different drills to prepare for different opponents."
Carroll's team members take his strategies to heart, and carry them out thoroughly. Through over 14 years of coaching, he has had a lot of experience to prepare routines and work out plans for success.
"We play a lot of five on five and prepare for our next match up," said senior Taryn Hendershot.
Moffitt has a different philosophy on coaching.
"You've got to teach what your expectations are for the kids," said Moffitt. "Then it's just repetition at a very high level."
Moffitt has been a coach for nearly 20 years. He has been coaching in the Jackson area for 18.
He tries to simulate the feel of a game during practice to better prepare his team for matches. He believes personal control is critical to basketball, and players should be able to control their attitude, effort, and preparation during games. The Varsity boys practice with precision and endurance.
"[We do] conditioning, skills work, and game planning for our next game," said senior Jake Maples.
The boys' practices also consist of a lot of shooting, running, and basketball fundamentals. Depending on who their next match is, the boys will practice the skills needed to be successful against the upcoming game.
Even though the coaches have different techniques for practicing, they also share many similarities.
Members of both teams say they have grown as people, and learned many lessons from their coaches. Hendershot says being part of a this team has taught her leadership skills that are essential to the sport, but applicable to real life.
"[I've learned] how to work with others," said Hendershot. "I try to lead by example."
Maples says he has also learned leadership skills and the importance of hard work from his coach. He has also learned that it takes time and dedication to make a team work well together.
"[I've learned] how to work hard and if you want something you have to go get it," said Maples. "I went from being just a young sophomore on Varsity to a senior captain."
Both coaches are proud of their teams and the hard work they put in. Both enjoy spending time with their team.
"They are a great group and a lot of fun to be around," said Carroll. "Spending so much time in the gym is easy when you are surrounded by good people."
Moffitt has a similar message for his team.
"I think [the team] genuinely likes each other and they have good team chemistry. They give a good effort regardless of where we're at with wins and losses," said Moffitt."I'm proud of that."
Another thing both coaches have achieved is creating memories for their team to look back on. Both the boys' and girls' teams have enjoyed their time spent with teammates, on and off the court.
Hendershot says she has enjoyed meeting new people on the team and making friends with them. Maples has enjoyed his time on the court, and is proud of the victories the team has made.
The Varsity games are on most Fridays in the high school gym. Girls start at 6 p.m. and the boys start at 7:30 p.m.
Adam Staudinger, Assistant Web Editor-in-Chief
Adam is a senior who enjoys reading, writing, and swimming.
"Honesty is the best policy." Benjamin Franklin
Fall Sports Rewind
Hockey team of 517
Journey to recovery
Real Men Wear Pink
Equestrian team rides to a successful season
Winter sports begin preparation for new season
Soccer Season, Why Not?
Athletics prove beneficial to students
Freshman earns spot on Varsity


Moving on from your physician could open you up to certain challenges, so it's important that the situation is dealt with carefully. No one wants to be without care or to spend a lot of time looking around for a physician. In some cases, you may be able to switch between physicians in the same practice, but some groups frown on that. If there's not a lot of choice in physicians in your local area, it's important not to burn any bridges. The best-case scenario is for both you and your physician to agree that you've gone as far as you can together and that it's time for a change.
Before you decide to fire your doc, you should try to first repair the relationship. You'll need to put your finger on the cause of the problem: is it the doctor or is it you (and let's be honest!)? If the problem is something that you feel the two of you can work on, you'll want to take steps to smooth things over and try to establish a better working relationship. If it's impossible to work out your differences, you'll want to consider if it's time to fire your doctor and switch to a new one. Learn more about working positively with your doctor from this article.
If you have tried to work things out and are still unable to develop a good rapport with your physician, you may feel that it is time to change doctors. However, finding a new physician is not as easy as picking someone out of the phone book. You are leaving your present doctor because of a fractured relationship, and you don't want to go to the trouble of switching only to end up in the same position again in a few months. Use the information in this article to make sure you're picking the right doc for the job.
Changing doctors isn't as simple as making an appointment with your new physician, and leaving the old one behind. You want to make sure that you have continuity of care, and you certainly don't want to have to repeat tests or bloodwork for your new doctor if you just had them done with your old doctor. In this article, find out how to respectfully leave your old doctor, get your records and test results, and start off on the right foot with your new doctor.
You may decide that you want to let your doctor know why you have decided to leave her care. You can do that during an appointment, over the phone, or you could write a letter. Writing a letter can also serve as a formal request to have your medical records released to you or forwarded to your new doctor. This article will help you decide if you'd like to write a letter, and also provides a sample letter that you can customize to your circumstances.
Whatever you decide to do, honesty (tinged with some tact!) is probably the best policy. Sometimes people just don't get along. The problem is that it's rather taken for granted that people should be able to go to any doctor and have the relationship go swimmingly. However, in reality, that's not always the case. The best course of action is one of truth and respect, which will help you get on your way to receiving the care you need from a physician you can work with.


text:
Basic Arcade Games At Home?
in board games
Imagine, you've been enjoying a game for hours and simply as you're about to finish a stage when the sport freezes up. Or you're in the course of an online competitors and the game locks up, knocking you out of it. You scream in frustration, "Why does my sport freeze up"? Real-time Strategy (RTS) games don't come a lot grander than these in the Complete Battle sequence, and the newest entrant, Battles KINGDOM, is free-to-play. If you set the system to play only E-rated games, children won't be able to play DVD's or games which have Teen, Mature, or Adults Solely scores.
And, unlike PlayStation and Xbox, which have their own ecosystems free of charge games by PlayStation Plus and Xbox Games with Gold, the best free games on COMPUTER take on a different – and devoted – method. The most famous of those puzzles are the unique Rubik's Dice, and the Tangram puzzle, the place the objective is to type a selected form with all seven pieces.
Apple, The New York Instances, USA Right now, Mother and father Magazine and Scholastic, to call only a few, have featured ABCya's widespread instructional games. The Walt Disney Company has a very good relationship" with Electronic Arts and has little interest in returning to video games, one thing with which it was by no means capable of reveal much skill," CEO Bob Iger mentioned in an earnings call Tuesday.
Transport puzzles are puzzles during which the participant pushes packing containers round and tries to achieve the goal of the sport. Players take management of members of the Tenno, an ancient race at war with enemies such as the Grineer, the Corpus, the Infested and the Sentients.
Google Play Games
Word puzzles like Crosswords and Anagrams are the preferred sort. This is a quite simple game which you can play with your lover and revel in a night of sensual enjoyable.
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Microsoft Solitaire Assortment
SIGIL is a free megawad created by John Romero for the unique 1993 DOOM®. Star Wars Battlefront II" got here underneath fireplace for its use of questionable microtransaction loot boxes, and EA not too long ago introduced it had killed off one of its games, turning it right into a smaller venture. League of Legends' automated matchmaking, various forged of characters and pristine maps have made it a multiplayer behemoth over the previous couple of years, and one that may definitely stand the test of time.
Of course, with 4 gamers taking up one, there is a distinctive catch: hence the sport's title, monsters start out at a fundamental level but evolve over time by killing and consuming wildlife in close by areas. Online gaming is common. There's normally not room on a classic sport's management panel for comfy play with two sets of controls (2 joysticks with two buttons each).
Pros And Cons Of Being A Game Designer
Some people love using laptops but in addition like playing games. On-line arcades also offer a much bigger number of games than your local arcade. Choose whether you wish to be a member of the Hero or Villain faction then customize your character and you'll be sent out into the world of DC Universe On-line at the hands of Dawn Game Firm.
You can also create your individual Miniclip avatar with clothes and niknaks to symbolize you in our fun Miniclip games. Welcome to , your zone to play free online games. It may be tough to find time to complete a video game, particularly if you happen to solely have a number of hours a week to play.
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Hello! These amazing games are just over the horizon, coming quickly to PlayStation®4. In doing so, you'll spend most of your time engaging in fight with other gamers on-line. Hyper Sentinel has been developed by HUEY Games and Four5Six Pixel, a crew of extremely gifted sport designers, programmers and gaming veterans.
Tags: arcade, basic, games
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Brigade Group
Brigade Group Established in 1986, the Brigade Group had its main focus on real estate development. In today's scenario it is one of the outstanding property developers of South India with its corporate office in Bangalore and branch offices spread across several cities of South like Chennai, Hyderabad, Mangalore, Kochi, Mysore and Chikmagalur, a representative office in Dubai and a certified agent in.. Read More
Brigade Group Established in 1986, the Brigade Group had its main focus on real estate development. In today's scenario it is one of the outstanding property developers of South India with its corporate office in Bangalore and branch offices spread across several cities of South like Chennai, Hyderabad, Mangalore, Kochi, Mysore and Chikmagalur, a representative office in Dubai and a certified agent in America. They have a diverse multi domain product range which includes property management services, real estate development, education and hospitality. The company works for total customer satisfaction through quality products and continuous improvement in services, products and systems. It is professionally managed organization with a confident and stable business model and has created a brand name for itself that stands for reliability, trust, and innovation across all spheres. In its efforts to cater to the housing demands of the NRI's and Persons of Indian Origin, the group has also announced its tie up with former Australian cricketer Steve Waugh's "waughglobal" realty firm. The group has a vision to be a world class organization in its people, products, processes and performance and to be a preferred developer in residential, commercial and hospitality services. The company is also committed to promote efficient use and conservation of natural resources. Read Less
Brigade Orchards
By Brigade Group
Devanahalli, Bangalore
2,3 BHK Apartment
1360 SQ. FT. Possession February 2022
Brigade Northridge
Jakkur, Bangalore
1386 SQ. FT. Possession January
1.03 Cr - 1.36 Cr Contact
Tech Park
Whitefield, Bangalore
OFFICE SPACE Apartment
60.00 L Contact
Brigade IRV Centre
3000 SQFT Possession January 2016
Brigade Signature Tower
Old Airport Road, Bangalore
SQ. FT. Possession November 2017
Bhuwalka Icon
SQ. FT. Possession June 2016
Brigade At No 7
Banjara Hills, Hyderabad
Brigade Buena Vista
Old Madras Road, Bangalore
1, 2.5 BHK Apartment


The Lost Plot is the fourth book in Genevieve Cogman's delightful Invisible Library series, which follows the adventures of Librarian Irene Winters whose job involves traveling to various alternate worlds collecting books for an organization existing outside of time and space—and often requires plenty of deception and quick thinking on her part. Fortunately, Irene is competent and sharp-witted enough to consistently rise to the occasion even in the most ludicrous situations, and her practical-yet-amusing observations of the world and these frequent absurd predicaments is part of what makes these novels so much fun. The Lost Plot is every bit as entertaining as I've come to expect from this series, and I especially enjoyed its focus on the difficulty of impartiality—and on dragons!
With the work it does to maintain balance throughout the worlds, it's important that the Library remains a neutral entity—which is why Irene is rather disturbed when she's approached by a dragon hoping to enlist her aid in a political contest. A dragon queen has given two of her junior servants the opportunity to compete for the position of Minister by completing a series of tasks, one of which is procuring an original copy of Journey to the West found in a specific alternate world. Though the two candidates were explicitly forbidden from seeking the help of a Librarian, this dragon learned that her rival broke the rule and believes it's only fair that she do the same under the circumstances.
If you've been following this site for a little while, this probably isn't the first time you've seen the Invisible Library series mentioned: not only have I reviewed each installment, but each book has also appeared on my last three year-end favorites lists. Like its predecessors, The Lost Plot is incredibly engaging, and I think that readers who enjoyed the previous books will most likely find this latest novel worthwhile as well. Personally, I actually found it to be slightly better than the last one since it was less meandering (and more dragon-focused!).
Most of The Lost Plot takes place in an alternate version of America, mainly New York City after a brief stint in Boston, similar to the 1920s during the Prohibition. Irene and her apprentice, Kai, find themselves contending with cops and mobsters—plus a Fae sharpshooter serving as a mob boss's right-hand woman, and of course, dragons! As usual, Irene has to overcome a variety of obstacles using her wits and a Librarian's primary weapon, the Language, which can alter reality when used precisely. Irene not only excels at evaluating new situations and adjusting quickly but she also has fun with many of the challenges she faces: when she decides that she can use being mistaken for an infamous British mob boss to her advantage, she finds she rather enjoys playing this role. I love that she's competent and adventurous but also self-aware enough to realize that her insatiable curiosity could be her downfall and that she can sometimes be more calculating than kind (which she doesn't particularly like, but she has no delusions about it being a part of her).
The central theme of the novel is neutrality as Irene and her closest allies grapple with the complications that come with the expectation of being completely unbiased. Since this investigation involves dragons, Irene working with Kai—a dragon prince—can present some problems for both of them, and Irene sees firsthand how having close ties can compromise one whose duty relies on being impartial.
The Lost Plot is a diverting read with a wonderful setting that is less disjointed and more focused than the preceding volume in the Invisible Library series. The one thing I would have preferred was for it to be less of a standalone since it did not follow up on the revelations from the last book other than briefly acknowledging them, but at the same time, it's not what I'd call a "filler book" since the end does have potential ramifications for future installments. However, it is another absorbing, compulsively readable adventure—and I can hardly wait to find out what trouble follows Irene in the next book!


So glad it made you smile.
We need more hot air enthusiasts! I vote for all balloonists to elected to office this year!
Sorry, Natalie, I disagree. There is enough hot air in DC already.
I will vote for whoever creates the least hot air.
I was just wondering, does Random Lake not allow new residents to move to town until someone dies?
I love random questions. Thank you.
If we could just learn to properly attach a balloon to the exhaust vents of each politician, we might have a more beautiful skyline, and at the same time vacate the landscape for the ordinary folk.
It would be interesting to have them wear a device that measures the amount they produce. I bet there's an app for that.
Love that picture. So appropriate for this metaphor.
It's a great picture. If you go to the link for the photographer, he has other great ones.
I always suspected that those politicians were taking us for a ride!
Yes, they take us to the dry cleaners every chance they get.
Every time I turn on the TV news station, I hyperventilate. Now I know why. Thanks for a much needed chortle.
Chortle would be a good name for candy. Thank you for that idea.
Oh, oh, ow. A bit of pun-overdose there. I need my own break; *poot* ahhhhhh, I'm recovering.
Please understand that it's a medical condition.
I think that the winds of change are needed. It's time to take the air out of over-inflated egos.
We can try, but there's always a new group of them rising up.


"Acoustic Transpositions in the Viggiano harp"
A Middle , at the House of the people of Settignano (via di San Romano 1, Settignano, FI; free admission , Tessa ARCI, UISP or Legambiente compulsory; info 055697007) Wednesday 17th April at 9.30 pm we hear "Trasposizioni Acustiche nell'Arpa di Viggiano "(Massimo Duino: mandolin, Luca Bersaglieri: guitar, Marco Massari: percussion, Vincenzo Arvia: diatonic accordion), an ancestral acoustic journey through the Lucanian musical imaginary: the soundscape of" endangered "rural communities in which, through music, we celebrate "the myth of the beyond".
The tonal and harmonic varieties of Lucan music offer at the same time simple and complex atmospheres, historicizing present liquids, and humanizing places of being. Around 1600, in these places of Basilicata, famous sentences were pronounced, becoming "sound stories" and fairy tales (see the famous collection by Basile) that still reverberate in the minds of those who heard and read them during his childhood. The themes underlying the show are: the importance of the reference, "memory", the need for "display" in places where one arrives by force, for pleasure or because they are forced. The absence, the abandonment of places, the repertoire of traveling Viaggianesi players, the small permanent orchestras, are part of this musical synthesis performed by the four musicians. Through the Lucanian music and its archetypes, one is immersed in mnemonic symbologies with shared community origins. An experience in which the music and its acoustic sounds, made of accurate transpositions for classical guitar, mandolin, swing guitar, diatonic percussion organ and voice, testify that in the few elements that constitute each origin, the differences that characterize us are irrelevant. In "Trasposizioni Acustiche In the Harp of Viggiano" the music becomes journey, dream, departure, absence and labyrinth of existence, words are lost among fairy tales, myths, lullabies and tarantellas. Songs and music of love and celebration. A frontier music that is placed continuously on the border, if only to overcome it.
"Middle" is a musical event born in 2017 from the idea of a group of young people attending the club, with the intention of creating a space to give the possibility to those who love music to perform. The first and third Wednesday of each month from January to December takes place inside the Settignano people's house, via di San Romano 1 Fi. The musical event is accompanied by a buffet aperitif from 20.30; groups perform from 9.30pm to 11.30pm . The consummation is reserved only to Arci, Uisp or Legambiente members (whoever does not have a card can request it at the bar, filling out the appropriate form, at a cost of 13 euros).
Mandolin Massimo Duino. A pupil of Paolo della Giovanna, Alessandro Di Puccio, Joy de Vito and Simone Solazzo, he is a traditional music specialist from southern Italy; he collaborated with Gianfranco Narracci (singer and percussionist of the Medilatina and Tarantesys group) from whom he learned the techniques of tambourine-tammorra, and continued the study of the mandolin under the guidance of Mimmo Epifani (mandolinist of Eugenio Bennato), then with the mandolinist Peppo Grasso. In 2005 he founded the Kitammorre UFD, with which he participated in several festivals in Italy and France, and later the Lucania, with whom he recorded the album "055" playing in many popular music festivals among the most important. He is currently involved in the minimal music project Margretts, the noise music project Zeno in Coscienza, the project "In Folk and Reduction", and he conceived and created together with the guitarist Luca Bersaglieri the musical project "Acoustic Transpositions in the Harp of Viggiano. "
Chitarra Luca Bersaglieri, from Molise, studied classical guitar with Fernando Lepri and Giuliano Balestra (pupil of Pujol and Andrés Segovia), later jazz guitar and improvisation with Gianni Zei, extending the study to swing guitar, merging traditional practices with deriving techniques from classical and flamenco guitar. He has taken part in numerous popular music festivals in Italy and in Europe. He also plays in various punk, reggae and popular music formations; together with the mandolinist Massimo Duino he conceived and created the project "Acoustic Transpositions in the Harp of Viggiano".
Percussions Marco Massari, student of Gianfranco Narracci and element of the Kitammorre UFD, of Lucanìa, of Sanacore, Mezaluna, Margretts, Tetras, In Folk and Reduction and "Trasposizioni Acustiche nell'Arpa di Viggiano".
Vincenzo Arvia, diatonic organ from Alessandria del Carretto (CS), where he began playing the frame drum by observing the local players and accompanying the tarantellas of the town. At the age of eleven he began studying modern guitar with the jazz guitarist Umberto Tricca. At the end of 2016, at the age of eighteen, he began to study the diatonic accordion, first approaching his country's traditions that were handed down by oral tradition and then, thanks to the multi-instrumentalist Luca Bannella, he trained on the performance of pieces from the French tradition. Begins to perform in 2017 with Lucania; then with "Trio a Soffietto" with Luca Bannella and his father Carmelo Arvia and collaborates with Enzo Mileo and Ettore Bonafè. With Massimo Duino he is also in the training "In Folk and Reduction".


Dr. Carlos del Rio possesses a keen view of how the novel H1N1 virus emerged last spring. Del Rio was in Mexico as the virus established itself south of the border. Its rapid, far-reaching spread marked the first influenza pandemic of the 21st century.
Only a day after the virus was identified, on April 23, Mexican authorities closed schools, called off sporting events, and canceled religious gatherings. Known as "social distancing," these actions led to a decrease in cases, an important lesson, says del Rio. The public knew what to do, they were cooperative, and what's more, they applied a lot of peer pressure when it came to hand washing and sneezing hygiene.
Another lesson learned: preparation paid off. Anticipating a pandemic, The World Health Organization had earlier mandated that countries draw up influenza pandemic plans. "Those plans were incredibly helpful in getting people to work together, communicate, and know what to do," says del Rio. Interestingly, the plans in Mexico and the United States were aimed at a virus projected to originate from an avian source from southeastern Asia. "It was not developed for a swine virus coming from inside the country," explained del Rio.
Novel H1N1, even though it's thought of as a swine virus is in fact only about 47% swine–30% from North American swine and 17% from Eurasian swine. The virus also contains human and avian strains. That's important, says del Rio, because the characteristics of its genes determine how symptoms, susceptibility, and immunity manifest themselves.
In trying to predict what's in store for the current flu pandemic, researchers are looking back at past pandemics. Last century, there were three major flu pandemics. The largest and most important was the 1918 pandemic.
Last spring, as H1N1 avian influenza spread across the globe, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put out a call asking students to assist. Within three days, 85 students from Emory's Rollins School of Public Health (RSPH) had volunteered.
Nick Schaad was among the students authorized to help man the CDC's Emergency Operations Center at the height of the novel H1N1 outbreak. Once the CDC began to identify influenza clusters, students began conducting phone surveys.
Schaad says he was involved in the St. Francis prep school survey in New York. Students and staff member who were sick with any flu-like symptoms were identified. The team called them and asked about the size of their household, what they might have done to protect themselves, and any recent travel. The goal was to learn as much possible about H1N1 in advance of the fall flu season.
Like the students they teach, RSPH faculty became engaged in the H1N1 epidemic. Last spring, Emory physician and microbiologist Keith Klugman, MD, PhD, was recruited to join the CDC's Team B, which includes experts from outside the CDC to quickly review and inform the agency's efforts. CDC created Team B in the early 2000s to cope with the growing complexity of public health emergencies.
Klugman says his role included the bacterial complications of influenza. Evidence from 1918, notes Klugman, clearly shows that the great majority of deaths were due to bacterial complications of the flu. In other words, the flu itself could occasionally cause death on itss own. But it caused death mostly by facilitating a synergistic lethality between itself and bacteria.
Although much has changed since 1918, the bacteria that caused so many deaths still exist but are susceptible to antibiotics.
An outbreak of measles in the state of Washington last year sickened 19 children. Of those who fell ill, 18 had something in common—they were not vaccinated.
Saad Omer aims to increase vaccine compliance to prevent childhood diseases.
For Emory Rollins School of Public Health researcher Saad Omer, the Washington outbreak is a perfect example of the effect on an entire community when individuals are unimmunized. His research aims to shed light on ways to encourage increased vaccine compliance for adults and their children.
Omer says vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, influenza, and pertussis often start among persons who forego vaccinations, spread rapidly within unvaccinated populations, and also spread to other subpopulations.
In a recent New England Journal of Medicine article, Omer and his colleagues reviewed evidence from several states showing that vaccine refusal due to nonmedical reasons puts children in communities with high rates of refusal at higher risk for infectious diseases such as measles and whooping cough.
Even children whose parents do not refuse vaccination are put at risk because "herd immunity" normally protects children who are too young to be vaccinated, who can't be vaccinated for medical reasons, or whose immune systems do not respond sufficiently to vaccination.
Research findings indicate that everyone who lives in a community with a high proportion of unvaccinated individuals has an elevated risk of developing a vaccine-preventable disease.
Read more about Omer's research on vaccine refusals in the fall 2009 issue of Public Health magazine.
Omer also discusses the importance of vaccinating against the H1N1 virus in an Oct. 16 article in The New York Times.
Clinical trials are underway at Emory and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta testing an investigational H1N1 flu vaccine along with the seasonal flu vaccine. Emory will enroll about 100 children, ages six months to 18 years, and up to 650 children nationally will participate in the study.
The study will look at the safety of and measure the body's immune response to the H1N1 flu vaccine. In addition, it will help determine how and when the vaccine should be given with the seasonal flu vaccine to make it most effective.
Another important factor is learning if there are any potential problems by giving the vaccines together, such as whether one vaccine will undermine the protective power of the other.
The answer is important because experts are predicting that both strains of flu will circulate this fall and winter.
The clinical trial is part of the Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units (VTEUs), supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). At Emory, this team is led by Mark Mulligan, MD, executive director of the Hope Clinic of the Emory Vaccine Center.
The Emory pediatric clinical trial is taking place at the Emory-Children's Center. It is led by Emory VTEU co-directors Harry Keyserling, MD, professor of pediatric infectious diseases at Emory School of Medicine and Paul Spearman, MD, chief research officer for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and vice chair of research for Emory's Department of Pediatrics, along with Allison Ross, MD, Emory assistant professor of pediatric infectious diseases.
Keyserling says that because children and young adults are considered among the most vulnerable populations for new and emerging strains of influenza, such as the current H1N1 pandemic, it is critically important that testing for a vaccine is quick and efficient.
The pediatric trial follows the launch of a VTEU-led adult clinical trial of the H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccines, which began at Emory's Hope Clinic on Aug. 10 and will continue with followup visits for the next six weeks by a group of more than 170 volunteers.
Experts on H1N1 influenza are collaborating all across the country to learn more about the virus and how to prevent its transmission. In a race against time, Emory studies are taking place in the lab and in human clinical trials to help find a vaccine that can be used in the near weeks to come.
Recently, Emory's Jeff Koplan, MD, vice president for global health and past CDC director, participated in a Breakthroughs panel sponsored by Big Think, Pfizer and Discover to discuss the latest issues in pandemic and genomic science, fields that have not only made big headlines recently but also promise to be two of the most pressing topics in global science and medicine in coming years.
The panel focused on the real-time, round-the-clock scientific mission to understand the history, significance, and future of the new strain of flu that emerged suddenly this spring. Panelists included Koplan; Barry Bloom, Joan L. and Julius H. Jacobson Professor of Public Health at Harvard; Peter Palese, chairman of the microbiology department at Mt. Sinai Medical Center; and Michael Worobey, ecologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona.
View: Superbug – Are We Prepared for The Next Great Plague?
Emory began signing up several hundred interested volunteers several weeks ago for a clinical trial of the H1N1 vaccine along with the seasonal flu vaccine. About 170 adults have now been vaccinated in the trial, which will last about nine weeks and involve several vaccinations and blood tests. A clinical trial testing the H1N1 vaccine in children will begin at Emory and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta in the next few days, followed by another adult clinical trial adding an adjuvant to the H1N1 vaccine.
In addition, a multi-pronged attack against the H1N1 virus by Emory researchers is using a new method of rapidly producing highly targeted monoclonal antibodies to develop a diagnostic test as well as a temporary therapy to stave off the H1N1 virus. The antibodies, which can be isolated from a small amount of the blood of humans infected with the virus, could be targeted against H1N1 and rapidly reproduced to detect or attack the virus.
Today Emory researchers began vaccinating volunteer participants in the first of several planned clinical trials of a new H1N1 vaccine. A morning press briefing attended by Atlanta and national media provided Emory a platform to inform the public.
The clinical trials are expected to gather critical information that will allow the National Institutes of Health to quickly evaluate the new vaccines to determine whether they are safe and effective in inducing protective immune responses. The results will help determine how to begin a fall 2009 pandemic flu vaccination program.
Emory began signing up several hundred interested volunteers about two weeks ago and has been screening the volunteers to make sure they fit certain criteria. Volunteers will receive their first vaccinations over the first week of the trial and will return several times over the course of nine weeks to receive additional vaccinations and blood tests.
The clinical trials are in a compressed timeframe because of the possible fall resurgence of pandemic H1N1 flu infections that may coincide with the circulation of seasonal flu strains.
The clinical trials are being conducted by the eight Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units (VTEUs), supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
For more information about the Emory flu clinical trials, call 877-424-HOPE (4673) for the adult and senior studies, or 404-727-4044 for the pediatric studies.
A new method of rapidly producing highly targeted monoclonal antibodies could soon be used to rapidly diagnose H1N1 influenza. Just a month after vaccinating people with a seasonal flu vaccine, the researchers were able to use just a few tablespoons of the vaccinated individuals' blood to generate antibodies against that specific strain of flu. The research was published last spring in Nature.
The scientists believe their discovery could be applied to any infectious disease. By using a few drops of blood from infected people, they could isolate antibodies to rapidly diagnose a newly emerging flu strain such as H1N1.
There are many variations of H1N1, says Rafi Ahmed, director of the Emory Vaccine Center and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, but this technology could be used to identify a very specific strain, such as the one we're dealing with in the current pandemic. The diagnostic tests available now are not specific to any particular H1N1 strain.
Ahmed and his colleagues, including postdoctoral fellow Jens Wrammert, and Patrick Wilson from the University of Chicago, hope their work will lead to a new, specific test for H1N1 within the next several months.
Conventional methods of making human monoclonal antibodies are time-consuming and laborious, says Ahmed. For example, one method involves sifting through human B cells —white blood cells that make human antibodies—and then looking for specific cells that make the right antibodies.
Not only is the new method quicker and less cumbersome, it could be applied to almost any infectious disease. In any kind of emerging infection, speed is essential, says Ahmed.
To listen to Ahmed describe the new monoclonal antibody method, listen to Emory's Sound Science podcast.


About your above person by his/her avi.
What can you tell about the person above you from their avi? (Try not to look at their sig, just base it off their avi). I thought this could be fun.
He is "Comics MASTER". and prefer to use one of his works.
Well about to look for yet another Justin Bieber...LOL!
Has breathing problems. That probably has something to do with having a triangular mouth.


text:
Campaign Finance Issues
January 9, 2022 Guest Writer Campaign Finance Issues 0
Campaign Finance-Campaign Finance
A question that was asked to most of the representative about Campaign Finance was:
Campaign Finance: Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions?
Anyone that answers this question with a "No" is corrupt and should not be an Elected Official. The non-regulation is a way to legalized bribery which is a way to buy your representative so he/she can make laws that they can be use against you. The Trump Tax cuts are a very good example of the corruption in our government.
If you want to make a difference there is a wonderful group called Wolf-PAC that has been working to "Get Money Out of Politics"
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is the independent regulatory agency charged with administering and enforcing the federal campaign finance law. The FEC has jurisdiction over the financing of campaigns for the U.S. House, Senate, Presidency and the Vice Presidency.
Federal campaign finance law covers three broad subjects:
Public disclosure of funds raised and spent to influence federal elections
Explore campaign finance data »
Restrictions on contributions and expenditures made to influence federal elections
Search and browse legal resources »
The public financing of presidential campaigns
Learn more about federal candidates and committees »
More on Campaign Finance which is regulated by the Federal Election Commission


text:
Q: Powershell equivalent of Linux timeout As part of a Powershell script I need to perform a task that is typically quick, but can sometimes take a long amount of time. I want to execute the task, then wait either for it fo finish or for set time to pass, whichever happens first. When either condition happens, I need the Powershell script to return back to the command prompt.
Here is the closest I've come up with (using ping as an example)
$x = Start-Process -Filepath "ping" -ArgumentList 'google.com -n 100' -NoNewWindow -PassThru;
Start-Sleep -Seconds 5;
try { Stop-Process -Id $x.Id -ErrorAction stop } catch {};

This will kill the process after the timoeout is reached (if it is still running) and return back to the prompt. However, it won't return to the prompt if the command successfully completes before timeout. This results in the script always taking however long is specified in the timeout value.
The desired semantics are similar or identical to Linux's timeout command.
Requirements:

*

*If the task completes within timeout window, control returns to the script (a prompt is displayed)

*If the timeout is reached and the task is stil running, the task is killed and control returns to the script (a prompt is displayed)

*Output from the task must be printed/displayed to stdout

*Works over an SSH connection

A: Edited to use ping instead of notepad.  I'm combining wait-process and "$?" into one statement with "$( )", because powershell "if" looks at the output, not the exit status.
start ping 'google.com -n 100'
if (-not $(wait-process ping 10; $?)) {
  stop-process -name ping }

A: I think some of the requirement can be met by using a Stopwatch, you'll have to test the SSH connection.
$timeOut = New-TimeSpan -Seconds 5
$stopWatch = [System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch]::StartNew()

do {
    try {
          Test-Connection -ComputerName google.ca -Count 1 -ErrorAction Stop
          $timeOut = New-TimeSpan -Seconds 0  #Stop the stopWatch, we got a response
    }
    catch { #Write-Host "No response" }
}
While ($stopWatch.elaspsed -lt $timeOut)


text:
/**
 * Created by stevegentile on 12/19/14.
 */
(function () {
    'use strict';
    function formToggle ($filter) {
        return{
            restrict: 'EA',
            replace: true,
            require: '^form-field',
            scope: {
                toggleSwitchType: '@?',
                onLabel         : '@?',
                offLabel        : '@?',
                style           : '@?',
                layoutCss       : '@?' //default col-md-6
            },
            templateUrl: 'sds-angular-controls/form-directives/form-toggle.html',
            link: function (scope, element, attr, container) {
                scope.container = container.$scope;

                switch(container.$scope.layout){
                    case "horizontal":
                        scope.layoutCss = scope.layoutCss || "col-md-6";
                        break;
                    default: //stacked
                        scope.layoutCss = scope.layoutCss || "";
                }

                scope.toggleSwitchType = scope.toggleSwitchType || "primary";
                scope.onLabel = scope.onLabel   || "Yes";
                scope.offLabel = scope.offLabel || "No";
            }
        }
    }

    angular.module('sds-angular-controls').directive('formToggle', formToggle);
})();

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


KACHINA ALL FOR LOVE Owned by Linda Turner. Kindle was forth in a large Open class at the Borzoi National.
Nikita is a lovely young borzoi, I see wonderful things in her future!
Hound Speciality 2013 Audrey was BOW for a four point major.
Dali finish 2011 as a Top Five Greyhound, and with an invite to the Garden. Congratulation Drs Kay Henderson and Wyatt Delfino - Dali is a lovely lady indeed!
DesertWinds has been honored handle to some fabulous hounds!


text:
Daku Island is Next Tourism Hotspot in Siargao
Daku Island, one of the three islands of Siargao, Surigao del Norte, is the next tourism hotspot in Mindanao.
With an approximate area of 30 hectares, Daku Island is being developed by the local and provincial government in Surigao del Norte to be the next tourist destination in Siargao, a surfer's haven.
"We envision Daku Island to become another Boracay in the country because of its strong potential for tourism industry," said Mayor Jaime Rusillon of General Luna.
The island is gifted with white sand beaches and two surfing areas that are now being visited by surfers from the country and around the world.
Rusillon said there is no doubt that Siargao Island is now among the foremost destinations of foreign and local tourists.
The island, a gem of Surigao del Norte province is drawing thousands of visitors every year especially during Holy Week and the staging of two international sports in the country, the Siargao International Game Fishing Tournament and the Siargao International Surfing Cup.
More than 7,000 visitors trooped to General Luna town this September alone to witness the ongoing 22nd Siargao International Surfing Cup which formally opened last Sept. 23 and will end on Sept. 29.
Of the total number, more than 2,000 are foreign tourists, some of whom are professional surfers who will compete in said prestigious cup that will end on Sept. 29.
Local and foreign tourists who visit General Luna every year do not leave the town without stepping into its three sought-after islets, namely the Naked Island, Daku Island and Guyam Island.
Rusillon said Daku Island is one of the 19 barangays of General Luna populated by more or less 80 households.
To equip the island with facilities that will cater to the needs of visitors, the provincial government of Surigao del Norte established last year a PHP3-million tourism center building.
"We thank Governor Sol Matugas for the construction of this tourism center. Visitors to the island utilize this center as dining area and a place to rest for those who opt to stay overnight," said Daku Island Barangay Captain Imelda Antipasado Gaña.
Daku Island, Siargao
Tourism development is among the priorities of Governor Matugas in Surigao del Norte especially in Siargao Island where the radars of fishing and surfing enthusiasts worldwide are geared to.
But Daku Island is special, said Rusillon, adding that the place is considered as the stop-over of island hoppers from the Naked Island to eat, splash into its cool and clear waters and rest before proceeding to Guyam Island and then back to the mainland Siargao.
Gaña said around 200 to 300 local and foreign visitors come to Daku Island everyday but the peak season of tourist arrival in the island happen every Holy Week when they cater around 1,000 visitors daily from the months of April to June.
She said that aside from the tourism center, the island has also more than 30 cottages strategically situated along white sand beaches and are available for rent to visitors.
There are tourists who bring with them tents and stay for a night in the island, while others just stay in the cottages and in the tourism center Gaña said.
"They are safe here to stay. We always assure of their safety especially at night time," she added.
Daku Island now is being provided with 22 units of solar power street lights and one unit solar power charging system.
The solar project with a total cost of PHP845,509 was implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) through its KALAHI-CIDDS program.
A power generator, provided by the provincial government of Surigao del Norte is also helping the residents in the island.
To further prepare Daku Island as the next tourism hub in the area, the Department of Energy (DOE) with the support of the provincial government and the first congressional district is set to implement a PHP36-million underwater cable project from the mainland Siargao.
Rusillon said the project was already bidded out last January.
"We are expecting the start of the construction of the project this year," Rusillon said, adding that investors who are into hotel and restaurant businesses have already signified their intentions to pour in capital into Daku Island once supply of electricity in the area is stabilized.
If the underwater cable is completed, Rusillon said Daku Island will source out its power and electricity from the Siargao Electric Cooperative or SIARELCO.
Rusillon said that Daku Island is also home to the biggest fish sanctuary in CARAGA region (Region XIII) that continue to provide livelihood and support to hundreds of fisherfolk living in the area.
The mayor said that the fish sanctuary has a total area of 580 hectares that was developed and funded by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) with the support of the local and provincial governments.
"Maayo kay nay fish sanctuary nga moseguro sa among panginabuhian (It is good that there is that fish sanctuary that assures us of our livelihood)," said 60-year old fisherman Eduardo Cometa.
Cometa said he has been fishing around Daku Island for nearly 40 years now.
Catch varies every day, Cometa added, as he expressed gratitude to the municipal and provincial leaders for the support they provided to the fisherfolk of Daku Island.
Gaña also testified that the supply of fish and other marine products in Daku Island are still abundant.
To maintain such abundance, the local government is also intensifying its campaign against illegal fishing particularly the use of dynamite.
"We are watching our marine resources here especially in the sanctuary. Authorities and fisherfolk are active in campaign against the use of dynamite and other illegal fishing methods that will destroy our sources of food and livelihood," Rusillon said. (PNA)JMC/LCM/ALEX D. LOPEZ/LDP