text:
Battle of the Amazons, 1615 - 17 by Peter Paul Rubens
Rubens distinguished consistently in his mind between the large and the small format, and understood scale as many nineteenth-century artists failed to do: large works need to be simple, are often to be seen at a distance and take on some of the nature of decoration or even of architecture; small pictures may be more detailed and complex. He also understood that, whatever the degree of detail, every brush stroke must be made with scale in mind.
One of the finest of Rubens' pictures, crowded with figures and incidents, is the Battle of the Amazons which belonged first to Cornelis van der Geest. It was probably Rubens's thanksgiving for the commission for the Raising of the Cross; if so, the date of 1615 given by the painter's nephew is historically as well as stylistically apt. Certainly the picture occupies the best lit eye-level position - for it is a dark painting - in a contemporary view of Van der Geest's house gallery (by Willem van Haecht: Antwerp, Rubcnshuis). The lessons Rubens learned at second hand from Leonardo da Vinci's fragmentary Battle of Anghiari were not confined to the broad depiction of furious energy: Leonardo da Vinci like Rubens was a master of detail. The Amazons were a mythical race of warrior women in Asia Minor, who figure in many Classical stories; the scene depicted here is almost certainly their rout by the Greeks under Theseus on a bridge over the River Thermo-don. A firm arch of figures contains the whole mass of violent movements and warm colours and dominates the masonry bridge, on which the Athenians overtake the Amazons as the battle moves in one direction, from left to right; the bridge is too small for the figures, and horses and riders topple, hurtle or slither from it. Horses snort, prance and bite. Weapons are raised and thrusts made and parried; on the crown of the bridge, from which dangles the arm of a headless body, a man on foot tugs the Amazon standard from a rider already thrust through with a spear. On the left bank the dead arc plundered. The water too is full of figures, falling, swimming, shielding themselves from falling bodies and flailing hooves. Every figure adds to the narrative, while on the skyline a city burns, its smoke sweeping up behind the seething mass of bodies and continuing its motion into the sky.


text:
require "test_helper"

describe OpenCensus::Trace::SpanContext do
  describe "create_root" do
    let(:trace_context) do
      OpenCensus::Trace::TraceContextData.new \
        "0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef", "0123456789abcdef", 1
    end
    it "populates defaults" do
      span_context = OpenCensus::Trace::SpanContext.create_root
      span_context.parent.must_be_nil
      span_context.root.must_be_same_as span_context
      span_context.trace_id.must_match %r{^[0-9a-f]{32}$}
      span_context.span_id.must_equal ""
      span_context.trace_options.must_equal 0
    end

    it "uses a parsed trace context" do
      span_context = OpenCensus::Trace::SpanContext.create_root trace_context: trace_context
      span_context.parent.must_be_nil
      span_context.root.must_be_same_as span_context
      span_context.trace_id.must_equal "0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef"
      span_context.span_id.must_equal "0123456789abcdef"
      span_context.trace_options.must_equal 1
    end
  end

  describe "context hierarchy" do
    let(:root_context) { OpenCensus::Trace::SpanContext.create_root }
    let(:span1) { root_context.start_span "hello" }
    let(:context1) { span1.context }
    let(:span2) { context1.start_span "world" }
    let(:context2) { span2.context }

    it "consists of distinct contexts" do
      context2.wont_be_same_as context1
      context1.wont_be_same_as root_context
    end

    it "supports getting context parents" do
      context2.parent.must_be_same_as context1
      context1.parent.must_be_same_as root_context
      root_context.parent.must_be_nil
    end

    it "supports getting the root context" do
      context2.root.must_be_same_as root_context
      context1.root.must_be_same_as root_context
      root_context.root.must_be_same_as root_context
      context2.root?.must_equal false
      context1.root?.must_equal false
      root_context.root?.must_equal true
    end

    it "supports contains" do
      root_context.contains?(context2).must_equal true
      root_context.contains?(context1).must_equal true
      root_context.contains?(root_context).must_equal true
      context1.contains?(root_context).must_equal false
      context2.contains?(context1).must_equal false
    end

    it "supports contained_span_builders" do
      context2   # Cause all spans to be built before expectations are run
      root_context.contained_span_builders.must_include span1
      root_context.contained_span_builders.must_include span2
      context1.contained_span_builders.wont_include span1
      context1.contained_span_builders.must_include span2
      context2.contained_span_builders.wont_include span1
      context2.contained_span_builders.wont_include span2
    end
  end

  describe "start_span" do
    it "creates the correct span" do
      span_context = OpenCensus::Trace::SpanContext.create_root
      span = span_context.start_span "hello"
      span.trace_id.must_equal span_context.trace_id
      span.name.must_equal "hello"
      span.start_time.wont_be_nil
      span.end_time.must_be_nil
      span.span_id.must_equal span.context.span_id
      span.parent_span_id.must_equal ""
      span.context.this_span.must_be_same_as span
    end

    it "captures the stack trace" do
      span_context = OpenCensus::Trace::SpanContext.create_root
      span = span_context.start_span "hello"
      frame = span.instance_variable_get(:@stack_trace).first
      frame.label.must_match %r{^block}
      frame.path.must_match %r{span_context_test\.rb$}
    end

    it "honors span-scoped sampler" do
      span_context = OpenCensus::Trace::SpanContext.create_root
      sampler1 = OpenCensus::Trace::Samplers::AlwaysSample.new
      span1 = span_context.start_span "hello", sampler: sampler1
      span1.sampled?.must_equal true
      sampler2 = OpenCensus::Trace::Samplers::NeverSample.new
      span2 = span_context.start_span "hello", sampler: sampler2
      span2.sampled?.must_equal false
    end

    it "honors true and false as span-scoped samplers" do
      span_context = OpenCensus::Trace::SpanContext.create_root
      span1 = span_context.start_span "hello", sampler: true
      span1.sampled?.must_equal true
      span2 = span_context.start_span "hello", sampler: false
      span2.sampled?.must_equal false
    end

    it "honors local parent sampler" do
      span_context = OpenCensus::Trace::SpanContext.create_root
      sampler = OpenCensus::Trace::Samplers::NeverSample.new
      span1 = span_context.start_span "hello", sampler: sampler
      span1.sampled?.must_equal false
      span2 = span1.context.start_span "world"
      span2.sampled?.must_equal false
    end
  end

  describe "in_span" do
    it "finishes at the end of the block" do
      span_context = OpenCensus::Trace::SpanContext.create_root
      span = span_context.in_span "hello" do |block_span|
        block_span.start_time.wont_be_nil
        block_span.end_time.must_be_nil
        block_span
      end
      span.start_time.wont_be_nil
      span.end_time.wont_be_nil
    end

    it "captures the stack trace" do
      span_context = OpenCensus::Trace::SpanContext.create_root
      span_context.in_span "hello" do |span|
        frame = span.instance_variable_get(:@stack_trace).first
        frame.label.must_match %r{^block}
        frame.path.must_match %r{span_context_test\.rb$}
      end
    end

    it "honors span-scoped sampler" do
      span_context = OpenCensus::Trace::SpanContext.create_root
      sampler1 = OpenCensus::Trace::Samplers::AlwaysSample.new
      span_context.in_span "hello", sampler: sampler1 do |span|
        span.sampled?.must_equal true
      end
      sampler2 = OpenCensus::Trace::Samplers::NeverSample.new
      span_context.in_span "hello", sampler: sampler2 do |span|
        span.sampled?.must_equal false
      end
    end
  end

  describe "build_contained_spans" do
    let(:root_context) { OpenCensus::Trace::SpanContext.create_root }
    let(:span1) { root_context.start_span "hello" }
    let(:context1) { span1.context }
    let(:span2) { context1.start_span "world" }
    let(:context2) { span2.context }

    it "builds finished spans contained in the context" do
      span2.finish!
      span1.finish!
      spans = root_context.build_contained_spans
      spans.size.must_equal 2
    end

    it "omits unfinished spans" do
      span1.finish!
      spans = root_context.build_contained_spans
      spans.size.must_equal 1
      spans.first.name.value.must_equal "hello"
    end

    it "omits unsampled spans" do
      never_sample = OpenCensus::Trace::Samplers::NeverSample.new
      s1 = root_context.start_span "hello"
      s2 = s1.context.start_span "world", sampler: never_sample
      s2.finish!
      s1.finish!
      spans = root_context.build_contained_spans
      spans.size.must_equal 1
      spans.first.name.value.must_equal "hello"
    end

    it "omits spans not contained in the context" do
      span2.finish!
      span1.finish!
      spans = context1.build_contained_spans
      spans.size.must_equal 1
      spans.first.name.value.must_equal "world"
    end
  end
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
EN 3350 - Introduction to the Critical Study of Literature
Resources to assist students in exploring literary elements and critical approaches in this course.
Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism
Research Competency Guidelines for English Literature
EN 3350 Course Description
GVRL
Scholarly Journal Articles
I Can't Find this Article
Book Review Sources
The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms - 3rd ed. by Chris Baldick
Call Number: Ref PN41.C67 2008 (1st Floor)
Provides clear and concise, and often witty definitions of the most troublesome literary terms from abjection to zeugma. There is also a pronunciation guide to more than 200 terms.
Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism - Purdue OWL - Provides brief overviews of the following critical approaches: moral criticism, formalism, psychoanalytic, Marxist, reader-response, structuralism and semiotics, postmodern, new historicism, post-colonial, feminist, gender studies and queer theory, ecocriticism, and critical race theory.
Research Competency Guidelines for Literatures in English
Developed by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Literatures in English Section
Department of English Literature and Language
EN 3350. Introduction to the Critical Study of Literature - This course engages students in an historical approach to literary analysis, an exploration of literary terms and their application, and an investigation of a variety of analytical approaches to literature including theories of formalism, poststructuralism, and eco criticism. Required for all English Majors and Minors, and should be taken as early in the program as possible. Recommended for all EA Majors and Minors.
Next: GVRL >>
URL: https://lib.stmarytx.edu/en3350
Subjects: English Literature & Language

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


A rugged square, flat grate designed to be used in conjunction with a catch basin. This grate is manufactured from a structurally foamed High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) with a UV inhibitor to reduce sun damage. This grate has large opening slots for maximum flow while still preventing large debris from entering the drainage system. Capable of withstanding auto and light truck traffic at speeds under 20 mph. When installed grate surface is flush with the surrounding area. This product is available in green, black, sand and grey. For safety reasons and to prevent vandalism or theft the grate has two holes enabling it to be screwed onto the basin. Available in 9″, 12″ and 18″ sizes.
Load rated for autos and light trucks at speed less than 20 mph.
A square flat grate that fits onto a catch basin used for medium sized areas of grass, flower beds, decks, driveways, golf courses, medians, etc. The function of the catch basin is to collect sediment in it's sump area and not allow this sediment to enter and plug the drainage pipe. For safety reasons and to protect from theft or vandalism grate can be screwed to catch basin. Grate is designed to withstand light duty, low speed vehicular traffic including autos, light trucks, golf carts, etc.


text:
Q: Restrict an object to stay within another object This is related to SVG, I have a large SVG object made of paths which stays static. With a press of a button, I can create another SVG object inside the larger object. The second object can be dragged with the mousedown.
PROBLEM:
Now I want to add a restriction so that the second object created cannot venture outside of the main object.
I tried using 'mouseup' for restriction but that does not work because the restriction is applied according to the cursor point on the second object, rather than the border of the second object.
Hope someone can help.
UPDATE:
@Phrogz : We have been trying to get Kevin's code to work but are struggling to get any results. We have a function attached to onmouseup to find out the intersected points of the object on the underneath path.
The function is suppose to give the results of the intersection & give an alert that the function has been exected. Its not giving anything in response, leading us to wonder whether the function is being executed at all.
Here is the main code:
var path=svgDoc.getElementById("path");

var str=intersectPathShape(path,DragTarget);
     alert(str)

Phrogz, any thoughts on this?

A: You will need to use an intersection library like this one by Kevin Lindsey to detect when the paths overlap and prevent it. (He also provides demos of his code.)
Depending on how you implement your dragging, you may also need to check the bounding box of the two items to ensure that one is contained in the other (since dragging the child completely outside the parent would cause them not to intersect, but also not be a legal position).
The simplest code would be to store the last position of the child and return it to that position when an intersection is detected. Under fast dragging, though, this might cause the child to stop being dragged at a spot that is not actually touching. For a better user experience, you may want to try a binary search of intermediary offsets between the last known-good position and the current position to find the closest point along that path that is legal.

A: Kayote,
I think I answered this in another question. The short version is have a look at this github project:
https://github.com/thelonious/js-intersections
In particular, the loadShapes function in this file:
https://github.com/thelonious/js-intersections/blob/master/samples/IntersectionUtilities.js
You will need to instantiate a specific object per node type then pass those to Intersection.intersectShapes.
HTH,
Kevin

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Considering infusions for my hemiplagie migraines. New to the needle thing. Would you be willing to record a video of your infusion one week? Keep blogging please! You are teaching me!
I can consider that! I'd be willing to do it I think, just need to make sure my nurses are willing to also 🙂 Thanks for the request!
I'm going to start on the IV treatment this week for the hemiplegia headache . I'm very concern about the side effects, but the pain and the weakness gets worse everyday.
I'm so sorry I just now saw this comment that I somehow missed. I've obviously been slacking on my blog. How are your infusions treating you? I hope they're helping you! I'm still so thankful for mine. You're definitely not alone!


When Neill Blomkamp announced that he was developing Alien 5 with Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn, fans went crazy. It seemed like the sequel to James Cameron's Aliens that we have all been waiting for. Unfortunately, Fox put it on the backburner so Ridley Scott could make his new Alien prequel trilogy first.


Sydney Greene never stopped loving Tristan Pierce, even when he left their hometown to pursue his dreams in Manhattan. Before he left, Sydney discovered she was pregnant, but not wanting to trap him, she let him leave without a word. Fast forward seven years and Tristan is home, reunited with his brothers and making a life for himself. Even though the pair barely speak, his attraction to Sydney is stronger than ever, so Tristan figures it may be time to revisit their once passionate fling. Now Sydney will see if their feelings can overcome the secret she's been hiding all these years.
It's obvious from the get go, there would be an explosion between the pair once the truth about Sydney's daughter came out. I honestly expected it to get ugly for a bit, and then we'd enjoy learning how the pair gets past the hurt. What I didn't expect, and frankly didn't like at all, was the mindset and actions of Tristan once he learned the truth. His hurt drives him to force Sydney into marriage and require her to sleep in the same bed as him. Sure, Sydney still feels an attraction to him, and she doesn't just stop loving him, but his behavior is unhealthy and too much. It's beyond my comfort level and borderline abusive in my eyes. He uses emotional blackmail and brings her sleeping body back to his bed every night. I almost stopped listening to the book because of his callous attitude and unhealthy behavior.
As per the previous two books, the narration alternates between male and female POVs, and I enjoyed Mr. York's performance more than Ms. Maby's. Mr. York has a solid narrative voice and I felt he did a fine job with most characters. Sometimes it was tough figuring out which brother was speaking when all three were together, but overall it was a solid performance. However, like in the previous titles, I don't care for Ms. Maby's male voices, especially the main character. It just feels off, and while I get used to it by the time I'm done listening to the book, I don't care for it each time I hear it for the first time. Another issue I had is that during the first half of the book, there are a number of flashbacks, and the transitions from present to past in the audiobook were not adequately distinguished, leaving me confused every time.
Overall, All or Nothing at All was a disappointing listen for me. Normally, I fall in love with Ms. Probst's characters, but this time around, Tristan's actions went too far into the realm of inappropriate for me to enjoy the romance.


text:
Pacific Northwest Grain Handlers Reach Tentative Agreement
August 12, 2014 by Reuters
Photo courtesy United Grain Corporation
By Christine Stebbins
CHICAGO, Aug 12 (Reuters) – Unionized port workers and a group of Pacific Northwest grain companies reached a tentative contract agreement, according to an announcement on Tuesday, a deal that will soon ease a backlog of shipments from the biggest U.S. West Coast grain terminal.
A federal mediator announced the tentative agreement, and a spokesman for the Pacific Northwest Grain Handlers Association later confirmed it.
"We're pleased to have a settlement and get back to normal operations," Pat McCormick, a spokesman for the grain handlers, told Reuters on Tuesday. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) was not immediately available for comment.
The union and three Pacific Northwest grain handlers – United Grain Corp, Louis Dreyfus and Columbia Grain – reached a tentative contract agreement after two days of meetings, the federal mediator said in a statement.
The groups have been bargaining for more than two years under the auspices of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. The tentative agreement is subject to the ratification of ILWU membership, Scot Beckenbaugh, FMCS's acting director, said in a statement.
Tensions mounted over the past month when state officials stopped inspecting grain at the Port of Vancouver in Washington, a facility owned by United Grain, a unit of Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co Ltd.
Inspectors could be back on site as soon as Tuesday, McCormick said.
United Grain had commitments to ship nearly 20 million bushels of grain in August, which included 2.8 million bushels rolled over from July as shipments backed up after the state government withdrew police protection for inspectors to cross the union's picket line.
The backlogs threatened to worsen when record-large corn and soybean harvests start arriving to PNW export terminals in the coming month.
McCormick could not provide details of the contract ahead of a union vote on the pact, which is expected in the next couple weeks.
The Port of Vancouver USA in Washington state is the largest of nine grain export facilities on the Pacific Northwest and moves nearly 20 percent of the region's wheat, corn and soybean exports and more than 40 percent of the grain destined for Japan. About a quarter of all U.S. grain exports are shipped out of the Pacific Northwest, second only to the Gulf. (Reporting by Christine Stebbins in Chicago; editing by Matthew Lewis and David Gregorio)
Filed Under: Maritime News, Ports Tagged With: dry bulk shipping, Ports, u.s. ports, unions, west coast port strike


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text:
Larry Pickering, known fraudster and thief, is looking at jail time with smoking gun evidence
By Shane Dowling on December 6, 2015 • ( 22 Comments )
The Queensland Police are finally investigating Larry Pickering for major fraud estimated to be at least $15 million. Pickering has been a criminal on the run for many years but his time looks like it is up with reports that police questioned him last week about his sports betting software scams. Below is smoking gun evidence of Pickering on tape deceiving a court pretending to be a Mr Paul Perry which should see him do some jail time by itself.
I've been given a confirmed tip that the Queensland Police Fraud Squad have been traveling interstate to interview witnesses. There is a truck load of evidence to convict Pickering and he should have been charged at least 4 years ago when the police were handed a huge file of evidence by investigator Ken Gamble.
The Daily Telegraph reported last week:
FRAUD Squad detectives have reopened the investigation into cartoonist Larry Pickering and his involvement in a sports trading company called Cohen Strachan Investments that collapsed owing millions.
Queensland Police are going back over the original files and are understood to have quizzed the 72-year-old political satirist at his Gold Coast home last week.
Pickering helped set up CSI, a sports arbitrage company selling software to punters guaranteeing big returns from supposedly sure bets.
The company went bust leaving more than 100 investors without their life savings, valued at millions of dollars. (Click here to read more)
Why have the police re-opened the case and why was it closed in the first place when they have so much evidence? It has been known for years that Pickering has been running scams and I wrote an extensive article in August 2012 titled: "Larry Pickering who ripped off $15 million in a betting software scam claims to be investigating Julia Gillard for the AWU fraud scam." (Click here to read)
Rumor says it was re-opened because of pressure from Malcolm Turnbull. I have to wonder if that is true but something made the police re-open it. Whatever it was it's about time.
There are two video's below that tell the story of the evidence. The first one is a Channel 9 story from 2011 and the second one is from a small claims court in Gosford in 2012. I wrote how Pickering's scams worked in 2012 and I have copied that below as it is the same now.
How the Larry Pickering scam worked.
Mr Pickering's $15 million betting scam was done through a company called Cohen Strachan Investments. As you will see in the video below Mr Pickering refused to answer questions when A Current Affair tried to interview him in October 2011. He just stayed in his house and would not come out to be interviewed. Pickering had other people appointed as the directors but he was the man who owned it. Larry Pickering worked at the company himself and used the name Paul Perry when he was trying to sell to investors.
Mr Pickering refuses to answer the reporter's questions in relation to allegations that he was involved in a major fraud involving millions of dollars. In the video ACA cut back to a previous story done years ago where Larry Pickering admits being involved in a previous scam selling software that predicts winners in horse races. So why did he get involved in another scam. He has been doing the scams for years. Google Larry Pickering scam or Larry Pickering fraud and you will see.
Mr Pickering told News Ltd in relation to his involvement it's "not true" "I don't know where all this comes from" "It is rubbish." But Pickering did admit that he helped set up Cohen Strachan Investments (CSI) 5 years ago. (Click here to read the article) The only thing left for Pickering to do is claim he was "young and naive" like Julia Gillard has when he set up CSI. He would have been 64 years old at the time so it would be a bit rich to claim he was young and naive but knowing Pickering that will not stop him.
Smoking Gun tape – Pickering caught pretending to be Paul Perry
Larry Pickering has ripped off hundreds of people if not thousands over the years and one of them was Ricky Partington who took him to a small claims court in Gosford NSW in 2012 in an attempt to recover $17,600.
Mr Partington was in court in person and Pickering was on the phone using his alias Paul Perry. (Click here to read the judgment) Larry Pickering has said he had nothing to do with the scams but there are many witnesses including former employees who say that Pickering used the alias Paul Perry when conducting his scams over the phone.
The below tape goes one step further because you can actually hear Pickering pretending to be Paul Perry on a tape recording of the small claims hearing. The tape was bought legally by Mr Partington as the small claims court sell the recordings and/or transcript. With witnesses it is Pickering's word against theirs. But with tape there is no room for Pickering to tell his lies.
In the recording below you hear Mr Partington talk and then at the 1 minute and 40 seconds mark you hear the Judicial Officer say. "Mr Perry have you heard all that."
Pickering: Yes.
Judicial Officer: "I am now going to ask Mr Perry some questions." And then you hear Larry Pickering talk again.
(Click anywhere on the above video to watch)
Larry's son Jamie Pickering was committed to stand trial in March for supplying cocaine to four teenage girls. (Click here to read more) A real classy family by the looks.
The fact that Larry Pickering has failed to make any public statement given he was interviewed by the police a week ago is quite telling. If he isn't charged this time something is still badly wrong with the Queensland Police force.
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Categories: Malcolm Turnbull
Tagged as: Jamie Pickering, Larry Pickering, Queensland Police
Justice David Davies – The sleazy, slimy corrupt go-to man at the NSW Supreme Court
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp caught bribing Australian Crown Prosecutor for news stories
queen1 says:
NO !
WHAT THE GOVT DONT LIKE IS THAT HE IS TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT ALL OF THEM
THEY WILL DO ANYTHING TO SHUT HIM DOWN
Suse says:
queen1, I tend to agree..This has more to do with Turnbull protecting himself and others than it does about real justice. This is what sickens me. Politicians doing all they can to cover up their own dirty deeds by having cases long closed re-opened because it suits their political needs. Now that the swing against the Libs in the North Sydney bi-election shows that Turnbull is not the saviour he believes himself to be with conservative voters he will try even harder to shut down all who have dirt on him. The Greens have already started their dirty (filthy corrupt) campaign against ALA scared they may lose Senate seats. This re-opening of the case against Pickering is a Political move -nothing more nothing less.
He will never be prosecuted.
He just stole too much.
Had he been caught shoplifting he would have been prosecuted.
George Parker says:
There is a lot more to this story than has been told.
Pickering worked with disgraced former PI and ex detective Mick Featherstone and was involved in a LOT more than just CSI. Gamble had proof of Featherstone's involvement which was passed to the Queensland Fraud Squad years ago and like the thousands of other complaints was buried by Brian Hay the head of the Qld fraud squad for reasons yet to be proven.
So Pickering had Featherstone working with him. Featherstone was an ex fraud squad detective who was very close to Assistant Commissioner Wilson who retired after being investigated for other serious issues.
Not hard to see why Larry was never investigated even though there was evidence he committed serious fraud.
The Fraud Squad even refused to charge Featherstone over numerous other very serious offences – he appears to have been a protected species in Queensland.
The police had no option after the inquiry into Organised crime in Queensland stated that the gold Coast is the home to most of Australia's fraudsters and organised crime gangs running scams.
Maybe they should talk to Larry about his current projects as well.
Organised Crime at it's worse.
There is plenty of evidence that Larry is a liar and a conman – just need the Qld Police to actually do their job – (which they refused to do for a decade)
Sure Larry will have the Nyst Lawyers represent him. Scum looking after scum.
Larry will put up false posts – he has done this repeatedly over his years of scamming. Featherstone and Pickering ran websites deliberately targetting their opposition.
Well done for this article – the pressure did not come from Turnbull – it came from the thousands of people who were affected when the Queensland fraud Squad refused to investigate certain organised crime figures very well known on the Gold Coast.
Check out the Irish Boys – great mates of Pickering.
The Gold Coast became the home of all these scammmers because the Police openly refused to investigate.
I wrote about the cover-up by Detective Superintendent Brian Hay in my post a couple of years ago which is here: http://kangaroocourtofaustralia.com/2012/08/19/larry-pickering-who-ripped-of-15million-in-a-betting-software-scam-claims-to-be-investigating-julia-gillard-for-the-awu-fraud-scam/
I agree with that George. The Gold Coast is a haven for criminals like Pickering to scam, blackmail people. The Queensland police have plenty of questions they must answer over their refusal to investigate Larry Pickering until now. It just doesn't make sense that the evidence against Pickering is there for a long time, but only been finally investigated recently. Many people have been burned by Pickering, they are responsible for the police investigation achieving the final likely outcome against Mr Pickering. Turnbull was not responsible for this recent police investigation against Pickering.
had_enough says:
This is a great follow-up piece on Pickering, his cohorts in crime and the inefficient – read muffled – corporate QPS – read 'force' in place of service, compliments of Bligh – who promise much and deliver zip.
And to you Mr George Parker: Glad you brought up the Featherstone connection-he left the force in 1996. Back in 1998, as a computer software training professional, I was invited by a GC firm to investigate & implement the set-up of their off-the-shelf accounting software and train their daughter in how to use said software. This NZ family firm was selling race-horse, sports betting software for thousands of dollars & attempted to coerce me into making follow-up calls to victims to hurry-up the payment process and to then up-date their financials on a per-hit basis via on-line banking updates. Over the very short time I was contracted by this firm, I received many complaints from the call-staff about the pressure sales they were forced to make and when they would be paid, as most had gone unpaid for many weeks. This firm was based in Cavill Ave, Surfers Paradise and backed onto a well known watering hole-cum-sleezey night club named Melba's.
Down the track, my family had dealings with Featherstone's Phoenix Global in 2008, after our child was run over by a red-light runner. PG was recommended to us by our child's litigation solicitor to report on witness statements & the driver's GC criminal lawyer (P.o.t.t.s employee) was invited to 'consult' with us by this litigation solicitor – a true conflict of interest – but that's another story.
What stands out to me is this: The appearance of Pickering at Melba's back in 1998 with this firms family at round table discussions & the distinct possibility of who else I believe I saw there – Featherstone – who at the time I knew nothing about, but upon seeing his photograph, I am more than sure it was him at this meeting back in 1998. On Pickering being there, it was a no brainer. It was him! Can I prove it? No I can't, as it would be my word against his and with his connections to organised crime, I would have been crucified had I have come forward so long after the event.
Mr. George Parker: You are absolutely correct in stating "There is a lot more to this story than has been told". View this article from an insider: 'It's organised crime … they think they're untouchable' > http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-26/former-police-investigated-over-gold-coast-boiler-room-scams/6486872 – Quote: A former Gold Coast police detective has told the ABC's 7.30 program he tried to blow the whistle on what he saw as improper relationships between police and the private investigator at the centre of the CCC's boiler room investigation, Mick Featherstone. Stuart Phillis, who spent 17 years as a Queensland Police Service detective on the Gold Coast, told the ABC he suspected information on the police computer system had been leaking to clients of Featherstone who were being investigated for fraud and other serious offences. But Mr Phillis was warned off by his superiors when he raised the close links between Featherstone, himself a former detective, and senior Gold Coast officers.
You have to question why wasn't Pickering's involvement mentioned in this article?
Sorry if I went a tad off Pickering topic here, but there is a connection between Pickering-Featherstone-QPS-Legal profession and I've been wanting to get this off my chest for years since connecting the dots via your informative investigations.
Thanks very much for keeping us all informed. Stay safe & Merry Christmas!
ester says:
OMG, The more you scratch the surface, the deeper it gets, and the putrid smell emanated. Good Old QLd, Sunny one day, and sh…. next day. This is because police dont like to investigate their mates. This is a new world. When you wrote in 2012 , I didnt understand the depth of the case . So only now In know it.Tks for open the Pandora box
SuperRoo says:
Larry Pickering goes way back to his 'horse trading' days at Mangrove Mountain in N.S.W.
Paul Perry was a horse trainer from Newcastle and was an old friend of Pickerings but they had a fallen out years ago and thats why Pickering used the alias Paul Perry as payback to his old friend who he had a fight with years ago
http://www.paulperryracing.com.au/AboutPaul.asp
Ben D says:
What I do know is that Larry Pickering has got the number of the political lefties…the ALP anthro global warmers and GLBT crowd would love to see him closed down…
I am not surprised that Queensland police minister Jo-Ann Miller had to resign.
James Irvine says:
Just as a matter of interest, I wonder how much truth is in the claim by Pickering, that he was visited on a wet and windy night, by a couple of coppers, to talk about death threats that Pickering had received. This claim came after a series of articles and cartoons, about Moslems, that appeared on his Pickering Post website. Pickering claimed that he received a knock on the door, that night. Looking at the first vid, by Ch9, there is a security gate which is controlled from inside the mansion. A knock on the door would not be possible without requesting access through the security gate. There was no knock on the door, there were no coppers and there were no death threats. Just more of Pickering's lies to impress his gullible readers.
A few questions:
Where did Pickering's son get the cash to buy two bars in Surfers Paradise? Did the cash come from the missing $15 million?
I have, on good authority, info that L Pickering is a stakeholder in his son's company, ZRO Technologies. How much does he get from that investment and what name does he use, seeing he claims to be in receipt of the age pension?
There is a lot more to this con-artist than meets the eye.
Some of the teenage girls his son supplied cocaine to were only 15 but they were allowed into his nightclub, served alcohol and taken back to his flat and given cocaine, according to the reports at the time of his arrest. I posted on Pickering's facebook page, "Are you going to go after your pedophile son the same way you go after the church Larry?" Needless to say I was and still am blocked from his site immediately.
TCR, I have been banned for ages. It is a badge of honour.
Bernard Tomic was very much involved with Pickering Jr, and was booked whilst driving Pickering Jr's vehicle, plated 'SINCITY'. Tomic was also implicated in the underage girls affair. Don't be surprised if Tomic and his pretty-boy friend, are not a lot more involved. Remember the nude romp, with his pretty-boy friend?
'Police were also called after reports Tomic was fighting with a male friend in a spa. When they arrived he reportedly turned on officers saying, "do you know who I am".'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2992240/Australian-tennis-star-Bernard-Tomic-boasted-50-000-stash-cocaine-teenage-girl.html
I too was blocked from his site when I recently questioned an article he published. Unfortunately his supporters are a gullible lot!
I see that the criminal Pickering Jr, has done a deal with prosecutors, to have some charges dropped. Any luck, both Pickerings will get to share a cell.
http://www.news.com.au/national/queensland/nightclub-boss-supplied-teens-with-drugs/news-story/c785894fcfd89d9891f20565cc0b8e3b
You have to wonder if those dropped charges were to do with dealings with underage girls and you have to wonder why they were dropped. Did some girls get a nice Xmas present to go away?
whatacrock says:
I heard he sold his nightclubs, sold his penthouse and his mansion in Molendinar. Now has 50 million real estate development in Nth Qld. Wonder who bank balance has got a boost?
Pickering was good friends with the one and only Anna Bligh. Little wonder he was never investigated by Australia's own Inspector Clouseau (Brian Hay)
Enough evidence of the links between Pickering and Bligh.
Enough evidence of the links between Pickering and Featherstone.
Pickering and Cropper, Pickering and Foster, Pickering and Emerton, Pickering and Glen Connelly, Pickering and the Irish boys (in Aust and overseas), Pickering and Gatto. Pickering and Nyst – all one big club protected by the Queensland police and judiciary.
Ask the federal court in Queensland why they released Peter Foster early from his gaol sentence. Was it to give him time to take out a hit on his major witnesses as now being reported in the media – the Judge is lucky people have not been shot – appears the safety of witnesses is not very important in Queensland – the welfare of career criminals like Foster takes precedence.
This really is a joke – it is only because certain people kept pushing for an investigation (sometimes at risk to themselves) that anything is being done.
These guys threaten anyone who tries to expose to them and their disgraceful scams.
Death threats, vicitimisation, threatening phone calls – we have had it all as have a lot of other people – and what do the Qld Police do – NOTHING.
BRIAN HAY stated that these people were not dangerous – HE IS A COMPLETE JOKE and should be held accountable for protecting ORGANISED CRIME SYNDICATES that openly threaten anyone who tries to expose them – BLOODY DISGRACEFUL.
The Qld Police will not get away with a couple of show trials – we have already given them a massive amount of information regarding members of these groups living the high life on defrauded money in Australia and overseas or running new scams openly – the police have not scratched the surface and appear to not want to. May be they have not been provided with enough stafff – typical Government trick so as not to investigate properly.
ohdeah says:
Do you think this is why LP always put negative comments on his site re Newman?


Preparation Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Place the onions and ginger on a baking sheet and roast for 20-30 minutes, or until the onions are just browned. Place the ginger and onions in an 8 qt. stockpot, and add the water, chicken wings, chicken, salt, and sugar. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer gently for 30 minutes. Use tongs to remove the chicken from the pot and allow it to cool until it's easy to handle with your hands. Remove the meat from the bones and refrigerate it. Return the skin and bones to the stockpot and simmer for 2 more hours. (Trust me: this is where all of the flavor comes from in the broth!) Strain the chicken broth through a fine mesh strainer into another stock pot and discard the bones. Cook over high heat until reduced to about 12 cups, about 15-20 minutes. Stir in the fish sauce. (You can make the soup ahead of time through this point and refrigerate for up to 3 days.) Fill a large bowl with warm water. Soak the rice noodles for about 20 minutes, or until they're pliable. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Drain the noodles, then add them to the boiling water and cook for about 3 minutes. Drain the noodles and place them in 6 large bowls. Sprinkle with the scallions. Add the reserved chicken to the broth and simmer until the chicken is reheated. Ladle the broth and chicken over the noodles. Serve with the bean sprouts, basil, lime wedges, and jalapenos for the adults.


So just how Can you create your WordPress website quicker? Well, if you are still using a generic shared hosting company, among the best options will, of course, be to just change to a higher performance hosting company. However, what if you just haven't got the time or money to make the change?
Well, Luckily, there's something else you can do that's extremely quick and simple — something which needs next-to-no technical know-how whatsoever! I am speaking, of course, about using a caching plugin.
Today, I'll be taking an comprehensive look at a few of the leading caching plugins around. WP Rocket. In the next review, I'll show you by exactly how much — and how easily — it can speed up your website (using real-life evaluations and real data).
Caching Involves creating — and saving — a ready-made static (i.e. unchanging) variant of your site on your own server ready to show to visitors at a moment's notice. This reduces the need for your website (or the user's browser) to communicate back and forth with the host to assemble the behind-the-scenes information that generates your website's web pages.
With less Communication going on between servers, and less data being loaded each time your site is accessed, the time it takes to load your posts and pages is significantly reduced.
You might Be wondering what happens if you publish a new blog post on a cached website, because, paradoxically, an unchanging cached version of your website would not take this recently created data into account.
Not so! WP Rocket will regenerate the cached parts of your site every time you update your content, thereby ensuring your visitors will always find the most up-to-date version of your site.
It's worth Pointing out that, in terms of features independently, WP Rocket contrasts fairly Favorably using its competitors. Granted, you are probably more interested in how much faster your site will be following installing WP Rocket (and rightfully so), but it's wonderful to know you are not overlooking any important attributes.
If you do Decide to learn more about the further settings and choices WP Rocket supplies, you'll see it has a couple of tricks up its sleeve to get potentially improving speed even further, like the option to simply load media files (like images) when the visitor reaches them onto a webpage (a feature known as Lazy Loading).
In fact, Once the plugin has been uploaded and activated on your website, the cache will be automatically generated when someone visits the site. Everyone visiting your website then should instantly begin experiencing significantly quicker loading times. Simple!
WP Rocket Aims to remove all such confusion by being automatically up-and-running right out of the box without being overly rigid that it is not able to deliver great results. After tripping WP Rocket, you'll see just a few tabs around the admin panel, each with only a few easy-to-understand settings.
You can See the rest of the basic settings screen here. When there are a couple more options to work with, the plugin works just fine without any of them enabled. This really is plug'n' play with caching for WordPress!
Of Course, it's suggested that you browse the online documentation to actually determine what this plugin can do and how much additional performance you can squeeze out of it, but, for all those in a hurry (or with a zero technical curiosity in the ins-and-outs of caching), it is safe to say that speeding up your site with WP Rocket could not be made much easier.
The main Selling point of WP Rocket is how easy it makes allowing caching on your site. With many other caching plugins, you're confronted with the sometimes daunting task of knowing — and filling out — several pages of configurations and options. Based on how you configure them, you could easily wind up inadvertently doing something a bit screwy (and even, in rare situations, inadvertently breaking your site).
There's Also the option to modify the default cache expiry interval. But, unless you're displaying particularly fast-changing or significant external dynamic content onto your own site (such as critical content from social media feeds), the default option 24-hour lifespan ought to be OK.
One feature That's really nice here is the option to substitute YouTube video frames with a static preview image. If you embed a lot of YouTube videos on your website, this really is a great way to accelerate your site without sacrificing much, if any, usability.
· Remove query strings out of static resources (this you won't have a big effect, but it can enhance your GTmetrix score, should you care about that).
I urge Enabling as a number of these configurations as you can. I say as possible because some of those configurations for CSS or JS may cause issues with your website (this isn't WP Rocket's error — it is always a potential problem with minification/concatenation).
Without Preloading, your website only"builds" the cache for a page when someone actually visits the webpage. That means the very first visitor after the cache lifespan expires doesn't observe the cached version (because the cache has not been built yet).
One of the Advantages of WP Rocket is the fact that it gives you two distinct ways to preload your cache, whereas a few caching plugins do not even provide one.
· Sitemap preloading — preloads your cache according to all the pages in your sitemap.xml file. It's low impact, however the disadvantage is that it does not cache newly published or edited articles.
As You can find complimentary Plugins to do the first component, the next component, plus the fact that you can book CNAMEs for particular file types, gives you more flexibility than many of those free choices.
If you're using Cloudflare, WP Rocket also includes a committed Cloudflare add-on which could help you get set up using Cloudflare and control certain facets of the Cloudflare service right from the WP Rocket interface.
Through The plugin configurations, you can also enable caching for both mobile users and logged-in users all with a simple click. After moving on to this'advanced' tab, however, things begin to get a little more complicated.
What's? More, in the event you get stuck, the FAQ and service tabs make it exceptionally easy to access the online instruction, and even open a support ticket from inside your WordPress dashboard — a lovely touch!
In General, WP Rocket intends to be all things to all people. On the other hand, it's very simple to set up and start using on your site with default settings that truly produce great outcomes, nevertheless, on the other hand, there's also an appreciably large choice of settings and options to appeal to more sophisticated users with specific needs, or people who need more control over how caching works on their site.
If You have to refresh everything in the cache, however (not just recently updated or altered content), you can force WP Rocket to regenerate it from scratch. Going a step farther, you'll also find options to have unrelated parts of your site automatically regenerated when a new article, page, product, remark, or a different kind of content has added.
While Utilizing WP Rocket out of the box is quite straightforward, should you get stuck or need to know more of the ins and outs of how it functions, there's quite a bit of high-quality documentation provided — including a getting started section, various tutorials, helpful FAQs and a handy troubleshooting section.
As Mentioned at the peak of this article, I had excellent results from using WP Rocket to cache my WordPress site. By testing the speed of my site with GTmetrix — with the default settings of WP Rocket and uploading and activating the plugin before creating the cache and conducting the tests — that the average page loading times dropped from 2.2 minutes to 0.9.
The site I tested the plugin was a WordPress blog using the free Twenty Twelve motif, with about 80 articles and 37 plugins. The site is hosted on a entry level shared hosting plan from HostGator, and does not have any CDN in drama.
No two WordPress websites will be the same, however, so these results might not be common for all websites. They do, however, show that even a very basic WordPress blog on the lowest priced hosting will almost surely have the ability to achieve significantly improved load times using the plugin.
Whether You opt to use WP Rocket on your site or not, there are a number of other means to speed up your WordPress site that is worth mentioning, such as.
With Prices starting at just $39 for use on one WordPress website, WP Rocket is an inexpensive alternative for most. Additionally, there are some other powerful free selections available — for example WP Super Cache, also, for the technically minded, W3 Total Cache (to mention but 2 of many. If you're looking for something which's exceptionally easy to set up and use, though, and also provides access to a very beneficial premium service desk, then WP Rocket is a powerful competitor.
All Options include a year's access to plugin updates and support. After this period, you can continue using the plugin or renew your permit to maintain access. There is also a 30-day refund available in case you are not entirely pleased with the plugin after purchase.
Most of The tasks you can execute to optimise the rate of your website take substantial time and effort — whether that's optimising media files, reviewing and consolidating your plugins, then migrating to a new web host or changing themes. WP Rocket, on the other hand, can be implemented to your website in just a few clicks.
What's? More, if you are a WordPress freelancer, if helping customers with their existing sites or creating websites from scratch, then having something such as WP Rocket on your toolkit may be of enormous benefit. In only a few minutes, you will be able to accelerate a customer's website and deliver them tangible results (in the form of'before and after' online speeds evaluations ), and, when the very best way to distinguish yourself from your competition would be to offer more value to this customer, things like this can definitely help.


EMDP is the lead National Governing Body (NGB) for exercise, movement and dance (EMD). It is a not for profit Umbrella Organisation dedicated to the development of exercise, movement and dance provision throughout England and the UK.
EMDP work in harmony with affiliates and partners to get more people enjoying EMD and to increase the amount of quality teachers delivering EMD.
EMDP work over three organisational pillars; the EMD Academy, the EMD Community and the EMD NGBThe three pillars are each designed to assist the sector through firstly providing quality training to increase and improve delivery, secondly to support all those involved and thirdly to help relevant parties develop what they can offer.
EMDP is a growing organisation and in recent months has been able to provide local support to three counties across the UK. We like to call these our County Models. Our County Models are currently active in London, Manchester and Sussex.
The Exercise, Movement and Dance Partnership (EMDP) have been working in partnership with Skills Active and the Register of Exercise Professionals (REPs) on the 'Working In Fitness 2014' survey. Supported by Sport England, Working in Fitness 2014 is the most extensive survey ever conducted in fitness within the UK. The survey aims to get opinions and views of people that work within the fitness industry, and for the first time ever we have ensured this includes specifics on Dance Fitness/ Exercise, Movement and Dance.
We would be very grateful if you could complete this survey and ensure that Dance Fitness/ Exercise Movement and Dance teachers have their voices heard. All responses will be submitted anonymously. The survey will take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete.
We're also saying a big thank you to the first 500 people who complete the survey by entering them into a prize draw to win a brand new iPad! So don't delay and make sure you're one of them.
We look forward to seeing your responses and hope to have results at the early part of 2015.
The Exercise Movement and Dance (EMD) Academy offers high quality teacher training and development in exercise, movement and dance.
If you love exercise, movement and dance and are thinking about moving into teaching and instructing. Then the EMD Academy is the place to get the skills, knowledge and understanding to become a proficient EMD teacher.
Click on the logo to visit the EMD Academy website today to learn about the qualifications and courses on offer; get tips on great teaching; see the resources available; and get spreading the passion for EMD! Train today, inspire tomorrow.
Supporting those who are passionate about Exercise, Movement and Dance.
The Exercise, Movement and Dance (EMD) Community is a network of quality teachers and organisations all passionate about one thing; inspiring others to be fit and healthy through Exercise, Movement and Dance.
The EMD NGB is here to set standards and provide guidance to the EMD sector. It is also the home of the participation campaign 'Exercise, Move, Dance'; aiming to get 20,000 new movers and shakers taking in part in EMD. Our County Models also lie within the NGB and are at the forefront of EMDP's campaigns and programmes. The County Models, currently in London, Manchester and Sussex aim to develop quality and accessible EMD opportunities within the local area.
Keeping children and young people safe in EMD.
If you would like more information on safeguarding and protecting children or would like to discuss a concern you have within EMD please contact Lead Safeguarding Officer, Emma Forward.
MoveMe specialises in staging interactive participatory dance events. Our company vision is that... EVERYONE CAN DANCE!
Fitness League classes in Temple Cowley on Monday evening's.


Getting married is the experience of a lifetime (our founder's daughter recently became engaged to a guy our family loves!), so we understand how nerve-racking it can get sometimes. From the venue, the food, the flowers, the music, the dress (THE DRESS!)…you want everything to be perfect. And why shouldn't you? You deserve it!
Now regardless of whether you decide to work with us for your bridal alterations needs, we've compiled some fantastically helpful tips courtesy of our extensive experience and Offbeat Bride that should help you attain a hurdle-free experience with your tailor. Our additional commentary to these tips are preceded by "Alter Creations' take." Enjoy and good luck!
If at all possible, start with a dress (or outfit) that is your size—or very, very close to it.
Alter Creation's take: Very true. A dress that's not too big or small is best, but we've been known to work magic on almost every kind of piece that doesn't seem ideal. Stop by so we can show you whether your project is a good candidate.
You get what you pay for. Believe me, it isn't worth having something done cheaply if you subsequently have to pay someone else to fix the cheap-o job.
Alter Creations's take: We get it. You like shopping around you should be free to inquire at various places. Note that we're so relaxed we'll never pressure you into working with us. Also note that we're NOT the cheapest, which both we and our clients take pride in. In fact, we've often had to fix other shops' mishaps–sometimes at the last minute! Our prices–relative to our unbeatable quality–are competitive. If you want work that'll last you years to a lifetime, we're the right people for the job.
The shop needs to see the actual dress and see how it currently fits your body to determine EXACTLY what needs to be done and give an accurate estimate. Describing the dress over the phone is really not very helpful, especially since some less-scrupulous brides lie about how much work needs to be done on the dress in order to get a lower quote.
Alter Creations's take: We couldn't have said it better. We address this in our FAQs, but sometimes, the stress of planning a wedding gets to some brides and they try really hard to have us quote us a price over the phone. Please remember that this ISN'T possible because we need to see how the gown fits on you and what we'll have to do. That's the only way we're able to fairly give you an estimate.
Ask whether an appointment is required.
Many independent alterations shops require appointments for bridal fittings to avoid getting fifteen brides in one afternoon….
Alter Creations's take: No, we don't require appointments or charge Rush fees. However, we still like to prevent that others show up when a bride arrives to ensure we're completely available for them. So call us ahead of time and set up a time; we'll be happy to accommodate you! We prefer to have bridal fittings in the morning (before you've had a big meal or two or accumulated that pesky water weight).
Heavy dress + high heels + possible anxiety = heightened possibility of tripping over one's hem.
Alter Creations's take: We'll also be happy to accommodate all your dancing- and movement-related requests :).
If you know of any upcoming changes to your physical dimensions (i.e. newly pregnant, having breast reduction surgery, etc.), tell whomever is making or altering your dress ASAP.
Alter Creation's take: Be honest and let us know with plenty of time in advance whether you'll be experiencing any changes. We also always tell our brides to keep their figure throughout the fitting process (i.e., for as long as we're working together) as close to that from their first fitting. This way, we don't have to "fit in" any drastic changes.
Buy your foundation garments (and shoes!) BEFORE your first fitting, and bring them to ALL of your fittings.
Yes, this is completely and absolutely necessary.
If you have not obtained the perfect shoes before your first fitting, mention this to the fitter and then bring a pair of shoes with a heel height in the range of your ideal shoe (heel height can affect your posture), and ask to have the hem marked at a later fitting. Don't even THINK of standing on tiptoe and insisting your hem be marked that way– standing on tiptoe for the [ time] required to carefully pin a hem will make you wobble and the hem will not be even.
Alter Creations' take: These are very important so please don't ignore them. It's key your undergarments, corsets, shapewear, shoes, and any other pieces you intend to wear on your big day are brought to every one of your fittings. (If you don't have the exact shoes, find some of similar height!) That way we always know what we're working with and can ensure the fit is always the right one.
If the tailor balks at your request for drastic changes to an existing dress, look for someone else who can handle the job.
Even some of the best tailors are not well-versed in radically altering clothes (i.e., turning Aunt Karen's long-sleeved 1950s number into a halter dress). Your wedding attire should not be someone else's learning experience, particularly if the garment has sentimental value.
Alter Creations' take: That tip made us laugh but we wanted to include it anyways :)!! Listen, cheap and/or inexperienced tailors abound. If you want to radically alter a gown, we'll be more than happy to satisfy that request. We've been doing it for over a decade! In fact, some of our favorite projects involve pieces that are inherited from previous generations and the bride wants to adapt them to today!
If the tailor recommends against making a particular change, there's probably a good reason why.
I personally feel it is fine to ask why s/he is recommending against something, or to get a second opinion from another tailor, but please keep in mind these people are professionals–they are intimately familiar with garment construction, and may know of a better way to make something look the way you want it to look.
Alter Creations's take: Clients are sometimes amazed when we suggest that they're better off not doing X or paying for Y. We're passionate about what we do, so we won't just take anyone's money: We strive to accomplish 110% satisfaction so we're 110% honest and don't mind showing you various alternatives (even in cases when they don't involve us!) when the original isn't something we'd suggest.
During the actual fitting, please don't move unless the person fitting you indicates it is all right to do so.
Moving during a fitting can cause the garment to be fitted unevenly (this is especially true of hems and sleeves) or cause you to be accidentally poked with a pin. (I used to come home with bumps and bruises because some of the less-attentive clients would move during a fitting and bonk me in the face, chest, shoulders, etc.) Not sure when it's okay to move? Just ask. Believe me, it's appreciated.
Do move around to test the fit once you are given the all-clear.
Will you be doing a lot of dancing, walking, sitting, etc.? Make sure you can comfortably do all of those things once the dress is pinned. If the dress will inhibit your movement, point it out so the fit can be adjusted accordingly.
Alter Creations's take: Pretty please try to retain your first-fitting figure throughout all your dress fittings. Otherwise, though we can manage (we love a challenge!), our work will be made more difficult, which isn't fair to you.
That pretty much about sums it up when it comes to our wedding dress fittings tips for all you lovely brides out there! Call us at (435) 658-4432 or email us at Martha [at] altercreations [dot] net if you'd like to meet us and see why we're the best suited to work on your wedding dress and bridal party projects. Have a great rest of your week and we look forward to seeing you!
Getting married is definitely an experience and my friend is going through it right now! She found a wonderful dress, but needs to get some alterations done in order for it to fit just right. That is great to know that most shops won't get an estimate over the phone, and that we would need to go in to have them look at it first. That is great to know! Thanks for all your helpful information!
You're welcome, Deb! Thank YOU for your comment. Yes, giving estimates WITHOUT seeing the complex piece (unless it's something simple the shop already gives prices for) is not all that ethical or conducive to good business so we–and all good service-focused businesses in general–don't do it.
All the best to your friend: I just got married last month and it's been amazing!
Thanks for your comment about how you should get your wedding dress altered ahead of time. I like how you said that it can help you create the dress of your dream. My sister is getting married soon and she needs to get her dress altered for her special day to make sure it fits just right.
Yes, Ashley, definitely the sooner the better! That way the bride gets a good idea of what the dress will look like as early as possible.
We have an emergency! My sister, the bride, is pregnant. Her wedding is not for another month and I was wondering when should we schedule the alteration. Would it best to do it near the wedding day? Thanks!
Hey Joy! We normally recommend brides STOP coming in within that last month so they don't think that they can keep taking in their dresses if they lose weight one week, then more weight the next week, and so on. By then, they need to relax and try to keep their usual diet and workout regimen unchanged.
However, with pregnant brides we recommend what you mentioned–although all pregnancies are different! Has her bump been growing significantly every week? If so, then yes, she should get a fitting closer to her wedding day so her seamstress gets a good idea of what her body will look like then. A word of caution: Don't be surprised if that shop charges some kind of Rush fee because of the extent of the work (and the timing) involved.
These are some great tips, especially the one about trying to start with a dress close to your size if you can manage it. After all, as important as seamstresses are for alterations, no one wants to alter a wedding dress that much. That is why it is so important to find one close to your original size and that only needs minor adjustments in order to fit.
Thanks for your comment, Callum! Yes, staying as close to one's size as possible is key.
It was nice of you to advise the brides-to-be that if ever they have plans of dancing, walking, and doing other things, then they should let the seamstress so that they can make the right alterations. I will be sure to let my sister know about that because she's the one who's going to get married this year. I am aware that they plan on including games in the reception, and she's planning to join. If that's the case, then she needs a dress that will allow her to move freely without restrictions. Thank you for sharing.
Hey Juris, thanks for stopping by! It's important to be comfortable at one's Wedding. Looking beautiful WHILE being comfortable during all activities is a great feeling!


The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome opened in 1982. Its signature feature is its Teflon-coated fiberglass fabric roof that is literally inflated by the air inside the stadium. The stadium is pumped full of air to keep the roof up. This requires people to enter and exit the dome via airlocks, to maintain positive pressure within the playing field area.
Five times in the stadium's history, heavy snows or other weather conditions have damaged the roof and caused it to deflate. On November 19, 1981, a rapid accumulation of over a foot of snow caused the roof to collapse, requiring it to be re-inflated. It deflated the following winter on December 30, 1982, again because of a tear caused by heavy snow. This was four days before the Vikings played the Dallas Cowboys in the last regular season game of the 1982 NFL season. In the spring following that same winter, on April 14, 1983, the Metrodome roof deflated because of a tear caused by a late-season heavy snow, and the scheduled Twins' game with the California Angels was postponed. On April 26, 1986, the Metrodome roof suffered a slight tear because of high winds, causing a nine-minute delay in the bottom of the seventh inning vs. the Angels.
The Boston Globe has before and after photos.


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Kenny Larkin (Detroit 8 april 1968) is een Amerikaanse producer en internationaal diskjockey. Hij behoort tot technoscene van Detroit maar staat bekend om een experimenteel geluid. Naast zijn eigen naam gebruikt hij ook het pseudoniem Dark Comedy.Hij staat diverse malen op Awakenings en I Love Techno. Vanaf 2000 bouwt hij zijn technocarrière af om zich als comedian te ontwikkelen.

Biografie
Hoewel Larkin uit Detroit komt, is hij in de jaren tachtig nog niet betrokken bij de vroege opkomst van techno. Zijn interesse wordt gewekt als hij rond 1990 in aanraking met de muziek komt tijdens het uitgaan. Hij maakt dan de single We Shall Overcome, met samples van Martin Luther King, en kan die uitbrengen op het Plus 8-label van Richie Hawtin. Daarna blijft hij singles maken voor diverse labels. Hij besluit zijn studie te laten voor van het is en gaat zich voltijds op de muziek richten. Hij behoort daarbij tot de tweede golf producers uit Detroit, waartoe ook Carl Craig, Underground Resistance en Jeff Mills behoren. Een belangrijk succes heeft hij in 1992 met de single War Of The Worlds (1992), die hij onder de naam Dark Comedy uitbrengt. In 1994 verschijnt op Warp Records het album Azimuth, waarop hij de brug zoekt met Intelligent dance music. Hij raakt in 1994 zwaar gewond nadat een inbreker hem neerschiet. Na zijn herstel maakt Larkin in 1995 een illegale remix van het nummer  Give it Up van Sade. Het is een idee dat hij samen met Stacey Pullen uitwerkt, die in die periode het album (The Theory Of) opneemt in de studio van Larkin. Beide  bewerken het nummer in een eigen versie die een kant van de plaat krijgt. Ze hernoemen het naar Surrender Your Love (Illegal Remixes), en brengen het op een whitelabel uit waarop ze met pen Sade schrijven, om zo uit de problemen te blijven. De remix is een succes en 10.000 exemplaren van de bootleg worden verkocht, totdat het Mixmag Magazine bekend maakt dat Larkin achter de remix zit, waarna hij onder druk van het team van de zangeres moet stoppen met de verspreiding. De remix verschijnt in 2006 nog op het eveneens illegale remixalbum Sade - The Remixes - Best Of. Een andere opvallende remix is voor Dark Forces van Slam. Op R&S Records verschijnt in 1995 het album Metaphor, dat iets minder experimenteel is. In 1997 blaast hij ook Dark Comedy nieuw leven in voor het album Seven Days.

Comedian
In 2001 besluit hij een radicale stap te zetten door naar Los Angeles te verhuizen en zijn geluk te beproeven als comedian. Dit zet zijn technocarrière op een lager pitje, al blijft hij actief als dj om in zijn onderhoud te kunnen voorzien. In 2004 komt een flinke heropleving met het vertrouwd klinkende The Narcissist en het veel meer experimentele Funkfaker: Music Saves My Soul, waarvoor hij zijn Dark Comedy-project weer gebruikt. Op dit album vermengt hij elektronica met diverse stijlen zoals jazz, blues en soul. Hij maakt daarbij ook gebruik van zang en waagt zich daar onder de schuilnaam  "Holy" Joe Johnson ook aan.. In 2008 verschijnt Keys, Strings And Tambourines. Eveneens wordt zijn oudere werk verzameld op The Chronicles. Al laat hij in die periode al weten dat zijn muzikale carrière zijn langste tijd heeft gehad. Er verschijnen nog wat singles en Larkin maakt een remix van We Are The Future van Inner City. Daarna gaat de aandacht meer naar de komedie. Wel blijft hij actief als dj.

Discografie

Albums

 Azimuth (1994)
 Methaphor (1995)
 Dark Comedy - Seven Days (1997)
 The Narcissist (2004)
 Dark Comedy - Funkfaker: Music Saves My Soul (2004)
 Keys, Strings, Tambourines (2008)
 The Chronicles (compilatie) (2008)

Amerikaans muziekproducent
Amerikaans live-dj
Techno
Amerikaans elektronisch muzikant

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Recently one of my clients was rather intrigued when I used the term Internal Benchmarking.
I was talking to him regarding ways to leverage organizational data assets in order to uncover hidden costs and improve efficiency.
I realized that not many people qualify the term Benchmarking when they use it. Oftentimes, Benchmarking is implicitly assumed to be "External Benchmarking" with the underlying assumption that comparative metrics are useful only when compared across companies.
Regardless of whether these objections are legitimate or not, it is often a wise and equally effective strategy to consider Internal Benchmarking.
In Internal Benchmarking, you compare how parts of your organization fare against each other. The power of Internal Benchmarking lies in the fact that it allows you to uncover pockets of excellence already existing in your own business.
If External Benchmarking shows the art of the possible, then Internal Benchmarking illustrates the science of the possible.
In case of Internal Benchmarking, there is no secret sauce for performance whose recipe cannot be unearthed!
Don't underestimate the resistance just because it is "Internal Benchmarking". People don't like to be compared with others. Business leaders like to believe that their ways of working and adding value to the organization are unique. Be sensitive to the human angle and communicate your reasons for embarking on Internal Benchmarking clearly. Clarify proactively how the results from the exercise will be used.
Define your "logical entities" carefully – these are the internal entities that you will benchmark with each other. Depending upon the type of the benchmark that you intend to perform, these may be your lines of business, product lines or even functions such as HR, IT, Finance, etc. There may be more than one way to slice and dice data. Carefully consider what you intend to achieve and decide your logical entities for data aggregation accordingly.
Analyse how easy or difficult it is for you to gather data?
How different is your data gathering experience for each logical-entity?
How much confidence do different stakeholder groups express in data?
How easy or difficult it is to refresh data with the data from the latest month/quarter, etc.?
While such data may not be directly relevant to the purpose of Benchmarking, it can potentially point to other issues in the organization (e.g. lack of cohesive systems, manpower shortage, etc.). Hopefully, such findings will be useful for your project sponsors.
Benchmarking remains a valuable tool to unlock value. There is merit not only in evaluating an organization against external peers, but also in comparing it with peer organizations within the same business. Of course, as any other tool, the key to Internal Benchmarking effectiveness lies in its execution.
What do you think about this post? I hope that you found it relevant and useful. Please feel free to comment here or share your thoughts with me on manish@suasiveanalytics.com.
This entry was posted in Strategy and tagged Analytics, benchmarking, data, efficiency, improvement, performance. Bookmark the permalink.


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Camanchaca's CEO Ricardo Garcia has raised $23 million for the company, which follows a $135 million sustainable deal earlier this autumn. Photo: Anders Hannemose Furuset
Chilean salmon farmer Salmones Camanchaca raises $23 million in share issue
Low salmon prices, COVID-19 and algal blooms all took their toll on the company over the course of 2021.
30 December 2021 9:17 GMT Updated 30 December 2021 9:17 GMT
By Hanna Gezelius
Chilean salmon farmer Salmones Camanchaca has raised an additional $23 million in fresh capital through a rights issue, it announced


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Joaquín Enguix Pachés (Tabernes de Valldigna, Valencia, España, 18 de febrero de 1978), conocido como Ximo Enguix, es un exfutbolista y entrenador español. Jugaba de centrocampista. Fue entrenador de la S. D. Sueca, equipo en el que disputó sus dos últimas temporadas como futbolista, de la U. E. Gandia, del Silla C. F. y del C. F. Torre Levante Orriols.

Clubes

Como jugador

Como entrenador

Referencias

Futbolistas de la provincia de Valencia
Futbolistas del Valencia Club de Fútbol Mestalla
Futbolistas del Valencia Club de Fútbol en los años 2000
Futbolistas de la Unión Deportiva Salamanca en los años 2000
Futbolistas del Real Club Recreativo de Huelva en los años 2000
Futbolistas del Club Polideportivo Ejido
Futbolistas del Real Sporting de Gijón en los años 2000
Futbolistas del Rayo Vallecano en los años 2000
Futbolistas del Club Deportivo Castellón
Futbolistas de la Unión Deportiva Melilla
Futbolistas del Club Deportivo Toledo
Entrenadores de fútbol de la Comunidad Valenciana
Nacidos en Tabernes de Valldigna


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NFL Rumors: Dallas Cowboys Randy Gregory Follow Greg Hardy Missteps; Can Tim Tebow Save Tony Romo team?
By Mitch de Leon ( [email protected] ) Feb 23, 2016 08:47 AM EST Comment
Tim Tebow: Going to the Bears? Pattison
The Dallas Cowboys had a heartbreaking NFL season which saw their Super Bowl 50 run cut short when Tony Romo left the field. Apart from losing their quarterback and leader, the Dez Bryant squad also plunged into some off-the-field issues. These concerns involved a tension in the locker room and even in the sidelines during football matches.
One of the most problematic players at the time was Greg Hardy. The defensive end star had been involved in domestic violence disputes even before joining the Dallas Cowboys. His unpopular persona got worse when he uttered lascivious comments directed at the wife of New England Patriots star Tom Brady, model Giselle Bundchen. As the NFL season unfolded, the Jerry Jones squad found themselves at the bottom of the rankings. While the end of their Super Bowl dreams had almost every member of the squad swearing to become better football stars next season, it looks like the Dallas Cowboys roster drama has yet to end.
The latest Dallas Cowboys star to take the center stage is Randy Gregory. As one of the most promising NFL stars, the 23-year-old DE found himself becoming a disappointment to his team and friends. With a troubled background before joining the NFL, Gregory initially vowed to clean up his act to deserve the confidence he received from the Dallas Cowboys.
However, the four-game suspension meted against Gregory does not bode well for the NFL team. The defensive end is said to have violated the substance abuse policy of the NFL, according to the National Football Post. His suspension will reflect poorly on the first month of the Dallas Cowboys in the next NFL season. Also, Gregory will be losing $143,000 worth of salary. This suspension might also endanger his guaranteed cash of $370,000.
"This is a disappointment," said Dallas Cowboys Executive Stephen Jones in an official statement. The exec added, "We have been clear with Randy about what his responsibilities are and what is expected of him. This is something that he is going to have to work through and correct."
This latest development adds to the growing problems of the Dallas Cowboys. With the uncertainty of Romo's return and the probable departure of Hardy from the team, fans are now losing interest. This will undoubtedly translate to lower ticket sales since no one would be interested in watching a football team filled with miscreants and injured stars.
How will owner Jerry Jones solve this dilemma?
Some fans believe that Tim Tebow might be the answer. An obvious favorite in the football community, the Christian star is a fresh face in a team filled with negativity. Moreover, Tebow's charm and charisma will be great for the Dallas Cowboys as the football squad struggles with police records and league violation issues. With the Christian star in tow, the Romo team might have a chance to turn things around before they finally lose all their fans and followers.
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Tags : NFL, NFL Rumors, Dallas Cowboys, randy gregory, Tony Romo, Tim Tebow, Jerry Jones, Dez Bryant, greg hardy
MLK Day 2017: 11 Powerful Christian Quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Designers detailed room and furnishing descriptions will be available in the apartments.
Client Profile: Rochelle and Rock Davenport, a couple in their thirties, recently moved to New Rochelle from New York City. Both are originally from small cities in the Mid-West. Rock is an architect working in New York City. Rochelle is a freelance professional photographer with clients in New York City, Boston, and Washington, DC. They were attracted to New Rochelle because of its easy commute to New York City (and Boston and Washington via AMTRAK) and because they have always loved the convenience of a livable downtown. Rock not only enjoys the easy commute to his office near Grand Central Station from the New Rochelle train station directly across from Avalon on the Sound East but welcomes not having to drive to the station.
Rock is an amateur urban historian and loves the local history room at the Library. He has also been attracted downtown by the many historic downtown facades that the BID has been working to restore. Plus, he has a secret passion for cooking and eating ethnic foods. He was surprised by the diverse number of restaurants and food stores in the downtown where he can buy many of the ingredients for his favorite ethnic recipes. To improve his cooking skills, he is planning to take classes at Monroe College's Culinary Institute.
Rochelle is a professional photographer with a home office. She was happy to find that, through the BID's Artist Spaces Program, she could rent an artist space for her photography studio just three blocks from Avalon. Rochelle enjoys collecting paintings by emerging artists and staying active. She uses downtown's yoga and dance studios. Rochelle also likes to entertain, especially when Rock does the cooking. They are hosting a cocktail party in their apartment for Rochelle's Birthday. Rock is preparing a menu of his favorite ethnic dishes.
Ms. Halliburton, in designing the foyer and dining and living area decided to reflect the Davenport's artistic tastes and urban lifestyle. To set the tone, she choose a mixed palette of warm golden hues for the walls. This became a perfect backdrop for the carefully chosen paintings collected by Rochelle and Rock which Ms. Halliburton has dramatically placed throughout the areas. She has fitted the apartment with an eclectic mix of Art Deco, Tuscan, Rustic, and contemporary furnishings and accessories to create an environment that is inventive and sophisticated.
Ms. Maxwell has brought her artistic eye and sensibilities to Rochelle's home office and the master bedroom. Befitting an artist, she choose daring colors such as Gossamer Blue, Black Satin and Pale Avocado to fill the office. These striking choices are complemented by a few carefully chosen antique pieces and a bold graphic. Together they create a work space that is both sophisticated and yet surprisingly calming. For the master bedroom, Ms. Maxwell continued to use her artist color palette in unusual ways always beautifully balanced with traditional furniture choices.
Mr. McVey's talent for using accessories, plants, and the unexpected to stage his environments are seen throughout the apartment. But he had particular fun preparing for Rochelle's small birthday reception. Working off Rock's choice for a multi-ethnic menu for the buffet Mr. McVey has scouted downtown to create a festive setting appropriate for his artistic clients.
Check out the 3 Bedroom apartment 23k.


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Weigh the possible outcomes of a decision by assigning probabilities to payoff values and finding expected values. ★
Find the expected payoff for a game of chance. For example, find the expected winnings from a state lottery ticket or a game at a fast-food restaurant.
Evaluate and compare strategies on the basis of expected values. For example, compare a high-deductible versus a low-deductible automobile insurance policy using various, but reasonable, chances of having a minor or a major accident.
Cluster: Use probability to evaluate outcomes of decisions