text:
Scientists Detect Brightest Ever Fast Radio Burst
By Ryan Whitwam on March 21, 2018 at 8:15 am
Humanity has made significant progress understanding the cosmos in recent decades thanks to amazing instruments like the Hubble Space Telescope. There are still some phenomena that defy explanation, though. For example, fast radio bursts. Astronomers only noticed these mysterious signals in 2007, and their unpredictable nature makes it difficult to gather data. Astronomers are still watching, and the 64-meter Parkes Observatory in Australia reports it has observed the most powerful FRB yet.
The first recorded fast radio burst appeared in data from 2001, but it was not analyzed and reported until 2007. Since then, scientists have observed 33 more FRBs, but that is probably just scratching the surface. When astronomers call something "fast," they are not kidding around. A fast radio burst lasts just a few milliseconds, so you'll miss it entirely if your instrument isn't pointed in the right direction. Only a single FRB has ever repeated (FRB 121102 in November 2012), so there's usually no warning
Given the transient nature of fast radio bursts, radio telescopes around the world keep an eye out for them. The team at the Parkes Observatory managed to detect three separate FRBs in quick succession earlier this month. There was one on March 1st, another on March 9th, and the final of the trio on March 11th. The middle FRB is the most interesting because it was by far the brightest ever recorded.
The March 9th FRB was about 4.5 times brighter than the previous record-holder, with a signal-to-noise ratio of 411. It's known as FRB 180309, which isn't a particularly snappy name. While there were three detections in just a few days, they were not related like FRB 121102.
The only repeating FRB ever discovered.
No one is quite sure what causes fast radio bursts, but it must be a powerful event. These phenomena can outshine millions of stars for a split second. Scientists have determined that the source of FRBs is most likely localized to a few hundred kilometers of space, but that's as far as we've gotten.
Possible sources for FRBs include colliding black holes or neutron stars and signals from an alien civilization that we cannot yet decipher. The latter is definitely an outside chance, but anything is possible until we gather more data. More super-bright FRBs like FRB 180309 could help scientists collect the necessary data to form a theory. The true mechanism could also be something we've never fathomed — and might not understand for many years to come.
fast radio bursts
fast radio burst
radio telescopes


text:
Protection from chemotherapy-induced alopecia in a rat model
AM Hussein,
JJ Jimenez,
CA McCall,
AA Yunis
Department of Medicine, University of Miami School of Medicine, FL 33101.
AM Hussein
JJ Jimenez
CA McCall
Alopecia (hair loss) is among the most distressing side effects of cancer chemotherapy. Little progress has been made, however, in its prevention or treatment, partly because of the lack of suitable experimental model. In recent work on the treatment of myelogenous leukemia in the rat, the following observations were made: (i) treatment of 8-day-old rats with cytosine arabinoside consistently produced alopecia, and (ii) ImuVert, a biologic response modifier derived from the bacterium Serratia marcescens, uniformly produced complete protection against the alopecia. In subsequent experiments, both cyclophosphamide and doxorubicin also produced alopecia in this model, and the doxorubicin-induced alopecia was prevented by treatment with ImuVert. The potential relevance of these observations to chemotherapy-induced alopecia in the clinical setting should be examined.
You are going to email the following Protection from chemotherapy-induced alopecia in a rat model
By AM Hussein, JJ Jimenez, CA McCall, AA Yunis

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


In New Orleans, there is only one property management school where property management faculty can find employment. The following statistics and charts help analyze the current state of the property management academic community in New Orleans, and the future trends. Academia in property management includes property management training at the property management certificate level.
Exactly 820 of the 2,590 property management professionals employed in Louisiana, work in New Orleans. There has been a 32% decline in the number of property management professionals in New Orleans between the years 2006 and 2010. Overall employment in New Orleans has increased.
In New Orleans, salaries for property management professionals have increased. New Orleans property management professionals made $51,310 per year, on average, in 2010. Four years earlier in 2006, property management professionals in New Orleans made an average salary of $43,130 per year. This growth is faster than the salary trend for all careers in New Orleans.
Property management professionals in New Orleans make a median yearly salary of $39,090. The 10% of property management professionals in the lowest pay bracket earn less than $18,070 per year, while those in the highest pay bracket earn approximately $91,660 per year.
On average property management professional salaries in New Orleans are lower than salaries earned by their professional counterparts in related professions.
Many of New Orleans' property management professionals are graduates of the only accredited property management school in the city.
There is one degree and certificate program in property management offered by New Orleans' property management school.
Approximately 31 students completed property management courses in 2010.
The number of property management faculty, growth in the field of property management academia and property management faculty salaries in New Orleans, is all data we are currently in the process of collecting. Your anonymous submission of information regarding your career and salary will help us create a valuable career planning database for the benefit of property management faculty at the certificate in property management level in New Orleans. The data we have gathered thus far will be available for you to view once you have submitted your information.


text:
Not Available For Download
Romantic Outlaws, Beloved Prisons: The Unconscious Meanings of Crime and Punishment
Martha Grace Duncan, ROMANTIC OUTLAWS, BELOVED PRISONS: THE UNCONSCIOUS MEANINGS OF CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, New York University Press, 1996
Posted: 20 Nov 2009 Last revised: 25 Nov 2009
See all articles by Martha-Grace Duncan
Martha-Grace Duncan
Date Written: November 12, 2009
This is a book about paradoxes and mingled yarns – about the bright sides of dark events, the silver linings of sable clouds, ROMANTIC OUTLAWS, BELOVED PRISONS portrays upright citizens who harbor a "strange liking" for criminal deeds, and criminals who conceive of prison in positive terms: as a nurturing mother, an academy, a matrix of spiritual birth, and a refuge from life's trivia.
In her effort to show how people experience imprisonment and criminality, Professor Duncan draws on novels and prison memoirs, psychoanalysis, and history, as well as legal cases. Her analysis reveals a world that is non-utopian in principle, a world in which criminals and non-criminals are linked in a symbiotic relationship – as necessary to one another as Sancho Panza and Don Quijote, the Fool and King Lear, or two partners entwined in a complicated dance.
In the concluding section of her book, Professor Duncan epitomizes these themes with the remarkable story of the "Botany Bay Venture," Britain's decision to establish a "thieves' colony" in remote Australia in the 18th century. By analyzing the debates of the British parliament, classic works of fiction, and children's toys, Professor Duncan illuminates this decision, which historians have described as "puzzling," "bizarre," and "irrational." Key to her interpretation is the insight that the metaphors of slime, stain, and excrement – words used by the British to speak about the "transported" convicts – are not really as negative as they appear. Rather, this language constitutes a defense against the illicit attraction to lawbreakers and the knowledge that we all, in some sense, come from slime and to slime will return.
In this SSRN paper, we provide the Table of Contents and the Introduction to the book.
Duncan, Martha-Grace, Romantic Outlaws, Beloved Prisons: The Unconscious Meanings of Crime and Punishment (November 12, 2009). Martha Grace Duncan, ROMANTIC OUTLAWS, BELOVED PRISONS: THE UNCONSCIOUS MEANINGS OF CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, New York University Press, 1996, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1504871
Martha-Grace Duncan (Contact Author)
Emory University School of Law ( email )
1301 Clifton Road


text:
@implementation AAMeetingDescriptorTableViewCell

@end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Home Cloud
ICANN Approves .XXX Domain for Adult Web Content
Fahmida Y. Rashid
The agency governing Internet addresses has approved .xxx as a new top-level domain, despite objections from civil rights groups, the adult entertainment industry and even parent groups.
The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers approved the creation of the .xxx suffix on March 18 in a 9-3 vote. Four board members abstained from the vote, with two claiming potential conflicts of interest. ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom also abstained.
Industry members opposed the new domain suffix because it may open them up to government censorship. The new TLD would also unfairly force existing companies to register their brands on the new suffix to protect their brand name, according to several critics of the new TLD.
"Of course, we are disappointed, but we are not surprised by the ICANN Board's decision," wrote Diane Duke, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, a trade association representing more than 1,000 businesses in the industry.
As there's nothing that states existing sites have to switch to the new dot-xxx domain, and new sites can choose to use the regular dot-com instead of the new domain, this may not have as much impact on online adult content as a whole. While filters can effectively block out content on the dot-xxxx, that won't have much impact on the amount of adult content available online, according to Donna Rice Hughes, president of Enough Is Enough, a group dedicated to protecting children from adult Web content.
Other detractors, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Obama administration, are concerned the new domain would make it easier for foreign governments to have a wholesale block of certain types of content.
"This decision goes against the global public interest, and it will open the door to more Internet blocking by governments and undermine the stability and security of the Internet," said Lawrence Strickling, assistant Commerce secretary.
The clear winner for the ICANN vote is ICM Registry, a Florida-based company, which will be overseeing the domain. ICM Registry claimed it would only sell domains to those sites that are "officially in the adult-entertainment industry."
Using the new domain will make browsing these sites much safer, according to Stuart Lawley, ICM's CEO. All the sites in the new domain will be scanned daily for viruses and other malware to ensure the sites are clean, Lawley said. ICM will also offer site owners a payment-processing system that customers will be able to trust, he said.
"Everybody wins," Lawley said. "The consumer of adult sites wins. The providers will benefit because more people will become paying customers. Those who don't want to go there will win as well because the sites will be easier to filter."
At $70 a pop, the registration fees for the .XXX domain are higher than what's normally charged for .com addresses. Industry members argued this makes it very expensive for Website operators and businesses being forced to register their names under the new suffix to protect their brand and also defensively register related terms. ICM has already pre-sold more than a quarter million domains in anticipation of the vote.
ICM is set to make at least $200 million a year and see between 3 million and 5 million domain registrations as companies defensively register their domains, Lawley told Bloomberg.
A portion of the registration fees will be funneled to an ICM-affiliated non-profit protecting children online, according to Lawley.
ICANN has refused to allow a specific TLD for adult content since 2000, according to Wired.


text:
Murder and the Law - Criminal Defence Lawyers Australia
Murder and the Law
By Scott Feeney and Jimmy Singh.
It is reported that Ahmad Doudar has been charged with murder for being the alleged mastermind in the daylight execution-style killing of former bikie boss Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi.
Former one time National Comanchero bikie boss Mr Hawi was shot in the head at close range.
It is alleged that the 38-year-old Lone Wolf bikie member Mr Doudar planned the hit and carried it out along with fellow gang member, 37-year-old Yusuf Guney Nazlioglu.
The pair resided in the infamous toaster building in Circular Quay.
While it's alleged that the gunman was Mr Nazlioglu, multiple gun shots were fired at Mr Hawi while he sat in his luxury car outside the Rockdale Fitness First gym on 12th of February 2018.
The same morning as the execution, the pair's shared flat was raided by anti-Bikie officers to execute a routine warrant on Mr Doudar at 5:30am. However, the two had left just minutes earlier.
It is alleged the flatmates had set up the execution.
In the moments leading up to the execution, cars were strategically placed for a swift getaway. Mr. Hawi was followed, while the gym that Mr. Hawi regularly attended to was also carefully monitored.
By lunchtime Mr Hawi was dead.
The motive for the killing is alleged to have been an unsettled debt, amounting to over $300,000 owed to Mr Hawi's scaffolding business.
Mr Nazlioglu has also been charged with murder.
Jamal El Jaidi, 31, has been accused of driving the getaway vehicle.
A burned-out Mercedes station wagon was found dumped near the Rockdale gym.
It is alleged this is the burnt out get-away car, used to flee the crime scene.
A team of up to 40 police officers thoroughly searched the streets for CCTV footage. They were able to track the car back to an abandoned house owned by Mr Doudar's brother.
Detectives were able to then identify the second getaway car, arriving just after the shooting.
The prosecution allege they have been able to track the pairs movements both before and after the murder.
Later, a second car was found just over 10kms away in the suburb of Beaconsfield as it was being loaded onto a tow truck by Moustafa Salami who has been charged with being an accessory after the fact.
A balaclava was found inside the vehicle. Under normal circumstances there would be no trace of evidence left after an extended period. Because it was sealed inside the vehicle, DNA and gunshot residue was preserved.
The DNA found on the balaclava allegedly matches Mr Nazlioglu.
The gunman seen in the CCTV footage was standing close enough to the car to have been covered with residue from the gunshots.
A firearm was also allegedly found in the garage used to store one of the getaway cars.
Voice recordings have been presented where police allege that 11 days before the shooting, Mr Doudar visited imprisoned high-ranking bikie Hassan "Faks" Fakhreddine.
Mr Fakhreddine has reportedly suggested that Mr Doudar get involved in resolving the dispute between Hawi and some property developers.
Mr Doudar made another prison visit just shortly after the shooting.
Denied Bail
Mr Doudar's barrister Gregory James QC is reported saying that the case against his client is circumstantial and "weak".
Mr Doudar could spend up to two years in custody while awaiting his trial.
He also questioned on Wednesday how video footage could prove his client arranged the allegedly debt-fuelled murder.
However, Justice Peter Garling said there was a lack of an innocent explanation for all the evidence presented, and circumstantial evidence in isolation may appear weak "but when considered together, it gains greater weight and significance"
Justice Garling said "Given … his disregard of societal behavioural norms – otherwise known as the law – and his flagrant disregard of legal obligations, there is a very real risk which cannot be mitigated that he will commit further serious offences and endanger members of the public".
Notwithstanding the offer of a two million dollars surety for Hawi's release on bail, Mr. Doudar was refused bail by the Court.
The court heard Doudar has been incarcerated for an extended period for commercial drug supply already. He has been convicted of maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm, break and enter with intent to steal and firing a firearm in a public place.
Further to this, parole has been revoked at least twice, and violent charges were dismissed under mental health grounds.
These were also significant factors that the court took into account as to reasons for refusing bail.
For more details on bail, click on our link here on the law on bail applications in NSW.
Anyone guilty of committing the offence of murder in NSW will be left to face a maximum sentence of up to life in jail.
Life imprisonment refers to the natural life of an offender.
Having said that, a sentencing Judge can exercise discretion to impose a life term of imprisonment if the prosecution prove that the extent of criminality for the offending conduct in any given case was so extreme that only a life prison sentence would be appropriate in light of the purposes of punishing an offender under the law.
In considering the extent of criminality, a sentencing Judge will consider factors such as extent of premeditation, violence used, and provocation used if any.
On the other hand, a sentencing Judge will also consider the offenders personal situation, such as extent of remorse, insight, prospects of rehabilitation and any mental health issues.
If a sentencing Judge determines that it would not be appropriate to impose a term of life imprisonment to an offender for a murder charge, a parole and non-parole period will be imposed.
The non-parole period represents the period of full-time prison an offender will be required to face before he/she can be eligible for release on parole back into the community.
Generally, the greater the prospects of rehabilitation a court finds for a convicted murderer the more inclined a Judge will be to impose a greater parole period with a shorter non-parole period.
Currently, for a murder charge, there is a standard 20-years non-parole period for murder which a sentencing Judge can consider imposing if the offence is assessed as being in the mid-range of objective seriousness for murder offences.
The 20-years standard non-parole period for this offence is not a compulsory requirement to be imposed. It is used only as a guide for the sentencing Judge in order to come to an appropriate sentence.
A person will be guilty of murder in NSW if the prosecution can prove each of the following elements of this crime beyond reasonable doubt in court:
The accused person's voluntary conduct caused the death of the victim; and
The accused person, at the same time, either:
Intended to cause really serious injury or permanent or serious disfigurement to the victim; or
Intended to kill the victim; or
Realised the probability that his/her conduct would cause death; or
Where the accused person caused the victim's death while he/she was committing a crime which carries under the law a maximum penalty of 25-years or more.
A person charged with murder will be found not guilty if the prosecution fails to prove any one of the above 2 elements in court. This will result in an acquittal of the accused.
If any of the following defences apply, a person charged with murder will be found not guilty and acquitted:
The accused person acted in self-defence; or
Mental Health Defence, where the accused person was suffering a certain mental illness which can result in a not guilty verdict for the charge of murder; or
The accused person acted as a result of involuntarily consuming alcohol or drugs that caused him/her to be unable to form the requisite element of intention; or
The accused person acted under a necessity or duress.
A charge of murder is taken extremely seriously by the courts. It is very important to get urgent reliable advice from a specialist criminal defence lawyer.
Our Sydney criminal defence lawyers appear in all courts with offices in Sydney city, Parramatta and 6 other locations in NSW. We are available on (02) 8606 2218.
The Law and Penalties for Murder in NSW
A Guide on the Defences to a Murder Charge
A Guide on Your Right to Silence When Approached by Police
What is the Law and Penalty for Manslaughter in NSW?


Word around the Interwebs is that Twitter has kicked social media platform Vine to the curb.
The 15-second video app was a platform for a lot of upcoming actors, comedians, rappers/singers. But with the rise of Snapchat, InstaStories and even Boomerang, the masses dropped away from the app like flies.
The JET team rounded up our favorite and most legendary Vines. Check them out below and let us know which ones you liked best. #RipVine! It was certainly entertaining while it lasted.


This shop is a paradise of utensils, equipment and whatever you want to buy. Jill and Ann were very helpful and wrapped two of my purchases as gifts. There is such a range for foodies and those setting up home. Wedding gifts, house warming gifts and at the moment Christmas gifts. Egg timers like you have never seen before. It was like going into a supermarket for one thing and coming out with five. I shall definitely shop in there before Christmas. Good luck to their success.


Enhance your profits by automating the recurring billing process. Unlimited number of recurring billing plans are a standard feature on all accounts. Accept cards, ACH, and echecks. Payment data is safety encrypted and stored in the secure vault in the gateway. Protecting your customers sensitive payment data. And safeguarding your business against data breaches.
Naturally, card payments are important for any business. Yet payments from bank accounts are more reliable than cards for recurring billing. Electronic checks are the gold standard for "set it and forget it" recurring payments.
Bank accounts rarely change. Recurring billing continues uninterrupted.
Boost lifetime value of customers. Payments from bank accounts are more stable over time than card payments.
One in five debit/credit cards are reissued each year. Card data needs to be updated. You may not be able to obtain the updated card information. Or the customer may cancel instead of giving you a new card to use.
More payment methods mean more money to you. Accept recurring from customers that don't have cards, are maxed out on cards or simply prefer to pay through a bank account. .
Payments from bank accounts are harder to chargeback than cards. And have a shorter time period for chargebacks than cards.
Echecks are a trusted and familiar method of payment for US consumers. Millions of Americans use recurring payments form bank accounts to purchase goods & services on a regular basis.
Over the past 15 years, we have established recurring payment processing accounts for thousands of merchants. Take advantage of our experience to get your recurring payments merchant account approved quickly.
Free application with no obligation.
Protect your business from data breaches. Eliminate the need to store payment data. Recurring billing info is encrypted & safely stored.
Extensive network of banks for approval for all industry types, including high risk merchants.
High volume processing specialists. Obtain multiple accounts to diversity processing and mitigate risk.
Fully compliant processing safeguards your business.
Verification services keep returns low. And saves you money while protecting your processing accounts.
Contact us today to discover how your business can increase sales and profits with secure recurring payment processing.


text:
Robotic pre-marker provides starting point for safer working
A 'clever little robot' has saved hundreds of hours of working time on projects across the country, Highways England has said.
The machine uses precise positioning technology to mark out where white lines need to be painted on new or resurfaced roads.
The government-owned firm said the 'quirky' piece of kit has already been used on the £1.5bn A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement, which is Britain's biggest road upgrade.
It also recently pre-marked eight miles of the M6 in Staffordshire in four hours. Highways England said this would usually take two engineers over a week to complete.
Julian Lamb, construction director on the A14, said: 'We're always looking at innovative new ways of working, which can help road users, and make our projects more efficient while supporting improved engineering.
'With safety our top priority, the time savings the robot can provide, coupled with removing our operatives from a potentially hazardous situation, make it a great solution.'
Highways England said savings elsewhere include saving 27 hours of working time marking three miles of hard shoulder on the M4 in Berkshire, 77 hours covering five miles of the M6 in Warwickshire, and six hours working on two miles of the M1 in Leicestershire, with further work done on the M60 smart motorway at Manchester.
It said pre-marking road markings is usually a time-consuming job, calculating the positioning of the markings and walking several miles to spray or chalk them on the road, but that with the robot road workers spend far less time in the road and are at less risk.
Around 250 drivers illegally drive into roadworks every month.
Bending down to pre-mark roads by hand can also raise the risk of back injuries, Highways England said. It added that the robot also boasts improved accuracy.
Specialist roadmarking contractor WJ, which adopted the technology, has now invested in a second robot to help complete more of its work.
WJ Group managing director Wayne Johnston said: 'I am passionate about changing the way we work in this industry and the WJ Robotic PreMarker represents a real step change.
'However, it is just a starting point, we will continue to invest in research and development to find better, more efficient and safer ways of working.'
Roadworker safety WJ Group


text:
Q: PL/SQL Throwing Error ORA-02289: sequence does not exist (Oracle SQL) I created a table using SQL Developer. In my table the ID column, I made it to be an auto incremental numeric column. When I get the SQL for the table from SQL tab in the SQL Developer and try to run the it in another instance of the DB, I get an exception:

I am trying to run the script:
CREATE TABLE "GAL_ABS_DB"."DEVICE_LOCKING"
(   "ID" NUMBER(*,0),
"TECH" VARCHAR2(6 BYTE),
"DEVICENAME" VARCHAR2(20 BYTE),
"LOCKINGTYPE" VARCHAR2(16 BYTE),
"LOCKINGDEFINITION" VARCHAR2(6 BYTE)
) SEGMENT CREATION IMMEDIATE
PCTFREE 10 PCTUSED 40 INITRANS 1 MAXTRANS 255
NOCOMPRESS LOGGING
STORAGE(INITIAL 65536 NEXT 1048576 MINEXTENTS 1 MAXEXTENTS 2147483645
PCTINCREASE 0 FREELISTS 1 FREELIST GROUPS 1
BUFFER_POOL DEFAULT FLASH_CACHE DEFAULT CELL_FLASH_CACHE DEFAULT)
TABLESPACE "GAL_ABS_DB" ;

CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER "GAL_ABS_DB"."DEVICE_LOCKING_TRIGGER"
BEFORE INSERT ON DEVICE_LOCKING
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
  <<COLUMN_SEQUENCES>>
  BEGIN
    IF INSERTING AND :NEW.ID IS NULL THEN
      SELECT DEVICE_LOCKING_SEQ.NEXTVAL INTO :NEW.ID FROM SYS.DUAL;
    END IF;
  END COLUMN_SEQUENCES;
END;
/
ALTER TRIGGER "GAL_ABS_DB"."DEVICE_LOCKING_TRIGGER" ENABLE;

Can you please tell me what this is complaining about? I got the script from SQL Developer itself.

A: Presumably the DEVICE_LOCKING_SEQ sequence object does not exist.
This would be a standalone object in its own right and not, for example, part of a table. So you should have a CREATE SEQUENCE ... statement

A: Generated code is usually hideous. I would just create the table as:
create table device_locking
( id                 integer generated always as identity
, tech               varchar2(6)
, devicename         varchar2(20)
, lockingtype        varchar2(16)
, lockingdefinition  varchar2(6) );

Most of the storage settings are the defaults anyway, except SEGMENT CREATION IMMEDIATE - do you really want that? The FLASH_CACHE details are only for Exadata.
If you want the old-school named sequence and maybe a PK, you could use
create sequence device_locking_seq;

create table device_locking
( id                 integer
                     default on null device_locking_seq.nextval
                     constraint device_locking_pk primary key
, tech               varchar2(6)
, devicename         varchar2(20)
, lockingtype        varchar2(16)
, lockingdefinition  varchar2(6) );

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
import curses_terminal

class Terminal(curses_terminal.Terminal):
    style_bold = True


With 3 kids, 2 parents working, and no school, this place is a zoo!
Pipe cleaner animals courtesy of Martha Stewart crafts clearance price at WalMart. I thought it would give Reagen hours of craftiness fun, instead I spent a half an hour listening to how I was making them all wrong.
i can't wait for school to start either!


text:
Book Review: 'Upheaval: The Refugee Trek Through Europe' by Navid Kermani
Upheaval: The Refugee Trek Through Europe by Navid Kermani, published by Polity Books, recounts the author's travels along Europe's refugee road. He traces the path of those seeking asylum in his native Germany as they make their way from Turkey to Lesbos in Greece and then on through Eastern Europe to the relative salvation of Chancellor Angela Merkel's welcoming borders.
Of course the refugees' journeys didn't begin in Turkey, they began in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. They have walked, paid smugglers exorbitant fees for passage in unsafe boats to make it this far. Now they find they have to make their way across Europe to find the one central European country willing to give them sanctuary. For while Scandinavia has continued to welcome refugees, Europe, especially Eastern Europe, has been returning to its old patterns of antipathy for anyone different.
Kermani follows the refugee trail backwards across Europe. In Hungary they're herded into public parks serving as way stations as they wait for transportation to Germany. The government actively ferments public disapproval through billboards featuring a beautiful blond model saying she objects to illegal aliens. The author meets with those who have tried to help the refugees and finds them nervous and worried. One, a writer, says the enemy isn't Muslims, its anyone different; gays, Jews, Romani, a critical media or any sort of opposition.
Many might find some sort of irony in this, but Germany is the one country in Europe welcoming the refugees - they've taken in over a million by the time the author is writing this. Kermani isn't sure what caused Merkel's change of heart - she had initially opposed open borders - but change she has and Germany has become a beacon of hope for those fleeing terror and oppression.
Through Kermani's eyes we see refugees trudging up the road from the beeches on the island of Lesbos in Greece after completing the passage by water from Turkey. We see them huddled in groups on the shores of Turkey waiting for the smugglers willing to run the blockade of Turkish patrol boats to take them over to Greece. We hear of how they pay far too much money for passage in overcrowded boats.
Yet, people still persist in saying there might be terrorists lurking among them. What Kermani finds is the refugees, from young men to families, are just as worried about terrorists as everybody else. After all they're fleeing them. Whether from Iraq, Syria, or Afghanistan they are running away from Islamic State or some other variation on that theme.
Upheaval: The Refugee Trek Through Europe was originally commissioned as series of articles for the German newspaper Der Spiegel but has been updated and expanded upon for the book. You can hear/see the author striving to maintain his journalistic objectivity, but in the face of what he witnesses it's next to impossible. When a young Afghan man, who has had all his money stolen and is nearly without water or food, offers him a drink from his only bottle of water you can almost hear Kermani's heart breaking.
Of special note are the photographs by Moises Saman which accompany Kermani's words. They are stark glimpses into a reality few of us can even begin to understand and serve as the perfect compliment to the text. While pictures of families clinging to each other tug at the heart strings, his photo of a refugee's bare exposed bare feet is a more compelling testament to the trials these people are experiencing than anything else I've seen.
Kermani has done a great job of not only capturing something of what the refugees are experiencing as they take the last stage of their journey to what they hope will be a new world, but the mood of the people whose hands they pass through. He shines a light in the dark spaces of our current world and exposes the dirty and shameful way we treat our fellow human beings.
(Article originally published at Blogcritics.org as Book Review: Upheaval: The Refugee Trek Through Europe by Navid Kermani)
(Originally posted July 2017)


text:
DIPLO Blog The Bear and The Catapult
The Bear and The Catapult
Stephen Brennan
Consul, Science and Innovation, Shanghai
Part of Global Science and Innovation Network
14th October 2019 Shanghai, China
OK, now I've got your attention I should point out that the headline refers to Sir Michael Bear, former Lord Mayor of London and senior advisor to the Connected Places Catapult.
Sir Michael was joined by Connected Places Catapult chief executive Nicola Yates OBE, and 5 UK SMEs on a recent mission to China, which was supported by the Science and Innovation Network (SIN).
The theme of the mission was "Connected Places", which covers "connected" technologies in areas such as transport, infrastructure and sensing. The five companies that took part in the mission all provide innovative products aligned to this theme."
So what types of technology and companies are involved with Connected Places? Below is a brief synopsis of each company and what they do.
ELAD Network – ELAD Network is a Blockchain based estate agent. They have developed an online real estate platform that combines Blockchain, Smart Contracts and Artificial Intelligence technology to revolutionise the way we buy, sell, exchange & invest in property all over the globe. Their main focus is fractional ownership of property using EQ (Equity) coins. They are working in collaboration with several government organisations to achieve this mutual goal. Founder and CEO Dale Perkins-McCook said "The trip to China has increased my network of contacts, from businesses in my field to people in the Chinese government or UK department of international trade and Science & Innovation Network, the opportunity has made us understand the UK government is forward thinking and very supportive of new technology and innovation".
Locomizer – Are an award-winning global leader in the application of artificial intelligence and spatial analytics to help classify multiple different types of human behaviour. They have invented a new way of connecting the emerging parallel digital world to physical real-world environments. The company's unrivalled location insights and analysis support better decision-making and targeting for operational and marketing executives across a whole range of industries. They provide a data platform that generates location-specific insights using mobile phone data.
They are currently following up on a number of potentially lucrative leads in both telecoms and other sectors. Key next steps are to set up some pilots. Locomizer CEO Alexei Poliakov said, "The mission stimulated interest from other parties by adding credibility to the companies involved".
UBIPOS UK – A geospatial and sensing company specialising in monitoring of infrastructure (e.g. bridge safety).With operations in the UK, EU and China as an internationally leading SME in the Geospatial Science and Civil Engineering field, UBIPOS UK Ltd has excelled as a well-recognised leader for continuous R&D and innovation of advanced and innovative ubiquitous solutions to tackle both engineering and environmental issues that are related to the provision of outdoor and indoor positioning navigation and tracking. All of these activities are backed with the unique capacities for the development of UBIPOS algorithms, devices, system platforms, validation and commercial exploitation.
ScienceScope – Are an IOT company focussing on applications in education. ScienceScope are working across the world to develop the next generation education systems. Technology will have an unprecedented impact on the jobs and careers of the future. The easy accessibility of tech such as maker devices and AI will enable students to build solutions which will transform their lives and the lives of those around them.
WallaceLiu – Innovative architecture and design firm specialising in "Adaptive re-use". Established in London in 2013, over the past four years they have been working in China on a series of transformative architectural projects in the city of Chongqing.
Picture below is of Chongqing Industrial Museum (WallaceLiu were employed as Lead Designers) – a project to transform the historic Chongqing Iron & Steel plant into a 7500m museum and cultural centre in the Dadukou area of the city.
(Picture courtesy of Etienne Clement)
So what is Connected Places Catapult's role?
Connected Places Catapult's mission is to help British businesses address the grand challenges of today to create connected places, fit for the future. They do this not only by helping businesses get new products and services to market in the UK, but also by strengthening business ties to important and growing overseas markets such as China.
This mission aimed to help participant companies identify customers, quality local business partners, and foster project opportunities. The four day programme included engagements in Chongqing, Chengdu and Shanghai, such as:
• Speaking at the UK-China Future Intelligence Collaboration Summit in Chongqing alongside senior government officials (Picture shows Locomizer CEO Alexei Poliakov making his pitch).
• A day of engagements in Chengdu delivered in partnership with Jinjiang District Government.
• Range of half day engagements with business unions and companies in Shanghai (Like speed dating for businesses!).
• Receiving specialist advice on how to set up and establish a foothold in the Chinese market and protect their Intellectual Property.
The SMEs have all received lots of enquiries about their respective businesses, both during and following the conclusion of the mission, and are in varying stages of contract negotiations. They have each expressed their satisfaction with developments since beginning this mission.
In summary, we can say that the mission is "Bear….ing" fruit!!
Previous articleWhat is Chevening?
Next articleTurkey summons US diplomat over a Twitter 'like'


text:
48 Hours from Ground Zero
Secret Rock Knowledge
« Top Five Election Songs
| 1988 Countdown: Demographic Breakdown »
1988 Countdown: #100-76 Roundup
Back in 1988, I videotaped the MTV year-end top-100 countdown. Earlier this year, I unearthed the tapes and started watching them for the first time in two decades. I've been gradually working my way through the countdown, dissecting every single clip (and the commercial breaks too). Half a year later, we're now two and a half hours into the countdown, or 25% of the way through. I've seen videos both wonderful and vomitous, more of Kevin Seal than I ever expected to in this century, and five airings of the ad for The January Man.
If you'd like to catch up, here's your chance.
#100: Keith Richards, "Take It So Hard"
#99: Crowded House, "Better Be Home Soon"
#98: Vixen, "Edge of a Broken Heart"
#97: Rick Astley, "Together Forever"
#96: Glenn Frey, "True Love"
#95: The Bangles, "In Your Room"
(Bonus clip not on the countdown: Def Leppard, "Armageddon It")
#94: Michael Jackson, "Another Part of Me"
#93: Cher, "I Found Someone"
#92: Pet Shop Boys, "Always on My Mind"
#91: Eric Carmen, "Hungry Eyes"
#90: Natalie Cole, "Pink Cadillac"
#89: The Traveling Wilburys, "Handle With Care"
#88: Michael Bolton, "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay"
#87: Kylie Minogue, "The Loco-Motion"
#86: Henry Lee Summer, "I Wish I Had a Girl"
#85: The Fat Boys, "The Twist"
(Bonus clip not on the countdown: U2, "Angel of Harlem")
#84: Belinda Carlisle, "Circle in the Sand"
#83: Pet Shop Boys, "What Have I Done to Deserve This?"
#82: Icehouse, "Electric Blue"
#81: Van Halen, "Finish What Ya Started"
#80: Whitney Houston, "Where Do Broken Hearts Go"
#79: OMD, "Dreaming"
#78: Pat Benatar, "All Fired Up"
#77: Foreigner, "I Don't Want to Live Without You"
Commercial Break #10
#76: Johnny Hates Jazz, "Shattered Dreams"
And the introduction that started it all.
posted 5 November 2008 in 1988 and tagged MTV, roundups. no comments yet
Buy Kindness and Wonder via IndieBound
from Barnes & Noble
via HarperCollins
Buy Bad Motherfucker via IndieBound
from B & N
via Hachette
Keep up to date with new comments on this post via RSS.
Contact Gavin
Self-reflexive
Tasty Bits
Adam Curry Ads Aerosmith Andy Warhol Australia Big Bang '89 Bill Murray Bruce Springsteen Coca-Cola Details double albums EWF Flipwalks Gillette Guns N' Roses Kevin Seal Kindness and Wonder Last Night at the Viper Room Los Angeles Maxim Michael Jackson Michelob Dry Mister Rogers MTV New York City New York Times Prince R.E.M. Rain Man Rolling in the Deep Rolling Stone roundups RSHOF signs The Beatles The Conductor The January Man The Tao of Bill Murray top five TV UA-Columbia Unlikely Lyrics VJ Wired WWF
© 2023 Gavin Edwards
Web Design by ClickNathan.com


The other day, I found myself back in an old place. A familiar place.
As I walked away from it that last time, bags in hand, I'd promised never to return… and yet somehow, there I was—trying to control everything again.
I thought I pretty much had this covered—the idea that I couldn't "convince" God to just hurry up and fix my situation in any of the multiple ways I'd so generously (and frequently) prescribed to Him. So, discovering that I'd somehow snuck back into this space where I was more concerned with receiving all the things I had to have rightthisveryminuteplease than with fostering a Relationship with my Creator…well, it kind of surprised me.
Then one day, it occurred to me that part of my problem was my discomfort with what I termed "The Silent Delay". Not getting what I wanted was one thing. Not hearing from God exactly when He was planning to deliver my packages was more than should be asked of me.
I remembered hearing somewhere that faith comes by hearing, but growth comes by silence. What I wanted God to fix really didn't matter that much. What I needed was the One who knew which areas in me need fixing, and how to get it done. I understood this in my head, I think. But in my heart, something else was going on. I was refusing to sit still and allow God to help me mature in the specific areas that still needed work.
What God needed to do with me was a lot like surgery. Some things had to be cut away. Other things needed to be reconnected to places they'd separated from. (And, since I'm being honest, were there also a couple of shady things that maybe only a flame-thrower could fix?) Now, if I were on a table, with some professional trying to fix me up, it's pretty unlikely that I'd be flip-flopping around, showing him where to put what. So—why was I trying to do that with God?
In the end, the only appropriate response to the understanding that you're in the middle of surgery is to lie still. Is it difficult? Sometimes. Is it painful? Well, surgery generally isn't pleasant, I guess.
But if the only option is to make a mess and end up worse than before—then have to do it all over again—doesn't it just make sense to lie still and let Him work? I can't speak for anyone else, but frankly, I'm tired of finding myself back on this Table.
So here I am, God: yielded—and still.
This entry was posted in Christian, growth, Reflection and tagged life, pain, waiting by Tee. Bookmark the permalink.


text:
Rain - A Tribute to the Beatles
OTHER MUSICALS IN LANCASTER
Always...Patsy Cline
The Simon and Garfunkel Story
Rain - A Tribute to the Beatles Event homeBuy ticketsCustomer reviews Always...Patsy ClineThe Simon and Garfunkel Story
Little River Band (Mar 18, 2023)
American Music Theatre Please selectVenue homeLocation and directionsOvernight accommodationSeating maps Engelbert Humperdinck (Feb 3, 2023)Boyz II Men (Feb 9, 2023)Trace Adkins (Feb 10, 2023)Tower of Power (Feb 19, 2023)Newsboys (Mar 3, 2023)The Simon and Garfunkel Story (Mar 5, 2023)Brit Floyd (Mar 9, 2023)Oak Ridge Boys (Mar 11, 2023)Il Divo (Mar 12, 2023)Little River Band (Mar 18, 2023)Celtic Woman (Mar 24 - 25, 2023)Hermans Hermits (Apr 1, 2023)The Concert: A Tribute to Abba (Apr 2, 2023)Josh Turner (Apr 13, 2023)The Temptations & The Four Tops (Apr 14, 2023)One Night of Queen (Apr 19, 2023)Clint Black (Apr 20, 2023)Our Planet Live In Concert (Apr 21, 2023)Scotty McCreery (Apr 28, 2023)Tommy James and The Shondells (May 6, 2023)Amy Grant (May 7, 2023)Grand Funk Railroad (May 13, 2023)Always...Patsy Cline (May 14, 2023)Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder (May 19, 2023)Michael W. Smith (May 27, 2023)Happy Together Tour (Jun 17, 2023)Brian Regan (Jun 25, 2023)Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons (Jul 2, 2023)The Doo Wop Project (Aug 26, 2023)
Photo by Ray on Unsplash
Although purists might sneer at this concert/theatrical experience, there's no denying that, as cover bands go, this is one of the best.
Why See Rain - A Tribute to the Beatles?
MusicalsTribute ActsConcerts
the ultimate BEATLES tribute band
Together longer than The Beatles themselves, RAIN has mastered every song, gesture and nuance of the legendary group, delivering a totally live, note-for-note performance that's as infectious as it is transporting. From the early hits to later classics that The Beatles never got the chance to play live - including the most complex and challenging songs - this adoring tribute will take you back to a time when all you needed was love, peace and a little help from your friends!
No other rendition of The Beatles' music comes close to this level of performance, which has taken years of mastery and attention to detail that is unmatched. From the early days of The Beatles' appearance on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964, through Shea Stadium, the Sgt. Pepper era and on to the Abbey Road years, the RAIN captures it all flawlessly.
Performance date: 30 April 2023
Suitable for audiences of all ages
Two hours and 20 minutes including one 20 minute intermission
Cast and Creative
Founder and Manager - Mark Lewis
Sun, Apr 30
25 reviews, average rating: (4.4 Stars)
Candace: "RAIN of Love Last Night"
What a fabulous show! At first, it seemed like I was back in the 60's... more
Adrian: "What a show!"
I saw the 4-8-2011 show @ the Orpheum & loved every minute. The various... more
Sound good to you? Share this page on social media and let your friends know about Rain - A Tribute to the Beatles at American Music Theatre.
Please note: The term American Music Theatre and/or Rain - A Tribute to the Beatles as well as all associated graphics, logos, and/or other trademarks, tradenames or copyrights are the property of the American Music Theatre and/or Rain - A Tribute to the Beatles and are used herein for factual descriptive purposes only. We are in no way associated with or authorized by the American Music Theatre and/or Rain - A Tribute to the Beatles and neither that entity nor any of its affiliates have licensed or endorsed us to sell tickets, goods and or services in conjunction with their events.


As a valued member of the OR team, you care for patients in an environment where compassion meets the latest in advanced technologies. It's your dynamic abilities as a caregiver that provide a safe patient experience before, during, and after surgical procedures.
Be a problem-solver in hospital surgery departments across the country by applying for PeriOperative nursing jobs; join a team of healthcare professionals in great locations across the country.
Sign-up for email job alerts and you'll get instant notification the moment PeriOperative/OR travel nursing jobs that meet your search criteria are added to our database.
PeriOperative nursing jobs are available at TravelNursing.com. Find your next PeriOperative position in great locations across the country.


CompuSource is a Bozeman Montana based company who provides computer and telephone cabling services. We provide cabling solutions for home offices, for small office suites, to larger corporate buildings.
CompuSource, Inc. has delivered quality service, products and cabling solutions since 1992. We are dedicated to keeping current with all new advances in computer technology, cross platform connectivity, advances in cable engineering, as well as the standards that govern the quality of installation. We enjoy working with businesses individuals to help them plan their new construction or upgrades of their current system.
CompuSource is factory trained and certified by Panduit Network Systems Group as Panduit Certified Installers (PCI) and Panduit Certified Technicians (PCT) for installation and maintenance meeting all current standards.
CompuSource is a corporate member of BICSI (a Telecommunications Association: Building Industry ConsultingService International). We stay current with products and advances in practices in current standard by attending conferences, classes and seminars provided by BICSI as well as companies such as Crescent Electric Supply and Graybar.
We welcome you to become one of our many satisfied customers.
Providing Cabling and Network Solutions to Homes, Small Businesses and Large Corporate Businesses in the Bozeman, MT Area.


text:
Q: PyCharm installs wrong version of pip in virtual environment EDIT: solved the core problem of installing matplotlib in the virtual environment (see my answer), but the original question of pip versions in PyCharm virtual environments might still deserve its own answer.
Original Question
All my Python projects are isolated in virtual environments. For the most part, PyCharm plays nice with virtualenv.
When trying to install a virtualenv using 2.7 as base interpreter, PyCharm installs the wrong pip to the virtual environment. As a result, although some packages install fine to the virtual environment, matplotlib does not install.

The interpreter for the bulk of my projects is 3.5, but for this one I need 2.7.

Is this a PyCharm bug, or something that can be fixed manually?
What I tried
I tried to open the virtual environment manually with workon Jupyter2, but because the environment is not in the usual Env folder, it wasn't found. I looked for a way to specify the path of an environment with workon but did not find one. EDIT: instead of workon, ran activate in the Scripts directory of the virtual environment.

A: Here is how I solved the problem. Not accepting my answer because while it solves the numpy / matplotlib installations, which was the core problem, it does not answer the original question about pip versions in PyCharm -- which might still deserve an answer.

*

*navigate to the Scripts folder of the Env.

*command prompt: activate.bat to activate the Env.

*downloaded the wheel for numpy from here and placed it at the root of the Env.

*in the shell for the virtual env, cd to the root of the Env, then pip installed the wheel, e.g. pip install numpy-1.10.4+mkl-cp27-cp27m-win_amd64.whl

*from there, I was able to pip install matplotlib and pandas, but this step would have probably worked from PyCharm too.


Bestselling author Candace Havens has published more than 25 books. Her novels have received nominations for the RITA's, Holt Medallion, Write Touch Reader Awards and National Readers Choice Awards. She is a Barbara Wilson Award winner. She is the author of the biography "Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy" and a contributor to several anthologies. She is also one of the nation's leading entertainment journalists and has interviewed countless celebrities from George Clooney to Chris Pratt. Candace also runs a free online writing workshop for more than 2000 writers, and teaches comprehensive writing classes. She does film reviews with Hawkeye in the Morning on 96.3 KSCS, and is a former President of the Television Critics Association.
To ask Candace Havens questions, please sign up.
When will you write the next book about the Caruthers sisters?
Candace Havens I'm working on the next story for late next year.
The power of social media never fails to amaze me. It's the reason I have a Steampunk novella in A Riveting Affair. Late one Saturday night, I took a break from writing and checked out Twitter. I happened to see a tweet from Entangled Publisher @Liz_Pelletier who wanted Steampunk stories for an anthology.
We'd love your help. Let us know what's wrong with this preview of Tomboy by Avery Flynn.
You can't go wrong with Barb Han. I inhale her books.
We'd love your help. Let us know what's wrong with this preview of Texas Hunt by Barb Han.
We meet first Thursday of every month at DVine Wines in Garland Tx and talk about books from Romance to Horror and everything in between the covers.
Book video, author interviews, reviews, webisodes and more! If you have something that you think will entertain readers post it here!
Read Hex, book one in the Saxton Academy series? Want to talk all about it? Come join the fun.
Yay! I'm loving the new stuff. When are the next Caruthers sister books coming???
Have a nice weekend & Happy Reading!


text:
BTW News Briefs
Specialty Bookselling
Literacy/Reading
Children's Bookselling
Authors Guild Online Auction Underway
The Authors Guild online auction benefiting the Authors Guild Foundation is now live and open to the public.
The Guild is auctioning off a variety of items and services from well-known authors, including book club appearances, signed books, manuscript reviews, and dinners with authors. Writers who have contributed to the auction include Sherman Alexie, Barry Beckham, Rich Benjamin, Roy Blount Jr., Jennifer Egan, Peter Gethers, Gish Jen, Erica Jong, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Roxana Robinson, Richard Russo, James Shapiro, Jonathan Taplin, Scott Turow, Nick Taylor, Rachel Vail, and Nicholas Weinstock.
All auction items can be viewed on the Guild's Bidding for Good webpage. The deadline to bid online is Tuesday, May 23, at 3:00 p.m. The auction will continue at the Authors Guild's annual Gala on Wednesday, May 24, in New York City.
The Authors Guild Foundation advocates for copyright protection, fair contracts, free expression, and the value of writers to society and educates authors in the business of writing.
Museum Store Association to Launch Holiday Shopping Campaign
Museum Store Sunday, a new holiday shopping campaign created by the Museum Store Association (MSA), will take place on November 26, the Sunday following Thanksgiving 2017.
In the spirit of Black Friday, Shop Small Saturday (and Indies First), Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday, MSA has claimed that Sunday as the day to shop and support museum stores and their institutions worldwide. The event will also "focus much-needed attention on the unique retail experience provided by museum stores," said Executive Director Jason Harbonic.
All non-profit retailers, both MSA members and non-members, are invited to participate in Museum Store Sunday; MSA members will receive special marketing information as well as event and publicity assistance.
Ingram Publisher Services Signs Five Publishers
Ingram Publisher Services has announced the addition of five publisher clients to its distribution network.
The five publishers are Dovetail Press, the sister publishing company of Brooklyn-based kitchen and entertainment product company W&P Design; PIE International, a Tokyo-based publisher of books on Japanese design culture; Oceanview Publishing, which publishes mystery, thriller, and suspense fiction; The TMG Firm, an independent business book publisher; and Ramsey Press, owned by businessman and author Dave Ramsey of Ramsey Solutions.
Reading Group Choices Publishes List of Readers' Favorite Titles
Reading Group Choices, which provides resources and recommendations for book clubs and reading groups, has tallied the results of its annual survey, which asks readers questions about their favorite fiction, nonfiction, and YA books from the 2016 print edition of Reading Group Choices. A "most read" list was also compiled this year.
Readers' favorite fiction, nonfiction, and young adult 2016 lists can be found on the Reading Group Choices website, along with the top 10 most-read books from the 2016 edition of Reading Group Choices.
Margarita Engle Named Young People's Poet Laureate
The Poetry Foundation has chosen Margarita Engle as its new Young People's Poet Laureate. Awarded every two years, the $25,000 laureate title is given to a living writer in recognition of a career devoted to writing exceptional poetry for young readers.
As poet laureate, Engle, the author of Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl's Courage Changed Music, will advise the Poetry Foundation on matters relating to young people's literature and engage in a variety of projects to help instill a love of poetry in youth.
Engle's poetry is currently featured on the Poetry Foundation's website.
International Dylan Thomas Prize Winner Announced
Fiona McFarlane has won the £30,000 International Dylan Thomas Prize for her short story collection The High Places (published by Farrar, Straus, Giroux in the U.S. and Sceptre in the U.K.).
The High Places is the second book by McFarlane, an Australian writer whose first novel, The Night Guest, won the inaugural Voss Literary Prize and the 2014 Barbara Jefferis Award.
The International Dylan Thomas Prize is awarded for a published literary work of fiction in the English language written by an author aged 39 or under.
Winner of Inaugural Albertine Prize Announced
The inaugural Albertine Prize of $10,000 has been awarded to Bardo or Not Bardo, by Antoine Volodine, translated by J.T. Mahany (published by Open Letter Books in the U.S. and by les éditions du Seuil in France).
The Albertine Prize, a reader's choice award, honors the author and translator of a French-language novel published in the U.S. during the past year.
Bardo or Not Bardo was chosen from 10 finalists, following two rounds of online voting open to readers across the U.S.


Unfortunately, the league you are hoping to join is currently full. Please fill out this form to join the waitlist. This information will be delivered to the admin(s) at Atlanta Amateur Hockey League - Upper Over 35 Winter 2019 (Hockey).


Feb.18, 2013. Jiangmen, Guangdong Province. While Mr. Huang, a VIP client, was driving through Jiangmen section of Shenzhen-Luoding Highway, the motor indicated high water temperature. Unsure of the possibility to continue driving with such dysfunction, he contacted Europ Assistance for help.
After receiving the call from client by Europ Assistance executive, a three-link technician analyzed the failure online. The technician pointed out that the motor cooling system went wrong and needed to be repaired immediately. Besides, further driving is not allowed. Due to the fact that Mr. Huang was on the highway, the rescue executive has confirmed his exact location through the map system. Besides, they were able to placate him. However, since all highway section is under common control, the Shenzhen-Luoding highway road rescue team was informed to arrange the rescue vehicle immediately, and tow the vehicle to the highway exit. In the meantime, Europ supplier in Jiangmen was notified to pick up the vehicle at the exit. Upon the handover at the exit, Europ had also arranged the taxi to send Mr. Huang and passengers to downtown of Jiangmen.
Since the client is not a local here, Europ presented a few local professional repair factories in good relationship for the client to choose from and had the vehicle towed to the factory for repairing in a secure way. However, upon the examination, the repair factory pointed out that the vehicle cannot be repaired. Therefore, Europ called the client immediately for updating the situation and arranged a 4-star hotel for him for one night until the repair was finished.
On the next day, Europ immediately followed up the vehicle situation and called Mr. Huang to pick it up when the repair was completed.
In this case, Mr. Huang has not only received highly efficient and rapid road assistance service, but the tailored value-added services that reassured him. During the whole process, Europ has maintained immediate and effective communication with Mr. Huang to keep him informed all the whole process.


This is a BEARD contest. All contestants must be clean shaven on Monday October 13, 2008. All facial hair must be removed (this includes, but is not limited to mustaches, beards, goatees, muttonchops, chinstraps, neck mullets, John Waters pencil thins, soul patches, sideburns that extend below the earlobe, and Van Dykes).
For the duration of nine weeks the burly beards will be grown for the world to cower in trepidation. There will be weekly Beard Checkpoint Days with progress photos taken. Points will be awarded for each weekly Checkpoint so don't miss out!
Beards are defined as facial hair grown from ear to ear. We understand some of you may have patches of reclusive follicles. For you we recommend a regimen of manly activities such as chopping wood, stalking and killing small animals, leaving the toilet seat up, and wearing more flannel. Be a man, grow your Beard and be proud!
The use of performance enhancing hormones or coloring agents is forbidden.
Winners will be announced sometime between 12/15/08 and 12/19/08.
Though the Beard Checkpoints are not mandatory (we believe in the honor system) they are a great opportunity to encourage your Bearded brethren during the growing season.
While we do not endorse trash-talking or making disparaging comments of any kind about another grower's Beard, there are unsubstantiated medical theories that Beard Abuse stimulates follicle growth.


Have you ever been playing in a big modpack, or even regular Minecraft, and you have no idea what in the world the item you just found does? This is a solution for you.
With this mod, all you have to do is type /wiki <search term> and it will open up an information source in your default web browser automatically.
<wiki key> = Specific Wiki that you want to search in. If you don't want to search a specific wiki, not entering the wiki key will result in the mod searching on the default wiki.
<search term> = The subject you want to search. It can be practically anything.


Farah's line of patterned oxford shirts has been second to none this season. This one has a two tone stripe pattern and comes equipped with the typical OCBD features. A button down collar at the front and and a box pleat at the back topped with a hanging loop.


I've never been to Art and Bloom at the Milwaukee Art Museum, so I'm excited to attend for the first time AND sell my art.
How cool is that? I've been going to the Milwaukee Art Museum for years and years (since I was a little girl) and it's one of my favorite places on earth. Seriously. The building, the Brise Soleil, the Chilhuly sculpture and art are all on my favorites list.
So mark your calendars, ya'll! It's coming up fast. April 11-14th.


text:
THE FOUNDERS OF THE CATHOLEPISTEMIAD
The Fathers of the University Idea in Michigan, a Catholic Priest,
a Presbyterian Dominie, and a Yankee Lawyer
The recent decision of the Board of Regents to follow the statement made by the State Supreme Court in 1856 that the University was actually established in 1837 rather than on the earlier date, 1817, does not in any way impair our interest in that first educational experiment in Detroit. Save for a picturesque name, there was little to mark the fact that it was a university. It was certainly not a university if its actual accomplishments are to be considered.
Despite its ridiculous terminology, however, it did express a real idea and an educational ideal which only came into fruition in Ann Arbor twenty years later. It kept the idea of university education before the people of the territory of Michigan, a fact that might be considered better justification for considering the incorporation of the little seminary with its high-sounding name as the true foundation of the University, than the legal thread which transferred its small property holdings to the later Board of Regents. Three men were, in different ways, responsible for this conception of the University. Father Gabriel Richard, the old Catholic priest of Detroit, his young friend, John Monteith, who was the Presbyterian clergyman in Detroit, and William Woodbridge, who was the first Secretary of the territory of Michigan.
FATHER GABRIEL RICHARD
Although Detroit, founded in 1701, is one of the oldest cities in America, it lies in a territory in dispute for over a century, first between the French and the English, and later, the Americans. After it was taken over by the Continental Congress, as a result of the victory of George Rogers Clarke and his Virginia men at Vincennes, it came within the vast and uncertain boundaries of the Northwest Territory, in which Congress established a government by that famous Ordinance of 1787.
Within the Ordinance lay the germ from which the University was to develop. In fact, President Angell, in his oration celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the University in 1887, said:
We might in a very just sense celebrate this year the centennial of the life of the University. For the germ of that life and of the life of all the state universities in the West is found in that great instrument, the Ordinance of 1787, which was adopted just a hundred years ago the thirteenth of next month. You remember that memorable article, whose first sentence we have placed here upon our walls, a sentence which should be engraved in letters of gold on fitting monuments in every State that was carved out of the Northwest Territory: "Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged."
(This inscription is above the stage in Old University Hall, where so many generations of students have familiarized themselves with it, almost unconsciously. The same words now appear carved above the great-pillared entrance to Angell Hall.)
It was eleven years after the passage of this Ordinance and its educational clause, however, before Gabriel Richard came to the little fur-trading settlement of Detroit as assistant to the rector of the Roman Catholic church of St. Anne. In a recent article on the beginnings of the University, by William A. Spill, '96l, in the Michigan History Magazine, Autumn number, we find a very sympathetic picture of this Frenchman who did so much for Michigan. Born at Saintes, France, October 15, 1764, he was graduated from the college of Saintoines with first prizes in rhetoric, French oratory, and Latin verse, and a second prize in Latin oratory. Later he received degrees in philosophy and theology from the university at Angers, later destroyed in the French Revolution. It is interesting to note that one of his fellow students was a young man named Arthur Wesley, or Wellesley, later to become the famous Duke of Wellington.
He entered the Sulpician Order and was ordained as a priest in 1791. After teaching mathematics for a few years in a seminary at Issy, the fury of the French Revolution drove him to America, where he landed in Baltimore in 1792. No openings being available in that part of the country, he was sent to Illinois as a missionary to the Kaskaskia Indians. On the way he met some priests from Detroit and became interested in what they had to say about the place, an interest which later resulted in his being transferred to Detroit. Here he was destined to live and work for thirty-four years—a commanding and influential figure. It was fortunate that Father Richard's great interest was not so much ecclesiastical as educational, for his life in Detroit throughout those early years was, in truth, a history of early education in Michigan. Beginning with schools for Indians, by 1804 he had a crude high school, which, poor as his church was, he had equipped with a spinning machine, an air pump, electrical apparatus, and other crude laboratory material. All this was destroyed when Detroit was burned in 1805.
Father Richard was indefatigable in his efforts to create a seminary of learning in Michigan, and urged that the territory claim the Congressional township grant for educational purposes. Judge Spill says:
He addressed numerous memorials on the subject of education, generally to the Governor and Judges. One, dated October 18, 1808, shows the continuous urge of Richard, envisions of the future university, and contains the first public expression of that familiar phrase, "the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts" in this language: "for the Encouragement of literature, scientific knowledge, and useful arts." It suggests the four lotteries later authorized to be cast by the charter of the University. The record discloses that on this occasion Elias Angustus Brevoort Woodward, who, as presiding judge of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Michigan, was a very dominant figure in legislation, offered a resolution that "It is now expedient to establish a Seminary of Learning in this territory. "The resolution was not seconded and nothing was done.
Detroit, at this time, was largely composed of a population of French. There was a growing number of Americans in the Territory. The French dominance was passing. The total population of the Territory was less than 4,700; most of which was in Detroit, and adjacent communities. Conditions were very primitive, the preponderant French being largely hunters and trappers. There was only one road—the one which followed down along the river to the Rapids of the Miami (Toledo), and thence struggled on eastward to civilization. Immigration had been greatly impeded by the official report of a surveyor that the territory was a wilderness of morass, across which it was impossible to convey a horse and not one acre in a hundred of which could ever be cultivated. The representatives of the United States governing the Territory were Protestants. Their ancestry, ideals, and religion were hostile to those of the French. Richard was the leader of that portion of the population, which was of French descent, and Roman Catholic in its fealty.
However much we regret and seek to end ignorance, misunderstanding, and intolerance, these are very present and malignant influences in the affairs of men. Gabriel Richard's position in the community was difficult. He was a priest of the Roman church. On the other hand, the tolerance of Father Richard toward, and his friendship, sympathy, and cooperation with, Protestants, aggravated by his apparent conviction that education must be free alike from both church and dogma, made his own people suspicious of him. It is incredible that so great a man was unaware of the suspicion and misunderstanding which operated to hinder his efforts and thwart his purposes.
But Detroit was largely a French city, even though many American settlers were coming in. The ruling classes were Protestant. This made the situation difficult. Moreover, Father Richard was a Liberal. His belief that education must be free alike from both church and dogma, made his own people suspicious of him. He tried to further the good feeling when he brought clear from Baltimore, a printing press and started a paper in French and English, called The Essay, or Impartial Observer. The experiment proved too expensive, however, and it is probable that only the first issue ever appeared. But the press and type remained and most of the first school books used in Michigan came from Father Richard's press.
His ideas, however, were not without supporters. It was undoubtedly because of his interest in educational matters and his liberal outlook that he became friends with John Monteith and William Woodbridge, who felt equally with him the need of an institution of higher learning in the community. It was the impetus given to the idea by this trio, so curiously assorted, that led to the plan later drawn up for the Catholepistemiad by Judge Woodward.
But Father Richard's services did not end with this effort, nor with the professorship, or didaxia, to which he was eventually appointed in the Catholepistemiad of1817. In 1823 he was elected as the delegate to Congress from the Territory of Michigan.
In an article "Michigan's Priest Delegate to Congress," by Raymond George Egan in America for June 16, 1928, we learn something about the difficulties Father Richard encountered in election to the office and in gaining recognition as a result of that election. "To some it seemed preposterous that a Catholic priest in charge of a parish, a man whose English was but limited, and who was not a citizen of the United States, should become a candidate for so important an office. In the opposition ranged against him were not a few Catholics—some making capital of their religion because their personal interests were concerned. Then, as in our day, unscrupulous corruption and sinister intrigue were equally rampant."
Throughout the political campaign, the Detroit Gazette—subsidized by the opposing candidates—ignored Father Richard. For three days election returns were with held because the officials did not want to announce that Father Richard had won the election evoked comment from the press the country over. The Niles Register for October 11, 1823, said: "Mr. Gabriel Richard, a Roman Catholic priest, has been elected a delegate to Congress from Michigan Territory. This is probably the first instance of the kind in the United States." "With rare foresight," Mr. Egan asserts, "he had devised this means whereby he could liquidate the debt on the new church which had risen over the debris and ashes left by the disastrous fire of 1805."
Defeat, however, rankled with Father Richard's political rivals, and they conspired to prevent his seating by raising the question of his competence to hold the office. The case of Francis Labadie, a bigamist who was excommunicated from the church by Father Richard, and took recourse to law, was used as a weapon by his political opponents. The Supreme Court rendered a verdict of $1,116 in favor of Francis Lababie, but its payment was not pressed. Sheriff Austin E. Wing, however, who was one of his bitterest rivals, and found here opportunity to humiliate the priest, and Father Richard was arrested and imprisoned. His plight was not known to the community at large until three of his parishioners passing the small prison heard a familiar voice chanting sacred hymns and gained his release from custody.
Even after he had arrived at the Capitol to take his seat, the irreconcilable gentry, still hopeful of disqualifying him, tried to have his election set aside on the grounds that he was not a citizen of the United States. But the petition was referred to the Committee on Elections, which reported:
From a careful examination of the case in all its bearings and relations, the committee are impelled to the conclusion that the sitting delegate, Father Richard, was at the time of his election, a citizen of the United States, possessed of all the constitutional and legal qualifications to render him eligible to a seat in the present Congress, and do therefore submit the following resolution:
Resolved that Gabriel Richard is entitled to a seat in this house as the delegate from the territory of Michigan.
As Michigan, at the time of Father Richard's tenure of office, was only a territory, her delegate could have a voice in Congress, but no vote. There are no records of any notable legislation connected with his name, although he did father a bill for the construction of a territorial road from Detroit to Chicago.
Failing to secure re-election after his term, Father Richard turned patiently and without complaint to his more legitimate occupation where, with such indefatigable zeal and unremitting care did he devote himself to his people that, when the great Asiatic cholera, introduced by General Scott's troops, swept Detroit, the grim reaper caught him in the ministrations to the sick and dying, and he succumbed to the dreadful malady September 12, 1832, expiring with the words of holy Simeon upon his lips: "Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word in peace."
The Michigan Alumnus
Nov 17 1928, Page 143


Join Inspector Lynley in these action packed adventures. Starting in a Scotland Yard, Lynley finds himself paired with Detective Sergeant Barbara. However, the tension of their personal lives begin to seep into their work.
WGBH (Television station : Boston, Mass.),production company.
In the presence of the enemy.
Baumgarten, Ruth,television producer., Block, Simon,screenwriter., British Broadcasting Corporation,production company,publisher., George, Elizabeth,1949-Inspector Lynley novel., Mickery, Lizzie,screenwriter., Parker, Nathaniel,1962-actor., Small, Sharon,1967-actor., WGBH (Television station : Boston, Mass.),production company., Windsor, Valerie,screenwriter.
ils:.b1962511x|DVD|Movies|Widescreen ed.|English|BBC,||4 videodiscs (approximately 690 min.) : sound, color ; 4 3/4 in.


More cards for this week's Throwback Thursday!
Again, I love the versatility of this paper! This first card is elegant, even though the entire paper selection of this collection may seem to have a more "fun-loving style."
Finally, this second card is a little mixture of both, a more classic style but with some fun, modern embellishments with the "Smile" stamp and others from this Basic Grey collection.
What "throwback" collection are you using this week?
Beautiful cards. Love basic grey.


This is the big three-oh people! In celebration of yet another milestone episode, Graham and Will take on the toughest subject yet: Star Wars. Join in as our glorious hosts sip large amounts of Glenfarclas 15 and regale you with stories of the evil Empire. The Dark Forces series, Lightsaber Combat, KoTor, and much, much more is tackled with precision and wit. This is an episode you can't miss, so Sith down and enjoy!


text:
How to pick, store and use fresh zucchini, including 10 new ideas for preparing it
Zucchini is one of summer's most-versatile vegetables
Gallery: Zucchini is one of summer's most-versatile vegetables
By Grant Butler | The Oregonian/OregonLive
A few years ago, a co-worker brought in a zucchini from his garden that was so large, it practically had its own gravitational pull. His garden was being particularly prolific with squash that summer, and this particular zucchini had escaped harvest until it was too big to eat. If he had cut it open, the flesh inside would have been stringy, fibrous and inedible.
So he put a paper face on the zucchini and proudly set it on his desk like a mascot representing his garden run amok. He even dubbed the squash "Mr. Zucchini," and was saddened when a stealth co-worker made the squash mysteriously vanish after fruit flies started swarming around it.
Of course, zucchini should never get that large, and home gardeners know that it can be a challenge to keep up with the harvest. But when they are picked young, they are mild-tasting and even slightly sweet (there's a reason for this: technically, zucchini is a fruit), and will have tender flesh and thinner skins.
How to pick:
If you don't have a garden plot or co-workers bringing in their excess zucchini into your office, you can pick up beautiful ones at farmers market. Look for squash that's small just 6- to 8-inches in length and still relatively thin. The zucchini should feel heavy for its size. The skin should be dark green and smooth and free of blemishes. If the skin looks slightly shriveled, it probably hasn't been freshly picked.
How to store:
Store zucchini unwashed in a perforated or loosely closed plastic bag for up to one week. Don't wash or cut up the zucchini until ready to use. To freeze zucchini for later use, wash and cut into 1-inch chunks before freezing in a zipper-topped freezer bag.
Zucchini is versatile, but one of the most-common ways of using it is to make zucchini bread. Ah, but which zucchini bread recipe? We've been obsessing over
Chocolate Zucchini Bread
from Portland's
Back to Eden Bakery
since we first shared it earlier this year. For a savory zucchini bread, it's hard to go wrong with
Zucchini-Dill Garden Bread
from cooking instructor
Sara Bir
But there are many ways of using zucchini beyond bread. And if you get creative, you can find all sort of new uses. The Associated Press' J.M. Hirsch came up with these 10 fresh ways to use zucchini:
Fries:
Boats:
Frittata:
Grain salad:
Tart:
Chips:
-- The Associated Press contributed to this story


Potash prices plunged over 10% last year as farmers in China and India sought alternative fertilizer sources and refrained from any major plays on the market.
The Financial Times (paywall) reports that while a 10-fold leap in potash prices following the global food crisis in 2007-08 spurred investment in producers, it also compelled the agricultural industry to find alternatives to the commonplace fertilizers.
Main buyers China and India refrained from major purchases in the second half of 2012, leading to a 10% year-on-year dive in spot prices.
Prices also took a hit from a harder negotiating stance on the part of the Chinese, as well as sharp reductions in government subsidies and a soft rupee in India.
The industry now hopes that demand will gain in 2013 on the lower contract price agreed upon between Canada's Canpotex, the world's biggest potash exporter, and Sinofert (SEHK:297), China's biggest fertilizer enterprise, and that volume sales will compensate for softer price levels.
The price decline will nonetheless have a negative impact upon new entrants who rushed onto the field when potash was riding high, particularly given predictions of an over 40% rise in production capacity during the next several years.


You ought to employ all one of them to be able to acquire the absolute most out of one's own training.
Human anatomy require grounds to acquire muscle. In the slightest, we're survival machines, which means that your training efforts needs to convince the human system which becoming stronger and bigger will introduce a survival advantage. That is reached by means of innovative overload — with thicker and thicker stimulation as time continues.
It is very an easy task to complete — and more rewarding crazy bulk d-bal as you're able to track your own improvement.
In case your exercise program requires 10 reps (the number of times you play given movement) and you also start with, state, 60kg on the benchpress, then your 2nd time you train you'd enhance the burden by the lowest available increment — into 62.5kilogram. Therefore Forth. The outcome is that your system can't sit ; it's to maintain improving and adapting.
There is a significant caveat to innovative overload, and that's that, necessarily, it cannot do the job indefinitely.
Our anatomies really are exceptional in adapting to an exercise stimulation, therefore its vital that you maintain a part of variance on your practice programs. Variance may possibly comprise any such thing out of manipulating your rep ranges, remainder timeand exercise choice or training goal altogether. The key thing is that you simply maintain a part of diversity into your own workout. Essentially, it's all about keeping your own body moment imagining therefore that it can not simply take short cuts and stagnate.
You will also have to call up on variance whenever you hit (inevitable) training plateaus. Sooner or later, you are going to find you cannot bench-press weights that are heavier. Discovering that moment and knowing to proceed ahead to a brand new exercise is just a large part to build musclebuilding.
At the very first phases of training for muscle profit you are very likely to find some pretty impressive effects in a quick time period. Love it progressions listed here are known as'newcomer profits' plus so they won't continue for ever. Since the body grows more used to training and also you approach your genetic limitation of muscle mass, then your results will start to decelerate. I am afraid it's simply natural.
A frequent way of training is definitely essential to having a muscle body and visiting consequences outside the honeymoon blossom. Success is all about doing the ideal things again and again. Perfect meal accompanied with great work out accompanied with sufficient remainder.
Within this fashion, an all pure lifter will consistently yield greater results when compared to the usual enhanced trainer that exceeds consistency.
Most likely the most important pitfall of . Over training is a accumulation of fatigue plus a syndrome along with it's own indications like a increased heart rhythm, lower moodand muscular aches and inadequate operation. It seems like using the influenza, also that is the end result of essentially giving the body more stimulation than it may recuperate.
You view over-training in ace sports all of the time. It isn't really a excellent spot to be and unless you get remainder it is potential to get your self a few irreversible injury.
The very best chance you've got at averting over training is to obey the own body and rest when you realize you require that, even when your training application says differently. You also need to variable'active retrieval' (weeks at which that you do not train as hard) to your annual preparation. 1 week every 2 months must perform it.
Next: Next post: That is typically only an approach to trick you.


You meant red, orange, yellow, blue, indigo and violet too… right?
According to Passport Magazine, Vermont is the "Rainbow Mountain State," rather than the Green Mountain State, for its multitude of offerings to the LGBT community. As the first state to pass marriage equality in 2009, the state now offers many perks for LGBT travelers year-round.
"Stowe Mountain Resort's annual Winter Rendezvous and Killington Resort's annual Winter Gay Pride Week are great examples of Vermont's welcoming support for LGBT equality and culture," Ski Vermont president Parker Riehle said in a press release. "For years we've been proud to share in the celebration of skiing and snowboarding, Vermont's official state winter sports, with the LGBT community." While celebrating their pride festival on September 15, Vermont will have their festival at the Northern Decadence.
Posted July 17th, 2013 & filed under Travel.


Lift the profile of your town or city while building your media / publishing business.
If your clients are interested in local brand exposure and you would like to expand your client base, Big Local is your partner.
Invigorate your local economy with a Big Local Community.
Big Local create and support community magazines, community websites and social media hubs for Australian towns and cities.
Big Local offer an exclusive business opportunity in your town or city for the entrepreneur or local Business Association.
Encourage loyalty between locals and local businesses. Be Local, Buy Local.
People are mobile. So is a Big Local Community.
Facilitate social media interaction for visitors and locals.
Support and promote local Community Group initiatives and events.
We believe that a strong local business community is integral to improved quality of life for locals.
Community websites and social hubs provide your local business community with cost effective advertising platforms and encourage local spending.
Licencing a Big Local Community in your town or suburb.
Licencing a Big Local Community for your town is a great way to build a part or full time income while at the same time providing local businesses with high value affordable advertising.
Build relationships with other local businesses and gain more customers, while providing a place for locals and visitors to connect.
Every town can benefit from a Big Local Community.
People love their community and want ways to get more involved and engage with other locals.
Rather than just a tourism website, locals and visitors want a real community space to find businesses, recommendations, local news, events, jobs and deals.
Businesses want a better way to get their unique message out and get found, favoured and famous locally.
It doesn't matter if you don't live in a tourist hotspot, or if you don't have a large population, there is an opportunity for a Big Local Community in your town, wherever in Australia you may be.
One Big Local Community per town or city. Make sure it's you.
Raise ongoing revenue for events and community projects.
With a Chamber or Association backed Big Local Community, your group can focus less on fund raising and more on your events and community projects.
At the same time you have a channel for communicating local stories and championing a sense of community in your town or suburb by creating a neutral space for locals and visitors.
Become that trusted source of information in your suburb / town. Big Local provide all the tools & support needed to successfully manage your Big Local Community.
Local businesses are paying thousands of dollars a year to international companies, to be found locally online. With a Big Local Community, local businesses can be found online via your local community website, magazine and social media hubs.
Provide locals with affordable print and online local advertising, while encouraging locals to spend their money locally.
There's just one opportunity in your town or suburb. Call to find out more.
Copyright © 2019 Big Local Group Pty. Ltd.


A celebration of creativity, difference, football and fashion from the pen of David Walliams, starring Jennifer Saunders, James Buckley, Tim McInnerny, Meera Syal and Kate Moss. Dennis feels different - he's an ordinary boy who lives in an ordinary house in an ordinary street - but he's frustrated by the boring, grey world he inhabits. However, transformation can happen in the most unexpected places and, in the local newsagent, a fashion magazine seems to be calling to him. Can it be that Kate Moss is really telling him that it's okay for boys to like Vogue?
Heartwarming comedy drama based on David Walliams' best-selling children's book.
When a lonely schoolgirl befriends a stinky tramp and his dog it changes her life forever.


My name is Lynette, I'm 44 years old, divorced, with two little boys aged 7 and 9.
I recently had an x-ray done just to see where my scoliosis was at, and found out that within 18 months my lumbar curvature went from 72 to 85 degrees, and my thoracic compensatory curve is 45 degrees. So I have a 45/85 spine right now. My doctor advised me it's definitely time to have surgery otherwise once it goes over 90 degrees, he won't be able to correct it as much as he could right now.
Right now, I'm terrified, mostly because I have two little boys who need me as their father is extremely unreliable and not very attentive to the boys. I just want everything to go smoothly and quickly so that I can get on with raising my two little men.
I'm also going through a court battle with my ex right now which makes my life even more stressful.
I'm hoping that Dr. Moreno will be able to do my surgery if I can get coverage with United Insurance, I will find out by the end of this week probably. Otherwise I will probably have to have surgery in a hospital much further away from my home with Dr. Cronin, this would be out of network with Humana which would mean it will cost me at least $42,000 with them.
Has anyone else my age with my kind of curvatures had this surgery yet? If so what kind of correction did you get, and what was recovery like? Dr. Moreno said that he'd probably work from T9 to the sacrum, and hopes to get me to about 30 degrees or so.
I'm looking forward to getting to know you all on here, you all seem so happy and positive about everything, which is fabulous.
Hey, Welcome on board Lynnette. We are glad to have you. Sorry to hear about all your stressors. Your "little men" are very lucky to have you as their mum, I know that for sure! And, they will be very attentive to help you go get things and some little things for you in your recovery period. That will make them feel needed and important. I understand about your concerns with your degree of curve. Right now I am at 90-100 somewhere. Lots of pain, muscle spasms, nerve pain, shortness of breath, decreased lung capacity tremendouly - so I know exactly what you're going through. I'm scheduled to have surgery by Dr. Lenke in St. Louis, MO in July. Some days are easier for me than others. Today has been one of my better days, I guess, but evenings are my worst. I know what you mean, also, about your mum. I have a very supporting family, but I, also, know they are very worried about me, so of course I put on the happy face and try to hide all my discomfort I can - then after they all go home I can moan and groan to my world's best husband and son. I worry about freaking my parents out too much. My father is 80 years old and my mom 70, so I don't want them to worry any more than they already are.
Vali - Thank you so much for your encouragement, I'm so happy for you that all went so nice and smooth for you through your surgery. What kind of correction did you get?
RitaR - Thank you also for your support, sorry to hear about all the pain you're in. Actually even with the severity of my curves, I really don't feel that much pain unless I'm standing more than ten minutes or walking for more than ten minutes. Most people seem so happy after their surgery because they have less pain than before the surgery, my worry is that I'll have more pain after surgery than I do now.
Melissa - Wow your surgery is in five weeks. What kind of curvatures do you have? Are you excited about getting this done, or nervous?
Welcome to the forum. It's a great place for information and support.
I'm sorry you have so many stressors in your life right now and hope you will find some relief soon.
You asked about nutrition and exercise before surgery. I'm no expert, but I believe that both are important to prepare and have the best outcome. I walked a lot and did a variety of exercises to build endurance and strength but I concentrated the most on gentle stretching for flexibility. With swimming and yoga, it sounds like you are well on your way.
I also wanted to loose some weight but I went about it very carefully and gradually. I think I lost about 1-2 pounds per month before the surgery. I lost some after the surgery and then took care not to put them back on so I'm pretty happy with my weight now.
Best of luck with everything !
We all know how nervous and scared you are, it's natural, and normal. I read this forum for months before I had the guts to get on it, AND WHAT A MISTAKE THAT WAS!!! I could have been getting comfort, support and answers, all those months.
The one thing I'll say right now is that you may not wan't to loose the extra poundage so soon. For me the surgeries were an automatic weight lose.
Between, lack of appetite from meds and sweatin' in the Turle Shell, you just may want to rethink that.
Welcome Lynette. I hope you find all the answers and support you need from this forum. It was a life-saver for me. Good luck!
Thank you Sheri, Shari, and JenniferG for all your words of wisdom, some great advice there and much appreciated.
I keep thinking of ways I might be able to somehow manage to get out of surgery, I'm working with an excellent hypnotist right now. The problem is time is of the essence for me right now, and if there is no improvement on my curvatures REAL soon, then a decision has to be made, as I want as much correction as I can get before my curvature gets too large.
You all seem to have some great successful stories of surgery which is very very encouraging at least for me.
Thank you all again - and God bless to all of you.
Hi Lynette, Nice to meet you and welcome! We are all in the same boat here and you will learn soooo much! I sure have! Can you please tell me more about the hynosis cds for pre and post surgery? I would like to try that. I've been wondering if there is a hynosis and/or meditation cd to listen to to help speed healing after surgery!
welcome to the forum...it is a great place for both information & support!
Jess - thank you for your personal message, I wrote to you on your other post about visiting Dr. Anand in California. I tried to respond to your personal message but I don't think it worked.
I went from a 58 degree lumbar to 5 degrees post-op. I was doing pilates and aquarobics, up until i think about 2 months before surgery, then the pain was getting too much. The instructor thought it best for me to stop in case i made things worse. I walked everyday ( as i usually did) and continued to eat a healthy diet. Best wishes.


Business tip: "Add 20% to all your time estimates" .
Whatever you plan, whether business or pleasure, become accustomed to adding 20% to the time you think it will take to achieve it. This may include completing a customer order, listening to your child read a story, travelling to an appointment, or eating breakfast. You will probably achieve slightly less daily, but you will remember doing more.
If your product or service is not listed on this page, please email us with your business details and the category or categories you would like, and we will do our best to include them.