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Vision at Chichén Itzá
November 9, 2009 Media, Mind Parasites, Podcast Leave a comment 7,472 Views
© Copyright 2004, 2009 by Jonathan Zap
Edited by Austin Iredale
Disclaimer: Notice the title of this piece is "Vision at Chichén Itzá," not "Vision about Chichén Itzá." I make no claim here, as in absolutely no claim, that what I experienced at Chichén Itzá is a revelation of anything about the ancient or modern Mayan people or culture. What follows are a few highlights of my recent trip to Mexico, including a visionary experience at Chichén Itzá.
Tulum, Mexico: September 25, 2004
Yesterday was a blur of travel—all the papers that needed stamping, the waiting in lines, the identity and security checks, the bureaucracy, the seatbelted claustrophobia of confinement to an airborne plastic tube where I breathed recycled air and ate pretzels out of bags of gold mylar, the hurrying through a layover at George Bush Airport in Houston, more pretzels, papers, identity and security checks, another airborne tube, waiting in line to exchange money, filling out papers at the car rental place. Then, suddenly, all that paperwork, bureaucracy, and canned air had somehow resulted in our being in the tropics; we were stepping out of the airport in Cancun, catching the tail end of a magnificent tropical sunset. The humidity in the air was rainforest musk, and birds were singing songs of exaggerated parrot colors in the trees, singing more than I expect birds to sing at sunset.
We loaded our belongings and our selves into a traditional Mayan conveyance, a Caravan, actually a Daimler/Chrysler Voyager, silver, slope-nosed, futuristic-retro-art-deco, a German-American attempt to give a minivan the Weimar Republic art deco feeling of say the first class smoking lounge of the Hindenberg.
With the Hindenberg cocooning us in air conditioning and grey velour upholstery, we blasted down a rain swept highway as heat lightening, then lightening-lightening, lit the sky with flashes of color. It was tropical lightening, which had more color than regular lightening. Everything seemed to have more color than expected, even at night, an extra color effect that seemed feral, possibly illegal in some way, even florescent lit stores were painted in the pastel colors of sidewalk chalk.
At Tulum we stopped and found a hotel which seemed this rainy evening to be far more popular with insects and geckos than people. Many more geckos than gringos, I noticed, and the geckos seemed to have a snobbish dislike of anything horizontal. They had no patience for us slower, less sticky-footed mortals and pale-skinned hominids, and seemed always to be scurrying across the pasteled stucco walls.
Every detail of the hotel insisted on its Third-World otherness. Room keys pulled from a chaotic jumble on a dusty shelf, thousands of details in hilarious contrast to the corporate franchise hotel code of sterile cleanliness and extreme regularity. This was more like my Westernized concept of a hotel reimagined under the influence of tequila and peyote in a parallel universe where geckos ruled the hotel world, not cleaning solvents and deodorizers.
After securing our rooms, we walked down the main drag of Tulum. The storefronts evoked the bodegas of my native Bronx, and if I squinted hard enough I could almost dupe myself into believing I was back on the streets of my childhood. But those were transplanted New York Hispanic places, and these were tropical Hispanic shops, razor wire and metal shutters replaced by pastel colors and life spilling out onto the street, life that seemed unencumbered by rules and anxieties.
Every cell in my body felt the massive, massive drop in neurotic tension, a tension that's hard to notice in the States, just as it's hard for a fish to notice water, but the absence of it was almost hallucinatory, a level of naturalness and relaxed participation in life that was refreshingly new and invigorating. And yet the profusion of unrepressed life felt almost illegal, a flaunting of aliveness that seemed like a dangerous provocation of right wing Christian Fundamentalist Republican police forces of some sort which might come racing across the border to bring it under adult supervision.
But at the moment, that didn't seem to be happening. There seemed to be a surprising amount of unsupervised Mexicans in Mexico, as well as a surprising and delightful lack of U.S. Government officials. Were they for us or against us? Kind of hard to tell. I could have relaxed into this uncertainty more except that I felt that this abundance of unsupervised life must be tempting some sort of preemptive response from the Bush administration. But for some reason, no preemption or supervision seemed to be crashing the party. Maybe the U.S. was so tied up with Afghanistan and Iraq that it had no resources left over to deal with all the shocking profusion of uncontrolled Mexicans in Mexico.
An equatorial sun lighted the next morning, and the reality of Mexico seemed more substantial. Jet travel, which gives you no sensory impact of intervening distance, is so disorienting, you sit in a plastic tube for a few hours, eat a few pretzels, hang out in a completely corporate-controlled canned air environment, the CEO of Continental airlines on a six inch LCD monitor telling you how much the Continental Airlines family welcomes you on board and all that, and suddenly you are in a massively, massively different place—-different air, language, money, smell, taste, sunlight, humidity, and it takes a while for your reality testing to catch up, to realize that the Mexicans were no longer the illegal aliens, now we were the aliens, aliens washing up on the shore of Planet Mexico.
Toast and coffee grounded me to the mundanity of a nutritionally bankrupt breakfast as John related an interesting dream where he was haunted by a mute little Mexican girl who appeared to have Downs Syndrome. She seemed to be from the realm of the previously living and was the latest in a series of parallel dreams that John had experienced during other trips south of the border since the Eighties. As we explored the dream, the breakfast table became increasingly littered with toast crumbs, coffee cups, and Mexican coins, all lit by an orangey-yellow tropical sun. The table seemed like a Mexican collage and I took a picture of it.
After breakfast we bought limes, snack foods, and many gallons of Electro-Pura brand bottled water. Then we boarded the Hindenberg and drove a short distance to the ruins at Tulum.
This might be a good time to tell you about my three traveling companions. John Jenkins and Sean Moffitt I had both known for almost ten years, had met both of them in 1996, a few months after moving to Boulder. I met John through the late Terence McKenna who was in Boulder for a few days in May of 1996. (see A Mutant Convergence—-How John Major Jenkins, Jonathan Zap and Terence McKenna Met During a Weekend of High Strangeness in 1996 )
John Major Jenkins
Terence's theories have parallels to my work and different parallels to John's research into the ancient Maya. Both Sean and I worked for Greenpeace and later the Prairie Wind Animal Refuge and Colorado Wilderness Experience.
Jim Reed I had never met before. He looked like a cousin of Antonio Banderas, had been John's traveling companion in earlier Mayan adventures, and had prepared an incredibly detailed and efficient itinerary for us. After the first day or so I began to realize that everyone except me was an intensely qualified guide, and that I was quite possibly the most well guided person to ever travel to Mayan ruins. John had published ten books related to the Maya, and had revolutionary insights into their cosmology. Jim was the President of the Institute of Mayan Studies in Miami, fluent in Spanish, had spent ten years south of the border, and had the social skills, charm and connections to talk his way into and out of almost any situation.
John and Jim
Sean was about as ignorant of Spanish and Mayan studies as I was, but he is a world class naturalist and tracker, and although inexperienced with tropical flora and fauna, was able to notice and point out all sorts of fascinating things happening in our natural environment which might otherwise have been missed.
As the four of us hiked into Tulum, I began to realize the vast amount of Mayan ruins, much of it mounds of stone in the jungle that no one had gotten around to digging out. What we saw was just a few ruined highlights of what had been thousands and thousands of square miles of ancient civilization.
Unexcavated Mayan Pyramid
Tulum was set in tropical paradise, blue Caribbean water and sandy beaches bordered by coconut trees. Iguanas sunned themselves on stone columns and blocks of stones still bearing Mayan glyphs.
We swam in the warm tropical ocean, and when we looked back toward shore the Mayan ruins rose out of the jungle all around us.
The tourists that were there were mostly Spanish speaking and didn't seem to violate the setting the way some American tourists do. One American tourist I did see was a man in his early thirties, and a certain narcissistic assertion about his every mannerism and dress, which would scarcely have been noticeable stateside, stood out here in sharp relief, his egoism sounding in waves of brassy percussion a dissonant note in the tropical air.
There was too much to experience for me to journalize most of it. What I am presenting here are a few tiles in a giant mosaic of impressions.
A few days later we worked our way across the plaza of Edzna, a Mayan site that had been occupied since 400 BC, but abandoned by 1500 AD. The thermometer I had with me registered a temperature of 105 degrees Fahrenheit (40 Centigrade) after sitting in the shade for ten minutes. 100% does not seem like a sufficient superlative to describe the humidity. Is it possible for humidity to be more than 100% without actually being underwater? Mosquitoes were constantly extracting a blood sacrifice, and Jim told me that, according to Mayan mythology, the mosquitoes had done a service for Hunahpu and Xbalanque in the underworld and that entitled them to feed on our blood. "But what have they done for us lately?" I wanted to know.
In the evenings, John and I would sit in the public squares of various towns we stayed in. People were always about in these squares, hanging out, kids kicking soccer balls, couples, families, an intensity of civic life that seemed very other. It seemed like no one had taught these people that they were supposed to be home watching DVDs and congregating online.
Some towns seemed much happier than others, and in certain parts of the country everyone seemed depressed, sullen, lethargic. Everywhere we traveled we got intense stares and it was a chance for me to feel the energetic effects of raw projection. In Boulder I might get the occasional projection of someone picking up something faintly weird about me, an obsessed looking character with an extremely weathered and mutated camera bag, but here I was apparently seen not as a mutant but as an icon of wealth and privilege, and many eyes flashed with volatile mixtures of curiosity, resentment, envy, longing, and anger. No one I encountered seemed to carry the genius of the ancient Maya. I wanted to see a Mayan shaman with a thousand year stare contemplating galactic alignment, but everyone I met seemed more caught up in the life of 2004 Mexico than in 26,000 year cosmic cycles.
Two or three days into the trip, walking through a tropical forest somewhere, we met an attractive and interesting twenty-five year old Belgian woman named Griet who worked as a teacher in London, and she traveled with us for several days.
[griet]
Griet (and above in tropical forest)
I remember her being with us when we descended into an amazing cenote (cenotes are deep water-filled sinkholes formed by water percolating through soft limestone). There were great chambers of glittering stalactites and a deep pool of absolutely clear water, fairly warm, which we were able to swim in.
I'd never swam in a cave before, and the experience seemed quite magical and archetypal.
Sean, Griet
While we swam there were a series of thunderous reverberations traveling through the stone. As it turned out it was actual thunder, and suddenly the foliage-framed aperture at the top of the great chamber in the cenote, which was also our exit, flooded with an explosion of rainwater.
Another day we descended into one of the greatest known caves on the planet, Loltun Cave.
I had previously done only one serious spelunking adventure and had toured lots of caves, including Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, but nothing prepared me for Loltun.
It was an underworld descent in more ways than one as our guide, once we were actually in the cave, ran a bit of a scam on us, revealing new fees that had not been disclosed topside. But it was worth the extra pesos, especially since we had the cave all to ourselves. The chambers were massive, gigantic, sometimes three hundred feet high, an inhuman scale that projected the scary feeling of massive industrial power, as if we were inside the mutated concrete sarcophagus of a Chernobyl reactor tower or the inside of an H.R. Giger extraterrestrial vision. Above our heads were vast upside down landscapes with mountains and canyons and infinite detail and surface texture. The most memorable of these was an upside down planet of bats, a sulfurous yellow planetscape that evoked Dune's Arrakis, the desert planet. It had giant craters filled with spherical sleeping bats. There was a butte that rose out of this desertscape that was the exact color and texture of desert-scorched bone.
Flying bat, upper right
Deeper in the cave were artifacts left by prehistoric humans.
Loltun Cave had been a butchery for Ice Age fauna, and there was Mayan cave art from the Paleo-Indian period of Mesoamerican prehistory. Apparently this is the only prehistoric cave art that the public is allowed to breath on. As I stood before it, I felt like I had wandered into the deepest and darkest recess of the human past.
Caves are natural time capsules, and these paintings looked like they could have been made yesterday. I felt like I had wandered into the deepest darkest recess of the human past, which felt like it was unstuck from time and here right now.
On the morning of the 27th I awoke from a dream with a statement in my mind, something I had just told a dream character:
"Never underestimate the power of a ritual created spontaneously in the moment with pure intention and intensified through repetition."
Strange effects were happening to me, but what to attribute them to? The Mayan ruins? The heat? The humidity? The margaritas? Internal cycles and perturbations? All of the above? Intense changes in my relationship with the hyperspatially existing companion that lives alongside of me? I never know quite how to describe this without sounding like a goofy New Age channeler or a schizophrenic who needs his meds adjusted. This companion came into the foreground of my awareness and stayed there for much of the trip, his presence far more physical, immediate and dynamic than usual. There were many changes in the relationship and new developments, and I had to divide my attention between my awareness of this companion and of my corporeal traveling companions trading places in the foreground or background as the need of the moment required. Multiple streams of often dissonant realities poured into my perception—the companion relationship, the tensions and camaraderie of the traveling group, doing I Ching readings and counseling with John about drastic personal shocks he was experiencing in his life back in the States, the world of modern Mexico and interactions with Mexicans, their projections and my counterprojections on them, the flora and fauna of the tropics and the new flora and fauna in my gastrointestinal tract, the power and otherness of the remnants of Mayan civilization, the practical details and logistics of Third-World travel, seeing the world through my eyes, the companion's eyes, and much of the time seeing it through the viewfinder of my camera, concentrating on the composition with one eye, another eye keeping track of my traveling companions so I didn't get lost, and at the same time trying to keep eyes in the back of my head so somebody didn't yank my camera.
Emerson said that, "The problem with traveling is that you take yourself with you." But that's also the potential magic and transformative power of traveling too. My strange inner contents were hybridizing with the strangeness around me, and inevitably inner and outer became a blurred distinction. Which weirdness was mine and which was Mexican? Which Mayan? Which came from the other people in the minivan? And if that weren't enough, I spent large parts of each day obsessing about the impending presidential election, even had dreams about it, Kerry vs. Bush, the first debate to happen while we were in Mexico. I did readings on it and rituals to help Kerry while we stayed in Palenqué at an inexpensive but amazing little resort in the rainforest. There I realized that one should never underestimate the power of a ritual created to undermine Bush, created spontaneously in the moment with pure intention and intensified through repetition. I wanted Bush to fall apart in the debates, wanted Kerry to be the dragon-slayer. I wanted him to stick a javelin made of Elvin Silver-Steel into the heart of the Great Orc, or the son of the Great Orc, or whatever Bush is. I wanted to break into the tomb in the Skull and Bones clubhouse at Yale, and see if shape-shifting Reptilians ruled the world or only David Icke's imagination. I wanted to see even an hour's worth of Mayan civilization happening in real time right now, wanted to see what all those pyramids and observatories looked like when they were freshly painted in tropical color.
A remnant of the original colored paint remains on these carvings.
What did those ancient Mayan cosmologists really have in mind when they ended their long count on December 21st, 2012? Do we have to wait till 2012 to be rid of the Bush crime family? Will Jeb take over for Dubyah in 2008 to make sure that by 2012 we will all be begging for the world to end? Is our whole civilization a giant costume malfunction waiting for an asteroidal Justin Timberlake to expose us as the most toxic, silicon-inflated and unattractive of ruined civilizations? Are we just asteroid bait, begging, baiting Gaia to shock and awe us with an overdue preemptive strike?
These are only a sampling of the sort of apocalyptic rhetorical questions that haunted my margarita-addled imagination.
So much was happening inside of me that by the morning we got to Chichén Itzá I was already jaded by ancient ruins. Ancient ruins were getting old, you might say. They were history, but the air conditioning of the Hindenberg was what was happening now and it was becoming numinous, was beginning to glow, beginning to loom larger and larger in my mind like a great ring of power. Mayan cosmology seemed a bit of an abstraction; what had it done for us lately? How could the completion of a great cycle of time in eight years compare with the revitalizing power of air conditioning that when cranked all the way up felt like the breath of a goddess awakening me from the lethargic nightmare of extreme and abusive heat and humidity? Nietzche said that, "If there are gods, how could I stand it to be no god?" I say that if air conditioning is a goddess, how could I stand it not to be embraced by such a goddess?
Driving toward Chichén Itzá I was embraced by the goddess Air Conditioning, who held me in her swirling arms, washed clean the sweat of my misery, and lifted me from mundanity like the smoky, ephemeral dream of an opium smoker. I had no reason to expect more of Chichén Itzá than any other site, and as we approached it I saw that, more than any other site, it was preceded by the most cheesy and touristy of sunfaded, sidewalk chalk painted souvenir shops, streamers of plastic flags, and Mayan deities rendered in every shape and color that the genius of plastic makes possible.
Then, rudely disgorged from the loving embrace of the goddess Air Conditioning into the blooming, buzzing nightmare of extreme humidity, we approached Chichén Itzá through a gauntlet of snack bars, milling tourists and turnstiles—we might as well have been approaching the Third-World equivalent of Space Mountain. And what kind of a name was "Chichén Itzá" anyway? Sounded like Spanish for chickens infected with chronic eczema. In my mind it conjured images of itchy chickens running demented circles in the hot dust, chickens that had never known air conditioning, chickens that were only too glad to be sacrificed.
Fortunately we were past the peak tourist season and what had been made to accommodate thousands, now accommodated only a few hundred, and no one pressed around us as we walked a long gravel trail toward the site. What did try to press toward me was a negative thought form, an anxiety-tinged tape loop about an unresolved matter back in Boulder that had a strongly negative emotional charge. In recent years I have become much more resistant to such tape loops and have greatly benefited from a set of techniques for dealing with them (see "Dealing with Afflictive Thoughts and Feelings" in A Guide to the Perplexed Interdimensional Traveler ) Thought forms sometimes seem to have a life and infectious intention of their own, and sometimes may be the attack of "mind parasites" (see Mind Parasites, Energy Parasites and Vampires) those thousand pale scorpions that sting us with fear and poisonous anxiety in our most vulnerable moments.
And so, hiking toward the site, I felt one of these hot, sticky parasitic thought forms trying to press into my space like a drunken pervert with an erection trying to rub against me in a crowded subway. But before I could resist it using my usual techniques, something happened, some energy or will seemed to give my ordinary resistance a gigantic power, and I first experienced this power as a hypnogogically intense visualization of the mind parasites. Ordinarily they were vague, flickering, hiding in the shadows of my mind. Now they were visualized in startlingly sharp relief, the way a bolt of lightening on a moonless night can for a moment reveal in infinite detail a hidden landscape.
What I saw was a vast army of clowns with empty eye sockets coming toward me. They all did a jerky mechanical dance and they had big floppy powdery-white organic ears, like elephant ears, and the white powdery ears seemed like layers of talcum powder covering cancerous tissue metastasizing with malignant lesions beneath the white powder.
No, I don't think this is what mind parasites really "look like." They are shape-shifters. Their form is legion. Like the devil that has the power to assume a pleasing shape, they have the power to assume unpleasing shapes, and the mind's eye also has the ability to visualize them in unpleasing shapes as it scans them immunologically with psychic radar. This visualization revealed them as hungry ghosts, what the Buddhists call "pretas," the disincarnate remnants of departed human beings that seek to feed off of living human vitality. And then, after a few lightening flashes of vision revealed this blind, mechanical army of hungry clowns, a gigantic force seemed to energize my resistance and a burst of fire came out of me, as if I were a giant flame-thrower, and the army of clowns were incinerated in one breath of fire, and all that remained were a few glowing cinders swirling in the air which in a moment vanished to nothing.
Their form had been incinerated, but not their hungry, ravenous will, and in a few more moments they reconfigured themselves and appeared in a form that could not be so sharply visualized. Now they were airborne, a cloud of giant mosquito-like insectile forms blurred with speed, faster than fighter jets, exploding toward me. Once again I felt a gigantic, seismic force or will supporting my resistance and another burst of fire exploded outward incinerating the flying horde of ravenous parasites.
This all happened while we were on the gravel path. I hadn't even seen the site, and at that moment did not attribute it in anyway to Chichén Itzá. Since I am obviously no stranger to internal weirdness, why should I have sought an outward cause? And from the great principle of logic, Ockham's Razor, which says that hypotheses should not be multiplied without necessity—in other words, don't seek a fancy, complicated explanation when a simple one will suffice—to view this occurrence as more than an internal perturbation would only be an open invitation to be deceived by the million masks of projection. That's why I put a gigantic disclaimer at the beginning of this document. What I can attribute to myself, and what, if anything, I can attribute to Chichén Itzá about this mind parasite experience I cannot definitively say. What intuition does assert, however, is that Chichén Itzá is a power spot, a window zone, a place, like Monument Valley, where reality is configured differently, and which, like a great spirit medicine, has a certain character, but may effect one person very, very differently than another person.
On the trail walking toward the site, I didn't associate my experience with Chichén Itzá. But sometime after, maybe when we were first approaching the great Pyramid of Kukulkan, I became aware that behind my enhanced will to resist the mind parasites there had been a gigantic pulsation of power. It was a pounding deep, deep bass note, and that deep bass note persisted, had a definite periodicity, and seemed to emanate from this specific zone of space-time.
In my awareness of Chichén Itzá as a power spot there was a definite boundary of demarcation, a place where the power intensified and became unmistakable. This boundary or point of intensity came well after we had climbed the great pyramid. It came as we approached the Sacred Cenote of Chichén Itzá, which appeared as a gigantic pit or concavity in the earth, deep water obscured its bottom (so far no one had been able to reach the bottom of its murky depths) and the walls of the pit were riddled with caves and grottos partly hidden by tropical vines and foliage.
Historically this was a pit of no escape and sacrificial victims were apparently tossed in there to drown. Dozens of skeletons have been dredged from the pool or found in its caves and recesses. I couldn't tell if the power I felt was a resonance of the sacrificial rituals, preserved in eternity like a mosquito frozen in amber, or if the Sacred Cenote, like Monument Valley, was a place of great geophysical power, a power spot recognized by ancients who built a site around it and developed ritualized interactions with it.
Intuition tells me that the Sacred Cenote is a confluence of both factors. Places where traumatic events have occurred, where human blood has been spilled, murder sites, battlefields, do seem to remain haunted by a time-spirit or resonance of their past. And aside from any human effect, if Gaia is an organism, a spherical body, as British biologist James Lovelock demonstrates, then all portions of the surface of that body are obviously not the same. All portions of the surface of our bodies are not the same in their sensitivity and energy. It is very different, for example, to have a mosquito land on your elbow than to have it land on the cornea of your eye. Monument Valley has the feeling of an organ of energy on the body of Gaia. Some have compared it to the endocrine system. Whatever it is, it is not subtle. It is a place where intensity is concentrated, and anyone with an ounce of sensitivity must feel and recognize it as the Anasazi Indians did. Before an ancient, cosmically attuned civilization invested a billion man-hours of labor to construct a Chichén Itzá, you can be sure that the plan began with something more than a casual "might as well be here" intention and recognition of place.
Every cell in my body screamed that the Sacred Cenote was an orifice of power, and one glance at Sean told me that he was being drastically affected as well, though I haven't investigated his inner experience, as I didn't want our imaginations to confabulate.
Jim mentioned something about a ritual conducted here where there would be one fire, and no other fires were allowed, and this resonated with my feeling of the place as a point of concentrated power. John pointed out that we were at the same 19.5 degree latitude where most hurricanes form out in the Caribbean, and at the same latitude on the planet Jupiter was its great red spot. I thought of the Tolkien mythology and some of Tolkien's notes about the difference between Morgoth and Sauron. Morgoth was the original evil being whose will had been involved in the creation of all of Middle Earth. All of Middle Earth was Morgoth's Ring as Tolkien described it, his power pantheistically distributed throughout the entire realm. Sauron was his disciple, a being of lesser power, but Sauron's power was far more concentrated, concentrated especially in the One Ring. Sauron therefore had more useable and potent power than Morgoth since his power was concentrated and one-pointed like a laser beam. Intuitively, I felt that the ancient Maya, and some other ancient peoples knew and used this principle of concentrating power, and Chichén Itzá was a living embodiment of that principle.
Standing before the Sacred Cenote I had some intuitions about blood sacrifice that I discussed with John (but please do not hold him responsible or assume that he approves of these ungrounded speculations. Do read his books for grounded, carefully researched material on the Maya). John pointed out that it was the winners of the Ball Court game that were sacrificed, that it was considered an honor. I wondered aloud if the ancient Maya might not have worked out a more clever symbiosis with the mind parasites, gave them a more conscious and intentional feast and perhaps this contained their infection, kept it from being as pervasively distributed as it seems to be in our culture. It suddenly occurred to me that all the bloodletting that European physicians practiced for about 1,800 years might have been an unconscious propitiation of the parasites. Remember that doctors used to be called "leeches" because their universal treatment was to apply leeches to patients to bleed them. These treatments were perfect nonsense, had been handed down from the Greek philosopher Galen, and it wasn't until the 1860s that it was discovered by an obscure British physician that the form of medicine taught in the finest Schools of Europe and America had been killing people for 1,800 years! (For more on this see The Glorified Body.) Many of the greatest names in history were bled to death by their doctors including a guy by the name of George Washington, whose doctor, treating him for a winter cold, relieved him of six pints of blood. George Washington's last words were to his physician, "Pray, take no more trouble about me; just let me go." Who was all this unconscious blood sacrifice for? It certainly wasn't for the patients. Be wary of Westerners who think of the ancient Maya as barbaric for their relatively few sacrifices when we are from a culture that burned six million women as witches during the Middle Ages and six million Jews in living memory. Perhaps the Maya were far more humane and efficient in their bloodletting.
Consider the refrain of the Eurthymics song, "Some people want to abuse you, some people want to be abused." Well, some people want to devour you, and other people want to be devoured. You've probably heard about the high profile trial this year in Germany of a modern cannibal. An educated, middle-aged German man wanted to be a cannibal, and he advertised on the Internet for a willing victim, someone who wanted to be devoured, and he found a volunteer. The trial was to decide if he should be convicted of manslaughter for an entirely consensual act. There is a lot about the active and passive faces of human bloodlust that we know nothing about.
Somewhat dazed, I followed the group away from the Sacred Cenote, and in a few hundred yards found one of the most surreal sights I have ever seen. No, no, I couldn't possibly be seeing this; this cannot be real, I thought. But there it was, there before me was a . . . snack bar . . . This was like finding a snack bar just outside the gates of hell…this couldn't be happening… people drinking Gatorade and eating pretzels beside a giant orifice of deadly power.
John was keeping track of the time and the position of the sun, and he led us back to the great Pyramid of Kukulkan to see something.
In my whole body I felt that deep bass note, a pounding drum-like reverberation of power, a feeling of gigantism, power that in my psyche manifested as a will to fight the mind parasites. And this feeling of massive power was not a chimera flickering through my mind. It was a feeling in the gut, a feeling in the second chakra, the survival chakra, and as we walked past massive blocks of stone covered in glyphs I perceived that this site was a massive engine of power and information, that this was a place made of language. It was an illuminated alchemical manuscript like the Zohar, the classic Cabalistic text, but this manuscript was wrought in a billion tons of stone, a manuscript made from the bones of the earth. Words or spells of fell power seemed to rise up and hang in the air, outweighing the dense humidity. I felt my circuits overloading with a massive, massive download of information and potent energies. Phrases formed in my mind like, "The strange persistence of a language of power." Magical thought forms, words of power seemed to be encoded here hyperspatially, in the realm of pure form, the morphogenetic field, persisting in this zone across eternity. But they had also been concretized, massively anchored in stone that was also persisting through the centuries, surviving the rot and organic riot of encroaching jungle.
The Pyramid of Kukulkan loomed massively into view, and then I saw it, the reason we had timed our journey to happen in late September. At the base of the pyramid was the gigantic stone head of a serpent, and a gigantic tail, composed of triangles of reflected sunlight and shadow, formed all the way to the top of the massive structure.
I beheld a living, illuminated rune or glyph of power, a thought form, anchored massively in stone, a marker of cosmic cycles created by the ancients and still functioning, standing gigantically before me and marking the autumnal equinox of 2004 AD.
Tags dream energy parasites hungry ghost i ching readings interdimensional traveler mind parasites the mind parasites
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Minnesota mother becomes RIAA's first victim.
Jammie Thomas, found liable of "copyright infringement" by a federal jury. The RIAA must be proud of themselves.
First blood is drawn. A federal jury sided with the RIAA and found single mother Jammie Thomas liable of "piracy" to the tune of $222K US (report from Wired). Mrs. Thomas could have been tagged with as much as $3.6M or as little as $18K, all for only 24 of the 1700 files she was reportedly sharing via Kazza (here's the "playlist" if you're curious).
Jammie Thomas is one of some 20,000 individuals the RIAA has sued in the past few years for "piracy." So far, most have settled out of court and some were dismissed outright, but Jammie decided to challenge the zealot organization and became the first to actually go to trial. The jury's decision now gives the RIAA, and possibly the MPAA, "ammo" to persecute… I mean, pursue other individual file sharers:
"This is what can happen if you don't settle," RIAA attorney Richard Gabriel told reporters outside the courthouse. "I think we have sent a message we are willing to go to trial."
On the positive side, the RIAA can't equate file sharing to hacking. Or can they?…
We're the RIAA. We don't need no stinkin' evidence, bitch! U.S. District Judge Michael Davis presided over the case and was asked by jurors about the minimum amount Mrs. Thomas could be liable for a "willful" file sharing incident, since their instruction form left that information off. There were other signs that the case would go the RIAA's way:
In proving liability, the industry did not have to demonstrate that the defendant's computer had a file-sharing program installed at the time that they inspected her hard drive. And the RIAA did not have to show that the defendant was at the keyboard when RIAA investigators accessed Thomas' share folder.
Also, the judge in the case ruled that jurors may find copyright infringement liability against somebody solely for sharing files on the internet. The RIAA did not have to prove that others downloaded the files.
In other words, all the RIAA had to show was that the files being shared were on her computer when they traced and hacked into it. No user presence or knowledge that file sharing was going on with his/her system was needed to be proven.
Another version of the truth. Jammie Thomas chose to challenge the RIAA in court because "I wasn't going to pay for something I didn't do." She blames hackers for the piracy:
"I want people to know that they are being sued based on hacked, spoofed computers. They should still fight back in these cases."
Given the current state of hacking technology, her claim may not be far off. After all, if the US government can hack systems to plant spyware, who knows what black-hats… or the RIAA… can plant on your system without your knowledge. For all we know, the RIAA themselves may have planted the music files on her computer just to make someone an example of their legal hijacking capabilities (Just a conspiracy theory… for now). Also consider that the RIAA's movie-protection-racket clone the MPAA allegedly hired a hacker to go after their adversaries.
Unfortunately, the jury didn't buy it… maybe because they were bought by the RIAA (Another conspiracy theory). Also (race card alert), Mrs. Thomas is a single mother of two and a Native American woman who works as an administrator at a local tribe. Twist that around anyway you see fit.
Payback is going to be a bitch. While some see the Minnesota ruling a victory for corporate music and the Record Industry Gestapo, the RIAA may have just painted a big bullseye on their backs. Last month's leak of memos from anti-P2P allies MediaDefender may only be the tip of a huge iceberg that will sink the titanic industry group and its members, as the record labels and the RIAA itself will now be directly targeted for future hacks.
Additionally, suing your potential customer base makes for bad public relations. That only fuels the anti-corporate boycott-fires that are already simmering in people who already see the RIAA as corporate law Neanderthals; Cavemen in suits with nothing better to do than hit people over the head with lawsuits. Does the RIAA realize how much taxpayer money is wasted on such trials, where it could have been better spent on schools and infrastructure? Not only that, this ruling will only cause more piracy, not less, as a show of contempt for the industry and group and the legal system they've corrupted.
Speaking of payback, one question that the RIAA may never answer is: How much of that $222K US will the infringed artists get?
Most likely answer: JACK SHIT. That money will only go right into the pockets of the industry execs and the shysters, for what they call "legal fees," to fuel the anti-file-sharing lawsuit machinery. Take Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor's answer to Australia's Herald Sun when they asked why his group's latest album, Year Zero, cost more than other albums:
Herald Sun: Where does that extra $10 on your album go?
Trent: That money's not going into my pocket, I can promise you that. It's just these guys who have f—ed themselves out of a job essentially, that now take it out on ripping off the public. I've got a battle where I'm trying to put out quality material that matters and I've got fans that feel it's their right to steal it and I've got a company that's so bureaucratic and clumsy and ignorant and behind the times they don't know what to do, so they rip the people off.
Given the music industry's corporate fuck-everyone-over-to-make-a-profit mentality, and the RIAA's cluelessnes during the Year Zero ARG campaign, there's little wonder why Trent finally let loose against the industry during a tour stop in Australia:
"Has the price come down? … Well you know what that means. Steal it. Steal away. Steal, steal and steal some more and give it to all your friends and keep on stealing. Because one way or another these mother fuckers will get it through their head that they're ripping people off and that's not right."
Don't worry, Trent. The RIAA has just given us more than enough reason to steal.
UPDATE (08-Oct-2007): Word from Wired now says Jammie Thomas will appeal the ruling on the grounds of faulty jury instructions:
Specifically, it's Jury Instruction No. 15, here in full: "The act of making copyrighted sound recordings available for electronic distribution on a peer-to-peer network, without license from the copyright owners, violates the copyright owners' exclusive right of distribution, regardless of whether actual distribution has been shown."
In short, she's appealing the concept that it was too easy for jurors to find that she infringed. Jurors were instructed to find liability if they found she had an open Kazaa share-file folder with music in it available to others, regardless of whether any downloading occurred.
Normally in the US Justice system, the plaintiff (the RIAA in this case) must prove beyond any reasonable doubt that the defendant (Mrs. Thomas) committed the crime, usually through lab analyzes of physical evidence and eyewitness testimonies, or a confession from the defendant. Here, it seems only an intent is present… and even that seems questionable given RIAA tactics and history. The instruction sounds like the jury can only find Mrs. Thomas guilty.
Example: Someone wants to kill president Bush (doesn't everyone?). That person also owns a gun. Is that person automatically guilty of attempted murder of a president? That connection is just stupid; That person would actually need to take a shot at Duh'bya with the gun, and then the government would need to bring that person to trial and prove he/she did shoot.
This sounds like it's going to go all the way to the US Supreme Court, where the instruction… and the RIAA… will face the ultimate equalizer of justice: The Constitution. By the way things are shaping up, Mrs. Thomas should be vindicated. Then again, stranger things have happened before.
This post has been filed under News as Cyberpunk by Mr. Roboto.
Wiggett said:
spewin' I missed the NIN concert, glad RIAA doesn't get to me here in Australia… yet.
Nerdcore — Neues Business-Modell für die Musikindustrie: Filesharer verklagen said (pingback):
[…] (via) […]
Illusive Mind said:
The RIAA doesn't seem to understand that there is no way to put the cork back in the technology bottle. Their best encryption will required tailor make hardware to play and even then an army of crackers will be up to the challenge.
Given that, if they embraced internet distribution completely they would make far more money by volume sales.
Albums are particularly expensive in Australia for some reason. And we have gotten jerked around with television programming that Australia leads the world in TV show piracy.
caprison said:
Typical of large corps. If you can't win by being competitive.. have it legislated so you do win. I feel sorry for the lady that tried to stand up to that giant. Guaranteed that you will hear nothing telling her side in the corporate media complex.
Hear is a fun question. What if an illegal alien came over to the U.S. and illegally downloaded music? I'd love to see that paradox played out in the courts.
FJU said:
this makes radiohead's decision to pay as you go for In Rainbows later this week even more important. Radiohead basically took a hit (even though we know they make MOST of their money from touring) to their own wallets, being artists without a record deal. of course, not every band has the cache of radiohead and few could afford to just give away their music (how many people are paying more than 1GBP for that?), but i love the point they are making. hopefully this will affect negotiations with BMI or whoever they sign with, in that the music will already be available and copyrighted by the BAND, not the record label.
eric-the-ded said:
Sort of related news.
This is from nin.com -
08 October 2007: Big News
Hello everyone. I've waited a LONG time to be able to make the
following announcement: as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally
free agent, free of any recording contract with any label. I have
been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the
business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very
different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a
direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate.
Look for some announcements in the near future regarding 2008.
Exciting times, indeed.
posted by Trent Reznor at 10:45 AM.
I think we can expect more "leaks" from young Trent in the near future.
ONI said:
I don't know how to email whoever runs this site so im just posting this here. i found this news artical you might consider a bit cyberpunkish seeing as how it deals with robots and the whole big brother concept http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/08/AR2007100801434.html?nav=hcmodule
Mr. Roboto said:
Thx for the heads-up, ONI, but I've already blogged it in the forums.
Deep_Logic said:
Kill a lawyer a day to keep the corporate governance away..just kidding.
Adam Daub said:
No evidence, no trial. In this whole fucked up case, why do we even have courts?
RIAA can seriously go fuck themselves.
the best defense might be that u had no file sharing program running to the best of ur knolage and that ur computer was infected with a rouge viruses of some sort ranging from a rouge p2p worm or a proxy Trojan and that it was not u or any 1 u know this works since they go to the most likely target the first ip they come across and never bother check other sources and wait to long for a proper discovery to take place ware u could have ur computer analyzed for such a virus in ur defense
so unless they have a time machine they will lose this case
peermathe said:
my God, i thought you were going to chip in with some decisive insght at the end there, not leave it with 'we leave it to you to decide'.
Seasons said:
Maybe you could change the webpage subject title Cyberpunk Review » Minnesota mother becomes RIAA's first victim. to something more generic for your blog post you make. I loved the post still.
All News as Cyberpunk
Smart Bullets - The latest Hollywood tech made real.
Internet blackened by SOPA.
IBM's New Chip Thinks For Itself.
Invasion of the body hackers
Pentagon to declare war on hackers
Robot helps woman walk.
MPAA looking to build a firewall around USA
William Gibson on Google's Earth
Your implants will be powered by… YOU.
Two implants coming soon.
British researcher becomes infected with computer virus
Surrogates for real: Anybots roll out.
One man's quest to outfit diabetics with robotic pancreases.
DARPA looking to REPAIR damaged brains.
USA Today: "The Machines Took Over (Wall Street)"
The end of an era: Sony to discontinue floppy disks. PLUS: The continuing bane of DATA ROT!
30-minute time limit to surf the net (SHENANIGANS!)
DARPA has visions of robotic cameras.
US Army 'threatened' by WikiLeaks
Wired Calls Shenanigans: Cyberwar is a HOAX!
Microsoft takes Cryptome offline (temporarily)
Evolutionary Robotics: The Rise of the Darwinian Machines
Corporations are people, too (According to the US Supreme Court)
WikiLeaks posts 500K pager messages from 11-Sep-01
Electronic Ink: LED Tattoos Implanted by Silk
O'Riley Radar: The War For The Web
Sabotaging The System: CBS News, Brazilian Blackouts, and The War for The Internet
War for the Internet
Will Machines Outsmart Humans?
That's Impossible: Real Terminators
Hacker's next target: Your BRAIN
The Pirate Bay sells out… maybe.
Web Science: Because "We no longer fully understand the web."
Robot online @ Facebook and looking for friends
Pirate Bay Judgement Day: The Verdict is IN
American Infrastructure (and the Internet) Threatened By…
Computer Science Makes Computers Scientists
Ghostnet: China's massive spynet uncovered
HRP-4C 'Fashion'-Bot: Too Sexy For The Runway.
BBC Builds a Botnet.
Hungry, Hungry Robots
Genetic Engineering @ Home… or Who's up for a DIY plague?
Silicon Viagra "Sex Chip" now under development (!)
BBC News Magazine asks: Dude, where's my personal robot?
MPAA wants Obama to hand the Internet to them
Body Swapping proven (theoretically) possible.
Pop quiz, hot shots: Can an A.I. pass the Turing test?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Applications in prescribed form are invited for admission into Postgraduate/M. Phil/Ph.D* Courses of this University for the Academic Session 2009-10.
(ii) Forest Ecology, Bio-diversity and Environmental Science (M.Sc., Ph.D.)and Environmental Sciences (M.Sc., Ph.D.
* A candidate may apply for Admissions into Ph.D. Programme either in July or in February. Last date for submission of applications: (i) 15th July, (ii) 20th February.
** MBA, B.Tech (IT) and B.Tech (Electronics & Communication Engineering) have been advertised separately.
Prescribed application forms with prospectus will be available in the Office of the Controller of Examinations at Tanhril – 796009, Mizoram during office hours on payment of Rs. 100/- for SC/ST and Rs. 200/- for others in cash or through SBI Demand Draft in favour of Mizoram University. Application Forms/Prospectus can also be obtained through post by remitting Rs. 30/- extra as postal charges. Form downloaded from University website should be submitted with required fees. However, for MBA and B. Tech Courses, the fee for Admission Form is Rs. 700/- (Rs. 350/- for SC/ST Candidates)..
Application forms duly completed in all respect are to be submitted to the Head of the concerned Department(s) on or before 15th July, 2009. Application received after the specified date will not be entertained. Incomplete applications will be rejected.
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text:
The Blood + the Breath
The Blood + the Breath takes listener on a journey through scripture, from creation to Jesus' return.
Every song points to the theme of redemption and the person of Christ. Coming June 3, 2013.
What They're Saying:
"I love Caroline's vision for telling The Story of redemption through her music. Featuring some of my favorite players, this is a project you will definitely want to check out!"
- Kevin Twit, Indelible Grace
"Listening to The Blood and The Breath is like sojourning through the topography and stories of the Bible, beginning in Genesis and ending with the return of Christ. And just as in Scripture, each song points to the cross. Caroline paints the scene with roots music that makes me feel like I'm there, walking the dusty roads of ancient Israel and the hard trails of the wilderness. And her lyrics are both direct and metaphorical, allowing us to experience well-known stories and often-taught truths in a new way."
- Bobby Gilles, My Song in the Night
"The biblical narrative is a story of creation, fall, redemption and a final restoration. Caroline Cobb tells this story with fresh, penetrating lyrics and a gentle, inviting voice. The album represents her own creative musical writing and her personal love for the Redeemer of whom she sings. The biblical message is clear and penetrating. You won't be disappointed!"
- Dennis Hollinger, President Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
Songs in this album
All the Stars
by Caroline Cobb
Album: The Blood + the Breath
Genre: Worship
Writer(s): Caroline Cobb
Duration: 4 mins 30 secs
Media:listen
Breath of God
From Him, To Him
The Passover Song
Genre: Easter
Writer(s): Sean Carter & Caroline Cobb
Duration: 4 mins 9 secs


text:
International Circus Hall of Fame
For the young and the young at heart
ICHOF Facebook Group
ICHOF Instagram
ICHOF Pinterest
ICHOF Facebook Page
ICHOF Twitter
circushalloffame@gmail.com
3076 East Circus Lane
Peru, Indiana 46970-7133
Additional News!
American Circus Corporation winter quarters
Circus Greats
Circus Hall of Fame Inductees
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Grants and Donor information
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Videos – You Tube
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Wagon Restorations
Wagons at the Circus Hall of Fame
The International Circus Hall of Fame is excited about working on three wagons in the coming months but we need your help. To rebuild the wooden wheels of the Sig Sautelle Band Chariot that was made in 1887, we are looking at almost $ 3,000.00. This Band Chariot was made right here in Peru by the Sullivan and Eagle Wagon Company. Your help will be Greatly appreciated.
Helping Hand – $25.00
Apprentice – $50.00
Craftsman – $100.00
Artist – $ 250.00
Wagon Master – $500.00
Wheel Wright – $ 1000.00
____________________________________________________________________________________
The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus # 1 Commissary wagon was a wooden wagon that had a water tank in the bottom half of the wagon. This wagon was ruined when it arrived in Peru in 1986 but the steel frame still exists. This is a new project we would like to re-build as many people can actually have a hands on experience in the wooden body rebuild during our work weeks.
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Dining Dept. # 1
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Dining Dept. Wagon # 1
The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Bandstand needs some metal cut out that has rusted through and new metal welded in place on the body. We had all new wheels and bearings put on this wagon last summer. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus all steel Bandstand wagon # 29.
Now rusting out, the steel wagon needs some new metal to be installed.
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As more schools look to implement blended learning, positions like "Blended Learning Manager" and "Personalized Learning Director" have popped up in larger numbers on jobs boards. I just wrapped up my first year in such a role as the Director of Technology for KIPP Chicago Schools. As I reflect on this year, there are a few key skills that schools should look for in their candidates and/or be prepared to develop. In addition, a better pipeline needs to be created to sustain the growing demand.
Let's start with the skills.
It is important to know the instructional vision of the school and how blended learning fits in this vision. Having classroom experience makes it easier to identify the needs of the school in reaching this vision and evaluate blended learning models and online programs that address these needs. Prior success in the classroom also helps build credibility with teachers and school leaders. Plus, the natural empathy allows for a more thoughtful implementation that takes into considerations educators' already stretched bandwidth.
There are lots of moving parts in blended learning. Devices need to be ordered, the infrastructure needs to be sound, students accounts must be created, professional development must be scheduled, and the list goes on! A blended learning model can be great in theory, but operational bumps during implementation can sink it. Individuals with the skills to create robust systems to sustain the model are essential.
Blended learning programs produce a ton of data. With so little time in their day, teachers and school leaders need someone who can synthesize the data into actionable steps. This skill also helps determine if programs are effective and to change course if needed.
The role requires convincing people who you don't formally manage to take actions. This is in pretty stark contrast to the role of classroom teachers.
In the classroom, teachers are able to change arrangements, lesson plans, bulletin boards, and more pretty much autonomously. Blended learning managers have to develop relationships with teachers, school leaders, and vendors to get their buy in on a course of action. This change is slow and not all ideas will get implemented or even considered. It takes someone who can see the bigger picture and how small steps lead to a larger vision.
Blended learning is still pretty new and there are a lot of unknowns in the role. With so many unknowns, the role requires someone with initiative willing to shape their own role. The role is pretty new and blended learning evolves quickly. As such, the role changes often and requires versatility and flexibility. It also helps to have a network of counterparts to spitball ideas.
So, where are these potential blended learning managers?
I have had several people reach out to me this year asking for recommendations for candidates to fill these positions. Unfortunately, the people in my network are now in similar roles, in edtech companies, or otherwise unavailable. Even more unfortunately, this often means the roles get filled by those without blended learning experience or even education experience. We need a pipeline to develop these future blended learning managers.
The most common pathway I have seen is where a teacher who implements technology well into their classroom finds themselves in this role (this is the path I took). It is great that many blended learning managers are coming from the classroom, but a more formal pathway like ones developed for school leadership is still needed. Schools and districts should think critically when identifying potential blended learning managers and begin cultivating these skills to set them up for success as a blended learning manager. Once in these roles, schools and districts should set up professional paths for blended learning managers and create development opportunities through opportunities like attending conferences and involving them in school design processes.
Keep the conversation going. The list of skills above is not comprehensive. What other skills are crucial to success as a blended learning manager? What are other schools and districts doing to cultivate the next generation of blended learning managers and develop them professionally? Please respond in the comments section below.
Jin-Soo Huh is the Director of Technology of KIPP Chicago Schools where he supports the implementation of blended learning models. Follow him @JinSooDHuh.
NOTE: This article is part of EdSurge's Fifty States Initiative (representing the state of Illinois).


Wildwood Studio sits outside the village of Hillsboro, NM in the foothills of the Black Range Mountains and at the edge of the Gila National Forest. This site is for the presentation of artist Susan Reynolds' latest works. As of late July 2017 the artist began using SusanMaryZ as her art signature. SusanMaryZ is her given name, her middle name, and the first initial of her maiden name.
Welcome to my site! I am very happy to share my latest bodies of work with you.
Crosses came to me while I was in Denver assisting family members who were in a time of disruption and distress. The first couple of crosses were dark and somewhat muddy. I painted over them. Back in my studio with many windows and bright lighting I am compelled to continue painting crosses. They give me peace. Each is a prayer. Not just for my family members who continue to suffer but also for those who will purchase them. A small blessing goes with each one as it finds a new home. They are acrylic on canvas and currently come in two sizes: 5" x 7" and 8" x 10."
Walking is part of my studio practice. I have had more than one walking adventure that resulted in my covering unfamiliar land 100 miles or more at a time. Such walks have deepened my relationship with landscape and nature. Drawn to minimalist works, my interpreted landscapes are acrylic paintings on canvas. They are inspired by the beauty of New Mexico and especially by places I see regularly whlle out and about from home. Those shown on the Geometry of Landscape page are studies in several small sizes: 5" x 5". 5" x 7", 8" x 8", and 10" x 20". It is my intent to enalrge the ones that work best for me. This page is truly one in a state of evolution.
The DNA series: abstract geometric drawings built around actual connections to newly discovered "cousins" through DNA. For a person who grew up with no first cousins it has been an amazing journey from autonomy to finding that I share DNA with hundreds of others. How we are connected is a vital part of the development of this series.
Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in any of the pieces presented in this site.


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text:
namespace Cassette.BundleProcessing
{
    public interface IBundleProcessor<in T>
        where T : Bundle
    {
        void Process(T bundle);
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Emerald Dance Centre trading as DancEdge Emerald is an incorporated association which was established in 2001. DancEdge Emerald has also previously been known as Emerald Ballet Scholarship Fund Committee and Emerald Ballet School which had been operational in Emerald since the 1960's.
In 2013, Emerald Dance Centre branched out to incorporate 'Barcy Edge', our dance school at Barcaldine, and we subsequently changed our Emerald dance name to 'DancEdge Emerald'.
Unfortunately we no longer run a dance school at Barcaldine, however our Emerald Dance school still trades under the name "DancEdge Emerald".
DancEdge Emerald continues to be run by a Management Committee of volunteers. Together with our Dance Co-ordinator, our qualified dance instructors, our Administration and our DancEdge Emerald families, we strive to make our centre the best it can be. The contributions of each and every member of DancEdge Emerald is acknowledged and valued - teamwork makes the dreamwork!
Thank you to all our past and present families for your wonderful support. We will continue working to ensure the strength and growth of DancEdge Emerald enabling us to share the joy of dance for many years to come.


Need a suggestion of a good hike?
Avondale Trail System, West Hants – The Avondale trail system offers three different trail options. The Westbrook trail is a 2.3km loop with a trailhead at the Avondale Community Hall.
Berwick's Apple Capital Heritage Trail – This 2.2 km section is a shared-use trail which provides great access to the community.
Bigelow Nature Trail, Canning: The Bigelow Nature Trail is located at 969 J. Jordan Road – on the left (adjacent to the football field where the old Cornwallis High School used to be). The trail is approximately 7km in total, but smaller loops can be completed.
Bird Sanctuary Hike – Kentville. 1.3km loop hike near a lake. Great in all seasons.
Bridgetown Historic Cyprus Walk – is a 90 minute, 3.5 km self-guided tour covers many interesting features of historic Bridgetown, Nova Scotia. The trail is easy to follow as it is marked with a painted blue line.
Cape Split, Scott's Bay – the quintessential hike. 16KM round trip.
Caroline Shipwreck Monument Trail, Baxter's Harbour – a 4km round trip, point-to-point trail to see a monument dedicated to where the schooner the Caroline came to shore in 1831.
Coldbrook walking Trails – These trails weave and wend behind the Laurie Lane Subdivision in Coldbrook, and hook up with the Kentville Bird Sanctuary.
David Morse Trail, Greenwood – an 8.2-kilometre stretch of multi-use trail as a connecter trail between Johnson Pond Road and Crystal Falls.
Delaps Cove Wilderness Trail – near Annapolis Royal, has three trails. Interpretive signs and picnic areas.
Fales River Falls, Greenwood – The first part is easy…just follow the path to the stream. Immediately upstream of the path you may be able to jump across rocks to span the stream. If you take the road McDonalds is on into Fales River subdivision to the very end, it starts there.
French Basin Trail – in Annapolis Royal, The French Basin Trail is 1.2 km long as it follows around the perimeter of the Ducks Unlimited pond. The trail is great for walking – hiking, snow shoeing and mountain biking.
Gaspereau Canal Trail – This trail is actually close to New Ross, about 15 minutes from Kentville. This 3km loop trail is great in all seasons and easy to walk with your family.
Hall's Harbour Eco-Trail – There are two sections to this trail through the woods.
Harvest Rail Trail – The 117-kilometre Harvest Moon Trailway traverses the Annapolis Valley through beautiful towns along the former rail line, connecting the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Grand Pré to the historic seaside town of Annapolis Royal.
Hike Nova Scotia – There are wonderful trails and places for hiking, walking and snowshoeing all over Nova Scotia. Find maps, descriptions and directions to trails.
Irishman's Road Recreation Site – Windsor, A shared use trail network with a mix of singletrack and doubletrack. There's not a lot of elevation change but there's lots of punchy ups and downs.
Kentville Research Station – The Ravine Trail winds past a small pond, a waterfall, and over many small streams. Hiking in Kentville provides the experience of being lost in nature among hemlock growth over 250 years old, but access to the trails is actually very close to the centre of Town. The trail can be accessed at the East end of Town at the top of the Research Station Property.
Kingston Family Fitness Trail – This 700m loop, located at the Kingston Duck Pond in Stronach Park has fitness equipment along the wooded trail.
Lockhart & Ryan Park, New Minas -The Lockhart Ryan Memorial Park has quite a large system of multi-use trails which are great for walking-hiking, mountain biking and cross country skiing. Great for families and beginners.
donated to the Municipality of the County of Kings by the members of the McMaster family. There are interpretive panels outlining the mill history and the McMaster family history. 1km.
Mickey Hill Provincial Park – in Milford (South of Annapolis Royal) is a day-use park with a 1-km loop trail and a swimming area. The park features gravelled trails, with boardwalks in rough areas and steep staircases through rocks, and a suspension bridge. Trails are marked with nature interpretive signs.
Miner's Marsh, Kentville – The Kentville Ducks Unlimited Site also known as "Miner's Marsh" is found in a wetland habitat constructed by Ducks Unlimited Canada which supports a variety and abundance of wildlife. The protected site also includes 1.7 kms of maintained trail. The site is complete with viewing stands, picnic tables and interpretive signage which makes it an ideal location for birdwatchers, and nature enthusiasts. Miner's Marsh can be accessed from the abandoned rail line trail at the intersection of the trail with Leverett Avenue, and from the parking area behind the County of Kings Municipal building on Cornwallis Street.
Noggins Corner Farm Historic Trail, Greenwich – walking trail offers information about the history of the land while providing an enjoyable and vigorous hike. The trail is approximately 3 kms in length with shorter trail options available.
Old Mill Trail – in South Farmington is fully wheelchair accessible. The trail is situated on 2.2 acres of land along the beautiful Annapolis River and features benches, picnic tables and bridges all along it.
Roxbury Ghost Town, Paradise – Although nothing much of it remains today, Roxbury can still be defined as an actual "ghost town". In the late 1800's Roxbury was a logging community with a population of several dozens, until a poor supply of lumber and harsh winters forced people to reconsider settling in the area. 7 kms , 2hours.
Scotian Hiker for a list of guided hikes in the area.
Shingle Mills Falls – Nestled on Aylesford Mountain, it's just 10 minutes to see these falls.
Sunken Lake hiking trails – A number of trails into the surrounding woodlands begin around Sunken Lake. These are near the Scout camp.
Trail Peak has a list of hikes for the province. Great descriptions, directions and maps.
White Rock Community Trail – The trail is a figure-8 shape and is an easy walk suitable for people of all ages any levels of fitness. The entire trail takes about 20 minutes to walk.
Hike It Baby, Wolfville – Hike it Baby is an organization dedicated to developing communities that get families outside and on trails with children from birth to school age. Hikes are posted to this calendar first and then promoted through Facebook posts and events. Facebook events are used for special events to keep the group page free for discussion.
Scotian Hiker – We regularly hike trails throughout the province and take part in a variety of outdoor activities, and invite others to do the same. If you are looking to explore as well, you can either use this site as a guide to help you do your own thing, or you are welcome to join in on the group events offered here. Children who are able to keep up with the adults are invited to attend.
Valley Trekkers – Join the Valley Trekkers, member of the Canadian Volkssport Federation.


text:
GHS Adoption Means Big Changes to Canada's WHMIS
All eyes are on Canada this spring, as a proposal to align WHMIS with the United Nations' Globally Harmonized System, or GHS for short, is expected to be published in Canada Gazette I, maybe as soon as March 2013. Whenever it happens, it will officially put Canada on the final road to GHS implementation.
Canada has long been a key driver in the development and adoption of GHS at the United Nations level, and WHMIS is one of the four major hazardous chemical standards upon which the United Nations GHS is based. However, like the United States, which adopted GHS in March of 2012 (nearly a decade after it was first published by the United Nations), the intricacies of Canada's chemical hazard regulations has necessitated additional time to align the necessary stakeholders and to work through the maze of changes GHS adoption brings to chemical classification, labeling, safety data sheet authoring.
GHS adoption will have implications for the Hazardous Product Act, Controlled Products Regulations, consumer products, pesticides and other pest control products, and the transportation of dangerous goods.
After the proposed changes are published in Canada Gazette I, the next step is to publish an enacted rule in Canada Gazette II – for which the most recently stated goal is spring 2014. Finally, the enacted regulations would need to be worked into regulations at the territory and province level, with an effective date for implementation expected to be June 1, 2015.
The timing of Canada's implementation is intended to bring WHMIS changes on line at the same time the United States hits its major GHS adoption compliance deadline of June 1, 2015.
Canadian suppliers and employers are expected to get a phase-in period for compliance. Yet, if all goes as planned, the United States and Canada will have systems that are very nearly aligned by this important date, making compliance easier for those companies working on both sides of the border.
Regardless of how the timing works out, GHS alignment with WHMIS will bring a host of new challenges to suppliers, employers and workers that make, sell, or use controlled products. GHS will not replace WHMIS, but will dramatically alter three key areas:
Chemical Classification
Under GHS, WHMIS will have new rules for chemical classification, and even some new hazard classes - which is not to say WHMIS will be any less protective than in its current form. Most GHS classes and subcategories have a corresponding WHMIS class, division or subdivision.
Under GHS there will be 16 physical hazard classes and 10 health hazard classes. New classes include Explosives, Aspiration Hazard, and Specific Target Organ Toxicity (single exposure). A few classes like Biohazards, currently covered by WHMIS, are not part of GHS. Regardless, Canada is not expected to drop such classes. Furthermore, it is possible Canada will adopt classes also not covered in GHS, yet covered by OSHA such as combustible dust and simple asphyxiants.
Safety data sheets in the GHS format have 16 sections in a very strict order. Canada, which currently has a 9 heading MSDS requirement, has already made allowances for use of the 16 section GHS format in Canada so long as content required by Schedule I, Column II of the Controlled Product Regulations is included.
After GHS adoption, suppliers will be required to produce and distribute safety data sheets in the new 16 section format. Other requirements, such as having safety data sheets in both English and French are not expected to change.
Confidential Business Information is likely to remain largely the same, with suppliers needing to comply with Federal Hazardous Materials Information Review Act and Regulations. Disclosure to medical professionals and emergency personnel will also likely remain compulsory.
Some of the biggest changes to WHMIS will likely come in the form of GHS formatted labels. WHMIS labels after GHS are expected to have the following mandated elements:
Product Identifier (hazardous ingredients may be required)
Supplier Identifier (name, address, and telephone number)
Hazard symbols/pictograms (square set at a point)
Hazard Statements (with standardized warnings based upon chemical classification)
Precautionary Statements (prevention, storage, disposal)
Precautionary Statements (response)
Signal Word ("Danger" or "Warning")
One familiar Canadian label element that is on the bubble is the reference to the safety data sheet. It is not certain yet whether this label requirement will be retained in the revised WHMIS.
Not changing will be the requirements for employers to include labels on containers into which controlled products have been transferred, on containers that have damaged or illegible supplier labels, and on those containers used for controlled products produced and used in-house.
Canada and United States Harmonization
Many of the changes GHS brings to WHMIS are well known, yet there are a few changes that are still up in the air. Many of these are related to the work Canada and the United States are doing to ensure compatibility between the two countries' regulations.
Canada and the United States, as directed by Prime Minister Steven Harper and President Barack Obama on December 7, 2011, have enacted the Joint Action Plan for Canada-US Regulatory Cooperation Council, with the express objective of "synchronizing implementation of common classification and labeling requirements for workplace hazardous chemicals."
The big changes to keep an eye out for in Canada's Gazette I proposal, according to a presentation Kim Headricks, Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety Branch of Health Canada, delivered to the Society of Chemical Hazard Communication (SCHC) in September 2012, include:
Classification differences between the U.S. and Canada for:
Serious eye damage
Biohazardous infectious material
Label Layout Changes
Hatched border requirement may be dropped, as it could be a "major impediment" to harmonization with hazard programs outside of Canada
Safety Data Sheet Changes
A repeal of the 3 year MSDS review period
Instead, updates would be required whenever new information was available
Current 3 year burden is not necessarily thought to improve worker safety, nor does it align with GHS
If you would like to learn more about Canada's adoption of GHS, join us for a FREE WEBINAR on Canada's GHS Adoption. We have two dates for you to choose from:
GHS Adoption in Canada, What You Need to Know Now
An update on Canada's GHS adoption and what it means for WHMIS
Tuesday, Mar 19, 2013 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST
Safety ROI Infographic
EH&S Blog Compliance Education GHS Adoption Means Big Changes to Canada's WHMIS


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Government Street is the name given to portions of U.S. Route 90 (US 90) and US 98 within the city limits of Mobile, Alabama. It is known as Government Boulevard west of Pinehill Drive, and as Government Street east of it. It is the most important road on Mobile's far south side and is the only nominally east–west road on Mobile's south side to enter the city from outside the western city limits and reach the downtown business district. The only other two east–west thoroughfares in the city to do so are Moffett Road/Springhill Avenue and Old Shell Road. Government Street is a four-lane highway throughout the city limits, from Water Street to the western city limits. It is the only thoroughfare in Mobile to have interchanges with both Interstate 10 (I-10) and I-65 within the city limits.

Route description
Government Street begins at the intersection with the Old Spanish Trail on Blakeley Island, east of where it emerges from the Bankhead Tunnel. It expands after crossing Royal Street. US 98 leaves the route at Broad Street, with the remainder of Government Street continuing as US 90. It continues onward for approximately  to Pinehill Drive, where it becomes Government Boulevard. It then continues for approximately  until it ends at the southwesternmost limits of the city, in Theodore. This area, along with the Tillmans Corner business district, was annexed into the city in September 2008.

History

The street was laid out and named after the close of Mobile's colonial era, following the demolition of the obsolete Fort Conde.  In the early 1820s the marshlands between the Mobile River and Royal Street were filled in with the bricks and other material from the demolished fort. Government Street was run westward from the old esplanade that had been situated beside the river and fort.  It has traditionally been a street where Mobile's government-related functions were concentrated. Barton Academy, Old City Hall, the Mobile County License Commissioner Offices, Mobile Government Plaza, the Mobile Public Library, Mobile Bar Association, and Social Security Administration all continue to lie along Government Street.

Government had a reputation as the "mansion or millionaire's row" in the city, although many of the largest and grandest of the 19th-century mansions once lining the street were demolished as late as the 1980s. The area east of Houston Street still has many 19th- to early 20th-century mansions that date back to the time when Government was the most prestigious address that one could have in Mobile.

See also

U.S. Route 90 in Alabama
U.S. Route 98 in Alabama
Kennedy House (Mobile, Alabama)

References

Streets in Mobile, Alabama
U.S. Route 90
U.S. Route 98

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The Innovation Compact Wood is based on the technology of the Clearaudio Innovation Wood turntable, but uses a single plinth as opposed to the stainless steel sub-platter found on the Innovation Wood. Its resonance-optimized chassis shape is based on the proven success of Clearaudio's three-point design — a combination of Panzerholz, aluminum layers, and aluminum pods. The Innovation Compact Wood uses Clearaudio's patented CMB (Ceramic Magnetic Bearing) technology, where the platter magnetically levitates on an inverted bearing attached to a low-friction ceramic shaft. The high-torque DC motor is equipped with electronic OSC (Optical Speed Control). The high-density, dynamically balanced 2.75″ polyoxymethylene (POM) platter provides excellent dimensional stability. The Innovation Compact Wood is dual tonearm capable.
Dimensions: 18.86" x 19.09" x 5.55"


We have another week of releases for you. Tons of fun Christmas themes coming your way this week.
I colored Prince Charming with copics and that was a ton of fun. I am not best with greens but he turned out great. I used some Sparkle n Sprinkle Red Apple embossing powder to emboss the sentiment. I turned the sentiment into a banner by using a circle punch to chomp the ends off and some fun red ribbon along the boarder. The papers are from one of the new Bo Bunny collections.
You are too funny Shanna! You are fantastic with greens :) Darling card!
He is a very handsome frog, Shanna! This card is so frogtastic with the sentiment and all.
Love that sentiment! Paired with the frog it's even better! Fun card, Shanna!


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AAFES warns of scams targeting its vehicle shoppers
Community Contributor	August 19th, 2019
AAFES News Release
DALLAS, Texas — According to a recent Better Business Bureau study, service members are more susceptible to fraud than average consumers. In fact, scammers using the name "Exchange Inc." have been attempting to fool Soldiers and Airmen into thinking they are working with the Army & Air Force Exchange Service to broker the sale of used cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats and boat engines.
"For years, scammers have used the Exchange's trademarked logo and name without permission to purportedly sell vehicles in the United States," said Steve Boyd, the Exchange's loss prevention vice president. "Some military members have sent money thinking they're dealing with the Exchange, only to receive nothing in return."
Military exchanges do not have the authority to sell vehicles or represent private sellers in completing transactions in the continental United States. Scammers have left consumers with the impression they are doing business with the Department of Defense's oldest and largest exchange service.
The scammers typically direct potential buyers to use multiple third-party gift cards to pay for purchases. Most recently, scammers required payment using Google Play gift cards. To verify any suspicious payment method requests, military shoppers can call Exchange Customer Service at 800-527-2345.
The Exchange operates solely on military installations and via ShopMyExchange.com. The Exchange does not act as a broker in private transactions and does not advertise in classified advertisement or resale websites.
Shoppers who believe that they may have been taken advantage of can file a complaint through the Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.
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Buckingham Palace has confirmed that Britain's Queen Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, have been vaccinated against the coronavirus.
The announcement was made in a written statement on Saturday, (January 9) and a Reuters source says the vaccines were administered by a household doctor at her Windsor Castle residence.
The queen is 94 years old and her husband 99. The source says Queen Elizabeth made the information public to counter any speculation.
Earlier last year her son, Prince Charles, tested positive but had mild symptoms.
It wasn't immediately clear which vaccine the queen received.
The UK has approved the use of both the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine as well as one made jointly by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, and has been rolling them out to the most at-risk elderly.
The UK was also the first Western country to start mass vaccinations, back in early December.
Subang Jaya rep unveils RM70 Covid-19 tests for residents, workers, students
Automotive manufacturing and production back on govt's 'essential' list under MCO 2.0
Canada striker David netted a minute into stoppage time to put Lille on 42 points from 20 games, behind PSG who beat Angers 1-0 away on Saturday, on goal difference. Third-placed Olympique Lyonnais will reclaim top spot if they beat Metz at home later on Sunday. Earlier, fifth-placed Stade Rennes beat Brest 2-1 away as they stayed level on 36 points with fourth-placed Monaco.


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TUESDAY 10th November 2015 at 7:30PM in the HINDMARSH HALL
Present: Bill Bourne (BB) (Chair), Nick Mattlock (NM), George Ternent (GT), Donald Blythe (DB), Ed Williams (EW), John Hobbis (JH), Mac McHugh (MM), David Denton (DD).
In Attendance: Hazel Eccleston (Clerk) and County Councillors Heather Cairns (HC) and Gordon Castle (GC).
Apologies were received from Parish Councillors Jill Brown and Calum Burns
The minutes of 13th October were agreed.
Agreed that it required some restoration.
Action: MM and DD to carry out the necessary work.
· Arriva Bus Route
BB noted that a complaint had been made to Nick Knox and the Parish Council would continue to petition Arriva to restore the connection between the Railway Station and the village.
· Bonfire Night Assessment
BB reported that the Bonfire Night had been a huge success and thanked the team, led by Jill Brown, who had organised and run the event. BB also thanked the Burgage Holders of Alnmouth for their contribution of £250 to the funding of the event.
· Dr Joy's Garden
BB will ask local Garden Maintenance businesses to put forward bids to create a plinth for the Millenium Stone.
· Small Boathouse
The Clerk reported that Jo Driscoll's team had asked for details of any land which may have been handed over to the Parish along with the small boathouse. Agreed by all that the Jo Driscoll should look to the Land Registry for this information. NM reminded the Parish Council that Jo Driscoll's group had been asked to form an Association. HC noted that a recent circular regarding 'Leader Funds' would suit Jo's group.
Action: BB will look at the 2006 Feasibility Study Report, to see if any information could be found there.
142/15 Public Conveniences
BB noted that the Parish Council had received communications from members of the public, protesting at the closure of the Public Conveniences. BB noted that they would not be re-opened, during the winter months, unless the Parish Council resolved to contribute to their maintenance. Following a discussion DB proposed paying for the maintenance of the Public Convenieces, during the winter months, from the Precept. DD seconded, agreed by all.
Action: Clerk to communicate the above decision to NCC. BB to issue a press statement to the Gazette and village newsletter.
143/15 Harbour Wall
The Clerk reported that she had contacted Tony Derbyshire at NCC to ask about progress with potential repairs to the Harbour Wall. Mr Derbyshire had noted the Parish Council's concerns regarding the safety of pedestrians along Lover's Walk and had agreed to visit the wall and keep a check on its state of repair. Mr Derbyshire agreed to inform Northumbrian Water and Northumberland Estates, both of whom have an interest in the repairs to the Harbour Wall.
The Parish Council noted that the sewage pipe running under the wall was a main pipe which would cause problems if damaged by the wall's collapse.
Nothing to report as yet.
The Clerk reported on costs involved in repairing the climbing tower and it was agreed by all that the whole tower needed to be assessed and repaired. DD has taken steps to make the tower safe until it is repaired but noted that a more solid barrier was required.
The Council reviewed the quotes for a basket/cantilever swing in the park and agreed to approach Playdale as the most economical; proposed by MM, seconded by NM, agreed by all.
Action: NM to complete forms for s.106 application and include the quote from Simon Rippon in the application. Clerk to approach Playdale and ask them to assess the Climbing Tower with a view to repairs at the same time as their site visit to assess the viability of installing a basket swing. DD to organise a more solid barrier to stop use of the Climbing Tower.
146/15 County Council Matters
GC reported that the final decision had been taken to move the County to a two-tier school system. It is intended that August 2017 will be the date of transfer but there are still issues to resolve.
GC reported that street furniture and signage are topics under discussion, with a view to deciding whether policies should be formulated.
DB reported that planning was going well. The poster judging had been completed. There were 40 artist applicants so far and lots of new ideas.
The Clerk reported that the lights were being put up and the children to carry out the switch-on had been chosen. BB had agreed to be the Master of Ceremonies for the night and arrangements were going well.
DD asked if the planters had arrived. BB confirmed they had. DB offered to help put them in place.
Action: BB to contact Shian Hartshorn to organise the placement of the planters and order compost.
BB noted that the traffic consultation was ongoing and the Clerk noted that she had received 13 more copies of a standard letter, objecting to the double yellow lines on Riverside Road. EW asked if the online map detailing the placement of the proposed double yellow lines had been amended as it had been incorrect when viewed very recently. HC noted that the necessary corrections had been made. GC noted that the objections raised had added public protection and licensing issues to those areas being considered.
DB noted that parking near Wellfield had the potential to cause an accident.
Action: Clerk to inform Margaret Robinson that the parking near Wellfield could cause an accident.
MM asked what progres had been made with the information boards. BB reported they were still a work in progress.
DD noted the new gulleys did not work as there was still flooding near the Duchess Bridge. GT noted that several gulleys in the village were prone to flooding.
Action: BB will draw up a list of gulleys which require clearing and the Clerk will pass the list on to NCC. Clerk will also contact Grahame Bucknell at NCC regarding the gulleys near the Duchess Bridge.
Proposal: Variation of condition 2 (approved plans) of aproved planning application
Location: Alnmouth Boys Club, Foxton Road, Alnmouth
a) The following invoices/expenses were approved by all.
First Emergency response Kit = £32.75
Bonfire Night Expenses = Aldi – Juice = £4.00, ASDA – Soup & Hot Dogs = £39.47
Xmas Lights Equipment = £21.79
Stamps = £3.78
AAF Expenses = £47.75
Action: Clerk to inform applicant that this request had been refused and suggest alternative sources.
Draft Budget
BB presented the draft budget for 2016/17. This budget now includes a £2,000 increase to take account of the need to re-open the public conveniences during the winter. BB noted that there would be a temporary drop in income as we would not be receiving the £85 per month rent for the small boathouse; although there were other irregular sources of income and the Burgage Holders were always generous to the community. DB proposed that the precept should be increased to £14,500, NM seconded, agreed by all.
Action: Clerk to send in the precept request for 2016/17 and to ask Andy Stewart to calculate the % increase for Band D housholds.
£ IN
£ OUT
Clerk's Wages & Admin
Poppy Wreath
SLCC Subscription
Burgage Holders - Fireworks
A duplicated letter of objection signed by the thirteen members of the public, objecting to the proposed parking restrictions on Riverside road.
The Clerk magazine – November 2015 Issue
Clerk's and Councils Direct – November 2015 Issue
War Memorials Trust magazine – No.67, November 2015.
Communication from CAN to announce the new Chief Executive – Andy Dean.
CAN News – October 2015 Issue
GT reported that AONB had conducted a survey of the Common land for the Burgage Holders and there would be a forum (to be announced) to present the findings of this survey.
BB announced that after sixteen years of sterling service, John Hobbis had taken the difficult decision to retire. BB thanked John on behalf of the Parish Council and the Community of Alnmouth, for all of his hard work and support over the years.
The date of the next meeting was set for, Tuesday 8th December 2015 at 7.30pm in the Hindmarsh Hall.


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Trivia Quiz - Television Characters' Fictional Addresses
Can you name the fictional television character(s) from their address? "Knock, Knock! Who Lives There?"
Date Submitted: October 22, 2010
Quiz Categories: TV, Radio & Stage, Television Stars
Quiz Type: People Quiz
Author: FRANKL1965
1. 1313 Webfoot Walk, Duckburg, Calisota.
A. Daffy Duck
B. Donald Duck
C. Howard The Duck
D. Daisy Duck
2. 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield, USA
A. The Simpsons The Simpsons
B. The Griffins (Family Guy)
C. The Smiths (American Dad)
D. The Hills (King of The Hill)
3. 4222 Clinton Way, CA
A. The Bradys (The Brady Bunch)
B. The Ropers (Three's Company, The Ropers)
C. The Tortellis (The Tortellis, Cheers)
D. The Partridges (The Partridge Family)
4. 1882 Gerard Street, San Francisco, CA
A. The Formans (That 70's Show)
B. The Tanners (Full House)
C. The Tanners (Alf)
D. The Taylors (Home Improvement)
5. 633 Stag Trail Road in North Caldwell, NJ
A. The Heffernans (The King of Queens)
B. The Harpers (Two and a Half Men)
C. The Botwins (Weeds)
D. The Sopranos (The Sopranos)
6. 10 Stigwood Avenue, New York City, NY
A. The Huxtables (The Cosby Show)
B. The Sanfords (Sanford and Son)
C. The Winslows (Family Matters)
D. The Drummonds (Diff'rent Strokes)
7. 714 Delaware, Lanford, IL
A. The Bunkers (All in The Family)
B. The Cunninghams (Happy Days)
C. The Conners (Roseanne)
D. The Romanos (One Day At a Time)
8. 448 Bonnie Meadow Road, New Rochelle, NY
A. The Jeffersons (The Jeffersons)
B. The Petries (The Dick Van Dyke Show)
C. The Pretillos (The Golden Girls)
D. The Stephens (Bewitched)
9. 730 Knapp Avenue, Milwaukee, WI
A. Laverne & Shirley
B. Holmes & Yo-Yo
C. Cagney & Lacey
D. Kate & Allie
10. 2354 Pacific Coast Highway, CA
A. Perry Mason
B. Hannah Montana
C. Veronica Mars
D. Jim Rockford