text:
Fallout 4 (PS4)
April 2, 2017 August 9, 2017 Categories Reviewfallout 4 analysis, fallout 4 critique, fallout 4 reviewLeave a Comment on Fallout 4 (PS4)
At its best, Fallout 4 is a captivating game in which the hours fly by as you wander the wasteland moving from adventure to adventure, collecting scrap to upgrade your weapons, and trying to survive in a brutal post-apocalyptic Boston. It's a huge leap up from Fallout 3 in terms of graphics, shooting, and overall immersion, and a generational leap forward initial impressions to the contrary.
Unfortunately, the positive moments are easily matched–and occasionally exceeded–by the game's problems. The terrible narrative somehow turns a hunt for your kidnapped son into a chore that you have to force yourself to complete. The framerate is pathetic during firefights and even something as crucial as conversations with other characters are plagued with bugs that make it difficult to get immersed. Perhaps worst of all, any ability to 'role-play' and treat the story as your own has been entirely stripped away. Not only does the main story lack creativity, the game's design stops players from being creative themselves. It's a step back from the freedom found in New Vegas and even pales in comparison to Fallout 3 at times.
Fallout 4 starts strong, although with hindsight there were early clues to its problem areas that I overlooked. For the first time in a Fallout game, you take control of your character before the bombs fell. The futuristic 1950s Americana vibe is as brilliant as it is short. After all the effort Bethesda Studios Games went to in creating this environment, it's a shame we don't get more time here to bond with out spouse and child. Instead, you're railroaded through meeting your spouse and infant child and invited to join the vault program just seconds before the bombs fall.
For the creative among you, the character creator is the best it's ever been–you should be able to create the man or woman you want to play as with a little effort. To be clear though, the character creator is limited to how your character and spouse look. You can't create a backstory for your character because the game forces one on you. If you play as the male then you are a former soldier, and if you play as the female then you are a lawyer. I can't think of a single reason why this needed to be forced on the player because it's never important to the story. Why can't you be a female soldier or a male lawyer? Or something completely different. It's needlessly restrictive.
Your family is ushered into the vault just as the bombs drop. You survive being hit by the nuclear blast which should be your first clue that the storytelling in this game is going to be a touch problematic. You wake up after being cryogenically frozen to find your wife murdered and son missing. It's time to leave the vault and enter the wasteland.
Boston as you remember it is no more. Your home is a mess and the city is full of raider gangs, ghouls, and mutated beasts. When the game isn't being janky, Fallout 4 looks damn good. From screenshots, it might look like a slightly touched up version of Fallout 3, but that's really not the case. There's a hell of a lot of detail and it feels like a far more natural world than its predecessors. Fallout 3 had a color scheme that might have inspired the title for a popular series of romance novels. The lighting system in Fallout 4 is a drastic improvement, with blue skies, green and yellow grass, and surprisingly good water effects. The temptation to explore is almost impossible to resist when you stumble upon attractions like Fenway Park and the Freedom Trail. Forests are littered with bloatflies, towns have been taken over by raiders, and you don't want to know what's in the lake. There's something new around every corner and exploration is rewarded with resources, old playable arcade games, and bobbleheads and magazines that boost your stats.
Perhaps taking cues from Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4's story centers around competing factions–the Minutemen, Railroad, Brotherhood of Steel, and the Institute–and you'll need to choose who you want to align yourself with at the end. Unlike New Vegas, Fallout 4's narrative is a complete mess from beginning to end. As objectives go, searching for your kidnapped son should be about as compelling as they come, and yet there's a huge disconnect between your character's supposed desire to find his son and the pointless distractions that are thrown your way every few minutes. Dictionaries should mention this game alongside the Uncharted series next to the definition of 'ludonarrative dissonance.'
Early on in the game, you meet Preston Garvey, the leader of the Minutemen. You're made the leader of the Minutemen after completing a few basic quests and yet Preston Garvey still refuses to help find your son until you've helped establish more settlements. Why does the main character have to continue doing quests for Garvey when he's been made the leader of the Minutemen? Can't someone else do it? I fail to believe the main character's abilities as a former soldier or lawyer mean they have to be the ones to pick up the trash (the streets haven't been cleaned in 250 years).
I hated Preston Garvey at first. How dare he give me chores to do when I need to find my son? Turns out, he was doing me a huge favor. You see, the secret to enjoying Fallout 4 is to not care about the story. I had a decent amount of fun with the game after putting the story to one side and wandering the wasteland treating it like a survival sim. I even changed the backstory a bit to help. It's ridiculous that pre-war trash is still littering the streets after all this time, so in my version of events, Boston only recently became habitable again after levels of radiation in the air dropped off in recent years.
You don't have to wander Boston alone. There are plenty of companions to choose from this time around and they're a step up from the mindless sacks of flesh found in Skyrim. They still don't have much depth mind you. Nick Valentine and Piper are worth spending time with, but the companions you get later in the game feel like last minute additions. I would have preferred a small handful of meaningful companions who influenced the story as opposed to lots of interchangeable ones.
Wandering the wasteland is fun due to the vastly improved combat. Fallout 4's combat still falls short of open-world games like Far Cry, but it's leaps and bounds above Fallout 3 and New Vegas. You no longer have to deal with the frustration of lining up a perfect shot only to miss because of a hidden dice roll that determined the outcome. Fallout 4 utilizes basic hitscan functionality so you'll hit where you're aiming with the damage dealt determined by the stats of your character and weapon. Hardly revolutionary, but in the context of the Fallout series, it feels that way.
All weapons are now customizable if you have the appropriate materials and perks. There's no reason why you can't play through the entire game with a weapon you found in the first couple of hours so long as you keep upgrading it. The upgrade system can get a little silly at times. A revolver can end up as a semi-automatic with laser sights and a bayonet if you so choose. Still, the weapon and armor upgrades give real purpose to all the junk you pick up during the game.
The VATS system makes a return in slightly revised form. VATS now only slows time instead of freezing it completely. It's still helpful in combat, but less tactical than it used to be. With enemies bearing down on you, there's less opportunity to shoot weapons out of enemies hands or cripple them with a shot to the leg. On balance, I prefer the new and more dynamic version of VATS because I never liked it used to interrupt the flow of combat so dramatically. And let's face be honest, the old version of VATS was largely designed to mitigate the dreadful shooting mechanics.
Despite the long production cycle for Fallout 4, not everything from the previous Fallout games has been improved. In fact, Bethesda Studios Games has managed to take a few gigantic steps back from previous titles in terms of role-playing and dialogue. Not only do you no longer have any control of your character's backstory, you no longer have much control over what they do or say. The dialogue wheel is similar to that found in Mass Effect games, except Bethesda attempts to be even more concise in its descriptions. So concise, in fact, that you often won't know what response your character will give after selecting an option. Worst of all, the choices are nearly always meaningless. In over 90% of cases, you're just choosing the tone of voice you want to say 'yes' in. A typical conversation choice has the following options: yes; sarcastic yes; more information followed by yes; and angry yes. Even when you have an apparent choice to make, the response from the person you're talking to will be exactly the same. Early on, Piper and the Mayor of Diamond City–the first major settlement you come across–want to know whether you support freedom of the press. On this occasion you are allowed to answer yes or no; however, the response from the town mayor is exactly the same regardless of what you say. The limited dialogue options are presumably the result of the protagonist now having full voice acting, but give me a silent character with meaningful things to say over this mess any day.
The dialogue wheel is indicative of the lack of role-playing options in the game. I can't discuss this in too much detail without spoilers. I will settle for saying that you have very little influence on how the story plays out, although thankfully there's no decision on par with the stupidity of Megaton and the nuke from Fallout 3. There's little to no replay value on offer here. Your character build makes no difference to your story due to the limited dialogue options. You can play as a clever character who is bad with guns (as a lawyer might be!). You can play as a stupid, but charismatic guy. You can play as a combat vet. You can do all those things, but none of them make a blind bit of difference to how your story plays out.
Even the big choices at the end are underwhelming. I'm dancing around spoilers a bit here, but there's one big scene at the end which pitches two factions against each other as one faction attempts to claim a building. I reloaded an old save to play the mission from the perspective of the other faction, however, the quest was exactly the same. Instead of playing as the faction defending a building, I attacked it again with the other group now playing the defense.
The stat system has had a huge shakeup and initially looks expansive, but once again there's little that will vary your playthrough. You still allocate skill points between your SPECIAL stats–strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, and luck–and when you level up you can put points into perks. A small handful of perks provide a completely new ability, but most just provide a percentage boost to existing skills such as enhanced ability with non-automatic rifles, extra health from stimpacks, and stat bonuses when traveling with or without companions. While these perks sound boring, I felt like I had to stick to them because of the way enemies level up with you. You need to spend skill points on boring perks like enhanced health and weapon abilities just to keep up with the extra hit points on enemies. This level scaling also means there's nothing stopping you just powering through the story and completing it in roughly 15 hours. That would be a fairly miserable experience mind you. The scaling also means that the same radroaches that gave you problems at the beginning of the game can also kill you when you're 100 hours in and equipped with far superior weapons. This can be a real immersion killer.
Of course, it wouldn't be a Bethesda game without a load of bugs and performance problems. I played Fallout 4 after a number of the worst problems were patched out, and I'm happy to say the game only hard crashed on me once. Conversations were a disaster, with characters often not properly lined up, or other characters walking in the way or just generally bugging out. Early conversations were immersive thanks to the impressive voice acting, but the further you get from early story missions the worse they become. On the PS4, I spent as much time fighting the frame rate as I did the ghouls, and in any kind of crowded outdoor environment, the game verged on unplayable. The frame rate was so bad at times that entering slow-motion VATS actually sped up the game. Having bought Skyrim for PS3, I can't pretend to be even slightly surprised by this, but I am disappointed.
Fallout 4 introduces settlement building, so you can now build entire towns exactly the way you want. The level of detail and the ease with which this all works is thoroughly commendable. You can demolish nearly everything in a settlement with just the press of a button and build everything from furnished homes, to security turrets, to water filters. You can plant crops and arrange trade routes between settlements. Workbenches in settlements are used to improve your armor and weapons and store your loot. Settlement building doesn't fit particularly well into the story, but it's far from a gimmick. It can also help with immersion if you're like me and prefer to treat Fallout 4 like a survival game instead of pretending to find that pesky son of yours.
Settlement building and weapon modding would have been a lot more enjoyable if Fallout 4 didn't have incredibly restrictive inventory limits. It's hard enough carrying around all the weapons and armor you want: if you start picking up junk for use in your settlements then you'll never make it more than halfway into a dungeon before needing to turn back and drop off your loot at a settlement.
Despite all these issues, I somehow had fun with Fallout 4. Not a lot, but some. Wandering around Boston with your dog at your side listening to songs on the radio can be a great way to spend your time. The amount of work put into some parts of Fallout 4 is staggering. Building interiors are littered with clutter and structures feel appropriately old and weathered. I roamed for ten hours at a time without touching the main story and did my best to pretend it didn't exist. But it does exist, and eventually, you'll feel compelled to go and complete it. No part of the narrative is particularly strong, but the final act is so bad that it threatened to sour my entire experience with the game. I honestly cannot understand how such a bad story found its way into a such a big budget game.
Fallout 4 represents a huge leap forward from Fallout 3 in terms of visuals and combat, but it somehow delivers an even worse story, and the reduced role-playing mechanics mean that a Fallout game has never been this shallow. Bethesda Studios Games needs to completely revise how it approaches stories in its games or Fallout 5 won't be worth playing. For clarity, Fallout 4 only just earned a 3/5. It's closer to a 2 than a 4, but ultimately I did enjoy playing the game at times, even though I had to come up with my own head-canon to do so.
Published by CDavis_Games
View all posts by CDavis_Games
Previous Post Psyonix Considering Rocket League for Nintendo Switch
Next Post Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration (PS4)
Metro Exodus (PC) April 30, 2019
Weedcraft Inc (PC) April 11, 2019
Dangerous Driving (PC) April 8, 2019
Baba Is You (Switch) April 4, 2019
Hypnospace Outlaw (PC) April 1, 2019


A local artist's work will live on in public view, following the Ketchum City Council's acceptance of a sculpture series donation.
Sculptor Rod Kagan, who passed away in December, had lived and created art in Ketchum since 1973. As a way to give back to the community he loved, his brother, Tim Kagan, and his girlfriend, Julie Firestone, offered to give the city his sculpture series called "Idaho Columns."
Claudia McCain, chair of the Ketchum Arts Commission, and Jen Smith, director of the Ketchum Parks & Recreation department, presented details to the City Council on Monday.
Kagan created the sculptures using discarded metal from Idaho mines and scrap yards. It incorporates wheels, pulleys, cables and other objects.
The bronze totems, up to six in number, will reach between 18 and 25 feet.
"Totems are a format he really enjoyed," McCain told the Mountain Express.
Representatives of Kagan and Arts Commission members agreed the columns would be a good choice for a donation.
"They are indicative of our mining heritage, and mining is such a big part of Idaho and Ketchum's heritage," McCain said.
Gimlet resident Benjamin Castellano-Wood contacted the city last year to gauge interest in an installation of Kagan's work, in honor of his artistic contributions to the city. The city agreed to consider accepting a gift of art. After a tour of potential locations, the north lawn of the YMCA, along Saddle Road, was selected.
Castellano-Wood is now involved in fundraising. The cost is estimated to run between $10,000 to $27,000. Much of the expense is due to transportation and installation.
In-kind contributions are being provided by contractor Adam Elias, engineer Matt Morell and others.
The council unanimously agreed to accept the memorial gift.
"I think it's a fabulous idea," Councilman Larry Helzel said.
A dedication is tentatively scheduled for July 2.
"It's such a loss that we don't have him," McCain said. "But I feel honored that the family will allow us to have something of his."


Love my Earth is a 100% Australian owned company that have created a delicious organic Tandoori Masala. This medium-to-hot blend of spices is versatile and great for marinating, roasting and for curries. You can use it to create a flavour-packed BBQ marinade or add as a base to your next curry or slow cooker meal. The 50g packet is suitable for serving up to 10 people and has a three-chilli rating!
Ingredients: Red Chilli, Cumin, Cinnamon, Turmeric, Coriander, Black Pepper, Ginger, Clove, Garlic, Cardamon. All certified organic ingredients.


NESTLED ALONG GARGATHA CREEK and nearby Kegotank Bay, ON THE EASTERN SHORE OF VIRGINIA, OUR YOUNG AQUACULTURE COMPANY is COMMITTED TO HEALTHY FOOD AND A CLEAN ENVIRONMENT. Kegotank FARM PRODUCES THE HIGHEST QUALITY OYSTERS, A SALTY, FLAVORFUL breed fed by FRESH OCEAN WATERS. ENJOY our oysters BAKED, FRIED,STEAMED, ROASTED, STEWED, BUTTERED OR RAW.
We harvest in the morning and deliver within hours!


text:
Cornelis (Kees) Slager (Scherpenisse, 30 mei 1938) is een Nederlands journalist, schrijver en politicus. Hij werkte als journalist voor Het Vrije Volk, de VARA en de VPRO. Ook is hij de initiator en redacteur van het VPRO-radioprogramma OVT waarin oral history een belangrijke rol speelt.

Slager heeft veel verhalen van 'gewone mensen' opgetekend, vooral en bij herhaling over de Watersnood of het leven van landarbeiders. Hij reisde in de zomer van 2003 als presentator, samen met tv-maker Theo Uittenbogaard, van het eiland Texel naar het eiland Tiengemeten voor een cultuurhistorisch onderzoek aan de hand van het Hollandse landschap. Hieruit volgde het boek Holland - van Texel tot Tiengemeten en de gelijknamige achtdelige televisieserie, die door de AVRO abusievelijk onder de titel Ik hou van Holland werd uitgezonden. Maar het grootste deel van zijn oeuvre heeft hij toch wel aan onderwerpen en mensen in zijn geliefde provincie Zeeland gewijd.

Politicus
Bij de Provinciale Statenverkiezingen van 2007 fungeerde Kees Slager als lijstduwer voor de Socialistische Partij in Zeeland. Bij de Eerste Kamerverkiezingen 2007 werd hij gekozen in de senaat. Op 7 juni 2011 nam hij afscheid van de Kamer.

Beknopte bibliografie
 Landarbeiders (1981)
 Hongerwinter (1985), met Paul van de Gaag en Nienke Feis,
 Vissersverhalen (1990), met Paul de Schipper
 Tholen (1991)
 De Ramp, een reconstructie (1992 met aangevulde herdruk januari 2003, elfde druk 2017),
 Zeven Zeeuwse vrouwen (1995),
 Sakke de zee-ratte (1997)
 ...en m'n zuster die heet Kee... (2001), met Ruden Riemens, portretten van Borselse boerinnen, , herdruk in 2012, uitgeverij Den Boer/De Ruiter,
 Het geheim van Oss. Een geschiedenis van de SP (2001),
 Holland van Texel tot Tiengemeten (2004), met Theo Uittenbogaard,
 Armoede treedt binnen (2005),
 De Zeeuwse geschiedenis in meer dan 100 verhalen (2005),
 Hoe dan, Jan? (2005), verzameling interviews met Jan Marijnissen door Kees Slager en Karel Glastra van Loon,
 Mijn Zeeland (2007, uitgeverij Atlas), , herdruk in 2013, uitgeverij Den Boer/De Ruiter
 Herziene herdruk "Zeeuwse vrouwen" nav premiere toneelstuk "Zeeuwse vrouwen", 2009, uitgeverij Den Boer/De Ruiter,
 Watersnood (2010), uitgeverij De Buitenspelers,
 Verjaagd door vuur en water (2013), uitgeverij Den Boer/De Ruiter,
 Tholen (2017), Kick Uitgevers,

Nederlands journalist
Nederlands schrijver
SP-politicus (Nederland)
Eerste Kamerlid

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Heavy transfer speculation mounts around the 27-year-old Welshman as his current contract atEmirates is set to expire at the end of may and moreover, latest reports by the host of publications stated Gunners have refused to offer the midfielder new deal and eventually his contract talks broke down.
However, Ramsey announced his intentions to stay with the club until the season's end.
Upcoming January transfer window could see Premier League heavyweights Manchester United and Liverpool go head to head to land Arsenal's no.8 Aaron Ramsey. 'I am contracted to Arsenal and I am going to do my best now this season to try and achieve something special'.
The Caerphilly-born midfielder is reportedly in the crosshairs of both Manchester United and Liverpool, with both clubs weighing up January moves for the playmaker.
He will not be departing during the January transfer window, as Sanchez did when linking up with Manchester United, but told reporters after representing his country in a friendly clash with Spain: "Would I stay for the rest of the season?"
As of January he will be available on a pre-contract basis but clubs could of course attempt to sign him on a cut-price deal from the Gunners with any fee unlikely to be any higher than €25 million.
But asked if he was disappointed that there was no contract on the table, Ramsey said: "That's a decision they [Arsenal] have made and things happen in football". We thought we were in a position where we had agreed a deal but that's no longer the case. Ramsey joined Arsenal from Cardiff in 2008 for £5m and has won three FA Cups, scoring the winning goals in the 2014 and 2017 finals against Hull and Chelsea respectively.


I need help in figuring out how to use 2 softwares that work together on WORDPRES...software which work through WORDPRESS to create website when I need them and then install them on "Magic Pages" to reproduce them REGIONALLY. 3. I would need someone to preferably come to my office to help with project if they can in Porter Texas that is near Houston.
Initially a leaflet / b...project description, otherwise your bid will be ignored. We are looking for good communication skills with an excellence in graphic design. Included is the product concept we have come up with which is the requires much improvement. Please price per 1 image / side / design. more will be required based on skill and effort.
Look... General users can appropriate find shops by zip code and service and send out appointment to matched shop their needs. Ideal candidate have to make it like so when an user come to site and search for zip code then fill the 3-4 characters then it will autopopulate the list of existing zipcodes to give user option to select the correct zip code.
Hi, my name is Dinh. We have a BOLT AND NUT TRADING company named LU...position for this as well, because sometimes we need to adjust the prices. Like once every month (only 1 day of work) Salary range for data entry: 10,000,000VND to 15,000,000VND. Come with warranty that it will work once your job is complete. Casual position salary will be varied.
Hi, I am looking for a logo for my new travel site. The site aims to offer travel advice and to tell travel stories, with a humoristic tone. The logo ... - don't add too many of the elements from above; settle on 2 or maximum 3. I have attached a reference, just to show the possible direction. I can't wait to see what you come up with. Good luck!
Overview: Move the data from the Price Finder sheet to the Radius sheet 1a. Move the data to a google sheet and share it with me 1b. Look at the street number Pric...highlight in blue and send to me so I can see if completed correctly 6. Then complete the entire sheet ** There will be another 10 sheets approximately to complete and then more to come.
We have Magento 2 web shop and s...awfull, so we need to do something about this. [log ind for at se URL] For example if you type "we-vibe" you get very bad results, actually products with name "we-vibe" do not come at the top, but mixed within all other products. Study the project and write that you have a solution. Copy/paste offers will be ignored!!!


The Big Bang Theory. 8pm on CBS. Sheldon spends Thanksgiving at Howard's parents house and he is just not happy about it.
Glee. 9pm on Fox. When the title of the episode is "Movin' Out," obviously this means it's a Billy Joel music tribute! Tyra Banks guest stars, too.
Project Runway All Stars. 9pm on Lifetime. Elie Tahari, Bar Rafaeli and Austin Scarlett guest judge on tonight's Bonnie & Clyde themed challenge. Watch an exclusive clip from the episode right HERE!
You Oughta Know in Concert. 9pm on Vh1. Nope, this has zero to do with Alanis Morrisette. But it is a concert special featuring (pre-taped) live performances from up-and-comers like Lorde, The Lumineers and this weekend's SNL musical guest, HAIM.
The Michael J. Fox Show. 9:30pm on NBC. Candice Bergen and the dad from Beethoven guest star as Michael's parents who visit for Thanksgiving. Is this genius casting or what?


The Wayward Daughter Handmade AW12 collection brings together dress shapes from the Edwardian school room and 1960s London. The pieces are nostalgic and feminine, offset with masculine detail and a monochrome pallet, featuring signature Wayward Daughter collars and removable bows. Designer Cait Harrington drew inspiration from fictional characters of the Edwardian era, immortalised in films of the 1960s such as The Railway Children's Waterbury siblings and The Banks twins from Mary Poppins. Each piece is handmade with the greatest care and attention to detail, meaning that elements can be tailored to each customers taste and measurements. Head over to the online shop to get yourself one of these gorgeous pieces!


text:
Q: Compare datetime without millisecond I need to compare dates in two separate list. Each list is constructed of MyFile Objects. That is a class that I created in order to have specific information about a file such as name, dateModified, extension, etc. The only problem is that a lot of MyFiles objects in my second list (got those from external hard drive) do not have the dateTime stamp (LastWriteTime) till the millisecond. I believe that is the reason why my comparison is not working. For example here is an example of how my comparison is failing:     "Why does c# thinks the dates are not equal?"

a and b are MyFile objects and MyFile class contains a property ticks and that is equal to the file.LastWriteTime.Ticks they are not used in the program I just included them for debugging purposes. So after debugging several times I realized that the last 7 digits represent the milliseconds of a file. As a result my ticks property in MyFile now contains 11 significant figures instead than 18 ( note 18-11 = 7). The problem with this is that when I compare the ticks I get strange results when I try to update the ticks property by dividing by 10000000 and then multyplying by 10000000. Since my ticks propery is a long int it will lose the last 7 digits when I divide. I get less 'errors'. But there is some other times when I get something like this:

Here we can see that the dates are the same at least till the second. Why is c# thinking its not the same date? Do I have to create my own "Ticks" function?   I know I convert dateTime to string then compare it but I want to have the posiblility of knowing if a object a.dateModified
is newer than object b.dateModified

A: Try comparing with specific precision:
DateTime a, b;
// fill a and b with the values you need
if (Math.Abs((a-b).TotalSeconds) < 1)
    Console.WriteLine("File doesn't need to be copied");
else
    Console.WriteLine("File needs to be copied");

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
The Reason Princess Diana Never Wanted to Become Queen Is Extremely Touching
The British Royals
Why Didn't Princess Diana Want to Become Queen?
7 September, 2017 by Caitlin Gallagher
Princess Diana grew up around royalty. She was born Lady Diana Spencer (her family had British nobility with royal ancestry), and became a princess when she married Prince Charles in 1981. But despite her various titles and obvious connection to the monarchy, it turns out that Diana never had any interest in one day becoming queen. As soon as she became an official member of the royal family, she majorly repaired what some people considered to be a huge divide between the British royals and the country's common people. She was affectionate, she was personable, and she deeply cared about the health and safety of others. And it was this passion that was her sole reason for not wanting to be anything other than the people's princess.
Prince Charles Made a "Joke" After Harry's Birth That Actually Broke Diana's Heart
Diana spoke about why she never saw herself becoming queen during her infamous BBC interview with Martin Bashir in 1995. "I'd like to be a queen of people's hearts, but I don't see myself being queen of this country," she said. "I don't think many people would want me to be queen, and when I say many people, I mean the establishment that I'm married into. They've decided that I'm a nonstarter, because I do things different, because I don't go by a rule book, because I lead from the heart and not the head. And albeit that's gotten me into trouble in my work, but someone's gotta go out there and love people."
Image Source: Getty / Bettmann
The British RoyalsCelebrity FactsThe RoyalsPrincess Diana
Archie Mountbatten-Windsor
Baby Archie Has Already Mastered the Art of Crashing Meghan Markle's Zoom Meetings
Princess Beatrice's Wedding Dress, Loaned From the Queen, Will Be on Display at Windsor Castle
by Tori Crowther 09/9/20
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Just Inked a Major Deal With Netflix, and We're Ready to Tune In
When We All Vote
Meghan Markle Wants You to Know Your Vote Matters: "If You Are Complacent, You Are Complicit"
The Special Promise Prince Harry Made Meghan Markle During Their 2017 Botswana Trip
by Monica Sisavat 23/8/20
Jack Schlossberg
If You're Curious to Know More About JFK's Grandson, Jack Schlossberg, We've Got the Details
Meghan Markle Chose Bold Beauty Looks to "Go Out With a Bang" During the Farewell Tour
by Jessica Harrington 19/8/20
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Have a New Project in the Works, but What Could It Be?
Meghan Markle Is Set to Make History When She Votes in the 2020 US Presidential Election
35 Times Meghan Markle Simply Could Not Contain Her Laughter
Joey King Met Her Newest Boyfriend on Set, but Steven Piet Isn't an Actor
Taylor Zakhar Perez
The Kissing Booth 2's Taylor Zakhar Perez Is Single, So Excuse Me While I Shoot My Shot

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
1,463 total shares. Be the next!
Michelle Ferrera Temecula, CA
Save Michelle to your Collection. Register Now!
'Hazy grainy daze'
'Summertime makes me feel...'
Michelle Ferrera holds a BFA from Montclair State University, New Jersey.
Born into a creative and close-knit family, she learned art from a young age. She describes her sisters as the makers of imaginary worlds and her father as a professional artist.
During her studies her work evolved from primarily journaling and sketching to more full-fledged, figurative drawing. During a semester abroad at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, Ferrera made it her trademark to document the smells and colors associated with her subjects.
After graduating, she worked a few years as a a furniture painter, wedding photographer, art teacher and mural painter. Organized Mess was her first full installation comprising journals, sculpture, paintings, drawings and photographs.
Her work has been exhibited in California and New York as well as in New Jersey.
Follow Michelle
Michelle's website
Michelle appears in the following Top 10 lists
'Nude'
5 reactions displayed
"I enjoyed the tour of the artist's website. She's learning and growing in her skills as evidenced by her newer work compared to the older works. I find the use of wood as drawing surface to be an interesting course of direction that is not common and, therefore, does add newness and difference in mostly (though not always) positive ways. Her exploration of new, uncommon angles lend an interesting change of perspective and that always leads both artist and viewer to see people and their portraits in possibly new ways; that's a good thing, especially when it works. As she grows her skills in photography and mixed media, she will have good to contribute even more."
"I love this work.. Nice job Michelle.Dave - San Diego"
"Erotic, and the patterns of the wood gives this piece life."
"Michelle -- very good -- very clever--fishfoot."
"rad toes."
Marti Moreno
Maria Netsounski
South Holland, The Netherlands


is established as a center of quality education offering 12 courses in postgraduation in science and technology including inter-disciplinary. The Institute has been established by Charutar Vidya Mandal (CVM), an educational society.
CVM has a mission of reinvigorating society through quality education. Since 1947 CVM has established over 48 institutions proving itself highly responsive to the changing socio economic environment by venturing into various emerging disciplines under the continuous dynamic leadership of Late Shri Bhaikaka, Late Shri Bhikhabhai Saheb, Late Dr. H. M. Patel (ICS retired), Late Dr. C. L. Patel and now with Er. Bhikhubhai B. Patel as the present Chairman of CVM. ISTAR is thriving under the patronage of CVM.
"I deem it great privilege and pleasure in welcoming aspiring students to ISTAR where we inculcate discipline, self-development, confidence, character formation and promotion of universal brotherhood in the minds of the students."


text:
Managing Documents with Genius Project
Introduction How Genius Integrates all Documents
How Genius Integrates your Existing Documents' Typology and Format Integrate any Kind of Documents/Forms in Genius Project
Creating a New Document
Running a project generates a lot of information and documents of all types. It is therefore necessary to have tools available to standardize, classify, list, publish and distribute this information. All of these documents are too often classified in ring binders and then forgotten.
No matter the size of the organization; customers are looking for better, more efficient ways to share information within their organization and with outside key suppliers, partners, and clients. Geniusproject offers a set of functionalities that were developed to facilitate information sharing both within organizations and over the Internet.
Small or informal workgroups need informal means to work together on group deliverables, share documents, and communicate statuses with one another. These groups need to share information easily and effortlessly and the application allows them to do so.
Large workgroups with structured processes need greater information management. They require features like formal publishing processes, the ability to search for and aggregate content from multiple data stores and file formats. Geniusproject is also recommended for this scenario.
When organizations use Geniusproject modules, they can address the information-sharing challenges for both large and small groups within their enterprise. Together, the Genius Inside technologies give users the ability to organize information, readily access that information, manage documents, and enable efficient collaboration—all in a familiar, browser-based and Microsoft open Office–integrated environment.
How Genius Integrates all Documents
It could be said that Geniusproject acts as everyone's replacement Project File, since it provides automatic filing, sharing, and access, and records all of the different versions of each document.
This is a unique reference and contains all of the documents linked to the project and available to the project manager and the project team.
The project file can contain specifications, meeting reports, incidents, dashboards, letters, contracts, etc. It is necessary to organize all of this information, which can be very heavy, either under the form of sub-files or with a typology.
How Genius Integrates your Existing Documents' Typology and Format
Geniusproject fits your requirements and vocabulary. Although most documents are common to all types of projects, the majority of organizations have some type of customized documents relating specifically to their business or projects; for instance, an architect will have "construction plans" and IT developers will have "Software requirements". This is why Geniusproject allows you to define and extend document typology. You can define unlimited document types.
Unlimited number of document types defined via easy keyword setup.
Geniusproject provides self definable and customizable document templates and helps structure the information. All data is presented in the same format regardless of who created it. This results in consistency of all edited documents and all distributed information, internally as well as externally. With a central place to create and store documents, it becomes easy to know where to go when you need to create another one. Consistency also brings about re-usability of material, and when new Team members are assigned, the learning curve can be greatly reduced.
In Geniusproject we distinguish between two types of documents; standard documents such as tasks, risks, deliverables etc. they are predefined in the system; and generic documents which are setup by the application administrator.
Integrate any Kind of Documents/Forms in Genius Project
Documents to suit your needs. All Geniusproject documents are user adaptable. New fields, lists, graphics, etc. can be added to meet your exact requirements.
With Geniusproject you can integrate your standards and existing documentation into the project reference system as templates. Geniusproject and its internal models allow you to integrate all files into the reference system, whatever their format (Excel, Word, Wordpro, Paint Shop Pro, etc.).
This includes your own document formats. Geniusproject is an open-ended system that allows you to extend its series of pre-defined documents, according to your requirements.
To create a new generic document:
Navigate the Documents tab.
Click on New Document in the contextual navigation menu.
Note: A new generic document can also be created using the Create button on the menu action bar and selecting "Other document".
A dialog box will be displayed.
Select the type of document you would like to create.
The template to use (if one or more exist).
The system will automatically display the workflow associated to the template (if one exists).
Select the project this new document is for.
Select the phase the new document should be associated to. If the document is not associated to any phase in particular, you can select "Global".
The Document Header
When creating a new document, even when using a customized template, Genius automatically builds a document header to classify the document in the appropriate project and phase.
Document type (1)
The type of document being created, such as "Contract" in the example above
Document title (2)
The document title. Mandatory.
The project the document belongs to. This is the main identifier of the project. It can be the project name or name and code, depending on what has been defined in the General setup document of the Projects module. The project name and code are entered in the Project description document and are included in all of the project documents.
The label is a link that opens the corresponding "Project description" document directly.
The phase that the document belongs to.
The project's main project leader (as opposed to the project leader substitute)
If the current type of document has an associated workflow, the current status of the document is displayed. For instance here "Draft"
If the current type of document has an associated workflow, action buttons indicating the current status and the next possible status according to the workflow definition, are displayed here. For instance here you can change the status to "To approve".
The action buttons are only displayed if you are responsible for the document in its current status, and have the authority to change it to the next status.
The person responsible for the document in its current status (if not yourself)
Visual indicators (status transition delay):
•Red, deadline passed
•Orange, deadline will not be met according to remaining time
•Green, OK
The document's version number.
Modified on
Date and time of the last modifications. By clicking on the date you can access the history of the modifications.
Displays the last comments made on the task. You can reply directly to the comments by clicking on Reply and you can create a new discussion by clicking on New discussion. See "Collaborate with Genius Live!" for more information
The Content Tab
It consists of a rich text field where the relevant information or the document description can be input.
Managing Attached Files
Geniusproject allows users to attach any type of file to a generic document. This is done via the Attachment tab.
Note: In the case of a pre-defined document template, it is very possible that the generic document already contains an attached file.
Attaching a File
Navigate to the Attachment tab.
Place the document in Edit mode.
Click the Choose file button.
A window to browse your files and folders open. Choose the desired file.
The file name of the selected document will be displayed next to the Choose file button however, the file is not yet saved in Genius project.
Click Save on the action menu bar and select Without closing or And close.
At this time the file is now saved in Geniusproject. The image below displays how the attached file is displayed on the Geniusproject page.
The attached file is displayed with the icon representing its file type, the file name and file size. A marker on the [Attachment] tab indicates how many files are attached in total.
Opening/Previewing an Attached File
Attached files can be opened with their associated application (Adobe, Word, Excel...) simply by double clicking on them. In this case the system will download the file to view it.
Or, when clicking on the Eye icon for certain types of files, you can preview the contents of the document, like in the image below, without the system downloading it
Deleting an Attached File
Open the document in edit mode.
Navigate to the Attachment tab and place a check in the To delete box corresponding to the document you want to remove.
Save the document. At this moment the attached file will be deleted.
Editing an Attached File
To edit an attached file:
Detach the file from the generic document.
Edit it locally.
Re-attach the file to the generic document.
Managing Links between Documents
Managing links is a very unique function in Geniusproject. In many cases, dependencies and links between documents exist (i.e.: linking reference documents or agreements to master agreements). Linked documents are directly accessible.
There are 3 types of links:
"Links to": Links created by users to connect one document to another in Geniusproject.
"External Links": Links created by users to an external URL outside of genius Project. Can be very useful in creating links to external document references.
"Incoming links": These are links created by the system that are logical links between records such as with previous versions of a record or links between task and assignments. Or, they can be links created automatically by the system back to corresponding "Link to" links.
Note: A label on the Link tab will indicate the number of links on that are there.
Creating an Internal Genius Project Link
Open the document that the link will originate from, in edit mode.
Navigate to the Link tab and click Add.
A dialog box will open where you can select the record(s) to link to.
Specify which type of document you are looking for in the "Document type" field and which project you would like to select from in the "Project" field. The values selected in these fields will narrow down the list of choices for section 1.
Use the arrows in between sections 1 and 2 to select the desired document(s) to link to.
Section 2 displays the selected documents.
Click OK to validate the selection(s).
The new links will appear in the document.
Deleting an Internal Genius Project Link
Open the document containing the link to be removed, in edit mode.
Navigate to the Link tab and select the link that is to be removed from the "Links to" section.
Click the Remove button and the link will be deleted from page. Be sure to save the document to finalize the deletion.
Creating an External Link
External links are URLs
Open the document where the link will be created, in edit mode.
Navigate to the Link and enter the URL address in the "External Links" field.
Click the to validate the entry.
Geniusproject verifies the URL and if it is valid it will save the link.
Deleting an External Link
Open the document with the link, in edit mode.
Navigate to the Link tab, select the link to be removed from the "External Links" section and click the to the right of the link.
Accessing a Link
Simply click directly on the link and the destination document or URL will open automatically.
Managing Document Versions
Geniusproject allows for easy document version tracking. The version numbers are automatically incremented and old versions are stored.
To create a new version of a Document:
Select the document to be edited and click Edit on the menu action bar for the view.
From the Edit menu drop down list, select "Major version" to change the main digit of the version number (1.0/2.0…) or select "Minor version" to change the small digit (1.0/1.1...).The system will then create a new version of the document.
Note: Saving a new document version can be the result of an automatic process driven by workflow definitions.
Previous versions are easily accessible from the document itself and in the views.
Users can also restore a previous version with a simple click.
Document History Tracking
The history section of each document keeps track of document changes, including creation, version, copy and status changes. To access a document's history record click on the icon on the top right, above the section line.
Note: The history of a record is also displayed in the Genius Live! tab for each record. See "Genius Live!" for more information.
Sharing and Distributing Documents
Making the same information available to a greater group of people in "real time" will undoubtedly save time. That's why Geniusproject's distribution function is automatic: information is exchanged securely with no specific intervention required on the part of the user.
Each document is created with its own distribution settings that indicate who the document should be, (or has been) sent to. To access distribution settings click on the icon, on the top right side above the section line.
See the chapter "Project team collaboration" for more information.
Managing Access to Documents (Security)
Geniusproject's advanced and powerful security and access definition is available for any document. Clear and easy security settings are available in each document. Default security settings can be setup at the system and project level.
To view the access rights settings for a document, click on the icon on the top right side above the section line.
Access rights are defined for each document author. By default, the name of the author is the name of the resource that is creating or modifying the document. This field can be modified; for example, an assistant who wants to create a document for the supervisor can indicate their supervisor's name as the author.
Write and Read access can also be set in for the project community:
Public: anyone having access to the system.
Project: all members of the project team.
Distribution: the resources defined in the "Distribution" list for this document.
Private: nobody other than the author(s).
It is also possible to define read access according to business roles.
Searching for Documents and Content
Geniusproject's "document" views allow users to easily locate all documents that reside in the system. Available views sort documents by type, by project or even project phase. All of these views can be found in the Documents module.
Geniusproject also has a very powerful full text search engine which crawls through all records and attached files in the system, based on specified searching criteria. For more information how to use the search engine, see Searching in Geniusproject.


text:
Crossing the Prime Meridian under full sail
SOUTH ATLANTIC OCEAN.
The powerful ship's horn woke the ones that were at their bunks shortly after midnight, as a small commemoration of crossing to the Easter Hemisphere of our planet.
At the GPS position of 39º 40,8' S and of course 0º 00.0' E, at 00:32:57h, we made our way over the Prime Meridian under full sail on fair winds.
Nowadays, with the modern technology, precisely positioning ourselves on the earth surface it doesn't look like a big deal, but for a long time it represented an arduous problem to be solved. Soon a solution was found to assess the Latitude through calculating the altitude of the sun or specific stars above the horizon, but Longitude, that specifies the east-west position of a point on the Earth's surface, was a tougher cookie.
To get our position on the featureless ocean, several methods were historically proposed, but it was not until the invention of the marine chronometer by John Harrison in the late 18th Century that a solution was reached to accurately establishing longitude at sea. The procedure is based on determine the time difference between a location and a Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), that represents the world's standard to regulate clocks. It has been split into three versions differing between them just in milliseconds. The so called Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) corresponds with the first of those and refers to the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, where the Prime Meridian (0º Longitude) goes through. This time, related with the precise duration of a day, has been calculated using long time sequences of data relevant to relative Earth and stars motions.
Latitude has the equator as a natural setting for 0º, but how to choose a natural starting position for the Longitude? All of the Meridians represent diameters of the planet as lines of the same Longitude running from North to South Poles, and are perpendicular to the Latitude circles. Therefore, a reference meridian had to be chosen as the Prime Meridian, to start at 0º longitude. The choose was, in a way, arbitrary, unlike the equator (0º Latitude) determined by the rotation axis of the planet. In the course of history different conventions had been used to establish the 0º longitude, including the lines passing through Paris, Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Rome, Copenhagen, Washington DC and several others. The British Mathematician and Astronomer Sir George Airy already in 1851 proposed as Prime Meridian the one based on the Greenwich Royal Observatory, but it was internationally accepted later on, in 1884 during the International Meridian Conference. There it was set that the meridian through Greenwich, in East London was the zero degrees of longitude, and the longitude of other places was to be measured as the angle east or west of it, from 0º to 180º eastward and westwards. By convention also the East longitudes were to be assigned as +, and the Western with the sign -
Since yesterday there was a contest going on to calculate (or guess) in which day and time Europa would cross this line. Many participated, but the closest one was the data presented by the fellow traveller Philip Meijer, differing just on 2 minutes and 57 seconds from the actual time.
That was not the easiest calculation as the daily miles covered and our average speed have been varying a bit between the last days, from close to 7kn to about 8kn yesterday, and a bit slower today at 7.3kn. All an all during the last 24 we had a good run of 176nm, that makes a total of 694nm since we left Tristan da Cunha, and still a week to go to cover 905nm, with an estimated average speed needed of 5.4kn. Until now all under the influence of the High Pressure system located North of us. But it is now moving out slowly towards the African coast, where they usually stop for a while before squeezing below Cape of Good Hope and entering the Indian Ocean. This Anticyclone is followed by a reach of lower pressure that will affect us with its forecasted increasing winds first from the North, turning W-ly later on.
For the moment, after striking Higher Staysails, Gaff Top Sail and Flying Jib during a morning passing light rain, all is set back again in the afternoon. We continue our way on a 90º course last a good speed of between 7 to 8kn, now riding larger WSW swells that have been gradually increasing during the day.
Again the good sailing conditions and fair weather made for continuing with some maintenance projects. Down on deck some of us are seen fiddling around with different blocks to be overhauled and replaced, re-leading some of the ropes and adjusting some foot-rope lengths aloft.
To end up another journey of great sailing, a gorgeous sunset closes the day, after the skies have been progressively clearing up.
Jordi Plana Morales | guide
I have been following the progress of the BarkEuropa with interest especially because my nephew Bryan Dean is on board. And enjoying very much the posts by Jordi Plana Morales. I had some empathy when you crossed the Prime Meridian since it passes through the town of Lewes where I live South of London. Wishing you all well on the rest of the voyage to South Africa.
Graham Dean | 17-04-2018 12:22 uur


All full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty of the department are expected to carry a maximum workload of twenty-four (24) credit hours per academic year. Full-time non-tenure track faculty members are expected to carry a maximum workload of thirty (30) credit hours per academic year. (See, University Policy Register 3342-6-18). The workload for each individual faculty member is assigned by the Chair with the approval of the Dean. The FAC shall advise the Chair on issues related to teaching assignments, class schedules and the appropriate application of workload equivalents. In addition, the Chair may, in consultation with the FAC and with the concurrence of the Dean, assign workload equivalencies for specific duties which are considered essential to the academic mission of the Department, including research, graduate faculty status, administrative duties, student advising, large class size, number of preparations, etc.
In accordance with Article IX, Section 2.C of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the Department Chair shall provide a workload statement to each member of the faculty at least thirty (30) days prior to the beginning of the school term for which the statement is to be in effect. The workload statement shall specify the number of workload hours the faculty member is to devote towards teaching, research and service responsibilities. In the event a faculty member is dissatisfied with her/his workload statement or desires special considerations, she/he may petition the department's FAC for a review and subsequent recommendations to the Chair.
Every continuing tenured faculty member is required to submit to the Chair, an annual workload summary report for the academic year by the end of the Spring semester. As provided for in Article IX, Section 2.D of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, the purpose of "This report is to identify and update the faculty member's efforts, accomplishments, scholarly contributions, ongoing professional activities, service and interests during that academic year." The purpose of this workload summary report is to advise the Chair of the faculty member's use of workload equivalencies of the previous academic year and to guide the Chair as she/he plans future workload equivalencies.
In order for the College to sustain its accreditation by the AACSB, all Department faculty are required to engage in professional and academic activities, other than instructional, needed to maintain currency in the fields in which they teach. AACSB guidelines for the deployment of faculty resources classify a faculty member as either Scholarly Practitioners (SP), Instructional Practitioners (IP), Scholarly Academics (SA), or Practice Academics (PA). There are no rights or responsibilities associated with such designations. A faculty member can maintain currency by engaging in different kinds of professional activities including publication of peer reviewed journal articles, attendance to professional conferences, consulting, etc. Details of the approved activities relating to maintenance of these designations and the number and duration of such activities is available at the M&IS Department office.
Any faculty member may be designated SP, IP, SA or PA if they meet the requirements, with the SA preferred for TT faculty.
As with the NTT faculty, TT Faculty are also required to engage in professional and academic activities other than instructional that will help them maintain currency in the fields in which they teach.
Technical reports related to funded research projects, etc.
b. for faculty teaching at the graduate level at least 3 of these must be peer reviewed journal articles, and if teaching at the Ph.D. level at least one of these peer reviewed articles must be at the A+ or A level.
TT faculty members already engage in most of the activities listed under AACSB guidelines for faculty sufficiency such as student advising, governance, committee membership, new course development, scholarship related to discipline, etc. Therefore, they are classified as participating (P) faculty.
According to the College Handbook, Department Chairpersons are expected to consult with the Dean when creating the faculty's annual workload statements. In general, the workload equivalencies for full-time faculty for research and scholarship will not exceed 9 credit hours per academic year. Workload equivalencies beyond 9 credit hours for research and scholarship may be granted only with prior approval of the Dean.
The faculty workload equivalencies policy of the department shall at all times be interpreted so as to guarantee that the overall set of task assignments among the faculty will meet the needs of the department to provide effective instruction for its students. It remains the responsibility of the Chair to see that this policy is carried out to this end, and therefore to apply these equivalencies with appropriate discretion and with advice of the FAC. Workload equivalencies are granted subject to resource availability and programmatic needs of the Department and may be modified due to programmatic exigencies.
The Department uses a faculty member's performance over the 5 years preceding the current review period to assess eligibility for workload release equivalencies.
The Department encourages its faculty to collaborate and publish with each other and faculty from other departments in the college, and other colleagues elsewhere, and will give credit to journals of other departments as noted in the Graduate Faculty list of the college.
The Department's journal list is a live document; a recommended list where department faculty are encouraged to publish. It is, therefore, subject to change as journal quality and focus, and faculty interest and composition change. For the most current Department validated and recommended list of journals visit http://mis.kent.edu/jl.php. It is the responsibility of the faculty publishing outside of the Department's and/or the College's journal lists to provide evidence, published or otherwise, to justify the appropriate level of classification for the journal and the paper. To initiate the justification process the faculty may petition the Chair and the FAC to make a case for the journal or publication.
The TT CBA requires that "expectations and specification for workload equivalents of classroom instructional assignments" be incorporated in each unit's handbook. A point scale system (reproduced below) for the Graduate Faculty Status has been adopted by the College. The Department uses this point scale system and the Department's journal list as the basis for determining research workload equivalencies.
The following table shows the recommended levels of workload equivalency for research that may be awarded to faculty members, based on her/his research productivity within the 5 years preceding the workload release request date, where the Department's programmatic needs permit.
Subject to the approval of the Dean, the Chair may, at her/his discretion, recommend further research related workload release for a faculty member who continues to exceed recommended thresholds.
Contractually, and subject to resource availability, untenured TT faculty members are given 12 hours of workload equivalency for research during each of their first two years of employment in the Department. After this period their workload equivalency will be reevaluated and adjusted based on the above standards. However, faculty members in this category are guaranteed 9 hours of research equivalency per year unless they are denied reappointment or tenure.
When workload letters are prepared for the year, the Chair is to include an advisory letter to the faculty member whose teaching workload is to be changed next academic year informing her/him of the impending changes. The Chair's letter should state clearly why the teaching workload would be changed and what the faculty member could do to preempt the action.
Formal Course Instruction -- Responsibility for a lecture or recitation section counts as 1 semester credit hour for each credit hour represented by that course, as does responsibility for a section of the university orientation course. At the discretion of the Chair, responsibility for an unusually large section may be counted as the equivalent of 1 additional semester credit hour for each credit hour represented by that course, where the number of enrolled students is such as to require an amount of work virtually equivalent to teaching an additional section of that course.
FAC reviewed and approved the amount of credit.
For successfully funded research grants, excluding summer teaching and research grants awarded by KSU, the following point scales may be used in the same manner as the journal list point scale to award workload credit reallocation to the faculty. For example, an 8-point credit for grants is equivalent to an 8 point credit for research publications.
Administration—While the Chair is the chief administrative officer of the department, he or she is not covered under the traditional Collective Bargaining Agreement at Kent State University, and therefore has a reduced instructional load determined by the Dean of the College of Business Administration.
The Department in its effort toward continuous improvement in the interest of fully serving the needs of its stakeholders depends not only on the Chair and three standing committees, but also on the Assistant to the Chair as well as Ph.D. and Undergraduate Coordinators, as discussed earlier in this handbook. Whenever appropriate, service in one of the coordinator roles may be counted as the equivalent of 3 semester credit hours for one semester of the academic year. As the role of the coordinator runs continuously through the academic year, the credit may be applied to either semester in the year.
Not all faculty members contribute to the Department in the same manner. A faculty member whose primary responsibilities are undergraduate teaching and undergraduate programs may teach and serve in a greater diversity of courses than a faculty member who is also a member of the graduate faculty. Most of the Department faculty members will be either a full or associate member of the graduate faculty. All faculty members are expected to be involved in research activity, serve on graduate student committees, and direct graduate student research.
In the interest of maintaining a high standard of teaching and the desirability of faculty involvement in research and service activities, overload assignments are strongly discouraged. Overload assignments (i.e., workload assignments which total more than twenty-four (24) credit hours per academic year for tenured and tenure-track faculty and which total more than thirty (30) credit hours for full-time non-tenure-track faculty) will be made only in unusual circumstances. Such assignments require the agreement of the faculty member, and the approval of the Chair and the Dean.


text:
Архив метки: Gilt City
BiteHunter 2.0 Makes Finding A Deal On Good Eats Faster and Easier
We've written quite a bit about BiteHunter, a mobile app for iPhone that aggregates dining deals in the U.S., since it launched about in 2010. Now, the New York-based company has released version 2.0 of its app and this update makes a good app even better. BiteHunter 2.0 doesn't just introduce a new, highly visual interface for discovering restaurants with available deals around you, but it also allows you to buy the deal and make a reservation without ever leaving the app.
In total, the app currently gives its users access to about 50,000 deals nationwide. It aggregates these offers from a variety of sources, including Groupon, Restaurant.com, LivingSocial, Yelp Deals and Gilt City.
Its focus on deals, of course, means BiteHunter doesn't directly compete with Yelp and similar services. Instead, the basic use case for the app is that moment where you quickly want to find a good restaurant without paying too much.
The highlight of this update, beside the new one-click purchase mechanism, is the new interface. It's highly graphical, makes searching very easy, and lets you quickly see the Yelp rating of every place and the kind of deal you are getting. You can switch back and forth between a photo grid, a list view and a map.
BiteHunter also tuned the app's recommendation algorithm for this release. Restaurants are now organized according to factors like your distance to the restaurant, the popularity of a given deal and the potential savings.
Запись опубликована 13.04.2012 автором Mobile news chief editor в рубрике Market News с метками Gilt City, New York, Yelp Deals.
Foursquare Adds Scoutmob To Its Growing List Of Deal Providers
Over the last year, Foursquare has been actively buddying up with the daily deal players. Groupon, LivingSocial, Gilt City, AT&T Interactive, BuyWithMe and Zozi all provide their daily deals to Foursquare. And today, Atlanta-based Scoutmob joins the ranks of deal sites partnering with the check-in champion, as Foursquare will today begin offering Scoutmob's 50 percent-plus discounted deals in 13 U.S. cities from the within Foursquare's mobile apps.
Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley has said before that he thinks daily deal companies are version 1.0 of the tools merchants will eventually use to drive foot traffic to their stores. But, while daily deals are hot and companies are adopting them, there's obviously no use in resisting. The more daily deal sites that Foursquare partners with, the more localized and nearby deals it can display to its mobile users.
The next step, Crowley said, is for Foursquare to become focused on what has long been seen as Groupon's weakness: Loyalty. Through badges and check-in specials, Foursquare is beginning to focus more aggressively on loyalty. And with the startup's growing dataset that captures user check-ins, where they've been, what destinations they're visiting most frequently, the key will be for Foursquare to let merchants access its data to segment their customers. As Erick has said in the past, to be successful Foursquare has to find a way "to close the redemption loop between an offer and a purchase".
The new partnership with Scoutmob is a good move for Foursquare because users can redeem Scoutmob's deals without ever leaving the Foursquare app. Scoutmob's formula also means that no payment is required to find deals spontaneously (their deals are free), as Scoutmob doesn't require a credit card or cash upfront, the user simply pays the merchant, and Scoutmob receives a flat payment once deals are redeemed.
For Scoutmob, which was founded last year and is still a relatively young player in the deals space, this is a big win, because it gives the startup a national platform. Through Foursquare's some 10 million users, Scoutmob can now leverage that brand recognition to begin signing up more restaurants, which is the startup's specialty. The startup's editors offer users tips on what kinds of food to order at local restaurants, what owners to interact with, etc.
With Foursquare on iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and Windows, Scoutmob now has the opportunity to reach a whole new set of customers through each of the big mobile OSes, giving the local businesses they highlight a new shot at customer acquisition. For the Atlanta-based startup, which has some 800K users to date, this could be a great opportunity to increase brand awareness, expand their user base, and reach a whole new set of eyeballs.
For more, see Scoutmob's blog post here.
Запись опубликована 30.11.2011 автором Mobile news chief editor в рубрике Market News с метками Gilt City.
Daily Deal Aggregator Yipit Comes To iPhone
The daily deal aggregation service Yipit is launching its own iPhone application today, allowing users to track deals from over 800 sources, including Groupon, LivingSocial, Gilt City and others. In this new mobile format, the service becomes a lot more useful, and not just because it saves you the hassle of dealing what increasingly feels like deal spam email.
Beyond Yipit's aggregation capabilities, the app's standout feature is its ability to personalize offers. Never want to hear about mani-pedi's or yoga classes ever again? Love to golf but hate bowling? Then you just might like this app.
The Yipit app offers a location-based deal map and list view in its "Near Me" section while the "My Deals" section features those deals you would be interested in buying. The app walks you through the personalization process upon first launch, letting you select your city (or cities) from a list, then letting you check or uncheck the deals categories you would like to see.
Optionally, Yipit can also alert you to new and trending deals via push notifications. It's easy to turn this feature off and on via the toggle switch in the app's settings. Although Yipit won't bug you with the deal categories you opted out of, you can still browse all your area's deals from the "All Deals" section, if you choose.
This relative newcomer to the deals space company raised $6 million in Series B funding this summer, and at the time it was only aggregating 335 deal sources. Now its up to over 800. Also, in less than two years, Yipit has aggregated over 1 million offers. The company says that 90.3% of deal shoppers will buy from deal sites this year, leading to a potential height of $80-100 million in purchases over the holidays. Now that Yipit's on the iPhone, it's definitely poised to get in on that action.
Запись опубликована 16.11.2011 автором Mobile news chief editor в рубрике Market News с метками Although Yipit, Beyond Yipit, Gilt City.


text:
Oxygen supply adequate despite rising number of Covid cases: health ministry
By Le Nga &nbspJuly 16, 2021 | 08:50 pm PT
Doctors at the HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases operate on a Covid patient. Photo courtesy of the HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases.
The Ministry of Health said Friday there is enough oxygen supply on hand to meet requirements even as the incidence of Covid-19 continues to grow.
Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said: "While there is adequate oxygen for medical use in general, every locality needs to improve coordination to ensure oxygen and infrastructure availability. Some localities might face an oxygen shortage."
He did not specify the exact volume of stocks the ministry has, yet requested all localities and hospitals from district levels to equip oxygen supply systems.
Luong Ngoc Khue, director of the ministry's Administration of Medical Examination and Treatment, said even facilities that treat mild Covid-19 cases need to prepare oxygen supply as those cases might turn for the worse.
Deputy health minister Nguyen Truong Son said some localities are seeing an uptick in the number of severe cases, and might not have enough ventilators.
As the number of cases continues to rise day after day, especially in HCMC, the ministry has taken certain measures to ease the burden on the healthcare system. They include designating hospitals for treating mild and severe cases, letting people who came into close contact with patients to be isolated at home instead of admitted to hospitals, and reduce the treatment time for asymptomatic and mild cases.
The coronavirus fighting strategy would slowly transition to one in which the number of patients in hospitals would reduce, with only the more severe cases being treated, he added.
The country has had 42,663 cases since the fourth wave hit in late April.
HCMC has accounted for the highest number of infections, 25,682.
Reading: Oxygen supply adequate despite rising number of Covid cases: health ministry


text:
If you're wondering why people always seem to be talking about racism lately, here's an explainer.
"Black lives matter. It's OK. We do matter. You don't matter any less."
Angie Aker
We're still talking about racism.
It's been over a year since a nation long at odds over racial tensions erupted with the molten hot feelings on both sides coming to a head in Ferguson, Missouri, when Michael Brown was shot and killed by officer Darren Wilson.
Yes, we're still talking about it.
The conversation hasn't cooled; no glassy obsidian aftermath has worn smooth with the sands of time. Instead, it continues to bubble and simmer, promising to overflow at each next inflection point. Those inflection points are going to be many because we still have a nation made up of thousands of municipalities, many unfair in their own ways and to varying degrees. And with a world still divided on the value of black lives and the appropriate measure of force and punishment for even tiny malfeasances, Eric Garners and Sandra Blands will continue to surface. Knee-jerk reactions, outdated training, and the safety of knowing how very rarely officers will be punished almost ensure it.
"Why are we still talking about racism?" one might exasperatedly say.
Because we're not done having this conversation. Because we haven't all learned from it yet. Because the conversation hasn't turned into action in the form of police reforms and criminal justice reforms — in a few forward thinking places, maybe, but not at all in the sweeping way it would take to prevent injustices from being so prevalent.
We all feel a lot at stake when we talk about racism.
That conversation may feel threatening at times. That doesn't mean the answer is to not have it. Like an ancient volcanic lava cesspool that's in need of a good purge, this topic will keep coming to the surface until we finally get it right or until it wipes us all out.
Can we calm the fiery cauldron in some way?
Part of quelling the vitriol that heats everything up so much is learning to really listen. If we can do that, we can perhaps start to manage the escalating heat and pressure and develop a strategy that allows everyone to feel safe again.
Are we ready? Because this video on why we're still talking about racism is ready to reach us, if we let it. And if you think we could use more (constructive) conversation, not less, consider sharing with your friends, too.


text:
Pregnant teacher kidnapped one month after wedding, missing for two years •Husband went into coma, lost memory •Family offers rewards for information
Dorcas Rogers
Kunle Falayi
For the last past years, the family of 35-year-old Dorcas Rogers Ogbologugo have refused to resign to fate over her disappearance, one that has spiralled into further tragedy.
The search for her claimed a life of a member of the family, while for two weeks her husband was in a coma, losing his memory afterwards.
For this family, nothing is worse than having no clue as to what has befallen their loved one for such a long time.
It has been two years of agony and no news from the police about the recovery of a woman who left her abode in Port Harcourt, Rivers State to visit her husband, Akepiteigha Zikenah, in Bayelsa State only to vanish without a trace along the way.
A native of Ataba in Andoni Local Government Area of Rivers State, Dorcas graduated from the Niger Delta University, Bayelsa State, and worked as a teacher in a public school in Port Harcourt, Saturday PUNCH learnt.
One afternoon in November 2014, about one month after her traditional marriage to Zikenah, Dorcas told his brother, Ugem Rogers and her other siblings in Rivers State that he was travelling to Yenagoa to visit her husband.
"Since they got married, my sister had been shuttling between Port Harcourt and Yenagoa, where her husband lives," Rogers told Saturday PUNCH.
According to him, by nightfall, long after they assumed she would have arrived her husband's house, they got a call from Zikenah, telling them that he had not heard from his wife.
Rogers said, "Before that time, my other sister's phone had received about three calls which she missed because she was in a prayer meeting. After her prayers, she discovered that one of the numbers that called was that of Gloria.
"She returned the call and somebody picked. Someone who picked the call told her that Gloria had been involved in an accident and had been taken to the hospital.
"We asked for the name of the hospital, but the person said he would get back to us and that we should not call her line again because the battery of the phone was about to go off.
"A phone number was later sent to us, through which we continued to contact the people. Sometimes, they would pick the call and sometime they would not.
"They kept saying they would get back to us. We pleaded with them to tell us what was going on because she was pregnant and they kept telling us they would get back to us."
Saturday PUNCH learnt that it became clear to the family at this point that Gloria had fallen victim of kidnappers.
When they contacted the kidnappers again, the family was told that they should not worry and that Gloria would be released soon.
Rogers said, "At a point, when we called, we heard people crying in the background, screaming as if they were being tortured or maltreated.
"There was this particular day we called and someone who sounded like their leader said, 'Is that the relative of the pregnant woman? Okay, send her out' and they dropped the call.
For a long time, that was the last time the family heard from the people suspected of holding Gloria.
Communications ceased while the family agonised over what could be happening to her.
The case was reported at the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the Rivers State Police Command located at Mini Okoro Police Station.
Rogers said he even had to meet with the acting commissioner of police in the state at the time. Yet, the case lingered without clue as to who kidnapped her.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that Gloria's line was tracked and then, the police had a break.
Her mobile phone was traced to a young man, who was taken into custody and interrogated.
But the hope of the family was dashed when the police told them that the suspect said he found the phone in a cab and did not seem to know anything.
However, the family's woe took a horrible turn when Zikenah travelled from Bayelsa in company with his sister's husband because they had heard that there was a suspect in custody over his wife's disappearance.
Rogers told our correspondent, "When they left the police station and said they were leaving, I told them they did not have to drive all the way back that night because it was already late. I told them to pass the night with us. But his sister's husband insisted they could still make the journey.
"They eventually left that night. Before they got to Ahoada, they had a ghastly accident and his sister's husband died on the spot.
"He (Zikenah) was in coma for over two weeks. When he finally recovered, he had lost his memory. All these issues caused a lot of problem between our family and our in-laws and because of that, there has been a disconnect in communication among us"
The family said they became disillusioned by the efforts of the police to locate Rogers when police investigators in charge of the case asked for money every time.
They believed the police failed to do due diligence when they arrested the suspect who had Gloria's phone.
Gloria's brother said before then, the kidnappers had even sent an account number to them through which they were supposed to pay a ransom that would be demanded later.
He said this was shared with the police, who did not seem to have done anything with it.
According to Rogers, rather than ask the family for money for every little thing, they could have got enough information out of the suspect as he believed it was likely the suspect knew more than he told the police.
However, he said when the family had lost confidence in the police, they went back to making contact with the kidnappers, with the hope of placating the men to release her.
Rogers said when they called the number one day, their joy knew no bounds when the kidnappers picked the call and asked for N1m.
He said, "We were told to bring the money to a point in Ubima, Rivers State. But I told my sister who was to take the money there that she could not go alone due to safety concerns.
"So, we went to Bori Camp to get some soldiers to accompany her to the drop point just for safety. The soldiers were in mufti."
The kidnappers had reportedly marked a spot where the money was supposed to be dropped with leaves.
They told the family that once they dropped the money, they should wait in another location, a short distance away from there and they would find their sister.
But that was never to be.
After waiting for hours, they went to check the spot where the money was dropped only to find out that it had vanished.
Gloria has not been seen since then.
As the family appealed for any information that might lead to the return of Gloria, some individuals are making attempts to scam them with false promises that they were the ones holding Gloria.
But the family have offered reward for any piece of information that could help them locate her.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that the pregnancy Gloria was carrying when she disappeared was supposed to be her first child.
"My sister was sound in body and mind when she went missing. But we have not lost hope. We are simply praying to God to bring her back safely, wherever she may be," Rogers said.
Our correspondent contacted Gloria's husband on the phone but he neither picked his call nor replied to text messages.
Saturday PUNCH contacted the spokesperson for the Rivers State Police Command, Mr. Nnamdi Omoni, on the case and he explained that he did not have updates currently.
He promised to find out the status of the investigation from the appropriate unit of the command and give the official statement on the issue.
However, as of the time of filing this report, he had yet to do so.
Àmòtékùn: Symbolism and misrepresentations
Amotekun: How much help is that?


text:
In-app navigation for Windows Phone 8
[ This article is for Windows Phone 8 developers. If you're developing for Windows 10, see the latest documentation. ]
This topic contains the following sections.
Status Bar and Application Bar
In Windows Phone applications users can navigate forward through different screens of content. Also, you can move backward using the Windows Phone hardware Back button. This model enables developers to:
Easily create view-based applications that fit naturally into the Windows Phone navigation model
Provide default transitions that match the Windows Phone look and feel
The core elements include a top-level container control called a PhoneApplicationFrame that can host a PhoneApplicationPage. Pages hold discrete sections of content in your application. The Windows Phone app platform provides frame and page classes to facilitate navigation to separate sections of content. You can create as many different pages as needed to present the content in your application and then navigate to those pages from the frame. The following figure illustrates a possible frame and page hierarchy for an application.
You must use the PhoneApplicationFrame and PhoneApplicationPage types when developing your application and not the standard Frame and Page types. For more information, see the PhoneApplicationFrame and PhoneApplicationPage classes in the class library reference.
A frame integrates with the Windows Phone look and feel so that it appears like any other application. Only a single frame is available to the application with no exceptions. A frame includes the following characteristics:
Exposes properties from a hosted page such as screen orientation
Exposes a client area where pages are rendered
Exposes a NavigationService that facilitates navigating between pages
Reserves space for the status bar and Application Bar
The frame is also the place where you receive obscured or unobscured events for certain interactions, such as phone calls. For more information, see Obscured and Unobscured.
A page fills the entire content region of the frame. A page includes the following characteristics:
Optionally surfaces its own application bar
The status bar and Application Bar represent the application chrome. The client area is the window that the host application can draw into, and the logical client area is the space visible to the user. Application content may exist outside of the logical client area, for example, in a vertically scrolling scenario.
Status Bar
The status bar displays system-level status information in a simple and clean manner, reserved in the application workspace. The user may interact with the status bar, as it updates to provide different notifications and keep the user aware of things that are important.
The status bar is also referred to as the system tray.
A status bar includes the following characteristics:
The visibility of the status bar can be changed by your application.
The opacity of the status bar can be changed in your application.
The color of the status bar can be changed in your application.
The progress indicator on the status bar can be used in your application to show progress.
For a code example of setting status bar properties, see SystemTray.
Application Bar
The Application Bar provides a place to promote the most common tasks. For less common tasks, applications can include a single menu launched from the Application Bar.
An Application Bar includes the following characteristics:
The visibility of the Application Bar can be changed by your application.
The opacity of the Application Bar can be changed in your application.
The color of the Application Bar can be changed in your application.
Windows Phone supports orientation changes, both portrait and landscape. If necessary, applications must be configured to support multiple orientations, and by default are set to support only portrait orientation. If a specified page on the application supports both landscape and portrait orientation, the user can initiate a change by physically rotating the device. There is no programmatic way to directly switch the orientation, because the orientation property is set to read-only. The only method to accomplish this is to set the SupportedOrientations property to the desired orientation.
The orientation portrait down, or upside down, is not supported in Windows Phone. Applications that need to use this feature can use the device accelerometer to change the UI; however, the chrome will remain in the normal portrait mode.
The page has an Orientation property and a SupportedOrientations property. If the application navigates to a page where the SupportedOrientations property does not include the current orientation, it will initiate a UI orientation change to the specified orientation.
The hardware Back button is used to go back within an application or between applications. Also, the Back button can close an on-screen keyboard, menus, or dialogs, navigate to a previous page, or even switch applications. However, the principal usage is to move from a current screen to the previous screen.
There are several requirements related to the use of the Back button that your application must meet in order to pass certification and be eligible for listing in Store. For more information, see Technical certification requirements for Windows Phone
The Navigating event will allow you to cancel navigation, but it will work only if the navigation was initiated by an API call. If it was initiated by the Back button, or the Start button, you cannot cancel the navigation. For the Back button, you can cancel navigation using the OnBackKeyPress(CancelEventArgs) method, but you cannot cancel navigation from the Start button.
Navigation, orientation, and gestures for Windows Phone
App structure and navigation models for Windows Phone


This entry was posted in Sightseeing, Traveling and tagged Columbia Glacier, Prince William Sound, Stan Stephens cruises, Valdez. Bookmark the permalink.
How large was the boat from which you viewed the glacier? We did an Inland Passage cruise a few years back on one of the smaller cruise line ships (still 1200 passengers). It was able to get all the way up Glacier Bay, but being that many stories up kept the sense of the glaciers' sizes distant. We could see smaller boats going up closer, but with the risk for more affects of ice calving and subsequent waves. Love those Airstreams. My grandparents had one (maybe my memory is correct) back in the 60's and 70's for wintering in AZ.
This tour boat was maybe 125′, we were 115 people on it. He pulled us to within 1/2 mile, the captain said, but it seemed half that distance at times. If only the light had been better our pictures would be much improved. Still, one of the best cruises we've had.
Wow! We were fortunate to have clear skies after days of rain the coast. The color refracted through the snow & ice dazzled.
We don't have "like" buttons, but I wanted punch the button for the photo of the magnificent waterfall at Prince William Sound. People who have photographed the calving glaciers have commented on their very unique color.


Apologies to my siblings for stopping on the channel and watching it for a half hour, but there are two other TV's in the house.
I wanted to share an observation about how the Obama Administration completely contradicted itself in a major way.
JUSTICE BREYER: Then [Hobby Lobby's lawyer] says there is a less restrictive way, and the less restrictive way is the government pays for [the contraception]. Says it wouldn't cost much...I want to hear your precise answer to that kind of argument.
(Obama lawyer) VERELLI: you're talking about a very openended increase in the cost to the government. Now, we don't know how much that cost would be... I can't tell you what that  what that increased cost is going to be, but it could be quite considerable.
This is hugely important because it undermines one of the Obama Administration's largest contentions in the exemption debate. When the Obama Admin is talking about insurance companies, paying for contraception supposedly saves that company money. When it is the government who is paying for contraception, the government (who is in the insurance business) will lose a ton of money???
Putting aside the fact that of course it would be wrong for the government to provide contraception, the Obama administration still completely contradicted themselves in this case.
I saw the story of the singing nun a few weeks ago that went viral. Thanks to Joseph Lehner for passing the rest of the story on to me. Here's an interview with Sister where she shares her awesome story and sings another song.
This past week, Amy Reynolds, a young woman on fire with the Lord in our little town of Brazil, IN, pulled off an amazing "alternative spring break" with about 70 young adults working on local mission projects throughout the city. Each morning began at our parish, and the young people ate a breakfast here and had a devotional before heading out to do great work. The young people cleaned up the streets, worked in food pantries, helped care for toddlers at the YMCA, and hundreds of other awesome activities.
I went out as a chaperone on one of the days and pushed a broom to help clean up US 40 through town. We had a blast, and we had a lot of good honks from people driving by. Below is a photo of me leading my group to our site. Our motto for the day was "follow the broom!"
Kids are in the news a lot for doing the wrong stuff, but there are a TON of great kids out there who are doing amazing things as well.
Great job Amy for pulling off an amazing week!
"Do not say, "I am too young." To whomever I send you, you shall go; whatever I command you, you shall speak."
I am a huge proponent of local Catholic bookstores, and we have a great one that has popped up in Indianapolis. The Celtic Cross Catholic Bookstore is an amazing little piece of Heaven on 86th street, and is worth a visit.
The Celtic Cross also has an online catalog, and they have agreed to sell my book online. I am really thankful for this partnership. Please support their efforts by either visiting their store in person or shopping their EXTENSIVE online catalog.
If you go to their store, they have free high quality coffee! What's not to love?
Click here to go straight to the link where you can purchase my book from them.
I have some other partnerships with them over the next few months that I'll be announcing as well.
The World Premiere of "The Third Way"
The crew and some of the cast will be there to talk about the making of the film and answer questions as well. Spread the word, and we hope to see you there!
And the way we "delayer" and allow the crust to be knocked off - the Sacrament of Confession!
for purposes such as theirs?"
The film formerly known as "Unnatural Law" is now "The Third Way"
2) A better title would only help us in our goal of reaching as many people as possible.
PLEASE click HERE to like us on Facebook to get IMPORTANT and INSIDE information as the film's release nears. We will have some EXCITING offers (that's all I can say for now).
Not a Fan of Contemporary Christian Music...But I Love This!
Awesome Video of Down Syndrome Kids Talking to Future Mothers!
"I Want a Quarterpounder Today! I Wish I Weren't Catholic!"
Just watch the first five minutes of this video as a reminder of how awesome the Church is. I watched this today and was crying like a baby. The crazy thing about this video is that these people didn't even know whom they were cheering for!
So it is in this case of the sacrament of marriage. We may not believe in sacraments, as we may not believe in spirits, but it is quite clear that Christ believed in this sacrament in his own way and not in any current or contemporary way. He certainly did not get his argument against divorce from the Mosaic law or the Roman law or the habits of the Palestinian people. It would appear to his critics then exactly what it appears to his critics now; an arbitrary and transcendental dogma coming from nowhere save in the sense that it came from him. I am not at all concerned here to defend that dogma; the point here is that it is just as easy to defend it now as it was to defend it then. It is an ideal altogether outside time; difficult at any period; impossible at no period. In other words, if anyone says it is what might be expected of a man walking about in that place at that period, we can quite fairly answer that it is much more like what might be the mysterious utterance of a being beyond man, if he walked alive among men.
Thanks to Fr. Peter Marshall for introducing me to this hysterical video!
After a homily on Trinity Sunday a few years ago, my Dad confessed that I had lost him. He asked, somewhat jokingly, why I didn't just use the three leaf clover. I told him "because it is a heresy." These guys make the point about the problem with the three leaf clover much more humourously!
Getting a little uncomfortable Cecile? Never been asked a tough question by the media before because they all give you a pass? Welcome to grown up world where people have to answer real questions.


Marietta's Lori Lite, who was rewarded $250,000 from an investor last year, gets some additional love from her ABC's "Shark Tank Update" during this Friday's episode at 9 p.m. on WSB-TV.
The show, in a 70-second clip about one-third through the episode, updates her success with Stress Free Kids since she received the money. She has a line of CDs and books that help kids to reduce stress through stories.
The biggest breakthrough: national distribution at several chain bookstores. The report shows her reading one of her books to a group of children at a bookstore in California, taped about a month ago.
"This is the best book ever!" one cute blond child says to her.
"Shark Tank" features wealthy "sharks" facing entrepreneurs who pitch their businesses in hopes of getting an investment from one or more of the sharks.
In a phone interview, Lite said she met with investor Barbara Corcoran and they worked out a financial arrangement that wasn't quite the same as what appeared on the show but she wouldn't provide specific details. On the show, Corcoran agreed to give Lite $250,000 for a 50 percent stake in Lite's company.
She is putting out a digital download of her book "Angry Octopus" with some animation. It can be downloaded onto a DVD or viewed on a computer. She's also considering a version using sign language. Overall, she has six books in hardcover and three children's CD in her lineup. She has not had time to add to it but for now, is finding ways to market her existing products in a broader fashion.
One more bit of good news: her products will be available for A-list stars at the Golden Globes next week.
Nice to get an update on how things worked out. I was curious to see if Barbara made the right decission by investing in Stress Free Kids, and it seems she did.