text:
Green Zones getting new designations, classification
By Mary Jean Sell, Times-Echo news editor
Members of the Eureka Springs Parks and Recreation Commission spent most of their almost three-hour meeting last week reviewing recommendations from the Green Zone Committee.
The recommendations had been presented to the city council by Parks Director Bruce Levine but been withdrawn for further review by the commission.
Parks Commissioner Joel Taylor; Transit Director Lamont Richie, who is also an attorney; former Parks Director Susan Lourne, also an attorney; and former City Planner Richard Harper have been meeting almost weekly for several months to hammer out these recommendations.
In general, the committee recommends setting up guidelines for a 55-year lease agreement to handle situations where existing permanent structures exist on the city's reserved rights-of-way; a lease option agreement; short term surface land lease; and amending the city's ordinance setting up Green Zones.
"The first recommendation is to eliminate the term "green zone park" because it is misleading.
"The term implies a large, contiguous green space area, which is not descriptive of the fragmented, narrow strips of unopened streets and alleys," Lourne told the commission.
"The original purpose for these pieces of land is that of dedicated rights-of-way with public use."
The rights-of-way have been platted on the city map but have not been opened, used or vacated. Many of the areas would not easily be developed as streets or alleys because of the terrain of the city.
The ordinance amendment would set up four classes for the reserve rights-of-way: Classes A and B include those that serve at least one of the public purposes as listed in the ordinance.
Class C includes those that are obstructed in whole or in party by existing permanent structures, but could conceivably serve one of the public purposes either presently or in the future.
Class D acknowledges that some of the reserve rights-of-way are not suited for any of the public purposes listed in the ordinance and should be vacated.
When a street or alley is vacated, the property is split down the middle and adjoining property owners each get half of the property.
The committee's recommendation acknowledges that the time it will take to get a complete inventory of all of the reserve rights-of-way and to get the classified will be a very long and tedious process.
That process should also be part of a comprehensive, long-term city planning process.
"Until that project is accomplished, the reserve rights-of-way must be classified on a case-by-case basis," Lourne said.
The committee also recommends the use of 55-year leases instead of 99-year leases on the reserve rights-of-way where permanent structures exist.
The 55 years would give enough time to satisfy problems with the transfer of title by owners and security interests in the property by third parties -- banks and other lending instutitions.
It is the recommendation of the committee that the lessee be charged $3 per square foot for structures used for commercial purposes and 50 cents per square foot for those used for residential purposes.
Renewal of the lease would be at the discretion of the owner of the structure.
If the city should decide it needs the property before the end of the 55 years, then it would have to condemn the balance of the lease term.
The option agreement gives someone elibigle to enter into a long-term lease six months to have a survey made and a legal description of the property drafted. It would also serve as an application and give the Parks Commission time to determine whether the property should be leased or vacated.
The five-year short-term surface land lease would be for adjacent property owners to use the reserve right-of-way as an extension of their yard or garden when the city is not using the property.
Fees for the land would be 10 cents per square foot.
No permanent structures could be built in the reserve right-of-way.
Any non-permanent improvements would be at the risk of the lessee.
The committee also recommends that before any lease agreement was made that every city department and commission review the proposed agreement and given an opportunity to comment.
In other business:
the commission reviewed wording for historical plaques to be placed at half a dozen springs.
briefly discussed the possibility of an annual Skatestock as a fund raiser for commission projects.
The first Skatestock, June 13, was held in Harmon Park to raise funds for the completion of the Skatepark construction.
Chairman Bill Featherstone said he was disappointed with the low attendance, but felt like those who did attend had a good time.
Levine reported the lights for the Lake Leatherwood Soccer Fields and parking lot are installed and ready to be used.
Levine presented a very preliminary drawing of a scaled-down concession stand/restroom facility for Lake Leatherwood Fields.
He said it will be necessary to "get something on paper to submit for the next grant cycle" to the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism.
He is "shooting" for construction of the septic system and concrete pad for the concession area in the fall.
Commissioner David Renko asked to clarify that a location for a proposed "spray ground/park" has not been made. He said local newspapers are presuming it will be in Harmon Park and that isn't the location, as yet.
The commission's next meeting is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Monday, July 19, in the Community Center in Harmon Park.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Why Is Saint Barbara Patron Saint Of Drama, Greece?
1 What is St Barbara patron of?
2 Why is St Barbara patron saint for artillery?
3 What do you pray to Saint Barbara for?
4 Why does St Barbara hold a chalice?
5 Is there a Barbara in the Bible?
6 What is the name day for Barbara?
7 Who is the patron saint of surgeons?
8 What is the Honorable Order of Saint Barbara?
9 Who is the patron saint of water?
10 Is the story of Saint Barbara true?
11 Where is Saint Barbara buried?
What is St Barbara patron of?
Barbara was adopted as the patron saint of miners most probably because the mining profession had to cope with many hazards to life in those days. Also, the miners formed a large part of those for whom she prayed in the hours of her own death.
Why is St Barbara patron saint for artillery?
Barbara is a martyr who was killed by her father when she refused to renounce her faith. Her father was struck down by lightning after executing her. This association with lightning and explosions led to her become the patron saint of artillery, military engineers, miners, and others who work with explosives.
What do you pray to Saint Barbara for?
Saint Barbara, your courage is much stronger than the forces of hurricanes and the power of lightening. Be always by our side so that we, like you, may face all storms, wars, trials and tribulations with the same fortitude with which you faced yours.
Why does St Barbara hold a chalice?
The Chalice: symbol of the Sacrament, often associated with Saint Barbara in reference to her final wish for the grace of Sacrament.
You might be interested: Question: After Philip Ii Unify Greece He Asked Greece And Macedonia To Do What?
Is there a Barbara in the Bible?
Saint Barbara is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. Her association with the lightning, which killed her father has caused her to be invoked against lightning and fire; by association with explosions, she is also the patron of artillery and mining.
What is the name day for Barbara?
4th of December: Barborka, the name day of Barbara, the patron saint of miners.
Who is the patron saint of surgeons?
Saint Barbara is venerated as the patron saint of surgeons.
What is the Honorable Order of Saint Barbara?
According to the Field Artillery Association, the Honorable Order of Saint Barbara recognizes those individuals who have demonstrated the highest standards of integrity and moral character; displayed an outstanding degree of professional competence; served the United States Army or Marine Corps Field Artillery with
Who is the patron saint of water?
He was born in Vernon, France, where he was made a knight in the First Crusade. He is credited to be the patron saint of swimmers, boaters, and drowning victims, and the patron saint of Vernon, France. Adjutor.
Saint Adjutor
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church
Feast April 30
Patronage swimmers, boaters, drowning victims, Vernon
Is the story of Saint Barbara true?
Because Barbara's authenticity is highly questionable and her legend is probably spurious, she was dropped from the General Roman Calendar in 1969. According to legend, which dates only to the 7th century, she was the beautiful daughter of a pagan, Dioscorus, who kept her guarded in a tower to protect her from harm.
You might be interested: Quick Answer: What Airlines Fly To Greece From New York?
Where is Saint Barbara buried?
Today the remains of Saint Barbara, rest in the homonymous Chapel of Burano, in the province of Venice, Veneto, Italy, brought, it seems, by the Venetians in the 10th century, from Constantinople, today's Istanbul, Turkey.
Question: How Many Miles From Greece To Japan?
Often asked: What Was The Land Dominated By In Ancient Greece?


text:
Associations, VR/AR, Connected Home
Wednesday in CE: Twitter Doubles Its Character Limit
Today in CE: Twitter doubles its per-tweet character limit to 280, Apple AR glasses could hit the market by 2020, and more.
Operations, Gaming, Connected Home
Thursday in CE: GameStop Turns to Video Game Rental Model
Today in CE: GameStop to launch a new video game rental service, the iPhone X is out a lot earlier than Apple expected, and more.
Smartphones, Operations
Wednesday in CE: Let's Talk About the iPhone X Notch
Today in CE: Discussing the impact of that iPhone X notch, social media sites testify in front of the senate again, and more.
People, Operations
Powerful Women in Consumer Technology 2017: Terri Burns
Terri Burns, an Associate Product Manager for popular social media network Twitter is a 2017 Powerful Women in Consumer Technology honoree.
Audio, Smartphones, Operations
Wednesday in CE: Dyson Eyeing Electric Car Market by 2020
The latest in CE: Dyson plans to launch an electric car by 2020, Twitter to double character limit, and more.
Drones, Policy, Smartphones
Wednesday in CE: Trump Blasts Amazon for "Doing Great Damage" to Retail
The latest in CE: President Trump attacks Amazon in Twitter rant; Apple opens up its wallet for original content, and more.
Facebook's newest record: 2 billion users
Facebook announced today it's reached a major milestone: it now has 2 billion monthly users. The social network was on the cusp of the double-billion mark for several months, and today CEO Mark Zuckerberg made it official in - what else - a Facebook post. "As of this morning, the Facebook community is now officially…
Microsoft Overhauls Skype to Compete With Snapchat and iMessage
Microsoft Corp.'s Skype helped pioneer modern video conferencing and instant messaging. But its power has taken a backseat in recent years to the convenience of communicating via nearly ubiquitous social networking applications like Snap Inc.'s Snapchat and Apple Inc.'s iMessage. To stay afloat, Skype announced an end-to-end overhaul of the service Thursday -- with iMessage…
7 Tips for Engaging with Gen Z on Social Media
Gen Z has been growing up almost under the radar, but they're primed to be the most tech-savvy generation we've ever seen.
Facebook takes out full-page newspaper ads to help U.K. citizens detect fake news online
Facebook's role in the spread of so-called "fake news" has been under greater scrutiny in recent times, with many believing that the social network played a decisive role in both the U.S. presidential election and the U.K.'s EU referendum. And this is why it, among other technology companies, has been investing in initiatives to show…


text:
Number one songs on my birthday, December 28
Below is your personalised "Number one song on my birthday" tracklist. Each of these tracks was a US number one hit on your birthday , December 28 starting in 1975.
Bay City Rollers
Tonight's The Night (Gonna Be Alright)
How Deep Is Your Love
The Bee Gees
Le Freak
1979 — 4th birthday
Escape (Pina Colada Song)
Rupert Holmes
(Just Like) Starting Over
Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson
1985 — 10th birthday
Say You, Say Me
Because I Love You (The Postman Song)
Stevie B
On Bended Knee
Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men
1996 — 21st birthday
1997 — 22nd birthday
Candle in the Wind 1997/Something About the Way You Look Tonight
1998 — 23rd birthday
I'm Your Angel
R. Kelly and Celine Dion
Independent Women Part 1
How You Remind Me
Hey Ya!
Don't Forget About Us
We Found Love
Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris
Locked Out of Heaven
Eminem featuring Rihanna


People are seen walking past the "You Are Beautiful" sign, an art installation by Matthew Hoffman, in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. Nearly half of the people in this African-American neighborhood live below the poverty line, and many seniors have no idea there are public services that might help them.
Debra Thompson is the volunteer chairwoman of Englewood Village, an organization that connects low-income older adults on the city's South Side with services from nutrition to job assistance to home repair.
The Village to Village Network, which was founded to support the expansion of such organizations, tracks the hundreds of villages across the country.
Susan McWhinney-Morse (center), one of the founders of Beacon Hill Village, participates in a political discussion breakfast, while Muriel Feingold listens.
The village in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago's South Side is the oldest of six across the city. The goal is to have one in 21 neighborhoods.
Frances Shedd, 80, once worked for a government service that provides homemaker assistance to older adults up to 12 hours a week. Now she gets help from Quintechette Jones.
Victorian-style homes line Garfield Boulevard in the Englewood neighborhood. The village program allows seniors to stay in their own homes.
Debra Thompson is throwing a block party. She has good weather for it — never a sure thing in Chicago — a warm and sunny autumn afternoon. Music is playing, hot dogs are grilling.
But this party isn't just for fun. Thompson is the volunteer chairwoman of Englewood Village, an organization that connects low-income older adults on the city's South Side with services from nutrition to job assistance to home repair. And this is how she is reaching out to potential new members.
"We have flyers, we're going to knock on doors, spreading the word, getting everybody involved," says Thompson with her usual boundless enthusiasm.
The Englewood Village has been around since 2015. But its roots go back 17 years and all the way to Boston, where Susan McWhinney-Morse and her friends were grappling with anxieties about aging. They wanted to stay in their homes as long as possible. They wanted to remain in their community on Beacon Hill.
After a couple of years of effort, they produced the concept now known as the village. It's a membership-run organization that provides access to services like transportation, help with household chores, even trouble-shooting computer problems, along with classes and social activities.
The idea of being able to maintain independence into one's 80s or 90s is so irresistible that over the past decade, the number of villages across the country has grown from just that one in Boston to 230. Another 130 are in development. An independent organization has been founded to support the expansion of villages. It's called the Village to Village Network, which has a map on its website showing where villages are located.
So far, the overwhelming majority of village members are middle class or wealthier, according to research from The Center for the Advanced Study of Aging Services at the University of California, Berkeley. That may have something to do with membership dues amounting to several hundred dollars a year. But now the idea is being adapted to serve more varied communities, where dues are not an issue.
Our reporting was inspired by NPR listeners. Earlier this year, we asked them to share their stories of how older adults without family caregivers manage when they need help. Many respondents mentioned the villages in their own communities.
So this fall, we traveled around the country to take a look at how villages are evolving. We found an effort in Chicago to create villages that serve low-income communities of color. We found a village in rural California where older adults don't just receive services, they also provide them. Ultimately, what we found was that in practice, the village model isn't so much a fixed formula, as an expression of older adults' desires to age with dignity and independence.
Or as Susan McWhinney-Morse put it, "a grass-roots movement on the part of older people who did not want to be patronized, isolated, [or] infantilized."
McWhinney-Morse says that back in 2000 in Beacon Hill, continuing to live independently wasn't expected after age 65.
"That was the line when one became suddenly old," she says. "I knew from everything I read that it was the time when I should move: Move south, move flat, move warm, move safe, but certainly not stay in my house on Beacon Hill."
But who wouldn't want to stay in Beacon Hill, with its colonial-style architecture, cobblestone sidewalks and charming little shops? So McWhinney-Morse and about a dozen friends tried to find a way to get the support they needed as they aged without having to give up their homes and their community.
The result of two years of effort was Beacon Hill Village. Members pay dues of a few hundred dollars a year. In exchange, they have access to a wide array of discounted services — from home health to home repair to transportation. There's also a busy calendar of classes, trips and social events.
There was nothing else around like Beacon Hill Village for several years. Then around 2006, it started to get a little bit of media attention. A little bit was all it took. McWhinney-Morse says that in one single week, "we literally — this is not an exaggeration — received 1,000 telephone calls or emails from across the country from people saying, 'How do I start a village, is there a village in my neighborhood, what do I do, who can I call, may I come and see you?' "
Beacon Hill Village is no longer novel. It has been around for 15 years and has more than 300 members. And every Wednesday morning for nearly a decade, at least a dozen of them have met to discuss politics over French toast and oatmeal.
Observations about climate change, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and President Trump's latest tweet rise above the clink of cutlery and coffee cups.
"It's made me much more alert," says 80-year-old Muriel Feingold. "I have to keep up with stuff because [I know] I'm meeting people on Wednesday. So I think I've been more attuned to what's going on politically and internationally."
Beacon Hill Village is also providing the kind of help with daily activities that was part of the original vision. Like rides to the supermarket. Tom Moore, 67, drives several days a week for Beacon Hill Village members. He used to be in the travel business. This is his retirement job.
He doesn't do it just for the money. "I enjoy it," he says. "I meet a great group of people."
One of them is 83-year-old Joan Smith. She emerges from her apartment building slowly, using a cane. "I have a problem with balance if I go too fast," she says.
"I didn't want to use it," she says of her cane, but the Beacon Hill cobblestones can trip her up and the cane does seem to help.
So the ride to the supermarket is essential for her. It's also fun. Smith enjoys getting her own groceries, checking the specials, seeing what's new. But that's now beyond what 77-year-old Cynthia Beaudoin can do. Moore picks up her groceries from a list and delivers them to her apartment.
A home health aide greets him at the door. Beaudoin remains on the couch, her walker nearby and an emergency call button hanging around her neck. Her life has been like this since she was in the hospital a few years ago.
When she was discharged, she didn't want to go to a rehab hospital. "I just wanted to come home directly," recalls Beaudoin.
Beacon Hill Village was able to connect her with the right services to make it possible for her to return to the apartment she has lived in for 36 years. It has a view of the Charles River that no one would want to leave.
But for Beaudoin, Beacon Hill Village is more than the sum of its services. "It's comforting," she says. "That's one of the most important things."
At her Chicago block party, Debra Thompson cannot be ignored, with her dyed blond hair and a bright yellow T-shirt. She calls out to everyone, hoping they'll fill out her survey so she can find out what they need. And Englewood seniors have a lot of needs. Nearly half of the people in this African-American neighborhood live below the poverty line. But many of them have no idea that there are public services that might help them. Thompson wants to change that.
And she persists even when some people are reluctant to put their names on anything.
A woman named Bessie Stovall says, "My children say don't sign nothing unless I know what I'm signing."
Thompson reassures her. "This is not a contract." She explains that Englewood Village can connect her with services to help find a job, for instance, or a place to stay. "Oh yeah, I need a job," says Stovall. Suddenly, she is happy to fill out the form, and Thompson directs her to an upcoming job fair that focuses on employment for seniors.
Thompson also passes out information on a lottery for free roof repairs and discounts on utilities and tells people about a service that can help frail older people remain in their homes.
Frances Shedd, 80, knows all about that one. Years ago, she worked for a government service that provides homemaker assistance to older adults up to 12 hours a week. Now she watches the party from her porch, accompanied by her own homemaker, Quintechette Jones.
"I keep everything clean in her atmosphere," says Jones. "I make sure she gets her nutrition. I groom her sometimes. And then we sit and chat."
Shedd thinks it's great that the Englewood Village is telling more people about this service. "When you get to a certain age," she explains, "you need somebody to see after you because we don't feel good when we get up in the morning."
Another observer of the block party is Joyce Gallagher, and she likes what she sees. She is Chicago's deputy commissioner for senior services. Gallagher loved the village concept from the first time she heard about it and wanted every older adult to have access to such a supportive community. The hang-up was the dues. The Chicagoans who could benefit the most from a village couldn't fork over a few hundred bucks a year on top of paying for services.
Then Gallagher had her lightbulb moment. What were the dues for? They paid for office space and computers and phones. But her department already had all of that in its 21 senior centers. The city could donate the office space and equipment. But she didn't want this to be a city-driven program. She envisioned the villages being grass-roots organizations run by volunteers. As for services, those would come from government programs available to low-income seniors.
So Gallagher began to call meetings at senior centers around the city to see whether anyone was even interested in becoming part of this. She had no expectations about how she would be received. "You have someone coming from the outside, and saying 'Listen, we've got no proof that this is going to work, but we really feel that you deserve this, that every community deserves this ... are you interested?' "
In Englewood, Debra Thompson was interested. In fact, the Village has become her cause. "I devote every day to my seniors," she says. "I'm always looking for ways and partnerships and issues that can assist us to assist them in achieving what they need."
Thompson's early enthusiasm is the reason that Englewood is the oldest village in the Chicago system. Currently, there are just six citywide. Each one operates out of a different senior center. Gallagher wants to have villages reaching out to all 21 neighborhoods where senior centers are located by the end of next year.
A big dependence on government services could make the project vulnerable to the whims of state and federal budget-makers. But Gallagher says that is not the only focus: Volunteers in each village set their own agendas. One is centered on gentrification, another on preventing financial scams targeting seniors, while a third concentrates on dealing with emotional trauma caused by that neighborhood's many shootings.
People continued to stop by Thompson's block party even after the hot dogs were gone. Over the course of the afternoon, she signed up close to 50 people who hadn't known about Englewood Village. For Thompson, that was one sign that the afternoon had been a success. Another sign? Some people invited her to throw block parties on their streets, making Thompson hopeful that Englewood Village will continue to grow.
Plumas County, Calif., has about 19,000 people spread across an area bigger than the state of Delaware. It's in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in northeastern California. There's no interstate highway, not a lot of chain stores, hardly any stoplights, but lots of pine trees.
"When you live out here, you have to be ready for the winter," says 75-year-old Jimmie Oneal.
And preparing for the snow and cold is what Oneal is doing on this late autumn afternoon. She directs a handful of volunteers who've come to ferry stacks of firewood from a garden shed up to her back porch.
That firewood will help Oneal heat her home when the cold is so severe that her propane heater just isn't enough.
Both Oneal and the volunteers helping her are members of Community Connections, Plumas County's version of a village. It works on what is known as a time bank model. Members get credits in their time bank accounts for helping one another. Then when they need some help themselves, they draw on those credits to "pay" for the service. And in Plumas County, those services run the gamut from helping to clear trees to serving food at a wedding to teaching welding and other building skills.
Oneal lives alone in a little dome house on a heavily wooded acre of land that slopes down to a creek. Since her husband died eight years ago, help from Community Connections volunteers has been crucial to her ability to remain here. She has still had to make some changes though: She gave up her chickens.
"I was having to carry buckets of water [for the chickens] down that hill in the wintertime and it gets really icy," she says. "I finally decided that one bad fall could be real bad news for me. So I decided to find homes for my chickens. And I still miss 'em."
If Oneal had a bad fall, her options in Plumas County would be limited. There's only one assisted living facility. It can accept just four residents. There are no vacancies. The beds are also full at the two small nursing homes. So around here, helping seniors live independently isn't just matter of what they want, it's almost the only option.
And Oneal says she has her own way of contributing to the time bank for the help she receives from Community Connections.
"I guess you could say I'm sort of like a granny. People come to me with all kinds of questions: about gardening, about chickens, about trees, about how to survive with the cold, especially people who haven't been here that long," she says.
Community Connections is run by Plumas Rural Services, a large nonprofit social services agency. Dues are just $10 a year. Anyone can join. The youngest member is 7 years old, the eldest is 93.
Leslie Wall has run Community Connections since it began 10 years ago. Back then, she wanted to find out what older people wanted from the program.
"We expected seniors would want transportation," she recalls, "and they would want visitors, and someone to call them weekly. And what we found was the greatest need of our seniors was to be needed. We have seniors who want things to do that are vital, that matter, that make a difference."
Pat Evans' skills as a seamstress make a difference to Karon Chance. Evans, 77, does almost all of the Chance family's mending, which leaves Karon Chance more time to build her catering business.
Now, Chance believes she has brought Evans a real puzzle. The backing of a cherished old quilt is shredding. It needs to be removed and replaced. But for Evans, it's no problem. As the two women pore over the quilt, Evans explains what kind of replacement fabric will be needed and a couple of different stitching techniques she could use.
There's nothing like experience. Evans has been sewing since she was 10 years old: made her own clothes, her wedding dress, her late husband's sport coats, her kids' clothes. Now she lives alone and sews for her fellow members of Community Connections. Karon Chance says that has benefited both of them in ways they hadn't planned.
"Sometimes we just catch up and talk about the dog and about the flowers," she says. "Pat and I might never have crossed paths if it weren't for Community Connections. And now I've made a friend."
That is an unexpected dividend of credits in the time bank.


text:
Kashmiris being Forced to Give Up their Struggle: Hurriyat (m)
8:14 pm April 25, 2016
Terming the "oppression and harassment" of the people of Kashmir by the government as aimed at "forcing them to give up their on-going just struggle", Hurriyat Conference (m) Monday said tactics like using "black draconian laws and massive presence of its forces to commit human rights violations in Kashmir" was not going to cow down the people of Kashmir and make them to give up their legitimate struggle.
Expressing grief and sympathy with the families of five civilians killed in the firing by forces in Handwara and Kupwara recently, a high-level delegation of Hurriyat led by APHC-m's senior leader and Executive Council member, Bilal Gani Lone said these killings were an example of the high handedness of the government.
He said, "the pro-Indian political parties were shedding crocodile tears in order to do their petty politics. The people of Kashmir understand everything."
Expressing solidarity with the victim families on behalf of the entire Hurriyat leadership, Lone said their sacrifices offered for a great cause would not go waste.
Meanwhile, condemning the continued confinement of a 16-year-old Handwara school girl in police custody, a Hurriyat (m) spokesperson said this was a gross violation of human rights and by keeping her in custody like that has made her vulnerable.
Previous articleRegularly, 80 Students being Summoned @ PS Parimpora: Hurriyat (g)
Next articlePlantation Drive, Inter-Coy Volley Ball Tournament Inaugurated at APC Zewan


text:
Q: FLTK Exif data from an image Is there a fltk class/function that deals with extracting exif data from an image? Is there code or any commands? Ive searched all over the internet, and could find nothing.

A: No, there is no such class in FLTK, and probably there will never be. Dealing with Exif data should be in another library that deals with image formarts, not a GUI toolkit.
What I would do if I were you is this: Link my FLTK application with Magick++ (http://www.imagemagick.org/Magick++/) and use ImageMagick C++ API to manipulate Exif data.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
« Summer Procrastination Fails | Main | Teaching Legal History »
Applied Legal History and Law Office History
Over at legal history blog, Karen Tani's been kind enough to post some questions about my post on "applied legal history." Karen asks some important questions about "applied legal history," such as "Is 'applied legal history' a useful term? Is it a nice way of saying 'law office history'? Is applied legal history to legal history perhaps what public history is to history, or does it have greater ambitions?"
I want to take up some of these issues. I think applied legal history is a way of describing what a number of us are already doing -- that is, it's a way of talking about what has motived a number of legal histories of late and of also explaining what we are doing to our colleagues. First as to the description. I think applied legal history is scholarship that is inspired by contemporary issues or seeks to address some contemporary issue. It can be something very directly engaged in a current debate, such as the work on the meaning and context of the second amendment in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Saul Cornell and David Konig are two scholars who have both done a lot of work that is directly engaged in a contempoary legal issue. Here I might observe that sometimes people refer to historical work that's aimed at responding to an immediate legal issue as "law office history" -- as in historical work performed in a law office for advocacy purposes. The phrase "law office" highlights that it is both advocacy-oriented and unlikely to be good history. What is very different about Cornell's and Konig's work on gun regulation is that it's actually really good history. They ask questions that are not solely about advocacy; they put questions into context. That kind of work admits what contradicts the arguments the lawyers who use the scholarship are making. Another example of this is the work by Paul Halliday and G. Edward White on the English law of habeas corpus in the eighteenth century and the suspension clause. Closely related to this scholarship may help us understand the context in which statutes were enacted and how, thus, to interpret the statue. I'm thinking, for instance, of work on section 1981, like Robert J.Kaczorowski's "The Enforcement Provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1866: A Legislative History in Light of Runyon v. McCrary" in the Yale Law Journal back in 1989; and Carry Franklin's recent work on Title VII also does this, among others.
Often, though, applied legal history is a more abstract -- or less applied. I think there are several kinds of this other work that is serious as historical scholarship, but also directed in some ways -- sometimes obliquely -- to contemporary issues. A second branch of applied legal history normalizes (or in some cases destabilizes) some contemporary practice by showing that it has antecedents -- I think of Larry Kramer's popular constitutionalism, Richard Posner's very early work on the economics implicit in nineteenth century tory law, and perhaps Peter Karsten's work on the humanitarian basis of nineteenth century tort law. And I'd also add the work that Sarah Luddington, Mitu Gulati, and I did on repudiation of sovereign debt in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There's a lot more one could add here, including work that shows that judges in the early 20th century and even in the 19th century had a dynamic sense of constitutional interpretation; G. Edward White's work on the Marshall Court and Cultural Change may be an example of some of this -- at least to the extent that it shows how judges in that era, close to the founding, looked broadly for historical and theoretical guidance on interpretation of the Constitution.
A third -- and exceptionally broad -- category of applied legal history scholarship looks to "how we got where we are now." I'm thinking for instance of Felicia Kornbluh's work on poverty and welfare rights in the 1960s, The Battle for Welfare Rights. (And I think Karen's work on Flemming v. Nestor fits here, too.) There's a lot of this kind of literature, which is really terrific history -- Linda Gordon's Great Arizona Orphan Abduction is an example that looks back to the conflicts between miners and their employer in early twentieth century Arizona, but opens with a question about why there are such poor employment and living conditions among Arizona miners today. Along parallel lines, David Tanenhaus' The Constitutional Rights of Children recovers the context of In re Gault and teaches us, in that way, about the state of juvenile justice now. David has linked legal history -- from the establishment of juvenile courts in early twentieth-century Chicago to procedureal rights of juveniles -- to immediate social policy in several op-ed pieces over the years, such as "From a Second-Chance Kid to a Hero" in the LA Times, and just last month, "The Roberts Court's Liberal Turn on Juvenile Justice," in the New York Times.
I think there is a fourth category of a "useable past" -- which are examples of how people have remade the law. Again, Felicia Kornbluh's work comes to mind -- as well as Ken Mack and Tomiko Brown-Nagin. This is now pretty far from the core of applied legal history, but I think what often motivates that kind of scholarship is at least some desire to show how people outside of the traditional seats of power have thought about law and used it, and remade it. And maybe therein lie possibilities for inspiring more activism -- but even if not that, in letting us know that positive legal change happens in many ways. That literature legitimizes activism and also change.
The Perils of "Applied Legal History"
More ominously, Karen also raises the possibility that a focus on applied legal history will make (shall we call it) "pure" legal history look descriptive rather than normative. I'd go beyond Karen on this. I'm worried that focus on "applied legal history" may highlight that "pure" legal history doesn't relate much to the issues that our law school colleagues care about most. As someone who's spent a lot of my career writing about things like seventeenth century legal thought (and here), jurisprudence in pre-Civil War graduation addresses (and here), how landscape art in the pre-Civil War era illuminates property law, proslavery legal thought at Southern colleges, and the critique of southern jurisprudence in anti-slavery fiction, I am keenly aware that legal historians spend a lot of time on issues that many of our colleagues are likely to find irrelevant -- even if quite interesting. Of course I deeply respect -- and think it important that we produce -- work of "pure" legal history. That kind of work helps us understand how legal thought and legal practice relate to culture, for instance. There are some great examples of work that appears at first having very little relationship to contemporary concerns that are still incredibly important. One of my favorite examples along these lines is Morton Horwitz' Transformation of American Law. Though even that book was inspired by the 1970s controversy over law and economics. So while it's about the pre-Civil War era, it's also about the ways that economic thought infiltrated judicial thought. And there may be some important contemporary implications of Horwitz' findings. We should continue to write on "pure" legal history -- but I think we need to be prepared to defend why we are doing it. Talk of applied legal history may be a relatively easy way of demonstrating to colleagues the importance of our work; there are other ways of demonstratinig that as well. The utility of legal history scholarship is a topic I plan to return to later.
So far I've largely been naming works off the cuff; next up in this series of posts will be an attempt to work towards a bibliography of applied legal history.
The first illustration is of a pre-Civil War law office in Eutaw, Alabama, from the Library of Congress' Historic Buildings Survey. The second illustration is of a law office in Powhatan Courthouse, Virginia.
Posted by Alfred Brophy at 12:06 AM in Legal History, Recent Scholarship | Permalink
Great post. I think hands down that the best legal scholarship I've read has been legal history work. I instantly think of Klarman's From Jim Crow to Civil Rights. That might be pure legal history or maybe your third category, but I'm not certain how you'd categorize it. I've done (and am doing) some applied legal history but I never refer to myself as a legal historian. Maybe I should blog about that.
Posted by: Brando Simeo Starkey | July 24, 2012 at 11:52 AM
You should blog about this, Brando -- would be particularly interested in hearing how you think Klarman fits into this.
Posted by: Alfred Brophy | July 24, 2012 at 01:16 PM


text:
CPBD 056: Jesse Prinz – Emotions and Moral Judgment
by Luke Muehlhauser on July 18, 2010 in Ethics,Podcast
Today I interview philosopher Jesse Prinz. Among other things, we discuss:
Are moral judgments anything more than emotional responses?
If so, what does this mean for what is right and wrong?
What about Sam Harris' TED Talk about morality? Is he right?
Download CPBD episode 056 with Jesse Prinz. Total time is 1:07:16.
Jesse Prinz links:
Jesse Prinz
Prinz, The Emotional Construction of Morals
Prinz, Gut Reactions: A Perceptual Theory of Emotion
Prinz, Furnishing the Mind: Concepts and Their Perceptual Basis
Moral psychology, meta-ethics, and normative ethics
Prinz, "The Emotional Basis of Moral Judgment"
Alice Isen
Joshua Greene
Implicit racism testing
Marc Hauser and John Mikhail
Non-cognitivism
Prinz, "Can Moral Obligations Be Discovered Empirically?"
Sam Harris' TED Talk and upcoming book on morality
Previous post: Am I Sexist? (index)
Next post: Seven Types of Objectification (part 1)
Rob July 18, 2010 at 4:20 am
Great stuff, Luke. Hope you continue to expand and enrich your — and our — purview to include more folks from experimental philosophy and moral psychology! Looking forward to your interview with Doris.
Steve Maitzen July 18, 2010 at 6:50 am
I found the philosophically most interesting part to be Prinz's defense of cultural relativism about ethics (toward the end of the interview). The example he used, the treatment of females in Saudi Arabia, is instructive. Much of what passes for deep or intractable moral disagreement may in fact be, or stem from, disagreement over nonmoral issues. Most Saudis believe (or say they do) that there's a God who created males and females for different purposes, that God decreed the subordination of females to males in important ways, that God designed females mainly to make babies and serve males, etc. Don't those (including Saudis) who object to Saudi treatment of women and girls tend to deny all of those nonmoral claims, especially the last two? Where there's agreement on the truth or falsity of those nonmoral claims — and they are, after all, objectively true or false — there tends to be agreement on the moral attitudes. I think this fact bolsters moral objectivism.
Steve Maitzen(Quote)
lukeprog July 18, 2010 at 7:03 am
I'm tempted to argue against the notion of One True Theory of Morality, and say that there are such a wide variety of uses for moral terms that there is room for more than one true theory of morality. For example, I suspect there is more than one true theory of 'art' or 'love', each corresponding to a different common use of the term. Jesse can put forward his evidence that a great many people do acknowledge the emotional nature of moral judgments, and he can say that if we then define moral claims in terms of emotional judgments, then his brand of moral relativism is true, given his definitions. In fact, I doubt it would be hard to show that it was true.
In response, I would want to say that there is a 'more maximal' sense of morality using a slightly different set of definitions for moral terms that is also true. That is desirism.
Atheist.pig July 18, 2010 at 7:17 am
Great interview, I've heard Jesse Prinz talk before and find his ideas persuasive. But I also found his defense of cultural relativism at the end slightly disheartening, although it might depend on whether he was speaking from a "Philosophers" perspective or a "Scientists" perspective.
Atheist.pig(Quote)
anon July 18, 2010 at 3:34 pm
If I heard him right, Prinz said something like this:
If we were to discover that an alleged disease was caused by different viruses, we would conclude that it was not a genuine disease, and that there are really two different diseases.
I thought that the received view was exactly the opposite. Hilary Putnam, for example, says this:
Some diseases, for example, have turned out to have no hidden structure (the only thing the paradigm cases have in common is a cluster of symptoms), while others have turned out to have a common hidden structure in the sense of etiology (e.g. tuberculosis). Sometimes we still don't know; there is a controversy still raging about the case of multiple sclerosis. An interesting case is the case of jade. Although the Chinese do not recognize a difference, the term 'jade' applies to two minerals: jadeite and nephrite. Chemically, there is a marked difference. Jadeite is a combination of sodium and aluminum. Nephrite is made of calcium, magnesium, and iron. These two quite different microstructures produce the same unique textual qualities! Coming back to the Twin Earth example, for a moment; if H2O and XYZ had both been plentiful on Earth, then we would have been correct to say that there were two kinds of 'water'. And instead of saying that 'the stuff on Twin Earth turned out not to really be water', we would have to say 'it turned out to be the XYZ kind of water'. To sum up… the local water, or whatever, may have two or more hidden structures—or so many that 'hidden structure' becomes irrelevant and the superficial characteristics become the decisive ones.
anon(Quote)
Bryan R July 24, 2010 at 8:35 am
Is the download link broken? It brings up an error for me
Bryan R(Quote)
Weird. Internet archive broke the file somehow. I'm re-uploading now.
Bryan R July 24, 2010 at 12:57 pm
Thanks Luke! It works now.


Julia's childhood friend, alter ego, and romantic prospect is the opposite of everything Julia stands for. He drives Julia as crazy as Kellie does with his belief in otherwordly stuff.
Julia blames her parents' divorce on her workaholic mom. She buries her pain by hanging with BFF Kellie at the mall and putting on an above-it-all face for the world.
These superbeings have wondrous powers that range from conjuring images of Julia's dead grandfather to slipping between time and space.
A terrifying corporate overlord with supernatural powers who secretly rules digital communications all over the world and commands an army of ruthless minions.


I thought his reasoning was confused at the time and still do. Essentially, he did not believe in angels because he did not think them necessary. Of course, the fault in his logic is that nothing created exists by necessity. All creation exists by the will of God and nothing can lay claim to necessity. Creation does not need to exist.
It is also correct to say that God does not need to exist – there is no necessity in God – His existence is pure freedom.
To speak of things as unnecessary or of God's lack of necessity is very troubling. We often have an interior sense that things which do not exist by necessity may therefore not really exist at all. It is only natural for a child to have a sense of fear and insecurity when they come to an age to realize that their own existence not only had a beginning, but that they need not ever to have existed. It's similar to the fear of death.
Such things are logical problems and the fear of them is rooted deep in the fears that haunt humanity.
At the heart of these problems is the problem of freedom. St. Paul says, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" 2 Corinthians 3:17. We are also taught in the Scriptures that "God is love" (1 John 4:8). These are not separate understandings – for there is no love except love exists in freedom. That which is by compulsion is not love. Believers are invited into an existence that is rooted in love and freedom not necessity. Such an existence is the very basis of what it means for us to exist as persons.
All of this sets us in a place that can feel very insecure. We frequently prefer necessity to freedom and compulsion to love.
Those who argue against the existence of God remind me of my friend who found the existence of angels unnecessary. Many people have the experience described by St. Paul in Romans 1, in which the existence of God is easily inferred from the very existence and order of creation. But St. Paul does not describe such an experience as "necessary." In our modern world such "necessity" would not always seem obvious. Moreover, such necessity is not immune to doubt.
The movement from a necessary existence to an existence grounded in freedom and love is a difficult journey for most people. The lack of compulsion (which is also a lack of violence) seems untenable in the world. People fear that without compulsion the world becomes far too dangerous. Compulsion can restrain evil, but it cannot make evil be good.
To use the word "unnecessary" with regard to God is not to say that we can exist without Him. It is to say that to exist with Him, in the fullness of life to which we are called, is to live beyond necessity and to embrace God in freedom and love.
There are realms of speaking of God where words do not serve well. As you pointed out, it is not necessary for God to be spoken of in culture and languages; He is above both. Your attempt is honourable.
What a thought-provoking blog post. I have to say that I agree with you—it seems as though that pastor was a bit confused; his reasoning certainly doesn't convince me! This line of yours touched me: "His existence is pure freedom." It touched me because of its truth and its complexity. Thank you for writing this post and for making me think.
Surely the course of Judaeo-Christian history (esp. as recorded in scripture) should put to rest the notion that there is anything efficient about the way God chooses to act in the world.
This cupola says more about heaven than almost anything I can think of (and it does this with so little blue too).
I thought the color in the dome was most interesting. We're in the middle of renovations in my parish, thus I'm thinking a lot about colors (and church interiors) lately. This is a most striking Pantocrator!
That not believing in Angels thing is weird for a pastor/minister to say. Was he a Unitarian or something? As for me, I believe in Angels, and I love what you say about God not being 'necessary' but of being pure freedom.
He was an Anglican priest friend – he later came to accept angels think better of his theory.
"I thought his reasoning was confused at the time and still do. Essentially, he did not believe in angels because he did not think them necessary. Of course, the fault in his logic is that nothing created exists by necessity. All creation exists by the will of God and nothing can lay claim to necessity. Creation does not need to exist.
I think your friend was right for the wrong reasons. I do not believe in angels because there is not a shred of evidence to support their existence.
(or angles in this case) are rather necessary to mediate in such instances of divine revelation.
You illustrate my posting very well. A shred of evidence would indeed grant them the "necessity" that we fearfully seek about everything. Of course, it would seem that eye-witnesses are apparently insufficient. I know a good number of eye-witnesses, and even more ear-witnesses. But do not take that as necessarily so. I couldn't prove it to you.
In purely ontological terms there is nothing that distinguishes humans from angels. To deny one is to completely lose sight of the other.
Father John Hainsworth's excellent podcast series shines some interesting perspectives on this difficult subject.
Fr Stephen, I think you are right on point with this thought! I've often had the same objection to these types of thinkers: existence is not a matter of necessity. I'm glad to see we came to the same conclusion.
I think you are a bit confused. The necessity of angels is irrelevant.
You do not believe that djinns or unicorns exists I guess, not because they are unnecessary for the universe to run, but because there is no good reason to believe that they exist.
There is simply no evidence that these magical beings exist.
The same can be said about angels.
Your eye-witnesses and ear-witnesses testimonies would be interesting to read about, but unfortunately there are already hundreds of eye-witnesses of aliens and none of these testimonies lead to any serious evidence to support their claims about aliens.
I do not believe in aliens, despite the descriptions of encounters. I do not know what to make of the descriptions but I do not think aliens is the explanation. I do accept some accounts of angels – though I hold them to be incomparable to the experience of aliens – it's a very different claim. The descriptions of djinns within Muslim tradition would for me, fit the description of demons within Christian tradition, therefore I remain open-minded.
Unicorns, leprechauns, dragons, (and some other stuff) I personally would entertain a playful openness towards – though most of the believers I know would find me "over-the-top" on that list.
I clearly am asserting the reality of things that exist for which you would claim "not one shred of evidence." I am also asserting that there exist some things that do not have the characteristic of evidentiary reality – but not because they do not exist – but because they do not exist in the manner or mode that is not necessarily subject to such evidence. I am also asserting that there are some things that having such evidentiary material would be superflous in the matter because such evidence would not and could not yield the mode of knowledge which would be useful.
You simply assert things exist and bring no evidence to the table. It's not very impressive.
I'll leave you and your fans alone now.
Who would have though the cross of Christ to be so neccesary and indeed, that it stands as an eternal sign of God's generosity?
In Orthodoxy there is a very suble interplay between the cataphatic and apophatic.
It took me years to really believe this. What a joy to finally understand and have the peace of that freedom and love!
Sorry for your disappointment. You asked no questions other than "where's the evidence?" "Evidence" already asserts an understanding of the universe (for which you offered no "evidence." I asserted an alternative view of the universe. But you had already "rigged" the game. Doesn't work very well.
I do not know of any other view of the universe other than the one you point to and which Pascha is its true dawn.
The Jinn occupy a curious part because they neither partake nor profit in it. In the Islamic tradition I am told, it is because they could not bow before (a) man.
Materialists such as Phillipe confound me. I don't understand the voluntary truncation of one's own being that such a view makes necessary.
Praise God that he did not wait until most of our wonderful faith and world was not "necessary" as I sit here in the beautiful New Mexican desert beneath a turquise colored sky with magnificent puffs of white above me…………. So unneeded for the world but so filling to my thirsty soul.
This reminds me of a recent conversation I had with a Protestant friend who was sincerely wrestling with taking some intitial steps towards the Orthodox Faith. It is not surprising that when talking about some aspects of Orthodox Worship he said he understood the "purpose" of them, but then quickly had to add that they are not "necessary" for which I assume he meant "for salvation." It is sad that the Protestant Faith has lost so much and been so fragmented to the point that they all must look to the lowest common denominator or "mere Christianity".
Fr. Stephen, another excellent post. I'm fine with Phillipe's skepticism and his demand for evidence, and paraphrasing Bp Ware, I'd imagine that God likes honest disbelief better than fake belief. We know that humans are different than rocks, and, even though human consciousness isn't measurable, it's obvious that it's there somehow, somewhere. The demand for evidence presupposes the existence of consciousness and reason to apprehend the evidence.
"Believers are invited into an existence that is rooted in love and freedom not necessity." Again, as the marriage vows and Christ's relationship to the Church….
The Will of God that seems to "in" today is the will of command, of compulsion, violence. But God desires our coming into and be-ing, it is God's freedom, his own freedom, that loves us into be-ing, into beings. All beings, in our case, human beings. The god the world desires is the God of compulsion, of restraint of evil which would be a god doing violence to the freedom of his own beloved creation.
Thank you. Thank you. Again…. and again.
Wow! What more can I add to this?! I'm blessed by your post. Thank God for this revelation of freedom.


Mostly for commercial premises, vertical blinds offer a very practical light and privacy control, more than most of the other type of solar shading systems. But this comes with a price, as they have small and many parts, they can be very easy to damage We assist homes and business with vertical blinds repair, cleaning and made to measure branded vertical blinds.
We offer from stock and own production replacement vertical blinds tracks, matching slats, new chains and cords, vertical blind cleaning and electric tracks. Due to the design of the vertical blinds tracks, the repairs come, some of the times as a less cost effective option in comparison with track replacement.
If you have a quality vertical blind, it's worth repairing. If it's a standard average make, we would recommend replacing for extended warranty and life span.
For small projects involving vertical blinds repairs we offer over the phone / email by reply quotes, assisted with some description of the problem, some measures and quantities and some assisting photos were possible.
For commercial or medium to large projects we offer free on-site survey, with advice and options based on budget and expectations.


Silicon Valley Homes continue to appreciate – just look at that bottom line up over 20% since last year at this time. Consequently, many buyers have to cast a wider net to find affordable homes near the Silicon Valley. Scotts Valley, Santa Cruz and San Lorenzo Valley areas offer relatively more affordable homes still within about an hour's commute of the Silicon Valley. One of my specialties is helping people relocate here!
With an average home prices around $650,000, the small towns that make up San Lorenzo Valley are a little known secret, offering a variety of relatively affordable homes for Silicon Valley's employees. We are less than an hour's commute from Apple or Alphabet/Google. Los Gatos mountains offer an even faster commute, Scotts Valley has dedicated express and company buses, The city of Santa Cruz is just 15 minutes further, with beaches, nightlife and shopping.
PRICES If you're shopping in the $800,000 to $1 million range, you can buy a lovely home on property anywhere in the San Lorenzo Valley: from Boulder Creek to Ben Lomond and Felton. In our lovely small city of Scotts Valley home prices are holding steady at an average of $1.1 million. In the more populous city of Santa Cruz home prices rose again…while Los Gatos Mountains home prices dipped slightly: a short term anomaly as the mix between higher end and average properties changed briefly. As you look at the chart, remember some of these micro markets (Lompico and Brookdale) have so few home sales, that percentage changes aren't statistically significant. And Felton home prices simply reflect a rare quarter where there was only one Felton home sale priced over $1 million.
DAYS ON THE MARKET The Silicon Valley housing market is fast paced with an average of less than two weeks on the market before going into escrow with a buyer. Santa Cruz County homes are on the market between a month and 45 days on average. Some of the million dollar plus properties may to take a bit longer to sell. Most Santa Cruz County home sellers who intelligently price their properties will see faster results. Many Santa Cruz County homes receive multiple offers within the first 2-3 weeks, especially the more affordable homes priced below or near the average.
SANTA CRUZ COUNTY'S APPEAL Many people from the Silicon Valley are enchanted when they discover Santa Cruz, with all our parks for hiking, horseback riding and mountain biking! There are dozens of beaches, from crowded to serene. The Santa Cruz lifestyle is informal and we cherish the slower pace. There's more room to spread out, and consequently lower stress, crime rates and smog. So many people tell me they enjoy driving through the mountains to work, rather than sitting in traffic and spending a lot more money to live in Santa Clara County.
Inventory Blues dissipated a bit as spring rains give way to sunny skies. Across the board, more homes have been listed in each area. Still, these charts show between a few weeks to a couple of months of inventory. A real estate market that's balanced between buyers and sellers usually has around six months of inventory. A month of housing inventory means that, if no new homes were listed, all the homes on the market would theoretically get sold within a month. This keeps upward pressure on prices.
CURIOUS WHAT YOUR HOME IS WORTH? Visit www.HomeValues24-7.com for a quick and easy estimate! If you're thinking of selling, I'll help you evaluate cost effective ways to make your home appeal to the most buyers. My customized marketing plan is exceptional: contact me to discover why I have so many repeat clients like these.
LOOKING FOR YOUR DREAM HOME? Click here! I'll help you secure financing, negotiate with the seller, review disclosures and potential red flags, attend inspections with you, and…hand you the keys!
REAL ESTATE MARKETS ARE LOCAL The advice of a knowledgeable local REALTOR®, who can intelligently discuss neighborhoods and price trends, is invaluable. Select someone you can trust, who has enough time to dedicate to you!
INTEREST RATES & ECONOMY The San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley job market continues its brisk expansion, with two to three dozen new residents per day according to the Mercury News, while new housing construction falls farther behind The unemployment rate of about 2% locally (4% nationwide) has finally translated to higher wages for some. Housing affordability isn't getting any better though, since earnings growth is slower than the increase in home prices across most of the region.
The economy grew at a rate of about 3% during both the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2017. Inflation is still low (2 to 2.5%), but the Federal Reserve's concerns led them to increase the base interest rate for the sixth time in March. 30 year fixed rate mortgages rates rose to from 4% to 4.5% over the past few months, still historically low. While that ½% increase, plus rising home prices, pressures entry level buyers, the mid and luxury markets are still strong here.
Tax reform changes are working their way through the system…the new limits on mortgage interest, sales tax and property tax deductions will affect whether some California homeowners decide to sell their homes to upgrade or downsize. Look for a proposition on the November ballot where California homeowners can move their property tax basis across counties within the state. This could make it easier for people to sell and move! While many of us were concerned the SALT cap on tax deductions might inhibit luxury home sales, there's been little sign of any slowdown.
I'd love to help you buy or sell your home. Your home is your castle; I'll treat you like royalty!
Click here to look at homes for sale or sign up for your own custom home alert.
Sources: MLSListings.com (Single Family Residences), Reuters, Inman News, REALTOR.org, ActiveRain.com, Mercury News. Month to month home sales prices fluctuate widely in small communities and cities, especially when property sales range between million dollar estates and fixer upper properties. Because of this, percentage and average price changes often aren't statistically meaningful for short time intervals. *All stats as of April 18th 2018: MLSListings.com single family residences only.


text:
CARWIZ rent a car confirms global expansion at the WTM London
New rules in the rental industry market- companies which excel in everyday business, take care of clients and support their partners, successfully achieve their business goals.
At this year's WTM in London, Carwiz, a global rent-a-car company, confirms the success of their franchise business model, which they offer in 15 countries around the world.
The current situation in the industry shows that despite the demanding market and a growing number of competitors, companies which excel in everyday business, take care of clients and support their partners, successfully achieve their business goals. The quality of franchise management and the support which Carwiz offers, have been recognized as the main condition of company growth. The interest for Carwiz's franchise model from around 20 countries confirms this:
"The interest shown comes from European, American and even, to us, exotic far away lands thanks to the service we offer our partners- from everyday contact no matter the time difference and mentoring, up until their full independence, a phase we support from the background. The anticipated expansion by the end of this year is to 20 further countries. A big number of partnerships has been achieved thanks to our visual identity, which has proven to be very popular, and the success we've achieved in just 2 years of doing business while establishing ourselves as the front runners of the industry. " said Dobrilović about the events happening during the WTM.
Carwiz team with franchise partners from Greece
Interest from countries such as Qatar, India, Mauritius, the Dominican Republic, Florida and Azerbaijan, shows that a global brand can improve local business and its importance while achieving bigger sales, i.e. Carwiz's global brand presence indicates that the price is not the most important market factor.
Carwiz team with franchise partner from Malta
The Carwiz Croatia team was joined by franchise partners from Greece, Serbia, Iceland, Malta, Poland and Turkey, pointing out their contentment with given support, system upgrades and service refining. The WTM is an opportunity for franchise partners to exchange experiences, establish new contacts and also represents the beginning of a new season, 2020.
World known WTM in London has presented trends, challenges and innovation, gathering key members of the travel industry. It is estimated that more than 50 thousand people visited this year's WTM, including business presenters, agents, investors, media, and even ministers, senior official and key stakeholders from around the world.
We are popping open the New Year's bubbly for good reason: the long-term goals set at the beginning of the year have already been achieved!
Romania - a new Carwiz destination for your travels
Carwiz International gains another south-eastern Europe partner.
Our proven franchise model of business expanding to the USA
We're continuing our global expansion with a new partnership in Florida
Changes in our working hours
Have a look at our schedule and see the new working hours of your favourite office
Icerental4x4 takes home "The Strongest in Iceland" award
Our Icelandic partner, Icerental 4x4, is the recipient of this years' prestigious excellence award
Janko Popović Volarić is the new face of CARWIZ rent a car
Janko Popović Volarić has recognized flexibility, simplicity and efficiency of a business rental in a new acting role.
CARWIZ rent a car signs deals with three powerful international companies
CARWIZ rent a car, a Croatian company, signed new franchise agreements, expanding into Ireland, Malta, Iceland and Poland.
An international rent a car brand of Croatian quality presenting at the prestigious 40th WTM in London
Our successful franchise network business model will be presented from the 4th to the 6th of November at one of the biggest events within the travel industry.
Carwiz places a franchise business model in Iceland
Carwiz has signed a contract with Icerental4x4, thereby placing a franchise model of business in Iceland, the 11th franchise country for Carwiz.
Is business transparency more important to a client than the price?
A challenge most users of the rent-a-car industry face is lack of business transparency, an element more and more important when it comes to building relationships and client loyalty.
Gelasakis group officially signed a partnership with Carwiz International
Gelasakis group, whose core business is travel, maritime services, and hospitality, have officially signed a partnership with Carwiz International, Croatia's first branded rent-a-car, earlier this year.
Carwiz is the first Croatian rent-a-car operating in the Asian market
By signing a contract with Dongbo Air Services, we've become the first Croatian rent-a-car which has, by following current trends, recognized the value of the Asian market when it comes to global tourism development.


text:
Cup Tea Bar & Cafe looking to reopen with a McDaniel focus
TOPICS:Atticus RiceFeaturesThe CupWhere in Westminster
A pre-renovation storefront covers the welcoming inside of Cup Tea Bar & Cafe at 1 E. Main St. in downtown Westminster, Md. (Photo courtesy of Traci Malinoski).
Posted By: Atticus Rice, Co-Editor-in-Chief January 5, 2019
Cup Tea Bar & Cafe hasn't served a customer since Oct. 14.
The popular 1 E. Main St. haunt was originally scheduled to close for a month for much-needed renovations. After the initial deadline was pushed back, Small Business Saturday seemed like a perfect grand re-opening.
Now, McDaniel students might have a shot to beat customers back to the Westminster area when they move in for the spring semester.
"We would love to have a grand opening at the start of the spring semester," owner Traci Malinoski said, "and we're hoping for a soft opening weeks before that."
Though the cafe stopped accepting McDaniel Bucks last year due to costs associated with the program, Malinoski and her husband and partner Tash Otto still hold McDaniel central to their mission.
Students can still come in with their McDaniel mugs typically given out during New Student Orientation to get a free cup of tea, and Malinoski and Otto are looking into other student discounts and programs.
"One of the main things we want to do is get a better relationship with the students," Malinoski said.
She expects to start holding regularly scheduled open mic nights with an emphasis on student work.
The Cup is also looking to employ more McDaniel students once they reopen, and has considered staying open later on Thursday nights.
"When you're in a college town, it's so important to be integrated," Otto said.
They also plan to reopen with more allergy-friendly options.
"Not only do we have the gluten free and vegan options," Malinoski said, "but also we're so versatile with adding or subtracting things from your entree. We'll do whatever when we can."
They're also looking at more paleo options.
"We want to be something unique as far as what we offer," Malinoski said. "[We have] an extensive menu of soups and salads, as well as alternative options."
Despite the setback in construction, Malinoski and Otto have remained optimistic over the last few months.
"We are part of this community, this is what we do," said Otto. "We're anxious to get back to work."
Working on Westminster's Main Street wasn't always the plan for Malinoski and Otto, however.
Though Malinoski always knew she wanted to own a cafe, she didn't think the Cup would be that cafe when she started working as a server in 2015.
"I figured it was maybe something that would happen when my kids were out of the house," she said.
Malinoski worked her way up at Cup, quickly becoming the cafe's top server.
"I fell in love with [founder] Lora's [Andrews] whole thing," she said. "I also fell in love with the tea. Her passion just became mine."
Then, two years later, Malinoski's daughter Bethany joined her mom on staff for her first job. The Sykesville family had found a new home in the Westminster corner store.
So when Andrews told her staff in May 2017 that she wouldn't be able to continue running the business, Malinoski was shocked.
"I think a lot of people were," she said.
The night before, Bethany told her mom she should open up her own place.
Naturally, Bethany pushed it some more on their way home from work the day Andrews broke the news.
Otto was all in, too.
"His immediate response was 'Why don't we take over?'," she said.
The next few weeks were a whirlwind for the family, as Otto puts it.
"By June 1, it was 100 percent family owned, by another family," he said.
"It was kind of an unexpected opportunity when it happened," Malinoski said. "It seemed like the right thing to do in so many ways."
And for the most part, she's been right.
Malinoski knew all the operations from her serving days, and Otto had experience running a number of previous storefronts.
She also loves to bake, a skill that helped in the transition of ownership.
"I always have," Malinoski said, "so that was another thing that helped when I made the decision [to take over.]"
With nearly a year and a half of ownership experience under their belts and two months of closed doors, Malinoski and Otto can't wait to reopen.
The tea bar, where customers can sit and talk with staff, will be back, along with a revitalized dining area.
"Much more spacious than before," said Otto.
"Newer, fresher, but still with all the warmth that we've always had," Malinoski can assure customers upon their reopening.
Nicholas Kahn: Economically eclectic
What's for Dinner: Eating Outside of Glar
Arts, Arts & Culture, Home
Picasso at the Lapin Agile
Home, News
Rich Goodman moves to CEO as associate director of career development


text:
Apple forced to preemptively disable its iWatch 'Walkie-Talkie' function after discovering flaw that could let people LISTEN IN to others' devices
Apple has disabled its Walkie-Talkie app after discovering a vulnerability
Using the the push-to-talk feature, users were able to listen in on other devices
The company says it has not documented the bug being abused by anyone
Walkie-Talkie will remain disabled until the company fixes the flaw
By James Pero For Dailymail.com and Press Association
A nascent Walkie-Talkie app in the Apple Watch has been disabled by the company after an unspecified vulnerability that allowed people to listen in on others' devices.
As reported by TechCrunch, Apple says there's currently no evidence that anyone exploited the flaw -- which was reported directly to Apple through its bug portal -- before Walkie-Talkie was taken down.
'We were just made aware of a vulnerability related to the Walkie-Talkie app on the Apple Watch and have disabled the function as we quickly fix the issue,' said Apple in a statement.
'We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and will restore the functionality as soon as possible.'
The 'Walkie-Talkie' app that enables Apple Watch users to engaged in push-to-talk style voice chats has been disabled after the discovery of a privacy flaw
WHY DID APPLE DISABLE THE APP?
Apple has disabled its 'Walkie-Talkie' app for the Apple Watch after a vulnerability was discovered.
The flaw let users listen into other people's devices without them knowing.
After being reported through Apple's dedicated portal for bugs, the app was disabled until it's fixed.
The company says it has not documented any cases of the flaw being exploited.
Details of the vulnerability have not been reported.
Apple's Walkie-Talkie feature is a relatively recent addition to the Apple Watch and allows users to send other contacts invites that enable push-to-talk style voice chats.
The feature was first announced in 2018 at the company's annual developer conference and uses a version of FaceTime Audio to connect users.
Those old enough might recognize the technology from a long-defunct brand of Nokia flip phones that let users push a button to record and send other Nokia users a walkie-talkie style voice snippet.
According to Apple, as a precaution the company will keep the app off of its device until the bug has been resolved.
'Although we are not aware of any use of the vulnerability against a customer and specific conditions and sequences of events are required to exploit it, we take the security and privacy of our customers extremely seriously,' said the company in a statement.
A never-seen-before species of lizard is found INSIDE... Men who have facial cosmetic surgery are seen as more... Reddit crashes for HOURS leaving thousands of users around... Ancient bird that lived 99 million years ago had a...
'We concluded that disabling the app was the right course of action as this bug could allow someone to listen through another customer's iPhone without consent.'
Earlier this year, Apple temporarily disabled its Group FaceTime calling feature after a glitch was discovered which in some cases enabled people to listen in on someone they were calling even before the call was answered.
A fix was issued for the bug shortly after it was discovered.
Apple disables 'Walkie-Talkie' after discovering flaw that let people LISTEN IN to others' devices
Google is listening too: Firm admits its Assistant records private conversations without users' knowledge and workers listen to them


48 Fitness is a brand owned by Angel Wellness Pvt Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of Angel Broking, India's largest Retail Financial Services group. Vijay Thakkar, a diehard fitness enthusiast & "Fitness Encyclopaedia" to friends, is the knowledge & thought behind it. 48 fitness brings a world class health and fitness experience by adopting a 360 approach which incorporates various training modalities such as functional training, weight training, 3-dimensional training and cardiovascular (like running & cycling). 48 fitness claims that the facility has equipment that have never been seen in the country before.


DB's latest analysis confirms that US housing price stabilization is now taking place (as predicted here back in January) as inventories continue to decline. The chart below shows the ratio of homes for sale to the total number of households.
DB: - Much of the economic data has taken a turn for the worse over the past few months, but the housing sector data has largely proved resilient in the face of a sputtering labor market and mounting economic uncertainty. The housing sector fell into decline sooner than the broader economy ahead of the 2007-2009 recession, and it took longer to regain traction. However, our analysis indicates that the excesses of the "housing boom" have been largely eliminated, whereby a lasting recovery can proceed so long as overall economic momentum and income growth are not disrupted in any meaningful way.
The fact remains that new home construction is proceeding at half the rate it should be to keep up with growth in the number of households. The inventory of new homes is now at the lowest level since this data series was started back in 1963.
Again it is important to point out that this improvement in the US housing market is a result of falling supply due to demographics rather than improved demand driven by the economy. And certainly rising rents coinciding with rapidly declining mortgage rates (affordability) make the choice to buy a home that much easier.


text:
Chasing the Phoenix
A Science Fiction Novel
READ AN EXCERPT →
Tor/Forge
Chasing the Phoenix: a science fiction masterpiece from a five-time Hugo Award winner Michael Swanwick!
In the distant future, Surplus arrives in China dressed as a Mongolian shaman, leading a yak which carries the corpse of his friend, Darger. The old high-tech world has long since collapsed, and the artificial intelligences that ran it are outlawed and destroyed. Or so it seems.
Darger and Surplus, a human and a genetically engineered dog with human intelligence who walks upright, are a pair of con men and the heroes of a series of prior Swanwick stories. They travel to what was once China and invent a scam to become rich and powerful. Pretending to have limited super-powers, they aid an ambitious local warlord who dreams of conquest and once again reuniting China under one ruler. And, against all odds, it begins to work, but it seems as if there are other forces at work behind the scenes. Chasing the Phoenix is a sharp, slick, witty science fiction adventure that is hugely entertaining from Michael Swanwick, one of the best SF writers alive.
Author Blog
MACMILLAN NEWSLETTER
Sign up to receive information about new books, author events, and special offers.
Third year, summer, first month, of the royal year. The Hidden King killed his brothers so that there might be no rivals for his throne and continued his preparations for war. In that same month, a stranger unlike...
READ THE FULL EXCERPT →
Praise for Chasing the Phoenix
"Veteran fantasy readers will recognize Swanwick's duo as descendants of, and a tribute to, Fritz Leiber's beloved old sword and sorcery stories of an equally larcenous duo named Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, but Swanwick's snappy dialogue and satirical barbs are entirely his own." —Chicago Tribune
"The intellectual puzzles keep interest right to the end." —Publishers Weekly
"I am so hopeful that we have not seen the last of Surplus and Darger." —The Nameless Zine
"Swanwick seems to delight in pinning his heroes into exquisite conundrums that they, in turn, deeply appreciate having to find their ways out of." —Locus
"It's entirely possible that SF needs more rapscallions (they're a bit more baroque and sophisticated than mere rascals), and fortunately Michael Swanwick has taken up the challenge. With only a handful of stories, his raffish duo of Darger and Surplus have become perhaps the most infamous con men in the field since their spiritual ancestors, Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser." —Locus
"Swanwick deftly weaves myth and historical fact together to create an intriguing dystopic mystery whose resolution will elude readers until its final pages." —Shelf Awareness
"This book is like a breath of fresh air, witty and imaginative and just plain goofy fun." —Booklist
"Michael Swanwick, multiple Hugo and Nebula Award winner, is a masterful guide to the bizarre and hilarious adventures of Darger and Surplus. He keeps all the elements moving, susp… More…
"Michael Swanwick, multiple Hugo and Nebula Award winner, is a masterful guide to the bizarre and hilarious adventures of Darger and Surplus. He keeps all the elements moving, suspending disbelief like a talented juggler. Not simply funny, this book sparkles with genuine wit. SF has seen many con artists; Darger and Surplus are a supreme example. Here's to more adventures for the pair." —Analog Science Fiction and Fact
"A grand, high-flying style no working sci-fi author captures better than Swanwick." —Open Letters Monthly
"Darger and Surplus, stars of Dancing with Bears and a handful of short stories, are sure to appeal to fans of classic Fritz Leiber and movies such as The Man Who Would Be King. The exotic locale adds interest, and readers will laugh as they watch the protagonists dig themselves into and out of endless sticky situations." —Library Journal
"Witty, supple, artfully humorous, and vastly engaging." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Michael Swanwick is the winner of five Hugo Awards for his short fiction. His several novels include the Nebula-winning Stations of the Tide, the time-travel novel Bones of the Earth, and the "industrial fantasy" novels The Iron Dragon's Daughter and The Dragons of Babel. He lives in Philadelphia.
Beth Gwinn
MORE BLOG POSTS →
Tweetsby @tordotcom
Tweetsby @torbooks
{{/if}} {{#if imprint}}
{{imprint}}
{{/if}} {{#if publisher}}
{{publisher}}
{{/if}} {{#if isbn13}}
ISBN: {{isbn13}}
{{pages}} Pages {{#if ages}}, Ages {{ages}}{{/if}}
{{/if}} {{#if audio_run_time}}
Audio Run Time: {{audio_run_time}}
{{/if}} {{#if retailers}}
{{#each retailers}}


text:
4386 items matched your search for "University of Massachusetts"
Section All Bay Area & State (80) Business (168) Connecticut (149) Education (71) Entertainment (171) Lifestyle (79) Local (163) News (2830) Opinion (126) Sports (485) Type All Article (4267) Slideshow (104) Blog Post (14) Author (1)
Ben Lambert, Reporter
January 1, 2023 | Ben Lambert
A graduate of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, he has worked for the Valley Advocate, MassLive and The Register Citizen.
Outgoing New Canaan police chief says his goal remains protecting 'our most precious resource, our kids'
December 30, 2022 | Grace Duffield
Also, Krolikowski received a bachelor's degree from the University of Connecticut and a law degree from Quinnipiac University School of Law. ... The chief also earned an MBA from the University of Massachusetts.
Community news: New Canaan
Lin recently passed the Ph.D. qualifying exam with distinction in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Yale University of Public Health. ... She is a 2018 graduate of the University of ...
Greenwich High photographers win University of Massachusetts competition
Greenwich High photographers win UMass competition Staff reports GREENWICH — The works of five Greenwich High School photographers have been selected as winners in the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth's ...
New Canaan Chamber Music concert having musicians perform
May 6, 2021 | Staff
She currently teaches in the graduate program at Stony Brook University, in Stony Brook, N.Y. ... In 2016, Arron joined the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, after having served on the faculty ...
Horizons honors graduating seniors
Bankwell, together with contributions from the Horizons Family Council, gifted graduates a new piece of luggage filled with essentials to help prepare them for the next step in their educational journey. 100 ...
Cardiologist gives New Canaan Men's Club healthy heart tips
February 7, 2020 | New Canaan Advertiser
Cusack studied medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and had her residency at Brown University Rhode Island Hospital.
Teens invited to church youth rally
August 9, 2017 | New Canaan Advertiser
Some are on a mission trip at Catholic Heart Work Camp in Boston, while others are attending the Steubenville East youth conference at the University of Massachusetts.
Obituary: Derek Petch, 55, formerly of Pound Ridge, N.Y.
July 24, 2017 | New Canaan Advertiser
Derek attended Fox Lane High School and graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a degree in mechanical engineering. His first job after graduation from the University of Massachusetts was with a wind ...
Doctor speaks at New Canaan Library event
January 26, 2020 | New Canaan Advertiser
Raza is the Chan Soon-Shiong professor of medicine and director of the MDS Center at Columbia University in New York. Previously, she was the chief of Hematology-Oncology and the Gladys Smith Martin Professor of ...
Silver Hill names new medical director / president
November 16, 2018 | New Canaan Advertiser
Gerber is an associate clinical professor in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Columbia University, an adjunct associate clinical professor at the Child Study Center at Yale University, and an ...
Y aquatic team seniors to compete at collegiate level
Athletes include: Aquianas Synchronized Swimming Team: Emmanuella Tchakmakjian — Stanford University Caimans Swim Team: Patrick Colwell — U.S. Naval Academy Bennett Ehret — Washington & Lee University ...
Lisher named Distinguished New Canaan Man
May 15, 2019 | New Canaan Advertiser
He was asked to speak at a 10-state regional Telehealth conference at the University of Massachusetts in 2017.In a parallel Telehealth program for seniors, Lisher was on a multistate team securing funding for a ...
Obituary: George David Reynolds III, 66
As a meteorological and environmental consultant, he spent a number of summers on the Canadian arctic islands of Devon, Bathurst and Ellesmere, managing field work for the Universities of Massachusetts, Guelph ...
Obituary: Robert L. Mushkin, 79
October 6, 2018 | New Canaan Advertiser
He received his B.A in History and Economics from the University of Massachusetts in 1961 where he was a member of the Theta Chi Fraternity, Vice President of his 1961 class and a member of several academic and ...
Obituary: Thomas Coster Scott III, 61, brother of resident
August 21, 2015 | New Canaan Advertiser
Tom attended Northfield Mount Hermon boarding school and Harvard University in Massachusetts.
Police chief to discuss state of department
A longtime New Canaan resident, he is a graduate of the FBI National Academy, has a law degree from Quinnipiac University and is a 2013 MBA candidate at the University of Massachusetts.
Obituary: William A. Saunders, Jr., retired Army colonel, NCHS Class of 1966
He graduated from New Canaan High School in 1966, was a graduate of the United States Military Academy, West Point, N.Y. and received his M.B.A. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Obituary: Rolf Oscar Gullans, 89, father of residents
He attended the University of Massachusetts on the G.I.
Obituary: Gordon Nelson, 88, community volunteer
Continuing his education, he attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received a master of science degree in chemical engineering in 1951. ... Gordon is survived by his wife of 65 years, Janice, Joyce ...


As per the new estimate of World Health Organization (WHO), Air pollution is the world's single largest environmental health risk that caused 7 million deaths in 2012, 80% of which were from heart attacks and stroke.
Air pollution ranges from cooking fires to auto fumes.
Biggest pollution-related killers: heart disease, stroke, pulmonary disease and lung cancer.
Hardest-hit regions: Southeast Asia viz. India and Indonesia, and the Western Pacific, ranging from China and South Korea to Japan and the Philippines.
Indoor air pollution: The global death toll is 4.3 million deaths, caused by cooking over coal, wood and biomass stoves.
Outdoor pollution: The global death toll is 3.7 million, with sources ranging from coal heating fires to diesel engines.
Outdoor air pollution caused by car exhausts, power stations, emissions from agriculture and industry, heating in people's homes (Group 1 carcinogenic, a cancer causing agent in the same category as tobacco smoke, UV radiation and plutonium).
Note: Its' first time, WHO has directed a link between air pollution and heart disease, respiratory problems and cancer. The latest figures of 2012 are more than doubles from the previous estimates of deaths caused by air pollution in 2008.


A cliché is like a bad apple.
How can an author tell if his work is cliché-ridden, with the obvious phrases and also the lesser known culprits? There are a number of websites that list them, I liked this one.
In the following paragraph, I have included several of the more blatant offenders, and some others maybe a bit more obscure, but just as annoying.
For all intents and purposes, clichés should be avoided at all cost. Your readers weren't born yesterday and by and large, most readers know the score, and clichés won't pass the sniff test. It's the same old, same old. Been there, done that. You'll bore them to tears. If you must use a cliché, take the plunge and mix it up. Twists and turns on clichés can be your ticket to success. Let this be your wakeup call. Overuse of clichés is a very real concern. You don't want readers thinking it's the same old story, a broken record. Instead, think outside the box. Time and time again, art imitates life. What's not to like, about understated elegance? To my way of thinking, it's a perfect storm. Your readers will get your drift, but your writing will be fresh as a daisy. It's easier said than done, I know, but hang in there!
Wow. That was painful. I count 28.
For all intents and purposes, at all cost, born yesterday, by and large, know the score, pass the sniff test, same old same old, been there done that, bore them to tears, take the plunge, mix it up, twists and turns, ticket to success, wakeup call, a very real concern, same old story, broken record, think outside the box, time and time again, art imitates life, what's not to like, understated elegance, to my way of thinking, a perfect storm, get your drift, fresh as a daisy, easier said than done, hang in there.
There is software available which allows you to insert your book text and it will count the number of clichés and overused phrases it finds. This paragraph would have probably exceeded its capacity, an "out of bounds index" or "too many inputs" or "an unknown error has occurred". I especially like that last one.
2. Recognize that it is a cliché and make a reference to it. In one case, when a person of dubious authority refers to a bunch of other people as "losers", one of the other people says, "Isn't that the pot and the kettle thing? Being called a loser by her?" The speaker knows it is a cliché and refers to that, thus implying that he is above saying something trite.
3. Sometimes it seems good to use clichés in dialogue. People use them, it's the way we normally speak. In a moment of anger, when a woman is being accused of not being committed enough (and this is after forty bad years), she says, "When does it become okay to throw in the towel? On my death bed?" I think it is appropriate to use this here. She was angry, it expresses what she felt at the moment. If I had avoided it, I'm not sure it would have been as effective.
4. If there is any doubt whether to use a cliché or not, don't.
With clichés, when push comes to shove, you're caught between a rock and a hard place, because at the end of the day you are never quite sure whether to go with the flow or take the ball and run with it.
This entry was posted in Cliches, Editting, The English Language, Writing and tagged boomer-lit, Cliches, women's fiction, Writing by Lynn Schneider. Bookmark the permalink.


So Blade and Soul (BaS) by, NCSoft, is having a closed beta weekend. AND I happened to receive a free code for this weekend only. If you wanted to join the Beta Weekends you would have to pay at LEAST 25$ USD for a soon to be free to play online game. Lets just say its a bit of a rip off, having to pay for something when you can wait to play the game for free when it comes out. However, they need to make money somehow, and provide technical support for the game and other services. Anyways, Blade and Soul (BaS) will have the option to pay to play, possibly will be more of a "pay to win", subscription service. I do not appreciate that anymore, having to subscribe to play. I have played WoW for quite a while, and with the new expansion 'Legion' coming out, I am done with it. Guild Wars 2 (GW2), has my attention, due to only having to pay for the game only once, and having the option to pay for content that tends not to give advantages in game. You could go and buy a bunch of stat boosters, however it is not much different than other items you can get in game for free. The main point here is that GW2 allows you the option of using real money or not to purchase in game content that is only really for style than function. It is also more affordable, and just as fun. I may try BaS again, however if you are on a budget and want to play a MMORPG, GW2 is likely the best from my experience.
Back to BaS, the controls are less point and click and encourages you to use the keyboard more than most other MMORPG games. There may only be a fraction of the keyboard used for combat, however there seem to be a ton of possible skill combos and some skills that will pop up when certain requirements are met. Quite unique to me. Personally, I like this type of control style, compared to point and click, which usually have the option of using the keyboard for skills in combat as well. I tend to want to click the skill panel to activate it, BaS just so happens to open up another play style. It was a great break from my usual gaming.
The graphics are typical NCSoft, very detailed character models, and world graphics try to look realistic and then just look awkward at times (Note that the game is in Beta stage). Still the graphics are good, and the animations are amazing. I choose to try the Blade Dancer class, and found the animations very cool. During the weekend, since I have other important things to do, I only had time to try the one class. I did like the story, and then realized EVERY character that you make goes though the same story line and the same quests, which can get very boring if you want more than one character.
I received this beta code for free this weekend. These are my observations so far. I am likely to provide more information if I get another chance to before the game comes out. Otherwise, if your interested, you will have to wait till early 2016. Sorry… I also have some screen capture which I will add as I have time to edit the raw captures.


In a world filled with happiness and a bit of chilly weather. In a world filled with glee. The feeling, not the TV show. In a world filled with rainbows and one little cup of ice. There is only one thing a person can do… Vape It! Vape The Rainbow Ice E-Liquid by Humble Juice Co has somehow taken that slightly chilly rainbow world and fit it into a 120ml bottle. The inhale will have you wading in a cool fruity sorbet pond. The exhale will have your tongue bathing in frosty rainbow candies. The experience will death defying. And a little bit cold.
Vape The Rainbow ICE E-Liquid by Humble Juice Co 120ML has a rating of 4.5 stars based on 2 reviews.


Paint the town red at the hot, hot, hot slot – Lucky Hot! The premium game comes from the experts at EGT, one of the best game developers in the business. You will notice the genius at work in most every aspect of the game, from its design to its bonus features.
You will play the Lucky Hot slot on 3 reels and 5 pay lines, like how you would play at arcades if you lived in the golden age of Las Vegas. And if you have been playing for quite some time, the symbols on the reels will instantly spark your fancy. You will find a medley of fruits, such as cherries, lemons, oranges and plums. You will also find other vintage icons of bells, bars, stars and sevens. All of these visuals have a fresh coat of hot red paint to crank up the degrees – of fun, that is!
Lucky Hot is a classic slot at its finest. Gameplay is simple yet can fill up your pockets, and fill them up fast! The 5 pay lines stay in place, with 3 running horizontally and 2 going diagonally. In other words, you will get a good chance of landing a winning combination for a 3-reel slot game.
Once you notch a line of bell symbols, you will boost your line bet multiplier to 5x. Lines of fruit will pay you 40x the value of the bet per line. Bar icons will play 60x. Stars will play 200x. Sevens will pay the biggest multiplier of a whopping 750x!
Play Lucky Hot slot now by placing your bets. You can choose from 5 options for your bet, namely 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100. With just a little bit of luck, you could crack as much as 15,000 credits!
Lucky Hot is the kind of gift that keeps on giving the more you play the game. Don't miss out on a red-hot streak – play now!