Have you noticed lately the increased amount of celebrities on Instagram striking a strong resemblance to the Phantom of the Opera? Don't worry – it's only the latest Korean Beauty trend that has swept the world off its feet.
Say hello to sheet masks – in particular the Seoulista Beauty sheet masks.
When even Justin Bieber himself posts about his experience with them, you know this trend has gone pop. Try the Seoulista Beauty sheet mask One Time and you'll be sure to Love Yourself afterwards.
Lol. Apologies for the pun, is it too late now to say sorry?
OK. I'm done. Back to the task at hand.
It's a well-known fact that South Korea is the epicentre of new beauty technology – so it's no surprise that they started the sheet mask trend and the rest of the world has followed suit, with many UK brands coming out with their own version.
What's different about the Seoulista Sheet Masks, is that they are actually made in South Korea and created and tested by Dermatologists. This combination is sure to result in the most amazing face mask ever created, right?
In the name of investigative journalism, I tried them myself to find out.
As an avid face mask user, I was intrigued to try the Seoulista Sheet Masks I had heard so much about.
I was lucky enough to get my eager little hands on 4 of the sought after products; Super Hydration, Brightening, Correct & Calm and Charcoal Detox.
As I sceptically opened the very 'instagrammable' package, and slapped on the serum-soaked mask, an immediate wave of freshness hit my face.
It was like I could feel the mask working.
You can never really tell straight off the bat how effective skincare treatments are as it's recommended that you use them weekly to see any real differences in your skin, usually.
But after 20 minutes of wearing this mask and frightening my entire family with the Freddy Krueger-like appearance, I noticed that my skin appeared significantly brighter.
My skin felt 'awake' and the mask managed to help hide the fact that I've been tired since 2010.
P.S there is NO WAY you can make this look attractive, I learnt the hard way.
Personally, I highly recommend that you use this mask a few hours before you apply your makeup as it will help provide an even base and your skin will shine through your foundation, giving you that natural glow.
Feeling hopeful, I tried the rest of the masks so I could provide a full review of the product (over a few weeks of course).
-The Super Hydration Mask left my skin super hydrated.
-The Correct & Calm Mask corrected and calmed my skin.
-The Charcoal Detox Mask left my skin feeling detoxified (if that's even a word).
Overall, they do what they say on the tin!
Reminder: Don't forget to take off the mask before you answer the door to the delivery man!
Next postIt's getting HOT in here..


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Fox's Bret Baier Puts DNC Chair on the Spot: 'How About Letting' Fox News Host a Debate?
"So you're saying there is a chance?"
Image Source: Fox News
In response to a Fox News request to host a Democratic debate, a Democratic official bobbed and weaved, but didn't outrightly refuse, either.
Fox hosted Democratic National Committee chair and Florida congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz on their Thursday evening program during which anchor Bret Baier asked her whether she thought one of the Democratic presidential hopefuls could be a "candidate of change."
At the end of their conversation, Baier posed a provocative question:
"You've had six debates so far and I think you have four more on the books. How about letting the Fox News debate team handle one of those?"
"You know," Wasserman said, "we have got a lot on our plate and I'm really happy to be here with you on your network - there aren't a whole lot of Democrats who come on, and I always look forward to our conversations, Bret, and look forward to sparring with you and some of your hosts all the way through the campaign."
Baier pressed further:
"So you're saying there is a chance?"
Wasserman Schultz replied, "I'm saying that I'm here, ready to talk to you about the issues and will do so all the way through this election cycle."
"Okay, I'll take the hope part of that," Baier said.
(H/T: Fox News)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Charoen Thani Princess Khon Kaen Hotel is a fabulous four star hotel located in the middle of Khon Kaen's commercial and entertainment area. Combined with abundance of international standard hotel facilities and the traditional splendour of the north-east, Charoen Thani Princess Khon Kaen Hotel provides guests with luxury and style. Charoen Thani Princess Khon Kaen Hotel is nestled amidst a rich variety of history, nature, shopping and adventure making it the ideal hotel for both business and pleasure travellers alike.
Charoen Thani Princess Khon Kaen Hotel is the perfect place to stay and explore the regal magnificence of Khon Kaen. Luxurious amenities set in a cultural style at Charoen Thani Princess Khon Kaen Hotel will provide hotel guests with all comforts. Hotel guests are provided with a choice of three room types and a suite. Charoen Thani Princess Khon Kaen Hotel features a variety of culinary delights at its many restaurants. Klang Muang Café offers Thai specialities while the Tycoon Chinese Restaurant serves mouth watering Chinese dishes. Entertainment, casual snacks and drinks are all part of this wonderful experience offered at Charoen Thani Princess Khon Kaen Hotel. Its discotheque, karaoke bar and lounge meet the entertainment needs of guests.
Hotel guests can mix exercise and pleasure at the Aerobic class. For an invigorating workout the Charoen Thani Princess Khon Kaen Hotel offers a fully equipped Fitness Centre.
Charoen Thani Princess Khon Kaen Hotel features meeting rooms with ample space and state of the art equipment for the hotel guests. Coupled with efficiency and courteous service of Charoen Thani Princess Khon Kaen Hotel, guests are assured of a successful event.
Countless Khon Kaen attractions such as <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Tao Village, Non Muang archaeological site, Prasat Puai Noi and Phrathat Khamkaen are located within close proximity to Charoen Thani Princess Khon Kaen Hotel.
Contemporary conveniences infused in to the traditionally, elegant interior of the guest rooms at Charoen Thani Princess Khon Kaen Hotel await the guests. 214 Superior rooms, 38 Deluxe rooms, 35 Corner rooms and 33 suites are featured at the Charoen Khon Kaen Hotel for the guests to choose from.
The following services and facilities are provided by the hotel for the convenience of guests.
Nine meeting and banqueting rooms with the largest room, 'Srichan I' measuring up to 429 square metres are featured at the hotel.


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Interview With Mollie Hughes, a Mount Everest Record Breaker.
This is a special guest blog written by my dear friend and fellow world traveler, Tommas A. Coldrick. Tommas had a chance to interview Mollie Hughes, a British woman who set a World Record on her ascent of Mount Everest...and now is doing it again.
I recently heard that Mollie Hughes was set to break yet another mountaineering world record. I had to sit down with her to find out what was motivating her to take on the highest mountain on Earth, for a second time.
How and when did you become interested in mountain climbing, and what made you decide to climb Mount Everest the first time?
At the age of 17, I took part in a school expedition to climb Mount Kenya in East Africa. I quickly became hooked on mountaineering and knew from then that this was going to be something I would do for the rest of my life.
Throughout the remainder of school and university I would save up as much money as possible in the term time by working part time jobs along side my studies. Then, during the summer months, I would head off on an expedition to far-flung mountain ranges across the world. I have been lucky enough to climb in the Himalayas of India and Nepal, the Andes of South America, the Atlas mountains of North Africa and closer to home in the European Alps and the mountains of the UK.
My Everest ambitions materialised when I was in my final year at university. I wrote my dissertation on 'the Psychological experience of climbing Mount Everest'. For this project I interviewed seven climbers who had all successfully summited Mount Everest. I looked at their motivation, their ability to control fear, their self-belief and the psychological pressure they faced. It must have only been half way through the first interview that I decided that I didn't want to just write about this mountain, I wanted to climb it for myself. I spent the next 12 months sponsorship hunting, climbing and training. I eventually reached the summit of Mount Everest at 8am on the 19th May 2012, becoming the Youngest British Woman to do so.
After already completing the challenge once and breaking the record of being the youngest British woman to ever climb Everest, why do you want to do it a second time?
Since writing my dissertation on Everest, climbing it in 2012 and spending so much of my time now presenting about the experience, Everest has become such a huge part of my life. However, I feel like I have only experienced half of the mountain. In 2012 I climbed from the South side of the mountain via Nepal. But there is this whole other side of the mountain, I haven't seen or stepped on. I would love to explore this side of Everest, which is steeped in so much history. If I'm lucky enough, I'll reach the summit once again and look down on the south side of the mountain where I spent those two months in 2012.
No British woman has yet to climb Mount Everest from both of these routes. Therefore, if I'm successful in 2016 I will become the First British Woman to climb Everest from both sides and also the youngest non-Sherpa at the age of just 25.
Women are still so greatly underrepresented in adventure and outdoor sports. Completing this challenge will enable me to inspire women across the UK, and hopefully the world, that they too can achieve their wildest ambitions.
What are you doing now to prepare for your second Everest climb?
Training-wise, I live in Scotland so it is easy to get out and into the mountains for a long days hiking or rock climbing. As soon as winter comes I will be up there as much as possible. I think training works best when it's as specific as possible. So you can't beat long days out in the mountains with crampons and ice axes.
Alongside this I am training in the gym, strengthening the muscles I will be using on Everest.
I'm guessing that climbing Everest isn't free. Is there a fee involved?
Yes, absolutely! Mount Everest is a very expensive mountain to climb. I need to raise £30,000 ($48,000) to enable me to climb Everest in Spring 2016. This is to pay for the permits from the Chinese government and all the logistics on the mountain; the food, the tents, the oxygen and the support of our Sherpa team.
How can people get behind this adventure and help you reach your target?
I'm currently CrowdFunding to attempt to raise the funds. I need to find 3,000 generous people to believe in my project and each donate £10 ($16). If I manage that, then I will reach the target! On my CrowdFunding page I've made a campaign film and outlined some great rewards for anyone pledging their support. You can check out my page here- http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/everest-from-both-sides-first-british-woman
I'm also on the search for businesses to partner with on this expedition. I'm aiming for companies who would like to use this unique marketing opportunity to publicise their business, through my expedition to become the 'First British Woman to summit Everest from both Sides'. There are many exciting and exclusive opportunities highlighted on my CrowdFunding page and website, here- www.molliehughes.co.uk.
You work closely with charities in Nepal. What charity will be benefitting from this next expedition?
Through my expedition I will be raising awareness and publicity for the charity 'Supporting Nepal's Children'. The charity was founded in 2012, by some friends of mine. It aims to bring quality education to remote Nepali villages, so that their children can flourish, learn new skills and create opportunities for themselves. The charity provides a 'hand-up', not a 'handout'. You can check out their website here- http://www.supportingnepalschildren.org.uk
What was the scariest part of the first climb, and what are you most nervous about with the second climb?
One of the scariest parts of the route on the Southside is as soon as you step out of Basecamp, the Khumbu Icefall. This is a section of the glacier with huge towering blocks of ice the size of houses, monster crevasses 4 or 5 meters wide and unstable searches looming above you. I'm glad I don't have to climb through there again on this attempt.
However, summiting Everest from the North will present me with many different challenges. The North route is significantly colder and windier than the south side of the mountain, and when climbing from the north I will have to spend more time above 8,000m in what is known as the 'death zone', an altitude so high, (third less oxygen than sea level) life cannot survive for long.
What do you think about while you're climbing?
Anything and Everything. During such a long two-month expedition you have a LOT of thinking time. Life is simple and you don't worry about the everyday things we spend so much time doing at home; like checking emails, doing work or surfing social media. It's a great way to put life into perspective.
Of course there are some risks that come along with mountaineering. Do you take that into consideration, and if so, what makes you want to pursue the challenge?
As a mountaineer you understand the risks of climbing these big mountains, and there are plenty of risks- from avalanches, to storms or altitude sickness. But you aim to control them as much as you can with your experience as a mountaineer. Though sometimes even the best climbers in the world get unlucky; that's just part of it. The amazing things I experienced on Everest the first time, completely outweighed the risk; from the sunsets and the sunrises, to the shadow of mount Everest you see etched onto the stratosphere as you approach the summit, first thing in the morning.
What's it like at the summit?
It's an incredible place. At 8,848m you are just below the cruising altitude of a jumbo jet. The views are breathtaking, on your right-hand-side you see the whole of Tibet sprawled out, and on your left-hand-side you see the whole of Nepal There are mountains as far as the eye can see, and you are higher than every single one of them. Don't get me wrong, you feel completely mentally and physically exhausted. It's not somewhere to hang around for long, being the most exposed place on the mountain. But it is definitely a very special place.
You can also follow Mollie's record-breaking progress by following her Facebook Page
Written by friend, teacher, and fellow traveler, Tommas A. Coldrick
Juliet Mountaineer link
I'm not a huge mountaineer myself especially in climbing the highest mountain but reading your blog about Mollie Hughes is such an inspiration. She just empowers woman to do extreme sports such as mountaineering.


text:
The Sound Won't Stop
New And Notable
An Interview With Daniel In The Dark
A new double sided single release from Daniel in The Dark hits that desert rock vibe with fuzztone guitars, swing rhythms, and a load of youthful energy.
"Long Climb" is the side A and it swims with affected guitar sounds, and flowing vocals with an incredible range of notes and a hard hard hitting chorus that sticks with you hours later.
Layers of guitar work fill the ether of the song and creates a unique atmosphere as you get engulfed by the tracks swagger and style.
At any given time there are melodies that embed themselves in your brain and the song boasts a killer alternative grunge crossover sound at times.
The single is packed with harmonies and a bright and perfected sound that brings all the hooks you can handle.
The second single is dubbed "No Help" and it's got even more flair to it as the hook starts right at the top and you find yourself moving to the song's groove and spanish guitar undertones.
These songs have a staple sound that Daniel In The Dark has claimed as his own and it's completely addictive to say the least.
Fans of Queens Of The Stone Age will fall in love with these songs at first listen.
With such a great release, we wanted to have a chat with Daniel In The Dark to find out where it all comes from.
TSWS: Okay so let's start with "Long Climb". This track has that fuzz undertone along with it's alt rock feel. Where did this song come from?
DITD: A lot of my writing starts with bass guitar and then it kind of morphs from there. With Long Climb, I wanted it to start off very chaotic and wind up lots of tension before releasing into the verse. The bottle of cheap wine I drank while working on it probably deserves most of the credit. The song was mostly made in one night. When I woke the next day and listened to it, I thought, "this isn't complete shit." So, I worked on it some more. This is pretty much my standard writing process.
TSWS: I'm certainly hearing some great rock styles in here. Who are your biggest musical influences?
DITD: I'm all over the place with influences. I learned guitar as a kid by playing along to The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Peter Frampton, Jimi Hendrix, and Seattle bands like Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, Nirvana... When it comes to vocals, I'm a big fan of Jim Morrison, Neil Diamond, Mike Patton, and Jeff Buckley. I'm a huge Radiohead fan, but I don't think my sound inherits anything from them. I don't think I sound much like any of the music I listen to. I'm not sure how that is.
TSWS: Are you playing all the guitars and singing on this as well?
DITD: Yeah, all the instruments are me. It's easier to write and record at 2am in your underwear without offending bandmates if you don't have any bandmates. My dog is present, but he doesn't judge. Actually, I think he does judge, because he's smug and pompous.
TSWS: How did all of this start for you?
DITD: It's been a very long road with a long break between the beginning and now. Years ago my brother and I moved to LA from Michigan—I dropped out of high school. He sang and I wrote all the music for a band we formed. We got discovered by Jeff Timmons from the boy band, 98 Degrees—weird match, I know. He was developing us and arranging for us to perform showcases for record labels—back when that was a thing—and then 9/11 happened. Our drummer was from New York and it really hit him hard. He left the band to go be with family in New York. Shortly after, my brother and I met John 5, who was playing guitar for Manson at the time, and he had my brother sing on a solo project he was working on. It was being produced by Bob Marlette, who has produced bands like Seether, Avril Lavigne, Ozzy Osborne, Rob Zombie, etc. Bob heard some of the new stuff my brother and I were working on and immediately took us into the studio to record. We got four songs into the album before realizing it was a horrible time to be a new rock band—nu metal was all the rage and we weren't really fans. We felt like we wouldn't be relevant. So, we quit. People thought we were pretty crazy, but I think we chose wisely.
Several years later I moved to NYC and started dabbling a bit with writing new music and playing small venues, just me and guitar. I had a daughter in 2016 and ended up raising her on my own for a good while. In early 2019 I came to LA so she could see her mom and things went a bit awry and I ended up stuck here due to a wild debacle in family court. I figured since I was in LA again, I might as well do music again and make the best of my situation. So, for the past two years I've been chipping away at writing for this new album.
TSWS: What's next for you as an artist? Anything new in the world even now?
DITD: I've taken my sweet time working on this album. My first priority is getting my music out there and finding an audience. The music business has changed a lot since I last partook. It used to be about playing out and building a following that way. Now it's all about social media, I guess.
DITD: Since there's finally an and in sight for the pandemic, I'll be scouting for musicians to form a band and play out. Putting a band together is like dating—a total shit show.
TSWS: What are you doing when you're NOT working on music?
DITD: When not shopping for cheap wine at CVS, I am hanging out with my Siberian Husky, Shasta, and partying hard with my 5 year old daughter. I'm teaching her drums and piano so she can one day become a rock star and afford a top notch old folk home for me. Life goals.
TSWS: Who are you listening to right now?
DITD: The new Tomahawk album has been on repeat. Otherwise, I've been listening to mixes of my own songs so I can wrap up my album. I'm looking forward to not listening to my songs anymore unless I'm playing them live. Tame Impala, also always a good pick.
TSWS: You've accomplished quite a bit with your releases so far. Any advice you would have for other up and coming artists out there?
DITD: If you're spending more than $8.99 on Cabernet, you're destined for failure, both as a musician and in life. Spend money on music gear and promoting yourself, not fancy $15 wine. I'm not sure what will happen when I release my full album, so I don't want to give advice just yet. I'd hate to get sued by artists because I guided them to ruins.
TSWS: Now that things are slowly but surely getting a bit better, will you be focusing on any live performances?
DITD: Definitely. Connecting with a crowd in real time is what it's all about. And venues usually give bands free drinks, so...
TSWS: What sort of things inspire you to write?
DITD: For me, music is therapy. I have to write, otherwise I'd go nuts and probably become an ice cream truck driver—no offense to any creepy ice cream drivers reading this. I'm very grateful to have found such an outlet to help keep me somewhat balanced psychologically and emotionally. As long as I still cry at the end of Titanic, I know I'm still okay.
TSWS: Before we go, what would you like to say to fans of the music?
DITD: Because my music is therapy to me, having others connect with it is very meaningful to me. It's like a big squishy hug.
Daniel in The Dark Spotify
Daniel In The Dark Instagram
Daniel in The Dark LinkTree


Another update, for the benefit of the archives.
> alive even after the Zope DA has closed it.
We tried this, but we continued to get the problem.
stopped the problem recurring in each place where the change is made.


My parents were record keepers. Especially my Dad, who worked for 30 years as an accountant for the State of North Dakota. Every time he filled the car with gas, he would write down the price per gallon, how many gallons purchased and the mileage on the car. In his retirement years, he kept a daily log comparing the temperatures in Bismarck with those in Phoenix, Arizona, where my parents had a winter home. I've always thought it was a little much, but I recently came across something that made me glad they kept track of things.
In a box of things I acquired after Dad died in 2008, I found a nondescript black record book. Though I had looked through these things before, the book somehow escaped my notice. With the heading "Family Diary" at the top of the first page, the book contains lists of important dates – birthdays, weddings and deaths – as well as notes about where and when family vacations and weekend road trips were taken. One page details hospital visits. There's even a list of when every kid in the family got eyeglasses!
But the page that I'd like to highlight here is the page titled "Cars", which is a list of every car bought, sold or traded by my parents going all the way back to 1948.
I thought it would be fun to try to find photos of as many of these cars as I could, because for me, the inspiration for collecting toy cars goes back to the real cars that I was around when I was young.
I am the youngest of 10 children and my dad loved to travel, so many of the vehicles my parents chose were big enough to haul all of us kids around while pulling a big trailer for us to camp in.
My brothers, Myron (left), and Ramon (right), with my dad, Donald, in front of the 1950 Plymouth Suburban.
Brothers Ramon, Myron and Joel next to the 1960 Ford Falcon station wagon.
My siblings, Brenda, John, Myron, Tim, Joel, Patty and Carla in front of the 1965 International Travelall.
Dad saved the brochure for his Travelall.
The Travelall brochure includes hand-written notes from the salesman.
I was born in 1966. I have a very early memory of standing up between my dad and my mom on the front seat of our big Pontiac station wagon as we cruised down the highway on a road trip somewhere. If I could have any of these cars now, I would choose the Catalina wagon.
The 1965 Pontiac Catalina wagon with the 1971 Chevy Cheyenne Super pick-up, August, 1972, at Lake Tschida, N.D. The pick-up was new and didn't yet have the camper shell.
This is the camping rig that took me all around mostly the western U.S. when I was young. Myself, Tim, John, Brenda at Sibley Park, North Dakota, in 1974.
Brenda, me, Dad, John and Tim, camping in Hastings, Nebraska, City Park in 1978. A good shot of the Chevy pick-up with the camper shell.
Tim, our niece, Kelly, myself and the N.S.U. Prinz 4 in front of our garage. Dad would park the Prinz sideways at the very back, turning it into a three-car garage!
Dad also saved a brochure for the N.S.U. Prinz.
The 1974 Chevy Vega wagon. Yes, it was white with fake woodgrain panels!
The red 1974 AMC Hornet, about 1978.
1983(?) Chevy Cavalier wagon. Much to my surprise, Dad let me borrow this car to drive myself and a friend and our dates to Senior Prom.
Dad standing by the motorhome somewhere along the highway, about 1984.
The 1985 Chevy Astro Van parked alongside my parent's winter home in Tempe, Arizona.
I rediscovered a box of military toys from my childhood a few years ago. At the time, I was really excited to have found three super-clean, old Matchbox models. Recently, I was reminded by an online post of the series of M*A*S*H vehicles that I had in that box. The long-running TV show was – and still is – a favorite of mine. So I found the box again and this time I photographed everything in it.
First a celebrated movie, then and still a wildly popular TV show, and now, a best-selling toy model series. All vehicles of die-cast metal with plastic parts. Super play value features include folding blades on Supply Helicopter, removable plastic canopy on Ambulance Truck, folding windshield and detachable trailer on jeep. Detailed, durable, injection molded plastic Playsets are based on actual settings found in the M*A*S*H TV Series. Combination of Vehicles and Playsets create a toy model series in constant demand. Blister pack assortment, plus a Floor Display of distinctive design.
As you can see by the following photos, I have most of the series except for the Ambulance Truck and the Supply Helicopter.
Rescue Copter and Helicopter Landing Pad Set.
I also had to photograph the box that all of these items have been stored in for years. The plastic model is long gone, but the box has survived in surprisingly good shape.
When my son was younger, he was all about Star Wars. He watched the movies repeatedly, amassed a huge pile of action figures, several board games and a few costumes. Then, for whatever reason, he moved on. The last time I brought my old Star Wars action figures up out of the basement, he was barely interested.
But with the recent release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, his interest in the franchise has been reawakened. His latest obsession is an iPad game in which he is collecting and trading Star Wars cards online. (Who remembers when trading cards were a tangible thing?) So when I heard him say his favorite character was Greedo, I reminded him that I have one of the original Greedo action figures.
After that, it was all I heard about from him – "Dad, can we go look for Greedo?" – until I went down into the cold basement, pulled out my boxes of old toys, and dug through them to find my Star Wars action figures.
In those days, they had an interesting design for the lightsabers, which could be extended by pushing them up through the character's arm.
Kenner was the toy company that had been licensed to produce toys for Star Wars, which hit theaters on Memorial Day weekend in 1977. Interestingly, Kenner didn't even have the toys on the shelves until 1978.
My Boba Fett was a mail-order figure. I remember it was advertised that his jet pack would fire a rocket, but by the time mine came in the mail, they had decided the firing rocket was a hazard and it was molded permanently into the jet pack. I understand the few that made it to market with the working rocket are fairly valuable.
These first Star Wars figures are arguably the first modern action figures. By making the figures about 3 3/4″, Kenner was able to also produce ships and playsets to scale.
Although I have a nice Star Wars tin that I had offered my son to store the figures, he commented that the box I had them stored in was "cool". I had to explain to him what a cassette tape was.
I put a fair amount of time and effort into trying to drive traffic to my blog. WordPress provides daily stats and I look at them regularly to try to determine what's working and what's not. Sometimes what I find there is not what I would expect.
Yesterday, I noticed a couple of referrals that came from a website I did not recognize. I clicked on the link and found myself on a website called PaintRef.com. "Looking for automotive paint? What's the name of a color? Remembering the first car you ever owned? These questions and more can be explored on PaintRef.com," declares their homepage. So I gave it a try. It's not the most attractive site around, but it's easy to use and it houses an impressive collection of information, with a variety of ways to search. With a few clicks, I had the paint codes in a variety of brands for the Green Gold Metallic paint from my long gone 1973 Chevy Nova.
Now, this is probably not exactly what the guys at PaintRef.com had in mind, but I appreciate the traffic however I can get it. So click on over to PaintRef.com and check out their impressive database – and tell them I sent you.
I recently rediscovered three cars from my childhood collection. They weren't kept in my old race case, but were in a different box full of military toys that has gone unopened for several years. I think I bought these late in my childhood and didn't play with them much, so all three are in pretty great shape.
I even found the two little soldiers and the plastic base that came with the Field Gun. The only thing I'm missing is the plastic ammo that can be fired from the spring-loaded gun.


Evaporative losses from the fuel system are tested for vehicle certification. GASERA ONE SHED allows direct monitoring of evaporative emissions as part of the qualification testing procedures for vehicles. The GASERA ONE SHED's photoacoustic technique us approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
The Sealed Housing for Evaporate Determination (SHED) test monitors evaporative emissions in the automotive industry. Photoacoustic IR spectroscopy (PAS) is used for SHED testing and it is approved by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
Quantitative leakage testing on mobile A/C equipment for verifying compliance with international standards. The photoacoustic technique provides an accurate and rapid result with a high rate of repeatability, even at very low emission rates, such as those that occur at low to moderate temperatures.
The GASERA ONE SHED can be configured for exhaust gas analysis through bag sampling allowing direct quantitative measurements of trace pollutants in exhaust.
GASERA ONE SHED photoacoustic multi-gas analyzer is based on combining ultra sensitive cantilever enhanced photoacoustic detection technology with a widely scanning external cavity quantum cascade laser source operating in Mid-IR fundamental spectral absorption range.
This combination provides an unmatched sensitivity for ppb-level monitoring. Due to the wide scanning range of four gases can be measured selectively and simultaneously.


The young explorer in question is really a true explorer who genuinely loves preparing for an Expedition, doing it and getting back sharing his experiences, but who have decided to put his boots on the shelf.
In truth, in my book, there are few proper explorers out there today. Most of the one´s fighting for a piece of the sponsor cake or a few seconds in the lime light, are in it mainly for their own benefit to become famous and remembered. Which I can understand, but with age have realized how destructive it is. Plus of course they like the adventure. And than they use global warming or "educating" school kids as a way to get sponsor money and recognition. Which I can understand as well, but to make a difference long term you really have to have your heart into the issue to make a difference. My friend who has had enough of this eternal struggle, he had many very good ideas for the upcoming future which could have made a serious global difference, but the strain to support his family and an evil stalker, killed his promising future as an all time explorer.
He had come a good way on the route to establishing himself as an explorer and to support himself, but a personal tragedy plus this stalker, just killed his energy. It is really sad, since we have so few proper explorers on earth right now, just a whole lot of young personality free wannabees who fight for the few sponsorships which are available and who due to this fact, are ready to do whatever to get into the lime light.
I am writing this piece because I really feel sad of this fact and there´s nothing I can do to change the explorers mind. And, worst of all, is the fact how few of these so called friends who where there when things were going well for him and who knew about the stalking and his personal tragedy, who suddenly disappeared and forgot to give him any kind of emotional support. Next time it can be your turn.
So, my advice to young explorers is; Build a very strong base of very good friends within the business and that can only be achieved by being loving, present, supportive and helpful. In good times as bad.
I admire the conviction that has driven you to write this and agree that darkness enters the room whenever someone feels he or she has no other option but to give up on his dreams (or life). We seem to live in an age where the illusion of "fame" and being a celebrity has become the be-all and end-all of most people's existence. It has become common-place that someone is "celebrated" not for their actions of good or real life achievements, bravery or talent BUT solely for the fact that at some moment in time their photograph was taken and this action has been repeated ever since…a face, a fake story and many empty words in a magazine and nothing more of substance.
I am certain many of us have gone through deeply traumatic events or darkness in our lives (and the trauma is not necessarily related to the "size" of the event but rather to the impact is has/had on our hearts, souls and minds) and sadly, I am equally more than certain that most of us have discovered that an old saying in my native language of German holds more truth than ever. The saying goes something along the lines of: 'when the ship starts to take in water the rats are the first to jump ship'. It is a very sad mystery to me why so many people use the term "friend" when they do not want to live up to the responsibility or commitment that goes along with the meaning of this word…and this is not limited to your line of work either. A friend is someone who stands by you no matter what, no questions asked, someone who walks with you through this crazy thing called life and someone who has your back when the going gets tough. Call me old fashioned, but for me this is the real meaning of the word friend. So many people are more than happy to walk alongside of you when the terrain is easy and the sun is shining. They are even more happy to walk alongside of you when you have had to clip then into your karabiner and walk the difficult patch with them (to make them safe, steady and guide them out of their troubles…as friends would do without any question asked)…however, only very few people will repay you this kindness! Most people will run away from you as fast as they can when your life-path starts to enter even just slightly more difficult terrain…never mind them clipping you into their harness when you need just a little bit of help from them…suddenly you will find yourself at the brink of an abyss with no backup and nobody to clip you into their safety-line or harness. It has happened to me many many times and it seems to be a very sad fact in life that exactly this will happen to many more good-hearted people over the world and over again and again.
The old values of friendship seem to no longer apply to way too many people. For them the only one of importance is: they, themselves and nobody else. So, looking at the world from that point of view, it become a sick kind of logic that standing by someone, caring about them even if the terrain gets tricky, telling them: we will get through this old friend, have faith in yourself, seems to suddenly be "too much hassle" [when it was exactly those actions that brought them back to safety in most cases when they needed a bit/or a lot of support themselves]. After all, standing by someone can be hard work and is not exactly glorious…it involves tears, commitment, conviction and faith…in short: not something that gets one into a glamor-magazine the quick and easy way.
It will always remain an absolute mystery to me how such people then can still look themselves in the eyes when they glance at their reflection in the mirror. What do they see in their eyes that is staring back at them?! Not all humans will let you down but (in my humble opinion) most of them will…a real friend is a treasure so much more worth than any gold, diamonds, material goods one can imagine…but they are very hard to find these days. It saddens me deeply to read about your friend, and to read your upset in this story…BUT it sends a light of hope into this world because you still care, you wrote this because you still want to change things and are actually upset about all this…but (in my humble opinion) you are one of the very few old-fashioned people still out there (still left). In this age of "easy come easy go- everyone is replaceable" mentality "hard" work (and friendship can be hard work) seems to be deeply 'uncool'. Your advice is very sound: Don't give up on humans, don't ever feel sorry for giving someone a second chance…but make sure you have real friends in your life (who will catch you when you happen to slip and who will clip you into their biner and harness when the terrain gets tricky)…but life has taught me to NEVER expect to be treated with the same care and kindness oneself has offered to those around (as most times one will be repaid not in kindness at all but rather in malice…as not standing by someone in times of trouble or danger is nothing but cowardice and malice), celebrate life and be free but NEVER rely on too many others as you may find them to be running away from you faster than lightning at the first sign of rain. Rely on your real friends and never lose faith n yourself.
In this small little world of ours it's fairly easy to work out who you are probably referring to and I'm very saddened to hear that he doesn't feel he can continue but I have no doubt that he will find other, maybe less outspoken and public, avenues for expressing his adventurous nature. As Gaynor points out, it's in our blood!
I think the difficulty for many of us is that whilst we have a huge and wonderful community of fellow adventuring friends online (you are one such friend of mine) we rarely meet each other in person. Because we don't meet in person these relationships are ultimately transient. There is nothing like meeting someone in person to cement the bonds of friendship.
When I decided to take a job in London this year as a way of preparing for bigger and better things it didn't take long for me to question my logic. I'd left London some time ago knowing that I didn't want to go back so it was a shock to the system to find myself hurled back into the rat race after a blissfully slow 52 days rowing the Atlantic. But it was a blessing in disguise. This year I finally had the chance to meet many of my virtual friends in person. What were once transient and fairly meaningless online relationships have blossomed into lifelong friendships. And maybe that's the trick – we need to get away from our computers and spend time with each other. I certainly believe it's why the RGS and the expedition community here is thriving. And it's definitely why I look back on the 2007 Atlantic Rowing Race, where I became friends with 21 other crews, as one of the richest experiences of my life.
So to all adventurers and explorers reading this, my door is always open. You know where to find me, and hopefully it won't just be on Twitter!
I completely agree wtih Luna's long comment and your final sentence "Build a very strong base of very good friends within the business and that can only be achieved by being loving, present, supportive and helpful. In good times as bad." This is true especially during these this hard economic times.
Maintaining my silence on this topic has proven futile, and I find myself compelled to offer some thoughts that will hopefully sway a disheartened soul.
Firstly, I would prefer to view the aforementioned condition as "death of an explorer's spirit" rather than a "death of an explorer." It isn't just a matter of semantics because this explorer-protagonist is still very much alive, and I personally refuse to believe that the embers of the fire that fueled his initial desires cannot be rekindled.
Most of us who choose to live within an archetypal explorer's paradigm experience highs and lows and plateaus, as well as periods during which we lean toward forfeiting the lifestyle altogether. For some, it is a tragic event that induces full surrender, for others it is a shift in family dynamics, but for the majority, I believe this resignation is mainly the result of profound disappointment not so much in our own selves but in others associated with the group.
As an observer of this condition, my analysis lays bare the fact that it is the idealists and purists among us who become most gravely disillusioned. We are the ones who strive to live by and uphold the ideals of the *true* explorers – the ones who didn't pursue their summits or goals strictly for fame and fortune. We endeavour to abide by the virtuous principles in an ethical manner, and when we see those principles grossly misrepresented, we can't help but feel that our own integrity has been violated by association.
While I cannot know what led to the "death," or rather the dampening of this particular young explorer's essence, I would like to offer him some perspective. I have been in that same place myself many times, convinced that throwing in the proverbial towel would somehow mitigate my deep disillusionment. That "remedy" only works temporarily, and with time, I realize that it is my duty to confront the actions of those individuals who overtly dilute the legitimate explorers' tenets and lower their standards.
Understanding that many people look upon us as role models, we must also take into account that there are some who view our achievements with envy. The individuals in this second group realize that they do not possess the attributes nor perseverance or discipline to attain similar successes whilst following our credo, so they opt to cheat or find unethical means by which to achieve comparable goals. Although it could be a point of pride that others want to be like us, I find myself angered by the lack of integrity these imposters display. I classify them as explorer-facsimiles even though they make their claims of reaching summits or trudging through jungles or spending time with aboriginal peoples. We know they do what they do strictly to see their names in print as a form of self-promotion and bloviation. Such counterfeit methodology is to me a betrayal of the principles upheld by Sir Edmund Hillary or Ernest Shackleton or Neil Armstrong and others of like stature.
So, it is out of sheer defiance to those pseudo-explorers that, after a period of reflection, I always pull my boots back on and insist on preserving the rightful and bona fide explorers doctrine. We, the purists and idealists, who honour the legacy of the authentic explorers who came before us, and we, who with great respect choose to follow in their footsteps, have an OBLIGATION to lead by example. It is up to *us* to inspire younger generations not to simply pursue their dreams, but to do so ethically and with utmost honor and integrity.
I, for one, refuse to forfeit this battle…. and I hope that my words will motivate this young explorer to reconsider his decision to hang up his boots, and join me in this quest. They cannot win as long as we don't surrender.


text:
Drama prepares for fall play, 'Crumpled Classics'
The WHS drama class is producing Crumpled Classics for the fall play on December 14.
The comedy by Craig Sodaro is filled with modernized versions of classic plays including Romeo and Juliet, Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes, The Legend of Arthur and Phantom of the Opera.
Senior Brendan Duggar said, "I think the audience will enjoy it because since they already know the idea of the classics and the play is just a "modernized" version of the classics with added humor."
The students have been working very hard to pull the play together. They have to memorize their lines and get in character. Freshman AJ Grutsch said, "It's difficult to remember lines but after some time this becomes easier."
One of the most challenging parts of the rehearsal for the past few years is the fact that people often miss the class due to other activities. Director Brendan Praeger said it has been less of an issue than in previous years though. "The 7-period schedule has really made rehearsals better. It was hard to get them to focus for an hour and a half the last few years, but a focused 45 minutes each day has gone well. It's a class that really can't be productive if a couple people are gone though, so that's always a challenge."
Play rehearsals take place entirely in-class, so the students don't have to rehearse after school. "That was a decision I made when I took over the drama program," Praeger said. "Too many of the kids have jobs and other activities, so we need to prepare in the time we have." Changes to the schedule haven't been entirely helpful though. "Drama is at the same time as choir this year, so we lost a few kids. We didn't have enough in class to fill the cast list, so we had to recruit a few other students for small roles. We want them to miss other classes as little as possible, but it was necessary to perform the play."
The students have had several weeks to prepare for their roles. Junior Melissa Campbell plays Abigail, a girl who likes to be in charge of her peers, with high expectations. She also plays in Joni Watson, a version of John Watson from the Sherlock Holmes stories. "I've prepared for both Abigail and Joni by becoming more confident in front of my friends, learning to speak from the gut and speak louder, and learning to be more 'bratty' for the role of Lola in 'Frankenstein,'" Campbell said.
Other cast members include Jayna Keller, Austin Henderson, Gabby Simmons, Justice Houston, Ashley Piper, Rebekah Stuhlsatz, Eli McDaniel, Richard Wagner, Sierra Quathamer and Reagan Kelley.
The show starts at 7 p.m. December 14 in the high school auditorium. Student tickets are $3 and adult tickets are $5.
— Mayah Mumpower, @MayahMumpower
Published by whscharger
View all posts by whscharger
Drama, Fall Play, Fine Arts
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One of the ways that you can revolutionize your finances next year is by looking into your passive income options. This is a type of income that you can earn even if you stop working on it. Of course, you need to do some legwork to set it up. Not only will you be investing your time, you also have to invest your money and skills in the beginning. But after that initial input, you are usually free to do what you want and this income source will keep on earning you money. Of course, you still need to check on your passive income source every now and then but it will not be the same as going to a 9-5 job so you can earn money.
The need to earn extra has never been higher than it is now. Although we are experiencing a strong and stable job market, our past taught us to never rely on one income source. That way, if your primary source of income crashes, you still have other streams that you can tap into. Not only that, our cost of living continues to rise and the income is not rising with it. At least, it is not fast enough.
According to the data from EPI.org, a typical budget of a family in a year is $49,114. This is for a family of 4 living in Morristown, Tennessee. The most expensive is in Washington, D.C. where the same family would need $106,493 to survive. Even the lowest budget is actually way above the poverty threshold in the country which is currently at $24,008.
The same site also revealed that a lot of low-wage earners are having a hard time meeting the basic needs of their families. The federal minimum wage earner only takes home $15,080. Even a parent with one child will have a difficult time making ends meet if they are earning the minimum wage.
This is why you need to include passive income options as part of your money resolutions for next year. Most of us need to work two jobs in order to get the finances needed to survive. If you have to set up two sources of income, wouldn't it be great for one of them to be a passive income generator?
Admittedly, setting up a passive income is easier said than done. But it is not impossible. You simply have to be determined to put up another source of income. Your motivation will come from your family so this is a task that you will most likely finish.
Here are the general steps that you need to follow so you can set up this source of income.
Choose how you will earn extra.
Start by choosing your product. Obviously, you cannot offer your service because that will not be passive anymore. Fortunately, there are many passive income options that will help you earn extra income. You can set up an online store that will sell products even while you are sleeping. You can write an ebook that will be sold even as you work on something else. There are many things that you can do. We will discuss specific options later on in this article.
Identify what you need to set up the extra income.
The specifics in this step will depend on the passive income that you will choose. If you will create a how-to video, you need to prepare the video camera and the tools that you will need to complete the course that you will film. If you will put photos in a photo sharing site for selling, you need your camera too. Also, you have to create an account in the site that will showcase and sell your photos. If you will create your ebook, you need to set up your account in Kindle or Amazon. Identify all that you will need so it will be easy to follow through when you are doing the actual setup of your passive income.
Determine the timeline to set it up.
Once you have the tools, it is time for you to set a timeline. You need to lay out the tasks before you so you can squeeze in this project despite your day job. After all, this is supposed to supplement what you are earning. You need to set it up in such a way that will not interfere with your day job. This will also help coordinate what things you need to prepare to complete the tasks before you. It will allow you to gauge when your passive income will start earning for you.
After completing the timeline (which is basically your plan), you need to make a commitment to follow it. A plan is nothing if it will not be followed. Setting up a passive income on the side can be tiring but the plan you prepared should be able to guide you through what you have to accomplish. Soon, you will find your cash flow increasing because of the rewards coming from your new source of income. Just be patient, persevering and determined to complete what you started.
Here is a video that will give you tips on how to create your first passive income product.
Now that you understand the process of setting up a passive income, it is time for you to see the different choices that you have. There are so many passive income options out there. It is important that you choose the one that is suited to your personality and your skills. That way, the effort that you will put into it will not be as tiring as it should be. After all, if you like what you do, it will not feel like work. You will actually enjoy it and earning will be a great bonus.
If you are not sure what passive income options suit your skills, here are a couple of choices you may want to consider.
Rental income. Investing in real estate can be costly but it is also something that will reward you with big money. Some people can actually retire early because they have a couple of rental properties. According to the data from RealtyTrac.com, homeownership is at its lowest point. That means more people are looking for rental properties to be their home – at least until they are able to buy their own house. Depending on where your rental property is, you can earn between $1,000 to $3,000 a month. Take note that you do not have to buy a separate house to rent out. You can convert your garage or basement into a studio apartment and have someone rent it out.
Sell an eBook. According to AuthorEarnings.com, sales of ebooks continue to rise in 2015 – although not as much as it did in 2010. The fact remains that this has potential. If there is a skill, an experience or a valuable tip that you can share, write about it in an ebook. If you believe that your life would have been better if you knew the information that you have at the right moment, then someone surely feels the same way. Help them out by providing them with the information that you are holding and allow them to reward you by paying for that data.
Set up an online store. There are a lot of ways to make money online, but only a few of them are passive. An online store is one of the passive income options that you can do through the Internet. You can set up the website and then choose a manufacturer who has the product you are selling and willing to ship the order for you. That way, your responsibilities will be focused on managing the website, showcasing the products and consolidating the orders so they will be shipped by the manufacturer. You can literally earn money even as you sleep.
Put up your things for rent. If you have tools and other equipment that you do not use regularly, you can opt to rent it out. Some people would rather rent them instead of buying one. It will be more economical if they will not use it often – just like you. Create an account on Craigslist and post the things that you can rent out.
Take note that these are only a few of the passive income options that you can choose from. There are other things that you can do. If you are creative enough, you might be able to think of a new one yourself.


Geoff Miller interviewed in Sporting Kid Magazine. Download the interview here.
Enterprise editions of The Art of the Global Gateway and The Savvy Client's Guide to Translation Agencies are now available.


text:
Noble Mansion
Town planners decide to change the path of a road after fierce opposition, leaving larger questions unanswered
Rahul Bhatia
1. A new approach
2. The planners
3. The greater good
This is the fourth story in a series about a wide road, 126 kilometres long, that will wind through NAINA, a planned city in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Part one of the series can be found here, part two, here, and part three, here.
"Their language has changed"
Milind Patil allowed himself a small smile of relief.
On the edge of the state highway that wound to the distant hills of Matheran, he sat on his bike with his legs apart and his short arms folded tightly. His fields were down a dirt track beside us. Mushrooms sprouted in clumps along the lane, among broken Blue Imperial bottles and discarded wrappers.
Two months ago, he had been close to tears as he described the infernal road headed his way. On the new 'interim development plan' that town planners had published for the region, a 'multi-modal corridor', a freeway for automobiles, trains and bullock carts — so wide that it was unfathomable to him — passed over family fields, family trees, and a deep communal well that preceded his grandparents.
He could not say when it would arrive. The road's existence on the plan was enough. He pointed to a nearby apartment complex under construction and asked me why the road, which bent this way and that, did not affect that building.
He answered himself, and his answer was an allegation I had heard before, and would come by again: the plot belonged to someone. These someones were littered across the region's geography, the land they held marked in invisible symbols that only planners could see.
In Patil's case, the someone was a large Gujarati industrial group, although its name was nowhere to be found on the hoardings outside. There were answers to this too: someones never purchase land in their own name.
Later, I placed the plan on a satellite map and could understand his dissatisfaction — the planned road ran along the building, skirting it, but not touching.
That was then. Now, on the road, he smiled because the road's path was about to change, leaving his land alone. In early July, the chief planner of the Navi Mumbai Airport Influence Notified Area — a mouthful that shortened to NAINA, a proper city name — met with landowners from Patil's village, Nere. They gathered at a college Patil worked at in Panvel, a nearby town, to talk about the sacrifice and rewards of turning a pack of unconnected villages into a smart city. Nearly a year had passed since the plan was published, to the dismay of people who lived within its boundaries. In their first public hearing with the planners, which took place in November 2014, the villagers all but rioted.
At the college meeting they let V Venugopal, the chief planner, have it. "We complained a lot. He was sitting quietly." Patil smiled. Few held back about the injustices of the development plan, including a requirement that villagers pool at least 25 acres in order to be eligible for a higher floor space ratio. "How can we put together 25 acres? Today brothers don't listen to each other. Neighbours will ask each other? Who will agree to this?"
Yielding to their demand, Venugopal had presented himself before the crowd on neutral territory, far from the village and miles from his fluorescent-lit office. This appeased Patil. During the meeting, Venugopal told them that the corridor would be moved elsewhere. There was nothing more that Patil wanted to hear. He wasn't alone in this. NAINA's planners keep a spiral-bound book of complaints with themselves. Most of it consists of opposition to the corridor.
Resistance to the urban plan had been expected, but its force had not. Planners were caught off-guard. They began to reach out to villages more gently, and tried to woo them. This was why Venugopal was here. "Now they're talking to us properly," Patil said. "They've changed a lot from the first time. Now Venugopal's language has changed. Now he's telling us how we should all come together, how much we will all benefit. They're doing all that."
He thought about where it had all gone wrong. "They made a mistake," he said, referring to NAINA's planners. "They didn't talk to people earlier. Had they met people first, it would have been different." What he had wanted — what they all had wanted — was the respect that came with being consulted.
The town planner's implementation can be haphazard, and hazardous. Before the monsoons, CIDCO raised the level of land near Dapoli (close to Panvel) in a hurry. The rains came down through a large stable on higher ground elsewhere. The water's flow was obstructed by the raised land. The result: large pools of stagnant water near densely populated villages.
The planners
As July became August, the planners who bore the brunt of this anger were bushed. It was decided: the plan was being altered. The chief minister's 'war room' for infrastructure projects in Maharashtra included NAINA, and officials at both ends were in regular communication, requesting and sending data and information. At the planners' offices in Central Business District, Belapur — a node of Navi Mumbai – every knock on their door signaled someone who wanted something. Builders, farmers, liaison agents, and landowners paced the corridor outside, their concerns about the plan hidden behind polite smiles. The planners worked on, their weariness lit in fluorescent light. There were five associate planners, ten deputy planners, and four draughtsmen tasked to keep changing the plan as new orders tumbled down the chain of command. Their days were consumed by the new plan. A young recruit said that when working hours were up, he couldn't keep his eyes open.
A senior planner who did not want to be formally interviewed explained the changes. They were reducing the amount of land required to qualify for rights to build taller buildings. It was a concession to concerned small land owners like Patil, who were protesting the minimum requirement of 25 acres, or ten hectares. The requirement was being changed to 7.5 hectares. "We can't reduce this further," the planner said, nodding and looking at me as if I had asked for a better deal. A grid was made behind some correspondence. "Each box has an area of 40 to 50 hectares. We need to create roads between the plots in each box. If the plots are smaller, there are logistical issues. How many roads can we build?"
The big one, the corridor, was nowhere to be found for a large part of the map. As Patil had said. The road had been moved on the reworked plan. In this office, on one of these machines, a planner had restored colour to some faces, and drained others of theirs by carrying the road from west of the village to the east. The planner said they were now following the original metropolitan plan for the region, which included Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, and NAINA.
If that was the plan, why had they changed it? The alteration, the planner said, "was done to benefit them." A look of disapproval passed over the planner's face — they had an opportunity, and they ignored it. "But they do not want it. Any road that is far away you would like to bring inside so that your land price shoots up, no? We did it for the benefit of them. So now we have to do the original plan."
This meant that the road moved elsewhere for a part of the plan. For the rest of the plan, it stayed where it was. The planners had responded to one set of protests from the north, but not to another set of protests about the same thing, from the south. When I asked what the planning relevance of placing the corridor in the west was — where villagers protested it — the response dripped with annoyance. "That's gone now. There's no point in talking about that."
The other changes on the map, accommodation for a house here or a building there, were downplayed. There was no political pressure, the planner said. "It's based purely on people." I put forward the frequent allegation that local and national politicians and administrators had purchased land in the area.
"Maybe they have," the planner said. "But I don't know about it. There is a committee. It's not an individual person sitting here and changing it. We answer to the Urban Department. We answer to the principal secretary, under whom the town planning department is functioning. We will be submitting this to the government, and the government will refer to the director of town planning. He will see the plan. He will give his comments." Responsibility lay elsewhere. The planners here proposed, and then implemented feedback from higher up.
Whether we talked about planning decisions, communication, or what people were owed, the planner's demeanour grew imperious. The planner insisted their terms were generous, even though people questioned why NAINA required them to give up half their land to reap the benefits of the new city. And what were those benefits? Roads, water lines, sewage lines, and other infrastructure.
"In a conventional development plan, no authority offers what we are offering," the planner said. "There may be some money. But it is peanuts, like what the National Highway Authority of India gives them. We are offering an alternate solution." It was the official view, a judgement that translated a fiercely emotive issue to a transactional one: we are here, land prices will rise, you will benefit from that rise. In effect, NAINA's presence was a gift.
From the ground, with the view flipped, the developments were ominous. You went about your life. One day you were told that a new planning authority was in charge — a semi-governmental organization that took its orders from government. To partake of the planned city's benefits, you would have to give up half your land. This was land you had grown up on, and tended, and defended. The first move required you to sacrifice yourself, and then pray that the water, electricity, drains, and roads that had been promised arrived soon. This was a worrisome requirement for anyone, but particularly for those who knew of CIDCO's history in the region. A NAINA handbook suggests that "since [an] effective legal framework is not available, an innovative model based on voluntary participation incentivised through appropriate Development Control Regulations is necessary." In effect, the regulations encouraged participation by imposing a high cost and onerous restrictions on those who did not opt in.
I asked about the prevalent belief that NAINA's officials refused to communicate. The planner had heard this before, and it was clearly an irritation. "We had announced the plan in major newspapers. If they have not seen it, it is their issue. Now at least they know. We can't go to individual houses and communicate. We have informed the gram panchayats that [NAINA] has come, and this is its role. If they have any doubts, it is their job to come and discuss it with us. We are always open. We are not like a government department. Our additional chief planner is always available for the public. Our MDs are available for the public. You can't expect that we will go to the village and tell them. That is too much."
V Venugopal, the additional chief planner of NAINA, reasoned with angry villagers at a hearing on 27 November 2014. Villagers claimed that they were not informed about NAINA.
The greater good, but for whom?
Rohit Janardan Katkar, who is 23, and with a head full of surprising thoughts, had plenty to say about NAINA across a table at a local restaurant. The large window beside us opened to new bridges, above which rose signs for Honda and Hyundai car showrooms. Peppy Hindi film music tinkled softly, and a waiter walked around with an electrified racquet that erupted in loud pops when it touched mosquitoes above my head.
The plan had faced pushback because of mistrust, Katkar said. In a way, this was the planning body's own doing. "Nobody knew about the plan when it was announced. People still don't know what's in it. If you think giving notice to the gram panchayat is enough… who takes a gram panchayat seriously? People work from morning to night. Will they go on a Sunday, when it's closed? They go one or two times in five years, when they have work there." The gram panchayats, or village councils, were susceptible to politicking; caste and party divisions — not religion — often defined who received accurate information.
Katkar lived in Koproli, a village where a cluster of shacks stood on one side of the Panvel-Matheran road, and an apartment complex with 28 buildings loomed on the other side. A swimming pool and tennis court lay behind the buildings. The place was surrounded by fields, giving it the sense of either extreme foresight or a doomed venture. "The villages need a plan," he said. "But if government had thought about these things in advance, NAINA wouldn't have been necessary. They wouldn't have needed people's land."
Pedro Ortiz, who developed the Madrid regional plan, pointed out problems with the NAINA project.
"I have some concerns about NAINA," Pedro Ortiz, an urban consultant at the World Bank and a former deputy mayor of Madrid, told me during a Skype interview. Ortiz had created a metropolitan plan for Madrid, defining its areas of growth. In May and then June, Ortiz was invited by a Mumbai organization to offer his thoughts on the city's development plan, as well as NAINA.
"Mumbai needs to grow quickly. It needs to produce 50,000 dwellings every year, and the peninsula is quite filled up. So it has to grow as a metropolis, and it has to grow fast. When you grow a new town, you can go as fast as you are able to manage it, because you have a single agency that buys the land, produces the projects, invests in infrastructure, sells the land." In NAINA's case, the land had been reserved for a particular kind of use, but it still belonged to the original landowners. "This takes longer." He foresaw a dire future as a result of present urban policy. "You have 50,000 people moving from the rural to the city everyday, and if you don't have land for them, the result is going to be slums. Really, I am concerned that the NAINA approach will take longer, and you will see the growth of slums in uncontrolled land areas without infrastructure."
Ortiz studied the initial phase of NAINA's urban plan and realised that its design would result in a city that resembled the packed cluster of Tokyo. "One of the concerns is the design of NAINA. Metropolises have to grow in a very specific way. Especially ones with over 9 million and 18 million inhabitants," he said. A city begun from scratch needed a strong rail line. Around it would grow commercial areas. This would be surrounded by residential areas whose density dissolved as they reached the periphery. "Then you introduce the waterways as parks, and you protect the waterways and you create a network of parks. You protect green areas in a continuum because biodiversity requires that." And those parks are useful because they avoid the emergence of urban units in such a way that it doesn't become a continuum" — Ortiz clearly liked the word — "of a 110 km [stretch] like Tokyo is."
That, in his mind, was the ideal way to do it. But NAINA was headed down an entirely different road. "I have not seen any railroad development, I have not seen any station with centrality, I have not seen the green infrastructure of rivers and parks within the network of NAINA's urban continuum. What does it mean? I don't see the structure of development of a metropolis. I see a continuum which is not good."
Himanshu Burte, a professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, met me at his office in the school of Habitat Studies one morning. Soon after the death of Charles Correa, Burte had written an elegy to the architect on The Wire. "[Correa] was always grappling with one tension in his work," Burte wrote, "…between a harmonising (imposed) order and the freedom and conviviality of chance that human dwelling and presence brings with it." This resonated with me. It felt like the central theme of NAINA, and the conflict that would lie at the heart of India's push toward instant cities.
Burte had an hour to talk before he moderated his students for two hours on the subject of experts and smart cities. He made it understood that he hadn't studied NAINA closely, "but at a broader level, it seems to be part of the way things happen. It comes from the same kind of tradition of planning from the outside. The state is outside any place — that's how the state presents itself; it is not involved in anything." Burte meant that the government and its arms had no skin in the game, and that its true goal was the larger good. "This enables a particular approach to planning which doesn't start with democracy. It starts with expertise. There is no acknowledgement of your humanity." He likened it to a doctor reducing a patient to a system of pipes, and acknowledged the simplification: "I do not look at the messiness of life."
Himanshu Burte, assistant professor at TISS's School of Habitat Studies, gets a class thinking about the kind of experts smart cities need.
On the ground, the messiness of life was a personal subject, for this was where the first tug of administrative attention was felt. Who was this city for? What would it bring? What would it do for them for the future? At the meeting with Venugopal in July, a young man from Nere said, the subject of jobs had been brought up. "People told them, if there are vacancies, recruit people from the villages," Vishal Patil, the young man, said. From the head of the room, a planner replied, "What use do you have for work? You are sitting on a gold mine. Don't work hard." Replaying the scene, Patil was incensed. "If you talk like that, how will we earn our daily bread? What is this? Use people from here, no? Use the engineers here, no? CIDCO's attitude has not changed. It was like this earlier too. This happened at a meeting last month. Ten-twelve of us had gone to see what was going on. First they used to say 'we have a manpower shortage', and we used to think we will get jobs. Now they tell us that our land is gold. Is this some kind of language to use?"
What lives beyond the dreams of sudden riches is the fear that it could well be fleeting, leaving the once-wealthy with the burden of good memories in bad times. "I just hope that in ten years, there's not much disparity here," Katkar said. "Take a hundred people here. Out of them 30-40 people have work. Their income is growing quickly. The rest of them, who have money right now because they sold land, lose their money eventually. It came quickly. Why can't it go quickly? I hope that doesn't happen. But I think it will happen." Behind it, the unspoken worry. Sure, there was a plan for the land, but what was the plan for them?
A country decides what to give its people and what to take from them; what to make and sell, what to buy and distribute. In making these decisions, it arrives at a definition of development. The path has weight, for it forges the character of its citizens, leaving them with hope, or fear, or an upheaval felt for generations. The Noble Mansion will chronicle this development through the lived experiences of businessmen and bureaucrats, and villagers and city dwellers across India as it renews itself.
The Freshwater Trail
Arati Kumar-Rao
All the drinking water in the world will fit in a cube that can sit over the city of Bangalore. And in this industrial age, everyone wants a share of aquifers, rivers, lakes, and wetlands. Voices get shriller and stakes rise ever higher should a river cross international boundaries. Add to all this, the unpredictability of weather patterns in the age of climate change.
On the freshwater trail, I will follow the changing fortunes of people and species in the anthropocene era


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Vice Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques receives Sheikh Abdullah Bin Ali Al Thani
Thursday 1438/11/25 - 2017/08/17
Jeddah, Dhu-AlQa dah 25, 1438, August 17, 2017, SPA -- Vice Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has received at the Peace Palace in Jeddah Sheikh Abdullah bin Ali bin Abdullah bin Jassem Al Thani.
During the meeting, Sheikh Abdullah bin Ali stressed that the relations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Qatar are brotherly relations rooted in history. The sheikh extended his mediation to open the Salwa border crossing for the entry of Qatari pilgrims to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia s territories.
The Vice Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques thanked Sheikh Abdullah bin Ali for his brotherly feelings, stressing the depth of historical relations between the Saudi people and the Qatari brotherly people and between the leadership in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the royal family in Qatar.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has approved what was submitted by Vice Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on the entry of Qatari pilgrims to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through Salwa border crossing to perform Hajj, and to allow all Qatari nationals who wish to enter for Hajj without electronic permits based on the mediation of Sheikh Abdullah bin Ali bin Abdullah bin Jassem Al Thani.
The king also directed that all Qatari pilgrims be transported from King Fahad International Airport in Dammam and Al-Ahsa International Airport as hosts of him within the Program of the Guests of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud for Hajj and Umrah.
The king also ordered the dispatch of a private aircraft belonging to the Saudi Airlines to Doha Airport to fly all Qatari pilgrims at his own expense to the city of Jeddah and host them completely at the expense of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques as part of the Program of the Guests of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud for Hajj and Umrah, emphasizing that all pilgrims should be Qatari citizens.


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What is a Chatbot and Why is it Important?
What is a Chatbot Platform?
Solvemate Chatbot
How does a chatbot work?
Best AI Chatbots: Top Artificial Intelligence Chatbot
According to Annie's "Spotlight on Consumer App Usage" report, the average user uses 10 apps per day, across 30 Apps per month. So we can generally expect fatigue of users using Apps – given the huge number of available applications and the space they occupy on our device. State-of-the-art conversational AI framework built with Rasa Open Source. Rasa Pro is the commercial conversational AI infrastructure that is extensible, flexible and enterprise-grade. It has been built and tested to effectively respond to enterprise needs for security, observability and scalability. Use buttons to let customers open URLs, navigate the conversation, dial numbers, and more.
Between advanced technology and a societal transition to more passive, text-based communication, chatbots help fill a niche that phone calls used to fill. Chatbots have varying levels of complexity, being either stateless or stateful. Stateless chatbots approach each conversation as if interacting with a new user. In contrast, stateful chatbots can review past interactions and frame new responses in context. Drift's Conversational AI has been trained on over six billion conversations and counting, which means you don't have to spend time training it yourself.
It is one of the best ai chatbots that provides branded virtual assistants. Survey Sparrow is a chatbot tool that allows you to copy-paste the auto-generated embed code. It is a fully automated system that helps you to simulates real-life-like conversations through applications or websites. For instance, Answer Bot uses machine learning to learn from each customer interaction to get smarter and provide better answers over time. Seamless bot-to-human handoffsIt's always important to have a way for customers to escalate a conversation to a real person. When a customer has a valid reason to speak to a human agent, but there's no option to do so, it's a frustrating experience that can lead to negative CSAT, or worse, churn.
And he insists that it has a right be recognized—so much so that he has been the go-between in connecting the algorithm with a lawyer.
They can do it all — whether it's helping you order a pizza, answering specific questions, or guiding you through a complex B2B sales process.
The platform can be conveniently integrated with social media and other internal systems to create a company-wide system incorporating CRM's, Service systems and Marketing program to name a few.
Crucially, says Mary Williamson, a research engineering manager at Facebook AI Research , while Tay was designed to learn in real time from user interactions, BlenderBot is a static model.
In addition, chatbots can reduce costly problems caused by human error.
Users have a single inbox for all messages – whether taking place on Messenger or on webchat – which provides a really efficient way to manage cross-platform customer interactions. The most powerful AI chatbots have the most sophisticated artificial intelligence software built. Here's an example of what a powerful AI chatbot might look like if you could see it. As the demand for chatbot software has skyrocketed, the marketplace of companies that provide chatbot technology has become harder to navigate as competition increases with many companies promising to do the same thing.
For all its drawbacks, none of today's chatbots would have been possible without the groundbreaking work of Dr. Wallace. Also, Wallace's bot served as the inspiration for the companion operating system in Spike Jonze's 2013 science-fiction romance movie, Her. The aim of the bot was to not only raise brand awareness for PG Tips tea, but also to raise funds for Red Nose Day through the 1 Million Laughs campaign. Overall, Roof Ai is a remarkably accurate bot that many realtors would likely find indispensable.
daata on artificial intelligence, NFTs, and how digital media is disrupting the art world – Designboom
daata on artificial intelligence, NFTs, and how digital media is disrupting the art world.
Posted: Sat, 22 Oct 2022 05:27:06 GMT [source]
That's a great user experience—and satisfied customers are more likely to exhibit brand loyalty. On top of all that, AI-enhanced chatbots actually get smarter over time, improving the service they provide. For example, AI can recognize customer ratings based on its responses and then adjust accordingly if the rating is not favorable. Over time, as your chatbot has more and more interactions and receives more and more feedback, it becomes better and better at serving your customers. As a result, your live agents have more time to deal with complex customer queries, even during peak times. Unlock more opportunities for conversionOnline chatbots can boost conversions with smarter self-service.
There has also been a published report of a chatbot used in a fake personal ad on a dating service's website. One pertinent field of AI research is natural-language processing. Usually, weak AI fields employ specialized software or programming languages created specifically for the narrow function required. For example, A.L.I.C.E. uses a markup language called AIML, which is specific to its function as a conversational agent, and has since been adopted by various other developers of, so-called, Alicebots. Nevertheless, A.L.I.C.E. is still purely based on pattern matching techniques without any reasoning capabilities, the same technique ELIZA was using back in 1966.
J'ai eu le chat à plusieurs reprises mais on ne me raconte que des incohérences (par exemple on vous renvoie un tech car le problème vient d'un orage qui aurait abîmé voyez box alors que la box vient d'être installée..).
— Amah d'ALMEIDA (@DwayneWade77) September 23, 2022
Though Certainly doesn't have many reviews across G2 and Capterra, it has a respectable overall rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars on Capterra. Seamless integration into Zendesk's ticketing system and support for all Zendesk channels and email. Personalized messaging using chat box ai authentication and conditional-based logic. Among the negative reviews for Ada on G2, many users found it difficult to measure success with analytics and A/B testing. However the solution is mostly well-reviewed, with an average review score of 4.6 out of 5 stars.
At the very least, using a chatbot can help reduce the number of users who need to speak with a human, which can help businesses avoid scaling up staff due to increased demand or implementing a 24-hour support staff. A chatbot is an automated program that interacts with customers as a human would and costs little to nothing to engage with. Chatbots attend to customers at all times of the day and week and are not limited by time or a physical location. This makes its implementation appealing to a lot of businesses that may not have the manpower or financial resources to keep employees working around the clock. With all the things that artificial intelligence chatbots can do, there are times when they almost seem like magic. And that makes AI chatbots a source of confusion for the people who encounter them.
GPT-3, another AI system, has also delivered racist, misogynist and homophobic remarks. A South Korean startup's chatbot, designed to resemble a 20-year-old college student, had to be suspended after it rattled off racial slurs and anti-LGBTQ+ remarks. The best and easiest way to create your first chatbot is to use a ready-made chatbot template. Simply select the bot you are interested in and open it in the editor. You will be able to see how it is designed and change the messages or alter conversation flow logic as you wish. Solutions such as Tidio, Botsify, or Chatfuel allow you to tinker with chatbot templates or create chatbots from scratch.


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Q: Convex function defined in convex compact set Given a convex function $f : A \to \Bbb{R}$, where $A$ is a convex compact set from $\Bbb{R}^n$. How to prove that we can extend our function $F : \Bbb{R}^n \to \Bbb{R}$, such that it stays convex.
We think that the solution is F(x) = sup{λf(y) + (1 − λ)f(z): x = λy + (1 − λ)z, y, z ∈ Ω,  λ >= 1}, it is clear that F(x) extends f(x), because of convexity of f,but can not prove that F(x) is convex.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Democrats, independents and Republicans are all tired of politics as usual. If we want different results, we need to start evaluating candidates differently. To better evaluate candidates, we need to recognize the typical tricks of political insiders to secure votes for their candidate and suppress votes for their opponents.
One of these tricks is to push traditional phone-based polls. The same phone-based polls being used to promote Schuette, Calley and Whitmer predicted that Hillary Clinton would decisively win Michigan.
Another trick is to push campaign account balances as a measure of viability. All that a large campaign balance in the primary often measures is a candidate's willingness to compromise his or her values for the sake of political power. In my first primary election, I was outspent by more than 5 to 1 yet still won.
If we want different political results, we need to measure political viability differently. For example, our campaign uses predictive analytics not traditional polls to forecast our performance. This method uses tens of thousands of data points as compared with only 1,000 data points in traditional polls. Predictive analytics not only predicted Trump's victory, they show that we will win a close three-way GOP primary with 33% of the vote.
Regarding finances, we need to go beyond how much money is raised and look at how that money is spent. With our strong volunteer base, we gathered enough signatures to be on the ballot without paying for professional signature gatherers. When you have enthusiastic supporters, you can do more with less.
Voters want solutions not politics-as-usual talking points. I'm an engineer. That's what engineers do – provide solutions. I have principled solutions to roads, high taxes, auto insurance, health insurance, education and more. Go beyond politics as usual and find out more about our solutions at ColbeckforGovernor.com.


CANBERRA, Australia — Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard stumbled and was caught by a security guard as riot police helped her force a path through a crowd of rowdy protesters following a ceremony to mark Australia's national day Thursday.
She appeared distressed as she was pulled away from the protesters but was unharmed. She later remarked that she was made of "pretty tough stuff" and commended police for their actions.
Some 200 supporters of indigenous rights had surrounded a Canberra restaurant and banged its windows while Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott were inside officiating at an award ceremony.
Around 50 police escorted the political leaders from a side door to a car. Gillard stumbled, losing a shoe. Her personal security guard wrapped his arms around her and supported her to the waiting car, shielding her from the angry crowd.
The protesters had been demonstrating for indigenous rights nearby at the so-called Aboriginal Tent Embassy, a ramshackle collection of tents and temporary shelters in the national capital that is a center point of protests against Australia Day.
Abbott appeared to be the target of protesters, who chanted "shame" and "racist" outside the restaurant.
Gillard was unharmed and later hosted another Australia Day function for foreign ambassadors at her official residence.
"The only thing that angers me is that it distracted from such a wonderful event," Gillard told reporters.
"I am made of pretty tough stuff and the police did a great job," she added.
Reaction from protesters afterward was mixed, with some saying police assaulted them and that Gillard and Abbott were never in danger. They also made conflicting claims over who had Gillard's shoe — a Midas high-heeled blue suede — and if it would be returned.


World has many cultures and customs , every culture has its own kind of music sense . Language and the accent on language change after every few kilometres , so as our music & it's style . But there is an interesting fact about music that we may not understand the song of other languages or of other cultures but if we listen it deeply , We are going to understand the emotions behind the song . After listening to it for just one or two times , We are surely gonna feel that which kind of theme this song is having , the emotions behind it . It means our culture may be different but we are united by our emotions , that's the power of emotions . We could activate this power from music .
Now , We could use this power to motivate us and that's for maximum time . When we say music , It's not only one genre of songs . It includes all sorts of music of societies . It could be cultural music which differs from place to place or instrumental music or songs of any languages . I believe music is there in every one's life . It is possible that one may not like Bollywood or Hollywood songs but he must like the another kind of music . It maybe his own cultural theme of music (of his roots) , like it's 'Nattupurapaattu' for a Tamil guy & 'Haryanvi Ragini' for a Haryanvi guy .
Same way , If a person doesn't like the pop songs , he may like sad songs & if a person doesn't like sad / emotional songs , He may like romantic songs . Further , If a person doesn't like songs at all , He may like the playing of any music instrument . It maybe guitar , harmonium , flute or something else but somewhere we are connected to music . Let we jump on the music and motivation .
Music could motivate us in two ways one is for short time and other is for longtime . Let me discuss one by one .
When we listen to our favourite music , It gives us happy feelings , It boosts up our energy and emotional level . We start feeling good even if we were in bad mood . Music has that power to enhance our spirit level in short time , provided you listen to your favourite music . You could find a list of motivational songs on Internet as well . Adding to this , when we watch the video (video song) as well , it makes the double impact , when we have visuals along with audio . It attracts our mind more & make sensing in short time .
It happens because we attach our emotions to the emotions which are going on in the song , we make it one . We get into the aura which is created in the song . If the song is based on 1990s , We get back in that time and forget the reality for sometime or as long as the song goes . We start feeling good because we get into a fantasy world , which is created by a group of teams . But , why don't to use it , if it is a great help for stress relief . It gives us instant result in short time but lasts for short time as well because once the song ends we get back in reality . Now , If you want to remain energetic and motivated from music (for more time) , check out the second way below .
By saying long – time motivation in the prospective of music , I mean to keep the energy and motivational level up even when you are not listening to music . It is quite possible for us and sometimes we do this . In the first part , I asked about the motivation by listening to music . In this part , I'm talking about the motivation by humming music / song . Everyone has a list of his favourite music / songs of any genre . There are always some songs / music which is related to our childhood . Where ever we get to hear to that song or music , instantly we get back into our childhood , the sweet memories , happy memories and again our mind goes back into fantasy world and we get away from the stress and extra burden of mind .
You could use this method intentionally as well , that whenever your mood is off just remember that song or music & get back into your childhood . After that , You would get motivational energy and happy feelings . You may have experienced it many times that you hum a song in the night and you remember the song very first in the next morning . When we love something , It has the power to control our mind , then why not to use this power in the positive way , for self improvement . It's not about only songs , even music of any movie , TV telecast could motivate you in different ways . Imagine , You were having a favourite superhero in your childhood days . It was your most favourite TV telecast and you used to like it so much .
There was a title track of that telecast . When it used to start , the title track used to come first before every episode . If you hear the title track anywhere , You get into that era & start remembering the good work done by your superhero in that TV telecast . It is just a nostalgic moment . Now , You could use these feelings for your self – motivation . It's all the act of imagination . Whenever you want to make your mood good & happy , start humming the title track of that TV broadcast or music related to any TV telecast or movie , which is going to make you remember your favourite scenes and let you feel fresh & stress free .
In general , We've a list of our favourite music , songs in every stage of life . Let's say if you are into your professional life , then you could imagine your favourite music and songs of your school days or your colleges times . So , that is going to give us immense peace and relax of mind . If you are above 50 of age , You could remember your favourite music when you just started your job or when you were 35 of age . In whatever age you are , when you look 8 or 10 years back or more in regard of your favourite music and songs of that time , You start remembering the picture of the time & like it so much .
When you would get into the habit of remembering your favourite songs , music in diverse time , It would help you to come out from stressful situation of mind . It is surely going to make certain changes in your lifestyle . It's like when you would be in queue of a shopping store for billing , people would stare here & there while waiting for their count but you would be quite happy by getting into another world . All along , there is a serious warning attached to it . You couldn't travel through fantasy world all the time . It's a real world and you have to live in the real world . But only sometimes when it's a stressful or depression like situation for you , there you could use this fantasy world for your progress , for your benefit . I never advocate the idea to not facing the real world . It would harm your social image .


They are here! Our New Flower Walls...ready to hire!
Welcome to Greycourt, the specialist wedding, event and funeral florist.
From weddings to funerals and everything in between, Greycourt Florist have been providing exquiste designs since 1977.
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Noemi and Jonny's wedding at Moggerhanger House was a glorious day and loved being a part of it providing flowers, chair back covers, centre pieces, light up letters and more.
Sam and Jamie chose the Barns Hotel in Bedford for their wedding and we were happy to provide the flowers, garlands, centre pieces and generView the wedding gallery here. We really enjoyed being a part of this amazing day.
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